#I rewatched the show kinda a few months ago

[queers-anatomy]

sometimes I wonder why I hate men so much and then I remember I grew up watching derek shepherd and owen hunt on tv

[ghostorbz]

hate u 4ever ♡

[avaf00rd]

Behind the scenes

Leah Williamson x matildas!reader

Tiny little blurb I wrote last minute as I rewatched the show

“Hello you” you grinned as you opened the front door, a smiley Leah behind it with her large suitcase and England hoodie on. The Disney plus camera crew behind you. Pretending as if Leah had just gotten home from England camp and you hadn’t seen her yet. Well she had, about an hour ago though.

You grabbed the suitcase from her hand, and pulled her in from her other free wrist, placing a short kiss on her lips and hugging her tight. “How was it?” You asked excitedly whilst you both made your way to your living room.

“Yeah really good, great to see everyone” your girlfriend explained to you leaning against the large book case near your couch. “Plane was quicker than I thought though, only like an hour and a half”

The camera still following both of you “oh yeah wow that’s not bad at all”

“Suppose I had it a bit better than you travel wise” she chuckled, folding her arms now. Nothing to your 20 hours of travel to and from Australia for your own international camp.

“Certainly” you laughed back with Leah.

“Ladies that was actually really great for a first take so we probably won’t need to do that again. We’ll now just get you both on the couch so we can talk to you both” one of the members of the camera said, holding a clip board and directing his crew to your living room

Leah sat down on the shared couch with you following suit behind. Plopping down next to your girlfriend as she put an arm around you, legs intertwined at the end of the couch.

“You guys wanna stay like this for the clips?-“

“Yes” you nodded fast, as people in the room laughed at your certainty.

“Leah can you tell me a bit about y/n. Like how she is as a person but also a teammate?” The same man asked from behind the camera. They would get her answers and these shots for the docu-series.

It be out on Disney plus just months before the World Cup begins, to help Australia get more of an insight into their team and the players

Leah looked down at you, as you shot her a smile before she started “y/n is such a hard worker. I’ve never met anyone like her. Very funny person to have a laugh with…or laugh at” she nodded

You rolled your eyes “saw that coming”

Leah did one of her wide smiles where her cheeks would go so high and her nose would scrunch up which made you melt completely, “so leading onto that she’s a bit clumsy”

“Not all the time” you mumbled

“Everyone at Arsenal calls her the princess though. Because she’s just the sweetheart of the team, who cares about her team so so much and we get to see that every day here in London” you smiled to yourself as you looked down at the couch while Leah spoke about you to the cameras

“Do you just completely hate this?” Leah laughed

“No keep going” you nodded, making her laugh. Leah often got the sense you got all flustered and embarrassed when she spoke about you so well, to other people when you are in the room.

“Y/n what’s it like getting to train each day and play games with your partner?” The producer asked me

“Yeah I’m extremely blessed, I would say, to be able to basically spend every hour of the day with her. And to put on the Arsenal badge and play for our fans with my favourite person is a bit of a win each weekend for me”

“We’re assuming you two meet through Arsenal?” He asked

“Yeah we met at Arsenal when I transferred back in 2019. And then I went on loan to Barca for a season, but then…yeah I came back-“

“And then y/n asked me out!” Leah cut you off with a grin

“Um okay it was kind of you” you looked up at her with a shake of your head.

“Kinda both of us in a way?” Leah shrugged to camera. Which you just shook your head, to said camera.

“They aren’t gonna understand that” you pointed with both arms to the camera, you and Leah now giggling. You both said a few more things they had asked you before the filming stopped.

“Thanks girls! We will see you tomorrow afternoon for more shots, have a great night, hope we didn’t take up too much of your time” a different lady had said now, as she helped her crew pack up some small equipment.

“Not at all!”

————————————————————————

Being one of the few people in your Matilda’s squad who had been apart of the team for over 11 years, you had been in quite a few scenes in the docu-series. Alongside Steph Catley, Sam Kerr, Caitlin Foord, and more. You got the opportunity to talk about your family’s background in the sport and growing up with the Matilda’s, as well as preparations to win the World Cup.

This morning you had done some scenes at the training centre for your club, along with Cait and Steph as you all talked about playing for Arsenal.

The cameras were with you once again, as Now Leah sat on a small picnic blanket in your local park, late afternoon, where you would often bring your dog, Denny, you were trying to get him to run with the ball at his fist like he was about to shoot.

Leah threw her head back laughing hysterically as you fell over your feet once again, tripping on your own dog, in another attempt to get him to play football. “It’s not going to work” she shouted

“He’ll do it Leah just wait!” You shouted back laughing as you kept trying. When you made it back to the picnic blanket, you did what you were asked to do by the crew which was talk about playing each other in the World Cup.

“I always say it but I really really hope both our teams make it to the final, but I don’t think I could handle versing you in a heated game like that”

“You do it all the time though. We’ve had so many heated games against each other”

“Yeah but a World Cup final though…Hopefully one of us will be out by then” Leah shrugged, looking at you from her position on the rug with her knees tucked to her chest

“Hopefully England” you shrugged back

“No I was joking. I hope both teams are” she laughed once again.

“I think the friendly coming up against England just before the World Cup should be good.” You said as Leah nodded “Most players who will be in the World Cup squad should hopefully be in there so we get a full feel of not just the other team but hopefully our own squads”

“Yeah for sure” Leah said

“I can sense you two have a small rivalry in your own house hold” someone’s behind the camera commented

“Mm I don’t know” Leah grinned as you just laughed

“You know it’s true”

———————————

I’m pretty negative about fics like these that I write. Cause I hate this. But honestly it’s due to some of the recent think about my writing my inbox🫠🫠

So please. If you’re not a fan of it, click out of it!

Luv u all

[rexecutioner]

If you want a way to introduce MyStreet to your friends, or want to rewatch it but don’t remember the lore as well as you would like…boy have I got some news for you.

Let me introduce you to Dubbing Over All Of MyStreet!!!

Talking from experience, dubbing over Aphmau videos is fucking hilarious if you keep bits going and all have a pretty good sense of humor.

Me, my best friend, and my (twin) sister all sat down one day a few months ago and, without remembering any of the lore, (we were MyStreet kids) dubbed over Emerald Secret and we had a blast.

Forever Potions? WRONG. Aphmau, Zane and Lucinda get possessed by Andrew Tate and two of the founding fathers instead.

Aaron being the son of Derek Lycan? LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER. Andrew “Derek” Tate. Aaron Lycan-Tate. Melissa Tate. And Just Pearly Things Tate, don’t ask me about that one.

Ein handing Aphmau the knife to kill Aaron? SO CLOSE! Ein and Aaron having romantic tension confessing their love to each other as Andrew Tate possessing Aphmau walks over to Ein, demanding his knife, and Ein accidentally drops it, exclaiming “Oh, darn my butterfingers!”

Kim gets possessed by Emmalyn? NOPE. Kim gets possessed by “The Ghost of Bisexuality’s Past” and one half of her brain is gushing over Zendaya and Audrey Plaza while the other is screaming about Josh Hutcherson and young Matt Dillon.

Aaron lore taking over a third of the season? NOT ANYMORE. Aaron character growth as he learns from Kim and Lucinda that all women deserve rights and misogyny is bad, while Aphmau and Zane have a side plot about how manipulating your best friend into turning people into dogs and telling her you are her conscience is bad.

Strictly Aarmau? WRONG AGAIN. Crackships like Aarein come into play, while more fandom loved ones like Garrance, Danvis and Katecinda are thrown around. Along with some canon ships like Travlyn and Zana, while including with some weird “we forgot the plot and who these characters are bcs they only show up in this season” ships that will not be named here.

And that’s just Emerald Secret, we dubbed over Love Love Paradise (halfway done), Lover’s Lane (one third), When Angels Fall (first few episodes we had two other friends join us!), Pheonix Drop High S2, A Royal Tale, and a few Cocomau videos as well.

We have made so many inside jokes while dubbing My Street. I didn’t even get to the Time Travel Trio, Aphmau stealing people’s souls, Not Alone Buddies inner consciousness mind links, Ivan’s lisp, Weed Crystals, Milf Manor, Aphmau’s queer awakening, the emeralds actually telling secrets, Tatiana being named “Thanks for Watching”, Aarmau break up (forever), Liochant and Michi’s drug ring, and so much more.

You don’t have to be good at voice acting or know the plot, you just have to know the character’s names and a loose understanding of improv, and you’ll be set.

Just a fair warning, if you plan to dub over a piece of media you like, make sure you don’t remember the plot as well as you’d like to, or else your brain might just fill in random stuff with lore that is already canon, which is why the second half of our Angel’s Fall dub kinda fell off because at that point all three of us knew the plot. Have fun with it! Don’t feel pressured to make it close to canon at all.

I even made fanart for it. Heads up, this art is old and the style is outdated. I don’t draw like this anymore.

[furbygoblinxiv]

Ok now to be annoying about a completely different flavor of Zelda: That cartoon from the 80s that has aged so poorly I take psychic damage every time I watch it (which has been multiple times (I have problems)). A few months ago when rewatching and being sick of the Link's personality from the show (his best feature is how funny the "Well excuuuuse me, princess" line is) I was like "I wish the quiet kid from the games/art was here instead" and accidentally thought too hard and made an au/rewrite of the cartoon lmao.

Anyways Zelda cartoon au where cryptid boy Link saves the post apocalyptic Hyrule of loz 1 and chills in the castle with cartoon Zelda to defend the triforce pieces that they have while trying to find the last piece before Ganon can find it, stumbling across the sleeping loz 2 Zelda along the way lol. Hijinks ensue as he teaches Zelda the brawns to back up her girlboss and he gets an adventure buddy because its dangerous to go alone and Zelda with her boomerang and crossbow goes hard. I think a monster of the week style plot works for the earlier Zelda games, but an overarching plot could coexist with that since that is kinda how games work lol.

As per usual here are a bunch of slapdash barely related sketches of my ideas with my expanded thoughts below bc I think it'd be fun to share:

I look at the official art of Link being a quiet determined little dude with a backpack of tools and wish that that was represented more. Like look at him! What a guy! Imagine giving a quiet puzzle solving 14 year old a sword, lethal magical weapons, and a wasteland to explore! I would love a show about that! In terms of other characters, swap out that annoying fairy character, put in a Navi clone, at least Navi didn't have a crush on Link🤮. Ganon can stay the same so long as he was always a demon pig and was never a Gerudo man because unlike Nintendo, I do not want to imply that the only prominent man of color in the series has only one big braincell thats just screaming "EVIL" on loop. But! Keep Zelda the same, I love her so much in the cartoon, she's obnoxious in a slay girlboss way, maximum vibes. By virtue of not having a paper thin plot, most other characters that were fine get fixed by proxy.

I think plot wise? It takes place a few years after the first game. Initially, Link saved the royal family and they started rebuilding that area of Hyrule, and Link traveled around to help people. One day, Ganon's minions start making attacks on the castle to steal the triforce pieces back to revive him fully, and a Zelda who greatly admires Links steps up to defend the place. Eventually, Zelda requests Link return to help defend the castle while they search for the mysterious hidden third triforce piece in order to combine the full thing and wish for peace in Hyrule. Link agrees and the hyjinks begin.

IIRC the og Link backstory was that he was the son of the hyrulean queen and the elf king or smth? In the manga? I didn't want him to be hylian royalty but I wanted to keep that cryptid vibe, hence why I have him related instead to the great fairy and the kokiri. He just leaves the forest/cave one day with literally nothing to go save Hyrule, what a chad. I think it'd be funny if people describe Zelda as feral due to how boisterous and headstrong she is, especially out on the field, but Link is the quiet version of wild that you don't notice at first. She is openly intelligent and snarky in comparison to "says 3 lines a day, bombs first and asks questions later, explore under every rock and bush" forest kid Link.

It would be fun though if "rushes into danger" Zelda resonated more with the triforce of power and "solves dungeon puzzles for funsies" Link with the triforce of wisdom, then they both resonated with the triforce of courage upon finding it. idk tho lol

I also think two different young Zeldas coexisting with each other after one awoke from a cursed slumber would be really funny. Like that's gotta be so awkward, especially if one has the fighter girlboss slay up to 11 and the other just woke up from a coma to her family gone and her kingdom destroyed and just kinda wants to read books and drink tea in peace. Imagine being the same age or older than your great (great?) aunt. Or imagine if the old lady Impa nursemaid to Zelda 1 Zelda was the young Impa nursemaid to the Zelda 2 Zelda. Wild.

If I wasn't incapable of remembering to finish writing wips I'd write that series lol. Alas, this is all I can pull for now.

I'd love to call this propaganda to go watch the show but maybe don't because its yikes. This is moreso propaganda for someone to make a Zelda cartoon show instead of the movie that I sense Nintendo is plotting to make. Also, if you've read this far, I should mention I also will probably be posting art from some of my actual long term Zelda aus beyond just expanding on the cartoon, though I may continue to do that if my train of thought continues on these tracks.

[bestworstcase]

Hi again. I've continued to read through... well, whatever the almighty algorithim feels like suggesting (searching here is hard even when you have an idea where to start, which I don't), and my mental state can be best represented by this little gem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZWK5IBuVMM&t=298s (Is this necessary? No. Do I think it's funny and worth sharing? Yes, and to an extent that's kinda what this site is all about)

Anyway, a pretty common thread I've noticed in your theories is "Summer is an up-to-now-offscreen agent of Salem by choice." While you definitely make a good case even from the limited amount I've seen, I have to ask: when and where did these thoughts originate from in the first place? I mean, I can *kinda* see where you connected some of the dots, but it's still a huge leap compared to the initially perfectly sensible conclusion of her being dead or otherwise incapacitated.

(Oh, and if this could be answered similarly to my last question, then I can at least say that I have loose plans for a thorough notepad-and-magnifying-glass rewatch of the whole series over the imminent summer after a warmup with Spirited Away, so we'll see how that goes. Maybe I'll look back at myself a few months from now and laugh at my relatively foolish ways; wouldn't be the first time, anyway)

i’d joke that it’s about the Vibes TM but what it comes down to really is the way rwby handles foreshadowing. as for the "when and where" part i couldn’t remember so i went looking.

let me take you on a little journey

these messages on 7/27 are my first direct reference to the idea of summer joining salem but i think (based on my phrasing) that i must have had it in mind for a while prior, which given that this was eight whole days after i’d finished watching the show at all. well. if i had to guess i’d say i probably went "okay so yes but also no" after ruby went "that’s what happened to mom" in 8.11

and the reason for that is pretty simple:

there is a lot of build up in v1-8 to summer’s fate being a Big Fucking Deal; this, in combination with the careful phrasing the narrative always uses regarding her disappearance—she "never came back” or she was "taken," it’s never said that she died—means she’s still alive.

salem met summer rose 12-14 years ago. the hound is a novelty to everyone, including salem’s own inner circle, and salem herself describes him as an "experiment." ruby jumps to a conclusion that doesn’t add up with information the audience knows that she doesn’t.

but, it’s unlikely that ruby is entirely wrong: think about tyrian waxing poetic about his "goddess" and ruby with no hesitation saying "cinder." she was both incorrect (his "goddess" is salem) but partially right (cinder is salem’s protégée and tyrian is here at all because cinder asked salem to deal with ruby).

in v4 we get a look at salem’s evil boardroom (there are two seats conspicuously left empty) and then see salem receiving a seer call from someone stationed at beacon, after it’s been firmly established that none of the agents we know about is there. we don’t see who is on the other end of this call, and we only hear salem’s side (note the incongruity with how seer calls are depicted in every other case; the identity of the beacon agent is withheld from the audience deliberately).

in v5 raven is so scornful of summer rose that she decides "you sound just like your mother" deserves an immediate fireball from cinder fall to the face. in v9 she was big goofy grins at summer. SOMETHING REALLY BAD HAPPENED. and i don’t think this dramatic change is explicable by raven simply watching summer fail and die or be captured; else she’d just be calling summer a fool the same way she does qrow and tai. that says betrayal.

so we know that summer met salem. we know that she did not die and cannot have been made into a hound-like creature (because he’s a new experiment). summer being alive probably rules out her being a ‘failed’ experiment, since that would undoubtedly have been fatal. ruby’s assumption that summer was twisted into a grimm-thrall by salem is incorrect but likely not too far off from the truth, and we know SOMETHING happened during that last mission that shattered raven’s trust in summer, and the simplest answer there is that summer is with salem but willingly.

and salem has a Mystery Lieutenant who’s been stationed at beacon since it fell. math! to my mind the only real questions are why and if summer might have been partially grimmed a la cinder, because in v8 the narrative starts telegraphing "summer is with salem in some not-enslaved-or-imprisoned capacity" without any subtlety at all.

now if we add in to the mix certain things v9 did ("an invincible monster who took your mother!" OH BOY) ("she lied, she left with raven! why would she–?" OH BOY!!!), there’s a clear narrative trajectory developing in the direction of summer rose not having been the Perfect Martyred Fairytale Paragon that everyone has put on a pedestal for the last 12-14 years; like anyone else she was a real person with flaws, and narratively the strongest way to drive that point home is to present to us (and to the characters who’ve been mythologizing summer as a flawless hero for more than a decade) a summer rose who decided that siding with salem was the right thing to do and then exploring why she did it.

summer being with salem of her own volition also makes it a lot easier to get to the narrative turning point of negotiating with salem; summer is the bridge, someone who has people she cares about on both sides. it is much harder to form a truce with salem if she tortured two of the main characters’ mother to death and/or enslaved and/or imprisoned her (because then you need to have an arc about saving the mother and that pushes further down the dead-end road of trying to defeat salem, who can’t be meaningfully defeated). but if summer chose to side with salem she can open that door to "maybe we can reason with salem."

so thinking about it just from a writer perspective… if i were the one writing this story and making these creative decisions with regard to the summer rose mystery, the reason i would set things up in this specific way is to develop toward a twist that summer freely chose to join salem with the intention that this precipitates the negotiation. that was true in v1-8 and then v9 ticked off literally every box on my mental checklist of things i would expect v9 to do if this was the direction they were headed—another hint about salem "taking" summer in conjunction with a reminder that salem is "invincible," surfacing ruby’s self-identification with The Idea of summer rose and how very harmful this is, a peek through the looking glass at The Person summer rose who is flawed in ways that shock and distress ruby, and an explicitly-stated "who knows why?" in reference to summer’s flaws and her final mission.

shrug. it’s just the explanation that makes the most sense taking into account all the clues that we have.

as a further point of interest, neither summer nor tai have an obvious ozian allusion (in contrast to qrow and raven who are the scareqrow and the woggle bug respectively)… which by process of elimination with the cast of marvelous land of oz, probably makes them general jinjur and jellia jamb. jinjur conquers the emerald city and occupies it for most of the story; jellia is a serving girl in the emerald city’s palace who remains with jinjur until very near the end when she gets roped into mombi’s schemes. which tracks with the idea that summer is holding beacon on salem’s behalf and tai is…there.

and i am kicking myself for not clocking tai-as-jellia until B4 dropped because it’s so. obvious. in hindsight. lol

(bonus first time reaction to 7.2

because it made me snort)

[tigerdrachin]

I HAVE DONE IT

I'M FREE

Ok, what the fuck is going on? Well in a post from like a few months (its been like... a year and a half at this point) ago I rambled about NYs character being inconsistent at best with how often he changes between outfits and the characterization always changing slightly with it.

So I decided to make a character deep dive for him out of boredom (oh past me I envy you) , I know Ben did not intend for the characters to have very in depth personalities, it's just a fun thing I noticed and wanted to talk about.

I have rewatched all the videos NY appears in (yes all of them. twice. took ages) and my suspicions have just gotten stronger, so here I will present to you everything I pulled from the video canon, which is the only thing I will be pulling from.

I also can't give episode names to most of my points, as sadly a chunk of my notes were lost while I was neglecting to finish this and I don't have the time to rewatch them all a third time, so if you want to know why some points are in this, ASK. I will try to provide answers (as far as my incomplete notes can provide).

Starting with the groundwork that basically started this project.

I don't think NY is NY, the state, most of the time, but more NYC posing as NY, kinda like the Austin-Texas situation just flipped with the city calling the shots while the state takes backseat, mirroring real life (as in NY being only known for NYC).

And I also don't think NYC is the only one sharing a body with NY. I think Albany and Buffalo are also there.

I will get into each of them individually in a second, but first I have to address the episode that brought me on this train of thought, which is "DC statehood"

This episode, for those who don't know, shows NY and NYC as two different entities, NYC having the classic NY look we all know, and NY wearing Bills merch from head to toe.

You may already see the problem, how could NY and NYC be the same person when we see them separated here? Well, because Ben doesn't have a consistent canon, but that isn't the point here.

The other problem with "DC statehood" is that it is an outlier, it's the only instance that doesn't fit the pattern that the rest of the episode laid out. While being an important piece of this take on a character study for NY it doesn't fit in with the rest of NY canon.

The thing is, this is not the only case where "DC statehood" doesn't fit in with the rest of the table episodes, which is why even tho it disproves this entire theory I will go on with it as the normal episodes give me enough confidence to deem this specific video as an anomaly.

I wanted to address this as its the episode that started all this (note from currents stripes: Its my theorie and I can dismiss whatever I want :P)

Now that that's settled

Every character corresponds to a few outfits that I will list. I will only do a broad overview tho for the sake of both our time.

I will go after how often they appear and the importance they seem to hold, starting off with,

NYC

NYC is the one we see the most throughout the series, he has the most appearances and is the one we associate with the character NY.

The states referred to him as NYC multiple times, but it often seems more like they are poking fun at him and aren't actually aware that he's not the actual state.

He always wears the red beanie, but his shirt often changes, he is also the one wearing the coat in the earlier episodes.

Quickfire

He does not like Chicago

Frenemies with Florida

Is the one that has a bat in his trunk

Insomnia

BIG BROTHER VIBES INTENSIFY

Is the only state we see outside the statehouse (not counting Florida man in SO Cal)

always stressed

the one doing the job interview episode

Quotes

"Good for her/him"

"That's your business"

"I don't (sleep). That's kinda my whole thing" - ´The Hot Dog Hoax´

"Because I said so." - ´The Hot Dog Hoax´

"Go play in traffic." - ´The internet bans the president´

"I'm late because I don't wanna be here" - ´The internet bans the president´

(NY, as in the state, doesnt get a whole lot of rep, but from what I have seen he is much nicer than NYC)

ALBANY

Albany, as the state capital, has the second most appearances, he pops up sporadically when something in Albany specifically happens

Albany is calmer than NYC, still an asshole, but less ready to commit violence and more verbally a dick.

Bills beanie and New York shirts or red beanie and bills jersey, it switches sometimes

Quickfire

The one with the ´don't come here list´

Gets annoyed when meetings derail, he just wants to leave. (its impressive how consistently he just.wants.to.leave.)

Big power saw TWICE

does not like Florida at all

Aroace, I think? (Based on the states walking in on you)

lets gov speak

Quotes

"What we doing here?" - ´Weekly News Recap 7/14 pt.1´

"Wouldnt it be nice if we had a big saw?"

(future stripes again: MY NOTES ARE INCOMPLETE, SORRY ALL FROM HERE IS JUST ME DOING MY BEST WITH THE MESS YOUNGER ME LEFT ME)

Buffalo

buffalo is the one I have the least information on but I thought he would still be worth mentioning

Hes the one jumping through tables tho

like thats the only reason he appears in like 3 episodes (other then one time for football(I think) but in that epsiode breaking folding tables was also mentioned)

[butterflydm]

wot rewatch (book spoilers edition): 2x6

First, it looks like tumblr refused to actually let my non-spoiler post be in the tags so here is the link: deeper dive 2x6: eyes without pity; hopefully this post will show up in the tags!

Not only is this one going to have spoilers for all the aired episodes plus any teasers (including the trailer for episode 7), it will also have book spoilers through book 14: A Memory of Light

"A few weeks ago I considered hitting Renna over the head with that pitcher, and I could not pour wash water for three days. Once I’d thought of it that way, I not only had to stop thinking about hitting her with it, I had to convince myself I would never, under any circumstances, hit her with it before I could touch it again. She knew what had happened, told me what I had to do, and would not let me wash anywhere except with that pitcher and bowl."

It is a little stunning how the show was able to take that paragraph and make this heartbreaking episode using it as the spine. And by changing it from a wash bowl into a water pitcher, they made it even more of a fundamental torture because Egwene is literally being dehydrated until she gives in to her abuser's demands.

Which, her mention of 'weeks ago' (Egwene is damane for roughly two or three months in the books) is making me wonder about the timeline in the show. Because we were visually shown the brutality of the 'training' process already, I wonder if the timeline is going to be shortened, or if we're going to get a timeskip of some kind next episode. Because Rand is definitely not interested in waiting around for weeks now that he knows Egwene is in captivity, even if he doesn't know the full extend of what's happened to her.

Also, double-checking the books, Egwene hits Renna in the stomach with the pitcher and doesn't hit her over the head like I had remembered; hitting her over the head was what she had thought about but never did. Maybe she'll get to brain her in the show.

2. Note: Renna may be wrong when she says that any pain a sul'dam feels, her damane feels twice-over even to the death, because in the last book when Min comes to rescue Mat and (ugh) Tuon, there is a damane attached to a dead sul'dam. And Min just... leaves her to die in a fire instead of saving her because book!Min kinda sucks but, yeah (she actually screams at the damane to help even though she should know it's impossible for her to help while she's still leashed). Though I wonder if Renna is actually correct but the implication is wrong -- which is that the damane does feel the full pain of the sul'dam's death (twice-over) but just doesn't necessarily die as a result of it.

3. The show is really really evoking book!Tuon in both the characters of Renna and Suroth in this episode, I have to say. Renna makes a point of saying she's a ~kinder softer~ sul'dam because she believes in cultivating a ~friendship~ with her damane and that's basically exactly how Tuon presents herself and her relationships with her ~well-behaved~ damane. And then later in the episode, we get Suroth's scene where she purposefully mocks and degrades Loial for her own amusement, evoking... well, Tuon in many moments tbh -- she laughs at Mat like this frequently in CoT & KoD, because she sees him as her own personal court jester -- but definitely the moment when Tuon steals Egeanin's name from her.

It's... it's an interesting thing because I also feel like the show has deliberately evoked book!Min in some of Lanfear's characterization changes, mostly when she was playing Selene -- pretending that she doesn't want a romantic relationship with Rand but desperately wanting one; pretending that she's not jealous about the other people he cares about but actually being incredibly jealous; trying to make herself his emotional anchor and the one person that he depends on; using their connection to get him to do things for her that he doesn't want to do (in Min's case, it's about using sex to get Rand to take her into dangerous situations, like the fake!DotNM meeting that ends up with Rand losing his hand while trying to protect Min). And taking characteristics that belonged to 'love interest' characters in the books and giving them to villains is... an interesting choice.

4. Is Lanfear questioning Rand near Shayol Ghul in TAR (that large blasted area) or is she just dramatic?

5. Turak's room of curiosities... I really wonder if we're going to sub in the Stone of Tear's storage room from TSR to Turak's room of curiosities and if there is a twisted stone doorway in there. That would give us a chance to do (some parts of) the beginning of TSR in 3x1 next season by having Mat, Rand, and Moiraine potentially all going into the doorway.

@markantonys was talking about how it was interesting that Min's romance viewing didn't come up in her scenes this season and speculated that the show is hedging its bets somewhat with regards to how much time they'll get to play out the storylines. And wondering that if that's the case for Rand's Situation, then it might end up being the case for Mat as well, and the show might hold back on the marriage prophecy (because if s4 or s5 ends up being the final season, they might not want to have to deal with squishing in Mat marrying some random slaver that we just met a handful of episodes ago). Definitely interesting to think about!

I personally love the idea that Avirandlayne could all get together without the viewers actually having heard about Min's viewing (besides the little hint of it we got in s1).

I do wonder sometimes if Jordan regretting sowing Mat's marriage prophecy in so early once the book series really started to stretch out, because it really handcuffed him to a very specific Mat plotline and some of the authorial choices that Jordan made to shackle Mat to that plotline were... very weird and involved characters behaving very strangely to their normal behavior (I have an entire post at the end of my WH reread where I go over how WTF some of Jordan's writing choices were to 'justify' Mat going on his road trip with Tuon).

6. I know that some people take issue with Alanna, Maksim, and Ihvon confronting Lan over potentially being a Darkfriend but... as Pevara says in A Crown of Swords, “You were very brave coming to me, Seaine. I’ve known Darkfriends to kill brothers, sisters, parents, to try hiding who they are and what they’ve done. I love you for it, but you were very brave indeed.”

Holding Lan above suspicion because of his background seems like it would have been foolish for Alanna & co to do, after having found that poem in his belongings. After he and Moiraine have been doing secretive journeys together for twenty years, very soon after Moiraine herself changed to be much colder and much more isolated from her fellow Sisters (especially since she and Siuan likely 'broke up' at that time).

I do think that book readers were potentially so distracted by wondering whether or not Alanna was going to get Lan's bond that they didn't necessarily realize that he was being covertly interrogated all of episode 4 by her and her two Warders, trying to figure out what Moiraine is doing and why she dumped Lan this way. I didn't look at the storyline like that on my first viewing because I was looking at it as a Lan plotline, but on my rewatch, it was actually very clear that Alanna, Maksim, and Ihvon were all trying to get information from Lan in various ways to try to figure out what's up with him and Moiraine. Alanna doesn't want Lan's bond; she wants his secrets.

7. More eye trauma for Mat in Rand's dream here. Both Nynaeve and Rand give Mat eye trauma foreshadowing in their visions, which does imply to me that the show wants to do the 'Finn plotline.

8. "You can travel too, see the world as it really is." hmm, I almost wonder if Rand is going to do what Egwene did in LoC, and use TAR to get to Falme quickly? (but then how do Moiraine, Lan, & Mat all come too? hmm. Might just be set up for a later season)

9. My constant emotional surprise when Randgwene keeps being a thing even though we haven't gotten to the part in the books where they break up For Real: my own personal toxic book reader trait, lol.

10. We once again have it kinda being hammered into Rand that going off entirely on his own and abandoning the people that he loves is a bad thing, actually. It's very very difficult to see the show ending in the same place that the books did, because "Rand off on his own and emotionally isolated" is definitely being shown as a negative.

(of course, it was mostly treated as a bad thing in the books too, until it's suddenly Rand's happy ending. but the show has the advantage of already knowing the journey they need to take to the ending, so I feel like they wouldn't be pressing this button so hard if they planned to end it the same way -- plus, this Rand doesn't even smoke pipes, which was really just Jordan, known pipe-smoker, stapling that trait onto every single male character in the series, no matter what their culture)

11. I really hope that the show is able to find some excuses to let more character reunions happen in the show than happened in the books because the idea of Mat and Rand splitting up in s4 for their respective narratives and then not seeing each other until they get one single scene in s8 is absolutely excruciating. My biggest disappointment with the Sanderson books...

...okay, no the biggest disappointment was Mat magically teleporting to Ebou Dar with zero explanation in the text of how it happened or why he changed his entire set of character motivations in between ToM & AMoL.

One of my disappointments was how... hollow the Mat & Rand reunion was. It happened on enemy territory, while Mat was still in full 'fawn over the slaver' mode and hadn't yet gotten his spine back, and it ends in this weird bro-out one-up competition that didn't really match their previous relationship in the books at all. So if the show could just... do all that differently... that would be great.

12. I wonder if Rafe & co noticed the same thing about Rand and Mat that I noticed in my last reread -- which is that their lives kinda drastically go downhill once the plot forces them to separate for the rest of the book series. Because we really see them being a source of comfort and support for each other here. Which is also very true in portions of the book series -- I think especially of moments like Mat quietly sitting with Rand after Rhuidean, which is literally exactly what Rand needs at that moment in time.

13. So, my current theory re: Mat and the dagger viewing is that he is going to essentially be the 'proof' for show-onlys that Min's viewings are unavoidable. Because Mat does not want to stab Rand and he even knows now that there's (essentially) a prophecy that he's going to do just that. And Mat stabbing Rand anyway, even though he actively does not want to and does his best to avoid it, would serve as a harsh lesson for the viewers and for Mat himself that prophecy cannot be avoided (my money is still on compulsion from Ishy, but we will see!).

Which is relevant to Mat's arc in a lot of ways. In the books, it was really frustrating how he thinks about how he'll run away from the DotNM if he finds out who she is but then once he's face to face with her, he basically rolls over and caves to fate pretty much instantly.

He didn't have to take Tuon with him when he escaped Ebou Dar. He didn't have to stay with the circus once he'd left the city; he literally could have just walked away from her and yet he inexplicably actively courts someone that he never, at any point, wants to marry (even after the final vows are said, Tuon's slave Karede notes how Mat looks miserably resigned to his awful fate), and fawns over her despite her being basically the lovechild of Suroth and Renna, in terms of characterization (Suroth's Mean Girl (TM) behavior towards Loial in this episode vividly reminded me of Tuon's Mean Girl (TM) behavior towards Egeanin; show!Suroth and book!Tuon both have the most fun in life when they have someone to mock and look down on and treat like shit).

If, in the show, he's already learned the hard way that some fates cannot be avoided, then we might get into a more interesting situation where Mat tries to find a way to make the prophecy come true in a way that still helps his friends, and tries to manipulate fate for the better. It's also a way to make the relationship somewhat more palatable for the viewers

Just... the whole way that Jordan played their relationship in CoT & KoD will eternally leave a bad taste in my mouth. Especially since WH set Mat up to challenge Tuon's beliefs. (though probably the worst part is running across that certain variety of 'Mat fans' who either don't notice or don't care that he threw away his morals in between WH & CoT and did a near-complete 180 turn on his attitude about slavery). It's just wild how much shit Jordan makes Mat swallow with a smile for the sake of this terrible prophecy marriage -- and other characters get covered in Tuon's shit too, because of Mat's choice to bring her along in the escape. Joline, Teslyn, and Edesina get tortured because of Mat's choice. Yeah. Pretty much any decision that Rafe & co make about this storyline is guaranteed to be better than the original version.

14. So Siuan coming here is basically the show's version of the scene from Fal Dara, given what we have of the set-up -- fourteen Aes Sedai making a traveling journey to a major city. But that is definitely worrisome news for Moiraine, given the differences in the show vs books.

15. I don't think that Alanna will bond Rand next week (it feels way too early for it) but I do think that the seeds of why she believes that he should be bound might be planted. It depends on if Rand gets publicly outed as a man who can channel & who believes that he's the Dragon Reborn. Because we do have those fires and potentially a riot going on in the Foregate in the next episode, based on the trailers. Rand may do something that 'proves' to Alanna that the White Tower needs to control him so that he doesn't destroy the world. Especially if he disappears from the city after the riot, with them having no idea where he disappeared to.

16. ...I am really looking forward to Egwene putting that damn collar around Renna's throat.

[doggocake]

May I ask, when did you get into Sanders Sides? :]

About 5 years ago actually, I got really into it for a few months, then I kinda lost interest. . . . . . During 2021 however, I got really into it. To add, I really love this series. The amount of work put into it, to bring such a wonderful little show!! I love rewatching every episode over and over again, it brings me so much joy ^^

[skayafair]

Episode 6 Rewatch

Well the past impression didn't lie, ep 6 is pretty heart-wrenching.

The highlights:

Want to hug Crystal, Monty and Edwin one by one and altogether 😖

Crystal because of how desperate she sounded when saying "yes I'm nothing special so LEAVE ME ALONE" - I'm not sure if she meant it or not, but the will to admit anything, no matter how humiliating it is if it means relief, that her stalker would finally fuck off, - was enough to feel for her so much. Crystal is so cool and this was such a raw scene 😭

Also her safe place that will be with her i matter what, no matter any mistakes - you just CAN'T go wrong with it, it's THIS unconditional - and is at the same time has been within her all along still makes me tear up. I lack this - confidence, acceptance, just some inner grounds to stand on. Of course I create it by the power of will and mind, but gods I wish I could have smth like this. So that final understanding - it's been inside you all along - is what does it for me. I know this scene is supposed to show the power of Crystal's ancestry, that she always has her roots and they are good and strong, and this is very important. But I come from a different background and am not really attached to both my family lines, so to me this scene was about finding the inner grounds within oneself, self-acceptance and learning to be compassionate towards oneself unconditionally. No one will give it to you (in adult life there's no such thing as an unconditional love if the relationship is healthy), you have to do it yourself first and foremost. So it was very... therapeutic.

Akso I kinda envy Charles because he got to protect Crystal and kick that demon's ass. The scene was so well-built that I really wanted to do that myself. This doesn't happen often. You go Charles! <3

Now, Monty - because of what I was talking about in my previous rewatch post, mostly him coping with rejection (badly, which is normal for a teenager even if he's a magical one and especially when he's been a crow just a few days ago and all this feelings stuff is new), finding a new light when Edwin said he still cares a great deal, the quarrel (Edwin I know why you went into a defensive mode and don't judge you for that but I'm still JUDGING ON AVERAGE who's older between you two?!) and then just... spilling all the beans to Esther while KNOWING she won't take it well. Did he feel suicidal or something? 🥹

I also want to talk about this:

But that's a topic for another post and not just about DBD.

And, finally, Edwin. Save for his immature "you're still a crow" (again, completely understandable but I'm still judging) he's been coping like a king. Having a talk with Monty (also I guess it's a parallel with how he will feel in ep 7 after his confession to Charles 🥹), telling the Cat King off (MORE angry Edwin who doesn't hold back, pls, that was A SIGHT ❤️‍🔥 I generally like it A LOT how he's gradually unwinding as the series goes, letting out his emotions one by one - fear, anger, swearing - it's a very good and not that easy to learn thing), apologizing to Crystal (and their dynamic in general, pls I like it so much), and finally gathering his courage to talk to Charles and confess his feelings, not letting any of Charles' assumptions sway him from this decision. The last one is the most raw, I was just clenching my fists and tensing all over. I know how hard and terrifying it is to admit something to your partner, your best and closest friend, to the person you treasure the most in the world - something that may make you lose them. But also Edwin was absolutely right - once you recognize these feelings, it's nearly impossible to keep them in. I did so for months and they were eating me inside out, so I can't help admiring his courage. Yes this whole situation hits very close to home for me in more ways than one, why

Another highlight is Niko's reconciliation with Jenny. I really like the way it was handled because yes, Niko was wrong to meddle and she should learn to respect others' boundaries, no, Jenny wasn't obliged to have a talk with her. But Niko is a teenager who's not that great socially-wise (and autistic-coded), she's just learning how to navigate all this, and I understand her drive to help people, to do good very well. She made a mistake with a terrible aftermath and has to learn her lesson AND to take the responsibility. And Jenny CHOSE to give her this opportunity - probably because she recognized the situation as something similar that happened to her some time in the past, onky by the looks of it there was no one there for her, so she didn't want Niko to suffer the same. This plot line is beautiful no matter what side you look at it from. It's kind, and gods know we could all use as much kindness as possible now.

The forest elemental my dear <3

Also, what does PLV 4s mean?

P.S. During this episode I started noticing Charles positively staring at Edwin. The whole Monty's entrance sequence on the roof? Charles didn't take his eyes off Edwin, it was A LONG stare. Like. Sorry bro there was nothing straight about it, and I'm not even crazy about the ship in the first place because I've been on either side of their povs and both aren't great. So I'd say I have as little bias as possible in this case and it was still NOTHING STRAIGHT. Bro. Your bi awakening is obviously waiting for you in s2 if it happens.

[pinesfamilyguidetotheweird]

Gravity Falls: Northwest Generations

So, this thought had come to me when I rewatched 'Irrational Treasure' and was reminded of when Gravity Falls was found.

With the release of Journal 3 after the show ended, a looooooooooot of things got a bit retconned. And I feel like one is the number of generations in the Northwest family.

In Irrational Treasure, it was said by Pacifica that she was Nathaniel's great-great-granddaughter. So, 5 generations.

That's all well and good, so why talk about it. Well, if you wanna go with Journal 3 canonicity (I go back and forth depending on if it works narratively), Gravity Falls was founded in 1842.

170 years ago.

I don't know. This seems off to me. Like...my maternal great grandma was around up until I was 18 years old (and I still believe that heartbreak was the main cause of her death), she was in her mid-80s. Not sure about my great-great grandparents, as I never really got to learn about them (Hell, my maternal great grandma's dad was a mystery, even to her, she never knew him). But I would take a guess that whatever age they were when they had my great grandma, it wasn't close to the 170 years mark.

Basically, what I'm getting at here is that five generations hardly adds up to 170 years.

According to one website that converts years to generations, 170 years can add up to 6 generations (and this is probably taking account to the average)

I don't think it was ever stated how old Nathaniel was when he 'founded' Gravity Falls 170 years ago, but from what I see between Irrational Treasure, The Northwest Manor Mystery, and Journal 3 (all kinda different from eachother), I'd say that the man was probably in his forties in 1842.

The age of pregnancy differs, so it's hard to say about how many generations would work. I'll use my own family as an example:

I don't know how old my great grandma when she had her oldest child (my grandma), my grandma was 18 years old when she had my mom, my mom was 25 when she had my older sister, and my sister had her first child at 26 (a few months away from her 27th birthday).

Of the known ages, it adds up to 69 (or 70 if you wanna take in account of my sister's almost birthday) years to make four generations. Even if I can estimate how old my great grandma was she had my grandma (say 30s at the latest as she had two more kids after my grandma and, you know, menopause), it wouldn't have been enough to make it to the 170 year mark.

With the Journal 3 canon, there could be more than 5 generations of the Northwest family.

Now, something to keep in mind that while women loses their ability to have children due to menopause (usually in their 40s or 50s), men can remain fertile into their older years, though the rate does still decrease.

Not sure if I wanna try out and guessimate the number of generations in the Northwest family.

I can try if I can get 25 likes on this.

[florestmoon]

More Than That..(Eddie Munson X F!Reader)

Summary: Being Hawkins most desired cheerleader should be a dream any girl would love to live, but you could only despise the unnecessary title and the hurt that comes with it. Luckily you have your best friend, Eddie, who reminds you that you’re much more than that.

Warnings: Hurt/comfort. Insecurities, typical teenage boy behavior, verbal insults, hint at being pressure into sexual acts, some angst but lots of comfort/fluff from Eddie. Eddie being a complete sweetheart <3

A/N: This was inspired by rewatching Cassie’s episode in euphoria lol. If you want a part 2, please send some thoughts and ideas for it, and I’ll consider it <33 as I did leave it with an open ending. it would help me as this was rushed and in the moment kind of thing, kinda a vent so I have little idea on how to go about it if I continued it.

You could feel most of the soccer teams eyes glancing towards your way as you sat on the bleachers. Hair brushing the side of your cheeks as you stare down at your knees. The green cheerleading skirt only worsened the shivers that ran up your skin from the harsh wind in late September.

Maybe Eddie will let me borrow his jacket..You thought, a soft smile appearing on your lips. His dnd campaign set for after school that day was the only thing you were looking forward to.

Even if your boyfriend—a basketball player you begin dating a few months ago that wouldn’t stop pinning after you— was beside you. His arms sliding around your waist and his eyes boring into you.

“You know, you are literally the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen..”

It took a lot of effort to not let your smile drop.

That feeling twisting in your stomach. Ryan presses kisses against your cheek, eyes glancing towards the soccer players. It annoyed you. The way his hands gripped onto your waist tightly. His need to show off like everyone didn’t already know you both were together.

“Jesus I’m so lucky to have a girl like you as my girlfriend.” He says smugly.

Some girls outside the field were watching, most likely judging the display of affection. It was annoying. Everything been annoying you these days, really.

“Really..” You ask after a moment, pulling away and brushing his hands off you. “Well what else?”

“What?” He hums distractedly, blinking at you.

“‘A girl like me’, right?” Bottom lip is tugged between your teeth as you squint at him. “Well what else do you like about me? What else makes you lucky?”

There was that slight hesitation that proved enough for you. But you stared at him, waiting patiently. His eyes flutter and his lips part, face twisting in thought.

“Uh..” he drawls, surprised by the tone in your face but he recovers. “I mean, you do have a nice rack so that definitely makes me the luckiest guy on earth.”

He laughs. Proud of himself as if he gave you the most amazing compliment ever. Maybe any other girl would have accepted it; felt flattered, cheeks burning with a blush from the ego boost.

But yours burned in humiliation. That wasn’t anything you wanted to hear.

“You’re such a fucking ass.” You hiss, grabbing your bag that was placed between you feet and shoving him away. Ryan face drops in confusion as he stammers, asking where you were going but you were already halfway down the bleachers.

Flipping him off with good measure, you enjoyed the way some of the players on the field begin laughing. It distracted you from the tears that wanted to break though, but you were not going to let anyone see you cry. You had enough attention on you, you didn’t need to give them more to talk about.

This was the thing. You weren’t all that surprised by the lewd comment, it’s all boys ever said to you since you hit puberty and gained popularity. They focused so much on your outer appearance. Sure it was nice—who wouldn’t want to be complimented on their appearance.

It was hard for you to believe it half the time anyway. The compliments always feeling empty to you.

But there’s times where you would love to talk about..something else. Or hear something else. Anything else.

It’s nice to be able to really talk to someone and be listened to.

Good thing you did have someone like that.

You walk in the dingy theatre room later that day, chaos greeting you and you can’t help but feel your mood lift.

“Look who finally arrived!” Eddie shouts, practically bouncing towards you from across the room and pulling you into a bear hug. “These sheep were getting antsy, were afraid we were going to finish the campaign with out you.”

The idea had your heart swell. The knowledge that your presence was always wanted by the club; the members always excitedly chatting your ear off when they ran into you in hallways never ceased to make you into a soft mess.

“I guess you’re the one that’s antsy now huh?” You tease, pulling away from the hug and raising an eyebrow at him. “Now that I’m here, I’m going to kick ass and embarrass you out of your DM title.”

“Low blow princess.” He whistles, rolling his eyes at your confidence. “But me? Disappointed that you’re here? Never. How dare you speak such a concept.” His grin widens, patting your head. “Who else can I count on to show the sheep how it’s done?”

“Show what exactly.” You laugh, pushing his hand away from your hair.

“Don’t get all humble on me now. You’re the fearless and bold one here, even when the games gone to shit.” He leans in and whispers. “Don’t tell Dustin, but you’re definitely the best player out of all of them.”

Your face flushes. This wasn’t from humiliation or anger for once that day. It was stupid, he was simply being his usual self. Always knowing what to say to make others feel at good and comfortable around him.

But that trait never failed to make you feel a warmth blossom in your chest. Fearless. It was small. A random comment that no one would act so crazy about but you loved it. The small things he pointed out about you, always tucked away in the back of your mind to look back on when you stayed awake at night.

It felt good. You were fearless. Even if it stemmed from your reckless decisions on a fantasy game.

“Besides, they can’t survive the last part of the campaign without your lucky rolls.” He winks then notices that you didn’t have your usual zip up sweater over your Hawkins cheer top. “Jesus, you trying to get hypothermia?”

He’s already shrugging off his leather jacket before you can explain that you forgot in your rush this morning, Ryan’s impatience not giving you any time .

It’s thrown over your shoulders. “Did you forget we are smacked in the middle of shithole Indiana and not a sunshine state? You are not getting sick under my watch—“

You sigh loudly, accepting the warmth you been craving all day. Boyfriend forgotten.

“Thanks Eds.” You smile softly and he softens, deciding to save his scolding for another time.

—

“I never once doubted how smart you are, sweets.” Eddie states confidently, seeming happy at the news of your break up with Ryan later that week.

Smart.

You snort and cross your arms, hoping the lack of light in his living room was enough to hide your bashful smile. “Not that smart. I dated the idiot for 3 months before coming to my senses.”

“What pushed it?” He finally asks. Attention no longer on the film playing on the small tv, not even the revving of leather face’s chainsaw draws his attention back.

You shift uncomfortably and shrug. The thin blanket he threw over both your laps felt soft between your fingers that’s been tugging on a loose thread.

“He didn’t..understand me, I guess?” You frown and glance to the side at him. “He was like any other asshole whose life revolves around throwing balls into laundry baskets.”

Eddie lip tugs up in amusement at your reference to his rant from days before, nodding along. You felt proud at the reaction. Encouraging you to continue so you do. It was easy to open up; to talk to him.

“I mean really, what was I thinking?” You giggle, throwing your head back against the sofa and staring up at the ceiling. “He didn’t even know who Ozzy was! Or like, never even heard of a Stephen king book! I don’t think he’s read a book at all..”

“Christ, what is up with these people?” Eddie gasps dramatically, pushing your shoulder softly. “Stephen King? Really? Do they live under a rock?”

“I know !” You groan, shoving him back which resulted in you laughing loudly at him acting like he was shot instead of your weak attempt at moving him.

“How the hell does someone not know what Carrie is?” You complain . “It’s only one of the best books ever. Stephen King did an amazing job at capturing that whole teenage girl angst, ya know?”

“Eh, I still think Pet Cemetery is his best.” He replies.

“Cmon Eds, over a book about a girl with telekinesis?”

“Sweetheart, how the hell does that beat a damn little dead kid trying to murder his family?”

“Eds, it was stupid.”

“It was hilarious!”

“Okay, but the ending of Carrie is wayyy more satisfying. Killing all her asshole classmates?” You snort, barely noticing the way you both scooted closer together and both turned on your sides to face each other. “Shit, I would too if someone poured pigs blood on me. God that’s disgusting.”

“Hm you have a point.” He grins, his eyes never leaving yours. “I heard he’s coming out with a new book this year. Suppose to be a real scary one.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, was thinking we can drive out to that one bookstore a few towns over once it releases.” He proposes, tugging his hair in front of his lips. “Some signed copies will be there.”

“Oh we have to !” You smile excitedly before rambling. “I still need to buy a copy of Cujo, but I don’t know if I like the idea of reading about a rapid dog. What if it dies in the end? Well, it is Stephen King so it’ll probably be a better ending than that..”

Eddie’s eyes continued to stay on you, head tilted against his hand that was propped up on the top of the couch; listening.

There was no subtle glances towards any other part of you. His eyes shining with genuine interest and listening. No loud sighs that would shut you up whenever you accidentally talked too much around past dates. No annoyed expression at the fact that there was space between you two.

Eddie actually wanted your presence, actually wanted to hear your stupid ideas and opinions. Days spend with him meant you could let go of this perception that was held from you as Hawkins favorite cheerleader.

He would never truly realize how happy you were with him.

Or about the crush you kept a secret. Or the fact that you accepted he would never see you in that way either. He never once acted the way other boys at school did with you, so you could only guess..he didn’t like you that way.

Which was perfectly fine, you were still happy. Knowing that you had a best friend who didn’t hold this standard to you or saw you as a piece of meat.

It was nice.

“You know..” You whisper after a moment, leaning your head to the side on the couch. Sighing, “I feel like…every guy I date is the same”

“What do you mean?” He asks quietly, worry swimming in his eyes.

“I mean..” You frown. “I keep thinking they’ll turn out to be some Prince Charming like those romantic interests in most cheesy movies. But they all turn out to be dickheads.”

“Because they are dickheads. They never deserved you.” He reassures, reaching under the blanket and grabbing your hand.

“What if you’re wrong” You say quickly, speaking before he could rebuttal. “I mean. What if it’s not them that’s wrong. It’s me? It always turns out the same. So maybe..I’m not..good enough?”

“Nope. No no no.” Eddie shakes his head quickly and shoots you a warning look. “You are not going to speak like that around me. This is crazy. Unacceptable.”

“But Eddie—“

“No buts!” He groans and rubs his face. “Seriously y/n, how can you say that? You’re more than enough. And if those assholes can’t see that. That’s on them. Not you.”

You stay quiet. He sighs and makes you look at him, tilting your chin up with his other hand.

“Look at me.” He cups your cheek. “Have I ever lied to you?”

You shake your head hesitantly and he continues.

“So listen to me when I tell you. You’re fucking amazing and anyone would be lucky to have you, to be your Prince Charming and I do not want you to be selling yourself short, understand me?”

His sternness makes it hard for you to disagree so you nod along. “Okay. Good. Gooood?” He tilts his head and throws you a look.

You giggle at that, relaxing and leaning forward to place your head on his shoulder. If only he knew how much you wanted him to be your Prince Charming.

Instead, you allow yourself to bask in the relaxed atmosphere the rest of the night, holding his hand under the blanket as you fell asleep with your head leaned against his shoulder.

—

You regretted bringing Eddie along to the Halloween party you had been invited too.

You usually hated these parties but your friends kept begging you to go. Something about everyone expecting you to be there, blah blah blah. Whatever comes with the stupid popularity you managed to grow simply from joining the cheerleading squad.

The plan was to make him some extra cash. The partygoers being too drunk or hyped on the fact that it was Halloween to care that they were buying drugs from Eddie ‘The Freak’ Munson. He was hidden behind a Jason ski mask anyway so it made you more at ease that he wouldn’t be targeted.

It was also so he could be with you. By your side most of the night, even if that meant staying in the corner of the house the whole night.

But it seemed that there was someone else that was interested in him way past than the drugs he was selling. One of your friends—not really a friend, more of someone you were stuck talking to during cheer practice—had convinced him to take a few shots in the kitchen.

Her loud giggling and faint hand brushes against his shoulder pushed you to take another swing of the mixed drink in your hand. Eddie was blushing at the attention.

Eddie was no stranger to sweet talking people though, so it was no surprise to see her blush at something he said right after.

You shouldn’t be jealous, but you were. The bitter taste of vodka wasn’t enough to distract you from the sour emotion that twisted in your chest, stuck with watching the scene play out from afar.

“Nice costume.” You look to your right and spot Tommy leaning against the wall. “Camp counselor..that one slasher movie right? The guy with that huge knife.”

“A machete.” A giggle escaped you, probably a result from the many drinks you had chugged down. “Uh but thanks, not many people knew what my costume was referencing too.”

It was funny. Everyone thought you were dressed up simply as a random camp counselor even though ‘Crystal Lake Camp Counselor” was spelled out on the tight white shirt you wore, along with fake blood splatters across it. You tug down the orange shorts when his eyes flicker to your exposed legs.

“Who hasn’t watched Friday the 13th?” He rolls his eyes and takes a sip from his drink. You glance at the freckles that painted the top of his nose and cheeks. Tommy was cute, a past asshole, but still cute. He stopped messing with Eddie once you made it very clear to everyone that he was your best friend.

What he hasn’t stopped was making his interest towards you abundantly clear. The whole week had consisted of him stirring up random conversations; whether be it in classes you both shared or when he caught you in the hallway.

They weren’t half bad conversations either. Like the one you indulged with him right now, his thoughts on the Jason franchise intriguing you and you can’t help but laugh when he admits he was more terrified of Michael.

He watches you laugh and smiles down at you. “Wow, you’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.”

The smile is completely wiped off from your face and you look down at your drink. Right. Didn’t Ryan say that too ?

“Hey-“ he interrupts your thoughts and attention on your drink. “Wanna head upstairs? Get away from all this mess and loud music. And you know..talk some more?”

You weren’t stupid. You knew what that meant. But one glance towards Eddie and the girl twirling a strand of hair between her fingers as she whispered something in his ear, made up the decision for you.

—

Maybe you were stupid.

At first you both were talking about the funny costumes you came across on the way to one of the empty bedrooms. You got a bit hopeful that maybe he really wanted to just..talk to you? His small confession about liking you for a long time only increasing that hope.

But then he began kissing you. You tried to lose yourself in the kiss, pushing Eddie to the back of your mind but he kept coming up. The question if he was looking for you right now floating around.

Eventually, his hand came up to roughly grip the back of your hair. His other hand reaching towards his belt and you pulled away, feeling disgusted.

“Tommy..” you sigh, looking away.

“Come on..” he whispers, tilting your head towards him. “I meant when I said really like you.”

“I know. I just...I feel really drunk.” You slur, wishing that Eddie was looking for you and can save you from this. You really wanted to go to his trailer and spend the night watching horror movies again. “Maybe we can hang out another time. Or even a real date. We can go—“

“Seriously?” That sweet demeanor from the past week was wiped off his face. Replaced by an ugly scowl. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”

You blink in surprise, voice coming out small. “What?”

“‘Hang out’ ?” he scoffs. “You think I’m here because I’m interested in you?”

“But..we—you been talking to me all week. I thought..”

“All I want to do is fuck you, y/n. I don’t care what you have to say or what you think about things. God. You are so fucking boring.”

Boring.

Tommy continued to glare at you, not caring for the tears that were threatening to fall. You feel at lost for words and he takes advantage of that.

“Let me completely honest with you princess. Since no one will. No guy at Hawkins is interested in you besides fucking you. You’re only the ran through cheerleader that puts up an innocent act, but everyone knows you’re a slut and are waiting up for their turn—“

You get up quickly. Heart thumping against your chest as you try to hold in the tears. You didn’t want to cry when the words were so true. Everything that you feared, that haunted you every fucking moment since you let yourself fall into the attention that came with being ‘desired’, was finally confirmed.

“—Even that freak you hang out with all the time.” This stops you in your tracks and your hand clenches around the bedroom’s doorknob. “You don’t think he’s waiting for his turn?”

Loud music greets you once you finally push yourself out into the hallway. Your feet stumbling as you ignore some looks thrown your way as you make your way towards the kitchen. You needed Eddie to take you away from here so you could cry, have him hug you and remind you that no—what Tommy said wasn’t true.

You weren’t boring right? Were you really not that interesting?

Eddie didn’t see you that way too, right?

The kitchen was empty, no sign of him. The room was feeling smaller, chest constricting as you continue to search for the familiar mop of curly hair but no sign.

Was he with that girl? Maybe they also went to an empty bedroom.

The tears were beginning to fall. Shit.

Did he leave? Forget about you?

Skin buzzing from the alcohol, you couldn’t think straight. Tommy’s cruel words and reality check repeating as you try desperately to hold in your crying.

Cold hair greets you as you open the slide door that leads to the backyard, ignoring the way many people glanced your way as you made your way towards the pool. No one was inside because of how cold it was.

They continued to stare and you hated it. Tommy was right. Did you really think you were anymore than the title placed on you? All those things Eddie said, those small yet meaningful compliments weren’t true at all.

Everyone saw you the same. Another cheerleader that guys wanted a piece of and girls wanted to be. You were so fucking tired of it. You were nothing special, you always told yourself that. But it still hurt badly.

You really needed to cry.

You don’t think twice before jumping into the pool. You didn’t care; or was too drunk to care. It didn’t matter. You let yourself sink into the bottom, wrapping your arm around your knees.

The freezing water barely registered in your mind.

You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.

God, you are so fucking boring.

No guy is interested in you besides fucking you.

You really were stupid.

Your face scrunches up as an ugly sob finally rips itself through your throat. Air bubbles floating up to the surface as you continued to let out soundless sobs. All the disappointment and shame flowing out of you, the water swallowing every insecurity as you cry it out.

Boring. Boring. God, who did you think you were? Nothing more than a fuck. Nothing more.

You weren’t special at all. Nothing more.

Something breaks the surface of the water beside you. Hands grab at your arms from behind and you’re pulled up just as your body was beginning to beg for air.

You gasp as Eddie pulls you out of the water and out of the pool, his own panicked pants mixing with yours as he holds you against him.

“What the fuck y/n! are you fucking insane? How much did you drink-“ he stops once your sobs register in his ears. Your trembling hands clutching the front of the dark green button down. “Sweetheart? Hey hey..”

You continued to cry, shaking your head. Maybe it was a good thing that every was watching. They could see that you were a fucking mess. Something else slapped onto the titles that followed you around.

“I want to go home Eds.” You sniff, rubbing at the running mascara on your cheeks. “I-I can’t, I need to go.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll take you home. We’ll go home.” He takes off the button up and wraps it around you, a desperate attempt to help with the shakes that racked your body. He pulls to stand and pushes his way to the exit, cussing at anyone that was in his way.

Eddie helps you inside his van, before quickly getting inside himself and starting the ignition. You couldn’t stop crying, painful sobs filling the van.

“Baby—sweetheart, you need to tell what’s wrong.” His hands tighten around the steering wheel, attempting to pay attention to the road and you at the same time. Voice rising in panic, “I-I need you to talk to me. Did you hurt yourself? Fuck—did someone hurt you?”

You shake your head, squeezing your eyes shut. Breath hitching as you push yourself to speak. “Eddie, you wouldn’t use me right? I’m not just somebody you’re waiting to fuck?”

Eddie’s expression breaks.

“What?“ He presses on the brake a little to hard at the stop sign. You grab onto your seat and avoid looking at his face. “What-what the fuck are you talking about?“

“I just want to make sure you don’t see me the way everyone talks about me.” You grit through your teeth, sinking into your seat.

“I—no! Jesus, no.” He stammers, a honk behind him pressuring him to continue driving even though he wants to reach over and force you to look at him. “No. I’m not using you—what?”

“Okay.”

You shut down for the rest of the ride, allowing yourself to believe him. Eddie wouldn’t lie to you. It’s the only thought that brings comfort for now. A few silent tears continued to escape.

—

“We should have gone trick or treating with the freshman.” You mumble, allowing for Eddie to dry your hair with a towel as you sat on the edge of his bed. His sweatpants and hoodie replacing your wet costume.

You sobered up a bit.

Eddie doesn’t respond to that. He kneels in front of you. His first priority was to get you to his trailer and get warm. Your shivering had stopped, along with your tears. The only sign of what happened was the occasional sniffs and your reddened eyes.

He stares at you for a while before trusting himself to speak.

“We need to talk about it.”

“Do we?” You mumble, watching Eddie throw the towel to the ground in frustration. You flop back onto the bed and cover your face, feeling guilty.

“I just want to understand.” He says after a moment. “You disappeared on me, and as I’m looking for you, I find you at last second before you try drowning yourself.”

“I wasn’t trying to drown-“ you sit up at that.

“Then, you’re fucking crying and it fucking scares me even more, I thought—shit, I thought maybe you were hurt! Then you ask me the most ridiculous questions and fucking go quiet on me.” He tugs on his hair. “Now you act like nothing happened and talk about trick or treating?”

You take a shaky breath, bottom lip quivering as you recall Tommy’s angered rant. He notes this, the anger disappearing in a second and sits himself next to you, wrapping his arm around your shoulder and pulling you closer to him.

“I’m sorry..I’m just trying not to cry over it again. it was stupid to do I know. Im stupid-“

“Hey.” He scolds and you rub at your eyes.

“It’s true Eddie..”

“Seriously, what happened?” He urges, grabbing your shoulders and making you look at him. “What’s making you act like this?”

A harsh laugh forces it’s way past your lips and you shake your head, feeling so stupid again. “Tommy. He..did you know I’m fucking boring?”

Eddie face twist in confusion. “What?”

“Tommy was trying to get me to have sex with him.” You close your eyes, Eddie tensing beside you. “And uh, I rejected it, told him that I was too drunk and he flipped out on me. Said a lot of mean things. That I was boring and he was never actually interested me, interested in anything I had to say..”

You snort but it transforms into a whimper. “I don’t know why I was surprised. Of course he was only nice to me at school for that. He said that every guy only is nice to me so they can get in my pants..”

Eddie grabs both your hands and rubs your knuckles gently with his finger. Eyes downcast as he sadly says, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left your side tonight. I should have been there.”

“Don’t say sorry Eds. You were having fun.” You reassure. “Besides, I needed that reality check. He wasn’t wrong-“

“You can’t seriously believe what Tommy said was true, do you? Nothing he said is true!”

“Well..” you frown and shrug. “I don’t know.maybe that’s all I got going for me. My body and my looks, nothing else? I should be happy with that, anyone would but-“ you look down at your hands. “I wish I was more.”

“You are.” He whispers, heart aching as the sight of you looking so defeated. “Jesus y/n, so are so much fucking more than that. You..you’re fucking smart, smarter than anyone I’ve met. I wouldn’t have passed any of my classes if you didn’t tutor me.”

You glance up at him as he continues.

“And those poems you’ve showed me before? their so beautifully written, no one else knows how their way with words the way you do.” Your ears burn and you struggle making eye contact.

“You’re fucking hilarious, I don’t think I laughed harder with anyone besides you. My days are made better by you simply talking to me, telling me about your day or whatever thoughts cross that mind of yours.”

“Really?” You sniff, tears escaping again. The thought that he likes talking to you as much as you did with him, you could cry all over again.

“Why do you think I force you to listen to new vinyls I buy? Because you always have a way of interpreting the music different than me. And I love hearing what you have to say about it..” he exhales and glances to the side. “Tommy’s a fucking idiot if he doesn’t want to hear what you have to say because anyone with a brain knows what a blessing it is to be around you.”

“Eddie..I..” you struggle and he shakes his head.

“The kids..they also adore you. You should see the way they look up to you. I mean, I’m pretty sure you’ve taken mine and Steves spot in being Dustin’s favorite.” He grins and brushes your behind your ear. “Even Max tolerates you.”

“Max?” You gasp. “Okay now, I think you’re going a bit too far.”

“It’s true, sweets.” He snorts. “Don’t tell her though because I dont think I can handle another skateboard thrown at me.”

“I won’t.” The tension has left your body and you looked more relaxed, playing with his rings. “But..you really think all that?”

“Yes and there’s way more I can list out. Whatever Tommy said..it’s bullshit. You’re amazing y/n. And No one can compare to you.”

You throw your arms around his neck, climbing onto his lap. He hugs you back, running his fingers through your hair as he soothes the small cries you let out.

“There is one thing I’ll say, one of the most utterly important things they’re missing out on is..” He gives you an exaggerated dreamy look when he pulls back to level your face with his.

Fingers wiping away a tear before he grins, “—Is that can make a cook up a real mean mac and cheese.”

“Oh my god.” You laugh and push his face to the side, unable to hold down your own grin spreading on your face. “Is this your way of telling me you’re hungry?”

“Maybe.” He hums, grabbing your wrist and sliding down his hand to intertwine your fingers again. You roll your eyes but lean against him. His words managed to kick away any of those ugly doubts and insecurity Tommy had managed to force through the cracks.

“Remember when you told me about how I’ll eventually find my prince charming?”

“Mhmm. Maybe he isn’t in shitty Hawkins, but—“

“He is, though.” You tighten your hand around his. “Eddie. You’re my prince charming. You’re the only person who listens to me, actually listens. And I only ever feel myself with you.”

Eddie freezes, taking it in. His face softens and he looks away. “Yeah?”

You nod. Maybe he wasn’t a Prince Charming in the way you wanted. With a barrier between a platonic relationship and a romantic one, but—

You’ll deal with that small heartache for now.

“Yeah.” A small kiss is placed on his cheek hesitantly before you pull away. Pale cheeks redden from the contact and he clears his throat.

He glances at the shy smile you throw at him, and he smiles back.

“Well uh..I will happily be your Prince Charming then.” He states once he recovers. You both stare at each other for a few seconds longer, an invisible tension growing.

He breaks the eye contact first, clearing his throat and glancing at the clock near his bedside. “It’s still pretty early. Dustin did say they were staying out until midnight.”

You grin as he snatches the ski mask that was thrown on the floor and jumps up. He holds his hand out.

“So miss camp counselor, shall we go look for those rowdy children that you should been have supervising? I’m sure their hitting the jackpot in Steve’s neighborhood right now.”

“Oh yeah, maybe we can scare them with that big machete of yours into giving us their bags of candy.” You giggle, letting him pull you up. Eddie laughs and throws his head back.

“That’s evil.” He smirks and grabs the prop machete from you. “No wonder you’re Jason’s favorite camp counselor. He’ll spare you for tonight.”

“Not exactly one anymore, I don’t even have the costume Eds.” You mention at the baggy clothes on you and whine. “Pretty sure it’s a crime to go out there just in this.”

The mask is quickly placed on your head, the elastic snapping against the back of it before he rotated the mask around. Placing it to hang off the back of your head and fixes the strands of hair he messed up.

He cups your cheeks and nods, looking content. “You upgraded to Jason now. I’ll go pour ketchup on myself and we can pretend I’m your murder victim. Should you have sliced my neck open or my stomach?”

“Idiot, don’t dirty that sweater. I bought it.” You huff,rolling your eyes. “Now cmon, let’s go before someone else steals candy from them.”

“Lead the way then, princess.” Eddie tilts his body and you laugh, grabbing his arm and pulling him with you. The excitement of eating candy and overall ease that comes with being with Eddie allowing you to forget everything that happened tonight.

—

[rakumel]

It's been....a while...since I last talked about anything Animaniacs related. I wound up not really liking the first season of the 2020 reboot, so I didn't bother trying to find a way to watch the second one.

But a few months ago, the library where I work acquired both seasons of the reboot on DVD. And well, I kinda toyed with the idea of trying to watch it again, now that it was a lot easier to do so. Animaniacs was once be a big part of my childhood, after all. Hard to just shut it out completely.

Right before the 4th of July weekend, I broke down and checked out the first season DVDs. I had that day off anyway, was going to be alone, and honestly wasn't feeling very patriotic. (Basically a typical 4th weekend for me, honestly. One year I "celebrated" by staying in and watching both Blade Runner films.)

Anyway, I didn't get around to watching that evening, but I tried again during the next long weekend I had available (this past one). So far I've only watched the first seven episodes. It's taking longer than it usually would because I'm taking notes this time around - in case I want to do a proper episode by episode review in the near future.

Still, even this far in, was the reboot as bad as I remembered? Yes and no. There were some high points that I'd forgotten about; mostly in the first and last episodes on the disc. Some of the cartoon titles are clever, like "Suspended Animation" and "France France Revolution" (seriously, I love that). And there was at least an effort to stay true to the original spirit of the original show while also adapting the new one for today's audience; in a few instances they actually succeeded very well. (Putting Yakko in a rap battle was fantastic. I just wish it had ended a little better.) And most of the Pinky and the Brain episodes I've rewatched so far are very much in keeping with the original.

But....well. (Here I take a deep breath and sigh. Sadly.) Out of all the episodes I've watched so far, I've laughed maybe...twice. And that's being generous. There are a few genuinely good bits, but a lot of the writing just isn't that great. There's a nuance the old show had that's missing in the new, plus they have a bad habit of just reaching a stopping point instead of a proper ending. A lot of times the cartoon would be over, and I'd just be sitting there baffled, or feeling pissed because the ending was just that rushed or stupid. The trademark pop culture references are fine, and they don't over-rely on them (which is good), but even when I'm in on the jokes they're weirdly not that funny.

And then there's the overemphasis on gross-out things. Sure, the old show had its gross-out moments too, but I don't remember them being nearly as prevalent and gratuitous as they are in the new show.

For example, in the last episode I watched, there was a scene in which a woman is reunited with her beloved poodle, Gigi. She hugs Gigi (aww), and then for several awkward seconds Gigi licks her owner's puckered lips in slow motion, complete with copious amounts of animated drool (eww). Then the woman takes a dog treat, chews it up, and opens her mouth to feed it to Gigi, baby bird style (wtf?!?).

Like...I get it. They wanted to show how dedicated this lady was to her dog in an over-the-top way. (Or, if there were an interview where one of the animators said they based that scene off of something they literally saw a dog owner do, it wouldn't surprise me.) But it's still nasty, plus my god you've not only made your point, you've clubbed me over the head with it. MOVE ON. And that's not the grossest thing in the season either.

Speaking of gross, I don't know what it is about the human characters in the reboot, but aside from the new WB CEO all of them look hideous. I still can't put my finger on why exactly, especially since the Warners themselves look just fine. In fact they're a little wilder looking, with fuzzy hair (head fur?) and occasional fangs, and I really like it. It's not the exaggerated features; human characters on the old show had those too and it...didn't bother me then? I just don't know. My best guess is that they've got a Ren and Stimpy vibe to them (which goes with the gross-out stuff), and I never liked that show. I don't care how original or boundary-pushing it was at the time. It's just never been my thing.

Finally, and it's a very very minor thing but it's a little disappointing all the same: they don't quip after the end credits anymore. Boo.

I still don't know yet if I want to expand this into a proper episode review, if I even have the time. I may wind up just putting my thoughts down on some of the better or more famous episodes. But I am curious enough to try the second season, to see if it got any better. My instinct tells me no, but I want to be fair and give it a chance.

I'm also struggling with describing why the irreverence of the original Animaniacs show is endearing to me, but the new one's is off-putting. You could argue it's just nostalgia, and you wouldn't be totally wrong, but I know it's more than that. It's not that one is crass and the other isn't; both of them absolutely are. It's more like...with the old show, when it was crass, I found myself asking things like: "How do we define "high" art anyway?" and "Okay, I just watched the Warners do a swing number for baby Jesus. Was that utterly and irredeemably irreverent, or was it the most genuine gift of themselves they could give, thereby staying true to the message of the song 'Little Drummer Boy' and not actually breaking any taboos whatsoever?"

Whereas when the new show is crass, I ask myself things like, "Did they really need to show them licking a diseased pigeon that close up?" and "Am I wasting my life, watching this?" and "Oh god why? WHY?? Where is the brain bleach??!"

[that-nerd-who-writes-fanfiction]

My Yuri on Ice fics are currently limited to six one shots (word counts from about 2000 to 14,000) five of which got lost in a doom folder/that hasn’t seen the light of day since I was in college, and one that I posted to Ao3 a while ago. Link if anyone’s interested

…but with Ice Adolescence cancelled, I’m kinda tempted to just write my own version for the Victor angst

Maybe.

I’ve got too many WIPs and not enough energy to finish them all but maybe in a month or so.

Just, y’know, rewatch the show taking notes on anything that’s said about his career to make up a timeline, put that to my very limited ice skating knowledge (I’ve watched competitions a couple of times, I’m by no means an expert. But I’m a nerd, google is free, and research is fun so how hard can it be?) I could make something that could’ve been Victors backstory.

Who knows, there might even be a few Yuri scenes around the time too, so I can keep everything up with the canon timeline. Just sprinkled in there for fun. Fun being angst, hurt/comfort and fluff but same difference.

[llynwen]

Oh don't worry about the ask getting eaten, tumblr has killed 2 of my blogs in the last damn month this website is held together through sheer collective willpower. Soooooo about hoodie-stealing gf Rust: something about his clothes seemed weird to me when they went to Carcosa, and during a rewatch I realized that crisp white shirt is rather too big for him. He threw out all his 'professional' attire years ago when he quit being a cop but something about this work--not the job of police officer, I mean the work of seeking justice for the innocent--demands a certain ceremonial importance in what he wears. And rather than go buy a shirt he seems to have raided Marty's closet like he did in 95. Thoughts???

Hi! First of all I am so so very sorry for how long it’s taken me to answer this and also for the. Let's call them technical difficulties. I actually have soooo many thoughts about the costumes on this show. 

Let's start with the shirts. Every time we see rusty wear a dress shirt in 2012 it is slightly too big. Now, I totally agree with your take about him having thrown away all of his work clothes before the move. I don’t think he cares about appearances all that much anymore (I mean. As much as I adore the hair, it is not very professional). I like to think he only dresses up when they go to question people to fit into the part of a PI, to be more believable. 

As far as I know he wears two different shirts in episode 7

and one in 8

In both of these they are kinda loose on him, the waist is tucked in but it’s all bunched up in the back, even the collars seem a bit too wide. 

I also love this fit

At first glance I was convinced these were the same suits, but they are not, though they are eerily similar. The jacket looks too big for rusty, too, and maybe a bit tight on marty. I really want to believe that rust is wearing marty’s hand me downs the entire time.

All this thinking about the clothes had me looking at other outfits we see throughout the show, and what I noticed were the flannels. Prior to 2012, we almost exclusively see rust in formal wear. He wears work clothes seemingly 24/7. He will occasionally take his shirt off and run around in the famous wifebeater, but even that is just a stripped down version of his work clothes. He mows the lawn dressed like that. Even during The Event with maggie he is still in his work clothes, even though he just got suspended and has been drinking for hours.

There are very few exceptions of him wearing something different. If we ignore crash, prior to 2012 we see him out of his work clothes exactly twice.

First time is when he talks to maggie at the diner. He’s wearing a blue flannel in this scene, and I was like, this shirt looks familiar. Then I had me a closer looksie, and lo and behold, i found this.

Again, for a second I was sure it was the same damn shirt. It isn't, but it's close. Both of them wear a blue flannel when they go to talk to maggie, which is very interesting to me. Additionally, since we've established that rusty doesn't own any casual clothes, I think it is fair to assume the flannel he is wearing at the diner is actually marty’s. This isn't so far fetched, since at the time marty is staying at rust’s house, so they probably have a shared laundry pile.

The other time we see rust wear a flannel is during the parking lot fight. I don't think marty wears anything similar at any point (but if I'm wrong please come let me know), but it is definitely something he would wear.

The parking lot fight takes place the morning after The Event, we know that rust is not in the best of mindsets. 

(I actually think he came over to the station that day precisely because of what happened the night before. I don't think he came to pick up his things, since we know he had all the files at his apartment, and I don't believe him to be the kind of man that keeps personal belongings at his desk. No, I think he went there to punish himself. He knew that marty would react badly, and he knew he would probably attempt to beat him up. This could be why rust doesn't really fight back, and lets marty tackle him and land a few good punches.) 

The shirt he wears could be something that marty left behind. I think he might have worn it as a kind of armor, something with positive emotions attached to it. He knows that marty and him are done, no going back, so he wraps himself in the comfort of their friendship. 

If you have any other observations, please let me know! I’ll have another look at the clothes during my next rewatch, but I’m sure I'll miss something anyways, this show is so jam packed with detail. Thank you again for sending me this ask!

Let me leave you with this, though.

Why is rusty’s ass wet in carcosa? If he was just sweaty, wouldn't his shirt be wet too? Did he piss himself? What is going on. 

Love you bestie xx

[andoqin]

List of dramas that I am watching or want to watch, just for personal record reasons:

Cdramas:

The ingenious one (36/36): this drama has blown me away so far with its incredibly nuanced and sharp writing, its love stories between all the major couples and the absolutely magnificent cinematography. FINISHED verdict: HIGHLIGHT drama of the year for me so far. Smart, engaging, complicated, peak romance of all sorts, just what the doctor ordered tbh (overly long review can be found in my tags). 9.5

Chang Feng Du (40/40): I did not realise how close to the end I was. This drama is very pleasant and I adore our mains, but sadly except for a few highlights (the early beating gjs put on himself, the destruction of the gu family and the aftermath, the battle for wangdu) the writing hasn’t been able to keep the narrative tension up which is sad. FINSHED verdict: Very pretty and engaging in the beginning kinda loses me in the second half and then fizzles out emotionally, doesn't crash and burn but doesn't exactly stick the landing either 6.5

Gone with the rain (10/30): adore the gremlin4gremlin couple and from the spoilers I’ve seen not gonna adore much else

An ancient love song (1/16): incredible first episode and with only 30 min per ep and 16 eps in total this is gonna be a short fun ride I hope ( with lots of angst and tears naturally).

Here we meet again (18/32): started this for Wu Qian playing to type and Zhang BinBin being pretty but oh boy I’m struggling I just don’t care about the conflicts and in s surprising twist, I like the flashbacks to high school much much more, which is very funny if you think about the fact that the reason I started liking wu qian in the first place was because of her show stealing performance in the flashbacks of My Sunshine. I’ve been promised kisses in the near future so I’m gonna hold out till then but this might end up another drop.

Hidden Love (5/25): this one promises to be v sweet and kinda short but oh my god I have so many dramas on my plate rn so this might end up the first drop.

Till the end of the moon (22/40): I think I watched ep 1 when it started but then I got busy and now I am just staring at gifsets and crying, it’s definitely on the list to watch tho.

Heroes (6?/38): I started this a while ago, was really into it and then got busy… dammit. I might just rewatch the beginning so I can remember most of the set up for sure but man the visuals on this were so good, aaaa liu yuning.

Blood of youth (0/40): the last 12 months really have spoiled us with interesting looking wuxia dramas and this one is definitely on the list, I have been gifbaited once again.

Ray of light (0/30): usually hs dramas are something I avoid, but because I will not be watching the longest promise, for reasons, and bc @storge is a gifmaking temptress, this has made it on the list.

The legend of anle (0/39): Lmao trust YOUKU to screw up the release with bad subs only 1 ep even for vips and no released schedule… but at least I can put this on the backburner for now. Lmao should have known not to trust a youku dilreba drama, the tl has soundingly spoken and I'm gonna avoid this.

Ancient Detective (0/24): I was recced this by a friend when I mentioned my love for wuxia dramas, and since it’s almost shockingly short for a cdrama it’s on the list. EDIT: this got @purplehanfus seal of approval so it is def going up the list and since it's complete I'll probably at least watch it before the ongoing ones.

Butterflied love (0/22): see I barely made this post and already forgot about the screencap that got me started on writing it, the screencapa look great, but the drama is on mango, so who knows when I’ll truly be able to watch this

When I fly towards you (0/24): Well, I wasn't interested bc modern youth drama, but then I heard it described as "updated It Started with a Kiss" and... I'm weak? ISWAK was pretty much my crack gateway into asian dramas and while IDK if i could rewatch it today, something in me will always love this kind of story. Maybe it's like a quick palate cleanser in between since apparently eps are only about 30 mins.

Mysterious Lotus Casebook(0/40): CHENG YIIIII, in a possibly bromantic role? Or maybe het romance, I'll take it all. Plus I've already seen he's bleeding copious amounts as per his contract, so that's most of the checklist done.

Lost You Forever (0/??): because nature abhors a vacuum I apparently must have?? A minimum to watch pile and this actually and genuinely looks good??? A Yang Zi drama in 2023??? The mind boggles. Anyway I've been reading the recaps with delight, and am def going to watch this when part two airs in a couple of months but until then I have a thankful reprieve...

Kdramas:

See you in my 19th life (4/12): since kdramas release so slowly this is on the backburner but it does have some great gifsets that keep enticing meee

King the land (2/16): I am watching this for junho but it is kinda hard bc I have so much else on my plate and while I don’t mind a classic romcom type story I feel I need a bit more of an emotional hook

Story of the nine-tailed 1938 (0/16): so so many gorgeous and hilarious gifsets so little time. I loved season one so so much and the fact that this focuses on the brotherly relationship?? Extremely smart writing decisions were made!

The red sleeve (0/16): I blame @dangermousie for this she keeps reblogging angsts junho on my dash and I am but god’s weakest warrior.

Love tractor (0/8): gay himbo farmboy falls in love?? You bet this is on the list

Lady durian (0/?): ok this is only on the list for crack reasons but, daughter in law is in love with mother in law and both women are like 40+ truly kdramas have entered a new era and I kinda wanna be here for that

EDIT: Revenant (0/12): Kim Tae Ri in a spooky drama? POSSIBLY POSSESSED KIM TAE RI??? how could i forget to put her on this list, plus it was written by the Kingdom writer and I adore that drama plus it's only 12 eps which is smart in this case so... let's hope i get to it at some point D:

My dearest (2/20): I checked this out because it's got pretty much everything going for it from a production standpoint and boy did the first two eps deliver. This has got 2 seasons though so I'll probably wait until the second season is airing, since it won't be too long till season 2 or so the internet tells me.

My lovely liar (0/16): minhyun learned to act and I wanna see it happen!!

Jdramas:

Our dining table (2/10): ok this category is gonna be a bit shorter bc I haven’t watched too much drama recently but omg the gifs for this I am just crying thinking about it they look so cute??

Jack o‘frost (0/6): people have recced it and it’s short so here it is.

Utsukushii kare s2 (0/4): Season 1 was an unexpected delight so I hope s2 works just as well.

She loves to cook and she loves to eat (0/10): the manga for this is amazing (and hungry making) so I hope this adaptation holds up.

Ok this list is in no way exhaustive (well except for me being exhausted just trying toward this down) and probably subject to change ( I haven’t even looked at thaidramas or twdramas I gotta stop for now) but hopefully this will keep me on the ball and maybe I can add to it whenever a new tempting gifset crosses my dash…