#especially if you think of the parallel from season 2

[4rielle]

Reblogging with my hot takes please don’t hurt me/jk

1. Elmax and Henderhop are the best El ships.

2.Mike loves both Will and El but in two different ways and romantic Byler won’t make their relationship more important then his bond with El.

3.Eddie Munson was written to die.

4.I don’t think they will kill Steve off because they already created and killed off Billy and Eddie to die in his place.

5.Lucas Sinclair is incredibly underrated

6.I prefer season 3 over 4

7.Season 3 was an important season for byler evidence as it provided us with the rain fight and Mikes change in behaviour towards both Will and El.

8.El is just as queer coded as Mike and Will are her arc and relationship with Mike just scream comphet.

9.Other couples don’t just serve the purpose of being parallels to Byler, I find the parallels interesting but there’s more to Jopper, Rovickie and Jancy then just being Byler proof.

10.Bylers who purposely cross tag into Mileven spaces are really immature and are on parr with the Milevens who invade Byler spaces on other social medias.

11.Certain Gay Mike truthers are honestly biphobic towards Bi Mike truthers. not all of them but I’ve seen genuinely biphobic takes from certain people who try to disprove Bi Mike.

12.Certain people get too worked up over the gay vs bi Mike debate. it shouldn’t bother you this much if someone views him as bi/gay as opposed to gay/bi.

13.Let’s not normalise shaming others intelligence for shipping one ship over another.

14.Not all Milevens are toxic like how not all Bylers are kind.

15.Jason Carver is overhated especially in a fandom which can justify the actions of Billy Hargrove.

16.Steve and Jonathan both made mistakes and questionable choices in season 1 however Jonathan is overhated compared to Steve.

17.Jancy and Ronance are the best Nancy ships

18.Steve should end the show single instead of with a partner.

19.Henderhop was a waste of potential

20. I don’t like how the separated the party has become these past few seasons I’m honestly going to be disappointed in season 5 if we get little to no scenes of all six of them as a friend group.

21. El’s death would be one of the most devastating in the show.

22.El dying would be an incredible disservice to her character and would be a disappointing end to her character arc. she deserves to have a happy ending with her friends and family after everything she’s been through.

23.Steve and El’s arcs both revolve around found family and platonic relationships.

24.a majority of Will hate is rooted in homophobia.

25.i don’t think it matters wether Mike is gay or bi as long as he loves Will back.

26.Unlabelled Mike Wheeler and El Hopper.

27.I love comphet lesbian El so much.

28.not sure if this is a hot take but Lumax are bi4bi

29.Lucas and Max are the most shippable characters in the party. henclair, hopclair, elmax, madwheeler and elumax my beloveds.

30.please don’t kill me for this but romantic madwheeler is my guilty pleasure they’re both just so bi4bi it’s crazy.

31. If Bob never died Joyce would have chosen him over Hopper.

32.Imagine Boyce with Hopper who acts like an uncle figure to Will and Jonathan while El is Joyce and Bobs niece who they spoilt to death whenever she comes over.

33.i actually really liked mileven in season 1-2 they had a sweet dynamic and their moments were really wholesome. i think their situation was puppy love which never grew to genuine romance over an actual romance if it makes sense.

34.I see the appeal in mileven and understand why people ship it.

35.i honestly think that Mileven had the potential to be a good romance I think I would have genuinely shipped it if it were a slow burn like other couples in the show.

36.Byler being endgame won’t be the end of the world for me I’ll be upset but it not being canon won’t prevent me from still shipping it and reading fix it fics.

37.El needs more scenes with Joyce and Jonathan next season.

38.Steves platonic relationships with Robin and Dustin are more important to his character than his romantic ones.

39.Mike and Will hyphenate their last names so they’re both Mike and Will Wheeler-Byers

40.Byler is the best ship for both Mike and Will.

What are your stranger things hot takes?

[rainbow-sunshine-unicorn]

The entrance scene to Lady Danbury’s ball is one of my most favourite scenes from Season 3 because there’s so many little details, and interesting tidbits that show the dynamics between these characters beautifully.

But I feel like a lot of these small but important details are missed, simply because this scene is a really quick one. So, let me breakdown some of my personal favourite bits from this scene:

Starting with, Anthony entering, proudly with his Viscountess on his arm. His head is held high and there’s even a spring in step. He’s so freaking happy to be walking in with Kate!!

But, besides being Kate’s proud husband, he’s also Francesca’s worrisome big brother and so he turns around check on her and when he sees that she’s feeling apprehensive, he holds her hand and tucks it into the crook of his elbow to remind her that he’s right beside her, to support her

While, Anthony comforts Francesca, Kate keeps the attention off them by dealing with all the polite courtesies and by complimenting Lady Danbury’s skills as a hostess.

Which distracts Lady Danbury from Anthony and Francesca long enough to preen at her Ball and also gives Anthony another convenient reason to keep falling deeper in love with his wife

Benedict and Colin are on their best behaviour because they are in Kate’s direct line of sight and she’s smiling sweetly at them and they absolutely will not be the reason she’s disappointed.

And for once, Violet Bridgerton is simply looking forward to a Ball

[ceramicbeetle]

half baked thought but 1) it’s funny when people act like hawkeye has a deep respect for marriage as an institution and that it’s something he cares about in any way and 2) funnier when people act like hawkeye settling down with one person in sudden post-canon monogamy is viewed like the only good and healthy way to address his issues around abandonment and like, self-worth

[stormythalamus]

agatha finale rant

so I’ve been seeing a lot of people complaining about the finale of Agatha and I wanted to give my two cents on their main points: 

1. “they used agatha’s show as a way to promote a man!!” well yes! that’s how marvel tv works im afraid. or any tv, really. wandavision was used to introduce agatha and monica, which led to their projects in the mcu (aaa, marvels). agatha introduced billy, leading to his future in visionquest or his solo series, which will introduce tommy and vision, which will lead to children’s crusade to reintroduce wanda. this is common for any tv show, but especially a big, connected franchise like marvel. i find it so concerning that even after all the promotion that showed us billy and agatha as co-leads, people were STILL shocked when the finale sets up a future story centered around him. like i hate to break it to yall but marvel wants money. and more shows means more money.

2. “they killed off a lesbian woman and not the gay man!” first of all, in the comics, agatha is a spirit guide for the scarlet witch. this form is her most comic accurate yet. also, did yall really think that was an unfair ending? or an ending PERIOD? all her death made me think of was the possibilities for the future with both billy AND rio. and again; rio was promoted as the ‘antagonist’ to agatha since the beginning. i don’t know how people went into this excepting a happily ever after for these two. they were always depicted as tragic lovers, and i honestly think the kiss of death was beautiful and poetic. i also don’t think this is the last we’re seeing of rio. and, as a side note, homophobia is still not okay! it doesn’t matter if you’re also gay; lesbians can be homophobic towards gay men, and gay men can be lesbophobic towards lesbians. and i’ve seen wayyyy too much of both in this fanbase. you can criticize characters and critique actors without bringing up their sexuality. we have enough incel homophobes doing that for us

3. if you’re still complaining about wanda not coming back i have no hope for you

4. this show, since day ZERO, was promoted as a show with billy and agatha as coleads. while i wish we had more backstory for how agatha and rio met, the salem flashbacks involving nicholas, the road scheme, and the song were much more important to the show. the parallels between nicky and billy were explored throughout the season a lot more than agatha and rios story (whether or not you like it, it’s still true (i personally wish we had a bit more on how they met 😭))

5. sending hate to actors about things their characters did is STILL not okay! and never will be!

6. this might be a hot take but if you’re only watching a show for a ship and don’t care about the story at all your opinion is irrelevant to me. like people who started watching after it was revealed in the show that agatha and rio were lovers (because, correct me if i’m wrong, this was never revealed before the episodes dropped) have no right to be upset when the show focuses on other things. and this is coming from a MASSIVE fan of agathario. and a lesbian. i loved the fact that i was watching characters who just happened to be lesbians have their own story. yes, i wish there was more agathario in the flashbacks. but i’m really not upset at all by what we got. and don’t get me wrong, people have every right to be disappointed, but they don’t have the right to hate on the creators and actors of the show. that’s not cool.

this is way longer than i thought it was gonna be 😭😭 hope everyone enjoyed the finale

[steelandscience]

I have thought about this so much, because Viktor being spotlighted so frequently in the trial scene is just so interesting. I think part of it is partly just foreshadowing that This Character Is Going To Be Important, of course, but I do think there’s more.

There’s a couple really great ways you can read their early pre-journal-stealing-Viktor interactions, but I think my favorite is just… ego.

It’s one thing that the arcane versions of Jayce and Viktor very much have in common with their League counterparts (if you see them as separate). We definitely see bits if Jayce’s ego throughout the show, from the way he is fine with playing along with Heimer’s advice in the trial until they start calling him an incompetent failure of a scientist, to the bits of preening and social prowess he shows as he gets rebranded as the Man of Progress. A lot of Jayce’s character conflict stems from the fact he knows he is right about Hextech/magic, but he either cannot get other people to see that, or he cannot reconcile his own vision with Hextech’s place in the real world.

However, Viktor is just as confident and egotistical as Jayce.

This is a man who beat the odds of his birth and absolutely believes he is one of the smartest— if not the smartest— in the room at all times. This is a man who is happy to work on illegal, experimental projects because he knows he is smart enough to figure it out. He’s even confident enough to do it twice in the show, once with Hextech and once with Shimmer! I think Arcane Viktor is certainly tempered with a lot of empathy and a clear drive for survival as opposed to his League counterpart, but he is just as concerned with Legacy and scientific success as Jayce, Heimerdinger, and Singed are— it’s just that they view that success in different ways.

(I’d like to add that I personally prefer to think of Jayce and Viktor in Arcane as a proto-League version of themselves, with the League lore that currently exists.)

So my favorite way to read the scenes where Viktor gets Jayce arrested is simply that it’s not about Jayce in particular, but that Viktor simply thinks he’s a better scientist. Viktor came from very little and already succeeded “beyond his beginnings”, he knows he is consistently smarter than most of the graduates in the Academy, and he already has some beliefs on how Heimerdinger himself is wrong. He will happily go on to challenge Mel and the ideas of power and law in Piltover repeatedly. So it’s not about Jayce, but about the fact that Jayce is yet another scientist who got in over his experimental pay grade, and Viktor gets to watch another rich Piltovan university student realize they aren’t actually all that great. He did have a presupposed image of Jayce, even if it wasn’t about Jayce Talis in particular— though it could have been, because we know from Jayce’s Journal in the league client event circa 2021 that Jayce was failing most of his classes because he was obsessively working on Hextech, and that Heimerdinger was worried about him. Maybe Viktor even knew that before he walked into Jayce’s ruined apartment.

Jayce failed. Publicly and catastrophically. Viktor would never.

And I think it isn’t until he hears what Jayce was trying to do that Viktor realizes how alike he and Jayce are. He wasn’t some failing rich kid who got in over his head; he’s a sponsored student willing to push the boundaries of experimental and illegal science and magic in the name of progress. It’s easy for Viktor to switch to needing to work with this man because he realizes Jayce isn’t stupid, that Jayce has very similar goals to Viktor right now, and that Jayce is also every bit as insane as Viktor is in his pursuit of progress. Suddenly Viktor realizes he may not be the smartest in the room, just like Jayce realizes he might not be the only one smart enough and ballsy enough to create Hextech. They match each other, and continue to match each other, in brilliance, drive, and ego for the better part of a decade. Even in League, they met at an Academy party and bonded over the fact that they hated being there and how they were both so much smarter than anyone else in the room.

Obviously we don’t know how they will fall apart in Arcane S2 (I have so many theories but we will see soon enough). But in League, their egos are also a massive part of why they fall out, but continue to be almost single-mindedly obsessed with the other person for the rest of their lives. They are the only person who matched each other’s intellect, goals, and drive for years, and even though Piltover and Zaun are filled with brilliant people, they never really care about anyone else besides their old partner. I think a big part of that is that each of them, respectively, believes the other hurt their own pride and ego in an unforgivable way, so they are going to spend the rest of their life making it the other person’s problem.

Hi why did Viktor seem almost glad that Jayce was being arrested and put on trial in ep 2?

Like…he has this haughty, kind of contemptuous attitude towards Jayce throughout the episode until after the trial—when he realizes that Jayce’s research on magic may be something worth looking into.

But BEFORE that, when Jayce’s apartment is being searched, everything about Viktor’s demeanor seems to indicate that he’s putting Jayce below himself. When Jayce expresses distress about the situation, Viktor responds with sarcasm or nonchalance: “I believe someone should have said that earlier.” and then when prompted he introduces himself not as a person, but by describing his position: “I’m assistant to the dean of the Academy, who it may serve you to remember is also head of the Council.”

He seems glad to hand Jayce over to the enforcers and does so with a SMILE, and later in the episode when Jayce walks into the Council room for his trial, there’s this lingering shot of Viktor smirking at him as he passes!! And it’s 1000% on purpose—Viktor’s the only character besides Jayce (in a crowd of people, mind you!) who’s fully lit up in that shot.

It’s like the writers wanted to clearly convey that Viktor had a “you��re getting what you deserve” mentality towards Jayce, which is odd considering Viktor’s characterization after the trial is nothing but amicable towards Jayce throughout the rest of Act 1 before it turns into fondness over the rest of the season.

So…if this haughty attitude towards Jayce was put there on purpose and not just as an introduction to the smartass counterpart to Jayce’s optimistic charm, then why does Viktor have such contempt for Jayce if they don’t even know each other?

see this is why we need a novelization or at very least the published script because i wanna know what these characters were thinking

[vroomvroomwee]

Reasons I think platonic Radiostatic will reconcile in season 2:

1. Wayy to many hints to their past friendship. Eg. the torn photo, Alastor’s distaste towards modern tech, Vox asking Alastor to join his team, Aalstor posing for Vox's cameras even though he hates having his visage recorded, Vox knowing Alastor will try to make a deal with Charlie - he knows him well, etc etc. As well as all of the parallels between them: sceatching the table, "what did you say?", the nun/proest and chef/waiter combos, the fake smiling, their similar looks, etc. And they wouldn't have put all those arbitrarily. Animation is difficult and every single shot is intended for a purpose.

2. The Lucifer/ Stolas parallels.

I know this is a weird one, but hear me out. Both Lucifer and Stolas started off as cruel, emotionless, rich royal bastards who didn't particularly care about sinners or hellborn. Then they turned into depressive dads who have problems with their wives and are estranged from their daughters. All of a sudden, the evil tyrants became "nice" characters who've never done anything wrong and who we should sympathise with.

I'm bringing up the Lucifer/Stolas parallels because another thing that happens in Helluva Boss is Biltz and Fizz's reconciliation. They drifted apart due to a horrible accident that was neither of their fault, then they detested each other for years. When they reunite, they do it under exigent circumstances where they realise their falling out was tampered with by outside parties. One of them (Blitz) would absolutely sleep with the other, while Fizz is not at all interested (sounds familiar)

Viv clearly has a pattern in her shows, so I'm hoping it extends to Radiostatic too.

3. Based on Viv's latest posts on blue-sky, she's really hyping Vox up. I don't think she would focus on him so much if he turned out to be plain malicious instead of the evil but pathetic capitalist we all know and love. If he really does hate Alastor and does something horrible to him, I don't think Viv would be cheering Vox up this much (especially not with all the rabid allegations that she supports or endorses SA). If Vox really is in every episode of s2, then the possibility of an emotional scene between him and another character is more likely to happen.

4. When asked "who is the person Alastor cares about most?" Amir opted not to answer and instead only said we should wait until season 2. I don't see a reason he would withold something like that unless it's a crucial piece of information that might spoil something. The only people that this could apply to would be Alastor’s mom, or Vox.

5. "Sad and complicated" I think this alone corroborates the existence of a past Alastor/Vox friendship that turned sour

Anyways, here's to me praying Vox doesn't do anything awful to Alastor in season 2, and instead, the evil men become friends again and cause mayhem for everyone else 🕯

[pico-farad]

I finished season 1 of Vrains and it was cool but I thought it needed about 2 billion more secret identity shenanigans

More Secret Identities AU

extended thoughts below

So I went into a deep dive in my last two posts (1, 2) about all the problems I had with Vrains, and you'd think I didn't enjoy it, but in fact as I was watching, there was a separate, parallel version of Vrains that was playing in my head, a Yugioh I think we were robbed of and which fixes every problem I had with the first season, and that is Secret Identities AU.

Yusaku needs FRIENDS

This is YUGIOH.

This dynamic is everything I wanted from Vrains. Yusaku developing unexpected fondness for these bozos who think he needs a defense squad. I want Miraculous Ladybug levels of secret identity shenanigans. I want Yusaku slapping his duel disk every time Ai tries to blow their cover.

This AU sprung forth from the scene in the duel club where he shows Naoki his decoy deck. Having Yusaku passing as a bad duelist is 1) so funny, but 2) Yusaku needing to maintain his low profile is a useful contrivance for other characters to get more duels, and 3) I think it would be a really fun one-off episode where Yusaku has to duel using his bad deck. When he wins, Naoki is so proud he cries.

Having Yusaku actually have to interact with the other characters in the real world opens up Greek play levels of dramatic irony. The crux of a secret identity story is that every single interaction builds up anticipation, because you the viewer know that the other party is being deceived, and that the tension will snap when the secret is revealed.

I have zero anticipation about Playmaker's identity being revealed, because Aoi would be like "oh.... I guess he goes to my school" and Go would be like "have I seen that guy before?" But SIAU Playmaker? My guy is making friends just so he can betray them. Insane.

Go needs A ROLE IN THE STORY.

I said in my first post that Go isn't a rival or a best friend character. SIAU fixes this by making him both simultaneously.

Having him be the ace of the duel club is a natural replacement for his whole hero of the orphans schtick, while placing him directly the circle of relevance with the other characters. Instead of being disgruntled that the orphans suddenly like Playmaker more than him, he's disgruntled that Naoki and the duel club mooks are fawning over Playmaker -- which is actually just Naoki's character anyway.

I would kill for a big dramatic moment where Go learns that Playmaker and Yusaku are the same person, and even though Go feels betrayed that Yusaku has been deceiving him, he stands by Yusaku anyway because they're friends.

With a secret identity story, every conversation is working on multiple levels because each character is working with asymmetric information. You get these fascinating, layered scenes of two characters talking past each other because they cannot give up their secret.

Which would go especially hard with Go and Yusaku, because Go has legitimate criticisms of Playmaker in canon and Yusaku has legitimate reasoning behind the things he does, and as Go Onizuka and Playmaker they could never come to an understanding on them, but as Go and Yusaku, two friends in duel club, that door becomes open to them.

Aoi needs WRITING THAT ISN'T A TRAINWRECK

I made a whole post on this. Basically every problem would be solved if Akira doesn't know that she's Blue Angel. There's no reason for her to lose grotesquely against Yusaku, or have her basic autonomy called into question constantly. 

Having her actively deceive her brother is delicious. Like I said in my last post, it's so obvious how Akira's overprotectiveness has taken its toll on Aoi, and pushed her into developing this other persona, Blue Angel. I want this absolutely dysfunctional sibling relationship so badly. The Blue Angel vs. Zaizen duel would make me lose my mind.

And a secret identities setting works so well with the potential themes of VRAINS as a stand-in for the internet and Blue Angel as an idol. Give me that Perfect Blue Satoshi Kon good stuff. Give me those themes about identity, and the different lives we live, outward and inward, online and offline.

This also helps Akira's character, because I think he would be much more interesting and relevantly positioned in the story if he stayed a SOL Technologies baddie. SOL Technologies has very little presence in season 1 despite being critical to the story. After Zaizen is replaced by an irrelevant clown, they don't do anything but send out mook AIs to get destroyed. By having a three-way standoff between Yusaku's squad, the Knights of Hanoi, and SOL Technologies, both Hanoi and SOL Technologies become more compelling. They've both got all the reason in the world to want to take down the other. Zaizen vs. Revolver or Spectre? That's good shit.

And don't get me started on how I would turn Revolver into a Secret Identities character.

[interact-if]

Pride Month Feature #3: Under Our Skins

Game: Under Our Skins

Author: Rowan (@if-underourskins)

Tags: Urban fantasy, romance, action (kinda)

Being hunted isn't for the weak. You've been on the run for the majority of your life, though it seems to only get more and more frequent as you age. You're a shapeshifter, whose bones, muscles and skin twist and stretch to transform, and it's why you've been looking over your shoulder all this time. 

You’re forced to flee when Officers from the Agency of Public Safety and Threat Containment (PSTC) came knocking on your door. They're who you've been running from all this time, the reason why you're alone...That is, till you end up in the town of Arden Grove and meet other shapeshifters like yourself. Do you trust them? Will they stay? Or will you end up alone once again?

Tell me more about yourself!

I’ve mentioned this a couple of times, but I’m a huge fan of the Spiderverse franchise, and I am in a lot of different fandoms. My favourite colour is red, which is really funny because the colour scheme of Under Our Skins is blue and grey, and I’m ethnically Chinese, which is actually why Elexis (one of the ROs) is Chinese. 

I am also pansexual and genderqueer, and there are elements of that that can be seen in my characters, especially Elexis and Seraph.

2. Can you tell me a bit about what you’re working on right now and your journey into interactive fiction? What inspired the game/story you’re currently writing?

I am currently working on a shapeshifter IF, aka Under Our Skins! I started with visual novels first, back in my 2024 exam season, and quickly got hooked. The first IF I ever played was Wayfarer and that led to many ranting sessions about it (my poor friends were stuck with me raving about how much I loved the game for days) and from there, I scoured itch.io for more games like that, which is how I stumbled across interactive fiction! For the next few months, it was just me falling in love with multiple interactive fictions before deciding I wanted to try my hand at writing one. 

What inspired Under Our Skins was just a car on Pinterest, and with a lot of time on my hands and a writer’s brain, I daydreamed a scene with my first character (and said car). I liked the scene so much that I then proceeded to think about how it’d make sense and what sort of a world it’d be set in and boom, I had the (rough) settings and systems of Under Our Skins. 

Read on for the full interview!

3. How does your work feature aspects of your queer identity / experience? 

I think that my writing will be influenced by the things I experience and observe in real life no matter what, and though there aren’t direct correlations, there are parallels in the way shapeshifters are treated and the way they adapt to society with the way queer people adapt to “pass” and more. 

Not all of them are purposeful, but when writing about the oppression of shapeshifters, I do take “inspiration” from the oppression that queer people face. There’s also the fact that the way shapeshifters cope with it, whether hiding or just dampening it to be more “normal” (and the fact that there’s a “normal” at all, when so many of them are born shapeshifters) just reminds me of what queer people have to do irl. 

The whole IF is not meant to be a commentary on queer people but I’ve definitely taken inspiration or been influenced by queer experiences.

4. What does your writing process look like? Any rituals or habits? Any tips, tricks, philosophies or approaches that have worked very well for you? 

My writing process is a mess. Right now, I have a planning doc, a writing doc and a google sheet with many different sections split to help me juggle the work of writing everything while stimulating my brain enough to get to work on the IF. It’s honestly pretty scattered, but hey, if it ain’t broke, why fix it?

For the specifics however, it’s mostly just three phases that I constantly go back to. I use an outline to roughly plot out the chapter, which I then refer to when writing. Sometimes my writing veers off the path of my outline, sometimes parts of my outline doesn’t work with what I had written before, and I leave that to the editing part to polish everything up and just hope that it turns out alright. 

As for tips and tricks, there are two very important things that I try to keep in mind when writing: a. Your first draft is going to suck and b. Know what your other characters are doing and their motivations.

For the first, when writing, I often find myself hating whatever words I was typing – to me they all fall flat and miss their mark. This ends up with me hating writing and procrastinating continuing because if it sucks, why should I continue? But here’s the thing: it’s better that it exists and sucks, then to not exist at all. Your first draft is not supposed to be perfect, it’s job is to just exist, to pave a way for your next few drafts to improve on. If it doesn’t exist, there’s nothing to refine. So yeah, my first draft is going to suck, and I need to let it suck as long as I write it.

For the second, this just helps me more in the planning aspect. Knowing what the characters are doing helps me make sure that the timelines all line up, and to help me establish certain things even though the plot doesn’t require it just yet. It makes things feel real and more logical, and it can definitely come in handy when you cross-refer back to it.

5. How do you go about portraying queer characters, queer experiences, or queer storylines in your IF? 

I think the most important part for me is that the character’s queerness is a part of their identity, and is not their only, or most notable trait, while also acknowledging it and the way it has shaped their life.

With Under Our Skins, everyone is queer – 4 out of the 5 ROs are pansexual, one RO is trans and another is a lesbian. These are a part of their identity, and while sometimes it is just what it is, it has also impacted the way others treated them throughout their lives, and in the IF. 

I think the way I write – or will be writing, since the IF is still relatively new – is entirely linked to my queer experiences and the experiences I’ve observed. Parts of my characters I take from my own experience, others from my friends and people online, and there are also parts where I have to take creative liberties almost, like writing accepting parents and homo/transphobia.

6. Do you have favourite interactive fiction games, characters, scenes or authors that you’d like to recommend?

Here’s a list of IFs I love and adore (in no particular order):

(the famous) Infamous

Press Play

Children of Cain

Wayfarer

When Twilight Strikes

Apt 502

The six that thrive

Stygian Sun: Total Eclipse

Drink Your Villain Juice

Love After Death

The Advisor's Game

Disenchanted

and a lot more I can’t remember off the top of my head!!

7. If you were to say one thing to your readers, other authors, and/or the interactive fiction community: what would it be? 

To my readers, I’d say thank you <33 They’ve been so kind to me and the love that they’ve shown for the IF and characters is honestly so heartwarming and motivating!!

To other authors, y’all are honestly amazing and I hope that your projects work out and that you have nice lives (that sounds like a threat, help). I love so many of your works and it’s honestly an honor (?) to be an interactive fiction author when these are the people I’m standing with.

To the community, please, please be kind. Your comments, whether anonymous or not, are all directed to a person behind the screen – a person who is usually juggling their writing project alongside many, many irl responsibilities. There was a weird influx of hate recently and now that it’s mostly died down (that I’m aware of, anyway), let’s try to make it stay that way. Constructive criticism can be helpful but sending straight up hate is not and can oftentimes undermine an author’s motivation so, yeah, be kind.

[ghostofthepresent]

Why I think Shiguang can be canonically read as romantic

(I will only be using the donghua for reference, so no Studio Lan retweeting those fanarts (lmao) nor those especially gay manhwa panels (lmao x2) nor even the songs ("chase you to the end of the world, just to say your name once more" my beloved).

It's important to start off by saying that I'm aware Director Li said they ended up not making Lu Guang a girl because they didn't want romance to be seen as a must in Shiguang's relationship by the audience (and because he feels that "bros can have a good heart-to-heart connection with each other"). In my opinion that was a great move since it allows more freedom with how they write them than they'd have otherwise. I also think viewing Shiguang as queerplatonic is a great read too and it doesn't diminish their love for each other nor the importance of their relationship at all.

With that said, despite Director Li's words, there's been things that had me going 🤨 as someone who likes to adhere to canon relationships and read into the writer's intentions, so I wanted to share why I personally see them as romantic.

EPISODE 2

We've all seen this coming, right? Most obvious parallel ever, and in the second episode no less. We all know the similarities between both relationships, so I will just touch on those I consider the most important ones.

Lin Zhen and Yu Xia have gone to college together, and since then decided to start a business of their own - named after a mix of their names. They've been shown as being really close and having no romantic relationships. Lin Zhen also says that Yu Xia's happiness is her own, and then it's shown to us that she's gone through years of unhappiness just for Yu Xia. I believe you can replace their names with Lu Guang's and Cheng Xiaoshi's in your head without me writing all this again. And I'm not even going to get into the most obvious parallels like the special noodle recipe for each pair.

I think it's safe to say that Lin Zhen and Yu Xia are implied to be romantic. From that "one noodle" scene, to the close shot of Lin Zhen grabbing her hand, etc.

Now, I want to get into a writer's point of view and pose two questions:

1. What's the purpose of this episode, when even those which seem episodic connect to the overarching plot of season 1 (even the missing kid's case, as it leads to the involvement with the police)?

2. If we answer the previous question with the conclusion that it's meant to show us the nature/development of Cheng Xiaoshi's and Lu Guang's relationship, what does that say about it?

"Partner" in Link Click

Continuing with episode 2, what really got me thinking about the romantic intentions in their writing was the constant mention of marriage and anything in relation to it.

(may I remind everyone that the driver's comment was said when Cheng Xiaoshi was complaining about Lu Guang lmao)

They're telling us through "show don't tell" (for example, when Lin Zhen kept on eating the noodle despite knowing they'd kiss) and, also, connotations. They are presented to us as business partners, but then the entire episode goes on to tell us that there's more to them by tying their relationship to things percived as romantic. So what they want to really tell us is that beyond simple business partners, they're life-long partners.

And then, after establishing this kind of connotation to the word partner, Cheng Xiaoshi says this to Lu Guang in the next episode:

This doesn't stop at them. While it's the most obvious example, I think partnership in Link Click is intended to be seen as romantic, or at the very least dancing somewhere close to it. Let's go even further and take a look at our fully canon, heterosexual relationships and see briefly how their story is written:

1. Dong Yi and Xu Shanshan: both of them chose the comfort of each other's presence over moving on with their respective futures. Dong Yi had so much faith in their relationship and their love that he couldn't choose a life/future that didn't have Xu Shanshan - choosing to not go back to his family home nor go to that interview, and instead waiting for Xu Shanshan to define their relationship.

2. Liu Siwen and Ouyang: Siwen spent his entire life training with the purpose of getting his father-in-law's respect and marry Ouyang, going every year over and over to fight him. His perseverance and his undying love for her allowed Siwen to do the (seemingly) impossible.

3. Chen Bin and his wife: they're a tragedy. His wife understood Chen Bin the best, enduring feeling lonely because she loved him and wanted a future with him. But their relationship was cut short, so they promised each other to be together in a future life to make up for the time they wouldn't be in this one.

With this + the pictures I attached, it seems like Link Click has set this theme of "love is a life with you" for its romantic relationships, a partner that will fight to stay because they can't see a future that doesn't have their beloved. Going back to episode two, this applies even to the noodle ladies. When Yu Xia remembered what actually matters to her, she went back home - to the start, to her hometown. And, most importantly, to Lin Zhen.

So why is Shiguang romantic? Why aren't they queerplatonic, or just best friends, or bros or whatever else? Because besides what I said at the start of the previous paragraph, Shiguang's relationship mirrors a lot of the romantic ones. Each story and author writes romance and other kinds of relationships differently, portraying them in the way they perceive "this is what this kind of love is like". And beyond life-long partners, I think that the key elements of romantic relationships in Link Click are the ones I highlighted in bold above in the 3 canon relationships part - which Shiguang shares, too.

(I didn't mention this before with the het couples, but I find it a little amusing that season 2 happened because a man wanted to go to the past and get his wife back (still fuck you Qian Jin) and then we find out Lu Guang did go back to the past and got his boyfriend partner back lmao).

"Friend" vs "Partner"

So where is the boundary between platonic and romantic? What marks the difference between a (best) friend and a partner?

There is, for example, Liu Xiao and Li Tianchen's relationship. They aren't shown to have any kind of romantic undertones and there's even the very real possibility of manipulation on Liu Xiao's side. They're also never labeled as nor call each other partners, but instead Li Tianchen says he "met a new friend" and Liu Xiao says he's "going to meet an old friend" years later. So we could say for now that they have a somewhat close relationship (we see Li Tianchen go against Qian Jin to give the phone to Liu Xiao), but never cross that "friend" label.

We can even bring Qiao Ling and the boys' relationship. She's never labeled as a partner despite taking part in the side job and, more importantly, being super close to both of them. She is very important and a cherished friend to Shiguang, so why not call her partner too? I think it's intentional. Since she's been given a familial role already (calling Cheng Xiaoshi her brother when talking to Li Tianxi), she can't fill a partner role. I wonder why? because it's supposed to be a synonym for a romantic relationship. who said that.

So even best friends (Qiao Ling, arguably what Liu Xiao is to Li Tianchen) don't enter this close space that is being a partner. It's different, it's beyond platonic. Or at least that's what they've been showing us for the past two seasons.

I could go soo much more into this honestly, because I do think the little hints thrown here (the music videos) and there (tiny seemingly inconsequential details) are worth to be looked at too, but I wanted to get into the core reason that makes me go "woah so they're In Love fr". I hope I expressed myself well ^^

tldr; the series shows us a divide between having a (best) friend and a partner, giving "partners" romantic connotations.

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Costume Meta 811 - Holy Mother of God

Well I don’t know how coherent this will be after that episode - but I’m gonna give it a go becasue there was so much good stuff to talk about with Bucks costuming this week. Sadly no Eddie to talk about though - he’s busy in El Paso trying to settle in and I’m sure we’ll have lots of things to talk about with him next week. I should also warn you - I will be talking about Tommys costumes as well - because they are relevant - but I don’t want to jump scare you when you come across pictures of him!

Do kind of love that I get to do a full character deep dive into Buck because there’s no Eddie this week? You bet I do - especially with the parallels we get in this episode. As always - below the cut!

Starting with Buck’s first outfit - his moving into Eddie’s house clothes - White Elwood hoodie, black pants, grey adidas trainers and his usual watch.

Buck is wearing the grey adidas trainers for his move into Eddies house - carrying on the theme from the end of the last episode and really connecting them into the Buck-Eddie of it all. We don’t see them again in the episode - but I’m not surprised by that - because the rest of the episode is about Buck navigating his new reality and whilst Eddie is heavily present in nearly all those scenes, its not about him or him and Buck as a unit, it’s about Buck and about Bucks feelings - and so we get the white trainers in the scenes where we do see them visible!

White is never good sign for Buck as it portends struggles and angst - having him open the episode wearing white clearly indicates what the episode is going to bring for him. There is also the fact that white signifies new beginnings or blank pages and is also a symbol of clarity (especially mental clarity) and goodness (in opposition to darkness/evil which is black), hope, and innocence. This hoodie is not the only time we see Buck wearing white in this episode as we also see him wearing white later at Maddies house, so I’ll go into what I think the white of it all is for a little bit later when I get to that costume!

This white hoodie is by Elwood - a brand the show has been using for Bucks costumes for a couple of seasons now - particularly for his baggy fit clothes as it tends to be a style choice of the brand. The logo on the back is about connecting Buck to LA - tying him to a location - we also get Maddie in 2 costumes tying her to LA in this episode as well. I think this is very intentional and it’s about emphasising that they have put their roots down in LA - that it is their home (even if Buck is renting!) and I think they have done this to really bring home the fact Eddie has left for El Paso and Buck has to stay in LA because all of the scenes we see these sweaters with the LA logos on, they are scenes about the gap Eddie has left - Buck moving in to Eddies house, Buck not feeling comfortable in that space without Eddie there and so going to Maddie, Buck talking to Maddie about the hole in his life Eddies departure has left - that he misses him.

It’s about establishing the necessity of that separation - for them to separately learn to love themselves so that they can then love each other once they reach that point - especially with the use of an eagle in flight logo as part of Bucks hoodie is an interesting choice to me - birds are a representation of flight - of freedom and of getting a different perspective on things. Eagles specifically are meant to represent good fortune, strength, resilience, power and wisdom and protection and they are also a symbol of Jesus’ resurrection and therefore renewal. (Its also worth noting that bird is another way of describing a helicopter which feels kind of relevant knowing that we’re getting a big helicopter presence in 814/15 and the fact that one can argue that Buddie has been kicked into action via a helicopter)

Also - remember the use of red as I will come back to that colour later on!

Then we have Buck rocking up at the Madney house asking to stay the night in a dark, almost black denim jacket, a greenish grey tee and a bag with a yellow ochre strap.

Firstly the scene is a repeat of the scene from 210 where Buck, having finally moved out of Abbys, winds up on Maddies dining room floor on and air mattress after outstaying his welcome at Chimney’s! Even the colours are the same - green, yellow ochre and black - as you can see below. This parallel is intentional and it is all about Buck being in this period of flux when a dramatic change has happened to his life. I find it a really interesting parallel to draw not only because it’s about Buck moving on to a new phase of his life but also because in combination with the grey hoodie we see him in shortly it gives us a parallel to the Buck and Taylor hook up from season two.

The other thing about this costume tht is key is the greyish green tee, because we see this same tee later in the episode and this grey and green or greyish green colouring is something have been seeing on buck across the last episode and this one and is actually a developing theme for him this season as a whole - we’ve seen buck in khaki greens, greenish greys, or greyish and green in combination multiple times. In 804 he is wearing a greenish grey jacket at the hearing about the 118 being closed down, in 806 we have the khaki green trousers he wears on his date with Tommy and in 810 we have the grey tee and same khaki green trousers when Eddie leaves for El Paso. We also have a lot more green on Buck across seasons 7 and 8 than we’ve had on him in all the other seasons combined. We get the darker and more bottle green colour on him in 705 - the gym conversation with Eddie when he is trying to come out to him. In 707 he is wearing a bottle green shirt when Eddie drops Chris off before going on his date, and in 806 we see him in this darker green during the break up with Tommy and in the subsequent scene at Eddie’s house on the couch.

I go on about green being a colour of growth and renewal, balance and harmony, but also greed, envy, and jealousy. Or how it is a colour associated with blending in - hiding in plain sight (hence its use by the army) making it a colour associated with safety. The thing with green and Buck in these last two seasons is about when the different versions of green are being used. The bolder - darker bottle greens are seen in scenes connected to secrets or more accurately scenes where a character is not being fully honest - with another character and or with themselves - 806 is Eddie not being fully honest with either himself or Buck, while the 705 and 806 scenes are Buck not being honest with Eddie and with Tommy respectively and the also Buck not being honest with himself. To what degree Buck is not being honest with himself is up to you to determine at this point in time, but my personal opinion is that its two fold - there is the conscious not being honest and the unconscious or subconscious (or unknown) not being honest with themselves at play in all these scenes.

As for the khaki greens and the greyish greens - we have scenes connected to battles - internal and external - the battle to Save the 118 in 804, Bucks battle with his bisexuality (in terms of fully knowing himself and understanding himself not with actually being bisexual) and those same trousers in 810 are about Bucks battle with letting his best friend leave him. In all These scenes we see Buck trying to blend in - trying to be what he needs to be to various people in that moment - the girls asking for a photo, Tommy, the rest of the 118, Eddie. All of the scenes are Buck hinging his true self in plain sight whilst at the same time they are scenes about jealousy (not always Bucks) and present an opportunity for growth.

The green shirt here and in the later scene at the bar in this episode also play into this idea of hiding in plain sight and safety and also jealousy and internal battles. Turning up at Maddies is as a result of a battle Buck has been having with himself over his new house and it not feeling like home because eddie is very present in every corner - its him looking for safety, while at the bar Buck is battling to get over Eddie leaving, his attempts to befriend Ravi are about him trying to blend in and then we also see jealousy at play to some extent during the scenes with Tommy.

Then we have the light grey marl hoodie - which as you can see from the picture is the same one from the billy boils scene back in 805. It’s about paralleling the feeling of abandonment by the people closest to you. The 805 scene of Buck Deep Diving on substack, about Billy boils really comes into play here in 811. This show is really good at Platine seeds for things that will come back up later on in the season, or even further down the line. In 805 the Billy boils arc serves more as a reflection on Buck going above and beyond when things connect into his personality - as we saw with Red back in Season 3. But now we‘re getting both that concept in play here (buck going above and beyond for Eddie by taking over his lease) as well as Bucks feelings and fears of abandonment which have been majorly stoked by both Maddie going missing and by Eddie leaving.

We also have the two watches again - which is making my brain itch with the possible meanings - I should point out that it appears to be two new watches - not his usual watch that we’ve seen him in for a while - one looks like a retro 1980’s style digital screen watch and the other looks like a smart watch. I know we’ve got bts pictures of him with them on whilst in his street clothes, but it is possible he’s just not fully in costume at that moment (especially because in other bts with him out of costume he is not wearing them!) there’s something about the fact that we’re only seeing them like this in certain scenes and not in others. It is entirely possible that Oliver is having to wear a monitor of some kind for some reason - but this doesn’t feel like that - because he is not wearing them in most scenes - its only certain ones - and by this I don’t mean the scenes where his arms are bare - I mean scenes where he has long sleeves on - like under the red jacket later in this episode - when he isn’t wearing any watches at all etc.

There is also the fact that its not just a second watch but that both of them are different - if it was Oliver needing to wear a monitor for some reason, there is no reason why he couldn’t still wear his character watch on the other wrist. The wardrobe department wouldn’t be so lax in catching this sort of thing - actors generally speaking will take off all personal belongings and leave them locked in their trailer when they put costumes on, and part of the costume delivery would include their characters ‘jewellery’ - which would be locked away at the end of the shooting day because a lot of it is very high value (Eddies new watch is over $1k for example) - making it less likely that its just Oliver suddenly forgetting to change his personal watches for his character one(s). So it’s something I am keeping an eye on and tracking to see if I can figure it out what is going on! Right now it feels like it’s some kind of play on Buck existing in two places - in two time zones or that there are two different ‘countdowns’ running in his life right now. We’ll just have to watch and see what is going on with the watches!

It’s also worth pointing out here that the jeans are back! We see them several times during the episode and their first appearance is in this scene at Madney’s house.

We have a red and brown check jacket and also have a cream tee and jeans in this scene. Where everything else has been looser in fit and all about comfort (hoodie) up to now in this episode, here we have a combination of fits going on which really plays into this idea of confusion and BUck not really being comfortable within himself. The kacket is well fitting but intentionally slightly short waisted making the tee look too long, even though it too is a good fit on Buck. The jeans are loose fit and slightly baggy, but again do actually fit him. Each article of clothing on its own is a good fit for buck, however in combination they don‘t fit him because they are ‘fighting‘ with each other. This fits with Bucks attempt to make friends with Ravi - its not a good fit because Buck is trying to force something as quickly as possible to fill the void in his life - rather than allowing a friendship to develop more naturally - or taking Ravi’s hints that he isn’t really interested in being friends with Buck, this also ties into the jacket being check patterned, signifying that there is some form of trouble ahead for Buck - his pushing Ravi to go out leads to this jacket being followed by the orangey brown check jacket we see Buck in the next time we see him.

But we’re going to divert for a moment and talk about the colour red for a second. I already mentioned the red on the white hoodie, but we also see Buck up on the ladder rescuing the woman on the cross surrounded by red -we have the red harness he has looked around him and the top of the ladder is also red - which serves to ensure he is surrounded by the colour as you can see in the picture below.

We also see red flowers in the scene Buck and Maddie share in the kitchen later on in this episode. These flowers are an interesting combination and while we see flowers a lot in the background of the Madney house (and in other houses) their placement in this scene - between Buck and Maddie and drawing attention when they’re in shot is what makes them important in the same way the sunflower and ‘wedding’ bouquets were in 809. From what I can tell (because it was really hard to get an in focus screen grab of the flowers so I’m not 100%) we have a combination of red roses, red gardenia’s , red gerbera’s and what looks to me to be two varieties of Pom Pom daisies - the white with red tips and the solid red with a white centre. All of these flowers have meanings associated with love, innocence (except the red roses), new beginnings or prosperity and success. The daisy is also a symbol of motherhood and fertility so that is obviously a nod to Maddies pregnancy - because the flowers work for both Maddie and Bucks respective storylines.

Back to costumes, and buck wearing red - not something that common with him - in fact he only wears red 6 times across all 8 seasons and it’s 50/50 split on if its check or not and the check seems to connect into Buck himself only, while the solid red seems to be more about something external to Buck that connects into him as well.

We have him in red in 102 at the therapists office which is the most important of all the red costumes in relation to tonight’s episode, because it connects into the parallels the show was drawing between the rollercoaster incident from season 1 and the woman on the cross. I wrote in a post before the episode aired that I thought we were getting a rollercoaster parallel and that I thought that if we did, we would also get a parallel to Buck sleeping with this therapist. And we did indeed get that parallel, with the woman on the cross being Devon in 102 and Tommy in the place of the therapist (and before you come at me for comparing Tommy to a woman who essentially r*ped Buck, it is not about the plot device character or their motivations, its about the fact Buck is in an emotionally vulnerable place and is therefore not thinking clearly - it is about him and not them!) and that parallel is about setting Buck up for making progress with his issues - and reflecting the fact that he makes bad choices when emotionally compromised in some way. we get the rollercoaster - therapist parallel also make an appearance in season 5 - with Lucy - yes it is technically in reverse to these other two because the rollercoaster incident isn’t brought up until after the bad choice (kissing Lucy - which is also connected by Buck getting drunk on tequila/margaritas!) but the parallel is still their - Eddie has left he 118 and had his breakdown and Buck is struggling with all of that - with having to work with someone who isn’t Eddie and is also in a relationship that isn’t actually bringing him much in the way of happiness etc.

I do think it funny that they have drawn tommy into these parallels when both the s1 and s5 occurrences are about Buck seeking emotional intimacy through sex in some form and that the Lucy incident especially is about Eddie and Buck kissing Eddie’s replacement - with Tommy basically being Eddie’s replacement because Buck hasn’t allowed himself to consider Eddie as an actual option.

The next time we see Buck in. Red is 409 - when he is meeting Jee-Yun via video chat wearing a solid red knit sweater

Then we have 513 and Eddies breakdown

Followed by 518 and Bucks chat to Maddie about looking for love

Then we have another jump to 805 and Bucks check cowboy shirt

And now 811 in the locker room.

Hopefully you can tell that all the red check shirts tie into Buck and his abandonment issues, while all the solid red costumes are more external to Buck.

The green tee and brown check jacket from the bar I have already spoken about my thoughts on this outfit in my pre show meta when the stills dropped - you can read those here, and on the whole I was right about what we would see from this costume and the implied meanings - we did indeed see buck in a less than fun situation, but one that did set him up for growth. How the orangey brown played into the idea of transformation, superficiality and predictable and conservative as well as into the idea of loneliness and isolation. While the break up green gave us the start of bt break up 2.0 electric boogaloo - where Buck hooking up with Tommy actually gives him some form of closure on that relationship as his outburst the morning after actually reveals a fair amount about his feelings (the Eddie of it all aside) - Buck even says later to Maddie that he was using Tommy as a distraction - that it wasn’t because he genuinely had feelings for him etc.

The other thing about this costume is the lack of watch whilst at the bar, but he is wearing one later on when he’s stumbling down the corridor to the bedroom with Tommy as you can see below. The entire time at the bar its Eddie, Eddie, Eddie and his greatest hits - its past tense not present or future, and Buck stopped wearing a watch as Eddie was leaving - so the lack of watch here in this scene is part of that - Buck feeling like time has run out on that aspect of his life. But as soon as the costume becomes about Buck in the here and now and the seeking of a distraction - the watch is back on his wrist!

Then we get jump to the morning after when he is still wearing that watch - and when you think that he’s wearing different clothes to the ones from the night before - he’s clearly got dressed after the hook up before falling asleep - at which point one would expect a watch to be taken off, but hasn’t - clearly showing that time is a key element of things in this scene.

We have him in a cut off tee in greenish grey - similar to the one when Eddie departs for El Paso, grey black joggers and black socks. I am especially loving the fact that the tee matches up with his bed linen - especially the pillow he has not slept on - as you can see in the above picture they are nearly an identical match -a more green toned grey, while his own pillow and the sheet, are more grey in the brown spectrum. It’s funny because they’ve done this with Buck before - putting him in a grey shirt and having him fall asleep on his bed in s6 during the sperm donor arc (when they panned across to the firefighter onesie) - blending him into his bedding seem to be something of a theme - I’ve just not quite pieced together what exactly it is yet but it is making me wonder if my suspicions are right and the sperm donor arc is going to come back up in some form!

The cut off is part of a theme we’re seeing emerge with Buck - the distressed look to his clothes in 809, 810 and now 811 is a deliberate choice being made - it ties back into the therapist office scene in 102 - you can see in the picture above the distressed jeans he’s wearing revealing his internal distress. It’s all about visually signalling the character is distressed or feeling raw - emotionally and is in keeping with the fact it seems we’re going to be getting Buck in turnouts that look pretty distressed etc in upcoming episodes - it feels like its slowly escalating and is signalling some kind of breakdown for him - that he will reach a breaking point where he is actually going to have to face up to a few things (making the mini theory that that breakdown might tie into the episode called sick day - with Buck’s sickness being more of a mental one than a physical illness - the like of which many or may not take out the rest of the 118 in some way!). The fact we’re seeing his ‘mask’ slip more and more dramatically as he loses the control he has had on things - and the fact this scene parallels a couple of other scenes is what I’m excited about - the therapist scene from s1 - which was paralleled here on multiple levels including the costume - the distressed frayed look - we see Buck wearing distressed clothing in that scene from s1 - Buck is also wearing red check in that scene and that ties the red check from earlier into things - because it is not something Buck wears - literally there are only 3 times - therapist scene, cowboy buck at the firehouse in masks and the one from this episode.

Appologies - but we need to talk about Tommy - because putting him in the exact same outfit as the break up scene from 806 is a very loud choice and I genuinely cackled when I saw!

When I say exact same, the shirt is technically a different shirt, but it is a black linen shirt with the sleeves rolled up and it is doing the same thing as the first one, and continues the theme of black shirts being Tommys dominant costume (literally most of his costumes!) - we see him in maroon occasionally and the blue & grey combo of the basketball game, but otherwise he wears black shirts - especially in scenes where Eddie is present and taking up most of Bucks attention!!! The thing that makes this occurance of a black shirt a parallel to the 806 breakup scene is the dark grey singlet underneath - which is the exact same one.

This allows us to connect the two scenes and makes it clear this latest scene is just an extension of the break up scene - a continuation and one where Buck gets some closure over that relationship - even if it doesn’t feel like it initially! It also shows that Tommy is unchanged - that he‘s not grown in any way that while Buck is in a different place (the change from break up green into the grey tee is a visual indicator of that - Buck thought he was in the same place as when Tommy dumped him, but he wakes up metaphorically and literally in a different place), Tommy isn’t - its a clear indicator that the relationship can never work. It helps to connect what he said in 806 with what is said in 812 - connecting the‚ you wouldn’t mean to, but you‘d end up breaking my heart’ with ‘the competition being out of the way’ but mostly with Bucks line about not sleeping with people he’s in love with and not being in love with people he’s does sleep with. The entire scene is about Eddie and about proving both the break up scene in 806 and the Josh advice scene correct.

White tee buck and his black denim apron of baking spirals - Buck clearly has a collection of aprons and we’ve seen various ones depending on the scene and what it needs to convey but this black one has made a couple of appearances now - including in the baking scene with Jee (you can see it in a picture further down this post) its further emphasising baking as a coping mechanism, but it also creates a black and white look on Buck - when everything around him is in colour. The black and white colour theming is literally about showing us the black and white of it all - its telling us that everything we need to know is right there in black and white - Buck bringing up Eddies straightness and being the one to bring up pining and being in love - that the reality is he is in denial.

Obviously there is also the Buck in white of it all - which is evidence enough for me that what Buck is saying in this scene is meant to be read as not being reality him his deepest self - that Buck is in fact in love and pining after his best friend (but he can’t actually look at that fact - Eddie being straight is Bucks last defence and one he needs to hold for his own sanity - Eddie has left - there is nothing to be gained by Buck examining the reality of his feelings except heartbreak) and that is the thing that will lead to some kind of issue for him

Brown fridge in background continuing to play into the brown colour theme we;re seeing for the season

I do want to take a small detour into blue/yellow colour theory for a minute - because it is there and it is loud in this episode!

We have the blue yellow combination appearing on Maddie as she as Buck talk on the couch at the Madney house, and also the fridge magnets behind Buck in the kitchen scene (as you can partially see above).

We also have the blue mattress (again see picture above),

and Ravi is in blue.

The lighting in that scene is very yellow - until Tommy turns up and Ravi leaves - when it gradually cools down to more white lighting - as you can sort of see see in the two pictures below - its actually clearer if you watch the scene through!

Finally we have this light pinky brown tee - which from a colour theory perspective and a paralleling perspective is interesting - more or less the same colour as the baking hoodie and is in keeping with the brown theme of the season as a whole (especially because he ends up by sitting on his orangey couch!) white trainers. This brown/pink colour seems to be about coping mechanisms and finding a way to find joy - the pinkish tone connects into that theme of innocence vulnerability and joy combined with the idea of being grounded and stable whilst also playing into that idea of loneliness and isolation I spoke about earlier - its about Buck finding his feet - finding stable ground in his being alone - its about embracing loneliness and finding joy in it.

That to me is a really loud indicator of where they are going with Buck by showing him in that colour whilst he is unpacking his things in the house that used to be Eddies - after having him explicitly say that a big part of the reason he hasn’t unpacked is because it means Eddie and Chris won’t be coming back. Its about Buck reframing that feeling and being ok with it - using that and the loneliness that brings as the stable ground from which to find joy and rebuild himself. Its the first stage of Bucks path towards working to deal with his abandonment issues (I am not saying it will be smooth sailing from here - in fact I fully expect for things to get much worse for him on that road!)

In the same way as the baking hoodie was also about Buck finding coping mechanisms and some form of stable ground to work from in his loneliness - the change from hoodie to Tee suggests progression.

And there we have it - the many costumes and colours of Buck for this episode - I hope you found it interesting and thanks for reading - it always means the world to me that people read and engage in these long meta posts 🥰🥰🥰

As always - tagged people below and let me know if you’d like adding to the list!

@lover-of-mine @spotsandsocks @fruityfirehose @wanderingwomanwondering @livingwherethesidewalkends @buddiediaz118 @bewitchedbewilderedbisexual @satvojihusana @elvensorceress @icebergeddie @buckleyanddiaz @eddiedisasterdiaz @kejfeblintz @cookie-kat777 @leothil @bucksbelly @kyoteugly @bi-moonlight @somebodycall911onabc @trudayss @chaosandwolves @lemotmo

[uneducated-author]

I have a little conspiracy theory. I think Belinda was never supposed to exist.

Lemme explain.

So, I believe that Ruby was supposed to be a companion for two seasons. I think they had fair notice, probably before they started filming the first, but I think the general storylines were already put in place, and major episodes, specifically 'Robot Revolution', 'The Well' & 'Interstellar Song Contest' were already largely drafted.

I didn't dislike Ruby as a companion, but I really did quite love Belinda. But I feel like this ending feels matched with Ruby's themes, as well as the FINAL episode basically fridge Belinda, literally trapping her in Stepford before having her literally locked in a box.

Final episodes, especially Companion final episodes always involve the active companion. Especially in an RTD season. Rose becomes the Bad Wolf/gets locked in an alternate dimension. Martha walks the entirety of the earth to unionise the human race. Donna unlocks the metacrisis. Even in Steven Moffat, Amy brings back the Doctor, Clara jumps into his timestream, Clara basically drives both the season 8 and 9 finale two parters.

Belinda does... Very little, comparatively. Even her moments with the Doctor feel strange, there's no fallout of her calling the Rani's forces on him, not even any fallout to them being married. She gets a scene where she runs off into the woods to scream, but she doesn't even get an explanation as to who Poppy is from Space Babies, and how the Doctor knows her.

Comparatively, Ruby not only has the emotional weight of stopping Conrad, she also convinces the Doctor of Poppy's existence. Hell, Belinda isn't even THERE when they give the God of Dreams and Wishes to Ruby's family for them to raise.

Theory. Alan Budd was Conrad. Ruby was Belinda. Season 2 starts with a flashback of her kissing Alan, noticeably sexist and disrespectful, names a star after her, and we cut to seventeen years later. The MissBelindaChandra Bots, now known as the 'MissRubySunday Bots' grab her and take her away. The Doctor, of course, comes chasing after her, and the two reunite. This also answers the question as to how Mrs Flood is both Ruby's and Belinda's neighbour. They're the same character. It should be the same house.

The season, largely, continues as normal. Ruby and the Doctor have very much the same dynamic as Belinda and the Doctor. They probably rewrote a lot of the dialogue for a more combative dynamic to distinguish the two. But generally, the two are pretty close, best friends, dressing up and goofing off, and on a rewatch, even when Belinda's words are her own, her actions never feel far from Ruby's.

(I'll admit that's a stretch as 'companion' characters tend to have the same actions, but I hope you understand what I mean.)

Season 2, the vindicator isn't a thing. Ruby admits to enjoying life with the Doctor, and they commit to a couple of funky trips. Replace the 'something is connecting us' speech with Belinda with something like 'the whole universe, and I found you twice/Doctor, I thought I might have to live my life without you, without the universe, let's go everywhere'. This even helps the moment where the Doctor promises Rose that she Will see him again seem to make a lot more sense. Bear in mind, Joy To The World still takes place, so he still has his 'missing Ruby, making two coffees' arc.

(This opening would probably be a parallel to Partners In Crime in some senses? The Doctor and Ruby in the start of Robot Revolution being like the Doctor and Donna constantly missing each other.)

Here, the vindicator never existed. Anyways, it's never mentioned more than a couple of mentions per episode, and even as the deus ex machine weapon against Omega, you could remove every mention of it from the season and it would be fine. The Doctor and Ruby don't have any pressure on getting back on time, they're vibing. It is very much like the last season, only replace the Susan Twist cameos with Mrs Flood cameos.

In 'The Well' we get an indicator that the human race is not in fact gucci. And in 'Interstellar Song Contest' Graham Norton pops up and tells them that the Earth was destroyed on the 24th of May. And this is like Journey's End, when the Doctor and Donna return to Earth, and then the planet vanishes.

(I really see a LOT of Donna's era in this season)

So, in Wish World, the Doctor and Ruby are married. Replace the scene where Ruby knocks on the door and says everything is fake with Ruby being the Doctor's wife telling him that she doesn't remember their daughter. Keep the scene of her being asked about giving birth to Poppy and screaming in the woods, keep the scene of her finding Shirley, only this time, someone else calls the police on both the Doctor AND Ruby. Which is why we get zero fallout of the Doctor feeling like he can't trust Belinda. Because here, they were BOTH reported and taken in.

So in Reality War, Ruby is the companion confronts Conrad, except it isn't Conrad in this version. It's Allan. Noticeably sexist Allan. Belinda even says 'all you ever did was correct me' and that's what he's doing. Correcting the World, in his image. His obsession with obedience.

Hell, it even makes Poppy make more sense. Poppy is born because 'Allan' would want 'Ruby' to be a mother, and in season 1, we see Ruby ask the Doctor if he has children, to which he responds that he will have. Ruby sees him with the space babies. And RUBY, who remembers Poppy, tells the Doctor NO, that she was real, that Poppy existed and he NEEDS to save her. Ruby even tells Poppy 'I wish we were (your parents)' which would make space babies make sense.

Maybe the Zero Box exists, maybe it doesn't, but midnight hits and it's the 25th. And Ruby convinces everyone as to Poppy's existence, and the Doctor leaves, pours regeneration energy into the time vortex, bringing Poppy back and entrusting her to Ruby. (Poppy returns, but is fully human.)

This works for Ruby's themes way stronger. Ruby's arc was always about finding her mother, and being a foundling. I mean, she was even wiped from existence. (They try to make Belinda relate with being trapped in a time storm which is weak).

This is RUBY'S story. Even the idea around family, we get wonderful moments with Cherry and Carla, and after a whole season of Belinda nattering about her parents, we only see her mum for three seconds. And I think they wrote Lucky Day to establish Conrad, and explain why Ruby matters to him.

I don't think this makes the season bad at all. I am a bit upset that Belinda seems like such an afterthought as a character. But here's my theory all the same.

[thesirencult]

PAC READING: CHRISTMAS WISHES FROM YOUR FS

PILE 1

Your FS is going through a "10 Of Swords" moment. They have been blinded from the truth. Her light is stronger than any illusion's. You are part of this truth. You and this person share a very special soul bond. Your lives' are parallel to eachother, a thin thread connecting the dots until the moment you meet.

"Keep your map close to your chest darling.

Not many people will understand the journey you are embarking on. I do. I want you to know that I wish that all wishes come true the next year. I'm kinda hopping one of them involves me ; )

I wish you get to heal. I wish the sun is warming up your skin and your eyes are shining with hope. I wish I was there to hold your hand. We could embrace eachother under the sun.

You are my sun.

My Sun. Take the chance and that leap of faith. It will bring you closer to happiness and to me. There are times the most illogical choice and the most risky one leads us to success. The paradox of risk.

I wish you keep the flame in your heart alight and your optimism helps you rise above every single. I wish you find love and guidance within your soul.

Goodbye, for now, my Sun and Merry Christmas <3"

PILE 2

Your person is not happy. They are far away from you but energetically they can feel that you are struggling. Your person is very spiritual and they want you to hold on for a tiny bit longer. They might be older than you. When you meet they will take on the role of a mentor. They see you, the real you and they want to help this diamond form under pressure.

Your FS is very calm, cool and collected. They know what they want. Your message is more heav,y but I know, deep in my heart, that you are telepathetically connected and they constantly send you messages, especially through songs and quotes you stumble upon.

"I wish you could see yourself from my POV. The amazing, beautiful, strong soul that you are. I wish you could look at life through a different prism. I want you to take the reigns and show everyone who you are. I wish you find the strength to own your beauty.

Your energy is mesmerizing. Like a cold night under the full moon and a wolf howling in the background. Hecate.

Choose sovereignty. Choose yourself baby. You're not unlucky. Your time just hasn't come yet.

I want you to push one last time baby. Do it for me. I'm sorry I'm not there to wish you "Happy Christmas".

I wish you manifest your dreams,I wish you dare to invest in your future, in our future without thinking you don't deserve it.

You have more options than you think. Don't make any bad choice you will regret later.

I love you baby. I want you to be healthy and strong."

PILE 3

Your FS is very "hungry" for you. They want you to let them take control. They are more possessive and obsessive than you would expect. They show their emotions through touch and on the bed.

They are daring and won't mind to show that you are theirs to everyone. Your FS knows taht you have big goals and they want you to know that in the future you will achieve all your dreams.

They are pretty succesfull themselves and they want you to get that bag and level up. They love material things and they invest in their future. You would meet in an environment supporting your level up (gym, career day, course, seminar etc.).

"My lovey dovey Sweetheart,

I wish you indulge this season. I wish you let your hair down for a while. When you are mine I will help you calm down. I will take the burdens off of your shoulders and tie your hands. Merry Christmas my lovely baby. I wish this time next year we are together, driving around in our luxury vehicles.

Let me dominate you. Let me take control. I will wrap satin sheets around you and carry you to the bathroom. A bathtub full of rose petals. Champagne for you my love. Sit on my face.

I wish you achieve all your goals. I wish you get your dream car, you bossy little lady. I will hold your hand through everything. I'll be by your side on long nights and I will proudly parade you around and show you off to everyone. I want them to know that the most accomplished person is mine.

You are mine. Mine. Mine.

Always yours, your FS."

[ollyoxygenfree]

I think one thing we have to talk about, especially with Mon Mothma's arc in season 2 of Andor, is how you cannot half ass what you believe.

For example, with Mon, it's very easy to see why she is being so protective, she has a lot to lose, and if the wrong people, (like Syril,) go looking, her entire part of the rebellion will collapse.

But it isn't just the money that I'm talking about. Her crashout during the wedding was her finally realising that Luthan had to remove Tay from the picture, and that she had to have blood on her hands to ensure the security of the rebellion.

And we can truly parallel that to real life too. It's not really about how much money you can give, it's what you may have to lose in order to fight for what you believe. For Mon, it's only just hit her that it's something you cannot avoid. For us, it's having to leave people behind that don't follow the same beliefs you do.

It's a massive thing to do of course, but you cannot be part of something and also be surrounded by those who don't feel the same, or want to go against what you believe. You have to be pretty emotionally part of your beliefs, instead of standing by and watching other people slander it.

Anyway, all that goes to say, Mon Mothma has such a delicate and complicated story, and I can't wait to see what Andor brings next.

[aletterinthenameofsanity]

Framing/Costume Design in Dead Boy Detectives (Part 2 of God Knows What?): Edwin, Crystal, Brown Coats, and Emotional Intimacy

(And yes, I changed the title. Sorry, I realized that as many of my thoughts about framing/cinematography also have to do with costuming. Oops?)

Okay, so I was thinking things about Edwin and Crystal and Charles and the costuming in the forest scenes and wanted to put them out here on the interwebs. (With assists from @mellxncollie, who provided answers as to shots in episode 8!)

I'm thinking about how in both the Edwin/Charles forest scenes in episode 2 and Crystal/Charles forest scene in episode 6, both Edwin and Crystal are wearing brown jackets/coats. This is typical for Edwin, yes, but the coat is often used as a stand-in for a type of emotional armor, with him wearing the coat in situations where he tends to be hiding something either from himself or from others- especially in scenes in episode 6, where he is more open at the neck, yes, signaling his desire to confess, but also with a double layer of the armored brown, connoting that he is still holding things back from everyone regarding his feelings, as happens when talking with both the Cat King and Monty in the forest.

Or rather, he also wears that coat in scenes when he is putting an emotional barrier between himself and others- which is why I find it so fascinating that Crystal gets put in a brown jacket during her forest scene when she's hiding things from Charles as well, a very deliberate parallel in colors. In both scenes you get Charles physically defending both of them from a threat, whether that be the dandelion sprite skeletons or David, and both the dandelion sprites and David are manifestations of Greater psychological threats to the characters in question.

However, Edwin still has much of the season to go when it comes to his emotional Journey so must maintain the coat for longer, while Crystal really kick starts her emotional arc in this episode and is able to tell Charles what is happening with her and connect with her ancestors, so she is able to discard the brown coat by the end of the episode.

Now, this last bit is up to interpretation, but when it comes to the final episode of the show (and the scenes post-hell and thus post-confession), Edwin doesn't wear the coat with Crystal post-Niko death in the scene where he welcomes her to the agency, but he does with the Cat King. This could just be given to simple environmental storytelling from a doylist pov (Edwin is outside with the Cat King, but inside with Crystal), but from a Watsonian pov, the decision speaks to an interesting implication: Edwin has finally lowered his emotional walls with Crystal, but there is still a layer of emotional walls up with the Cat King.

@uhhhhhwhatthefuck @starnightsstuff @whatthehorsedoicallthisblog

@gh0st-ratt @tipsyscone @anonymouscheeseball

@great-exhibition-of-1851 @dont-know-how-this-works @mirellapryce

@goddessofliteratureandsarcasm @superdemon552 @fan-a-tink

@arrow-jsy

[himboskywalker]

Really really curious what your thoughts are on the last three episodes of Andor? I’m assuming you watched them since you reblogged the Mothma speech.

I most certainly have, and I've been trying to parse through a response for the last couple of days. Any articulation of just how impressed I am with episode 8 and 9 feels lacking when I firmly believe there is going to be a plethora of research published on Andor's presentation of Imperialist regimes and revolution.

But firstly, I am so immensely shocked Disney greenlit season 2. In the era of constant censorship and totalitarian response to protest I am blown away Disney executives allowed season 2 to air without requiring heavy changes.

On social media I've seen people getting really upset over lots of Star Wars fans/viewers missing the direct parallels between the Ghorman Massacre and Palestine. And that is certainly a parallel Gilroy is clubbing people over the head with, but I also don't think it's as simple as that. Andor isn't commentary on a single atrocity or a single imperialist state, and I think to reduce it to a singular horror is reductionist. Because Andor (and greater Star Wars) is a spotlight on Empire and totalitarianism and authoritarianism in many forms.

I absolutely think Andor is a dialogue on Palestine, especially with Mothma's speech on standing up for truth and calling the "Ghorman Plaza Riot" for what it is, genocide. But I also think, with the heavy handed French resistance aesthetics and the hiring of French actors to pronounce the Ghorman language as phonetically French and ALL of the direct allusions to World War II, we can also take it for what it is, France and Poland and the greater theater of Nazi Germany. I also think it's Tiananmen Square, and Myanmar, and so many protests in the United States I can't begin to list them all. It is the authoritarian propaganda machine and twisting of truth and turning the public against innocents and peoples fighting for freedom. Is is every iota of CIA involvement in Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Cambodia, Laos, Brazil, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Nicaragua...I could literally go on for pages.

Andor is also representative of the state alienating and criminalizing the other, of which every major political power on this planet is guilty of. But it is especially the United States terrorizing immigrants while extorting their 'usefulness'. It is sexual abuse and crimes against humanity committed by ICE and other government enforcers.

It is the constant propaganda machine, unceasing and unforgiving, which will always seek to demonize anyone who resists. It is media censorship and ad campaigns and flat out blatant LIES. Because truth is freedom, truth is a weapon.

I think my favorite part of Andor is the unflinching examination of what it takes to resist though. I think a modern penchant, especially on the Internet, is many people's obsession with a moral high ground. The constant need to be utterly right and the expectation of moral purity from others and ourselves equates people frozen by inaction and the fear of getting their hands dirty or others perceiving them as wrong or bad. It's why there is so much infighting in leftist spaces, because of disagreements of doctrine and moral code, and that refusal to give ground and work together, it means the Empire wins. But revolutionaries of the past were not squeaky clean apostles of goodness. A spy in the French resistance killed people, maybe even innocent people. In that particular war, western society tends to paint over it all, and agrees that the fight for freedom was justified, and that the people who took up that fight were good. This is because we won that war. But revolution is a bloody business, resistance is not clean or pure, made up of saints and Luke Skywalkers.

The price of freedom is paid by people like Andor. It's Luthen's monologue completely, "I burn my decency for someone else's future, I burn my life to make a sunrise I know I'll never see."

In all, Andor, but especially the last few episodes, I think is a horrifically accurate examination of what systematic oppression and violence under totalitarianism looks like. I think it is also an unflinching examination of what resistance actually is. No one escapes a regime morally unscathed, Palpatine did not build the Empire from nothing nor alone, and the unfortunate price of freedom and justice is not moral purity. The Rebel Alliance are not pacifists, nor were the Jedi for that matter. So what is the price paid, to fight fascism, totalitarianism, imperialism, authoritarianism etc.? What is the price to fight, for yourself, but mostly for the people you love? It is everything. And I think the question Andor ultimately asks is, is it worth it? And I think the answer is simple but not easy, yes.

[barblaz-arts]

First things first, I love your art!!

I was wandering through tumblr to see if there's any great chaggie fanart, but here it is! ❤️

I really love how healthy and supportive their relationship is, and I hope we get to have more chaggie screen time in Season 2(waiting for the "get it" moment lol)

What kind of Chaggie moment do you hope yo see in season 2??

I hope you'll get to post more chaggie art in future! Love your art, keep up the great work!! ✨️

Also, love from Korea~

Thanks!

Oh man, there's a lot I wanna see

- a chaggie duet that isn't a reprise. More than Anything was a good place to start, but it was wayyy too short. One of the things I love about Hazbin is that we get to have canon gay duets sung by talented broadway stars. The only musical wlw duet I know of is "Take or Leave Me" which is so so good, but it's a break up song. Steven Universe only has the one song with Rupphire, but Im not a big big fan of it, especially since Ruby's VA isnt really a singer(which is fine!). I want more gay duets that are declarations/affirmations of love and I'm sure chaggie will deliver.

-I also want Charlie to get to have a turn at singing about Vaggie like Vaggie did. I mean, we're for sure getting that bcuz of the "sexy pop song" but I also want Charlie to sing a ballad about Vaggie. If the teaser that we saw where the voice actors for Charlie and Baxter(?) sing some modified lyrics of Carnilla and Vaggie's "Whatever It Takes" means they're going to reprise it, then I really really hope that's the case. If this is just them having fun, im gonna be so disappointed lmao

While I still stand by my many previous statements that claims of Charlie and Vaggie lacking the display necessary to be considered a couple is ridiculous, a flaw I did notice is the fact that we dont get to see Charlie show how much she loves Vaggie all that much, which I think isn't the writers' oversight and more of a deliberate obstacle that they'd be facing in the upcoming seasons. I get it! Charlie's got a lot of shit going on, but she needs to be able to balance her work and relationships if she doesn't want to lose either her dream or her girl or both! Like, you know that trope where the workaholic gets so absorbed in their work that they end up unintentionally neglecting their lover, and when they do realize that they've fucked up, they do their best to make up for it in any way they can? I want that. I want Charlie's turn to apologize to Vaggie for fucking something up.

And idk how likely this is, but I think a really good opportunity to do that is to have Velvette come in and make Charlie jealous. If you didn't see my previous posts about it, I just noticed that the Vees all have these twisted love for a Hazbin close to Charlie that they also sorta parallel. Vox has an obsessive hate boner for Alastor, and they're both demons related to entertainment media. Valentino is Angel's abusive situationship, and they're both big names in the porn industry. All we have left is Velvette, who is the "backbone" of the Vees and seems to be the brains of the team, and the closest equivalent to that is Vaggie who is the manager of the Hotel and Keeper of their Braincell. Plus if Vaggie having died in the 2010s and Charlie being 200+ yrs old is still canon, Velvette can gloat about the fact that she's around Vaggie's age and is younger and fresher than granny Morningstar. You cant tell me that isn't something she'd do, since that was like the thing she kept throwing in the other Overlords' faces.

- Charlie hasnt turned demon mode for Vaggie yet, and I really want that. I dont just want what we got in the final episode where Charlie's glaring at Lute while she's holding Vaggie. Yeah ok that was pretty great but I want more! I want hellfire! I want claws! I want the feral, scrappy Charlie from the pilot pretty please!

- I want Vaggie and Lucifer bonding over Charlie. I dont think Lucifer and Charlie's relationship is completely "fixed" after the one duet they had, and I'm really hoping Vaggie gets to have a part in mending their relationship by having her interact with Lucifer. I also really want the narrative to explicitly acknowledge all the parallels Lucilith have with Chaggie

- I promise this isn't just the horny speaking, but I really hope Erika saying that "Charlie and Vaggie can get it, and we might see them do so" really means we're getting an explicit Chaggie sex scene. Hear me out! So far in season 1, the only explicitly r-rated scene we have is the fucked up one with Valentino and Angel. It would be really great if the next r-rated scene is one that is done out of love, and what better way to do it than with the protags in a canon relationship? It would show that sex isn't inherently a bad thing, and that Charlie clearly doesnt believe that either

- i really want more flashbacks about Charlie and Vaggie before they got together. I wanna see Charlie when she still hopelessly crushed on the stranger she saved in the streets. I wanna see how Vaggie reacted to the fact that she's an angel falling in love with Hell's princess. At the very least, they really should consider publishing comics that could add to the lore that the budgeted run time cant cover.