#narrative plot devices

[cussundria-nerd-kneal]

Okay, but I also love the idea of demons singling a person out? Like, its a 'duh, of course they would!' Moment, but I've never thought about the narrative implications or posibilities of having that be a PLOT device??

It's super juicy! A Despair demon targetting Rook (or even the Inquisitor) because they truly do not hold hope for what they are doing and are despairing at the potential fall out? A Rage demon coming after someone resentful of their situation and can't control their temper? Envy demons singling out a party member who has been struggling with the group lately?

What a great concept!

today i’m thinking about how the despair demons tend to single rook out and how the first time this is recognized is after the treviso/minrathous decision

like, listen. i know it’s probably just a game mechanic thing. but it’s interesting to me that every despair demon in the game does this—single rook out. and how you encounter a lot more despair demons the worse the situation gets. and every single time, without fail, rook is their primary target.

like. the potential juiciness of it all. rook who carries regrets and despair hidden behind a smile that no one can see behind until the regret prison. rook who has to keep up a brave face as the leader so that the team doesn’t collapse because someone has to make a decision.

the narrative juiciness of regret…despair…someone sedate me

[dasketcherz]

a weeping angel

[warpedpuppeteer]

It's interesting how Buck's love interests are all written in a way that ends because of the reason they meet/happen in the first place and then of course, we have Eddie.

Abby, who changes Buck's view of a healthy relationship but then turns around and ghosts him, making him wait for months on end and letting him realize she's not coming back on his own.

Ali, who meets Buck during a dangerous situation in his line of work and then leaves him for how dangerous his work is.

Taylor, who lashes out at Buck for using her as a fake date and saying she thought she could trust Buck to be a friend who then ends up using him for her career and chose to put his friends in danger.

Natalia, who's there to help him embrace and deal with his temporary death but it leads to their break up because of the constant talk surrounding death when Buck's not comfortable with it.

We can't confirm for Tommy till it ends but it's important to note how he offers to get Buck into his interests like flying and muay thai yet doesn't show effort with Buck's interests like dressing up according to the bachelor party theme despite Buck being stressed about it. And we also have the fact that the entire reason they got together was due to Buck's jealousy for Eddie which he then claims to be was for Tommy. Makes me think they are either going to end because of differing interests OR because of the jealousy issue popping up again.

Funnily enough, every scene above has an Eddie parallel:

Eddie co-parents with Buck and not only does this not stop after a dangerous event but Eddie also has Buck down as a legal guardian (healthy relationship - Abby).

Eddie is in the same dangerous line of work and they have each other's backs. This happens right off the bat too.(dangerous job - Ali).

The Lawsuit era and The Dispatch era - both where they "betray" each other but manage to work through it (betrayal/lie - Taylor).

Eddie doesn't pressure Buck to talk about his temporary death until Buck's ready and is more focused about him living than in his death (death doula - Natalia).

Eddie who has different interests than Buck (poker, basketball and UFC/MMA) but also manages to show interest and actively takes part in whatever Buck comes up with; he suggests their outfit for the themed party AND ends up staying there for Buck even when others leave (different hobbies & showing interest/taking part - Tommy).

Absolutely fascinating when you start noticing that Buck's relationships keep failing for one reason or another and then we have him and Eddie who face the same sort of situations but they still come out of it stronger together.

It's clear that there's a reason Buck is able to overcome anything when it comes to Eddie (that conversation with Maddie about being there for each other even at their worst 👀) and we've already established that everything Eddie looks for in a partner is already something he has found in Buck. So really, all that's left is for them to realize that hey, the one I'm looking for is right in front of me! 🤷🏽

And yes, it's been said to death (hah) but you don't find it son you make it. And Buck and Eddie have already made it.

[mythalism]

having thoughts about the veil and people's bad faith interpretations about the desire to see it brought down as some sort of misled leftist bloodthirst for violent revolution instead of fulfillment of the fundamental role of trickster gods in mythology and storytelling and how there seems to be, in both fans and the developers, a misunderstanding or perhaps just a disagreement of how solas was supposed to function within the narrative as a force of nature vs. as a person. my adderall just kicked in

[guccigarantine]

I’m 100% supportive of people becoming obsessed with a background character in something but when people start saying something is bad because those background characters don’t get any character development we gotta slow down a little

[pollyna]

au in which Tom wins a bet against Sarah and gets to choose the second name for their second child, but promises to tell her just after the baby is born because he has a couple of idea but wants to see their face before.

Then the baby is between his arms, barley two hours old, and Tom smiles when he announces the second name is going to be Mitchell to a crowd of two: Sarah and Slider.

Jacob Mitchell Kazansky smiles at his mom while his uncle looks at his father like he completely lost it. And maybe he has.

(Somewhere in the Balkans, Pete Mitchell smiles even if he doesn't know why.)

(It takes Sarah and Maverick, a funeral and an absence of a person nobody will ever fill, to realise the weight of that name. Of a kid that now goes around as Mitchell Kazansky because he's a teenager and hates his first name.

He makes people call him Mitch, has his mother's hair, and his father's eyes. And, more than once, when Pete gets to pick him up from school, people ask him if he's the father.)

(Sometimes, that makes it impossible for Pete to look at his nephew.)

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Eddie being shown hugging Ravi rather than buck in this scene has me up in my feels actually.

Especially in combination with the conversation about Eddie being in the army and having been to a lot of funerals like this.

Because Ravi is a physical embodiment of bucks abandonment issues and Buck is watching on when the hug happens but not when the army stuff is talked about and that’s significant. It’s Eddie embracing bucks fear of abandonment when he’s feeling abandoned by his pseudo father and trying to live up to his last words - that the others are going to need him. So Eddie embracing Ravi is Eddie embracing Buck - having bucks back as he always has done and which we get a further representation of when they are carrying the coffin.

[bucksdaffy]

oh, how i LOVE that tim decided to include tommy in the last two episodes, even though they are not really buck-focused. if this doesn't prove to you how serious he actually is about tommy being a long-term LI for buck, i don't know what will.

[immediatebreakfast]

There are many explanations of why Mrs. Westenra decides to enter her daughter's bedroom in the middle of the night, and simply throw away all of the garlic flowers.

I know the doylist reasons behind Mrs. Westenra decision of throwing away her daughter's flowers. I know how the narrative needed more blood to oil the gears of the story. I know this was needed to wake up Van Helsing from his state of "don't ask because I won't tell".

But I just can't fathom why.

None of this would have happened if Dracula wasn't so offended that Lucy did not die when he drained her to the point of needing Arthur's blood. The fault lies on this monster who is enjoying this slow torture process because this poor young lady has people around that care about her. Dracula has been causing all of this.

And I still ask myself WHY.

The fault lies in Van Helsing? Absolutely, he thought that communication and explanation were not important enough while treating Lucy, and that decision smacked him in the face as he keeps losing time.

AND YET WHY, WHY THROW AWAY LUCY'S FLOWERS. THOSE WERE HERS.

It's not only the act of throwing away the flowers in the middle of the night while Lucy is sleeping, which is disregarding of Lucy's privacy. It's how smug Mrs. Westenra is after it, telling the two doctors who have been treating Lucy since the beginning.

Think about for a second! Jack and Van Helsing are established as Lucy's doctors. Both of them have been visiting her every day. Then, suddenly a bunch of strong smelling flowers appear in Lucy's room after they left. Yes both of them made the mistake of not telling anyone that the garlic flowers were medicine. However, Mrs. Westenra didn't even question what those were!

Think about the situation! WHO WOULD HAVE LEFT THESE FLOWERS IN LUCY'S ROOM. WHO IS VISTING LUCY FREQUENTLY ENOUGH TO LEAVE FLOWERS THAT SMELL SO STRONG. Jack is starting to lose hope already.

"What does it all mean? I am beginning to wonder if my long habit of life amongst the insane is beginning to tell upon my own brain."

Yet the only thing replaying in my mind is how happy Lucy felt yesterday. She woke up in the middle of the night to write about how happy she was because of the flowers, the care, the words, everything. Lucy even liked the smell of garlic! It was comforting! She was going to have her first time of good sleep in ages.

Those garlic flowers carefully put in all of her room, that beautiful flower wreath around her neck made by the doctor. Ripped away while Lucy was sleeping and vulnerable by a mother who thought that she could because those flowers are just in Lucy's room, so it means they are not important.

All of Lucy's flowers were thrown away. At least Ophelia got to keep hers.

Can this woman treat her only daughter like a person for once?

[wombpala]

amelia richardson: yeah I'm mourning my military husband who died in the line of duty his name was DON. my maybe probably dead husband DON.

sam: for fuck's sake

[lemotmo]

This is an interesting question. Would you be okay with Tommy pointing it out to Eddie?

Q. So I can't shake the feeling that Tommy was kept around because yes he was supposed to plant the seed in the general audience's mind about Eddie's sexuality, but also so he could be the one to actually say something to Eddie.

A. Say something to Eddie about what though? Say something to him about his sexuality? Or say something to him about Buck's feelings for him? Because either option makes him an even shittier person than he already is, honestly. But I do see a scenario in which they would have him be the one to say something to Eddie because it's already been established that he doesn't really care how either one of them feels. He already tried to out Buck in front of Eddie and now he's tried to out Eddie in front of Buck. He doesn't care about either of them. I need certain people to come to terms with what episode 11 spelled out very clearly with regards to Tommy. He knows. He has known from the beginning. I've said that repeatedly. Many others have said it repeatedly and because the show has now basically confirmed that, it makes his entire history with Eddie and Buck super gross. I still believe Eddie was who was actually interested in. He put way more effort into the early stages of their friendship than he ever did with Buck. Hello even his anniversary gift to Buck was an Eddie interest not a Buck interest. He 'settled' for Buck because Buck is hot and misplaced his Eddie feelings onto Tommy. Thanks to 8x11 we now know Tommy KNEW that from the very beginning. Worse yet he stayed friends with Eddie either because he was still hoping to have a shot at him at some point or to keep him and Buck apart. Either option is disgusting and reeks of desperation. I don't know that the show wants to give him the power of making Eddie aware. That's a lot to give a nothing character. And I would loathe Tommy getting to be the one to tell Eddie about Buck. I do think they will give the two of them a scene together though. Tommy can make a comment because truthfully Eddie isn't that far from figuring things out, but giving Tommy the authority to state it outright doesn't fit into what Tommy basically now is as a character. He was always a plot device but they literally wrote his plot purpose into his dialogue. He's basically only there now to remind the audience of who he's not. His dialogue in 8x11 made it so that every time he shows up now the audience is going to remember that. He's a stand in for Eddie. That's all he was ever going to be. A cheap knock off until Buck was ready for the real thing. They literally made it his dialogue. It's hilarious.

Thank you Nonny. 🤗

I don't think Eddie needs Tommy to point out anything to him. I think Eddie is on the path of finding his joy and he'll find it in Buck. He doesn't need anyone to point him into the right direction, because he has been looking in the right direction for years now.

I do think Tommy might be back to finish up his plot device arc by having him talk to Buck again. He'll say something about giving it another shot or something, but by then Buck will have realised the truth of what he feels for Eddie and he'll be standoffish. And Tommy will read it in his body language. He'll know that Buck has figured it out. And I do believe that season 8 will be the last we'll ever see of him on 911.

As always, take this with a grain of salt. I can't read the future. 🤷‍♀️

I am tired of talking about Tommy though. Can we go back to Buddiemaxxing now?! 😎

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[mrakyvkafi]

The neighbors weren’t friendly. Their house was off-limits. She would figure out when they weren’t home, and she’d sneak into their yard. It was a risk. If she got caught, well… trespassing and tomfoolery by a federal agent wouldn’t just be brushed aside. Especially if the trespasser was a female federal agent. She snuck in anyway. She loved the water, loved the solitude. But most of all, she loved knowing she was doing something she shouldn’t. It reminded her of who she used to be, before she decided to fall in line and uphold the law. She could go back to her old story when no one was around. And she did. But the solitude never lasted. The solitude can’t last for any of us. Other people’s stories float around you. There’s no stopping them. Eventually, the stars align and lives collide. One night my future collided with me. And on that same night, a little girl named Grace was playing with her dog just down the street from where I was packing up my house. She threw the ball too hard, ran out into the road, and her life collided with someone else. Someone who was coming to tell me she had saved me. I would only find out later what she did for me. But that’s not what made me love her. I loved her all along. I still do. This is a story I don’t tell. I can’t find the words. But it never stops running through my head. The story of her.

NCIS: Origins (2025), S01E18 Cecilia

[blackhholes]

teen wolf meme: [3/5] motifs -> resurrection

It's different now. I think dying did something to him. It did something to me, too. But none of it was good.

[lizardthelizard]

thinking about how objectively funny it is that August took out some of the pages from his own story out of the Storybook because he was ashamed of them or whatever when August, out of everyone in town, has thee most recognisable story worldwide.

like, August, I'm sorry but I don't think there's any running or hiding from this. Taking out the Pleasure Island arc of your story in one book isn't gonna do a lot to change the general public's perception of things. Or Henry's perception either, for that matter.

[gentle-hero-blog]

ooooouuuuuuuugh. baby’s first metroid oc

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Gotta love returning to tumblr to discover that the t’s are still being salty over me being right about bucks oversized clothes and trying to twist things to fit their narrative and claim others and myself were wrong!!! They clearly need to gain some basic reading comprehension!!

Always good to know I’ve managed to have made that much of an impact that people who hate me just keep on mentioning me!!

WWED - he’d find joy in it by dancing around in his tighty whities - I don’t have any of those but I am dancing 😂😂😂