#(or in this case: friendships)

[bixels]

Learning that fans hated Applejack and called her "boring" is crazyyy to me because I genuinely, unironically believe AJ's the most complex character in the main six.

Backstory-wise, she was born into a family of famers/blue collar workers who helped found the town she lives in. She grew up a habitual liar until she had the bad habit traumatized outta her. She lost both her parents and was orphaned at a young age, having to step up as her baby sister's mother figure. She's the only person in the main gang who's experienced this level of loss and grief (A Royal Problem reveals that AJ dreams about memories of being held by her parents as a baby). She moved to Manhattan to live with her wealthy family members, only to realize she'll never fit in or be accepted, even amongst her own family. The earlier seasons imply she and her family had money problems too (In The Ticket Master, AJ wants to go to the gala to earn money to buy new farm equipment and afford hip surgery for her grandma).

Personality-wise, she's a total people-pleaser/steamroller (with an occasional savior complex) who places her self worth on her independence and usefulness for other people, causing her to become a complete workaholic. In Applebuck Season, AJ stops taking care of herself because of her obsessive responsibilities for others and becomes completely dysfunctional. In Apple Family Reunion, AJ has a tearful breakdown because in she thinks she dishonored her family and tarnished her reputation as a potential leader –– an expectation and anxiety that's directly tied to her deceased parents, as shown in the episode's ending scene. In The Last Roundup, AJ abandons her family and friends out of shame because believes she failed them by not earning 1st place in a rodeo competition. She completely spirals emotionally when she isn't able to fulfill her duties toward others. Her need to be the best manifests in intense pride and competitiveness when others challenge her. And when her pride's broken, she cowers and physically hides herself.

Moreover, it's strongly implied that AJ has a deep-seated anger. The comics explore her ranting outbursts more. EQG also obviously has AJ yelling at and insulting Rarity in a jealous fit just to hurt her feelings (with a line that I could write a whole dissection on). And I'm certain I read in a post somewhere that in a Gameloft event, AJ's negative traits are listed as anger.

Subtextually, a lot of these flaws and anxieties can be (retroactively) linked to her parents' death, forcing her to grow up too quickly to become the adult/caregiver of the family (especially after her big brother becomes semiverbal). Notice how throughout the series, she's constantly acting as the "mom friend" of the group (despite everything, she manages to be the most emotionally mature of the bunch). Notice how AJ'll switch to a quieter, calmer tone when her friends are panicking and use soothing prompts and questions to talk them through their emotions/problems; something she'd definitely pick up while raising a child. Same with her stoicism and reluctance at crying or releasing emotions (something Pinkie explicitly points out). She also had a childhood relationship with Rara (which, if you were to give a queer reading, could easy be interpreted as her first 'aha' crush), who eventually left her life. (Interestingly enough, AJ also has an angry outburst with Rara for the same exact reasons as with EQG Rarity; jealous, upset that someone else is using and changing her). It's not hard to imagine an AJ with separation anxiety stemming from her mother and childhood friend/crush leaving. I'm also not above reading into AJ's relationship with her little sister (Y'all ever think about how AB never got to know her parents, even though she shares her father's colors and her mother's curly hair?).

AJ's stubbornness is a symptom of growing up too quickly as well. Who else to play with your baby sister when your brother goes nonverbal (not to discount Big Mac's role in raising AB)? Who else to wake up in the middle of the night to care for your crying baby sister when your grandma needs her rest? When you need to be 100% all the time for your family, you tend to become hard-stuck with a sense of moral superiority. You know what's best because you have to be your best because if you're aren't your best, then everything'll inevitably fall apart and it'll be your fault. And if you don't know what's best –– if you've been wrong the whole time –– that means you haven't been your best, which means you've failed the people who rely on you, which means you can't fulfill your role in the family/society, which makes you worthless . We've seen time and time again how this compulsive need to be right for the sake of others becomes self-destructive (Apple Family Reunion, Sound of Silence, all competitions against RD). We've seen in The Last Roundup how, when no longer at her best, AJ would rather remove herself from her community than confront them because she no longer feels of use to them.

But I guess it is kinda weird that AJ has "masculine" traits and isn't interested in men at all. It's totally justified that an aggressively straight, misogynistic male fandom would characterize her as a "boring background character." /s

At the time of writing this, it's 4:46AM.

[baguantte]

training with friends? (im just saying ojiros gotta be hella strong since hes the martial arts hero and is able to contest with everyone with power type quirks but only have a tail in this essay i will-)

[me-beef]

what do you think it was like when luna got back and cadance was just There cause this is how i think it went

and thanks @punkitt-is-here for being my muse and inspiring my very own shitty horse comic B)

i ran out of steam so i most likely won’t finish this but heres the third page that was supposed to go with it

[lucdoodle]

a lil animatic about Vox and Alastor (song: "Obsessed With You" by The Orion Experience)

[strayklds]

(ONE OF) MEL'S FAVORITE GENRES OF LEE KNOW: VLOGGER LINO → happy birthday @lee-minhoe 🤍

[love-is-a-pearl]

HERE THEY ARE!!! FINALLY!!!

My designs for everyone's aged up looks! As well as their bios here👀

[stagefoureddiediaz]

This morning I woke up thinking about how Tommy checked in with Buck after he kissed him. The ‘was this ok’ is just so tender and uncertain. The underlying worry that he might’ve gone too far. It’s just so…

[carouselunique]

Introducing the one taking the place of Sunburst in the AU: Bon Bon! She still thinks about her old friend Lyra and hopes she's alright...

[creakysocks]

Nick and Ellie hanging out

[slavicviking]

Yellow

@steddiemicrofic December prompt: pine | wc: 508 | G | cw: none | tags: misunderstandings, pre-Steddie

“Looking good, Nance. Did you do something with your hair?” Nancy did not. She knew for a fact her curls looked worse for wear thanks to the raging wind outside. Steve knew that, too – had to, with his in-depth knowledge of maintaining hair, curls or not. Eddie stiffens next to her. “I’m here to return this,” Nancy pulls out a Breakfast Club tape from her bag with a forced smile. “Great movie choice,” Steve trudges on with otherwise admirable perseverance. The ugly green Family Video creases inelegantly as he leans forward. “I think it sucks,” Eddie jumps in. He grins but Nancy knows him well enough to tell how tense he really is. And isn’t that a wild thought in itself? Nancy would never expect to get along so well with Eddie Munson and yet here he was, dare she say it - her best friend at the moment. Steve lets out a nervous laugh, red dotting his cheeks as his hand ventures out to rub his neck. Robin’s bright eyes keep darting back and forth between two boys, an unreadable look on her face. “This is getting ridiculous,” Nancy says once she slips into the driver seat of her car. Eddie joins her on the other side, uncharacteristically quiet. Her eyebrows drop lower. “He’ll get over it soon. You’ll see.” “I don’t know, Wheeler. He seems pretty dedicated.” The thing is, Nancy’s observant. She pays attention to her close circle of friends, and that includes Steve. Something about this isn’t adding up – the compliments, the showering with attention. And it’s not only because she’s usually left with a morose Eddie, unfairly pining away, in the aftermath. It’s been going on for weeks now. Something’s got to give, eventually, she’s sure. It does, a week later, when Steve Harrington knocks on the Wheelers’ front door in the middle of the day, clad in an ironed shirt and beige khakis. “Here,” he hands her a bouquet of yellow roses. “They’re for you.” She makes a point of not taking them. They hang awkwardly between them until Steve drops his hand with a grimace. “We’re not getting back together,” Nancy tells him bluntly. Steve’s a good guy, he is, but he can be a bit obtuse sometimes. To her surprise, Steve doesn’t deter her. Instead, he blinks. “What?” “It’s sweet that you’re trying,” she tries. “But we wouldn’t work out. We just wouldn’t.” He blinks again. “I don’t-uh. This is awkward.” Understatement if she’s ever seen one. “I don’t want to date you, Nancy,” Steve finally says. He winces before adding. “No offense.” “Then what’s with this?” she points to the flowers. “The compliments? All of it?” He sighs. “I know we didn’t really end on good terms. And your opinion matters to him- I mean, he's just so-” “Him?” Nancy questions before realization dawns on her. “Eddie?” “Wait, does he think I – shit!” Steve’s eyes grow wide as he shoves the flowers into Nancy’s chest and backs out towards the car. “Shit! Sorry, Nance. Gotta go!”

Yellow Roses are the symbol of friendship <3

[joejoeba]

I always wanted to do a comic about it but I could never think of anything succinct. Anyway hc that Aerosmith does have a pilot (Mr. Smith?) Like there's a little guy in there. And Mista 🤝 Narancia - Stands that are little guys

[naswoop]

So how about that friendship conversation, huh

Inspired by this post

[monstermoviedean]

if cas made a friendship bracelet for dean he would put it on and literally never take it off. frayed, stained, faded, falling apart. doesn't matter. still on.

[drawnfamiliarfaces]

i will never get over how FusionFall put those two together to be in a tutorial introduction, because they were both 'cool kids' of that era, but objectively Ben10 is a dorky overly dramatic cool kinda vibe while Numbuh 5 is just the coolest kid on the block but is chill about it vibe. they would indeed make a fun battle team-up

also why tf Ben just fistfights his way out of his battles when his watch aint working, use a bazooka or smth dude smh

[chirpsythismorning]

Thinking about the what if El was never interested in Mike romantically, she just assumed she was discourse on the tag today and how it's very possible what could make El fully realize this, is when in s5 she see's Will's love for Mike in real time, for the first time, and she's just like damn! That is not me!

[b-dwolf]

losing my mind and need everyone to see it so here it is

the theory that buck wasn't telling the full truth about why him and natalia broke up has been itching my brain for days now (since the episode aired lol not that long but anyway)

they're just getting back from a call, all piling into the engine truck and idk what the call was about but it's some silly couple that did something silly ok (everyone is fine, it just helps prompt the conversation) and this causes chim and hen's memory to jog, and so they ask buck like, "oh hey, how are things going with natalia? you haven't talked about her in a while" and eddie just kinda looks over at them, confused because he definitely would've thought that buck would've told them.. so why didn't he?

of course, buck catches his gaze and immediately looks away, back towards hen and chim, "uh w- we broke up, actually" and this prompts them to ask why they broke up, buck gives him a similar story to what he told eddie, although more vague and seems less genuine compared to when he first told him.

hen, being the smart bff who is also concerned, ofc decides to corner buck when they get back to the station and asks him why she broke up with him (bc cmon.. of course she knows he didnt break up with her, it was the other way around. and chim too but he also knows not to push sometimes / is scared to push the Wrong button) and so buck spills, saying something along the lines of, "she thinks i'm in love with someone else" looking off in the direction of where eddie, ravi and chim are downstairs in the weight room, just chillin' idk doin' whatever the fuck firefighters do LOL

hen catches where his eyes have drifted, and asks so softly, to not scare him off, "do you think she might be right?" and in that moment you can hear eddie's laughter floating from downstairs towards where they are in the little kitchen area. buck has a sort of sad, heartbroken smile on his face as he says "yeah, yeah i do"

and scene

anyway i am crying if anyone would like to join me pls do so <3