#ep: faith 7

[random-fandom-whump]

Graceland S02E13 ↳ RFW's Favorite Graceland Whump Moments

[coconut530]

BITTERSWEET REUNIONS

[thatgirl4815]

Gloomy ramble ahead, sorry! The only thing giving me hope right now is that in literally the first millisecond of the extended ep 8 preview, when Ray asks if they can still be friends, he really doesn't look happy. It's not being played as a 'come on now, let's all get along' moment, he doesn't look flippant or sulky or whiny - he looks desperate. I think strangely enough what's got me most down about the Ray/Mew development is that it makes Boston appear to be right about Ray's motivations in ep 6, and yet I genuinely don't think that's why Ray told Mew about the cheating, and I still believe Ray was being honest when he said he didn't expect to get anything out of it, and that in that moment he really was removing himself from the whole equation. So in that respect it feels like a massive step backwards (though I do understand the view that for Ray/Sand to ultimately pan out, this is something that needs to happen, otherwise the spectre of Mew and what ifs would always loom over them). And as much as everyone talks about Ray not sparing Sand a moment's thought as soon as Mew opens up, it's equally true that when Ray is spending time with Sand, he doesn't appear to be giving Mew a moment's thought either, until he's forcibly reminded of him (ending of eps 3 and 5). So is he just super good at compartmentalising? Does he just grab onto any affection offered to him at any given moment? I think the cutting/editing of scenes is making me feel more wary about the outcome than I otherwise would be because I'm feeling acutely conscious of how many eps are left and how much (or little) screentime Sand/Ray (and Sand on his own) have had of late, and I very much DO want them to have a happy (or at least open but pointing that way) ending, and a LOT needs to happen (Ray getting over Mew, Sand's ex, Ray realising how he feels bout Sand and making up for his behaviour, Ray accepting he has a substance abuse problem and wanting (and hopefully getting) help for it) before that can be a possibility, and with the screentime ratio the way it has been, at this rate I don't see how they could fit it all in in a satisfactory manner. But I still want to believe! I'm still holding out for a finale timeskip wherein Sand picks Ray up from rehab and whisks him off to Chiang Mai so the series can end with them sipping non-alcoholic beverages beneath the stars!

I am clinging desperately to the hope that Sand and Ray will be together happily in the end. I do remember one interview/livestream (?) where Khaotung mentioned that everyone will come to terms with their true feelings. So that alone is giving me hope, and I'm going to choose to believe that's in relation to Ray's feelings for Sand.

About Boston seemingly being proven right...I agree with you that I don't think Ray was telling Mew the truth because he thought it would increase his chances of being with Mew (I'm sure that occurred to him, but I don't think it was his primary motivator). Tbh, I think Ray would have survived in the friendzone with Mew, and I think he'd even started to resign himself to it, until Mew opened up that possibility. That's the most important thing in my mind: Mew is the one who brought up the state of their relationship, not Ray. Ray wasn't going to push it until Mew gave him the opportunity to ask if they could be something more.

Another thing giving me hope is as you mentioned; we've seen this dynamic play out pretty often. It's certainly not ideal, but if Ray wasn't in a relationship with Mew at any point, I truly don't think he would ever be able to move on from him. He might come close, but there would always be a part of him harboring that unrequited crush, wondering what could've been. It's interesting to me also that Ray's crush seems to go back to Mew 'saving his life,' when in fact Sand has also saved his life on multiple occasions (different situations, but the effect is similar). I do understand that the situation with Mew 2 years ago lingers with Ray so much because in it, Ray seemed to be making the conscious deciding to end his own life.

And yeah, Ray doesn't look pleased in the Ep8 preview. Not at all. Which begs the question: If Ray really was so head-over-heels for Mew, why would he care who Sand is involved with? I think his possessiveness is about more than just egotism.

I do think Ray is so desperate for affection that it made it easy for him to develop feelings for Sand. But I also don't think that is the only reason why he appears to be all-in on Sand whenever they're alone together. It's a catalyst for those feelings to develop, but I don't think it tells the full story (or at least, I'd like to hope it doesn't).

Finally, this ep seemed most focused on Mew's revenge plot, which might mean that the next ep will be devoted to the other characters. Again, I'm just clinging onto what Khao said about the characters working through their feelings. (But if they do not go to Chiang Mai together in the end, that will be a giant missed opportunity imo haha.)

[peacereturnedtothevalley]

/

[autotrophwannabe]

God the last three weeks with ofmd have been so we’re so back it’s so over meme.

[neverqueen]

There's a Mickey Mouse Funhouse episode directly parodying the first tinkerbell movie and knowing Disney yeeted the franchise is making this light episode directed at small children completely infuriate me lol

[atlasshrugd]

nothing in television can beat the ep 7 bathroom scene, i’ve realised. it’s that simple.

[sweet-sixteen-kraang-birthday]

rewatching that scnee again just for the delight and wait there was LITERALLY no reason for scales to hold pythor’s hand, cuz skales was literally standing up just fine………….HELD PYHOR’S HAND JUST FOR THE SAKE OF IY………maybe skales wanted to say. if u want to do better. how about if we get married. maybe the “tussle” was that they were exes. ANYWAYS (delusional) u see skales’ heart break the moment pythor SCREAMS, with literally all the snakes heart, “get ur hands off me!!!!!!!” anyways. wow! I’m so into this ship! PYTHOR/SCALES FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[midnightcarp]

bruh the by the grace of the gods anime did both the light novels and manga so dirty

[artbyblastweave]

I think about Star Wars a lot more than I post about Star Wars, and I've had some free time recently to type up some thoughts on Episode 7 that've been swirling around in my head for a couple of years. There were a few ideas and plot beats, and moments of apparent self-examination in Episode 7 which I thought were fairly compelling, even though they ultimately paid no dividends:

First was Finn’s character concept. “Star Wars as experienced from the perspective of a Stormtrooper undergoing a crisis of faith” is a rich hook; humanizing and giving a face to what's basically the platonic implementation of the faceless mook. Unfortunately, the potency of the arc was undercut by the pre-existing textual ambiguity as to what stormtroopers actually are. Star Wars extended canon has settled on the idea that each trilogy features an entirely novel cohort of white-clad mooks, each with a fundamentally different underlying dynamic. The clones and the First-Order forces are different flavors of slave army; in contrast, the stormtroopers are more frequently portrayed in the expanded universe as military careerists, stormtrooper being a thing you work up to rather than a gig for a fresh conscript. A slave-soldier who defects is a very different character from a military careerist who defects, and they invite different analysis. There's a bait-and-switch going on here, in that Finn gestures in the direction of the familiar OT stormtroopers but can't comment on or examine them because he's actually part of a novel dynamic invented for the new movies. And there's one final nail in the coffin here, signaled by the number of times I've had to invoke the expanded universe so far. When Finn debuted, the racists were of course, legion, but I also ran into a number of people who were sincerely confused as to why they'd recast Temuera Morrison. Going off the seven films that existed at the time, it wasn't unreasonable to read the prequel trilogy as an origin story for where the OT stormtroopers came from. Going only off the nine films that exist now, it still isn't unreasonable! It's muddied from so many different directions by their failure to establish the ground rules in the mainline films before they tried to put on subversive airs about it. I am still irritated by this.

Next up is how Han Solo was written. I actually liked the tack they took with him quite a bit. Because initially, right, his role in the movie is just to be Han Solo. He's back, and he hasn't changed! He's still kicking ass and taking names, he's still the lovable scoundrel you knew and loved from your childhood- and the principle cast members react to his presence with the same reverence the film's trying to invoke in the audience, they've grown up hearing the same stories about him. Except that episode 7, at least, is also very aware of the fact that if Han Solo is still recognizably the same guy thirty years on, it indicates that things have gone totally off the rails for him. We find out that the lovable rogue routine is the result of him backsliding, his happy ending blown up by massive personal tragedy rooted in communicative failures and (implicitly) his parental shortcomings. It feels deliberately in conversation with the nostalgic impulse driving the entire film- here's your childhood hero back just as you remember, here's what that stagnation costs. And it also feels like it's in conversation with what was a fairly common strain of Han Solo Take- the idea that Ep. 6 cuts off at a very convenient point, and that Han and Leia's fly-by-night wartime relationship wouldn't survive the rigors of domesticity. Obviously, that's not the only direction you can take with the character; the old EU basically threaded the needle of keeping Han recognizable without rolling back his character development gains. But it felt like they were actually committing to a direction, a direction that was aware of the space, and not a reflexively deferential and flattering one, which at the time I appreciated! The problem, of course, is that for it to really land, you need to have a really, really strong idea of what actually went down-of what Han's specific shortcomings and failures were. And given the game of ping-pong they proceeded to play with Kylo Ren's characterization, this turned out to be. Less than doable.

Kylo Ren is the third thing about Episode 7 that I liked. His character concept is basically an extended admission by the filmmakers that there's no way to top Vader as an antagonist. Instead, they lean into the opposite direction- they make him underwhelming on purpose. Someone who's chasing Vader's legacy in the same way any post-OT Star Wars villain is going to, pursuing Vader's aesthetic and the associated power without really understanding or undergoing the convoluted web of suffering and dysfunction that produced Vader. It's framed as a genuine twist that there's nothing particularly wrong with his face under that helmet. Whatever it takes to be Vader, he doesn't have it, and he knows that he doesn't have it, and the pursuit of it drives him to greater and greater acts of cartoonish villainy. The failure to one-up Vader is offloaded to the character instead of the writers, and it was genuinely interesting to watch. For one movie. The problem, of course, is that if the entire character archetype is "Vader, but less compelling," you can't try to give the bastard Vader's exact character arc. You can't retroactively bolt on a Vader-tier tragic backstory when you spent a whole movie signaling that whatever happened to him wasn't as compelling as what happened to Vader. You can't milk his angst for two more movies when it's the kind of angst on display in "Rocking the Suburbs" by Ben Folds!

There's a level on which I feel like Moff Gideon was a semi-successful implementation of Vader-Wannabe concept; he's the same kind of middling operator courting the Vader Aesthetic for clout, but he's doing it in the context of the imperial warlord era, where there's a lot of practical power available to anyone who can paint themselves to the Imperial Remnants as a plausible successor to Vader. Hand in Hand with this obvious politicking, Gideon is loathsome, which relieves the writers of the burden of having to plausibly redeem the guy; he's doing exactly what he needs to do and there'll never be a mandate to expand him beyond what his characterization can support. Unfortunately, the calculated and cynical nature of how he's emulating Vader precludes the immaturity and hero-worship elements on display with Kylo, which is unfortunate; the sincerity on display in Kylo's pursuit of authenticity is an important part of why he worked, to the extent that he worked at all, and it'd be worth unpacking in a better trilogy. As he stands Kylo is a clever idea, and that's all he is- he lacks the scaffolding to go from merely clever to actively good.

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - Japan is Winning on Kisses & Other Alternate Realities

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

March 2024 Wk 4

Ongoing Series - Thai

Two Worlds (Thurs IQIYI) ep 3 of 10 - It would be great if we got the alternative romance with dead Kram from Tai’s perspective (JBL style.) Still I like this show. It’s a little bit like I Feel You Linger in the Air only with a love triangle. And while I'm not a fan of triangles as a general rule, I don’t mind it here because the set up is clever. Wayu and  ao are fun sides too. It sure is moving very quickly, which I like. I’m not entirely sure what’s going on. But that’s normal for me with this kind of Thai drama. 

Deep Night (Thurs iQiyi) ep 4 of 8 - They are extremely sappy boyfriends. I love that mom has a secret gf. Could we please have more of them? The love triangle sides are ridiculous, but I do like that it’s all out in the open. I also like they are actually addressing the complicated parental dynamics of owning a sex club. Honestly, I think Khem should have to be a host too. Learn him the right way, girl!

City of Stars (Fri iQIYI) ep 9 of 12 - It’s good, I like the fallout and them actually having to deal with crazy fans and past relationships. They’re so good at communicating it’s kind of a pleasure to watch them suffer through external pressures, because I have faith that they can make it through.

To Be Continued (Thai C3 Thailand grey) ep 6 of 8 - They are such cute puppy dads and so clearly meant to be together, the fact that they aren’t is just frustrating. The fight thing was stupid. And not a whole lot happened... plus singing. I’m getting fatigued with this one. 

1000 Years Old ep 7 of 12 - Did I miss something happening, or did nothing happen? 

Kiseki Chapter 2 (Sun iQIYI) ep 2 of 6 - It’s so boring, there’s so much guitar playing, and it got weirdly voyeuristic (in a very much not sexy way). I’m totally out. DNF

Close Friend Season 3: Soju Bomb! (Weds iQIYI) ep 3 of 6 - I can’t tell if this is trying to be a BL Romancing the Stone, or a BL Hangover, or both. The problem with situational comedy is it must be both situational and comedic, not just option one. The problem with calling something BL, is that it must be BL. This show got 1 of 3 claims correct. 33% is not a passing grade. DNF 

Honestly, it's the HANDS with these two. They do beautiful beautiful things with their hands. If you're one of those hands-obsessed BLabies you should be watching LIBTSTA!

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Unknown (Taiwan Tues Youku YouTube & Viki) ep 6 of 11 - So the worst finally happened. The mountain of pain has fallen down upon us. And now, hopefully in the second half things get better for our boys. But what a rough ride. Normally, this is not my style of BL, but everyone is doing such a gorgeous job with it, I can’t fault it… except that it hurts. The red thread symbolism was elegantly done. I’d like to hope we get a reunion in the next one, but knowing this style of series they’re gonna draw it out. There's gonna be a more pain first.

Love is Better the Second Time Around AKA Koi wo Suru nara Nidome ga Joto (Japan Weds Gaga) ep 4 of 6 - Those fuck me puppy dog eyes were perfectly executed. I would not have been able to resist either. Gosh they are so damn cute. This is a great show.

Jazz for Two (Korea Gaga/grey) eps 1-2 of 8 - This comes from the Shoulder to Cry On team so I'm scared, but this one is all actors* not idols so maybe they'll be braver. Boy howdy does it have a fantastic opening sequence. Also the lead is fucking adorable. Mr Broody McBroodypants is cute too. Korea sure loves “pretty but broken.” On the JBL end of the spectrum, is everyone in love with their siblings? That’s weird. The dining room scene was painful. All in all, it's good, I'm intrigued. Let's see how you go little show.

I stand absolutely corrected the lead is a member of NEWKIDD (in my defense I'd never heard of them until Build Up last month). I did recognize him from To My Star because at the time I thought he was too pretty to be only a side character.

AntiReset (Taiwan Fri Viki/Gaga) ep 10 fin - Again there was overuse of previous footage and maudlin navel-gazing grief over something we knew was going to happen. So I didn’t really feel much emotional connection to the drama. 7 year time gap.? t was a cute reunion but the moral quandary never really got resolved. I don’t know how to rate this, I’m not sure I will ever watch it again, so that is a big mark against it.

There’s nothing objectively wrong with this BL except how upsetting it is because of the foundational pygmalion story - grown man falls in love with an android who is basically both his slave and, by maturity level, a child. Yet that premise is crystal clear from the get go, so we watch it eyes open. The actors are cute, the romance sweet, the physical chemistry on point (of course, it’s Taiwan) and yet I was left ultimately unsettled by the concept, content, and plot. 7/10 

My Strawberry Film (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 7 of 8 - I'm so ready for this to be over, and for Gaga to have something good on. Soon please?

It's done, ready to binge, but I suck

What Did You Eat Yesterday Season 2 AKA Kinou Nani Tabeta? Season 2 (Japan Gaga) 10 eps

It's airing but...

Graduation Countdown (Taiwan YouTube) - It's too much to ask me to keep up with 2 minute verticals, I don't have that kind of TikTok endurance training. Waiting to binge.

A Secretly Love (Thai Sat WeTV grey) 10 eps - I watched the first ep but grey is too much work for this inferior of a show. I may pick up and binge if it gets distribution but for now, it gets a DNF from me. KimCop might have held this crap together but Kim without Cop? No thank you.

Lady Boy Friends (Thai WeTV grey) 16 eps - reminds me a bit too much of Diary of Tootsies only high school. Not my thing. DNF unless it turns a corner and is truly amazing.

Tangential to the genre

There has been the occasional discussion on this topic here in this little corner of tumblr so I thought there might be a few intersted in this podcast: AmericanThaiGuy Ron Weaver on the Complicated Issue of Racism in Thailand (The Bangkok Podcast)

Thailand passed its Marriage Equality bill through the lower house. It's expected to pass the high house and get signed by the King, but that hasn't quite happened yet.

And MaxTul dropped a photo shoot.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Starting Soon

3/31 Only Boo! (Thai GMMTV YouTube) 12 eps - New main couple for GMMTV in an idol romance about a boy who dances good and a food stand vendor. Other side of the tracks grumpy/sunshine pair who fall deeply in love but, of course, baby boy idol can't date. Boyband but from GMMTV? Control your singing and I'm game.

3/31 The Next Prince (Thai ????) 12 eps - trailer. ZeeNew in a fantasy/historical set in a palace where Zee plays a knight and Nu a prince - YES PLEASE. (Apparently this is just the pilot, not the start of the actual show, see comments.)

4/1 Love is like a Cat (Korea ????) 12 eps - This completed filming Aug 2022(!) which means there have been serious problems with post-production. This is another of Silkwood's Korean+Thai colab projects. Mew Suppasit plays a rookie film star, called the Cat Prince (for his cold arrogance) who goes up against a charismatic puppyish animal daycare director (JM of JUST B). There is a side romance (love triangle?) with a veterinarian. Geonu of JUST B is also in the cast. Dual languages.

Hum, trash-watch-a-licious?

4/3 We Are (Thai GMMTV YouTube iQIYI) 12 eps - University ensemble BL featuring PondPhuwin, WinnySatang, AouBoom, MarcPawinPoon - basically the good kind of messy gay friendship group (so more My Engineer and less Only Friends). Looks a bit like the Kiss series but everyone is queer. I'm IN!

4/11 Living With Him AKA Kare no Iru Seikatsu (Japan ????) 10 eps - Kindly Ryota goes off to uni only to find his new roommate is his childhood bestie, Kazuhito. Kazuhito doesn’t have a girlfriend and Ryota tries to help him figure out why, they fall in love along the way. Same director as Old Fashion Cupcake.

4/11 Gray Shelter AKA Gray Currents (Korea ????) 4 eps - SooHyuk is only just surviving and reunites with YoonDae, an old friend. They end up living together. One of the leads is played by Choco of Choco Milk Shake.

4/18 At 25:00, in Alaska AKA 25 Ji, Akasaka de (Japan Gaga - may not be global) 10 eps - Yuki lands his first starring role in a BL drama alongside superstar Asami (previously his senior at uni). Said superstar suggests they form a sham relationship until filming concludes. As they actually begin to fall in love, the spotlight begins to burn.

Seriously? You're killing me with these titles, boys.

4/26 My Stand-In (Thai iQIYI) 12 eps - adaptation of Chinese novel "Professional Body Double" by Shui Qiang Cheng. Stars Up (Lovely Writer) and Poom (Bake Me Please) directed by the same team as KP (not a recommendation IMHO - my biggest criticism of that show was the clashing directing styles). This one looks well complicated, lemme try: Joe is a stuntman for famous actor Tong. Joe falls in love with Ming but Ming sees Joe as nothing more than a Tong-replacement. After learning this horrible truth, Joe dies. Joe then wakes up in the body of another man also named Joe. He manages to rebuild the same life as before—with the same people eventually re-meeting Ming. Ming wants Joe back but Joe doesn't understand why. But Ming seems to know what's going on and wants to give him some kind of explanation.

I'm exhausted just trying to describe the plot.

Knock-Knock Boys (Thai WeTV) - 4 college friends conspire to help their friend lose his virginity. Familiar faces like Seng (yes, Billy's previous partner) and Best, news here.

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

NOTE: It looks like one of my personal favorites of last year Unintentional Love Story is getting a spin off!

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENT

Just these two, in my head, rent free. Thanks Japan!

(Last week)

Streaming services are listed by how I (usually) watch, which is with a USA based IP, and often offset by a day because time zones are too much work.

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @rocketturtle4

If ya wanna be tagged each week leave a comment and I will add you to the template. Easy peesy. (With so many tags when does a weekly tumblr post become a newsletter? That is this week's philosophical question...)

[fandomestloser]

i'm starting a tag game out of literal boredom so here.

list your top ten albums (soundtracks and EP's are okay too!!), and your favourite song of each

1. Faith In The Future by Louis Tomlinson - Angels Fly

2. The Great Country Songbook by Troy Cassar-Daley & Adam Harvey - Mama's Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys

3. Evermore by Taylor Swift - dorothea

4. Subtract by Ed Sheeran - End Of Youth

5. GUTS by Olivia Rodrigo - the grudge

6. Kid Krow by Conan Gray - The Cut That Always Bleeds

7. LP1 by Liam Payne - All I Want

8. Super Trouper by ABBA - Andante, Andante

9. HS1 by Harry Styles - From The Dining Table

10. Dangerous Levels of Introspection by JP Saxe - A Little Bit Yours

no pressure tags!!

@youreverydaydemikid @cc-horan28 @niallermybabe @ravenclawdirectioner @givemeabreakimbig28 @lovemyniallerrr-2028 @enchantedlandcoffee @jittyjames @surrowndedbylights @l0veproof @mayonnaisethepotato @mynightsoutofsight @queerhoodie @felizusnavidad @fansykiltentragedry @freyaforestafay @hellolovers13 @keeganisabluegreener @mmemirrorball @literally anyone who wants to!! please do!!

[taylorxtiva]

Why 2024 will be the year of Tiva:

In 11x01, Tony tells Ziva to “count to a million.” Now, of course we assume that he meant ‘count for one million seconds and I’ll be with you.’

But what if the ✨ universe ✨ was telling us that to count to a million, and that it would be an essential number for their love story?

1,000,000 minutes = 694 days

6 + 9 + 4 = 19

Which is the number of years since Tiva first met.

(Season 3 aired in 2005, and 2024-2005 = 19)

This year is also the shows 21st season.

2 + 1 = 3

You know what also makes 3? 1 + 1 + 0 + 1

And when did they first meet?! 👀 3x01!!!

But there’s more!

1,000,000 hours = 41666 days.

11 years = 4017.75 days.

If you remove the decimal point from the bottom number and subtract the top one from it, you get this:

401775 - 41666 = 360109

If we then add the individual digits of the answer together, we again, get the number 19!!!

3 + 6 + 0 + 1 + 0 + 9 = 19

Now, 11 is Tiva’s number.

Ziva left in season 11.

“Past, Present and Future” is the 236th episode overall.

2 + 3 + 6 = 11

And she left again in episode 11 of season 17.

“Jet Lag” (the first time Tiva are in Paris together, and is also an iconic Tiva ep) is episode 7x13

7 + 1 + 3 = 11

Tony is born in 1971. Ziva is born in 1982. There is an 11 year age gap between them. But also, if we add up the individual digits of their birth years, and then add both of those together:

1 + 9 + 7 + 1 = 18

1 + 9 + 8 + 2 = 20

20 + 18 = 38

And of course:

8 + 3 = 11

Which is also the number of years it’s been since we’ve seen Tony and Ziva on screen together.

2013 + 11 years = 2024.

And you know what also equals (20)24?

The equivalent of 11 years.

4 + 0 + 1 + 7 + 7 + 5 = 24

Now, if we go back to the beginning:

1,000,000 hours = 41666 days.

4 + 1 + 6 + 6 + 6 = 23

If we add 24 and 23 we get = 47.

“Kill Ari (Part 1)” is the 47th episode of NCIS, and the episode in which they first meet.

Add those two individual digits together and we get

4 + 7 = 11, which is Tiva’s number.

The episode also aired on 09/20. 9 + 2 = 11

Even further, if we add the digits of 2024, we get 8.

2 + 0 + 2 + 4 = 8

“Truth or Consequences” (which is possibly the most iconic Tiva episode where we all knew they loved each other) is 7x01.

7 + 1 = 8

Which also happens to be the number of years they were at NCIS together.

This episode also aired in 2009.

2 + 0 + 0 + 9 = 11

“Under Covers” is also episode 8 of season 3, which is where they first kiss each other (albeit undercover as Sophie and Jean-Paul).

8 + 3 = 11.

I’m just saying… the universe works in mysterious ways. ✨

UPDATE: I have not recovered from the announcement. I’m not sure I’ll ever recover. Of course, I wrote this post as a joke, because I thought there was absolutley no way it was going to happen. And what’s a bit of harmless clowning fun in the grand scheme of things?

Someone did make a comment though, saying that I give CBS too much credit. In fact, I give them zero credit in this. This is nothing to do with CBS.

This is all to do with Michael and Cote and them being the awesome Captains of the Tiva ship that they are. They are the ones responsible for this, not CBS.

CBS wouldn’t even dare entertain the possibility. I mean… they couldn’t even entertain the possibility while the two of them were on screen for 8 years, let alone anything else. The idea of having a whole spin off show dedicated to their most popular ship on their OG show? That would be utterly absurd!

But, I am perhaps the most excited I have ever been to see my babies back on screen together again, and to give us all the Tiva content we deserve. I might not trust writers because of all that we’ve been through, but I trust them. I trust Cote and Michael. They know what we want, and I have 100% faith that they’re going to deliver.

[operationslipperypuppet]

1: Baggin’ it with Balnor: Loud Libraries, Questionable Drug PSAs, and Staying Fit w/ Pendergreens (NADDPOD Aug 5, 2020)

2: Clash of the Corn Cuties (Fantasy High, Ep. 2)

3: “…AS ANY OF YOU” Blast from the Passed (Fantasy High: Sophomore Year, Ep. 15)

4: (finishes with “Only thing that could take us out was a trip to the zoo.”) Rolling up the Hill (A Starstruck Odyssey, Ep. 2)

5: (he misspoke, had to walk back everything, and didn’t remember what it was from. this was after 10 unrelated off topic minutes on the Flintstones.) D&D Court: Bonus Cases - King Robert Can Klump (w/ Ally Beardsley) (NADDPOD Short Rest Jun 24, 2022) [this is a Patreon-exclusive but it’s so unhinged i needed to include it]

6: (including writing a letter to his former wife and expecting her to read it while he watches, then ending the conversation with this song) Leap of Faith (Neverafter, Ep. 15)

7: Everyone else gave a number that was less than 5. Murph thought they were all crazy for saying numbers so low. He said sixteen. Hearthside Chat Q&A: What’s Your Clown Tolerance? (NADDPOD Short Rest, Oct 1, 2021) [this is also a Patreon-exclusive and it’s soooo goddamn ridiculous]

8: Cult of the Trident, thinking a child was named Nana, there’s literally too much to name Trinyvale x Bahumia Mini Arc: Eps. 1-3 (NADDPOD Feb 10, 17, & 24, 2023)

9: Donkey Kong One-Shot: A Bananksgiving Special (NADDPOD, Nov 27, 2019)

10: I’m literally so sorry there are so many moments, the man is insane. if you choose this, tell us what moment, and include the episode title/source/date so we can all enjoy the unhinged moment.

[bluginkgo]

I know I'm late here with this one, but man does this make me all the more excited.

Ramble warning ahead and spoilers I guess

Oh hai, Cyn! Haven't seen you in a while! Now, this post could be another one of those N posts glitch made to promote the N plush dog. And I'm not gonna lie, they got us good. (Not discarding the theory that shot might still come up in eps 7 and 8, but I highly doubt it.) But this is coming from Liam himself! So I'd like to put more faith in the little snippet he gave us.

I've seen many people theorize that this might be what the absolute solver host's mind might look like when full possession takes place. I'm sold, I love that. I can imagine it, N and Uzi fighting whatever the thing is in the Cabin Fever labs. Uzi somehow ends up either being knocked out or full possession occurs, either way, her subconsciousness is transported into this realm of red. This might be the place where all the hosts' minds connect- the hive mind/cloud based system. Here, Uzi might meet Cyn and even Nori- I know I'm stretching it, but this is just me rambling my own thoughts. And keeping on with my belief in good Cyn theory, Cyn might help Uzi out. She might tell Uzi the origin of the absolute solver- how the AI error came about.

Because the technicians knew about this issue. Improper disposal of worker drones, and the rejection of the kill code causes future OS issues. And in the tiniest print possible, show the 0.7% chance of a hazardous mutation. They might not know what brought this on though. Artificial intelligence is what we make it to be. If bad information is given, then we are given bad results. It'll be interesting to see if in fact the mutation is just that, a one time off chance, or if something is lurking further, or if the absolute solver has always been around and only has been able to take control via the worker drones that JCJenson built because you know, humanity is really good at orchestrating their own demise.

But back to the other crack theory. Uzi might end up chatting with Cyn or directly with the Absolute Solver, all the while her body is posessed by the said Absolute Solver. She'd be going on another rampage, probably fighting N. At the last possible minute, snap back and somehow resolve the issue with the Absolute Solver- cliche I know, but hey, if those cliches are done well, I love them.

But the red fits really well. Seeing as the Absolute Solver always ends up making some sort of red flesh webs.

So for the consciousness/hive mind to conjure up an all red place for its hosts, it'd be a cool design choice.

Or, as per usual, I could be looking in too deep with a single image that Liam graciously fed us with.

[aarafox]

On Stolitz, Desire and Misunderstandings

I’ve thought about them so much for the past few days that I just have to put my thoughts somewhere. This might be far from structured/coherent but contains everything that has been running around in my brain lately. Feel free to interact with me about this because they’re driving me insane (in a positive way).

Quick disclaimer: I’ve watched everything in nearly one sitting a few days ago and am new to the fandom, so I might be unaware of commonly known info or things the creators have said or confirmed. If you come across any of my questions that have been answered already, please forgive me for not knowing and feel free to enlighten me! Let’s begin~

 The main thing that got me thinking about this so much is Blitz’s line in ep 7 when he brings Stolas home after their failed date: “Don’t act like what we have is anything but you wanting me to fuck you, okay? You make that really clear, all the time.”

But the thing is, he is wrong. We as the viewer know this, how Stolas chokes on his food when he sees that Blitzy calls, how he lunges to pick up the phone and how his eyes turn into little hearts when he hears the question. If anything, Stolas is smitten with Blitz.

He even calls Gabriella a “mood” when she asks Alejandro why he won’t love her. It’s indisputable that he’s thinking about Blitz here.

And how much he actually likes Blitz becomes even more clear to us at the start of season 2, when they’re kids. Stolas falls in love at first sight and blushes several times.

And then, 25 years later, he is delighted to meet Blitz again. After the initial (joking?) assumption that Blitz has come here to “ravish him”, he tries to make gentle conversation and asks him how he’s been. Blitz is the one who decides to initiate sexual relations—that is, he pretends to start it, and decides to keep it up when he hears Stolas chirp about how happy he is that it’s his “first ever friend” who wants to do him. But Stolas, before this, was surprised by Blitz’s advances and unsure how to react. Stolas, if anything, has to believe that Blitz is very sexually attracted to him.

That is why Blitz’s line in episode 7 fascinates me this much; one would think the reverse of what he says is true. Stolas has no reason whatsoever to believe that Blitz ever wanted more from him than sex/the grimoire, especially with how their relations began. So it strikes me that apparently, to Blitz, it hurts him to think that Stolas wants nothing else from him. He even begins to cry there in the van as he begins to reject the prince.

See the tears in his eyes? Why is that? Is he embarrassed? Angry? Does he feel guilty for putting Stolas in a “disgraceful” picture? Is he thinking about entirely different things that happened to him in the past?

And Stolas cries when Blitz is gone, because, well, he does think of Blitz as more than a sex friend. He was so excited to be asked out by him, he made himself look pretty, tried his best to make conversation with him, thought Blitz was actually taking him on their first date ever! He thought Blitz had called him out because he wanted to spend time with him, so he did his best to make the date a success, but all he received from Blitz was, well, nothing… He even tried to end the night on a more positive note by asking Blitz to come inside for something other than sex, perhaps to drink some wine and talk about what happened (or watch a movie, or cuddle 🥺). But when he hears that his sentiment of just wanting to spend time together has never come across—not now, not ever before—and Blitz actually believes Stolas just wants to frolic, that’s when Stolas leaves it for what it is and ends up crying.

(God I feel so bad for him, my heart)

And he spends a LONG time trying to show Blitz, via his texts, that sex is not the only thing that he’s after.

But he only gets one-word responses from Blitz. Nothing, literally nothing to keep going on. It’s no wonder he loses faith in that whatever they had could ever be anything more. And Blitz probably has commitment issues or is afraid of things not working out and he ends up keeping Stolas at a distance—until it’s too late.

And it just kills me that he does care about Stolas but somehow won’t admit it, won’t show it. And yet he sounds so hurt there in that van, when he accuses Stolas of merely wanting to be his sex friend. And he actually cries. For that reason, and for many other reasons not all clearly laid out for us.

Meanwhile Stolas has been crushing on him for 25 years. It’s only natural for him to propose the deal they made: he wants Blitz to be close to him (and he assumes Blitz enjoyed sex with him that first time, since he slept there for the entire night while at first only claiming he could do it “real fast”) and Blitz wants his grimoire. This is the perfect way for Stolas to get Blitz to be with him, because, frankly, he doesn’t have many other reasons to meet up with him. So they make this deal: Stolas gets to be together with him for once a month, and Blitz gets the grimoire. Perfect right?

Except when Stolas discovers that Blitz doesn’t even begin to know how much Stolas actually cares. That’s why he keeps sending those long texts, he tries so hard to let Blitz know they could be doing anything else and he’d love that too. That night after the date he already begins with those attempts, by telling him he enjoyed spending time with Blitz and suggesting things to do inside which Blitz misunderstands for him trying to get him into his bed.

But damn, if that was all Stolas was after, he wouldn’t get so depressed that he’d drink until passing out. He is heartbroken. And somehow, for some reason, so is Blitz. The first thing he does when he gets home is opening his phone to a selfie he took of them while Stolas was asleep.

And others have pointed this out as well, but Stolas doesn’t know about this picture and that Blitz smiled while he took it. On all the pictures Stolas has of Blitz, Blitz looks like he’s not enjoying himself at all.

So what must he think when he sends Blitz his reply that he could be in the hospital for a while in case he wants to visit, and Blitz doesn’t answer?

Well, that Blitz doesn’t want to come. That he doesn’t care enough.

Indeed, if there’s anyone who hasn’t been showing his true feelings or intentions, it’s Blitz. Stolas compliments him, calls him darling and “his” Blitzy, makes himself pretty for their date, and (for instance in ep 2 of season 2) blushes big time multiple times.

He’s had it bad for Blitz for ages, but he (correctly? incorrectly?) concludes that this is not mutual. And he has every reason to think so! Blitz treats their sexy adventures as a business transaction, is all serious and stoic to Stolas about it except for the rare occasion where he does show how much he likes it, like after Stolas rescues him from the demon hunters and he grins and seduces Stolas before kissing him.

But the times when Blitz talks about them to others? Those are moments Stolas doesn’t know about and doesn’t get to see, like when Blitz talks to Striker and stutters like mad trying to explain what they are and aren’t. He never outright says that they’re not dating. He doesn’t even deny Millie’s words when she says they’re boyfriends.

(M&M totally know I’m wheezing)

It just drives me insane how Blitz isn’t honest with his feelings, especially towards Stolas. He probably chooses to believe that Stolas only wants to have sex with him, because that’s more convenient and safer for him, and enables him to keep Stolas at a distance.

Perhaps that is why he never properly responds to Stolas’s texts, never jumps to the opportunity to agree to Stolas’s indirectly asked questions or suggestions. Getting closer might be a bad idea somehow—but after those texts he has to understand what the prince’s intentions are, right? They just don’t talk about it at all; we also aren’t told whether they still do it or not, or just exchange the book like Stolas’s texts suggest. This is striking compared to season 1, where we got scenes of them in bed or talking about their next meet up.

It isn’t until Stolas’s life is in actual danger when Blitz begins to realise how much he cares.

“He can get hurt?” His eyes are trembling with disbelief. After that he finally sends Stolas a text first, and then begins typing again, and stops. I imagine he started typing a yes, but stops himself for some reason. I really hope they’ll show us what Blitz was thinking in that moment. Why would he not go to see Stolas? Because he feels guilty? Because he’s afraid he’ll start caring even more when he sees him wounded in that bed?

But again, for Stolas this just means that he doesn’t care, and the poor owl curls up and turns away from his phone.