#since they showed up in that guess who episode and were assholes

[hikiclawd]

👻

ciao drawing another scooby gang ripoff? more likely than you'd think

closeups under the cut

skip's transgender looks and autistic demeanour have captivated me also these are def inspired by rozahline on here so go check them out

[bloodynereid]

hey i was wondering if you could write a warren rojas x reader fic where the reader is an absolute rockstar and what their relationship would be like since they’re two musicians dating one another while living with the six

i love ur writing

tyyy 💕💕💕

Rhythm of Our Love

pairing: warren rojas/rhodes x fem! reader

a/n: hi! tysm for ur request and hopefully I fulfilled it the best I could. also u didn't specify if you wanted fem or gender neutral reader so i kind of just went with fem if that's okay. also this fic kind of ran away from me so I guess you just get to spend 5.3k words falling more in love with warren (I personally like longer fics). oh and there's a lot of billy bashing in this, which wasn't really intentional but yk it happens. oh and btw i hadn't watched the new episodes yet when i wrote this so this is really just mixed with some book events so book spoilers (!!) - reader is kind of like female pete if that makes sense

tw: drug mentions (mescaline, weed, pills), addiction mentions, billy bashing (don't know if that qualifies as a warning lmao), swearing, cigarette smoking, mentions of cheating (billy and camila - not warren + reader)

description: the rise to fame of a band and the love story between the drummer and bassist that accompanies it.

Y/N (bassist for Daisy Jones & The Six): Is this on? Yeah okay right. So where do you want me to start? The beginning. Geez okay let’s start at the beginning then.

You grew up living next to the Dunne brothers and ended up taking up bass after listening to Queen and The Beatles. John Deacon and Paul McCartney made those songs what they were and you were proud to be able to play something similar to them. So it was only natural that you ended up joining the Dunne brothers after Graham accidentally heard you playing one summer night.

Y/N: God I can remember the first time I played with them so clearly. They had become a pretty established band in Hazelwood but Chuck had quit, wanting to go to dental school or some shit like that, so they were going to give the bass part to Eddie, until Graham found me.

Eddie: Y/N was a lifesaver. I would have to play bass if Graham hadn’t gotten her to join. Plus she was one of the best things that could have happened to the band.

It was a chilly night but you rocked up to your neighbor’s garage wearing a pair of flared jeans and a butterfly top. Your bass slung over your shoulder and a cigarette between your lips. 

Warren: Y/N was a total rockstar from the beginning. And the way she carried herself that night, man, she was the most attractive woman I had ever seen.

“So are we ready to get this show on the road? I’ve been working on the sheets that Graham gave me yesterday.” You said as you entered the small room where all the boys were already tuning up and Warren was playing a random rhythm on the drums.

“We’re opening for the Winters in two days. Make sure you aren’t still ‘working’ on those sheets.”

“Sir, yes, sir.” You gave him a little salute whilst rolling your eyes which learned a few laughs from the group and a frown from Billy.

“Whatever, let’s just get this going.”

Graham: Billy was an asshole when he first met Y/N. Similar to how he was with Daisy, but he knew we needed her. 

Eddie: Y/N handled Billy better than I think anyone ever has. She met his challenges with blunt sarcasm and humor. Anyone who could deal with his bullshit made an instant friend with me.

Warren: I don’t think she knew how hot I found her at that moment.

Y/N: I knew. I mean I had been harboring a little crush on Warren since middle school. I wanted to impress him and I would say I succeeded.

Warren: She had a crush on me in MIDDLE SCHOOL? If I had known that it would have made things a hell of a lot easier.

Y/N: Fast-forward two days, came the night that changed everything. I mean my first gig was the time we opened for the Winters. My fingers were cramping and I had a horrible backache from the amount of practice I had been doing. On a plus side I got to meet Camila. She was just… incredible. God knows that Billy doesn’t deserve that wonderful woman at all.

You were running on a total of 2 hours of sleep. The past two nights had been spent practicing the pieces over and over again by yourself. And then the days were filled with practice with the boys. The band needed this to be perfect and you understood the weight of that completely. You were a rockstar. You were meant for this. At least that’s what you kept telling yourself as you walked into the performing area, staring wide eyed at the space.

Y/N: All I was thinking was: “You better not fuck this up.” That was the night we also met Karen. Karen Karen, my soon to be best friend. She was the keyboardist for The Winters and let’s just say Graham fell in love at first sight.

Right before we were about to go on stage a sudden crushing feeling started to encompass your chest. You were actually going to do this. Oh fuck.

Warren: I could tell she was having a freakout. I mean if it was my first time playing with a new band AND I had only had 2 days to practice I would have been hyperventilating. So I went up to her.

“What’s your favorite fruit?” That silky voice brought you out of your spiral with the most absurd question that had ever been uttered.

“Uh what?”

“What’s your favorite fruit? Mine personally are strawberries.”

“Oh umm I don’t know, I kind of like Y/F/F (your favorite fruit).”

“Cool, you good?” That was when you realized what he had done. You sent Warren a blinding smile and leaned to give him a quick peck on the cheek.

“Yeah thanks I owe you one.”

Warren: Call me a sap or whatever but I can still feel that kiss. I treasured that for a long time. Anyways, she was incredible that night. 

Y/N: There was like this electrifying feeling of being on stage and playing to all those people. I wanted to feel like that forever. Maybe it was also pure exhaustion but I swear it felt like I was on a high.

Billy: She played really well, I mean for a person who had two days of practice.

Y/N: We met Rod Reyes after our set. The man was a douchebag but he planted that LA dream in all of us. I was probably too exhausted to have been making decisions of that kind but…

“If you all will have me, I say fuck it let’s go to LA!”

“Let’s go to LA!”

Y/N: None of us stayed for the Camila and Billy drama, so Warren dropped me off last. We smoked weed for a while. We talked about all that weird philosophical shit that you talk about when high. Then I crashed for a few hours.

It was raining buckets. You pulled up in your dad’s car outside of Warren’s house. You had those weirdly unattached parents who really didn’t give a damn about what you did. They already had their hopes pinned on your older brothers so when you asked if you could move to LA, your parents couldn’t have helped you pack up faster.

“Bye dad.”

“Bye sweetheart. Don’t forget your bass.” He gave you an uncomfortable hug before passing your last suitcase filled with small remnants of your life.

“Hey Mr. L/N. I can take that.”

“Thanks Graham.” He quickly put up your few suitcases on the roof and you waved at your dad as he disappeared into the blankets of rain.

“Ready?”

“Definitely.” Warren helped you into the van and you got situated in a comfortable spot. You lit up one of your cigarettes and opened up the pages of your slightly damp book, waiting for a while until finally everything seemed ready to go. Well not everything.

“Got room for one more?” Camila got into the van and sent you a little smile before cosying up next to Billy.

Y/N: That road trip was one of those things that was both horrible and incredible at the same time. But when we got to LA man wow it was like we were transported and then we met Rod Reyes, again. He was such an asshole but at least we finally had some gigs lined up and a house, but calling it that might actually be a bit generous. 

Warren: Graham insisted we kept the haunted room for Karen. And obviously Billy and Camila got a room. Which meant Y/N was either stuck on the couch or rooming with one of us. And… Graham and Eddie already called the bunks.

“This is so fucking unfair! Why does your non-existent girlfriend get a room and I don’t?”

“She’s not my girlfriend!”

“Fuck you Graham. Where the fuck am I meant to sleep then huh?”

“Uh well Eddie and I are sharing the bunks.”

Y/N: It was like a really bad romance movie.

“You have got to be kidding me! Did any of you even think to count the rooms in this house?”

“Guys just shut the fuck up. Y/N you’re going to sleep in Warren’s room and that’s final. You’re all acting like children.”

Y/N: That was also one of the many times that Camila basically acted like our mother, in a good way.

“You know what, fine! I hope you’re happy Graham.” You said as you slammed the door to your new room and unpacked in a furious hurry. 

Warren: There was a king sized bed that took up basically the entirety of our room. Honestly it was one of the worst rooms in the house, but at least it wasn’t haunted! 

Y/N: Warren wanted to take the floor but if you saw that room you would know that the floor basically consisted of like a slab of wood. The closet and the bed took up the entire space and then there was this huge window. It didn’t even have curtains! Whoever designed that room was an idiot. But we didn’t have the money for anything else.

Warren: I tried to be a gentleman about it but like I would never have been able to sleep on the floor and I wasn’t sleeping outside.

Y/N: Not going to lie after that first night I was kind of grateful to Graham. Don’t tell him I said that though. Anyways we played so many gigs and were getting nowhere. And we were slowly running out of money. Oh and Karen did end up joining the band and she got the room.

You were all seated in some random diner with Camila counting out all the money you had gotten from gigs and your little part-time job working at a movie theater. On your side of the table sat Karen, Warren, you and then Eddie.

“Why are we still called the Dunne brothers, anyway?” That ended up sparking up a rather loud discussion of our side of the table against Billy. You rolled your eyes and leaned your head on Warren’s shoulder. You could see his stupid smile as he looked down at you so you just poked him in the ribs and he laughed.

“I for one am for changing the name.” You said as you took a drag of your cigarette, adding to the already thick cloud of smoke that surrounded the band.

“You see, Billy, basically the entire band is against you on this one.”

“No, no. The band name is what gives us credibility if we change it then all of our reputation goes out of the window.”

“Oh our Pittsburgh reputation really? Or maybe the reputation of not being able to get good gigs.” You barked back at the already angry man which made Eddie send you a grateful smile.

Then came the barrage of horrible name ideas, including one from Warren that made you look up at him from his shoulder in confusion and slight disgust.

“Look okay, the seven of us will never agree on the name.” That’s when it came to you.

“What about The Six?”

“Huh?” Everyone turned to you as you sat up and took a sip of Warren’s coffee.

“I mean no offense Camila but you aren’t technically part of the band so there’s six of us. We can be called The Six. The Five is used too much and The Seven sounds like way too many members so how about The Six?”

“You know what, I like it.”

“Me too.”

Y/N: So we had a shiny new band name, my relationship with Warren had gone from band mates to really good friends. And no I don’t mean that in an innuendo way but you get really close to someone you have to share a bed with every night. We had some good nights.

Warren: I always thought that Y/N would end up moving in with Karen after she joined but she didn’t. I think she knew that that room was haunted.

“So who do you think the most attractive person in the band is?” You and Warren were lying on the bed in a drug addled haze after taking some mushrooms he had gotten from one of his hippie friends.

“Huh?” You sluggishly turned to look at his face, finding that his eyes were already on you.

“Who do you think is the most attractive in the band?”

“Hmm I don’t know.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I mean Graham and Billy aren’t my type. Eddie is hopelessly in love with Camila-”

“Wait what?”

“Dude are you blind?”

“No? I mean I know Graham likes Karen but she doesn’t like him.”

“That is like the most obvious observation I have ever heard.”

“Hey! So that just leaves… Camila, Karen and me. Wait, is Camila the person who you find most attractive? I’m not judging if she is.”

“I can’t lie she’s really pretty and Karen is absolutely stunning but no not the person I find most attractive.”

“Me?”

“Yes dumbass. Now it’s your turn to answer the question.”

“Oh that’s easy, you obviously.” You smiled bashfully at him as his mischievous smirk grew.

“You are too charming for your own good.”

“I could say the same thing about you.” That was when you both fell silent. Maybe it was the confidence the drugs gave you but you quickly gave him a kiss before backing away.

“You like me back?”

“Obviously you dumbass, I've liked you for ages. Why do you think I’ve been cuddling with you for the past few months? I don’t do that with every single person I know.”

“I don’t know.”

“Just shut up and kiss me again.”

Y/N: As I said, a really cheesy romance movie. But I found Warren and we fit like puzzle pieces.

Warren: We were high on shrooms when she kissed me. We didn’t do much else that night, other than kissing and then sleeping.

Y/N: I may have loved Warren but we weren’t sleeping together until I knew he was serious. I had seen him with the small amount of groupies that we had. I’m not a jealous woman but that right there boiled my very core.

Warren: I stopped hanging out with the groupies after that night. Y/N became the light of my life, I wasn’t going to ruin the only good thing going for me that wasn’t the band.

Y/N: Then Billy convinced Teddy Price to listen to one of our songs. I have no idea how he did it. The next few months after that song were the most anxiety I had ever experienced but they were also the happiest. I was doing what I loved and I was doing it with the person I loved. Then we got to record the album. 

Karen: Y/N and Warren went official a few weeks before we got the album deal. They were the most obnoxiously cute couple I had ever been around. And they complemented each other incredibly well.

Graham: Honestly I take it as full credit to my genius that those two first got together.

Camila: Oh Y/N and Warren… god they were one of those strangely healthy couples. They were living the life, they had each other, the band and the drugs. They were insanely happy together.

Y/N: We were going to go on tour! That was huge for us and for me. A few days before we went though, Camila told us she was pregnant. They got married that night.

Warren: The wedding? Oh I don’t remember it that much. Mescaline… well it’s a powerful drug.

Y/N: Did Warren tell you we were on mescaline the entire night? Yeah. God, I wish I had been more present in that moment but we truly were having the time of our lives. Camila being pregnant also put things into perspective for us. Protection wasn’t a big thing in the 70s but I had been taking birth control after I read a few books. I wasn’t taking any chances. 

Warren: Yeah we had a deep discussion about that. I think that was one of the many times where I realized how shit it was to be a woman of that time. I supported whatever she wanted to do fully.

Y/N: We went on tour. It was fine. Billy was an asshole but he went off the rails. I mean Warren and I were a bit out of control cause you know… fame. But Billy, he went hard on all the drugs and the groupies.

Warren: We were there to have a good time but I also recognized something in Billy that I never wanted to be. I stayed away from the hard drugs and sure we hung out with groupies but I would never betray Y/N like that.

Y/N: Then Camila arrived, heavily pregnant and she found Billy getting it on with some groupie. Fuck, I really tried to call her but you never want to hurt someone like that you know. Fast forward a few shows and well we found out Camila had given birth. Teddy put Billy in a rehab center. We cut the tour short and that fucked it up with the label. I think it also made me realize how incredibly lucky I was to have found Warren.

Warren: The next few months the band was idle. Y/N and I did a ton of mushrooms and we helped babysit Julia. It was actually really nice and domestic.

Y/N: I was bored out of my mind. I wasn’t suited for an idle lifestyle. When Billy decided to stop being an idiot and rejoined the band, things finally started to look up. And then we all met Daisy Jones.

“Why can’t we just have Karen or Y/N sing this stuff? If you want an edge we have that already.”

“Oh no way, Billy. I don’t sing, I’ll help with backing but that’s it.” You said as you stamped out your cigarette on the tray.

“I’m with Y/N. Plus I agree with Teddy, it will give us a new sound.” Billy stormed out of the room at that leaving you and the rest of the band to chuckle at his dramatics.

Y/N: We were all enraptured with her when she first walked into the studio. She was wearing a button down shirt and no pants. That made one hell of an entrance. And of course, Billy wasn’t pleased.

“Hi nice to meet you Daisy. I’m Y/N.” You said as she walked into the recording studio while Warren’s arm was secured around your shoulders.

“You too. Thank you all for having me.”

“You’re welcome.” Graham answered.

“Okay, let’s get this show on the road.” You and the rest of the band left the room and went into the production booth.

Y/N: She was incredible. Even if she did try to change up Billy’s song. Personally I always liked her version. After that recording session it all kind of blew up. Billy wanted to keep the song as it was and obviously he did that until Daisy showed up to one of our shows at The Whisky. We then headed out to our world tour, The Numbers tour as it was dubbed featuring Daisy Jones.

Warren: We were making money, a ton of money at that. Sold out shows everywhere we went.

Y/N: I’m pretty sure that was the tour that Karen and Graham started hooking up. Warren didn’t believe me, he had his own theories. Like he thought Bones, our lighting guy… *cue you breaking out into laughter*, sorry sorry, but geez yeah Warren was honestly the most clueless guy I had ever met and I loved him for it. Then came the show for Rolling Stone, that was an incredible show but Eddie… that man had basically become my brother at that point. What Billy did was one of the worst things he could have ever done to him.

Eddie: I couldn’t take it anymore so I had to do something.

Y/N: I understood why he smashed that guitar. I would have done the same thing. But my bass was also something I had basically built all by myself. I wasn’t going to hurt my baby.

After all of the drama, you quickly made your way over to Eddie before Jonah Berg came down. A cup of water in hand and a cigarette dangling from your lips. 

“Ed?” You walked up next to your best friend and gave him a little shoulder nudge.

“Oh hey Y/N.” His voice sounded thick with underlying rage. One that you recognized all too well.

“I’m really fucking sorry.” And you wrapped your arms around his shoulders and pulled him into a hug.

Y/N: When you spend a long time around someone you kind of learn their tells. Warren and I were incredibly good at reading each other. And I was just incredibly similar to Eddie, so I knew how to help him… we both have really horrible tempers. Warren and the drugs had been helping but Eddie didn’t have a Warren.

Eddie: What Y/N did after that show… she knew I didn’t want to talk about it. She became my sister at that moment.

Y/N: I think Warren and I should have probably stopped Daisy. But we were sort of mooching off her stash. We promised each other to not go on the hard stuff but I think I was getting addicted.

Warren: Drugs were a normal thing in the 70s and we were having fun! But yeah I was feeling like I was starting to depend on pills.

Y/N: I was getting sloppy with my playing so I knew I needed to start weaning myself off it. We didn’t know much about addiction back then so it was hard to stop but we did the best we could. Well for one thing we didn’t go cold turkey.

Warren: When she told me, I understood her completely, I was feeling the effects of it too. We kind of talked through it a bunch and decided we should probably lay off the heavier psychedelics. Being rockstars meant you were down to have fun but if she wasn’t happy then I was going to try and remedy that.

Eddie: I think after the whole Glasgow thing I saw Y/N become more level headed. The same with Warren. I think they made some decision to get like moderately clean. They were still smoking pot and stuff but stopped with the pills and harder stuff.

Karen: I swear I thought they were either trying to get pregnant or Y/N already was. The fact that after that Rolling Stone interview they suddenly stopped taking anything stronger than weed is probably what made me suspicious.

Y/N: I ended up sitting next to Eddie for most of the flight back, leaving Warren to sleep. I think we were the only two band members that weren’t consulted about Daisy, but I honestly didn’t give a damn. It was nice to have another girl around and… I was probably feeling the withdrawal.

Warren: When we got back to LA, I bought a one-bedroom Gibson.

Y/N: Warren bought a boat and I bought a little house which has a boat dock, it was kind of like a perfect compromise. 

Warren: I kept my boat mostly at Y/N’s house but we occasionally went on little trips. Mostly we drank beers on it and spent nights at the house. Y/N took up sports for some reason but I wasn’t going to complain, she looked hot.

Y/N: Yeah, I took up surfing, boxing and got into soccer. I was still practicing bass daily but without the band getting together much that summer, Warren and I kind of just did whatever. We smoked a lot of weed too. We were moderately clean and we were happy but I think deep down we missed life on the road.

Warren: Neither of us were ones for settling down. That’s probably why Y/N got into sports and I bought that boat. Oh and Eddie was around a lot. At first I thought he was trying to get into Y/N’s pants or something but they have this weird bond that reminded me of how my sisters and I acted.

Eddie: I visited Y/N and Warren A LOT. I don’t think they minded me being there, I basically took up permanent residence in Y/N’s spare bedroom. Y/N and I actually wrote a lot of songs during those days and we both got into surfing. And the LA surf scene was something else but I was itching for the road and they were too. So when the call came in from Graham we were all ready to leave. 

Y/N: We got together in The Rainbow and that’s where everyone just started to talk about everything and what parts they wanted to play. I mean I was already writing my bass lines so I was fine in that department. Warren and I mostly stayed out of the conversation, just smoking and making little jokes.

Graham: I think this was one of the only times that Y/N was completely silent around Billy. I mean Warren and her had always been pretty independent but they seemed like they were in their own little world. Well that was at least until Eddie stepped in.

“Look I don’t want us to turn into some kind of pop group dynamic.”

“You know what I agree with Eddie.”

“Oh so you’re finally going to talk.”

“What the hell?! I didn’t have anything to contribute and was making it easier for you and now you’re getting mad at me for actually pitching in?”

Billy: Y/N and Eddie hated me. I don’t know what I ever did to them but they got on my nerves constantly.

Daisy: Y/N was a spitfire. Eddie and her kind of had this team dynamic that was based on ganging up on Billy. Not that he didn’t deserve it but there was always underlying tension.

Y/N: I never hated Billy. He just wasn’t someone I particularly liked. He thought the world revolved around him and he loved trying to be the boss. He never once listened to my ideas, even if I had been there from basically the beginning. Eddie and I were just getting fed up.

“Okay, everyone just calm down. Billy, Eddie does have a point.” Teddy Price was always the peacemaker in these things. You scoffed and leaned in closer to Warren who had taken to rubbing circles on your arm to calm you.

Y/N: We walked out of there with a new name: Daisy Jones & The Six. I guess you can call that the beginning of the end. While Daisy and Billy went off to compose, the rest of us worked on Aurora together. By the time we were going to play it for Billy I think it sounded pretty incredible but… he hated it. You could see the revulsion on his face but Teddy convinced him to keep it. Oh but Daisy loved it! I knew I liked her for a reason.

Warren: Daisy got on really well with Y/N and I during the entire time we made Aurora. We had that easy way of suggesting things for each other and giving feedback that we all followed.

Daisy: I wish I had a relationship like those two. They respected the other person in a way I had never seen before and they were so hopelessly in love with each other. I knew it was only a short time before they would get married. I was honestly jealous of what they had.

Y/N: I never went to one of Daisy’s infamous parties. Not because I didn’t want to but because I was happier. Which sounds really fucked up cause everyone else wasn’t doing that great around that time. I think the fact that I stopped taking drugs helped A LOT. Warren and I were enjoying life so you know we obviously took the next step. We got married.

Warren: We didn’t tell anyone we were getting married. And no one really knew until the band broke up.

Y/N: We got married in a little chapel on this hill near Long Beach. I refused to do a Vegas wedding even if we were eloping.

Warren: She was insanely beautiful that day. We both showed up in pretty casual wedding clothes.

Y/N: I was wearing a long sleeve all-white prairie dress that I had bought the day we decided to do it. It wasn’t my style at all.

Warren: We spent our honeymoon at our little house. And we didn’t answer the phone for like a solid four days. Good times.

Y/N: The band was freaking out by the time we came back to rehearsals on thursday. They thought we died or something.

Eddie: We thought they went on some kind of bender or disappeared into the horizon with Warren’s boat but no they arrived on thursday with these huge smiles and a new car.

Y/N: We extended the honeymoon after the band broke up. We went to Hawaii with Warren’s boat. I don’t think that was safe but we did it anyway.

Warren: Oh, the car. Did Eddie mention that? Yeah we put some of our money together and bought an Aston Martin. You know the James Bond car.

Y/N: We had some money left over from royalties and stuff so when we pooled it we had just enough to buy that car and start putting some more of it into retirement.

Warren: We still have that car. And we still live in that same house. And Y/N hasn’t made me sell the boat yet so we’re doing pretty good.

Interviewer: So how did the band react to you two getting married?

Y/N: Well, I told Eddie first. He obviously reacted as expected.

Eddie: I was happy for her but mad that she didn’t let me be at the wedding. Y/N made up for it though when she allowed me to officiate their vow renewal.

Graham: I found out a few weeks after the band broke up. I was obviously not doing well after all the Karen drama. But I went up to their house to see them and when I walked inside I saw the rings on their fingers and the rest is history. I got to be Warren’s best man at the vow renewal, I mean it was my entire genius that got them dating in the first place, it was the least they could do.

Karen: I knew when I met up with Y/N and Camila for drinks. She showed us the ring and honestly we were both very shocked.

Camila: I didn’t think she would go through with it but wow I couldn’t imagine a better match. When she asked us to be maids of honor for her wedding, I obviously accepted.

Daisy: I didn’t go to the vow renewal. Being around Billy was going to be a trigger and I knew that. But I still meet up with them a lot. Their kids love being around mine.

Billy: Yeah I was happy for them, sure. Camila told me after they went out for dinner I think.

Y/N and Warren Rojas live in that small house on the coast of LA with their three kids, Lily, Vivienne (Viv for short) and Javier. Y/N went on to be the bassist for many well-known artists like Kate Bush, Billy Idol and even worked with members of the Beatles. They are currently celebrating their 20 year anniversary, which was marked by a vow renewal a few months ago.

this is very much self indulgent - i will be writing a bunch of angst next so prepare yourselves.

taglist: @pinkdaiisies @yesshewrites1 @lisbeth122605

[ecoamerica]

Watch the 2024 American Climate Leadership Awards for High School Students now: https://youtu.be/5C-bb9PoRLc

The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!

[blossomthepinkbunny]

Charlie as an underdeveloped character

One thing I was genuinely dissapointed by when watching Hazbin Hotel was that they never cared to dive into Charlie's Morality more.

I feel like a lot of people can agree that Charlie felt very flat/sidelined in a show she was supposed to be the main character of and I think that that's because they ran out of Character Moments for her. Her Backstory is pretty much just infodumped at the start so there's nothing you can really explore there (except for her relationship with her parents ig but they only really brought that up and resolved it in one episode). Alastor has the mystery behind him of what his goals really are, Angel Dust has his arc about standing up to his abuser, Vaggie has her dramatic backstory reveal thing and Sir pentious gets focus as the one real guest at the hotel and with his goal to be redeemed.

Charlie really has no conflict at all, which is weird since the whole plot is that her idea is relentlessly mocked and never succeeds until the end. But she doesn't have a personal conflict. All the issues she faces come from the ignorance of the people around her who don't support her, but never from who she is. She never has to change. They try to hint at this with her being possibly invasive and not respecting boundaries in the Angel Dust and Valentino episode. But the episode doesn't focus on her and Angel as they talk it out and she realizes how she might have to change as well (from how I remember it). It focuses on Husk and Angel's relationship instead.

I feel like the easiest route they could've taken for her character was that of a moral dilemma. Charlie believes in second chances and being able to change demons and her opposite is Adam, who doesn't think demons should be redeemed and should just be killed instead. But it's never specified if Charlie truly believes everyone deserves a second chance or if there are restrictions to that. Adam sings a song in the first episode and explaines his reasoning for why he believes demons shouldn't be saved, which is that they had their chance to be good and didn't choose it and now they can't expect another one (I guess the real reason is that he's just an asshole who doesn't care but that's because Vivzepop can't write Villains so I'll just pretend like that's his real reason).

The problem is that Adam is presented as fully in the wrong and I just don't agree with that. I'm not saying he's right with killing random demons of course but the show never takes the time to consider that sometimes people go to hell because they are actually terrible and have done inexcusable things. Like yeah, someone who had an addicition or a mental health problem while they were alive obviously doesn't deserve eternal suffering without any chance for redeemability, but we know that those aren't the only people that go to hell (in the pilot it's literally confirmed that real life criminals like Jeffrey Dahmer are also down there).

The show blatanly shows us characters like Valentino who are shown to do irredeemable things and be purely evil.

My question is just if Charlie would also look at someone like Valentino and say: "Yeah they deserve to be saved and get a second chance". She obviously thinks Valentino sucks, which we see in the Episode were she meets him.

So like, what would she have done if in the second episode someone like him stood at their door and wanted to be redeemed instead of Sir Pentious. Does she draw a line? Or would she have really heard him out? Her morality with this "everybody deserves a second chance" attitude is so underexplored even though it would have been the perfect place to develop her more. If they had confronted her with an actually tough situation, where she is presented with a truly terrible person, they could've had two interesting ways to take her character.

She could've accepted the person and with that she'd have taken her role a fully 'good' saviour for the demons. Someone who is truly without judgement, or atleast believes that there is good in everyone that just has to be brought out. Which would've also given room to think about if people like that are even inherently good, if they can 'excuse' the actions of terrible people and still want to help them. This would have made her a very extreme character in her believes, but something coherent and definitive is actually something Charlie desperately needs for her characterization.

The other way would've had her reject the person and with that she would have to face the idea that maybe Adam isn't fully wrong. In that situation she would have found herself in a similar position to the Angels in heaven, where she basically is the one deciding over what's acceptable and what isn't. This could lead to her having a moral dilemma. Is she even a good person if she's deciding what's moral and what isn't? Can she just be okay with making exceptions to her idea to protect her people? Does she even want to view EVERY demon as her family? Or does she think there are some demons that maybe deserve death?

I'm just really dissapointed that the show takes such an interesting idea and such a difficult topic and then just does nothing with it. What we view as bad and good and which people we judge harder than others will always depend on social norms and the situation. It's a topic with no real right and wrong answer because there are so many things to consider. But this moral grey conflict that is literally one of the MAIN CONFLICTS in Hazbin Hotel is so incredibly underwritten, that it's not even funny.

Instead of acknowledging the difficulty of the subject Hazbin does what it does best and takes the easy route with seemingly clear right and wrong sides. This is especially stupid, since morally grey characters are supposed to be the point of the show. Like there are these demons who have done bad things and who aren't perfect, but that doesn't make them bad people. Its about revealing that a person has layers (which the writing doesn't). This is also a big point in Helluva Boss, where characters like Blitzø or Stolas who mess up repeatedly, are supposed to be shown as still having interests, aspirations, and good things to them.

The easy route which is taken constantly in both shows however makes it so that Charlie is completely in the right and anyone who criticises her is one of the evil people who try to ruin her plan, just like Adam. Who's also such a straw man for anyone who even dares to bring any objection to Charlies ideas, because everyone who does is apparently a hypocrite who just doesn't understand her and would rather side with genocide (I wonder were Vivzepop takes her inspiration from).

Charlies writing was just really dissapointing with almost never any reflection being done on her part. She doesn't have really striking moments, discussions or ideas to her in a show she's supposed to lead. That's just an issue that comes with Vivzepop never really putting as much work into her female characters, even tough they would desperately need it.

I know that only the first season is out so far, but I highly doubt thay they'll bring up a discussion like this in s2. Especially since Adam is dead now and the Angels will probably try to work more with the demons, after Sir Pentious' redemtion and the reveal of the exterminations to them. Also the Vees, Lillith and Alastor will be more of focus from what we can assume by the ending scenes.

I just don’t like that Viv can take interesting conflicts and write them to be completely one-dimensional and boring.

[showtoonzfan]

Hey it’s been a bit! The Mammon episode finally came out, so here’s my review!

Pros:

- The sign language scene was cute. Kinda weird that a kid was seeing a show that was clearly for adults but I love me some representation so it gets a pass.

- Despite Blitz not really needing to be in this episode, I thank god he had little screen time and more time was dedicated to Fizz.

- The fish ladies (despite having wonky color palettes that made them EXTREMELY hard to look at) were cute.

Cons:

- Mammon is so flat and uninteresting but I don’t know what I expected from a creator who always hypes her characters up that always end up being one of the three go-to personalities she picks for her male characters. In Mammon’s case he’s just a loud mouth cursing bum so way to ruin another Deadly Sin and make them boring af, moving on.

- I don’t like how Mammon and Fizz’s relationship are similar of Val and Angel’s, Viv keeps recycling stories, characters and plot lines ect, it makes Angel’s story for Hazbin really predictable/underwhelming and not exciting to look forward too especially since we already have the “mafia bad daddy” aspect to him too that they pulled for Moxxie. I guess the idea of Mammon being a controlling ruler is fine on paper but not much is done with it, Fizz just quits in the end like it was easy with zero consequences so what was all that build up for.

- Fizz himself once again feels REALLY out of character, he’s just too soft compared to how he was introduced in season 1. He’s constantly nervous in this episode and insecure, as well as walking on eggshells, and even in Oops he wasn’t THIS sensitive. I’m all for characters struggling and being kicked down but it has to make sense and not feel forced, and once again it feels like Viv is trying way to hard to make the characters she once introduced as snarky assholes to uwu innocent babies. I refuse to believe Fizz was actually INTIMIDATED by this random geeky imp who insulted him, as well as the fish ladies whom he was weirdly nice and welcoming to. It’s also weird seeing how uncomfortable/nervous he was around his fans when I thought the whole point was that he LOVED praise and loved being famous, at least that was season 1 Fizz. Now he feels retconned. Seeing him say “I just need this gig” is weird too, the explanation to why he went through all of this makes no sense, Fizz still has Ozzie and is famous in the Lust ring, and I understand Mammon is his idle but to go through all that abuse for so long for something that could have been so easily avoided feels forced to fit the plot, but it also makes Fizz look dumb.

- There’s confusing lore stuff regarding Mammon and Ozzie, and it makes me realize that Viv should have picked ONE storyline aka ONE Seven Deadly sin to go with Fizz’s story because this is getting mixed up. Fizz acts like if he looses this completion, he looses everything, which confused the heck out of me because no he wouldn’t have? First of all, Ozzie is a fucking powerful sin, how would you loose him? Second, from what we know from season 1, Fizz is a jester who performs at Ozzie’s club. It was Ozzie who built the sex robots across the rings of hell, NOT Mammon, and in season 2 we see that Fizz is under Ozzie’s care and lives in his house. Yet for some weird reason Mammon also represents Fizz and uses him for profit, but it’s not really explained in a way that makes sense, like Love’s art had said in her Fizz redesign video, Fizz’s job is really confusing on what exactly he does. Having both Ozzie and Mammon represent him overcomplicates things and the show did a poor job at explaining how this goes.

- Once again Viv dumps trauma and struggle onto her characters without building it up first. When did Fizz ever give off the impression that he was being controlled or abused, or even that he was so insecure and constantly walked on eggshells to be perfect. In Oops he was happy to be in the spotlight and happy to get the attention, he bragged to Blitz about how successful he was. He seemed happy to perform for Mammon and talked of him highly, and now you’re pulling an Angel Dust situation where he’s expected to be perfect 24/7 and it gets to him emotionally, while also being someone who’s physically and mentally abused. Yet another season 2 episode that wasn’t planned, same as how Millie wanting to feel important wasn’t planned, same as how Stolas seeing Blitz as genuine love wasn’t planned. Different episode, same issues.

- I’m so done with the Hell lore bro, this place officially has no rules and demons can just do anything without consequences. There’s no class system, there’s no rankings, there’s no power dynamics, screw anything that Viv says. There was no fucking reason why Ozzie and Fizz’s relationship needed to be a secret. There was no reason showing Ozzie threatening his workers to not tell anyone about his love life if he was just going to admit it to EVERYONE THE NEXT EPISODE IN FRONT OF ANOTHER SIN ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME— what was the POINT. What is the point of Stolas and Blitz’s conflict. What is the point of Stella being classist. What is the point of these class systems and rules if you can just announce that you technically broke a hell rule and no one gives a fuck and you get off scott free. Mammon telling Ozzie “you’ll regret that” like a cartoon villain doesn’t do anything either. What is he ganna do? Tell Lucifer, the character that canonically won’t appear in HB because the sins won’t appear in HH? If Lucifer rules over the sinners, who the fuck is in charge for the rest of Hell. Where’s the authority? And Mammon is just ganna come back for another episode to give the gang trouble cause lord knows we don’t have enough fucking villains already.

- It feels weird that Ozzie would just sit back while someone whom he knows is a piece of shit is treating his loved one badly. I get he was concerned but you’d think one of the seven deadly sins would have more power and authority.

- I was expecting some big gross bug-like thing to appear when Mammon was transforming into his final form, only for it to the exact same design but with small extra eyes and a spider lower half that isn’t even visible in most shots….GOD VIV.

Watching this episode also made me remind myself that this is supposed to be Hell. Seeing Fizz feel better and stand up for himself was sweet but these soft lessons and morals don’t belong in a show like this, and it’s extra aggravating regarding Viv’s double standard, how she can just pick and choose which characters she wants to be evil and which characters are saints. Overall not anywhere near the worst episode of season 2, but I am officially done with Helluva Boss so-

[biconickyoshi]

Okay y’all… I was very critical of eps 3 & 4 (especially 4) of NAtLA. Then all of a sudden eps 5 & 6 kinda slapped me in the face with how much better the show suddenly got.

Spoiler-free thoughts first:

Zuko, Iroh, and Aang have cemented themselves as the best parts about this adaptation - which is really funny considering I’m currently writing a longfic AU where Zuko and Iroh discover Aang in the iceberg right after Zuko is banished at age 13 and end up becoming the first members of the Gaang (albeit reluctantly at first lol). Episode 6: “Masks” (the Blue Spirit adaptation) was so good, I’d venture to say that it actually improved and fleshed out some things from the original series.

Episode 5: “Spirited Away”, while not as good as E6, was not as bad as I heard people say it was going to be. I think that the changes they did make didn’t bother me nearly as much as the changes they made in the last episode, and it was actually entertaining.

There were several scenes that made me cry in both of these episodes (moreso in episode 6, which I’ll get into further down in the spoiler section). These are the scenes that I feel like really tapped into the heart of the original show rather than feeling like a soulless remake.

Now for my in-depth thoughts (INCLUDES SPOILERS):

EP 5: “Spirited Away”

- Staring out, I was bummed because I had just rewatched the first two eps of the original animated series lol.

- It was an interesting choice to have all three members of the Gaang get stuck in the Spirit World, but I think it worked.

- Wan Shi Tong just showing up randomly was a bit unnecessary, but I suppose it will be kinda interesting to see him again in S2 since he’s already met the Gaang

- Hei Bai plays a much smaller role in these eps, but I strangely didn’t mind that either?

- Seeing Katara’s last memory with her mom was devastating, especially the fact that she had to witness her death and hide in the igloo with Kya’s charred body :(( she definitely has severe PTSD.

- Even Sokka’s memory made me tear up a bit

- Koh being the villain and a soul-eater or whatever was a bit of an odd choice, but I guess I can see why they did it. I do prefer him just being an asshole who steals ppl’s faces lol

- Appreciated the Fog of Lost Souls reference from the LoK lore

- Aang reuniting with Gyatso made me cry. I know some people didn’t like him being in the Spirit World, but I really liked it. Also, the fact that Gyatso was the first person to tell Aang that it wasn’t his fault the Air Nomads died, and that if he had been there he would have died too? THANK YOU! My poor boy has been berated enough for “abandoning” the world.

- We got some interesting lore about the afterlife for humans from Gyatso and Aang’s convo, which we’ve never gotten in AtLA media before. Idk if it’s just for Air Nomads, but Aang mentions that Gyatso stayed behind instead of “seeking enlightenment”. I know that the end goal in Buddhism is to reincarnate until you eventually achieve nirvana, so I wonder if that’s what they were alluding to (I’m not an expert on religions so pls correct me if I’m wrong)

- Oh yeah, I forgot June is here lmao. As a queer person I loved her (bc beautiful goth woman) but I didn’t like the weird choice to make her hit on Iroh - I guess to contrast the Iroh being creepy towards her thing in the OG series. I wish they would have just had them interact normally tbh, no weird “flirting”

EP 6: “Masks”

- Here we go y’all. The best episode in the show so far and probably the best the show is gonna get this season. I’m still pretty shocked at how good this one was.

- I think the decision to include flashbacks to Zuko’s Agni Kai was a good decision here. It felt like an appropriate episode for them and the flashbacks were very well done.

- In general, Dallas is doing a phenomenal job at portraying a Zuko who is angry and aggressive, yes, but also so very sweet and compassionate at his core. I love when little inklings of his true self shine through.

- Roku was… not what I expected. He was very much more of a lighthearted and jokey person… I didn’t hate it, it was just unexpected lol. I wonder if they did that to contrast him with Kyoshi. Which, speaking of, I’m glad Roku clarified that Aang doesn’t just need to be a merciless warrior (and that he didn’t berate Aang for “abandoning” the world like she did). But I still am annoyed about the mischaracterization of Kyoshi in general.

- RIP Shyu :/

- Thought it was kind of strange how June captures Aang at Roku’s temple lol. Like how did she get on and off the island??

- Zhao continues to feel like a completely different character to me lmao. I think this version is pretty funny, but it’s so weird to see Zhao being portrayed as so goofy and incompetent when he was such an intimidating force and the main villain of Book 1 in the OG series. Just a weird direction they went with his character.

- The Yuyan archers look cool as fuck. 10/10 no notes

- Still not sure how I feel about Azula already being this insecure and jealous of Zuko. I think it makes her feel a bit more realistically like a child, but the whole point of Azula’s character is that she is really good at maintaining this cool and calm persona on the surface, which she uses to scare and manipulate people. I can see her maybe getting to a point later on to where she hardens herself into that though. We’ll see.

- Baby Zuko asking Iroh how he looks and his little smile 😭😭😭😭 I had a physical “aww” reaction to that. THAT’S MY SON (me and Iroh shouting in unison)

- War Room scene was handled very well. No complaints. I like how Ozai tried to test Zuko with battle strategies.

- Blue Spirit break out scene was extremely close to the original, and it was really good. They adapted it almost shot for shot with all the important parts.

- Here’s probably my favorite part of the episode: Zuko and Aang’s talk inside the abandoned house after they escape from Pohuai!!!!!! Gahhhh I could gush about this scene all day. I love how they expanded it to be an actual friendly conversation between Aang and Zuko. Like we get to see Zuko’s true self coming through - the sweet, kind boy we know he is. Zuko and Aang just have such great chemistry as well, wayyy more than Aang has with either Sokka or Katara. Like I adored them bonding over painting and caligraphy!!! I think this is the best acting we’ve seen from Gordon so far, and Dallas did a phenomenal job switching back to that hurt, angry version of himself (of course a trauma response). And the fact that Aang said “sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you” when he blocked Zuko’s firebending attack??? My sweet boy 😭

- The final flashback to the Agni Kai was really well done too. I’d already heard Zuko fights back, which I wasn’t sure I’d like, but I actually didn’t mind it. I really liked that they showed Zuko’s hesitation whenever he did actually have an opening, and that was what angered Ozai the most - Zuko showing compassion, “weakness”. Daniel Dae Kim is of course doing a phenomenal job (no surprises there), and I really liked that Iroh actually attempted to stop Ozai at one point. It also looked like young Azula had tears in her eyes, which I again actually liked because it humanizes her.

- I loved that Aang was still there when Zuko woke up on the boat 😭 he wanted to make sure he was okay!! I full on started crying when we got the “do you think we could have been friends too?” lines from him. Again, Gordon killed it. I love how you can tell that Aang knows Zuko has been hurt and that’s why he acts the way he does. He doesn’t blame him for any of it. 10/10

- the last flashback to Zuko in his bed recovering from the burn… god the tears just kept flowing. I really liked the choice to have Ozai almost give Zuko a chance to like… idk understand why he did what he did, and how compassion is “weak”?? And then Zuko’s response to give people a chance 😭😭😭 as if I couldn’t love him any more!!! And then of course Ozai gets pissed. But seeing baby Zuko just cry in his bed UGH I’m dehydrated at this point

- Of course I can’t finish this review without mentioning the 41st division. What an incredible way to expand upon the source material by making them Zuko’s crew!!! It shows just how much Zuko truly cares about others and it moved me so much (once again to tears).

I don’t have high hopes for the last two episodes, but honestly, if this is what the live action can be, it gives me a bit of hope (at least for future seasons). I really think that Dallas, Gordon, Paul, and Daniel were the stars of this ep and are a big part of what made it so good.

[inkyvendingmachine]

Avedone With All of This Season 4, Episode 4

💀 Call of Cthulhu: Haunted Hijinx Masterpost 💀 Call of Cthulhu Season Four Masterpost (Coming Soon)

Warning: This campaign is an edited version of  a Call of Cthulhu scenario from the Tales of the Crescent City book. While a lot has been changed, there IS spoilers for it throughout these posts.

GUESS WHO FINALLY SHOWED UP!!! and also a lot of other stuff happened. I'm sorry, this one is very long because I didn't take notes, and struggle to leave out details when I'm writing from the records instead of the notes.

Art Credit: @inkdemonapologist : sketching + inking @inkyvendingmachine : concept + colouring

Somehow Jack’s car, with all its original passengers and no extras, manage to make it back to the studio. Joey immediately rushes into the studio, to go rant at Bendy about everything that happened… and possibly to go fuse with Bendy because he feels utterly helpless now after completely draining himself with panicked magic. 

But it’s probably just the first one.

Sammy and Henry arrive as well to find Jack and Peter quietly picking glass out of his broken car in something like shock. Upon getting no responses from Jack about what happened, Sammy storms off to find Joey.

Joey is all too happy to start his entire rant over again for Sammy as he works on fusing with Bendy. They were just following Peter’s leads and driving from location to location and then all of the sudden this ASSHOLE shows up out of nowhere and just stands in front of the car. Busts the car, terrifies poor Jack, and then on top of that tries to break INTO the car and abduct Peter?? It’s a good thing Joey managed to blast him out, but they weren’t even DOING ANYTHING that would have possibly summoned him NOTHING AT ALL... And on top of all that, being an absolute PRICK as he’s doing it! 

… Anyways, how was the moooob?

Sammy updates Joey on everything that happened with Johnny Nero, which is pretty much just that he had seen the Yellow sign, that Henry removed it, and that Nero was pretty intent on getting his hands on whatever the Phantom wants first. Which like… yeah, if you wanna solve all our problems and fix this mess, go ahead! But Joey’s pretty sure that’s not going to happen, so he goes back to working on his ritual.

Sammy leaves to go back to Jack, and right as Joey feels ready to start the ritual his phone rings. The special one. And it’s… Avedon??

Avedon immediately starts info dumping on Joey about everything that’s been going on already… like, all the information Joey already knows. A lot of flat “yeah?”s in reply as Avedon rambles on, until he mentions that it’s already gotten to Norman. Wait, what?? But Avedon doesn’t stop, telling Joey to meet him at his hotel room in NYC so they can go over more information. Before Joey manages to get any clarification, he hangs up. 

That’s Joey’s thing!!!

Joey is the one who hangs up on others!!!!!!!

Frustrated, Joey does try to call Norman, and… Yeah, Norman is talking in weird riddles and speech that doesn’t fit with the Normal Norman Vibes. That call is also ended with little information gained… but at least it DOES seem like Avedon knows what he’s talking about this time, so Joey’s willing to meet with him, even though he’s also feeling done with him already.

Joey finishes the ritual and merges with Bendy.

On his way downstairs, Sammy is still turning over the car event he just heard about… and the increasing evidence that Peter might actually be the Phantom’s target?? Why else would he be trying to drag him out of the car?

Sammy approaches Peter, who has since started exchanging information with Henry as they all get the last of the glass shards out of the car, and says that he wants to see if Prophet can tell anything about what happened. Sammy looks distracted for a moment, and [lack of surprise because it was actually somewhat communicated beforehand,] Prophet is here!

Prophet concentrates, and with no hesitation, mushes his hands all over Peter's face. 

The good news is that, while Prophet can tell that Peter’s been grabbed by the Phantom recently, that’s actually all that he can detect. No additional eldritch stuff, he’s not possessed, he’s not weirdly marked or damaged in a way that can’t normally be seen. Great!

But Prophet can’t tell if Peter is the target or not. For his part, Peter has been muttering that it seemed like the phantom was trying to pull information from Peter on someone else he was looking for, someone who “followed us out”, but there’s nothing Prophet can sense to confirm that… but he realizes he can sense the distortions to reality increasing throughout NYC. They’re in the air, moving about… getting stronger.

Henry can feel it too.

But that’s all the energy Prophet has, and he unfortunately misses Joey showing up and dumping his new plan of action on everyone. He, Henry and Peter are going to go find Avedon’s dumb hotel room and figure out what’s going on with him, while Sammy and Jack are going to go check up on Susie and Norman because Norman is definitely acting weird now and he’s not quite sure if Susie is in over her head or not…

Nobody objects to the plan. And with NYC losing more and more of its reality to the yellow mist rolling in, it seems important that they do something.

Henry, Joey and Peter do make a detour to Henry’s house though to make sure all is well there. The car is gone, the lights are out, things seem as they should if Linda managed to follow through and get the kids out of the city. Peter is concerned when he notices some of Henry’s wards, but don’t worry, those are supposed to be there. Henry checks them over, and they all seem good. Bendy finds a bucket of clay he and Henry's kids had played with before, and brings it along to entertain himself on any following sleepovers, since that is a thing that will probably keep happening. For once, it seems like everything is actually left alone? 

Until they look out back and find the treehouse Henry built for his kids is gone. Actually, it’s almost like all the landscaping and such in the area was just… cleared away? Or never happened. Joey meanwhile is tabbing through Henry's photo albums and makes sure everyone is still there, which they are. But the treehouse isn’t. And, perhaps even worse, there’s also an extra guy in the JDS staff photo now? Joey pockets it, since this guy seems to be in the music department according to the photo, but Joey is sure he’s never seen him before. And it’s not Alan. So. Hopefully the music boys can shed some light on this.

Henry grabs some supplies and his gun, and Joey turns him around to fix his outfit and make sure the gun is properly hidden. Avedon is 2 trigger happy, we don’t want to say our hellos by instantly showing off the weapons we brought.

Meanwhile Jack and Sammy’s drive to Norman’s is more fraught than the previous ones. Not only has he moved house again, (though at least this time they have evidence of his new address from the junk mail they took last time) but… many other roads are starting to move too. Also Sammy is driving, so, speed has been cut in the engine department too… don’t need to hit two things in a single day with all this mist building up, and any sort of navigation trouble puts even more delays in.

At least they do manage to find the place and head on in, with hope that also maybe now that Avedon has arrived Norman will stop being so “sticking it out in a house that keeps wandering off apparently.” Things seem kinda fine at first at least, like they’re not immediately shooed out or attacked or have any weird monsters hanging over the house waiting for them to try the door… But upon Sammy questioning Susie while Jack goes to find Norman in the back, the music boys find out that things are very much not fine.

Susie is… very confident with a knife all of a sudden, and very confident that she will be able to just stab the Phantom when given the word to go out and hunt him down. Y’know just… stab the guy who couldn’t be damaged by a 2 ton vehicle slamming square on into him. And when Sammy tries to argue this logic, it just becomes more and more obvious that Susie and Norman are both… in character. Susie’s speech cadence is even reminiscent of when she’s performing rather than talking normally. But they don't seem aware that their actions seem more scripted than decided.

Jack finds Norman in the back, with a hatchet and a very similar plan to Susie’s. But whatever is happening isn’t strong enough to make them completely forget themselves, and with some facts being pointed out and reminders of who they are, the boys manage to get these two actors back to themselves... kind of. There's still some weirdness going on, and this also doesn't answer the question of what could be done to prevent this happening again?

Neither Susie nor Norman really realized when it started to happen, and it took some serious outside convincing to snap them out of it at all… Do they need Henry to expel something to truly get back to themselves again??

ALSO, IF THE PHANTOM CAN’T BE HARMED WITH A CAR, WHAT ARE THEY GONNA DO ABOUT THAT TOO?? THAT SEEMS CONCERNING!!!!

Meanwhile, Henry parks near the hotel they were directed to by Avedon, and the trio look upon it in… concern. First of all, it doesn’t even look like a hotel, or look like it belongs in NYC. And the entire place is surrounded by a yellow mist… and while they could wait it out or try to somehow call Avedon and tell him to come out, it just feels like the longer they wait the worse it will get. 

Really, it’s starting to feel that way for a lot of things.

But even though everything about this feels bad, they press on and enter the “hotel”. What should be the hotel lobby is abnormally empty, and when they start up the stairs… well, that’s not normal either, the stairs just keep going. Joey is flipping any rugs he finds though to make sure they don’t have stupid destabilization spells underneath them.

After a few rounds of strange rooms, weird hallways, some alien screeching outside the windows, and Henry noticing that NYC is not the city outside said windows, he stops everyone out of worry that they’re walking into a trap… and Joey agrees. But not that this hotel is specifically a trap.

All of New York is a trap.

It doesn’t matter where they go next, the longer they don’t solve this issue, the more of a trap everything will be.

They just gotta press on.

…

Aaaaand start yelling for Avedon because clearly they aren’t gonna be just walking up to his hotel room at this point.

Good news! Avedon replies! Bad news!! Only Henry can hear it for some reason!! And… Avedon can hear Joey but not Henry?? 

It’s all very confusing. They find Henry’s reading glasses on a table. Those were in his pocket how did they get there excuse me. All of this isn't fine actually.

But after a few rounds of Avedon Polo, they finally stumble across each other in a… garden. In the middle of a hotel. And of course, the first thing Avedon says is that they need to leave immediately. He didn’t know it was going to be like THIS, he just stepped out to get a coffee and suddenly the whole place is weird??? Well, now that they’re here, time to immediately leave because YEAH THAT WAS THE PLAN FROM THE START. 

Going through another door leads out into a familiar courtyard, at least familiar to Joey. He had been here a few nights ago, while invading Y’s dream, and indeed, right where he’d expect, he finds the Y twins chatting amongst themselves. Marching up to them, Joey demands to know what they’re doing and what’s going on.

They respond by addressing him as royalty.

✧･ﾟ: *Joey Drew, as Your Highness･ﾟ: *✧

Normally, this would probably inflate Joey’s ego! Currently, it sinks like a stone into his stomach!! He does not want to be part of the play!!!

Unless…

Joey suddenly wonders, because it’s the same courtyard, if they are in a dreamscape of some sort… Does he appear different than himself… and that's why they're addressing him this way?

But no, he looks like Joey, and Henry looks like Henry, and Peter looks like Peter, and Avedon is still here… except Joey also notices some of their hands are starting to turn transparent…………. That's probably fine.

He still doesn’t want to be part of their play.

The Y twins try to get Joey to go somewhere with them, and he makes up a story why they need to not do that rn, so that the group of normal fading humans can attempt once again to leave this place. 

Since it's all weird here, Joey tries his little will-what-he-wants-into-reality trick and… well it doesn't work. Instead, he finds a throne room?? and realizes that they aren’t just in Carcosa, they’re in the castle where the Yellow King’s play takes place. And Joey manages to follow his intuition from here to find some kind of portrait hallway, covered with familiar faces… all labeled as characters from the play. Not recognizing all of them, Henry starts drawing them so we have a record of it later.

But there's a few he doesn't have to draw.

One is Alan Leroy, the guy that they're becoming sure is the target of the Pallid Mask. Part of the royal family, apparently. He's a slender man, black hair slicked back, young looking, quite pretty … kinda looks like Joey…

Which makes more sense perhaps when the portrait of the eldest son in the royal family is none other than Joey himself. Guess this is why he was being addressed as royalty… but that means the Y twins are not quite in their right minds, and anything he finds them doing here is probably just play nonsense.

Also Denis is the youngest prince but who cares about that guy.

What they DO care about is the fact they’re getting more and more transparent, so the boys go to find Avedon, who is oh so helpfully knocking shit over and muttering in french, and Joey manages to get his door trick to actually work this time; he opens the door and there’s…

STAIRS!!

Everyone starts running down them, managing not to get turned around when they start making twisty turns, and get to the front door of this stupid castle in a hotel lobby.

They peek outside.

Sure enough, on the side of the building, there’s a shadow shaped suspiciously like nothing they can really identify, so it must be some sort of angel monster or something.

At this point, there’s really only one option they have: try sneaking to the car and hope it’s looking the other way, and if not, run!

Everyone agrees that this is a great plan.

And then they do that.

There’s a bit of fumbling in the middle, but the car was parked outside of the yellow mist for once, so the creature just fades out as soon as it leaves the mist to chase them. 

Well! Okay then!! That problem is solved!! Let’s go deliver Avedon to Norman so that he can take responsibility for his mad man and then maybe stop hiding at home or something!

Henry drives off, and things seem fine for now…

Until Joey swivels around in the front seat to question Avedon, and out the back window, sees something flying after them, only visible whenever it passes through the mists…

Problem… not solved.

[ecoamerica]

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[shokolandish]

edit: i made a new charlie design and a post-finale vanessa design!

---

viv is not a good person and i don't support her, but ive got a hyperfixation right now and im gonna make that everybody else's problem

besides, separate art from the artist or whatever

hazbin has a shit ton of mistakes, problems, same body and hell, even same clothes syndrome. does hell only have one shop or something???

but i just kiiiinda enjoy (?) it for what it is

and ive seen a lot of people do redesigns and that seems really fun and honestly, the characters have a lot of potential that's just blatantly ignored by the show

aaaanyways, after all that out of the way, i present to you...

finished refs for two of my redesigns for the cast!!! did the main couple first, naturally

soo, here's charlie

age: about 22 in human years

and vanessa!

age: about 25 years old. not sure if angels age differently but that's her age in human years

some notes under the cut

Charlie

- yep, i made her non-binary. just get a lot of non-binary energy from xer. besides, i like the hc of them preferring the name charlie over charlotte because it sounds more gender-neutral

- i like to imagine xer a bit on the bigger side complexion-wise. like, i don't know if you could call her chubby but she is a bit plump and really soft to the touch not only because of the fur. i feel like being soft and having more soft edges in buns design would fit buns character more

- she's not freakishly tall anymore!!!! like.. i don't mind her being tall because she's the princess of hell after all.. also have you seen how tall lilith is???? but i feel like sometimes it's TOO much... also honestly it also just fits them more imo??

- they're a redhead now. I MEAN LIKE. both lucifer and lilith were described with red hair in old paintings.. i just had to.

Vanessa

- yeah yeah i made her a demigirl... her original color palette just screamed demigirl. like. it was literally the demigirl flag color palette.

- i thought of naming her violet but that'd be a little too on the nose i think- gave her actual hips!! and not whatever was going on in her original design (the waist just going straight into the legs)

- also made her a little more.. (uh i guess the appropriate word is "thicc") overall- yeah i also redesigned the angelic spear a bit. not too proud of it but i think it gets the idea across

- i don't usually.. draw noses, but i figured it was a pretty big/most recognizable part of her design so i gave her one.

- oh yeah btw she's not gray anymore!!!! yippee!!!!! like what's even up with viv and making poc characters gray. anyways since she's a fallen angel i figured giving her a more human appearance would make sense. we've seen winners in heaven and a lot of them look pretty human. even if we only look at exorcists, lute looks pretty human too.

writing notes

okay, so, i wanna give you some notes about the writing, but before i do - i am NOT a professional writer, im just a kid who has some criticism for the hellfire of a show hazbin is

with that out of the way...

chaggie's writing

okay so. chaggie am i right.

so, ill just get this out of the way - it's boring

like, really boring

chaggie defenders will say they're just "casual" and im an asshole for wanting more from them but you can be casual and not be FUCKING BORING

like.. all of their interactions just go the same waythey comfort each other or hold hands or vaggie is trying to convince charlie to do something and she NEVER. FUCKING. LISTENS. like seriously.

the only time she actually listened was when vaggie convinced her to be more assertive but she was trying to do it anyway... and she changed vaggie's words and did her own thing anyways

they don't even have that much chemistry. and they're like, the main couple. they're supposed to have chemistry.

hell, emily and charlie had more chemistry in one episode they interacted in than vaggie and charlie in the whole damn show

vaggie's writing

vaggie's writing.. it's... sigh.

she doesn't really feel like a separate character when she's with charlie

they're just. doing the same thing. over and over again. all of their interactions are the fucking same. like.. i wanna care but i just have no reason to. i just DON'T FUCKING CARE.

even vaggie's whole deal in "whatever it takes" is her just?? dedicating her life to being charlie's partner?? and not even being her own person and living for herself??? like. what's up with that. maybe i just didn't pay enough attention??? i can't be bothered to rewatch any chaggie scenes in episode 2 because they did not deserve that drama and i just don't care enough

im supposed to care but i don't

the show just. doesn't give me any reason to care.

vaggie interacting with ANY other character is so much more interesting - i don't know what to expect, i can't predict it!

vaggie interacting with alastor? hell yeah! we never know alastor's intentions and seeing vaggie not taking any of his shit is really entertaining!

vaggie interacting with angel dust? sure! id love to hear the bickering or maybe them having to put up being alone with each other for an episode? maybe both of them having to put up with charlie's shenanigans and bonding over that?

vaggie interacting with niffty? okay sure! a lil gremlin and an involuntary caretaker maybe with vaggie seeing niffty can take care of herself? or vaggie trying to put up with her insanity?

vaggie interacting with husk? oh hell yeah, they both seem to be the straight man in any situation (despite neither of them being straight but whatever), maybe they can have a drink or two together.

vaggie interacting with pentious? yes please! she'd not take any of his shit, but honestly? pentious' obliviousness with vaggie's seriousness could be a very fun dynamic!

but charlie? yeah i can just. predict any interaction they'll have.

and that's not really a good thing with the main couple

because it just gets old really quickly

and we see them all the time, so after some time they can just start to irritate people

how would i fix it?

MAKE THEM INTERESTING, DAMN IT

maybe make charlie listen to vaggie more often??

or maybe vaggie getting a bit irritated because charlie doesn't take her advice seriously

or maybe actually show us how they fell in love?? not just love at first sight or whatever they had in the flashback

like, id love to see actual chemistry develop!or maybe make their interactions not as predictable??

or maybe actually show us how they work together

have an episode dedicated to them

that's the problem with trying to fit everything into one season - the character and relationship developments can end up rushed and just. not very good.

like.. the season we got could be easily stretched out into two or three, WHERE ARE YOU GOING SO FAST, SHOW?? why so fast

this show doesn't know about the existence of filler episodes and we NEED filler episodes

to actually get to know the characters, to explore dynamics, to get to know the world around them

the season is just way too short to tell the story it's trying to say

and if i didn't care about a character from the start and the show doesn't let me meet them... im not gonna just start caring.

---

anyways, that's about it! im definitely gonna do more, i even have angel and pentious ready:) niffty, husk, alastor, emily or adam are next after them, i already have them sketched out

idk what order im gonna post them in but we'll see i guess

---

bonus:

some concepts

[nikolais-eyepatch]

Ofc I can give more plot to it! Okay so yan!Toman!Mikey & reader have known each other for a couple years (like 2-3 years) and they've become good friends but Mikey ends up falling for reader who's a little tomboyish, and reader kind of likes him back, but reader likes someone else even more and Mikey gets a little jealous or something along those lines, and maybe he & the other person start fighting over reader? Is this enough information that you could use, and thank you!

i...ILL START WRITTING RIGHT AWAY -

Manjiro Sano had always liked you. Maybe it was the way people thought you were weird but the second you had a single conversation with them you'd be left with his favourite grin. Maybe it was the fact you approached him first. Or the fact that he slowly discovered that you both were a teeny bit misunderstood. Or maybe the fact that after a few years your still by his side.

He loves that. He loves you. He loves you so much, he even let's you call him by his real name m-

"-Manjiro! Are you even listenting?" You exclaim shaking your hands infront of his face to get his attention.

his attention is now on you. Why wouldn't it be?

"Like I was saying earlier! Guess what! I got asked out on a date by (insert name)! the guy I was talking about!" You explain excitingly as you even use your hands to show the emphasis.

His gaze immediately darkens, he was totally expecting you to talk about anything interesting like a new episode of that new action manga, or even a new rematch on your favourite sports team, but this?

You await his response and the only thing you get is a small hum of acknowledgement and a small 'oh really?'

You state at him confused, you didn't expect him to be over the top but this was a little too...it just slightly weirded you out..

You nod vigorously as you say " yeah he actually asked me out on a date- I'm happy, that one of the guys I have a crush on asked me-"

"One of the guys? There's more?" He interrupts you as he meets your gaze. And you notice his eyes are empty just a pitch blackness.

" Mhm! There's two, he's one of them...but the other- ah! But it doesn't matter! " you say as you feel a light blush as you talk about the other crush and dismiss it...

see you've never told manjiro about the other crush because- it's him! It's manjiro sano! He doesn't like you...plus your options are open!

Manjiro mouth opens then shuts; as if on time your phone goes off-perfect! Now you don't have to explain yourself!

You check the icon and it's (insert name)! You instantly smile as you don't look up from your phone but say

"oops! I gotta go, manjiro! It's my mom! Love you! byeee! ♡ " You say happily as you get off from the steps of the stairs you and him were sitting on hanging out as you wave a goodbye to him then turn back around and call (insert name)! This was the best!

What you don't see is manjiro looking at the back of your body as your figure gets smaller, and smaller, and smaller...

Fuck it, that kids going to be lucky if he even has a face left. He thinks as his knuckles are now all pale, something you didn't notice from the second you started talking about that kid...yeah your dates tomorow huh? Guess he needs to tell ken-chin to cancel the toman meeting tonight. He needs you, now.

"-and then he leaves me like that! He fucking ghosted me! " you say pissed as you lay on Manjiros lap sideways with your gaze looking at the wall rather that him, not that he minded since he kept in gently playing with your hair, getting out knots gently.

"That's so rude of him, sounds like an asshole...you should stay away from him." He says; you have to double check as you now pay on your back in with your head still on his lap but looking up at him with a slight confusion

"Ah! I mean he left you like that, right (name)! So he could do that again..I'm a guy I know what other guys are thinking. So stay away, kay? ♡ " he says with a sickeningly sweet smile as he looks down at you and plays with you're hair.

He then cups your face then slightly squezes it making your lips go plump then he just observes with a now blank look then toys with your bottom lip then smiles again as his hands are now resting on your hands instead.

"...manjiro your so weird." You mumble out slightly blushing at the contact.

"Your weirder then." He remarks with a small smile

" course I am. " you reply as you close your eyes, relaxing them. Not bothering to even to even care about the fact that your in his lap

Your met with silence and shuffling and you feel your head being lifted for a second and you flutter open your eyes as your met with his eyes. But your also met with a sudden softness on your lips as you open your eyes.

You realize something; he's kissing you so you then shut your eyes and kiss him back as you lay back into his lap relaxing yourself as you hold one of his hands, meanwhile the other is on his cheek as you slightly feel him adjusting himself so he can kiss you deeper.

After lips shuffling against each other you have no idea how but now manjiros pinning you on his bed as he starts kissing you deeper, and deeper, and deeper. He can't get enough of you ♡ !!

Eventually as you both pull back panting you soon your eyes and see a string of saliva connecting you two and you blush as you watch him wipe it away with his sleeve then kisses you again- this one being more short due to the fact you two haven't recovered yet from the make our session.

"You know." He interrupts as he gives you a peck on your lips . "You're" a peck on your nose "all" another kiss on your cheek "mine" another kiss on the other cheek.

"you always have been and will be, you don't have a choice. " he says as he pulls back slightly and then immediately kisses you enjoying every second of it as he puts both hands on your cheek meanwhile your kissing him back with arms around his neck.

Maybe your feeling a little heartbroken about your date, he ghosted you. Maybe this is all because you feel upset...who knows? Manjiros right, he was probably playing with your feelings.

You quickly dismiss those thoughts as you kiss him then you move your head to the side and try and catch your breath and you stare up at manjiro; his lips are red, his cheeks are all red too, yours are too.

"Don't worry about that other guy, he's taken care of, kay ♡ ? Your mine now. All mine. So don't worry your pretty head about him at all. He's gone. I'm sure. " He says suddenly as his gaze darkens and he becomes scary, every thing about him screams danger

Your about to question him again as he kissed you again- a bit more roughly as if he wants to own you this time you notice.

when you keep on trying to question him he shuts you up with a kiss.

He said he's taken care of that asshole, don't worry about it. You only need him right? I mean you kissed him back so- so of course you do! He needs you so bad. so so so so so so so bad- fuck at this point he can't wait til he's going to claim all of you- he's dead serious. the things you make him do...he loves you! ♡

[zoe-oneesama]

Congrats on finishing the penultimate final episode of SL’s Season 5!!! And now for the season finale: What do you think of Audrey, her akuma, and Style Queen’s plot once you rewatch the episode?

The episode is...fine? On it's own? Like, I kinda just like it.

Well, as a character intro, it's pretty perfect. You know everything about Audrey in so little time:

Style Queen Magazine Fashion Critic

Harshest Fashion Critic in the World

Fires People at the Drop of the Hat, even the ones who don't work for her

Chloe mimics all her mannerisms and phrases -> Chloe sees Audrey as a role model to emulate -> Audrey is adult Chloe

Audrey sees no value in remaining in Paris despite her whole ass family living there -> Audrey doesn't give a single fuck about her family

Reinforced by her getting her husband and own daughter's names incorrect several times (she calls her CASSEROLE at one point!) though at least she has the good grace to look embarrassed for a second when she does and at least she corrects herself with the correct name.

She sure does get Gabriel's name right though, suggesting she holds him in better (or at least higher) regard than her own family. Maybe this is where Chloe got her Bourgeois Family Rule No. 148: You Need a Guy Best Friend to "Wrap Around Your Finger". This also suggests that her career ties are more important to her than her family ties.

Also it's interesting that she remembers Marinette's name when it comes up again...

In the two minutes they have Audrey talking in the opening, you know everything about her, and all signs point to her being a total asshole. And we all thought it was just Andre spoiling Chloe rotten that made her that way...

So I guess I'll just go chronologically for the set up to the akuma:

Liked: Marinette's imposter syndrome was depicted very well and is in line with her character. This was a pretty good use of Marinette's anxiety for the sake of exposition - her being tightly wound and going over her hat again and again so many times it makes her late, late enough to catch Audrey arriving so she can panic over that, and her getting to hear Audrey's interview with Nadja and panicking over that. All this set up helps the audience realize there's actually a stake here, since theoretically Audrey's opinion could make or break Marinette's dreams of being a designer.

Liked: Chloe trying to insult Marinette but ends up just doing a speed-run intro, pointing her out as a designer to Audrey and even showing off the detailing of her stitched signature. Maybe if Chloe hadn't gone out of her way to point these things out, Audrey wouldn't have taken an interest in Marinette in the first place, lol. Though obviously you'd only know that if you also watch "Queen Wasp".

Liked: This teeny tiny hint that Adrien isn't that into modeling, or at least not into modeling his dad's clothes, since he bemoans that he feels awkward. I liked that Adrien saw right through Marinette's imposter syndrome moment and actually cheered her up, and I like that Marinette complimenting his strut got him out of his funk in return without her even realizing it.

Liked: Oh c'mon we all liked it when Nathalie put Audrey in her place. It would be the dead pan snarky one that reminds Audrey that she doesn't work for her. The fact that Nathalie even smiles at Marinette when she presents the now vacant seat just sealed in that, on top of it being deliberate for Gabriel's plan, Nathalie enjoyed it. And so did I, Nathalie.

God, please don't look directly at me.

I'll stop going chronologically here. The akuma is pretty good, though just like Audrey herself, better at a distance (her faaaaace, what is happening?!) and idk the back of her head is crazy. I think they were going for a Statue of Liberty Crown shape with her hair, but the back is just...cut off and flat.

At least now I know where she kept the rose...?

As far as the fight goes, it's just Ladybug getting her ass beat even AFTER figuring out a way to slow Style Queen down with just her Lucky Charm, so I guess this IS Hawkmoth's "masterpiece". Though that does make her being so easily beaten in "Optygami" kinda weak. I guess all Ladybug really needed was help.

And obviously we were all robbed of Bee!Alya.

And obviously Plagg was MVP.

Chloe was also pretty good in this episode (in the way I think she's good, as a complete brat). She would bluff her way into signing up to be her mom's assistant, and while it was momentarily sweet of her to be worried about Adrien, you can still tell she's her asshole self when she starts down the stairs with her mom and talking about how AWESOME THEIR TEAM-UP WAS.

I know she was just leading up to suggesting she go to New York to be with her mother, but going on about how GREAT it was to "fire incompetents" together kinda puts into question just how much you were bluffing there, Chlo.

And of course Audrey calls the idea of Chloe going to New York with her ridiculous, but follows it up with "first I need to get back to Gabriel's fashion show", so there's a few ways to interpret that.

Is the idea of taking Chloe with her at all ridiculous?

Or Is it ridiculous to take Chloe to New York right now because the Fashion Show is still on? As in, that's not the order of things, or it's ridiculous because Audrey's not even going back to New York right away?

If it were any other character, I'd say she obviously meant the idea of Chloe going with her at all, but it's Audrey. Petty, career focused, only looking two steps ahead Audrey.

Then again, I'm probably just trying to make this more difficult and deeper than it is. It's probably just the former, she rejected Chloe flat out, especially when we know what's coming in "Queen Wasp". Idk who I'm defending here, it's a lost cause.

I guess what I'm getting at is that Audrey is fascinating as a character study in all these little ways that I'm not fully sure the show intended. Like her looking guilty when she screws up Chloe's name, even as an akuma. Or instead of listing the reasons why Chloe going to New York is ridiculous by tearing Chloe down, she instead is pointing out that they have somewhere else to be first. Where she comes across as not so much trying to be intentionally malicious but instead thoughtlessly cruel.

Don't get it twisted, though, she's still an asshole.

[crystal-lillies]

how was the 13th doctor robbed ?

Well. This is gonna be a long one anon.

For starters, she had a shorter episode count for each of her series (two consisting of 10 episodes, her last only had 6!!! SIX!!! and even with the ending specials that's 3 more, but they did not deal with the third season much at all. That story barely had anything.) Each season since the start of NuWho has been 13 episodes plus Christmas specials, give or take extra specials depending. (10th Doctor had FOUR extra specials after the end of his last season. Plus he showed up in Day of the Doctor, so he's been extra spoiled). Just think of how much more could have been done with more episodes!

She was also robbed of the traditional Christmas specials, which was a staple of EVERY NuWho season before her, and GUESS WHO GOT ONE RIGHT AWAY when RTD came back? (13 got a couple New Years specials which are fine, but she will be the ONLY multi season NuWho Doctor to not have a Christmas special, and that's just wrong. The Christmas specials are iconic and holiday time classics and always focus on familial bonds the Doctor makes and 13 is missing that).

The 13th Doctor's tenure also had to endure COVID, which isn't on the BBC or the showrunners obv, but it still detracts from what she could have had that the past Doctors had and what the future Doctors will have.

The 10th and 11th Doctors particularly had oodles of extra content like shorts and mini features that was nowhere to be found for the 13th Doctor. (In fairness, 12 didn't get as many extra bonus things also, but 12 had full seasons and Christmas specials, including one of the best ones with River Song).

And one of the most egregious forms of theft was from Jodie Whittaker herself. She is an incredible actress and she was hardly given the space to fully go as hard as she could. If you've ever seen the Antigone performance she gives...it's stunning. Legendary. Raw. She is a brilliant actress so she was able to bring some of that into certain moments of the 13th doctor's tenure, but there are painfully few epic moments of 13 in the same way there are so many of the 10th, 11th, and 12th doctors.

Also she was robbed, again with the shorter episode count, of breathing room and development with her companions. Short season runs (10 or less episodes) are So So Lean, and they really hurt so much not just from Doctor Who but the Netflix ATLA, Percy Jackson, Marvel and Star Wars shows, etc. We could have had more development time with Yaz, especially with her feelings toward 13, have them properly shown a lot more, rather than having Mandip and Jodie carrying everything on their backs with little add ins and crumbs. Plus Graham and Ryan! And poor Dan got shafted as the new Flux companion. He got so much less time to really get fleshed out and form a bond with 13. The show even makes a point of that! He's closer to Yaz than anyone.

And 13 was also robbed of one of the most important things of all: passing on her wardrobe to the next doctor.

RTD can say what he likes but he was a coward and an asshole for not having David wear Jodie's costume. He can't in one breath claim to be treading lightly about crossdressing to be respectful (when it's Perfectly Fine to have the POC male villain rock the wardrobe not a half hour before, weird) and in the same breath have Rose Noble's deadname used multiple times in the first TenThree special.

Apologies about the ramble, anon, but more or less, those are many of the reasons why I feel 13 has been robbed in ways her predecessors and her successors were/are not. (I've said these things before and I have said them again, and I'll probably keep saying them.) I genuinely hope this helps you understand some of the lingering feelings of disappointment.

[poorlittleyaoyao]

There aren't horses in cql?? In what direction cql takes that scene?? Again why there aren't horses 😭😭. It's very cool in the novel

CQL has very few horses in general! One of the best things about Fatal Journey to me, a former Weird Horse Girl, was that the Nie soldiers ride horses. I vaguely remember Wen Chao riding a horse with Jiaojiao en route to Xuanwu Cave, and there are occasional background horses here and there, but other than that CQL has minimal horse content--presumably because horses are expensive and dangerous and if they had the budget/patience for that, they would've spent it on having more human extras so the supposedly epic battles have more than like 20 people in them.

The archery contest in the show takes place in the wake of Sunshot as a precursor to the Phoenix Mountain Hunt. The young masters who aren't sect leader all line up to try their best at archery--but then! Ominous cellos play as master of ceremonies Jin Guangyao beckons forward some guards who lead out a row of shackled Wen prisoners who are clearly civilians to stand in front of the targets as an added obstacle.

Jin Zixuan steps forward and successfully shoots a target.

WWX then blindfolds himself, shoots like 4 arrows at once, and hits bullseyes with all four of them, forcing an end to the competition because nobody could possibly beat him.

I dislike that scene for SEVERAL reasons. Firstly, it's cheesy; it's another instance of showing that WWX is soooOOOooOOOoo cool by having him demonstrate an implausible protagonist skill we will never see again. Secondly, it makes every single other character look like an asshole, but I don't think it intends to do that. Everybody present sees these terrified, malnourished prisoners led out in in chains, and some of them make vaguely perturbed faces, but nobody actually objects to it. Someone pointed out to me when I grumbled about this scene previously that WWX's trick shot is potentially an act of resistance since it frees the prisoners, and I can get behind that interpretation; however, the framing of the scene centers the Coolness Factor above all else, and there's no moment of WWX acknowledging the prisoners as people that would've been a nice setup to his actions re: the Wen remnants later (since, IIRC, he meets up with WQ later in the same episode).

More importantly, though... in the novel, from what I understand, the question being grappled with is when and whether retribution is justified. The Wen remnants are not all civilians and some of them directly profited from WRH's regime; WWX's opposition to their mistreatment (and NMJ et al's rejection of that opposition) is more complicated. In CQL, it is established VERY early that WQ and WN are from a separate branch of the Wen clan and were also oppressed by WRH, and it is this branch who comprise the majority of the people WWX rescues. We also have two instances establishing that the Jin sect is imprisoning and executing noncombatants. In the first, LXC expresses concern at Nightless City that there are non-cultivators among the prisoners, and extracts an assurance from JGS and NMJ that civilians will be imprisoned but treated kindly (after which we immediately see JGY order a mass execution on his father's orders).

In the second, WWX and LWJ personally witness Jin Zixun and his men firing arrows at a group of Wen prisoners (A-Yuan among them) and intervene.

So by the time we get to the archery competition, WWX, the Twin Jades, and NMJ have all witnessed and objected to Jin mistreatment of Wen hostages... and yet none of them has anything to say about the very public use of hostages as archery props, except for WWX and his trick shot, I guess. NMJ, known for being honorable to a fault, has nothing to say about JGS breaking his word. LXC, known for his kindness, has nothing to say about a public display of cruelty (overseen by his bf, no less!) that he himself already spoke against. LWJ, who never attended a gathering he didn't immediately exit the second he decided it wasn't the vibe, stays put, does nothing, and also apparently didn't mention Jin Zixun's target practice to anybody with decision-making powers. Later on, these three men will have very little to say when it's time for the cultivation conference to discuss WWX establishing the Burial Mounds settlement. (LWJ speaks up to defend WWX from allegations that he spoke ill of JC, LXC half-heartedly states that WQ and WN seemed nice enough when he saw them at Gusu, and NMJ is adamant that all Wens be punished as collaborators.)

Meanwhile, this all makes Jin Zixuan's lack of knowledge about JGS's atrocities as Chief Cultivator seem... pretty damning. JGS using JGY to do all his dirty work while keeping Jin Zixuan shielded from it all is a huge deal, and being transparently seen as a tool rather than a son is a core component of JGY's bitterness. In the novel, from what I understand, Zixuan really has no idea about the secret demonic cultivation research or anything. In the show, however, Zixuan is RIGHT THERE, WITNESSING THIS ARCHERY CONTEST HIS DAD IS SPONSORING. He is therefore aware that something fucked up is going on! And his response... is to participate in the contest? To shoot an arrow with no further objection or questioning, even though he's the only young lord present who doesn't have to fear retribution from JGS and doesn't have formative memories of his parents getting murdered by WRH? Okay. Cool cool. (Meanwhile, sweet little JYL claps happily when he does a good job, and claps even MORE enthusiastically when WWX does. GIRL, THERE ARE HOSTAGES.)

Honestly, the only people for whom I find this scene interesting rather than frustrating are JGY and JC. JC looks both deeply uncomfortable and DEEPLY STRESSED OUT when he sees WWX step forward; he looks so relieved when all WWX does is shoot some cool arrows, and it's a good little glimpse into the awful choices JC is soon going to have to make now that he's the political face of Yunmeng Jiang. JGY is racking up villain points here, obviously, but in a way that at least is compelling; it's politically prudent for him to go all-in on harming the Wen to prove that he has no lingering ties to his former employers. For everyone else, though, it's got ramifications and all of them are Not Great!

Granted, I don't feel as if the show wants you to think about it too hard. I think they wanted to include the archery contest since it's in the book (and contains a Wangxian flirting moment that they can get past censors), and they wanted to also establish WWX as super cool, JGS and JGY as super bad, and the Wen remnants as helpless victims. It's not that deep. Unfortunately, I am here to OVERTHINK.

[red-balloon12]

My actual thoughts on TADC Ep.2

(Spoilers below)

1. This was a cool episode! I like how it explored the whole thing with NPC’s and them just being there to defeat. I felt bad for Gummigoo. Him not having memories and stuff. It’s no wonder why him and Pomni connected so quickly……oh god there’s going to be a lot of “fanservice” fan art of him (and him with Pomni), isn’t there…HOOOO GOD- But I admittedly didn’t feel as attached to Gummigoo as a lot of the other fans. Not that Gummigoo was a bad character, but I knew he wasn’t going to last as a permanent character so I guess that’s why him getting poofed by Caine didn’t affect me as much (and why I’m not mad at Caine as much. And I guess I’m also just…very biased against GummiJester as a JesterDoll truther….I’m so sorry-)

2. Caine was a lot more pushy in this episode. Before he made the activities seem optional (though the activities themselves had a way of finding and including Zooble against their will). Bro really wants to impress and entertain the crew.

3. I don’t like how sidelined Ragatha was in this episode (I really just want her to go Buck wild and kill Jax-) But she also seems to REALLY want Pomni to like her. And I think it’s because she empathizes with Pomni. According to Kinger, Ragatha had a hard time adjusting to the circus so maybe Rags doesn’t want the same for Pomni. So she tries to make her feel welcomed (even though it was counter productive) I honestly felt bad for Ragatha when Pomni showed up with Gummigoo.

I’m glad they didn’t show her getting jealous but I can imagine Ragatha feeling dejected because she tried so hard to befriend Pomni only for Pomni to make fast friends with someone else. But I’m not totally giving up hope. Also a lot of people were righ about Rags being the type of person to bottle things up. That toxic positivity is bound to run out at some point. (I can’t wait to see her snap).

4. I really liked how Pomni was in this episode. Her stepping up a little to help Gummigoo, the facial expressions and stuff. As much as I love Ragatha, she DID come off as a bit patronizing which I’m glad Pomni called her out for it. Her friendship with Gummigoo was also really heart warming and I did kinda feel it when Caine made Gummigoo just disappear like he did. Also Pomni is canonically stretchy and she has chompers. Very cute. I also find it very interesting that this is the second time Pomni was separated from the group and missed out on the majority of the adventure. Maybe this will change as time goes on and Pomni gets more comfortable with the activities, I hope.

5. I also really liked Kinger in this episode. The writers seemed to shift his personality a little, making him more wiser. He also seems to have good memory when it counts. I appreciate he also tried to help Pomni. Emphasis on the “try”. I love him. He’s just doing his best. Also his plushie is SO FUCKING CUTE OMG!

6. I don’t have much to say about Gangle except LET THIS WOMAN BE HAPPY PLEASE! PLEASE JUST LET HER HAVE HER HAPPY MASK! Also let Gangle also go wild on Jax. She deserves it.

7. I liked the princess. She looked cute! Also you can’t tell me Ragatha has a small crush on her. (A little side tangent: BunnyDoll/Ragatha x Kinger shippers confuse the hell out of me. You’re going to look at Ragatha, someone that’s based off of Raggedy Anne who’s ALSO SAPHHIC AF, and tell me that she’s into men? I don’t fucking think so-) I honestly thought the princess was going to turn out to be an evil tyrant that was going to manipulate Ragatha to accomplish some goal…idk where I got that from-

8. (Probably the one you’ve been waiting for) Jax. My opinions on Jax hasn’t changed all that much. I’m still don’t like him. But damn did they turn up the “asshole” meter on this guy. I mean…I expected it since Gooseworks said he was going to get worse, but I didn’t think it would happen so fast. I also am starting to understand the sentiment if not wanting a particular character to have development/redemption. I don’t want an excuse to actually like this dude. I want him to get worse actually. (That or he severely gets chewed out by the others…mainly Ragatha or Pomni. That’s like…the only way I can remotely start to like him.)

But I’d be remiss to ignore that one scene before the funeral. He obviously cares for the others but puts on a front for….some fucking reason. It does make me wonder if it’s out of concern or maybe…guilt? I’ve heard a theory that Jax played a part in why Kaufmo got abstracted. Idk how true that theory is but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. It would also explain him not going to the funeral despite feeling bad. (I wanna point out how funny it is that everyone thought that one screenshot of Jax sitting was going to be an angst moment. But no, it was just him being mad there was no bloodshed lol) But yeah, I’d still like for this due to get punted, please.

9. The ending. Zooble surprised me a little. I thought they were going to be the actual angsty character with a soft side and I was kinda right but I was surprised with how considerate they were putting together Kaufmo’s funeral. It made me appreciate them a little more. And I like there wasn’t a gag where no one had anything to say because they all didn’t care about Kaufmo. They all really do miss him and I think that’s heartwarming. And the ending that parallels the beginning where Pomni is falling only to be caught by everyone (except Jax lol) was the nail in the coffin. Pomni finally realizing she still has friends despite loosing Gummigoo. It’s why I’m not giving up on her friendship with Rags. I still believe they’re going to bond the most. Especially now knowing they both had similar experiences when they first came to the circus.

10. Can we take a moment to appreciate the animation? It just seems more crisp than the pilot which I didn’t even think was possible since that animation already looked clean af. Literal eye candy. (Pun intended)

Overall, I’m very interested and exited to see more. 8/10 episode. (Also F’s in the chat for CainexPomni/Caine fans. Yes this includes me.)

[nrilliree]

https://www.tumblr.com/3leni/748347318900801536/piggybacking-off-of-this-its-insane-that-the?source=share

Yet another person who uses the words groomer abuser and pedophile in a vacuum without understanding the words for Daemon Targaryen. Daemon did not groom Rhaenyra and he is not a pedophile, either in HOTD or Fire and Blood. On the other hand, the madness of calling the rape of Aegon II in episode 8 a pathetic attempt by the writers to make him bad... uh... this person is aware that Aegon II is really violent in Fire and Blood or not ? What if, Aegon II is an asshole with one narrative goal since he is... well the antagonist ? Welcome to the reality of this story ? Moreover, Aegon, unlike Daemon, actually slept with a woman who according to the laws of Westeros is clearly seen as a child in the book. So thank you for proving that you don't know what you're talking about...

Then I would really love to understand TG's delusion that Rhaenyra doesn't deserve the throne ? In what ? Whether in HOTD or Fire and Blood, she has been prepared to be queen since she was named heir, including joining council meetings. Then she went to Dragonstone, the seat of the heir, to learn how to rule, as any male heir would. In addition, in episode 6 of HOTD we clearly see during the meeting that Rhaenyra is good, unlike Alicent, in politics. Ah but yes, it's true, according to the TG Rhaenyra is not in fact fulfilling her responsibilities as heir by going to Dragonstone... because ??? I don't know. But why expect logic from them ? And from what we know of Fire and Blood Rhaenyra managed Dragonstone perfectly and nothing in the show suggests otherwise ! Should she have found more alloy ? Um... clear my doubts, but doesn't Rhaenyra have more than the majority of the great houses on her side while the Greens barely have 24/25 ? Didn't Rhaenyra betroth her sons and therefore seal alliances unlike the TG ? Rhaenyra sent her sons as a messenger (book and show) so that would also be proof that she doesn't deserve to rule ? In what ? There's nothing strange about what she did. On the contrary, because she placed her sons in the least dangerous position since I remind you that according to the laws of Westeros, messengers must NOT be injured and killed ?! But after all the TG doesn't care about real laws... Rhaenyra, in addition, show or book, did not immediately want to make war with the dragons but through words. It’s bad too I guess because she don't acccept the usurpation by the greens ? Rhaenyra raise taxes ? It wasn't even her idea and what other choice did she have, since the Greens stole all the crown's money ?!

Did she end up not managing her reign well ? Maybe it's simply because she was fighting a war at the same time, had no more money in the crown coffers and her sons were dying one after the other ?! Leading her into a huge depression ?! Since I remind you that Rhaenyra had no problem ruling over basic Dragonstone ! So why would she suddenly have one once she was queen ?! Maybe because of everything I mentioned ?! But no ! Only Helaena has the right to be overcome by grief !

Frankly, you have to stop with this guy's excuses after a while, especially since from the TG's point of view, Rhaenyra, before her depression, is already unworthy of being queen except that as we have seen... there is no reason for that. She was educated and taught to be the future ruler of Westeros and has been designated as such for a long time, so why exactly wouldn't she be worthy of it ? She even ruled Dragonstone very well for years, so again, why wouldn't she be worthy ? She hasn't done anything that would suggest she's be a bad queen, quite the contrary. The excuse of asking for Aemond to be severely interrogated doesn't even count since in the book Alicent first asks for Lucerys to have one eye gouged out, and then Rhaenyra talks about severely interrogating Aemond, but even in the series she says that severely questioned = torture it's pure bad faith. As if Rhaenyra didn't know her father... And then what else ? That she had the sex she wanted ? This is a purely misogynistic argument which has nothing to do with his capacity as sovereign, so fuck them. Note that I didn't even address the case of the Velaryon children, which should be an obligation, since we have known for a long time thanks to GRRM drafts that even if Rhaenyra's children had been born from her marriage, she would also have made herself usurped.

I'm so tired of TG no sense...

Yeah, I've blocked this person for some time because I don't like seeing people using words they don't know the meaning of. It's exactly the same thing over and over again.

Aegon II is a sex offender - that's canon. In F&B it is a fact that he molested maids. In HotD it is a fact that he molested and raped maids. If the rumor about sex with a 12-year-old girl is true, then Aegon may have pedophilic tendencies.

These are the facts. And the rumors? According to speculations, Aemond may be a rapist because he took Alys as a "war prize". If we accept that Rhaenyra wanted to "torture" him in Driftmark, we also assume that Aemond wanted to "rape" Alys. Because we won't recognize the "true meaning" of one word and not another, right? However, the TGs are so desperate to show how evil Daemon is that they recently say that he… slept with his own daughter. Because they take the rumors that Nettles was Daemon's lover and his bastard and combine them into one :D If someone has to make up something like that to make him a perverse sexual torturer, then he has no real arguments.

As for Rhaenyra, it's simple. If you think that Rhaenyra doing exactly what every heir before her has done (and more!) is not enough and should do more… then you are a sexist. Because you think that more should be expected of women in the same position than of men in order to deserve it.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

hey everyone! sorry in advance for how long this is but ive just been stuck worrying i was the asshole in this situation. heres one for the jury.

i (23f) had this friend (20m) that id known since we were both kids. we were so close that we called each other siblings for like, 5 or 6 years of our lives. we didnt always see eye to eye but most disagreements were resolved somewhat easily i thought.

one thing that my friend would do, though, was try to rehabilitate people. im a woman of color, and my friend was a white man. the two of us would meet people, who would become his friends, but would treat me like a rabid dog. id show him proof and talk to these people about it pretty often, but the treatment continued. id tell my friend that i feel unsafe, and i was scared, esp with my paranoia issues.

every single time, though, my friend would say we should stay friends with these people. he believed that if we (he) earned their respect or influenced them through our friendship with them, theyd stop being racist. the only flaw in this, i saw, was that theyd never listen to me in the first place, and he would never give me a foot in the door or speak up to defend me.

this all culminated when my ex and i broke up. he had been acquaintances at best with them, and told me he didnt like them pretty frequently. id triggered myself into a meltdown one night on him, telling him the full uncensored details of what my ex had done to me during our relationship (still in therapy for it! woo!), and hed listened. he said it sounded awful, and that he had no interest in talking to them ever again. it made me feel the safest and most cared for that id felt in a while.

...you can see where this is going. a few months later, i see that hes replied to a comment from a familiar username on one of his posts. i felt guilty for even noticing, and i didnt want to ask him, but i figured it was someone else and i was just paranoid. i sent him a DM just for confirmation that it wasnt my ex.

he spent 5 minutes typing something before just saying 'yes'. i tried to pretend it was cool but it triggered not only a ptsd attack but a huge paranoia episode. i blocked him on impulse everywhere and cut contact. it was so bad i stopped talking to people for a solid 3 months or so other than my boss and therapist.

since then, hes posted some deeply hateful stuff about me, and told our mutual friends embarrassing information which convinced them to stop talking to me too. i lost my entire friend group that id had for about 5 years over this.

ive been thinking about his philosophy lately though, and i guess i can see the logic in it. im wondering if i really was as overly sensitive as he said i was about this stuff, and that i just needed to endure it more to 'fix' these people or change their minds or whatever.

so... AITA???

What are these acronyms?

[astrowaffles]

Here's To Never Growing Up

“My favourite story about Megumi as a kid is about when we were painting his bedroom,” Satoru began, laughing a little at his memory. “We were going with a dinosaur theme, so the walls were gonna be light green. Megumi takes one look at the colour he picked, yells ‘it looks like puke!’, throws up on the floor, and storms out. He got a pink bedroom the next week, and loved it.”

“You always tell that story,” Megumi complained. “It makes me sound like a spoiled brat.”

Gojo looked at him pointedly. “What happened when I tried to get you to bake cookies with me?”

“…..”

“You threw flour all over the kitchen, didn’t you?”

“I was five!”

“What about when I accidentally played Justin Bieber at your eighth birthday party?”

“I think crawling under the table to cry was justified. It was a horrible song.”

“And when Toge borrowed your wooden toy car?”

“…Yeah, alright, I guess I didn’t need to hit him over the head with it. Still, even if I was spoiled, isn’t that your fault?”

“Eh, I think you turned out alright in the end.”

------------

OR: let's talk about Gojo & Megumi.

“So, you’ve got a TV dad in season two,” the interviewer ventured. He crossed his legs. “How does that work for you? I mean, considering your legal dad is in the same show…”

“Have you seen season one?” Megumi enquired. “Like, did you follow the plot at all?”

“Um, are you referring to anything in particular?” The interviewer uncrossed his legs.

“Yeah, I am.”

“And what would that be…?” Crossed legs again.

“How about the scene where kid-me says ‘I don’t care about my dad, he’s an asshole’?”

Gojo hid a snicker behind his hand, trying (and failing) to pass it off as a cough. He cleared his throat. “Alright, Megs, let’s not get snappy-“

“No, no, it’s alright,” the interviewer hurried to assure him. “I quite understand why it would be a sensitive subject… I do apologise.”

Megumi nodded. “Alright, then. The character of my biological dad in the show is completely irrelevant to my character, as you would know if you’d seen JJK.”

Gojo nodded in agreement. “He literally abandons him, man. And then my character swoops in! So, in a way, I’m his TV dad after all.”

“Definitely more than the biological guy,” Megumi agreed. Gojo beamed at him.

The interviewer was nodding along. “Oh, totally, I do remember that episode. I just meant, how is it to have a real dad on TV, when in real life-“

Gojo slapped him.

“Yeah, it wasn’t my finest moment,” Gojo laughed. He was sprawled across the couch, taking up as much space as possible. His arm was around Megumi, who was sat in the remaining corner, legs curled around himself like a cat. “I stand by it though.”

“What’s worse was that Satoru was trying so hard to be nice to the guy,” Megumi sighed. “He was trying to stop me from being mean to him, but the questions just kept going…”

“Pretty much. Megumi tends to get very heated very fast with interviewers who mention the dad character, because he thinks they’re always leading him down Trauma Lane. He was getting better at staying calm, and then that interview came along. We blacklisted the question after that.” Gojo pushed his sunglasses up his nose, and stretched his legs out in front of him. Megumi rolled his eyes.

“Stop stretching out like that, Toru. You’re kicking the table, look.”

“Sorry, sorry.” Gojo grinned at the camera. “See, he’s always keeping me in line. Imagine how bad things have to be before he starts being rude!”

“Haters will say it’s an overreaction,” Shoko commented, taking a sip of her coffee. “But I’m not a hater.”

“And that’s saying something, because she hates everything else Satoru does,” Geto observed. “But I agree with her. To suggest that Megumi doesn’t have a ‘real’ dad, right in front of his dad’s face … there are so many things wrong with that, on so many levels.”

“See, he’s ever the voice of reason,” Shoko shrugged, jabbing her thumb towards Geto. “I literally don’t care. I’ve known that kid since he was three. I think Satoru should’ve just killed the interviewer.”

“I don’t know Megumi very well,” Geto clarified, “but I’m all for murdering the interviewer.”

Shoko stared at him. “Like, just on principle?”

“Just on principle.”

Silence.

“Well, I never expected that from Suguru, he always seemed so nice, but I did say it first, so-“

“Not that there’s anything wrong with not having a dad,” Yuji clarified. “I don’t. I live with my grandpa. But there’s a lot wrong with telling someone sat right next to their dad that they don’t have one.”

“Like, the moment he said ‘legal dad’, I thought, someone should slap him,” Nobara confessed. “You could tell right from the start that he was going somewhere he shouldn’t, and Megumi knew it too.”

“And the thing is, Megumi and Mr. Gojo have always been so obviously family. We’ve known since day one, even though they didn’t tell us until… day three?”

“Mr. Gojo totally just blurted it out,” Nobara giggled. “Megumi would’ve kept it a secret forever, but Mr Gojo was so proud…”

Itadori smiled at the memory. “Have you guys ever heard the story of how Megumi started acting?”

“What? No! Why haven’t I heard this before?” Nobara turned towards Yuji, giving the story her full attention. Yuji laughed.

“Don’t know, but I’m sure he won’t mind me telling you. Alright, so, before Mr. Gojo adopted him, he was his babysitter, right? Like, this was before Megumi’s dad- well, anyway. Mr. Gojo took him on set with him, because he had to be there and couldn’t leave Megumi by himself… Megumi was probably, uh, two or three. Mr. Gojo would be fifteen or something. And basically, Megumi thought Mr Gojo was so cool that he insisted on becoming an actor too. Mr. Gojo thought, why not, because he could give a helping hand if Megumi needed it. So, Megumi got signed up for an agency, and he got cast in his first show when he was four. And the rest is history.”

“Wait, so, Megumi’s an actor because he wanted to be like Mr. Gojo???”

“Yeah.”

“And he was just … naturally talented? No stage school or anything?”

“Yeah. The same as Mr. Gojo.”

“Shut up, is that true??? Oh my god-“ Nobara turned to the camera. “You heard it here first, guys. Megumi’s whole life trajectory was decided because he idolised his dad-to-be as a toddler- are you crying, Yuji?”

Yuji sniffed. “No. Only a little.”

“It was your story!"

“It’s just so beautiful!! They were meant to be!! Destined family! Doesn’t that make you want to cry too?!”

Nobara paused. “Yeah, actually. It kinda does.”

“A long time ago, when I’d just been adopted, Satoru sat me down at the table and said, ‘You don’t need to call me Dad. You don’t need to see me as your father. I just want to look after you.’ And, yeah, I still don’t call him Dad. But that’s who he is. He’s my dad. He has been for … as long as I can remember.” Megumi looked across at Gojo. “I owe him everything.”

“You don’t owe me shit,” said Gojo, fiercely. “You owe me nothing. You could spend all my money and kill my cousins and you’d still not owe me anything."

Megumi smiled. “You want me to kill your cousins, though.”

“True. Please kill my cousins, Gumi, I literally can’t stand another family reunion-“

“My character’s leopard print tie is inspired by Megumi,” Nanami informed the camera, a nostalgic smile on his face. “When he was younger – maybe ten? – he was obsessed with animals. I was transitioning out of a ridiculous phase at the time, and came to visit him wearing leopard print … he demanded to know if it was made of real leopard. He was absolutely incandescent. I’ll never forget it. He wouldn’t speak to me for weeks, even when I showed him the label to prove it was nylon.”

“You’ve known him for a long time, then?” someone behind the camera asked.

“A while, yeah. Since he was seven. Satoru used to say I was the only one he trusted to make sure the kid was fed while Satoru went to work. What he meant was, he didn’t want Shoko and her twenty cigarettes a day to go near a small child. She ended up quitting just so she could keep hanging out with her nephew. Megumi’s absolutely changed lives – and he’s such a talented man now. You have to give Satoru some major credit, he raised a good kid.”

“My favourite story about Megumi as a kid is about when we were painting his bedroom,” Satoru began, laughing a little at his memory. “We were going with a dinosaur theme, so the walls were gonna be light green. Megumi takes one look at the colour he picked, yells ‘it looks like puke!’, throws up on the floor, and storms out. He got a pink bedroom the next week, and loved it.”

“You always tell that story,” Megumi complained. “It makes me sound like a spoiled brat.”

Gojo looked at him pointedly. “What happened when I tried to get you to bake cookies with me?”

“…..”

“You threw flour all over the kitchen, didn’t you?”

“I was five!”

“What about when I accidentally played Justin Bieber at your eighth birthday party?”

“I think crawling under the table to cry was justified. It was a horrible song.”

“And when Toge borrowed your wooden toy car?”

“…Yeah, alright, I guess I didn’t need to hit him over the head with it. Still, even if I was spoiled, isn’t that your fault?”

“Eh, I think you turned out alright in the end.”

“It was a total take-a-guess-and-hope-it’s-right situation,” Shoko reminisced.

“For fifteen years?”

“Well, more like thirteen, but yeah. No-one tells you how to raise a kid, especially when you’re fifteen yourself. At first, we’d be giving Megumi back to his dad at the end of the day – but then again, all he did at home was go to bed, you know? Everything he learnt, he learnt from us or school. Completely insane.”

“I do have a very vivid memory of the first day of filming,” Geto said, mentally connecting a few dots. “Satoru and Megumi walked in together. Satoru was in a feather boa and pineapple shaped sunglasses, chattering away, and Megumi looked like a glitter factory had exploded in his face. He looked like he was having the worst day of his life, and he had noise-cancelling headphones on. The moment he spotted Yuji, he made a beeline for him – but then Satoru made a super offended noise, and Megumi literally froze in place. He immediately did a complete 180, and went and hugged Satoru, who patted his head and whispered something to him. That’s when I thought, these guys are the real thing. These are the people you want to model your family on.”

“They just understand each other on a different level,” Shoko agreed. “Megumi could be completely overstimulated and about to kill Satoru, but he’ll still hug him goodbye. I don’t know how he does it. If Satoru ever tried to hug me after talking my ear off for an entire car ride, I’d flip him off and go hang out with Yuji instead.”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, he went straight back to Yuji,” Geto nodded. “I just thought their connection was so lovely.”

“Once, I was idly complaining about something- oh, yeah, it was that Nobara was getting a modelling gig,” Megumi began. “It wasn’t serious, it was just along the lines of ‘I’m not earning anything out of this except my actual pay, what the heck, this is unfair’, yada yada. But then this idiot goes, ‘Do you want a modelling contract? I’ll get you a modelling contract-‘”

“Listen, you were complaining about not having one, I could get you one,” Gojo said defensively. “What do you want me to say? ‘Sucks for you, shut up’?”

“No, but you knew I wasn’t serious! He literally picked up the phone and starts calling his agent-“

“Shoutout to Agatha, you’re a star-“

“He’s just so intent on me getting everything I want-“

“What am I for, otherwise??”

“And then he has the audacity to call me spoiled-“

“I think you’d make a good model, though!”

“I did actually end up getting a contract. Not through Toru, though. Through my own hard work-“

“And your pretty eyelashes.”

“-And my pretty eyelashes.”

“Oh, man, my favourite Gojo and Megumi memory? Probably when we went out for boba,” Yuji mused.

“Oh, yeah.” Nobara started scrolling through her phone. “I have pictures, hang on.”

“I mean, I’m used to parents coming to hangouts with us. They’re useful, because they drive us places and pay for stuff and all that. So I didn’t have a problem with Mr. Gojo coming with us, although I was surprised because I thought Megumi wouldn’t like spending time with his dad."

“Oh, how wrong you were,” Nobara sighed. She held up her phone to the camera. “They get along so well it’s ridiculous. We felt like third wheels to a father-son date, rather than Mr. Gojo being a third wheel to a group hangout.”

The camera zoomed in on the photo; it showed Megumi, Gojo, Yuji, and Nobara in a restaurant. Megumi and Gojo were on one side of the booth, Gojo’s arm over Megumi’s shoulders. Yuji and Nobara were opposite them. All four were smiling at the camera, though Megumi’s small smile stood out in contrast from the others’ beams.

“They’re a lot of fun to hang out with,” Yuji said. “Like, a lot. They’re ridiculous. Megumi would trip Mr. Gojo up in the street, and just keep walking, but if he reached the next bench and Mr. Gojo still hadn’t caught up, he’d turn round and wait for him. Mr. Gojo would stop halfway through a conversation just to make sure Megumi was doing something social, and not just ignoring us-”

“Sometimes he’d purposefully walk ahead with me, to force Megumi to talk to Yuji,” Nobara snickered.

Yuji nodded in agreement, cheeks tinged with pink. “He talks plenty if you can get him started. But anyway, Mr. Gojo bought us boba and let us do our thing, because I think he was super excited that Megumi had friends. It was kinda sweet.”

“That was probably the day we realised that they were father and son,” Nobara observed. “Like, logically, we knew. Like Yuji said, we knew from day one, it’s obvious. But you just don’t get it until you watch Gojo steal Megumi’s boba, or you see Megumi pull a pen out of his pocket because Gojo is always being struck with ideas that he has to write down immediately, or you see them walk in perfect sync, even when they’re not next to each other…”

“You’d genuinely think they shared DNA,” said Yuji, seriously. “And not even halves. You’d think they were clones, sometimes.”

“Uh, I think that’s a bit far,” Nobara disagreed. “They have different personalities.”

“Just wait until you Mr. Gojo do his feral scenes this season. You’ll see what I mean.”

“We make new favourite memories every day,” Gojo said. Megumi rolled his eyes and slapped Gojo’s shoulder. “What? It’s true! Just yesterday, you used a cookie cutter to make my carrots into different shapes because I complained about eating vegetables. I love that memory, just the same as I love remembering me doing that for you ten years ago.”

“He’s a sappy little shit,” Megumi told the camera. “He can’t help it.”

“It’s true, I can’t.”

“His actual answer is that he’s indecisive.”

“It’s true, I am.”

“He also apparently can’t answer for himself.”

“It’s true, I can’t."

“Do you ever STOP BEING ANNOYING-“

“If we’re talking favourite memories of all time, it’s got to be Megumi’s adoption,” Shoko decided. “Satoru cried. Megumi didn’t. Megumi was absolutely overjoyed, you could see it on his little face. I’d never seen such a big smile. I thought his face would split in half. And he’s never done it again; he went right back to being his grumpy self the day after.”

“I genuinely can’t imagine that,” Geto confessed. “Satoru crying or Megumi smiling, I just can’t see it.”

“Neither could I, until I did. You know what people say, about such-and-such having changed their brain chemistry? For me, it wasn’t a song or a book. It was watching my little nephew be able to fling his arms around Satoru, and call him Dad. That’s another thing he never did again, but he did then. It was the best day of all of our lives.”

“I don’t believe in destiny, but I do think it was inevitable,” Nanami pondered. “I mean, if there are infinite alternate universes, like scientists say, I don’t think there’s a universe where they aren’t father and son. Maybe sometimes they swap roles. Maybe there’s a universe where it’s biological, although imagining Satoru with a girl is …. unfathomable…”

“So you think it was written in the stars?”

“In a way. I think Satoru and Megumi are two incredibly stubborn, caring people, and they wouldn’t let something as small as an alternate universe stop them. In this universe, they were born and raised in the same area by people who were friends, and they came together naturally. In the next universe, maybe they find each other through Craigslist. We’ll never know.”

“I’m glad to have met Megumi, yeah,” Gojo said, like it was obvious. “After all, with him around, I get to play with Toast and Maple- ow, Gumi!”

“He actually only looks after me for the dogs,” Megumi told the camera, hand resting on Gojo’s shoulder, where he’d hit him moments before. “It’s a sad truth.”

Gojo sighed. “Alright, I see where we’re going. What do I have to bribe you with this time?”

“Airpods.”

“You already have airpods, you donut.”

“New ones. I want blue ones.”

“What, seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“And if I don’t buy them?”

“……….”

“Oh my god, fine.”

Megumi grinned. “Thanks, Toru!” He turned to the camera. “My dad is the best dad ever. He looks after me, feeds me, combs my hair, supports me emotionally, threatens interviewers for me-“

“And buys you Airpods.”

“And buys me Airpods. Everyone needs a Satoru. Thank you, and goodnight.”

A03 | Exclusives | Tip Me | Commissions

[absolutebl]

Love in the Air & also the smell of burning trash

MAME’s adaptation of her novels “Love Storm” (พายุรักโถมใจ) and “Love Sky” (พระพายหมายฟ้า) this is a duology focusing on two different couples and their storylines.

Well, fuck me. 

This is your fault tumblr and I blame all y’all entirely. But yes, guess what this is?

Well, it’s me flouncing, but apart from that?

Another MAME dumpster fire marshmallow roasting trash watch. 

Some of you even begged for it. Or maybe if I’m a MAME character, you didn’t beg for it but I’m gonna gaslight you into thinking you did and then ruthlessly kiss your neck.

Look. I DON”T KNOW WHAT’S GONG ON EITHER.

Good start, ABL. 

Real good start.

You see what this show is doing to me already? 

Fortunately for the few of you who like unconsenting trash-watch neck kisses, and unfortunately for the rest of you, the opening of this bloody show made me realize that I had to do a trash watch. 

Take the neck kisses. 

Take ‘em and like ‘em. 

Without further ado, let’s get started. 

Episode 1 - WHHHHYYYYYY???????

The longest establishing shot in the history of establishing shots, Kubrik take notes. 

And what is it focused on? The gayest bridge in Thailand! (okay maybe not, but it looks a lot like it) 

Did the overdramatic music make me laugh? Yes it did. 

My brain on BL figuring out what is being trafficked inside those 3 big trucks. 

A bunch of acoustic guitars?

Vats of pink milk?

Stacks of white towels and plastic bowls?

MAME’s morals, value system, and taste? 

I’m a motorcycle rider and I’m still disappointed they were full of motorcycles. 

Speaking of which, is anyone reminded of the trailer for that one Thai BL called Motorcycles from years ago? It never got made. 

Cute meet cute in the rain with the umbrella. Styling trope drops, actually. 

Takes me back it does... 

Can’t knock MAME’s meet cutes. 

Just everything else. 

The Characters 

Rain = Random assholery disguised as tsundere + flirting + homophobia wee. Also kinda stupid, dramatic, and slightly cute.

Matched with P’Phayu = a bisexual predator-slut (TM) because MAME can’t leave THAT one to dry for one fucking show. Bonus seme points for eyebrows even more aggressive than he is. 

I like Sky = snarky bestie with solid moral compass and epic eye rolls. Maybe she’ll let him be cool? (Oh noes, I said something, he’s doomed.) 

Random bratty kid in the seat behind Sky = I have seen that actor before, damn it. WHERE? OMG it’s Dr. Sing from Triage! 

Look I’m beginning to get slightly weirded out over the age jumping Thai actors do. 

He’s in high school, 

he is an office, 

he’s in uni, 

he’s a doctor, 

he’s back in high school. 

Are MaxTul the only ones allowed to grow up? 

Okay, grow up = wrong term entirely. Whatever. Don’t distract me with MaxTul, where was I? 

Right, instead let’s talk MewGulf. Anyone else think MAME is gunning for that pairing style with this lead couple? PhayuRain giving me... vibes of the TharnType variety, shall we say? Not exactly, of course. So maybe not vibes, more sort of squint your eyes wiggles target practice?

Back to the... episode. 

I’m losing the plot already. Fortunately for me, said plot is pretty banal, but what do I expect? 

Also the pacing is odd. Things are moving physically faster than they should, but with no real establishing emotional connection. Again normal for MAME. It’s either emotional chemistry drawn out as unnecessary angst over the whole show, or physical chemistry shoved in your face like a wet waffle with an attitude problem. 

I don’t know enough Thai slang to know if the double asshole entendre was on purpose with this dialogue. 

But if it was, it might actually be the greatest line ever executed in a BL. 

And I am thoroughly ashamed of myself for thinking that.

Get it? Ass-shamed.  

To conclude: 

Screw all you all, I’m dragging you down with me into this hell (ass)hole. And since I highly doubt there will be lube, this is gonna burn like the dumpster fire it is. 

I refuse to take responsibility for anything I say or do around this dumb show, it’s @fandomwithjoy ‘s fault. 

Episode 2 - in which I do some actual analysis about VO work as victim blaming and then get distracted by spankings and scoop neck t-shirts 

Serious moment of film studies? 

Do I think we are getting Rain’s voiceover (narration track AKA VO) because otherwise it’s too dub-con and this is MAME trying to avoid complaints? YES I DO. Basically we get Rain’s thoughts during the “almost rape” stuff so MAME can say: 

“See? He actually wants it.”

Look, here’s the thing about having a character VO narrate anything, it’s clumsy. It smacks of not trusting the audience (to be clever enough to follow the story) or the actors (to be good enough to transmit the emotion) or the genre (to convey the world building in a show not tell manner). That’s why so many in the film industry are against it. (See the Bladerunner VO controversy.) 

Do many of my favorite BLs do it? (Cough cough.. JAPAN.) Yes. But then I’m not as against it as many because I like super complex world building and I don’t mind some lazy technique in the pursuit of audience comprehension. Also yaoi was all about head hopping. 

HOWEVER, I’ve never seen voiceover work used as an excuse for portraying dubious content before. Essentially this show is doing a victim blame version of VO.  

Ballsy of you, MAME. VERY ballsy. 

I don’t know if I should be impressed or appalled. 

Typical. 

The thing about MAME is, regardless of anything else you know you’re going to have a lot to talk about. I suppose that’s why she always summons a trash watch. 

Quick add from the future: 

I went off on Takara & Amagi because they manage to use VO to directly combat dubcon (or at least the issues with BL that lead to dubcon) in a GOOD way. So if you’re intersted in this technique working, you should 1. be watching that show and 2. read this post about it.

No booze tonight but that’s only because allowing BL to drive you to drink once a week is expected, but twice? That’s just schedule mismanagement. 

So next week I might delay Unforgotten Night for Thursdays and just decree: 

Thursdays = BOOZEY BADGAYDAY! 

Trashlush Thursdays? 

Eh, I’m more creative when I’m drunk. 

Moving on to the new ep. 

It’s a weird quirk of Thai that no matter what, they will not believe that work is not pluralized in English these days. 

Every time it’s translated plural I think of little Victorian maiden aunts doing good works for their community, knitting, or darning, or tatting. 

And now I’m picturing Payu draped fiber arts. 

Back to Daddy Payu... 

No. 

I can’t. 

He just doesn’t give daddy vibes. Bad boy vibe = yes, daddy = no. 

Back to P’Payu disciplining his bad boy in the bathroom. 

With... erm, neck breathing, I guess?

Still, oddly sexy.

Also... RESULT. Rain used polite (submissive) language. 

Am I taken with the idea of Domming for linguistics? YES I AM. 

Shall we try? 

Nong Thailand, NO MORE “works” FOR YOU! 

I will now breathe heavily on your neck until you stop sticking that “s” on the end. 

Nope, that didn’t work. Works. Ha! 

Question: Who the hell is directing this? It feels like Tee’s work but he’s not listed on MDL. *** 

Look the thing about bratty militant tsunderes without reason like Rain (or Type for that matter) is I fail to see why anyone likes him or wants to be friends with him, let alone fuck him. Fuck with him, sure. But he’s not hot enough to get over a bad personality. 

Sky deserves better friends! 

The seme’s race track consult. Nods in the general direction of Cutie Pie, like anyone could out-seme Zee and Max, are they cray cray? Body language alone. 

But could we talk about the sound in this not-Cutie Pie seme-conspiracy scene? It is so SO BAD. They just what? Hooked up some cheap-ass wireless mics during a wind storm and thought, why bother looping? Flipping heck. MAME’s got money, this is insulting, 

Moving on swiftly please. 

Poor Sky, abandoned by his so-called friend to be (presumably) seduced by greasy motorcycle dude with bad sound tech. (Yes I think that’s where they meet but we won’t see it until their section, which I’m guessing will be in the second half of the series. I believe we got a Star & Sky approach happening here.)

And now... 

Slap that baby, make him scream!

(10 points to the first elder goth who gets the reference.)

But also... 

A spanking! 

A spanking!

I had to, okay.

To my knowledge this is the first spanking scene in BL (Japan doesn’t go in for spankings as a rule, everything else of course). Thus Monty Python is required on such an august occasion. 

This is a serious, hallmarked event in the history of the genre.

Heh he. Hall...marked. Get it? 

Okay, I did find it cute that Payu chose a scoop-neck T for his boy, clearly we got a neck fetish going on. 

That’s it. 

That’s all I got. It was what it was, I’m not mad about it, just a little... okaaaayyyy. It’s MAME, no whiff of consent shall there be. I’m not excusing it but dub-con has just GOT to be her kink. 

Gotta go, works are waiting. 

*** Spies reported in:

Apparently the director is Neti Suwanjinda. He's new to BL who previously seems only to have done short films and music videos. Prior to that, he was bassist in the 2000s rock band Am Fine. Good times. 

NO SINGING

Episode 3 - Linguistic Domination is a Go!  

am one and a half glasses of wine in and ready to do this thing! 

Sky is the best boy and also kinda a little shit. Good combo. Like red wine and dark chocolate. 

Sky, are you trying to remind us that there is meant to be a plot?

Please don’t. 

I love how they called out English 3rd person gendered pronouns in one tricky little scene. 

THAI LINGUISTICS DOMINATION CORNER!

Okay so when he is being polite Rain uses Phi/pom + krap (with he full roll).

When he not being polite he still uses phi but he’s slipping in wa (instead of na, which makes it rude and informal) and not using krap at all (which makes it curt and impolite).  

So the little training session was about particle use. 

Cute. 

Then we got a date, I was very distracted by interesting food choices ordered off that menu, and am mad we did not get a good shot of the table after they were served the dishes. 

I’m starting to get tsundere Can vibes from Rain, and tsundere Tharn vibes from Payu. Not sure what that means except MAME only has about 6 character personalities she rotates though. We kinda knew that already. 

Well, this is BL. 

OH WAIT, is Sky gonna be like a snarky Pete character? Wouldn’t that be grand?  

And Dr Sing is playing the Techno of this drama. As always: never enough Techno. 

I’m not gonna explain that statement, it’s like 5 BLs deep.

All in all not a bad episode (not a good one, either).

Shoulda had more spanking, tho. And more wine. 

Ooo, wine! 

Meanwhile:

I just realized the actor playing Payu kinda reminds me of Seonghwa from Ateez and now I can’t stop imagining him in a cropped shirt and vinyl, and it’s BAD people. 

Episode 4 - I just... ARGH

Payu is just such a manipulative hot/cold arse. I don’t even like Rain and I think it’s cruel the way Payu jerks him around. You don’t train someone up and then abandon them for any reason. Payu is really pissing me off.

 Their chemistry is good though. That age old agony with MAME. 

I am going to state for the record that no one deserves Sky. Sky is too good for this show let alone his friends or boyfriends. MAME should leave my precious Sky ALONE. Sky is best cinnamon roll ever frosted. 

Meanwhile, cruel or not, I guess Payu’s training technique is working. I just wish it had been negotiated. I think I’d really like this show if they’d had a five sentence kink convo verbal contract in ep 1. 

It’s a dangerous game that we play

when we seek to rewrite MAME

for the characters stick

to just one pony trick

only chemistry will save the day 

Although I’m not sure ‘bout that sex scene. 

no opening condoms with teeth, I don’t care how sexy

no one can one-hand a glove that fast, not even a pro

no lube and no prep?

Look I’m just gonna pretend Payu was riding, makes me feel better about everything. Then I can pretend he took care of the necessities ahead of time. Or maybe it was just frotting? 

Episode 5 - In which MAME as officially ruined my favorite thing 

I’m not drunk but I am jet lagged and that’s almost the same thing. 

I see why they don’t have the seme actor with his hair down often, he looks way too young. 

Oh dear, baby was caught in the rain. Baby got sick. This is BL. Bound to happen. 

The horsing around flirty boyfriends is VERY cute. 

I didn’t get any more from the meeha bits than was translated. My stuff on wifey language in Thai BL is here.

These two are good kissers but it’s getting to be a lot of kissing. 

Sky puts up with epic amounts of shit. 

I guess MAME is preparing him for his own story line?

Get it?

Moving swiftly on from my crassness.  

Also Sky, baby, your friend was silly long before he got a faen. 

Oh yay!!!! A counter lift! That’s almsot as good as a spanking!

Hooray! 

WAIT.

What is this? 

NO SINGING. 

I now know the only time I don’t love a counter lift is WHEN IT IS COMBINED WITH SINGING.

MAME has ruined my favorite thing!

(To be fair she’s been ruining perfectly good BL for ages now, so I guess she already was ruining my favorite thing... gah, where was i?) 

A perfectly lovely counter lift mutilated by acapella. 

I feel like I should write an ode, or a dirge. But I wouldn’t ruin your day by singing it. 

OMG I’M SO UPSET RIGHT NOW. 

Don’t laugh, I can see you laughing.

I’m spiraling into a deep depression as a result of counter lifting Thai soloists. 

There will be nightmares. I tell you. Nightmares. 

I should have been drinking. 

Stupid MAME. It was actually a perfectly serviceable episode. 

Until the singing.  

I’m going to bed now.

Episode 6 - We Are Now Calling this show “The Taming of the Screw”

And by “we” I mean me. And you can’t stop me. Can never stop the bad puns, for they MUST live! 

 (source)