#iconic showstopping brilliant amazing talented

[kindahoping4forever]

Hi Crystal!

Just looked through your blog to see if I had missed any thoughts you shared on the album, but instead I saw you said you didn't post anything bc no one asked. So I came here to ask ☺️

What song surprised you most? What's your current top 3? What line(s) keeps rotating in your head? What stood out to you most on first listen? (Feel free to ignore the questions if you'd like to just ramble about the album in general. I just want to know your thoughts haha)

What did you end up thinking of the iHeartradio set list? I was surprised they didn't play Bad Omens and that Complete Mess was actually the only new song they played.

They really did look hot. Especially Ashton. I feel like it's always especially Ashton lmao.

I really appreciate you both looking for and asking my opinion! (And sorry for the delay in answering, omg this week has been a lot both IRL and in 5SOS-land 🫠)

Current Top 3 would have to be: Caramel, Bad Omens and... Moodswings? Either Moodswings or Red Line. (I should do the song sorter to see how I really feel I guess 😌) I don't know if any particular song surprised me but I think in general, I was pleasantly surprised at how much their lyricism has continued to evolve. There's so much symbolism and truly poetic imagery in this album, while still maintaining an accessibility that doesn't distract from the sometimes painful honesty of what's being talked about.

Which was another surprise for me: they talked so much about wanting this album to feel lighter and brighter than CALM, how they purposely wrote in major chords and keys, how that's what the world "needs" - and they accomplished that, this album is energetic and a delight... but also contains some of their saddest lyrics to date. 😅 I'm definitely not complaining, sad girl hours all day everyday, I actually love that juxtaposition, but that was funny to me.

Another pleasant surprise (for me anyways lmao) is how Ash-heavy this album feels - and I don't just mean how rhythm heavy it is or the fact that he actually gets lead vocals (that would've been enough though 😍) and is so audible in the group vocals. One of the things I've always loved about 5SOS is at least to me, I feel like they each have distinct songwriting/melodic voices and tendencies and so it's often apparent whose artistry is driving a song. And so to me, I hear a lot of Ash melodies and I see his large fingerprints all over some of these lyrics. Which makes me both happy and sad because like I said, this album is lowkey depressing as fuck but you know what, the man knows how to make beautiful art out of that darkness so 😌

I don't know if I'm ready to say it's my favorite album or their best album yet (historically I usually say YB is the fav and CALM is their best, for the record) but I am definitely very happy and very proud of what was accomplished here! 👏🏻👏🏻

iHeartRadio thoughts under the cut!

I really really loved the iHeart set! I saw them at Wango Tango (another iHeart event) and while I will never complain about seeing them live, their set there was... puzzling to say the least. Only 5 songs total and the only new song they did was Me Myself & I, which was only a few weeks old and had not received the radio exposure that Complete Mess had (and also a bit too mid-tempo for the set IMO).

I think they definitely made strides to correct those issues in the iHeart set and it was a dream! At a radio/festival show, the goals should be crowd engagement (which is why I think they mostly stuck to their best known songs) and giving a performance so memorable, no matter how many artists play, you're the one people go home remembering. For that reason, Teeth should always be in their festival set, even if people don't know it (and it seemed like a surprising amount did!), it slaps so hard, it's gonna be a moment whether you're a fan or not. I think they should also consider making Complete Mess a staple in that kind of set, it's also a great live moment and I think gives a good example of what kind of band they'd like to be seen as in this era. And I will never get over the fact we got No Shame/Easier/More at a radio show, that's nuts. It's what we (and More) deserve. 10/10.

[gasstationlady]

GUTS | a lando norris social media au | pt. 1

pairing: lando norris x singer!reader, ex!drew starkey x reader

y/n l/n’s latest album is speculated to be about her ex. however, she already moved on.

note: fc is olivia rodrigo! i hope the quality of the photos are okay, everytime i saved my drafts on my phone they became blurry :(

disclaimer: no hate to drew!! i just needed a famous ex. also so sorry for any grammar mistakes or typos!!

masterlist ⋆ next

yourusername

liked by oliviarodrigo, yourbestie and 4,779,774 others

yourusername ❤️❤️❤️❤️

View all 33,719 comments

yourbestie soooooo proud of you 🥹 this album is amazing

user teenage dream made me BAWL i love you 😭😭

user MISS Y/N, YOU HAVE DONE IT AGAIN

oliviarodrigo obsessed.

user omg are the songs about drew

enews

41,202 likes

enews In Y/n’s new album, “Guts,” Y/n shares information on her old relationship with Drew Starkey. The pair started dating last year until ultimately breaking up in the beginning of 2023.

View all 2,978 comments

user omggg this is the drama i’ve been waiting for

user you guys really chose to focus on this when not even half the songs are about drew

user this album saved 2023

yourusername

liked by yourbestie, bellahadid and 6,313,074 others

tagged yourbestie and conangray

yourusername some GUTS bts, still can’t believe it’s out but i’m so happy it’s yours!!!! been sitting on these songs for a few months and although some of them are a little outdated, they still mean a lot to me!!

View all 36,295 comments

conangray spilling my guts absolutely everywhere

yourbestie LETS GO GUTS

user album has in fact been on repeat since the release🫡

user “a little outdated” girl please elaborate you can’t leave us hanging like that 😭😭

f1updates

28,459 likes

f1updates Lando Norris with fans in New York! Most likely staying there until the #SingaporeGP

View all 763 comments

user 🤤

user what is he doing in new york?

↳ user no literally bc it’s kinda sus there’s no reason for him to be there 😭😭

user ugh he looks so good

deuxmoi

57,380 likes

deuxmoi 🚨 NEW COUPLE ALERT 🚨

View all 1,128 comments

user obviously it’s y/n l/n but which driver???

user you guys are srsly bored

user kinda iconic of her to go from drew to an f1 driver

↳ user fr i just know drew has to be feeling some type of way rn

user Y/N DATING AN F1 DRIVER WAS NOT ON MY 2023 BINGO CARD

yourusername

liked by yourbestie, zendaya and 2,116,844 others

yourusername soooo excited to be performing at the @/VMAs!!! make sure to tune in on Tuesday at 8pm on #MTV

View all 2,351 comments

yourbestie talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, showstopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely never been done before

zendaya AHH can't wait!!

user wait am i crazy or am i connecting the dots right now

landonorris

liked by danielricciardo, charlesleclerc and 1,950,468 others

landonorris Quick NY stop

View all 5,233 comments

danielricciardo Where was my invite?

↳ landonorris ...

user IS THIS A SOFT LAUNCH OMFG

↳ user the fact that he was the one to soft launch first IM CRYING she's living my dream 😭

user is that y/n 😭😭

user GUYS ITS HAPPENING

drewstarkey

834,801 likes

drewstarkey bad idea right?

View all 6,689 comments

user this is so messy omg 😭😭

user NO HE DID NOT

↳ user wait i'm so confused why are people freaking out?

↳ user "bad idea right?" is one of the songs y/n wrote about him and the song literally talks about her wanting to go back to him

user posting this right after guts and lando's soft launch is CRAZY

[dangerousbride]

Rukia pretty 🥹

She's just so beautiful, intelligent, funny, kind and selfless, iconic, talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, showstopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, everything about her is perfect...

[ruanbaijie]

first creator shoutout of the year! changing from a monthly thing to a bimonthly thing because I’m lazy here are some of the talent brilliant incredible amazing showstopping spectacular art pieces, edits, and gifsets that graced my dash the past couple of months!

🤍 art

[x] mdzs x the price we had to pay by @k-dayun 

[x] spirited away by @crimson-chains 

[x] vegas with his iconic witchy shirt by @thatgothsamurai 

[x] new member of the hot priest club amen by @thatgothsamurai 

[x] mikey by @mirshroom

[x] hayakawa aki by @mirshroom

[x] goth boy by @rakiah 

[x] luo fumeng by @zazrichor 

[x] humanity’s strongest by @kelpls

🤍 edits

[x] vice versa x how fates intertwine by @oswlld

[x] sleep with me by @oswlld 

[x] succession season 3 by @romanticspeculation 

[x] hayakawa aki by @ohreigen 

[x] mikage reo by @kanbayashis 

[x] alon by @xiaolanhua 

🤍 gifsets

[x] lbfad by @yilinglaozu 

[x] hayakawa aki by @11x11pm 

[x] merlin 10th anniversary by @arthurpendragonns 

[x] park joong gil by @thoresque 

[x] beyond evil by @thoresque

[x] hotd x labyrinth by @vhagar-apologist

[x] favourite targaryens by @lucrezia-borgia 

[x] everything everywhere all at once by @binariesuns 

[x] hotd x we know we’re damaged by @padme-amidala 

[x] wednesday by @makingemi 

[x] hotel del luna by @jangman-wol 

[x] hero by @natahjikio 

[x] lbfad by @baijingting 

[x] the blood of youth chaotic gifset by @belsmultifandommess 

[x] love by @belsmultifandommess 

[x] iwtv vampires in season 1 by @dirchristophernolan

[x] tlou by @wakandasforever 

[x] hayakawa aki’s morning routine by @bl-astoise 

[x] the theerapanyakun’s real love languages by @spicyvampire 

[x] a love letter to puentalay from vice versa by @ardentlytess 

[x] yoon sae bom by @venuseda

[pensiveant]

I've deliberated and this is my new saw movies hierarchy:

Saw I - she remains an icon, a star, talented, brilliant, amazing, showstopping, spectacular etc.

Saw III - in hindsight this is actually my second favorite overall. I'd initially thought it was going to get better from here but it didn't lmao

Saw VI - this one had some of the best traps and lots of my favorite moments

Saw IV - because I'm enjoying the insane reveals ngl

Saw V - some good trap moments but not much of anything else going on

Saw II - I just? Did not like this one? I found Matthews unbearably annoying

Saw: The Final Chapter / Saw 3D - hilariously bad!

[the-invisible-queer]

Do you have any other favorite characters in WoT besides Lan? Iirc, you mentioned Perrin being one of your favorites

Warning: Includes spoilers for season 2 of The Wheel of Time under the cut

PERRIN MY BELOVED

I have loved him since watching the first episode and watching the man get traumatized by accidentally killing his pregnant wife 😭

Don't care for the whole Perrin loves Egwene storyline they were going for in the first season

So glad it looks like they dropped it for s2 - but who knows if it comes back

I loved his relationship with Hopper and was absolutely devastated with him when Hopper died

I love ghe whole thing of him becoming a wolfbrother! Love how it's been developed since the beginning. Can't wait to see where it goes next

Also love when we get to see him fuck shit up

I love his brotherhood with Mat with my whole heart. The definition of a bromance

Definitely have to check out more of Marcus Rutherford's work

ALSO MAT

I loved Barney Harris' portrayal of him in s1. I love that his main concern was taking care of his sisters. I was bummed originally when I found out Barney wasn't coming back in s2.

HOWEVER, I love the way Donal Finn portrayed him in s2. His portrayal is obviously so different. You see a different side of Mat we didn't get in s1.

He's still a bit of a fool (affectionate) but

But I am mad that they kind of dropped his concern for his sisters

Loved the scene of him and Rand talking and them both telling each other that their friends are not better off without them 😭

Loved that he did what he could not to touch the cursed blade

AND THE WHOLE THING WITH THE HEROES OF THE HORN *chef's kiss*

His absolute devastation when he stabbed Rand 😭

I love Mat Cauthon with my whole heart

ALSO MY WIFE NYNAEVE

Let me start off by saying: Talented, Brilliant, Incredible, Amazing, Showstopping, Spectacular, Never The Same, Totally Unique, Completely Not Ever Been Done Before, Unafraid To Reference Or Not Reference

AN ABSOLUTE FUCKING ICON SINCE DAY ONEEEE

She is a survivor, a warrior, a protector, a healer

And she is my (and Lan's) EVERYTHING

Love that the only time she seems to channel is when Lan is in danger (more like dead or dying) because BITCH SAME - I know she's channeled besides that but let me have thus

I absolutely loved the scenes where she was living her best life with Lan and their daughter 😭

Wish we could have seen them actually reunite in reality but those scenes at Two Rivers will hold me over til s3

I'm curious to know what's behind the mental block that prevents her from channeling

I would die for her

I would kill for her

I am lowkey in love with Moiraine - but that's mostly because Rosamund Pike intimidates me and brings that intimidation to Moiraine and I am attracted to women who intimidate me

She is such an interesting character

I'm glad we got to explore more of her past in s2 and meet her family

Also her whole thing with Siuan makes me so soft - up until the end 😭

I'm always here for any type of queer representation even the ugly side of it

STOP THE HOMOPHOBIA AND LET THEM BE FISHWIVES TOGETHER GODDMANIT

I have a big old crush on Lanfear/Selene

Give me a hot villain and you KNOW I'll fall in love with them instantly

And she is a hot villain

But also woman just wants to be loved

I need to know what happened between her and Lews Therin - it's always a bitch ass man tearing beautiful women down

I am so in love with Natasha O'Keefe and have been since Peaky Blinders

She has my consent to tie me to a wheel if she wants

LASTLY

Ishamael, my beloved 🥺

Another hot villain

I wouldn't say he's a fav but I definitely was a little bummed when he got killed

I really think Ishamael, Lanfear, and Lews Therin had a throuple situation going on and I don't care if anyone disagrees

Because at the very least Ishamael and Lews has something a little gay going on 👀

[the-foungaytions-of-degay]

♧ kisses u

kisses u back<3

You’re my: boyfriend/future husband/guyhusband<3

How I met you: i'm pretty sure tumblr mutuals but we got close in bibobceps server (rest in peace bibobceps u will be missed)

Why I follow you: bc ur AWESOME literally AMAZING

Your blog is: iconic and wonderful

Your URL is: TOTALLY CORRECT AND AMAZING

Your icon is: she<33 yes your icon is so womens rights

A random fact I know about you: you were going fiddler on the roof in middle school n went back to see your theater department a little bit ago

General opinion: AMAZING WONDERFUL BRILLIANT SMART TALENTED SHOWSTOPPING STUNNING BREATHTAKING /g

A random thought I have: cas came on screen like 2 seconds ago :)<3 also <|:) wizard with a wizard hat

[ianenjoyer]

[zaralovestaylor]

thinking about Taylor’s little pause after “the crowds in stands went wild” in long live🥺🥰

[lesbianrobin]

What do you think are the good and bad aspects of each season of ST?

ok 1. thank u for this question omg and 2. this answer may or may not be a mess, but either way it’s long (almost 7k words lmao) bc i’m insane, which is why it’s under a cut. it’s still by no means an exhaustive list but these are the things that just kinda came to mind.

also i realize you asked “good and bad” and i wrote this whole post as “strengths and weaknesses” which um. is not Exactly what you asked. but close enough <3 i also ended up including a lot of au ideas ksjdckmn bc like i personally hate when people say a certain plot or whatever was bad without suggesting anything that could have improved it yknow so whenever possible i tried to provide Some idea for fixing the issues i had with the show!!

season 1

strengths (this is probably gonna be the longest section but that’s because a lot of these strengths also apply to s2/s3 by default)

nostalgia and authenticity

this one’s pretty simple, but i think that season one did a good job of blending classic eighties media homages (such as the many many e.t./el parallels) with explicit pop culture references (such as mike’s yoda impression, mentions of the x-men, etc) to create a show that’s essentially dripping in early eighties nostalgia without it feeling too forced. before st, i think the most popular depiction of the eighties in mainstream media was that overly exaggerated neon scrunchie aesthetic from the mid to late eighties, and it was usually done in a comedic sense first and foremost. st took a different approach, instead focusing on the early eighties, a time that’s often ignored in favor of going either Full Seventies or Full Eighties, and i think that this choice likely resonated with adults who lived through the eighties and hadn’t yet seen something that felt quite so accurate to their own adolescence. a lot of young people who watched st were totally unfamiliar with this period of time, unfamiliar with books/movies like “stand by me” that st borrows from heavily, and i think st lent more seriousness to the eighties than most young people had experienced so far, and this was refreshing and interesting!

the use of dnd in the show is also quite genius in a way i’m not sure i can articulate?? it isn’t something Everyone would have played at the time, but it’s something that existed within a different context back in the eighties than it does today, and it really lent a sort of authenticity to the naming of the show’s sci-fi elements. like, of course these kids would name parallel dimensions and monsters and superpowers after these similar things in their favorite game! it just feels so real and it grounds st in our reality moreso than you might expect from the typical sci-fi or horror universe.

utilization of existing tropes

almost every single character in st clearly originates from some popular trope. the plot itself is riddled with classic eighties movie tropes. almost every single element of stranger things can be clearly traced back to some iconic eighties film or just to, like, overused horror/sci-fi/mystery/coming-of-age movie tropes in general. this might sound like a bad thing, but it really works in st’s favor! starting off with familiar tropes gives st the ability to easily create a lot of complexity and make a big impact by selectively deviating from those familiar, comfortable tropes!! while el’s whole plot, hopper’s character, etc, are all examples of this in action, i think the steve/nancy/jonathan plot is the greatest example. even from the start, the fact that good girl barb dies while nancy is off having sex with her asshole boyfriend is an incredibly thorough inversion of the most well-known horror movie trope in the book. how often do girls in horror movies have sex for the first time, walk home alone in the dark of night, and live to tell the tale? nancy and jonathan’s dynamic at first glance is a sort of classic “good girl meets boy from the wrong side of the tracks, discovers he’s actually got a heart of gold” thing, but instead of following this well-trodden path, st diverged. nancy is brash, impulsive, and at times downright insensitive. jonathan is angry, bitter, and actually a bit of a creep at first. while they have the capacity to emotionally connect and support one another, they can also bring out each other’s darker side, which is not what we’ve come to expect from that initial tropey dynamic.

in addition, steve, the popular rich asshole boyfriend, is actually... a human being! unlike the cartoonishly evil jocks that we’ve come to expect (especially from eighties movies), steve has complexity. despite his initial immaturity and selfishness, he’s also kind to barb, he backs off when nancy says no, he’s gentle and sweet when they sleep together, his first big Dick Move of the season is in defense of nancy, he realizes the error of his ways after the fight and does what he can to fix it, he’s worried about nancy when he sees that she’s hurt at jonathan’s house, and to top it all off, he ends up saving both nancy and jonathan’s lives when he could have just walked away, and the three of them all work together to fight the demogorgon. like... steve began as the most stereotypical character of all time, and by the end of the season, he had one of the most compelling and unique arcs among the whole cast!

finally, at the very end of the season, instead of dumping steve for jonathan as expected, nancy ends up getting back together with steve, and they’re both on friendly terms with jonathan. i realize that i just kinda. summarized s1. but my POINT is that i don’t think the dynamics between the monster hunting trio would be nearly as fun and interesting had the characters of nancy, steve, and jonathan not been set up to follow certain paths that we already had charted in our own heads. like, within the first couple episodes of s1, it’s pretty obvious that nancy and steve are gonna break up, nancy will get with jonathan, and steve will either die or go full evil or just never be seen again. like, duh! you’ve seen this story a million times! you know that’s how it’s gonna go! so, when the story DOESN’T go that way, the impact of each character’s arc and the relationship dynamics become stronger due to their unexpected complexity and authenticity. 

distinct plotlines separated by age group

this one’s rather obvious, but the way that the adults in s1 were essentially in a conspiracy thriller while the teens were in a horror flick and the kids were in a sci fi power-of-friendship story and all three converged at the end... wow. brilliant showstopping etc. not only was it just really well done and unique, it also gave stranger things near-universal appeal. like, there’s genuinely something for pretty much everyone in season one!

casting

obviously this applies to every season sorta by default, but when i think about what made season one So successful, i always think about the cast, and not just winona ryder. yes, she’s absolutely amazing in the show and it’s very doubtful that st would be as big as it is today without her name being attached to it from the start!! however, i think the greatest determining factor in st’s success is the casting of the kids, particularly millie bobby brown. like... el is just absolutely incredible. she’s amazing. this has all been said many times before so i won’t harp on it, but millie and the other kids are all So talented and charismatic and i think their casting has been instrumental to the show’s success.

strong visuals

the way that multicolored christmas lights which have been around for decades are now kinda like. a Stranger Things thing. jesus christ. those lights are probably the biggest stroke of stylistic genius on the show.

atmosphere and setting

this is probably like. the least important one here for me sdjncdsc because i think s2 and s3 both had like Even Better atmospheres and shit but s1 was good too and it laid the groundwork!! i know a lot of people would have preferred st be set somewhere more Spooky with lots of fog or giant forests or whatnot, and while i do enjoy thinking about alternate st settings and how they might alter the vibe, i think hawkins indiana was a good choice. as the duffers have said, placing stranger things in a fictional town allows them more flexibility than if they’d gone with their original plan of using montauk, new york. besides that, i think the plainness and like... flatness... of small-town indiana just Works. like, the fact that hawkins is never really scary on the surface is a big part of the horror in the lab’s actions and their impact. hawkins isn’t somewhere that people just disappear all the time. it isn’t somewhere known for strange occurrences (prior to s1, that is). it isn’t somewhere shrouded in mist and secrecy. hawkins on its surface seems like the sort of place with no secrets and nothing to fear, and that’s the point! the lab is out in the open! it’s right there! everything is so close to the surface, yet so far out of the public eye, and i think that really works.

the byers family’s whole deal (specifically the joyce/jonathan dynamic)

this is going here bc i miss it so bad in s2 and s3. i’m not one of those people who believe The Byers Are The Whole Point of the show, because st is and always has been an ensemble, and el, hopper, and the wheelers are just as instrumental to the plot as the byers, but ANYWAY, i do think the byers were one of the most interesting aspects of s1. joyce’s difficulties with supporting her sons as a poor and (implied mentally ill) single mother, jonathan’s stress as a result of having to earn money, care for his brother, and keep the house in order when his mother is unable to do so, and the resulting tension between them when will’s disappearance and supposed “death” brings the situation to a tipping point? holy shit! it’s so good! that argument after they see will’s “body” is just incredible and gut-wrenching. their relationship feels so real and messy and i think it’s just... good. also winona ryder REALLY acted her heart out and she carried a lot of s1 which i think people often forget to mention so i’m saying it here.

weaknesses

pacing/timing

ok so pacing is probably going to go in each season’s weaknesses, to be honest, because i think they all had a blend of some good and some bad pacing. good pacing is invisible pacing, though, so i probably won’t be putting it in any of the strengths sections and will only be focusing on it in the weaknesses. i’m also probably not going to talk about weird day/night cycle things, just because i don’t want to get nitpicky on timelines because that would require going back and rewatching things to double check timing which i don’t wanna do at the moment lmao. anyway, when i think of bad pacing in season one, i primarily think of two things: nancy’s little trip into the upside down and subsequent sleepover with jonathan, and the sort of staggered nature of the climax in the final episode. the latter is simple so i’ll explain it first: while i understand that each group’s respective climax is like part of a chain reaction and that’s why each big moment happens separately and at different times, i think that st is strongest when the whole group is together, and i think that makes the stakes feel higher too, so i’m not In Love with the way s1 separated everyone and gave each group their own climax. 

okay, now on to the nancy/upside down thing! idk if i’ve ever talked about it before, but i think the worst decision made in s1 by far is the inclusion of nancy’s brief trip into the upside down, wherein she dives headfirst into another dimension with absolutely no backup, watches the demogorgon chow down, freaks out and runs around for a minute, and then leaves. like... what the fuck? even putting aside what an idiotic decision this was (because i do think nancy’s tendency to rush into things headfirst is an intentional and consistent character trait), it just kind of destroys any remaining suspense surrounding the demogorgon and the upside down, and it accomplishes basically nothing besides scaring nancy enough to have jonathan sleep over, which is lame. i will break it down.

like, first of all, nancy just getting to waltz in and out of the upside down and get a good, long look at the demogorgon makes the entire thing far less mysterious, and by extension far less scary. like... before this scene, we the audience haven’t got a good look at the demogorgon. we’ve seen its silhouette briefly and we’ve seen a blurry picture of it, but nothing more, and i think that is far more effective at building fear than this jaunt nancy goes on which gives us a full view of the thing and makes it into less of a horrifying nightmare and into more of a humanoid animal. like, maybe this is just me, but i found the demogorgon far less intimidating after that scene than before. it also lets nancy and jonathan know For Sure that they’re right without providing any crucial information that they need to fight the demogorgon (aka it’s unnecessary to the plot), which removes a very compelling story element (the faith nancy and jonathan need to have in order to keep going against a vague and poorly understood enemy, the doubt they might have about each other and their own sanity, the possibility that they might be wrong, the trust they need to have in each other) a bit earlier in the plot than i believe is ideal. at the end of episode 5, nancy goes into the upside down and jonathan doesn’t know where she is and it’s intense!!! you’re thinking like, oh fuck, not only is nancy missing and fighting for her life now too, jonathan might be implicated in her disappearance!! some people already think he’s the one who killed will and people know that he took creepy pictures of barb and nancy before they both disappeared, maybe this is gonna cause some serious problems for him!! maybe nancy will find will in the upside down and she’ll help him survive!! fuck, maybe she’ll actually die!! this is huge!! and then episode 6 starts and they’re immediately like oh nevermind jonathan found the tree and got nancy out and she’s fine. my point with all of this is that nancy entering the upside down could have done A Lot in the grand scheme of the plot, but all it did was just... get jonathan to sleep over so he and nancy could have some awkward romance moments and steve could see them together and pick a fight. which could have honestly happened at Any point while nancy and jonathan were working together to hunt down the demogorgon, without ruining the demogorgon’s and the upside down’s mystique. so yeah <3

weird behavior and dumbass decisions that make no sense (aka the whole camera thing)

gonna go off about the teen plot again sorry but: why was nancy so unbothered and quick to forgive jonathan for taking those pictures? girl what the fuck are you doing? why wasn’t that a bigger deal? why was jonathan’s motivation for doing it so weak and why did they just kind of forget about the whole thing? why did nancy TRACK HIM DOWN AT THE FUNERAL HOME while he was PICKING OUT HIS BABY BROTHER’S CASKET to be like hey can you tell me what’s in this creepshot you took? it’s insane. it’s so insane. i mean i think the funeral home thing is hilarious and i don’t mind it being in the show necessarily but like my point here is that i think a lot of character decisions in s1 just kind of.. happened because they Needed to happen for the plot. like, they wrote this plot that required jonathan to be secretly taking pictures of the party and required him and nancy to work together after seeing something odd in the pictures, but they didn’t like... really consider what that event would mean for their characterization and relationship. the whole thing was sort of just dropped with minimal discussion and i think it did both nancy and jonathan’s characters a disservice and was really mishandled.

lighting and saturation/color grading

i am literally begging horror/sci-fi shows to let me see shit. i GET IT okay i understand that when you’re doing cgi effects it helps to keep the lights down and i’m not mad at any of the lighting in the demogorgon/upside down scenes!! i’m really not i think the demogorgon scenes in s1 all look sick!! but like... dude. the colors. where are they. why does everyone look like a vampire. i know blah blah this was probably an intentional stylistic choice intended to mimic film at the time blah blah but dude a lot of old movies are very colorful!! please just let people have color in their faces so everyone doesn’t look like a sheet of paper!!! also i’m white and not a professional lighting designer so yknow grain of salt but i think lucas was kinda poorly served by the lighting sometimes in s1. not Hugely so, not to the degree that i’ve seen poc be poorly served by lighting in other shows, but there were some times where it felt kinda like the lighting setup was just not designed with darker skin in mind. 

horror

i just personally don’t find s1 very scary like... ever. i don’t think they were really Trying to be extremely scary yknow so i’m not counting this as a big deal, but i do think that each season has improved on the horror aspects. i think s1′s horror lies more in the mystery and the unknown than in what’s seen onscreen, and as i’ve said already, i think s1 kind of fumbled that suspense ball.

season 2

strengths

the possession plot

i’ll warn u rn this whole s2 strengths section is probably gonna be really short bc idk like. how much there is to really say i feel like it’s all so self-explanatory skjncmn. anyway yeah the possession plot!! eerie as fuck, and noah OWNED. so did winona tbh and finn and sean etc but like. noah. wow! i think the possession plot helped the show maintain a good amount of tension and suspense throughout the season, and a lot of scenes with possessed!will are flatout disturbing to watch. in a good way. i think the mindflayer and will’s possession were far more genuinely frightening than s1′s demogorgon, and it provided a new layer of depth and intrigue to the antagonist besides just “bad monster want eat people.”

tone and aesthetics

halloween season... literally halloween season. halloween season. that is all.

actually i will elaborate a bit and just say that i think s2 did a good job of having the sort of foreboding vibe that s1 was often going for, but without the annoying darkness and desaturation. so points for that.

also st2 is like one of the best Autumn pieces of media ever like it just. like steve and dustin on those train tracks with the fallen leaves all around them.... god. god the vibes are unparalleled. all of the halloween stuff also really contributes to the nostalgia st runs on yknow it makes you think about childhood and trick-or-treating and you kind of get transported like damn... i remember going to the rich neighborhoods to score the good candy..... idk i just think the whole thing is incredibly effective. 

“babysitter” steve

by sending nancy and jonathan off together, the show created a problem: what to do with steve? this problem pushed them to create the unconventional and unexpected duo of steve and dustin, and the world is so much brighter for it. seriously though we all know steve and dustin are great i don’t need to argue that point. all i’ll add is that i think allowing steve to grow in this way, serving as a mentor figure and becoming genuine friends with someone so unexpected, really took the originality of his character to the next level. no longer content just to defy his archetype, in s2 steve begins branching out in ways that never would have been considered in s1, creating an incredibly complex and interesting person from the sort of character that most shows would have simply written out or killed off for convenience’s sake. and it works and steve and dustin are such a joy to watch and i love them. <3

the lucas/max plot

so first of all max mayfield is the most perfect baby girl on god’s green earth and idk what i would do without her but anyway. i think lumax is the best romantic relationship in the show and not just because they’re the only ones with like an age-appropriate approach to the whole thing. it’s also because their relationship accomplishes more than just putting the two of them in a relationship!! lucas and max spending time together motivates billy to do his evil shit, providing more conflict in the narrative, and it also helps establish max as part of the group in a relatively natural way while giving both her and lucas a great subplot. lucas (and dustin) has a crush on the new girl, they start spending some time together, and lucas ends up needing to decide whether he’ll keep the secret of the upside down and lose her, or risk both of their lives by telling her the truth. that’s a pretty big, character-defining decision that he gets to make!! max has to choose whether to trust this boy she barely knows and endanger herself, or to walk away and stay safe, yet another great character-defining choice that also contributes to the sense we get as an audience of max as somebody who’s incredibly lonely and desperate for love and connection. this post is way too long already and i have a ton more to say so i’ll stop now but yeah i think lumax really Works in the show without ever distracting or detracting from the overall plot and narrative in the way that some other ships (coughjancycough) often do.

balance between the normal and abnormal

s2 i think did a pretty solid job of melding daily life with more fantastical sci-fi horror elements. i enjoyed seeing so much of the kids at school in the first few episodes!! you really get a strong sense of where they’re at in life, what their daily lives are like, and you get a sort of gradual shift into madness that makes everything feel more grounded than i think it would if they had just leapt straight into the horror shit, yknow? 

the el and hopper dynamic

go back and rewatch s2 and tell me that’s not one of the most moving portrayals of parenthood and trauma and growing up that you’ve ever seen. you can’t. or well you can but i won’t listen. i really can’t imagine stranger things without el and hopper’s relationship, and it’s my absolute favorite part of s2. their whole dynamic is so beautiful and complex, and gives them each amazing personal arcs in addition! the black hole scene is literally one of the show’s greatest moments of all time. any given scene between the two of them in s2 is just guaranteed to be heartwarming as well as heartbreaking, and i think that makes for an incredible show.

weaknesses

flashbacks

okay this applies to Every season they All have too many flashbacks but in s2 specifically... please stop showing me shit from season one. i watched it. i know what happened. you don’t need to spoon feed everything to me!! flashbacks can be a really helpful way of delivering information to an audience, but st has a bad habit of not only being kinda demeaning in how often they flash back to shit that the audience already knows, but they also have a bad habit of using flashbacks almost as a crutch to avoid having to deliver information subtly and naturally. 

you know i gotta say it... the lost sister

this is so sad. the lost sister really is like a great concept for an st episode, and i’m not mad about the idea of st taking a break from the normal action to focus on one story for a full episode, but the execution of it was just dreadful. kali and her crew feel very over-the-top and stereotypical, and its placement in the season totally kills the tension and excitement that was built in “the spy.” 

i think the lost sister honestly could have gone over far better, even with the stereotypical fake-feeling gang kali has, if they had just swapped it with “the spy” like... ok, the end of episode five has el setting off to find kali and will collapsing on the ground seizing. right? imagine if, instead of immediately following will to the lab, we’d followed el. we don’t know what’s happening with will, but it’s a very simple cliffhanger that leaves us on edge without making us feel cheated by the show cutting away. we follow el on her little journey, everything happens much the same as canon, and then at the end, el sees hopper in scrubs. she sees mike, screaming, sees that they’re both in danger. holy shit!!! what the fuck!!! what’s happened since we left will seizing on the ground??? we feel el’s fear and confusion. she decides to go home. and then... boom. “the lost sister” is over. now, we rewind, right back to will seizing on the ground, and “the spy” commences. we learn how they got into the danger that el saw in the end of “the lost sister,” and we sit on the edge of our seats all through “the spy” and “the mind flayer,” KNOWING that el is on her way back to save them but not knowing when she’ll arrive!! idk i don’t think that would have necessarily saved lost sister but i think it may have alleviated some of the issues that i and many others have with it, timing-wise.

the nancy/jonathan sidequest

once again, the idea of nancy going off on her own little mission to find justice for barb after s1 is like. amazing. genuinely i love that plot for her and i can’t imagine anything better for her to have focused on in s2. unfortunately though i think her and jonathan’s little trip to see murray was just kind of... lame. the whole thing just felt like an excuse to get the two of them alone together, yknow? which is fine i guess people contrive all sorts of situations to get characters alone together for romance reasons but in this case i think it just really doesn’t work for me because of what it’s juxtaposed with. like, will is POSSESSED, and jonathan is just off on a mini road trip and sleeping with his bestie, and jonathan never seems to communicate to joyce/will that he left town, and joyce never like... thinks to tell him that will is like sick and fucked up and they’re looking at him in the lab??? like it’s so weird i know joyce always forgets about jonathan when shit’s happening with will but jfc you’d think at some point in that like... 72-ish-hour period where jonathan was out of town she would have thought about him. like at least once. maybe i’m forgetting something and she mentioned him sometime and i missed it but even still, i hate the juxtaposition of nancy and jonathan just like cheers-ing at murray’s place and sleeping together and whatnot while everyone else is dealing with possession or trying to hunt down dart yknow? it feels really boring in comparison and i think it could have been done far better. like it was SO insanely easy for them to get into the lab and get an admission of guilt and escape with it!! i think it might have been a lot more engaging if maybe someone from the lab tailed them to murray’s place and they had to like lose the tail and race to get the recording out to as many news outlets as possible before they got caught, or something like that. the tension in their plotline is completely resolved in episode four!! episodes five and six are just them screwing around and addressing envelopes. while there were a lot of strong ideas in this plotline (i really enjoy nancy going out of her way to get justice, and the fact that they have to water down the story to make it believable), i just think the focus on nancy and jonathan getting together hindered it a lot without adding a ton to the plot or their individual characters.

season 3

strengths

starcourt mall as a setting

while i don’t think the mall was utilized quite to its full potential (something i could make a separate post about if anyone’s interested), i do think that starcourt was a genius addition to the series. i’ve said this before, but building a new mall is a literal Perfect in-universe justification for a significant leap forward in fashion and aesthetics, and it provides a great location for characters to just... be characters. idk how else to articulate this i just think that the mall is a great setting to let people interact with each other and to bring people together who may not have been otherwise (i.e. scoops troop). not to mention how sick it was to see the mall get wrecked toward the end kdjncdkm like they were able to do so much more with the mall in terms of like The Finale than they could with just the byers house or the cabin or the school or even the lab. i love all the back tunnels they run through it’s such a fun like acknowledgement of how this glitzy eighties mall is just a real place where employees get shipments and take out the trash and shit idk it’s all about the perfect facade and what’s hidden what’s underneath what’s hiding in plain sight etc etc i’m just saying words now. anyway. 

willingness to experiment and go against expectations

gay robin. neon aesthetics. giant fucking meat monster. i know some people hate both the neon and the meat monster but i personally think they were kind of amazing and like. yknow regardless of personal tastes i think it’s impossible to deny that s3 had a lot of incredible visuals, and they’re all visuals that just wouldn’t have been possible if the show were too afraid to stray from its s1 aesthetic. robin being canonically gay (and her resulting friendship with steve) and the season’s striking visuals are two things that most everyone (besides like homophobes skjncdknm) can agree were great, right? and they were both departures from where the show began and what we all expected!! so yeah i think while some of the experimentation in s3 wasn’t ideal it was also that experimentation that allowed for some of the season’s strongest elements to come about.

the hospital sequence (and the season’s action/horror scenes in general)

this one is fairly self-explanatory. while they may have underutilized the “body snatching” element of the season, the hospital sequence with nancy and jonathan fighting off their possessed bosses did an amazing job of building tension and creating a genuine sense of really intense and personal danger.

in general i think that s3 melded action and horror rather well, particularly in the sauna test, the hospital, and when the mindflayer busts through the roof of hop’s cabin. horror can come from many things, and in this case, st elicited horror largely from the feeling of helplessness, and it was really effective for me personally. i think it worked better for me than s1′s brand of horror because it doesn’t rely so much on a lack of knowledge or a sense of suspense that inevitable disappears upon a second viewing.

the body horror we got in s3 was also really fun! that’s it i just think all the blood and guts and slime were fun and i would like more of them. once again, the impacts of body horror are less dependent upon the viewer being in the dark or unsure as to what’s happening, and as such i think it tends to be a little more effective at eliciting reaction in the long term.

timing and mechanics of the battle of starcourt/finale

i think the battle of starcourt is just fucking awesome, and beyond that personal opinion, i think it’s the most high-stakes and intense finale of all three seasons, and this is for two main reasons! 1. el is out of commission, and 2. (almost) everyone is in the same cental location. this means that (almost) everyone is in danger all at once, and they are all working together at the same time to fight the same threat. s1/s2 have their groups more fragmented for the finales, and while i understand why in each case and i wouldn’t call either season’s finale necessarily weak, i do think the centralized nature of the s3 finale just Works on another level. in s1 and s2, large segments of the cast are already perfectly safe by the time el dispatches the primary threat. in s3, however, everybody save for dustin and erica is still in danger up until the last moment, and el is seemingly (you can def debate how much power she still had in her when she peeked into billy’s mind and whether the memory broke the mindflayer’s hold on him or if she was actually controlling him to some degree) completely vulnerable. this increases the tension and raises the stakes, making the finale a real crescendo to fortissimo as opposed to a series of little mezzo forte moments. i hope everyone reading this knows music idk how else to phrase that my brain is stupid.

emphasis on friendship and adolescence (but in a different way than s1/2)

this is definitely a controversial one but i think that s3 really did like... show a side of friendship that had been more or less unexplored thus far in the show. el and max were amazing, and i think it’s really nice that we got an opportunity to see the kids have some growing pains as well as see them support each other through Normal Adolescent Stuff like boyfriends and breakups instead of just like. death and trauma. this is maybe just a personal preference, but i think it can be really enlightening and provide a lot of depth when you get to see how characters respond to normal everyday conflict and not just how they respond to giant world-ending conflict!! letting el use her powers for goofy teenage shit like spying on boys and messing with mean girls at the mall is not only fun for her and the audience, but it also really emphasizes just how much those powers are a part of el, making it that much more devastating when she loses them at the end of the season. 

weaknesses

tonal dissonance

so this is like. obvious. but it must still be said! i won’t go on and on about it since we all know this so i’ll try to like talk about it from an angle people don’t usually? anyway. it seems to me like they were maybe a little worried about s3 being too dark. while the choice to really lean into humor was definitely driven by the sorts of eighties teen films from which s3 drew inspiration (like fast times at ridgemont high), i think it was also done in an attempt to alleviate the more troubling implications of some events in the season, particularly the russian bunker plot. like, yeah, st can be incredibly dark, but if they’d played the whole “children being stuck inside of a foreign military base, tied up, tortured, and drugged” thing completely straight without the humorous elements that exist in canon, it had the potential to be like... disturbing on a new level. steve and robin don’t have powers like el yknow their kidnapping/torture doesn’t have any sci-fi elements to sorta soften the blow. they’re just innocent teenagers being brutalized and traumatized by grown men. so anyway yeah i think maybe the writers were concerned about this storyline coming off as too dark and they wanted it to be a little more whimsical but they ended up pushing way too hard in that direction and creating extreme dissonance at times. this goes for joyce/hopper/murray/alexei too, but to a lesser extent. i think the ridiculousness in that group felt a lot more like... realistic. but still. 

newspaper plot

once again i feel like i don’t even need to say this skjdncmn we all know it was insane how the show basically ended up delivering the message “while misogyny is a serious problem poverty and classism are not” and i’ve said it on this blog a million times so i don’t need to repeat myself. i’ll focus on another weak point of this plot: the fact that it completely separates nancy and jonathan from everyone else. once again, the show’s preoccupation with j/ancy held them back! like... can you imagine a version of s3 where nancy and jonathan both worked in the mall? i have a lot of ideas about this possible au and like how the plot could play out differently if they worked in the mall but first of all it’s just more realistic, second of all it further utilizes the mall as a central setting, and third of all, it would bring everyone together. as it is in canon, nancy and jonathan were unnecessarily isolated from the rest of the group, and this isolation was detrimental to both of their characters. like, they only ever get to interact with each other! if they’d gotten summer jobs in the mall, they could have had more interactions with the kids/steve/robin, and they absolutely still could have had a similar argument! maybe in this case, nancy notices the rat thing (or something else odd) herself when taking out the trash behind the mall, and she wants jonathan to ditch work with her to check it out bc she thinks it may be related to the lab. jonathan doesn’t want to ditch work because he needs his job, nancy argues that they’re working shitty mall jobs anyway and who cares if they get fired, and we get more or less the same thing as s3 without the cartoonishly over-the-top misogyny. i mean honestly i think the rat shit could have been cut entirely it didn’t rly... accomplish much of anything. in my opinion. like imagine s3 without the rat plot you literally would not be missing anything except it would be more surprising when the dudes melted into goo at the hospital. so yeah i think it would have been better if nancy and jonathan had jobs at the mall, weren’t isolated from everybody else, and were maybe absorbed into the party’s plot or the scoops troop’s plot from very early on, allowing them to interact with more characters and have a less... dumb.... plot. like god splitting up nancy and jonathan between the party/scoops troop would have been So Much better i just. sdkjcnksdmn anyway yeah.

briefness of group reunion/separation of groups

remember in s2 at the beginning of “the gate,” where mike and hopper had a confrontation and max and el met for the first time and el hugged everyone and steve and nancy had their sad little moment together outside... where’s that energy? obviously the s2 reunion wasn’t that long either, but it made space for some significant emotional moments to take place. s3′s reunion had some hopper/el/mike resolution, but besides that... there was nothing, really. i just think that the whole group getting together in s3 was SO exciting and powerful the way they did it (with both the scoops troop and the adults having their own Big Moment reconnecting with team griswold family), but the emotional potential was more or less squandered. 

i also think in s3 at times they were really stretching to keep everybody separated even though it made no sense. and like... in s1 the separation worked bc nobody else knew that (x group) was experiencing weird shit too, and beyond that, each group (as i mentioned in the s1 section) was sort of operating within their own genre and bringing something unique to the season. they’ve stopped doing that though! now, the groups aren’t separate bc each plot is tonally/structurally different, the groups are just separate bc... they need to be, because it’s a big ensemble cast and you can’t just have them all be together for a whole season or it would be way too difficult to coordinate things and keep the show dynamic. all this is to say that i’m excited for s4 because the location differences make it so there’s a Reason for each plot to be separate at the beginning, and i think that’ll work better.

general ridiculousness

i dont mean like i think it’s bad that they made jokes this is just me lumping in all the dumb shit like hopper not worrying about el and not wanting to check on the kids, him and joyce bickering long after they both know they and their children are in danger, max seemingly forgetting that billy is a racist abuser, etc etc. i think many of these are just a symptom of the show 1. trying desperately to keep the groups split up a certain way even though it may not make any sense, and 2. trying to fit into a certain genre/trope mold when their actual characters are more complex than the tropes they’re imitating. this is so fucking long already i am not gonna elaborate further rn but i trust u all know what i mean.

soooo... yeah, that’s about all! i mean it’s not all there are definitely many more things i could talk about and i know i focused sorta disproportionately on the teens which is my bad :/ but i’m done for now. thank you for asking, and apologies for the delay in responding!! i’m sure some people reading (if anyone read this far) will disagree with some of what i’ve said and that’s alright like i’m not The Authority on st or anything i’m just trying to talk about like my own thoughts yknow? so yeah luv u all i hope someone enjoyed reading this!!

[angelhummel]

Can you please tell us one positive thing about Klaine that starts with each letter of Kurt and Blaine's name?

I can try!!

Kindred spirits Uniquely themselves Romantic gestures Talented brilliant amazing showstopping

Best friends 5eva Lucky in love Adorable boys are adorable Iconic television couple Natural chemistry Entertaining to watch

Ahh this was fun! Thank you for the ask, hope you like xx

[imissthembutitwasntadisaster]

An unsolicited ranking of the ballets I’ve seen over the years, by someone who technically did ballet for 10 years but was never very good at it.

The Nutcracker: A classic, and we do love the mouse king.  The drama! The excitement! That tragically fades significantly in the second act because the numerous little dances were not meant to all be performed together but they are and so it just runs on for a really long time and loses major momentum! 5/10, the second act is not my thing. 

Swan Lake: Let me be honest here.  I do not care for extended routines with the corps all doing the same thing.  And that is very prominent here.  6/10, because it’s definitely not bad, and the individual dances are lovely, but the constant swans make it not my thing. 

Sleeping Beauty: An icon a legend a beauty.  Gorgeous, gorgeous colours, we love it.  The wedding scene at the end with all the fairytale creatures is a little out of nowhere, but nevertheless.  A brilliant ballet, the rose adagio deserves the appreciation it gets.  9/10. 

Romeo and Juliet: ICONIC the BEST the DRAMA the ROMANCE.  The fight scenes! because I do love a fight scene! The TRAGEDY.  It’s just so well-done and amazing.  10/10. 

The Snow Queen:  Listen, the English National Ballet has this one version of the Snow Queen with the music coming from Prokofiev’s The Stone Flower, and I can’t find a recording of it anywhere because they put it on so rarely but it was amazing.  The colour contrast between the town and Gerda and the realm of the Snow Queen, the whole narrative, the setting, the costume, the choreography which did have a heavy peasant dance feel, which I do always love, and then cut to the very traditional ballet of the Snow Queen and her snowflakes.  It was so amazing. 

Le Corsaire: Honestly the choreography I saw felt a little weedy.  It’s about Pirates and adventure and true love and it felt a little prancy and not bold enough.  Also the fact that they just died at the end felt like poor plotting.  7/10, fun but a little disappointing. 

Cinderella: Also fun! Nothing hugely special, but very traditional and lovely, and the coach was great fun, as were the step-sisters.  9/10. 

Giselle: Girl he doesn’t deserve you.  Her mad dance was incredible, and the Wills were so ominous! It was quite short, and the second act was a little unvaried, but over all very good.  8/10. 

Flames of Paris:  100000/10.  Brilliant showstopping incredible talented amazing.  So good.  It’s about the French revolution and it’s just so full of energy and fire and tragedy.  Absolutely spectacular. 

Beauty and the Beast: I saw the Northern Ballet do a version of this.  It was fun, and it had some interesting ideas, with a lot of focus on a large mirror for example as the show of vanity of the prince and then later as a cause for grief.  8/10, it was good but nothing particularly special. 

The Little Mermaid:  Kept the original ending, which we do love to see.  6/10 because I actually remember basically nothing about this besides enjoying it.  

The Red Shoes: This was actually a modern ballet based off the film the Red Shoes which is all about ballet and obsession with it reflected in the fairy tale about the red shoes.  It was so good.  The narrative was much more modern, which was really interesting, because it’s about ballet there was a lot of focus on backstage warmups and exercises, and the costumes were amazing, because they were all based on clothes from the 40s or 50s which is about when it was set.  1000/10, incredible.  It can actually be found on bbc Iplayer currently, which leads me to believe that it can be found probably elsewhere online.  I would absolutely recommend.  

[toomucharitime]

#invented crying #legends only

[the-invisible-queer]

Pay attention to Cam during the dancing bits because the way he executed the moves is *chef's kiss*

He's always my favorite to watch during this number

Flawless. Graceful. Talented. Brilliant. Incredible. Amazing. Showstopping. Spectacular. ICON.

[fairycosmos]

When I was younger I was very overweight & this girl was one of my "friends" at the time but she was a really egotistical person and constantly put me down by calling me fat or ugly etc and just really knocked my confidence down a lot. She was always super skinny and pretty and just one of the popular girls and she knew it. So fast forward like 10yrs later and my life went off (in a good way) and all of that baby fat just melted off me when I hit my 20's. I see that girl now on instagram constantly complaining about all the weight she has gained and how she cant find a boyfriend and I'm just sittin here sipping my tea letting karma work her goddamn magic cause baby she does!!! What an iconic movie moment to see my old bully suffer the same thing she taunted me with all those years agoooo

omg talented brilliant amazing showstopping incredible. don’t you just loveeeeeeeeee how things work out sometimes! :^) the universe literally said Ur the main character n the villain is NOT getting a redemption arc lmfao. literally love to see it. some friend she was?? literally what the fuck. it’s always worse when they pretend to be there for you n put on the innocent act for a fuckin ego boost. this reminds me - i saw this woman on tiktok the other day talking about how the reason skinny ppl have such a vitriolic hatred for fat ppl and such a fear of becoming fat themselves is because they know they’ve never had to develop a personality beyond their conventional attractiveness which has allowed them to skate thru life in a way bigger ppl cant. and when they age/gain weight they have literally nothing else to offer and they no idea how to handle it because the only thing that gave them confidence before was being a dickhead to fat people. so it’s just extra extra sweet that she’s now getting a taste of her own medicine n she’s alone because of it LOL. anyway i’m happy for you babes <3 <3 !! so glad your life popped off n that you found the fulfilment you deserve. hearing about underdogs succeeding always gives me a high akin to coke or smth like. it makes me believe in the universe again because i’m so sick of seeing the assholes winning. imagine peaking in school..........embarrassing ! sending love to you x

[literatigifs]

I love these kinds of questions!! Thank you for sending it!

I don't really have a solid pick for a limited number of specific scenes that I like with them, but I'll try to pin them down for you:

Their argument when Jess goes backstage in "They shoot Gilmores, don't they?". I just love scenes like this where the tension is obvious and this scene never fails to make me laugh and at the same time go 👀 as Jess and Rory just fire remarks at each other back and forth while Dean is a literal third wheel. Their chemistry is just amazing regardless of how their scene goes, and this is definitely no exception.

The diner scene at the end of "There's the rub". I just adore how Rory catches Jess at his own lie and confronts him about it, it's a contrast to Jess finding a way to stay and eat the food he brought previously at Rory's house. And again the chemistry and banter here is just hilarious and at the same time eye-catching.

Rory pushing Jess around in numerous scenes in "Dead Uncles and Vegetables". I really wish we got to see this side of Rory more when they dated, solely because it's so entertaining and at times you get the notion that Jess actually likes being bossed around by her, which make these scenes all the more enjoyable to me.

Their first kiss at Sookie's wedding is of course Iconic, and I love that scene for obvious reasons, but I think my favorite "first" kiss of theirs is in "Let the Games Begin". Just the entire leadup throughout that episode to the scene, Jess and Rory at first being hesitant and shy before leaning into the kiss, "Then she appeared" playing in the background.....talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, showstopping, spectacular.

One of my absolute favorite scenes is their first meeting in "Let me hear your Balalaikas ringing out". I know that some people love to be all outraged over this episode and Jess's behavior, but their first scene beats whatever anyone has to say about it, to be honest. I feel like I could write essays about just why I love it so much yet always come up short in explaining it, but just the general feeling of them as they meet with each other in such a long time, and after their last meeting in season 4 ending so sadly, it's irreplaceable to me. I guess it's because they're both meeting each other when they've changed in a certain way, with Jess becoming better and Rory becoming stuck in this constant insecurity over her future and career, but it's also them meeting without any specific pretense or "baggage", in a way. The previous times they met in season 4 were practically overflowing with the baggage of their failed relationship, but here it feels like they've moved past it because a longer period of time has passed. I guess in a way, the door to their first failed relationship closed when Rory told him no in 4x21, so here, they're meeting each other without all of that weighing on them. And when they do, it's just beautiful to me. It's just in how both of them are nervous and unsure of how to approach meeting each other again, but they easily fall into a familiar pattern that they knew from even before they were together. They actually feel like old friends meeting with each other after a long time, and I love every bit of their conversation. Jess telling her about his book, Rory being so happy and giddily talking about writing a note in the bookstores that keep his book for the staff recommendation, them wanting to meet up with each other again, and even their next scene before L*gan comes in, just their dialogue makes me so happy to hear it. It just feels like a peek at how "older" Jess and Rory would be like, where their way of communicating with each other is still there, but in a way it's also better. I feel like this is in large part to Jess also becoming more "open", in a way, and Rory also being through a bit more in her life, but still not having found her footing again yet.

I can't really pick between their more "famous" scenes because I love all of them, but I also wish we got more of them just dating in season 3 because despite some of their arguments and issues, they also just looked so cute together in small snippets that we got of them. There's so many movie nights and conversations that were hinted throughout the episodes when they dated, and I always love those little moments of casual physical intimacy that they have, like how they hold each other's hand while walking together or Jess holding Rory close to him.

Overall, I love most of their scenes together, and despite the general issues I have with the revival, I can't help but love their first scene in it, as well. It goes back to what I said about them falling into the familiar pattern of being like old friends, even when they hadn't seen each other in a longer while. Like I love how Rory immediately takes to ranting about her issues to him, and yes I'm aware of Jess's role in that scene of being the one who gives her a "solution" to her problems, but I also love that he's the one that suggests it. It's not L*gan, whom she's been seeing for like a year, it's an old friend of hers whom she hasn't even seen a longer time ago but who gets that she's going through something and offers some suggestions that might help her. And yeah sure, the idea of her writing a book for her and her mom is cheesy and "lame" or w/e for some people, but I always thought it was Jess taking a note from his own experience by writing his first book and settling into a job that he likes. Maybe it was a way of reworking through his feelings then, so he offers it as a possible solution to Rory, too.