#delusional posting tbh

[heartscrypt]

Hii! I have a question about your thoughts on jamiazu.

Do you think that Azul would ever be able to confess any romantic feelings for Jamil? If so, how? And if not, would they be able to get together in any other way?

Sorry if this is a weird question, just curious.

thanks for your question! it is SO not weird at all i really enjoy stuff like this. actually i am going to go on a huge ramble that goes on a little tangent so like. LONG POST AHEAD!!!! be warned!!!!!

anyways. azul is always confessing his romantic feelings for jamil whether he knows it or not. in every interaction. because he's so damn obvious. hope this helps LOL

in all seriousness though. i really like to think that azul is kind of cursed to be a hopeless romantic despite it going against all of his pragmatic sense. i mean. he's a child of divorce who hates leaving things up to chance and he believes in getting something back whenever he gives something away. being head over heels with someone goes against his whole nature, so i think it's definitely a new thing for him. he won't recognize that his feelings are romantic right away because he'll be too busy trying to justify to himself why he's investing so much time and energy into a guy that Clearly wants nothing to do with him and won't give him the time of day. its business, guys, i swear.... stonks.....

i think once he does come to terms with it though. it starts leaking through in Every Interaction he has w/jamil. in every encounter, azul basically ends up saying I Love You without actually ever speaking it out loud. whether it's through his actions (like getting jamil gifts / offering to help out without any genuine expectation of repayment) or or his words (like implying things about them being good together / complimenting jamil excessively). things he did before he realized, but they just have so much more Weight to them now that he Knows he likes the other in a very Non-Platonic-Business-Partners way. he doesn't intend for it to have that emotional weight but its fucking impossible for him to hide and he does NOT know what to do with himself.

he keeps pushing forward regardless because some part of him hopes that his feelings will reach jamil but he also does it with the expectation that jamil will push back like he always has and that's completely fine by him because never actually directly admitting that these feelings are romantic means that the rejections also stay platonic and that is. Way easier to bounce back from. because god forbid jamil sees at who he is behind all the walls he's put up to protect his most vulnerable and emotional self and ends up hating the real azul too.

tl;dr: i don't think azul would go out of his way to make a real, honest confession of his feelings. but he's so obvious it actually hurts to watch

---

ok so. as for jamiazu get-together:

maybe im like super biased b/c im a sucker for narratives that involve jamil learning to shake his passivity and going ahead and Taking what he wants. but i always think that any scenario where jamiazu gets together has to be initiated by jamil somehow. azul can make the first move and several moves after that but jamil has to be the one to make the Final move if that makes sense.

i don't have like. one set get-together scenario but i have a couple that i like to rotate in my head sometimes. most of them involve azul being a failgirl and getting caught off guard because i think it's funny and jamil also thinks it's funny. here are two for your viewing pleasure:

azul makes a pass at jamil that is romantic-coded but could be interpreted as platonic. jamil seizes the opportunity to turn it Explicitly into a romantic thing and fluster azul to no end about it.

azul: there's a new tasting menu at the mostro lounge if you'd like to come with me and try, i'd love to see what your discerning palette makes of it ^__^!

jamil, very casually: yeah sure. why not. i'll go on a date with you

azul, who did NOT expect a yes so his head is about to explode in t-minus 5 seconds: oh, uh. that's .fantastic, actually— wait. ....DATE?!?!?;!?

jamil corners azul and admits romantic feelings first. bonus points if it's a situation where any romantic confession would be incredibly out of the blue. and the way that jamil says it is like dropping a bomb on azul

like in potions lab. azul's concentrating very hard on pouring an exact amount of a substance. jamils watching him and at some point out of nowhere he breaks the silence in between them by going "i think i like you. in the romantic sense". azul's concentration snaps immediately and he fumbles the beaker into the cauldron out of sheer WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING. it explodes in both of their faces. they both have no chance to address what jamil said because crewel is chewing them out for the next 15 minutes about lab safety. during the entire 15 minutes azul looks like he's been hit over the head with several bricks. Repeatedly. jamil's smirking the whole time though he dgaf. takes pleasure in flustering azul

anyways. im insane about these guys ♥️ if you stuck around and read the entire post im really sorry for writing so much i just have a lot of thoughts

[skitskatdacat63]

Okay now where's the Seb teddy bear so I can make them kiss each other!?

+

[socialbunny]

 Skip has always found a way to work through his problems and turn them around with relative ease, but the sudden death of his wife, Brandi, has brought his mostly carefreeness towards his children  to a stand-still. With two freshly traumatized children and a newborn under his belt, can Skip juggle turning his shitty ass life around for his family, or will he crumble under the weight of his past mistakes?

Darleen hasn’t been the same since her husband, Darren, died, though she’d be quick to argue with you if you said anything of the sort. She’s FINE! She misses her husband, undoubtedly, but she’s not going to let that very, very, very tiny thing wreck her whole life, and she’s not going to let people give her grief about ANYTHING. Sure, she got fired from her job a few months back and hasn’t made any strides to find a new one, and she’s losing touch with her son as she goes and squanders all her responsibilities by partying and drinking on par with younger years, aaaaaaaaaaaaand the almost obsessive idealistic crush she’s developed on her neighbor is clouding the second half of her judgment, but she’s bounced back from worse and knows everything’s going to come up Darleen :) …………. hopefully

[angelsdean]

I need people to understand how S&P (standards and practices) works in television and how much influence they have over what gets to stay IN an episode of a show and how the big time network execs are the ones holding the purse strings and making final decisions on a show's content, not the writers / showrunners / creatives involved.

So many creators have shared S&P notes over the years of the wild and nonsensical things networks wanted them to omit / change / forbid. Most famously on tumblr, I've seen it so many times, is the notes from Gravity Falls. But here's a post compiling a bunch of particularly bad ones from various networks too. Do you see the things they're asking to be changed / cut ?

Now imagine, anything you want to get into your show and actually air has to get through S&P and the network execs. A lot of creators have had to resort to underhanded methods. A lot of creators have had to relegate things to subtext and innuendo and scenes that are "open to interpretation" instead of explicit in meaning. Things have had to be coded and symbolized. And they're relying on their audience to be good readers, good at media literacy, to notice and get it. This stuff isn't the ramblings of conspiracy theorists, it's the true practices creatives have had to use to be able to tell diverse stories for ages. The Hays Code is pretty well known, it exists because of censorship. It was a way to symbolize certain things and get past censors.

Queercoding, in particular, has been used for ages in both visual media and literature do signal to queer audiences that yes, this character is one of us, but no, we can't be explicit about it because TPTB won't allow it. It's a wink-wink, nudge-nudge to those in the know. It's the deliberate use of certain queer imagery / clothing / mannerisms / phrases / references to other queer media / subtle glances and lingering touches. Things that offer plausible deniability and can be explained away or go unnoticed by straight audiences to get past those network censors. But that queer viewers WILL (hopefully) pick up on.

Because, unfortunately, still to this day, a lot of antiquated network execs don't think queer narratives are profitable. They don't think they'll appeal to general audiences, because that's what matters, whatever appeals to most of the audience demographic so they can keep watching and keep making the network more money. The networks don't care about telling good stories! Most of them are old white cishet business men, not creatives. They don't care about character arcs and what will make fans happy. They don't care about storytelling. What they care about is profit and they're basing their ideas of what's profitable on what they believe is the predominate target demographic, usually white cis heterosexual audiences.

So, imagine a show that started airing in the early 2000s. Imagine a show where the two main characters are based on two characters from a famous Beat Generation novel, where one of the characters is queer! based on a real like bisexual man! The creator is aware of this, most definitely. And sure, it's 2005, there's no way they were thinking of making that explicit about Dean in the text because it just wouldn't fly back then to have a main character be queer. But! it's made subtext. And there are nods to that queerness placed in the text. Things that are open to interpretation. Things that are drenched in metaphor (looking at you 1x06 Skin "I know I'm a freak" "maybe this thing was born human but was different...hated. Until he learned to become someone else.") Things that are blink-and-you-miss-it and left to plausible deniability (things like seemingly spending an hour in the men's bathroom, or always reacting a little vulnerable and awkward when you're clocked instead of laughing it off and making a homophobic joke abt it)

And then, years later there's a ship! It's popular and at first the writers aren't really seriously thinking about it but they'll throw the fans a bone here and there. Then, some writers do get on the destiel train and start actively writing scenes for them that are suggestive. And only a fraction of what they write actually makes it into the text. So many lines left on the cutting room floor: i love past you. i forgive you i love you. i lost cas and it damn near broke me. spread cas's ashes alone. of course i wanted you to stay. if cas were here. -- etc. Everything cut was not cut by the writers! Why would a writer write something to then sabotage their own story and cut it? No, these are things that didn't make it past the network. Somewhere a note was made maybe "too gay" or "don't feed the shippers" or simply "no destiel."

So, "no destiel." That's pretty clearly the message we got from the CW for years. "No destiel. Destiel will alienate our general audience. Two of our main characters being queer? And in a relationship? No way." So what can the pro-destiel creatives involved do, if the network is saying no? What can the writers do if most of their explicit destiel (or queer dean) lines / moments are getting cut? Relegate things to subtext. Make jokes that straight people can wave off but queer people can read into. Make costuming and set design choices that the hardcore fans who are already looking will notice while the general audience and the out-of-touch network execs won't blink and eye at (I'm looking at you Jerry and your lamps and disappearing second nightstands and your gay flamingo bar!)

And then, when the audience asks, "is destiel real? is this proof of destiel?" what can the creatives do but deny? Yes, it hurts, to be told "No no I don't know what you're talking about. There's no destiel in supernatural" a la "there is no war in Ba Sing Se" but! if the network said "no destiel!" and you and your creative team have been working to keep putting destiel in the subtext of the narrative in a way that will get past censors, you can't just go "Yes, actually, all that subtext and symbolism you're picking up, yea it's because destiel is actually in the narrative."

But, there's a BIG difference between actively putting queer themes and subtext into the narrative and then saying it's not there (but it is! and the audience sees it!) versus NOT putting any queer content into the text but SAYING it is there to entice queer fans to continue watching. The latter, is textbook queerbaiting. The former? Is not. The former is the tactics so many creatives have had to use for years, decades, centuries, to get past censorship and signal to those in the know that yea, characters like you are here, they exist in this story.

Were the spn writers perfect? No, absolutely not. And I don't think every instance of queer content was a secret signal. Some stuff, depending on the writer, might've been a period-typical gay joke. These writers are flawed. But it's no secret that there were pro-destiel writers in the writing room throughout the years, and that efforts were made to make it explicitly canon (the market research!)

So no, the writers weren't ever perfect or a homogeneous entity. But they definitely were fighting an uphill battle constantly for 15 yrs against S&P and network execs with antiquated ideas of what's profitable / appealing.

Spn even called out the networks before, on the show, using a silly example of complaints abt the lighting of the show and how dark the early seasons were. Brightening the later seasons wasn't a creative choice, but a network choice. And if the networks can complain abt and change something as trivial as the lighting of a show, they definitely are having a hand in influencing the content of the show, especially queer content.

Even in s15, (seasons fifteen!!!) Misha has said he worried Castiel's confession would not air. In 2020!!! And Jensen recorded that scene on his personal phone! Why? Sure, for the memories. But also, I do not doubt for a second that part of it was for insurance, should the scene mysteriously disappear completely. We've seen the finale script. We've seen the omitted omitted omitted scenes. We all saw how they hacked the confession scene to bits. The weird cuts and close-ups. That's not the writers doing. That's likely not even the editors (willingly). That's orders from on high. All of the fuckery we saw in s15 reeks of network interference. Writers are not trying to sabotage their own stories, believe me.

Anyways, TLDR: Networks have a lot more power than many think and they get final say in what makes it to air. And for years creative teams have had to find ways to get past network censorship if they want "banned" or "unapproved" "unprofitable" "unwanted" content to make it into the show. That means relying on techniques like symbolism, subtext, and queercoding, and then shutting up about it. Denying its there, saying it's all "open to interpretation" all while they continue to put that open to interpretation content into the show. And that's not queerbaiting, as frustrating as it might be for queer audiences to be told that what they're seeing isn't there, it's still not queerbaiting. Queerbaiting is a marketing technique to draw in queer fans by baiting them with the promise of queer content and then having no queer content in said media. But if you are picking up on queer themes / subtext / symbolism / coding that is in front of your face IN the text, that's not queerbaiting. It's there, covertly, for you, because someone higher up didn't want it to be there explicitly or at all.

[johnslittlespoon]

– order up, i'm hot to go! 🌟

[nevarroes]

‎

[oc3anic-ang3l]

[texting]

Nico: what’s a conspiracy theory you guys believe in?

Percy: every time a new chicken sandwich releases

Nico: what?

Jason: the CIA got him before he could finish 

[avocado-frog]

Man I hate being able to read

[whitehairedanimeboyfriend]

I feel like even in trans positive spaces trans men are seen as less authentic than trans women, because we supposedly have something to gain by transitioning or wanting to be men. (social power.) It's reflective of how we look at historical people that by today's standards we would see as trans men (Joan of Arc) or fictional characters that live as men while secretly being women. (Naoto from Persona, Sheik from Zelda.) And this is going to be an uphill battle until we get rid of gender essentialism in our spaces completely.

[swordfright]

happy birthday!! for your consideration: daedalus arc but c!sam and c!dream are privately spending the whole time both talking themselves into and out of weird powerplay sex

Much to consider! On one hand, so much of Dream's behavior in Daedalus is grounded in treating Sam much better than he was treated, which you'd think would rule out dubcon. Wouldn't weird powerplay sex defeat the point that Dream's trying to make? On the other hand, if we're to assume the weird powerplay sex did already happen during Dream's own incarceration and that he's convinced himself he did in fact consent during that period...denying Sam that same agency now would be hypocritical, right? Not to mention it would imply something unsavory about Dream's own (in)ability to consent in prison.

Other things to consider. If Dream offered the warden everything he could give, the warden's acceptance is an implicit admission: he wanted what was offered. With that in mind, I think one of the cruelest (and most effective) things Dream could do when their positions are reversed during Daedalus would be to turn Sam down! Not that I think Sam would offer in the first place tbh. That's Dream's job.

A final thing to consider: maybe the weird powerplay sex doesn't happen but Dream shows up in progressively more and more revealing clothing each day. As a show of ill will.

All this to say: no matter what happens, the internal monologues would be BONKERS.

[walking-dead-girrl]

im sorry but in the beginning of the heathers movie veronica and heather c act so much like bitter frenemies who hooked up once & theyʻre both petty about it its insane

[hrzwrm]

i'm literally going insane about the symbolic potential around Warden's gloves and glasses. like. yellow is the primary color of his silly little coping mechanism escapist amusement park that he fortified away from the rest of the world. it's the color of his custom-built, 100% hand-made mirage where he is always in full control. he's so firmly stuck in his own delusional perception that his actual vision is tinted and warped by it. yellow. it's all fucking yellow. he literally can't see the world for what it is and that's by design because who is forcing him to wear those dumb glasses? and motherfucker even wears them to sleep like are you kidding me?? not a single second spent outside of the safety of his personal fantasy, not a single second spent confronted with the horrors he's been surrounded with from childhood and continues to choose to be surrounded with. always a layer of canary away from life as it is. and the fucking gloves, too!! this marker of distance and sterility on a guy with a moral superiority complex who, due to his holier-than-thou coping mechanism narcissism, isolates himself from everyone around him because they're beneath him or some shit when in reality he's desperate desperate desperate for connection and terrified of being abandoned but can't fucking admit it or achieve any form of human proximity because of his patrilineal brain damage that dictates that big strong manboys can't have feelings and because women are a foreign concept to him and he's "better than" everyone anyway. and the empathy has been pavloved out of him one dead puppy at a time. so he wears the goddamn gloves and he wears them to sleep and he wears them when he's supposed to be intimate with someone. he's removed himself from everything and everyone and he's ruining his life, and the lives of all those he holds hostage so that he doesn't end up alone, because of it but he can't help himself because he's so thoroughly and intentionally wrapped up in his own bullshit that he keeps reinforcing in a never ending cycle of his own creation. FUCK!!!!

yes, i'm reading too much into the stupid joke character from the stupid joke show, thank you for asking <3

[merevide]

one thing about nat is that she will always threaten her exes girlfriends with some sort of weapon. at least once.

[chirpsythismorning]

I hate when ppl (mainly other bylers) talk about how bylers are focusing too much on fanon or that ppl are picking and choosing evidence or that we're reaching too far with theories. Like.. I see their point I really do and I get annoyed about some of that stuff too but at the end of the day I'm here for a fun time not a long time.

btw im living for your asks

Thank you 😊

It just feels invalidating from other bylers especially, bcs like, you know what we’ve been through.

It’s not always about focusing on the most standard obvious evidence all the time. We would have nothing to talk about at this point if that was the case. It’s nice to have a variety of posts circulating, some discussing the main ideas supporting it, as well as all the theories and analysis and art and wips and just everything.

I don’t make posts to be palatable for byler antis bc to them nothing about byler is palatable. They don’t like the obvious evidence and they don’t like the far fetched theories. To them it’s all one in the same.

And so I don’t see a point in stifling things I think or want to talk about, on the basis it makes us look delusional or something. If I think something is compelling based on a lot of subtexual and/or textual evidence, I’m gonna talk about it.

Even I sometimes see a theory that I think personally is far fetched and then I follow it up by moving on. Like it doesn’t make me get the urge to send them an ask on anon where I tell them as such.

There are some theories that blow up tho, with some insisting it’s all coincidence and means nothing, but I don’t think that would be the case every single time, if so many people are going wow that makes sense and are agreeing and resonating with it. Like it’s not like we have maybe a couple hundred posts, there are thousands upon thousands of really articulate and complex posts breaking stuff down. Some of that could be nonsense, but all of it can’t.

I think that’s what also upsets some people, like if what you don’t subscribe to blows up, then a sort of defense mechanism is to try to tear that down bc it forces you to second guess yourself.

But theories will not hurt you for being discussed. And in the case they do hurt you, block.

Otherwise, let the freaks do their business.

[fromtheseventhhell]

George making an announcement for a new cookbook...it really feels like he's playing in our faces on purpose at this point

[ackergarden]

A what if? Olka Gretcher being on a volume cover... (because i’m in absolute mourning after episode 9!)

okay but like hear me out… olka gretcher comeback in the future. she gets on a volume cover. it’s going to be her standing with a mirror parallel to her. she’d be looking straight at the camera (breaking the fourth wall) and she’ll be in her original appearance; black hair in a low ponytail, collared t-shirt, with denim jeans.

behind her is basically a wanted poster of her and gram junior, the bounty on her head of 400,000 dalc highlighted over their heads.

headlines of the gretcher crime family in the country and all they’ve done to keep their underworld glory. how they’ve gained thousands of supporters that go against the oppressive regime.

mugshots of her family that’s been eliminated (her father, her two brothers, her late husband) posted on a corkboard. in her hand, she would be carrying a portrait of her late family—herself, her husband, and gram junior. but her late husband’s face was ripped out/charred, symbolizing his death.

in that picture that reminds olka of her family – physically gone but will always be with her – was what made her stronger.