#because its 2020 the year of the clown

[billiewena]

TWO YEARS SINCE NOV 5TH, 2020 as summed up by Supernatural (sequel to this)

⤷ bonus

image ID & context below:

[image ID: screenshots of Supernatural paired with screenshots of various tweets, news headlines and Tumblr posts.

1. Castiel coming out of a closet in SPN 12x08 with screenshots of articles and videos called “Supernatural’s Misha Collins Appears to Come Out as Bisexual,” “Supernatural star Misha Collins appears to come out as Bisexual in the Best Way”, “Misha Collins Comes Out as Bisexual Footage”

2. Kevin Tran in SPN 8x01 saying “You know I’m not gay, right?” With screenshots of articles that read “Supernatural’s Misha Collins Apologizes for ‘Misspeaking’ After Appearing to Come Out As Bisexual,” “Misha Collins Is Getting Clowned About Being Bisexual Then Coming Out As Straight,” and a tweet by Misha Collins that reads, “This was not my intention so I need to correct the record: I am not bisexual. I happen to be straight, but I am also a fierce ally and the last thing I want to do is falsely co-opt the struggles of the LGBTQIA+ community 3/5”

3. Castiel telling a waitress in SPN 14x15, “And between various, steamy, erotic musings” with a screenshot of musician Perfume Genius tweet linking to the article “I have had sex with every actor from the TV show Supernatural” with the caption “I have had sex with every actor from the TV Supernatural. What follows is an account of each erotic event followed by a letter grade.”

4. Dean in SPN 10x10 saying, “And it ain’t gonna cost me a dime” with a screenshot of a tweet from @DiscussingFilm that says, “Nextstar will acquire 75% of The CW for $0. Instead, Nester will assume a significant portion of The CW’s current losses, which could exceed $100M.”

5. Dean in SPN 3x11 saying, “Come on. You love this song and you know it” with a screenshot of spnamvarchive and the 77 total videos in the #honeypie tag. There is also a screenshot of a text post by user iloveyoucas that says “OOH GIRL DONT YOU STOP DONT YOU STOP TIL YOU GET ENOUGH HONEY OH HONEY HONEYPIE HONEY HONEY HONEYPIE OOH GIRL DONT YOU STOP DON’T YOU STOP TIL YOU GET ENOUGH HONEY OH HONEY HONEYPIE HONEY HONEY HONEYPIE” with a gif of people dancing and a screenshot of a Honeypie AMV of Dean Winchester by afeelingsoweet.

6. Lilith in SPN 15x05 saying, “and his very weird, very perv-y obsession with you” with a headline that reads, “Jensen Ackles on his naked Soldier Boy intro on The Boys: ’Nothing on but a sock.”

7. Castiel in SPN 12x18 as he listens to a man say, “You know…like the Queen of England” with a screenshot of a post by whyissupernaturaltrending that says “Sept 8, 2022 - Supernatural trends because the Queen died” with a screenshot of Supernatural trending #1 on Tumblr.

8. Marie in SPN 10x05 saying, “But this is transformative fiction” with headlines that read: “Supernatural Prequel ‘The Winchesters’ Starts on The CW,” “The CW’s The Winchesters is a prequel to ‘Supernatural’”, “Jensen Ackles and The Winchesters Team Promise to carry on the Supernatural Legacy: ‘Trust us.”

9. Dean in SPN 10x05 responding to Marie saying, “You mean fan fiction” with headlines that read: “The Winchesters is a Soulless, Bland Attempt at Recapturing the Supernatural Magic”, “The Winchesters: 8 Biggest Retcons From Supernatural,” “Supernatural’s Spinoff Prequel ‘The Winchesters’ Offers Familiar Pleasures but Struggles building Its Own World: TV Review”

10. Dean in SPN 14x13 saying, “They always talk too much" with a tweet by nuttyforackles recapping a conventional panel that reads, “I should have said I love you too and hugged Cas… people will sexualize that but it’d doesn’t have to be, we were brothers in arms” - Jensen Ackles #spncon #vancon

Bonus: Lucifer talking to Dean in SPN 5x03, saying “Whatever you do, you will always end up here” with the Tumblr logo edited over Lucifer’s head.

/end ID]

#here's to two years friends! #destiel #deancas #November 5th #nov 5th #nov5thposting #spn #supernatural #ntjdmakesthings #I had a moment of panic because netflix stopped allowing screenshots on mac but luckily ya boy found a workaround #my entire career as a screenshotter was almost ruined though

[welcometothejianghu]

Welcome to another round of W2 Tells You What You Should See, where W2 (me) tries to sell you (you) on something you should be watching. Today's choice: 成化十四年/The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty

(The) Sleuth of (the) Ming Dynasty (it's hard to get an agreement on how many definite articles should go where) is a beautiful, high-budget 2020 drama about a weenie genius detective, his long-suffering and deeply traumatized sugar daddy, and the eunuch with the most difficult job in the Great Ming: keeping these two dumbasses from getting their fool selves imperially executed.

Depending on how you like it, it's either an OT3 or an OTP with an intense, underage third wheel, and either way, it's delightful. I wouldn't call it a comedy, but it has very many funny elements that keep the drama fun and engaging. The first half is full of shorter mysteries that are clever and thoughtfully plotted, and the second half goes in on the longer mystery that ties them all together.

I've already done my quick guide to the early-episode characters, if you want a taste of just how many people are running around and how wonderful they all are. But in case you want to know a little bit more before you commit yourself to a 48-episode series, here's five reasons I think you should watch it!

1. The whole thing smacks of gender

Yeah, this was originally going to be selling point #2, but I know what the people want.

This is not a show about gender. But boy it is a show that has a lot to say about gender, and not just by way of critiquing premodern Chinese gender roles (though it does do that!). Many of the cis characters are either a) somewhat gender nonconforming, b) canny enough to weaponize binary gender expectations, or c) both. Sui Zhou's entire third-act storyline is about how expectations of masculinity exacerbate PTSD in veterans. Three different AFAB characters either dress or live as men. The part where one of the male characters goes undercover in drag is played for laughs, but the joke isn't 'ha ha, a boy in a dress,' it's 'ha ha, this particular boy in a particular dress, and also he's terrible at it.'

And that's even before we get to the eunuchs.

There are several professionally dickless, permanently unmanned characters running around. One-third of the OT3 canonically had his external genitalia nonconsensually removed when he was five years old, and because of this, he has been given unimaginable authority. He's basically the second most powerful man in the entire empire, and he only gets that way by being unquestionably, ostentatiously, and genuinely submissive to the first most powerful man.

I have seen other Chinese media where eunuchs are treated like sinister clowns, good only to be the bad guys and the butts of jokes. Sleuth's main eunuchs are real and complex characters, and because of this, the show gets to explore what it is to live in this weird third-gender category of incredible power and powerlessness.

Now, don't go into this expecting woke gender treatises. Wang Zhi's never going to sit down and go, "You know, my friend and fellow eunuch Ding Rong, because of my lack of a penis, I understand my relationship to masculinity differently than other men do." But the show understands that even if he doesn't say it, it's true. And that makes a lot of the characters and their relationships just so much more interesting.

2. Uncle Jackie Money

Sleuth was the was the fourth c-drama I dove into, following the Untamed, Word of Honor, and Guardian -- or, Some Money BL, Less Money BL, and No Money BL. So imagine my absolute wall-eyed shock to find this was All The Money BL, courtesy of its executive producer, Jackie Chan (seen here with some of his handsome boys):

Sleuth looks good. The costumes are amazing. The sets are stunning. The cinematography is beautiful. Everything is so detailed, and while I can't speak to the absolute historical accuracy of all those details (see point 3), they're still gorgeous. In fact, you know what? I'm going to shut up and show you some of the promotional images.

(For actual screenshots, I'm just going to point you at @rongzhi's tsomd photoset tag, as they have done a tremendous service to the fan community -- though do beware of spoilers.)

Uncle Jackie's influence doesn't end with the money, though. Even though things get a bit goofy and wirework-y near the end, most of the drama's fights are shows of real martial arts skill. You can see his fingerprints on a lot of the choreography -- I'm thinking particularly of the time Tang Fan tries (and fails!) to stab Sui Zhou three times, which is pure Jackie Chan high-speed dexterity.

Add this one to the category of shows your Average American Television Enjoyer Who Can Handle Subtitles would like. In fact, I have shown the first episode to my normie father-in-law, who was impressed. Show it to your dad! See if he picks up on the gay!

3. I am from ... HISTORY!

The Chinese title translates to "The 14th Year of Chenghua," which works out to the year 1478. There are some clear anachronisms, but they tend to be played for comedy, so it's hard to hold that against them. On the whole, though, the show is trying real hard to evoke a very specific moment, and I feel it does so beautifully.

This does, however, mean that several of the characters are real people. I don't even have a good sense of how many of them are based on historical figures, that's how many. Hilariously, Wang Zhi's tag on AO3 used to read "Wang Zhi (?-1487 CE)."

Moreover, these are characters I've seen pop up in other media, played very differently! In particular, Noble Consort (up there in blue) tends to be written as an uncomplicated villain elsewhere, whereas Sleuth gives her a chance to add some goodness to her badness, until, damn, you can't but root for the bitch. (It also downplays the cradle-robbing, which, honestly, is for the best.)

You may have guessed from the eunuch section earlier, but it bears repeating: Wang Zhi is straight-up the best character in the show. He's smart as hell, and he has to be, because the second he's stupid, he's dead. I actually consider it helpful to know ahead of time that he's never going to do a heel turn -- I feel like on my first watchthrough, I was holding my breath for the first two-thirds of the show, waiting for his sudden but inevitable betrayal. It does not come. Wang Zhi is one of the heroes.

He's also, like, evil. He orders people flogged, tortured, and executed. The very first thing you see him doing is sinister as hell. And the show clearly doesn't think this is good, but it also doesn't judge him for it. He's a traumatized seventeen-year-old who has not had a normal moment of his entire life. He's working thanklessly for a boss who could kill him on a whim -- and he's doing it because he literally, physically was made for his job. He's mildly freaking out because he has no emotional grounding to help him understand that these weirdos want to be his friends.

Was the real Wang Zhi like this? That's beside the point. The point is, you get to see how someone in that position could wind up as the war-crimes-committing platonic ideal of a little meow meow.

4. oh my god the food

Warning: This show will make you hungry.

Again, beware of spoilers, but @peppersandcreamsicle and @qinzai have put together an entire cook-along Google Doc so you don't just have to drool -- you can do something about it! Or you can just read it and learn about Chinese cuisine, which is a little more my speed.

But it's not just about how good the food looks. Food is a vital emotional part of the series. People bond over it. They make and share it as a sign of love and care. It indicates status, ethnicity, interest, personality. The show's message about the healing power of cooking for the people you love will bring you to tears.

And yes, Sui Zhou is the main one doing the cooking, so get ready to drool over both the dishes and the handsome man preparing them.

Oh, and as though that weren't enough, Fu Meng Po can actually cook in real life. He's so dreamy. Absolute unreal handsome man with a devastatingly sexy voice. (I know my opinion might be different if I could hear his Taiwanese accent, but I can't so it's not!)

5. An Unsunk Ship

So like I said, my intros to c-drama couples had been WangXian, WenZhou, and WeiLan. That meant I'd basically come to terms with the idea that you can't have a main couple in a BL-but-not-really drama without splitting them up at least a little in the end, for no-homo plausible deniability reasons.

Tang Fan and Sui Zhou are still definitvely, unequivocally together when the story ends, as the iconic pentultimate scene of the series confirms with beauty and simplicity. I refuse to give any more details than that, but that ship's afloat.

(These shirtless pictures aren't from the end, but I wanted to include them, and I didn't have a better place to do it. ...Also, you know, ships and water? Yeah?)

And I think their winding up together reflects Sleuth's entire attitude. Tang Fan is made of sunshine, and the series loves him for it. There is tragedy aplenty in this show, but there's no misery. It is ultimately a hopeful show that believes in the power of second chances, if you're willing to take them. Time and again, the moral of the story is that you are only ever as good as the people who have your back -- but you have to be willing to let them have your back. Let people help you. Let people cook for you. Let people give you a reason to keep living. And then keep living.

Also, Sui Zhou gets two good kabedons off on that little twink, which means they're legally married now. I don't make the rules.

Bonus: Banger opening theme

This is one you will watch all 48 times.

Bonus #2: The Halo Video

This is the video that made me go, huh, these Sleuth boys seem like other boys I've enjoyed! Perhaps I shall enjoy them as well! And then I did. So if that might be convincing to you too, well, have at it. Even if it isn't, it's a fascinating three-minute study of shared those-boys-are-in-love visual language across these shows.

Fair warning that it contains shots from right up to the end, so if you'd rather go in completely blank, give this one a pass until later. (Excuse me while I now go watch it for the 10000th time.)

Have I convinced you to watch it yet?

It originally ran on iQiyi, though Viki's got it as well, and Viki's is free if you're willing to put up with some ads about it.

...I just noticed iQiyi's description of the series reads, "When the two handsome leading actors Darren Wang and Fu Meng-Po work together, what will happen? A lovely prefectural judge and an arrogant embroiered [sic] uniform guard join hands to crack unusual cases! Are you going to choose a new idol?" And you know what? Yes. The details are a little off, but that is the correct spirit. Thank you, thirsty blurb.

#sleuth of the ming dynasty #the sleuth of ming dynasty #tsomd #成化十四年 #sloof #i made this #rec post

[agentstarkid]

REDAMANCY ✦ DR3

“The essence of "redamancy", when loving someone, resides in finding oneself wholeheartedly committed to another person. It involves investing time, effort, and emotions to build a relationship based on trust, empathy, and understanding. Redamancy emphasizes the idea of love in its purest form, where both individuals feel valued, supported, and cherished by one another. In this context, loving someone through redamancy means having an unwavering appreciation and admiration for their unique qualities and accepting them as they are, flaws and all. It entails fostering a deep emotional bond that brings joy, warmth, and fulfillment to both individuals involved. Love, translated through redamancy, is an enriching experience that nourishes and uplifts the lives of those involved, creating a sense of security, happiness, and contentment.”

✦ pairing: daniel ricciardo x famous!latina!reader

✦ type: social media au

✦ fc: becky g

✦ warnings: female!reader, covid-19 & quarantine mentions, age gap, language, slight mention of mature themes.

✦ pit wall live: holi babes! WE'RE OFFICIALLY DONE WITH 2020! 🥳 Tomorrow is my birthday and I'm feeling festive so this is a gift from me to you guys! Thank you for all the love and support 💖 if you haven't already left me one, please consider leaving me a comment to let me know if this whole thing at least makes a bit of sense (I crave validation, guys lmao) and my inbox is always open! I'm super excited for you to get to know Girlie a little bit better! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter because I sure did enjoy making those edits, don't they look so fucking cuteeeeee??? 😩💕

p.s.: keep an eye out for a name that could be important in the future 👀

─── The Joker & The Queen (Masterlist)

SEPTEMBER 9, 2020

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SEPTEMBER 13, 2020

f1gossipofficial

♡ 2,345 likes

f1gossipofficial NEW WAG ALERT 🚨 After months of speculations, we can finally see them together! Daniel and Y/N arrived at the paddock for the Tuscan GP today and it's fair to say, she knows how to make an entrance 🔥 It's the first time Ricciardo introduces a WAG to the paddock 🥰

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user she's wearing heels and he's still a head taller than her 🥺 THEIR HEIGHT DIFFERENCE IS TOO FUCKING CUTE 😭❤️

user she's just a smol 🤏🏻 cinnamon roll ❤️

user2 🐍🐍🐍🐍

user3 what the fuck is she wearing? 😂 she needs to hire a stylist because she looks like a fucking clown. This reflects badly on Daniel 🤮

user she's serving Y2K style 🔥🔥🔥 also why tf would it reflect badly on him the way she dresses??? 🙄 I think she looks gorgeous!

user4 They have been together since January, but the picture of them walking next to each other is like they don't even know each other 😂

user5 can't believe Daniel hasn't dump her unfaithful ass yet 🙄 she must be really good at the things that she does on the mattress 🤮

user the only thing she's probably worth for, he might as well take advantage of it Imao

user6 The amount of hate this girl receives when all she does is just appear, no one knows her personally but ends up throwing opinions based on her looks and a couple of tabloids. Lol. Fangirls are crazy! 😂

user7 noone does it like her 😘

user8 lol he deserves so much better 🤢🐍

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OCTOBER 6, 2020

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OCTOBER 11, 2020

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yourinstagram

♡ liked by rubendias, iamcardib, danielricciardo and 8,452,325 others

yourinstagram When your birthday gift includes a podium finish you know it's gonna be an unforgettable experience! 🤩 Every year I grow I'm reminded of how precious this life is, thank you all for helping me fill it up with so much love. Your kind words and constant support means everything to me. Thank you so so so much 💕

Don't say it, don't say it, OKAY I'm saying it: I'M FEELING 22!! 😘

View all 20,975 comments

salmahayek Happy birthday hermosa ❤️

danielricciardo Who needs a four-leaf clover when I've got you by my side? Just call me Danny Ricc, the luckiest bloke around! 😎

taylorswift Everything will be alright if we just keep dancing like we're 22! 🥳 Happy happy birthday my angel! There was happiness because of you 🥰

user stop acting all innocent we all know you are a fucking slut

userA yourinstagram we can tell by all the guys you let into your bed 👀

florencepugh Happy birthday to a special soul ❤️

fioamato Happiest 22nd year babe! Wish we could be together to celebrate. Te amo un mundo ❤️

sofiareyes Feliz vida reinotaaaa! 🥳🥰

user2 sos una gran ridícula 🐍

user3 stop shoving it in our faces every 5 minutes jesus christ, we already know the only way you can stay relevant is fucking your way through talented people

reesewhiterspoon Happy birthday to my favorite resident loud persona!

jvn Happiest birthday babe! Becoming friends with you has shown me a strength & kindness that is v rare. You're brave, smart AF, and the talent is next level & quite literally iconic. Grateful to know you & call you a frand!! Love you to pieces Queen! xx

llane Feliz cumpleaños hermanita 🎂 te deseo muchas bendiciones! ❤️

lilymhe as a wise woman once said: It seems like one of those nights, we ditched the whole scene and end up dreaming, instead of sleeping 💘✨

user4 Oh I didn't know it was international snakes day 🐍😂

lewishamilton happy birthday sis 💜 hope you had lots of fun x

instagram birthdays and F1 races make a winning combo

user5 I hope you are aware you're just a bed-warmer until he finds something better 😂

user6 Those who are throwing her hate, is everything okay at home? You must all be excellent people and role models 😂

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NOVEMBER 01, 2020

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NOVEMBER 16, 2020

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NOVEMBER 28, 2020

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DECEMBER 18-21, 2020

iamdannaschwarz has added to their story!

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yourinstagram has added to their story!

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DECEMBER 25, 2020

danielricciardo

📍Los Angeles, California

♡ liked by yourinstagram, natalie_pinkham, pierregasly and 5,242 others

danielricciardo Merry christmas to all, ya filthy animals! From me and my snuggle buddy 🎄 We've been good... mostly! 😝

Tagged: yourinstagram, corey_wilson, lukerockhold

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yourinstagram Merry Christmas from our reindeer crew! ❤️🎄

danielricciardo Santa's got it easy this year, because I've already found the perfect gift 😘

natalie_pinkham Cuties ❤️ Merry christmas guys! Sending you all the love ❤️🎄

user THEY LOOK SO FUCKING GOOD UGHH 😍

user1 she's gonna be his downfall 🤢

f1 Merry Christmas to our favorite honey badger 🦨🍯❤️

user2 please Daniel check your eyesight 😭 I mean what did you even see in Y/N

kristenanniebell Merry christmas, guys! Sending lots of love from ours to yours ❤️

user3 La pareja más bonita 😍😍 Merry christmas to us with that first photo

scottyjames31 this got me cheesing hard... I'm a bit worried for Santa if those are his reindeers though 😳

user4 Daniel!! RUN!! Don't get too close to her... she's fucking poison!! Everything she touches rots away 🐍🐍🐍

user5 MERRY CHRISTMAS GUYS!! Santa should be delivering my adoption papers to you any moment now ❤️🙈

fabioquartararo20 Merry christmas brother! 🥂❤️

user6 who else lives through celebrities holiday posts? Buon Natale, Daniel and Y/N 💚

user7 dude, based on the recent news lately popping up on my feed (that I did not even care to know about), I hope you get yourself to an std clinic to get tested. I see you are in your russian roulet phase- no judgement. sincerely, I wish you the best

user8 this comment section reeks of jealousy it does not pass the vibe check at. all. 😤😤😤 it's fucking christmas guys, what the fuck is wrong with y'all leave them the fuck alone!

user9 they are so many wonderful and interesting people in the world, but you chose Y/N... disappointing. You could sincerely do so much better

user10 Love it or hate it, they are living their best life. Haters can keep commenting, but they're just a bunch of jealous basic bitches lmao ANYWAYS, MERRY CHRISTMAS GUYS! Keep being fucking iconic! ❤️

user11 To all the haters out there, keep commenting. Love knows no bounds and Daniel deserves exactly who he's chosen 😘

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DECEMBER 31, 2020

yourinstagram

♡ liked by lilymhe, rubendias, greeicy and 10,652,485 others

yourinstagram Moving towards 2021 with a better mindset. Keep practicing kindness every day, guys! 💖🤗🤭

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itsvittoriasousa Queen of positivity 💁🏻‍♀️💗😘

user lmao omg love this video 🤭 such good vibes

blakelively ❤️❤️❤️

zendaya the vibes are immaculate 💅🏻

lali Y QUE SE CALLE EL DECORADO 😝 Te adoro nena ❤️

user1 No me canso de verlo 😂

iamdannaschwarz A lot of palo santo to cleanse, purify and remove all negativity 🪔🧿😌🤍

user2 Por qué tan hermosaaaaaa 😍😍😍

user3 It's the palo santo and the big echeveria for me lol

user4 Love your attitude

karolg Positively divinaaa! Toda una BICHOTA 💁🏻‍♀️💗

user5 Keep it up, Queen!! Let your light blind all those negative nellies 😌 You're shinning brighter than the sun ☀✨

user6 you can't tell me her and Dan are not meant to be 😂 I bet they are so much fun to be around 🤭

─── Please don't forget to reblog and comment! ♡

#daniel riccardo x reader #daniel riccardo imagine #daniel ricciardo x you #daniel ricciardo instagram au #daniel ricciardo social media au #f1 social media au #latina!reader #f1 x reader #f1 imagine #f1 instagram au #daniel ricciardo x female reader #( agentstarkid's works )

[ricciardoswife]

Podcast

Warnings: none

Summary: y/n talks life and all things motherhood in her best friends podcast

Materlist

Hello and welcome back to the simple life podcast my name is y/f/n and today we have y/n ricciardo with us. Firstly for those of you who don't know y/n has been my closest friend since highschool but also when i first started this podcast in 2020 if you have been listening since then the one person I've always been asked to have on is y/n and I finally managed to get her to come on y/f/n says laughing "you make it sound like I was avoiding coming on" y/n replied laughing. "Okay okay in all seriousness she's been itching to get on but she's never been in Perth long enough since covid the get the time but now she has plenty of time" y/ns friend replied back seriously

"So how have you been y/n" "I'm doing amazing lifes great at the moment it's slowed right down and we're just enjoying each moment as it comes I honestly feel like in the last couple of months we've been able to stop and take in the moment more. Also being back in perth has had its perks no doubt I love this place with everything I got"

"People will get mad if I don't ask this early on so how's daniel and baby Olivia doing" "Their both doing amazing olivias six months old and she's just loving life since we've been back in perth we take morning walks down to the beach as a family and her and daniel just love playing in the sand together. I love watching it because she's at the age where she's more in tune with what's going on and just seeing her and daniel interact is amazing"

"She's six months already it feels like just yesterday I was flying out to Monaco because you had gone into labour. Did she enjoy Christmas whats every day life like with a six month old " "Christmas in general was great we got to spend it with the whole family which we haven't been able to do since covid, Olivia was in her element opening her presents and I think she enjoyed it alot because her cousins were there so she had someone to play with. Yeh six months can you believe it myself and daniel are trying to soak everything in because she's growing to fast but I also like this stage because she's more aware of her surroundings too. Also she's got the biggest smile for everyone and this huge belly laugh that only daniel can seem to get her to do she's definitely her father's daughter" y/n says laughing

"On the topic of labor how was that" "it was tough don't get me wrong but I had daniel by my side every second which I was so grateful for and he's someone who can make me laugh even when I don't want to so looking back on it I was laughing through all of labor and delivery thanks to him I definitely couldn't have done it without him."

"How's your business going" "yeh it's going amazing we do hold little pop up shops every now and then and people love that too. There's a new collection coming out soon which I haven't told people about so I'm sure they will be excited by that"

"Any plans on giving Olivia a little brother or sister" "look we've both said it we would love more than one child but at the moment we so happy with life and she's only six months so maybe further down the line we'll try for another"

"I'll be hated if I don't ask this how did you and daniel meet its been what 18 years this year" " yeh 18 years, you know this story all to well because me and you talked to much in class I got moved next to the class clown who was also incredibly good looking. After weeks of him annoying me I finally gave in and went to get lunch with him. I never looked back since that day"

"When you were that young did you expect the two of you to still be together so many years later" y/n starts to laugh "definitely not I was a huge overthinker and I fell in love eith him quite early on but I knew Daniels plans to be an f1 driver and I had plans to go to college but we both knew wel over each other so we gave it a go and don't get me wrong long distance was really hard but it was so worthwhile. I don't regret any of it. I'm so thankful for everything I have in life especially daniel and olivia their both the light of my life and Daniels always been there for me and has helped me through so much"

"What's your take on life" "I like to just live in the moment cherish everything I have. I try not to worry because I know there's a solution to everything once I look for it"

"Quick fire round"

"Favourite flavour of ice cream"

"Mint chocolate chip"

"Farm life or city life"

"Farm life it's so much quieter"

"Mornings or nights"

"Morning person"

"Dogs or cats"

"Dogs"

"Favourite travel destination"

Iceland or Austin. Austin brings alot of fun but Iceland was where daniel proposed so its always gonna hold a special place in my heart"

"Thank you so much for coming on today y/n it's been a pleasure having you" " thank you for listening to me babble I hope everyone enjoys"

Liked by danielricciardo, yourfriendsinstagram, michaelitaliano and 45,333 more

Y/nricciardo I had the pleasure of speaking on @yourfriendsinstagram podcast about life and motherhood so please go check it out I promise its a good one

Dannyricfan Olivia sounds like the cutest child ever

Yourfriendsinstagram thanks so much for coming on

Y/nfann I love y/n so much

Dr3fann Daniels life with olivia and y/n sounds amazing

Dannyfann3 Only daniel can make olivia belly laugh 🥺🥺

Sorry I've been away for so long but I hope oyu guys enjoy and again as always send in your asks if you have any 🥰

#daniel ricciardo x reader #daniel ricciardo #daniel ricciardo fluff #daniel ricciardo x you #daniel ricciardo fake instagram #daniel ricciardo social media au #endless love universe #f1 x reader #f1 #f1 imagine

[scover-va]

I need to know more about Michael's mom... Is she a cool mom?

SHE IS A VERY COOL MOM janet afton you will always be famous. to me

Im taking this as a chance to finally ramble abt her anyways so Janet's core inspo when designing her was to avoid 2 key things. Don't make her like Immortal & Th Restless's Clara (due to clara representing michael, not mrs afton, so i wanted to avoid that), and don't base her too heavily off of Ballora. I still have ties to Ballora's character (a music-based theme, blue-centric colour palette, im sure there were more basic ideas but everything else is more hc than themes to keep up) due to my hc thingy of each Funtime having ties to William's wife + kids, but yknow.

But yeah. Funky lady who played bass guitar + did backup vocals in a band during her high school and college years. Literally her and William dating can be summed up by "Seriously, what do you see in that guy?!" "He makes me laugh." bc she was and is WAY out of his goddamn league. Not just bc of the whole serial killer thing he was just an even bigger loser in college. Normal people dont develop a crush on a woman after she nearly breaks your nose and makes you bleed, William /j

But yeah uhh. I also dont like the idea of her being absent or neglectful purely because I got way too attached to her (i was originally gonna do that just to make things easy for myself but. Pretty lady,,, I am a very simple lesbian what can i say) so like. She obviously wasnt the greatest, most fantastic mom to ever exist given she was kinda maybe sorta well aware William was making some weird fucking clowns, but like. Hey. She tried. Also side note my reasoning for her being absent during the whole. Yknow. '83 event (and just evan's bday in general) is bc Evan + Elizabeth are twins and Elizabeth demanded a girls-only trip for her bday, and Janet promised Evan she'd do something just as special for him when she got back. That never happened bc he died lmao loser /j

But yeah uhh. Shes got a lot of regrets. Wishes she coulda done a lot of things better. Kinda dies with those regrets. Ive seen people say that one of fnaf's charms is that no character is 100% good and i LOVE that, and wanted to keep it up with Janet. Good mom and overall a good person, however made some bad decisions along the way and whatnot.

Im still working out specifics (ive been slowly working on a lil private fic abt her and william meeting + their early relationship) but uhhh. Minor notes that dont get their own paragraphs is that William sampled her voice for Ballora so yay easy voice claim, she had an on and off relationship with her band's lead singer (her name's Bev), her birth name is actually Janice Schmidt but if you call her Janice she'll knock at least 2 of ur teeth out, she's a runaway teen and got adopted by this older couple bc her home life kinda sucked (idk specifics yet), and also girlie has an extensive criminal record of minor angsty teen type charges. Also teen Mike dying his hair and then 2020's Michael's hairstyle are both kinda references to Janet's hair because he wnated to look less like his father. Thats all ty. No read more bc you WILL look at my mrs afton post, boy /j

Actually no theres more that im remembering as i write the tags and edit a few details. Back to her and William because god im insane about them. So for starters it. Well i was gonna say Janet was def the first to flirt but i think William definitely developed a crush first and they only kept talking bc of said crush so its kinda up for debate. Anyways yeah at first it was a HUGE sorta like "Well he's funny especially when I fluster him so this can be just a fun lil thing" but because they chatted more they def kinda like. Clicked more. William was a huge fan of listening to her music (from. a distance. he looked kinda like a creep but at least janet only misinterpreted it once) but like *specifically* janet he didnt give a fucking shit abt the rest of the band. Uhh. They had their first run-in and janet kinda. Well. Punched him in the nose before he cleared up that he is NOT a pervert or anything weird like that (bc a guy that looks older than he is staring from a distance when there is a clear crowd he could join kinda gave janet the Wrong idea), then they later bumped into each other in the hall and chatted for a bit, then they kinda just kept "accidentally" running into one another. Uhhh. Some cigaerette-themed flirting and a house party later, yay dating :] can you tell where the current cut-off of the fic is /j Also idk how to put this down properly but they are both runaways and can kinda. Get that vibe from one another. Literally Michael is like some fucked up abomination of the both of them between the troubled past + weird situationship thing + runaway stuff + a lot of minor details that arent important rn. I just. Yeah Janet means the world to me go thru her tag on my blog for some art. Not all of my janet art is posted but the non-posted stuff is all concept work/doodles or just. Shit im too embarrassed to post lmao. Anyways NOW im done ty for reading

#scov.txt #janet afton #fnaf: hauntings of the past au #scov.ocs #it goes into the oc tag bc fuck you thats why #RRAUAGAH I AM. SO INSANE OVER HER #afton family and their weird gay situationships. aka will + henry and mike + jeremy and janet + bev #IK A LOT OF THIS ISNT EVEN ABT HER KIDS im so sorry #i dont have a lotta thoughts on evan and honestly i domt have a lot of family details figured out #like. everything is kinda just. general basics #plus also i dont wanna give janet too much focus on account of shes not. extremely important #she has her role to play in the au but theres far more influential characters yknow?? #anyways for those of you who have read this far both w/ post and tags. i have one last thing to share #my gf and i have a spinoff au and she and henry are currently dating (both got divorced long in advance dw) #(like. several decades ago. bc this is ghost shenanigans in the sb era) #thats all ty and gn (<- not sleeping its just night where i am)

[mariacallous]

The US right has this week been staging a clown show that has had liberals in that country and beyond pulling up a chair and breaking out the popcorn. There has been a karmic pleasure in watching the Republicans who won control of the House of Representatives struggle to complete the most basic piece of business – the election of a speaker – but it’s also been instructive, and not only to Americans. For it has confirmed the dirty little secret of that strain of rightwing populist politics that revels in what it calls disruption: it always ends in bitter factional fighting, chaos and paralysis. We in Britain should know, because Brexit has gone the exact same way.

Start with the karma that saw House Republicans gather two years to the day since they sought to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from one party to another: often overlooked in the anniversary recollections of 6 January 2021 is that, mere hours after rioters had stormed the US Capitol, a majority of Republican House members voted to do precisely as the rioters had demanded and overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Yet here were those same House Republicans on 6 January 2023, having prevented the smooth transfer of power from one party to another – except this time, the party they were thwarting was their own.

It should have been straightforward. Republicans won a narrow majority in the House in November, which gave them the right to put one of their number in the speaker’s chair. The trouble was, while most backed Kevin McCarthy, about 20 rebels did not. By Thursday night, they had gone through 11 rounds of voting – the most since the civil war era– without McCarthy or anyone else winning a majority. The result: deadlock.

It was a study in incompetence. A party asks the electorate to give them power; they get it and then freeze, unable to take even the first step towards using it. There’s no clear political logic to the stalemate. The rebels are devotees of Donald Trump, but McCarthy himself is a tireless Trump sycophant – patronised by the former president as “my Kevin” – who begged for and won the backing of the orange one. The pro-Trump rebels are divided among themselves: one rebuked Trump for sticking with McCarthy, while another voted to make Trump himself speaker.

It’s telling that the rebels’ demands are not on policy but on procedure, seeking rule changes or committee seats that would give them more power. Otherwise, they can’t really say what they want. They succeeded in getting metal detectors removed from the entrance to the chamber, so now people can walk on to the floor of the House carrying a gun, but apart from that, and their hunger to start investigating Democrats, including Joe Biden’s son Hunter, nothing.

All this has significance for the year ahead in US politics. For one thing, it’s yet more evidence of the diminishing strength of Trump among Republican leaders, if not yet among the party faithful. For another, if Republicans cannot make a relatively easy decision like this one, how are they going to make the tough but necessary choices that are coming – such as authorising the spending, and debt, required to keep the US government functioning?

But its meaning goes far wider. For what’s been on display this week, in especially florid form, is a strain of politics that has infected many democracies, including our own. Its key feature is its delight in disruption, in promising to upend the system. That was the thrust of the twin movements of 2016, Trump and Brexit. Both promised to sweep away the elites, the experts, the orthodoxy – whether in Washington DC or Brussels. They were new movements, but they were drawing on deep roots. Four decades ago both Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher cast themselves as radicals daring to shake off the dead hand of the government.

So we can hardly be surprised that those who railed against government should be so bad at it. They promised disruption, and that’s what they’ve delivered. In the US it was the chaos of Trump himself, and now a House of mini-Trumps that can’t tie its own shoelaces. In the UK, it looks different: we have a prime minister in Rishi Sunak whose pitch is technocratic competence. But that should not conceal two things.

First, the post-2016 Tory party delivered just as much parliamentary turmoil and intra-party division as McCarthy and co served up this week. Whether it was the Commons gridlock of the two years preceding the 2019 election or the psychodrama of the three years after it, Brexit-era Conservatism has proved every bit as unhinged as Trump-era Republicanism. When it comes to burn-it-all-down politics, the Republicans’ craziest wing are mere novices compared with a master arsonist such as Liz Truss. The US and UK are simply at different points in the cycle.

Second, even with Sunak in charge, and though painted in less vivid colours, Brexit-era Toryism is just as paralysed as its sister movement in the US. The five-point plan unveiled in the PM’s new year address consisted mostly of the basics of state administration – growing the economy, managing inflation – rather than anything amounting to a political programme.

And that’s chiefly because his party, like the Republicans, cannot agree among themselves. Consider how much Sunak has had to drop, under pressure from assorted rebels. Whether it was reform of the planning system, the manifesto commitment to build 300,000 new houses a year or the perennial pledge to grasp the nettle of social care, Sunak has had to back away from tasks that are essential for the wellbeing of the country. True, he has avoided the farcical scenes that played out this week on Capitol Hill, but that’s only because he has preferred to preserve the veneer of unity than to force a whole slew of issues. The result is a prime minister who cannot propose much more than extra maths lessons lest he lose the fractious, restive coalition that keeps him in office.

None of this is coincidence. It’s in the nature of the rightwing populist project, in Britain, the US and across the globe. Brexit is the exemplar, a mission that worked with great potency as a campaign, as a slogan, but which could never translate into governing, because it was never about governing. It was about disrupting life, not organising it – or even acknowledging the trade-offs required to organise it. It offered the poetry of destruction, not the prose of competence.

The Conservatives are several stages further down this road than the Republicans, perhaps because their power has been uninterrupted throughout. But in both cases, and others, the shift is unmistakable. Once parties of the right saw themselves as the obvious custodians of state authority: the natural party of government. Now they are happier shaking their fists at those they insist are really in charge. They are becoming the natural party of opposition.

[foibles-fables]

What's that? Random asks? Don't mind if I do!

How did you hear about Horizon that made you want to play it, and how was that first time?

Howdy hello and HECK YES! I love this question.

So--summer 2020. I'd just come back from a decade-long hiatus from fandom in general, and was starting to learn the new ropes and spaces (this former livejournal clown breaking into discord and twitter, etc.). One night, I was scrolling through my twitter timeline and happened to stumble upon the freshly-posted E3 announcement trailer for HFW. And even though I hadn't really played a narrative video game since the PS2 era, I decided to watch it. And, huh! I remember saying, "Badass freckly redheaded archer...seems relevant to my interests." The graphics were absolutely gorgeous and what little hints of the story were present in that trailer (especially for someone who knew nothing of the narrative background presented so far) were compelling.

So I looked up some info and found out that it was a sequel to a 2017 game. Cool. Filed that away for later, deciding to get a PS5 when they released later that year.

Jump-cut to late December. I managed to get my hands on a PS5, and it was delivered a couple days before Christmas. Which was awesome, because life was not going super well and I needed a heavy-duty distraction. At this point I had kind of pushed Horizon to the backburner and was instead excited to play AC Valhalla as my first game! But when I booted up, I learned that my mother had bought me the disc version as a Christmas gift. I was left with a couple of days to try other stuff out before I could dive in to ACV.

So, I shrugged and downloaded HZD instead. And the rest is kind of history.

Went into it kind of ambivalent and really hoping I would like it. I had tried to play BotW and was completely overwhelmed by the open-world aspects, and not in a pleasant way, and I hoped that wouldn't be the case here. I'd also never really been into a ton of action games before, as most of my old faves were turn-based. The gameplay itself wouldn't be the clincher for me--that would be the story.

WELL, good news is, I was hooked from the prologue. I would equate playing HZD to not just watching a narrative masterwork unfold, but being in the driver's seat of one. Each discovery Aloy and I made was enthralling and exhilarating, and I legitimately could not stop playing. Could not stop exploring. Every side quest, every collectible, every corner of the map (besides the hunting grounds after earning my Suns at the Nora one, SORRY TALANAH). The entirety of "Deep Secrets of the Earth" had me staring into the darkness of my gaming room in a mix of existential horror and pure amazement. I wept at the ending. The HZD cast left an indelible mark on my heart, and it really reminded me of just how powerful game stories can be. Still trapped in hyperfixation hell (affectionate) over it.

The fun didn't stop there, though. By the time I finished the game (I took my time!), it was early February 2021. I feel very lucky to have sauntered in when I did, because it really seems like it was the perfect time to join the fandom. Folks were coming out of hibernation from both 2017 and the 2020 PC release, hyped with excitement and theories for HFW. Within those first months I met some of the most fabulous and now-lifelong friends (and more <3) I've ever had.

Bottom line: after playing HZD, Horizon and the fandom pulled me through a very very very difficult time in my life. I'm eternally grateful to this series and the meaning I derive from it. Especially from the first game--its vibrant narrative, and its absolutely fantastic characters. Lightning in a bottle, man.

And no, I still haven't finished AC Valhalla. lmao.

#thank you so much for this ask it made me nostalgic!!! #have an amazing day! #horizon zero dawn #horizon forbidden west

[supportivecircle]

i ran a sonic based dnd campaign for a year

my folders on drive and on my desktop are filled with so much crap

we didn’t get to finish it but the campaign document was sitting at around 130 slides and we still had a final stretch to go. it was post metal virus arc by a few months, sonic didn’t come back immediately (in fact he wasn’t sent to the Sol Dimension, he warped to the Twilight Cage. the players who knew Sonic expected Sol Dimension. i robbed their minds. i ROBBED them. THATS RIGHT. DARK BROTHERHOOD WAS BEING WORKED INTO IT. LOOSELY. WE CLOWN IN THIS MOTHERFATHER.) so Amy didn’t step down but Jewel did become her administrator of the Logistics branch of the Restoration, while Amy lead the Security branch. 

i made a custom warlock subclass (balance unsure) for wisps patron that had an experimental prototype variable wispon the restoration was testing based off of whisper’s

i pieced together a map of the main continent based off of: tabbing in and out of the sonic forces map screen to get the rough landmass and locations of “zones”; some work people online did to try the same thing; cream’s WRONG map (she says thats north but cuhLEARLY in forces this cannot be the case dear god help me you stYUPID CHILD); and amy’s Restoration map was of no help to me at all because it shows Central City on the coast where Seaside/Sunset would have been, and also on a northern shoreline while barricade town is on the end of an entire peninsula. so i FIXED it. i fixed ALL of it. also there is a small town named Degrassi near the snowline south of Winterburg. because we love Degrassi. make it canon Evan Stanley if you somehow stumble across this. whisper into Flynn’s ear like wormtongue and get this done for me, whatever it takes, because i know you can make it through. maybe name it like Dagrassy. idk you’re the talent not me.

we had started in 2020 and played for two months before taking a year hiatus to play a magical girl campaign in the FATE system. some highlights of the campaign:

at one point early on, a piece of the orbiting ruined Death Egg fell to the earth in an event known as a “Death Fall” and landed on Orchardville. the players got to team up with Whisper to infiltrate it and deactivate the systems onboard controlling the badniks coming out of it. mimic was also there to steal data for starline.

the Bad Guys didnt split up like in canon, instead eggman had been working real lowkey on finding where sonic warped to to finish him off, and starline became better at being a leader. mimic was still doing stealth ops. rough and tumble were given a task of leading bandit activity in the western part of the continent to keep the Restoration busy. honestly, i just didn’t want to think about what to do with the Zeti so they never came up. its a whole thing. probably not well thought out grand scheme but no one asked questions about the Zeti.

i stole the entirety of the death house from curse of strahd but toned it down to just make a spooky haunted house segment near windmill village and i played the instrumental loop of pumpkin hill for at least 30 minutes at one point as ambience.

one of the players had a truck that over time got suped up with upgrades to be a complete wrecking ball with a lightning cannon to shock badniks and an on-board AI the inventor made based off of his boss, Lanolin, named LAN who would activate with the phrase LAN-Online.

the players helped begin the healing of the Green Sand Hill Zone by uncovering the underground main hub Egg Pyramid that had been controlling the Egg Pyramids in Forces and were draining oil out from the earth. they fought Thunderbolt the Chinchilla there, who had been running the operation for Eggman while he was working on his grander plans.

one player was offered a FIST BUMP in the first session by Lanolin and refused cause the character was an old grouch. this stain on their character was never cleaned.

there were several starline’d versions of badniks that appeared the closer they got to his operations. incredibly obvious knock offs with a new color scheme. starline also freaking died by being outplayed by Eggman.

there was a recurring merchant they met in the first city and almost every major city afterwards who was actually a wizard who inherited wealth from their bastard father and decided to open up a series of pawn shops across the world called Thorne’s Tradery (her name was Juliet Thorne). she refused to use offensive magic out of an oath she took, but was doing her best to help the Restoration by supplying their agents (and civilians) with easy access to a fair place to trade and possibly get magic/advanced tech items (not for civilians).

i did what SEGdont and had Tangle and Whisper finally resolve their blatant romantic tension with the aid of the player characters. we stan these lesbian queens. tangle was a monk who had “determination” or something instead of Ki, and whisper was the same warlock subclass as the player character, but a lower level. i never got around to making an amy statblock but she was going to be a battlemaster fighter with some character feat type stuff akin to divination wizard’s portent, and would have focused around giving players advantages/extra actions in combat when not beating stuff with her hammer.

the finale was going to have the entire team go super-mode via chaos emeralds (screw the canon) and fighting a giant invasive monstrosity from the twilight cage threatening to destroy Central City, while Sonic was still dealing with REALITY SICKNESS from his time spent in the cage. they’d have had unique abilities, a theme song on their turn (Endless Possibilities Rockestrate My World version, Reach for the Stars, What I’m Made Of, and Knight of the Wind), and a one-time reaction called “We’re All Counting on You” that would have provided them with an emergency supply of rings from notable NPCs they had bonded with during the game. it was going to be hype.

i was far FAR too lazy to draw my own characters on top of maps and writing everything, so i used a freaking ton of OCs i found online as character pieces. possibly controversial to some, but i never passed them off as my own and knew i’d never be able to draw or show artwork of them in any posts online i made about the campaign cause they aren’t my characters. so unfortunately, i cannot make or post artwork of player character Periwinkle the Pangolin making out with her witch girlfriend Rosaline the Fox. i did make this little guy though: Georgie Greenhorne, the deer, and avid child scout. he has several badges.

anyway decided to finally make use of this account to post something of substance and then probably nothing else.

i also found this old meme i made about one of my player’s Forces OC (the brown dog) and mine, who appeared in the campaign as the CANONICAL BUDDY near the end to fist bump with knuckles. i also have this cursed lanolin with no fluff in the back. check it out. tell your friends.

#idw sonic #sonic the hedgehog #dnd #dungeons and dragons #sonic wisps #lanolin the sheep #tangle the lemur #whisper the wolf #georgie greenhorne #more tags more #oh you like tags do you? well have all the tags in the world! #sonic campaign #sonic oc #sonic idw #idk which idw tag to use #wait you mean the author came back to add MORE tags?

[nightswithkookmin]

IT ALL PAID OFF.

The tensions we talked of in BTS in 2020, On ERA. Between Taekook, Yoonmin, Namkook, Jikook....it all paid off when Namjoon said ON era was gonna be their final era as a group.

I made myself a target of ridicule, hate, lost friends, lost allies, was dehumanized, persecuted, had people making up all sorts of narratives about me rather than my opinions, had people sneak into people's DMs with a hate brush asking people not to give me credit for my opinions, to unfollow me, to hate me all for daring to point out to them 2019 to On era wasnt a good period for the boys.

How foolish do you feel now hearing Namjoon point to that same era now?? Yall ate me up and made me into an anti for saying Jungkook seemed done with the group and was heading in a direction Jimin wasn't headed in??

For daring to say he was tired of sacrificing his happiness and relationship for the OT7 agenda Jimin clung on to and was a good soldier for??

Yall looked for the slightest grin they shared to counter argue, grins posted by a company with an agenda, a company now clearly they seem to be at odds with.

Just how foolish are you all now clowns??

Kookiemonster and her dumb circus?

Heard she changed her name but still I name her. She's the most toxic simp pandering to antis with her faux logic.

I challenge her to a duel

zoom that arrow straight into her chest

Complaining i present my opinion as fact when all my opinions have turned out to be facts.

I pray for an opportunity to meet all these people one day and whoop them till they be needing stitches.

The first hate comment I received was from a blonde Karen who reblogged my post to a bunch of bigoted clowns for addressing Jungkook's Jealousy- you make him sound so toxic, what you are describing is a toxic relationship, you make him sound so childish

I don't make him sound childish he is childish sometimes and simplistic in thoughts.

Glad that all those who felt the tensions in BTS in these past few years and month can stop attributing JMs mood to problems with Jungkook too.

I've said and maintain my position on this- not everything JM does is about his relationship. This is clearly one such moment. His look and mood in that vlive says it all. He would come to the US and return to Korea not so much as enthusiastic, barely post on sns, I mean we all felt he was going through something.

I also told you guys, I felt Jungkook seems happy lately because he seems to have gotten what he wanted in the group- especially during the JM shy around Kook era.

Not sure if I said that here or on my Ko-fi but yea. He'd stop fighting and resisting and rebelling. Felt like the calm before the storm.

"

Why'd you spend your time leading the chorus When the war was just waiting before us? As if you didn't know You ignored all the darkest of warnings Found our end in the silence of morning It fell beneath the cold

I'll take the desert, you take the coast But to each his own I'll take the desert""

I asked which therapists they've been seeing to work through their relationship struggles- turns out they really have been seeing and working with a therapist if not anything to help them transition and be become independent of eachother as they set into solo careers.

The most attached to the group would suffer the most. I'm glad we can all agree it's not Jungkook. Too many PJMs gave me grieve for pointing out JMs OT7 agenda conflicted with Jungkook's desire for independence of the group. I was told I was crazy and slurred at because to others Jungkook is the one super attached to the group.

When I said he was asserting himself off the group yall throw virtual stones at me.

Its all good.

Got heat for saying I was expecting and anticipating a shift in dreams and hopes of the boys post covid because Covid will force them to do a lot of introspection into their lives and careers and question if the trajectory they are on.

Then people came at me with the whole they have another contract with hybe nothing's changed you are dramatic and a charlatan- a charlatan really??

it's exhausting and at a point I was so exhausted. The only thing that kept me going was my love for Jikook. Because I love them I loved talking about them.

Didn't post everything i wrote. Didn't post every video analysis I made, didn't share everything but still I showed up for them.

It all paid off.

Chapter one is over. On to chapter Two.

But can't live in a world where there's no BTS.

GOLDY

[annalyticall]

After years and years of avoiding it, it might be your constant One Piece posting that actually gets me to check out the anime

I get you! Ever since I started watching anime in 2020 I was also avoiding it because like... 1000+ episodes is so daunting, and the world and characters look so goofy I was sure I was never going to take it seriously. And it IS goofy and loud and you're definitely going have to take things like fishmen and clown pirates and exploding boogers in stride, but when you can look past all that there's a lot of heart and charm and deeper meanings, plus some great characters that don't always neatly fit Shonen tropes. The goofiness also kinda adds to its themes very centered on joy and living for the moment.

I'm only 150ish episodes in now so I can't give you a comprehensive recommendation yet. So far I'm committed to watch up to the time skip which is about half way through I think, I hear there are some significant changes afterward that might not all be for the better, so I'll have to see how I feel about watching it past that point.

Personally, if you do start watching it then I think if you watch up to episode 37 (part of the Arlong Park arc) and aren't feeling it, that might be a good place to drop it, since 37 was the one that convinced me to keep with it and it's only gotten better since. I heard there's something called one pace that helps cut filler and that might make it easier to sit through awkward pacing in early episodes, but I'm just watching the original episodes on Netflix.

#I've also skipped some filler episodes on my own but they're not too many #maybe like 15 filler episodes out of the first 145 #but I'm NOT skipping skypeia. i heard that was filler but it looks too substantial to be #anna watches one piece #thanks for the ask! #i will say i definitely have some problems with character design though. mostly usopp and the girls

[mouse-fantoms]

Two years.

Two years ago in the summer, I remember an account I follow retweeted a trailer for an upcoming show and I watched it and thought “hm interesting concept. There are ghosts and when music is played they can be seen hm.”

Late October, I was working on a school assignment but before I did I needed something on in the background. I remembered before my friend and I had said something about maybe we should watch this show that just had come out and in that conversation my friend had mentioned that one of the characters is gay so after that I was like “oh… didn’t know that but cool.” So for the background noise I decided “why not watch that show? It’s only 9 episodes, a quick watch, not a lot can happen.” And that show was Julie and the Phantoms.

I remember going into and just- all these stereotypes that were being portrayed right away I thought I knew how the story would go but to have them constantly break those stereotypes it made me love it. It was something different, something unique, something new.

In a time where the world was scary and unpredictable at its highest point in a generations lifetime, there was Jatp. And not to say, “Jatp single handled saved 2020” it was definitely a light in the darkness. That as shitty and terrifying the world was, there was this show. This show that had such lovable and well-written characters, compelling story, fascinating friendships and relationships to it, amazing music, stellar costumes, just- it was ticking all the boxes.

After finishing, I feel down the rabbit hole of watching anything and everything about it. Seeing the friendship this cast has with each other, the behind the scenes of everything made me love it even more.

After trying to convince people in my life to watch it bc omg how can you not watch this amazing show plus, I wanted someone to talk to about it with, I lasted like a week and I impulsively made this blog and I’ve never looked back.

Being a fantom is unlike any other fandom I’ve been in. The amount of creative work there is, the amount of discussion there is, it’s so amazing to see us all coming together bc we all have this one simple little interest.

I haven’t been in the fandom “since the beginning” but I have been here awhile and it’s been so fun. The clowning, the trending, the gates.

I love this little ghost show with all my heart. There’s always going to be apart of me that wants it to be continued because in my heart it’s going to be continued, I don’t want it to end. This little 9 episode show about a girl and her ghosts shouldn’t come to an erupt end because it is unlike any other show out there.

Two years ago today, Julie and the Phantoms came out and it’s been an incredible and emotional two years but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

#thought I was going to be a casual fan but came out a fantom so ya know things happen #…no a day goes by I think about how I watched Jatp for ‘background noise’ #happy aniversary everyone!! #jatp #julie and the phantoms #jatp netflix #fantoms #julie and the fantoms

[franchufeuillassier]

Dak & Zeke; for anon

I have the pleasure to introdice you to the Dumbest Husbands on the NFL. Dont get attached theyll probably split this offseason and ill cry for a whole year

Dak and Zeke both were drafted by the cowboys in the 2016 draft and became best friends instantly

(zeke the only dumbass that could forget a 5M bonus on his friend's car....)

Okay Dak. Okay.

I wasn't a fan in 2016 (sorry I'm European) so ive only watched the highlights but apparently they were very good and Dak won OROTY. Zeke was also nominated and got into the stage with him to receive it 🥺 Dak asked if someone had a knife so they could share it and i cry a lot (we will all ignore the facial hair and looks, okay?)

That year they had a candy war???? Children.

After that season Zeke bought them matching diamond pendants (is that the word? Idk shiny diamond jewelry) with 214 because their numbers are #21 and #4 and the Dallas area code is 214 😭 Dak doesn't really wears his because he is an elegant man that wears suits and bowties but it's okay I'm sure he still appreciated it very much

The Salvation Army Kettle Celebration: i have no words, this is the moment that keeps on giving. Zeke got fined for it and nearly got dak fined too lmao i love a pair of clowns. It was also a very nice TD imho

Dont lie to us, Dak, i know you secretely enjoyed it

2020 was though on Dak (the ankle, his brother...) but zeke was a good bff

When Dak injured his ankle in 2020 zeke scored a TD that same game and held up 4 fingers in front of the camera as a celebration for Dak :((

Hard Knocks was lowkey boring but it was also Extremely Iconic. If i had 1. Skills and 2. Patience i would crop every single dak-zeke moment of the series but I'm lazy so ❤️ i won't (i also can't gif but sometimes i still do so if you suddenly see me posting a 2 hours video of them don't call me out, im just a liar)

The best thing was THIS, in which Zeke literally watches a video tutorial to learn how to wrap a gift for Dak because "that's his best friend and it's the first gift he has wrapped in my life". Okay i won't cry. Zeke's bday was a week before (July 22nd and 29th) and Dak got him a diamond bracelet because NFL men like shiny stuff i guess. Btw the gift was a luggage/suitcase/travel thing/idk English is hard that matches Zeke's so yeah now they have matching luggage. Married i said. Also said luggage thing is worth almost 13k$ i dont understand rich people

"😁🥰✨💕going on six years💕✨🥰😁"

Also enjoy a bonus "team wish Dak a happy birthday in a very loving way" video

Some random photos, videos and tweets, as a treat

(idk why its flagged as sentitive content they are DANCING)

Poor Cooper Rush live slug reacting

Ceedee is the best but im putting this video here so you see the hug

And this. Whatever this is. Yes, buying squirty penis guns because why not???

#anon i cried making this #it was hard #so you better enjoy it #and theres more moments #like when zeke did the dak after a TD #or he fights whoever touches his QB #and many hugs and cute videos #BUT #my eyes hurt #so this is what you get #they are very good boys and you can hate the cowboys but they are very very likeable imo #and very very married #anyway thats them #i love them #jerry pls #do NOT separate them #(i apologize for any typos and mistakes english is hard) #long post #like REALLY long #hope u enjoy it anon

[destielshippingnews]

Edvard's Supernatural Guide: 1x22 Devil's Trap

Supernatural’s twenty second episode is the second half of The Show’s first two-parter and the final episode of its first series. Perhaps my expectations of a series final have been ruined by Buffy where the end of each series (except the first) came at the end of a long build-up and would often have been sufficient as an ending to the whole show. As I have commented multiple times, the first series of Supernatural – and indeed much of Supernatural – suffers a lack of rising action leading the characters and the viewer towards the final conflict. This problem is perhaps due in part to the format of a twenty-two episode monster-of-the-week show in its first year, but part of it is also down to insufficient planning.

This is not to say the episode is bad, because it certainly is not, but it does not feel like a proper ending. I have also commented elsewhere that series one and two of Supernatural feel like one novel to me, with 1x22 serving as the ending of the first part. An equivalent could be the breaking of the fellowship at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring: no main plots have reached a conclusion, but a sub-plot or two has reached its end and obstacles have been thrown in the characters’ way.

The cold open of this episode overlaps slightly with the ending of 1x21 Salvation, picking up with Meg answering John’s phone and telling Dean he will never see John again (no such luck). Dean has not had time to put his mask back on after Sam attacked him, but his reaction to Meg’s implication that John is dead causes him to snap into action mode: as will be discussed in 2x02 Everybody Loves a Clown, Dean’s behaviour is typically masculine in that he responds to difficulties by seeking a solution. He wastes no time in putting himself together, putting his coat on, and dragging a hesitant Sam out of the door.

One thing which I noticed upon rewatch was a certain quality to Dean’s voice which first appears in this episode, a rough, gravelly sound which sounds like he has been screaming for a while. I am far from the first person to comment on the fact that Dean’s voice in series one is significantly higher than it is from series two onwards. I have to admit I did not notice anything unusual about his voice at all until 2020. Sure it is significantly deeper than a lot of men’s, but nothing strange. I live in Finland, and here a tiny number of men for some reason speak right out of their throats. The sound is not guttural, but rather sounds like a frog with tonsillitis. I do not have the foggiest why they do it when the vast majority of Finnish men speak perfectly normally, but some Finnish men just do. That is weird. Jensen’s ‘Dean voice’ does not even register on that scale.

People both in and outside the show have tried to imitate it with tense vocal chords and shoulders, essentially growling like somebody in a death metal band (e.g. the cosplayers in 5x09 The Real Ghostbusters). Others have also mocked this aspect of the show and made comments to the effect of ‘trying to sound like manly men’, but comments like that are best left in their own league, as the Finns would say. Unless my ears work fundamentally different than everybody else’s, Dean’s voice sounds nothing like death metal vocals or trying to ‘perform’ manliness: rather, it sounds like a baritone singer’s voice.

This is not a music lesson, so I will keep it short: men’s voices usually resonate mostly in the chest cavity, making them sound ‘deep’. This is called ’chest voice’. Women’s usually resonate more in the head, making them sound ‘high’. This is called ‘head voice’. This is of course a continuum, and men can learn to both use more chest voice to increase their vocal range downwards / make their voices sound deeper, as well as to use more head voice to increase their range upwards. The same is true of women: they can learn to increase their range upwards with more head voice, as well as downwards into chest voice. Learning head voice is harder for men than chest voice, and the reverse is true for women, but it is a skill professional singers work towards.

I am far from an expert, but I have listened to dozens of hours of Jensen singing both at conventions and his own music with Radio Company. While I doubt he is classically trained as a singer, he definitely sounds trained to me. He is no Freddie Mercury, but he is versatile and skilled whilst having (what sounds to me, at least) great vocal control. His vocals first appeared as backing vocals on a song in 2000: while his voice definitely sounds pleasant and recognisably Jensen, it is unpractised and raw compared to his later work. If memory serves, he began singing and playing guitar more seriously with Steve Carlson around 2004-2005, and his vocal performances from roughly 2010 sound much more refined, trained, and practised.

What I hear in ‘The Dean Voice’ is Jensen’s singer training: he uses a lot of chest voice when speaking as Dean, entailing diaphragmatic breathing (lowering his diaphragm and filling his entire chest with air, rather than chest breathing) which provides more space for his voice to resonate. I also hear fantastic physical condition, as projecting a voice like that requires strong core muscles and the ability to use them in regulating breathing. Posture is also important, as the position of the shoulders and chin affect vocal production. ‘Death metal vocals’ play no part in it whatsoever, so I do not understand people adopting a faux gruff voice and thinking it represents… anything. Maybe I am just a buzzkill, but it sounds to me like people are not paying attention to anything they hear.

According to him, the reason he gradually lowered his voice when portraying Dean was an attempt to imitate and emulate Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s portrayal of John.

We know that Dean is also a singer: I commented in 1x17 Hell House that Dean was singing along to Blue Öyster Cult’s Fire of Unknown Origin in tune with a nice-sounding tenor, and episode 15x07 Last Call shows us that Dean’s vocal range spans from bass to tenor, sitting most comfortably in a baritone range.

Having said all this, there were a few episodes roughly somewhere in series twelve or thirteen where his voice sounds excessive to my ears. I have said usually nothing sounds unnatural or forced about it, but in a handful of episodes late in The Show’s run, the director really should have said ‘Slightly less chest voice’.

What is strange to me is hearing Jensen’s normal speaking voice which is how most of his other characters speak (people say Tom in My Bloody Valentine sounds like Dean, but I think they see Jensen and do not pay attention to what they actually hear, but whatever), but returning to the episode at hand, Dean’s voice has a rough quality which suggests he is straining to keep control of himself.

In the car, Sam thinks it prudent to continue with the ‘I coulda killed him [Azazel]’ crap from the end of last episode. Other than this being irksome (that conversation is over, Sam, drop it), it shows that Sam is okay with abandoning and even sacrificing John in order to get the job done. While it is wonderful that Sam and I both agree on the acceptability of sacrificing John, I do not understand why he thinks sticking around in Salvation would be a good idea: Azazel has disappeared, and going after John is their best chance of getting to him. In contrast to Sam, Dean refuses to even entertain the notion that John might be dead. Part of this is his own reliance on John’s continued existence for his mental stability, but also because it would make no tactical sense whatsoever for Meg to kill John rather than keep him alive and perhaps offer him in exchange for the colt.

Knowing help is needed, Dean drives across the border to Sioux Falls in South Dakota to Bobby’s. Bobby is a fan favourite, but I have to admit I do not like him nearly as much as some people. Admittedly he was a better father figure to Dean and Sam than John, but a) that is a very low bar, and b) I simply cannot forgive him for him ‘I’m so sorry your feelings are hurt, princess’ in 4x22 Lucifer Risingafter Sam tried to strangle Dean to death in cold blood,or for trying to guilt and shame Dean when he was metaphorically suicidal in 5x18 Point of No Return.

Contrary to John, Bobby’s ‘parenting’ can generally be described as ‘tough love’, but a few times too many it veers into simply damaging parenting and bullying tactics. That said, Dean and Sam seem much more comfortable around Bobby for the majority of their time with him than they ever do with John. I think Bobby actually did genuinely care about and love Dean and Sam, but rather than being an abusive, neglectful father like John, he was simply an incompetent, damaged father. His motivations were mostly love for Dean and Sam, so he gets some credit and a little leeway from me for that. He tried.

But no, Bobby; family is not supposed to make you miserable. If your family is making you miserable, you should find a better family.

All of this is in the future, though. Jim Beaver did not expect his role as Bobby to last for more than one episode, and it might have been the case that Missouri Moseley was supposed to make a reappearance (thank Odin she did not). Personally, I am glad his character stuck around, but it is very convenient that yet another acquaintance we have never heard of turns up in the story just when he needs to. He is also yet another acquaintance who has not been in contact with the family for an extended period of time… because of John, whom Bobby tried to shoot in the persqueeter last time they met. There is a through-line here: adults do not like John.

Bobby exposition-dumps about a manifold increase of demonic activity in the last year, and of an approaching ‘storm’ which we should have been made aware of a few episodes ago, but whatever. At this point, Bobby’s Rottweiler Rumsfeld barks outside, putting everybody on edge, then he suddenly falls silent and his chain is shown to be broken. We are to presume he is dead, but he is never spoken of again so nothing is ever confirmed.

Meg then smashes in the door and Dean tries to throw holy water on her, but once again gets yeeted into a wall (one of several times he goes flying in this episode). Given the situation it was probably necessary for somebody to get twanged into a wall in order to lead Meg into a false sense of security. Why did it have to be Dean again, though? I have said before many times that The Show does not like Dean (one of the reasons I hyperfocus on him in these analyses instead of...anything else), but is it really necessary to keep flinging him into stuff? Sam is also young, healthy, and muscular, he can take being twatted into a hard surface a few times.

Another issue with this scene is the ease wherewith Meg appears to have found the Winchesters. If it was indeed so easy, 1x21 Salvation looks completely pointless. Why did she not do this a few days ago? Whatever the case, Dean, Bobby, and Sam dupe her and trap her in the show’s first devil’s trap, a sigil specifically for trapping demons. The version used in this episode is significantly more complex and involved than devil’s traps used later in the show. This is likely due to ease of production (both within and outwith the show), given that such traps are employed with increased frequency later on.

Following this is a sequence of scenes featuring some exceptionally strong performances. Dean’s scary side came out, his rage barely kept under control as he interrogated Meg, the gravelly aspect to his voice morphing into a furious growl. However, during the exorcism scene, his desperation and fear are plain in his tense bearing and the set of his face as he fights against the possibility that John is indeed dead. He had a wild, intense look in his eyes and a set to his jaw that would have me running for the hills if directed at me. Who is this man and can I have a whole show about him, please? Soldier Boy in The Boys was supposed to be a horrible, scary cunny-hole, but nothing he did in his forty minutes of screen time held a candle to Dean’s wild, animalistic presence in this scene.

(On the subject of Soldier Boy, he might have had heterosexual men considering the attraction of their own sex, but Dean’s deep, rumbling voice as he snapped I lied! and the sheer masculine force of him in this scene would have had them fighting over the lube in the local grocer.)

On the other side of this interaction is Nicki Aycox’s Meg. Given her acting choices were limited, being tied to a chair and all, I was completely convinced by her performance as a trapped demon trying desperately and failing miserably to save face and maintain a facade. She is a tiny woman, but she did not seem meek, frail, or weak at any point before the exorcism, even after Dean slapped Meg so hard he reconfigured her brain. After the exorcism, she transfigures utterly into a broken woman glad for the horrific ordeal to be over and glad to finally be dying. A moment previous she had been all bravado and cockiness (and as Paula R. Stiles pointed out, quite the masochist), then she was utterly shattered and spent. Demon!Meg was completely gone, and Human!Meg was a totally different entity. The fact Nicki Aycox is a tiny woman – slim, a good foot shorter than Jared, and a head shorter than Jensen – definitely worked in her favour here.

I have said on several occasions that Meg 1.0 does not work for me, but it is certainly not due to a lack of acting talent, for she definitely has it. In fact, if it were not for Jensen chewing the scenery up, she would have stolen this scene.

While Dean was interrogating Meg, Sam performed an exorcism which differed from the one in 1x04 Phantom Traveler (in Ecclesiastical Latin: note the pronunciation of v as ‘v’ and c as ‘ch’ like Italian e.g. ‘veni, vidi, vici’, rather than the ‘w’ and ‘k’ of Classical Latin as in ‘weni, widi, wiki’). Jared’s pronunciation in general sounds acceptable: he clearly has the accent of a native English speaker, but it definitely does not sound like this is Sam’s first time reading Latin. On the subject of 1x04, Dean and Sam encountered a demon which possessed humans. Why, then, so they seem so surprised to learn that ‘Meg’ is actually a demon possessing a real woman? Did Eric Kripke just forget that when writing this episode?

What also gave me pause for thought was why Bobby and Sam were hesitant to exorcise the demon from Meg, even though it would have resulted in Meg dying from the wounds she sustained in 1x16 Shadow. There is no way they can let Meg go free while possessed, nor do they have any other option? This sounded to me like the writers knowing the viewers would have questions, and so they included this to answer said questions.

It does have the effect of Dean perhaps looking like the ruthless one willing to sacrifice anything and everything to keep his family safe, but I see it as Dean accepting it has to happen. This is a recurrent theme throughout the show: Dean sees something horrible which has to happen due to a lack of other options, and accepts that it has to happen / he has to do it. See for example the Mark of Cain, or the Malak Box. While this happens, people around him try to stop him being the responsible adult because ‘There has to be another way’, even getting violent, angry, and pissy with him because his decision is not the ending they want. See, for example, Sam punching Dean because of his decision with the Malak Box, or Cas trying to shame him for the same reason.

Note that even though Sam is supposed to be the main protagonist of this show, it was crossing and underestimating Dean which was Meg’s AND Azazel’s biggest mistake. Sam would have left John to his fate and not gone after him, whereas Dean’s devotion to his family (even members who do not deserve it) is what drives this last part of the plot forwards and what leads to their downfall. Dean makes the choices which make the story happen, whereas Sam still does not. Of course he does do things in the plot, but he is mostly reactive and passive compared to the character who was supposed to be the stupid sidekick.

Remember, by the way, that Azazel knows Dean will kill him. They met in 1973 in 4x03 In the Beginning… and Dean told Azazel he was the one to gank him. This explains some of Azazel’s hesitance in the events of 2x01 In My Time of Dying, but also shows how prideful and even hubristic he was: had he refused a certain trade in 2x01, Dean would never have been in a position to kill him.

Also worth noting is that Dean is the unquestioned leader of proceedings in this scene; both Bobby AND Sam defer to him and follow his lead. This reflects the role he later adopts as the unofficial captain of Team Free Will. And how everybody else falls apart when he is absent...

Moving on, Meg’s dying words lead Dean and Sam to Jefferson City, Missouri, where John is supposedly being kept and guarded by demons. Sam is an idiot and draws protective sigils and wards on the outside of the car boot (silly because rain exists), and then another plot-point conflict arises regarding whether or not to take the colt along with or not. Dean wants to use the colt to save John, whereas Sam wants to keep it in reserve for killing Azazel.

Sam tries to use the ‘Dad wouldn’t want us to do it’ argument on Dean, a tactic which Dean soundly rejects. Dean is firmly of the opinion that saving John matters above all else. This is a continuation of their discussion in the car at the beginning of the episode, but here Sam goes further and begins ret-conning his own life and Dean’s motivations by claiming that Dean went to Standford to get Sam in order to kill Azazel. This is not what happened. Dean’s motivation throughout the series has remained constant: he picked Sam up because ‘Dad’s gone on a hunting trip and he hasn’t been home in a few days.’ Dean knew nothing of ‘the demon’ at that point, and Sam is wrong to assert killing Azazel was Dean’s goal then. If I were ill-disposed to Sam, I would say this is an attempt at manipulation: ‘You wanted me to do this. I could have carried on with my studies, but you dragged me along with you to kill this demon, and now you’re trying to stop me doing that.’

Sit down, Sam. Thankfully, Dean does not take this lying down, but instead says Sam and John are ‘a lot more alike than I thought’ and that they cannot wait to sacrifice themselves. ‘You’re selfish...you don’t care about anything but revenge.’ Dean is calling everybody out and I love that for him.

To be fair to Sam, he has been terribly written. He is so inconsistent that it has been very hard for me to understand him, and it is only through lengthy discussions with a friend that I can see what the intention with him might have originally been. He was supposed to be somebody who had always known he was an outsider and never had a real sense of normality, or of right and wrong because of his unstable, unrooted upbringing. He tried to find normality and stability at university, and through successful masking (pretending to be ‘normal’) he managed to fit in. But then the metaphorical faeces hit the air ventilation appliance and he was dragged right back into his unstable life which confirmed he was a freak and unfit to live in normal society. However, he was deeply unhappy in the otherworld he found himself in, and unable to rely on his moral compass. I could have liked a Sam such as this quite a bit more if he were written more sympathetically, and if he were not such a mean-spirited bore.

Returning to the episode, what follows is a mostly boring scene in which Sam sets off a fire alarm to empty the block of flats and then he and Dean trap the demons guarding John in a cupboard. To do this, they use fire extinguishers full of holy water, then bar the door with salt. This scene also gave us Dean fulfilling a childhood dream by becoming Fireman!Dean (we live for Fireman!Dean, be honest), and it ends with Dean and Sam finding John, who is busy performing the wife’s role from Gerald’s Game.

This is followed by a quick exeunt down the fire escape (so people can get right from the street to your bedroom window on the nth floor? Why, Vancouver America, why?) with an indisposed John in tow. The Loquacious Terminator appears ex nihilo after John’s rescue and proceeds to beat Sam up while Dean struggles with John. Sam is utterly overpowered, but Alec X5-494 momentarily takes over control of Jensen’s body from Dean and roundhouse kicks The Loquacious terminator. If TLT were a normal human, this would have been enough to delete the last five years of his memory, but alas TLT yeets Dean Alec X5-494 into a car windscreen. Thankfully Dean and Alec’s vessel is made of much tougher stuff than a normal human: and he is not adversely affected by his second yeeting of the episode. Dean reasserts his control over Jensen’s body and ventilates TLT with the colt. After a horrified, uncomprehending look at the TLT’s dead body – the body of the man TLT possessed – Dean hurries John and Sam away from the scene towards the Impala.

There is not enough time for me to wonder why the streets were so empty that nobody noticed a gunshot, a fist fight, or Alec X5-494 making an appearance, as the next scene begins in a cabin somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Dean is deeply shaken by not having hesitated to kill Meg or shoot TLT in order to save Sam and John. ‘There was a real person in there.’ This is one of many occasions when the viewer is allowed to see behind Dean’s mask to what is beneath. Dean has never killed a human before this episode, and while the death of Meg and TLT’s vessels were not his fault, he holds himself accountable and is deeply hurt by having killed them.

This is painful for him for many reasons, one of which being the fact that humans generally do not enjoy killing other humans. But Dean has been groomed to believe that his only worth is in fighting for and protecting others, and for minimising their pain and suffering as much as possible, even at the cost of his own safety, health, and life. Killing Meg and TLT’s vessels goes against this, and he believes he has failed in his purpose. His care for his family and his hunter instincts are powerful enough to override his moral compass, and this raises the question in his mind: am I a monster?

I am also reminded of the fact that many war veterans who suffer PTSD are not traumatised by things which happened to them, but rather things they did. Being in war caused them to do things they would otherwise find inconceivable, and it brought them face to face with their own capability for violence. This is what I see in Dean: his own capability for violence scares him, even to the point of traumatisation.

Though Dean does not realise it, John’s treatment of him has not turned him into a mindless, hateful killer. He does not do what he does because he enjoys violence, but rather violence is a necessary part of what he does which he happens to excel at. Roughly fifteen years after Dean sits in that cabin pondering whether he truly is a bad person, somebody will tell him the truth about himself:

‘I know. I know how you see yourself, Dean. You see yourself the same way our enemies see you. You're destructive, and you're angry, and you're broken. You're "daddy's blunt instrument." And you think that hate and anger, that's... That's what drives you, that's who you are. It's not. And everyone who knows you sees it. Everything you have ever done, the good and the bad, you have done for love. You raised your little brother for love. You fought for this whole world for love. That is who you are. You're the most caring man on Earth. You are the most selfless, loving human being I will ever know. You know, ever since we met, ever since I pulled you out of Hell... Knowing you has changed me. Because you cared, I cared. I cared about you. I cared about Sam, I cared about Jack... I cared about the whole world because of you.‘

Dean also beats himself up for having wasted one of the colt’s bullets in saving John, at which point John conveniently appears at just the right moment to reassure Dean, almost as if we were watching a television show. John praises Dean, but rather than being aglow with joy at finally hearing words of praise from his father, Dean almost shrugs it off, clearly very suspicious.

I will discuss in a few weeks’ time why exactly I read John as an abusive father, and why Jensen’s claim that a) Dean knew John loved him and b) John was not abusive are simply incongruous with what I can see on screen, including lines of dialogue which come out of Jensen’s very mouth. One such line appears in this scene. Dean recognises that John is not John because John praises him for having used a bullet to save him, rather than ‘tearing me a new one [by which he means ‘a new hole in his body’, i.e. ripping and stabbing, referring to extreme anger and possibly physical violence]).

The fact that Dean can tell John is not John by the fact he acts like a reasonable, loving father is another load of soil on the mountain of evidence in the case against John, but more on that in a dedicated essay. My reaction to this cutting line from Dean’s mouth was a) ouch and b) John wasted a bullet on a basic vampire, so if he had dared to chastise Dean for using it to perforate a demon, he would have been an utter hypocrite. Dean’s realisation leads him to draw the colt on John, and upon re-entering the room, Sam quickly takes Dean’s side (more of this Sam, please!) John tells Dean to shoot him if he is so confident, but a few tense seconds pass with Dean hesitating (once again reminding me strongly of Alec X5-494 from Dark Angel, specifically of some scenes in 2x11 The Berresford Agenda) before Azazel!John reveals himself by way of having yellow eyes.

Once more, Dean is yeeted into a wall because the writers love doing that to him, but at least it is a double yeet this time, as Sam is subjected to the same treatment (strangely enough, the cuts and blood from the beating he took earlier are gone). With his vessel’s sons duly pinned against opposite walls, Azazel!John proceeds to pontificate rather than snapping his fingers and killing both boys. He talks about how Sam was going to propose to Jess, and had even gone ring shopping (while still at university? Bold move, Sam. Almost as bold as Dean’s denim jacket and jeans combo), which is surprising seeing as how I have hardly seen Sam grieve at all. It is also revealed that Azazel killed Jess and Mary because they got in the way of his plans for Sam and the psychic children like him.

At this point, Dean breaks the monologue by saying ‘Listen, do you mind just getting this over with? I can’t stand the monologuing’, to which I had to chuckle. Other than this being characteristic of Dean, I also thought ‘Dean, just wait until you watch The Walking Dead; Negan is unbearable!’

The monologuing does indeed go on for a fair few minutes, but to be fair on the show, this is the conflict which the show has been leading up to for twenty two episodes, so it is acceptable. The boys spent most of series one searching for their dad, and the reason for them being in the story in the first place was Azazel forcing Mary to make the deal in 1973, and then murdering her in 1983. The boys (specifically Dean) wanted to find John and keep him safe, whereas Sam’s focus was revenge for Jess.

To have all of this come to a head in this manner is indeed some successful dramaturgy. It was also dramatically fitting that abused son Dean should end up almost cut open and torn apart by his dad, and that rebellious Sam should almost become a patricide. Most of what Azazel said to Dean after Dean’s monologue quip was entirely spot-on: Sam is John’s favourite (regardless of what Jeffrey Dean Morgan was thinking when he played the part), and John seems largely indifferent to whether Dean lives or dies. After all, he was nowhere to be seen in 1x12 Faith. That said, John and Sam do need Dean, as everything always falls apart when Dean is not around.

Dean taunts Azazel!John about having killed his kids, to which Azazel!John responds by ...well, it is quite hard to tell, as the camerawork does not reveal exactly what it is Azazel!John does to Dean. Dean bleeds quite profusely, but it is only after quite a while that I eventually managed to make out a cut on Dean’s chest. The amount of blood is much more than would be expected from a simple surface wound, so the cut must be quite deep. Still, the shots were bad in this section.

Paula R. Stiles commented on the vague similarities with Azazel’s torture of Dean here and sadomasochism. I honestly did not make any links between Dean bleeding to death and sexual gratification, but having it pointed out to me brought to mind the large number of posts I have seen of Dean (and Sam) covered in blood and cuts with notes or captions such as ‘Oh, he looks so cute, let me tuck him up in bed.’ This brings to mind a Jocasta complex rather than S&M, but maybe I am just weird in that men bleeding to death does not arouse me.

Something I am 100% certain of, however, is that sexual violation, rape, and sexualised violence are among the torture tactics used in Hell. This almost definitely happened to Dean, and some of the things Alistair says to Dean in 4x16 On the Head of a Pin heavily imply he raped Dean when Dean was in Hell. The same is true of some of Lucifer’s taunts of Sam. While I am glad none of this was shown, it is a shame that the effect and trauma of it is glossed over.

I am not too far away from 2x15 Tall Tales, where a young man is ‘ probed’ again and again and again. Read: he is raped. The audience is supposed to laugh at this.

But on the subject of sexualised violence, I and others have commented before on the fact that it is almost always Dean who is the victim of ‘sexualised’ violence on the show, as well as the fact that he is the butt of gay jokes. I am aware that Jensen is a very good-looking man, but why the hyperfocus on doing this to his character? Is it supposed to be a comment on ‘masculinity’, since casual viewers and plenty of writers see him as ‘a manly man’? Or is it just a case of sexualising Jensen for the reasons outlined in 1x04 Phantom Traveler, and thinking it is harmless because he is a man?

Returning to the scene and the discussion of bad shots, what was not bad was Jensen’s acting. I am aware I have already indulged myself this analysis, but Jensen’s acting, Dear Reader! Dear Reader, Jensen’s acting! He switches seamlessly from sneering in the face of death and taunting his would-be-killer to a scared, dying little boy struggling to stop himself screaming long enough to beg his father to save him. ‘Dad, don’t you let it kill me.’ He looks in stricken horror at the torrent of blood flowing out of the wound in his chest, knowing he is probably about to die in a lot of pain. And then the final bloody-mouthed ‘please’.

Why is this man on this shit-show of a show? Why could we not have had him on Buffy, where most of the writers do not suck? Or something with a big budget like Battlestar Galactica? If Dark Angel had not been cancelled in favour of Joss Whedon’s Firefly, the show could have been finishing its sixth series at the time this episode was broadcast, and then I would not have to miss Alec X5-494 so much.

Then again, somebody less talented might have been chosen to portray Dean...

John manages to momentarily wrest control of his body from Azazel in a scene reminiscent of Sam regaining control over his body in the graveyard in 5x22 Swan Song, both occasions after the entities in their bodies had been hurting Dean. The damage is done, and for all John knows Dean is dead. Sam points the colt at John as Azazel reasserts control, then shoots John in the thigh. With Azazel weakened, John is able to finally reassert control over his own body, but Azazel is still in there, and John orders Sam to kill him, bellowing for him to shoot him in the heart and end it. Sam, once again, hesitates and lets Azazel get away.

Some reading this might feel I am being unfair to Sam here. After all, Dean too hesitated to shoot minutes prior to this. However, Dean did not know for certain that John was possessed, whereas Sam did. Contrary to popular belief, I am also human and understand that shooting one’s father would be one of the hardest things to do, even if it would mean killing a demon. This does not mean Sam’s second failure to kill Azazel is not frustrating.

Dean is mercifully still alive (I would not have continued watching if he had died) and begs Sam not to kill John, and Sam of course does not. Azazel escapes, and the Winchesters climb into the car and drive to hospital (which according to Sam is ten minutes away). John seems none the worse for wear, and Sam positively chipper, but Dean is bleeding out and struggling to retain consciousness in the back seat.

What this scene reveals to the viewer is that Sam’s motivations and character have changed slightly. John chastises him for not shooting him, saying that killing the demon comes before everything (so John would let Dean die if it meant killing Azazel. Would he let Sam die, though?) and that he thought they were agreed on that. Sam, however, looks at Dean in the rear-view mirror, and disagrees with John. Revenge does not come before everything. At least in this scene, Sam values his family over revenge. If only the show had stuck with this version of Sam...

The scene ends with a lorry blind-siding them, and before the credits roll, the camera shows the wreckage made of the Impala in the collision, followed by panning up to reveal the lorry driver’s black eyes – he is possessed by a demon.

And so the first series ends. 1x22 Devil’s Trap is a lot better than some episodes I have reviewed so far, but there are a few scenes which slow it down a bit. Given the low budget of the show, what we got was the most that could have been expected. (The viewership was also: at its most popular, it only had around half the number of viewers for its live broadcast as Buffy did at its least popular. Supernatural was almost cancelled during its second series due to this.) However, the drama the episode offered was a satisfactory conclusion to the first series.

#edvard's supernatural guide #spn meta #spn #supernatural #spn 1x22 devil's trap #dean winchester #sam winchester #john f*cking winchester #jensen ackles #Yellow-Eyed Demon #s01e22 #dark angel #alec x5-494 #meg 1.0 #nicki aycox #rockstar!jensen

[miyanagateru]

its insane to me that omori (game) came out in 2020 and was supposedly rather successful because i just remember everyone clowning on omocat for years before that.

#machine dreams #i thought it must have been part of that generation of rpgmaker games like off and wadanohara that we all played #and i just never heard about it until getting into vtubers cuz everyone hated omocat

[gemsofgreece]

TW: DEPRESSING

Every day now I've been thinking about how they are destroying ancient monuments in Thessaloniki, when 60% of us said no, to supposedly build the metro from Mitsotakis decision. When the actual goal is obviously to put money in his billionaire friends pockets as compensations for the delays, which is already happening of course, and the work is postponed to 2025.

And I can't do anything about it because I don't live in Greece anymore and I don't know how much damage is already done from 2020. I wish people would protest till Mitsotakis spontaneously combusts, but nobody has. My mom said 20 people showed up, back when they protested this change. I cry every time I think about this it's sickening.

Maybe your blog can bring some visibility on this?

(since I'm not good at explaining stuff, but here is a good article about it: https://www.koutipandoras.gr/article/oi-archaiologoi-karfonoun-ton-mitsotaki-gia-to-metro-thessalonikis-etoimo-to-2025/)

What's up with all the depressing mail lately, guys? 😅

I actually had talked about it one or two years ago (the blog grows old!!!) but I can't seem to find the post now.

I think the article is a little tricky. The government's official statement is that the subway will be ready by late 2023 although Mitsotakis said early 2024. The point of the article is that archaeologists had made an announcement in 2021 that according to their own calculations, the project couldn't be ready before 2025.

I searched a bit myself and I found two other articles that are a few days more recent than the Pandora article. According to them, apparently two people corrected Mitsotakis: it was repeated by both the State Secretary in the Ministry of Transports and the President of Attiko Metro (who is responsible for Thessaloniki's project too) that the opening will indeed take place in late 2023.

Do they definitely tell the truth? Do I trust them? No, of course not, but at this point 2025 seems a little excessive. To my knowledge, at least some of the subway cars have been already put in place and they are doing test routes that go well. They also removed finally most of the construction machines and debris from Thessaloniki's main streets as the work there is done. Given this data, I too think late 2023 - early 2024 seems more likely than an uncertain 2025. But who knows with these people? Obviously I don't know all the technical issues, someone with more insight could perhaps argue that late 2023 seems too early.

Regarding the ancient city of Thessaloniki found in great condition underneath, which was entirely removed to make room for the subway's works (a choice that received a lot of criticism from archaeologists and other people globally) and intended to be put back in with a 90% accuracy once the works were complete, what I read a few days ago was that it seems they are gonna make three museums after all, which will be located inside the subway's stations. This obviously means that the accuracy goal is lost. Now the result will depend on how good museums these are going to be. For example, will the road, pavement and shops of the ancient city be laid out and exhibited like they were found? We can't tell yet. At least I hope they are going to be state-of-the-art museums... lol sometimes I am an optimist clown.

As for the government assigning the project and all its works to friends and voters regardless of skill ... well

#greece #coals of greece #subway of thessaloniki #subway #thessaloniki #thessaloniki metro #macedonia #mainland #anon #mail

[gladiolidiaries]

sorry i know that discussion must be annoying since it appears all the time but i kinda needed to 'rant' a little. because i actually recently lost my hyperfix because of the lack of content so i was finally able to take a really big step back while still learning about recent things that happened etc and i just realized that i don't understand why most people don't think dnf are dating?

like, ive been in the fandom since 2019 so i know all about the dnf history but i couldn't come up with even one good reason that could explain why most think they aren't dating. and i really insist on GOOD reason because at most i saw people say that they're not dating because dnf is a joke but like. dnf was a joke in 2019 & 2020 and maybe a little part of 2021, that's it. it hasn't really been a joke in 2/3 years

i even tried to compare them to others and lbr if people of opposite genders did kissgate, bedgate, the chain, etc, everyone would say they're dating. and dnf are queer guys so being of the same gender shouldn't change anything but it apparently does

i'm just. idk i had that thought earlier and i'm just still surprised that i really couldn't find a good reason sorry 😭 i don't even know if i'm making sense i'm like

flabbergasted (first time i ever use that word)

i doubted their relationship way more when i actually had an hyperfix but now? now i don't anymore and yet i still have the same infos about them you guys all have here, feels weird tbh (but also i'm finally free)

honestly idk. its funny cause as i said i was into dan and phil years ago and while i was in the fandom i really always had doubts about whether they were together or not, and thats despite an actual leaked video of phil saying he's in love with dan 😭 i was still a doubter just to protect myself i guess. but then when i lost interest i was like wait wtf obviously they're together 😭

maybe it's similar for dnf. as you guys know i'm more of a fwb truther cause it's less painful if it turns out that i was a clown. but january really made me think that there's more going on but i flip flop a lot

#sorry i took over 12 hours to answer this lol