#all I wish is for you to be well written in s5

[flythesail]

The last third of s4 is wild because it's like oh haha Nancy and Ace still have the curse to deal with, then on top of that they throw in a cover-up of an accidental murder

#the purpose of that storyline is to ask: what line would you cross for someone you love? #or does that line exist? #what would you do to protect them? #even then.. i think the whole storyline could have benefited from another round of revisions #or.. more episodes #unfortunately they didnt have time for either #really.. that storyline could have tied well into everything with bess #it's possible to draw the connection as is #but this is a BIG storyline to fit into a small number of episodes #so yeah i wish they did something different #yet i can still see what they *wanted* to do #even if s4 wasnt the last season i think it'd be a problem regardless #although im curious if they would have brought it into s5 #that would give time to explore it with the depth it demands #but the thought of nace not being together for another season... #irrelevant point anyway because it's all over now #i kind of remember it being said all of s2 was written *before* they started filming (because of covid) #and my running theory is that's a large contributor to why it's so good #flythepost

[therainscene]

It’s funny that Bylers are so often accused of being delusional, because I was at my most delusional when I was anti-Byler.

I spent most of S4 refusing to acknowledge that Will had romantic feelings for Mike, despite knowing damn well what all that love triangle imagery and sad gay pining was implying. I convinced myself it was just bros before hoes drama; that perhaps Will wanted to come out to his best friend but felt nervous after six months of radio silence following “it’s not my fault you don’t like girls!”

The van scene forced me to accept that he really was in love, and it pissed me off because what was even the point of making him fall for a straight boy?

Mike’s bizarre “no homo” behaviour was clearly a symptom of growing up in a conservative 80s household, and witnessing Will’s sacrificial act of love in the van was the shitty lesson he needed to get over his homophobia.

I saw a typical straight male protagonist in an 80s coming-of-age film getting to coast his way to self-actualization on the back of queer suffering; a cruel and homophobic trope I thought we’d moved past by the year 2022.

But then the NINA reunion scene rolled around--

--and I immediately picked up on the heavy parallels between Mike and Will in how they greeted El. The realization hit me like a tonne of bricks: Mike feels the same way about her as Will does.

I thought, “wait, does this mean I was wrong about...? Oh my god. No way.

No fucking way.

Will was in love with El this whole time?? What the fuck, he’s been gay since S1 and she’s his sister this is BULLSHIT I will personally strangle the Duffers--”

Heteronormativity is a hell of a drug, kids.

Let this be a lesson to those of you who think media illiteracy is to blame for Byler denial -- how well someone understands the mechanics of storytelling is irrelevant if they insist on treating Mike’s supposed heterosexuality as an axiom instead of an evidence-based conclusion. The issue lies with bias, not literacy.

I was stubbornly anti-Byler because I knew I’d immediately fall in love with this ship if I allowed myself to have hope it could be canon, and the general state of queer rep in mainstream media meant I was all but guaranteed to get hurt if I was so stupid as to have hope. But in my desperation to cling to the “safe” heteronormative outcome, I only ended up hurting myself with my own silly assumptions.

We’ve seen both canonically gay characters in the show make exactly this mistake, needlessly hurting themselves with their silly but self-defensive assumptions about their love interests.

Stranger Things absolutely nails its depiction of the subtler ways internalized homophobia can manifest -- Will may feel like a mistake and be prone to beating himself up, but he isn’t some pitiful self-loathing queer who wishes he was straight, either. He’s just so crushed by heteronormativity that he accepts it as an inescapable fact of life and lets it guide his beliefs and actions.

Don’t get me wrong: Will, like Robin, is very sensible for being cautious in such a horrifically bigoted environment -- trying to openly defy that level of homophobia by yourself, especially when you’re young, is a bad idea.

But unlike Robin, he clearly struggles to accept that he has the right to chase his same-sex love interest. He's no longer simply exercising caution, but conforming to homophobic standards -- much in the same way I thought I was sensibly refusing to be queerbaited, when really I was just agreeing with the heteronormative status quo.

I realize now that this is the real reason Will was written into a homophobic 80s trope: not to teach Mike an outdated lesson in acceptance, but to maneuver Will into position for the lesson he’s going to learn in S5 about resisting conformity.

Will needs to learn that castrating himself to make straight people comfortable is a bad idea too. Not only is that a miserable way to live his life, but what sort of world is he leaving for the next generation of queer kids if he never questions these homophobic standards?

It’s just the cycle of abuse scaled up to the societal level.

This is what gives me confidence in Byler endgame. Queerness isn’t just an incidental element of Will’s personal arc, but suffuses the show to its very core -- it’s in its themes, its allegory, its characters.

So Will getting the boy isn’t just nice fan-service for Byler shippers, but a necessary ending if the show’s most important lesson is to land:

That it’s rewarding to make the difficult choice of standing up to bigotry in the face of forced conformity. Of choosing love.

Could it be the case that I was right the first time, and Stranger Things is going to turn out to be yet another heteronormative mainstream show that doesn’t commit to its own themes? Sure, maybe. But that wouldn’t invalidate the valuable lessons this show has already -- and apparently accidentally lol -- taught me.

Anyone who calls us deluded for hoping a mainstream show is going to have a gay pairing as its main couple just doesn’t realize -- or doesn’t care -- that they’re contributing to the very problem they’re describing.

#stranger things #byler #will byers #mike wheeler #robin buckley #analysis

[lolabearwrites]

Random things I would have loved for Voltron

-Keith never leaves w/ the BOM and stays the leader of Voltron (I have no problem with him being a blade, I actually enjoyed watching it, but I just didn't like him choosing them over Voltron)

-also! I wished we actually saw the "Galra Keith reveal" w/ the team. Such a missed opportunity.

-More of Lance being Keith's second in command. I feel like we didn't get a lot of that.

-Shiro stays dead. Look I love the man. One of my favorite characters. But after S2 it always feels like he just doesn't quite fit into the story like he used to.

-Very biased. But. Klance romance. Not the "will they won't they" shit. No. A actual relationship development. If it was written well I could see it happening maybe in s4/s5?

-Lotor and Keith friendship! Bonding over being mixed race and not fitting in.

-Keith learning Galra culture! Maybe through Lotor? Or BOM?

-Lotura. Pls. They were so cute.

-Oh, should have said this before the other three, but a Lotor redemption arc.

-A Keith and Lance ep. Because in eight seasons they never had an episode centered around them like they did for other characters. Klance had moments. But not eps.

-A Pidge arc !! She had a motivation (save her family) but not really an arc. The same could be said for Hunk.

-follow through with Lance's character development. Writers...you already set him up for it, you just had to follow through with it and actually do something with it.

-more found family fluff throughout the seasons. Because I felt like they never actually got to the level of "found family" if that makes sense

-change the armor color to match the lions. Mostly because I feel Keith wearing Shiro's armor for the first time when he takes over would also have an emotional impact.

- Coran being fleshed out. I know he's a comic relief. But I really love Coran! And I'd love to know more about him.

- I wish the team all had their own little quirks or interests, just something that didn't really have big significance to the story but made them feel more real, you know.

-okay, but It would have been amazing if team Voltron came to a planet that had no idea there was life outside their planet. Just like earth. Idk I feel like it would be funny XD

Anyway, that's my food for thought, feel free to add to this post :)

#voltron #klance #lola rambles #im still on my vld brainrot can u tell

[lordystrange]

10 best byler proofs by me

10. The cast, especially David (who knows the ending) and Finn (who might know something), are always so happy talking about Byler. They wouldn’t be if Will ended up dying alone as a sad gay. Also no one likes milkvan except maybe Millie unless she’s acting… Caleb even said ”Lucas and Max’s love is real unlike Milkvan’s”.

9. Mike has been queercoded throughout the whole series. Especially with queer colors, he spent s4 dressed as a gay pride flag. Also bi and pan colors are associated with him. Also Ted’s ”our son with a girl?” and everything Eddie said about forced conformity etc

8. Byler parallelling other romantic ships like Jancy, Jopper and Lumax. I’m not listing examples because there are SO MANY! (Also Milkvan parallelling all the platonic/dead ships)

7. Mileven being bones. We have nothing that shows their actual, deep love they’re ”supposed to have”. We don’t know what Mike loves about El and what El loves about Mike. We don’t know what makes them a compatible match romantically. We only know things that don’t make them compatible: El feeling the need to lie to Mike, Mike feeling embarrassed of his nerdy self with El, El feeling unloved by Mike, Mike feeling inferior to El…

6. The desert scenes. The triple take ofc, but also the car roof top convo with Will (jancy parallell). Will is talking about how it’s scary to say how you really feel because what if they don’t like the truth. And Mike NODS. If the truth was that he loved El exactly like El wanted, El would like that truth. So what is the truth Mike is worried that El doesn’t like…?

5. Mike’s monologue. He had to be pushed by Will to open his mouth. He lied about him loving her at first sight. He copied the t-shirt part from Eddie. He kept saying she’s his superhero which El doesn’t wanna be. He didn’t include anything personal about El and their relationship after the t-shirt thing… Also El didn’t seem to like what she heard and their love didn’t save the world. And they didn’t even talk after it. And while filming it they didn’t focus on just the couple (like they did with byler in s2 shed scene) and they let Finn improvise as if it wasn’t that important (as important as the van scene…)

4. Mike would be so poorly written if he wasn’t into Will and I don’t think the Duffers would just ignore his character. Also all the lip glances and heart eyes wouldn’t make sense.

3. Byler/Milkvan contrast. When Will was gone and they found his ”body”, Mike heard Will breathing in a radio channel and believed he was alive. He didn’t rest for a second, he did everything he could to find him. When he thought El was dead, he didn’t go looking for her, even tho a couple times he actually saw her. Also in s3 when Milkvan had a fight, Max said Mike will be crawling back to her begging for forgiveness in no time. Instead Mike laid on a sofa and ate and complained. When Byler had a fight… well we all know what Mike did then.

2. Mike and Will’s relationship has always been different from other friendships. They’ve said it themselves (”pls don’t tell the others, they wouldn’t understand”, ”Hawkins is not the same without you”, ”you make her me feel better for being different”). Also their scenes together have always been a big deal (van scene took an entire day to film, crazy together was written before s1 was even filmed) and they are shot in a really romantic way (music, lighting…)

1. In the beginning of s3, Will said to Joyce that he’s not gonna fall in love. That made his arc about romance. We know now that he already fell in love, but he doesn’t believe it’s requited. If s5 goes from ”i don’t think he loves me back” to ”he doesn’t love me back” we get literally nowhere and the entire storyline (since s1) would be useless and waste of time and money. They wouldn’t make Will suffer 4 seasons and then suffer some more. So believe me when I say it goes ”I don’t think he loves me back” to ”He does love me back!”

I wish you all a very merry byler endgame in s5! 💚

#byler #byler proof #byler evidence #byler s5 #stranger things #van scene #will byers #mike wheeler #mike x will #miwi #byler analysis #stranger things analysis #byler endgame #byler canon #anti milkvan #anti m*leven #anti midleven #mike wheeler i know what you are #gay mike wheeler #bi mike wheeler #unlabeled mike wheeler

[actually-a-fish]

the best supernatural episodes

according to an autistic person with a special interest and the ability to make a list.

if youre really serious about supernatural spoilers then maybe stay away :)

None of the season one episodes made in on the list but I will give an honorable mention to S1 E2 Wendigo.

S2 E11 Playthings - A classic, creepy girls in a creepy hotel. Special call out to Sam getting SLOPPY

S2 E16 Roadkill - There's a ghost haunting the highway. the Boys help the spirit move on. This is an early example of monster empathy

S2 E18 Hollywood Babylon - Dean loves hollywood. I love dean. this episode makes me kick my feet like a little girl and i will not defend myself.

S2 EP 20 What Was Shall Never Be - all I have in my notes for this one is "Dean Djinn Dream" which was enough for me to remember the episode and get misty eyes. This is SEASON 2 my son will never know peace.

S3 E5 Bedtime Stories -I had to check the wiki on this one, I think i liked it cause it referenced classic fairytales

S3 Ep11 Mystery Spot - "HEAT OF THE MOMENT" RISE AND SHINE SAMMY!

S3 E13 Ghostfacers! - Im a Facer through and through

S3 E16 No Rest for the Wicked - S3 finale and the Boys are facing consequences! Classic Dean, Sam and Bobby episode.

S4 E1 Lazerus Rising - First Cas Episode. That handprint makes me feel things.

S4 E6 Yellow Fever - What if Dean had anxiety (The Eye of the Tiger blooper is also at the end of the episode which gives it bonus points.

S4 E17 Wishful Thinking - Make a wish? was it for your teddy bear to be diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder? Well thats what youre getting!

S4 E17 It's a Terrible Life - Sam ~ the sales rep. Dean ~ middle management.

S4 E18 The Monster at the End of the Book - There are books about Sam and Dean?! Written by this guy who loves self insert character? Surely the entire show isn't about to take a tone shift?

S5 E3 Free to be You and Me - Sam and Dean are fighting again, but this time Dean has a new heavenly boy toy to play with instead. (Cas has no rizz yet it's actually a little painful to watch)

S5 E5 Fallen Idol - Okay the Wax People episode is on here for one reason and one reason only. Paris Hilton.

S5 E7 The Curious Case of Dean Winchester - Old man Dean and old man Bobby. This is also the episode for HH Husk kinnies.

S5 E8 Changing Channels - Dr Sexy MD is that you?!

S5 E9 The Real Ghostbuster - *in a grizzly voice* "I'm Dean Winchester, this is my brother Sam. Have you experienced anything strange?" "Dude that was so good! Now we can go solve the puzzle" "Man you're breaking the immersion!"

S5 E10 Abandon All Hope - This is here for Crowley's first appearance and not because the end will make you cry.

S5 E12 Swap Meat - "uh... its Audi Nos". Freaky Friday starring Sam Winchester! An angsty teen and April Kepner from Grey/Sloan Memorial Hospital.

S5 E16 Dark Side of the Moon - The Boys lives flash before their eyes. Dean is pissed forever about Sams.

S5 E19 Hammer of the Gods - this is for all my pagans out there!

S6 E4 A Weekend at Bobby's - What do you think this episodes about idjit.

S6 E15 The French Mistake -  “For whatever reason, our life is a TV show.” “Why?” “I don't know.” “No, seriously. Why? Why would anybody want to watch our lives?” 

S7 E4 Defending your Life - consequences? for fucking people over? how about you stand trial.

S7 E20 The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo - The self insert character made for us :) Luv u 4ever Charlie XD

S8 E4 Bitten - found footage will always scare. this one reminds me that this show started as a psuedo horror.

S8 E8 hunteri heroci - Cas tries his hand at being a hunter

S8 E12 As Time Goes By - FINALLY THEY ARE CARVING TRAPS INTO BULLETS

S8 E17 Goodbye Stranger - verbatim here are my notes for this episode "Cas chooses Dean, but the way he handles Meg... Fuck Naomi"

S8 E18 Clip Show - If you only want to watch just one episode of Supernatural this should be it. It's not actually a clip show, theres a broment, bonding time with favorite characters and crazy plots that only supernatural could get away with.

S9 E5 Dog Dean Afternoon - Dean is finally a dog person

S9 E11 First Born - Another bro fight leads to shipping <3 SamxCas + DeanxCrowley <3

S9 E15 #thinman - the slender episode feat. GHOSTFACERS. You come away from this episode thinking "supernatural is so fucking gay why wont the boys kiss"

S9 E21 King of the Damned - my favorite crowley era change my mind. Also the way the Boys interrogate an angel is so funny

S10 E5 Fan Fiction - I would unironically fuck w a supernatural musical and if helluva/hazbin taught me anything the rest of you would too

S10 E6 Ask Jeeves - The Clue episode. (Pay attention to the improvised weapons Dean chooses. It brings me joy)

S10 E9 The Things we Left Behind - Cas is suffering a midlife crisis and his besties are there to help him repair his relationship with his daughter. Funnily enough, Crowley is also getting some family bonding in.

Okay, I'm all caught up on my list. Should I have stayed up late transcribing this with an 8am class tommarow?

Probably not but it did bring me great joy. Tell me your favorite episode! I'll continue to add to my list as I continue my rewatch :)

#supernatural #destiel #castiel #dean winchester #sam winchester #crowley #list #tumblr recommendations #episodes #im bad at tags #sam and dean #favorite

[bronx-bomber87]

Good Morning! Super excited for these next set of eps to review.

We’ve reached the iconic and pivotal DOD eps. I’m nervously excited to review these. I want to do them justice. They are momentous for not just Chenford but the entire series. Rosalind Dyer is one of my fav recurring baddies. I loved Annie from Castle as well. Was psyched she would be joining The Rookie. This was a rare one where I got to use all the gifs I wanted to. Yay. Kid in a Chenford candy store haha Thank you to all the wonderful gif makers out there. You are the real MVP's. Let’s get this started :)

2x10 The Dark Side

We start with Lucy and the guys out for a post work drink. Armstrong is there as well. They’re talking about Jackson dating a celebrity. Asking how that is? Lucy says they’re happy if he’s happy. Nick calls her bluff and says ‘Liar.’ LMAO Lucy cracks and says men suck ha They sure can. That the single men in LA suck. That whenever they find out she’s a cop they freak out. (To touch on not dating a cop bit. It is only a mistake when it’s not Tim. Let’s be real.) Especially while she's still a rookie just not a good idea (cough Nolan cough) He was never a good decision though....not even a little bit. I'll die on that hill haha

Armstrong joins the convo and comes in with some solid advice. ‘Those aren’t men they’re boys. Real men are not afraid of a strong woman.’ Your real man just isn’t ready yet my dear. Nor are you. I really love this scene though. I enjoyed Nick a lot as a character. Poor Lucy she goes on her 'Sister Officer Lucy Chen' rant ha Classic. Oh the irony of this convo. In S5 she definitely isn't in a nunnery anymore heh. That is quite awhile away from this point though. Have to note how pretty she looks in this scene. Her outfit is simple but she looks stunning.

Lucy leaves the table to get another round. That’s when Lucy runs into Caleb….really unfortunate that’s his name. That’s my BIL's name haha He seems normal enough with his flirting with Lucy. Both of them being ignored for another drink by the bartender. He's making her laugh and appearing nice and kind. Ugh run Lucy run…Their moment gets interrupted by Lucy noticing a guy stealing tips. She walks away from the convo and apologizes. End ups arresting the thief. The way she takes him down is bad ass I have to say. (Tim would be proud) Says 'Surprise I’m a cop’ haha

Roll call comes around and they find out about Rosalind Dyer. A rare unicorn in their world. A female serial killer. She’s agreed to show them the 3 bodies that were never found. In exchange she gets life with no parole instead of the death penalty. Everyone’s day is now centered around this. Tim and Lucy discuss her past murders. Lucy telling Tim she was in college when they found the first victims.

That it was all anyone could talk about, wondering how a woman could be so barbaric? Tim shares his own story about it. How he worked a scene for the 4th victim. That he was advised not to look at the body. How he wish he hadn’t… The hindsight of watching this scene unfold right before they run into Caleb. It’s bone chilling to think about. Their convo being framed around this before he shows up.

Caleb shows up and Tim is immediately suspicious and does not like this guy. His face has me rolling the entire time. Gives Caleb a hard time about the word 'Perp'. His facial expressions I can not LOL Now part of this reaction is his cop gut. I truly believe that. Not trusting whoever this guy is for Lucy. His default is suspicion. The fierce protector coming out to play in this scene.

I think the rest of his reaction is him just not liking this guy being interested in Lucy. Jealously thy name is Timothy Bradford. Its seeping out of him and he can't stop himself. He's completely forgotten he's dating one of her closest friends in this moment. Written all over his face how territorial he’s being right now. I always love me some protective/jealous Tim. This scene and honestly this entire episode is full of that.

Lucy’s face is screaming ‘chill out’ the entire interaction. She's basically scolding him with her eyes above. They have a mini silent conversation with their eyes before the scene continues. If that isn't the most married look they've had so far. I love it so much. He definitely looks reprimanded in that second gif above. Tim is as transparent as person can be in this scene. Not even trying to hide it a little bit. Caleb has shown up and Tim's guard and protective nature are out in full force. Doesn't like this guy just showing up and sniffing around at all.

Caleb is clearly nervous around Tim (as he should be..) It's too funny he keeps trying regardless to talk to Lucy. Tim deftly snags the paper out of the air. She didn't have a chance of grabbing it. Caleb has to sense how much Tim doesn't want him here. He could not be less welcoming of this man. Tim reads the paper and he asks if Caleb has a last name LOL He says Wright. The irony of that last name...

I doubt our boy even knows why he’s reacting this way to Caleb. Only that he is and very strongly at that. All his feelings when it comes to Lucy are muddled and confusing for him. Yet he acts on them anyway. From the moment this guy showed up the green eyed monster was present. Tim continues to grill him. He asks what he does for a living? Says if it’s a screenwriter he’s going in a cell. He really hates screenwriters haha A theme through out the show for him.

Eric’s facial expressions during this entire scene truly is perfection. Look at the way he looks at Caleb as he leaves. If looks could kill he would be a dead man. Also you can see the mask on Caleb drop when he turns away from them (shudder). The immense distrust written all over Tim's rigid body language. You'd have to be blind not to see it. Both of their faces above are a summary of the entire scene. Lucy is happy to have caught the eye of a 'decent' guy. Tim doesn't trust this guy as far as he can throw him.

Tim doesn’t even think he’s done anything wrong till he turns around and sees her face. Kudos to Melissa for the great reaction. He says 'What?' All innocent like he didn't just drag that guy through the mud. Treat him like a criminal they deal with on the daily. She is so affronted and honestly confused as hell with his reaction. Her face basically saying 'What the hell was that?'

From the moment Caleb shows up to the moment he leaves Tim is NOT pleased with his presence. Lucy is truly confused as to why he is acting this way. She can’t put together why he was trying to kill that entire interaction. We all know Lucy included (deep down) this was jealously thorough and through. But she chalks it up to him being stressed about how crazy everything is right now. Sure that’s it Lucy…She demands the paper back with just her face and outreached hand. Tim is shocked she wants the number of this doofus. He relents and unwillingly hands it back to her. Almost rolling his eyes as he does so.

They’re driving in a caravan to the first burial site. Lucy is looking at Calebs online profile in the car. Tim snaps at her to focus. That this is going to be most dangerous day she’s ever going to spend on the job. Oh the weight of that comment when you know these eps….They both have no idea how true that’s going to be. Might seem like he’s mad when really he’s protecting her by getting her to focus. It’s his way of doing it. I also think it's a little frustration bleeding over from the whole Caleb thing. Not that he's going to put that together right now. Hell doesn't even realize how territorial and jealous he just was.

We rejoin Tim and Lucy once they arrive at the first spot. They're talking about Rosalind during this 'Hike' to find the remaining bodies. Tim asks if she’s less scary in the light of day? Lucy tells him no…but mentions how smart she must be. To have gotten away with this for so long undetected. Lucy smartly mentions there’s a play here they’re not seeing.

Tim tells her it’s just to jerk them around. Oh my love it is far more than that. Lucy is so sharp to observe this hike has to be more than just her deal. She is proven right when they find a fresher body in one of the grave sites with the old one. It’s obvious she has a partner on the outside they just don’t know who…

Lucy is looking at Caleb’s “profile” again. Watching a video of him with a puppy. Jealous/Protective Tim makes his next appearance. Could not be more obvious if he tried. Not a fan of her being enamored by this guy. He makes a snide remark saying I bet that’s not even his puppy. It’s scary how spot on he was with Caleb the entire time. It’s mainly from jealously and being protective of her, but it’s frightening how dead on his cop gut was. He turned out to right about everything with him.

Lucy naturally gives him push back and says she just wants to enjoy a cute puppy. That it’s been an awful day. Can't she just do that? Jealous Tim won't agree with her. So he is a little shit and says 'This your first decomp right? ' Watching her face go from happy to grossed out LOL Oh Tim. He knows how bad this smell is going to be for her and is enjoying it haha The way she follows after him is too funny. Melissa is also amazing at expressing so much as well.

The eerie part of this scene is it’s them being the ones to discover the DOD tattoo… There are so many forewarnings in this episode for her. For them. Literally smacking us in the face with them. That could’ve been her if things had gone wrong... Ugh my heart. They find out the newer victim was suffocated…What an awful way to die. I’m asthmatic and it gives me a pre-asthma attack just thinking about it.

A light hearted part of this scene is once again the lack of personal space. Ah personal space. They don't know her and never will. We're all ok with this notion. Nolan ends up getting Rosalind to lead them to the second site. They find a new body in it with a DOD Tattoo. The freshest one yet. They realize it’s every three months. That 12/09/19 is the the next DOD. John notes it’s 12/08 they have a day to find the next victim.

Tim and Lucy join Armstrong at the jail to search Rosalind cell once again. Trying to find some connection. A way her and this person have been communicating. Nick asks where her books are and they say they sent them back. He asks for every book she's read in the last 6 months.

They’re searching all the books and of course Lucy is the one to crack the code. I love it. Finds something in the binding. Its a coded piece of paper. She figures out the cypher fairly quickly. You know Tim loves how damn smart she is. He’s impressed. She figures out a name from the code. My girl. Bryan Coleman. Funny that doesn’t sound like Caleb Wright….

Harper and Nolan end up saving the next girl. They find out he’s been using the old abandoned zoo as his staging ground. What kills me is them saving her condemns Lucy. They stopped him from scratching that sick itch. Grey tells them all to go home and rest. Lucy spins around and tells Tim she’s just going to go home and crash.

Tim tells her that’s a mistake and gives her the advice that will haunt him in the next episode. Hell for quite awhile if I’m being honest. He will carry this moment with him for a long time. Says after a hardcore assignment she needs to blow off some steam. Find a way to decompress. If she doesn’t she’ll never get any sleep.

Lucy is super cute asking if he's really telling her to go get a drink instead? He tells her yes. Preferably a strong one even with another human being. We all know who that human being is going to be….Side note I adore the fact that he always opens the door for her. Doesn't even realize he's doing that. Just does it out of habit. Her real man standing right in front of her but it is far too early for that hehe

Literally makes me sick to watch her scene with Caleb. My skin crawls knowing where it’s headed. He took advantage of Lucy with her guard down. Her cop eyes we're retired for the night. Just trying to decompress. We go back to the station where Grey tells John and Nick they found a body at the old zoo. Bryan Coleman. Which can only mean one thing as we go back to Lucy. That Caleb is the apprentice….

She goes from giggly and relaxed to sheer terror in a matter of moments. He drugged her and Lucy is slowly realizing the situation she is now in. He also snags her phone before she can use it. Sadly she is over powered easily due the drug he gave her. Then sticks her in the trunk of his car. The ep ends there.

It’s a crazy stressful two-parter. So damn good though. I remember when this first premiered how hard it was to wait for the next episode. I’m pre emotional just thinking about analyzing the next episode. Can’t wait to do it though.

~~~~

Side Notes-Non Chenford

Wopez good scenes not many but really good. Wes clearing not handling his post traumatic stress well. Mixing his prescription with alcohol. Angela coming home asking if he was trying to kill himself. He says I don’t know… Not a great answer bud.

The whole Rosalind SL. It’s so dark but so good. Getting a deeper look into Nick and seeing some chinks in his armor. What he sacrificed to catch her. It’s very good. I enjoyed his character a lot and getting more depth with him as well.

Thank you as always to those that like/comment/reblog these reviews. It’s means the world to me. I love doing these and they take time to assemble. But they’re so worth doing to enjoy this rewatch together. I’m also enjoying the hell out of analyzing these eps and our beloved couple. I’ll see you all in 2x11 :)

#Caitlin rewatches the Rookie #chenford #chenford hiatus #summer rewatch #waiting on s6 #s2 #2x10 The Dark Side #2x10 #the rookie #tim bradford #lucy chen #tim x lucy #lucy x tim #eric winter #melissa o'neil #otp: doing my job #otp: you know me so well. too well. #tim bradford x lucy chen #rosalind dyer #annie wersching

[ven0moir]

As someone who's been obsessively analyzing ST for about a year now, it makes me so sad that the only thing keeping me at 99% certainty of Byler being endgame is the fear that we might get queerbaited.

It pains me that if Will was a girl, I would have 0 doubt left. Especially because with all of the evidence there is to back up the writers INTENTIONS (yes, they 100% intended to queercode both Mike AND Will at this point), if Byler isn't endgame then that means the Duffers INTENTIONALLY queerbaited us. In the year 2025.

And then I circle back on this thought and think ... why would they queerbait? Why would they specifically use Byler to do so? If they wanted to draw in an LGBT audience it would've been as easy as given Will a different love interest in Lenora and confirm him queer in that way. Why would they so meticulously and elaborately write a queer slowburn friends to lovers only to queerbait in the end?

I know some Milkvans are COUNTING on this, they are HOPING this is all queerbait because THEY SEE THE SIGNS as well, they're just refusing to accept it. Of course I fear they're right deep down, but do I actually think, if I go about this logically, that the Duffers would do something so ... anticlimactic? When they've described S5 as 'S1 and S4 on steroids'?

When it comes to the romances, Byler IS the big shock. The biggest surprise. Because whether Nancy chooses Steve or Jonathan or remains single, we know Nancy's options, we're just waiting to see who or what she chooses.

But most of the GA does not even see Byler as a real possibility. Hell, some of them haven't even picked up on Will liking Mike (yes, even after the painting, I've seen some people still debate this and some straight up thinking Will likes El).

And yet when you rewatch the show after considering Byler as a possibility, it becomes SO OBVIOUS. It is the perfect plot twist when it comes to Mike and Will. And I wouldn't be on board with Byler if Milkvan was written in a way that truly showed they loved each other, were compatible and thought of each other as an equal. As someone going into S4 as part of the GA, I was expecting that S4 would finally, FINALLY make me ship Milkvan because I am sorry but I picked up on that Born Sexy Yesterday bs since S1 and I did NOT like them romantically, not at that point. I wished they had been a slowburn friends to lovers that got together in like S3 or something, but even if they felt forced and rushed as fuck I was still willing to allow myself to be swayed into liking them later on. And that never happened, instead S4 presented Will as a potential love interest for Mike and I was SEATED. I was SO DONE with milkvan's drama.

When it comes to romance, it would be the dumbest writing decision I've ever seen in my life not to get Mike and Will together. And I know the Duffers might not be perfect but they cannot be THIS dumb when they grew up loving Dawson's Creek. There is no way that show did more for its gay character in 1998 than the Duffers potentially could in 2025 let's be for real.

#byler #this is just me rambling honestly kind of trying to asuage my own byler doubt

[clockwards]

wanna talk about all the things i love and wish were developed more in the btvs boys

- xander is never a coward even though he repeatedly says he is/looks down on himself and his abilities. he is sometimes even more willing than buffy to go into to danger to protect his friends in the first few seasons, and although it's written as an excuse to 'get the girl' it never ends up that way. i wish instead of them having him remain a "weaker" comedy character and pressing on his insecurities they let him begin to trust himself and have the others trust his abilities in turn. s3e13 'The Zeppo' is such a COOL fucking episode for him but no one else knows what happened and he goes back to being "the same old xander" afterwards. I wish he was written to be allowed to grow into his confidence without directly growing his insecurities towards the girls and their levels of power. in later seasons he does but then his old insecurities pop up just for the writers to cause group friction. anyway i wish we got to see more of just xander, I think that would've been so fun and cool

- i love early s4 Average Joe riley. he's just a dorky guy who loves psychology and doesn't even realise when he has a crush. I love that he's awkward and the potential he and willow had for friendship that kind of petered off. sometimes I really wish that they'd let him actually be an Average Joe and see what that changed for the season. and we never really see that awkward side of him again! he had all the traits to be a malewife and they took that from us because they wanted a strongman instead :[

- giles' morals degrading over the series!!!! him being so proper at the beginning and each apocalypse/major event undoing that just a bit more. realising that if he is Buffy's Certified Adult then she deserves his full and absolute protection wherever he can provide it. and he does fall into the dad role quite well but he is first and foremost a Protector (which he isn't meant to be because he's a Watcher!!!). also I don't think I've seen anyone talk about him putting on the record he and joyce were playing during band candy shenanigans after her death. and him full out killing ben end of s5 :D

- angel!!! angel being a dumbass!! you don't get to see it much in btvs so I guess this is more ats content but listen! he's new at having a soul and sure there's the guilt and the brooding and the torment but there's also joy and humour and comfort and silliness. angelus is a very focused character who does feel things, but only very intensely and basically one at a time. angel feels it all at once! and he gets to have fun, or he should. ats shenanigans are good for the heart, he deserves cordy and wes being annoying and lorne dragging him to parties and playing video games with gus and fred.

- oz has that autistic rizz (I know this because I'm autistic and had a dream we kissed)

- spike [LOUD YELLING, SCREAMING, CRIES OF THE DAMNED AND DOOMED TO HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY] haha yeah nothing much to say here. just a totally normal guy.

#if i ever slander characters I AM SLANDERING THE WRITERS #BELIEVE ME #it just makes me sad that they decided xander could only be shaggy OR fred #and not a character created for his own purpose #xander harris #rupert giles #riley finn #daniel 'oz' osbourne #spike #angel #angelus #buffy summers #buffy the vampire slayer #btvs #buffyverse #btvs meta

[heretherebegaydragons]

Places where Jonny Sims brought The Mechanisms into The Magnus Archives

A non-exhaustive list of themes, concepts and interesting situations Jonny might have consciously or subconsciously brought with him from The Mechanisms when writing The Magnus Archives:

Mechanisms

Broken Horses - Ulysses Dies At Dawn

“I wonder if devils get nightmares of all of their victims as well”

Magnus

MAG 142 Scrutiny, MAG 146 Threshold and MAG 120 Eye Contact

The Archivist having nightmares of and with all the people he’s taken statements from, his victims.

Mechanisms

The article Archive Footage on themechanisms.com

 Ivy, who has the title of archivist, is described as being a book, not a reader

Magnus

MAG 160 The Eye Opens, mentioned in the statement of Jonah Magnus

The Archivist being described as more of an archive than an archivist.

Mechanisms

Red Signal - The Bifrost Incident

“All the doors are open now!”

The metaphor of an open door signifying that eldritch horrors has arrived and apocalypse is forthcoming

Magnus

MAG 160 The Eye Opens, last line of the statement/ritual

“I. Open. The DOOR” (written phonetically).

The metaphor of opening a door signifying the summoning of eldritch horrors and the start of the apocalypse

Mechanisms

Ragnarok II: The Calling - The Bifrost Incident

Odin, a servant of an unknowable eldritch deity, started the apocalypse and is very happy about it

Magnus

MAG 160 The Eye Opens

The laugh right at the end.

Jon, a servant/avatar of an unknowable eldritch deity, started the apocalypse and is very happy about it

Mechanisms

Ragnarok V: End of the Line - The Bifrost Incident

The tragic, queer romance of Loki and Sigyn ending in dying together, one killing the other, to temporarily save the world from eldritch horrors

Magnus

MAG 200 - Last Words

The tragic, queer romance of Jon and Martin ending in dying(?) together, one killing the other, to save their world from (and doom another to) eldritch horrors

Mechanisms

Hereward the Wake - Tales to Be Told vol. 2

“But he loved his servant Martin”

The titular Hereward is gay for a subordinate called Martin

Magnus

All of s5 and a considerable amount of s4. First confirmed in MAG 161 - Dwelling

Jon, main character, is gay for a subordinate called Martin

Mechanisms

Olympians - Ulysses Dies at Dawn

“Now, when the inevitable reality of death is so unpleasant, you better believe people will do anything to avoid it”

Death is known to be eternal and unpleasant, and this drives rich people to do anything necessary to survive, including killing a lot of people via. the Sphinx

Magnus

MAG 155 - The Cost of Living

Death is, to the rich woman giving the statement, known to be an eternal, painful state, and her wish to avoid this at any cost drives her to kill a lot of people

Mechanisms

Ragnarok II: The Calling - The Bifrost Incident

“I’ve done it! Though I never knew the dreams that ate at me were true”

“The Void sings it to me”

Odin hearing music in her dreams calling her to carry out a ritual that brings an eldritch abomination into this world and thereby causes an apocalypse

Magnus

MAG 151 - Big Picture

“I still hear the music in my dream”

Simon Fairchild likening the call to make a ritual for an eldritch abomination to bring it into this world and thus cause an apocalypse to hearing music in one’s dreams and desperately wanting to recreate it.

Mechanisms

A Rebel Yell - Once Upon A Time (In Space): Apocrypha

“Guess you gotta pay The Piper in the end”

A character called The Piper who causes great losses on both sides of a war by betraying a lot of the resistance and then blowing up a planet of the oppressing force when they don’t pay up, thus serving not a specific side but the war itself

Magnus

MAG 7 - The Piper

A character referred to as The Piper who is an embodiment of the war

Mechanisms

Orpheus, Dionysus, muriatic acid and the strange whirring thing

“Know enough about the events leading up to a situation, and you’ll know exactly what will happen next. So much for free will”

Magnus

The entire concept of The Web, as it understands all the little details that will lead to a certain outcome, knows exactly which future a certain change will bring. And the existential questions about free will this gives Jon in particular

Some of these are more probable than others, and there most certainly plenty I haven’t noticed, so feel free to add your own

#the magnus archives #tma #The Mechanisms #the mechanisms band #the mechs #jonathan sims #jonny sims #I just find this stuff fascinating #I wonder how much of it was intentional #I considered comparing to thirteen stories too #but I'd only read it once and didn't feel like reading through all of it again so soon #and family business wasn't out yet #but who knows #might add them #or give the books their own list #it sure is fascinating getting to know an author's style like this

[raayllum]

hi jsyk watching your hype and excitement after the new short story is really funny (affectionate/positive)!!! ur excitement for s5 and love of the show is so clear

oh my gosh thank you this is so sweet!! it's the funniest thing because literally every time I want something specific as hell from this show, but lovingly put my clown makeup and assume I'm not going to get it, or that it's a fun prediction but doesn't have to pan out, but then

I either end up getting that exact thing or an even better variant of it??

Like pre-S1 I noticed Rayla's face markings looked like tears, so I hoped we'd see her cry at one point bc I thought it'd be a nice visual parallel? And then 1x09 gave it to me. Going into S2 I hoped for Callum to get over Claudia and for a Rayllum tag, and then [gestures] All That Happened. Even before S3 aired with the "written in the stars" skit I'd noticed the slight dark-lightness theme running through Rayllum's arc and thought it'd be a nice consistency, but I didn't think it'd be a Big Theme, even if as soon as the S4 intro came out I was like "yeah that 'south star' shit is coming back" and well... Gestures to the entire ass "stargazing" clip just between the two of them. The way post-S3 I assumed S4 would be about Callum flying too close to the sun magic wise, being terrified of Aaravos invading this mind, that Aaravos would get out in S5, and that S5 would deal more with Rayla's coin stuff? Ezran as the thematic Witness / Embodiment of Justice? Everything about Claudia's arc?? Chef's kiss

My first post-S3 theory back in 2019 was a "Rayla and Ezran disagree with Callum caught in the middle, leaving to a broyals conflict" wish, gave up on it when TTM hppened because it seemed like we were going in a different direction, campaigned for 2+ years for Callum to do something Fucked Up for Rayla, and like... now I'm going to get both things, presumably that I have desperately wanted/hoped for??

And then there's like, all the things I didn't even know I wanted that TDP just decided to give me anyway?? An Angor Rot villain variant in Kim'Dael? Motherfucking pirates? The game motif becoming a chess motif? Wanting a trio variant sitting around a campfire scene in S4 (that we haven't had since S1) and S4 gave me one and S5's already given me one and there might be More?

I've talked before about how healing TDP has been for me when my prior two fandoms source materials back to back were very disappointing and shoddily put together / majorly side lined their disabled characters / characters of colour (who were also my favourite characters) but like

You ever watch or something, and it feels like it was Made For You, in a way? Like tailor made for like, your interests or preferences or character archetypes, or whatever? That's always how TDP has felt for me in everything it's released and every time it's a beautiful, wonderful experience and a surprise. It would be hard not to be so excited and positive about it, and I cannot wait to continue to be catered to. They never miss!

#thanks for asking #fandom #tdp #the dragon prince #memes #mine #dragons rambles #appreciation #also the thematic maturation and motifs in s4?? went harder than ever before #popping off on all cylinders i was Screaming

[imreallyloveleee]

for @bughead-bones and @stonerbughead who asked about my s5 murder mystery au: i plotted like 90% of this story out a year or two ago. who knows if i'll ever actually write it all, but if i do, it's going to switch POVs between betty, jughead & veronica. i've never written veronica's pov before, so that's been a little challenging. here's a snippet from jug's pov!

“Jess, have you seen my tie?”

“Nope.”

Jughead emerges from the bathroom to find her sprawled out across the motel room bed, tapping away at her phone. He presses two fingers to his temple, willing away the headache just barely beginning to throb. “Okay, well could you help me look for it? We’re going to be late.”

“I don’t think you have to wear a tie at a funeral.” Jessica slinks off of the bed anyway, leaning halfway over the chipped tv stand to peer behind it. He resists the urge to redirect her towards a more plausible spot, like the pile of clothes she’s left pooled by the foot of the bed. 

“I want to,” he replies tightly. He lifts her leather jacket off the seat of the desk chair — bingo. “Help me tie this?”

She complies, kissing his cheek as she loops the tie around his neck. “You seem really antsy about this.” She tightens the knot at the base of his throat and then tugs on the end a little, teasing, as she steps back.

“I’m about to give a eulogy for my best childhood friend.” 

“Yeah, your best friend who stole your girlfriend.” Jessica raises one eyebrow before laying back on the bed again, toying idly with the end of her long, black braid. 

Sometimes he wishes he’d never told her about that. If Betty’s at the funeral today, and Jessica figures out who she is, god only knows what she’ll say.

God only knows what he’ll say. It’s been a little over a year since they — he? she? does it matter? — ended whatever you’d call the semi-regular communication they’d carried on with ever since the breakup. For six years they’d texted back and forth: book recommendations, professional accomplishments, the occasional meme that made them think of one another. 

None of it came close to scratching the surface of their former relationship. But he misses it. He still finds himself reaching for his phone when he reads an article or a line in a novel that he thinks she’d like. Every time, he forces himself to set it aside. Her silence spoke for her, loud and clear: she doesn’t want to hear from him.

Jughead turns back towards the bathroom mirror, pretending to fiddle with his hair. “That was seven years ago.”

And I’m over it. And I’ve forgiven him. All the words Jughead knows he should say — the words that he thinks, most days, are true — congeal like putty in his mouth, unable to emerge fully formed.

“And now he’s dead,” he adds, unnecessarily. 

It still feels unreal, conceptually speaking: Archie is dead. Sure, he may have had some brushes with death — Jughead’s had more than a few of his own — but Archie Andrews wasn’t the kind of person who would just die. He half expects that when he walks into the church this afternoon, Archie will be standing right there, gathered with all their old friends and acquaintances, laughing at what a gullible sucker Jughead’s become in his not-yet-old age.

But the article is still there loaded on his phone, same as it was one week ago when JB had texted him the link: LOCAL ACTIVIST FOUND DEAD. Friends of Archie Andrews, 25, say they have questions. 

The piece went on to quote names Jughead used to encounter on a daily basis: Local businesswoman Toni Topaz. Riverdale Sheriff Tom Keller. Town coroner Dr. Curdle Jr. It read almost like something he himself had penned as a macabre writing exercise, filling in the blanks of a murder mystery plot with the people who had once formed the landscape of his own life. 

#bughead #bughead fic #my fic #fic #riverdale #riverdale fic

[charmixpower]

Final thoughts on season 6 despite my better judgment

Okay so this piece of shit has a few good things in it so we'll start with that. It's going to be a very short list, so it won't take too long before we get into the meat and potatoes

Things I liked about S6:

Icy's, Darcy's, and Stormy's dynamic in this season is actually peek. After s5 I was extremely hesitant to see how these three would be written, but it's actually great! They are extremely sibling towards each other, and the way they bully each other after failures is super cute

While I don't like the fashion in this season, tying it all back to Stella's love of fashion and having her passion come though is really cute and makes me wish that the winx were allowed to pursue their interests independently

The Legendarum in concept. I like the idea of stories in a book being animated with magic and going into pocket dimensions. I just like that, it was a fun way to immediately get into a new set piece

The dark witch forms. They had a very Salem energy that I absolutely loved

The specialists new outfits. They are finally wearing armor, Godspeed

The specialist's new weapons. They have weapons that can be relevant in a fight, they're not, but like they could be. Tbh they're already using magic weapons, having magic effects on the weapons was a long time coming

Miele. She's cute and she gets to be a badass and save Flora and be saved by Flora they are so cute 🥺🥰

How Flora got her Bloomix. Is it derivative of s3? Yes, this entire season is a worse season 3 except they don't have the balls to do anything half as cool as the Enchantix sacrifice. Is it cute to see Flora save Miele without her powers??? Yes!

Getting to see other magic schools do indeed exist, that was definitely fun

How the Musa/Riven arc ended. Like literally just the final episode of it where Riven left. That's the only good part of that arc and BOY IS IT GOOD. S4 gave me poisoning and this episode fixed it. Riven fear of not being able to help Musa against enemies, and him doing introspection without being smacked into it (I'm looking at you s3-4, he can do it on his own) is everything to me

Diaspro not being plot integral this season thank God, s5 was enough late season Diaspro. She's the fairy of the dragon flame, therefore fire is good for her was also a hysterical ass line

The trix disguising themselves as freshmen and going on trips with the Winx was funny, though why the fuck were they're only there freshmen I hate it here

Selina poisoning Flora has got to be the Selina and Bloom highlight, very cunning on Selina's end, and Blooms look of horror was peek

The vampires are really funny, but the zombie pirates were hilarious

The fun way they twirl the mythix wands sometimes, mythix can get so silly sometimes and it's super cute

Aisha and Nebula, they are so cute

Tecna and Timmy's fun raft adventure

Helia struggling with Flora's evil plants

Riven howling like a wolf, now bark like a dog boy

The werewolf fight in general was funny and entertaining

Icy vs Flora was emotional and action packed and very good! I loved that nature itself helped Flora recover

The elite girlies of CT fighting eachother and training was always cute

Timmy impressing Tecna's parents was cute

Stormy going mad with power in the Legendarum as Frankenstein's bride

Musa getting voice spells

Things I disliked about S6:

Daphne was characterized so badly here. She's nothing. She might as well have been sleeping beauty of the winx world and her personality would have been the same. There's absolutely no hint of the all powerful Nymph that's literally chiseled into the walls of buildings to commemorate her achievements. Now she's just clumsy, not as strong as the Winx, and is good at history. That's nothing. You could literally replace her with an entirely different character in this season and that would probably make more sense

Special mention to how Daphne is condescended in the beginning of this season. Why'd they do that to her

The beast of the depths. You literally made that one up for this season. It's very obvious that none of this was planned ahead of time nor are they even pretending that they give a shit about the timeline. Set it on fire.

The parties. The parties. The parties. Oh my god the parties. Anytime literally anything happens there's a completely useless party attached to it. Instead of developing literally ANY of the EXTREMELY underdeveloped subplots, they write in two billion fucking parties. I am tired

The fashion in this season is ugly, out of character, and has zero personality. Like. I feel like they were dressed by an AI, fucking randomly generated ass outfits. Terrible layering, over use of colors, and it's like they're always wearing outfits in the same fashion line. They never look like they own their own damn clothes, everything they wear is matching. It's like there's a hive mind, while yes I appreciate the incorporation of Stella's desire to be a fashion designer having them never wear their own clothes just makes them feel flat, like they don't exist outside of eachother

The pixies were more redundant and annoying than ever

Cloud tower being taken over in s1 was cool, it was meh in s3, and it's just plain boring and nothing in s6. Stop doing this over and over again I stopped caring the second time. "Oh well this time we'll make the school flying AND invisible." I hate you

The Legendarum as it was written. I swear to God it could have just been called the plot device machine, it just does whatever the writers want it to do

I just realized how did the pixies survive in the Legendarum that long???? Griffin literally flip flops her morals in this season again too, are you okay with tormenting sentient creatures or not please pick one

Why on earth did the witches of Cloud Tower support the Trix???? Why make witches in this show even more one dimensional. As well as the Trix's elite students weren't even memorable, this was more interesting when s3 did it with the mind controlled witches because they had to find why they were acting like that

Nex

NEX

Thoren

Did you remember that Roxy was in this season because I fucking didn't. She's so aggressively sidelined it's not even funny

The trix just show up where ever the winx are... On accident. Sure, they just have the most insane coincidences. God what even

What is a paladin anyways?? Still unclear on this

Okay I should probably say something more on Nex and Thoren. Thoren is literally a nothing character and the only thing we'd lose if he was removed is Sky being a bit pissy, Diaspro manipulating him specifically and not like... Nex or Roy or whatever. Nex is like. A bitch. He acts like s1 Riven but with less self esteem and paranoia issues. Like Riven is a self absorbed asshole who hates himself and who had an arc realizing that punishing everyone away was bad and that he needed to learn to trust, Nex is just a self obsessed asshole with a desire to embarrass and put people down, even being willing to actually injure them over stupid ass contests. Even when being manipulated by Darcy Riven was never that aggressive, he mostly just gossiped and did dragon fighting. Nex is literally a more dickish, aggressive, self obsessed, competitive, and uncaring, Riven. And you want to convince me that AISHA, AISHA "who said you were driving?" WOULD PUT UP WITH THAT SHIT ARE YOU KIDDING ME????

Literally everyone and their mom can steal powers in this season, it's so fucking easy it means nothing

Remember how in s2 there was a large amount of focus on the not Bloom main character because the main characters of Winx were the WINX CLUB and not Bloom, remember how s3 had a lot of focus on the not Bloom characters. S6 wants you to remember that Bloom is the most important specialest baby in the world and doesn't care that there's other main characters. Fuck narrative balance and giving the cast a chance to shine outside of Bloom I guess, Bloomix is a thing

How literally everyone got their Bloomix power except Flora. Triple back flip I'm going to hurl

What stated the Riven/Musa arc this season, like at the beginning he's just dismissive and overly competitive, it's only towards the end he says hes doing this because he wants to be able to help Musa. They should have written him like that the entire time

How quickly they rushed everyone getting their Bloomix, it was giving me charmix flashbacks

DIASPRO WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE???? STOP SHOWING UP!!!

Bloom getting her Bloomix last in her own episode is trying to be s3 so bad. Okay Nick writers please sit down. That was so good and impactful because Bloom didn't have a home planet, this time Bloom should have gotten Bloomix first and you could have done something with Aisha's magic rejecting the dragon flame or something. Stop trying to be s3

Thoren/Daphne is underdeveloped, Riven(/Musa) is underdeveloped, Roy v Nex is under developed, Selina is underdeveloped, these are all season long arcs and they suck ass. Please, spend more time on your subplots over PARTIES

Allowing the pixies to have combat spells midagated how annoying and intolerable they are but it was also extremely weird. No Piff cannot attack people your making that up

Eldora's diary

Saying that Bloom had friends on earth, s4 did that too and look how that garbage turned out

Selina's lack of motivation and lack of consequences for her actions

S6 wastes so many episodes showing us places on earth when we could be going to new planets, I wanna see Romeula

Eldora's personality is the most annoying thing I've ever had to deal with

Eldora not noticing the FAIRY OF THE DRAGON FLAME IN FRONT OF HER

Eldora and Selina knowing Bloom, this literally makes no sense. And she was also an Alfea teacher because of course she was

You'd think Bloom would grow out of running to earth whenever she's upset, but no

The girls get into so many arguments this season over bullshit. Like yes I don't want them to be perfect friends but this is a bit much

Why is everything important in gardina?? The winx world conspires to make Bloom the only narratively relevant one

The extremely annoying amount of "Wow!" "Cool!" "Awesome!" The girls do constantly

Eldora can summon counter myths to fight the Legendarum, she does this once and never again

The entire mother's day thing, like they didn't do anything interesting with it, got rid of the day of the rose, and did another stupid party

The mythix wands, they are about as thin as paper, they're excessively pink, and why do they already match the Winx that makes no sense

The way the Winx need to keep proving themselves, like you can bring in conflict other ways. I would love to see a choosey artifact just once be like "oh the winx, go ahead ma'am's" that would be so funny

The 3d in this season is so ugly and I hate everything to do with it. Mythix is extremely ugly and bland and WHY ARE THERE SO MANY FLOWERS ITS SO FLOWERY I HATE IT

The time limit on the Legendarum world only exists for fake stakes, the pixies were in there for how long??

The spell "friendship flame" Bloom just being allowed to make people Faries makes me irrationally angry

The two things used to make the Legendarum key are so arbitrary it pains me

Magic just came back to earth but everyone is acting like it's been around forever

Stella being stupid and self centered again. Like Stella was full of herself but she was also usually aware of people's feelings and only accidentally hurt people by not thinking, she also is the glue that holds Winx together!!! She's the one who gets them all together!!!! You don't get it!!! She'd never act like that she does have a brain!!!

God I hate the entire thing around Stella being queen for a day except how Stella looked in a crown, it was all awful

The music cafe was nonsensical and stupid and I STILL DON'T KNOW HOW IT WAS SUPPOSED TO PROTECT ALFEA

RUMPELSTILTSKIN IS THE MOST ANNOYING AND STUPID CHARACTER IN THIS SEASON AND THE FINAL BATTLE HINGES ON THIS DUMBASS CHARACTER AHHHHHHHHH

Musa not having any spells in Mythix

Acheron feels like discount wizard of the black circle and Valtor with the worst pacing and battle out of all the finale's I've seen thus far it's so bad

Daphne why are you getting married

In conclusion I hate it here

#Winx Club #Rus Chatters #Rus Liveblogs #Winx Season 6 #rus rants

[stanfordsweater]

happy wincest wednesday! what's your favorite wincest ep for each season?

a big ask!! thank you for this one, i am going to have a very hard time deciding but it'll be fun to sort through them all--

s1: so, so many. i’m going to have to go with something wicked, for all the lovely understanding sam comes to about dean in that episode-- it’s fantastic watching him be so soft towards dean when dean tells him what happened, and it’s an ep where we see the seeds john sowed to shape the boys around each other. fabulously written and so fucked up. runner-up goes to faith for showing the way sam desperately works to save dean, and for “he was probably gonna die anyway.”

s2: WAAAY too many to choose from, so runner up goes to every single episode-- i’m going with born under a bad sign for this one, because i am weak like soggy paper when a character is unable to stop the one they love even when they probably really should. dean walked in on this:

and imagining what jo’s thinking in that moment, when she’s narrowly escaped sexual violence and death, and dean can’t help her because it’s sammy? 🤌🤌🤌🤌🤌

s3: time is on my side, for that scene where sam is talking about maggots while dean’s eating just to tease him, and he’s so delighted about it. also for the immortal corpse-brothers we almost got. doc benton is a fantastic villain who i wish they could have done more with, and i loved the way he tried to make them an offer they can’t refuse. so much excellence and “how are you gonna stop me?” UUUUGH 🐳

s4: fucking every episode, are you kidding me? this season is dripping in fucked-up dark romance between these two. dysfunction and desire galore, sam fucking a corpse because she reminds him of dean and he can’t function with his guilt and his need for his brother, dean’s betrayal and slowly growing resentment without being able to let him go-- if anything will convince people that sam and dean are erotically obsessed with each other, it has to be this season. predictably, i’m going for sex and violence. need i explain?

s5: season five is my least favourite season to rewatch 😬 going off my spotty memory from two years ago, i’m choosing the end for the conversation sam and dean have before the credits roll. <3

s6: you can’t handle the truth, for how desperately dean wants to believe that there’s nothing wrong with sam. truthfully, there’s a ton of great shit with soulless sam, but the scene where he lies to dean and then turns away and his expression just drops is in my top scenes of the entire show, with how dean is crying right in front of him so torn up over the last ep and so grateful that sam didn’t allow him to get turned-- and then the blow up at the end of the episode? delicious.

s7: another one that’s a little difficult for me, but i’m going with party on garth exclusively for the scene where sam and dean get drunk and silly together because i love it <3

s8: there’s a ton of fantastic wincesty moments in this season, but they’re usually in episodes where there’s a lot of other stuff going on. sacrifice is obvious, so obvious it’s cheating, so i’m going with goodbye stranger for so many reasons-- how delighted dean is when sam teases him about his porn addiction, and then his worry when he sees sam’s bloody tissue-- brotherly banter!! most importantly, this is the episode where dean says this:

there’s also that scene in taxi driver where we see how hard it is for dean to kill benny, but how he does it anyway just because he needs sam.

s9: i am everybody’s favourite season nine stan 🙏 i will forever be obsessed with this season for it’s heartbreak and all the wild punches it throws. i’m choosing blade runners for this, which is a super underrated episode. sam is pissed the hell off at dean, and he’s murderous with crowley, but he doesn’t let that stop him from saving his brother. the hints we get that sam isn’t giving up on their relationship in this episode set up the rest of the season as well as his unstoppable drive in season ten. the finale is my TRUE fave from this season, but blade runners tells the story in a fabulously subtle way.

s10: my, my, my. mark of cain my dearly beloved. SO much good shit. my rewatch is stalled about halfway through, so while i’d choose a later episode, at the top of my mind is the things we left behind for this:

HELLO???? there are so many choice moments in season ten for sam just being The Most, but the face cradling and the way sam goes right for dean and begs him to say he had to do it... kisses for all the writers.

s11: everything :D season 11 fed us SO good. going off of my season ten choice, though, i’m choosing safe house for sam bodily cradling dean at the end, with his huge sigh of relief when he has him in his arms, and for being the person dean sees. i mean, look at this romance:

gifs from here, go reblog it

s12: regarding dean because i’m on a huge protective sam kick in this post, apparently. sam is so worried ;~;

s13: a most holy man, for the super cute brotherly banter in that episode, and both of them looking sexy as hell. they for sure banged after that ep.

s14: nihilism, for the way that sam appearing immediately begins to break the fantasy dean’s trapped in, the way cas pleading with dean changes nothing, and the fact that one of dean’s happiest memories in his mindscape is from sex and violence??? proof that sam and dean fucked that episode #real

s15: controversial of course but carry on is all i can say because most of this season is bonkers.

#wincest wednesday #.ask #thank you for this even though it took me forever #fun exercise to try to remember wincest moments in eps i haven't seen for a while

[itsoneofthemuses]

Hi! I agree with pretty much everything you wrote about in the post for Rookie-ask game. Would you be interested in expanding on your thoughts? I know you said you wanted to keep it brief to avoid hate, but I think it would be great to get more diverse opinions in this fandom and I think you would have support for starting a discussion.

Lucy was my favorite character from the start and I am disappointed with her character growth in season 5 (it felt non-existent). As well as how she is viewed by many in this fandom as either a flawless badass who can do no wrong (and in extension no need for character growth) or as not confident, desperate for validation and with no self-awareness. There are definitely people who have a more nuanced view too and I really appreciated their perspective . But for example a majority of fics are written from Tim´s perspective and like you say it feels like in a lot of them Lucy is written as very passive. There is definitely very much an emphasis on Tim´s perspective in both the show, fics and here on tumblr. I am very glad he is explored as a nuanced character, but I wish Lucy would also get that.

I would be really interested in hearing your thoughts, but I would also completely understand if you do not feel like posting them.

Hope you have a nice day :)

If anyone knows me, they know I love to talk. My thoughts and tangents are scattered far and wide, incoherent and half-finished ramblings all over the place. So, I'll do my best, because... Damn it, you're not wrong. I think every fandom should host a diversity of feelings, thoughts, and passionate (but polite) discourse.

I'm not sure *exactly* which thoughts you want me to expand on (and I'm very curious about what falls outside of the "pretty much everything" you agree with), but I'll build on what you mention in your ask - Lucy is also my favourite character and she was followed closely by Nyla when she came on the scene in S2. I probably hew closer to the "flawless badass who can do no wrong" read of Lucy than I'd like, but I think there are canonical things for her to work on: she can be impulsive (confronting Tim outside of Isabel's home, adopting Kojo, giving Tamara her car), she has a petty streak (getting revenge on Tim, asking out the paramedic after Emmett dumps her), she has a tendency toward self-preservation that can make her selfish (asking about sacrificing the fugitive gang member, asking Nolan to lie to cover up their affair), and she is fueled by righteous anger that can lead her to do dumb things (threatening the dickhead who kicked sand at his dog, nearly threatening Stanton, yelling at Chris when she first met him).

A lot of anger about S4 after the cut.

In S4 and S5 (but especially S4, and actually, even a little in S3), Lucy displays a lot of immaturity that I don't think was as apparent in S1 or S2 where she typically displays better judgement than Jackson and a more realistic perspective than Nolan. It was frustrating to watch a character that seemed to know herself fairly well and was so open to confrontation and growth become a character who was jealous of a rookie and seemed to bounce back and forth emotionally in all of her relationships (romantic and otherwise) until Tim pointed it out and provoked her into action. For someone whose superpower is empathy (and oh gag at the idea that all cops have a superpower), she displayed a startling lack of self-awareness in S4 and S5 and I just... I don't know. The entire show changed *a lot* in S4 in ways that were monumentally disappointing for me, but none so much as the way the women on the show suffered in terms of character development.

I could honestly talk about this for hours, use thousands of words to proselytize at length, but S4 was a season that I so deeply dislike that I don't think I've purposely rewatched a single episode. Maybe I've missed nuances or missed plot points that, on rewatch, would've played better, but I don't think so. I think I (and many friends) have a fundamentally different perspective on the show as a direct consequence of S4 and part of it is the perceived character assassination (across the board, mind you, but especially) of the women on the show.

For context, I would like to point out that we spent two episodes with Emmett (go look at the epic beautiful gifset by @hotshotchen but we spent, by contrast, 13 episodes with Chris. In that time, we see Lucy meet and engage willingly and flirtatiously with Emmett, him express interest without any subterfuge or third party prodding and them actually having fun (in bed the morning after, but whatever!) together, him messing up and apologizing, and Lucy accepting it and moving forward with him... With Chris, Tim sets them up, their differences are expounded upon with Lucy consistently suggesting in words and actions that she's not that into him, Chris messing up repeatedly and there being no closure around it, and then Tim breaking them up. We got more character growth and better storytelling in two episodes of Emmett than we did in 13 episodes of Chris. While Tim was relevant to Lucy and Emmett's relationship, their relationship was not about him nor was he directly involved. It was about Lucy. What was her relationship with Chris about? Yeah, I don't know either, but somehow I don't think the answer is Lucy.

Ah, sorry, anon, see how I get to rambling? If you have any specific questions... Come at me, I guess? I need direction or I just rant and rave wildly until I fall asleep. My bad.

#lucy chen #the rookie #chris sanford #the rookie anti s4 #anon ask #answered! #thanks for the ask!

[kisilinramblings]

Question!! I need help🐞🐈‍⬛🤭

Were LadyBug and Cat Noir’s memories erased(in the s5 finale) ??? like… every fight,adventure,talk basically everything that has happened while they were in their costumes:)) convos,when cat noir met with marinette,anything u can imagine,but,as i said,everything that happened when they were transformed ig. 🐞🐈‍⬛

Or Marinette and Adrien’s memories were erased. Ive seen this rumour a few times…

Basically: were ANYONES memories erased? If so,what?! 🤦🏼‍♀️

I'm sorry. What? Where does this come from?

Like, just one major scene that demolishes all credibility to that rumor, is when we see Marinette at the end repairing the Miraculous based on the notes from the grimoire, with Su Han - the Celestial Guardian of the Miraculous - in her room alongside Alya who knows she is Ladybug. Not only that, Marinette remembers that a Wish has been made. Previous scene also mentions the lie she has told Adrien as Ladybug, going with what Gabriel asked of her before he died (notably that Adrien never learns about Gabriel's secret identity). Plus, she is applying what she has learned from the mistakes she did throughout S4 - that power must be shared, not kept by on single individual, so never again someone could easily have access to all the Miraculous at once. Knowing to who each Miraculous goes and neither Chat Noir nor her are surprised to see the whole team of other Miraculous Holder all assemble and present. And Ladybug is very glad to see her Chat Noir back as well.

So, it looks like they still have their memory all right. I feel like this rumor was build under a misconception of how the Wish works. Based on Sass' example during Ephemeral, while yes, what's already written in red gets erased, it is the color of the ink that gets changed, not the content of what was written before the Wish.

Barkk did point out that no one knows how a Wish affect the world. That is most probably because Gimmi - who is Reality incarnate - change it so it always has been as such. Remember how Gimmi introduce themselves :

"I am everything that was, is and will be!"

Let's again use an example cite in the show. If someone wished for the strawberries to be green in exchange for the peas to be red, then no one would remember that the strawberries were initially red and the peas were initially green. Because the reality of that universe has been changed so strawberries had always be green, and peas, red. But outside of that detail? Everything stays the same. No alterations to history and events.

Gabriel only made one single Wish with his own life being part of the balance. Ever since Robustus, we know about the equivalent exchange. They keep reminding us that if you want someone to relive, one other person has to die. In this case, if one dies, then another one gets to live.

That is all that Gabriel's Wish did.

#miraculous ladybug #ml season 5 #ml the last day #ml re-creation #ml s5ep26

[0shewrites0]

TOO MANY MAYBE’S

S5 | Eddie/MC | 1.800+ words | @0shewrites0

summary | Liv had been looking forward to the recoupling because she was so sure that Eddie would choose her. After all, he had pretty much said so himself. But then he chose Dana and Liv was completely confused. And disappointed. And hurt too.

genre | angst. heartache. heartbreak. no happy ending.

prompt | the recoupling + aftermath in episode 18 / vol. VII

note | @litgwritersroom - Since no one has written anything for Eddie, I decided to do it. It's just a little something, but the recoupling and the way Eddie acted like a total asshole made me want to write about it.

Read here or on AO3.

Of course Eddie had chosen Dana. The easy way out, right?

If anything, Liv was disappointed. Maybe even hurt. She'd spent so much time with him and had actually come to really like him, and now? Why had he even bothered to get her hopes up if he had no intention of fulfilling them?

Even a blind man with a cane could see that there was absolutely no chemistry between Dana and Eddie.

Nothing. Nada. Zero.

So why did he choose Dana over her anyway?

She was so confused that she didn't even notice Finn was coupling up with Kat and Suresh with Arlo. Not that it would have surprised her or that she minded. She knew he was trying to make her jealous, but it wasn't working. Suresh was a chapter long closed and she had absolutely no intention of opening it again.

Looking over at Eddie and Dana sitting next to each other, Dana was staring at her hands clenched in her lap, fiddling nervously and obviously uncomfortably with a bracelet on her wrist, and Eddie? Well, she could see that he knew she was staring at him, but that he refused to look her in the eye. Probably because he already knew how disappointed she would look at him, and maybe, just maybe, Eddie couldn't stand that.

Not that it mattered now. Alfie had made it clear that there was no way he was going to be the reason Liv got the boot, so she just knew he would choose her over Meera. On one hand, she loved him for it because she desperately wanted a chance at love, but on the other hand, she hated him for it.

Here was Meera, an absolute gem and so perfect for him, and he was about to dump her. She knew Alfie was only doing this because he cared deeply for her and that there were no feelings involved, but it still felt so wrong.

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Eddie was supposed to choose her and Alfie was supposed to choose Meera.

Sure, that would have meant Dana would have been dumped and Liv would have been absolutely devastated, but that was the way of the game. They were all here to find love - or maybe play the game - and maybe Dana had just gone about it the wrong way.

But it wasn't like Liv was doing much better.

She knew it wasn't fair to Alfie either that she didn't even listen to his speech, and when she finally walked over to him and let him pull her into a hug, she just barely managed to mutter "thank you" before they sat down next to each other. Alfie squeezed her hand encouragingly and she knew he knew. He knew how sad and disappointed she was. He knew that she would have loved to sit next to Eddie now. But there was nothing he could do now.

Meera had received a text message and read it with tears in her eyes, her voice trembling slightly, but Liv knew what was coming anyway. And if she was completely honest, she wished she could trade places with Meera.

Meera deserved to stay here, while she, Liv, perhaps didn't. Maybe anything that had to do with love just broke as soon as she touched it. Maybe it wasn't meant to be. Any of this.

The other islanders stood up and showered Meera with hugs, but Liv held back. It wasn't like they were friends just because they'd shared the villa for a day, and besides, she felt like a goddamn hypocrite. When they finally crossed the lawn to the villa, Liv stayed back again. Sighing, she was about to sink back down onto the bench when she felt a warm hand on her shoulder.

Startled, she turned to discover Eddie standing in front of her, scratching his neck awkwardly and wedging his lower lip between his teeth. He let go of her shoulder and his arm fell to his side.

"Eddie?" asked Liv softly, and she could hear the longing in her voice. And she hated it. Because she knew Eddie could hear it just as well.

When he didn't answer and continued to stare at his shoes, she whispered, "What happened?"

Eddie then finally looked up and into her eyes. Those beautiful pale blue eyes that she loved to lose herself in. That now drew her to him in a way that she knew she would end up wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face in his chest. Because that was what she really wanted to do.

Ignore the fact that Eddie hadn't chosen her, even though he'd basically promised her he would, and just pretend that everything was fine. That she would fall asleep in his arms tonight. That the next thing she would see in the morning would be his beautiful eyes and that perfect smile that made the butterflies in her stomach flutter.

Oh, and that dimple that sometimes appeared when he looked at her and stroked her cheek so gently with the pad of his thumb that her heart always threatened to leap out of her chest. God, how she loved that dimple. And how much she loved that it only appeared on his handsome face when he couldn't help it and just had to return her smile.

Sure, he had a pretty face, was a model, a ray of sunshine, always spreading good vibes and always laughing or at least had a smile on his face. But she could see it wasn't real. Not the way it was when he was with her. She was happy by his side and she knew he was too.

But apparently that wasn't enough. Or was it?

"We need to talk, Liv," he said, and it sounded so serious. So very unlike Eddie. And immediately her heartbeat slowed. As if her heart knew he hadn't come to tell her he'd made a terrible mistake.

Because maybe it was she who had made a terrible mistake.

Liv only raised an eyebrow questioningly, not daring to open her mouth lest she silence Eddie again. Nothing was worse than the silence between them at that moment. Normally it felt so natural and comfortable, but not tonight. No, tonight the silence was deafening.

Eddie swallowed and nodded, ”About how I’ve been feeling about a few things.”

He paused again, waiting for a reaction from her, and Liv just nodded. She refused to read between the lines and get hopeful, because somehow she knew that this would only make things worse.

“I think you and I should cool things down a little.” Eddie said so quietly that Liv wasn't even sure she had heard him.

"What?" she whispered back.

“Yeah, like,” he cleared his voice nervously, “hearing that Meera is gonna be leaving has made me realise how short our villa time can be. And I…” He interrupted himself again, raised his right hand and raked it through his hair. It looked almost desperate. As if he didn't want to say what he was about to say.

If she hadn't known better, she would have hoped he would tell her that it was all just a bad dream. That it was her he really wanted to be with. That if he could, he would go back and make a different choice. But the way he couldn't look at her now, she knew that was wishful thinking. And that he was about to break her heart.

It wasn't like she was in love with him or anything. It was more like she had finally been ready to open up to another person again, to open up to love or even just the possibility of love, only to be trampled on by that person. That was what hurt the most.

"Eddie, just say what you have to say..." she breathed, taking a shaky breath, hoping he couldn't see how fragile and vulnerable she felt at that moment.

“I don’t want to waste my time with you, Liv.”

What?

Her heart almost stopped beating altogether.

Liv looked up, squinted and forced her eyes to stay dry. "Waste of time!?" She hissed, but it sounded more like a suppressed sob.

His cheeks flushed and he rubbed his chin in embarrassment. “No, that sounded wrong. What I meant was I think I want to focus on Dana. Time is short, you know.”

Liv almost laughed.

Almost.

But she was too afraid her voice would break and he'd hear. So she shook her head in disbelief and cleared her throat before saying, "If that's what you want, go ahead. I'm not holding you back."

She took a deep breath and looked into his eyes one last time to gauge if he really meant it. If maybe there was something in his eyes that told her he was just scared and pushing her away because in reality he liked her just as much.

Maybe there was that same softness in his eyes that he always had when he looked at her, that let her know there was something there. But either there was nothing there, or he was good at hiding it, because he just stared at her blankly. And said absolutely nothing.

She felt her eyes fill with tears again and bit her cheek.

And Eddie just remained silent.

She had given him a chance to set the record straight, to tell her that Dana wasn't the one he wanted. Now she was waiting for a reaction, anything. But he just stared at her, and there was absolutely nothing in his eyes.

So is this it? Is this goodbye? Is he not going to say anything else to me?

Liv knew that waiting for him to hold her back or even ask her to stay was like waiting for a ship at the train station.

It wouldn't come. Never.

And if she stood there waiting, she would only end up looking like a fool. So she swallowed hard and forced her voice to sound steady as she whispered, "All right then. Good night, Eddie."

Then she turned and started to leave, trying to stay calm and collected and not let her emotions spill out the way they wanted to, but she knew she was doing a shit job when she felt something wet run down her cheek and leave a salty taste on her lips.

She was crying, goddamn it. Over a stupid boy, even though she had sworn never, ever to cry over a boy again. But here she was. And the worst part of it was that she knew he wouldn't come after her.

Because this was not a movie where she would get her happy ending. This was reality and it was fucking unfair.

#litg #litg fanfic #ao3 fanfic #litg eitv #ex in the villa #litg ff #love island the game #litg season five #litg s5 #litg eddie #litg alfie #litg dana #litg eddie x mc #angst prompt #no happy ending #heartache #heartbreak #alfie is the bestie and not secretly in love with her 👀