#i literally screamed like seven times during this episode

[i-like-writing-stuff]

the other five [ five hargreeves x reader ]

request: Hello! This is my first time desperately requesting a fic because the new season is SO bad 😭 Can you write a fic where the reader finds out about everything that happened between Five & Lila and then she gets taken away by one of the Fives at the deli and promising her that he’ll treat her better than OG Five (You can also add a part where OG Five finds out about this and lives to regret it)

a/n: AU where everything in that trash season was the same, except when five made the first jump in s1 he made it in his 32 yr old body bc i will not have y/n pull a zach justice (lmao)

even if lila did 😭😭

anyways basically everyone is the same age

i like to think of the five that comforts y/n as the five that explained everything to five in the last episode because that one literally felt like the five we were supposed to get, the five that was there all the first three seasons

sorry i cant stop trashing this season you guys 😭 i’m just so disappointed

summary: after breaking up with five, you make up with… well, five

part two

“Leave me alone, Five!” You yelled in despair, pushing the man before you away, “Actually, first take me back home, you psycho! I have nothing to say to you!”

“Y/N, please, just hear me out!” Five tried to reason with you, as if anything he would say could make your heart glue itself back.

You were standing in the subway station after Five had blinked himself and you away from the family- or what was left of it, watching him at loss of words. You didn’t recognize the man before your eyes, as much as you tried. You didn’t even have time to gather all your thoughts since there was yet another impending apocalypse on its way, so your mind was completely all over the place.

Five Hargreeves was not the same Five Hargreeves you fell in love with all those years ago. He was not the same man who had stolen your heart and made you feel like you were the most precious person in the world. He wasn’t your partner anymore, he wasn’t your lover. Your boyfriend wasn’t there. You looked at this person and there was a stranger, acting as if he was the same who had hugged you, held your hand, kissed you all those many times. You were questioning everything about him now.

“Take me back!” You yelled again, ignoring his same pleas, curling your hand in a fist, “I’m this fucking close to making you ash!”

As your pure anger got the best of you, you were ready to let your powers take over for a second. Obviously you weren’t actually going to hurt him, no matter how much you wanted him to feel your pain, at least physically.

You met him six years ago, during the first time you tried to stop the apocalypse. You were also one of the extraordinary kids, but luckily enough, Reginald Hargreeves didn’t manage to adopt you- more so, purchase you. You only met Five not long after he managed to time travel back to his family in 2019 after spending all those decades by himself. Before you knew it, you were dragged into the Hargreeves family and your relationship soon after developed.

Your six year relationship that was so merry a few hours ago. Now it was crumbled, trashed.

What hurt was that it was six years only to you. Five managed to block himself seven years away from you, only in the presence of Lila.

“This is so fucking stupid,” You scoffed, fighting back the tears in your eyes, “It’s fucking over! Do you want me to spell it out for you?!”

“I want you to listen!” Five didn’t give up on arguing, “I thought I’d never see you again!”

“You didn’t want to see me again!” You screamed, wailing your hands in the air, “Fucking save it- It’s over! I don’t want to ever see you again if we survive this apocalypse! You ruined our relationship, you ruined your brother’s marriage, family! For fucking Lila!”

You hated him absolutely. The mere thought of his infidelity, of the nerve to act as if he still loved you, it was all despicable.

You grew to love all of your boyfriend’s siblings, and also your nieces and nephews, even if you and Five were not yet married. You planned to be a part of the family officially, but still wanted to focus on your careers, you wanted to adjust yourself to your old life, back to your origins.

“Y/N, please!” He tried to step, towards you, but you started stepping away.

Thoughtlessly, because of all your anger, you just walked towards the first train approaching you, fully intending to be away from him at whatever cost.

“If you don’t want to take me back, I’ll fucking find my own way!” You hopped onto the train, watching as he tried to catch up with you.

But he was too late.

In hindsight, maybe it was not the smartest idea, but you were just so devastated nothing made sense to you anymore. You spent the past six years thinking that you are set for the rest of your life, now that the world wasn’t ending anymore. You reconnected with your family, you built a career for yourself and were living happily with Five, you had literally just finished settling yourself in the new house you bought together. You couldn’t understand how he could do this to you.

You couldn’t understand how Lila could betray your friendship either, especially Diego and their kids.

You tried to make it make sense, be reasonable- it was only a few hours to you, but they were lost in this subway system for seven years.

But then again, Five was lost in the future 45 years by himself and he didn’t give up on trying to return to his family once.

Now he did, he gave up on trying to return to you.

That’s definitely another aspect that stung.

“Fucking piece of shit,” You mumbled, as the train approached its first station, “How do I fucking get out of here?”

You stumbled out of the sub, taking in your surroundings. It was yet another crumbled down station, but if you were to be at least a tiny bit fair, it was maybe a bit better kept. You looked around curiously, trying to figure out where to go from now on. Your fire-based superpowers were totally useless in this situation, so you hated to admit that you were in a bit of a pickle.

You rolled your eyes, as Five rounded the corner and stopped in his tracks, watching you with widened eyes.

“You again?” You sighed angrily, “Take me back or get out of my sight, Five.”

Five raised his brows, putting his hands in his pockets curiously. He didn’t say a word yet, as a small smile tugged at the corner of his lips. He slowly stepped towards you, not taking his eyes off you once. For a split second, you stopped as well, sending that something was up.

You took in his features, trying to make sense of what was going on, realizing that he didn’t have a coat on him. He was wearing the exact three piece suit an black tie, he was wearing the same silver watch on his left hand, but he didn’t have his coat on.

“Y/N,” He smiled, stopping in front of you, “I never thought I’d see you again, more so here.”

“What the fuck is going on?” You calmly asked, over-analyzing the man before you.

His smile didn’t drop. It was a genuine one, a smile you hadn’t seen in a while. Things between you and Five were okay a few hours ago, but he hadn’t watched you with this look since you first met. His eyes were sincere, taking in every single feature of yours, traveling all over your body.

“I take it your Five danced the devil’s tango with Lila,” He sighed deeply, raising a hand to gently brush away your tears.

When did you even start crying?

Your mind was scrambled all over the place, but at that exact moment you couldn’t say another word. You just melted into his touch, feeling warmth. It really hadn’t been that long since Five touched you, but this touch felt different. His hand rested on your cheek, as his thumb caressed you lightly. His touch was so intoxicatingly sweet, sending shivers down your spine.

“I’m so sorry I’m a literal shitface in some other timelines,” He lightly shook his head, “I’m so sorry.”

“What is going on?” You asked once again, calmer this time.

For whatever reason, you relaxed in an instant. You couldn’t tell if it was because of his gentle touch or simply his presence. Ironic, since just ten minutes ago you were ready to set him on fire.

“Come with me, my love,” Five said, grabbing your hand in his, “I’ll explain everything.”

You didn’t fight his touch, locking your fingers with his. None of you said a word, as you watched you hands fit so perfectly in one another. How could your relationship be over when you were so good together?

You followed Five through the subway station, rounding the same corner he appeared from. You watched as he turned his head to give you a reassuring smile, lightly squeezing your hand in comfort.

After a few more steps and going down a couple of stairs, you widened your eyes seeing a literal deli tucked away in this godforsaken out of order subway system. The headlights above the front entrance were lit up, writing Max’s Delicatessen. You saw inside a huddle of people as you entered, gathering everyone’s attention.

When they all turned to look at you, you literally couldn’t tell whether you or the huddle of people was more shocked.

They were all Fives.

There was music playing inside, as the deli was full of different versions of your boyfriend, whether they were customers sitting at the tables, drinking coffee or having a meal, reading the newspaper or having a chat. There were also other Fives working around, waiting tables or cooking in the back.

Nonetheless, they all stopped to look at you.

“Yeah, yeah, Y/N is here, carry on, you guys,” The Five that was holding your hand waved the others off with his free hand, “She needs a moment, stop being creeps.”

“I can’t tell if this is a dream come true or my worst nightmare,” You said, looking around the deli, as Five guided you towards an empty booth.

You sat down as the other picked up again whatever they were doing, still watching you with the corner of their eyes. Five took a seat in front of you, still holding onto your hand on top of the table, using his other hand to rub small circles on your skin.

“I am not the Five that dragged you here, in case you didn’t tell yet,” Five managed to say, “But I’m pretty sure that you did, since I know you’re smarter than he gives you credit for.”

“He did mention that this subway system is the knot to multiple timelines,” You sighed, as Waiter Five set down two cups of steaming coffee on the table.

You watched him curiously, as he looked yet again exactly like Five, wearing just a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, with a black tie, pantsuit pants and a server apron around the waist. He smiled at you warmly, setting down two small packs of sugar and a creamer.

“I’m sorry, my love, we don’t have any Irish Capuccinos around here, since you’re the first Y/N to set foot in here,” He apologetically smiled, “I can only get you a shot of whiskey, if you’d like.”

Of course they all knew your favorite coffee.

“Make it a bottle,” You said, cracking a smile for the first time, causing him to chuckle, before walking away to attend to your order.

“I can’t begin to explain how much I missed your smile, darling,” The Five before you said, as you turned back to him, “The Handler got to the Y/N in my timeline,” He added, as sadness took over his eyes, “I missed you so much.”

“I can’t understand how you’re the same Five that fell in love with Lila,” You said, before quickly adding, “I mean- technically, you’re not, but still.”

“Everyone around here is a different version of me, from a different timeline,” He said, “I’m one of the many that didn’t go down that road.”

“Thank you, I guess,” You laughed, making him smile again.

What a sweet smile it was.

“When I lost you, I was a total wreck,” He confessed, as you couldn’t help but place your other hand on top of his, “I love you so much, Y/N, I could never hurt you like that no matter what. This is all such a fucked up turn of events, but when I saw you coming out of that train, my mind froze.”

“I love you too, Five,” You said, “But I need to wrap my head around what is going on- Everything is insane, I mean I’m right now in the middle of yet another apocalypse, I just found out that you love Lila and there’s just so fucking many of you.”

“I know, my love, I know,” Five nodded, “I wouldn’t dare to ask you accept everything so fast, I know it’s a lot to take in.”

“Can you just… hold me?” You asked, watching as he didn’t waste another second and got up to slide ne t yo you in the booth.

Wrapping one arm around your shoulders to pull you into his chest, he used his other one to caress your hair. You nuzzled your face into his shirt, taking in his scent, as you felt a wave of certitude wash over you. Five held you tightly into his arms, embracing you after years of your absence. He was grateful to have you in his arms once again.

And he was not about to let go anytime soon.

“I’ll always hold you, my love,” Five muttered, peppering small kisses in your hair.

The Five from your timeline watched from behind the window as you took comfort in his arms, but not exactly his arms.

This was only the beginning of his lifelong regret.

[pandorasword]

Chaeri as the 8th and youngest member of BTS.

CHAERI'S MASTERLIST

PTD On Stage in LA | Day 3

❒ genre: Slice of life

❒ words: 972

❒ summary: In which Chaeri uses Tae's beauty to her benefit

❒ prompts requested from the dialogue prompts game: “Wow, I really can’t speak, huh? Must be because of how pretty you look”

She was never good with words. She preferred facts: solid, reliable, hard to misunderstand. Words, on the other hand, always seemed elusive, ungraspable, especially when she had to use them in English. The situation worsened drastically when she found herself in front of thousands of people, right after singing for two hours non-stop. What was so difficult about a simple 'thank you'? For her, it was a real mystery. In fact, she didn’t believe a speech was necessary to express the emotion she felt every time. Hearing her songs sung by so many voices, with different accents, but with the same passion she put into them… she was sure it was evident during her performances how much she appreciated and was grateful for everything.

But it should be considered that those who cause their own misfortune should weep for themselves. She knew that day would come. She had all those years of experience and a highly competent team to ignore the inevitability of that moment. She could have taken the time to prepare a few sentences in English, memorize the pronunciation, and say them on stage. Instead, look at that, she had done nothing and couldn’t even remember why

In just a few seconds, all the times she had literally fled the room when she saw the English coach enter came back to her. It was almost like a scene from a cartoon: he came in one door and she scurried out the other, as if her only purpose in life was to avoid that conversation.

She had to refrain from slapping her forehead for being so stupid and irresponsible. She was still on stage, under the gaze of thousands of people.

Tae had just finished his speech. His English was insecure, his pronunciation questionable, but at least he had said something.

That evening, he stood out among the other seven, entirely dressed in red with a mask on his face, he had fun dancing and singing in a costume inspired by the Squid Game series, which had conquered the world in record time. And the crowd was ecstatic. A true show genius, born to capture attention: that's who Kim Taehyung was.

A shiver ran down her sweaty back, a testament to the hours spent jumping and running, reproducing the choreographies she knew by heart for that performance. 

It was her turn to speak.

With an uncertain gesture, she brought the microphone to her lips. Embarrassed, with no idea what to say or how to formulate a coherent speech, she searched the most remote areas of her brain for a foothold, a memory, or anything that could help her find the right words.

Then, suddenly, the screams of the crowd became so loud that they overwhelmed even her chaotic thoughts. Behind her, on the huge screen, appeared Taehyung who had removed his mask. 

And, damn, he was breathtakingly beautiful.

At that moment, a fleeting memory from a few days before came back to her: she remembered Namjoon, visibly irritated, trying to watch an episode of Friends. The younger members of the group were making noise around him, forcing him to restart the same part of the episode several times because he couldn't hear the lines.

Yes, that line she had heard repeated at least five times was perfect, and luckily, it had stuck in her mind.

She turned towards Taehyung, just a few meters away from her. The blue lenses of his eyes shone under the reflection of the multicolored stage lights, accentuated by the glows of the armybombs not far from them.

“Wow, I really can’t speak, huh? Must be because of how pretty you look”

The crowd roared in approval, shouted for the interaction, clapped for the way the boy's cheeks turned red, almost as red as his costume, because of the unexpected compliment.

The rest of the members burst into laughter, teasing Taehyung, while she realized that the attention from her speech had successfully been diverted elsewhere.

What a perfect end, she would have shaken her own hand in congratulations.

Later, in the backstage

“Chaeri-yaaaaa, you made me blush like crazy out there. Did everyone notice?” said Tae, walking beside Chaeri, an arm around her shoulders and almost all his weight leaning on her, partly from the exhaustion of the evening, partly because he loved to tease her.

"Every single person here saw how red you got" Jimin replied with an amused smile before the girl could, taking the perfect opportunity to tease his group mate when he was usually the butt of the jokes.

"Aish" Tae sighed theatrically, faking a look of devastation "my reputation as a tough guy is ruined because of you, Chaeri-ya."

Chaeri raised an eyebrow. “When have you ever had a tough guy reputation?” she said with a playful tone

"Hey, you" a sarcastic, accusatory tone came from Namjoon as he approached the trio, who were dragging their feet, destroyed by now, along the floor, hoping to reach a place where they could sleep for hours. Many hours.

"Don't think I didn't realize you did it to avoid the speech you were supposed to prepare for tonight" Namjoon looked at her with a look that said it all, the look of someone who raised you and knows all your little tricks. 

"Oops?" she looked at him, softening her eyes and curling her lips a bit to look more innocent - which she wasn't - and more forgivable - her behavior was absolutely unforgivable -. 

"So you didn't think for real that I was so handsome to leave you speechless?" Tae had pulled away from her half hug to look her in the eyes, his tone high-pitched.

"If it makes you feel better, I really think you're the prettiest of us all" 

"Ha! Did you hear that, Hyung? I really am the prettiest"

taglist: @alixnsuperstxr | @bts-dream | @enchantingbrowneyedgirl | @ycuvi | @cosmicwintr

[darklinaforever]

https://www.tumblr.com/very-straight-blog/754819285385396224/actually-im-probably-going-to-express-an?source=share

That's like very scary. Very.

Exactly.

Also, it is time for this person to accept the plain truth that Aegon II is indeed a certified rapist in Fire and Blood.

We have to stop the bullshit.

Aegon II is a villain ! Not a gray character ! Complaining that HOTD shows a dark side of him is ridiculous !

And yet he is really diminished by making him cry 24 hours a day, complaining about his father's lack of love, and making believe to the audience (with bitter failure) that he cared for his son by ultimately... making him cry. Well, this is definitely the son of the Alicent of HOTD...

Not to mention maintaining Maester Eustace's incoherent propaganda bullshit that Aegon II was forced to take the throne while his behavior after being put in power in F&B proves the opposite... (And this original Aegon II has no right to the excuse of having been galvanized by the people who chanted his name during his coronation, giving him a taste for this position like Aegon II of HOTD, since in truth in the book Fire and Blood the coronation of Aegon II it went badly with the people demanding for Rhaenyra...) 😑

Also, in another post this person always tries to defend Aegon II harassing Aemond in 2x03 by saying that he is not trying to harass or make fun of him, just tease him because he is drunk !!! 🤪

As if having drunk is a good excuse for the public behavior of Aegon II in relation to Aemond ? When he was harassing Aemond in episode 6, he hadn't been drinking as far as I know. Even when he basically says that Aemond knows his place in 2x01 ?

In any case, Aegon II stans will always find great excuses for him, each one more stupid than the other. All they care about is putting it in the right light !

It's deeply disgusts me.

We have another exemple with this so true post :

And this response which is basically a short version of what the person you sent me already said :

This scene has nothing to do with a big brother teasing his little brother. It's pure and simple public humiliation, especially when you combine it with the fact that Aegon II was the ringleader and the one who came up with the idea of ​​Aemond's harassment that Alicent validates as long as it's in private and the way in which Aegon II speaks of Aemond as knowing his place.

Luke took Aemond's eye out of pure impulse of fear and protection for his big brother Jace who was literally being threatened by Aemond who was holding a stone, saying that they were all going to die screaming like their father did. What did he have ? Between 7 and 9 years old ? According to my research, he died at 14 years old in episode 10. So normally, in episode 7, he was around either already 8 years old or almost, so probably seven and a half years old. He's just a kid who panicked and acted accordingly !

Especially since in the book, it's Aemond who starts the fight.

And he's not a victim of harassment either. In fact, he's the one who harasses the Velaryon boys.

There is no “nuance” like in this fucking stupid show.

Aemond in the book got himself into this shit and Lucerys simply defended himself in a situation that probably made him panic. He was 5 years old. Neither more nor less.

Like @nrilliree said : Joffrey was actually three years old in the book. Jace was six and Luke was five. Aemond was 10. Aemond slapped Joffrey of three years old, shouted at him, and pushed him into the dragon dung. Aemond broke Luke's nose and broke the wooden sword on Jace's head (so imagine the force he had to use). Luke was half his age, and the difference between a 10-year-old and a 5-year-old is huge. Luke only reacted when Aamond was pummeling Jace with his fists and he refused to stop. Aemond beat up a three-year-old, broke Luke's nose, broke the wooden sword on Jace's head, and then beat him up. A ten-year-old has a really big advantage in a clash with a 6- and 5-year-old. The loss of his eye in both canons is a consequence of his own actions.

But in any case, to come back on Aegon II subject ; Aegon II stans will always find great excuses for him, each one more stupid than the other. All they care about is putting it in the right light.

It disgusts me.

Aegon II in the show is an alcoholic rapist - who enjoys harassing his little brother Aemond - who finds his sister / wife Helaena to be an idiot - who enjoys watching children, including his own illegitimate children fight in arenas to survive them - as a result he is a shit father, but also legitimate for his children since before his son with Helaena became his heir he had never been interested in him to the point of not even knowing that he was taking lessons and knew even less where they took place, ultimately using his kid to humiliate Tyland Lannister, showing that Aegon II just likes bullying people...

In the book he is also a lazy alcoholic rapist and a pedophile on top of that (and by spending his time being lazy, drinking, and raping maids, and raping 11 / 12 year old girls, I'm supposed to think that he takes time for his children and would be a good father by the way ?) !

Aegon II is human waste that's all.

[sophfandoms53]

Okay time to get sappy a week after the finale LMAOO

As always, The Tag is my favorite part of the season and if we get good feeds along with it? A feast. And a majority of this season was like that, and I shall highlight some of my favorite memories from throughout the season and the tag that I will always be thinking about in years to come

- This is the funniest one for me, but us being locked out of the tag during reilly’s eviction and how we discovered that just minutes before the episode started, but that didn’t stop us from live blogging anyway LMAOO.

- And then they had the AUDACITY to announce the pressure cooker was finally coming back the following week and we couldn’t even properly celebrate together so we were all just screaming into the void😭 (or the nether region lol)

- That random vegan person who dropped the season bc Felicia asked for real butter lmao??

- Omg that chipmunk account we all thought was ohthecleverness and y’all called it the squeakuel and i think this person vanished from the tag

- GOING BACK TO THE PRESSURE COOKER, THE FEEDS THAT NIGHT??? Immaculate.

- It was magic to watch that in real time with each other. The shock we were in that the hgs broke an hour and then come to find out they almost broke the original record by mere MINUTES.

- The panic every time someone we liked dropped. The collective “CORY NO”’s live rent free to me.

- Us STRESSING so badly when Cameron wouldn’t let go and then America threw it to him😭 truly was magic tho

- Watching Cory go from someone the tag tolerated to being the IT boy of the season and the tag, iconic, that speech and debate boy had those hgs clawing walls

- Cory shutting down any misogynistic or problematic comment from anyone (the 21 turned 22 year old being the most responsible person this season should be studied)

- Corswhores that’s it LMAOO

- Cory suffering from the second juror curse

- America truly being one of us

- Cirie a queen to watch live

-omg that time Cirie said “I ain’t never played with people this stupid before.” SHE WAS AHEAD OF HER TIME

-Izzy deserved sm better from the edit, you could not escape this girl on the feeds

-The episode edits sucking for a vast majority of the season and for the houseguests (i swear i’ve never seen a season’s edit and its feeds be completely different from each other before how tf did that happen)

- Our collective hatred for the multiverse twist

- FUCKING BOWIE JANE

- Everything about Felicia really, the FBJ remix, her and Mr B (smooches), even tho she was pawned all summer watching her game was so fun

- HISAM ROBBED KING BUT HE SAVED US FROM THE REILLY CULT

- Us being split just like the house during the Izzy flip (we managed to stay more civil than twitter ever did, as we should)

- AND HOW COULD I FORGET THE JARED AND CORY FIGHT IN THE HAVE NOT ROOM???

- Two hours of Jared forcing everyone to go in circles, Cory reaching his limit, Jag coming in, Cirie coming in, Bowie just sitting there

-“Who the fuck is for real for real???”

- This exchange kills me everytime idk why

Cory: You also told me seven deadly sins was fake.

Jared: Who THE FUCK told you that???

Cory: YOU DID.

Jared: You wanna know why I told you that?

- Jared’s “YOU must’ve misunderstood.” about Matt, and then Cory’s immediate “WHOA, WHOA, NO.” Lives rent free

- “Jared, you have been yelling for forty minutes.”

- That gif of Cirie face palming as she listened to her son completely obliterate their games

- Cory’s face palm image

- This happening on a hot dog bed

- Mecole, America, and Blue all getting ready downstairs while this was transpiring upstairs LMAO

- I can literally quote and go on about this fight for hours, and im so mad i cant go back and watch the unedited version anymore (UPDATE SOMEONE UPLOADED IT ON YOUTUBE LETS GO)

- Y’all remember that assignment i did about this fight? Not only did i get a perfect score but i also got a bonus point and my prof wrote a note that i was so descriptive he wanted to watch LMAO

- The post season being less chaotic than the actual season is such a funny ending

-everyone joining cameo???

- And lastly, How did your game change for, I’m gonna say the better, when you joined the Mafia with Matt and I :D

Alright all of that highlighted, despite the chaos and the exhaustion of this 100 day season (BB gods never do this to us again oh my god) it’s been such a pleasure to open up the tag and read my morning newspaper the last three months LMAOO.

This has been the most active I’ve been in the tag thus far and with a season this all over place, it was a trip. But, truthfully, I’d do it again. You guys always make all the nonsense worth it because despite the different sides we’ve been on all season, we know this show is a train wreck and that our real enemy is always production 😭

Thank you guys again for such a lovely community these past few months, and we shall be back in few weeks tragically 🥲🫡💙

[presidenthades]

Once again, I am doing a series of my behind-the-scenes thoughts for The Golds while I do light edits for formatting, typos, and continuity. Here’s Chapter 9!

For this chapter’s title, I went with the final stanza of “The Song of the Seven” when the lyrics talk about all the gods, because the chapter ends with Jace and Aegon arriving for the anointment ceremony.

I kinda feel sorry for Jace and Aegon discovering the true hardships of parenthood (night feedings! Sleep deficit!), but they also have a castle full of servants to do all the chores. Raising a baby is hard, but at least they don’t have to worry about laundry or cooking. Can’t blame Jace for delegating diaper changes, though.

I have no idea how long a dragon’s gestation period is supposed to be. No reason it can’t be comparable to a human’s? They’re fictional anyway 😛. But I wanted Vermax’s gestation to align with Jace’s pregnancy to highlight that dragon/rider bond, since the show has cuts of Syrax reacting during Rhaenyra’s labor in Episode 10.

There’s a fandom theory that dragons seem to thrive more roaming freely on Dragonstone than chained in the Dragonpit. But one disadvantage of the Dragonmont is the Cannibal, who I imagine is quick to hint down new eggs and hatchlings. So when a claimed dragon is expected to lay eggs, I think the Dragonkeepers are very alert about when it happens. It might be harder to keep tabs on unclaimed dragons like Silverwing, who probably do their own thing without a rider to keep tabs on them. But otherwise the Dragonkeepers are trying their best to save the eggs from getting eaten.

There’s also probably a narrow window after Vermax lays eggs when she goes away to hunt or something, and that’s when humans are able to get the eggs. Otherwise Vermax might not be so happy about them taking her eggs, and Jace is in no shape to go up the mountain and tell her to calm down.

There’s some debate whether Sunfyre was a cradle egg or a dragon that Aegon claimed as a kid. The strong bond makes me want to say cradle egg, but Sunfyre seems a lot larger than most dragons his age if so, and there are lines in F&B which indicate that Aegon, Helaena, and Aemond might not have even received cradle eggs. There might not have been eggs available when the genre born, or maybe Viserys chose not to give them eggs because he was showing favor to Rhaenyra’s line. Daeron is the youngest so he’s a special case because of the timing; there might have been more eggs when he was born, or, in the book (where Daeron and Jacaerys are of similar ages), Viserys may have felt obligated to offer an egg to Daeron since he gave eggs to Rhaenyra’s kids.

I’m leaning toward Aegon claiming Sunfyre (who could have been a young dragon in the Dragonpit). In that case, it’s extra important to Aegon that he gets an egg for his son, especially if you go with the headcanon that Viserys deliberately didn’t give Aegon an egg. By personally choosing an egg and placing it in the cradle, this is another way Aegon can demonstrate his love and approval to his own son, which Viserys didn’t show to Aegon.

In the last chapter’s commentary, I mentioned that I made Aegon minimally affected by the glass candle since he’s not inclined toward magic. But Joff is very interested in magic and has actually used the candle, so it has a much greater effect on her. Kinda like how the One Ring in LOTR affects different people differently.

I think we can all agree that generally, it’s an asshole move to a) purposely create sudden loud noises around a newborn and b) shove a woman who just gave birth. Joff is not entirely herself and she shows remorse, so she gets some sympathy. At the same time, I think it’s clear why Aegon is so angry. From his perspective, Jace is bleeding on the floor and screaming for Joff to stop whatever she’s doing, and he catches Joff with her hands literally in the cradle. He believes he came just in time to stop something terrible from happening, and who knows what would’ve happened if Joff hadn’t snapped out of it? So Aegon is not going to immediately forgive Joff for hurting Jace/almost hurting the baby. And if it were anyone else (not Jace’s sister, not the person who just saved Jace and Cheeseball), he probably wouldn’t have forgiven them at all.

As for Jace, despite her own fear and pain, her first instinct is to try to protect Joff by lying for her, because that’s her sister and Aegon is pretty pissed. As usual, Jace sets her own needs and comfort aside in favor of her loved ones. But now Jace has a helpless baby to think about. She might still put her sisters above herself, but Cheeseball comes before her sisters now.

I allude to the glass candle in the Handbook, first when Daeron blabs about getting Joff something from Oldtown in Chapter 7, then in the final scene of the fic when Daemon catches the two of them examining the candle. The Citadel doesn’t officially acknowledge the existence of the candles (although it seems to be an open secret in Oldtown), so Daeron must’ve been very sneaky and creative to be able to “borrow” it.

“Joff won’t like it” is one of Daeron’s mantras when he decides what to do or not to do. He’s probably going to have to grow out of this eventually 😅.

“Joff is going to have to do a lot of things she doesn’t like. That’s life.” Aegon learned this life lesson a while ago, but he truly absorbs and embodies it in Chapter 10 when he steps into the game.

Vermax laid three eggs. The mysterious wet nurse said Aegon and his wife would have three children 🧐.

Jace dresses Cheeseball in Targaryen red knits for his first day of being paraded around the family!

Baela, Rhaena, and Helaena are basically the fairy godmothers from Sleeping Beauty. They’re even color-coded the same!

It’s revealed in Chapter 10 that Helaena has no interest in pregnancy/childbirth, but that doesn’t mean she’s opposed to children entirely. She just doesn’t want to carry them. Hence her and Rhaena’s little chat about Garmund, who would hypothetically be the medieval equivalent of a sperm donor while Rhaena and Helaena raise any kids. It’s also why they picked Daemion Velaryon as Helaena’s potential husband in the Handbook; Daemion is implied to be gay and he has no holdings to bequeath, so his wife doesn’t need to have kids, compared to, say, Kermit Tully.

It’s OK Baela, your gift to Cheeseball was your midwifery skills.

Aegon hovers a lot over Cheeseball right now because the birth was a very fraught experience, and the Joff incident didn’t help his nerves. Also he’s just in the “newborn dad” phase. When Cheeseball gets older and is a bit less fragile, I think Aegon will let Cheeseball run around and get in age-appropriate trouble.

Cheeseball is literally one day old but I couldn’t resist infusing some personality into him. He enjoys feminine attention, likes boobs, and instinctively thinks Aemond is kinda weird. Definitely Aegon’s son 😂.

Luce was about to say her kids are gonna be named after historical figures, because Aemond’s a history nerd 😢.

Aemond is trying to be cool and pretend he isn’t super interested in the baby, but this man spent a small fortune on that Valyrian steel dagger 😭.

“Aemma” is the magic word when it comes to Viserys. Although he shipped Luce and Aemond at the end of the Handbook, he’s putting on his king hat and doing what he thinks is necessary (but also Elenda invoked Aemma). Viserys wants to be a peacemaker (although he fails miserably in canon), and he wants people to like him (can't remember which episode, but he asks Lyonel or Otto if they think he'll be remembered as a good king). Breaking up Luce and Aemond is a price he's willing to pay. He doesn't care about Aemond's feelings, and while he does care about Luce's feelings, he doesn't think a young girl's romantic affections are worth destabilizing the Crown. And since there isn't any official arrangement between her and Aemond, Viserys thinks there isn't much shame for her in being jilted, since there's no betrothal to be jilted.

Borros Baratheon is gunning hard for power and a royal marriage. In F&B, he seizes every opportunity to advantageously betroth his daughters, and he tells his wife to name their unborn son Aegon after Aegon II. The Baratheons also claim Targ blood through Orys, a more recent infusion of Valyrian blood through Queen Alyssa, and kinship to Rhaenys (and Jace and her sisters by extension). If any great lord thinks he "deserves" a royal marriage, it has to be this guy.

In F&B, Elenda seems like a cunning woman who balances the desires of her daughters with the welfare of House Baratheon as a whole (considering how she dealt with Cassandra's marriage in the book). She is grieving for Floris, but she has three other living daughters to think about, and she's too smart/ambitious to let this opportunity slip by despite her grief.

Aegon has a very cynical view of Viserys, but honestly he's pretty close to the truth IMO. I always side-eye the show writers/actors when they say Viserys is a good person just trying his best because…uh…I don't think so 😅. There are already tons of blogs and opinions out there explaining why Viserys is kinda terrible so I won't parrot them. But ultimately, it seems Viserys is driven primarily by the prophecy (his desperation for a son, then him believing the PTWP will come from Rhaenyra's line) and by guilt about Aemma. So that taints my opinion of his love and affection for Rhaenyra, and her children in turn. Rhaenyra's kids are more important than Alicent's kids, but they aren't the most important thing either.

Aegon is also kinda right about hiding the info from Jace during the pregnancy. She probably would have stressed herself even more if she knew the truth, and that wouldn't be good for her health or the baby's. So the temporary information diet was probably the best call Aegon could have made in that situation.

When Rhaenyra arrives, she's frowning at Aegon who's freaking out in the corridor. He stays there like that until Alicent makes him get lunch for Jace.

Joff feels very guilty about last night, so she decides to remove herself from the situation out of fear of a repeat.

Even though Rhaenyra generally has a good relationship with her daughters, no mother-daughter relationship is perfect. Jace and Rhaenyra have pretty different personalities, and arguably different values, but Jace is a people-pleaser and Rhaenyra is on the chill side for a Westerosi mom, so they get along most of the time. But when they clash, they really clash (like that argument in Chapter 6 of the Handbook that Daemon slept through, about Jace's elopement to Aegon).

Jace thinking that she would throw herself off a tower if she'd been presented with her baby torn up is a reference to Helaena and Maelor

I honestly don't think Rhaenyra has really forgiven Viserys for Aemma's death. She just moved on, because what other choice was there? He's her father and the king.

Rhaenyra really didn't like Aegon growing up (for reasons already included in past commentaries), but she was more neutral about Aemond. There isn't the same baggage about Aegon claiming everyone's attention/replacing her, and Aemond was much better behaved. And I think Luce was spoiled more while Jace was the responsible one making sacrifices and doing her duty, so there is different treatment in that regard.

I was going to elaborate more in earlier drafts before I rewrote some subplots, but Alicent had perinatal depression during her pregnancy with Daeron. It got bad enough that even Viserys noticed, and after the maesters advised a respite from court might help, he decided this meant sending Alicent to Oldtown for the rest of the pregnancy—without her three older children 🙃. That’s why Alicent was away in Oldtown, and that’s why she can empathize with Jace’s current mess of emotions. If I ever write that Alicent & Rhaenyra POV fic of the kids’ childhood, this subplot is definitely going in there.

Rhaenyra ultimately resigned herself to Jace/Aegon for the sake of her child’s happiness, and Alicent did the same re: Luce/Aemond. Parallels!

“All your children will be precious to you, but it is your firstborn who changes you the most.” Of course Alicent is thinking about Aegon when she says that. She might not always like him very much, but that doesn’t make it any less true, and she loves him anyway. She just isn’t great at showing it, and she has hurt him physically and emotionally, and that’s left its mark on Aegon.

Just like in Chapter 5, Jace and Aegon reconcile quickly because they don’t like being at odds with each other. Again, Jace is a people-pleaser, and Aegon is a Jace-pleaser, which helps a lot when they need to be honest with each other about their mistakes.

Aegon’s joke about commissioning a giant gold statue for Joff is a reference to Aegon in F&B wanting to commission giant gold statues for his brothers.

Aemond 100% cares what other people think about him. He supposedly wears the eyepatch so his sapphire eye doesn’t scare ladies at court (even though it’s gorgeous??), and he gets triggered by Maris’s purported taunt about his balls in F&B. He has a lot of internal motivation to excel, but I think he wants external validation that he’s good enough (see: his whole “‘tis I who studies” speech). So even though he’s impulsive enough to suggest eloping (the Storm’s End chase was one big impulse in the show, the roast pig triggers him into making the Strong boys toast), he would care a lot about the gossip and his reputation afterward. And TBH Aemond is not a very emotionally stable guy, so I can totally see him lashing out against an easy target who doesn’t deserve it—like Luce. But hey, that’s what a character growth arc is for!

The Faith is supposed to be based on Catholicism, so I figured they have an in-world equivalent of a baptism. The religious lore is different so instead of water, they use oils; we see Aegon being anointed by oils during his coronation in Episode 9. And seven is THE lucky number in the Faith/Westeros, so babies are usually anointed at seven weeks old.

Typical Viserys forgot that Jace might have some trauma related to the Grand Sept 🙃.

At this rate the Dragonpit is going to become a symbol of Jace and Aegon’s marriage. And it’s a nice blend of Targaryen power as well as a nod of respect to the Faith. Jace is very conscious of the importance of the Faith’s support and the need to assimilate into Westerosi culture while retaining icons of Targaryen superiority.

“You’re thinking like a statesman.” Jace is right though, Aegon could be good at it if he tried…

Cheeseball was born on the small side since he came early (and stress during pregnancy can lead to smaller babies too), but he is definitely a chonker now.

A commenter once suggested that Aegon might have a lactation kink and now I can’t get it out of my head

Deep down Jace knows that Baela had feelings for her, but Jace tries not to think about it/pretends she doesn’t know. Jace prefers her sisterly relationship with Baela, and acknowledging non-platonic feelings would affect that. Also, Baela has more or less moved on (most likely?), so Jace thinks there’s no point acknowledging it anyway.

Is Aegon being extra when he uses dracarys on a dirty diaper? Probably yeah, but what else is he going to do with it?

I like to think the Garden girls are part of the crowd waving gold flags when they fly back to KL.

Aegon says he hates playing politics, but he puts on a show without thinking about it. He even gives the crowd a Lion King moment when he holds up the baby.

Chapter 10 commentary here

[wildflowerwoodsworld]

How long does it take the Captains to insult each other? A meta

Well, okay, this is less a meta and more a collection of data with a bit of a conclusion at the bottom, but if you were wondering how long it takes these guys to start insulting each other when there's more than two of them in a room, the answer is literally seconds.

I'm going off the anime for this particular meta/analysis/data collection as the manga doesn't really have timings.

I'm also only counting times with three or more Captains as when there's only two of them they tend to be more civil.

The first moment we have more than two Captains in the room and we actually see them talking is during the banquet after the promotion ceremony during the attack on the Capital.

In this scene, we have three Captains present; Nozel, Charlotte and Fuegoleon

It takes a grand total of twelve seconds after they started talking for Fuegoleon to ask Nozel if he has "no sense of honour" and I'm counting that as an insult.

Shortest time taken to insult each other: Twelve seconds

Longest time taken to insult each other: Twelve seconds

Next scene with more than two Captains is in Nean when they're fighting the Third Eye and Nozel, Charlotte and Jack turn up to help fight.

Captains present; Yami, Nozel, Charlotte, Jack.

It takes fifteen seconds (counting from the time Jack starts talking) for Yami to call the other three "high and mighty fellow captains" (note: in the VIZ media translation in the manga he says "lousy so-called friends"). At twenty eight seconds Nozel is threatening to have Yami executed and literally two seconds after that Yami says "look at your hair, how am I supposed to take you seriously?".

The very first thing Charlotte says in this scene is calling Yami "pitiful".

Shortest time taken to insult each other: Twelve seconds

Longest time taken to insult each other: Fifteen seconds

Next scene with multiple Captains talking is the first Captains Meeting!

Captains present; Yami, William, Nozel, Charlotte, Jack, Dorothy, Gueldre, Rill.

Ten seconds in and we get "Four Magic Knight Captains and you let a terrorist ringleader get away? How Embarrassing!"

Jack and Gueldre's entire conversation is literally just shallowly disguised insults, the first thing Nozel says is basically insulting Yami and Jack, and Charlotte's first words scream "I'm surrounded by idiots."

Rill never actually insults anyone but also pretty much immediately offended everyone by saying Fuego could fix shit.

Shortest time taken to insult each other: Ten seconds

Longest time taken to insult each other: Fifteen seconds

Star Festival Rankings announcement:

Captains present; William, Nozel, Fuegoleon, Jack, Dorothy, Gueldre, Rill.

It takes a grand total of seven seconds after the rankings have been announced for Jack to start insulting Rill.

Shortest time taken to insult each other: Seven seconds

Longest time taken to insult each other: Fifteen seconds

Anime-only meeting after the announcement where Yami and Jack destroy Augustus' light statue.

Captains present: Yami, William, Nozel, Charlotte, Fuegoleon, Jack, Dorothy, Kaiser, Rill.

It takes thirty seven seconds for Charlotte to call Yami "utterly devoid of tact" and most of those thirty seven seconds are taken up by William apologising for getting all the cheering. Apologies are unusual for these people.

Shortest time taken to insult each other: Seven seconds

Longest time taken to insult each other: Thirty seven seconds

(I've skipped the Captains fight for this mostly because I didn't feel like trying to track every single time they insult each other when they have an entire episode to insult each other)

Anime-only meeting where they decide who to send to Heart.

Captains present: Yami, William, Nozel, Charlotte, Fuegoleon, Jack, Dorothy, Kaiser, Rill.

Surprisingly enough, there aren't any real insults at this meeting. This is probably because Julius is sat at the head of the table.

Shortest time taken to insult each other: Seven seconds

Longest time taken to insult each other: Thirty seven seconds

Final Captains meeting in the anime.

Captains present: Nozel, Charlotte, Fuegoleon, Jack, Dorothy, Kaiser, Rill. Vice-Captains present: Yuno.

Nine seconds in and Charlotte's insulting Yami and William with "and they dare to call themselves Magic Knight Squad Captains?"

Jack has by far one of the most direct insults with "turns out the Golden Dawn has a snivelling coward for a Vice-Captain" about thirty five seconds in.

One minute and ten seconds of them actually talking at this meeting, Jack tries to leave.

Shortest time taken to insult each other: Seven seconds

Longest time taken to insult each other: Thirty seven seconds

I started making this list after watching the movie and being very disappointed by the lack of any sort of insults or arguments between the Captains. It felt very out of character for them to me. That being said, Jack being casual about the end of the world is very much in-character.

I've seen several people in this fandom saying that the other Captains pick on Rill a lot, and, yes, to be fair, they do, but that's also just how they are with each other. I've skipped the conversations with only two of them in a room, but even those are full of insults and barbs, there's just less of them. The difference between Rill and the rest of the Captains is he doesn't fire anything back when he gets insulted.

In conclusion, while they don't directly insult each other as often as you might think, they're all passive-aggressive fuckers and it only takes them seconds to start trading barbs.

[overseer-picard]

Sometimes I let the rose colored glasses of nostalgia try to convince me that season one of TNG isn't that bad and then I try to watch some episodes and get suplexed violently back into reality.

But here's the thing, they are so bad that they crash through rock bottom and rise from their own ashes as glorious phoenixes, wings glittering with cringe so powerful you can't help but stare in transfixed awe.

So, let's talk about this little space jaunt called "Lonely Among Us".

I do not succumb to cringe easily because I love displays of genuineness in all its forms... but I cringed. In fact, my whole body viscerally crinkled up like an ill equipped submarine sinking into the Mariana Trench

The story revolves around this blue lightening entity going from person to person and taking them over (and killing the chief engineer??).

It starts with Worf getting electrocuted and he's growl-screaming, as Klingons do, and Geordi does this amazing "gurl what?" slow turn that just kills me.

So Worf goes to Sickbay where we get this magnificent number from Beverly. I simultaneously would have loved for this to be a regular thing, The Healing Hat, but I'm also convinced had they kept using it, it would've been the straw that broke the camel's back and caused instant cancellation.

Meanwhile, B plot, these little rascals are trying to straight up kill each other. Great makeup, point to Westmore as always.

And this dashing, incredibly charismatic, "unnamed crewman" with a lilting Irish accent is SO ANNOYED to be telling them to not kill each other.

The blue energy naturally transfers to Picard eventually and he starts acting super weird and smiley. Smiley and a bit sweaty.

And Riker and Beverly are DISCONCERTED (as they should be, look at him).

And Riker is like "We believe you've been taken over by an alien, Captain." And Picard is like "Yep."

And Beverly is like "I need you to come to sickbay so I can scan you." and Picard is like "Nope"

But instead of, ya know, incapacitating their alien possessed captain who is controlling the ship and putting everyone's lives at risk, Riker states in his log, very somberly, that there's "nothing they can do, at least within regulation."

Damn that red tape!

So, Picard/alien zaps everyone (love everyone's electrocution acting) so he can BEAM HIMSELF INTO SPACE.

And the crew is like "darn, the captain is just floating around out there somewhere but we don't know where. Guess we will just leave him." (remember this is only episode seven, there was no love between anyone at this point).

But THEN. Deanna senses "something" in the ship's computer and Geordi's console lights up with a big "P"

And Riker is like "P? P for Peni-- I mean, Picard?"

And this is all the proof they need to know that PICARD IS INSIDE THE ENTERPRISE (platonically... presumably).

They beam Picard back and he doesn't remember anything and it was all a big nothingburger.

OH, oh, almost forgot, the entire episode Data is cosplaying as Sherlock with a pipe because Picard told him what a detective was. So that Data Detail was born.

Like he is literally just straight up smoking during a staff meeting...

But here's the craziest part of this already insane episode.

Remember the rascally delegates trying to kill each other?

Well, they succeed. Delegate for dinner.

And Picard is like "Ugh this is just so annoying that the delegates are eating each other and I am too tired from being possessed so I need you to take care of this, Numbah One."

And then the plucky, good-times music plays and we close on Troi's little smile to Riker that says "Haha, have fun dealing with murder things and broiled reptilian delegate meat, sucker."

Just another day of silly fun times involving multiple people dying on the Enterprise.

Amazing episode.

making this gif was the only reason I initially watched this episode

[tuttle-did-it]

(a rant about Star Trek: Picard)

So I just watched an episode of The Ray Bradbury Theatre (S.2, e11), 'There was an Old Woman.' It aired in May of 1988.

In this episode, an old woman, Tildy, played by Mary Morris, is surprised when men come into her house with a wicker basket that is the general shape of a coffin. There's a strange man who is completely silent. Tildy talks to him, yells at him and eventually tells all the men to get out of her house.

Turns out, predictably, they've come to collect her body and she is dead. The silent man is obviously Death, and he seems to respect the fact that she's spent all this time yelling at him because he eventually just puts his hat on and leaves.

For 30 minutes, this 70+ woman essentially monologues about her life. How she had refused to marry, how she had refused to have children. How she had raised her sister's daughter (and loved her) when she died. How she had never compromised her needs and wants for men. And how proud she was of all of this.

In the end, Tildy screams at the men at the funeral parlour to give her back possession of her own body. Confused, they agree. She gets back into her body, and goes back to her house.

Tildy was the primary focus for the entire show. Her needs, wants and desires were paramount. Sometimes she talked about men, but most of the time, she talked about herself and her own life.

Tildy was allowed to be angry. She was allowed to be emotional. She was allowed to tell men to leave her space. Tildy demanded autonomy over her own body- she literally screamed at about 10 men and argued to get possession of her own body back. Tildy yelled at all the men to take her body back home, to pick her up and put her back over her body, and then SHE found a way on her own to take control back over herself. And then she kicked all the men out.

Raffi's entire storyline in season 3 has been Worf telling her to control herself and calm down, but Tildy, in 1988, was allowed to be angry and emotional the whole time.

Tildy, as a ghost, got more respect from all the men in the room than Shaw has shown Seven in every scene.

The final scene is her in her chair, Tildy happily muses that the coroner's sewing up of her chest during her autopsy was 'decent sewing, for a man.'

Tildy had more agency and identity in a show from 1988 than ANY of the women from Star Trek: Picard have had in season 3 in particular.

All I could think about when watching this was how much more progressive this episode was compared to what I've seen from Star Trek: Picard.

How, in Picard, they keep everyone (but especially the mature women) in dark corners so you can barely see their faces. Picard's age is one that feeds directly into the plot at various points- sometimes there are light-hearted jokes, but for the most part, we're encouraged to relate and understand what life is like for man 'past his prime'.

Where is this discussion of age for Crusher? For Troi? For Laris (remember she exists?)? For any of the women? Riker gets to complain that his knees are shot- where's Crusher talking about her shoulder replacement? Oh, wait, that's right- Crusher's barely allowed to speak. Instead, she has to have long meaningful glances. And Gates does this amazingly well, but the men are allowed to monologue whilst the women are stuck in dark gloomy corners with ~meaningful glances~.

Tildy had her own unique storyline and identity that had nothing to do with the needs, wants and trauma of all the men around them. Because Seven, Crusher and Troi in particular have each been denied independent storylines, forced instead to orbit the men and mitigate the men's trauma and stories. Even Sidney's plot revolves around Daddy issues and a love interest with Picard's son.

And all I could think was how sad it was that this 70+ year old woman had more agency and identity in a show from 1988 than ANY of the women from Star Trek: Picard have had in season 3 in particular.

How we're allowed to SEE her -- LOOK at these lines.

Picard keeps all of their characters, but especially the ~women of a certain age~ in dark shadows. Gates McFadden literally said that she couldn't even see Patrick Stewart during filming for their scenes.

The saddest thing is, this episode from 1988 is not that groundbreaking; rather, it's just that Picard is that much of a failure when it comes to women.

In DS9, they gave Keiko her own storyline, and she wasn't even a main character. They gave Grilka her own storyline and she was in two episodes. So why can't Picard bother to give Seven something more to do than sit there and listen to abuse from Shaw and trauma-dumping from Picard and Jack? Oh, and wax lyrical nostalgia. Not enough.

And this isn't just a Star Trek: Picard thing. Yes, hands down, TOS was awful toward women and rarely let women even speak to each other. TNG only let Crusher and Troi talk to each other when it was about men and they were in leotards. But by the time they reached DS9, things were better. Kira is allowed to be angry when we meet her- and she stays angry for a long time. There are storylines about her anger. Keiko hates DS9. She's allowed to have a storyline about that. And for Voyager, Janeway has plenty of chats with B'Elanna, Kes and Seven that are not about men. B'Elanna is, like Kira, allowed to be angry (though VOY often takes a step backward saying that she is 'out of control' with her emotions-- notice the white woman (Kira) is allowed to be angry, but the woman of colour (B'Elanna,) is out of control. Some racial bias there, I think). Janeway is allowed to be occasionally batshit crazy, and that's okay.

Point is, by the time DS9 and VOY came on, they figured out that it was okay to have women as a focus for a story, and they were allowed to have their stories and plots and identities and needs and wants and mistakes of their own. There was room for improvement, but it was the 90s and it was better than TNG. Kira and Dax were allowed to be together to talk about nothing significant. They did this well on DS9, and although they could have done better on Voyager, the women were still autonomous and had their own identities.

So if Janeway, B'Elanna and Kira were allowed to be angry and emotional more than 2 decades ago, why is Raffi is treated as defective for her emotions? Why is she treated as a time-bomb who can't be controlled-- who is so out of control, by the way, that they have to separate her and Seven?

Dax (and Evil Kira!) are allowed to have romantic relationships with women and a career at the same time- something Seven and Raffi are not allowed to do because Matalas doesn't think you can have both simultaneously.

Star Trek: Picard has NO EXCUSE.

Gates McFadden, Jeri Ryan, Michelle Hurd, Michelle Forbes, Marina Sirtis and Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut have done amazingly well with the tiny crumbs they've been given this season. They've managed to make what are completely forgettable and insignificant moments realised just through brilliant acting- to move their characters beyond what few bits there are for them on the page. They deserve so much more than to only exist in order to further the needs and wants of the men in the show, and to give the men a sounding board to process their trauma.

But here's what I'm asking myself...

WHY IS AN EPISODE FROM A SHOW FROM 35 YEARS AGO MORE PROGRESSIVE IN ITS DEPICTION OF WOMEN THAN STAR TREK: PICARD?

In conclusion... tl;dr

The petrol of Nostalgia that this show [Picard] is currently running on is not enough because the very era they're being nostalgic about was more progressive than the current show.

[thegeminisage]

STAR TREK UPDATE TIME. last night we watched voy's "scorpion part i" and "the gift." I HAVE FINALLY MET SEVEN OF NINE

scorpion part ii:

ABSOLUTELY loved this one. idk why i was so surprised when seven turned out to be their borg liaison like i had no idea how they encountered her...i guess i was picturing them picking her up like a lost puppy because of hugh in tng

seven hot it must be said. we haven't gotten into the meat of it yet but i do like her. i was a little worried that after all this i wouldn't!

janeway dealing with the borg was sooo fun. literally her no-nonsense take-no-shit mode

i loved also that chakotay was the one to essentially borg meld with seven since he'd had the prior experience...mwah. give him a little borg trauma as a treat

i also really enjoyed janeway and chakotay realizing that seven was right - their fighting and going against each other is why they were losing. what if our future third reminded us that we needed to renew our wedding vows and we were both lost in space?

ESPECIALLY BECAUSE. like on what could have been her deathbed while she was slurring her words she made chakotay promise to do the thing. and immediately he decided to do the opposite even though it broke his heart. like SO TRUE they needed the reminder mom and dad were literally fighting

i have mixed feelings about janeway sort of forcing the detransition from borg onto seven. like yeah no human person wants to be borg especially not the little girl she was when she was assimilated but it's very hard to hear and ignore her wishes NOW when she's stating them so clearly, and when she's so obviously suffering. like i don't think she could have done any different or that i would have done any different but whew! rough

i also think chakotay was SICK with jealousy that tuvok got to go into the cube with janeway and he had to stay out on voyager. i bet tuvcok was so smug about it. idk why but it brings me so much joy to imagine them hating each other and as an extent maybe also fighting over janeway's affection, be it platonic or not

also, i can't remember if this was in this episode or the next one but the bit where seven was in her cell fucking SCREAMING na janeway was behind her grabbing her...sincerely hoping the dyke energy only gets better from here cuz that was gay as hell

the gift:

rip kes...i'll miss you

ik kes left bc they were having difficulties with the actress, but it still sucks that her exit was so dumb. like oh no her powers are going out of control and even though we fixed it every other time this time we can't! anyway bye!

i do appreciate the actresses crying for what felt like...you know, for real, during the goodbye. i almost welled up with them. and ten years closer to home!!! that's 13 years down, 57 to go...

kes is such a rare person in the voyager cast because she has so many connections. she's good friends with tom, she's gort tuvok and the emh as her mentors, janeway as like her fake mom, neelix as her romantic interest...she's connected to so many people. if you name anybody from the rest of the cast you'd get 2-3 connections at most. so it's sad to see her go

and like i hated neelix when he was with kes but their goodbye conversation was so lame. i still can't believe that's all we ever got about their breakup. fucking crazy

on the other hand, seven in this episode was so good, especially with like, b'elanna - her disdain and her sarcasm are useless against b'elanna who can dish it back out just as well and does not give one shit about seven's deal so long as she gets the ship working again. also? lots of women on screen during that scene. let's lez out.

and seven at the end remembering her favorite color :( i was surprised she relented in her willingness to be aboard so quickly - but it just shows that janeway genuinely did get through to her somehow. WOMEN!!!

TONIGHT: ds9's "a time to stand" and "rocks and shoals"

[katzell]

The Bear Season 2 - Initial Thoughts

Mainlined season 2 today. I have no idea why I thought I would take my time with this. I certainly didn’t with season 1. I suppose I anticipated the same anxiety levels as the previous season. I planned for chill out breaks, and yet here we are!

I really appreciated how this season’s remodel gave each character time to look inwards and do work on themselves. I loved that Carmy facilitated these journeys, even if he never fully appreciated how meaningful they were to the people around him. Richie got a win! I had no idea that was something I even wanted and yet the satisfaction of seeing him finally find his lane was everything.

I’m tagging this for spoilers, but I don’t think I’m ready to talk about the Seven Fishes episode. It was amazing. Give Jon Bernthal all the awards. Bob Odenkirk scared the hell out of me. John Mulaney gave a surprisingly nuanced performance. Lets give some awards to Jamie Lee Curtis as well. I thought they were wasting Sarah Paulson and then I watched her eyes well up and her façade crack…clearly there are no small parts in this show.

Speaking of, hello Will Poulter! Seems like Hollywood just realized you’re hot now.

But no, I’m still trying to understand what The Feast of Seven Fishes means for Carmy, Sugar, and Richie. This episode could teach courses on “show don’t tell.” The family dynamics that continue to haunt everyone are on full display. Tragedy is so close to the surface and yet so mixed up in love and joy.

Carmy’s family scream I love you when they are simultaneously ripping into each other. I love you means calm down. I love you means I’m not hurting you. I love you means stop hurting yourself. They say it a lot. They mean it. But its part of the chaos.

At the very end of the season, we hear those often spoken words again, this time from someone outside the family. When Claire says “I love you,” she says it in a moment of quiet during her day, and Carmy hears it when he is literally locked up, alone with his thoughts. The contrast to Richie screaming the same thing moments before is heartbreaking. In losing Claire, Carmy lost a different kind of love, not just that it was romantic, but that it was calm and easy.

I liked Claire and really bought into her dynamic with Carmy. They felt like two formerly awkward kids reconnecting. She was someone who could have really understood his life without being part of it. She could have been an oasis for him, and Carmy, who is actually really good at listening to and supporting others, could have done the same for her. But he’s an infant at relationships. He hasn’t done this before. He could salvage this one, but at the moment he doesn’t value himself enough to try.

Carmy’s relationship with Sydney though continues to be a fascinating and lovely work in progress. I could see them together at some point in the future. But for now, I’m glad for storytelling reasons Sydney isn’t carrying that burden. The vortex of chaos that surrounds Carmy would subjugate Sydney to his emotional journey. For now, I want to watch Sydney grow into a leader who speaks with assurance and commands a room. I want to watch her continue to build her network and reputation. And I’d like to see her date other people to see what that side of her is like without Carmy. And if all the while they continue building the trust and respect, I will probably be delighted to see them kiss.

Or if Sydney and Richie want to hate fuck that would work for me too

I don’t know what the hell is going to happen to tv in the US as we move into this new phase of streaming, but we better get at least three more seasons of Jermey Allen White as an introverted depressed chef and his loud, weird, wonderful family.

[annikasevenshots]

Star Trek Picard: Season 3 Episode 1 Reaction

Who's missed these from me. The screaming you all love to hate. Muah.

Beverly is so 🆒. I actually have no notes. Obsessed with Gates' hair it is On Fleek

Laris being the voice of reason and not being written out to make space for Bev? Very interesting.

Old communicator chirp noise my beloved

"No Starfleet" Picard: i know a guy 🥰 hello riker from starfleet who will contact seven from starfleet for help 😋

No one likes the phat ships 😢 Enterprise D it's okay honey we love you for who you are dummy thicc and all 🥺

RAFFI TIME RAFFI TIME RAFFI TIME

THERE'S MY GIRL

excuse me what did that orion slip in that plate to her i've watched this thrice and can't figure it out

NO??????????????????

"my girlfriend left me" NOOOOOOOOOOO??????????????

CALL ME A WEEWOOWEEWOO I AM MENTALLY UNSTABLE

GUYS NO PLEASE CMON I AM BEGGING

I DONT CARE IF SHES UNDERCOVER YOU CANT DO THIS TO MY GAY ASS HEART

GUYS PUT IT BACK I DONT LIKE THIS SHOW ANYMORE I DONT WANNA BE IN A UNIVERSE WHERE SEVENS LEFT RAFFI

I CANNOT DEAL WITH THIS I AM AT MY FUCKING LIMIT.

Ngl seeing the dramatic Titan ship pan just reminds me of the gratuitous Cerritos ship pans in LWD which never fails to make me cackle

Titan theme is so beautiful. I think it's fast approaching my favourite just behind Voyager

The way it intersects with the TNG theme? Chefs mf KISS. Hit me with that shit I want it all

Seven!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Commander Annika Hansen" SHAW COUNT YOUR FUCKING DAYS 🔪🔪🔪

I AM AT MY LIMIT I ACTUALLY CANNOT DEAL WITH THIS ANYMORE

Thanks! I hate it!

bby laforge 🥺 for to blorbo? me for blorbo? blorbo for me? for blorbo to????????

Picard telling Seven she'd make a great captain? My heart cannot handle this shit i'm out

Seriously guys i have to do next week with heart medication i was not made to handle this shit

"Should we tell Engineering we're going at lizard space warp 9.99"

At least the show is self aware that Picard is a bit of a fossil ngl, i respect that

Shaw eating blue meat 🤢 sir tf is THAT

Does shaw season his meat with blue raspberry kool aid. Quickly

I wish shaw a very ✨die✨ ❤️

Hate how Shaw treats Seven but tbh i respect a captain that can stand up to picard and riker. Like he's not wrong they can't just abuse their power that's long gone anyway

Also sorry Picard but you have got to stop bringing your own wine as gifts not everybody wants that shit

seven being 👁️👄👁️ during the meal is a mood because same

Love how Riker and picard just barrel ahead without waiting for or checking on Seven. Especially after how awful Shaw was to her. Way to use your friends guys well done gentlemen

"Good morning, sweet girl" raffi you are killing me

How does she look so good

Raffi having her vape horgl with her on the La Sirena is somewhat bittersweet

Headcanon that there are snakeleaf vines in her room. You are not allowed to disagree ❤️

jesus christ worf mysterious handler why the fuck would you pull up that personnel file 😭

RAFFAELA MUSIKER SHARES MY BIRTHDAY??????????? YALL BE FR I CANNOT DEAL WITH THIS ANYMORE

GOODBYE I AM ASCENDING

WHAT

WHAT LITERALLY

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

SCREAMING CRYING

i. raffi. same birthday. no. oh my god. oh my god.

oh, raffi... :(

How tf is Seven around on the bridge more than the captain. They're making her the not-captain captain of the titan and for what

Seven saying what i've always wanted to say like why yes i too would like to airlock picard for his audacity

Riker: grants permission to speak freely

Seven: speaks freely

Riker: no not like that >:(

Shaw being a snork mimimimi king was not on my picard s3 bingo but you know what. Mood.

Brain is too scrambled to take in the rest but

Oh my god

Loved the music

Welcome back my space moms

Oh my god this season is killing me already

In conclusion i'm delirious because they dropped the episode at 12am after i tried to watch streams of it twice on the world's shittiest wifi whilst travelling across the country. Happy premiere day.

[kakusu-shipping]

Fairy Tail Ships

Some Rando came at me on my main for a ship I hadn’t even said a single word about on a post about a character not involved in said ship so now I’m just gonna write down all my Fairy Tail ships unprompted out of pure spite

Multi and Probably Problematic shipping a-hoy under the read more be wary!

Okay so as every other of this kind of post will plainly spell out I always have One Guy who is just the Ship bicycle. This character could kiss literally anyone and I would be more than happy. Typically they in fact do.

For Fairy Tail, it’s Gajeel Redfox

You would not believe your eyes if my first fucking Gajeel ship was Gajeel/Gajeel. I love Edolas Gajeel and up until that point Earthland Gajeel interacts with pretty much no one positively. I fully believe he hard made out with himself. First kiss. First time? The full shebang. Canon as far as I think.

Following that IMMEDIATELY is Gajeel/Lily. My god. My God let’s just give Gajeel a beefy cat man to homoerotically throw around. “That’s My Cat” I love him he’s so fucking stupid he makes out with Lily on the regular.

Gajeel/Levy is probably the best developed canon ship in Fairy Tail and that’s really not saying much but I think they’re cute. The only caviot is Levi pegs him. I’m sorry, Gajeel cannot be a top.

I think Gajeel/Natsu is funny as hell they’re so violent. Gajeel thinks Natsu’s the dumbest man he’s ever met. They don’t kiss they bite.

Gajeel/Laxus is just as funny but just because they both think they’re the smart one in the relationship.

After that all I might loose a bit of steam but Romance in this show is rarely interesting but here’s some of my takes anyway;

Laxus/Freed is always a free sail Freed pining from the beginning Laxus having no idea what his own feelings are until some time mid season 7. Laxus taking everything casually and Freed over thinking every little piece of affection he gets. They’re an uncommunicative mess and I love them.

I like Juvia/Grey not because I think it’s a well balanced and fleshed out canon romance, but because I love Juvia and want her to be happy and think Annoyingly Horny Stalker and Too Tired For This Shit is the funniest trope. Also Transfem Lesbian Grey, Demiromantic Bi/Pan Juvia

Speaking of Stalker/Obsession ships, Lucy/Flare??? My god I had not-antagonist Flare for 3 episodes and I will never let her go. Red headed Lesbian raised by a Village of Giant Men. Get yourself a blondie GF you deserve it.

Another Stalker/Obsession because I’m just gonna keep on goin; Erza/Sho???? Hello??? That was one baby me was entranced by. Love when the stalker is also the bottom. I love Sho I think he’s so cute, I think his obsession with Erza is so cute, I think his Sister Complex is so cute.

More Erza tops a little sibling!! Erza/Kagura!! What is it about Erza that gives everyone who meets her an Incest Kink?? I love her. I love Kagura she’s SO pathetic after her angst over Jallal is swept under the rug for no reason (no I’m not salty about that)

SPEAKING of Kagura; Kagura/Millianna is very cute I am on board. The Lesbian Kagura content for those without the taste for Sister Complex.

Elfman/Evergreen is so funny to me because this is a Bisexual man with a huge preference for Men who really REALLY wanted to fall in love with a Man and be Married Manly Men who grow into Old Men together but no. He just HAD to catch feelings for The Prettiest Girl in his guild. He’s so mad about it. Whole ass that “But I am in love with a MAN. RIGHT NOW.” meme but gender swapped.

Gildarts/Cana is so freaken good that YuGiOh Episode with Scorpio during the Eclipse Spirit Arc where he says he wants her to call him Daddy and she says she Would if he’s Been Around More you two I am going to scream don’t talk like that we’re trying to d-d-d-d-dddddDUEL

Also Eclipse Scorpio’s crush on Cana is cute as hell I love him he just wanted to play YuGiOh with a Hot Girl and she deserves a little boyfriend like him I’m all for them

Seven steps back tho the BEST Lucy ship, hands down, is Lucy/Taurus and I am SO INCREDIBLY SAD I’m alone on this! T4T Lucy/Taurus is my EVERYTHING!! Give him a SMOOOOOOOOOCH!!

Panther Lily/Samuel is so good to me another little freak with an unwarranted Incest Kink I love Samuel so much he’s so weird I want him to come back so badly please bring the little weirdo back so he can call Lily Big Brother some more for no god damn reason

Panther Lily and Edolas Coco is Very Cute and if it wasn’t for Gajeel being so unabashedly into Panther Lily that whole arc I would have appreciated it more.

Speaking of Exceed X People ships, Sting/Lector are like!!! Super good!!! Exceptionally solid I love them both so much!!

Rouge and Frosch as well but I feel like they’re super out of balance. Rouge is infantalizing Frosch and/or Frosch is not an adult in the world of Exceeds

Five steps back again because none of my thoughts are ever organized Second Best Lucy Ship is Lucy/Loke I just love a lot of Lucy/Celestial Spirit ships but this one This One is so cute I love how extra romantic he gets after going back to being Leo one of few ships I could actually see tying the knot and getting married.

Fuck it I’m just gonna keep talking about Lucy’s celestial spirits; I think Aquarius was Lucy’s first love and also her second mommy I don’t think they ever dated but to Lucy the love she felt for Aquarius was both Familial and Romantic when she was little. She claims Aquarius as her first kiss, despite it being a motherly peck when she was like 6.

Lucy/Virgo is super funny and I am positive it has Doujins out there made by men for men that I Do Not Want To See. I am putting the Asexual label on Virgo and shipping it from there.

Aquarius/Layla Lesbian Lovers in the Historical way. Layla had her Good Friend Aquarius come stay with her while her husband was away on business. They were Very Good Friends.

More spirit stuff Grey/Eclipse Cancer is so fucking funny Cancer literally opened Grey’s heart, they Yuri On Iced around with a Rainbow Gradient following them. Grey is repressing this so hard.

SPEAKING of Grey repressing he is Gay; Grey/Sugarboy??? Am I obsessed with the Catholic Arc of Fairy Tail? Yes. Yes I am. But Edolas Sugar Boy as well. Grey has such a Thing for your average stereotypical Gay Man and he is doing everything in his power to ignore it. I think he wants to be one of them.

Ultear/Meredy is SO FREAKEN CUTE. Mother/Daughter *chefs kiss*. They would both die for the other to live and they attempt it multiple times. Am I made Ultear eventually succeeded? Yes. Extremely. Get back here dammit you’ve already asked and the answer was No.

Lucy/Michelle more Stalker/Obsession more Sister Complex with a little dash of objectophilia post Catholic Arc. I love how the Fairy Tail anime just dropped Every inanimate object has thought, emotion, will, goals, and feelings but is unable to act upon them or even knows they have such feelings without forbidden magics and just Expected me to be Okay with that. I am not. I never will be. Michelle wants to fight Aquarius for taking Lucy’s first kiss right in front of her.

Wendy/Sherria are exceptionally cute. I don’t have much to say I just think they’re cute and wholesome and should be girlfriends.

But ALSO I think Mest/Doranbolt’s crush on Wendy is very cute I bet he beats himself up over liking a little girl. He’s her first kiss, she initiated it.

ALSO ALSO Doranbolt/Lahar is canon and I’m SO MAD THEY KILLED LAHAR LIKE FOREVER MAD. My Buddy Cop to Lovers...

Macao and Wakaba are a “Didn’t realize I was Gay and In love with my best friend until AFTER I was married to a woman” pair and I love them. They keep their relationship a secret. Make out in the guild’s storage room. Mira’s caught them once or twice and promises to keep their secret, so long as she never catches them with their pants down that close to the cheese again.

Levi/Lucy are a cute Best Friends to Girlfriends kind of ship. No one would notice if they started dating because they’d act the exact same as before 

But also Cana/Lucy?? Same energy in that no one would really know they’re dating until Cana gets stupid clingy/protective when other people hit on Lucy.

Mavis/Zera is under appreciated I know Zera isn’t real and is just a projection of Mavis’ loneliness and isolation but also she’s Mavis’ gay thoughts a WLW side. Her self love and care in personhood. They kiss.

Canon evil lesbian queens Kyoka/Seilah is a lot more than I expected out of this program and I am so here for it!! Go girls go!!!

Dimaria/Brandish as well, evil lesbians having a bad spat and taking it out on the entirety of Fairy Tail is very funny to me. They are toxic and horrid and I hope Brandish gets away from her.

Kamika/Cosmos, while not evil, are just as canon lesbians and I love that for them. Also Lolicon Cosmos.

There at the start of the War Arc when Toby and Millianna were walking into war together and he’s looking at her with a flush on his face little guy got puppy love and I!!!! Am all about it!!! She’s a lesbian for sure but she’ll make an exception for him. I don’t think he knows what a gender is anyway

I think that fact that Ichiya and Nichiya most certainly Fuck is not discussed enough in this fandom this man fucks his own Fursona I need more people to speak of this.

Okay now my take on the Big Ships and Canon Shit because I actually didn’t talk about them above I focused on what I’d actually like to see.

Natsu/Lucy is. Fine. I saw someone say a headcanon that Natsu thought they were dating the whole time and I love that. ADHD Natsu who decided he liked Lucy and was going to ask her out but Forgot and then Forgot he Forgot and proceeded to think they were an official couple for 9 more season.

Natsu/Lisanna is also pretty okay. I love baby love, I love them as kids playing house playing marriage awkward dancing and kisses on the cheek and holding hands. They were eachother’s first love and that means so much to me there’s very little that could ever make you forget your first love. (Side note I think at this age Elfman had a crush on Natsu but didn’t say anything sense Lisanna also liked him)

Erza/Jellal bothers me. Maybe I just don’t like Jellal as a character enough yet but not only is he Not In The Guild like every other main series ship, he also is on some pretty thin ice on being an Antagonist or not. But, like above, he was Erza’s First Love and that really is kind of a Big Deal, being actually In Love for the first time. I think they could heal, and I’d love to see that actually play out. If anyone has any fics where this is a Real Issue that they talk about and face I would actually love to read them.

Mavis/Zeref is also pretty. Okay. I don’t like it, I think it’s pretty forced, I think the fact that they had a child when Mavis died after their first kiss is a fucked concept everyone’s avoiding despite it being the most interesting part of the ship. He’s her pathetic little meow meow, she’s his last shred of sanity decaying in his arms as he desperately plants kisses over her small prepubescent body. It’s VERY Dead Dove and everyone is avoiding it.

Happy/Carla... is this one people actually ship or just something in the background? Honestly Happy feels so much Younger than Carla most of the time despite them probably being the same age. He just acts like a little fool. I don’t like it. I think Carla deserves better. And is also a Lesbian.

Now for the end of my list a collection of characters I don’t have ships for but would Really Like To because I Love Them as characters and just want them to smooch somebody (would also love X reader fics with them)

Bickslow

Warren Rocko

Reedus Jonah

Tono Rabbits

Goldmine

Boze

Jura Neekis

Yuka Suzuki

Erigor

Lapointe

Dan Straight (The fucking guy of all time)

Toma Fiore

Jacob Lessio

Nadi

Yajima

Capricorn

Horologium

Deneb

[navree]

Do you think Aegon has regret taking the iron throne after all the deaths of his children and brothers? Also him becoming religious after everything is really interesting i wish it will be in the show

I think there might be some element of that present towards the end of his life. As you said, anon, a lot of bad things happened to people he loved for the sake of his succession. His mother and his sister-wife got put through Hell, with the latter ultimately dying, both of his sons died gruesomely and his daughter is incredibly traumatized, his brothers died, his Hands, one an old family friend and the other his grandfather, also died, and his beloved dragon died of wounds sustained during the war.

There's probably an element in Aegon's mind that can point to the fact that this isn't something he instigated (in both versions of the story he's initially against taking the throne, and in the show he's vehemently against it to the point where the coronation reads almost like the lamb walking itself to slaughter until the commons cheer him and he realizes that something good can come of this even while his genre awareness is screaming at him to get out), but in the end he's the king, and all of this happened for him. And it's also that, quite simply, what was the other option? Rhaenyra, in his mind, would have killed him and his brothers and his sons the second she got on the throne anyway; no matter what course he chose, a significant portion of his loved ones were utterly doomed from the getgo. At least in this scenario, he gave as good as he got. I do think it might have plagued him, particularly as I'm a strong proponent of the "Aegon killed himself" theory and the pain he must have felt over all of these deaths and how alone it made him was likely a large contributing factor.

As to his religious leanings, I think the show's already going that route. As I've mentioned several times, he does literal hide out in a sept, under an altar of The Mother, in a time of huge crisis for him (the succession), and while I can't locate the picture, someone did point out that he does folds his hands and participates in the prayer in episode 8 at the dinner table. And considering how they've put Alicent's religious fervor and her devotion to the Seven at the forefront of her characterization in the show, as well as showing how it's rubbed off on two of her sons, along with the fact that Aegon does notably die (kill himself) on his way to the sept, it doesn't seem like something they've forgotten about and aren't going to address in some way.

[retvenkos]

oliveee just wanted to check in - it's been so long!

how are u doing? how's the winter break?

cam!!!!!!! hello! i've been okay (lol, i announced coming back from my hiatus and then just,,,, didn't for like two weeks, i'm a mess asdfghjhgfd) and i had a pretty good winter break! i went to hang out with my cousin and i had a lot of fun! other than that i cooked and baked a lot - i got a crock pot for christmas and am a Changed Woman. the ease of the crock pot,,,,,, not to sound like a middle aged woman but ohmygod,,,,,,,, i have been forever changed.

i also (!!!!!!) caught up on a lot of webtoons during my break, and since you're my webtoon mutual, i feel as though i must tell you about all of them:

red hood: outlaws is fun, but honestly, i'd probably like it more as a binge read, i don't feel like there's enough plot and engaging cliff hangers for me to get Really Into It.

seven years later is!!!!!! so interesting!!!!!!!!!! i definitely recommend reading it - while it's not the flashiest it has an engaging premise that delivers as it should <3

marry my husband is actually one of my unexpected favorites!!!! idk what it is about this plot line but i am hooked, line, and sinker and can't wait for the slowburn romance <3

i'm the queen in this life is SO!!!!! BALLER!!!!!!! this plot line is going so hard and for what??? for me to go feral over it??? while i'm not In Love with any of the characters, the plot is so engaging that i can't wait to see what happens next.

twilight poem is actually a really interesting read - the art is magnificent and the plot is engaging and while i want to scream at 89% of the characters a solid 96% of the time, i am really enjoying my time here.

there must be happy endings was one that i originally read because i just wanted an absolute 180 from what i had been reading at the time (lookism, asdfghjhgfd) but it's actually grown on me quite a lot <3

dark moon: the blood altar is actually one i have to catch up on (listen, i'm only like,,,, 5 episodes behind, this isn't a lookism asdghjhgfd) and for what it is, i'm enjoying it. i really just think the art is soooo endearing and i am a sucker for ensemble casts.

threads of love is another good one! i'm not exactly rooting for any of the relationships going on (JUSTICE FOR THE GYM TEACHER THO), but i like the whole ~past lives~ plot line, and i just want to know more about the prophetic dreams asdfghjhgfd.

harmonia is a webtoon i just started (and by that i mean i'm literally on episode 6 of 31 asdfghjhgfds) BUT!!!!!! I AM SO INTERESTED IN THIS SERIES WOW I WANT TO DEVOUR IT WHOLE. perhaps give it like 2 or 3 episodes to pick up (or maybe 6 asdfghhgfd idk your taste) but!!!!! i think this one will deliver.

i'm dating a psychopath is another interesting read that is so engaging, but idk who to trust and who to root for, i am simply here for the ride, waiting to become psychologically thrilled and eventually damaged beyond repair asdfghgfd.

and then how can i forget lookism!!!!!!!! i am not,,,,,, how do you say,,,,,, caught up (cries in episode 290 of 421) but i would absolutely DIE for this webtoon, bestie wAHT is happening, in the most affectionate and messy way <3 absolutely reeling from this.

true beauty. yes, i am keeping up with it still. listen,,,,, i have sunk too much of my life into now to ignore the spin off material. but JUSTICE FOR HAN SEOJUN WHO HAS AND ALWAYS WILL DESERVE MORE, HOW DARE THEY DISRESPECT MY BOY SO CONSISTENTLY

oh, also, i'm reading these too, i just don't have the energy to talk about them right now:

dark moon: the grey city

see you in my 19th life

so i married the anti-fan

brass & sass

lore olympus

batman: wayne family adventures

eaternal nocturnal (COME BACK FROM THE WAR PLEASE THE SEROTONIN IS RUNNING LOW)

freaking romance

maybe meant to be

reunion

here there be dragons

anyway, how are yoU??????? i hope you've been well and that you've been drinking lots of water in my absence. have you don't anything fun recently? looking forward to anything special?

[motelpearl]

star trek: picard spoilers /

I'm gonna keep updating this with my thoughts (making threads is one thing I kinda miss about twitter so this will have to do)

somehow troi & riker having a weird horse girl daughter makes perfect sense like she does so much of the stuff I did at that age (making up fake countries & languages, drawing really well for her age, running around in the bush with an archery toy)

when riker showed up at the end of season one LORD JESUS I COULDVE KISSED THE SCREEN

also elnor is my son I love him. AND FUCK Q

omfg I know the modern day is near-dystopian but seeing 2024 earth not only referenced but actually depicted so starkly in comparison to the near-utopian future in star trek is so fucking bleak like UGH CAN THE FUCKING VULCANS COME TEACH US SPACE COMMUNISM ALREADY. WHERE THE REPLICATION TECHNOLOGY AT

the rick & Morty reference DID NOT AGE WELL IN MANY WAYS UGH IM GENERALLY ENJOYING THIS SHOW BUT SOME OF THE WRITING IS SO REDDIT

I hate to say it but agnes & the borg queen are the most toxic yuri in the known universe

speaking of toxic yuri I knew nothing about seven of nine going into this cause I havent watched ds9 but I fucking love her like if she & raffi ever need a third......tsahaha

ALSO WHY IS CHRIS SO DUMB IN THE 2ND SEASON. YOU WILL NEVER FUCK.

THE WAY THE 2ND SEASON RETCONS TIMES ARROW FROM TNG & THAT EPISODE IN TNG WHERE PICARD SEES A VISION OF HIS MOM & SHES OLD AS FUCK & HAS GREY HAIR & A FRENCH ACCENT BOTHERS ME GREATLY. NOT TO BE THAT KIND OF NERD OR ANYTHING.

ok nevermind him having visions of her as an old lady is explained.....except the french accent

was data the only soong who wasnt a total dickhead

"sweet picard, your guilt must've saved planets by now, countless lives in trade for the one you couldn't" SCREAMS OF AGONY

romulan with red bloodshot eyes....RED?

QCARD DIVORCE ANNULMENT 🥳🥳

ok I guess chris DID fuck sorry I wasnt familiar with his game

wow I can't believe I watched the entirety if season 2 in one night tbh everything I've heard about this show from people whose opinions i generally trust has been that its (and I quote) "laughably bad" & like ruined all of TNG for them & I was honestly scared it would ruin it for me too cause tbh I became a trekkie when i was 9/10 & a lot of bad things were going on in my life at that point & star trek was one thing that always gave me happiness & then later I got into it again during like the deep quarantine where no one was leaving their houses at all & just about everyone around me got radicalized into racist far-right fearmongering qanon shit but the idea that someday humans will be able & intelligent enough not only to put aside our own differences but to be able to befriend alien species & those aliens being willing to help humanity at one of its lowest points & someday even if it doesnt happen in my own lifetime, that people can exist who genuinely care about the needs of many & actively work to better the lives of people throughout the universe instead of just giving in to individualism & cynicism & irony poisoning which is such an easy trap to fall into gave me so much hope for humanity like yall I'm literally getting choked up typing this & I never cry & I was kind of worried that this show would stomp on everything i loved about star trek but thankfully it hasnt so far (though to be fair I like a lot of objectively bad things I mean my favourite decade of fashion is the 70s so maybe this is just jingling the metaphorical keys at me)

CRUSHERRRRRR SEASON 3 COMING OUT THE GATES SWINGING (no pun intended but im not changing it now)

ENOUGH NEEDLE DROPS I HATE TO SAY IT BUT ITS GIVING STRANGER THINGS/THE MARIO MOVIE (THOUGH IN A SLIGHTLY LESS CRINGY NOSTALGIA BAIT WAY LIKE AT LEAST THIS ISN'T USING TOP 40 SHIT FROM THE 80S) & at least it's mostly non-diegetic bc I feel like diegetic music has more of a chance of being used tastelessly

british accent is stored in the balls

its gotta be worf or at least some klingon giving raffi orders right....who else would call someone a warrior

NOOOOO THE DE-AGING CGI OR WHATEVER IN S3 E3 ITS SO UNCANNY VALLEY it was surprisingly pretty good on data in s1 & q in s2 though......where did the budget go

why is old man worf kinda *starts coughing*

amanda plummer is so terrifying in every role I've seen her in like even in catching fire when she was a protagonist

also why do so many people victim blame picard for being assimilated by the borg it's not like he wanted to get assimilated & become the face of a massacre. the whole motto of the borg is "resistance is futile" like there was literally nothing he couldve done to prevent it

jack better prove himself QUICKLY cause other than his parentage I don't see anything that would inspire me to fight for his life

& then cthulu was born

goddamn the changelings make the borg look like a bunch of peace & love flower children. on that note on that note if picard assimilated beverly's reproductive system with some fucked up latent borg sperm i will be disappointed but not surprised cause what is up with jack's crazyass visions

BLESS RO BLESS WORF BLESS RAFFI

if I weren't worried I might miss something important I'd skip all the scenes where jack monologues about benign shit for no reason BOOOO GET OFF THE STAGE

JUMPIN JIMINY

WHY IS THIS LITERALLY A HORROR MOVIE honestly the concept of beings that can make themselves look & sound human has always been one of the things that scare me the most which is weird because all my life I've been compared to robots & aliens WHICH IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY I LIKED STAR TREK SO MUCH IN THE FIRST PLACE BECAUSE I RELATED SO MUCH TO DATA so in theory I shouldnt be afraid of that because I'm in the same predicament & I can relate in many ways but I mean idk I guess theres a difference between feeling excluded & wanting to be the ones who exclude. my fear probably comes more from the idea of unwillingly walking into a trap thinking someone you trust was going to help you & then having to wonder "what happened to the real person?"

what I meant by that long ramble is: the tuvok scene........*shudders*

would it be for for best if the borg carried out one last forceful assimilation of the changelings......could they be trusted with that capability......*strokes chin pensively*

THEYRE DOING/WILL DO THE PICARD MANEUVER IM CALLING IT NOW ok wait heres my theory they do the picard maneuver -> it looks like theres another ship but it's just like a warp imprint or whatever -> vadic tries to beam aboard the fake ship & actually beams herself into space -> the main crew beam aboard the shrike & save riker & troi & possibly take the portal weapon -> beam back to the real ship & blow the shrike up while all the crew panic cause they just watched vadic explode in space

well.

BIG DADDY WORF COME TO LAY THE SMACK DOWN GOD BLESS GOD FUCKING BLESS BRUH IMAGINE YOUR FRIEND COMES TO BREAK YOU OUT OF DEATH ROW & IMMEDIATELY STARTS FLIRTING WITH YOUR WIFE IM FUCKING DEAD

GET DATA ON THE PHONE CAN THEY NOT DELETE LORE'S WHOLE FILES LIKE WHAT CAN HE POSSIBLY CONTRIBUTE TO ADVANCEMENT OF SOCIETY

nooooo data don't misgender spot

OOOOOOOH THEY ALMOST HAD ME THERE

THEY DID BLAST THEM INTO SPACE I WAS PARTIALLY RIGHT YEEEEEEHAW

wait. are the red door & the red lady the same thing

BORG PENIS I CALLED IT

what happened to the borg using their power for good....get agnes on the phone....

hooh I knew it was coming but....enterprise d my beloved

last episode prediction: picard will have to become locutus one last time to defeat the borg & whoever else

yknow right now would be a real great time for some q or some travellers/watchers to show up & do their thing. also imagine the insane drama of wesley crusher coming to talk his long lost brother out of becoming a fascist alien king

on that note i cant decide whether assimilation is a metaphor for fascism, addiction, sexual assault, stds, something else I haven't considered, or is just a wild crazy non-allegorical concept of the kinds of things that might exist in space

JUPITER IS NOT CLASS M

one thing that keeps catching me off guard & then making me laugh is how patrick stewart's high rp shakespearean accent has slightly waned over the years so I'll sometimes be like "why did picard sound like paul mccartney there" & then I remember that patrick stewart is actually northern (yes yes i know yorkshire & liverpool are two different places but the uk is so minuscule by canadian standards that they might as well be the same and no one outside the uk can tell the difference between the accents so dont lecture me) <- yes unfortunately I'm the laziest kind of linguistics nerd as well I'm honestly just exposing myself as annoying in this post

let me guess jack is the beacon & they have to kill him

did they clone locutus

GOD I FUCKING LOVE DATA

I love troi too like when the writing gives her a chance to be shes literally so smart & so aware & in tune with everything like she's such an asset to the crew but it's rare we get to see that in action

I'm getting too good at predicting things

well now that I've finished it I can say I really dont know why I saw so much hate for it like maybe I've just operated in weird spaces of the internet but I mean I really dont see what there is to outright hate about it (I mean early on some of the characters felt very stilted like agnes in the first season was just yapping & was giving millenial cringe to the highest degree but I think by the 2nd season she redeemed herself but then was that even canon considering the 3rd season? idk I definitely have criticisms but I wouldn't call it "laughably bad" & it definitely hasnt forever ruined my view of star trek thank god)

sigh I just love these characters yall. if that's key jingling then put my ass in the crib

also I'm just going through all the seasons of tng & watching my favorite episodes & some random ones & it makes me laugh so hard when they show picard wearing anything other than his uniform cause he's always just in the sluttiest outfits ever 😭 they had patrick stewart running around in a v-neck & booty shorts

gah the best of both worlds part 1 & 2 + family work so well as like a trilogy but they're also such heartbreaking episodes like borg assimilation is one of those things that just becomes increasingly unrelentingly more & more horrifying the more you think about it & the scenario of those episodes would literally be so terrifying for anyone involved like beverly seeing the guy she's sort of in love with become the face of this genocidal fascist species but then her son is on board the enterprise & just watched his mom be sent on an away team where it was possible she might not come back or worse & also wesley having to see picard be the face of the borg & probably feeling like he just lost another father figure & like it would literally have no good outcomes for anyone cause even the borg don't want to be borg but it was forced upon them

on that note I kind of have a headcanon that the borg would have originated from like, a super technologically advanced planet's military putting cybernetic implants in all their soldiers for efficiency so they could have a hive mind & think as one & coordinate seamlessly & always be up to date on what other sectors of the military were doing & then deciding that instead of killing their enemies, they would forcibly conscript them into the military by assimilating them & by doing this they eventually took over whichever planet they originated on. eventually this wasn't enough for them so they started traveling the universe & assimilating whole planets & that's how it came to the point we see in tng & beyond

sigh they really wrote the episode hero worship for all us little weird kids who connected to data didnt they

if they really wanted to give geordi a romance with someone they couldve tried to put him with ro laren bc their dynamic in the next phase was so cute like his outgoing-ness + her aloofness & how he sort of brought her out of her shell in that episode UGH walk with me. or they couldve just made him gay which they were apparently considering but decided against? idk but I mean the man literally orders an ice coffee in the same episode where he falls in love with a girl just by watching her vlogs. how did they preemptively stereotype him before the stereotype of gay people loving ice coffee even existed (I jest) but like ugh ANYTHING EXCEPT THE PARASOCIAL INCEL SHIT THEY ALWAYS PUT HIM INTO & THEN IN THE VERY LAST EPISODE THEY SAY HE'S MARRIED TO LEAH BRAHMS LIKE NO. PLEASE. JUSTICE FOR GEORDI. END THE CHARACTER ASSASSINATION. but the future in that episode isnt even canon & thankfully in picard they never outright say who he had kids with so like in my mind they are not the product of reply-guy-ification but a normal relationship (also justice for leah brahms & whoever she was married to.) idk why i even feel so strongly about this. I guess maybe because geordi is otherwise such a good character & the very concept of him is so ahead of its time & obviously characters need to have flaws but did it have to be Those kinds of flaws specifically </3

also cardassians should not have hair idc I know people think bald aliens are too cliche but what business do reptilians have with hair how would that even evolve

[myworldisfictional]

AAAHHH IM SO EXCITED! I have high hopes for this episode so I hope it meets my expectations. Anyway here are my episode 8 thoughts/reactions:

Oh no “a lots about to change”

THEY NEED TO TALK

Can this please be the last episode with rini drama

Aaaahhh I love them

Why do the writers hate all the couples

AAAHHH I LOVE THIS SONG

EJ is literally the PERFECT Gaston

EJ juggling is so hot and idk why

Amazing

Loved that performance

AAHHH THE GROWTH

The “emotional connection”

Awe Seb

NINA

I’m not here for the name change

Oh snap

Gina is GORGEOUS. Absolutely love her hair and outfit this episode

AAAAAAHHHHHHH

IM LITERALLY SCREAMING

I LOVE THEM

EJ’s dad gives me even bigger Gaston vibes

But he seemed happy with his test results

Oh so now we’re introducing parents

I still love howie

Bad place for this conversation

But that’s not what he wants

AWE BIG RED IS SO SWEET

HE DESERVES THE WORLD

wow this is fancy

Awe when did mr. mazzara get so sweet

They’re so cute

He wants you (jk (not really))

AAAHHHH

The treehouse parallels to hsm 3

At least he sees it

They’re trying

Noooo

NOOOOOO THE NECKLACE

IM GONNA CRY

Roman has such a beautiful voice

AAAHHHHH THE DUKE SWEATER

AAAAHHHHHH ASHER IN THE PROMO

OKAY I AM COMPLETELY FREAKING OUT! First of all, all of the Portwell content is the episode was A+. Like complete perfection. They’re just so cute together and they see the best in each other. AND EJ PUTTING HIS DUKE SWEATER OVER HER!!! Like that was EVERYTHING

The Redlyn drama was handled well I think. Big Red’s dreams were so wholesome and it may not have been big but you can tell it makes him happy. I’m glad that Ashlyn eventually saw that and they worked that out

I’m kind of torn about the Rini break up. Because like I saw it coming and it was kind of necessary but also once they sat down and talked about it they were able to admit what their issues were and I feel like the could have given themselves another chance together. Having acknowledged their issues they could have just tried better/harder. I still ship them so I’m rooting for them to get back together *ONCE THEY HAVE DONE THE WORK ON THEMSELVES INDIVIDUALLY. I just hope if they do get back together it’s for good because I really hate the on and off, especially when there’s already so little time in the show

And just some extra thoughts. I’m not sure how to feel about mr. mazzara and miss jenn. Like I think they both deserve to be happy but like idk. I don’t really see the chemistry and I preferred her with mike. As well there was definitely some drama with Seblos when they were painting the sets and like can’t they just have one couple that is solid. Like these writers are just stirring up all the drama for couples. I much rather see one/both people in the paring go through an issue and they help each other through it instead of having the issue be between them (idk if that makes sense. It’s late). But I feel like that’s setting up for whatever Carlos is going to need the song for. And I am happy he’s finally getting a solo.

And lastly, ASHER IN THE PROMO FOR NEXT WEEK!!! And he says gina looks familiar!! AAAHHHHH!