#which i know is only a couple episodes but it's also canonically like seven years

[genderqueerpond]

i love you butch amy i love you au where amy transitions but most of all, i love you, absolutely nothing is different it just wasn't explicitly stated what a flamboyant little fag (affectionate) amy (any pronouns) is

#he's femme! it's chill! you only think she's cis because you didn't look past his body! #post modeling career amy actually doesn't present as a cis woman at all #which i know is only a couple episodes but it's also canonically like seven years #amy knows and is at peace about it (eventually) it's just a little harder to see than it might be if they were a different kind of trans #pond #the life and times of amy pond #ndw #dw #lavender thoughts

[thesoftboiledegg]

"Fear No Mort" was constant whiplash. In fact, I struggled to evaluate this episode at first because it was one twist after another. Throughout the episode, I had flashbacks to "M. Night Shaym-Aliens!" (the rap scene might've been a direct reference) and the Rickbot reveal in "Ricktional Mortpoon's Rickmas Mortcation."

For better or worse, season seven's had a lot of callbacks and episodes that mirrored previous ones: "That's Amorte" played out like "Mortynight Run"; "Air Force Wong" brought together Dr. Wong, the president and Unity; "Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie" was a "Get Schwifty" sequel.

Seasons six and seven have also piled on the fanservice. The first four seasons stubbornly refused to give us what we want, dangling fan theories or a gentler Rick in our faces before yanking it away. Rick started to change in season five, but it's another ten episodes before you get Rick in a suit and tie, Rick announcing that Rickcest is canon, Rick regularly going to therapy, Space Beth joining the family and other content that's floated around the fandom since 2017.

And let's not forget the big one: C-137 Rick and Morty, Prime Rick and Evil Morty in one episode, fighting and teaming up after we saw Evil Morty's once-forbidden backstory.

Some call it cheap thrills, but I call it a gift to the fandom that's patiently waited for the fakeouts to end. And now that I've said that: "Fear No Mort" was one giant fakeout.

But was it, though?

This is the most unpopular opinion in the world, but I'm not invested in Rick and Diane's relationship. As a gay woman, I just don't connect with opposite-gender couples. Also, I dislike the trope of the idolized dead wife that the audience only learns about through her widower. She's not her own character, just an extension of the male protagonist.

When the fake Rick and Diane reconnected, I thought "Oh boy, this is getting cheesy." They're falling for each other again: check. Rick feels guilty about her death: check. We see how similar they are: check. Rick doesn't want to leave: aaaand, check.

I'm also a little lost after the ending. Morty was the only one in the hole, so why did we see all these scenes from fake Rick's perspective? Was an NPC really that busy?

How much we learned about Diane is debatable, too, since Morty never met her. I guess his ideas came from whatever Rick's told him and maybe the ship's voice since she's based on Diane.

I did like how the episode kept reminding us that Morty's still in the Fear Hole. I mean, we didn't know that, but we knew that. No "Are they in the Fear Hole or not??" until all the twists in the third act.

Aside from that, I don't want the show to revisit the past too much because Rick needs to let go. If you're a Marvel fan, you saw the backlash to Steve Rogers traveling back in time to spend a lifetime with Peggy in "Endgame." He had a life in the present, but he refused to move on.

Nostalgia makes us yearn for earlier years, but if Rick abandoned his family to live with Diane in another reality, I wouldn't call that a sweet ending. I'd call that a disappointment and a waste of his character.

Turns out, Rick never had that option at all.

Well...in a way, he did. And when Morty told him what he saw in the Fear Hole, Rick ran back to the restroom. He looked into the hole. He thought about it. And then he did what I wanted him to do, which was walk away. In this moment, he chose the present.

Admittedly, Morty's fear came true: Rick didn't jump in the hole after him, he did just sit there and watch, and he didn't want to say that Morty's irreplaceable out loud. Plus, Rick was bewildered when Morty hugged him. But for the first time, instead of standing stiffly or gently pushing him away, Rick started to hug him back.

We also saw what Morty didn't: Rick smiling to himself after hanging up the picture of Morty that he kept in his wallet. He had the chance to wallow in shadows of the past, but he didn't take it. Rick chose him.

"Fear No Mort" could've ended with Rick just saying "Let's go" and leaving, but it didn't. Seasons one and two Rick would've bitched and moaned about Morty taking so long. Season three Rick would've left him there for a while to torment him. Season four Rick would've found a way to take advantage of this.

But seasons five, six, seven? That's real character development. That's what all the Twitter users saying "Wow, Rick and Morty is actually good" have been missing out on.

And for the first time in the series, a season didn't end with Rick relapsing or getting a (well-deserved) ass kicking. Is Morty going to get the grandfather that he deserves? Or will he move on, too, now that Rick's releasing his iron grip? Speculating is fun, but for now, let's focus on today.

#rick and morty #rick sanchez #morty smith #diane sanchez #fear no mort #season seven #review

[rooolt]

In-Depth Rant About Possible Scamster Relationship Timelines Because They Plague Me

okay so! Scamster relationship timeline has been something I’ve tried to puzzle out since episode 23 dropped because the everything about it was so absurdly captivating and Anthony just dropped it and gave us nothing. So originally (and I think I’ve talked abt this before) I had perceived the timeline thusly:

we know for a fact they are together in the flashback in Alright which based on Anthony’s description of the teens most likely takes place a couple of years after s1 bc the kiddads are all still teens. I think 3 years is a reasonable estimate bc if you see the oldest kiddad in s1 as being max 14, that would leave them at 17. I’d say minimum two years and maximum five. Now, there is no way of knowing how long the two of them have been together by the time this flashback is occurring. I think it may be reasonable to assume that it’s relatively new as we know Morgan was still with Jodie in the finale and presumably had to experience some amount of time being together with him to want to leave him. Additionally, the way they talk to each other gives very much “honeymoon phase” energy, not that that’s concrete evidence, but still. Now with the information we were operating under for a large portion of s2, (probably up until episode 45ish if I remember correctly) scam and Jodie were Hermie’s parents, and scam left Jodie pretty immediately after Hermie was born. Working under that assumption, and the long held assumption that Hermie was 15, this would place them as having been in a relationship for about five to seven years (s2 takes place 25 years after season one, meaning Hermie (if he was actually 15) would’ve been born 10 years after season one and if they had been dating starting anywhere from three to five years after season one, there’s the math) WHICH IS A BIG NUMBER. And for a while that was crazy to me, that plagued me right I thought about that all the time.

AND THEN

AND THEN Anthony Burch dropped a piece of information that SHATTERED MY WORLDVIEW. Hermie the unworthy is not a person (or demon scam creature) he’s just a scam and he’s AT MOST like three years old. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THE SCAMSTER TIMELINE!!! Here’s the thing. There is nothing Anthony Burch can say that will fully retcon Hermie in my mind as not Jodie’s son. It comes up so much, Jodie sees him that way, literally claims he was “scammed out of a son”, Hermie and Taylor are referred to as related multiple times, there’s nothing you can do to retcon that. Therefore, despite being a creation of scam, Hermie is still technically Jodie’s son. What do I mean by that? Personally, I like to think that whilst creating Hermie, scam knew that it takes two parents to make a child and thus pulled “dna” (I assume it’s like magic bc neither of them are human) from both himself and Jodie, either because that was the last long running relationship he was in, or because it was the funniest option. This, I think, leaves us with two possible options for the scamster timeline.

Original scamster timeline is correct/they broke up sometime earlier, but then three years pre-canon scam likely decided it would be fun to make a kid but didn’t want to deal with baby stuff so he pulled stuff from himself and Jodie to make like a 12 year old and then when he got bored of it not only did he implant fake memories into both hermie and his adoptive parents, but also within Jodie, making him believe that they had a son together 12 years ago but scam ran away with him, breaking up with Jodie in the process

scam and Jodie had actually been together for almost 20 years straight and Jodie was aware of, and maybe even excited about, the kid scam was making, but then scam just immediately whisked him away, implanting him within a mortal family. The reason I say they stayed together instead of breaking up and getting back together is the way jodie talks abt it, it seems as though he was blindsided by scam leaving him. This is obviously the less likely (ha!) option, but I think definitely still a possibility

n e ways, I’ve most definitely considered this in far more depth than either Anthony Burch or Jimmy Wong have, but there is something deeply wrong with me and they plague me.et me know if you have further thoughts or evidence suggesting a more canonical scamster timeline.

#Yes this entire post was made with no reference to transcripts or episodes this is just all off the dome #I’m so obsessed with them and the timeline I can’t explain it #Why was their relationship so long running seemingly #What was it like #I have so many questions #dndads #dungeons and daddies #scamster #scam likely #jodie foster dndads

[nebulouscoffee]

for the ask game star trek voyager!!

Thank you sm friend! I already answered a couple of these, but the great thing about being very indecisive is I can give different answers each time <3

Favourite character: B'Elanna Torres, although Kathryn Janeway is a close second (I do have a Janeway-themed url, after all😌)

Second favourite character: okay, I'll talk about Janeway here! Gosh what a deeply flawed individual. She's awesome, and yes, incredibly charismatic and badass, but she's also haunted, complex, and scarily capable of hurting those closest to her (which she does. Like, a lot.) She ends up in charge of a seemingly endless mission, and she cannot afford to crack- not in front of her crew, and not even really in secret- so she begins this seven-year process of what basically amounts to dehumanising herself. Her arc is almost like a long-form merging with Voyager the ship- she is Voyager, and Voyager is her! She will protect her crew and bring them home. She will ensure they get to survive. (What happens to her? Well, she knows she can and will never be the same, but she can't and doesn't think about that right now). She made a mistake and her crew paid the price and the guilt of this eats at her every day, but she cannot afford to acknowledge it or she'll go insane. She tries so hard to stick to her principles but once she's violated a few she starts thinking of her soul as this already-corrupted thing- she knows she can live with it, so why not do something else that's a bit messed up! Better me than any of my crew, right! Like- no wonder she couldn't move on with her life once Voyager reached the Alpha Quadrant in the Endgame timeline. No wonder she had to travel back in time to die in the past. She is so changed by the events of this show that the past the only place she can truly belong. Ugh!!!! I have so many feelings about her!!

Least favourite character: I dislike voyager!Q so much I actually skip all his episodes on rewatch lmao. And I'm someone who actually quite enjoys him on TNG! He's this all-powerful all-knowing omnipotent being who could literally be off anywhere any time doing anything he wanted, and yet he chooses to keep coming back to this one starship just to flirt with the most boring man alive. He literally got kicked out of the Q Continuum for having too much of a hyperfixation on his blorbo. That's funny! And compelling! Unfortunately the Voyager writers did not understand what made this work and decided his only trait was *irritates everybody* (including the audience lol). What he and Picard had was a funny back and forth, a snarky Quodo-style "these horrible old men deserve each other" rivalry. What he and Janeway have is sexual harassment played for laughs 🙃

The character I'm most like: Kes - I went into more detail here :)

Favourite pairing: B7 if we're talking non-canon ships! From canon, uhhhh I guess whatever was going on between Janeway and Chakotay in 'Resolutions' & Tom/B'Elanna before they got together

Least favourite pairing: I don't know if I have one? C7 is the popular answer but I literally straight up forget it exists because it's such a small part of the show, like it doesn't even show up for reals until the finale. I'm not a fan of the way they wrote Tom/B'Elanna for basically all of S5 and S6, and the damage control they did in S7 wasn't bad imo but also felt too little too late. I also dislike Kes/Neelix, though I do think it had potential to be a really interesting breakup arc lol

Favourite moment: That scene from 'Year of Hell' where Janeway has given the order to abandon ship and everyone else is so reluctant to desert the bridge and it looks soooo banged up but she still won't abandon it.... and then Tuvok gives her that hug goodbye..... and she glances at that little gift Chakotay made for her which she didn't have the heart to recycle..... and she talks about what Voyager means to her, and why she has to go down with the ship...... my heart😭

Rating out of 10: Objectively an 8/10, I think the early seasons are GREAT and around midway through they do sort of run out of ideas thanks to their commitment to being as episodic as possible and sidelining more than half the main cast as well as refusing to let the guest cast build up or develop. The show genuinely suffers for it imo! There's a lot of wasted potential, as well as biases of the time that prevented it from reaching true heights- I also wholeheartedly think this show ruined the Borg lol, now 75% more human and 200% less intimidating! However it's also got so many positives- I adore all the main characters so much, and the premise itself gives me so many feels that in my heart it's an 11/10🥰

#to be clear when I say voyager ruined the Borg I'm not talking about seven's journey learning to reclaim her life #that stuff is great #I'm talking about the instances where the ship would actually come into conflict with the Borg #I think that should've happened two times on the whole show max. Every appearance decreased their mystique and made them more human imo #it's the same with the q continuum! by the end of voy they're basically just another typical species & they don't even have forehead ridges #the more appearances you give a species that's meant to be non-corporeal/deeply alien the more human (and boring) they will become #this 100% would've happened to the prophets too if that show had gone on longer btw. imo at least #anyway that's a tangent lol #thanks again for the ask! :) #ask game

[runicmagitek]

Thanks for the tag @healen 🥺💕 just a little "9 people you'd like to get to know better" thingy, except I'm not gonna really tag 9 people. If you're reading this and want to play along? Consider yourself tagged!!

3 Ships.

I'm still in keinatsu(+BJ) ship hell a la 13 Sentinels, so that's fantastic. Silas/f!Corrin from Fire Emblem Fates are also consuming my life. And I'm still rotating Ryza/Bos from Atelier Ryza in my brain.

First ship ever.

EVER?????? Unknowingly, probably Rei/Minako from Sailor Moon. I just thought they were both neat and should stand together and was completely oblivious to shipping BECAUSE I WAS SEVEN YEARS OLD. Knowingly, very likely Celes/Setzer. Bitty!me was very convinced they were going to be a canon couple with how some things played out and I was devastated when that wasn't the case, even more so when I went to online forums and FFN and realized I was in the minority lolsob.

Last song.

My bf bought the Risk of Rain remaster (Risk of Rain Returns) and I forgot how much I loved that game and the soundtrack, so I've been vibing with that when he's not playing it lol

Currently reading.

I just finished Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, which I highly recommend (it took me a while to get into, but once the characters get out of college, it's solid). So I'm in a book lull and need to figure out what to read next. For manga, I'm actively keeping up with My Dress-Up Darling. I was going through Beastars and... got insanely bored during a particular plot point, but I need to pick it back up, bc I was enjoying it.

Currently watching.

Pluto is the one my bf and I are actively watching (I say this and we've only watched one episode, but in our defense, the first fucking episode is like as long as a damn movie). Also need to get back into watching the One Piece live action show bc I was enjoying it. I'm also genuinely terrible at watching shows, especially if a) it's not released over time and b) the episodes are longer than 25 minutes 😭

Currently consuming.

Coffee ☕ it's a medium roast with vanilla-flavored cream.

Currently craving.

Nothing atm. At least not food related. Warmer weather, maybe? Definitely missing the longer, sunnier days 😔

#runic rambles #meme thing

[rakkiankh]

The extent of my Yugiouh knowledge is watching a couple abridged episodes, watching Little Kuriboh's Lady Gaga song parodies, and making a pair of OCs (it was a chick who finds Yugi absolutely obnoxious plus her millennium item friend who was in love with... uh... Yami? Atem?... With Yugi but tall). So sitting here scrolling through your posts is just like "I am fascinated and I know so little." Is fun

Yugioh is a goddamn train wreck.

The first seven volumes of the manga got censored and rewritten into an anime by Toei, that hasn't been acknowledged in over 20 years outside of copyright takedowns.

By the 8th volume, Kazuki Takahashi had struck gold with a one off game called Duel Monsters that he then pivoted the entire series from a villain of the week formula to one where people fight to the death with pieces of paper in fights that can last for half a volume. This got made into a completely separate anime by Studio Gallop that retconned literally everything that happened in the previous anime/first 7 volumes.

Then came 4kids. Not only did they change so many things from the original studio Gallop version that they've been the butt of internet jokes for years but they actually paid studio Gallop to make more filler of the show. At least 2 seasons of content not seen anywhere else in canon was funded by 4kids into this series, and most of it contradicts things that happen in the same show.

Did you know Alexander the Great was a yugioh character? He wielded ancient egyptian magic, and split into a good side and bad side after he died in an egyptian pyramid that was in the middle of India for no reason? Because thanks to 4kids, thousands of dollars were spent to animate that very thing and even though it's technically a spin off series several streaming services have just stuck it in the middle of the actual show.

The final arc of the manga was tragically rushed because the Takahashi was hospitalized during the previous arc and was terrified with the idea that he could die before finishing the series.

This resulted in many unfortunate decisions like making the plot make no sense, almost completely forgetting to do the one thing that was foreshadowed early in the series to the point it got tacked on after the big bad was killed despite it making no sense, and probably most tragically, giving the main antagonist a massive dragon dick for no fucking reason. Makes it really hard to take him seriously.

Studio Gallop tried to fix this broken mess, and while they improved a couple things they also managed to make it worse. They also kept the dragon dick which makes literally every attempt 4kids made to censor it really fucking funny so maybe it isn't that bad.

Now why did I feel the need to respond to your ask with such a long, detailed explanation of this series, anon? Because unfortunately, even with my knowledge of the series I barely know what's going on either. There are at least 3 different canons going on at once and they don't usually line up with each other.

Yugioh is very much a train wreck. It's both amazing to witness, batshit insane and really fucking bad at points, and once you look at it you can't look away.

With that said I do recommend it if you're willing to go through all that, the characters are great and you don't even need to understand the card game to enjoy it cuz I sure as he'll don't.

#also yami and Atem are both correct #yami was the fandom nickname for him because figuring out his name is the point of the final arc #which made it hard to talk about him since they usually just called him yugi #yugioh #sorry i needed to get this off my chest #yugioh duel monsters #ygo #ygo dm

[profewriting]

AmaOC (aka my jokage yumeship)

(art by Michi)

(first warning, I've already written half of the post and suddenly GOT DELETED, I'm fucking pissed off so this was written with half hearted, sorry)

Before talking about them, I wanna introduce my OC aka Miyō first. So, here she is.

(art by Cenayang_Surya)

(art by Nao)

(art by Michi)

Miyō (美葉) is an unlisted agent from D-Agency. She was recruited in secret and was trained by other agents to prevent information leakage (thus why she sees half of D-Agency's spies as mentors, though she'd still won't back off to making fun one of them or get annoyed whenever they're trying to mention/compare her with Miyoshi). She is Miyoshi's little sister, but there's no further info about Miyoshi and Miyō as siblings (you can interpret it yourself; whether they're related by blood, or half siblings, or even twins—both of them won't tell you the truth).

She has a deep hatred toward Miyoshi and her actions most likely were driven by her resentment. She's gentle with children and animals, but keep skeptical toward human. A jealous creature with envy as her seven deadly sins. I often portrayed her animal form as fox (which also lead to Japanese myth about fox spirit that often deceived people with their tricks and transformations—this also relate to her most skilled capability; acting). Her height is 160 cm with code name [Fang] and her (fake) birthday is June 22th. Her first love actually is Sakuma.

.

Now, let's dive into the yumeship 🐬🦊 aka AmaOC! :D

(art by Michi) (if you get confused with her bangs, this actually her first design before I finally put effort(?) and made her with different bangs)

(art by Michi)

(art by Michi)

(art by Michi)

Another reason why I often call them with AmaOC is to prevent people misunderstanding this with Amari x Miyoshi which often shortened with AmaMiyo (yes, that ship also exist). Thus why; AmaOC.

I also like to use 🐬🦊 (at least in Twitter) to portray them; since we know Amari has a very close connection with dolphins and Miyō's animal form is fox (like I've written at the beginning).

Anyway, this yumeship isn't very different or special. This ship actually came when I was zoning out and thinking, "hmm, I think Amari is the only agent that exist without me shipping him hardly with anyone"—then, boom. Here I am, eating my own words :)

Basically they're just like (cough) partner in crime couple, the power couple type. Amari has been mentoring her during training and probably just thinking her as a mere girl (who was lost in a bad place). Miyō didn't like him (yet) (haha) and thinking he's a jerk who keep changing romantic (or bed) partners as him canonically talking to Odagiri why he keep changing woman in preview for episode 12.

So, yeah, after that it's just another type of love-hate relationship before it finally came into romantic one (although Miyō actually/canonically (by me) was died after Pearl Harbour incident) (HAHA).

I think after that Miyō would see him as someone she can rely on (especially in her worst, or during her bitterness emo era), while Amari sees her as, well, cute (especially when crawling broken and bruised to the top), also as another spy from the same agency tho (so he actually kinda admitted her skills and capabilities).

So, yeah, finally it came to: dog person x cat person; smile all the time x grumpy all the time; calm energy x angry energy; "i don't need protection" gf x "trust me, she won't need them, YOU'RE the one who need them" bf; calm bf x angry gf; height different couple (15 cm height gap); age gap couple (Miyō most likely 23 y.o while Amari probably around 28 y.o, thus 5 years gap).

Miyō basically still gets jealous (and irritated) whenever she found out him sleeping around (whether it's for work or just another escapades), but she's just like, ("ok fine, I also sleep with another man when it involving work tho") and trying to brush that off (but still bitter and ALWAYS mention about it in front of him). So, jokes on her, she was, "eww, what a jerk" to "oh right, he's MY jerk, fuck it" (HAHA).

#my yumeships #my canon x oc ship #canon x oc #AmaOC #please forgive my poor english

[osteus]

      𝙲𝙰𝙽𝙾𝙽 𝚀𝚄𝙴𝚂𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽𝙽𝙰𝙸𝚁𝙴

what made you pick up this character?

Kimimaro has always been very interesting to me, at first for his design, and later on his story and relationship with Orochimaru, Kabuto and the sound four.

how did you get into this franchise/fandom?

I have grown up watching Naruto, I remember being seven years old and running back home from school to have lunch watching Naruto on TV. It is to this day my favourite show, and my one and only comfort anime.

what’s the best thing about the show/series/books/comics/etc.?

The villains/antagonists. Naruto has one of the best antagonist cluster of all anime, they are in their majority much more interesting than the protagonists/supporting characters. 

what’s the worst thing about the show/series/books/comics/etc.?

The inconsistencies caused by on-the-go writing, the no planning, the fact that most of the supporting character and even protagonists only get character development in filler episodes which the fandom is proud to say they skipped. 

what’s the best thing about the fandom?

Fanart and a couple of roleplayers. 

what’s the worst thing about the fandom?

The misogyny and the purity police, but the last one is not an issue just in the naruto fandom.

what’s the best thing about the canon you are writing?

Kimimaro is a blank slate, we have hardly anything on him or his clan in the source material, so I can have lots of fun making him my own.

what’s the worst thing about the canon you are writing?

Kimimaro is a blank slate, we have hardly anything on him or his clan in the source material, so I have to create everything from scratch which can be hard and there will always be someone who'll tell me to watch bo/ru/to for the otsutsuki clam but I have no interest in bo/ru/to.

have you tweaked the character from canon? if so, what did you tweak?

Yes. I enjoy taking canon and making it my bitch, so I take what I like and simply ignore what I don't like. I have made Kimimaro korean to match with my personal headcanons from when I roleplayed Hinata Hyuuga and made all hyuuga's korean.

are there some things you dislike about how the show/series/etc. portray the character you have picked up? if so, what?

Surprisingly, no. I think canon did a good job at portraying him as an emotionally detached young man, completely devoted to a sadistic master. 

what would you say is the most unique trait about your character?

Kimimaro's concept, and foreshadowing design for future characters was a king move on Kishimoto's part if it was intentional.

are there any other characters from the franchise you’d like to play?

I have played many naruto characters in the past, but I would like to try playing Shino, Chouji, Izuna, Mikoto, Gai and Pein.

are there some characters from the franchise you can’t stand? 

Yes, I think Anko is a boring character, and Minato is also not my favourite, he was a nice concept but very dumb for the reputation he has. 

what are your thoughts on the canon ships for the character, if any?

I enjoy the only canon ship for Kimimaro which is Juugo. I think they are very cute. 

what is your personal ship bias for your canon character?

I ship Kimimaro with pretty much every who was around him ( the sound four, kabuto, sasuke, suigets etc. ) including Orochimaru himself and Haku. I think it is fun to brainstorm interactions, and possibilities with these characters. 

are there any ships you can’t stand, why?

No, not for Kimimaro. 

how long have you been writing the character?

8 days, but this blog is a couple of weeks already.

should people get into the franchise your writing from, yes or no?

In my opinions, Naruto is a very fun show to watch but it isn't for everyone. Just like most animes I suppose. I will always recommend it but I know not everyone will vibe with it.

if you could sum up your character with one sentence, what would it be?

Living bone bag of death and devotion.

which song do you feel describes your character the most and why?

Darkside by Alan Walker, mostly for these particular lyrics: "We're not in love We share no stories Just something in your eyes Don't be afraid The shadows know me Let's leave the world behind" "Beneath the sky As black as diamonds We're running out of time" "Believe it, I see it I know that you can feel it No secrets worth keeping So fool me like I'm dreaming" Everything I wanted by Billie Eilish, the feeling of the song is soft but the lyrics are heartbreaking especially these: "And it feels like yesterday was a year ago But I don't wanna let anybody know 'Cause everybody wants something from me now And I don't wanna let 'em down" "If I knew it all then would I do it again? Would I do it again? If they knew what they said would go straight to my head What would they say instead?" And finally, Nature Boy the version sang by Aurora. That song gives me the most Kimimaro vibes.

tagged by : @vilesn4ke (thank you <3) tagging : @toad-sannin , @uchihasavior , @zealctry & @ephemeralkatsun

#𝙱𝙾𝙽𝙴 𝚈𝙰𝚁𝙳 . no grave holds me down . hc . #𝙾𝚂𝚃𝙴𝚄𝚂 . save . #thank you for tagging me in this !! #it was really fun !!

[impostoradult]

I finally figured out why it feels like Supernatural murdered a unicorn (AKA why you need to STOP telling me to watch Black Sails)

I’ll start by saying, everything everyone else has been saying CERTAINLY bothers me: 

- the queer-baiting - the bury your queers - the undermining of Dean’s character arc  - the wasted opportunity for a certain kind of overall narrative closure - the flat out disrespect to Misha Collins and Jensen Ackles

 All of that bothers me tremendously. 

But there has been something else rather ineffable about this that has left a horrible taste in my mouth that I couldn’t quite pin down until last night. Bear with me, if you will, because this will require some set-up. 

*** This is not the first show to ever disappoint me in a spectacular fashion, nor will it be the last, I suspect. And one of the ways I’ve always coped with that disappointment was to remind myself that there will be other stories, other characters, other chances to get it right. (”It” being any number of things from just pure narrative emotional coherence to not burying your queers to not stringing along your queer audience and then yelling fuck you to them on the way out) 

But somehow that assurance -- that there will be other stories, other characters, other chances to get it right -- has rung particularly hollow in this instance, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on why until yesterday. 

I kept asking myself, why do I still have this feeling, deep in the pit of my stomach, like something was lost here that can never be recovered? 

Because something was lost here that I am doubtful can ever be recovered, and I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else talking about this aspect of it at all. 

***

A few months ago, TV critic Maureen Ryan did a great interview piece with Mike Schur (of Parks & Rec/The Good Place) discussing the death of long-form TV in the streaming era. They explore how the longer seasons and longer runs of traditional broadcast/cable TV provided an opportunity to tell particular kinds of stories that you simply can’t when seasons are 8-10 episodes and series typically run 2-4 seasons (thanks Netflix).

One key thing we’ve all lost in this new era of highly condensed TV storytelling (and of prestige TV narrative styles)? The traditional (several season’s long) slow-burn/will-they-won’t-they romance. Not only is there simply no longer the time or space to write such romances, it has also come to be seen as hacky, manipulative, cheap, artistically impoverished, low-brow, a embarrassing vestige of the era before TV became art™. 

Everybody is trying to be Fleabag now. No one wants to be Frasier. (”It’s really more like a 10 hour movie” they all like to brag)

Obviously TV still has romances, even ‘drawn out’ romances. But ‘drawn out’ in 2020 is like 2-3 seasons, maybe. More commonly it’s like half a season. Take Schitt’s Creek. The number of episodes between when David and Patrick first meet and when they first kiss? Seven. Seven episodes. Half a season. If you watched it live, it took less than 2 months for them to move from introducing that dynamic to consummating it. And I’m not bagging on Schitt’s Creek; I think the David/Patrick’s story is very lovely and well-written. 

But Niles & Daphne (Fraiser) had to wait 7 years and over 150 episodes before they finally got there. Josh & Donna (The West Wing) had to wait 6+ years, and 145 episodes. Mulder & Scully (The X-Files) had to wait 7 seasons and 143 episodes. Booth & Bones had to wait...you see where I am going with this. 

And my point is (and I can’t believe I never realized this explicitly until now): there has NEVER been a queer slow-burn/will-they-won’t-they romance of that type on TV ever. EVER. 

I’m going to say that again, because I think it bares repeating:

There has never been a queer, slow-burn/will-they-won’t-they romance that fits the 100-150 episode paradigm of delayed gratification on TV. 

Not ever.  

I can’t think of ONE example  Not a single, solitary one. And I know queer TV pretty well. Arguably the closest we’ve ever come is Legend of Korra, and that ran 50 episodes, a THIRD of the length of old school will-they-won’t-theys like Booth & Bones or Josh & Donna. 

Queer people have had a fair number of canonical romances on TV by now, even fairly long running ones. But we never got a primary/front-and-center romance that you had to root for for 100+ episodes before you got any kind of canonical consummation.

That is a particular kind of TV experience that queer people and queer characters were just 100% shut out of until it was too late. And because of how the TV landscape has changed in the last 10 years, I don’t know that that opportunity will ever come back around in our lifetimes. 

***

Dean and Castiel are/were a legacy of an earlier era of TV, an era that still contained the possibility for a will-they-won’t-they of that particular mold. There were other shows that could have also filled this gap at one time - Rizzoli & Isles, OUAT, House MD, etc. But one by one all of them were killed off, their queer romances unrequited, until Supernatural was the only one of its’ generation left standing. 

And they should have acknowledged that they were a species about to become extinct. 

There are plenty of other valid and compelling reasons Supernatural should have gone full Destiel, don’t get me wrong.

A) It would have been the most emotionally satisfying ending to the series and to those characters (and that would have been reason enough). 

B) It would have stopped the manipulative queer-baiting of the (disproportionately queer) fanbase (and that would have been reason enough). 

C) It would have been queer representation of middle-aged men, of bi men, of queers who came to their queerness later in life (and any/all of those would have been reason enough). 

D) It could have been a glorious subversion of the bury your queers trope, considering how often they’ve died and been resurrected (and that would have been reason enough). 

But point E) on this list is the reason this one hurts in a singular way that no one even appears to be acknowledging. 

Almost all of the other wrongs and missed opportunities contained in this Supernatural debacle have the possibility of being rectified (at least to a degree) elsewhere. I can and I likely will get more bi male characters from TV as time goes on. I can and likely will get more middle-aged queer characters. I can and likely will get more queer characters coming to their queerness later in life, and starting queer romances later in life. I can and likely will get more queer characters who aren’t killed cheaply and prematurely. I can and likely will get more genre TV shows with sprawling myth arc plots that are resolved in a coherent, satisfying way. I can and likely will get Misha Collins and Jensen Ackles involved in other projects that value their work and their talents. 

All of those other things are at the very least POSSIBLE, and many are even likely. 

But a queer 100-150 episode slow-burn romance a la Mulder & Scully or Niles & Daphne or Booth & Bones? That is the one baton Supernatural dropped spectacularly that no one else even has the possibility of picking up again for the foreseeable future. (They don’t even write those types of romances for heterosexuals anymore!) 

Seriously. It was a TV unicorn. And rather than letting it run wild and free, they stabbed it with a rusty nail. 

***

Given the monumental shifts in the TV landscape that have occurred in the last decade, I don’t know that TV will ever go back to the slow-burn/will-they-won’t-they romance spanning 100-150 episodes. Today it is a miracle if you can get ANY show to last longer than 50 episodes in the first place. 

And that is the piece of this that makes it feel (to me) like they murdered a unicorn.  

Because queer people have gotten a lot of things from TV, and they will get a lot more as time goes on. But that one? That one could very well be a totally extinct species.

That is the larger missed opportunity here that has left this feeling especially hollow and destructive. That is the thing that makes me balk when people tell me to go watch Black Sails or Pose or whatever other prestige TV show is doing this representation ‘better.’ Because that’s not really the loss I am mourning here. I KNOW there is ‘better’ representation elsewhere.  

But the will-they-won’t-they/slow-burn romance is a qualitatively unique thing that queer people literally just never got. Ever. There is no substitute, no alternate, no other show I can turn to with that kind of build-up and pay-off for a queer couple, and there probably won’t be in my lifetime. Not unless the TV industry undergoes another monumental evolution similar to the streaming revolution that shifts the incentives back to telling those types of stories again. 

All those shows you want me to displace Supernatural with? None of them can give me the one thing I uniquely wanted (and could have gotten) from Supernatural. THAT ALTERNATE SHOW DOESN’T EXIST. It doesn’t exist. And I have no reason to hope it will ever exist in my lifetime. 

So stop telling me to look somewhere else; you don’t understand what made this one a unicorn. 

***

Addendum: The only other possible show that could perhaps fill this gap is It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (re: Mac/Dennis). But I’m hesitant to say it exactly meets that criteria, for a number of reasons:

1 - It’s far less serialized relative to Supernatural and (except for a handful of stand-alone episodes) very little of the story is grounded specifically in Dennis/Mac’s romantic dynamic (unlike SPN, where it is absolutely central to much of the narrative)

2 - IASIP is fundamentally satirically in nature/tone which makes it much harder to have genuine romantic pathos (not impossible, but harder) 

3 - All the characters on IASIP are fundamentally crummy people who you aren’t exactly supposed to root for. Which doesn’t mean a romance between two of them can’t have its value/charm/worth but it’s not the same as when it is between characters who unequivocally deserve nice things/happy endings

#Supernatural #Destiel #queer representation #sorry this is long

[anonymous-dentist]

Truth in the Tales Episode 1: “The Town That Never Was” and the Shot Heard ‘Round the World

Hello, everybody, I’m Anonymous-Dentist, but you can call me A.D. I’m a history student with a focus on modern American and European history. I also have a background in film analysis and general pretentiousness. As such, I saw it fit to apply what little I know to the only piece of actual DSMP canon I will ever consume: Tales from the SMP. So in this series of posts from me, I’ll be applying real world history to a not-quite-historical Minecraft roleplay series. Yes, this is what I’m doing with my life. I’m doing this for myself as sort of a refresher course for some of the topics involved, honestly, but if I can teach a couple people some history, that would be nice, too. So likes/reblogs would be appreciated. 

I’m using the Tales from the SMP carrd to get these episodes. The carrd is credited to @discduo on Tumblr, but if that’s not right, I’ll figure out who it actually is and link accordingly. With all the credits and citations I’m fixin’ to use, it’ll be a wonder if this makes it into the tags at all...

(Painting: La Liberté guidant le peuple) So, without further ado, “The Town That Never Was” and revolution. 'Liberté! Egalité! Fraternité!’

First, the episode description as written on the wiki:

The episode follows Karl Jacobs, Awesamdude, BadBoyHalo, GeorgeNotFound, and Fundy as they build Gogtopia, a small settlement in the wilderness of the Dream SMP in one hour. At the end of the hour, Karl blows up parts of the town with TNT and dubs it "The Town That Never Was." He says that they would all forget the town, but the lore behind it would remain. The story of The Town That Never Was mirrors the history of L'Manberg.

Part One: the American Revolution

It’s important for this essay to mention that L’Manberg can pretty easily be compared to the American Revolution. There’s the common fandom joke about the Dream SMP being Hamilton fanfiction, and that’s not entirely inaccurate. 

(Can you tell which photo is which?)

A brief explanation of the American Revolution for people who don’t know about it: 

A very long time ago, Britain did as Britain does best and colonized someplace that really didn’t need colonizing. This was the beginning of their problems. It took a century or two to get the ball rolling, but after a series of unfair taxes and after the relative success of the Seven Years’ War between France and Britain, several American colonists decided, fuck this, America is going to rule itself. The major argument was over the lack of representation that America got in British parliament, and then over what we Americans call the Intolerable Acts, which were acts established by the British to establish further control over the city of Boston. War broke out in 1775, and Britain was heavily favored to win. They had superior troops and strength, and were, uh, well. The literal goddamn British Empire. American declared its independence in 1776 with the Declaration of Independence. This was over a year into the war, but the Americans had already held these truths:

...in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

...That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness

Despite that, the Americans were at a disadvantage. It wasn’t until the December of 1777 that things began to turn around. The war ended in 1781 with the British surrender at Yorktown, and we all know what happened to America after that.

(Map: Territorial Gains by the U.S. through 1853.)

It is important to mention that America had a couple of cards up its sleeve, including the eternally-spiteful nation of France (this is very important), the slightly-less-spiteful nation of Spain, and the Netherlands, who were kind of just there. France ended up giving the most support. It also ended up bankrupting itself, which is where the bulk of this analysis comes into play.

Part Two: France and Its Eternal Financial Ineptitude

(Note: the majority of this segment comes from my own memory, and from my textbook for this semester: Civilization in the West. It’s a good read if you’re bored and boring.)

As established, France and Britain had just ended the Seven Years’ War. Britain had taken the W on that one with its successes in America in the French Indian War (1754-1763). France, however, came out of that... badly. Wars cost a lot, and between that and the enormous expense of helping America out during its revolution added up. Add in the kings’ incredible spending habits, and France wasn’t doing so hot money-wise. And then, on top of that, add the country’s antique social classification system and the liberation of the oppressed in America as seen by France’s own military class, and you have a pot ready to bubble over.

There were three classes, more or less. They were referred to as Estates. The First Estate was made up of nobility. Specifically, the royal family and the aristocracy. The Second Estate was made up of exclusively clergy. It is important to note that neither the First or Second Estates could be taxed. Is is also important to note that the Second Estate, while being made up of clergy, controlled the court system in France. Anything the king tried establishing as law had to be passed by the court system. And then there is the Third Estate made up of everybody else in France. These people bore the brunt of the taxes. 

But at this point in time, the king was running out of peasants to bleed money out of. After hiring an outside consultant from Switzerland, he came to the conclusion that he needed to tax the First and Second Estates. This, of course, did not pass the courts, who ordered a meeting of all three Estates. This meeting, referred to as the Estates-General, hadn’t met since 1641. At the meeting, members of every Estate could come and say their piece and petition for what they wanted. Despite this, only one member of the attending Third Estate was a peasant. The rest was made up of merchants and artisans, later to be referred to as the bourgeoisie. Even still, the Third Estate was almost entirely excluded from proceedings. Unhappy, the Third Estate decided in the Oath of the Tennis Court that they would split off from the others. They became the National Assembly, and that’s where things begin kicking off. 

(Painting: Le Serment du Jeu de paume)

Modern depictions of the French Revolution usually harken back to famous images of guillotines and violent uprisings such as the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789. And that’s not entirely wrong, really. There is a specific period from around 1793 to 1794 known as the Reign of Terror. Spearheaded by a complete freak named Maximilien de Robespierre, the Reign of Terror is probably what a lot of people think of regarding the revolution. Led by Robespierre’s Committee of Public Safety (kind of an ironic name tbh), the Reign of Terror was meant to suss out traitors to the cause. It was paranoia and panic, nothing more and nothing less. Approximately 17,000 people were executed, and about 10,000 people died in prison, usually without a trial. 

(Engraving left: "Day of 21 January 1793 the death of Louis Capet on the Place de la Révolution". Painting right: Storming of The Bastille.)

It is very important, though, to remember what these people were fighting for. The revolution’s motto was 'Liberté! Egalité! Fraternité!’, French for ‘Liberty! Equality! Brotherhood!’. These people were oppressed, and it isn’t a coincidence that the first nation to have a revolution of this scale was France’s close ally, the recently-minted United States of America. 

In the end, though, France didn’t end up completely free. See, some shmuck named Napoleon took over in 1799 and tried making himself an empire twice, and another shmuck named Napoleon did the same. But this isn’t about them, because Fuck Them. 

(Map: The French Empire and its satellite states circa 1812)

Part Three: Conclusions?

With all of that boring shit out of the way, it’s time for the very loosely-connected analysis of the actual episode of Tales that this is about. 

The episode summary above pretty much describes it well. Gogtopia is an approximation of L’Manberg and meets its end in much the same way. It was always meant to end. One hour. That’s it. The Town That Never Was, right? 

I think it’s worth mentioning that this is the first episode of Tales. It isn’t in the past or the future. Rather, it’s the present. Better, it’s canon. Even better, it’s later destroyed even further by some motherfucker named Tommyinnit, who can be seen as a founding member of L’Manberg. 

What does that have to do with anything? Nothing really. I honestly could’ve compared the American Revolution with one of the many attempted further revolutions in America after the publishing of its first attempt at a constitution, the Articles of Confederation. That all culminated in the American Civil War, though, and I really don’t think that this has anything to do with Tales at all. 

France and America do have a long history of allyship and friendship despite France being, well, France. (Sorry, French people reading this, but like... you’re France.) Have you ever considered the relationship between the people involved in the building of Gogtopia with the citizens of L’Manberg? I mean, one of them is a member of L’Manberg- Fundy. And then there’s George, who ended up running with Quackity in L’Manberg’s presidential elections. There’s Sam and Bad, meanwhile, who just kinda... yeah. Badlands things. 

And then, of course, there’s Karl himself, who was a member of Schlatt’s cabinet some-fucking-how and added his little area of Rutabagville to the parts of the SMP under Manberg’s jurisdiction. He wasn’t on L’Manberg’s side of the revolution there until things weren’t going well for the SMP-Manberg side. None of this is to mention El Rapids / “Mexican L’Manberg”. Regarding the original L’Manberg, he was denied entry because he wasn’t British. 

So, again, what does this have to do with two violent, bloody revolutions? Not much, honestly. This series is made up of loose connections, threads not really meant to meet. I’m a history student, not a lore watcher. It’s hard to connect the present with the past, but this episode was necessary to get to the actual meat of this series. 

Anyway. 

Next ‘Week’: The Village That Went Mad and the True History of Torture in the Name of Idiocy

#mcyt #dream smp #dsmp #tales from the smp #tftsmp #Karl Jacobs #dsmp analysis #dream smp analysis #history #truth in the tales

[askandsmile]

i got all y'all's messages and i do think i have more to say, but at the same time i'm just like 🥴️🥴️🥴️

this season isn't great, but this episode was terrible. evan is a terrible writer. he's also a fucked up troll. he likes that he's the b*rchie king, he likes b*rchie, he projects onto them. and truly, the less we try to explain anything about this, the better.

i think i need to wait and watch what comes next (from better writer's hands tbh) until i say anything else regarding canon.

but long post ahead, cause i've been wanting to address something that it's not even coherent, but it's just making me insane lol.

we have 6 episodes ahead of us. 6 weeks. if you guys freak out with every single thing that happens, no one is going to enjoy anything anymore.

i don't have spoilers. all the spoilers i had, from when i was in the clubhouse with evan, i gave to you. the way i read the interviews, i told you. i don't have anything else to add. i never had inside info or anything like that, all my speculations were based on rumors going around *and* the bts we got.

all that i could speculate i already did.

"oh, but what if--"

well. when s4 ended, i said, "if they're gonna make veronica look like archie's second choice, i'm not going to watch s5 live". i carried on watching because they didn't, they made it quite clear that veronica is archie's first choice seven years later.

i'm saying it again, "if they're gonna make varchie go through some b*rchie drama/bullshit again, i'm not going to watch s6 live."

if i do watch it, it'll be the same by the end of it if they get a s7. you have to go episode by episode with this show until the entire journey makes sense.

that's all i can do! that's all i can control. that's all you guys can control: the time and dedication you're willing to give to this show.

(i write a fic that's never-ending and even with roughly 4 readers left, i am pushing through because i want to finish it. this is the time and dedication i'm willing to give to this show, writing this fic to those who still enjoy it and to myself, and to varchie.)

so my suggestion now is, let's watch the episodes. it's 6 weeks. are you going to be anxious for 4-5 out of 6 weeks because of something that maybe, possibly, perhaps will happen? are you going to try to make me and other people anxious because you are? i'm choosing, at this point, to trust my ship and the story they've been telling about them.

i know it's harder for bugheads at the moment (reminder that i, myself, am not one although i did love them back in s1 and do support their relationship in the core four context) because they've been dealing with another love interest, on top of cole and lili's breakup, on top of not getting a lot of content, or bts, etc, etc.

but as a varchie shipper...guys, i've been there!

i have seen reggie tell veronica they could be endgame. i have seen archie dance a duet with josie saying he'd fight for her. i have seen archie writing a song to someone else. i have seen veronica getting married to another guy, and then possibly sleep with him after sort of maybe getting back together with archie. trust me, no one in this fandom knows better what you guys are going through right now.

so yes, maybe jabitha will date, or maybe they won't. maybe bh will get back together this season, maybe they won't. it doesn't mean the end of bughead, not at all. look at all the shit other ships have been through (even b*rchies, really). you guys are fine.

is the show good right now? no, it's not. i thought it wasn't so bad until 5x08 (even with the b*rchie thing) but then it just went downhill, and 5x13 was the worst episode ever. no wonder it had 0.7 ratings. but like, does that mean it will stay so bad? i don't know. i haven't watched 5x14, 5x15, 5x16, etc. i don't know what's coming. it might be great! it might suck.

and you guys don't get it, half the varchie fandom left in s3 because there was no sight of varchie anywhere, and then we were pleasantly surprised with the best build up ever in s3C. but you know what? sometimes i wish varchie hadn't gotten back together then! so we would see more of that buildup, some actual reaction from archie seeing veronica choose reggie instead of him, etc. it would've opened a sea of possibilities for a good story.

and whether you like it or not, this is giving more space for other characters to be around. they're not developing them. they're not writing them well. but you can't deny that we have seen more of toni, reggie, fangs, even kevin and cheryl, than ever since...ever.

and it's okay if you just watch for your ship. but the show, and the writers, are not worried about you shdhshd. i think there has been a misconception about that. the ships exist within the show, and this season feels so weird because the core four is apart and bh is apart, but the show is ultimately about the characters and their good/bad decisions.

so, thinking about the characters, ask yourself: is archie in conditions to be with veronica right now? is betty in conditions to be with jughead right now? jug and archie are in their way to healing, it looks like, but betty still isn't. is veronica in conditions to be committed again atm? i don't know. will this change in a couple of episodes? maybe!

and it's same for other characters. choni are going through the exact same thing bh is, they just don't have the impending doom that is b*rchie hovering above, but i guess no one doubts choni.

but imagine if they get back to choni and just give them a few throw away lines and boom, it's all magically fixed. wouldn't they feel betrayed? don't you enjoy the aspect that bh is taking time for this reunion after they were completely shattered? i know i would've written varchie differently if i could.

anyway. it's useless to think "oh, zalben said this, evan said that, ras said this" when we can't control what they say, or how they think. we can only interpret it (90% of the time i've been right about them but whatever) and we can only watch the show in front of us and absorb something from that.

(which is hard when the episode sucks, but it's what we can do).

all this freaking out is making me stop enjoying the show, and the fandom. it's not giving anyone any joy. you guys have to calm down and i'm not being dismissive of how much a tv show can bring anxiety, but the only thing you can do is trust the process.

bughead has been a solid thing for 4 seasons. it's their first major problem. varchie has been not that solid but very, very present for 4 seasons. b*rchie has been whatever it has been for 4 seasons. jabitha is a new ship, but it's around now... but hasn't even really happened yet. like, all these characters have their stories to tell among them, and if we don't enjoy the road they take, we can only try to detach ourselves.

okay, i guess, that's it. i'm not sure if i make any sense, but i'm so exhausted of people not trusting what's being shown to them and only thinking about zalben, bdaily takes, evan, ras, yadayada, who the rvd writers liked on twitter, like... c'mon.

[zainclaw]

Hii Zain!! Hope you're doing well!

Considering you're coming from tw/sterek (I shipped them too, still do 😭) and shipped it but never got to see it be real on the show, and now you're into buddie, what do you think our chances of getting canon romantic buddie are? What are you're thoughts on possibility o pining eddie (or buck) and if you do believe they will go Canon, how do you think it'd play out and in what time span?

Thanks for your answer!

Thank you for giving me a reason to talk about this!! Because I’ve actually been wanting to make some kind of post about it, haha.

Do I think Buddie will become canon?

Honestly, there are so many things about Buck and Eddie's canon relationship, as it’s displayed on the show, that genuinely make me Struggle to believe it's anything but actual build-up. (And I say this as someone who has no clue what the show runners have ever said on the subject. And I have no interest to. I’m watching their show and interpret the story being told to me.) If it isn’t build-up, then I gotta say it’s a whole new level of queerbaiting I’ve never seen before.

Choices™ made on the show that make me Struggle:

The fact that the first half of the 2nd season was written, shot and edited before the fandom had even met Eddie, seeing as he wasn’t introduced before it aired. Meaning, all the choices made within these first 10 episodes, were not at all influenced by the fans or what they chose to ship. The beginning of Buck and Eddie was choices made 100% by the show writers, before they had the chance to make any kind of choices based on whether they were shipped by fans or not.

Included in these first 10 episodes together, is the scene with Buck talking to the old gay man whose husband just passed away, and the legendary “I guess I can only hope to find something that good” line from Buck. And, like, we got to see a whole montage of their life together, growing up and falling in love, finally getting married. We never got that much insight in a patient’s life, and they chose to do it for this one gay couple. And they chose this to be an important conversation in Buck’s journey for a romantic partner.

Also included in those episodes, is the scene from the Christmas episode where Buck goes with Eddie and Christopher to see Santa, and the elf lady mistakes Buck and Eddie for a couple, saying "you two have an adorable son” and Buck doesn’t even bother to correct her, but just responds with “thank you” and skips after Eddie. Do you know how many times I’ve seen two men being mistaken as a couple on tv, with them being offended and the whole thing just being played off as a joke? Too fucking many. And this scene gave me none of those vibes. 

(This moment was a Choice, and I want to know Why. Because if it isn’t a joke, and it isn’t actual set-up, then it’s definitely queerbaiting. Which, again, that’s not how queerbaiting usually happens. Before the fans has even had the chance to ship it. So what the fuck?)

Moving on from those specific episodes -- though I will always argue those are the most significant ones, regarding what the show runners set out to do with Eddie and Buck’s relationship -- there are so many more Choices made on the show as a whole.

The fact that a big part of Buck’s character development over the seasons is about going from the biggest player to someone who wants to find a meaningful relationship. Him having that one conversation with Bobby back in S1 about not being sure if he was ready for a relationship so adult, before realizing he does, and proceeds to befriend Eddie and his seven year old son, and becomes such an important person in both their lives. He gets invested in helping Eddie out with Christopher, and matures a lot because of it. And at the end of it all, in the 4th and latest season, we have Buck who (canonically) loves this kid, who babysits him frequently, who’s the person Christopher goes to when he’s upset with his dad, and who stays at Eddie’s house to take care of his son while he’s at the hospital, and who’s to become the legal guardian of Christopher if something ever was to happen to Eddie, despite there being grandparents and aunts and other family.

The fact that the focus of Eddie’s character has always been Christopher, about being a good father and wanting to do right by his son. Wanting to give him love and stability after his mother walked out on both of them. And he meets Buck, who asks Bobby if Christopher can stay with them at the firehouse when Eddie can’t find someone to watch him, before Eddie even gets the chance to do it himself. Buck, who introduces him to Carla who becomes a very important person to both him and Christopher. Buck, who adores his son, never once treats him like a burden, and who quickly becomes a very important person in Christopher’s life. Buck, whom Eddie confidentially tells  “I know you love my son and would never stop trying for him”. Buck, whom Eddie decides is the love and stability he wants for his son, and makes sure that Buck will be the one to raise Christopher if he himself can’t do it anymore.

The choice to have Eddie tell Buck “you can have my back any day” when later being blamed for not having Shannon’s back, even though he insists that he always did. (Buck tells Abby he’s got her back in S1 as well, but I do think the parallel with Eddie is more significant.)

The choice to have Buck say “This is Eddie’s house, I’m not really a guest.”

The choice to have Maddie and Chimney momentarily forget that Buck doesn’t in fact have kids, to then cut to Buck and Christopher at the pier.

The choice to have Eddie say Buck’s name and put a hand on his shoulder and seek his gaze before telling him there’s not a person in the world he trusts more with his son than him. The way this was shot. The line delivery. Choices.

The choice to place Buck with the Diaz family for the Christmas photo as well as countless other times when people are paired up as couples/families.

The choice to make it canon that both Eddie and Buck have keys to each other’s place.

The choice to have Buck lose his entire shit when the well collapses on top of Eddie, having him scream Eddie’s name and try to dig him out with his bare hands. And the fact that Buck is in most of the images flashing before Eddie’s eyes when he’s close to drowning. The choice of making sure Buck holding Eddie’s hand is in the shot when they reunite.

The choice to let Eddie be the one who’s there to witness Buck’s face fall when he sees Abby again. The choice of Eddie touching Buck’s shoulder in wordless reassurance, and later asks him if he’s okay when Abby is gone again.

The choice to have Eddie be on a date with Ana, only for him to return home to where Buck is watching Christopher, and them having a such a warm, domestic moment that directly mirrors scenes with Hen and Karen -- a married couple -- on the topic of getting their kids to bed.

The choice to not show us Eddie waking up at the hospital, with only Ana there, but instead let us see him awake for the first time as Buck runs in there to see him. Putting all the focus on how relieved Eddie and Buck are to see each other again, rather than Eddie and anyone else. Including his girlfriend. I can talk at lengths about how Buck was framed as Eddie’s love interest this whole episode.

The choice to have Eddie call Buck “Evan” in such a tender and special moment. Calling him by his real name, which is something we haven’t seen anyone else from the firefam ever do. Not Bobby. Not Hen. Not Chimney.

The show set up Buck to become Christopher’s second parental figure, like I literally can’t see it any other way than that. And, yeah, that in itself doesn’t have to point towards a romantic relationship with Eddie, it could happen between two best friends, but considering everything else? It’s hard to see it that way tbh. There are just so many Choices, piling up, making mountains, that seem to point to it being more than just a really profound friendship.

As for my hopes for Season 5 / the future as a whole...

I love everybody’s headcanons about pining Eddie, and obviously I would love to see them actually, finally, taking that route with them. But... I guess I still don’t dare to hope for real, haha. Even with everything I just mentioned above, I’m just so used to being disappointed.

I never start shipping something with the need or goal to see it go canon. Ofc I would love to see it, because I love them, and just having it confirmed on the show, not even in an explicit way, would be so beautiful. But I don’t need it. It won’t affect my ability to adore the fan fics or edits or fanart.

Sooo sadly I don’t have any thoughts about what could happen from here on, tbh, or how their on-screen romance would play out! I love their characters as they are on the show, I just look forward to see them being them in many new episodes to come, with the special relationship they already do have in canon! I’m just happy to have that!

God, sorry for this NOVEL of an answer... XDDD

#ask #buddie #911 #eddie diaz #evan buckley

[doubleca5t]

What Your Favorite Miraculous Ladybug Ship Says About You

Transcription below the cut

Adrinette (Adrien/Marinette) - You just want good things for Marinette. Which based on my time in this fandom is not necessarily a universal sentiment

LadyNoir (Ladybug/Chat Noir) - You want to be wooed by Chat Noir

Ladrien (Ladybug/Adrien) - You love a blushy, lovestruck dork so much that one day you were like, “hey, you know what’s better than one lovestruck dork? Two lovestruck dorks.”

MariChat (Marinette/Chat Noir) - You’re always a sucker for dramatic irony

The Entire Love Square At Once (Marinette | Ladybug/Adrien | Chat Noir) - You have waded through more than three years and 70 episodes of emotional investment in the relationship equivalent of a Scooby-Doo door gag and it has smoothed over your brain and turned it to mush. You have reached the point where any time you see these two clowns alone together your mind reverts back to that of a seven year old girl manically smashing her dolls faces into each other and yelling “NOW KISS!”

Plikki (Plagg/Tikki) - You like the dynamic of LadyNoir, but you have HAD IT with all these Love Square shenanigans.

DJWifi (Nino/Alya) - Your ideal relationship dynamic is a couple of nerds nerding out together

Alyanette (Alya/Marinette) - Your ideal relationship dynamic is just girls being friends. Gals being pals.

Chlobrina (Chloé/Sabrina) - Your ideal relationship dynamic is that clip from Mean Girls where they’re talking about Regina George and that one girl is like “one time, she punched me in the face. It was awesome”

Kagaminette (Kagami/Marinette) - Your ideal date involves getting pinned against the wall by your sworn enemy before they place the tip of their sword under your chin and tilt your head up a little

Lukanette (Luka/Marinette) You’re always a sucker for a man with a guitar.

Julerose (Juleka/Rose) - You really liked the ending of Adventure Time

Chloenette (Chloé/Marinette) - You spend your afternoons sitting outside the Zagtoon office panhandling for Chloé character development

Gabenath (Gabriel/Nathalie) - Two possibilities. Either you find Nathalie’s devotion to Gabriel extremely romantic and compelling in a sort of “this is so sad can we get 50 likes” kinda way, or you think all the problems in this show could have been avoided if Gabriel had just gotten a good rebound.

Marcaniel (Marc/Nathaniel) - Your top priorities are keeping things gay and keeping things canon

Adrino (Adrien/Nino) - You saw one of those memes where the two bros have like these really tender homoerotic moments and you were like “yeah I could probably get a good 100,000 words of fanfic out of this premise”

Chlonath (Chloé/Nathaniel) - This is just the same joke as Chloé and Marinette, but you’re also heterosexual

Myvan (Mylène/Ivan) - You’re just here for some wholesome side characters

Lukadrien (Luka/Adrien) - You’re just here for some pretty boys

Nathanette (Nathaniel/Marinette) - You think Miraculous has only gone downhill since season one.

Kimalix (Kim/Alix) - You’re always a sucker for a friendly rivalry

Alyadrien (Alya/Adrien) - You think Adrien is cool and all, but you cannot STAND Marinette’s inability to talk to him 

Liladrien (Lila/Adrien) - You’re either so fed up with Marinette’s creepy stalker behavior towards Adrien that you just want to see her suffer as much as possible, or you’re a masterful troll.

Adrigami (Adrien/Kagami) - You don’t understand why everybody’s so mad. That season three finale was great!

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous #miraculous tales of ladybug and chat noir #adrinette #ladynoir #ladrien #marichat #plikki #alyanette #kagaminette #lukanette #julerose #chloenette #gabenath #marcaniel #adrino #chlonath #myvan #lukadrien #nathanette #kimalix #alyadrien #liladrien #adrigami #love square #doubleca5t OC

[coracandy]

So. About that 6th wedding option.

Long post. Not sorry.

Trigger warning for #beemoovnegativity I guess. Probably throw that warning on everything I’ve posted since UL launched and everything I am likely to post for the foreseeable future because I hate beemoov. So much. I hate very nearly all of the writing choices that were made through LL, with everything surrounding Eric taking 2nd place on the worst story choices of the whole game list right behind the student falsely accuses their teacher of sexual assault plot. I just really hate cheating plots. I have also been obliquely accused of hating the Eric fans and I just want to clear up here and now that I only hate some of you. Most of you I am happy for. But man.. some of ya’ll have some utter garbage opinions and I’ve had a couple wine coolers today so I’m ready to no filter on all my own opinions about this whole mess. Click through if you want them.

Starting off.. Yeah, I said it would be funny if the wedding episode ended with Candy cheating on Eric and you know why I said that? Because if your Candy is with Eric in the first place it’s only because your Candy is a cheater. Canonically. In the real story of the real game. Not your fanfic version which we’ll get to in a bit, I promise, but in the actual game as it is actually written, if this is the path you chose then, canonically, your Candy is a cheater. She is selfish. She cares about no one and nothing but herself and what she wants in the moment. And, frankly, it seems like some of the players feel the same. I vividly recall many screen shot posts by Eric fans getting offended that their former love interests were angry about being cheated on. Citing that anger as justification for the cheating even. “This is how they react to the news? Ugh! I’m glad I cheated on them. They deserved it.” And that’s just.. reprehensible. Truly. Ya’ll remind me of beemoov, tbh. Treating someone’s anger at being stabbed in the back as a good enough reason to have stabbed them in the first place and an excuse to never have to apologize or even acknowledge the hurt.

So that’s Camp One of the Eric fans (probably the smallest camp tbh, but still very much one that exists) - the people who acknowledge the cheating aspect of the storyline but think it’s a good thing and yeah, I actually do just hate those people and their attitude. So to those people let me just say - 1) Monogamy isn’t sex negative. You’re ridiculous. 2) This storyline isn’t non-monogamous representation. It’s cheating. Those aren’t the same thing. 3)Betraying someone’s trust is always -always- a selfish, cruel, morally reprehensible thing to do. (And before anyone starts strawmanning at me about but what if that person was abusive - stop. That’s not what we’re talking about here, and you know it.)

So on to Camp Two of the Eric fans -  the drama addicts. The people that took the cheating route just because it was the first interesting thing to happen in the story in about 15 episodes. This is a camp I don’t hate but man oh man do I get frustrated by the way that all media and storytelling panders endlessly to them. This type of fan is the reason I can’t have nice things. The reason I can’t have a simply told story that builds to a narratively satisfying conclusion but instead get ass-pull twist endings that are exciting by dint of being unexpected but make no sense when you stop to think about them for five seconds. They’re the reason I get to be constantly frustrated by slow burn romances that last seven seasons and then end with the characters finally hooking up only for one of them to die two episodes later because happiness and contentment are boring. Heaven forbid a story ever slow down to focus on character development. If no one’s being killed, or cheated on, or getting pregnant without knowing which of three guys the father might be, or getting kidnapped, or diagnosed with a fatal disease, or lying to their best friend then there’s not even a story there. No tension. No drama. Why bother watching? Who wants to see characters being happy? I do. Please. For once. For more than a scene or two before something devastating happens to end it again. Just let me have nice things. For the most part this camp of players seems kinda meh about the idea of a wedding episode and would probably agree with me that Candy cheating on Eric during it would be funny. Feel like a lot of them meme on Eric as best LI because they like watching drama in the fandom as much as in the game. And I do genuinely hope they’re enjoying it while it unfolds. We have polar opposite tastes but I dream of someday living in a world where we can both have our own definition of nice things and both be happy.

And now on to Camp Three -  the people I think this wedding episode is mostly for. This is the camp I have nothing but sympathy for. These are the people who just genuinely liked the character. He simply clicked with them more than the other LIs, was closest to their idealized partner. So they ignore the way he was used in the story, headcanon away the cheating or write in their own version where the breakup happened before the sex scene, or the original LI was abusive, or maybe they were just never in another relationship through LL at all in their version of events. They just really like this character and want to have their Candy get a happy ending with him. And I have sympathy. I do. I would have loved for beemoov to give an option to end up with Eric without being dishonest. But they didn’t. That version of the story is just fanfiction. And it frustrates me when people get so invested in a fanfic version of a character or story that they start insisting the canon version is wrong and that people reacting to the canon version are misinterpreting it. I sympathize. I do. As a Lysander fangirl, I understand very well the emotional attachment one can develop to a character and story you mostly had to invent yourself because the source material never bothered to. But you can’t get offended at people being disappointed or even angry that the cheating route got a happy ending just because your personal fanfic version of the story didn’t include the cheating. The anger really isn’t being directed at you but at the canon story choices you probably also hated. I wish the story had been different for you. I really do. And hey, you all get the last laugh, in the end, as it seems the story is getting whitewashed or retconned or just generally is planning to ignore the ugly parts of what happened to give you the big white wedding of your dreams with your perfect man. And I’m happy for you. We should all have had that chance.

But we won’t. Because beemoov still doesn’t care about a lot of us. That’s where this anger mostly comes from. And it’s why I can’t agree, even slightly, with the people who are pointing to this decision and saying “Look! They’re listening to the players finally. Maybe things will get better.” Because they’re only listening to some players. Some of us have been begging to be heard for years now and they still won’t listen. And they never will. Much as I'd love to be wrong about that, I’m not wrong and you all know it. I’m happy for the people who are happy right now. But I’m warning y’all.. Don’t get comfortable. Don’t ever trust them. They’ll rip your heart out, tell you you should like it, and turn their backs on you forever while you bleed out. Don’t think it can’t happen again. It can, and knowing beemoov, it probably will.

#my candy love #mcl #always beemoov negativity #beemoov started it

[osleyakomwonkru]

The 100 Fandom and Lack of Object Permanence

One thing I’ve noticed in this fandom is that fans - and often the writers too - fail to understand just how little time a lot of the characters have spent in each other’s presence. They assume much closer relationships between characters than is logical for the time they’ve spent together.

Now, yes, we often see them under stressful situations and stress brings people together in unique ways, but to really know someone you also need a variety of experiences - not just stressful murder-filled ones. Those less stressful situations, however, rarely make it to screen, or if they do it is just in short flashbacks, so people forget just how much time has passed off-screen.

Thus this post - a guide for fandom (and belatedly for the writers), who really need to learn how to understand object permanence - that is, the understanding that things (be they people, animals, inanimate objects, places, etc.) continue to exist even when they cannot be perceived (seen, touched, smelled, etc.).

Which is to say: We have spent seven years (give or take for when you got into the fandom) with these characters. But in most cases they have not spent that amount of time with each other. And when they have, it has mostly been off-screen, but this time is still important because it has major implications for how relationships between characters are and should be.

I’ve done the math on how much time characters have spent near each other, using the timeline on The 100’s Fandom wiki. Now, this doesn’t necessarily even mean they interacted each of these days, just that they were in the same places at the same times, so there was the potential for interaction.

“Day” is also flexible - sometimes they may have been present in the same place for the entire 24 hours, sometimes only a few minutes. This also omits the 125 years of cryo, because they were not conscious with the possibility of interaction. “Delinquent” in this context refers to those characters who were born in space who then inhabited the dropship camp in season 1 - that is, the 100 prisoners plus Bellamy and Raven.

I’m not going to get into every single pairing/grouping of characters, because that would take forever. But just some of the key ones.

Some of these results might shock you.

Octavia has spent more time with Echo than she has with Clarke.

Despite now being 33 years old (and thus the oldest Delinquent), Octavia has spent less than 7 years living in a society that contains more than two other people. The only living characters she’s spent more than ten years of her life with are Hope and Bellamy.

The longest continuously serving Earth/Earth-orbit-born leader since the Pilot has been Octavia, who ruled Wonkru for 6 years. It is possible that Jaha or Lexa might have had a longer period of rule overall, but the majority of it would have been before the Pilot episode.

Despite not appearing in a scene together between 3x15 and 6x02, nor being in the same locations at all from 3x15 to 5x13, Octavia and Raven have spent more time with each other than their combined total of days spent with Clarke. (That is, Octavia and Raven’s time together is more than Octavia’s time with Clarke PLUS Raven’s time with Clarke.)

Besides the Blake siblings and old married couple Monty and Harper, the two pairs of Delinquents who have spent the most time together are Octavia and Miller and Bellamy and Raven.

Bellamy and Clarke have only been in each other’s presence for 89 days. Given that Bellamy experienced no memory loss in either direction when traveling to/from Etherea and Bardo, this means that they must run at the same speed, and this means that Bellamy has spent more time with Doucette (sometimes known as Steve) than he has with Clarke.

Octavia and Murphy have only been in each other’s presence for 37 days, half of those in season 1 when Murphy was still the Camp Asshole, so Hope’s line about liking Murphy in 7x02 is pure fanservice because Octavia does not have the stories about Murphy as the Lovable Rogue that other characters do. It is also entirely possible that Octavia doesn’t even know Emori’s name, having only been in each other’s presence briefly in 3x16, 4x12, 5x12, 6x03 and 6x13.

If we accept as canon the deleted lines that Indra was the one to torture and infect Murphy in season 1, Murphy has spent almost as much time with Indra as he has with Octavia, and has exchanged more dialogue with her than he has with Octavia, who he hasn’t exchanged dialogue with since season 1.

Monty’s mistrust of Murphy in 4x13 might seem out of place, given what we’ve seen of Murphy’s growth over the previous two seasons, until you realize that save for a potential brief encounter during their shared time in Arkadia during 4x03, Monty hadn’t seen Murphy since season 1.

Murphy did not see a single Delinquent during the 112 days that passed from 2x11 to 3x06, until he met Clarke again in 3x07 and was in the presence of Bellamy, Octavia and Miller starting from 3x15. The only other main character he saw during that time was Jaha. These 112 days represent over half of the time (200 days) that the Delinquents spent on Earth prior to Praimfaya.

Jordan and Hope were born after Madi, but are older than her. They are also both older than every Delinquent character with the exception of Bellamy (29) and Octavia (33), being 26 and 25 years of age respectively, while the remaining delinquents (Clarke, Raven, Murphy, Miller) are 23/24.

The longest lasting romantic relationship between characters where both are still living is that between Miller and Jackson. Murphy and Emori come in second (because of their occasional on-again off-again situation, while we haven’t heard of the same being the case for Miller and Jackson).

Now, some might say that physical time together doesn’t matter in the face of fire-forged bonds and still “knowing” the other characters even if they aren’t physically present with each other. Now, to a point that could be true. However, what is also true - and the big point here - is that the more time characters spend apart from each other, the greater the chances that they build up their own versions of each other in their minds (and stories) rather than knowing who the real person is. This was especially the case in season 5 after what was a six year time jump for everybody, and it is coming back into play now in season 7 where the amount of time that has passed varies depending on character.

Will this ever be properly addressed? In canon, I doubt it. But maybe there can be some references to it, we can always hope.

#the 100 #the 100 meta #object permanence #octavia blake #echo kom spacekru #clarke griffin #raven reyes #bellamy blake #john murphy #nathan miller #emori kom spacekru

[bedlamsbard]

So, I get the distaste for Rebels and The Bad Batch (definitely that last one), and I can certainly suggest @agoddamn's series of watching Clone Wars (because wow, I'd forgotten how poor that series could be), but with The Mandalorian, the most I can understand of your dislike of it is how it handles previous characters. Which, yeah, Filoni and his Precious OCs, but other than that, what about it? I mean, the plot/theme seemed simple to me: focusing on the relationship between Din and Grogu.

Ack, I didn't realize that out of context of my past ten years of fannishness and fannish engagement the takeaway from recent critical posts would be "Bedlam hates Star Wars," let alone "Bedlam hates Rebels"!

Look, I love Star Wars -- I genuinely do love Rebels and TCW, I'm very fond of Resistance and most of the films, and there are other parts of the ancillaries (books, comics, games) that I love, like, and/or enjoy. There are other parts of the saga that I dislike, a lot of it that I'm pretty neutral on because I just don't care; there's very little that I outright hate. (There are things that I avoid because I know I would hate them; I won't read Dark Disciple because the old EU Republic/Clone Wars comics from Dark Horse were formative for me and I'm not really over how Quinlan Vos's story line got retconned for TCW and thus the novel, so I don't feel the need to rub my face in it.)

I think, especially with Star Wars, there's a tendency to think that people only complain because they dislike or hate whatever it is they're complaining about it. I don't talk about the parts of Star Wars I actually hate because I frankly don't see the point in talking about the stuff I have no emotional investment in, or where my emotional investment only is distaste -- that's why I'll almost never talk about the ST. (And why I've only talked about the back half of Rebels S4, which I do genuinely hate, a handful of times over the years: I don't want to think about the thing I actually hate.) I talk about Rebels and TCW because those are the parts of Star Wars that I love and because I occasionally want to dig into why there are parts of them that just don't work for me. (And I do realize that if anyone pays attention to what I reblog and don't it may come off as me not liking them particularly; 99% of the time I only reblog TCW or Rebels gifsets immediately after I've rewatched episodes, and I haven't been doing rewatches lately for various reasons.) Critique doesn't mean "I hate it," it means "I want to think about this more on a critical level." It means "I love the puzzle pieces, why does the way they were put together not work for me? How could they have been done differently so that it would have worked for me?" Like I said a few weeks ago, while I don't want to actively add negativity to the fandom, I also don't really want to sit down and shut up if something isn't doing it for me if otherwise I love the thing; I want to figure out why it doesn't work. This is the flip side of "if you can't say anything positive, don't say anything at all" -- I'm not talking to Dave Filoni or the other showrunners (and I would never say any of this to the face of anyone at Lucasfilm), I'm sitting here talking to myself and to my friends about why the puzzle pieces don't quite come together for me. (And the bonus of me putting it on Tumblr is that I can actually find it again, because sometimes I do want to go back and see what I said about XYZ.)

If I'm not actively talking about all the things I love about Rebels or TCW it's because I don't particularly feel the need to justify why Thing works for me, because I already know it works for me. Or because I spent the first two years or so of Rebels and big chunks of TCW doing episode liveblogs, which are on the back end of my "Bedlam watches Rebels" and "Bedlam watches TCW" tags, and I don't feel the need to come back and say "I love the way XYZ happened" six or seven times. Or because I think it would be obvious because I've written something around a million words of fanfic about the two of them. Or because I have three Rebels tattoos and am a Rebels cosplayer, which obviously I don't really talk about on Tumblr but is something that I personally know. I mostly have not talked about The Bad Batch publicly (and only a little privately) because mostly it's not doing much that triggers strong feelings in me one way or another, though I do have the whole "why are these puzzle pieces not working for me, how would I have put them together differently" feel about parts of it.

As for Mando specifically -- look, Mando's fine. I understand why it appeals to a lot of people, even if I am not one of those people. I don't particularly find Grogu appealing either on a character or an aesthetic level. I find that for me personally the show varies wildly in quality from episode to episode; I find it to be a little too clever about itself in how it deals with both the world, its plot, its place in the saga, and its characters in a way drives me up the wall. It hits a couple of really specific things that are huge do not wants for me and some of that is on a shallow note of "I don't like how they do their Twi'lek prosthetics" and some of it is "I don't particularly like the aesthetics" and some of it is a weightier "I'm confused about what the thematic points of the show are because they're all over the map" and yes, some of it is, "I don't like how Mando intersects or does not intersect with other parts of the saga." Or the way that it gets valorized for being live action rather than animated by a lot of the fandom and then gets elevated over the other parts of the saga that I care about the most (TCW and Rebels). I've talked in the past about how Mando genuinely made me feel gaslit, even if that was no one's intention and thus was not actually gaslighting; it just managed to hit on my specific issues. I don't talk about Mando that much because mostly I just don't care and when I do talk about it it's because it managed to trip into something I do care about.

And if I sound particularly cranky right now, it's because every time I say something critical and it starts making tracks out of my usual circles, someone comes in to go "wow! you must hate Star Wars!" or "wow! you care a lot about [aesthetic choice]! why would you care about that!" or "wow! you're an idiot for thinking XYZ would happen/not happen!" or variations thereof. I've been in fandom for twenty years. I've been in this fandom since George W. Bush was president. I know how it goes. I'm going to reiterate the post I made after the Mando finale:

in any expanded canon, people are going to have different deal-breakers on where they can suspend their disbelief and it’s not a judgment on you and yours if theirs is different than yours. nor does it automatically say something bad about them! it just means y’all have different priorities and that’s fine! neither one of you should be jumping down each other’s throat because their line in the sand is “this contradicts something in previous canon” and yours is “the CGI is unconvincing.”

I feel like I’ve been seeing a lot of condescension (rather than hostility, which tbh is par for the course in SW so I just tune it out) recently and like…people can have different priorities. it’s fine. they’re not stupid for having their priority be “I don’t like the prosthetics” when your priority is “character A was mean to character B.” don’t worry, Lucasfilm isn’t listening to any of us.

#this was the first thing I saw when I turned my computer on for Sunday zoom #so I am perhaps a LITTLE crankier than I would have been otherwise #sorry about that #bedlam replies