#I have yet to see the house version of the episode but can't say I've only heard good things about it lmao

[mcl-ng-hr]

[edoro]

what do you think about the claims that the possession scene was unnescessary and harmful to the narrative?

well, i haven't directly seen anyone saying this, although i've seen a couple of posts like, addressing those claims, so i can't directly speak to the actual reasons people are saying it for in any meaningful way

from what i've seen from those posts + what i've heard from people who i've asked who've seen those posts, it seems like the objections tend to be that it's in some way disrespectful to abuse survivors to have Hunter suffer additional trauma/have his recovery interrupted in this way, or that it's gratuitous

which... i do not agree with.

(under the cut because it got long)

so, like, first of all, let me tackle 'unnecessary' here - the argument that, i guess, it doesn't really add anything to the narrative.

i don't agree, i think it's an extremely logical and emotionally/thematically resonant culmination in both of these narratives

like... Hunter's entire arc is about developing autonomy and breaking away from his abusive guardian, who has controlled and constrained his life to a terrifying degree. (even in this episode, we get yet another tidbit of how restricted and lonely Hunter's life was, how deliberately and artificially isolated he was - forced to train and study his entire life, not even allowed to socialize with the other soldiers, and only allowed to leave the castle on weekends - like, it Just Keeps Getting Worse!)

meanwhile, Philip sees Hunter as an object. Hunter has never, at any point, been an individual person to him. none of the grimwalkers have. they have all simply been Caleb-shaped dolls for Philip to play house with and use and abuse as he pleases; raise them to worship and obey him, manipulate them into comforting and caring for him, hurt them so they fear him, take out his anger and resentment and whatever other emotion he's feeling on them, try again and again to mold them into the perfect version of Caleb who won't - who can't - leave him.

so it's completely in keeping with Philip's character and with the way he views Hunter. it demonstrates very clearly the level of entitlement he has towards Hunter's body and the degree to which he dehumanizes and objectifies Hunter.

the way he vacillates between referring to Hunter as a literal replaceable object ("this one") vs as Literally Caleb is also just another way of showing how abusive he is and in what specific ways - Philip is a person for whom his emotional state creates reality. Hunter is who and what Philip wants him to be at any given time. it's not contradictory because each thing is true at that time, and stops being true the moment Philip has a different feeling.

so just from a character development pov, it makes perfect sense that it would end up here. it extremely logically follows from how Philip views Hunter, and it's a logical challenge for Hunter to face as well - which leads neatly into "this is somehow disrespectful to abuse survivors."

if somebody finds it uncomfortable, distressing, sad, etc to see this happen then that's their prerogative. they get to feel however. trying to lay a blanket claim that there's only one way abuse can be depicted and that anything bad happening to an abuse survivor, or an abuse survivor struggling/having their recovery interrupted, is always bad and disrespectful... is imo a lot more actually disrespectful.

like... this is just something that happens in real life. it's hard to get away from your abuser, especially when they're very controlling and feel entitled to your body, especially when they're your guardian/caretaker.

of course Philip doesn't want to just let Hunter go. he created Hunter - the entire reason Hunter exists is for Philip to play house with. if Hunter won't cooperate with him and be who he wants, then he wants Hunter gone so he can start over. he doesn't want Hunter to live a life he doesn't control and isn't part of.

this is just a very common experience among abuse survivors. it's hard to escape. abusers will often try to drag you back into their zone of control because they want you around to keep abusing - especially in Hunter's case, where his abuse was very much a product of Philip using him for his own emotional needs. he needs to have his little Caleb copy around to try and 'save.' it's very important to him.

so, i mean, yeah. Hunter thought he was free, because he thought Philip was dead, which meant that he could relax and start processing stuff and figuring out who he is without worrying about Philip finding him.

then he found out that wasn't the case, and it was terrifying. he started to regress, being more afraid, getting snappy, and even turning to old dissociative coping mechanisms like putting on the persona of the Golden Guard to make himself feel braver about confronting his abuser. he thought he was safe and found out he wasn't, which yeah, sucks and is sad, but it's also a thing that actually happens to many people fleeing abuse, and i just do not understand how you can say that "accurately depicting a real experience many abuse survivors go through" is in any way disrespectful.

Sometimes People Make Art That Depicts Things Which Actually Happen In Real Life, Including Things Which Are Sad, Scary, Unpleasant, Etc.

personally, i find the acknowledgement of how difficult it is to leave one's abuser and how insidiously they can try to drag you back in even after you've gotten away, just because they can't stand the idea of not being allowed to hurt and control you anymore, a lot more satisfying than pretending it's as easy as just Deciding To Not Be Abused Anymore just like that.

FURTHERMORE, we get into the whole 'this is just gratuitously making him suffer for no reason'/'why would this happen after he had all that development and got to be happy', and i think the answer there also neatly demonstrates why this is necessary to the narrative -

that being that his development is the whole point and is what enables this entire possession scene to go the way that it goes and end the way that it ends.

like... ever since Hunter first showed up, we've had a steady progression of development for him, from his very first appearance as the Emperor's willing lackey to the glimpses of doubt and dissatisfaction behind the facade in s2e6 to the revelation of just how severely emotionally affected he is by his treatment at Philip's hands in s2e9 to his first experience of friendship and peer bonding and his first intentional rebellion in s2e13...

so that by the time we get to Hollow Mind, where everything he thought he knew is revealed to be a lie and the foundation of his life is ripped away and he has to run to keep himself alive, he's in a position where he's had those thoughts and doubts, voiced those dissatisfactions, been told that it doesn't have to be this way, and he has this nascent support group ready for him to reach out to it.

and then between Hollow Mind and the s2 finale, he becomes closer friends with Willow and especially Gus, and then we see there's a whole montage of him in the human realm developing hobbies, getting closer to everyone in this group, and just learning how to be his own person and be a kid instead of a soldier and an emotional support brother-clone.

so when the possession does happen, it happens in the context of him having had that development, made those connections, learned those things about himself and his own desires.

like... Hunter pre-Hollow Mind would probably have just let Philip take his body! Hunter post-Hollow Mind but pre-finale might have fought out of pure self-preservation, the urge to stay alive, but he didn't have a whole lot to stay alive for at the time, so i doubt it would have gone as well for him.

but here we have Hunter who's spent the last few months feeling safe and secure enough to start developing his own identity. who has hobbies, who has friends. who has people who care about him and come after him when he disappears suddenly, who tell him they know he's in there and encourage him to fight, who give him something worth protecting and fighting for. who has things he wants to do with his life other than just whatever Philip wants.

without all of that development, Hunter couldn't have given Philip that little "you know what i'd like?" speech. and that was a HUGE moment for him in his arc. that was Hunter finally stating, out loud, that he not only wants to choose his own future but he has actual concrete things that he wants his future to hold.

he doesn't want to be chosen, he doesn't want to be special, he doesn't want to be the Golden Guard or the Emperor's right-hand man or the prince. he wants to be Hunter. he wants to be a kid, he wants to learn things, he wants to spend time with his friends, and he wants to protect them and himself from his abuser.

in many ways, this is the worst-case scenario for Hunter (and for many other abuse victims.) his abuser found him after he left, took control over him in a very violating and difficult to escape way, and used that control and access to him and his life to not only hurt him but to hurt his friends as well. this is a very real fear that many people who have escaped abuse face.

and... it fucking sucked! it was a horrible, deeply traumatic event! it left him physically and emotionally scarred! he was profoundly violated and his sense of safety ripped away, and he ended up losing one of his friends - his very first friend, in fact, someone who was there for him before he was even willing to admit he needed help.

but... he still has other friends. he was able, because of the love and support he's been given, because of the development that he's done, to resist the possession. he was able to make Philip let Flapjack go before he could inhale his essence (which allowed Flapjack to save him a bit later.) he was able to give that speech and throw the blood into the water.

he didn't, ultimately, stop Philip from doing anything. but he fought back and asserted himself, his identity and his desires, and he came out the other side of it. he survived. the worst possible thing happened to him, and he's still alive, and his friends are still here and still love and care for him, and they're going to support him in the wake of the loss he experienced.

he's not alone. he doesn't belong to Philip. he's his own person and in the face of such total, horrific violation, he was able to assert his personhood and deny Philip's control over him. he was very badly hurt and suffered a terrible loss, but he's surrounded by a support network of people who love him and will be able to help and care for him while he recovers from that loss.

so, i mean, to me, that's very powerful. yes, it's really sad. what happened to him was traumatic, no question, and Flapjack's loss is going to be a huge source of grief for him.

but it's also a testament to the resilience of the psyche, and how much of a different having support can make. he suffered trauma and a loss, but all of his friends are there to help him through it and help him feel safe again, and this time he knows that there's more to life than being Philip's plaything. there are things to look forward to, things to survive for, things to remain free for.

honestly, it's hard for me to imagine a better message to send to survivors of abuse? like...

-"even if your abuser catches you and hurts you and hurts the people you care about, you can still deny them, get free of them, and be supported and cared for by your loved ones in the aftermath of that trauma"

-"even if you relapse or your recovery is interrupted, that doesn't mean it's over for you or there's no hope, you can still move forward from that point and the progress you made beforehand isn't suddenly wiped out and doesn't suddenly Not Matter, and in fact it's a vital part of your ability TO move on"

-"struggling to escape your abuser doesn't mean you're weak or undeserving, and even if it takes several tries, it's worth it to do"

-"cultivating a network of people who love you and exploring your own interests will make you more resilient and allow you to better withstand and recover from future traumas and to resist being pulled back into a relationship with your abuser when they try their usual tricks"

-"losing people hurts very badly, but grief and loss are parts of life and can be dealt with; your life doesn't end because you suffer trauma or a loss, and having a support network and hobbies makes it much easier to deal with grief, pain, and loss"

not only are those all extremely powerful and hopeful messages to give to abuse survivors, they're also all main themes of the entire show? stuff like discovering yourself, facing grief, processing trauma, and doing it with the aid of friends and family rather than on your own are all very much themes that have been present from the very first episode, and they're all imo well-represented in this aspect of Hunter's arc.

so, yeah. i think it was perfectly narratively coherent and very satisfying, with ultimately a very hopeful and uplifting message inside the tragedy of it all, and also a much better, more nuanced, and more realistic take on trauma and abuse than i usually see in media like this.

[mdhwrites]

What are your core problems with The Owl House?

I'm feeling sick so I'm doing one that's weirdly a little simpler. Not simple but simpler. (It did not stay simple. Shocking, I know.) So if I were to be objective, I think the core problem with TOH is ego. I've been saying it a LOT recently on my Discord that "Ego is the death of art." Eventually, once you get your head shoved so far up your ass, you just stop being able to produce something good because you can't even make the statements you're wanting to make. That's the real death knell for TOH. It is so focused on being special and being meaningful that it forgets to be fun but it's also so self satisfied and convinced that its elements are sacrosanct that they don't question how they're using those elements or what they're actually saying. There's a reason why I'm personally happy as an author that I normally figure out themes within my works post figuring out what they're going to be like because my first goal is just making sure the story is COHERENT. And TOH doesn't give a FUUUUUUU- But subjectively... It's the characters for me that are the core of what lost me with TOH and what attracted me at first. S1 doesn't have the greatest cast. I literally brought in a two off antagonist in Boscha to have a third main character in my stories and focused WAY more on the Blights than literally ever including King in Power of Love. But... That is also is fine because just Amity and Luz in S1 by themselves has an incredible amount of potential as well just being incredibly likable. In fact, for all the shit I gave Eda and King a literal day ago, S1 of them are... enjoyable enough. King's joke is well and truly played out by then so I literally could not care about him but he is the best comic relief in S1. Not a high bar but he does clear it. Meanwhile, Eda has enough interesting going on with the curse to make her flaws not as apparent. Lilith is a compelling antagonist and the possibility of her bringing her more interpersonal comedy style into the main cast was exciting. Gus and Willow are barely characters but they're written likably and don't ever do anything truly wrong which could be said about them for the whole show.

And that also just kind of brings up the awkward element of S1. You have Amity and the curse but otherwise... It all feels like setup. Like we're seeing the first traces of these characters but we still haven't gotten a good, deeper impression of any of them yet. Including the world quite frankly. For fanfiction this was AMAZING. Everything was setup to go in a billion different ways, especially with Amity and Luz (individually or together) and it was exciting to theorize about. I tempered my expectations of course, I doubted I'd ever get the true nuance of my own version of Odalia and Alador but... I expected something a little smarter. The show seemed like it trended that way after all. That a bit more care and realism was put into the characters of the show. And then S2A is... more setup. Or just entirely changing characters to new forms of themselves that we still don't really know. All we do know is that they're less compelling. Amity becomes literally nothing more than Luz's girlfriend and how easy her change becomes more and more apparent with each passing episode. We get Momma Eda in one of her like... Two, maybe three appearances as any sort of criminal in S2 and they're ALWAYS motivated by someone else's scheme. I guess maybe not with Reaching Out but I'd have to check. The point is that the firebrand version of Eda is FIRMLY dead. Lilith becomes a total joke who's hard to even give credit to for the curse because Affearances is making her nothing more than a pathetic woman with unresolved mommy issues because... Sure. That's what the ex-coven head is just like now. Willow has ALL traces of either her morality or really any personality just gone for half a season, in part because she has no part in this season. She even insults Gus for his illusions in Escaping Expulsion in a scene where I SWEAR they swapped Amity and Willow's lines. Not that either should be pushing for bum rushing the door but it makes more sense coming out of plant goddess Willow than theoretically smart girl Amity.

And then you have Luz who is acting even more indignant this half season? Like not a lot has changed but the shifting tone is catching up to how they write Luz. How she can so quickly get annoyed at things not going her way or people not treating her like she's special. How she'll use her friends for personal gain. How she needs to be better than everyone else, both in her eyes and the writer's eyes. All while this isn't getting properly getting interrogated by the characters or even a bit of snark from Eda like it would in S1. It frankly reminds me of something I would say about bad porn: It's Barbie dolls being mashed together. They may have a little flair, like this one is wearing a skull hat or this one is non-binary, but as far as real personality goes... It didn't matter. You could swap out anyone and the writers would force it to work regardless. What personality was there was becoming increasingly cookie cutter or accidentally mean and cruel, just like toxic beauty standards. It's not Barbie's fault that sticks on a torso is the beauty standard to America but it also has no interest in being smart enough to make an appealing doll while avoiding reinforcing the worst parts of it.

And like bad porn, the reason this is done is similar. Rather than actually dealing with the emotions and complexities present in the topics and actions that are desired for the story, they make it so the characters just do it anyways. In porn, you get fucking. In The Owl House, you get... Subversion and representation I guess. But like sex with no setup or emotion, you need to only want the face value elements of these things or else you're just going to feel like you're watching other people having a MUCH better time than you while you're wondering why you're there. Also, yes, this is a weird metaphor. It's mostly done I believe. I do want to mention though that this is why my erotica series struggled to have a lot of sex scenes because those books took themselves and their characters and concepts pretty seriously so I couldn't just ignore the characters if they just weren't in the mood.

The fact that the main payoffs are emotional and metatextual statements that are poorly setup is a REAL problem. It has the feeling of a highschooler who's spent too much time on Twitter seeing their seven year old baby sister playing with her dolls and stopping her from doing that to then put the Barbie on a soapbox and lecture their sister about how dolls are oppressing her and having fun like this is awful. It's not just boring, it's literally anti-fun. Worse yet, it's not smart enough about the topics not to feel mean spirited and somewhat misguided in how its doing it. As an example, they wanted good queer rep. Unfortunately, Amity turned into an incredibly bland trophy for Luz, as boring a pointless as any straight female love interest frankly, and Raine is criticized by much of the fandom for obviously existing only for Eda. They're not just turned into a sexy lamp: That's almost their point from go with how little time they AREN'T just about Eda. This all culminates in the real turning point of the series. Now yes, I've said the point of no return is Escaping Expulsion but that episode is more the objective core issue's turning point. It's the show going "We're not as smart as we think we are and so are going to murder some of the elements that are stopping us from doing whatever we want to... But that doesn't mean we're gonna have fun with it either. Instead, we're going to act lazy, bitter and make the laziness and forced aspects of this episode way too apparent as we move on to what makes us feel special like Lumity." For the characters, Yesterday's Lie is the final nail in the coffin. I've talked before about how Vee's callout of Luz not only makes the problems of S2A being awkward with Luz's character more questionable, it throws her entire CONCEPT into question. Whether she ever was made an outcast because of others or because she told other outcasts to go fuck themselves. Why didn't she know anyone like Mascha after all? They clearly exist in Gravesfield. Why was she trying to be a cheerleader when she clearly isn't interested in sports or athletics. At least most of the time. S1 seems really fucking confused about whether or not she's a nerd or a truly basic bitch school kid who likes everything at least a little bit. But you didn't question it until the new statement that wanted to be made with Luz was "We have a dramatic, changing protagonist who is not just a ball of sunshine but also capable of extreme levels angst and change. She's not just another cartoon main character."

Boy that statement is reeking of ego though, isn't it? Especially when the point Luz isn't going to become "Reality matters over fantasy, others are more important than me," but instead her character finish is "I literally need everyone to recognize that I'm the most special person on the planet and I will only properly listen to anyone who is like me since I blatantly ignored everything my mom said until she earned my attention by being a closet nerd." Luz's character finish is REEEEEALLY BAD.

And no, I don't blame this on the shortening. Just look at fucking Amphibia. It has a VERY vivid cast that mostly keep to their own roles that are dictated by their personalities and despite the lack of time characters like Sasha get, the show knows how to sell their personalities, their relationships, what they're doing, etc. like that almost instantly and part of that's because it's having fun. It's willing to take things to the extreme from go. Sasha's INTRODUCTION is convincing someone to turn themselves into a CLOWN and leave their entire life behind so as to make it so she's no longer guarded. You are sold IMMEDIATELY on this being some master manipulator... But then she also saves Grime and her manipulations are through kindness rather than cruelty like most others which reinforces the loose threads we already had on Anne and her's relationship. You can see she's such a close friend... But why she's not a GOOD friend. And you know all of this by the end of S1 where she gets ONE AND A HALF EPISODES. That is frankly more than I can say about, especially firmly, the majority of TOH's cast by the end of S1. MAYBE Luz and definitely Amity clear the bar but that's the main character and her love interest. Not King. Not Eda. Not even Belos, the main fucking antagonist. I could have speculated on him but I could have told you more about Grime through the toads, Sasha and effectively his ONE episode than I can about the leader of the ENTIRE ISLES.

It really does continue to make me wonder why I'm not compelled to write Sashannarcy instead of Lumischa, the two share a lot of similarities after all, when even S1 has Sasha and Anne as so much more dynamic than Luz and Amity. I guess I liked the playground though. There was more empty space for me to play in with my own writing and I definitely will admit that the fandom, for both TOH and Amphibia, have made me feel far more connected to the shows than the actual products. I'm just weird that way I guess and it's probably why I keep ending up here. Where the show has gone fallow on me and I no longer see the characters as fun people with potential but instead just mean spirited Barbie Dolls.

It happened to me with MLP and it happened to me with TOH. *sigh*

============

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[st-eve-barnes]

Rules: list eight shows for your followers to get to know you better.

I was tagged by @marthawrites and @ewanmitchellcrumbs, thank you ladies!

Buffy the vampire slayer: always my nr 1. I remember when my husband tried to get me into this show and I wasn't feeling it. A show about a teenage girl slaying vampires and falling in love with one, it all sounded very lame to me. But then we watched an episode on tv together, it was "Hush" (every Buffy fan knows enough now lol) and it just changed my opinion completely. That episode was so creepy, so funny, so well written from start to finish. I knew I had to see more. I fell in love with the rest of the show pretty quickly. Some episode are still some of the best tv I've ever seen (The Body!) and now we rewatch it every 1-2 years and I'm still not sick of it. Anyone who hasn't watched it yet please go give this masterpiece a chance.

Friends: I know it's a cliche show but I just adore it, I grew up with it, I've loved these characters for years and I will continue to love them. Another show I like to rewatch every few years. (I'm still very disappointed adult life isn't like it is in Friends lol)

Battlestar Galactica (the 2004 version): hands down best sci fi show for me because it's so much more than a sci fi show. This is so well written, the character development is probably the best I've watched in any tv show. I remember watching it for the first time and just being on the edge of my seat with every episode. Also love that this is a story with a beginning and ending that just feels completely finished, full circle, something that is rare these days.

Ally McBeal: I'm sure my age is showing in these choices lol, but this show shaped me as a young adult. I wanted to be Ally and tackle adult life the way she did, she made me feel it was okay to be a little crazy. The show is just so original, I loved the music as well (I used to buy all the Vonda Shepard cd's lol) and it was so sentimental and melancholic, if you wanted to have a cry you knew you could do it with this show. I haven't rewatched it in a long time so I don't know how well it stands now but I may just have to see for myself soon.

Stranger Things: I know the show gets a bad rep cause it's so overhyped but it's genuinely just an amazing show. I've been on board since season 1 and every season just gets better for me, I mean I already loved it and then they gave us Eddie! :) But seriously, it's just the perfect mix between mysterious horror/sci fi and that 80's nostalgia that takes me back in time. For those how haven't watched it yet, forget about the hype and just watch it.

Haunting of Hill House/Haunting of Bly Manor: yes, I'm listing them both cause I can't really choose. I love ghost stories and I love them even more when they revolve around love (as the show says, a ghost story is a love story) They are both so hauntingly beautiful and sad, the perfect mix between creepy and romantic. And that quote: "I loved you completely. And you loved me the same. That's all. The rest is confetti." has me in tears every time.

Extraordinary attorney Woo: It's still a pretty new show and it only has one season but I have to put this one in here because it is such a gem. I think it's the best way I've ever seen autism portrayed in a tv show. All characters are brilliantly written and the show, a K drama which isn't always my thing, is just so heartwarming and lovely to watch. Definitely recommend!

The Boys: If you're MCU tired (like I am) this show is the biggest breath of fresh air in the superhero genre (and also a big Fuck You to all the other superhero movies/shows). Bold, bloody and disgusting and anything but family friendly lol I was hooked after one episode and I'm still hooked 3 seasons later. This show dares to go where others don't and I just find it hilarious and so on point!

(Oops, that turned out longer than I intended, sorry! lol) I'm tagging @aemondmama @aemondx @neonhairspray @josephfakingquinn @arcielee @lauraneedstochill @jasonsmirrorball @aemonds-wifey (feel free to ignore)

[abarbaricyalp]

Hey! I absolutely adore your fanfics and I've started to come up with ideas for my own fics but somehow I'm stuck at actually writing them down in a fully formed version, I just have vague plot ideas and moments I want to happen in the fic but actually transforming it into a fanfic feels impossible to me -- I have a few lines here and there written out, but those are just tiny scenes. Maybe I just lack the creative drive and I'm simply not a writer. Still, I wanted to ask, do you have any advice for anyone who wants to get into fanfic writing? Where do you draw inspiration from?

Thank you so much for such kind words! I'm so glad my stories resonate with you! ❤️ And it's so exciting to hear that you're venturing into your own story making 🎉🎉🎉🎉

I've been thinking about this question since I saw it and I think my answer boils down to "you have to train your brain to be open and be thinking constantly." (Of course, by constantly, I don't mean you have to be taxing and straining yourself every single moment) Being a writer feels like a full time job (or hobby!) sometimes because my brain is always going. Does that streetlight inspire something? Is that weird tree a candidate for a new character? Was that joke funny enough to use in a fic? Do I wanna set something in an antique store just to include this weird timelessness vertigo I have? I'm gonna take a picture of that "cow crossing" road sign to use later.

I have been writing for as long as I can remember. I have distinct memories of being five years old and squirreling away stories in drawers all over the house. I've always been a voracious reader. My inner voice never stops. And my imagination has always been stronger than my attention span 😄 All of this to say, it feels like stories come pretty naturally to me, but that's because I've been making them up my whole life. I'm very sorry if this is not so helpful.

One starting point I've often come back to (even as a long time writer) is to WRITE stories the way you TELL stories. How do you talk to your family or friends when you're recounting an event? That's telling stories. How would you explain something you saw to someone taking a statement? That's telling stories. How do you recap an episode of TV or a book you read? That's telling stories. Sure, it's not as flashy and verbose as some written fiction, but it's still telling stories. And you may find that that is a voice you relate to as you're writing. Plenty of authors have a straight forward style. The more you stretch that story telling muscle, the more likely you are to find the rhythm of the story and your voice. If you're finding it difficult or daunting to write down a whole idea at once or you can't find the link between A and D, write down how you would describe it to someone. Nothing ever has to be a final draft, certainly not a first draft.

Similarly, start small. I can't tell you how many of my stories began as single lines of dialog or a quick scene image. It's totally fine to write 50, 100, 200, 300 words because that small aspect interested you. (It's fine to post that! If that's all you want to say or share about it!) I have a whole file of small moments like that, which I go through every now and then to see if the rest of the story has found me yet. Quite often, I think you may find that as you sit with a line or an image for a while, something else is going to slot into place. Maybe not the exact next line, maybe just a plot idea, maybe a character dynamic or new relationship. Let these things come to you. Or write down your idea and then just keep typing, even if it makes no sense. Writing is kind of like fishing sometimes. I just keep casting my hook out and waving the pole around until it catches on something. (You know, how normal people fish) Inspiration is important, but it's not the be-all and end-all of writing. Unfortunately, it's usually just the bait on the line. Writing can be a bit of work. You have to put in the effort after an idea grabs you and you have to keep writing on your own. There is, unfortunately, no divine delivery most of the time.

Inspiration is one of those things that you have to train your brain for. (Seems counterintuitive, I know) But hear me out: in any given day, an author will experience the same sights, sounds, news, movies, songs, and phenomena that every else around them does. Any of those things can trigger you into saying, "wait, this could be a story." I have plenty of posts on here where I talk about AUs based on movies or songs or video games because at the moment it struck me that this situation could be repurposed for a fic or a story. Interacting with other art in the world and learning to recognize tropes, emotional triggers, arcs, plots, conflicts etc etc and then how to play with and break them is definitely one way to train yourself to be open to Inspiration and new ideas.

Once you do have an idea, write it down. I promise you will not remember it, no matter how cool it was. Keep some paper or a designated notes app for these things. Be as thorough or vague as you like. I have so many random lines, character names, AUs, plots, and images saved. Ponder these things, especially if you're really grabbed by one. Think about what you would like to see with it. Who else is filling out the space? What is the end goal? Writing is full of big questions that may be answered easily, may need to be forced through, or may need to sit back and rest for a moment. I wish I had better advice here, but it really is just that sitting with your inspiration for a while can help your ideas so much, especially if you're stuck. Ideas want to talk to you. They (you) just need to find the words.

So inspiration doth strike. Now what? Like I said, now is the work. A whole fic will likely never come to you all at once. Take what you know of the fic-- your lines, your images, your trope etc-- and write them out. Then begin making the connective webs inbetween. This where the verbal story telling comes in. Quick lines often blossom into full scenes. Even if they don't, no biggie. You're learning the story here. You're getting to know it. You wouldn't expect to understand a person fully upon just meeting them. I've even created outlines before with my big ideas, then just kept getting more specific in the subheadings until much of the full plot was there and waiting.

This takes practice. Finding (and trusting) your creative voice is a skill that can be worked out the same as any muscle, but you do have to put in some hard work with slow results. Don't be afraid to backspace or go in a different direction. I can't tell you how many of my stories were supposed to be one thing but ended up going in a completely different direction to great results. Tell It To The Bees was supposed to be a quick, goofy Three (or five) And One story about Bucky getting caught talking to the bees, very silly and light, but once I started writing it, it became such a different story and I think it's so much better for it. Inspiration, imagination, interest, and desire are all working in tandem (or fighting) as you write. Along with learning to be open to inspiration, you must also learn to listen to these instincts as you write. Which really just takes practice and trust. I'm sure you are already in tune with these things inside of you. Let them roam as you write too.

It sounds like your creative voice is awake and kicking! Now it's just about putting in work-- pay attention to the world and art around you, write often and badly and slowly and smally, and figure out what connective webbing looks like for you. Stories really are living things. You have to give them the space, attention, resources, and love to grow, and you have to help them along. Don't be discouraged that you're just beginning this journey but can't sprint to the finish line right now. Writers are also living things, who need space, attention, resources, and love to grow 😊 Just keep writing and taking risks and you'll see a pay off.

Oh! And READ! READ EVERYTHING. Creativity rarely grows in a vacuum. You have to see good art to make good art. You won't know what possibilities are unless you're out seeing what other people are doing. A certain turn of phrase, a camera movement, character interactions, descriptions, these all can inspire you or just give you the knowledge and confidence to grow as a writer. Read everything you want, watch everything you like, listen to music and pay attention to the lyrics or the instrumentals, devour podcasts and news stories, go to art museums and make up stories to go along with the pictures. The whole world is there to teach you and help you grow.

[blazehedgehog]

i have fallen down the rabbit hole of game collecting and i own a good few systems now. i'm curious about getting a dreamcast but i've been putting it off because i kind of expect myself only to get the two Sonic Adventure games on it. (i have a Wii so i could always get their gamecube ports, even though sadx is quite bad)

do you think a dreamcast is worth the investment? i know i'm probably missing some obvious hits on the platform

I still think SA1 (obviously) and SA2 play best on the Dreamcast.

As for other Dreamcast games, hm. There are a handful of games that never really came to other platforms, including:

Cannon Spike, the home console port of Capcom's top down arcade shooter. You can play as Cammy and Mega Man. It's fun but not incredible (like all arcade games, there's about 20 minutes worth of content).

Chu Chu Rocket, which probably needs no introduction. It had a GBA port, which is also pretty good, but you can't beat the Dreamcast original.

If you ask me, Crazy Taxi also plays best on Dreamcast, unless you have access to an arcade machine with a wheel (though the Gamecube version is probably fine). And Crazy Taxi 2 has yet to see release on any other platform (unless you count Crazy Taxi 3 on Xbox, but that's a different beast).

Blue Stinger and Illbleed are sort of legendary games that never left Dreamcast. I think even fans of these two games would agree they're not very fun, but they are deeply interesting and very weird.

I think D2 was practically a launch title for the Dreamcast and one of the first multi-disc games. People talked about it a lot at release but don't anymore. I have no idea what it's like, outside of it being a horror game.

Floigan Bros. is absolutely miserable. Peter Moore said it was going to be Sega's "Super Mario Bros." I think. It's a point and click adventure game and was going to be episodic. Only one episode ever came out. But it's so bad it's worth owning.

Since I've already recommended games of questionable quality, I suppose it's worth pointing out that Sonic Shuffle has also never left the Dreamcast.

It came out on other platforms, but I think the Dreamcast version of Rayman 2 is considered to be the best one. Other versions have weird changes or missing features, whereas the Dreamcast version is apparently the best of all worlds.

I think the Dreamcast is also home to the only console ports of Sega Rally 2 and Zombie Revenge. The latter is basically a House of the Dead Beat'em'up.

Metropolis Street Racer is also a Dreamcast exclusive, and while older racing sims aren't usually sought-after, I had fun when I revisited this last year.

Super Magnetic Neo is also unique and probably worth looking in to.

As is Super Runabout: San Francisco. Had fun with that one last year, too.

Which is to say nothing about Soulcalibur.

The Dreamcast version of Skies of Arcadia seems to have better visuals on Dreamcast, but a worse difficulty curve and less content. Pick your poison.

Games that may also be worth looking in to that I am not super familiar with: Cosmic Smash, Fighting Vipers 2, Headhunter, Maken X, PenPen Tri-Icelon, POD Speed Zone, Psychic Force, Stunt GP, Toy Commander, Sword of the Berserk, Confidential Mission, Tokyo Xtreme Racer 1 & 2, Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future, Fur Fighters

Don't forget unreleased games: Half-Life, Propeller Arena, and a Dreamcast prototype of Toejam & Earl III.

Other Great Dreamcast Ports: Dynamite Cop, Street Fighter III: Third Strike, Marvel vs. Capcom 1 & 2, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Capcom vs. SNK 1 & 2, Mark of the Wolves, Last Blade 2, Guilty Gear XX, Mr. Driller, Powerstone 1 & 2, Project Justice, any of Capcom's "For Matching Service" games, Dead or Alive 2, Ikaruga, and Bangai-O.

My only concern with collecting Dreamcast stuff is that the console has a tendency to burn itself out after enough time. The GD-ROM laser doesn't last forever (I know mine is on its last legs) and it is basically impossible to service. Most people seem to go the route of installing an SD card loader or something.

[anastacialy]

okay. you got me.

maybe there really is a third false.

"quick, before she comes back!" who said that? not our false. not hc!false. so who — perhaps inside e!false's head, sharing the same body as e!false, the third false. perhaps the same one who said "i don't want to go back," despite e!false wanting to go home. the same one who placed the signs. the same one we see but don't see.

i've seen people sleepwalk. even really, really sleepwalk. talking in their sleep, moving things around, leaving their houses and roaming the street. but it's not this — it's not placing copper in the right formation for aging it or gathering materials you need for a build. that takes more cognitive processing than wandering aimlessly.

these are memory fugues. for those unfilliar with the concept, they can happen to people with a whole host (pardon the pun) of nerodivergencies, but is most commonly associated with disassociation and plurality. essentially, it is a temporary state of amnesia. there's an entire spectrum in regards to that as well, a vast amount of opinions on what causes them and what they entail, but i am proposing — jumping off, of course, the linked meta — perhaps the most classically known version in media. e!false has an alter, and she's desperately trying to keep her safe.

this third false, i'll call her t!false from now on, is the one who remembers. this is also quite a common occurrence in plurality, wherein some parts of the system / collective retain memories of unpleasant experiences while others have no recollection. if t!false remembers, that's why she's leaving warnings. "trust only yourself" might mean: trust me, t!false, and you, e!false, but do not trust hc!false. in this reading, "yourself" would mean "trust only those of us who still share the body."

which brings me to my next point: is hc!false from an alternate dimension, or timeline, or is she a time lord (can't miss a chance to cross-promote)... or is she the host or alter of a system that she figured out how to physically split from? then tried to wipe her alter's memories and dropped her — or them, in reference to both e! and t!false — into another world?

it's possible, at some point, that all these falses shared the same body, but hc!false grew tired of her alters, whether that was because she wasn't being listened to, or hated these gaps in her memory when another alter took over. at some point, figuring out a strange magic that could sever her from her other two selves, leaving those selves in a seperate body, trying and somewhat failing to wipe their memories, and then disposing of them through a mysterious rift.

that sounds pretty bad, though, doesn't it? it couldn't be that hc!false is the one we need to be watching out for, right? well. t!false seems to be concerned. please correct me if you heard something else, but one of the first flashes of 'memory' — what i think may actually be internal communication, in this case very strained communication between parts of a system — in false's empires episode thirteen sounded like "she's not safe! she's evil!" in reference, most likely, to hc!false.

e!false described this as "a glitch, but in [her] head" which i found interesting. the next thing t!false says is: "promise me, i'm running out of time" (which, frankly, i could add to my other theory but in another context). when e!false goes to break into hc!false's tower, she feels an electric shock — which should be impossible, since it's wood she's trying to break. maybe hc!false really did electrify it to keep her out, or, much like a glitch in her brain, t!false is making e!false feel the electricity, without it really being there, in order to protect them both from hc!false. or, for t!falses own purposes. who's to say?

the bit with jevin's stay i found interesting. absolutely no indication of what happened on her end, yet in reference to pixlriffs we see her approach with a splash potion of amnesia. likely what she used on jevin as well. but is this e!false, or t!false, making these decisions? and for what purpose? e!false seems to barely remember the interaction with pixl, and have no recollection of why there's blood in jevin's room. but whether she doesn't know, or is hiding something from us as the audience, it may be too early to make a call.

i don't have much to wrap this one up with — i'm excited to see where this plotline leads, whether my initial theory, this theory, or any other plotline comes to pass. and if you haven't read my false is a time lord theory, or my what happened with jevin post, and found this one interesting, give it a look! (frankly, i could write a whole seperate meta on time lords as a metaphor for plurality.) plus, if you have anything to add, please do so. i love reading other people's thoughts on the matter!

[desert-bluffs-and-me]

WTNV quick rundown - 56 - Homecoming

I've decided that when it gets to around the time that the novel was released (soon!), I'm going to do a post purely about the 'main plot points/reveals' and then a secondary one of just 'cool facts I learn skimming it again'. This is for my own sanity trust me. This episode features Will Wheaton as Earl Harlan. It is autumn, and nature is vanishing. It is autumn, and nature is beautiful. Welcome to Night Vale.

In NV, the homecoming game is a literal homecoming, as in, dead citizens come home briefly for the half-time whilst the marching bands go spear hunting for dinner. Cecil is hoping to talk to his mother, especially since finding the cassettes he didn't understand and also he has become hermit-like (his words) now that Carlos isn't around and needs to get out.

His plan is jeopardised by accusations that one of the players, Malik Herrera, isn't actually real (which goes against rule 12, article 6).

Unfortunately, since his reality can't be proved until after the game would be scheduled, the whole game is forfeited and thus Cecil does not get to see his mother. To make things worse, a terrible storm rains down for five whole days, which would have resulted in a postponement of the game even if Malik was real. He's determined to be tangible, but not real post-storm. Even so, Coach Nazr al-Mujaheed and many other citizens, including Cecil, support his rights to play even if he's not real and get together after the storm to talk and stand up for him.

Malik says he doesn't even like football, but can't pursue his artist career unless the town collectively imagines it for him.

Weather: "Understood" by Y.R Generation yrgeneration.bandcamp.com

Earl Harlan has come onto the show to teach us how to make tiramisu. In NV fashion, it's a very strange version for example: eggs have teeth, organs and 'debris' in them, mascarpone is a kind of fish and nutmeg are a kind of creature which needs to be killed, cleaned and have a thick vein running up it's spine removed before it's safe to use though 'deveined' versions are available to buy. Tiramisu is also apparently quite poisonous.

Earl also reveals that he was literally 19 for many years, maybe even centuries and that he can't remember what year he graduated. Cecil also can't remember the year they graduated (which they did together, having been very close friends) even though he remembers that they stayed up late drinking a case of warm orangemilk and telling dirty jokes about the moon until the sunrise scared them off.

Earl says he all of a sudden stopped being 19 and was instead an adult with a kid, a house and a job. Cecil doesn't seem to understand, or want to understand, what Earl is actually saying.

There is a Night Vale Seismological Society, who schedule/carry out municipally-planned earthquakes. They don't really know what you're supposed to do to to keep safe during an earthquake and don't even know what's going to happen on Saturday, just that it'll be cool.

Staples encourages you to worship old gods.

The Red Mesa football team is called the Red Mesa Ant Carpenters.

There is a citizen called Inez Cordova whose son has started to walk. Teddy Williams finally rolled a 450 bowling. There are citizens called Wilson Levy and Amber Akinyi who tell Cecil a whispered story about their vacation to Luftnarp. Cecil talks to Diane Crayton about Carlos and is introduced to her son Josh (a shapeshifter) , who is first in the form of a monarch butterfly but later is a motorbike.

Nazr al-Mujaheed wears a goat-horned headpiece and comically large sunglasses. He also has tattoos of cat eyes on his eyelids.

I fell asleep easily that night. I dreamed of sun, of being with Carlos again, of a lighthouse that was not a lighthouse, of a world that is not anything at all. Perhaps a dream of things yet to come. Stay tuned next for a radio program that only dogs can hear. And as always, good night, Night Vale. Good night.

Proverb: I’ve got more rhymes than the Bible’s got Psalms. (One hundred fifty one. I’ve got one hundred fifty one rhymes.)

[nellie-elizabeth]

What We Do in the Shadows: Reunited/The Lamp (4x01/02)

Ahhhh!!! I discovered this show during quarantine and I am so excited to be back with new episodes.

Cons:

Nothing really to report, here! More just a general wish list of things I hope we can explore later. There's this part of me that wishes season four had broken with the formula a bit more, and played around with the diaspora... the fact that we start with Nandor, Nadja, and Guillermo all returning home, and don't really get to see them having their adventures, is maybe a little disappointing? But that's maybe more a pie in the sky wish of what I wanted, as opposed to a judgment on what we actually got.

Pros:

Where to begin? I always find writing about comedies to be particularly challenging, because a lot of what was great about this episode were individual funny lines and moments, and it's not exactly fun for me to just list jokes and say they made me laugh. Suffice it to say, a lot of these jokes made me laugh!

Guillermo is the best thing about this show to me, so I love that his role here is that he's moving on but not really. It's such a funny tension for his character, to have him no longer hung up on Nandor and desperate to become a vampire all the time. He's got a boyfriend, he's not jealous of Nandor's quest for a wife, he's chill. But... he's still hanging around! He's got to take care of baby Colin Robinson and stop the house from falling apart. These vampires would all be lost without him, and he's going to keep helping them, grudgingly, even though his heart doesn't seem to be really in it right now. I love this more jaded, self-assured version of Guillermo.

I love how much the internet wants Guillermo and Nandor to be together, and sure, I think it would be an interesting turn for the story to at least explore, but honestly it's just the sheer comedic potential of them that makes me smile every time. I think it's just that the bar is so, so low here. In this episode, we get Nandor rescuing Guillermo from drowning, saying his first and last name correctly, defending him and sticking up for him a bit with Lazlo and Nadja, and you're sitting here thinking "wow! this is such a step up!" but it's so funny because literally just knowing his first and last name is all that it takes to improve on the behavior of the other vampires. Literally Guillermo deserves so much better, and yet we are seeing Nandor put in some measure of effort. So delicious.

I've got to say, the creepy baby Colin Robinson was the one aspect of this season I wasn't sure was going to work for me, but it's so funny so far. Just the thought of Lazlo trying to raise him to be the opposite of boring old Colin Robinson, the way everyone refuses to call him Colin except Guillermo, and instead keep saying "he's the thing that emerged from the corpse of our dead friend Colin Robinson", all of his destructive and bizarre shenanigans... so fun to see Lazlo of all people take on something of a parent role, and then Guillermo swoop in to do all the actual work, as usual.

Nadja got a glow-up in terms of self-confidence, as she returned from the Vampiric Council regretting that she hadn't made more big moves, and decides to open a Vampire Night Club! The Guide is against turning the lair of the old council into such a place, but Lazlo steps in with some psychoanalysis to help get her past her objections. They discover that in her past, the Guide was a bad vampire who had sex with a vampire killer! The solution? Send Guillermo to seduce her. Brilliant therapy work there, Lazlo. This scenario is so bizarre and impossible to fully describe. It really highlights my personal struggles with reviewing joke-heavy TV comedies. I don't know what to tell you, it was really funny! Lazlo saying that Freud got the concept of "penis envy" from him, the two of them digging through nested boxes in the Guide's mindscape, all of it had me laughing!

Nandor's wives... honestly, I can't say enough about how great this show is at managing to take a scenario that sounds good to begin with, and then spin it out into avenues I never would have considered. First of all, Nandor calling the men he was once married to his "guy wives" is absolutely legendary behavior. Secondly, the genie being there to... mercy kill? All the people Nandor decides not to choose? So funny. He's so bored. "You don't look like a djin." "You can't say that." "I just did." Contender for one of the funniest jokes in these first two episodes.

I could go on, but as I said, it feels fruitless to just start listing jokes I enjoyed. It's funny! This show, it turns out, is really really good! I can't wait for more.

9/10

[sitzfleischh]

How to Become a Real Boy: Our Flag Means Death and the Queer Art of Failure

Alright, batten down the hatches, I'm pulling out my mouldering English Literature diploma and writing meta about OFMD using some of my favourite queer theory. This is long for a tumblr post (about 1500 words) but also it's essentially a very condensed version of what could easily be a 3k word essay LOL. Can anyone tell I graduated a year ago and am missing getting to do this?

So, if you haven't seen it yet David Jenkins' pinned tweet says "A lot of what we’re taught about being a man is wrong." And other people have written eloquently about this but clearly the show is exploring masculinity. But the thing I think it does differently than other media I've seen that interrogates masculinity is that rather than just criticizing it (and I think the show is doing something much more interesting than critique) it actually portrays a diverse array of alternatives.

Humour in OFMD doesn't operate under the still-too-common model of ironic cynicism. I could do a whole post just about that on its own but to try and be as concise as possible rn I'm going to quote David Foster Wallace (who I know was a shitty person but his point here still stands):

"Irony’s useful for debunking illusions, but most of the illusion-debunking in the U.S. has now been done and redone. All we seem to want to do is keep ridiculing the same stuff. Postmodern irony and cynicism’s become an end in itself, a measure of hip sophistication and literary savvy. Few artists dare to try to talk about ways of working toward redeeming what’s wrong, because they’ll look sentimental and naive"

We know about toxic masculinity, we know it sucks, we know the patriarchy hurts everyone. Now what? The thing that OFMD does differently here is also showing us alternative kinds of masculinity that aren't toxic-- Lucius admiring Fang's body and telling Izzy that "we don't own each other," Doug hyping up Mary's artwork and bringing her breakfast in bed, Stede getting the pirates to "talk it through as a crew," the crew getting to sew flags and do silly theatre, Ed being told he "wears fine things well."

And here's where we get to my main argument: I think one of the main ways that OFMD arrives at these alternatives is through what Jack Halberstam calls "the queer art of failure."

Super quick rundown of this concept:

The terms of success in a heteropatriarchial, capitalist, colonial society are toxic, and failing to achieve these things can open you up to otherwise hard to see ways of living differently. "Under certain circumstances failing, losing, forgetting, unmaking, undoing, unbecoming, not knowing may in fact offer more creative, more cooperative, more surprising ways of being in the world." To put it simply, once you've totally failed to be straight enough and masculine enough and white enough and whatever else, you become free to explore the alternatives to these things.

So, ok, what does this mean for OFMD? Well, as I said in a previous post I think its main thematic question, which it sets up in episode one with the Pinnochio story, is "how do you become a real boy?" (a real pirate, a real gentleman, etc.). And the season's answer to that question is, ultimately, "you can't-- because there's no such thing."

If we think of each of these fixed identities (gentleman and pirate) as being at the top of some very tall mountain, then Stede and Ed each appear at first glance to be relatively close to their respective peaks. Stede has a wife and kids, a beautiful house and more money than he knows what to do with. Ed: well, he's Blackbeard, history's greatest pirate. But what's so fantastic about this show is that one of its major premises is that even Blackbeard isn't actually the perfect ideal he's made out to be. And if even Blackbeard can’t make it, can’t be the pinnacle of masculinity, then maybe that’s because nobody can.

Notice that the second time the Pinnochio story comes up in episode one is right after Stede says "my family is here now." The next cut has him reading aloud to that new family, the crew of the revenge, in a scene that shows off a kind of new fatherhood, a masculinity based in caring for others. I'd argue that the reason the episode ends on this scene (and the shot of all the flags displayed equally) is to tell us that while the crew may say that they're keeping Stede alive because he proved himself in battle, ultimately they're really doing it because they like being told stories and getting to do crafts together. This queer chosen family, then, comes to all of them as a result of Stede's failure to be a real gentleman (by leaving his hetero family) and his failure to be a real pirate.

And that's why Ed likes him so much, and is so interested in him in the first place! He's the only guy out there doing something new and exciting. Of course the joke is that the only reason he's doing something original is because he's totally incapable of being a "real pirate" but that's the whole point. Stede questions why he can’t be both a gentleman and a pirate but ultimately the show is about him coming to terms with the fact that he has failed to be either of those things-- and that's good, because they allow him to eschew the toxic terms of success of both.

Some more quick examples of this:

Stede failing to be a traditional father and husband opens up new possibilities for Mary, who herself is freed of her societal expectations by “failing” to be a wife anymore

Jim’s story is also about failure, failing to hide as a man, failing to live up to their revenge legacy quest. But again through those failures they find the alternative: being non-binary, falling in love with Oluwande, etc. if Jim’s lesson is that revenge won’t make them feel better, won’t bring back their family, then they can only find freedom in failing to do so (which is where they are at the end of the season).

And ok now here's the really interesting part: while Stede and Ed both fail, in different ways, to be real pirates and real gentlemen, they both also have a running thread of being unable to fail. Ed can't fail because he doesn't even have to do anything scary anymore, people are so terrified of the idea of him that just showing his face sends everyone running. Stede can't fail because his privilege-- and main character magical plot armour-- insulates him from suffering real consequences (as Badminton says, "here you are, unscathed, God's perfect little rich boy"). Each of them is trapped by their proximities to the ideals they represent (pirate and gentleman, respectively), and that is why each of them goes back to those identities in the end.

Stede fails to be a pirate, goes back to being a gentleman and then fails to be a gentleman too. And only when his failure is complete, and he reckons with the consequences of that failure, is he able to sail off toward something else. And importantly I don't think that something else is being a "real pirate." He's sailing toward love, vulnerability, queer family-- all of the things he found by failing to reach the terms of success offered to him by both identities. Ultimately Stede doesn't become anything, in a fixed sense. Instead he, though failure, opens himself up to an ocean of possibility.

Ed, on the other hand, ends the season before he can complete his failure arc. He fails to be a gentleman, goes back to being a pirate, and then...? Well, then, I think what this means is that Ed's next step in season 2 is to truly fail to be a pirate. Like Stede, he needs to complete his failure and reckon with its consequences. We can see this foreshadowed by him crying in his final shot-- the gaps and friction points in his identity have opened up and are ripe for failure. Ed thinks, right now, that he has to stay being Blackbeard, being the Kraken, because the stakes for failure are too high. But Stede, (perhaps history's worst pirate) is coming back to him full of failure and freedom. And I think only once Ed really truly fails-- and survives it-- will he be able to meet him there.

The world we live in is a cynical place, and it is in the best interests of the people in power to convince us all (like Ed has been convinced) that the stakes for failing to follow the rules, failing to go along with the success terms of heteropatriarchal capitalist colonial society, are too high. And it's true that failure sucks and it hurts, but it is also true that there are people out there who are living otherwise, people who will help you get through. And I think that's what this show is about: not being so naively optimistic to think that you can fail without getting hurt, without reckoning with consequences, and at the same time not being so cynical as to believe you have no choice but to scramble forever toward an impossible ideal. Instead, you can fail and survive it, fail and keep failing, and in doing so open yourself up to an endless horizon of ways to live differently.

[yamujiburo]

Farewell! The Wandering Rocket Gang!

God there's so many ways this episode can go and I have so many thoughts!!! This is just gonna be a brain dump

Realistically I don't think Jessie, James and Meowth are actually gonna leave. They've had so many fake out/bait episodes like this in the past but in the end they always realize that they care about each other and aren't the kind of people to give up like that.

This time feels kinda different thought right??? Team Rocket's been in episodes less and less, which as I've said before, is very fair and their role in the show is kinda meh (and has been for the past decade tbh) which leads me to think they're being slowly phased out. I don't think this'll be their last episode by any means but it would be really interesting if this episode isn't as contained and whatever they learn from Butch and Cassidy sticks with them to the end of this series. Like seeing them actually start thinking about pursuing other goals in life for the remainder of Journeys and then at the end making the decision to leave. This is probably wishful thinking as far as having a through line/arc for Team Rocket but man it'd be so interesting to see them take that angle.

I'm just really excited to see Cassidy and Butch again but in a very different light! After reading the episode summary, I have to imagine that they're doing well and are happy if it makes Jessie, James and Meowth wonder if they're doing the right thing staying in Team Rocket. I am PRAYING for some sort of Jessie and Cassidy heart to heart. I don't think it's super unrealistic that these two would both be the driving forces in this episode (I feel like James, Butch and Meowth always take a back seat whenever they're all together). Like man I want them to all come out of this on good terms. I just think I'm craving closure since this feels like the show's way to send off Butch and Cassidy. The tension between Cassidy and Jessie always seemed to stem from Cassidy being better at everything (or Jessie being the favorite during their training days). So if they're no longer rivals there's not that much reason for them to hate one another anymore. It'd be sooooo nice to see what them being friendly to each other looks like.

I can't wait to see where they go with this. My brain's all over the place bc there's so many ways this episode can be built. I think my dream set up is that they all kinda "split up" Jessie hangs with Cassidy for the day, James with Butch and Meowth with Meowzie and at the end of the day seeing something they want from this life. Like Jessie coming out of it wanting domesticity, James seeing the potential in being free to do whatever he wants if he quits TR and Meowth liking the idea of just being a happy little house cat with Jessie and James. But then there's also a version where Jessie James and Meowth very briefly run into Butch Cassidy and Meowzie, get a gist of their situation and spend the rest of the episode alone, left to ponder what they're doing with their lives.

I also think my previous theory still stands where the opposite of what the summary implies happens and Jessie, James and Meowth inadvertently make Butch and Cassidy want to rejoin Team Rocket *eyes the poster with them all in uniform*

ALSO MEOWZIE. I don't think I've talked about her much at all yet. I don't have much to say other than the idea that Butch and Cassidy caught her/picked her up off the streets is PRECIOUS and I'm REALLY looking forward to what her purpose in the episode's gonna be

GOD I'm so excited for this episode. There's so much potentiaaaaal!!! I never get my hopes up for Team Rocket episodes, and I'm still not lol but man they can literally give the bare minimum for this episode and I'll still be happy. The premise alone is gonna carry me through the rest of 2022

[floraermina]

Cutie Pie novel is actually so different from Cutie Pie The Series, ain't it?

I mean, it's the same story but the tone is kind of different. I'm on Chapter 10 currently and it catches up with the latest episode (Ep 5) and there are several key differences between novel and series. Also some things are explained better in the novel. In no particular order:

Novel Kuea is much more vulgar lol. I mean my boy really seem soooo different from Nu-Kuea. He curses a lot. His friends isn't very well mannered. And he even smokes. But I get it. You can't really show that in a BL series. I mean, you can, but the tone would have to change for a more mature and serious story if there's smoking involved. Unlike the series where Kuea is a version of himself who’s freer but still have the same cuteness and charm as Nu-Kuea.

The reason why Lian has cameras all over his house is to have surveillance when he's not home, not necessarily to spy on Kuea. He needs it since there's no servants to watch over the house. And in the novel, he actually orders to shut them all off after seeing Kuea wander around his house, because, and I quote, "he won't invade Nu Kuea's privacy."

Kuea hasn't revealed he is Kirin in public... yet. At Ep 2 of Cutie Pie The Series, Kuea revealed he is Kirin by singing in front of a whole crowd while Lian watches in the audience. Any of this hasn't happened in the novel yet. But Lian did take Kuea home when he's passed out drunk.

The car scene with drunk Kuea begging for Lian's love is much more heartfelt and sad in the series. The novel portrayed this scene to be kind of cute because Kuea, while still crying, was saying that he'll punch Lian's lovers. And Lian actually said the exact words, "I've never had anyone else." And then proceeds to kiss him. It was kind of important in the novel because it was made clear that this was Kuea's first kiss and his lips were so swollen the whole day because of it.

The reason why Lian didn’t know where Kuea’s secret house is because it’s a townhouse on a narrow street and Lian’s henchmen can’t follow Kuea (wo’s riding a superbike) because they have cars and it was traffic lol. But he does know that he has a secret house since he knows Kuea isn’t at his home most of the time.

Lian’s driver/assistant isn’t a very animated person like it’s portrayed in the series. Honestly, I was expecting it but still kinda sad for me because I like Poppy’s role very much and he adds that audience perception in the story. But I get it. It’s a very minor thing. 

Novel Kuea hates the dolls. In the novel, it’s a Toothless and Light Fury (from How To Train Your Dragon) plushie. But in actuality, Kuea hates the movie LMAOOOO he hates animation movies in general. Lian first gifted him the Toothless plushie for his birthday and Kuea pretended to be excited over it because Lian bought it for him. So Kuea strived to finish the movies. When Valentine’s day rolled around, Lian gifted him the Light Fury plush because he said, and I quote, “Toothless and Light Fury. They’re together just like us.” AND KUEA HATES IT SO MUCH HAHAHAHAH

Kuea’s father is actually against Lian’s and Kuea’s engagement. He’s also the one funding Kuea’s secret life. This actually makes a lot of sense and provided the insight to an important question of mine, how the fck is Kuea supposed to buy a house and a superbike? Now the novel made it clear early on that his father knew and funded most of it (if not all). And the only reason why the engagement isn’t called off is because Kuea’s dad can’t oppose (meaning he’s very weak for her) his wife. Novel Kuea actually debated the thought of having his father take him away when Lian forced him to live with him but decided against it since that would just look like he’s running away.

Lian doesn’t actually know any of Kuea’s preferences when he forced him to live with him. Unlike in the series where Lian knows how Kuea likes his interior because he went inside his secret house, it isn’t actually clear in the novel if he went inside Kuea’s house but by the looks of it he only dropped him off at the entrance, I think. He’s just kinda delighted that his house style and décor pleased Kuea and they have similar tastes. What he does know well is Kuea’s preferences when he was a child. Hence he recreated the congee from his childhood memory and gifted him plushies.

Novel Kuea is more serious about his music career as Kirin. He even has his YouTube where he became popular. It’s even mentioned that when he plays the good Nu-Kuea, the only thing he can’t hide is his rough hands from playing drums for so long to the point that he has calluses and bruises over it. He’s very serious about his YouTube channel as well, like there are scenes in the novel where he records a cover and sends it to a freelance sound engineer to get edited before he posts it. He even received offers to create tracks for fashion and commercial industries and even F1′s soundtrack. He left all that to come back to Thailand. And Jay got to know him because he has been a fan of Kirin for years and could recognize his gestures even if he is fully masked and with a cap on. And of course, Lian also knows about it. He even has Kirin’s business card.

Novel Lian not-so-innocently teases Kuea. This man literally makes suggestive quips left and right (like “my closet is full of clothes for Nu-Kuea to pick... or he can just wear nothing,” and “for our first date of the week, Nu-Kuea wants it to be in the bathroom, on the bed, or on the balcony?” or how about “Nu-Kuea bought me. And I agreed to be bought by you. I have so many functions for Nu-Kuea to try”) and he even kisses Kuea on his cheek and lips in occasion. Kuea is panicked gay and convinced Lian is up to something.

Novel Lian doesn’t understand why Kuea is so mad at him. This one makes me want to pull my hair out. How can this guy have no idea??? Dude literally said he doesn’t love him and proceeds to wonder why his Kuea is rebelling against him. The series improves on this a little bit because Series Lian went inside Kuea’s secret house and got to see what he’s really like and Kuea’s also poured out his heart for him while sleep talking (which is kinda cheesy but we get it).

Lian is a Gemini regular for more than 5 years. I’m not sure if this comes as a surprise since we all know that Jay and Lian knew each other, we’re just not sure how long. Novel stated that Lian was a Gemini regular even before he built The Pentagon. And Gemini’s rooftop counter bar is his favorite place to drink because it has an excellent view overlooking The Pentagon. He also discovered Kirin’s identity because he was particularly looking to recruit this drummer to perform at his Pentagon. And when he saw Kirin play for the first time on Gemini, he immediately recognized that it was his fiancé who he just said goodnight to awhile ago. He was so shocked and angry that Kuea was keeping it a sccret from him. He thought Kuea is privately laughing on him from the inside and called him stupid behind his appreciative eyes.

Lian forcing Kuea to live with him is because he wants Kuea to fall in love with the real him as well. This is implied in the series but not directly mentioned yet. But they might be going to different direction since Series Lian mentioned he will “straighten up” Kuea and “never lead him astray”. Since Lian knew that Kuea was leading a secret life, he became determined to show Kuea his real life as well. The novel made sure to emphasize how there’s a difference between Hia Lian and Lian as himself (he also has a secret life). We’ll see more of that in the coming episodes so I’m gonna stop myself before I spoil more things.

There’s much more niche details that the novel provided but mentioning them here might be misleading since I’m not sure if they’re going a slightly different direction for the series. Overall, I’m having fun with this novel. Author portrayed the difference between the main characters’ façade and secret life so well. I’m just so in love with the series and everything about it. Please hit me up if you also share the same interest because I would love to rant to someone about Cutie Pie The Series!!!

[rays-of-fire-and-ice]

For the ask meme! Your top 5 of the funniest moments in Bleach! I hope you don't mind me asking :D Also, if you want to talk about any other top and it hasn't been asked, feel free to add it! ♥♥♥

Ask me for my Top 5/Top 10 of anything!

Thank you for bringing me some laughs with this list! Unfortunately couldn't get gifs for all of these because they didn't turn up in the search/the scene hasn't been adapted yet.

5. Ikkaku's lucky dance

The first time I saw this, I couldn't stop laughing, and every time I've gone back and rewatched this scene since usually gets a chuckle out of me. It comes right the heck out of nowhere and I love seeing all the reactions from the characters (Ichigo and Ganju are just dumbfounded into silence, and Yumichika is just like 'this again?? Oh God...'

4. Ichigo at Kukaku's

The animation and voice acting (both original and English dub) really helps with this one. From the moment Ganji and Ichigo recognised each other and screamed, I was laughing. The fight they have, then Kukaku blowing up the house, and Ichigo and Ganji agreeing about how they view Kukaku, it all hilarious. Wheh it turns out later that they're cousins, this scene got even better to rewatch.

3. Ichigo ships Renruki throws Rukia

It's a classic moment, and one that always makes me smile. I don't know what I find funnier: that Ichigo thought it was a good idea ot throw Rukia, or Rukia's scream as she's flying down to Renji, or Renji catching Rukia and both are sent spinning away, or their reaction after it's all happened. It's all great and makes for one of the most memorable (and funny) moments in the whole series.

2. Of chickens and eyebrows

Ah, what could have been. From Bazz B pausing the battle just to check if Renji was insulting his mohawk to Renji's little praise of chickens ("What? Don't like chickens? They get up early, lay eggs. They're awesome.") to the glorious moment when Bazz B reveals he actually thought Renji's eyebrows were 'cool razor-sharp' and Renji just basking in that moment while Rukia [after having enough of Renji being sad no likes his eyebrows] just watches on before it all come crashing down and the battle has to continue, it's all comedy gold for me. I refer to this moment and this duo as 'chicken eyebrows', for that reason and I can't help but wonder in some weird alternate universe if these two had gotten along what kind of dorky, dumb nonsense they could have gotten up to. Regardless, I can't wait to see this animated!

1. Recruiting Hitsugaya to be part of the Kendo team

This moment is just...surreal (heck, the whole episode is, have you seen the faces the characters make throughout?), but it never fails to make me laugh! Just looking at the gif version has me grinning and trying to suppress a laugh.

Where do you start with this scene? At worst it's complete crack and at best it's taking certain traits within Toshiro and cranking them up to 11 for comedic effect. We've got Ikkaku trying to bribe Toshiro (who is already in the Kendo gear) with candy and snacks while on his hands and knees. When this doesn't work, he instead tries bribe him with toys - one of which is a gun... What's even more bizzare to me though is Toshiro, without question it seems, just got into the gear after Ikkaku told him it was urgent. Can you imagine Ikkaku rushing in and telling a captain that he needs to get dressed into this gear right now. It's mentioned the gear belongs to a grade schooler, which makes Toshiro think up this crayoned masterpiece:

Why is there a chicken and chicks in the background? Why the heck is there an airplane? Why is he imagining Ikkaku blushing and smiling like that? Just...who came up with this?! Someone or some people had to sit down and draw this. No, they not only had to draw it, they or someone else then had to colour it, fix any errors, and then put it together for animation...On a side note, can someone tell me what it says on his school bag?

After all of this though, you get the actual masterpiece of Toshiro's reaction. How is it so hilarious and threatening at the same time? How is not a meme within the BLEACH community at this point? It might be absolute crack, but I just can't help but laugh at the sheer absurdity and weirdness of the whole thing!

Thanks for sending this in! :D

[suchahautemess]

OK I HAVE A LOT THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS SO THIS IS GONNA BE HELLA LONG AND SPOILER FILLED:

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1. Hayward is a snakey, piece of shit and i really really hate him

2. Wanda finally got her comic book name so that's qkskskalakwjdjsjaal!!!!!!

3. A Vision vs Vision fight is gonna be LIT!!!!

4. Watching young Wanda and Pietro enjoying family time and watching classic sitcoms is so wholesome before stark industries had to ruin it

5. Agatha is absolutely ruthless and badass. Like she really killed her mama and their coven, drained them of their powers and snatched her mom's brooch. Damn

6. Wtf is gonna happen to Billy and Tommy?

7. I knew Hayward was lying through his teeth when he said Wanda infiltrated S.W.O.R.D. cause Wanda wouldn't just do that without an absolute dire reason

8. WHERE IS MONICA AND "PIETRO"??? or Fietro as we should say

9. Wanda seeing Vision's body being torn apart and saying "I can't feel you" absolutely broke me and I can't stop crying. Help. I also hate Hayward for making Vision into a weapon

10. I'm in love with that scene with Wanda and Vision watching Malcolm in the Middle(cause that's one of the best sitcoms of all time, don't @ me) and i love seeing little moments between them and we've been robbed of moments like those

11. Once again, i was emotionally broken and violated when Wanda drove to Westview to view the future house that she and Vision were planning to share and seeing that little note from him on the house plans

12. Wanda created the hex and brought back Vision as an giant blast of energy from overwhelming grief was definitely not how i thought how she created the hex but it's way better than how i thought she did it. AND IT WAS AN ACCIDENT OK?? SHE BETTER NOT GET IN ANY TROUBLE BECAUSE OF THAT, IF SO I'M GONNA-

13. I really thought that cicada was Mephisto in disguise, that's what i get for listening to twitter theories 🤡

14. I also thought that those two actors in the commercials were her parents, again that's what i get for listening to twitter theories 🤡🤡

15. Wanda seeing her future self or what a Scarlet Witch looks like when she got blasted bu the mind stone was fucking dope!!

16. I'm super excited that Wanda is officially a Scarlet Witch now and she's fucking OP like sheesh!

17. Can't wait to see Wanda and Monica become an iconic duo and kick everyone's ass, and maybe become bffs!

18. I hope that Vision, whatever version, lives and gets a happy ending with Wanda but i know that's not gonna happen and my heart hurts

I'm so scared and emotionally and mentally not ready/unstable yet excited for next week's finale. Jesus help me make it through next week's episode cause I can't handle anymore crying and grief of my favorite marvel characters, I've been traumatized enough*stares intensely at Endgame*

[mrfutureboy]

(bttf wip anon) what about talking about the ones with titles? Cute redhead, I waited up all night, jukebox heroes, and who is the man I see?

hi anon welcome back! i want to of course give the disclaimer that these are wips, so any snippets i share are very unlikely to be perfectly worked out haha. but thank you so much for the interest! ^_^

cute redhead:

yeahhh, so this one is definitely one of the crackiest of all the wips on my list. and it's a bttf: the game fic! basically, it's the part in the first episode (iirc) where doc's in jail and gives marty the idea to recruit doc's younger self to help him...except marty meets young emmett and is infatuated bc goddammit marty's got a weakness for red heads. honestly, i cant remember if that idea is based off something said in the games or if i read it in a fic and then was like "yep that tracks" lmfaoo.

anyway. it's so stupid but it's funny to me cuz marty says what he says and then doc goes into panic mode like "marty! you can't fuck my past self!" and starts going on and on about the ramifications to the spacetime continuum and marty's like "welp i dont really have much of a choice here do i". i haven't solidified how i want doc's rant to go so right now i have 2 versions of it. this is only like a 300 word fic (or at least it will be if i finish it)

here's a peek at the beginning, before doc has his rant i havent fully committed to yet:

“Psst, Doc!”

Doc popped up behind the bars of his jail cell. “Marty! Have you found my younger self yet?”

“Yeah, Doc, but ah, jeez,” Marty trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck. “You never told me you were a cute redhead.”

“If I had known I was one, I surely would’ve told you,” Doc assured him with a slight upturn of his lips.

Marty chuckled nervously. “I wish you had, because this poses a, uh, unforeseen problem.”

“I’m sure whatever it is, we can figure out how to bypass it!” Doc waved his hand around. “What is it, Marty?”

“I have to fuck you, Doc. Younger you, that is.”

i waited up all night but i never saw the light:

the title (bc this is likely to be the actual title: as you could tell from my wip list, i have a lot of placeholders lol) is a lyric from "spiralling" by keane. it's a very marty song imo!

the premise of the fic is that the marty we follow in the movie returns to 1985 an hour or so earlier and heads to his house to sneakily do...something, honestly i dunno yet, and in the process ends up accidentally waking up the version of himself thats asleep in bed. twin pine marty finds out that life is different for lone pine marty and he ends up asking a lot of questions. it's actually told form the perspective of lone pine marty atm but idk i've thought about making it the other way around.

originally, it was going to be a songfic of sorts, with direct quotations from the song. i could potentially still do that but as i worked on it i kinda got away from that. with that original idea, twin pine marty was going to be a bit of an egomaniac when he realized he could bend things to his will via time travel (even tho he totally did it on accident). here's a snippet of that part atm that quotes/slightly paraphrases the song lyrics (the "other Marty" is twin pine marty bc pov):

“I made you. Fashioned you from jewels and stone, as it were. Made you in the image of myself. I gave you…everything you wanted, so you’d never know anything else,” the other Marty [verb], hands reaching out towards Marty’s face. The teen recoiled from the gesture. “Tell me, Marty, did you wanna be a winner? An icon? You wanna be famous? The president? Hell, you wanna start a war? You wanna have a family? Did you wanna be in love?”

“Do I wanna be in love?”

“Did you wanna be in love!”

Also, as noted in the original wip masterlist, this wip has a companion called "i fashioned you from jewels and stone" (which you can see from the snippet above that it's also titled after a lyric from spiralling). At the moment, the only real difference is that it has some dialogue w twin pine marty asking about george and lorraine, while this wip hasn't really gotten past marty getting caught by lone pine marty. and then that bit of dialogue up there, and the very ending, which i will also share here:

“Don’t bother going back to sleep,” Marty chuffed, standing with one leg out of the window. “Doc’s about to call you. He forgot his camera.”

The other Marty blinked in confusion, and before he could say anything, the phone started to ring. Both Marties stared at each other as the one in bed slowly picked up the phone. “H-hello?”

“Marty!” Doc’s voice boomed in the receiver. “You didn’t fall asleep did you?”

“…No, of course not,” he answered, his eyes wide.

The Marty in the window climbed the rest of the way out. He stood and waited for his counterpart to finish up on the phone, then finally said, “I’ll just leave this open for you, then. See you in the future,” he said cheekily, offering a short wave before heading off.

jukebox heroes:

this is just a silly little thing that's not very fleshed out, but the idea is that doc and marty are just chillin at doc's place (post trilogy i guess or maybe post bttf1 but 2&3 didnt happen? post bttf game? doesn't matter; doc's there) and "johnny b. goode" comes on the jukebox and marty's like "oh hey this is the song i played at the enchantment under the sea dance" and doc's like "what u were on stage?" and then marty basically explains what happened bc i imagine doc doesnt actually know the story lol. i will share a little snippet as a treat even tho there's not much to share:

“After they kissed? Marty, you were supposed to get out of there as soon as they kissed and you and your siblings’ fates were sealed!”

“Doc, you gotta understand, they were begging for an encore! I couldn’t just leave em’ hanging!”

Doc shook his head fondly. “No wonder you were late for our rendezvous. You’re just lucky you weren’t too late!”

who is the man i see where i'm supposed to be:

this is that fic i would keep referring to as my "big project" two summers ago but is probably going to end up being fewer words than "deal with god" which i basically wrote the entirety of in one night. and ive been working on THIS fic for HOW long?? yikes

the title is from "crystal ball" by keane bc it is my #1 marty song. there is also a companion thing in my notes app called "FOR CRYSTAL BALL (maybe)" which is basically just some ideas of dialogue for this fic that i havent added in yet. also this fic used to be called crystal ball.

the premise is that it's been about a week since marty returned from 1885 and he's been having constant nightmares. it's another one of those nights, so he goes to the bathroom to splash his face with cold water and take some painkillers, but when he lifts his head, his reflection isn't himself, but stoltz!marty ! whoa! maybe it's just a figment of our poor kid's imagination but the reflection is talking to him about how marty stole his life and blah blah blah. ends with george and lorraine finding marty on the floor in the bathroom (ALIVE DONT WORRY) and marty incessantly apologizing. imma be honest that scene rips my cold little heart right out of my chest lmao i'd love to share it but i will refrain atm. just cuz ideally i want y'all to suffer through the whole of the fic before getting to that punch in the gut :D

the reason this fic has been taking me so long is that i have the WORST time trying to write the dialogue between marty and his reflection! the whole beginning and end are done but the middle, the MEAT, is just never up to my standards when i try to write it.

even tho it's not finished and at this point i'll never fucking finish it to my liking, this fic is my baby. here's marty first meeting the man in the mirror:

He thought to lift his head before he accidentally drowned himself in the sink. He blindly reached for the hand towel to pat his face dry, letting out a heaving sigh into the soft fabric. Much softer than the towels we used to have, he remarked to himself. Jesus Christ, was life really that disappointing before, if the damn towels are an improvement? The towel fell into the sink alongside the pill bottle, and he yelped in surprise when he looked back in the mirror.

The face that stared back at him wasn’t his own. The reflection towered over him, piercing blue eyes boring into Marty’s own. There was no life behind these eyes, and they stared down at him like they could see right through him. A sudden shiver racked him; he could feel the cold gaze piercing his body, turning all of his blood to ice. Its eyebrows suddenly knit together, and it frowned deeply in contempt, eyes flitting about as it took in the sight of Marty. Marty could feel himself trembling under the reflection’s scrutiny.

as much as i kinda want to, i don't just want to post the entire beginning of the fic, so here's some of their first bits of dialogue, cuz i like the thing with the pills:

“How did you…I didn’t say that out loud.”

“You didn’t have to. I’m in your head, Marty. I can hear everything you’re thinking.”

Marty’s hand trembled as he reached for the pill bottle in the sink. His internal monologue was running a mile a minute as he frantically searched for the expiration date. No, you can’t. You can’t hear what I’m thinking because you’re not real. I’m just having a bad reaction to the pills. They have to be expired; they just have to. Where’s the damn expiration date? Good ‘til 1988…What year is it now? No, there has to be a mistake. This isn’t real. You’re not real, you don’t know what I’m thinking, you don’t know my name—Wait. You know my name; how do you know my name?

The reflection cut off Marty’s train of thought. “It’s because I’m you, Marty. The you that doesn’t exist anymore.”

this got long as hell but thank you again SO MUCH, anon, for showing interest in my wips!! let me know if there's any others you'd like to hear about! i didnt want to overwhelm you in the first ask by talking about EVERYTHING lol but i'm very willing to talk about the others as well

[emachinescat]

I've decided to watch MacGyver from the beginning (again), and I'm live tweeting the experience with every tweet tagged with #savemacgyver. I thought it would be fun to share my collected thoughts from the episodes on here as well.

My Thoughts on S1E1, "The Rising"

Good old Lake Como.

"How do I look?" Always amazing, Mac, though here you are so bebby. Gosh, tiny Lucas is tiny.

Ugggh, Nikki. My least favorite story arc in the show. Even with her redemption arc, even her face makes me mad.

I am soooo glad this awkward flirting is only in this episode. Mac and Nikki have never vibed with me.

JACK DALTON

"Who loves ya, baby?" We all do, Jack.

I always wished they would have played more into the original Mac's reason for not carrying a weapon - not just so he doesn't get caught but because he doesn't like them. That was actually one reason I used to be so upset at the reboot when it first came out. I still feel like Mac's character was off for this first episode - a little too cocky, not super developed. But still lovable, and with so much potential!

It's so cool to see how much Lucas has grown into this character over the years, really making it his own while still holding on to its essence.

Lol "serious bad-assery" - Nikki thinks she's so cool. (Spoiler: she's not.)

Lololol Nikki is the Walmart brand of Riley.

Mac in glasses. Adorbs.

Man, I'm already so ready for Matty. Patti is the off brand version of her.

I always love watching Mac rifle through stuff to find his improvisation supplies!

First MacSplaining session! Electromagnets!

"Is this George Clooney's house?" I miss Jack so freaking much.

Mac kind of looks like a penguin with that waiter outfit on and I'm living for it.

The second Mac hack is so Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew.

"Why don't you ever flirt with me like that?" Um, Jack, do you want your partner's girlfriend flirting with you, daddy fixation or not?

There are two kinds of oops, accordng to Jack Dalton: Oops - I just stubbed my toe / Ooooooops - Zombie apocalypse initiated.

Mac's hair is so shaggy.

"START THE DAMN BOAT!" Classic.

"Hold this and get out of my way." Dang, Mac.

The bad guy is the dude from Galavant hahaha. I know this guy has been in so many things, but he will always be Gareth to me. (That's his name, right? Gareth?)

W H U M P

I actually love the consistency of Mac always having that scar even seasons into the series (except for the last time, in the river). Overall great attention to detail!

That is a LOT of blood in the water.

Lol I'm pretty sure Grandpa Harry didn't say that in so many words, Mac.

Poor traumatized bebby. What am I saying? I live for this stuff.

Awww, lil Bozer. So smol. So pure. And now I want waffles.

"Eat your waffles." Three words I will never say no to.

"Give me Wang." -Bozer, 2016

Am I the only one who finds these intimate scenes between Mac and Nikki hella awkward?

QUARANTINE, sounds familiar.

Lol "cyberteam." Once Riley Davis comes along, they will be obsolete.

Jack just wants a hug.

I always hated the clinical white room in the pilot. Can't wait for the War Room.

I love the interactions between Jack and Riley.

Mac and Riley EYE CONTACT.

"You two are on timeout from now on." 😂😂😂

THE MOMENT WHERE HE GRABS HER HANDS

Lol, thanks for telling me that's a paperclip. I was so confused.

"Riley has so much hair!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

I love how Riley takes charge. Her confidence is 🔥🔥🔥

"You know what, never mind, I'd be pissed at you too." 🤣

Jack's so proud of his daughter. 💕

"Is that real?" Bless Jack's heart. He's such an old man.

Patti is a square. Pretty, competent, but boring. I miss Matty.

"My man never jokes about tin foil."

Ooooo Nikki is alive. Poor Mac. His whole world keeps getting turned on its head.

Jack can be scary when he wants to be.

Poor, poor, Mac. When he faces Nikki, he looks like a kicked golden retriever. (Also, NEVER kick a dog.)

I'm just eating up all this angst.

Mr. Wizard lololol

Mac hanging from a plane is soooo iconic.

"Don't get cocky. You're the only other one here." Haha, the SASS on this girl.

"Go ahead, you aready had me killed once." Also, oof. Undercover or not, Nikki is cold. I can't stand her.

Excuse me, Patricia, but I would consider running over your neighbor's dog (or any dog) a damn catastrophe, too.

"Sometimes a purge is necessary to fix what's broken." Codex, anyone?

Love this whole chase/fight sequence so much. The music, action, everything... perfect.

The sweat on Mac's forehead when dangling out of the 🚁 - such a great detail!

"YOU GO KABOOM, I GO KABOOM"

Kind of weird to me that Mac seems to be using so much guesswork with this bomb, especially when we know that he's one of the best specialists out there.

That fight scene in the back of the vehicle is one of my all time favorites. The whump is excellent.

Okay, but when does MacGyver ever do anything the way Jack has in mind?

DIY or die. Still so lame, lol. The parachute is awesome, though.

Oof. That landing looks painful and the whumper in me loves it. Even more, I can't get over how worried Jack is as he rushes to Mac's side. ❤️❤️❤️

That break in his voice when he asks if Mac's okay is just... AYSKTUFYIFUYliIIGUOG

Mac burning Nikki's pics like that old Taylor Swift song.

Bozer calling Jack his bestie is so weird and funny to me.

I am so ready for Bozer to get over Riley. They are so much better as friends.

Lol "Those fries won't cook themselves." The crack of a whip, man.

Jack calling Riley a little rascal and then gently asking Mac if he's doing all right there, pal ... taking care of his kids, and I am DYING.

The Three Amigos... come on, Jack. You can do better than that.

Is it bad that I'm actually a little surprised that Jack knows what a Phoenix is? Just seems like something he wouldn't care to learn, especially since he's a sci fi junkie but I never really hear him talk about fantasy.

Oooooooo Nikki's on the loose. Gotta end with suspense, to hook those viewers and make them want more. Well, I want more of this show, but not because of her.

Well, awesome re-watch of episode 1. Definitely not my favorite by a long shot, but so iconic and with some amazing moments! It just makes me that much more excited to get to see the show and the characters grow!

If anyone wants to join me in my re-watching and tweeting adventure, please do! It's my way to take about an hour a day in my busy, busy life to commit to the #savemacgyver movement. (And to enjoy my favorite show yet again!) If you do tweet as you watch, make sure to tag EVERY tweet with ONLY #savemacgyver so we can keep that hashtag trending! :)

Thanks for letting me share my (numerous) thoughts on this episode. This was really fun, and I hope it's something you all enjoy, too. I'll probably go ahead and post episode 2 tonight since I just watched it. I'd love to know what you all think of the episode in the comments! ❤️