d-arts01

[octoagentmiles]

do you have any hcs for barnacles and dashi ? I'm rewatching it and many episodes start with the two of them in the main area , oftentimes there's a third person involved but it's always the two of them so they must spend alot of time around each other :O 10 / 10 bonding

Had to think hard about this since Dashi's role in the main series is so small—but you're actually so right 👀 10/10 buddies 👍

You'll get my headcanons I promise but first you gotta listen to me infodump, okay? Deal:

I personally headcanon that Dashi was one of the first Octonauts, she hasn't been around a super long time- but at least long enough that she was probably around for the first Octopod, and that would give her and Barnacles (and the other OGs) plenty of time to get close.

We know Inkling canonically founded the Octonauts, but I imagine that it was actually Barnacles who picked out the crew—over various fateful encounters (Kwazii, Peso), or already knowing them (Tweak)—with the two exceptions of Dashi and Shellington.

Shellington heard about them through the kelp vine by pure chance, and got himself a job via determination. Then, at some point—he recommended Dashi to Barnacles or Inkling, and got her a position as an intern. (He knew her through her photography; she took pictures for him once or something like that.)

I also headcanon they weren't called The Octonauts yet at that point. I headcanon that Dashi came up with the "Octonauts" name during her first few days, and they kept it. (Coincidentally, the first Octopod crashed during those first few days. T'was completely unrelated, I promise 😅)

Fast forward: I've been thinking about Dashi in AnB a lot lately, and the one question that keeps coming up is: "Why did Barnacles make her the Captain of the Octoray?"

They haven't addressed it in the show yet, and it felt a little bit like the writers just wanted her to Do Something, y'know? So I went back to rewatch some of her main series episodes, and this scene from The Surfing Snails stuck out:

This scene shows how much he trusts her. He trusts her to make the right calls, and to be careful. He shows this trust in her again in the Wild Windstorms:

"...I'm ready for this!"

"I know you are, Dashi."

I REALLY wish they had spent more time giving her some kind of arc, showing this trust being built. She absolutely deserved an arc like Peso's, where we could've seen her growth and her bond with Barnacles getting stronger. It would've made the Octoray thing make much more sense, and I would've loved to actually SEE her evolution from "getting stuck in a whale shark" to "inventing stuff with Tweak" to the level of respect that Barnacles clearly has for her in S4 and Beyond, but instead it feels like all that stuff happened off-screen.

I also wanna point out real quick; that Dashi is one of the select few characters to ever call Barnacles by his first name only. This is something that the writers frequently use to emphasize closeness between Barnacles and someone else (Kwazii, Natquik, etc), and Dashi has done it twice. I'll admit I thought it was an error the first time, but then I caught her doing it again in Sac Actun. SO CLEARLY THEY ARE CLOSE. YES? WE AGREE. YES.

ok I'm done. pleasure doing business with you 🤝

*slams hands down on table* MISC. HEADCANON TIME ‼️ (which technically, could all totally be canon until the writers finally decide to give us real information ✨)

She has 100% read ALL of his books and journals, at least twice. Sometimes he gives them to her so she can beta read them, and she's also helped edit a few.

She has written her own journals, mostly in the form of scrapbooks, that she shares with him too. He has a first edition signed copy of one of them.

She made friendship bracelets for everyone on the ship after the Octopod was rebuilt, and he keeps his on his desk. It's still in mint condition.

I feel like at least ONE of the cameras in her collection was a gift from him.

She is trained on how to steer the Octopod manually. Considering the only two on board at the time who knew how to do it were Barnacles and Tweak—her showing slight interest was the only convincing he needed to teach her.

Sadly, she's never needed to use this skill. Yet.

She learned how to play harmonica when he decided to learn accordion, so they could duet together, but she got the hang of it much faster than he did.

They work out together sometimes. She's much stronger than she looks—and has won an arm wrestling match against him at LEAST once. She's also beat him in a foot race; it was almost a very close tie, and she needed to lay down for an hour after—but she did it. He will never live either of these down.

They definitely gossip in HQ sometimes, when it's just the two of them.

[raidenloml]

yesterday i read a splatoon comic anf its made me want to work on ny own ocs again.... love and peace on planet earth

[cometcon]

I've been getting increasingly pissed off at stuff like this with Helluva Boss for a while now so I'm running out of room for patience and giving the benefit of the doubt.

I'm not Deaf/HoH but I do have audio processing disorder and I have been involved with the Deaf/HoH community through learning Auslan and needing some of the same accommodations in my life so it's becoming increasingly apparent just how much they get short-changed by a society that does not care and has to be pressed constantly for the bare minimum of accommodating anyone other than the expected default abled demographic.

I'm sorry but while having a character who signs was fucking amazing to see even as a Hearing person

and it's been genuinely great to have the last episode of Season 1 with actual subtitles and all of Season 2 up to this one having actual subtitles

SEASON 1 STILL HAS FUCKING AUTO-GEN

We have to read T R A N S C R I P T S to understand what's going on in the entirety of Season 1 except for the final episode because while Hearing people who aren't affected by needing actual subtitles seem to think autogen and otherwise having to engage with just a transcript is good enough, news flash, IT ISN'T. Autogen has been getting better but it still fucks up (if your accommodation doesn't bring everyone up to speed with the same access as abled people your accommodation isn't good enough) and if your video is older like Season 1s are then they're FUCKING AWFUL. Even good autogen takes more energy to engage with than proper subtitles making it still more difficult than it needs to be to engage with a video.

This has annoyed me for a while but I was hoping they just needed some time to sort out someone to go make subtitles and put them up.

At the very least I figured ok, they're at least putting proper subtitles up for Season 2. Took them until OOPS came out to do it if I recall correctly, but they did it. Strange they stopped at the end of Season 1 but ok, whatever. Give them time.

Nothing has changed. It's been 3 years and nothing has changed.

Then The Full Moon dropped directly after Mammon's Magnificent Musical. I was expecting there to be proper subtitles since Season 2 now is being given them upon release.

...

So basically fuck anyone who needs proper subtitles.

This

is officially lip service to look good, not proper representation.

You can't follow this with fucking autogenerated bullcrap pretending to be accommodation.

I saw someone sending an ask in an hour or so ago to another blog to talk about The Full Moon and mentioned offhandedly in it that they had to look at the transcript to catch a line they wanted to understand and talk about.

I'd been hoping they would just put the subtitles up maybe a day or so later at least.

IT'S BEEN A WEEK.

Vivzie doesn't care about Deaf/HoH people. She chucked the kid in for brownie points. And hey, sure, brownie point rep is better than no rep, but it isn't actual representation and really doesn't deserve that much praise if you immediately follow it up with a fucking AUTOGEN ENGLISH ONLY EPISODE.

Sincerely, fuck you too.

EDIT: There are proper subtitles on The Apology Tour, so I'm glad for that at least. It came out like two weeks after The Full Moon meaning it had to be in production at the same time so idk why they could put subtitles on release for TAT and not TFM, but whatever. And hilariously (read: mystifyingly and infuriatingly) enough, THE FULL MOON STILL ONLY HAS AUTOGEN AS OF THIS EDIT BEING TYPED ON THE 25TH OF JUNE 2024. Why? Why is it the only one without subtitles in S2? Why is S1 still all auto-gen even now, right up until the Kesha-song episode? Spindlehorse continues to confuse and annoy me with their flipflopping on their supposed caring about accommodation.

[snowblack-charcoalwhite]

I miss GoT. Hell, I even miss s1 of HotD. It wasn't perfect, but it had some meat. Idk what this is. One thing is sure, I felt sorry for Rhaenyra in the book, but I can't wait for her boring af whitewashed show version to die. If she dies, that is, maybe that was also green propaganda. Her scenes literally take more than a half of every episode and I'm tired of it. Also, did we really need that Alicent scene at all? Yes, it was beautifully filmed, but it felt out of place and just unnecessarily took the screentime. And why is the queen mother practically alone in the woods during the war? Why is Vermithor Rhaenyra's dog? Maybe she could have ridden him instead of Syrax since she is a dragon whisperer? Will her cruelty during the sowing be mentioned again and haunt the narrative like the dead ratcatchers have been since ep 2? I guess it's cool when she does it. Anyway, the only good things were Oscar Tully vs daemon, a few seconds of Vhagar and Silverwing's design. Oh, and Jace. I felt sorry for him, ngl. Can't wait for the whole dragonseed thing to bite rhae in the ass. I would bet though that Hugh will only betray her because the greens will kidnap his wife or something. He would never do it otherwise, he's too honorable. Honorable Hugh Hammer, jaehaerys' grandson:D

P. S.

Saera was evil, idc what anyone says, no bad parenting can justify her treatment of Daella, the jester Tom and her own friends. To blame it all on Jaehaerys "misogyny" is ridiculous and oversimplified. I guess Condal and Co stuck it to the old king with having Hugh claim vermithor. Impressive 🙄

Good day/night to you!

I really miss season 1 as well. At least then we had, as you said, some meat - and hopes for a better future.

I am also with you on the matter of so many things being random - and because of this losing the impact they could have had. Alicent enjoying nature - true, beautiful but misplaced (and dragged out). The claiming of Vermithor - potentially cool but also dragged out. And the worst thing is that we get this unnecessarily long sequences at the expense of actual development for some characters.

And Hugh being Saera's son (never liked her either btw) indeed seems like one more point for "team feminism". Especially with Condal practically gushing about it to Kieran Bew. I bet he (the former) feels so clever.

P.S. Young Tully truly slayed, not gonna lie:) But overall I felt like the Harrenhal scene was too long as well.

[bnomiko]

Nocturne ramblings, with spoilers

(This is NOT a rant post. Nor specifically a spoiler post. I'm just making observations and babbling shit about some of the characters in Nocturne thus far.)

I did a spoiler-free ramble post, now time for the other side of the coin, just to let loose a bit...

**SPOILERS** ahoy for Castlevania: Nocturne, S1.

Vampires in general

I'm very happy to see some souped up vampires. Let's face it, the majority of them in the original animation weren't exactly impressive. They were basically people with pointy teeth and like 1 special ability. The fact that 2 1/2 humans could walk into a castle and just waste twenty or thirty of them without taking damage (other than Alucard taking a fist to the mug) felt a bit lackluster.

Oh, but there's a LOT of vampires touching sunlight that aren't going up in flames. You can't just hold a parasol over one and expect them not to combust : p

Olrox

I said it before, but seriously, give a raise to whoever did his character design. He's absolutely delicious. Those cheekbones! The dragon's eyes! I want to roll myself in his hair like a bug in a rug then slap those meaty thighs...

I've also watched all his interactions with Mizrak again. I don't understand how the two of them make so much more sense (given that they literally went from "You know my name, tell me yours" to fucking to "I don't love you" to … maybe I do…), than like, canon pairing Richter and Annette, who feel about as compelling as a piece of dry toast.

I truly hope he continues playing a little on both sides of the fence. It makes him so much more interesting than the majority of the characters who are simply on one side or the other.

Juste

I admit I got all excited thinking he was Alucard in a glamour at first, because when you first see his eyes, there's a gold gleam (of course the second he touched the whip I went, "Ahh, it's Juste.")

I'm sure it's more that his eyes appear to be a very light gray and catch any candle/firelight, but I'd rather think that the animators were being cheeky and hiding a reference to the fact that when HoD came out, some fans were convinced Juste was Alucard's son.

Talking about who looks like who's offspring, uh… I almost question if Maxim was doing some sneaking. Doesn't Julia look more like Maxim?? Since they threw out Vampire Killer clause #1, why not throw out the rest of it?

(I mean... really, who would you think was daddy?)

Also… I honestly do feel badly for Juste. He's always been one of the forgotten Belmonts, but maybe he was better off forgotten as I think most headcanons imagined him living a quiet retirement with his wife and their husband, surrounded by a massive stockpile of overly gaudy home furnishings, with little grandson Richter visiting and getting lost in all the furniture : )

Maria

I already made mention of the fact that she's all of 12 in game canon (and apparently 16 in Nocturne), which makes it all the more awkward that her future boyfriend's already made his appearance when she hasn't even hit her teens yet. I mean… how is that going to work?

(Sorry, can't resist reusing this, Richter's reaction is too funny.)

I feel ya, bro.

Tera

I was so young and naive when I read The Scarlet Letter that I didn't actually get what it was about at the time lol… actually took me years to figure it out. And… yeah, that's it. That's my comment.

Emmanuel (the abbot)

This guy will never get the death he actually deserves. It'll probably be something relatively quick, like falling into a pit of lava *shrug*

Drolta

Kind of a shame to off her so soon. Her latex collection was impressive.

Erzsebet

Carmilla?

And of course, Alucard

Okay, I get that he probably just woke up, but maybe a few strokes with a hairbrush before you run out the door, eh buddy?

Compare to Alucard in the mini artbook/manga for SotN (look at those crisp curls!) waking up after his 300 year nap:

I don't mind the "washed out" palette as much as others do. He was pretty much the textbook definition of pale in SotN anyhow.

Actually it would've been really damn funny if he'd showed up in his pajamas, screaming, "I hope I'm not too… wait, what year is it?" *looks at Maria* "Fuck I'm too early!"

[winns-stuff]

Hi,hello! Not sure if you remember me, but I'd submitted some asks and brought up discussion topics in this blog way back then! I'm back from the dead after an exasperatingly long school year and some other daunting crap!Hope you're doing fantastic!🧡❤️💜💖

I saw that thread of beyonce's beautiful pink gown and thought about how I would've designed a dress for persephone's wedding . I did some digging and found a drawing I'd painted earlier this year inspired by lore olympus and RS's long- discontinued gothic-neovictorian comic "the doctor foxglove show".

The flowers are asphodels to represent persephone and I feel like the gothic traditional regal vibe would fit her nicely.

I also have other ideas that unfortunately I'm not gonna translate into drawings anytime soon 'cause of a bunch of other stuff I'm busy with

So I'm afraid you're gonna have to use your imagination.The wedding dress doesn't have to be white( how they made demeter "force" perse's dress to be white to further antagonize her and STILL ended up drawing persephone in a white dress anyway is still beyond me tbh )her symbols could beautifully be incorporated into her dress .

Exhibit 1:a "portrait of madame x" black outfit with a bat wing-like two part cape(her sacred animal:bat) that is bejeweled with black pearls and diamonds and smokey quartz ,the tiara in that portrait is a reference to diana the roman goddess of the hunt AKA artemis,so it could be a nice tribute to her friendship with artemis in the comic .

exhibit 2: a fully bejeweled gown made out of her symbolic gem stones:Lepidolite, Rhodochrosite and Smoky Quartz, signifying her marriage to the god of wealth(I know she's meant to be anti -capitalist but the comic doesn't follow through with it so ...)the sleeves or other parts (like dress layers)could take the shape of the flower petals of asphodel or Narcissus. Maybe a jewel faux- lily crown too. Along with rubies and spinels to form the shape of pomegranates all over the whole fit.

Exhibit 3:an elegant coat-like dress made out of deer (her own sacred animal)and black ram (hades')and fur . It would be a good nod to the fur coat hades gifted her in S1 and the underworld is cold too so why not(holy ginger snaps I just realized how impractical her official queen outfit is! Like we've been told in that episoide that underworld is cold and yet persephone's dress is sleeveless!girlie's freezing!) Also pearl/alabaster-made faux deer horns could be sprouting from her back like wings

Exhibit 4:a feathery dress as a tribute to her sacred animal:parrots most of the dress could be a nice shade of green with some red and yellow feathers which would be common colors for a parrot and also the color of the bridal dresses for ancient greek and roman noblewomen .

Exhibit 5:Like I said red and yellow /gold were bridal dress colours for greeks and romans,what other things are red and yellow?!wheats and tulips! Demeter's symbols!this could've very well been a sweet tribute from daughter to mother ! Imagine a multi -layered flower gown with deep scarlet and black petal-shaped fabrics to look like tulips and a multi-layered veil to match!!! And then imagine golden embroidered threads in the shape of wheat branches and golden wheat shaped necklace and earrings too! And an emerald ,olivine and topaz choker in the shape of a gecko(demeter's sacred animal)

Of course one could also go ham and just combine all these ideas together and make a maximalistic, artsy,chaoticly gorgeous outfit.I personally like it because it could be a symbol of how playful and fun spring is but also how unpredictable and strange death is!I feel like if rachel took her time and didn't rush things she could give us something extraordinary!!!!!!

As always I hope this ask finds you in good health! Bye bye🌹☘️💖💜🎀💚🌺🌸❤️💕🧡👋🏻👋🏻👋🏻👋🏻👋🏻👋🏻

I remember you! I’m so glad to have you back! Your design is so beautiful by the way and honestly it’s very easy on the eyes too! I could see Persephone wearing something like that and also I’m honestly gushing about all of your exhibits because they’re so sweet and I absolutely love the detail you put in them. The tributes would’ve made the dress not only memorable but also very impactful to her character since Persephone was always supposed to be a more family oriented person (at least in season one when was characterized to be most comfortable with physical touch and around people) and it really would’ve showed us how strong her relationships have become over the past seasons, her friends are really just accessories at this point and they’re only brought up when it’s convenient. Hell even some signifying detail about Hades’ details would’ve been romantic like if they both wore parts of each other’s sacred animals or something like you incorporated, Hades never wears anything to represent Persephone and yet Persephone is supposed to be the one wearing dark colors now it’s just so one sided honestly.

But enough rambling, this was honestly such a sweet ask and I absolutely loved going through all of your ideas! They were genuinely so sweet and I hope everything is going great for you! <3

[80s-reject]

hihi omg im so happy i found someone that also watches kumovi bc its like my favorie show ever now i dont need to annoy my friends anymore RAH i js hope this isnt a situation where you like it in a chill way and i like it in a deranged way 😔 basically i was super obsessed with na granici first and also wanted to watch kumovi but i saw that its pretty long and didnt have time for the commitment but then they removed na granici for some reason so i started watching and holy shitt i love it so much ive spent like approximately 2 hours on the wikipedia page and the theme song was in my top 10 on spotify wrapped this year i know it by heart heehee...i actually saw vedran mlikota in real life back in summer but nobody believed me when i said it was him and like a month after i told my grandpa and he said yeah that was him. and i LOST MY SHIT!?!?;$  UM ANYWAYS *almost everyone* in the gotovac fam is my favorite i loove janko and lara theyre so sibling goals and lara is the funniest ever and ofc aljoša THE BETTER BROTHER :3 vesna is kinda annoying to me idk... i dont like her HOWEVER i love her character she was written really well,, my fav side characters are milica and marko their friendship is everything to me im glad theyre not really romantical towards each other :heart_hands: best friends for real..,,.,

HELLO I AM ALSO DERANGED FOR KUMOVI I ALWAYS ANNOY MY FRIENDS WITH IT i actually started watching during the 2nd season so whenever a character from s1 one appears i have to ask my mom who it is because she's watched both season i actually dont know why i started watching it i just sat down with my mom one night and i havent stopped watching it since I ALWAYS ANALYSE THE EPISODE WITH MY MOM AFTER WATCHTING IT janko is a good boyfriend but he is a literal copy of vesna it's actually scary how they managed to create parallels between them AND DONT GET ME STARTED ON ALJOSA. hes legitimately sooo hot and arguably the better brother. i like šima but (spoilers?) she's gen getting on my nerves lately stipan is only trying to help her but she's not used to having a father so she's all like >:( nE mOžEš mI gOvOrIt šTo dA rAdIm!1! and stipan is such a great character but he's a horrible father and great grandfather he would literally make sure his kids don't succeed in life if he doesn't like what they're doing (spoilers?) i agree abt that with milica and marko šank but his mother is literally the worst she's so insane she's literally trying to pull them apart and i'm p sure zvone is going through a mid-life (not sure if that counts as mid) crisis MARTIN IS SUCH A SWEET FATHER (jel novatv bh uopce dosla do toga??? valjda je matija jos trudna idk)

[hermitcraftkinfessions]

kicks rocks... i miss my friends... both as in i miss them now and wish i could find em, and missed them back then..

ya see, in season 1 of empires i was already a deity, but my creator sent me off to live with mortals when i was a kid and never knew who they were.. but by the finale when i die i ascended to "true godhood" and met up with my creator, big fuck you to that guy.

after Afterlife smp came season 2, where everyone well. didnt really. keep their memories as they reincarnated in new bodies.. althrough oddly similar to the last ones, some changes tho, ofc. But like. I retained all my memories, cause I was still me, I died as a "mortal", sure, I ascended, but still had the same memories of my mortal life. Still remembered my friends, my lover, my family. And none of them remembered me :( But fear not, dear readers /silly

For I did not give up, and like any good god, I could shapeshift, so I used that to my advantage! Shapeshifting as animals, old people, children, even appearing momentarily as an actual god, similar to my s1 looks but taller and with more gold accessories, but I only pulled that last one in moments they were very out of it so they thought they just had a fever dream. Like right before bed or for a fraction of a second around holy places (the cathedral, etc) Oh yes I looked over them, interacted briefly, they were different people but they were also in a way still my friends. They were still in there, I swear.

I also- I remember when I met Scott for the first time I threw away the "small interactions", i straight up shapeshifted into a mortal farmer (pretty similar to my s1 me but less fancy) and introduced myself to him, in a natural way, ofc- we started talking and yknow yeah we mightve fallen in love, and eventually i mightve told him the truth and he mightve been upset and thought i just loved his past self and not him... which at first was true, but i did love him by that point! he wasnt the SAME Scott i used to know but he was just as lovely in his own way! and eventually im p sure he regained some memories, was still himself, but then he could rember. and yeah we made up and stuff but we had a bit of a fall out when he found out the truth at first.. oops...

also gods (of a ""lower"" ranking like myself-) maaay have had a rule set by older ones/higher ups abt not interfering much with mortals... which i kinda rlly broke just there... and eventually w others too.. oopsiessss... twirls my hair w guilty big ol eyes

also pix was. somehow. a human yet immortal?? so he dissapeared in season 1 before the finale but by season 2 was the same guy who had been a historian/archeologist for years and had seen a bunch of shit happen *himself*, so yeaaah when we met it was also super emotional cause he remembered me. What I shifted as when we first met? call me stupid, but for some reason it was a child(11-14), I could control it but also not- at times it just kinda came out. I stayed like that even after he told me he knew who I was and I told him abt ascending and allat... yeah.... does that count as god-age regression /silly

another empires mems ramble!

-🌙Pearlie (He/She)

interesting, i really don't know what to put here, mod ex is more versed in things of this caliber but they're asleep so its just me

-Mod hels

[bustyasianbeautiespod]

hey guys! ive been really enjoying listening to the good omens eps! listening to the start of s1 reminded me that i had actually enjoyed that season haha. i feel so vindicated by ur thoughts on nina and maggie also the ppl in my life who watch have enjoyed s2 which was starting to make me feel like i was losing it a little. (also ty fr also disliking raphael!crowley- she's literally supposed to be just some guy stop trying to make them an archangel thats not the pointttt)

YOO HIII no fr though... watching s2 w danica and us both going "this is objectively bad" and then going into the tag and seeing ppl not only liking it (which is valid bc those chars are having fun) but calling neil gaiman a good writer and making gifsets of maggie and nina thus implying they were taken in by them in any way was such a jarring experience for me. i was in the desert wildly looking around for a pool of hater water. luckily for me though a lot of my mutuals and p much every friend I've watched s2 with since has 1. disliked maggie and nina 2. thought the writing was bad, so they all reassured me very fast. I'm sorry you didn't have the same experience but I'm glad we can provide it to you!

and s1 really WAS nice... after i got my soul crushed by how bad s2 was, i did a gomens rewatch that went s1e1 -> s2e1 -> s1e2 -> s2e2 -> etc just to make sure that what i perceived as a quality drop was really there and i wasn't making things up and it made me miss s1 even more

and yeah my feelings on the raphael matter are that the only Point to making crowley a former archangel is to go "omg... look how noble they once were but now they are fallen into a pit of ink" which isn't interesting to me bc i think the tragedy of crowley's fall is just meant to be "he was just some guy who asked a question." that or to try to attribute some of her goodness to how she used to be Nobility which is dumb bc i feel like the point of the humanism in the book is that any angel or demon who comes to earth w an open mind can learn free will and thus, perhaps, goodness. if there is a way that neil gaiman does raphael!crowley that doesn't play into either of those ideas, i'd be more fine with it, but then it's like "so why'd you do it"

happy listening and ty for writing in!

- Crystal :)

[mlobsters]

supernatural s10e16 paint it black (w. brad buckner, eugenie ross-leming)

so i gather there's recaps before these episodes, but they're not on netflix? i've seen mention of music or whatever in the recap. but i'm gettin none. going in blind and more confused than usual 🥴

crowley and rowena snapping at each other in this little throne room is getting a little tiring

s10e16 / s2e13

these church steps look like the houses of the holy ones, but maybe it's just the framing of the shot being down low. aha, it is indeed noted the same church on the wiki. only reason i noticed probably because i took a lot of screenshots of that scene, twice

sam's sure being a grumpy grumperson. what crawled up his ass and died. being worried about dean is coming out bitchy? is he still worried or was that 2 episodes ago? :p

steve elliott / henry thomas

thought this was the dude from the flanagan shows for a hot second

deep thoughts, why do the demons smoke out but not visibly smoke... in (to be sneaky and so we have to something to see when they leave, i know i know)

weren't there evil nuns in that church where... they killed lilith? trying to dredge up the memory. ah no, possessed priest who killed the nuns. i knew (a) nunnery was involved. these nuns sure are all dolled up and pretty, swanky dark gray habits

i don't understand what's going on here between sam and dean. lot of faces being made, dean is not exactly flirting with the nun but sam's acting like he is? i'm lost. and not even a little bit intoxicated!

DEAN I got a question. How does someone, uh, like you end up, you know…? SISTER MATHIAS Cloistered away from the world? [Chuckles] Are you making fun of me, Agent Allman? DEAN No. No, No. I, Uh… I guess I’m just wondering how somebody quits one life for something completely different and – and then believe in it so much. SISTER MATHIAS Well [sighs] in my case, I felt I had no choice. My life had become painful. There was hopelessness. I felt I had to find something larger than myself to focus on. A kind of mission, I guess. You have no idea what I’m talking about, I’m sure.

are we trying to do something with dean and the mark here *squints* dean and sam join a monastery!

DEAN Tell me you didn’t think that nun was hot. I think she had a little thing for me too. SAM Dean, she was married to Jesus.

speaking of mentioning jesus :p i guess that was supposed to be flirting. it did go there bit more once sam went to wave around his little meter.

s1e14 boop boop

do we ever talk about the time when they had a thing with fake green lasers in s1? i'm embarrassed whenever i think about it lol. so awkward, never to return

all right rowena's over the top fake bow made me laugh

olivette / the x-files s2e11 - teryl rothery as michelle charters / stargate: sg-1 - teryl rothery as dr jane fraiser

this olivette actress i definitely know, but i'm not sure what from. she was in the xfiles and the killing, but maybe from sg1? she was in a lot of episodes. maybe caprica but i'm convinced i've forgotten 95% of that show

are rowena and olivette gonna make out? conflicting vibes

losing my mind over this ridiculous nun/painter man drama sideplot. and the makeup on these ladies is a lot more obvious than tv makeup on someone so young like this usually is

lot of coverage and visibly powdered down matte. odd. what time is this flashback occurring? olden times?

spn s10e16 / hannibal s3e6

are they in florence? lol was like this reminds me of hannibal and bedelia in front of that window. haha if i had waited literally 1 second, i would have had my question answered. yes. anyway, go me. identifying landmarks left and right today

guess we know who's whackin the dudes. god i just need to finish this episode but i'm dragging my feet. sigh. rowena, the ~grand coven~ and beef with the men of letters now. great

well at least this can't be as awkward as when he was making all the people horny in that purity pledge group

DEAN What if I said I…I didn’t want to die…yet, you know, that I wasn’t ready? FATHER DELANEY Are you expecting to? DEAN Always. [Chuckles] You know, the life I live, the work I do…I pretty much just figured that that was all there was to me, you know? Tear around and jam the key in the ignition and haul ass until I ran out of gas. I guess I just thought sooner or later, I’d go out the same way that I live – pedal to the metal, and that would be it. FATHER DELANEY But now? DEAN Now, um… recent events, uh… make me think I might be closer to that than I really thought. And…I don’t know. I mean, you know, there’s – there’s things, there’s…people, feelings that I-I-I want to experience differently than I have before, or maybe even for the first time.

um. okay. taking off the wincest goggles briefly, is that like. wanting to settle down with someone? what feelings/people he wants to experience differently or for the first time? having kids or being in love-in love (implying that he wasn't with lisa, so i dunno). it's vague enough you could surely apply it to your ship of choice. but i'm trying to Be Reasonable about what they're implying

FATHER DELANEY Go a little deeper, perhaps, than with Gina. DEAN Yeah. Yeah, I’m just starting to think that… maybe there’s more to it all than I thought. FATHER DELANEY Learning there’s more to the universe than your tiny world can be a frightening discovery. Do you truly believe in God, Agent? Because that can be a comfort DEAN I believe there is a God. But I’m not sure he still believes in us.

what about the gods in religions that also have large followings currently that aren't christianity? presumably they'd be powerful too. i mean. i should be thankful they're not trying to drag them into the show

fucking fuck stupid startle reflex TWICE they've cut over to rowena slapping this woman and startled the shit out of me. i like her red dress though

perpetually the winchesters, indeed

so is sam reading 16th century ghost lady's journal in italian?

ISABELLA [VOICE OVER] But it wasn’t enough. [ISABELLA cuts off her own finger.] I told Piero to gind the flesh, blood, and bone into the pigment.

excuse me. i laughed. nonsense

SAM You know… you were in that confessional a long time. Look, man, I’m just saying, I’m your brother, Dean. If you ever need to talk about anything with anybody, you got somebody right here next to you. DEAN Okay. SAM I heard what Sister Mathias was saying about, you know, hiding pain by taking on a mission, and I-I know that’s what you’re doing a little bit. And it’s okay. I mean, it’s fine. I get it. I’ve done it before, too. But… I don’t buy for one second that the Mark is a terminal diagnosis, so don’t go making peace with that idea. There has to be a way. There will be a way, and we will find it. That’s what we do. So, believe that. DEAN Okay, Sammy.

reminding me a bit of dean's speech from s7e2 with sam and the hallucifer psychosis

s7e2 DEAN I am your flesh-and-blood brother, okay? I'm the only one who can legitimately kick your ass in real time. You got away. We got you out, Sammy. Believe in that. Believe me, okay? You gotta believe me. You've gotta make it stone number one and build on it.

just, it's difficult to see talking of relationships and feelings to be about people outside of the sam and dean bubble, since at the end of the day that's where they draw the line. i mean, you could have a relationship with sam where you do actually go to him to talk about the important things, novel concept :P (but same goes for you, sam).

and another thought was just they seem to be nudging dean away from his self destructive tendencies, which is also some growth. maybe. i say that now so surely that means he's about to do something spectacularly stupidbad. i dunno, man. i need to sleep.

[silvertsundere]

Silver Talks AniManga (30/04/23)

there was no WSJ this week cause of golden week break but there was still some other stuff, like the new manga from the danberu duo or me catching up some anime

also starting from this week gonna have some background colours in the series list too, to make it easier to parse at a glance, but I'll include the meaning for them before it always

also I meant to watch a couple more anime (at least the first 3 eps) but got distracted with other stuff during the week. oops, I'll get to it tho, it's only a couple more

green - new series (anime in the first 3 eps count as new but silver those are more than the first 3 yeah but I meant to watch them before 4 came out let me live)

Anime

Uma Musume - Road to the Top Ep1 - 2

bruh. idk why these damn horse girls have such a grip on me but they do some places in s1 made me cry and this was wrenching my heart too which is fucked up cause I'm usually p unaffected by stuff anyway, this is a special ONA that'll be just 4 episode, you can even watch it all on uma musume's youtube WITH english subs even it looks great, since it's cygames own studio, the music's great, the voice acting is great, all the quality you'd expect from one of the top grossing gachas in the world (despite being jp only) the thing that surprised me the most was how good the character acting is tho, ofc uma musume has always had the little details with tails and ears but sheesh also I'm loving to see ayabe and my prince opera in action, some horses I've really come to like a lot in recent years cause of twitter

Uma Musume - Road to the Top Ep3

oh tehe I didn't realize ep 3 was gonna fall in this week's post too, putting it separately like this instead of 1-3 to not disrupt the thoughts from when I watched those, anyway good ep, had me tearing up AGAIN (damn horses..), it pains me to see ayabe suffering so much :( but I was looking up stuff about the main trio after the other 2 eps and saw Real Horse Lore so I know what's gonna happen in the finale already lol, it'll still be good tho

Megumin Ep1 - 4

let me start off by saying I'm never watched konosuba cause of aqua, kazuma and darkness, however I do like megumin. watching this since I know I wouldn't need to watch it to know anything (tho if you spent any time on tumblr back when it first came out you've seen it all through gifs and caps and clips like me so..) but anyway

it's alright, the only good animation moment was at the start of ep 1 with, of course, the explosion but I shouldn't have expected much considering what I know, oh well. however, takarie (megumin) and toyosaki aki (yunyun) really carry it with their performances, tho mostly takarie cause of how megumin in lol

not really much to say other than that so far, if you like megumin then it's a must watch show but you already knew that if you do. she should be using her first explosion next ep (5) so that should be cool

Imas CG: U149 Ep1 - 4

TL;DR: if you weren't gonna watch U149 cause "it's just for kids" you're wrong, and if you like the previous im@s anime do yourself a favour and watch it cause it's incredibly good too. I'll be honest I wasn't too sure about U149 at first, since it's the kids from CG I thought it was gonna be, well, aimed to kids as a way to bring them in into the franchise but I was very wrong! The show is incredibly good. It follows the same structure as the original im@s anime of having and episode dedicated to each of the cast members (completed with their character song as the ed) and it can actually be serious. Like in ep 3, miria is live streaming with satou shin and she gets some hate messages in the chat and it's a very tense scene. they even did this cool trick where the noticeably muted the colours during that scene to give it an heavier atmosphere it was so good man. Also I love all the cameos of other cg girls, the direct and background easter egg ones too. Also because I played the game hearing the insert songs and eds just got me going like that leo pointing me lol. Anyway I'm start to ramble too much but, please understand, I love idols. A lot. One final thing I'll say however is: it was very funny going directly from megumin into this and seeing the difference in quality; Megumin has the bare minimum of animation (cause kadokawa) but you can really see the passion behind U149, all the characters got little details and you can see their personality with how they move and interact with each other.

Mashle Ep4

still nothing crazy animation but we did get the lance fight and the first muscle magic moment, and it actually didn't look half bad which gives me hope for fights later on but we'll see how it turns out

Pokemon Horizons Ep4

nice ep, mostly an introduction to roy the other protag, he isn't nearly as annoying as he could be so that's good, there was also a buncha good expressions so that's fun

Jigokuraku Ep5

nice episode, mostly exposition and set up so some people aren't gonna like it, but it happens every now and then in the breaks between action. also they really made takarie say chinpo noooo

Manga

ST✰R: Strike it Rich Ch 0 - 1

new manga by the duo behind danberu, yabako and maam, it's probably gonna be set in the kengan universe since it's yabako writing it but we'll see. anyway like it said in the post I made before, it's about a underground fighting ring for women, it came out with a prologue chap and the 1st one, setting up all the characters and all that, the art is a lot more brutal than I expected since I just see danberu as ripped cute girl fanservice but shoulda kown better not really much else to say, chap 1 ended with a big cliffhanger, I wish it was a bit longer, hina down here seems interesting enough tho so we'll see how it goes, gonna be rough remembering to read it tho since it's biweekly

Dandadan Ch103

nice and emotional chap, should only have 1 or 2 more left of vamola's backstory now

Saihate Quartet Ch10

not much to say, tho it's nice that luci's already shown up to the cast according to my buddy mega it's not doing great in terms of views, so it's very likely to get canceled/end soon so that's a rip

Kaiju 8 Ch85

the first 1v1 fight to end, they didn't have to go full yaiba at the end there but it was still good. next up is cap narumi so that should be good too tho the one I'm looking forward to the most is hoshina's

Shuumatsu no Valkyrie Ch77

aww I was hoping they'd say who the next fight was gonna be but they didn't, didn't expect to see siegfried tho but since he's been established now there's no way he's not gonna do something later

Jiangshi X Ch14

thought this was gonna be the classic "mc awakens to a power they didn't know they had when in danger" but it was just the amulet his dad gave him (? afaik), also I think the art looked off this week? but might be just me

Spy x Family Ch79

nice yor centric chap, been a while, tho her harpie coworkers were annoying me with their jealousness

Ayakashi Triangle Ch128

ah yes the classic aquarium date, expecting a lot of shenanigans next week since everyone's following them

[variousqueerthings]

Its kind of funny how they have Hawkeye acknowledge how sexist some of his actions were when i feel like i always remember there being more women in those earlier seasons. I might be misremembering but i feel like if theyre going to do that they could at least make female characters more core. Like not every woman has to be plot relevant to be featured.

- Majoranon

Second post on your ask and much much shorter

I’m on my parallel rewatch atm and while there aaare overall more named nurses (especially in s1) they’re (thank you for pointing this out to me @genderqueer-klinger ) 1. not consistently named (ex. several nurses throughout the show will be called “Able”) and 2. named alphabetically, which can make them seem not quite real beyond a sexy conveyer belt (and there are exceptions AND I think it already started changing somewhat in “Ceasefire” s1 when Hawkeye pretending to be married immediately had several women rightfully drop him on the spot, AND I think it’s interesting that twice in the first couple of seasons -- and maybe later? Hawkeye makes a point of how he doesn’t pursue married peopl- uh... women, just women... yeah... sure...... Carlye is an important outlier, he’s going against his own principles!)

(also this is where I break in to imagine MASH form the POV of someone trying to tell their story and forgetting half the names and the timeline and that’s the reason for changing names/repeat names/odd ages/etc, but that’s another post + one of 100 versions of MASH one can imagine)

I do consistently wish there were more women who returned to the show (and you know... Ginger my beloved), but I do think overall there are a lot of interesting women throughout who have more single-episode plot-driven roles -- I have a feeling the difference overall between seasons 1-3 and 4-onwards is probably negligible but with less love-interests, but now just for interest’s sake will have a think about women whom I think are interesting in either a recurring role (Kellye, Rosie) or in their single episodes, and do a little comparison (again, more for interest than to make a point, because I generally just wish that there were more ladies with more screentime)

*

and all of this being said and going back to the line itself for a bit -- I think that Hawkeye acknowledging past sexist behaviour is very interesting as a reason for him to not want to lead Marina on, when I might argue that it sounds more like a misdirection (a real thing he feels, but not the real reason he’s letting her down/feels like he does -- the best lies are the truth after all). Because what of course comes next is him saying that she deserves a passionate, starving, wide-eyed artist, and that he’s “seen too much to ever be wide eyed again.”

I watched Blood and Guts the other day (s10ep12) and it was interesting to me that Hawkeye had a date, because I think it’s been awhile since he’s had one of those? I did a cursory look-through and from what I see + remember the last time Hawkeye had something related to doing something with a woman was “Taking The Fifth” (s9ep9) and he didn’t even end up doing anything at all, unless the nursing staff took him up on the offer to get topped by every one of them........ and before that I feel like it was “Inga” way back in s7?

Again, I’d need to rewatch and pay attention to that, but overall we know that the tone of the show changes a fair bit from beginning to end and these late seasons in particular let Hawkeye have way less fun, never mind be a flirt, and so when he tells Marina that he’s not what she’s looking for, it really does seem sincere + like he’s just not got the will to want to seduce anybody -- never mind falling in love. I’ve also boarded the aromantic Hawkeye train and I’m not going to be getting off it anytime soon, but I do think that fits easily with the read that Hawkeye used to really enjoy being wanted + the giddiness of getting into something with someone. He didn’t often go about it the right way/he didn’t always take the partner’s feelings into account, but there was something about desire/being desired that he gravitated towards, if not an actual romantic relationship -- and on some level he still wants that, after all he still gets very upset/morose when he doesn’t feel appreciated

(this could now veer into “and so what does this tell us about Hawkeye-wants-to-be-wanted-Pierce sexually” and I’m gonna not do that this post, because I tangent enough as is)

again, was talking to genderqueer-klinger about this -- they mentioned that Hawkeye keeps having to suffer from Main Character Syndrome by getting all the really awful plotlines while everyone else gets to frolic, and I then called him Mad Max, because a lot of the time he has episodes where he’s there to step into someone else’s story (the episode where he tries to help the Korean soldier, only to then help dig his grave, the episode with the Korean brothers, also Blood Brothers, heck even Marina’s story has Hawkeye in the role of love-interest-that-never-happened) and most of the time that story is bittersweet at best and his job is to contain all of that Narrative and he’s only a single lanky guy (it’s the real reason his posture is so fucked, he carries it all on his back)

he’s not allowed much levity, so we cling to the times he gets to do something lighter, like help deliver a calf or gather pictures so that a soldier can pretend to his ex that he’s over her, etc. But you know... maybe someone oughta be giving him a kiss every now and then, because my goodness does he not get as much love as I think he needs, which again, if aro-read, it’s also hard to define that love under an easy “give him a romantic interest” because that wouldn’t feel right either (and that’s not even mentioning episodes where BJ is going through His Stuff and is therefore mean to him, or the Hawkeye-centric episodes where they’re like “what if he has extra trauma from his childhood on top of that”)

maybe if someone gave him a good smooch/ruffled his hair/put him in their lap/f***** him/touched him/etcetcetc... I mean it wouldn’t fix him, but I think it would be good for him to not feel like he can no longer enjoy those things/is made too fragile by the violence to be held 

Anyway, keeping a running list now of episodes that feature women in an interesting way (this may be somewhat subjective at times)

stay tuned!

[hornyweasel]

i’m usually very easily entertained but i was left feeling rather empty after the finale, i do hope they fix their pacing issues for s3 and adopt a more show don’t tell attitude bc we’re tired

what annoys me most is the fact that season 1 was super fast paced and season 2 began with b&c and the twins killing e/o then NOTHING. i mean rook’s rest and the build up to it were rather good but you can’t have /nothing/ happen for the most part of three episodes at the very end of your season???

v disappointed at having been shown aemond looking at the pyre he created rather than seeing him actually do it or how/when/why he decided to do it when the whole season for him was about his descent into madness? reminds me of what they did to aegon at the end of s1, throwing shit at the wall and making it stick forcefully like?

speaking of aegon, what was the point of making him this horrible person just to turn back around and make him sympathetic this season….? i love tom to bits and he’s singlehandedly managed to make mr aeg one of my favourite characters but i really can’t wrap my mind around the fact that they made him a literal child r@pist in order to give rhaenyra a better claim only to make him this sad little pookie bear in s2 like….? ok

also the smallfolk? hello? going back to my argument regarding aemond, the only people we’ve seen him harm/kill were family/nobles, people that he had ties to and mostly (not you luke) had something to do with the war, SHOW HIM BEING CRUEL TO INNOCENTS IF YOU WANT HIS DESCENT INTO MADNESS TO HAVE IMPACT GODDAMN i don’t care about these nobles and their little family issues, i’m a left wing bitch, give me the people and their grievances and opinions on what’s happening. we only had dyanna and the madame for half a second + hugh who’s very compelling and i can’t wait to see his story moving forward but like. that’s it? mf they’re gonna kill the dragons, have them be more important BEFORE the last ever second before chaos (hey helaena and jaehaerys) i beg

the whole tyland arc? couldn’t we have had that earlier? or later? like… during the finale is INSANE 😭

showing tessarion in the teaser only for her to only appear at the end of the episode…? could have not teased it beforehand and let people feel that excitement when watching the episode bc i was expecting daeron to at least get off her and do a little one step two step but no it was the same literal thing as shown in the teaser like? ok (x2)

daemon having one facetime call with helaena and reverting back to being a rhaenyra loyalist and kneeling in front of her (and his men doing the same) at the very last minute when the whole season was about his self-entitlement and jealousy? make it make sense

at least alicent’s arc made sense, she spent the whole season chastising herself for her past decisions so it… kind of…. makes sense….. for her to turn her back on everything? she was never a righteous/selfless person so yeah i can let that slide

criston throwing all caution to the wind. we love to see it honestly but why would gwayne put him on blast in front of their troops like that 😭 homie that is your widowed sister the dowager queen 😭

rhaena… nobody moved. why is she chasing that damned dragon at her own peril? i mean i do get why but AGAIN you can’t just show us a glimpse of someone without having taken us through the whole process of them coming to that decision I’M SO PISSED OFFFFFFJFHRHFJFJFJ

p sure they’re going to merge maelor’s storyline with jaehaera’s bc why wouldn’t they? but also 😭 jaehaera and aegon not leaving at the same time or him not having been shown thinking about his only living child or wife or mother like????

also did we hear anyone call rhaenyra ‘the realm’s delight in s1’ because I don’t remember anyone doing that so it makes aegon using it so useless in regards to the gp like who the fuck knows what it means if they haven’t read the book and are just casual watchers?

[stoprobbers]

ok time for thoughts

have i full digested volume 1? nyet. not even a little. but i do have thoughts, especially thoughts about that stuff, and i’m gonna sit here and write them as the universe intended: sitting on my back porch on a gorgeous day (like how dare you keep me inside for 4.5 hours today, duffs, do you know how long we’ve waited for winter to end in chicago???) with a joint and a cider and, hopefully, some clarity. 

and behind a cut because: S P O I L E R S. spoilers all over the damn place. also this is long as fuck.

let us start with the elephant in the room: the stancy fanbait.

i say this to you with all my heart: i don’t understand the point of it. i also don’t think it’s nearly as reciprocal as some have said/seen/felt/feared. and therefore, i don’t think it’s going to come to anything.

first of all, when it’s brought up to nancy (usually by robin who, like, girl, you don’t know nancy at all??), she looks extremely uncomfortable. not like “you’re saying something i don’t want other people to see” uncomfortable (please see s2 for what nancy’s face looks like when that happens), but like “this isn’t accurate and is borderline disrespectful and it makes me feel bad” uncomfortable. not bad like guilty. bad like bad. 

in fact, in the longest convo she has with robin about it, she doesn’t talk about steve at all. she talks about jonathan. about how jonathan was supposed to come out and canceled. about how she’s worried he’s pushing her away and she doesn’t know why. and while she doesn’t say it, the massive blaring neon sign level of obvious subtext here is: SHE MISSES HIM. she misses him as a person, she misses him as her boyfriend and, i’m sure, she misses him as her monster hunting partner. not because he’s quiet and does whatever she says; because he’s her compliment, her completer. he knows how and when to ask the right questions. he sees what she can’t, and believes what she sees when she says she sees it. he’s her partner. in life, in crime, in monster hunting. and she’s doing this without him and it doesn’t feel right. 

yes, jancy needs to have a talk. a proper, substantive one. but nancy is doing what she always does when she’s in pain: diving into distraction and investigation to stave off having to deal with the hurt. 

and so the reason the stancy feels so very shoehorned in is because it’s not actually there. seriously, compare their interactions with jonathan and nancy in seasons 1 and 2. in those seasons we feel them pulling together. not because other people are saying it (in both seasons there are assumptions made about something already being there, not people telling them there should be something there -- an important distinction) but because it’s just happening. because they’re falling for each other. the moment grow over time, as their characters are working together. in s1 jonathan is the first person to believe nancy when she says something is going on. he trusts her, he listens to her, he protects her, he saves her. and she does the same in return. it’s reciprocal and it’s natural. 

this season it’s normal, platonic, even slightly distanced friend energy between steve and nancy and then other people being like “so you’re clearly into each other right” and her largely looking like she’d rather die on the spot than have this conversation again. 

(side note insertion here: what the fuck, dustin? and also what the fuck happened to dustin’s character? does he not know any other girl in hawkins other than nancy? is this a manifestation of his longtime crush on nancy? he’s certainly aware of jonathan and nancy’s relationship, he’s will’s friend. his own comments are gross. and overall he and steve were not charming together this season at all. it was already strained last season but they don’t even talk to each other as people. it’s like writing from a totally different show popping in here and there. weird and not good. dustin was at his best with max, lucas, and erica in the wheeler home.)

the moments they do have, while clearly written to not be platonic, felt so uncomfortable to me. and in some cases felt like cheap copies of natural jancy moments. (lol that bandaging scene is the barest shadow of season 1; same with nancy clinging to steve’s arm when they get scared. pale comparisons at best.) and what it feels like, to me, is the writers on their covid quarantine break basically being like “people keep asking us if things between steve and nancy are unresolved so let’s add some of that in there.” it doesn’t work and it’s extremely disappointing. especially because i could very much buy that nancy has affection for steve, just not romantic feelings anymore. and i think the season could work as a rekindling/solidifying of their friendship if the writers are willing to do it. it’d make 1000000000x more sense than the idea she’s catching feelings out of nowhere again. 

and i find this disappointing because i think they’re trying to spin a core nancy wheeler character trait as a sign of romantic interest, and it’s not. when eddie says nancy jumping in the lake after steve is “an unambiguous sign of true love” (and also, eddie, dude, you do not know either of them or jonathan so what in the fucking fuck dude) he’s dead wrong. jonathan was the one who actually pegged it in the first episode of the season: “You just don’t understand Nancy. She’s incredibly ambitious. She’s never done a single thing halfway in her life.”

if the vines had pulled eddie or robin into the lake, nancy would have jumped in just as fast. no hesitation. no fear. that’s who she is. and to twist that part of her into a sign of feelings for steve bugs me to no end. because we saw her do it for will, and we saw her do it for barb, and we saw her do it for eleven too in s3. we’re seeing her do it for max now. hell, to some degree she’s doing all of this for eddie too, to clear his name as a murder suspect. and she barely knows the dude.

i think we could have had every “shippy” beat between her and steve - the rescue, the bandaging, the scared jump whatever thing - with platonic energy and it would have landed better than what we got. because of course nancy would go after him. save him. help him. that’s who she is. don’t drag her down to some bullshit “it’s because she has feelings for him level.” she doesn’t. she’s in love with jonathan, and she says it without prompting or hesitation at the start of this season (this is no half-uttered “i love you too” in response to steve in the car in s2. she loves jonathan and she’s comfortable saying it to whoever.) but she cares about steve like she cares about any of her friends, and even her brother’s friends. to deny nancy that dimension of her character is to rob her of something she’s earned over 3-4 seasons now. i won’t stand for it. 

in conclusion: i think this is bait, i think it’d be a huge narrative mistake to follow through for it, and a disaster in terms of character writing, that would serve literally no purpose. i hope the reunion of the cali gang with the hawkins gang clears it up right quick because i feel like it’s gonna be the first time in months both jonathan AND nancy have been able to take a deep breath. i think the relief in being with each other again should be immense. 

and i hope they have a damn talk. 

and i hate that they did this bait because it taints an otherwise very good start to the season for me, and taints it a lot. it taints it by spending so much time with it (we needed that time elsewhere) and it taints it by being a distraction. for shame for shame, writer’s room. someone should have guided you better. 

as for the other stuff: 

- i think the byers family is incredible this season. will has no hesitation calling el his sister (neither does jonathan, but i never thought jonathan would) and it makes me feel very Warm. 

- “hi, murray!” forever and ever and ever

- stoned jonathan forever and ever too. ok guys look: jonathan’s character in s1 revolves around being a parentified older brother to a kid who has gone missing. i’ve never bought that jonathan would be as self-serious as many fans seem to sort of demand he be as a way of delineating him from steve. i, for one, welcome doofus jonathan because here’s the thing: teenage boys are doofuses. let the dude lighten up a little. let him have a friend and be a moron at dinner. (side note: i don’t believe for a second joyce doesn’t know he’s stoned, she just doesn’t care [and has bigger fish to fry in that moment]. good job, cool mom.) he’s serious and responsible when he needs to be. let the kid smoke weed! 

- also i like that he doesn’t come up with neat, always-successful plans when they’re in trouble, but still has really good, solid instincts. go to the police station when el gets arrested, immediately. get argyle to the house to escape to hawkins by calling for pizza. check the “OFFICE” file when looking for bland info like addresses. he’s actively smart this season, clever and quick thinking and clearheaded. that’s my boy.

- let’s spend a minute on “jonathan in conflict about college.” i actually loved that conversation. i need to watch that scene again but the way he spirals is beautifully in character. it’s not “i don’t want to go to the same school as nancy and she’ll dump me.” it’s “i’m mired in fear about my family and leaving them alone, i worry that nancy will follow me and not her dreams” and then immediately to “that will build resentment and then we’ll get divorced like my parents and my kids will hate me.” this is all the trauma of the byers’ divorce that jonathan internalized finally given voice. that’s what happened with his parents: they resented each other, they got divorced, jonathan and will hate lonnie. that’s what scares jonathan. and i think that’s an example of how the duffers and their team can actually write well so like what the fuck was the rest of this shit guys? 

- (yes, i also like it because i wrote this fic. please drop a line if you know how to contact the duffers for royalties.) 

- the lab plot is fucking fascinating to me. once again we needed significantly less time with hawkins and more time with el. i hope we get some of that in vol. 2

- the satanic panic plot is not fucking fascinating to me. it is boring and dry as hell. needed 85% less screen time. 

- i liked the russia plot but it should not have been over 7 episodes; they could have wrapped it up in 4 or less. maybe the adults just dip out until the reunion in vol. 2? idk but it was stretched out too thin.

- ok we need to talk about authority figures/law enforcement here. nancy would NEVER have been let into that trailer park while it was an active crime scene. same with the psychiatric hospital, on every level. POLICE CANNOT QUESTION A MINOR WITHOUT AN ADULT PRESENT, WHAT IN THE FUCKING FUCK. i know we gotta suspend some disbelief but i miss the accurate portrayal of (small town) police from s1 and s2. i miss the accurate portrayal of a lot of things, honestly. 

- i’m glad powell is chief tho

- murray also has a rolling bag. those were invented in 1987. why. why to this anachronism. it’s so goddamn unnecessary. it’s like a fucking own goal. 

- they desperately need to smallen this narrative world. it’s too big. it’s unreasonably big. they can’t write for it. they can’t even really keep control of it. seasons 1 and 2 work so well because they are small. it’s big danger and big crazy happening to a small group in a small town. it works because that lets you FEEL it and believe it. at this point there’s so many goddamn people involved that i can’t believe any of it anymore. military shooting up a home in a residential neighborhood in bumblyfuck california would be on the news for WEEKS. their eyes are way bigger than their narrative stomachs and we’re all suffering for it. 

- i know there’s no way this ever gets smaller, though, and that’s a fucking shame. 

i have a lot more to say. it’ll probably be in tags and on other posts. i need to digest the actual plot laid ahead of us. there are so many repercussions for so many characters and i think the reason so many people are furious about the return of this stancy bait is because it IS SO DISTRACTING. like that is what we’re talking about, not el’s first gate? not hopper’s heartbreaking monologue about his curse? or the symbology of curses in general?? 

it’s meaningless in its distraction too. because, not to beat a dead horse, but if you took jancy out of s1, you lose like 1/3-1/2 the meat of the story. you take stancy out of s4 and you lose nothing. everything still happens as written. and so what is even the damn point of it? 

i do think jancy will win this war. but i’m not enjoying this particular battle. 

(if you made it to the end here you’re a saint, i don’t deserve your attention for this long. but feel free to have a convo in the replies!) 

[kaypeace21]

Idk if this is possible or not or if you've done it already but could you list all the rainbow references in the show?

Haha- talk about pandora’s box. Sure, personally i think the rainbows have multiple meanings -3 meanings to to be exact

1) Rainbows being associated with psychics + Will’s powers plot twist

*We see in the stranger thing novel 'suspicious minds' when overusing powers you may hallucinate rainbows (which are also associated with the void/ monsters in the series) .

Terry: “Spots bloomed behind her eyelids. Every color … as the sunlight turned to rainbows” ( p44-45), “streaks of rainbow appeared (p47)”,“The rainbow stayed with Terry for a long while, but eventually it faded and in its place: darkness. A pit.”(p. 48). 

Alice (who sees visions of the future) : “Snarling, snapping monsters,RAINBOW LIGHTS playing in the air around them” (p. 121).

cough Will being in the upsidedown/being chased by “monsters”. And Joyce communicating with Will  via “rainbow lights.”

The rainbow room (from s2) also has a rainbow on the door- according to the novel kali drew that rainbow. Similar to Will's rainbow drawing. Kali in the book also creates a rainbow allusion with sunflowers (Terry ref).

Kali: “field of yellow sunflowers  grew up around them. A rainbow arcing over the golden tops.” (p. 139).  “He noticed she’d drawn up there, a rainbow with her colored pencils. Maybe he’d suggest that for the playroom” (the rainbow room we see in s2) (p. 298)

I also already talked about how Terry saying "breath, sunflower, rainbow " is actually a reference to s1 Will- here (in link including pic of Will and Terry being told to “breath”.

*El in s3 also thinks of papa, her mother , and the rainbow room- cause she sees a cereal box with a rainbow (on it).

Dustin and susie sing a song from the film adaption of the book "never ending story". Which indicates how Will is subconsciously creating the supernatural creatures & people in the series . Before they sing, we also see  susie is next to a ‘wizard of oz’ posters & she reads & talks to Dustin about the book "wizard of earthsea'. 2 of the 3 examples have  rainbow-related songs (in their film adaptions) & all 3 hint at Will’s powers.

* wizard of earthsea:

It’s about a pre-teen wizard named Ged who has a bowl cut (Will) who casts a powerful spell, but the spell goes awry and instead he releases a shadow creature (by opening a portal between the living & dead- Will is a zombie boy remember?)! The new Archmage, Gensher, describes the shadow as an ancient evil that wishes to possess Ged. But the ‘shadow’ turns out  to be a representation of the darkest aspects of his personality. It’ only when he calls the shadow monster by his own name “Ged”(cough mf=will the wise) does the monster stop acting out. The only way to save the world is for ged to then  merge with the shadow(and for Ged to accept himself-and “become whole”).This also reminds me of the “Jungian shadow” 

* never ending story: 

Bastian ( who has a bowl cut- and is from single parent house hold) subconsciously creates a fantasy world being over run by darkness (symbolizing the loss of hope and dreams). One of the characters he creates is Atreyu (El). Atreyu ( was the child deemed the ‘chosen one). “Atreyu is knocked into the sea of possibilities. There he wakes on the shore of abandoned ruins. And Gmorick (mindflayer) then latches his jaws onto Atreyu’s (El’s) leg.”Pretty much what happened to El.”The Empress in the story later tells Atreyu, that despite being told he was the chosen one (he never was). And that it was always Bastian (Will) who was the chosen one-since his imagination created Fantasia (so he’s the only way to stop the darkness from over -running it).”

Will has mental health issues and  accidentally writes a “story” about the shadow monster (reflecting his tra*ma). Bastian is depressed (over his parent) and subconsciously creates a story about darkness over-running everything. Like how Hopper describes his depression- like a black hole.

song Dustin & Susie sing:

 “Written on the pages is the answer to a never ending story” (cough the books susie referenced - are explaining the answer to what’s causing the mindflayer/upsidedown/the lab...this story )

“DREAM a dream. And what you DREAM will be” ( Will’s imagination making his nightmares come true)

“Rhymes that keep their secrets Will unfold behind the clouds.And there upon a RAINBOW Is the answer to a never ending story.”

(the lyric “rhymes that keep their SECRETS” purposely pans to Will both times the song is sung). Because the ‘SECRET’ is -he’s causing everything. And thus he’s the only way to stop it- or they’ll all be stuck in a never-ending story. The only way to stop it is for Will to face his shadow/the mindflayer (aka the other Will) who is always shown within the STORM CLOUDS . Will needs to create a RAINBOW (out of those storm clouds). Like rainbows that show up AFTER a storm.He’d do this by accepting himself , his tra*ma/mental health relating to his dad, and or his gay identity- then the story will be able to end.Dustin even says “ defeat his RAINBOW of DARKNESS” (and later says a “rainbow is the answer ”(to the story). st book:”The RAINBOW stayed with Terry for a long while, but eventually it faded and in its place: DARKNESS. A pit.”AKA: Will has to face his symbolic darkness and the storm/and than create a rainbow from it- for the story to end...

When Dustin says ‘rainbow of darkness’ he talks about my little pony- where one of their friends became a dragon.  in d&d wizards can become dragons &Bastian also summons a dragon with his imagination powers in ‘never ending story’. And Will is associated with dragons: s1he  has dragon comic & drawing, s2 Will has dragon poster in his room + watches his friends play dragon game. And again... dungeons & dragons.

Also tw for s.a/parental ab*se (so skip to ‘wizard of oz’  if you prefer ). In the 4th book of wizard of Eathsea (20 years after the original, where ged was the protagonist). The new main  protagonist - was r*ped and burned by her father as a child (and in the sequel she became a dragon as a form of empowerment ). which goes with my lonnie theory-sadly.

*wizard of oz: 

it’s about a Dorothy creating a mythical world based on people she both likes and dislikes . Dorothy sings in the movie a song about a ‘RAINBOW’ and references ‘DREAMS’ coming true in a mythical land -much like the ‘never ending story’ song (referencing “rainbows”/”dreams” coming to life).

“There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby Somewhere over the RAINBOW, Skies are blue, And the DREAMS that you dare to dream, really do come true...”

We see in s1 Hopper cop-partner calls the lab “emerald city”. Murray in s2 says people “don’t want to look behind the curtain” (to see what’s causing the supernatural -in the film what was literally behind the curtain was a wizard-cough like Will). We also have -lion, tiger, and bear stuffed animals (as a ‘lion, and tigers, and bears-oh my!’ quote )from the film. And David harbor (Hopper) when referencing the s4 rainbow room (quotes the song)  and he also quotes a speech from Dorothy-when posting about the cabin the mindflayer destroyed.

2) Rainbow cups (hinting at Lonnie’s return) 

We see 2 rainbow cups in the series. 

in s2) when Mike & Will are sitting together & saying they’re “crazy together” . This cup next to them says “happy birthday” in rainbow. Later that season- they talk about Will’s birthday-rainbow drawing, Mike&Will meeting & Lonnie leaving. And in s2, we also see in Will’s room a card that says “sorry, I forgot your birthday”(most likely from Lonnie). So both Lonnie & Mike are associated with Will’s bday.

in s3) We see a woman yell “I don’t want her in my house!” (while she sits next to a rainbow cup). reminiscent of Joyce saying to Lonnie “get out of my house”. We also know there are rumors s4 takes place during Will’s birthday & Lonnie’s actor may have been spotted on set.  Along with the fact (it’s pretty much confirmed) Mike will be visiting the Byers in s4. However, the woman (next to the rainbow cup)  also says “2 visitor only. 2!″

THE 2 VISITORS ARE MIKE &LONNIE (for Will’s b day). 

Also, in s3, when El is drinking from cup- she sees a rainbow. And what’s the first word she thinks of? “Papa.”

so rainbow+cup= shitty dads (lonnie & brenner) probably returning

*And of course if that’s the case -Lonnie (the same guy who called Will h*mophobic sl*rs) will not be supportive of Mike & Will’s “friendship”. And will not be nice to Mike (to say the least). Like... imagine Hopper in s3 - but we know he’s not bluffing and the audience won’t have the option to take it as a joke... and yes the s4 movies hint at that...

3) gay symbolism

First we have Mike wheeler. He in s1 has rainbows sheets, rainbow bedroom blinds , and in his basement there’s a heart propelled by a rainbow. This is like how in s3 Mike kisses El and there is a drawing that says "Mike'. And on the drawing is a heart propelled by a rainbow. I already explained how its symbolic of him trying to be straight/fighting his feelings for Will, but wherever he goes a rainbow still follows (even when he tries being romantic with El). He’s trying to hide his “rainbow heart” by dating  El- why in s3 (the rainbow-heart in his basement) mysteriously disappeared from his room (but a similar symbol follows Mike even when he kisses El). 

Even in s2 when talking about Will (in the AV tech room): Mike is placed in the center of 2 objects : an object with 11 on it & on the right a rainbow apple (this apple is supposed to be an ode to the gay father of computers- but also about the forbidden apple). Hinting at the love triangle of Mike (with El/Will). PLUS, in the ST book ‘worlds turned upsidedown’ they literally show Mike in the AV room- and  put the caption “FALLING IN LOVE- with tech” (and placed rainbow flags next to the caption). And of course we have Mike & Will pose next to the rainbow apple- in the AV room.

 We also see when Mike and Will says they’re “crazy together” (aka LOVE-as Flo stated) and they’re next to a rainbow cup that says Happy birthday .

And later that season they ref the rainbow ship Will drew for his birthday-which Joyce was "proud" of.  And while dancing with a girl (Will according to the script was looking at Mike instead of her) . That girl is wearing a rainbow heart hair pin. This is essentially a parallel to Mike . Will (next to a rainbow heart) is dancing with a girl, but is secretly thinking of Mike. Mike (next to a rainbow heart) is kissing el but secretly thinking of Will (and immediately goes on a movie double date with Will after this). The lyrics of both these scenes indicate they're not happy pretending to be straight. The lyrics for Will are "every smile you fake". And Mike while kissing el is "just a little uncertainty can bring you down" (and during this lyric is when El puts her hands on him-and he removes her hands from him *aka he’s not as confident in the relationship as he pretends to be.

We see in s4 bts that the rainbow heart hair pin (worn by the girl Will dances with) is also worn by nancy while standing next to Robin (who is gay). So being near a  ‘rainbow-heart’ is prob a hint a character is gay. Aka robin & Will & Mike.

tumblr user “awhstrangerthings” pointed out the nancy -hair clip detail.

In s1 when troy is calling Will h*mophobic sl*rs (in front of Mike) he wears a rainbow shirt. And max while often critiquing m*leven (in s3) (to Mike) often wears rainbow shirts. I talked about how I thought Troy and max subconsciously remind Mike he isn't straight - so they're associated with the rainbow iconography-post here. Like we see Max with rainbow sheets (like Mike) and than she immediately talks to him on the phone. I mean she could be queer- but I lean to that theory at the moment. 

The whole being near rainbows when associating with a queer character makes sense (it’s like a ‘gay-dar”). Similar to Nancy’s hair clip when being near Robin/ that Girl having the same rainbow hair clip when dancing with Will. If we assume this theory than see a pattern with other characters (when speaking about/being near queer coded characters)....

it’s similar to how : When lucas (via subtext) criticizes m*leven- he is also next to a rainbow (in Erica's room). I explained here- why it’s about m*leven.

or when Jonathan says he’s going to hang out with Will (it’s near a rainbow).

This Jonathan moment -Is similar to when Steve ( who has a rainbow bandaid-from the Byers’ house) calls Mike “Nancy” (which is slang for a gay guy)

*another addition: you see in the comments of this post ghostgirlsatin mentioned Dart has a rainbow blanket. But, I noticed a couple of other things. 

notice Dustin says "we have to talk- its about my friend ,Will". As Dustin is near rainbow lights and a rainbow bed sheet. Like how

A) rainbows are associated with the supernatural creatures + Will

B) rainbow lights associated with Will

C) rainbows near straight characters when talking about /near queer characters... similar to how Jonathan is near a rainbow when talking about Will

*also can’t tell if that is a ‘rainbow ship’ poster?

We also see Erica has a sunflower & rainbow drawing in her room... at the moment not sure if its just a random easteregg , foreshadowing something supernatural we're not aware of yet? or just for the m*leven diss?

(although given the fact i think some characters were created by Will- and given all the Max &Billy/Will & jonathan parallels ... the rainbow stuff may be a hint Will created them? I mean they even made a Troy comic just to show his dad is a bully.) But, at the moment, i still lean to (some) characters having rainbow iconography because they’re referring to/are near a queer character.

[antiloreolympus]

10 Anti LO Asks

1. i feel like stuff like LO and other HxP stories LOVE throwing around "feminist" a lot when it's like?? yeah no a hetero story about how persephone is no one without hades and how demeter is actually evil for defending her daughter and sometimes a weird hatred of apollo is not "feminist". you can rewrite hxp to not be violent but lets not claim its "feminist" when it resorts to demonizing demeter and others like minthe and aphrodite to prop up hades and making persephone be obsessed with him.

2. that other anon is right. Demeter SHOULD be the secondary protagonist since it's literally her myth, yet Rachel seems to she's so well researched ad respectful of the mythology when Demeter is not even a character with actual substance (it's called the hymn to DEMETER, like??). Also it's pretty obvious Hera is only as big of character in LO bc Rachel knows P needs a mother figure and can't let that be her actual mom, but also to push Hades is "desirable" on top of bashing Zeus. It's so stupid.

3. like season 1 wasnt exactly good, but at least in the pile of bad there were a few half way decent moments or panels to enjoy, but season 2 is just plain bad. the writing is bad and just seems like rachel venting and stealing fanfic ideas, the art is just a joke at this point, the pacing is awful w/ even fans being upset, the plot makes no sense, and no ending seems to be in sight. i can see it going for another season, and i cant imagine it'll get better if rachel refuses to take a real break.

4. I think big part of the issue with LO is it's so clear RS is NOT a writer. In S1 she had some decent ideas (S2 is just a mess), but in terms of writing realistic characters, keeping track of arcs, keeping a sense of pace, and plotting out the story among other things, is just not in her wheelhouse. We all know she doesn't do the art anymore, which is where her actual talent is in. TBH LO would be so much better if she was just the artist while a writer actually made sense of her ideas.

5. I’m pretty sure OG Apollo cursed Rachel as the God of Art for obvious reasons

6. (Spoilers for other WEBTOONs)

I’m not gonna lie, I do like some gushy stories like True Beaty or First Night with the duke and LO kinda has a similar formula where it’s just drama after drama but the difference is the protangists. Jeoyung(?) is a normal girl but she’s funny, she’s good at make up, afraid of her face, has interactions with plenty of the cast, has a goal that we see her working towards, we also see her struggle with career direction. Her plot is more than the romance even if sometimes it’s very dramatic but still enjoyable.

First night with the duke, Ripley is hilarious, good at making drinks, ends up running a business, standing up against people who hurt her (by herself in a clever cunning way) the built up between her and the male lead was exciting. She has friends she interacts with other characters.

LO fails at giving Persphone a life outside of hades. She has friends? The purple snake girl she met working at under wold Corp? We see them be nice once and now they’re besties, did that resvolr megs feelings who knows! Because it doesn’t matter since she’s besties with persphone. The more the story went on, the less it seemed like Artemis and P were friends and more of just roommates. Daphne is her friend but they don’t seem close, like kindgarden besties who lost touch but like each other’s photos. P really has her whole life around Hades, like even her act of wrath is still linked to hades (not on purpose but still deaths having to deal with an underworld scandal). Persphone’s goals? School? Which she hasn’t been to in over a year?! I get it at first she was on the run, but it went to just having a good time at Hades place. Literally her character is nothing without hades at this point. I feel like she hasn’t had a chapter in a long time where it was just her, and her own issues without hades in them. 

7. I agree that Persephone is needlessly sexualized sometimes. But why hate on this one particular plant-watering scene? Sure, RS could've put her in different clothes, but what's so bad about lingerie and a robe? Like, I walk around watering plants in lingerie sometimes, it's not because whoever controls me in the Sims game that is my life is actively sexualizing me, it's because I like my lingerie. She's not posed weirdly, her expression isn't sultry. It's just clothes. It's not that serious.

8. //book spoilers I guess

First off, literally why does Rachel hate Minthe so much. It’s honestly concerning how much she just has to bully and tear her down even when she’s being a decent person. It’s really off putting.

Anyway, why does she seem to just randomly give people, in this case Hera, prophecy powers? Does she not realize there’s a reason why the gods, other than basic shared powers like immortality, strength, etc, have specific powers to them that others don’t? Prophecy especially is a very rare ability that only a rare few deities have because of how powerful it is, hence why the Fates or Apollo have so much power and others rely on them. Randomly giving this to Hera of all people just doesn’t sit right to me, especially since it’s solely for HxP’s use, not to show her own power. Like that other anon pointed out RS claims Hera is the “secondary protagonist”, yet her only purpose in the story is to show how “desirable” Hades is (this ruining any actual sympathy you could have of her), to be the compassion to P to be better than (which tbh is kinda misogynistic in a roundabout way, but w/e) and push HxP along, not her own story or character. RS can claim whatever she wants, but Hera is not there to be fleshed out or be her own character, she’s only there, like every other character in LO, to push a single relationship along, because RS can’t write them without the entire world stopping to focus on them. That’s not a sign of HxP’s importance, it’s a sign RS can’t depict them without tearing everything else down to prop them up among the rubble.

-----FP Spoilers-----

9. Since when are convicts staying in luxurious hotels? She should be in jail lol. And what genuine connection can a teenager (minor) have with a drunk guy older than her own mother? She may feel connection with Hermes, they actually met and talked often. Also using just friends card at this point is ridiculous LIE cause everyone know the true. And last thing - H speech about her good character was ridiculous after over100chapters of talking about her butt - you won't fix it with one chapter

10. H pressuring her to tell the true even when he saw her trying to avoid the topic and giving hints of trauma she was left with was utterly disgusting. No respect for her boundaries. Again it looked like father pressuring lil daughter to tell the true. Also she told him just because she was afraid she will push him away? That's horrible reason. She can't even feel she may trust him. And what love you know him for a month and still are just "friends".Should tell him when she's ready not out of fear