#tais ramblings

[endlesslyhyperfixating]

Okay so here’s the thing. I think people seriously underestimate just how deep the misogynoir runs when it comes to this show and the way people treat Sydney. (And I've spoken about it a lot before here)

Like I know some within the fandom think we’re reaching but I’ve had this convo so many times, both online and in real life, and it’s always the same.

I believe If Molly Gordon played Sydney instead of Claire, people would be shipping SydCarmy like crazy. Like no hesitation. But because it’s Ayo Edebiri, a black woman, suddenly everyone becomes hyper-logical about “why it wouldn’t make sense” and “that’s not what the show’s about” and “they’re just friends.” Okay... Sure.

But let’s really talk about it. Nearly every other character in this show gets to have or had some kind of love interest. And yet the one Black woman in the core cast is the only one we’re expected to believe is just above all that? Like the show’s about “life” and not “romance” as many try to argue... what the hell do people think romance is?? It’s part of life. Big part. And I’m not even saying Sydney needs to be defined by a relationship or reduced to a love interest. The opposite, in fact! The fact that she's the only character that doesn’t get that layer, and no one questions that, is really telling to the writing and how both the runners and thefandom chooses to see her character fleshed out.

And what’s even more frustrating is how people act like wanting Sydney and Carmy to be together is “delusional” or “fantasy,” when in reality, the people denying the emotional weight of their relationship are the ones doing the most reaching! You must have to bend over backwards to pretend they aren’t a central connection in the show. Carmy literally treats her differently than anyone else. (Can go months without apologizing to Claire, but one night without Syd speaking to him suddenly he's Carmen A. "You didn't speak to me all of service" Berzatto) They trust each other, they listen to each other, they’re building something together. And we’ve seen it grow across every season.

Meanwhile, Claire shows up for like five seconds and people are ready to declare she’s his “peace”. Meanwhile if you've watched the show or heard the lines Carmen HIMSELF speaks about her, the opposite is true. Be so serious. If Ayo played Claire and Molly played Sydney, the entire fandom would’ve flipped the script. And I know it.

And lastly, if this is just the show making Sydney a character who’s just completely uninterested in romantic connection, or asexual, then ask yourself why it’s the Black woman being framed that way. Why is it always the women of color, especially black women, that get made into the “strong, focused, independent” ones who don’t need love? Like sorry, I don’t think that’s progressive. I think that’s just another version of stripping Black women of that level of softness and intimacy.

Anyways. SydCarmy forever.

^^^ Y’all can stay mad.

[tdoesntwritewell]

Cleavers and Claws

Chapter six: Take us there

ENJOY THIS CHAPTER YALL

[taialbarn]

I can't trust myself to binge this whole show because I know I'm just going to kill it. Stopped at episode 2. Good enough for me.

[endlesslyhyperfixating]

They're brothers, too. Not just cousins.

the way carmy and richie touch each other is so personal and so emotional to me

[dinahscrossbow]

Taissa and Van's reaction to the fact that Coach Ben knew about them and could've outed them at any time (but didn't).

Isn't it crazy that you can be in a relatively comfortable position where every single person knows about your sexuality and relationship (and is absolutely cool with it), but the simple reminder that the world in general isn't like that, can immediately throw you off?

They are so scared here! The danger they're faced with is in the past (and nothing happened) and they are still SO SCARED. My babies!! Van looking around, Tai searching Van's eyes once she processed the information... so freaking good!

Somebody knew the whole time and that was the thing they were most afraid of.

Openly and proudly declaring herself "a handy lesbian" one moment, terrified that they were perceived as such "in the real world" the next.

Being queer is such a freaking roller-coaster

Yellowjackets - S03 E04

[ladidatt]

Oh my god, Gem being so sure that pearl wil choose her over everyone else everyone atleast in this life. TT

(Even though pearl has already betrayed her once but we love a delusional queen)

[croudjay]

Just learned that EMF's cubito actually belongs to TaiMC, an actual minecraft youtuber

So I guess technically we have a name for EMF now??

Edit: just wanna say that the previous statement was a joke and not to be taken seriously 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[chrliekclly]

whenever rob says sorry to me i pretend he’s apologizing for his lack of facial hair and thats MY coping mechanism

[yallthemwitches]

What are your 🔞 Jily HCs ?

*Cracks knuckles* Strap in babes!

—I’ve gone back and forth but I’ve landed on Lily having more experience than James before they got together. James being a pureblood, it would make sense that there’s more of a ‘conservative’ idea around saving sex for marriage (not that he subscribes to it, but thats just the WW mentality). He’s fooled around, sure, but he always felt very reverent about “giving it away” so to speak so he ended up waiting until Lily (in which he had no issue whatsoever losing his virginity before marriage.) Also, he was too busy faffing around with the marauders and it was hard to have a gf get close without divulging all their secrets.

Lily on the other hand was much more used to the “swinging 60s” era of things. She came from a lower class home and probably was indoctrinated fast into the sexually explorative teenage life of 1970s UK. I also strongly head canon her having a Bad Time (proper noun) summer between 5th and 6th due to the falling out with Sev and probably made some poor decisions because to it. I imagine she probably got close/went all the way with one or two guys before James.

—For their first time, Lily was on top (because she had experience). James came in like 10 seconds and was honestly shocked he made it that long. He rebounded quick enough to redeem himself.

—Another thing I go back and forth on is if James is a yapper in bed. While all signs would point to yes, I think its adorable to think that it’s the one time he’s actually pretty quiet mostly because he is going down on Lily. I think the only time he’s really saying something more than the generic swear/ exclamation is when he’s getting Lily to cum because he likes to coax it out of her.

—Related: James LOVES when Lily talks during sex. He loves it when she bosses him around. He loves it when she talks dirty. He loves it when she gets angry because he’s edging her a bit too much and she wishes he’d just bloody fuck her already.

—It goes without saying: James is a munch. Certified pussy eater. Can’t get enough of it—which is rare for the 70s! He’s maybe too into it, but Lily doesn’t mind much ;)

—James had a habit of keeping any hickies/marks Lily left on him and found them a point of pride. I think jily would have been pretty possessive so any excuse to show proof that THE Lily Evans had touched him would have made him immensely happy. This caused endless stirs amongst the boys in the locker rooms.

—I think they were as kinky and adventurous as two 17-21 year old’s could have been in a castle full of people and then later during a war. I’m sure they tried things like light bondage, anal, role playing…you know small stuff that couples often pull out to spice things up. I don’t think they would be like dungeon bdsm people, though—James would refuse to do anything that actually hurt or degraded Lily.

—OK. So, like. I don’t think jilypad necessarily HAPPENED buuuut. I’m sure there was a…thing that everyone agreed on. Like a “ok, so all of us are fit and best friends—so if we all get a little tipsey and a little cuddly on accident one night its fine, right?” I’m sure it came up once or twice in paired off conversations between jily or lilypad or prongsfoot in which they were all like: “would we? If we are speaking hypothetically? Would we all be down to sleep together?”

—I wouldn’t call it a breeding kink per se but I do think jily were realllly bad about pulling out (aka she’d ask him to cum inside her basically every time there was penetrative sex…oops!) This is why birth control potions/spells were important…until they forgot.

—James had a mental list of every place in Hogwarts they fucked and claimed he was trying “to shag in every secret passage they could find” in which Lily would roll her eyes but was definitely not complaining.

—James fingered her once in the Great Hall during a meal. No one knows how he pulled it off. He doesn’t know how he pulled it off.

—At their worst, they probably fucked in some capacity 1-2 times a day (or more… depending on their schedules lol) It was incorrigible for those around them.

—Jily are mad cuddlers. Aftercare? They’re pros.

—During Order era it was a capital P Problem for jily to do missions together. They would both constantly try to martyr the other and then both get incredibly turned on by the other’s act of selflessness/hot dueling skills. Every mission (regardless if someone else was with them) usually ended in a very heated shag and people started to complain about having to do missions with them.

I have LOADS more but I’ll save them since this has already gotten out of hand. Thanks for asking! I loooove talking about jily’s sex life!

[habizuh-studios]

I WAS SLEEPING HOWEVER THIS IS TOO IMPORTANT. GUYS. WHAT IF AFTER THE EVENTS OF TGCF (IF THEY DON'T CHOOSE TO HAVE A DEMOCRACY OR WHATEVER I FORGOT) LANG QIANQIU BECOMES THE HEAVENLY EMPEROR. WHAT THEN. Xie Lian would be a top candidate, however...

He will not be in heaven for that long. he would rather be in ghost city, and therefore wouldn't spend that much time there

He would get assassinated within three seconds. i love you, xie lian, i would be your hua cheng if you wanted me too, but you are not good at politics.

Ling Wen could, but...

She is a civil god in charge of literally everything

making her the emperor would mean she has the power to just. not do that anymore. which no one wants

she wouldn't like it- she already has enough bullshit to deal with, politics just. would be a lot

Lang Qianqiu, on the other hand...

Has experience being a king

Has strong morals

Is not evil/learning to forgive

Is well-respected/well liked within the heavenly court

Will not get murdered by Ling Wen or Xie Lian

Do you see me?! Do you hear what I'm saying right now?!?! I'll edit later since I'm supposed to be sleeping but DO YOU GUYS HEAR ME

[endlesslyhyperfixating]

Every time people try to pretend there’s no existence of racial bias in the way Sydcarmy is dismissed, an angel loses their wings.

You know what’s exhausting? Watching people bend over backward to insist that there are no racist or misogynoir undertones to the way Sydcarmy gets dismissed as a valid ship.. like let’s just be real for a second.

I understand people who don't ship it or believe in the ship because they prefer to take the show at face value, focus on different dynamics, or interpret relationships in other ways. However, the people who deny any validity to believing their relationship is more than meets the eye? That needs to be addressed.

People will swear up and down that their issue isn’t with Sydney, that they love her, and that they "just think Carmy should go to therapy first" , but then in the same breath, you'll catch them romanticizing the hell out of his dynamic with Claire, a relationship that was unhealthy, regressive, and rooted in avoidance rather than growth. @yannaryartside covers the very strong existence of the Oedipus complex and the fulfillment of Carmy’s mommy issues through Claire’s behavior and manipulation in their relationship, and I agree wholeheartedly.

Let’s talk about the “Carmen needs therapy before a girlfriend” argument. Let’s be real, Carmy needed therapy when he was with Claire too, but nobody seemed to mind that. In fact, everyone around him—Richie, the Faks, even the audience, enabled this idea of Claire as a “good” thing for him, as if she wasn’t feeding into his worst tendencies. And the most infuriating part? Claire was, in fact, manipulative. (Again, covered by @yannaryartside .)

She didn’t do it in an overt, villainous way but used **soft, socially acceptable manipulation**—the kind that gets ignored when it’s coming from a conventionally attractive, non-threatening, quirky white woman.

Claire’s Manipulation: The Softness of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl

People like to act like Claire was just a character who wasn’t well-written or worth the time for analysis, but that was the entire point of her: to feel underwhelming, to feel forced into place. In many ways this is true of course, she's under/not well-written in ways, and people think she was simply there, offering Carmy what she believed (and convinced him to believe) was love, when in reality, she inserted herself into his life in a way that preyed on his vulnerabilities and pre-existing issues.

And before anyone jumps in with "she didn’t do anything wrong!"...let’s actually look at how she operated.

- She sought him out when he wasn’t in a good place.

She made it a point to go out of her way to get his real number after being given a fake one. If course she uses that classic manipulative play it off as a joke move when she threatens him but not the best way to start. I know it's been said before, but can we imagine if the roles were reversed? Would we not think that creepy?

- She made it about her when he was struggling.

When Carmy tried to set a boundary, Claire framed it as him pulling away from her, rather than him dealing with his own issues. She encouraged his avoidance, gave him an easy escape from his problems, and then was surprised—and (validly) hurt—when reality came crashing down. Even when Carmy was harsh in breaking up with her, he was speaking from a place of truth for himself. To be with her, when he was so damaged and not really in a space of genuinely liking her, was bullshit.

- She used nostalgia as a tool.

Claire’s entire presence in Carmy’s life was based on a past version of him that no longer existed. Just as Carmy didn’t really see Claire, but rather a projected version of her shaped by his family (and a little bit of Sydney), Claire didn’t love him, she loved the idea of Carmy she had from childhood. And she expected him to fit back into that mold, to regress into a state where he could blow off work to hang out with her and forget his partnership with Sydney, someone he's meant to work with and has a responsibility to be with. That’s not love. That’s entitlement to a person’s growth or lack thereof.

And yet, people ignore all this because Claire fits their idea of what a love interest should look like to them. She’s non-threatening, familiar, digestible. They don’t question why she feels right, - white - while Sydne, who actually challenges Carmy, who understands him in ways Claire never could, gets written off as “not romantic.”

Claire, for "clarity" or "peace" (ugh) is simple. She's the painted picture of a woman who puts others before herself, the quirky manic pixie dream girl inching too close to the camera, sneaking her way into his life. People argue it feels like the same effect Sydney has on Carmy, but it's not the same at all. Claire is easy. For Carmy. He can fuck up, regress, and stay stagnant, and she’ll applaud him for it. "Never ever, ever apologize."

Sydney is the opposite. She calls him on his shit, and she sees him for who he really is. Sydney is the real peace for him (how many times do we need to bring up that damn panic attack, the table scene, and strange currencies? Thank you, @chefkids ).

Phew...

Moving on,

The Hypocrisy of the “Carmy Needs Therapy First" Argument

Back to the “Carmy needs therapy before a relationship” excuse, because wow, is that just selective. People only seem to apply it when Sydney is involved, not when Claire is around. It’s the most transparent double standard imaginable. I’ve seen one too many “I ship Carmy with therapy” memes, and I need to talk about it.😾.

When Carmy was with Claire, he was a mess..but people loved to romanticize it, acting like she was his “breath of fresh air,” even when she was just another distraction. Even he fell for it, tricking himself into believing the false sense of security she contrived for him.

When these people talk about Carmy and Sydney, suddenly it’s “he needs to work on himself first” as if the mere suggestion of them together is too high-stakes to even consider. It’s always “God forbid we have well-written female-male relationships without it being romantic.”

So we prefer shitty romantic relationships between the quirked-up white woman and our white male main character rather than the chemistry, character plot, and dynamic between Syd and Carm? Okay.

It’s not about Carmy’s emotional availability for these people. It’s about who people *want* to see him be available for, and it's not Sydney.

Why Do People Feel So Pressed About Sydcarmy, Anyways?

If Sydney were white—let’s be honest—this wouldn’t even be a conversation. The dynamic is already there. The intimacy, the trust, the undeniable chemistry. Their relationship fits the mold of that slow-burn, work-obsessed partners-to-lovers trope better than any other ship that actually makes it to canon.

But instead, people act like EVEN speculating about it is ridiculous, like the idea of Carmy feeling something deeper for Sydney is somehow beyond the realm of possibility. They’ll call it “forced,” “delusional,” or “just not where the story is going," as if every single element of storytelling isn’t deliberately crafted to suggest something simmering under the surface. Whether platonic or romantic, it's there. It’s genuine soulmate energy.

They pretend their dismissal of this ship has nothing to do with race, but race is an integral part of the ship because Sydney is a black woman.

It's almost like erasure in itself when they deny it's importance, as if there isn’t a long history of Black women in media being sidelined, desexualized, and treated as expendable when it comes to romance. Sydney isn’t “just a coworker.” She’s not “just his business partner.” She is one of the most important people in his career—and even his life—whether people want to admit it or not.

So yeah, maybe people need to interrogate *why* they can believe in Claire(a character who offered Carmy nothing but regression)but not Sydney, who actually represents something real.

Because if the reason is "Carmy's growth," you're bullshitting.

---

Tags

@fairestbeard @chefkids @thoughtfulchaos773 @yannaryartside

[tdoesntwritewell]

Cleavers and Claws

Chapter five: It's goin' around

https://archiveofourown.org/works/63126670/chapters/162911425

Hope u guys enjoy:)

[questforgalas]

I get my new furry darling tomorrow 😭

[track11]

This was in someone’s Taissa Turner aesthetic Pinterest board I can’t 😭

[ladidatt]

So the square hole is definitely a living adjacent entity, I think. Over the episode it has:

● accepted more than 1 sacrifice

● grown in size after eating said sacrifices

● not grown after it failed to kill impulse

● as grian said " It doesn't rain in the square hole " (granted it is in the desert but maybe the square hole was what caused the desert)

● everybody it kills doesn't seem to have any obvious resentment towards the hole or the villies who apparently "created" the square hole.

Given that this season seems to be more under the control of the watchers, maybe the square hole is a physical manifestation of the watchers. This would explain why it is grian who seems to be its main caretaker. Especially after last season where grian seemed to be embracing his watcher side. (This season could be a test of sorts).

Or it could be something more ancient, mind-controlling the villys to help it grow. It was always there, just covered up and only got enough energy to show itself upon the deaths of both martyn and grian near it.

[avidxmn]

The wild thing about the buffyverse explanation of vampires being ‘oh they’re just demons. they’re nothing like their human counterparts” explain harmony kendall then