#only for the plot to completely vindicate them in the end

[spamalie]

i think the main issue with that ruby mermaid movie is that they tried to half-ass shrek. you can’t just half-ass shrek

[iamgonnagetyouback]

The second one is for Harry. I don’t have a plot for him tbh. Anything works…maybe something like James and lily are still alive and the reader is Sirius’ and Remus’ daughter (if you’re comfortable with that else she’s just Sirius’s daughter) and that her and Harry have feelings for each other but they make sure that their parents don’t know about this because they think they won’t approve but secretly Sirius and James have made a bet even before they were born that they’d end up dating.

Gonna sign off as - 👀

you bet on us?⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ㅤ ㅤ●ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤ ㅤ harry potter

the morning started off innocently enough. you and harry decided, with great trepidation and a little bit of sweaty-palmed hand-holding, that it was time to come clean to your parents. you’d spent months sneaking around, dodging suspicious looks and sharing whispered secrets under that big oak tree in the potter backyard. but enough was enough. today was the day.

at breakfast, you sit on one side of the table, gripping harry’s hand under it like a lifeline. across from you, james is mid-story, waving his coffee cup wildly, nearly splashing sirius, who’s cackling in support. remus stands by the stove flipping pancakes, while lily is engrossed in her tea. it’s almost too peaceful. almost.

you exchange a look with harry, both of you gulping in unison. here goes nothing.

you clear your throat, trying to sound calm and confident but ending up squeaking, “we have something to tell you.”

every head swivels toward you. four pairs of eyes lock on, and it’s like they’ve turned into your jury.

sirius’s brows lift, eyes flicking to your joined hands, a smirk already forming. “oh, this is going to be good.”

james takes a leisurely sip of his coffee, not even trying to hide his amusement. “go on then, let’s hear it.”

“uh… well, harry and i…” you glance at him, wide-eyed. “we’re together. dating. you know, in a relationship.”

silence. deafening, horrible silence. you brace yourself for the absolute chaos about to ensue—a dramatic gasp from sirius, a whole speech from remus, something. but instead…

“oh, finally,” remus sighs, flipping another pancake like he’s completely unfazed.

“pay up, padfoot.” james holds out a hand to sirius with a smirk that could only mean one thing: they knew.

“are you—are you betting on us?” harry sputters, his face turning beet red.

sirius lets out a long, overly dramatic sigh as he fishes out a handful of galleons and plunks them into james’s waiting hand. “yep. and i had my money on last christmas, but nooo, you two had to make it as painful and drawn-out as possible.”

james shrugs, looking positively delighted. “i told him you two would take forever. i mean, you’re related to sirius, for merlin’s sake.”

“oh, come on!” you snap, indignant. “you didn’t even wait for us to tell you?”

sirius leans forward, smirking like he’s the world’s wisest sage. “kid, you were about as subtle as a hippogriff in a teashop. ‘oh, dad, we’re just going out to ‘study.’’” he air-quotes aggressively. “or, ‘oh, daddy, it’s so peaceful under the oak tree.’”

“do you know how many times i nearly hexed you?” remus says, shaking his head, clearly unimpressed. “once or twice would’ve been fine, but the ‘study dates’? please.”

harry’s face falls into his hands, groaning. “so you… knew? this entire time?”

james snorts, leaning back with the air of someone who has been utterly vindicated. “son, i’ve known since you looked at her like she’d personally invented quidditch.” he raises a smug eyebrow at lily. “which, by the way, was second year.”

lily laughs softly. “second year, james? don’t you think that’s a bit much?”

“oh, not at all,” james replies with a flirty expression. “i’d know that look anywhere—it’s exactly how i used to look at you.”

you and harry exchange an exasperated look. “so… none of you are upset?” you ask, bewildered.

remus grins, nudging you both toward the table. “not at all. in fact, this is excellent news because now i can finally use your time together as leverage for chores.”

lily laughs, patting your shoulder with a wink. “honestly, we were all just waiting to see how long you’d last before one of you cracked.”

sirius, meanwhile, is dramatically clutching his chest. “i was holding out for the christmas confession! so many prime opportunities wasted! i could have retired on those winnings!”

“oh, get over it,” james says with a slap on his back. “we all saw it coming from a kilometer away.”

and as you and harry sit there, faces hot with embarrassment and disbelief, the rest of them toast to the “official family binding,” clinking glasses and laughing like this is the best entertainment they’ve had in years.

©iamgonnagetyouback౨ৎplease refrain from copying, translating, or reposting any of my work

[the-far-bright-center]

So much of SW fandom is always like ‘Anidala is so toxic blah blah’ and I’m over here screaming into the void that the reason they are tragic isn’t because they are ‘toxic’, it’s because they were actually perfectly suited for each other, perfectly suited to help the galaxy as the best versions of themselves, and perfectly suited to be the best and most loving parents to Luke and Leia…. but the circumstances of the tragedy they are trapped in didn’t allow it. The plot, ya know… Palpatine’s machinations, the Jedi Order’s participation in the Clone Wars, the Order and Senate's blindness to Palpatine’s role in it until it’s too late, Anakin’s fall to the dark side … THAT plot ???

Viewing Anidala’s relationship as inherently negative (either for themselves or for the galaxy) is missing a huge point of the story. The tragedy isn’t the fact that Anakin and Padme loved each other and were in a relationship together — if anything, I would argue that they were meant to be. They met as children, significantly before Anakin had joined the Order AND before he’d met Palpatine! So their bond and connection existed prior to Anakin's alignment with either the Jedi *or* the Sith, and thus should be read as transcending both. The tragedy is rather that their joy and happiness and their potential for a future as a family together were snatched away. Their relationship was used against them by someone who hated them both as individuals and wanted to enact his revenge upon them and upon the whole galaxy.

Anidala’s love was never the problem; it was always Fear of Loss, and the fact that love and family were forbidden. These factors allowed Sidious to exploit the situation.

Anakin and Padme are not supposed to be just some ‘regular couple who have problems’. (Nor are they supposed to be a pair of toxic 'freaks' as fandom seems to like to call them, either.) Sure, on one level they are very human characters and we love that about them, but on another level they occupy highly symbolic roles in the story. They are supposed to represent two sides of galactic rule that are meant to be in harmony, but which get torn apart because the galaxy itself is being torn apart.

They are the galaxy in microcosm.

This is a story that only makes sense if you understand the PT x OT to be one single entity, a completed saga, the ending of which is an uplifting one that vindicates Anakin and Padme’s forbidden love. A story that must be understood as portraying Luke and Leia as unequivocally heroic. A story that depicts Luke's success in redeeming his father as the fulfillment of Padme’s faith in Anakin’s goodness.

It’s not a story that works if a) you accept the Disney Sequels and other Disney post-RotJ/anti-Skywalker nonsense as canon , and b) you try to 'read' Anakin and Padme's relationship as you would a relationship from our ‘real world.’

Which brings me to another issue. Nowadays, it is becoming more popular to view Star Wars through the lens of political allegory, and while Star Wars absolutely *IS* a political story that contains many overt political elements, it's not SOLELY meant to function as a 1:1 comparison to our real world. It's still ultimately a created-myth. A greek tragedy paired with a fairytale. It's a larger-than-life story set in an old-fashioned space-opera setting ('a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away') with larger-than-life archetypal characters, and I’ll be screaming into the void until, maybe, just for once, the SW fandom learns to suspend disbelief and engage with Lucas Star Wars on its own terms, and understand it within the context of its own genre.

[ghostofanovelwriter]

I wish to god that the writers room had done a better job at establishing Benedict’s sexuality earlier on in the series because now fans have it in their heads that in order to “properly” vindicate his pansexuality (Luke confirmed this in an interview) they have to completely change the narrative of Sophie’s story and take away her autonomy as a woman so that it’ll fit into their precious mlm regency fantasies.

Making Sophie a crossdresser during or after the ball literally does nothing to advance the plot. It makes no sense that she would dress as a man to attend the ball when the entire point of her going was to fulfill her dreams of entering into society recognized as a lady rather than a bastard. She and Benedict only reunite because he saw her as a lady in need of being saved from being raped, and her refusal to be his mistress speaks on so many levels on her identity as a woman and being treated as lesser due to such that wouldn’t work if Benedict was under the impression she was a man.

I think the writing really did fuck itself over waiting this late to confirm Benedict’s sexuality since now it’ll just seem like it’s queerbaiting or retconning the entire thing during the next season. At the same time, i also think the issue lies with the fans and their inner biases not allowing them to reason that pansexual people are capable of ending up with members of the opposite sex that doesn’t invalidate their sexuality.

[midnightshindig]

Deep inhale

Deep exhale

Okay official thoughts on the new invincible episode

Spoilers (duh)

I’m going to get a LOT of hate for this but the Invincible writers need to get more comfortable with plot alterations because I’m starting to suspect the comics weren’t well written.

That’s a scathing and DAMNING criticism but hear me out: there’s too much.

This was a 52 minute episode and I was emotionally exhausted by the end of it. To the point I FORGOT why Eve was in the hospital because it was like forever ago.

There’s too much. There’s no room to breathe. Having longer episodes doesn’t mean you should cram as many plot lines into it as possible, it means you get to take your time with the most important ones.

This episode felt like that one phineas and ferb episode where everything is being told backwards through a series of parallel flashbacks and I LOATHED that episode as a child. But that was for absurdist humor not genuine bad storytelling.

Mark has been too angsty for too long. Like, he doesn’t listen to anybody about anything and I genuinely can’t tell if the show is framing Mark as being wrong but sympathetic (because he’s obviously sympathetic as hell he’s a young adult child in the face of everything) OR if the show genuinely thinks Cecil is the wrong one and Mark is vindicated in his police state bullshit. Mark can’t decide if people should die or not and damns Cecil for contradicting a moral system Mark hasn’t even solidified himself.

And the show just. Doesn’t care? Because there’s no time to care. The pathos is getting put on the back burner so we can infinity war POOF like half the cast- except- nope! We lose the only side character with any real growth or investment and keep, what,.. exactly? Kate pregnancy arc? Shapesmith? Fucking- Black Samson???? Why? Rex’s sacrifice kills one Mark, equivalent to a couple of Cecil’s reanimen. That sucks. And his death didn’t even get the comeuppance it deserved because the show HAD NO TIME to give a fuck about it.

I loved the Mark variants, and I thought it was cool how they have such distinct characters and motivations, they weren’t just all copies of evil asshole mark. Some of them killed Nolan, some killed Debbie. They didn’t recognize Oliver. THEY DIDNT RECOGKNIZE OLIVER. god I’m realizing that as I write this Jesus Christ

But that’s because it gets glossed over!

Eve and Mark grew on me a little, but watching Mark choose Eve’s safety over his brothers and his completely powerless mothers was character assassination go fuck yourself. I could buy Oliver, he has powers and Mark has trained him in not worried about him

But Mark choosing to be Eves ADDITIONAL security instead of procreating his mother, when, in alternate universes Eve doesn’t even matter to Mark, but Debbie is ALWAYS his mother, and explaining his decision with “what if they come for Eve?”

BRO WHAT IF THEH COME FOR DEBBIE????

And we see that they literally tried to!! I imagine killing/threatening Debbie was part of Angstrom Levy’s plan. Yknow. Seeing as they’re at her fucking house???

There’s too much and the only character with real enjoyable development is dead and the second best character is Oliver imo.

ALSO- Darkwing suddenly gets redeemed enough to sacrifice himself for the greater good and like. For what? When? Why? If his sacrifice means nothing about redemption to Mark then he can go fuck himself he has been genuinely so unlikable this season

Which is a shame because Mark in season one and two was my favorite show protagonist like ever. I LOVED the way he interacted with the world and was reasonably flawed but still enjoyable. The show is forgetting what made it enjoyable. It’s a complete tone shift that- I can rock with- but isn’t being handled gracefully. I almost wish this episode had been split up, for breathing room, to give the mark invasion more of an impact and less of a “monster of the week” feel.

Making Rae a love interest only for Rex to die was cheap and trite and really robbed us of an opportunity for Mark or Eve or even like Rudy to mourn Rex. Rudy has been reduced to the smart guy in love with Amanda and I don’t think Amanda actually had any lines this episode which is damning because shes delightfully catty at times. Give Rex telling Rudy to make good use of his dna, give me Rex apologizing to Eve for not being a better boyfriend, give me- idk man- Rex asking Bulletproof to take care of things for him, or reconciling with a joke with Amanda, or crying or SOMETHING. His death wasn’t even triumphant, it was miserable

Characters the show could probably kill with minimal consequence: Amanda, Shapesmith, Black Samson, Bulletproof, Rae, POWERPLEX, and many, many others

Like Allen and Nolan aren’t in this episode at ALL and I just noticed because it felt so crammed full and they still didn’t have space for Nolan and Allen.

It’s too much. They’re writing five different shows all at once and it’s too much to write and too much to put into one hour long episode and it’s too much to watch in one sitting. It’s a monster of a project and it doesn’t/shouldn’t have to be.

The positives:

Oliver SHINED this episode, consistent in that he disobeys when he thinks he’s right, but he’s so damn cute and we see him know his limits, focusing on saving people when earlier S3 Oliver would’ve went straight to killing variant Marks.

I can see Oliver being manipulated by a variant Mark at some point in the future.

Debbie. Debbie is always a win.

The Varient Marks were a fucking marvel. Say what I will, they juggled different costumes and personalities so well. Someone else on here pointed this out but they’re all annoying in different ways it’s so well crafted and the voice actor (Steven Yeun?) did a great job of distinguishing their inflections and speech patterns without them sounding too different

Cyborg Donald and Donald’s gradual acceptance of what he is was so nice and understated and I liked it a lot. Who the fuck is Brit? They’re mentioned by name like three times. I’m so curious

Cecil was a total babe this episode fsfs

The animation? Peak. The animated gore?

I winced and cried out and genuinely screamed in shock multiple times.

When Angstrom is showing how he got put back together and his bottom jaw moves in different directions? My dad and I had to look away when we rewound to show my sister it was genuinely sickening. MAJOR props to them for that. Eves leg snapping made me almost throw up it was so suddenly nauseating to hear and see

Oliver having to crouch a little to stop midair versus the varient Marks being able to stop while standing straight like Nolan is such a good little detail. Oliver is flying like he’s swimming because he’s just a kid.

Paul? I guess? Idk I like the implication that he coaxed Debbie into relocating to his house for safety. Wish they’d had the time to show that.

All the background superheroes looked appropriately nice and recognizing them from the GotG tryout episode from s1 was a nice callback

Uhm, Rudy and Amanda. Always a win. Wish we’d seen Amanda take advantage of her new belt but I’m sure that’s coming soon enough

Eves parents are devastatingly well written as always. The mom being well meaning but still awful is so grotesquely true to form. Watching them reminds me of my exes parents and makes me a little sick to think about, 10/10 writing for them

The chemistry between Eve and Mark was pleasant this episode, i wish Eve still felt like her own character </3

I LOVED the William/Rick moment and the brief Amber/keith(? Is that his name?) moment. Rick realizing the positives of his tragedy is a nice moment albeit understated as hell.

Uhhhhhhhh shit… the background art was particularly nice. Buildings crumbling looked good as fuck

I think that’s all from me for now, feel free to respond or ask me additional stuff!!

[enelleloup]

A Rant about Female Characters in Fantasy

I've read a number of beautiful fanfics by tumblr people that have inspired me to urge all of you to put your self-criticisms aside and generate your own narratives and have the confidence to publish them. While this rant is the result of sleep deprivation, the thoughts are genuine.

Allow me a small rant, with the disclaimer that "this is just my opinion". This might be preaching to the choir, or I'm going to get burned at the stake.

So many writers fail to write female characters as humans with rational, independent thought. Brandon Sanderson (famous good fantasy author) has a lecture on this, where in many narratives, the purpose of the female character is solely to serve as the reward for the lead male character completing his quest. most early fantasy books were written by men who for some reason really struggled to write remotely relatable female characters. I'm calling out "The Wheel of Time," because jfc, Robert Jordan's understanding of women was "they're angry all the time and i don't know why. i also don't know what motivates women and i don't care to find out". The only thing that vindicates him, is that i think he also sucked at writing male characters. (yes, come fight me). Robert Jordan died before he finished the work and Brandon Sanderson most likely rescued the ending--but i honestly couldn't get through all the Robert Jordan books because the female characters sucked so hard and the "chosen one" plot was tired. Major hat tip to the writers of the TV adaption who are trying to breathe life and identity into the characters where the books absolutely let us down. If you like this series, apologies.

i'm also going to call out "The Painted Man" by Peter Brett, a book that has some serious logic flaws (e.g. every village is attacked by demons at night fall and all you need to do is maintain painted ward sign to keep them away, but for some reason few believe its important to learn how to make these painted wards, or maintain them, leading to inevitable, unnecessary death when the paint chips off. Plus the wards aren't complex--the 14 year old main character figures it out without any training using a stick in the dirt). I have a lot of patience for bad fantasy, but what made me put the book down and never open it again, was a scene where a major [virgin-saving-it-for-true-love] character gets gang-raped by highway men, and the author has her just dust herself off and express desire to fuck the main character, literally hours after getting gang-raped. The only emotional development of said raped character that author Peter Brett extends to her, is sluttiness towards any male character she interacts with. No emotions or even physical damage is discussed. You can find tons of rants of disappointed people online about this book. I'm grateful I put it down cause it's full of rape that doesn't advance plots or characters (e.g. a father-daugter rape that is ignored by the main character and abandoned in the plot) and apparently the later books feature wanton castration. If you like this series, no apologies.

So in summary, to any writers out there: have the confidence to keep writing. Publish your works. Unfortunately, the best writers are the ones that criticize themselves the harshest and never think what they are doing is good enough. Believe me, tumblr writers, what you are doing is absolutely good enough.

[hellyrossum]

scattered non-comprehensive s2ep9 thoughts

at first i thought jame just invited himself into helena's house, but no, she still lives with him full time?? awful. she needs to get the fuck out of there. "i wish you'd eat them raw" fuck off man. she can't stomach being the perfect eagan heir; she never could.

miss eustice huang... that felt like not just her last scene in the season, but maybe the whole show?? which. makes me a little sad, honestly. i'd raised the idea to some friends after last ep that that ep might have been a good opportunity to include cuts to eustace as the b-plot to provide a grounding point / comparison for the related bits of cobel's backstory, and i'm feeling much more vindicated in that thought now. there's a lot you could do with a character like her, it feels like a shame to leave it here.

all the milchick stuff this ep is, as it has been through this whole season, spectacular. tramell tillman the actor you are. i really wonder what role he'll be playing in the finale, now that he's seemingly teetering on the edge of rebellion...

"[dylan] has to choose between one group of people or the other; choose which version of himself gets to be loved. and innies aren't made to be loved." <- shoutout to that last line basically calling the end of this arc this season. dylan g. tries to have what he as an innie can't, and so he loses both his outie's family and the remaining connections he had down here. and then he pulls what irving b. tried to, and there's no one to do for him what he did for irving. evil, evil show.

(dylan, whose world blew open when he learned he was a dad but will never get to meet his kids, telling miss huang it isn't her fault... augh. ...meanwhile, no one's there to reassure seth, tell him it isn't his fault. he has to say it for himself.)

related: when the dylan-helly convo started i was so excited to see the show highlighting their bond again. and then it stabbed me. i get it, dylan, but. somehow this season feels like it's been even harsher on helly emotionally than last season was. which, when she's your favorite character, means. pain. good pain, tbc

the irving and burt stuff... god. there's something about jon tuturro's facial acting in this ep that's so... he looks so young and desperate. makes the heartbreak hit so hard.

dr. mauer. the band-aid on his forehead from when gemma hit him with the chair... directly parallels mark's head wound and band-aid from when helly threw the speaker at him in s1ep1. which could mean nothing

so, reghabi was just, wrong about the innie cabin not being a viable option?? like, it'd be one thing if she said "there's no way we're getting in there", but instead she said "they're two completely different things," which to me at least implied it wouldn't trigger the switchover to innie mark. is it that there's something special about this cabin - and if so... why? why would they need a cabin that-- ...oh. right, that... was established as a thing that some work innies have experienced. ... killing jame eagan right now with my mind

mark calls devon persephone in s2ep2. in this ep cobel passes her off as “one of jame’s”. if lumon is the underworld, then... you see it, right. (in a way, mark s. is the "child" of jame's that devon is responsible for. a fucked way, but. that's the only read i have of this parallel that isn't. well.)

(helena has siblings she probably doesn't even know about, out there in the world. ...potential replacement heirs, if she fails her father enough times. ...almost makes me wonder if she was a bastard child, actually.)

living for the crumbs of devon interacting with mark s. <3

really surprised there was no ricken this ep. like, i can't imagine him showing up in the finale, and i was so expecting that we'd get one more scene with him this season to put a (temporary) bow on his subplot. maybe we'll get something with him calling to check in on devon??

speaking of the season finale, apparently it's gonna be the same length as this ep? not 76 minutes?? i mean, they wrapped a lot of stuff up in this one, but that's gotta be a very packed 44 minutes to contain the innie mark - outie mark convo (which better go hard as hell) AND whatever jame has come to helly for (so scared for that. sir don't you have cold harbor to be worrying about. are you going to use her as leverage against mark. or is this more personal.) AND the full explanation/demonstration of what cold harbor actually is AND THEN the break-in to the testing floor + mark-gemma reunion + escape attempt, along with outie mark meeting helly for the first time somewhere in there. and also hopefully dr. mauer getting what he deserves (killed <3 )

[voxofthevoid]

Ch 248 is once again a mixed bag for me. On the bright side, it has a development I've been looking forward to the most since Sukuna left Yuuji's body—Sukuna acknowledging the effect Yuuji has on him. Until now, he's mocked and belittled Yuuji, deeming him weak and boring, except that the specific brand of vitriol Sukuna reserves for Yuuji has made it very clear that his beef with Yuuji is a lot more personal than his conflict with any other character. There's a pettiness there, a kind of irritation that's borderline childish, that wouldn't be present if Yuuji didn't well and truly get under his skin.

So to see Sukuna take a moment in the middle of battle, complete with arms on his hips and a goddamn pout, to reassess himself, his ideology, and his enemies and their goals, all to figure out why Yuuji irritates him and then to see him conclude that it's because Yuuji has indomitable will that he can't stomp down? It's sweet, sweet vindication. Sukuna's immediate resolution to tear that will down with, again, a kind of personal vendetta we rarely see from him marks the exact kind of fight I want out of Yuuji vs. Sukuna.

And Yuuji himself has been a sight to behold despite his relatively fewer scenes so far, from his final moments with Higuruma to the reveal that he can use RCT. His greatest strengths so far have been how quickly he grasps CE usage and now attuned he is to his body. The two combined is what's made him so lethal despite the lack of a CT or even advanced techniques like simple domain. RCT fits quite neatly with the kind of power progression he's shown so far, and combined with his natural durability and sheer resilience, it'll make him even more of a monster.

These are elements I'm very happy with. However, this chapter confirms Kenjaku's end and sets up Sukuna as the final villain, and that's... underwhelming at best. I'm not complaining that Sukuna isn't a particularly complicated villain; it's refreshing and suits how he's presented himself from the beginning. But part of what compensated for one villain being like that was the other being a mad scientist with a pretty cunning mind who kept plotting and planning with every tool in their arsenal. You could trust Kenjaku to keep things interesting while they sought the chaos they dearly wanted, and even the merger coming from them would've had certain meaningful implications because not only is it a dream they strived to fulfil for centuries, but it's also a way to see them finally "let go" of Tengen after exhibiting some fascinating attachment behaviors with her. That authority passing on to Sukuna is about as impactful as Yuuta killing Kenjaku—that is, not at all.

The Yuuta+Rika vs. Sukuna fight that's currently being teased makes me wary for similar reasons. It lacks the buildup Gojou vs. Sukuna had (battle of the strongest, i.e., clash of two immense fucking egos), and another contest of raw power sounds about as appealing as watching paint dry right now. Maybe it'll surprise me, but I'm not holding my breath.

To compare this to Shibuya, the emotional component that made its climax so compelling is almost entirely missing from this fight. It's there in Yuuji facing off against someone who took Megumi and Gojou from him, like how he fought the curse that took Nanami and Nobara from him, but overall, the deaths feel hollow and the stakes are so impossibly high that they start to feel like nothing at all.

I can't even fully capture what I'm feeling. It's not that I'm not looking forward to the upcoming chapters; I am. It's not even that I think the plot and climax are unsalvageable; they are, to an extent. But by this point, the plot fumblings and wasted potential have added up to a looming shadow I can't ignore even when there are parts I'm genuinely excited about.

[darkpoisonouslove]

HotD S02E01

Many thoughts, head full, zero ability to articulate so I'm just gonna scream about it... on main. That'll end well.

First thing I have to say is that the atmosphere and tone definitely work very well here. You can feel the tragedy in the air, the way that it's already happened and it just waits to unfold, to be witnessed in its full glory. Everything is so eerie and bleak and everyone keeps going but they cannot escape the framework of the war. They're trapped in it and you feel it.

Daemon is... he kind of surprised me ngl. There are definitely layers of emotion there that isn't just rage or bloodthirstiness. I didn't want to strangle him the entire time so that's a positive.

Emma D'arcy was amazing in this episode and (I could be missing something; too lazy to check but) she only had that one line??? And still, you feel her grief. That was certainly an interesting approach and it worked for them!

Aegon is such a contrast to all the other characters! I know he's supposed to look completely out of place and incompetent but damn, I am On. His Side! He's ready to be so generous to the small folk. He's trying to compensate on what he missed with his own father by spending time with his son. He has no idea how to interact with Helaena but he's trying his best and goddamn, if that's not a summary of his character! 😭😭😭😭😭😭 (this is an Alicent AND Aegon stan account now, I guess)

(that scene of him and his buddies drinking in the throne room has such fuck boi vibes and yet, SOMEHOW he was utterly hilarious and still sympathetic in it (I'll talk about the place of that scene in the plot later))

@ Otto and Larys: STEP AWAY FROM THE CHILDREN!!!!!!

The scene with Otto and Alicent was surprisingly touching. They finally reach some kind of understanding... and then he turns right around and continues to scheme behind her back. Sure, what he was trying to accomplish with Aemond is in line with his talk with Alicent but he's going to have his own agenda 100%. This wasn't just a strategical decision because Aemond is mad at Alicent rn and wouldn't want to hear any of her opinions even if they're also Otto's opinions.

Which leads me to THE SITUATION BETWEEN ALICENT AND AEMOND AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!! I. Am. Screaming (as you can see)! They are both so hurt and angry at each other 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 And I can't even take a side because both of them are correct in different ways. What Aemond did is actively hurting the whole family because it certainly exacerbated the war proceedings. But he's also right to be upset that Alicent would (seemingly) place her old friendship with Rhaenyra above her love for her children. She should feel vindicated that the one that mutilated her son is now dead. But instead, she's angry and has turned away from Aemond. When she was the only one who stood by him (and vice versa) on that awful night when his eye was gouged out????? The disappointment that they each feel in the other is KILLING ME!!!!!!!!! (I have to say that I hadn't thought about the possibility of Aemond being angry but it makes perfect sense and it hurts me so badly. Look at the contrast of this and this)

And now for the absolute fuckery of this episode (pun unintended). I have zero problems with Alicent and Criston fucking. Good for them! Love the moral dilemmas that are 10000% going on in their heads. HOWEVER, the decision to make them have sex while Blood & Cheese is going down? More anti green propaganda from the writers and I am SICK of it. Alicent was originally part of the scene, she was there to experience the horror of it first hand and they choose to switch that for her having sex????? You know the same thing that Rhaenyra and Daemon were doing when the whole fight between the kids in 1x07 was going down and they got no shit for it whatsoever but, of course, Alicent and Criston are going to be torn apart about this, I am 100% positive about that! Once again, the writers are trying to manipulate the viewers by going "See! Not only is Alicent being a hypocrite because she said she wasn't going to do this with Criston again, but that's what she was doing when her grandson was getting murdered" when originally she was bound and gagged and had to watch the whole thing happen in front of her. You could say that they spared her that trauma but they literally could have had her doing anything else if that was the intent. I am ANGRY about this. Not to mention the fact that Helaena literally interrupting Alicole while they're having sex adds an obstacle to Alicent offering her comfort. At the very least she has to get dressed first before she can hug her and try to provide some kind of feeling of safety, which inserts awkwardness if not downright shame into Alicent's actions and choices during that night. (Oh, and this will probably make her stop having sex with Criston, which is going to be another big L; let her be marginally happy and have orgasms, goddammit!)

Let's go back to Aegon now! So while Alicent and Criston are too busy fucking to be any the wiser about what's happening with her grandchildren (even though they literally couldn't have known anything like that would happen), what is Aegon doing? (Probably) drinking and stroking his ego by trying to come up with titles for himself... as the assassins are walking past him, right under his nose. Don't think he's not gonna get shit about that by fans if not by the writers themselves! They have set everything up so perfectly to blame all the Greens for allowing this to happen (since Otto and Aemond are so ready for war and yet were nowhere to be found during this either) but what about the Blacks, who organized all of this? Well...

They are whitewashing Daemon now by making Jaehaerys's murder be the idea of the assassins themselves. You see, Daemon would have never gone after a 4-year-old! He was only going after Aemond! And this is yet another misunderstanding like with Lucerys' death, except that this was way more deliberate but you cannot blame the Blacks when the people that they hired acted on their own. I hate it here! The writers are cowards and cannot commit to the actual characters that they're supposed to be writing so they're just doing whatever they want. And doing it badly at that! (That whole sequence was so fucking disjointed and lackluster also so congrats to whoever wrote this on the terrible job that they are doing!)

Poor Helaena! She's literally not going to get anything in this season. They already did Blood & Cheese so now they're just going to make her lose her mind and give her nothing else to do. I hope I'm wrong about this but I don't think I am given their track record.

Anyway, go team Green!

*I already bitched about this in the tags of another post but the fact that in the extra ("inside the episode" or whatever it's called) they had the gall to say that Alicent was in a "marriage that was loving but not exactly romantic or physical for quite some time" is a fucking insult. HE CALLED HER BY AEMMA'S NAME! HE USED HER AS AN INCUBATOR AND COULDN'T EVEN BE BOTHERED TO CARE ABOUT HER OR THEIR KIDS. SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!!!!

[punkspacepirate]

Doctor Who e8 ops

LIKES:

Bone beasts

Reality doesn't function without trans people fuck you jkr

Anita!!!!

Conrad was pathetic as he should be

Return of 13 to be an icon

The glimpse of the chess smackdown with 11 in the hotel

15th doctor says if I wear enough blue pinstripe I can implode fascist wishverse

Kate hating tweed

Rani remembered mel

The implication that everything was orange just bc conrad didn't have the brain power to remember a more complicated set of bins

Rani reminds us eugenics are evil

DISLIKES:

Entire poppy plotline

Omega's design

Reality randomly retconning a child into Belinda's life

Underused rani, Mrs flood didn't need to be there why tf did the bigeneration happen and why did Mrs flood completely defer to the rani

Mel didn't get to talk enough shit to the rani tf u mean we meet again

They had him say "joy to the world" again. Was hammy enough first time.

More action film than doctor who put those gun turrets away or so help me

The fact that Belinda's response to finding out that she'd been Conrad'd into having a daughter wasn't sheer horror to the point she was ok w the doctor doing a suicide run to unearth this child

No explanation on the visions of Susan

They left Rogue in greenscreen superhell

Anita pregnancy adds nothing

Plot was too convoluted

Belinda got way too mad at Ruby for asking if she had a daughter shed forgotten

Explanation not clear enough on time lord fertility + too much talking about time lord fertility. Do they mean that time Lords are sterilised as part of the academy process, bc that I could buy and it would be pretty interesting? But it sounds like they were saying gallifreyans are a sterile species which isn't true. Then it sounded like one of the two major time lord Extinction events sterilised them across time in the aftermath, which I could also buy but then that would mean the doctor shouldn't be so confident in that knowledge

Conrad got happy ending :/ and didn't get punched even though Ruby specifically stated her intent to do so

No explanation of why Ruby could remember what she could even though that ended up being significant twice over and led to the re-Poppying

Too many wishes, there's a reason genies put a cap on this stuff

Yaz mention yet no mention of getting Ruby into her support group

The fact he regenerated. Even though the writing has been patchy across 15s run I really liked him as a doctor and he deserved way more (both character and actor) than the 18 (?) And a bit episodes he got, I wanted more it's not a good decision it feels like they're scrambling

The way he regenerated???? Effectively suicide??? To possibly save a child he accidentally wished up in conservative wes andersons wet dream that is only questionably real?? Even if he did need to blow up reality they could've used the vindicator for that and not the Omega shit. Or said there was enough power in it for another go. Or have him drive his tardis rly fast. Or use the power of friendship. There's so many deus ex machinas to use in that moment that it seems the weakest justification and a real insult to the character to have that happen in the way it did

Billie piper next doctor. Girl I love you but no.

(My most surprising takeaway at end of season is that initially I like belinda a lot more than Ruby, and then by the end I had completely switched up bc of these past episodes)

(This is no hate to any actors involved I think they've done a great job, and I also don't think that doctor who being cheesy, campy, complicated, political, full of macguffins, and nonsensical is bad. I love this nonsense show I just think the writers are doing a disservice to the actors, characters, story, and show. )

[daeneryscel]

Honestly, I think the Alicent stans are gleeful about what the show did to Alicent's character because now they can fully indulge in their dislike of Rhaenyra (all Targaryen women because apparently, they're all evil whores who don't fit into the image of a perfect Westerosi Lady), prop up Alicent's "suffering" as something aesthetically pleasing, and fixate on Alicent being a repressed lesbian "betrayed" by her crush and how Rhaenyra is a spoiled brat who abused poor baby Alicent. Don't even get me started on the constant comparisons they make between Sansa Stark and Alicent Hightower. "ALICENT WALKED SO SANSA STARK COULD RUN!" The theme is not only worrisome but nauseating.

that seems to be the case, doesn’t it anon? i think it feels vindicating for them, due to the whole ‘she spent her entire life suffering in the name of duty and honor, she deserves a conciliation prize’ like you mentioned (maybe there’s some deeper trauma that needs to be looked into for some of them idk) as if said 'prize' doesn’t end up costing her her entire family. the way they’ve written her in the show just screams the glorification of abuse. she’s allowed to physically, mentally, and emotionally abuse her own kids in their eyes bc she too was abused, every misdeed she commits is because she was abused, etc. she isn’t allowed to just want her son on the throne despite the set-back it would do to women, she has to have some sort of sob story to make her seem more sympathetic bc women can’t just be against other women without reason (eye roll) or be antagonistic in general without reason. the queer plot-line was also not needed seeing as it was doomed to fail from the start and its existence dives deep into queerbaiting and even racist territory; subsequently, they decided to make the velaryon’s black and then completely sideline laena, rhaenyra’s actual queer love interest, in order to uplift and pair the sad white woman with her instead (which is strange since it seems like most rhaenicent shippers loath rhaenyra, but i digress). she’s not a complex character; she’s one-dimensional, inconsistent, AND the result of hypocritical writers not being able to understand that victimization doesn’t automatically mean interesting.

it also feels like half the time her stan's can’t decide if all of her suffering is bc of the men in her life, or if it’s *somehow* all rhaenyra’s fault that she was put in that position. the show has attempted to switch the power dynamics at play by aging alicent down and rhaenyra up, but it doesn’t work simply bc alicent still has more power than her as queen consort (and still spends around 10 years without otto's influence bullying and ostracizing rhaenyra, which is not how a mother terrified for her children's lives would act in the face of their would-be murderer). furthering that, the lack of critical thinking skills is blatant in this fandom and shows when they attempt to vilify the targaryen's (especially the women, yikes) because they only do so to uplift their own boring favs. show!alicent, and by extension, both media's versions of helaena, are passive characters who conform to and uphold the patriarchy, they’re the perfect type of women for incels and pick-me’s to glomp onto to ‘prove’ they’re not misogynists (see? we DO like women! (only if they’re submissive and don’t fight back ofc)).

the only comparisons between sansa and alicent would be their show characters. only the latter half of got for sansa makes any since comparison wise. she too was a character that was further victimized to make her seem more interesting and righteous in the show writers efforts to make her qitn (and also to further the bullshit mad queen dany plot line). sansa is still quite a compelling character without adding in an unnecessary rape plotline, but if they hadn’t included it the only similarities between these two women are that both are apparently redheads (nope) and bastard-phobic (debatable). that right there is where any and all similarities end. in reality, alicent is the cersei to rhaenyra’s sansa, not the other way around.

the fact that many consumers (especially the women) seem to like the adding of an abuse storyline to these characters is so gross, and really telling of how the media has construed the reaction one should have to gender-based violence (or benevolent sexism). they condemn and pity these characters for what they go through, but in the same breath, praise the writers for adding ‘nuance’ to these women’s stories. worrisome indeed.

[hurricanek8art]

Hello, I just glimpsed your tags on a post and no pressure (I myself am. So anxious about this ask rip) but if you would like to talk about your trooper and bounty hunter cousins I would love to hear about them, that sounds like a delightful recipe for a character dynamic (like. Is one essentially betraying the other? Did they come up in a situation where they just went their separate ways? How do they feel about the demands of their jobs putting them at odds/how close were they???)

DO NOT BE ANXIOUS I CRAVE ENCOURAGEMENT TO YAK ABOUT MY STORIES 🥰🥰🥰

Okay SO my Ordo cousins are kind of a mess in the best way family can be, with the added heap of Mandalorian Family Drama on top. A good portion of the story for them came from me being really fascinated by all the lore around the Mandalorians of this era and kinda disappointed with how little we actually know, and then me realizing "hey I accidentally made my Mando cousins look a LOT* like the Ordo brothers completely unintentionally" and then my brain went a-plot-bunnying away and came up with More Lore for my stories that I really need to put down in a coherent form/document. But I had maybe three hours of sleep, I know if I nap that I'm gonna murder my sleep schedule, and my dog is chewing on my desk chair again, so that is not happening here today. 🤣😭

*I'm not kidding, I've changed Jaiga's hair and Devika's makeup/tattoos since I made this, but I mean look:

Accidental cousins go BRRRRRRRR

Aaaaaaand I gotta put this under a wall of text because I have Cannot Summarize in a Brief Succinct Manner Whatsoever Because Infodumping Is Fun problems and I don't wanna take over the dash. If this makes no sense, again, three hours of sleep. 🤣😭

Basic barebones (i say like a liar 🤣😭) backstory: Devika and Jaiga grew up as two of six of the Ordo chieftain's grandkids together and are basically siblings. So Artus Lok becomes Mandalore the Vindicated then turns around and reinvests Mandalore's loyalty to the Sith Empire, Jicoln Cadera falls out with him over it and starts rallying clans. By that point Jek and Rass' part of the family split to do their own thing on Makeb for Reasons I Have Not Determined (I try to be a little canon compliant) so it's just Dev, Jai and Jaiga's older brother Korvun left with their respective parents, and Jicoln shows up to talk Clan Ordo into joining up with his uprising against Vindicated. Their grandpa Kinkaid doesn't like being loyal to the Empire either but doesn't want to turn on Lok, but Devika, who is being groomed as a future successor to the chieftaincy, rallies the clan into supporting Cadera because they're all sick of being used and abused by the Empire—they're Clan Ordo! Their forefather was Mandalore the Preserver, close ally to Revan! He and Clan Ordo helped bring down Darth Nihilus! So why are they bowing and scraping for the Sith when all the Sith have ever done for the Mando'ade is use them as cannon fodder? Speech is awesome, Ordo joins Cadera's rebellion, and when Clan Ordo does something like that, a whole bunch of other clans follow them because of Canderous' continuing legacy of loyalty and honor. They're gonna start a revolution and get them the kriff away from the Empire once and for all!

Which. Obviously. Doesn't happen. And goes very... very... very badly.

Jaiga and Korvun end up the only ones in the chieftain's family to survive the Schism—Jaiga fought, Korvun was born for clan politics but has some mobility issues that make him prefer to stay out of the actual fighting, both have some intense PTSD from losing most of their family. At that point they're sixteen and eighteen and technically traitors, so Clan Ordo gets appointed an "advisor" (read: Lok-approved supervisor) to ensure reparations go smoothly. Korvun takes over the clan chieftaincy but is pretty powerless to affect much without the advisor's approval. Jaiga is "volunteered" as an ijaat-sur'eyir, an honor-seeker, to basically wander the galaxy as an exile, no aid whatsoever from her family or clan, and find a way to regain Clan Ordo's honor and her own. Basically, she gets Zuko'd into a quest to find the Avatar, but the closest thing she gets to an Uncle Iroh is Braden, who gets killed only like six months into her bounty hunter apprenticeship to him, so she has to figure all this stuff out on her own (well, and with her crew). All that time out there alone makes her really bitter, disillusioned with her chances, and resentful of Devika for rallying them into the Schism, though. Because what do they have to show for all that loyalty to Mandalore the Preserver's legacy? Everyone's dead!

...except Devika did not get killed in the Schism.

She managed to get away with only a few scars. She tried to get back and fight for Clan Ordo in the aftermath, but she got betrayed by someone in the clan who felt betrayed by her actions in turn, and ended up in a Zygerrian slave camp for two years until she managed to jerry-rig a transmitter and reported their activities to the nearest Republic army base. SpecForce shows up to clear them out, since they'd been using the post-Treaty of Coruscant chaos to expand their enterprise into Republic territory with Republic citizens, and Dev's efforts in helping fight back get noticed. The leader of Cyclone Squad (made it up for fic purposes!) catches on that she's a Mandalorian who escaped the Schism real fast, but she's a dang good fighter and she went out of her way to save innocent lives, and points her in the direction of Special Forces since she has nowhere else to go and clearly wants to fight. Dev picks up the name Mav Darmani out of worry that if Mand'alor notices her fighting for the Republic that he'll bring the hammer down on whoever is left alive back home, graduates top of her class from Carida, serves a few outer rim tours with Cyclone, then gets transferred to Havoc just in time for All of That Business.

Neither Devika or Jaiga know the other survived the Schism until they both start making the galactic news (for vastly different reasons 😬) and recognize each other. Devika is overjoyed that Jai and Korvun survived. Jaiga wants to kill her for everything that happened. I haven't worked out how the reunion goes but it goes Badly. They're fine as of KotFE (and happily reunited with their other cousins! I can't remember which one but one of the Ordo bros' codex blurbs mentions they were at Darvannis), but it takes a long, long, long time for them to work things out. They're a mess that loves heckling/teasing/driving each other up the kriffin' wall, but I love my mess.

[swapauanon]

"Ozpin lied to Hazel about Salem's plans to trick him into sacrificing himself."

I find it amazing how people can say this and then get shocked when I ask them to tag their Ozpin bashing.

Besides, Hazel was murdering innocent people just to get back at Ozpin, over something his twin sister he constantly infantalizes chose to do.

Like, yes, Ozpin is a self-loathing wreck who blames himself for everything that's gone wrong, but in the end he didn't say ANYTHING about Salem he didn't believe was true.

Remember, what Salem said was: "Why redeem these humans when we can simply replace them with what they can never be?" meaning she was either plotting eugenics and genocide or had horrible grammar. Given that Salem's shown to be EXTREMELY careful and deliberate with her word choice, I'm going to assume it was the former, because it would be REALLY frustrating for the entire conflict of the show to be based on bad grammar.

But NO!!! We need Ozma to be an evil baby-stealing monster who tried to kidnap Salem's children because she wasn't religious enough! Even though, y'know, one of the first things Oz did after coming back to life was disobey Light by seeking out Salem.

But sure! It TOTALLY isn't bashing Ozpin to suggest he just tried to kidnap his daughter's from Salem, let's just ignore the ACTUAL grammatical structure behind Salem's words to make Oz look as evil as possible!

And besides, even if Ozpin DID lie to Hazel, SALEM WAS COMMITTING GENOCIDE IN ATLAS!!! She was siccing her Grimm on civilians at that point! And Hazel was complicit in it, and blaming Ozpin for his choices, claiming it was all in the honor of someone Salem had killed for trying to oppose the "Grimm eating children" party. But sure! Let's erase Hazel's misogyny in order to paint HIM as a poor, helpless victim of Ozpin's manipulations when he desecrated his sister's memory by helping the monster she died fighting destroy even more families!

"No more Gretchens, boy!" said the man who robbed a child of her mother JUST to "stick it to Ozpin", and has left countless Gretchens in his own wake.

Hazel even ADMITS that the only reason he's going after Ozpin is that he can't hurt Salem! So I don't think the show is going to be resolved by Team RWBY deciding "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!" when it comes to the whole "How do we deal with Salem?" thing, because every character who's done that has been treated as being IN THE WRONG with no exceptions!

And let's not ignore the fact that, y'know, Oz had just gone through an entire character arc about being more open and honest. Him lying to Hazel to get him to dance to his whims would, from a narrative standpoint, be like if Ilia had joined forces with Salem to get back at Atlas. It would have rendered all of his prior development a waste of time!

So, rather than Salem plotting against the gods, i just think she's learned she CAN'T hurt them and so is doing what so many people (such as Hazel) have chosen to do when coming face-to-face with her, lash out at the people she CAN hurt because she thinks fighting the Brothers is a fruitless endeavor. The show isn't going to close out on vindicating Salem's methods, and she's not a fucking "anti-hero" as I've seen some people unironically call her: She's an unrepentant villain who lashes out at people she believes have no chance of fighting back, because she can't hurt the people who actually wronged her. That is what makes her Ruby's evil counterpart: She gave up while Ruby is still looking for a new solution!

But sure, let's just ignore the structure of the narrative and paint Ozma as a baby-stealing monster who abused his wife for religious reasons and drove her to villainy. Even though, y'know, his rhetoric is completely antithetical to Light's idea of a perfect world and he went out of his way to disobey him at the first opportunity he had.

The narrative has laid out who Oz and Salem are countless times now: Oz is a flawed-yet-well-intentioned man who blames himself for all of the world's ills (regardless of how responsible for them he actually is), and Salem an unrepentant monster who lashes out at the world around her due to being unable to harm those who actually wronged her.

Trying to paint Ozpin as being just as bad as, if not WORSE than Salem ever was is disingenuous at best.

[pigsnadonut]

WHAT'S  WITH THE BAD COP PLOT LINE?

The “bad cop” storyline has been around for a little while but I find it most present on those cop shows that portray the life of beat cops also known as patrol officers but never a detective or investigator. This storyline is set up oh so innocently, when there is a new rookie who we are being introduced to or an officer who has served some time but only now do our protagonist find out their true nature. This first example comes from season 8 ep 7 of the ABC show 9-1-1, where Sergeant Athena Grant is given a younger rookie who has freshly graduated out the police academy who she is expected to lead to greatness. This turns left when the new rookie named Sparks speaks about the power he feels when doing his civil duties. This makes Athena question him but she is instructed to dismiss the comment. Later on she is vindicated in those thoughts, when after being taunted at by a civilian multiple times Sparks decided to pull out his taser and gun and then proceed to shoot the woman on the count of some very questionable reason. 

These episodes serve as some short-form propaganda, but that's if you are not considering the genre as a whole is propaganda. In reality there are cops who love the power and authority that being an officer does for their selfish desires. There are many officers who let implicit biases control their next reaction to situations. At the same time there are officers who are sworn to protect and serve like every single protagonist in one of these shows does. This plot is just to remind you of how different, smart and good the cops we are seeing in comparison to the bad cop.  At the end of the episode, we are reminded that Athena is a great cop for seeing that he was not ready to be out on the field and for then asking for a new rookie because she wants to teach rookies to be better. In order to prevent them from making life altering decisions like Sparks. This plot was used in The Rookie season 3 Episode 13 as well, just with a more seasoned officer which made it hard for the protagonist to find justice. When the bad cop is already loved and respected by his sergeant.

Thus showing us that in this fictional world these cops do not go under the radar and get their deserved punishments. This totally different parallel to real life where it seems we the public, see on the news, social media and hear real stories of people being treated unfairly or being harmed at the hands of law enforcement workers. Despite there being a clear violation of the citizens’ rights or officers using fear as a weapon to hold over civilians. Despite being civil servants, their job is to protect and serve those same people.  

———————————————————————————

- platform

I decided to move my platform to tumblr because I will be able to have more complete thoughts without having to condense down the material as much to fit the word counts.

-format

I decided to go back and edit the material to ensure there was a better reading experience. Many people like a smaller burst of text compared to a long stack piece of reading because it can seem overwhelming when scrolling through social media.

[findafight]

Do you think Nancy after s2 truly never felt guilty about how she ended her relationship with Steve? Do you think she thought she was in the right because Steve told her it was okay? It really keeps me up at night how this is never addressed. Especially now with the knowledge of s4 that they both made fun of Steve in their relationship. I get he's Nancy's ex, but Steve saved both of their lives multiple times. idk, it just leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. That's why if s5 only put the burden on Steve to make it up to Jancy/Jonathan, I really don't want to see it. :/

Also kinda wanted to see the aftermath of Jancy getting together from an outside perspective. I wanted to see how the school reacts to it. I think Steve tried his hardest to shut down any negative cheating rumors (probably also for his sake bc that would mean confronting his nightmare), but people would definitely talk. Especially Tommy and Carol. I would love to see what they would do to Jancy and Nancy specifically. Like, do they develop an even stronger us against them mindset. Is it that why Nancy seemingly only has Jonathan. The show mentioned two friends of Nancy in s2. What were their opinions? She was definitely close with them, given that Karen didn't question Nancy when she told her about sleepover plans. Speaking of Karen, what would she think about this. Steve spent Christmas with them, I think he was liked in the Wheeler fam, and then suddenly he's gone, and a week later, Jonathan is there. I want at least 15 episodes dealing with the aftermath lmao.

honestly...no, I don't thin Nancy feels really guilty for how she and Steve ended. They've never talked about it so there's no reason for her to conceptualize how shitty it would have been for him. If she's not confronted with that I don't think she'd feel like there'd be something to feel guilty for. One of Nancy's defining traits is her self absurdness, which is good for high stakes, life or death situations that require her to not hesitate. But it also leads to her not acknowledging/realizing (or, the show not recognizing) when she makes mistakes. She feels she's right, so, why would she feel guilty about it? She might be embarrassed about it though. Like it was messy, and so there were rumours about it and having people whisper about who she's dating/sleeping with would be embarrassing.

Jonathan I think would maybe feel bad about it, in the sort of abstract way that he knows cheating is bad because he knew Nancy and Steve weren't completely over, and he mentions it. But. I don't think it keeps him up at night? Like he also made the decision to go to Nancy, and kiss her, and then sleep with her, when he knew she was at the very least like a day out of a relationship. He doesn't care about Steve so it's not some betrayal, it's just an asshole move. I don't think Jon has to accept Steve's s1 apology, but I do not think Steve needs to apologize to him lmao that's so dumb let jon apologize to Steve for enabling cheating.

As for outsider pov. there's so many options! I'd love to see more of them. I'd say Steve definitely denies cheating rumours, partly because I don't think he knows how far they went? like he might think they kissed or had feelings realization or something, but not the extent? Tommy and Carol must've felt vindicated in their dislike for Nancy/feeling she wasn't good for Steve. Nancy's two season 2 cover story friends I want to meet them!!

Karen Wheeler....idk I don't think about her all that much but her perspective could be interesting! I think she'd maybe just be happy Nancy is taking charge or something...but yes give me 80's era sitcom plot about the aftermath of that lmaoooo

But I DO think Holly Wheeler is absolutely devastated by the break up. I think she's the og Steve stan he probably played dolls with her or something on the living room floor while waiting for Nancy and she's obsessed with him. She asks where he is and why he doesn't visit anymore and why can't he come over even though he and Nancy broke up (she's four she doesn't know what that means lol)

[ouatsnark]

I'm laughing cause I just saw someone say Hook became likeable as Rogers, and witt the added benefit of him not being Hook or being with Emma.

This same person claims that between Gold and Hook, Hook was the writers' favorite and Gold was their least favorite.

Like, what?

Oh I so called it! I've never seen them admit it yet I feel vindicated because for years I have said that the only reason Regina and Rumple stans love Fook is because he is not with Emma. The only reason a few CaptainSwan fans love him is because they're more obsessed with Colin than with CaptainSwan. But I digress.

Those that say Rogers is more likeable wouldn't be saying that if he wasn't disguised by a spell and if they actually acknowledged his plot against Killian and Emma and were honest about what he did to his daughter. Or it may just be because he's the blandest leather wearing guyliner character to ever exist. How do you wear guyliner and a leather jacket and have no personality?

I can't speak for the writers... and I am quite sure this theory about "who the favorite is" comes down to perspective... I could go either way.

You could say they hated Rumple because they ruined his story line for Regina's sake. They needed someone more evil than her so that she could have a redemption and they could keep their resident evil person. But at the same time they wanted to have their beauty and the beast story and in doing so they completely reduced this amazing villain down to a wife abuser.

On the other hand you could point out that in the end Rumple got his happy ending. He got to live the remaining years of Belle's life with her.

If the argument is screen time they can shove it. He was a villain and Emma Swan was the main character so the most story lines are going to revolve around the people closer to her and Rumple was not.

anonymous ask continued: also who's gonna tell sqs and evil regals that defending wish hook still sucks cause he's a shitty person and since he didn't impact regina or swanqueen that still doesn't give him the benefit of the doubt, same thing goes for serum queen and whatever that storyline was

I think we've tried but they just don't care. All they care about is the fact that their queen likes him and therefore they are allowed to like him. Same with the serumQueen. Regina accepted her and had the whole BS about loving herself so of course the serumQueen is good now and they will defend all of her actions.