#and now like two years later i rewatch it every other week or so

[themilkiestbread]

just kagehina things

so on my second rewatch of haikyuu I discovered that I actually really like kagehina??? i was kinda meh about the ship on my first watch but like. after a rewatch of the first two seasons ive officially jumped aboard the kagehina express. these two idiots were literally made for each other and I love them both dearly so the law says I have to ramble about them now

hinata realizes during his third year that he likes kageyama and is instantly PISSED. there's no shy blushing as they accidentally touch or stand a little too close to each other. hinata is too busy gritting his teeth to do that, because out of everyone on the volleyball team, he had to catch feelings for THIS ASSHOLE? kageyama...Does Not realize that he likes hinata. nor does he realize that hinata likes him. he assumes the feeling in his chest whenever he sees hinata land a perfect spike is just uncontrollable rage at the tiny dumbass. (hinata is kageyama's first crush, so he's unused to it)

hinata manages to shelve his feelings during volleyball, no matter how much tsukishima, yamaguchi, and yachi tease him and kageyama about being a 'couple'. they both graduate without ever bringing up the issue, because hinata's had countless crushes before, and he knows they all pass eventually.

this one doesn't.

in brazil, hinata feels an ache whenever he sees that kageyama, his rival, his nemesis, his partner isn't the one setting to him. he'll try to ignore it, but he lays awake at night missing the person in this world that knows him the best. it's during one of these nights that he comes to terms with the fact that he doesn't just have a crush on kageyama--fuck it, he loves him, and he can't live without kageyama by his side. so hinata makes a decision: when he gets back from brazil, he'll reveal his feelings in some grand gesture and sweep kageyama off his feet.

meanwhile, kageyama is going through something similar back in japan. he calls his sister and complains about how he doesn't know what he's feeling, how he should be happy that the tiny dumbass is gone and kageyama doesn't have to deal with his stupid smile and stupid hair and stupid optimism all the time, but he JUST CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT HIM and it is DRIVING HIM INSANE BECAUSE HE CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHY. miwa just kinda goes silent for a second, and kageyama can hear her audibly face-palming before she tells him tobio. you fucking idiot. you're in love with him.

huh, kageyama says.

then it hits him. he speedruns all five stages of grief in, like, a week. he's completely off his game in volleyball. he can't even drink milk without being in distress. so he calls the person that he has deemed the 'love expert' to help him sort through his feelings.

it's oikawa. who is confused to how tobio-chan even has his number (kageyama got it from iwaizumi, who thought it would be funny) but begrudgingly listens to him, because oikawa has mellowed out a bit after high school and because oikawa is currently in brazil alongside hinata, who is also a lovesick idiot finding ways to sneak kageyama into every single conversation. just tell him, oikawa says, because he's head over heels for you, too, and i can't take much more of this absolute dumbassery before my skin starts breaking out.

when hinata gets back from brazil, the first thing he sees is kageyama, waiting for him and trying very hard to smile. hinata runs toward him, having this whole speech written out about how he feels, but he doesn't end up reading it.

instead, he just looks at kageyama and kisses him.

kageyama kisses back.

they get married a few months later, because living together, eating together, existing together just seems so right. tanaka is hinata's best man, and suga is kageyama's. natsu and miwa are the ring bearers (nishinoya volunteered, but everyone was afraid he'd find a way to ROLLING THUNDER down the wedding aisle and lose the rings). it's a small outdoor wedding, with a volleyball court where everyone can play during the reception.

oikawa shows up drunk and crashes the wedding.

[theellipelli]

what's your final thought of me

[kacchans-waifu]

A BUSINESS PROPOSAL — the pro-hero, dynamite, is forced on a date with some ceo's daughter. except, it's just you and your best friend doing your absolute best to scare him away.

word count: 2.4k

cw: suggestive, fluff, not proofread

a/n: this has been sitting in my drafts for quite literally a year. i decided to rewatch the drama and omggggg i still love it. i might make a part two bc this was kinda fun to write.

requests

pro-hero, katsuki bakugou, was rapidly climbing the hero ranks the moment he graduated high school. by the time he was 23, he was already one of japan’s top heroes. he had been working his ass off, spending countless hours training and fighting for the dream he had worked for since he was a child, and all of his hard work had finally come to fruition.

unfortunately, there was one thing he didn’t have.

“you need to get a girlfriend, katsuki.”

the blond found himself now trapped in another dreadful conversation with his mother. for the past year, his mother had been pestering him about finding a partner and it made him want to tear his hair out. he groaned as he did his best to tune her out.

“i’m being serious, katsuki,” she pestered, pouring herself a cup of coffee. “we’re both getting older and I want grandbabies.”

“you’re not getting any fucking grandbabies if you keep fucking bothering me about it,” the man huffed. “i don’t know why you care so much about me fucking some chick. it’s creepy.”

mitsuki scoffed. “well, sorry I don’t want to you die alone and unhappy.”

those words still ricocheted in his head as he shuffled through paperwork a few weeks later. die alone, he thought. like hell, I need some woman and kid slowing me down.

there was a soft knock on the door of his office followed by the calm voice of his assistant. “mr. bakugou?”

“open,” he responded, not looking up from the papers.

his assistant walked in, closing the door behind him. “todoroki’s agency wanted to ask how the paperwork is coming along.”

“tell him to leave me alone.”

the still unnamed assistant checked his watch, huffing. “sir—” he leaned forward, the tablet in his hand now curled up near his chest— “have you called your mother at all today?”

katsuki raised his eyes, immediately suspicious. “why?”

“yes or no, sir?”

he sighed. “no, I have not.”

“that explains it,” the assistant muttered, leaning back. “she wanted me to tell you that she-”

“KATSUKI!” like clockwork, mitsuki stormed through the double doors of katsuki’s office. the man swore under his breath. the assistant stood aside as the older woman made her way to her son’s desk. “I have incredible news for you!~”

he place the papers on the desk and pinched the bridge of his nose, anticipating the worst. “oh boy, I wonder what it could be,” he spoke, sarcasm lacing his jaded voice.

“curb your enthusiasm, buddy.” mitsuki stood tall. “the ceo of XXXXX has agreed to a blind date with his daughter!” she did jazz hands to emphasize it.

katsuki froze. “sorry?”

“you’re going on a blind date with the ceo’s daughter.” she did the jazz hands again.

“are you fucking kidding me?!” katsuki began to raise his voice, evidently pissed off. “you went and set up some blind date with a random woman because you want some fucking grandkids!?”

“I fail to see the issue katsuki.”

“well, there’s fucking plenty!”

“listen, and listen well; you’re going to find a woman to settle down with whether you like it or not, katsuki. plus, wouldn’t marrying into a ceo’s family be good for business?”

“this is fucking ridiculous.” the man stood up and was ready to leave. “it’s not happening. i’m busy all this month.”

“not anymore!~” mitsuki had the biggest shit-eating grin the man had ever seen.

katsuki looked over at his assistant, eyebrow cocked. “that’s what I was trying to tell you, sir, before she…” he shifted his gaze to the older woman “…before she walked in.”

“i also had him clear your schedule.” she chimed in.

katsuki huffed, wanting the world to swallow him whole.

~

“another one? did he forget every other date you’ve gone on?”

your friend had invited you to a nice debrief at the cafe you two had been eyeing for a while. being from a wealthy business family, it was common place for her parents to try and marry her off, but your friend would rather eat lead than have anything to do with this.

your friend huffed, crossing her arms as she looked out at the nearby street. “that’s what I’m saying.”

“and you literally have no idea who this dude could be?”

“well, it is a blind date after all.” she looked back at you, hands now on the table. “but he knows I don’t wanna be set up with some dude just because he’s rich. I only plan to marry for love.” she waved her hands in a rainbow motion on the word “love” to really get the point home.

you took a sip from your drink. “your dad, yeah. doesn’t he know we’re just gonna scare him away again?”

she raised her coffee cup to her lip, chuckling a bit. memories of your two’s shenanigans flooding her mind. “should we do that again?”

“is that even a question,” you grinned.

~

you and your friend had planned for you to go on the date instead. you’d be dressed neatly in expensive clothing borrowed from your friend. she gave you a cute makeup look to make you look expensive and a pretty wig with scarily realistic hair.

the plan was simple:

be as unappealing as possible.

you sat down and waited for your friend’s date to show up. as you waited, you did your best to calm your nerves and fix your makeup a bit. after a few minutes of waiting, a deep voice spoke from behind you.

“you XXXX XXXXXXXXX?”

startled, the compact mirror in your hand shook. you turned around and began to shake even more. the man your friend had been set up with, the man you are about to scare off, the man standing in front of you right now was absolutely, unbelievably attractive. what was his name again?

katsuki bakugou.

katsuki saw your eyes widen for a moment and was about to leave, a bit worried that you were the wrong person.

“yes,” you answered, voice a bit meeker than you had hoped. not only was he undeniably attractive, but he looked oddly familiar. was he some kind of model or actor? “take a seat.” you gestured to the seat across from you.

the blond sat down, visibly uninterested. you, on the other hand, were doing your absolute best to calm your nerves, hands trembling a bit as you raised your water glass to your lips. you took a deep breath. you were determined to make this date fail.

thus began tactic number one.

you let out a deep sigh, drawing katsuki’s attention. “it’s warm in here, isn’t it,” you asked smugly, carefully peeling your jacket off. the dress you were wearing underneath was sleeveless and showed off your shoulders and collarbone. it was far from warm in the restaurant you two sat in, but you were without a doubt going to pretend you were burning up.

no one likes a woman that shows too much skin.

katsuki didn’t even bother with a verbal response. instead, he just cocked an eyebrow. he examined you as you practically flaunted your arms and noticed goosebumps painting the exposed skin. “you have goosebumps.”

crap.

you chuckled, fixing your hair. “i just get goosebumps a lot.”

time for the next strategy.

you kicked your foot against the table. you fake winced, saying a sweet “sorry” as you pulled your leg back. your voice then switched to a high-pitched baby voice as you cooed at your expensive heels, gently brushing them. “it’s okay, baby, it’s okay.” you then turned your attention to the equally expensive clutch near you. “oh, did you get scared, baby?” you continued cooing and kissing your clutch.

a woman crazy about luxury goods. how’s that for a turn-off?

you looked away from the clutch and watched as katsuki typed away on his phone.

was your performance not worth watching?

“what are you doing?”

katsuki’s head darted up before he sheepishly tucked his phone away. “a text from work. sorry.”

this won’t do. on to my last resort.

“I’m so sad,” you blurted out.

“what?”

you crossed your arms, huffing. “I’m so sad. you seem so uninterested in me.” you pouted. “it’s making samantha and rachel very sad.”

the blond’s brows furrowed as he took a sip out of his cup. “samantha and rachel?”

you smirked, holding the sides of the table so your chest was open. “the left one is samantha. right is rachel. i spent a wopping half a million a piece on these babies.”

he nearly choked on his water, coughing as he placed it back on the table. you did your absolute best to not break character. you giggled, leaning back in your seat. “i’m rambling, aren’t i?”

one could say this was your best performance. there was no way in hell that he was going to ask for a second date.

—

“HE ASKED FOR A SECOND DATE?!”

you sat with your head in your hands across from your friend. “I did my best, I swear.”

“if you did your best then why am I going on a second date with him,” she asked, practically crushing her cup.

“he was very persistent, in my defense.”

your friend sighed lowly. “jeez, I guess I’ll have to go and scare him away myself.”

“how,” you asked, lazily looking back up her. “he thinks you look like me.”

“well, i don’t want to see him anymore regardless, so him finding out you’re not the real me should only drive him further, yeah?” your friend feigned calmness as she said that, but you could tell that she was thoroughly irritated. you watched as coffee leaked from under her lid and onto her fingers. she was no indeed crushing the cup.

sheepishly you offered, “I’ll buy you a new drink.”

—

“you want to…meet her again?”

katsuki decided to visit izuku on his lunch break. they were in a nearby cafe, casually debriefing about how their days had been going. izuku, like most of katsuki’s friends, had long known of his mother’s desire for her son to get married and have kids. katsuki had told izuku about the date his mom had set him up on, complaining about how that “old hag”, in his words, had no respect for his boundaries and was weirdly obsessed with him getting hitched off. so izuku was very surprised to hear that the dreaded date went well.

“yeah,” he admitted, digging his fork into his pasta. “I mean, she didn’t seem half bad.” he looked back up at izuku, who held a stunned expression. “quit looking at me like that.”

“sorry, I just didn’t expect for it to have gone so well. she must be a real catch.”

katsuki thought back to what you considered a disaster of a date. it had been so long since he’d met such a straightforward woman. you came across as so honest, so genuine. he…liked that about you. and sure, you were pretty and wealthy, but things like that meant nothing to him. he’d be a liar if he said he couldn’t stop thinking about you on the drive back to his apartment. “i guess so.”

suddenly, there was a loud crash outside followed by a scream. the two men perked up, both now looking out the window. a villain attack?

at the sound of another crash, they dove out of the cafe and onto the street to be met with what they expected. what katsuki didn’t expect was to see was a woman that looked suspiciously familiar.

you had somehow ended up in the middle of the crossfire of this low-ranking villain’s attack. if a hero hadn’t saved you just in time, you would’ve gotten seriously hurt. unfortunately, the moment you got a good look at the hero that saved you, you realized why the man your friend was set up with looked so familiar.

you had gone on a date with the top hero, dynamite.

the two of you stared at each other, face inches apart. katsuki examined your face. he could barely believe it. here you were, standing right in front of him, and he had just saved your life. now would be a bad time to ask you on a second date, right?

“you’re the…”

quickly, you backed away and bowed. “t-thank you so much!” you tried to run away, face burning with anxiety, but his large hand instinctually grabbed your wrist.

“wait a second, how the hell did you get yourself caught up in a villain attack?”

“it was an accident, really,” you said as you attempted to wiggle yourself out of his grip.

“y/n, are you okay,” you friend asked, running up to you. she had gotten separated from you when the attack started. however, she halted the moment she saw katsuki right next to you. “oh no..”

katsuki’s brows furrowed. “y/n?” that’s not your name, he thought. his grip loosened just enough for you to release yourself.

your heart was racing. katsuki, decked out in his signature costume, looked at you with the most perplexed expression you had ever seen. you jogged up to your friend, trying to push her away. “XXXX, we should go,” you muttered.

“hey,” katsuki called out. “you just got attacked by a villain.”

“we’re just fine,” you friend responded.

“i was telling her, not you.” he didn’t want to believe it, but the name your friend called you rang through his head like bullets. it couldn’t have been a nickname. it sounded nothing like the name he knew you as. could it really be…

“let me walk you to the police station, y/n. i have a lot to ask you.”

[respectthepetty]

hi Petty! I'm not sure if you've answered this before but i was wondering what your favorite color-coded shows are. Like, as a color enthusiast, are there color-coded shows that were rly satisfying for you in how they incorporated colors into the storytelling

I love colors however I get them, so I'm going to answer your question with more recent picks later below, but I've answered some variations of this question:

Reading the (Visual) Rainbow Awards 2024

Overall Winner: Idol Factory for The Loyal Pin, The Sign, and My Marvellous Dream is You

Reading the (Visual) Rainbow Awards 2023

Overall Winner - Kiseki: Dear to Me

Top Five - Color-Coded Storytelling in BLs

Honorable Mention: Oh No! Here Comes Trouble

5) Moonlight Chicken

4) My Beautiful Man

3) My Love Mix Up

2) Semantic Error

1) Big Dragon

BLs Based Solely on Colors

Honorable Mention: Intern in My Heart

One Room Angel

Why R U? (Korea)

Secret Crush on You

Stay by My Side

Pit Babe

Bonus: Old Fashion Cupcake

Shows That Got the Colors Right

I Cannot Reach You

Destiny Seeker

Kiseki: Dear to Me

Never Let Me Go

The Eighth Sense

Dark Blue Kiss

Semantic Error

Big Dragon

Favorite Obvious Character Color Coding

Honorable Mention - Most Cheewin, Domundi, and Idol Factory shows: Y-Destiny, Secret Crush on You, Middleman's Love, You'll Never Eat Alone, Bed Friend, Cutie Pie, Naughty Babe

Destiny Seeker

I Became a Lead in a BL Drama

My Love Mix-Up

Love Tractor

The Eighth Sense

Between Us

Kiseki: Dear to Me

Pit Babe

Our Dating Sim

Top Five Color Moments of 2023

Honorable Mention: 7 Days Before Valentine

5) GAP

4) Bed Friend

3) Last Twilight

2) Moonlight Chicken

1) The Eighth Sense

Bonus: Jeff Satur x SHAUN's "Steal the Show"

Now that I've hit you with several other lists to look through, I'm going to basically give you a sneak peek into this year's running list for my Reading the (Visual) Rainbow Awards because these are some of the shows that have given me the most satisfying color coding so far.

Reading the (Visual) Rainbow Awards 2025 - Five Nominations

Honorable Mention: The Next Prince

It's not over yet, so everything could go downhill but right now, it's living up to the Domundi standard of color coding for a reason, so if it continues, the visual journey will be worth it!

Secrets Happened on the litchi Island

China came out of nowhere this past year and decided to hurt all my feelings with the color coding in this one. I was banking all my hopes on the colors telling me this one would get a happy ending, and it paid off but not without putting me through the wringer and making me cry. Therefore, I loved it.

The Boy Next World

I finally watched a MAME show live, and that chick got me! Hook, line, and sinker. This is only the third MAME show I've ever watched, and it's easily my favorite because that lighting department was working overtime showing us how much light and warmth one person can bring to someone else's dark and cold world.

When It Rains, It Pours

This will probably be my favorite show this year, and I've rewatched it almost every single week since it was released, so I have a bias, but it's also one of the best portrayals of balance in this year's grouping of shows. The colors reinforced the relationship between the characters so well, which made it even more pleasing to watch.

Secret Relationships

WTF happened with Korean BL?! Did it finally look at its het shows with all their toxic characters and decided to up the ante? This series gave me something different and showed the negatives of each color with ease, so I was rooting for all of them, yet also for none of them, and I'm still sitting here asking for a poly rainbow.

Perfect 10 Liners x Fourever You

Both shows are clumped together because Director New was behind them and his crew nailed the color coding for each show. Every character was perfectly aligned with the color they were coded as and it was delightful to witness such flawless color coding. These two are going to be the stiffest competition this year.

Bonus: Fight For You

Did you think I'd forget my favorite Black Brooder x Heavenly Human?

Never!

[yerimbrit]

[flufftober day 2, wc: 870] - your sweatshirt : y. seoyeon

SOMETHING IS MISSING. no, it’s not the food (or, lack thereof) in your fridge. or the canon digicam that was on your desk, because you watched xinyu sneak it into her tote the other day when she thought you weren’t looking. your hoodie is missing.

on weekend movie nights with your girlfriend, you have a certain hoodie you wear every week without fail. now, weekend movie nights weren’t exactly a thing until around a year ago, and you don’t remember when you started wearing the hoodie during them, but it’s very special, brings back memories to kre’s first stage which you wore it—a white pullover hoodie that has the words “always rooting for s1 yoon seoyeon!” carefully written with a sky blue fabric marker—to.

you still remember the way her eyes sparkled when you surprised her in the waiting room pre-performance, especially after you told her that you wouldn’t be able to make it because of a separate schedule you had as a tripleS member. she held your hand tightly until they were called for standby, her warmth still lingering long after she left. 

anyway, you have an inkling of where the garment has gone. a tiny hint. it might be a figure on the couch, wearing the missing item in question.

you approach the figure, standing in front of them and looming over. “i wonder whose sweatshirt that is…”

they sluggishly look up from their phone, revealing the face of none other than your girlfriend. seoyeon raises her eyebrows, looks down at the hoodie she’s wearing, and looks back at you. she disregards the ever-growing blush on her cheeks and flashes a cheeky smile. “yeah, i wonder who.”

this isn’t the first time she’s stolen clothes of yours. it’s a regular thing; you don’t even need to leave the comfort of seoyeon’s room to get a change of clothes, because half of your closet is in her closet. you can’t remember any of your clothes that she hasn’t worn. it’s practically one of her hobbies, adding to the list which consists of lying around, watching movies… and watching more movies. 

what’s nice about it, though, is the fact that anything that she steals is too big on her. pajama pants pool around her ankles, and she gains sweater paws from any tops she finds. it’s incredibly endearing, and erases any of the (virtually nonexistent) annoyance you might have towards her. like now, where the weekly movie night sweater is bagging up at the sleeves two years later. 

“you’re not gonna give it up, are you?” 

“no?” she retorts, patting the empty space next to her which compels you to sit. the netflix home menu is displayed on the tv, ready to play anything of your choosing. last week’s movie was a rewatch of black panther, one of seoyeon’s all-time favorites and one that the two of you probably rewatch monthly. it never gets old. even if you have to watch the outdated ‘what are those?!’ joke hundreds of times over.

you reach for the remote, which is on top of a stack of albums that everyone in the haus (sans soomin) has signed, and navigate through the different genres that the streaming service offers. “what do you want to watch?”

seoyeon hums, resting her head on your shoulder and fiddling around with the drawstrings of (your) hoodie. her eyes are trained on the screen, watching you sift through rows of movies and shows with a look of disinterest. “you pick.”

glancing down at your girlfriend, who’s now focused on tying the drawstrings into a bow, you jut out your lower lip. your gaze drifts over to the ‘horror’ section and smile. well, it is october. seoyeon seems to notice your lack of movement with the remote and looks up, so you scroll over to it. 

“no, y/n. you can’t do this to me,” she turns to you, absolutely petrified beyond comprehension. her reaction makes sense, because the last horror movie you watched (with kotone and hyerin, when they came over) resulted in paranoia around the haus despite her confidence in not being scared. and you can’t take her seriously when she tries to convince you not to do something, because she really just ends up looking like sad violin music is about to play.

“pfft,” you ruffle her hair and pull the slightly-tightened hood over her head. “you look like that low quality sad hamster.”

“what did you just say about me?” she frowns, seemingly miffed. “it’s barely october. why should we watch a horror movie?”

“it’s still october—a little bit of the conjuring won’t hurt you, seoyeonnie.” 

you press play on the remote, and seoyeon lets out a strangled cry which sounds like a mix of a bird and a dying rat. “you’re dead, y/n. i swear on my life.”

wrapping your arm around her and pulling her closer, you laugh. “we’re not even five minutes in! you’ve got both me and my hoodie you stole, wrapped around you. there’s no need to worry.”

“don’t you hate horror movies too?” seoyeon mumbles into your shoulder, her speech muffled.

oh, that’s what you forgot. but, there’s nothing you can do about it now, is there? “uh… let’s just watch, okay?”

flufftober masterlist!

a/n : hamham iwaly

[coraniaid]

Very approximately, I think you can break the history of online Buffy the Vampire Slayer fandom into three overlapping but mostly distinct eras.

The period 1997-2003 in which the show was actually on the air. From the start, the show had a pretty intense fandom, originally focused around official or semi-official channels like the (WB hosted) Buffy message board The Bronze, which gave fans a pretty direct line to the show's creators, but also Usenet groups and (later in the show's run) unofficial sites like Television Without Pity. A lot of shipping discourse and quite a few factoids about things happening behind the scene date back to this period.

The period 2004-2017. The era of TVTropes, episode-by-episode rewatches and recaps on sites like The Onion's AV Club or on personal blogging platforms, by writers like Mikelangelo Marinaro (of Criticially Touched) and Mark Field (of Unpaid Sophistry). This is when a lot of the most widespread metaphorical readings of the show -- Cordelia, Faith and Spike as Buffy's Shadow Selves; the idea of analysing Giles, Willow and Xander through the lens of the Primeval Mind/Heart/Spirit division in every season -- seem to have come from.

The period from 2017 (but especially from 2020) to now, in which -- for a combination of reasons, but really starting with his ex-wife Kai Cole posting a public letter revealing he'd had multiple affairs with other women while working on Buffy -- a lot of people were eventually forced to recognize that Joss Whedon wasn't exactly the feminist icon his PR machine had often painted him as. For many fans, this meant either reevaluating their entire opinion of the show or deciding that it had to be good despite Whedon's involvement, not because of it. There is still a lot of good, thoughtful analysis of the show posted during this time [you should go read The Insect Reflection if you haven't already], but there is (thankfully) a lot less fawning about how uniquely smart and talented an auter "Joss" was. [Call me a curmudgeon if you like, but I don't understand the appeal of referring to people you don't know personally as though you were on first name terms with them and I don't think I ever will.]

Anyway, I'm thinking about this now ... well, partly because I wanted to write the word 'online' a lot so I could make an "on line for what?" reference, and partly because in light of this week's episode in particular it's interesting to think about how the role of the internet in developing and sustaining the Buffy fandom. And because I'm thinking about the changing ways in which different episodes have been viewed by the fandom since Season 1 first aired.

I Robot ... You Jane is not Buffy's finest hour. I don't think there's ever been a era of the show where the majority of people would argue it was. But, honestly, in that first phase of the fandom, I don't think people thought it was all that bad? It has two reviews on the (contempory) unofficial fansite buffyguide.com, one mixed ("The performances were all wonderful, but the conclusion left a bit to be desired") and one very positive ("Alyson Hannigan takes the ball, runs with it, and scores a touchdown [...] the introduction of Robia LaMorte as the absolutely delightful Ms. Calendar pushes this one over the top from a good episode to a great one"). The BBC Cult review (from just a couple of years after the episode aired in the US) is pretty positive too: "[this episode] has a nice underlying message [...] there's an excellent pre-credits teaser [...] Alyson Hannigan gives a great performance [...] The two versions of Moloch, the lizard-like original and the scrap metal variation, are superbly executed, imposing and magisterial."

It's only in the second era of the show that I Robot ... You Jane seems to have become something of a punching bag.

Marinaro's review of it (as rewritten in 2014) calls it "a complete mess of an episode [...] a pain and a bore to sit through [... its] general lack of ability to hold my interest for most of its running time, long-term irrelevance, and shoddy production values all add up to my personal pick for Worst Episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.". Mark Field (writing in 2013) isn't much kinder: " I can’t find much good to say about I Robot, You Jane. It’s generally rated as one of the very weakest episodes by most fans, and I concur." The AVClub's Noel Murray (in 2008) dismisses it as "a misfire: corny, tonally off and lacking even the illusion of depth that other slack episodes have provided in Season One".

I think it's easy to explain why some of these later reviewers were so much more negative about the episode. It does suffer from a pretty low budget, and the effects and costumes are often not great ("imposing and magisterial" is certainly A Take). It isn't central to the show's wider story at all -- beyond introducing Ms Calendar, nothing much about the episode will stick [and, frankly, even Ms. Calendar will not exactly ever become a core part of the show...] -- and it only really vaguely touches on the show's wider themes and metaphors. If you're trying to establish some grand vision of What The Show Is About after the fact there's really not much to work with here. (Though, as the relevant Insect Reflection essay points out, it's probably not a complete coincidence that Willow learns to her horror that the nice mysterious older boy she was falling for is actually a demon the episode after the exact same thing just happened to Buffy herself.) And yes, the episode's depiction of the internet must have looked pretty ridiculous in the 2010s (although I don't think this is really a case of it "aging badly", as some people suggest: I think it was pretty ridiculous in 1997 as well).

Being a little less charitable, I think there are other reasons why many of these reviewers didn't like it much. Marinaro, in particular, is very scathing about the one-dimensional portrayal of this week's two new students, Dave and Fritz. And sure, they are lazy, shallow caricatures, but does that really make them very different from any of the one-off students we've seen before? Are they so different from The Pack's Kyle (and his band of nameless mean kids)? Or any of the thinly sketched Cordettes we've seen so far? Or Teacher's Pet's generic overly-confident jock Blayne? Is this episode's ignorance of the actual working of the internet any more silly than the show's vision of cheerleading or its desperately poor grasp of hyena biology? Is the problem not, at least in part, that -- unlike the minor teenage characters we met in those episodes -- the antisocial internet nerds of this episode just hit a bit closer to home?

Anyway, writing as a representative of that third era of the show's fandom I outlined, I think I Robot ... You Jane is ... uh. It's okay. I'd definitely rank it miles ahead of Teacher's Pet; perhaps broadly on a par with The Pack and The Harvest. Jenny is a really fun character, and I wish the show had found better things to do with her later. Alyson Hannigan gets more to do than she has for most of the season so far -- even though, comparing the two directly, I really don't think this is as much of a "Willow-centric" episode as The Pack was -- and I think the episode has some solid comic moments: Jenny and Giles flirting-through-bickering; Buffy's attempts at undercover investigations and some of the first evidence I think we've really seen that Buffy and Xander are friends who make sense hanging out together ("we're literary!" / "to read makes our speaking English good" is a fun moment, as is the mutually escalating paranoia over Willow's online boyfriend that leads to Buffy insisting that Willow's "probably" going to be "ax-murdered by a circus freak").

Like a lot of the show's other supposed "worst" episodes -- Bad Eggs comes to mind -- I think the worst thing you can say about I Robot... is that's it's silly and slight and ultimately inconsequential. But I think the bar for genuinely terrible Buffy episodes is quite a bit lower than that.

Stray thoughts:

Apart from the human!Anya flashbacks in Season 7, is this the furthest back in time flashback we'll ever have? I mean it's obviously older than any flashback involving Angel or Drusilla or Spike.

The monk who binds Moloch in the pre-credits scene is, per IMDB, credited as Thelonious. Cute.

Ashley Gable (who co-wrote this episode, with Thomas Swyden) would later go on to be (among other things) a writer and producer for Person Of Interest (she wrote two episodes for the show's fourth season). Person Of Interest is, for those who haven't seen it, also a show in which hostile non-human intelligences lurk on the internet and attempt to reshape human society for their own ends. Maybe not the most famous connection between PoI and the Buffyverse, but I think it's neat.

Apparently Ms. Calendar's first name was originally going to be Nikki but it was changed to avoid confusion with Nicholas Brendon on set. I guess nobody cared so much about that later, when the show finally named Robin Wood's mother?

People like to laugh at how silly Fritz's "jacked in" speech is, often while saying "it's not supposed to be funny", but I'd argue it is, in fact, probably supposed to be funny. It's certainly meant to make Fritz sound a bit unhinged, as opposed to the fun and laid-back Jenny Calendar and the quietly helpful Dave. We're not supposed to think "wow, Fritz makes a good point!". What other reaction could be intended?

"I'm going to stay and clean up a little [...] I'll be back in the Middle Ages." / "Did you ever leave?" This is a funny line but what really elevates it for me is how very pleased with herself Jenny looks after saying it.

I'm not sure if we're supposed to take Xander's breezy "I'm not interested in Willow like that" as implying "(but I know she was into me until this week)". A lot of people seem to think we are, but -- if only to dial my dislike of S1!Xander down to reasonable levels -- I think I'm going to choose to assume he isn't. Of course, Buffy herself does know Willow's into Xander -- and that's why she's motivated to try to make him admit he feels jealous -- but I don't think Xander needs to know that to feel slightly disgruntled about not being the centre of Willow's social life anymore. (I'm not sure Xander necessarily consciously figures it out before Innocence, honestly.)

Jenny definitely showed up to cover this lab session while hungover, right? It's a good thing for her there are only three students in her entire class (plus Buffy). None of them seems to be doing anything resembling school work either.

"Sure, he says he's a high school student, but I can say I'm a high school student." / "... you are." I'm not sure quite why I find this exchange so funny. I think it might be the meta aspect (Nicholas Brendon was in his mid-twenties when this episode aired, and pretty obviously isn't a high school student).

"It's a computer research lab [...] My uncle used to work there ... in a floor-sweeping capacity." Is this the first (implicit) mention of Xander's Uncle Rory? Or is this a different uncle?

"I can just tell something's wrong. My spider-sense is tingling." Another Buffy-as-superhero reference to add to the list.

Fully believe that Jenny just came to the library to flirt argue with Giles some more. Even if her talk about "checking the database to make your cross-reference table isn't glitching" wasn't nonsense, she very obviously doesn't even try to do anything resembling that! She's just there to call Giles a snob [she's right!] and tell him that the internet isn't a fad [she's right again] and that it represents the start of a new and better society [... well, two out of three ain't bad?].

"In the Dark Ages the souls of demons were sometimes trapped in certain volumes." Starting a proud tradition of not quite being sure exactly when various historical events took place, the writers apparently think "the Dark Ages" is a period of history that extends as far as 1418. (Or maybe the claim is that Moloch was originally trapped in the book during the Dark Ages, only to be released centuries later and then re-imprisoned?) But perhaps more interestingly -- apart from this being another reminder that according to Season 1 demons definitely do have souls -- are we to assume that demons were just wandering around Europe during the Middle Ages? What about Giles's speech at the start of The Harvest? Didn't demons get evicted from our reality millions of years ago? I suppose the way to make sense of this is to say that although demons weren't around, people in the Dark Ages had the abiitiy to summon the souls of demons from whatever other reality demons fled to? Maybe it would be simpler if Moloch wasn't a demon at all, but a (human) warlock or a wizard or something? He's obviously not much like the demons the Master is trying to bring back.

"A powerful demon with horns is wandering around Sunnydale and nobody's noticed?" It's kind of charming how in Season 1 the idea of (obviously inhuman) demons just walking around town is presented as inherently ridiculous, when -- from Season 3 onwards -- it'll be just a simple matter of fact.

I love the pointless fake-out that Ms Calendar might be in league with Moloch, complete with sinister musical sting, only to be resolved immediately as soon as we come back to these characters.

Not an original observation on my part, but it's a nice bit of (purely accidental) foreshadowing that WIllow breaking up with "Malcolm" -- "That's a joke. You don't love anything. [...] I'm not yours. I'm never gonna be yours. Never!" -- so strongly echoes Buffy's words to Spike in Dead Things: "There is nothing good or clean in you. You are dead inside! You can't feel anything real! I could never be your girl!"

I am (as we've seen) a defender of this episode, but oddly I'm not really a big fan of the closing scene in which the three teenage Scoobies awkwardly joke about how they're "doomed" to never have a "happy, normal relationship". Or, rather: the scene itself is fine. I like it. But I don't like the way it gets shared as some sort of chillingly accurate prophecy. They are three sixteen-year-olds who have, at this point, never had a serious romantic relationship. Of course they worry that they might never have one. But all three of them do, in fact, have at least one "happy, normal relationship" over the course of the show. Willow herself manages three of them.

One other thing I find a little irritating about the episode is the title. It's riffing on two things: Isaac Asmiov's I, Robot short story collection (itself a play on Robert Graves' I, Claudius) and a line of dialogue that Tarzan the Ape-Man never actually says in either the original Tarzan movies or the Edgar Rice Burroughs stories on which the films are based. OK. Only: what is the relevance here? Moloch isn't a robot; he's a demon. He doesn't have any problem communicating the way Tarzan might. And he only gets a robotic body in ... what, the final ten minutes of the episode?

It just feels a little forced; like they came up with the title and didn't care that it didn't fit the plot of the actual episode; an episode which is about -- to the extent it's really about anything -- the dangers of internet dating.

It's perhaps a year too early for the reference to really land the way it would have done in 1998, after the Tom Hanks / Meg Ryan movie came out. But by all rights this episode should've been called You've Got Moloch.

[ask-postcrash-curly]

Hey curly, how have you been? Aside from the Steven universe episodes, I haven’t been chatting as much with you lately. Guess it’s because I’ve been kind of tired from the adjustment of moving and getting readjusted to a whole different living situation. Honestly, I’ve just been kind of drained a lot lately and feeling blah physically. But re-watching Steven universe is always fun. It’s been ages since I rewatched Steven Universe Future, and I finally got up to that in my rewatch. I prepared all of the rest of Steven universe season 5 for you. Just gotta siphon them out. With all this change, there’s always comfort in the familiar.

I still can’t believe we have less than like, two weeks together, probably. It simultaneously feels like only yesterday and feels like 1 million years ago since we all started talking.

It’s going to be… weird to not be able to talk anymore. Not just because we’re friends but you’re just genuinely part of my day now. Y’know? Like, eat breakfast, brush my teeth, take my medicine, talk to curly. Not talking to you is gonna feel like changing my routine. It’s really thrown me off every time I got cut off from you. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m on the spectrum. Y’know, the autism spectrum. So, change and routine being disrupted is like, a whole thing. I’m not really a stickler for routine in most ways, but for certain things… I dunno.

Anyway. It’s also just gonna be sad because, I don’t know. Talking to you, it just feels like being a part of something. We’ve all formed this little community around you. And I’m still gonna be talking to a lot of the other voices once this whole thing ends. But then there’s the people who never went off anon. Even if I never personally talked to them, I was still used to seeing them around. Like the 👍 anon, and 🦜anon. Even if we never talked, it’s like, they were still kind of part of my world, you know? Like a person you pass on the street every day.

It’s kind of funny. I remember when high school was ending, I was really bummed out about. Not just about not being able to see my friends every day, but all of the acquaintances and people I vaguely knew. Even if I wasn’t close to them or anything, they were still a small part of my life, and it felt a little sad to not have them on the peripheral anymore. Of course once high school actually ended i got over that pretty quick I guess. Maybe it’ll be the same with this. I don’t know. But this feels a little more personal I guess. A lot people here were drawn here because of having certain similarities with you. So it’s different than just living in the same area I guess. Anyway, I’ve rambled on for long enough. I’ll talk to you later.

Hey! I've been the best I can be. Working hard to get better. Trying not to think too hard about everything. Ah, I don't blame you. I mean, I know you did a lot of work to get the episodes ready for me and make sure I could handle them, yeah? And I'm sure you're tired from everything else.

...Jeez. When you say it like that, it's... That's not a lot, is it.

Mm. That— that's really sweet. I don't know what I'm going to do all day without you lot, hah. Going to have to entertain myself for once. Bonkers, right?

It... Yeah. I don't— I know it was all sort of centered around me, but it did feel that way. Like there was a whole group of us going through it together.

...

You don't ever need to apologize to me for rambling, okay? Yeah. Talk soon. Love you, Possums.

[spirit-meets-the-b0ne]

In the middle of my HotD rewatch

The gyroscope of interpretation on this show has been at the forefront of my rewatch along with now having read some of the script and read/watched cast interviews.

This one inference made by Olivia Cooke (via Sarah Hess) has plagued me for the first few episodes.

Now, now I know these waters are really muddy what with a few obvious conceptual things: "isn't this queer baiting" "if it wasn't it wouldn't be good sapphic representation anyway" "this is an actors interpretation" blah blah blah. I'm not arguing any of that.

Just that Olivia's head canon held against this scene hits SO MUCH HARDER

Because I gotta say MY GOD imagine how that strikes Alicent if at some point her mother caught them together. Before they even really knew what they were doing (objectively to the tune of they were 13/14 not fully clear on platonic/romantic love) her mother impressed upon them it was wrong. When they denied and in some way or another Alicent/Rhaenyra saying "she never touched me." Only for Alicent to hear it echoed back to her years later like this... Knowing that even in her naïveté she would recognize the truth. That Alicent’s mother, naturally, kept this contained. Which honestly plays more to truly making Alicent more complex by the way she saw what “scandal” her mother covered up for her only for her to act out some perversion of this with Aegon when she’s a mother. A learned behavior twisted in the worst way, because that's what she knew.

Listen I fully understand that this show is NOT taking this angle even though there seems to be a huge division between what some writers and actors are playing to and the editors at HBO imaginably being like "what's all this gay shit?" BUT

I think it's part of what this show missed about TRAGEDY and I mean come on you want drama???? These girlies were ready to hand it to you on a silver plater! In this context I needed:

Rhaenyra being devastated by the news that Alicent was going to be marrying her father. The sheer heartbreak of “this can’t be happening” and knowing she would have lost Alicent to a husband but not THIS. Show her with Syrax, confiding in her dragon because now she has no other friend to talk to - I’m just saying if they were going with the context of “Fire & Blood itself is an unreliable narrator and only shows certain people’s views” - then a scene like this disrupts nothing. Tell me how when they prayed together and Alicent told her to "kneel with me" that part of Rhaenyra prayed for that world where they flew off on dragon back and ate cake.

Alicent being devastated - having her heart torn in two, crying behind every closed door knowing she was going to break the heart of her best friend. The deleted scene does give a peak of that being the case - but again it could/should have been included. Show me Alicent begging Rhaenyra to forgive her and desperately saying she loves her. I think one of the things that Team Green argues the most could have been explored by this avenue, Alicent is a victim of her marriage - it would be inherently more compelling if in the process she is also losing the closest thing to a "first love" she had. Show me Alicent at her desk writing letters to Rhae once a week and then ceremoniously burning them in the braziers. Alicent leaning more into religion as a means of getting out from under her repressed desires and past actions.

Show me both women struggling in their adulthood to even remember why they held "such childhood affections" for each other. Knock the fucking wind out of me with a line like, "the worst part of it all was that they only ever wanted to love each other."

To me one of the worst parts of this production (of which there's a few) has got to be this was the apex of completely missed opportunities to explore. In the premise of "going by unreliable sources" their queerness would be suppressed information. I even think it plays into the dynamic between Rhae-Alicent-Criston in a kind of "Jennifer's Body" way where Rhae was really only interested in him as the object of Alicent's desires which I believe is made a little clearer in the books. A kind of "see this could have been us if you didn't marry my bag-of-bones father" for Rhaenyra who clearly had no aversion to consorts.

I'm sorry to go on this rant, and yes I KNOW - the counter arguments for many of these points. I would even argue some of them further such as the sapphic representation not being invalidated simply because both women do end up with men in the source material. If this was the case then why was "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" received so well? This at the very least to say if they made Alicent and Rhaenyra explicitly queer it would still be less controversial than what the queer men on that show got … Still its not even to say "it's a better way" to explore more of Rhaenyra and Alicent's characters but its at least A WAY to do it. More than we got. Surely both sides could agree on that.

Sorry, now I'm just being pedantic. As a queer woman naturally I have a bias but I still think this was objectively a missed opportunity to explore. Both girl's back stories could have been enriched and tbh a lot of HOTD fans I know also had the same complaint that the time skip came in too early. I think it also makes things less likely to be so divisive between TG and TB when you look at the central pillars of this conflict. You can truly grieve for Alicent and Rhaenyra and what they lost already while on the verge of losing it all. Anyway, I gotta go cry about my divorced lesbian war wives.

[takaraphoenix]

Out of curiosity what did you watch before you got streaming? You know like late 90s early 2000s?

I didn't have streaming until 2020. The reason I know about shows, movies, and games is because of my elementary and high school classmates.

Also I'm from the Philippines and was born on January 2005. I also mostly don't interact with people online because of my inexperience and the lessons of online safety from high school so this might be the only ask I'll send you.

Hi! That's an interesting question. And while I do get internet safety, I feel like at 20 years old, you are fine to reach out and interact with people! The internet shouldn't be an isolated experience. Sure, don't send people pictures of your real face or share your real name and location with them off the bat, but making friends on the internet is a great experience and it's nice to share your joy and love for shows and movies with others! ^^

In the late 90s and early 2000s, I watched what was on TV! We got the TV program delivered home to us, I read through it every month and marked down what shows looked interesting.

I had my favorite networks - ProSieben, Kabel Eins, RTL2, SuperRTL when I was younger, occasional RTL and Sat1 if there was something good on.

Saturday morning Kabel Eins cartoons!! Superman, Batman, Zorro etc!

Saturday afternoon belonged to ProSieben, with things like Charmed etc.

During the week, post school anime program on RTL2 like Sailor Moon, Beyblade, etc, and in the evenings, they always had a rotation of comedy shows like Full House etc.

Watching TV was dictated by the schedule and you got the schedule delivered into your home so you know what to watch when. You learned about new shows through commercials - back in the olden days, we had commercial breaks in the shows and at the end of every commercial break, they would put ads for upcoming shows and what other shows the respective channel had to offer. Or word of mouth. If everyone at school loses their mind about the new anime that's on RTL2, you check out the new anime. Even if you missed the beginning.

I miss reruns, to be honest. Sometimes, you just tuned into SuperRTL to watch some random episode of The Nanny. Or you would zap through the channels and notice a show on that you haven't seen in a while so you stay and watch an episode. With streaming, rewatches are such an all or nothing kinda deal.

I also think a lot of shows are kinda lost on me because of streaming. The schedule did kinda dictate that no, you have to sit down now and you have to watch this now. You can't put it on your "later" watch list where it will sit for five years until it's been cancelled for two years already.

Plus, I miss the conversation of it all. Streaming with all of its "ALL 10 episodes drop TODAY and in a week nobody will talk about this show anymore!" is so... short-lived. Because nobody will be talking about it anymore. 22 episodes with one episode each week, do you have any idea how long the conversation about a show was going?? It was kept alive and there was also much more speculation when you didn't have everything dumped in your lap on the same day. You got to sit with it week by week and come up with theories and speculations and talk about those.

Damn, now I feel old.

[fakeshibe]

Heyyyy shibe, I was curious if you remember what initially sparked your intresting in film and/or film making? And also unrelated, seen any cute animals or critters lately? Thanks!

(scroll to the end to skip to creatures!!)

oooh!! ok so, slightly long complicated answer because it was a lot of things really! I really liked watching sketch comedy on youtube as a kid and rewatched the behind the scenes on every film i could 100x over, and when my friend got an Ipad I used to BEG for us to make films and trailers on imovie everytime I was at hers.

When I got older, like high school age, art was my favourite subject and I didn't really know what I wanted to do when I graduated, but I knew I wanted it to be creative. So I made a portfolio and applied to 5 art universities. And then I got 5 rejections, because I really loved art, but my passion (and skill) is not in fine art or illustration, and my portfolio showed it. But that was a blessing in disguise!! To quote an old Scots phrase that was much repeated to me at the time "What's fir ye will nae go by ye", basically what's for you, won't pass you by. But because I had no university or college place lined up, and no apprenticeship or job lined up either, I had to do a summer course while a careers advisor tried to help me figure out what I wanted to do with my future. On that summer buisness and employability course, I had an instructor who talked about what's he'd done before choosing to change career paths to education. He'd done a film degree and told us all about what it was like to study film and work on a set and how it's a career that can really appeal to people who struggle with other jobs getting too repetitive or structured, but needing some level of structure to succeed. and that really clicked with me!

So a few weeks later, when my careers advisor asked 'Any ideas what courses you want to try and find a place on?' I immediately said film.

and that got me a place on a 1-year college course doing Film and TV Production, and in the middle of that I got a place on a residential short course through the BFI where I worked on my first fully budgeted short-film!! Then the two of them together got me a place on my current university course! and now I'm doing that and it's taking up almost every hour of the day but I love it!!! :)

also I did indeed see some cute critters, because...

I got pet rats last week!! :D

Introducing the lads: Yay and Yoker!! :D

Yay's the longer one on the left with the very defined brown/fawn coloured hooded pattern and smooth fur, he's more cautious of me but once I've given him some vegetables he gets a bit more bold and will play around a bit more. On the right is Yoker, he's got 'rex' or curly type fur and is still a hooded rat, but has a much more peachy colour so it's harder to see. Yoker is very food motivated and isn't scared of me at all anymore, if there's a pea or a cornflake being offered he will ignore any and all hazards to get to it. In that way he's much like his big brother Bruno!!

Bruno's doing good! He's kinda scared of the rats (when he goes near the cage Yoker runs up to check him out, and the speed he moves at scares Bruno so he'll go sit behind me or across the room and watch the rats from a distance). He's actually sitting under my leg right now, purring away :) He's a wee old man, so very big into sleeping, lazing around and cuddling up to me at the moment. Also don't worry, we never have the rats out when the cats nearby them, he's never shown interest in chasing small animals and he's much more interested in watching them than trying to get at them, but I understand animals have a prey drive so we're keeping them separate to be safe.

[deyasworld]

Deedark heacanons?

I loved the ones you made a while back and was wondering if you had more!

Awww! Thank you, you’re very sweet! 😊💕

Sure! Let me remember them.

• I used to headcanon that Dee Dee snores, but when rewatching the show I noticed that Mandark is the one that Canonically snores, and they usually write Dee Dee as a silent sleeper. Now that I think about it, it might make sense, since he has a very narrow neck lolllll Edit: I forgot to mention that Mandark canonically Talks In His Sleep!!!!

• I also used to headcanon that Dee Dee is an early bird and that she sleeps early, and that Mandark was the night owl, but now that I think about the kinds of jobs they have, maybe their sleeping schedules should be the other way around 😆. I mean, ballet studios tend to be an after school activity, meaning that she would be working in the afternoons, and he runs a laboratory, so his office hours would be from 8 AM to 5 PM, but he stays up late working extra hours. I like to think their sleeping schedules sync because of it.

• They live together by 23, but have probably been roommates since before. I don’t know why I’m fixated on 23, I came up with this when I was 19, and 23 sounded like a very exciting age at the time. I’m turning 31 in June, and giving this some thought it still feels like a good age! It’s a challenging time for many, there’s so much societal pressure to get your shit together after college, but you still want to enjoy life ““before 25””, so it would be very nice if they’re together through it.

• They probably don’t marry until 25 though, because it feels like a “serious” age to them, but mostly because I want them to still call each other boyfriend and girlfriend for a while ( and Fiancé for a while too lolll ). Although 25 is still young! Don’t hurry things just because that age sounds scary 💝 People will think you’re 21 at 30, and 16 at 21. There’s always time; take things slow. ( I’m only keeping the headcanons because they feel lived in ).

• For Dee Dee’s job, I like to think she joined a ballet company, so in her early adulthood she’s doing a lot of performances. She gets the instructor job later, to get a steady paycheck. She begins to suffer muscle pains because she’s not 10 anymore, so I like to imagine that Mandark helps monitoring her muscle health and he’s Very serious about it, I’m talking massages, 3D diagrams they update every week, keeps a journal and plans a diet for her. At some point she retires from the performances and dedicates herself to be an instructor, but she returns to the stage every other year. Edit: I’ve been following ballerinas on social media and watching documentaries to learn about their life styles, so I think she’ll be healthy for a very long time. Mandark is still concerned about her health though.

• I have several AUs for these two, but most of my headcanons for them are in the FusionFall verse. I really really like that Universe! It inspires me a lot. I should illustrate some headcanons someday. If you want to hear any FF specific headcanons, let me know!

• From their personalities in canon, I like to think they’re both very clingy, in particular Mandark. He’s very needy, needs lots of validation and has tendencies of low self-esteem, and she’s too cuddly, she’ll walk in on you when you’re busy to shower you with attention. I think it makes them perfect for each other; they’re both smothering with affection, and it makes them natural outlets. They probably tire each other sometimes, but they’re back at it again afterwards.

Thanks for the ask! Hope these work for you! 🫶💖💕

Have some Milk and Mocha, they’re my go-to DeeDark mascots 🐻‍❄️🐻

[17dvds]

Your top 5 relationships (not just romantic ones, anything!) in The West Wing?

... OK in writing this i realize i could do top 15 and still not be done. Thank you for the question and sorry for the ramblings:

1. Charlie and President Bartlet. 'He gave him the kniiiiiife'. Seriously, the father-to-son-he-never-had. How protective Charlie is of Bartlet, like when he realized that basically his girlfriend was a reporter he dropped her in a SECOND. "He's not just the president". Charlie faffing around to avoid graduating from COLLEGE so he could serve the President. Man was in such a hurry to graduate he did half of college while in high school, and slammed on the brakes to stay with Bartlet. The Knife! And the watch! Basically saying "i love you like a son" SO many times.

2. Josh and Donna. I mean. Every episode? How Janelle decided from the beginning to play Donna as if she was in love with Josh. "If you were in an accident I wouldn't stop for beer.". "If you were in an accident I wouldn't stop for red lights". And they were fighting at the time! Or at least Donna was super hurt! And she still said "i love you too and I love you more". Or at least was more aware of the fact that she was in love with Josh than Josh was aware of being in love with Donna. I don't think he really REALLY knew before she left to work for Russel. He just took her for granted kinda. And how she took care of him in Noel. And was the first to notice. And helped him with the MS!

3. Josh and Sam (I love Josh). I love Rob Lowe, he was the perfect foil for Josh. The fireplace! Josh flying out three times to get Sam to work for two separate president's. Perfect. The shorthand they had. "haven't said I'm signing on, but I can tell you this: I won't stay unless you go. One of us is getting on a plane tonight. If it's you, you're back in a week. If it's me, I'm gone, adios, for good.". For all the faults the last few seasons had, bringing sam back the way they didn't wasnt one of him. Theirsupport! So many things they were the only ones supporting each other, in the Oval sometimes! And when Josh had his PTSD, how he helped him. And Josh helped Sams campaign in CA (though that was more Toby).

4. CJ and Danny. OK so before I found your blog I never thought of CJ as lesbian/bi, and now I can kinda see it, and definitely if Sorkin (or maybe someone else) was wrote it 10+ years later she could be. But I always liked Danny and CJ together. Just the flirting and how he pursued her and also respected her boundaries and on my last rewatch she never said she didn't like him like that! Allllll the times he argued they should date and there was nothing wrong with she didn't explicitly say "i don't like you", it was her moral issues with the press which he respected and let her set the boundaries. "But if you keep kissing me what do i care". But he was still a reporter. Didn't take the Take Out The Trash Day story because he was in love with her, but still investigated the assassination! And stood up to her, and she let him! And then he left cause the new writers didn't know what to do with him and then the "jump off a cliff" and "i wanna talk cause i like the sound of your voice" and ugh such patience and maturity. And CJ flirting and kissing but being unsure and "that's how'd I'd get you" has me dying every time. She's hot and she knows it. They're great together and I like the idea of them staying together.

5. Bartlet and Leo. I just. It's the relationship that started all the others! "Bartlet for President". The napkin. I can't write as much especially about the last season or I'm gonna cry because John Spencer. But their relationship. The trust and friendship and the fighting and the love. Leo had the occasional awful character assassination (we dont always know how it ends? My Leo would never), but overall they looked out for each other. "I take a bullet for the President he doesn't take a bullet for me". There's like at least five episodes where Leo and Bartlet use the staff to protect each other against the others express wishes lmao.

Honorable Mention: Sam and Ainsley. They ABSOLUTELY did it in the kitchen in 17 People when they "looked for food". They had such great chemistry and I wish Emily Proctor was in every single episode.

[mariailoveyou-guerin]

Last ep of #ForeverNetflix and that s2 better be on the Netflix HQ editing servers bc I’m gonna need it out by next week @netflix I’m not even kidding yall always take all the best black show away after 1 szn Zero daybreak but keep every boring show to s5-8 like elite after s3!

saw some spoilers and yeah I’m not ready to cry more just watched #doctorwho I cant my head starting to ache from all the bawling! perhaps I should wait to finish this show so I can dream about finishin it and get my s2 then finish it but I just can’t wait bc I need into my veins

On last ep im ready 😢 for this show to finish can’t believe all that was happening in just one year time different there bc I thought it was at least a year and half with summer coming! #ForeverNetflix

anyways they ATE that prom up omg I think this is like first teen prom scene I ain’t cringe at because they be doing to much (all I can remember is that other N prom scene 😂) and the music stay eating who made the soundtrack bc it’s a 10/10 and the show is 12/10

I keep saying it in my head everytime they zoom on their faces but damn they are such pretty couple (whole cast so damn fine) he’s so pretty those eyes smile and she’s unreal but I’ve been knew about her since greenleaf such cute gorgeous couple #ForeverNetflix plz don’t end them

I keep replaying the prom scene are they having a dance break god I love them N this whole scene why are they so good tho the dance is eating and they so in sync I didn’t know he could do all that it’s so good #ForeverNetflix really loved that sway and body move they did together

Ok now it’s enough I replayed the whole prom dance scene 20 times whoever filmed and came up with and the choreographer everyone ate down from head to toe even their fit ate and worked so well in choreo! Gonna comeback to it later on my multiple rewatchs untill s2

they had 2 proms needed to see them at Justin prom what?if they ate like this here wonder how it went at theirs! Anyways for s2 need more Darius he so cool but need him to he a real character need to see him develop them in college would eat so bad #ForeverNetflix need it bad s2!

I knew it those sons of b words got me again the sec I thought oh I love them dont nothing happen to them it was all to good to be true can never let a great ship just be great without ruining it! also those performances from both of them im😭! the actors they are

there’s nothing more that I hate in teen show then miscommunication between the characters like it drives me insane and these two are so good at it not perfect bc again they teens but so good especially Justin he’s very in tune with his emotions and very honest

I’m pretty sure Justin has anxiety imposter syndrome on top of not feeling like he’s good enough and she got daddy issues on top of guilt + this need to be perfect bc of her mom sacrifices! they got to much going it’s good for them to take break to find themselves

that choreo needs to be a tktk dance ain’t all do on that app yapp and dance now do this dance bc it ate down especially all yall couples constantly showing couple trends now this one I could get behind it’s fun cute and the dance ate!

Shelly to fine why is she always glowing mother I’m trying to focus in the story! this what they get for casting Xosha as mom like plz a teen mom maybe #ForeverNetflix

great I knew I was gonna cry and now I’m bawling they can’t end it like that they got everything they wanted but each other 😭😭 they looked sooo 😔 need s2 now that goodbye! #ForeverNetflix this show was so good 12/10 fr everything about it was so healing and perfect loved it

[magpiefngrl]

mid-year book tag

Thanks for tagging me, @bloody-wonder! It's become a fun tradition to do this every year and I've been eagerly anticipating it :)

This hasn't been as prolific a year for me as the last several years have been. I've read 34 books by end of June, so about 10-20 less than I used to, and a lot of these have been rereads. The past couple of months have been super busy and I read a lot of fic, but struggled to finish novels. Fingers crossed for a better reading summer.

1. Best Book You’ve Read So Far in 2024?  I haven't read a book that blew me away so far. I've mentioned some of my faves here. I did enjoy most of my reads this year, but there isn't one book that stands out. (a fic, does, though. More on that later)

2. Best Sequel You’ve Read So Far in 2024? Dark Heir by Pacat. I was very invested, went back to read it again a week later, and it's made me very excited about the last novel.

3. New Release You Haven’t Read Yet, But Want To? The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo is definitely on my list (this will wait for 2025). There's also a new fantasy novel called Foul Days by a Bulgarian author that I'm curious about. Finally, Rebecca Roanhorse's Mirrored Heavens comes out soon but I still haven't read the second one in the series, so it'll also have to wait.

4. Most Anticipated Release For Second Half of 2024? Like you, KJ Charles's The Duke at Hazard is the one I'm most eagerly waiting.

5. Biggest Disappointment? I've been reading The Master and Margarita for two months now, forcibly stopping myself from DNFing it these days, because I don't actually hate it, it's just I can't bring myself to read it. But I also want to have read it, to be done with it. Idk why I'm struggling so much. Perhaps I'm not in the mood for it and would appreciate it at a later date. Based on the title and the positive reviews, I expected something more fascinating.

6. Biggest Surprise? The above, I guess.

7. Favourite New Author? Somehow, the only new authors I've read this year are Aliette de Bodard and Lois McMaster Bujold, and Bujold is the better one of the two. (The rest of the authors were people I've read before and I knew what their writing was like.)

8. Newest Favourite Character? Miles Vorkosigan, for his cleverness and his ability to always get in trouble and then to get creatively out of it.

9. Newest Fictional Crush? Not quite a crush, but my latest obsession is Bucky Barnes, entirely because of the fic I mentioned above (Out of the Dead Land, orphaned) which gave me the worst fic hangover. It's a stucky fic, a ship that never interested me, and it gave me feral feels about Bucky; it made me go back and rewatch a few Marvel films (and I had to torrent them since I'd ended my disney subscription; in other words, I had to go to some trouble); and it was a fic I kept thinking for days after I finished it. I'm actively stopping myself from rewatching Winter Soldier again today. And yes, not a book character, but the obsession is based on a fic and he's fictional so I say he counts :)

💕Best Ship💕 I loved Asmodeus and Thuan in de Bodard's Dominion of the Fallen series. Asmodeus is a Fallen Angel who likes stabbing and torture, Thuan is a dragon prince who tries to temper down his stabby husband. Will and James from Dark Rise are also a ship I enjoyed, though I'm more interested in their past selves.

10. Book That Made You Cry? There hasn't been one this year so far. And I cry easily, and I consider books that make me cry Superior. This tells you how mid the year has been.

12. Favourite Book Adaptation You Saw This Year? I really liked Dune II but haven't read the book yet so don't know if it was a good adaptation. It was definitely a great film.

13. Favourite Review You’ve Written This Year? Have written a couple of longer reviews on GR but nothing that stands out as more creative or unique. I've been thinking about posting reviews on my website and I'd like to figure out a unique or unusual or at least a me way to do them.

14. Most Beautiful Cover? I read almost exclusively on my Kobo and pay scant attention to covers.

15. What Books Do You Need To Read By The End of The Year? Many!

The Master and Margarita! hahah sobs :((

Finish a Lymond reread

reread tgcf now that I got all the novels

Harrow the Ninth

Some more Vorkosigan novels

Vita Nostra, which I've just begun

a couple of novels I bought YEARS ago and still haven't finished

and if I can read at least one of my 60-odd unread physical books I'll consider it a triumph

Tagging anyone who wants to do this! Perhaps @skeptiquex @hoko-onchi-writes @wolfpants @lettersbyelise and @gracerene might want to get the ball rolling?

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2022 mid year book tag

2023 mid year book tag

2025 mid year book tag

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[kei-maki]

Quite the Discovery

A small writing that only @secretly-larry-daley will understand, posting here because it was too long for Discord

A summer breeze whisked its way into the open air of the hanger Leroy found himself walking towards as he carried a small sack lunch and a water bottle in his hands.

The vast space of the hanger was used for the members of the Air Attack to team to hang out after a long day- a rec room of sorts. And with fire season beginning to come to an end, everyone found themselves visiting the hanger more often. They called it the Bunk.

The Bunk was outfitted with your standard rec room trimmings, a pool table, a ping pong table, and even a karaoke machine. Then near the back of the room stood an old fashioned tv surrounded by chairs and small sofas that everyone used on movie nights- or when the team watched CHoPs behind Blade’s back.

Leroy had been planning on watching something by himself while he ate his lunch, only to find his spot on the couch already taken by Dusty- the former racer having already switched the tv on for himself.

The pilot merely shrugged and continued his way over to the couch. He didn’t mind that he had taken the tv for himself. If anything, he grew somewhat excited at the prospect of watching something with his friend as they enjoyed the peaceful afternoon.

But as the team’s Lead grew closer to the tv, he couldn’t help but take notice of what exactly the other man was watching. It was the latest Grand Prix Formula One was hosting that year.

Leroy stop just behind the couch and leaned forward to rest his forearms on its backrest as he watched the vehicles on the screen maneuver in quick, calculated movements. Each and every attempt to inch forward in hopes of taking the first place spot. But he knew with certainty that that wouldn’t be an option once he saw who it was that was holding that position.

“Hey Dusty, whatcha watching?” He asked conversationally.

“Oh- hey Roy!” Dusty greeted, turned his head around to face the other pilot, grabbing onto the headrest with his left arm to help. He must’ve not noticed him from how invested he was in the events playing out on screen. “I was just catching up on the latest race. I can change it and put on a movie for the two of us if you want though.”

Leroy waved a hand dismissively. “Nah, you’re good. I’ve actually been meaning to check in myself.” Leroy moved so he was now sitting on Dusty’s left on the couch. “I thought you only watched the Piston cup, though.”

“Usually, yeah. But I was rewatching a few of the races from the World Grand Prix the other week and grew a bit curious about the other racers and how they were doing. So I’m planning on going through a few of their races as they come out before switching between them, that way I can see what they’re all up to.” Dusty explained.

“I was most curious about how the guy in first place was doing, so I decided to watch him first. His name’s-“

“Francesco Bernoulli.” Leroy smiled, knowing exactly who the man in first place was.

“A cocky bastard for sure, but one who mellowed out just a bit after the World Grand Prix. Started his career back in 2009 and was a prodigy right out of the gate. Quickly started a rivalry with Piston Cup champion Lightning McQueen with their frequent comparisons by fans, but the two eventually ended up getting together sometime after the WGP concluded. But the fact wasn’t discovered by the public until around this time two years ago.”

Dusty was taken aback by his friend’s knowledge of the racer. Stunned to silence even, for the moment as he was dumbfounded.

“I thought you said you were only a casual racing fan?? And when he got together with McQueen if it wasn’t found out until later???”

“Ah, well…” Leroy leaned back into the couch. “When he’s your brother you’re kind of expected to know what he’s like. And when he’s found a boyfriend. Because while he can be suave he panics just as the next person much around his crush and needs constant advice-” He caught himself ranting and stopped.

“Well- I think you get the point.” He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, before turning back to face the tv.

No.

Dusty, in fact, did NOT get the point. Not when his mind raced with the first part of Leroy’s rant.

‘When he’s your brother you’re kind of expected to know what he’s like.’

Wait wait wait. Wait hold on hold on. Hold on. Wait. WAIT. WAIT WHAT???!!

Dusty simply sat there, scrambling to find the words to find clarification as to what he meant. Because there was NO WAY they were ACTUALLY related. Right???

It didn’t help that Leroy was completely unfazed by his statement, just sitting there and watching the race as if he didn’t just drop a huge piece of information.

“You-“ Dusty tried, which seemed to get Leroy’s attention again.

“Wait hold on- you- wait. Ok,” Dusty took a deep breath as he tried to recollect himself.

“Can I get I repeat on that?”

Leroy looked confused now. “On what?”

“ON THAT- YOU- the first part of your sentence!!!”

“Uh…” Leroy thought about it for a moment. “‘When he’s your brother you’re kind of expected to know what he’s like?’”

Dusty’s mind froze once more. Trying to process the information still.

“You… you- you meant to- YOU…. You’re related to Francesco Bernoulli????!!!!”

Leroy furrowed his brows further at that.

“Yeah? You didn’t know?”

Hold the fuck up. WHAT.

“YOU NEVER TOLD ME????”

Roy flinched at the yelling and promptly paused the tv before answering.

“My name is literally Leroy Bernoulli, you didn’t connect the dots?”

“You think I can remember someone’s last name!??”

Now Leroy began raising his voice as well.

“IT’S LITERALLY IN MY FILE!”

“IM NOT THE ONE WHO DOES PAPERWORK ALL DAY IVE NEVER EVEN SEEN YOUR FILE! And even then, how am I supposed to know that it’s the same Bernoulli as FUCKING FRANCESCO!??”

“WELL, HOW COMMON DO YOU THINK THE NAME BERNOULLI IS???”

“I-…“ Dusty shut up then. Yeah, the racer was the only one he knew with that last name

“Exactly.”

It really began to sink into Dusty now. This man was actually…

“Well…?” He asked expectantly.

“Well, what?”

“WHAT’S IT LIKE TO HAVE HIM AS A BROTHER?”

“STOP SHOUTING. Jesus Christ…” Leroy unpaused the tv, watching his brother finish the race in first place with ease.

“He’s a cocky bastard, just like I said.” Leroy began to smile regardless of his statement though. “But I’m proud of him, I’m happy he was able to accomplish his dream as I was able to accomplish mine.”

“Huh…” Dusty was still reeling, but he could admire the support and love that filled Leroy’s eyes in that moment.

“Still a leccaculo though.”

“What does that mean?”

“Asslicker.”

“I mean…. You’re not wrong.” Said Dusty, remembering the Italian’s relationship with Lightning McQueen.

A look of silent horror flashed in Leroy’s eyes in that moment. Almost as if he were experiencing war flashbacks.

“You have no idea…”

[paddingtonfan69]

For the Fandom Year In Review asks: 1, 3, 4, 8, 12, 18, 19, 25

Tysm!!!!

1. Favorite fictional characters this year

Ugh so many little guys!! One of these later q’s is about main characters so protagonists aside, some of my fave supporting roles are Kayla (Hacks), Ava (Abbott Elementary), Vanesja (Fantasmas), Rio (Agatha all Along). Love an unhinged woman!!!

3. Favorite TV shows to watch this year

Oh so many! I love you television! You will notice however, that all these shows are week to week shows… makes you think!!

Scripted: Fantasmas, Agatha all Along, Hacks, Somebody Somewhere, Abbott Elementary

Unscripted: Survivor, The Traitors, Taskmaster

Constantly rewatching: Broad City, The Other Two, 30 Rock, Parks and Rec, Succession

4. Favorite books read this year

Answered here!

8. First fandom of the year

Idk if this counts as a fandom but my gf and I started the year by watching every iteration and country of The Traitors that is available and got real deep into it, so I would say that! In terms of scripted stuff, probably s3 of Hacks was the first thing in the new year I went a little feral over.

12. Favorite main character of the year

Deborah Vance (mean), Elphaba Thropp (witch), Agatha Harkness (mean witch), also Sam from Somebody Somewhere who is neither mean nor a witch but I love her!!!!

18. Fandom that you never expected to get into

I’m not really into it on here so much, but what actually took over my life in 2024 was Survivor, which I started from the beginning in October of last year. I never watched it as it aired, totally missed it’s impact on culture, but I watched a whopping 19 seasons this year, and I genuinely think it’s the blueprint for reality TV and is an incredible lens that mirrors American culture and society in the 21st century. Also it has like petty bitches lying and conniving and it’s perfect. NEVER thought I would be a survivor girlie, but I love it, I’m obsessed, it has become my life!

19. Fandom that made an unexpected comeback

Okay I wouldn’t say fully unexpected, because it’s the biggest movie out right now etc etc, but the comeback of Wicked has been genuinely SO fun. And in a way it is unexpected, bc I don’t know if any of us thought the movie would be so good???? Like, I knew I would like elements of it, but it truly blew me away and reawakened a decade+ dormant fandom obsession for so many people, which was a joy!! Love those gay witches!!!

25. Fandom predictions for next year

Answered here!

End of year fandom asks!