#had to make a gifset of this scene right away because seriously it is SO DAMN IMPORTANT

[eisforeidolon]

You seem to have been in the fandom for quite some time and I was curious has the factions in the fandom always been at odds with each other in regards to the actors and the story of SPN? It just seems like the hellers are trying way to hard to take over this show and it irritates me that they insist on a story moving forward that looks drastically different from what we got from this series. I really hope if there is a continuation of some sort that both Jared and Jensen stick to this story being about these two brothers because I would hate to see that diminished by delusional fans with an agenda to just win and prove themselves right. Misha continues to frustrate me with his pandering and now Jensen is having to try and navigate "gotcha" questions to prove his character is actually bi. It just seems like some fans are not enjoying this show for what it was and now I am in the camp of hoping no reboot happens. Maybe J2 can do something else together. I would enjoy anything at this point to get away from Destiel and crazy shippers.

Someone else may be able to give a more thorough picture with detailed history, because I haven't been here the whole time, just since about season 8 or so. The general impression I've gotten from my own observations and previous discussions on the topic is that it was a cumulative thing, though.

A lot of people are squicked by incest and RPF, which is entirely fair. So there was a certain portion of the audience prior to season four that was desperately looking for something to ship that wasn't either of those things. Then Castiel came along and stuck around for more than just one or two episodes, and they were off. Obviously there was some shipwarring over that. No fandom over a certain size is actually very peaceful and there had already been some back and forth between Samgirls and Deangirls over who was The Worst or The Woobiest in the early seasons. But it started out as just typical shipping stuff at the beginning. You know, writing fanfic, making gifsets, talking up certain scenes, enjoying the shipper teases, coming up with wishful scenarios that could happen. Just shipping something that isn't canon which fandom has been doing basically forever.

Except somewhere along the line, some of those shippers started to take their own fan activity way too seriously. It wasn't just an interesting possibility to read that scene as intimate, the writers totally intended it as intimate, how could they not? That joke? Wasn't really a joke, it was the characters' hidden feelings trying to come out. All those things that could be very, uh, creatively associated with sexuality/a romantic relationship? Were secret signals for the Real Audience aware of the Real Story that had to stay hidden for now for Reasons, but would obviously be Endgame! No one they acknowledged the existence of cared about Sam & Dean & the family business anymore. Except maybe a couple lingering creepy wincest shippers, and ew, nobody likes them! It just kind of built on itself over time. It wasn't as intense when I joined the fandom as it was by the end, because each secret hint they convinced themselves was actually there, each lie and misleading hint Misha told them? Built on itself to where they convinced themselves they had a mountain of evidence rather than a house of cards that was all jokers scribbled on by a five year old.

I don't know exactly why it happened or what any more specific tipping points may have been, although it has been a more general trend for fanon ship shippers to get very demanding of TPTB as those people have become more accessible on SM. Still, I don't know of any faction that are still going nearly four years after their canon ended like hellers are. Is it the conventions? Is it that they were already talking revival as it ended? There are some interesting questions there, but I don't think anyone has really delved deep into all the specifics of the whys and wherefores.

Regardless, I really don't see any universe in which Jared and Jensen agree to a continuation that isn't about Sam & Dean, given everything they've ever said about those characters and their story. I can't even see any kind of additional attempt at a spin-off including D/C. It's just not a canon thing (according to anyone who hasn't been shown to have a hidden agenda). Even Castiel's final scene interpreted as romantic? Is just about Castiel's feelings, not the ship being a thing. Jensen may have decided it's not worth trying to talk people out of their wild interpretations, but that doesn't mean he's actually decided they actually know the show or his character better than he does.

On the other hand, I don't see any continuation that doesn't involve hellers eagerly convincing themselves they're getting secret signals through Dean's eye blinks up until the very last second that the ship will happen ANYMOMENTNOW! And then wailing in bafflement about how they could be so wrong and screaming about homophobia before self-soothing each other that surely it will be canon next time. Surely the Sam & Dean show has to stop being about Sam & Dean sooner or later. It's not like not having a revival is going to stop them, clearly.

I'm not actually against a revival, I'm more ambivalent, but I would actually rather see J2 together in something else given the choice. I don't really need more SPN, especially SPN of the same caliber as the last several seasons, and I think it would be really interesting to see what kind of dynamic they'd have together as entirely different characters.

[lover-of-mine]

omg ok hello!

i reblogged a gifset from you forever ago (as a non-911 fan) of the christmas scene in 911 s2 where someone mistakes christopher for eddie and buck's son and buck doesn't correct them BUT ive officially begun watching 911 and finished watching this specific episode yesterday: still baffled! but was reminded of the post and simply had to update u because genuinely why would they do this. even the music in the background?? was so emotional and heartfelt?! if they wanted to they could've played it off as a joke with some quirky bg music (like when tk tells buck he has a bf in the crossover ep) but no!!!!

anyways! currently binging all of the seasons and watching season 7 as it airs bc i already know all the major spoilers and plot points 😭 the brainrot has truly taken over i love all these characters so much more than i ever expected to & am having such a good time rn

OMG HI!! I'm so happy you have joined the brainrot, I'm glad you're enjoying it and that you thought to come tell me, seriously, I love this!! And honestly, the Christmas scene is absolutely insane and the way it happened in season 2 and it wasn't played off for jokes makes it even crazier. Eddie is justifying sleeping with his wife, Buck is pretending he doesn't have opinions even though he kept trying to talk about it with Chim so he does have them, just to have a complete stranger assume Chris is Eddie and Buck's and that they are together and Buck just being "thank you" *happily skips away* is complete madness. Amazing scene, really, and you're absolutely right, it would be so easy to play it off as a joke, but they chose not it and that's just !!!!!!!!

I hope you enjoy the rest of the show because they keep getting more insane kspskspsoalapakapala

[tarnishedxknight]

Headcanons: More About Gabranth’s Final Moments, and… the Guardians of Ivalice?

{out of dalmasca} Some more end-of-game headcanons coming at you below the cut, and I got weirdly inspired by a Guardians of the Galaxy gifset, so... be prepared for some random scenarios my brain ran away with from that. XD

Okay this makes absolutely no sense since there’s pretty much no way Mantis would ever end up “back in time” in the FFXII verse, but the left side of this gifset made me think of like… the insight Mantis might have had (if she decided to use her powers, that is) into Noah’s mindset during any of the times that he was injured and fell unconscious, whether after attacking Basch & Co. or Vayne. Earlier at the Pharos, or before he was ultimately fatally wounded by Vayne, if at any of the other times he’d fallen unconscious (there were at least two, heh) Mantis had looked into his mind, that first gif on the upper left could be… perfect? XD Mantis says, “He is anxious, angry. He feels tremendous loss and guilt.” If that… isn’t a way to describe Noah through the entire game, but especially after Drace’s death and he’s breakdown at the Pharos, I don’t know what is.

Also, Mantis would have been able to tell that he wasn’t dead after the Pharos. I can just see her matter-of-factly announcing that fact, as Basch is like mourning him and she’s all confused like why are you sad, he’s not gone. I can just see her pointing out that he’s still thinking things, so he can’t be dead, the dead don’t think, heh. And then… cue that gif where she proves it by telling everyone what he’s thinking.

Imagine a verse where the Guardians are sky pirates, heh. It would fit them… SO WELL, in my opinion based on the limited things I’ve seen with them. Mantis and Fran bonding over being empaths… or maybe being scared of each other because of that, heh. Everyone thinking Rocket is a Moogle every time they land and venture into a city, and it pisses him off. Kids call him cute and he gets homicidal, haha. Groot being this little hoodlum who steals stuff in every city they end up in and somehow always gets away with it. He’s the only one who’s told an Imperial off right to their face and gotten away with it because no one can understand anything he says. XD Like I said, it makes no sense and you can’t really take them out of their canon world, but… man it would’ve been some wild fun. XD

I guess if Noah got seriously hurt in the MCU verse on this blog, she could also do the same thing, but.. she doesn't strike me as a person to just automatically use her powers all the time. She'd need a specific reason to want to read him, and a reason why that wouldn't feel like invading his privacy. But if he were dying and wasn't necessarily expected to live, maybe she'd do so to let Basch or anyone else know what he's thinking? I could maybe see that happening.

Okay but having said that Noah had so much anger in him, I know I’m not wrong, and yet… his last couple scenes in the game kindof belied that. Those scenes will never not break my heart because just… Where is the anger? Literally where is that seething, enraged, homicidal hatred for Basch that was just there not that long before? Clearly he’s regained control over his emotions again, and whether that’s because he’s not in a Mist storm like he was at the Pharos, I have no idea, but… it’s like all the anger and resentment has just left him. There’s something so poignant and heartbreaking about that.

Death takes everyone and everything down to its basal instincts, and Gabranth knew he was dying. There just wasn’t a reason to keep being angry. If he was striving for anything, if he had goals, if he had injustices he wanted revenge for, none of that mattered anymore, because it’s all over. Not only that, but when taken down to the basics, what’s most important to Gabranth? 1) Stopping further war, and 2) his son. Or, if you don’t subscribe to my headcanon of Gabranth being Larsa’s biological father, then at the very least… the young prince he’d been charged with protecting and within whom he’d help foster various ideals of stability, peace, and the value of seeking diplomatic solutions… matters most to him. If you think Gabranth didn’t care about Larsa in a fatherly way, even if you reject my headcanon of him actually being his father, you’d be wrong. He absolutely did love Larsa in addition to valuing the hope he represented for Archadia’s future. And Larsa absolutely loved him back and looked up to him, there’s no question. I mean, he was cradling him with a worried look on his face after Vayne dealt that fatal wound, and during the scene I’ve been talking able, where Gabranth’s anger seems to have left him, Larsa is even holding his hand. You can watch it starting here and going until 6:18:30.

And then Gabranth’s death scene, where he’s talking to Basch calmly, respectfully, and Basch is doing the same back… it’s just… so… It makes my heart hurt. It’s sad that it took the death of one of them for them to finally reconcile even just a little bit. But Basch acknowledges Noah’s dying wish, and Noah even says something very telling right when he dies. He says, “Your words put me at ease, brother. Sorry to leave you.” Translation: “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be okay and at peace, but I understand that this is going to hurt you immensely.” Because Gabranth knows how much it would’ve hurt him if something had happened to Basch.

I know, a lot of you might say wait that’s a giant wtf, because hasn’t he been trying to kill Basch himself through the whole game? Not… really. He was lashing out, punishing, fighting, having tantrums, etc., but he never expected or wanted Basch to actually die. He said he’d kill him to Gramis, but did he actually then go and do it? No. I think he wanted to be able to kill Basch, because that would mean Basch meant nothing to him. But that wasn’t the case. Also, don’t place much stock in how battles look in any Final Fantasy game because they’re all overblown like oh lemme chuck a WHOLE BUILDING at you but then you walk away fine the next second. Battle in those games is… ridiculous, heh. SO you can’t go by the fact that Gabranth like… rained fireballs down on Basch or something, it’s all just FF ridiculousness, lol.

If Basch had actually died, especially from something Noah did, it would have fucked Noah up horribly. Irrevocably. It would have destroyed him. That’s his brother, his twin, his last link to what used to be home and any kind of innocence he remembers having. Basch is his only living blood family from his original childhood family unit, and at that point, besides Larsa, his only family period. He’d lost the father figure he had in Gramis when Vayne assassinated him. He lost Drace when he was forced to execute her. He’s got Larsa… and Basch. That’s it. And if he lost either one of them, especially due to his own actions somehow, it would break him. So I think as he dies, he understands what losing him will do to Basch, because he knows what losing Basch would’ve done to him. You can watch this scene starting here and going until 6:26:20.

Alright, I think I’m done rambling about Noah/Gabranth’s final scenes in the game, heh. Two headcanons posts about it seems good enough. Although, I wouldn’t be surprised if something else ends up inspiring me because I’ve been gushing about these two tragic twins since 2006, why would I stop now? XD

[lonelier-version-of-you]

"Yeah, but what about the rash?" "That's something called erythema toxicum. Okay, now, it's very, very common. It can look a little bit alarming, but it is very common in babies. And though we don't know what caused it - it could be that, you know, the way that you wrapped her in the blanket, which probably elevated her temperature anyway. You know, it could be an allergic reaction to the washing powder... we don't know." "I could have made her really ill. What kind of mother does that make me?" "A very tired one, but a very normal one." (s36e30 'I Will Trust in You')

[descent-into-the-rift]

With all love and respect to all of you humans, if you don’t want to ship Byler then don’t ship it, that’s your choice, there’s a LOT more to every Stranger Things character and to the Stranger Things’ plot itself than the romances within and what you ship or don’t ship is up to you and I’m very happy for you, but don’t use ‘Mike doesn’t care about Will’ as an argument against them cause man seriously? Like that’s not just offensive to Byler, it’s offensive to the whole damn point of bonding, friendship and development in Stranger Things.

You people are great but you really cover your ears and shut your eyes in the scenes that don’t suit you. You say Mike and Will are just friends right before blabbering about how they don’t give half a damn about each other.

Nono, in fact, Mike and Will are great friends as long as it suits you, am i right?

Byler or not, Mike and Will are the best and oldest friends amongst the party.

Beside him going up to him when they were what, 4 years old and asking him to be his first and very best friend. He had been told not just by the cops but his own mother to not go looking for Will with how dangerous it was and he instantly went looking for him, ignoring everyone that told him not to the same way you jump right over broken glass. He was literally crying and screaming the moment he found out Will was ‘dead’. And the instant he found the slightest chance that Will might actually be alive he took it like his life depended on it.

When he realised he was right saying there was something off about Will not arriving to school yet, he’s the only one of the three of them [Mike, Lucas and Dustin] that, for starters, is too concerned to argue about whether Mirkwood’s from Lord of The Rings or The Hobbit. Of course they’re all worried, but Mike’s visibily the most affected.

I’m only referring to season 1 because I swear I’ve already seen 5 people say Mike didn’t even care so much about finding Will in season 1, and at least 3 people reblogged that one gifset I made about Lucas and Will to say “I don’t get why y’all ship Byler when Lucas was much more determined to find Will than Mike ever was in s1/when Mike didn’t even care as much” and listen to me - DON’T USE MY BYCLAIR GIFSET TO SHIT ON BYLER. Byclair is their own duo/ship with their own potential, don’t go around tryna put a vs. between them and Byler when they’re both just fine.

Anyway,

If you think it’s an absolute coincidence that Mike and Joyce share the exact same confidence in Will being alive, that his hug with his mother after Will’s ‘death’ was the only one that was paralleled to Joyce and Jonathan’s hug, and that both him and Joyce were the first and most determined to want to look for Will then think away, I do not care.

But don’t go saying Bylers delusionally make stuff up when Mike not caring about Will is one of the best jokes I’ve heard so far.

Thank you.

[sophsun1]

When Justin tells Brian that him cheating with Ethan was about more than sex and that Ethan loves him, you can see Brian stop dead in his tracks for a split second. Even though he has his hangups abt love, at that point it had been shown that he does love Justin (the silent admission w/ Debbie, the rules, helping Justin recover and paying his tuition) so hearing Justin basically say this guy I just met loves me more than you ever could must've hurt. And ofc instead of verbalizing his feelings (which is what Justin needed to hear in that moment) and fighting for their relationship, Brian goes into defence mode and pushes him away. Then Justin asks him would he care if he were to leave and Brian doesn't answer this directly, again giving him an ultimatum. But this eventually gets answered at the start of s3 when we're shown how much of a mess Brian is with Justin gone, and honestly any time Justin leaves. The man cannot function without him and yet he would rather sabotage his own happiness. If you can't tell I'm on their first breakup era on my rewatch so I have a ton of feelings right now lmao

Hey anon!

Yesss to everything you said!

God I love those moments and how they feed into season 3 and all it's angsty glory I absolutely live for that era. Brian freezing the moment Justin says "he loves me" and then literally grabbing his face and having the most INTENSE eye contact/forehead touch when he asks him if he cares whether he leaves or not!!!! The heart stopping tension of yelling through the screen JUST SAY YES YOU IDIOT. I'm here for it all. Not to mention the Oscar winning scene of Justin returning in the night and Brian pulling back the covers and just holding him whilst they're both having silent breakdowns and I'm sobbing over it all.

Some breakup eras you just can't watch because they're so painful or badly written but with this one I honestly love rewatching it. It probably helps that I didn't see it live but had the magic of knowing that they got back together lol and that the third wheel in this relationship ie Ethan is such a non threat. He makes me laugh and the only reason I haven't watched his and Justin's scenes is because I die of cringe sorry not sorry :))

Brian's love for Justin is so strong that even though it kills him they're not together he never tries to force him to come back or guilt trip him in any way. He actually ends up helping both him and Ethan out lol I mean hello, who would do that?!! But it's a testament to what a kind heart he actually has. To us it's as simple as just tell him you love him like Lindsey advises him to but deep down he fears that no one could actually love him like that and ultimately they'll always leave. Ugh Brian's characterisation makes me weep there's so many layers to it. Brian being the most insecure yet owardly confident person ever how I love and relate to him <3

One of my favourite things about his story arc is how every moment of change or growth from him across the show can be tied back to that iconic I don't believe in love speech from 1x02. And when he finds himself in situations where it goes against his belief of love being for fools and how it'll hurt you we see he will get it wrong or self sabotage because of his fears or not knowing how to handle it. I seriously need to make a gifset someday of those parallels.

[number5theboy]

Please elaborate on how Five could've turned into the most insufferable character to watch

Thanks for asking me to elaborate on this text post:

@tessapercygranger​, @waywardd1​ and @margarita-umbrella​ also wanted to see a more detailed version of it, and I ended up writing an essay that’s longer than some of my actual academic essays. So buckle up.

WHY NUMBER FIVE SHOULD BE THE MOST OBNOXIOUS CHARACTER IN TV HISTORY, AND HOW HE MANAGES NOT TO BE

Number Five: The Concept That Could Go Horribly Wrong

Alright, let’s first look at Five in theory in an overarching way, without taking into account the execution of the show. The basic set-up of the character, of course, is being a 58-year-old consciousness in a teenager’s body, due to a miscalculation in time travel. Right off the bat, Five is bar none the most overpowered of the siblings; by the end of Season 2, no one has yet been able to defeat him in a fight. He is a master assassin – and not just any master assassin, but the best one there is – and a survival expert, able to do complex maths and physics without the aid of a calculator, shown to have knowledge of half a dozen languages, has very developed observational skills and, to top that all off, he can manipulate time and space to the point where he can literally erase events that happened and change the course of history. And Five knows how skilled he is; he is arrogant, self-assured and sarcastic, and his streak of goodness is buried deep inside. David Castañeda once described Five in an interview as 90% chocolate with a cherry in the middle, meaning that you have to get through a lot of darkness and bitterness before knowing there is a good core, and I think it’s an excellent metaphor. However, Five is also incredibly, fundamentally terrible at communicating with anyone, and, because he is the only one with time travel abilities, the character a lot of the actual plot - and the moving forward of it - centres around. Also he’s earnestly in love with a mannequin, who is pretty much a projection of his own consciousness that functions as a coping mechanism for all the trauma he has endured. All in all, this gives you a character who looks like a teenager, but with the smug superiority of a fifty-something, who a) is extremely skilled in many different things, b) has a superiority complex, is arrogant and vocal about it, and most of the superiority is expressed through cutting sarcasm, c) has one very hidden ounce of goodness that he is literally the worst at communicating to other human beings, d) is what moves the plot along but is also bad at talking to anyone else, meaning that the plot largely remains with him, and e) his love interest is essentially a projection of himself. Tell me that’s not a character who is destined to be just…obnoxious, annoying, egocentric, a necessary evil that one has to put up with to get through this show. There are so many elements of this characterisation that can and should easily make Five beyond insufferable, but the show manages to avoid it, and I’m putting this down to three aspects.

That Trick of Age and Appearance

Bluntly put, Five as a character would not work if he was anything else than an old man in a 13-year-old body. Imagine this character and all his skills and knowledge, but actually just…a teenager. Immediately insufferable. Same goes for him being around 30, like his siblings, all of which are stunted and traumatised by their father’s abuse. If Five, being comparatively unscathed by Reginald to the point where he explicitly does not want to be defined by his association with his father, were 30 like his siblings, it would just take the bite out of that plot point and also give him a lot less time in the apocalypse, reducing the impact it had on him as a person. And making Five his actual 58-year-old self would make him very similar to Reginald, at least on surface level, with the appearance and attitude. Five and Reginald are two fundamentally different people, but having one of the siblings being a senior citizen that’s dressed to the nines and bosses his siblings around in a relatively self-centred way does open up that parallel, and would take away from Five’s charm as a character. Because pairing the life experience of a 58-year-old with the appearance of a teenager gives you the best of both worlds. You get the other siblings (and a lot of the audience, from a glance in the tags of my gifsets) feeling protective and paternal about Five, but his age and experience also give the justifications for his many skills, his arrogance, in a way, and his ability to decimate a room full of people. It’s the very interesting and not new concept of someone dangerous with the appearance of something harmless, a child. This is also where Five’s singular outfit comes in. I know we like to clown on Five to get a new outfit, but I think what gets forgotten often is how effective this outfit is at making the viewer take him seriously. The preppy school uniform is the perfect encapsulation of the tension between old man in spirit and young teenager in appearance. The blazer, vest and especially the shirt and tie are quite formal, relatively grown up. They’re not something we, the audience, usually associate with a teenage boy wearing; it makes Five just a little bit more grown up. But there is also a reason characters in this show keep bringing up Five’s shorts and his socks, because those are not things that we associate with grown men wearing; they’re the unmistakably childish part of his school uniform. Take a moment and imagine Five wearing a hoodie or a t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers; would that outfit work for him as well as the uniform does? Would he be able to command the same kind of respect or seriousness as a character? I don’t think so; the outfit is a lot more pivotal in making Five believable than a lot of people give it credit for.

Writing Nuance

The other big building block in not making Five incredibly insufferable is the writing. Objectively speaking, I think Five is the most well-written, and, more importantly, most coherently written character on the show (which does have to do with the fact that the show’s events are all sequential for him), and his arc and personality remain relatively intact over the course of the two seasons. More to the point, a giant part of what makes Five bearable as a character is that he is allowed to fail. He is written to have high highs and low lows, big victories through his skills and his intelligence, but also catastrophic failures and the freedom to be wrong. His superior intellect and skillset are not the be-all end-all of the plot or his character, just something that influences both. His inability for communication has not (yet) been used to fabricate a contrived misunderstanding that derails the plot and left all of us seething; instead, it’s a characteristic that makes him fail to reconnect with the people he loves. This is a bit simplified, as he does find common ground with Luther, for example, but in general, a lot of the rift between Five and his siblings is that they can’t relate to his traumas and he does not understand the depth of Reginald’s abuse, which is an interesting conflict worth exploring. Another thing that really works in Five’s favour is that he is definitely written to be mean and sarcastic, but it is never driven to the point of complete unlikability, and a lot of the time, the context makes it understandable why he reacts the way he does. Most of the sarcastic lines he gets are actually funny, that certainly helps, but in general, Five is a good example of a bearable character whose default personality is sharp and relatively cold, because it is balanced out with many moments of vulnerability. Delores is incredibly important for this in the first season, she is the main focus of Five’s humanising moments, and well-written as she totes the line between clearly being a coping mechanism for an extremely traumatised man and still coming across to the viewer as the human contact Five needs her to be. In the second season, the vulnerability is about his guilt for his siblings, it’s about Five connecting a little bit better to them. There’s also his relationship with the Commission and the Handler specifically – which honestly could be an essay on its own – that deserves a mention, because the Handler is why Five became the man he is, and this dynamic between creator and creation is explored in a very interesting way – their scenes are some of the most well-written in the entire show. And TUA never falls into the trap of making Five a hero, he is always morally ambiguous at best, and it just makes for an interesting, multi-faceted character, well-written character, and none of the characteristics that should make him unlikeable are allowed to take centre-stage for long enough to be defining on their own. I know a lot of people especially champion the scenes where Five goes apeshit, but without his more nuanced characterisation, if he was like that all the time, those scenes would not hit as hard.

Aidan Gallagher’s Performance is Underrated

But honestly, none of the above would matter that much if the Umbrella Academy didn’t luck out hard with the casting of Aidan Gallagher. I think what he achieves as an actor in this show is genuinely underappreciated. Like, the first season set out to cast six adults having to deal with various ramifications of childhood trauma, and a literal child that had to be able to act smart and wise beyond his years, seamlessly integrate into a family of adults while seeming like an adult, traumatised by the literal end of the world, AND had to be able to create the romantic chemistry of a thirty-year-long marriage with a lifeless department store doll. The only role I could think of to compare is Kirsten Dunst in Interview with a Vampire, where she plays a vampire child who, because she is undead, doesn’t age physically, but does mentally, so she’s 400 in a child’s body. And Kirsten Dunst had to do that for a two-hour movie. Five is a main character in a show that spans 20 episodes now. That’s insane, and it’s a risk. Five is a character that can’t be allowed to go wrong; if you don’t buy Five as a character, the entire first season loses believability. And they found someone who could do that not only convincingly, but also likeably. As I said, he is incredibly helped by the costuming department and the script, but Aidan Gallager’s Five has so much personality, he’s threatening and funny and charming and arrogant and heartbreaking. He has the range to be convincing in the quiet moments where Five’s humanity comes to show and in the moments where Five goes completely off the rails. Most child actors act with other children, but he is the only child in the main cast, and holds his own in scenes with adults not as a child, but as an adult on equal footing with the other adult characters. That’s not something to be taken for granted. But even apart from the fact that it’s a child actor who carries a lot of the plot and the drama of a series for adults, Aidan Gallagher’s portrayal of Five is also just so much fun. The comedic timing is on point, he has the dramatic chops for the serious scenes, the mannerisms and visual ticks add to the character rather than distract from him, and his line deliveries, paired with his physical acting, make Five arrogant and smug but never outright malicious and unlikeable. It’s just some terrific acting that really does justice to the character as he is written, but the writing would not be as strong if it wasn’t delivered and acted out the way Aidan Gallagher does. He is an incredible asset for this show.

Alright, onto concluding this rambling. If you made it this far, I commend you, and thank you for it. The point of all of this is that Five, as a character, could have been an unmitigated disaster of a TV character. He is overpowered, arrogant, uncommunicative and could so easily have been either unconvincing or completely unlikeable, but he turned out to be neither. It’s a combination of choices in the costume department, decisions in the writing room, and Aidan Gallagher’s acting skills that make the things that should make him obnoxious and annoying incredibly entertaining, and I hope you liked my long-winded exploration of these. Some nuance was lost along the way, but if I had not stopped myself, this would’ve become a full-blown thesis.

[neeterloveschenford]

THOUGHTS ON RNM 3x08

Wow! What an amazing episode!!! I think I have watched it 5 times now.ed And watched all the Malex scenes on youtube repeatedly. Stopped and stared at every gifset I’ve run across. It’s just been an amazing feeling knowing that we won people!!! Malex is back and I honestly don’t think they will be going back. It’s really, finally their time. But I’m going to save them til last because there will be so much flailing! So I’m going to start with the only thing that I had a real problem with in this episode. Why does no one care about Kyle? I’m positive that they know about him. Alex wouldn’t drop everything he dropped in this episode without letting them know where Kyle is. And there is a very bad habit with this show of telling instead of showing. And I totally get why Maria is the priority at the moment. Kyle is presumably stable and being taken care of by Eduardo, while Maria was deteriorating while she was “possessed” by Jones. But still, a little “Hey Alex, how’s my brother?” from Rosa would not have been remiss. But, I guess I just have to take a step back and remember that this is RNM and old habits are hard to break with them apparently.

Now. Let’s move on to the things I loved. I know there was so much hate and salt thrown Maria’s way because she’s rarely written the way she should be. And of course there was all of last season that made a lot of people loathe and despise her. I’ve had my moments where I never wanted to see her on my screen again, but then I took a step back and realized I was putting all of my hatred and upset onto a fictional character. Maria is not the person who wrote such a crappy story for her last season. I think we can all agree that Maria was Carina’s self-insert character. But I decided that I was going to move past my anger and try and embrace her this season. Admittedly, it’s been up and down. I think there have been times when she has definitely been used too much, and times when she was never fleshed out. But this episode her story revolved around what I have always thought was the most interesting part about her. Her heritage. I’ve always been interested in Patricia and what happened to her at Caulfield. To see how she worked with Nora to build the Lockhart machine was great! And then to find out how she was injected with the alien chemicals after Lockhart figured out she was actually helping the people she was supposed to be injecting, that was awesome. I’m glad Maria got to find out more about her family’s past. Now I’m left wondering if Arturo has a past interaction with aliens or a connection to Caulfield. So far we’ve learned about the Valentis, the DeLuca’s and the Manes families. Now we need to find out about the Ortecho’s.

Next I would like to talk about all of the wonderful interactions between the women. I was feeling so much girl power emanating from my tv screen! I don’t care what anyone says, I love the friendships between Liz and Isobel, Isobel and Rosa, Rosa and Maria, Isobel and Maria, and Liz and Maria. They were amazing. I can’t wait to see more of their interactions. I think all of the women (frankly, all of the characters) have grown so much this season. I love the bonds of sisterhood that have formed between our ladies! They were all so supportive and caring with each other. It’s like Maria said, she wasn’t alone, she had her sisters with her! And when Liz said the three women I love, I wanted to cry. They have all come so far this season. Is everything perfect? No. But it’s so much better than it has been. I just want more, more, more.

Liz got to be her badass science self again. I loved the fact that she talked to the horse the entire episode. Sometimes we just have to bounce ideas off of somebody. Why not a horse? And the way she figured out how to disconnect Jones from Maria using Rosa’s new powers was perfection. She really got to see a new side to Rosa this time. I’m so glad that we are getting these wonderful Ortecho sister moments!

Isobel is a bamf! She took on Jones without a moments hesitation and totally kicked his ass! I love her so much! She has grown so confident in her abilities. And the fact that the one moment of doubt she had was when Rosa swooped in with pod Yoda wisdom was exactly what she needed. They are one of my favorite friendships on the show.

And my last thing before I fall down the Malex rabbit hole. My dudes. Get over the hug already! It has been canon the entire time that Alex still thinks of Maria as one of his best friends. As much as y’all want her to have her reckoning for 2x06, it’s not going to happen. If it bothers you so much that all you can do after so much wonderfulness, is complain about Maria, then you need to really think about whether or not this is the show for you. She is not going anywhere anytime soon. Yes, she still annoys me sometimes, but I can put that aside and love the show despite her. I don’t mean to be harsh, but there is just too much negativity out there.

So now for the good stuff. (Rubs hands together.) OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!!!!

I cannot believe that we won! We’ve lost so many times. But now WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS MY FRIENDS! We were given a feast with this episode. I mean in the first five minutes we have Alex coming clean to Michael about joining Deep Sky. And instead of blowing up and walking away, Michael actually listened. And what Alex said about making a world where Michael didn’t have to live in fear for the both of them? I nearly died then and there. I seriously could have just had that moment and been happy. The eyebrow flirting was so cute. Then we get it again when they are trying to figure out where Jones was. The heart eyes coming from Michael was glorious. He was so proud of his man and his hacking skills. And we got dorky eyebrow flirting again! Then we have that scene where we learn why Alex is the way he is. I know there has been a lot said about him having a white saviour complex with the story of Omar, but I’ve heard similar stories from actual vets. We tend to let our own feelings about the military cloud our feelings for the men and women who serve. I’m glad that they finally showed Alex’s PTSD. He holds himself away from people because he knows what it’s like to lose people. And Michael rubbing his cheek like that. I almost died again. I just love them so much. And then we get the scene where Alex stops Michael from trying to take the sword from Jones. Him grabbing Michael’s hand like that was downright sexual. I need to fan myself. That’s chemistry folks! And then we get Alex hitting Jones with the truck! What a great parallel with Michael hitting Jesse with his cane. Those boys will do anything to protect each other.

And then we have that scene. SO MUCH GOODNESS! Alex telling Michael about the Lockhart machine. Michael admitting that he knows that he probably won’t get clearance to work on the project. Alex saying he will tell him everything anyway. Our boys have grown so much this season! And the way Michael took off his hat to kiss Alex. I just felt so much in that moment. That kiss was so soft and sweet. When they pulled away, the way Alex looked up at Michael with so much longing was just uh! And Michael’s little exhale and smile. He knows exactly how to put Alex at ease. And then the hug. I am ready to cry right now just thinking about it. I know many people think it was too much too soon, but I beg to differ. This is how I’ve always seen things happening. Once they were both on the same page, it was bound to go down exactly like this. They have so much history and passion between them. And now they can finally admit to each other and themselves that there is no one else in the universe for each other. Their love is so strong. Why shouldn’t they acknowledge their feelings while growing closer. In the end I think it will only make them stronger.

So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I can’t wait til we get worried boyfriend Michael in the next episode. It’s going to be awesome! Till next time my friends!

[meggannn]

hmm i wish disco elysium fans would like... think a little critically about what the main characters being police means and not make jokes about it?

i know in like some fandoms, you're able to turn your brain off when it comes to this stuff, or maybe the responsible thing to do is to acknowledge it in public but just flat-out ignore it in fanwork if the writers dont handle it well (like mass effect never really engaged w the fact that garrus is implied to have roughed up suspects, he's just an ~edgy cop!!~ but i have yet to find a fanfic that explores that 1. sensitively and 2. well, so it seems like people instead accept bioware made an L with that characterization and move on). but disco elysium is a game that, like, sort of demands to be taken seriously wrt politics because the politics drive everything in the game from plot to characterization to what you decide the main character thinks about, and the plot wouldn't have happened without the warring politics of the locals surrounding the scene of the murder. so ignoring that to make good cop/bad cop jokes about kim and harry is a little. strange to me.

it had me thinking about how a lot of b99 fans were adamant that the show is not copganda, that it had a blm episode so it was helping the cause... and i have not seen that show in the public sphere or in any of my social internet circles following the protests last summer. like, i never watched it, but for years i saw people defend it, i reblogged amusing gifsets of it, and then after june 2020, it disappeared. it seems accepted now that police procedurals are "expected" copganda but b99 looks different, is humorous, and left-leaning, so it feels friendlier, and it took a while to understand well-meaning stories featuring police as protagonists can and will probably still be guilty of being copganda even if they don't mean to.

disco elysium... does have its moments of "cops are misunderstood." i remember raising an eyebrow a few times. but (imo), it also does many other things smartly, where it calls out the unhealthy relationship between police and districts; discusses the type of people most attracted to police work are not likely to be healthy, stable, empathetic individuals; shows the police are likely to make choices in the moment based on what pleases or amuses or entertains them, not on what is best for the community; can basically do anything they want when they're not supervised, and even then, usually have the support of their station; can and do quickly resort to threats, guns, arrests, etc, with a change of their mood. the game isn't even about police, and they still managed to show all that. but otoh, they're not exactly blasting ACAB and calling for the dismantling of the RCM (the in-game police force).

i don't really know where i'm going with this. i'm not very smart when it comes to this stuff and i'm definitely not the person best suited to make a decision on if disco elysium did a cop game "right" or not. is it copganda? i don't know. you can become a communist. that's not an answer, but if you follow the communist path, the game does note that you are two contradictory things. because ultimately, you're still a really fucked-up person, who is still a cop. who can, because this is an rpg, kill people in the game. the game doesn't shy away from that. so i wish the fandom wouldn't make jokes about it.

[katierosefun]

hi how are u : )

quick writing q, how did you come up with original characters? are they star wars characters or just like general?

i feel like i have ideas but like. struggle to make them into people. if that makes sense.

hiya!!! i’m good, hope you’re doing well!!! (and thank you for asking this question because,,,you should know i geeked out temporarily because someone’s asking me about original characters??? whooo boy!!!) 

also...things got lengthy (again), so i added all this under the cut!

okay, so i have like one (1) star wars original character named eiko, who i introduced in time, wondrous time. introducing eiko took a while and it was a lot of me being super anxious and kind of lowkey scared because...star wars fans tend to be a little protective, and sometimes original characters aren’t that well-liked, especially because of that fear of “mary sue”-ness and etc. 

so in the case of a star wars original character and to avoid the problems specific to and inherent to all the problems we run into with original characters in fanfic writing, i just kind of. make sure that she’s actually got some traits that! people can mostly relate to! 

so for instance, eiko’s just a very anxious kid who wants to be a good padawan, but: 

how do you be a good padawan anyways when there were already so many amazing jedi who walked the path  before you?

how do you handle those expectations? 

are you harder on yourself because of it? probably. 

do you glow when given compliments? absolutely.

and i guess when making a star wars original character, or an original character in any pre-established fandom, then you really want to make sure that if they’re connected to a canon character in some way, the canon character gets a storyline of their own. 

the canon character and the original character can rely on each other from time to time, but i think it would be kinda boring if the original character just followed around canon characters and never figured things out for themselves. 

basically: we want your original character to have some independence away from the canon characters.

how do they act when they’re alone? 

what do they do in their free time? those are things to think about when you’re trying to better grasp an original character in a pre-existing fandom.

but in terms of writing original original characters, i have this thing where like. i just take a singular personality trait that (usually) i have and dial it up to 100000. because, as one of my own friends likes to say, we contain multitudes. there are so many lives and so many different facets of you that are sometimes fighting for the spotlight--and sometimes, i like to give those different facets a little bit more of a voice in original characters. 

because really, chances are, those little bits of you that are still hiding around the corners? those traits are sometimes more exemplified in other people. so, like, if that was confusing (which i know it was), a quick example: 

i will be the first to admit that sometimes, i can be an incredibly rude person. (idk how much of a surprise that is to people. i hope it’s a bit of a surprise, because i don’t like to be rude.) 

and of course, there are tons of very, very, very rude people in real life. the reason why i’m not rude 24/7 is because there’s a part of me that dials it down a quick notch. but there are people out there who don’t have that dial, and they’re able to exist relatively freely just being the rude people they are. 

so that’s kinda where i start in making my characters feel a little more real/also a little more diverse in character! 

because as one of my creative writing instructors once told me, writers tend to be a quiet bunch. and i think anything we write--including characters--tend to reflect huge parts of ourselves, so imagine if we just had a cast of quiet characters who twiddled their thumbs all the time. that’s not a good story, and those aren’t always very dynamic characters. so have fun! take one singular trait that you find intriguing about yourself or in in others and say to yourself, “okay, but what if i dialed it up?” see where it gets you!

but i guess if we want to talk more about how to make characters feel like more real people, then i guess it goes down to the age-old question all writers need to ask when looking at their characters: 

what does your character want?

think about it. anything your character wants is what is ultimately going to drive them forward to do what they’re going to do. act the way they’re going to act, say what they’re going to say. 

there’s a story that i wrote a while back about a girl who’s the daughter of an assassin. she wants to be a lawyer, while her mom wants her to follow the family business and become an assassin as well. 

so how does the mom act? the mom does everything in her power to get her daughter to be excited about being an assassin--lets her in on interrogation rooms, takes her to a shooting range, gets increasingly frustrated and turns up the denial denial denial mode every time her daughter talks about the possibility of law school. 

the daughter? the daughter does everything in her power to make sure her mom knows that she doesn’t want to be an assassin. she deliberately lounges around during the interrogation, she misses all the targets on the shooting range on purpose, etc. 

so, in essence: your characters have to want something first. as soon as they want something, the rest will slowly come to place. even if you’ve never been an assassin or the relative of one, you still probably relate to at least the feeling of wanting something badly, and all people know that feeling too! it’s real, and it’s human to want something. 

combine that want with, idk, the type of background you have for your characters (and there’s a ton of different resources on developing that specifically), and soon, you’ll find yourself writing/communicating/tearing your hair out with a much more fleshed-out character.

and, if you’ve done all these and you still want to know a little more about your character, another thing to flesh out original characters/stories: 

1. write fanfic of them. no, seriously, do it. sometimes you can’t really write your big story/novel/whatever right away, but you have a very specific scene or you want to reimagine them in a different setting and just play around with them. that’s okay! what are they like in a modern day high school au? in a coffeeshop au? play around with it, and see what’s consistent (do they meet the same people in the same manner over and over again? do they like to listen to one specific kind of music? do they still talk funny? do they still wear x?) 

2. make playlists! like...music is personally one of my big inspirations, so this is where i usually throw in some good old playlists. more times than not, i’m able to write with my original characters with my original character’s specific playlist playing in the background. (and it’s wonderful! i have one character playlist that’s almost solely musical/disney music because she’s a very innocent kind of gal, while another playlist is very heavy punk/rock because that’s Just How She Is.)

3. write incorrect quotes! you know the ones i’m talking about--there are so many incorrect quote blogs on tumblr. i have a separate, private sideblog here on tumblr that’s completely dedicated to writing incorrect quotes of my original characters. i sometimes post screenshots of them here too, although i haven’t done that in a while. but incorrect quotes are fun, and they might give you a good idea of the kind of characters/archetypes you want them to fit into! 

(and, because i can’t resist, here’s an example from my own original characters:) 

galen: andrea, i need you to swear to me--

andrea: shit

galen: 

galen: i meant swear like promise, andrea //

rosalind: crushes are the worst 

dae: yeah, whenever i’m near one, i just start acting nervous 

rosalind: you’re always nervous 

dae: ...don’t think too hard 

myung, tired: bold of you to assume rosalind thinks

4. alternatively, make a whole private side blog dedicated to your original characters and reblog/tag the posts that remind you of them. like, you know the “[x] characters as tumblr posts”? yeah. i do that a lot. so, just because i really can’t resist, some more examples: 

“Bro, We Are Rivals . Its Ok To Pin ME Up Against A Wall . Im Ur Nemesis . I Hate You . ... Bro, We Are Kissing Now . . No Dont Stop Bro .. Bro ... // @gayarsonist 

oh so you’re just going to wear a black turtleneck?? like some kind of slut?? // @allergic-alien 

and sometimes, i’ll use that blog to also reblog poetry that resonates with my original characters/gifsets of actors/actresses that i would fancast as my original characters. (like,,,did i look at ewan mcgregor in mortdecai and gratuitously tag him as a villain character in one of my wips? yeah. yeah, i did. it’s fun writing that villain character now, though. :)) 

and those are all the tips that i have!!! i hope that helps!!! have fun writing, friend!!

[dramaticviolincrescendo]

Ian and Monica vs. Yevgeny and Svetlana

That’s right. I’m going to do a meta post. Because this fantastic gifset from @sickness-health-all-that-shit got me thinking about something from a different angle. I’m not sure if this has been noted in the fandom before since I’m still relatively new compared to the Shameless veterans, so sorry in advance if this has been talked about to death. 

From the time Ian returns in season four through the last occasion when we see him with Yevgeny in season six, it’s pretty clear that he loves that kid almost as much as Svetlana does and far more than Mickey seems to. Obviously, Mickey has a lot of justifiable reasons for not feeling particularly paternal towards Yevgeny that I won’t get into here, and we do see a bit of a shift in the police station on that front for the first time. However, the fact of the matter is that Ian is more of a father to Yevgeny than Mickey--even Svetlana mentions his help when she’s talking to Kev. In my meta-viewing rounds, I’ve seen a lot about how Yevgeny’s relation to Mickey and Ian being just a genuinely kind, compassionate person play a huge role here. I agree. There is, however, an enormous parallel with his own upbringing that I want to explore at length, and since writing is kind of my medium, I figured I’d do it here. (Again, if this has been talked about before, please continue scrolling and have a wonderful day! :D )

Ian has mommy issues. 

Ian also has daddy issues. 

There. I said it. 

All the Gallagher kids have issues with Frank and Monica, and we see them “act out” throughout the series in ways that would indicate that they suffer from a level of trauma strongly associated with their parents. For now, let’s focus on Ian’s since he’s who this post is ultimately about. 

Frank:

Unlike the rest of the Gallagher siblings, we don’t really see much happening directly between Frank and Ian without the rest of the family involved in the first four seasons prior to Ian meeting Yevgeny. To my knowledge, all they really have is a brief deleted scene conversation and Frank offering “advice” when Ian is trying to warn him that Mickey is upset. Their other interactions tend to be more negative, with Frank beating on Ian or Ian joining the rest of his siblings in getting Frank out of the house. At the end of the first season, he even finds out that Frank isn’t actually his biological father. His speech to Lip and behavior for the rest of the series seem to indicate that it doesn’t matter to him and he still considers Frank his father regardless, but that was a heck of a smack to the face when he was already growing up with Frank’s special brand of manipulation and neglect. 

So, where does that lead him? Places where a child his age shouldn’t have been. Interacting with much older men who preyed on him rather than trying to find him help or just staying away. They had an aura of stability that we have seen time and again is what Ian craves, through ROTC and West Point and these relationships with people who seemingly have their shit together. (In reality, we all know it’s a facade. Kash and Ned absolutely do not have their shit together, and Ian’s demeanor around them visibly shifts when he finally sees that with Kash shooting Mickey and Ned’s family falling apart.) As with Frank, he is willing and able to let them go when he realizes that they are more of the same: another deadbeat. 

Now, let’s table that and come back to it in a moment. 

Monica:

Ian’s relationship with Monica clearly has a greater impact on him throughout the series in more ways than merely their shared bipolar situations. She’s the only biological parent he has, and she’s definitely the only parent that has shown him any real affection from what we’ve seen. (Until the wedding. I’ll give Frank a few karma points for not causing trouble and being happy for Ian.) Monica loves him--he knows that. Unfortunately, he also knows that that love is not enough to keep her around or make her a better mother to any of her children. If anything, the combination of her affection, his grudging love for her, and her disorder render any efforts she does make counterproductive. For example, Frank has never engaged with Ian’s dreams of becoming a soldier, but when Monica finds out that that is his goal and that he’s upset about not having the grades for West Point, she hauls him right over to the recruitment office. To her, it’s an act of adoration. Everybody else knows it’s insane: Ian was underage and shouldn’t have been anywhere near there. Just like he shouldn’t have been anywhere near clubs, being objectified. Monica wasn’t being malicious. She seriously thought that she was doing what was best for him in her own way. Her own way just happened to be really messed up. To a large extent, it seems like Ian recognizes this fairly early on until he gets sick and doesn’t know who to turn to.

Rather than write her off the way he does Frank, however, Ian stays in touch with her behind his siblings’ backs. He knows she isn’t a good influence and that they would be appalled if he told them that they still talk. But he cares. She’s important to him. Fiona is fantastic, but she’s his sister. This is his mother, who obviously loves him even at her worst. He can’t let that go. He has to cling to that one parent in the same way that the others cling to Frank at various points in the earlier seasons before he burns their final bridges at one moment or another. 

Character Foils: Yevgeny, Svetlana, and Mickey

I think Ian’s relationship with his parents is a huge reason for why Ian behaves the way he does with Yevgeny in part based on the timing. It doesn’t begin when he moves into the Milkovich house. It doesn’t start with the obligation if he is going to live with Mickey since Svetlana isn’t going anywhere. Even though his discomfort over Mickey going to the baptism surfaces afterward, Ian starts actively trying to take care of Yevgeny the same day he sees that baby. Why bother? He hasn’t shown any concern for Svetlana before. He even sarcastically congratulated Mickey when they found out she was in labor without actually pushing for either of them to be there. Why does he decide at that moment to get involved, knowing that Mickey wouldn’t be happy about it and that Svetlana wouldn’t accept the charity from him, of all people? 

Well, because it’s a painfully similar situation to what he’s accustomed to, isn’t it? 

Mickey left home, just like Frank. (I’m not saying he didn’t have a good reason: he had a lot of trauma to endure that Frank didn’t. Frank not wanting kids has nothing on what Mickey went through to wind up here.) He didn’t want a baby. He didn’t want to be a father. He is just chilling at the Gallaghers’ house, both of them pretending that things are the way they used to be because the changes aren’t right in front of their faces anymore. When Svetlana walks through the front door looking for him not because they’re married, but because of the baby? When Mickey doesn’t care? Regardless of the reasons, that has to look familiar to Ian in practice. 

Svetlana gives a shit. She’s willing to threaten Mickey with something that could end his life (if Terry were so inclined) if he doesn’t step up to support their child. Again, she’s not asking him at that point to be a husband. She doesn’t ask him to move back in, and when she does later, there’s no reason to believe that Ian knows about it since he wasn’t there. For her, it comes down to love for her child as far as Ian is concerned. She’s got problems--there’s no denying that. But she loves her kid more than anything. She comes to find Mickey for the first time looking frazzled because their kid needs things. When Ian needed to feel better about Mickey going to juvie, Monica was there. When Ian needed to be comforted about his future, Monica was there. By that point, Monica was even there for him when he went into a severe manic episode, ran away from the army, got kicked out of Ned’s condo, and had nowhere else to go. She didn’t stick around, as Monica’s MO tends to dictate, but she was there when he was in need and was gone when he reached a state of what she would define as stability. (We know he wasn’t stable. Dear heavens, he was so not stable.)

It’s not Yevgeny’s fault that his parents are kind of a shitshow (courtesy of Terry, of course), just like it wasn’t Ian’s fault that Frank and Monica were the same. Yevgeny was born into an awful situation he can’t control. Ian must understand that better than almost anybody. By this time, his older siblings have found a sense of control over their lives while Ian’s whole world is bouncing up and down around him, spinning too fast for him to keep up. 

Ian has something that Yevgeny doesn’t: experience. This kid is just getting started, but Ian has already been there. He’s grown up with a dad that doesn’t want him and a mother who loves him, although his own mother didn’t stick around the way Svetlana did. Then again, Ian barely knew Svetlana beyond her occupation, so for all he knew, even that wouldn’t last. Maybe she would go the same way as Monica. 

Nobody would have wanted that for Ian, and it only makes sense that he wouldn’t want it for Yevgeny.

So, he steps up right away. He doesn’t have time to go through the mental process of coming to terms with the fact that this is Mickey’s kid and how he’s going to need stability. That much is obvious when he questions why Mickey is going to the baptism only to be told, “He’s my son, man.” It clearly hadn’t registered for him entirely, they’d been so encapsulated in the bubble they’d built for themselves when Ian came home. 

Tl;dr - That gut-instinct to act? That immediate response to seeing--not hearing--that Yevgeny needed things that parents were supposed to provide for their children? Ian is such a kind-hearted person that I don’t put it past him for an instant to do what he could, but I think his own upbringing played a large role in the decision. He wasn’t looking for praise or to get Svetlana off of Mickey’s back. He saw a newborn baby who was in danger of growing up with a father who didn’t want him and a mother who loved him but perhaps not enough to save him someday. 

Just like Ian. 

[normal-thoughts-official]

Thoughts on rizzy 👀

jdndkdndidndidn ok so if u wanted a rizzy-positive answer...... avert ur eyes

the one thing positive (?) i can say about rizzy is that it really brought us some of the softest raphael moments, but i also lowkey hate that cuz wow, we really got him to talk about his sister, his past, see some of his interests, his softness, his pains, his smiles because of rizzy... so it's all related to rizzy 💀 which is why you might see some gifsets from rizzy scenes in my blog, i think this might have been what brought this on. i enjoy those scenes as scenes that establish raphael's character, but not as rizzy

and shoutout to sh as usual for only bothering with giving a coc depth, backstory, desires and etc when they were someone's love interest and then dropping them like a hot potato. like bro imagine if they had at least bothered with keeping raphael's characterisation consistent? id be over the moon already. if they had actually made him a person like when rizzy was a thing for the whole show on top of that?? fuck i think id explode in happiness

other than that..... i hate everything about it. and like, it being based on addiction aside (which is already, like, bad, but i could maybe ship them in an alternate reality where the addiction wasn't a thing and they were fine if it was only that), the whole thing was literally Izzy Treats Raphael Like Shit And Then Raphael Is Villainized For It

im not even gonna get into the whole "raphael is blamed for the yin fen thing for some fucking reason when that was not his fucking fault and no one questions this" thing because ive done it before and i might explode with rage if i do, lol. that fucking plotline would have never been handled like that if raphael wasn't latino and therefore a predator drug dealer stereotype. but ANYWAY

those are the two things that i see anti rizzy shippers talking about the most, but those are actually not what bothers me the most. what really drives me up the wall and is just vomiting emoji is the way izzy treats raphael. that's the dealbreaker for me and something that never gets acknowledged

like, for starters, raphael was once again shown to be one of the most caring and selfless characters in this piece of shit stupid show, when he saved izzy's life when she was stupid enough to actually go to a vampire den. she had done nothing but be shitty to him and the vampires up to that point, mind you (which some ppl in this fandom treat as like #GirlPower or something) but he still saved her life for no reason other than that was the right thing to do

and then she immediately, the same second, tried to trigger him into drinking her blood. and he kept telling her no and pushing her away and she was literally GRABBING him and slitting her wrist and then he caved, at great personal cost, which she didn't care about

fine

then we get her going after him again, and raphael, again, being the caring and selfless bastard that he is, does something so monumentally kind and dangerous that it still blows me away: he tells her about his addiction

and i know that ppl in this fandom love to act as if every single thing raphael did for the sake of other characters, particularly the shadowhunters and simon, is just, like, expected and no big deal. but raphael didn't owe izzy that. he didn't have to tell izzy that. hell, he didn't even have to save izzy's life when she went to the den, for all he knew it was all a trick or something. and telling her, someone he doesn't even know, a shadowhunter, not only one of his greatest secrets, not only one of his greatest vulnerabilities, but the single hardest and most painful moment of his life, a whole can of worms about his past that he just bared to her just like that, was just. so much. it was such a huge thing that he did for her, okay. and let's not forget that raphael is a private person, both for survival and because he just is

he basically opened up his biggest wound and showed it to her only because it could bring her some sort of comfort. it wouldn't even help her greatly. it wouldn't even change anything about her situation. it would bring just maybe a little bit of comfort and advice, at great personal cost, way greater than the good it would bring her. and he still did it, because raphael cares, especially when he sees someone going through something he went through as well. just so he could tell her that it gets better, that she's not alone. that he understands

and she fucking!! immediately!!!! uses that against him!!!!!! and continues to try to trigger his addiction again and again and again and again!!!! may i just say, WHAT THE FUCK

EVERY SINGLE TIME she tries to get him to drink her blood, it's not consensual, it's forced. he always hesitates, always tries to push her away, always turns his head. and she just pushes him anyway. even after she knows that he's been through this before. that it almost destroyed him. she knows exactly what she's triggering and bringing on, and she! does! it! anyway!!

watching some of the rizzy scenes, particularly the one where they are cooking together, makes me want to cry for him, because it's so obvious that what he's looking for is a deeper connection, someone to trust, to love, and what she's looking for is someone to satisfy her need. and look, i know addiction is terrible. but he's ALSO addicted. and again, i've met plenty of ppl who struggled with addiction, and they were able of, you know, not treating others like this

it drives me crazy! raphael lets her into his home, teaches her how to cook, opens up about the SINGLE SECRET ABOUT HIM THAT NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT EXCEPT FOR MAGNUS, and generally tries to have a good time with her, and not only does she immediately make his attempt at having a meaningful bonding time about him drinking her blood, but does it RIGHT AFTER HE TELLS HER ABOUT HIS SISTER??? it literally goes "here is my deepest most important secret that pains me greatly and is destroying me inside. oh, i said too much. i should have kept my mouth shut" "i'd rather you didn't *slits own wrist and makes him drink her blood*". like, girl, at least a word of comfort first??? a "you can tell me whatever you like"? an "i'm fucking sorry for your loss" maybe???????????? SHE TREATED HIM LIKE AN OBJECT

and also SHOUT THE FUCK OUT to "i didn't take you for a community service kind of guy", which granted is a minor thing to be upset about in the middle of this shitstorm, but still makes me want to rip my hair off. girl!! he's been doing nothing ever since you first met but helping you selflessly and getting only PAIN in return. like is she for real??? he went out of his way SO many times to help her, when he had NO reason to, not a single one. and she's still like "oh wow raphael cares about others?? im shocked" UDBDIDNDKSMSOSNSOSNSISBSUSBDUDBDIDNDIDNDI ARE YOU SERIOUSSSS

it's really such a revealing moment to me because it really shows that she didn't give any thought about everything he'd done for her. all the endless kindness and care, in the literal sense of TAKING CARE OF, that he offered her without a second thought. she never stopped to think about what it cost him. the fact that he didn't OWE IT TO HER, and thus it says something about his CHARACTER, because he CHOSE to help her. over and over and over again!!! AFTER SHE BETRAYED HIM MORE THAN ONCE. it never even crossed her mind! she just took it for granted, like it's what he was supposed to do, or something

and then!!!!!!! even after they go their separate ways!! and raphael is STILL caring for her and making sure she's okay! she decides to betray him one last time and have simon threaten his sister!!! and ill be honest i dont remember the reason for this, but i do remember that it wasn't fucking life and death, so like!!! it was just unnecessarily cruel and shitty of her and the biggest FUCK YOU to him and his trust. AND IT WASN'T NECESSARY AT ALL. like. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

and at this point izzy was recovering so it's just like. i get that before that we were literally seeing izzy at her ugliest, she even fought alec and said some shit that she definitely didn't mean at all and that was shitty and hurtful. so like obviously we were seeing izzy in her darkest, worst, most selfish, most hurt. which is why i can maybe cut her some slack for some shit (also i just realized i literally forgot that she straight up THREATENED HIM WITH A KNIFE god there is really So Much To Unpack Here), but at that point? at that point she had no excuse. she was recovering. this didn't even have anything to do with her addiction anyway. she was just proving that raphael's trust, his care, his fucking feelings, they meant nothing to her

like seriously! she could at least have the decency to go, after raphael was very obviously kind and considerate to me, maybe i should not conspire against him and bring forward his most important secret? i don't think i'm asking her for much here

and it also ends a circle of raphael opening up to her and trusting her and she betraying that trust EVERY SINGLE TIME! the literal single only thing he told her that she didn't use against him was his asexuality. which look, thank god, cuz that would have been way too ugly and uncalled for, but the bar is low here

(ok, maybe rizzy gets a shoutout for having raphael's asexuality be treated so naturally. especially coming from such an overtly sexual character like izzy. it was nice to have that. i also think that her whole line about how for the first time sex wasn't a big part of a relationship for her could have been explored in so many interesting ways. like it is obvious that izzy uses her sexuality as a way to gain confidence and prove her value and it would be cool to see that being addressed beyond throwaway lines, maybe talk a bit about hypersexualization of woc. but this is shadowhunters we're talking about so of course nah)

so like okay izzy gets a Not An Aphobe But Still Shitty badge for basically using raphael like he existed to provide her. and in short this is why i can't get into rizzy, not even in a very very alternate reality where it all went different and the way they met had nothing to do with addiction. because she really didn't care enough about him and he deserves so much better than this

and again, i know that izzy was at her damn lowest in that point, but i think that even if she weren't, ultimately their incompatibility still lies there - raphael is too selfless and izzy is not attuned to that. she would take what he offered and not really spare it a thought, even if she didn't mean to like, Use Him (cuz i dont think izzy meant to use him even in canon), like it was just expected. and he wouldn't point that out. and it would be. ugh

and yeah i think that summarizes my thoughts dudndjdn im sorry for the angry very long rant, i just started talking and it all was pouring out suddenly. i promise im not mad, i just...... have strong feelings about this whole thing

[softlass27]

Robert Week 2020 Day 3: Family A family dinner goes awry when revelations about the Sugden brothers' past come to light.

FYI, this is set in a slightly AU version of husbands era where Andy returned at some point and is living in Emmerdale again (I brought Adam back too, because why not).

Also, this fic refers to an old storyline that I must have watched but have no real memory of, considering how long ago it aired. So I've had to rely on gifsets and the Emmerdale Wiki, which you can see here:

https://emmerdale.fandom.com/wiki/Stephen_Butler https://isabellaofparma.tumblr.com/post/176241877331 https://robsugdens.tumblr.com/post/176241303211/i-didnt-have-it-easy

On a warm Saturday evening in August, the Sugdens and their other halves all gather round Diane’s table for their tea. Family time still isn’t a particularly common occurrence for them, but Diane and Victoria insist on it every now and then, and they mostly manage to get through the odd meal without any drama these days.

So as Aaron sits in his usual spot next to Robert and Seb, he doesn’t expect much more from the next couple of hours than some small talk with his in-laws over homemade shepherd’s pie and apple crumble.

Andy and Victoria are both in a nostalgic mood, it seems, tossing childhood memories back and forth as they eat. Nothing too heavy, thankfully, just funny – mostly farming-related – anecdotes from their youth.

At least, Andy, Vic, Diane and Doug seem to find them funny. Adam smiles and laughs easily along with them, but Aaron’s mostly left nonplussed. Honestly, the only thing getting him through it is the eye roll and small kill-me-now grin Robert shoots him whenever they catch each other’s eye. Aaron’s husband is clearly just as bored by the farm talk as he is, only chiming in when someone addresses him directly.

How many stories can you possibly tell about runaway cows, anyway?

As the first hour drags by and some of them start helping themselves to seconds, talk turns to Butlers farm and how the Sugdens had come to take it over back in the day.

“Who were the actual Butlers, anyway?” Adam asks, shovelling a forkful of mashed potato in his mouth. “Don’t think my mum ever said when we moved in there.”

“Just a bloke who was getting too old to keep up with things,” Andy replies with a shrug. “Will or Wilf, I think. And he had a son, too, about our age, right Rob?”

Robert nods as he wipes Seb’s mouth (he’s going through an incredibly messy phase of insisting on feeding himself) but doesn’t add anything.

“Drawing a blank on his name, though – ”

“Steve,” Robert interrupts quietly, turning back to his plate.

“Oh yeah, that’s it,” Andy snaps his fingers as the memory comes back to him. “Steve… dunno what happened to him. We were mates for a bit but he moved away in the end. We’d fallen out, can’t remember why but – ”

Robert’s scoff cuts Andy off. Everyone pauses and turns to him as he finally lifts his head to stare at a confused-looking Andy.

“What?”

“Are you kidding me?” Robert asks incredulously.

Victoria tenses and glances warily between the two of them. “What’s the matter, Robert?”

“Yeah, what’s your problem?” Andy says with a frown.

“You seriously don’t remember what happened with Steve?”

“No… ” Andy’s bewilderment is quickly turning to annoyance. “Who cares, it was like, a million years ago. Do you remember everyone you fell out with when we were kids? Saying that, it’d be a pretty long list for you, wouldn’t it?”

“Boys, come on now,” Doug rumbles quietly. “Let’s not spoil the evening.”

Robert stays silent, but Aaron can see he’s biting the inside of his jaw. A telltale sign that he’s upset but trying to keep it together. He rests a hand on Robert's tense thigh under the table, ready to jump in to his defence if needed.

“Well, share with the class,” Andy drawls, ignoring Doug’s words with the beginnings of a smirk. Aaron has no idea what this is about, but he wants to punch it off his face. “What was it, then?”

Robert hesitates, eyes darting to Seb – who’s thankfully still oblivious to the tension – before shaking his head and stabbing at his food with his fork.

“What, nothin’ to say?”

“No.”

“Maybe we should just change the – ” Diane begins, but Andy speaks over her.

“No, come on, he’s started now. Spit it out, Rob, whatever it is that's got your back up.”

“I said no.”

No one else at the table would have caught it, but Aaron hears the wobble in Robert’s voice. He tightens the hand on his husband's thigh, trying to keep him calm, remind him that he's not alone at the table.

“What d’you bring it up for, then?” Andy isn’t taking no for an answer, apparently, and he’s starting to get on Aaron’s last nerve.  “God, you always do this, always have to turn everything into some big drama, don't you? Come on, what was it that was so bad that – ”

“You found out Steve was gay,” Robert cuts Andy off, voice low but unmistakably clear.

Silence rings over the table as everyone freezes on the spot. Adam’s fork hovers in the air for a moment, before he sets it back on the plate with a clatter.

“Or, you heard rumours that he was gay, from that Ali kid. I dunno if he actually was, but that was good enough for you. You heard the rumours, you believed them – started passing them on to other people too, if I remember right – and after that, you wanted nothing to do with him.”

Aaron’s heart is thumping loudly in his chest, a familiar anger and defensiveness – for Robert, for himself, for this Steve kid – surging through him like wildfire. He watches Andy open his mouth uncertainly before closing it again, the irritation vanished from his face and replaced with shock. He looks like a deer caught in headlights.

“I asked you what the big deal was, why you cared so much if Steve was gay,” Robert continues with an air of apparent nonchalance, though Aaron knows better than to fall for the act, he knows Robert's fuming. Hurting.

“You said he shouldn’t have kept it hidden from everyone, you had a right to know what sort of person you’d been hanging out with. You were also very keen to make sure everyone else knew that just because you’d spent time with him, that didn’t make you ‘queer’, as you put it.”

Diane and Doug both look on uncomfortably, while Victoria brings a hand to her mouth in shock.

“Andy, you didn’t… ” she whispers with wide eyes. Adam lays a hand on her shoulder, looking almost as taken aback by the situation as her.

“I… ” Andy flounders helplessly, head whipping to his sister then back to Robert.

“Steve ended up moving away from the village in the end,” Robert finishes, pushing his plate away and tossing his napkin on to the table. “I guess all the shit he got over it – the name-calling and bullying – became too much for him to cope with, so he got the hell out of there. And no one ever mentioned him again.”

“Robert… ”

“Any of this ringing any bells for you, Andy?”

Andy gulps loudly before giving the slightest of nods.

“I – I forgot.”

“That’s nice for you,” Robert lets out a hollow laugh, before abruptly pushing his chair back with a loud scrape. “Sorry Diane, dinner’s been great but I don’t really fancy pudding. Lost my appetite.”

He scoops Seb out of his high chair and strides out of the room with a backward glance. Aaron rises quickly, muttering his thanks to Diane for the meal and following him, only stopping to throw a hard glare back in Andy’s direction. When Andy’s eyes meet his, he cringes and shrinks back in his seat.

Good.

*

“S’been a while since I’ve sat in on some proper Sugden drama,” Aaron say lightly, passing Robert a brew and Seb his sippy cup of juice.

Robert lets out a small huff but doesn’t speak, silently watching Seb playing with his toy cars on the rug. He hasn’t said much of anything since they left Diane’s and Aaron hasn’t pushed him. Not until now, anyway.

Careful not to spill their teas, he sinks onto the sofa and nudges Robert gently, raising a questioning eyebrow at him. Robert glances at him before sighing heavily.

“Probably gonna get an earful off Diane later,” he eventually mutters. “Causin’ a scene, spoiling a family meal again.”

“Somehow I don’t think she’ll blame you for this one. And if she does, she’ll have me to deal with.”

That gets him a tiny smile, at least.

“Gonna tell her off, are you?”

“I ain’t scared of her.”

Robert chuckles and leans into him, taking a slow sip of his tea. They sit in companionable silence for a few moments, before Robert begins to speak.

“I know Andy doesn’t have a problem with me, with you and me. I know he doesn’t think like that anymore, I wouldn’t speak to him if he did,” he says quietly. “We were just kids, and kids can be idiots, I get it. It’s just – it’s the fact that he didn’t even remember. To him it was clearly just a stupid bit of teenage drama, it didn’t mean anything. He probably never even gave it a second thought after Steve was gone. Whereas I… ”

Robert trails off, blinking rapidly and looking frustrated. Aaron reaches over to lace their fingers together, squeezing gently.  As out and proud as his husband is now, it's still difficult for him to talk about his sexuality sometimes, about all the time he spent in hiding it.

“That day,” Robert eventually continues. “When Andy said all that stuff about not wanting to hang out with Steve anymore, I thought I was gonna be sick there and then. The way he acted like it was the most disgusting thing he’d ever heard… I don’t think I got a wink of sleep that night. I just lay there in bed, picturing Andy’s face if he ever found out about – about me. If he knew what Dad knew.”

He sets his mug down and pinches the bridge of his nose.

“It wasn’t like I’d been about to come out or anything, this was a couple of years after Dad… you know.”

Aaron nods wordlessly, feeling the hatred he’d carried for Jack Sugden ever since he learnt about that day bubble rapidly to the surface.

“I’d already buried the fact that I liked boys, I'd decided I was just gonna pretend it wasn’t there. But – but hearing Andy say all that stuff about Steve, the way he reacted to even the possibility that his mate was… It was like like the final nail in the coffin, y’know?” Robert’s bottom lip wobbles as he shakes his head, sounding so resigned.

“I knew then, that I could never tell him. Or my friends, or anyone in this stupid village. Any hope I’d had, deep down, that being myself might be... I don’t know, not accepted but… tolerated, maybe? It pretty much died that day.”

Sometimes, Aaron is reminded of just how drastically things in Emmerdale have changed in recent times. His adolescence and Robert’s were only a few years apart; on paper the time seems like nothing. But the reality is that in terms of mindset and attitude, things couldn’t have been more different for the two of them.

He remembers the fear, the absolute terror of others finding out the truth about him all too well. But once he was out, once the dust settled and everyone knew… apart from the odd snide comment from some tosser he didn’t even know, people were fine with it. His family, Victoria, Adam, Ryan, Holly… none of them cared, no one saw him any differently. If anything, he became closer to nearly every person around him.

The fact that Robert not only believed that the opposite would happen to him, but basically had actual confirmation of it played out right before his eyes, breaks Aaron's heart.

He puts down his own mug so he can pull Robert into him and tuck him under his chin, Robert’s arms circling his waist as he buries his face into Aaron's chest.

“I love you,” he murmurs into his husband’s hair, hands stroking softly. “You deserved better.”

Robert clutches him tighter.

*

Later that night, Adam texts him while Robert’s in the shower.

so that was fun

Aaron readjusts a sleepy Seb in his lap so he can reply.

What happened after we left? Andy say anything?

not much. diane and vic gave him an earful, he left pretty sharpish. looked proper ashamed of himself too. vic’s been going spare ever since, i’ve had to stop her from going to yours 3 times. u both ok?

We’re fine. Tell Vic that Rob’s alright, I’ve got him

will do. night mate

*

“Well, you’ve got balls, I’ll give you that.” Is the only thing Aaron says when he opens the front door to Andy the next morning, folding his arms across his chest.

Andy shuffles awkwardly on the welcome mat, a hand coming up to scratch his bushy beard.

“Is Robert here?”

“Yes.”

He doesn’t step aside to let Andy in. When Andy realises that Aaron isn’t budging, he sighs heavily, shoulders slumped.

“Look Aaron, I uh… ” He clears his throat. “I’m sorry."

“Not me you need to apologise to.”

“No, I know, but I just wanted to say that I was a right idiot back then, really stupid. Ignorant. And I’m – I’m not proud of it, but I don’t want you thinking I’m still like that because – ”

“I don’t think you’re like that,” Aaron cuts him off.

“…Yeah?”

“You wouldn’t still be standing here if I did.”

Andy pauses and blinks, face twisting nervously.

“Right, well uh… good, I’m glad. So… can I…?” He gestures to the inside of the house.

“Wait here.”

He closes the door in Andy’s face (not exactly necessary, but he takes some petty pleasure in it) and walks through the living room to the back door, stepping out into bright sunshine and the sound of splashing and laughter.

Seb’s playing in his paddling pool in the garden, happy as a clam, while Robert sprawls on the grass beside it, occasionally passing him one of the bath toys they’d brought down to the garden. The front of his t-shirt is absolutely drenched.

“Alright?” He asks as Aaron approaches.

“Andy’s here. Asking for you.”

Robert stiffens, grin dropping off his face.

“Want me to send him packing?”

There’s a long pause, before Robert sighs and shakes his head. “No… suppose he can come through.”

Aaron returns to the front door and beckons Andy, leading him to the back garden.

“Andy!” Seb cries when he spots them. “Pool!”

“Wow, look at this!” Andy calls as he steps closer. For all his and Robert's issues, he adores Seb. “You havin’ fun, mate?”

Seb nods vigorously, his damp sunhat bouncing on his head as he smacks his hands into the water. Robert tilts his head up to stare at Andy.

“Alright?” Andy tries for a hopeful smile, which Robert doesn’t return, instead refocusing his gaze on Seb.

“Can we have a quick chat?”

Robert passes Seb a rubber duck.

“Rob, come on,” Andy pleads, looking down at him imploringly.

Robert rolls his eyes, before pushing himself up and wiping his palms on his shorts.

“Can you – ?” He asks Aaron, gesturing to Seb.

“Course.” Aaron gives Robert’s wrist a brief squeeze as he passes him, before settling down next to the paddling pool, flicking some water in Seb’s face to make him laugh.

As he plays with his son, he keeps an eye on the two brothers, watching as they walk to the deckchairs at other end of the garden, sitting sideways on them so they’re facing each other.

Aaron can’t make out exactly what’s being said, not over the sound of Seb’s splashing and yelling, but neither of them look angry, which is a good sign. He just hopes Jack’s name doesn’t come up, otherwise that could all change in a heartbeat.

Andy’s doing most of the talking, elbows resting on his bouncing knees as he leans towards Robert. The expression on his face is uncomfortable but earnest, as he offers what is clearly an apology – Aaron doesn’t need to hear them to know that much. It makes a change; Aaron’s never known anyone so keen to deny any wrongdoing as Andy Sugden – especially when it comes to Robert and their childhood.

Robert keeps his face blank, sitting ramrod straight and staring somewhere past Andy’s shoulder as he listens. But as Andy continues speaking, his face begins softens a little and he eventually begins talking back quietly. Andy fidgets and looks down, but he doesn’t interrupt except to nod occasionally, replying only when Robert finishes speaking. It’s probably the most the Sugden brothers have communicated in years.

Aaron wishes he could lipread. Or that he had a slightly quieter child.

“Daddy!” Seb cries for his attention, hitting him in the chest with a plastic bucket.

“Oh, sorry mate, did you want a shower?” He fills the bucket with water and tips it all over Seb’s head until every inch of him is dripping, causing him to shriek loudly.

“That’s what you get,” Aaron laughs at the indignant expression on his son’s face, before glancing up to see Robert and Andy have stopped talking in favour of watching the scene fondly.

Andy stands and stretches. “I should get going, then,” he says to Robert, who stands to follow him.

“Stay for a bit if you like? We’ve got lemonade in the fridge, lots of ice.”

“Nah, you’re alright. I’m taking Sarah shopping soon,” he claps Robert on the shoulder. “Another time, though?”

“Okay, yeah.”

“I’ll see myself out.” Andy leans down to tickle Seb under the chin. “Enjoy your pool, Seb.”

He starts walking across the grass, before pausing and turning back to them.

“Rob?”

“Yeah?”

“You – you’re my brother,” Andy chews his lip, looking serious. “My family. Family’s supposed to rely on each other, and I made you feel like you couldn’t. I really am sorry.”

There’s a long silence as Robert stares at him, unmoving. For a moment, Aaron thinks he isn’t going to say anything back, and then –

“S’okay, Andy. It’s forgotten.”

“Okay,” Andy nods, sounding relieved. “Oh, and please let Vic know that I’ve spoken to you, will you? Before she castrates me.”

Robert’s mouth twitches. “Can’t have that. I’ll let her know.”

“Cheers. See you, Rob. Aaron.”

Andy takes his leave, shoving his hands in his pockets and disappearing around the corner of the house.

Robert sinks down onto the grass next to Aaron and lets out a long breath.

“Okay?” Aaron asks.

“Yeah.”

“You sure?”

Robert smiles and presses a kiss to the side of his head. “I’m fine. We talked, it was good.”

That’s probably the most Aaron’s going to get out of him, for now at least, so he smiles back and snakes an arm around his waist. If Robert’s good, then he’s good.

“D’you want me to get the drinks from the – hey!” Robert splutters when he’s cut off by Seb chucking a bucketful of water in his face, giggling madly when he hits his target with impressive accuracy.

“Good aim, kid,” Aaron grins, ruffling Seb’s soaked hair.

[immortalled]

Slapping these all together instead of making a ton of ooc posts, but.... s3e2 live reactions and final thoughts.

- Simon continues to be cute.

- Lowkey wondering if Overman has the pee fetish...

- Kelly and Alisha hanging out and getting ice cream is adorable. I hope we see them actually hang out in this season.

- Alisha is talking SO loudly in the graveyard. Seth is literally just right there. ALISHA PLEASE.

- Even without invisibility Simon manages to scare people by sneaking up behind them lmao love that. Never change, weird little man.

- ???? Okay, I don’t understand why Curtis wants to keep his whole “my power is turning into the opposite sex” thing secret? His friends KNOW that’s his power, why hide what he looks like? Why does it matter? 

- This episode is quickly turning into one of those “uh oh big misunderstanding, now everyone is going to think Simon is cheating on Alisha even though this could have just been solved by talking to each other” plots and... man, that is my least favorite trope. I swear if it turns into this, I’m gonna scream. Curtis, I will throttle you, and then I will throttle Overman.

- ...Cute girl is gonna get Ruthed isn’t she? Gosh, Curtis... c’mon...

- S I G H S. I take it back. Curtis does need to drink his Respect Women Juice. 

- Simon’s looks of horror are pretty golden lol

- OOF OOF OOF. This episode does not shy away from uncomfortable issues women have, huh? Yikes! I feel unsafe just watching lmaooo why’s everyone in this show a creep? Why!! Not a bad thing, it’s realistic, I suppose, but everyone? Everyone? Give me one nice man, Misfits, please. I miss Ben. Bring Ben back.

- Ohhhh, Curtis, honey... This is why women guard their drinks like HAWKS at parties...

- SKGSJGK RUDY SPITTING HIS DRINK INTO A GIRL’S HOOD IS SENDING ME I hate to keep comparing him to Nathan but at this rate I might actually have to make a Nathan/Rudy parallel gifset. That gave me bowling alley flashbacks.

- Emma what the heck?? Who just leaves their girlfriend passed out? Who assumes that was their fault? Excuse me? 

- I AM SO SCARED FOR CURTIS OH NO

- .................I didn’t need to see that. I did not want to see that.

- I swear Curtis better own up to Emma. But now I’m not happy with either of them. Emma shouldn’t have left Curtis, and Curtis should be honest. This is such a mess.

- Simon is a mood. Simon is me. I too have no idea what the heck is going on. Curtis is making everything so difficult.

- Oh my stars, I love Kelly to bits. What a girl, what a pal. 

- However, I am going to throttle Curtis and Overman. I hate this trope so much. Kelly being a bro for Alisha is literally the only good thing about this.

- Well. Curtis is certainly chugging his Respect Women juice now. He’s drowning in it. 

- Seriously, why didn’t Curtis just tell them???

- I’ve said it before, but why do they always choose to film like this? What is this focus? It’s less awful than S1 when they’d put faces partly out of focus when they’re the only thing on screen but??? I really wanna know the thought process.

- Good job Curtis. Go do the right thing. GOOD JOB, DO IT. DON’T SCREW THIS UP.

- O h.

- O h n o.

- This episode is legitimately terrifying. IDK if I can watch this one again. I am so uncomfortable.

- SAVE HER CURTIS OH M Y STARS I HATE THIS

- GOOD YES GOOD THANK YOU BABY 

- Holy crap that revenge though. Deserving, for sure, but. Wow lmao alright, then. 

Final thoughts: That episode was w i l d l y uncomfortable. Lots of nonconsensual stuff, high even for Misfits. It’s not uncomfortable because it’s made out to be a joke, though, but this episode takes it with a shocking amount of seriousness. It’s really good at showing just how scary it can be as a girl and for that reason alone, I don’t know if I can watch this again any time soon lol. It’s just... a little too real. I didn’t expect Misfits of all things to have an episode that tries to teach a moral lesson about consent but, despite its flaws, color me impressed.

My only issue is that I really don’t see why Curtis needed to learn this lesson? Out of all the main male cast, he’s always been pretty considerate and aware. I guess we never get to see too many of his faults since Curtis-centric episodes before have mostly been centered around his time travel power and his guilt over wrecking his athletic career. But... it just seems sort of left field that he’s the one who needs to understand what it’s like to be a woman? IDK. I’m both glad this is an episode because maybe male viewers could learn something, but from a character standpoint, it strikes me as strange lol. If anyone needed this lesson, Nathan (if something similar could have happened in S1 or 2) or Rudy would have been my choice.

Anyway. Not a terrible episode, not a great episode. Squicky. Very squicky. There were times when I felt that some writing was being repeated, too. A few lines and actions from Rudy felt like rehashes of Nathan and some elements reminded me a lot of S1E2, namely the whole issue with Curtis starting a relationship with Emma while he’s in his girl body without telling her who he really is. And then everyone teasing Curtis about the thing with Rudy felt like a weird callback to them teasing Nathan about Ruth. It doesn’t ruin anything, it just really pops out to me when it happens. Not sure if it’s because it’s actually that noticeable or if I’m just extra sensitive to it because I write Nathan and pay the most attention to his scenes.

Despite all that, I’ll say that Simon and Kelly were the real highlights of this episode. Simon had some moments that were just really adorable imo and I love love love Kelly confronting “Melissa” (Curtis’ female persona) when she thinks Simon is cheating on “her” with Alisha, and then she goes after Simon too LOL like. I appreciate a girl who doesn’t let friendship get in the way of ripping into both parties responsible for cheating. It’s also pretty cute that Kelly goes to check on Curtis after it’s all explained and Curtis is upset. That’s sweet. Kelly has such a big heart.

[mego42]

best of brio hitlist: 1x06

Alrighty here I am back on my bullshit with 1x06 aka A View from the Top. The top of what you may ask? I really can’t remember, s1 has basically all blurred together into a sea of excellent eyeliner and Rio in a hoodie. Guys, did you know at one point Mick had a jacket that fit? I nearly fell off of my couch. What do you think happened to it? 

Let me open this with a serious question: who in the writers room was traumatized by a doctor bc this show has a consistently unkind view of people with medical degrees 

Like obvs yes the lady doc in s3 was lying for justice and puppies and to save Rio from making rash decisions in a fit of dramatics (lol good luck lady that is a fruitless endeavor) or whatever but still, yikes

Anyway lmao @ Beth being like your budget is $1 do what you can to save my trash husband from his trash cancer

Where did that energy go it was so great

Petition for the Hills to do one musical number every other episode 

I’d say every episode but you know they’re just gonna take it from Rio’s screen time 

Such a sartorial mixed bag this scene, on the one hand you have Beth’s hat (awful, work awfully, in total competition with the scarf, not a good look) but on the other you have Annie’s jacket (adorable, I want to bury my face in her hood and never come out)

I CANNOT BELIEVE WE GOT HOODIE RIO 3 EPS IN A ROW

AND NOW WITH A BEANIE??????

I say it again, s1 is god tier

HI MICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did not realize that Rio licking his lips is in reaction to Beth talking about how much money the girls have been turning around for him

He is so horny for money

They were made for each other tbh

Shout out to Ruby’s hysterically unsurprised face when Beth swerves and asks for more money instead of quitting that is the face of someone who has been on this ride for Way Too Long

Ruby: in hindsight we should’ve never let Beth talk I see that now

GO BIG OR GO HOME RIGHT what a nerd I love her

Ruby: I am actually going to commit murder here and now

“Brought that mama van with you?” Why is this so hot I don’t understand nothing about it should be sexual least of all minivans

The way Beth straightens up and gives that perky little I did good!!!!!! nod is so fucking cute I want to punch myself in the face

YOU CANT JUST SERVE A BITCH A MINI MUFFIN AND ASK HER TO JOIN YOU IN A LIFE OF CRIME

A CLASSIC!!!!!!!!!!

Cut to Ruby serving a bitch a mini muffin, I really do love this show

HI TYLER!!!!!!!!!

Okay now there’s like, a preteen girl Boland child??!!! Where are these children coming from?????? Where do they go????????

I’m going to say something potentially controversial: I’m deeply unmoved by and largely uninterested in the whole thing with Annie and Boomer’s racist grandma 

Tyler: you can just call corporate right???? It’s not like this is a poorly thought through farce of a pyramid scheme with holes big enough to drive a bus through right?????????

It has been driving me bonkers since the first time I watched this ep trying to figure out who Christine Hendricks looks like in the brunette wig someone please put me out of my misery and tell me

Hey!!! Did you know I fucking hate Dean??????? 

I have mixed feelings on the sit down/that’s exactly what happened thing like on the one hand I love watching Beth effortlessly play Dean, but on the other the knowledge that the breathy baby doll voice she uses does it for him makes my skin crawl

I violently do not like when the Hills have conflict so I am electing to ignore it entirely

I missed everything that happened during the Boomer scene(s) because I was looking at Schitt’s Creek gifsets and I stand by my choices

I find the girls sitting on the swings weirdly endearing and I also really adore the framing of that shot

Seriously do not understand why they did away with everyone dragging Dean it was such a great feature

‘CUZ YOU DELIVERED

GOD!!!!! I LOVE!!!!!!! THE SMILES!!!!!!!!!!!

Rio: (✿◕ ﺮ ◕)

Beth: (◠‿◠✿)

Mick, Ruby and Annie: right???? in front?????? of our salad????????

My ultimate gg kink is, to no one’s surprise least of all my own, Beth surprising and impressing Rio and Rio instantly getting a boner over it

I would like to formally request they bring back this dynamic in some way shape or form specifically as a present to me bc I deserve it

In Beth and Ruby’s defense, the flip my game speech makes minimal sense, there were several poorly supported leaps

Shout out to Annie’s blazer and side boob, it is my all time fav Annie look

hey look my icon

Stan smelling the cash and goofing around with Ruby: 😍

Knowing Ruby’s still lying and it’s all gonna fall apart: 😥

I don’t think I properly realized until right now, as I’m nearly blinded by my tears of mirth over Dean saying “he’s never going to mess with you again, not on my watch” how much I love the dress Beth is wearing

This has been a very fashionable ep for the Marks sisters, Beth’s hat aside

The it was a choice speech would slap so much harder if Beth finished it off by stabbing Dean in the eye with a pair of scissors instead of dumping a bunch of money all over him

Takeaway from this episode: honestly it’s no wonder Beth is so bad at being a crime lord she had a horrible teacher that speech was truly insensible 

[barryallenis]

I agree about Twitter. I just don’t understand why ppl want to engage w/others in there especially celebs. The amount of hypocrisy that goes on is ridiculous. I had to walk away from all that ugliness and keep it moving. Fans think they know these celebs because they get a quick peek at their lives. Seriously, we don’t know what these ppl are doing 99.9% of the time. Yet ppl try to tell them how to live their lives. I used to say when you start paying my bills then we can talk until then bye

It’s truely wild what people think they have the right to say behind the guise of social media. It’s the accessibility and the anonymity. All it takes is an @ and you know your name is going to show up in that person’s notification. But while you know who THEY are, they have no idea who YOU are. I know I’m not announcing any huge revelation saying that trolls thive off that hidden identity. But it’s true about comments good and bad. Your absolutely right, when I said we KNOW who they are, what I meant was we know their name, their face, their occupation. That’s, pretty much it. 99.9% of them? The stuff that really matters? We don’t. And it’s the twisted mindset social media has created that makes people think that they do.

I think the thing that has always bothered me about twitter specifically is that it has always felt superficial. Which is fine, if you want to post about what you had for dinner, but not when you’re trying to have bigger discussions. No one can have full, healthy, understandable and constructive discourse in 280 characters. What has anyone ever learned from 280 characters? Why would people waste their time reading and writing hundred paged books and texbooks and 50 paged research papers on one single topic if it could all somehow be dumbed down to to 280 character? like??? To fully understand something, too add to a discussion, prove a point, to change someones mind, what you say must come with facts, context and explanation. And that means, sorry! You’re gonna need to use a few more words!

On the simpler end, I noticed how much this was true amidst fandoms specifically. There’s often talk of a “twitter fandom”, an “instagram fandom” and a“tumblr fandom” but at the end of the day I have, and always will, choose spaces like tumblr to engage in any fandom. Not only is tumblr a place where people have so much more space to express their creativity in things like edits, gifsets, and fanfiction, but it also leaves more room for ACTUAL INDEPT DISCUSSION. I write multi paragraph responses/post on the regular, thats the NORM on this site! Sure, some of it’s about silly stuff, but a lot of it goes deeper. Whether that be disecting an actors facial expressions in an emotional scene or a conversational dialogue or talking about overarching thematic storylines or character development. And they’re not being done so that an actor, actress, writer or producer can see them, they’re being done just, for the joy of it. Because it’s fun and interesting to dicuss the stories we see play out in front of us. I mean why do we all get so invested in fandoms in the first place!? We get invested in the story and the characters. Or at least, that’s the case for most.

I’m not saying you have to thoroughly disect every single piece of content you consume, that would be insurmountable for most of us. There are so many tv shows, movies or books that I don’t engage with fandom wise at all. (I watched a show called Burn Notice, twice all the way through, and I literally could not name a since actor in that entire show lol). I’m not saying you can’t have surface level discussion about things, but ... call them what they are. Don’t write a sentence with no context and think it’s worthy of acknolwegment from the person it’s about. ESPECIALLY when that thing is critical. If you are going to critique something to someone who directly created an aspect of the thing you’re critiquing, you BETTER COME AT IT WITH FACTS. And it BETTER NOT COME AS A PERSONAL ATTACK. If someone has an example of a constructivly critical tweet that could actually be used to make real, systemic change and not just one that makes an over simplified claim directly to the person in a way that is really no help at all, please let me know. Those kinds of things should be filtered before they’re shared and maybe simply thought about and digested before saying. But that’s never really been twitters whole stick. Twitters vibe to me has always been that of a tumblr liveblog but at all times; comments made in the heat of the moment without much thought of the impact or reprocussion despite the fact that it has the most means of impact than almost any other social media platform.

In the most broad sense, Tumblr is for people who want to contribute, Twitter is for people who want to be seen. And what’s most upsetting about it is that they ARE the most seen. I mean, Taylor Swift is the only celebrity I know of, right now, that is an active participant on tumblr (I’m sure there are more but that’s the one I’m most familiar with). Meanwhile, nearly every celebrity has a twitter. No one comes on here looking to be seen (minus some of the Taylor Swift fandom but thats kinda to the point). And yet it’s the thought provocing, factual based critiquies AND appreciations that are so often found on THIS site that are the ones that should be heard by the people that make those pieces of media.

TLTR: What celebrities see of the general public’s perception of them and whatever their art form is, is largely through twitter replies and instagram comments. No wonder they are often so emotionally wreaked by the feedback they hear! There is largely, no real substance behind very bold claims (of both critisim and praise! Not to the same extent obviously, but what does shouting out “I LOVE YOU” to a person you do not know really doing?). I so wish that we could simply talk to celebrities on social media (and, really, anyone on social media) like we do people in our normal day to day lives. What an ideological world it could be without people recieving egregious death threats on the daily huh? Imagine.

All I know is, whatever the solution to the problems we all have with interacting on social media, the answer is not going to be found on twitter.