#anyway sorry this post is so long but i had to include the whole scene

[riddlerosehearts]

A3! Act Addict Actors || one gifset per episode ↳ Episode 04 ❀ A New Challenge

[i-dreamed-i-had-a-son]

So much of my impression of Reed Richards as autistic in the new Fantastic Four movie comes from Pedro Pascal's delivery. The way he chooses to say these lines makes such a difference--like "I am that smart" or "Anyone can build a crib, only I can build this" could EASILY have made him read as an a-hole, but Pedro's Reed says them with a sincerity that feels very autistic to me. He's not bragging or being snide, he's just stating the truth, and there's even a lot of gentleness in it. (And, I mean, come on, his confusion about the extra screws for the crib? "They included two extra...I have no idea why." He meant that!) His argument with Ben about how "cooking is more of an art than a math or a science" and how he failed his driver's test because of "poorly placed signage" (I love him) could have felt pedantic or prideful, but he says them with this sweet, almost abashed feeling that feels very genuine and familiar.

His reactions to Sue's pregnancy and the press post-Galactus excursion also read as autistic: he is clearly feeling a lot, but he isn't sure how to express it, so with Sue it comes out as immediately moving to problem-solving ("we'll have to design tests to account for our mutated DNA--") and with the press it shows up as reassurance-seeking: even though he's at the mic, he is constantly looking over at his family as if they could tell him what he should say. They even do end up answering some questions for him, and the most he says without a very long pause is his first comment: "I'm sorry we don't have a prepared statement" (which because of its delivery also feels very autistic).

And there's also his face, which is highlighted as very expressive in contrast to his fairly monotone voice. "I finally crossed it off the list," is said very simply and without context (true autistic information-sharing lol) but when Johnny jokes with him afterwards about taking back all the bad things he's said, Reed's face is telegraphing that he doesn't know how much of it is a joke. And at the start of the film, it's joked that his face is what gives away the pregnancy. (Not to mention Ben's joke about being surprised Reed isn't in panic-induced sweats and his reply that "I had that scheduled for later"...sir. You're not dodging the allegations)

Even in his fight with Sue the entirety of what he says is just so autistic to me. "I don't dream, I don't wonder. I let all of the worst things into my head, because it's my job to think of the bad things so that we can do them to them before they do them to us!" and Sue responds, "It's not your job, it's you." And he immediately agrees. And when Sue says "Sometimes, you being you hurts me," he can only pause and say "I don't mean to..." And Sue responds, "I know." And both of them feel so honest in how they say these lines! Reed really doesn't mean to hurt her, of course he doesn't, but he also doesn't know any other way to be, and he doesn't know how to make it hurt her less, and you can feel that he's really at a loss for what to do. Thankfully he is met with understanding, but the experience of the way you are and how you function being something that can hurt other people without your intending to or being able to help it is extremely relatable to autistic people. On top of this interaction, Reed feels like his whole family's pain is his fault, because he "should have known" that the suits "were...inadequate"--self-blame which makes him even more relatable.

And then there's the heartbreaking scene with him and Franklin where he quietly tells him, "I hope you're not like me. There's something wrong with me...always has been." It wasn't just the mutated DNA that made Reed feel wrong. He says he's always felt that way. There's nothing more autistic than that.

Anyway yeah I'm used to Reed feeling like a colder, less-emotional version of Tony Stark, but Pedro Pascal really breathes new life into this character. He is anxious and particular and warm and very, very autistic.

[darlingdaisyfarm]

Okay, so I do have my own hc about this but if you've had thoughts about this I def wanna know (plus I don't know if you've posted this before). It ties in with milking discussion so it's mainly about Ford, but I welcome Stan too! How would Ford react to being pegged and edged by y/n?

honey?? welcome to my mind because.... you won't believe but i DID write pegging these old men before. but guess what? i never posted it here, i totally forgot!!! i only uploaded it to ao3, AGHHH FUCKK. so waitttt i’m gonna post it here too, my bad. i genuinely blacked out and forgot i wrote it lmao

nsfw!

but about edging, GODDAMN, i love edging. and you know Ford, being the freaky pervert he is, would absolutely be into it too. like, let’s be real, this man didn't exactly have the most active sex life before you, so once you two start sleeping together, he’s not just having sex but running experiments and exploring his preferences, fetishes and kinks....i mean, the man’s a scientist through and through, so of course he’d be open to trying every kink on the periodic table, edging included :)

and ugh, the more you do it, the more he craves it. i can totally see him getting hooked on the feeling. you’ll catch him shifting awkwardly in his chair after long makeout sessions, already half-hard just thinking about the last time you left him dripping, trembling and untouched. i also fully believe he’d get hooked on the “reward“ aspect too. like when you stroke his hair or kiss his temple after you deny him release. because such nurturing praise makes his brain melt worse than the physical part

sometimes you’ll use toys on him too (cock ring.... ?? vibrator...? god), and Ford is so grateful for every second you don’t let him finish too fast. omg... literally right now, while im writing this, my brain just played out a scene where you’re edging him by jerking him off fast and suddenly stopping at the tip, telling him “you don’t cum unless i say, baby” while your other hand is shoved in his mouth, letting him suck on your fingers (because one night, drunk off his ass, he admitted to you that he loves it). AND AND... and that that quiet, hoarse “please” is music to ur ears especially with ur fingers in his needy mouth. he can't speak clearly.

if you make it a rule for a whole day, like no touching himself, no cumming, not until you decide, he’ll follow it religiously because Ford's self-control is terrifying.... he's trying so hard to be a good boy to you :(

and i think Ford is into mutual masturbation. but adding edging here when you let yourself finish, multiple times, making a mess all over yourself, but every time he gets close you stop him. and he has to just watch. and he’s so into it that by the end his cock is swollen and twitching, and he’s too out of it to even form words :(

if you blindfold him??? it multiplies the effect x1000. being unable to see his sweetheart, when you’ll stop or start again drives him half insane. his head tips back against the pillow, mouth open and you're saying “not yet, sweetheart” and that alone could make him spill without permission, which, of course, you don’t let slide

and yeah, at one point this man would straight-up start sobbing, real tears slipping down his face, but he’s so deep in it he doesn’t even want you to stop. my sweet desperate brilliant pervert. + if you combine both, pegging and edging you might just fry his poor genius brain

and once you finally let him finish (or don’t :) depending on your mood), he gets so soft, fuzzy. drunk look in his brown eyes. the high from being so worked up turns him into the most affectionate, lazy, pliant version of himself<3

anyways feel free to share with me ur own headcanons plss, im always glad to hear ur thoughts about this needy old man!! <3

and..i know you didn’t ask bout this but i can’t shut up. i think he’d love ruined orgasms too??, sorry i’m getting carried away. imagine the first time you let him tip over the edge only to cut it short halfway through. he'll whimper so loud... his body convulses but there’s no real release. and once the frustration settles, he realises he liked it. the tension still coiled in his gut. the fact that you can take his pleasure away just like that... yeah, he’s down BAD

[miwiheroes]

My Full Thoughts on the S5 Teaser (Part Three)

part one, part two

Sorry this series is literally taking so long like it's really funny that the teaser came out about a week ago ish and im still fucking speaking about it DGAJHSDGJHASD

Skip to the last part if u want to see where I talk about Will's powers :)

anyways im going to copy and paste the same thing from my previous posts just to remind ppl:

I think the aim with ST teasers over the years have inherently been to drum up excitement for the new season using multiple methods:

1) Reminding the general audience (aka viewers they have lost during the 3 year period) why they liked the show 3 years ago.

2) Using any clips, even if they are misleading, to elicit a sense of nostalgia in the viewers who loved the show since 2016.

3) Making sure the clips "barely scratch the surface " (Ross's words) so the show can't be seen as underwhelming due to the trailer being too exciting.

4) Having clips from the season seem like one thing on the surface, when in reality it goes far deeper, making the show itself seem deeper and more exciting.

Immediately, we're going into this oof First, I'm going to talk about what I think this is not.

This is not a nightmare or a separate Vecna vision for Mike or something. The camerawork in no way suggests that someone else is seeing this happening to Will, it very much is in Will's perspective based on how close we are to his face. This is also not a nightmare of Will's because he doesn't have any idea about Vecna's new form yet, and the appearance of Vecna's hand looks like his new and improved form here. Also, why would Vecna give Will a vision of him attacking him when he could.....actually attack him. Lol

This is also not him being actually Vecna'ed like those from Season 4. We know that Vecna does not want Will dead. That's a well-known fact. Will's face also doesn't look similar to those in Season 4 with their eyes white and rolling back, they don't even look as scared as he does here. I think this is something completely different.

Okay so what I think this might be:

This is a very short split second shot of him, meaning it's probably from something mid-season or later on. They've included things from the finale in teasers before, although, if you look closely at Will, you can see that his face is the same wetness and his eyes are just as red and his hair is just as wet as we see it in the scene with him closing his eyes and presumably the scene where he's with Joyce and Mike.

In my opinion, this is him being taken over by Vecna. As in, Vecna is taking control of his body. How this fits in with the other scenes presumably in the same episode - I have no idea. All I know is that this is after Vecna reappears through the skin-like portal.

Whether or not this is before or after he collapses onto Joyce remains to be seen, but the much more likely option is that this happens afterwards. He looks extremely terrified, but in a way that suggests there are other people around, kind of like he's screaming for help, rather than trying to find the help inside of him. That means that the shot we get of him closing his eyes could happen after this - because it's after he realises that he has the ability within himself to fight off Vecna, or it's after he realises he doesn't want to fight anymore.

Either way, I have no fucking clue but it's weird that he's in the dark instead of the light like he was in the scene with Mike and Joyce. So this could be a whole separate thing. Just not Episode 7 apparently

OKAY EDIT: um so I kind of had a new idea about this scene and I think instead of it being him taken over by Vecna it is Vecna showing Will all the horrible things that could happen (to anyone, but especially Mike) just like he did with Nancy in season 4. The reason he looks so terrified isn't because he is terrified for himself, but because he's scared for everyone else. Pain absolute pain

Shot of Holly looking scared... who's surprised?

This could happen in Episode One, because when we see her later with her mother trying to protect her from being taken, she does not have this cape on. So this is not her disappearance - either that or everything I said about Karen dying/getting hurt in her quest to protect her daughter from disappearing is wrong and Holly just disappears on her own.

On a lighter note, yay she's wearing a costume of her dnd character!! Will the wise inspired :) This again supplements the idea that Mike, Will and Holly will be a mini group earlier in the series to better cement the idea that they will try and look for her when she disappears. (though i hardly believe that that's all byler's plot is in s5)

Another possibility could be that this is actually while she's missing. This is where she is during her disappearance and this is her actually much later in the volume. I highly doubt that Holly will only be in the first two episodes and then disappear from the show completely - so we could see her quest to survive and this is a shot from that. It would be really sweet to see that she tries to survive the dangers using something she has learnt from dnd, and she puts on the cape to sort of make herself braver. If that makes sense. (Actually I prefer this theory to any others thankyou)

I think this is his first outfit of the season. The blood on his shirt though - well that's presumably fresh, and not his. I don't have many coherent thoughts on this but it better not be max's blood lemme tell u. I guess this is why he had to change into the other sweatshirt my guy-

Oh SHIT i'm so ready for this duo. We have seen a lot of bts with Murray and Robin being in scenes together, driving the Bradley's truck presumably as an excuse to get in and out of places, which is why Murray has to hide his identity.

I'm not sure why they're breaking the fourth wall here, but the fourth wall break is why the creators chose this shot for the teaser (for some head on audience engagement) - could be just an interesting shot to show them concerned by some danger, but the vibe doesn't give off tired of somebody, they actually do look scared of something.

Now, you may have noticed that I have chosen to ignore some shots from the teaser for some reason - well this is because of this:

This earlier clip from the teaser shows the same truck being driven away from a demogorgon which is attacking it, and as you can see from the sides of the truck, there have been multiple attacks on it beforehand. Comparing the two photos, you can see that the first photo with Murray and Robin is before this instance. More deceptive teaser compiling ig

Then we have this:

In this shot we can see that the truck is on its side and Robin is alone. There is a big hole in the roof of the truck, and she has presumably escaped the demogorgons by this point. But - where is Murray? Either he's out of shot and she's the only one looking at danger (ik the next shot is the mindflayer but its super deceiving bc shes not at the radio station and i dont think thats what shes looking at dont @ me), he's dead (which is unlikely based on Robin not looking that upset), or Robin was driving the truck alone. I think he's just out of shot, but we can see that Robin is injured and has blood on her.

Just something to think about

I've seen very little people talking about the next two shots which is just of this car blowing through the fences in the back yards of people in Hawkins, and then another one of military guys running through the forest. (idk if the military guys actually have any of our characters in there, at first i thought mike was among them but im probably just seeing things)

The car here is the one that Steve, Nancy, Jonathan and Dustin use and is seen later going through the gate. Probably driving away from monsters or military

Bro the shot of Will's eye going into a shot of the tunnels??? This is so smart - a literal callback to what happens to him in Season 2.

I don't think this is what it's going to look like in the actual season itself - the cut is way too harsh for what it actually will look like. Maybe the eye will turn into the tunnels but it'll probably be a more gradual cut than the one in the teaser. Or his eye will not cut into the tunnels altogether.

If you take a look at the reflection in his eye, you will see that he's in the radio station. So this could be a thing that happens before he faints. Also the pupil widening makes it seem like he's heightening somehow (his powers are heightening wowwooooeoeiroeo)

This one has ended up being controversial it seems - because people seem to think that her floating here means that she now has the ability to fly or something.

Can you not see the fact that her arms are out behind her, showing that she's using her telekinesis powers to make herself kind of defy gravity and push the air away from her? Then she pulls herself towards something kind of like a grappling power? Like she can't just fly now - it's more of a telekinesis thing to me. Plus this shot was put into the show purely to build up excitement for everything being bigger and better this season, such as el's powers.

I have seen some moaning and groaning that this means that she will become far too overpowered this season and while I see ur concern with that, and I was concerned too at first, I think that you're seeing this scene without any context. This could be a major part of her arc - this could be something that she's doing to prove to herself or someone else. Idk just remember that this scene will not just be a scene about flying and whatever - it'll have a deeper meaning, I'm sure. We just don't know because we aren't supposed to have the context yet, just the excitement of her powers being so much better than ever.

Joyce and Mike are presumably looking at the same thing because the same pole and sign are in the backgrounds of each of their shots. Why can't we see Mike in the shot with Joyce? This leads me to believe that this is set after the date announcement shot we saw with Will on the ground with all the men pointing their guns. We saw in that shot that Mike was not with him, and that he was on the other side, trying to get to him. By now, he has obviously made his way over.

Let's take a slight tangent about why Mike's hair is wet (we have also seen that Will's hair is wet in a lot of his major shots in the teaser, some of them could be with sweat, but at least one is with water because we saw that bts shot of Noah wrapped in towels). Could be with sweat, but it doesn't explain why nobody else's hair or faces look wet with sweat - especially Joyce's, who would have helped Mike with something he had to do if it was strenuous. Even if it is with sweat, what the fuck did he do to get his hair that freaking wet? That interests me a lot as well

As for why Will is on the ground at all, it could be something to do with his powers, but the reason why the men are all on the ground isn't to do with Will - because we saw in the shot in the date announcement that he was already on the ground anyway.

If you analyse the Hawkins photo below:

- then you can assume that they are in the bottom right corner of the section, and they are looking at the huge gate thing that is in the side of the library. So something is emerging from that gate.

I also want to point out that I think that the scenes we get in the teaser of Mike and Joyce are actually before the scene we get of them in the date announcement which is this:

and you can see in this gif that Will is kind of awake, but not totally conscious - I don't think that Joyce would be able to fully carry Will completely if he was unconscious, so he must be kind of awake here.

But I could see how the thing in the gif happens before - because maybe Mike is protecting them from something other than Vecna, like the military guys being in front of them trying to fight something coming out of the gate and Will is sort of there in Joyce's arms prior to collapsing on the ground. The only thing about this is that the lights are flickering and you can see men on the ground in the bg of the gif so Will could collapse on the ground after the gif shot - like straight after.

The teaser leads you to believe that they are looking at this. This would be a really cool thing to happen in that moment, but you never know, this could be a different reveal. I am actually willing to believe that they are watching this, though, because the sort of skin kind of looks like the gate that we saw earlier in the teaser that they are looking at.

Then we hear the "found you" thing - this is deceptive again because it leads us to believe that it happens during this part with Vecna and the fire or the Vecna coming out of the skin, and I believe that it will play a part in the beginning of the season. We know that the beginning is of Will humming the tune to sisosig, which is when he is in Castle Byers and when he gets taken to the library. So I think that the ending of the cold open could be this voiceover and it goes into the title credits.

I do want to point out how they are hiding his face. Vecna's face is being hidden because of a spoiler, clearly. This is probably because he has a missing eye and this might reveal too much of the plot from the season, but honestly, it's pretty simple to work out that, given all the eye imagery given to Will this season, Will's going to be Vecna's new eye. So yeah

Really enjoy the next part because it shows the ending of the "countdown" from the decibel meter that was seen at the beginning with the "burn commencing in 5...". I have already spoken about how this decibel thing is really deceptive and doesn't mean anything dangerous itself (see part one). But I really like the implication of it finally ending when the burn actually begins because we see fire in the next shot:

Some perceptive people have seen that you can spot the Melvald's sign in the top corner. I could not see it, but I take their word for it because the blue sign looks very similar. Btw you can't see it in this screenshot lol

This is the proper reveal of Vecna's new form, which is made up of a bunch of weird petrified tentacles and branches it looks like?? Also maybe bones - either way he also has a new power. I kind of knew that this was going to happen ahadhasgdh They figured out a way to hurt Vecna in the last season, enough that he is severely weakened. This was through fire and music. I already predicted that they would not use music as a way out of a vecna vision anymore because um... that would get old really quick and the Duffers don't like to do anything repetitive to the last season, as they always ramp up the danger. Even from S2 to S3, they ramped up the mind flayer from being one person to being a whole army.

In this, Vecna can deflect fire, which is the one thing that they thought they could defeat him with. Presumably, music is also not going to work as a solace anymore, or it's just not going to be enough. This is going to make the audience panic. But obviously, a much more impactful source of solace needs to be found. Simply put, this will be love. This will be the healing of trauma.

Okay so everyone's kind of talking about how there is fire being thrown here like a fireball - and people are starting to theorise about how Will has some kind of fire powers. It makes sense why people think this because in Season One, he was foreshadowed to defeat the Demogorgon with fireballs and yeah he just keeps talking about fireballs so it would be cool to see that be part of his powers. However....is it wrong for me to say this would be kind of goofy?? Like where is he getting these powers from? Inherited from where? Because we know that El's is inherited from all the MK Ultra experiments Terry had to go through, or it's just inherited from Terry herself.

Also he suddenly has a grip on those powers? Idk we don't know the context of this scene yet, so I can't really pass judgement on the writers' decisions, but the theory doesn't hold much ground for me just yet. Maybe if I see a trailer I will gain more context.

Here are the actual reasons why I think Will can't have plain old just fire powers in Season 5 though:

I think it could just be that the military guys or even Mike and Joyce put down some flammable liquid (having a brain fart rn idk a better name for this), or there's a flame thrower, and it all lit on fire thinking that it would hurt Vecna. But....oh no! He now has the power to deflect flames, which was their last thing that they had against him.

Also the flames are already lit when Will is on the floor (maybe from using his powers but like ummmm Vecna is literally already appearing so idk we just dont have the context yet) because we can see that the lighting on Mike's face is orange, meaning there is fire next to him.

The biggest reason for me though is: Will's fire powers aren't even going to work, man. You can literally see that if he had fire powers, which are presumably supposed to be this new, amazing thing, they immediately get overpowered by Vecna. Meaning his new powers are immediately 'useless' or really anticlimactic. I would much rather his powers are actually something he already has, which is True Sight, or something connected to his trauma/ him creating the UD.

The powers that the other Lab kids have are based in mental ability like El's is telekinesis and that isn't an elemental thing. Fire from a human is....not scientific at all. And YEAH OKAY WE HAVE MONSTERS but The Duffers are self-proclaimed nerds, they aren't just going to overlook the fact that it is a little silly for the viewers to watch this dark, edgy show (that Season 5 is supposed to be) and have its main character shoot flames out of where? his hands? Will's powers need to be far more complicated than that.

HOWEVER, I really shouldn't pass judgement, because you never know, they could have a totally compelling reason for Will to have fire powers in S5. It could all be linked somehow to his true sight, the concept of time, and the fact he made the UD in Hawkins with his mind. I doubt that tho ngl

I think the purpose of the little clip in the teaser was not to tease the fact that Will has fire powers. I think it was to tease the fact that Vecna can deflect fire and fire is no longer the thing they need to defeat the UD. He is now much more OP than the characters thought. We need to defeat Vecna with......the power of breaking cycles of trauma and abuse <3 read my essay ho

THANKS SO MUCH for reading my ramblings omg!!! Hope you enjoyed :)) Leave ur thoughts below if you think I could elaborate or if you have a genuine counterpoint.

[sonoranbumblebee]

Syd & Stevie at the Wedding

posted this as a comment on another post but it got long so here as well

Humor is Stevie's coping mechanism. He was once a sweet and innocent Berzatto newbie but because he loves Michelle he has adapted to the chaos and learned to celebrate it as a part of his wife's world.

In "Fishes" Donna threw a spoon at him and cursed him out and he had the appropriate WTF reaction but then just rolled with it so he could stay a part of the evening. He gave Nat the full-body hug she needed to recover from a really bad encounter with Donna. His grace was the definition of giving grace.

Stevie introduces himself to Frank as someone who "married into the family." It's now his family too although also always an outsider. Later he comes up to Syd and Carmy in conversation. We can see from the way that Carmy lights up when he sees Stevie that this is someone in the family he loves and trusts. Moreover we can see that he wants to connect Syd and Stevie, so he introduces them and blushes the whole time while the two of him sort of have a separate exchange almost above him about how fucking great Carmy is.

My head canon is that when he's at the gate waiting for his plane back to New York he calls Michelle and tells her "You ducked too soon. Carmy was there, first of all, and he has a fucking girlfriend." "Bullshit." "He's still calling her his friend but she works at his restaurant, she's hot as hell, and they stare at each other a lot." "Oh my god. Nooooooo. No." "Yes." "I cannot believe I missed that." "I know! Sucks to be you."

Stevie knows quickly who Syd is to Carmy. Syd is a candidate to marry into the family. When he asks about meeting Donna and comments on her hesitantly, I don't think he's taking a shot at Carm at all. I think he's extending some allyship to Syd. They don't need to make a fuss about it, but Stevie is letting her know that if she needs someone who can help her grapple with and interpret that, he's been there. I do think it probably shamed and embarrassed Carm a little bit, but not because it came from Stevie but just because he is horrified at the idea of Syd being dragged into his family's chaos because she is connected to him.

Then the scene ends but I would argue the relationship between Stevie and Syd really begins. At some point Carm gets pulled away but Stevie and Syd are still together when they get called under the table. I very much see that as Stevie looking out for Syd, Carm's girl, in the exact same way that Richie does except Richie is in the middle of his own family right now, so he can't cover Carm's too.

Syd, Stevie, and Pete all end up under the table in a cluster. Team Berzatto Spouse! They love their person, and they're sticking with them through everything that comes with that person, including Donna's mental-illness-fueled abuse and being a part of the larger family network where no-contact (Carm's approach for the past 5 years) can never really pull you out of the entangled web that is family.

So in short, I took the interaction about Donna as Stevie telling Syd "welcome to the family, sorry it's insane hope you have a great time anyway, let me know if you need help with your batshit-crazy mother-in-law I just met you but I can see that Carm loves you so I love you let's enjoy the ride"

[aprillikesthings]

So this is somewhat of a continuation of my "you could headcanon Catra as demisexual based on canon" post, but I wanted to write a new post for this.

So there’s a fascinating conversation to be had about why, in fics where Catra and Adora aren't together (yet), so many of us have written Adora as…not a prude per se, but far less likely to hook up with other people—and have written Catra doing that, instead. (I mean, I have an unpublished WIP that includes that; I'm not throwing stones at glass houses here.)

And I do think some of it is that Adora is awkward in that way that’s so often some combo of a sheltered upbringing/ADHD/autism; whereas Catra is in fact more openly flirtatious.

(Disclaimer: In this post I'm using "slutty" in a neutral-to-positive sense.)

But the irony is that One, plenty of people who share those qualities with Adora are in fact hella slutty*; and Two, Catra clearly doesn’t intend to follow through on all that flirting.

ANYWAY time for my actual thesis of this post:

The real reasons, IMHO, that it's easier to see Adora as less slutty than Catra:

Adora is so visibly uncomfortable in her skin, and Catra is not

Adora doesn't even realize when she's attracted to other people

Catra however is aware of when people find her attractive (and changes how she interacts with them based on that)

The tweets aren't connected; they weren't part of the same thread. But ND's made no secret of the fact that he gave Adora a bunch of his own traits**, and it was after s5 that he started coming out as trans--which isn't to say Adora is intended to be read as dysphoric. But the way Adora never thinks of herself or what she wants carried over into not thinking about her physical body as anything other than a tool, and not feeling comfortable in her body, and not feeling like she owned it. (Which....is probably related to ND's religious trauma, considering how many conservative/fundie Christians straight-up tell women and girls their body doesn't belong to them. In those words. Literally.)

And I think that's part of why Adora reads as so awkward. The idea of someone wanting her and finding her attractive is just bizarre to her to the point that she doesn't even see it.

She does clearly find other people attractive! But I don't think she realizes she's doing it--she reminds me a bit of when I was 15 and stared at women in bikinis on the beach and tripped over my own feet because I was looking at them and not where I was going lol, and had literally zero idea I was doing it until my best friend told me about it later.

Adora didn't even know she wanted to kiss Catra until just before it happened--if Glimmer had pulled Adora aside in the Crimson Waste and said "lol you want Huntara so bad," Adora would've been genuinely confused!

And that's all before you get into the whole She-Ra thing, and you could write a long-ass essay about Adora's sense of identity and the degree to which she sees She-Ra as herself or not. But the fact is that She-Ra has a different body than Adora! Taller, stronger, a lot more hair lol. And the people around her clearly value She-Ra differently than they do Adora. So that's a whole. Thing.

Meanwhile: Catra just feels comfier in her body. She does try to tamp down her cat-like qualities to some degree, especially in s4, but a lot of it was just that her ears and tail tended to give away her emotions, and she was trying to hide them. She stops suppressing that at some point after Save the Cat. (And then the Universe gave her a mood ring alien cat, lol.) Catra's got her own pile of Issues, but her body is just not one of them.

There’s a scene at the end of The Coronation (s4ep1) where Catra is in her s4 outfit for the first time, and she basically does the “I’m in charge now” thing at Hordak, and I’m sorry but it’s...not NOT sexually charged, even leaving aside that her new outfit has thigh slits and a boob window. She’s sitting in his throne and purring (loudly!) and then purrs out a "Hey, Hordak."

She basically forces him to his knees, taunts him, and then we see from his POV as she sits back in that throne and crosses her legs. If she’d done that in a scene with literally any non-male character it would be seen as ship-bait!

Is she intentionally flirting with Hordak? Lol no.

But you'll notice: She doesn't do it with Scorpia, when she's mean to Scorpia. With Scorpia she's just...biting and cruel. So she clearly has some idea what she's doing when she taunts people, enough that she knows Scorpia would take it differently. She knows Scorpia finds her attractive and is trying to push Scorpia away.

Catra also doesn't do it with Double Trouble! Double Trouble flirts with Catra, but Catra gives none of it back, and as noted in my previous post, is even visibly uncomfortable with it at times.

Which isn't to say Adora never does the "flirtatious taunting" thing:

But like, where. Where do you think she learned it from.

(this post is once again relevant)

EDIT: another example of Adora learning it from Catra, taken from a "She-Ra Crack" video:

(*Me. In my 20’s. Just remember kids, lots of neurodivergent nerds are hella slutty.) (**iirc that's how he got diagnosed with ADHD. Everyone just like "hey is Adora intentional ADHD rep" and he was like "no, I wrote her like me?? ...oh. shit.")

(Lastly: anyone reblogging this to shame people for writing/hc'ing/shipping whatever they want will get blocked. I'm not even sure I hc Catra as demi and I wrote a whole post about it lol.)

[katyspersonal]

I need to share this information with someone because its a huge revelation and it drives me insane that this fanbase is still peddling the lie that there was a cut ending for SOTE. Okay, here goes - demoncorejr on Bluesky, I am not affiliated, made an interesting post about the original design of the Divine Gate which includes a possible answer for the lost cutscene of Miquella at the end of the first SOTE trailer. I implore you to read their full post, it is some excellent datamining.

This, combined with the cut Miquella dialogue where he is still addressing Radhan, leads me to fully believe that this cutscene was just an early draft of the phase 2 cutscene of him stepping out of the gate - not an ending where he was going to 'unveil' the Land of Shadow, which would have been impossible to implement into the base game technically anyway, given how huge the Land of Shadow is!

Would love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

ENDING WHERE MIQUELLA WOULD "UNVEIL" THE LAND OF SHADOW WAS NEVER MEANT TO EXIST AS REVEALED BY A DATAMINER!!!

Lol sorry I NEEDED a header to pique the interest of all 6 of you who are reading fdsjfhsd Anon, thank you for bringing this to my attention, because I already did have a thought that maybe the scene with Miquella reaching for the Scadutree was just one of the angles of him stepping out of the gate!!! I did not address it because I wondered if it was overthinking, but seems like I should have trusted my hunch? XD

Okay so, here is the thread in question:

This was an interesting read, so here are some core points I want to reshare as thread is a bit long:

1) The original draft of the Divine Gate was appearing to look very bloody and rotting, just like it looked in the SOTE promo trailer where Marika pulled some golden strings out from it:

Here images themselves, for closer look:

2) The arena was ALSO going to be rather "liquid", full of blood/rotted waters/whatever!

3) The initial intent is also still there in some ways; according to KERA, the initial textures were tweaked to have that pale, petrified, "sandy" look to them, to fit the surroundings. Including two screenshots because it is a video file on Bluesky of moving a slider and idk how to reshare it:

The second, very brown one, is correct colors of this texture, and the first screenshot is a tweak, not actual way this texture is intended to be!

I needed to reshare the key points from the thread and paraphrase, but yeah guys, read the whole thing, it is very insightful! So yeah, you can really see how initially they intended to keep the Divine Gates the same as it was shown in the trailer:

4) There is still effect for the corpses attached to the gate to bleed:

So that brings us to the question: how does it prove that a different Miquella's ending was never a thing?

5) The Miquella's cutscene seen in the trailer was cropped due to artistic changes of what the DIVINE GATE looked like, not plot changes!

They could not show him stepping into a bloody and decaying arena anymore, because.... it was no longer bloody and decaying! THIS was the change!

ok sorry I will stop with the Big Text lol

But yes, I am absolutely convinced that they've removed it over this reason! As for why the Divine Gate changed, I am not sure? I think maybe it would thematically fit more that Marika "killed" it when she pulled the golden strings from it? Or artistically it would not feel right if Miquella came out of a very "dirty" and bloody spot all perfectly clean and devoid of all "filth", so the gate had to look very polished and clean for the lack of better term?

I've also mentioned that I thought so myself, and after your ask, I finally remembered why:

(Start from 2:20) In this video, the creator does point out it simply looks like the essentially same cutscene, but from another angle and, well, with different arena!

You also can see the map further changed, like this tower appearing!

So, yeah, when I saw that video it felt legit, but not convincing enough, yet the thread you shared was a life-savior!!

I also do agree that it was obvious from the start that an extra ending with Miquella would never happen, unveiling Shadow Land or not! Miyazaki said RIGHT after the trailer dropped in the interview, that SOTE would not have an impact on the base game!

(From this ( x ) page)

The effects of "unveiling" the Land of Shadow would be so drastic that there would be no way to preserve the base game map with the changes. It would straight up jump into a new ending... that was confirmed to not happen!

[corviiids]

Within the main Phantom Thieves in persona 5, what would be the single worst pairing to get into a romantic relationship. It has to be awful and also compelling (I call Futaba x Ren a copout since that's immediately where my mind went and I want a more interesting answer).

this is a great question. i generally think most combinations of the thieves would be fine. ren in particular i think works fine with almost (almost) anyone. also i am not sure what you mean by "main" phantom thieves so for clarity i will include both sumi and akechi even though they don't REALLY count in the strictest terms because i want them there

ai wanna say all my answers below aren't like... criticisms so don't be upset if you like them... im not saying they're bad ships... i like any ship that's compelling even if the compelling bit is that i think they'd suck as a couple. these are the ships i simply think would be dysfunctional in some way and wouldn't work out in the long term and would crash out in a way that's mostly funny. most of the ships im about to name are actually quite popular and i don't dislike any of them!

5. ren/makoto

ok listen. this is only because to me makoto is a lesbian and hasn't worked it out yet. my personal projection of shumako is that they date for one (1) comphet week before she figures her shit out and dumps him. this can happen in the canon timeline. she can be his first ever girlfriend. it makes everything mildly awkward in the thieves for a minute and then becomes a story they laugh about forever. he insists she's his greatest heartbreak and she valiantly pretends it never happened

4. ren/sumi

just knocking out the only two ren ships i don't think would work. i actually DO like this ship i just don't ship it as an actual relationship. i ship it as sumi having a huge big obvious puppy crush on ren and ren gently warding her off for months because she's very obviously leaning on him in a vulnerable time and being with him at this point in their lives, i think, wouldn't really be good for her because her feelings for him are based in infatuation. i already think in canon we should have had another scene when sumi has her second awakening that she should have gotten a new un-jokered outfit because her arc is very much about coming into her own as an individual. i actually think years later when they're much older and she's more stable in her personal identity he could be interested in her but she's like sorry im over you now!!!

3. ryuji/ann

ok i don't deny they would be incredibly funny because they're constantly bickering and i actually do think in some universe they COULd work?? but i sincerely think they'd try to date in college because of how well they get along and they're maybe living together anyway but every time they try to kiss neither of them can take it seriously. finally ann is like alright bro let's give this one up okay and they go get bbq

2. akechi/ryuji

i actually change my mind there are no problems with this

1. akechi/yusuke

SORRY HAHAH I KNOW A LOT OF PEOPLE LIKE THESE TWO and they ARE entertaining and quite cute but to me personally i just can't see this EVER working out long term. yusuke's too blunt and his approach to his traumatic past and shitty father figure are completely diametrically opposed to akechi's. ive made posts abt this before and possibly talked about it in fic? yusuke's too authentic and sincere and non-bitter a person for this to work without prickling akechi constantly. i genuinely just think, like, they'd start dating because yusuke's like akechi you are fairly good looking would you consider modelling for me and akechi's like hair flip Of course I--what do you mean "fairly"

and then for their whole relationship yusuke's just peacefully and mostly accidentally insulting everything about akechi's entire being until akechi is paranoid to the point of hysteria. yusuke cannot stand how much akechi lies or how selfish he is. they fight every day. i know a lot of folks love this ship i am so sorry there is a lot to enjoy about it and they obviously have a lot in common and their interactions are excellent, but every time i think about them trying to date i can't not find it funny because i just think the inevitable crashout would be SO dramatic

[kravchikfreak]

I'm sorry if this ask is coming out of nowhere, but I have been looking for posts that talk about how S2 has declined in quality and there have been virtually NONE. Even tags like 'arcane critical' or 'anti arcane' don't show up even though I know there are posts that are tagged with them. I'm losing my mind. Has nobody else noticed this downgrade? The ideas could have been good, but they were not executed well and the whole thing reads like they wrote it really quickly without any real editing and then rushed to get it out. It feels hollow, like we're seeing a botched or unfinished version of what it was supposed to be. What kind of random ass shit is it that an enforcer comes up to Vi and says, "cait said good things about you," and Vi is just like wow you're right, I'm sold! Even though she already knows Cait has a high opinion of her and that wasn't the issue in the first place! Also who was that random homeless man? Why am I supposed to care about these people? Fans get defensive about the pacing and argue that s1 did a lot in a minimal amount of time too, but I don't think they realize that pacing has to do with making something feel organic. Vi's heel turn into becoming an enforcer was not organic. Viktor's two second goodbye was not organic. Both of these things could have made sense if they'd given these moments even just a little more effort or care. There were so many unnecessary scenes that could have been cut out to give more time to things that desperately needed it (like caitlyn's sad wordless montage about her mom. Why did it drag out so long? Her grief is apparent in every other scene. We did not need an entire abstract slideshow of her making various sad expressions.) There's also the animation. The animation is leagues above a regularly animated show, but if you look closely it is actually not as good as s1. There is less detail, the lighting of the background doesn't always match the characters, and there are moments where the lips don't always sync with their voices. These are minor things that I wouldn't usually care about, but for a multi-million dollar show like Arcane? Riot games recently laid off a whole slew of its creative team, too, and I wonder if they've been making similar cuts before that. It would certainly explain the drop in quality. I wouldn't put it past corporate greed to nerf one of the most groundbreaking animated shows in modern media if they thought they could profit more by cutting corners.

I'm sorry to ramble in your inbox as a random stranger, but it boggles my mind that there are so few people mentioning s2's flaws (not including rage bait, which is annoying because it only delegitamizes real criticisms and discussions.) I feel like I'm screaming in the void like is nobody else seeing this shit??

well hello there! first of all, "arcane critical" is what i was looking for when i was writing that post. gonna put it in tags now before i forget

secondly, i love asks! so no need to apologize. thirdly it's a bummer you went under anonym, i don't believe you get notifs for your anonymous asks, so unless you actually hang out on my blog regularly there's a chance you won't see me appreciating your thoughts and agreeing with you (expect for the animation part, cause for me it was great, i have no questions on that regard. but for each their own. i'm a big fun of the dragon prince first season's animation and still sad they get rid of their 13fps style, so...)

anyway, i got bored at the beginning of my rumbling that time and didn't get into some deep analysis but yes, the first season also had events to go fast and forward, but at the same time they made sense. it wasn't rush or dragged, every scene had a meaning and weight

YES to the burial scene. like i get it, it was drawn pretty and it was sad and grey for cait but my god how many hours can we watch vi going away from 317 different angles? i was actually shocked to see her at cait's, cause after 10 minutes of her hiding in the crowd and leaving before cait saw her i was legit sure the show tried to tell us they broke up for now and won't see each other for a while

and it all feels so odd, as if on the one hand writers had too little allowed episodes to work with their ideas, like they came up with all these important story points but had no more screen time to add actual story development between the points, cause the season is like 10 episodes too short to fit a full coherent story. but on the other hand they have too much unused screen time, like they wrote only 5 episodes but they had to make 9 so now we will just fill the equivalent of 4 episodes of free time with mute repetitive long scenes

who the fuck is that mute lizard cop? is he actually mute? or there were no budget on one more voice actor? what's his problem? why he always looks like he's mad at everyone? should i even care he's always displeased? does he even matter? if no, why he has so much screen time and close-up shots? if yes, why he has no meaning or story or character or name? i swear to god, in the first season that one future-junkie dude had more of a meaning and weight in his two minutes scene than these lizard cop and the new jinx's sister during two episodes

and it all would've been fine, really, if it was the first season, or one of these already bad shows that you don't really expect much of. but arcane was a masterpiece, and also we've been waiting for it for three years. so it's the feeling that we know how GOOD it can be, and the feeling that it just chose not to

w....wait... what if they also tried to do great? and failed to do good in the process

or maybe, as you said, just some internal kitchen shit. i never actually follow media creation stuff and staff so maybe that's just it. still not make it all better for me as a viewer who was too excited to learn at 1 am that the act dropped and stayed up until 7am to make sure to watch it before getting to sleep

HEY THANK YOU for giving me opportunity to rumble about it again

[forerussake]

Many-Coated Mayhem #3

In the wake of coat post #1 and #2 I promised I had more still, and I do, because lo and behold: Wu Xie is not the only one in TSF who wears nice coats. There are SO MANY nice coats in this show. Here's some of my personal favourites:

Coat 24

I've mentioned her before! One of the most glorious coats in this many-coated show: Pangzi's floofy, leather-and-fur wintercoat. He starts wearing this at the Retreat in episode 9, and he wears it for some time after that.

It's beautiful and amazing and gorgeous and it looks spectacular on him, and I WANT IT. (Or maybe I just want him to hug me?)

Coat 25

This is the robey coaty situation Xiaoge wears in the flashbacks of him visiting the Yinshaluo Shrine in episodes 20-21. It has furr lining the hood, and nice patches on the elbows and a red belt/sash to secure it around his waist.

It looks soft in a way his modern-day attire rarely does and it's an allround LOOK. Especially when paired with his fingerless gloves.

Coat 26

It's Yinshaluo and Second Bronze Door trip winter coat time!

First up: Zhang Haike. I grabbed this shot from episode 31, when he goes to the Spiritual Retreat to take on the position of Deren, because most of the other scenes it appears in were either too dark, too muted in colour, too snowy, or too fast-paced to get a decent screenshot at 720p, and maybe also because I only decided to include it at all when I realized by the end that I had nothing yet for ZHK for this post and I thought that was a little bit sad. He does have nice fashion, but rarely did this show allow me to screenshot it.

Anyway, it's grey and darker grey, and it's exactly the kind of coat you'd expect this brooding old man to wear on his secret missions into the mountains.

Coat 27

Zhang Haixing's white wintercoat! It's a white wintercoat. It looks good on her. She's ready to go skiing with the girls. Idk what else to say about it. It has furr and pockets!

She manages to keep it clean for a surprisingly long time... until she doesn't anymore.

Coat 28

THE MOMENT WE HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR! It's Feng's incredibly in character and on point bright orange wintercoat. Just look at it, isn't it amazing? (See also ZHK in the only other clear shot I managed to get of his grey coat.)

Anyway, Feng's fashion sense has been on point for the whole show, and he proves it again by pairing this orange monstrosity with a babyblue jumpsuit, which you can see here as he is standing there thinking 'well, damn, if it isn't the consequences to my own actions...' Can you tell I have come to love him deeply as the show went on?

Feng is also clearly the only person in this godforsaken party who wants to be saved should an avalanche occur, wearing a bright colour that will not camouflage him right into the backdrop of the mountain, a strategy that is almost undone in the first episode that all of these coats appear in, when they collectively decide to take them all off.

So, kids, what have we learned from episode 21? Keep your plot-relevant coats on!

Coat 29

This is baby!Zhang Haixing's incredible blue trenchcoat. She wears this in the sad flashback in episode 27.

Look, I don't have anything to say about this other than OMG LOOK AT HER SHE IS SO PRETTY. It deserves to be said okay.

"Coat" 30

Speaking of pretty, remember how I said I love Feng? Because I love him. He is ridiculous, a surprisingly compelling character despite also being this DMBJ installment's #1 resident white guy, and a walking model. Which brings me to: his blue robes from episode 28 at the Yinshaluo village.

"But Eru," you say, "none of these shots actually show his outfit." And yeah, I couldn't get a good shot of it, sorry, but it looks good okay. Trust me. These pictures of him being stupidly pretty and apparently a horse-whisperer will just have to suffice.

Coat 31

This is ridiculous leather coat Zhang Haixing wears when she goes to visit her big brother at the Spiritual Retreat in episode 31.

This monstrosity with its straps and lines and incredibly not functional off-the-shoulder slab of furr should not be allowed to look good on anyone and yet somehow she makes it work. Kudos ma'am. Also I am so sorry that your brother didn't hug you. He should've fucking hugged you, the absolute bastard. You deserved that much from him. Alas it wasn't meant to be.

Coat 32

Now we are getting towards the end. I've shown you in coat post #1 what Wu Xie wears on the trip to Yucun in episode 32. Now it's Pangzi's turn:

He wears something that is maybe technically also a shirt, but it's got a green pattern and I don't care I just wanted you to see him once more. Look at him. Isn't your heart healed now? I thought as much.

Coat 33

Xiaoge's Blue Coat™️ Is it really THE blue coat? Is this the one Wu Xie nabs off the statue and wears in a thematically meaningful way for a couple episodes? Is it THE blue coat returned to its rightful owner??? I don't know. The show doesn't allow me to look at it too closely. But it may well be.

I'm choosing to interpret it as such. If you want a closer look: see the final screenshot in this post, and decide for yourself.

Coat 34

Another Xiaoge coat. This the black one he wears on the mountain hike where they find the fisherman, and also when he steals a chicken from their poor neighbour. Oopsie.

Is it a coat? Is it a vest? Does it really matter? He looks soft and warm and happy, and isn't that all we ever wanted for him? The black is a nice return to his roots, though I personally have LOVED the visual shift to blue as his primary coat colour since Reboot came out.

I know for a fact he wears multiple different blue coats during the show, and maybe one day I will piece together another post in which I try to figure out how many different blue Xiaoge coats show up in this show.

For now though, I am leaving you with the Iron Triangle in Yucun, alive and happy and together. Who knows what (coats) the future still has in stall for them? (Sssst, don't tell them yet.)

[foundnthestars]

UWAGH I FOUND YOUR ACCOUNT AGAIN!!!!!! YES!!!

Hi. Hello. Your fic is the fucking BEST. I read it earlier today and I'm definitely gonna go back and leave comments when I have more time to come up with proper words, but I wanted to come squeal about it sooner than that so! Here I am!

You write the conflict AMAZINGLY. Each and every chapter I was absolutely blown away by how *real* it felt. I especially loved the panic attack with Dipper and Stan, and how Stan was so out of his element but did his best anyway. I also just LOVE that Ford didn't want to restart the portal- and dismantled it instead. And the guilt, catching up to him in his nightmares like that, with him trying to come up with different ways to get them back while still tearing the portal apart.... it's so wonderfully done. All of it is so wonderfully done!!!!! Not to mention that brief glimpse of Mabel at home with her parents. I hope Ford doesn't send her back, but I've got a feeling that they're probably not going to give him a choice on the matter, lol.

I'm sorry for rambling AAAA I love your fic so much have an amazing day/night!!!!!!!!!!

HI! HELLO THERE! I'M SUPER GLAD YOU FOUND MY ACCOUNT TOO CAUSE YOU'RE MY FIRST EVER ASK!! :) fair warning, this might get long...

first off, wow, THANK YOU, this response made me smile and kick my feet — i just love that you love this fic. the response i've gotten on here in the past few days alone has been amazing and i love nothing more than talking about this thing with you guys. feel free to flood my inbox with asks or just come and ramble, seriously, you NEVER have to apologize for that i appreciate every word!

this au is conflict on top of conflict on top of conflict for the pineses. reverse drifting stars is really every member of the pines family stuck directly in their own personal nightmare scenario, and the uncertainty they all feel is bound to be at an all time high. i'm glad you think i'm portraying it well and that it feels realistic!

the panic attack scene was something i knew was coming the second i sat down and started writing. i'm a sucker for post-sock opera h/c fics, and i really wanted to explore dipper's post-possession trauma with stan as a witness. the kids really left him in the dark for a lot of things in canon, bill included, but a lot of dipper's walls will have to come down in ttwl. not just because of the lack of privacy when you're traveling tandem on unfamiliar planets, but because he doesn't have mabel by his side to help him through these things anymore. he's had his sister with him for every terrible thing that's happened since he was a baby, and now that support is just gone. that's where stan comes in, and they'll have to be that for each other. their bond once dipper starts trusting him and he loses some of that angst he's carrying around right now will be STRONG. super excited to continue exploring their dynamic.

(and, yeah, stan is extremely out of his element in that scene, but i imagine he's had some experience with panic attacks either from a younger ford or himself even, though i doubt he'd call it that if he was experiencing one.)

i'm also glad ford disassembling the portal felt accurate to the story. i struggled a bit with that decision, but i think ultimately it would play out like this, with ford battling with logic and emotion and his all-consuming desire to have a family and to belong. his nightmares are supposed to be the love he has for his brother rearing up and trying to tell him "hey! you're being incredibly selfish and stupid," but it really takes seeing mabel and seeing the true consequences of his actions reflected in her life for him to reconsider. though, without the oracle's foresight i think this would still be difficult for him. in ttwl, ford is banking on the fact that she's implied he will be the one to kill bill. his ego is very much still at play here.

and ohhh... the parents. i can do a whole post on them, and i probably will at some point. i've always wondered why people don't include them in drifting stars, though i understand it because they are a difficult work around. more on their reactions later, they'll be back! they handled things about as horribly as they could've but they love their kids very much and want what's best for them, and uh... let's just say the piedmont pines home isn't the greatest of places for a grieving child at the moment.

[chronicsyd]

so I WAS going to post another long winded rant about Disney's Wish (I'll post that later) but Arcane decided to post another 30 second Teaser for us; and announcing the Trailer (yes, FULL Trailer AHHH! *ahem* sorry) is going to be releasing on September 5th! But let's get into what they showed us in this little teaser shall we? (go check out the teaser first it's only like 30 seconds and as usual, leaks will be blocked and deleted)

With this one frame they've already showed us several things. they've confirmed everything that was talked about Vi at the Annecy festival (some people were kinda skeptical if this was something that was legitimate for a while, myself included), and they've confirmed for me that Vi and Caitlyn are going their own ways at the beginning of the season (for a little while, at least). Vi tries to figure herself out in Zaun while Caitlyn's still an Enforcer up in Piltover. They also seem to be confirming the idea that there's some kind of time skip happening in s2 (not as large as s1 but there's something). And why I believe this is because Jinx is being painted in the same light as Vander, as someone that's respected in Zaun. People have already started rallying behind her at this point in the story.

Now, the bigger meat of the teaser:

I put Caitlyn and Jinx side by side for a couple reasons. Not only are these two taking on more of a leadership role this season, they're enforcing the idea that these two are the two sides of the same coin they hinted at in season 1 (they just both seem to be heading in the opposite direction the other was in season 1, if that makes sense), but they both have a figure explaining to them what they need to do for the better of Zaun/Piltover: Ambessa and Sevika. However, each of these characters are being told different things. Ambessa is a War general, she believes that in restoring peace Caitlyn needs to declare Martial Law aka military government and it seems that Caitlyn not only does this but she allies herself with Ambessa and Noxus in order to do this. On the other hand, Sevika's explaining to Jinx that she's the one that can rally Zaun together (and it seems that Ekko might actually be joining her on this). Because under both Vander and Silco there were still people opposed to how the Undercity was run (Under Vander, he was playing it safe with Piltover but Piltover was treating the Undercity badly but under Silco he was a kingpin and several people were still suffering under the effects of Shimmer and the only reason the Enforcers weren't as hostile because of Silco's allyship with Marcus, until Jinx steals the gemstone and Piltover retaliates). But with Zaun actually being at war with Piltover now, Jinx needs to be seen as a symbol for Zaun for people to rally behind, because to them Topside is the bigger enemy.

(I just had to add this pic of Sevika because like God Damn she looks so attractive here like step on me! *ahem* sorry, had a bit of gay panic there...moving on...)

Now, I'm going to hold off on giving my overall thoughts until the full trailer drops in a couple of days. just so that I can gather some more thoughts about where season 2 is going as a whole and when I'm given some more information to glean from, granted I'm SURE that the trailer won't give us any clear cut information because Arcane is great at that.

Oh one last thing:

Jinx's poster in for S2 has her being strangled by Vi's gauntlet, and Jinx is faced upsidown (with the caption "Time to turn things upsidedown") which i presume is just how different everyone/everything is going to be different compared to the last season. but i do wonder What Happens between Vi and Jinx that gets them like this? Because there Has to be a scene between the two that ends badly (probably before we see Vi with her black hair and leather, because in the earlier pic i showed Vi's already seeing Jinx pained alongside Vander)

ok NOW I'm done.

Anyways, I'll post again in the next couple of days when the trailer comes out. Bye!

[whoretocultralists]

last week i made a tiktok saying jrrmint deserved an apology for being bullied off the internet by toxicanonymity. i have been waiting to get things off my chest and for the opportunity to truly express myself but tiktok has a very limited capability for that in words as evidenced in my poorly paced videos lol

toxic has long had a notorious presence in this fandom (even though she has openly admitted to not being a fan of either) (??) that is drawn to negativity like a moth to a flame. drama? discourse? toxic is always at the scene of the crime.

and i am far from being the first person to call her out on her behavior but i’m doing it anyway in two parts: part one addresses the petty drama mentioned in my tiktok and why i think she is a liar and hypocrite.

part two is my evaluation of racism in the repeated discourse in this fandom and how she has habitually fed into it.

part one: for the tiktok girlies 👇🏽

i want to start by saying that i did not post to reddit and i haven’t interacted with the confession blog more than twice. ik she can’t fathom the idea that more than one person has a problem with her but 🤷🏽‍♀️

since toxic has updated her blog fiftylem times and morphed it into a real time hate fishing apparatus i’ll just fill in the blanks here:

she says that she messaged me her search history to explain where i got the name from, but with her posting our entire conversation on her blog you can see it’s not there (she’s right: i did remove the information from my bio literally a minute later) to omit that from her screenshots is weird but to lie about it is even weirder, especially since **** never personally messaged me about it even though toxic said she had reached out to “her”. but whatever

one thing that toxic has repeatedly mentioned on her blog recently and in the tiktok comments is that she never said jrrmint plagiarized her work

idk about you but that looks like a pretty bold accusation of plagiarism. according to the time stamp that would put the chapter update 10/16/2023

jj had responded to the comment within a few days or so. in the screenshot showing jj in the discord that dates from three months before - but like toxic has said there were plenty of raiders fics from that time. there’s even another writer on here roman (??) that has openly admitted (under almost every comment in this entire situation btw) that they had “heavily lifted” from toxic in their early works and she never had a problem with that

she also publicly accused the redditor of being me and then lied about editing the tumblr post to clarify that we are in fact two different people. (i’m 28 and the redditor will be turning 28. now how the hell can you be that at the same time 😐)

i don’t think she has ever genuinely apologized publicly for anything including this scenario (literally said “sorry if i was wrong” i don’t think yall need to be taught the difference between saying sorry and apologizing)

for someone so hellbent on accusing me of saying someone she’s not you’d think she wouldn’t turn around a day later and do …. the exact same thing ?

which leads me to the hypocrisy: let’s take the whole plagiarism thing off the table. another point of contention is that jj never shared/acknowledged/whateverd toxic’s raider fic (see above and below)

she claims jj publicly shaded her (even though the “shade” was jj comparing her own raider joel to her own dbf joel) while secretly loving her work. but in her own words is that really a problem?

maybe she enjoyed the work but when did she have to like everyone? or maybe she just didn’t personally recommend it? but that’s only cool when it’s you who’s doing it - right right. i’m halfway to sunday and haven’t even mentioned my biggest concern which will have to be made into a part 2 🙃:

racism

[marq-lynch]

Rewatched the Dropmick Strickpage video thinking about internalized homophobia how they both view the other as more privileged in a way that makes their dynamic so much more realistic and literary to me.

Swerve sees Hangman as the guy this company was built for, the reminder that wherever Swerve goes, he will always have to fight for the same opportunities white people get handed to them. I think about the coffin match at All In 2023. Here Swerve is getting literally shut down, metaphorically (unless…) killed by Sting and Darby, guys who had been in AEW long before him and who he really didn’t stand a chance against. I think about how he was teamed up with Christian Cage (who I could get into analyzing holy shit there’s so much with him). A man who was held back from his full potential in WWE trying to prove himself in a space that wasn’t really designed for him. But Swerve suffered the most for it so when he came back weeks later he honed in on the person who, to him, represents the success and popularity he was being denied.

But with Hangman, Swerve doesn’t just disrupt the status quo, he confront him with the idea that the status quo should be disrupted, and Hangman can’t cope with that. Hangman sees Swerve as the epitome of what he isn’t, and he’s able to convince himself for a while that he doesn’t want to be like that. To Hangman, Swerve doesn’t value what AEW is to him. This place was just supposed to be about him and his friends and then all these guys, Swerve included come in because why? Because they couldn’t make it in WWE? Hangman and his space is just a second option first them? So the whole dynamic has an undercurrent of “who do you think you are — you are not what this company is about” and Swerve is just, so unbothered by that. In fact that’s part of his motivation: to prove that he can be successful here.

And when you add in the aspects of internalized and externalized homophobia, it becomes the way Swerve is living is something that Hangman wants but can’t have. But also the way Hangman is living, as the white meat babyface of the company, is something Swerve denies he wants. He eventually comes out on top, becomes the most popular man in the company, but he can never be what Hangman was before. He’s too edgy, too Black, too flamboyant. And those are all good things, he can still be himself. And Hangman can’t accept that.

Anyway, sorry for rambling in your askbox, I just had thoughts that I thought you specifically would understand because these two have been consuming all my brainpower for the last few days.

The fact I made you rewatch a 2.5 hour documentary is such a huge compliment omg. I really need to make myself finish that one of these days, I love dropmick's editing but I got into it and immediately ran into the 'IKnowMoreThanYouRonSwanson.gif' issue and had to stop to go make that video post about all the homoerotic buildup he missed in the Wrestledream promo package.

This really is the romance of all time, it's a vampire romance, a social commentary on workplace politics being personal, a gothic dark romance, a revenge thriller, a tragic queer indie about being in love with someone closeted who can't accept themselves and demonizes you to cope, a long treatise on self-esteem and self-worth needing to being internal and healthy before you can be in a healthy relationship with anyone, an exploitation film horror film with softcore porno scenes- I'm probably forgetting a few genres.

The first time I really went from casually being into StrickPage to losing my absolute goddamn mind about it (replacing CMJF which was the lure ship that pulled me in a couple months before) was the 'Go Home to Your Wife' promo which I still refuse to learn the proper name for on Cagematch, and for which the extensive rant on internalized homophobia/biphobia I wrote right after it still holds up surprisingly well, damn.

I think the biggest thing I recognize now I maybe didn't then having a better understanding of Hangman's character, is the years of history and his need for the crowd to love him and that relationship being built largely on his anxiety. That he does all these things for the audience and even his redemption was, in a large part, for us, and credited to us as the audience. Where as Swerve has never given a damn what people think and that is a large part of what makes him so cool, but also such a good heel. If we take that 'it rains an awful lot in Seattle' line as Swerve telling Hangman he's also queer, it seems to imply that Hangman thinks that if he is Champion he has the obligation to come out. And as we know coming out is an exhausting and never ending process that has countless downsides to its positives, but Hangman seems to think he would have to continue to be that Role Model Gay/Bi (which...given how we know the actually bi guys on the roster are constantly erased or harassed for it online isn't a fun start), which would already be harder as he has a wife and kids, but he seems to imply that he thinks that Swerve would have an obligation to come out, and be a role model gay, which he knows would be exponentially harder as a black male champion. This is where Swerve slaps him (justified IMHO) because what Swerve embodies is neither role model gay nor the suburban Good Gay who just wants marriage equality and nothing else. Swerve's descriptors are literally Confident and Realest, he is the most self-actualized and self-esteem filled motherfucker you will ever meet and people respond to that. He is not the type to come out, just to keep living his life and doing whatever he wants however he wants like those dirty filthy queers do, to the point that when he does do something truly heinous like break into a man's home and stand over his child's crib it just gets him over, and that is so counter to everything in Hangman's anxiety riddled self-esteem fucked worldview that it sends him spiraling.

[absandersons]

"There Goes the Groom" and Buck's Queer Joy

Hey so...remember when I did post ep meta for two years? Anyway we're back like we've never left.

Best Hen <3

OBSESSED with micromanaging party planner Evan Buckley. The clipboard was there in spirit.

"You are late."

I'll take married for several years for $500, Alex.

"Ooo sliders."

"Ah ah. No."

"You didn't just do that." PLEASE

Tommy giving Eddie a bro-y high five and then a soft, sweet "hey" for Buck and a hug??? Fellas I might need to be sedated.

Also obsessed with the tinge of bitchiness in Eddie's tone. It's like jealousy without even realizing it's jealousy. And I think it's an interesting mix of "hey my best friend has a new friend" and something else that Eddie cannot label.

Ryan Guzman you must be studied for that little side eye lmfaoooo

I LOVEEEEE TOMMY HE'S SUCH A BITCH, he said I do not care for your party themes. Me for real.

Why were they all so obsessed with the sliders???? I love them all so much.

"Reach for them and you'll be pulling back a bloody stump." WITH THE RAISED EYEBROWS AND THE LITTLE HEAD TILT RYAN GUZMAN I AM KISSING YOU ON THE MOUTH.

"Wholesome, 80s-themed karaoke."

Buck was a party planner in another life and I stand by that.

"We should totally go as Crockett and Tubbs."

"Absolutely."

They are literally this meme:

The little shoulder rub that Buck gives Tommy <333333333333

The way Buck and Eddie are sitting during the party scene, Buck's arm absolutely SLUNG around his shoulder...yeah okay. Okay. I'm normal about this.

The whole party was two idiot best friends pointing at each other and saying "exactlyyyyyy." Yes, I would die for them.

I just want to say that every single thing about Chimney's journey this episode was heartbreaking and scary and I HATED that I didn't know what was going to happen to him the whole time. Ok thanks for your time.

From that guy stealing his car to every Doug jumpscare, I think they did a really good job freaking the audience (at least...me) the fuck out without actually revealing what had happened. Like..we know he's sick, we know something's wrong, but it was a well-paced episode, even if in my perfect world it would have been like two hours long lol.

And the fact that Maddie is always going to look for him, always going to find him, just like he would do for her...don't look at me I'm emo.

Chim essentially pushing the fact that he is actively dying from encephalitis to the side because being a paramedic and saving lives is so deeply ingrained in him it's something the can't forget? He's so important to me.

Then...Kevin. He's such a huge part of Chim's life, his arc, how he became a firefighter, and it essentially include him in the wedding (even though it was in a very scary way), I think it's a really great take on the idea that our loved ones who can't be there for milestones are there even when we can't see them, especially with his line "you invited me, remember?"

Doug was never there, but Kevin was, Kevin will be there even when Chim can't see him.

"I was trying to get back to you the whole time." THEY ARE EVERYTHING HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE THEM. ALL THEY'VE BEEN THROUGH, ALL THEY'VE HAD TO DO, AND THEY STILL FOUGHT FOR AND CAME BACK TO EACH OTHER!!!!

Bobby officiating and saying "and the Los Angeles Fire Department" THEY ARE A FAMILY!!!!

And then...perhaps one of thee most important scenes ever aired on television ever:

"Sorry I'm late, that fire was a beast."

"So are you."

And STRAIGHT in for a SERIOUS kiss??????? 911 writers room you can have my life, take it, it's already yours.

Tommy's little huff of surprise and then hum of "yeah okay I'm down for this." PUT THEM IN THE DICTIONARY NEXT TO THE CUTEST COUPLE OF ALL TIME

And last...Buck coming in to the room where his family, both blood and chosen, is, with soot all over his face, and a smile so bright that it had to have lit up the entire west coast, not caring who saw him or who knew exactly what he had just been doing...yeah, that's what this shit is all about.

EDDIE'S beautiful smile when he realizes how happy Buck is they are best friends FIRST and that is all that matters to me!!!

Hen being like "it's about damn time." SO TRUE QUEEN OF COURSE SHE KNEW!!!!!

I haven't really been able to put this into words yet, but the way they are handling Buck's bisexuality and his first relationship with someone of the same gender as him is just...it's almost astounding. It's been handled with such care, from Oliver to Lou to the writers to the NETWORK, everyone is so clearly fully onboard with this and not afraid of it.

And there's no pain here, his coming out is not born out of trauma or being forced or caught or guilty. Tommy made him feel something that he had never been able to put a name to, and Tommy is helping him figure it out. He's letting Buck be overeager without taking advantage, he's letting him move at his own pace (which, of course, is at light speed) but is also confident enough in himself to pump the brakes when he feels like he needs to.

I just can't get enough of that smile, of how fucking happy Buck is. Happy in himself, happy with Tommy, happy to finally have a name for who he is, and not be afraid to share it with the people he loves. His parents' reactions don't matter, because he knows the people that matter to him most won't care who he's with, as long as he loves them and they treat him well.

It's such a huge step for Buck, who has so often fallen prey to what other people might think, it's so refreshing to see him get to explore this without fear of what others will say. Tommy is a steady constant, experienced and knows who he is. He teases Buck and calls him Evan and flirts with him shamelessly, and it flusters him in the best way.

To see a character like Buck, who was, essentially, billed as straight from the beginning of the show, be able to come in to himself and experience real queer joy...wow. For me, it just can't be overstated.

I can't wait to see where Buck's journey goes, and I am just so...grateful to be able to watch it.

[divorcedfiddleford]

Random but - if you were given an opportunity to rewrite Ford's character and his arc in the show (and later J3), how would it be like?

canon gay and trans

so the thing is that i think most of how ford himself is written is really really good! i just think that the writers (particularly alex) have a bias against him, and so a lot of the narrative ends up feeling like he's either being punished or being forced to atone for his past. so i'm gonna ramble and daydream for a bit but i want to be clear i actually really like how he's written in general (yes, even in the book that i have so much beef with!!)

there's very few moments of catharsis for him, and those that he gets are either short (reunion with fiddleford) or undermined by the writers' bias (the ending of journal 3 where he burns all his bill stuff but has to keep reminding us that he was stupid for trusting bill in the first place). so i think a lot of the problems i have would be resolved with tonal shifts and a few cuts, like that fucking scene in the stanchurian candidate with the mind control tie. the implication of reaganite ford is bad enough but then to have a guy who has very specific trauma relating to being mind controlled/not being in control of his own body just hand that over is really fucking stupid. then again i think that whole episode is stupid so i'd end up rewriting all of it lmao

i've said before but if i really had my way i'd cut roadside attraction entirely and replace it with another ford episode. i loved how goofy and fun dd&md was and i think if more of that lighthearted side of him was shown it would endear him to the audience more. a long time ago i had an idea for an episode where they go back to the bunker and ford basically does puppy talk to the shapeshifter who is actively trying to kill them. i never followed this idea through to its conclusion but i think it still sounds entertaining, plus it would also give more time for him to reunite with fiddleford so it wouldn't have to be squeezed in the finale.

speaking of the finale... my personal fantasy is that i'd love to have a scene stuck in there where stan apologizes to ford. it REALLY stood out to me that despite all their fighting, ford still at least says the words "i'm sorry" to stan. stan never apologizes for anything he did to ford - neither for breaking his project, nor for banishing him to the hell dimension for 30 years. i get that they were mistakes, but you still have to apologize for mistakes (and if i allow myself to get very self-indulgent for a second, i've often thought the whole story would be a lot more resonant if stan broke ford's machine on purpose). i had a whole section in here where i talked about what a scene like this would look like but it was so long... if people want to hear more about it i'll say more but it's the kind of thing that warrants its own post.

anyway. moving on from the show itself. so possibly my hottest take is that i think journal 3 should not have been published KJSHDFLGKHSDFGUIWEHRGJSDF. basically i think instead of trying to write the actual journal 3 they should have picked a handful of stories from his research era that they wanted to tell and made a graphic novel about that. i got WAAAAAAAYYYY off topic and wrote PARAGRAPHS about this but it's not related to the question you asked so i'll just summarize by saying i think it would play more to their strengths as writers, leave more to the imagination, and they could leave out all those fucking retcons that i hate

as it is, though, again, i think that ford is written pretty well in the journal. there are a few off-handed comments and lines that give me "he would not fucking say that" vibes but overall it very realistically portrays what it's like for someone to be manipulated, isolated, drawn away from his loved ones, etc. it's a very poignant story which resonated with a lot of people, myself included. again my main problem is that it's undercut with the writers being like "BROOOOO HE'S JUST LIKE ICARUS!! FLEW TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN!!!!!!!!" as though it's all his fault, and that it ends on a very moralizing "i learned my lesson" note. so really the biggest characterization problems i have with journal 3 have to do with fiddleford, but that's a whole other can of worms

anyway i hope this was... interesting? informative?? i hope i answered your question to your satisfaction. have a nice day :)