#mais the point remains

[wherewolf]

the responses i’ve seen to shiv’s ending seem very quick to write her off as just another sad victim of the cycle, which isn’t without truth BUT!!! that is not even remotely the summation of shiv’s story.

i don’t think she votes yes to “save kendall” or to try to finally set her brothers free. and i don’t think her main concern was that ken was becoming their dad. she absolutely noticed and didn’t love it, but that was not her motivation in betraying him. she was thinking about herself.

it’s tempting to make a martyr out of her as she is the only female child and we see her suffer the onslaught of misogyny that comes with that. but to make her into a saintlike figure who got beat takes away the power and intelligence behind her decision.

at this point she’s stuck between two non ideal choices, but she recognizes that they have accidentally made her the single most important player in the game. because while she can’t have the outcome she’d prefer, she has the power to decide the fates of everyone else. the written off lone woman now holds in her hands the fate of every man in her life.

so she thinks about the long term benefits of both options and realizes that one side leaves her completely without any leverage.

her brothers have proven to her multiple times in the last few days alone that they will cut her out and walk all over her the first chance they get. siding with them leaves her nothing to bargain with. she would just have to hope that ken would actually take care of her. and that level of vulnerability is not only unacceptable to her, it’s stupid. and shiv fuckin roy is not stupid.

so she thinks about the other side and about what she actually wants for her life. and against her better judgment, it’s becomes unfortunately clear that she wants tom. the way she wants him is not altogether loving or even good but it is necessary to her. she sees relationships as having winners and losers and she chose this man specifically so that she could be confident in her ability to win. except now he’s grown some balls and made himself unavailable to her.

she may not like the way her husband is evolving but she already placed her bets on him, so she’s sure as hell not losing to him now. there’s also a part of her that feels intrigued by this new man she’s married to. it’s interesting to have a sparring partner in him instead of having to looking for excitement outside of their marriage.

so for maybe the first time ever, she processes what tom has said to her and thinks about what he actually wants.

he needs her to prove that she cares. he needs to know that she is capable of sacrifice. if she can’t find it within herself to do this for him, then she will lose him, and by extension, she will lose.

siding with tom gives her the opportunity to once and for all make a grand-stand gesture of love, but more importantly, it creates leverage for her. never again will he be able to hold the moral high ground over her head. never again can he say she doesn’t love him. never again can he call her selfish or uncaring. above all, he can never betray her again, because she just removed all of his moral justification for turning on her. he doesn’t realize it yet, but she’s just taken back all the power in their relationship. just in a more subtle way than she’s used to operating.

and just like that, she has the ceo of a multi billion dollar company in her pocket, while situating herself as the only descendant of logan roy to still be playing the game, having removed her brothers from the equation permanently. she may still be far from the top but she’s creating a path for herself to climb.

so yes, she’ll let tom play king for a day, and she’ll have his baby and say “congratulations,” and play the gracious wife, but tomorrow is a new day with lots of room to maneuver. and when her husband puts out his hand, she’ll place her own on top. but she won’t grasp it because she doesn’t need to.

[slickricklj]

Jill Valentine + Chris Redfield - When you know, you know.

Bonus:

[kacievvbbbb]

I know, especially with how much more proactive he is in the live action, some people think that Iroh was too complicit with Zuko and should have put more effort into pushing Zuko down the right path.

But I don’t know I think the point was that it had to come from Zuko. This great change had to be something that Zuko wanted for himself and not something Iroh pushes him into. It’s why although he tries to distract or dissuade him subtly he’s pretty content to let Zuko do as he feels the need to (except when he’s taking insane actions that would have killed him if he wasn’t too spiteful to die) but yeah there’s no obvious push to get Zuko to believe this or that or even to undo the fire nation conditioning he simply just worries for his safety and honestly with how reckless zuko was probably the safest route without pushing him into full mental breakdown.

It’s not till he’s almost captured and they go on the run do you actually start to see that maybe Iroh has a side in all this and it’s not the fire nation. But even then being on Zuko’s side takes precedent. It’s not until Zuko is on the cusp of real change, he’s right on the precipice does Iroh start to push a little harder but even then it’s focused in Zuko making a decision for his life one that nobody else can make for him. The closest Iroh gets to forcefully pushing Zuko towards any direction is him yelling “It's time for you to look *inward* and begin asking yourself the big questions. Who are you and what do *you* want?”. And then siding with the avatar during the fall of ba sing se.

If Iroh tried to manipulate him, take advantage of this scared angry child to unconsciously steer him towards his own side then he’d be no better than the fire nation, he’s just be another person wrenching control from Zuko life. But instead Iroh offers him that control, let him go out and see what the world is and let the conclusions of whatever he finds be the foundation on which he is rebuilt again and and again. It’s why when he stands infront of Ozai and says “ No, I’ve learned everything! And I’ve had to learn it on my own” we feel that shit. Because yeah he did he struggled and he fought and he learned and damn it all, he is making a choice for himself.

The story works because Iroh isn’t his mentor, he’s his uncle and he loves him enough to push aside his own personal belief to allow Zuko the space to decide who he wants to be, to give him the agency over his own life. That’s why Zuko’s redemption works so well because he’s not forced into it, If he decides to join the avatar to take down the thrown that has been his choice. If he decides to stay with the fire nation be the prince he was born to be….well that had to be his choice as well. Because that’s the crux of this. None of it matters if it isn’t Zuko, with everything that he has learned, making a decision for his own life.

[shaunashipman]

I don’t know why a random B*ddie post appeared on my fyp about how some people need to learn about symbolism to understand why Buck and Eddie were dressed up as a couple and Tommy didn’t bother dressing up. And I had to laugh. Buck and Eddie were matching but they weren’t a couples costume because both of them claimed to be Crockett. They were two Crocketts without their Tubbs- doesn’t really symbolize a ‘endgame couple’

i need these people to realize that sYmbOLisM is not the entire reason the show does things, that practical considerations of the story need to be taken into account

it reminds of a post about someone's story in a workshop. it went into great detail about the protagonists bedroom, which was full of things all of which were in some way thematic about the character, and the person delivering their criticism had a question: "how did they afford all these things?" because the character came from a poor family & the writer was so caught up in the symbolism of the objects they forgot to think of that

also, there's something to be said by someone a bit more eloquent then me right now, about tommy showing up to both the bachelor party and the hospital wedding "out of dress code" and buck being disappointed about the first but so fucking pleased about the second he had to jump him

[detectivehole]

i was like 12 when people were drawing all that tumblr sexyman bill cypher art and i didn't really Get social media at that time but i did know how to look at fanart on Google Images (character name + "anime") and i won't lie i thought it kicked ass. i thought that art was so cool. it was kinda cool- i mean the phenomenon was silly but there is a reason the Formula worked, and while i can't really see the appeal anymore, i do still... understand(?) it. anyway back when you'd print out stuff in the library to slip into the plastic sleeve of your three ring binder im pretty sure a 2x1 greyscale version of this exact image lived in Math

[taryo88]

When you try to get Avra down off the wardrobes, you do so at your own risk [based on this post]

Please go read RUNNING CLOSE TO THE WIND by Alexandra Rowland, I need more people to experience this silly little guy and his silly little mouth sounds

[abirdie]

Gael García Bernal in Desierto (2015, dir. Jonás Cuarón)

(these gifs also feature Alondra Hidalgo)

Gifs are all 540px wide so you can click to see larger.

[other gael filmography gifsets]

[cursezoroark]

afterthoughts

[pyrosomatic-metamorphosis]

i know too fucking much about qsmp badboyhalo.

[princessithaca]

can't believe i, a certified musical enjoyer and woman who has seen all of glee, am saying this but. not enjoying the recurring musical numbers.

[playerkingsley]

unintentionally lined up finishing mentopolis & never stop blowing up around the same time, both very fun homages to their respective genres via reskinned kids on bikes systems. now we’re going for extreme tonal whiplash with neverafter (though arguably still a celebration of folklore & fairytales, I’m assuming. I don’t actually know so no spoilers please)

[nuklearis-sutotok]

...

[lotrmusical]

My high school did a yearly poetry recitation contest (Poetry Out Loud), so Oh Boy do I know some poems. My favorites are Ozymandias and "the world is about to end and my grandparents are in love," by Kara Jackson. Also in 8th grade we had a Poe unit and had a class contest to make the best music video of the Raven, so I still know a good chunk of that.

i hadn't heard of the kara jackson one! just read through it and enjoyed it, particularly these lines > 'grandma returns to her love like a hymn, marks it with a color. // when the world ends will it suck the earth of all its love? /will i go taking somebody’s hand, / my skin becoming their skin?'

[tacagen]

hunter zolomon, what in the ever loving fuck is going on in your head.

i absolutely fucking love the way he spent so much time working with thawne, had access to every single bit of info in the museum's archives, claims to be an even better flash expert than thawne, SURELY has to KNOW how much of a time altering genius he is from numerous examples (and i doubt any of the 2 epic cringefails are now known to anyone but thawne himself) but still questions eobard's intellectual abilities even more than me here.

hunter. bestie. please name one single thing you were right about besides the clown. please

[sortanonymous]

Everybody: "Sure, the Angry Birds fandom is annoying with how much they've shouted "BringBack2012", but at least they're not queerphobic!

Me: "Just look at the comments under all their Pride posts (at least on YouTube) and see if you're still right."

[boopdotcom]

"Clue" cookies are also already inplimented by the way. What does that mean? Wouldn't you like to know weather boy. But don't let the not-knowing make you blue. Being excluded like this can be isolating, I know. Almost like you're stuck on the side-lines, in the background. But I know you're there. And I'm sure you'll be in the know soon enough ;)