#and a couple theory things

[morganbritton132]

Made this post (also this) about Steve and Robin being suspicious that their new coworker - Eddie - is a spy, and it’d be really funny if he was.

Just not for the US government.

He was off-base when the mall exploded and - he assumed - presumed dead by the Russian government so he just…assimilated? Continued living his secret identity’s life?

Edward Munson is a real person.

He’s a kid living with a foster family in Nebraska. His dad is in prison and he hadn’t seen his uncle since he was three years old. It was an easy identity to steal and an easy story to feed Wayne.

No one looked too hard at it, Eddie was exactly what they thought he’d be.

He was the only spy on base that could do a convincing American accent and looked young enough to pass for a high school student.

He was supposed to be gathering evidence, supposed to get close to the other kid. He was supposed to find the little girl but none of that ever really happened.

And then the base blew up.

Now he’s working a part-time job at the video rental, stocking shelves while his coworkers loudly discuss if he’s a spy. They’re arguing on if the US government would recruit teenagers (no) or raise spies from birth (also no), and then Steve says, “Don’t worry. I’ll figure it out.”

Robin sounds completely done with him, “Having sex with someone does not prove they’re not a spy. Don’t sleep with him!”

“It’s a full-proof plan,” Steve says and then yells, “Hey, Eddie!”

And well…

Eddie was never a good spy anyways.

[neunhofferart]

There's a shot in Season 3 Episode 2 of Jurassic World Chaos Theory where I staged Ben, Gia, Sammy, and Yaz opening a door like this--

...And @tio-trile said it looked like they were about to start singing Bohemian Rhapsody.

So.

[morganski-19]

Steve seeing something on tiktok and trying it on Eddie

Steve: You know what I kinda really want right now, an orange

Eddie: Do we even have the oranges?

Steve: I’m not sure

Eddie: *getting up* Let me check. Nope, be back in ten

Steve: *to the camera* I was not expecting him to go that far

Ten minutes later

Eddie: *comes back to the apartment with a bag of oranges* Do you want peeled or sliced

Steve: Peeled

Eddie: Ok

Steve: *looking at the camera* I think he passed

Eddie: *handing Steve a bowl of peeled orange slices* Passed what?

Steve: Nothing

[epiphainie]

it's absolutely bonkers to me how easily so many of tommy's scenes in the begins episodes can be read as him being gay and closeted. like we all know they weren't intentionally building that subtext but jesus christ, it works so fucking well. like the team jacob moment was obviously there for hen to witness indirect homophobia at the 118 for the first time but it could be any other way with any other character but no it's tommy and he looks like he's just been caught in the headlights. when will your girlfriend come cook for us comment was just gerrard being a sexist pig but tommy's answer is so awkward, almost nervous, and with the hindsight of season seven it's impossible to not read more into the implications of that reaction. the chicks hate it when you get scars thing is just them shooting shit together after work but coupled with him saying he prefers being single, it almost comes across as him overcompensating for why he is single. even love actually being his favorite movie is like, the show going "hey look, there's more to this guy than just being a masc macho blue collar dudebro" because they want to show chim's influence on him but with the broader context, it again becomes a character moment you read into more, as stereotypical as it sounds

[shepscapades]

shep shepscapades I found something out while doing your quiz

android24 is literally an android. What.

WHAT DID X DO TO HIM?!

Running around in circles /pos

thanks for making dbhc

i love this bc beloved Anonymous user clearly had a revelation of some kind but i have absolutely no idea what it is. Said revelation has come from the fact that Android 24 is, as his name might imply, an android, though I'm not sure what correlation is being drawn between that and a supposed thing Xisuma has done to him... ALSO VERY INTERESTED TO KNOW WHAT QUESTION FROM THE LORE QUIZ BROUGHT THIS ON

[eddiezpaghetti]

Okay, so my experience with Stranger Things is a weird one.

I didn't care when it first came out, started to watch it out of "might as well" in 2020, wasn't interested in it enough to make it past S2, forgot about it outside of going "oh, hey, cool, there's a lesbian in it now, I guess," in S3, got really annoyed when "Running Up That Hill" got popular from it because it was a song I listened to on fucking loop after one of my best friends died in high school and I fully expected its appearance in the show to ignore the whole survivor's guilt theme of the song (and was very happy to learn later that it did the exact opposite of ignoring the lyrics), saw people drawing Eddie, suddenly got a lot more interested, watched just the fourth season like a fucking psychopath because I was seriously only there for Eddie, then got interested enough to start the show over properly, having mostly forgotten what I did watch of the show before.

And let me tell you something from the perspective of someone who started with the complete fourth season, who wasn't there from the start, who wasn't tainted by ship goggles or this internal battle of hope and despair, who wasn't theorizing about what the painting could be or expecting Mike and Will to kiss when Volume 2 happened or rooting for Mike and Eleven's relationship to go down in flames or whatever the fuck. Just someone who went blind into Season 4.

It's really fucking obvious that Will and Mike are gonna be endgame.

Like holy fuck. It's so fucking blatant I don't even know why people are nervous.

No sane fucking person would shoot this scene this way if they wanted the audience to care about El and Mike as a couple. Despite being all blurry in the background, Will's reaction to what's happening here is smackdab in the fucking middle, clearly showing that the important part is what's going through his head here. What he's feeling. It's like the opposite of that scene from Kingdom Hearts II where Sora and Riku reunite and Kairi just fucking vanishes into the aether while it's happening because, despite the fact that she was standing between them when the scene began, she doesn't matter to the scene, so she's just kind of gone when the camera angle changes. Will could have been behind one of their heads, or so far in the distance he blends in with the background, but he's not. He's so obvious that despite being massively blurred out, he's still the first goddamn thing you look at. What, you think that's an accident? You think he's in the middle of this dramatic fucking scene because of a mistake? He basically has a big flashing neon arrow pointing at him with "THIS IS THE POINT" being screamed through a megaphone.

And then this?

They're paired up like they're taking fucking prom pictures. Each one of these pairs is so fucking close to one another and so fucking far from everyone else. It's not, "Oh, they're standing vaguely near each other in a group shot," it's fucking Noah's Ark out here. Again, there's no way to take this as an accident. It's not just a framing issue. If they wanted to make the shot look balanced while still not hiding anyone else behind El, they would have scattered people around much more naturally. Even if they wanted to keep Nancy with Jonathan and Hopper with Joyce, there's so much room on that hill for three people to stand on El's left and three on her right. But they didn't do that. They put Mike and Will together on purpose in the most obvious way possible.

Like I get that coming up with crackpot theories is fun in and of itself and I'm not blaming anyone for having fun. I totally get the appeal of arguing a point and reaching for every stupid little thing to pull into it because it's like a game, okay? I've done that. But if you're trying to actually convince someone (whether it's someone who wants to believe or someone who's pissed at the very idea that Mike and Will could be in love), stay away from blue and yellow lights, stay away from costume design, stay away from the existence of closets in backgrounds. And don't worry about whether Mike's gay or bi when he's in love with Will either way. I'll give you a little tip about persuasion: You're only as strong as your weakest argument. Even if you've got strong stuff in there, too, the person you're trying to convince is going to dismiss anything you say as complete insanity the second you start going on an entire tangent about the shape of a character's fucking pocket.

Sometimes, clothes are just clothes. Sometimes, there's a closet in the background because it helps establish that a character is in a bedroom. Sometimes, blue and yellow are just a couple of colors that look nice together. And sure, it might be set designers and costume designers and cinematographers smirking and winking at the audience from behind the camera. But if the show was just those things, instead of those things in the context of everything else, they wouldn't be saying anything of note.

But this?

This tells a story all on its own. Someone with no context can look at this and automatically assume that each paired person is standing with someone they care about deeply, seeking comfort as they watch some sort of disaster unfold. And yeah, romantic couples usually come in twos, and we live in an amatonormative society, so that's going to be the first association anyone makes seeing a bunch of people paired off.

It's the same reason you look at this

And go, "Oh..."

"Those two are probably a couple."

And I genuinely don't understand how people could have watched S4 Vol. 2 and gotten scared. Because as someone who went in with no investment whatsoever, I just looked at these two--

--and went, "Oh, those two are a couple. Good for them." And I moved on. Shut up about the trees for five seconds and just see the forest for what it is.

Oh, and if you're still nervous? Little thing from a storyteller here: You don't leave a hanging thread like "Will confessed his romantic feelings for Mike by projecting them onto El, but Mike either didn't understand or at least didn't say he understood," without coming back to that later. That's Chekov's gun hanging on the wall, babes. It's gonna fire at some point. If Mike was going to reject Will's feelings, if they weren't relevant, they would have had that discussion in Argyle's van. There'd be no reason to leave you in suspense.

[aroaceleovaldez]

Romantic in nature or not, I always just looked at that scene in MoA with the notion: Annabeth is convinced that Nico, a gay man, has a crush on her in this exact scene (or you know, a different scene in MoA, I don't remember), and since we know that Annabeth isn't the best on the emotional front, she read Luke's intentions incorrectly, and Percy did, as well, due to his jealousy of the guy.

(Now, I know that neither of these are the case, especially since I doubt Nico was thought to be gay until HoH, and this is around the time that Annabeth was starting to be characterized as Never Wrong About Anything Ever, but it's always been my go-to regarding the whole Luke-Annabeth debacle. What I mean to say is that I like your interpretation of the scenes, too)

Oh i actually believe Nico was fully intended to be gay starting around MOA at least (though I do believe Rick claiming he had figured that out about Nico earlier than that), because Rick was absolutely acknowledging queer topics in his writing at that time. Jason's arc particularly in the latter half of HoO is extremely bi-coded and there's just straight up a canonical polyamorous relationship in Serpent's Shadow, which came out several months before HoH.

Which does make Annabeth's line about that in MOA funnier, especially considering by that point Nico has held maybe one full conversation with her in the entire franchise thus far, maybe two or three if you wanna push it. I cannot emphasize enough how little they had spoken to each other - and tbh, continued to not speak to each other. Just in general. Like the most notable interactions the two of them have prior to the high-five scene in BoO are literally both in BoTL and it's one line and then one off-screen scene of Nico breaking up a fight between Rachel and Annabeth (where they were fighting over Percy) entirely for the purposes of going to save Percy. They barely interact in HoO. Nico and Annabeth have a chronic case of their plot lines being in different locations because only one of them is allowed to be active at a time due to their narrative roles. Annabeth is kidnapped for most of the TTC Nico scenes and Nico is at camp when they get to Annabeth, and then in TLO Nico's busy with all the Underworld stuff and flirting with Percy so he never interacts with Annabeth. Then Nico is off at Camp Jupiter when Annabeth's at CHB and then busy being kidnapped for the first stretch of the Argo II mission and only shows up when Annabeth is busy on her Arachne quest. And then Annabeth FALLS INTO TARTARUS when Nico gets there (and proceeds to pine at Percy) and then IMMEDIATELY after Annabeth gets out of Tartarus, Nico skips away with Reyna and Coach to drag the Athena Parthenos to camp. And then FINALLY they interact and it's not even Nico speaking directly to Annabeth really, just high-fiving her after insulting Percy to his face. He literally only says one word directly to her.

Like. I cannot overemphasize the absolute comical degree to which these two avoid interacting. They're like magnets repelling each other. And yet Annabeth is like "I think he has a crush on me - he spoke to me once, allegedly." Like ah yes, sure, HoO. Next you're gonna tell me you retconned them into having a FOURTH conversation! Don't get too wild!

[theuchihagirl]

I could peel an orange for anyone, but for the one I love, I’ll peel pomegranates. Messy hands, stained fingers, and a heart full of patience.

[strange-anni]

Wipeout

There are multiple instances where 3 o'clock seems to be an important time

Mayor Larrys parade starts at 3 P.M. on the 4th of July in S3

The grandfather clock Chrissy sees in the woods also shows 3 o'clock (Note that all the other victims get a different time although I can't confirm this for Max as it is too hard to see)

It's 3 o'clock when El and One start their plan to escape the lab

When Henry starts to turn back time in his flashback it is also 3 o'clock

It is also noteworthy that 3 o'clock on an analogue clock resembles an "L"

Then only 40 to 50 minutes later more ominous things happen.

Robin informs us that they all die and it's just a matter of time. This happens at the same time as ...

... both Steve and Dustin are burning up. At least Dustin if not both of them are also considered packaged goods.

Then of cause there is El in S4 who finds Henry at approximately 03:47 A.M. or P.M. after he has killed all the kids in the lab. It's interesting to note that this time stays the same throughout their whole conversation which is I might say is quite long.

I think some important event in the past (perhaps a birthday party?) started at 3 P.M. and then turned into a catastrophe only 40 to 50 minutes later. Maybe a wipeout happened.

@greenfiend

[gumm1defloor]

Vox can understand Velvette just fine. They don't necessarily need to get along all the time, but they have a mutually beneficial contract that guarantees her support in the most efficient way possible, just how they both like it, short and strict and to the point. Vox does not understand Valentino. It drives him unimaginably, disgustingly insane. He knows how to handle him, make no mistake. Valentino is a never-ending powerhouse that wrangles out content from his employees like there's no tomorrow. He's proven himself to be Vox's most lucrative investment yet. He is resourceful, well-connected and most importantly predictable enough to rein in. Because he listens to you, because he needs you.

He is also, undeniably, out of his goddamn mind. Yet you've already invested too much in the corporate empire you've built together and there is no point turning back now that you have him so close to your side. It's OK however! He couldn't possibly be stupid enough to throw away the best partnership deal he's ever had just for the sake of something petty cause -oh, wait - he genuinely might just be that stupid and you never would've guessed because he's so cocksure of his bullshit that 80% of the time it ends up working in his favor anyway.

Fuck his life indeed. The kicker for this of course is that Valentino, genuinely does believe he has struck gold with Vox. Valentino is a clingy, possessive, immature, perverted, sadistic, egotistical man-child with severe rage issues and poor impulse control. No he is not aware of this at all. No he does not know why nobody is able to tolerate him and why every single person he gets close to hates his guts with every inch of their burning rotting souls. All he knows is that hell has now given him a flat faced prince in shining liquid crystal armour, riding on a cash filled horse with promises of power and luxury, who's practically handing him success on a silver platter. Doesn't mean that Val trusts him, doesn't mean he doesn't enjoy seeing him lose his shit. But at the end of the day vox has his back, and as long as Val keeps calling for him, he'll eventually turn up and make everything better. Cause hey if Vox hasn't left him yet for this long he must be doing something right. Right?

[lestatlioncourtt]

I saw some discourse around the subject so I wanted to know u guy's opinion

what are your thoughts on byler smut?

[whynotimtired]

I don't want to be mean but you all sound batshit when you try to convince milkvans byler is real by talking about pure subtext and color theory and "Mike was checking Will out in this scene!!!" there's CLEAR plausible deniability in your own interpretation of someone's acting. The duffers intentionally kept it all vague enough that most people wouldn't figure it out until they get the chance to shove it into people's faces and if the majority of people look at the scene you're analyzing and go "aww they're finally friends again yay" and you go "Mike was blatantly checking wills ass out in the beginning" when...he was taking a breath to settle and prepare to reconcile with someone he's been "off" with for a year... you end up sounding a little insane. Those types of takes are subjective, and you can make a funny video with zooms implying that that's what he was doing but actively trying to convince someone your headcannon is canon will almost always make you sound deranged.

There's a reason you don't go up to milkvans and go "b-but blue meets yellow in the west" and start talking about the intricacies of making film and how everything is on purpose, that stuff isn't for normies. Analysts love that shit but to someone who just watches the show for fun they hear you say all that and go "you're reaching" because you took someone who is at a zero and shoved them into a thousand without showing them why you ACTUALLY ship byler and just tried to prove that it's real

[tiredandoptimistic]

The thing that bothers me so much about Hell's Bells is that it makes perfect sense for Xander to call off the wedding, but it ruins the narrative to genuinely end his and Anya's relationship. His fears of becoming his father and trapping Anya in a terrible marriage are very consistent with his character. Xander has always been afraid that he's a worthless person whose life is a waste, so of course he'd think that marrying him would just waste Anya's life too. He loves her enough to want a life with her, and hates himself enough to want better for her. Like he says after the monster guy gets killed; it doesn't matter that the visions he was shown weren't real, it matters that they could be real. On some level he always expected his life to turn out like that, and at least if he leaves Anya she won't be in the radius of worthlessness that surrounds him. Cool. Good writing, I love it when a character's flaws and fears lead them to ruin their own happiness.

We also have Anya, who was betrayed by a lover and spent one thousand years as a demon seeing nothing but the brutal aftermath of romance. To Anya, love was a curse that left people bitter and broken, because that's what makes people call out for vengeance. Also cool. The things Xander fears about himself are exactly what Anya fears about men in general. The two of them both had every reason to scorn the idea of romance, and yet still found love together. Xander gave up his constant crushing on random hot girls to become enchanted by Anya's autistic swag, and Anya gave up vengeance by falling in love with the man she'd been brought to Sunnydale to curse. They both fell in love with someone who represents everything they supposedly don't want in a partner. It's a deeply compelling setup if I do say so myself, but it's ruined by having the wedding fall through. Suddenly, instead of subverting their bitterness and proving that stable love is possible in a crazy world, everything they feared came true. Xander couldn't love and Anya couldn't be loved.

I just want the alternate reality where Xander talked to Anya about his doubts around marriage so they held off on the wedding for a couple years, showing that the two of them can overcome their commitment issues if they face them together. But noooooo, we get the timeline where they just have that shit reinforced.

[5thsideblog]

if the creators wanted us to think mike and el were this beautiful power couple that will stand the test of time and have their big cheesy fairytale ending why not schedule finn and millie to have a q&a together…. Instead of finn and noah…. why are they grouping finn and noah/mike and will together SO much this season. Like i know we haven’t officially entered promotion yet and won’t for a long time but even all the leaks ive seen photo wise ive seen more for will and mike than mike and el. it’s crazy 😭😭 like the more i think about it none of the crazy theories or overanalysis is what makes me think byler will happen, it’s simply the way the creators choose to group them together all the time. When one of the guys is literally in a canonical relationship with the main girl.

[kindahoping4forever]

x

[le-trash-prince]

Ann Leckie