#and failing

[bonesbugs]

Adrien takes full advantage of his face post-reveal

[do2faj]

Don’t mind the overall messiness, I’m trying to relearn Procreate

[darkrootmushies]

Inspo from @/909v_ on twitter

[definetelynotavampire]

Fyodor is NOT having the time of his life

[buttfrovski]

tolkien trying to learn from him awww

[originalartblog]

Because of Flawless, Oda had to live through Dazai breaking his window twice. (ref)

[bethanydelleman]

Came to the realization on this reread of Mansfield Park that Mary & Henry Crawford would THRIVE on the internet and Edmund Bertram would still be arguing with that troll who said shark skin was smooth

Edmund calculated miles per hour walked to try to prove a point to Mary and she just laughed and committed to her version of reality because it amused her more. Peak chronically online behaviour from both of them.

[shanastoryteller]

so, here's some long meta that no one cares about for 5.14 my bloody valentine and dean's relationship with sam's demon blood addiction

ok far be it for me to defend s5 dean, but i actually think the criticism of dean in 5.14 my bloody valentine is too harsh

the thing i think dean messed up on is not reassuring sam that his sudden desire for demon blood isn't his fault and he doesn't need to be ashamed of it because it's literally because of famine. the horseman is making everyone crave something so badly they kill themselves, including castiel, an actual angel of the lord who can't overcome his desire for red meat to the point that he's literally on all fours in front of famine scarfing down hamburger, not a care in the world while famine is getting read to eat a soul and do who knows what with dean

the thing is sam is so obviously embarrassed and ashamed, especially considering how earlier in the season dean was a huge dick about it, saying he couldn't trust if sam was really clean and didn't want it anymore, ect. if anything, the way sam reacts to the cravings, before they know what's going on, shows that he really had pretty much moved past it - even that low level of craving he had in the beginning was different enough to be noticeable.

the "i think i'm hungry for it" "hungry for what?" "you know." "demon blood? are you kidding me?" exchange is something else i see brought up - but i don't think dean is saying demon blood out loud to be a dick, to push the point and enforce sam's shame like i've seen people say about this moment. i think he's scared of sam's addiction and that jesus, are you fucking kidding me tone isn't really about sam

the thing is dean has decided that sam's addiction has made him a different person, that it wasn't really him and what he did while under the influence wasn't his fault. in 5.11 sam interrupted when they're telling the shrink about the apocalypse so they can get committed, dean says of sam starting the apocalypse, "my brother's not a bad guy, he was just high" and he could be just saying that, but if everything else they were saying was true, so i think this is too - this is how dean is rationalizing it. which is better than when he was saying sam was solely responsible for it, but it's still not great

it's just another way to absolve himself of responsibility and deny sam his autonomy

the thing is that demon blood is not portrayed as a 1:1 with real life substance addiction - it's actually portrayed to be much less damaging (something something about how sam managed to go off demon blood on his own, without the panic room, definitely once but possibly twice - after dean comes back from hell, and after killing lilith, but that's not what we're talking about rn), and sam's addiction doesn't seem to really change his personality. the only time this is even sort of true is when he's going through withdrawals, and even then it's an intense focus to get demon blood - and then he's back to baseline, which is not even a little bit how real addiction works

sam doesn't kill lilith because he's high. he kills lilith because that's been the goal the whole time, because he and dean were both led to believe that would stop the apocalypse, not start it. the tunnel vision revenge to kill lilith also isn't addiction related - i've talked about before how i think it's partially motivated by his desire to see if he really could have killed lilith and saved dean from his deal before, but beyond that - sam having tunnel vision revenge tendencies after someone he loves is taken from him is canon. see the entirety of season 1 after jessica. the only thing that snaps him out of it is the threat of losing dean in 2.01. this is just a facet of who he is

sam didn't go after lilith alone because he was high - it's because dean and bobby lied to him and betrayed him and locked him up and left him to die in the panic room. then when dean tracks him down again, despite sam very clearly not wanting him to do that, fresh off demon blood, he still asks dean to join him. he still wants to do this together. he doesn't want to fight. bobby warns dean to be good to sam, but he's so angry that he pushes and pushes sam until he throws a punch. after that first punch, sam hesitates. he still doesn't want to fight dean. he stands there, doing nothing, waiting to see what dean's going to do - hoping, maybe, that dean will do what he did back when dean lost his temper and punched sam in 2.03 - nothing. instead, dean starts up the fight again, and when sam leaves, throws dad's words back at him

dean talks about sam trusting a demon over his brother, but the thing is dean agrees to go after lilith with sam - as long as he leaves ruby behind, even though ruby is the one that knows where lilith is. also, he trusted an angel over his brother, and that sounds more reasonable on paper, but the the thing is they were both manipulated by ruby/cas.

the reason sam went after lilith alone is because that's what dean pushed him to do. it's not because he was high. saying it was about that absolves sam of his responsibility, sure, but it also absolves dean of the part he played too. worse, dean may say it, but sam knows better. he knows the demon blood doesn't effect him that way and you can see it on his face when dean says it. so he's stuck between not arguing against that and taking responsibility for his actions, something he's done over and over again and he clearly views as part of his penance, or saying something and risk rocking the tentative truce he has with dean, the brother he loves and really the only person he has left in the world. so of course he lets it lie

(a sympathetic interpretation of this is actually because dean doesn't know his voicemail was changed and the sam he knows wouldn't have still gone after lilith without him after receiving it - and he's right, which is why the angels changed it. so he has to justify it as sam being high, because it's the only way sam going after lilith after hearing him say they're still family and he shouldn't have said those things and he's sorry makes sense - but we've already veered off topic as is)

dean views sam's decision to leave him (his biggest fear/weakness) and his drinking of demon blood to be inextricably linked. additionally, sam has made it clear again and again how he doesn't want to be on demon blood anymore, and now he's craving it again. his first reaction is to tell cas to get sam out of here - but it's too late, because famine already infected him

dean is pretty clearly starting to panic here - it's right there in his voice, in the "then what do we do?" and in the look of desperate fear when he turns to face his brother when sam says "you go and cut that bastard's finger off" (which has the ring, the source of his power, and will get rid of everyone's cravings)

i will say i think this is actually a pretty nice moment for their relationship. sam tells him what to do, how to handle this - and dean pretty visibly calms down, turns to cas and says, "you heard him"

even while being pulled towards demon blood, he lets sam make the call. he doesn't insist cas take him somewhere else anyway, he doesn't dismiss sam of not being in his right mind - he does what sam says

which includes handcuffing him

sam is the one that asks to be restrained while dean and cas go after famine. he says to make it good, but dean only handcuffs him to the sink - i was like, come on, the teenagers that captured sam in 5.12 do a better job of tying him up than that

then dean and cas go after famine and cas is too busy shoving hamburger down his throat to do anything and there's like a dozen demons and a literal horseman in front of him. dean's screwed

except famine sent demons after sam, who kills them and drinks their blood. this is not anymore sam than the virgin who ate her lover was herself or the guy who hadn't had alcohol in 20 years and then drank himself to death was himself. sam so far had resisted his cravings in their entirety, not even licking the blade with demon blood, no matter how clearly he wanted to, which is something no one else has been shown able to do

sam shows up, mouth still bloody, and dean's horrified. famine says that sam has nothing to fear and offers him the blood of the dozen demons surrounding them while dean begs him not to do it

cas, mr "i'm an angel, i can stop whenever i want to" is still eating meat off the ground at this point. that's how powerful famine's pull is. and cas's craving is just based on his vessel liking red meat

sam says no

he uses his powers to pull the demons out of the vessels, making their blood useless to him. famine eats the souls instead and sam uses his powers to pull all the souls that famine has eaten out of him, leaving him powerless. sam's powers saving the day again (samhain, alistair) but it's a power he didn't want to use - a power he wouldn't have needed to use, if castiel had a will equal to his own

the next scene is the one people tend to judge dean for pretty harshly, but i'm going to offer a counterargument to that

sam's in the panic room again while dean and cas are outside. i do think a sam that asked to be locked down and refused famine pulling at him drink demon blood did go in there willingly, while he was still in his right mind - before the withdrawal hits. he's calling out - saying "no, please! don't! dean! cas! are you there? dean, help me!"

cas says, "that's not him in there. not really." dean says, "i know" and cas tries to say that sam just has to get it out of his system, then he'll be - and dean walks away, saying he needs some air

a lot of people take dean and cas's exchange to mean that once again sam isn't sam when he's on demon blood - when he's high - and leaving him to suffer alone as a form of punishment/weakness

but i don't think so - and i'm pretty hard on s5 dean's treatment of sam

the thing is, sam just refused famine and pointedly didn't give in to his cravings when cas did. he saved dean, choosing him over demon blood, the thing that in dean's view he hadn't done before

and dean is powerless to do anything for him in return

i think sam is hallucinating in the panic room just then, just like he did the first time. and just like before, when he's hallucinating and detoxing he's using his powers, throwing things around the room. there's no reason to think this time is any different than last time. which means 1. even if dean or cas were in there, there's a decent chance sam wouldn't be able to tell. and 2. it's not safe for them, or at least dean to be in there. maybe cas could, but he's low on mojo and frankly i think sam's powers are strong enough to knock an angel around pretty good if he wanted to

sam's not asking to be let out. he's asking for his brother (which is actually another good sign for their relationship, i think, because last time he hallucinated dean saying he hates him and this time, even addled, he believes that dean would be there and helping him if he could) and i think it's pretty clearly killing dean that he can't go and help him. it's actually specifically because sam isn't asking to be let out that i think the hallucination/powers explanation makes more sense than anything else, because if dean being in there really would provide some sort of comfort to sam, i think he'd be there. there's not really an explanation for why he wouldn't that tracks with the rest of his behavior this episode

when he gets outside, he tosses his drink aside and cries. he prays to the god he doesn't believe in "please. i can't... i need some help. please?"

dean doesn't suffer from any cravings because of famine and famine tells him that's because he's dead inside. this is very obviously not true. one, because dean has show real enjoyment in food and drink and sex in previous episodes so deciding right at this moment that it doesn't exist doesn't really make any sense, and for another - sam is, as always, still able to pull emotions from him that he's shoved down. hell, if anything, famine should have given him a craving for his brother and dean should have spent the whole episode trying to not lie on top of him like a cat

(my personal explanation for this that isn't bad writing is that dean's real craving is just for some numbness, that he's tired of feeling everything he's repressing all the time - and then when famine discovers he's here he purposely doesn't pull any deeper as a way to fuck with dean's head, to break his spirit, to make him that much more likely to say yes to michael and give them the apocalypse they want so badly)

dean is so low at this moment i think because he couldn't protect sam, couldn't help him, and it's a canon component of his character that failing to protect/save sam is gutting for him (shtriga and cold oak as stand out examples but also, like, see: the whole damn show)

he locked sam up and left him helpless for when demons come after him. watch his face when he famine says he sent the demons for sam to consume - it's panichorrorguilt. sam asked him to do it, it's not his fault, but he put those handcuffs on sam and he blames himself for it. then sam has to save his ass using his powers, again, and dean can't do anything but listen to him suffer

sam did the thing that dean asked of him, he picked dean over demon blood, first by asking to be restrained and sending them after famine, then again when he refuses to drink the demons famine offers him

and dean couldn't do anything for him

he couldn't stop the demons that famine sent to his brother, he couldn't stop famine in time to make sam's artificial cravings go away, he can't even help his brother when he's calling out for him

sam trusted him and he failed

(i do not actually think this is his fault - what was he supposed to do? he did everything he could. it just wasn't enough. but even if it wasn't in dean's nature to blame himself for things he shouldn't - and not blame himself for things he should - the cold facts of the situation are crushing enough)

what's he supposed to do now?

they stopped famine. it should be a victory. this is a battle won in the war of stopping the apocalypse. but dean breaks down in a way the actual losses haven't pulled from him because dean of the one track mind really only has one concern, one question, and in that area, this was a loss, not a victory

how does he save his brother?

[kana7o]

comm for galavant of this happy little space family failing to bake a cake

[lioa7]

UF!Papyrus used GOOFYARMOR! My sleeping schedule fainted!

Underfell papyrus belongs to underfell

[mythicalprinz]

I don't know why but I have the feeling that session five for the bamboozlers will be them running away from the Grian and the consequences of their actions

for 40 minutes plus

[bet-h]

Test

[eirasummersart]

Here's the other one I wanted to draw! F!Riddle with the new event outfit (modified as I saw fit). I just love her 🥺💕

[lycheelsea]

so this is messed up isn’t it

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

I saw your posts about how the writers made Adora increasingly stupid with each season. Actually, I'd say it stems from a form of laziness on the part of Nate and the writers. Because while Season 1 had in mind that war and military operations require forethought and strategy to succeed, by Season 2 there was immediately a lazy writing style that boils down to "you don't need much strategy, you can figure it out in the moment thanks to the power of friendship!" The notable case being Episode 4, "Roll with It," where that was practically the moral. There's Season 4, where there's a return to a form of strategy… but it's both pretty basic and very "tell, don't show." And Season 5 keeps the same formula but replaces "the power of friendship" with "the power of love." And I would say that in addition to a lazy screenwriter, I would add that this is also explained by both a desire to have a light and comical scenario, and on the other hand by Nate's desire to make Catra a "super tactical genius", and to do that quickly Nate was content to make the main cast more stupid than season 1.

agree with everything, especially that last part. it's not easy to write a smart character so what a lot of incompetent writers do as a little shortcut is that they basically make every other character dumb, so that this character looks smart by proxy. and that's what nate seems to have done with catra.

i'll be quite honest, all of catra's plans seemed to rely solely on the fact that every other character was easily manipulated, even the evil warlord who has taken down countless kingdoms. she just had to attack his insecurities once and he immediately crumbles.

and i get that none of us are immune to manipulation but come on, this is such piss poor writing.

i just feel like if the other characters were even a little resistant to catra's manipulation, none of her plans would have worked and she would have been defeated so easily.