#conclusion here is chemistry is important

[selinakyls]

Is it just me or are different skills needed to be a romance / romcom actor? Like being just a good actor just won’t cut it, there needs to be something more.

Cause like… I think Sidney is a better dramatic actor than Maude, but Maude gave more romcom in 10 seconds of that couch conversation than Sidney gave in that new trailer….

[canonicallyobserving911]

Buck & Eddie: Magic & Chemistry

The MAGIC & CHEMISTRY Eddie said he was looking for in 6x17, he already has it with Buck, therefore his current relationship status with M is UNDETERMINED!

In 6x17, Eddie spent a lot of time trying to find someone to date and all he ended up with was a dog bite on his hand.  He told the team he wants what he had when he met Shannon which was “magic”, according to him and when Chimney questioned his belief in it, Eddie said he believes in “chemistry”. 

Well, he already has both of those things with Buck.  Buck said Eddie sucks at dating but the truth is, he doesn’t when he dates Buck since he had a successful poker date with him in 6x13 (related post linked here).

Their conversation inside of the fire engine continued with Buck questioning Eddie about the age he was when him and Shannon started dating.  He asked, "Weren’t you guys like in the 12th grade when you met?" and Eddie explained they met when they were in 8th grade but they lost touch then reconnected in the 12th.  Everything they said pointed to the fact that Eddie’s looking for something he had in high school but no one, not even Bobby explained he won’t be able to recreate something he had when he was a child especially since the things he once liked may have changed.  Even though his found family didn’t explain it to him, the suit he wore in 6x13 and the shirt he wore in 6x18 explained it perfectly and they also alluded to the way his current relationship status with “M” is UNDETERMINED.  Before 7x1 aired, RG (the actor who plays Eddie) said in an interview “Eddie’s trying to find out who M is” but based on Eddie’s actions with Buck in the episode, it seems like he already knows👀.

Full disclosure: While live watching 6x18 last season, I literally changed the channel before the episode ended when I saw how the show was once again shoehorning more one-dimensional love interests in for both Buck and Eddie.  I didn’t rewatch the episode and I won’t because 6x13 was the finale for me but I had to access it so I could make GIFs for some other posts during the hiatus and when I did, I noticed Eddie’s shirt was navy-blue (this is the Buckley-Diaz Family color related post linked here) while he was talking on the phone to M and I got even more pissed off since it seemed like the show was trying to force the narrative by having Eddie build a family with her.  However, after reading RG’s interviews before 7x1 aired, then watching the episode and seeing how everything happened with Chris and his 3 parents, i.e., Eddie, Shannon and Buck (post linked here) and carefully listening to Buck and Eddie’s locker room conversation and M’s ONE LINE, I believe I’ve been able to put all the pieces of the puzzle together.  Doing so helped me to notice that TM (showrunner) included all the necessary pieces to show that Eddie’s relationship status with M, at the moment, is UNDETERMINED.

Also, to illustrate how I came to this conclusion, I have to give credit where it’s due because I didn’t learn about how plaid clothing works in TV and movie wardrobes until I watched an analysis video for the movie “Clueless” (not only is it one of my favorite movies, it’s also one of the most fashionable movies in history).  I watched it during the hiatus because there was nothing on TV and I listened as the creator explained how plaid is a pattern wardrobe stylists use to depict “High School” because it usually reminds people of Catholic school uniforms.

Why is the fact that Eddie wore a plaid suit jacket in 6x13 and a plaid shirt in 6x17 important?

It's important because it explains how he was feeling about dating at those specific points in time. Both his jacket in 6x13 and his shirt in 6x18 were plaid but there’s a major difference between them. 

In 6x13, his jacket was part of a full suit and it represented how he’s an adult man with mature tastes.  Reminder, he wasn’t nervous at all while he was with Buck and he was the one who had to tell Buck to “Relax”.  They were on a DATE which further proves he’s already found the MAGIC & CHEMISTRY he so desperately wants and craves and has been trying to recreate with all those excursions he took when he went to play golf and hike.  After 6x14 – 6x18 aired, I wondered why 6x13 aired when it did and I believe it has something to do with the way Eddie views what he’s looking for since he already has it.

But in 6x17, he wore a plaid shirt because it represented the “high school” mentality he had when he was 14 and 18 years old when he dated Shannon.  While it appears they were trying to show Eddie doing something for himself with him asking M out on a date, I think someone (*cough* Bobby *cough*) should have explained to Eddie that he was looking for something he had when he was young and it might not exist anymore in the way he remembers it.  He could have told him that when they were at the hardware store so Eddie would have REALIZED how he might want something different now that he’s in his 30s and he has a son.  Let’s be real here because sometimes things a person wanted when they were in middle and high school are no longer relevant.

To be clear, I didn’t like the way that scene played out and I also didn’t like how they had Eddie acting when he called M.  I’ve posted many times about how much I despised the way he was being portrayed as a “giggly teenager” in 6x18 and I still roll my eyes at it because it was not quintessentially Eddie.

Eddie’s always been sexy, suave, debonaire and cool under pressure especially when he’s with Buck.  He was also very suave while he was on the blind date with Vanessa in 6x14, so IMO, the show was contradicting itself when it showed Eddie be self-assured on his date with Buck in 6x13 and confident enough to tell Vanessa he wasn’t ready in 6x14 (even though he didn’t get the chance) only to show Eddie acting OOC in 6x18 when he asked M out on a date.

Even though, during their phone call, Eddie was acting like an awkward teenager, after watching 7x1, I realized M was and is doing the same thing Eddie did in 6x18 except hers was cringey and difficult to watch.  It’s kind of like before Eddie asked her out, she hadn’t been on a date before which is why she doesn’t know how to act.

In 7x1, she only had 5 or 6 seconds of on-screen time and she had only one line (more on this below) but she was acting just as “giggly” as Eddie had been when he asked her on a date in 6x18 and that shot of them standing together made them look like they were friends who were trying to see if there could be something more.

(Side note: M WASN'T SHOWN SITTING ON EDDIE’S COUCH but Chris’ date Penny was while they were playing video games.)

It appears the show was trying to illustrate how Eddie was trying to recreate the magic and chemistry he had when he was 14 years old again but we should all remember Eddie never had the chance to date in high school.  Reminder, his father told him to be the man of the house when he was 10 years old, he got yelled at when he was 12 for setting off the smoke alarm while he was trying to make eggs for the girls, he met Shannon at 14 and they lost touch but reconnected at 18 which was his senior year in high school.

Also, he admitted in 6x16 that after she found out she was pregnant, he suggested they get married and in 7x1, Buck reminded him that she was the first woman he ever had sex with.

In addition to the shirt Eddie was wearing in 6x18, M’s shirt was GRAY (related post linked here) and that’s important because she’s unsure of her role in Eddie’s life which is GREAT because they only agreed to go on a date. Reminder, in 6x14, Eddie told Pepa he couldn't get married which he automatically equated to dating so that speaks volumes too.  But also, the shirt she wore in 7x1 was hot pink and the color screamed young, immature and high school.  Reminder, in 6x5 when Eddie first saw her and when he saw her again in 6x17, her hair was curly and she wore it in a ponytail.  She looked young but it’s evident they straightened her hair in 7x1 and now she just looks like a more matured version of a teenager but still a high schooler, nonetheless.

Back to the regularly scheduled program…

Eddie wants to find what he had with Shannon again but he’s obviously looking through a pair of rose-colored glasses since their relationship was TOXIC AF.  All they did was argue and have sex but they didn’t know how to communicate and that could probably be contributed to how young they were when they were together.  Also, it appears neither of them had the best example of how a relationship was supposed to work since Ramon was hardly ever home and Eddie spent most of his time with controlling and overbearing Helena 🙄 (I’ll be so glad when he realizes his mother was a huge problem because I’ll never forget her comment, “Don’t drag him down with you Eddie”.  I mean who says that to their child?).  Also, IIRC, only Shannon’s mother was shown in Eddie’s flashbacks while he was in the well that showed Chris being born in 3x15.

Furthermore, Eddie’s reaction to Ana in 4x6 when he saw her again was like some kind of fairy tale with a princess (Cinderella or Snow White) being pursued by a prince charming while he was on bended knee which could mean that’s the way he thought it was supposed to happen.  Buck did the same thing with Natalia in 6x15 and even though he didn’t get down on one knee, he did treat her injured hand the same way Eddie treated Ana’s so there’s that.

Before proceeding, please remember 9-1-1 is very intentional with the words they include in their scripts so everything that's said by the characters likely means something.

Is Eddie doing it for Christopher or for himself?

Let’s find out shall we…

Both Shannon and Ana were focused on the fact that Eddie’s a good and great dad (Shannon’s words) and/or an amazing father (Ana’s words) and so far, M’s comment in 7x1 was focused solely on Chris and not Eddie but I believe it was done on purpose.

In 2x17, Shannon said, “You’re a good dad… you’re a great dad” after Eddie suggested they reconcile so they could be a family again.  But she announced she wasn’t pregnant and that it changed things for her even though he said it didn’t for him.  She went on to say that she wouldn’t do it again before she was ready because she was still learning how to be “someone’s mother” (not Chris’ mother but someone’s) and maybe someday she would learn how to be “someone’s wife” (not Eddie’s wife but someone’s) then she suggested they get a divorce.  Did she love Chris?  Yes!  And she wrote him a letter but she also included that she would love him from a distance because she didn’t think she was one of the things he needed in his life.

During their conversation, Eddie pointed to Chris and he used him as a shield for his heart the same way he always has.  He said, “Being his father taught me more about being a man than war ever did” and reminder, he was looking for a sign to be with her again and he thought her being pregnant was it but she wasn’t.

In 5x3, during their breakup, Ana said, “You’re an amazing father” but here’s another quick reminder, Eddie pointed to Chris instead of himself when he said, “Chris loves you so much”. 

He never said he loved her and his response was reminiscent of the conversation he had with Shannon especially since Eddie was looking for someone for Chris instead of for himself.  Before the blackout, the audience didn’t see how Ana ended up taking care of Chris but Eddie told Buck that she was a Godsend for taking care of him while he was working.  So the question is, did she volunteer to do it like M offered to chaperone Chris’ date in 7x1?  Reminder, Carla was back and she helped Buck take care of Chris after Eddie was shot in 4x14 so why was Ana there during the blackout instead of Chris’ home healthcare aide?  It’s obvious she still had her apartment and we know this because when Eddie went home, he told her “Maybe you should go home first!”

When Buck told Eddie to breakup with Ana, before he suggested it, Eddie was planning to “stick it out” but when Buck questioned him about it, he responded, “My kid loves her” and Buck asked, “Is that enough?”  (I always thought Buck was asking for himself and I think I might have been right.)  It was a valid question because earlier in the day, Eddie told the team that Buck takes Chris to the zoo all the time and that he had the whole place memorized.  Therefore, it appears the GA was the target for their comments then too since Ana was staying with Chris but no one ever said she did anything other than take care of him during the blackout.  Eddie never mentioned her taking Chris to the zoo and she used to be his school teacher so there’s that.

In 7x1, M said, “Your son has game” 🧐 and that was it.  That was her one line in the entire 5.689 seconds she was on screen and her comment pointed directly at Chris.  IMO, she said it to remind the audience how Eddie has to be with someone who wants to be there for both him and Chris and there’s only one person who fits that description and it’s Buck.  Also, she didn’t address Chris by his name and Eddie’s response to her was “Yeah, he has video game”.

Reminder, who exactly has Eddie played video games with and there was sexual tension beforehand?  BUCK!  And don’t forget, he asked Eddie, “You want to go for the title?”

Also, Buck has ALWAYS focused on Eddie and Chris.  Eddie and Buck discussed Chris’s skateboarding in 3x12, his two weeks at summer camp in 3x18, him running away to Buck’s loft in 4x8, Chris’ nightmares in 5x10 along with Chris’ homework in 5x14 and 6x13.  These are just a handful of the conversations they’ve had about their son.

Also, in 2x4, Buck told Maddie, “He’s a really great dad” but it’s important to note that Buck’s attention was on helping both Eddie and Chris.  He was trying to figure out how to help Eddie so Eddie could get the care he needed for Chris.

Buck’s different from the women Eddie was married to, dated or he’s currently trying to determine what they are because it’s not just Eddie since he has a son which means whoever he dates has to be aware of that fact and they have to be there for both Eddie and Chris.  The truth is Chris has viewed Buck to be one of his parents for years (related post linked here).

In 5x17, Ramon asked Eddie if he was working to be better “For Christopher?” but Eddie responded with a head shake of no, then replied, “For myself!” (related post linked here).  It appears Eddie’s finally trying to do something for himself but whatever he ends up doing it also has to include Chris.  Please don’t misunderstand me because I understand Eddie already knows this but the magic and chemistry he’s trying to recreate is obsolete since he was a literal teenager when he experienced it.  He’s a grown man now and the things he wants for himself are different.  He was the one who said he was 14 when he met Shannon and 18 when they reconnected but it appears the realization hasn’t registered for him yet.  He’s looking for a feeling he had when he was a child but it’s not the same thing as looking for something as an adult.

Shannon’s own admission in 2x17 illustrated how she didn’t want to be there for them since she wanted to leave.  Ana’s own admission illustrated how she was waiting for Eddie to love her too but she was willing to be a stepmom to Chris while she waited.  It’s still too early to tell what M is going to admit (if anything at all and hopefully she’ll be gone soon so it won’t matter) but based on the way Eddie responded to seeing the picture of Chris and Shannon being face down on his desk and then seeing it face up again after Chris read Shannon’s letter in 7x1, it appears he’ll be making a decision about M really soon because he’s not going to get involved with anyone else he’s not planning to have a future with because if he does and they leave, it will prove Chris’ ideology about women always leaving.  Reminder, in 4x8, Buck told Chris “I’m not going anywhere” and he hasn’t.

Buck

Make no mistake, Eddie already has MAGIC, CHEMISTRY, SEXUAL TENSION and everything else with Buck.  But the question is, does he know it?  I think he does especially since he nodded his head during the kitchen scene like he was down for whatever Buck was offering and I think they may have done more than play video games that night (related post linked here).

In 7x1, Eddie’s face after Buck said he broke up with Natalia was priceless.  It kind of looked like he’d been waiting for it to happen and his facial expression was one of pure unadulterated smugness filled with both joy and glee.  It looked like he wanted to say, “Ahh $hit, finally I can get my boyfriend back.”

Reminder, EDDIE NEVER SAID HE’S DATING M!  Therefore, I don’t believe Eddie and M are dating and if they are, I don’t think it’s serious.  During their conversation in the locker room, Buck assumed he was and he was the one who said it but Eddie didn’t respond except for to suggest Buck take Natalia with him for go karting.

Here’s their conversation in text.

Buck: “Uh hey so do you have any plans for the weekend?  I was thinking about go karting, there’s a place out in the desert… supposed to be a blast.”

Eddie: “Can’t this weekend.  I got a big date.  First date.”

Buck: “Uh, I thought everything was going great with Marisol.”

Eddie:  “It’s not my date, it’s Christopher’s.”

Buck:  “Oh no.”

Eddie:  “He invited this girl from his math class, Penny over on Saturday and Marisol agreed to help me chaperone.”

Buck:  “I see so it’s actually your date.”

Eddie: 👀 (no response to Buck’s comment and he didn’t say they were dating)  “Why don’t you invite Natalia go karting, I’m sure she’d love it.”

Buck: “We uh… we broke up.”

Eddie: 🤪😜🙃😁😊💕

Eddie did not respond to Buck’s comment about it actually being Eddie’s date and Eddie was so slick with his non response that Buck fell right into it and revealed they broke up.  Reminder, Eddie didn’t ask Buck to talk to Chris until AFTER Buck admitted he was single.  Additionally, Eddie called Buck a “reformed player” which means Buck’s told him he’s no longer Buck 1.0, 2.0 or 3.0 or whatever upgrade of himself he’s up to now.  Furthermore, Eddie said M agreed to chaperone Chris’ first date, therefore he didn’t ask her to do it.  Buck also said he thought things were going great with M and it was very reminiscent of the way he said he thought things were going great with Ana in 5x2.

The look on Eddie’s face illustrated how he was waiting for Buck to end his relationship with Natalia and now that he has, Eddie might remember the words he told Chimney in 3x13, “Tomorrow is not promised” and he may finally tell Buck that he loves him.  But also, don’t forget, Eddie was hurt by that “SHE SEES ME” 🙄 raggedy @ss comment Buck made in 6x15 and I still hope it’ll resurface before they confess their love because that cut him deep, especially since Eddie’s always SEEN him and he still does.

The point of this post is that it's evident Eddie’s been hanging out with M but based on the words he used during his conversation with Buck and RG’s comments during his interviews about Eddie, it appears they’re in an undetermined status of a friendship, relationship or whatever.  After reading RG’s interviews, based solely on the things he said in them, I reexamined Eddie’s idea of M and I posted that he didn’t believe things would get too serious with her (related post linked here) and it appears I may have been correct.  Since Buck was being SEEN by someone he had just met, it seems Eddie went looking for a friend to hang out and have fun with and Pepa’s response to him in 6x14 about him spending time on Saturdays having a Cafecito along with going antiquing (not too sure about that one but ok) adds further credence to whatever he has with M because he’s supposed to be having fun and I think that’s what they’re doing.  RG said Eddie’s instincts have always been to enter a monogamous relationship but right now he’s taking calculated steps.  Also, he questioned if Chris is happy for Eddie to be dating M or if he’s actually ok with it.  So apparently, the audience will have to wait and see where it goes.

IMO, M is there to point the GA towards Buck’s importance in Eddie’s and Chris’ lives.  How will she do that?  When the GA sees her, they should ask themselves, why Eddie goes to Buck for coparenting help instead of to the woman he’s dating/hanging out with.  It should also cause them to take a closer look at his friendship with her and figure out, "Oh, it’s not serious because if it was, he would ask her for assistance".

Will Eddie end whatever he’s doing with M before 7x5 airs?  HOPEFULLY, he will because he already has magic and chemistry with Buck but only the showrunner, writers and producers know the answer to that question.

[centrally-unplanned]

Since I am discussing anime academia today, I was reading another paper that was equally frustrating, along a different axis:

“Do female anime fans exist?” The impact of women-exclusionary discourses on rec.arts.anime

This as a premise is a good concept; someone mining the 90's Usenet anime communities for how the fandom saw female fans back then (the article title is quoting one such thread). So of course, the opening line of this article about the anime fandom in the 90's is....sigh....a reference to Donald Trump:

Commenting on the 2016 American presidential elections, multiple news reporters noted that a relationship could be found between Donald Trump supporters and online anime fans

It of course goes on to discuss Gamergate, 8chan, online right-wing radicalization, references to the "Fascist" themes of Attack on Titan, and on and on. The obvious problem with this is that it is irrelevant; the "methodology" section involves this aside about how they pulled this data from Google Archives but Google is an advertising firm and not a replacement for a real archive and we need to Fight The System and buddy my dude that is not germane to your sample size!!! But more importantly, it is backwards. I don't need to explain the argument here in detail; the article is positing a throughline from 90's anime discourse to modern right-wing internet politics through a sort of 'lock-in' effect of built culture norms around misogyny. Which is fine, you can make that argument - but why is all this future stuff in the first section? You haven't really presented the argument yet! This isn't a book, its not the intro chapter - literally 30% of the text of this article is stating a conclusion upfront, justified not through the text itself but citations to other articles about its truth.

This is something media studies pulled from traditional science - traditional science states "established facts" up front that the paper is building on. But that is because - a thousand caveats aside - in chemistry those facts are....facts. They may be wrong facts, but they can, ostensibly, be objective descriptors. This paper cites "anime is still synonymous with far-right ideologies of white and male supremacy, and events of anti-Blackness" like its citing the covalent bond count of carbon. That is not and never will be a fact one can cite, that is an argument; and its not one that is important for understanding this analysis of Usenet groups. This structure is pulled from other sciences, but it flourishes because it lets you pad the citation count of your peers. Its embarrassing how often you can skip the first 1/3rd of a paper in this field - really the worst possible thing to copy from economics (ding!)

This paper also does the insane thing of jumping between citations from 1992 and events in the 2010's like anime culture is continuous between those time periods. Its an extremely bold claim it just does in the background... but lets set that aside.

This hyper-politicization & hyper-theorizing leads to the second issue of extreme under-analysis. This is the actual value-add of this paper:

From this search, I was able to find the discussion threads “How many females read r.a.a.?” (135 messages; opened on July 13, 1993), “Question: Girls on r.a.a?” (23 messages; opened on February 25, 1994), “Female Otakus” (221 messages; opened on June 25, 1994), “Women watching anime” (72 messages; opened on October 4, 1994), and “Female fans - Do they exist?” (61 messages; opened on October 26, 1995). While these discussions may seem like they were spaces for marginalized users to discuss their experiences, they were often started and overwhelmingly occupied by identified male users. In total, I extracted 252 messages from 1992 to 1996 that were relevant to the gendering of anime fandom, and among those, I classified them as 7 kinds of negative networking discursive practices: (e.g. Table 1. Negative networking practices on rec.arts.anime).

252 messages, five threads - later on it will name other threads, so its more than this, but you get it. It has a bunch of data. And from that data, the article quotes...less than half a dozen examples. There are no quantitative metrics, no threads are presented or discussed in detail from this data set. Some other event is discussed in detail, but again it quotes essentially one person once. The provided "Table 1", the only Table, is a list of the author's categorizations of the data; the data itself is not present. Its file format is a CSV, presumably to mock me for clicking it.

There is, from top to bottom, a complete lack of engagement with the data in question. This would fail an intro anthropology seminar; the conclusion is simply presumed from 1% of the sample size while the rest of the messages are left on read. I just don't think there is any value in that, a handful of messages from 1996 divorced from their context and stapled onto modern politics as a wrap-up. What did the people on this Usenet value? How did they think of women collectively? As anime fans, as outsiders, as romantic partners, as friends? What subfactions existed? Questions like those would presumably be the point of this investigation, but they are treated as distractions.

And this article was, in anime academic circles, a pretty well-trumpeted one. I'm not cherry-picking a bad one here, it was the "hot paper" of the month when it came out. Its just that the standards can be so low, its a field that simply lacks rigor. Which doesn't stop a ton of great work from being done btw, that isn't my point at all. My point is that the great work is not selected for; it goes unrewarded, bogged down by academic standards divorced from discovering real insights.

(I do not think the question "why are they misogynist" ever crossed the author's mind. That should be your literal thesis, and its a ghost. Just ugh.)

[mrs-monaghan]

hi shazzz, i hope u are doing well!!

i have a question to you... why do u think yoongi is dating el captxin? i heard some things, but one of them is that el captxin said he only likes girls on his ig once, when rumours about them were loud

No he didn't say that. And no he didn't say being shipped with Suga makes him uncomfortable. It's people making shit up again like always.

Okay guys. I promised. Guess its time. I will try to gather as much as I can. Can't promise I'll get everything thou 🤭 but I'll try 😁

Real name: Jang Yi-Jeong. Producer name: also on his IG elxcapitxn. But since I cannot spell that from memory I shall be calling him el captain or the captain 😁😁😁 let's get into it.

They do not have a ship name as far as I know so my friends and i go back and forth between Yingi and capitungi 🤷🏽‍♀️

First and most importantly and most suspicious is one important question we have to answer. Who are 2 of Suga's favourite members? That's right; Jimin and Jhope. And this here is the reason why we know Suga has a type 😏 Because the captain is basically Jhope and Jimin, combined. U don't believe me?

Say whaaaaaaaaaaat?

Say what whaaaaaaat????

I'm not saying he's identical to Hopemin. I'm just saying the captain looks like them. Like alot. These 2 photos especially remind me of Jimin.

And this one, well, this one is basically if Jihope had a baby

Yeah... I know. Let's just let that sink in for a second. Can someone check on JK real quick, and ask how he feels about this? Coz its nuts! Suga really said if it can't have them I'm gonna have the next best thing 🤭🤭🤭

Mkay.... now that the most sus thing has been established, let's get into the dots people have been connecting. Apart from their incredible chemistry, of course.

So, they've known eo for 6 years

Here is el captain in 2016 if anyone is curious how he looked like.

It's the way Suga looks at the captain.

The documentary, the dinner scene, they were kind of in their own world

It's the way the captain looks at Suga too

It's Suga's reaction when the captain yelled "Min yoongi I love you!"

That was way too cute 🥺🥺🥺🥺

Them at the beach in Thailand together when Suga was on tour.

Yoonminers tried to say the person with stripped shorts was Jimin but nah. The guy in all black is the captain.

Speaking of holidays. I don't recall exactly why but at the time people had reasons to believe Suga was here too and that he was most prolly the one who took the pic.

It's the way the captain's IG is full of Suga. 🥰 He even posted this himself.

Even if its mostly music. There's alot of Suga on his account. 🤭🤭

Speaking of IG posts, out of all Jimin posts, this is the only post the captain has liked

Your bias is showing captain!!!! 🤭🤭🤭

@magicshop-pjm1 pointed out something quite funny which is; el captain didn't like the Yoonmin Suchwita one, didn't like this photo from the concert he was at which were posted around the same time as the one above

Generally just hasn't liked any other Yoonmin posts either which, you know... I'm just putting that out there for no reason whatsoever...

Basically they spend ALOT of time together. Like alot, alot. Especially during Dday.

They spent days and nights together working on the album. Supportive bf captain was also behind the scenes when Suga was at Jimmy Fallon.

If u ask me that seems unnecessary unless they are really close. Clearly what they got isn't limited to the studio.

Here's a thread about them from 2016 till now.

In conclusion: ig we now know who was in this room

[controversial-blorbo-bracket]

Controversial Character Tournament Round 2: Blaine Anderson from Glee vs Barok Van Zieks from The Great Ace Attorney

(remember that these characters are fictional and your fellow tumblr users are real. i will block you if you harass others in the notes, please consider sending your unhinged harassment to my inbox instead)

Propaganda under the cut, may contain spoilers:

Blaine Anderson:

LOVE: - "you know that post that's like "fandom will call a character evil and immature and then the character is just 15 yo" because that's what happens with blaine. he's just a sweet but socially inept kid with a lot of insecurities who's trying his best. compared to most glee characters he hasn't done anything wrong in his life. and yes he cheated on his boyfriend that one time, but he was super depressed afterwards (also this is glee literally every character has cheated and none have suffered as most as blaine because of it). in conclusion he's just a silly goose. my little princess <3"

HATE: (tumblr will not let me format this one bc its too long)

"A lot of people say he's the male Rachel Berry, and while I think that is absolutely a true statement, I actually don't mind his personality all that much. Literally everyone in Glee has a personality that ranges from inconsistent to downright horrendeus, so instead of talking about what he's like, here's some things he canonically does (buckle up, this'll be long): In season 2, when we first meet him, he's the leader of his school's showchoir. (redflag no.1/j) This gives him the freedom and authoritity to do a lot of stuff- not all bad, but he does serenade a closeted guy he doesn't know all that well, who works in costumer service AT HIS WORKPLACE, with a song about sex toys. (The guy in question ends up getting fired of course). He also gives some pretty hypocritical advice to his love interest, Kurt, about how he should try to blend in (hypocritical, cuz Blaine does the opposite and he's thriving under the attention), and he asks some insesitive questions, but those are all pretty excusable, or at least standard for Glee. In s3, him and Kurt are boyfriends, and he transitions school for him, which we could absolutely count as a decent thing, however it all kinda sours when he gets the part of Tony in the school's production of West side story. Why is this important? Kurt is a senior, and the performing arts university he's applying for is really competitive, so he needs all the extra curriculars and theatre experiance he can get. He asks Blaine to not aidition for Tony- which he agrees to- than promptly goes against that by singing one of Tony's songs at audition. He then gets offfered the role, doesn't turn it down, tells Kurt he should be happy for him, and honestly, BY GLEE STANDARDS, this is also pretty chill. Meanwhile: enter Sebastian Smythe, another contraversial character, who's now the new captain of Blaine's former showchoir, and who decides that either 1. Blaine is hot 2. Gonna use Blaine as an informat (His reasons are unclear tbh) Either way, he starts flirting with Blaine, who does end up rejecting his advances and telling him he's taken (though much later than it's probably ethical, idk tho, I'm aro). He (Blaine) really enjoys the attention though, so they end up keeping in touch. (Important for later.) Back to our main plot though; Blaime doesn't have sexual chemistry with his co-star, so the director tells him to lose his virginity (yes, you heared that right, it is fucked up). So he tries to sleep with Kurt, who of course, doesn't know that his boyfriend's sudden interest in him is due to directoral instructions. And then probably the most contraversial Blaine scene happens- see, Blaine, Kurt, and Sebastian (who Kurt hates with passion) end up going to this gaybar. Blaime gets drunk (though he only drinks one beer on screen, so we don't exactly know how drunk), and tries to sleep with Kurt in the parking lot. Kurt is visibly upset, and tells him no multiple times. Blaime doesn't oblige, and Kurt ends up shouting at him, which Blaine...doesn't take well, and blames Kurt, then leaves by foot. (They end up having sex by the end of this episode btw. No, Kurt still doesn't know about the directoral instructions. Whether he does it out of love or fear that Blaine will leave him is unclear) So we already know these two are not very good at boundries and communication, but the writers say they're "soulmates" so apperantly it's okay? Anyway, this all culminates in cheating incident no.1, where Kurt meets a guy whom he shares similar interests with, and who gives him some very cheesy compliements. They exchange numbers, and text a lot. Blaine doesn't like this. He checks their texts in secret, and then sings a song in front of the entire Glee club about how he's being cheated on, to humiliate Kurt.

Kurt insists it's not cheating, giving the example that Blaine's doing the same/used ro do the same with Sebastian. Blaine says "that's different" and they leave it at that. Kurt apologises via song. S4- Kurt moves to New York. Has to work a lot, since rebt is high, and also gets an internship at vague, so he's quite busy. Blaine feels ignored, so he cheats on him with some guy we only see the facebook profile of. They break up. S5- Blaine has a crush in this other guy, Sam. (He's been trying to get Kurt back, so him moving on is a big deal). Except gay marrige gets legalized, and Blaine decides to propose to Kurt. So he gets back together with him, then bot a week later he arranges a huge public proposal where it'd honestly just be plain emberassing to say no, but dontcha worry, because Kurt accepts. They move to New York together. Blaine becomes insecure, because Kurt gets ripped thanks to his fencing lessons, meanwhile he lrts go of himself a bit, enjoying all the fine food New York has to offer. His reaction to this is to try manipulating/tricking Kurt into eating copious amounts of food too. (To be fair, Kurt's reaction to the situation isn't perfect either, but this is not about him, their actions can co-exist without one of them necessarily having to be "the right one") S6- Kurt breaks up with Blaine. Blaine ends up going back to Ohio, and dating the guy who bullied, non-consensually kissed, than threatened to kill Kurt. (The guy did have a redemption arc, but I still dunno how to feel) You might be wondering- "wow, this was so lpng and extensive", and you'd be right but also this was mostly romantic relationship centric. There's also a lot of stuff Blaine says to his friends that make me question my sanity, but this is Glee, so that's every character in basically every episode. What makes me hate Blaine isn't even JUST all this- it's the fact that in universe, he almost never gets called-out, people take his side, it's as if the writers are condoning his actions, and I Don't Like That. I'm all for liking morally grey, or even morally dispicable characters, as long as their actions don't get excused. Hell, I started out just mildly disliking Blaine, but a lot of people paint him as innocent and pure, and that didn't feel right. Then I was ready to like him BECUASE of his questionable morality- but turns out, the guy doean't have much else going on besides this. His personality is almost the same as Rachel, except Rachel's more...full? If that makes sense? Blaine is just...bland. And inconsistent, and boring, and I just Do Not Like Him At All."

Baron Van Zieks:

LOVE: - "man's 6'4", british, looks like a vampire, took a mental health break for 5 years thanks to the dead bodies that cropped up after he lost in court, and is uhhhhhh kinda racist which is a key part of his character. the explanation for it is divisive but he does grow as a character eventually?? i think he's fun. there's a bonus case exclusive to the 3DS version of the games where he mentions he was almost poisoned in one of the first cases he ever handled. he objects with his leg. he brings wine into court but rarely drinks it. he has bats in his office. we have no idea where the scar on his face came from. his voice actor did a subway commercial. i think he wants to believe he is the sane one in the courtroom but that title belongs to the 16 year old judicial assistant for the defense." - "I love to hate him tbh!!! He's a complex interesting character tied up in things outside of his control and being used by the antagonist to hurt people, isolated due to his grief and rumors from the public. He also sucks SO fucking bad and I want to punch him. Lovingly. But I love him I promise."

[kandisheek]

FIC REC WEEK 1 – STONY FAVORITES

When I Think (Oh, it Terrifies Me) by celli

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: E Words: 8,643 Tags: Telepathy, First Time, Tony Hates Magic

Summary: Look, some mornings you wake up and little green men are invading New York City; some mornings you wake up and you can hear Captain America's voice in your head. Tony has been an Avenger long enough that he saves his freakout for important things.

Reasons why I love it: The humor in this is superb, it makes me laugh every time. Seeing how they care for one another even before they realize they want more is really, really sweet. And the conclusion in the end is brilliant in concept alone, but also so goddamn funny. Also, drunk-by-extension-Steve is a delight, always and forever.

I Hate You: A Love Story by FestiveFerret

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: E Words: 14,558 Tags: College AU, Booty Calls, Enemies to Friends to Lovers

Summary: Tony had honestly been stunned that his "Wanna fuck?" line had actually worked, but tasting Steve's desperation on his tongue now, it made a bit more sense. All Tony wanted was a handful of that muscular ass and a look at the abs he'd seen a hint of under Steve's painted-on shirt.

Reasons why I love it: Ferret never misses, and this fic is exhibit 399 of proof of that. I love the way Tony and Steve's relationship develops from begrudgingly in lust to actually caring for one another. And to top off a wonderful story, the smut is also superb. I've probably read this fic more than 30 times, but I always come back to read it again. It's definitely one of my comfort fics.

Exact Measurements Required by trilliath

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: E Words: 13,517 Tags: Wardrobe Malfunctions, Humor, Crack Treated Seriously

Summary: That time S.H.I.E.L.D. quartermasters accidentally put Steve's balls in a vise and it goes exactly as well as you'd expect it to. Tony promptly offers to help. Because he's helpful like that. Obviously.

Reasons why I love it: One of my favorite Stony fics of all time. Not only is it scorchingly hot, but the way trilliath took this cracky concept and turned it into such a lovely story is absolutely amazing. Tony is hilarious in this, and Steve's inner monologue just takes the cake. Definitely read this, if you haven't already!

The Highest Form of Friendship by ChibiSquirt

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: E Words: 5,661 Tags: Getting Together, Humor, Sex on a Car

Summary: “Imagine if I’d met you back in my hellion days,” Tony says, and Steve groans out loud. There’s a mental image, here. Well, Steve’s a visual kind of guy; mental images are how he operates. The mental image is of a baby Tony - okay, not baby; Heyday Tony, let’s call him - and Heyday Tony has dark eyes and a wide mouth, and the little pin-scratch frown that Nowadays Tony wears all the time these days has been magically retrotransformed into a confident smirk. Heyday Tony has the same lean strength that Nowadays Tony has, but he looks taller because he bears himself more aggressively, more straight-backed. Heyday Tony has poofy hair and a tendency to look all the way down, and all the way back up, at a person - regardless of gender - before meeting their eyes. Steve knows: he’s seen the videos. Has maybe studied the videos. Has maybe spent more time on that activity than strictly appropriate... “Can we not?” he pleads. “It didn’t happen that way, and it did happen this way, and that’s how it is.”

Reasons why I love it: Their chemistry in this one is just off the charts. ChibiSquirt's characterizations never miss, but in this one especially they completely knocked it out of the park. The fic is equal parts scorchingly hot and hilarious, so definitely give it a read, if you haven't already.

Unfurl Your Gown by theladyingrey42

Pairing: Steve/Tony, past Steve/Bucky Rating: E Words: 8,541 Tags: Crossdressing, Denial, Barebacking

Summary: "I feel ridiculous." Steve scowls at his drink and pretends he's not shifting just to feel the skirt against his thighs.

Reasons why I love it: I don't know why I have a huge thing for Steve struggling-with-gender-concepts Rogers, but I do. And this fic scratches that itch in the most satisfying way. It's heartbreaking in one moment, hot as hell the next, and finishes off with a conclusion that makes my heart melt every time. Tony is so lovely in this, supporting Steve all the way, and Steve's inner conflict is gloriously written. I can't recommend it highly enough.

[utilitycaster]

A few recent books I've read and disliked led me to this conclusion but it feels like there's been this switch over time with queer stories. It used to be that queer relationships (or queerness in general) had to be Show Don't Tell because, well, you could not make them textual! So you get, for example, shows like Legend of Korra, or Xena: Warrior Princess, where you have women who are clearly devoted to each other to a degree that goes beyond mere friendship, and a ton of effort and care is put into that depiction because they can't actually be shown in an explicitly stated relationship. And as a result, these relationships, while they never receive confirmation in the show, are rich and complex.

Now not only is it much easier to make explicitly queer stories outside of niche areas; it's even popular (and, cynically, a marketing tactic). The problem is I've run into a bunch of stories that are marketed very clearly as A Queer Story that forget to like...be a story, or show me why these characters should be in a relationship. It's All Tell No Show: I'm told that the characters are gay and are in a relationship, but no work is done to actually explain why I should care about this beyond "well they are gay and in a gay relationship."

I'm not going to rehash what I discussed here, but Baru Cormorant is an example of those books where I'm given no real reason to care. The protagonist is a lesbian but the prose reads like a phone book. On the other hand, while Starless has a queer disabled woman as a one of the two protagonists, it also provides her with traits other than "queer, disabled, woman, important" and grants her a rich interiority (even though the story is told entirely from the first person point of view of the other protagonist.)

And the thing about the good examples in that link (Starless, Teixcalaan): they show and tell. It's both explicit that these are queer stories with a canon romantic relationship, but the little moments that make up the tapestry of a relationship are given the time that moments in a subtextual - or frankly, even a queerbaiting work are. That's the real tragedy; for queerbaiting to work, you have to actually make the relationship compelling enough for people follow it until you pull the rug out from under them; whereas you can slap a cold fish kiss on a cold fish queer relationship and technically you are Better because it was Explicit Representation even though everything about it was poorly constructed. I would rather have an lazy and shoddy explicit relationship than queerbait just on principle; but honestly I'd rather have a good story that does neither.

One of my more cynical interpretations of this is that writers are either intentionally or inadvertently taking advantage of the legacy of the Show Don't Tell era of queer coding to place the burden of those small moments on the audience. They know that people looking for queer relationships in fiction are used to having to dig for moments and subtext; but instead of providing that subtext, they set up the clunky text and assume the subtext to support it will emerge from the fandom. Or perhaps, more generously, especially for younger queer writers, they are just so used to having to provide that work themselves that they forget they are doing the writing and are able to (and should) layer subtext and text together and weave something actually good.

Either way, it's this that's led to the "Lesbian necromancers in space, need I say more"* era of recommendations, taglines, and writing, in which explicit representation is, if not plentiful, at least available; but a worrying amount of it forgets to actually write realized characters or a relationship with chemistry or a plot that makes sense.

I should also note: there's obviously a TON of straight romances and books that range from mediocre to abominable. I am under no circumstances arguing that "gayboring" media shouldn't exist. But while I don't think queer stories should be held to a higher standard, I don't think I should be obligated to settle for a lower standard either simply because it's gay. I know it's fraught, in that we're at risk of publishers and producers taking away the message "people hate this because it's gay" rather than "people hate this because it's poorly developed," but like...at the very least, could we recommend things in terms of "this is a great book that has a wonderful queer romance" and "this show is gay but it is also deeply mediocre, and if it weren't gay I wouldn't recommend it at all; do what you will with this information."

*I should note: I happen to like The Locked Tomb (of Lesbian Necromancers in Space fame) a lot! I know it's not for everyone; I know it can feel very gimmicky at times. But no matter how you feel, that tagline is DIRE and does a miserable job of representing the books. Like, that premise could suck, actually (and plenty of people find it does) if you're not sold on the mere fact that it's got lesbians, necromancy, or space in it. Worth noting that neither Starless nor the Teixcalaan books were heavily marketed as Queer Romance Fantasy/SF even though both very much are, which does further make me think this is a case of people writing good books that are queer, vs. people writing books with the intention to be on some New Queer SF list or, god forbid, Booktok.

[pegasussomnus]

Bernard was NOT a close friend of Tim.

So ever since Bernard was brought back, there seems to be this notion going around that he was a super close friend of Tim or something. The writing keeps selling us this narrative and many of Bernard's "fans" seem to believe it as well. This write up will explain how this isn't true at all. Let's look at Bernard's appearances shall we?

First meeting: People like to cite Bernard's first meeting with Tim as "proof" of chemistry between him and Tim or Tim not giving off not straight vibes cuz of this:

But they seem to ignore Tim thinking this instantly afterwards:

In other words Bernard did not make a good first impression on Tim and Tim clearly found him annoying/grating to be around and isn't too fond of him. You can see Tim starting to come this conclusion earlier when he says "I can see that", "Uh I think I'll stick with this schedule" and shooting down Bernard's attempt to call him Timmy. Tim was already starting to think he was sus. Even before these moments Tim is just doing basic stuff such as looking at him with a neutral look on his face, and barely saying anything to him with "is that important" and "what are you". These are just basic interactions. The idea there was any 'chemistry' here or Tim being attracted to Bermard let alone really liking him is just not true.

2. Tim saying he thinks he's going to end up liking Bernard.

This panel is often the most popular panel timber/bernard fans use to "prove" Tim liking Bernard and often they stop there in their past "evidence"

The context was this:

So tldr Tim embarrassed Bernard in front of Darla by calling his bluff on why he won't ask her out as part of a guy think of embarrasing their friends, and Bernard's reaction of 'threatening' Tim amused Tim

However this doesn't really prove they were close. Tim says he "THINKS" he's going to end up liking him not that he actually does, which reads more as deciding to give Bernard a chance rather than making the decision to like him fully. This makes sense given their initial meeting of Bernard not making a good first impression, Tim at this point hasn't known him for too long like a week, and this moment while funny isn't really a super bonding moment to establish a close friendship as at best it shows Bernard can take a hazing so he's not so bad but not enough to fully settle on a friendship. Tim mentioning him to Steph doesn't prove closeness for the reasons I said above and seems more about talking about a funny thing in his life rather than telling her about his new so-called bestie, which timber/bernard fans love to claim (notice how he doesn't really talk about Bernard as a person just the event surrounding it). Not to mention he also mentions Darla here as well and calls her gorgeous, so I guess by that logic she was a super close to Tim right?

Anyway this moment shows at best Tim is willing to give him a shot and re-change his intial view on him but trying to say anything more is pretty weak. Let's see what comes next (for the record this is the NCIEST thing Tim says about him)

3. Bernard teasing Tim about not being straight

So timber/bernard fans love to use this panel as proof of Bernard knowing Tim wasn't straight and they had some closeness

However if you pay attention you see it doesn't prove or show anything. Bernard's over the top and dramatic language clearly shows he's just messing with Tim. Not to mention his reasons for doing so are completely wrong. He saying it based on the notion that Tim is pursuing the most popular girl in Darla and doubts about Stephanie due to not meeting her. However as we know Tim was in a relationship with Stephanie and that is why he wasn't pursuing Darla. So if Bernard thought Tim wasn't straight due to this, he is completely off base. Not to mention this scene isn't Bernard trying to be a 'safe space' for Tim but like I said clearly just teasing him and at most going 'please tell me, I wanna know, I promise I won't laugh, tell me, tell me" where someone wants to know something just for the sake of their own curiosity than being a secret keeper. But again it was just teasing. Let's also note Tim didn't really seem too amused by by the teasing as his facial expressions show slight annoyance and brushing it off.

4. Bernard and Dana

Now this is something timber/bernard fans often ignore as it pretty much is the start of the tearing down of bernard being a close friend of Tim

Yeah. I mean timber/bernard fans try to sugarcoat thinks by focusing on the fact bernard was invited to Tim's house in the first place. However they seem to ignore the fact that the main focus is on bernard making rude comments about Dana that clearly upset Tim instead of a main focus showing their "friendship". Ignoring this to focus on the background fact of bernard being there is disingenous. Not to mention Tim's discomfort isn't really played for laughs like you'd normally expect such as for example him being embarrased, saying "dude!!!!" in an over the top way or anything. Rather we see Tim getting visibly angered and calmy restraining himself from doing somethiing that he might regret. Bernard's comment really struck a bad nerve with Tim. This might explain the next few interactions where Tim's annoyance of Bernard is more emphasized

5. Bernard's conspiracy theories.

Here we see Tim getting annoyed by Bernard's conspiracy theories regarding the number of Robins. While part of the dismissal is due to Tim wanting to keep Batman an urban legend per Bruce and also not being pleased that knowing Steph is Robin, there is also a legit dismissal here. Notice how he says Bernard doesn't know what he's talking about 'as usual' which indicates he in genera finds the conspiracy theory thing grating. There is also how Tim throws in that comment in a shade way via prefacing it with 'all due respect' which is what someone says when they are being frank and straightforward but don't want to cause offence (but like I said Tim does throw in a bit of shade) there with the pause before 'as usual'. If Tim was just doing the normal friendly writing off he would have just straight up said Bernard was full of it like Darla, but the fact he does it through the filter of 'with all due respect' shows he does find the conspiracy thing genuinely annoying. There is also how despite Darla also engaging in the talk as well Tim only tells Bernard to stop talking (and not in an over the top exagerrated manner which shows legit annoyance), showcasing he was the prime focus of his annoyance and after Bernard said Steph is doomed is what caused Tim to walk away. Once again the emphasis is on Bernard annoying Tim and in a legit manner.

6. Darla seeking out Bernard to find Tim

So this is Bernard's last appearance before UL actually

so timber/bernard fans like to focus on Darla seeking out bernard to find Tim as 'proof' of a close friendship. However as the scene shows bernard didn't know exactly where Tim ended up, only hearing about him maybe going to bludhaven and that's it. This shows Tim didn't tell bernard he was leaving and didn't keep contact with him. Before when leaving for Keystone or Brentwood, we saw/heard about Tim telling Ives, Callie, Hudman, etc but not with bernard. This also isn't a case of him just dropping off the radar like in RR which may justify bernard not knowing as the fact bernard even heard about him moving away shows this. Tim just didn't tell him or say goodbeye and when we see him leaving doesn't even think about bernard. There is also how bernard doesn't even seem to miss tim or even be worried/concerned about him, which you might expect given his father was murdered and everything which happened with the shooting. Compared to how when Ives and Zo didn't know where Tim was we saw/heard about them being worried.

Now to the final point.

7. Tim's final mention of Bernard prior to UL

Here is the final time Tim mentions him....and here he says he's an idiot. People try to play this off as "friendly" teasing/guys being casual jerks to each other" or "friends call each other idiots" but look at the context. Here this is behind his back which refuts the guys being casual jerks to each other as the whole point of it as guys do it to each other's faces to show how it isn't serious or mean-spirited. Not to mention this is after they lost contact. And Tim is doing it about the conspiracy theories which not only was he shown to find annoying, but Darla herself re-affirms Tim thinking it was nonsense which further shows this. It's also in the middle of a serious conversation of discussing Darla and her murder which doesn't seem to be the fit place for friendly teasing. Not to mention Tim doesn't wait to like say share a laugh with Darla over it or for her to respond, or even has a smile as he says it, which again might support the friendly teasing narrative, but like I said nothing of the sort happens. He just drops it in so casually.

There is also how he throws shade at him before doing it with his 'whole yeah for once', which is a backhanded compliment and before he says what he was right about, he goes into what he was wrong about. The 'vintage bernard idiocy line' was used to dismiss the rest of bernard's conspiracy theories about multiple Robins. He's saying the secret orphanage/goverment thing shouldn't be taken seriously as that is "vintage bernard idiocy'. In other words 'don't listen to that/take it seriously as it's just a good example which highlights the idiotic behaviour expected of bernard' or "don't pay attention to it as it's just bernard being an idiot as normal' or "because it's just bernard being his usual idiot self, we can ignore it" which isn't friendly at all nor what someone would say about a friend behind their back (which Tim has never done for his other friends) Notice how Tim said 'vintage bernard idiocy' and not the idiocy of his conspiracy theories, which is a sum about bernard himself. We also have good reason to think Tim does think it is idiotic is Robin and knows how it works and that is why he dismissed as idiocy not the notion of multiple robins (if he did that then we'd know he's playing dumb to protect his id, but again what he dismisses is the part we and he know is BS) and already by revealing there are multiple Robins Tim kind of playing it close to the fire.

There is also how the "vintage bernard idiocy" line talks about bernard being an idiot in general given how it means 'an example which highlights the usual idiotic behavior expected by bernard' and isn't a case of a someone calling a friend an idiot in the heat of the moment due to a specific action/context like Tim sometimes did to Kon or Bruce to Clark (and afterwards in the same issue we saw Tim/Bruce show moments of genuine care for Kon/Clark showing it wasn't meant to hamper their friendship). Tim was so calm and non-chalant about it, showing it was a calculated conclusion he made about Bernard. Not to mention if it was "friendly" there'd usually be something like "he's a loveable idiot, or he;s an idiot but my idiot, which is why I like him, etc" usually with some smile on his face or sometting which he has done with other friends but here not that. Again it was dismissal and he was doing it in a non-chalant manner

8. Conclusion

Ultimately Bernard just wasn't a close friend of Tim. At BEST he was a casual friend and at worst he was someone who Tim didn't think too highly of and found annoying. He was the friend you ditch after HS or the friend who you initially hang out with, but later realize the friendship won't work and just cut ties.

Tim's opinion of Bernard went from "I guess we can be friends but this guy is sus to "maybe he's not so bad and deserves a shot" to "nah forget this. He's not worth my time".

if timber/bernard fans could just acknowledge how he wasn't a close friend of tim and was retconned into one, it'd be fine but their attempts to insist he was just relies on wilful ignornance, deliberate misreadings, and making up stuff to convince themselves otherwise.

[jessamine-rose]

༻ The Golden Ratio ༺

Another deleted scene from Chemistry which I just had to recycle. May you all enjoy this fluffy, non-yandere take on Dottore and the science of love (≡^∇^≡)

♡ 0.9k words under the cut ♡

“Zandik, look over here! Aren’t these specimens remarkable?”

“Yes, they are,” he replies dismissively.

You frown, turning away the patch of Rukkhashava Mushrooms. Your classmate is still tinkering with the Ruin Guard, completely absorbed in his research.

“Liar. You didn’t even look at it.”

He doesn’t even try to deny it. “Can’t you see that I’m busy? If you allow me to finish my research, I can promise my full attention later.”

“But that’s what you said with the last sample,” you point out. “Is it too much to stop and admire the scenery for a few minutes? You are utterly rigid.”

Though you wouldn’t have fallen for him otherwise.

Zandik gives you an unamused look. “And you are too carefree, though I may recognize such childlike curiosity as befitting of your Darshan.”

You give him a bright smile. “Thank you for the acknowledgement!”

Was that a compliment or an insult? Either way, Zandik has been observing you!

As of now, your research expeditions have yielded little progress in your relationship. Your crush remains distant, focused on his work, at odds with your research approach. Still, you are thankful for the opportunity to witness him in action. To spend time with him.

Your own research is sufficient. You sit on the grass and watch Zandik, committing his visage to memory. After a few minutes, he breaks the silence.

“I am intrigued,” he says, “by your attitude to my research. The Sages always scold me whenever I express my fascination in these ancient machines.”

His research notes are neatly arranged beside his tools. The pages are marked with meticulous reports and detailed drawings. His enthusiasm practically bleeds into the paper.

You approach him, uncaring of your close proximity to the Ruin Guard.

“Well, I must disagree with them. No matter how dangerous those machines can be, they are still something to study. One might claim they are no different from my research specimens.”

“Ah, yes. Your little plants and animals,” he replies, glancing at your research notes. “And why do you research those subjects, may I ask?”

“Should there be an important reason?” you ask, adjusting your Amurta scarf. “It’s because they’re beautiful. Simple as that.”

Beautiful, mysterious, vital to this world.

“I did not take you for the poetic type,” he muses. “Anything can be deemed beautiful from one’s subjective perspective.”

“That is true,” you agree, “like your interest in the Ruin Machines. But objectively speaking, there are mathematical theories which can explain our prevalent standards of beauty. The golden ratio, for instance.”

“Ah, yes. That old thing.” A confident smile appears on his face. “I’ve read a thesis about the golden ratio in relation to facial aesthetics. Apparently, I am a good example.”

“Not a surprise. Many people find you handsome.”

“And what about you?” Zandik resumes eye contact, scarlet eyes tinged with amusement. “Do you agree with that conclusion?”

Your cheeks flush. “W-Well…yes, since you claim that your face fits the golden ratio.”

“That is an inadequate basis for your answer.” He stands in front of you and caresses your cheek, preventing you from looking away. “Why don’t you personally test that hypothesis? I will do the same with your face.”

He’s so close.

“All…all right.” You stay still and focus on his face, making the mental measurements.

His facial proportions are more or less congruent with the golden ratio. There are some details which may serve as basis for a counterargument, however.

His bangs obstruct your complete analysis. You’ve always adored his messy hairstyle, those stray curls which complement his character. You know from previous interactions that his hair is soft to the touch.

There is also his boyish, sharp-toothed grin which is equal parts manic and mischievous. His calm, close-mouthed smile is more aesthetically pleasing, but it lacks his unabashed ardor. Nevertheless, you are captivated with both versions, especially when those smiles are directed at you.

His eyes. They are like red suns, always bright and intense. There is a fascinated gleam in his gaze whenever he comes across something new.

It is beautiful. All of him.

His voice is what brings you back to reality.

“I am done with my measurements,” he announces.

“I…I see.” You give him a nervous smile, acutely aware that he is still touching your face. You’re blushing; can he tell? “So am I. Why don’t you go first?”

“You are beautiful.”

What?

Zandik taps his fingers on your cheek, tracing lines on your face. He’s close—too close, your flustered expression trapped in his ruby eyes. His expression is serious yet neutral, as though he is merely studying a specimen.

“A…according to which theory?” you stutter. “The golden ratio?”

He smiles at you. “I am speaking from my own personal opinion. If the laws of nature say otherwise, I must disagree and prove them wrong.”

A specimen worthy of his full attention.

Words fail you. What can you possibly say after receiving such a compliment?

Ever the diligent scholar, Zandik lets go of you and returns to the Ruin Guard.

“That is all I have to say,” he says. He picks up a rusty cog and takes notes. “And what of your observation? Do you find me beautiful, ______?”

You remain in your spot. “...Yes, I do.”

His tone is smug. “Objectively or subjectively?”

Honestly, why did you fall for someone like him?

“I’m not sure,” you admit.

“I see.” Zandik gives you one last smile, a knowing twinkle in his eyes. “Let us continue this experiment later. I am not one to be satisfied with ambiguous results.”

♡

This was originally written for the second chapter of Chemistry, but it felt too “close” for Dottore and Assistant! Darling’s early relationship. So I just edited and moved it to the last few chapters. But I couldn’t waste the lovely thought of Dottore’s s/o falling for the parts of him which aren’t considered beautiful by the golden ratio, so here we are~

Anyway, I hope y’all enjoyed this deleted scene ft. college crush Dottore ૮ ˶´ ᵕˋ ˶ა

Tag a Dottore enjoyer!! @gum-iie @sirbotik @surveyycorps @boundinparchment @ruayiri @darherwings @oofasleep @oh-no-i-am-here @nicebonescomrades @diaboliravioli @ryo-ri @unloadingdata @sodomewithlifern @maaarshieee @dottoreslittlelabrat @poweredbyghostadventures

[blainesebastian]

coffee cart girl (pt5)

words: 3,418 ship: austin x female reader summary: you’re the coffee runner on the set of Elvis. Coffee deliveries run pretty easy, until Austin accidently spills coffee on you. notes: thank you so much for all the support! previous parts are under this tag, this part was inspired by this gifset  warnings: none tag list: under the cut! sorry if your username does not link up on the post if you requested to be put on the tag list (it’s getting hefty! :)), unsure how I could fix that. please let me know if you’d like to be added or removed. 

Despite everything changing, things stay the same—which is actually pretty comforting. You keep showing up on set, day-in-day-out, serve coffee, come back home and then wake up to do it all over again. You have to admit that you feel slightly lighter working your coffee deliveries and know it has everything to do with this relationship you’re building with Austin. Keeping things under wrap for right now feels like the best idea, just between the two of you, which is exactly what you both need right now. With Austin constantly working on Elvis, you have no interest in being in any sort of spotlight—at least not yet. Your script work is getting better but you’re still figuring out the steps that you’ll need to move forward, to get yourself out there—be noticed.

The last thing you want is for someone to assume you haven’t gotten somewhere by talent alone but because of who you know, or in this case, who you’re seeing.

Austin has always seemed like a very private guy anyways, he’s not very active on social media—he likes to keep his personal life exactly that, personal. It leaves you with this intimate bubble forms over you both, time to get to know one another and develop on shared feelings. It may not look like normal dating, and it might seem like sneaking around sometimes, but that doesn’t bother you.

In the end—what you have with Austin is no one’s business.

Except, you do want to tell Jillian.

Getting on set Thursday, you make a direct route to one of the makeup trailers that she works in. Climbing inside and closing the door, you make sure you’re alone with her before spilling the beans. You tell her everything, from start to finish, all the details you feel like are necessary to get you both on the same page.

It doesn’t take much—Jillian already thought that Austin liked you, so the conclusion jumping is a short distance once she has all the information.

Jillian’s face somehow looks like an emoji, a permanent heightened emotion that is hearteyes and shocked all at the same time. Her jaw may also be taking up a residence on the floor, she hasn’t closed her mouth since you began talking.

“I fucking knew it.” She laughs, “I’m so good at sensing chemistry—like, I should probably quit my job here and become a relationship guru,” You roll your eyes even though you’re smiling, “Or a tarot card reader.”

“You can’t tell anyone Jillian, I mean it.” You say after a moment, taking a step closer to your friend. “Austin and I don’t want our business out there.”

“Austin and I,” She repeats with a dreamy laugh, “Our,” She shakes her head, curls tied up in clip today, which is probably a good thing seeing as how she seems to be vibrating at a high frequency. “Does that feel weird to say—like, you’re dating a celebrity.”

You let out a slow breath, your stomach fluttering in a slightly nervous way that it does sometimes. It’d be obtuse not to acknowledge the elephant in the room that Austin is, in fact, a celebrity, that he is different than someone you met at a coffee shop or a bar. You two are very unique in that sense and are on distinct paths for your futures. But at the same time you find it important to remind yourself that Austin is human, he’s a regular guy that has normal emotions, needs and desires. You’re on the same page, you’re working together on this.

But that doesn’t mean that sometimes this whole thing doesn’t blow your mind because it does. It’s as if you’re worried you might wake up from a dream or something, harsh reality ready to grab you by the throat.

“Jillian,” You repeat, holding her gaze so you know she’s actually listening.

Jillian sighs, head tossed back towards the ceiling, “I hear you, promise. I won’t say a word to anyone.” And you do believe her otherwise you wouldn’t have said anything in the first place. Jillian might be a little eccentric but she’s trustworthy. “Are you going to go out on dates…or?”

You pause a moment, considering that…you actually hadn’t thought about it. So much of your interactions kinda stem on being on set together, you spend time between shoots, when you bring coffee or Austin lets you know when he’s taking food breaks but…

Eventually Elvis will come to an end and then what? There’s award shows and interviews and a very public eye. You’re pretty sure that even now if you two were to go out, someone would notice and put it out into the world—a fan, a pap, a gossip tabloid, too many different outcomes. One of the great things about set is that you can have privacy here.

“We’re figuring it out.” And it sounds like such a lame excuse right now but to be honest you don’t want to admit that it hasn’t crossed your mind.

Jillian just smiles before nodding, the door to the trailer opening up before any more questions can be asked. You’re secretly kind of thanking whoever’s listening for that—if your friend thinks you need to be a bit more planned about your future with Austin, she doesn’t comment.

Right now you think a day-to-day approach is best…but maybe a little bit more of a strategy wouldn’t hurt either.

--

The day is as busy as it always is, filled with running around on last minute rotations and add-ons mixed with your regular orders. Sal actually seems like she’s in a decent mood for once, which is always a nice surprise. You take your afternoon lull at the typical picnic bench, getting some serious editing done on your script as you slowly sip on a coffee. Second readthrough is done, now all that’s left is reading it outloud to catch any last mistakes before…letting a second pair of eyes actually look at it.

Speaking of—

You frown, picking up the clipboard nearby that had your morning and afternoon orders on it. Just as you thought, you don’t see Austin’s name anywhere. Time had been runnin’ so smoothly, you barely noticed that he hadn’t placed any coffee orders. Normally, you might not think that was odd but…after ending up on the same page, it’s usually a nice stolen few moments to see one another through a busy day.

You chew on your lower lip—it’s probably just a hectic day for him but there’s also a small pit in your stomach that is slowly beginning to feel like a black hole for whatever reason. You put the script in your bag and decide to stretch your legs, dropping your things off where you usually keep them and take a long stroll around set.

In a not surprising turn of events, you end up outside Austin’s trailer. Glancing around for a moment, you take a sip of coffee and make your way up the steps—at the very least you can pretend you have a last-minute caffeine fix for him, should anyone ask. You knock on the door and wait, taking a step back to make room for the door to open.

It takes a few moments but when it finally does, you pause, unsure of what to say.

Despite still getting to know him, it’s very plain to see that he’s upset. He must be in-between scenes because he’s in his own clothes, jeans, a black shirt, his hair scrubbed free of gel from what looks like his hands going through it. His face is slightly pink, eyes red-rimmed and wet and it somehow makes the color seem even more blue. He works his jaw a moment, swallowing, seemingly trying to get ahold of himself.

You’re kinda dumbfounded because…you’ve obviously never seen him like this before.

Blinking, you realize that you should say something. “Hi,” You pause, taking a breath, “Do you—you want me to leave you alone?”

“No,” He says quickly, clearing his throat. His voice is twinged with emotion, slightly deeper than usual as he opens the door so you can walk over the threshold, “You can come in.”

You hesitate for a moment before wandering inside, the door closing behind you. Austin moves to lean against the kitchenette counter and you stand in front of him, putting your cup of coffee down near the sink. You give him a few moments to collect himself, watching as he runs a hand over his forehead, swallowing, the muscles in his jaw flexing again. Your gaze flutters over the rings he has on today, both gold, one on his middle finger while the other rests on his pinky.

Did something happen? You’re trying not to bombard him with questions…so you do the only thing you think you can in that moment, remembering how his hand had smoothed its way down your back during that migraine. One hand moves to settle along his arm, squeezing, while the other gently rests along his neck. Your fingers graze the bottom of his jawline, his pulse quick and skin warm where you’re touching. You feel, rather than see him, take a short breath in.

Whatever’s got him worked up, it’s at least good to know that he’s letting himself feel it rather than keep it buried underneath his ribcage. Some people are so concerned about strong emotions, never allowing themselves to give into them, feeling like they have to keep them hidden or tucked away. Austin’s not only allowing himself to feel, but he’s also letting you see him like this.

Neither of you say anything for a while, just stand there together, soaking one another in. You rub along his arm, sometimes your other hand moving to cup his cheek, stroking along his cheekbone. He sniffles, running one of his own hands underneath his eyes before letting out a slow breath,

“Sometimes it’s uh, it’s hard for me to take a step back from what I’m doin’.”

You nod and honestly, a lot of details aren’t necessary. You're sure the emotional toll is sometimes brutal, how hard it must be to separate his feelings out between what's reality and what's the film. You know that Austin gives absolutely everything to his work—it's obvious in the way he carries himself, how he speaks about his roles, in interviews you've seen and even in conversations you've shared with him.

He doesn’t need to explain himself.

It’s a bit crushing to see him like this—you wish you knew what to say. “Can I do anything?”

Austin shakes his head, giving you a small smile. Removing the hand that you have along his cheek, he presses a kiss to the inside of your wrist, “You’re doin’ it.”

You smile back, your stomach doing that ridiculous fluttering thing it sometimes does because of him. “I was wonderin’ why your coffee orders were missing from my clipboard.”

“Just been kinda nauseous all day,” Austin admits, running a hand through his hair, “Stomach’s in a knot.”

You’ve heard rumors that way before filming started Baz had organized for studio producers, crew, and the like to heckle Austin while he played some of his first Elvis songs. This wasn’t done without a purpose—much of Elvis’s first performances as an artist were similar. Regardless, you can’t imagine what it’d be like to experience something like that, especially if you’re already nervous about embodying such a role.

You wonder if today was something similar in the studio…or maybe it’s just a bad day. Not all of them can be perfect, even if Austin shows up ready to work as hard as he possibly can.

Taking a small breath in, you step back from him—you don’t have much time left on your own break before you’ll have to start taking late-night coffee orders. You’re sure he wants to spend a bit more on his own before he’s called to hair and makeup or wardrobe.

“I’ll see you later?” You offer, leaving it open just in case he wants to take the rest of the day to himself. You wouldn’t blame him, sometimes time alone is the best way to bounce back.

But Austin reaches for your wrist as you move to leave, squeezing gently, “I’ll find you.”

Giving him one last smile, you grab your cup of coffee and head out of his trailer.

--

Shooting stretches until two AM, which is not at all surprising. You end up leaving set around midnight, making a convenience run to grab a few things before making your way back to your favorite picnic bench outside the food tent. It’s a skeleton crew and luckily no one seems to bother to ask you why you’re still hanging out, walking past you with either a goodnight or no words at all.

Looking up as you hear footsteps approach, you smile when you see Austin, sliding off the table you’re sitting on to meet him halfway. He’s in his own set of clothes again but his hair is still styled to look like Elvis—the most important part, he looks a lot better than when you saw him this afternoon. Shoulders not as heavy looking, his eyes brighter,

“Hi,” Austin smiles down at you, “Fancy meetin’ you here.”

“I know,” You laugh lightly, “What a coincidence.” Throwing your bag over your shoulder, you walk with him towards his trailer. You don’t pass many people, which is comforting, before you finally make it to the destination. Austin heads up the steps first, opening the door for you to walk in.

Switching on the lights, the door closes behind you and you pause as you see that way back in the trailer…is in fact a bed. So it is true that some stars have legit places to sleep on set if they wish for late nights, naps between scenes. Though you’re not sure how that’d go—you always feel like such a zombie waking up from a nap. Can’t imagine that’s a good thing going from scene to scene.

So much for that being refreshing.

“Is that comfortable?” You ask, motioning to the bed as you put your bag down on the coffee table.

Austin looks up and in the direction of what you’re referring to, “Kinda, it has its moments when you’re really tired.”

“You gonna sleep there tonight?”

He purses his lips in thought, toeing his boots off near the couch. “Probably.”

And that…is totally not something to be thinking about right now. You shake your head as if to get rid of the imagery before clearing your throat, “I got you somethin’.”

He raises his eyebrows as you pass over the bag from the convenience store,

“Just my go-to’s when I’m feeling poorly.”

You smile, chewing on your lower lip as he pulls out a few essentials: a plastic container of Oreo’s, Ginger Ale, and mint tea.

“They didn’t have peanut butter.” Then quickly to clarify, “For the Oreo’s, I mean.”

Austin laughs softly, nodding, running his hand over the pack before smiling up at you. He reaches out to tug you close, placing a kiss on the bridge of your nose. “Thank you.”

You feel warmed from the inside out, blooming in your chest and sprouting outward. It’s not much and you’re not sure if his stomach is still upset but…you just wanted to be able to offer something to help. Sometimes a well-placed gesture is all you need.

Opening the pack of Oreo’s, he sets the bag on the coffee table to take a cookie out. Biting into it, he says, “I’ve never had Oreo’s with peanut butter before.”

You raise your eyebrows in mock outrage, “This is just unacceptable—don’t tell me you’re a cookies and milk kinda guy.”

He smiles a little guiltily—it’s cute. “You gonna take the cookies back if I say yes?”

You crinkle your nose, grabbing an Oreo for yourself. “Just please tell me you’re not a dunker.”

Austin shakes his head and well, good, at least you can work with that. Snagging a seat on the couch, you take your shoes off, crossing your legs up on the cushions. As you both eat through another sleeve of cookies, your mind wanders to this morning when you were talking with Jillian about…everything. The future, or at least what might happen when the filming of Elvis ends. You glance up at Austin, on the couch with you, one long leg folded up under himself, the other resting on the ground. His fingers hold one cookie while the other runs them along his lower lip, as if he’s in thought.

He touches his face a lot, you realize, especially when he seems to be considering something. After the emotive day he’s had, you’re not sure it’s the right time to really talk through what’s on your mind. There will be time for that.

Austin looks over at you as he takes an Oreo apart, which makes you scrunch your face a bit because you know he’s going straight for the icing. “How’s your script comin’?”

You take a soft breath into your chest, debating the words behind your teeth for a long few moments before, “Maybe end of the week you can look at it? If you’re not too busy.” No pressure, you can have Jillian read it over if he can’t.

“I’m not too busy for you.” Austin replies and he says it in such a way that has you believing it. Though, it’s a double-edged sword, you’re not quite sure how you’re going to handle him reading your script and…what if he thinks it’s absolutely awful? It’s just one opinion, sure, but you have to admit that it means a bit to you.

You shake out the nerves best you can and nod, determined, he’ll get that script by the end of the week.

Then you’ll go from there.

You stay on the couch for a while eating Oreos, easy conversation passing between the two of you. It kind of amazes you how simple it is that you can just…talk about anything. There’s topics that range from the serious (where do you see yourself in five years, who’s your biggest influence, book you could read over and over again) to the dramatic (zombie apocalypse—how fucked are you, favorite bird that you think has the biggest personality, drunk food go-to).

Another hour of time passes and it was already late to begin with, another yawn slipping past your lips,

“I think you should crash here,” Austin says, “That’s like your fifth one.”

You blink at the offer because no…while you know it’s late and he’s not wrong about you yawning a lot, the day catching up with you, you couldn’t possibly sleep here, right? On a few counts.

No…people would notice, wouldn’t they? While you like to think you blend into the background pretty easily, tomorrow would be the day for people to notice you coming out of Austin’s trailer, or in the same clothes you wore today. Way too risky, right?

And yet, for whatever reason that’s not what comes out of your mouth, “I think I got an extra pair of jeans in my car but—”

“I can grab you somethin’ from wardrobe.”

You raise your eyebrows, a scoff sneaking out. Oh really? “This couch is—”

“Let me worry about the couch, you’re takin’ the bed.”

Now you do laugh, “What you got an answer for everythin’?”

He grins, “Maybe.”

This is such a bad idea—the couch was comfortable enough to nap on when you had a migraine but getting a full night’s rest? Not even to mention, “Your legs are far too long for this thing.”

Now he’s amused, his eyes dancing warmly as he leans into your personal space. Your stomach flutters, gaze flickering down to his lips when he speaks, “You checkin’ me out Y/N?”

“You’re incorrigible.” You shake your head, gently poking at his chest.

Austin hums, “I’ve been told that’s my best quality.”

You don’t kiss him even though you really want to, a smile tugging the corners of your mouth—you realize within those few moments how much you like him, how your feelings for him are becoming more and more defined the longer you two figure this thing out together. At the same time, it’s a dangerous thing—you’re really falling for him.

You just hope it’s not too fast.

--

Once again, thanks so much for reading! I think I worked out that this series will be 10 parts total :)

Tag list:  @pearlparty, @theinvisiblecapricorn, @kittenlittle24, @andrewgarfields-girlfriend, @mirandastuckinthe80s, @nonsensical-nonce, @softlispoken, @dudinhahoff, @peterparke-r, @lottiee03, @little-diable, @therealwriter17, @bob-the-tomato, @bcofl0ve, @domaniquessidehoe, @matsbarzals, @rosequartzluvr, @callthedarknessdown, @laperceval, @ghostinthebackofyourhead, @starry-night-20, @ahoyyharrington, @obsessedunicorn24, @lulu-recs, @queenotaku23, @embobemm, @milaa24, @medleyj, @myownparadise96, @butlersluvbot, @girlokwhatever, @pinkle-monade0103, @vintagebitc, @xcallmetaniax, @adoreyouusugar, @karamelcoveredolicity, @thisisntmeok, @kvcssghbjbcd, @mamaspresley, @jazmin2211

[myuiis]

(same anon who asked for sinu analysis) well first off let me ask your thoughts on YeonhuixSinu

Despite my undying love for this man- I'll admit they're cute n all BUT I always felt it was undeveloped.

I don't know if it's just me but when Jason (I think) said he'd snitch about him being with neko to her I was confused back when he was still under the influence of those pills at workers. Like, Did I miss something? Did I forget something from the gaps between the arcs? Idk. But even if she was shown to be worried over Sinu, it didn't seem romantic at all especially that all the big deal girls cared too. PTJ also made it seem like an already established relationship and I'm still questioning when?? She seemed to know him well and all but no hinting of any romantic attraction was there, just your average big deal romanticism and admiration lol.

I understand that PTJ has to leave some details away for the sake of the pacing but I think he could've at least thrown some hints here and there.

ok yeah. so this won't be a super long post because i am tired but good lord i am very... lukewarm about sinu and yeonhui. im with you on the "who?" when yeonhui was mentioned again in 2a. now im glad that sinu is with someone he's happy with but man... sinu and yeonhui is just such a mid ship compared to literally anyone else he could've been shipped with. let me explain.

yeonhui's lack of presence in the story. now this is probably the main reason i find this ship so lackluster. how am i supposed to root for a ship when the female love interest is literally like npc #125? while she did have more presence than the other girls on the street, this isn't really a high bar considering ptj's track record writing female characters. and this isn't to say she was boring or had a bland personality either (even though she KINDA did...). she was strong and independent, stood up to samuel when he tried to extort them for money (iirc), bore the burden of sinu's sacrifice and stayed strong for big deal, and was there to comfort jake when he learned of the news. she could've been a REALLY interesting character because she was so strong and also stuck to her ideals in the same way sinu did, so they could've been such a power couple, had yeonhui been developed more. it would've been nice to see yeonhui and sinu strategize about how to protect big deal together, or see more of yeonhui bandaging and caring for sinu after he gets hurt, or seeing sinu bring yeonhui gifts and money... or anything, really. the two have barely have any substantial interactions over the entire arc besides the last part where sinu's about to sacrifice himself, so much so that it makes me wonder... who is this yeonhui person? why are they important again.

chemistry. this mainly comes up to personal preference but yeonhui and sinu feel more like an older sister-younger brother dynamic to me. yeonhui took sinu in as a child, fed, clothed, and cared for him, and then continues to take care of him as an adult, which comes off as big sis behavior. again, some people may like this dynamic romantically, but i personally find it super platonic and sibling-leaning.

other sinu ships. idk. just find it a LITTLE heteronormative that any man and woman who share a little bit of screentime together are instantly a couple while sinu and jake can be out here pulling "you are my everything" and "i came back to big deal for you and you alone, jake" moments, and they'll still be just "good bros". again, kind of up to personal preference, but if you compare yeonhui x sinu to jake x sinu or even samuel x sinu, there's a clear lack of interactions and chemistry for yeonhui x sinu

so yeah. thats kinda it. this ended up being way longer than i expected so im not gonna write a conclusion paragraph but those are my thoughts around yeonhui and sinu together romantically.

[doctorwhoblog]

Greetings dear Whovians, 

Perhaps, it’s time to explain what’s going on with this blog, why it was abandoned and what lies ahead. 

Doctor Who as a show ended for me with Peter Capaldi. Period. I tried to give a chance to Jodie Whittaker’s doctor, but even her first episode was a struggle: I could not see the Doctor in her, there was absolutely no chemistry with companions and I couldn’t care less of what’s going on on a screen. 

At that point I made a tough decision that I should say goodbye to my favourite show, otherwise it would be ruined and I would grow to hate something that was seared onto my heart. 

Looking back and reading comments how the writing went downhill - this perhaps was the best decision as I still have any good memories about the show (even though Capaldi deserved a better writing, especially in his last season).

All these years I avoided spoilers (and Tumblr) and I have no clue what have actually happened in the series - only the fact that it was horrible and they re-wrote things that shouldn’t be touched. 

With the news of RTD coming back I was very hesitant to start watching again considering the gap of 3 seasons which I have no intention to close and catch up. But all the trailers looked very intruiging with a definite vibe of ‘good old days’, so I decided to give it a try. 

To be completely open with you - not sure how I feel about The Star Beast episode. Despite amazing chemistry between David and Catherine (who didn’t age a day!), excellent references to previous story lines and heartwarming moments, I feel like all this woke agenda was a bit too much and maybe even unnecessary. This is not kind of show when you need to push on a viewer and write a plot twist around it. Don't get me wrong, but overall it looked like a very poor writing just to squeeze to the episode and not the important message.  

Speaking of continuity of doctowhoblog. 

I started this blog over 12 years ago when I was still at University, then I started my job and things got complicated. I reached the point when I had a very little free time on my hands and wanted to spend it wisely. Tumblr became a time consuming blackhole with no reward in return, so at some point the weight of value of my time overcome the need to be here. 

Would I make gifs again? Frankly speaking I do not remember HOW anymore…turned out it’s not like riding a bicycle. 

In addition, a lot of things on Tumblr as a platform changed: the last time I made gifs it was 500px with 2mb limit. Now rules have changed and I have no clue what is the standard and where to begin. 

Blog Theme is broken, I know. A lot of things needs fixing, starting from post ‘blocks’, as it appears there’s now not only photo and photoset, but also panorama -  what the hell is {block:Panorama} Tumblr?! Links are broken and everything is a mess.

Please bare with me, I will try to fix it if my head will not explode of all these new additions and features.  

I wouldn’t jump into conclusion that I am back (yet), but there’s some hope that I would appear on this website from time to time (would the show not go downhill again and continue be promising). 

[theflyindutchwoman]

The road to Chenford - The Love Interests

Let me preface this (very) long post by saying this is only my opinion. This is about how I interpret the whole Chenford arc. The show is vague enough that pretty much all interpretations are valid. But if you feel differently, that's perfectly fine.

There's a lot of things that made me fall in love with Chenford, and I'll talk more about it in another post. But one aspect I found intriguing was the way the different love interests Lucy and Tim had throughout the show were used. Usually love interests are brought as a plot device to separate the main characters and bring all the angst... It's something that pretty much every TV shows do. The jealousy trope has to be one of the most common one... And yet, here, it was never really used the usual way.

Let's start at the beginning.

// Isabel & Nolan

It is rather interesting that we got love interests for both Lucy and Tim right from the start (probably because Chenford was unplanned). And how much their story is still impacted by that. With Isabel, we had front row seat to the trauma her addiction was having on Tim : the spiralling, the heartbreak, the guilt and the walls he had to put up to protect himself. But we also witnessed how far his loyalty goes and how deeply he can love. It was an important tool to give us some insight on a character that could otherwise have been a stereotype. And from there, we were able to get a view of what he is looking for : someone who can love him just as much, who will fight for him and who will make him feel like he's enough. With Nolan, we saw a completely different side of love. The hot affair (their words, not mine), the sneaking around and the impact it could have on Lucy's career. And what she wants is explained during the breakup fight : someone who thinks she is worth fighting for. Lucy is not upset because she is being dumped, she had come to the same conclusion after all. It's how easily Nolan seems to be able to discard her and their relationship that truly hurt her.

Now, the irony is her arc was supposed to be for her relationship with John… Kudos to the writers for adapting it seamlessly to Chenford. It is quite uncanny. On one hand, we had one relationship that was formed while they were rookies and made it work until UC work destroyed it ; on the other hand, we had one who flamed out before it could even truly start. If they keep Lucy doing UC work, I really hope we will have some conversation between Chenford to tie up this part of their arc : they both need to be reassured that the work won't come between them, because in the end, that was the downfall for their first (on-screen) romance.

(Little side note : I understand Alexi might have planned for NoChen to be endgame, and as much as we give him shit, as we should it's what keep showrunners honest, I appreciate that not only he agreed to change that part of his plan (the last true shipping moment for NoChen was in 1.12 I think, so really early), he was graceful enough not to destroy Chenford out of spite or even downplay their bond (he could have had John save Lucy in Day of Death, have her stay with him after Jackson's death etc). I'm not saying it's all perfect. And I'm sure he protested. But imagine creating a story around the main couple, only to realise that one part of that couple has more chemistry and works better with another character. With the exception of Fillion, I doubt he had any say about the casting. And even if he did, chemistry tests only work so far (Melissa and Eric probably didn't even have one). My past experience with showrunners is that they'd rather kill their show and blame the audience for being too stupid than admit they're wrong or should change their plans... The past few years are full of cautionary tales of TV shows that burned down. He may have been petty about it on his interviews, I don't read them so I can't say, but at least it didn't let it impact on the story. Cheers to that I guess).

// Rachel & Emmett

After the trauma Tim experienced, it was a nice change of pace to see him in an uncomplicated relationship, see him relax and simply enjoy himself. With Rachel, it was all about healing and it's not by mistake that Lucy set him up with someone she knows to be easy-going, calm and nurturing if we consider her job (I know it was for a bet and she didn't exactly choose Rachel. But do we think she would have done this if she didn't think it could be a good thing?). And we can never have too much of Tim smiling. Or shirtless Tim. We saw Lucy interfere even more - with Isabel, she got caught in the middle at first, she didn't really decide to cross his personal boundaries on her own. She was just trying to help Tim not go down with the ship. But we did learn that she kept in touch with his ex-wife. With Rachel, she had a direct hand in the set-up and she did soften some of his edges as well (the birthday gift for instance). Most importantly, it never had a negative impact on Chenford. If anything it brought them closer. But in the end, we saw the same problem that with Isabel : Tim was not enough. Rachel put her career first (nothing wrong with that by the way!). The red flag, so to speak, was the clear lack of communication : she never mentioned to Tim being interested by a job in New-York, let alone warned him about the interview. I mean, if you're seriously committed, a conversation beforehand might have been nice. And while Tim entertains her idea of them moving, it seems to be more by curiosity. We don't really see him hesitate or have a full grown-up talk about how they should move forward. The ending was… Well.. Hey does Rachel even know they broke up? Cos we didn't! So who knows! Jokes aside, I wonder if we were supposed to see her again in season 03 but with COVID, they changed it. Still could have been nice to have her name mentioned at one point.

Now, Emmett was supposed to be a mirror to Rachel : Tim's friend and a healing step in Lucy's journey. After what she went through with Caleb, seeing her be able to take that step forward was really great. Flirty and carefree Lucy is the best. I wished we had seen a little more of them (the actor got a main part on another show + Covid rules = not possible) so it was less abrupt. Having Emmett treat Lucy as someone in need of protection was also a nice callback to Nolan, who broke up with her "to protect her". No comment on the breakup by text. That's just petty. Although I did like he involved Tim in it... I wonder how that meeting went.

// Ashley & Chris

All right, there goes the very unpopular opinion : I actually didn't mind them. Much. I mean I could have done without them, but since we never really had to see their full respective relationship, Lucy or Tim being pretty much always around, it worked for me. Mainly. Don't get me wrong, I'm mostly indifferent towards Ashley because she was just dull. And I dispised Chris cos he reminded me of so many people I met in law school, it's not even funny (right down to the lack of empathy and inability to read the room. So spooky). It's the journey that I didn't mind.

After Angela's wedding and Lucy staying at Tim's place, the attraction between Chenford was front and center. But as I will talk about in my other post, I don't think they were ready to go there (grief is not the best foundation). And the writers didn't want to either, so that's moot. Now, as I said earlier, the most common trope in TV shows is to introduce new love interests to play up the tension and jealousy, have some pining on the side… And after the revelation in 3.14/4.01, it would have been the perfect timing. Only we didn't get this here, hence the frustration that I think many experienced. What's the point of having to suffer if we don't get the goodies.

Except, like I said, I absolutely love we didn't go the typical route. Why? Because jealousy is rarely written properly on TV. More often than not, you end up with people being used, hurt, acting childish and/or petty. Not a really good look for all the characters involved. It gets even worse when the ship still don't get together after all that hustle. I love angst, but come on. So instead of the promised angst, we kept on the same path than with Rachel and Emmett : the progression of Chenford's bond. It was never about Ashley and Chris. It was always about Lucy and Tim's story and how they were different and the perfect person. How their bond was special and how they NOT ONCE wondered if they should spend less time together. Even after the double date. Especially after the double date. They are close, period. They're willing to make efforts for Ash or Chris, but not change their interaction between them. It was about how, despite love interests, they were still each other's person and the one constant. And to me, that is so much more powerful.

Case in point. 4.06 - Ash is introduced but the episode spends more time about the bet between Tim & Lucy 4.08 - About Lucy finding out Ash is now in the picture (who is not even present on screen) 4.10 - About Lucy's dog even though she only had him for a couple of days so it should be irrelevant and yet it's not. And how Lucy helps Tim navigates in his relationship (when clearly he is half assing it). 4.11 - About Lucy trying to help young adults in-need and Tim helping her with Tamara instead of belittling her 4.12 - All about how Lucy and Tim are each other's safe place 4.15 - About Lucy being at the right job and doing it well (and about Chris willing to cut corners to get the job done when we saw Tim refused to do the same in previous episodes) 4.17 - About how Tim was able to empower Lucy through her ordeal instead of triggering her like a certain ADA who should not even had access to her file in the first place, because hello conflict of interest 4.21 - About the next step they are supposed to take in their respective relationship but clearly are nowhere near that headspace (as much as Tim says he can himself marrying Ash, the boy was still panicking throughout the episode at the mere idea… So who are you trying to convince here?! And Lucy shutting that parent meeting so fast) 4.22 / 5.01 - What significant others? Don't know them. Who's dying on the couch? 5.02 - How Tim is the one who truly knows her and whose opinion she values the most 5.03 - How Tim is missing her 5.05 - How Lucy is the one always staying 5.06 - How Lucy can find ways to make him feel better 5.08 - How Tim can immediately see she's uncomfortable and help her talk things through as she needs to do 5.09 - How Tim knows her taste

Now could it have been done better? Yes. I think the execution got lost in the middle. It could have been clearer and sharper. And I can absolutely see how it was frustrating to have to go through other LI, especially if you ship then since season 01. And could it have been done without Ashley and Chris? Sure. But I can understand Tim and Lucy wanting to date other people (especially if like me, you think they were still mainly unaware of their feelings. Attraction, yes. Romantic feelings, not yet... For me. It's clearly up for interpretation).

By not going the traditional route, we also avoided some pitfalls and do some disservice to what is otherwise a mature and healthy relationship. And I really love that we didn't go with the easy evil trope. Lucy and Tim have enough trauma to work through the rest of their lives… Having Chris being a minion for Rosalind would have set them both back. Lucy would have to go through all that process again and Tim would only have more guilt on this plate. Not to mention that having them end up together because they're the only person they can now fully trust is not exactly the best foundation. Are they together because they want to? Or because they don't trust anyone else? Considering all their lingering doubts from their previous relationships, that's definitely not what they needed for their own personal growth. Besides, I doubt it's the last time we've seen Chris : the door was wide open when he left Lucy's place, and I don't think it was by coincidence. So we are going to have some mess on our hands... And I much prefer having it with Chenford as one unit. But then again, personal preferences here.

Anyway, not saying it was perfect. It was downright messy at some points… I also wonder if Ash and Chris got introduced because we lost Rachel and Emmett somewhere in the process.

And in the end, Ashley and Chris were instrumental to Chenford getting together. But that's for my other post, this one is already long enough!

I hope I didn't make too many mistakes by the way! I was a little nervous to post this.

[claireclaymore]

Everlark on movies

or why I just can't hate the movies - Part 1

This post will be polemic, and I am sure everyone will disagree, but I came here to defend romance aspect on the movies.

But first, some important points:

-I do agree the books were totally better while the movies failed in insert romance organically in the storytelling.

-And yes, everlark community is right in be pissed of with the director. He really didn't get the purpose of Peeta and Katniss relationship and that's shows.

-The producers forced the Team Gale and Team Peeta thing to increase the engagement. More Gale and Katniss were their crimes.

That said, what I strongly disagree are following accusations:

-"The movies are Everthorne propaganda and made that ship more popular than the canon one."

-"Peeta and Katniss didn't have chemistry on the movies."

-"On the movies, Katniss was actually in love with Gale, Peeta was rebound."

So this post will cover this fist accusation.

The changes for the love triangule

First movie did insert hits about Gale have a crush on Katniss (the book made this too, but it was implied). In movies Gale is a decent friend (he was there with Prim wait for her, alike on canon), so he is shippable and this create a interesting conflict on the audience, cause her looks like a good match, right?

But then there is Peeta. This guy that happened to be genuinely kind, and was willing to let Katniss win. And in script was implied he did knows it was an act whole time. So in the end of story feels like the audience is strongly divided between two good men, adding the political mess, we do have an exciting cliffhanger.

Then second movies happens and all doubts go away! Again edition cut iconic lines from Peeta, but Josh killed it in all his scenes. Peeta's essential kindness was well portrayed, in my opinion, and made audience really care for him.

It was criminal that they didn't delve deeper into the everlark bed scenes and add new everthorne scenes (that no one asked for), but rewatching it I didn't see much emotions on those kisses (and thanks Liam for having the expressiveness of a door).

In the other hand, the everlark scenes during the games were EVERYTHING! All the drama that was missing in the first film came in full force in the second! The force field scene is so much more theatrical!

And they made the beach kiss sweeter (and personally I love how heartwarming the scene was). I do remember applauding in theater (so... no chemistry my ass)

In short, my reading of the film is that Peeta is not just a cute and passionate friend who Katniss is afraid of hurting by rejecting him. She's falling in love with him. The desperation, the devotion, all of this is perfectly translated in Jennefer's performance. I seriously don't get how someone can see their interactions on arena and think he is the third wheel (and thank you director for don't include Gale's sad face to ruin the moment here).

Feral and in love (overdramatic? overreacted? Yes, but it follows the intensity of Katniss in canon). Will historians say that she is acting like this because of a friend?

Then the two last movies. They finally allowed show Gale being a asshole (I liked that change with calling Peeta a coward, they cut Gale's bullshit in Catching Fire, they had to put in some place). We still have to endure some Gale and Katniss scenes, but again, their ton are pale (basic soundtrack, no creative angles).

But what continues selling the ship is the adversity, the longing. Wherever Peeta appears Katniss just sees him! Gale stay on background or the camera forget him, he is just a desperate man looking at an amazing couple.

You are excellent door Liam!

And all angst, the forbidden love thing make people root even more for Everlark! So no! The movies didnt' sell Everthone or this attempt backfired (or if you disagree, at least see Jennefer isn't on board).

In conclusion, yes the movies made little for the ship, but this little was enough to introduce people to this amazing franchise. The details, the performing, soundtrack, edition all came together to the tip of the iceberg of everlark.

[dailyanarchistposts]

Footnotes

[1] Ie-hovah, and in composition Iah, the Being; Iao, ioupitur, same meaning; ha-iah, Heb., he was; ei, Gr, he is, ei-nai, to be; an-i, Heb., and in conjugation th-i, me; e-go, io, ich, i, m-i, me, t-ibi, te, and all the personal pronouns in which the vowels i, e, ei, oi, denote personality in general, and the consonants, m or n, s or t, serve to indicate the number of the person. For the rest, let who will dispute over these analogies; I have no objections: at this depth, the science of the philologist is but cloud and mystery. The important point to which I wish to call attention is that the phonetic relation of names seems to correspond to the metaphysical relation of ideas.

[2] The Chinese have preserved in their traditions the remembrance of a religion which had ceased to exist among them five or six centuries before our era. (See Pauthier, “China,” Paris, Didot.) More surprising still is it that this singular people, in losing its primitive faith, seems to have understood that divinity is simply the collective me of humanity: so that, more than two thousand years ago, China had reached, in its commonly-accepted belief, the latest results of the philosophy of the Occident. “What Heaven sees and understands,” it is written in the Shu-king, “is only that which the people see and understand. What the people deem worthy of reward and punishment is that which Heaven wishes to punish and reward. There is an intimate communication between Heaven and the people: let those who govern the people, therefore, be watchful and cautious.” Confucius expressed the same idea in another manner: “Gain the affection of the people, and you gain empire. Lose the affection of the people, and you lose empire.” There, then, general reason was regarded as queen of the world, a distinction which elsewhere has been bestowed upon revelations. The Tao-te-king is still more explicit. In this work, which is but an outline criticism of pure reason, the philosopher Lao-tse continually identifies, under the name of TAO, universal reason and the infinite being; and all the obscurity of the book of Lao tse consists, in my opinion, of this constant identification of principles which our religious and metaphysical habits have so widely separated.

[3] See, among others, Auguste Comte, “Course of Positive Philosophy,” and P. J. Proudhon, “Creation of Order in Humanity.”

[4] I do not mean to affirm here in a positive manner the transmutability of bodies, or to point it out as a subject for investigation; still less do I pretend to say what ought to be the opinion of savants upon this point. I wish only to call attention to the species of scepticism generated in every uninformed mind by the most general conclusions of chemical philosophy, or, better, by the irreconcilable hypotheses which serve as the basis of its theories. Chemistry is truly the despair of reason: on all sides it mingles with the fanciful; and the more knowledge of it we gain by experience, the more it envelops itself in impenetrable mysteries. This thought was recently suggested to me by reading M. Liebig’s “Letters on Chemistry” (Paris, Masgana, 1845, translation of Bertet-Dupiney and Dubreuil Helion).

Thus M. Liebig, after having banished from science hypothetical causes and all the entities admitted by the ancients, — such as the creative power of matter, the horror of a vacuum, the esprit recteur, etc. (p. 22), — admits immediately, as necessary to the comprehension of chemical phenomena, a series of entities no less obscure, — vital force, chemical force, electric force, the force of attraction, etc. (pp. 146, 149). One might call it a realization of the properties of bodies, in imitation of the psychologists’ realization of the faculties of the soul under the names liberty, imagination, memory, etc. Why not keep to the elements? Why, if the atoms have weight of their own, as M. Liebig appears to believe, may they not also have electricity and life of their own? Curious thing! the phenomena of matter, like those of mind, become intelligible only by supposing them to be produced by unintelligible forces and governed by contradictory laws: such is the inference to be drawn from every page of M. Liebig’s book.

Matter, according to M. Liebig, is essentially inert and entirely destitute of spontaneous activity (p. 148): why, then, do the atoms have weight? Is not the weight inherent in atoms the real, eternal, and spontaneous motion of matter? And that which we chance to regard as rest, — may it not be equilibrium rather? Why, then, suppose now an inertia which definitions contradict, now an external potentiality which nothing proves?

Atoms having weight, M. Liebig infers that they are indivisible (p. 58). What logic! Weight is only force, that is, a thing hidden from the senses, whose phenomena alone are perceptible, — a thing, consequently, to which the idea of division and indivision is inapplicable; and from the presence of this force, from the hypothesis of an indeterminate and immaterial entity, is inferred an indivisible material existence! For the rest, M. Liebig confesses that it is impossible for the mind to conceive of particles absolutely indivisible; he recognizes, further, that the fact of this indivisibility is not proved; but he adds that science cannot dispense with this hypothesis: so that, by the confession of its teachers, chemistry has for its point of departure a fiction as repugnant to the mind as it is foreign to experience. What irony!

Atoms are unequal in weight, says M. Liebig, because unequal in volume: nevertheless, it is impossible to demonstrate that chemical equivalents express the relative weight of atoms, or, in other words, that what the calculation of atomic equivalents leads us to regard as an atom is not composed of several atoms. This is tantamount to saying that more matter weighs more than less matter; and, since weight is the essence of materiality, we may logically conclude that, weight being universally identical with itself, there is also an identity in matter; that the differences of simple bodies are due solely, either to different methods of atomic association, or to different degrees of molecular condensation, and that, in reality, atoms are transmutable: which M. Liebig does not admit.

“We have,” he says, “no reason for believing that one element is convertible into another element” (p. 135). What do you know about it? The reasons for believing in such a conversion can very well exist and at the same time escape your attention; and it is not certain that your intelligence in this respect has risen to the level of your experience. But, admitting the negative argument of M. Liebig, what follows? That, with about fifty-six exceptions, irreducible as yet, all matter is in a condition of perpetual metamorphosis. Now, it is a law of our reason to suppose in Nature unity of substance as well as unity of force and system; moreover, the series of chemical compounds and simple substances themselves leads us irresistibly to this conclusion. Why, then, refuse to follow to the end the road opened by science, and to admit an hypothesis which is the inevitable result of experience itself?

M. Liebig not only denies the transmutability of elements, but rejects the spontaneous formation of germs. Now, if we reject the spontaneous formation of germs, we are forced to admit their eternity; and as, on the other hand, geology proves that the globe has not been inhabited always, we must admit also that, at a given moment, the eternal germs of animals and plants were born, without father or mother, over the whole face of the earth. Thus, the denial of spontaneous generation leads back to the hypothesis of spontaneity: what is there in much-derided metaphysics more contradictory Let it not be thought, however, that I deny the value and certainty of chemical theories, or that the atomic theory seems to me absurd, or that I share the Epicurean opinion as to spontaneous generation. Once more, all that I wish to point out is that, from the point of view of principles, chemistry needs to exercise extreme tolerance, since its own existence depends on a certain number of fictions, contrary to reason and experience, and destructive of each other.

[5] Chemists distinguish between mixture and composition, just as logicians distinguish between the association of ideas and their synthesis. It is true, nevertheless, that, according to the chemists, composition may be after all but a mixture, or rather an aggregation of atoms, no longer fortuitous, but systematic, the atoms forming different compounds by varying their arrangement. But still this is only an hypothesis, wholly gratuitous; an hypothesis which explains nothing, and has not even the merit of being logical. Why does a purely numerical or geometrical difference in the composition and form of atoms give rise to physiological properties so different? If atoms are indivisible and impenetrable, why does not their association, confined to mechanical effects, leave them unchanged in essence? Where is the relation between the cause supposed and the effect obtained?

We must distrust our intellectual vision: it is with chemical theories as with psychological systems. The mind, in order to account for phenomena, works with atoms, which it does not and can never see, as with the me, which it does not perceive: it applies its categories to everything; that is, it distinguishes, individualizes, concretes, numbers, compares, things which, material or immaterial, are thoroughly identical and indistinguishable. Matter, as well as spirit, plays, as we view it, all sorts of parts; and, as there is nothing arbitrary in its metamorphoses, we build upon them these psychologic and atomic theories, true in so far as they faithfully represent, in terms agreed upon, the series of phenomena, but radically false as soon as they pretend to realize their abstractions and are accepted literally.

[6] The passage quoted may not be given in the exact words used by Malthus, it having reached its present shape through the medium of a French rendering — Translator.

[7] “The principle which governs the life of nations is not pure science: it is the total of the complex data which depend on the state of enlightenment, on needs and interests.” Thus expressed itself, in December, 1844, one of the clearest minds that France contained, M. Leon Faucher. Explain, if you can, how a man of this stamp was led by his economic convictions to declare that the complex data of society are opposed to pure science.

[8] “History of Public Credit.”

[9] In France, the sale of tobacco is a government monopoly. — Translator.

[10] A subtle philologist, M. Paul Ackermann, has shown, using the French language as an illustration, that, since every word in a language has its opposite, or, as the author calls it, its antonym, the entire vocabulary might be arranged in couples, forming a vast dualistic system. (See Dictionary of Antonyms. By PAUL ACKERMAN. Paris: Brockhaus & Avenarius. 1842)

[11] “Treatise on Political Economy.”

[12] Tocqueville, “Democracy in America.”

[13] Meeting of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, September, 1845.

[14] Journal des Economistes,” April, 1843.

[15] “The Liberty of Labor,” Vol. II, p. 80.

[16] In spite of the most approved authorities, I cannot accept the idea that serf, in Latin servus, was so called from servare, to keep, because the slave was a prisoner of war who was kept for labor. Servitude, or at least domesticity, is certainly prior to war, although war may have noticeably strengthened it. Why, moreover, if such was the origin of the idea as well as of the thing, should they not have said, instead of serv-us, serv-atus, in conformity with grammatical deduction? To me the real etymology is revealed in the opposition of serv-are and serv-ire, the primitive theme of which is ser-o in-stro, to join, to press, whence ser-ies, joint, continuity, Ser-a, lock, sertir, insert, etc. All these words imply the idea of a principal thing, to which is joined an accessory, as an object of special usefulness. Thence serv-ire, to be an object of usefulness, a thing secondary to another; serv-are, as we say to press, to put aside, to assign a thing its utility; serv-us, a man at hand, a utility, a chattel, in short, a man of service. The opposite of servus is dem-inus (dom-us, dom-anium, and domare); that is, the head of the household, the master of the house, he who utilizes men, servat, animals, domat, and things, possidet.That consequently prisoners of war should have been reserved for slavery, servati ad servitium, or rather serti ad glebam, is perfectly conceivable; their destiny being known, they have simply taken their name from it.

[17] A comparison of this passage, as given here, with the English translation of “What is Property” will show a marked variation in the language. This is explained by the fact that the author, in reproducing the passage, modified it considerably. The same is true of another quotation from the same work which will be found a few pages farther on. — Translator.

[18] This extract from Scott, as well as that from a parliamentary report cited a few paragraphs later, is here translated from the French, and presumably differs in form somewhat, therefore, from the original English. — Translator.

[19] The spinning-wheel is silent in the valley: family feelings are at an end. Over a little smoke the aged grandsire spreads his pale hands; and the empty hearth is as desolate as his heart. — Translator.

[20] Possibly these paragraphs will not be clear to all without the explanation that the form of association discussed in them, called in French the commandite, is a joint-stock company to which the shareholders simply lend their capital, without acquiring a share in the management or incurring responsibility for the results thereof. — Translator.

[21] Hunting, fishing, mining, — in short, the gathering of all natural products. — Translator.

[22] Little bones taken from the joints of animals and serving as playthings for children. — Translator.

[23] A tax whose total product is not fixed in advance, but depends upon the quantity of things or persons upon whom it happens to fall. — Translator.

[24] This sentence, as it stands, is unintelligible, and probably is not correctly quoted by Proudhon. At any rate, one of Garnier’s works contains a similar passage, which begins thus: “Given a levy of one on the area of the land, and lands of different qualities producing, the first eight, the second six, the third five, the tax will call for one-eighth,” etc. This is perfectly clear, and the circumstances supposed are aptly illustrative of Proudhon’s point. I should unhesitatingly pronounce it the correct version, except for the fact that Proudhon, in the succeeding paragraph, interprets Garnier as supposing income to be assessed instead of capital. — Translator.

[25] Thank heaven! the minister has settled the question, and I tender him my very sincere compliments. By the proposed tariff letter-postage will be reduced to 2 cents for distances under 12 1/2 miles; 4 cents, for distances between 12 1/2 and 25 miles; 6 cents, between 25 and 75 miles; 8 cents, between 75 and 225 miles; 10 cents, for longer distances.]

[26] The new law regarding service-books has confined the independence of workers within narrower limits. The democratic press has again thundered its indignation this subject against those in power, as if they had been guilty of anything more than the application of the principles of authority and property, which are those of democracy. What the Chambers have done in regard to service-books was inevitable, and should have been expected. It is as impossible for a society founded on the proprietary principle not to end in class distinctions as for a democracy to avoid despotism, for a religion to be reasonable, for fanaticism to show tolerance. This is the law of contradiction: how long will it take us to understand it?

[27] The crime makes the shame, and not the scaffold. — Translator.

[28] See volume II, chapter IX.

[29] Ibid., chapter X.

[30] Ibid., chapter XI.

[31] Date of the Napoleonic coup d’Etat, according to the revolutionary calendar.

[32] The Metaphysics of Morals [1.11]

[33] The Metaphysics of Morals 1.15. (Editor).

[34] “I possess because I possess”; “I possess because you possess” (Editor)

[35] A coupon is the amount of interest paid per year expressed as a percentage of the face value of a bond. A bond is, in finance, a debt security in which the issuer is the borrower (debtor) and the holder is the lender (creditor). (Editor)

[36] Proudhon writes “Il était le courtisan de la terre.” Courtesan historically referred to a courtier. However, these were often considered as insincere, skilled at flattery and intrigue, ambitious and lacking regard for the national interest and so, in French, courtesan figuratively means “sycophant.” (Editor)

[37] Proudhon is alluding to the Latin phrase “conubio iungam stabili propriamque dicabo” from Virgil’s epic, The Aeneid (4.126), in which the goddess Juno proposes to “consecrate” the passion of Dido for Aeneas through marriage, turning unstable passion into a stable bond of property. (Editor)

[38] Artaxerxes I was king of the Persian Empire from 464 BC to 424 BC. After Persia had been defeated at Eurymedon, Artaxerxes began to weaken the Athenians by funding their enemies in Greece. (Editor)

[39] Vincent de Paul (1581-1660) was a Catholic priest dedicated to serving the poor. He was canonised in 1737. (Editor)

[40] Harpagon was the name of the miser in Molière's comedy L'Avare (The Miser) (Editor)

[41] Perrin Dandin is a simple citizen in François Rabelais’ Third Book. He seats himself as a judge and passes offhand judgements in any matter of litigation. (Editor)

[42] Bertrand du Guesclin (1320-80), known as the Eagle of Brittany, was a Breton knight and French military commander during the Hundred Years' War. (Editor)

[43] This is an allusion to tradesmen who owned their own tools and took them in a bag or sack (“sac”) when they were dismissed from employment. Hence the expression “get the sack” which is derived from the 17th century French expression “On luy a donné son sac.” (Editor)

[44] There is a play-on-words in Proudhon’s “Chacun de vous porte dans son sac la verge qui sert à le corriger, et qui peut lui servir un jour à corriger les autre.” Corriger as well as meaning “to correct” also means “to give a good hiding to” or “to punish.” (Editor)

[45] Proudhon wrote: “Vous ne serez libres qu'après vous être rachetés, par l'asservissement de vos maîtres, de la servitude qu’ils font peser sur vous.” Racheter as well as meaning “to atone for” or “to redeem” also means “to buy” and he plays with this dual meaning. (Editor)

[46] “Thus I wish. Thus I command” (Editor)

[47] Licitation is sale to the highest bidder. (Translator)

[48] From the Latin Bible: “Jesus said to him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and with thy whole soul and with thy whole mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38). (Editor)

[49] A form of long-term lease that was an institution of Roman law (although derived from the Greek law) and found in French law. An owner of poorly cultivated land granted such leases so that a tenant would take on the task of improving the land. The tenant paid a small rent or canon for this right and the owner regained the land in its improved condition after a number of years. (Editor)

[50] See [Raymond-Théodore] Troplong, Contrat de Louage [Rental Contracts], volume 1st, in which he argues, alone among all the jurisconsults who are his precursors and contemporaries, and with reason, as we think, that in renting, the tenant acquires a right in the thing, and that the lease gives way immediately to a real and personal share.

[51] “even as though some force tearing earth apart should unlock the infernal house, and disclose the pallid realms abhorred of heaven, and deep down the monstrous gulf be descried where the ghosts flutter in the streaming daylight.” (Virgil, The Aeneid of Virgil [MacMillan and Co. Ltd: London, 1920], Translated by J. W. Mackail, Eighth Book, 178). (Editor)

[52] In Kantian philosophy, a thing as it is in itself, as distinct from a thing as it is knowable by the senses through phenomenal attributes. (Editor)

[53] Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Volume 1, Book I, Chapter 5, 34-5. The original text is used where appropriate, although Proudhon quotes a French translation which differs somewhat from the original. (Editor)

[54] Smith, Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter VI, 54-5. (Editor)

[55] Smith, Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter 6, 56. As before, Proudhon is quoting from a French translation and this ends with the words “Il faut qu'il paie pour avoir la permission. de les recueillir; c'est-à-dire qu'il paie au propriétaire une portion de ce qu'il recueille ou de ce qu'il produit, sans lui, par son travail”: “He must pay to have permission to collect them; that is to say, he pays the landlord a portion of what he collects or produces, without him, by his labour.” (Editor)

[56] A combination and slight re-organising of selections from The Wealth of Nations. The first sentence is from Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter 6 (57) while the rest is from Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter 9, with the second sentence originally appearing at the end of the rest of the passage. (110, 109-10). (Editor)

[57] In chapter VII, Proudhon writes of “great family of preventive, coercive, repressive, and vindictive institutions which A. Smith designated by the generic term police.” In other words, State power. (Editor)

[58] A paraphrase of Adam Smith: “the law, besides, authorises, or at least does not prohibit their combinations, while it prohibits those of the workmen […] Masters are always and everywhere in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform combination, not to raise the wages of labour above their actual rate. To violate this combination is everywhere a most unpopular action, and a sort of reproach to a master among his neighbours and equals […] The masters upon these occasions are just as clamorous upon the other side, and never cease to call aloud for the assistance of the civil magistrate, and the rigorous execution of those laws which have been enacted with so much severity against the combinations of servants, labourers, and journeymen.” (Volume 1, Part 1, Chapter 8, 74-6). (Editor)

[59] Smith, Volume 1, Book I, Chapter VIII, 72. Indicators of missing sentences have been added. (Editor)

[60] Hodgskins, Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter X, Recherches sur la nature et les causes de la richesse des nations (Paris: Chez Guillaumin Libraire, 1843), 132. (Editor)

[61] Smith, Volume 1, Book 1, Chapter 8, 88. (Editor)

[freddieraimbow74]

31 March 1974 - Queen’s first headlining gig at London’s historic Rainbow Theatre. This concert will forever remain an epic moment in the band’s incredible, five-decade-long rich history!

The show was properly recorded and was later proposed to be the band's first live album, but ultimately shelved. It was eventually released officially in 2014.

Queen quickly sold-out the 3000-seat Rainbow (which cost just £1.20 per ticket) marked a turning point in the young band’s career – and secured Queen as one of the era’s most exciting new acts.

Freddie is seen in an elegant new white outfit at the beginning of the show, created by designer Zandra Rhodes. Rhodes explained in 2013, "I hadn't designed any menswear before then, but I realised he'd need a flamboyant look. It was a very exotic time for me, I remember Queen gave me tickets to their show in London shortly after I’d made the first pieces for them. You could imagine that white top onstage and it was just absolutely amazing. It’s always wonderful when someone puts on your clothes and just feels lovely.”

Rhodes also said, “Freddie was a hidden revolutionary in the fact that he dressed exotically and wore make-up. I think he was probably one of the founders of the androgynous movement in fashion.... The thing that’s so fabulous, is that Freddie in my white pleated top went on to become one of the iconic images of him. It’s incredible to be part of that history!”

“We’d done our support tour and then promoter Mel Bush came to us – he was a pretty top promoter at the time – and he said ‘I think you guys can headline the next tour’, and we were surprised,” recalls Brian May in the mini-doc.

“I remember thinking ‘Wow, that’s very quick,’ because normally you would support a few acts and build a following, and then you would go on your headline tour. But he said ‘No, I feel you can do it, you can sell out all these places’ and he gave us a big list – Newcastle City Hall, Manchester’s Free Trade Hall or whatever, you know all the sort of classic gigs that rock bands do, and he said ‘you can fill all these and at the end, we’re going to do the Rainbow.’”

The adoring fans who turned up for this iconic performance could have predicted that Queen would go on to become arguably the world's best and most successful rock group, although many more may have suspected it after this stunning show.

Here is a review by Rosemary Horide, a major force behind Queen's early popularity:

"What a night! It was a finale of the big Queen tour throughout the whole country. It was the conclusive evening for their reputation. Their lift was meteorical. So many people had challenged if Queen had the authority to play in such a prestigious place as the Rainbow. Freddie appeared in his new specially eccentric white "eagle's" costume, bouncing and miming with even bigger ecstasy than ever and sang even better than any time before. One couldn't believe it's the first time of Queen appearing themselves in such an important place. After a while they got used to taking advantage of the big stage. After two encores they left the stage during a big applause of the audience."

This phenomenal performance showcases Queen at their loudest, Rawest and heaviest. Roger Taylor is downright frenetic at times, his fills rolling like boulders. John Deacon is predominately a fingerstyle player With his solid and inspirational playing that helped them all to shine. And of course Brian May’s musicianship is precise and masterly, and the harmonious, melodic chemistry between himself and Freddie is undeniable. There’s no one quite like Freddie as his voice was electrifying and soothing like fine silk. A must watch concert for everyone.

In a 1975 interview Roger Taylor explained their choice of attire: "It provides a good contrast, I think, on stage. We like most of the actual colour, apart from the extremes of black and white, to come from the lights on stage" (in a mid-80s interview John Deacon reminisced about how Freddie and Brian dominated the songwriting in the early days but that Roger was very involved "on behalf of the overall image of the band and how to actually be a successful rock band").

After the show, a teenaged Simon Townshend, younger brother of The Who's Pete Townshend, told Freddie Mercury backstage that Queen were "much better than my brother's band." Freddie was thrilled with the compliment, even coming from a 13 year old. Interestingly enough, in a 2005 Uncut interview, Brian May declared his belief that The Who were the better of the two bands.

Many years later, Brian May reflected on playing the Rainbow: "We had a dim, distant vision of what Madison Square Garden might be like in America, but really no idea of what it was." He added, "After that, everything was a bonus. Everything was something which I had never even dreamed about."

The next time Queen would perform at The Rainbow was in November during their ‘Sheer Heart Attack’ tour and due to popular demand, a second sold-out night was added.