#can't believe there's a whole week in between these episodes i barely have time to get through the entire cycle of grief in between lmao

[idleorbitals]

only friends ep 3 watch through (part 2/2)

(part 1)

got too wordy again for a single post. maybe next week I will do Less Scenes. not right now tho

*begin vid section [3/4]*

boston and nick pull up to the party in the car we understand boston and top will be banging in later tonight. nick asks about top and mew and boston says, to nick's face, that mew is soooo into top but won't admit it. then they both play at accusing the other of being into top. I don't think either of them is into top. nick is into boston and boston is into conquest

there is faint eerie music playing over this entire scene. also this shot is just....gorgeously composed. goddamn

I don't know folks boston is such a manipulative jerk. we see it right here in this scene when he tells nick he can call their relationship what he wants to keep him on the hook. but also he is broadcasting to nick over and over how casual he wants to keep this and like. I don't sympathize with boston at all but idk if nick still has a firm grasp on the moral high ground here. not least, you know, now that we know that nick is bugging boston as this conversation happens

at the party we get a brief little sandray flirting scene. sand's "I don't know, I'm not a jukebox" line is an absolute winner in my book. ray casts move into your flirt-ee's personal space, say something suggestive in a low tone, and then smirk. straight out of ayan's book. haven't counted but this has definitely happened in nearly every scene they've shared so far

*pre read more warning this got Long*

mew smells a sandray rat. ray swears he doesn't have feelings for sand and thinks he's telling the truth. top walks up and ray gives him the stink eye but cannot compete with this entirely over the top (pun intended) move from sand:

baby doesn't do subtle even though he seems to think he can

boston shows up to mess with ray so that ray will help him mess with topmew. ray says "who's sleeping with who is not my business" which is generally true and nice of him to say but you know. he's feeling it anyhow. especially as boston keeps digging in on how pathetic ray is and how manipulative top is. boston really setting himself up for the karmic retribution here

then boston proceeds back into the kitchen to mess with top about mew and ray. particularly noteworthy here is that the picture he has of them was obviously taken without permission. was this a funny little *ooh my friends are kissing each other* moment for boston?? did he have some kind of motive even then to be creepy? is this just to add to his bad guy cred? anyway he promises he has even more but he's not going to show it to top unless he comes to find him in the parking lot after the party. now nick walks in and eavesdrops on this whole conversation. mess! mess! mess!

now boston is sending nick home alone but says "i'm worried about you" and this is a lie! I think! but it's hard to be sure bc everyone's lying all over the place here. we know that boston is staying behind to try to get in top's pants and nick is staying behind to watch and no one is to be trusted. "I'm a grown up" nick says, "no one dares to hurt me" in the voice of dramatic irony. then he says "look at my face" and pouts very cutely at boston

idk this reads to me as a genuinely fond expression. dunno if that's relevant but it feels notable somehow. I guess what I'm trying to say is boston is obviously a manipulative asshole but for everything he's pulling with top-mew-ray right now the main thing he could really be accused of with nick is stringing him along. he's obsessed with top for separate reasons than nick is obsessed with him but they are looking more alike than different in this episode to me

meanwhile mew comes upon ray watching sand pack up and accuses him of having feelings again. mew is picking up on some things ray seems to still be oblivious to. but also not picking up on some other very big things??

mew says: "you can finally get rid of your loneliness" "I want you to be happy" and this absolute kicker:

yes he is, because his crush just took him around the shoulder and told him he wanted him to be happy while gazing lovingly into his eyes.

especially now that we have proof positive that something happened between them in past it makes this difficult to read. can mew possibly claim ignorance of ray's feelings atp? is he well aware but doesn't return them and is trying to be a good friend by encouraging him to pursue something with sand? what's the line here?

ray's iconic throwing of the solo cup after mew leaves with top gets cut for, according to p'jojo, shot continuity reasons. interesting because not having it there gives a minor bump to how sym/pathetic ray looks coming out of this scene. once again he gets the nicest framing here and I could be wrong but I don't think this is my bias showing

*begin vid section [4/4]*

here come ray and sand to have their weirdly wholesome dynamic where sand checks in on ray looking blue all night and ray checks in on sand getting home safely

sand is having rideshare issues and ray insists on taking him home and sand gazes longingly up at ray from like half a foot above him once again. unreal

cut to brief shot where mew insists top goes home instead of coming in with him. good job advocating for yourself mew but bad job choosing the option that leads to at least two more messes tonight alone

sandray car makeout scene (the first?? 👀👀). I wrote a lot of this up here and in the interest of not making this post any longer than it already is that's where it's going to live

but I will use just a little bit of all that space I saved on this shot of ray looking absolutely blissed out about these moves

and also these much less fun character beats. in the first one ray looks up from the phone call and there's this awful moment where we see him look over at sand like he's just remembering he's there. ray cares about sand already more than he thinks he does. but when mew calls his attention refocuses so entirely on him that sand's feelings don't even rank. this whole thing feels so real and they're playing it so well

ray chews on his bottom lip and gazes forlornly after sand as he goes but he doesn't try to stop him or fight him when he says they're better off leaving it as a one night stand. I read this as an almost thoughtful move. ray has expressed already that he'd like to keep seeing sand but that this is contingent on sand being comfortable leaving emotional involvement out of it. right now ray knows his own priority is mew, and it would be a dickish, boston-ish move to try to pin sand down by placating him on his way out

we'll see what's up next for these two though. my guess based on what we've seen so far? ray will start to pursue sand more emotionally sincerely; he will hang onto the just-friends line but justify this to himself and to sand as showing proper care toward his new friend who he also happens to want to bang. sand will be drawn back in despite his better judgement. eventually they will concede that they are not just friends any more but/and ray's feelings for and prioritization of mew will keep messing with the dynamic. sand will find out about ray's long running feelings for mew but probably not from ray himself, and he will feel hurt and used, rightfully or not. as they continue to hurt each other they will both blame themselves, sand because he thinks he should have known better and ray because he does self-hatred like it's a competitive sport

can't wait

okay final scene: boston and top have their long-teased car sex and nick stands in a lit doorway a stones throw away watching and listening to the whole thing. I have many thoughts here but instead I'm going to just take the moment to appreciate some of the mechanics of this scene bc it exemplifies how many moving pieces they are stitching together to elevate this show to the next level narratively and compositionally:

-sand slamming the door as he gets out of ray's car perfectly synched with top closing the door as he climbs into boston's car is chef's kiss

-another absolutely gorgeous shot. the contrast of this one with the same shot (see top of post) of boston and nick except we see boston and top through the windshield and the rain

-boston sitting there behind the steering wheel of his perfect little car literally and metaphorically driving the plot with his manipulations

-neo's acting in this scene holy moly

👏 CI👏 NE👏 MA

(all ofts watch throughs)

[nsyncat]

OK, so this is my first post EVER since I joined Tumblr like ten years ago. Always been a lurker, enjoying all of the wonderful things here, the gifs, fics, ships, art, all the knowledge and all the amazing heritage posts, but never posting and hardly reblogging, I don't know why, was always afraid I would make a mistake or reblogg incorrectly...

Anyway, the reason this is my first time posting is because THAT amazing moment that happened a week ago, and I've been losing my mind ever since, and unfortunately I have nobody to share this excitement with that will understand... So I had to get it out somehow, and here seems like the perfect place to do so.

I don't know if anybody will read this or pay it any attention, but never mind, I just have TO. GET. IT ALL. OUT!

So I've been a loyal fan of 9-1-1 this past six years, got hooked to these kind of first responders dramas, also Station 19 and then of course Lone Star. I fell in love with the writing, the drama and action, the characters of course, the emotional and moving stories, both of the regular cast and the people in the emergencies (am not afraid to admit that I cried more than a few times, especially when I was pregnant... woooh, that was a tough season for me).

Anyway, like everyone else, got invested in Buck's storyline and of course hopped on the Buddie train in season 2. And obviously there was something between them, and the fandom always clowned themselves that "in the next season SOMETHING is going to happen!" and I always wanted to believe it, and also fooled myself a few times but always was the cold harsh realist and realised it was not going to happen... But enjoyed the ride nonetheless, read amazing fics, saw wonderful fanart, read interesting breakdowns and analysis.

And then 704 happened and I'm not joking or exaggerating, my life changed!

Confirming that Buck is Bi was amazing! I'm ashamed to admit that I really thought it won't happen, EVER! So I still can't believe it actually happened (thank you soooo much ABC!) and like a lot of you, I've been on cloud nine this past week and can't wait for tomorrows episode (also not from the US), literally counting down the hours.

And look, I love Buddie, I really do, but I fell in love with TEVAN (my favourite one yet) 😍 and been OBSESSED with them this past week. Just from those few moments between them and what we barely know that is going to happen the next episode, I truly fell in love with them and really hope they make it as far as they can. I think its an amazing thing for Buck and also CANT. STOP. WATCHING THE KISS! The actors did an incredible job, especially Oliver, also with his spoken support of the storyline and his love for Buck. Such a KING! So this whole thing is huge.

And I have a one-year-old, my life is hectic with taking care of a little human being, a hubby who is also very busy, work, family and a million other things and this past year with a heavy heart I kinda neglected reading fics, and it was my main hobby, my escape, my one and constant thing in my LIFE since I was 12. I do read here and there, but not like I used to, reading hours and hours and into the night, multi chapters and long oneshots, in multiple fandoms, and now whenever I do get to read something once In a blue moon I'm not fully invested or enjoying it because either I'm tired or have something else more important to do. And unfortunately, eventually I noticed that I lost this fire, the passion in me and it left me sad and heartbroken...

And then something incredible happened. Ever since that earth-shattering kiss, the fire and passion came back! Holy shit! I've been reading and ENJOYING fics nonstop this whole week, I can't concentrate on work thinking about everything and reading in-between tasks, I use every single free minute I have to search new fics and scroll through the tags, I go to sleep late because I need to read just one more fic(!!!) even tough I have to wake up very early in the morning and I DON'T EVEN CARE. I'm thinking about it sooo much and imagining new scenarios in my head, and feeling giddy and happy, in a good mood a lot of the time, more optimistic, knowing I have a new and exciting place I can "escape" to, like I had in the past.

Its not that i'm not happy, I have an amazing son and a wonderful husband and I cherish every moment with them, but these are hard and difficult times and life can be hard and stressful and I'm a different kind of happy... So these past few days have been nourishment for my soul and my mood, it sounds so silly but its true! I'm feeling a bit like my old self and it's amazing.

And if someone did read this or did pay attention and got to this point, sorry for the long rant and thank you so much for the patience and understanding 🙏 I love you and wish you a wonderful weekend and happy Buck's-first-date-with-a-man day! 🥰

So I want to thank, from the bottom of my heart, ABC, Oliver, Lou and you crazy lot for resurrecting my old fangirl self 😌 I'm so grateful for all your posts, your takes, your similar enjoyment and of course your amazing fics you're writing and sharing 🩵

[team-frightfur]

Girag's design may be uncomfy racist trash but man is he kind of adorable.

I love the barely concealed implication that all the monster of the week bullshit is just a side gig to him as he tries out all the clubs in Yuma's school. Like he hit the open day and took every pamphlet with the giddy glee of a wealthy tourist in a local festival.

I fully believe that the reason he found the Numbers club in that one sports duel comedy ep (where Kotori gets brainwashed. For the THIRD TIME) was because they officiated it as a club and his club sensor Pinged.

I can also see how Alito is. Very gay. Still think Yudias is gayer tho.

Anyway, as funny and charming as it is, I am kinda disappointed in Zexal right now. Everyone on reddit screams that this is the best arc in all of Yugioh. "Zexal gets better after 70 episodes!" they say. Welp, I'm 12 episodes in and it's literally JUST monster of the week shenanigans. I think the plot drops soon because Mizael showed up, though. But also like, this is a big letdown.

They can't impress me with "The Galaxy Eyes Dragons are resonating and calling to each other!" Because I have seen it done BETTER!

Mizael showed up, like, yesterday. But they're tryna fabricate an entire rivalry btwn Kaito and Mizael on Zero Buildup because "Only one Galaxy Eyes User can exist". Like Kaito was Kaiba this whole time.

Kaito is not Kaiba. he has themes. He's a family man. He loves his bro. He feels guilty about his misdeeds but covers his guilt up in a sadistic face.

Mizael interacts with None of these themes. they're only linked because of resonating dragons.

How hard would it be to make Mizael buy the last caramel slice from the store and make Haruto cry. I'd buy them fighting over that.

Like, like let's talk Arc V, ok. In Arc V

Yugo doesn't hate Yuri because they both have Adjective Body Part Summoning Style Dragons, he hates Yuri because Yuri kidnapped Rin. Yuto hates him because he's Fusion. Yuya hates him because of the dad-killing and yandere stalking.

Yuto and Yuya resonate in the mid 30s episode wise. This is early enough to be valid.

Yuto is introduced in ep 7. Yuzu links him to Yuya immediately. There is a built-up connection between them (due to same face syndrome).

But the resonation in ep 30 isn't even the best analogue for Mizael vs Kaito. That would be episode 92. The one where they get all 4 dragons in the same subway station and start chanting Zarcisms.

I want you to imagine episode 92, but without Yuya, Yuto, Yugo or Yuri having ever met. I want you to imagine episode 92, but in an alternative universe where Yuto, Yuri, and Yugo were introduced THAT episode.

That is Mizael vs Kaito round 1 to me.

[shortpplfedup]

My School President Episode 2: I Want To Hold Your Hand

There's nothin' you can do that can't be done Nothin' you can sing that can't be sung Nothin' you can say, but you can learn how to play the game It's easy Nothin' you can make that can't be made No one you can save that can't be saved Nothin' you can do, but you can learn how to be you in time It's easy

The Beatles | All You Need Is Love (1967)

It's the perspective shift for me. This week we get to know Tinn in all his dorky, lovesick glory, and it is AMAZING. From the outside this story seems like the Big Man On Campus secretly in love with the weird slacker kid and hiding it for his rep, but then we get in Tinn's head and realise this is actually the story of the lonely nerd in love with the cool kid who barely knows he exists. They're nailing the high school romance archetypes on the head in this show so far.

Verse: the lit candle in the rain

Oh darling, please believe me I'll never let you down Oh, believe me, darlin' Believe me when I tell you I'll never do you no harm

The Beatles | Oh! Darling (1969)

Oh Tinn. Oh Tinn Tinn Tinn you are down HORRENDOUS. This week we discover that Tinn fell in love essentially because Gun was nice to him, and has been on a 'please notice me' tour for YEARS. He's now finally managed to get Gun's attention fixed on him, even if it's because he hates him, and he's so intoxicated by finally having Gun regularly interacting with him, he's absolutely set on going the distance. The 'be my servant' thing was nothing more than Tinn seizing a short-lived opportunity to make Gun do boyfriend things with him (you just know he was squeeing on the inside when Gun was feeding him), and hoping that would do the trick, but to no avail. Inevitably while the vinegar worked to grab Gun's attention, it's bitter for Tinn too, and he'd prefer to catch this fly with honey. So after a whole lot of shenanigans, he finally gives Gun a version of the truth: he wants to help him win Hot Wave, and he'll do whatever it takes for that to happen. He is about to WOO.

Bridge: Tinn, the loneliest boy

I want you I want you so bad It's driving me mad, it's driving me mad

The Beatles | I Want You (She's So Heavy) (1969)

Man Tinn's parents are loving and involved...and also very wrapped up in their own shit. Who misses their kid's birthday for non-essential work? I'm sure they think Tinn is really grown up and mature and he makes them proud and he's a lovely, smart, independent, well-adjusted kid who never gave them a lick of trouble...but he also seems really lonely somehow. I wonder if Tinn crafted himself into this kid as cause or effect of his parents' benign neglect. They're busy people, and they love him, so he tries to be good and not make life hard for them. I feel like as things progress between him and Gun, the Tinn who emerges is gonna cause some angst with his parents.

Ad Libs

So this show is actually Love Buddy: The Musical, complete with dream sequence performances, and it totally works because who HASN'T pretended they were in a music video in their head while singing a song they like, ESPECIALLY in high school?

Tiw continuing the finest Dr. Nam tradition of taking one look at his seemingly cool, actually a dweeb best friend like one (1) person and going 'on god we gon get you laid bruh'.

Tiw is also in possession of the only braincell in the ENTIRE student body apparently.

Watching Tinn's little rose get trampled and kicked around made me simultaneously laugh OUT LOUD and also feel really bad for him.

So Tinn lending the music club his dad's very expensive guitar without telling his dad is gonna come back and bite him yes?

[fayesdiary]

Faye's Fòdlan Journal: Season 1 - Episode 3: A Mystery Crest and a Mysterier Roster

<-Previous Masterpost Next->

Had to cut it short on the last episode, so let's just get to the point.

No promises, Rhea.

By the way, I appreciate the color of the border changing to the one of the house you've chosen to teach. Really nice touch.

Shortly after making our choice, Seteth's younger sister Flayn enters the room. Say hi to her.

She seems nice and well-mannered. I swear though, her in-game hair looks like a piece of candy.

After being dismissed, Byleth goes to meet their new class, who are obviously surprised to learn they're the new professor.

Byleth, interestingly enough, asks to be treated as a friend instead of their professor. Something that really makes me think my idea they really are uncomfortable with their new position at this point. Or at the very least in being in a place of authority. Makes sense, from what we know they've been at Jeralt's side the whole time, so the idea of leading is completely new to them.

The Lions are reluctant to accept their request but eventually relent, since they speak to Dimitri in pretty informal terms and he's their future king. All except Ingrid, who still doesn't feel she could manage not paying the respect she feels owes her superiors. Luckily, Byleth is fine with it.

With Felix proposing a mock battle with Byleth in the future and most of the other students joining in, we bid them farewell for now.

Understatement of the century, buddy.

Two days pass, and we recieve a pitiful sum of 1000 gold for funding our monthly activities. So we have 1500 gold in total.

Granted, we started the game on 4/20 (yes, really) and we're at 4/26 at this point such a low budget for barely a week of teaching is a bit more forgivable but still, there's a good chance the Officers Academy is underfunded on top of being understaffed.

Also, we heard nothing about a salary. Is Byleth even getting paid for this?

Because if not, no wonder Rhea can't find any teachers.

Her management issues aside, today we're meeting with Hanneman, who really wants to see if Byleth has a Crest using a mysterious device we never see on screen. But since Byleth doesn't know about Crests, Hanneman is more than happy to infodump before that.

I mention they're this world's Holy Blood, and they do work pretty similarly to Jugdral: Really powerful, granted by a goddess, passed down through bloodlines.

Hanneman claims Crests have a power beyond mortal understanding, but given I have checked and do things like minor situational boosts that are neat but not that impressive (such as Dimitri's Crest occasionally doubling his weapon's Might)... yeah, I'm afraid I am going to need a citation for that.

If they are super powerful in the narrative, then they are doing a poor job at showing it. Which is weird because between the Holy Blood and the Emblems, this series usually does a good job at demonstrating superhuman powers in gameplay.

The reason Crest Detectors exist at all is because unlike Holy Blood, children of a Crest Bearer are not guaranteed to bear it themselves. Crests can in fact, stay dormant for generations only to reawaken in a random descendant.

Anyway, he believes Byleth has a Crest. We of course know that's the case, because we checked the Status Screen. And given it's listed as a Mystery Crest, this makes his next reaction very understandable.

True to its name, Byleth's Crest is one that has never been seen before, something that immediately sparks Hanneman's curiosity as he begins to investigate straight away.

But no matter what he finds out, it's pretty much a guarantee their Crest will turn out to be the strongest of them all. We're already beginning to see where the story is going with Byleth and it's not promising.

Hell, their Crest is also identical to the effige Sothis wears so, you know. (I am not even going to try and guess what that jewelry is called)

Another thing not promising at all is the ingame cutscenes.

This is my biggest criticism of Engage as well: instead of doing anything interesting with them, they consist of all the characters in it standing around talking and having a few stock animations with the same camera movements every time. And if there are any objects, they will at best be shown with a sprite, which is not even the case for Hanneman's device. As of know, I have no idea what it looks like.

I am a bit more forgiving towards Three Houses is only for its much, much larger scope, but given that most of 3H's criticism I see online has to do with poor pacing and padding, reused content and inconsistent characterization... you kinda have to wonder if having such a big scope was even worth it.

In Engage the ingame cutscenes were saved only due to the voice acting and music. I hope I'll be able to say the same for this game.

These criticisms aside, we leave Hanneman to nerd out over Byleth's Crest.

The next day Rhea introduces us to the Calendar, the defining feature of this game which... looks really daunting. Not gonna lie, my head is starting to spin already.

Luckily for me, we are not going to engage with it this episode. I have a few things I still have to discuss from last episode, after all.

Let me introduce you to the Roster. It's an option on the Monastery Menu which, contrary to its 3DS incarnation, gives us a LOT of insight on every character, even those not from the house you chose.

On top of the gameplay relevant information like stats, items, skills, classes mastered, Combat Arts and Abilities, you also learn some fun extra information such as their personal history, their height and their age.

This is true for every character... except for one.

You see, Byleth's age is missing.

As far as I looked, they are the only character for which this happens.

And if other characters claim them to be a child or around the same age of the students who are around 17 but they're actually not... well, there's only one explanation in this series.

Granted Byleth doesn't have pointy years, but I'm pretty sure not counting Alear who came after Byleth, there may be a few other examples of dragons having regular ears? Half-dragons, at least.

Speculations about Byleth's true nature aside, one thing's for sure: the fact the year of their birth as the child of Jeralt is listed as unkown kinda makes me doubt the claims they're his biological child. Because if that was the case, surely he'd know the year they were born, right?

The other thing that caught my eye was reading Dimitri's personal history.

The Tragedy of Duscur.

We haven't heard this event mentioned in the game proper yet, but the fact Dimitri is listed as the sole survivor and I couldn't find Duscur anywhere on the Fòdlan map (I even checked again)... makes me assume the worst.

It also happened four years before the game's start. Which is also the year Dedue, the only character we know comes from Duscur, swore loyalty to him. At least something good came out of it....?

Oh, and it also means Dimitri got horribly traumatized when he was thirteen. Dear Sothis, no wonder he doesn't want to talk about his past.

Also I'd be very, very suprised if this doesn't come up later during his slippery slope into... whatever his deal in the timeskip is.

In any case, I'm gonna end this short episode here. Next time, we will start our first proper day on the job.

<-Previous Masterpost Next->

[simplemente-myself]

Good Omens Manifesto - 1

(this was written on 11/08/2023)

I watched the first season of Good Omens in 2020 when I had just arrived in the UK and my English skills were very limited, I hadn't heard about the book, and I did not know David Tennant (Shame on me! I know) and barely knew Michael Sheen from his role in Passengers only (Oops!). I think that I read a blog recommending this show for English learners, and then I read the synopsis and went for it. I quickly engaged with that magic and a bit absurd world of Angels and Demons, the end of the world story, and of course the captivating performance of both main characters. As a Christian and former well-committed Catholic (Am I still a Catholic? I don't know anymore) the show challenged my vision of God's ineffability and Their role in the fate of humanity many times. The thing is that I loved the show, I laughed loudly so many times with every episode and I enjoyed that hypnotic chemistry between Crowley and Aziraphale. I loved the whole first season and simply adored the finale: Cheers to the World! I must recognise that with a happy heart and relaxed mind after watching such as heart-lifting show I did not follow much of the news about the show because I never thought that I would be blessed with a second season. When I heard that the second season was coming, I became very excited about having the opportunity to witness again this marvellous universe of love, craziness, shadows, and colours. As I always do, I didn't read anything about the plot for this second season basically because I can't stand any spoilers and a week ago, I put myself on the task of watching season 2. Oh my God! Despite being very busy with my studies I finished the season in just a couple of days. I was enjoying it so much, laughing a lot, watching with a big smile on my face all those minisodes (5 stars to the Zombies!) that showed more about the Angel and the Demon's long-lasting relationship throughout history, and again it found me thinking about God, Heaven, Hell, and we simple mortals. I was so goddamn fooled by the disappearance of the Archangel f**** Gabriel, the love story between Nina and Maggie, and its parallel between Aziraphale and Crowley that I never expected such a punch in my stomach, heart, and soul that gave me the last minutes of the final episode. It felt like a bucket of cold water on my feelings! I was sceptical about what I had just seen and waited until the last minute – even when the credits and the melancholic music were already in front of me - that Aziraphale would leave that lift and the awful Metatron to come back to Earth. But it didn't happen... So, here I am, I watched again season 1 and loved it even more, probably because now my English is better and also because now, I see Tennant and Sheen as two beloved and incredibly talented actors. I am a huge fan of those performances that move your guts - such as Sarah Lancashire's in the amazing Happy Valley - and for me, the core of this season was how Michael and David delivered the millennia-lasting relationship between these two celestial entities and made everyone who watched Good Omens to believe in true unconditional love and cheering for them to be together for other 6,000 years and more. I'm amazed at David Tennant's ability of showing Crowley's hidden emotions even when he is wearing dark glasses and Michael Sheen’s grace in showing an overload of innocence that doesn’t match his long-lived existence.

(it continues in the next post)

[the-paris-of-people]

Hi. This is really not a question but more of a rant. A really really long one. I apologize in advance. I honestly care waaaaayyyy too much about this show than I should. Clearly too bored🙈.

After reading people's comments on this show and the ships, there are so many things that irk me and I thought I'd share even if I might get crap for it. So here goes:

1. "Ben only wants Devi when she is with Paxton." I.e. it's about Paxton. Lol people are funny. As though Ben thinks he can compete with Paxton on a social level. He's not stupid, he knows full well he can't. It's about Devi and in part her obsession with Paxton. People don't like thinking about things from Ben's perspective because they just don't like him. He's the one that finds out Devi is cheating, she runs after Paxton at the party ( now granted before she runs out, she's intensely staring at Ben and then realises Paxton is leaving but Ben's not gonna remember that) and she was busy chumming it up with Paxton in episode 3 in front of Ben with absolute disregard for him. So his natural defence is to guard himself and have his walls go up. It is a valid response. He burries his pain (exactly what Samberg said). And does not let his guard down around her romantically until episode 10 when Paxton literally rejects her at school. At the school dance, sparks are flying between those 2. Is Paxton around at the time...Uhm no (I'll get into the whole Aneesa thing). In his mind Paxton is out of the picture and it's like he can almost trust her again. And then when Paxton shows up with Devi, he basically feels like a fool for ever thinking that he was ever something more than 2nd best or sometimes anything at all ( especially considering Devi still wants Paxton after Devi and Paxton's last public interaction that Ben witnessed- I mean he does not get to see the shit behind closed doors). But then when Eleanor spills the tea, that look on his face is disbelief, yes a little bit of jealousy but overwhelmingly heartbreak. He is essentially watching the chance he never knew he had go away. Now you could argue that he should have known that she wanted him back but she broke his trust and does not explicitly say, " I want you back". Ben's not trying to get burnt again based on some assumption/hunch. He has been wrong before.

2. "How dare Ben be upset that Devi is with Paxton when he is with Aneesa". Fair point. Just like how dare Devi be upset and lose her shit over Ben and Aneesa. But yet it still happend. Devi gets 5 episodes allowing her to be upset and Ben can't even have one moment when a firkken bomb gets dropped on him.

Aneesa and Ben should have never date. Everyone knows that. He was never over Devi. He just pushed those feelings down to make him believe he was over her. I obviously don't agree with this. Aneesa doesn't deserve that. Ben needs to go to therapy. He needs an outlet. He is similar to Devi in that he doesn't want to process what happened and would rather move on and react. However, his reactions are far less impulsive/severe as Devi's. Him dating Aneesa is unfortunately a reaction. He didn't give himself time to really process how he feels. People say he dated Aneesa solely to spite Devi which is not true. Is there an element of " you never wanted me but someone else does"... absolutely but Aneesa is also very kind to Ben, they get along really well and she puts him first. Technically what's not to like. I mean if it was just to spite Devi, could he have not tried to hustle his way back in with Shira?? Problem is that dumb dumb didn't work through his Devi feelings and let's just be honest, the same spark and chemistry he has with Devi, is missing with Aneesa. It often feels forced, especially in regards to the pace of the relationship. I so wished Aneesa remained friends with Ben. That's what he needed...not another relationship.

3. "Aneesa is so amazing, she doesn't deserve to get hurt." I agree. She absolutely doesn't deserve to get hurt just like Ben and Paxton didn't deserve that crap Devi pulled. I think Aneesa is a great addition and I like that Devi has someone within her community to connect to. I'm South Asian myself and I genuinely value this aspect of my own life. I mean she is pretty great, kind and the anorexia rumour Devi unintentionally started was pretty heartbreaking. That scene where she talks to Devi at the relay about it, is so sad (especially coz we as viewers know Devi messed up). Now that being said is Aneesa also low key shady? YES. And it's not because she dated her friend's ex. It's because she started dating him knowing that Devi started the rumour about her because she was jealous about Ben and her. How does she think Devi would go from being so jealous that she starts a rumour, to the next week becoming their biggest "Stan". Come on girl. But there was no way Devi could say no after the crap she pulled with Aneesa. Ben did ask her out so if there is blame, he absolutely gets it too but he didn't know why Devi started that rumour (based on his surprised AF face when Eleanor spills the tea). Which leads me to my next question. Why didn't Aneesa tell him? Aneesa said Ben was supporting her through the rumour. She probably told him Devi started the rumour but didn't tell him why? That is odd? Clearly if Ben had known, he may changed his perspective on Devi actually wanting him instead of ignoring his feelings.

Lastly Aneesa knows there are unresolved feelings between Devi and Ben. This is evident from that dance scene. She literally runs to cut in their pretty intense conversation. Like why you running girl? I didn't think much of it at first but coupled with another moment, it makes a lot of sense. When Ben agrees to dance with Aneesa, he looks back at Devi and lingers and Aneesa picks up on this and pulls him away. It's a blink and you will miss it moment but it is there.

Now all of this doesn't mean she needs to get hurt but they probably need to break up. Ben needs to be single for a while and work through how he feels about Devi, Aneesa and most importantly himself. Whilst I don't particularly enjoy their relationship, you never get to see it from either of their perspectives. Maybe that could change things but honestly I just prefer Ben and Devi.

Also can everyone stop acting like Ben is dating Devi's best friend. Being brown doesn't make you automatically best friends and Ben and Devi met Aneesa the same week. People are acting like he is dating Eleanor.

4. "Devi chose Paxton". Please! The only thought through decision that girl made in regards to these 2 boys is when she chose herself and decided not to be Paxton's little secret. I mean in episode 1 and 2 she can't decide so she dates both. In episode 3, she interacts with Paxton because of the whole tutoring thing. He says they don't makes sense. While she seems a bit sad she doesn't seem too upset like she is season 1 and she isn't looking for any opportunity to spend time with him (unlike season 1). Episode 4,5,6,7 and 8 she is losing her mind over Ben. Half way through 8 she knows she has no choice but to let him go. But even after that she doesn't pursue Paxton. He does that at the end of episode 9 when in all honesty she hasn't really thought about him in a while. Then of course Paxton does what he does and she finally choose herself, issuing an ultimatum essentially. Paxton does eventually show up...but it's a choice by default. She just yo-yo's between them. She also needs to be single, deal with her loss, love herself and think about what she wants.

5. "Devi loves Paxton". Sure bud. Does have Devi have feeling for Paxton? Duh! But is it love. Nope. People like to confuse infatuation for love. She has been infatuated with this boy this the 3rd (she knew squat about him). When her dad died, she turns that infatuation into an obsession. It like becomes a full time hobby in season 1. She ruins relationships over it. In season 2 you can argue there is more depth to it and Paxton does grow in Season 2. But somehow she is still fixated on the fact that it's Paxton Hall-Yoshida. I mean she smells him (totally normal), Mc Enroe's comment at the relay was, "did this hunk of beef just say he likes spending time with her", when she breaks up him she says , "you are very good at kissing" not possibly any of his other good qualities. And at the end she says , "I guess I'm Paxton Hall Yoshida's girlfriend now". This boy is so far up a pedestal that if he fell of it, he'd break something. Now granted if he fell of it in Season 1, he'd be dead. So progress I guess...

Maybe the relationship will change in Season 3 and she genuinely falls in love with him. I mean Id be sad but obviously a real possibility. But also that relationship needs to move on from being just the "Paxton project" which it was basically all of season 2. Maybe actually talk about her every once in a while.

Also people who find the ending so amazing because he shows up...bare minimum bro. I understand his perspective, how does it look to go back with someone who cheated on you. Fair point 💯. However she didn't start this shit up again. He did. He liked her so much that he had to make out with her In the middle of the night out of the blue but not enough to respect her publically. That's some BS right there. If he started it, he should have thought it through instead of guilt tripping her. But he is a teenager and ALL of them make incredibly stupid decisions (we all have). Devi messed up big time too and she apologized. The same compassion must extend to him but in no way is it a grand gesture, it's the bare minimum...like her apologies

6. "Paxton forgave Devi forgave Devi so quickly whilst Ben didn't and was so mean". He did forgive her pretty quickly. Good for him. However let's not act like circumstance didn't carve the way for that. They were pushed together because of the whole tutoring thing and he knows that they have to see each other all the time. So logically just makes sense to keep the peace. But still mature oh his part. Also he wasn't as emotionally invested as Ben. Did he have feelings? Yes. However, based on his inner monologue (Gigi Hadid) his ego took more of a hit because how could Devi, the "weirdest girl" he ever liked two time him with Ben Gross. Did his feelings deepen by the end? Yes. But at the start...it isn't that deep.

Also it's great and all that he "forgave" her so quickly but he sure did like bringing it up a lot. Like at the relay guilting her, upset at the end of 6 because he failed...I mean wtf girl you owe me- I don't really care what else is going on in your life, again in episode 8 in the car and finally we all know the mess that is episode 10.

In regards to Ben. His anger is justified for reasons stated in point 1. In fact his reaction seems more real because he is deeply hurt by Devi. Do I like some of his reaction (i.e. nose piercing-will discuss this further) ...nope but she only sincerely apologises to him in episode 8 vs 3 for Paxton. He accepts it. People acting like they would be so calm and chill about being cheated on. And yes he did cheat on Shira. He tries to kiss Devi at party twice but apologises that day and the following week. He doesn't try anything with Devi the whole of episode 10 until she kisses him. He acknowledges that it was wrong and immediately breaks up with Shira. Although cheating is not something we should condone can we actually acknowledge that Shira was the worst and doesn't even remember Ben's name. Compare that to Devi's premeditated cheating. Her Eleanor are literally laughing at how amazing they are for pulling it off and Devi didn't care about either of their feelings cause she was going to be India. Sorry but that is far worse. She also thinks she can bullshit her apology with Ben. He isn't here for that...which is fine! He kept trying his level best to avoid her but even that she wouldn't let him do.

7. "Ben is Horrible". Has Ben done some shitty things. Absolutely. People complain that he has never apologised for anything. Fair enough. He needs to apologize for the UN comment and the psychosomatic comment. It was incredibly hurtful. However, no one does call him out of it. Now you could argue he should just do it. Please... have you watched these particular set of teenagers? None of them apologise without being called out on it first(except maybe Fabiola). And you only get called out my your support system ... which Ben does not have. He practically looks like he raised himself. He doesn't have parents to put him back in line or a sister to call him out on his shit. Devi has her mom, cousin, grandmum , Elanor, Fabiola and her therapist. Does she ever listen to them the first time? Nope. And her first time apologies are such messes. She only gets it right the 2nd or 3rd time. All of them have some form of support but not really him. And it is heartbreaking. It's why I genuinely believe he needs to go to therapy. He needs an outlet to express everything he feels. He also needs to be held accountable for those comments and understand the root of it (ok let's be honest Devi even in their rivalry was probably the most constant person in his life, and fighting with her meant she stayed close by- it's a subconscious thing). He should apologize to her and also find better ways to communicate what he is feeling. The nose ring thing was manipulative. I agree. He should apologize. But I'm not gonna lie, it doesn't piss me off as much because I think it's pretty messed that it took that for her to realise how much she hurt him. Also tbh if you were willing to alter your body on a 2 minute thought out dare, you wanted to do it anyway. But again not a healthy way to emote on Ben's part. The David thing doesn't upset me because he knows how to pronounce her actual name. It's not like he doesn't know how and doesn't bother to try. It was part of their rivalry to irritate her. I honestly find it quite endearing as part of their friendship and think Devi does. I may be wrong and she may not like it and in that case he needs to stop and apologize.

I am not upset by him coming over to her house and calling her out about Aneesa. She deserved it. Also if she was that uncomfortable she could have taken him outside to talk like she did with Paxton. She is clearly comfortable enough to have him in the house. And her therapist agrees with Ben. If he hadn't, she wouldnt have known that Aneesa was leaving. Her mom took away her phone. And even then her first attempt at an apology was soooooo bad. And I don't think Ben did it solely to get Aneesa to stay so he could date her. This is Ben, he was willing to do long distance with Devi from India, I think he could have done the same with Aneesa from like the same town 🙄

I genuinely like Ben because he is a good kid. He makes mistakes like they all do. His personality is hilarious to watch but also his and Devi's relationship is so special. Me liking Ben and Devi has nothing to do with what Paxton has or has not done. I just like the dynamic between the two. They obviously care deeply for each other. Their conversations are hilarious. I love their banter. I love how comfortable they are with each and am sometimes surprised by the depth of their conversations. But also they have amazing chemistry. All the jealous looks and angst are between these two idiots pining for each other. I think she does have chemistry with Paxton but it's more because he is PHY, school Adonis. I mean let's be honest, he'd probably have chemistry with Fabiola solely cause he is PHY. The two nerds just match each other and it's so funny how often they are in sync. It's honestly adorable. They just get each other. That bathroom scene was the sweetest thing and also proves he's not this terrible person. She only comes out of the stall because of his support. He is genuinely hurt for her when technically it should have been a great moment for him.

I do believe the two have to be single for a bit before admitting their feelings for one another and moving forward. That's why my main thing for season 3 is that he absolutely cannot interfere in her relationship with Paxton. He needs to give her the space to figure that. Do I think there will be moments between them... absolutely but no cheating please. Everyone needs to move on from that. If they do it...I honestly think il be done with the show.

Anyways sorry for the really long ramble. If you made it to the end thanks for your patience 😌

Thank you for this beautiful masterpiece, I pretty much agree with everything and need to put it out there for the world to see

[bloomingundertheshadows]

I can't get over the fact that schmico have been together longer than Amelink, Magston and Marina on station 19 who just got married in their finale. It just makes it seem grey's doesn't really have an interest in writing for queer men beyond using Jake and schmico for press.

Oh anon, little did you know, you've brought forth another one of my midnight rants. This has been bothering me for so long, and finally I can justify discussing it at length. Other people have spoken about this, but I have no life, so here we are. In short, you are correct. But, there is so much to discuss, so get your drinks and snacks ready:

What bothers me about the fact that Schmico has been together longer than Amelink/Marina/Magston is the complete disparity between how the writers portray the intimacy of these relationships. Don't be bamboozled - I don't mean sex or anything. By intimacy I mean that the writers portray Amelink/Marina/Magston as serious relationships where the characters have an emotional understanding of one another and truly carry that sense of people who know one another as partners. Obviously relationships move at different paces, but if I showed Schmico to someone without forcing them to do the math, I think most people would assume they'd been together a year at most. They fight like they are just getting out of the honeymoon phase and figuring out their boyfriend has real flaws. Quite frankly both of their behaviors (Levi constantly pushing Nico's boundaries, the whole weird ass sex buddies thing, Nico flipping out over drawers, and Levi running away ) are insane for a couple who by the start of season 17, were probably together like 2 years. Maybe I overestimate emotional maturity, but these are grown men, and you cannot convince me that these two would have made it to season 16B if they behaved like this regularly. I hate it. I hate how other couples have been together shorter time periods and get to behave like a valid adult relationship while these two are behaving like teenagers.

I've always felt Schmico existed within a pocket dimension of Grey's Anatomy - completely cut off from the rest of the cast/storyline or overall plot. I literally feel like the show stops whenever they come on screen, and we start watching this mini-show within a show. I don't know if anyone else can describe this feeling, but sometimes Schmico just feels so unnaturally placed that I doubt they are even in Grey's Anatomy. 

The best way I can prove this is the fact you could place this season's schmico storyline anywhere in the season, and it wouldn't even matter. They could have had Nico ask Levi to move in with him during 17x05 or 17x06 or 17x07, etc and it would not have mattered - they are so isolated you can literally cut and paste their storyline anywhere in the season without changing anything. (I realize that technically vax guy can only appear in the last episode because of when the actual vaccine was developed, but let's not pretend he couldn't have been replaced with literally any other male character. The vaccine trial was a fun tidbit, but literally meaningless to the progression of the plot). Nothing that happens to them is dependent on anyone or anything else in the show. This wasn’t as true in S15-16A, but it is on full display now. Every once in while they get pulled into a cameo appearance in a bigger plot-line, but this has no real consequences and lasts for 1 minute at most (see Nico’s numb comments). The fundamental cause of this is poor character development and the complete unwillingness of production to make these characters part of Grey’s - but we all know that. 

As a result, I truly believe the writers have some sort of temporal disorientation where even they forget how long schmico has been together. Because schmico is so dissociated from the show, it feels like the relationship is on warpspeed. Sure, a few weeks may have passed between Nico asking Levi to move in and him actually responding, but when you never see the characters in the show except for when they’re having relationship issues, it doesn’t actually feel like any time has passed. They have taken away the audience’s ability to place these characters within the show’s timeline (which is already kind of messed up to begin with). I think this contributes to the audience’s dislike of them because while other couples are seen interacting with many doctors across the hospital  over multiple episodes, these two will show up for 3 minutes every two episodes and the rest of the show stops while these two get locked in an enclosed space to fight. Literally. The show isolates them to closets or on call rooms or even Nico’s apartment - if I was more meh about these characters, I’d  be annoyed too that we stopped all character interactions to watch these two fight in the middle of a deserted parking lot.  

This whole pocket dimension schmico is also part of the reason I think the writers struggle to figure out that they shouldn’t be behaving like this. I’m not giving them a free pass because they are part of the problem, but I doubt incorporating this side couple that only gets 1.45 minutes of screen time each week is a fun or easy job. Schmico are not woven into the fabric of the narrative, and I bet even the writers feel confused how best to write them. 

I imagine the Grey’s writing room has lots of whiteboards that roughly charts a character’s plot each season. Except, schmico’s plotline is written on sticky note that Krista uses as a coaster. Once they complete the episode, someone notices Jake walking by and suddenly realizes they’d forgotten schmico. Then, there’s a desperate attempt to shove them into the story before filming begins. In the crunch, there’s no time to consider whether this makes any sense. 

As for your second point about them only using them for promotion, I 100% agree. The headlines about “Grey’s Anatomy introduces first Asian male surgeon” literally haunts my dreams. I’ve spoken at length about the fact Grey’s is running on a season-by-season format right now, which I think helped contribute to this nonsense. I am hesitant to call out anyone by name because this show is a group effort, but I can’t help but feel like Jake kind of got forked. He (and Alex) put out a lot of press for Greys during Season 15, and he spent a decent amount of time talking about his storyline, and I always felt he was pretty happy with it - and Krista also spent time hyping up this storyline (Your friendly neighborhood reminder that Krista once said schmico was her favorite couple. I can’t prove it’s a lie, but I’m willing to bet my left kidney). However, they totally dropped the ball once the news articles were gone and the internet had moved onto different things. It’s pretty insulting to the actors, and I would feel pretty salty if I came onto a show where I started with a meangingful storyline only to end up here.  

I have nothing too much to say in conclusion. Most of this has been said before, so it’s not like I’m adding anything new. Given how everything ended, Season 18 is looking good for both Jake and Alex’s return. While I can’t say for sure they will come back, I think that right now, Grey’s is giving them both a steady paycheck and probably good connections and resume building. Last season I was super hopeful we’d get a better schmico storyline or at least something that didn’t revolve around the same old tired plot. But we all see how that went. At the bare minimum I want to believe that the Nico’s a d*ck plot will kind of be put to rest, but they have made it pretty clear that Nico is literally at fault for everything in this relationship, so I bet Levi will be mad at him next season too. 

Good thing the fanfiction is strong in the community. May you all rest well knowing you put more effort into this couple than paid professionals. 

[chicoriii]

Season 4, Episode 13 - Optigami

I was hoping it might be my favourite S4 episode till now, but it can't be, since I absolutely hate how they are writing "Alya knows" plot arc.

What writers are doing with it is ridiculous. They make Marinette more stupid and irresponsible than ever before to make Alya shine (although she is doing dumb things as well, so I'm not sure I can say she is shining, she is rather also a victim of writing). She is not respect the rules, she has not enough humility (knowing Ladybug's identity and everything about Guardian is not enough, she also wants getting Miraculous permanently), she makes careless things. And what? She is rewarded for it. Do you remember previous seasons? When Marinette did something stupid, Tikki said it out loud. What's happening in season 4? Nothing. No matter what, Tikki and other Kwamis tell nothing. And some of them has been portrayed as wise or careful before (like Wayzz or Sass). I don't see it this season. Now when Tikki questioning reckless Marinette decisions is the most needed, she does nothing. And what's with Su-Huan? What is he doing? Is he one episode character only? Maybe he should start monitoring how's doing the new Guardian? Because it seems that she's is not doing well with her duties.

@bookdragonlibrary has told me that Marinette being incompetent as the Guardian in Mr. Pigeon 72 makes sense, because she was in a big stress. It could be a good argument if Marinette was as much incompetent as Ladybug as well. But being in stress hasn't affected her in the akumas battles at all. And since Optigami is 13rd episode, "Marinette is completely new as the Guardian" can't be justification of her mindless actions anymore. They just downgraded Marinette's intelligence and wisdom of some of the Kwamis as well.

This is why I think that the whole "Alya knows" story arc is absurd and inconsistent with the previous seasons. Do you want more examples? Thanks @bookdragonlibrary for reminding me that in Gang of Secrets Ladybug told to Alya that she has no permission to reveal that she's the Guardian now on Ladyblog. And what's Alya doing in the next episode? She's revealing that Ladybug is the Guardian in front of Mr. Ramier and giving some informations that are supposed to be "top secret" stuff to him. Marinette, or other characters, didn't react to it at all. If Mr. Ramier likes to gossip, he could easily spread the news to the whole Paris. It shows that Alya and Marinette don't think about possibility of the consequences of their actions at all. Alya is also supposed to be a great journalist in the future, how am I going to believe in it, if she's doing those many things mindlessly?

I know that made Gabriel and Nathalie are going to pay more attention to Alya and thanks to it they could discover Ladybug's identity. Actually now, that should be extremely easy to start suspect Marinette (since that's not a secret and she's Alya's best friend) and start tracking her. And it should happen immediately, in the next episode. But I'm sure the writers are not going to make him minimal smart. I think it will take him many episodes, and even if, it will happen at the end of the season. Still it's not a reason to make the characters dumb and reckless.

I would like to see Gabriel and Nathalie knowing Ladybug identity before Marinette knows identities of the villains, it would be very interesting. But I don't think it's going to happen in the way the end of Optigami foreshadows. In my opinion, even if Gabriel starts tracking Marinette, she will discover that in some way before it's too late, and she will mislead him. Just like Gabriel has done it in Collector or Adrien in Gorizilla. It's too fast. Most probably Shadow Moth is going to be defeated at the end of season 5, so I can't see that he's learning Ladybug's identity in season 4. Also I can't believe that there are going to be real and very big consequences for Marinette and Alya. The danger will rather be only temporary, at the end it will be said like telling Alya about absolutely everything was a very good idea from the start. Maybe they have done some a bit questioning things, but nothing really bad.

Is there something I liked in this episode? Yes, of course, though stupid actions of Alya and Marinette made it harder to enjoy it. That's great they tried to make villains more smart and we've seen they are doing something more than just sending akumas and amoks after random civilians. They have some more deliberate plans. There was plenty of action and it was more interesting than in most other this season's episodes (basically, I think that akuma battles in other episodes than Truth, Furious Fu and maybe Guiltrip are rather boring).

Also I like how the Lucky Charm was utilized, not to beat the akuma/sentimonster like always, but to discover the plan of Shadow Moth and Nathalie.

And the design of ladybug and bee fusion is great. Marinette's superhero suits are always so good and this one is one of my favourites. I like her hairstyle the most. I think Ladybee design is even better than Queen Bee or Vesperia's (although there's nothing bad in them as well).

I expected this episode to focus more on Marinette and Adrien as civilians. Remember, I haven't watched the trailer(s) and I was trying to avoid spoilers as much as I could. I'm barely active on Tumblr and Instagram since that one week marathon of the new episodes has started (because I'm afraid of spoilers), but unfortunately, I forgot I should be careful with YouTube as well, so thumbnails and titles of the videos spoilered me the ladybug and bee Miraculous fusion and end card, so I knew it's actually Alya-centric episode again. But maybe it's actually a good thing, thanks to it, I'm not as much disappointed as I could be otherwise.

I absolutely didn't want them to reveal their identities now, like they teased us. I'm not crazy about getting The Reveal ™ as fast as possible, I actually think that doing it too early would not be good. The Love Square is a great and unique concept, so there's no reason to kill it too early. I fully accepted the idea of secret identities from the start. This is why the idea of of Marinette telling someone wasn't overly exciting to me, I could see it for Alix, as only it made sense to me at this point of the story. I could accept it, if it was done right, but it's done very bad.

But seeing early synopsis of this episode, I expected that we should get some Adrienette development. Optigami is episode 13, it's really in time to do this! I was hopping that we should see Marinette being more and more comfortable around Adrien which would lead to the reveal in the season finale. Because I think the main characters should build a very strong bond as both civilians and superheroes before it happens (another reason why I would not like to see the reveal in season 2 or 3). Marinette should be ready to confess (but that doesn't mean she would do it then) and get to know who Adrien really is well, before she discovers that her crush is also her partner who she has been rejecting many times before. It doesn't look like it's happening now. So if nothing changes soon, it could mean that the reveal between Marinette and Adrien will happen rather in season 5.

Also Alya now is getting more screentime and more action than Adrien. Rena Rouge transformation sequence has been seen in three episodes, Chat Noir's in only once and there's no Cataclyms full animation at all (I'm curious about arrangement of its theme). Adrien is reduced to nearly a background character in many of the episodes this season, it's noticeable more than before to me, and I feel it is so unfair. But even now, Alya is still mostly portrayed as the best friend of the protagonist than a character on her own. I would like to see more her doing something which has nothing to do with Marinette and Ladybug. It could make her really shine, now I see her mostly as a character who is doing very reckless things without thinking about the consequences.

-----------------------

The lesson I just learned is that I can't get excited about any upcoming season 4 episodes, no matter how much interesting its synopsis sounds. I should be rather careful about every single one. And sometimes seeing unwanted spoilers is not that bad if thanks to them, I can avoid being too much disappointed. As after seeing the end card of it, I knew this episode is nothing like I imagined.

[toomanyfandoms02]

Thoughts - Part 1 // Matthew Gray Gubler x Reader

This timeline is set around 2006 because that's when the actually 2nd season of Criminal Minds was going on. So Matthew is about 26.

Summary - Soulmate AU! Once you turn 18, you can hear some of your soulmates thoughts. And when you meet, your thoughts go silent for 30 seconds. Readers soulmate is quite the character. (Anything you see in bold is the other persons thought.)

Word count : 2.1k

This is kind of experimental lmao, lemme know if you like it :)))

"What was your first soulmate thought y/n?" I got this question often, everyone did. This time it was asked by a new friend of mine, we met in our cinematography class this semester at LAFS ( Los Angeles Film School ).

"I think my story is one of the more fun ones."

"I bet mines better." Her eyes held promise, but I wasn't sure she could beat me.

*It was currently 1:15 pm, and I was waiting patiently for my first soulmate thought. I was with my best friend Marley, we sat in the cafeteria of my college, mind you, surrounded by other people.*

*"What time were you born again?" She had asked the question so many times this hour, by the way she was bouncing, you would think that we were waiting for hers.*

*"1:19 pm for the last time Marley." I giggled, nudging her shoulder. I took a bite of the cupcake she had bought me for my birthday. It took no time for the clock to hit 1:19, I anxiously waited to hear something, anything.*

"Now disclaimer." I told my friend, who I now knew as Alex. "I knew that some people had reported that their first soulmate thoughts were kind of, *loud*. But I can tell you that I was severely unprepared."

*Only 30 seconds after my watch ticked past 1:19, I heard a near deafening screech in my head.*

***"What the fuck?!"** The thought was so obnoxious and loud that I spit the fluffy pastry from my mouth and directly onto the back of another person, holding tightly to my ears, this did not help.*

*"What's going on? What did they say?" Marley leaned over to me, rubbing my back with a horrified look. Not long after, the man I had spit on turned around with a furious look.*

*"Hey I'm so sorry." I choked out, waving a hand at the man. "My soulmate thought was painful." The man rolled his eyes with an angry huff, taking his cardigan off and turning back to his table.*

*"What did they say y/n?!" There she went again, bouncing like a dodgeball.*

*"What the fuck." My eyes darted to hers, narrowed slightly. She furrowed her brows at me. "He literally thought, what the fuck, so loudly."*

Alex was on the floor giggling like a fiend, she held her stomache as if her guts would spill out with so much joy.

"Nope, you're right." She could barely speak between laughter. "I can't beat that." She promptly wiped the tears from her eyes, composing herself. "So you haven't met him yet?" She let out a final sigh.

"Nope. When I meet him, I kinda wanna slap him." A sly smile made it's way onto my lips. "The little shit thinks the weirdest things! I have had to deal with his thoughts for 4 years, and I'm ready for the complete silent bliss when I meet him." I laid my head back on the couch.

**I would really like a fruit roll up right now.**

"Speak of the idiot, he really wants a fruit roll up right now." Alex shook her head at me.

"Maybe he will be funny?"

"We'll see about that. What was your first soulmate thought?"

-

Tonight was Marley and I's 'introduction night.' Similar to a movie night, we have a night every two weeks where we either introduce the other to a new show or movie, alternating turns.

"I think you'll like this one." She plopped onto the loveseat, nearly throwing and spilling the hot popcorn on me while grabbing the remote. "It's a crime show, just started last year so after this season we can just keep up with it. If you like it of course." The show was flipped onto the first episode, it was a man talking about an unsub, or unidentified subject. Then a younger guy walked in, interrupting him.

"Who is that guy?" The words flew from my mouth before I could even think them.

"Spencer Reid-"

"No, I mean his *real* name. He looks *so* familiar." It felt like my brain was eating itself alive, why did he look so familiar.

"I think his name is Matthew Gray Gubler." Marley shrugged, not taking her eyes off the screen.

"Has he been in anything else but this?"

"He models a lot. That's probably where you saw him." She pushed some magazines around on her coffee table and threw one at me. "He's on page 16, Hilfiger Jean's." I flipped to the page, seeing his face again.

"Wow, he is something else. I must have just unknowingly saw him in a magazine somewhere."

"I know! Once I saw him on here, I knew you would think he was cute too. Plus, he's a genius. I figured this would be another Peter Parker situation again." She teased, poking at my giant crush on Spiderman AKA Toby Maguire a few years ago.

"Shut up!" I snickered, throwing a pillow at her head. My own thoughts were interrupted by one that was not my own.

**I wish Halloween would come faster.**

"Its literally May." I whispered to myself, earning a weird look from Marley. This is the typical weird thought, Halloween is big on his mind.

I of course ended up loving the show. ~~And may or may not have had a huge crush on Spencer Reid already.~~

I informed Marley that we would most certainly be catching up on the show regularly, making that out new weekly thing for a while.

Though I could truly not get that Matthew guy out of my head, and I had a weird feeling it wasn't just because I thought he was super hot.

Matthew

**Who is Matthew Gray Gubler?**

The thought nearly made me spit out my coffee as I walked through the set. I knew for sure that wasn't my thought.

*No shit sherlock.*

Now *that* was my thought.

The question swirled around in my head, I really wanted to just think,

*I'm Matthew Gray Gubler!*

Just to make this whole process easier. Who knows if she could even actually *hear* it if I did answer her, or that she would believe me.

So lost in my train of thoughts, pun intended, I ran right into a punch cart.

"Holy shit!" The punch came spilling down right onto my khaki pants. I rested my forehead on the rim of my coffee mug. "I'm so sorry Terry, I was really caught up in my head."

"It's alright." He pulled a towel from his back pocket, throwing it onto the puddle that was forming on the wood floor. "Thinkin' about a girl?"

"Yes actually, thinking about my soulmate. Let me help you with that." I kneeled down on the floor, wiping up the spill. "Sorry again."

"It's all good Matthew." He dragged the cart to the opposite side of the room.

**Why can I not focus damnit?! This trip is suppose to be fun. Focus y/n. Focus!**

Y/n! I've never heard her name before. Maybe shes getting closer to me.

I set my coffee on the table of the reading room, pulling my script out and sitting next to AJ.

"You seem out of it today, are you feeling okay?" She tapped my shoulder. "I saw you run directly into the lunch cart." She clearly tried to suppress a giggle.

"How did you meet Nathan? How did you do it?" My script was not slammed onto the table, my hands pressed firmly on top of it.

"Are you worried about soulmates again? Matthew, she will come to you-"

"She said my name!!" My hands flailed wilding in the air. "I heard her think it! This sucks." I laughed a bit at the end, feeling ridiculous and vulnerable. Ask phone buzzed on the table, interrupting my dilemma.

"Well I hate to stop you in the middle of this debacle, but we have a film class coming in to observe, I guess sit was suppose to be a surprise." AJ shrugged with a pity smile, which is my least favorite version of a smile. I dramatically slammed my head on the back of my rolling chair, groaning like a child.

"Come on Gubler, we don't even have to do anything, we just have to act normal so they can observe. Let's go educate some college kids." She stood above me, patting my head and dragging my seat from the table a few inches. I reluctantly stood up and left the reading room.

To be clear, if it were any other day than the day that I found out my soulmates name, I would be totally in the game. I love teaching people, I love being an inspiration, but all I could think about was how close yet how far I was from meeting the love of my life. I shook it all off, physically and mentally, while heading to the set.

*Time to get my head in the game.*

I hope my soulmate heard that and started thinking of highschool musical.

-

"Action!" I held my prop gun in my hand while following Shermar, he proceeded to kick a door down that had a camera on the other side to capture it. The class that was observing sat on the other side of the door, seeing all of the behind the scenes that goes on during filming.

To avoid making direct eye contact with the camera, I often look right past it. So instead of making eye contact with the camera, I made it with a girl.

Then it was silent.

I stopped in the doorway, leading AJ to slam right into me on her way through the door.

"What the hell are you doing Matthew?"

"Cut!"

**You have got to be fucking kidding me.**

We did not break our stare, her eyes wide now with the realization.

*Wow.*

The girl sitting next to her was shaking her shoulder violently, but she sat unfazed.

"Can you excuse me for a second?" Bobby Roth, our director for the day looked at me like I was dumb, inevitably giving in.

"Whatever, take 5 guys."

I immediately waltzed past the cameraman and over to, who I could only assume, was my soulmate. The girl next to her was promptly slapping her arm and squealing like a pig, but she was giving her quite the death stare.

*She's my kind of girl already.*

Right as I thought that, she looke duo at me with a large grin and a tilt of the head.

*Shit.*

**Damn, even cuter in person.**

"Thank you." I couldn't suppress the automatic pep in my step meeting her. "I'm Matthew, you must be y/n?" It came out as a question because I was worried I would be wrong, and embarrass myself.

Which I've done, many times.

"You know my name?"

"I uh, I heard you think it." I pointed to my head, nodding awkwardly.

"You are so weird." She laughed, which made my face reddened more 3x more than I'm sure it already was.

"What?" I managed to murmur out.

"Well, you just think about weird stuff, mostly Halloween though." She was slowly smiling more as she spoke of me, which made my heart skip a few beats. She was so much more beautiful than I had pictured her. Her eyes held every intelligent thought that I had ever heard from her, and I knew right then that the eyes were the door to the soul. "Now that I'm here," she finally stood to my level, poking at my chest. "Do you wanna do a couples costume? This year?" She did a cute half shrug, as if I would say no.

"Oh my God, you really are my soulmate." I pulled her into a hug, a tight one, never wanting to let her go now that I'd found her.

"Alright guys! Let's go!" Bobby motioned everyone back to the set.

"Yeah, get out there *Spencer*." She patted her hand on my cheek. I didn't know if I hoped that she *did* see or *didn't* see how much I already liked her on my face, but I could feel the admiration spilling from my features.

"I- I'll talk to you after this!" I stumbled backwards from her, going back to the set and awkwardly running my back into the cameraman.

"Can't wait!" She waved with a flushed face, sitting back down next to her friend who was now shaking both of her shoulders violently.

*This is the best day of my life.*

**Same.**

---------

I've got a few more Soulmat AU ideas if you want more! I just don't know if theres any demand, so LEMME KNOW.

[ivory-sunflower]

Arty Art Things ✨

Hellooo!

I've decided to post some of the arty things I've done either recently or in the last few years, well the pieces I'm somewhat proud of at least. All my posts tend to be a lot more wordy than they need to be but hey it's what I do here!

Conchúr White

Anyone one who's been on this blog for a bit will have probably have seen me talk about this lovely Irish fella. The pencil drawing is actually a year old as of yesterday, I only know that because screenshots of me flipping out about Conchúr following me on twitter popped up in my memories yesterday. I think I'd sent it to him at about 3 in the morning (I was not in a good head space at that point in time), so probably not what he was expecting to see when he opened his phone in the morning aha

The biro version is much more recent: I got bored while sat at my desk and doing research about university courses, saw a biro, saw my old drawing of Conchúr, had an idea. I revisited my GCSE art techniques and here we are. Again, I put this up on Twitter and now (at the the time I'm writing this) when you google "Conchúr White" it's the third top image of him which is a bit mad really. I think I spent all of about 20 minutes on Conchúr but another 45 minutes on the words behind him. The words are the names of the songs on his EP 'Bikini Crops', he doesn't just really love the idea of Channing Tatum driving him around at night in a daisy print bikini... Well maybe he does but what he does in his spare time is none of my business...

TechDif

So I mentioned that the pencil drawing of Conchúr came from a rough patch in my mental health and this one is no different! In fact this one came from an even worse circumstance so we love to see it. I had a bad, bad time in July and this started as a way of distracting myself from what was going on in my head. Without it, I can't honestly say I'd still be here so even if the final product of this had been a terrible mess I would still love it for keeping me alive. However, it did not turn out to be a terrible mess!

Now that the origin of this is out the way, where do I start with TechDif? Unlike Conchúr, I haven't really talked about them on here (unless you count one brief post about Citation Needed) before so I guess I'll do it here. The Technical Difficulties are a wonderful group of 4 British fellas who have had their fair share of fun online and even before. They did a radio show at university together, which went on to become their Reverse Trivia Podcast, later moving on to a panel show called 'Citation Needed': and a game called 'Two of These People Are Lying'. All of which I would thoroughly reccomend, they're one of my go to things when I'm having a rough time. All 4 of them are excellent! Tom Scott (red top, blue jeans on the picture) has his own YouTube channel which does content aside from TechDif. If you're quite nerdy and like science, linguistics, computers, or any number of other things you may enjoy Tom's channel. He is probably best described as "The Moderator" of the group, much like a tired teacher he tries desperately to keep everyone on track with what they're meant to be doing, but usually it does not end well for him. Then we have Matt Gray (space top, holding an ice cream) who also has a channel away from TechDif stuff, he does techy electronic things and has a series called 'Will it Soft Serve?' where he puts all kinds of strange things through a soft serve machine. Matt brings a very specific energy to TechDif and I can't fully describe what that vibe is but I love it. Matt and Tom also share a YouTube channel where TOTPAL is posted and they had a series called 'The Park Bench'. Moving on to everybody's favourite Gary Brannan: Gary Brannan (SATIRE hoodie, glasses) and can I just say, what a fella he is! He's just excellent! He is the one that will argue and rip into Tom the most (not in a malicious way) and hilarity ensues. There are some episodes where he is absolutely on it, getting all the points and others where he very clearly has no idea and that's where some of his funniest quotes come from. Given how badly I was doing at the time I made this, his response to it on Twitter was so so lovely. I specifically remember one tweet where he said I'd made him happy and although it was probably a flippant comment, it just made feel alright for a bit. Yeah I might be feeling awful right now, but I've made someone else happy so that's a nice feeling. Then last but certainly not least, we have Chris Joel (buffalo check shirt, beard)! I would be lying if I said he isn’t my favourite... His sense of humor is the one I vibe with most, he can get rather dramatic in parts and can chat bollocks like a champion. He has absolutely no online presence away from TechDif and, like Rens from Temples, I fully believe he’s a cryptid and lives off in a tree somewhere. 

The picture took me about 4 days to complete, well 4 nights because I did most of it between the hours of 12 a.m. and 7a.m. - I remember watching the sun come through my window each morning. It’s made up of lots of little pieces, all cut out and stuck on; even the sky and hills are made of separate pieces of paper. Nothing was actually drawn on the piece of paper it’s all stuck on, it’s not how I usually do things but if I messed up one little but I could just redraw it rather than ruining the whole thing. The most tedious parts to make were Chris’ shirt because I had to draw each square individually and then join the as well, and cutting out the ban-hammer in the bottom right was surprisingly hard. Every single detail of the picture is a reference to the podcast/shows, I still have the plan sketch and reference list knocking about somewhere. I listened to a lot of true crime videos while making it to the point that certain parts remind me of different cases: the brandy now reminds me of Peter Tobin, and the big spiral thing reminds me of Tim McLean (very harrowing case) - sorry that fact is a bit morbid but interesting nonetheless. 

I did post this for a little bit back in July, but I received some rather awful messages so I took it down. Generally, Tom Scott/TechDif fans are lovely but there’s been a few that have taken a disliking to me for some reason so I’m hoping they don’t resurface again. I’m in a better head space now though, so even if they do I’m more equipped to deal with it this time.

Hozier

This was a quick sketch I did in April, I was getting bored with lockdown and decided to summon the bog man himself. There’s not really much more backstory than that, no poor mental health story, no fun twitter story - he’s just here. He’s vibing. I will say I’m particularly proud of his nose, I just think it’s one of the best noses I’ve ever drawn. His hand is okay, but I think that the hands on my Conchúr drawings are better. So there is the Hozi-Boi...

The Corpse Bry

I’ve talked about Bry on here before as well, I love him, he’s excellent, top lad. He is a living Tim Burton character, he’s 6′6, very skinny, and his legs are longer than my will to live. I was watching ‘The Corpse Bride’ a few weeks ago and suddenly had an idea and so ‘The Corpse Bry’ came to be. I gave him a little panda friend because the panda has always been his animal - he used to wear a panda beanie all the time and his album had a panda on the cover. Again, there’s not really a fun story behind this one, I guess it’s somewhat fun because it’s the first art I made after finishing my psychology exams in October so it was nice to actually have the time to draw.

James Bagshaw

Ginger talking about Temples for the third post in a row? it’s more likely than you think! I did this one last week, I’d had a bit of a wobbly day and had group therapy on Teams in the evening and I just couldn’t concentrate on what was going on and I ended up doodling Mr James E. Bagshaw, the glitter crying fraggle man himself. It’s a bare-bones drawing that I could definitely work into more but I’m happy with it as it is to be honest. I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit and add the individual bits of fringe to his jacket, just thinking about doing that makes me tired. Maybe I’ll get around to drawing the whole band at some point...

Alice in “Wonderland”

This one is from about 5(?) years ago, it’s not my typical style and was a “study” based on another artists work (basically i just had to copy this fellas work). I’ll be honest, this one has a sketchy backstory that I won’t go in to because it’s not exactly a nice one, and because of that I also won’t say who the artist is that it’s based on. Despite this, I’m still really proud of this one and I’m so sad that I never got this piece back after I got taken out the class. I’ve considered trying this style again, I’ve even joked about doing another Conchúr drawing in this style as a nod to my progression through GCSE art, eventually leading to Conchúr drawn in ink on music manuscript and stained with neon paint and dyes - it would be quite the project!

So this has been quite a lengthy post so apologies about that but life goes on. Similar to the vinyl post, I’ll probably add to this as and when I make more art. Even if no one is reading these posts, I’m enjoying making them so that’s the main thing. It’s just nice to document things and the feelings that go with them. 💕

~ Love Ginger xx 

29/11/2020

[shyrose57]

Brothers anon back with a worked out timeline! And Misstressoffandoms sorry im responding so late! I completely missed your reply. Thats what I ended up doing but im hoping to eventually be able to completely copy those eailer asks and put them on my notes app.

When this gets a major update I'll resend if you want me too.

CURRENT AGES! (When they left Subbin)

Ran-19

Ranbob-26 (Previously 28 but decided to change it a bit, decided I didn't like the 9 year age difference between the brothers)

Watson-33 (Previously 35 but decided to change it a bit)

Jackie-16

Grievous-22

Benjamin-30

Cletus-24

Charles-25 (Previously 27 but decided to change it)

Isaac-29

CURRENT TIME LINE! (THIS IS NOT INDEPTH AND IS INSTEAD INTENDED TO GIVE A BRIEF SUMMARY OF EVERYTHING, DETAILS MAY BE CHANGED DEPENDING ON WHATS ADDED)

-Dream gets control of Ranbob and uses him to basically commit genocide in Mizu, Ran barely escapes. 

-After living alone for 6 years Ran arrives in Subbin, takes part in the Pit tournament, and gains a family. At the same time the fishermen find and rescue Ranbob, bringing him to their home.

-2 years past with Ranbob recovering and having a haunting, and Ran fighting while spending time with his own haunting. 

-Isaac manages to convince his group to go to Subbin even though Ranbob is a bit nervous, the fishermen join The Pit for the promise of money and fun. Ranbob gets pinned against Ran (doesnt know its Ran) and sees the King of The Hill is on with Ran at the top. Ranbob climbs up to see Ran there, he is shocked and approaches him with weapon dropped and shaking, Ran kicks him off the edge. Ranbob slams his head into the ground and dislocates his shoulder, rises up to see the King of The Hill dropping. Ranbob tries to talk to Ran only for Ran to run to him and slam him into the ground, yelling at and threatening him. He carries him over to the edge of the arena and at this point Porkius calls off the fight and the fishermen and Gladiators enter the arena to seperate them. Ran cursing out Ranbob as he gets dragged away. Ranbob gets treated in the medical wing as Ran storms about and the two groups talk and match everything up.

-Weeks past with incredible tension in the air. They decide that taking a trip may help and after getting approval from Porkius, manage to convince Ranbob and trick Ran to come along.

-After agurements and tense moments while in a carriage, they get out and walk to their next destination. A flower biome. Where they manage to relax and have fun for a few days before moving on.

-Next Watson leads them to a nearby waterfall he found with a tunnel behind it, the brothers get water splashed on them by Isaac and Jackie being idiots, and from dripping water in the cave, leaving Ran with burns to his neck and hands, while Ranbob has burns to his cheeks and also to his neck. The burns fade quickly with help of burn cream Watson brought with. 

-After they pass the tunnel they see a shattered Savanna, and decide to travel through it. Tension ramps up when both Grievous and Cletus almost fall off halfway up a mountain, and when Rans scowling and growling end up sending Ranbob so far away from him he almost walks off the edge. 

-Watson says the Savanna is to dangerous and leads them to a nearby roofed forest, where they have their first run in with Raq and learn that Ran is still being hunted. 

-After 3 morw run-ins with Raq they move to another forest, this time Oak, and stumble upon a village, where they stop for supplies. This is also where they learn of Kelalen, but the librarian they learned it from dismisses them as lunatics and to avoid them. Upon pressing for more info they find out it was like Mizu, to which Ranbob shows interest and excitement.

-They move on to a Tagia biome where everyone attempts to tame a wolf and fails, expect Charles, Watson, and Ran. Charles gets 4 dogs from this and is very happy.

-While running to shelter in a cave from a thunderstorm, the brothers lag behind the rest, and start to badly agure. At the end Ran shouts something that makes Ranbob stop, stare at him with teary eyes, and run away. Ran almost goes after him but doesnt and instead goes to tell the others. While Ranbob finds another smaller cave to hide it, and after some harsh words, everyone goes searching for him. Leaving Ran alone and leaving him with his guilt ridden, horrible feeling, and merciless mind

-They get Ranbob to come back to find Ran gone, at first almost no one wants to go after him. Saying how it's all his fault. But eventually they agree to look for him after the storm has passed. Its a full day until the storm passes and the gladiators have become very worried for Ran. 

-When they finally look for him, it takes them hours to find him. And they only find him when there's a sudden shout through the woods, leading them to Raq mid-attack on Ran, taking advantage of his distraction of being lost in his own mind. Sadly their a bit late and aren't able to save Ran from a blindness potion. But are able to chase Raq away. Ran suffers due to the potion, and everyone is distressed.

-3 days pass until they manage to collect themselves up enough to move, after Ranbob said that he believes the town of Kelalen is nearby, he believes traveling there is worth the risk.

-It takes a week to travel to Kelalen and at first they get turned away, before Lucia recognizes some features of Ranbob and feels bad turning them away when Ran is blind. So they get brought in and Ran gets cured. 

-They stay in Kelalen for 4 weeks (minimum, may be more later on, im actually thinking along the lines of months) where they learn more about everything and Foolish who is particularly interesting. And after a while and long conversations they say goodbye and continue on to their next biome, a snow biome.

-While in the snow biome they meet a particular old enderman who used to live with members of the SMP. He reveals his name as Edward and upon meeting Ran and Ranbob he makes the connection with them to Ranboo. And starts to happily tell stories and teach lessons. But when Ran leaves to go to bed, Edward reveals that Ran does love Ranbob, but is struggling with his own nightmares that make it hard for him to show it to Ranbob. Who hesitates believing him, but eventually does. From here on Ranbob looks at and thinks of Ran in a different view. 

-After the snow biome theres no real destination next on their list, so they decide to just explore. 

-3 months past before something interesting happens. Whenever they come across a village Jackie has formed a habit of asking them about Foolish, as he took a interest in him. And he eventually gets a village that goes "Yes Foolish is that way." And he excitedly drags everyone else with him to meet Foolish. 

-They get to Foolish's home and start exploring. Jackie is alone when Foolish confronts him and Jackie brings him to the others. Foolish isn't exactly nice at first but warms up upon seeing the brothers again, as he's reminded of Ranboo. Hes informed about Dream and he is horrified to learn that and offers his help, they decline beliving themselves already free of Dream. Just before the group leaves Foolish gives them access to his armoury, saying how he feels like they'll need it. Before Ran can leave Foolish gives him a special totem of undying, saying he truly means he'll help, and that he feels they may face Dream again. Foolish tells Ran to break it when they need help and he'll be summoned to them. Ran leaves disturbed.

-2 years have passed with the group and brothers getting closer, along with occasional attacks from Raq and other hunters. They head back to Subbin. Their goal of getting the brothers closer achieved. Their still not as close as they used to be, but their close enough they can joke around, be left in the same room together alone without someone being stabbed, and even hug. Though Ran still hasnt fully forgiven Ranbob yet, but he's trying his best. Their on their way back to Subbin when nightmares between the two start ramping up, and Ranbobs episodes where he tries to run back to Dream are also on the rise. Everyone is starting to suspect something is happening but isn't sure what and so try to move on. When next Raq attack he brings back up again, this time instead of focusing on Ran, they focus on Ranbob. When Raq is defeated and finally caught, they ask why, and Raq reveals that theres a person who put a high bounty on Ranbob. Raq dies from Ran and Cletus.

-Ranbob fears its Dream, the others comfort him saying Dream can't escape Mizu. Their wrong.

-They finally get to Subbin and things are normal for a while, until Porkius reveals that Ranbob probably shouldn't be alone for a while. When asked why he reveals that the bounty on Ranbob has been put back up in Subbin, although he's going as fast as he can to nullify it. Benjamin, Charles, and Watson go to the local bar where bounties are put. And sure enough there's one for Ranbob there.

-When they get back Ran reveals what Foolish told him about facing Dream. They realizie Dream somehow got out and is hunting Ranbob down. Ranbob is terrified but they manage to comfort him. And they come to the conclusion they need to fight Dream. They spend months preparing and training for it. 

-(This is the end bit and has yet to be fully figured out. So it'll be added in at a later time.)

Notes: During the whole time traveling, unless specified, Ran and Ranbob are far away from each other. Ran tending to be in the very front of the group with Ranbob in the very back. And whenever Ranbob got close to a gladiator Ran would growl at him to back off. 

If you have any questions feel free to ask! (And if I missed anything please tell me so I can add it)

And I wanna check, am I still ok to send these?- to like talk about my au or no?- I'm afraid I've overstayed my welcome honestly and if I did I dont want to annoy you and will stop! And if you still don't mind, is there anything you want me to change? In general?

This’ll be helpful for the future! Also, Charles has four dogs, that’s adorable. 

Of course you’re okay to send ‘em, I love reading these things! 

I will never be annoyed about getting to see someone’s cool ideas and see how they choose to build on them. That sort of thing is awesome, and I love seeing it, your AU most certainly a favorite in that like. Send as many as you’d like, and I’ll be all the happier for it.

[beyondthetemples-ooc]

Weirdly Specific Get to Know Me Questions

Alright bestie, 1-20, gimme ALL of 'em.

Oh heck! I love you for this. (I mean, I already loved you for other reasons, but now I love your Ask style, too!)

It's getting a cut though because I can't ever give an Incomplete Answer.

1. What is your go to flavor of salad dressing? None! I despise salad dressing. I really hate the taste of vinegar, and I also hate the taste of ranch, so there's not a dressing in the world for me. I've used homemade teriyaki sauce in lieu of dressing before, though. Mostly I just enjoy the taste of vegetables unironically.

2. What’s the t-shirt you wear the most? I... don't usually wear t-shirts, actually. Blouses and such instead. But I have a Blue Lantern T-shirt I tend to wear on laundry day, it's just a medium blue shirt with a big black-on-white Blue Lantern symbol over the chest. Got it at the last MidOhioCon, I believe (before that one stopped and WizardWorld took over). I waffled between Blue and Indigo Lantern for me, but I decided the stronger theme in my life is Hope, and I like all the Blue Lantern characters in Blackest Night / Brightest Day. Hope Corgi holds a very special place in my heart.

3. What TV show can you quote the most? Oh, definitely '03 Teen Titans. I've seen every single episode a bare minimum of 10 times, usually more like 25. And even more than that for the ones I really enjoy.

4. Do you put your left shoe on first or your right? It depends on how I'm sitting. Usually the right, but if my skirt has an... immodest... slit or something on that side, I'll put on the left foot first and use that shod foot as an anchor to pivot and contort myself so as to not show off my underwear. 8F

5. What’s your study routine? When I was in school? Reading! Honestly, mostly just reading. I tend to learn best linguistically and I've always had a knack for reading comprehension, so words on a page works fine for me. I do copy Main Idea things down in notebooks, and in my Latin classes I cross-referenced Wiktionary and the Latin-English Dictionary my mother gave me for a deeper dive, but mostly I just read the material and take notes. I reread my notes at the end of every class, and then maybe once a week or two, I'll reread my notes for that whole chapter. (Fun fact: I didn't really study in study hall. I mostly doodled or wrote fanfiction.)

6. One sound you can’t stand? The Spongebob Squarepants themesong. Listen, I'm not trying to be a hater, but it's just not my brand of humor, and as a child I was ridiculed and forced to watch it specifically because I told people I didn't want to watch it. So like, Bad Associations.

7. Hot showers or cold showers? Hot showers for warming up after winter days at the bus stops and ritual cleansing, cold water for hot summer days and quick showers for clarity rituals. Statistically I lean more towards cold.

8. Breakfast or no breakfast? Yeesh. So, my stomach condition tends to be worst in the mornings and right before bed, so I don't often eat breakfast. On days off I just sleep until lunch, and on work days, I'll bring a small piece of fruit, but there's only about a 35% chance I'll actually eat it. And even then, I won't usually eat it until 10 or later.

9. What age were you given “the talk?” Oh stars. Which talk? My mother's "suck it, don't fuck it" (so you don't get pregnant) talk? I think I was like 13, maybe 14 the first time. Or the "you have to sell your soul to capitalistic moneygrubbers to get by"? (Dad called it a "work ethic", but his point was basically "your life doesn't matter as much as your job.") I got that one around age 17, 18.

10. Ice in drinks or no ice? I love the cold! In an ideal situation: Yes please! Lots of ice! As much as possible! At restaurants, NOPE, because I've worked at enough restaurants to know how often they DON'T clean their ice machines. Also, I like getting More Drink. At home: Unfiltered tap water makes me feel ill, so I'll only get ice if I know it was made with filtered water. In the summers, I drink half of a water bottle, freeze it on its side, and fill the rest with the drink.

11. What’s one Halloween candy that you would hate getting as a child? Maybe Milk Duds and Dots, because I didn't like the way they stuck to my teeth?

12. Blue jeans, skinny jeans, leggings, shorts, or no pants at all? No pants at all! (When I'm around people who are comfy with it, I'm actually down for nudism...) But if I have any say in it, you'll only ever find me in a skirt. (My nickname in high school was "the [gender] who never wears pants". True story.)

13. What’s one slang term you refuse to use? The G slur, does that count?

14. Could you ever be a vegetarian? I was vegetarian for 7 years! Now I'm pescatarian, and going back to not eating fish would make me sad both physically and hedonistically, because fish is one of the only proteins I can reliably digest Without Any Risk, and also salmon is one of my favorite foods. I could do it, I have the willpower for it, and if I had the motivation, I'd lay off fish. But I wouldn't enjoy it quite as much.

15. Hardback, paperback, or e-books? Ooooh, this one always depends! For sturdiness, carrying it around for 2+ months apparently, and my very favorite books that I know I'll be rereading, I have to go hardback. I'm surprised my copy of Gideon the Ninth has survived several rereads so far, because it's the paperback. (I'm probably going to buy a hardback copy, because I'm probably going to keep rereading it and that poor book has already been through so much...) But for visits to the local book shop that doesn't often carry both, or buying out-of-print things I can't find in hardback, I'm likely to buy paperbacks because they don't usually have the same books hardbound.

16. Would you rather go through the drive thru or go inside? Not that I often go to drive-thru restaurants, but: I prefer to go inside; if I'm waiting I'd rather be standing and able to fidget/stim. Also I imagine when I start driving that at a drive-through I'll Get Distracted^tm and miss when the line moves. Not to mention, there's air conditioning in there!

17. Do you keep your car/room neat or messy? Iiiit's organized chaos. It often looks cluttered to others, but I know exactly where everything is. (I also have birds that have paper bedding and chinchillas that have paper bedding, dust baths, and hay, all of which scatters quite a bit between cleanings. But I do try to keep up on things.)

18. What’s the first app you check when you wake up? I don't use apps until after I get off work. =w= Even then, I mostly use my computer, because my phone's battery doesn't last 20 minutes when it's using WiFi. If websites count though: The first one I check is Tumblr, shortly followed by Discord.

19. If I looked in your wallet, what would I find? LOADS of things! Paper, specifically. Lots of paper. I don't have a wallet, I have a... large coin purse, I guess you'd call it? Pencil case maybe, but taller? Within it are a tiny pocket calendar, debit cards, gift cards, pens (ALWAYS pens), post-it notes from Assorted Thoughts I've had at work (including notes for stories, things I want to ask my mentor, grocery considerations, and playlist ideas), an expired passport and temps license, monthly bus pass, and assorted other papers like receipts or quotes.

20. Spicy food or non-spicy? Non-spicy, please! I actually enjoy jalapeno and can eat it with no problem, but my whole digestive system says "Fuck OFF" to anything with chili, for some reason. But hot!spicy things irritate my stomach, so I can't even eat much in the way of jalapeno. Other spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove are fine, and truly beloved! I also really like Indian spices, I think Eastern Indian is my favorite. Also note that most spicy foods are flavored with vinegar, which is a Hard Pass Every Time.

[siyanur]

so i binged white collar in 2 weeks and wanted to share my other gay thoughts/remarks:

–the day peter caught neal for the second time, he remembered the suit peter was wearing almost 4 years ago, the day he arrested neal for the first time. in another episode, neal pointed out that peter got a new suit. this guy has either plenty of suits or a few suits that look pretty much identical, either way it was not very heterosexual of neal to notice those things.

–the way they compliment each other when the other's not around is surreal you guys!

neal talking about peter:

"if anyone can catch ghovat, it's this guy. he's the best."

"the bureau's best agent's trying to find us. if anyone can find me, it's him."

"he's like the superman without powers."

(raising his glass) "to peter burke. the man who we want to be more like."

peter talking about neal:

"he was a great asset."

"couldn't have done it without neal."

–peter is always amazed by neal's cool tricks  ('guess the number' game, forging signatures etc) and the way he operates when they're on a mission. during one of their stakeouts, peter states that he's glad that neal's on their side.

–neal's eyes literally shined the moment the first time peter called him partner.

–remember how heartbroken neal was when peter said "you failed me"? he cared less about being in jail/being falsely incriminated and more about what peter thought of him.

–when peter confronted kate for the first time, he promised to get her what she wanted (the music box) in exchange for letting neal go and stop playing with his emotions and then kate asked him the million-dollar question, "why would you do that?" yes! why would he? neal's a criminal he locked up twice and they barely knew each other then. yet he said this: "because he's good. he's the smartest man i've ever met." after that, he asked her if she ever loved neal like it's any of his business and that's the moment we all found out that peter's not as straight as he seems.

–neal risked jail time and his life for peter so many times (changing the federal judge's incriminating tape with a blank one, falsifying evidence in order to get peter out of jail etc.) and he gave up the ring that's worth 2.5 million dollars to save him and he didn't even try to take credit for it.

–when neal casually helped peter with his cufflinks and his jacket while talking to him? the domesticity?

–the whole conversation between neal and scott (the young conman/robin hoodie) when neal tried to convince him to turn himself in. "this is not about me. this is about peter burke. he's the smartest man i've ever met. he caught me, he will catch you." "no one's that good." "but he is, scott."

–peter listened to neal's daily horoscope. peter. listened to. neal's daily horoscope. do they realize how gay this is? i don't believe in horoscopes but i know even if i did, i wouldn't care about my friend's or family member's horoscopes. but do you know whose horoscope i'd be more interested in? yes, my significant other's.

–the way they look at each other!!! there's just so much fondness, i can't handle it.

[acruska]

The huge problem I have with Ku'damm - a few words about depiction of rape

Since I’m living in Germany now, I’m trying to watch as much as possible in German. Shows, movies, romance, sci-fi, I watch it all. After all, that was how I learned most of my English.

I started watching a German show titled Ku’damm 56 on Netflix expecting it to be more or less a Dirty Dancing redo. A girl from a good family is fighting with a very proper mother and doing lots of improper dancing. That melody has been played before, but it's fun, so why not? Generally, I enjoy the show, watched all three seasons in less than a week, and cried like a baby throughout the last episode. I’ll probably share at some point all the things I love about it, but that’s a different post.

What I have a HUGE problem with, is the depiction of violence in the show, especially sexual violence and violence against women. Most of all, Ku'damm 56 is romanticizing rape. I believe that to be a pretty serious issue for an award-winning show produced by public TV.

This post will mention rape a lot and contain spoilers, so read at your own risk.

Ku'damm is narrated mostly from a female point of few, following the lives of three sisters, who are in dire need of a husband (at least according to their mother). The very premise of the show is that the 50's were a man's world where even a flawed husband was better than no husband. Because of the time the show is set in, violence against women and diffent kinds of discrimination are more or less accepted as period-appropriate and just the way things used to be. Hence, each of the husbands the three sisters end up marrying is occasionally violent, and only in one case it becomes a major plot-point. The protagonist, Monika Schöllack, is portrayed as a (growingly) strong woman, who is independent and breaks social norms and who would marry only for the deepest love. And yet her marriage is the most problematic of them all.

To put it plainly, her husband and love, Joachim Franck, is a rapist. He rapes Monika in the first half of the first episode and then victim-blames her for it, which leads to a suicide attempt (BTW, the writers also have an unhealthy relationship with suicide). And it's never mentioned afterwards and actually turns up to be the beginning of a romantic relationship that lasts throught the series and is shown as the only happy and loving marriage of a Schöllack sister.

No woman wants it. So? They all do it.

The rape scene looks like the writers were not quite certain what consitutes rape, so they pulled all the stops, just to be sure. Monika is sober and proper, says "no" loudly and clearly and tries to fight him. The situation is pretty straight-forward, but Joachim tells her that no woman wants it and all do it anyway - and procedes to do what he wants. He will later say that she asked for it, and her own mother will accept that explanation based on her earlier inappropriate behaviour.

Your daughter downright propositioned me.

In the later part of the episode we observe a wide collection of victimizing behaviors, including victim-blaming and forcing a clearly scared victim to go out with her rapist in order to orchestrate a marriage between them. Monika, who already has poor self-esteem and is bullied by her mother, attempts suicide. In the end, the traumatic experience starts her on the way towards self-acceptance and finding her inner strength.

Somehow in this turbulent aftermath it becomes clear that Joachim is going to be her love interest. He refuses to have sex with another woman (by leaving her alone in the middle of nowhere, like that's okay), admits that what happened with Monika may not have been consensual (by calling it a misunderstanding!) and all is forgiven.

About this story at the wedding... It is completely within the realm of the possiblity, that there really was a misunderstanding.

From then the show plays on a standard romantic sequence: they don't like each other - he thinks of her but she can't stand him - she starts to like him too - the are broken up by circumstances - they come together and live happily ever after (or not). This is a great recipe for a romantic story - when it's not based on sexual assault. What the creators completely miss is that Joachim raping Monika is not comparabale to Mr Darcy calling Elizabeth Bennet "barely tolerable". The gravity is just different.

The problem is, Joachim is written as a likable character. He's portrayed as a good and generous man, who tries to save the world by getting his company out of arms production (I'm looking at you, Tony). Not to mention the gift to humanity that is the lanky form and beautiful face of Sabin Tambrea.

I must admit I really like Joachim Franck of Ku'damm '59 and '63. I used to consider this whole rape sub-plot completely out-of-character for him, which is why I allowed myself to like him later on. After the third season, it all makes so much more sense. Still, that is not the last time he's violent and there is no excuse for rape.

I'd forgive those cheeckbones a lot, but maybe not rape.

According to Wikipedia, the editor-in-chief of the public TV station ZDF, which produced the show, stated: "With Ku’damm 56 we continue our tradition of narrating history in a contemporary way. […] Ku’damm 56 shows women on their path to self-determined sexuality and equal rights."

What the show really does is romanticize rape. In the character of Joachim Franck it gives us a somewhat remorseful rapist, who is otherwise a good guy. It expects us to like him and to believe in the love he shares with his victim and our protagonist, the strong girl who literally writes songs titled "Standing Tall" and "Strong Woman", as if the show was worried we wouldn't get it. The audience is asked to completely forget the rape and accept that the guilt and the fear is how a beautiful love is born.

What I find shocking is that audience did exactly that. Ku'damm '56 is critically acclaimed, it won German Television Award for best writing and was nominated for best miniseries. I found exactly one article and one tumblr post about the rape issue, and the latter was trying to justify rape romanticization with character development. Maybe there's more discussion on the German-language web (which would make sense, since I have no idea if Ku'damm is even available with English subtitles). I just wish we didn't need to have this kind of discussion about shows produced in the last decade, especially the ones centered on female-empowerement.

[buddha-in-disguise]

This is how it's done

Episode 5.15 at last.

While the emphasis has been on Nia's story in this episode, the synopsis made it clear Alex, Kelly and J'onn had a secondary storyline running as well. So again we were eager to watch knowing they were finally getting more than a token few minutes together.

Did it deliver?

Oh hell yes.

You just have to look on Twitter to see the praise being heaped on it by fans.

But first let's get the elephant in the room out of the way. William.

The opening sequence as Kara is fighting with Nia, and Nia has to be the one reminding Kara she has a date? Already covered by me and others, but to reiterate: that does not give a vibe of someone excited to be going on a first date. You can't even use the excuse of her mind was on the fight, because so was Nia's.

As to Kara at her apartment with Alex prior to the date?

Those words, "Cancel it for me."

Lets say (for arguments sake) it is nerves again speaking. Maybe it is, but that she is even having those thoughts? That she completely forgot about the 1st date, and needed reminding? If Kara can't get invested in the date, how are the audience expected to become invested?

As for the date itself. Kara arrives.... having been told by Alex to wear the blue top because .... well reasons .... and she is wearing the purple? So, not wanting to go with the best look then?

I didn't mind the date per se, although I did wonder if Kara was simply trying to not show pool skills, because I can't believe for a second, with Alex as a sister, and the control Kara now has on her powers (worry over lack of control would be the only other reason for her hesitation that I can think of), Kara hasn't been pulled into playing many times.

Did I get a date vibe? No. I felt more bonding yes (like why has it taken until now to even vaguely have that much), but date? Nope. Still not feeling it. If any of the above was a one off instance, you could shrug it off. But all of them? Sorry but as I say, if Kara isn't that invested in a first date, then we can't be expected to be as invested. However, that isn't to say that William annoyed me. In truth having him more on the sidelines was a relief as it finally allowed others to get some much needed screen time.

The Nia storyline.

This is obviously one extremely close to me, as my husband is transgender, and we have other family who are also transgender.

Nicole's input was definitely felt. Some of the lines she spoke were ones we have said ourselves almost word for word.

This is a topic that is one I've been extremely vocal about, and one in particular I have spoken about (in the William and Kara at CatCo scene) is the figures for transgender people killed in the last year alone in the USA, but more importantly that this number is likely not a true representation as many who die are misgendered after death.

It was so important to show just how bad for the transgender community it is. And no, it wouldn't necessarily be a fact Kara would know. Even those in the LGBTQ community aren't always aware of these figures. As for William being the one stating the figures back to Kara, again in the context I had no qualms about it. In fact having a CIS straight man write the piece and be a supportive ally is an important message in it's own right. I was worried that wouldn't come across, but I felt it did.

If ever there was a line that spoke volumes in this weeks Supergirl episode it was this:

"They want us to be invisible because of their own fears, they want to erase us so...... we need to shine even brighter." - Nia Nal

And shine Nicole Maines (and Roxy Wood, because the additional line about being a Black transgender woman - take my heart, stomp over it, then expect me to function), did. Both deserve so much praise on the way they delivered their performances.

I genuinely cried at some of this weeks episode, because the experiences have been ones we have faced as a transgender household. Being white does afford us a privilege that Black transgender people (especially the women) don't have. But as I say, it has been something I've been vocal about for a long time.

Lastly Kara and Nia on the balcony. Holy mother of god (or goddess), tears. Again. Nicole and Melissa once again were so good it felt like a punch to the gut. Kara wiping that tear off Nia's cheek. Big ugly sobbing from me. Gah! Just ....

Now Alex and Kelly. While I'm still craving a nice intimate atmosphere at home with them, having had so little of Dansen (and Kelly) it was a relief that for once Kelly wasn't given diminished screentime. Not only that, she was instrumental in helping Alex navigate through the VR world.

Alex having that PTSD flashback to being in the tank. Whoa, finally acknowledging it affected her and obviously still does. I loved how Kelly is so good at helping Alex maintain her equilibrium. You could tell it wasn't just because of her training or profession, but as a girlfriend who knows and understands how to communicate to Alex in that moment of stress, much like Alex was able to realise Malefic was manifesting as Kelly in the earlier part of the season, simply because she knew her girlfriend well enough.

Watching Alex train to get used to the Martian weapon, felt very reminiscent of S1 where Alex was training Kara early on. It was good to see her off balance for once in her training, as she has always shown a confidence in her ability until now. For those who complain she brought up wanting to be back at the DEO, as someone who has heavy military presence in our family (for at least 4 generations on my maternal side), I can safely say, going from military (and remember the DEO is recognised and spoken about in canon as being a military operation), and suddenly and unexpectedly thrown back into civilian life is one heck of an adjustment. It's an adjustment for most even when they know it's coming. To be so abrupt, so unexpected? Alex is going to want that structure back, and have that support around her. It is absolutely not unrealistic for her to feel this way or to talk about it. I would've been more surprised if she hadn't.

"And this is my gun."

Alex giving no crap. The whole rescue sequence was a joy to watch.

If I had a complaint, as I mentioned, I would've loved just a moment of real quiet intimacy between Kelly and Alex. We've barely seen anything of that sort. I hope we get something next episode (which also looks amazing from the trailer).

I could go through the episode and pick up so many times on how good it was. It was so much, I know I will have forgotten something I wanted to say. But I'm exhausted (almost no sleep will do that to you, damn being in the UK and these stupid o'clock viewing times), and it was so much to unpack.

Brainy, was barely in the episode but damn, so lovely (& heartbreaking) to see him give the information to the NCPD to help against transphobic attacks.

Onto a side plot, but finally we have more about Leviathan.

Leviathan have those bodies suspended.

What if William dies in 5.19 and becomes one of those suspended bodies for 5.20 or was supposed to, as Nicole mentioned on her Instagram story they still had scenes to film, and a couple were pretty amazing? With Staz back, would it have involved him, possibly as a sleeper agent? I've touted this idea before. While I would prefer that a MOC isn't cast into being a bad guy again, or killed off, I would more than happily see him simply go back to London and The Times. But I guess we wait to see what happens there.

But if, like Russell in 5a, he becomes an unwitting agent of Leviathan & a bad guy, cue fight scene, possibly in a VR setting? Maybe? Who knows.

Last but by no means least - they killed off Jeremiah. Since we're not entirely sure if Cadmus operated in the same way on Earth Prime as they did on Earth 38, we don't yet know the circumstances behind his death.

Will we get more explanation about it? Honestly I'm not overly bothered unless it helps serve a current storyline. Merely because episode numbers are running out, and it does at least bring us closure on his character one way or another. Something a lot of us have questioned for so long now.

As for complaints, the only ones expressing any real disappointment have been fans who have either regularly attacked other fans (especially those of in the SC or Dansen fandoms), or the outright transphobic users (I won't call them fans), who as the episode makes clear, are everywhere. The transphobes come out in force everytime with Nicole, so it isn't a surprise to see them again. As Nia says, it what transgender people face on a daily basis.

Plus with no Lena in the episode, it helps show that fans didn't need a Lena/Kara centric episode for this to garner such positive reactions, particularly from the LGBTQ fans. In some ways, as many have been saying (yes even SC fans), this Lena drama has long since gone by its sell by date and not having Lena once more stuck in her laboratory wasn't missed. And god, I say this as a huge Lena fan. I still want her on screen of course, but we need progression on what is happening with her. Both Lex and Lena have felt stale of late, and while I know it changes as we get into the last few episodes, I can truly say neither was missed this time. And before anyone jumps in, no this isn't bashing SC (I still ship both Dansen and SC, as well as Brainia), or saying SC shouldn't happen, or Lena is evil, or not needed. I don't think that at all. I merely am getting tired of a merry-go-round on Lena in her laboratory that we've had of late, & the only interaction has been with Lex. Time to break her out of that cell!

I don’t know what they were putting in the water in Vancouver when they did the Batwoman and Supergirl episodes this week, but they both had me simultaneously laughing & crying! It looked ugly for a minute there.

Both were outstanding episodes.

As much as I've had my criticism over some of this season, when Supergirl get it right like they did here, they soar! This was one of my top episodes for the entire series.

And despite all the news in the world right now, Supergirl trended on Twitter again.

Gif courtesy of @ Daily_danvers on Twitter.