#it. is. done. (i say refusing to post it)

[jasontoddsno1simp]

"Jason should've ducked!!"

Yeah, and your mom should've swallowed. What's your fucking point?!

[handbellanon]

Ok I might actually have enough spoons left over to get this out in more-than-bullet-point form. But I'm still so pissed about how Tim killed off Bobby this season, not because I'm against character death in general (in fact I can find it very cathartic if done right), but because of how it was done.

I talked a little bit about this right after the episode first aired, but a lot of my issue in my immediate reaction was the way the reveal happened. It could have been SO much less of a twist for shock value had they shown the clip with his ruptured line a little earlier in the episode. Build the audience tension with will-he-won't-he tell them he's also been exposed.

This wasn't a case of somebody wanting to leave and not having a better idea of how to have them permanently exit the show. There's been a universal across-the-board consensus that this was entirely Tim's idea and Peter Krause didn't want to leave and all of the other cast had to be convinced on this idea. Because we've literally had everyone emphatically reiterating the same story, I'm not inclined to conspiracy theories that something happened behind the scenes.

So none of this was necessary, and Tim may be taking whatever swings he wants as a creator, but that doesn't mean that it makes for a good story (tangentially, I've been seeing a lot of good meta on my dash about this regarding Critical Role Campaign 3).

But even beyond that, the thing that pisses me off the most is that Tim explicitly said Bobby dying was "realistic," but if you know even an ounce of virology/epidemiology, you can poke so many holes in that plot. And look, I am by no means an epidemiologist, and I am not even particularly well versed in immunology. But I do have two degrees in the biological sciences and even just the internal inconsistency of the way the plot was written is just *bad.*

First off, the modified CCHF virus is presented to us by Moira as having a decreased incubation period, not as being a more lethal version. The difference is how long it takes symptoms to manifest (for the purposes of the show), not you-have-a-higher-chance-of-dying. Moira's goal was to accelerate the research process. This was explicit dialogue in the show specifying how the modified virus worked, but that just got completely thrown out later. If you're gonna have that kind of detail in a show like this, at least make sure your episode agrees with itself, what the hell.

Bobby also arguably had a decreased viral load, on account of the fact that contaminated air was coming in through his ruptured SCBA hose- he wasn't fully open-mouthed breathing contaminated air like Chimney was.

But the worst part of this whole thing (as others on my dash have pointed out) is that to do this to Bobby spits in the face of all his character growth we've seen over the past 8 seasons. He started out season 1 actively suicidal and straight up told Chimney that he was biding his time, waiting to fill the names in his book, and then he was going to kill himself. And then he met Athena, and slowly learned to live life again in the after, and build a new life and sense of purpose for himself. We saw him fight to live again and again and again.

As Eddie said in the finale, "if there's one thing I learned from Bobby, there's always another choice." But Bobby didn't even try. He just decided that Chim was gonna get the cure and that was it, nevermind the fact that CCHF only has a 40% mortality rate. They just wrote him giving up, when he could have used duct tape to minimize his exposure, let them know he needed to be quarantined, and tried to beat it with a supportive care regimen.

We're also apparently ignoring the rat that Chim took with him that was cured in the previous episode. And the fact that antibodies and vaccines can be extracted from organisms that survive an infection like CCHF and at least try to come up with a treatment while keeping Bobby on supportive care. There were just so many ways Bobby could have been ill and survived.

Hell, if you wanted to shake up the 118 like Tim claimed he wanted, you can open up space for a new captain without killing Bobby. Give him a CEI. Have him promoted up the brass so he's out of the firehouse. Force him back to Hotshots. Let him retire out to the country. I don't know, pick something. You don't have to shatter the firehouse like that for the sake of "shaking things up." This is just being destructive for the sake of being destructive.

And THEN, the follow up to all of this was that, for all Bobby was the head of the 118, his funeral was a token few minutes at the very end of the next episode, an episode in which the audience is strung along by the jailed mother's baby maybe-maybe-not being alive. Even if people weren't comparing that plot to Bobby, the show spends an entire episode building hope that this mother might be right, and her baby might be alive, only for it all to not be true. And the point is driven home by (what little we saw of) the funeral. There's no time given for the audience to fully grieve, or to really dig into how the core A-shift are feeling other than "bad."

I will also add, that for anyone who is involved any more than the GA, the April Fools' post with the leaked script page of Bobby being buried alive felt particularly cruel. It's one thing to do silly stuff, but to joke about a character being alive when you're fully planning on not doing that? That's getting into the realm of emotional manipulation, not harmless fun. Especially when there's a lot of speculation regarding them shooting multiple turnout coats on the back of the engine during the leak. Like, all in all, it was bad decisions exacerbated by bad taste.

This was supposed to be the show where we could trust that they would save each other and the victims, but that all got thrown out for the sake of making waves. And the character plots were essentially nonexistent. The things that sucked me in to this show through Tumblr and kept me watching are just...gone. I don't want an emergency drama that's all cases-of-the-week, I want a family that cares about each other and grows and loves.

Peter Krause deserved better and Bobby Nash deserved better.

[beargregor]

Chef greg delivery just for you. it's a wonder I hadn't bearified him yet, he's my fave greg too 🔪

gays literally only want one thing (to be chopped up and eaten by a depressed man) and it's fucking disgusting

[makotonaegiunderstander]

something I’ve been thinking abt is how many people think Makoto is immune to despair. I don’t think he is. I think becoming the ultimate Hope was BECAUSE he felt despair. He wouldn’t have fully reached that point without Junko. Makoto becoming such a beacon was his last attempt to avoid completely falling and it wasn’t because he didn’t feel despair, it was because he was too damn stubborn to allow everything to go to waste and he refused to sacrifice his beliefs for someone else’s. His inner monologue tells me he DID experience the same new low the other suvivors did in the final trial, but at the point where he had the choice to give up and die, he looked at the others and he looked at Junko and he couldn’t allow it to happen, not out of self preservation, but because the idea that Junko would have control over their lives made him FURIOUS. and that utter refusal to die kicked in, wether luck or otherwise, and he made the concious effort for one last push while something in him was breaking. He had to be broken in order for the Ultimate Hope to come through so aggressively, bc it could only exist in the face of the Ultimate Despair. He snapped the same way she did, but in the other direction. In what could have been his final moments he chose to embody everything Junko wasn’t, and every single optimistic and luck fueled ideal in him suddenly charged forward and pushed him. It was a combination of the final straw and a choice. Makoto isn’t immune to feeling despair, he’s just too stubborn to fall into it of his own volition. I think that’s why I like that scene in DR3 so much. People were SO SHOCKED Makoto actually fell for the tape, that he actually became despair for a moment. I saw people getting mad or disappointed, saying it was pathetic and Makoto seemed to fall from some sort of pedestal for them. Honestly part of me wonders if that sort of mentality, which clearly people had in universe, affected Makoto a bit. Like he started to see himself as less of a person, subconsciously. Prompting him to take more risks, less self preservation, act way more bold. It seems he has to be reminded a lot not to put himself in danger by his friends, to not do something too reckless. All over the place I would see in regards to that scene either this frivolous ‘oh this was just angst drama with no meaning behind it’ or ‘he can do better than that. he’s so weak’ or ‘come on, there’s no way he’d fall into despair, he’s the Ultimate Hope!’ This kind of mentality, which was kind of ironic considering Ryota was there the entire time saying the same thing and treating Makoto the same way. Like Makoto was superhuman. Like Makoto didn’t feel despair the same way ‘normal people’ did. In a way that was also how Munakata saw Makoto. Makoto stopped being a PERSON to the world when he became Ultimate Hope, he became a concept, a belief system, much the same way Junko ascended beyond herself. But the difference is that treating Makoto that way is the opposite of the reason Makoto became such a representative for hope. He wasn’t doing something no one else could. He was doing something everyone had the chance to, he just… was a little more optimistic, a little more stubborn, a little more ‘gung-ho’ about things. He just took the lead where no one else did, where no one else knew they even COULD in the face of Junko’s unstoppable force. She had overcome the biggest threats and obstacles in the world, what could one person do? And the answer Makoto found was, anything. Everything. It doesn’t all rest on Makoto, he’s just the one that was inspired to try to do what seemed like the impossible. But as evidenced by the change in his friends after that trial, it’s clearly not something only Makoto is capable of. The others pulled out of despair thanks to Makoto, but it was their choice to do so.

“But… this world is so huge, and we’re so small. What can we do…? No, we can probably do anything. Yeah! We can do anything!”

[immortalsins]

and just when i thought things were getting better, my father decides to confirm the date we're spreading my grandmother's ashes without telling me and refuses to do anything to change it when i say i'm away on a trip that's been planned since 2024

[xxplastic-cubexx]

comic fans aren’t saying that we hate the fact that cherik are in the mcu we just hate how badly it’s going to affect the comics (and how it’s CURRENTLY affecting the comics) Charles and erik’s relationship is one of the staples of x men and they’re literally ruining it before our eyes since they’re bringing them to the mcu, and let’s be honest the comics are 10x more important for these characters then the movies (changes in the comics can change how the characters are portrayed in the movies so who knows maybe they’ll bring lilandra to doomsday to fight off the cherik gay stuff like what happened to the fox movies ahem ahem charles and moira stuff) It’s not only affecting cheriks dynamic and relationship ofc but also the other characters and where the storyline of the modern comics is heading!! so much regression has been going on!! the comics have been backpedaling into old storylines that we’ve heard thousands of times to appeal to the movie watchers + 97 fans.

now i dont want to say we're SCREWED INDEFINITELY..... waters are def rocky is all ima say...

[icantalk710]

Wish the party loyalist "stop making Harris look bad bc Trump" people would realize that a) denying reality is exactly what the right does and b) it is on the candidate to win votes by not being a genocide enabling sellout moderate getting endorsed by the fucking Cheneys for her hawkishness on foreign policy while promising little for people at home, not on the voter disillusioned by said issues that the candidate could rectify

[iholli]

Blitzwing: we need to hide until we figure out what we're up against here.

Lugnut: I'm not hiding, I must shout Megatron's name to the heavens!

RTE:

[al-mayriti]

idk if it's because my mum worked in a tv magazine or what but all the media wars and backstabbing and stuff happening behind the cameras is so so interesting to me

[abluescarfonwaston]

Not entirely sure what would a driad be in the hanahaki au, but I just saw amazing post cross my dash about algae-covered snake and remembered this immediately! Would the driad be what's left of a human fully consumed by the feelings or something (someone??) that's left if they were close to succumbing to it but managed to express themselves at the last moment? If it's the latter imagine the Turnabout Samurai in this AU and Dee Vasquez! Breakdowns of certain characters creating the driads something something...

(Also I think I accidentally unfollowed you at some point 🥲 Sorry!! I didn't mean to)

I dryad is what I've called the people who have a very severe and chronic version of hanahaki and then succumb to the disease. The flowers are the mild (fairly common but occasionally deadly) version. If you get a crush and don't tell them or if you love your friends a whole lot and Don't tell them (or show them) than the flowers might take root. It's a disease process so some people are more susceptible than others and some people are higher risk (emotionally constipated folk). It's not a disease without pluses though, its been known to increase the survival changes of people trapped in low oxygen environments.

There's a slow and rapid onset for the more severe form of the disease that results in dryad-ism. The slow onset occurs in people who lose a loved one- not always via death. Having a child taken away or divorce are common routes. If they can't find a way to express that love (grieving/reconciliation/letting go) the disease will latch onto that constant trapped love and the victims slowly turn to wood. Growing branches. Moving slower and slower until they can no longer move at all. (You'll see these people growing into bar stools. Alcohol does dull the heart, slow the growth but those unwilling or unable to seek help often find themselves dying from one or the other eventually) At that point they put out roots and there is nothing left to do but plant them in the dirt.

Traumatic loss can cause a more rapid progression of the severe form as well, especially in those already suffering the mild version. The unexpected loss of a child or parent are frequent causes of an outbreak. The body tries to wall off the loss in wood. Sometimes it succeeds- resulting in people with wooden limbs, immobile shoulders. Grief festering but not overtaking them. Not yet.

Hanahaki thrives on love unexpressed. Romantic or platonic, it cares not. And how do you love someone who is no longer here? That question leaves its own graveyard with the faces of men. Gnarled branches reaching to the heavens like they might find the one they miss there.

I don't think Vasquez would be affected, the had no love for those men. Adrien Andrews would be. The shoulder Celeste always squeezed would be ridged. Its growth halted by her obsession with making Juan Corrida pay. Maybe after she gets her revenge the wood will separate from the skin and leave her pink and healing- or scarred but alive.

"You are innocent Miles Edgeworth. You were innocent." and the wood that has creeped down his arm to the elbow and across his chest will slough off like a healed scab. Like it hasn't grown inch by inch year after year for the last fifteen.

And still there are people who despite all there loss and pain do not grow a branch or flower at all. 'Heartless' people as some say. But Mia Fey is not heartless, she is driven. The Fey can always hold the dead once more- their love is never lost to death. The one's she misses still have beating hearts. And she will make a world for them if she must claw it into existence with her own bleeding hands. Her love is written in every briefing and late night and every cup of coffee she brews. It's just not a love most people understand. It is in those motions that Phoenix and Gumshoe stay safe.

Hanahaki is love with no where left to go. But in tending their office, sister, plants, or grave- love still has somewhere to go. Grief will not over take them, so long as their is still work to be done.

[harvestmoth]

more rejuv things but its. its just this guy again, im sorry shes all i can draw

[kevingorg]

actually real last post. how long do you think before mack does get sick of it all and requests a trade. either because of the losing or the false hometown or the daddy issues. or all of the above. like i hope he stays with the sharks forever partially so i can see what kind of monstrous metastasis his relationship with his dad grows into but also partially because i really do enjoy watching the sharks. but realistically how many years could YOU make it with your helicopter dad hovering over your shoulder at every moment before you start to realize that this is actually really fucking you up as a person and the only real option is to get out.

[mozart-the-meerkitten]

Random Star Trek thoughts now that my parents and I are a decent ways in to the first season of the original series. (none of us has ever seen the full show from start to finish, despite them being born in the 60's)

How many godlike alien races who want to watch the human race struggle for funsies like a twisted TV program are there in this universe

How do people dislike Enterprise when season one of the original series exists? Like how do you justify that? Kirk makes more ridiculous mistakes than Archer ever did and Kirk is around when humans have been in space for 100+ years! Enterprise was the FIRST, of course they were naive and made stupid mistakes and offended random aliens. What's Kirk's excuse? (I know out of story it's because the ~lore~ and ~worldbuilding~ were still in the process of being created, but seriously. what is people's beef with Enterprise and how DO they justify it when ssn one of the original exists?)

I love that the godlike alien races who keep kidnapping the crew have been absolutely ridiculous. Like we had the guys who wanted humans to be an attraction in their zoo and were gonna breed them as slaves to fix up their planet for them, only to finally check out Earth's history and go "wholy crap you guys are VIOLENT when in captivity you know what never mind we are afraid of you now plz leave". And then the guys who owned the planet that made whatever you were thinking of real (including, but not limited to, Alice in Wonderland characters, a tiger, a medieval knight, Kirk's Irish nemesis from college, and a WW2 plane that started a strafing run on the poor souls who accidentally summoned it) but neglected to tell the humans what was going on until after Bones DIED. Allegedly. But they brought him back to life, so it's good, right? And then there was the dude who kidnapped Kirk to hunt him for sport based off ancient Earth customs he thought he knew and turned out to be a celestial kindergartner whose parents intervened and grounded him for not playing nice with the people he brought to his planet. And THEN there are the people with the AUDACITY to call humans primitive and violent when they arrested Kirk and the captain of the ship he was pursuing (this is the Gorn episode btw) and plonked them down on the planet to fight to the death and watched it like a tv show because Enterprise and the Gorns dared to enter the part of space NEAR their SOLAR SYSTEM. Not near their planet, their SOLAR SYSTEM. And that's only like, half of them, maybe, I can't keep up with this.

The objectively and unironically best part of every episode is the intro with the silly music and Enterprise flying at high speeds directly at the screen in the most 60's cheesy special effect way possible. I laugh every time.

So very very glad I have watched the movies because the character development is taking a LONG time to get anywhere (I know this is partially due to the fact that the episodes were filmed and aired at different times but wowie).

We found the story about how Martin Luther King Jr. convinced Nicole Nichols to stay on the show and it melted all our hearts and I love her character so much more now.

It took so long for actual ALIENS to be in this space show, seriously, the first like 10 episodes are just How Many Ways Can Humans Sabotage Themselves ~in SPACE~?

Love that humans are so unhinged in this. We cannot be stopped, we WILL improvise adapt and overcome. 10/10 space orc energy.

Actual conversation: My mom: I didn't know if maybe you needed a break from Star Trek. me: mom I used to binge watch classic Doctor Who. I'm fine.

Okay, I'll stop, I am really enjoying it for the most part, especially as the characters personalities start to come out more. As far as I can tell it only gets more enjoyable from season 1 so I'm looking forward to the other seasons!

[crystalkitty1220]

Man I wonder where the leader of the fear realm could've gone, it's alMOST LIKE NEVIN HAS AN

[thesarcasticism]

angryposting will probably delete later but what is the point of criticism if you don't ask for it? like i don't care, go make your own. what's the point of criticizing me? what will change? you make me feel bad? okay? congratulations?

[hylianengineer]

my father is an idiot who think I can read minds. and now he's an idiot running on two and a half hours of sleep.