#i'd imagine that of the three that's his favorite role (and the one he gets to spend the least time doing)

[bansenshukai]

2.15.23- @tbrmweek day 3, rōnin / teacher / hokage

[bluecollarmcandtf]

My Found Family

I never grew up with the luxury of family. As an orphan, my childhood was lacking to say the least, and it left me jealous of any kid with caring fathers and siblings. That's why I had to find my family. Nobody's perfect, but with a little reconditioning, I've trained them to be exactly what I was looking for.

This guy is now my father...

"Breakfast is ready, boys!" I call, using my lower register like I'm supposed to, "Whoops! I mean bacon-fest!"

Guttural laughter comes from my stomach even though I don't find my joke that funny. Bad jokes like this have sort of become my personality lately. In fact, my whole life has transformed over the last couple days. A week ago, I would've never imagined myself strolling around my house in nothing but underwear and a robe! My standards for style seem to have vanished along with pretty much every other part of my old way of being.

It happened three days ago at a grocery store, when I ran into this guy in the produce section. He caught me examining avocados for ripeness and walked right up, beginning to talk like we'd known each other for years.

It was all a bit bizarre, but I found myself unable to turn away. He was explaining my life to myself. Well, not my life, but the one he wanted me to live, the one I was meant to live, and I hung on his every word. He was maybe six years younger than myself, but I was to be his new daddy. It was a role I was proud to fill.

"Here you are, son," I grin widely, unable to contain the feelings of pride I have as he walks into the room.

"Thanks, old man," he answers and grabs the plate gratefully.

For a moment, I stand there and stare. My heart beats for my boy as he tears apart the food I made for him. My paternal instincts have been working overtime lately. I can't help but love that boy with every fatherly fiber of my being.

It doesn't matter that I never wanted kids before. Previously, I'd wanted to remain a bachelor forever, but I have them now, and it couldn't feel more perfect.

With a content grin, I turn back to the sizzling bacon and think about my day. Things I used to hate were now what I looked forward to; mowing the lawn, washing the car, cleaning the gutters. I have a full day of work ahead of me to keep this house in tip top shape. Of course, I'll do it all with an ice cold beer in my hand. I never had a taste for the stuff, but my boy thinks I should grow a bit more of a gut.

I know what I say goes around here, but I could never say no to my favorite son...

I obviously have dad wrapped around my finger, but he's not the only member of this family. This next dude is my new big bro...

"Fuck yeah," I grunt and sniff up the ripe stench under my arm, "Smells like a real fuckin' man!"

I toss the barbell down, finishing a new personal record on the bench press and I couldn't feel more pumped. My tank top and sweat pants are drenched with sweat, but I love bein' a nasty gym rat: at least, I do now.

A week ago I was waiting tables at this fancy restaurant, when one of the customers got to talking with me. He was sitting alone and looked kinda sad, so I tried to be friendly and I'm sure glad I did! I got a whole new family out of it. He made me quit my job and move into this sweet place. Now I'm his big brother!

Of course, like all big bro's, I'm supposed to work out in the garage all day. I was never one for weights, but I couldn't imagine my life without them anymore. I like to push my limits and get all hot and sweaty. Then I march around the house flexing and farting all over the place. It's not the most refined thing in the world, but my bro explained to me how much I don't care about hygiene and all that crap.

"Wassup, little man," I call as he saunters in.

"Nothing much," he answers, staring at my arms while I show off my biceps.

"Alright, get out of my space. I'm tryin' to work out," I snarl, acting as tough as possible, "Do I need to wrestle you again to prove my point?"

I definitely didn't used to be like this. I used to be the most polite and approachable guy in the world, always chatting random people up, but that guy's gone. My bro got rid of him and his old family. This new family is the only one I'm interested in now, even if I'm not supposed to show it. I'm supposed to be muscular, rude, and gross. It's who I am now.

"Alright, I'll leave you to it," he replies, "You can wrestle me though."

"I will," I frown, flexing even harder, "And this time, I'll win!"

Whenever we wrestle, I always end up with the urge to let him win. It sucks because I could easily beat him, and I should put him in his place, but for some reason, I just know I have to let him win. He just deserves it I guess.

I give him an intense glare and then return to my weights. These arms aren't going to pump themselves...

My big bro always makes my legs quiver, but I love seeing how cocky he can get. Of course, he'll never out wrestle me no matter how big he gets. I programmed him to let me win. Just like I programmed the breadwinner of the bunch...

A short groan rumbles from my lips. For some reason, everything has been disappointing me lately: my sons, my husband, my job has all been leaving me grumpy and frustrated. Even the channels on the TV aggravate the living hell out of me. I have to fight the urge to chuck the remote across the room.

"How was your day, honey," my husband asks, walking into the room and handing me a beer.

"Great," I moan without any emotion.

Everything's been changing so fast lately, and I couldn't be more over it. I was married to my work, busting ass for years to get promotion after promotion, and I had a job I loved that paid extremely well. I couldn't be more happy, even if I was the only unmarried guy in the office. I didn't mind. I loved my bowling league and my solo trips to Vegas too much to settle down.

Then I met him, my son. Well, he wasn't my son at the time, but after talking, I quickly realized who he was and who I was to him. I'm the head of the household, the disciplinarian, the breadwinner. At least, that's who I've become.

"What's for dinner?" I grunt, peeling my eyes away from the TV.

Looking at my husband, odd feelings bubble up. I used to know him as my neighbor, a nice enough guy, but now I'm married to him. It all happened so fast. He's changed too recently, I think. The guy I knew a week ago would've never walked around all day in a robe and underwear.

His hand reaches out and holds my own, "Steak and potatoes if that's alright with you."

I grunt in agreement, turning back to the TV. My husband's presence stirs my cock to life, straining my member against my work slacks.

This is another new development.

Until now, I'd never had a gay bone in my body. In some ways, I still don't, but my son explained how I should feel about my husband. I should love him, I should be turned on by him, and I should get it on with him. He's right, I suppose.

"Hey, I could use a blow job before you get cooking," I gesture to the thick tent in my pants.

My husband pauses for a moment like he's unsure of what to do, but then it comes to him, "Of course, babe, but we need to be quiet. Both of our boys are home right now."

"Don't worry about it. If they walk in without knocking they'll get the belt," I snort as my husband gets on his knees in front of me.

"You shouldn't be so hard on-" before he can finish, I've shoved his face into my crotch.

Somehow, I know I can be rough with him, just like I can be rough with our sons. I'm the man of the house after all. Within seconds I'm grunting in pleasure while staring at the evening news broadcast. For some reason, I always find myself watching it and complaining about current events. It's just who I am now..

I grin, sneaking a peak at my two dad's going at it in the living room like the good little couple they are. My new family couldn't be more perfect, but no family is complete without the dog...

"Ruff!" I bark, gleefully scampering over to the bowl of food that was just placed on the floor.

Without hesitating, I shove my face into the bowl, sending the little pellets flying everywhere. They taste like cardboard, but for some reason, I can't get enough of them! I've done nothing but drool and whine for the last hour while the real humans eat their dinner at the table.

"That's a good boy," a voice coos, and I feel fingers running through the hair on my head.

I can barely acknowledge being petted. I know I'm supposed to act like a hungry animal right now, so that's what I do.

I would've never thought I'd find myself as a house pet, but a couple days ago, this guy just walked up to me and talked me into it. It'd just been a normal day for me, working at the car garage when he became my master. I knew right there and then that I had to drop to my hands and knees and follow him home with my tongue out.

My new life has been great ever since. My masters play ball with me outside, they hose me down when I get muddy, and they snuggle with me on the couch at night. I barely even miss my old work and fiance!

"Alright, boy," one of my master's commands, "That's enough. Get in here!"

It's the mean one. The one who used to own this house, but is now just a working dad. He's always the one who hits me with a newspaper when I drink from the toilet. I don't know why, but I just feel compelled to do it!

Licking the bowl clean, I abandon it and crawl into the living room. There, the entire family is gathered around the television.

I stop by the smelly one and sneak in a few licks. I love licking him because he's always salty with sweat and smells funny. After licking his feet for too long, he kicks me away, "Leave me alone, mutt!"

"Oh don't talk to him that way," the nice one adds.

I climb on the couch and curl up beside him. His belly is always the perfect cushion for my head to rest on, and he always lets me lick his beer bottle when he's done. Within a couple minutes, I'm drifting off as his hands absently play with my hair...

...sitting with my family at night is always my favorite part. Watching TV with my two dads, brother, and dog heals the child in me that had always yearned for this. Sure, it might be easier to just go to therapy, but this is sure as hell a lot more fun!

[joeys-babe]

Joey B Blurbs: Can’t Help Falling in Love

————————————————————————-

Summary: You surprise Joe when he gets home from practice by putting on your wedding dress from your wedding back in March of 2022.

Warnings: Fluff

Pairing: Joe Burrow x reader

Imagine universe: Into The Mystic

A/N: Joe isn't injured.

————————————————————————-

*December 30th, 2023 - 22 weeks pregnant*

(y/n’s pov)

Joe was currently away at an early morning practice, preparing for the Chief’s game tomorrow.

The team would be getting on a plane for Kansas City tonight, and Zac called an ‘emergency’ practice this morning.

Since Joe was away, I was doing some seriously needed deep cleaning in the house.

Tyson and Miles’s room would have to be last to be cleaned since they wouldn't be up for a while.

I will never take for granted the fact that the terrible twos don't seem to be a thing to the twins. They're closer to three and have remained their happy selves.

The reason I mention this is because when they do wake up, they'll happily help me clean their room without being asked.

My heart warmed when I walked into what will be our baby girl’s nursery once she's born and old enough to be moved out of Joe and I’s room.

The walls were painted a cream color with an accent wall of vintage floral wallpaper.

Joe was the one who approached me with the idea, and I loved it.

Her name had a vintage feel, so her nursery having the same vibe was perfect.

One thing about our baby girl is that she was already 100% a daddy’s girl.

She loved it when Joe talked to my stomach, as she would kick after every sentence that left his mouth.

Joe ate every bit of it up, already taking his girl-dad role very seriously. He was so involved in my pregnancy, making sure to be there for his wife and beloved baby girl.

He just loved her so much.

My thoughts made me smile to myself as I looked around her unfurnished room and absentmindedly rubbed my bump.

Soon, I snapped out of my thoughts and remembered my cleaning.

——

After getting Joe and I’s bedroom and bathroom cleaned, it was time to move onto the closet.

I saved it for last because I knew it was going to be a doozy.

With constant packages of clothing items arriving at the house for Joe’s game-day fits, there was always a huge stack of boxes in here.

Usually, after the stack reaches a certain height, Joe would take them out to the dumpster.

Lately, though, he's fallen behind on his duties, and the stack was huge.

After clearing that out, I started going through my side of the closet, knowing Joe wouldn't exactly be happy if I moved his stuff around.

I knew I'd find some gems, doing a deep clean in my closet, but I didn't expect to find my wedding dress.

It looked just as beautiful as I remembered and it took my breath away.

Joe and I’s wedding back in March of 2022 was an absolute dream. We were so happy, nothing could sour our moods.

We looked back at our wedding photos all of the time, watching the videos of our vows being one of our favorite things.

I remembered a video I'd seen on TikTok last night of a wife putting on her wedding dress to surprise her husband, and I immediately decided to do it.

That is if the baby bump and growing boobs allow this dress to fit me.

It wouldn't necessarily be a prank or the usual trends that I've tried in him, so it would be a good change.

——

A few hours later, Tyson and Miles had been awake for a while, and we all got their room cleaned.

Joe would be home soon because he told me what time practice ended before he left this morning.

That being said, I was now upstairs trying to slip my wedding dress on.

Thankfully, the bodice part of the dress didn't quite reach my belly, so it was perfectly hidden under the skirt. I was a little surprised that my growing chest was able to stay contained under the fabric since I'd had to buy bigger bras since getting pregnant.

I didn't even attempt to try to zip the back of the dress up, though.

Moments later I could hear my phone ringing in the bedroom, and I had to practically waddle my way over there to get it.

It was Joe calling, probably telling me that he was on his way.

“Hey, Joey.” - you

“Hey, Mama. Just wanted to tell you that I'm leaving practice right now. I should be home in a bit.” - Joe

“Oh okay, how was practice?” - you

“As good as practice can be, I guess.” - Joe chuckled

I laughed along with him before he started talking again.

“How’s your day been? The boys and baby girl doing good?” - Joe

“We’re perfect. Just miss you. Princess has been a little restless today, probably wanting to talk to her daddy.” - you

“I miss you guys too, Imma be home soon. I promise to be with you till I have to leave tonight.” - Joe

“Okay. I love you, Joe. Be safe.” - you

“I will be. I love you too, so much. See you soon, my love.” - Joe

“See you soon. Bye.” - you

“Bye, baby.” - Joe hung up

Now I just have to wait.

——

I sat on the couch to the best of my ability, waiting for Joe to get home when I heard the garage door opening.

Tyson and Miles jumped off of the couch to go greet their dad, and soon I could hear that deep voice coming from the mud room.

“Where's your momma at?” - Joe

“Couch.” - Miles

A few moments later Joe’s heavy footsteps got louder and his tall frame was in my view.

His eyes lit up, and he stopped in his tracks when he saw me. Joe’s mouth dropped open into a taken-aback huge grin.

“Baby… woah. You look... woah.” - Joe

I stood up and walked closer to him, his eyes never once leaving me.

“y/n, you look so beautiful. I don't even know what to say.” - Joe

Standing on my tiptoes to place a kiss on his lips, Joe wrapped his arms around my waist.

“Where’d your bump go?” - Joe laughed

I turned to the side and flattened my hands around it, causing Joe to laugh and reach for it.

Joe rubbed over my bump for a second before pulling his hand back to take in everything.

“I’m not even gonna lie though, I will need your help taking this thing off.” - you

“Wouldn't be the first time.” - Joe smirked

“Joseph Lee!” - you playfully hit his arm

“I’m not lying though!” - Joe

——

Later, after Joe helped me out of my dress, he gave me something that he had brought home but forgot to give me because he got distracted by me in my dress.

It was some Mexican food that he had picked up pm his way home from practice since I had told him this morning that I was craving it.

Now, we were sitting on the couch together as I ate.

“Thank you for this.” - you took a bite of your chimichanga

“You’re so welcome, Mama.” - Joe kissed your cheek

A few seconds of silence went by as Joe stole a bite of my chimichanga.

“Did my wedding dress look good on me still? After having twins and currently being pregnant, I don't even want to know how different it looks on me.” - you

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Joe giving me a stank face, and I couldn't help but laugh when I turned my head to face him.

“What’s that look for?” - you laughed

“You’re fucking with me, right? Like you're joking?” - Joe

“No?” - you

“y/n. No matter how many changes your body has gone through you are as beautiful as the girl I dated in high school, all through college, and the girl I said I do to. Wanna know why?” - Joe

“Why?” - you

“Because you're the same girl you were before you had our babies. And to be completely honest with you, those changes make you even more gorgeous than before. To me, you don't have any imperfections because I love every part of your body. Those little stretch marks you complain about? They are a reminder of your body growing to accommodate your babies. Your belly getting bigger? That's home to our princess. I say all that to say this. y/n you are the most beautiful woman on this planet, and I love you so much.” - Joe

Joe wiped the tears that were dripping down my cheeks. They were happy tears time ten.

“I didn't mean to make you cry on your chimichanga.” - Joe

I laughed and leaned into his touch, savoring the feel of his skin against mine.

“They're happy tears, Joe, and thank you for the pep talk… I needed that.” - you

“I know you did, baby. Now finish your food, Imma talk to the baby.” - Joe leaned down and looked at you, asking for permission to lift your shirt

“Go ahead.” - you grinned

What would I do without him?

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Authors note: more of an imagine than a blurb but whatevs

Request for this fic;

Hope you enjoyed! 💕

[yonemurishiroku]

Okay, but hear me out: an au where Nico is a Champion of Nyx.

Or an au where Nyx is a competent mastermidn and not this naive idiot. (Yes, I am still salty with Rick about his Nyx interpretation)

Kat I have excellent news for you---I have just come up with a brand new AU that still revolves around Nico and Nyx and Bob but a little darker. I was just bawling over it last night. Idk if it counts as Nico Champion of Nyx but if it doesn't we'll just leave it for another day lmao. (I still have a collection of asks from Ponii--)

Anw. So.

This AU is just me indulging my obsession with angst and darkness (as always). Basically, for Nico to join Nyx, instead of Nico going to Tartarus, I simply send him directly to her. How, you ask? Well there's always one thing that connects them.

Darkness, that's what.

As in: Nico disappearing into the shadows due to transporting the Athena Pathernos, and his soul returning to the House of Nyx afterward.

This is not baseless btw bc like. I headcanon dying by shadow-traveling - which is supposedly literally dissolving into the shadows - would be different from regular deaths, hence the special resting place for Nico's soul.

I understand where Rick stands to have Nyx as she is in TSATS but yeah, I can take some not-dumb Nyx as well. In this AU, Nyx still finds Nico - a soul lost in her House. Nico, though, since I've alr established that he literally died. So here he is in the Mansion of Night, wandering through Nyx's garden, and humoring her with his existence.

He asks for his father and Nyx just gazes at him pitifully, "Little one, this darkness is where your lost soul belong" and Nico figures he has nowhere else to go.

He talks to her and tells her stories, about himself, about everything he knows, and asks her for everything she knows without barely any interest besides appeasing his bored consciousness.

I just want to make it clear that Nico is, by every means in the world, dead, so I imagine this Nico to be a little indifferent, disassociated, careless. You know, the type of attitude a mindless ghost might adopt?

Nico's still emotional enough to react colorfully to Nyx's prodding and games though. As a result, Nyx becomes interested in him the same way Anklys adores him and Cupid haunts him.

Think of Nico as Nyx's most beloved favorite pet - the one with which you take joy in playing, which you'd feed carefully, cater to its need, and be concerned with every change in its behavior.

She ends up going so far as crowning him as her Champion and giving his soul a vessel. A body made of shadows and darkness, with eyes made of supernovas and hair woven from the soul fragments in her dress. (I'm playing don't mind me. Just picture him as normal lmao)

For a long time, they stay like that.

What leads to the changes can be two things, 1/ Bob finding the Mansion of Night; or 2/ Jason's death. Hades plays a crucial role in both scenarios, however.

In the latter, I hope to draw a scenario in which Jason, upon dying, is summoned to Hades' request as the last resort to get his son's soul. In exchange for returning Nico to Hades, Jason would have another chance at life. (Though I suppose if Jason heard Nico's in Tartarus he'd go there unconditionally lmao he's too kind).

If I were to write this, I'd add Reyna and Hazel as well - since 1/ A quest is best done in three; 2/ Reyna is an immortal Hunter; 3/ Hazel is an Underworld child.

Who's the better fit for a trip to the deepest of Hell am i rite?

Anw. A ghost, an immortal and a former-ghost Underworld child go to Tartarus to find another Underworld ghost-child (jeez this is such a tongue-twister). This includes the potential for: Jason-Reyna reconciliation (bc they deserve it), Jason-Hazel reconnection (only bc I hc Hazel never forgives Jason for the jar debacle), and Hazel-Reyna friendship over praetorship and/or as Nico's sisters.

All the while, they're still mourning Nico and Jason.

It's a mess, I know. I find joy in it anyway.

I have few visions of Nyx in this, however. Jason Reyna Hazel trio took too much out of me lmao.

I suppose things would go along the way of them reaching out to Nico thanks to Hazel. And the stories progress through a series of dreams spent trying to communicate without Nyx catching wind, the trio trudging through Tartarus and Nico finding a way to liberate himself.

If I could, I'd add a plot twist that Nyx knew of this all along - Hades' trick could never pass her by, but she left Nico and Jason's gang to it because she wants to see his despair upon realizing he could never leave - for she believes in his soul belonging to her darkness, that this Mansion is, indeed, Nico's home.

I'd also like to see Nico successfully free his own soul of Nyx's shackles, and Nyx, despite the pity of losing her favorite pet, let them go because she now sees Nico's burning thrive for life - a child of both darkness and spring (She's a primordial goddess of ancient times. She can live with a little bit of boredom).

I've yet to decide on an ending, mainly because it was 2 AM and I needed to sleep LMAO. But at least it was fun.

As for the first one, I just assume Bob doesn't get captured - since Nyx already has Nico to entertain him. He might be wandering across Tartarus or staying in Damasen's tent, still calling out to Nico.

His call reaches Hades instead, and he takes advantage of that to send him for Nico. Maybe send a message through Hypnos or Thanatos, telling Bob to look out for the kid, while at the same time sending for Nico as well, telling him about what might be waiting for him thereover and that Hades wants him back. This leads to Bob coming to the Mansion of Night, alerting Nyx and awakening Nico in the process.

After that, I have yet to figure out a certain plotline, but if I were to write it, it'd run along the lines of:

Bob finally found Nico and now Nico sees the hopes of escaping, he suddenly has the desire to leave the Mansion, to which Nyx vehemently forbids. He fights back, ofc. But as a soul, there's nothing Nico can do to harm her. She's a freaking primordial what do you expect--- However, there's one thing he could do - if only to oppose her, as someone who has been holding Nyx's attention for so long. And that is why Nico rejects his own Patron.

Surely, Nyx doesn't like that. She'd have many horrible things to do with him in order to retain her champion, but ultimately Nico would be released and return to his father's side along with Bob.

Yeah obviously i haven't thought that far lmao i was too invested in what Nico and Nyx might be doing back when he's still her Champion. Tbh that's the thing I like most.

I gotta say none of the above ^^^ has any morals whatsoever - Nico's still dead, Nyx would never be defeated bla bla bla - but srsly I could care less. I'm indulging my Nyx and Nico agenda and I'm enjoying myself too much. Who cares.

[darkstarofchaos]

Thanks for your incredibly in-depth replies! Now I'm curious about your thoughts about Trine shipping, as well as TrineFire. (I have Complicated Feelings about both, so.) Also, for bonus points, a general question: do you think Trines are usually romantically involved with each other, or expected to be?

Glad you enjoyed them! (And sorry I'm a little late replying to these). I'm going to assume from the bonus question that these pairings are in the same vein as the others (that is, the ask game), so let's see...

Trine: Ship it

What made you ship it?

Okay, so this has the caveat that I don't ship it romantically, per se. More I ship Thundercracker and Skywarp, and Starscream is in there as a queerplatonic third. That counts, as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, I pretty much ship it because of fanfiction. I think the Trine might have been the first poly ship I ever read, so it was kind of interesting seeing a standard romance dynamic spread across three characters. Of course, I started reading fic before I'd even finished the first season of G1, so seeing the '86 movie was... Interesting in a different way. Not sure if it was the movie or finding Starscream ships I liked better that cooled me on Starscream as a romantic third, but I don't read a lot of Trine fic anymore. Still like the triad, but I prefer the dynamic in my head to Starscream being romantically involved.

2. What are your favorite things about the ship?

I love the idea of Starscream being grumpy and bad at showing he cares, but protective and caring when the situation calls for it. Mostly we only get to see him in the position of being protected and cared for, but Trine fics have a decent chance of him fussing over one of his Trinemates. Probably the easiest place to find protective!Starscream, really.

3. Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Skywarp is the mediator of the Trine, not Thundercracker. Most of the time, TC gets the role of most level-headed and patient member of the Trine, which, fair. The other two are impulsive and immature, he is pretty level-headed compared to them. But he also really doesn't get along with Starscream, to the point where he considers getting him in trouble with Megatron in Fire on the Mountain. I do think they care about each other, but they need Skywarp to keep them from each other's throats. Which makes it fun to arrange situations where the two have to get along without Warp around.

-

TrineFire: Don't ship it.

Why don’t you ship it?

I spent a while going back and forth on my answer for this one, because I do like it. But it runs into the problem of me only shipping Skyfire with Starscream, and I only really ship Thundercracker and Skywarp with each other (you know, queerplatonic triad with Starscream aside). I can't really get into them as a romantic poly.

2. What would have made you like it?

That's easy: make them two separate couples who hook up occasionally rather than a romantic foursome. People usually talk about shipping in the sense of romantic attachment, but I think a ship can be purely sexual too. Or a mix of romantic and sexual, when you have that many people involved.

3. Despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it?

Honestly, I don't have a problem with it as long as the above is satisfied. I enjoy seeing the Trine interact with Skyfire.

-

Bonus question about whether I think of Trines being romantically involved:

The short answer is yes.

The long answer is that when I think of ancient Cybertron, I imagine a lot of nomadic bots and small civilizations built near natural energon deposits, and lots of monsters a la Predacons in TFP. Traveling in groups was pretty much required for safety regardless of frametype, but since Seekers could just fly away from most threats, they got away with smaller groups. Three bots worked out pretty well because it let two of them rest while the third kept watch, and they could get more rest overall with three bots than with two. Obviously larger groups were safer, but even then, bots tended to stick with the people they liked and trusted more when they went out, and over time, Trines just became the social norm.

Romance just kinda happened from there, though I think Seekers probably have a cultural preference for Trine over romantic partners if they have to choose between the two.

[seth-burroughs]

yakou for the ask meme? (i also hate what the fandom has done to him so i trust your rc opinions. keep up the good work)

Thank you anon I'll do my best🙏

Yakou:

favorite thing about them

How he's a fucking loser but pulled off the most elaborate murder plan just to get revenge for his Dead Wife and stabbed Dr. Huesca not once but like three times and was fine with dying afterwards if it meant that bitch is gonna die too. And now he's stuck with him in the restricted area for an indefinite period. Oh well

Not my actual favourite thing about him (because I cannot choose man) but I really wanted to point it out because I don't see enough people talk about the sheer BLOODLUST that guy had in chapter 4 like holy shit good for him I think he should be allowed to kill murder & destroy whoever he wants

least favorite thing about them

Nothing comes to mind, I'd say he got underutilized but that's the case with most of the characters here tbh (mdarc feels kinda rushed 😔😔) and Yakou is not THAT bad compared to the peacekeepers it's like. It's fine!

favorite line

Can't really pick, probably the chat Yuma had with him in the prologue, but there are a lot

brOTP

Him and the NDA, but especially Yuma his best pal buddy bro ziomek morda mordeczka Yuma who never remembers to get the fucking groceries.

OTP

none tbh

nOTP

Uhhhhhhhh yakou/seth, yakou/yomi. honestly i'm not big on any Yakou ships can't imagine him in a healthy romantic relationship (viviakou toxic sludge is fine though)

random headcanon

Makes the best fucking spaghetti sauce you ever ate in your entire life. But he puts like an entire garlic in it and you can choke to death on the smell. Also he's a trans man. Usually I don't really hc male characters as trans men etc (rather I go the other way, like a canonically female character being a trans man, non-binary et cetera) but both he and Vivia fit the vibes so! Let's goooooo.

unpopular opinion

I HATE HATE HATE the common fandom hc of Yakou being a father figure to Yuma or the whole NDA or to any character. The vibes aren't aligning on that one, he's their extremely tired boss/acquaintance/pal/best pal that lets them do terrible things to his budget if they torment him hard enough. And also because I constantly see Yuma getting treated like a 12 year old, no guys he doesn't need an adult male role model and father figure, he needs his 6ft tall 1000+ years old death god gf back from the book and to explore his much more attractive rich and successfull perfect homunculus clone's body that'll fix him I believe.

Also: I'm all for NDA found family (even if we didn't get much of them from the actual game...) but please stop making them like. a nuclear mom dad and their beautiful two children family it doesn't have to conform to any rigid roles pleaseee sometimes you're found family and fuck each other it's FINE jeuss. I was about to say something but I'm having a real one right now qhat what I forgot what I typed I suggest you forget too.

Anyway him and Yuma play minecraft together they pull of the most complicated redstone mechanisms and once every few days his house gets burned down by Desuhiko who logs into Yuma's computer while he isn't looking. He always leaves behind a very visible trail of cheeto dust on the keyboard however Yuma would never snitch on the boy that makes him warrior cats pride pfps free of charge so he just tells Yakou it's a hacker

song i associate with them

Generic old songs on the radio. I don't have any

favorite picture of them

h-HELLO???

[the-grey-hunt]

talking with friends in the ol dracula daily chat and:

jonathan cares SO MUCH for mina in today's entry. we know what's going on, we see mina's side, but jonathan is trying so hard to keep her well and safe and he's been told that the way to do that is to not tell her what's going on. his train of thought is just "aw man it goes against every fiber of my being not to share everything with mina but she's already not feeling well, i'd hate to make her feel worse"

it also made me realize what's going on with the harkers and why jonathan agreed to exclude mina in the first place. they were lonely when they were apart and unstoppable as a team, but now that other people (and jonathan's peers, no less) are a part of the dracula team, the harker duo has been defeated by a terrible foe: Social Norms And Expectations.

they're victorians! there are so many social rules all the time and it's nigh impossible to break them, especially if you're higher up on the social ladder! it is Simply Not Done. jonathan has been absorbed (awkwardly) into the boys' club and is competent and can go along with it, but he clearly doesn't enjoy mina's exclusion. mina doesn't enjoy being excluded, and misses hanging out with jonathan, but the Token Woman trope for a team-up of adventurers hasn't been invented yet. this is also why jonathan considers sending her home to Exeter: if the wife goes home, she'll be happier, right? they're both trying very hard to do what society tells them they should be content doing.

(obviously there's a gay way to read this—something something compulsory heterosexuality—but I'll get back to you)

I read some great meta a few entries ago about how jonathan enjoys mostly female society and this is his first time being in this kind of boy's club. i've posted before about jonathan's role in the female gothic trope (the victim in the castle, the dramatic sufferer of victorian novel disease). right now we're seeing him, by being brought into the wider circle of male characters, do his best to make a turn-about into conforming with them (both from an authorial standpoint, as in how stoker writes him, and from a character standpoint).

jonathan declares that when van helsing brings him into confidence re: dracula, he's curned from his Victorian Novel Disease. brain fever who? now jonathan's running around doing solicitor things, paying small bribes and getting information from lower-class men (as we have seen various (male) News Correspondents do so far). He goes with the boys as they mimic Dr. Seward and observe Renfield; he goes with the boys as they follow Van Helsing into the gamut of vampire fighting. Notably, Jonathan's ill-fitting adoption into the group is notable in the way Seward forgets to introduce him to Renfield.

At the same time as he makes this turn, Mina, who has been critical in figuring out what's going on, is pushed into a more traditionally female role in the proceedings. the boys can't clue her in on things. Why? Perhaps they're all still scarred from what happened to Lucy—three lovers, doing what they wish they could have for their loved one and trying to keep her far away from danger. But also, when you have a Boy's Club For Fighting Vampires, you can't just have one of the boys' wives hanging out with you. Mina becomes the wife waiting at home for their triumphant return, watching through the windows, not unlike the women Jonathan once imagined might have lived in the nicer apartments at castle Dracula.

the harkers, as tumblr's favorites, have of course had queer labels bestowed on them in interpretation (not that i'm against that). their attempts to ascribe to the social norms expected of them, and seeming inability to do so successfully, speaks to me to a very similar experience that many queer people have in this day and age, trying to fit into a heterosexual, cis framework of life. while it's possible to LOOK like they're getting it right—as a m/f couple they can at least look the part—queer readers understand that the novel can only make real breakthroughs when they give up trying to pretend; when jonathan is free to include mina in his thoughts and knowledge, and when mina is free to contribute and be taken seriously by the group.

[seikilos-stele]

At one time, I was a prolific writer, now I’m a busy commentator who flings an idea now and then when people seek me out. The one thing that did not change in either role was that I could not work on more than two projects at the same time -possibly three-otherwise, they would begin to influence each other. Perhaps I have a limited attention span.

Today, I opened my in-box to no less then ten of your potential projects, and at least four WIP.

That was today. In actuality, I believe that you have about seven WIP that have been active in the last ten days. I want to know a few things about both the ability and the methodology for managing this many projects.

First, I want to note that while all the WIP & finished projects are of the same Fandom, essentially, that is all they have in common. We have potential TV episodes, AU, OC, Angst, Hope, Illness and so forth. No easy bridges for immediate crossovers.

So what is the trick?

Do you keep each fic logged into your head so that you can pick them up at any moment? Do keep the detailed outlines close at hand, so you can review before you begin?

I can imagine that working on one fic my possibly inspire ideas for another WIP, or do all others remain outside your scope when actively writing? Do you ever conflate multiple WIP (bleed characteristics from one fic to another)

Do the 5X a character did this or that always begin as a group concept, or have you ever looked at prompts a say, “Hey! These ideas all share a them” and decide to combine them.

Finally, one of my absolute favorite collections of yours was the NighThrawn fics. At some point you broke them up up. Were they created originally to be a related collection?

I hope I’m not distracting the creative machine, too much!

Ooh!! No worries, I'm not doing anything creative at the moment 😆 I'm annoying my brother by practicing Louis Armstrong songs over his silent films. (Ain't Misbehavin'....fits really well with Sangue Bleu...somehow).

Um, let's see. I'd say that some days a fic really gets you. The long one I just wrote on Sunday, the 18K oneshot about a political prisoner coming home from the war and making friends with an "enemy" kid -- that's the sort of idea that comes at the right time, when you're in just the right mood, and you can breeze through it in just a few hours. It's like the stars align and everything goes perfect.

But most of the time I just really want to write and I like to have a full stable of ideas to choose from. Like, it's easier if you can just pull up a list, scan through it, and pick one. You can write 1K, and then when you get sick of it, you can pick a different idea and keep going. Spit out another 1K, switch ideas, do another...

I don't keep them logged in my head, I 100% forget all about them as soon as I switch to a different fic 💀 The only reason I get anything done is because Google Docs always suggests your most recent documents to you when you open it up in the morning. As soon as it stops suggesting a doc I basically forget about it forever. I definitely need the outlines to refresh my memory, and I've sometimes had to stop working on fics because I wrote my outline down in two different spots and can't find it or remember where I was going. Very bad memory for that stuff.

Hmm, as for conflating multiple WIPs, or ideas bleeding over, definitely yeah. Sometimes a seed will be planted in WIP 1, develop a little in WIP 2, get more interesting in WIP 3, and then become fully realized in WIP 4. To go back to the political prisoner fic, you've seen how that works. It's like:

What if this character was a political prisoner, and he got rescued, and then later he moved back to his hometown and met--

Oh shit BUT WHAT IF that traumatic incident I mentioned in Chapter 2 actually also involved Character B!

OOH and then what if Character A and B were both rescued by C--

Wait a second back to Idea 1, what if B and his wife were there at the end, and they--

OOH WAIT I really want to write that idea with the kid, back in his hometown, let me just--

Hey hang on a second I could totally finish Idea 1

And why have I never addressed A's abandonment issues? I'll mention that right now, in Fic #1, but I really need to add it to Idea #4 and write that as its own oneshot...

And for now, 6/7 are written, so that's not a bad record. I hope to do the last one soon. It was the same with Thrawn fics, you'd be halfway through a oneshot with a set plot when you suddenly think of a cool touch that you'd love to explore more, so you finish that fic and immediately start another one, where you go really in-depth. Or you think, "I would love it if this horrible whumpy trauma happened, but I really can't justify it with this plot. I should construct a whole DIFFERENT plot so I can write this scene!"

Hmm. I don't think I've actually done a 5 Times fic that started out as separate ficlets. I wish I did that more. It would work better. Usually, I come up with the 5 Times title and then wrack my brains trying to contrive six entirely different scenarios that are still interesting to read.

For the NightThrawn fics -- well, I got really into Thrawn/Pellaeon, but I didn't feel totally at ease with their voices and personalities. So I had a word generator spit out 30 prompts for me, and I wrote one quick and easy Thrawn/Pellaeon fic per day for a whole month. A little while later I realized how few NightThrawn fics there were, and it really upset me because NightThrawn was THE pairing for me after reading Thrawn 2017. I was totally flabbergasted that people shipped him with Eli! So I applied the same treatment, I grabbed a list of 15 random words and started writing. 15, not 30, because I had to prioritize a collab with NadiaYar. (Well, I mean, I love writing with Nadia. Any collab with her takes priority over whatever random time-waster I'm fiddling with for fun XD)

I think I originally posted them as separate ficlets -- then changed my mind and re-uploaded them as a single multichapter collection. And changed my mind again, and re-uploaded them all as separate ficlets XD Back then, too, I was always juggling WIPs. I remember the 30-day Prawn ficlets were coming out at the same time as Signal Lost // Contact Regained, so every day I was writing about 1K for Prawn and then racing to SLCR to complete my daily chapter and maintain my posting schedule. That got really frantic toward the end. I had a good head start but I ended up taking a month or two off SLCR entirely before I regained interest and wrote the ending.

OK I think that's all XD Thanks for asking, I'm really glad to see the Asker's Studio is back. It was a really bright moment for the Thrawn fandom imo and you made a lot of fic writers happy with questions like this. Your brand of insightful commentary and questioning isn't common in fandom these days -- and I'm sure it was NEVER "common", but even less so now, as fandom becomes more mainstream. So thanks again, and I can't wait to see who else you asked, and read their answers.

[sigyn-foxyposts]

Yes I am doing the 2nd generation of the norse gods, so their children or just the younger kiddos! Please I know these aren't all of them :')

And remember that to me, they're all around the same age and grew up together and the couples I've written up is what I personally see working out. Sorry Narfi 😭

Plus this is just for fun and I like to experiment!

Here's a small recap on who they are and how I kinda see them too! :))

🤍Roskva and Thjalfi:

Thjalfi and Roskva, were the children of peasant farmers. When Thor and Loki are invited to stay a night at their house and Thor shares with the family the meat of his goats, which he can resurrect provided that their bones are intact. Thjalfi sucks the marrow from a leg bone from one of the goats. When Thor finds out he becomes enraged. As a result, Thor maintains Thjalfi and Roskva as his servants. Later Thjalfi proves to be a scary good runner!

I personally think Thor after taking in the siblings treat them as equals and so does his family! They'd probably get along with Thor's children too, as I'd imagine they're around the same age. Thjalfi is a good brother to Roskva and is protective of her! Which Roskva appreciates and finds annoying. Thjalfi makes himself seem more braver than he truly is too. (Reference to when he got chased by she-wolves)

💙Magni, Modi and Thrud:

Magni, Modi and Thrud are the children of Thor, all sharing Thor's strong traits and some red hair! Modi and Thrud's mother is Sif while Magni's is the joy in Jarnsaxa! Thrud is a possible valkyrie, a female warrior as her name was mentioned in a list of the valkyries. Magni only at the age of three years old, was said to be the only Aesir god strong enough to lift the jotun Hrungnir's leg off of Thor. As a reward for his strength, Hrungnir's horse Gullfaxi is gifted to Magni by Thor.

I can imagine that the sibling dynamic is chaotic between these three. It consists of a lot of drama, all thanks to Modi! But let's not be too harsh on the guy, I'd imagine Modi is jealous of his brother and sister, especially Magni because he is "the favorite". Magni not wanting any trouble and being responsible tries to fix the conflicts his brothers sourness makes. And Thrud, Thrud was a wild child, she definitely had her fair share of fights. But in the end they all love each other as siblings!

💚Narfi and Vali:

Narfi and Vali are the sons of Loki and his wife Sigyn. They are minor deities, with nothing to their characters, but modern people say Narfi is the god of wrongdoings and Vali possibly the same, if not something else. The only story we have is of their fate, which is tragic! Narfi met a grisly end when the the gods as a punishment for lokis crimes, turned Vali into a wolf, who then tore Narfi apart. The now wolf Vali ran off to Jotunheim.

I've always imagined Vali being the one always in charge of what they would do. He would always be protective of Narfi and like Thrud a wild one! He loves causing mischief like his father but stops when things get too far. Narfi was always shy and hiding behind his brother, he barely spoke but that didn't mean he didn't want to join in on the fun!

💛Forseti:

Forseti is the son of Baldr and Nanna and he is the god of justice and reconciliation. It's stated that his is the best of courts and all those who come before him leave reconciled. This suggests that he is skilled in mediation and is in contrast to his fellow god Týr, who "is not called a reconciler of men.".

I'd imagine that forseti is that calm and collected kid, that is also very clever and smart! Basically the well behaved and perfect kid a parent could ask for. He most definitely sees Tyr as a role model and is better at helping out with conflicts between his friends. Sorry Magni we know you tried.

🤎Fjölnir:

Fjölnir is the son of Freyr and his wife Gerdr. Later in life he became a legendary king of Sweden and he was claimed as the progenitor of the Swedish Yngling dynasty, reigning from Gamla Uppsala. Fjölnir was said to have drowned in a vat of mead while visiting Peace-Fróði, a similarly-legendary king of Zealand, the Danish island. Fjölnir was then succeeded by his son Sveigdir.

I'd imagine that little Fjölnir over here was quite erogant, but never with bad intentions. He was geniuanly very kind and shares a common trait with Vali and Thrud, being a wild child! He was for sure a brave one of the group.

[punkslovepoints]

THE A IS FOR ALLY: A STRANGER THINGS FIC (STEDDIE) PT 2

After his friends come out one by one, Steve settles comfortably into his new role as an ally. He moves to the city with Robin, joins groups, attends protests, even takes a gender studies class. 

Then in 1991 Eddie comes crashing back into his life.

If you'd have asked seventeen year old Eddie Munson who he imagined he'd name as his best friend when he grew up, prissy Nancy Wheeler wouldn't have appeared on the longlist, let alone at the number one spot.

But living with her they had developed a friendship unlike any he had before.

It had taken a while. She wasn't the most forthcoming person, she was hard around the edges, something built up from years of grief, loss and having to be the smartest, most capable person in the room, but he kinda loved that about her. She suffered no fools. Yet she respected him, Eddie, who grew up feeling like an idiot, repeating senior year three times, Nancy Wheeler liked him for his intelligence, for his conversation.

They had started hanging out almost by necessity. Robin and Steve still committed to going on dates once a week, leaving the loft and heading off on adventures together. Sometimes it was as simple as a coffee, but often they'd come back covered in paint after attending a protest of some kind, or return with tales of how Robin had attempted and failed to steal a monkey from Indianapolis zoo, a story he never really got to the bottom of.

Their weekly adventures left Nancy and Eddie at a bit of a loss without their natural buffers. Nancy, being the more organized of the two had come to him with an offer. They'd try out their own dates. One to begin with to see what they actually had in common, beyond the obvious, then more in the future if the first one worked out.

They agreed to start small with a coffee date.

Nancy met him there from work, sat down opposite him, spine straight, hands clasped in front of her, her purse to her side. “I thought we could play twenty questions.”

Eddie laughed, "Jesus, Wheeler. Is this a date or an interview?"

She smiled a sly smile at him, "There's a difference?"

He laughed again. “So what are the rules of this date-slash-interview?”

“We ask twenty questions between us, ten each. You can’t ask what you’ve been asked and no follow-up questions.” She paused, then pointed at him, ”And we get increasingly personal the longer we go on.” Eddie grinned. This could be fun.

Nancy started. “What’s your favorite color?”

“Yellow?”

“Not black?”

“No. No follow-up questions. Favorite musician?”

“Blondie. What book have you read that stayed with you?”

“March 3rd 86 edition of Newsweek,” he joked. Nancy threw him a look. He put on a voice and quoted, “The Devil has come to America, ” then laughed, "I mean, obviously it's Lord of The Rings. Favorite contemporary musician”

“You.”

“Funny.”

“I dunno, Guns N Roses” Eddie raised an eyebrow and she shrugged. “What did you want to be when you grew up?”

“A firetruck.”

“Like a fireman?”

“No, just a firetruck. Spent weeks on end running around wailing at the top of my voice. No wonder my parents got rid of me.” Nancy winced, but no follow-ups.

“What did you want to be?”

“No repeats. You’re breaking the rules of the game already.”

“What can I tell you, I’m not a fan of authority. Answer the question.”

“A journalist. Unsurprisingly, I’m pretty single minded. Do you think your life would have been different if you'd graduated the first time round?"

"Yes. I'd never have met Chrissy."

"Shit."

"Yeah. What did you like the most about Barb?"

"That's a nice one.” Nancy took her time to answer. “She was always watching out for me even when I wasn't watching out for myself. Do you still dream about it"

"The Upside Down? Of course. Do you wish it had never happened?"

"Of course," she responded immediately and then thought for a little longer, "Some parts of it. Maybe not others."

"Which parts?"

"No follow up questions," she smirked. "Would you have done anything differently if you could do it again?"

"No. I don't think so. Running back to fend off the bats bought you more time. Sad I missed out on the finale though. Do you think your mum had an affair with Billy Hargrove?"

"Low blow, Munson. I know there were rumors. No, I don't think she did. I do think she wanted to. What happened with your parents?"

Eddie shrugged. "They didn't want me, Wayne did. How old were you when you lost your virginity?"

"Sixteen. Steve Harrington."

"Cute."

"Shut up. When did you realize you were gay?"

"Probably about fourteen, Magnum PI."

"Tom Sellek?"

"No follow up questions."

"That's not a question, I'm just surprised."

"What made you fall in love with Robin?"

"No one thing. She's just Robin."

"Cop out answer, but accepted."

"Next question. Tom Sellek?"

Eddie laughed, "It was the chest hair. I'm a sucker for overt masculinity. Question eighteen. When did you stop loving Steve?"

She smiled, "Romantically, probably a few months before we broke up my junior year. But I'll never stop loving him, not properly. We weren't right together, and what I have with Robin now is obviously so much better in every way. But he'll always be my first love. That means something."

Eddie smiled at her, stirred his coffee, "Your question now."

"When did you?"

"When did I what?" He knew what she was asking but he wanted to buy himself a bit of time.

"When did you stop loving Steve?"

“I thought repeating questions was against the rules.”

She smiled, “I think we've both broken that one."

He considered lying, considered asking surprised, asking what she meant. Despite how many questions he'd answered already, this one was different, this one wasn't in the past. Then he realized he'd left the silence to hang for too long. That was an answer in itself. He looked at her.

"Even now?" She asked. She didn't sound all that surprised.

He shrugged, "Even now."

"That sucks. I'm sorry."

Eddie laughed, "It's fine. It really is. You said, right. You're never going to really stop loving him? Maybe nobody does? Maybe once Steve Harrington finds his way under your skin he just stays there."

"Like a parasite."

"God, the hottest parasite I've ever seen." Nancy's laugh was a little snort. Cute. They watched each other for a beat.

"Final question. The most personal question in the world. What would win in a fight, a badger or a baboon."

Nancy laughed again. "Are we talking European badger or Honey Badger here?" She asked.

It was Eddie's turn to laugh this time. ”There’s a difference?”

They continued their dates. Any time Robin and Steve set off on their adventures, Nancy and Eddie would head for coffee, or something a little stronger. Their conversations would mostly revolve around asking each other increasingly perplexing questions about life, the universe and everything, but every once in a while, Nancy would ask about Steve. Check how Eddie was doing. He appreciated having somebody to talk to.

[READ THE REST OF THE CHAPTER ON A03]

Badges in the image credits:Buffalo State Activist Pin & Button Exhibit [c. 1970-2018] and The ArQuives Artifacts Collection

[clairefoyanttt]

Burnout is becoming a more commonly discussed issue thanks to the pandemic, the shift from remote to in person, etc.

Ten years I would've rolled my eyes at people who were "too lazy to work for their money."

A lot has changed in ten years.

I work for a wonderful company with 5 weeks of PTO, 10 paid holidays, and a hybrid schedule that only requires us in office 2-3 days a week. I have a boss who could give TED talks on leadership and makes even the most difficult conversations positive. Sound ideal? It is. And I'm burnt out anyway.

So, I've decided to blog it since I feel like we hear about it but rarely get to follow the recovery from start to finish.

Therefore, we'll consider this:

The Prologue

I got my first tax paying job at 14 in a local retail shop. As of today, I'm 31 and an Executive Assistant with a multinational corporation. I've done everything from nursing aide to soldier but being an EA fits me best. I love everything about it.

Through no fault of anyone's, however, in the 17 years I've been working, I've never worked the same job, in the same company/department, with the same boss for more than 12 months. That wouldn't be terrible, except my job is based on my department AND my boss, and at the end of every year since I started at my current job in 2019, I've either gotten a new boss or a new department every single December.

Anyone who has been working long enough will tell you this: the first three months, you'll feel like you're drowning, at six months you'll feel fairly confident in what your role is, and at a year you feel competent at your job. Now imagine hitting competency and having to throw it all away and learn an entirely new job every year.

However I've done it every year so I was kind of used to it. So what made this time different?

First, I had a kid. He's a full blown toddler now which means, if he's sent home, he asks for things, gets into things, is nearly impossible to contain, and also requires a LOT of energy to chase after even on days when he is in daycare. Result? My spoons are lower for work than they had been pre-motherhood.

Second, the boss I'd shared my longest EA partnership with gave notice without warning me. I knew he'd been interviewing internally but was blindsided to know he'd interviewed and accepted a position outside the company. It hurt. He was hands down the best boss I've ever had, so incredibly supportive of the new working mom struggle, so for him to leave with no warning was my breaking point.

Third, medical medical. I have been dealing with a new ADHD diagnosis, physical therapy, genetic testing, and a neverending string of colds and bugs from my child. My child has had ear infections, pink eye, the flu, a sleep regression, and more all in the last 8 weeks. My husband is physically disabled due to degenerative disk disease and abruptly got worse when his vertebrae started pinching a major nerve meaning his ability to help with the kid or around the house is limited, and is zero on bad back days.

Sooooo after thinking my ADHD was medication resistant, thinking I had pre menstrual dysphoric disorder, depression, GAD, etc. I took a self test for burnout. And another. And five more after that. Every single one had me at the deepest level of burnout.

What does that feel like?

For me, I felt my body inching towards an anxiety attack whenever I thought about work. I knew I had tasks to do but could not mentally get the energy to do it until someone needed it. I have tons of coping mechanisms for executive dysfunction thanks to having ADHD, the timer method is a favorite, but even that wasn't working. Even if I got started, it's like my mind would do whatever it could to distract me from working on the task I needed to do.

At night, I would struggle to sleep because I'd be berating myself for how little I accomplished during the day.

I started gratitude journaling, meditating, eating better, moving more, socializing more, all the things I know help with depression. And I saw improvements at home during my off hours but as soon as I logged into work, I was right back to the frozen dread.

It got to the point where I was trying to find other jobs but knew that it might ruin my career if I couldn't perform and this problem (which I didn't realize was burnout at the time) carried into my next job. I started budgeting and trying to see if I could be a stay at home mom, work part-time, anything.

Once I realized it was burnout, I had a flash of memory. A manager I'd known had had a bit of a breakdown at one point and gone on short-term disability to recover. I wondered if I would be eligible for a similar leave because I know I don't want to leave this company but clearly need to take a break to recover since I'm too far down the rabbit hole to fix it while working.

I spoke to my therapist about it, she was excited to see me dig deep to find the real issue, agreed it was burnout, and said she would help with whatever I needed to get the disability leave approved.

So, off we go into this recovery process which is equal parts relief and shame. Excitement and embarrassment.

I hope it works.

[likeatlas]

A Cristin Milioti likes "sick" things. At least, that's what Andy Samberg, his co-star in the 2020 time-loop romantic comedy Palm Springshe told New York Times. In that film, Milioti's character of a wedding guest, Sarah, dies over and over again, in a variety of grisly ways, but still wakes up at the dawn of each new day. In the award-winning 'USS Callister' episode of BlackMirror, her digital clone, Nanette, becomes trapped in a depraved virtual universe. And the new show of hers, The Resortfeatures her tourist character, Emma, ​​crippled by a missing persons case that features decapitated iguanas and a man whose memories are leaking from her ears and butt. "I'm drawn to things that are weird and spiky," says the 36-year-old actress. “I like things that tread a fine line. The whole catalog of the Coen brothers was very fundamental for me. His movies are so twisted. They make you laugh at things you're surprised you're laughing at. They are also very moving. And creepy. And they are beautiful. So I don't like things in perfect little packages. I like to get to the heart of the challenges of being a human being on the planet. Because why wouldn't I? Milioti speaks to me via video call from a hotel room in Los Angeles. It's morning there, and his hair is tied up in a casual ponytail, dark brown bangs set over pool-sized eyes. Her baggy blouse bears the image of a howling wolf and her knees, clad in dyed leggings, are drawn up toward her chin. She is in Los Angeles for the premiere of The Resort, but he feels much more at home in New York, where he has lived for 18 years. “The only time I liked staying in Los Angeles was during the lockdown,” she says. “I'm not doing very well here. She makes me feel alone. And I think he has his priorities reversed...sometimes the energy of this city seems very rooted in status and trophies. She makes me feel uncomfortable”. She wants to be a New Yorker for life. "Of course, I have no doubt," she says. "Life is long and crazy, but I'd be surprised if I didn't live there." New York, after all, has treated Milioti well. She's had a busy career on and off Broadway: She won a Grammy (and received a Tony nomination) for her lead role as a flower vendor who falls in love with a Dublin busker in the hit musical Eleven. That show was based on the film that was released in 2007, at a time when Milioti had just dropped his acting course at New York University to look for a job. She also starred in the Brooklyn-set satire stunningthe futuristic drama After the Blastand played Elly, an alien's personal assistant, in the musical Lazarus by David Bowie. It was first performed in late 2015, making Milioti one of the last people to work with the musician before his death from liver cancer in January 2016 (she had kept his illness a secret). for months). "Working with Bowie was as amazing as you can imagine," she says. “One of the most beautiful parts of that experience was that I got to sing 'Changes' at that show, which is one of my favorite Bowie songs, and it was crazy. It was amazing to sing that song for him and explore his brain and be a part of something that was quite meaningful to him at a time in his life that was... I don't know how to describe it. I can only imagine what he was going through at that time. He was very charming, kind and dedicated. It was a real honour." In 2013, while Eleven was enjoying his three years on Broadway, Milioti also appeared in such a little movie called The Wolf of Wall Street. She played Teresa Petrillo, the first wife (and voice of reason) of Leonardo DiCaprio's stockbroker Jordan Belfort. "I spent a lot of that experience terrified that I was going to give a shit," Milioti says, drinking, in his own words, "the smallest can of sparkling water you've ever seen" from the minibar. “I had never been on such a big movie set. It was a once in a lifetime experience. I wish I had taken it in more and let go more. But if it had completely assimilated, I would have passed out.

I don't even think my brain processed it." Before everything was ruined: Milioti and DiCaprio in 'The Wolf of Wall Street' (Appian Way/Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock) For much of the film, Teresa is the patient and supportive wife. She's the one who shows Jordan a newspaper ad looking for brokers, she's the one who encourages him to target rich investors instead of unsuspecting poor clients, and she's the one who stands by while he flirts outrageously. with Margot Robbie's Naomi Lapaglia at a Hamptons beach party. But later, when she finds out that Jordan is cheating on her with Naomi (she catches him snorting cocaine out of her breasts in a limo), she snaps at it. She hits Jordan several times, she asks if she loves his new lover. "That night was crazy," says Milioti. “We shot from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and we did that scene over and over and over again.” Did he ever accidentally punch DiCaprio in the face with his hand? “I did, plenty of times,” he says, eyes wide. “I just slapped him around for 12 hours. I always had a real attachment to that scene, because you can see that this character, who has swallowed a lot of his feelings, is finally letting go.” The scene was filmed outside of Trump Tower, and yes, he did show up. “Ugh,” Milioti sighs. "He came on set and he was a complete and utter buffoon, as we all know." She doesn't want to give him more attention than that. 2013 was a great year for Milioti. It was also the year that she joined the cast of the long-running sitcom How I met your mother, who can be seen in the UK on E4, as the famous mother, Tracy McConnell. Fans adored her but were outraged when, in the show's final episode, it turned out that the woman viewers had been waiting to meet for nine seasons had actually died six years earlier. “I had never seen the series before working there, which was a great blessing because she did not understand the pressure behind that revelation. She really had no idea,” says Milioti. "Ultimately, it was helpful for me not knowing how long people had waited to meet that character." She also didn't have any social media at the time, which she says was a relief. “She was isolated from that in a way. I know there was a very strong reaction, but I never looked into it." The unhappy couple: Milioti and Jackson Harper in 'The Resort' (peacock) his character in The Resort, Emma, ​​is a world away from the endlessly enthusiastic Tracy. Tracy is optimistic. She believes in soul mates. She is in a band called Superfreakonomics. Emma, ​​for her part, is a cynic. She is fed up, she is lost. She is a woman who, on the first night of her vacation in Cancun with her husband of 10 years, drinks prosecco alone in a Jacuzzi and writes “how do I know if I should end my relationship?” in Google. While her partner Ella Noah (William Jackson Harper) is happy to move on, she's looking for something more. So when she falls off an ATV in the jungle and finds the phone of a college student who disappeared 15 years ago, she becomes obsessed with the case, the only thing that makes her feel alive. Milioti thrives in this kind of role: fickle, neurotic, eccentric. What follows is a relationship drama with a thriller, a mystery, and a comedy. The two embark on tequila-fueled hunts for clues and form a pair of goofy but surprisingly successful detectives. The Resort reunites Milioti with the writer of Palm SpringsAndy Siara. Like that movie, it's about the construction of time. Emma has trouble living in the present and is obsessed with a historical cold case. "Someone once told me that a different term for nostalgia is the disease of time," says Milioti. “You feel like a real illness and pain of going back to a different time. That really resonated with me. Emma would rather be anywhere but where she was. She is so desperate to go back in time to where life was lighter, there were more open doors and more possibilities, and she was more like herself. That is why she becomes obsessed with the disappearance of these two young men.”

Milioti in 'How I Met Your Mother' (CBS) Milioti sees nostalgia everywhere in modern society. “Maybe because I'm getting older, he says, “but it seems like as a culture right now, we're very obsessed specifically with nostalgia. Especially in the entertainment industry, where you're doomed if you get old and people are obsessed with doing reboot of things It's like, 'What if we rebooted that thing we all loved when we were 12? Or when we were 20? Or when the world didn't feel as dark as it does now?' It's this thing of wanting to stop time, and wanting to travel through time, and wanting to go back to some earlier imagined self, or something. I think nostalgia can be very, very dangerous. And in fact, when I first started talking to Andy about this project, he always said that the show is about the toxicity of nostalgia." Milioti admits that she, like Emma, ​​is very worried about the passage of time. "When she was younger, time didn't go by fast enough," she says. “I was obsessing over things like, well, when will I be able to do this? when will I have my own apartment or, you know, insert anything here, in this blank? But now that I'm older, I feel like there's not enough time. The most valuable thing besides your health that you could have is time. And there is not enough." She stops being serious and laughs. “I spend a lot of energy thinking about what I want to do during my short time on this planet,” she says. "It's so finite." 'The Resort' is available from July 29 on Peacock exclusively on Sky and NOW, with new episodes being released weekly.

[teenwolfmarvel-obsessor]

Comfort in the One's You Love

OBX Masterlist | Full Masterlist

A/N: Not really happy about how I wrote this, but I liked the idea so I just thought I'd role with it. Definitely not my favorite one I've written, but what the hell? Enjoy! 😊

Summary: You and Rafe have been dating for about a year, but over the course of two months you've noticed that he's been acting distant and more closed off than usual. When visiting the Cameron's, you can't help notice certain things that seem off. Of course it's more worse than you could ever imagine. When your friends - and the whole island - catch wind about what happened, JJ's there to make everything better.

Notes:

Y/N/N: Your Nickname

Y/L/N: Your Last Name

Y/H/C: Your Hair Color

Warnings (let me know if I missed any):

Language

Underage Drinking

Sexual Innuendos

JJ Maybank x-reader

The crisp wind brushed against me as I rode my skateboard on the concrete sidewalk. Cars flew past me, the driver's occasionally waving to me or shooting me a tender smile. My boyfriend's house came into view once I had pulled to the front. Our one year anniversary was today. Rafe and I had talked about spending the whole day together.

We planned on watching our favorite movies, well mainly his, and visiting the restaurant we went to for our first date. The only thing that seemed to seep it's way into my mind was the way Rafe had been acting. He seemed more hostile and reserved then he was at the beginning of our relationship. I've learned not to ask questions when he didn't want to answer.

I had spent over two weeks saving up money to get Rafe an anniversary gift, an expensive watch to be exact; one that he had been looking at on Chapel Hill. Fingers crossed that it works. I hopped off my board and picked up the nose as I stepped foot onto the driveway. A sport cars sat on the driveway, a bright yellow Porsche.

"Since when did Rafe get a new car?" I thought, carrying my board. A thick grey stripe was on the hood of the neon yellow Porsche which extended from the top to the emblem at the front. I knocked on the front door and waited for Rafe to open it. My foot tapped on the porch as I reached for the red velvet box from my backpack.

The front door opened up, revealing a disheveled looking Rafe Cameron. I could hear voices in the background. "Hey, what're you doing here?" he questioned. "I uh, I wanted to give you, your-" I started, but was cut off by a girls voice from behind my boyfriend.

Rafe turned to her and told her to go back to the room. He looked back to me with my brows furrowed. "Who was that?" I asked, peering over his shoulder slightly. "Oh, the maid," he answered. I nodded in response, not wanting to get any more information. Rafe watched me as I glanced back at the parked car in the circled driveway. "When did you get a new car?" I asked. He followed my glance, catching sight of the yellow Porsche.

He scratched the back of his neck with a hand still holding the door knob. Rafe cleared his throat and turned behind him then looked back at me. "Oh, that's uh-that's Sarah's. Dad gave her it as an early birthday present," he answered. An awkward silence settled between the two of us, something that didn't usually happen.

"Isn't her birthday, like three months away," I said, laughing but earned a raise of a brow from Rafe.

"Hey, now's not really a good time. Why don't you come by tomorrow?" he said. I opened my mouth to speak, but yet nothing came out. My brows furrowed again, my heart clenching at the sound of his statement. "Okay. Yeah, I'll uh see you tomorrow," I replied.

Rafe gave me an unconvincing smile and closed the front door with the girls voice from earlier erupting. I could hear giggling from the other side of the door. Without hesitation, I grabbed my phone and dialed Sarah's number. "Hey, love," she greeted, using her nickname for me.

I smiled as my spirits rose slightly but dropped once I remembered what was happening. "Hey. I'm at your house, giving Rafe his anniversary gift," I answered. Sarah shushed the boys with the help of Kiara of course.

She brought her attention back to me, telling me to continue speaking. I let out a sigh and set my skateboard onto the concrete driveway. "Listen, has Rafe had anyone over since this morning?" I asked. It went quiet on the other end of the call with Sarah trying to figure out what to say next.

I stood on my board, preparing to ride away from the house once my friend replied. "I mean he had someone come over, but I left before I knew who it was," Sarah answered. I nodded as if she could see me respond. "Okay, thanks," I stated.

"Everything alright?" Sarah asked before I could hang up the phone. I quickly told her I was fine then ended the call. This wasn't the first time that Rafe had canceled our date.

Just last month Rafe had told me, he needed to cancel our movie date because something came up with his dad. Of course, I said it was alright; already knowing that if I asked anymore questions, Rafe would get all secretive and push me away just like he always did. I ignored my inner thoughts while I strolled towards the side of the house.

"Can't believe I'm about to do this," I muttered. My back pressed against the brick wall of the Cameron's household. I stopped walking, peering into the window beside me. There Rafe Cameron and the girl from earlier stood in the frame of his bedroom.

His hand rested on the side of her face, his free hand resting on her bare shoulder. My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. I quickly whipped my head back and bolted away from the brick wall, carefully that the two wouldn't see me.

The front door tore open with Rafe calling my name. He must've noticed me from the window. My so-called boyfriend roughly grabbed me by the shoulder and turned me around to look at him. A small tear slid down my tanned face I looked at him. "What the fuck, Rafe?" I said.

His hookup - or whatever - stood at the front door, leaning up against the frame with her arms crossed. Rafe ran a hand across his jaw as he looked at me. "Y/N/N, it was nothing, okay?" he said.

"Really? Rafe, she's wearing your clothes. There are literal hickeys on your neck, and I sure as hell know those aren't from me," I argued, "Your hair is all over the place. There's a brand new car in the driveway, which is not Sarah's might I add."

Rafe's jaw was clenched while he looked everywhere but me. I could sense he was searching his head to try and figure out some sort of explanation that would soothe the situation. A long awkward silent settled between my cheating boyfriend and I. "You could've just told me. We could've just settled this earlier," I spoke, breaking the pause.

He remained silent after my response. Rafe didn't try to stop me when I hopped on my board, heading straight home. I felt my throat grow sore as I tried to withhold my tears, not wanting to cry in front of people that passed me. I wasn't prepared to explain to some random person what just happened.

They were sure to figure it out soon enough. I already knew that I was going to be bombarded with questions once I got to the chateau. Rafe and I were supposed to visit The Shore for a late lunch, but of course that wasn't happening anymore. When I arrived home JJ was sitting on my front porch, flipping through his phone.

My best friend looked up from his cell phone, greeting me with a large grin. He got up from the rocking chair. "Hey, what're you doing here?" I asked, walking up the front steps. He leaned against the pillar and slipped his phone into the pocket of his swim shorts.

"Why didn't you just use the key I gave you?" I inquired, pulling my own keys out to unlock the front door. He chuckled and ran a hand down the back of his neck. "Forgot it at John B's," JJ answered. His smile got bigger when I softly chuckled, trying to do my best at convincing him that I was alright.

JJ Maybank always seemed to figure out what I was thinking. It was a blessing and a curse. Guess that's what happens when you've been friends since third grade. "You alright? You seem quiet," JJ mentioned as I opened the front door. I nodded in response and set my purse on the kitchen counter.

He didn't push even more, realizing that I didn't want to answer truthfully. JJ knew that I would open up when I was ready. "I'm gonna get changed then we can head to John B's," I stated, walking towards the steps. My childhood best friend sent me a wink and plopped on the living room couch.

I felt my cheeks rise to a light shade of pink at the sudden action. I ignored the feeling and stepped into my room to get changed. It had been - what felt like - a long day, and all I wanted to do was to change into some clothes and hangout with my friends. I found my favorite pair of jean shorts and a black tank top.

The charm bracelet Rafe had gifted me for my birthday stayed around my wrist. It didn't take long until I unclasped it, dropping it into the bottom drawer of the jewelry box. JJ was still sprawled out on the sofa when I walked out. "Ready to go?" I asked, taking my bag from the granite counter.

JJ jumped up from the patterned couch with two thumbs up. I laughed and followed him out to his truck. The two of us sat in comfortable silence, watching the houses and thick trees fly past the truck. JJ tapped his fingers on the steering wheel as his favorite song played on the radio.

He happened to glance down at my arm that rested on the seats rest. JJ furrowed his brows at the missing sight of the bracelet. "You aren't wearing Rafe's gift," he commented. I hummed in response and looked up at him. JJ motioned towards my arm once he was stopped at a red light.

"Oh! It broke while I was at work," I answered, "I'll get it fixed."

All JJ did was nod in response. I just hope he didn't ask any further questions. However, I should know by now that JJ doesn't take no for an answer. "Thought you were gonna go to that Kooklandia restaurant," he thought, glancing at me then to the road ahead of us.

I shrugged and looked out of the window to find a family of three playing in the front yard of their unique house. JJ sighed and ran a hand through his messy blonde hair. "Rafe was preoccupied with something, so we had to cancel the reservations," I answered.

"On your anniversary?" JJ said.

"On our anniversary," I repeated, nodding along. He scoffed and shook his head. JJ's hair tossed slightly when he shook his head. JJ pulled the truck down John B's street, meaning we had exactly four minutes until the others would ask me more questions. "You'd tell me if something was going on, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, of course," I replied. JJ smiled and pulled into the pebbled driveway of the chateau. Pope and John B stood across from one another, passing a football back and forth while Kiara and Sarah sat on the hammock with drinks in their hands.

My four friends looked away from what they were doing and smiled when JJ and I arrived. I opened the passenger door with JJ following pursuit. Sarah and Kiara moved over so I could sit in the middle of the two of them. "I'll go get you a drink," John B said, giving me a fist bump.

Pope picked up the football and went to help JJ grab some stuff from the truck. "Hey, did Rafe tell you whose Porsche that was?" Sarah asked, taking the last sip of her drink. I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded my head. "Whose was it?" Kiara inquired, sitting back so she could face me.

I looked up from the ground and huffed, despite my lip beginning to quiver. Pope and JJ each grabbed a bag of groceries and walked into the chateau which left the two girls and I outside. "Um, Rafe and I broke up," I shakily spoke. Both of them sat up straight and looked at me with raised brows.

"That Porsche belonged to some random girl. It looked like he had been cheating on me for awhile," I continued speaking. Sarah threw her arm around my shoulders and brought me to her side. Kiara rubbed my back in a soothing motion. Sarah waved her hand when John B stepped out of the screened in porch with my drink.

It felt like forever until I pulled away from Sarah with my cheeks puffy from tears. Kiara set her drink as well as Sarah's onto the ground below the hammock. "Something tells me I should've seen it coming," I added, earning a kind smile from the two of them.

Kiara set a sisterly kiss on my forehead. Sarah fixed the strap of my shirt that had dropped from my shoulder. "Don't say that. Sure Rafe's an asshole, but - Y/N you always see the best in people. Rafe just isn't someone who is good?" Sarah said, trying her best to make me feel better.

"Thanks?" I spoke. Kiara chuckled and swung her legs over the hammock. She stood up and knelt in front of me, taking my hands into hers. "What Sarah's trying to say, is you shouldn't blame yourself for something that you can't control, alright? This isn't your fault, got that?" Kiara said, "Rafe is stupid to pass a chance on the Y/N train."

Her smile got bigger when I laughed at her cheesy statement. Sarah tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, setting a hand on my lower back. "Now, John B's throwing a kegger tonight, and I don't know about you, but I could really use a drink," Kiara said, bringing me up from the hammock.

_______

(Time Skip: Four hours later - Third Person View)

The sun had set and the moon hung loose in the dark sky. Teenagers spread across the boneyard, dancing with their friends or their significant others. Y/N felt so much better then she did about four hours ago. She wasn't sure if it was the alcohol, but she wasn't complaining.

Her arms swayed above her head to the music coming from some Tourons speaker. Sarah and Kiara had stayed by her side the whole night, keeping a close eye on their friend just incase something bad were to happen. Luckily, neither of them had caught sight of Rafe and his posse. JJ, Pope and John B stood near a small bonfire, teasing the Kooks and Tourons that passed by.

As usual, JJ's attention was always on the new Tourons that were attending the keggers; but now since JJ had heard that Y/N and Rafe had broken up, his attention was only on the Y/H/C haired girl. "Dude, you awake over there?" John B asked, nudging his best friend's shoulder. JJ stumbled a bit and looked at JB with raised brows.

"You've been staring at Y/N like she's going to poof out of existence," John B said.

JJ rolled his eyes and glanced back at the girl to find her stumbling over to the keg. He cursed underneath his breath, telling the two boys that he'd be right back. JJ grabbed Y/N's cup before she could get more. "Yo, pretty boy!" she exclaimed, "Give it!" JJ set the red Solo cup onto the ground and held Y/N up straight.

"Oh! JJ! How you doin'?" Y/N slurred, smiling.

"I think you're done for the night," JJ said, ignoring her drunk glare. He motioned to his friends that he was taking Y/N back to the chateau. He wrapped an arm around her to help her walk, but she still managed to stumble over pebbles.

Within about ten minutes, JJ had successfully gotten to the chateau. He withheld his laugh as Y/N began humming the tune to her favorite song. JJ's grip on her tightened as he pushed open the side door of the chateau. Y/N felt a gurgling sensation at the bottom of my stomach.

JJ Maybank didn't hesitate to lead his best friend over to the bathroom. JJ let go of Y/N just as she leaned over the toilet, practically puking her guts out. JJ rushed over to her to hold her hair back. Y/N coughed and laughed, pressing her back against the coolness of the bathtub. “Never, ever let me drink again,” Y/N muttered.

Her best friend couldn't help but snicker in response to Y/N's statement. JJ reached over and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, making sure it wouldn't fly in her face. She girl covered her mouth and hovered over the toilet once more.

“Damn, thought you liked me Y/L/N,” JJ said, laughing.

Y/N responded with a flip of her finger, giving her best friend the bird. She leaned back with her arms resting on her bare knees. The two of them fell into a comfortable silence. Y/N glanced down at her wrist, her mind wandering over to the missing charm bracelet.

The corners of her mouth lowered into a frown. Her finger ran down the side of her wrist where the bracelet once was. Y/N felt a single tear slide down her face. "R-Rafe and I broke up," she mumbled - stuttering - but JJ could still hear. He sighed and moved forward to join Y/N's side. He looked at her with a sympathetic smile.

"I'm not asking for pity. I'm just stating the fact that it-it actually happened," Y/N spoke, voice cracking slightly. JJ took her hand into his and lightly kissed the top, making sure he didn't make her uncomfortable. Y/N swallowed the lump in her throat and wiped her tears away. "Is there anything I can-" JJ started.

"Just be here for me, please," Y/N interrupted. He nodded and lightly kissed the top of her head, putting an arm around her shoulders as he continued to hold her hand. The two sat on the cold tiled flooring in each other's arms until Y/N was ready to stand up and go to bed.

Taglist: @kasidy709 @soflties @elliecool123 @ramaalkayyali

[levis-little-nuggie]

hi! i just saw the post about requests and could you write some fluffy sex headcanons with the brothers? we don't really see stuff like that so i thought i'd ask

Bless you nonny for the request 💜💜 this uh, turned out a lot longer than I had anticipated, probably because I haven't written anything in a good while 😅

Asmo and Belphie will have their own posts 💜

Nsft, obviously, so everything is under the Read More. I made the reader as gender neutral and inclusive as I could. Please let me know if at any point, I was exclusive.

Fluffy Sex Headcanons of the Demon Brothers

(minus Asmo and Belphie)

Lucifer

This man will top or bottom solely dependent upon what you want. Sex with him is moreso about pleasing his partner than just getting off. His preferences are fine tuned to your desires and your body’s limits. Lucifer’s sin feeds off of the immense pride a lover feels when they know you and your body better than you do

He may act cold and aloof in public and in front of others, coming off as stoic and arrogant, but it’s a completely different story behind closed doors.

However you want him, he’ll comply. You’ve done the impossible and captured his heart.  Don’t let this old man and his brown shoes fool you, he’ll drown you in passion.

He’ll gladly play the Dom role, but he’ll also gladly be your sub as well.

If you’re into BDSM and prefer him to Dom, you can expect an intensive aftercare routine that would rival Asmo’s. It’s not that he doesn’t like hurting you or pushing you to your limits, he just wants to reward you for being so good for him and wants to remind you how much he loves you.

If you’re into BDSM and prefer to Dom yourself, go crazy! While you would be capable of marking and bruising his skin, you can’t physically hurt or break him beyond light scratches. He can break out of whatever restraints you put him, even if they are demon-grade. You would need actual spells to diminish his strength to put him on par with a lower-class demon if you wanted him to actually feel any real pain, but if it’s what you want, he’ll do it. Expect a conversation beforehand about what you want and how he can do that for you. He wants there to be clear communication so he knows how best to serve you in the moments to come.

Sure the sex is fantastic, but he’ll show you how much he loves you in the tender moments after. The afterglow is his favorite part, both of you basking in the remnants of pleasure coursing through you, the physical numbness, and the swell of feel-good chemicals swirling through your bodies. This is when he’ll hold you closest, pepper your skin with kisses unable to stop himself, he’ll play with your hair if you have it, his eyes will be bright, his smile will be unrestrained. He may even start humming a long-forgotten lullaby or your favorite song as he rests his head against your chest, hearing your heartbeat in blissful content until one of you decides it’s time to get cleaned up.

No matter how long the day has been, the amount of hours he’s put into all that damn paperwork, he’ll always make time to pamper you after sex. If you prefer to shower alone, he’ll let you go first and have the bed ready with new, clean sheets and clean towels set out for you when you’re done. Prefer to sleep with pajamas? He has a drawer dedicated to your favorite things along with some new ones he bought for you.

Mammon

Ah yes, the tsundere. The dumbass in the streets, dumbass in the sheets. The one who has more hair-brained ideas than he does fingers and toes in one week. One of the greatest banes of Lucifer’s existence.

His push and pull personality might have you questioning the validity of his feelings, but I believe that Mammon wouldn’t be partaking in fluffy sex at all unless he was absolutely smitten.

With how his brothers treat him, he’s reluctant to open his heart to you and fully accept that at some point, you won’t start insulting him either. However, equipped with the sin of greed, Mammon’s completely helpless when you compliment and reassure him. 

His standoffish attitude is a front, a feeble attempt to keep up his reputation as “The Great Mammon,” but he’s got himself wrapped around your finger before he even realizes it and that facade would melt away instantly at your smallest of smiles, a kiss on his cheek or back of his hand, a surprise compliment, anything that makes his heart skip a beat. 

Of the brothers, he has one of the weakest composers around you mainly because he’s also one of the horniest. 

Sex with Mammon can be rushed;  a quickie between classes, a broken composure that has him feeling dehydrated for you, a clash of tongues and teech and a burning desire that encompasses both of you until you find release.

However, the sweetest and fluffiest sex with Mammon would be when either of you are feeling emotionally vulnerable. 

He’ll treat you like you’re the greatest treasure to have ever existed in all three realms, with a delicacy as if you’re fragile because he knows he can be careless and reckless. He’ll be in his head a lot making sure he’s taking care of you, that you feel good, doing his damndest to keep you satisfied so there’s no room in your heart to doubt him. He’ll do whatever it takes to keep that sparkle in your eye when you look at him, to never lose you and never have to experience the day you realize his brothers have been right all along. 

And I mean he’ll do whatever and however. Any wish is his command, but you’ll have more work cut out for you if you suggest the both of you participating in a threesome or more. He wants you all to himself, it’s his greed, but it’s your reassurance and validation that will have him like putty in your hand. 

He’s more than okay with both of you falling asleep in your mess, but more often than not, he’ll wait until you’ve dozed off to clean up. In these moments, he takes the time to worship every inch of your skin, like polishing a priceless jewel. His intentions are pure, most of the time, he just likes to wait till you’re asleep so there’s no chance for you to tease him about it. It also allows his greed to soak up your peaceful expression, the way your body reaches out to him after he’s finished cleaning and comes back to curl up next to you. 

There’s a secret photo album hidden on his phone filled with pictures of the both of you like this, your lashes against your cheeks, your freckles or sun spots, any blemishes or scars that he’s covered in kisses countless of times, your hand in his and vice versa, memories of how sweet and tender your love is, filled with emotions he struggles to put into words. 

Leviathan

It all depends how you play your cards with this one. Teasing him is easy and it’ll get him all flustered, but pair that with his raging horniness and you’ll be walking a fine line between a Dom or sub Levi.

However, if it’s fluffy and sweet sex you want, treat him gently and he’ll return the favor. It’ll take a bit of time and effort to get here, on both your parts, but if you’re willing to put in the work, he’ll make it worth it. Like Mammon, this means sex will be its fluffiest when either both of you or one of you is emotionally vulnerable.

We’ve recently been blessed by the devs on a cannon description of his tail, confirming that it is snake-like with scales. This also means, however, that his tail is sensitive to touch and he has full control of its movements. During a more sweet intimacy, he likes to wrap his tail around a limb, your arm or your leg. It’s only when he’s in Dom or sub mode that he likes to use his tail in a more active manner.

It’s important for him, whether he realizes it or not, that during these moments, that he’s the one touching you, not his tail. If you ask him to use his tail too much during sex, he’ll start to think that you’re only with him because of his tail.

He’ll want to see you even though his room is dimly lit. He also knows his tub bed might not be the most comfortable so he’ll invest in a mattress to put on the floor by the tank, and a few fluffy blankets, from the Ruri-chan line of course, to keep you warm and comfortable so you’ll never want to leave his room, just like him.

He prefers any position that has the two of you lying together, with your face in clear view because he can’t get enough of the faces you make because of the pleasure he’s responsible for making you feel. He’ll be more focused on your voice, your body language, your reactions to reassure him he’s doing something right.

To see your naked skin kissed with the reflection of the water from the tank is his favorite part. He actually got a nosebleed the first time he saw you like that. 

Sex with the otaku is a learning experience that requires patience and repetitive reassurance. He’s certain that no one could ever love him, and it’s going to cost a lot of mental energy, and it can be disheartening at times where it seems he’s not made any progress in loving himself at all, but you’ll both also have an opportunity to create something truly beautiful between the two of you. Falling in love with your best friend, and having your feelings returned with all their heart is one of the most beautiful things to ever experience.

Satan

I like to imagine that Satan is akin to that tiger DILF in Zootopia looking at his tablet while on the train, you know, the one who looks like he’ll take good care of you? Listen, during one of his Devilgram stories, the man pitches a tent (like an actual tent, not a boner you guys) and makes both of you cups of hot chocolate. You can pry this hc out of my cold, dead hands.

Sex with Satan is actually more often fluffy and sweet than anyone would assume because he’s the Avatar of Wrath. Just like all the other brothers, Satan is more than his sin. That being said, Satan is still CEO of Angry Sex™ but he’s also more intune to his own feelings than the rest of his brothers. 

It’s after his more violent fits of rage that he’s seeking your comfort. It’s difficult for him to come down from his wrath; the worse the fit is, the more broken and twisted he feels. He didn’t like coming to you at first because he knows how mentally draining it can be for a human to deal with someone like that, but you’ve insisted in your endearing and stubborn way that he can and needs to rely on you more. You threatened to find all the sources proving your point for the success of any relationship and he eventually gave in, accepting your kindness and your love.

In turn, he provides you with an arsenal of reading material and spells you can arm yourself with for a plethora of reasons; mainly self-defense against demons, a history of successful and failed attempts to prank Lucifer, as well as guides for subjects in class to help you study.

Unlike his previous brothers, sex with Satan is more about the pleasure you both feel. Of course he’ll still be mindful of your pleasure, but he can also get lost in his own desire. No matter how far gone he is, you know that the moment you utter the safeword, he’ll stop immediately and assess the situation. The safeword is actually a simple spell that he’d found when you two started getting more intimate.

On days he’s feeling extra playful, he’ll dress up for you; a collar with a bell, cat ears, a butt plug with a tail attached. He loves to be your little kitty cat, and will practically foam at the mouth if you ever dressed up like a slutty cat for him, but this doesn’t lead to fluffy smut times.

While he has no issues with PDA, Satan reserves his more soft and fluffy side for when you two are totally alone. He’s proactive in looking up cute date ideas and is the type to go all out turning his bed or his floor into a nest of pillows and blankets, cups of tea, hot chocolate, coffee, whatever you prefer, a variety of little snacks, and turn his wall into a projection screen to watch old-fashioned black and white romance movies. 

For Satan, it’s the moments leading up to the sweet intimacy filled with love and adoration that are his favorites. Being the reason your face brightens, tears of happiness well in the corner of your eyes, the way your smile makes his heart stutters, Satan loves showing you how much you mean to him mainly because he knows he’s not the best with words. He could recite any poem of strings of song lyrics, but he believes actions speak louder than words.

He actually prefers for you to have control in these moments; there’s less of a chance he could hurt you and it’s another way to prove his love. He’ll only ever bottom for you. He was reluctant at first, but it’s like you opened his eyes to a whole new world he didn’t know about. He still likes to act like he's a cat and you're his mouse, but he also likes it when you take over and make him bow to your whim. You've gained his trust as well as his heart and he believes that the power dynamic in a relationship should be balanced.

During the most intimate moments, either right after sex or waking up together in the morning after sleeping in, you'll both enter this Cat Speak mode. One of you will start, just a cute little "mrow?" and you'll go back and forth entertaining a semblance of a conversation but without saying anything. There's no actual conversation happening, it's just the two of you making cat noises at each other, giggling and riding the high of this special intimacy specially reserved for these moments of bliss.

Beel

Let’s be honest, 9 times out of 10 your sex with the sixth-born will be fluffy and sweet. He’s like the personified version of a golden retriever. He loves you and has the instinct to want to take care of you. You’re such a small, delicate human, and his brothers love you too so when you’re in Beel’s care, he makes sure you’re satisfied more than just sexually. 

Anything you’re willing to give him, he’ll accept wholeheartedly expressing his love and gratitude in the form of huge grins, hugs, a hearty chuckle, and peppering kisses across your face. 

Even though he’s not as sexually active as some of his brothers, once you get this big guy started, be prepared to cancel any plans you have for the rest of the day… and also the day after just to be safe. He has the most energy and will keep going until he’s had you against every solid surface in his room, minus Belphie’s furniture of course. Regardless of your size or how you look, he’ll make you feel weightless as he carries you around the room effortlessly

He loves the way you taste, gliding his tongue over your skin like you’re an ice-cream cone that never melts, he’s actually growled a number of times when you tried pulling yourself away from him. His eyes had turned shades darker than normal before you snapped him out of it. He would apologize profusely and kill the mood so as to make sure he’s in the right headspace and you’re okay. 

This has only happened a few times, but he still loves to taste every inch of you whenever he has you all to himself. He leaves you covered in hickeys and love bites and even though he’ll apologize, you know he feels absolutely no shame in his brother’s reactions to seeing you covered the next day. 

His favorite part is helping you ride out your orgasm with his mouth. He knows he’s more skilled with his mouth anyway and just, the man cannot get enough of you or your taste. Depending on where he’s at when you orgasm, if he’s close, he’ll paint your skin in his release, and then clean up the mess and drag you in for snuggles. If he’s not quite there yet, he’ll assess your energy levels and wait until you’re ready to go again or keep going, depending on who topped or bottomed. He’s all about consent and wants to join you when you’re fully blissed out regardless if he’s finished or not (meaning he’ll deny his own release in order to lie with you).

Aftercare comes almost second nature to him. He’s already carrying you to the bathroom and soaking you off in the shower before you realize it. The warm water and his large hands invade your senses and he urges you to let go, to let him take care of you and it’s like a dream. His calloused hands offer a sort of comforting roughness that keeps you grounded. If you want shower sex, you’ll have to initiate it.

Actually, that’s pretty accurate for Beel. You want sex? You’re either going to have to initiate it or tell him straight out. Poor guy does not take hints well as he is very oblivious.

[eagles-translated]

Analyzing the writing of Eagles

Here's a post I've been wanting to make for a while! I've expressed my thoughts on some of the storylines in previous posts, but I've never done a complete post on the writing of the whole show. I've divided this post into separate parts, focusing on each season and its plot points. Keep reading to see my analysis of the writing in Eagles! 👇 Word Count: 18k

If you've stumbled upon this post from the Young Royals or the Beartown tag (tagged them since I've drawn some parallels from those shows), here's a brief summary of what Eagles is, which you can watch with English subtitles here. This post contains Eagles spoilers from 1x01 - 3x10.

Eagles is a Swedish TV show that revolves around a few teenagers living in the Swedish ice hockey town Oskarshamn while experiencing friendship, love, and rivalry on the ice.

To start this off I would like to say that I have no experience with professional screenwriting and if anything, this is just a way for me to procrastinate on actually writing my own projects.

I love experiencing new stories and when I discover one I really like it's just natural for me to branch off with "what ifs" and to start wondering how the story would've turned out if some things were changed. Sometimes it's with a storyline improvement in mind, and other times it's just out of plain curiosity.

You might feel like this post is leaning towards the critical side, and I can definitely understand why since there are a lot of small details that I've picked apart from all seasons. I added a section for each season with things that I thought were really well done so this post wouldn't be too negative.

I actually did enjoy all seasons and I feel like the quality of not just the writing but every single thing has steadily increased each year.

Season 1: Tropes and clichés

Eagles premiered its first season in 2019 and was, despite many negative reviews, a big success among its target audience. Every episode on SVT Play amassed around 700 000–800 000 views and there didn't seem to be any doubt that the show would get renewed.

What the critics had issues with were that "Eagles rarely takes the unexpected path, and feels like a slightly soulless product of studied target group thinking a little too often," (Karolina Fjellborg in Aftonbladet) and "In Eagles, the characters seem to be locked in the role of a "teenager" but the humanity is missing. They've simplified the construction of the character," (Django Lorentzson in MovieZine).

Eagles was unfortunate enough to constantly be compared to SKAM in its infancy, and that's a tough comparison to live up to. SVT sort of shot themselves in the foot as they were the ones who contributed to it. While the show was still in the casting process, SVT wrote an article hyping the show up as a Swedish SKAM (which has since been edited, but led many to falsely believe that it would involve all the familiar SKAM characters with some hockey elements sprinkled in).

So, why exactly did critics think the first three episodes of the show were predictable and soulless? Well, it's pretty simple. They'd seen it all before. The setting, the characters, the storylines—just in different TV shows and movies.

Season 1 for me is nostalgic and very enjoyable despite its clichéd nature. I also felt like I'd seen the show before due to its generic storylines, but there is a reason why tropes are tropes and why clichés are clichés. It's because they're tried and true, and actually somewhat good writing tools as long as you expand on them. The keyword here is to expand—a story doesn't magically become good simply because you mimic something another writer has done. Tropes are fine to use but you can't just apply them and stop there. Everything in a story needs to be developed in order to be good.

It's safe to say that it's pretty much impossible to write a story without any tropes that have been used before. Striving to avoid clichés at all costs in hopes of making your story as original as possible is harder than it sounds, and almost impossible to boot. Here's a great piece of advice for aspiring writers written by a user on Carvezine:

[...] if you look down at your story and are worried it’s already been told before – don’t spend another second thinking about it. It has. A million times. The only difference is that it hasn’t been told by you. Accept that regurgitation is part of writing, and just do your best not to regurgitate the same way as the guy next to you. We’d all do well to acknowledge there is at least a portion of our stories that are really someone else’s. [...] Beyond that, write with the motivation that if you don’t get around to telling your story, eventually somebody else will.

Even the greatest books have storylines with some clichés. And that's not really a bad thing, either. Think about it. How many times have you decided to binge a TV show solely because it reminded you of another series? Or picked up a book simply because you love a good enemies to lovers romance, a battle between good and evil fantasy, or whatever it might be?

I found this article from Masterclass that perfectly describes what tropes are and why they're used. It's written from the perspective of novel writing but it is still applicable.

A trope in literary terms is a plot device or character attribute that is used so commonly in the genre that it’s seen as commonplace or conventional. For example, a trope in superhero stories is a villain who wants to take over the world. Tropes are popular for a reason—if something has been written about over and over again, there’s a good chance that it’s something readers enjoy reading! Tropes can be helpful, but a novel made up only of tropes will quickly start to feel stale and predictable to readers. That’s why you need to read up on tropes—and then innovate. Deliberately taking a favorite trope and turning it on its head is a great way to put your own unique spin on the genre and keep your readers interested.

Eagles, in its first season, didn't really do a lot of expanding upon the tropes they used and it's understandable that they were still trying to find their footing. I can also imagine it's difficult to do so when you only have eight 20 minute episodes in the season.

However... There definitely should've been more work put into these characters to make them their own. It's tricky, yes, but still achievable if you don't abandon them in their cookie-cutter form and try to actually decorate them with something unique and fresh.

So, how did they write their characters?

Felicia's character and backstory

To start off, Felicia is a famous influencer known for starring in a reality show next to her former NHL professional father. There's already a clear disconnect because it's hard to relate to a character with such a public past and large following. But it is 100% possible if you let the viewer know the character has humane qualities just like the person watching the show.

Look at Wilhelm from Netflix's Young Royals, another Swedish TV show. Wilhelm is the prince of Sweden, set to attend a prestigious elite boarding school, and is the heir to the throne. That doesn't exactly sound like a relatable scenario, does it? And yet the writers make it work because when we're introduced to Wilhelm we realize he's just like everybody else. He wants a normal life, he latches on to his older brother for support, he has anxiety, and he struggles between following his heart versus doing what his family is expecting him to do. A lot of these factors are relatable among the audience.

So, let's look at Felicia Kroon. She is in many ways portrayed as the main character of the show. Eagles starts off with her family having moved to Oskarshamn and the following episodes focus on her developing relationship with Ludde as well as her traumatic past. There's almost too much focus on Felicia here, and I'll get back to that.

Comparing Felicia to Wilhelm from Young Royals, they're both well-known teenagers with famous parents. Of course they have different circumstances considering Felicia is Instagram popular and Wilhelm is a blood royal, but in the grand scheme of things they're similar. Felicia is even referred to as a "Kroon princess" because of her last name Kroon bearing a resemblance to the Swedish word kronprinsessa, meaning crown princess.

The students of their respective schools treat their attendance as a big deal when they first arrive and then Wilhelm and Felicia start spending time with the "popular" crowd despite not really fitting in there.

I personally found it easy to relate to Wilhelm but difficult to relate to Felicia. Some people may feel differently, but her character is basically a popular party girl who attracts the attention of one of the school's star players and is "welcomed" by the popular crowd on her first day of school. I put welcome in quotation marks because Klara, the leader of the girl group, isn't exactly the most welcoming person but she does welcome Felicia to the school. My point is, Felicia doesn't have a lot of relatable traits in the first episodes.

Felicia then goes on a date with the guy she's met, Ludde. Okay, so there haven't been that many layers to her character yet. We're at the third episode and so far she's been kind of flat.

Near the end of the third episode, we get some depth to the character and we hear her back story.

Felicia: [...] We don’t have a good relationship, my dad and I. And that’s probably why we moved from the beginning, because he’s an idiot. We’ve never been close, but… Elias and he have been since they’ve had hockey. [...] And mom has been really involved, so… And I… They’ve never really cared about me. And… And I haven’t really been a problem either. I’ve had good grades, good friends, and… I don’t know why I’m telling you this. I don’t talk about it to people. [...] I just felt so fucking lonely and invisible. I was worried all the time, couldn’t sleep, panicked because I couldn’t sleep… So I started going out more. It went overboard. It started affecting school, my grades slipped… I started taking things to be able to concentrate. Everybody does stuff like that. And then I still couldn’t sleep, so… I started mixing with sleeping pills. And there’s always wine and booze at our place. I don’t want this to come out, that’s really important. Ludde: Of course, I’d never tell. Felicia: One night, something happened that made me… Act out of control more than usual. I woke up the next morning in the hospital. So they sent me to rehab. It was really rough for mom and dad that I was suddenly in focus. When I woke up, dad wasn’t even there. Ludde: What made you take too much that night? Felicia: I’d forgotten my phone at home, so I ran up and got it while my friends were waiting in an Uber. Then I came into the hall and I heard noises. You know, like, when somebody is doing it. Ludde: Okay. Felicia: And I thought it was really weird because mom wasn’t home. So I went into the living room… Dad was fucking my mom’s best friend. On the rug below the couch.

This gives Felicia more layers and does separate her from every other "popular pretty party girl" trope that you see on TV. But this is a huge info dump, and that's a problem. I would've liked to see this happen on-screen instead of only being told what went down. The golden rule of Show don't tell, as people like to say.

Show, don’t tell is a writing technique in which story and characters are related through sensory details and actions rather than exposition. It fosters a style of writing that’s more immersive for the reader, allowing them to “be in the room” with the characters. In his most commonly repeated quote, Chekhov said, “Don’t tell me the moon is shining. Show me the glint of light on broken glass."

This back story could've been more impactful that way if, perhaps, the show began with Felicia in a hospital bed with a strong headache and hazy flashbacks of that night where she saw her dad sleeping with another woman. Then we're introduced to her mother and brother sitting next to the hospital bed tired and worried, and Felicia notices her dad isn't present. They tell her Felicia is being sent to rehab and then there's a time-jump before we see the Kroon family having moved to Oskarshamn.

That's just an idea I threw together at the top of my head, but you get my point. It would've been more interesting if we knew from the beginning that Felicia had a traumatic past like this, leading the viewer to want to know more about what actually happened.

We did get a brief flashback at the very beginning of the show—we see Felicia partying with her friends and taking some pill before lying unconscious on the ground. There's also a glimpse of Ludde's car accident with Andreas yelling at him to get out of there.

That segment only lasts for around 45 seconds and it's easily forgettable upon your first viewing of the show. It's also hard to even recognize Felicia in the dark nightclub setting with the flashing lights. Some dialogue in that short scene could've made it more memorable, because I found that when I first watched season 1 I remembered Andreas yelling at Ludde despite that being drowned out by the music.

Ludde's backstory was way more well-done, in my opinion. We see him having crashed the car and bleeding from his head. He looks terrified and almost frozen by fear, needing to be pulled out of the car by a panicked Andreas yelling at him to bring Ludde back to the reality of the situation. We see Andreas yelling and pointing, telling Ludde he needs to run now. It's more powerful when we get to see it.

And in episode 8, when we learn the truth of what happened, it's not a long and dragged-out monologue. It fits into what's going on in the story. Felicia and Ludde have known each other for a few months now and are much closer than they were on their first date. They've had disagreements and fights, but at this moment they're in a good place.

And it feels like the right moment for Ludde to come clean about what happened to him.

Ludde: Hey… There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you. Felicia: What? Ludde: About… My brother. It’s not really as everybody thinks. Felicia: What do you mean? Ludde: That night when he crashed… It wasn’t Andreas who drove the car. We were on our way home from one of his buddies. We’d had some fun drinking. And then… I’d just started learning how to drive. So I nagged and nagged at him. Felicia: So you were the one driving? But he’s an adult- Ludde: He was drunk as hell. He was going to leave the car, but I thought it was so cold and it was only three blocks away so I thought that I could drive. Felicia: And what happened? Ludde: It was slippery and really dark… And a car came. I hit the brakes in time, but it… Yeah. Right after he pushed me out of the car and yelled that I should run home straight away. He really didn’t want me to get into trouble. So, yeah… It was fucking bad luck. I want to just gather everybody and scream that it was me. Felicia: Hey… I love you. Ludde: I love you too. I love you so fucking much.

As Ludde is telling Felicia what happened as the other car came, we see a silent flashback of it along with Ludde's voice narrating. We see Andreas pulling him out of the car and yelling. Cutting to this scene that we've already seen in the beginning but might've forgotten about is a smart choice and makes the story Ludde is telling more real. We see it unfolding as Ludde is telling this to Felicia. It's a powerful scene.

We then see Felicia hugging Ludde from behind, a sign of support with no words needed. She tells him she loves him and Ludde says it back. It's an honest and sweet moment that comes at a perfect time in the story. It's not too early like Felicia's backstory was.

I sort of understand why Felicia's backstory was info-dumped because it was right before the drama of Mats accidentally spilling the beans to Klara's family. They wanted the audience to know what happened to her early, so they could move on to the plot point of Felicia thinking Ludde was the one who told everybody.

But we don't need every single detail of Felicia's story. Let it come organically. The only thing that was really needed was for Ludde to know that Felicia had struggled with drug use and was sent to rehab for this storyline to work. The reason why could've been saved for later, and it would've made for a more interesting reveal. Maybe just have Felicia allude to seeing something that night, but don't tell the viewers right away what it was.

In 1x06, Felicia is incredibly upset when she hears that her dad was the one who told Klara's family what happened to Felicia in the US. And rightly so.

Felicia: Don’t you get it? You ruined everything! Mats: What? Felicia: You told the whole damn town about me! About the US! Mats: I really didn’t mean to disclose you- Or disclose us. Sorry. Hey, sorry. Flisan, please. Hey. Felicia: Did you tell them you fucked mom’s best friend too? Yes, I saw you.

If this had been the moment where we first find out what Felicia saw, it would've been more surprising. Our reaction would've mirrored Mats's, and it would've been more heart-wrenching to know that Felicia was traumatized by an affair her dad had only to be cheated on herself in the very same episode.

Ludde's problematic nature

One of the scriptwriters of Eagles, Fanny Ekstrand, was interviewed in the behind-the-scenes documentary Edvins Skådisdrömmar. In this interview, she states:

Ludvig, he's the one who's been the easiest to retain the personality of. Because he's so... He's calm and friendly, but he makes dumb decisions. Ludvig isn't a typical hockey guy. He has a bunch of other qualities—music being one of them.

I found myself slightly disagreeing with this take, despite knowing Ekstrand is literally a part of the writing team and most likely helped shaped Ludde's personality. I just interpreted Ludde's character (at least in season 1) differently.

I also didn't find him that much different from any other typical hockey guy just because he happens to have another interest. That's a bit like saying Archie Andrews from The CW's Riverdale isn't a stereotypical jock because he also plays the guitar.

In season 1, we see Ludde break into the rink because he wanted to test out the ice. He just loves hockey that much. He also uses it as a way to express frustration and anger, which we saw in 1x05. He flirts with the new girl in school and in the beginning he even uses it as a tactic to gain a position on the main hockey team. This was confirmed by the creator Stefan H. Lindén in his Q&A, where he said:

My idea has always been that Ludde was blown away by Felicia and that he really likes her but that they both initially interacted and met to go swimming because Felicia knew it would piss her dad off and Ludde knew that it might throw Elias off since they were competing for the same position in the team.

I would say that the characteristics of a typical hockey guy would be someone like Adam—obsessed with the sport, flirting with girls, going to parties, and just spending a lot of time in the rink. Ludde checks off all of these points. However, I will give this the benefit of the doubt since season 2 Ludde seems to change a lot and it's easier to interpret him as the calm and friendly guy he was supposed to be in season 1.

So to me, Ludde wasn't calm and friendly at all. In season 2, yes, but when we're first introduced to him?

Ludde shows anger issues and violent tendencies in 1x05 when he head-butts Elias and breaks his nose. It's violent and messy. He then yells at Felicia to leave when she's trying to communicate with him and belittles her drug problems solely because she's rich. To me, Ludde wasn't a nice person in 1x04 either when he let his friends make suggestive comments about Felicia and what she was like in bed.

Omar: I can tell you one thing - you’re not borrowing my towel today cause I don’t know where that dick has been. Adam: It’s nice when she sucks, right? Omar: Can’t you tell us some more, does she bite you or is it just really, really nice? [...] Adam: Is that what you sound like when you’re coming? What does she sound like?

This was described as "locker room talk" and the writers probably wanted to show an authentic view of what being a hockey player is like. I understand that. But it's a little problematic when it's later swept under the rug and treated like something that we're just supposed to accept.

Elias: [...] it’s not very fun to sit in a hockey locker room where people are talking about how nice it is to fuck my sister. Felicia: Ludde would never say anything like that, you know that. Elias: He wouldn’t? It’s a locker room, Felicia. That’s the only thing they talk about.

It did not sit right with me how Felicia seemed to be the one Elias blamed in this scene, and Ludde and his friends never faced any real consequences for what they said. Elias did lash out at Ludde, but there was no severe consequence for Omar and Adam's comments.

Compare this scenario to another Swedish show, Beartown on HBO. Beartown is similar to Eagles and focuses on a hockey team in a small town with one of the star players hooking up with a girl who's recently moved to their small town.

This girl is raped by the hockey player. And because of his status as the star of the team, he has almost the whole school behind him. The girl however is labeled as a lying slut. It's unfair and frustrating to see it happen, but it's authentic and done in a way that doesn't glamorize the ugly side of hockey culture.

Eagles is not as dark as Beartown so this comparison might be a little unfair. Beartown's whole storyline did revolve around this incident while in Eagles the hockey culture is treated more as a side thought. It's like they decided to throw in a taste of what goes on in a locker room just to create drama without really addressing it further.

Beartown did a much better job of portraying the problematic and toxic elements of hockey culture without making it seem like it's just something normal that we should accept. It was honest and raw. If you haven't seen the show, this short video does a great job of depicting how much thought was put into the toxic hockey culture, winning mentality, and subsequently hockey players thinking they're entitled to do whatever they want.

So, to respond to Ekstrand's quote from Edvins Skådisdrömmar—I did not experience Ludde as a "good guy" who only makes dumb decisions at all. In season 1, he's a bad person for letting his friends sexualize a girl he likes and letting her brother hear their disgusting comments. He's a bad person for fighting with her brother and later yelling at her, saying her drug issues are insignificant despite acting supportive of her only two episodes earlier.

I don't mind conflicts like these because they drive the story forward. I didn't particularly like Ludde in season 1 because of the reasons I just stated, but they're necessary to create drama and make the show interesting.

It's just weird to me how one of the writers is saying that Ludde is a calm person and a good guy when that is not at all how I interpreted his character.

Eagles is a show targeted towards a young audience, among them probably a lot of easily influenced pre-teens. What kind of message does this send to them when the guy letting his friends sexualize a girl he's slept with and on top of that laughing at their inappropriate comments is referred to as the good guy?

Klara is mean... What else?

From the moment we're introduced to Klara, it seems obvious that she'll play a living and breathing version of the infamous Alpha Bitch trope. She's also a prime example of the basic Popular is Evil trope and has her own Girl Posse consisting of Sara and Amie.

Klara feels threatened by the arrival of a potential new popular girl, Felicia, and does everything in her power to bully Felicia to show dominance. She barely shows any good sides of herself.

The only instance I can think of where we sort of see season 1 Klara in a positive light is when she talks to Amie in 1x05 about their friendship and then accompanies Amie to her audition for the school band.

Klara: Ever since Felicia started at school… It’s felt like you only hang out with her and that you’ve forgotten about me. She like took you from me. Amie: But I haven’t forgotten you. Klara: No, but do you get what I mean? Amie: I get it, but I haven’t forgotten you. Klara: No, I know. Amie: I know, but it just turned out that way when school started. Klara: Okay. Amie: But I’m sorry. Klara: It’s fine. Amie: Are you sure? Klara: Yeah. You can make it up to me when you go on your world tour.

Klara is really supportive of Amie's musical endeavors, but she also uses her support as a way to alienate Felicia from the girl group. It's very on the nose and kind of feels suffocating in the way it's written.

Klara: Amie, did you remove the clips? Amie: Yeah, she said they weren’t good. Klara: She’s just jealous. It’s so obvious. I mean, I’m jealous. You sing absolutely amazing. I don’t know, I just think it was really rude of her to sit in the cafeteria and criticize you like that Amie: Yeah, maybe. But she apologized. Klara: But still. That clip of you in the bathroom… Like… Sorry, but I’d be so mad if someone had posted something like that of me. I mean, you were standing there without makeup, completely non-fixed up. And the whole thing with her filming you without you knowing. That’s really weird. You don’t do that. Don’t you think so?

I'm sure there are plenty of people who act like this in real life. And maybe that's part of the problem, because Klara in season 1 really isn't an interesting character. We've met this person before and we know exactly what she's like. There's nothing new to discover. So season 1 is essentially just Klara being petty and rude every chance she gets, and to me it felt like a large part of her character was written just to stir up drama.

In 1x06, we see Klara backstab Amie by filming her making out with Ludde at her Halloween party. But I thought it was established in 1x05 that Klara feels like Amie was taken from her? And if Klara actually cared about Amie and didn't want to lose her as a friend, she wouldn't just stand by and watch with her phone recording the whole thing. It doesn't make a lot of sense.

Klara even made that whole point about how it was really weird of Felicia to film Amie without her knowing. So why would Klara do it, when she expressed that's weird and not something a normal person does? Is that supposed to be foreshadowing? Because if so, that's a clear contradiction and not how foreshadowing works.

When Sara happens to see the video on Klara's phone she immediately says that Klara should delete it.

Sara: What is that? Did they know you were filming? Klara: No, of course they didn’t know. Sara: Oh my god, Klara. You should probably delete it. Klara: I’m going to! But it’s crazy, right? Sara: Yeah, god. But seriously, delete it. Klara: I’m going to.

So Klara says she's going to delete the video. But it's still unclear why it was filmed in the first place if Klara insists that she's going to delete it. It's not like she filmed it just to show it to Sara either, since Sara wasn't meant to see it and only saw it by chance while swiping through Klara's photos on her phone.

It doesn't make sense for Klara to film a video like that of her best friend that she's supposed to care about. It doesn't make sense for Klara to film a video of anybody without their knowledge when she previously made a big deal about how you shouldn't do that.

What Klara's character is, is a bad attempt at the classical mean girl. She's clichéd, boring, and full of tropes.

Even her eventual character development is riddled with tropes like the Heel Realization where a character realizes they're actually one of the bad guys. This realization seems to come in 1x08, where Felicia calls Klara out on her behavior.

Felicia: You know what, Klara. I’m so fucking tired of your fucking comments. You didn’t get to be Lucia this year. Poor you! Was dad unable to fix that? Cry then, Klara. Cry. You’re so fucking mean. Everybody here is tired- Everybody here is scared of you. Even those who liked you once, they can’t take it anymore. Klara: That’s not true. It’s not true. Felicia: Yes, everybody is scared of you. You know what? Look around. Show people some fucking respect. Klara: Well say something, Amie! Amie: What is there to say? She’s right.

Klara needed a wake-up call like this. It's just unfortunate that she goes back to her mean girl behavior and posts the video after Amie insinuated that Klara wasn't a real friend. Klara already knew that Amie felt that way since she said Felicia was right in her assessment of everybody being scared and tired of Klara. So wouldn't it have made more sense for Klara to post the video right after that moment instead of during Amie's performance?

Or rather, why not pull a Subverted Trope and not have Klara post the video at all after she realized how horrible she'd been acting? That would've made me respect her so much more and be a great introduction to her character development in season 2.

The Halloween Incident

To me, the whole Halloween episode was questionable. First off, we never got actual confirmation of what happened in that room between Amie and Ludde. Some viewers insist that they only made out and others believe they went all the way. Here's what the creator of the show, Stefan H. Lindén, had to say about this in a Q&A post he did:

I think if you went into the writers room of Eagles and asked all of us what really happened in that room [between Ludde and Amie at Klara's Halloween party] we would all have different answers.  I know what happened, but I’m not sure we will ever truly know for sure, unless Ludvig or Amie eventually are open enough to admit to anyone what really happened.

This is kind of a vague answer, but that's fair considering that when Stefan did this Q&A the latest episode that had been released was 2x05 and he probably didn't want to spoil anything. However, looking back at this answer knowing how the season turned out I still feel like it's unclear what happened. It's also strange that Stefan seems to be saying that they never actually decided what happened between them since the writers "would all have different answers".

1x06 was just an odd episode for me overall. Lots of things felt rushed and underdeveloped. Let's not forget that this episode also contained, in my opinion, some of the weirdest lines in the whole show (along with Elias's strange monologue about plague vampires).

Ludde: Hey, I only have like 3%. Do you have any power? Adam: Are you wondering if I have a power bank in my shorts? It’s coming-

Ludde: I like shellfish. (said to Amie, wearing a lobster costume)

Up until this episode, Ludde has shown zero interest and attraction towards Amie. We are basically told that Ludde only hooked up with Amie because he was so drunk that he practically had no idea what he was doing.

In 1x02, we see a drunk Amie try to kiss Tobbe and upon getting rejected she moves on to make out with Adam. She gets overly friendly when she's drunk so the fact that she makes out with Ludde later is... Weird, but not entirely out of the realms of possibility.

Ludde on the other hand is moping about Felicia all night. He regrets how he yelled at her at the end of 1x05 and it shows. He's trying to drown all his problems in alcohol and it seems to be working, because when it enters his system he seems to be on top of the world.

What I found kind of ambiguous in this incident was if Ludde even remembered what happened that night. He was drinking so much compared to Amie, who doesn't really need as much alcohol before she reaches her "overly friendly" state. I thought for sure that Ludde was oblivious to the situation when he woke up in his bed the next day and immediately messaged Felicia.

There are just so many questions to unpack here that were never answered. What prompted Amie and Ludde to go into that empty room? Why did Ludde come with her? Why didn't Adam seem to care about this, when he'd been sitting next to Ludde and taking care of him most of the night? And as I wrote before, why would Klara film this video of her best friend when she previously expressed that was a weird thing to do?

There's just too much in 1x06 left unanswered. The Amie/Ludde hook-up was a badly executed plot twist because there wasn't anything hinting that this would happen. It just came out of nowhere.

Unbalanced screentime and Elias's wasted potential

A large portion of season 1 was dedicated to Felicia. This was kind of a let-down for me since I thought more focus would be placed on Eagles as a hockey team (after all, that's what the show is named after). I also thought more attention would be on Elias since he's the talented star player who's supposed to live up to his father's legacy.

The show starts with a couple radio hosts hyping up how Elias Kroon, son of the legendary Mats Kroon, is going to join the Eagles hockey team.

Host #1: [...] It’s finally official. New center in the junior team - Elias Kroon, son to the legendary NHL-pro Mats Kroon, who has now chosen to move home from the US to his hometown where Elias will play in his father’s old club Oskarshamn Eagles. Host #2: This is so freaking cool. Who doesn’t want a Kroon on their team? Host #1: We hope that he’ll take a spot on the A-team.

But we don't learn a lot about who Elias actually is in the first episode. The attention is on Felicia and her interest in Ludde.

Elias is so discarded that he barely has anything to say in the first couple of scenes we see him in. Here are all his eight lines in 1x01, and I'm not even joking.

Elias: Yes. Elias: Shut up. Elias: Ow. Elias: It's fine. Elias: Really? Elias: Fucking hell. Elias: I'll stay here. Elias: No, it's fine.

In 1x02 he has even fewer lines. Three, to be exact, and all he says is that his injury is a sprain and that it's fine. Essentially just an echo of two of the lines he had in the previous episode. It's nothing new.

There's a way to have a character stand out when they don't have many lines, but Elias just fades into the background with every other extra. There's too much time spent on having other characters talk about Elias than us actually getting to know him. So when we do meet him, it's pretty underwhelming.

Compare Elias to his sister who gets so much more attention from the writers. I don't really understand why either, since I thought Elias was a much more interesting character than his influencer sister. Felicia's character only seems to revolve around a guy. I wonder how many times we've seen that before?

In 1x02 we see the Eagles hockey team play their first game, but Elias is unable to play and has to sit in the stands for what was supposed to be his debut match. Why? Because during a hockey practice session in 1x01, Adam rams his stick into Elias to purposely injure him. I mean, fair enough. Adam is trying to get Ludde on the main team since he and Elias are competing for the same position. The shot of Adam smiling after Elias sprains his wrist is a bit too on the nose, but whatever.

What this does is minimize Elias' presence in season 1 by a lot. We don't see the son of the legendary NHL professional play an actual game until 1x05, which is more than halfway into the season. It's kind of disappointing but I understand the injury is done to dramatize his situation.

Elias barely gets his own storylines in the first few episodes. He just has things done to him instead of acting on his own. When we do see him on screen he gets injured by Adam, reprimanded by his father, and later told he can't play in his debut game.

His sweet side (or any side of him, really) isn't shown until 1x03 when Amie wakes up at the Kroon house and Elias reassures her that they didn't do anything together and that she can borrow Felicia's clothes.

Elias doesn't really do much for the plot until he hears Ludde's friends objectify Felicia and he starts a fight with Ludde and confronts Felicia about it. That's when it feels like Elias is actually a part of this show instead of just being an extra shoved into the background. His actions are finally affecting the plot.

Elias's potential in season 1 was hugely wasted. The only episode where we actually got to see him shine was 1x07, when he travels to Karlskrona with Amie. We find out he doesn't want the hockey arrangement his dad has planned for him and that he's actually a pretty goofy guy who likes making jokes (and eating green candy).

If less time was spent with Felicia and the distribution of every episode's 20 minutes was more balanced, season 1 could've been massively improved. It got much better in season 2, but season 1 suffered and made many people think that Felicia was a basic and unentertaining character.

The side characters and their comic relief

So one thing that I found really disappointing with Felicia's amount of screentime is that we barely got enough time for the other main characters, let alone the side characters.

What I mean here is that the only people we really know on the Eagles hockey team are Ludde and Elias. Ludde's friends, Adam and Omar, just feel like comic relief sidekicks. We don't really know what they're like, besides the fact that they like to make jokes and mess around.

This issue is largely created by the short running time the episodes have along with season 1 only having eight episodes in total. That's definitely understandable. It did get better in season 3 where we see Ludde having a deeper conversation with Adam and Omar and they finally don't just feel like the comic relief characters, but actual people with layers.

Ludde: I’m going to quit hockey. Adam: Are you serious? Omar: What the hell are you saying? Ludde: It’s not the same anymore. I’m not passionate about it. I… Yes, it sucks, but… I’ve thought about it for a while now. Omar: We make jokes about it and all, but… Yeah. It wouldn’t be the same without you. Kingelikingen. Adam: I get that it’s a tough choice. But yeah… You’ll work things out. You and Felicia. You always do. Ludde: You guys are pretty awesome sometimes, actually.

This scene was really sweet, and I wish we could've had moments like this between the guys in season 1. Just one scene to show that they're not just the "typical hockey guys". It feels like Ludde was the only person on the team in season 1 who wasn't just a background character. Even Elias, who you would assume should be at the forefront, isn't properly developed until 1x05 where we see him defending his sister and starting a fight with Ludde. Otherwise, it very much felt like Elias was kept in the background.

There are also guys on the team called Herman, Simon, Näslund, Ekbäck, Hoffmann, Berglund (even Montell, which was a fun nod to the show's director)... But who are they, actually? Do you even remember their names? To be honest with you, I don't. Because they're just names—not actual characters.

None of the other guys on the team get any depth. They're just sort of there as extras and to give the audience a sense of comedy with their "hockey team shenanigans". This was illustrated in 1x08, where Adam and Omar make their teammate Liam do a "sexy dance" on a table because he lost his virginity. Or a more extreme example—Jönsson, who only exists to be the comic relief and the unlucky guy who just can't catch a break.

In 2x04, Jönsson is told by Jack to do extra time in the gym and gets told off when he only spends a few minutes on the exercise bike. Later, Jack also makes a joke about how he should get Jönsson a defibrillator. In 2x09 Jönsson invites Ludde, Adam, and Omar to come to his mom's place to hang out. After he's left, Adam makes a comment about how there's no way he's going to "rot" in Jönsson's apartment that doesn't even have a balcony.

Don't get me wrong, these scenes aren't bad and I don't mean they should've been scrapped. Comedy can absolutely have its place in a show like this. Let's take the scene where Ludde flashes a couple of unfortunate old ladies on his first date with Felicia as an example. It feels like something a teenage boy would do to try to make a girl he likes laugh. It's a brief scene and it's nice to see Ludde being able to goof off only moments after talking about Andreas. We know that's a touchy subject for him.

However, it feels slightly overdone sometimes with how almost everybody on the hockey team is only there for comedic purposes and to fill space. It's more refreshing when they're shown to be multi-dimensional. I wish this is something that the writers would've considered when the show is literally titled after the hockey team, yet most of the hockey players are hardly in the story.

To add to this, it felt like Sara and Tobbe completely disappeared from the story in season 2. With Sara we understand that she probably didn't want to hang out with Klara anymore after knowing she filmed the Halloween video and posted it on Instagram, so that's fair. But it would've been nice to see Tobbe stick around in season 2, and I'll get back to why I think that.

The potential of season 1

When I look back on season 1 I feel really nostalgic. No matter how many small details that irked me, I can't deny that the setting of the show is beautiful and I really appreciate the depiction of it. Instead of showing Oskarshamn as a boring small town, we're shown the beauty of it which is incorporated into the storylines.

Some examples would be Ludde and Felicia's first date at Gunnarsö and walk through Havslätt, the gorgeous view of the Oskarshamn harbor from Klara's house Villa Högklint, and Badholmen where the school band performs and we later see Elias and Amie walking by in season 3. All these places are listed on the Eagles Oskarshamn site and I feel like they did a great job tying the storylines in with the locations.

Another aspect of season 1 and its writing that I really enjoyed was Elias and Amie's budding relationship. They just have a natural chemistry together and the dialogue between them also felt authentic and sweet.

Season 1 is just a very polished teen drama overall compared to some of SVT's previous series.

Back in 2007-2010, SVT used to air a soap opera-style show focusing on a few teenagers living in Gothenburg that was called Andra Avenyn (translation: Second Avenue). I was only seven at the time but I watched this show religiously as it aired three times a week. Just mentioning the show brings a lot of nostalgia.

Andra Avenyn amassed around 500 000 viewers per episode and was, just like Eagles, nominated for a Kristallen television award. But how good was it, really? If I take off my rose-colored glasses for a second and actually consider the show's highly dramatized storylines and unlikely scenarios, it had a tendency to drag on (which usually happens with soap operas). It didn't offer a realistic view of teenage life and on IMDb it currently sits at a rating score of 5.6 stars out of 10.

Comparing this old teen series to SVT's newer one, Eagles season 1 was a huge improvement and continues to be the most popular teen series that SVT has aired so far.

This idea and all the characters have lived in Stefan H. Lindéns mind since 2008, while Andra Avenyn was still on the air. It's actually amazing how high the quality of most TV shows has risen since then. Eagles has a rating score of 7.4 out of 10 stars on IMDb and has become internationally known in a way that Andra Avenyn never was.

Eagles season 1 laid the groundwork for SVT's most successful teen series of all time, and that's a huge achievement.

Season 2: "Subverting expectations"

When Eagles came back for season 2, the script made it kind of obvious that the writers had listened to the critique of season 1 being predictable.

I did find season 2 a huge step up from season 1—the directing was so much better and when it came to the script we got a deeper look into all the characters that they hadn't really scratched the surface of in the first season. My main disappointment however was that it felt like they threw in a bunch of weird plot twists just for the sake of "subverting expectations".

The core idea of subverting expectations can be great if done correctly. You lead the audience to believe they know what's going to happen, but then you surprise them with an unexpected and clever twist.

A post in Cinematography written by Mason Leaver defines the phrase of "subverting expectations" as:

[...] a method of surprising the audience with some element of a story, be it the plot, themes, characters, etc. This goes beyond a “twist” in a film. Expectation subversion actively works within the genre of a story, and attempts to reinterpret or subvert the conventions of that genre, breaking patterns in surprising and interesting ways. However, this method of surprising the audience is not always well received- it can sometimes be the source of heavy criticism from fans of the tropes which have been subverted.

This included "unexpected" relationships such as Elias/Klara and Amie/Ludde. The former actually worked, but the latter? Not so much.

Amie's crush on Ludde—make it make sense!

Amie and Ludde were my biggest issue with season 2, and it felt so out of character of Amie to be head over heels for Ludde. They work great as friends but romantically they're a huge mismatch.

But they have music in common, I hear you say. Yes, they do. But having a shared interest doesn't mean people are automatically a good match. You have to consider their chemistry and overall compatibility.

Before actors are cast in a show or movie where their characters will be romantically involved with each other, it's common to do what's called a chemistry read. Here's a neat description from an article in Backstage written by Caroline Liem:

Chemistry is the complex emotional or psychological interaction between two people. If this were a romantic article, it would be about love. Instead, we are discussing the astonishing rapport between two actors, and how that connection is achieved in order to book [...] the role. A chemistry read is an opportunity to read with actors being considered for a role opposite yours, usually lead roles. The main purpose is to see how you instinctively connect and work with the other actor.

This obviously wasn't done for the actors playing Amie and Ludde, since there didn't seem to be any intention of having their characters be involved in a romantic relationship.

That was even confirmed by Stefan H. Lindén in his Q&A of season 2, where he said that a love triangle between Ludde/Felicia/Amie was planned but later scrapped.

I can confirm that from the beginning of development of the series and the first version of the storyline a triangle drama was at some point intended for season 1 but later removed  – however when creating the characters, Ludvigs skill in music and arts was always there from the beginning so by knowing that, we always knew that interactions would appear between them. When looking back at Season 1, in the first scene by the lockers when Amie tells Felicia who Ludvig is, she does know exactly who he is and she is well aware of that his friend Tobias is a music guy that Amie wants to get to know. Also when looking at it, when I was the same age as Ludvig and Amie I, and I am sure a lot of people can relate to it, fact is that we never really knew if it was love or friendship in the beginning.

Knowing that the triangle drama was scrapped for season 1, it makes sense why it seems so arbitrary. There was no groundwork laid down for this pairing before it was hastily thrown together in 1x06 for a cheap plot twist. This continues in season 2, where Amie and Ludde start spending more time together. Yet it's hard to see Ludde as a potential love interest for Amie in the way the writers want us to. They still come off as friends despite having hooked up at a party.

I mentioned that Tobbe should've stuck around for season 2 and here's why. Tobbe was written to be the leader of the school band that Amie later joins, and he was friends with Ludde before the video was posted. He would've been a perfect fit for the Amie/Ludde music storyline but he's completely absent. He had the potential to be the person who could've helped them with the song a little and then later picked up on whatever there was going on between them.

I think the Amie/Ludde storyline could've hugely benefitted from a scene between Amie and Tobbe, where Tobbe asks if she actually has feelings for Ludde and we get to hear exactly what Amie is feeling. Maybe she's torn, not wanting to get together with Ludde because of how much they hurt Felicia, but at the same time finds it hard to suppress her feelings. A scene like that would've allowed us to get into Amie's head and make the Amie/Ludde storyline much clearer.

To add, this storyline was in desperate need of more interest from Ludde's side. There needed to be some indication from him that would make Amie believe he liked him back, even if that wasn't the case. All we get is Ludde complimenting Amie's song and then a hug in 2x05 when Amie says the record label in Stockholm wanted a meeting. And apparently, that was enough for Amie to think Ludde was interested in her despite him blowing off the Stockholm meeting and Amie hearing Ludde say that the Halloween incident was a mistake.

Ludde and Amie don't really mesh as well as Elias/Amie do or even as well as Ludde/Felicia do. Elias and Amie had sparks flying from the very first scene they shared. That pairing is one of the main reasons why the show became popular internationally, and why is that? Because of the actors' chemistry.

Amie and Ludde are a clumsy attempt at throwing together two people who don't really work together with the intention of "subverting expectations". And I suppose that's what the writers wanted to depict—an awkward crush that doesn't really make sense, which I'm sure many people have experienced as a teenager. That part is fine. But what I didn't like about this storyline is that Amie had no good reason to believe Ludde would be interested in anything with her beyond a platonic friendship.

While season 2 was airing, I was convinced that Amie wasn't actually in love with Ludde. She was just lonely after the aftermath of the Halloween video and mistook her feelings for Ludde as love when she just appreciated his company. Here's what I wrote:

So as we know, Amie kissed Ludde in episode 6 when he was in the hospital after having been injured during the hockey game against Karlskrona. She immediately seemed to regret having done that and ran out without an explanation, leaving Ludde alone and confused. I honestly don’t think Amie has any romantic feelings towards Ludde. I think she might mistake her feelings for a crush or something, when in reality she’s just lonely and appreciates Ludde always being there for her and giving her compliments on her musical ability. Ludde was complimenting Amie at the hospital, saying she was amazing, and I think Amie was just really touched by that and maybe wanted to thank him somehow, and ended up kissing him. And then she freaked out and left because oh my god did she really just kiss Ludde. It was an uncomfortable and awkward situation and that’s probably why she ran out. However, I really believe that if she had just stayed to explain and apologize, Ludde would understand and they could’ve just laughed it off. But this is a drama show so of course that wouldn’t happen! Do I think the writers are making them into a couple? No, definitely not. They know that season 1 was sort of predictable and cliché, so they’re making season 2 as different as possible by including these unexpected pairings such as Klara & Elias and Amie & Ludde. But Amie and Ludde won’t ever be a couple, because Ludde is still very much hung up on Felicia. I don’t see them as a couple either - yes, they have music in common, but they work way better as friends than in a relationship.

In Edvins Skådisdrömmar, which is a behind-the-scenes documentary of Eagles season 2, writers Fanny Ekstrand and Michaela Hamilton discuss the writing of the show in the documentary's third episode. The third episode is mostly focused on the lead-up to the scene where Amie kisses Ludde at the hospital. Adrian Öjvindsson, who plays Ludde, says:

Filming the kissing scene was [...] awkward and weird, actually. And that's how it ended up. Yandeh and I haven't really had any intimate scenes. In this case you could take in that it was weird, because that's also what the scene wanted to depict.

When Edvin reads the script, he describes the scene as a "nightmare" scenario. I agree. And the lazy build-up to this Awkward Kiss trope doesn't make it any better, because just like the Halloween incident this doesn't make a lot of sense.

It's supposed to be awkward and weird, just like Adrian said. But he also mentioned one of the most important details: Yandeh and I haven't really had any intimate scenes.

Before this kiss scene, there was nothing that indicated any chemistry between them. No accidental hand-touching, no longing stares, no nothing. Just a friendly hug. A proper build-up to the kiss scene would've made it feel less out of place.

The love confession from Amie to Ludde in 2x10 really threw me off as well. The confession to me made no sense and honestly felt like a prank call. There was no feeling behind it and zero reason for Amie to believe that there was a chance Ludde liked her back.

At the end of 2x08, Felicia goes to Ludde's house after he's confessed the truth to the police about the Andreas situation. Amie happens to overhear the conversation and she hears Ludde very clearly say that he's not interested in Amie.

Ludde: Felicia, there’s nothing between us. Between me and Amie. It was really the biggest mistake of my life. Felicia: Goodbye, Ludde. Ludde: Felicia, please!

Amie, now having her heart broken, crosses Ludde's name off the contract while crying. She knows he doesn't feel the same. So why would Amie even bother to call Ludde up to tell him she's "in love with him"?

Amie: [...] Hey, Ludde… Ludde: Yeah? Amie: It feels really weird to hear our song now. Because I know who the lyrics are about. And… And I… I really like you. Or, well… I’m in love with you. I just need to know how you feel. Or if you feel anything. Just tell me. Ludde: I’ll always want to be your friend, Amie, but… It’s Felicia I’m in love with.

This moment is on par with the awkwardness from the hospital kiss between them in 2x06. The second-hand embarrassment with this one was really rough, and what I don't understand is why this was even added to the script when Amie had already gotten the confirmation that Ludde didn't think of her in a romantic way. This storyline could've ended in 2x08 after Amie overheard the conversation between Ludde and Felicia.

It really didn't need to drag on for the whole season, essentially making Amie's whole storyline in season 2 about a guy. Her moment of finally getting signed to the record label was ruined when it could've been regarded as a fresh start if the storyline had just ended where it should have.

What this storyline did instead was ruining my favorite friendship of season 1, which was Amie/Felicia. This mess made it so hard for them to reconcile and they didn't end up properly addressing it until 3x09, spending almost two whole seasons mad at each other. It sucks that the writers decided to drag out their fighting and disagreements for this long when they could've instead shown two girls in solidarity who don't let a guy get between them and their friendship.

Amie apologized in 3x03 for how she hurt Felicia, but Felicia made it clear in 3x06 that she still harbored ill will towards Amie for what happened at Halloween (which in the timeline of this show was more than a year ago).

Felicia (to Amie): Are you going to start slobbering with [Elias] now too? Just give me back that sweater first, I don’t want slobber on that. Thanks.

I talked about how much I disliked the Amie/Ludde storyline in this post, with my main reason being that it really messed up the character dynamics that were established in season 1.

This storyline [of Ludde and Amie hooking up]—along with Amie falling in love with Ludde—is by far my least favorite one because it messed up the whole character dynamic. I feel like Amie and Felicia won’t ever go back to the kind of friendship they had in season 1 before the Halloween incident because the trust was so broken, and Amie really should’ve tried harder to apologize to Felicia like Ludde did instead of going after her best friend’s ex in season 2.

If there's just one thing I could change about this show, I would 100% get rid of the Amie/Ludde storylines. There is nothing that annoyed me as much as those storylines did.

Amie's musical ambitions

I've talked about this a bit before in another post because this was something that really bugged me about Amie's character in season 2. Here's what I wrote:

I honestly still feel like Amie’s whole storyline with sending in a rather basic demo written by two teenagers with little to no experience and then getting praised on it [by the Stockholm music producers] with comments such as “it’s going to be a real summer hit” felt so unrealistic to me. Maybe they only said that so Amie would accept their offer or something, but that’s still very strange because she would have still said yes without a doubt. I can understand that they thought Amie was marketable as a person and there was this bonus with her having gone viral before on Felicia’s Instagram, but that demo did not seem good enough for me to be immediately released as a single and then have them decide on the spot that Amie would be given a contract. I mean, come on. It never felt earned because we never really saw Amie struggling with her songwriting journey to achieve this dream. Sending in one demo to one record label and having them immediately want to make a whole album with you just doesn’t happen in real life unless the song is extremely good or you have a very unique voice. Amie is really talented but there are hundreds of people just like her, if not thousands. I was never convinced by her getting signed so quickly in season 2. I understand that they wanted to establish her as a successful artist [at the beginning of season 3], but that felt so rushed. I was so sure that the record label would screw her over and steal the song rights to record it with another artist who was already established, and that we’d have to see Amie work even harder to achieve her dreams. But we didn’t get that at all. Where was the struggle? [...] Of course I wanted to see Amie achieve success (and I was happy when she did), but the journey there was so bizarrely easy. She didn’t start to seriously work on making her music career become a reality until season 2. Amie had dabbled in music prior to that, like when she auditioned for the school band and did that performance of Follow, but she didn’t truly start to work towards it until season 2 when she decided to have her work sent to professionals in the business. And then, just five episodes later, she gets contacted by the record label in Stockholm. To put this into context—season 2 took place somewhere around March, and episode 5 around three weeks into April. So when Ludde first started helping Amie it took less than two months for her to get signed. You could argue that the song was just that good or that Amie is just that talented, but it never felt like a realistic storyline to me.

It's tricky to write a storyline like this when you only have ten 20 minute episodes in the season and a limited amount of screentime for every character. All that is understandable. But it's strange that they didn't opt for a time jump to really sell this storyline and make it believable.

Eagles uses time jumps a lot, but somehow this particular plot point was omitted from that and kind of glossed over. I don't really understand how they expected us to buy this storyline. The viewers aren't stupid, and more effort should've been put into this storyline.

In the post where I wrote this, @gajana18 also had an interesting thing to add:

[...] it's equally unrealistic that this huge record company would be hounding Amie, a teenage onehit wonder essentially to come back to the label- don’t they have other bigger artists?

This is a very strong point. Considering how Amie kept expressing that she wanted to finish school and then proceeded to ignore their calls, it's weird that they didn't just decide to discard her contract when Amie clearly wasn't taking her singing career as seriously as they wanted her to.

So, back to season 2. Maybe they could've gone with the record label stealing the rights to Amie's first song and screwing her over. This fuels her to try again and after a time jump of a few months we see Amie having worked really hard on a new and better song. Maybe even a whole album. And this time, she's learned from her past mistakes and improved her songwriting. This time, she's successful in her endeavor and it feels so much more earned after knowing the struggles she's been through to get there.

I also feel like a storyline like that would've made people sympathize with Amie more in season 2. It was really hard to root for her when she had nearly screwed Ludde over by not giving credit to his songwriting and saying "fuck him" when he didn't return Amie's feelings.

Klara's character development

When we're introduced to Klara in season 1, she's a stereotypical mean girl with wealthy parents who is the popular girl at school and has her own followers.

In season 2, the writers decided to develop the character. We find out Klara has issues at home and her mom is barely there. When she is, her parents will start fighting. Klara is feeling really lonely and doesn't really hang out with her friend Sara as much as she used to.

I appreciated the added depth, but it seemed like a drastic shift. The changed perspective could attribute to that but when you step back and really look at s1 Klara and s2 Klara, they're like two completely different people.

Maybe Klara's reputation suffered after she posted the Halloween video? Maybe she had a change of heart after Felicia finally confronted her during Lucia? I mean, I guess.

But what most fans (including me) didn't like about Klara in season 2 was that there were no clear consequences for her after she posted the Halloween video. Klara still hangs out with what seems to be the popular crowd and she has people to go out with. In a post I wrote last year about my thoughts on season 2, I wrote this:

I actually wish that Klara would’ve become more ostracized from her school friends to emphasize how alone she is, but she seems to still be pretty popular so that was kind of disappointing. I thought the fall-out of her posting the video would be worse, but I guess not. Anyway, I like that they’re taking a disliked character and making her into a better person. Feels like it’s been done a few times before, but I still appreciate them doing it. I hated s1 Klara for being so one-dimensional, but s2 Klara is well on her way to being a pretty good and nuanced character.

Her character development sort of comes a little out of nowhere, though. Her reputation wasn't ruined by posting that video and she didn't really lose any friends besides Sara (she had already lost Amie prior to posting that video considering what Amie said to her after Lucia in 1x08).

So what prompted Klara to become this whole new person who actually considers other people's feelings in a relatively short amount of time? Here's a conversation between Felicia and Klara in 2x07.

Felicia: Was there anything in particular you wanted to talk about? I understand that we’re not best friends just because you and Elias are together. We’re not here without a reason, right? Klara: No, I get that this feels weird for you. And if you don’t trust me after everything that’s happened - or that I’ve done. Felicia: Klara… Klara: I know that I haven’t acted like the world’s best person. And I regret that. Sorry.

But why does Klara regret her past behavior? What made her realize she hadn't acted like the "world's best person" if the ramifications from posting the Halloween video were so minimal?

Was it the relationship with Elias that made Klara change? No, I don't think so. When they first start talking at the bar in 2x03, Elias tells Klara that he doesn't always agree with Felicia and that he has his own viewpoints. In 2x07, he says Klara wasn't the one who messed up, but rather Amie and Ludde. And in 2x09, the script tells us that the Elias/Klara relationship seemed to bring more change to Elias rather than Klara.

Felicia: What did you do to him? Klara: What? Felicia: He’s smiling. Elias is like a whole new person since he met you. Klara: Stop. Felicia: I mean it!

So what made Klara change? In 1x08 she's mocking Felicia's drug problems and posts a video that will for sure ruin Amie's reputation. But at the start of season 2, she's suddenly become more withdrawn and considerate of people's feelings.

I can only name one factor that actually makes sense, and that's the fighting between her parents. Klara seems to turn into this quiet child when she has to listen to her mom and dad yelling at each other. This is something that didn't really begin until season 2, when Ola's company GECED started going under. This storyline was very well done.

But the other things, like Klara's reputation and friend group which you would assume would be affected, remain as they were in season 1.

Jack's sudden character change

Jack came into season 2 as a charming and charismatic character, seemingly fooling everybody into thinking he was a good guy. He knew the Kroon family from before and both Felicia and Elias were none the wiser when it came to the eventual reveal of his true colors.

Here's what Stefan H. Lindén had to say about the Jack character in his season 2 Q&A:

Bringing Jack in was actually originally not my idea, it came from my writer colleagues after that they revised my storyline notes for Season 2, while I was still down in Oskarshamn shooting Season 1. We had always intended for a character to come in and raise the stakes but I never imagined it to be Jack. When we started to develop the character, we all started liking him so he was kept in the story. Like with any new character we never really know who they are and what [the] point of them for coming in is [...]

Personally, I feel like the point of Jack's character is pretty obvious. When he first comes to Oskarshamn he is very much the embodiment of the new love interest coming in to date the girl who has broken up with her previous lover, while the previous lover still loves her and does anything he can to get her back although she's dating someone new. Jack is the Romantic False Lead trope who later becomes an alpha-dog Jerkass.

What I found interesting about Jack compared to Klara (in season 1) is that Jack isn't just a bad guy. He's very clever with his manipulation tactics and can easily charm people with his good looks and charisma.

When Felicia accuses Jack of cheating in 2x07, he manages to spin the whole thing around and make Felicia apologize to him and say it was stupid of her to believe he would cheat on her. I talked about this in a post while the season still aired, before Jack's true colors were revealed. Here's what I wrote:

I still don’t know if Jack really is cheating on Felicia with Olivia (the girl that texted him) but I would say he is. Jack is incredibly confident and charming, which makes him able to easily lie and manipulate people. We know he’s not an entirely good person since he’s already lied to Elias about not knowing that Mats would bring him back to Eagles. I wouldn’t be surprised if he really did hook up with Olivia and ended up being a really good liar. The fact is that not only did he deny it but he then shamed Felicia for blaming him and causing a scene, ultimately shifting the focus in the argument to her and making Felicia feel bad that she even confronted him in the first place. Jack says that maybe they shouldn’t even be together, which causes Felicia to backtrack and apologize. It’s actually pretty impressive how Jack was able to spin that around to blame Felicia and make her apologize.

Jack is able to take a small detail and use it as ammunition to get what he wants. In this situation, he brings up the girl in the Stockholm club that Felicia partied with and also kissed.

Jack: You shouldn’t accuse me, either. Felicia: What? Jack: I saw on Instagram, you and some girl in Stockholm. Have I whined about that? Coming here and blaming me for things, it feels really immature. Felicia: Fuck. Sorry, Jack.

Jack wasn't bothered by that at all. It happened before Felicia and Jack were even an official couple, and all they had done was hooking up at a party while Felicia was high. Jack, having cheated on Felicia, couldn't care less about the random girl Felicia kissed. That was just something he used to manipulate her.

When we discover that Jack is actually cheating on Felicia, he immediately reverts to a one-dimensional "evil" character. He's become the 2.0 version of Klara in season 1—written in just to stir up drama.

This "master manipulator" version of him just goes down the drain and Jack turns into a manchild who starts petty fights, files a police report because Ludde pushed him, and says to Felicia "I'm gonna tell on you!". Alright, maybe those weren't his exact words, but you know what I mean. It's a sudden shift and you start wondering how Jack was able to hide this version of himself so well before.

In 3x05, Jack sees Ludde and Andreas after a hockey game and fumbles trying to find any insult he can to hurl at Ludde. Everything he says from that point on is just line after line to really solidify that Jack is the bad guy. You didn't forget that, right? Here, let's have Jack call Felicia a druggie so you know just how shitty he is. And have him call Andreas a junkie later for good measure—there, that should be enough for people to understand that Jack is the villain here.

Jack: Johansson! Ludde: What the hell are you doing here? Jack: What does it look like? Ludde: I guess it’s you I should thank for the victory. Nice work. Jack: What is Felicia doing these days, then? Does she miss me? Ludde: Hey, you’re shutting up now, do you get it?! Jack: Jesus Christ. Do you think you can save her? What do you think she even sees in you? You two play in different leagues, Ludde. Ludde: You have no idea what we’re like. Jack: Come on! You should leave her. While you can. She’ll just pull you down into the dirt with her. You’re no hero, Ludde. Isn’t she still doing drugs? Once a druggie, always a druggie, right?

Jack is a horrible person, but at least he was able to pretend to be a good guy in season 2. And that was actually really fascinating. I wish we could've seen more of Jack's manipulative side that he showed in season 2 instead of making everything coming out of his mouth be a half-assed attempt at insulting the other person. That's a pretty boring villain, in my opinion.

Jack's backstory of his father being an alcoholic and him starting to resent the whole Kroon family because they had everything growing up while he didn't is interesting. It would've also made more sense if his anger was only directed towards the Kroon family since they're the ones he grew up with. They're the ones he was after the whole time.

His anger towards them feels cheapened when Jack also starts insulting Andreas (who he's probably never met before) for no good reason. It's like Jack's human qualities are just gone and all that's left is this empty shell made to start fights. His backstory didn't really make anybody sympathize with him, either.

The improvements of season 2

What I liked about the writing in season 2 was that they explored new ideas and had some solid storylines (besides the mess that was Amie and Ludde). Elias and Klara actually worked pretty well as a couple, even if they were pretty much the 2.0 version of Felicia/Ludde as the "wealthy, popular pretty girl starts dating the star player on the sports team".

Felicia finally gets some more depth. The scene at the end of 2x02, where Felicia and Leila park their car near the harbor and just start crying, is so powerful.

2x05 is also one of my favorite episodes of the show, as well as the ending montage of the 2x10 season finale. In Gameday, we had a very touching scene between Felicia and Mats where they finally communicate. It's not the most understanding conversation but it's a start. It's an interesting contrast between their talk in 1x06 where Felicia revealed she saw Mats cheating on Leila versus the talk they're having now.

Another one of my favorite scenes is when Felicia and Ludde meet up at their bench in 2x10 after Ludde has called her up asking Felicia to come if there's any chance of them getting back together.

The dialogue is simple and to the point. There's no long-winded love confession for the sake of drama. It's a moment that the whole season has been building up for, and when we finally get there we realize that this is how love should be.

Easy and simple.

Ludde: You came back. Felicia: Yeah, I did. Ludde: Do you remember our first date here? Felicia: No. I’ve forgotten. Ludde: I was so freaking nervous. Felicia: Everything you said… Did you mean it? Because you hurt me, Ludvig. And I… I’ve really tried to hurt you back, but… It’s not possible. I can’t… Not love you. Do you think… Do you think it can be us again? Ludde: What do you think? Felicia: I don’t want anything else.

Ludde admitting how nervous he was on their first date is sweet and shows us how much they've been through. Felicia is struggling to find the words to say and she's acknowledging how hurt she was, but still can't seem to find it in her heart to hate Ludde. It's honest.

Another plotline that I think was a little underrated in season 2 is the GECED company going bankrupt and Ola, Klara's dad, is under investigation for financial crime. This isn't a storyline you would usually see in a teen series. It's much more serious. It also gave us a really touching and poignant scene in 2x08 between Ola and Klara sitting on the floor of his office, where Klara has to comfort her father who starts crying.

Ola: When you were little you used to sit like this. On the floor, while I was working. You had your own room, but you wanted to sit with me. “Help daddy work”. Mom’s doing the right thing by leaving for a while, don’t blame her for that. Klara: What, you can’t just leave because things get a little tough. Ola: Maybe you should get away for a while too. You know, I never wanted you two to… That you… Everything’s gone. Klara: It will be fine. It will be fine. Ola: Sorry. I’m sorry.

In 2x09, Klara is at a party when she notices a bunch of missed calls from her dad. She immediately senses something is wrong and rushes home to find her dad having attempted suicide. It's executed very well and I really liked the more serious tone they went for in season 2.

It set up season 3 perfectly, which continued with the darker themes but balanced them very well with the more light-hearted moments.

Season 3: Finding one's footing

Season 3 was a highly anticipated season. I thought the season 2 finale was masterfully done and it left me wanting more. When season 1 finished on its cliffhanger of the video leaking, the focus only seemed to be on that.

But with season 2 there's Felicia/Ludde getting back together and Ludde having been sued by Jack, Jack threatening that he would leak all of the Kroon's family secrets, Klara's dad passing away, Elias deciding to get on the train and go to the draft combine anyway, Amie having finally become a recording artist but being isolated and heartbroken... There's so much to unpack, and it's a lot more interesting than the ending of season 1.

Where's Jack?

Jack is supposed to be the main villain but he's gone for most of the season, failing to show up until 3x05. In the season 2 finale Jack makes a huge deal about how he's going to destroy Felicia's life. He's threatening her in a very violent and abusive way.

Jack: [...] I know a lot about you, Felicia. And your nice family. It’s enough for me to leak to one news site. I can destroy you. Do you get it? I’ll tell them everything. The drugs, the cheating, your abortion! Felicia: Shut up! Jack: Hey. Huh? Did you seriously think I wanted to be with you? The little Kroon princess, who has gotten everything for free her whole fucking life! You and Elias! Like spoiled brats! You don’t understand what it means to fight for something!

In 2x10, Jack decides to report Ludde for assault but he doesn't follow through on destroying this family that he hates. If there's anything Jack seems to despise above all, it should be the Kroon family, right? So why did he fight back with Ludde but not the Kroon family?

I expected Jack to leak all the Kroon secrets at the beginning of season 3, but Felicia seems strangely calm at the funeral which I'm assuming only takes place two weeks or so after Ola's passing in the season 2 finale.

Then, a whole year passes with no indication that Jack is ever going to leak anything. As season 3 was airing, I commented on how strange this felt in an ask I received:

One of my main questions about the time jump is the whole thing with Jack saying he was going to ruin Felicia’s and the Kroon family’s reputation in the press. It seemed like nothing really came of that? I’m pretty sure that detail hasn’t been abandoned entirely and that Jack will come back (we’ve already seen a glimpse of him in the third episode), but it feels strange that Jack threatened to leak all her secrets and then just never did. I got the impression that Jack was a person who, when having his pride wounded, would do pretty much anything to get back at the person who insulted him. And yet there’s no mention of where Jack has been during that time or what he’s been doing. I feel like I would be pretty paranoid about this if I was Felicia, but we don’t see this haunting her until episode 3 when she sees a flash of Jack before realizing it was just some random guy. It seems strange that Felicia was relatively at ease during the funeral (which I assume took place not long after Jack first threatened her) and after the time jump. We don’t really know what’s been going on during that year, but Felicia seems to be fine and like she hasn’t had any thoughts of Jack at all. Maybe she assumed that his threats were empty and that he wouldn’t actually leak anything to the press, which is reasonable but at the same time I don’t understand why Jack has yet to do anything after a year. He was really pissed off in the season 2 finale, after all.

Going to repeat one of the things I wrote here because it deserves to be mentioned twice, and this point is one of my biggest issues.

I got the impression that Jack was a person who, when having his pride wounded, would do pretty much anything to get back at the person who insulted him.

I feel like this was kind of a plot hole that wasn't explained. Jack is ruthless and doesn't hold back at all when his true colors come out. He has no problem talking about the sexual relationship he had with Felicia in front of her father. Jack is just that horrible.

So what prevented him from ruining the Kroon family's lives earlier, when it seems to be the thing he's wanted for years?

Michael's predictable predicament

Michael first appears at the end of 3x04, where he calls Amie up to tell her he's her father.

Man: Hey! Sorry for calling so late. Is it Amie? Amie Condé? Amie: Yeah. Man: I saw you on TV the other day. I’m Michael Condé. I’m your father.

In the next episode, we get a voice-over of the continued conversation between him and Amie.

Michael: [...] I understand if it’s shocking. I’m in Oskarshamn for work for a few weeks and— Could we meet up someday?

So, it's clear what the writers are going for here. It's the estranged father who returns into the child's life when they've become successful. We're made to believe it's a Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You trope when Michael meets up with Amie and tells her why he left.

Michael: So Petra, she— Has she said anything about me? Amie: Well… That you moved from Sweden before I was born… That you’re working as a lawyer. That you didn’t want to see me. Michael: I was… I was young when we met. Your mom and I. And everything went really fast. I was in love, but she had feelings for somebody else. And when she found out that she— That she was expecting you, then… She didn’t want me there. She said I wasn’t father material. To some degree she might’ve been right, but… I wasn’t much older than you are now. I had just gotten into a law school in Berlin. When I finally came back to Sweden, then… She didn’t let me see you. I had already lost you by then, but I want you to know that I— I’ve thought of you. And about a week ago, I… I’m seeing you. On TV. There you are. With my last name. I’m so proud.

However, it's pretty easy to identify the holes in Michael's story. To be honest this whole storyline was predictable from the very start. Before Michael even came into the story, I made this post which pretty much summed up Michael's whole character when we didn't even know he existed yet (this was when 3x03 was the latest episode that had aired).

I don’t think we’ve heard any mention of Amie’s dad in the whole series except for 3x02 when Amie was being interviewed and was asked about the Condé name where she said that while Samuelsson was from her mother’s side, and Condé was from “the other side”. I found her word choice a little interesting. I don’t think Amie’s dad has passed—but rather that he’s alive and just chosen to not be a part of her life, which is why Petra seemed to be a little offended when asking Amie why she didn’t want her last name anymore. This might also be why Amie said “the other side” rather than “my dad’s side” because they have an estranged relationship. [...] I’m not really sure if they’ll do anything with Amie’s dad (maybe they’ll go for that trope where the parent who previously abandoned their child returns after the child has accomplished something big/something major happened and the parent wants something from them for personal gain?).

When we actually get to meet Michael and hear his explanation of why he left, I wrote this post pointing out some of the holes in this storyline.

Michael meeting Amie only after she’s become famous is a little suspicious, but it’s understandable if he previously thought she didn’t want to meet him and then sees her with his last name on national television. Obviously he would contact her after that. I feel like there were some question marks with Michael’s whole story though, and the fact that his work just conveniently happened to send him to Oskarshamn after he’d just seen Amie on TV. Maybe I’m missing something here, but how did he know Amie had gone back to Oskarshamn if he saw her living as a pop star in Stockholm? Was this information about Amie quitting the tour and going back to her hometown even online? If Elias (who actually witnessed Amie saying she was done and quitting) seemed taken aback when he saw Amie in Oskarshamn, then how did Michael know?

I do think Michael will return for season 4 though, so hopefully this storyline will be straightened out a little. We don't really know what Michael has been up for the past few years and if he has a family of his own. Maybe he'll contact Amie again to tell her she has some younger half-siblings?

They ended on sour terms, but if Michael does have his own family it's something Amie deserves to know and she can decide whatever she wants to do. I'd also like to see a Michael/Petra reunion, but I'm getting a little ahead of myself.

This storyline wasn't bad, and I do appreciate we got to find out what the situation with Amie's dad was. I also liked how I was able to sympathize with Michael. He's not entirely awful, even if he did put a lot of blame on Petra. It's one of those situations where you don't really know what it's like to be in Michael's position unless you've experienced it, and it's very realistic.

Plot holes

Some of the plot holes of season 3 that I've already mentioned are how Jack waited a whole year before leaking the Kroon family's secrets and how Michael conveniently knew Amie was in Oskarshamn when nobody seemed to know she was coming except her mom.

I actually don't mind that it was never explained how Michael got Amie's phone number either, because that's usually pretty easy to find with a Google search. Things like addresses, economic status, and even your criminal history are easily accessible in Sweden when googling someone's name. So finding someone's phone number is probably fairly easy as well.

On the other hand, one of the most glaring plot holes appeared in 3x08. In this episode entitled Lost, the Kroon family is frantically searching for Felicia who has gone missing. Leila and Elias knock on Petra's door to see if Amie is there and might know something about Felicia's whereabouts. Petra tells them Amie isn't there and they leave.

Someone left me an anonymous ask which I answered in this post, pointing out how it was strange that Elias didn't just call Amie to ask her when she wasn't at home. We know Elias has her number because they've been talking on the phone and texting each other several times before in the season.

In 3x08, when Elias and his mom go to Amie's house and ask Petra if Amie has seen or spoken to Felicia or whether she's home, I couldn't help but wonder, uh Elias why not just call Amie and ask her if she has seen or spoken to Felicia? [...] if Elias had called her and she heard how frightened him and his family were and police being involved she would have told him and then there would be no point in the 3x09 episode really.

This is a very strong point. You could argue that maybe Elias just didn't think of that but if they went out of their way to visit Amie's house only to not find her there, it would seem like calling her instead would just be a logical next step in the situation? Here's what I wrote in response to this ask.

This is an issue I had with 3x08 and 3x09 as well. I had a hard time actually enjoying the moment between Felicia, Klara, and Amie knowing that her family was getting increasingly worried for her and even thought for a short moment that Felicia was lying dead at the bottom of the ocean. All that could’ve been avoided. To add, it didn’t make a lot of sense to me that when Klara finally decided to call someone she called Amie instead of Elias. An ex-friend of Felicia’s instead of her brother who could’ve helped a lot more. What was Amie supposed to do when she showed up at the hotel, exactly? I know there was the thing with Klara only knowing Amie’s number off the top of her head, but there is no reason why she couldn’t have gone down to the reception while Felicia was sleeping and asked to use a computer just to get a quick message to Elias. Like, “hey, Felicia attempted something bad but she’s safe with me, we’re at this hotel in this room but she didn’t want me to call anybody, I don’t know what to do”. That would’ve been so much better than keeping quiet about the situation for nearly 24 hours. I know that Klara probably has trauma from leaving her dad at the hospital after his suicide attempt and that she probably didn’t want to go against Felicia’s wishes. I understand the first part 100%. But Felicia was in a very bad place emotionally and was thinking that her whole family hated her when that wasn’t the case. I feel like in a situation like that you kind of have to be the bad guy just to ensure the family that Felicia was safe. Even if everything turned out alright in the end, it could’ve gone so much worse if Felicia had wanted to be kept hidden for longer. [...] Elias calling Amie would’ve been an easy solution to this whole debacle but we would’ve lost the drama. It’s still somewhat of a plot hole though, like you said.

I understand it was done this way for dramatic effect, but that doesn't really patch up the plot hole.

I also found it strange how many people turned on Felicia after Jack ruined her reputation in the press. I talked about this in an ask I received.

I don’t understand why the public turned on Felicia so harshly. And Leila too, for that matter. The way Jack told the story about how these two women had things done to them should indicate that they’re not the ones to be blamed. If I read this article and found out an 18-year-old girl got pregnant by a “violent criminal” who forced her to abort and then abused her I would not be angry with the girl. I would be angry that she was physically abused and also outed on her sexuality for being bi. If I read this article and found out Leila had been cheated on by her husband repeatedly with her best friends, I wouldn’t be angry at her. I would not agree with the decision to turn to alcohol (same as Felicia turning to drugs), but I wouldn’t blame them. And I feel like a lot of people should’ve been on Leila’s side after finding out the reason why they divorced. I don’t understand why people are saying they’re disappointed in Felicia and calling her fake when she’s been through so much trauma in her life. I feel like if this actually happened in real life, all the blame would be shifted to the men because they’re the ones who—in this story—are painted as the bad guys (with the exception of Jack, considering he was anonymous).

I got another anonymous ask sent in after this, pointing out how the anger directed towards Felicia was considerably more about her drug use rather than the abuse she endured. Here was my response to that:

[...] the drug use should’ve been understandable considering the stuff Felicia had been through was also written in that article. I don’t know. I can understand people unfollowing her if they didn’t want their young children to be exposed to all the controversy, but it’s still strange that everything Felicia received was hate messages. Did everybody just skip over the part where the anonymous source stated that Felicia was violently forced to have an abortion by an ex-criminal and probably did so out of fear for her life? Yes, we know this is fake, but why didn’t anybody seem to mention this? [...] they seem to have written this storyline with the idea in mind that the public was against the whole Kroon family. Felicia got comments such as “So fucking disappointed in you and your family”, “What a nasty fucking family”, “You and your family are so fucking disgusting”. So I think Leila received plenty of hate for drinking instead of divorcing her husband sooner and basically turning a blind eye to all the problems her family went through. That’s what Jack told the press, at least. The anger seemed to be directed towards every member of the Kroon family and that didn’t make a lot of sense to me.

Again, this is something the writers did to dramatize the situation and they kind of forgot to consider that what Jack actually told the journalist wasn't as incriminating for Felicia and Leila as it were for Mats and Elias.

The magic of season 3

What season 3 really excelled in, to me, was delving into some more serious topics as well as showing the gradual development of Amie and Elias' relationship. Amie and Elias are the prime example of how a slow burn is so much better than having a couple get together too fast, like Felicia and Ludde did back in season 1.

While season 3 was still airing, I wrote a post dedicated to questions I had received about Elias and Amie. Here's one of the things I said about them:

I think Elias’ interest in her really started to grow after he saw how caring Amie was to Felicia, and later on connecting with her on how they both ended up back in Oskarshamn after following their dreams which didn’t exactly turn out the way they expected. Yes, Elias has always sort of been watching and admiring Amie from afar, but that interest didn’t start growing until he actually got to know her. The experiences they had in the US and Stockholm, respectively, probably changed their mindsets and in my opinion it makes so much more sense for them to get together now than it would’ve in season 1 or season 2.

I still believe that Elias and Amie are the best-written couple of the whole show (at least so far), because they just make sense. We'll see what season 4 has in store for them because we have yet to actually see them in a romantic relationship, but I feel like their personalities and characters just fit together really well.

Another thing I really appreciated was the depiction of Felicia and Ludde's declining relationship. Things like that happen so easily, and I liked how we see Felicia do this huge gesture of planning a picnic for Ludde in 3x04 but there were still underlying problems between them. It's like that in real life too—no matter how big of a romantic gesture you make, communication will always be the number one priority in any relationship and that's where Felicia and Ludde fall short.

The obvious disconnect between them when it comes to money is also important. It's been like this from the beginning, but season 3 gave us an actual conversation about it.

Felicia: Please, I can’t talk about this. Seriously. It was stupid of me to bring this up from the beginning. Fuck, I get such anxiety talking about the future— Ludde: You get anxiety? I’m the one walking around with no money in my account. Mom and dad had to get a loan to pay off mine and Andreas’ fines. I’m playing on a shitty old synth, and living off you like some leech. That’s anxiety. Felicia: Everything isn’t about money. Ludde: Says the one who has money. Felicia: Move out then, if it’s so fucking hard to feel like a leech.

This felt very realistic. Of course a person like Felicia wouldn't think money is everything when she's never experienced financial issues. She's able to move out into her own one-bedroom apartment as soon as she's turned 18, it seems, and doesn't worry at all about the cost of furnishing and decorating it. She didn't even pay for it herself, because Mats mentions he's the one on the mortgage loan. It seems like Felicia has never had an actual job either, and that's starting to worry her because she has no idea what she should be doing.

Felicia: [...] I don’t know what I’ll be or what I’ll do in the future. I don’t know that. Ludde: You’re still an influencer— Felicia: Don’t say I’m an influencer, please. Do you think I want to be that my whole life? It’s not even a career. I'm— I’m graduating next year, and I… My grades suck, and— I have no plan. I only have you. Not like that—I have you. That’s what I have. I want to be here, in Oskarshamn. I don’t want to go to the US and chase some dream and be a hockey wife. That’s not a life. Sometimes I wish neither of us had a plan, just us together here.

Felicia's character finally offers something interesting here, which I've waited for since season 1. She's not just a party girl anymore who has issues with drugs. She's a privileged teenager who is co-dependent on the guys she meets and who has anxiety about the future, to the point where she wishes she could stay in Oskarshamn in her little apartment forever stuck in limbo.

She has to face a harsh reality when Ludde decides to break up with her, and later on when her name is slandered in the press and people all over the country are sending her hate messages. Her own family is furious with her and Felicia has nobody. She's pushed away a lot of people and her mental state is just crumbling in front of our eyes.

It's a strong storyline and actually very well executed. Almost everything gets taken away from her, and at the end of 3x07 you can almost feel what Felicia is feeling. We've been with her through this whole journey, almost, and we understand why she feels like suicide is the only answer.

It's tough to watch that final scene of 3x07. It's greatly amplified by Alva Bratt's superb acting, but the writing of the journey there is also amazing. It's very difficult to write a sensitive storyline like this.

Overall, I don't have a lot of critique towards season 3. I loved most of the episodes. I elaborated on this further in a separate post:

[Episodes 3x04 and 3x05] showcased what Eagles should be all about so well, which is relationships plus the struggles you go through as a teenager in a small town, and then of course hockey. The hockey game episodes are really good, even if I don’t think 3x05 topped 2x05 (the game where Ludde got tackled and knocked out). I loved the contrast in Date night of the budding relationship between Elias and Amie and then that fight between Felicia and Ludde on the cliff. [...] It was interesting to see how this sweet gesture from Felicia turned into a fight between the two of them. I thought that was very realistic, because no matter how big of a gesture Felicia made to apologize there were still underlying problems that they needed to talk about. I also loved the “non-date” between Elias and Amie in this episode. It was cute to see them goofing off before the movie started and then talking about it on the way home. I liked how Elias could connect to her on how they had both returned to Oskarshamn. The recent episodes that dropped last week (3x08 and 3x09) were very strong and discussed some important subject matters [...] They were dark, but not necessarily bad because they needed to happen. However, I have to say that I prefer Eagles when it’s about hockey and teenage relationships. 3x04 and 3x05 made me kind of nostalgic for season 1 and I liked the vibe they both had.

Eagles season 3 is in my opinion the best season of the show so far, and we haven't seen any signs suggesting that there is any reason for season 4 to not be even better.

Season 4: Hopes and wishes

Considering how each season has been increasing in quality bit by bit, I have pretty high hopes for the writing in season 4. I'm excited to see how the transition from teenager to young adult will be portrayed in the main characters, and what their future will hold for them after they've graduated.

My main questions are if Felicia and Ludde will find their way back to each other or if they'll remain broken up (that would be realistic as well), if Klara will reconcile with her mom, what's in store for Elias's hockey career, and if Amie will leave her label and maybe opt for something more independent.

I also want to see how Felicia deals with the new home she's checked in to, and if Ludde will in fact go to the school now that it seems Andreas will be getting into trouble again.

Amie and Klara are kind of wild cards here, because it somewhat feels like they've already reached their happy endings. Amie is famous and successful in her pop music career, and Klara has found her place as a businesswoman following in her father's footsteps. Maybe these developments should've come in season 4 instead of rushing them.

Nonetheless, I have faith in the writers. The writing suffered a little in seasons 1 and 2 but it has gotten better. Most of the things I pointed out about season 3 were just small details in an otherwise stellar season.

In conclusion...

This post was critical, but I tend to be critical of every show I watch. Eagles is still a very special show for me and having grown up in a Swedish small town myself I'm very fond of the show and its characters.

So huge thanks to the creator, Stefan H. Lindén, for making this show a reality and also to the director Carl-Petter Montell for contributing to the writing in season 3. And of course the writers of the show which include Michaela Hamilton, Fanny Ekstrand, and Anton Nyberg (plus Amanda Adolfsson who helped write 1x02 and 1x05 and Simon Ekbäck Nordström who is credited for helping with the hockey scenes in 3x05).

I hope you guys enjoyed this long, long post and major kudos to you if you read this far!

[destinywillowleaf]

do you ever look at yourself and think "man i don't have any self control"

anyway here's a list of headcanons of the ninjago cast playing wizard101 because i've been playing it again. i've put way too much thought into this so. hope this resonates with some niche(?) crowd. (if you have different opinions i'd be down to hear them!!)

they got into the game between S10 and S11 and hoo BOY was it a trip to watch. none of them actually knew Skylor played until Kai brought it up to her and she mentioned pulling a character out of storage.

memberships for all because that's a lot cheaper if you're only gonna play for a bit (and just??? in general??? like if you're gonna be with the game for a bit it's just cheaper to nab a one month membership and barrel through as much of the game as you can. helps to have pals.)

Zane is in charge of the account so they can shift around crowns if someone need them. Unrelated, but he's the only one allowed to be the banker in any board games with money(Monopoly, LIFE, etc.). Lloyd is never allowed to be the banker. Ever.

Kai, Jay, Cole and Zane usually all play together in a team. Lloyd, P.I.X.A.L., and Nya team up on their own and are somehow further ahead, but usually the three will just go off on their own and team up if they're on at the same time by chance.

Cole and Lloyd also like to team up because Lloyd's unhinged Gamer Energy and Cole's dedication to the role of "keep others alive" means they breeze through dungeons.

The group tried PVP once. Against each other. It went about as badly as you can imagine.

Sometimes the group just runs around as their pets when trying to sneak through areas. Jay has sent the dummy thicc copypasta into the main chat with small alterations to sneak past censors when they went through Wysteria.

If the whole group's playing, P.I.X.A.L. and Zane take the Treant, Jay uses his cloud, Nya follows in her mech, and Skylor, Kai, Cole, and Lloyd are ferried around in Skylor's Yuletide Parade Truck.

can and will quote stuff from the game at each other. "Hello, tiny wizard!"

names and other fun facts under the cut because this is. a lot.

Kai - Kyle Firecatcher. Fire.

Would want the Fire Whirlwind mount SO BAD but never actually gets it.

Has a dragon(like the one you can get for 350 gold) named Chancellor Smokey and loves him to bits even if the dragon can't do anything; spends a lot of time in Pet Pavilion

"Look, I know there's a benefit to expanding to other classes, but Fire is just objectively good"

Favorite spell to use is probably Meteor Strike, with second being a full-powered Heckhound.

Fishing king. Didn't think he'd like it at first(it's fishing and it takes Precious Pet Energy) but it's better than real fishing and the fish can be used for stuff.

Jay - Valkoor Stormwraith. Storm.

The one who bought god knows how many packs trying to get a specific drop. Probably the Storm Beast pet.

Arcus Cloud mount ftwwwww

Is not allowed to Leroy Jenkins. Ever.

Emotionally attached to his Piggle named Meatball

Got really into Monstrology so he wound up with an armful of Myth Sprites. he loves them all dearly.

Cole - Cole Sandstone(but in universe? 100% Rocky Dangerbuff). Primary life, secondary myth

The only reason he's a myth wizard is to get Earthquake. Doesn't use any other myth spells after that.

Resigned to be the healer of the team, but that doesn't mean he's gonna be nice about it. If one of them says they need healing, he's going to ignore them that turn unless it's a dire need

Rainbow hair because that's an option now and it'd be fun

Absolutely buys a dragon and names it Rocky the moment he can. That's his dragon!!

Also probably has a pet named after his mom through "Lily". Definitely something soft but ferocious

Zane - Boris. Ice.

Chose the name because he thought it would be amusing.

Has the pupil-less eyes

Typically the one taking hits so Kai and Jay can deal stupid amounts of damage, since Ice is Tanky without the risk of losing the healer.

Has the house with the most features and fancy things. Probably has a well-maintained garden and a dedicated crafting area.

Is That One Guy with all the pets. They just roam around his house.

Lloyd - Calamity Unicornfountain. Balance, with a preference for the spirit schools.

Is only playing as a female wizard because "Luke Skywalker is good, but I can call myself the Calamity to befall someone and that's awesome".

100% has a wolf of some kind to represent Akita named Dakota(it's the closest he could get). Would get the Festive Fox but He Can't

Picked the slit pupil eyes because he thought they looked neat

Honestly enjoys teaming up with strangers to take on areas. He'll just vibe in the commons and take up assist requests. It's nice not to have the pressure of being the green ninja when helping out

Hoards treasure cards thanks to dragon instinct. Shiny is good and shiny is MINE

Nya - Scarlet Seacatcher. Primary death, secondary ice.

Didn't want to be "the girlfriend here as a healer" so she decided only to heal herself

Probably has one of the mech mounts

Has looked Kai dead in the eye while teleporting to him for a killsteal

The default name for her Midnight Cat was "Magnificent Waffles" and it stuck

Turned off her own chat functions after someone wanted to send her a dick pic

P.I.X.A.L. - Tatiana. Primary myth, secondary enough of the other schools to get All The Golems(except for Balance).

Really only picked myth to "round out" the group, but she's come to appreciate having minions. Makes running off on her own easier.

She likes the golems :) basically her bread and butter is summons and golems.

Is the second-highest level wizard in the group and probably moved on without them more than a few times.

Absolutely has a two-person mount. Probably the Treant

Continues to try and find ways to work around the censoring system.

Skylor - Amber Wyrmthorn. Balance, and leans towards the elemental schools.

She's been playing for YEARS and has the gear and levels to prove it. Getting used to the new stuff was weird but worth it.

Her favorite thing to do, hands down, is stitch low-level gear onto her high-level gear so she seems unsuspecting and then absolutely wrecks house

Her character's original clothes make her look like a watermelon and she refuses to let anyone actually see that appearance

"How much money have you spent on this game?" "Yes."

Has forgotten what things no longer exist/what quests have changed. She was shocked to find out the Fairy Queen was a retired creature

edit: i just realized i never included the pictures hold on