#speculation?

[bucknerdycore]

*Buck entering the 118 in silence*

Bobby: Are you okay Buck? Buck: Yesterday I saw Shannon in a restaurant with Eddie.

Hen: What? Buck: I'm not joking! I told Tommy and he doesn't believe me either.

Chimney: Don't think about it! Cap just made food.

*they sit down while Bobby serves the food*

Kim: Hi I'm looking for Eddie Diaz.

Buck: I told you that I saw her!

Chimney: What's in the food?

Hen: Oh no another brownie situation.

Chimney: I have to take a photo for Maddie.

Buck: Can someone tell Tommy this please? He is not going to believe me.

[sevensoulmates]

I guess some brief clarification on my last post. I could definitely see the writers going faster than what I laid out, but traditionally the writers move glacially slow, and not every episode will focus on Buddie or even Buck or Eddie individually. So my timeline was based on a more realistic look at the season and based on trends I've noticed over the years from watching this show as it's aired for like 5 years.

What do we know so far:

We're getting two Buddie-heavy episodes in 8x09 and 8x10

8x11 is most likely a Bobby-heavy episode w/o Eddie in it with solo Buck most likely the b-plot

8x12 is an Eddie-heavy episode (the first one we're seeing of him in El Paso) I don't anticipate them wrapping up the Texas story arc in one episode.

My guess is 8x13 will have Eddie in B-plot, with someone else focus of A-plot.

8x14-8x15 are the two-parter plotty episodes, according to Tim and Oliver, so they will likely be focused on either Bobby, Athena, Hen, or Chim. Buck OR Eddie could potentially be b-plot or c-plot for either of those episodes but it's unlikely if early 8b was heavy on them.

That leaves 16-18 for the remainder of the major Buddie plots. I could see 16 being the last episode focusing on Eddie in Texas as A-plot, with them returning home at the end of 16 or the beginning of 17 (see: 5x16 May Day-5x18 Starting Over). That puts Eddie-focused A-plot in Texas to 3-4 total episodes, with some potential scenes sporadically in the middle of the other episodes, depending on how much of Buck's LA plot involves Eddie. That's about the same amount of time spent on Eddie during his s5 time away at Dispatch and his breakdown.

17 will then set up the major emergency of the finale, which may or may not involve Eddie or Buck. They might instead be b or c-plot of this episode. 18 will wrap the emergency up and then see the resolution with the characters recuperating from the emergency/resettling into "normal".

I don't see any major buddie stuff happening (ie. confessions) until they are both back and settled in the same physical location. I also don't see it being as simple as "I love you" "I love you too" "let's get married tomorrow". We simply do not have enough time to do that in 2 episodes with Eddie back in LA. Especially if the big emergency does not involve Buck or Eddie in any significant way. BUT if Buck and/or Eddie ARE the focus of the closing emergency, then I could absolutely see some major leaps happening for them.

But even if they are b or c-plot for 17-18 we could still get major developments. Even if they aren't a large part of the closing emergency, we know that these characters don't always have to be dying themselves to learn things. They often learn when OTHER PEOPLE are in these emergencies. Happens all the time. So I could see something happening where another couple loses a partner or an almost couple where one person mourns how they "never told them the truth of their feelings, and now they're gone" etc. That could ABSOLUTELY spur Buck on to admit his feelings in the comedown of the emergency, even without him being directly involved in it.

But, like, I am absolutely willing to eat my words. I definitely didn't anticipate all that happened in 8x09 to happen, so who knows! They could be going balls to the wall, and we could be getting more serious leaps for Buddie before the season ends, but I prefer to err on the side of caution because it helps me manage my expectations of an ensemble show while still remaining optimistic :)

[camaelczarka]

So, I think we all know that there’s going to be quite a bit more to the 2x07 trial and the 2x08 tower scene when Lestat tells the story. If you’ve read the Vampire Lestat, you already know what I mean; TVL is almost a wrapper for IWTV, and provides much of the context around Claudia’s death. I’m definitely going to spoil some events in that book in this post so watch out. Under the cut for spoilers.

The bulk of TVL describes Lestat’s mortal life, his relationship with Nicolas de Lenfent, his non-consensual turning into a vampire by Magnus who then shortly after jumps into a fire, his meeting Armand, his forming of the Theatre des Vampires, and Nicki’s eventual death by suicide that Armand greatly facilitated. There’s a lot more to it but basically it’s the backstory for why everything that happens to Claudia and Louis in Paris goes as horribly as it does.

Near the end of the book, Lestat revisits the trial. It picks up with him being extremely weak and sick for years after his ‘death’ at the hands of (mostly) Claudia. He doesn’t condemn her for it, or seek revenge, and says he understands why she did what she did. But being alone and having no one to turn to, he eventually decides to ask Armand for some of his blood so that he can recover, having no idea that Louis and Claudia are already in Paris. Still in his weakened state, Armand takes advantage of him to get information about Louis and Claudia and how they tried to kill him. Armand is reading his mind but it’s unclear how much info he gets there. Then, he traps Lestat under the theater and starves him until he’s forced to drink dead blood. He’s extremely disoriented and sick and is dressed up to look good and brought out to testify against Claudia. Then he’s taken away to Magnus’ tower (he also has the yellow dress here) and Armand flips out on him for breaking up his former coven and starting the theater, tells him Louis is also dead (a lie obviously), and pushes him out of the tower.

The key difference between the show trial and the book trial is the fact that the show makes the trial into a play with rehearsals that Lestat is (apparently) present for. So my question, knowing the book canon, is why would Lestat participate willingly, or did he even willingly participate?

Going on the book canon, it might simply be that Lestat is super fucked up in this moment, that Armand is controlling his every action except for the few times where he manages to break out of it and go off script. And I do think that’s possible if he’s weak enough- Armand is very powerful in that way, and Lestat might be unable to fend him off. I think this is possible- Armand explicitly states in the book that he wants Lestat to look presentable, and maybe that was enough to fool Louis.

But I actually think the show might have added another even more nefarious layer to this already fucked up event- I think that Armand has made some sort of fucked up deal with Lestat for Louis’ life. Because otherwise, none of this makes sense.

Why does there need to be a trial play with a human jury? Legitimately, there doesn’t. There’s no good reason for it- the coven was going to judge them as guilty no matter what, and the audience is going along with the play because they think it’s a show. Armand and the coven will have Claudia dead one way or another, they really don’t need a bunch of mortals to weigh in on it. So who was Armand trying to convince? The only answer is Louis.

Armand may have written into the script that Louis was supposed to die with Claudia, but I think he made a deal behind the backs of the coven with Lestat. That deal was maybe something like- “I let you get him banished, then I will take him out of the wall. Say nothing about your involvement or he dies.” Lestat is made to give up personal details of their lives together, seemingly freely. Why would be do this? Why would he willingly put himself in the position of the bad guy to Louis here? Even Louis wonders this in the interview. And there are even a bunch of moments where Lestat stalls in the middle of talking- and I think he’s fighting with Armand telepathically, or being reminded of the terms of this agreement. Louis and Claudia wouldn’t be able to tell what was happening, but Madeline would, so they keep her hypnotized until later.

Because, the coven DIDN’T spare Louis. Lestat getting him ‘banished’ didn’t spare his life at all, he was just dying slowly. Because again, the coven didn’t actually care about the audience jury, they just took him offstage for the main event. He was 100% still going to die. But Lestat DID still save him- by agreeing to let him go with Armand.

Lestat doesn’t answer when Louis accuses him of getting revenge during the trial. Lestat doesn’t provide any explanation in the tower in the next episode for why he participated. He allows Louis to hold him responsible for his participation and how it resulted in Claudia’s death. I feel like Lestat CAN’T dispute it, as per the terms of whatever arrangement he and Armand had. Armand takes Louis out of the wall, and the price of Lestat saving him from that is letting Louis decide to leave him. He can’t say anything otherwise, and he truly doesn’t think he deserves to anyway.

This also could explain why Lestat participated to begin with. He actually IS really weak and fucked up, so he couldn’t do much to save Claudia or anything really past getting Louis put into that coffin. Armand puts him into the impossible position of relying on him to get Louis out while also trusting that Armand can handle his suicidal husband, knowing that Armand is responsible for Claudia AND Nicki’s deaths already. This is why he is terrified that Louis is dead in 1973, because Armand has a track record and he knows that Louis has been suicidal before. But what other option does he have? Giving Louis up is the only way to save him.

This achieves 3 goals for Armand. He get Louis and finally (he hopes) severs Louis’ ever present love for Lestat. He gets rid of the coven, or at least gets out of it. And, perhaps most importantly, he injures Lestat in a way that he will truly never recover from. Nicki is dead, Claudia is dead, Louis hates him.

I think this is partially why Armand is so gleeful when he tells Daniel how long he and Louis have been together versus Louis and Lestat. His ultimate goal is to punish and hurt Lestat. Kill his daughter, make him watch, make him responsible. Make Louis hate him. Make Louis stay with him ‘forever’ of his own free will.

It also recontextualizes the line in the last episode where Lestat explains to Louis that he “gave him to Armand” and questions whether or not that was actually saving him. Which implies there was a goal beyond simply getting him offstage, and I think means more than just exchanging a boyfriend between the two of them. Louis had already left Lestat at the point, and while maybe they would have gotten back together already without Armand’s involvement, Louis wasn’t really ‘his’ to give. I think it means something more along the lines of he LITERALLY gave his bodily safety to Armand, knowing how much he couldn’t trust him. But, he had no other choice, because Armand left him with none. Let me have him or he dies.

I do actually wonder if Lestat was still imprisoned and starved by Armand, and I think there’s a high likelihood of that. I do think Lestat would have to be in a weakened state to agree to any of this. But it does add another psychological element to the original story that also explains some of the weirdness in Armand’s version of events. This is the part of the story that Daniel can’t totally decode, because only Lestat knows exactly what happened besides him. And Lestat may still assume that Louis has ‘figured it out’ in the present day, because all Louis says is that he knows Lestat ‘saved’ him. Lestat still is going to clarify events going forward, and the trial is a big reason WHY he he writes TVL, because he wants Louis to understand what happened there.

[stargirl-and-potts]

Gemma was so soft and bright and warm and full of life in all the photos of her, but Miss Casey’s half-frozen. Her expression barely changes. It’s not the hapless earnestness of the other innies. Her eyes are shadowed always. Is because she works alone, never with friends? She can only ever sit with a stranger, reading a list, which must not evoke too strong an emotion. Or is it because of what happens when she’s buried down in Testing?

What are they Testing on her?

[lokiinmediasideblog]

The new ship name I keep seeing in the tags just makes me think of:

And I guess this feeds into "Loki has incredible amounts of parallels with Shrek and thus Shroki would be viable."

[iris-of-the-lambs]

what if instead of horses we domesticated porcines... i think that could be cool

[tawnysoup]

Finally now that the comic is fully public on comicfury, I get to share it with all of you here, too <3

If you enjoyed, please consider supporting by buying a PDF of the comic on itch.io: https://tawnysoup.itch.io/home-in-the-woods

[rosie-dear-rosie]

I love you speculative biology. I love you worldbuilding projects. I love you creature design. I love you fantasy biology. I love you speculative evolution. I love you science fiction.

[yupmabel]

i think creepers are herbivores who get their chloroplasts by eating plants and then photosynthesize by themselves. like sea slugs

[t00thpasteface]

here's something stupid: the catcatfish

some quick facts:

they're nocturnal and tend to roam around while awake.

they have keen senses of smell and hearing, but terrible eyesight. despite this, they also have a tapetum lucidum, making their pupils "glow" in the dark.

their fur is short, dense, and oily to waterproof them.

they prefer a diet of mostly meat and are attracted to strong-smelling food like fish, cheese, and anything fermented.

the elongated dewclaw on each front paw is sharp, flexible, and nonretractable. it injects a venom that causes respiratory failure and cardiac arrest in prey and, in extreme doses, humans. veterenarians typically remove the dewclaw venom glands during the neuter/spay procedure.

they grow to an average of 1m and 23kg (3ft and 50lb) but can reach up to double that length and triple the weight!

[frankierotwinkdeath]

Y’all want Taylor Swift to be gay so bad but you won’t even write femslash about her

[lylahammar]

My take on unicorns! I'd really love to make a mythical creature field guide someday, since the Spiderwick Field Guide is what inspired me to start drawing in the first place 🥰

[sevensoulmates]

Buck, Eddie, Love Interests & Vulnerability

So I noticed something interesting while I was watching a romcom with my friend tonight and I wanted to share my thoughts.

I remembered that in writing romance, whether for screen or in written format, one of the fundamental keys to making your characters establish a deep relationship is to have them share vulnerable moments.

Why is it important for two characters to be mutually vulnerable to develop a romance? Because if your potential partner is not able to see the most vulnerable parts of yourself and love you for it even more, then that's not the partner for you. Most of us are aware of this, and that's why those moments in any romance where two characters open up and let each other in are extremely important.

Now I want to talk about Buck and Eddie's relationships with their various LI's (hopefully as briefly as I can) and analyze the relationships and the audience's reception to them.

With Buck, his relationship with Abby, love it or hate it, definitely included many vulnerable moments with the two of them opening up to each other. Buck felt like Abby could see him, and he was able to be vulnerable with her about how he felt. Abby was very open about her struggles with her mom. This bonded them together quickly and allowed the audience to at least understand why they were into each other if nothing else. I still believe Buck's relationship with Abby was the strongest of his female love interests in the show (even despite all the faults).

With Ali, the only time we see Buck be vulnerable is right after the truck explosion, and instead of that vulnerability being accepted, it is rejected by Ali, hence why their relationship does not continue.

With Taylor....this relationship was lopsided. Taylor managed to open up to Buck during the pandemic episodes, and about her past, and Buck accepted her and supported her, but the same could not be said vice versa. With the exception of the scene where Taylor tries to help Buck after Eddie is shot (and even that has him rejecting her and her insisting but I digress), when Buck opened up about things, his insecurities, etc, they were almost always met with skepticism, mockery, and even exasperation, even though she was no longer outwardly cruel. Buck made a lot of mistakes in their relationship too, but all of this (in my personal opinion) was done because he knew, subconsciously, that he and Taylor were not fully connecting on the emotional level they both needed, and that led to their ultimate breakup.

With Natalia, the girl wasn't comfortable with any part of Buck's life, and I don't think either of them really shared any truly vulnerable moments at all. Even though they were talking a lot about Buck's death. I think at first, Buck misunderstood Natalia's interest in his death as acceptance of his vulnerabilities (exactly what he was missing in his last relationship with Taylor) but in the end, he realized that once again, they were not connecting the way they needed to, and he ended it.

Now, I'm going to shift to Eddie because he's interesting. The first relationship we see him in is with Shannon. We see moments between the two of them where Shannon is able to open up about her vulnerabilities with Eddie...but (in my opinion) I don't know if Eddie was ever able to truly accept them, as evidenced by him being "unable to trust her" even after he's already begun sleeping with her. In contrast, I don't think we ever really see Eddie open up to her, not really, not even during the very last time they have dinner together. His speech to Shannon is less about him being open and honest with his vulnerabilities, but more so a promise to stifle his worries about their relationship, his fears about what she could do to Chris (and Eddie) emotionally, to fall back into the comfortable nuclear family they'd made, to keep his issues to himself all in the pursuit of "making it right" with her. In Eddie Begins, we also see that when Shannon tries to make vulnerable connections with Eddie they are shut down, and when Eddie is given opportunities to open up to Shannon and let her in on how he's feeling, he denies them. I understand why some people find their relationship fascinating, but I think most people agree these two were never right for each other because Eddie and Shannon are never able to make the true, deep vulnerable connections necessary in order to really truly be there and accept and love each other as true forever partners.

Next, we have Ana. Good lord the only vulnerable conversation these two ever had on screen was their breakup. They have awkward dates where they talk about math, and when Ana tries to get Eddie to start talking about Shannon ie "I know there's not been anyone in his life since his mom" Eddie very promptly shuts down that convo. Later on, even after Eddie is shot, they still don't have any vulnerable conversations. Then, when Eddie has his panic attacks, still nothing. The only time Eddie is ever 100% honest with her is when they break up. And that's why literally no one watching had any investment in these two as a couple.

I want to spare a brief interlude for Felisa Valdez and Vanessa. I hypothesize a lot of the reason why people think Eddie "had chemistry" with these two was not just because they are all hot individuals or had any sort of special connection (let's be real they were all virtual strangers to each other). But there is one thing that sets both of them apart from Eddie's other two love interests. Felisa was able to be very open and honest with Eddie about why she stays in not-so-healthy friendships, and in turn, Eddie shared with her about the tsunami and Chris. They were able to connect through mutual vulnerability (even though it wasn't too deep on Eddie's end). Similarly, Vanessa is able to be open with Eddie about how she was hurt by her ex-fiance in the past and that she wants to protect her own feelings now. Eddie both admires her honesty and connects with her vulnerability (as it is a shared one even though Eddie doesn't tell her so onscreen). But because of that vulnerable moment, most of us actually really liked Vanessa and thought she and Eddie were cute.

Moving on to Marisol, it could be argued that Eddie sees Marisol in her most vulnerable moment (when she thinks her brother is gonna die), but that was not really a moment where Marisol chooses to be vulnerable with Eddie, he just happens to be there witnessing it. Then fast forward through the rest of the scenes they have in season 6, there are no moments of them being open and vulnerable with each other (and no I don't count the asking-out scene that was just awkwardness). Then we head into season 7, she's been in one scene, and that was all surface level too. In fact, the person that Eddie's being most vulnerable with in that same scene is Buck. For that reason, and external reasons related to the actress, most people are not interested in Eddie/Marisol at all.

Which brings me to my next and biggest point.

The person that Buck and Eddie have been able to share most of, if not all, their biggest vulnerability moments with is each other. Yes, Buck has vulnerable scenes with Maddie (but that's his sister), and both of them have vulnerable scenes with Bobby (but that's their father), but even those moments are outshined by just how deeply vulnerable Buck and Eddie are able to be with each other.

I could go on to list each and every moment Buck and Eddie have been vulnerable with each other and then found equal and reciprocated acceptance each and every time, but that's unnecessary because most of us already just flash-forwarded through all their scenes at light speed, so I don't need to tell you what you already know. But I think the sheer amount of times that Buck and Eddie have been vulnerable with each other in ways that are EXCLUSIVE to each other, is why a fuckton of us in this fandom are so down bad for them as a couple and will fight tooth and nail for them to get their happy ending together.

So, with that being said I'm interested to see where the rest of season 7 goes. Are we going to get some actual real moments of vulnerability between Eddie and Marisol (or Buck and *maybe* Tommy)? Or are they just going to remain surface level, never actually developing their relationship into anything worthwhile. And if what the endless amount of articles on Buddie keep saying is true, then it's Buck and Eddie who are going to keep being open and vulnerable with each other, getting closer, and seeing their relationship develop into new territory.

[armadillorollup]

biology of a stapler

[theantiazdarcho]

The Lancetfish is a species that looks like it comes straight out of a realistic fantasy world building project.