#anyway I need to go find all the episodes where these two have an insanely charged dynamic and burn them into my eyeballs

[1010lilfoot]

The lupgoes...

(Date ideas range from getting ice cream together at the park to fighting to the death under the freeway)

[chronicowboy]

every episode of merlin is truly unhinged but like i always forget how fucking insane season 1 episode 10 the moment of truth is. like i just cannot wrap my head around it. at all. the prince's (terrible, just truly useless and insolent) manservant's mother comes to the kingdom asking for help for a tiny village in a neighbouring kingdom because its being attacked by bandits stealing their harvest and the prince gets said manservant's mother an audience with his father, the king even though he knows that to send men into the neighbouring kingdom could be considered an act of war. the king says as much and refuses to help, but the manservant makes the decision to go back and help anyway (he has magic that he'll be able to use somewhat freely without any camelot knights there) and he attempts to resign in telling his prince that he's going home to help, but the prince refuses to accept his resignation and seems truly terrified at the prospect of the manservant not returning whether its by choice or because he is killed in the fight, but the prince lets him go because its his mother and, in an attempt to cover up the genuine emotion he just showed, proceeds to insult his manservant in the most loving way possible. said manservant only smiles adoringly and thanks him for the insults with some intense, lingering eye contact before the prince wishes him luck. the manservant, his mother, the king's ward and her maid make camp in the woods, and whilst everyone else is asleep, the manservant goes to investigate a troublesome noise only to find the prince disobeying his father's direct orders! once again, the prince insults him to distract him from the act of genuine kindness and care. then they make it to the village and the prince, used to all the luxuries of a castle, sleeps on the floor beside his manservant and asks his manservant questions about his childhood and they have real conversations away from the stifling hierarchy of the castle. "he must care for you a great deal," the manservant's mother says about the prince. "arthur would do the same for any village, that's just the way he is" to which she replies "its more than that, he's here for you". that night the king's ward, who grew up with the prince says that merlin is the reason arthur came, "arthur may act like he doesn't care, but he wouldn't be here if he didn't". and, where the manservant would normally dress the prince in his armour, the prince helps the manservant with his. then THEN the manservant's mother says "i see how much he needs you, how much you need him, you're like two sides of the same coin". tell me that's not insane.

[pinkiemachine]

What is your version of Zod like? Is he similar to Transformers Prime's Megatron and DCEU Zod?

So my version of Zod is more like “The Mad King.” Ever since Jor-El slipped through his fingers/ever since the last days of Krypton, he’s been going around in his massive flagship scooping up every single Kryptonian he can find and placing them into cryosleep. (Whether they want to come with him or not.) Now that he knows there’s a hidden colony, he wants only to find Jor-El, find the colony, and reinstate himself as king.

So, a couple years go by, Clark is all grown up now and in the premiere of Season 2 of Dawn of Superman (that’s what I’m calling my show) Zod shows up on Earth in his ship. (A probe found Clark on Earth in Season 1) So now he’s showing up and telling Clark everything he ever wanted to know—that he’s a Kryptonian, actually, and there was a global catastrophe, Clark’s real name, etc etc, but he also tells Clark that he is the king of Krypton, and kinda tries to manipulate him a bit. Finally, he shows Clark the cryo chamber. This room is massive. There’s hundreds of thousands of Kryptonians slumbering in cryosleep here, all awaiting their new home…. But they can’t find it until they find the “dangerous criminal” Jor-El. Superman wants to help them, but he has no idea where his father is, and then when Zod gets real pushy about Clark coming with them into space and never coming back, that’s when Zod’s true colours start to show. He tries to capture Clark and force him to go with them, revealing just how long he’s been floating around in space, just slowly going insane as he seethes in his spite and anger and will for control, and Clark comes to realisation that if this dude is the king, he’s not so sure that he wants to be one of his subjects.

Anyway, Superman manages to stop Zod from firing the ship’s canons at Earth, there’s a big battle, it’s really cool, and then Zod leaves in a huff and goes to find Jor-El. Superman, meanwhile, feels awful. His first contact with his people and it goes like that? He’s practically branded himself a criminal and banished himself. But… there’s one thing still nagging at him. It’s what Zod told him about his father. He just can’t wrap his head around the idea of him being a criminal. Besides, if that crazy king was supposed to be the “good guy” then maybe things aren’t what they seem. He needs to go out and look for him. As luck would have it, the US Government has finished reverse engineering their own spaceship from the pod that Clark landed in over twenty years ago. Clark convinces the government to let him use it (they can bring some other astronauts along to do the planned research and stuff) so everybody wins. Lois says she’s coming too. She’s not about to let Clark go alone, and plus, this is the story of a lifetime (yes, she knows his identity at this point). And Jimmy gets dragged along for the ride. Not everyone is thrilled about this, though. One of the military men who was present when Zod attacked, a general, is totally against these Kryptonians now. They attacked Earth, they have super weapons—they ARE super weapons! A giant gun that walks! He doesn’t want them to ever come back to Earth, and he doesn’t want his daughter Lois hanging around with one (Superman). Dun dun dun. But the dude is outvoted and Lois goes anyway.

So into space they go! The season is mostly episodic, exploring the galaxy, learning about Krypton from other planets, bumping to Kryptonite, learning what the Interplanetary Coalition is, (AND we just might bump into Green Lantern) but the most important thing we learn out here… is that Kara is alive. Yes! Clark manages to find his cousin Kara and her dog Krypto! She’s been having to survive on her own this whole time, but what’s more surprising than that is the fact that she’s twelve. Only two or so years older than she was in the holo-photo. Kara explains that—with a little help from some friends she met along the way—she’s been flying through space in her rinky-dink tiny ship trying to get to the colony site. Now, you see, any time you travel in hyperspace, it takes days at the very least, so to circumnavigate that, people just go into cryo. The bigger/better your ship, the faster the hyperspace jump. Kara’s ship is… well, not great, so it’s been slow going trying to fly across half the galaxy. Which means she’s been putting herself into cryosleep A LOT, which slows down the ageing process. Most of her time in space has been in cryo. But she can’t just keep going like that forever. There are dangers involved with staying in cryo too long. The recommended span of time is roughly six Earth months. Otherwise, your body starts to slowly break down, starting with your muscles. This gets Clark thinking about all those people Zod had in cryo…

Anyway, Clark is overjoyed to meet Kara, and with their new ship, they’re able to get to the colony site much faster. And here is one of the main twists of my story: Clark actually meets his father. After narrowly escaping Zod a second time, he finds his father, they go to the colony site, and Clark could not be happier. This is the greatest moment in his life! He actually did it! The dream he had dreamed his whole life finally came true! And then…

Well, first of all, Zod showed up, because of course he managed to track them, and the final battle takes place. And it’s an awesome space battle. 10/10. And it’s here that we realise what Zod’s really been doing to all those people in cryosleep. In all his insane wisdom, (and control freak tendencies) he refused to let those people out of cryo to heal and exercise and recoup over the last TWENTY YEARS. So, uh… yeah, all those people… the people he tried to save… the people who were meant for the new world… are all kinda dead… barely having their brains kept alive by the life support systems and nothing else. All the more reason to stop him.

Zod almost gets what he wants, but in the end, the heroes prevail. Zod gets banished to the Phantom Zone, his ship gets destroyed in a kamikaze attempt to take every down with him, the colony is saved, and everyone’s happy!

But the story’s not over. There’s still a few minutes left on the runtime. ??? Well, you see, one of the astronauts on Superman’s team… has secret orders from The General. Once he finds the colony, he’s meant to destroy it by whatever means necessary. And along the way, remember what substance they bumped into? Kryptonite. Dude jerry-rigs a Kryptonite bomb and uses it to blow the colony to kingdom come. Jor-El rushes in to try to help, ordering his son and niece to stay back, but he and all the others who get closely exposed to the substance die slow, painful deaths. All those last survivors of Krypton… gone. Clark tries to heal his father, but… he’s gone too. Now Clark, Kara, and Krypto are the last Kryptonians. They take Jor-El’s ship back to Earth and (after dropping off some of the crew) Clark parks the ship far up in the North Pole where no one can try to get their grubby hands on it. It’s been a hard few days.

[spaceorphan18]

My Season 3 Diatribe

for @wowbright who gave me a platform that I really didn't need but took anyway. ;)

The thing about Glee was that it started with a woman being fake pregnant for thirteen episodes and then ended the season with a baby being born while Bohemian Rhapsody blared in the background. It was weird and crazy and insane and just edgy enough that it was being talked about but not too niche that it couldn't find an audience. It also hit in the sweet spot of the Obama years when, as a nation, we could get on board with being a little different and a little crazy.

Ryan Murphy is both a genius and insane at the same time. I'm not really fond of him, and I think his tendency for going big sometimes obscures the nuances of really good storytelling. But he knows how to make a loud statement. And Glee was that loud statement.

And then it got big. Too big. It got more money, an awards, and the national stage, and then all eyes were on it. And Ryan Murphy got tired because that's also Ryan Murphy - being distracted by American Horror Story where he could be abstract in the way his brain really wanted to go. And so, new writers were brought in, but having all eyes on it meant you had to dial it back, and the new writers didn't jive the same way, nor could they really juggle all of the new network notes, ballooning cast, mandates of the Glee project and responsibility for now having to be a 'role model' for all the new outsiders who were hanging on.

The show was once about being an awkward kid in the 80s. And then it was forced into becoming a mouthpiece for the changing times of the 2010s.

And that... doesn't work.

The funniest thing is way back when... after I had stopped watching the show for a while, Season 3 is what brought me back. I did think, for a moment in time, that I liked it better than Seasons 1 or 2. I can't exactly tell you why. But The First Time is when I fell in love, and maybe you feel connected to something when you fall in love with it that you can't really discribe.

And I hated Season 4. and I was listening to a podcast of the day (Those of you who remember Lima Heights Adjacent?) and the group of people were talking about how, with all of its faults, Season 4 was at least NOT Season 3. And I was confused because at the time - I much preferred Season 3. Because my favorite couple was at least a couple back then -- because the cast was people I liked. Because the episodes were easy to digest and the structure of it, while being bland and predictable, fit into a nice, uniform way of storytelling.

And then time moved on, and I left my twenties, and digested the entire story (the second half, with all of its faults, does not get the recognition it deserves -- despite it falling apart at all times) and got a lot better at critical analysis and media analysis and being open to the ideas of others and just... shake my head.

When you look at the whole, Season 3 isn't AS bad as I make it seem sometimes. There's a good chunk of it, right in the middle, that is... more watchable than what's at the beginning and end.

There is, however, a laundry list of reasons why it's not good -- from questionable story telling choices to dulling the edge of a more biting comedy to just not being able to service all the characters it has in a satisfactory way. They botched Santana's story, which had been set up nicely in season 2. They threw in guest stars and special episodes to throw off that they didn't really know what to do with the story other than praise Rachel Berry and get those kids winning nationals and graduated. They took Kurt and completely neutered him in a way that went against everything they had built him up to be in the first two seasons. And so on and so on and so on.

But I suppose most egregiously -- they played it safe and it was no longer interesting.

I don't fully understand why people love it so much. But I will say - part of the reason might be why I liked it at the time. There's a huge influx of newer fans always coming to the show. And like Klaine, Brittana (which has a following unlike it ever did when it aired) remains together and having the most screen time in Season 3. All the original characters are around, and the story structure, if nothing else, is secure and sound and plays out exactly as its supposed to. Rachel Berry gets the crown, Will gets the teacher of the year, and they all win nationals - hell, even Sue gets a baby. Cue the music and roll credits.

To each their own.

Season 4 comes next with its awkward new characters and its break ups and its wild ups and downs. And then season 5 with its grief and queer in a way that's not accessible but fuck it who cares and season 6 that just wants to go back to the beginning and end it all like the weird creation it was when it started. And as complicated as all of that is -- it's not as digestible as Season 3. I like the afterwards better. But I understand that some people won't. It has, after all, taken me years to get to this level of appreciation.

Who knows how people are going to look at it in ten, fifteen, fifty years. I'm sure, as streaming shows continue to go on and on and on and nothing dies any more, it'll take on different tones and different meanings.

Maybe this time around - those people just need that comfort.

I can't tell you.

But it won't ever be my favorite. And that's fine. As always, ymmv.

[shittyness]

I’ve got a new theory!!

It’s been a minute since I wrote one so it’s probably not my best work lol

Anyway! This one’s about Martyn! I don’t think I’ve made one for him yet actually 

Spoilers under the cut

So as Martyn had confirmed under Ryan’s post, he isn’t a listener

And he isn’t a Watcher

I think he’s still a player, but one the listeners protected, and the watchers wanted to take

I think that’s why he has heard messages from the watchers in the past

They want to make him one of them, but because he’s under the listeners protection from back in Evo they can’t

So they still use him, but at the same time they try to temp him to join them by showing him all the power he can have.

Martyn has a strong will and is able to fight off the temptation,  but he still is curious on the Watchers goals, motives, and reasonings behind their actions 

I think at some point he had tried to ask Grian, or any of the other former Evo members, but the watchers had taken their memories (or in Grian’s case it might’ve been too painful to retell it)

So if Martyn is suspended in this in between of the watchers and the listeners, what does that mean? To me it means that he has these two opposing parties fighting for him to side with them the listeners wanting him to remain a player, and the watchers wanting him to join their ranks. Both parties keep trying to either make the other side look bad, like the listeners did in Evo, making promises to Martyn without any evidence that they’ll keep them, or by gifting him power for him to chance after, like I believe the watchers did in limited life (think a child of divorced parents, where both are trying to get the kid to decide to live with them full time)

Another point I’d like to make it, while I know the life series isn’t scripted, in lore I think it makes sense if the watchers choose who will win the season. 

My explanations:

3rd Life: Grian won. Grian is also a former watcher, and as Martyn’s last life lore (specifically the ‘he was only ever meant to watch’ line) proves, the watchers don’t like that he’s a player again. So the watchers chose for him to win to once again win his favor and remind him of the power they wield. But Grian saw right through their schemes, and him jumping off the cliff on monopoly mountain was kind of his way of telling them he doesn’t need their power to be happy, and in a way that he’s better then them. Obviously they didn’t like that and so they cursed him to always be a part of his closest allies demise. I think their anger was most apparent in limited life, for example, out of the 3 people who had to miss a session, Grian was the only one without a fill in. Grian was also the first one to loose his main alliance

Last life: Scott won. Before I start this one, I will admit I don’t know as much about this season, especially Scott’s character, and I don’t currently have the time to watch all his episodes. Anyway Scott and the Watchers like mutually dislike each other. (I believe Martyn said this once) and I’m pretty sure this started in last life with Scott being the boogie man. So I think the watchers had Scott win despite their hatred to try and force him back into line. I think they wanted him to fear them and wanted him to see the extent of their abilities and control. I think they wanted him to see the truth so that he would worship them. But obviously we know that didn’t work either

Double Life: Pearl won. Pearl won because she was the most interesting for the watchers to watch, and she had the most negative emotions throughout the season. Her story was one of overcoming these tragedies while also dealing with her decent into madness. She lost her soulmate because she chose to go to the nether to try and benefit them over finding Scott. Then after Scott and Cleo left Pearl and Martyn and Pearl was already heartbroken, Martyn left her as well. Then throughout the season she becomes an omen of death and destruction. As she became more and more insane, she also grew more and more upset. Eventually she did end up teaming with Scott, Cleo, and Martyn. But by then the damage was already done. Finally when she did win, she was surrounded by grief. She had lost her soulmate again, she had also just watched Scott sacrifice himself for her to win the game, and she had killed her only other surviving friend throughout the entire game. She had the most negative emotions, and the most interesting story to watch.

Limited life: Martyn won. He won for all the reasons I said before. The watchers wanted to show their power, and get him to join them. They made him win by giving him that dose of power and bloodlust to kill Impulse and Scott. They had that control over him.

Anyway, that’s the end of my rants for now! If anyone read this I hope you found it interesting and I hope it makes sense lmao

[ilovewriting06]

The Need, the Need for Steve

A/N: I just watched the episode where Steve flew the plane for his friend and Jerry said the need for Steve and I was inspired (it also fulfills my friends request so it’s a win win)

We were sitting at Kamekona’s after Steve flew in the Hammerade enjoying a well deserved meal. I lean against Steve’s shoulder while biting the inside of my lip to keep my arousal to myself and not alert Steve. God he looks so hot, and when he was in the pilot suit, dear God I had to keep myself from jumping his bones then and there. I snap out of my daze when I hear Steve chuckle, “I have the need, the need for Steve.” I look over to Jerry to see him ready to pass out. I nudge Steve’s side and look at him to silently tell him to be nice. He smiles his breathtaking smile and shrugs. I roll my eyes and kiss his shoulder blade before snuggling back into his side as everyone laughs about Jerry’s new catch phrase.

I throw Jerry a sympathetic smile before inwardly smirking before I run my hand up Steve’s thigh and lean to whisper in his ear, “Jerry’s not the only one with a need for Steve.” Steve looks into my eyes and I watch as his pupils get bigger. I smile and place an innocent looking kiss on his neck when in reality it was a strategically placed kiss on his weakness.

He looks back at me with warning eyes and I remove my hand but lean into him so I can whisper to him and not seem suspicious, “You have no idea how hot you looked, how hot you look right now. God if only you could feel what you do to me.” I feel him shudder as my warm breath fans over his neck and I continue, “Tonight I’m taking care of you.” I place one more strategically placed kiss on his neck before grabbing his trash and mine and going to throw it away.

I jump slightly as I hear Tani, “Boss man is gonna have one hell of a night isn’t he?” Not long after Tani joined Five-0 we became fast friends and in turn we learned to read each other like a book and I taught her how to pick up on what Steve was thinking. In hindsight that might not have been such a good idea. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She looks at me with a raised eyebrow and a smug look, “Liar. I don’t know what you told him but his leg hasn’t stopped bouncing since you got up and when you kissed his neck he would gulp and his hand would tighten onto the table.” I blink once before whistling, “Damnnnn, you are good. Okay, maybeee I did a little something something but no one else needs to know about it.” She throws me an ‘obviously’ look before tilting her head, “Although Danny’s going to notice Steve’s strange behavior tomorrow and how you keep trying to change the subject and then out you two in front of everybody. And then feel bad when he sees your face and tries to make some shitty excuse as to how that couldn’t be it.” I let out a defeated sigh, “I know. I can’t even have one night where I can do whatever the hell I want with Steve without Danny being the ever present detective that he is outing us in front of everybody. Steve’s even starting to get pissed, which isn’t hard but we’ve started trying to find ways for no one to find out, but Danny can read us like a book and somehow we keep displaying what happened and it’s driving me insane.”

Tani frowned at how exhausted I was with Danny and shrugged, “Tell him.” I furrow my eyebrows, “Tell who what?” She huffs and crosses her arms, “Tell Danny.” I give her surprised look before throwing my hands all around and whisper shouting as I’ve noticed some people are watching, specifically from out table, “Tell him what! ‘Hey Danny, yeah I fucked Steve so keep your trap shut!’ Because that sounds like-,” I pause as I realize it’ll work and it’s not like I’m outing Steve and I because Danny will already know, “a good idea!” Tani throws her hands up like I told ya so before leaning in, “I get details for that helpful information.” She spins around and walks away and I yell loudly this time, “You know you would have gotten them anyway!” I chuckle as she yells back, “I know but I earned it this time!” I roll my eyes and smile knowing she’s right.

I collapse onto the bench beside Steve and watch as everyone looks between Tani and I, and Lou asks, “So what was that about?” Tani and I look at each other with wide eyes and I secretly try and tell her what to say before answering, “Pests.” The same time she says, “Relationships.” I mentally face palm and glare at Tani. She lets out a nervous chuckle before saying her goodbyes and all but running away. Everyone looks at me and I give them a glare to drop it. They all do their own form of surrender before starting a conversation about fishing.

After about another thirty minutes I’m soaked in arousal because I haven’t stopped watching Steve argue with Danny and throwing his hands around to prove a point. I lean back against Steve’s shoulder and grab his hand and put it on my thigh. He looks at me in question as I slide it up my thigh until he’s under my skirt. Yes I wore a skirt but I had no idea it would come in handy like this, I was just hot. I watch as he bites the inside of his cheek to keep himself from moaning when he feel how soaked I am. He leans over and whispers in my ear, “Damn princess your underwear are soaked. Do I turn you on that much?” I hum quietly in agreement before turning back to the conversation.

Five minutes later I stiffen in my seat as I feel his finger push my underwear to the side before running his finger up my folds. Once his finger is coated he pulls it out from under my skirt and his jaw all but drops at how wet his finger is. It’s so wet it’s literally dripping off his finger. He has a small smirk as he looks at me and I feel him rub his hand on his pants before standing up and grabbing my hand, “Alright guys, Y/N/N and I are gonna head out.” Everyone nodded and said bye as we walked to his truck.

When Steve is pulling onto the road he glances at me before asking, “What has you so worked up?” I sigh knowing why but not knowing how to tell him, “I don’t know I’ve just been super horny lately.” It wasn’t a lie, I really was horny 95% of the time nowadays. “Is it from your period?” No, most definitely not, in fact it’s the opposite of that, “No, it’s definitely not from that.”

His frowns slightly as he thinks and I let my eyes trail down his veiny arms until I reach his hands which are tapping away on the steering wheel so he doesn’t touch me while he’s driving. I shift in my seat and let out a barely audible whine. He obviously heard me as his eyes snap to me. He smirked as he followed my line of sight to his hands which were still aimlessly tapping away. He stopped tapping his fingers and I look at his face to see him side eyeing me and I feel my face light on fire as I realize he caught onto what was flowing through my mind.

He chuckles at how red I was, “You sure you don’t know what has you so riled up lately?” He knows, he knows I know what’s going on and he knows I’m not telling him, but he doesn’t know why. I clear my throat before shifting in my seat, “Just you, you always look so irresistible and sexy.” Again, not a lie. He sighs, “You’re lying.” My mouth opens slightly before I huff, “I am not.” He takes a deep breath and lets it out as a semi aggravated sigh, “Yes, you are. You shifted further away from me, avoided eye contact, and you unknowingly played with your bracelet which you do when you’re nervous. You’re hiding something from me and it’s been going on for awhile now. I was hoping you would tell me on your own but it’s been over a week and you haven’t shown any indication that you’re going to tell me.”

I hold my breath and tap my foot as tears fight to be let out. I look down to see I’m again playing with my bracelet. I stop and wipe my sweaty hands on my skirt. Steve glances over at me and furrows his eyebrows as he watches my hands shake, “Did you kill somebody?” My eyes widen as I squeak, “What!? No!” “Well that’s the only thing I can think of that would have you so anxious, this is the first time in our relationship that you’ve hidden something from me that wasn’t a surprise party or something. Did I do something?”

I shake my head as he parks the truck in our driveway, “No, well, kinda but I did it too.” He furrows his eyebrows and tilts his head to the side, “What?” I sigh before rushing out, “Impregnant.” He shakes his head as he tries to catch what I said, “Babe, I have no idea what you just said. I play with my bracelet as I stare into his eyes, “I’m pregnant.” He heard me this time, I can see the gears in his head turn as he processes this new information, “YOU’RE WHAT!?”

I feel the tears surface and I rub my eyes aggressively to try and get them to go away, “I’m sorry, I swear I was on birth control up until I found out I was pregnant. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner but I was scared, I still am. You just got diagnosed with radiation poisoning, the chance of you getting sick a-and dying is a real possibility and I know the last thing you need is the stress of a baby, and I know you probably hate me right now, so if you want me to leave, I-I will.” I wipe the tears off my face and look into his eyes and I’m surprised to see his pupils blown wide before he whispers, “You’re pregnant? With my baby? I’m going to be a dad?…..Wow.” My eyes widen as I process what the actual fuck is going on, he has a breeding kink, an unknown kink to me until this moment as he stares at me with lust. I let out a shaky breath and rub my thighs together while biting my lip, “You aren’t mad?” He shakes his head, “Hell no I’m not mad.” I smile before I squeak as I’m pulled over the center console and into his lap as his lips meet mine in a bruising kiss. I moan into his mouth when I feel his erection. He pulls back from the kiss and cups my face, “You have no idea how happy I am. Yeah I have radiation poison, yeah the risks of death are higher, but if anything that makes me want to have a family even more. I want to experience life without worrying about my possible health issues. So what, I might get sick, but hell I could get shot tomorrow and die and it’s never stopped me before so why should it stop me now?” I sigh happily, “You have a breeding kink.” He looks me in the eyes and deadpans, “That’s all you got from this?” I blush and sheepishly smile as I shrug, “I heard you but I’m still caught up on how I never knew before.” He shakes his head with a small smile which quickly fades as he sees me smirk, “You’re gonna love to be called Daddy aren’t you?” He squeezes my hips and it’s the only answer I need. I pull his face back in for a kiss, “Can I fuck you now?” He nods with a semi surprised smile and I shift in his lap before bringing my lips to his ear, “Then what are we waiting for Daddy?”

[bellshazes]

so hypothetically speaking, if i were to take on the 10 year backlog of ethubs content….. where would i even start?? its so much content that it’s totally overwhelming to me, and you seem like the only person on the planet to have sifted thru all of it, so i need ur wisdom 😭

trust me I have not and I know there are others (hi rio) but imo the key is to just. follow your heart. they are constantly bringing up old stuff and each other anyway so you will find new shiny things to go check out if you start anywhere. like, the whole reason I watched UHCs for the first time is bc of etho lying to say bdubs voted him out (not a UHC mechanic) and called him a son of a sweetheart in his LP. that said, I do have a masterpost of my fave bdubs mindcrack episodes which frankly is a lot of etho + bdubs, as well as a list of some of my favorite clips.

off the top of my head, suggestions to poke around in:

survival of the fittest, s1 and s2 - bdubs' death game with prox chat. the handcuff thing in s1. i shan't say any more. watch etho for s1, bdubs for s2.

nether hubs, mindcrack s3 and s4 - literally the s4 one is so good, and the episodes they build it in also cover some of the best death games 2.0 moments between them. chicken noodle soup. etho's POV for the first one but bdubs for the second, if you have to pick.

feed the beast call of duty pvp arena - one of the first but not the last arena project. highlights include bdubs ordering etho to strip and also them killing each other for fun.

speaking of arenas, the immediate sequel to the COD map is the fire and ice arena in mindcrack s4. etho builds a house outside the arena itself, stealing bdubs' block palette, and only an episode or two later getting bdubs to help and decorating his room across the hall with quote justin bieber posters unquote, causing at least zisteau to later ask if bdubs really is a belieber.

whatever the episode is that etho hires bdubs to kill someone for him and then showers him with meat in mindcrack s3

here is a secret: i have not yet watched The Trial. but it's foundational. all the etho vs. the b-team stuff is so funny especially how often he and bdubs are literally collabing on something at the same time.

UHCs - etho's POV of UHC 4 is classic and victorious. bdubs' POV of UHC 11 is the worst thing i've ever seen in my life, watch it immediately. there's other ones but i haven't seen most of them because i feel compelled to watch for Live Bdubs Reactions but it makes me want to throw up every time. because he is Insane.

OOGE - three different CTM maps, ymmv; this ranking is spot on, but i've also watched OOG (bdubs + guude) so like clearly my tolerance is not normal. watch kaizo caverns

horse courses, mindcrack s3 and s5, hermitcraft s8 - beyonc? and taylor swift horses of all time. you really just should watch etho or bdubs' first mindcrack seasons. s5 mesa one also features doc and genny and the running sick joke you will recognize from the s4 nether hub and last life.

those three entire episodes of etho helping bdubs with his spawner situation that's only in bdubs' POV, starting with bdubs going oh let's not bother him and then freaking out a little when etho volunteers himself to help. the first but not the last time etho says he wants to live in bdubs' basement.

hermitcraft s7. just the whole thing both their povs don't worry about it, you already know, etc. but personal soft spots of course for etho killing bdubs with kindness and the delivery boy saga, which references an ancient joke about pink shirts. also hcs8 overlapping last life and bdubs' very very blatant etho-obsession is just so much.

also of course the life series but instead of telling you what you already know please consider how bdubs signing his invoice "luv bdubs" to etho but reading it out loud as "love, professionally, bdubs" aired immediately after "he loves me! he cares. he does" happened. we don't talk about that weird little no homo enough

thank you for reminding me i need to finish the etho mindcrack best of list. i'm surely missing a ton of stuff but this is a rough approximation of my favorites and/or essentials. but seriously i have jumped around and finished some series, only watched a few select episodes of others, and straight up forgot to finish several more. be free! go nuts. (you will go nuts. this part is not optional)

[evilrat-sabre]

Welsknight Season 7, EP 1 and 2 a Rat's report

So I started watching Wels season 7 again for reasons™ and decided I should take notes, not only of what he does, but about things I observe around the server, so here is my trying to understand my own notes and sharing with y'all. Idk if I will do it again, but I had fun doing this.

Note: I did it again! NEXT

INSANE "Starter" House! | Hermitcraft 7 - Ep. 1

27:04 length, posted 23 may 2020. Watched 30 January 2023.

Wels starts the video referring to it as Season 6, he says that he just had a nap, and he is ready to go work in "projects"

He finds it weird that no one is online Cub enters the world and gets weirded out with Wels being on the word Wels talks with Cub in the nether hub -Wels calls Cub a vex and this makes me unreasonable happy -Wels refers to season 7 as "the future" He goes through a suspicious diamond portal and ends in Hermitcraft season 7

At season 7 Cub gives him some of Scar's crystals, He grabs two:

"Courage of the lion" and a "A gift of love", because I quote -Love is all you need-

Some time observation notes:

Grass and mycelium mix in the Shopping District, this is before the war.

I see a Mumbo for mayor map, I am still not sure what point in the mayoral election this is.

It's before the nether update: The button is alive.

I probably should mention he builds his starter base, it has a lovely colour pallet.

This is where my episode one notes ends, but I went a little bonkers with episode two notes,

Mines & Landscapes | Hermitcraft 7 - Ep. 2

26:15 length, posted 27 may 2020. Watched 30 January 2023.

He starts mining and talking about the burnout he was going through, apparently he took a 8 months break of minecraft, started streaming and swapped to a more general gaming content creation.

Personal note: This reminded me why I started watching Wels to begin with; the man was receiving awful comments, because of his lack of minecraft posting. I was new to the fandom and hadn't ever watched him before, when I got here he was already going with his now very familiar cycle of posting minecraft and vanishing for some time, maybe posting another game and maybe posting nothing for months. I will not lie, I started watching him of pure spite to the awful people that felt like it was a acceptable comportment to go to this guy's comment section and talk shit about how if he wasn't going to post he should get kicked out Hermitcraft. I said it at that time and I will always repeat: You are aren't entitled NOTHING, Wels and honestly any other youtuber, by default owns you nothing, and being a little hater will only ostracize you from other people from this community. aNYWAY; I got hooked in his Binding of Isaac series, and to today he is my favorite youtuber, and his videos -Minecraft or not- bring me great joy. Okay back to my report.

*Spams clicks his bed when the sun starts to go downs* "Bdubs isn't online, someone gotta fill up" Sir, just admit you have a sleeping problem /j

*Insert epic wither skeleton killing montage here*

The button is dead. Wels comment at seeing it dead: "The Gift machine is broken, good thing I didn't spend a long time camping, I could be hurt"

Wels starts going through the mayoral candidates and starts reasoning why he wouldn't vote to some of them

Mumbo: "I can't in good conscious support Mumbo, because I don't need a spoon" (Personal note: I was so amused I anoted the time stamp 07:15) Scar: Scar offered cats for everyone if he wins and I quote Wels "I don't even like cats" (Personal note: Even your favs can do wrong; sometimes living in denial and turning a blind eye for things is a good thing to do /hj) Doc: "I don't know, where I will even begin" (Personal note: "this green man was occupied having a child", Its a good start of a explanation and "He is a menace and a threat to society" is also a very reasonable one. Joe: "He isn't running for mayor" (Personal note: Yeah, he was running for something even better, the whole Dog catcher thing, may be one of the best things I ever saw in minecraft. "Create a problem that only you can solve, so now you hold political power over your fellow friends and coworkers") So this leaves Wels with two good option False and Stress, he can't really decide so he leaves his concrete vote in both of them. (Rat's reaction : Yesss, vote in our queens, oh brave knight!)

10/10 he would book again

Why is he killing the wither with a axe?? (I know why, but let me fins him weird)

He is doing his starter base interior; I am having House flipper flashbacks, at least it isn't grey.

No one sells feathers, Wels commits murder of the poultry category.

He send letters to his close neighbors, it starts with "Hidey-ho neighbor-" and I am smiling wide and losing my marbles.

Every neighbor receives two blue flowers, with exception of Jevin who receives two yellow ones (Persona note: I find this funny, because Jevin is the only one I am aware that blue is his favorite color)

Some time and world observation notes:

Barge was updated from Ep 1 to 2, Wels complimented it.

I just saw Grumbot- Oh god the shopping district was so ugly. (My actual live reaction)

This is the end of my report for now. God I am nostalgic, Season 7 was the season I got into Hermitcraft, and it fills me with joy seeing if from the pov of my favorite youtuber.

[ouatsnark]

Hi. This isn’t an ask or anything, just me ranting since this is the only place for it tbh. I literally can’t find any OUAT blogs that have similar opinions 😢

Anyway on to the rant

I absolutely HATE that they didn’t do more with Henry’s character! Henry is my favourite character in the show for many reasons, the main one being that he is the backbone of the entire show in my eyes. Without him, Emma never would’ve gone to Storybrooke, and there wouldn’t even be a show at that point.

Henry was a child at the beginning of the series (10 or 11, I don’t remember) so it gave them a lot of room to basically do whatever they wanted with him. I personally would’ve loved to see him go dark, but maybe that’s just me. It would’ve been cool to mix it up seeing as many of the villains in OUAT had a redemption arc of some sort, so seeing someone go from good to bad, instead of good to bad to good again, would’ve been interesting. Again, maybe that’s just me lol.

My point is, Henry being so young at the beginning they basically had a blank canvas and could’ve painted anything on it. Instead he turned out to be a lot like David (one of my least favourites in the show) which kind of pissed me off ngl.

And in my opinion, it would’ve made a lot of sense for Henry to turn bad. Let’s face it, he was never exactly treated fairly to say the least, especially as a child. I know a lot of people like to try and sugarcoat this or just plain act like it didn’t happen, but Regina was awful to him. And so was Emma. I want to sit here and list out all the shit they did to him, but that would be way too long and would take forever, so go back and watch the show if you don’t remember. Let’s just say it includes years of gaslighting, manipulation, and being so ignorant to the point where he had to poison himself because no one would listen to him, and that’s not even the half of it.

Henry always came across as someone who would be pretty morally grey to me, even if he was technically on the good side. Remember his little run-in with Cruella in the Underworld? I haven’t watched the show in a while so correct me if anything is incorrect, but didn’t he literally agree to work with her for something? (I can’t remember what LMAO) Even though she’s a villain. Regardless of the reason for working with her, I doubt you’d see Snow/Mary Margaret or David/Charming working with her, or even Regina at that stage in the series.

Even if they didn’t make him evil, they could’ve done literally anything with his character besides making him a near copy of Charming. They could’ve at least given him his own storyline (I know he technically had his own in S7, but I don’t count that because it was shit lmao, it wasn’t even the same actor 😭). Those two episodes where Henry had to go into the Heroes and Villains book to save his family were the best episodes in the series for me and it would’ve been amazing to see more of it.

Anyway so sorry for the long ass rant 😭😭 Really hope you can post this to see other people’s thoughts, but no pressure since I know you’re not as insane about Henry’s character as I am lmao 💀

So what do you guys think? Leave your thoughts in the comments (or reblogs)!

I lost all interest in Henry once they retconned him and ignored Regina's abuse just so they could have her join team hero.

Personally, I have never had a need to see heroes go dark. There seems to be this huge obsession with that as of late and I honestly don't get it. Like people wanted to see Dark Swan go all the way and I am like "no, no it makes her special that she was able to resist. So no." But alas that is my opinion on that. We had enough villains. I didn't need to see Emma's son become one.

[bailey-orphic08]

Sander Sides Season Two Finale: Thoughts and Wants

    Okay, so if you’re here, you likely know how Sander Sides is doing. It’s broken all our hearts and all we can do is write fanfiction and theories as we slowly edge our way to the season two finale. Emphasis on slowly because anyone who’s been part of the fandom for at least a couple months knows Thomas is insanely slow when it comes to releasing new episodes. So slow that the last true Sander Sides episode was more than two years ago, and that was an Asides video. For two years we have been waiting for a follow up to Working THROUGH Intrusive Thoughts! But us Fanders don’t judge. Thomas is an adult, so should be allowed to take as much time as he needs for the sake of his health; and while he takes his sweet time, we have time to craft theories on what this season finale beholds. And that’s why we’re here today.

    Hello, I’m Bizarrio, and today I will share my predictions of what I think—and want—to happen in the Sander Sides season two finale. Quick disclaimer, the only two things we know for certain about the finale is that there will be a lot of songs and that it is planned to be four parts long. So there is no way I’ll be able to guess everything that’s going to happen. Anyways, I’ve stalled enough, let’s get to the part you’re here for.

The Structure

    Four parts is a lot of parts, but I think I’ve made a formula that the finale could follow.

    The first part will introduce the first problem, a simple problem that would be addressed in any Sander Sides episode, from dealing with an issue Thomas has to answering a question about life. In part one, the sides will try to find a solution to said problem. But as the episode goes on, it gets more and more clear that their action and the way they treat each other is stemming from something far deeper than this simple issue. And at the end of the episode, this is confirmed when one of the sides does something drastic, whether it be blurting out something they shouldn’t have or even physically hurting another side.

    This leads to part two, where everyone tries to discuss the real problem. In this part, they will try to find the problem and what’s causing it. After finding the problem, they will make a solution that leads to one of the sides being unhappy, which will lead to that side breaking down, causing the events of part three.

    In part three, the actual cause of the problem is revealed. And this side’s problems will be on full display, showing a level of despair we haven’t seen of him to this point.

    Now knowing the real root of the issue, the fourth and final part would be about Thomas and the other sides comforting the side in their breakdown. They would then find the true solution to the problem. And after they find this solution, Thomas gives his final speech about what he’s learned, kisses Hello Fresh’s feet, and shows us the end card, where we can finally prepare for season three.

The Plot

    So that’s what I think the structure will be, but that’s not a plot, so who’s it with?

    Well, for starters, the finale will likely focus on one side, and based on recent events, I think that this side will be Roman. Roman’s insecurity has been present since the very beginning and has only gotten worse. And throughout the entirety of season two, he’s been forced to compromise his wants or admit that he is in the wrong, especially in more recent episodes. So I feel like it would be suitable for the finale to be about him. I feel like with the structure I set up, he wouldn’t be the main focus of part one and a portion of part two, but the rest of the parts would definitely start to focus on him, putting him in full center.

    And since the finale is Roman centered, the first problem in part one is gonna have a lot to do with him. And that problem will be about Nico.

    I think the first conflict will be Thomas trying to decide if he should make a move on Nico. This could be anything from taking him somewhere to straight confessing. I don’t really know, but regardless, Roman is absolutely rooting for Thomas to go for it. Janus and Patton on the other hand, think that it would be a terrible mistake.

    Janus thinks that Thomas isn’t in the right headspace to start any relationships, and should be focusing on himself. And from what Patton said about Nico in the five year anniversary, we can tell that he isn’t exactly thrilled about the idea of him. I assume that he’s likely scared of the heartache that would occur if the relationship failed. And after some recent—and totally uninfluential not upsetting—events, I feel like he would also see the merit in Thomas focusing on Thomas.

    Things look bad for Roman(and they will be later)but it’s okay. He’s not outnumbered, for he has a very smart, and very cool guy on his side, who also believes that it is reasonable for Thomas to take this chance: Virgil.

    When confronted with the issue, Virgil sides with Roman almost immediately, which is a huge shock to everyone. Virgil says that Thomas should get it over with because Thomas has no way of knowing how much time he has, so if he doesn’t do it now, he may never get the chance.

    So yeah, part one would mainly be Roman and Virgil vs Patton and Janus as they try to convince Thomas why he should or shouldn’t make the moves on Nico. Patton and Janus’ argument is that it’s the wrong time to do it, while Roman and Virgil’s argument is that this may be the only time. And Roman and Virgil will be absolute couple goals as team up and absolutely obliterate Janus—figuratively. 

    Also, all the multiple-part episodes so far have involved going to another side’s room. And since this is a Roman centered finale, he’ll take Thomas and the other sides to his room to prove his point about taking risks, and that’s where they’ll be for the rest of the finale. I imagine his room to be vibrant and shiny, covered with shades of red and pink, white, and gold. It’s also very cluttered and messy, with discarded papers and costumes scattered all over the ground, and posters, artwork, and Thomas’ biggest accomplishments hung on every wall. So much stuff is in there, it almost feels claustrophobic. And the different rooms have different effects based on the side it represents. I think that Roman’s room would cause Thomas and the other sides to lose touch with reality, and become fixated on their desires.

    *Insert song about time and when you should and shouldn’t take chances.*

    But things aren’t all well, for as the episode goes on, the argument gets more and more tense, especially Virgil’s argument. And at the end of part one, Virgil blurts out something along the lines of, 

    “Of course it’s a bad idea! But which is worse? Losing one friend by making a bad choice, or losing all of your friends to him?” Virgil would be referring to Janus of course. This shocks everyone—especially Roman—and reveals Virgil’s true intentions.

    You see, there was more to Virgil’s quick decision than just time. In fact, he never thought Thomas should do it at all. The real reason he was telling Thomas to do it is because he didn’t want Thomas to listen to Janus. It’s clear through every interaction he and Janus have that Virgil hates him, and doesn’t believe that he should be trusted ever. And from recent episodes, it’s shown that Virgil has even started resenting Patton. So I feel like Virgil would be much more happy if Thomas listened to Roman than Patton and Janus.

    Then in part two, they discuss the real problem. After discussing this, Virgil finally accepts that it would be better if Thomas didn’t confess his love, and that it doesn’t make Thomas a bad person to listen to Janus this time. And it seems that everyone is satisfied…

    But wait.

    What about Roman? He’s not satisfied. He didn’t get what he wanted. Time and time again, Roman has given up on his desires, making compromise after compromise for Thomas’s sake. And once again, he’s the one who has to sacrifice his happiness. He’s the one who gets the short end of the stick. He’s the one who gets called out for his poor decisions. And do they even care? They act like they care, but it’s only really for their own gain.

    Nobody understands. Nobody cares.

   Tired of this cycle, Roman snaps. He kicks all the other sides out of his room, putting all focus on him. And in part three, Roman makes a pitiful final attempt at convincing Thomas to confess to Nico. And all of his insecurities are displayed.

    *Insert absolutely heartbreaking song about how everything Roman does is for Thomas and how he feels worthless because his contributions seem less important and even more harmful than the others.*

    Near the end of part three, or the beginning of part four, the other sides return. Or maybe Roman brings them back? Or maybe he never kicked them out in the first place and he shut them up a different way? I don’t know. But the sides are there. And in part four, they all comfort Roman, claiming that he is important and helpful, and that they wouldn’t be where they are now without him. Patton apologizes for misleading him, and Janus apologizes for taking advantage of him. And I think it would be cool if Virgil had a beautiful speech about Roman, similar to Roman’s speech about him in Accepting Anxiety. Considering that Virgil was Roman’s final straw, and that he hasn’t tried to be nice to Roman as Roman has to him, I think it would be a nice way to bring things all together.

    *Insert song about how everyone will always love and appreciate Roman and how he is just as important as everyone else and how Roman and Virgil should totally kiss when this is over.* 

    And after everyone says what they want to say, and Roman starts to feel better, they go back to Thomas’s living room. Thomas comes to a compromise that makes everyone happy, and he finishes the video off with what he’s learned: Acceptance and the merit to taking risks.

    And then he tells us about Hello Fresh and how it’s the superior way of eating.

    Wait a minute. I think I’m forgetting someone. Someone who’s really important to the series, and could add some really interesting—and even logical—points to the argument…

    Oh yeah, what about Remus?

Remus and the Orange Side

    If the finale is centered around Roman, then Remus has to be there by obligation. A main theme within it would be Roman’s insecurity, and we know that Remus is one of his biggest. So it simply wouldn’t make sense for him to not be there.

    In the finale, Remus is just gonna be himself. He’s not gonna pick a side or provide helpful information. No, he’s going to make the same discomforting jokes and taunt everyone, making them feel worse than they already do, especially Roman. 

    As entertaining as he is though, I don’t see him actually contributing to the plot, other than making things worse. I don’t even see him apologizing to Roman in part four. At most, he’ll begrudgingly apologize for killing him after Janus looks at him sternly.

    What I do see however, is some major foreshadowing. When Remus isn’t making inappropriate comments about the situation or blatantly insulting Roman, he’ll try to bring up completely random things that have absolutely nothing to do with the conversation. Thomas and the other sides will brush it off as Remus being his usual self, but those remarks will actually be information of the orange side, and foreshadowing of what he will do in season three.

    Speaking of the orange side, what will he be doing?

    Honestly, I have no clue, which is why I haven't talked about him so far. It’s pretty clear that the orange side is linked to anger and negativity in some way, and likely has the ability to take control of others when they're upset. And you can’t exactly say Roman’s content during the finale. So it would make sense for orange to reveal himself at this time.

    But apart from what he could represent and one of his abilities, we know absolutely nothing about him. And since we don’t know his personality or even his goals, I can’t tell you how he would act in the finale.

    Additionally, I also think that a lot has happened in season two so far. The series has grown to be really complex with all its different plot points. And this finale is definitely going to be the effect of all this complicated commotion. So adding the orange side into the mix might make it too complicated. I’m not saying that it couldn’t work or that Thomas can’t make it work, I just feel like the orange is an issue better left to address in season three.

The Other Stuff

    There’s also a couple of other things I want to talk about that didn’t really fit in with the other stuff, but weren’t big enough to earn their own section, so I put it all here.

    Firstly, I find it very possible that there will be a common analogy in the finale. I’m referring to how Logan and Roman used visuals to prove their points in Why Do We Get Out of Bed In The Morning?, and the whole video game theme in Putting Others First. I think it would be cool if it had a cartoon theme where every side has their own art style. Though, for the finale, it might be more fitting to reference different musicals, since Roman is deeply obsessed with theater. And it would explain why there’s so much music in the finale. But that’s more of a cool idea than an actual prediction.

    Second, I’d like to talk about Dark Roman, or Roman becoming an antagonist. I don’t think he can become a darkside, since the dark sides are just parts of Thomas that he hasn’t accepted as good yet, and Thomas already knows that Roman can be a positive influence, even if Roman doesn’t feel like it. That being said, I can definitely see him dealing with not being Thomas’s hero by doubling down on the antagonist thing, and becoming a “villain.” It would also be a good way to involve the orange side.

    However, I also feel like even if Roman really tried, he wouldn’t really be that big of an enemy. He may be trying to embrace his evil side, but at the end of the day, he still cares about the other sides and especially Thomas. And I feel like this care for them would hold him back from doing something truly evil. Besides, we already have an evil Roman! And I feel having one of those around is plenty enough.

    Also, I think Thomas’ living room should still be messy, showing that he still hasn’t cleaned it after Working THROUGH Intrusive Thoughts.

    And Janus should get his own song. It could be about literally anything, just give him a song. He’s earned it.

    So, yeah. Those are the things I think will and want to happen in the Sander Sides season two finale. Of course this doesn’t fill in every detail, it would be impossible to guess everything that will happen. And there’s no way everything I’ve said will actually happen. So I’d like to see your thoughts too. Anyways, that will be all, so goodbye every-

    Wait. Wait. Hold on a second. I’m forgetting something. Something I’ve seemed to ignore despite being very important to the series. Something that’s been here since the very beginning, and has been a part of some of the best moments in the show. Something all the fans have grown to love…

    What about the end credits!

The End Credits

    The end credits have shown us some of the cutest scenes within the whole series, and have provided some really interesting foreshadowing and tension as well. So we have to talk about them!

    The end credits of part one will be all the sides berating Thomas for leaving on such a cliffhanger. He’ll try to reassure them by saying that part two will come out really soon, but absolutely no one will believe him.

    The things I’ve said so far have been speculation or headcanon, but this one is actually correct. After all the time we’ve waited, it would be such a missed opportunity to not make the joke. So this will be the first end credit or else. No, no, I’m kidding… Or am I?

    We’re at the second end credit, and at this point, I’m sure you can tell I’ve been leaving someone out… And it’s Joan!

    No, this joke has gone on for long enough. As you can tell, I’ve been avoiding Logan. And it’s not just because I don’t see him having a place in a Roman centered episode. In fact, I do see him in it.

    He would call both sides irrational, and propose a compromise. (The same compromise they make in the final part…) But he would be ignored as the other sides try to talk over each other. And it would be especially bad this episode. So much that he would quit trying and leave the conversation, similar to how he did in Moving On and Putting Others First. Only this time, no one will be there to notice or care…

    And that’s where the end credits come in.

    The second end credit will show Logan right after he leaves to his room. He starts to talk to himself about how frustrated he is about being pushed aside so often. He talks about feeling unwanted and possibly unneeded as Janus is slowly taking his place as the voice of reason.

    The third end credit continues his monologue, showing him grow more and more upset. 

    We finally reach the fourth end credit and Logan is completely furious. But his monologue gets cut off when Remus enters his room, he of course immediately masks his anger. He tells Logan about everything he missed and how they came to the exact same conclusion he was trying to push, only to be ignored. This breaks Logan’s composure, and he starts lamenting all his frustrations to Remus. Remus interrupts him, claiming that the root of the issue is that he doesn’t stand out enough, and that all he needs to do is be as loud as they are. They then turn to Logan’s door as they hear footsteps; Remus smiles. We see a glimpse of the man at the door. Perhaps we see an orange-hazed silhouette, or a pair of shoes we have yet to see. Or maybe, just maybe, we even hear his voice,

    “I can help with that…”

Conclusion

    And that’s everything I think will and want to happen in the Sander Sides season two finale, for real this time.

    And as I said before, almost anything can happen, so I’m bound to be wrong about something. Thomas has also said that he plans to to get at least parts one and two out by the end of the year, so we’ll get to see any day now.

     And in the end, while I may not know exactly what will happen, I do know that this finale will leave us laughing, crying, and absolutely hyped for season three. I am so excited for the finale, and I know I’ll love it, regardless of what happens.

    Goodbye everyone.

[catboy037]

long ass rant incoming

goddamnit i just had to block two more sp blogs bc they're anti kyman 😭😭 save me from this hellhole

the narrative that kyman is a proship is honestly dumb. they are fourth graders. how much of a little piece of shit were you when you were younger? both kyle and cartman are capable of growing as people and mending their friendship. they care about each other. they act like they wouldn't care if the other died, but their whole fucking dynamic is that they can't live without each other, therefore the other dying would completely destroy them.

cartman is a misguided, traumatized, mentally ill child who doesn't understand half of the bigotry he spouts. kyle is a little shit with serious temper issues who takes out his anger on cartman because he's an easy target. they're both bad kids, and they're both capable of change. all children are. post covid cartman is such a good example of that.

i don't consider myself a proshipper, but i call shit like i see it, and kyle and cartman's character dynamic is literally the epitome of the enemies to lovers trope in its first stages. they hate each other. they wish the other way dead. they do everything they can to get one up on the other. but, in the end, they are tethered together by a rope that they tied around their own waists. they're dependent on each other. cartman goes fucking insane without kyle. kyle starts spiraling the second cartman gets a girlfriend.

almost every relationship between the kids can be classified as unhealthy. craig and tweek are one of the only canon fourth-grader couples that seem to solve their problems with each other in an emotionally mature way, even if it takes a whole episode to get to the point where they can. and of fucking course couples that young won't be healthy. they're children! children aren't emotionally mature! they don't understand their own brains enough to handle dating someone else with the same confusing emotions swirling around in their heads. hell, even high-schoolers often find it difficult to find stable relationships.

kyle and cartman are not doomed to be abusive. if they would get some fucking therapy and actually talk to each other about their issues, they could have a chance to develop a healthy friendship. a healthy relationship.

anyways, dni if you're just going to be rude or argue bc we don't need that negativity in this household <3

[stormyoceans]

vv brainrot continuation:

you don’t look like a person in a relationship (do you want to make me think about puentalay right at the 3 min?)

act like idiots in the car

even the roadway they are driving on is pink… no comment. pink cafe, pink sofa, pink table cloth in the hands of porjai, pink flyers on the walls…

what does my voice sound like (guess what I look like)

the way day describes mork’s voice is similar to how talay described what he likes about puen in the bed scene

the way day tries to find out what kind of relationship mork and porjai have is hopelessly referring to vv

scene you drink from a straw and try to breathe normally (gyo, where are you? you have to help porjai!)

p'day, I'm your fan (p'puen, my friend is your fan)

I didn’t think that day was so famous (in another universe I’m a famous actor)

homemade broth (carbonaraaaak)

Mr. Handsome (both of you are going for a long walk in the ass)

soft hands vs soft cheeks

goes to help porjai (goes to help peng)

talking t-shirts (can't miss this time)

drinking day (as sarcastic as talay)

sorry guys, my friend is drunk (tun has a fever). We will try to lie as convincingly as possible (no)

if I sing, you'll admit that I'm handsome (so, this is ep8: I'm directing, can you imagine what I'm telling you. do you like me that much?)

act like the rest of the world doesn't matter in group photos.

not brainrot, but why didn't jimmy lie on sea's shoulder? stolen again.

a drunken bed scene like in the zebra shirt scene (I can't comment on these gays anymore)

viewing a photo on your phone to stare at your crush (there should be KFC chicken crowing around here somewhere)

that moment when day studied the face of the sleeping mork and began to fly away into another universe, I honestly waited for him to pat himself on the cheeks to come to his senses (but then I remembered that his hands were too clean for that) next ep

once again, jimmy's character is half naked and with a towel on his shoulder, he hangs over sea's character. it's a pity that he's wearing a shirt, otherwise the scene with the zebra would have been repeated

why did you spray yourself with so much perfume (fuck you both, I'm tired of you)

tilak (I am traumatized for the rest of my life, I will not recover from this)

sometimes I think, why am I watching this? this is torture, real torture.

PINKYBRAIN WHEN I TELL YOU I SPENT THE ENTIRE EPISODE THINKING OF YOU BECAUSE HOW ARE THESE PARALLELS JUST GROWING IN NUMBER WITH EACH PASSING EPISODE??????? SEEING THEM ALL LISTED DOWN LIKE THIS TRULY MAKES YOU UNDERSTAND JUST HOW UTTERLY INSANE IT IS AND SOME OF THEM ARE SO NOTICEABLE TOO LIKE THE EMBARRASSED SIPPING FROM THE STRAW?????? THE MR. HANDSOME??????? THE ZOOMING IN ON THE FACE OF THE PERSON YOU LOVE??????

AND ON THE OTHER HAND IM FULLY AWARE THAT SOME OF THEM ARE PURELY CASUAL BUT IM SITTING HERE LOSING IT OVER A SIMPLE 'TICK TOCK' ANYWAY

I GUESS IT'S TIME TO ADMIT I MAY HAVE A PROBLEM 😭

for this episode i don't really have much to add tho, you pretty much already pointed out all the parallels that also caught my eye and some i didn't even think about like puen/mork going to help pang/phorjai. i guess the only thing i could say is that the one scene that reminded me of talay describing what he missed about puen was actually the one palm scene at the end because of how it was structured and filmed

ALSO SORRY I KNOW IM NOT ADDING ANYTHING NEW SINCE YOU'VE ALREADY TALKED ABOUT IT BUT I NEED THESE TWO PARALLELS - PUEN/MORK SINGING AND FLIRTING WITH TALAY/DAY IN GROUP PHOTOS - SIDE BY SIDE AS SCREENSHOTS BECAUSE THEY'RE GONNA GET ME INVOLUNTARILY COMMITTED SOON LIKE

MORKDAY IS NEVER GONNA BEAT THE PUENTALAY IN A DIFFERENT UNIVERSE ALLEGATIONS

[soupcanspecimen]

I wish I was better at conveying my thoughts more eloquently but here's my very late journal of my thoughts on ep12.

After some technical difficulties I finally watched ep12 and I've go to say:

I LOVED IT SO DAMN MUCH YOU GUYS!!!! THIS SEASON FINALE WAS ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!!!!

That opening scene was so tense, you could literally cut the tension with a knife because of how thick it is.

Manaria was being a bitch again, I have a section on that so wait for that. The amulet was shown again but it wasn't used, I'm still crossing my fingers though because they keep focusing on that thing way too much! The scales were used in this episode however and DEAR GOD the that Ceremony had me at the edge of my seat clenchining my ass! I was legit going to die when Rae pulled out that twig!

I went from saying" never let this girl cook again" to laughing with joy when the tree sprouted up! Also can we talk about the tree for a minute? Imagine my fucking shock and hysterical breamdowm as a Lumity fan when I saw that tree for the first time! It was a tree that represented their love! You know what tree also basically does the same thing?

THE FUCKING LUMITREE!!!! THEY HAVE THEIR OWN FUCKING LUMITREE!!?!? WHEN I THOUGHT RAECLAIR DIDNT HAVE ANYMORE SIMILARITIES TO LUMITY IT KEEPS PROVING ME WRONG!!!! THESE TWO SHIPS SHARE SO MUCH DNA WITH EACHOTHER ITS UNREAL!!!! AM I LIKE THE ONLY ONE WHO SEES THIS!?!?

Ahem anyways.

Rae's confession was so raw and emotional to where you can feel the love flowing out of her words and you can see this is different from her other confessions cause she saying what she's wanted to say since the start and without hiding behind a mask this time. And when Clair admitted her feelings by pulling Rae away to protect her it was super sweet and shows that she's truly grown close to Rae. She even starts calling Rae by her name near the end of the episode instead of calling her "Commoner".

Clair was also great this episode, and she actually took my advice from my episode 11 rent post and reflected on her time with Rae. Her Freudian slips and gay panic because she's finally starting to fall for Rae were super cute and gave me a lot of "Ayo pause, run that back" moments!

And also

CLAIRMATO!!!!!

Speaking of Clair starting to fall for Rae

THEY DID IT, Y'ALL THEY'RE FINALLY TOGETHER LETS GOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! CONGRATULATIONS TO THE BOTH OF YOU!!!!

God I love these two so much guys! And I would love to bestow this ship with the highest honor I can give. I've recently mace a rule to myself when it comes to ships to not use this quote lightly for it is only reserved for ships that have truly earned my respect. Ahem (*Deep Inhale)

THEYRE ADORABLE AND DESERVE ALL THE HAPPINESS!!!!

I never thought that I would ever find a ship that would ever hit the same way as Lumity did! Even if they were cut from the same cloth!

GIVE ME A SEASON 2

NOW 🌩👄🌩

The Manaria Section:

I still hate Manaria my reasoning has just changed. Like, bruh, there is actually something wrong with you! Was any of what you said real!? Did you actually violate someone or was that story also just part of your plan!? Did you have like a back up or something if either you or Rae failed!? I legit can't read you, you're actually insane! You really are the single worst wingwoman I've ever seen, cause there were a million other ways to go about it, yet you somehow picked the wrong answer. You even ruined the confession, I mean who does that?!? I am for real about to throw hands! To be honest it would make sense if you were lying since you're a technically a politician after all, that's like your guy's whole thing.

Bitch don't come back.

I think most of my recorded reaction was just me cursing at her and wanting her to die, I need to get better at insults after looking back at the recording

[ye-xiu]

omg al darling pls give me your queen of tears thoughts i’m really behind and need to know if it’s worth finishing <3

tbh i am also behind but i keep up with spoilers and episode recaps for everything i am watching bc i don't really care about getting spoiled. with that being said, where do i even begin? i would have loved if the show ended on a melodrama note in the second half, with the hong family having lost queens group but recouping that through baekhong's work as a lawyer and ceo respectively and with them rekindling their relationship (without marriage or another kid) while hae-in would, well, die due to some bout of medical realism that has to remain here, but with the two of them choosing each other in their lifetime, roll credits, fin. i am putting a read more from here on in bc this is sort of my thoughts on the show in general but also the second half, since describing the second half doesn't really work without talking about the set-up of the plot. plots? whatever is happening here. (also! spoilers ahead!)

of course we did not get a well-polished plot, something as sensible as this couldn't fly with the deranged fans this drama spawned like you wouldn't believe. so in a way this fanbase deserved exactly what they got lmao. this show has been crazy from the beginning bc as much as i love hae-in, people kept acting like she didn't treat hyun-woo like shit for most of their marriage when she did. he was only marginally better off, but my one big issue was that hyun-woo has to apolgize for everything he ever did, for wanting to divorce in the first place, while the show depicted right away how awful his marriage was. so now in the second half we, of course, get hyun-woo doing everything for hae-in to make up for all his audacity, like the good kdrama male lead he is (where is moon gang-tae when we need him? kim soo-hyun can act with some fire in there, so why does he not?) hae-in keeps getting worse and he is by her side, so whoo for tha ti guess and she does apologize for how she treated him after 10 eps of grovelling lmao. anyways.

they grow closer again while hae-in stays in the hospital for her treatment, but in comes mister i-still-want-to-be-cooked-over-an-open-fire-like-a-rotissiere-chicken eun-sung. i do have to say i love park sung-hoon in this drama? not as good as the psychotic bully-slash-killer-slash-second-woman he plays in the glory, but really good. it's giving kendall roy in sucession s2! it's giving this is why rich people tax middle class families until tax evasion or murder become lifestyle choices for those families! it's giving the rite of passage creepy high school boyfriend straight women go through amped up to the max! he is so good at being evil and he shines here, somehow, in all his creepy despondency and obsession with hae-in. at one point he swipes in and tells hae-in, who is losing her memory, that he saved her life and then he does it again, using the times hyun-woo's saved her as his cover story. he keeps rocking brown three-piece suits and a crazy-good blowout and side swoop while he does that, which might be the worst thing. hyun-woo punches him in the face, which is the saving grace of this entire second half of the show. he runs over hyun-woo with a car in the PENULTIMATE episode for the hell of it, because he can't see hyun-woo and hae-in be together again. the man is batshit insane and he stands by it.

as for the plot:

the head of the hong family (hae-in's grandfather) has a slush fund, because that is the second most realistic part of the show. eun-sung and his mother scrounge around to find it to take the rest of queens group, but well, i honestly don't care much about this plot. yang-gi (hyun-woo's best friend and divorce lawyer, who is apparently barred twice over in korea and can also hold up with business law and attorney work in court lol) helps lower hyun-woo's crazy ass charges, so he lives to see another day while everyone is looking for the goddamn slush fund. eun-sung and his mother found it first btw. hae-in keeps mistaking eun-sung for hyun-woo, her memory loss gets worse, we get it. several people working for eun-sung keep trying to kill hyun-woo over the span of the last five episodes. we get another reborn rich cameo from kim shin-rok, which at this point is the only thing keeping me from tuning out of this whacky ass drama. the hong family grandfather kills himself and all of kdrama twt and mdl are mad that the raised rating wasn't an explicit scene between baekhong but seeing an old man die (i kid you not). they keep trying to convince me kim soo-hyun was in the marine corps and i keep not believing it. german hospitals apparently can do life-saving surgeries on non-german citizens, which is unheard off in this neck of the woods but alas. hae-in has to trade in her memories to have that surgery, so that is our 11 o clock moment. or something. hyun-woo gets arrested by interpol right after, so there goes that dream. soo-cheol ends up with his wife again, which i care about as much as a tree cares about a leaf falling in a forest. big yawn. hyun-woo employs yang-gi again to beat the interpol charges and they do (yippie!). eun-sung keep acting like he's hae-in's husband after her memories disappeared and all of us know it's so deeply joever but the death bell has yet to strike. in comes the car crash bc we go two for two on car crashes in this show. eun-sung is now, after 15 episodes of washed up nonsense, pursued by the police bc nothing screams real crime like vehicular manslaughter in a kdrama. tried and true to the very end he goes!

haven't checked into ep 16 yet, but i know it ends with a montage of hae-in and hyun-woo together for more years, marrying again and having a child, and then hae-in dies. hyun-woo as an old man visits her grave in germany (potsdam doesn't allow graves on the grounds of sansoucie so i wonder where they supposedly put it?) and then we get a fade in of young hae-in leading now-deceased and young again hyun-woo to heaven in a field of lavender, goblin style minus the good writing. hyun-woo kept apologising for things until the end but don't ask me what it was about, i stopped caring. i assume that eun-sung lands in jail or something for his five billion crimes and all the times he wore light blue ties in this show. fin.

[sonicasura]

Got another crack idea.

Tales of Arcadia but there are three Jims.

During the episode 'Where Art Thou, Trollhunter' one attempt at getting rid of the Amulet led to a different result. Jim tried to dismantle it outside, the item let loose a magical blowback that knocks him out. The Trollhunter awakens to two strange trolls with very familiar faces.

It's Troll Jim and Beast Jim(the latter still has traces of the Amulet's magic but not the corruption). These trollish doubles have the memories up to the point they vanished in their timeline. Beast Jim when he turns to stone while it's the shift into Beast for Troll Jim.

Yup. They know all the events to come, mostly the half troll. Beast's memories are a bit scrambled with some being hazy and a few not Jim's. (I headcanon that Beast Jim is actually Arthur's Troll form thrusted onto him through the shard.) Funnily enough, he's more closer to AAARRRGGHH in personality without the shard's interference.

Amulet figures 'Why not through this new Trollhunter a bone?' although all three Jims naturally freak the fuck out. It doesn't take a genius to realize why these two troll versions are there. To help train Jim and some added reassurance.

Nicknames are instantly assigned as all three will respond to Jim like the Three (Troll)Stooges. Human Jim is Rookie, Troll Jim is Jam(man got double teamed) and Beast Jim is Jumbo. The incoming reactions are expected.

Blinky, of course, freaks the fuck out at first before becoming very curious. Toby just thinks it's awesome as more troll buddies! AAARRRGGHH isn't keen about it for a minute before he just welcomes the idea of new troll brothers.

If you are wondering, Jim did suggest they stay in Trollmarket but Jam and Jumbo just keep sneaking back into his house. Both have their original host's homesickness so you know what that means? Congrats Barbara, you got three sons now and two of them seriously want to meet ya.

Just imagine Recipe for Disaster but multiply the chaos by three. Jumbo keeping Jam from storming in as the troll flavor homesickness reached its peak for the halfa, Draal trying to keep them both out of Strickler's sight, and Claire breaks in to see all three.

Avocado man probably doesn't find out after the fiasco but I think Barbara definitely will cause Draal needs Jim's help to take Shadowdancer home. Perfect opportunity for Jam to slip past Jumbo and take his chance. Guess who got the mom look coming back home?

Barbara definitely spoils both Jam and Jumbo with love afterwards. Also Draal gets adopted cause Jim has to spill the beans now. Things are gonna get even crazier as instead of a Trollhunter, Arcadia has the Three Trollish Stooges who've yet to reach TrollMusketeers.

My personal opinion anyway. If anyone wants to take a swing at such an idea then go for it. Want to see how many flavors of insanity everyone can craft. Hopefully enough to drive Merlin nuts.

[brandonxdylan]

Ranking the GAY EPISODES of Beverly Hills, 90210 - Part 2

(Part 1 here)

#4.) Blind Spot (Season 4, Episode 26)

Car trouble lands Brandon and Steve stranded at a GAY COFFEEHOUSE, where, amidst all of his ridiculous gay panic, Steve clocks Mike, his fraternity president, enjoying a coffee with another guy. Back at the frat house, Mike approaches Steve, assuming that since he was also at the GAY COFFEEHOUSE, he must be gay too. Steve gives Mike the cold shoulder, showing no empathy for him whatsoever, and it’s actually really sad because Mike was so excited to relate to someone else in a similar situation, which I have to imagine would have been a rare opportunity, and I know how vulnerable and embarrassed he would have felt in that moment. Later on, Artie, another frat guy, makes, like, two incredibly dumb gay jokes about Steve, and rather than ignore them, fire back, or do literally anything other than the one thing he shouldn’t do, Steve immediately goes into self-preservation mode and deflects Artie’s homophobic ire towards Mike, the actual gay guy who’s been hiding in plain sight. Mike is understandably pissed when Steve tells him that “it just slipped out,” which isn’t really true. Latently homophobic Steve intentionally threw Mike under the bus to protect his own extremely fragile ego. Even Brandon agrees that Steve is a huge fucking dipshit for this, so you know it’s bad. Anyway, some of the frat brothers paint Mike’s bedroom door pink (such a weird fucking flex, honestly) and Mike threatens to leave the frat to avoid any further humiliation. He doesn’t, of course, because during a tribunal to decide Mike’s fate (insane that this is what it comes to, but the show doesn’t even acknowledge that), Steve saves the day by calling out Mike’s good attributes and blah blah blah, the homophobe becomes the hero. Hooray. Honestly, I kinda wish Mike had just left the frat. Why stay somewhere that is full of assholes who need to have a group fucking meeting discussing your personal life before they permit you to be in their presence? Maybe it’s just me, but I wouldn’t consider being allowed to stay somewhere like that “a win.” But whatever. Mike manages to make some good points, and his gay rage is, appropriately, very justified. I just wish it didn’t have to be tempered at the end. I wish he got to peace out, go find love somewhere better than the damn KEG house, and leave Steve feeling like a piece of shit for fucking up his life. I would have been a hell of a lot more satisfied by that. Though this episode gets bonus points for featuring the GAY COFFEEHOUSE, which is the same coffeehouse used in an iconic double date scene from the stone cold classic, A Very Brady Sequel. More bonus points for some cute Dylan stuff during the photo shoot B story, and in particular, the moment where Dylan checks out and proceeds to compliment Brandon’s boxers. This is the kind of stuff that keeps me going.

#3.) Making Amends/The Nature of Nurture (Season 8, Episodes 23-24)

While working at the free clinic, Kelly finds a baby abandoned by its teen mother (a young Jessica Alba), and though she initially wants to adopt it herself, she relents when she learns that the baby will be placed in a foster-to-adopt situation with a carefully selected couple, as opposed to going back to the mother, whom Kelly has quickly and harshly written off as evil. But things that a major turn when Kelly learns that the foster parents are (gasp!) HOMOS! This sets off her strange and highly problematic crusade to return the baby to the custody of its mother, who does actively want it back now that she too knows her baby is at risk of being raised by a couple of gays. Ultimately, teen mom’s homophobia proves excessive, and causes Kelly to recognize that maybe the baby is better off with loving parents, regardless of their sexuality, than with a homophobic teen mom who only wants it out of spite. Naturally, things wrap up neatly, the baby lands with the gays, and Kelly gets to feel good about doing the right thing despite being the source of a LOT of strife for a LOT of people. There’s also a LOT to think about in this episode, and overall, I think it’s fairly well done aside from some frustrating character stuff. While Kelly – allegedly a social work major - demonstrates next to know understanding of how social services actually work, the writers do. I already wrote a bit about this episode so I won’t get too into it, but suffice it to say it tackles some thorny issues regarding issues of child protection, fostering, and adoption pretty well, and with as much accuracy as I think can be expected from a show like this. What I find most maddening about this episode is that Kelly isn’t granted the opportunity for any substantial self-reflection or personal growth. Her homophobic beliefs are placed in stark contrast to teen mom’s more extreme views, and therefore written off as not that bad. Additionally, the out-of-nowhere explanation that she wanted the baby for herself is positioned as the real reason for her actions, and the fact that the foster parents were gay was just an easy excuse she used to justify her shitty behavior. This doesn’t really track, and I don’t buy it. I think it would have been far more interesting to have this episode tackle the issue of latent homophobia, and explore the nuances involved in addressing that. As it is, Kelly isn’t left accountable for her actions, and that’s a problem for me because that’s really the theme of this episode. It’s not really about the gay parents, it’s about other (straight) people’s feelings about them. I think they could have dug a little deeper to offer a more satisfying character arc for Kelly. It’s not problematic to have latently prejudiced beliefs. It’s human! And dealing with them is something that would have been refreshing to see in an episode that otherwise gets so much right.

#2.) A Mate for Life/Disappearing Act/Pledging My Love (Season 7, Episodes 3-5)

Kelly begins a school placement at a group home for men with AIDS, and befriends Jimmy, a young gay man who is dying of the disease. Jimmy (played by Michael Stoyanov from Blossom) copes with his illness by practicing magic tricks, engaging in some self-deprecating gallows humour, and being generally charming. At one point, Kelly gets some of Jimmy’s blood on her hands, and she panics that she might be now be infected with HIV. Following an anxiety dream in which she gets AIDS rash, Kelly gets tested and though her doctor assures her that she’s probably fine, he does give her a lecture on safe sex, reminding her that HIV isn’t just for gay men - anyone can get it, and sexual intercourse is an easy way to do so. While she’s waiting for her test results, Kelly tells Clare and Donna that she’ll move out of their beach house if she ends up testing positive, and it’s around this point that I began to realize that this is a storyline that is wasted on Kelly. First of all, she’s straight, and though, yes, anyone can contract HIV, it goes without saying that it was gay men who were disproportionately affected by it in the United States at this time. Second of all, she was “contaminated” in such a minor way. These two factors make all of this feel really low stakes. We know that there’s no way in hell Kelly tests positive. I want to be clear that I don’t think that shows like this have any inherent obligation to those who have lived through trauma or illness to deal with these issues in a way that is consistently true to life. That’s a slippery slope because not all lived experience is the same, and what might feel validating and representative to someone might feel offensive to someone else. Plus, it’s also a lot to ask of a TV show, whose primary concern should be to entertain and to compel, not present viewers with a case study on living with AIDS. However, in this case I have to admit that it does feel a little inappropriate to be putting Kelly through the ringer in the most low stakes way possible, and milking that for drama when so many gay men were really going the ringer and the stakes were much higher. Not to minimize the experience of people like Kelly who suffered the worry of a close call, but it feels like the show is really pushing it with what it’s asking us to buy into. Granted, I guess that’s why we have Jimmy - to demonstrate what being a gay man dying of AIDS in the 90s actually could have looked like. And while yes, Jimmy falls squarely into the much-maligned trope of gays who only show up to die for the sake of the straight characters’ growth, he’s probably about as good as we possibly could’ve expected to get at the time, barring the show deciding to suddenly break all kinds of barriers and introduce a main gay character living with AIDS. It was just never gonna happen, and I’m not going to hold that against the show. Unsurprisingly, Kelly tests negative, but Jimmy takes a turn for the worse. Watching him make peace with his fate as Kelly offers some misplaced naivete, desperately suggesting that what he knows to be true might not be, it’s hard not to feel something. When Kelly suggests taking a photo of the two of them, it makes sense that Kelly would want to not only preserve a memento of their friendship, but also to assure Jimmy that he is someone who will be remembered fondly. It’s a touching moment, and the weight of it is effectively conveyed. While I already explained why I think this episode kind of mishandles its subject matter in terms of the AIDS scare stuff, what it gets right is the friendship between Kelly and Jimmy. I think what could’ve made it even better, however, would have been to allow Kelly just a little more time to sit in her open-ended grief, and try to make sense of Jimmy’s death. Some frank acknowledgement of the difficulty involved in doing that might have been an appropriately cathartic cap to this story, and it would have been a uniquely heavy moment for a show that by this point was often pretty superficial.

#1.) I’m Back Because/The Following Options (Season 9, Episodes 8-9)

Steve’s mom comes to town because she’s starring in a much-hyped comeback sitcom. Rumours abound that she’s dating her co-star, and when Steve asks her about them, she neither confirms nor denies, instead opting to remind Steve that it’s no one’s business who she dates. Eventually, however, she admits to Steve that she’s not dating her co-star, nor is she dating any man. She’s actually dating a woman. And okay, this is honestly one of the most unexpected yet awesome choices that this show could have made at this point. In an era of the show full of random retcons and arbitrary character development, the fact that this one comes out of nowhere actually makes sense, considering Samantha had been deeply in the closet prior to this moment, and she’s not someone we see every week. And choosing to give a coming out storyline to a middle aged mother as opposed to some young twentysomething? That’s a bold choice! The crux of the drama here is that Steve (once again) demonstrates some very blatant homophobic feelings about his mother’s sexuality, and slings some pretty nasty remarks her way, going so far as to accuse her of adopting him in order to complete some sort of heterosexual façade for the sake of her image. It’s all pretty embarrassing for Steve, but as with the earlier episode featuring Kelly and the teen mom, there is room to allow these characters to explore their latent homophobia. That would not only offer some compelling drama, but it would be an accurate reflection of reality. And this storyline gets 75% of the way there. They just bungle the ending. Steve only starts to see the light once word of Samantha’s sexuality leaks to the media, and Samantha is fired from her new show amidst the ensuing scandal. Watching his mom go through all of this undue humiliation causes Steve to do an about face, and choose to embrace her for who she is. It’s a cute ending, but man, does it ever skip a lot of steps in terms of Steve’s growth. We don’t get to see Steve do any of the work involved in addressing his homophobia, nor do we get any indication as to what specifically would have spurred his change of heart beyond his mom’s name being dragged through the mud. There’s no suggestion of introspection or vulnerability. There’s not really even an apology. I think if this storyline had had one more episode to really flesh out Steve’s character development, and to offer a heart to heart between mother and son, it could’ve been great. But there are still great things about it. Christine Belford is really good as Samantha (seriously, Samantha is not even a character we get to know very well over the course of the series, yet I practically cheered when she told Steve she was gay, so that’s a testament to her), and for all of Steve’s shitty behaviour towards her, Samantha gets to land a few zingers of her own. And again, I appreciate that the show chose to go this route with this character. Coming out in midlife is a reality for many people, and Samantha’s celebrity adds an interesting dynamic. There are definitely things that could have been improved upon, and it perhaps bites off a little more than it can chew, but its heart is in the right place, and it’s sympathetic without being condescending or othering. And while it’s Samantha’s final appearance on the show (BOO!), we do get to meet her new girlfriend, Karen, in the aforementioned luau episode of season 10, and wow - LESBIAN LEGEND. I sure hope Samantha hung on to her.

Well, there you have it. A thorough(ish) rundown of Beverly Hills, 90210′s major(ish) storylines featuring gay themes. It’s disappointing how short-lived all of these stories were, because most of them would’ve been better served by characters whom we actually get to know outside of their relationships with members of the gang. Still, as I’ve said before, I’m used to accepting scraps when it comes to queer content. And I’m happy to look back at this show and accept that we needed baby steps like this in order to get more and better gay content on television.

I hope everyone has had a safe and happy Pride month!