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Let’s talk about Belly’s Affair, AKA Last Christmas…
The way it’s being directly and indirectly addressed is actually so layered. And the gradual reveal of its significance has been evolving throughout the season.
I think that what Belly says and doesn’t say about her Christmas with Conrad tells me more about her unreliability as a narrator than anything else does. It starts with one of the first things she says via voiceover in 3x01, about Jeremiah, “I want him for all seasons, not just summer.” This line has been nagging at me because, for us viewers, her winters belong to Conrad. So, that line feels to me like the beginning of a certain pattern of behavior that we’ve been seeing from her, in which she overcompensates in her downplay of Conrad’s continued significance to her.
Take the voiceover monologue that she gives us in 3x02, soon after we see the full Christmas flashback. She says, about Conrad, “For the rest of my life, I will think of him fondly, the way you do your first pet, the first car you drove.” That sentiment is so obviously and insanely inaccurate, it feels offensive. It hurts to hear her say that. However, it’s a perfect line because its absurdity is exactly what tells me that the truth about Conrad is the opposite of what she’s saying.
She is trying so hard to put him in her past, but we can see that, still, every time he shows up in her life, “the stars disappear.” Every moment spent with him means so much to her. She can’t help it. Conrad told Agnes that he couldn’t be alone with Belly. The thing that Belly won’t even admit to herself is that she can’t be alone with Conrad either.
Agnes encouraged Conrad to go to Cousins for the dedication in order to try to normalize the situation with Belly, because that would usually be a reasonable thing to assume is possibly achievable. But, again, we the viewers know the truth that all of the characters either don’t know or won’t say out loud, which is that Belly and Conrad will never be normal.
The morning after he showed up at the house during Christmas, Belly was so worried that he wasn’t still there that she ran down the stairs and wiped out. Belly loved the day she spent together/ not together with Conrad so much, that it feels to her like she cheated.
This is so conflicting for her because the situation doesn’t fit the standard exemplifications of cheating. They both just happened to be at the house, and they weren’t physical with each other. “Nothing happened.” Even emotional cheating would normally imply that something romantic was spoken between them, but they didn’t flirt or confess any feelings for each other or even outwardly address their history.
And yet…
The “Last Christmas” flashbacks, and their placement within the season, mirror the 2x02 “Love Scene” Christmas in Cousins flashbacks because they signify the same thing. Belly and Conrad don’t need to be physically or verbally intimate, or even intentionally in the same room at the same time, to be loving each other so much that it’s a love affair. It just happens. Always.
Belly doesn’t understand this yet. That’s why she’s been feeling so weird about it. The thing is, last Christmas was the beginning of the end for her and Jeremiah. Why show us that sequence and have her give us the “first pet/ first car” line right before the proposal? Overcompensation. Jere cheated, so he proposed. Belly cheated, so she accepted.
And it’s not just about their end. By extension, it’s the beginning of Belly and Conrad’s new beginning. Belly, despairingly, said as much to Taylor in 3x07. This whole thing with Conrad started when they saw each other at Christmas. It’s just like how Steven and Taylor’s affair started when they ran into each other in New York. Their’s is just a more obvious and intentional affair.
Additionally, 🚨BOOK SPOILER ALERT🚨, in the letters that Belly and Conrad write to each other while she’s abroad, they both confess that last Christmas was their best Christmas ever.
In the show, the revelation of the significance of their time together at Christmas is still unfolding because Christmas is another one of their infinite loops. It was when they slept together for the first time, it was the beginning of their second chance romance, and, I suspect, it will be when they finally find each other again for the last time before they begin their happily ever after.
Belly said, “I want him for all seasons, not just summer,” because what she really wants is something infinite. Her relationship with Jeremiah, in so many ways, including symbolically (pool vs beach), is finite. Symbolically, she only had him for summer.
The one she always had and always will have, for winter and all other seasons, “no matter what happens,” still is…
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he definitely fucks but there’s no way he fucks normal
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I think people get the “Bruce dancing like a stripper in the Iceberg Lounge” situation all wrong. The batkids won’t die of embarrassment because that’s their dad. They’ll die of frustration because they will never, ever be able to make Bruce feel embarrassed about it.
Do you really think the man who would strip and bust it down for the secret identity has the capacity to feel shame? Exactly.
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You know the way I see it, the ring being small isn't the problem. Even as an anti, I'd let that slide. It's a little funny sure, but like I could understand it, he's a student, he doesn't have a job... I'd get it. If you love someone, it doesn't matter. You'd marry them with paper rings.
But the fact that he insisted on going into debt for a cake - a cake he'll eat a slice of on his wedding day - and not for a ring his future wife would wear every day? That rubs me so wrong (let's set aside the fact that I hate him okay, looking at it objectively). It's what the kids nowadays would call a red flag.
And like he said they both get one thing, and Belly's thing was getting married at the beach house, so she's not even getting her one thing, meanwhile he crushed his credit score and derailed their future for a FUCKING CAKE.
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they are barring wikipedia. they are barring spotify. they are barring important news - both national news and world news. they are barring mental health forums and LGBTQ related things and so much more. this is not about protecting children, it has never been about protecting children.
the online safety act is an insane privacy breach, and if that does not scare you then you need to think harder about it. it is going to end up in a massive data leak - all the information is getting collected by random third party systems. can we trust them? no. can we even hold them accountable? no. because the government couldn’t even make their own system to do these age checks.
and i hear you - it is important that kids don’t see porn. but even if all this was about protecting kids, it’s sloppy and useless. it’s easy (for now) to get around with a vpn and the only thing the act doing is censoring things that it shouldnt. if the government wanted to protect kids, they would do something concrete about it - they would be putting more funding into education, for example.
of course the policy isnt called “national surveillance”. they’re not going to call it that. everything will be hidden behind things that people want.
so email your MP, and tell other people that this is WAY more than blocking porn from children - this is the first step towards national surveillance.
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I'm watching house with my housemate and I did think of your Wilson
obsessed with this lmao that's my fave lil guy
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Urgent now Gaza is under bombardment now and suddenly in the middle of the night Israel is carrying out fierce attacks without prior warning to continue military operations and breach the truce and there are a large number of martyrs and injuries throughout Gaza Save Gaza The bloodbath has begun to bleed again The genocide is continuing during these moments💔🚀🚀
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VETTED CAMPAIGN DELETED BY GFM AND NEEDING TO RAISE FUNDS FROM SCRATCH
GFM unjustly terminated Fidaa's @fidaa-family2 campaign and she lost all of the funds she'd raised so far to help evacuate her family. She has to start all over with a new campaign.
Fidaa's campaign has been vetted here and here. Please consider donating to her if you have anything at all to give. Small dollar amounts can add up so never think you won't make a difference! If you have enough to buy a cup of coffee, consider skipping it to give to Fidaa instead. Imagine how frustrating it would be after months of fundraising to lose what you've worked hard for. We need to show Fidaa our support now more than ever!
You can also donate through Paypal directly.
Please reblog & share this post even if you aren't able to donate. Let's help this fundraiser reach as many people as possible. <3
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please don't scroll past this post without reading about @ahmedgazza3 's campaign:
imagine being only 20 years old, at the start of your adult life, but before you can make your dreams come true your city is bombarded and your family is forced to evacuate and now lives in a tent. this is what Ahmed has had to face, and now that Gaza is under siege again in the holy month of Ramadan he and his family are in danger once more.
we can't allow this to continue.
please donate what you can and support this campaign by sharing it, which costs you nothing!
(campaign vetted by association)
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My kind friends, It’s been more than two months since the crossings were completely closed, and not a single grain of wheat has come through. Prices are unbearable, a bag of flour now exceeds $300, and a kilo of sugar, oil, or vegetables costs over $30, while we have no income, no resources, nothing.
To make things worse, the donations we relied on have almost stopped. Days pass with no support, and sometimes we receive just a few dollars… not enough to buy a loaf of bread. 💔
Today, our only meal was a small plate of vegetable salad and dry bread, not enough for four people and a baby growing inside his mother’s womb.
But the moment that broke me… was when my little boy looked at me with tearful eyes, asking for something else to eat because he doesn’t like the salad. Then he began to cry. He doesn’t understand that we barely managed to get even this tiny amount of food, And me? I could only hide my tears, trying to smile at him while my heart silently collapsed, convincing him to eat because we have nothing else. 🥹

My dear friends, we are on the edge of famine. I’m not asking for much, just enough to feed my child and my family, so we can go to sleep without hunger, and live through one more day. 😓

Please, don’t leave us alone. Any support, any extended hand, could save lives here. 🙏🫂
Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is ( #152 ) ✅
This campaign has also been verified by @90_ghost ✅
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I lost my baby after 6 months of hope… No words can describe the pain 💔💔
I share this update with a heart weighed down by sorrow and heartbreak…
We are still living in the heart of catastrophe. Ongoing starvation, fear, and the lack of safety have destroyed what remains of our humanity. We lost our home, our jobs, our dreams… we lost the life we once knew!
I lost my baby after six months of pregnancy. Six months during which I awaited his birth as a sole beacon of hope amid death and destruction. I held onto him as a symbol of a new beginning… but he left before seeing the light of day. 💔😭
The miscarriage was difficult and painful. My body could no longer endure. I became unable to move, and my health has sharply deteriorated. My heart tears apart every moment I remember that I lost my baby…🥹
My family and I are now suffering from severe malnutrition. We’ve lost a great deal of weight and can no longer find anything to satisfy our hunger. We need flour, basic foods, nutritional supplements, and urgent medicines so I can regain my strength and care for my child and family who are still alive and struggling every day to survive.


I know you have never hesitated to help, and you have always been a symbol of humanity. But today I write to you with the last strength I have left… because my life and the lives of my family are in your hands.
Your support now means life for us… it means we have not been forgotten in this hell.
From the depths of my heart, Please not leave us alone in these moments.

Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is ( #152 ) ✅
This campaign has also been verified by @90_ghost ✅
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I think when you correctly identify a trauma that is the base of a woe of yours it should just disappear. It should be like "aaahh. you got me" and vanish and leave 100 dollars behind
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Injecting pure estrogen into my bloodstream so I forcefeminize my vampire friend
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