#we actually have seasons of evidence to point to how much Will hates lying to Mike

[sennqu]

Will being unable to lie to Mike is so ingrained in his characterization that him actually doing so for the first time feels like such a huge, notable, and intentional moment. Especially with how it dominoed to Mike's monologue. Like honestly Will lying to Mike was a bigger and more affecting story twist to me than Henry saying he was the big bad all along.

#like sure ok. a lot of things happened in Vol. 2 that was really sloppy writing #but in this instance i have to admit it was pretty good #we actually have seasons of evidence to point to how much Will hates lying to Mike #so him doing so for the first time becomes a Big Deal without being out of character because of the context #while for Henry... we literally did not even have hints he or his family existed until this season #so the twist feels unearned #(not to mention i hate that the cosmic horror has been apparently just been some guy all this time?? but that's neither here nor there) #ku blarghs #strangely blogging #will byers #byler #*without being too out of character i mean. because it still was. just justifiable

[sunkissed-zegras]

"let me take care of you" and "you're so good to me" with nico, maybe after he comes home after a loss?

𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐤 & 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧 | nh¹³

♡ ─ word count | 779

♡ ─ warnings | tired nico, hurt/comfort, nothing else!

♡ ─ ev's notes | nico is so baby, u cannot convince me otherwise

You and Nico opened the door to your home, feeling the exhaustion from the entire day. Nico had the worst game of the season, the whole team had gotten obliterated. Nico's frustration was palpable, his normally vibrant energy subdued by the disappointment of the game. Dropping his hockey bag with a heavy thud, he let out a sigh that echoed through the hallway.

You watched as he walked towards the bedroom, closing the door. You knew he needed some time alone but you wanted to be there for him. You sat on the couch, going on your phone for a little while before getting up and grabbing a bottle of a water, heading to the bedroom.

Nico was laying on the bed when you went in. He had taken a shower, his hair was wet as you approached him with a caring demeanor. The room was dimly lit, casting a soft glow on his face. Nico looked up as you entered, his expression fatigued.

"Mind if I join you?" you asked gently, holding up the bottle of water. He nodded, as you took a seat beside him, offering the water as he sat up.

"Thanks," he said, taking a sip and then placing the bottle on the bedside table. There was a moment of silence as you both collected your thoughts.

"I hate days like these," he admitted, running a hand through his damp hair.

You nodded in understanding. "It's tough, but remember, it doesn't define you. Tomorrow's a new day, and you'll bounce back stronger."

Nico stayed a silent before letting out a sigh. "It was a shitty game. Did you see how they were treating us? Hitting us every chance they got. And the ref, don't even get me fucking started."

"It's frustrating when the game isn't called fairly," you acknowledged, knowing how much integrity mattered to Nico.

Nico sighed again, his gaze fixed on a point in the room. "I just hate feeling helpless out there, you know? Like no matter how hard we tried, the odds were stacked against us."

"I get it," you replied, offering a comforting touch on his arm. "But remember, this doesn't define you or the team. It's one game, and you've got plenty more opportunities to show what you're made of. And hey, maybe the next ref will actually do his job."

He chuckled at your attempt to lighten the mood. "Thanks for being here," he said, turning to look at you. "It helps, a lot."

You smiled at Nico, taking his hand in yours and placing it in your lap. "Anytime, baby." You spoke softly as you gazed at him. You could see how tired he was and all you wanted to do was comfort him at this moment.

Nico's gaze softened as he looked into your eyes, a sense of gratitude and affection shining through the fatigue. He squeezed your hand gently, appreciating the warmth and reassurance it offered.

You brushed a stray strand of hair away from his forehead, your affection for him evident in the gentle touch. "You don't have to do anything alone, Nico. I'm here for you, through the good times and the tough ones." He sighed at your soft touch.

"Hey, lay down baby. Let me take care of you." You spoke warmly as you got up from the bed. Nico offered a tired but appreciative smile as he followed your suggestion, lying down on the bed. The weariness in his eyes spoke volumes about the toll the game had taken on him, and you were determined to provide the comfort he needed.

As you returned to his side, you tucked the covers around him, making sure he was comfortable. He closed his eyes, sighing contentedly as the warmth of the blankets enveloped him. You sat beside him, running your fingers through his hair soothingly, eliciting a relaxed sigh from Nico. His features softened, the tension of the day slowly melting away under your tender touches.

"Thank you," he murmured, his voice barely above a whisper, as he nestled into the cocoon of comfort you had created for him. "You're so good to me, I love you."

"I love you too, baby." You smiled, your heart swelling with love for the man lying beside you. "I'll always be here for you, no matter what."

With a gentle touch, you brushed a kiss against his forehead, a silent promise of your unwavering support and care. In that moment, as the warmth of your affection enveloped him, Nico knew that he was exactly where he needed to be; wrapped in the love of someone who would always be there for him, through thick and thin.

-> make sure to check out my navigation or masterlist if you enjoyed! any interaction is greatly appreciated! <-

thank you for reading all the way through, as always ♡

#❀ evangeline's 1k celly!!⋆ ˚｡⋆౨ৎ˚ #nico hischier blurb #nico hischer imagine #nico hischier smut #nico hischier imagine #nico hischier #nico hischer x reader #nhl angst #nhl fanfiction #nhl fic #nhl players #nhl #nhl x reader

[antianakin]

You know what I despise just as much as Imperial apologists? Separatist apologists. People claim that the CIS did nothing wrong, that they were the "real heroes of the Clone Wars", that their benevolent movement was hijacked by evil people, but in reality, the CIS was intentionally designed to be an evil force by evil people. Sure, there were some "good" folks on the Separatists' side, but in the end, they CHOSE to align themselves with some of the most despicable people in the galaxy. Also, they tend to forget that the CIS was created by Sith as a means of weakning the Jedi Order.

While I certainly don't think the Separatists were heroes of any kind, I don't think that the actual politicians in the CIS were intentionally aligning themselves with people they believed to be despicable. It's made pretty clear in "Heroes on Both Sides" that the CIS parliament seems to have no clue that their whole army is being led by the corporate alliance. They call out that the whole point behind the CIS was to free themselves from being connected to the corporate alliance the way the Republic is, and they believe that they've SUCCEEDED at that. So it's less that they've intentionally aligned themselves with evil people doing evil things so much as they were completely and utterly duped and manipulated into a position where they've ended up unknowingly supporting the very evil they claim to be against.

What I WILL say about the Separatist politicians though is that every single one of them that we're shown seems to be very willfully ignorant. When Mina meets with Padme, she refuses to hear a bad word against Dooku, even though presumably Padme could say a lot of things about how Dooku allowed her to be nearly executed on Geonosis simply because she wouldn't join the CIS. And after Mina's assassinated, Lux tries to speak to some of the Separatist politicians who gathered for a peace summit to tell them that Dooku killed his mother and he's shot down cold for lying about it and then thrown out of the building. Mina and the other Separatists have been manipulated SO HARD into believing in Dooku and his promises that they can't believe anything or anyone that goes against what he says, even when it's someone they consider a friend or the child of one of their own.

That willful ignorance moves them far away from being "heroes" of any kind for me. I can appreciate that they had legitimate grievances against the Republic, that they believed they were doing what was right for their people, and that there was a lot of things that were clearly hidden from them. So they're by no means the ones most at fault for the war. But they SHOULD'VE been more willing to accept that Dooku (and by extension themselves and the entire Separatist movement) was not perfect when told or shown evidence by people they claimed to trust.

The other mark against the Separatists is that the King of Onderon that we're introduced to in season 5 is HORRIFIC. The guy who is explicitly said to be the new Separatist leader is terrible and the people hate him and much prefer the old King (who, by implication, was presumably more pro-Republic or at least served primarily back when Onderon was still a member of the Republic). And this was MINA'S PLANET. Mina is not someone who is represented as just some stupid vapid politician, she's supposed to be smart and kind, she's Padme's mentor. She's supposed to be someone who truly CARES, but her people are suffering under a Separatist installed ruler and there's no mention of that at all during her one episode. There's no indication that she was even aware or paying attention to it. So long as the war never made it to her planet, she seems to have been looking the other way. And we can probably assume similar stuff is happening on the other Separatist planets, too, that Separatist rulers have been installed who are willing to basically let Dooku and the Corporate Alliance do whatever they want with no regard for how it'll impact the actual people. And Dooku is going to be able to continue to manipulate and blind the Separatist politicians into not realizing what's going on or believing that this is just a temporary necessary evil of some kind.

The major advantage the Republic Senate has for me is that there IS at least a small group of people (small being relative, there's so many politicians in the Senate that a group of 2000 people is considered small) who DO recognize what's going on in their own government, and who are actively fighting against the corruption they can see and acknowledge. They don't believe their system is PERFECT, but they believe that it's still the best system available and worth fighting to make it BETTER and remove the people keeping it corrupt. The CIS doesn't have that. Every single person is so willfully ignorant to everything that they can't have people like Padme or Bail or Mon Mothma who can see the problems in their own government and actively work to make it better from the inside. And this just makes the Separatist politicians unknowingly part of the problem they don't even realize exists (or aren't willing to admit exists), which means that their people are just going to keep suffering while their elected representatives sit on their high horses and do nothing.

So I don't think they're EVIL, but they're not heroes either. Much like Anakin, they're manipulated by someone they should be able to trust and who presents himself as someone trustworthy, and they're not mindful enough to recognize the truth behind what they've gotten involved in or humble enough to listen when someone tries to make them aware of it. So yes, it was an evil force designed by evil people with the explicit purpose of weakening the Jedi AND the Republic enough for Palpatine to maneuver himself into power, but I don't for a MOMENT believe that the actual politicians involved in the CIS ever realize that until it's far too late. As far as they're concerned, it IS a benevolent movement and if they ever realize the truth of it in the aftermath of the war, then from their perspective it probably DID get hijacked by evil people. The Separatists are, in many ways, a tragic story. They SHOULD'VE been a good thing, they should've been a group of people genuinely working to try to create a new, better system for their people. They had the best of intentions, but much like Anakin, it's mostly just paving the road to hell.

I'd love more fics that look at the Rebellion era where you get both Republic and Separatist people having to work together and instead of the Separatists being all high and mighty about how THEY always knew the Republic was corrupt and everyone else was just too naive, there's some people who point out that the Separatist movement was literally run by the corporate alliance, that their entire ARMY was being run by the Techno Union and Trade Federation, that the Separatists were CLEARLY getting tax benefits from the Banking Clan that the Republic was NOT getting. I'd love more acknowledgement that yes, the Republic was corrupt, but that there were a LOT of people who knew that and were working to fix that problem, but that the Separatist movement wasn't some perfect idyllic government that didn't do anything wrong ever in their lives, either. The Separatist army did a lot of really fucking heinous shit to people and I'd love more Republic Rebels throwing that back at all those Separatist Rebel characters who get so high and mighty about knowing the Republic was corrupt. Like sure, great, you knew the Republic was corrupt, so did a LOT of people, many of whom were working to actually DO something about it. Come back to me when you're able to tell me you knew YOUR government was corrupt, too, then we can talk.

#star wars #separatists #the clone wars #republic

[shimmeringweeds]

This is completely unnecessary ( I'm really just sliding my Link Click rewatch notes into the tag), but for the fun it:

Hypocrisy is living a lie, but that doesn't make one a liar. So I got curious. Lu Guang's hypocrite label has been well earned, but does it cause him to lie? Is he a liar? I think fandom leans towards "no?," but let's find out anyway!

Provided below is a reference list of every last question Cheng Xiaoshi has ever asked Lu Guang in series (and I mean every question) + every answer Lu Guang gives. Color coded by response and explained when necessary. Season 2 opens the floor up to everyone.

Categories include Direct Answer, Non Answer, Half Truth, and Lie.

This post covers Season one. Season two is covered in a reblog below. The final tally is also in a reblog below for anyone who is just curious about that. Criteria below the cut.

Criteria notes: This list focuses solely on the act of lying to a trusted partner in response to a question asked. Keeping secrets does not, actually, count as lying, so long as you are honest about it. People are allowed a box of secrets and no one is entitled to the key. This compilation will also not dock points for the hypocrisy, or the uh..... questionable ability limitations. I will however, use the aforementioned knowledge as a basis for reasoning. This is far from scientific. Any conclusions I draw from the evidence can be challenged. Court is in session ⚖️

You will notice that there is no category for "truth." This is because all truths are covered by a "Direct Answer." "Direct Answer" indicates that Lu Guang is not hiding anything in direct relation to the question. In a "Direct Answer," he will answer Cheng Xiaoshi's exact question honestly. Nothing more required. Omission of extra knowledge is (frustratingly) allowed, because unless Cheng Xiaoshi has asked for that knowledge, it doesn't need to be given. So watch those closely.

Non Answer = an avoidance of the question with words or silence.

Half Truth = a partial, truthful answer to the question. The question asked for more/there is a second, hidden answer tied to the question.

Lie = an answer that denies a truth.

Color coding:

Present Question, Past Question, Future Question

Direct Answer, Non Answer, Half Truth, Lie

s1e1

Q. Any chances? A. Yes. But only one. (a non specific answer complements a non specific question. This sets the precedent for a direct answer. Keep an eye on how often it occurs.) Q. Now, should I finish this spring roll? A. Hold on. Q. Hold on for what? A. unanswered Q. How's it going? Are you satisfied now? A. *miserable sigh* Q. Do I have a boyfriend or not? A. No. Q. What is going on now? I did what you told me. What is the matter with him? A. Calm down. Repeat after me. Q. What should I do next? A. You forget his words? Prepare the material. Q. She just keeps doing this day by day? A. We said, linger no more around the past. (Every rule repeated will be counted as non answer if it avoids the question.) Q. You mean the meeting at 9 A.M. tomorrow? A. Mn. Q. It's midnight. Who? A. Leave it. Q. Will they come back? A. ................. All right, go to sleep. Q. When should we start? A. Take it easy. They're not all there yet. Q. Then tell me how long I need to wait? A. It's a secret. (note: This is the scene that inspired all this. I feel CXS's frustration here so much. LG stressed that there was only one opportunity and that this is it, only to deflect every question. He even checks his watch because he knows exactly how much more time. Yet, this is a direct, honest answer. "I will not answer," is an answer. I hate him lol. Q. In your opinion, if I really did something, will everything change because of it? A. You really didn't do something stupid, did you? Q. I really want to know. How is she doing now? A. I said, never ask about the future. Past Question(1) Present Question(6) Future Question(7) Direct Answer (7) Non Answer (7)

s1e2

Q. Do you have any questions? A. What are their names? Q. Why did they break off their friendship? A. Just do the job instead of caring about the whole story. Q. If we disagree with each other some day, shall we break up, too? A. It's almost time. (to be quite fair, CXS deflects his own question with tomfoolery before LG can respond.) Q. Is there really a secret recipe? It's just a pot of stew. A. Coming soon. (vague as hell, yet blissfully direct. wow.) Q. Do we have any other chance? A. None. She's crying all night at home, not going anywhere. Q. Can I go eat that for the last time? A. No! Q. What should I say? A..................... Q. What does it taste like? A If you dare change the photo shop into a noodle shop, I'll leave right now. Past Question (1) Present Question(5) Future Question (2) Direct Answer (4) Non answer (4)

s1e3

Q. A few words? That may affect the past. You sure about this? A. It will be fine. Nothing will be changed. Q. Can I get rid of them? (regarding the glasses) A. There is nothing you can help with in the match. Just sit there till the end. (eeeeh. It's very long winded way of saying "no.") Q. I can take photos right? A. Void. No time to answer. But it's telling that CXS was just advised twice to stay put and chill, but the moment he adjusts the script....? oof. not a good start to this arc. Q. Did I just affect the historical track? A. Yes, you did. But the results have not changed. Q. Is it in the plan? Should I play or not? A. The past has been disrupted by you. I can't foretell what would happen before they lost the game. ( ie. your call) Present Question (5) Direct answer (4) Void (1) This is such nice episode with such a clean tally. THE TRUST.

s1 e4 - The formatting on this one doesn't want to stick. If it still doesn't work... I'm sorry.

Q. What exception? A. At some point in time, there is an important node. Q. Lu Guang, where are you? x2 A. silence <counted as 1 Q. You asshole. Where have you been? A. The client's words were written on the note. I didn't know where Qiao Ling placed it. (I'm calling bullsh*t on the silent treatment but you can read it as DA. So we will excuse the friendly, "you were deliberately tricking me"/"I'm not you" banter that follows (was it a question? subs say no.)) Q. Why? (in regards to the major node being unaffected.) A. Void. The chemistry teacher conveniently interrupts and gives his own answer… sure dodged that knife!) Q. Liu Meng puts everything on her face, how could he miss that? A. Let the past be. We just need to deliver the words. Nothing else. Q. She makes her steps first. What should I do? What should I say? A. Instructions given. Q. Is that really okay to say so? Q. Will they eventually miss each other? A. Yeah. A. The result will not change as long as the node does not change. (1. I'm calling the second answer a half truth, because you can draw a yes/no conclusion about them missing one another. So it's not a non answer, nor is it direct. 2. CXS doesn't ask about the node again. He just says "okay. you're always right." like the angel he is.) Q. Are you sure it's okay if I just repeat after you? A. Don't worry, the result will not change, even without any quarrel. (at this point CXS does question to himself why this mission is so weird. He does not question LG.) Q. No matter how the process changes, they are all doomed in the end. Am I right? A. …..Past Question(1) Present Question(7) Future Question(2) Direct Answer(4) Non answer (3) Half Truth(2)

s1e5 (where your tally might differ from mine)

Q. Can you save my mum? Can you please let me save her only? A. All right. I'll tell you what you should do. (okay. okay. Let's chat. We can and should analyze this answer to hell and back. Originally I had this labelled as a direct answer, but if so....then this is a direct answer that CXS later sees as a lie. CXS was not in the wrong for that. This statement is a conceding and LG does follow through on this. However, LG at least partially believed that CXS's actions wouldn't matter in the face of a death node (the next question is my evidence, as is Emma in ep 11.) As much as I want to believe he had hope, I think the fear of changing things prevented true action. They hide under the table, the place where Chen Xiao survived. But then Chen Xiao's mom mentions the camera, and Cheng Xiaoshi goes to get it. LG is silent. They need that camera/photograph. He knows what will happen. Chen Xiao cannot die. His mom dies because she covered him. LG gave up before CXS did (and god, CXS stayed until her last breath.) This wasn't true teamwork. LG deserved the punch. Yet it's not a lie. He never said he would save her. So I'm labeling this as a half truth, for half sincerity. Q. Will the earthquake never happen? A. *No answer and continued silence as CXS goes to get the camera; the earthquake happens. CXS is again asked to exit the photo.* (I do believe that silence betrayed CXS more than the conceding to help. It just sends the point home. I've got a lot of sympathy for both of their perspectives though.) Q. Why do you lie to me? Why do you still want her dead? A. In order to make everything stay the same. (another answer you can analyze to hell and back, but I read it as complete and brutal honesty.) Q. If I can't save them, then what's the point of delivering the words? A. Fool. I have said, past or future. Because we can't change the past. Don't question the future, as the future will be changed because of us. (This is the first time I think the rules really do serve as an answer if you read into it. LG also clarifies this statement as a proper, unprompted answer in e6. Present Question: (4) Direct Answer: (2) Non Answer (1) Half Truth (1)

s1e5.5

Q. Isn't this what you figured out at a glance? A. It's impossible. Q. Can't you just figure out the old master's tricks by foreseeing the events that happened 12 hours after the picture was taken? A. That's such an intuitive detail. I still need you to visit the scene in person and become my eyes. (giggle snort at that face saving answer tbh, I kind of want to label it a half truth.) Q. Where the hell did you go? A. *yaaaaawn* where are you? (the yawn is a direct answer /ᐠ - ˕ -マ Ⳋ ) Q. What now? A. Stop. You're too early. Q. Is this where it ends? A. It's not over yet. Q. How is he still fighting? A. But what I'm seeing is what happened back then. (a polite way to say "I have no f*cking clue") Q. I thought you always said never ask about the future? A. I'm here to keep an eye on you. (the áojiāo answer lol) Present Question(7) Direct Answer(6) Half-Truth(1)

s1e6

Q. If you use your predictive ability to see from the surveillance video, how will it be like? A. Within 12 hours, all surveillance images within one kilometer, I can have a panoramic view of them. etc. Q. Can you see Dou Dou? Who took him away? A. The one who took Dou Dou must have surveyed this area long ago. He used the surveillance camera blind spots perfectly. Q. This time will I become a CCTV? A. Stupid. What are you thinking about? Just follow my instructions. (LG probably thinks that was a direct answer. CXS's face said it was not.) Q. Where did they go? A. The second alley on the right. Present question(3) Future Question(1) Direct answer (3) Non Answer(1)

s1e7

Q. Look at this. Can we find some new clues? A. It's possible. Q. Where am I? A. I don't know. I couldn't perceive anything when you were unconscious. ( I am assuming that is truth. There is no reason for it to not be, unless secrets run deeper than we think.) (and yeah, that's it for e7. CXS does make comments, but they aren't questions directed at LG. CXS is too busy being unconscious/ doing his best and LG is too busy being stressed/proud. Have I mentioned how much I love this episode?) Future Question(1) Present Question(1) Direct Answer(2)

s1e8

Q. What do you think? Can we help? A. (to Xiao Li) I've looked at the general situation. I’m sorry, but this time, there's nothing we can do. (First Lie! First Lie! Though technically it was answering XL not CXS.....) Q. Lu Guang, that's it? Did you see it clearly? A. ....... (QL shushes CXS for him.) Q. Are you sure you saw it clearly? You rarely ever say no. A. Who was the one who wanted to take a break? Q. What? You agree, just like that? Hey, wait a minute did you say help? This is clearly a deal, why should we do it for free? A..... (again, QL shuts up CXS first.) Q. Is there no justice in this world? How could you beat up the person who's going to help you? (this isn't a valid question, CXS is just rambling aloud but uh.......... honorable mention. This is a line LTC and QJ really needed to hear lol) Q. Then what am I supposed to do now? A. Try to create a situation where he wouldn't be able to attack. Q. I forgot you had this ability. So, what exactly did Dong Yi say back then? A. I've already passed the message to Xu Shanshan.... *he reads the message* (that first line is what makes me question events in Dou Dou's photograph, but that's not the focus...) Past Question(1) Present Question(5) Direct Answer(2) Non answer(3) Lie(1)

s1e9

Q. Then isn't this because I....? A. Now is not the time to let your thoughts run wild. Q. Eh, is there no other way? A. Unfortunately, that's the only way. Q. Then what if I high-five myself and enter the photo...? A. You'll loose contact with me. If that happens, you won't know anything about what will happen in the photos. Q. How is it? Did they catch that bastard? A. No. Lack of evidence. Present Question(4) Direct Answer(3) Non answer (1) 2/4 questions are a flashback. Since the two act mostly separate in this episode.

s1e10

Q. How is it? Did you find a clue? A. Last night around half past one, a masked man broke into Xu Shanshan's house and attacked her. (with some intense speculation, this is a half truth, but I'm not going there.) Q. Am I supposed to yell at myself? A. You accepted the arrangement, go on. Q. This time can you let me take the lead? A. You? What do you mean? (this is not a non answer, because it directly asks for clarification of the question.) Present Question(3) Direct Answer(3)

s1e11

Q Do you remember the message the murderer left when Qiao Ling last called Xu Shanshan? A. Yes. Q. What if I'm the person who made an appointment with him? A. Are you saying that because of us diving back into the photo, we have created an alternate timeline? - CXS A. That's right. Honorable mention 1: Q. Didn't you say nothing in this world is an absolute? A. *too busy being in shock/getting stabbed* Honorable mention 2: Chen Bin: Even though you guys caught him, methods like this aren't encouraged. In the future, you have to let us know as soon as possible. LG: Oh, I'm sorry. We only just realized that he might come and cause trouble, so we took some temporary measures. (for the look CXS gives him at the easy dishonesty in this statement. It's almost a shocked Pikachu face lol. I kind of want to add that to the lie tally...... but it wasn't a question (and does lying to police count, let's be honest.) I'm adding it. Past Question(1) Present Question(1) Direct Answer(2)

Final Tally:

Past Questions (5) Present Questions (50) Future Questions (14)

Direct Answers (42) Non Answers (19) Half Truths (4) Lies (1) +1 honorable mention

Not bad, eh? 42 direct and honest answers and 24 other. Honestly, that's impressive considering the circumstances. Of course, you can view these answers from different perspectives, or you can break them down further to nudge a half truth closer to a lie or a direct answer, for example.

It should also be noted that, in regards to Qiao Ling, Lu Guang also does not lie. He is very honest with her too. There is potentially one half truth regarding Xu ShanShan's photograph, but that is only speculation. (I wonder who proposed keeping her out of the ability loop? Even so, they probably just told her they preferred to work in secret. Not a lie.)

#my lc theories #i might have cried half way through this #telling your bffs you have a secret that you aren't willing to share #is obviously the ideal route #but that isn't really an option here is it #this could be useful if you write fanfic? #put this boy in situations and don't let him lie or tell the whole truth #shiguang dailiren #时光代理人 #link click

[dattuff]

Hi, I see that you ship Mileven, that's really cool! I've also seen that you've made quite a few anti-Byler posts, which is also totally fine. But I have noticed in many of those posts that you seem to believe Bylers don't have substantial evidence for their claims, which is untrue. Byler shippers are actually quite skilled in areas of media literacy and analysis, which is how we've collected so much proof. If you're interested in hearing what legitimate arguments Byler shippers have, I'd suggest checking out this huge list of evidence:

https://www.reddit.com/r/byler/s/RNOLvEEGcR

It currently has 180+ links, so I don't expect you to look at all of them, but even just a handful may equip you to at least argue against Byler better because you will be aware of what we actually believe. :)

Ok I read through some of them and this what I noticed.

^ mike was surprised because up until that point they’ve never said I love you to each other. The entire season he was trying to get the courage to say it, eleven picked up on it.

^ No evidence in mike lying whatsoever. As an audience where supposed to have an outside look and know a character is lying.

With eleven we seen her before mike arrive and after how she lied abt how she was doing.

For will in ep1 eleven states she doesn’t know who will is painting for at all, then in the van will says she does.

For Mike tho there’s nothing that indicates he isn’t interested in eleven. From the fact each season ends with them, they never have broken up/split up on their own terms. And in s4 he puts eleven basically over everything.

^The party didn’t really lose tho. Them losing would’ve been max and eleven dying. We know elevens strength is determined by love instead of hate like 001. If it truly didn’t work bc it was untrue she wouldn’t have been able to break free.

^This is already explained within the show itself. He doesn’t want to overstep bc he feels he’s not good enough for eleven and she’s gonna realize that and break up with him. He feels like he got lucky of finding eleven and she just stuck with Mike bc he found her first. He just doesn’t want to mess his first relationship up. Remember he’s 14.

^This is where I stopped bc this is so much of a reach it’s crazy. Mikes statement in itself says that if he expresses how he feels he thinks eleven will not feel the same. Aka leaving mike after him being at his most vulnerable. Him not outright say he needs her does NOT speak volumes bc of the fact of the entire season we see how much mike wants and needs her. Pretty much every arc mike has had shows how much he cares for and loves eleven. It’s subtext if it’s byler but for mileven if it’s not explicitly said then it’s not there? Very convenient

#antibyler #anti byler #mileven is endgame #pro mileven #mileven

[nightgoodomens]

I read a few of your metas as another Crowley fan and I have to ask you- you don’t seem to like anything about aziraphale at all, like all your crit over his character is really harsh. Why would you ship him with Crowley? I Donno, like he does need to learn some stuff and grow, but you make him sound so utterly toxic that he actually drags Crowley down. The way you describe aziraphale, even I don’t want that guy back with Crowley even if he apologizes. I’m wondering what you are seeing that I’m not? Because I do think they had to spit up, but I thought they both had to learn more respect for each other, not just one way. Like to me, Crowley is just more mature than him developmentally, but he can be condescending to aziraphale about it.

I think it is just the impression you got because I recently reblogged a few posts calling out his behaviour and added a few thoughts. But there are only a few compared to hundreds of posts which are in his and Crowley's favour and make it obvious why I ship them. Plus the fanfictions.

I reblog different theories. I like hearing people's thoughts, whether I agree more or less with them. If someone makes an interesting point, I will reblog, even if I don't fully agree.

And I've been impressed how this fandom is open to talking and theorising, instead of introducing a ban on saying anything bad about any character. They're not supposed to be perfect, that's what makes them interesting. So we can call out the mistakes they make. It doesn't mean we hate them, it means we have eyes and a rational, curious mind.

I always said that I know Aziraphale loves Crowley and there was no maliciousness in his behaviour. No matter his mistakes, he DOES love him. We see plenty of evidence of it. Season 2 is full of his love for Crowley. And how can I not love a character that loves my favourite so much? Besides, Aziraphale is interesting. He has as much depth as Crowley. He is meant to be more irritating out of them two, because Crowley is the rational one that speaks to us more, while Aziraphale, after 6 thousand years, still seems to pick Heaven over Crowley and says really hurtful things. He has not developed as we kind of expected him to have developed by now, I guess. But Aziraphale holds onto the past, it is just part of who he is.

But this is where the theorising begins. Crowley was obvious, his behaviour makes sense, of course he would never go to Heaven. There is nothing to question. But Aziraphale gets all those posts where we wonder what made him do what he did, because we simply don't know.

If what he was saying was what he was actually thinking, then he does deserve a bit of backlash. Because to say those things to Crowley after 6 thousand years was utterly shit. But this is a plotting device. We needed one of them to fuck up to develop the story. To have interesting character development later.

But. Did he fuck up? He was never malicious on purpose, so we know he was not trying to be now. So there are plenty of choices:

He truly believed that Crowley would be happy about this. He could restore him to be an angel, because he felt that Crowley should never have fallen. It's a sort of a sweet and innocent thought that would make sense to me. The problem is that he should have known better, but on the surface it's the thought that matters. Still, the harsh words seemed out of place, considering they moved past being hurtful. Again, not maliciously. He was wrong about the restoration, but I love him for caring so deeply because his thoughts were just that - love.

He knew Metatron was lying and asking him to bring Crowley to Heaven to hurt him. So he quickly started acting over the top, knowing that it will confuse Crowley (it did!), throw him off, then he added a few hurtful things to the mix to ensure he would leave. Except he did not know Crowley will choose the moment to confess and kiss him, so he nearly lost it. Nothing to hate here. Again, pure love.

He genuinely just wants to change Heaven? Except he only opened up to the idea when he was offered to take Crowley with him, so I don't believe he is that passionate about Heaven itself. Or he is, but as long as he has Crowley with him. All these theories show that he loves him but he doesn't fully understand him. Not yet.

Honestly, this is why we keep theorising which theory, out of many, some I haven't even listed, is true. Hell knows maybe we are all wrong.

So with some theories I will say well if this is the case then he has a lot to learn. In others I will screech that he loves him so much.

Here are the only facts though:

Aziraphale loves Crowley.

He said hurtful things to Crowley. Never maliciously. But they still deserve calling out.

If the worst theories are true, then we can say wow, you have a lot to learn and that was toxic. NG said he has a lot to learn, so it is just part of his development. But maybe the theories aren't true?

He does not listen to Crowley. Now, I can be frustrated over him dissing Crowley whenever he is trying to tell him something is wrong or that he is worried, but at the same time I love how much he loves him to the point that he doesn't listen because his only priority is e.g. finally being able to dance with Crowley. Demons outside the bookshop? Shut up, let's dance. I mean it is dumbass, but how can you not love him for how obsessed he is with the love of his life.

He does kick Crowley out whenever Crowley does not agree with him, and that is wrong. And Aziraphale struggles to admit when he is wrong. But, yes, he did dance - even if he seems bitter about it so that's not ideal, is it? That's not a sincere apology. I do believe the way he acts is very Heaven like - My Way or High Way - and he probably does not even realise. But we did see development where he admitted he wants Crowley to help and when he shouts he needs him.

Crowley shouldn't be the one apologising when Aziraphale does not deserve the apology, but this is partly Crowley's mistake too, because he should have said 'listen you little shit, I came back here because Hell is out to get you, not because I was wrong'. You know, if they could actually talk...? But I do believe that Crowley just expected stubbornness, so he did not bother, because safety was priority. This is a communication thing they will need to figure out. Important thing someone mentioned, though, is that we need to remember that they were never meant to communicate. They could never be too honest with each other. So their problems are realistic.

The whole miscommunication thing is complicated, because on one hand Crowley doesn't tell him everything because he wants to protect him, but when he tries Aziraphale doesn't always listen, and Aziraphale is known for withholding information from Crowley, too. Again, things they need to work on.

I really could go on and on and on.

I fucking love Aziraphale. I love that he can make me theorise for hours. I love that I can make up scenarios where he gets a middle finger and finally admits he fucked up, or scenarios where he truly thought he's doing the right thing for Crowley, and develops as a character to finally understand him completely, or this is some much deeper plan going on... And hell knows which theory, if any of those theories, are right.

It is not hate to say wow Aziraphale fucked up. It just shows he's a complicated character which is good. It would be so bloody boring if he and Crowley were walking perfections who always did the right thing. You wouldn't see anyone theorising or wondering or making up 100 different scenarios where all or none could be true.

I love him for how much he adores Crowley. I love his love for books and cakes and magic, his cute moments, his eyes full of adoration, that he plays a damsel in distress to see Crowley and invite him for a date, I love his innocence. At the end of the day he is simply trying his best.

How can you not ship them? They have Heaven and Hell against them and yet they always find a way back to each other. Even when they fuck up, when they don't talk properly, their love makes them reach out for each other. Over 6 thousand years at least.

How can you not ship love like that? It has more depth than so many other relationships I have read in my life. But because it has depth it means that there will be mistakes. And that's fine. And you can call them out, it does not cancel your love for either of them, or revokes your ability to ship them.

Keep on criticising, talking, wondering, theorising, making up stories. We're only able to because of how complex they are.

And that's fantastic.

[heyclickadee]

Tech's Alive, Part Two: The Goggles, AKA Why, "No body, no death," Is Especially Applicable Here. (Content warning for discussions of death)

I think everyone's mentioned how suspicious it is that the only physical evidence we have for Tech's "death" are his goggles, which are presented to Hunter as evidence by Actual Rancid Potato Royce Hemlock. And I think everyone's also pointed out how suspicious it is that the only thing Hemlock could supposedly salvage is also the flimsiest part of Tech's kit--not any of Tech's armor, just his goggles. And that the goggles are actually in better condition than we might expect; the lenses are broken, sure, and the rims are a little banged up, but they aren't crushed, and the band is still intact. And since they're something Tech wore under his helmet, they're also something that couldn't have just come off, unless Tech's helmet was either knocked off (maybe possible) or removed. Either way, it implies that Hemlock is possibly either lying about the goggles being all he could salvage, and that he did find more, or that the goggles are the only physical evidence he has of Tech's death as well.

So, yes, Hemlock's untrustworthy, the goggles are weak physical evidence of Tech's death at best, but we ought to also look at Hemlock's character as well as his motivation for presenting that evidence. Hemlock is a sadistic son of a bitch who isn't just willing to use pain as leverage--he enjoys it. I mean, we all saw the way Hemlock gloated over Crosshair dropping in that cloud of toxic gas. We all saw the way he smiled when they started torturing Crosshair again. The man is cruel and twisted and, honestly, I don't think I've hated a Star Wars character more. If someone doesn’t kill him by the end of the series I’m going to climb into the tv and do it myself. 

Anyway. 

Tossing Tech's shattered goggles at Hunter's feet is torture. Those blasters held at Wrecker's head are torture, too. It's just that instead of using a literal torture droid, Hemlock is using Hunter's guilt and grief as a rack and thumbscrew to force Hunter to comply with his demands. He's banking on the idea that Hunter cares about his brothers and feels deeply responsible for everything that happens to them(1), that he's reeling from losing Tech, maybe even hoping he's still hurt from losing Crosshair, and that losing another brother--Wrecker--would be too much for him to handle. So he takes the knife in Hunter's chest and twists it. And, it works! To an extent, anyway. Hunter puts his blaster down, and allows Hemlock to take him prisoner. Would he have ever handed over Omega? Whatever Hunter did? No, but Hunter was also hoping that Omega had gotten away in the ship with Echo at that point.

But, anyway, the point is that Hemlock is using Hunter's emotional pain in order to get his way. And if the writers wanted to convince us that Tech was really dead and gone for good, they could have done so in a far more effective way that would have actually allowed Hemlock to twist the knife even harder.

Hemlock could have just had his men bring Tech's body out.

In fact, I suspect that Hemlock would have brought Tech's body out, if he had a body to show. The fact that he didn't tells me that he doesn't have one; he's either got Tech alive, or he found the goggles by themselves and doesn’t have any more physical evidence than we do.

And I'm guessing what you're thinking; it's a kids' show. They can't do that, that'd be way too gruesome, especially since, if Tech really did hit the ground at terminal velocity, his body would be too broken too show. Especially since Tech is a main character and someone we’ve spent two season with—they can’t show him like that. Of course, yes, that's true. So, they could have done what Star Wars typically does with bodies; show it at a slightly obscured angle, or completely intact, but limp. Crosshair spent the a lot of the last several minutes of The Outpost kneeling next to the body of a character he (and we) cared about. Or, to cut down even further on how graphic it could be, they could have brought him in on a stretcher, covered in a cloth, but with a hand sticking out from under it, so that we (and Hunter and Wrecker) know it's him. They could have even brought him out in a body bag, completely covered, and had Hunter look inside and informed us that it was Tech via Hunter's reaction. All of those things, especially the last two, would have been completely in line with the show's inexplicably intact TV-Y7 rating (seriously, how??), would have complied with Hemlock's characterization as well as his motivation for showing any evidence of Tech's death at all, and would have allowed the writers to actually convince the audience that Tech really is dead and gone for good.

Except that the writers didn't do that. Hemlock doesn't bring Tech's body out. Just the goggles. So we, the audience, are stuck with no body. No real physical evidence. And so, frankly, are Wrecker, Echo, Hunter, and Omega.

Because here's the other thing about the goggles: It's not just important that Hemlock's the one to bring out the goggles, or that that's all he brings out. It's also important that the batch didn't have the goggles in the first place.

You see, I don't think Hunter and the rest have seen Tech's body, either. Their train car crashed through the station on one of the higher peaks a good half mile or more away from where Tech fell, meaning that they would have had to climb down that mountain and up and around the smaller mountains and hills below the train line to find him, and that was something that would have taken time. That was time they didn't have. They basically had to get out of dodge pretty much immediately, because they were actively under attack, all seriously injured, and because Omega was DYING, so they had to get out and get her help as fast as they could. They didn't have time to even start to look for Tech(2).

Besides the urgency of needing to save Omega, though, the thing that really convinces me that Hunter, Wrecker, and Echo never actually saw Tech's body is that they didn't have the goggles in the first place. Had Omega woken up to Wrecker already cradling Tech's goggles in his hands, then I wouldn't be writing this. We wouldn't have seen the body, but we would have pretty concrete evidence that a character we trust had. And that still wouldn't have been completely concrete evidence, but it, again, would have been a way for the writers to convince the audience that Tech really is dead and gone for good.

But, again, the writers didn't do that. Instead, they pass over at least two opportunities to have shown us a body, or to have at least shown us that a character we trust saw a body, and leave us in a situation where the only physical evidence Tech's death is both inconclusive and presented by a character we've been given every reason to hate and distrust, and whose motivation is to use that evidence as a way to emotionally manipulate the heroes. Which means that they're either trying to convince us that he’s dead and really bad at their jobs, which is possible, to be fair; or they know exactly what they're doing and are giving us just enough ambiguity to latch onto once we get over the initial emotional shock.

(1): I think Hemlock could have sussed this out about clones in general just through observation, but...I am going to consider the possibility—the possibility, mind you!—that Crosshair did eventually break. Just a little bit. Not anything too specific, not anything willingly, but he might have let slip that Hunter cares a lot or something. And to be completely clear, if he did, I'm not going to blame him. It’s not his fault if he did. They probably tortured him for days.

(2) I do wonder if one or more of them may have thought that maybe, just maybe, Tech lived, but that they had to make the choice to leave anyway. And if they did? Leaving anyway to save Omega would have been the right thing to do. I don't have kids, but my sister does, and if we got in a car crash and she had to make the choice between checking to see if I was okay and saving her kid, saving her kid is exactly what I would want her to do.

(Tumblr give me a way to write footnotes, I am begging you.)

#the bad batch #tbb spoilers #tbbspoilers #the bad batch spoilers #the bad batch season two #tbb speculation #tech’s alive

[triflesandparsnips]

So here's a theory I'm just going to toss into the pot to see how it changes the flavor of the soup--

Izzy Hands, current on-the-spot villain, sweating homophobia, and ruining everybody's lives in the pursuit of some kind of unattainable piratical perfection... what if.

What if Izzy is nonbinary.

(he/his, but gender is First Mate)

WHERE'S THIS COMING FROM? I'M SO GLAD YOU ASKED.

Let me first rewind a bit. (And if you need a refresher, may I interest you in this scene pack that was very enlightening.)

At the top of season 1, when we first get introduced to Izzy, he's a lot more, well, playful (in his Izzy way) before he and Stede became mortal fuckin enemies or whatever.

"We're just humble wanderers, passing through"

"Dibs, y'say?"

Figure 1. Legendary swordfighter cuts tit window in stranger's shirt for shits, giggles

He's, like, annoyed about following Stede on Ed's orders, but largely because Ed's poking him about it ("And he bested you at swordplay") and making him do stupid errands ("Oh, Edward, can't I just send the boys?") -- but he's still cool and vaguely flirty in the noncommittal way That All Pirates (Named Blackbeard) Do when he finds Stede at Spanish Jackie's.

Leaning against the wall, having a cool line to say as an intro ("I've a few colleagues in there")

Sauntering forward while providing non-relevant info that could, in fact, be interpreted as flattery if Stede had wanted to see it that way -- specifically, Izzy saying he fuckin hates Spanish Jackie's while also getting close to Stede, which could be read as 'but I came anyway to see you'

Figure 2. Walls: Are You Leaning Back Against Enough of Them? Meet the pirate who's vowed to pose against them all, probably while doing something interesting off-camera with his hips

At this point in the conversation, Izzy still has plenty of time to tell Stede who his boss is, that it is in fact Blackbeard who's looking for his attention, and Izzy could continue getting into Stede's personal space and subtly lean on things and talk shit about Jackie's... but then Stede calls him Iggy.

And that's when Izzy actually gets pissed off. From that point on, we're in Dread Enemy territory, because Izzy Hands has a thing about names and titles and identity -- as I've said in previous meta:

What he calls people, and in what context, has meaning to him, and I suspect what people call him has meaning that he may believe everyone else is aware of when, in fact, nobody fucking is.

(Izzy's pronouns are also fuck/off)

SO WHAT CHANGES

Izzy's whole fucking deal starts with Stede misnaming him. Stede, once again, is a catalyst for change -- Izzy hasn't had to deal with people being shit to him for years. I mean, even at his angriest in their actual stand-off just the episode before, he didn't have the sheer rage popping through that we get at Spanish Jackie's.

Figure 3. A tense annoyance transmogrified into annoyed acceptance (with aid of released breath and delicately applied pointy thing).

Figure 4. Overwhelming tension and coiled violence. Application of pointy thing unlikely to provide much assistance in this scenario.

Suddenly Izzy has to, like, deal with that. This is the start of things getting immeasurably messier in Izzy's previously tidy mindscape.

Because the thing. The thing is. The thing. Is that the SHEER NARRATIVE GLARE of Ed and Stede's romance makes it hard to see that Izzy Hands is, to be honest, spending season 1 here taking a trip on the Issues Express.

Prior to Stede fuckin Bonnet misnaming him, Izzy Hands is living a pretty okay life!

He appears to have regular duties, including light investigation into the new pirate everyone's talking about

Evidently has a reasonable enough relationship with the native population that he can casually buy English officers off of them

Has a standard for reporting to Ed that doesn't involve poking his fingies into candles and lying badly

Doesn't have shit to say about messy ships, what with the Hot Topic store that vomited over the deck of the Queen Anne with malice aforethought

With Stede poking at him, though... he's suddenly thinking about things, and crucially, not wanting to think about things. A whole lot of Izzy's whole fucking Deal is a result of him having to think about and process through shit that he hasn't had to deal with in years, if ever, in an attempt to both course-correct and maintain his sense of status quo. We see this play out in a couple of ways --

the way he addresses Ed (and how the forms of address Izzy's "okay" with using with Ed changes to meet Izzy's needs -- see @mikimeiko's supercut for a review)

his own no-longer-playful attitude toward stuff -- the last of which, I would hazard, actually appears when he just wanders into the stores with his cup of coffee to lean and drink while waiting for Pete and Lucius to notice he's there (and from which he's thrown off when first Lucius and Pete are... not particularly bothered by it, and then when Izzy tries to compensate, it goes even more poorly, and then--)

Figure 5. Upon being misnamed "Iggy" a second time, local Angry Ball of Emotions decides to once again forget that his weapon of choice requires several feet of working room to actually be effective

The "solutions" Izzy comes up with to deal with all this Everything happening around him (and to him) are both intentional and unintentional on his part -- most of them are devoted to returning to a status quo, the place where he was not in turmoil.

Stede Bonnet made him feel bad about his name; okay, lie to Ed about Bonnet so they never have to see him again and/or maybe Ed kills Bonnet for being mean. (About Ed. Not about Izzy. Izzy does not tell Ed about the name thing, and gosh that's interesting.)

Now Ed and Bonnet are on the same ship and Ed's not being the ship captain Izzy is familiar with, which must be because... Bonnet's around? Makes sense, fine, sure, so get rid of Bonnet, this is clearly the solution once again. How to do that? Logic about Ed's own pet policy? Doesn't work. Duel? Also doesn't work. Calico Jack? Kind of a long-shot, still doesn't work. The English? Against all odds somehow still doesn't work.

And then finally, though, Bonnet is gone! Hooray status quo! So that means we're all set here, everything back to nor-- nope. Nope. Um. Ed is still changing, getting more gender nonconforming, wanting to talk things out? And Izzy can't even blame it on Stede being around? Nope, fuck that, too much thinking there, too much wondering what it means to be GNC and also talking is terrible, let's just go back to when things were normal, pre-Bonnet, pre-boyfriends, yup, yup, I only serve Blackbeard, yeah THIS'LL fix things, okay babe sure.

(Concept: Edward "Blackbeard" Teach as the man on which Izzy Hands modeled masculinity because he himself didn't have a good innate understanding of his own gender outside of whatever biological bits seemed to match up, resulting in the fracturing of Izzy's sense of self when Ed starts experimenting with his own presentation -- even though perhaps Izzy latched onto Ed in the first place because Ed himself is already nonconforming, and also god, let Ed live his life, Izzy, jfc, not everything is about you.)

(Additional note: It is very hard to not be a self-centered asshole when your entire sense of self is a trainwreck and you can barely piece together why. Also, therapy hadn't been invented yet, and even top-of-the-line medical theory was pretty sure sad feelings came from Animal Spirits in your brain and/or spleen, so honestly it's a goddamn miracle any of these characters made it all the way to the end of the season, I don't actually blame any of them for being goddamn disasters in this regard.)

All this drive toward the status quo, btw, is an excellent bit of motivation to have in contrast/conversation with both Stede's and Ed's motivations -- because they're trying to escape their status quo, and only return to it when they find themselves in danger and scared. Izzy, on the other hand, feels in danger and scared when out of the status quo. They all try to get back to the status quo, and they all make increasingly poor decisions in their attempts to do so, but their motivations are diametrically opposed, and their personal timelines are out of step (Izzy starts very early on; Stede starts around the time he finds out he's been declared dead but really when Chauncey shoots himself; Ed starts with Izzy's threat against him).

Figure 6. A bullshit illustration of a poorly explained theory.

The need to move with/against the tide of change is sufficiently strong in all three of them to create narrative momentum. Specifically, with regard to moving toward change:

Stede incites change to escape the suicidal-ideation-inducing trap of his heteroconforming life;

through Stede, Ed discovers the possibility of change to escape the suicidal-ideation-inducing endless rat-race of piracy;

in this case, Izzy is not a willing participant in change, and feels threatened by it.

When the climax of the season approaches, we see the build of tension happening through all their actions against change:

Izzy incites multiple returns to status quo to escape the (suicidal-ideation-inducing?) changes appearing in his life without, he feels, his consent -- he seeks safety;

Stede backtracks in order to return to status quo and escape (what he perceives to be) the negative consequences of his actions toward change -- he seeks safety;

Ed backtracks to match what he believes to be Izzy's status quo (the caricature of Blackbeard, itself already an over-compensation on Izzy's part), done in response to the threat from Izzy -- he, you guessed it, seeks safety.

They're all doing such similar things, and they're all doing it for such wildly different -- but related -- reasons. Which brings me to...

WHAT IS IZZY HIDING FROM?

Well, I already said it before, but: Izzy Hands. Might be nonbinary.

(Izzy's gender is None Of Your Fucking Business)

Why am I aiming my theory in that direction? Let's start with how this show really likes its parallels. So what's the deal with these three?

Stede: Is already accepting of his nonconformity; he needs to discover the joy of queer attraction

Ed: Is already accepting of his queer attractions; he needs to discover the joy of queer nonconformity

Izzy: Hasn't accepted any of that in himself, which is why he's the most scared perhaps -- he needs to discover the joy of queer attraction and queer nonconformity, which in turn will bring him (as well as Stede and Ed, in their quests) to queer identity

So outside of his many many issues with Stede and Ed in particular, how do we see Izzy's need for queer attraction/nonconformity/identity reflected in the narrative? Well:

Actors can't be trusted and the story isn't "real" until we see it on-screen, but: Con has mentioned that the two people that really knock Izzy on his head are Lucius (definitely the attraction one) and Jim (??? perhaps... nonconformity?)

Speaking of Jim, and why I'm intrigued by this nonbinary theory, Izzy "let me be as insulting as possible to the openly queer people on board" Hands still uses Jim's goddamn pronouns

Figure 7. The absolute most surprising character moment in the entire show, I'm pretty sure.

Back to how you can't trust actors worth a damn: Vico Ortiz fucking loves cosplaying as Izzy and evidently has whole theories about how the two characters would vibe together. You know how the queer folk tend to find one another? Yeah, that.

If Izzy's whole thing about Ed's nonconforming can be considered a blow to the masculinity that Izzy has mirrored his own on... what's up with Jim, then? Jim's got all the masculine traits that Izzy admires. Ruthlessness. Competence. Knives. And yet-- Jim is... Jim? Jim doesn't identify as a man. Jim doesn't identify as a woman. Jim identifies as a goddamn threat.

What does Izzy want to be?

What could Izzy be?

Listen: figuring out your shit? Is hard. And if you think you've got it figured out -- or that it's the best it's going to be -- then why rock the boat?

Izzy's gender is a total non-issue at the start of the show. Why would it be? He's got an identity: it's "Izzy Hands, Blackbeard's First Mate." He doesn't need anything else, and we get a pretty decent opportunity to at least see how he was prior to all this shit going down -- he was playful. He was the sort of person that maybe you could see being fun enough for Ed to want to point neat shit out to him.

Until Stede fucking Bonnet calls him Iggy.

Until Blackbeard starts being more Ed than Blackbeard.

Until he's not even on the crew anymore, he's not a first mate, he's nothing--

Izzy has his chosen identity broken down to nothing. And he makes terrible decisions to try and regain it. Get rid of Stede and frighten everyone else; now his name is his own again. Sell out to the English and then acquiesce to Ed returning as captain; now he's back to crew and first mate. The last thing left... is Blackbeard. And good golly, he definitely does something about that too.

The thing is, identity is... malleable. You change. Izzy didn't want that, but guess what, buddy, the tide doesn't stop just because you want your sandcastles to stay pristine. He does everything he can -- above and beyond what's reasonable or moral -- to get back to where he started, but everyone's too changed in the interim to reset exactly. And that includes Izzy Hands himself.

WHICH BRINGS US TO SEASON 2

I don't make the rules, but with regard to the story:

Even if you disagree with my overall theory here, pirate data science says that Izzy is, for whatever reason, important in this narrative, and that's unlikely to stop in season 2

David Jenkins is fascinated by Izzy, and you know how writers get about characters they're fascinated with

At the start of season 2, I bet Izzy has had a lot of time to think about a lot of different things now that everything's back to "status quo" and everything is also, not coincidentally, fucking terrible. So wouldn't it be interesting if Izzy finds himself:

taking care of and keeping secret a waterlogged Lucius -- and Definitely Not Asking Questions about being gay for dudes

(Lucius asks "who cares if it makes you happy?")

taking care of and working with Jim -- and Definitely Not Asking Questions about gender and labels

(Jim asks "whose opinion matters more than your own?")

ALL WHILE dealing with his role -- and culpability -- in the creation of the whole Kraken / Stede A-plot

(at night, when Izzy is alone and frightened in the dark, he whispers, "who are you, Izzy Hands, when there's nothing left to lose?")

(and it may be some time -- maybe a whole 'nother season -- before he can manage to ask and answer the real question...)

"who could I be, if I let myself?"

#our flag means death #whoops #izzy hands #meta #tw mentions of suicidal ideation #I'm not dying on this hill I'm just really into hiking #taking your trans Izzy characterizations for a spin down Nonbinary Lane #it's completely possible to be queer and an absolute asshole #let queers be awful 2k22 #lgbtqa #nonbinary

[gammija]

The final Web!Martin evidence list

Now that canon is done, and we’ve got word of god confirmation that Web!Martin wasn’t complete nonsense, I decided to go back to my lil chronological evidence list and actually clean it up a bit, delete parts that in hindsight weren't all that indicative, and put everything in a slightly more readable format. (Obligatory disclaimer that i don’t and never did believe or advocate for some kind of evil web!martin, and that I'm not intending to connect a moral judgement to martin (or anyone else for that matter) having some of these traits)

So here: The (hopefully, please) final list with Web!Martin Evidence! Presented in order of importance, according to. me

The final (hopefully) Web!Martin evidence list

(In order from most to least obvious)

Spiders

I mean, it’s called the Web. TMA reiterates quite a few times that Martin liked spiders. Sometimes it IS that easy.

MAG022: Martin: "I like spiders. Big ones, at least. Y’know, y’know the ones you can see some fur on; I actually think they’re sort of cute -"

MAG038: | Sasha: "A spider?" Jon: "Yeah. I tried to kill it…" [...] Sasha: [Chuckles] "Well, I won’t tell Martin." Jon: "Oh, god. I don’t think I could stand another lecture on their importance to the ecosystem."

MAG059: Jon: "I have done my best to prevent Martin reading this statement in too much detail. I have no interest in having another argument about spiders."

MAG079: Jon: "Apparently, biologically, his account of the spiders doesn’t make any sense according to Martin."

MAG197: Martin: “What? Because I like spiders? Well, used to.”

Lies and subterfuge

Martin is able to use lying and subterfuge to achieve his goals, and is called manipulative a few times.

Lies:

MAG022: Martin: "[He] became slightly more co-operative after I lied to him and told him that one of the upstairs residents had buzzed me in."

MAG056: Martin: "I lied on my CV."

MAG158: Peter: “But you said –” Martin: “Honestly, I mostly just said what I thought you wanted to hear.”

MAG164: Jon: "You – I actually believed you!"

MAG189: Martin: “Sorry. Sorry, John. Not sure how much everything up there actually understood what was going on. But, y’know, I didn’t want to take any chances so it made sense to… um…” Jon: “Put on a show?” Martin: “Yeah, basically, more or less.”

MAG191: Martin: "That's not true." Arun: "Liar!"

Subterfuge:

The plan in 118, which revolved around convincing Elias that Martin was only “acting out”, to create a distraction for Melanie. (Also compare the way he evades giving a straight answer here with the way Annabelle talks in 196.)

Working with Peter in s4 under false pretenses, to distract him from Jon and eventually try to learn what Peter wanted.

Manipulation accusations:

These, I know, are somewhat contentious, since it’s mostly villains saying this to him. I’m still including them, since

1): From a media analysis standpoint, being mentioned 3 times is a sign to pay attention, even when it may not be the full truth.

2): I only see it as describing Martin’s behaviour in the previous points, not as a moral judgement; Especially since he almost always ‘manipulates’ people in positions of power over him.

Still, if it bothers anyone, feel free to ignore these.

MAG138: Martin: "That’s it? No, no monologue, no mind games? You love manipulating people!" Elias: "That makes two of us."

MAG186: Martin: “I can be a real manipulative prick, you know that?” Also Martin: “Oh yeah.”

MAG196: Annabelle: “Because you always managed to get what you wanted through smiles and shrugs and stammerings that weren’t nearly as awkward as they seemed.” [SMALL SOUND OF MARTIN’S CONCESSION TO THE POINT] Martin: “Point taken.”

The Lonely/the Web

The Lonely and the Web sometimes affect Martin to similar degrees.

In season 3, when Martin is getting used to reading statements for the first time, most of them leave him emotionally affected: MAG084, MAG088, MAG090,

MAG095: Martin: “S-S-Statement… done.” [HEAVY BREATHING & TREMBLING AS MARTIN STEADIES HIMSELF] “I don’t like recording these. There. I-I said it.”,

MAG098: Martin: [Panting] “End of statement.” [Deep breath] “I, um, I think I might need to sit down. Oh. Yeah, I am. Right. I don’t, uh, I’m not really sure if these are actually getting easier or harder. I mean I don’t feel –”

Only the last two statements he reads are remarkably easier. This might be a hint that Martin is just getting used to reading them, but the quote from MAG098 seems to contradict that. Either way, it’s likely not a coincidence that those last two happen to be the Lonely and the Web:

MAG108: Martin: “Statement ends.” (exhale) “That wasn’t so bad…”

MAG110: Martin: “Statement ends.” [...] “I mean, I think it sounds like a Jurgen Leitner book. About spiders. Hm. Good John didn’t have to read this one, anyway. I know he’s not a fan. Although, this one wasn’t too bad, actually! I – yeah. Anyway.”

In season 5, there are two powers’ Domains that actually affected Martin mentally, as opposed to only physically: the Lonely’s, in 170 (and arguably 186), and, depending on your interpretation, in 172, when Martin went exploring without knowing why he did so.

Proximity

Martin investigates a lot of the Web statements during season 1 to 3 (in other words, when the archive team still researches statements). The only ones he isn’t mentioned in during this period are MAG019 and MAG020, when he’s being harrassed by worms, and MAG081, which Jon records by himself outside of the institute.

Most notably, he’s the one who discovered the statement in MAG114, ‘Cracked Foundations’, which is the one statement in the entire show that sets up the interdimensional properties of HTR.

The Web!Lighter passed through Martin's hands first, before he gave it to Jon.

Similarly, Annabelle mostly spoke to Martin in season 5, despite most other Avatars usually focusing on Jon.

Aesthetics

Apart from the above obviously Web related areas, there are some other aesthetics which are mentioned in connection to both the Web and Martin, throughout canon.

These are describing the Web;

These are describing Martin.

Tapes:

Martin is the only character to treat the tape recorders as friends - any other character is either indifferent, or treats them as enemies.

MAG039: Martin: "I think the tapes have a sort of… low-fi charm."

MAG154 Martin: “Oh. Hi. Hello again.” … (small laugh) “Sorry pal, false alarm this time.”

MAG156 Martin: “Mm? Oh.” [HE LAUGHS, GENTLY.] “Yeah. (rustling paper) I was going to read one. Hate for you to miss it!” [SHORT, FORCED LAUGH, AS HE FLAPS THE STATEMENT AROUND.]

MAG170 Martin: “Oh. Oh, hello. What’s this? Wow, retro! What are you up to, little buddy; just – listening? That’s okay. It’s nice to have someone to talk to.”

MAG190 Jon: "[The tapes] seem to like [Martin]."

Retro:

MAG069: Statement: “I only saw Annabelle Cane once during this period. She wasn’t hard to pick out. She dressed like a vintage clothing store exploded on her, and her short bleach-blonde hair stood out sharply against dark skin.”

MAG160: Jon: “Anyways, don’t tell me the phonebox down there doesn’t appeal to your retro aesthetic.” Martin: “It – might. Maybe.”

MAG163: Annabelle/the Web callying Martin via an old payphone: [ A PHONE RINGS. IT’S NOT THE TINNY, ELECTRONIC SOUND OF A CELLPHONE – NO, THIS IS A TRUE, HEAVY, CLASSIC RING.] Martin: “Uh. John? Uh, J, John – the, uh, payphone that’s – here, for some reason – it’s ringing?”

Hatred of burns:

MAG067: Jack Barnabas’ statement: “I looked up and noticed within the corner of the room, where there had been a spider’s web this morning, there was just a faint wisp of smoke.” “Another held a bag that seemed to be full of candles, while a third had a clear plastic container filled with hundreds of tiny spiders.”

MAG139: Statement by member of Cult of the Lightless Flame: “The Mother of Puppets has always suffered at our hand; all the manipulation and subtle venom in the world means nothing against a pure and unrestrained force of destruction and ruin.” Agnes burned down Hilltop Road.

MAG145: The Web ties Gertrude to Agnes, stopping the Desolation’s ritual (the only Power whose ritual the Web is known to have prevented).

MAG167: Gertrude enlists Agnes’/the Desolation’s help in order to burn her assistant Emma, who was Web aligned.

MAG169: Martin: "Look, I just – don’t want to get burned, all right? It’s, it’s like my least favorite pain ever. [...] I, I legitimately hate burns, alright? They’re, they’re awful, and they scar horribly, and they just – it – it just makes me sick; I, I hate it. Hate it!"

Phrasing:

MAG039: Martin: "I’m trapped here. It’s like I can’t… move on and the more I struggle, the more I’m stuck. [...] It's just that whatever web these statements have caught you in, well, I’m there too. We all are, I think."

MAG079: Martin's poem: "The threads of people walking, living, lovi–"

MAG117: Martin: "This last couple of years, I’ve always been running, always hiding, caught in someone else’s trap, but, but now it’s my trap, and, well, I think it’ll work. I know, I know it’s not exactly intricate, but it felt good leaving my own little web. Oh, oh, Christ, I hope John doesn’t actually listen to these. “Good lord, is Martin becoming some sort of spider person?” No, John, it’s an expression, chill out! Besides, spiders are fine. I mean, yes, people are scared of them, obviously, but actual spiders, they just want to help you out with flies."

MAG167: Jon: “Methinks the Spider dost protest too much.” Martin: “Jon –” Jon: “Joking! Just joking.”

Personality:

How applicable these are depends heavily on how you interpret Martin's own personality, so your mileage may vary.

MAG008: Statement: “Nobody ever said a word against Raymond himself, though, who was by all accounts a kind and gentle soul [...]”

MAG123: Jon: "The Web does seem to have a preference for those who prefer not to assert themselves."

MAG147: Annabelles statement: "I discovered a deep and enduring talent inside myself for lying. [...] My manipulations were not intricate, but they were far beyond what was expected of a child my age, and I have always believed that the key to manipulating people is to ensure that they always under- or overestimate you. Never reveal your true abilities or plans."

Word of God and Annabelle

I kinda wanted to ‘prove’ that Web!Martin had quite a bit of evidence to back it up, hence this header being last. But of course, in this post-canon world, there are a few lines that most obviously confirm the theory:

MAG197: Martin is Web enough to be able to read the 'vibrations', like Annabelle, and see Jon and Basira (the latter being especially notable, as he hadn't known she was there beforehand): [CHITTERING, BUZZING AND HIGH-PITCHED SQUEALS CHANGE CADENCE] Martin: "Wait… Wait, hang on, is that him?" Annabelle: "Yes. I guess you’re better with the Web than we thought." Martin: "And – Wait, ha– No, uh… is that… Basira? He – He’s got Basira with him!" Annabelle: "Yes."

Season 5 Q&A part 2: Jonny: “Essentially, it was fascinating looking at the fandom and, like, the Web!Martin believers, because what they were doing was correctly picking up on hints dropped in the early seasons that were later, like, not exactly abandoned, but it was much more like, ‘Well, no, he does have like aspects of The Web to him, but he is moreover The Lonely.’ And that came about very… very organically, really. Because throughout Season 3 and going into Season 4, we had this conversation and we were like, ‘No, actually he's like-” Alex: “‘It can't be, it cannot be, it must be the other way round’ Yeah.”

(Note that they say “throughout season 3 and going into season 4,” which likely means that season 1, season 2, and at least part of season 3, aka half of the entire show, were written with Web!Martin as an intentional possibility.)

If you read all that, thanks so much! Obviously, Web!Martin never really came to fruition, so it's fine if you still don't like it. This is just a post explaining where it was coming from, at least for me and the other theorists I've spoken to.

#the magnus archives #magnus archives #tma #tma s5 #web!martin #web martin #webmartin #or as jonny called it: #spider!martin #tma theory #tma meta #martin blackwood #martin k blackwood #martin #tma martin #magnuspod #i feel like i say this every time too but #when i say martin lies a lot i dont mean that #in comparison to 'normal people' #i mean that in canon he gets specifically mentioned to lie; at a higher rate than the other protagonists #ditto for everything else. im not speaking about real life people who might have these traits. im doing a media analysis #my own real life bedroom curtains being blue dont mean im depressed but in media sometimes aesthetic themes can be deeper signifiers #and tma especially has some very strong aesthetic themes #ok i think im done talking now. webmartin theories always get me rambling #EDIT: oops i changed a part on mobile and now the formatting is a bit fucked #ill fix it back tomorrow #if anyone cares #EDIT EDIT: ok fixed it

[cardentist]

I’ve said this before, but people Really decontextualize the fight jay had with tim a Lot 

tim’s reaction was totally justified mind you, but we as the audience Should judge the situation as a whole with the information that we have. here’s what we know Jay knew at the time

1: tim wore a mask and stalked him for an extended period of time, including breaking into his apartment and watching him sleep not long before his apartment would be burnt down (starting from his room, implying that it was meant for him). the stalking would also continue off of camera for Years, with implications showing up about it on jay’s twitter (a memorable instance being when he woke up with his hotel door wide open).

2: tim, in this mask, engaged in other seemingly threatening behavior. including but not limited to trying to physically attack him and alex and threatening him Directly through to the totheark channel.

3: he has no idea what totheark’s goals are, what their relationship with the operator is, or what they have to do with alex (beyond hating him so much).

4: tim doesn’t act as though he remembers what he did in the mask, but to that same end he doesn’t know how much tim remembers.

5: he’d eventually piece together that alex had been lying to him. leading him on to eventually try to kill him. and while masky Did seemingly try to stop alex from doing that, jay still doesn’t know what his actual motivations are. meanwhile the betrayal from alex would only hammer in the fact that he Can’t afford to trust people just because he wants to believe them. the benefit of the doubt almost killed him.

jay stalked tim in part because he was the only lead that jay had, and in part because jay didn’t know if tim wanted to hurt him or Worse. jay leaked his medical records because totheark, the person (or persons) who’d been leading him by the nose for years at this point, told him directly that tim had been lying to him When He Was Already paranoid about tim doing specifically that because of the example of someone lying to him To Kill Him that we all saw happen on screen (and of course tim’s actions as masky). jay only Had the files because totheark (presumably brian) gave them to him. and he shared those records online like evidence because he’s had tapes stolen out of his car, files deleted from his laptop, and memories fully erased from his mind. he can’t trust that he can Keep information unless it’s been uploaded.

no that doesn’t mean that what he did wasn’t a Crime. but people in the fandom treat it like a character flaw, like jay was just being a creep for no reason, when frankly he had every right in the world to be scared. which I think is only a problem because tim had a big emotional outburst on camera while jay did not.

they were both just mentally ill people trying their best in an impossible situation. jay’s mental health gets swept under the rug by the fandom a Lot in the early seasons, but going off of what we see (both in the show itself and Especially on twitter [Link]) he’d been dealing with the effects of the operator at Least since college, just the same as brian. but it stays largely unsaid on camera near the beginning, which de-emphasizes it to the audience and ultimately makes him come off less sympathetic (and the criticisms for his character harsher).

tim stalked jay and jay stalked tim, but jay’s the only one who gets called out for it because his mental illness is less visible to the audience.

#marble hornets #jay merrick #tim wright #slenderverse #meta

[eisforeidolon]

I know I'm not the first person to say it, I've seen other people point out some of this, but can people please stop making up and spreading false claims about Jensen and/or Radio Company just because they are mad about what Misha said? Doing this is equally as obnoxious as hellers claiming their various ideas and headcanons as fact. I've seen so much bullshit going around here recently, it's annoying:

- "Jensen doesn't write songs about Supernatural. None of the songs are about Supernatural." We literally do not know that because Jensen and Steve have barely talked about the meaning of their various lyrics. And the only evidence we have regarding this topic actually points towards the opposite being true because Steve has told his Patreon supporters that Jensen's lyrics and his word choices are often influenced/inspired by Supernatural. So if Steve is to be believed, then there probably is in fact some Supernatural influence (or at least inspiration drawn from the show) in some of their music.

- "Jensen doesn't write lyrics, he only sings them." Complete nonsense, both Steve and Jensen write lyrics and music for Radio Company and they have said so multiple times (see also point above), they usually just don't tell us who wrote what, unless directly asked.

- "Watching Over Me is about Jensen's friend who died." Bullshit with zero evidence again. This claim is about as true as hellers claiming the song is definitely about Destiel. In fact, it's arguably even less true than the Destiel claim, because in the case of the latter, there is at least one person associated with Jensen making that claim (Misha, whether he is lying or not), while there is literally zero evidence for the dead friend claim. That was nothing but speculation/rumor mongering by random Twitter users when the second album was released. From there it quickly spread to Tumblr where people blindly believed it and now act like this is a well-known fact.

The truth is, neither Jensen nor Steve have ever talked about the lyrics and meaning of that song in public.

We simply DO NOT KNOW what it is about.

(Unless you think Misha is telling the truth, then yes, Watching Over Me is likely the song about Dean and Castiel. If you are inclined to read the lyrics that way, they certainly can be interpreted to fit with the events of season 15, Chuck, the theme of free will, Castiel etc.)

And hell, even if Misha was telling the truth for once, so what? Jensen is allowed to write songs about whatever the hell he wants. Personally, I see it like this:

Option 1) Jensen hates Destiel with a burning passion and would never ever write a song about it? Cool. Understandable. And does not make him a homophobe.

Option 2) Jensen really did write a song inspired by the events of season 15/Dean and Cas/etc? Also cool. Glad he got inspiration for a good song out of it.

At the end of the day, Dean and Castiel are nothing but fictional characters and Destiel is nothing but a dumb ship on a mediocre TV show. If you are that bothered and invested in either Jensen writing or not writing a song about these things, then you should probably, as they say these days, go out and touch some grass. But at least stop making up stuff and spreading misinformation in one direction or the other.

The thing is, it would be kinda strange for him to be actively writing songs about Supernatural in terms of the characters and events rather than in terms of his experiences as an actor. Claiming that his songs are about it borders on falling into that weird space of implying he doesn't exist outside of being Dean Winchester, which is a bizarre fan projection of what being an actor is like. Like soap opera fans being notorious for shouting at their actors on the streets by their character names over things the characters did, that's not really how that generally works. Vague influence in word choice or writing about it from Jensen's own perspective as a job he had for years is not the same thing as actively writing about the characters/events in the show from the character's viewpoint. It's not impossible, since Jensen hasn't said? But it's really not that likely either.

Also, I'm sorry, but regardless of what the fans are doing? An event that literally happened in Jensen's life that personally impacted him deeply is not less plausible as an inspiration for a song than a ship he has repeatedly said he didn't play into, doesn't see as part of the canon, and which he has been obviously uncomfortable at people trying to force him to acknowledge as real multiple times. Especially not just because of Misha who has lied before about Jensen's feelings on this very topic. Jensen is not canon!Dean, and he is certainly not the thirteen year old girl in people's D/C fanfics that's sitting around mooning over Meltyface McQueerbaiter. It makes zero sense that even if he was writing as Dean for some bizarre reason, that would be what he'd write about. Frankly, at this point I suspect Misha is just regurgitating nonsense he's heard the minions/hellers chattering about and that's why, despite being the one to bring it up, he couldn't wouldn't even name what the song supposedly was.

That said, so far as I'm aware you are completely right about people being wrong to state it as definitive fact that his friend's death is what the song is about instead. I have seen zero source for that, yet a lot of people claiming it's true - without even ascribing it to something Jensen said at a specific M&G or fan interaction, let alone with any verifiable proof to back it up. I've been tempted a few times to ask for a legit source on that, but never quite got around to it partially because I don't actually think anyone has one so it'd be fruitless. By all means, if anyone wants to prove me wrong on that...

We can agree that until or unless Steve or Jensen go into detail about what any of the lyrics mean, we don't know. We can also agree that fans claiming they do know for sure what it is about because because without that confirmation from the horses' mouths is obnoxious. As is slandering Jensen.

However, that does not remotely put every possible interpretation on an equal level of probability. You're trying to set people projecting their ship fantasies onto Jensen who they don't mentally separate from Dean, which are contrary to basically everything he's ever publicly said on the subject of the ship? Equal to people thinking he's writing songs about an event in his own life. Even if they're both 100% wrong and neither should be trying to speak for Jensen, one of those presumptions is still inherently more absurd.

#destiew #anti misha #Jensen is not your blow up doll #actor vs. character #long post #askboxery #anonymous #about radio company

[ct-multifandom]

Miracuclass Amogus Cringe

I was going back and forth about making this post, but then I saw @charming-mage ‘s and I was like screw it we’re doing this. This ended up 10x longer than I thought it’d be.

Marinette (crewmate) - tries to organize everyone into a buddy system to corner the impostors, gets frustrated when people agree to her plan and then start running rogue. When discussions start she’s leading the conversation and asking the most questions. She greatly prefers crewmate over impostor because she likes the mystery solving element of discussions.

Marinette (impostor) - whenever she kills someone she goes, “ahhhh” out loud and panics while her avatar sprints away from the body. She likes coming up with convoluted plans, especially when she can communicate with her fellow imp(s), and tries to make it seem like she’s in two places at once wether it be through venting or falsified testimony.

Adrien (crewmate) - he has to unmute and ask how to do like every individual task to the point where he’s been voted out over it before because cmon, you’ve gotta be lying about it at this point, just piece it together and stop unmuting during task time. He makes puns and sings little improvised songs while tasking. When he suspects someone but they don’t get voted out, he offers to tail them at the cost of his own safety. Same with fixing sabotages late-game. To him, getting killed is just part of the game progression, and it’s not a big deal because he trusts his fellow crewmates to avenge him and doesn’t mind ghost-tasking.

Adrien (impostor) - okay maybe he lies about not knowing tasks sometimes. But it also took him a while to learn imp mechanics and he kept asking about them out loud like, “what’s the red square task on the floor? Why’s my name highlighted?” And somehow nobody noticed while his partner(s) were like nggggg Adrien no... At least he’s good at playing innocent/fake-detective-ing in discussions. Whenever he kills someone he makes some stupid one-liner about it out loud.

Alya (crewmate) - we got Sherlock Holmes over here. She overanalyzes every tiny detail and isn’t scared to sacrifice the sus for the greater cause. When she finishes tasks, she likes to hang out by security and snoop in case of the rare satisfaction of catching someone red-handed. If there’s an emergency meeting, it’s probably because she probably saw something. She supports Crewinette’s plans to corner the imps. She thinks tasks wins are boring and that it’s a lot more fun to win through voting correctly. If they task-win or lose she stops before the new game and asks who the imps were and for a recap of their actions.

Alya (impostor) - a force to be reckoned with. She’ll wait for the perfect moment to strike someone, and then cover her tracks, join a group and win herself a strong alibi anyways. Her reputation as a ruthless detective protects her, even when the game is set to show that the ejected person was innocent. She always chooses someone to kill and someone to blame for it, but sometimes she gets carried away and they vote her off for pointing too many fingers.

Nino (crewmate) - he’s just tasking, man. If he gets killed he’s like, “oh mf” and just keeps ghost-tasking. He mostly hangs out during the discussions unless he has something solid to say, only jumping in at the end to confirm, “so we’re voting for _?”. He leads his own little crewmate squad around when he finishes tasks to protect them while they finish theirs.

Nino (impostor) - mostly plays off the strategy of his partner(s). He likes playing the protective team-player type “innocent diversion” role while the partner(s) get to killing, so when discussions start he’s totally in the clear, which gives him an opening to dodge suspicion in the future if he needs to take over killing. He pretends to fix sabotages all the time because people rely on him to do that as a crewmate.

Max (crewmate) - freakishly good at the card scanning task. People always ask for his secret and he’s like? It’s so easy? He has every map memorized to a t so he can point out the contradictions in people’s stories like an ace attorney character. It’s surprisingly really helpful. He’s the opposite of Alya in that he’s a big supporter of the “guys, stop voting off random innocent people, we have like five tasks left. Whoever hasn’t done them, just finish them” strategy.

Max (impostor) - he tries his best to protect his partner(s) in the discussion while laying low himself, and sometimes he gets voted out for it, but if he senses that there’s nothing he can do, he’ll throw them even further under the bus to build credit for himself. He doesn’t like sacrificing innocents as a crewmate, so his defenses are only sus when he’s caught being wrong. He sabotages a lot to control people’s movements and vents liberally unless he committed to a tasking group. That being said, he can go whole rounds without killing out of caution.

Kim (crewmate) - he’s the guy who calls emergency meetings early into the game only to say, “I miss you guys :)” He gets voted out all the time for doing troll-y crap and ignoring Crewinette’s plans. He’s also severely confused by some of the tasks and game mechanics, but fakes it till he makes it, until the discussion where he rarely says anything valuable and just jokes around. Sometimes, though, he’ll offer a tiny offhand detail and everyone’s like Kim, I hate to say it, but you’re a genius or that’s the piece we’ve been missing! And he’s like haha ok. He’s always behind on tasks, sometimes out of laziness, sometimes out of confusion, but he’s one of the people Max is impatiently waiting on.

Kim (impostor) - he gets caught in the act a lot and it’s hilarious, but other times he gets away with everything the entire time, which is kinda scary. He’s weirdly good at introducing so much confusion and derailment to discussions that everyone gets totally lost and doesn’t know what’s going on, allowing him to survive when they could’ve easily figured him out. Unlike Max, he knows literally nothing about the maps and always says he was at the “slidey thing” or whatever and everyone’s like idk wtf the slidey thing is, and if this were anyone else they’d be gone immediately, but it’s Kim so he might actually be telling the truth. He refuses to learn the names of anything because this really helps him out.

Alix (crewmate) - always trying to convince her friends to experiment with ridiculous game settings. Occasionally, she gets to them, and they get games with comically unbalanced imp:crew ratios, awful lighting, an overwhelming load or lack of tasks, or hilariously low cool downs. She revels in the chaos. When she tasks she usually moves from place to place alone but tries to hop in with groups to confirm her movements. She’s pretty good at sussing imps out when they offer enough information, but otherwise she just makes goofy comments with Kim.

Alix (impostor) - not too worried about killing people and venting. She moves fast and dashes from place to place, joining a group on the opposite side of the map from her last body. If anyone says, “I saw someone vent but I didn’t see who” it was probably her. She likes the “stand in a clump and watch the chaos ensue when one person drops” technique as well as the gambling “hope that the UI for the task everyone’s doing covers your killing and venting” strat. Sometimes she’s forced to vent to a dead end and gets caught, and sometimes the big brain detectives catch her, but she’s usually pretty smooth.

Rose (crewmate) - a big fan of hide and seek mode. She likes grouping up for tasks, protecting each other at the cost of efficiency. During discussions, she has a hard time believing anyone’s the impostor, and everyone’s like, Rose, we know there are exactly three of them, you can’t defend every individual person. Whenever she gets killed she is like *gasp* et tu, Brute? No matter who it was.

Rose (impostor) - runs around with her squad when... oops... looks like something got sabotaged! Uh oh, wonder who could’ve done that? She’s in a battle against that task bar more so than the players, and tries to stay away from killing. She emulates crewmate behavior perfectly so no one ever suspects her until really late. If she’s the only imp left and she has to kill, it’s like an Agatha Christie locked room mystery level of drama and betrayal within her squad. But we were all together the whole time... omfg no way... it was one of us.

Juleka (crewmate) - she secretly prefers when everyone tasks alone, but goes with the squad for Rose. She only talks in discussions if she’s 100% sure about something, and she often incomprehensibly mumbles vital evidence. ~10 minutes later when they catch the imp she’s like iItoldyouso and the crew’s like ??? If she gets killed and her tasks are done, she haunts that impostor relentlessly. Sometimes she even organizes ghost brigades in ghost chat and gets everyone to follow them.

Juleka (impostor) - definitely gets a kick out of the kill button. Whenever she takes someone down she’s like heeheehee. If she was peer pressured into a task team again, she’ll anxiously try to slip away unnoticed for a second to catch someone in the hallway outside, but if she’s alone, she’s on a hunt. Nobody is safe. When she defends herself on voice chat she also mumbles incomprehensibly and everyone’s like sure, fair enough.

Mylene (crewmate) - seasoned task group leader. She also sings little task songs like Adrien. She tries to organize people into chatting regular status updates so they can tell if someone goes missing. She reports every body she finds and actively participates in the discussion, but whenever she makes good points, she gets overlooked. Then, the crew’s like Mylene, why didn’t you say anything sooner? And she’s like agjdjdhh Either that or she gets voted off for always reporting and being too eager to discuss on top of it.

Mylene (impostor) - gets her partner(s) inside her team and tries to tag-team anyone passing by, only for all the impostors to have alibis when she reports. If the ratio is right, they can destroy their own group, and then immediately point the finger at whoever is left, which works about half the time. Mylene is a pretty convincing actress, but the high IQ tricks only work a couple times.

Ivan (crewmate) - he’ll take one for the team if he has to, especially in those sabotage cases where you’d have to be isolated and vulnerable. Otherwise he’ll protect his group. He has an “innocent until proven guilty” attitude when he runs into other people on the map, and skips during a lot of the votes.

Ivan (impostor) - we all know he can’t lie to save his life. He usually gets voted out really fast if he kills someone because he gets nervous and starts saying contradictory things when questioned. That being said, he’ll do what he can to keep his partner(s) in the clear. He never vents because the risk is too high for him, instead just running around and saying, “sorry” out loud when he catches a victim.

Nathaniel (crewmate) - he’s the opposite of Adrien in that he’ll do anything to avoid getting killed. He runs around tasking on his own, but he’s usually behind because he’s so focused on avoiding everyone, to Max’s frustration. He also never reports bodies. This causes him to be sus at all times, so he gets voted out a lot. Wild Nath sightings are rare and terrifying because he’s never in the clear and he’s just standing there, menacingly. Imp!Alix sees him as a fun combo of Where’s Waldo and Assassin.

Nathaniel (impostor) - the millisecond that cool down timer runs out, someone is getting killed. Hit and run. He’s good at entering a fairly crowded large space, striking, and staying in everyone’s blind spots while he runs away, especially when the lights are out. He likes venting to isolated areas and killing as many people per round as he can, laughing when someone finally reports and everyone unmutes to go WHAT!? at the number of deaths. He tends to operate separately from his partner(s) unless they have an actual plan.

Chloe (crewmate) - gathers every single person in medbay and makes sure they all watch her scan. Yeah okay, we get, you’re a crewmate. She feels personally offended whenever someone kills her, which is often, since people tend to jokingly target her. During discussions, she accuses anyone and everyone of being sus, even if she just walked past them or saw them tasking alone. She likes stalking people as a ghost and spilling tea in ghost chat.

Chloe (impostor) - reacts similarly to Marinette when she kills. She will throw her partner(s) under the bus if it’s more advantageous in the long run, and she’s great at shifting the blame to innocents. People vote her out a lot anyways, and she says she can’t believe that they even like this stupid little game. Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. Unless she wins. Then it’s fun.

Sabrina (crewmate) - discussion detective supreme. She keeps track of every piece of evidence and testimony, every detail. She tails the sus at a distance, trying to catch them doing something. Sometimes it gets her targeted, but sometimes she catches them and calls emergency meetings to snitch. Somehow she manages to do this and finish her tasks at the same time.

Sabrina (impostor) - sabotages everything, and tries to get her partner(s) to do it too. Once she won because the crew just didn’t fix O2 in time. She avoids killing Chloe, but feels bad if she has to kill anyone else too. She typically just sticks to making other people seem suspicious, and likes the game mode where you can’t see if you voted correctly or not.

Lila (both) - she rarely joins these games. She isn’t even a member of the chat group they use. They occasionally invite her, and she usually lies about how busy she is, but she accepted a couple times to further her narrative. She pretends to be really bad at being an impostor to establish herself as someone incapable of trickery. Regardless of her role, whenever the body announcement pops up, she goes, “oh nooo, not [victim(s)]... nooo....” and Mari’s like stfu Lila.

Bonus Polaroid kids because,,, they <3

Kagami (crewmate) - hella efficient at tasks. Two discussions in and she’s done. She’s the interrogation specialist who stresses out the imps and crew alike with her barrage of questions. She likes moving either alone or in partners, three people maximum, unless Crewinette needs her, in which case she’ll stick to the plan no matter what.

Kagami (impostor) - you’re walking through the base / there’s no one around and comms are down / out of the corner of your eye you spot her / Kagami Tsurugi. She will have you cornered and you won’t be able to do anything about it. She always has a made up explanation for what she was doing, but sometimes it falls through solely because she’s always acting sus.

Luka (crewmate) - he likes crewmate a lot more than impostor. He’ll tag along with a task group until he’s done, and then he’ll go lurk in the corner and spy on people. He moves along the walls, and a few times this has led to him witnessing murders in the middle of the room while the imp only saw him after it was too late. Cue the mad dash for emergency meeting.

Luka (impostor) - works together with his partner(s) to perform some high level backstabbery. He rarely gets voted out unless he messes up because he builds bonds of trust with like half of the crew while he leads the rest into his partner(s)’ traps. He feels bad about killing sometimes, but he doesn’t mind sabotaging.

Zoe (crewmate) - she finds one or two other people she trusts and follows them around. She uses the logic of “well we could’ve both killed each other by now but we didn’t so they must be safe”. She immediately recounts everything that happened to her that round in discussions, even irrelevant details, just in case they might end up useful, and tends to bandwagon with voting.

Zoe (impostor) - tries to catch people in secluded corners or rooms with closable doors to kill them. She avoids taking risks, but sometimes she reports her own bodies and tries to act all surprised by the discovery. She’s a good actress, but she’s not the best bs artist, although the crew is used to her giving a ton of details right from the start, so they don’t suspect her unless there’s a hole in her story.

Marc (crewmate) - does tasks on his own but makes sure to stop near crowds when he can. Whenever he’s running around alone and sees someone else, he immediately turns around like ohmygodohmygod and anxiously dances around the other person who’s more than likely just another, equally anxious crewmate with places to be. He still gets killed a lot.

Marc (impostor) - he goes full anime villain mode. All according to keikaku. He’s one of those people who disproportionately rolls the impostor role and ends up with it like twice every five games. He plans out every move he’s gonna make, every complex lie and big brain play, and sometimes he gets that glorious evil win, but sometimes his plans are totally sabotaged by stupid things like Kim’s trolling.

#miraculous ladybug #ml #among us #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #alya cesaire #nino lahiffe #max kante #le chien kim #alix kubdel #rose lavillant #juleka couffaine #mylene haprele #ivan bruel #nathaniel kurtzberg #chloe bourgeois #sabrina raincomprix #lila rossi #kagami tsuguri #luka couffaine #zoe lee #marc anciel #miracuclass #long post #character analysis #yeah that’s right I’m tagging this as character analysis #this could make for some funny comics #tag yourself

[house-of-galathynius]

Only You ~ Rowaelin

A Rowaelin fanfic, set if Aelin’s parents had lived and she had met Rowan under normal circumstances, if Erawan and Maeve weren’t threats. Hope you enjoy! 

Prologue ~ Chapter Two

Chapter One: Meeting 

 Summer had always been Aelin’s favourite time of the year. It was the soft breezes and the long days, the late nights. It was the time of year where she didn’t have to be a princess. There was no need for the formalities or the pretending. 

Summer was the season of freedom. 

And when she had woken up that morning, the sun was still low in the sky, the mist dancing between the trees and the bird song was mellowed, quieter somehow. She had known that summer was over; her Fae senses could feel the shift of the season. Summer giving way to the crispness of autumn. And despite the peacefulness and beauty of autumn, it was also her least favourite time of the year.

Court would begin again. Gone would be the long nights of stargazing, the lazy days lounging in the sun with a book or the trips to the Staghorns; now was the time for her royal duties to start once again. 

A gentle tap of the door had Aelin groaning and shifting in bed. 

“Your Highness? Your father would like to know if you will be eating breakfast with them this morning.” Her maid Elspeth was one of the good ones. She was in her late forties and had been with Aelin for her entire twenty years. She was a short woman, her hair starting to grey at the roots, her cheeks always rosy and plump. But Aelin loved her like a mother.

Elspeth slid into the room and closed the door behind her, she strode over to the towering windows which looked out over the forest beyond the castle. The thick curtains were opened to reveal a grey morning. Elspeth didn’t wait for a response from Aelin as she continued her way around the room to the balcony on the far side. She opened the doors and Fleetfoot, Aelin’s beloved dog perked up and trotted off to the fresh air. 

Elspeth was well versed in the ways of Aelin. Which is why her final task was to perch on the edge of her bed and pull the covers back. 

“Aelin, you have guests arriving today.” 

She shot up in bed, staring at Elspeth. She had forgotten about the guests. If she had, she definitely would have been up earlier. She said as much. 

“The Queen of Doranelle, Sellene Whitethorn is arriving with her family.” 

Of course. There had been turmoil in Doranelle for many years and finally, only a few months ago, they had decided on a new queen. It had been a surprise to her Uncle Orlon when it had been announced, but nonetheless, had extended an invitation to visit once the new queen had settled into her new role. Just as the offer would be extended to me one day- when I became queen. 

“I suppose I cannot get away with my usual attire today?” She said. Elspeth laughed and shook her head. “I’m afraid not. A dress will be required.” 

Elspeth had picked a simple yet regal gown in a deep Terrasen green. Elspeth tried and failed to get Aelin to braid her hair, or at least put it into a simple updo. But Aelin enjoyed her hair free, the long blonde locks were one of her favourite assets, and never understood the need to hide it. 

She surveyed herself in the mirror, despite her late night with Sam, she looked awake and bright eyed. Ready for a day of acting like a princess. 

When Aelin arrived into the breakfast room, her father and mother were already seated, Orlon too. She took up the seat beside her mother and smiled apologetically to the three of them. Tardiness was one of her weaknesses and had frustrated all of them to no end. But with the night she had just had… if only her parents knew. 

“Late night again, Aelin?” Orlon grinned. He had always been privy to Aelin’s whereabouts, where she would sneak off to, who she would meet. 

Sam was not royal, in fact, he held no title in Terrasen. He had moved when he had been sixteen years old; escaping the grips of an assassin in Rifthold. He had stowed away on a ship, not knowing where it was going, but hoping that anywhere was better than before. He arrived in Terrasen with a few coins and his wits about him. He’d managed to secure work at a library. The owner had been old and frail, unable to lift the books, unable to do much at all. Sam had taken it upon himself to help in any way he could. And six years later he was the proud owner. It’s where Aelin had met him. Since then, she had been sneaking off to see Sam every chance she could; the only person knowing being Orlon. 

She knew it could never be more than it was with Sam, a reason why she had been so quick to shut down his offer the night before. And despite Terrasen being a forward-thinking country— the King was married to a man for Gods sake— they still drew the line at commoners and royalty marrying, or even being involved, the only exception being a mating bond; something so rare and final that no King or God could argue with it. So she tried to enjoy the stolen moments she had with Sam. Avoiding the advances of any foreign royalty that may come her way. The King only allowing it on the condition that when a serious offer of marriage arose, Aelin would accept and take her place as the next heir to the throne. She loved Sam, and on occasion had been angry at the impossibility of it being anything other than what it was now.

There was the other problem of her immortal lifespan. Sam was human and at some point it would have to end anyway.

“Did you forget about the arrival of the Whitethorns today?” Her father asked.

“It may have slipped my mind.” An easy lie. She took a bite of the pastry in front of her, savouring the sweetness. “But I am here now, and ready to be the perfect princess.” Another bite. 

Her mother chuckled to herself, sipping on the herbal tea that she would drink every morning without fail. Orlon cleared his throat, giving her a look. 

“The queen is new to this Aelin. We must ensure she is welcomed and feels comfortable during her stay.” 

A roll of her eyes. “I think I can manage being nice for a few days.” 

“Weeks.”

She stopped mid-chew. 

“The Whitethorns will be here for at least three weeks. Their castle is under renovations, so we offered them a place to stay whilst they were underway.” 

She had never heard of such a thing. A new queen, leaving her territory for weeks? 

“Darling, you are not expected to entertain them alone, nor be present at every minute.” Her mother had always been the diffuser; ensuring the conversations remained civil, if not for her sanity, for the sake of Aelin’s temper that had resulted in a few fires. “But the sneaking off will have to stop. Lysandra will understand.” Lysandra being Aelin’s excuse for when she was actually sneaking off to see Sam. 

She smiled politely and confirmed that she would be well behaved for when the guests arrived.

And that was that. 

She finished breakfast quickly and excused herself before they could make her stay longer. Aelin made her way to the training ground just beyond the walls of the garden. Orlon had had it built when it was evident Aelin needed a place to train with her powers. Fire magic was a rare gift, one that hadn’t been in the royal family since Brannon. She was grateful for the space, even if she no longer needed to train to the same extent. Only meeting with her trainer once every month.

“I thought I might find you here.” Lysandra’s voice echoed across the stones. “Hiding?” Lysandra laughed. 

“Something like that.” 

Lysandra was silent as she perched on the stone bench, watching as Aelin made shields of flame, as she danced the fire through her fingers and flung her powers towards the wall.

“I won’t be available for a while Lys. The Queen of Doranelle and her family are arriving today.” Aelin held the flame in her palm. “I need you to send a message to Sam for me.”

Lysandra had been the daughter of one of her mothers maids. And when her mother had died, Aelin’s mother could not stand the thought of Lysandra going to an orphanage. So she had housed Lysandra and trained her as a lady-in-waiting for Aelin. And even though they hated each other as children, the older they got the more they understood the other. 

“I heard one of the Whitethorn princes is extremely handsome. Do you think he’d be interested?” Aelin snorted. Any person would be insane not to be attracted to Lysandra. 

“Gods help the poor male if you pursue him.” Aelin returned to her flame.

“We all know that you’re going to marry me one day.” 

They both whirled at the sound of the male voice at the archway. Aedion stood there in all his glory. He wore a midnight blue jacket and dark pants, clothes for important people, Aelin thought. It was envy that Aelin was feeling. Aedion may be a prince, but he would never be King; marrying Lysandra would never be a problem, if she ever agreed, that was. 

Lysandra rolled her eyes and flipped her hair to the side. “Aedion, we both know you can’t handle me.” 

“We’ll see, Lysandra.” Mischief glittering in his eyes. 

Aedion took his wandering eyes away from Lysandra and back to Aelin, who had already lost interest in their banter. 

“What do you want Aedion? Aelin and I were busy.” 

“I’m here to tell Aelin that the Whitethorns will be here any moment, and her father wishes for her to be in the great hall to welcome them.” 

No peace. Summer was well and truly over then. Her flame flickered out and she brushed down her dress that was lightly coated in dust. She shook out her hair and let it fall past her shoulders, running her fingers through it to release any tangles. 

“How do I look?” 

“Like your father is going to kill you when he see’s the mess on your clothes.” Aedion held his arm out, she linked hers through it and smiled back at Lysandra who was brushing her own dress down.

“I’ll see you later Aelin.” A smile. “Always a pleasure, Aedion.” And then she was gone. 

Aelin and Aedion strolled down the path that led back into the gardens and then into the tall white palace of Orynth. The guards bowed their heads as she passed, the only acknowledgement that they would give. They continued into the palace, the halls empty of people. 

“Did they have to put out so many flowers? I feel like I’m just going to sneeze the entire time.” Aedion laughed, but didn’t respond as they approached the doors to the great hall. 

The room was only ever used for special occasions, I suppose a new queen included that. The room was large, taking up an entire wing of the castle, it’s ceiling tall, gold chandeliers dropping from it. The walls were painted white, with green and gold accents dotted around— the colours of Terrasen. The room was magnificent, every inch dripping in wealth and splendour. 

When she entered she dropped into a low curtsey. Orlon was sat atop the Antler Throne, his eyes fixed on her and Aedion— who was also bowing low. Her father and mother were sat on two smaller seats to Orlon’s left. A second, smaller throne rested next to Orlon’s; for the consort of the king. Which was unusually empty; Orlon’s husband usually filling the spot. 

As soon as she was in her place and everyone else were in their correct spots the guard at the end of the hall announced the arrival of the first Whitethorn family members. Aelin knew this formality all too well— get the lesser family members out of the way first, and then announce the most important. So she dropped her eyes and fiddled with the hem of her sleeve. She kept her eyes averted as the guard listed off the names of lesser royals and their spouses. A pinch on her shoulder made her look up, she spun to berate Aedion for being an ass, when the guard started to speak once more. 

“Your majesty, I would like to present Rowan Whitethorn, Prince of Doranelle and  Endymion Whitethorn, Prince of Doranelle.” 

The two males stepped through the open doors and she met the eyes of the shorter male. He was handsome, of course; and she smiled politely at him, wishing this would go faster. He smiled back, lowering his head slightly before doing the same to Aedion. Aelin tore her eyes away and looked at the second male stood next to him. Her breath caught in her throat as she beheld what was in front of her. 

It took him a moment to look toward her, and when their eyes met she felt every hair on her body stand up. His pine green eyes met her own and it was like the world was falling around her. She swallowed and forced herself to breathe, her body heating. 

The male in front of her seemed to be doing the same thing. His breathing turned shallow and he couldn’t tear his eyes from hers. 

It was like everything around her was spinning or maybe she was falling, Orlon’s voice faded to the background, all she could hear was the pounding of her heart. 

As she stared into the eyes of her mate.

#rowaelin #rowaelin fanfic #rowaelin fanfiction #rowan whitethorn #rowan x aelin #aelin ashryver #aelin ashryver galathynius #aelin galathynius #throne of glass fanfiction #heir of fire #queen of shadows #empire of storms #kingdom of ash #tower of dawn #sarah j maas #sjm #sjmaas #only you rowaelin

[kaypeace21]

I believe that byler is an endgame

but why would they spend 3 seasons winding up with mileven?

People REALLY need to pay attention to the shows the Duffers cited as huge inspirations to them. Cheers,dawsons creek, freak &geeks did exactly what the Duffers are doing (and the Duffers said these shows inspired them)

. Cheers for over 5 seasons built up the pairing of sam and Dianne- had them break up in the s5 finale and then in the last 2 eps of the 11th season have them get back together and once again break up explaining for the 100th time they were wrong for each other and brought out the worst in eachother . Cheers would build up multiple pairings (Frasier /Lilith (s4-11/broke up in s11) , sam/Dianne (s 1-11, broke up in s11 permanently) , rebecca /sam (s8-10) Rebecca/robin (s8-9) -these pairings lasted for multiple seasons and they all broke up! They built pairings up for multiple seasons but showed throughout the show why those pairing in cheers could never work out in the long term. The same Thing happened with almost every pairing in Dawson’s creek (they’d build up multiple pairings up -sometimes for multiple seasons- sprinkle in good but also dysfunctional aspects of those relationships- and then break them apart for good ).

Also in Dawson’s creek 2 characters (a rich girl and poor guy with daddy issues) date and breakup- but both of their gay brothers get together and are endgame instead of them (cough jancy vs byler). One of the gay guys (the rich one with the book smart sis) even dated the main girl (Joey) for a while before admitting he was gay and that he was in denial (while dating the main girl for more than a season ). In D.C even the main guy(Dawson) / girl (Joey) don’t end up being endgame (despite teasing it for all 5 seasons) . They did this with a lot of couples in the show. Honestly, the Duffers pretty much borrowed this idea of showing pairings with issues and breaking them up -but toned down how long they’d bait them . Like 11seasons of showing dysfunctional couples date -ick. And Dawson’s creek ... my god it had a literal love octogon/ love webs (so many love squares/pentagons/ and on and off relationships). The 1 adult couple broke up and I’m not exaggeration 4 times, and Dawson got back with 2 of his girlfriends like so many times. And ugh I’d say each (of the 4-5) main characters dated at least 4 people -and each of those relationships lasted for like 20+ eps each... and then after all that build up -break up ). That’s not even including the people the main 5 or so characters would date for like 5-6 eps . Thank god it was toned down compared to Dawson’s creek or cheers. i can’t imagine the frustration watching those shows during its airing 😂

Freaks & geeks (set in the 80s)was also inspo.14 y old Sam who is bullied and called “homo” “queer” etc throughout the whole series - he also obsesses over a cheerleader girl for the whole series and in the second to last ep of the series- they finally start dating  and he realizes they have nothing in common and says “it’s boring. all we ever do is makeout.She likes nothing i like. We can’t talk to eachother. We never have fun.” And he admits he only keeps dating her cause everyone would call him “crazy” to not date her. sam and her are also said to be “from different planets” and “different species”  just like mileven in s3 lol.  The gf of  sam also says before they dated she saw him ‘like a sister’ (like El asking mike if he’d be her brother in s1, before they date). And after this sibling comment various characters -encouraged the couple and said they would be good together (before they dated-like what we’ve seen in st with mileven and other ships ).Sam eventually decides to not cave to peer pressure- and breaks up with her. Meanwhile sam’s sis (is a straight A student, who is initially into a popular guy and starts hanging with the cool kids).  After getting over the first (popular) guy, she later dates another guy- a music-obsessed-stoner-guy  with a cruddy dad...and she breaks up with him (like jancy?). That couple was even called ‘romeo & juliet’ before they broke up-similar to mileven being called “romeo & juliet’ before their breakup. plus r&j were never in love... just like mileven.

All 3 shows had the main guy/girl date but not end up with eachother in the end . And both shows -would build up several pairings that looked like endgame but would show faults in those relationships and would have them breakup (because those pairings were never that healthy together). Which I believe is what they’re doing with jancy, jopper, mileven and lumax (explained in my analysis here all the evidence for why I don’t think they don’t end up together). I mean there’s many reasons I listed in the analysis but you think it’s a coincidence - jancy, lumax, mileven , and Steve/rando girl who rejected him in s3-all incorportated spying on their love interest ? you think the duffers think that’s good to have all these romantic pairings spy on eachother? When in the show they canonically have the us gov (villains) spy via phone taps, and hidden recorders, and cameras? Brenner used El as a spy for his own gain ? they even call the mf a ‘spy’ (which the characters perceive as the  main villain)... i don’t think the mf is  actually villainous but that’s off topic).The point is narratively equating spying as something ‘wrong’ by characters our main cast of heroes is against. But having that same cast of heroes partaking in spying themselves … specifically on to their romantic partners- and not also showing it as a negative. But romanticizing it? Would be quite hypocritical. And a HUGE narrative oversight.

Also build up?

S1- mileven kiss right after el asks if he’ll be her “friend” or “brother”. Has others compare el to mike’s sibling /cousin. Hint Will is gay . Have hints mike is queer too/ and cares deeply about Will. Constantly mention how el physically resembles Will/a boy. Parallel mileven to ted/Karen who were “never in love”. Have Nancy and mike verbally compare the jancy/stancy love triangle to mileven/byler . And at the end of the season mike writes a story for Will that likens the 2 to han/leia. Flo says about jancy/Jon “ only love makes you that crazy and that damn stupid”. (Which flo wasn’t entirely right about since jon punched Steve for insulting his family- for Jon it was familial love -not romantic love. But put a pin in that phrase)

S2- was pretty much byler season (and mileven barely interact that season). Byler say they’d go “crazy together”. But el’s new catchphrase is she’s “not stupid.” They Compare mileven to luke/leia (siblings that kissed) . Ref ghostbusters and parallel byler to the romantic pairing of Dana /venkman (but have el just be a ghost and mike a ghost buster which isn’t romantic but the opposite) .parallel mileven to hopper/el. Have el spy on mike, el hurt a stranger cause of unhealthy jealousy, have mileven dance to a song about a possessive spying/Stalking ex gf . Throw in mileven burns like “they’re not in love they’re not even from the same planet.” (El being et ref) . Have mike say annoyed “a bond ?! (Scoff) cause you shared nougat?! “ (egos like s1 ) “. Mike saying after knowing max for a week “hate you? I don’t even know you?” (He knew el for a week too so no way he loves her -cause he doesn’t know el , just like max ) . mike even criticizes his friends’ instant attraction to max saying “you haven’t even spoken a word to her.”Dustin saying “ I don’t have to . I mean -look at her.” Which makes it even more suspicious that mike was into a girl who multiple characters said looked like a boy (specifically Will) in s1. Have El watch a soap opera (all my children) and mimic the scene of  erica kane and her love interest michael. Which in the soap opera-isn’t endgame, and ended with some stalking after their breakup.

S3- mileven is finally dating : multiple characters (lucas, Will, Hopper, dustin,Max, etc) in the show dislike and verbally complain about them together . In cheers all of sam’s friends hated him dating Dianne and would vocally complain about it (similar to joyce they even clapped/cheered after 1 of their many breakups) . Mike is horrified by the spying(that mileven fans romanticized in s2) , el is happier single and neither is heartbroken over the breakup. They date for 2 eps and then breakup . Mileven being together inhibits El’s character arc from s2 (aka she went from wanting to explore the world and leave the cabin in s2 to see her friends, to ignoring her friends and cutting herself off from the world in order to stay in the cabin all day to make out with mike for 6 months - she would literally lie to her friends about curfew to return to the cabin and kiss mike -going against her ‘friends don’t lie’ mantra from the past 2 seasons too ). Mike canonically doesn’t trust her / doesn’t believe in her ability to make decisions and lies to her and never apologizes for lying. And el doesn’t apologize for spying . They throw in more gay hints of mike & Will. Mileven is called “bullshit” like s2 stancy . And Both pairings in the show kissed a bunch and said “I love you” (but they weren’t endgame). They also contrast s3 mileven scenes to s2 byler scenes and have byler win out. And once again parallel mileven to hopper/el and Karen/ted. As well as paralleling and likening Mileven to stancy in numerous other ways (besides the “bullshit “ line) . They also parallel mileven to stobin (both are straight baits) .They parallel the stobin confession to the mileven one -both confessions have them sitting on the floor, both girls have bandages on their legs, and both confessions are interrupted by dustin. Also both Steve/mike use the terms “crazy & stupid ” to confess to robin/el. But unlike Will who agrees to be “crazy “ with mike .El confused , asks “ what makes you crazy?” And robin says she didn’t have a crush on his “stupid hair”. el even says in reference to mike “there’s more to life than stupid boys.” Showing how el/robin don’t have romantic feelings for the boys-like the flo phrase of s1. Unlike Will who after fighting with mike calls himself “stupid” over and over and rips up the photo of him and mike where they promised to go “crazy together.” Even Steve says in s2 stancy should should “pretend to be stupid teenagers” in love. Emphasis on “pretend”. And when el says she loves mike “the first I love you” plays -the only other time that song plays in s3 is when robin rejects Steve (cause she’s gay.) cough cause mike is gay too.

There’s a lot more in each season (that illustrates mileven was built up -but not as a positive couple but a problematic one that was never was in love to begin with ). But I’m trying to keep this short . You can read this post here where I go in more depth about all of this .

S1-2 builds up the problematic ships (but showed good and bad aspects of their dynamic) . like the spying of jancy, lumax, and mileven or the jealousy. of Hopper in s2. In the s2 finalie they have them kiss or hug/exchange romantic glances. And in S3 we see the after math of this with all the couples officially dating - and they show all the couples issues at the forefront . I already talked about mileven. But, Lumax broke up 6 times (they dated for 6 months- and every month they dated max dumped him ). Jancy fight in the opening of ep 1 and don’t understand each others issues (sexism/poverty-and Jon’s issues with his dad) . And neither supports the other in their passions of journalism & photography.Nancy is also called “nancy drew” who in 1986 (year of s4) before going to college dumps her long term highschool bf (who helped her in many of her past mysteries/novels ). Their relationship was also shown as complex and somewhat dysfunctional because of both parties -before nancy drew dumps him. And (even if not dating like the other pairings) jopper almost go on a date in s3. Joyce was trying to hide the fact she was moving, Hopper was horribly jealous, and all they did was yell and argue.Murray says to joyce regarding hopper “he’s a brute... probably reminds you of a bad relationship” (aka lonnie/Joyce) . They even have Joyce watch a cheers ep- which directly compares jopper to (dianne/Frasier) who weren’t endgame in cheers but a rebound .  Hopper /fraiser both drink chianti . Fraiser asks dianne to marry him/Hopper asks Joyce on a date-both women stand them up. Or when Joyce asks Hopper out she calls her self ‘detective byers ‘and Hopper name drops miami vice. Which had an on and off again relationship for several seasons- of the male /female detectives.The relationship faded out as Gina realized they mainly got together when one or both needed someone. Crockett was very protective of Gina, and had some jealousy when Gina was involved in relationships , but was the first one to be there for her when things went wrong. And they realized it was better to not be together romantically. Heck seems like all these couples have negative film/tv parallels... lucas in s2 mentions not liking winston in ghost busters cause he came ‘super late’ (like Max). in s1 disses michael myers (which Max dressed as). And at the end of s3- lumax dress identically to eric/donna from a ep of that 70s shows (in the ep  eric/donna were broken up).

 (s3 was marketed as the “summer of love” and “summer love” is a euphemism for flings that don’t last.) s4-5 Will probably show good healthy ships/break up the problematic ones from past seasons .

So first 2 seasons focus on the unhealthy ships / and the last 2 seasons focus on healthy ships. S3 the middle season would be considered the turning point -and why none of the popular ships (assumed to be endgame) came off looking that great (compared to how they were presented in s1-2) .

#byler #anti mileven #byeler #stranger things

[silence-burns]

Please Hate Me //part 52

Fandom: Marvel

Summary: Based on: “Imagine having a love/hate relationship with Loki.” by @thefandomimagine​ Who would have thought that babysitting a god could be so much fun?

Genre: slow-burn, enemies to lovers, banter, smut

"We fucked up."

"No, we didn't."

"We had Peter. Now we don't have Peter."

Loki's eyes were completely dark from a spell letting him see through Barbara's, but still he waved toward the completely-not-suspicious building complex in front of you. "But we found him again. That surely counts toward something, right?"

"We lost the alien pin too."

"Which we also found, if memory serves," Loki shrugged, as if the search hadn't taken the two of you the better part of an evening. Who knew searching through half of New York and visiting places it might've been dropped could be so time-consuming?

The weather was pleasant, the air growing warmer as the seasons continued to change. It was one of those days where everything felt brighter, despite how disappointing the reality might be.

"I'm still voting for arson," Loki said, assessing the tall fence surrounding the area. An area which crawled with people trying their hardest not to look like agents of some super-secret government facility, and failing rather miserably.

"You might not have noticed, but buildings nowadays have systems preventing fire from spreading."

"Do these systems work against magic fire too?"

"How am I supposed to know? Do I look like I spit magic fire on a whim?"

"You did last week," Loki muttered. The memory was still fresh.

"Wow, so now I'm the bad guy, and not the sneaky little bastard that ate all the cupcakes I left for-"

Barbara came back, flying on quiet, if a little filthy and decomposed, wings. Loki blinked twice, shedding the spell connecting him to the bird. As much as he didn't mind the heights, Loki had to admit he wasn't a fan of the sharp turns and rather random drops Barbara's flying pattern involved.

Loki pointed to one of the buildings further inside the complex. The red, evening sun hit the countless windows with blinding intensity. "The bird thinks the boy might be there."

You looked at the long stretch of road leading to the complex, like a carpet laid out specifically for you, but the crowds of agents working in the area leading to it made you cringe.

"I still vote arson."

"Why don't we just walk in, though? I mean, it was SHIELD themselves that contacted us, right? It should be okay to just… pay them a visit without sneaking around like… well, like villains. No offense."

Loki frowned. He didn't look convinced. "I like sneaking around, though. It keeps me away from trouble."

"If that’s true, how did you get banned from the Moon twice?"

"Touché. Lead the way then, love."

The way took you down the asphalt road, busy with cars rushing both ways. Despite their past issues, Loki couldn't help feeling a little bad for the agents. For all the grandeur and importance they always described their life to hold, Loki's imagination kept on showing him pictures of ants in their little nests, crawling in their endless, pointless patterns.

The ants seemed to fall into a state of shock rather abruptly after laying their eyes on the two visitors to their nest. Some of them just stood there, looking after the figures marching right to the gates, while others ran in a seemingly random direction.

"That worked out better than I thought," Loki admitted when all the space around you cleared.

Barbara perched on top of the gates, screaming on top of her rotten lungs. The security guards looked at one another and then at the approaching god. Their hands went to their guns. Loki took that as a compliment.

"I know this might surprise you," Loki said, "but we are here to talk. Fetch us your Agent Cauldron, and be quick about it."

"Coulson," you whispered.

"Whatever."

*

"No matter how many times you ask me, the answer will stay the same - I don't know," Peter groaned.

His back hurt from sitting on the same, incredibly uncomfortable metal chair for hours, and the lights of the small and a little outdated office were starting to make his head throb with an upcoming headache. Or maybe the reason behind it were the endless questions to which he wished he know the answer.

Agent Coulson looked at the photos on the desk between him and the boy. These were nice pictures. If he were more sentimental, he might've put them on a fridge or maybe to the clipboard on the wall to his left. They were definitely worth taking a look at least once a day - it wasn't often one had a chance to look at a god and an ex-assassin, completely drunk, being led by a teenage boy on a spider-thread.

Peter glanced down at them too, and scowled.

"Yeah, well, we've met and hung out together, but I don't know where they are now. Sir, if I knew, do you really think I'd willingly stay behind?"

The agent didn't answer. He moved very little, in fact. Peter was unsure whether it was a part of some special, super-secret interrogation technique, but it was working. To make things even worse, the metal chair he had been given was making sitting still a nightmare. 

"That's a fair point, Peter," Coulson nodded, "but do you think I would be pressing you so much if two of the most dangerous people on this planet weren't currently on the run with an alien artifact of unknown origin that might've been recently used to damage our Moon?"

That was a fair point too, Peter had to admit. He might've even grown a little worried after hearing such news, if only it all didn't sound so exciting.

"So you DO know what happened to it, right?" the boy leaned forward, with eyes shining with excitement. 

Agent Coulson sighed.

It was a small,  almost invisible display of all the emotions boiling inside of him that he'd never show. He knew better, and had far too many years of experience to allow that. Still, the situation was beginning to wear on him, especially if he spared a thought or two to consider what the two people that should absolutely never go off radar, could be up to at this very moment. 

Last time Loki visited Earth, he led an alien invasion. Last time Coulson met you before you hesitantly joined forces with the Avengers, you'd already put two bullets in Tony Stark and were on the way to making it three.

Coulson allowed himself a moment to thank his hair for already thinning out or he'd be losing it in a handfuls. 

And the worst part was, he actually believed the boy.

He had clearly helped with sneaking you through half the city and into his apartment, but there was no evidence of him helping you out too. Wherever Loki and you were, Coulson was sure he'd hear about it soon enough. He might even let the boy go, and monitor him long enough to see if you'd show up. 

The decision wasn't an easy one, but the agent was left with very limited choices. After all, how likely was it that the two of you would just show up?

The phone vibrated on the desk in front of agent Coulson. He picked it up.

He blinked. And simply said, "Yes."

Peter did not like the absent look on the agent's face. He'd seen far too many movies not to recognize the moment the power shifted in the room. Just in time for something bad to happen. It wouldn't be a problem if it stayed on the screen - Ned and him would freeze with the popcorn halfway to their mouths in anticipation of what was to come. But here, in reality, far from the safe spot on a couch, Peter was painfully aware of how much he didn't want to know what was about to happen next.

Unfortunately, whatever powers weaved through the lives of people, deciding their fate and luck, rarely listened to young boys in their judgement. In fact, they listened to old agents even less, but that was something Peter was unlikely to ever find out.

Peter twisted on the chair biting into his backside, and looked back to the thick, metal door. He hadn't realized it when he had been brought inside, but the door looked like it could take a few shots from a gun and remain unscathed. 

Peter was not sure what to do with that information.

The door in question decided to finally open and reveal the reason for the sudden tension. It didn't even creak, so the god walked in in complete silence. You followed him, not as quiet, but just as unexpected.

Your face lit up when you noticed the boy. "There you are!" 

Peter looked at the agent. The agent looked at Peter.

"I know you're probably not going to believe me, sir, but I swear I had nothing to do with this."

The agent had no doubt that the boy was the least likely person to ever manipulate the god of trickery and lies, or the almost-ex-assasin into anything, but he didn't say a word. He only raised an eyebrow and asked, "To what do we owe the pleasure?", as if there was anything pleasant to be found in the room. But lying was not solely a domain of gods, as all the agents in the world would probably agree. 

And Coulson was a very good agent.

"We recently lost a boy, but it looks like he's just been found. Thank you for taking care of him."

"It was a pleasure," the agent smiled. "Although I can't help but worry if you have lost the pin too?"

"We wouldn't dare," Loki lied smoothly with an even more charming smile.

The god of trickery waved his hand and produced a pin seemingly out of thin air. Whether it was only a clever trick or an actual spell was something agent Coulson would never know, but for once he didn't mind. The pin felt heavy and looked just as the files described, but whether it was the real thing would only be revealed once a detailed analysis was completed. 

Still, it somehow looked like the deal was fulfilled. Coulson would be lying if he said he'd placed a bet on that outcome.

Peter sprung out of the chair the moment you waved at him to go. The agents and armed officers waiting behind Loki and you on the corridor shifted with unease, their fingers laying on triggers. A small crowd eyed every move made in Coulson's office, which was to be expected - it was not every day a facility such as this one was visited by a god.

Especially one with a rather problematic history of attempted world domination.

"If we may, we'll take our leave now." Loki bowed stiffly.

"And what about the 'favor' you insisted on as payment?"

Something cold and ancient flashed in the god's eyes. "All in due time."

#please hate me #loki x reader #loki x you #loki imagine #loki #loki series #loki marvel #loki laufeyson #loki mcu #marvel loki #loki fanfiction #I Love Loki #loki fanfic #loki (marvel)

[ridleycraft]

what IS miko? - a glitch techs theory

there’s been a theory circulating in the glitch techs fandom about the possibility of miko being a glitch, stemming mostly from the fact that she can’t be reset. while i really enjoy that headcanon and even use it in my own personal fanworks (read red light on ao3 NOW), i don’t believe this is the case.

however, i do believe something else like that could be completely possible...

starting out with the most obvious thing about her that could indicate that she isn’t human: miko can’t be wiped. many people have said that they think this is because of the concussion she was dealt while being wiped for the first time in “age of hinobi”, but having watched most modern cartoons, the reason is probably more elaborate than that.

as much as i’d hate to admit this, mitch also makes some pretty good points in “find the glitch.” she has quick reflexes, is very skilled at gaming, and is the cause of a majority of the glitches we encounter in the series, most notably the one back at the smash jam tournament. not to mention that, at the end of the same exact episode, inspector seven makes an ominous comment about the possibility of a glitch being able to imitate a human.

then there’s the whole thing with her hair. it’s blue and pink, colors that are definitely not natural in human hair. “but kit!” you might say. “she’s just dying it!”

well, i have evidence to counter that. in her flashback in “ralphie bear is back,” her hair is the exact same color as it is in the show, albeit lighter. note that’s she’s around six in the flashback.

while yes, she could just have dyed it the same way, do you really think that some kid with issues regarding focusing would have the dedication to dye her hair the exact same way for ten years straight? INCLUDING HER EYEBROWS? yeah, probably not. it’s more likely that its natural.

oh, and hey, here’s a moment you could completely miss if you aren’t paying attention. at the end of “tutorial mode,” inspector seven says this.

notice how she says “the subject and her friend.” not “the new recruits,” not “the subjects,” but “the subject and her friend.” it’s almost as if they’re focusing on miko specifically for a reason...

oh, yeah. another “blink and you’ll miss it” moment. in “age of hinobi,” upon hearing her younger sister’s phone ring, THIS HAPPENS.

look, i could be stretching here. this could be for exaggeration or something. but i can’t find anything that could suggest this was for comedic effect. like, even the SOUND EFFECTS are reminiscent of a machine.

“so what you’re saying is that she’s a glitch?” no, not at all. quite the opposite, actually.

we haven’t gotten much in terms of content for the next glitch techs season, but we’ve got a small snippet of the storyboard for the bolypius episode. in the small clip we have, it’s mentioned that bolypius kidnapped miko (as deciphered here)

but why miko specifically?

well, in the season two finale, it’s stated that phil discovered something in the development labs that ended up getting him reset. but what exactly are the development labs? perhaps its where bolypius was developed...

or what if it’s something else?

from the looks of it, phil was probably somewhere in his 20s when the message was recorded. in the series, he’s at least in his 40s. i’ll just say his age is around 40-43 for the sake of convenience.

so now we’re going back to elementary school, kids! if you subtract 16 from 40-43, you’ll get 24-27. wonder why i picked 16 specifically?

because it’s miko’s age.

and now we’re returning to bolypius. why would bolypius be interested in miko specifically? what about miko would drive her to literally abduct her?

well, let’s go back to the ending of “tutorial mode.” miko is called “the subject” by inspector seven for a reason. it’s clearly connected to her and five being the ones assigned to locate bolypius. but how so?

...let me paint a bit of a picture for you.

you’re working at hinobi as a glitch tech, just minding your own business, when you stumble upon a room that wasn’t there before, labelled “DEVELOPMENT LABORATORIES”. it’s dark and eerie when you enter it, apart from a small light pulsating on what looks to be an operating table of some sort. when you get closer to it, you see a little girl, perhaps around 5-6 years old, just lying there, as if nothing’s out of the ordinary.

you crouch down to see where the light is coming from. there’s a monitor on the side with a bright cyan screen. in bold white letters, you read this.

“ANTIVIRUS PROJECT: SUBJECT #XXXX”

okay, look, i probably sound absolutely insane right now, but i sincerely think miko was an antivirus computer program made to defeat bolypius. think about it for a while. it makes sense. hinobi made her as an antivirus, but after their workers starting finding out about the development labs, they programmed her with false memories and amazing gaming skills, and gave her to a family that would take decent care of her. they knew she’d show up to the smash jam tournament and set off the chain reaction of events that would end up with her joining the glitch techs. they set everything up so that she’d end up back with them.

but bolypius couldn’t let that happen. so when she could finally track miko down, she kidnapped the very thing made to destroy her so that she’d never have to be contained.

in conclusion, miko isn’t a glitch, but much rather the exact opposite; an antivirus. thank you for coming to my ted talk.

#glitch techs #glitch techs theory #miko kubota #miko glitch techs