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thesherrinfordfacility · 7 months

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would love to know your thoughts!!! ask and ye shall receive; i have many! your responses are great food for thought.

firstly, please accept my humble apologies for the late-late answer to this!!! i got into a hyperfocus with an amv first things first, i'm pretty sure given the length of my ask your answer doesn't qualify as late. i'll take the dance though lol. also the amv is fantastic! meat loaf is one of my favourite artists and your editing is amazing. p.s. should you decide to do another meat loaf song at some point may i cast my vote for original sin? imo his best song and well. on the nose title is on the nose.

im firmly of the opinion that god in GO is omniscient, but strictly amoral. anything else has rather concerning implications i think. i mean, if it's all just god's plan then free will - which angels and demons do act as though they have - is fictitious and if she doesn't approve i'm not really sure how aziraphale and crowley are a) still alive and b) ever going to be able to have a happy ending because i don't think you can exactly defeat an omniscient omnipotent being.

especially if anyone subscribes to some variant of the scapegoat theory - that being crowley, aziraphale, lucifer, or any combination of them. i think i might just subscribe to every variant of this theory. including the possibility that some of the stuff you noticed is relevant not to the fall but to the modern day. really hoping something like this'll be true. (also really hoping for a pieta; those promo photos are ominous and they have me in a chokehold.)

now, i can see metatron's rationale going in two different directions (so far, and might be both or neither): this was definitely helpful for parsing my own thoughts on the metatron. i'd be inclined towards a mix of both but with the former weighing more heavily: less 'i follow what i think is god's plan and if it benefits me then that must be part of it without considering the subconscious influence of my desires' and more 'i do what i want and since i am an infallible vessel of god's plan my will must be hers'. i find that would make a more compelling villain but that's just me. i'm not exactly sure how and whether this fits with my fall theories though. i do think crowley's fall was something personal which makes me think whatever he did be it just asking the wrong questions or also finding the wrong answers - i prefer the latter because i'd love to see the forbidden knowledge thing pay off but i think the wrong questions are plenty dangerous enough for my speculation to still work - it threatened not just god's plan/authority but also specifically the metatron's. although this does open the question whether he sees taking over heaven as subverting god. you could probably make an argument that the two aren't necessarily equated. i'm still intrigued by the demons discussing the final victory of hell over heaven - and following the plan they believed to be god's to do so?!

hell are short-staffed - irrespective of why, we know this is an issue. which. how did that even happen? as of the airbase there are 10 million demons around according to beelzebub. assuming they're not lying what happened in the last four year to change that?

i think there's something there. something something if it happens twice it's an institutional problem. there can't be another rebellion because of what that would say about heaven so all issues are neatly swept under the rug before anyone finds out about them. crowley's extremely public execution vs aziraphale being quietly made to disappear. *

well, it's actually somewhat understandable how they regard aziraphale. it makes sense i'm just not sure it doesn't make it worse. harking back to what i said about the metatron antagonists who fully believe they're doing the right thing are chilling.

so, to watch as aziraphale presumably treads the same path must be terrifying, because of what it could precipitate. * sweeping issues under the rug before anyone finds out and the situation escalates.

all of this to say that i don't think it's inconclusive at this time to implicate the archangels in what, as the hypothesis above indicates, is entirely metatron's doing. i'm not sure what you mean with this sentence, sorry! would you mind clarifying? trying to give as vague a response as possible so it fits in any case: i don't think the archangels are completely innocent, but the metatron clearly outranks them and presumably has plans that they're not privy to.

bear in mind that despite the recent trial, uriel and michael don't even recognise metatron. which is distinctly odd. wonder if there's something going on there.

it might not necessarily change anything about the fall retrospectively, but it does inform on how they punish angels, that step out of line, in a post-fall era. those dynamics could also end up being relevant to season 3's plot it's just that i was trying - and let's be honest failing - to stay at least somewhat on track.

and in any case - im not convinced that either of them, or indeed anyone(?) fully remembers the fall. hmmmm. the metatron might have blurred everyone's memories a bit especially regarding the specifics of how falling worked, but you'd think if a full wipe happened to every single angel, fallen or not, there'd be more awareness of it as a phenomenon? based off dagon's rallying in season 1 the other demons do seem to recall fighting and aziraphale also remembers details from the war with the halo thing. while we get crowley quite specifically and directly emphathising with gabriel's situation there's no indication aziraphale relates in the same way. an institutional scale wipe makes sense from the metatron's perspective but i feel more like it's being set up more as a directly targeted at crowley thing - maybe aziraphale if that version of the scapegoat theory is true - which would fit with knowing something he shouldn't have, which is probably still my leading theory on why he fell. i think if the scapegoat theory shows up it's more likely to be in the form of how the narrative was framed afterwards and not with that being the actual reason for him falling. but i will fully admit that my speculating is heavily influenced by what i would like to be true and my brain sank its teeth into the thematic-ness of the angel who would become the serpent of eden falling for acquiring forbidden knowledge fall of man style and won't let go.

but i am still fairly convinced that crowley is going to own a lucifer-ish narrative as concerns his fall. fingers crossed that you're right! i want this so badly. although my ideal scenario if i'm not theorising but just going by what i'd find cool to see is that the lucifer-ish narrative is something that was at least partially imposed on him afterwards after he got mind-wiped to distract him from the real reason (see above, i'm trying not to repeat myself too much lol).

but i think he massively downplays his part. and if the memory loss theory is true, i really think that might be the reason why he does it. he can't consider that he might have done something a little bad because he's scared he did something that would horrify him *. brace yourself tangent incoming. i started thinking about whether you can exend that to the present day and i think you just might be able to. he's stuck in a very strange in between where he can't admit to any of his positive traits or softer emotions because hell would come for him but he also can't acknowledge his flaws because for all that's he's got plenty he's not bad or evil or whatever which is precisely why the thought that if he started digging into his flaws he might find out exactly that about himself terrifies him so much. he did something bad enough to warrant falling and apparently he himself was/is so bad he didn't even realise how bad it was (thank you job!) so if he starts with self examination what if it just keeps going and going and he finds out he's no better than hastur or ligur or dagon or any of the other demons he reports to who all delight in suffering. feeling sorry for him.

i think perhaps lucifer and the gang start to panic, panic at the concept of falling (regardless of who is dolling out the sentence, god or metatron), and they pin the blame on AWCW. i hadn't even considered that the scapegoat aspect might come from the rebels. i always figured that if such a narrative was implemented it was the archangels who did so. there's a post floating around talking about what happened that crowley stopped being friends with the other rebels and i don't think i like what i get when i put your and their ideas together. ouch.

but that would potentially be a big chunk of his character core that once realised could make a lot of things about him suddenly make sense. i mean you saw my ramble on the psychological ramifications of something like that in the lucifer theory interlude. how the fuck do you reconcile six millenia + however much 'time' elapsed between the fall and the beginning living with the knowledge that you're essentially the root of all evil and suffering in this universe? (* aka the even more painful alternative explanation for the downplaying.) if this is true i'm amazed he isn't more messed up. feeling even more sorry for him.

in terms of crowley's rank... sigh. i know i did argue for it in my last ask but honestly? i have pretty mixed feelings. if i'm trying to simplify them they mostly boil down to that i think there's a case to be made in either direction and that on the whole i can really take or leave the theory. high ranked characters who are nonetheless regarded as utterly irrelevant is a very specific dynamic that i really enjoy, i think at some point you move past red herring into 'well now you do have to deliver something' territory and there are some interesting character/narrative implications this opens up. on the other hand there are other character/narrative possibilities that would get shut down and i can offer a counter argument for all the hints. so. overall i think it's probably the theory that affects the circumstances of his fall the least. if he was an archangel then the metatron's disdain is because someone he disliked anyway nearly exposed him. if he wasn't then it's because some nobody nearly exposed him. he can still have been a threat without needing the clearance. the scapegoat theory isn't changed. like it works if he was an archangel but it also doesn't really matter all that much if he wasn't.

but my understanding is that a lot of his themes work with the concept of being "ordinary" which... this theory would arguably shoot out of the park i've seen a few people argue this and i have to say i disagree. his power is clearly tied to his imagination and not his rank so that wouldn't be affected. and so i personally feel it would actually reinforce the ordinariness. he protested the end date of the universe as a high ranking angel and achieved nothing beyond a sulfur bath for his troubles whereas as a demonic nobody he successfully helped avert the apocalypse. he accomplished things as someone ordinary that he didn't manage when he was still somebody.

we know that shax is not the sharpest of demons in this respect *snorts*

in which case, i personally think gabriel was just being sarcastic and childish, and simply reinstating "hey, im the top dog here, im the only one at my level, so what i say goes'. i mean you may very well be right. but, and maybe it's just because of the way it made me do the mental equivalent of slamming face first into a wall on my second rewatch, i can't shake the feeling that there's something going on with this line. of course the cut to crowley could just mean that he knows something to contradict it; not necessarily that he is the contradiction. (or it's just a very painful piece of foreshadowing that aziraphale's going to take the metatron's offer but i'm hoping there's more to it than that.)

there's a whole, obviously interesting, conversation missing there, and i dont think that's inconsequential... potentially. oooo i hadn't even gotten around to considering the potential content and consequences of that conversation yet. the whole thing felt oddly like there was some kind of history there to me. that doesn't have to mean he was an archangel but i did find it noticeable. did the circumstances surrounding his fall warrant the entire council of archangels getting involved as well as the metatron? could be a point in favour of the scapegoat theory and/or my forbidden knowledge thing.

so morning stars... might just be morning stars? probably lol. even in a show with as much to discover as good omens i'd imagine a good third of the things we find didn't actually mean anything deeper. so yes most likely answer. the more boring one too though. i will say that despite my suggesting the more literal meaning i'm pretty sure that if it does somehow end up pertaining to crowley then it's just metaphorical: a nod at a lucifer reminscent fall narrative. 🦭

p.s. you certainly didn't forget or ignore anything (your responses are amazingly thorough!) but i did figure since you've been, as you say, biased towards being more critical of crowley, i figured i'd have a shot at tempting/challenging you to analyse a positive aspect of his character to balance it out again ;)

p.p.s. obviously only if you want to; i don't mean to pressure you or anything!

resending this because i think the wifi might have eaten it (you do not want to know how often that happens); apologies if that wasn't the case and you've now got it twice!

hello again 🦭 anon!!! hope you're good!!!✨ i did get your first one but no matter! i ended up having to make notes in order to be able to plan my response to you - literally 5 pages, but i think better pen to paper - and just as i was about to start typing it all up, you re-sent!!!✨💕

also thank you re: the amv, haha!!! i ended up doing another using The Darkness, but your suggestion of using Original Sin is inspired, ive put it on the list!!! as for being on the nose... well, i did one to lewis capaldi's heavenly kind of state of mind, so make of that what you will!

anyway!!! once more unto the breach✨

(previous ask)

i completely agree with your remarks on the implications of god - i discussed this at some length with LWA, but i'll say it again; i have some major reservations about the God Ships It trope in the fandom for this very reason. now, don't get me wrong, in the world of fic etc., i totally get it's just for fun, and i 100% stand by the notion that everyone should just get to write what they like for the purposes of entertainment (and they're legends for doing so!!!), but in the case of discussing god in general in GO, and her involvement in crowley/aziraphale, i simply... can't get on board with it, nor with the idea that god created them specifically to find each other, or that they were meant to work together/fall for each other. it, for me personally, just feels incongruous with other aspects of god's characterisation or indeed the theme of the story - to my interpretation, anyway.

i do however consider that aziraphale may perhaps - however funny the idea is and therefore the plethora of jokes that have been made about it - may have somewhat of a special place in god's esteem. i still consider the thoughts that:

aziraphale was a cherub at the time of and before eden, and if we consider both hebrew and christian angelologies, cherubim are consider to be the throne-bearers of god, and attendants to god, respectively

obviously this is not confirmed in GO, but if we work with the understanding that humanity is god's greatest creation, built in her image, it indicates some level of trust and prestige that aziraphale would be working on building them

aziraphale seems to understand the ineffable plan on a profound level, even if he doesn't quite consciously realise it. let's go with my rationale that ineffable plan = no plan = free will of everyone else, aziraphale has shown repeatedly that he follows this, and is never punished for it. examples: giving the sword away, lying to god about it, lying to the archangels, preventing armageddon. all instances, i'd wager, all directly contravene the Great Plan, and yet aziraphale is - to my recollection/understanding - never once punished for it.

so essentially, in my eyes, aziraphale is sort of the embodiment of god's will; again, even if he doesn't realise or know that, his decisions made out of the Right Thing To Do all indicate him thinking for himself, going where his moral compass is pointing him. he arguably resists it, finding it hard to reconcile this with what he thinks god's plan is (ie he thinks he's disobeying her - and by extension heaven's - will), but that's where crowley comes in. it's all a little main-character-ish, even for me, but it's currently the only thing that makes sense for a lot of god's actions and inactions in the narrative; that free will is her greatest gift, if only her creations would use it. i also love the metaphorical imagery, the poetry, of crowley being the question, and aziraphale being the answer (this sparks narrative analytical joy).

so let's segue back to the metatron; i know i said it in my previous answer, but personally my thinking on his motive is the other way around 😂 i really like your thoughts, especially on 'infallible vessel', and whilst that certainly speaks to me as being his behaviour, im not personally convinced that is his motive. imo (so please do ignore this if preferable!!!), i don't think it's narratively compelling in GO to actually have a villain, so to speak; obviously metatron fulfils the role of it, he's the Big Bad, but i can't help but feel that "blur the edges... something to said for shades of grey" speaks about more than just crowley and aziraphale's grapple with their moral identities, or indeed that of hell and heaven; for me, it's the specific, simplified concept that moral absolutism doesn't exist. noone is completely evil, just as noone is wholly good.

it would make sense, to me, for this to extend to metatron; whilst his actions are - to the audience especially - objectively immoral, i can't help but see the angle where if your whole purpose as you understood it was to be the voice of god, and to enact her will as she left it in her handover (ie. the great plan) before FO'ing out of heaven, i don't think it's beyond comprehension that his actions to preserve that will are understandable... to some extent. i want to see metatron's arse kicked as much as the next person, but at the same time i interpret GO as posing the dichotomy of conflicting morality, of good and evil, and exploring how far the two are intertwined... it therefore doesn't personally make sense to me that metatron would completely fall outside of this. his actions are detestable, but i want to see a story that makes me think about why he does what he does, and question my evaluation of whether - in context - he did the right or wrong thing... or maybe a bit of both. every villain is a hero in their own story.

as for his beef with crowley, well... i think it depends on what you (general) would consider personal. i think it could totally be personal in the perspective of 'im doing what i can to follow god's will and preserve the sanctity of heaven, and you're getting in the way of that - you are therefore a threat', and also the alternative of 'im the voice of god, im literally the highest authority, and you are directly challenging me". i think both absolutely could be correct, a mix of them - for me, the former being personal against metatron's motive, and the latter against his character.

where crowley/AWCW is specifically concerned re: his questions, i think again for me it makes for a more compelling character arc that crowley has existed throughout his fall and being a demon as not getting any answers, constantly questioning, and instead in s3 he gets the answers (albeit, i have a feeling that the answer will essentially be that there are no answers, and it's 'up to each of you to find your own ones'). AWCW not getting any answers to his questions would, imo, also make more sense for the dialogue on the wall of eden (again, reluctant to chalk everything up to a memory wipe).

right, ten million demons!!! this one is absolutely boggling me, and i did, at some point in a shitpost, question this - someone quite logically said that the demons were pushing for armageddon so that everyone dies and demons wouldnt have to work anymore, and that as the human population kept going up, so did the number of the damned (compared with the static number of demons to govern them), but im still... undecided. crackpot thought: perhaps in contrast to how aziraphale is treated post-retiring from heaven in s2, demons have taken inspiration from crowley, especially as armageddon 2.0 kept getting postponed after s1, and they've gone AWOL?

couple of things in this: it has the potential to tie into the various nina/maggie theories. we also have a lot more insight into demon dynamics in s2, and a common theme im seeing is demons... asking questions. eric (my beloved) in ep5, beelzebub's PA/bodyguard, furfur, even shax... they all feel very different to hastur and ligur in s1 in terms of characterisation, and even very different from dagon as we see them in s2, and i wonder if this has any correlation - any cause and effect relationship - with the decreasing demon population. it also seems to follow the trajectory of beelzebub losing interest in ruling hell; again, i wonder if essentially demons have had mass walk-outs and they're basically floating around earth, staying under the radar... similar to crowley. thoughts?

re: the archangels... i meant 'conclusive' haha!!! (edited on the previous ask, apologies!!!). what i mean is that i don't think we can necessarily, at this time, assign the same level of culpability or blame to the archangels as we do to metatron. it's the 'following orders' thing again, but put it this way - aziraphale arguably has the benefit of being assigned to earth, and being around crowley, to fully realise that he can think for himself and according to his own sense of morality. the archangels have not known anything other than heaven, god's plan, and the metatron's voice. they're not innocent by any stretch, but the bottom line - as i see it - for them is to preserve heaven. we can view their actions as deplorable, and that is true, but in their unique circumstances, what other action would, could, or should they have taken? i refer back to my thoughts above on moral absolutism and its place - if it has any - in GO and its characters.

re: memory of their time as angels, this is where i largely fluctuate on how much i subscribe to the memory wipe theory - but i don't think it's a full wipe, but potentially partial? im soooo not sure because there are so many counterpoints to each eventuality, but here are some scattered thoughts:

im personally not 100% convinced that metatron necessarily has anything directly to do with the memory issue thing. i know michael and uriel don't remember him (saraqael presumably does, same as crowley, because they had just watched the trial footage), and that is one part i can't quite get my head around... but i think perhaps that the memory wipe is attributable more to the BOL than to the metatron himself - i do think there's potentially a link between falling/erasure of grace and divinity, and to memories of being an angel

as i said (iirc) in the last response, there's the question of how crowley and - we can assume from the dialogue - beelzebub both remember the detail of frightening cherubs with the extreme sanctions threat. this makes me wonder if it's a case of them forgetting the fall specifically rather than their entire time as angels - or if their ability to recollect some memories is linked to their particular levels of power or rank. ie. the higher the angelic rank/individual power, the more they're able to remember? idk

as for demons not being aware of a wider issue, that's a fair point - but do demons really talk to each other? wouldn't that indicate a weakness, vulnerability? if there is a large-scale memory problem going on, which is a very tentative thought anyway, im not sure that any of the demons would in fact talk to others about it. also - quite right to point out dagon's rallying speech, but (and im probably flogging a dead horse here but im trying to work stuff out, so bear with me!!!) if the war occurred before the fall, the 'rebels' lost and fell, ending up in hell, i don't think there's any reason why the fall specifically might not have been wiped. idk, this whole thing needs so much more thought and research in general

one thing that i do think is interesting is that aziraphale hasnt ever spoken about his experience in the war, except to nina and maggie. this could just be how the narrative evolved organically, sure, but could it also indicate some level of guilt? some level of aziraphale feeling like he was to blame, the fact that he remembers the war where crowley doesn't fully seem to? i have my #halo theory wherein i wonder if aziraphale was the specific angel to actually declare the war in heaven - and this kind of links in with a couple of recent asks ive had where aziraphale may have had a judas iscariot-type role in the fall itself... (discussed here and here) i think him carrying some degree of shame and responsibility for the fall on his shoulders could make a lot of sense in regards to his characterisation after the fact, particularly on the wall of eden (this could arguably negate any scapegoat theory for aziraphale pre-fall, but i also think it could work concurrently. hmm.)

i absolutely love your interpretation of crowley's inner conflict, i think that's so well put, and i like it a lot!!! i certainly don't think crowley is willfully ignorant or in denial of his potential part in his own - or the wider - fall, but perhaps just doesn't want to examine or confront it, as you said... or perhaps doesn't remember altogether, and has just cobbled together why he thinks he fell. but similarly, i think it's also fair to assess crowley as having some measure of the same mentality as he did before he fell; that he can be quite blinkered, self-assured, and at times quite arrogant. there are quite a few instances where i think, to some degree, that he shows this, but i think that's another post!!! (and please, please do not think im hating on him - critique of a character does not mean i dislike him or find him reprehensible, i promise; it's quite the opposite honestly!!!)

last couple of bits, re: AWCW's rank - i think there's a distinction in the conferment of importance on AWCW by way of rank, vs by way of power, and that the two are not necessarily the same. you're exactly right - AWCW had an imagination, same as crowley does, and i too think this is the source from which all his power stems; nothing to do with his prospective rank in heaven. personally, i think it reads more poetically to have, essentially, a nobody be the one to precipitate an event that rocks the stability of heaven, and being the first (?) to question the system. but ultimately, like you said, it's immaterial, and the narrative would still hold and be profound if it were the other way around. just personally i like the idea of him being a heavenly Nobody to becoming a hellish Somebody is rather compelling!!!✨

#good omens #ask #ill sort out the tags in a bit

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quietparanoiac · 3 years

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"Something tells me you'll astonish everyone in the joust."

"If you'd just shake off that resignation of yours!"

"You are stronger than you have ever believed."

Ten fe, hermano.

El Cid (2020–), 1x01 | 1x05 | 2x05

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ordinaryschmuck · 4 years

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What I Thought About “Enchanted Grom Fright”

Salutations random people of the internet who probably won't read this. I am an Ordinary Shmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

When I started doing reviews, I told myself to stay limited to specials, movies, seasons, and even entire T.V. shows. I didn't want to do reviews for regular episodes of a show, mostly because there wouldn't be enough to talk about in a single post. For me, an episode has to either be astounding enough or important enough to warrant a review. And low and behold, The Owl House did just that with the episode "Enchanting Grom Fright." Keep in mind that I am going to be spoiling everything that happens in this episode. So if you somehow haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend that you do so. And if you haven't seen The Owl House yet...what the hell is wrong with you?

With that out of the way, let's get started with-

WHAT I LIKE

Luz independently looking for new glyphs: This scene is excellent for two reasons. Reason number one: It shows how dedicated Luz is to learning magic. So far, we have yet to see Hexide teach Luz anything regarding her unique way of doing magic. This is why it's great to see Luz try to find glyphs on her own so she can at least attempt to catch up with everyone else. There's also the implication that it's not an easy task for her, given the multiple crumpled up pieces of paper, which must have been failed attempts to make the plant glyph. This scene adds continuity from "Adventures of the Elements" as well, proving that Luz had learned her lesson in said episode. As for reason number two for why this scene is excellent: It sets up how Luz and Amity defeat Grom. Luz could have used her other two glyphs to destroy Grom, but doing so would take away some neat symbolism with the tree that was grown (more on that later). Therefore, Luz finding the plant glyph was a great set up with a proper pay off. Which is what I love about The Owl House. It takes things you wouldn't think twice about and actually makes something beautiful. Case in point: A 'Grom Night' poster was shown in a previous episode, hinting to the glory that is this episode.

Luz barely texting her mom back: I like this because it finally addresses Luz's conflictions for lying to her mom (Something I may or may not have toyed around with https://archiveofourown.org/works/23321692/chapters/55864000). These scenes present moments of how Luz isn't always the happy go lucky teen that she is. And I like that because it adds layers to a character who is already engaging enough.

That Gromposal: I made a post of all the things Disney has approved of before approving Lumity. I guess you can add to the list a character presenting an anatomically correctly drawn heart with the word 'Grom' written in what I can only assume is blood!

(Jokes aside, I legitimately like the dark humor in this scene, as well as Skara saying yes to the poor boy. It was adorable, damn it!)

Amity’s hostility swapped with being friendly: Here's a nice bit of character development for ya! It's just a few seconds, but those seconds show how far Amity has come since episode FIVE! Which is why Amity is one of the best characters in the show. Her development is so impressive that it's legitimately jarring to compare the Amity who was angry to see Luz, to the Amity who immediately apologizes, to Luz. But she still has years of conditioning from her parents to deal with, so of course, Amity's first instinct is to bare her fangs. And I'm more than positive that that instinct is going to leave her pretty soon.

Eda: While we're on the topic of great characters, let's take a moment to talk about Eda in this episode, shall we? Eda, throughout "Enchanted Grom Fright," has fully embraced her role as a maternal figure for Luz. The way Eda attempts to warn Luz about the dangers of Grom is a testament to how much Eda truly cares about 'her human.' And it's not like Eda doesn't acknowledge Luz's efforts at survival. She knows Luz can take care of herself, but that won't stop Eda from drawing the line when she knows Luz is in over her head. The best part is that when Luz admits that she was wrong, Eda doesn't respond with anger or even with a smug "I told you so." Instead, Eda's reaction is calm and nurturing. A response that Luz needed at that moment. It's sweet and genuinely heartwarming to see.

(And I love how Eda constantly admires her own beauty throughout the episode. Which is something I'm sure most fans can relate to.)

Luz and Amity’s talk in the forest: There is a lot to love about this exchange, due to how adorable it is. So here's a quick list: The clearly romantic music playing in the background. The way Amity slipped in the mud and was inches away from accidentally kissing Luz when getting pulled up. The fact that Luz sits down into the mud so as not to make Amity feel self-conscious about being filthy. Luz's sweet, sincere, and instant "I would" when responding to Amity wondering who would take her place as Grom Queen. The fact that Amity was surprised that someone would be willing to take her place in the first place. The payoff to Luz learning that she really did have a spider on the back of her head (Alright, that one wasn’t adorable, but it was definitely hilarious!).

Amity “destroying” Hooty: While I do enjoy seeing Amity act all sweet and gushy, I will admit that feisty Amity is still best Amity. Plus, this scene was remarkably funny.

Training Luz for Grom: This scene was a fantastic showcase for each of the Blight siblings. Now, because I've talked a lot about Amity (and will continue to do so), I want to start talking about Edric and Emira first. When first introduced to Ed and Em, my initial reaction was that they were meanspirited versions of the Weasley Twins from Harry Potter. Sure, Fred and George are known to cause mischief, but they do realize that there's a line you don't cross when it comes to family. That is something that Ed and Em ignored during their debut episode, where they tried to reveal Amity's diary to the world. Luckily, the writers picked up on this quick and made a subtle detour in terms of Ed and Em's personalities. They're actually decent supporting characters, and it's legitimately sweet with how they willingly help Luz. As for Amity, it's great to see that she still takes things seriously despite crushing on Luz. Most shows fall into the trap of making characters a nervous wreck when around their crushes. And while Amity does have those moments, there are still scenes like this that prove she isn't just some smitten kitten-and I hate myself for saying that. Amity is the voice of reason to her and Luz's relationship. And I'm glad that the writers mostly focus on that aspect of her personality rather than write her off as a flustered girl with a crush.

Those boys dancing together: While it's nice to see Luz and Amity's relationship blossom, that doesn't mean we should sleep on great representation such as this. While it's great to see so many romantic pairings between females in the last few years, it's rare to see two boys liking each other, especially in animation. Sure, male pairings exist, but I haven't seen them as celebrated as often as female ones. This is why it's nice to see that The Owl House crew sprinkled in these two boys dancing with each other. Representation matters for everyone, and this little acknowledgment is something worth mentioning, even if it isn't the main ship.

The hallway scene: But let's face it, this is what we came to see. Now when you think about it, there's nothing all that special with this scene. It's a typical romantic moment with a heart to heart discussion followed with witty banter, all while a romantic melody is playing in the background. You see this in multiple types of media, especially in Disney cartoons. The only difference is that this scene features a same-sex pairing and that what makes it amazing. It's essentially normalizing something that has been seen as inappropriate for years. And the fact that Disney of all companies is the one that greenlit a scene like this? That just makes this moment all the more impressive. Plus, I mean, c'mon. You have to have a will of iron not to think these dorks are adorable with this little exchange.

Splash zone: There's not much to talk about or analyze here. I just think the dark humor of a kid waiting in the 'splash zone' is funny. Because what does the splash zone get used for? Grom? The fighter? I don't know, but the fact that a splash zone exists for either of those reasons is what gets a chuckle out of me.

Skara and her date getting hyped for Grom fight: That's it. Skara is officially the best background character. I'm sorry, but a character earns that title when they immediately switch from wanting to kiss their date to "WHOO! BRING ON THE GORE!"

I don't make the rules. I just abide by them.

Luz’s greatest fear: This is something fans could have seen coming due to rewatching and reanalyzing the promo that dropped a little over a month ago. But for fans who ignored the promo, the episode did a great job of setting up this reveal. From the two times that Luz practically ignored her mother's texts, it can be pretty clear that Luz's fear would be something involving Camilia. However, before the episode premiered, everyone jumped on the idea that Luz's greatest fear would be Camilia forcing Luz to come back home. Instead, the scene portrays Luz's greatest fear as her mother's negative response to Luz lying for weeks. That idea is much more interesting to me because it reveals how much Luz cares so much about what her mother thinks of Luz. And unlike Amity with her parents, Luz's fears are much more justified due to Camilia actually being a good mother. A mother who planned to send her daughter away to summer camp, sure, but still a mother who would do that type of thing out of love rather than to protect an image. Which makes me hope to see more of Camilia in the future, just to witness the mother/daughter relationship she has with Luz. Because honestly, it feels like I've been working triple time with portraying that relationship myself.

Amity’s greatest fear: Ah yes, the one thing none of us could have predicted...ok, that's not true. Some of us did predict this, but most of us didn't take those predictions seriously. And BOY, were we wrong to do so. Because the idea that Amity's greatest fear is being rejected by Luz is both sad, yet kind of adorable. It proves just how much Amity has come to care for the same human she nearly got dissected, in episode THREE. It's a nice bit of character growth that I just can't help but gush over how sweet it is. But again, it's also depressing knowing that Amity is afraid by being rejected by Luz of all people. Luz! The girl who's sweeter than honey and would absolutely let Amity down gently if Luz didn't feel the same way (Which she does. She just doesn't realize it yet.). What's even more interesting is that it makes so much sense as to why Amity is more afraid of showing her fear to the school. Not only would Grom reveal that Amity has feelings for Luz, but it also has the problem of outing Amity as a lesbian, presumably long before she's ready. And seeing how her parents reacted to Amity's friendship with Willow, imagine what would happen if word got out that Amity had a crush on a human girl. Yeah, let's just say that Amity must be really grateful that Grom morphed into a vague, shadowy figure.

(Speaking of, can we PLEASE calling Luz oblivious for not knowing that Grom morphed into her? Yes, to us, it's painfully apparent who Grom was supposed to be. But it also looks vague enough to the point where it isn't unbelievable for Luz to not know it was her. Because from where Luz is standing, the only similarity is the height and body shape. If the crew stuck to using Luz's more apparent traits, then I'd say it's fine to say Luz is oblivious. But as is, it's not too far of a stretch for Luz not to know it was her.)

That dance scene!: Remember how some fans have been hoping for a slow dance between Luz and Amity? This is better.

From the choreography to the smooth animation, to their expressions, to even pure epicness of this scene. Everything about this dance is just so astonishing that I am convinced that several fans have watched it over and over and over again since the episode's release. And you want to know the best part? This scene has so many problems that I don't care about due to how great it is. Why does Eda just stand there and do nothing? I don't know, and I don't care. Why does Grom stand there and do nothing? I don't know, and I don't care. How did Luz and Amity come up with this perfect plan without communicating? I don't know, and I don't care. How did Luz catch Amity, even though it looked like they jumped off of the abomination at the same height, and would've landed at the same time? I don't-Ok, you get the point by now.

Don't get me wrong, these are all valid criticisms. But that's the testament of good writing to me. Because if a scene can make me forget/ignore the problems within it, then it's ok in my book!

The cherry blossom: And now we get to that symbolism that I've mentioned before. Because according to a five-second Google search: The Chinese describe the cherry blossom as a symbol for feminine dominance and, of course, a symbol for love. Now the feminine dominance part is clear, but I'm confident that The Owl House staff concentrated more on the whole "symbol of love" thing. Because how else are they supposed to hint that Amity and Luz are meant to be the endgame relationship? Reveal that Amity's gromposal was meant for Luz? C'mon. That would be-

It’s revealed that Amity’s gromposal was meant for Luz: ...You know those moments that are so awesome, iconic, and downright perfect that you just can't help but give a grand old cheer to it? That's this moment right here. Speaking of which: WAH-HOO-HOO-HOO-HOO!

Seriously, some of you have no idea how big this scene is. It would have been so easy to cut the scene short at Amity throwing her half of the note, and leaving it up to interpretation for who the whole thing was for. But the fact that we get to see that it was meant for Luz, thus confirming that Amity has a crush on her, is absolute perfection. Not only is it because this is a big step for Disney in terms of representation, but to me, it seems like a normalization of gay culture. This type of reveal is something that would be done for several heterosexual relationships. So to confirm that Amity has a crush on Luz as if it was nothing...that's...that's just awesome. It's awesome, and I am so happy that Disney even greenlit this decision. And I'm not even gay! So I can not comprehend how some of you are feeling about this moment!

(Also, this does not mean that Lumity is canon. But it does at least mean that Lumity is going to be canon. Only now it's a question of when rather than if.)

Luz’s Text to Home: This was just a sweet moment. You get a better understanding of the love Luz has for her mother within these few seconds, then you did throughout the entire series so far. I also like that this implies that Luz is going to try being more honest with her mom about being in a whole new dimension. Which is again, is something I've been playing with.

Speaking of my aforementioned fanfic, during this entire scene, I was thinking to myself: "Man. Maybe I don't have to write a chapter based on this episode, after all. It pretty much did the job for me. I'm just glad that show didn't do anything that would make what I wrote completely worthless. Because that would just-"

Camilia is getting LETTERS?!: “...Well shit.”

Ok, gags and goofs aside, I honestly love this reveal. Because this presents a whole lot of questions. Like, how is Camilia getting these letters? When did she start getting them? And more importantly: Who the hell is sending them?! This is another thing that I enjoy about The Owl House. Just when you think you're satisfied with the episode you're given, the writers throw in something you could have never expected in a million years. This is why lately, it's a toss-up between The Owl House and Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts for the best show of 2020 for me.

(BTW, WATCH KIPO AND THE AGE OF WONDERBEASTS! It's SO GOOD!)

Those Grom pictures: These were just cute. Especially the last one.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE

...Uh...Oh! I know!

King’s B-plot: A small complaint that I have for The Owl House is that most of the b-plots in several episodes just feel unnecessary. Episodes like "The First Day," and "Adventures in the Elements" had b-plots that were pointless and not as engaging as the a-plot. What's worse is that they seem like padding for time, when most of that time could be used for significant moments in the main plot. And honestly, King's story in this episode is the worst one yet. It's filler that is poorly paced and wasn't really all that funny (aside from the other b-plots which at least offered a few good jokes in them). I don't know. Maybe it's because I have Lumity brain rot and wanted more moments between those two, but I just could not get engaged in King's story.

And...yeah, that’s about it.

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This episode deserves a well earned A+! Sure it has its fair share of problems, but the many, MANY, things it does right outweighs what it does wrong. On top of that, its one of the few episodes of any show I've seen that kept me up at night. Why? Because I couldn't stop thinking about how amazing it was. "Enchanted Grom Fright" is a worthy contender for the best episode of the season, and probably the entire series. It was heartwarming, engaging, and quite possibly the most important thing Disney has made in years. What else could you call it other than Enchanting.

(And no, this doesn’t mean I’m reviewing episodes of The Owl House from now on. Just the ones that are worth talking about.)

#the owl house #lumity #what i thought about

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writing-with-olive · 4 years

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Traditional publishing process

As one of my recent posts says, I’ve been doing some research about the traditional publish process and how it works. While I do not yet have a solid understanding of how long these processes are, I’ve gotten a pretty good sense of what happens and in what order. This is more of a general overview, as more specific details will change between different publishing houses.

(all parts of the process listed below the cut)

1) Querying

When you’re done writing your manuscript, and you have decided it is as polished as it can be with the current resources you have, you start to query agents. This is usually done through email. It is important to make sure you do your research about the agents you want to query beforehand, and don’t query agents who don’t seem to be qualified, or who don’t seem to be the right fit for you or your manuscript. It is better to not have an agent, than to have a bad agent, and querying an agent you won’t want to represent you is a waste of everyone’s time. Make sure to follow the agent’s guidelines when you query.

Your initial query will not be your whole manuscript. That’s way too long for an agent to go through. But if an agent is interested by your submission, they may ask for a partial, which is usually somewhere around the first fifty pages, and/or they may ask for a full, which is your full manuscript. In some cases, you will get an R&R, standing for revise and resubmit, which is pretty much what it sounds like; you will revise your manuscript, and then resubmit it.

2) Choosing an agent

If an agent decides they want to represent your work, you and the agent will get on a call and hash out what the process would be moving forward, and what the relationship between you and the agent would be. Based on this, if you think that the agent is going to be a good fit for you and your book, do NOT say yes right away. Let them know that you would like two weeks to make your decision. This is pretty much industry standerd. In that time, you are going to email all of the other agents who have not gotten back to you and let them know that you have an offer. This gives these other agents a chance to make a counter-offer if they would like. If other agents do make a counter-offer, decide which offer seems like the best one for you and your book after the original two weeks, and let them know.

3) Revising your manuscript

Some, but not all, agents are editorial. This means that they will work with you to revise and polish your manuscript further. If this is the case, you and your agent will work on your book, possibly incorporating rounds of beta readers. Once you and your agent decide that it is the best it can be at this stage, you will begin to go on submission.

4) Going on submission.

When you’re on submission, your agent will begin pitching your manuscript to editors at publishing houses. This is not unlike querying, only on a slightly smaller (though just as important) scale; agents act as gatekeepers, meaning that there are a lot fewer things on submission than there are being queried.

Depending on the relationship you’ve set up with your agent, you may or may not be aware of what editor responses are. Some authors like to know everything that’s going on in the process, others just want to know when an editor picks up your work, leaving the rest to the agent. Both of these options are completely fine, and it has more to do with personal preference than anything else.

5) Acquisitions

If an editor decides that they want to work with you and your book, then you move on to acquisitions. This is when a publisher will pitch a book to the rest of the publishing house. Your book is not alone in these meetings; usually there are several books being pitched in the same time frame. The various teams will discuss whether or not publishing your book makes sense financially, and if there’s a market and readers to sell the book to. Remember: publishing is a business.

6) Getting your book deal

If your book passes Acquisitions and the publisher decides to publish your book, you will get a book deal. It is then up to your agent to negotiate the deal to get you the best possible outcome. Your agent should NEVER go with what the original deal is.

Be careful to read through the whole contract before you sign it. If you’re not careful, you can give away rights that you didn’t intend to, including audio or foreign rights. Also, your publisher may claim rights to the series, meaning that if the book doesnt’ sell well, or you don’t get a deal on future books, you will not be able to publish sequels through another publishing house. Always be wary of phrases such as “in perpetuity”

7) Your advance

In traditional publishing, you will get an advance when you publish a book. This is a sum of money that is payed to you, and is frequently split into two or three parts. The first is usually when you sign your contract, and other important milestones, such as when you complete your manuscript with your editor’s approval, and when you publish. Your advance is the publisher’s prediction of how much money the book will bring in, after the publishing house and your agent have taken their cut (in other words, it’s the publishing house’s prediction of what you will make in royalties off of your book.). So long as you uphold your end of the contract, the money is yours to keep (minus taxes, which are high); you do not have to give any of it back to the publisher. You will not yet earn royalties at this point (more on that ahead)

8) Editing

During the editing process, you will likely work with several different people. The first stage of edits is developmental edits. This is when you’re delving into the deeper structure of your book. During this stage, it is completely possible to cut or add entire scenes, or sometimes large portions of the book to make it the best it can possibly be.

Then there are line edits. This is when you and your editor will go into the sentences and paragraphs. You will be looking for things like flow, pacing within scenes, and redundant phrases or words.

Then there are line edits. This goes in even further. Your editor will look for places where there can be better wording, fix punctuation, and generally clean things up on a word by word level.

Finally there’s the proofread. There are usually several rounds of this, each one to try and catch any of the little mistakes that fell through the cracks on previous rounds of editing. Usually, several people will read through your manuscript to find these little errors.

As you may have noticed, edits start large and big picture, and then narrow down. The point of this is that there’s no use agonizing over trivial mistakes when you may need to cut or add entire chapters. And if you start with the small stuff, you’re just going to have to do it over and over and over as the overall content changes.

7) Promotion and Book Design

While your book is in the later stages of editing, the promo team will begin the promotional campaign. Depending on where you are in the publisher’s list (more advantageous books get pushed nearer to the top), the amount of promo help you will get will vary. You will likely have to help promote your book as well.

This is also the time when cover designers will be creating your book cover and others will be formatting your book. Depending on your contract, you may or may not get a say in the cover design, but the publishing house usually gets the final say.

Once the book is fully formatted, you will also get a number of ARC books (ARC standing for Advance Reader Copy). You can use these books as promotional tools. For example, having people on booktube review your book.

Members of the publishing house may also reach out to places such as libraries and brick-and-mortar bookstores (such as Barnes and Noble) to carry your book

8) Book Launch

When the big day arrives, your book goes live! Congratulations! You have successfully published your book.

9) Royalties

Depending on how well your book does, and how big your advance was, you may or may not earn royalties. The larger your advance, the harder it is to begin earning royalties. The reason is that you have to earn back all of the money from your advance. Meaning that after the publishing house takes their cut, and after your agent has taken their 15%, the cumulative amount leftover must surpass the amount of your advance before you can earn any royalties.

Note:

As I have not published yet, either through the traditional or indie route, I cannot say for sure what this is like on a first-hand account. That being said, what I have listed above is what seemed to be consistant across several sources. If you want to find more information, Alexa Donne’s youtube channel is an EXCELENT resource. If you have more to add, or corrections to make, do not be afraid to reblog with your comments.

#writing #writeblr #writers on tumblr #publishing #traditional publishing #traditional publishing process #how to traditionally publish #getting traditionally published #getting published #authors #writing process #publishing process #olive's writing vibes

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bedeliainwonderland · 4 years

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I understand disliking a character..but you realize anything that happens to bedelia in context of the show is driven by hannibal, right? the man you ship her with? the stinger, her fear, all that necessitates her self preservation is instigated by hannibal. the show frequently did a disservice to its female chars, but hannibal was the tool they used to do it. denying that and then shipping him w/ your fav only to turn it around on another char seems...hypocritical.

Ahh yes, some good ol’ anon hate, I missed that. Honestly, perfect timing, I am having the worst of times and getting to talk about my favs literally saved my day. So thanks!

First of all, Bedelia and Hannibal are a canon ship, whether you like it or not, so let’s get that out of the way (as opposite to certain other ship but that is a whole other thing). I merely fill in the blanks of what the show failed to provide because, for some inexplicable reason, the show named “Hannibal” was centered on a character named Will and every other character (especially the female characters) served only to further his “man pain”. But I digress, that is surely not why you chose to hide behind that grey square.

I don’t know whether you follow me or just saw that one reblog (which ironically weren’t even my words but I stand fully behind everything said), but I have already spoken about this extensively. Every day, really. I find it hard to understand how something is hypocritical when it is based on canon information. I am not denying anything. So here we go, under the cut, because I have a LOT to say:

The stinger- oh god, you all know how much I hate it. First of all, there is no proof that Hannibal is involved, we don’t know who is involved, that is kinda the point of a cliff hanger. We don’t even know if it’s real. But it’s absolutely pointless and makes no sense! It was quite literally Fuller wanting to do something “shocking” to finish off the series without any regard to continuity or characterisation. It was supposed to be shocking and look aesthetically pleasing, that’s it, no logic. It is as if he looked at the character list and thought “hmm, which female character is yet to be hurt? Oh right, Bedelia!” The so called “punishing Bedelia” as the fandom loved so very much is mere misogyny. Why can’t a female character do something morally questionable or even plain evil and get away with it? Because Will didn’t that is why. If she were a man, no one would scream for “she has it coming”, no, he would be uwu baby.

Having Hannibal involved in that would be completely out of character and contradictory to all their previous interactions/ their relationship. So let’s expand, shall we?

When we first see Bedelia and Hannibal, it is mentioned that she has been his psychiatrist for 7 years. 7 YEARS, let that sink in. No one, NO ONE, has been in Hannibal’s life for such a long time. It is clear she means a lot to him. If she didn’t, he had plenty of chances to kill her. It is established she is a loner, so it would so easy for Hannibal to dispose of her and claim “she left to UK” or something, like he did with his secretary. But he didn’t because he cares for her and she is important to him. He literally says he feels protective of her. Every session, you can see how much he needs her approval and how he hangs on her every word. How hurt he was when she said she wasn’t his friend (and yet he did nothing). How enamoured he is with her. When he comes to bring her dinner in Savoureaux, the dish included roses! Such a romantic.

Hannibal knew Bedelia was similar to him that is why he set up the whole Neil incident; he wanted to make sure she is. Do note that Bedelia wasn’t ever in danger, since Hannibal was there to step in if needed. But here is what I’ve found interesting; Bedelia killed someone, proving Hannibal’s hunch right, but she refused to fully acknowledge that part of herself. And Hannibal let her withdraw, doing nothing (as in not killing her, as I’m sure he had done many times with unsuccessful “candidates”) merely securing her continuous therapy. Because she was more than just another experiment to him.

And Bedelia isn’t so innocent in other aspects as well. She knows, yet she purposely evades the truth while talking to the FBI (“Will could use friends like Hannibal” ha!) under the cover of patient/ doctor confidentiality and even warns Hannibal directly (“they are starting to see your pattern). I have had my fair share of “Bedelia doesn’t care for Hannibal” posts and nothing could be further from the truth. If she hadn’t cared, she would not have done any of that.

But then of course, Hannibal’s game goes one step too far and he gives her the written permission to discuss him with the FBI. This is bad for Bedelia because it puts her under the scrutiny as well and that is not where she wants to be. Bedelia’s self-preservation always comes first (both Bedelia and Hannibal are egocentric by nature). Yet, she still comes to say goodbye to him and he lets her go! The script described Hannibal’s reaction to her words as “imperceivable wound”. “But he then went to kill her!” I hear you say? *Thor’s gif* Did he though? If he wanted to kill her, he would have done it then and there. No, he went to check if she were really gone (again, script) and whether she betrayed him. That was his only concern (betrayal is a big thing with Hannibal), but she didn’t. She even left him a memento. It said it was a memento of friendship, I think it was a “see you later” card.

This is getting super long, so let’s quickly skip to Florence. Bedelia left with Hannibal, knowing exactly who he was. Unlike other (all of them, actually) characters, she did not reject him/ was scared of him. “You let them see you/ I let them see enough” exchange says it all. She is not surprised by him or shocked by what he is; she is merely stating the facts. She has long accepted him in full. They lived together in Florence, openly behind the so called veil, as fake husband and wife, but the wedding rings remained intact even at home (showing how important it was to them, not just a front), displaying a ridiculous amount of domesticity and intimacy. This deserves a whole separate post but I am trying to be brief(er). “But she was scared!” you might shout again, except that she wasn’t. Even if Antipasto purposely played with the ambiguity of her situation for suspense purposes, the following episodes made it clear she was exactly where she wanted to be, from the very start, on her own terms as Hannibal’s equal. We were obviously misled by the promos, they promised us a Bedelia and Hannibal show and what we got was, well, you know… And that is yet another post altogether.

Now to the glorious farewell, boy, do I love to talk about that. Bedelia packs Hannibal’s bags and tells him to leave, and he does! What more, he promises to tell her story. HER STORY. Now, that is a major thing, because Hannibal has never ever done that for anyone. He always turns other people’s stories into his own, manipulating and adjusting accordingly. But with Bedelia, he simply agrees to do it, on her own terms. Not only that, he is visibly impressed and enamoured by her. Again, if he wanted to kill her, he could have just killed her then. He was going to get caught anyway, what is one more murder? All this “he waited until he could eat her” story makes no sense at all, since as it was already mentioned, he knew her for almost a decade, plenty of time to eat her if he wanted to. He lets her go because he wants to. Because he cares for her.

The point I have made several times is that Bedelia is the only person that Hannibal treats as, well, a person! Everyone else is beneath him, meat only if you will, but not her. Even the ever so special (apparently) Will and Abigail aren’t treated as “people”. Bedelia is the only person that Hannibal respects; that is what makes her so special. Not love (even though he obviously loves her), because respect is rarer for Hannibal than love. Sure, he “loves” Will, the same way you love your favourite book. You want to have it and you don’t want anyone else to have it, but you don’t expect the book to return your feelings. Bedelia is Hannibal’s only equal.

The Red Dragon arc was a mess of epic proportions so I don’t even want to get into that. But I do appreciate the acknowledgement of Bedelia’s darker side and now she has become comfortable with it since Florence. Let’s make a few notes so it doesn’t look as if I am purposely omitting things: Hannibal’s letters to Bedelia? Clearly a part of his “telling her story” and helping her cover, plus he was not able to send her proper letters, so that is his way of telling her he thinks of her. Sessions with Will? You can’t really take everything she told him at face value, she is obfuscating after all. Why would she be honest with Will? She wouldn’t be, she was just continuing what Hannibal has started with much better results (slightly too good actually, as proven by Will’s stupid plan). Bedelia wasn’t afraid Hannibal would come after her, because she had no reasons to be. NONE. She was protected by him.

So there you have it, the great many reasons why I am so unapologetic in my shipping. Because it is all there. Thank you for reminding me why I love these two so much! Have a great day, maybe next time you can message me off anon.

(And thanks to all who got to the end of this almost dissertation, this is my testament, I love you all fellow bedannibal fans!)

#bedannibal #bedelia du maurier #hannibal lecter #anonymous #asks #anon hate is great sometimes #reference for future anons

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danwhobrowses · 3 years

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AEW Revolution 2021 - Reaction & Review

Before you say anything, yes I know about the finish.

But while work has prevented me from watching the show live I will still be running down the PPV as I said I would, the card is still stacked and people were mighty excited to see the wrestling so let’s get to it

Spoilers for AEW Revolution 2021, I have done my best to avoid spoilers myself but have not been able to fully escape it, I won’t let my post be the same for someone else

The Buy-In I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the Buy-In should not have 75% promos, especially since the promos are uploaded as the Countdown. It’s the same thing Tony you can fit an entire match in between it, or even recap the segments on the prior Dark - good promos from Miro, Archer and Big Swole in that show and the Butcher & Blade attacked Bear Country, all of which would have relevance to the PPV.

Britt Baker pre-match promo On the cusp of her tag match came out Dr. Britt Baker DMD who lambasted the company for booking ‘Reba’ to tag with her after she sustained an ‘injury’ at the hands of Nyla Rose. Baker acted like her ‘doctor’s note’ should’ve been enough and had Reba walk on stage with a crutch to sell her point. With her partner injured she has been allowed to pick a replacement. Thoughts would’ve obviously gone to one Thea Trinidad but that made the surprise so much better.

Dr Britt Baker (w/ Rebel ‘Reba’ Tanea) & Maki Itoh def. Riho & Thunder Rosa - Pinfall on Rosa by Baker after a Superkick + Crutch Shot Maki Itoh, who was unusually absent from the TJPW PPV - arrived to a loud pop from the crowd and Serpentico just completely losing his shit at ringside. The King of Simps sang her entrance as she usually does as she soaked in the atmosphere with pure joy on her face. The babyfaces quickly made their entrances after as the match was about to kick off. For a tag match it was more of a 2v2 than a tag bout, I mean that in there wasn’t a lot of team moves; whenever the heels felt threatened they would switch partners to regain momentum, but that did allow each woman to face off one another. There were some good interactions between each woman in the bout, Excalibur doing very well to inform the fans that Itoh had history with Riho and Rosa and that she had recently come out of a tag tournament final in TJPW where she and ‘Pink Striker’ Miyu Yamashita fell short to NEO Biishiki-Gun (a faction that involves the heel alter-ego of the Eliminator Tournament’s Mei Suruga). Between the match Rosa and Baker sold the animosity, trading middle fingers while the other was in the corner until they finally got to cross one another. The final stages proved to be entertaining when Itoh and Riho where legal, Rosa and Baker had both rushed the ring to fight when Riho sucker hit Baker on the apron, leading to a trade off in moves between all four women, Rosa got planted with a tornado DDT, but Itoh missed the Flying Kokeshi, Riho almost capitalized but her Shining Wizard was countered by Itoh’s magnificently fluid rolling half crab counter. Riho would make the ropes as both women tagged out after Itoh got Riho with a headbutt and Riho shook off Baker after Rosa broke up her pin from an air raid crash, liquid pinfalls and counters happened after that which was an easy highlight. Reba proved not to be as injured as let on when she jumped the apron but was accidentally socked by Baker after Rosa dodged and hit the DVD, Itoh broke the pin but got thrown out of the ring afterwards, the cameras missing Riho diving at Itoh on the outside. In the ring Baker - having wriggled out of a Fire Thunder Driver - staggered Rosa with a superkick and used the ref’s position to push Rosa towards him near the ropes where Reba cracked Rosa with the crutches as the ref dodged, the damage was enough for Baker to get the 3 count. After the match Riho ensured that Rosa wouldn’t get attacked afterwards as Reba limped on and out the ring, Baker and Itoh leaving the ramp with middle fingers to their opponents

It was a very fun match, camera work wasn’t the best at times but it was still really good. I didn’t expect Itoh and Baker’s twitter buddying to lead to them partnering up but that is the sneaky foreshadowing. The booking of this match should really be stated a bit more, Riho and Rosa are top caliber former champions on their brands, and Itoh and Baker hanged with them mostly to a stalemate. With 2 victories over Rosa though Baker should be on the up, and sadly we may see less of Rosa with NWA coming back (same will probably be said about Serena once her knee recovers until she drops the belt) so it was important that nobody came out looking weak. With Itoh’s US appearance too and the pop (and the resulting appearance on BTE) you can be sure that the Cutest in the World will be seen again.

Main Card Always gotta show my approval of using Brodie’s ‘you know what that means’ to start a show. JR sounded a little hoarse though today, hope he’s okay.

AEW World Tag Championship The Young Bucks def. The Inner Circle [Chris Jericho & MJF (w/ Wardlow)] - Pinfall on Jericho by Matt via Meltzer Driver Jericho came out with his usual Painmaker while MJF continues with his fashion atrocity of a white robe and blue tassels with the scarf print in the middle. The Bucks kept it simple with the black, yellow and pink - which Excalibur noted was designed by Matt’s daughter. The Bucks were definitely aggrieved, shoving the belts in the faces of their opponent before the bell, Jericho though played the mind games by snatching a title from Aubrey to hold it aloft. The bell rang and immediately it was brawling, Bucks pulling their patented dual suicide dive and stereo sharpshooters, interceptor spear and the hanging senton. MJF got some momentum by catching Nick before his apron moonsault as Jericho hit the triangle dropkick, Wardlow choking Nick on the outside while Aubrey was distracted and then hitting the double flapjack before stealing the Bucks’ poses. Matt roared in again but Wardlow again proved to shift momentum to his Inner Circle stablemates, this time pulling the ropes so Matt fell out. The Inner Circle kept things simple and grounded, antagonizing the Bucks whenever they could in hopes they will fall into a mistake, however their confidence left them more open to slipping up and falling into Nick’s hot tag, a lovely springboard destroyer hit two so the Bucks hit the Motor City Machine Guns’ move. MJF tagged Jericho but his Judas Effect was superkicked, Bucks tried Meltzer Driver but MJF grabbed Nick again and Jericho hit the tombstone, leaving Nick to flip with nobody home and leave him prone to the Walls of Jericho, Nick tagged Matt while in the hold but then Matt got locked in the Walls. MJF got 2 for a catch powerbomb but slowed it down by taunting Matt with multiple ‘Suck It!’s, Excalibur humorously begging Matt to just punch him ‘where he is pointing’, the provocation worked though as Matt went for a Meltzer Driver, allowing Jericho to catch Nick mid-flight with a Codebreaker and MJF to roll Matt up for 2. Wardlow distracted Aubrey as Jericho hit Matt’s legs with a bat leading to MJF hitting the Heatseeker, but they got 2 again! The Bucks countered with a baited corner kick and stereo crossbodies in and out of the ring, Wardlow got rocked by a dodged Judas Effect as Nick rolled Jericho for 2, Jericho tries a Lionsault but meets a low Superkick and then a BTE Trigger but MJF breaks the count, eating a Superkick Party (aka Death by Leg Slapping) for his troubles. Jericho gets a Double Superkick and then finished by a Meltzer Driver.

It was a hot opener for sure, the Bucks talking smack to Jericho afterwards. The Inner Circle were wily but relied too much on Wardlow and provoking the Bucks into making mistakes. I am actually surprised to see no Sammy Guevara even at ringside, besides Wardlow no Inner Circle members tried to interfere either, pretty clean affair.

Casino Tag Team Royale Death Triangle [PAC and Rey Fénix] win the Royale to be No. 1 Contenders for the Tag Titles - Fénix last eliminating Jungle Boy After the Bucks came naming the next contender, starting with the Natural Nightmares and Dark Order’s Five and Dime - ironically it was the old guard vs the Nightmare Factory alums - a handshake between 5 and Dustin was not shared when QT clubbed 10 to kick off the match. Dark Order got some great offence but were blindsided by Dustin’s double bulldog Different to regular Casino Royales, entrants played to Royal Rumble rules of one team at a time, the first team to enter being Santana & Ortiz. Five got eliminated first by QT after hitting the ‘That’s Gotta Suck’ (a crossbody to the back of an opponent lying on the ropes) on Ortiz, 10 unable to avenge him as the Sydals came next, Matt hitting the Meteora rather than the Shooting Star attempt like last time. Uno and Grayson came next, Uno hitting that delicious twisting flatliner on Mike Sydal as Santana and Ortiz dumped Mike out of the ring. Santana also completely kicked the taste out of Grayson and 10 soon after with a percussive kick. The Gunn Club came next without Billy, huge amount of faith in Austin and Colten, during which Matt Sydal got thrown over by the Gunns and dumped out by Santana’s big boot, meaning the Sydals were the first team to be eliminated. Intrigue hit after the Pretty Picture (Avalon & Bononi) and the Varsity Blonds came into the match, Austin had dumped Avalon and dual Famassers to Bononi looked like it was gonna eliminate the big man but then QT eliminated the Gunns at once. Ire and confusion was seen on Dustin’s face as QT eliminated his fellow Nightmare Family members, and QT then eliminated himself! A shock break up for sure from one of the most consistent Midcard tag teams in AEW. Bear Country Hell Yeah though hossed their way in, Grayson was able to lift one but got eliminated, Jurassic Express came next as Baltimora’s Tarzan Boy echoed from the arena, JB countered Santana and Ortiz’ tag move to eliminate the latter and then baited Santana to rana him out, Luchasaurus eliminated Bononi and then Griff, assisting Marko to do a slippery rana which Uno sold by running into the ring post to eliminate himself. Butcher and Blade came in fresh to dump Pillman and 10 and end their nights, Jack Evans had also appeared out of nowhere to assist in eliminating 10 as Bear Country brawled with Butcher and Blade, Dustin tried to get involved and was dragged out of the ring apron by Allie. Private Party then came in with the clean black and gold, nearly eliminating JB had Marko not held him up. SCU completely beheaded PP, Bear Country then eliminating Luchasaurus to some boos before being dumped by Butcher just as Death Triangle came in. Lastly was Silver and Reynolds who came to a decent pop, nailing Daniels with a Spin Doctor to start and then Dark Destroyer and Elimination from Isaiah Kassidy, SCU then eliminated Butcher leaving 4 teams left. Fénix bodyscissored Daniels, JB launched Reynolds over the turnbuckle and Kazarian thrown by PAC. Silver, PAC, Fénix and JB was just sublime, Silver only taken out by Fénix’s rope walk pele kick to leave JB on his own. “Jungle Boy in the Death Triangle” was a hell of a call by Excalibur as he eliminated PAC by using his momentum against him. Fénix and JB was just high octane, JB catching Fénix with an anti-air superkick, clothesline and poison rana but as he went to throw Fénix he counters with the 619 rebound heel kick and clotheslined JB out of the ring.

That was a strong ass royale. I will not however forget that Top Flight and FTR were unusually absent from the match (not to mention the Good Brothers, I hoped it’d be Casino Rules with them as the Joker, and TH2). But a lot of good stuff here, surprising split by the Nightmares, Butcher/Blade vs Bear Country feels imminent, Santana and Ortiz as well as SCU were still strong, I feel for Jurassic Express though, they are always inches from the brass ring but never quite getting it, but Death Triangle probably needed it more. Making Fénix the last man was a good decision as well because he had been taking a lot of Ls, now with a trio vs the Bucks it can lead to some interesting concepts, and batshit crazy spots.

Paul Wight Interview Wight sprinkled some hinting at his mystery signing by saying ‘No-one’s gonna outwork him’ as we paused till the next match. DDP and Al Snow were also shown in attendance.

AEW Women’s World Championship Hikaru Shida def. Ryo Mizunami - Pinfall via Corkscrew Knee Strike The promo package used for this match has to get some shine as well because it really built why both women were so motivated to win.

Mizunami came out with the tournament trophy in hand to ensure her clout had not been forgotten, Shida may not have worn the power suit but the kimono and kasa still looked wonderful. A handshake started the match but Shida dodged the lariat attempt. Mizunami shoulder blocked Shida but the champion kipped up impressing Aniki and prompting her to ground her a second time. Mizunami and Shida traded corner chops as Mizunami wasted too much time showboating for the champion to hit the rana and then the ringside knee strike, the Chair launch was caught as Mizunami dumped Shida over the railing. Leg drop was almost countered by the Stretch Muffler but Aniki used her power to continue grounding Shida and wearing her down with submissions, Shida though would grasp momentum with driving her opponent into the corner with her knees and then a missile dropkick, a driven Shida crunched Aniki with a B-Driver on the ramp then a deadlift suplex back into the ring, the champion’s confidence was met with Mizunami’s powerful flurry of strikes, Shida hits a running knee but Mizunami gets back up, she hits the Tamashii but can’t make the cover. The women return to the handshake strike trading, but Mizunami got the advantage and plants her with an Uranage and Spear, the Guillotine Legdrop gets a close 2 but the champion kicks out again, she rolls out of the Fisherman buster to hit a German but gets hit in the back of the head, Shida hits the Falcon Arrow and kips back up, the Tamashii is blocked but she keeps striking Mizunami, running knee to the back of the head, Falcon Arrow again but could not hook the leg, the next Tamashii countered with a lariat but the following lariat countered with a knee. Shida digs into some Latino Heat with the eye poke and roll up for two, she hits the Tamashii but Aniki rolls her up for an agonizing two. Looked like a botched DDT but Shida hits a third Tamashii and Mizunami kicks out again, Shida opts for a corkscrew knee strike and that gets the three.

Shida’s celebration is cut short by Nyla and Vickie attacking both, Shida prevents Aniki from being Beast Bombed but is then blindsided by Baker and Itoh, Itoh biting Mizunami’s fingers while Nyla and Baker squared off before reaching an understanding. Rosa darted in for the save as Itoh taunted Rosa with an Akanbe (pulling her eyelid down). In the ring Shida offered a hand to Aniki while her opponent bowed to her in respect. If anyone had doubts that Mizunami would be a bad choice for Revolution they were promptly eating their words about now. This was a proper physical women’s bout showing the best of Joshi Strong Style. Shida showed off some newer moves even resorting to a heel move to try and win (Yakuza Heel Shida is an option) and a different finish to the Tamashii while Mizunami continued to brightly shine with power and charisma. The post-match stuff does leave a lot of intrigue too. Baker and Nyla’s alliance of convenience can only go so far when both want the title, it hurts to see Itoh with the heels given how over she is but it made sense in the context that Mizunami eliminated her from the tournament - Itoh fights for Itoh, the heels are just convenience for now. The tournament playing this role shows how important it was for the women’s division too, Rosa and Baker temporarily stepping up to Nyla and Nyla wanting to waste Aniki makes it important. In addition, Big Swole - who noted that she is next due to her title shot before the tournament’s announcement being postponed due to COVID - tweeted a ‘not my business’ kinda tweet during this too, which is telling.

Double or Nothing 2021 is coming May 30th A small promo for Double or Nothing was shown announcing the date.

Pre-Match Segment with Chuck Taylor and Orange Cassidy Before their match with Kip and Miro, Alex Mahvez was going to interview the two men before Miro and Kip jumped both men. Miro telling the camera to ‘Play my music’ as he dragged Chuck to the ramp and ring as he taunted a bleeding Taylor to just say the word to make it stop. Mic in his mouth Chuck instead said ‘ring the damn bell’ and slapped Miro to kick off the bout.

Miro & Kip Sabian (w/ Penelope Ford) def. Chuck Taylor & Orange Cassidy - Submission via Game Over by Miro on Chuck Taylor Miro wastes no time in this match, delivering the hurt to the partnerless Taylor before tagging out to Kip a few times as he taunted Taylor in and out of the ring. Taylor countered Sabian in time for Cassidy to appear on the ramp hurt, Miro slowly stalked the prone Cassidy only to have fallen for his possum as he kipped up and nailed an Orange Punch, tagging in to get a diving DDT for 2 on Kip, the back that was hurt before prevented a Beach Break to give Sabian the advantage while Miro recovered. Chuck is tagged in for a stomp/Beach Break combo, Miro breaks the count after Taylor was decked with a Piledriver. Miro gets involved as Bryce and Penelope argue, the deadly Orange Kicks humor Miro but his Pump Kick is dodged, Miro gets Orange in the gut before he can make a second Orange Punch but hits the Stundog Millionaire on the counter, Penelope stops Orange from running the ropes and provides distraction for Miro to push him, but he knocks Penelope right into the railing - it was a big sell - and takes out Orange but Taylor and Kip are legal. Miro drags Kip from his wife to tag himself in, nearly being beaten by the inside cradle before flooring Taylor with the Matchka kick and the Game Over for the win. Relief soaks the face of Miro as he feels a weight lifted, AEW’s weakest feud apparently over. Overall it was a nice way to finish it, Miro looked incredibly strong in the bout and teases of him discarding Kip were shown. OC was kept strong by the prior assault wearing him down and Taylor showed a lot of guts. It may do Chuck good to be written out for a bit, until Trent comes back at least.

Inner Circle Segment Not accepting that his interview time was taken, Mahvez found a new duo to interview. MJF and Jericho - flanked by Santana and Ortiz - were asked what’s next as Jericho went on a ‘we should’ve won’ tirade. Jericho and MJF hinted at a change as they promoted next week an ‘Inner Circle War Council’. It could indeed mean that someone else is being discarded from the Inner Circle, or someone’s coming in to take Sammy’s old spot.

Big Money Match ‘Hangman’ Adam Page def. ‘Big Money’ Matt Hardy - Pinfall via Buckshot Lariat I must first and foremost admit that I am loving this heel Matt Hardy. The ‘Corporate Leech’ has done really well at being a bane to AEW’s top babyface Cowboy and his Cult Buddies, he’s also driven Private Party to a new and better direction. Hangman’s funny name plates continued with ‘Decided on the Snapper 560Z’ as he came in 6-0 against Hardy’s 3-0 PPV record. Hangman controlled the early parts of the bout with his strength, Matt surviving with his veteran awareness to avoid the Buckshot but not enough to avoid Hangman’s axe handle from the railings. Hangman hurt his arm by having it slammed in the ring post as Hardy honed in on the hand; stretching, biting and crushing it between some steps. Commentary sold that the hand injured was Hangman’s favoured hand, the fact proven when Page’s punch damaged him as well, the Side Effect though was wonderfully countered with a cradle and then a DVD. Hardy evaded Hangman to catch him in a Twist of Fate on the outside, hoping for a Count Out win, Page rolls in at 9 as Hardy seizes control, yanking Hangman from the ropes with a turnbuckle elevated German Suplex. A big moonsault to the outside regains the advantage for Hangman as he follows up with a diving crossbody and sliding lariat, Hardy escapes the Deadeye to get a neckbreaker and then a powerbomb. Hangman counters the Twist of Fate into the Deadeye but Private Party (in ‘Civilian Clothes’) distract the ref to buy Matt time to recover, Hangman decides to take out both men on the sides, he goes for the Buckshot but lands into a Side Effect and Twist of Fate at 2. Shocked, Hardy motions for Private Party to get involved, but Dark Order swarm in to stop them, Hardy clubs Hangman on the apron but the Dark Order catch him and pull him back up for the Buckshot, that lands the 3 count. Hangman has his hand raised as Dark order applaud him, Hangman then walks in to hug the stable, toasting a beer given to him by Colt Cabana.

It was a good match, expected TH2 to also interfere but I guess they didn’t want the match to go on too long. The core purpose of the match was good: Hangman has turned a curve, he’s no longer being manipulated and he has friends in the Dark Order to support him. Where Hardy goes now he’s ‘Broke’ will be an interesting route, perhaps he will have to invest a little wiser or be met with people coming to collect checks he could no longer cash in.

Face of the Revolution Ladder Match Scorpio Sky def. Cody Rhodes (w/ Arn Anderson), Max Caster, Penta El 0M, Lance Archer (w/ Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts) and Ethan Page AEW went very tongue and cheek by making the prize be a literal Brass Ring, JR even making a joke about it as Sonic the Hedgehog memes hit the internet. Caster started with a rap to get the crowd involved, Archer came in and decked someone at ringside, Sky and Penta had normal entrances while Cody pyro’d it up as the camera panned to Jade Cargill and Red Velvet either side and Archer climbing the apron to stare Cody down. All Ego became All Elite as Ethan Page appeared with a decent pop with a huge smile on his face and a name plate that showed his veteran and championship experience.

The match kicked off all around with the main focus on Archer and Cody renewing their TNT rivalries, Archer was the first to throw a ladder into Scorpio Sky and Page, but ate a Superkick and Slingblade by Penta, Penta then got German Suplexed by Sky before Caster took him out. Caster calls for Jack Evans to bring the Boombox that won him his qualifier but Evans is intercepted by 10 and flattened with a spinebuster, 10 doesn’t collect the Boombox though as he leaves which he will use on Page and Cody - after the two took out Archer but then fought each other. Penta took out Caster and Cody by using the Ladder as a ramp for a senton but Archer then kicks him out, Page cutters and crushes Archer under the ladder, escaping Sky’s TKO to drop Sky on the ladder while Archer was sandwiched between it. Page tries to trap Archer under the ladder but Archer powers it to a slope allowing Penta to backstab Page, Penta then Destroyer’s Cody on a ladder laid on the ring and railing, the match selling Cody’s injured shoulder and take him away from the ring while Caster and Sky tussle to climb the ladder. Caster picks a taller ladder for the high ground but are met by Page and Archer. Sky is the last man on the ladder but Penta pulls him down, his showboating costs him though as Sky recovers, biting his head and pulling Penta down with a neckbreaker. Page and Caster then tussle at the top but Caster pulls Page down with a messy sunset bomb, Sky cracks Caster with a frog splash on the ladder but crosses Archer, Sky almost uses Archer’s launchpad to climb the ladder but is pulled down, he goes for the turnbuckle but is pushed down and sent through another ladder laid on the railing and apron. Penta comes into a hot streak in taking down the remaining four men, but All Ego rakes Penta’s eye to get him off the ladder. Cody then staggers back to the ramp, whipping his opponents with his weight belt with a wincing crack, hurting his arm to land a Cross Rhodes on Page. Cody looks to set up a ladder dive but meets a Suplex by Archer and a Claim to Fame Elbow Drop by Caster. Caster and Penta climb the tall ladder but Archer knocks the ladder down, chokeslamming everything that moves and dropping Caster on a ladder with a Black Out. As Archer makes the climb, Page attacks but Archer no sells it and shoves Page away, Page low blows Archer then hits the Razor’s Edge but then Jake the Snake comes in and hits him with a Short-Arm Clothesline to a big pop before Penta wipes the legend out. Cody kinda messes up the cutter on Penta, giving Penta time to use a Steel Chair on his arm, as he climbs though Sky uses the chair on Penta’s ankle. Sky and Cody climb and trade blows, Sky yanks the injured shoulder, talks smack to Cody before pushing his face off the ladder. With nobody to oppose, Sky grabs the Brass Ring to be the Face of the Revolution.

It may not be AEW’s best ladder match, but it was still highly entertaining. Ethan Page was a good surprise entrant and Cody really did play us with his John Cena threatening rally. Caster also impressed a lot given the circumstances and this darker more heelish Scorpio Sky will be interesting to see as he faces Darby Allin.

Hall of Fame-Worthy Signing is: Christian Cage WWE stole Ben Carter from AEW, so AEW stole Christian from WWE. His new mantra of ‘Out Work Everyone’ is made official as Christian came in, posed, signed a contract and left. It got a big pop from the fans and it was definitely Hall of Fame worthy. I’m not gonna let it upset me that I had hoped for Minoru Suzuki because there is still a Forbidden Door being opened, Christian still has it and we will have to wait and see how AEW use him.

Street Fight Sting & Darby Allin def. Team Tazz [Brian Cage & Ricky Starks] - Pinfall on Starks by Sting via a Scorpion Death Drop I will preface if you didn’t expect the Street Fight to be cinematic then you were pretty blind, Sting can take bumps but AEW are not going to throw caution into the wind with him. Tazz joined commentary to be grilled by JR and Tony as the match faded into an ‘Undisclosed Location’. There were some really nice Lucha Underground-esque transitions and filmwork as Cage and Starks travelled to a boiler room ring while Darby’s entrance was met with Sting-wearing hoodlums and both men travelling to the location - Darby skating onto Sting’s truck to enter at the same time. Cage quickly dominated from the start, dumping Darby and then wasting the ‘Hoodlums’ while Starks pressed Sting against the corner. Darby tried to fight back but Cage dragged Darby around. Sting regained control with a Stinger Splash and Snake Eyes but Darby was thrown through doors as Tazz talked up his boys noting how if Darby can’t compete he’ll have to relinquish his title. Starks and Sting eventually leave the ring and Sting goes straight for the bat, Starks goading the Icon to discard the bat but still gets clubbed and kicked into the brick wall, leaving Starks to search for Cage and Darby. Cage though is going upstairs, carrying Darby in a vertical suplex position while he goes up the stairs and dumping him on a trash can. Sting though arrives to work the numbers advantage, Starks then comes back though, hitting Sting with a pipe and an oil drum, String hurts Starks’ knee by opening a drawer on it and Starks is laid out by Cage’s accidental chair shot. Cage continues to fend off the duo for a bit before being hit by a Fire Extinguisher and a glass before slammed into the table, Starks then uses the 2x4 and focuses on Allin, Darby fights back though, climbing a beam to do a Coffin Drop. However, an Orange Masked man comes in and slams Allin against the beam: Powerhouse Hobbs reminding the duo that Team Tazz do have the numbers advantage as Hook also joins the fight. Sting and Cage both get up to tussle, Sting being driven against a beam as all of Team Tazz sans Starks deal with Darby, swinging him into a window frame before then aiming for Sting. Sting narrows the path to avoid the onslaught, Allin recovering to throw Sting his bat from the upper floors. The Icon goes to town, snapping the bat over Cage’s back and moving to a Shovel, Allin then does a massive elbow drop through Cage as Starks and Sting return to the ring. Starks almost gets the Stinger by baiting his Stinger Splash into an exposed turnbuckle, a spear hits two! Starks tries what looks like a prep for a buckle bomb but Sting rolls out at 2, Sting then hits the Scorpion Death Drop and that is 3. Sting stares down the camera as Tazz leaves commentary in a huff.

In terms of brutality it was a lovely street fight, the finale was a bit abrupt though. Hobbs and Hook kinda disappeared and it was a bit annoying that a ‘Street Fight’ ended in a ring. Props though to cinematography, Sting did not seem uncomfortable and there were some strong spots, Brian Cage looking excellent as well. Allin will look to Scorpio Sky to defend his title and hopefully Team Tazz can find a new target to get their momentum back.

AEW Dynamite Card As a result of the current matches on Revolution 3 matches were announced; Sky and Allin will face this Wednesday for the title, on top of that Matt Jackson will take on Rey Fénix in a build to their tag title match and Shida, Mizunami and Rosa will team to fight Baker, Itoh and Rebel - I guess we’ll be seeing Itoh-chan very soon huh? Nyla noticeably absent though - in six woman tag action, on top of that was the Inner Circle War Council.

AEW World Championship - Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch Kenny Omega (w/ Don Callis) def. Jon Moxley - Pinfall via One Winged Angel Okay. Here we go. The ‘Moxley Extermination Contraption’ looked as classic as an Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch could look as both men gingerly scouted the ring. Mox was wearing an unusually clean leather studded jacket which Excalibur clarified was a shout out to Onita. Omega’s entrance ditched the dancers (rip to Shida’s bestie) as his entrance video emphasized Kenny holding aloft the world title to get in Moxley’s head. Bryce Remsburg himself was dressed like he was in a COVID treatment camp with the visor, gloves and full body suit, well-prepared for the dangers surrounding him. Hindsight would bring a bad omen to Don Callis as he talked about how ‘carefully designed’ the ring was rigged with explosives and building up the 30 minute countdown, he at the very least got a good line with ‘Gentlemen it’s a good day to die here at Revolution’.

Kenny and Mox sought for the same tactic: push someone face first into the exploding barbed wire. Each men having inch close counters and escapes to avoid the barbed wire, Moxley brought the weapons left outside the ring and head to the ramp to punish Omega with the Barbed Wire Bat and Kendo Stick, Kenny however Blinded Moxley with powder and tossed Moxley into the explosive wire. For my money of what I’ve seen, the explosions were a little tame - though I can understand why for safety. Rattled and twitching, Moxley still kicked out at 2, forcing Kenny to punish him further with a Kendo Stick and trash can to focus on the knee. Kotaro Crusher on the trash can busted Moxley’s head open for 2 so Kenny tries a Figure Four, Moxley though grinds a barbed wire steel chair onto Kenny’s leg and hand, cutting Kenny’s hand open and breaking the hold. Kenny tries the Snap Dragon but Moxley evades, but gets thrown into one of the barbed wire boards on the turnbuckles. Excalibur continuing to be on fire with the quip of a ‘barbed wire halo’ as the bloodied face of Moxley displays and Bryce Remsburg enters perpetual cringe. Kenny is next to taste the explosives though as his Figure Four attempt is kicked away and launches him chest first into the ropes, a shotgun dropkick sends him back first into it for a second go, Moxley pulls out an Exploder, sets Kenny up for another Barbed Wire board, Kenny wriggles to set up the Snap Dragon but Moxley reverses into another pump handle exploder into the board. Moxley nearly blinded by his own blood calls for the Death Rider on the Wired Chair, but Omega sets up the One Winged Angel, Moxley German Suplexes him out and dumps Omega on the chair with a Sidewalk Slam, the wire sticking to Omega’s jeans. Moxley calls to his I Quit Match with Kingston and wraps some wire around his arm, he misses the Lariat and gets hit with one Snap Dragon Suplex, Kenny hits another but Moxley gets back up, V-Trigger blocks the second Barbed Wire Lariat attempt but not the third at the halfway mark.

Omega throws huge caution into the wind by escaping the Paradigm Shift and pushing Moxley and himself into the exploding ropes, his vision affected as he asks Remsburg for water to clean his eyes - it seems to be a worked one though or at least dust. Jabs are shared on the apron between the wired ropes and one of the ‘Triple Hell’ wired boards, Moxley gets advantage and hits the Paradigm Shift onto the boards, however, Omega merely bounced off of it while Moxley is firmly stuck inside the board. As Moxley painfully unhinges himself from the board he pulls out more wire - Kenny also wearing a crimson mask - as he batters Omega in the head. A noise alarms Moxley of time running out, he does the Cactus Piledriver for 2 twice, Omega hits the Low Blow and the Powerbomb for 2, Two V-Triggers on the corner and then the One Winged Angel, 1, 2,

BANG!

Moxley kicked the rope to trigger the explosion, blinding Omega and breaking the count. Moxley has the barbed wire bat but the Good Brothers rush in, as Moxley wails on Gallows, Kenny is handed his own Barbed wire bat, he swings for Moxley and

BANG!

the bat itself is charged too! 1, 2, NO! The Good Borthers set up a regular chair, Omega drops him with the One Winged Angel and gets the three.

Omega celebrates but Don reminds them of the countdown, the trio handcuff Moxley’s hands as the hard cam continues to miss Omega’s smack talking. Kenny brutalizes a defenseless Moxley with the non-charged wire baseball bat as the 1 minute warning is issued. Kenny celebrates but Kingston rushes in - against the advice of the Butcher, Blade and Bunny. Kingston tries to break the cuffs but has no time, he tries to drag Moxley but has no time, he takes one last look at Moxley’s face and covers his body over his friend and rival and

Fizzle.

Mostly just a limp pyro show. A heartbreaking technical error which was met with boos as the PPV goes from A+ to A-/B+ simply by this one moment. It hurts to look at, but I think the worst part is that Kingston - being the kayfabe professional he is - sold it. Had he simply got up and had Kenny come out with a ‘gotcha’ it could’ve been salvaged but alas, the PPV ends in a whimper.

The match itself was great though, brutal and bloody, the explosions were a bit small but as I said, I can understand why. The lack of the big explosive finish will be a huge damper on it even with AEW’s attempts to take it on the chin and try and salvage it, if I were TK though I probably would book the next Dynamite to still have the ring rigged - noting that only Kenny and Callis knew how to wire and unwire it, that way we can still have a Chekov’s gun and have it potentially blow at any time during the next Dynamite, we pass off Kingston’s selling with a promo from him saying he had accepted death to save his friend and passed out from it and we either have Kingston, Moxley or maybe even Callis get caught in the ring actually blowing, like have Kenny on the tron pull a killswitch or have Callis think he defused it only to do the opposite. Looking ahead though this does imply that Moxley won’t completely disappear from AEW just yet, he still has the IWGP US title to drop before he goes on paternity leave, he will certainly be sleeping on the couch until the baby comes though XD On top of that we’ve neatly set up Kenny’s next challenger in Kingston, who is not a bad shout at all given that he won Match and Feud of the Year for WON last year.

Conclusion Had the explosion gone off proper, this would be A+ for sure, but given how that was literally the last hurrah built up so much on a highly anticipated bout, I have to give it an A- as a PPV. All memes and criticism aside for that one singular moment the rest of the PPV was amazing. Maki Itoh got double the surprise presence as well as a BTE cameo and is booked for Dynamite to steamroll an amazing debut run, Brian Cage and Lance Archer looked like absolute beasts in spite of defeat (Moxley too), Death Triangle are back in a title picture, Jungle Boy continues to amaze, Shida puts on another banger, Hangman’s slow rise to potentially usurping Omega has begun, Sting entertained in a safe manner, Scorpio Sky returns in a big way, the Bucks retained in a fiery opener and Miro was on a tear essentially squashing Chuck Taylor to get back on track. Not to mention debuts for Christian Cage and Ethan Page (more Cages and Pages, what happens if Brian and Adam face Christian and Ethan? I'm still waiting for Kong vs Kong)

On top of that we give huge props to Excalibur and Tony for essentially carrying the commentary with their knowledge and timing while JR had some voice troubles and Tony Khan for promoting this PPV to be trending worldwide for literal days

My favourite match has to be narrowly the Main Event, it just pips the Women’s title match because of its sold brutality, and I’m not really counting the post-match stuff from it. Nobody wrestled poorly in the entire show as well so aside from one big technical blemish, it was a strong ass show and all the shortcomings it had can easily be bounced back from.

Needs a lil’ more TH2 though...

1 note · View note

blankdblank · 5 years

Text

Hobbit-Soulmate Pt 17

. Using details on Chicago - basing this off the film since I haven’t seen the musical myself. .And let’s just pretend Raul Esparza was in it once.

Pt 1 - Pt 2 - Pt 3 - Pt 4 - Pt 5 - Pt 6 - Pt 7 - Pt 8 - Pt 9 - Pt 10 - Pt 11 - Pt 12 - Pt 13 - Pt 14 - Pt 15 - Pt 16 -

Months you had to duck and dodge Jordan, and yet the full way today there was no sight of him bringing a smirk to your face seeing the effect of Richards warning. Straight to your first class you headed only to catch a curious addition to your pathway. Mr Tarl, a tall sweater vest clad man with grey slacks matching his dress shirt and loafers grinning at you in his usual silent request to speak to you.

“Mr Tarl? I thought you were out for the rest of the year.”

He nodded, “Yes, that is why I’m here. To speak to you.” Swallowing dryly you nodded and hoped that this drama with Jordan and your falling asleep in your classic lit class the other day. “Oh nothing like that.”

Around you the curious students passing paused to listen in forming a growing crowd. “Now, you remember that you had agreed to be the under understudy for the show I am choreographing?”

“Yes.”

“Well one of the leads has dropped out this morning taking their understudy with them, and the curtain rises in four days. I was hoping you might be interested. It’s only a two month run, up to your graduation, we have to be out for Lion King’s return, and it pays well, just over $2000 a week.”

At that your jaw dropped as he said, “The director gave me a two hour window to find out if you would take the part if not we have to cram another three months of prep and auditions into four days. You’re the only person I know that could soak it all up on a deadline like that. You’ve helped me out so many times before and I know you’d be perfect for it.”

“Wow, Just, sure. I, um, just finished reading through the step outline book last week.”

He smirked and turned guiding you towards one of the dance halls to a usually empty rehearsal room filled with a small group of chorus dancers and a band all looking you over curiously in his explaining the role in the new musical, Chicago. A depression era jazz fueled show full of mischief and scandal. “Now for this role you’ll need to sing alto, but it is the second lead, Velma Kelly. I’ve talked to your teachers and you’ve been cleared for the day. I also have the chorus dancers for your main numbers with me, you can give the first number a once over while you’re being measured.”

With that final door opening into the rehearsal room you set your things down and pulled from your bag the book of pages filled with the moves for each scene along with copies of the songs you had already nearly memorized. Focusing on that while a pair of women hurried over to take your measurements, fully pleased there would be little alterations on the final costumes to fit you. After his call Mr Taln returned finding you speaking with the other dancers on the opening scene for final touches and he queued the band to give a starting count for your first run through.

All the way to eleven you rehearsed and eased the worries of the chorus at least that you were well passed qualified and prepared to join the show so soon. Just a few kinks had to be worked out, minor details and surely the following day you would have to work through the talking portions the following day with the director. Rehearsals here had ended and Mr Taln had approached you again when he felt comfortable you were ready to see the director, “Now, we just have to head over to the main stage to meet up with the Director for the final walk through and to get the paperwork signed. You live close, correct?”

You nodded, “Ya, not far. Um can I bring my Mate along? Depending on how long if he wants to come?”

He nodded, “Of course. I’ll let you drop off your things and fetch him, here is the address just in case, but I’ll be waiting outside to walk you in.”

You nodded again and his smile grew at your creeping grin, “I’ll see you there. Won’t take long.” Hurrying out the room he chuckled along with a few of the dancers and band members all grouping around him to follow him back to the theatre.

A subway stop later and you raced through the street and into your apartment building passing your landlord as you called out, “Can’t talk now I’ll explain later!” Up the steps you raced straight for your apartment where you spotted Richard stepping into your sights from the kitchen with a curious raised brow, “Rich! Richy Rich, oh I have so much to tell you!”

His grin spread seeing you set your violin and bag down still in your knee length sweats and converse from your rehearsals under your baggy sweater added haphazardly over your tank top. “Class called early?”

You shook your head and raced over to hug him excitedly making him chuckle then grin at you when you pulled back, “ok, you remember the email I sent about the under understudy role I got?” He nodded, “Well the lead and understudy dropped out this morning! My teacher’s the choreographer and brought a crew to help me rehearse and now I have to head out to meet with the director for his final seal of approval.”

He hugged you again tightly with a chuckle, “That’s wonderful!”

Pulling back he chuckled at your poking him in the stomach, “Go ahead, ask me where it is?!”

In an excited pure he asked, “Where is it?”

In a squeaking bounce from you his jaw dropped at, “Broadway!! It’s only a two month run but I’m one of the leads, in a show, on Broadway!” Again you squeaked bouncing from foot to foot only to be wrapped in his arms again in a crashing kiss.

“That is wonderful. When does it start?”

“Four days.” His jaw dropped again, “I know! But I’ve memorized it all, just gotta run through it the costumes aren’t that off to fit me so easy tucks there that they said would be done by tomorrow.”

“Four days though?!”

You shrugged, “I’ve had worse surprises, like Oxford, only got the news with enough time to spare for my flight and chips.” After a nip at your lip you rocked from side to side, “So, did you wanna come?”

“Of course! I can?” You nodded.

“We can eat after. Something special, to celebrate.”

He nodded, “Three minutes, I can hop onto something.” In his turn to get dressed you found your purse from the closet big enough for your binder and your jeans to change back onto when you were done. And in your final check for a few other things Richard showed up in a dress shirt he was covering with his sweater with his jacket in hand smiling at you, “All done.” You squeaked again and took his hand he offered to head through the door you opened and locked behind you starting the trip out to the stairs and subway after, with just a paused moment to share the bare minimum that you had gotten a part on Broadway widening his smile.

Anxiously on the subway you wiggled and nipped at your lip under Richard’s arm until you exited out on the bustling corner of Broadway. Down the sidewalk you followed the crowd then approached your teacher after he’d sent away another curious band of people assuming he was selling something based on the new show. His smile spread and he extended his hand to greet Richard on the trot inside. Through the halls when the door was locked behind you by the smiling guard watching you hurry your way back to meet the director.

Gregory stood with his arms crossed in the audience and a few rows behind him Richard accepted your bag and took a seat by the other friends, producers and relatives with a few reporters in between. Straight up to him Mr Taln led you and after a quick chat a disbelieving glance was shared between the men as you trotted up to the stage to join the chorus again to run through the opening number ‘All That Jazz.’

From the first note hit he ignored you, locked in his discussion until your voice sounded out in an alto alluring tone with a growl mingled with it halted his arguments and turned his head. The innocent bubbly girl he had just spoken to now stood confident, demanding of attention flawlessly flowing through the number.

Your warning of the Jazz tone of the musical came as a warning to Richard in hopes that he wouldn’t laugh, because as you’d done with Lee watching you perform in classes before if he laughed in the rehearsals you would be reduced to giggles at how nervous you were. But flawlessly you fit into each number and especially stood out and even egged the other women on to push a bit more in the ‘Cell block Tango’ number. In which Richard smirked seeing the director inch closer in your opening lines, so carefree and flirtatious with the stand in photographers interviewing you, only to sit back and swallow in your line, “It wasn’t until later, till I was washing the blood off my hands, I even knew they were dead!”

The sheer growl of the chorus beginning again and even out of costume chills ran through the silent seating section watching your trio perform your personal tango. That led to you back behind your rolling set of bars marking your cell you would exit again to join the chorus on a group number partially choreographed to floor work sure to look incredible in the final stages fully dolled up.

All the way to the final number you rivaled the more famous flapper bodied actress playing Roxie. Her movements having to be more emphasized than your restrained ones due to your even sweats covered hips required at your already present curves sure to be all the more emphasized in the final costume. It was a running game of contrast you seemed all to prepared to take on due to years of reminders on restraint in ballet and modern dance shows.

In the final pose you relaxed from the final pose lowering your fake bejeweled rifle from your shoulder to watch the director hurry up onto the stage dragging Mr Taln with him. From his eager handshake to his guiding you back to sign the papers his smile held and with the comment that the costumes had been altered already you were taken back to try them on for the promo posters bringing back the actress playing Roxie and even the actor playing Billy Flynn. With a grin of his own Raul joined you in the changing room hall extending his hand, “Hi, I’m-“

With a grin you answered, “Raul,” he chuckled as you said, “I’ve seen you perform before a few times. Mr Taln’s gifted me tickets to some of his shows before to keep me going.”

His brow arched up, “Keep you going?”

You nodded, “My dad works on an oil rig, we don’t get much time so I’m out here alone in school when I’m not at Oxford. Sometimes it’s harder than others.”

“Oxford? You study here and Oxford?”

You nodded and giggled, “Dad said I needed a backup plan so going for science degrees too.”

“Wow, you are just a bundle of mysteries aren’t you?” Making you chuckle and turn to head to your changing room to try on your costume.

His lips parted and you turned in the doorway guessing his question saying, “Jaqi, by the way.”

He nodded and watched you close the door to face the pair of women while he turned to enter his open changing room, through which he could hear your giggles and comments on the outfit.

Easily you stripped to your underwear and out of your sneakers and socks revealing a few bruised toes to the women taking them back for a moment along with the few band aids around the sides of your feet showing that you had blisters or cuts on them making your flawless steps all the more surprising.

Full pantyhose with dark lines down the backs of your thighs were covered with a black leotard layered with a silver and black sparkling shaggy vest top making you giggle and go, “Ooh.” Making the women chuckle around you at the opening number outfit they folded around you lifting and framing oh perfectly. After adding the heels they had given you a turn in front of the mirror was stolen and you mumbled, “Wow these makes my ass look fantastic,” chuckles were heard from the ladies and again outside from the makeup team waiting for you.

The door was opened and they saw you straightening your back to drop the curve of your ass to be less suggestive in your normal stance. Mumbling, “Ok, straight back on side views.” Turning again you hopped off the platform passing Richard, whose eyes scanned over you hungrily in your path after the pair to the makeup team.

Up into your chair you hopped and crossed your ankles looking in the mirror while one undid your bun to wind your hair back properly under a stocking cap for your black bob wig and the other started on your makeup after removing the little you had around your eyes already.

Passing Richard Raul worked his tie together and flashed him a grin then paused, “I saw you watching, you came with Jaqi.”

Richard nodded taking his hand, “Yes, Richard. It’s a great show from what I’ve seen so far.”

Raul chuckled saying, “Well we are fortunate to have such an amazing under understudy. Do you perform too?”

“Um, not musical theater anymore. Mainly plays and few bits on film and shows.”

Raul nodded, “Which was your last musical?”

Richard chuckled, “Cats.”

Raul, “Cats! Wow. Incredible show!” His name was called and he said with a grin, “I hope you show up again for the shows or dinners, we can share stories on our battle scars.”

Making Richard chuckle and lean against the wall peering in at you being transformed into Velma. Each stroke of the brush he could see your mental switch into her, no longer his previous mate but the vivacious murderess fighting to make it to the top of the world, and he truly couldn’t be prouder. Sure he’d done and mostly hated the musical portion of his career but you had such a passion and talent for it he couldn’t feel anything but overwhelming pride for you in all you were achieving and rightfully so in his eyes. It seemed you happened to stumble your way into acquaintances and jobs like a deer on ice and gracefully you took the jarring experiences in stride.

He could tell your feet were hurting, he’d seen you patching them up from class the other day after some jerk on the street had ran over your foot with a cart and yet you still powered through it with a smile, or smirk, depending on what the scene or your surroundings had called for. The struggle was real and painful for you, always restrictive and your practice in it showed as you posed with the cast in that outfit and another contrasting it from the final number with sheer stockings and a white sparkly shaggy mini leotard dress complete with white shoes to match your bejeweled rifle beside Roxy in her matching outfit. The image with you, Roxie and Billy together with you and Roxie in black around Billy in his suit and hat, you would be told would act as the new poster images to be posted by the morning for all the world to see complete with your name.

Papers, photos and the first rehearsal was down, the following day you would be back to go through your lines and stage cues for those scenes Richard was more than welcome to join you at as well. In your path to the door you caught the backers and producers speaking with Gregory excitedly about the talent you had turned out to be. One that one of producers had believed to be a better score than the original choice, especially due to your demeanor and effort to strive for perfection, not just for you but for the show in all. A major key in your winning factors for their choice for Velma was your ability to morph into her and actually vamp the other women up by performing as you had today only giving them hopes of a successful two month run they had been given for this show.

Having brought one of the disposable cameras you had gotten for him to record his time in New York with the blessing and joining in of Raul and Roxie you had your first reminder of your first big ticket show your name would be in lights for. Changed again with your face washed your hand was claimed by Richard who was smiling ear to ear leading you back out to the street after you had told everyone you’d see them tomorrow bright and early after hearing the voicemail on your cell phone from your teachers that you were given the week off and that if you needed to test out even earlier they would help you arrange that for you at your convenience after all sharing their compliments on how proud they all were of you.

Squeaking giddily in waiting for the crosswalk Richard chuckled at your lean into his side stealing a big hug earning a kiss from him in your glance up at him. Lowly he hummed against your lips, “You were fantastic.” He glanced down at the phone you were easing back in your pocket, “Family call?”

You shook your head, “No, my teachers, they said I can have the week off and if I have to test out early so I can keep up with the show they said they’ll help me set a good time for them.”

“What do you think? You can do both?”

You nipped at your lower lip for a moment then answered, “According to Raul they do have double shows twice a week, in the week, so I might have to. I love school, but I really love this show and want to give it my all.” His grin inched wider, “It just feels right to focus on it.”

Richard nodded, “I get that.” He glanced forward and you both crossed the street with the rest of the crowd, “To get my credentials I had to work in the circus for months, oh I was miserable, but I had to, so I understand. Plus, if you had the days off you could get more rest.” In the hum growing in his voice he playfully added, “And some more time for us to cuddle.” Making you giggle again.

“My two dance teachers did say my performances last Saturday morning would be my final, both said I should be resting my legs. And I still have the My Girl Friday presentation for tomorrow, but it’s set up for four so plenty of time after rehearsals. For my vocal coach they said my performance last week was being counted as my final grade so I can rest my voice. Violin, I have to be in on Saturday then that can be my final.” Richard chuckled at your nip at your lip to pause, “I think that’s it, the others can all be arranged. My others can just be essays or written.”

“I know you can handle it. I am glad they are so willing to fit your needs.”

You giggled again and said, “They do expect the best, and for the ones that work so hard and excel they want to help out, especially Mr Taln, he liked to hand out tickets to his best students as a sort of prize. Me most of all when I’m having hard times. Besides, it is one of the best school so it wouldn’t help anyone to hold us back from opportunities.”

Chuckling lowly he added, “Plus, Broadway. It is so impressive and you more than deserve it. Now, where are we celebrating?”

You giggled again saying, “I know a little place around here.”

He smirked and joined you for the walk to the little cozy family owned eatery you cozied up in a back booth enjoying the meal through hushed flirtations stemming from his comments on how he thought you looked in your costumes. From there you took the subway back home again and after sharing with your landlord you joined him upstairs, where he was chatting with his brother sharing all the news after his hearing Chris had checked in on his house. While he talked you went to your laptop and opened it firing off an email to your dad and grandparents along with a text to Lee sharing the news and asking how he was feeling.

Your arms draping down from around the back of his neck widened his smile and he took a hint that Chris had to go to end the call with his love and hung up to pull you around onto his lap to kiss you.

Fresh and early you were dressed and ready to go along with Richard after a stolen few extra moments of snuggling before breakfast. Today at least you could dress a bit warmer and the trip went easily and in a back rehearsal room you ran through your scenes with a few of the understudies and the assistant director while the main cast ran through the scenes around yours. A couple hours in you were out to run through your own scenes with the main cast, who loved to help you morph into the full role with shared comments on each scene before and after you went through them. From 7 to 2 you ran through everything, as many details at possible were absorbed and noted in your binder they all stole glances at smirking at your notes already before you had even practiced with them.

Into the cold again loose plans to have a meal after your first performance in two nights and you made your way off to school with your dress, heels and makeup in your bag. Through the halls again you passed through the excited students all asking random questions and sharing what you had missed between glances and smiles up at Richard, who settled into the auditorium anxious to see your performance after you had been stolen away by your group, who was more than thrilled to see you were still able to give the presentation. In your changing Richard glanced down at your phone he pulled from your coat pocket to read ‘Lee’ on the screen and without thinking he answered the call saying, “Hey Lee.”

On the other end of the line Lee froze in the doorway of the auditorium, “What?” His heart racing at hearing a man’s voice on the other end of your number.

“Jaqi’s changing for her performance.”

Lee wet his lips, “And you would be?”

“Richard.”

Again Lee inhaled to cover his moment of panic not knowing how he or when he had gotten to New York let alone how he had fit into your days since he had gotten injured and pulled away from your daily life in his try to explain things. “When did you get to New York?”

Richard wet his lips then turned his head to the door behind him hearing the announcement playing through the phone, “If you’re here to see Jaqi you can sit by me, got a decent spot and she should be on in a bit.”

Lee exhaled then said, “Sure, you’ll have to wave or something I need my hands.”

Richard smirked, “Ok.” Wetting his lips he hung up and propped his arm on the back of his seat peering at the door waiting to see the young fool who let you go not once but twice for someone as ridiculous as Jordan.

After a few calming breaths Lee thanked the guy opening the door for him to make his way through the slanted walkway scanning over the crowd. It didn’t take much to figure out who your Mate was, out of the large group of students and familiar family members his eyes fell on the clearly standout man with your coat under his arm and his fingers raised. Every detail you had shared fit him to a T, and those bright blue eyes and resting stern expression under brown hair softening the expression, the long legs stretching nearly to the seat before him marked the pair to nearly the same height with similar builds only worsening matters.

At the end of the row Richard got an even better view of Lee, someone a bit sturdier than he was when he was that age, forcing back his insecurities of his time as a living string bean he flashed the teen a quick grin and eyed the scrapes and bruises visible outside of his baggy jacket and shaggy hair. “How’s the leg?”

Lee’s head tilted and he shifted his crutches to hop over to the second seat in beside Richard to sit down leaving his crutches on the seat to his left, “Sore, but better. Just a sprain.” He wet his lips, “When did you get in?”

“Jaqi must have taken the whole park incident hard,”

Lee, “That’s not-,”

Richard cut him off, “Our marks bruised over.” Lee’s lips parted, “I already had a plane ticket to talk to her and it took a few times to call her to get her to answer while she was getting you to the hospital. I landed about 15 hours later, managed to calm her down.”

Lee’s eyes dropped to Richard’s hand saying, “Your marks healed though?”

Richard nodded showing him the mark, “Yup. Jaqi thinks her heart might have skipped, or maybe it was a near death thing like my brother suggested. I thought you were on bed rest.”

Lee grumbled and shifted in his seat, “My parents are working, managed to sneak out,” making Richard chuckle, “I’ll be back by their lunch.” He glanced at Richard again who was glancing at the students setting up a few decorations on the stage, “You’ve been staying with Jaqi then?”

Richard nodded glancing at him again, “Did she tell you the news?”

Lee nodded, “Ya, texted me about the show.” He wet his lips, “You’ve seen the rehearsals?” Richard nodded, “She as good as I think?”

Richard chuckled saying, “She is phenomenal.”

Lee nodded, “How long are you in town?”

“Through to the end of next week, so I get to see just over a week of the show. Heard about your show and film, congrats.”

Lee nodded, “You have anything lined up?”

Richard nodded, “I have a spot in spot as Angus in a Shakespeare for tv that we’re going to put on stage closer to winter,” Lee glanced at him, “There’s a few shows lined up before then that have been planned for over a year, big names and all that, have to fit their schedules. In the meantime I have a few extra spots on some good series back home lined up.”

Lee wet his lips then asked, “So, how is Jaqi going to fit into all that out there while she’s dancing and going to school?”

Richard smirked, “The play would be the longest stretch of work for us to juggle through, besides, the London Ballet is only contracted from April to September, no telling where the world will lead her next.”

Lee, “And you’re good with that?”

Richard smirked at him, “The job comes with travel and new surroundings and acquaintances, I’m not going to hold her back from following where her path leads. If I can I’ll bend mine to be close to hers but even if we have to work apart we’ll make it work. What would you do,” Lee’s brows inched up, “If you got sent to one corner of the world and she got sent to the other, you’d just drop her as a friend?”

Lee, “She’s always my best friend.”

Richard nodded then said, “Don’t forget that.” Lee’s lips parted readying to say he understood you were dating now only to fall silent at Richard’s saying, “You don’t see how big an impact your friendship has on her. You’ve had history and there’s some to get through for you, but you could be friends for your whole lives, sharing all your good and bad news. You have no idea how rare that is. I didn’t have that till I met her, and I’ve almost ruined it a couple times but I won’t do that again, you shouldn’t either.”

Lee nodded then looked forward saying softly, “And here I thought you’d want to hit me or something.”

Richard chuckled, “I think the ground did enough damage to you.”

Lee couldn’t help but smirk and smooth his uninjured hand through his hair when your group was announced.

After you had finished your show you caught a glimpse of the pair seated together and your stomach clenched wondering what they had spoken about. Though after you had changed Lee was glad to accept your hug and to chat with you both on the way back to his home you walked him to ensuring he didn’t fall down or anything. Another stolen hug and he groaned by your ear at the sting in his ribs, “Save me a ticket for that opening night. I won’t miss it for the world.”

You smirked up at him, “Get back in bed you walking bruise.” Making him chuckle then glance at Richard who he traded nods with before his turn to climb the steps and head inside, when he closed the door behind him you turned with Richard who leaned down to kiss your forehead, “Come on, let’s go get you off your feet, Love. I’ll give you a rubdown to one of our films.”

“Ooh.” Lowly he chuckled in your snuggling walk down the street, in the subway however your curiosity got the best of you, “What’d you talk about?”

He smirked at you in your glance up at him, “You,” Your brow inched up, “How I got here, how long I’m staying, and I made sure to tell him he’d be a fool to stop being your friend if work takes you off to different corners of the world.”

“Really?”

He nodded, “I’m never going to make that mistake again, pushing you away. I’m so sorry I ever hurt you, I thought I’d lost you, and I won’t, ever again.” Snuggling more against his side his arm tightened around your back kissing the top of your head.

Back home again in his heating up some hot water to soak your feet in you checked your email and beamed at the email your dad had sent you that you read aloud to him spreading his smile in return as you said, “He’s coming out in three weeks to see me!”

Richard replied, “That’s fantastic!” Carrying the soaker into your bedroom and after you replied he carried you in as well to set you on the end of the bed while he started rubbing your neck and back through the opening credits of the film you had picked. “Any plans for when he gets here?” You nipped at your lip and he chuckled loving that you would be with family again after he had left to tide you over until you could be together again.

All –

@himoverflowers, @theincaprincess, @aspiringtranslator, @sweeticedtea, @ggbbhehe4455, @thegreyberet, @patanghill17, @jesgisborne, @curvestrology, @alishlieb, @jogregor, @armitageadoration, @fizzyxcustard, @here2have-fun, @lilith15000, @marvels-ghost, @catthefearless, @imjusthereforthereads, @c-s-stars

X all Rich. A - @abiwim, @deepestfirefun, @thestorybookmistress

@evyiione, @deepestfirefun, @rhaenaatargaryen

Pt 18

#Richard Armitage x Reader OC #Lee Pace x Reader OC

17 notes · View notes

migleefulmoments · 5 years

Note

lmao Abby is losing her shit because Darren is gonna be singing White Christmas with Lea on her new Christmas album. Apparently that song is "sacred" and can only be sang by Darren and Chris. She seriously needs to get a grip.

Anonymous said: "I can be upset, I think it is a complete slap in the face. there are like 3000 christmas songs, there are THREE that are sacred. And yes, D should have sad no." Oh look Abby doesn't approve of something Darren is doing AGAIN. Seriously she claims to be his biggest fan but yet complains about everything he does.

Man, I didn’t see this coming. I’m amazed at how deeply emotional they are about a scripted, tv-show couple and a really old song! I might understand if Abby was a lesbian teenager and this was 2011. It was empowering for gay, lesbian and bisexual kids and young adults to turn on network tv and see people that looked liked them. But times they have a changed. Klaine and Brittana pushed boundaries, but in 2019 there are LGBTQ characters on many shows, Netflix has LGBTQ programing and Ryan Murphy continues to create shows that specifically tell LGBTQ stories-ie Pose and he has created LGBTQ characters for all of his shows because that’s life. He’s continues to normalize LGBTQ characters on his shows: 911 has a main character who is a married lesbian, The Politician has gay characters and its been reported that Rock Hudson will be a character in Hollywood.

So here we are in 2019 and Abby is devastated that the sacred White Christmas will be covered by Darren and Lea on her new Christmas album. First off, why is the song sacred? Abby mentioned the “Bryant Park riot”-a riot we know never happened. The people “holding the fandom together” were not in the cc fandom when Chris and Darren filmed in Bryant Park. Their “memories” of that day have all been created by watching a few moments of the 11-hour day. I’ve come to realize that the cc theory is built on slowed-down gifs and screenshots. Reality looks nothing like cc so they manipulate the facts to fit their needs. It’s a powerful method because it is so easy to con people into believing inane facts. I am sure that Abby and Flowers and Cassie and Leka fully believe everything they hold near and dear about CrissColfer. It’s all a lie but they fully believe they are throwing out tried-and-true proven facts. Abby in particular is really baffled why we can’t see what she see. The difference between them and us is that we don’t listen with our eyes. We don’t get information about Darren and Mia by piecing together gifs. That’s it-gifs and screenshots from videos! Can you imagine if a lawyer a police officer used a gif as evidence?

Nobody set out to con the tinhatters into believing a fantasy that doesn’t exits-in fact, nobody is conning the fandom-they are conning themselves. They don’t look at the evidence and form an opinion- they literally create the evidence. Zoom in a photo until you can crop out what you need or clip 1-2 seconds from a longer video, slow it down, add some text and suddenly *BAM* you have proof! Proof with all the drama and emotion to make it feel so much more important than it was.

How the shit hit the fan:

Leka:

jaci3

I will definitely be purchasing this album! So much talent! Cynthia!! Darren!! Jonathan and Lea!!

notes-from-nowhere

I’m going to take this as a good news👍🏻

ajw720

But no, no, no no. Do not get me wrong, I am thrilled D is on the album, but no, no, no, not a K/laine song. Why? There are so many Christmas songs out in the world and they chose a K/laine song?

I have no interest, it can never live up.

I hate 2019.

DRAMA MUCH?

Thanks, but it’s a hard pass for me.

ajw720

I actually have tears in my eyes. This feels like a complete slap in the face. Sorry, but it is and it should not have been this song and I don’t care what you believe, Those songs are sacred to the K/laine fandom whether you think he is married to her or with C or something completely different.

How many Christmas songs are there to choose from? If she wanted WC, she could have sang it with someone else.

With you @cassie1022 hard pass. It may seem silly to be this upset about something, but this actually makes me angry. I feel like K/laine fans are being discarded. That is his LEGACY, something he should be proud of, through that character and that pairing, he and C made a difference, and I do not understand why it needs to constantly be chipped away.

I have to say the thing that strikes me the most is how obtuse she is about what Glee was the end. It was a mess. I loved Glee but most of the fun by the end was the amazing fanfiction, Fanon Klaine and fandom itself. It was fun to get the song sneak peeks and BTS photos and videos. It was amazing to be a part of a fandom of people who loved what I did. It is amazing to be part of the Chris and Darren stanclub. But Glee...it was a disaster. .

Leka proves some context for “White Christmas is Sacred” and notice how how many are gifs:

leka-1998

Excuse you.

WC is so much more than just a song.

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youtube

(She does know this is a scripted moment right? Darren didn’t actually travel to NYC from Lima with Chris’s dad and someone told him when to skate, what to say, what to sing.).

“It’s been a whirlwind, but amazing. We got to film at the ice skating rink in Bryant Park, which was just incredible. It was one of the best filming experiences I’ve ever had.”

- Ch/ris Col/fer

(Yes, Darren laid down on the carpet and took a picture of Chris which was about the most cc thing that happened in 11 hours)

(I have no doubt that these three gifs were created from 1 or 2 seconds of real-time video. These images created the false impression that they spent the day together, gleefully skating and being intimate. Not too long ago, I read a cc post that claimed “Darren spent the day taking care of Chris”. No, not true- see the videos below for a more realistic representation of the day). )

#truly this really upsets me

(I guess she is reminding us of how much they mean to the world- eye roll.)

I tried finding a long video on YouTube-ideally much of the day or even just big chucks of the day but *surprise* nobody bothered to upload that snooze fest. If the day was actually the cc riot the posse believes it was, there would be an 11-hour complication video.

I did find some video that accurately represents what I remember. Basically just imagine 11 hours of the following:

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youtube

Chris was pretty shaky when they started skating but by the time they filmed, he was much better. I cannot imagine being on skates for 11- shaky- hours.

undefined

youtube

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youtube

Chris skating alone, trying to get more comfortable with skating before filming.

That’s it! That s the totality of what is posted on YouTube from the “Riot”.

The conversation continues;

Anonymous asked:

White Christmas is literally one of the most cliché christmas songs. The album is just Lea's favorites. Darren has sung White Christmas before and he sounded amazing so it's only natural she would invite him to sing it with her. I get the a lot of things can be frustrating, but good god you all being THIS upset about it is the reason why everyone mock our fandom. It's not even baby it's could outside. At least we know for sure chris is going to be mentioned at some point during the promo.

ajw720 answered: (in victim mode)

Why do you care if I am this upset? Seriously, let them mock me, they have blogs dedicated to hating me and posts multiple times a day. I am over it, they are the ones with the sad lives who actually give me power.

(Nope, not dedicated to “hating you”, I simply debunk your “facts” and “proof” beaus they are not evidence of CrissColfer; Yes, this is unfortunately a negative side effect to disproving your lies- you don’t care if the attention is negative or positive- you just like the attention. But pointing out the lies and misinformation is more important to me )

I can be upset, I think it is a complete slap in the face. there are like 3000 christmas songs, there are THREE that are sacred. And yes, D should have sad no. We sit here and swallow everything, including having “D” himself mock and yell at our fandom on SM. And I virtually defend everything he does, probably to a fault, including holding out that person as his wife. This was easily avoidable.

(well at least you acknowledge that Darren calls out your fandom for their bad behavior on social media. Now would be a good time to really analyze why you think that is. Really sit down and think about why Darren would mock your fandom without a gif or a screenshot to zoom in on. What would drive him to be angry at a ccer?) .

Sorry, not sorry, don’t like, post on your own blog and stop reading mine if you don’t like the way i represent. Happy to pace the torch.

(Wow she is happy to pass the torch? Right. )

notes-from-nowhere

(Notes comes in and tries to soothe Abby’s fragile nerves).

So, I feel the need to say something. I’m not that much upset for the song mostly because I think it may be the song D picked out if those presented to him so I don’t fully like the idea but it could have been worse. At least all of the involved knows the meaning of the song.

What bothers me though is this kind of attitude, anon. This urgency to come here and to tell to another person what/how/when she should feel about something. Trying to put a weight on it or to dismissed the rightfulness of her feelings.

If this is how she (and everyone else) feels about this, she has the right and the freedom to say it out loud without having to face someone else’s judgement because maybe she has another opinion.

(and the anon has the right to say what she feels-see how that works?)

There are different ways to approach a person to communicate so please next time, think better.

ajw720

Thank you @notes-from-nowhere, hard to believe, the above was at least more respectful than this anon:

This is why I left the fucking fanbase. I still very much agree with the same views and ideas that all of you have, but jesus christ, it’s a SONG. Calm down. I’m just happy whenever D does something that doesn’t envolve PBB. Getting so upset because D is singing a song that he sang with C. Maybe he’s doing it because it reminds him of the Bryant Park shoot? Maybe? Good god, everything is the apocalypse to you guys. Leaving was the best thing I’ve ever done.

I want to remind everyone, I am the one, with a handful of people, keeping this fandom alive and supporting D&C daily,. And just like i can praise them, i can tell them when they hurt me. This hurt. Maybe I am being overly dramatic and if this was isolated, i would say yes. This is not isolated, it is a continued effort to erase K/laine and CC. As has been pointed out, not only did they offend K/laine fans in general, it is a knock at our fandom who still to this day celebrate the skating riot.

(Oh lord, she reminds us she is the HBIC, sacrificing everything to keep the fandom together. I love that she believes this is “supporting D&C daily”. Nobody needs to be told the suck everyday. She support them and so she can criticize them but nonnie cannot criticize her. That makes perfect sense)

Again literally THOUSANDS of songs to choose from. Not even sure why L would EVER want to compete with C, but in this case, the fault doesn’t lie with her. D should have said no.

(I don’t think Lea is too worried about putting up her vocal chops against Chris’. The both have great voices)

I am not going to say anything else and just accept that yet another of D’s 2019 projects is something i won’t ever see or hear.

(once again it’s all about her and her hurt feelings. But this response is at least rationale-if you don’t like the project- skip it. It isn’t Darren’s responsibly to provide 100% Abby approved content)

I really hope things are going to change, I really, really do.

(But they aren’t..they really aren’t. This is Darren’s life and I know it’s super stressful because you are trying to hard to make his life work with yours and it just won't You both have very conflicting and opposing goals for Darren’s life. Here’s a protip: Go on a gif-free and zoomed-photo-free diet for a few months. Analyze the information at face value. Learn what PR really means and see how things look.If for no other reason than your own sanity. Stop trying to shove the square peg in the round hole

#please do not send any more asks on this topic

#i am very upset

ajw720

My feelings aside, WHY in the world would LM EVER want to compete with this? Sorry, but it won’t be half as good. Stupid move and that is trying to remove my bias.

(Her thought processes never ceases to amaze me. Abby and Trump- they start criticizing and they just can’t stop. Lea gets to make her own decisions about what songs she sings, who she’s competitive with, whether she wants to take a chance and put herself out there or not. It just isn’t anyone else’s business. Chris has a beautiful voice but Lea has a stunning voice-she isn’t worried. This is right up there with her criticisms of TSG’s air conditioning, drink names, theme nights and every comment she’s made about a bar she will never go to.

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scandinavian-girl · 5 years

Text

Too Good At Goodbyes

Another tour. Another time to say goodbye. Another breakdown. Right?

That’s how it used to be since you and Shawn started dating and he had to leave for promo tours. You began to feel like a fool when you didn’t cry, when he would leave for a small promo run last spring. The few fans who were at the airport, to say good bye to Shawn, had noticed you haven’t cried. Not even one tear in your eyes.

Shawn were saying goodbye to the last fan before he said goodbye to his mother, father and Aaliyah. His mother had learned how to say goodbye to her son, before a big world tour like this one. His father, however, did tear up. Manny was proud of Shawn, for everything he had accomplished. Aaliyah said a couple of jokes along their small conversation, but she ended up saying she loved her brother.

The Mendes family walked outside to the car and waited for you. They knew Shawn would love some alone time with you before he left. “Another goodbye, eh?” you said with a shrug and looked up at your tall boyfriend.

He sighed and gave you a nod. “Gosh I’m gonna miss you,” he said holding your hands in his large ones. “I’ll see you are your final exams, right?”

You gave him a nod in approval. “I’ll join you when you’re in Chicago. That’s when I’m sure I don’t have more exams to do,” you made clear for him.

He nodded his head, making his curls bounce a little. You heard him let out a quiet sob.

“Shawn, why are you crying?”

“Jus’ gonna miss my baby,” he looked at you with puppy eyes.

“C’mere,” you opened your arms to welcome him into a warm hug. When he wrapped his arms around your small body, you could feel how much he was going to miss you. You still had no tears in your eyes. The feeling when your loved one was breaking down in your arms, was not good.

Maybe being too good at goodbyes was a bad thing?

You noticed people began to stare at you two. It was a wired feeling to know that this situation was wired. “Shawn, you gotta go,” you whispered into his ear, softly.

He let you go and let out a deep sigh, trying to compose himself. It was hard for him to let you go for 3 months. But he had to. “Those 3 months will go fast, yeah? We will facetime everyday and talk about each other’s days, okay?” you requested. He gave you a nod in approval.

You were at the Mendes house. Karen invited you to stay there the next 3 months, since your school was 20 minutes away from their home. The first night at their house was horrible. Both Manny and Karen said you could stay in Shawn’s childhood room and you gladly took the offer. You tossed and turned in Shawn’s bed. Trying hard to fall asleep without a warm body to protect you.

You checked the time, seeing it was 3:38 AM. You quickly remembering he was 6 hours in front of you, because of time zones.

“Hello?” you heard Shawn’s quite fresh voice say into his phone.

“Hey,” you mumbled tiredly.

“What’s up babe? Sounds tired,”

“Shawn, it’s 3:38 am where I am right now. I haven’t slept yet,” you felt tears forming in your eyes now. Great, now the tears are coming you thought.

“Oh right. I’m sorry babe. You should try to sleep, okay?”

“But I can’t,” you sniffled and sat up on Shawn’s bed.

He went silent.

“Shawn?” you said a little louder than for anticipated.

“You are in my old room, right?” he asked softly.

You let out a small and fragile “yes” to him.

“Go to my dresser. In the top drawer, all the way in the back, I have a small diary formed note book. Take it, go back to bed and read it. I believe there’s a few songs in there I want your approval on them,” he said to you.

You got up, turned on the bedside lamp and went to his dresser, almost tipping over some old shoes he had. “Gosh Shawn. I thought your mum had cleaned your room,” you groaned.

“She should have though,”

“But she hasn’t. Gonna ask her to do it later,” you grabbed the diary and walked back to his bed slowly. “I miss you so much, Shawn. I’m sorry I was awkward at the airport. I froze. My feelings froze. I’m sorry,” you apologized, sniffling again

“It’s okay baby. I did notice it, but I choose to ignore it ‘cause I know you will miss me,” he sighed to himself.

“When we say goodbye in public, my mind just freezes. I just can’t think straight in those situations,” you confessed.

“Read page 4, line 5. Please read it out loud,” he changed the subject.

You took a deep breath and began to read. “Finding a soulmate is hard. Maybe harder that you’ve heard. But when you finally find that person, it’s like finding your other half,” you finished. “What’s the melody to this?”

“Something like Why. Slow, calm yet so powerful. It’s a song about us,” he said shyly.

You smiled at his words, fully imagining him smiling cutely as he played with his feather ring.

“I think you should go to bed. It’s already 4:15 where you are. I’ll talk later, yeah?” he softly requested.

“Yeah. I’ll try at least,” you nodded to approve it to yourself.

A few days had passed, and you missed Shawn more and more. Normally you were a straight A student in college but since Shawn left for tour, your grades have been dropping. Your friends had noticed your lack of attention, lack of sleep and lack of motivation.

“Y/n are you okay?” your best friend Emma asked you during a math class.

“Hm?” you hummed confusingly at her. Didn’t hear her question.

“I asked if you were okay? You’ve been down since Shawn left for tour,” Emma continued.

“Wanna know the real truth?” you looked at her.

“I fucking miss Shawn. I can’t function without him by my side,” you let out a frustrated sigh and putting down your pencil. “It’s like we are an equation. We have to solve both sides of it and, as of right now, I just can’t figure it out,” you continued.

“Miss y/n, do you have something to share with the rest of the class?” the math professor asked you through the class.

“Uhm no,” you shook your head and went back to your tasks.

“Maybe I’m just too good at goodbyes,” you mumbled to yourself.

“You’ve said goodbye so many times to him. You’re getting professional at it,” Emma whispered back to you.

You nodded. “What time is it?”

“11:22. Soon lunch time,” Emma looked at you quick and soot you a smile of reassurance.

After school you drove back to Karen and Manny. When you opened the door, you heard Karen talk to a person in her phone. “You sure you’ll be okay?” she asked the person.

You bend down to open the shoelace of your converse’s and took them off. “Listen you can’t just fly home. You are on tour, in Europe right now so you can’t just decide to push some shows a week so you can come home,” she said in her British accent she had grown up with. “Is it Shawn you’re talking to?” you asked quietly but loud enough for her to hear. She gave you a nod, “Shawn, y/n is here,” she then gave you the phone.

“Shawn?” you asked when you had taken the phone and put it up against your ear.

“I wanna go home and see you,” he confessed. “I miss you too much,” you sighed at him.

“You know how mad Andrew will get if he finds out you wanna push the whole tour at least one week,”

“But,”

“No buts Shawn. You’ll be back in May for a break and I’ll join you in late June. And I know facetimeing aren’t as great at physical contact but it’s all we can do for now,” you sat down on the sofa.

“I know. Can I get my mum back?”

“Yeah. One second,” you put the phone down and got up to go to Karen. “Karen? Shawn wants you back,” you gave her the phone.

You went to Shawn’s room taking off your denim jacket you had gotten from Shawn a few days prior to him leaving. Doing homework was boring without him. Sitting between he long legs while he, often would watch Grey’s Anatomy, as you did the homework. It just made you concentrate more, knowing fully he would watch Grey’s but would read along what you wrote.

You decided to connect your phone to Shawn’s Bluetooth speakers and selecting some calm music. First song to come on was When You Love Someone by James TW. A special song to you and Shawn. It was the song you and Shawn shared your first kiss with.

You finished your home work in the matter of under an hour, as the music still played. One of Shawn’s songs came on. It was Nervous. A song he wrote about when you two first met. The thought of the meaning behind it made you tear up.

You turned off the music and called Shawn over facetime right away. When he didn’t pick up you checked the time. 3:58 PM.

“Fuck,” you mumbled to yourself, “Forgot you had a show now,”

You texted him instead, telling him to call as soon as possible.

“Hi,” you said shortly to Shawn, who were in the other end.

“Why did you want me to all asap? What’s wrong?”

“I thought ‘bout something. Remember like a week ago we talked during the night? And I confessed why I didn’t cry?” your index and thump now rubbing your forehead.

Shawn hummed a soft yes in the other end.

“I figured out that I might be too good at goodbyes. I know it sounds wired but I’m so used to saying it,” you felt some weight finally coming off your small shoulders.

“Too good at goodbyes? Wasn’t it that song, Sam Smith wrote?” he thought out loud making you giggle a little.

“Yes Shawn. Yes, he did,” you now laughed at him. “here I am, trying to be serious about one thing, and then you come and ruin the mood,”

“You know I’m good at ruining the mood. Too good at it,” he giggled along with you.

You sat there for about a minute or two of dead silence when a knock on the door came. It was Aaliyah.

“Y/n, dinner is ready,” she gave you a soft smile.

“Wanna say hi to your brother?” you requested her.

“Nah,” she shook her head. “I’m starving here so he’ll just have to wait,”

You couldn’t help but giggle at her words. So much love for her brother you thought to yourself. “Gotta go now. Bye Shawn,” you said as you got up from his bed.

“See you soon,”

“Love you,”

“Love you too,” he said back and hung up.

#shawn #mendes #shawn mendes #Shawn Mendes Imagine #shawn mendes fanfic #shawn mendes fic #blurb #shawn mendes blurb #shawn blurb #shawn mendes fluff #shawn fluff #fluff #shawn mendes x reader

108 notes · View notes

mittensmorgul · 5 years

Note

ok ok i KNOW promos are little more than glimpsing the episode through a keyhole, BUT, if it is what it looks like, i think it’s safe to say that dean is doing his Classic Dean thing, and projecting the anger he feels at himself onto other people. because we KNOW how hard it was for dean to come around to jack, and accept that he wasn’t a threat, and dean even fully embraced him as part of the family, and then.... jack maybe kinda turns out to be exactly what dean thought he was from the start.

Yeah, that’s at least a big part of this. I mean, let’s go back and look at Dean’s trust-vs-acceptance arcs way back in s4. It’s not an exact parallel, but it’s thematically similar.

And for full owie factor, I’m watching 8.07 while I’m typing this up (thanks, TNT loop), and I have it paused on the scene where Dean and Cas are having their little talk while waiting for Linda Tran to show up… Dean’s angry and hurt, and has literally created a false memory of the situation because it was too painful. So yeah, we know this is something Dean does.

But back to the example I was gonna use here. In s4, Dean was being asked to trust Ruby, despite all his instincts screaming at him not to. Obviously Dean never developed a parental relationship with her, she never fully entered his sphere of trust the way Jack has, which only makes this a thousand times worse now. Because Jack DID get through Dean’s defenses, and proved he was worthy of being there, in Dean’s inner circle of family.

And despite everything, Dean’s gonna hate HIMSELF for what Jack’s done now. Because HE feels responsible for not being able to handle Jack’s death back in 14.08, because HE pushed to find a way to bring Jack back, because HE didn’t know how to handle things when Jack wasn’t doing well again, because HE allowed Jack’s “I’m fine” to stand even back in 14.14 before he burned up so much of his soul to kill Michael, and because HE didn’t know how bad things were getting for Jack now.

I mean, if DEAN had only been able to hold Michael back, Jack would never have had to risk his own soul to save them. If he’d just thrown himself in the ocean, Jack could’ve been FINE, right?!

I mean, Dean doesn’t know that Jack already wasn’t fine, and that he was already casually burning up more and more of his soul to hide his symptoms in 14.14. Dean ALSO doesn’t know what Cas sacrificed in order to bring Jack’s soul back in 14.08. And he’s gonna feel like crap when he finds out, because Cas did that for him, because he honestly believed that Dean would rather have Jack healthy and whole than him. And just D: D: D:

Cas and Dean are BOTH in this boat– Dean because of the guilt surrounding everything to do with Michael and his own personal perceived failings in that regard, and Cas who has now literally thrown everything away FOR NOTHING.

Cas staked EVERYTHING. HE. IS. on recovering Jack’s soul, and he’s horrified and had been in denial that it was lost forever. For NOTHING.

GEE. I WONDER WHY HE DIDN’T TELL DEAN.

He was so desperate he set out to find God again. Not for the reasons he did back in s5, but for incredibly PERSONAL reasons. I mean 5.02:

CASTIEL: I killed two angels this week. My brothers. I’m hunted. I rebelled. And I did it, all of it, for you, and you failed. You and your brother destroyed the world, and I lost everything, for nothing. So keep your opinions to yourself.

and from 5.18:

CASTIEL: I rebelled for this?! So that you could surrender to them? DEAN: Cas! Please! CASTIEL: I gave everything for you. And this is what you give to me.

Can you imagine sacrificing literally everything you are, all chance at future happiness included, for someone who KNEW exactly what you had given up, only to have that person feel their “mission” was more important than anything else? Who was willing to sacrifice both of them to complete that mission? Because that’s what Jack has done.

If Jack’s soul really is gone forever, then Cas’s sacrifice has been for nothing. But Dean’s reaction is clearly coming from a place where Dean himself knows nothing about that sacrifice. Because Cas didn’t want to burden him with it. And Jack KNEW that.

But there’s so many of these threads coming together in the plot knot currently. and heck, this scene from 8.07 is on my screen rn:

DEAN: That was a bonehead move back there. You could have gotten yourself killed. Why didn’t you wait for me?CASTIEL: Well, I didn’t get killed. And it worked.DEAN: And if it didn’t?CASTIEL: It would have been my problem.DEAN: Well, that’s not the way I see it.CASTIEL: Hey, everything isn’t your responsibility. Getting me out of Purgatory wasn’t your responsibility.DEAN: You didn’t get out. So whose fault was it?CASTIEL: It’s not about fault. It’s about will. Dean, do you really not remember?DEAN: [laughs shortly] I lived it, Cas. Okay, I know what happened.CASTIEL: No. No, you think you know. You remembered it the way you needed to.DEAN: Look, I don’t need to feel like hell for failing you, okay? For failing you like I’ve failed every other godforsaken thing that I care about! I don’t need it!

Sacrifice, self-worth, free will and choice… same themes, different go-around on all the loops here.

One last thought… Jack’s had a LOT of Star Wars references around his narrative journey. Dean’s been worried Jack could go Dark Side since the day he was born. I mean, Dean was worried at first that Jack was BORN dark, and it took him A LOT to separate out the guilt, horror, and grief of Cas’s death back in early s13 for Dean to even BEGIN to see that Jack wasn’t inherently evil. It took Cas coming back from the Empty (that metaphorical Dark Side), and then Jack’s time in the AU fighting alongside Mary for him to truly feel that Jack was growing into the Light Side of the Force.

It wasn’t that Jack killed Nick, because it had become clear that Nick was just Lucifer Lite (all the evil, none of the archangelic mojo), and despite being given several chances to stop, Jack did what we all knew had to be done. Only… the WAY he did it was just horrifying in itself. He could’ve just… zapped Nick dead instantly. He could’ve snapped his fingers and turned him to dust like he’s done to so many others, going back to the angels he poofed in the AU during s13. Heck, he could’ve shot him or just stabbed him with a knife. Nick was human. It would’ve killed him. But instead, Jack wanted him to suffer. Jack inflicted slow torture on Nick, believing he deserved to suffer. And that Jack was righteous in being the agent of that suffering.

That wasn’t a reflection on what Nick might or might not have deserved, but on JACK, and the fact he’s not in control of the Force anymore. The Dark Side got his claws in him, and it’s controlling him now.

It reminded me a tiny bit of one of Dean’s lessons during 6.11, while Dean was playing Death for a day. One touch and he could end the suffering of people slated to die and send them on to their afterlife– be it Heaven, Hell, whatever. It wasn’t DEAN CAUSING this guy’s suffering, but kinda… choosing to let it go on a lil bit, because the guy had been willing to shoot a KID just to rob a convenience store:

TESSA Hello? Tick tock.DEAN He’s in agonizing pain, right?TESSA Uh, yes.DEAN Give me a minute.

Dean then called the guy’s spirit a dick, and basically told him he was going to Hell… I mean, I get it, it feels good to watch someone get their comeuppance. But it’s another thing entirely to be the cause of someone’s suffering, even if they richly deserve it. To actively, vindictively feel justified in making someone suffer the way Jack did to Nick there. Nothing else mattered to him in that moment, and if Mary hadn’t been there growing more and more horrified, who even knows how long that torture would’ve continued. It wasn’t at all about what Nick “deserved.” We all get it, he deserved to suffer. It was about what this (and his actions in the next scene talking to Mary) said about JACK.

Like soulless!Sam, he can’t even see how wrong his actions are. He becomes defensive when Mary tries to explain, as carefully as she can, why she’s concerned for him. But Jack’s self-preservation, and the preservation of his beliefs about himself in a fundamental way, were threatened. He tried to rationalize and defend his actions. He told her Sam and Dean were GRATEFUL that he’d killed Nick and stopped Lucifer from coming back. And yeah, we all are, but that’s dusted now and we’re left with this deep concern for Jack instead.

He needed his actions to be justified, to be approved of, because without his own internal moral compass, he NEEDS the “What Would The Winchesters Do” validation. And Mary couldn’t give it.

At this point, I’ve typed so long I’ve got one last example from the TNT loop, at the end of 8.08. Fred Jones finally gets to confront the evil man who’d used his power to do bad things and got a lot of people killed in the process. When Sam and Cas confronted Fred, and woke him up enough to recognize what was happening, Fred used his power to kill the evil doctor. He didn’t drag it out, just forced the guy to turn the gun on himself while telling him that he’d never hurt anyone else again. But then Fred could see how his powers had been used for evil, and instead of attempting to defend or justify any of this, he voluntarily allowed his powers (and much of what made him him) to be extracted so that he could never be used that way again.

Jack… did the opposite.

This is all tied up in Cas’s personal issues with his own power, his identity, his endless struggles for and against Heaven, what he’s personally sacrificed for his loved ones. And heck at this point I don’t even remember the initial question, so I hope I’ve answered it…

*scrolls up to reread this before posting*

wow this reply went places…

#spn 14.17 #spn 14.18 #spn s14 spoilers #spn 8.07 #spn 8.08 #spn 6.11 #spn 14.08 #spn 14.14 #spn 5.02 #spn 5.18 #Anonymous #spiders georg of the tnt loop #s14 meta rewatch

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darrentatch · 4 years

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TaxAct vs TurboTax For 2019 and 2020

TaxAct vs TurboTax : Features Options and Comparison In 2019

Competition is quite fierce between two of the most prominent providers of tax-preparation software’s, so in this article, we take a more in-depth view of whether Taxact vs Turbotax can offer you the best service and also which tax site gives the biggest refund. Of all the Turbotax competitors in the market we feel Taxact offers the best alternative view. We outline the pros and cons for both and provide you with what we think is the clear winner between these two giants in tax preparation and ask the Question, Is Taxact a good program and is it better than Turbotax. Are you ready? Here are the reviews

Before we get into the comparisons of these top preforming preparation software lets look at a deal for you so that once you have finished reading you can scroll back to here and click on either of Turbotax or Taxact to get the discounted deals we have prepared for you at MyDealsClub.com so stop looking for cheaper alternative options and get the best , so for 2019 these are the best deals we have for you so click on either to lock in the very best price today. So lets get into the battle of Taxact vs Turbotax because I got both TaxAct vs TurboTax to test through a few different filing situations.

TurboTax Overview and Review

This is arguably the most common DIY tax software , which has become a household name over the years. Turbo tax rates highly among users as its easy to use and cost effective .It’s also quite appealing that almost every bank offers a discount for Turbotax, an excellent example of this is Chase bank where customers can click a link from their website. We have a full Turbotax review if you wish to get a full in-depth rundown of the tax capabilities and make sure you also see our turbotax.com service codes and deals .

Related : Turbotax Review 2019: Filing Taxes Online

TurboTax is famous for being a helpful program that is user-friendly and simple to understand so in this review we aim to guide you through why you should use Turbotax and compare products to get a better idea of the best one for you. We checked the software application’s track record by preparing three various tax-filing circumstances and running each one through the online tax software program with free tools and calculator, the donation calculator will save you a lot of time and make it easier to locate all deductions available each year. We discovered that TurboTax’s track record is well founded when compared to H&R Block , Taxslayer or credit karma the other big heavyweights in Tax preperation.

Deluxe:

If you’re able to itemize, deduct mortgage interest, or have received a 1099-G (State Tax Refund) or a 1099-Misc (Freelance and Independent Contractor Income) you want to be in their most basic plan. Also be check out our Turbotax Deluxe 2019 Discount

Premier:

individuals who’ve sold any stocks or investments and are required to update the cost-basis data on their Schedule D will automatically be upgraded to the Premier service at the right time. This tier helps you to file a Schedule E in case you receive rental property income. Also be sure to check out our TurboTax Premier 2019 Discounts. State fee may apply

Home and Business:

for the self-employed or those who own a small business with miscellaneous expense’s that exceeding $100, you have to upgrade to the highest tier. But if your 1099-Misc expenses are the cellphone, Mileage, and other expenses less than $100, then you can use one of the lower options.State fee may apply after recent tax cuts

Self-Employed:

$89.99 to $119.99. For most small business owners this is a great choice and one we have used ourselves

TurboTax Live:

$149.99 to $179.99. This is a new service Appropriate for all situations, with a remote CPA or IRS Enrolled Agent consultation and on-demand live advice included. Also be sure to check out our turboTax Live Discount for additional savings

Free Federal File

This is offered and to make it easy to file a Form 1040EZ or Form 1040A. the upgraded or paid version offers the best option for most people who are unsure on what to do

TurboTax Pricing, Compare Basic to Premium and paid optionsFEDERAL PRODUCTREGULAR PRICEAFTER DISCOUNT

Federal$0 federal$0 federal

Deluxe$54.99$49.49

Premier$79.99$71.99

Self-Employed$114.99$103.49

The free efile plan provides support for 1040EZ and 1040 A , no extra electronic filing fees

There are four paid plans that range from $59.99 to $179.99 and you can always go with the new Turbotax Live with help from a CPA

For the free version, State return prep is $0, and $39.99 for the paid versions , choose either option but think download vs online is best for new users

For Information about how to use a Turbotax promo code Click our search box at the top and search for it

TurboTax Pros And Cons

Pros of TurboTax To Compare

A guaranteed maximum refund

CD, online, or downloadable software is available

It’s the best-selling tax filing software on the market

Free state and federal e-filing for 1040EZ

5 e-files are available and can cover your whole family (typically with download or CD software)

Fully featured mobile version for both Android and iOS

Every edition comes with state filing including the student version

Free assistance with Affordable Health Care Act to calculate penalties and tax credits

Excellent customer service available through email, telephone, and live chat. Added support for tutorials, user forums, and FAQs section.

Cons of TurboTax

• Quite expensive

• Added charges for audit defense

• Lacks physical locations where you can meet with a tax specialist or file in-house

Every version of TaxAct costs less than TurboTax

Every version of TaxAct costs less than TurboTax , Yes Taxact is cheaper than Turbotax . Take TaxAct Premium, the most costly variation ( driven toward freelancers and entrepreneur), it costs $70 and consists of a single state return, while the comparable variation of TurboTax costs almost $130. And though TaxAct will interrupt you two times for up sells, it consists of some essentials for free– such as online access to your return for seven years– that other rivals provide as expensive add-ons. Note you can always use the taxact customer service phone number if you get stuck for free advice on (319) 536-3571Top TurboTax Complaints

Longer wait times and customer seems to be the most common complaints when compared to TaxAct. Especially around February as we get closer to the cut off dates for filing as things start to get very bust for tax agents as well. The actual software does not seem to get many complaints as its easy to sue and offers great value for money so that’s a good sign for users of Turbotax.

TurboTax Support

TurboTax has a huge support knowledge base and very active community of users who are also willing to help answer questions . If you have a paid versions also get real-time help using SmartLook, and this will get you connected to a tax specialist who will run you through and tricky questions and advise you ho to use the software. This is a great feature and well worth paying to have an expert on your team fro a very small price compared to paying an accountant or other professional.

Turbotax Live Compare

TurboTax Live provides you with the Expert Services of a professional tax expert to assist you getting your return 100% correct. If you have concerns or questions associated with your return. When you use TurboTax Live, either an experienced EA (Enrolled Agent), Practicing Attorney or CPA (Certified Public Accountant) will work on reviewing your tax returns and provide you with approval when you can file, making sure that you receive as much money as possible, and to ensure your taxes have been done correctly.

Tax Act Overview and Review

Tax Act

TaxAct’s products are less expensive than competing packages from bigger names like TurboTax or H&R Block. Thats especially ideal especially for people who need advanced tax software, which can run $100 or more elsewhere when you factor in the price of preparing a state return. TaxAct also has a price guarantee too and offers a great cost effective turbotax alternative for most people, which means you pay the listed price when you start your return rather than when you finish and we like that . This might be helpful because, from my experience, tax software prices tend to go up about a month before the filing deadline.

TaxAct’s free version is safe , legit and available only to people who qualify to file the 1040EZ; folks who have to file a 1040A or regular 1040 will need to get one of the paid versions. The paid versions import last year’s TaxAct return. Also use taxactonline to file your returns faster for a better experience.

TaxAct provides several products based on your income tax status. They primarily offer four central plans that you can choose from free, basic, plus, and premium. The free option assists with tax returns, and the service is free of charge when you file for state and federal tax returns. While the free plan of TaxAct comes with a $15 fee when you want to import your last year’s TaxAct return file, it’s quite reasonable considering how crucial it is to get this year’s data correctly.

TaxAct Pricing

The free plan offers support for 1040EZ and 1040A

Taxact filing fees are reasonably priced and not too expensive this year

There are three paid versions that range from $27 to $51 , get in early to avoid a price increase

For the free plan, the State return rep is $0 and $37 for the paid versions

MyDealsClub has great discounts and coupons for Taxact Click here

Tax Act Pros And ConsPros of TaxAct To Compare

Accuracy guarantee, price lock guarantee, maximum refund pledge, and a satisfaction guarantee.

5 e-files and with every purchase of the higher-level download software you get 1 state return

Free state and federal e-filing for 1040EZ and 1040A

Mobile versions are available

Professional audit defense

Q&A interview guide filters for details about the previous year’s taxes and health insurance

Provides professional tax products for accountants, CPAs, and other professionals

Ability to import W-2 forms from the participating institutions, previous year returns, as well as charitable donations.

Cons of TaxAct

• No feature for user forums

• Can only import 1099-B CVS file formats

• No Coupon code

Top TaxAct Complaints

The most common complaint about TaxAct are additional charges .For example they charge you $9.99 to keep your federal tax return available and $20 to keep both federal and state returns viewable into the future , we think that’s just gouging and not something turbotax does. You can however save your returns in hard-copy or pdf after you file but you cant re access them without paying the fee. And if you want to import old returns and direct deposit you now need to pay a fee the upgrade which again is a common complaint of using TaxAct

Tax Act Support

If you need help, TaxAct will also help you connect with a CPA or Enrolled Agent to chat live or on a phone call. They also have Free helpline for users who have subscribed which also makes TaxAct well worth the money . They wont offer any detailed tac advice that will require the use of your own accountant but for the basics its a great thing to know that backup is available.

TaxAct has an online knowledge base similar to Turbotax and this allows users to search for answers about tax issues.However I would say on balance there’s is not anywhere near as good as Turbotax’s

Additional Considerations

Both TurboTax and TaxAct allow you to use your refund to pay for the fees incurred during tax-prep. However, there’s a fee for that: $39.99 with TurboTax and $25 with TaxAct Plus.

TaxAct has an audit assistance feature that consists of an FAQ page on their website. You also have the option to purchase ‘Audit Defense’ a product offered by a company they partner with; Protection Plus. The coverage includes 3-year audit services for the current year’s return, and a comprehensive resolution and response strategy, assistance with denied credits, state and IRS correspondence, as well as tax fraud and tax debt assistance. The service is also included in their Premium package.

When you get an audit notice, you’ll receive free guidance from tax experts on how to prepare and what to expect. If you want to have someone physically represent you in front of the IRS, you have to buy their Audit Defense product when you file. TurboTax charges $44.99 for it.

Final Word,Conclusions and Verdict

Which Is Better Taxact Or Turbotax ?

In the battle between Taxact vs Turbotax the price difference between TurboTax and TaxAct starts to be a clear indicator of who is the better option we found. For most people, this is a non-issue, but if you’ve worked in different states with different income taxes, the $37 fee charged by TurboTax per state can add up quick. On the flip side taxact premium cost is $24.95 to $104.90 which is also not cheap

However, every battle has a clear winner, and this year, we crown TurboTax the winner of tax-prep software in 2019, based on personal experiences and the experiences of our team. Its reliable ,dependable and not overly expensive and we think the best overall online tax preparation company.

Satisfaction Guarantee: Both TaxAct and TurboTax offer money back guarantees if you are not totally satisfied with their tax software but it doe not apply after you print out your return which is good to know.

Have Your Say

We encourage you to comment below on your thoughts feelings about these two giants in tax prep to further assist others in making up their minds. Ultimately its your choice ,TurboTax is more expensive sure but if are running multiple returns or need extra special help you will want to go with it when compared to Taxact as it has all the bells and whistles to complete your filing on time and with the guidance of tax service professionals. But if on the other hand you a very low income to declare and just have basic needs then just go with Taxact and save some money but as long as you dont get tangled up with the all the schedules and information , it can be very overwhelming.

Original Article found here https://www.mydealsclub.com/taxact-vs-turbotax/

Darren Tatch founded MyDealsClub in January 2009 when he saw his family struggle during the global financial crisis. He is an avid writer on deals , discounts and coupons , loves running and fine wine and has 3 cats

#turbotax #tax accounting services #tax #personal taxes

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agl03 · 5 years

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Coulson’s Fate

I know that the TV Line spoiler we were graced with this week actually upset quite a few fans within the fandom. So I wanted to do a meta on what my theories are as to what Coulson’s fate will be and what early theories as to how we will see Clark and Coulson back in the mix.

I know that some fans whom Coulson is their favorite character have really struggled with this hiatus. Clark has been hidden more than anyone else on the cast and they have gone out of their way to hide him. And I want to say this is going to continue. They did not film an entire season on total lockdown only to give away the thing they were trying to hide before the season starts. So I’m really sorry to say we’ll have to hold tight a bit longer in that respect.

I’ll start with the TV Line Spoiler:

I saw you visited the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. set. Any news on the Season 6 premiere date? Also, anything about Coulson’s return? –Jen

ABC has said nothing beyond “summer” yet for the premiere date. As for the other thing, no one I spoke to on set – where they were filming Season 6’s penultimate episode – spoke of Phil in the present tense. Take Chloe Bennet when I asked about Daisy’s state of mind when the season picks up, [REDACTED] amount of time after her mentor and father figure got dropped off in Tahiti to live out his final days. “In my mind, she has a bit more of a peace to her,” she said. “There is obviously the mourning of Coulson, but she’s also been through it all and she is genuinely stronger from it. She is not dealing with things as she has in the past. She has fully accepted her trauma and is moving forward in the most healthy way, for the first time.”

Something I really want to emphasize in this quote is that Chloe was referring to Daisy’s state of mind IN THE PREMIERE! So anything that is to come with Coulson/Clarks return will not have happened yet for her character. Nor is Chloe going to blow any of the details of Clark/Coulson’s return like this. The cast and Matt have both been clearly instructed as to what they can and can’t reveal. Even more, this isn’t a live interview (those are GOLD for picking up on clues) so sensitive and spoilery information will have been also redacted or saved for later like episode post interview after the episodes air.

Now let's dive into theory territory.

I still think we see the team completely split up as the season starts (yay theory from last season coming true not in the way I thought...again). I still maintain May, Mack, Elena, and Deke are on earth. Fitz has been Fitznapped or is trying to get home/lost in space possibly with Enoch. And Jemma, Daisy, and the B Squad are on team Space Fitz Rescue.

If Daisy is in space she might even come back after Coulson’s surprise return...or they save that for she’s been back for a hot second and he pops out of a dark corner when everyone least suspects it.

Clark is listed in IMDB for the premiere so yes, this could be a boo boo. It wouldn’t be the first time someone was listed in IMDB and then wasn’t in the episode. I think no matter what, and this is gonna suck, that the premiere is going to really hammer home “Phil Coulson is dead”, there has been far too much emphasis on this at SDCC and in a few promo pieces to not see this continue. They are going to want us to think he’s dead...so they can hit us with one heck of a plot twist later. I am fully prepared to see flashbacks to Coulson dying kind of thing.

Clark is directing the Premiere. When an actor does this that means they will be light in the Episode. So any role Clark/Coulson does play in the premiere will be limited.

In addition to being listed in 1 Clark also has doubles listed for 9, 11, 12, and 13. Again. This could be a boo boo but I doubt multiple stunt doubles would make this mistake. I also acknowledge that this could be part of some sort of really long Arrowesque flashback kind of thing where there is a totally different story going in the past that is absolutely crucial to what is going on in the present. That theory has to be on the table.

I have said over and over throughout hiatus that I have no doubt that we will see Clark/Coulson again, That is why I have been so chill with ‘spoilers’ that seem to say otherwise. However, I don’t think (at least initially) he will be the Coulson we know and love. There is always some sort of “Price to Pay” for defying death. Nor do I think he’s back because of something the team does. I think that the baddies will have done it. The how and why Coulson is back is going to be one of the most important and crucial arcs all season.

An arc such as this comes with some powerful story possibilities and common TV Tropes.

Philinda fans, I’m sorry but its gonna suck. I’d caution to be prepared for a fight to get Coulson back and patience for them to be reunited...and even more time for their relationship to get back to where it was in the finale. I would LOVE to be wrong on this. As a long-suffering and frustrated Fitzsimmons fan, I don’t wish that kind of thing on any other ship. But this is what the writers love to do with their major ships. Tear them apart and make them fight to get back to each other.

By the same token I’d be super worried if they just get back together and all is well right when he makes his surprise return.

The team facing down their former mentor and leader who is now more of a villain is a common trope. And I’m not going to lie. I’d love to see Clark get the chance to play the baddie for a bit. He would knock it out of the park. You all remind me I said that when poop hits the fan.

This would be a very powerful arc for May, facing the man she loves. Daisy her mentor and father figure who has the added surprise of coming back from space and walking into whatever has blown up when she was gone. And Mack who is still trying to find his footing as Director and having to ‘go against’ their former leader.

Think Star Trek TNG Best of Both Worlds

It opens the door for some Coulson, May, and maybe some Shield backstory should they choose that whatever the McGuffin or baddie is is tied to their past somehow.

What makes me so sure?

I wholly own that I have been wrong in the past and will be again. “They would never kill Fitz” comes to mind. But here is what I am looking at.

Clark said at the end of Season 5 he was meeting with the writers to see what they had in mind for him for Season 6. IE The writers already had a story idea for how to bring him back in some way.

Clark and his doubles being listed in IMDB.

The cast is incredibly close. We have seen cast members leave before and I saw NONE of that with Clark. IE on IG no one comments on his posts “We miss you” (yes that is the kind of stuff I pay attention too). If he was really gone from the show we would have seen more sadness from them at SDCC. Rather they were giving me the we have a secret kind of vibe.

The Lockdown. The show has had big guest stars before but never this level of lockdown. This level is to hide someone who is there nearly daily. Not a guest star who is usually done in a few episodes. The cast and crew had to get posts approved. The makeup trailer blurred out pictures. And things considered too spoilery yanked down.

Clark has been doing events with the cast and for ABC still.

I hope this offers some hope for fans who are concerned about Coulson’s return. Hang tight, it's going to get worse before it gets better because I think they are going to continue to hammer on the “Phil Coulson is dead thing” so they can hit us with a plot twist later. For example, if the cast does go to Wondercon I doubt Clark is with them unless they use the cover of him directing the Premiere to bring him in.

There are going to be more spoilers that start to come out as the premiere gets closer that will not include Clark and Coulson. Press Releases, Synopsis’s, Cast Pics, Press, and the trailer are all things that he may be kept out of to sell the ruse “Phil Coulson is Dead”. I completely understand this is nothing but frustrating and disheartening when its your favorite character. But do not take that out of whoever gives the spoilers, the cast, crew, or other fans. This is a deliberate promo decision the show made nearly a year ago now.

Believe me, I get this pain. I was tearing my hair out last season waiting for Iain to return from filming Overlord and then for Fitz to be back on the show. And we had solid confirmation he’d be back. I’d seen pics of him on set. My frustration and “patience” was rewarded with Rewind and Fun & Games but it doesn’t change how miserable I was while I was in the dark and waiting to see him again or how much I missed Fitz/Fitzsimmons together in 1-4.

Again, I would LOVE to be wrong here but feel like they’ve come too far with hiding him to go back now.

Remember the fandom is here to support each other through this hiatus.

#aos spoilers #aos meta #coulson lives #its a theory #man it felt good to do that again

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lightsandlostbells · 5 years

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Druck season 2, episode 5 reaction

Sorry this is late! You can blame it partly on the ~polar vortex~ and partly on fatigue.

anyway, who’s ready to solve the great mystery of the ages, Whose Dick Is That

Episode 5

Clip 1 - Hotel Hardenberg

The doorbell is ringing. Mia wakes up in utter contentment, love that little shot of her foot stirring. The apartment seems to have been tidied up and Alexander’s bed on the floor put away.

Alexander has left her Post-Its as a parting gesture, there’s one on her phone with a heart. Charming move! He comments that she snores. Also charming from a certain perspective (that perspective is Mia is adorable). His other Post-Its in the apartment indicate that he’s made her rosehip tea and thank her for staying at Hotel Hardenberg, what a dork.

Mia gets up to go but then strips the bed. A sign of her compulsive neatness and need for order, especially after that order has been broken by staying at Alexander’s? Or just her wanting to be a thoughtful house guest? Or her wanting to erase the evidence of her presence? All three?

On the way out the door, Mia runs into Björn, who describes himself as a friend of Alex. So, probably not his brother. He’d tell her if he were his brother, right? Saying “I’m Alex’s brother” seems more trustworthy for most people than “I’m Alex’s friend.” And he gave his real name, we know that Alex is referring to a Björn in his text messages with Sam, so Björn can’t have been worried about Alex telling Mia about him and Mia knowing who he is.

Björn says he’s here to get something. I sure bet Alex doesn’t know about that! Something shady is happening! He asks her name and Mia gives it to him. Ohhh, dear girl, you don’t know it but that was probably not a good move. (The biggest plot twist would be if Björn was some totally harmless guy that Alexander had wronged, so Björn was trying to avoid him at all costs and Alexander was trying to find him and apologize.) (I 100% do not believe that is the case but damn it would be a trip.)

The clip started with the doorbell ringing so that must have been Björn. Was he trying to see if Alex was home so he could sneak in while the place was empty? Because evidently Björn got into the building fine, and usually there’s better security in those places, and he’s the one who opens the apartment door, not Mia, so he must have had a key. My guess is that Björn is like the sister’s boyfriend/ex/friend who would have had access to the apartment before Alex moved in.

Alexander sent her a text that he’s in London, doing business/real estate stuff for a few days. #ishereallythatrich - Heh, but what are the odds he’s doing something else?

So I bet that’ll come back eventually, that Mia saw Björn entering the apartment, and she didn’t tell Alex right away. But damn, imagine if Mia hadn’t woken up with the doorbell and Björn walked in on her while she was sleeping. Or if she hadn’t left yet and caught him rummaging around through Alexander’s shit.

Clip 2 - Linn the apartment ghost

One week later due to the hiatus, Mia and Alex are texting. When he asks her how she’s doing, she starts to type out a friendly reply but then stops herself, but unfortunately Alex can see when she’s typing

He asks her to go out for a drink, she says she has to study. They have some “banter” and I know they are flirting but it just makes me tired that part of their dynamic is “I won’t go out with you” followed by “Are you sure?” It’s an issue that extends beyond Winterberg, Noorhelm, or any other version of this pairing - men are socialized not to take no for an answer from women, and it’s too prevalent in real life to really get over it in fiction. Like this texting could’ve been about anything else, more banter about them snoring (Mia says he also snores) or her playing the piano or his Post-Its or literally anything other that this no-yes-no dynamic.

It’s exacerbated because it is a case of “Well, she doesn’t really mean no, she does actually like him.” Mia almost seems disappointed when Alex stops texting back. And again, one of my big problems with how Noorhelm and all its equivalents have been portrayed is that we don’t need more stories where a girl keeps saying no when it turns out she kind of means yes. You can’t separate this individual story from the larger cultural trend.

LMAO, Linn announces her presence by loudly slurping on a drink behind Mia She just wanted to see what’s up with Mia and has been standing there a while. This moment is played for laughs but I think it’s also meant to be a reminder that hey, Mia and Alex aren’t in their own little bubble, other people exist and are eventually going to find out that something’s happening with them. It’s almost like Mia has been caught.

New shot during the end titles of Mia in a hoodie looking dramatic. So far we haven’t seen any of these little end scenes in action. Are these just for promo? I think it’s more likely that they’ll happen in a later episode, I just find it interesting that none of them have taken place yet.

Clip 3 - Dicks in the air

Photocopies of boobs and blurred out dick drift by like tumbleweeds with nipples as Mia heads into the school. A girl hands her a boob picture for some reason, as if Mia needed one for personal use.

When she steps into the school, there’s boobs and ass and dick and the middle finger everywhere. We can hear a literal buzz as people observe. Accompanied is graffiti that says Abi Chaker Clan 2019 - 12 Years Family! Lmao, is that a teacher frantically trying to gather up copies on the stairs? You try your hardest, sister.

Kiki steps up and observes, takes a picture of the display. Where have you been, Kiki? Last we saw you, you were breaking Carlos’ heart.

Kiki thinks she recognizes Alex’s penis in the pictures, and Mia is like “get that picture out of my face plz.” Kiki hands it to Mia as she walks away, and Mia can’t resist a glimpse of the dick, which is blurred out for us viewers, by the way. I’m just laughing at the thought of Kiki the dick detective solving this whodunnit. Remember on New Year’s where Mia was kinda “???” about Kiki’s future profession and ended up with influencer? I would say Kiki’s true calling is solving phallic-related crimes and picking dicks out of a lineup except, as we learn later in the episode, she ain’t that great at it after all.

Hanna shows up in an echo of Kiki’s entrance and is like, WTF, we’re in trouble. They see Alexander and Jonas hugging it out in the distance and are like, when did they become friends? So I’m guessing this graduation prank is taking the place of the Yakuza fight, and it’s Alex and Jonas who have the suspicious friendship rather than P-Chris and Isak. I APPROVE. The Yakuza thing has always been out of place IMO, tonally, and I didn’t like how the fight ended up leading to excuses against William smashing a bottle on a dude’s head. This prank is something that’s serious but not so serious that I’d consider it a red flag/dealbreaker against Alexander. It’s also a lot closer to Mia personally, and affects her and basically all the characters - the Yakuza thing felt weirdly disconnected from Noora and the girl squad, only something that involved them because they happened to witness that one fight and some of their friends/boyfriends were involved.

It’s also a replacement for the Penetrators trashing the cabin, and I fully realize that this is hypocritical but I also prefer this somehow even though it’s functionally the same thing, destruction of property. Maybe because again, it’s more connected to the rest of the characters as a plot point.

There’s this rather extravagant shot of someone throwing a bunch of the copies over the banister and they float down around Mia, just a ton of boobs and butts and dick wafting like snowflakes, and it’s so ridiculous that I love it.

Clip 4 - Mia keeps some interesting things in her bag

Leonie’s leading a meeting, again. This time it looks like more of the graduating class, not just the committee. She explains that somebody, probably several people, broke into the school Saturday night and made copies of their …. She trails off and Carlos helpfully supplies the displayed body parts with anatomical precision.

Someone give Leonie’s actress an award for that brief look of disdain at Carlos after he says “You’re welcome” and before she turns away.

Because someone sprayed the Abi Motto on the wall, the school thinks someone from our year did it. Carlos and Jonas call it bullshit, fake news. Just as an aside, I’ve seen the term “fake news” pop up as a joke in SO many films and TV shows recently, including that Kurt Russell sexy Santa movie, and like ... I certainly understand why and I’m not opposed to “ironic” usage, I’m also just aghast that we’re at a point where it’s mainstream, you know? 2019, man.

Anyway, one of the new and expensive copy machines broke from the prank and “copy orgy”. Sam whispers to Amira that they didn’t just make copies - so was there a literal orgy on the copy machine? Or just the weight of people’s asses broke the machine?

Kiki says she thinks it was Alexander, and I thought it was extremely fishy for Kiki to be so quick to blame Alexander, and that maybe she was involved in the prank or even trying to frame him, but obviously that turned out to not be the case. So I think she just wanted him to be guilty so he could get in trouble. And she’s telling Mia, who she thinks will be an ally in blaming Alex.

So now they owe 4500 euros to the school. Either who did it owns up and settles it with their insurance, or the school takes it out of the Abi account. Leonie gives the culprits a chance to reveal themselves. Man, what if Leonie was involved? The perfect crime, the least likely suspect…

Alex smiles over at Mia but that expression fades, Sara waggles some xeroxed breasts at him and he smirks. So those are her boobs, right? She seems pretty proud.

No one confesses to the crime, so Leonie says they have to raise the money again, thanks for nothing. Lmao, Leonie is such a hall monitor type that she’s really growing on me.

There’s some tense music as Mia is exiting the room, and of course Alexander is waiting for her. She walks right by him, to the door. On second thought, she turns around, pretends to rummage in her bag (we see she still has the dick pic so I guess the possibility that it’s Alexander’s is enough for her to keep it around) and then pulls out what she was looking for - a middle finger. That’s so petty, I’m in love with her. She goes out the door and Alexander does not seem pleased.

I mean, to be fair to him, Mia did jump to conclusions right away. (Conclusions that happened to be right, although not about the dick pic.) And I think this was in a way about re-establishing the natural order of things, getting back to “Alexander’s a selfish asshole” territory rather than her liking him, in addition to the whole class being punished. To be fair to her, too ... it’s only recently that he’s shown some decency, and he has a history of doing crappy things.

Alex was texting Mia on Saturday, though, right? About wanting to go out and get a drink with friends? So maybe that will be used to exonerate him, he was busy with other people. (EDIT from the future: Lol, nah, his “drink with friends” turned into the prank, I guess.)

Clip 5 - Team Michi

Mia has handed over the dick pic to Hans for his opinion, I guess? Hans seems to be a penis connoisseur so I understand the sentiment. And his opinion is that it was a “heavy petting orgy” at least. He asks Michi for his opinion. Good, Michi is there! I think it’s nice if Hans is getting a little romance of his own, although he better be treating Michi right and not taking him for granted.

Hans teases Mia about why she wants to know so badly about what happened at the school on Saturday night, and if she isn’t a bit jealous. She says curiosity isn’t the same as jealousy. Sure, but the two aren’t mutually exclusive.

Mia goes to ask Linn for her opinion (Linn is sleeping already) and Michi feeds Hans. They have a little couple moment. Aww. HANS, TREAT MICHI RIGHT. He’s cute and he makes food for you.

I’m wondering if the whole Hans/Michi thing is going to be a parallel to Mia and Alex, where a relationship that didn’t seem feasible at first becomes something real, and maybe they’ll have some relationship difficulty when Mia and Alex do. Though in the beginning of the season Hans and Michi seemed to parallel Alex and Kiki quite clearly, or at least Mia was making that connection, so who knows.

Clip 6 - Always look before crossing

Mia is leaving for school in the morning, and who should be there but Alex with two drinks in his hands. Rosehip tea or cocoa if he’s feeling sentimental.

We don’t hear what he’s saying because Mia has her earbuds in, so it’s just the faintest sound of his voice over the music. She ignores him and goes to unlock her bike, he keeps talking, she points to her earbuds to indicate that she’s not listening. We see him mouth “please” and she finally takes out her earbuds and accepts the drink. Which I would too, because I’m shameless and thirsty and I wouldn’t turn down a free warm beverage in the morning.

There’s a little editing blip because in the clip, the music doesn’t cut out right as she takes out the earbuds, it’s a moment or two later when she puts them in her pockets. They fixed it in the full episode, though, and it cuts out when she takes out the earbuds.

Alex clearly sees Mia taking the drink as a victory and smiles. They walk along side by side by a moment until Mia calls him out for being spoiled and doing whatever he wants and not owning up to it. He says they were drunk. Wait, so he DID do it???? And he says she’s blowing it way out of proportion?? I’m surprised because I thought we’d learn that Alex didn’t do it after all. It seemed too obvious, Kiki was so eager to blame him that it seemed like a misdirect. And I mean, I don’t think it’s right that he and the others are making the entire graduating class reap the consequences, but I don’t think the prank is an unforgivable thing he did in itself.

They argue a little and she’s about to bike across the road when Alex grabs her and pulls her back just as a car goes by, honking. She’s like … this doesn’t change anything. Alex is like, well it kinda does. “I saved your life, Mia Winter!” Well, she was distracted by him in the first place, so consider it even? (I binge-watched Russian Doll on Netflix this weekend so I can’t help but think this moment could have taken a drastically different turn.)

Mia bikes away but is smiling, which is awfully chipper for someone who just had a brush with death. I would be in the fetal position the rest of the day.

Alex stares after her and walks in the other direction. Errr … away from the school? I assume he was going back to his car, parked closer to Mia’s place.

So that mystery was done solved pretty quickly and anti-climatically. Kinda disappointing because I think it’d be fun to drag it out just a teensy tiny bit more - the mystery element of Skam is something that’s really underrated, when you think about it, even though it’s a large part of what kept people watching in real time.

Clip 7 - Sam just drops a bomb

We get a closeup of Sam blowing a bubble with her gum and then popping it. Like how she’s about to burst that bubble about Mia and Alex?

The girls are discussing the prank and that Alexander was in on it. Kiki is like, I knew it. Damn, she really wants him to go down. I don’t blame her, though.

When Amira asks how Mia knows, Sam says Alexander probably told her. WHOA HOLD THE PHONE. Druck is throwing curveballs everywhere this episode. I did not expect to see Sam reveal this information so quickly and casually; I thought she’d save it for a more dramatic moment later on, after Mia and Alex definitely were a thing. Sam says Mia is always talking to him, and Mia rushes to explain that it was all because of Kiki (lies) and she told him what she thought of him (well, that part is true) and that Leonie told her about Alexander (another lie - not looking good for Mia).

All the girls get a text at the same time. Sam says her battery sucks so we conveniently get Hanna reading the text out loud for us viewers. Alexander has arranged a benefit concert to make up for the damage so no one has to pay extra. BOY SAM WILL BE PERFORMING, and there will be a surprise musical act, too. I’m just glad to see the toilet man again.

The girls are excited and Hanna’s like, TIME TO STOP STUDYING. I don’t think she needs much of an excuse, really.

Alex texts Mia to say if she doesn’t come tomorrow, he’ll cancel everything 😊 GODDAMMIT. I realize Alexander is supposed to be a dickhead, but do we really have to keep this manipulative crap? Can he not just be like … arrogant and jerkish without that element?

Kiki looks at Mia getting another text, and you can see the suspicion all over her face. Sam’s comment struck a match.

Clip 8 - Mia crosses that bridge, y’all

I love when we get a long-ass Friday clip, thanks, Druck!

Mia shows up to the benefit concert by herself, and Toilet Sam is rapping onstage. Hello again! She runs into Kiki and says she’ll join the group in a minute. Does she need to talk to Alexander first?

We see Mia putting on that bright red lipstick in the mirror. I am sure she’s doing it just because she likes the color and not because there are any Alexander-related motivations that she would never admit.

Mia notices Alex skulking across the club and staring at her like some kind of Edward Cullen wannabe. It’s only episode 5, I guess they still have time to pull off a sudden vampire twist. (And I mean ... Alexander did just pull Mia out of the path of a car ... a Twilight parallel if I ever saw one.)

Of course Alex sends her a text telling her she looks gorgeous. It looks like he wants her to drink with him; however, Sarah comes up to him and gives him a hug and kisses him on the cheek and talks to him. He doesn’t look very enthused, but Mia smirks and shakes her head at him. That Alexander, up to his old tricks! Between that and the copy orgy I’m sure she’s thinking Alexander and Sarah have a thing.

People dance and drink to Toilet Sam’s performance. We see Jonas getting really wasted, and Matteo seems kinda done with it, so it’s Hanna who pulls drunk Jonas off the dance floor, and he tries to kiss her. MY HEART. But she pushes him back and asks what’s up with him. He says, you’re what’s up with me. THE ANGST. I said this last season, but Anselm Bresgott is a great actor. He’s able to convey a lot of vulnerability with his eyes.

When this happened I thought that maybe instead of drunk Eva/Vilde makeouts we would get sad intoxicated Jonas trying to kiss Matteo in this clip, and I was all for THE ANGST that would bring. Either that or Jonas was gonna make out with Toilet Sam.

(He did not make out with either of them - yet - but it’s OK because there turned out to be enough of THE ANGST as it was.)

Alexander comes onstage and Toilet Sam gives him a shout-out for organizing, and that they beat their goal (by almost half, awesome). They’re giving the rest of the money to plant trees on campus, to make up for all the dead ones they spent showcasing students’ genitalia. How noble!

Sarah is the surprise performance of the night! So her contact with Alexander was not necessarily about them hooking up, but perhaps her thanking him for giving her the opportunity? Sarah sings idontwannabeyouanymore by Billie Eilish.

After some more eye contact with Alexander, Mia leaves the room and goes upstairs. But Alexander stands in her path and won’t let her go to the bathroom. Come on, dude. You’ve been doing some things right but this episode you’re doing all these little entitled things.

He’s like, Mia, what do you want. He fixed everything? Everyone’s happy, so what’s her problem? LMAO again at this entitled attitude. She owes him nothing! The thing is - even if she really really likes him and wants to kiss him and be with him - she still owes him nothing! She’s allowed not to act on her feelings because she feels it’s a bad idea! Get out of here with this attitude that Mia is doing him wrong because she likes him but won’t give in and be with him.

He lets down his hood and rakes his hand through his hair in a strangely vampire-ish way, and says there’s something between them. He likes her a lot, but he’s tired of these games. Dude, you’re the one starting many of these games now. Yeah, Mia is definitely responsible for much of what happened earlier in the season, and she could certainly be better about not contacting him, but he’s also the one showing up at her place with a drink and telling her he’ll call everything off if she doesn’t show up to the benefit. He gives her the lines about if she doesn’t like him, say it to his face and he’ll leave her alone forever. Just as he says that, Kiki comes out of the bathroom, and there’s some heavy eye contact between her and Mia, and oh right, that’s what Mia doesn’t like him, that’s why Mia can’t be with him.

Heh, he put down his hoodie to confess to her, because he was being open about his feelings, and then when she’s rejected him, he puts it back up. He’s ~putting up his wall again.

Mia then goes into the bathroom and has a mini-breakdown, as the song switches from the cover to the original. She’s teary, she’s wiping off her lipstick. Props again to Milena because she’s really selling this season. She looks for some toilet paper, but there’s only the cardboard for the roll. So she goes in her purse for something and comes up with the Post-It Alex left her about Hotel Hardenberg. Ahhhh, now that’s a nice little detail. I’m one of those people who just ... does not clean out her purse until she buys a new purse, lmao, so I can imagine Mia shoved it in there and forgot about it, without being very sentimental about it at the time. But I like that it came back at this crucial moment.

Mia grabs her coat and runs out of the club after him. When she catches up to him, they’re on opposite sides of a bridge, so we know what’s gonna happen. Someone’s gotta cross, or they have to meet in the middle.

She says it’s cold, he offers her a beanie, she comes forward and shows her own beanie, they both put on beanies at the same time. It’s a big beanie fest. What’s important that Mia crossed the bridge and closed the gap. The symbolism is obvious, but ... well, it’s there.

She says that she likes him, but doesn’t want to like him. He’s an egocentric prick, but then he was clever and funny and nice that one Friday, but then he disappears for a week and pulls that stunt copying his dick and plastering it around the school. Alex is like, who said that was my dick? Mia is like, well whose dick was it? Alex nods over her shoulder and we see Jonas stumbling around drunk as fuck. LMAO. Mia had Jonas’ dick pic in her backpack. She was going around thinking she got a glimpse of Alexander’s junk, showing it off to her roommate, and it was Jonas’ all along! And Hanna didn’t notice it was Jonas’ dick???

I mean, now I get why Alexander and Jonas bonded so quickly. They’re dick twins, if Kiki can mistake one for the other. I’m sure there’s some situation where that would come in handy (no pun intended?)

Are the two of you going to help out this completely drunk Jonas who’s by himself and who’s wandering into the street before he gets hit by a car or something...

Alex is like, do I look like someone who whips out his dick when he’s drunk? (I mean...) His penis needs to stay an enigma. Okay, goddammit, that’s funny. But Mia correctly points out that every other girl at school knows his penis, so it’s not an enigma.

When Alex is like, now what, Mia looks past him and says, “Fuck,” and when he turns back to her she’s kissing him. Damn, she’s so smooth. They dramatically kiss and he doinks his forehead against hers, it’s quite sweet. Then Alex goes off into the night, probably to find a few necks to drain. He rummages around in his coat for a moment, making quite a show, and of course it’s his middle finger he finds and flashes at Mia. Flipping each other off becoming their romantic couples’ gesture? I’m here for it.

He also does a little skip hop as he goes. Mia looks after him, smiling. Oh, Mia. Follow your heart, but take your brain with you.

So that shot during the end credits, of her looking outside at something, is not her in the first kiss scene! When will any of these moments happen?

Social Media/General Comments

The week long hiatus was explained in-universe as an “insta detox” among the girls. Matteo did not let that stop him from posting his regularly scheduled memes, though. #fuckinstadetox

Hanna texts Matteo about why Jonas and Alex are acting all buddy-buddy, which we see in the clips, too. Matteo says he doesn’t know. I thought it was meant to be a red herring and that Alex was probably not directly involved in the prank, but Jonas probably was, and maybe Jonas decided to bro it up with Alex since he liked his motto. Except then Alex turned out to have participated in the prank. I guess their friendship escalated when Jonas had his dick out on the copy machine.

But I like seeing a William have friendly interactions with other characters. That was something I thought was kind of lacking with him in Skam, that we didn’t get a ton of insight into his other friendships. He didn’t seem to care much about Noora’s friends, and he was close with P-Chris obviously, but there wasn’t a ton of detail there as to why or what their relationship was like outside of girl drama. I understand that not every character has to be extroverted and buddy-buddy with others, but it makes me think a lot more of Alex as a person when we see him forming bonds with people who he does not want to bone.

Matteo then texted Jonas about the thing between him and Alex, and Jonas jokes that he couldn’t resist Alex’s face. Matteo is jealous! But totally not really jealous, you know, JOKING jealous. Totally. And when Jonas teases him about it, he says there’s no reason to be, Matteo is the only little bitch in his life. I legit want to pass out. And I think Matteo did too, because he sent back a heart emoji. Six minutes later. What happened in those six minutes? Was Matteo just sitting there staring at his phone, wondering how the hell to respond to that? Getting butterflies and heart palpitations in his skinny stoner body?

There are pictures of the benefit with the girl squad sans Mia ... after she left to run after Alex, maybe? ~Foreshadowing?

I’m Mia right now. I was so annoyed with little things Alexander did in this episode, and I’m still pissed at some of his past behavior, and yet I am charmed by him despite it all. It’s heavily due to the performance. I can’t believe Alexander was one of my least favorite Williams across the remakes based on the first season, and he’s skyrocketing here just by virtue of having a personality.

I also can’t believe I had doubts about Mia in the first season. She has my whole heart now, fuckups and all.

Girl Sam and boy Sam were rapping together at benefit, according to IG. What if boy Sam replaced Kasper and made out with girl Sam in the finale, since it’s unlikely Manfred will fill that role (or at least I hope to God not)? I mean, if Kiki’s ultimately gonna be chill about Mia and Alexander, Hanna being chill about Sam and Sam wouldn’t be too much of a stretch.

In an alternate universe, this season turned into the German remake of American Vandal from here on out and we spent the next five episodes trying to figure out who covered the school in dicks.

I’m not German so please feel free to correct me/clarify stuff!

If you got this far, thank you for reading!

#druck reactions

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this-sapphic-paradise · 6 years

Text

The New Recruit

(x)

I was inspired by the promo photos of episode 3x17, so have an AU where Lena is recruited by the DEO and has to train under Alex. Slow-burn AgentCorp. .

( AO3 link/ please consider buying me a coffee ^^ )

The invitation had come as a surprise to Lena. She couldn't have expected to be trusted this much, not by the government, and much less by Supergirl, but there Lena was, standing alongside other agents awaiting for their commanding officer to arrive in the training room.

The moment the door swung open, Lena had to contain her smile. Of course Alex is the one who's gonna train us, she thought, watching as her superior officer walked to the middle of the room.

"My name is Alex Danvers, I’m your commanding officer.” She said, eyeing the agents. “You've worked hard, you went through all the basic training with success, and for that, I believe congratulations are in order. But don't kid yourselves, if this was happening three years ago, you'd be contained to this facility for another ten years before you were allowed out in the field. However, a lot has changed in the past three years and our enemies do not wait for our cadets to be trained to the best of their abilities before they attack us." Alex's voice was firm, it demanded attention, and it made Lena smile, because she knew what it was like to talk like that; to speak with every ounce of confidence you have and captivate an entire room.

"I will train you in combat harder than anyone has trained you, and all I expect in return is dedication," Alex continued. "I want you to form a circle," she said, being met with somewhat stunned and confused looks. "Now!"

The cadets shuffled around as quickly as they could to follow the order, and once they were done, Alex gave them a nod of approval. "Now, I want you to look at the faces of everyone in this circle." Even though they were confused, the new agents followed the command, and Alex continued, "these are the people you'll fight side by side. These are the people who you'll sacrifice your lives to defend; these are the people who will protect you when you're down. If there's a single person in this room who cannot trust their fellow agents fully, I suggest you leave immediately."

As Alex had anticipated, all eyes glanced over at Lena who she noticed tried her hardest to pretend she didn't care. "Is there anything you'd like to say to me, recruits?" Alex deliberately kept her voice amiable, as if she was truly giving them a chance to complain about Lena.

Once more, the new recruits looked around, silently asking each other who would be brave enough to speak up. Finally, a tall, blonde man stepped forward; arms behind his back, shoulders squared, eyes trained straight ahead. "Ma'am," he waited for Alex to give him a nod before proceeding, "I believe my colleagues and I are...concerned to have a Luthor among us."

"Does he speak for everyone?" Alex asked, walking around the circle. No one said yes or no, but she knew they were worried, so once she came across Lena, Alex stopped and said, "agent Luthor, step forward."

Lena clenched her jaw, thinking she would be thrown out after a year of hard work, but still, she obeyed her order coming to a halt right in front of Alex.

"Agent Luthor, is your first name Alexander?" Alex asked, and she started pacing back and forth in front of Lena.

"No, ma'am!" Lena replied firmly as she fought off a smirk; she could see what Alex was doing, and she truly appreciated it.

"Is your first name Lillian?" Alex asked.

"No, ma'am!"

"What is your first name, agent Luthor??"

"Lena, ma'am!"

"Very well, agent. Back to your place," Alex instructed. Once Lena obeyed, Alex calmly walked back to the blonde recruit, and stood uncomfortably close to him. "What's your name, agent?" Alex asked coolly.

The man swallowed hard; even though Alex was barely tall enough to reach his chest, he had heard stories about agent Danvers… and he knew he had messed up. "J-Jacob Morris, ma'am."

"Your unit is only as strong as its weakest link, agent Morris." Alex growled the words lowly. "And I don't mean agent Luthor. Now, back to your place."

Walking back to the middle of the circle, Alex addressed all new agents, "you're here to protect the ones you love, to protect your city, to protect this country, and this world. I don't care who sits in the Oval Office, here at the DEO we protect the innocent whoever they may be, and we do it together, as one. Do I make myself clear?"

In unison, all the recruits replied loudly, "yes, ma'am!"

"Good. Now, pair up and spar. I need to see what I'll be working with." Alex said, and she started walking around the room observing them, stopping occasionally to instruct them on how to be more effective.

By the time the training session was done, most of the new recruits were laying on the floor trying to catch their breath; Alex really hadn't been joking when she said she would make them work harder than anyone else before her. "Off to the showers," she said to get their attention. "Make sure to eat before you go off to tactical training."

Alex watched as the recruits started to walk out of the room, and she said, "agent Luthor, a moment, please."

Lena just wanted to go take her shower (and maybe put some ice on her cheek where her sparring partner had landed a punch), the last thing she wanted was for the other agents to think she was getting preferential treatment from the boss. But nonetheless, she knew she didn't have any say on it.

"How are you holding up?" Alex asked once the room was theirs.

Lena shrugged, "it's nothing I didn't have to deal with at boot camp," she said honestly.

"Good," Alex nodded. "There's no hazing or any BS like that here, but if they try anything against you--" Lena fully expected Alex to tell her to report any incident, or come to her, and that's why she was so pleasantly surprised when Alex finished her sentence by saying, "make them regret it. I know the last thing you want is to be treated like you’re better than others… you know, like you've been treated your entire life, I'd imagine it." There was a smirk on Alex's lips, and Lena knew she was being teased. "So make sure they know you're not one to be messed with, and that you're not going to come crying to us for anything."

That being said, Alex's features turned serious once more, but she said in her usual friendly voice, "you were a CEO, Lena, and there's no doubt you were born for leadership. There will come a time – be it out in the field, or even in our labs; wherever you choose to take your career here – it will come a moment when you'll need to step up and call the shots for the sake of your unit."

Lena understood what Alex was saying, and she appreciated the vote of confidence. "Thank you, agent Danvers," and daring to push her luck, Lena smirked and said, "but don't worry, I'm not one to pretend to be meek just to stroke other people's egos."

Alex snorted out a laugh, and shook her head, "that's the Lena I know." Nodding toward the door, they started walking, and Alex said, "we're meeting at the pub tonight, wanna join?"

Lena smiled at the invitation, "sure."

"Alright, we'll be there at eight." Alex said. Once they were out of the training room, she said, "see you around, recruit."

"See you around, C.O."

#alex danvers #lena luthor #agentcorp #luvers #supergirl fanfic #the new recruit

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tellywoodtrash · 7 years

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ishqbaaz 29.08.17 lb

plain text version here.

lo shuru sanskaari music. 🙄🙄🙄

never getting over the “fuck me” bedroom eyes they’re giving each other. 😏😏😏

gauri feeding shaktiiii cake. gosh, what even do you call it when you start shipping a new parental figure for a character? there are no words in fandom culture for all the dynamics this show makes me ship!!!! 😫😫😫

... such unnecessary tension. just eat the damn cake, omkara. 😒😒😒

shivika giving each other “kuch karnaaa padegaaaa” looks 🙃🙃🙃

yes plz, turn for you to play shipper now. yell at omkara alternately till he fucking fixes this ish. 😒😒😒

shaktiji is practically glowing from all the #shivika shipping. happiness is a good look on him. 😊😊😊

who’da thunk that i’d eventually be rooting for shakti as the good parent? in any case, he did less damage than pinky, so there’s that. 😕😕😕

god i hate this stupid “abhi tak shaadi nahi hui hai, toh door raho” nonsense in remarriage tracks. they were living together for more than six months. they could have been having crazy monkey sex in that time for all you know. bloody nonsense. 😑😑😑

i am happy that anika looks just as dismayed as shivaay at this development. 😌😌😌

LMAO RUDRA, HAATH KO AAYA PAR MOOH NA LAGA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

the dubbing of this damn scene... 😐😐😐

ohhhhhhhh great. pinky’s here to fuck up the happy. 😒😒😒

omkara’s instant bitch face. love itttttttt. 😆😆😆

nope. shakti is firmly #teamShivika. SHAKTIJI OUT!!!!!!!!! 😙😙😙

i think omki took that “8 baje kamre ka darwaaza bandh” instruction from rudra a little too seriously. he looks mad at shivaay for making him leave this late at night. 😋😋😋

honestly #me. don’t you make me leave my bed/room after 8 pm. you won’t like my grumpy ass. 😒😒😒

OMG YES THEY BROUGHT UP THE “ROTE HUE AAYEGA MERE PAAS” DIALOGUE!!! WE’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR ITTTTTTTT 😭😭😭😭

omki’s excitement and glee at shivaay’s happiness. oh my heart. my boys. my beautiful boysssssss. 😭😭😭

4 LIONS MEN GOING FROM GROWLY ASSHOLES TO SOFT PUSSYCATS WHO ARE SO HAPPY TO BE IN LOVE IS MY ULTIMATE FAVE THING EVER OK *weeps* 😭😭😭😭😭

saansein ruk jaati hai was anika’s thing. and di’s thing to arnav. not omki’s to shivaay’s. 😕😕😕

I LOVE HOW SHIVAAY MADE OM COME SEE HIM IN THE DEAD OF THE NIGHT JUST SO HE CAN GEEK OUT ABOUT BEING IN LOVE AND HOW BEAUTIFUL HIS GIRL IS 😚😚😚😚

UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MY BOYSSSSSSSSSSSSS 😭😭😭😭

“sabse pehle main tujhse bataane aa gaya” BECAUSE HE’S YOUR PERSONNNNNNN. 💖💖💖

awwww man, i’m just so happy and weepy from all the feeelz. 😭😭😭😭

lol omki yelling at him for telling HIM first instead of anika. 😊😊😊

“i think i need a hug. i think we both need a hug.”

HAWWWWWWWW WITHOUT RUDRA?????? 😯😯😯

THIS HUG THO. MY BOYS. MY BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL BOYS. OMKI SO HAPPY, HE’S A BLURRRRRRRR. 😅😅😅

“subah subah shivaay singh oberoi pakode tal raha hai?”

a sentence i never thought i’d hear. also, probably a real headline in the newspapers of this show’s universe, knowing the press and the way they act in this show. 😒😒😒

ANIKA AGREES WITH ME ABOUT THE NEWS THING 😧😧😧

anika’s about to lose it at him for using the wrong type of oil. 😆😆😆

(god, she’s so me, it hurts. i too am very specific about shit like this. 😕😕😕)

“aap na bohutttttttt cute ho.”

not in that ugly ass shirt and white jeetendra pants from the 80′s he’s not. 🙄🙄🙄

ALSO, NO YOU!!!!!!!!!! GOD MY GIRL LOOKS SOOOOOOOOO GOOD TODAY. 😍😍😍😍

billu hates being called “cute”. he wants to be called “HOT”, does he? 😏😏😏

OMG HE DOES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😯😯😯😂😂😂

lol his innocent “haan dadi????? 😇😇😇”

snort. idiot. he’s doing ONE ARM DISTANCE like we used to do in schoooooool, for assemblies. 🤣🤣🤣

wait, so they’re still in the same room at night? so, what does this “do foot” nonsense even matter??????? 😑😑😑

“DADI KO MAT BOL!!!!!!!!!!!!” “DO FOOT, MY FOOT!”

oh billu. you’re incorrigible. 😝😝😝

also, um hello, YOUR PAKODE?!!?!?! 😯😯😯😯

incoming takaraaana in 3... 2... 1....

EEEEEEEEE HE PULLED HER IN CLOSER EEEEEEEEEEE 😍😍😍

ohhhhhh you twoooooo awkward babiesssss. 😌😌😌

YES, SHIVIKA SHIPPING RIKARA!!!!!!!! 😁😁😁

anika helpfully informing shivaay of gauri’s “atrangi ideas” 😊😊😊

anika’s excited squeals oh my hearttttttt what a fucking cutie!!! 💖💖💖

“ab jab hum nahi lad rahein, toh jo humari jagah khaali hai kisi ko toh bharni padegi.”

this damn family thrives on conflict and chaos. check yourselves before you wreck yourselves, idiots. 😐😐😐😐

YAS, MISSION RIKARA IS A-GO!!!!!!!! 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽

what the fuck is a “shaadi ka bowl”? 🤔🤔🤔

what’s this 90′s bollywood type theme music. 😒😒😒

pfffffffft rudra. you’re soooooo lame. 🙄🙄🙄

HA! i like how she gave it back to him! “public police ko nahi bachaati. police public ko bachaati hai.” 😎😎😎

ok romance is getting tooo icky with the staring. also i haaate their music. fwding. 🙄🙄🙄

gauri approves of shivaay’s olive oil waale pakode. at least someone does. 😋😋😋

meanwhile anika here is working on om. yaaaaaas, i am loving this division of labour. MY BROTPSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!! 😘😘😘

shivaay feeding gauri pakode apne haath se. LIKE HE DOES HIS BABY BOY RUDRA. i am actually fucking crying. 😭😭😭😭😭

oh boy anika omki ko faraq ka jaap pada rahi hai. 😐😐😐

OMG SHIVAAY BAAT BANA RAHE HO YA BIGAAD RAHE HO 😯😯😯

but fully loving how he’s trash talking his own brother for bulbullllllllllllll behnaaaaaaa 😚😚😚

OH MY GOD SHE’S SO CUTEEEEEEEEEEEE WHAT EVEN IS HER FAAAAAACE 😍😍😍

meanwhile anika toh is going to town on omki with reverse psychology. behen, sambhaal ke. bante bante baat ke upar apni bulldozer mat chalaiyo. 😣😣😣

OMFG HIS FACE AT “DER HO CHUKI HAI” AND “MOVE ON”. YES!!!!!!!! 🙃🙃🙃

“ab gauri ko main pasand nahi hoon???? 😟😟😟”

THE FEAR. I AM LOVING IT. I AM LOVINGGGGG ITTTTT. 😆😆😆

“agar woh tumhare paas aaye toh mooh pher lo. pher lena!!!! achcha ab yahaan phero, sun toh lo.”

omfg shivaaaaaaaay. lmaooooooo i love these two togetherrrrr. 🤣🤣🤣

ok kids, time to pick a team in the replies: are you #TeamAniKara or #TeamShivRi

you guys know my team already. bade bhaiyya and bulbul have my fuckinggggg heart. 😍😍😍😍

“ab gauri om se door bhaagegi.” “aur om gauri ke peeche peeche!” “aur hum?”

tum dono ab make out karoge. 😌😌😌

*siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh* 😍😍😍😍😍

oufffffo dadiiiiiiii yaaaaaaar. 😣😣😣

LMAO “pehle toh nahi tha puttar, lekin teri harkatein dekh kar...” dadi let the boy liveeeeeee lollllllll 😆😆😆

you guys i can’t tell you how hella glad that i am that anika is just as frustrated as billu. it just warms my hearttttt that she’s as into it as he is. 😌😌😌

oh my heartttt, omkiiiii. look at his faaaace. and how he’s nervously adjusting his shirt and vest before approaching her. 😭😭😭

‘please still love me!’

oh boy, not the best voices to have in your head guiding you. honestly, why would you take advice from a couple who haven’t even been properly together for 24 hours yet!!?!?! 🙄🙄🙄

ohhhh boy omki is going to be asad (from QH) ka sequel, with the “woh actually, main...”s. 😬😬😬

HIS PANIC AT “SAB KHATAM HO GAYA HAI”!!!!!!! HER ADORABLE FAKE GUSSA! HIS DARRRA HUA FACE! I LOVE IT ALL OMG

ohhhhhhhhhhhhh no. these fucking idiots. they underestimated omki. 😟😟😟😬😬😬

OK LITERALLY NO ONE CARES ABOUT TEJVILANA. FWDING.

will i ever stop sighing happily over these two and their cuteeeee???? 😭😭😭😍😍😍😚😚😚

hahahahahaha shivaay dropping the stuff and fumbling picking it up . what an idiottttt. 🤣🤣🤣

oh boy why does dadi have rope?!!?!?! 😬😬😬

what a cutieeeeeeeee 😍😍😍

OMFG OMKI DHOKEBAAZ 😧😧😧

omggggg hahahahah shivaay singing “jahaan main jaata hoon wahin chali aati hai” 🤣🤣🤣🤣

lo rudra ki bhi entry. loving the casual way shivaay and he exchanged rock on 🤘🏽🤘🏽🤘🏽🤘🏽 gestures as greetings.

“rudy, pata hai, shivaay rangay-haathon pakda gaya!” “bhaiyya yeh koi holi khelne ka time hai kya?”

snortttttt, idiot. 😂😂😂😂

ohhhhhhhh boyyyyy. omkiiiiii. tu toh puraaaaara paaapi nikla. 😫😫😫

bulbul doing taubaaaa gestures at “patne - pataane ki baatein” hahaha 😆😆😆

lol anika getting mad at shivaay for being an idiotttttt. 😂😂😂

ouff againnnn tejvilana nonsense. fwding. 🙄🙄🙄

lo, omkara has taken the ramayan parallels from the initial promos a little too seriously and drawn a literal lakshman rekhaaaaaa. 😐😐😐

ladki waale kaun ladke waale kaun waala confusion.

lmao smart singh oberoi has very cleverly declared himself a ladki waala and stepped rightttt over the loc lololol 😂😂😂

DEVAR SQUAD ARE LADKI WAALE. *weeping* 😭😭😭

BEHNEIN BADE BHAIYYA KI TARAF SE. 😚😚😚

AND SHAKTIJI IS LADKI WAALE. FROM “BETI” KE SIDE. *weeps 5ever* 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

pffft tumhaaare dad aur mom haiiii kahaaan? have you even bothered calling them for the last 2 weeks? 😒😒😒

ugh fuck off pinky. no one invited you. 😤😤😤

maaaaaaaaaan, what even is this jhanvi plot?

who dat on the bike? um... kinda looks like gauri ka woh “apun ki sister” waala bhaiyya? 😕😕😕

OMFG IT IS HIM. WHUT? 😯😯😯

HOLY SHIT WHAT EVEN IS THIS JHANVI/DANDIIII TEAM UP??? 😟😟😟

ok idek why i’m watching this nonsense. oh wait. i do, for this face:

who the fuck told these people that south indians start every sentence with “aiyyo”????? 😒😒😒

like idk about other south indian states, but elders always admonish me if i say “aiyyo” too much - it’s a thing you say in distress and it’s believed saying it over and over kinda invites negativity into your life. 😐😐😐

THEY’RE TAMILIANS AND THAT’S A MALAYALAM NEWSPAPER. WHAT THE FUCK EVEN OMGGGGGGGGG. 😧😧😧😟😟😟

ALSO THE TITLE OF THE NEWSPAPER IS JUST A BUNCHA RANDOM MALAYALAM LETTERS THROWN TOGETHER????? THE FUCK. 😣😣😣😣

dandiiiiiii is under the influence of dosas and thinks kaveri/peter are legit. don’t blame him, whatever said and done, those dosas did look damn good. 😌😌

also, i hate the way north indians pronounce “dosa” - it’s tho-sha/tho-sa, not dosa with a hard D. 😒😒😒

OH THANK GOD. DANDI CAN TELL MALAYALAM AND TAMIL APART. HALLELUJAH. ALREADY LIKE HIM MORE. 😐😐😐

jhanvi is like yep, that kinda ignorant ass north indian bs sound like tej/svetlana for sure. 😒😒😒

didn’t even get what the precap was about really. some murti, some shiv-parvati sanjog, and everyone shocked at shivaay’s possesiveness re: khanna. ok???????? 🤔🤔🤔🤔

hopefully om-gauri get a little trip outta this hellhole to go get this murtiiiii? 😊😊😊

#ishqbaaz #ishqbaaaz #ib episode liveblogs #episode liveblogs #290817 ib lb

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