#they started that affair like 5 episodes later

[aprikosengamine]

Mad respect for anyone who is shipping Kincoy in this day and age, these people only interacted for 2 seasons nearly 30 years ago, yours truly wasn't even born until more than 5 years after aftershock premiered. We saw these two idiots swear they wouldn't have an affair in their first meeting, took and ran with it. Many thanks to the OGs out there who saw this going on live and pulled up to the internet thinking I have to document this when it took more time to boot it up than me writing this post.

[fellow-travelers-fic-recs]

Fellow Travelers Fic Recs - Top Rated Fics (by hits and kudos on Ao3)

Be sure to show the authors some love and appreciation with kudos and comments on the fics you enjoyed!

✨ Likes are lovely, but please reblog to share this content with your mutuals! 😁

🟪 sacred word, bind me by @brokendrums // brokendrums [E, 8K] Tim takes a vow of silence, Hawk vows to break it.

🟪 we are tragically meant to be by @fuddlewuddle // fuddlewuddle [E, 1.5K] He looks softer in his sleep, Hawk muses; fingertips lightly skimming over the ridge of Tim’s cheek bone, the curve of his ear feeling the small indent from where the frames of his spectacles rest whenever he’s awake. Part 1 of fellow travelers

🟪 feeding on chaos and living in sin by @fuddlewuddle // fuddlewuddle [E, 2K] Tim doesn't expect Hawk to call. And even when he does, the call doesn't go as Tim expects. But then he should probably stop trying to predict what Hawkins Fuller will do. Part 2 of fellow travelers

🟪 more. by @redmyeyes // redmyeyes [E, 1.8K] "You would drop to your knees and blow me right here if I told you to," Hawk said, marveling at the realization. Part 2 of Fellow Travelers * *Red has their own series, not to be confused with fuddlewuddle's series of the same name. Two different series'--same name!

🟪 I'd walk a thousand miles without my shoes to make it work by @fuddlewuddle // fuddlewuddle [E, 1.5K] The strip of milk on Tim’s top lip gives Hawk ideas. Part 3 of Fellow Travelers

🟪 all through the midnight. by southernkiss [E, 9K] Hawk's eyes burned with lust and something dark, something that both terrified and excited Tim.

🟪 teacher's pet by @ascandalinpink // ascandalinpink [E, 10K, WIP] Tim’s first class for today is his first class ever in this particular elective. It’s a foreign affairs course taught by professor Fuller, whom Tim has never met, but he’s heard about him. All high praise, which leaves this course highly sought after.

As the professor enters the classroom and the chatter around him dies down, Tim understands perhaps why this course is so popular. And it might have nothing to do with the curriculum itself.

Or, Tim starts sleeping with and develops feelings for his college professor.

🟪 have you ever? by Cozy_coffee [M, 1.4K] “Has anyone ever licked that cute little ass of yours?”

A fic in which a bold Hawk introduces a somewhat shy Tim to the pleasures of rimming.

🟪 a joy, hard learned by @partialresonance // partialresonance [E, 12K, WIP] Tim and Hawk get snowed in together.

Later, Tim comes back from the war a changed man.

🟪 perhaps, perhaps, perhaps it's real by drabbleswabbles [NR, 16K, WIP] And then it happened. The metallic screech of the gate, the shuffle of men stepping out beyond the prison walls. And suddenly there he was. His hair was shorter than he’d ever seen it. And his glasses were different. But it was him. Their eyes met. Tim stared at him in wide-eyed shock before recognition melted his features into a confused outrage.

Basically a fix-it in which Hawk finds himself back in the early 70s.

🟪 sweet by Kimora_V [M, 1.4K] Tim noticed how Hawk is being sweet lately.

Or, what happened before the cuddle scene in episode 5.

🟪 this spells love by Cozy_coffee [M, 540] When Hawk gently cups his cheek and calls him ‘my beautiful boy’ and looks at him with nothing but pure, everlasting love, that is all Tim’s heart needed in this tender moment.

🟪 flame trees by @waterlilyrose // WaterlilyRose [G, 1K] (“I received a package from Marcus a few days later. It had been sent by Tim. I thought that Tim’s last gift (and a gentle fuck you to me) was that paperweight. But no...”

“What did he send?” Kimberley asked gently. Her father had looked at her and almost seemed ready to tell her… but then he closed his mouth.

“More than I deserved” was all the answer he gave. Kimberley wondered if he would even be Hawkins Fuller anymore if he didn’t have some secrets.)

Or, Hawk keeps Tim's final parting gift close as he faces his mortality.

🟪 lost somewhere by @trainofcommand // anagrrl [E, 1K] Humming to himself a little, fingers digging into his palms briefly, Tim leans forward.

🟪 together, here and now by Kimora_V [NR, 1.8K] Hawk and Tim are happy, set in the modern day. Because I am just tired of sad stories all the time.

🟪 love by ikharys [E, 1.8K] "It's going to be okay," Hawk whispers.

Something in Tim's eyes makes it clear that he doesn't believe it, but he's not willing to argue.

Or, the cabin scene, but a little different.

🟪 mad about the boy by @redmyeyes redmyeyes [E, 2.8K] “Tell me,” Hawk said, tilting Tim’s head back to give his forehead a quick kiss, “what does my boy want for his birthday?”

“Am I still? Your boy?” Part 3 of Fellow Travelers

🟪 you're my religion by anonymous [E, 956] After Tim and Hawk’s conversation on the bench, Tim does go to Church, and eventually finds that Hawk has attended the same mass.

Things go awry in the chapel.

🟪 i want you to fuck me by @carnivalrow // nightfall_in_winter [E, 2K] THAT scene from Episode 8 but slightly different. :) Chapter 1 is Hawk's POV, Chapter 2 is Tim's POV.

🟪 who do you belong to? by mrschesapeakeripper [E, 2.5K] “That’s my good boy.” All those years later, and the praise still made him blush.

Or, the missing scene from the mutual masturbation episode. None of that "no touching" nonsense.

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - New & Old Tropes Galore

Entirely subjective yadda yadda. Organized sorta by favs in each category.

Sept 2023 Wk 4

Ongoing Series - Thai

I Feel You Linger in the Air (Fri grey) ep 7 of 12 - occasionally I forget that Yai is like 20 and this is his first love affaire. That poem bit gave me very Goethe vibes. Lots of doomed lesbians in this ep. Doomed love in general. Frankly? I was hoping for more oil less sad. Also, these two are making some v stupid mistakes. Also: MORE boys dancing.

Finally... who was it wanted a rain kiss? You got your rain kissing here, okay? No umbrellas to be had, apparently.

Dangerous Romance (Fri YT) ep 7 of 12 - I love them so much. They are so darn adorable. I like how forthright Kang is. Boy has no game and is such a dork but at least he's enthusiastic. I love the “my boyfriend smells good” trope that BL is into these days. I’m into it, too. The bff enemies drunken bathroom shenanigans was v funny. Also @heretherebedork your boys are couple dancing all over the damn place this week.

I guess we get the boyfriends ep next week?

Hidden Agenda (Sun YT) ep 12fin - The conflict really kind of wasn’t in this last ep. But I guess it was a fine, if not a particularly strong, ending. I wish we’d had the family conflict threaded throughout the series. It would have felt like a deeper more honest drama and the actors could have handled it. They’re ready. How pretty were Joong’s single picturesque crystal tears? Honestly, it's been lovely, boys. Not at all memorable, but lovely.

Quick pitch Hidden Agenda: 

A relatively simple and harmless old-fashioned style university Thai BL, that started out Cyrano de Bergerac style but then drifted away into forgetfulness. It felt like it could have fit into the En of Love universe, except that it was high quality GMMTV with very pretty makeup. I enjoyed it for what it was, it's just that wasn’t much. 8/10 RECOMMENDED

Naughty Babe (Sat YT) ep 5 of 8 - Am I mostly watching this for Est and annoyed he doesn’t have a pair? Yes. (Am I writing a whole revenge plot in my head: "seduced to the good side by my enemy's hot bodyguard" with him and the Tem character? Yes. Yes I am. But that’s way too KinnPorsche for this show.) That said, MaxNat really are a great pair. Nice that Dio is figuring out how evil his own family is. Weirdly, I kind of like this speculation that if gay marriage were legal rich families would use it for arranged-marriage power plays. Can you imagine what China would do with this concept if they had access to it? 

Love in Translation (Sat iQIYI) ep 7 of 8 - The morning after was sweet, I do like it when we get these scenes in BL. FYI no one misgendered Bojji except the caption writer. The screaming "discovery" scene was adorable. And I am very much falling in love with all of the side characters. I also love how aggressive Yang is, like he stepped out of a 2016 Chinese BL into Thailand. And I adore the main brother relationship.

I have to say, this is going to be a difficult BL for me to review. I didn’t like the first 4 episodes but it seems like I’m going to love the final 3. I’m actually really looking forward to the finale next week. Boy, do I feel strange about this. In other news, is it just me or is it weird to get a gay kiss from Ngern almost 10 years later? How late is too late for smooching a boy? 

Never too late...

Absolute Zero (Thai Weds iQIYI) - from 2021, Studio Wabi Sabi and New Siwaj finally brings us this “time loop to prevent tragedy” romance based on the novel of the same name. I think we can expect this to be sad (so it will likely slide down my list as I become more confident about this). Mix is a great actor, so I’m not worried about that aspect, but I am warning you this won’t be your classic fluffy Thai BL. It’s a bit slow moving for me so far. Meanwhile, a revelation:

Thai high school BL is all about the hands. I blame Love Sick.

FYI the outdoor movie they watch is Love of Siam Thailand’s first real queer movie, also featured in My Only 12%.

I'm in trouble, Ongsa is such a sunshine cutie and Sansoon is so lost and sad. Pretty sure I won’t have the patience for 12 episodes of this, but I’ll stick with it for now because a pair like this is yaoi-induced catnip for me.

Only Friends (Sat YT) ep 8 of 10 - Ah, Ray, baby, you can’t get what you want if you want the wrong thing. Also, corruption charges much? Is Ray turning into Ton or is that just me? I still hold that Jenny’s is the only story I actually wanted. Although, I did enjoy the two bi boys bonding over Freddie. GMMTV sure is making good use of Title now that they got him away from Wabi Sabi and I’m NOT mad about it (4 shows & counting). Under ordinary circumstances, I probably would have dropped this show by now. But something keeps dragging me back.

My Universe (Sun iQIYI) Right Time Right You ep 6 - This couplet ended up feeling like an amateurish short. It was interesting in that way shorts can sometimes push into unusual territory, but very slow. My favorite so far, but that’s not saying much since we've only had 3. Kinda amorphous ending. 5/10 watch it if you have nothing better to do. Next week's looks pretty but silly: You Are My Soulmate.

Venus in the Sky (Tues iQIYI) 5 of 10 eps - I don’t understand the bit with the girl, car & eyebrows. Was that all just ad copy? This show is so bad I’m mostly fast forwarding now. I mean the leads are cute and earnest but that’s it. NO SINGING! And... nothing happened this ep. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Kisseki: Dear to Me (Taiwan Tues Viki & iQIYI) ep 7-8 of 13(?) - Buckle up I got A LOT to say. Ep 7 was the boyfriends ep! Look there’s a a lot of problematic going on here by western standards: age gap (FYI age of consent in Taiwan is 16) + teacher+student, but if you’ve been reading this blog for a while you should know that Taiwan likes both high heat and taboo content (and so do I) plus (unlike Mame) they just lean lube into those kinks. And I, for one, am delighted. I talk about taboo in terms of age gap here and stepbrothers here. I’ve never done teacher/ student because we don’t get it often enough (insert sad face). These are not things that I’m going to complain about or rehash, so, moving on...

I found a lot to love about ep 7: tie grabs, smiley kisses, communication, being held down, younger aggressor, AND preliminary research= all good things. They even brought in morning aftercare, and shared trauma! I love a show that’s both unexpected yet entirely classic Taiwanese BL. I love that the family appeared as a plot device and then disappeared again. It’s all highly amusing.

Gaga dropped ep 8 a week early, I’m assuming this was a mistake since they skip next week. But hey! 

Ep 8: def uhaul lesbians. Also cute queer fam moment. Ring finger biting = v hawt. Then of course it all goes south. Tres romantic means of taking the rap, gotta say. No one does gay sappy quite like Taiwan. Also, now we know why he loses his memory and Ai Di has to go in after him. Honestly, I’m not pleased to see yet another amnesia trope raise its ugly… head (why so many this year?). But it seems to be this year's trend. 

And I know there is more trauma coming, but in classic Taiwan fashion it’s all gonna be fine in the end even if that HEA is chaotic and entirely unearned. Don't worry, all. We good.

You Are Mine (Taiwan Fri Gaga) eps 4 of 10 - Oh noes, sunshine has a cold. And not from the rain... just, like, a normal cold. Amazing. But then when baby gets kidnapped, daddy gets v mad. Honestly, I am charmed by the show. It is very old-fashioned "domineering CEO puts little lady up against the wall" and it’s Taiwan, and thus I am not mad about it. This is what we would be getting from Mainland China if China we’re still making pulp BL. I am disposed to simply enjoy the utter "80s bodice ripper but gay"-ness of it all.

Bon Appetit (Korea Weds iQIYI) 1-2 of 8 - from 2022. If you have premium icky VIP you can binge it all now. I don’t, so instead I’m watching it 2 new episodes every Weds. Struggling heartbroken loser-ish office worker who lives off junk food + sunshine neighbor who loves to cook (from his past with a long-held crush). Also there is a "love class" element. Why does Korea like this conceit so much? Do their universities really engage in socialization training? Gotta say I’m getting whiffs of stalker... but only whiffs. Basically, this show is going poster child “way to a man’s heart is through his stomach“. Bit too much flashback, but I like that our chef is open about liking a boy, and I like that they remember things differently and in alignment with their own egos. And I like that we got a confession already. Ah KBL, it is nice to watch something that MUST move plot quickly. 

My Personal Weatherman AKA Taikan Yoho (Japan Sat Gaga) ep 6 of 8 - Jealous weatherman is ridiculous. Japan = queen of “why don’t you guys just talk?” 

Mr Cinderella 2 (Vietnam Sat YT) ep 2 - Ba Vinh & Minh Thao reprising their roles as Dung & Khoa what do we think? 8 eps? 10? We got the stepbrothers (or whatever they are) backstory. Also My Prettiest Cat-boy does certifiable nutcake v well. Psychopath looks hot on him.  

It's Airing But...

Crazy Handsome Rich (Sun Gaga) ep 3 of 10 - The sound. No. DNF 

I Cannot Reach You AKA I Can't Reach You AKA Kimi ni wa Todokanai (Japan Tues Netflix-Japan & ????) - Adapted from the manga, childhood best friends: The cool, smart one who’s good at everything, and his average, dorky friend who struggles. Always by the other’s side, but not together in the way they truly want to be.

Unfortunately I Cannot Reach You, in classic JBL fashion, could not be reached. 

In case you missed it?

Viki dropped Our Dating Sim the movie. I didn’t notice any extra footage and they took out all the in game/high school flashback stingers. At first, I didn’t really miss them but by the end of the movie I really did. So this is going to be one of those rare KBL instances where I recommend sticking to the original series over the repackaged movie.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Upcoming October BL

10/1 Can I Buy Your Love From A Vending Machine? AKA Sono Koi, Jihanki de Kaemasu ka? (Japan cinema release in-country only) - This one is a movie from Japan so in customary fashion who tf knows when (or if) it will get international distribution. Salaryman Ayumu Koiwai just can't tear his eyes away from the strong, muscular man as he checks on the stocks of the vending machine in his office.

10/5 If It’s With You AKA Even If I Fall In Love With You AKA Kimi to nara Koi wo Shite Mite mo’ (Japan Gaga) - from MBS a live action adaptation of Kubota Maru’s manga ‘君となら恋をしてみても. Amane has stopped loving people due to trauma until he meets Ryuji. At first Amane just wants to play with Ryuji but… feelings. I am assuming 8 eps and rumored to be taking Weatherman's spot so that date is likely wrong.

10/6 What Did You Eat Yesterday Season 2 AKA Kinou Nani Tabeta? Season 2 (Japan Gaga) - 4th installment in this series (1st series, 1 special, 1 movie prior) about a lawyer who lives with his boyfriend, a hairdresser, and cooks for him. Season 2 will follow the couple as they enter their 50’s. Slice-of-life drama adapted from a beloved manga series of the same name.

10/6 My Beautiful Man: Eternal AKA Utsukushii Kare Eternal (Japan movie Viki & Gaga) - This is the 3rd and final installment the series. The 2nd season didn’t blow me away the way the 1st did, but I still liked it. I'm looking forward to the finale. I hope we get character growth for a change.

10/31 SHADOW (Thai VIU ????) - this is a horror BL featuring ghosts and other paranormal elements in a high school setting. I'm not wild about Thai horror (or horror at all, but if it must be done in BL let Japan do it). It features Singto (who did paranormal BL He's Coming to Me) opposite Fluke N (who's done a couple horror's before). Also Fiat. Dan suffers from sleep paralysis, and in his dreams he sees a shadow that suffocates him. It gets worse when he transfers schools.

October? Bump Up Project AKA Bump Up Business (Korea ????) - BL staring OnlyOneOf that released(??) as a movie in July but is now being recut and reissued as a series. Stars NineMill and from Idol Romance bulled as a love story between a trainee who is about to debut and a celebrity from the same agency (based on a webtoon). OnlyOneOf have been auditioning for this since Libido IMHO. You can watch me chronicle their BL MV work in this post. Idol Romance will do sad but can do good kisses (Wish You, Nobleman Ryu, Once Again, Kissable Lips, Poongduck 304, Tasty Florida, Tinted With You) but I don't think we will get any in this. After that OmegaX Shoulder bullshizz buisness I am very wary of this show.

2023 forthcoming BL master post (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED).

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

There was a ton of truly great stuff in this week's Kiseki, but this was hands down my favorite. (Pun intended.)

Oh and the neck kisses of course.

I LOVE HIM your honor.

GMMTV's ongoing love affair with the scent trope.

Calling out out new couple's dance trope. (Both Dangerous Romance)

(Last week) 

[scotianostra]

Happy 90th Birthday Scottish actor David McCallum.

Born as David Keith McCallum, Jr on this day 19933 in Maryhill, Glasgow, the second of two sons of Dorothy Dorman, a cellist, and orchestral violinist David McCallum Sr. When he was three, his family moved to London for his father to play as concertmaster in the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Early in the Second World War, he was evacuated back to Scotland, where he lived with his mother at Gartocharn by Loch Lomond.

McCallum won a scholarship to University College School, a boys' independent school in Hampstead, London, where, encouraged by his parents to prepare for a career in music, he played the oboe.In 1946 he began doing boy voices for the BBC radio repertory company. Also involved in local amateur drama, at age 17, he appeared as Oberon in an open-air production of A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Play and Pageant Union. He left school at age 18 and was conscripted, joining the 3rd Battalion the Middlesex Regiment, which was seconded to the Royal West African Frontier Force.In March 1954 he was promoted to Lieutenant. After leaving the army he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (also in London), where Joan Collins was a classmate.

David McCallum’s acting career has spanned six decades; however, these days he is best known for his starring role on the police procedural NCIS as medical examiner as Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard. I first really remember McCallum for his role in another US show, The Invisible Man which ran for 13 episodes in the 70's. McCallum by then was a veteran of many TV and Film roles, starting in the 50's including Our Mutual Friend and The Eustace Diamonds, in the 60's he was in several ITV Playhouse shows before moving across the Atlantic to take roles in The Outer Limits and his big break as Illya Kuryakin in several incantations of The Man from Uncle.

His most notable films were The Greatest Story Ever Told as

Judas Iscariot and of course Ashley-Pitt 'Dispersal' in The Great Escape.

As well as the aforementioned Invisible Man in the 70's he took time to pop back over to our shores to star in two quality series, as Flt. Lt. Simon Carter in Colditz and Alan Breck Stewart in an adaption of Robert Louis Stevenson's, Kidnapped.

The 80's saw him team up with the lovely Joanna Lumley in Sapphire & Steel and several guest roles in the likes of The A Team, Hart to Hart and Murder, She Wrote as well as a one off reprise of Illya in the TV movie The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair.

The 90's saw David in Cluedo and Trainer on our TV screens over here and American science-fiction series VR-5 in the states..

During the last 20 years or so he has been in the kids TV show, Ben 10: Omniverse as the voice of Professor Paradox and of course Donald Horatio "Ducky" Mallard in over 350 episodes of the popular NCIS.

David has been married twice. He married his first wife Jill Ireland in 1957. They met on the set of the movie Hell Drivers. Together, they had two sons and a daughter, Paul, Jason and Valentine, with Jason being the only one who was adopted. In 1963, David introduced Jill to his co-star on The Great Escape, Charles Bronson, and she left David and married Charles in 1968. In 1967, David married Katherine Carpenter and they have two children together, a son Peter and a daughter, Sophie. He and Katherine currently live in New York.

In NCIS since 2018, Ducky, played by McCallum, has appeared in fewer episodes. avid McCallum explained that appearing in fewer episodes will allow him to see more of his family, which includes his wife, children, six grandsons, and their cat, Nickie. According to IMDB he has chalked up an amazing 457 appearances in the show, morethan anyother character in the series.

[faintingheroine]

A Comprehensive List of The Evidence That Ibrahim Might Have Loved Nigar

Much thanks to @zeldaxxi , @ohhmichelettoohh and @desmoonl for making this list possible

Disclaimer: Everything on this list can be argued against. Everything here is up to interpretation. And none of the points prove much on their own, they are relevant when they come together. I think this particular aspect of the show is vague enough to allow for multiple interpretations. I don’t think that my interpretation is less valid than anyone else’s.

1) Ibrahim consoles Nigar quite admirably and familiarly in Episode 21.

2) He is arguably jealous of her corresponding with Leo in Episode 23.

3) He is very touchy-feely with her in general.

4) His weird joy at finding her a servant at his house and the way he looks at her in Episode 27.

5) Ibrahim knows that Nigar has a crush on him at this point and he clearly enjoys the fact.

6) Them having sex in Episode 35. Yes, she comes to his room, but he does initiate the sexual activity.

7) He is very angry at her and is not indifferent to her between Episodes 35-44. This might be just him feeling guilty, but it could also be him still being attracted to her. The fact that he later had an affair with her points to it being latter.

8) He understands that she came by her scent in Episode 40.

9) He has Matrakçı divorce her on their wedding night. @zeldaxxi pointed out that it would be more convenient if they stayed married. He didn’t want Nigar to be a married woman. He accords her some value, and wants her solely to himself. He isn’t just horny and he isn’t just using her to avenge himself on Hatice.

10) He is tender and sweet to her throughout their affair. Yes, Nigar calls him “my Pasha” and generally satisfies his ego, but he is consistently sweet and tender until breaking up with her.

11) The massage scene in Episode 46. The passion.

12) The scene where they are discovered by Daye in Episode 50. He calls her “my beautiful woman” and you have to watch how he says it. He also wants to send a doctor for her when he learns that she is sick.

13) He does consistently call her beautiful, so no, he didn’t find her unattractive.

14) He does actually say that he loves Nigar to his brother in Episode 51 and he definitely believes it based on the acting:

15) He does say that she made him addicted to her in Episode 54 after Nigar does something sneaky.

Their eyes genuinely smile while they are looking at each other.

16) Again in Episode 54, Nigar complains to him about feeling alone at nights while they are in bed, and Ibrahim says “I will stay then”. And he stays, at great risk to himself and his relationship with Hatice.

17) He wishes for a daughter who looks like Nigar in Episode 56. He actually lists the physical attributes he likes in Nigar and wants in their daughter.

18) He has to break up with Nigar in Episode 56 because Hatice is onto him, but caresses her cheek while he is breaking up with her and says that he will never forget her.

19) In general, he had an affair with her for three years at great risk to his life, career and marriage.

20) He gained nothing from this affair except for being with Nigar. He did use Nigar’s crush to his advantage before their affair started but never during it. Nigar didn’t provide Ibrahim with any scheming advantage between the episodes 44-57 (their affair). Actually Ibrahim was generally softer to Hürrem than usual during these episodes, didn’t do much except burning her letter in Episode 48.

He also didn’t have sex with his wife after the affair with Nigar started. He was still having sex with Hatice even after her insult, but not after he started the affair with Nigar.

21) He revitalizes his love for Hatice in Episode 57 through pure nostalgia for their Season 1 selves. He never actually thinks of any scene he had with Hatice since Episode 19 (he learned of Nigar’s crush in Episode 21).

22) He wants Matrakçı to protect and provide for Nigar even when he is intending to break up with her permanently.

23) He was going to send Nigar to his brother and would probably be in communication with her.

24) He is legitimately offended that Nigar thought that he would kill her in Episode 59. Him killing her would solve a lot of his problems at that point and he has no qualms about killing other people so that the affair wouldn’t get out, yet he is offended and stricken that she would expect him to kill her. And he doesn’t know about her pregnancy yet.

25) He does try to save her in Episode 64. Hatice already intends to let the child live, but she is going to execute Nigar. He does try to save her. Is it a bit half-assed? Yeah. But he cared on some level.

(He does say to Matrakçı that he will perhaps never see his child so this one admittedly might be about the child as well. But you can read more into it. Maybe he also subconsciously doesn’t want Nigar to die).

26) When he returns he tries to avoid Nigar. Sure it is because it is dangerous for them to be in the same room but he also might be fearful that he might catch feelings again.

27) He is legitimately offended that she is seemingly on Hürrem’s side now and feels betrayed. Watch their argument in Episode 72.

28) When in the above scene Nigar asks him whether he ever loved her, he blinks repeatedly and leaves.

29) Nigar asks him to marry her to Rüstem as a last favor at the end of the scene, he seems somewhat angry.

30) When he first meets Esmanur, he repeats the “almond-shaped eyes, shapely-nose, silken hands” line he said to Nigar at her.

31) He informs Nigar of her daughter’s existence and lets her have a place in their daughter’s life. Nigar didn’t know that their daughter existed. He could have never told her. But he did. Yes, perhaps he wanted a mother for his daughter but Nigar was married with Ibo’s archenemy at this point. Yet he still went out of his way to inform her.

32) He does tell Matrakçı that he would prefer Esmanur to live with Nigar at the house he provided for them, but unfortunately Nigar is married now.

33) When at the pub Matrakçı tells him that Rüstem didn’t want to marry Nigar, Ibrahim says “that part is not obvious at all but it is not our concern”, in a tone of voice that indicates that he did think about this more than he lets on.

34) When Nigar belatedly informs him of the attempt on his life in Episode 79, he dismisses her concern for him as her trying to see Esmanur. He then says that she perhaps works for Hürrem and Rüstem. It is clear from the acting that he believes this to be a real possibility and is angry.

35) He does relent and shows Esmanur to Nigar in Episode 80.

36) He does tell her that Esmanur will never forget her and that she will see her daughter again in the future in Episode 81. The implication is that he will continue to tell Esmanur about her mother.

37) He seems vaguely thoughtful at her last declaration of love to him. Nigar herself makes a point of telling him that her heart is with him despite her being next to Rüstem.

38) In Ibrahim and Esmanur’s last scene in Episode 82, Esmanur says that she wants to go to her mother twice, and Ibrahim seems legitimately sad and thoughtful when he says that “the mother has gone far away”. It can be interpreted as him merely being sad that his daughter can’t see her mother, but it can also definitely be interpreted as something deeper.

***

None of these things are a smoking gun by themselves. I am not arguing that Ibrahim was passionately in love with Nigar to the end of his life, of course not.

But all in all, I think it is very hard to say that Ibrahim didn’t care about Nigar at all, that she was just an ego satisfaction or a fleeting fancy, that he could cheat on his wife with any woman. This list does mean something for a person as cruel, as violent, as selfish and careless-with-human-life and narcissistic as Ibrahim is. Ibrahim did care about Nigar, and loved her in his own very flawed way. Maybe he didn’t love her the most, but he did love her. He ruined her life, mistreated her. He definitely cared about his career and life more than he cared about her. But he still did care about her on a level that is somewhat surprising for him.

[ohplagg]

I Love Yoo Timeline Part 2/4

The Evidence Part 2

This is part 2 of 4 of my I Love Yoo Timeline as of Episode 241.

Part 1 and 2 consists of laying out all the detailed evidence with descriptions, screenshots and episode number.

Part 3 consists of explaining the evidence, connecting the dates and some math because the I Love Yoo universe (or as I like to call it, Yooniverse) uses letters instead of numbers to represent official years.

Part 4 is the I Love Yoo Timeline.

----

I told you guys there's a lot of information. Both The Evidence parts reached picture limit.

--------

Kosuke's life when he was in school

Episode 91

YuJing and Kousuke went to high school and university together.

Episode 79

Whatever happend that caused the fallout between Kousuke and his college friends happened "about 5 years ago" according to Hansuke.

I'll show the evidence later in this post and go in depth about it more in part 3 but for now do keep in mind that Hansuke didn't go to the same college Kousuke and the friend group did so when he says "about" we should interpret that as "I don't really remember how long ago it was exactly since I had more important things that needed my attention"

Episode 144

Kousuke graduated in Spring

Kousuke was 14 the day of his graduation

Episode 241

Kousuke goes to the park with his mom right after his high school graduation and Nessa is there.

Episode 239

Hansuke was there at the funeral related to the college friend group fallout.

Kousuke got his friend group at the beginning of his college days

Kousuke was part of the friend group for a couple of years

Episode 116

In Meg's flashback we learn:

Alyssa has already started the path of becoming a Kpop idol

Meg is 20 years old

Hasuke and Meg went to the same university. A different university from Kousuke, YuJing and the friend group.

The college group of friends would visit Hansuke at his college every once in a while.

Kousuke used to date "around" in college.

At this moment in time, the fallout between Kousuke and his college friends has started to happened if it hasn't already happened AND Hansuke wasn't aware of it.

At this moment in time Kosuke is "like 20"

Kousuke is "finishing up his masters this year or something"

I do want to highlight that the information that we get for Kousuke's graduation is based on a rumor that reached a different college than the one Kousuke goes to.

From personal experience I can, with 100% confidence, say that people that start college at a younger age get mistaken to be much younger and finish school much faster than what is true just because the gossip stays the same throughout the years without considering that time passes for said person who the gossip talks about.

In my personal experience, a person who started college when they were 16 had their gossip evolve to say that they started college at 14. And by the time they were 20 and with a year more of school the gossip was "that person is graduating soon and they are like 16 or something. Yeah dude, they are super smart".

So my point is that Kousuke, having started college at a young age, always looking young for his age with that Hirahara genetics and low testosterone levels, and the fact that this information comes from a gossip in a college he doesn't even go to, all tells us that this is not trustworthy source of information and we should take it with a grain of salt.

Shin-Ae's Timeline

Regarding Shin-Ae's timeline, I won't be touching up on her personal family affairs since that's a whole can of worms that I don't have the brain capacity nor the space to add it in this post.

If in the future the whole plot of Shin-Ae's sister and her mother becomes extremely relevant then I might do another Evidence post for that and add the events to the timeline. But for now, I don't see them that important to the timeline mystery so I'll only mention whatever I feel is relevant for the timeline I'm constructing.

Episode 222

Shinae and Alyssa met in "Class of 20XT"

Episode 205

Here we see all 3 of Min-Hyuk's Middle School (which is the same thing as Junior High) yearbooks. Min Hyuk's last Middle School year was 20XT = Min-Hyuk graduated on 20XT.

Episode 202

On the Shin-Ae/Alyssa flashback Min-Hyuk says that he will be graduating middle school "next year" meaning that the incident took place the year before 20XT

When Shin-Ae was leaving the hospital, winter was just around the corner (Winter officially starts December 21st)

Exact dates for events that have happened since we started following the story

Episode 6

Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th of September 20XX was the day of the party where Shinae met the brothers. When Rika and Maya got pranked by Shinae and Nol at the very first party.

Episode 37

November's calendar

Episode 144

December's and part of January's calendar

Character information shared by Quimchee in her 2017 and 2018 Curious Cat answers

Kousuke seems to have had a very active dating life in his teens

Character's ages (keep in mind these answers were given when in Yooniverse it was still November)

Other information relevant to the construction of the timeline

Nol was a late bloomer. This is important to keep in mind because Nol looks young in so many flashbacks, specially compared to Dieter, Soushi, and Alyssa. Any Nol we see before his 15th birthday will look like a little kid.

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

This is just part 2 of 4. Go keep reading:

Part 1: The Evidence Part 1

Part 3: Math and connecting the dots

Part 4: The Timeline

[stillnot-her-husband]

48 yo Male again

I met a woman on Twitter, both of us married, and we had been chatting and sharing pics for several months. We lived 2 states apart. Well, I happened to be traveling to her state with my wife for her work. I picked up a rental car and arranged a date with my friend to meet for the first time. We enjoyed a nice lunch, walked the beach and found ourselves in a beach front bar drinking margaritas in a corner booth. It didn’t take long for us to start acting like lovers there. We left the bar and found a quiet parking lot, where she climbed on top of me. We made out there in the car as she ground herself on me. Eventually my hand was in her pants getting a couple of fingers into her soaking wet pussy. That was the beginning of a 5 year, long distance affair. I’ll have to share episode 2 another day.

Out-freaking-standing!

Don't discount the long distance affairs. Sooner or later someone buys a plane ticket and then you find out that...

Cheating sex is the best sex.

[licncourt]

When you have the time, please write your opinions on episode 6! I really love to read your thoughts

Yikes, okay. I'm just going to do a bulleted list of likes and dislikes because there was a lot going on here. Thank you so much for caring about my ranting!!

Thank you also to @zisurru and vivienne1996 for talking to me about this episode for like three hours straight after it aired and helping me consolidate all these thoughts with their insight

Things I liked

Claudia! I always enjoy her being a stone cold bitch. She's so ruthless and so intelligent that you almost forget how vulnerable she is. Bailey Bass knocked it out of the park and I was cheering her on from start to finish this ep.

Despite how some fans seem to be interpreting it, I was glad Lestat wasn't really framed as being justified in his actions. I do think the severity of his attack was downplayed (more on that later), but it wasn't fully excused like I was afraid it would be

Louis swimming the Mississippi to kick Lestat's ass

Lestat's chess tantrum. That felt like the level of shittiness I would expect from him based on the book

Things I would've liked in another context

Claudia and Lestat's chess rivalry

The mentions of Nicki and Magnus (even if it feels too early imo). Any TVL content is fun in theory

The family conversation on the bench

The Loustat sex scene (I can't believe we only got one sex scene in a non-icky scenario)

Coffin cuddles

Sam Reid singing

The fight -> sex pipeline

Lestat and the dog

Things I hated

BATTERED WIFE LOUIS. He was written as such a passive victim in this episode and it made me sick tbh. Yeah, he's mad for a while and rejects Lestat's attempts to apologize, but he DOES let Lestat back into his life and tolerates a ridiculous amount of awful bullshit. Lestat seems worse than ever, begging to get back in the family and then immediately treating Claudia poorly, emotionally abusing Louis, and continuing his affair. Louis quietly puts up with all of it, even making constant excuses for the behavior and keeping himself sexually available. It's really nauseating and so OOC for Louis that it's almost as awful a character assassination as Lestat just got in ep 5. Book Louis never felt like a sure thing for Lestat. He was always pushing back and using his strengths and advantages to go toe-to-toe with Lestat. He was never subservient or brought to heel like some terrified but overly-loyal dog. AMC Louis allowing Claudia to be abused like she is in the show is even more incomprehensible to me.

The racial aspect of this whole situation gets its own bullet point because ICK. At least Claudia called it out.

Claudia taking the caregiver role. Something that defines Louis' character in IWTV is how intensely he clings to the role of father to give his life purpose, even to the point of infantilizing Claudia until he drives her even more mad. Just like I can't imagine book Louis tolerating Lestat's treatment of his and Claudia, I can't imagine him being so okay with losing the dynamic of the only identity that keeps him going.

Lestat's priorities! Just like ep 5, another core tenet of Lestat's characterization has been done away with here. The motivating desire behind Lestat's controlling behavior and cruel self-preservation is his desperate love for Louis and Claudia and his fear of losing them. Louis and Claudia making him an important part of an established family unit was all Lestat wanted in the book, but AMC Lestat has one foot out the door all of ep 6 even after how hard he tried to get them back and how he reacted to their attempt to leave. The Antoinette affair is especially baffling because Lestat is never mentioned to have taken any lovers in IWTV until the final months of the family, a desperate attempt to get Louis' attention and a potential rebound as he felt his family slipping away. If anything, Lestat is TOO committed in IWTV, definitely not a reluctant and philandering husband or unwilling father.

Lestat's hatred of Claudia!! The lynchpin of their tragedy is that Lestat DOES love Claudia. That's his daughter, his pride and joy, his protégé, his baby girl. He loves her as much as Louis does but his generational trauma and the circumstances of her creation/existence drive the wedge further and further between them until something breaks. When Claudia tricks him into aiding in his own murder by pretending to want to fix their relationship, Lestat doesn't even hesitate to trust her. Even after she tries to kill him, book Lestat says he never regretted her, that having the chance to be her father and to love her was worth it. I don't see even a shred of that in AMC Lestat. Getting rid of that love between Lestat and Claudia takes so much away from the upcoming tragedy.

The train scene. Again, a very important aspect of Lestat that makes him redeemable later is his total unwillingness to ever threaten Claudia with harm. The fact that he not only threatened to kill her but also mocked her rape was horrid and totally bizarre. I don't know how they could ever even begin to redeem him at this point.

The oversimplification of Claudia's arc and morality. Making Lestat so black and white evil like they have in the past two episodes takes so much away from her complexity and from the depth of the story for the audience. What makes the climax of this part of the book (coming in ep 7) so compelling is that you aren't sure if Claudia was right, if Lestat deserves it, what fairness even is. In this case, she's just completely justified and killing the man who threatened her life and almost killed her father and who continues to abuse them. Again, the tragedy of IWTV comes from the pseudo-nuclear family the three of them create and the way it breaks down in the most extreme of ways, the trauma of the father and of the eldest/only daughter destroying each other while the mother is torn to pieces by a love for them both. It's a domestic horror rooted in love gone wrong.

**Bonus** The fan insistence that book Lestat was never faced with the prospect of Louis leaving and if he had been, the reaction would've been the same as in the show. That's patently untrue and it happened twice actually. The first time, his reaction was to make another attempt at winning Louis over to accepting vampirism, and when that failed, to go for the babytrap. The second time, he went on an angry spiel about how he had Secret Vampire Knowledge and so Louis and Claudia had to stay with him.

[justdonotaskmewhy]

The Crown fact-checked. Part 1/60

Before we begin I have to say a few words:

I understand that The Crown is a work of fiction and my goal is not to say "It's all lies!", we know it is full of stuff that has never happened, I just want to "do my own research" and see which facts were changed

I will try to be as unbiased as I possibly can. I can't promise you will like my stuff or agree with me, but my thoughts are just my thoughts, you can always decide for yourself

This being said, let's start our journey

Season 1. Episode 1. Wolferton Splash

King George's VI illness

The Crown's opening scene is that of the king spitting blood and coughing heavily. This theme of illness is recurring for the rest of the episode.

King George VI was a heavy smoker. The cigarettes were rather cheap after war and it is no wonder he developed such an unhealthy habit. Note: i phrased it badly but he started smoking much earlier than after the war ended, the cigarettes were just cheaper so it was even easier for him to get access to smoking.

Due to his smoking he had a lung cancer and coronary artery disease. Both of his illnesses appeared in the series.

2. Prince Philip renounces his royal titles

The series is true to the reality here. On the eve of his wedding to princess Elizabeth Prince Philip renounced his "foreign titles" of Greece and Denmark and was styled as "His Royal Highness, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh,  Earl of Merioneth, and Baron Greenwich of Greenwich in the County of London"

3. King stutters

It is no surprise to anyone who has ever watched "The King's Speech". King George stuttered ever since he was a child and attended speech therapy to get rid of it. He almost get rid of it and it is hard to notice it in his public speeches. You can listen to this if you're interested, the real speech King George VI delivered on September 3rd, 1939 addressing Britain's involvement in World War II.

4. Prince Philip gave up smoking because princess Elizabeth couldn't stand it

As any loving daughter would be, princess Elizabeth was preoccupied by her father's health. Seeing that smoking did not do him any good, she insisted prince Philip should give up the habit. He did and some sources state he didn't smoke once after his wedding day.

5. Limericks

As fun as it may sound the king was fond of dirty limericks. However The Crown faced a controversy as the king says the word "cunt" in the opening episode.

The full limerick is as follows:

There was an old Countess of Bray,

And you might think it odd when I say,

That despite her high station, rank and education.

She always spelled "Cunt" with a K!

6. Princess Margaret at princess Elizabeth's wedding

Princess Margaret was one of princess Elizabeth's bridesmaids. However she was shorter than her sister (Elizabeth was 163 cm tall, Princess Margaret was 155 cm).

7. Winston Churchill at princess Elizabeth's wedding. I Vow To Thee My Country

He and his wife attended the wedding and, in fact, caused a "false alarm" of applause by their arrival as everyone thought it was the princess who was cheered with such an enthusiasm.

However I Vow To Thee My Country apparently never played upon his arrival. But This song is indeed regarded as synonymous with Churchill, and it played at his funeral.

8. Hatred towards Mountbattens

Lord Louis Mountbatten was the last Viceroy of British India. In 1947 the partition of Pakistan was inevitable but it resulted in a blood bath. Million was killed, 15 millions were displaced.

Churchill was unsatisfied with Mountbatten's hurry to operate the situation and called it "a shameful flight" which was shown in The Crown.

9. Peter Townsend

Group Captain Peter Townsend was an equerry to King George VI. He indeed had an affair with Princess Margaret, the king's youngest daughter.

A gross fact but may I remind you: he was 33 and she was 17 in 1947 when their romance presumably began. We will discuss it further in later posts.

10. Nazis and the British Royal family

The British Royal family is notorious for its connections to nazis. We are not going to talk about Edward and Wallace (because we will talk about them later), but Prince Philip had four sisters, all of whom married members of the German aristocracy—three of those men became Nazis. One sister, Princess Theodora married Berthold, Margrave of Baden; they tried to keep their distance from Nazism.

His eldest sister, Princess Margarita, married Gottfried, the 8th Prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg—a German aristocrat who joined the Nazi party and served in World War II. He was involved in Operation Valkyrie, the plot to assassinate Hitler in 1944. 

Princess Cecilie, another sister, married German aristocrat Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse. They joined the Nazis in May 1937, but died in a plane crash months later. At her funeral, Prince Philip marched with their relatives who wore Nazi uniforms.

His youngest sister, Princess Sophie, married Prince Christoph of Hesse, an Oberführer in the Nazi Party and a director in the Third Reich's Ministry of Air Forces. Sophie said in her memoir of Hitler, "I have to say here, that, although Chri [Prince Chrisoph] and I changed our political view fundamentally some years later, we were impressed by this charming and seemingly modest man, and by his plans to change and improve the situation in Germany."

It is worth mentioning that Philip served Britain during World War II and did not himself support the nazi regime.

11. The royal family was against princess Elizabeth's marriage to Philip

It indeed happened but for an unexpected reason. Royal courtiers said that prince Philip "was too funny and had too many gaffes".

12. Lilibet

Lilibet was a nickname for princess Elizabeth. It is said that it was given by Princess Margaret who couldn't pronounce "Elizabeth" at a young age. Now it is prince Harry's daughter name, what a sweet continuity.

i stand corrected: according to this source its origin can be different. Elizabeth used to call herself Lilibet when she was a toddler.

13. Waving

Royalty way much slower than everyone else. This waving is easy to recognise, you've seen it multiple times. It is supposed that this particular style is safer for articulations, and this can be one of the reasons they wave like they do.

14. Princess Elizabeth's passion for filming

Though it is not clear whether she liked filming herself, she was clearly fond of watching clips filmed by her family members as it was shown in "Queen at 90"

15. Princess Margaret smoking habits

Princess Margaret had a reputation of a heavy smoker. Rightfully so, as she could smoke up to 60 cigarettes a day. Allegedly she started smoking in 1952 after the death of her father (she was 21 at the time). Smoking excessively could be a sign of untreated depression and mental health troubles which we will discuss in later posts.

Side note: Margaret's smoking was first noticed in her late teens when she became famous on the party circuit for her turtle shell cigarette holder.

16. King's operation

The operation to remove the lung indeed took place at the Buckingham Palace.

When the King's chest was suspected as the cause of his ill health, Sir John called in Geoffrey Marshall, 64, an expert on lung diseases, and Sir Robert Arthur Young, 80, grand old man of British chest experts. X rays by Radiologist Peter James Kerley and others showed what seemed to be a growth in the left lung. Australian-born Brigadier Sir Thomas Peel Dunhill, 75, who enjoys the title of Sergeant Surgeon to the King, agreed that an operation was necessary. The doctors decided that another Welshman, Chest Surgeon Clement Price Thomas, was the man to do the surgery.

17. Princess Elizabeth's curtsy to her mother and grandmother

A sweet gesture and a nice tradition to show respect which lasts up until this day.

Here is a clip of prince Harry bowing to his grandmother followed by kissing her on both cheeks.

18. Churchill elected the second time

Churchill became PM for a second time on October 26th, 1951. Fun fact: it happened month away from his 77th birthday.

19. Princess Elizabeth's Commonwealth tour

As the following episode will show the prince and the princess were on Commonwealth tour in 1952 when they received the news of king George's VI sudden death. They were in Kenya when it happened.

20. Carolers at Sandringham

Even though I can't find any reliable source about this scene, it is a decent metaphor. The king who learnt he is dying welcomes villagers who offer him a crown.

They sing "In a Bleak Midwinter" which I highly recommend to listen to closely.

The poem was written by an English poet Christina Rosetti.

What can I give Him, Poor as I am? — If I were a Shepherd I would bring a lamb; If I were a Wise Man I would do my part, — Yet what I can I give Him, — Give my heart.

21. Prince Philip and Navy

Prince Philip's naval career began when he was 17. The Duke of Edinburgh’s active naval career ended as a commander in January 1953, after almost 14 years.

Despite his retirement from active service, Prince Philp remained both interested and involved in the Naval Service through official visits, patronage of, and association with, naval charities and clubs.

Useful links:

[teruki-inoue21]

THE… END?? 

Aight so… to y’all Of those who’s goin’ mad watching S2E12 like me, I’m here to analyze it and make y’all go EVEN more mad. Let’s start

WHY were the glitching effects there when Liu Lan (Tianchen’s and Tianxi’s mom) died. Like, we know that the glitching effects appear when there’s some time travel shenanigans, so is it possible that in probably Link Click III, someone from the present actually was possessing Tianchen or Tianxi and saw what went down? Was LIU FRIKIN XIAO involved??? [ Like, I know CXS was inhibiting Xixi at that point, but what I mean is that what if someone from even further in the future, like from S3 stuff, possessed either Tianchen or Liu Lan (the scene was from Tianchen’s POV, so…]

2. LESSSS GOOOO !!!! Lu Guang confirmed to be a time traveler! But what’s weird is that how does he have CXS’s ability? Does it mean that the theory regarding LG actually giving CXS his powers is true? Also, which photo did LG use to dive back? When did he dive back? It could be that while we were thinking that CXS dies in the events of S2, it was all a fluke and he actually dies in some S3 stuff? ( refer back to my post relating to Liu Xiao v Lu Guang). 

3. Liu Xiao - oh you……. WHAT THE FRIK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?!?! Like, be at least a little bit sad that your brother died, will ya? Also, I guess I was right about Liu Min’s phone being important for the plot. And, did he LITERALLY lowkey indicate diverging and/or converging timelines when he said he wanted to connect all possible lines and go towards one single conclusion??? WTF????? What CONCLUSION?? What DESTINY?????    

4. So, milady Wang Juan is alive! Who’s happy? But, Ayo, Xiao Li legit made a division on crimes related to paranormal abilities? Yo, that’s gonna be super important later on!!!! This bit is making me SOOO sure that Liu Xiao has some ability as well (once again, refer back to the post where I liken him to Lu Guang)

5. And, why was the teacher guy’s (who was in a affair with Liu Lan) face hidden? Will HE be important for S3 as well???  

6. Idfk but please tell me Qiao Ling got Tianxi’s ability!!  

7. Finally, we gonna have Lu Guang’s backstory. Qiao Ling, my dear, care to share? 

8. And last but not the least, it seems we finally gonna get our duo (CXS n LG) v another (LTch and Liu Xiao). Yep, Liu Xiao, tell us what your power is! Don’t tell me, u got yo’ powers from the same place as CXS and LG?? (Do note that he was abroad too and said a lot of interesting things happened there!!! YOOO I’MMA LOSE MA MIND!!!!!!)   

Yea, good goin’ theorizing about all these, me lads! Til then, I’ma go listen to the banger of an ED they gave in that last episode!

[mmoosen]

15 Questions 15 Mutuals

tagged by the lovely @thiamsxbitch @wolfboy88 and @maplefire18 💜💜💜

1. are you named after anyone?

Nope, my mom and dad just liked my name.

2. when was the last time you cried?

I cried last week at an episode of d20, my period started a couple days later so it made a lot of sense 

3. do you have kids?

God no.

4. do you use sarcasm a lot?

yep

5. what sports do you play/have played?

In high school, cheerleading and track. Middle school was volleyball

6. what's the first thing you notice about people?

I’m kinda face blind so i look at people’s outfits and jewelry. Backpacks, purses, anything colorful

7. what's your eye colour?

blue

8. scary movies or happy endings?

Happy endings. Scary movies give me nightmares and serious paranoia so they are a big no.

9. any special talents?

I have a very good short term memory. remembering specific work order and names days later. sometimes I can picture entire pages of books or notes as a picture in my mind. It’s not permanent but very helpful for studying.

 10. where were you born?

Tiny town in the Midwest, USA, lovingly called Methland

11. what are your hobbies?

Well other than fandom related stuff, I paint and play a lot of minecraft.

12. do you have pets? 

3 family pets and 1 of my own

13. how tall are you? 

5’ 6” or 167 cm

14. favourite subject in school?

Either Art or Government

15. dream job?

Foreign Diplomat, hopefully working with Political Affairs or International Security

now to tag people: @slice-of-magenta @sydney-winchester @dapplepersiflage @ksbbb @chasing-chimeras @raekensarcher @rhyslahey @metagalacticx@theoceanismyinkwell @alphaboyd @sequinedmonkey @stitchkiss @de-constructmybones @neoghoulukaku @waterloou

[goatsandgangsters]

I’m doing shadow and bone ep 5 on a Monday like some kind of rebel

bc I’m always like ~~ooooh I have to make an Occasion out of things, I have to make it Special, I can’t watch new things on just any old Monday. OR, I COULD STOP NOT DOING THINGS I WANT TO DO AND DO THEM. anyway, let’s proceed, I Want More Content Goddammit

previous liveblogs

AND A SHARP HORNY INHALE WAS HEARD ROUND THE WORLD FROM THE DARKOLAI CONTINGENT AT “LITTLE PRINCE”

I’m fine. it’s fine. I’m fine. I can cope. I can deal. I’m fine.

“we have to keep our demons at bay” WELL GOOD LUCK WITH THAT. I did cackle out loud like the dramatic-irony-loving bitch I am

also how come every time Alina gets a new boyfriend, one his family members tries to kill Mal? (I sense that this is more a. a plot-required relocating of the Mal and also b. Vasily is an idiot, but personally if I was a conniving little weasel I’d have gone with the angle of “oh look my bastard brother is going to have more bastard children because his fiancee is already having an affair” instead of like, relocating the evidence. just my two cents there, Vasya)

….this was NOT the bed that Wylan and Jesper were in last night, where the hell did they wake up

“Ravka needs saving” is the funniest possible way to intrude. like, there are characters that would DEFINITELY WORK on, but poor Wesper just like “and why the fuck do we care!!”

That’s a bold statement, Tamar, when you absolutely know he IS going to start reciting epic poetry to Zoya. it’s not even a question. it’s GOING to happen

sdkjkhsdkjghsdkg Baghra like “oh you’re all pathetic, nvm maybe my son should kill you”

LIKE. IS IT THAT DOMINIK? IS HE?? ALIVE???? OR IS HE JUST SOME RANDO NAMED AFTER NIKOLAI’S DEAD CHILDHOOD SWEETHEART?? I mean, happy for you Nikolai if your boyfriend’s alive, but him dying in your arms was kind of a formative moment for you so—oh. oh no. is it that dominik but he’s not DEAD YET?? are we about to have some nikolai’s-boyfriend on nikolai’s-boyfriend violence?

“THE PUPPY PRINCE” okay so we got one sobachka from his mother, and one sobachka from his mother-in-law

oh you’ll hammer him will you ;)

look, I know it’s a tense scene, but Baghra and Nikolai SNARKING at each other was my favorite scene in Ruin & Rising, so if I don’t get some quips between these two later on, I will be sad about it

(they’re not..... letting Paddy quip enough? which is really surprising, because my concern going in was that they’d reduce nikolai to “charming funny guy” and ignore his depth. and they’re doing depth in SPADES which I’m grateful about, but they’re not actually letting him do the Showmanship Exterior enough?) (I know this episode is A Particularly Tough Day For Him, Given Events, but just sort of overall) 

I don't hate it, but why is Jesper in a kilt

oh good, I’m glad they kept it in that Tatiana KNEW what the king was doing the whole time and Simply Did Not Care. don’t absolve her. fuck her. 

Daisy and Luke are SO good :3333 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa I Am Softe

Tolya Jesper Relationship Advice is so funny

Wylan you can’t just run away holding merchandise, I don’t think you paid for it

Kaz really said “it’s just hot leaf juice” didn’t he

W A F F L E S

this entire cast is extraordinarily talented, but Freddy really is The Absolute Stand Out this season, he’s just incredible

APT!!! PUPIL!!!!!!

oh I see what Jessie meant when they said they borrowed some of Ben’s mannerisms, YOU DO LOVE TO SEE IT

“I’ve feared everything there is to fear,” yes we know, we’re all watching you get hit with the broken dam of 800 years of totally unprocessed trauma and Making It Everyone’s Problem

/KICKING MY FEET AND GO TEEHEEHEE aahhuuhhhhh fuuuuuuuuck we got an apt pupil scene we got an alina making that man’s sub hindbrain kick on the second alina showed him some attention we got a “problem with wanting” we got a version(™) of my faaaave sceeeeeeene

……I love that Mal just like. had this ENTIRE sidequest adventure of being kidnapped and court martialed and escaping, and we never saw a single second of it. it’s. like. a little funny. it wasn’t even plot relevant the way I thought it was going to be. like, all that just happened, off screen 

“You’re barreling through this” you SURE are, season 2. Mal like “I can barely keep up [with what book we’re in] *looks directly into the camera*”

“You just keep eating your walnuts” AND TOLYA LAUGHS awwwwwww he’s fond of Zoyaaaaa

I’m on Zoya’s side in the Nina argument, I’m just ambivalent towards Matthias, I’m sorry

………though Matthias Pekka Hellgate Drama might make things more interesting

Excuse me, I don’t think HE left the wound on the country. Just Fucking Saying. Maybe otkazat’sya should stop committing genocide, idk, how about that. how about that otkazat’sya fix their shit first. like, I’m sorry, your king’s a rapist, you have serfs, everyone lives in squalor while wealth and excess is concentrated in the extreme on just a few, you’ve got a two-front war going with countries that want to see an entire portion of your population eradicated and enslaved via magic drugs and medical experimentation. but sure! it’s the shadow wall that’s the wound in need of healing. okay. sure. I mean I don’t think trying to keep all your friends and your mom from getting murdered when your back is against the wall is like, a wound on your country, I think your country putting your pack to the wall in the first place is the wound, but anyway— 

whatever, I’ll just be over here hoping there’s some Grisha Theorist out there writing a piece called My Words to the Black Heretic Above the Fold: Performing Grisha Rage

iiiif you’re trying to make a metaphor for interpersonal abuse don’t use genocide as a backstory clap your hands. if you’re trying to make a metaphor for interpersonal abuse don’t use genocide as a backstory clap your hands! if you’re trying to make a metaphor, and you want it just about interpersonal shit, if you want to make a metaphor, don’t use sociopolitics-you-aren’t-equipped-to-handle clap your hands (okay, my syllables don’t line up, but you get my melody)

Jack is REALLY good and I’m glad they’re letting Jesper have depth this season and not just reducing him to the comedic sidekick

this is the first episode where I’ve been like eeeeeeeeh. so. season 1 had a rough front half, great back half? don’t tell me season 2 has a great front half, rough back half?

[wellntruly]

M*A*S*H - Viewguide, Bonus Episodes

Listen, I missed some. There’s more.

Might be going back and adding these in to each of my season-by-season viewguides; still working that out. In the meantime, my caption for all of these is, “You fool!!!,” and also a bit more:

M*A*S*H - Seasons 1-11 More recommended episodes

1x17 ‘Sometimes You Hear the Bullet’ - Well your guide is me: finally including this one for reasons of maybe the only ever reference to the voice on the PA who doesn’t exist—Essential Moments. Would say your mileage may vary on the rest, but apparently everyone else loves this one, it’s just me being mixed over here! I don’t know! Love Henry in this. This is a Henry episode. To me.

2x06 ‘Kim’ - Trapper wants to adopt a 5-year-old Korean boy, if the rest of the camp doesn’t beat him to it. Margaret wears a red sweater. That’s not relevant to the plot, but she looks pretty.

2x08 ‘The Trial of Henry Blake’ - I had chosen ‘Divided We Stand’ out of the two of these in Season 2 (people from outside the 4077th looking at them and going, wait…), but in doing so deprived you of a veritable cavalcade of iconic bits, including the series’ only “fuck,” though you have to squint through the cursive.

2x14 ‘Hot Lips and Empty Arms’ - Margaret breaks up with Frank and tries to break up with the entire 4077, but they just can’t quit each other. The debut of Loretta Swit’s fucking unparalleled drunk acting. You Will Laugh.

2x19 ’The Chosen People’ - Let’s get into some pointed inter-cultural comedy! When this one started I thought, oh, this might be promising, then soon after I thought, oh no, then after that I thought, actually this is pretty interesting, the 1970s. And rollicking. I MISS SAM PAK.

3x14 ‘Private Charles Lamb’ - I inadvertently made a very interestingly haunted little pairing by having this and the next be my Season 3 bonuses.

3x24 ‘Abyssinia, Henry’ - It's historic TV. Perhaps not "good" TV, but so history.

4x07 ‘The Bus’ - Experimental episode where they strand Potter, Radar, Hawkeye, BJ, and Frank on a broken-down bus in the woods. A real oddity at this stage of the show, at times almost genuinely eerie. Only missed my original list due to Frank's whole vibe just being so shrill. Frank, huushhh hush hush, shhh.

5x01-02 ‘Bug Out, Parts 1 and 2’ - They bug out. Unusual! Hawkeye & Margaret side of affairs a bit of an ‘Aid Station’ retread, but a) you can do far worse than a Hawkeye & Margaret ‘Aid Station’ retread, and b) Potter, BJ, and Klinger are real great on the away-team.

5x14 ‘Hawk’s Nightmare’ - I mentioned this one in my S5 lede; its moment is finally here.

6x07 ‘The Light That Failed’ - They Were All So Cold, and reading a mystery novel together.

6x13 ‘Comrades In Arms, Part 1’ - Yes just Part 1. I love Part 1, and doing things like saying: just Part 1. Imagine the rest. It's what we're doing. :)

7x01 ‘Commander Pierce’ - Chain of command drama comma emotional drama comma helloooo! This is a ~Tarra Select~

7x02 ‘Peace On Us’ - What comes before Part B? Part-Ayyy! This is also somehow a joke about how this was supposed to be the first episode of Season 7 but aired second. Not sure how, but it is.

8x14 ‘Stars and Stripes’ - You haven’t met Scully yet, but no matter, this is where Scully decides to suck. The reason to watch this one is for Margaret, and Margaret & Hawkeye drinking in the O Club to their parallel unluck in love. Mr. and Mrs. 4077, Henry called them once when he had the flu. I think about that. [strangled with emotion] They’re a pair!

9x02 ‘Letters’ - They Were All So Damp

10x20 ‘Sons and Bowlers’ - You are just gonna have to IGNORE that the Margaret plot is flown straight in from Season 1, just hang on and know it has a good ending. Meanwhile: Charles & Hawkeye & Dads. I think this is one of the loveliest things this show does in its later seasons.

11x04 ‘The Joker Is Wild’ - This meanwhile is the most insane thing this show ever, ever did. By the same man who wrote 'Preventative Medicine', and the subject of my armchair psychology dissertation I swear to god, John.

11x06 ‘Bombshells’ - Actually probably the “best” episode of Season 11 I think. There's a sort of pervasive sense of loss to all of it, even the bits, that leads well to the finale.

#M*A*S*H hours

[hello-nichya-here]

GoT or HotD? Any particular reasons why?

Depends on which half of GOT we're talking about here.

Game Of Thrones seasons 1-4 VS House Of The Dragon season 1

GOT's first four seasons had it's problems, a few show original plots that were just dumb (see Dany losing her dragons in season 2), and the closer it got the point where D&D were going to be without new books to adapt AND ignore the stuff they set up in previous seasons, the worse the writting got, but overall, it was still a pretty awesome show, with a few episodes that were masterpieces even in season one.

House Of The Dragon however is a show that ranges from decent to good, with a few scenes that are absolutely great, but no masterpieces yet. In my opinion, the show was being held back by it's one HUGE flaw: the pacing.

The war between the blacks and the greens is a long conflict that just DEMANDS some time skips, because the show can't afford to make 20 damn seasons to FINALLY get to the point of Rhaenyra and Aegon, both now adults, to be at each other's throats.

HOWEVER the first season had too many time skips. It was sort of okay in first half of the season the since the most time that ever passed between episodes was 2 years, but still, a time skip every other episode could get a little jarraging. Then suddenly, in between episodes 5 and 6 we jumped A WHOLE DECADE ahead in the timeline. And then in episode 8 we jump a few years ahead yet again.

I legit am wondering if the writers/showrunners were scared that the show would not have enough time to develop a fanbase and get canceled after season due to how bad GOT's ending was (hell, a different spin-off was canceled BEFORE airing) and thus decided to rush the plot as much as possible to get to the "good stuff" right away in the hopes that it would get enough people watching for the show to be given a fair chance.

Sure, this means season two will be the official start of The Dance Of The Dragons, but it still means we didn't see lots of stuff that could have been pretty interesting.

The deleted scenes of Daemon's "heir for a day" speech and Viserys asking him the same questions he asked Rhaenyra before making her heir, and realizing Daemon could NEVER be a good king. Alicent and Viserys' wedding. The reactions of the main characters to Alicent's first pregnancy, and then later on the birth of her first baby boy, aka a threat to Rhaenyra and Daemon AND a major win for Otto.

Daemon and Corly's fighting a whole ass war against the crab-feeder. More of Alicent's attempts of patching things up with Rhaenyra. Criston Cole and Alicent bonding. Daemon's marriage to Laena and his relationship with his daughters. Rhaenyra's marriage to Laenor and her affair with Harwin. Alicent first realizing Rhaenyra's child cannot possibly be her husband's.

More scenes Rhaenyra and Daemon processing the death of their lover/spouse (and the deleted scene of Daemon comforting his daughters) and then rekindling their affair. More scenes of Laenor struggling to fit into that whole political plot and wishing he could just start a new life somewhere. More of Rhaenys and Corly's dealing with the "death" of their son. Helaena on her own AND her marriage to Aegon.

Seriously, imagine that in the first season of GOT, Ned was executed in episode 5 and the Red Wedding happened in episode 10. Sure, you showed audiences "the good stuff" faster - but you showed it WAY TOO FUCKING FAST!

I genuinely do think the content we got in this first season of HotD would have been much better if it had gotten around 24 episodes instead of 10, or was split in three seasons of at least 10-13 episodes ("Season One" being the years between episodes 1-5, "Season Two" being the longest season and the years between episodes 5-7, and "Season Three" episodes 8-10) because as it stands it feels like a part of the story is straight up missing.

I will say that, thanks to budget, a lot of it LOOKS better than the first seasons of GOT, and it really shows that it was the Targaryens at their most powerful. The Iron Throne is MUCH better, and not only can I actually tell the dragons apart, but now everytime I see Dany flying without that special dragon saddle and just holding onto Drogon for dear life, it looks REALLY silly. Seriously, her brother taught her to speak High Valirian and commands in said language to make the dragons obey, what dragons eat, and a fuckton of things about Westeros but he NEVER mentioned "And they used a saddle so they wouldn't fall mid flight"?????

(They also did a better job at showing how dragons do whatever the fuck they want, rider be damned)

Got seasons 5-8 VS HotD season 1

Easy choice. House Of The Dragon wins. Is there even the need for me to explain it? The lack of the line "You want the good girl, but you need the bad pussy" already justifies it. Plus, one episode aside, I can actually SEE the stuff that is going on, while GOT's second half looks like the budget for the dragons and ice zombies came at the expense of cutting all the money meant for lighting.

Also, while HotD is telling it's story too fast, it at least HAS a story to tell. The second half of GOT feels like filler that exists solely because HBO wanted to keep making money despite the fact that there were no more books to adapt AND that Dumb & Dumber were clearly incapable to come up with an original ending OR set up the ending Martin had already told them was his plan.

Bonus: House Of The Dragon VS Fire & Blood

While House Of The Dragon has it's flaws and I do worry about how they'll build up to the, frankly disappointing, canonical ending - or if they'll go nuts and do their own thing, and if said will be good - I still like it better than I liked literally any part of the book version of the story for one simple reason: the characters actually have some redeeming qualities, or are the very least charismatic assholes.

I could not fucking stand the book characters, and the constant "is this the actual truth or this unreliable narrator lying to me?" did not work as well as it did in the ASOIAF books because all of said unreliable narrators of Fire & Blood are completely removed from the actual events they're describing, so I found it hard to give a shit about any of the players in said events, since I had no way of knowing if any of them were as good/bad as they were being described or if it was all propaganda.

[dancing-with-the-madmen]

Touchy touchy

I don't want to be the asshole to hijack someone else's thread, so I'll just put this out here... the idea that Stede is touch-averse, or that he doesn't, as a rule, touch people, and never without permission? Is pure fannon. I KNOW! I wanted it to be true, too! I actually went looking for evidence to support the thesis for an essay I was writing (and that Ed was his special exception), but the more I looked, the more I had to accept that it was one of those things that makes sense emotionally, but doesn't hold up under scrutiny. Stede initiates touches. Stede touches people purposefully. Stede touches people casually. And not just Ed. Eventually I had WAY more screenshot evidence than Tumblr would allow in one of my pic-spam essays. I ultimately abandoned the thesis, but I kept the screenshots. With a little creative collaging it should all fit, so Here We Go:

Episode 1: Stede doesn't hesitate to jump in and pull apart Roach and the Swede when they start going after one another during the flag-making scene. Edit to add (per the eagle-eyed @coccinelf, thank you, my v. dear): Stede pats Jim and Olu VERY high up on the thigh when they sit next to him on the couch in his quarters. Like I would be hesitant to touch someone I knew WELL like that.

Episode 2: Touch-o-rama. Stede rests his hand on Roach's shoulder when verifying that the prisoners have escaped, and then pats Olu on the back when asking for additional volunteers to go find them. He rests his head on the elder villager's lap when getting talked down after his freak-out at the trial. He offers his hand for Izzy to shake (Izzy refuses, but Stede still made the effort). Then on the beach, before setting sail again, Stede offers his hand to the village elder to shake, and claps him on the back afterwards.

Episode 3 is the only one in which he doesn't actually touch anyone.

Episode 4: Touch-o-rama 2; Candlelight Boogaloo The first touch we see is in flashback - the excruciatingly awkward shoulder-adjacent touch Stede offers Mary during their engagement portrait. I'm not counting when she takes his hand at their wedding; he doesn't really hold her hand back - just doesn't actively pull his hand out of her grip.

All the other touching in the episode is in the present, and is either self-initiated or actively accepted. Stede takes Ed's hand to shake in introduction after he comes out of his fever-dream, and shakes the hands of his whole crew while cosplaying as Blackbeard. You could reasonably argue he's not the one to initiate the handshakes since Ed demands that everyone come and shake their captain's hand, but Stede is definitely the one to nudge Ed awake in the crow's nest the next morning, and to offer his hand to shake on the deal to teach one another about their respective worlds.

Episode 5: We're all familiar with Stede touching Ed to tuck the red silk into his breast pocket, but that's not the first touch of the episode. He takes Ed by the elbow when Ed introduces himself as Jeff the Accountant, and then later Stede palpates Antionette's head to solidify his phrenologist cover story.

Episode 6: Lighting is actively fighting us in this episode, but when Stede runs Ed through, his other arm comes up behind Ed's back and cradles his body (just like Ed wanted, the sly dog), and then after he gets the sword out, you can see, blurry, over Izzy's shoulder as he freaks out over what he assumes he overheard, Stede helping Ed back to his cabin with Ed's arm looped over his shoulder and his arm around Ed's waist (photo from publicity stills, as the screenshot is wholly useless). When he puts his hand on Ed's shoulder in the bathtub, it's not the barely-brushing affair of the Mary shoulder touch from episode 4, but full, solid contact, thumb to the front of the shoulder, and fingers to the back.

Episode 7: Stede casually swats Lucius' arm when Lucius give him shit about how much money he dropped on the map. When he fishes the snake bit out of Ed's beard, he's totally the initiator; he beacons with his fingers, and then picks it out when Ed leans in to his touch.

Episode 8: We see Stede extend a welcoming hand to Jack, and there's the boot touch where he rubs Ed's foot back after Ed nudges him, but the real surprise is that when Jack hugs Stede after Stede offers to go to Dead Man's Cove, STEDE HUGS JACK BACK. Like, Stede was trying SO HARD to like his boyfriend's awful beffie.

Episode 9: The kiss! The kiss where he kisses back! The kiss where he moves his arm to touch Ed back, even if it's out of frame! Then after, when he snuggles into Ed's side while Ed keeps him encircled in his arm. And then after after, when they sit side-by-side and hold hands, and Stede actually holds his hand back instead of letting it loll like a dead fish the way he did to Mary at his wedding.

Episode 10: Stede reaches out in his sleep, and Mary has to move his hand off her hip. He pins Doug to the table at Mary's art show. Then, after the near-murder, Stede and Mary share a very sweet hug. And finally, even though Doug is in the room, Stede is the one to shake Mary awake to tell her about the plan for his imminent demise.

So yeah. Stede touches a pretty normal amount. He initiates. He's a consummate glad-hander. Friend or stranger or lover, it's all fair game. It's just that Toucher Ed is an outlier against whom anyone would look reserved in comparison.

[maya-matlin]

Hi Ashton! I saw in your tags that Barchie is a notp for you and would love to hear why. I shipped Bughead but gave up in the show before Barchie ever got together :)

Oh god. Where to begin? I acknowledge that based on the pilot and the first couple of episodes of season 1, the idea of Betty and Archie together was fine. It wasn't particularly interesting, but at first they seemed to have a solid friendship that could have realistically developed into more if Archie only reciprocated Betty's feelings. Unfortunately, Riverdale basically handled every fucking aspect of their relationship poorly. For one thing, the friendship between Betty and Archie was rarely ever on display unless they were interacting during group scenes or their possible romance was being teased to create drama for the Bughead and Varchie pairings. So in spite of the fact nothing concrete happened between Betty and Archie until the end of season 4, there was nothing to lean on once the writers finally started to head in the BA direction. While the lack of on screen friendship should be blamed on both, Archie in particular showed little interest in Betty's life.

This relationship destroys Betty. The crux of Betty's feelings for Archie, as inconsistent as they are, is that Betty views Archie as this beacon of light that can never be extinguished due to him being pure of heart or some other thing that I disagree with. She romanticizes the idea of how things were before life got so complicated. In her eyes, these childhood memories that we never saw were untainted and good. As a child, Betty always imagined she'd end up with Archie, marrying him at eighteen years old. Teen Betty held on to this dream for a very long time, but was forced to face the truth that Archie didn't feel the same way. If I'm being generous, I'd say Archie considered Betty as a backup plan, but not much more beyond that. But by the end of season 1, Betty realized she wanted so much more for her life than being a power couple with Archie. Betty found real love with Jughead, someone who saw all of her, embracing both the lightness and darkness. Betty discovered a love for investigating mysteries and going down the rabbit hole in the name of justice. Betty likes making murder boards and searching the woods in the middle of the night. Part of the reason for this is that Betty is inherently attracted to darker aspects of life. Betty struggles a lot to accept these sides of herself as her awful, abusive family tells her over and over that she's the problem and the one bringing misery to everyone's lives as she strives to help and improve things for her family. Based on the way she was written during seasons 1-4 prior to the cheating, it came across like Betty was beginning to accept these sides of herself, proud of the person she was with Jughead by her side.

But the moment things with Jughead seemed as though they were uncertain, as flimsy as the issue was (Jughead not doing his homework), Betty turned to Archie to escape from the reality of life. That basically sums up what Archie is to Betty during the adult years as well. When Betty finally confesses to Jughead what happened with Archie, it breaks them. The communication seems to die then and there with both remaining together passively until Betty leaves for college. We later see that Betty and Jughead reconnected to some degree during their freshmen year of college, talking and texting while in relationships with others, essentially engaging in an emotional affair. The timeline from there is confusing because the show could never decide when exactly Jughead left Betty the voicemail, but it seems clear that Betty's life kind of fell apart after that? She ends up having an affair with a married man (who might have turned out to be a serial killer? Seasons 5-7 are kind of a blur for me) and is eventually held captive by the Trash Bag Killer. From there, we see that Betty has trauma over this. She refuses to deal or properly feel her emotions. Jughead is off limits. They still aren't talking and the divide between them has only grown bigger after the voicemail where Betty was led to believe Jughead hated her and thought she was a terrible person, not realizing he'd spiraled into alcoholism and drug use. Archie could never be alone and teenage Betty wanted to fuck Archie once upon a time, so why not? So they enter a friends with benefits relationship that ends up being much more about the benefits and filling a void than it is being actual friends to one another. Betty doesn't want Archie to be this person for her. He makes her feel good and comforted in the moment, but ultimately she's aware the two of them don't work. Not only that, but Archie verbalizes to his army friend that he does NOT want to be there emotionally for Betty. Much like in season 2 after their kiss, Archie went back to Veronica because that's where his heart led him.

Betty continues to emotionally spiral and doesn't seem to improve much over the course of the season. Archie doesn't seem to notice or care. Jughead does. Their interaction is limited, but there's a semblance of a rebuilding phase where the two renew their friendship and go back to investigating together. While Betty's feelings for Jughead are kept ambiguous because again, her emotions are being kept close to her chest and there's a lot she isn't saying or dealing with. Jughead, on the other hand, makes it clear multiple times throughout the season that he hasn't moved past his breakup with Betty and had already forgiven Betty by the time he returned to Riverdale even if he wasn't saying it. Then, completely out of nowhere, Jughead is singing about how he's "perfect" for Tabitha, a song that Bughead fans have frequently said fits Bughead far better. Due to Veronica breaking things off with Archie because she wanted to return to New York, something also totally random that never came to pass, a day drinking Archie decided that he wanted to sleep with his old pal Betty again so they basically get back together at the end of season 5 with zero build up. We don't know why Betty defaults back to Archie. Cheryl did some sort of spell that blatantly had an effect on the plot, though that's never addressed. Then, the characters are in Rivervale, and Betty murders Archie twice and shares a big moment with Jughead where they almost fuck to save the world. Back in regular Riverdale once the universes have been separated, Betty and Archie enter an official relationship. Everything is always about Archie. If there's ever any sort of conflict, Betty will be the one to sacrifice and to change her stance to make things easier for Archie. There's at least one scene where Betty is ranting about something bothering her and Archie is just sitting there like it doesn't matter to him. 99% of their conversations revolved around Archie wanting to fuck or save the town and get rid of Percival Pickens for good. Midway through the season, Betty had another crisis about fearing she was evil, but Archie (basically ripping off something Jughead said at the end of season 2; this also happened to be a flashback the audience had just seen during the episode where Betty and Jughead were going over Betty's past memories together, including multiple iconic Bughead moments) reassured Betty she was a good person, citing a childhood memory the audience had never seen to prove his point. And that's another thing! Rather than showing us much of anything between Betty and Archie in the present to convince us they were meant to be together or were compatible in any way, we just hear about random childhood memories. Everything Betty and Archie ever did revolved around looking back fondly on their so-called idyllic childhoods or having sex. Season 6 Betty came across as such a lesser version of herself. She was still herself, but it was as if she was holding back. It's like, maybe Betty doesn't want to get married? Can't have that! Archie has to settle down in Riverdale and recreate his father's life, meaning Betty needs to get over herself and shove her round self into a square peg so that all of Archie's dreams come true. I mean, multiple times during season 6, Archie was treated as akin to the savior of Riverdale while Betty was legitimately referred to as the "harlot of Babylon". Archie was perfect and indestructible while Betty was dark and dirty and needed to be cleansed before she could be accepted into Heaven. Basically, Archie is perfect as is and doesn't need to adjust himself in the slightest to become a better partner for Betty. But, Betty needs to change nearly everything about herself, reverting back to wanting things that only made sense to kid Betty, all to fulfill some old dream about settling down with Archie that the real Betty hadn't wanted in years. Not to mention the fact that as early as season 1, Betty resented being the perfect girl next door. Well, with Archie, that's basically all she was.

Betty and Archie were never going to work together, but the fact that Betty tried so hard to mold herself into some perfect, cookie cutter housewife, maternal figure all so Archie could have the white picket fence and the 2.5 kids makes me FURIOUS. It was incredibly misogynistic, and honestly led to me despising Archie. Betty deserved so much better. As fucked up and as gross as the "horny Betty" writing for the majority of season 7 was, I'm just relieved that Betty once again reiterated that she and Archie wanted different things and definitively didn't end up together.