#it is not undermined by the story that came after it bc the relationship between the two sections of their narratives is more complicated

[ladystoneboobs]

no of fence to jon snow fans who for some reason care about his exact age, but these discussions just annoy me no end. not only bc there's no way any weirwood flashbacks bran has to rhaegar/lyanna will come with time/datestamps, but also bc there's always comments like this:

SEVERAL turns of the moon (ie, months)?! have these people never seen a human baby before or just have no concept of their ages? even if we take into account travel time from the toj to wf, meaning jon was not a newborn too fresh out the oven when catelyn and robb arrived, there's still a difference between a newborn and a 3mo and an even bigger difference between those infants and an older baby 5-7mo. there's very good reasons these lines were cut. whatever birthdates can be worked out internally for jon and robb from when they're first mentioned as 15 and 16 don't matter in the end, bc grrm doesn't care about a consistent timeline and the actual text of catelyn's pov and ned's convo with robert about cheating on her should outweigh any guesstimates about jon's official nameday wrt robb's. catelyn may not have cared for jon, but she would sure as hell have noticed his nameday if it came before robb's and made him ned's firstborn. if jon's birthday canonically came before robb's then either ned's cover story would not involve adultery (not impossible for him to sire a bastard before his wedding), or he'd just give jon a new nameday along with his new name to fit the adultery lie. it makes no sense for him to lie about one and not the other, undermining the big lie with a little public clue of his story not adding up. whatever else she was as a stepmother, cat wasn't stupid and a bastard who was actually the eldest son being raised alongside her trueborn heir could be an even bigger insult than whether he was born of adultery or not.

BUT, the unknowability of jon's true birthday is not the only reason this annoys me, it's bc this is all based on the assumption that jon must be older since rhaegar/lyanna ran off together before ned married cat, as if both boys must have been conceived asap as robb canonically was when his parents consummated their marriage. and that's not how human reproduction works! even if you don't understand how fast babies grow in the first year, you should know that people who get pregnant do so through ovulation cycles and a lucky sperm finding an egg and all that, not just immediately getting knocked up as soon as one has p-in-v sex for the first time. not unless you only know mean girls sex ed where if you have sex you will get pregnant and die. (even tho lyanna did die, there's plenty of canon examples where pregnancy did not lead straight to death. also examples of people who did not get pregnant right away and even some who are/were sexually active and childless without always having moon tea on hand.) we can't know how long lyanna was having sex before that sperm+egg match happened or even how long she was with rhaegar before losing her technical virginity. if they were married, doesn't it make sense to think they didn't consummate their relationship until the wedding night either? that's the only leverage there is to ensure a status as wife rather than just mistress.

and while i just said grrm doesn't care about exact timelines and a lot is still foggy surrounding the rebellion and esp rhaegar, there is one timemarker wrt robert's rebellion he voluntarily threw in, time and time again: that stannis was besieged at storm's end for almost a whole year. that siege, which mind you, did not match the duration of the entire war. it only started after robert won his battles at gulltown and summerhall, returned to storm's end, and then went out and lost the battle of ashford, leaving his homeland open to the reachermen. the same siege which only ended when ned made a detour there after the sack of king's landing, before going to the toj. even if lyanna may not have given birth that exact day ned found her, she could only be waiting in that bloody bed for weeks at the most, not months. so if rhaegar knocked her up the very same night he carried her off and jon was still a newborn when ned found her after the siege of storm's end had ended, wouldn't that mean lyanna was pregnant for well over a year? that's not how human pregnancy works either! so, maybe that's proof that jon and robb, whichever order they were actually born in, were actually very close in age as babies, much closer than if they were both conceived asap.

and really, jon's actual birthdate does not matter imho, when he was raised not just as the bastard to robb's trueborn heir, but with robb also known by catelyn and the world as ned's firstborn (which he was, in any case, as jon was ned's nephew by birth). what difference could a birthdate before robb's make (even were there some means of discovery) after ned, cat, and robb are all dead? if one is looking only at his birth parents then he's only a firstborn child on lyanna's side, but definitely a second son on rhaegar's side. maybe he was always meant to be a second son with a not much older half-brother! even if the aegon fka young griff is not in fact rhaegar's son, he'll still be known as aegon vi targaryen, meaning jon will never be known as any father's elder son. if i may reference mean girls again, it's not going to happen.

[frazzledsoul]

I also got detached from the show in s5 and s6. In my case it was bc constantly there were being introduced new characters and plots that soon after being introduced were left without any satisfactory conclusion: Malik and his daughter, Tess's sexuality, Randall's background, Randall's anxiety seemed to go away the moment he knew about Luarel.. and how he manipulated Rebecca was never really addressed either, and even Philip's personality was changed from one season to the next...

I agree that Nicky was no saint but imo "siding" blindly with one of the two is just unfair. Jack didn't behave great either. As Nicky said, he had a very black and white mentality and at times bc of that he could be very cruel. He was cruel with Nicky and later on, and even if unintentionally, he was also cruel to his mother.

About Miguel and Rebecca, I don't think he was ever presented as her second soulmate. I was expecting the moment in which he would be addressed like that, like when he gave her that brooch earlier this season and I thought she would wear it constantly just like she did with the necklace. But that moment never came. Rebecca was never shown giving him or even returning the love speeches Miguel gave her, even if she appreciated them. And outside her thanksgiving outburst, she was never shown telling him i love you or I'm in love with you or any of the sort either. So I don't know why people 1) were so mad about his appearance on the train and 2) claim such a great love story between them. If the show would have wanted Rebecca to have 2 soulmates they would have given us her perspective of the relationship or she claiming Miguel like that, but they didn't, not when she was alive and not on the train and there were plenty of occasions in which they could have. Instead they specifically chose to tell the story of an idealised romantic couple and their legacy and how the one that lived kept the other "alive" till her last moments. The show explored the possibility of having more than one great love with Kate. The speech Toby gave her on the finale was all about that and it was beautiful. But for Rebecca it simply wasn't like that. I don't hate Miguel and Rebecca's relationship, it was hopeful and sweet seeing Rebecca move on. And I definitely dont think acknowledging the fact that for her Jack was the one, undermines her relationship with Miguel, as some people in the fandom seem to do.

I don't hate Nicky, but I think the way in which a lot of the fandom views him as this lovable teddy bear who never did anything wrong is completely off base. Jack had legitimate reasons for severing his ties with him and with not thinking he was safe around his family. He did not have legitimate reasons for lying. Nicky is also a grown man who was twenty-four when Jack "disowned" him: it was not up to Jack to fix his problems after a certain point. And honestly, manslaughter is a fairly red line for a lot of people. It's understandable why Jack gave up.

What the show wasn't interested in exploring is how Jack kept this a secret for so long and exactly what happened to Nicky after the war. It wasn't possible for Jack to keep Nicky's survival a secret from his parents and I doubt he was just released into society after what happened, but the show didn't want to talk about that. They also didn't want to talk about Jack went from the depressed, withdrawn, reticent man who came back from Vietnam to the ebullient, gregarious, optimistic person he was when the babies were conceived. It's almost a total personality change and they could have spent some time telling us how and why he changed, but they didn't.

As far as Miguel and Rebecca go, they were largely a background couple until the last year and I think the show worked better that way. Their relationship was quieter and probably what Rebecca needed at that season of her life, but they never were this dramatic, passionate love story. He was a companion and a friend and she loved him in her own way, but it wasn't the same as before. It couldn't be.

[zitkaplushie]

nightwing secret files liveblog:

this is gonna be a long one so it’s under a cut!

taking wing-

is that jason??

i like this 'a christmas carol' type exposition i'm ngl

i'm not sure if 'jason''s dismissal of the circus is dixon using an unreliable narrator, or if dixon actually believes that

god i hate this art so much

how dare u insult the teen titans in any way 😤 i like the name

also titans cameo!!

more awful jason characterisation (pls dixon just stay 8732894738 feet away from jason)

"without robin i have no family" i guess the titans are just chopped liver huh

"i always thought that one day i'd be batman" nope nope nope nope you have 0 understanding of dick's character if that's what you think mr dixon

i love clark having a part in dick becoming nightwing - i adore it - but the way dixon retcons the importance of the titans, and especially kory, in dick becoming nightwing rubs me the complete wrong way. i'm choosing to read this as a between the scenes moment, but i 100% dixon intended this to replace the titans' importance. and the way ppl just swallow it up w/o thinking about the reasons behind why dixon would want to erase the titans - and kory - pisses me off lmao

"i didn't mean to stay so long [with the titans]" *eternal screaming* he really wants to undermine the titans at every possible turn wow

at least the next page acknowledges the importance of kory in dick's life, but right afterwards we have "lmao she must've liked your costume. all the girls did. you're a chick magnet" (paraphrased) and i'm just back to sighing

also hi i'm mad at the framing of babs being the endgame bc of course they'd do that. and also at kory being shorter than dick. thanks! i hate it! i'm willing to bet that dixon asked for that specifically.

"this is where i came in" i'm confused at this part but tbh i don't care enough to think abt it any more

i'm also ughhhh at the way they're trying to give bludhaven importance. i don't care, i don't like it, he should've never moved there

ok i do really like that last page

the fact files things are good enough, i love the art for the haly's circus one! the pt barnum ref is 😬 though (ik ik it's the 90s but fjskdh why)

lost pages: teen titans-

ok so, i don't like devin grayson. i don't like her writing at all, i don't think she gets the characters at all, and hot take: if you dislike a character who's super important part of dick's life, and helped him come into his own and be who he is, you shouldn't be writing that character. (i'm talking about kory here, but tbh if you dislike any of the characters who dick interacts with frequently and are a huge part of his life - especially his love interests, and his family - you shouldn't be writing dick.) so i'm not going into this story with high hopes. however i've seen ppl talk about this story as being really good so i hope i'll like it too

you can tell she mostly cares about the fab five, which wouldn't be a problem if she treated the ntt characters better but alas ://

kory and vic both say 1 thing the entire page lmao

ALSO KORY NOT KNOWING WHAT DAY IT IS IS ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT I CANNOT BELIEVE

i loooove the parallel between dick grasping wally's hand and young!dick holding his dad's hand 🥺🥺🥺🥺

vic legit says one thing the entire story lmaoooooooo 🙃🙃🙃

i love garth and roy being brought to the tower 🥺

this is def some of grayson's better work, but it suffers from the same thing all of her stories do. she doesn't fully understand all the characters. if one character is off it affects the whole story. a lot of her stories have good ideas and poor execution, and this one definitely doesn't have awful execution but there's still something missing and as someone who loves the titans it's just sad. i get why people like this story - it made me tear up at the end ngl - but the rest of the titans are just as important as dick and it feels like the writer doesn't understand that. (i get this is a dick comic but it's still a titans story.) (it does however make me want to write a fic expanding upon this moment and the aftermath bc the idea of the titans all coming together to cheer dick up is so goooooood. are they gonna have a party celebrating dick's parent's lives? are they gonna eat junk food and watch a comfort movie? are they gonna just sit and talk?? the possibilities are endless!!)

the art is gorgeous as all of jimenez' art is, i love his style so freaking much!!

the next page is of the bludhaven supporting cast and all it does is remind me how much i do not care abt them. i think the only one i actually like is clancy, the others are expendable and forgettable. (i do love clancy a lot though, i wish she'd been written by more people than just dixon). though, i usually love guice's art, i think i actually prefer mcdaniel's take on clancy??? which is 100% a first for me.

i like seeing the set up to dick's apartment, bc i'm a sucker for layouts and maps. i wish this comic was way better written bc the concept of dick living in an apartment building and interacting with his neighbours is one i really like, esp in superhero comics. but again i have to say, alas.

a day in the life of nite-wing/hangin'-with tad:

painful... just painful...

i physically couldn't care less about this if you paid me

the next page is tad's file and i am Not Reading That. nope nope nope. and also fuck you.

next is a map of bludhaven, and like i said, i'm a sucker for maps.

the page after that is brutale's file and again i just do not care. the art is by damion scott who i really like, but the design looks like knock off scarecrow so

the next pages are files for double dare, lady vidc, shrike and blockbuster and i'm skipping them all bc i give negative fucks

next is a spread of what i assume is dick's cork-board? it looks kinda interesting but the writing is hard to make out and i don't care enough to try to decipher it

next is torque's files and same same, idc idc

nightwing's romances/orange you glad i didn't say banana?:

ok so y'all know i hate dickbabs. i hate everything about how it was built on the foundation of tearing down kory and dickkory and i'm a kory fan first and foremost so i hate this whole situation. so i'm already predisposed to disliking anything that talks about how babs is dick's true love, and talks down any of his other love interests. i come into this with an admitted bias. i'd try to be charitable but i don't see why i should when no one involved in the writing of dickbabs is charitable towards my faves so 🤷

i love love love stelfreeze's art! he's drawn babs in something else i read and i loved it then and i love it here!

i adore dick and babs' friendship, so the beginning is really sweet and cute. i also love the concept of baby!dickie being obsessed with watermelons and wanting to eat them forever

dewey decimal system!!! librarian babs reference!! fdjkh she's such a nerd i love it

babs trying to talk about romance and dick's like 'lol nah what abt fighting' lmao

i Do Not like babs hitting dick while talking abt 'i was segueing into talking about romance, hint hint'

this is romance? dick giving exactly 0 fucks?

why are these writers obsessed with hinting at dick and donna??? like first dixon and now grayson??? please stop!!!! i do love how he says he loves her bc 🥺🥺🥺 i love them

ur not being slick having babs call donna 'donna' and kory 'starfire', i see you grayson. i see ur hate for kory.

and reducing kory to just her body, and dick's sexual attraction to her boils my blood

i'm choosing to interpret babs's face in that panel as her being attracted to kory too

i do like that dick talks about being in love with kory, and thinking about still being with her. a) i'll take those crumbs, and b) thats how i see dick's relationship to love as being (though devin views him as kinda flighty and unfaithful so idk how we're agreeing on this lmao)

pls stop talking shit abt huntress devin, ur the one who made dick/hel a thing

since devin loves her brudick subtext, i'm side-eyeing the mention of bruce there

also why are we hinting at cass pls stop

babs being jealous and petty pls stop

the ending was smooth i have to admit it. if it was any other ship i'd probs love it but as it is, i'm tired of everyone else being downplayed in favour of the ~babs is dick's true loooooveee, it's always been herrrrr, from the beginningggggg~

i don't mind babs being dick's first crush though, in fact that's my hc for him because hello?? who wouldn't have a crush on babs??

thank you mr stelfreeze for accurately portraying babs' bitchface bc she's being a petty bitch here (and i love her but lmaooo i hate this whole thing)

next is the files on the bludhaven pd and i do not caaaare

then there's a timeline, but i don't care about any timeline that dixon writes. i'm petty though so i'm gonna read it and talk abt why i don't like the retcons.

i hate the dickbabs reference in YEAR FUCKING 3 jfc. pls stop with the retcons.

also lmao the difference between the way dick's canon relationship from that time is described in the shittiest way possible (though reluctant at first, dick begins a long and tumultuous romance with teammate starfire.) and how he wrote dick and babs' relationship (robin first teams with ... barbara in her guise as batgirl. the two will pair time and again over the course of their careers and develop a burgeoning affection for one another) this was at a time when they weren't even remotely interested in each other!!! there was no affections there dixon! no matter how much you wish it to be true!! and again the contrast with 'starfire' and 'barbara'! like it's dehumanising and i hate it.

and he can't even bother to get the new teen titans' team name right.

no mention of kory's importance in dick becoming nightwing, nope we ignore that bc it's thanks to superman now.

stepping away from the way he hates kory to talk about the way he hates jason! jason's described as a 'troubled orphan' and a 'juvenile delinquent'.

no mentions of how jason and dick bonded but as soon as tim gets introduced he talks about how dick and tim 'switfly bond as brothers'.

another incredibly impersonal description of dick and kory's relationship (the wedding of dick grayson and kory anders (aka starfire) is aborted by the rogue titan raven. dick and kory soon part company and dissolve their relationship.) but at least he calls her kory this time.

also i love how he speeds up through all the 'non important' development for dick but spends a whole page talking about all the bullshit he's been writing for nightwing. i understand why, but it's just lmaooooo 🙃 when you read it like that, it really shows how shitty this comic is.

talks of the 'doomed relationship' between dick and hel and i really hate it pls stop

the last page is dick's evaluation by the police academy and i do not care so i'm skipping it too.

[bonnissance]

critical ranting about holby under the cut (bc I am also sick of long holby text posts bc reading is hard)  

But I have Thoughts(tm) I need to air because there are many things that really really get my goat about Serena’s current story and almost all of it is due to the fact that her entire narrative arc has been constructed to give Jasmine Burrows a storyline.

To begin, I hold that this narrative arc is an example of poor storytelling. As I’ve vague discussed before, I think Elinor’s introduction+exit=the fall out of her death was very poorly constructed and executed. The pacing is wrong, the rhythm of progression is beyond clunky, and the “you fill in the blanks” between the plot points the writers are handing to the audience are too large and frequent to be of any benefit to the narrative.

They reintroduced Elinor far too briefly for anyone to actually care that the character die, because, of course, the point wasn’t that Elinor died: it was that Serena Campbell’s daughter died. Following that, they left out crucial and oh so very important scenes in Serena’s story. For instance, discussing Elinor’s condition with the Doctors and Edward, their decision to turn of the ventilator, and preparing for the funeral. Nevertheless, those plot points were left out of Serena’s narrative as a deliberate decision.

So too was the choice to leave out any depiction of Serena’s grief at home. Which in itself, I shall concede, is understandable given Holby is a medial drama situated in a work place hospital and generally only includes out of hospital scenes when large concentrations of hospital employees are there at the same time such as Albie’s and work functions, etc.

However, there are exceptions to this rule, such as the trio’s house and now Dom and Issac’s domesticity. Those scenes are included because they are essential to the story those characters are telling at the time. Zosia’s early story is inherently connected to her personal life. As is Dom and Issac’s storyline necessitates the blurring of profession and personal and how Issac’s abuse alters depending on the situation. Thus, Holby has a history of included non-work place related scenes when it furthers the story they have chosen to tell.

Yet the deliberately decided against including allowing Serena to grieve in the safety and comfort of her own home, just as the arguably essential scenes above mentioned scenes were left out of scripts. In fact, that entire section of Serena’s storyline was barely even acknowledged. Now, we all know that Russell would have knocked those scenes out of the park. So leaving them out wasn’t the writers factoring in to a lack of ability on behalf of their performer. Nor do I believe they left them out because the writers were unable to write the content. On the contrary, I think Holby’s writer’s room to be more than capable of producing that type of content and doing it rather well.

It then follows that the writers made a deliberate decision to they breezed over what ought to have been a significant point of character development in favour of inserting her straight back onto the ward. To ensure that her grief and every unhealthy coping mechanism she uses to get through the day would be on full display to her colleagues, and to the audience. The writers forced Serena back onto the ward, to the same physical location of her daughter’s death, in order to deliberately blur the lines of the character’s personal tragedy with her professional existence.

They explicated unhealthy coping techniques that directly affected Serena’s behaviour towards her colleagues, and they did it without providing her with an adequate support network. 

They created an unhealthy inter-generational dynamic between Serena and Jasmine that, at times, epitomises the ‘old queers are predatory and dangerous to young women’ trope. They glazed over Serena’s panic attacks and fugue states in favour implying she’s drinking on the job. They justified the narrative shaming of Serena reaching out to the one person in the world who understood what it meant to lose their daughter: Elinor Campbell, without bothering to make it clear that problem was never Serena wanting emotional support from Edward. The problem was that she continued to try and engage with him after he made it clear he was in no way prepared to provide Serena with the care she was requesting. Once again leaving Serena without a support network as well as implying her desire for the support was unreasonable. 

They continued pushing the mentor/mentee dynamic between Jasmine and Serena to unprofessional and unhealthy levels. Now, while there is certainly examples of emotionally abusive behaviour between Serena and Jasmine, I avoid using the term “abusive” to describe their entire relationship. I don’t believe the mistreatment occurring has been sustained long enough to warrant the term. (It bears mentioning that this classification is based on my own personal experiences with emotional abuse and that I have little interest in expanding on this reasoning should anyone take issue with this statement.) Instead, I would classify this situation as incidental grooming between two people who have positioned another in an unhealthy and toxic position in their live. 

Granted, they both agreed to a mentor/mentee dynamic. However, Jasmine in no way deserves to be belittled and bullied in the work place, to have Serena use her as a project to help process her grief, or to become the focal point of Serena’s need to make sure what happened with Elinor never happens to anyone else. But nor does Serena deserve to become the source of Jasmine’s validation, to overcompensates for Jasmine’s already developed sense of unworthiness, or become a maternal care provider which Jasmine so clearly wants her to be. Both of them are using the other in horridly unhealthy ways and desperately need counselling to process their own emotional traumas. 

But once again, the writers don’t bother to make clear the actual issues in these exchanges, nor handle the fall out of these situations with the degree of seriousness issues such as these actually require. Instead, they continue to escalate things between Serena and Jasmine, which we know cumulates into Serena telling Jasmine she wishes Jasmine were dead, because this was their intention all along.

Despite the fact that Elinor was Serena’s daughter, the point of killing off her off was not to give Serena a storyline. Elinor’s death and the resulting grief, which has irrevocably changed the character at the very core, was not about Serena at all, because this entire narrative was constructed to give Jasmine Burrows a storyline.

And that fact makes me furious. 

Because Holby gave us the story of a middle aged woman discovering her same-sex attraction in a situation where her desire was mutual and returned. They gave us a story in which that character was about to embark on a healthy, fulfilling, sustainable relationship that satisfied her emotional, physical, romantic and sexual wants. They implied the character was going integrate that romantic relationship with her other filial bonds and, for the first time in possibly her whole life, have her emotional needs actually met.

Then they took that character, who in universe was finally finally about to be happy, and decided to add to the other numerous instances of suffering the writers have already put her through by killing of her daughter. Killing off her daughter in her place of work only to cut short her grieving and send her right back there to suffer in the public eye.  

And they did it to give a new and barely formed character a storyline. The fact remains that Jasmine had literally millions of plausible storylines they could have gone with; so many options that would have ended with substantial character growth. She could have stopped drinking and studied harder, she could have taken up running, gotten a boyfriend or a puppy, learnt tact and become an actual decent doctor, and the character would have grown. 

Christ, she could have stubbed her toe on the edge of a bed, sworn on the ward, and gotten a dressing down from her boss about appropriate workplace vocabulary that character growth would have carried the same weight as the storyline she’s now had to endure.

They writers have irrevocably written Serena into a corner, because that character will never be the same again and there is very little they can do with her now, without actually letting the audience see the some of the most important narrative points. Moreover, they have also cut off almost all of Jasmine’s further storylines, because unless they give her a surprise pregnant with Ollie’s baby and then she miscarries after deciding to keep it (which I wouldn’t put it past them tbqh) there’s not a lot the writers can do with her that will have the same intensity and significance as what they’ve already put her through. 

In short, the Holby writers took a queer mentally ill abuse survivor and guttered her from the inside out for the sake of another character with barely touched potential. They treated that character with a level of disrespect and disregard I’m not sure I’ve seen since The L Word drowned Jenny Schecter in her neighbour’s pool and nobody really cared. Because they gave us Serena Campbell, implied that she (along with and everyone she represents) deserves to be happy, only to turn around and burn her beyond recognition for daring to hope. And they did it because they wanted to.

[thisiskatsblog]

H&L updates account said it appears H is in LA. The entire comment section was flooded with everyone denying it. I am honestly so confused how everyone knows this? And especially as someone who is newer to the fandom, apparently this is a very typical occurrence of like posting that 'super old pic' of H driving in LA for the sole purpose of trying to prove they aren't together? To what extent is this true? Ofc I want them to be together. Deep down, I have not one doubt they will end up together.

part 2: However, I also don't want to have false hope. I don't want to assume they have managed to stay together for all this time, bc I always thought they did break up at some point (tbh I don't know whether they are even currently together). Don't get me wrong, I will go down with this ship. I know they are endgame. But so many people think they are currently together, when to me, Lou's lyrics esp allude to the fact that is not the case right now. How do you have such firm belief they are?

____________________

Just to be clear: this ask came in March 27th but I didn’t have time to answer it then. You touched on a few different points

How does everyone know the picture is fake? One thing with celebrities that you should know is that they are a product that is marketed to you, and that everything that gets out, gets out there for a reasons. Which means, all of it is, to some extent, “produced” – though not necessarily completely fake. In this fandom, however, a lot has been proven to be staged, fake, or easily refutable. This particularly with regard to “Elounor”, and with regard to Harry and Louis being together on important dates (New Year’s, birthdays, start of their solo tours). The best advice I could give anyone entering this fandom is “question absolutely everything” (! except your own ability to think logically, you must trust your own mind, no matter how often you are told not to). That doesn’t mean this picture was necessarily fake – but it’s definitely also not conclusive proof that Harry was there at that time. If I am not mistaken it was a picture that showed a man in a motorcycle outfit, from the back, from rather far away – could be harry, could be not, could be old. And, much more importantly, we had Stevie Nicks saying that Harry was in London. Did she not get the memo? So we don’t know the picture is fake, but we certainly don’t know that it’s real.

Is it a typical occurrence to post old/fake pictures to prove they are not together? Yes, in fact it is. As I mentioned, we often get pictures “proving” they are far apart, for example on the date of start of Harry’s first solo show in Europe, the Paris date, a pap picture of Louis and Eleonor was published. I remember being told while lining up and thinking “oh, they must still be together then”. This is definitely a consistent pattern – I don’t have the time to make a list for you, I am sure others have it somewhere – but it would happen on their birthdays, on new year’s, for important dates, holidays, during harry’s tour, there were always pictures or stories coming out suggesting they were not together, and more often than not, the proof was far from conclusive and there were conflicting reports suggesting they were together for some of those occasions.

You say you have no doubt they will end up together, but you don’t believe they are currently together, which – I have to say – I find strange – how do you know so sure they will? .

As to why I have such firm belief they are together? Well – for one, it’s clear that they were into eachother at the start of X factor, that they got very close very soon, and became a couple. Then came the bearding, and the tattoos, then came the bullshit and the denials and the “social/public distancing” between Harry and Louis, but the little glances, smiles and body language didn’t stop, the tattoos didn’t stop, and their lyrics kept pointing to a long term committed relationship. They publicly undermined their closets, particularly Harry who seemed to have more freedom, and after Zayn left and Harry and Louis were allowed to do more press together again towards the end of 1D it was clear to everyone they were an old married couple. Both their lyrics still point to a long term relationship with one person they are very committed to, despite having overcome difficulties – in other words: consistent with a closeted relationship under heavy pressure from label and management. The lyrics of “We Made It” definitely point in that direction – and even the sadder songs, like “Too Young”, if you really look at it, are more consistent with Louis and Harry being in a relationship, than Louis and Eleanor. “I can’t believe I gave into the pressure, told a love like this would never last”, is what they would have told Louis and Harry – why would they have pressured Louis about Eleanor. Interpretations of breakup usually focus on the “two years since I’ve seen your face” – which in my view, could just as well refer to the social distancing. Also: “come so far since Princess Park” and “walk in your rainbow paradise… myeah”

In short, nothing is certain, question everything. There is consistent evidence of Louis and Harry having been in a relationship from the early X factor days right up until 1D split, and their current lyrics are more consistent with a long term committed relationship that’s had its difficulties and pressures, than with any other explanation. The main reason why people seem to be doubting, is because they haven’t seen Harry and Louis in a room together in years. In psychology that’s called “object permanence” or better lack thereof. When we no longer see it, we believe it no longer exists.

But as the weeks of quarantaine have gone on, we’ve seen a lot of Niall, a lot of Liam, and next to nothing of Louis or Harry, particularly not live video – of the kind that would pinpoint them to a certain location. Lady Gaga’s #togetherathome concert included every big star that should have been touring at the moment, livestreaming from their home. Why include Niall and Liam, but not not Louis and not Harry? Okay 4/4 of one direction is perhaps a bit much, but Harry is the one, of all of them, that’s the biggest right now, and who would have been touring – why on earth not include him?

So. I am sure they were in a relationship throughout 1D, I don’t have any evidence that they would have broken up, and reasons to think they might still be together. That’s as much certainty as I can give. They seem happy. That’s it. That’s my answer. 

[iamanartichoke]

Loki & Val having an argument about something stupid & Thor gets involved bc he can’t stand how annoying they’re both being about it

I really liked this prompt and I hope the fic reflects that. Your mileage may vary on “stupid” arguments - I struggled with this because I literally had to google “stupid things couples fight about” and kept coming up with things like whether or not the toilet paper goes over/under and one person keeps forgetting to buy milk at the store which, while cute, didn’t quite fit Val and Loki (in my mind). So instead, I decided that the argument started over something stupid but kind of grew into something that, in my ‘verse, is a real issue between them. Because I’m me. So, yes, I really hope you like it! This takes place within the Sanctuary ‘verse, at some indeterminate time in the future, after the Asgardians have settled on Earth. 

Word Count: 1248 

It was four tense days of Loki and Valkyrie going to great lengths to avoid one another before Thor took Valkyrie to a pub in town. They sat across from one another in a booth, the table-top sticky. Thor had a large mug of Midgardian beer; he had developed a taste for a brand called Heineken, a pale beer that was just sweet enough without being overwhelming. Loki had always had more of a sweet tooth than Thor did, he reflected, which was funny because Loki’s appetite had always been so miniscule in comparison to Thor’s.

Valkyrie had a cocktail made with something called Devil’s Springs vodka, which the waitress recommended when Valkyrie asked for the strongest liquor the pub served. “Bottoms up,” Thor said with a smile, and he and Valkyrie briefly clinked glasses. Once Thor had swallowed his sip of beer and Valkyrie downed her entire cocktail in less than three seconds, Thor sat back and fixed her with a steady gaze.

“So,” he said bluntly, “what’s going on between you and my brother?”

She rolled her eyes, fingers curling around the stem of her now-empty glass. “It’s none of your business, your Majesty.”

“Maybe not,” he acknowledged, “but it’s obvious that something is going on. You two are normally attached at the hip.”

“We are not.” Valkyrie lifted a hand, gesturing at their waitress and, almost immediately, a new cocktail appeared. “What do you care, anyway?”

“Well, for one thing, it’s really irritating watching you two sulk about,” Thor returned, taking another sip of beer. “Also, when Loki’s in a mood, it can bode ill for everyone. He acts out, you know that. He doesn’t always have the best impulse control.” That was certainly an understatement, Thor reflected wryly.

“He’s not a child,” Valkyrie snapped, setting her cocktail glass down a bit harder than necessary - though not as hard as she could have. Once, she’d gotten frustrated at how weak Midgardian drink was and had slammed her glass down so hard that it shattered and broke off a large piece of their table. Asgardians were no longer welcome in that particular pub. “You don’t have to speak about him as if he’s throwing a temper tantrum.”

“I’m not,” Thor said gently. “I’m only saying that whatever quarrel you two have gotten into is going to hurt you both more than necessary if you let it fester.”

She sucked air through her teeth, swirling some of the drink around in her glass. “Yes, well. I’d be happy to settle things, if I thought I could. Loki is literally the most stubborn person in the universe.”

“I cannot argue with that.” Thor finished the rest of his beer. “What did you argue about?”

Valkyrie sighed and straightened. She plucked one of the colorful food menus from behind the napkin holder and dropped it onto the table. “Suddenly, I’m famished,” she declared. “Hmm. What are cheese fries?”

“Fries with cheese, I imagine.” There were so many different food options on Midgard, some more impressive than others. Thor reached out and closed his hand over hers, lightly. “You’re avoiding the question, Val.”

“That’s because I don’t want to answer it,” Valkyrie replied archly. Her shoulders slumped a bit, and her fingers relaxed under his. “It’s stupid. We were talking about Midgard, how neither of us likes it very much. It’s … just so different from Asgard. Not like Sakaar, you know? Sakaar was garbage, but that’s why I chose it. It never bothered me. Here, though …”

Thor leaned forward a bit. She’d never expressed to him that she disliked Midgard, but now that he thought about it, she never expressed that she liked it, either.

“I don’t know,” she said with an exhale, after a pause. “Whatever. It is what it is. But we were talking about the other realms, you know, where we might have settled instead. I made some remark about Jotunheim being the last place anyone would willingly go, even a bunch of drifting refugees, and Loki …”

He felt a cold sensation like his heart falling to his knees. Thor closed his eye, letting out a soft breath. “Loki did not react well,” he guessed.

When he opened his eye, Valkyrie’s brow was furrowed. “How did you guess?”

Thor just shook his head. Oh, Loki, he thought. The confusion on Valkyrie’s face made it clear that Loki had not revealed to her his Jotun origins. Thor took it for granted that it was a well-kept not-secret - Loki had revealed the truth when he’d rewritten his story as Asgard’s savior while wearing Odin’s glamour, but so much had happened so quickly after that. The knowledge became absorbed into the collective subconscious, one of those things that most people were aware of but never talked about. There was no reason to. Loki himself never brought it up, not really, and Thor never thought about it enough to ask.

He regretted that, now. Thor was trying to be better about reading Loki’s moods and trying to uncover what he hid beneath the surface, but he knew he would have a long way to go before he fully understood his brother - if such a thing were even possible.

In the silence that fell over them, their waitress came around and both ordered another round of drinks as well as a plate of cheese fries. When Valkyrie spoke again, it was regretfully, as she fiddled with a napkin, shredding it into long strips. “Anyway, he got very irritated, very quickly. I asked him why he cared so much about the Jotuns, and he would not say, which made me angry. He’s always so damn secretive, you know? I accused him of shutting me out, he accused me of pushing him too much, and … well, we both said stupid things. Now he won’t even look at me, let alone listen to any apology I might give.”

She dropped the napkin suddenly. “And that makes me angry, too,” she added. “Why should I apologize first? He’s the one who overreacted over nothing. But will he apologize to me? Not before the next apocalypse, I’m sure. Stubborn ass.”

Thor sighed. He could not exactly argue with Valkyrie’s points, but nor could he explain them without betraying Loki’s confidence. “Loki is … he has …” Thor pushed a hand through his hair, frustrated. “If there are things Loki has not told you, then I am sure he has his reasons. I can’t undermine them, but I can say this, Val. He’s a bit sensitive on the topic of the Jotuns” - another understatement - “and he is not without reason to be so. You must talk to him about it, when you’ve both cooled down.”

Valkyrie frowned, fiddling with the napkin between her fingers again. “And if he won’t talk to me?”

“He will,” Thor told her, and offered a small smile. “I don’t always understand my brother, but I can say with certainty that he cares about you a great deal. He’ll not walk away from you. He only needs time.”

She seemed to consider this and then she exhaled. “I hope you’re right,” was all she said, as their new drinks arrived.

Thor hoped he was right, too. Valkyrie was good for Loki, he thought, but he would not be surprised if Loki sabotaged their relationship to avoid the risk of letting it grow. Don’t do anything stupid, brother, Thor thought, and lifted his beer mug to take a very large swallow.

[linskywords]

Okay, so at first I didn't realize you maybe meant the Sid/Claude & Sid/Geno headcanons as 2 stories. I thought it was an eventual OT3, where Sid's issues w/ claude were undermining his success w/ Geno & resolving one helped him resolve the other, and I fell in massive crazy-pants love w/ it. Plz don't take this as pressure to write anything bc I was not raised in a barn & u are not a fic machine, i just wanted to say i love both headcanons so much and your brain is a hockey fandom treasure.

Haha, I would have been so confused by this ask if I hadn’t happened to be on Tumblr and seen that someone liked a post from 2016 right before it came in. But hooray for NHL wolves! I...honestly don’t think there’s much chance of me writing Sid/Geno/Claude, but of course now that I’ve said that I’ve probably jinxed myself into writing it. :D I do love the idea of Sid thinking, okay, things are in good shape with Geno! And then Claude is still this big unresolved mess, and it doesn’t even occur to Sid to put them together, but Geno sees things. He gets Claude to come home with him after a game in Pittsburgh one night, and Sid is FURIOUS. But Geno pulls him aside and is like, hey, you trust me, right? And he gets Claude to fuck Sid, which normally Sid would NOT BE OKAY WITH, but Geno’s telling Claude to do it, so it’s really Claude being subservient to Geno. And Sid’s already accepted that he can let Geno dominate him, so Geno’s making Claude do this FOR Sid, so it’s all okay, in Sid’s head. Meanwhile, Claude has never wanted anything more in his life. He’s totally willing to let Geno tell him what to do if it means he gets to fuck Sid. And probably Sid thinks it’s a one-time thing, but Geno has other plans. He knows they’re not done. So it keeps happening, and the dynamic between Sid and Claude is really charged but also really interested, and Sid finds himself getting turned on by it to an embarrassing extent, and eventually they’re able to grudgingly admit that, yes, they do value each other. Geno just watches, grinning. He knows they’re just getting started.

...Also, I hadn’t realized until I reread that old post, but the dynamic between Sid and Geno is actually kind of similar to what I have planned for Dylan and Connor. Where Connor’s not a wolf and Dylan’s an alpha and he’s trying to be GOOD at it and it’s supposed to be okay to be a wolf in the NHL now, so why is everything still so hard?? And he doesn’t want to hold Connor back by trying to keep up a relationship when they’re so far away, but also it’s killing him not see him, and he doesn’t really want to behave towards Connor like an alpha should, either, and probably there’s something wrong with him and that’s why he can’t stick in the NHL...

[thethirdwheel404]

Med Series Rewatch (#12)

S3 E12: Born This Way.

Episode description: Dr. Manning and Dr. Choi are faced with a tough decision.

Literally when are they not.

Okay, last episode ended with the first Ava/Connor kiss, so this episode should be a rollercoaster of emotions.

let’s get into it.

- okay, already we’re starting in connor’s apartment, so cue ava walking in bc they slept together?

- i think its hilarious that her casual clothing is.. a flannel. like lmao idk

- it is so unbelievably funny and stupid to have a one night stand with someone you work closely with. i mean come on

- never forget that dr. ava bekker has a fish tank

- this is exhausting. the tentative back and forth is so fucking exhausting

- another bit of evidence. ava is never not confident, and especially not to this extent, and she never follows connor’s lead. so, the fact that she is standing back and waiting for him to make the decision? stupid.

- it screams that she is having a moment of anxiety, which is why she isn’t up to make the decisions in the exchange.

-to be clear: what i’m claiming here is that the only reason ava actually got with connor was bc she was having a moment of anxiety because he was the only person she had built a relationship with after living in this city for six months.

- when connor says that he has plans you can see her fold in on herself. this stems from a place of anxiety

- remember when they did surgery on the panda? that’s when the show peaked

- ava in her lab coat will never not get me. especially with the gloves, running towards a patient (very hot)

- connor still looks kinda looks like a mess but ava is immaculate here like what dude out of your league

- ava asking the family questions (ik this is standard doctor stuff but showing worry, interest, all that jazz)

- okay, see here! here! ava calls connor out, saying that his procedure is too invasive. before, ava’s procedures where invasive, which everyone used as evidence to her being super cold, but now, we see that she purely does what she deems best for the patient at hand

- also, once again, the concern ava feels. you can hear it in her voice. we forget this part of her way too often

- the smile on ava’s face when she gives the family good news. god wept

- and then more concern when connor tells her they need to put him on ecmo

- the reason that ava is frustrated that connor didn’t go with her decision for their patient care is because she truly believes that if they don’t go with her treatment, he will die. don’t make it anything different. don’t argue she’s frustrated because he’s not listening to her. don’t make it anything about their relationship. she puts their patients care first and foremost

- there’s a stark shift in her demeanor when in the room with the parents vs. her alone with connor. in the room, you can see she’s stewing. she’s sucking on her teeth, she’s holding her emotions. she has control, she’s a professional. out of the room, she has full reign to be as mad with connor as she wants, which she does.

-AVA RAN INTO THE ROOM AGAIN WITH THE LAB COAT AND GLOVES AND IDK IT JUST HAS ME FEELING SOME KINDA WAY

- the way ava acknowledges everyone in the room (the nurse just informed them that the drug was running, ava nodded. just a little thing but yk)

- ava shaking her head at this sad, sad man (connor, who is floundering for a solution and misplacing his anger)

- their entire relationship is misplaced anger

- the fact that the last shot of the scene has connor in the foreground looking over the bed and ava watching from the door but ava is the one in focus - some cool cinematography points

- IS THIS THE EPISODE WHERE MAGGIE GOES TO JAIL

- med really went all over the place

- JUST THE AMOUNT OF CONCERN ON AVA’S FACE. im gonna say it again. look me in the eyes and tell this women is a psychopath. the med writers are fucking insane

- and when the parents ask ava if she disagreed with connor’s treatment decision, she has every opportunity (and right, frankly) to throw him under the bus and undermine him. but still, she says “it’s a complicated situation.” like. she never ever makes it personal, or loses her head. especially not to a patient. and she doesn’t have to defend connor. he’s made a lot of mistakes, and taken it out on her a bunch of times. yet she’s still nice to him, when he’s not even in the room

- it’s insane

- this is also the legendary scene where she comforts the family. there’s not a lot that i haven’t already said. this is the scene that most exemplifies ava’s humanity, the way she seems to feel, at least residually, what these parents are going through (since she obviously hasn’t gone through anything like this herself [unless.]). the way she kneels down, and gets on the family’s personal level.

- I... okay listen. I absolutely HATE the parallel they pull her between the line “I believe whenever you do something out of love, it can never really be wrong” and connor. especially because they show him when she says that line. and yeah, there’s obviously a connection that can be drawn between the meaning of that line and her sociopathic behavior in s4 and s5.

- it honestly feels like when writing s4, the writers hit so much of a wall they just googled the most ‘iconic’ ava moments and thought ‘how can i use these in the worst way possible?’ That’s honestly probably what they did (ava’s first interaction with connor - ‘you better watch yourself,’ this moment). There is no nuance to her character in s4. it is astoundingly terrible.

- lets move on

- THE WAY CONNOR LOOKS AT AVA HER MAKES ME FUCKING SCARED. HE HAS NO EMOTION ON HIS FACE. I know that we’ve been screen capping ava throughout this series but can someone find pictures of connor looking at ava bc, i need yall to remember how weird he looks

- like, no shade to connor, but just the emotion is undecipherable, but it is in no way a good one

- ava getting concerned (and looking slightly embarrassed) when she sees connor watching her by the door. obviously yeah she’s gonna feel weird you just caught her in a very uncharacteristic moment, outwardly expressing comfort. fucking back off

- i am so fucking protective of her and i demand he no longer look at her. it’s banned

- sam abrams looking at sarah’s dad’s head ct and asking if he’s a criminal. oh boy 

- from a writer’s perspective, the storyline with sarah’s dad is actually pretty good

- ava ran into the room with gloves and lab coat again, if anybody wanted to know

- for the record, want it to be noted, ava was the one who realized that it was an issue with the machine again, so you could say she fixed connor’s mistake, again. so.

- connor making a big deal about handing the reins over to ava (if he really was selfless he wouldn’t have made a whole big thing, he still has an enormous hero complex)

- handing off control was very hard for him. boo hoo get some fucking humility I think they sell it at walgreens

- sarah fucking walking across the ed like she’s going to war. dramatic

- med really said pedophiles deserve rights with this ep huh

- anyway

- the way ava smiles

- the way she smiles when she turns him down. CAN WE TALK ABOUT THAT? SHE TURNED HIM DOWN. in the aspect of the story i cannot remember why she turned him down, but hey, i’m happy

- and it only further proves my story that the hook up came from a place of anxiety, and this is her realizing how silly that decision was. and her smiling was her laughing at herself for making such a stupid decision

- ALSO. LET’S TALK ABOUT THE FACT THAT THIS DECISION, THE DECISION TO TURN HIM DOWN, HAPPENED IN THE SAME EPISODE WHERE SHE SAID ‘IF YOU DO SOMETHING FOR LOVE, IT’S NEVER REALLY WRONG’

- like she literally says ‘last night was a mistake.’

- honestly, it’s fucking hilarious. connor deserves nothing

- and the confusion on his face when she walks away. hilarious

- if you wanted to take this the reesker route you could argue that the idea of ‘a decision of love’ was ava coming to terms with her slight little crush, though i don’t know how clean it would be if you argue that she panicked and told herself those were feelings meant for connor. idk, i’ll have to think about it further

- watching sarah let herself be betrayed by both herself and the people around in the story surrounding her dad will never not be hard to watch

This was a very good episode, character wise, for all the reasons stated above. It just hammers home the point of how strong a character Ava was. Key word, of course, being ‘was’. My conclusion over the last two episodes is that this specific sexual encounter with Connor was born out of a moment of anxiety from Ava. I suggest that over that last few weeks or days she has been experiencing some amount of anxiety out of having been living in Chicago for six months and only having one interpersonal relationship. So, that idea kind of built where she told herself the reason she only had one relationship was because she was in love with him. Then. after going through the story with this kid and comforting his parents, she realizes that she never actually loved Connor and maybe has a thing for someone else. I’m glad that I keep coming up with more ideas for this character, I was afraid the initial theory was somewhat of a one-off, but this only proves the idea of the complexity to Ava’s character.

I’m sure it’ll get worse from here, though.

as always, thanks for sticking through

-

read the rest here:

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 / Part 8 / Part 9 / Part 10 / Extra