#(just thru like s2 though))

[potatobugz]

i like the little.. nature vs. technology thing Huntsman & Syntax have going on. with Syntax being a scientist and Huntsman literally being a hunter of sorts. in tune with nature. there's something to be said about that! I like it!

[machineheraldbabe]

on arcane and the sin of naivety

ripped this from a twitter rant i had:

another arcane observation bc i'm watching ep7: obv we have to prepare for some both side-isms come season 2, but i think a way that the writers can (and have) circumvented this problem is thru how/why arcane characters are punished: their naivety.

everybody (save for ambessa and silco, and maybe mel too) operates from their own place of well-intentioned ignorance. jayce is the most obv example of this, but the contrast between cait and ekko is even better, i think re: their meeting in ep7.

cait sincerely thinks that there can be healing between piltover/zaun bc of her inexperience, whereas ekko is sure it's impossible bc he's bore the brunt of the enforcers' abuse - he's the least naïve character in the whole show. how the writers dealt with this is Crucial.

if the both side-isms were implicit in the writers' ethos, we wouldn't see the enforcers stand idly by while marcus *almost* kills 2 innocents in cold blood. it goes Beyond the bad apple cop and into a full anti-establishment ethos. thru violence, cait's naivety is broken just like ekko had insisted! and THEN they have a showdown between the 2 most jaded/hurt characters, ekko and jinx, to contrast the cait/vi relationship that is still underscored by blind hope. jinx and ekko don't have that luxury, and it foreshadows vi's s2 alliance with piltover.

and this theme is everywhere, beyond ep7. jayce's entire arc hinges on his insistence that he is still naive, so he can't be blamed for his very consequential choices. viktor insists that knowledge for knowledge's sake still exists and that's why he's destroying himself. and mel falls back onto her childhood self to explain away her own penchant for manipulation/bad choices. she's fascinating though because she's the closest of the bunch to undoing her role in this dynamic when ambessa returns (which is why i hope sm that she isn't dead in s2).

also, this transition from ignorance to jaded understanding is done SO WELL via the timeskip, and that's why i'm fairly certain that they'll have another in ep4 of s2. it makes so much sense. there is a lot of painful learning to be done post missile attack.

TLDR: arcane punishes characters for their ignorance and naivety, and their unique realizations of this fact will lead to their undoing in season 2! i love this show so much.

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV S2 Ep7 Musings - Loustat: The Trial (Spoilers)

Imma split my Loustat musings into 3 parts, cuz there's A LOT to unpack. So I'll do the Ep3/4 & Ep5 revisits in the next posts; this is just general/initial Louis & Lestat stuff I wanted to respond to.

They beat the dog snot outta Louis, omg. They nearly snapped his neck! Louis was barely conscious, ofc his memory's spotty.

I LOVE how they're emphasizing the physicality of the Maker-Fledgling bond, first w/ Lou & Madz, now w/ Les. It's ofc all wrapped up in how much Loustat loves e/o, but its also their blood connection thru Amel. (I wonder how Louis Merrick'ing himself in Ep5 affects his connection to Amel if his heart didn't stop, cuz Armand stopped him from burning too much?)

And I love what Jacob said in the Insider, afterwards.

Fear that Lestat's come to exact revenge; excitement (a frisson of both negative & positive emotions, excited to see Les just cuz of the tension of having not seen him in so long, but also having all his nerves & senses tingling cuz of the tense anticipation & not knowing what to expect--hence: fear); fury cuz this whole mess could've been avoided if Les had told them WHY European vampires should be avoided at all costs; and relief cuz Les's' alive, his husband's ok.

But this time Lou KNOWS he's the real deal, cuz he can FEEL it--"it wasn't NOT his hand." And Dream!Stat jumpscare in Dubai, well well well; I thought Lou'd stopped seeing him on that Parisian bench? 👀

Here we effing go, whatever this French bish has to say better be good 🍿🍿🍿

I HATE HIM YOUR HONOR 🤣 Omfg take ONE thing seriously! Not the Roland-Garros, STFU! XD Lestat going off script got the coven like WTF?!

OML 🍿🍿🍿

Well that's not helpful at all--WHICH ONE!?

Les was asleep for the whole 100 years b4 he went to NOLA--but we KNOW this can't be true, cuz Les met Marius after he left Paris❗ SAM (the vamp) has been mouthing the words to this whole script, so I wonder if that's just what Les was TOLD to say, OR! It's what HE told THE COVEN, so they wouldn't know about TWMBK❗❗

NOT LES DOING A PIROUETTE INTO THE EARTH STAHP OMG 😭

THIS GAY QUEEN CAN'T HELP HIMSELF, I CANNOT

Awoke in 1908 & disembarked in humidified daughter of Paris, NOLA--but Les told Lou he was headed for Saint Louis, Missouri. 👀

"And who did you meet there?" DANG this is TENSE--Loustat finally making eye contact for the first time, Les having to see his husband all beat up & sad; as Claudia languishes in the background, as usual.

Not Louis with the cigar 😭

"The ACCUSED," LOL, Santiago had to catch himself--stay dehumanizing the violent evil Black man whydontcha; we see you. And Lestat had to feed him his own lines after derailing everyone with that homophobic soldier's evisceration.

Omg this sounds like every court case b4 they throw the book at a Black man. And the bored unaffected way the white audience just rolls their eyes & shakes their heads & smokes--they DGAF about Lou; they've already decided he ain't ish--A STONING.

LOUIS FACE. This is EXACTLY how folk in the fandom talk about Lou--and it came back with a vengeance during all that Loumand Maitre/Arun crap, as y'all were QUICK to jump on Lou being an evil pimp, even though your fave Daniel literally said that was just kinky roleplay Armand didn't take seriously when ish got REAL.

I thought y'all were just bartering for the "last bouquet of lilies"!?

Oh great, the coven's making Louis look like a perv predator. 🤦‍♀️ And the visual centering of Lou's dastardly mind-control waves like a halo over sweet innocent victim Lestat's blonde head, I CANNOT.

Omfg Louis face, SAME! If this crocodile-crying liar don't take his To Kill A Mockingbird, Central Park Five lookin arse off that stage! 🤬

Omfg Lestat I'm finna kill you myself. Omg this nonsense is too much; I know Lou, speak up, YES! But also, STFU, Les is actually tryna save your life by tearing your reputation to shreds. 😬🤦‍♀️

I loooove this effect when the coven uses the Mind Gift on them. They effed him up so bad his left eye started hemorrhaging. 😭

Armand don't you look away for an INSTANT, don't you even BLINK! You could've prevented this, EFF ALL Y'ALL in this nasty AF Theatre!

This gaslighting is hitting way too close to the way IRL court cases go when the innocent get the book thrown at them for crimes they didn't commit.

This is so painful to watch, but Sam Reid you better werk; the way he was yelling those lines had me shook, oml.

Les knows he's effed up, but what can he do? His eyes are going red; he's gonna cry. (His contacts look different, I thought they said they were gonna stick with purple eyed Les?) "I offered it to him in the church on the altar: My companionship." And Lou nodding along, cuz that was their wedding! 😭💔

I was wondering how these frames would be used. It's about the Ep3 race riots and vampire loneliness, the night Louis left & Claudia was made. But I love the implications, cuz how could humans know ANYTHING about hows vampires feel--which is SO important when they start lying about everything else that went down with how Claudia was made and how it would affect her as a "defective" vamp.

Even the VAMPIRES don't know how other vampires feel, and the capacity they have for enduring--Armand said it over & over to Louis in Ep3 and Madeleine in Ep6. Lestat came closest in S1 when he commented on Claudia's eternally 14-yr old metabolism & needing to eat more than an normal vamp, but beyond that none of them had a effing clue what Claudia was going through. They don't know REAL loneliness, even with her diaries telling them what she thought, not HOW SHE FELT.

(And I'm reminded of what I said here about Gabrielle telling Lestat what her loneliness felt like. I think "vampire loneliness" is different for every vampire; which is precisely why Gab (and Claudia) was able to walk away from her Maker/son & live alone; while Nicky & Louis went crazy.)

Lestat crying blood tears, daaaaang 😥

Kill this dude (but I stan a Loustat ally, LOLOL).

Imma stop here, cuz I've run out of Tumblr's stupid 30-pics per post, and the Ep3/4 revisit that "took all the pieces of Louis life, defiled them, bent them into a Lestat-shaped effigy" is IMO the JUICIEST part, with the most new meat to chew on.

[gallierhouse]

asking for opinions about armand on a friday night is crazy because ive been terrorizing the people in my life about him for a month and now?? im being asked to talk about him?? anyway so i couldnt get thru s1 back in 2022 bc it felt like a kind of rehash of hannibal (character dynamics wise) in a different setting and kind of bored me. i really liked louis in the pilot and honestly would just watch a historical drama about a black pimp and his gens de couleur family in 1930s nola and that was cruelly ripped away from me and ill never forgive lestat. BUT THEN s2 arrived and i gave it another go and armand just rose out of this show as a character ive truly never seen before?? his identity-lessness, his role as a bad stage director, that eager black hole growing around 500 years of life, its so fascinating. the Moment for me with him is obviously the donor painting seeing the whitewashed beautiful pleading garish (when compared with the real man) painting just shifted something in my soul. and THEN getting hit with the arun/maitre stuff and them the entirity of ep5 directly after? ive literally memorized the loumand argument from listening to it so many times Television of All Time fr. i love failmarriages that rot and decay and are inescapable and loumands whole thing felt so good and fresh and so so tasty. those bitches do not like each other. they dont even like each other and yet theyve stayed together for 77 yrs in a relationship built on abuse, spite, and 24/7 power exchange bdsm and thats CRAZY ! plus ive never seen toxic yaoi executed so well with two nonwhite, darkskinned characters and as a south asian that lowkey made me happy lol. anyway i love armand so much he sucks so bad but i do feel deeply seen and deeply compelled by his little gremlin ass

I miss Louis’ New Orleans era too. I get why Lestat fell in love with him, though, if I saw this beautiful creature pull a knife on his own brother in the middle of the street I’d stop at nothing to pursue him. It’s alluring. I think that’s the part of Louis Lestat has always loved and loathed most, his fierce independence and survivor’s instinct and capacity for violence. I say loathed because Lestat’s always torn between wanting Louis like that and wanting Louis to be his little housewife. He’s stupid like that.

I thought his stage direction was nice. Were his plays “good”? No. But were his notes well thought out? Yes. His notes for the trial were good. So it’s the playwright’s fault the scripts were bad, actually.

Re: his identity, I really think he’s doing fine. Not everyone needs a laundry list of hobbies and characteristics to “have an identity.” It’s true that Armand molds himself into whatever shape that’s required of him and sometimes he makes erroneous assumptions about it, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have an identity. I think Armand doesn’t perceive himself as having an identity, and it’s obvious that he structures his life around whatever role he’s occupying, and that it’s all very fragmented and difficult for him to see the continuity in it, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have an identity. His priorities and thought process are fairly obvious to the viewer, so that’s his identity. You can see the structure of his mind. That’s him. Right there. We don’t have to wait for the “real” Armand, he’s already here.

I don’t remember when I started loving him, but it was before the painting. Maybe the hunt, or when he starts participating in the interview. The painting did change something for me, though, and so did the bench scene. But I liked him from the start of season two, really, from the moment I found out he’d essentially been stalking Louis the whole time in Paris. I like him most when he’s got a little bit of edge, but then again, I love him when he lies. I actually have a shirt with their argument printed on it. It’s so fucking funny.

Well, I think there was love, at least before Armand strangled it to death. I don’t know if Louis ever loved Armand again, not after the trial, but I think Armand loved Louis, although not in a way that would really be comprehensible as love to anyone else. Maybe only the way you love something you own. But I think he at least enjoyed the performance of it. Besides, all the best relationships are 24/7 BDSM built on abuse and spite. You don’t agree? I think it’s very romantic.

Yeah, it’s the first time I’ve seen something like that too. And it was the greatest thing ever and I’m really glad we got a South Asian lead, even if I’m unsatisfied with AMC’s promotional strategy. One million seasons of Armand and one million posters of his face splashed across all major cities around the world, please. He’s perfect! More people should see him. More people should be subjected to him.

[patrice-bergerons]

Owen is so heartbreaking as a character though because you meet him and he is an insufferable prick, self-important, self-destructive but even in s1 there is this side of him that comes out whenever anyone on the team is hurt and it's so fierce and so kind.

And then in s2 you find out what his relationship with his mother was like, how he became a doctor because he thought his life would be worthwhile only if he could use it to save others and who he is up to that point just clicks.

Then he dies and he rages against his fate and wants to die for good and saves a stranger from doing just the same. AND THEN just at the end you find out this man was engaged to be married - despite all that childhood trauma he wasn't always this abrasive or afraid of commitment - until an alien literally hatched thru his fiancée's skull ☠️😭

[negrowhat]

Hey!! What are your top 5 BL’s from this year that’s on your rewatch list and what are your top 5 most rewatched scenes?

HI KENI!

Top 5 2023 BLs At the TOP of My Rewatch List

Love in Translation. One of the series I binged this year and I feel like I didn't absorb it enough the first time even though I LOVED IT. Also maybe I was too harsh on Yang during some parts.

Wedding Plan. Now that I know how it plays out, I think I need to rewatch it more from Sailom's perspective instead of Namnuea's. @bengiyo really made me realize that I might have overreacted over some of the stuff Sailom did.

Unintentional Love Story. I just want to rewatch this because I truly enjoyed the story but I think I missed some key details and I need to get prepared for s2.

Never Let Me Go. I just miss the fuck out of PalmNueng.

I Feel You Linger in the Air. I think I might do a speed rewatch and by speed I mean speed thru all the scenes with Robertson and Yai's parents.

ASK ME MY TOP 5 BL ANYTHING OF 2023

[moon-swag-tourney]

Propaganda below!

Princess Luna

Idk man, ponies? 

I just think she's neat.

I love herrrr. Both her OG design and the design they started using since s2 slap. She's so pretty. She's socially awkward-- understandable after being in isolation for a millennium. She just wants to make friends and also has a lot of guilt over becoming an evil being for a moment there and threatening to plunge the world into eternal night. She just wants to atone. Also pretty singing voice. 

horse :3

I think she's an interesting character. She had a corruption arc (albeit pre-series, though we did get a flashback at one point) and a redemption arc. There was at least one episode about people still being afraid of her and her having issues that she needed to work on and earn people's trust again. Idk it's like 2am and I haven't watch MLP in years but she's cool.

Princess Yue

She was blessed by the moon spirits than turned into the moon herself. No one can compete with that. 

The Sokka & Zuko "Well, my first girlfriend turned into the moon." / "That's rough, buddy." meme is referencing Yue - that's the girlfriend that turned into the moon!

THE moon character of all time like c'mon. she turned into the moon. will her sacrifice be for naught??? she's yue from avatar the last airbender c'mon guys

She sacrificed herself to save her people even though she had just found someone who loved her as a person and not a princess. She's all about sacrificing her own wants for duty, and right when she starts to realize maybe that's a little unfair she has to become the moon spirit and leave behind all the people she loves.

And she's pretty.

How many characters are the literal moon. How many.

Bro. She's the moon. She IS the moon. 

Vote Yue for Sokka's same

She's very much and selfless, becoming the moon spirit to save the world from permanent imbalance.

She IS the moon

That's rough, buddy

You know the meme "my girlfriend turned into the moon" "that's rough buddy". This is that girlfriend. This is that moon. 

She literally is the moon.

She played a major role for a one-off character

Victim of forced marriage

Her interactions with Sokka were really funny

She has white hair, what's not to love

Legitimately I love her, underappreciated in the fandom for how great she is.

"My first girlfriend turned into the moon."

"That's rough buddy."

"My first girlfriend turned into the moon."

"That's rough buddy." 

She died in a main character's arms & it fucked him up SO bad. It affects him thru to the end of the show & keeps coming up. LOVE it when main characters get traumatized!!

[redhead1180]

Wdym s1 and s2 JJ wouldn't have gotten with Kie? Genuinely asking

Ok, let me say, I know this is just a show and the writers will do what they want. This may go long

I am gonna try and make sure this sounds coherent, @acooltalebouquet and I literally just had a deep dive into this.. First off I know there was the comment from JJ about trying the door but it's locked. I don't think JJ was trying for a girlfriend when he said that, just laid. Probably why Kie shot him down. All throughout S1 we find out JJ has a lot of trauma from his home life, this is a big reason in my opinion, and the fact that S1 JJ was always calling Kie out on her having money.

All she did was yell at him and made him feel bad in both seasons. I don't think she ever understood him. She definitely didn't understand the Pogue life. She had money, decent parents (don't get me started on them), and got to do what she wanted though that starts to change in s2. Technically a kook in Pogue clothing. Most of her problems stemmed from her, but she blamed everyone else.

Dipping into JJ's trauma, someone who has been that traumatized is not going to get over it quickly. He is not going to say I love you quickly, he has never heard it or said to anyone, gentle touches are going to be foreign to him. Those not sexual in nature, sex is different, it's an escape. The person is going to have be gentle, patient, and understanding. Not sure Kie can be those things. I know he and Kie have been friends awhile, but she literally showed no romantic interest in him. Like I said usually yelling at him, so his trauma would automatically reject her I love you. He wouldn't believe it. The scene at the anniversary party would be his response for a long time, before he said I love you back if he did.

I personally feel Kie liked John B, played it off, then got with Pope cause he liked her and it was easy, then went with JJ cause he was the last option. I mean girl went thru ALL the boys who were supposed to be her best friends. I mean early JJ would have been like hold up, wait, first it was John B, then Pope, and now me. Yea I don't think so. I also think when he called her a kook in s3, he meant it, but hated hurting her feelings.

Anyway thanks for coming to my Ted talk 😁 I know there is other reasons I am missing, but this touches the main ones.

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s2 ep13: Prototype

A B'Elanna episode, finally! And this one is a good one. B'Elanna gets to show off her softer, nerdier side in this one, when she geeks out over finding a cool robot in space and tries to figure out how to fix it.

The teaser, starting out with a black and white fish eye lens, seeing Voyager from the unseen robot's point of view, is very cool and different. And we start right out with a delightful scene of B'Elanna and Harry being science buddies!! They tease each other!! She calls him Starfleet!! I love!!!

I feel like they presented the robot a little too ominously in some scenes for us to not see a twist coming somewhere, and it does make B'Elanna come off a little more naive than I think she would be. I would also have liked to have had some sort of explanation for why B'Elanna is invested in this robot so much, like just throw in a line where she explains she used to build robots in school or something. But I love how we get to see B'Elanna become this idealistic, excited kid in a candy store when she's in her safe happy place of figuring out an engineering problem just for fun. She's a kind person at heart, and when she doesn't have evidence one way or another, she chooses the optimistic view that the robot is good and deserving of help, which is a lovely side to her character that often gets overlooked. She's just luminous when she's happy, and I love that for her here.

I also love how even though she disagrees with the Captain's decision to bar her from helping the robot create more robots, she accepts it completely, and doesn't even think of disobeying her orders. She really took the lesson from what happened when she last disobeyed an order to heart, and she respects the Captain too much to hurt her by doing it again. That's character growth, baby!

Things take a turn when the robot ends up kidnapping her to force her to make a protoype for more robots. She does it to protect Voyager from being destroyed by the robot ship, but she can't help being swept up in the excitement of figuring it out, which we as the audience do too, until she finally creates one that works, and then the Frankenstein parallels are horrifyingly obvious. The moment when she finds out what she's actually done is a great horror reveal moment, and her turning point in the story; she learns the lesson all scientists need to learn one way or another: that just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should, and that the real-world consequences of scientific discoveries outweigh whatever good intentions their creator might have had. B'Elanna is unequivically on the side of protecting others from harm, and chooses to destroy her creation rather than let it be used to kill. It's a great character moment for her, because it illustrates that she isn't angry and combative sometimes because she's Klingon, she's angry because at heart she's a good person who believes that all people are valuable and important, and she can't stand it when anyone disregards that.

Neelix also gets a nice little scene here, and Tom gets a hero moment when he flies a shuttle through a robot space battle to rescue B'Elanna. (Though what was up with Chakotay being so bitchy to him about it? Tom is volunteering to fly thru enemy fire to rescue your friend, dude! And you're insulting his flying ability by implying that they'll lose the shuttle if he does, and implying that losing a shuttle would be worse than losing him? Wtf Chakotay? Maybe it's meant to illustrate that Chakotay's still upset by the whole Seska thing, but it just felt weird and random.) Janeway and B'Elanna have a lovely talk when she gets back home, and it's a nice little moment of commiseration between two scientists who want to explore and believe in all the possibilities science can offer, while still having to acknowledge that sometimes it can lead down disastrous paths if that curiosity is left unchecked and untempered by caution.

Tl;dr: A great character piece for B'Elanna. Well done, with lots of good bits.

[dykemcqueen]

Just wanted to say I love it when you talk about your turmoil watching Rick and Morty. Or just Rick and Morty in general. I've tried getting into the show one or two times and I really can't get past like half a season in. I've never been really big on the adult animation genre (tbh I just, really hate the humor) BUT Rick and Morty just sounds SO good and terrible and beyond fucked up. Don't know if I'll ever watch it but, I just wanted to say I rlly enjoy ur second-hand Rick and Morty misery. So thank you

LMAOOOO this means a lot to me that you notice and care <3 as you can tell, unfortunately, r&m takes up an enormous part of my life and brain; it makes me miserable and fucked up; it causes madness and hysteria and midsommar-type scream-sobbing etc etc. i love it so much. if you're ever interested in it, the humor in r&m gets a lot better past s1, but def there's some stuff to slog thru periodically.

i would rank the seasons but the thing about r&m is there's a mix of character eps, sci-fi concept eps, adventure eps, Big Arc eps, funny silly eps, etc., and they overlap in different ways. so it depends on what you're into. in general though: s3(e1-8) for best overall, end of s5 through end of s7 for most consistent character work, specific s1 + s2 eps for the classics. s4 has maybe 3 good episodes. btw s6 onward has selfcest lesbians. if youre into that

what i love about r&m most is that it's brutal bitter throat-grasping codependency at its finest. we all laugh at the silly scifi show heehee but at its very heart is this sweeping, violent, almost awe-inspiring enmeshment... this cycle of possessiveness and jealousy and need... they are a strange, strange duo to put together from the start; there are a lot of hoops to jump through in order to keep them together; meanwhile morty is being shaped by rick in so many different ways even as rick grows and changes; as a result there are so many fascinating developments & power plays & shocking fucked up displays of codependency. they seriously haunt me. yes i am miserable. yes i am happy to share that with you all. in fact i couldn't help it if i tried

[hsmtmts-arrows]

okay SO basically, i was kinda half-asleep and half dreaming, yk??? like the thoughts just Come to u. it was like that

( /// TW TRANSPHOBIC LILY BECAUSE SHE SUCKS . ALSO SOME INTERNALIZED TRANSPHOBIA BC RICKY'S GOIN THRU IT // )

(i'd put it under a read more but. it's an ask)

so basically ricky was trans and had already told gina and a few of the wildcats, and just like in s2 canon he stays with lily for a while and. yk how ricky is abt to go w lily when he finds his harness and realizes she stole it and tried to ruin the show?

yeah, well.

when he does, she gets way way more defensive than in canon, and rebutts with a "well, you didn't tell me you're a girl so we can call it even."

ricky's heart drops. soul shatters. he feels hot and cold at once. he can only respond with a feeble, "what?" that's weak even to his own ears.

"i mean, come on, richie... what's even your real name?" her eyes light up. "rachel? rose? r—"

"stop." he whispers, and she rolls her eyes. "how did you—"

"i found out weeks ago." she tells him with a flippant wave of the hand, and he waits, but she doesn't elaborate. "i mean, how long are you planning to keep up this... delusion? you know it can't last forever, richie, or whoever you really are. do the wildcats even know?"

"yes." he says, trying to bring up anything of defiance even though his heart is seizing and catching. "and they—they support me no matter—"

"do they really see you like that, richie?" she's suddenly sympathetic, and he knows she means it like a balm, but it feels like acid. "i mean, they're obviously just doing it to humour you."

"you don't know that." it can't be true.

"nobody sane would endorse people like you."

i have to go. i have to go. i have to go. ihavetogoihavetogo i have to go i have t o go i h av e to leaveleaveleaveleaveleave—

and then it cuts to ricky and gina, during one of those nights where ricky sneaks into gina's room, and they're cuddled up together in her bed. and she's saying something, giggling, but he's barely there. his binder feels too tight and he's probably had it on too long but he doesn't care. every time someone sees him, they'll assume he's cis, and he can use that against lily's words that still feel like poison, even months later.

"hey, ricky? ricky?" gina waves a hand in front of his face and he startles. she blinks in surprise. "oh. didn't mean to scare you."

"wasn't scared." he replies in a voice a few octaves high. (you didn't tell me you were a girl.) he makes his voice a little lower. "sorry, zoned out there for a second, gi. fire away." he tries for a smile.

gina sits up, frowning, concern over every inch of her features. "ricky? are you okay?"

what's even your real name?

"it's nothing." he says. his chest is too tight. how long has he had his binder? how long is he going to keep pretending? fuck. fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck—

"ricky, i can tell something's bothering you." she grabs one of his hands and rubs circles into the knuckle. "i want to help."

her clock ticks. ticks. ticks.

he sighs and gina, after a second, lays back down where she was.

"you know how i was... with lily? i wasn't dating her," he adds quickly, noticing the crease between her brows. "but like, at the beginning of camp, i was going to go skiing with her, remember?"

"yeah." gina says, visibly unsure of where this is going.

"yeah... well... i found my harness. my beast harness." gina's eyes go wide and he can see her basically plotting murder right here and there. "and when i confronted her about it, she—she started... saying some things?" his voice wobbles dangerously and gina turns more to look at him, eyes openly worried.

"what things?" she says, with a dangerous edge to her voice.

he tries to calm his breathing. it's not working. he's feeling that tight feeling again. usually it goes away when he's with gina, or just with the wildcats, but ever since lily said those things, they've been working less and less.

"she said you guys were just... were just...."

"just what? ricky?"

"just humouring... me." he tries to take in a breath but it comes out as a sob. gina straightens, alarmed. "humouring that i'm—i'm a boy."

"oh, ricky." gina sits up and he does too, and she wraps her arms around him and he cries and cries and cries. "i'm going to kill that bitch—"

"because i'm not, am i?!"

"no, ricky, you are. lily's a deceitful prick who manipulated you." gina lets go to look him in the eyes. "you are richard bowen. you're a boy and always will be—so long as you identify as one, of course." gina hurries to add (and he remembers glimpsing her on a trans-positive subreddit the other day under the question, how do i support my trans boyfriend????? she'd closed it when he came over, but he saw it, and his heart sang.) "and i promise none of us are 'humouring' you. okay?"

that's all i remember JASHJSHJHJSJHASHJSJ

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I LOVE IT WHY WERE YOU EVEN PANICKING ABOUT IT BEING A LONG ASK FUCK LILY BTW BUT OHHHHHHH RINA RINA RINA ILY RINA GINA IS THE ALLY OF ALL TIME I LOVE HER I LOVE TRANS!RICKY HE DESERVES THE WORLD OH MY GOD

[mumpsetc]

ok coming from someone who knows nothing about the osc...is ii really that awful? again, I don't go here, but I had mutuals posting about it and it seemed like my vibe so I wanted to check it out. I was actually kinda getting quite excited and then I found there were quite a few people saying it wasn't good at all and was kinda a trash fire. a couple of people saying that also had some of your posts critiquing it reblogged and you seemed to be more nuanced on the matter, but im still feeling kinda bleh about the idea that something I was excited to check out might be actually terrible

Ok So I'll Be Completely Real Here, if You are Just Here for Cartoon Melodrama ii is Probably Fine, S1 is My Favorite I Like How Stupid It Is But If You're Gonna Watch Be Prepared to Sit Thru a Full Season of Highschoolers Learning How Flash Works. S2 is the Crown Jewel of the Series Its the Show At Its Best and It Does Get Genuinely Really Compelling at Points But That Style of Writing is Gone and Never Coming Back So Try and Enjoy What You Have There and Accept It's Never Coming Back. S3 is a Slog and Not That Funny, I Don't Have Much Fondness for It But Its Probably Not Too Hard to Turn Your Brain Off and Just Enjoy One or Two Characters. Though Compared to S2 Its Hard to Not Be Disappointed.

It Isn't the Worst Shit Ever But As a Longtime Fan I Have a Lot of Frustrations Towards It a Casual Viewer Probably Wouldn't.

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV S2 Ep7 Musings - Loustat Ep4 Revisited (Spoilers)

This one was WILD, my jaw was on the floor. JACOB! SIR ANDERSON! BRUH!?

Santiago doing a deliberately TERRIBLE Claudia voice after we saw his IMMACULATE Louis mimic--I HATE HIM. 🤣

I already tore Lestat a new arsehole for that.

Underneath the distorted Mind Spell audio effect you can barely hear Les say something about "the lies said by Louis;" but the subtitles don't pick it up.

NO, the COVEN wrote that script and did that. Lestat's COMPLICIT only cuz he's tryna SAVE Lou from the mess YOU put them in by selling them out to Santiago, Armand! You stood by and let them be abducted & dragged on stage, when YOU have the Fire Gift! You coulda lit them all up like matches! But you AND Lestat wanted Claudia out of the picture!

Louis finally not wearing black in Dubai; he's in dark blood red. 👀

HOW, if Les cant read your mind? I think SEEING Lestat and hearing his effed up account took Louis back to NOLA--not that Les was doing any Mind/Spell Gifts on Lou, literally taking him back to NOLA. It's a distorted memory, not astral projection or a hallucination.

Lestat like: "WE?" All of a sudden you wanna speak French at me with this OUI?

I couldn't resist, the hands were sending me.

Ohhhh this is SINISTER, making Lou look he manipulated Les. The VOICE Jacob uses is tryna kill me--he sounds so simpering and soft and feminine, no deep bass whatever; they know wtf they're doing. XD Any other network and there'd've been a fullblown sex scene. 😅

Ohhh no, the coven's tryna make it seem like Louis DID know the laws b4 he got to Paris; this isn't Lestat or any true memory; this is the coven talking thru Lestat's script; which wormed into Louis' head.

LOL. Scripted AF.

"He did tell me, what she would be." No, in S1E4 Les realized AFTER she killed the cop that her metabolism would be effed up. Armand told him the Great Laws, but Lestat just laughed in his face. Marius told him not to make vampires as young as Armand, but it had nothing to do with the Great Laws, and Lestat assumed it was just cuz ARMAND'S a poor vampire, in that silly cult. Les & Marius were more concerned about Christianity's effect on vampire moralism/depression/"self-loathing," and Les talked about LOUIS' anxiety--

--but as for Claudia he turned her CUZ HE'S A EFFING BRAT who only ever does what HE wants to do, eff anyone else.

I nearly had heart attack, thinking the coven was gonna say Louis' her Maker--the LAUGH I was gonna make, omg. 🤣 Cuz the humans can't call them on that, cuz what do THEY know about maker/fledgling blood and not being able to read minds?

The coven has her diaries when she said this, so I think this was all scripted; not something he really said--though ofc he could've read it in her mind when he rescued her, and genuinely felt this way, cuz ofc he would--he wanted/needed her to think he was a good person.

I DO wonder if a bit of this was true, about Louis feeding Claudia his blood, cuz these AMC's vamps are wildly inconsistent about healing. Their blood has strong healing powers--as we see in S2E5 when Armand fed Louis after his suicide attempt by fire, and in Ep6 after his suicide by slitting his wrists after making Madz. So ofc Louis might try to heal Claudia by bleeding on her & letting her drink.

These 2 frames back to back are precisely Louis' issue--he don't know wtf is going on. U_U

☝️ THIS!. ALL OF THIS! ☝️

Louis' GUILT is why the memories are all muddled; why he's doubting his own recollection, on top of the literal brainwashing from Armand & the forced Mind/Spell Gifts put on him by the coven.

Dragged on the EFFING FLOOR, the coven is WICKED! 🫣 This is when I knew those dirty heifers were LYING. And Claudia can't even corroborate this, cuz she was in & out of it when she was turned.

She is staring Louis DOWN, but sweetie, he's as lost as you are.

This is hilariously & deliciously & salaciously melodramatic; Imma slap Vampire Sam for writing this script--he'd've loved writing fanfiction on AO3.

NGL, I expected that hand to start veering a few degrees over if you know what I mean. 🍆 Lou's face was in PRIME position to do him some face. (The fanfics finna go CRAZY.)

Welp, my fears were well-founded. The coven is SPITTING all over their history.

PLEASE do the "evil of my evil" line, AMC! 🙏 This democracy of hypocrisy ain't finna do that. Sit your French White arse down on the red velvet throne AR gave you in the Prince Lestat trilogy, and STFU.

I don't think Lou did; he was very candid in S1 about how he cried & pleaded, and Les saying she'd be their daughter. The important difference is the inclusion about the Great Laws, and how that implicates them. It doesn't matter that Louis already knew she'd be stuck 14 forever & didn't care--if he didn't know Lestat was 100+ and stuck 34 forever, then he's a fool. Wanting an eternal child to baby & pamper & dote on is way different from intentionally breaking the law.

No love, that's the guilt talking! They were scrambling your brains RIGHT THERE ON STAGE; take this with a grain of salt; 74 years have provided A LIBRARY OF CONFUSION!

Daniel, stfu for once; why would you see this as having ANY "clarity." This is the most muddled portion of the trial thus far!

[kitty-cuddle-time]

Ough dunno if ur still doing requests but. Can I maybe get some good omens vent regression headcannons? For either of them, especially Crowley, though

-little-thief-regresses

hi!! i’m still taking requests, i promise! i’m sorry it took so long to get to this one tho :(

(content warning for lotsa angst, feelings of abandonment, and feeling undeserving of good things, all while regressed. this focuses on Crowley regressing after s2, so i’m sure you can imagine the type of sad stuff. pls take care of urself <3) (seriously i rlly don’t recommend reading this if ur small atm)

-after Aziraphale leaves, it’s,,,,,rough. to say the least

-Crowley has always struggled with feeling like he wasn’t good enough, like he’s always a second away from being abandoned. it’s what triggered his regression in the first place, after he Fell

-so he’s rlly not surprised

-he is lonely though

-he’d gotten used to having Aziraphale around, knowing that even if he wanted to be small alone, he could always call the angel

-the first few times he regresses without Aziraphale are rather scary

-he knows he deserves to be alone ((he doesn’t)) but that doesn’t make it any less terrifying having nobody there

-after the first few times, he gets less scary and more so just sad

-Crowley knows he’s unworthy and undeserving, but he can (kind of) handle it when he’s big

-it’s a lot harder when he’s small, feeling so young and innocent and vulnerable, and knowing that despite how much he needs some comfort, he still doesn’t deserve it

-(he does deserve it)

-(he just has some baggage)

-he spends a lot of time trying to sleep. it only kind of works

-he cries. a lot. his voice goes hoarse and raw. he doesn’t make himself tea to soothe his throat. it reminds him too much of Aziraphale

-(of course, Aziraphale eventually comes back, and thru lots of love, reassurance, and therapy, Crowley starts to feel loved again.)

-(but for now, he’s still alone)

to everyone reading this far: you’re loved, and you deserve love and comfort. please take care💜

[moremaybank]

ok so i’ve been rewatching the originals (halfway thru s2), and i just wanna say two lil things lmao

1. hope antis never wanna talk ab the fact that hope literally saved cami with her powers (when she stopped the car) as a literal BABY. like ik legacies made her powers look goofy but bffr no one else has done that (no shade)

2. why do people hate jackson? like even though i prefer haylijah, jackson was still a good guy and he genuinely loved hope and hayley

[genericpuff]

To me the problem with lore olympus and rachel is that she keeps the fan feedback too close to her chest, yes it does "affect her because she's very sensitive" which is smth rachel has said before in interviews and stuff, but the problem is that if u let fan opinions get in the way of ur work maybe u should set boundaries with the way u interact with fan content OF UR OWN WORK.

Im not sure if im explaining myself correctly, but the way rachel somehow always tries to prove criticism wrong and has slowly started ignoring the foundations she previously set is making everything just so flat and boring. She doesnt work with what we've already read but trying to somehow "fix" things that are sometimes not clear on the get go.

For example, u (and a lot of people) complained about how demeter explicitly said she always put persephone in white (when persephone has willingly been wearing that color through the entire series). Meanwhile, i remember having read a post from loreolympians on instagram (iirc) analyzing perse's change of color scheme during s2.

The problem with these things is that rachel has most likely been engaging with these fans who take for granted that she plans everything out or that everything has a deep meaning (which to a sense you should do, because having faith in the author is usually how to go about analyzing storytelling), and somehow it's become a strange echochamber and it results in these weird, very blatantly written to be noticed, details or moments htat try to be smart but are just flat bc rachel doesnt give any effort to anything else aand prefers telling rather than showing so she can feel like a good author when fans obviously point these out

Jdhdjd these are just my two cents and sorry for the long rant but yeah basically rachel should separate herself from the fandom and try to write more objectively and focusing on the narrative instead of taking every little criticism of her comic so personally

Honestly, I can get being a little squeamish around criticism, shit I've had analysis stuff on my work that's consisted of praise and it's still sometimes a little overwhelming to read (I've got a big one in my asks right now that took me like 10 minutes to get thru because I had to keep taking breathers and I still need to actually share it LMAO it's not even criticism! it's just got so much in it, ahfdsaklg)

When it comes to criticism, I still get a little "aw man" sometimes. I recently got feedback from Pyrrhic & Victoria on my Reaper redraws and even though I'm pals with them and know they aren't gonna be harsh, it's still an incredibly vulnerable position to put oneself in. Especially when it's projects that you hold very close to your sense of self.

RS has definitely taken it a little too far in tying LO to herself as a person. Criticism of the comic = criticism of her , and her fanbase seems to view this the same way, that if someone doesn't like the comic, that has to automatically say something about them as consumers when... it really doesn't. If anything their reactions to criticism say way more about them as people than the criticism existing lmao

What's more upsetting and simultaneously eye-rolling is the fact that Rachel goes out of her way to look for things to be upset about. On multiple occasions now over the past 4-5 years, she's snuck into groups containing criticism, attempted to strongarm power away from moderators so she could have criticism removed, and basically just ruined her own day over other people's opinions whether or not they were meant to be read by her.

It's why I stand by the fact that people shouldn't be directly messaging RS with criticism or hate because that would just be unsolicited cruelty. While she should be more open to criticism, that doesn't mean she needs to open the floodgates on her DM's because there are plenty of places for criticism to exist outside of her peripheral. But she keeps turning her head to look at it. Like, she'll throw a hissy fit over criticism that wasn't even really directly aimed at her, just meant for the sake of discussion. And that's where I'd really honestly wish she could just get a grip.

Like, I'm sure there's criticism of Rekindled out there already. Shit, I've had other projects from yeeears ago that ended up being made fun of outside of where I posted it. It sucked, but going out and actively looking for it for the purpose of erasing it from existence wasn't going to make me a better creator nor was it going to benefit me as a person.

It's a shitty reality, but the bigger you grow as a creator, the more you will have to separate yourself from your audience. You don't have to stonewall them completely, many people follow these works for the creators themselves, but you're not entitled to everyone's friendship and praise, and if the criticism really bugs you that much, then fucking work on the thing they're criticizing, don't double down on it or try to control how your audience consumes your content.

It's why it drives me so nuts when RS does infiltrate these groups because it's an incredible invasion of privacy as well as the creator-reader relationship. Q&A's, panels, and personal socials are where you go to interact with the creator. A creator sneaking into a Discord group or subreddit or FB group with the intent of "listening in" would be equivalent to J.K. Rowling showing up in person to a book club meeting. It's just disrespectful to your audience and makes you look like a huge asshole. Have some grace and for once, I'll tell Rachel and her fanbase to take their own advice - if you don't like it, don't read it.