#S2 NEXT WEEK PEOPLE CAN YOU BELIEVE IT

[acianoh]

“With love, we sleep

With doubt, the vicious circle

Turns and burns

Without you, I cannot live

Forgive, the yearning burning

I believe it's time, too real to feel

So touch me now, touch me now, touch me now”

[hargreeves-duncan]

Can I request five x reader (takes place in s2) where reader (five’s partner) gets sent to Dallas around a year before five comes and after he does and reader sees him, she immediately tackles him on the spot and gives him many kisses. Maybe reader manages to work at a casino too

a/n: hi, thank you so much for your request! i haven’t written in a while so i'd love to hear your thoughts, enjoy!!

summary: it's been far too long since you've seen your boyfriend - he learns that the affectionate way.

warnings: reader works at a casino but there’s no actual gambling so🤷‍♀️

word count: 1.4k

You had to hand it to yourself, for someone who’d known next to nothing about life in the 1960s, you’d adapted pretty well. In no time at all, you’d managed to land yourself a job as a waitress in a casino. A very good one. It seemed in this timeline, Jack Ruby thought a casino would be a better investment than a night club - and for your part, you couldn’t say that he was wrong, nor could you complain.

The hours were long, but the pay was good enough and the other girls had taken you in as one of their own. You quickly began to excel. Strolling between the tables and flashing smiles was easy, second nature even. You developed the wit and charisma to charm the casino’s patrons without second thought, which meant you got more drinks served, more loyal customers and bigger tips to go along with them. 

Most nights the new life you’d built for yourself was more than enough but sometimes, no matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t help but yearn for what had come before - who had come before.

There was always a dull ache in your chest whenever you caught a fleeting glimpse of a lone, brown-haired man at one of the tables. In those moments, you could never stop yourself from believing for a slither of a second that Five had made it and he’d come right back to you.

You’d waited for him in that dingy, old alley for two weeks straight, because you knew that Five would never abandon his family like that. That something must’ve gone wrong, but it was okay because he’d come back and everything would be fine. That was what you told yourself. You were so sure he’d show up and solve everything in an instant, because that was what he always did. And when he hadn’t, it had almost destroyed you.

The first few months were gruelling, taking your first steps in the new world had taken a while. Grieving Five had taken longer. The obvious truth was staring you in the face. A year without contact from him or any of the other Hargreeves siblings? The probability was that you were the only one who had survived.

It was a truth that you were reluctant to admit, even now. One that led you to where you are today, starting yet another night shift, beside the casino’s bar, to serve a particularly rowdy Friday night crowd of patrons.

As you begin to set up, Mary-Anne, one of the other waitresses on shift, sidles up to you. Her honey-blonde curls bouncing around her ears as she leans against the bar. Trying to stifle her laugh, in her southern drawl, she says, “Has he tried talking to you yet?”

You raise an eyebrow at her, tilting your head to the side, “Has who tried talking to me yet?”

Her grin grows wider as she gestures to a table on the far corner of the room, laughing, “That little boy. Haven’t I said a million times that we oughta get tighter on the security in this place?”

She sighs, resting her hands on her hips, “I went over to him - trying to tell him that we don’t allow minors in here - and what’d he do?”

Deciding to humour her, you smile, looking down at her, “I’ve got no idea, tell me.”

She scoffs, shaking her head as she smiles, “He told me that he more than knew his way around place a place like this and that I had nothing to worry about with him. Can you imagine having the nerve like that at his age?”

The thought made you laugh. It reminded you of Five. His haggard temper in the body of his younger self always seemed to shock people in the very same way. You paused. It couldn’t be him, couldn’t it? You must be jumping to conclusions. After all this time, it’d make no sense if he was here now and yet…

“He said that?” You ask, eyebrows furrowing as you glance between the table and Mary-Anne. You squint, trying to see if you could recognise him.

A part of you felt silly and girlish for still holding out hope but this kid’s description was just too similar and besides, you were a teenager again, you were allowed to be lovesick and entirely delusional. It was practically your god-given right.

Mary-Anne nodded, loading her tray up with drinks of all shapes and sizes to cover her half of the room, “He did.”

Your eyes were locked onto the distant table, practically pleading for the kid to just turn around and let your hopes down already. Still, all that greeted you was the back of his head and the green fuzz of the poker table in front of him.

When you didn’t tear your eyes away, Mary-Anne looked you up and down, her baby blue eyes swimming with concern, “You alright there?”

Looking back at her, you sigh, already pent up at the possibility of Five being so close, “Yeah, I just… What did he look like?” You ask tentatively, biting your rouge-tinted, bottom lip between your teeth.

Mary-Anne hums in thought as she loads your tray for you, “Gosh, I don’t know - he had dark hair, was wearing a suit. It had the funniest, little emblem on it.” She says, tapping her chest in place of where it would’ve been.

Your eyes widen in shock and excitement as you process her words, “An umbrella! It was an umbrella, wasn’t it?”

Mary-Anne grins, giggling, “It was… how’d you know that?”

You couldn’t even answer her. You were already starting to tremble and hyperventilate, entirely overcome with nerves and joy and pure, unbridled excitement all at once. A year of being apart and now he was no more than a few strides away. Your smile brightens up like no other.

You slip your tray from over your head and place it down on the bar as you say, “Hey, cover for me, would you? I’ll be two seconds.”

Without waiting for her answer, you dash across the room - a flurry of giddiness bubbling up inside of you the closer you get. You tousle your hair and straighten your uniform, anything to keep your anxious fingers busy and to better yourself for something you’ve waited for for far too long.

Hearing heels coming towards him again, Five sighs in frustration and turns around in his chair, “Lady, I already told you-“

The breath feels like it’s been stolen from your throat as he turns to face you. It’s really, truly him. Your boyfriend is right there in front of you and you’ve never felt more relief than in this moment.

“Y/N.”

You’re not sure if you want to cry or scream or simply just take him in for the first time all over again. As you look over him, his piercing gaze, his dark hair and the freckle on his right cheek that you can’t count the number of times you’ve kissed, your eyes can’t help but be drawn to his lips.

God, how you’ve missed the feeling of them. You barely have time to think about what you’re doing before you’re cupping his face and pressing your lips against his once more, savouring every part of him in a way you’d never thought to before.

Your hands trail over every callous in his skin, memorising him with your fingertips, and as you pull back, Five’s gaze softens like nothing else as he smirks, “Hello, you.”

His hands reach out to cup your face, gazing over you as if he’s not entirely sure that you’re real. After all your time apart, you’re not sure either. You smile, nodding, “It’s me. It’s you. You’re here, you’re really here!”

You cup his face in return and you can’t help but press another kiss to his lips. He smiles fondly as you do. And so you kiss him again… and again on his cheek… and on his freckle… his chin… his forehead. Everywhere your lips can reach, you press them.

After a moment, he laughs weakly and reaches up to pull your hands away from his face and intertwines them with his own fingers instead, “Okay, love.” He says chasteningly, “Let’s calm down there, shall we?”

Your smile grows shyer as you right yourself, “Sorry.” You say, brushing your hair away from your face.

He shakes his head, brushing your hair back for you and then guiding you by the waist to the seat beside him, “No, don’t be sorry. Don’t ever be sorry. Believe me, I’m just as happy to see you. Really.”

It’s him who initiates the kiss this time. He’s soft, delicate almost, in the way that he kisses you, as if each movement of his lips is a new way of giving all of his love to you and promising that he won’t ever let you out of his sights again.

[tryingonametaphor]

Why Will Byers?

An analysis and theory on why Henry/Vecna targeted Will first in season 1 and his plans for Will in season 5

‼️Contains The First Shadow (TFS) spoilers so please proceed with caution.‼️

This is going to be a little long but I’ve tried to give as much context as I can without actually being able to show snippets from the stage play. This is my interpretation of everything that went down as a member of the audience and not as someone who has read up any theories about TFS before. To understand why Henry took Will first in 1983, we have to start with -

Henry and Joyce

From all the times I’ve watched TFS, the one thing that has stuck with me is the final conversation Henry has with Joyce. It’s just before his last confrontation with Patty Newby and before he joins Brenner for good. Joyce is the last person (who doesn’t know about Henry’s powers) that he canonically talks to.

Throughout the entire play Joyce, Hopper, and Bob are investigating the animals dying at the hands of Henry and come to the conclusion that Victor Creel has been the one doing the killing. They get so close to solving the case. In her last conversation with Henry, Joyce tries to comfort him by saying that Victor will pay for his crimes - which makes Henry laugh because she’s so close yet so far from the truth. He gets a little frustrated and says “You don’t get it. But someday you will.” The next time we see Henry make a reappearance in Joyce’s life is during -

The Vanishing of Will Byers

Will is taken into the Upside Down (UD) by Henry. It’s not even a question anymore. All of the context clues from 1x1 lead us to believe that Will’s kidnapping was not by a demogorgon. Will - a 12 year old - miraculously survives a week in the upside down with no food or water. Will is even around the demogorgon a few times in the Upside Down. (Joyce communicating with Will through the lights and then the demogorgon coming after her immediately).

Barb dies the night she is taken but Will stays alive and also somehow manages to talk to Joyce through the wall. Joyce is led exactly to where Will was held at the end of s1 and he makes it out alive. It’s almost as if Henry knew all along that Joyce was the most capable of never giving up on finding her son. Like Henry took Will Byers because he was Joyce’s son. And like he was giving her just enough to know that Will was alive. Even when Joyce and Hopper find him at the end in a state of near death, he’s not injured by a creature. He was being prepared for the next stage of Vecna’s plan -

The Possession of Will Byers

The origins of Henry’s powers happen as such - As a kid, he is transported into the UD (originally coined Dimension X by the government) for a few hours because he touched something he wasn’t meant to touch. During his time in there, he came in contact with the Mind Flayer (MF). According to TFS this is the point in his life when he started getting “corrupted”. Brenner’s dad - who was one of the first people to enter dimension X - had mutated blood after but no powers. Henry was the first person to come in contact with the MF and it’s highly likely he got his powers because of this (This would also track considering how most of the party has been in the UD now but show no signs of having powers). The MF controls Henry for the rest of TFS and Henry grows more power hungry the more he kills.

In S2, Henry presumably sends the MF after Will - who has now had a year to heal from the events of 1983. Will is the only other person in all of ST to have had direct contact with the MF and survived it. Henry didn’t hesitate to kill Billy in S3, but he always gives everyone just enough to keep Will safe. Will himself tells Owens in S2 that the MF wants to kill everyone except him. Will once again survives the entire ordeal and is given a “break” for the next 2 seasons. Except I don’t believe he’s been just given a break. I think Will is -

Henry’s Sleeper Agent.

Ready to awaken in s5. I undoubtedly think that Will is going to have powers. And I don’t think they’re going to be the same as Henry and El. El and the other lab kids get their powers directly from Henry. Will’s powers will be directly from the MF like Henry. I believe this has been Henry’s plan all along and it’s further affirmed by what he tells Will in the recent VR game. That Will will be the key to Henry being able to infiltrate his friends’ minds. Jamie Campbell-Bower also mentioned during the S4 press that to get in character, he set up a display with all of Henry’s victims and targets’ faces on his wall(?), and Will was in the center.

Henry is going to use his connection with Will sneakily and midway through S5 he’s going to awaken Will’s powers (maybe in ep4 - which is said to be titled ‘Sorcerer’ and has young Will in it). Henry is going to try and manipulate his way into making an ally out of Will, and it’s not going to work because -

Will is the Perfect Character Foil.

Will is everything Henry could have been if he had a better support system. He is the perfect character foil. Unlike Henry, Will has a mother who loves him unconditionally and more importantly, believes him. Unlike Henry, the person who Will loves the most (the Patty to Will’s Henry: Mike) is going to love him back and stay by his side all season. No one is going to force them to be apart the way Henry was told to stay away from Patty. Will is not going to be easily swayed even though Henry has spent years crafting him into the perfect soldier. Sure, Henry has seen him heartbroken and sad, but that comes nowhere near to the amount of love and support Will is going to get from his people next season. And they’re going to quite literally defeat Vecna with the power of love and friendship. After that, Will Byers is getting the happy ending that Henry could have gotten.

[bekolxeram]

Continuing on the theme of things I've missed while S7 was airing, we have to talk about the (failed) first date. I admit it gave me too much second hand embarrassment that I usually skipped it on a rewatch. Once I managed to brave through that I realized I did miss something important, so here is another scene breakdown. Again, it's just my own interpretation.

The title of 7x05 is You Don't Know Me, that seems to be the theme of the episode: the Wilsons figuring out Mara's trauma, Eddie finding out Marisol's former nun training, Buck trying to navigate the whole dating a man thing, but they all end up making an effort to make the relationship work.

The date scene starts at the end of the actual date. We don't see much of the getting to know each other stuff, but judging by their faces, it's gone pretty well. At this point they don't know about each other's movie preference yet, so Tommy picks a place where they can decide on arrival, with Buck's input. That also signifies the nature of this date, they're literally "keeping their options open" and just seeing where it goes, without any major expectation.

Buck still seems visibly nervous, but Tommy reassures him that they're just two guys having dinner, it's a very ordinary thing that nobody cares.

Buck pretends he's at ease, Tommy points out he seems a little tensed, but he understands Buck's worry. Tommy speaks about the masculine nature of their job and tells Buck that people are more accepting than he thinks, which sounds awfully like it's from experience.

I think Buck sees it too, so he asks Tommy, who seems perfectly confident in his sexuality and masculinity, if he's been always out on a job. Tommy tells Buck about the 118 under G*rrard, this explains to the audience why Tommy seemed to be straight and a part of the boys club back in S2.

So Tommy was at least aware of or questioning his sexuality at the 118. Mr. "my girlfriend is totally coming next week" and "single is much easier than scaring women" was full blown lying about his sexual orientation. Chances are he does understand Buck's nervous fumbling, as he's probably done worse in the past.

Here comes the seemingly recurring theme of Buck making things all about himself, whether you agree with this or not, he does have a tendency to get stuck in his own head. Tommy assures him yet again that he's not accusing Buck of anything, he's just sharing his own experience to empathize.

Tommy looks a bit surprise when Buck tells him it's his first date with a dude. It's probably new information to Tommy.

And then Buck tries showing Tommy that he holds no prejudice towards queerness because he's an ally, completely oblivious to the fact that he's also one of them. Tommy tries to follow as much as he can.

Tommy senses that Buck is spiraling, trying to pull out random stuff just to bring the date back on track, so he flirts with him just to lighten up the mood and for the third time of the night, reassure him of his interest in him and the rest of the night.

Then Eddie and Marisol walk in, and Buck panics. I know Buck tells Maddie later that he "makes it seem like they were just hanging out", but if you go back to this scene, Tommy is the one who covers for Buck and takes the initiative to agree with Eddie and tell him they're just doing normal bro hangout stuff.

7 seaons in, we all know Buck doesn't have the best luck with first dates. The more he likes someone, the more likely it is for him to mess it up. So of course he has to self-sabotage here and drag Tommy into the closet with him, even though Tommy's already covered for him and Eddie is ready to move on. Tommy doesn't like mad here, he looks disappointed.

For what it's worth, Buck's hot chick comment actually makes things worse. Look at how confused Eddie's reaction is.

This snarky joke from Tommy has caused some controversy among part of the fandom. Some believe that Tommy could've outed Buck with it, but I beg to differ. Eddie knows Buck very well, Buck has always dated women. On the other hand, Eddie has never heard of Tommy dating a woman, he might have attributed it to the recency of their friendship, but that's why he immediately makes the connection in his head that Tommy is gay when Buck comes out to him later in the episode. Even if Eddie had superhuman intuition and understood the double entendre of this closet comment, Tommy would be outing himself, not Buck.

Here is another controversial moment: Tommy doesn't explain anything to Buck until the Uber is here, and he just leaves him there. First, Buck is a grown man, he can get himself home, there is no concern for his safety. Second, Tommy has every right to leave the date if he doesn't vibe with it. When Tommy tells Buck he's adorable, I don't think he's referring to Buck's overall demeanor. I think he means that Buck's nervous fumbling into queerness doesn't scare him, he actually finds it quite endearing. But after reassuring him 3 times, even going as far as telling Eddie, someone they can trust, that they're just hanging out, Buck still feels the need to make the hot chick comment and push them both into the closet, Tommy realizes that things would not go any better if they continue the date. Buck has not fully processed the fact that he's bisexual and he's dating a man. I'm sure Tommy really likes Buck as well, he want to make it work, so to him, the best course of action at the moment is to take a step back and let Buck figure things out himself first.

To Buck this may sound like Tommy is letting him down easy, but I think Tommy is consciously not shutting anything down here. He absolutely will see Buck around, he's still Eddie's friend. Tommy knows they will have to talk about it in the future, but for now, it's best to put a pause on things just to give Buck some space to process. What Tommy doesn't know is that Buck has been dumped so many times that he thinks this is it.

Therefore, not only does Tommy never intend to out Buck during the date, he is willing to keep things ambiguous for Buck's comfort. Ultimately, it isn't enough for Buck, so Tommy takes a step back for Buck to figure things out on his own.

[steviesbicrisis]

Stranger Things S2 rewatch thoughts

I finally finished rewatching S2 and this is everything I've written down as I was watching lmao

KEITH USED TO WORK AT THE ARCADE?? Also the arcade is right next to family video so Keith just moved next door in season 3 lmao

Steve omg you’re so cute stop

FINALLY MAX IS HERE

Okay Billie is bad, yes? We all agree Billie is bad, right? But Dacre IS SO HOT I CANNOT HE TOOK A “PORCA TROIA” OUT OF ME LIKE IT WAS NOTHING

Honestly they’re so dope for dressing up as ghostbusters and going to school with matching outfits

Ugh Nancy and Steve are so terrible for each other

Steve’s face during the bullshit scene really broke my heart 🥺

People being annoyed at Joyce for being super protective of Will like what?? That boy was proclaimed dead, they had a funeral and he turned out to be in another dimension??? I dare you to not be at least a little paranoid

I’m getting the gayest vibes ever from this basketball + shower scene I’m not even joking, Harrington 100% felt what it is like to be a girl objectified in a nightclub

Billy calling Steve pretty boy is so fucked up like are you Eddie Munson? No so imma need you to back off ✋

Jfc no wonder Vecna chose max she’s a walking gold mine for therapists

One drive with Billy would be enough for me to become a target for Vecna I swear

A part of me will always blame Dustin for the cat’s death 🥲

Stranger things is so good I cannot fucking believe my eyes sometimes

First Nancy, now Hopper… can they like, stop going inside creepy ass portals all by themselves? FFS

OH MY GOD ERICA WAS SO SMALL HOW CUTE SINDFKJDF

Lucas telling Max “if I tell you the truth, you could be arrested or killed. Do you accept the risk?” Hits different now

FINALLY THE DUSTIN/STEVE DUO IS BORN

I was today years old when I realized Nancy broke up with Steve in S1 for a month but then she got back with him because she got tired of waiting for Jonathan

Dustin’s proud smile when Steve told him “good call dude” I CANT IM WEEK IM CRYING ON THE FLOOR

I will never get over Dustin’s pure adoration for Steve in this season

JUSTICE FOR BOB

BOB NEWBY THE SUPERHERO 😭😭😭

Everyone: it’s like the mind flyer! Steve&Max: don’t speak nerd in my presence pls

I’m sorry but Mike holding that small trophy as a weapon LOL

I CANNOT BELIEVE THE KIDS WERE AT THE WINDOW WHEN BILLY CAME ARE STUPID

I cannot believe they wanted to leave a beaten-up and concussed Steve behind, are you crazy???

I totally forgot that Steve, in a span of a couple of hours, pushed his girlfriend to be with another guy, got beaten up defending kids he barely knows and then went down - all beaten up and concussed - the upside down tunnels just for said kids?? ARE U EVEN REAL MAN?

Will turning to Mike when that girl asked him to dance 🥺

Nancy is so fucking right, those girls are so stupid turning Dustin down like fuck you who do you think you are????

Jopper at the end, I love my parents so much

Here my thoughts on S1!

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

02/25/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; How to help; Reviews; Cast & Crew; Kristian Nairn; Watch Party reminders; People of Earth S2, Uncle S2; RhysDarbyFaction; Fan Spotlight; ManifestingMoonglow; UK Folks; Articles; Love Notes; Daily Darby/Tonight's Taika feat Pedro Pascal;

== How to Help ==

= Reminder: Rotten Tomatoes reviews! =

Thank you to @bzy_hands on twitter for continuing to lead the charge on getting s2 to 1000+ reviews!

Need help? Visit the report for How to Rate on Rotten Tomatoes

== Cast & Crew Sightings ==

=Kristian Nairn =

Reminder that tomorrow is Wee John Wonday! Thank you @lisahafey and @labellapirata for the news that "The next few weeks are locked in, and I recon they are gonna be really good ;)" Sounds like it's time for some more clown/honking.

Kristian was also spotted on IG working on his Borg look:

...and he's released a new track on Spotify! Keep it warm

==Watch Party reminders ==

Hey all! Watch Parties are back!

= People of Earth S2 =

Feb 26-Mar 1: 9 PM GMT / 4 PM EST / 3 PM CST / 1 PM PST

#PiratesOfEarth

#SaveOFMD

#AdoptOur Crew

If you don't have access to the show to watch, reach out to @iamadequate1

= Uncle Season 2 =

Join @libbyroseitm on Twitter 28 Feb & 29 Feb at 8 pm GMT, 3pm ET, 12 pm PST

== Rhys Darby Faction ==

Remember Max aka Poll Guy, the guy who inspired the new #RhysDarbyFaction hashtag? Well good news, looks like he's on board now and also signed the petition (wait to go @lisahafey)! Remember poison to positivity is definitely the way to go! Wanna vote in the last round of the poll on twitter? Check it out here.

== UK Folks ==

As a heads up, the BBC Schedule for OFMD is changing. Please visit the BBC Schedules page for more information.

== Fan Spotlight ==

More Collages for the month of February from our fabulous crew-mate @WanderingNomad on Twitter! Almost caught up!

Day 7: Nathan Foad

Day 8: #WeLoveSamson - Samson Kayo

Day 9: Con fuckin' O'Neill

Day 24: Stede Bonnet, The Gentleman Pirate

Day 25: Blackbeard, Ed Teach

== Moonglow Manifesting ==

As many of you know, #MoonglowManifesting came to an end yesterday the 24th with the full moon. I wanted to make sure to highlight some of the incredibly creative altars our crew-mates put together!

== Articles ==

HBO Renews 3 TV Shows in 2024, Cancels 4 Others & Reveals 3 Are Ending This Year

== Love Notes ==

Hey lovelies. Do you ever do/say something and then not long after you start feeling massively anxious about whether or not you should have done it? I know I do.

This is especially hard on the internet now a days because tone and sarcasm is so difficult to express and understand.

Just know that it's okay to feel anxious. When we don't get feedback at all (which happens a lot on the internet), or the feedback we expect, our brains can make us feel like something's worse than it might be. If you can help it, don't borrow that anxiety before you know it's an issue (I know it's hard, believe me).

Remember to take a deep breathe, drink some water, and remember even if it didn't turn out the way you expected, you're allowed to make mistakes, and you're allowed to have opinions on things. Just be sure to respect others' opinions and safe space as well.

If you're worried about something in particular, reach out to your crew and ask! We're still a safe space ship here, and we love to talk it through as you all know.

You're doing great, remember to give yourself some credit too.

Hope you have a great start to the week lovelies, we'll see you tomorrow.

== Daily Darby / Tonight's Taika ==

Tonight is a little different. Instead of gifs of our guys, it's their characters! + Special Guest and SAG WINNER Pedro Pascal

[ileftmysoulinnorway]

We all had a tough end of the week, so I thought I would put together something about my IWTV set lurking experience in Prague, hopefully to cheer someone up and show you that the people working on our little show are incredible, everything is well thought out, and we have a lot to look forward to.

Locations

I am confident that Prague will be a good substitute for Paris. I love this post comparing Prague's Théâtre des Vampires location with a real Le Grand Guignol in Paris. But similar care is given to other locations as well.

I like to joke that I enjoyed a month-long tour of Prague's most famous landmarks, only to have the actual filming take place in nondescript alleyways right next to them. But it makes perfect sense. They want to capture the nicer and older parts of the city that suit them, but not anything that would tell you it's Prague.

Production design, costumes

I saw them build everything from scratch on several sets. And I'm in awe. From putting up posters that will probably only appear in the background of a single shot, to street names that fit the exact topography of Paris and make sense in the context of the scenes that take place on them, to storefronts that they really didn't have to pay that much attention to, or a menu at Le Dakar Café that you could only read up close, but someone took the trouble to make it anyway?

And maybe this attention to detail is normal, I don't know, but I still think Mara and her team deserve all the praise they get.

S1 showed us how much attention is paid to the costumes. I can assure you that has not changed. All the hats, coats, capes and dresses. I can't tell you how many times I've been pleasantly surprised. By the choice of colors for Lestat. By how beautifully all of Armand's black clothes come to life with little details.

People

There are so many people (and I mean SO many) working on the show and they all know exactly what is expected of them, everything runs like a well-oiled machine. I haven't seen any problems, any conflicts, any excesses.

I'm not under any illusion that everything was trouble-free, but really the only complaints I heard were about the horrendously hellish schedule (I guess that's normal) and then the occasional person wishing they had finished earlier (they never finished earlier).

They are all heroes to me.

Directors

Levan is the only one I saw. He seems so focused and professional. His "rolling...and action" is unforgettable.

Actors

After six locations and about fifteen scenes (and countless rehearsals and takes), I think I managed to get at least some idea of them, and yes, they really seem to be such nice people.

- Jacob, I don't envy him at all the emotional strain of playing Louis, but at the same time I love his portrait of Louis so much.

- Sam's transformation into Lestat is something to behold.

- Assad was the only one present on every set. I don't think we've fully realized how big a role he's going to have (at least in S2).

- Delainey, Ben, Roxane and everyone else 💜

Scenes

They were far from finished when the strike started, but at least (in my opinion) they got to the last block of episodes. 

I'm not going to pretend to have a concrete idea of what to expect from S2 based on what little I saw. But I do have a few guesses, and I'm insanely excited and thrilled. And, in the case of the 1700s flashbacks, totally confused. I can't believe they're going to do so many unexpected things, or other things so soon.

I truly believe that S2 will not disappoint any of us. We just have to wait a little longer. But if this strike means that everyone gets a better deal and the studios are forced to change their ways, it will be worth the wait.

[fansplaining]

IWTV is the best show on TV. In today’s media environment, it is singular to be able to enjoy a show without the toxicity of the large fandoms. I have found that a majority of the show’s fans are hardcore Anne Rice fans making conversations about the show far more interesting. I am concerned of how this will change once S1 premiers on Netflix. The show deserves a larger audience and it will get it after it premiers on Netflix, but I hope the show runners remain true to the source material and continue on the path they have laid. Looking forward to future IWTV episodes.

Hello! Apologies for the delay in answering this, which I believe was in response to this article I wrote about the show and its audiences. With the official announcement this week that the AMC slate of shows are coming to Netflix on August 19th—

(also: lol Netflix, thank u)

—I was reminded to come back to it!

I totally agree with you re: the show itself, of course—but I also think you've curated your feeds very well haha. I've been observing many corners of the fandom throughout s2, partly because I was reporting on the fan/creator stuff, partly because I'm in the fandom, too. Fandoms are multifarious, and I'm not trying to paint with an overly broad brush—I've seen a ton of creativity and plenty of smart analysis etc. But I have also seen *so* much toxicity and *so* many willfully bad readings over the past few weeks, it's been shocking. Twitter in particular seems to have a literal Discourse of the Day and I don't understand how this is going to be sustainable over the year+ until s3 (lord help us all when s3 arrives lol).

There's a running joke—made so many times I'm not even thinking of a specific post—that people fear ~the Netflix masses~ will bring Bad Takes, but it seems highly likely a casual viewer will go, "Wow! Entertaining!" and move on with their lives, whereas existing fans of this show are already rocket-launching The Worst Takes at each other like clockwork (and even at random viewers who love the show but aren't a part of fandom conversations—because they don't like a person's phrasing, or the picture they chose for a post, etc etc etc).

As far as the idea that Rolin Jones or AMC will waver from their plans, I absolutely don't see that happening. AMC has long licensed their shows to large-audience platforms (Netflix in particular), but they're not making TV *for* those platforms. Jones and (IWTV EP) Mark Johnson have been pretty explicit about how they only could have made this show at AMC. I also found these post-finale comments from Jones very interesting:

I’m confident that we made the best vampire show we could make. I’m proud of the adaptation. There’s the element of second windows, how these things are going to be disseminated going forward. There does seem to be a lot of legwork done by fans. I look at 98 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and part of me is like, Ugh, that’s way too high. If the intention here is to make something that will haunt you and that will work 15, 20 years from now, did we piss off enough people?

There was another interview I cannot find now about how a larger viewing audience in those "second windows" means more chances for the people who really connect to the show to find it. I've loved seeing that this season, even—people who hadn't checked it out for whatever reason and have now been changed by it. When I wrote that article, fans were kind of cycling in an information vacuum, with minimal signals from AMC/the creators that the metrics for success weren't a pure numbers game. But in the final press run, they hit that message hard—they are in it for the long run, they want to make the best show they can, and they understand this is a sustained partnership with fans. I think they're going to continue taking the biggest creative swings they can, and I can't wait to see what's next.

(BTW, IWTV folks: I pulled @flourish away from their baby for 90 minutes and despite their combined total of perhaps 10 hours of sleep over the past 4 weeks lol we managed to finally record a season 2 special episode. It should be out for patrons early next week!)

[brionysea]

Question for you: How do you think a one-on-one convo between madwheeler pre-s4 would go from Mike's pov?--like how do you think he would treat/talk with Max, who's isolating herself/depressed? Because I've seen a lot of fics with that premise, but it always seems to be them only talking about their relationships (whether it be Byler or Mileven in Mike's case, or Lumax with Max. Which I don't have an issue with, it's just not always the main focus I want on Madwheeler), but rather how Mike perceives Max post s-4. Sorry if this is rambly and doesn't make sense, I'm struggling with getting in Mike's head, and you're obviously very good at interpreting his character.

answer for you: according to the one (1) season 4 episode where max and mike were both in hawkins, the dynamics with max and the party pre-s4 seem to be as follows:

lucas chases after her at school and tries to get her to talk about her feelings and/or go to his basketball games. she's not into it, but she listens to the games on the radio at home anyway

dustin chases after her at school and tries to get her to hang out with the group (hellfire) (max doesn't seem to like eddie) (it's a d&d group - a game she had no interest in before she lost all capability to care about the things she previously enjoyed). she's not into it, makes fun of him for missing her sarcasm, and skates away

and mike, instead of doing any of that and making her feel cornered (or worse, pitied) when high school is already bad enough, leaves her the hell alone.

some people (non-madwheeler understanders) would think that means that mike just doesn't care or their friendship isn't Like That. those people would be incorrect. bothering each other and cheering each other up while they're in the Mental Health Trenches is what max and mike do. just look at the skateboard scene

madwheeler always have their Friendship Moments when no one else is around. the gym scene, the conversation in the byers kitchen, when mike called max's house and nobody else could hear both sides, when max radioed mike at the sauna, watching el get a coke can out of the bin together, after they both got knocked out by billy. it's a very private friendship, so playing into the "there's more here than meets the eye" concept and having them possibly share things with each other that they otherwise wouldn't share with anyone makes a lot of cohesive sense - even if it's just in a "distracts you from The Horrors until you blurt it out in a fit of annoyance" way, like what happened when max first heard about el from mike

people just think it's all fighting because that's all they see, but even that is always in an attempt to make each other better. and it always works eventually (although if we're being technical, the dynamic is max trying to make mike better, while mike tries to keep max safe). mike wouldn't fight with max when she's depressed though, i believe that's only a yearly occasion for the single week we jump back into these people's lives when tensions are high as a kite. if he was around during season 4 he would have fought with max over her willingness to self sacrifice (you know, like a hypocrite)

simply put, mike doesn't push because he gets it, which is exactly why max tolerates him more than the other two - she pushed through the crowd to stand next to mike at the pep rally while she ran away from the others when they seeked her out later - and might even open up a little. s2 mike and s4 max, both dealing with the trauma of witnessing a death (where the person's last words were directed at them) and feeling responsible for it while the world moves on and nobody else seems to care, are the same. mike knows that max doesn't want to hang out like everything's normal or talk about her feelings and admit that it's not. especially not with lucas, who has plenty of reasons to hate billy, and max is selfless enough to not want to add her own messiness into it. max's mother's distance would resonate with mike too

the thing about mike interacting with any of his friends is that he's the most persistent person who's ever lived. he called el every day for a year; he probably did the same for will after the byers moved; he wouldn't stop radioing lucas in season 1 until he answered; he would not shut up about trying to get in contact with dustin in season 3. mike doesn't give up. what this means for max, is that once he's sure she won't mind him being there (and even if she does, a little bit, but that might just be the Performatively Hating Each Other part before they get back to enjoying each other's company, so he's gonna stick it out regardless), he'd kinda just... be there. and continue to be there. they might talk, they might not, but he knows that it sucks to be alone like this and he's not gonna let that happen to max if he can help it

this last bit is kind of just a headcanon of mine, but i like to imagine that if mike ever searched for an Activity that max actually enjoyed (dustin's got the right idea, but at the same time the wrong idea), he would try to bug her into teaching him how to skateboard. their conversation in the gym was heading in that direction before el interrupted, so there's the connection to the Mental Health Trenches and implicitly returning the favour of that kindness and moment of connection (even though mike really wasn't doing great pre-s4 either, but whatever), and something about the "bambi on ice" line in lenora makes me think it could be something max said to him when he fell over once

[genericpuff]

The confirm timeline makes everything  and makes Demeter a lot more sympathetic to see her daughter do something so stupid 

oh man seeing the confirmed timeline back when it was still being updated thru S2 was when the cracks started to form for me because I couldn't fucking BELIEVE the first season took place over the course of a week. It's weird because on the one hand it tries to imply that time has passed (like with Persephone's grades slipping) but on the other it keeps writing the story event to event, often consequentially (as in, Event C happens because of Event B, which happens because of Event A) so like, the conclusions these timelines come to are pretty simple in and of themselves - these events often all happen in one day and couldn't have been separated by weeks.

For example, on March 15th, Persephone reveals to Eros that she was SA'd. She stays the night at his place so she can have a safe space away from home where Apollo often comes and goes. That's something that would reasonably lead into March 16th's events which are also all pretty condensed because it's when Minthe slaps Hades which happens the day after she stands him up. And then Hades ends up at Hera's place where Persephone also shows up for inexplicably no reason. Of course, Hades and Persephone both aren't home at this time, so it makes for the perfect opportunity for Thanatos to break in to both her room and Hades' office. And that turns into the Hades and Apollo argument after Hades drives Persephone home.

So there's no way the order of these events are being 'mistaken' for a shorter timeline, because every event interlinks so seamlessly. It undoubtedly works for people reading week to week when there's real life time passing in between each episode to give you the illusion of time passing in the comic, but when you really take these events and lay them out end to end in their most sensible order, it's ridiculous how little time has passed. It's why I laugh when people tell me LO is "better binged", like no it fucking isn't, it's worse because when you binge it, you realize just how little time is passing and how much Rachel covers every minute detail of every hour of every day.

A more recent example? Hades and Persephone are already engaged 4 days after Persephone said she wanted to take it slow.

Don't believe me? Hold on tight, because this is about to get dicey.

Day 1 (Ep 207-208) - Hades and Persephone are tended to by their friends/relatives following the battle with Kronos. Persephone has her punishment lifted by Zeus, Zeus and Hades make up. P x H have their "taking it slow" conversation and decide to be boyfriend/girlfriend. As Persephone curls up in bed with Hades, she feels like she's "forgetting something" (i.e. Demeter).

Day 2 (Ep 209-214) - Hades wakes up from a nightmare, which includes hints as to what happened to Thanatos while Hades was being possessed, leading into the start of the next day with Persephone comforting him. They get to work "fixing" the Underworld by doing a Steven Universe dance. During this time, Demeter is looking for her daughter and finds out from Artemis she's in the Underworld, so she decides to go find her. We get the flashback sequence showing Demeter's backstory with Hades and why she was never made Queen of the Mortal Realm. Meanwhile, Hades and Persephone are checking out "Elysium" (which just seems to be a few trees and a river in the Underworld lmao) and start splashing around in the river. Demeter intervenes right as they're returning from their outdoor excursion, still dripping with river water. Persephone and Demeter reunite while Hades talks to the dog but it's a short-lived conversation as she refuses to go back to the Mortal Realm with Demeter claiming she "seems to still be in love". Persephone sends Demeter on her way, who's spotted by Minthe and a few other nymphs. Minthe claims she "has something to do" and walks off, with the heavy implication she's about to approach Demeter. This leads into the Minthe flashbacks depicting her backstory with her own mother and showing what happened to her after her plant curse was lifted. The day she tried to get back to the Underworld, she finds a lost child who she returns to nymph preschool, where Minthe ends up getting a job as a substitute. Right after that, she's summoned to a conversation with Persephone, who reveals to her that the realms are cut off and she's been a plant for three years. Back in present day, Minthe ends up in a conversation with Thetis (who's now married and the mother of a baby Achilles) where she effectively tells Thetis to fuck off. Minthe continues forward, making it to her real destination, which is her job teaching nymphs life skills like making a resume (effectively making the Demeter cliffhanger pointless clickbait). Day 3 (Ep 214-223) - Hades is preparing breakfast (literally a single donut) for Persephone, during which he thinks back to the conversation with Demeter where Demeter asked Hades how he could let her make the deal with Erebus (this goes nowhere). Hades insists Persephone should take the day off. Hades meets with Hecate, revealing to her that he's ashamed his realm is in such bad shape for Persephone. Hades wants to speak with Kronos, but Hecate convinces Hades it would be a bad idea to go down today. Instead, they opt to speculate on how he could have returned, and decide the only person who would know what happened is Hypnos.

Thus begins the most pointless fetch quest in all of LO *deep breath*:

Hades and Hecate have no idea where to find Hypnos, so they decide to go seek his brother Thanatos for help, but Thanatos doesn't want to talk to Hades because Hades treated him like shit and fired him; despite this, Daphne lets Hades in anyways where Hades and Than have a shitty 'make up' conversation that solves nothing between them; we also get flashbacks of what happened between Than and Daphne during the time skip; Hades finally asks Than where they can find Hypnos; they pick up boba tea for Daphne and then drop her off; Thanatos guides Hades to Hypnos' location which was under his nose the entire time, in the HR department of the Underworld Corp; they find Hypnos, who reveals how Kronos was able to take advantage of his powers; Hecate takes Morpheus under her wing as an apprentice of sorts; Hypnos reveals that Kronos has taken a child captive; despite saying they weren't going to talk to Kronos today, Hades and Hecate head down to Tartarus to speak to Kronos, but they can't access it because Kronos has the doors locked and won't open them for anyone but "his Golden Traitor" (implying Hera). This whole fetch quest ends up being useless btw when we find out later that Kronos has been able to talk to Hera the entire time.

*heavy breathing*

Anyways, while all this is going on, Persephone is in Olympus, enjoying her day off, when she's intercepted by Daphne (remember, she had been dropped off by Hades/Hecate/Than!) who's met up with Eros; Persephone reveals she and Hades haven't "done it yet", Eros reveals that he's married with kids now and has to run off to tend to them; Daphne and Persephone leave the restaurant, where they spot a presidential campaign ad featuring Apollo; Persephone and Daphne go to the bank where Persephone runs into her old classmate Tori and acts like a huge Karen to him just because he gossiped about her once 10 years ago; she finds out through Tori (as he works at the bank) that she has an account that's accrued a shitload of money which allows her to buy an apartment that same day, we KNOW it's the same day because it cuts to Hades who's thinking about everything that went down and wondering how he's gonna tell Persephone; he meets her at her new apartment where they proceed to have Chinese (???) takeout. Hades talks a little about how things went but doesn't go into detail, he doesn't tell her about the child deity. We suddenly transition to Persephone at Hades' house where Persphone's packing up her things to take to her new apartment. They end up having the sex conversation, spurred on by Eros/Daphne questioning her about it earlier. Ares shows up that night drunk and looking for Persephone. Hades goes out to comfort him while Persephone stays behind in the bedroom. It's revealed that Aphrodite has left Ares. Hades finds Persephone in his personal theater, where they proceed to watch a movie from 1920's post-WWI Germany and it's heavily implied they have sex during this (*they do not). Ares texts Aphrodite, who's in bed with Hephaestus.

Day 4 (Ep 224 onwards) - The next day starts with Aphrodite/Ares/Heph flashbacks revealing why Aphrodite left Ares, and with a "first meeting" between Heph and Aphrodite. Back to present day, Aphrodite blocks Ares on her phone and meets up with Psyche for coffee. Persephone and Hades are getting ready to leave for work when they find a note left by Ares, which we later find out is urging Persephone to meet up with him to talk about her fertility goddess powers. More Heph / Aphrodite flashbacks. Hades finally mentions the child deity to Persephone. Hera shows up at Hades' work where they proceed to info dump the Kronos/child deity stuff on her. Persephone gets jealous of Hades calling her 'Bunny'. Hera wants to plan Persephone's coronation. Persephone decides she'll be the one to talk to Demeter about her coronation. Hera leaves, this is where it's revealed Kronos has been living in her head for an undisclosed amount of time. Psyche and Hephaestus speak in private, where Psyche reveals she's stolen a pen drive off Apollo for Hephaestus to investigate. Kassandra is revealed. We get some Psyche flashbacks showing how Psyche became a goddess for the purpose of spying on Apollo on Zeus' behalf. Heph gets Psyche to track down Kassandra through Eros/Aphrodite. Cut back to Hades, who's on his own (while Persephone is spending her first night at her new apartment) and is trying to create an engagement ring for Persephone, while reminiscing on their conversation the night before about "the hegemony of virginity". He's summoned by Persephone, who immediately bursts into tears about how upset she is that she got jealous of Hera (not that Hades called her Bunny lmao). This happens in the same day because Persephone says "I got jealous today." More TherapySpeak where Hades makes it all about him. Persephone reveals she's going to meet up with Ares, so Hades decides to accompany her in moth form. Persephone goes to the Mortal Realm to meet with Ares where, according to him, it's "after evening" (w/e the fuck that is, it doesn't look like night time though). This meeting is also counting as her obligatory "date" with him. Ares shows her an old temple with statues in it depicting the fertility goddesses. Ares is barely able to give her any extra info on it that Hades couldn't have already told her. Persephone touches the depiction of Metis and is immediately Avatar'd into the nth dimension where she meets with Metis. Metis tells her about Gaia and how fertility goddesses are a part of the Ouranos lineage. Persephone wakes up from her Avatar state (it's actually visibly night at this point) to find Ares has ditched her. Hades reminds her that she had a visit with Demeter already planned and shouldn't forget it. Demeter sabotages their visit with the whole TGOEM purity club intervention, during which she cages Hades. Hestia lets Hades free, and he immediately proposes to Persephone. Hades takes her away to the Underworld.

WOW that was a lot. But my god, I do not blame the creators of that timeline in the slightest for calling it quits (from the looks of it, they haven't updated it since Season 2). It's absolutely insane how crazy the timeline is. I'm almost half-tempted to finish what these folks started, especially if they stopped due to some kind of divine intervention from Rachel (tinfoil hat theory, but it wouldn't be the first time Rachel's sabotaged a fan project).

This only covers the Free episodes of course, but SPOILER Hades and Persephone end up having to get married literally the next day due to an embargo Demeter's placed on them under the rules of xenia (according to Zeus).

So. Yeah. They've been officially together for 4 days and got married on the 5th.

Peak romance fiction, y'all. They totally got back at the haters who said they were rushing shit.

[lev1hei1chou]

I loved your argument on why narratively it makes sense for him to be revived.

appearantly tho the first leak translation was pretty flawed... Do you have any new opinions or changes in thought with this new one?

https://imgur.io/a/TVBdEXl

i just finished reading that and my heart sunk. BUT the lotus flowers probably have a meaning, atleast in the rebirth sense. Red spider lilies were used in the s2 opening

so lotuses probably do hold some sort of a relevance here. Lotuses could signify rebirth or resilience

"the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties"

"the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape"

^both meanings of resilience

Other than this, he is yet to delve into the topic of whether he is “satoru gojo bc he’s the strongest or the strongest bc he’s satoru gojo”

I also believe in the abilities of shoko and yuta (if hes able to work on RCT and yknow, not get occupied in the battle). Shoko hasnt had a definitive character moment yet so this could be her moment to shine. She's already lost people close to her so maybe she'd go all out in this case

At the moment all we can do is be high on copium. Lets see what happens in next week's leaks.

Its pretty unfortunate that there were mistranslations, but lets hold on to hope!

[incarnateirony]

Interesting news out of the M&G Saturday, but I gotta say, it doesn't track with filming, original intent, or anything else and does seem like either if taken at flat value rather than reading thoroughly.

A) Misha is throwing something/lying/word tweak people missed

B) It's that whole extended direct reunion element even if Dean deals with his own bullshit

Particularly interesting since he DID make it to film. The TLDR is that people are implying he said he won't be in TW, that he and Jensen talked about it and "Jensen and I spoke in depth and we decided it wasn't time for Cas to come back". That it was intended with Jensen and they talked about it.

This, of course, if read DIRECT, is directly in contrast with Jensen outright saying "I'm bringing Castiel back" in another recent greet (iirc it was DC. Misha also told a fan he was coming back this year as well, a few weeks later). So it feels like there's either some miscommunication, or they changed some delivery angles when the script flexed for renewal, or misha is outright admitting they opted to bump Cas coming back into the next year plot rather than the tie-up finale.

The only way I can think OF this working in the structure, though, if it becomes Dean saying and facing his piece whether or not he's heard back (which is the point of finding the self, just like Cas didn't need to Hear It Back to find himself), and then stretching out the full recovery to the second season, which I believe is something I threw as an option on it, the great destiel reunion method. If people end S1 knowing Cas might still be out there and come back for S2 on the great destiel chase.

Which I believe I said was the antis' best hope--a direct stall on any reunion direct only to turn into the great lovers divided across worlds storyline. So you know. Enjoy that.

Like I said I've been flying blind on extension plans. Season 1's premise was simple: Dean, dead, finding peace, and putting away his inner monsters and addressing his repressed issues and had something to say and needed Cas. Learning from your parents etc. I SAW this as a potential flex but I can't say I'm comfortable believing it outright plain text. What does he mean Coming Back. Is that the same as Being In? Coming Back and Being In Are similar but not the same. He could be In the show without Coming Back in a means that is like, literally coming back. Because if Castiel Comes Back Now, then we end up with the deancas show for season 2 and the kids as a side, but that doesn't mean he has no presence there EG Roxy and so on. So I can see how it could be "Cas is in but not coming back yet, such as voices, small clips, astral breakthroughs, etc"

I know some people are gonna try to spin and twist and flip out and manipulate the fuck out of this and make it a damn big thing, but I really don't care. End of the road will always be the same. Catastrophize and squeal all you want after the post, but I'd rather inform people of the dialogue going around than brush it under a rug.

I always struggled, personally, with where the show could go if DeanCas got a reunion, since ironically the search for that is a huge point of the early premise. They wrote it for one season but if you get more seasons, the whole akrida-stiel setup kinda gets wonky to continue if he just ends up sitting shotgun with Dean. So frankly, I'm not even blinking at this statement.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Beth in ep 18′s Opening Montage! 🎉🎉🎉

Okay, so I said I’d give you as close as we have to proof that Beth is soon returning. This is going to be a teensy bit of a spoiler for ep 11x18. But not for anything that happens in the episode.

Lol. Let me explain.

Before the action picks up (the cliffhanger of Daryl holding a knife to Lance’s throat) we get another voiceover/flashback sequence from Judith. This particular voiceover made me SOOO happy when I watched it, that I just couldn’t wait until next week to share it.

And since it technically doesn’t spoil anything that actually happens in the episode…I figured it would be okay. Here is a video of the opening montage for reference. I didn’t want to do screenshots of each shot. There are too many and it would have made the post too long.

So, here is the transcription of what Judith says. Below each line, I’m going to list the scenes it shows while she’s talking. You can follow along in the video above.”

“We’ve come so far...”

Daryl from ep 1, when we first meet him at the quarry

“Lost so much...”

Daryl hallucinating Merle in the gorge in S2

Daryl and Merle on the bridge in S3

(We also hear Daryl saying, “you handcuffed my brother to a roof, and you left him there?!”

Daryl riding Merle’s bike in S2

“It’s hard to trust when anyone could go at anytime...”

Merle as a walker in S3

Daryl crying after putting him down

Daryl lying beside the walker in the burnt-out forest in 6x06

“The people who die and the people who go...”

Carl at Terminus

Hershel just before his death (his smile)

Daryl and Glenn kneeling by the Terminus trough

Denise, dead on the train tracks

“Aren’t lost forever...”

Rick shooting the dynamite on the bridge

Rick and Daryl searching for Sophia in S2

Rick pulling Daryl out of the pit in 9x05, just before Rick disappeared

Daryl feeding baby Judith her bottle in S3

“I believe that.”

Daryl carrying Carol, bridal-style, out of the catacombs in S3

Daryl carrying Beth, bridal-style, out of Grady in Coda

“I have to.”

Daryl putting his arm around Judith after she was forced to kill Earl.

Daryl leading during the Hilltop battle

Daryl leading the group up the hill toward the Whisperer pikes

“And remembering their voices is how we keep them alive…”

Daryl putting his hand on the window for Judith, just before the battle against Beta (the Tower)

Rick and Daryl’s hug in 7x08

Daryl in the subway

(We also hear a female voice saying, “these people need you”

And Rick saying, “the future belongs to us all now.”)

Okay, so obviously the thing that most caught my attention was Beth being in this. I’ll get to that in just a minute. But, in really paying close attention and analyzing this, what really struck me is that this is 100% about Daryl.

The writers, like AK and Nicotero, keep saying they wanted to do these little voiceover montages at the beginning of the episodes to callback and honor earlier seasons in the series. Okay, cool. They also said that the montages are symbolically relevant to what’s happening in each episode.

So, let’s examine the montage for ep 17 to see what we can see.

Judith’s words:

“I’ve heard a lot of stories about when the world fell. There were more dead than living, and it started to look like the world would go cold. It felt like it was almost there. Almost. Some people survived by connecting with each other. Making found families. Others gave in to the darkness. That was a long time ago. And it’s now. Will it be tomorrow?”

I won’t go over all the scenes as I did for ep 18, but it starts out showing a lot of walkers and walker gore. Walkers eating people. Hmm. What happens in ep 11x17? A walker horde is converging on the CW, and there’s lots of gore. We see people getting eaten. She says it feels like the world would go cold (i.e. be lost). We essentially see this happen on a small scale in the CW. The walkers get in, a heavy dose of reality comes crashing down on the citizens. And especially Judith. Her fantasy of a normal life is dashed as she picks up Rick’s gun and kills walkers with it again. See how it connects to what’s happening?

Now, for ep 17’s montage, we do see a bunch of different characters and scenes from earlier seasons. But with ep 18, we don’t. 

Once again, for ep 18, this montage is solely about Daryl. Yes, other characters make appearances, but look at those scenes again. S1 Daryl, S2 Daryl, Daryl and Merle, Daryl and Rick, Daryl and Glenn, Daryl and Beth, Daryl and Carol. It’s AAALLLLLL about Daryl.

So, it’s about how far HE’S come, how much HE’S lost, and how he has a hard time trusting, because anyone could go at any time. And they have. He keeps losing people.

She says “the ones that die and the ones that go.” That’s super important. The writers are making a distinction there. There’s a difference between those that die, and those that simply “go.” And go is a present-tense form of “gone.” So, this is part of the “just gone” symbolism. When, in the show, they use that phrase, it’s to show that someone isn’t dead. They simply aren’t present at the moment. Daryl’s line to Rick about Beth, “she’s just gone” was super powerful that way, and the writers have used it over and over again for other characters and arcs.

Now, the first kicker is that right when Judith says the ones that go “aren’t lost forever” it shows Rick. First, it shows him shooting the dynamite on the bridge, which was specifically when Rick left the show. When he “went.” And then we see him and Daryl searching for Sophia.

So, this makes perfect sense, because the audience already knows that Rick is alive, and is looking forward to the Rick/Michonne spinoff. So, it makes sense that they would show him as someone who didn’t die, but who is just gone.

The thing is, his arc and the symbolism surrounding his disappearance are identical to Beth’s. So, if it’s true of Rick, we can assume the same is true of Beth.

Oh, but the writers didn’t leave us with that little nugget alone. No, no, no. It gets better.

Right when Judith says “I believe that,” (that those who are gone aren’t lost forever) we see Daryl carrying Carol out of the catacombs in S3, followed by him carrying Beth out of Grady.

GUYS!!!

TD has said FOREVER that Carol’s death fake out from S3 was the template they built Beth’s from.

In S3, Daryl believed Carol to be dead, and had accepted it. He’d already mourned her, and even created a grave site for her, though her body was not in it.

Obviously Daryl thinks Beth is dead. He mourned her heavily and heart-breakingly in S5, and continued to do so for many seasons after. Though we didn’t see it on the show (yet), through SM posts and trading cards, the writers have given us hints that Daryl tried to bury Beth at a white church, but was interrupted. (Details here.) It’s possible they created another burial site for her afterward, but didn’t have her body because it disappeared.

In S3, Daryl found Carol’s knife. If you watch that scene, he’s really mystified by it. I think that’s because he assumed she died further out, at a different, outer part of the prison, and finding her knife suggested she might have been alive longer than he realized. It didn’t necessarily tell him she was alive, just that things were different than he originally believed.

In S5, Carol gave Daryl Beth’s knife, and we don’t know where it came from or how she got it. I believe with Beth, these two things (the knife and Daryl realizing Beth was alive for longer than he believed) will be separated. He already got her knife in S5. I believe at some point, as Michonne did with Rick, Daryl will find evidence that Beth may have been alive longer than he thought. He won’t necessarily believe it right away, or think she’s still alive because of it, but he will see it and be confused by it.

In S3, Daryl believed the person/walker who kept knocking against the door and trying to open it was a walker. I believe we’re meant to believe, after he found Carol’s knife, that he realized it was Carol, but as a walker. That’s why he had to hype himself up so much before opening the door. He thought he would find Walker Carol and have to put her down. When he opens the door, he stops, and turns her chin toward him to look into her face, reassuring himself that she really is still alive.

In S5, because of the blond girl he and Aaron found on the tree, we had a representation of this. He clearly thinks Beth has turned into a walker, and the fact that he entertained the idea of the girl on the tree being her shows that he was never able to put her down. So, he thinks she’s still out there somewhere as a walker. He looked into the blond walker’s face to reassure himself that it was NOT Beth.

See what I mean?

Now, in this 11x08 montage, we have the writers comparing the two women’s stories with Daryl. Showing him carrying Carol, who he thought was dead, but turned out to be alive. And then Beth, who we believe to be alive, but of course it hasn’t been confirmed in the show, yet.

And all the while, Judith is talking about those who are GONE (Carol was not dead; she was gone. Showing Beth right after her, being carried in the same way by the same man, suggests her arc will be the same as Carol’s) not being lost forever. So, much like Daryl found Carol again and brought her back into his life, he’ll do the same with Beth.

After that, most of it is Daryl leading his people in one way or the other, and Judith is in quite a few of the shots. That could be because she’s a Beth proxy, or it may have more to do with what actually happens in 11x18, because this is a very Daryl-and-Judith heavy episode. Personally, I think it’s a little bit of both.

One of the last things it shows is Daryl and Rick hugging in 7x08. Guys, I said a LONG time ago that the end of 7x08, where Rick and Michonne and co return to Hilltop, Rick and Daryl hug, and Daryl gives Rick his gun back is a foreshadow of when Rick returns after being taken with the CRM. For one thing, he and Michonne return together, which will obviously happen because of their spinoff. And Daryl will turn the leadership role back over to Rick, along with his Python gun.

Them putting this scene in the montage shows not only that he will reunite with Rick, who is also gone but not dead, but that my symbolic interpretation of that scene was 100% correct.

The montage in 11x17 spanned the entire series. It starts with Rick in the hospital, and end with Judith saying, “will there be tomorrow?” And remember, as I said before, the tomorrow symbolism always implies the CRM war. So, they went through the entire span from Rick awakening in the hospital (1x01) to the CRM (which I think will happen at the very end of the flagship series, perhaps in the final episode, and kick us into the spinoffs.

Here, it focuses on Daryl, starting with his first appearance in 1x03, and ending with him reuniting with Rick, which probably won’t happen until after both the Rick and Daryl spinoffs. Or possibly at the end of one of them.

See how they’re sneakily telling stories of what has happened, but also what’s going to happen with these montages?

See why this made me so happy? It’s practically proof (even if only symbolic) that everything TD has been saying since S5 is true, and is finally about to come to fruition. Buckle up TD-ers. Bethyl is on its way!

[thevindicativevordan]

What are your expectations from this new Dawn of DCU relaunch?

Apparently the "official" name is New Dawn. New York Comic-Con this week means we're getting a bunch of announcements on what's coming post Dark Crisis. Good time to get in some predictions now before the official announcements drop. My expectations are:

Williamson will be writing a relaunched Superman ongoing. He's set to be a part of the Superman panel at NYCC and he's the odd man out there. PKJ, Jurgens, and Russell have major Superman specific books either already out or on the way, Williamson does not currently have anything starring Clark. Between Jon's book being established at this point for better or for worse, Clark returning back to Metropolis, PKJ saying Action is shifting to being a Superfamily book on Twitter, the rumored Cavill cameo in Black Adam this month, and Superman's 85th anniversary next year, there's no way DC isn't going to have a proper Superman book for 2023.

I wager that Conner's Superboy miniseries by Porter and Lindsay will be scheduled to debut in Jan as part of the new linewide relaunch. DC is probably hoping that will boost it's sales and get more people to pay attention.

I also expect Williamson to be writing the "Legacy League" title with Jon, Jace, Yara, Jo, Jackson, and maybe a few others. Meanwhile I bet Waid gets the "classic" League, with the lineup being that Dan Mora banner drawn above, and Taylor gets the Titans with the New Teen Titans lineup. Or maybe I have that reversed and Waid gets the Titans while Taylor, as the new golden boy, gets the Justice League.

Waid is also supposedly writing a "Magical Crisis" event next year which will feature all of DC Mystic.

Geoff Johns will be revealed to be writing a Legion of Superheroes 12 issue miniseries as a companion book to his JSA mini. First however there will be a War of the Four Legions mini-event similar to Batman vs. Robin, which will use Hypertime to eject the Bendisboot from being the "canon" future and restore Johns' Retroboot. Johns probably has other minis in the works that might get announced too.

Stephanie Phillips is off Harley Quinn and I'm guessing that's because she will be writing a new Green Arrow book. She's expressed a lot of love for the Arrows, she wrote the Roy Harper one shot for Infinite Frontier, and the only other one I could see getting the book over her is Williamson.

Shawn Martinborough has been teasing a Red Hood book so that's likely to show up

Official announcement that Nightwing #100 will be a wedding issue between Dick and Babs

Milestone was already announced to get a second season, so maybe we'll get details on Static, Icon & Rocket, and Hardware S2.

John Stewart & the Emerald Knights was teased at the end of the previous GL run. Thorne is writing a Stewart one shot that I believe will act as an "issue 0" to let any potential newcomers get background on what happened in the previous series and then go directly into the new ongoing which Thorne will also write. For Hal I'm expecting there will be a new Hal Jordan & the GLC book delivering traditional GL stories starring Hal as the main protagonist. Guessing Williamson will be writing that, would've said Waid but he seems to already be stretched thin with all his rumored books. I bet Sampere is going to draw the Hal book given he loves Hal and GL, he's said he has post Dark Crisis DC books in the works, and DC is likely going to give him a dream book as a reward for doing the event.

Not sure if we'll get a new Aquaman book, his movie is now not coming until Dec 2023, but if we do I'm hoping Jackson & Lanzig will be writing it since I greatly enjoyed their Voidsong book.

Tom King has three new comics projects in the works, it's probably too early to announce what they are but you never know.

Webtoon will announce more DC series, probably at least one featuring the Superman or Wonder Woman corners of the DCU.

And that's all I can think of. I'm sure there will be some surprises, at the very least I want Dan Watters to get a major DC book somewhere since I've greatly enjoyed his work, and all he has right now is an Azrael mini. There will be some Black Label book announcements, probably mostly Batman, some more minis here and there, and with any luck Batman won't be 50% of the line anymore.

One last major thought going forward. Infinite Frontier was an attempt to increase diversity at DC, an attempt which seems mostly to have flopped. DC did try to put the spotlight on their nonwhite characters, to increase rep for LGBT, to bring in more non-white/non-straight creators for their books, and it didn't work out overall. The Aquaman books had an all black writing team, which attempted to raise Kaldur to equal status with Arthur and shift Manta into a more anti-hero role, and the books absolutely tanked. John Stewart and Jo headlined the GL title, and sales were just ok. Most of the Future Staters have been busts with only Jon and Jace currently holding on to their titles. We got some really great books out of IF, absolutely love Ram V's Swamp Thing run which gave us a new Indian Swamp Thing, but I'm expecting New Dawn to be to IF what Rebirth was to DC You: a return to focusing on the traditional (white and straight) A-Listers. Johns and Waid seem set to take over as the new architects for DC once more, and that "bread and butter" old school storytelling is what those two love.

No doubt there will be the usual bitching from Twitter and Tumblr about this shift (although maybe not given nobody seems to have loved stuff like Bendis Legion) but you guys who wanted more diversity didn't show up for it, so DC is "embracing tradition" once more. Hopefully that Legacy League book does actually happen and that at least keeps some of the new blood from falling into Limbo. Outside of the direct market, Webtoons seems like it might be able to keep carrying the torch for diversity at DC given that's where they launched Vixen and Zatanna.

[feuqueerfire]

I Hear Your Voice Live Blogging

When I added this show to my watchlist, I didn't know anything except it's an age-gap noona romance and has a mystery plot. Also it's over a decade old, came out in 2013 lol, so we'll see how it goes. I've only watched Ai no Kotodama (j-BL movie, 2008) and Just Friends? (k-BL movie, 2009) released before 2014.

I just read the synopsis and seems like the younger guy can even read minds?! Unfortunately there's a love triangle with an older guy but he's played by the 40-year-old Hong Dayoung (?idk the name rip) actor from 18 Again. Just watched Lee Dohyun in Good Bad Mother and ig now I'll watch this; 18 Again is truly just The Show to me.

Ep 1 (Apr 3)

oh, it starts off in high school?

had to mute why were they showing pissing stream + with audio ew

ah, those thoughts were what he's hearing. okay, Edward. though he has to touch people or no? seems like he can hear it without touching

the car crash murder is the reason he can hear thoughts seems like

so the thoughts are like literal noise and he can tune it out by putting on headphones?

ah, FL is shameless and bitchy <3 a bit irritating but fun

oof, Hye Seong getting teamed up by these kids

Aw, my poor girl who is like I'm cold and my personality sticks but not to the extent that I'd target a girl like this

don't be too prideful to not accept money lol they're kicking you out and wrongfully severing her job, they should at least pay smh but i guess pride is a thing

Also, I thought like 3 different times that the girl's father is gonna end up seeing that his daughter is lying or believing Hye Seong but ig not ? and he's a judge too

ah, burning money lol gotta make a statement ig

ah, Hye Seong and the other girl both saw the car crash murder happen

Also, I thought the age gap was like 20 years for some reason but it's just like 10

oh naurrr the kid saying he can read other people's minds but it's gonna only convince people more that he's not doing well and his version of events can't be trusted

oof, not Hye Seong being threatened like this in front of the whole court... is the man gonna come out of jail around now?

Soo Ha has been searching for her, ah

A female lead who is kinda bitchy, kinda shameless but has a sense of justice and is stubborn along with a younger male lead who's obsessed with (the idea of) her and is searching for her, ahh

Ep 2 (Apr 4)

Seong Bin? Who is that?

ohh it's the girl who likes Soo Ha

I just realized maybe he's 19 Korean age, so he's underage and in high school yaas off-putting illegal age gap noona romance <3

augh murderer Joon Kook is getting released next week

this Gwan Woo guy... no. He was fine last time but right now as he keeps calling her beautiful and such out loud in front of people as she's not responding... no

oh, the Seong Bin case insisting she didn't do it while others point at her parallels Hye Seong's own case

She admitted it... hm

Gwan Woo dumb as rocks wtf does he mean his defendants won't lie and he just knows if people are lying by looking at them, how can you be so naive

Hah, he's in love with such an idealized version of her

her having Real Thoughts and Conflicts while mans is just cheesing at finally having her

he's following her home though lmfao chill

Ah, him fixing the lamp that was broken lol reminds me of hmmm I think Love Class S2 BL? Main couple maybe?

ah, he saved Seong Bin

Soo ha getting a reality check about Hye Seong and refusing to believe

ofc he's a rich kid lolol

lol they were hinting his defendant was gonna lie

annoying segment insinuating that female cops can’t sexually harass a woman but maybe the alternative would’ve been making it about scary lesbians which is agh

Bo yeon or whoever bitch from childhood is the prosecutor now

majorly icked out by him picking her up on his shoulder to get her to come w him

woah the mind reading part came so fast, even before his name

ah he’s using banmal w her?

oh he threw the book that hye seong dropped that he’s been keeping for 10 years in the trash but couldn’t let it go

Ep 3 (Apr 4)

would the witness lie and say Seong Bin did it? paralleling Hye Seong's situation even more?

dying at the misunderstanding of you have something on your cheek vs her giving him a finger kiss on his cheek

augh, Sooha's dad's murderer is back

bruh as expected she lied but seems like not necessarily out of maliciousness but rather bc she can't say the truth about why she fell...?

oh also I don't get the way his powers work, sometimes he can hear anybody and everybody (that's how he heard the murderer) vs sometimes he has to look into people's eyes to hear their thoughts?

getting yelled at by her mother because of how callously she's taking all this, including being more worried about how she appears instead of Beo Yeon or whoever instead of her defendant. i mean deserved but having the yelling happen in front of everybody on the team + Sooha is humiliating

who is this man in jail? Ga Yeon's father who has died and would have been around Hye Seong's age?

no girl, that's not Sooha's phone number, that's a murderer hunting you down lmfao

not these grown lawyers sneaking into high school T.T lmfao

agh it doesn't say what the internet search history is

ah, cigarette stuff

interesting confrontation between the two girls tbh

why are the Viki subs like... bad? they don't sub the writing on screen and also instead of saying the witness under 16 won't face perjury, says that the testimony "is invalid"

fuckass Do yeon is so irritating, and seems like she's billed as a main character in MDL

i should not be losing my shit already at every interaction between Soo Ha and Hye Seong lmfao but him finding a seat on the bus for her but then when she starts boasting about the trial he makes a face and moves to a different seat like it's just so good man

and her giving him a little lecture like i don't have time to deal with feelings from a high school junior, so get over me vs him being like i don't like you though (meanwhile... hah.)

and him teasing her with the "total and utter humiliation" hehe

oh true she doesn't even know his name

not Joon Kook's phone literally ringing in the next room, bye. reminds me of Beyond Evil with the shower curtain bathroom killing situation though this isn't as dire since we're legit on ep 4 lol

Ep 4 (Apr 4/5)

why doesn't Soo Ha tell Hye Seong about Joon Kook :< ik it'll make things complicated for him but she's gotta know there's a murderer texting and breaking and entering and stalking her c'mon

damn, not Soo Ha's uncle guardian mans leaving him at some park (what other show does this remind me of... To My Star?? idk or actually maybe it's BTS J-Hope lore lol)

so who does he live with now, seems like he has a big/spacious place

Doyeon isn't their biological daughter or what?

idk why I find it soooo cute that Hye Seong wakes up a mess, makes some weird/bad-tasting concoction for breakfast, and her house is a fucking mess (enough that Sooha literally thought the guy wreaked havoc in there) and Sooha's just getting reality check after reality check after having idolized her for a decade lmfaooo

and him getting mad at this loll but it's not like it's gonna make him stop liking her

ah, Sooha volunteering at same place as Joonkook

ig we’re gonna have a new case every 1-2 eps and fuckass doyeon is gonna be there for them all

o no joonkook knows sooha’s identity but sooha doesn’t know he’s been found out

asdf nahh he told her her only talent is her eyes that see whether the defendant is saying the truth or not lmfao

need Gwanwoo to fuck off ngl i am sooo not into their potential and am not looking forward to the love triangle

Ep 5 (Apr 5)

pls not them pretending to be close and as if she sees him as her real younger brother

ahh noona ik in this case it’s supposed to be to show like familial relations but i want him to call her noona all the time

lol her clocking that she was his first love and him being like no

wound tending 2.0 and his smile is so like indulgent idek

I guess they'd make Hye Seong's client who seems to be caring and innocent to actually be the perpetrator while the older twin who seems more callous and with a previous record to be the one who is telling the truth?

hate to see her think of Lawyer Cha as attractive or be into him like stoppppp

damn not Seong Bin taking one for the team

ah parallels of Seongbin -> Sooha -> Hye Seong -> fuckass Cha Gwanwoo

bruh, didn't Hyeseong's mother see Gwanwoo when she went to the office though? or ig she knows it's him lol

he's throwing a fit ahh as expected of a 17 year old hehe

useless cops as expected

Ep 6 (Apr 5)

Ah, not that her person was the murderer but that they both co-conspirited

she thinks that he's a chain holding her back and he has flashbacks to his uncle thinking the same thing, ouch

Sooha staring at fish in their little aquarium reminds me that Good Bad Mother also had that

ah Dayeon and Hyeseong teaming up and maybe playing mind games with Hyeseong's guy

Prisoner's Dilemma

her getting caught every which way, first Sooha saying that she shouldn't be a public defender lawyer when she was fine with not making the twins confess but now it's the boss after she has indeed made them confess

is the fuckass murderer touched by Hyeseong's mother giving him food for his bday?

that 1 cop seemed to be suspicious of Hyeseong and Sooha being close and apparently living together and now he's like it does kind of sound like a threat so... will he come in clutch in the end

resisting the urge to not just skip through fuckass Gwanwoo's scenes

yaas the date didn't happen ! i mean terrible bc Sooha is being thought of as having stolen the cop's gun but yay

nvm Joonkook is flushing everything down the toilet rip

so has Sooha is gonna find and knife Joonkook?

Ep 7 (Apr 5)

me and Sooha both sending hateful and awful vibes to Gwanwoo's moments with Hyeseong

equal opportunity opening lids for the other!

i love you table with spinny section on top

hug and now a hand kiss? Cha Gwanwoo count your days aghhh

plsplspls don't be dating maybe Sooha just walked away too soon

awooga sad Sooha

naurrrr not Hyeseong's mom, fuckass Joonkook

Ep 8 (Apr 6)

ahhh she's dead dead

it would actually be insane if Dayeon who kept requesting hard sentences for everybody suddenly was like nah

it'd be especially funny because Joonkook is saying he also didn't kill the father back then meanwhile Dayeon literally witness him killing that man (though she didn't testify against him)

okay at least it seems like she's not gonna believe him whew

trying not to be hateful towards Gwanwoo even though him saying he's her boyfriend now is actually terrible

bruh what is Joonkook playing at, he fakes attempting suicide? so is Cha Gwanwoo gonna start believing that he didn't mean to do it?

ohh committing perjury (ig that means falsifying testimony? since they're making the cellmate give a false witness testimony)

awooga they're gonna get caught lying. is Joonkook really gonna walk away free after all this? ig we're only on ep 8... aughhh

Gwanwoo is just doing his job but like fuck him. and most of all, fuckkkkkkkk Joonkook the most. also is the prosecutor gonna get fucked over fr fr for the perjury

awooga not Sooha being like yeah Hyeseong really likes you Gwanwoo, which is why this is hard for her. so give her time, wait for her and protect her

like okay mature response despite loving her but akldfas i need Gwanwoo and Hyeseong to fucking break up bc I'm already biased against him but he's also defended the murderer of her mother, so like... no

okayyyy lmfaooo i was like this is a weirdly mature response but indeed he's like heheh Gwanwoo fucked up and isn't coming back, so I get a chance

oh yeah the aquarium talk when he and his father were in the car

this dumbass is gonna kill Joonkook or what? i just realized he wasn't saying thanks for the chance with Hyeseong because he's prlly gonna be in fucking jail, thanks for the chance to kill Joonkook with his own hands ig?

"last goodbyes" girl

woahhh one startled kiss before leaving (forever, apparently is his plan dumbass)

I barel watched today, so got through 1 ep the whole day and that was like 20 mins over 12 hours and then 40 mins over 1h lol

Ep 9 (Apr 7/8)

is this another dream?

ah, future scene first

omg wait... Hwang Dal Joong's daughter went missing 25 years ago when he got put in jail... the person who put him in jail is Doyeon's father fuckass judge man... there are rumours that Doyeon was "found under the bridge" ummmm

bruh, Gwanwoo's just now getting to know about everything that happened at the court room when Hyeseong testified 10 years ago? Also, how come she was never a witness for this because I feel like their phone call which was about her mother telling her to not take revenge etc would've been helpful a bit at least ??

bruh why'd I barely watch it today also

Ah, Sooha doing the smoke bomb thing

19 year old's bravado and confidence

aough, Hyeseong running in front of blade

damn, why Sooha take the blade out bruh

Sooha disappeared Again?!

hmmm would Min Joonkook be killed offscreen like this? we have a severed hand but no body means not dead

and Sooha told her he wouldn't kill Joonkook

A whole year later?!

well that means Sooha is an adult now btw

omgggg now it's her turn to see Sooha at every turn and run after him, the way Sooha did at the beginning

awooga, is this real or fake amnesia? goddammit

can't download this aghhh i wanted to watch some on the train smhh

Ep 10 (Apr 8)

omg real amnesia?

oh interesting Hwang Dal Joong presumably also didn't kill his wife? but where does Doyeon's father fit into this because like he was the judge for that case but he wasn't normal about it. is Doyeon indeed Dal Joong's daughter? Would the judge guy be the murdered wife's other man? No, right?

lkajd Sooha's nemesis/frenemy having to read his diary to him

If I have to watch any romantic moments between Gwanwoo and Hyeseong while my boy Sooha is now an adult who is in prison without his memories, I might lose my shit

why aren't they talking to the man who housed Sooha, what do you mean he just told Sooha that he's his nephew's son and that's that

oh he's crazy, first "am I special to you?" and then "Are you special to me?" meanwhile he literally kissed her before he left for a year and became known as a murder suspect lol

awooga and her saying that he disliked her

oh? memories are coming back? they won't all come back during the trial would it lol

Also, how are we fully assuming Joonkook is dead when we haven't even found the body except for a hand? In Beyond Evil, wasn't it like it's not a murder case/charge if the body hasn't been found or was that smth diff?

They're straight up naming a different suspect, the fishman? Scary what if things go wrong... fisherman: Ji Cheol Su, housed Sooha: Kim Gi Ho

yaas finally it has come into their heads that maybe... the guy who is a murderer 2x at least... and whose body we haven't found... might not actually be dead lol

Ep 11 (Apr 9)

ohhh the witness who reported Sooha never saw him

Well, did the guy tell them that the woman never actually saw Sooha or no?

bruh why is Doyeon soooo wrong at every turn like get a gripp

leave and give her some fucking privacy bro why is fuckass gwanwoo standing in front of the bathroom listening to her cry

awooga

ohhh Sooha tried to run away and got in a car crash hmm

yaas she rejected Gwanwoo again and... did she say she likes Sooha... anything like that? maybe?

Is that Joonkook in a disguise and threatening the woman or what?

ahhh she's so cold and cutting Sooha off just like this, she must be going crazy inside

awooga my ship !!

Ep 12 (Apr 9)

pls Sooha seeing Hyeseong eating food straight from the fridge late at night in the dark

Gwanwoo is... not incorrect in his assessment of Sooha and how he's a "burden" to Hyeseong but he's also immature to say it that way to throw it in Sooha's face because Hyeseong likes Sooha but not him. like okay talking about being an adult, sure

ohhh wait firstly, Hyeseong didn't actually have a photo in the phone but just said that it shows Min Joonkook with the steel pipe :0 but ig Joonkook gave himself away with his reaction to Hyeseong

and secondly, I hadn't realized that the judge was actually Doyeon's father and he'd known that she lied, which was expected cuz it really seemed like he knew. he just took it as a lawyer in court though lol

omg so indeed Hwang Dal Joong's supposedly murdered wife is still alive and doesn't have her left hand either

lolol Hyseong and Doyeon both regretting spilling their guts the night before. kinda should make out when Doyeon becomes more tolerable

Oof, witness womans really dug her own grave with the "go till the end" talk. hope same thing doesn't happen to the guy who hit Sooha with the truck and was told to not say anything by Joonkook

ah, memory returns

Sooha's dad killed Joonkook's wife?

back hug !

Ep 13 (Apr 9)

oh did Sooha's mind-reading abilities come back with the memories?

who did Hwang Dal Joong stab? his ex wife?

why be a fucking cop bro Sooha pls do something else

i so incredibly do not give a fuck about Gwanwoo

the wife said the daughter is living in a rich house, it's literally Doyeon bruh

ahhh cheek kiss,can't believe i'm having to live on this same shit from like ep 3 (other way around this time tho)

anyway sooha should just tell her the truth cuz she'll get more mad the longer it goes on, esp since he can read her mind

Ep 14 (Apr 10)

awooga what are we gonna do when she finds out about dad killing first

my ship T.T avoiding eye contact and walking side by side T.T

alk;sdjf Sooha falling into Hyeseong's lap on the bus

oh my godddddd laksdfjlk;asdjf lk;sdfj lk;j Hyeseong confession

parallel between Hyeseong being like maybe it's fine/better that Doyeon doesn't know the truth about her adoptive and biological parents while Gwanwoo is like it's better that Hyeseong doesn't know about Joonkook and Sooha's father's ordeal

but Lawyer Shin talking about how telling the truth is the right thing to o

Wait actually... this is a good line of thought that I could use maybe? at ~48mins they start talking about if there are 2 decisions where you have regrets choosing either, better to choose the one that will make you regret 1% less ig

Hyeseong throwing the words that Doyeon's fuckass dad told her that day at the hospital like 12 years ago back in his face

Ep 15 (Apr 10)

Is this article about Joonkook's wife being killed by Sooha's father or smth?

and Sooha & Doyeon parallels about betrayals in trust of their fathers

omg accomplice

aksdfjklajdsf was hyeseong just having horny thoughts or what

hm the Park Joonhyuk guy is Sooha's father? And he wrote about people in car accidents or what?

omg Doyeon...

Ep 16 (Apr 10)

girl the way I'd barely been watching 1 ep a day the last few days but today I keep watching it?

awooga Doyeon

how the tables turn because in ep 1, I thought maybe the father would take Hyseong's side since clearly Doyeon was lying and her mother believed her without question

not this fucking father-daughter strained yet touching relationship with Dal Joong and Doyeon omg

not Joonkook having kidnapped Hyeseong

Ep 17 (Apr 11)

Awooga, not the trick working

hyeseong stupidity making me annoyed

and it's frustrating for it to be contrasted with Sooha who is also doing a dumb thing (going to Joonkook alone without confirming he's actually there and with a taser but not realizing that Joonkook is right behind her and also in like a mid skirt and heels too like tf) but 1) he confirmed that she was actually there 2) he called Gwanwoo and explained the situation. frustrating for the FL to fall into a trap this stupidly in the penultimate episode at least have Joonkook outsmart her rather than just her being stupid

sooo annoying that Hyeseong is just tied up and duct taped like this fr and also why is the SWAT team useless why are they in different rooftops aiming at Sooha possibly like ?? dumbasses

bro these cops are so useless why are they just standing there with their armoud and weapons, just grab him?!

This is so silly like okay fine Gwanwoo comes and frees Hyeseong from her bind but then... she gets up to the roof and immediately faints as Min Joonkook drags Sooha over the edge

I'll be honest, the fact that they made Hyeseong make stupid decisions here and then kinda made her presence inconsequential (beyond the don't kill Joonkook thing but that's been going on for A While already) really soured me because there was no reason for that. maybe she'll do something cool in the last ep and bring it back up

Ep 18 (Apr 11)

actually I don't fully get the problem with Sooha stabbing Hyeseong thing either because like ig it's a case that Joonkook was Sooha's target? And Hyeseong ran into it but otherwise Sooha would've stabbed/possibly killed Joonkook?

and if Gwanwoo is Joonkook's lawyer again I'd be so fucking irritated bro

but why is this literally attempted murder bruh, she ran into the knife and he didn't successfully even knick Joonkook with the knife so some legal questioning maybe but attempted murder? be serious

Sooha and Hyseong are sooooo cute

no way Sooha's talking about Gwanwoo being his role model who made him into a man agh

oh he's mentioning other ppl but Gwanwoo first? be fr

ah Doyeon

Fine final episode

Overall:

Noona romance + mystery + courtroom + sliiight supernatural with mind-reading, it has a bunch of things I liked. It's from over a decade ago but enjoyable nonetheless. I liked it, though Hyeseong and Sooha were quite cute but I wish 1) the episodes were a bit more condensed to be 14-16 episodes and 2) the fucking love triangle wasn't so prominent (though I get that they probably did it because Sooha was underage at first).

Not life-changing and kind of overstayed its welcome for me, esp because I was barely watching 1 ep a day in the middle there.

Rating: 6.5/10 [May 12, 2024 Update: Decreased by 0.5 stars when rerating shows I've watched in 2024: 7 -> 6.5]

[garebearandnan]

LITG | S2 | DAY 12 PT 3

(EP15 Pt3.1) 'Things Get Steamy'

NEW CHAPTER FINALLY UP!

A little snippet of chapter:

Hanging Bench Swing. Bobby looks at her worriedly and brings her in for a tender cuddle. “Priya. Come on, girl. You have to pull it together. So you did a thing, and people got upset.” He knows she has a good heart, even if she gets herself in situations that are a bit messy sometimes.

“I’ve downplayed how strongly I feel about Noah. I got excited when he actually told me himself.”

Bobby looked surprised. “Noah actually said that?”

She nods. “I know, I know. Can you believe it? I got excited when I heard it.”

Bobby shook his head, baffled still. “Imagine that, Noah making the big move in the villa.” Didn’t know he had it in him.

In the Beach Hut (BH), Hope shares her thoughts:

Producer: What are your thoughts about Priya telling you that Noah is considering picking her at the next recoupling?

Hope: It's a fucking nightmare. Everything happened so quickly. I just needed to remove myself from the situation. I was absolutely fuming. Fuming.

Producer: Would you like to talk to a therapist?

Hope: Just give me a moment.

Hope is allowed some time to gather her thoughts by the producer. She dabbed her eyes with a tissue.

Hope: I thought we had something special, but now I question everything. I feel very hurt, because it's like, well, I've opened myself up to him. Why does this always happen? So, I'm just sat here, like… You were literally my dream man. I just wanna put on his jumper and go to sleep.

Iain Stirling: Even the Spanish heat can’t stop a bunch of Brits having their Sunday roasts in the villa, and the Islanders are regularly treated to them every week.

Bathroom. “Nobody’s coming. There’s no one to interrupt. You wanna hide out in the bathroom with me?” He gives you a smile with just a hint of heat.

Not every day a hot guy asks you to hang out in the bathroom with them. And from the look he’s giving me, I don’t think we will be comparing loofahs.

The air simmers between you as he leans in closer. He whispers in your ear. “Ever tried it in the shower?”

“I think those sexy legs were made to be wrapped around my waist." Sharing a shower, getting intimate, and washing each other up. Let's see what those big guns can do. “What are we waiting for?”

Fire pit. Lucas asked, “How are you feeling, Rahim?”He exhaled a bit of air, then responded, “I could probably get past Priya trying to kiss Noah, but after today, it’s been…” Ibrahim let out a groan before settling back into the bean bag. “It’s been a bit of a disaster.”