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cryingoverspilledmilks-blog · 1 year

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Kismet

Fandom: The Glass Scientists

Current rating: T

Chapter: 1

Title: Fugue

A/N: This fic is sort of a canon-divergent, wish-fulfillment drabble piece that started as a lot of different fics i wrote that i discovered had scenes that would fit better together as a single fic, and so i took snippets from those and stuck them together and whittled the whole mess down into something more manageable. Lots of late night editing sessions for something I'm doing for free, but I was motivated to finish this by someone being so very enthusiastic in the tags on the WIP excerpts I posted, which was honestly such a delight to wake up to. Thank you so much btw @greedycanine I really appreciate that boost and I hope I meet your expectations in the full chapters :)

The comic has updated several times since I began writing this, and I did add some non-canon elements (for instance, that Lanyon Knows, which is a common enough trope in this fandom and one that I enjoy immensely.)

The flaws in this one might not be as glaring as my over-anxious mind anticipates, but if you notice them, I probably have too. It is likely best read as a self-contained hypothetical with hints of canon plot woven in. It's a bit messy, but I think it may be enjoyable nonetheless.

Here is the first part of this great beast. It consists mostly of a conversation, beginning with some emblematic Jekyll and Hyde mirror-bickering. I thought it would be interesting to explore one of those moments where Hyde has something insightful to say, even if it's something of a means to an end for him.

The font changes are something of a fanfic guilty pleasure for me, but they're also a tool I love to use to show who's speaking and how, without necessarily using a dialogue tag every other line, especially when we have two characters who have the ability to communicate both in ways only they can hear and in ways others can.

Hope all of that works for y'all. Happy reading :)

Chapter 1: Fugue

“Are you ready to let me back out yet? Believe it or not, hanging over your shoulder all day does get old.”

"Not now."

“Why not?”

"I don’t want you getting involved in this. We've just made it through into the thickest of this whole ordeal. There’s still too much at stake."

“Ugh. That’s how you see every situation you can’t directly micromanage. It’s like the whole of your world is always resting oh-so-precariously on the head of a pin, ready to be upset by the slightest deviation from your expectations. Lighten up just this once, won't you?"

Henry sighed heavily at that and slid his finished page to the far side of the desk, thinking better of his initial impulse to reply. Pulling a fresh sheet of paper into view and dipping his pen into the inkwell again, he continued to write, attempting to ignore the familiar but currently disembodied speaker.

“Don’t act like you can’t hear me all of a sudden," the voice grumbled impatiently. "You know, I’ve noticed something lately, Henry. You always insist on framing our situation as though you’re the most responsible party between the two of us, but you never seem to have any really substantial backup plans on hand, in case those delicate matters you like fussing over so much go awry. You never give yourself a real margin of error, despite the fact you're always angsting over what could go wrong.”

Ink pooled slightly on the page under Henry’s pen as he paused, scoffing at the insinuation that he’d been anything but diligent. “And you do?” he prodded back sarcastically, speaking aloud this time, his voice firm but quiet. He was rather aware of precisely how audible he was behind his office door. It was more risky to communicate this way, but he seemed to have an easier time filtering himself when he wasn’t trying to speak internally, and that was important when he was dealing with his incorporeal counterpart.

The lengthy mirror standing off to one side drew his eye when he heard the reply.

“Oh, I always figure something out, one way or another. Surely you know that better than anyone.”

Henry rolled his eyes at the hazy silhouette that suddenly could be glimpsed in the mirror’s reflection of the opposite wall. “Abandoning every situation that doesn’t go your way and playing hopscotch all over the city’s rooftops is not a backup plan,” he muttered bitterly, composing the end of a follow-up letter for a prospective sponsor before setting the page aside to let the ink dry.

“It can be, if you’re clever enough," the shadow replied. "Also, you're one to talk about giving up easy. Just a few weeks ago I watched you nearly forfeit your whole operation just because Lanyon told you he didn't think things looked sound after you passed out mid-speech. Face it, you’re all or nothing when it comes to solving problems. What is that about?”

Another exasperated sigh as Henry spared another glance at the shadow in the mirror. "Can we not do this right now? You only ask these questions because you already know what gets under my skin. You don't really care about the answers, do you?"

When the shadow spoke next, it was with a mockery of a hurt tone, the dark shape leaning back slightly. A silhouetted hand rested against an approximation of the chest, in a gesture best described as theatrically wounded.

"Why, you insult me, dear doctor. I'm only curious, for both of our sakes, being as close as we are," came the snidely-sweet reply.

Henry narrowed his eyes. “Do you honestly expect I could believe you truly care about what happens to me? After all you've put me through? You take such joy in my misfortune. Really, you can drop the saccharine nonsense, Hyde."

Letting the name slip from his mouth was a mistake, but wouldn’t be costly this time since they were alone- and he only uttered it the one time, Henry reasoned quickly. It was mostly to try to quell the dread in his stomach at the prospect of someone in the hall happening by as he said it out loud, in an otherwise perceptibly empty room.

Hyde vanished from the glass, only to reappear, more thoroughly illuminated, in the empty air near the desk, looking slightly more like a person than an apparition now, as well as irritated.

“I’m trying to tell you that you might actually benefit from trying things my way. Be a little more spontaneous. Roll over the bumps in the road, instead of just counting on things going the right way the first time, every time. It was funny to watch you flounder at first, I must admit, but honestly it's just getting old. I wonder what would happen if you switched things up and proved me right," he paused briefly, noting Henry's contemplative expression.

"And another thing!" Hyde exclaimed, pointing at the ceiling for emphasis. "You told me you'd let me out after the exhibition, then not at all, and now here you are again running yourself uselessly into the ground. The bourgeois types you find yourself groveling to yet again are notoriously hard to satisfy. Why should you have to rush if they already know what you and the others are capable of?"

Stretching a little as Hyde went on, Henry stopped a moment and glanced out the window with a pensive look in his eye.

“That's one of the few times you’ve been right about something, amongst all those snide remarks.”

“Hey!” Hyde sounded affronted at first, then did an almost comical double-take. "Wait, you agree with me?"

“I can certainly see what you mean, even if I can't abide by that advice in the same way you might,” Henry began. “We need everyone's projects to come together smoothly if we're to maintain what good standing we've managed to acquire with our sponsors. They have high hopes and even higher expectations after the splash everyone made at the exhibition. We would need to plan for every eventuality within reach of what we set out to do, but… I do miss things while trying to account for the unexpected, don’t I? Always, something unforeseen gets in my way.” Henry turned in his seat and reached into the cabinet above, pulling out a leather-bound notebook tucked behind a row of vials. Flipping to the first clean page, he dipped his pen into the inkwell once more. "Somehow the fact you managed to worm your way back to the front of our mind to pester me once again is not one such surprise.."

Hyde furrowed his brow in displeasure, rolling his eyes at Henry's little jab. “Of course it isn't. Did you really think I could be held down so easily? You made it harder for me to take over the body on my own, but I'm still here." he paused for a moment. "How long is this going to take?"

“Not quite as long as you seem to be concerned about. I just have to jot down some…alternatives so I remember them while the subject is fresh,” Henry spoke mildly, but his expression was disgruntled and contemplative.

Hyde rolled his eyes, and did not look at Henry's page, whose looping, slanted script looked far too dull for him to devote attention to at this hour, restless and bitter as he was.

Henry went on, "I'm still upset about that stunt you pulled on the stage, but I'm certain you figured that out already. It was cruel even by your usual standards."

“Cruelty is the very thing I'm made for, but now that you mention it, I actually did you a favor by dragging you down into the dark and the quiet," Hyde spat."You're just addicted to working until you pass out. It's a real fuckin' problem."

As he grew more impatient, the East-London drawl that Hyde had picked up since his creation was seeping further into his inflections. Beneath that, there was a slight but distinct lilt which gestured toward shared memories of Glasgow, making an uncommon cocktail of tones that were unmistakably signature to him. Like so many things about Hyde, Henry noticed, it produced a quality both familiar and foreign. It was, fittingly enough, a faintly haunting thing to witness, a reminder of just how right Hyde always was about the extent of their connection.

Henry squinted his eyes shut as if to abandon that train of thought, trying to remain bearably numb to the reality of being forever stuck arguing with a living distillate of the most confusing parts of himself. “If I'm doomed to be addicted to anything at all, as you say I am, I'd much rather it be something useful,” Henry replied coldly after a moment, the page under his pen nearly full.

Hyde paused, nose wrinkled in defensive chagrin. "I don't concern myself with counting the ways I can be used by others. At least my addictions don't rely on people telling me what to do," he muttered. "Are you done yet?"

Henry shook his head in stiff silence, much to Hyde’s dismay. He gave a frustrated groan. “You can pick this up tomorrow! It’s getting close to evening by now, and you always take so much longer with these things than you say you will."

Once the page was dry and flipped over, there was no reply but the continued, now noticeably forceful scratching of Henry’s pen. His brow was creased with irritation, a deepening frown on his face.

Hyde growled in frustration. “Jekyll!”

Henry grit his teeth, snapping a look over at Hyde that was a mixture of anger and anxiety. "Must you be so childish?! Don't think I don't know what you're doing by now, I am not as much of a fool as you seem to think. Why should I go out of my way to let you out again, when you have proven time and time again that you don't know how to keep your excursions from ruining everything I strive for?"

He could not stop the impatient edge from entering his voice, as much as he'd wanted to avoid raising it tonight. As he spoke, Hyde's features twisted into a mask of indignation and rage.

"You don't know the first thing about ruin! Try being in my position for a change- less than nothing, a ghost of a ghost! And for what? You have no idea how lucky you really are. My entire existence is eaten up by watching another man live a life I could do so much more with if I was given the chance!"

Jekyll shut the notebook with a forceful swipe of his hand down against the desk, eyes downcast. "I would love to see you try living my life for once," he replied flatly, "If perhaps you weren't so preoccupied with immediate gratification, maybe I'd even trust you with making an attempt."

"Perhaps if we had any more of that potion of ours made, I would be able to seriously debate if I wanted to take you up on that. But I am mostly stranded now, and it isn't my fault I wound up that way. You're the one who made that call." Hyde shot back, moving phantom-like toward the doorway that led to the other portion of the office, where many of their experiments had taken place.

Jekyll tucked the notebook into a drawer under his desk, slamming it closed in irritation. "Not your fault? I had to destroy it. You would have found some way to get your hands on it when I was needed most, because that is what you always do! You didn't give me another choice!"

Hyde's image distorted slightly for a moment, like smeared paint on canvas, before resolving itself, as if reacting physically to emotion. "There is always another choice! This is what I'm talking about. All or nothing. We are two parts of a whole, you know that. Or, at least you ought to by now."

His voice, as well, seemed faintly doubled, the translation of a will to be heard. "You need me around, you know you do, even if you can't admit it. How many times have you watched me indulge in what you couldn't? How many times have you deliberately sent me into the world to voice the thoughts you must otherwise claim to revile? How much benefit have you reaped from our cooperation? You can't keep me locked away forever. You will always need the outlet I provide."

Jekyll's head began to ache a bit the longer he considered Hyde's point. It was true, he knew, that he found a secret kind of fulfillment in watching things he could never partake in play out vicariously from behind Hyde's eyes. This was a fault, really, or at least he thought so. However, a fault that he had not managed to shake off, for the better part of fifteen years. It would take a lot of willpower to break a habit like that after so long. That was partly why he had destroyed the potion to begin with. He knew Hyde was probably right, that he was not really strong enough to resist the temptation of such freedom.

Technically, the potion could be recreated if it was necessary, though it was always an arduous process. They had needed to do that many times over a decade and a half. But Jekyll had cut himself off from that last ready-made batch as a last desperate bid for control, and had thought never to make it again.

Thinking about how much work still needed to be done before the lodgers' new project deadlines was a miserable uphill battle. Even now, deep down, he wanted to be somewhere else tonight, doing anything besides wearing himself out, cooped up in the office for the umpteenth time. Acknowledging that, even privately, felt like a betrayal of a higher caliber than even Hyde's, but the thought persisted even still.

He sighed. "Well...be that as it may, you are still an enormous liability. And, besides which- what do you even want me to do? What remained of that batch of the potion is gone now."

Hyde paused, and his expression shifted, from anger to mild disbelief, and finally into a smug, cheshire smile. "Well, I have been thinking about that, and I realized- it's not all gone," he moved toward the tall, solid wooden cabinet against the far wall of the office. It was the one Jekyll kept things that were risky to have visible behind glass (copies of the will written in his name, for instance.) It was also, Jekyll realized with dawning horror, where Hyde kept his physical set of clothing tucked away when Jekyll was in control.

Among them was a tattered overcoat, with two stolen vials of HJ-7 tucked into the inside pocket.

Enough for exactly one last night on the town before the potion would have to be remade entirely. A final obstacle in the way of true control. A pacifying bargaining chip to buy himself more time before the pair of them would argue like this again.

Hyde seemed to recognize the way Jekyll's eyes shifted in thinly-concealed conflict, bordering on panic, and if it was possible, his grin widened.

"You remember the night I went to Blackfog, don't you, Jekyll?"

#the glass scientists #fanfic #multichapter #Saying fuckit and just posting what i have bc yall waited so patiently #I have more on the way dont worry

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yourdemiurge · 1 year

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hello mady i am extremely late i just finished reading erik's chapter! this week's been so busy! I saw that you had updated and i was ripping my hair out because i couldn't find time to read but i finally did it today. I am proud to say that reading it has only made me rip out more of my hair I am confused, terrified, heartbroken, angry, gobsmacked, jumping out of the balcony because WHAT IS GOING ONNN AAAAA

the scene about the bird really had me screaming wtf!!! I was so confused why wille told erik he didnt love simon that one day and now it makes sense oh my god- (i really hope im not clowning) i had to go read chapter 4 again and the way wilhelm asked erik "why did you do that" makes sense nowwww I love how the everything's coming together this is so exciting MADY

THE CONVERSATION BETWEEN ERIK AND SARA TOOO OH MY GOD (again hope im not clowning that'll be very embarrassing when the fic comes to and end)

getting more insight about the characters is so interesting, loved the part about erik's hillerska days. I hate him now but that's okay he deserves it.

I legit wasn't suspicious of erik as much as i was in august but good lord you've just plucked my pea brain out and tossed it into an endless pit. i literally sat still staring at the wall for like 5 minutes after reading the chapter. I already had trust issues they are multiplied now.

the conversation of a royal wedding made me cry btw that was very heart wrenching i did not want that today (do it again i love sadness)

almost forgot to mention that i absolutely am in love with the chess metaphor! your writing is so freaking goooood

as usual, can't wait for more mady! i can't even imagine how good it'll feel to re-read the whole fic again once it's finished and find that the clues were there all along!

i also did a little something because i had time today 👉🏼👈🏼 I've been thinking about doing this for a while because i really love tdlp and i so badly wanted to make a cover! im not good but i tried! there's two with only a tiny difference, im leaving both of them here because i am extremely indesicive. they are really choppy tho rip my butter fingers (i legit had to give sara rhinoplasty because I accidentally erased half of her nose and noticed it a little too late💀) i also didn't add marcus i swear i thought about it i just couldn't bring myself to do it- anyways, hope you like them hehe💜 take care of yourself!

Hello, it's so nice to see you back in my asks! Your message has me 😭

I don't really know how to thank you enough for all the love you've shown for my works, especially TDLP. I mean, just look at this reaction! And those wonderful edits! You're amazing and very talented. I wonder if you have Twitter? I was hoping to share this.

But seriously, thank you so much 💜💜💜

Your interpretation of Erik is right so far, and I'm glad you read his very first POV chapter because it all relates to each other. Brace yourself for the next chapters, we've just gone up the rollercoaster and we're about to take the plunge soon.

#young royals #young royals fic

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away-ward · 10 months

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hi, i’ve always been too shy to comment or send asks before but i’m making this my first bc i wanted to let you know how much i appreciate your work! i read your hell yeah fanfic a couple of months ago & when i stumbled upon it again recently & found a whole master list worth of fanfics added, i was super ecstatic & read all of them in one go hahaha

my personal favourites are reality & arrival <3 reality bc their conversation in the carfax room was so in line w their characters, it just re-emphasised how much i wish we got more of willemmy outside of blackchurch. having a scene like that in nightfall would’ve really grounded them as a couple in the present. all the snippets from the first three books plus the high school chapters of willemmy were such good buildup only to have the willalexaydin bs instead 🤧 anyways, i have a soft spot for arrival too. to have the damon & indie dynamic play out like that makes so much sense! damon & will already have such a strong & unique bond so for will, of all his friends, to have the first girl in the group would definitely make their relationship extra special.

on a side note, your post abt aydin being a few years older than canon made me lose my shit btw since i completely agree 😩 whenever i’m in my devil’s night brain rot, i always pictured him like 6 years older especially w how penelope douglas was trying to portray aydin & emory together. oh & your timeline for the character’s ages made me happy! it never occurred to me for will to be the oldest of the horsemen (which i’ve seen a few ppl comment on). given his may birthdate, i just assumed he was born the following year after michael, kai, & damon were. i mean, it makes sense right?? he’s the baby of the four. i could be wrong but then that would mean damon is the youngest which i refuse to imagine for some reason given all the shit he’s been up to 💀

this post is getting longer than i expected & i could probably continue rambling on but i just wanted to thank you again for your contribution 🙏🏽 this fandom has practically a drought in fan fiction unless it’s for second gen but seeing as kaibanks & willemmy (my biases) were done dirty in the series, your account has truly been such a gem to follow.

It’s nice to hear from you!! I’ve definitely been on the fence about whether to reach out to someone or not but I’m so happy that you decided to leave this message. It really made my day.

I feel that ‘reality’ is the closest I’ve ever come to getting Em and Will right. I also a snuck in a few references that are dear to me, so it’s special in my eyes, despite its needed edits. It was originally a request, so I can’t take all the credit for it, but I’m just so I’m happy that it’s one of your favs.

And ‘arrival’ has been a personal HC of mine for a long time. It took me a while to get out onto a page, so it’s great to hear that it’s struck home with others too.

A lot of my fics are borne out of that ‘we didn’t get to see this in the book but we should have’ and ‘what would have happened if…?’ feeling. Having had the chance to speak to other fans, I know I’m not alone in that, so it’s nice that so many people are finding my fics...fulfilling? I know other writers could do better, but until then, I’m happy to be around to fill a void.

Ahhh! The aydin age thing! Thank you! Anytime Aydin’s age is brought up in NF I’m like, ‘no you’re lying. You’re, like, 32/33.” But nope. He’s 26???? smh. Missed opportunity. It could have done so much for his character to just age him up a bit.

Regarding the timeline…as much as I would have loved for Will to the oldest…I think he is the baby. For clarification, I think Michael, Kai, and Damon were born in 1994 and Will in 1995. I didn’t want to give actual years in the post because I think the vibe that PD was going for was a timeless/infinite ‘this could be taking place at any point in time’. except for the points where they put in things that would date the books, the years and timing were purposefully left vague. I didn’t want to take that away by giving concrete dates. But I stayed up til an ungodly hour on a work night, going over this stupid timeline with a friend who has never read the series because trying to untangle it in my head was driving me absolutely nuts. So I had to record it somewhere.

In the chart, they all start the school year the same age* and then end the school year the same age, but within that nine months, it goes Michael, Kai, Damon all before Devil’s Night on October 30th, the new year, and finally Will in May.

That being said, at one point we did get stuck on whether Will was actually the oldest and I loved what it did for his character too. If at some point, he got held back a grade, it would go to why he’s a bit insecure, feels like he’s the dumbest in the group, and doesn’t trust himself to act on his own. I kinda wish Will had some sort of learning disability like dyslexia or ADHD because I think it would contribute to his lack of interest in school and strengthen his addiction storyline. None of that is canon and I don’t HC that it is. I just kinda wish it was there…

But according to my calculations, Will is the baby of the group, and of his family. That, along with his privilege, can also explain why he is the why he is.

Also Damon being the youngest would be hilarious and I wish it were so.

No worries, I as a wordy rambler myself, I appreciate everything you had to say. Feel free to drop by any time. I talk way too much, but it’s nice to get this devil’s night brain rot, as you so accurately termed, out to others who understand.

Thank you so much for your message and have a great day!

*well, if the school year starts in August, which some places in the US do. Others start in September, in which case, Michael will already be the next age up at the start of the year.

#asked and answered #devil's night series stuff #the horsemen of devil's night #my writing #timeline #ages #asked and answered 14

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vintageseawitch · 1 year

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i don't think i will ever recover from the fact that eddie boi disabled bella's truck so she couldn't drive to see jacob because what if she needed it for emergency reasons not related to this?????

i know it's not the worst thing that anyone could do (not that this is a contest, mind). i can't decide if it's the worst thing eddie boi has done throughout the series... but you know what? maybe it could just be another red flag to add to the list of red flags he demonstrated throughout this outrageous franchise. like, it makes me angry how forgiving bella is towards him esp when he does shit like this. i get that bella has her own set of problems, low self-esteem amongst them (on top of problematic shit she does but that's not the point of this specific post). obvs her mind & experiences & age aren't the same as mine but like... glob, i like quite a bit of this franchise & while i like eddie being angry on bella's behalf when she was sa'd by jacob, that doesn't excuse his emotional abusive tendencies (plus i get angry - esp when reminded of the exact circumstances of the "kiss" in the book - thank you fellow rattie in the TSP group on fb for the reminder because it seems like my brain doesn't want to remember the exact details of that disgusting scene despite having read the books again recently - that bella accepts jacob's graduation "gift" & fucking WEARS IT PROUDLY BECAUSE HE'S HER BFF WTF THEY ALL NEED THERAPY).

like, this is personal. if in 1918 eddie was 17 then that means he was born almost 40 years before my paternal grandfather. i never knew my grandpa as anything other than a kind, gentle man. even though i knew he did some not-so-great things (TW PLEASE BE MINDFUL... he was never a predator if you catch my drift, but he also wasn't perfect even if his behavior towards my paternal grandmother - whom i sadly wasn't able to meet due to her passing from illness before i was born - was typical of the times. not that it excuses anyone from this behavior but i hope you understand where i'm coming from), he also had the capacity to LEARN. my uncle told me about a conversation he had with him when my uncle was in his later 20s regarding a personal matter & long story short my grandpa did a whole fucking 180° turn. a little before i was born my grandfather became the gentle, caring man i knew throughout my adolescence & eventual early(ish) adulthood up until his passing 5 years ago. i don't hate him for what he was because he had the fucking strength to completely change his behavior. like, i think he would be HORRIFIED if he ever learned of his kids & grandkids doing certain things - especially things he once did.

(i'm all over the place with my posts like this but that's just how my brain is & editing is just not what we do here lmao so if you're still here i appreciate it)

basically, one of things my grandpa did back in the day was disable my grandma's car (this post isn't for me to hate on my grandpa fyi; it's to emphasize the immense strength he had to change this problematic way of being that so many of his generation absolutely refused to do) in order for her to not hang out with her bff (whom was a woman & no one has ever talked about the possibility that my grandma swung in that direction again if you catch my drift lol (like, no one has ever suggested that she was suspected of cheating or anything, ya know? my grandpa simply didn't like her bff which makes it weirder since he married that bff a few years after my grandma passed because apparently that's what "looking out for each other" meant but again, not the point of this post lol) - btw i identify as bi & i will be forever sad that i wasn't able to come out to my grandma (she was extremely catholic but she sounded so nice & i feel like she would have been a safe person to talk to??? 🥺) let alone find out if she swung that way too lmao). like, this makes me so fucking ANGRY on my grandma's behalf, & it's not just because of how personal it is, but because of how COMMON it is, & not just from men (or people since men aren't the only ones capable of such abusive tendencies obvs but seeing as how most are men... yeah). i truly don't want to victim blame & i can't blame bella for her response since she doesn't seem to realize certain things she's become accustomed to are actually problematic & abusive but also WTFFFFF i LOOOOOATHE that she kept her damn window open despite her being justifiably angry at her boundary-smashing bf.

so basically TL;DR lol: it was fucking disgusting that eddie boi disabled bella's truck & it was fucking disgusting that smeyers wrote her as being so lacking in backbone that she forgave him IMMEDIATELY. i HATE that i sound like I'm victim-blaming here because smeyers made sure to write bella in that way ekbfijdrhjrjekd it's fuckingn GROSS. i don't WANT to victim-blame & i also don't want bella to be with someone with not just despicable tendencies but also the LACK of being able to change, grow, & become a better person (like my grandpa was able to do!!! despite the generation he was from!!!!!!! maybe i'm biased but those kinda stories aren't exactly common ya know?????) EVEN ON HER BEHALF.

can you imagine how he'd be if bella remained human????? great fucking Balrog of the Mines of Moria nothing like seeing smeyers continue to have eddie boi display disturbing stalker tendencies because tRuE lOvE gtfo lol

ps i loved my grandpa & am proud of the steps he took to become a better person. i just wanted to emphasize how very personal this all is to me why i obsess over it. this is not the first time i say this nor will it be the last - i basically like almost everything else that's happening OUTSIDE of the main "love triangle" since i don't like how smeyers wrote bella or edward or jacob (post bella "totally not unaliving herself per alice's vision" ofc since he was actually tolerable before this) & felt like sharing this & i wanted to vent & i don't feel comfortable doing this elsewhere. okay thxbyeeee~

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arhvste · 4 years

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❝bokuto, atsumu, suna and aran introducing their s/o in an interview❞

bokuto koutarō

→ E X C I T E D

→ why wouldn’t he be though?

→ he gets to finally introduce his wonderful s/o to the world

→ when his pr team gave him the green light, he didn’t hesitate

→ “ah bokuto! great playing today, might we ask who this is beside you?”

→ “this is y/n! aren’t they good-looking?! i’ve found myself a keeper huh?”

→ rambles on and on about you

→ no off switch

→ “so uh bokuto, do you mind talking to us about your opinion on your game performance today?”

→ “yeah lemme just finish telling you about this time y/n and i went on extreme fishing abroad! 🤩”

→ reporters are kinda like 😀 while he talks about you

→ fans are o b s e s s e d

→ #bokuy/n #stany/n #couplegoals are trending

→ twitter LOVE y’all

→ they love that bokuto doesn’t give af about what the reporters are saying 💀

→ he only seems to want to talk about you right now

→ it’s not like he’s purposely doing it though

→ he’s been wanting to talk about you for so long he’s just excited he’s finally allowed to

→ when you guys meet fans after the interview bokuto stops to chat to every single one

→ they love yourself and bokuto’s dynamic and laugh and joke with the two of you

→ a TON of group fan photos

→ bokuto fans are now y/n fans too

→ they literally decide you and bokuto will be married some day so they might aswell stan now

→ they’re gonna be looking out for you in future appearances with him

→ and you can bet yer ass that bokuto is gonna bring you along and show you off every chance he gets

→ fans are well fed by bokuto and it’s a fact

miya atsumu

→ literally almost fought with his pr team when they told him to wait a bit before introducing you to the public

→ “miya, your fangirls will most likely react badly if you introduce them right now.”

→ “yeah and? let em 🙄”

→ atsumu IGNORES his pr team and does it anyway cause he thinks it’s stupid about worrying what his fans will think

→ it’s not their decision who he dates 😡

→ anyways, he brings you on a talk show interview

→ “good evening miya-san, and whos this youve brought along with you?”

→ “this is y/n, aint they gorgeous?”

→ he is SHAMELESS about flirting with you on air

→ “yer so stunning tonight ya know? just wait till we get home 😏”

→ “m-miya-san! i think we should edit that out...”

→ fans have mixed reactions tbh

→ ya can’t please everyone ig

→ atsumu couldn’t give two shits though 😹

→ this man LIKES AND RETWEETS fans that are bashing other ones for not stanning them as a couple 💀

→ his pr team won’t stop ringing his phone to stop

→ doesn’t care at all, he’s always been transparent with how he likes his fans to behave why would this be any different?

→ in the end, more people start to stan after they see how seriously he’s taking this

→ since he genuinely seems to care and love you, they suppose they can stan y’all as a couple 😐

→ i’m sorry you guys aren’t trending the same way bokuto and his s/o were though 😹

→ give it a month though and a few magazine covers together and you have everyone wrapped round your finger and his fans start to like you more 🤪

→ more than atsumu in fact

→ because you’re so nice to his fans they just kinda convert 💀

→ atsumu doesn’t really mind tbh he’s just glad that you’ve been accepted and he doesn’t have to worry about people stepping too much out of line

suna rintarō

→ another one who doesn’t really care

→ he doesn’t exactly go out of his way to hide you but you guys aren’t big on pda either

→ suna leaves his fans GUESSING and doesn’t even know it

→ his fans literally s c a v e n g e for any little detail or anything about you because you and suna rarely go out and make a big scene

→ y’all are probably just grabbing lunch and his fans have several conspiracies over who you are what what the two of you are doing

→ it’s a whole big thing on his side of the twitter stans

→ suna doesn’t know about this because he’s not even on his own side of twitter 💀

→ suna’s timeline is a ton of stuff to do with gaming because i know this man streams with kenma sometimes

→ y’all can’t tell me that these two wouldn’t stream together and have an elite friendship after the timeskip 😡

→ and somehow suna made it onto barb stan twitter

→ no clue how he got there but he’s not mad about it because he thinks they’re funny af and is now a secret barb himself

→ anyways, eventually the two of you are caught on the street by an interviewer

→ and suna’s just there answering their questions like this 😐

→ he just wants to go grab some milk from the store with you can the reporters just gO away 😡

→ attention is then turned to you after the irrelevant small talk the interviewer had with suna

→ “oh ahahah just wondering... who’s this with you we’ve all been dying for an answer!”

→ “huh? you have? why? it’s just y/n my s/o it’s not that deep bro 🥱”

→ he doesn’t make a fuss about it and neither do you because like suna said it’s not that deep

→ the interviewer is just like 👁👁 and then thanks you and leaves

→ well that was easy wasn’t it?

→ that answers their months worth of questioning ig

→ you and suna later discover about the ongoing theories as to who you are and what you are to suna

→ from then on, the two of you MESS with his fans and constantly leave them guessing as to whether you’re together fr or not because y’all think it’s funny how much they care💀

aran ojiro

→ his pr team don’t even tell him to keep you from the public

→ this man is going to introduce you respectfully and properly and they know this

→ one of the few pro athletes who don’t need to have their social life kept on a leash because he goes the right way about it 😎

→ he brings you along to a magazine interviewing when you tell him that you’re comfortable with going public

→ oh btw, absolutely NO pressure from him to go public everything’s done in your own time

→ mf KING 😡🤚

→ straight away he’s making sure that this interview is based on your relationship rather than just him

→ “hey everyone, this is y/n my partner! they’re going to be joining me today!”

→ the interviewers LOVE you both

→ absolute dream to work with you guys

→ your dynamic is 🧑🏽‍🍳😙👌

→ every so often there’s a question about a recent games he includes you 😼

→ “so regarding your recent game, how well do you think you performed?”

→ “i think i was okay but definitely not at my best, it comes across differently watching from the sidelines though doesnt it! y/n, how did ya think i played from watching from yer perspective?”

→ see !! this man is including you every chance he gets 😩

→ fans adore you

→ literally deem you their parents 😎

→ just like bokuto, aran is wonderful to his fans

→ talks to every single one of them because he was raised to acknowledge anyone who politely acknowledges him

→ has full on conversations with as many fans as he can with you

→ tells them mf STORIES about the two of you and how you met etc

→ his meet and greet is literally story time with aran and y/n

→ fans are quiet and all stand around the two of you as you both tell little stories and stuff about your relationship

→ again, so many group photos

→ you guys literally become the parents of his fanbase

→ some fans are already planning your wedding for you on twitter 💀

→ aran doesnt mind though

→ cause he might just take a few of their ideas when he marries you for real 😏

general taglist → @atsumuwoah @bloody-bella @bbymilkbread @miracleboy420 @doggonudez @atsunakaashi @peteunderoos @saturnfarie @toffees-main @zumisace @boosyboo9206 @totorosleaff @27kei @babyybokutoakaashi

please send an ask to be added / removed from my taglist

ALL CONTENT BELONGS TO @KUROOSKULT ON TUMBLR 2020 PLEASE DO NOT REPOST, CHANGE OR PLAGIARISE

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swinging-stars-from-satellites · 3 years

Text

idk how many people would even want to see this BUT i wanna yell about Leela and Brax so here's a list of all their scenes togethr/scenes pertainng to them that i can recall (pLEASE add on if i missed anything/ you have any additional thoughts!! i could talk about these two all day!)

right off the bat in Weapon of Choice when Leela is on the outskirts of the Citadel and Brax goes to bring her back (which is interesting in and of itself, bc usually i would imagine a chancellery guard would go do that so what made Brax decide to instead??), Leela kinda goes off at him bc she's hurting and instead of trying to actually explain what's going on Brax doesn't even try to argue he just says "we need you" which is great bc Leela has that instinctive desire to be needed and to help people and he's speaking right to that -- also as far as we know, this is Leela and Brax's first actual meeting in canon? it's implied that they know of each other, which makes sense, but it doesn't seem like they've ever directly interacted before: Brax seems almost slightly uncertain, and Leela is combative, but when he's gentle with her she's actually quite receptive

the literal next scene after that, where the OT4 is all in one room for the first time (they still kinda hate each other at this point but still !!!). Narvin explaining Gryben and being a real jerk about it and Leela (understandibly!) questions if Gryben is a prison world, and Brax (who to this point has been mostly quiet as Narvin and Romana brief Leela) jumps in to both clarify Narvin's previous xenophobic statements while also maintaining the inherent questionable/negative connotations

(btw it's actually pretty important to note that Romana self-edits herself a lot when talking to Leela, especially in the earlier seasons; you can actually hear her revising the things she says to put it in terms that she thinks Leela will better understand. and i mean she does it out of genuine consideration for her friend associate but it often comes across as varying levels of patronizing. Narvin also obviously "dumbs things down" when dealing with Leela early on, but like... Brax never does that on any level. the only difference i can tell in how he addresses Leela vs how he talks to anybody else is that he seems much more kind with her than almost anyone else???)

their conversation about the Matrix in The Inquiry: this is REALLY important (and if you've ever talked to me on ao3 i've probably gone off to you about it lol) because it's layered. they're talking about the Matrix but they're also not because in answering Leela's question Brax is making a very thinly veiled allegory (which he outright states a minute later) to Time Lord society/politicians/most importantly HIMSELF -- he's actually strangely open about his morals/beliefs in this scene and i'm living for it tbh -- and i find it very interesting that even though he does directly explain what he means ("how do you know all this?" / "because i am a politician.") he also leaves it for Leela to work out the implications. like it's a very nuanced conversation bc there's double meaning in it and most people on Gallifrey seem to think that Leela is tone-deaf and can't pick up on that stuff (even Romana sometimes oversimplifies things to her) but Brax totally just lets her take from it what she will bc he believes her intelligent enough to understand. he doesn't think her any lesser because she's human.

ALSO on a secondary note to the above: the fact that Leela has a question/needed clarification (sorry, haven't listened to this in a while i forget how it actually happened) and actively sought out Brax to talk to about it?? like she knows Romana better she could have gone to her but i feel like Leela kinda imprinted on Brax and someone she can go to for help if she needs it; maybe it's partly bc she knows he's under marginally less pressure than Romana is but also the truth of the matter is that Brax was the most genuinely helpful person to her in the previous stories and that probably means a lot to her (esp. bc he acts like the essence of everything she hates about Gallifrey but he doesn't treat her the way she would expect from that). btw this topic is gonna come up again in a hot minute

that part where Brax gives her that information that might help her re: the Andred thing, even though he really probably shouldn't have done that -- it kinda makes me think about what he must have been like with Theta tbh???

actually this is mostly my own conjecture but there's some neat stuff in Spirit bc during the *waves hand vaguely* bodyswap dream sequence thing, Romana is very "!!!! Brax can help us !!!" which is tecnically Leela brain talking, so like there's the implications of the stuff i've said above about Leela having this idea of Brax where she knows he's someone she can go to for help

can u tell i'm soft for them

Leela sounding really sad/distracted when she talks about how Brax isn't there YES i'm grasping at straws but a lot of this relationship really is conveyed through the voice acting bc of how little direct focus there is on the characters. there's actually several scenes in Mindbomb where she mentions him and she outright says that she misses him during her discussion with Matthias

that implied scene with them in Mindbomb!! i have a Lot of thoughts about that!!! it's all conjecture and fanfic fodder!!! but the reason i mention this is because it seems pretty meta that out of the whole Gally Gang, it's Leela who first sees Brax when he comes back to Gallifrey and in turn she's the first person (besides Matthias, i guess) that he sees upon his return?? idk i just feel like that's somehow a meaningful detail??? also her reaction of utter shock after spending the entire episode missing him and how worked up she is when she tries to tell Romana, like I desperately need to know what happened in this missing scene MR RICHARDS PLEASE TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED

Leela insisting on going with Brax when Pandora starts hurting him and their whole conversation there is just. so good. like they're both just so soft and then when Darkel comes in Leela instantly goes into protective mode. like they just have such an open relationship bc Brax doesn't even try to be all pretentious with her, like he doesn't even try to keep up any facades when he's with her he's just very genuine and it really says a lot about both of them -- Leela is so good at seeing people, like getting down to the core of who people are and what makes them them (which is why she's good for Romana, btw, bc Romana has a lot of identity issues) and Brax is so tangled up in who he presents himself as that he barely knows who he actually is anymore but Leela can see that and she makes it so he can truly be himself and he doesn't have to hide. also she's so gentle with him when they talk about Pandora, she's very caring and empathetic and wants to make sure he's okay and i am WEAK

it's been a hot while since i listened to Panacea but I think i remember Brax being really soft with Leela when he first brings the gang to the Axis, like just sounding really glad to see her

ok other than the fact that Brax is lowkey relatable in Reborn (daydreaming fanfic about yourself/people you know? simping for Mary Tamm Romana? yeah mood, my man) there's that scene where they're first appraoching the Citadel on the alt!Gallifrey and it seems like none of them, and Brax specifically, have seen it from the outside in a good long while bc he's very in awe and he tells Leela that he wishes she could see it and he sounds sO hEcKiNg sOFT oh my word-

and once again with Leela thinking of Brax as someone she trusts for help: in Dissassembled when everything is going to crap she straight-up says that she wants to go find Brax bc he'll know what to do/be able to help

at the beginning of Annihilation when Romana is depressed and questioning if Brax truly was her friend and Leela INSTANTLY, NO HESITATION assures her that he was; i lost where i had her exact lines written down but she actually kinda goes off to make sure Romana gets the point

literally forcing myself to talk about this bc it makes my brain stall out but like,,, the Brax Hound in Annihilation,,, Leela being like "goodbye, Braxiatel... again" she sounds so sad and like UGH i always kinda forget how sad it actually is for them to lose Brax in Dissassembled bc like, it was so sudden and they didn't get to say goodbye and Leela is always losing people and i have many many feels about this scene and how all that emotion is made very clear in how they each respond to the Hound (might make a separate post abt this later if anyone is interested ::eyes::)

Enemy Lines is utter bullcrap about these two and I will never stop being salty about how they not only sidelined the very good, very subtle friendship they had in s1-4, but they??? made Leela acutally not trust Brax??? when literally this entire time she's been the one person who probably genuinely trusts him the most?? what the heck, David

I haven't heard TW3 or 4 yet but i'm assuming there's nothing worthwhile in those with regards to this duo (correct me if i'm wrong tho lol, i would love to be mistaken in this assumption)

TL;DR Leela and Brax mututally imprinted on each other and have probably the most open and healthy relationship within the OT4 and it is an absolute CRIME that nobody besides Gary Russell and Justin Richards cared enough to actually build on it in canon

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dr3amofagame · 3 years

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the amount of angst in the post-prison writing you did just gave me massive post-prison dream brainrot and i'm just. sitting here thinking about how sam dealt with the curious looks and glances and having to face what's he's done as a warden. and everyone else's reaction to everything because hey, maybe the prison WAS a torture chamber that nobody deserves to be locked in to be treated like utter trash.

(btw i love your writing and analysis! they give me so much life :DD)

thank you anon!! this universe is ,, Fun ,, im ngl -> have this continuation of it, w/ sapnap and sam!! it’s a bit messy but oh well

(edit: i added these two asks as well bc they fit and i thought it’d be a bit redundant to rewrite this scene lmao -> the implication that dream’s admissions abt exile mightve been the result of ,, torture is. uh. yikes.)

(This one is DARK, please heed the warnings)

TW: PHYSICAL/EMOTIONAL ABUSE (heavy warning for this one), starvation, toxic relationship, manipulation, references to the prison and exile, c!sam/warden!sam critical, violence, blood, dark themes, emotional distress, child abuse, torture

“Be honest,” Sapnap starts, quiet. “What did you do?”

Sam opens his mouth - hesitates, looks away. He should’ve known that his vague words and half-explanations that had been enough to push away most of the crowd - or at least, postpone the conversation for later - wouldn’t have been nearly enough to convince the man standing in front of him, but a part of him must’ve hoped, anyway. He’s not ready to speak, not ready to admit anything to himself, never mind someone else entirely - but ‘ready’ doesn’t matter, not when Sapnap is right here, waiting.

(He ignores how ‘ready’ didn’t matter for Dream when Sam had gone in, that first time, pick in hand and nothing but questions and rage spinning in an endless cycle in his mind, whirling together into something incomprehensible, insatiable, vicious - he’s not thinking about it.

He can’t think about it.)

“Well?” Sapnap’s voice raises, impatience coloring his tone, and it’s almost enough to draw a chuckle to Sam’s lips - he’d always been a little overeager, not doing well with silence, waiting, even as a kid. It’s part of the reason why he got along with Dream so well, Dream jumping at the chance to spend time with someone that didn’t shut him down for rambling and Sapnap simply excited at the chance to have someone that would join him on his hare-brained schemes instead of dismissing him as a dumb kid- and oh. Right.

The scrunch of his face is the same, Sam realizes, absently, as the expression Sapnap had when he was little; it’s the same crease between his eyebrows, the same slight jut to his bottom lip. Even with a new scar decorating his left jaw and the shadows under his eyes and collection of faint wrinkles belying his stress, he doesn’t look all that different - still looks young, a kid playing dress up in armor too big and too war-torn to belong to him. It’s easy to forget, but even after all the wars they’ve fought, even with all of the combat experience he’s had, Sapnap’s still barely twenty - only a few weeks out of being a teenager.

(He crushes the thought of what that makes Dream - he’s not. Thinking. About. It.)

“Hello? Earth to Sam?” Sapnap snaps his fingers in front of his face, and Sam blinks away the memories, the guilt, boxing it up and filing it neatly away to deal with - later. Never, ideally.

“Are you going to answer my question?”

Only later is now, there’s no escaping this conversation, and Sam. Really doesn’t want to be talking about this, right now. Sapnap fidgets, leaning on his right foot and then his left and then rocking back again - the feeling is mutual, then, but he knows the look in the younger’s eye well enough to know that neither of them are leaving without an explanation leaving Sam’s lips.

(Netherite and iron and smoke, bloodstained pickaxe tipping up a gaunt face, hand reaching around a too-prominent jawline with bruising force - are you going to answer my question, prisoner? Or are we going to have to do this again?

He’s not-

He can’t-)

“I-,” guilt, thick and heavy, circles his throat, chokes the words rising in his mouth. What can he even say? Can words really capture the sweat-slick desperation, the bubbling lava and heat and smoke stealing away all breath and thought, leaving nothing but a humming buzz of rage burning, hissing, begging for release? Can he really describe the endless darkness and weight settling on his shoulders, the hard edges and jagged fear taking anything soft, anything kind? Words swim in the back of his throat, try to reach his teeth, fall short; bloodstained memories haunt the back of his eyelids every time he blinks; there is so much, too much, to say, and yet nothing at all.

How does he even start?

There is no sympathy on Sapnap’s face when Sam looks, but there isn’t any cruelty either, just dark, watching eyes, lips thin and pressed together, jaw clamped shut, tense. Indifference, or a pale imitation of it, meant to hide the mess of his hair, the tremble in his hands, the helpless, desperate thing growing in his pupils. Sam understands and wishes he doesn’t; regrets, and wonders if he has the right, anymore.

“It- started, as an interrogation,” Sam stumbles over his words, stares at his hands because looking at Sapnap’s face will be too much, is too much. “I was angry. The prisoner- Dream- was desperate. That cell-” he shakes his head, remembers obsidian in his hands, remembers tearing away carpet, paintings, plants, remembers leaving the box bareboned, desolate, a cage and nothing more, “It messes with you. Screws with your head. I knew it, he knew it, but I guess we didn’t realize- I guess I didn’t realize-”

(Blood and crunching bone and shrill screams - tell me what you did to him-)

“I needed information. He wasn’t talking. I got- heated, and he laughed, and something- snapped, I guess.”

(I’ll tell you I’m sorry please please sam stop please)

“All I had on me was a pickaxe. He wasn’t talking, I was desperate - angry - I needed to know. I didn’t-”

(I just knew I needed to drag him away, he was ruining everything, he was destroying everything, I just needed him to leave before he brought down the whole damn server with him - the tnt was supposed to be a one time thing)

“It was supposed to be- one time. Was never supposed to happen, at all. But I guess I got mad - for me? For Tommy? I don’t- I don’t know, and it was- easy, you know? Take away the clock, one day. Give him less potatoes the next.”

(It was easy to do it again, I guess, mess with his invitations a little, take some of his stuff. There was nobody around but me and him and he’d ruined so much, he’d messed everything up - I thought that maybe if I took away his armor enough, he wouldn’t be able to go back. He wouldn’t ruin everything.)

“He’d done- so much. He was so awful to Tommy, to everyone- I thought I could prevent that. I thought maybe if I broke him enough, he wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone again. I renamed the pickaxe Will Breaker, to remind me, to remind him, I don’t know. I-”

Sam laughs, tired, poisonous, ignoring the way Sapnap whispers, stricken, looking at his hands and seeing nothing but red. Dream’s face, bruised, bloody, but glimmering with something almost like satisfaction comes to mind - and oh. Oh.

(Bloodstained teeth twisted in a bitter smile - Sam, I thought I had to.)

He gets it now. He wishes he didn't.

“I thought- ha-” His hand comes up to his face - he’s crying. When did he start crying? ”I thought I had to.”

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chris-spacehere · 3 years

Text

WAKE UP GIRL, QUACKITY FINALLY DROPPED LORE

AND IT WAS A W E S O M E.

So as your local quackity fan i’ll spill all the tea of why i loved this. (btw this all /rp)

- THE INTRO:

First, the countdown instead of the club pinguin ‘starting soon’ image was obviously for thrill emotions, but it stroke fear, the countdown felt like you were watching the final countdown till the end of the world, the music in the background? CHEF KISS, it felt so calm yet so alarming and it gave the hype to what was bound to happen.

- LAS NEVADAS.

We still don’t have a look at the nevadas but here, look at bbh and quackity conversation. It lets us know while quackity ain’t doin business, he has been messing with the eggpire, he did get in their ways, and it’s awesome to be able to infer it just by words, I JUST LOVE IT when we don’t see an action but we see someone mention it and that let’s us infer stuff or sometimes discover something at the same time than the characters.

Bbh actuation was so good, you could see he was doing a voice, an accent, he was doing it with passion too, and all this makes me more excited for the red banquet (aka: manberg festival 3: stranger things kinnies)

- G L A T T

The bit with schlatt was awesome and i think this is the first time quackity sees glatt, i also saw a big ass character growth in quackity. in first season, he responded to ‘flatty patty’ by sending a bad edited meme on twitter, season 3 and he just responds with a threatening face, yelling and standing up for himself. CHARACTER GROWTH BABY.

- businnes with sam

This part man, THIS PART

The actuation was sooo good, Sam popped off here, big q popped off the whole stream, and like, when he kept bringing up how sam let tommy die, bringing up the security issue, and MAN, when sam said ‘i did my job, my job is keep dream in there, not keep the visitors alive’ IT WAS AWESOME BECAUSE YOU COULD SEE HE WAS SAYING THAT IN A WAY HE IS STILL GULTY ABOUT TOMMY’S DEATH BUT HE WANTS TO DENY IT.

- Did he win the bet?

He probably lost the bet, as soon as they make the bet, we cut to big q asking for the book, which was the prize is schlatt won and again THEY LEAVE US TO INFERENCE WHAT HAPPENED AND I LOVE IT. He seems too dedicated to getting the knowledge of the book but on the other hand, he wants dream to suffer (which is valid as fuck, dream deserves P A I N) for all he has done, he was actually the first one to realize dream was the roots of all problems! he knew this since before season 2 finale, he is a smart-ass and you will all respect him.

Plus imagine the aftermath of he getting the book, he would become one of the most powerful people actually, (next to foolish who could just grab his children and revive people but he is too busy finding the hole on the roof) the bets dude THE BETS. ‘if you win, i bring him back, if you loose, you give me all your stuff, deal?’ IMAGINE THAT, PHIL WOULD JUST FUCKING GO BROKE TRYING TO REVIVE WIL.

- Final act.

He is shown coming back, out of prision and looking at the el rapids sign, plus i love the way he edited all those flashbacks to happier days and then cut to showing us his skin, filled with blood AND AGAIN, THE INFERENCING GAME FUCK YEAAAAAH I LOVE WHEN HE DOES THAT. and the way he cuts off his friends faces first and then the fiances, only leaving him, as he destroys el rapids? CHILLS, LITERAL CHILLS, the old quackity is gone, he has finally been blinded by power and rage, he has finally gone mad and then he goes back and RIPS OFF HIMSELF to proof the old quackity is finally gone and holly shiit the next part, WHEN HE GRABS IT LIKE A PAPER AND RIPS IT OFF, then the calendar, THAT SHIT SCARED ME ‘visit dream, visit dream, visit dream’ it was just visit dream and torture him AND HE BETTER DO THAT BECAUSE THAT GREEN BITCH DESERVES FATE WORSE THAN DEATH. and then he puts the tiny shit of billars or however they are named, THIS FEELS LIKE A MARVEL MOVIE POST-CREDIT SCENE, IT WAS SO GREATLY DONE AND I LOVED IT TO THE FUCKING TOP.

- Aftermath

There will obviously be an aftermath to his actions as with events like the red banquet, and the inevitable return of wilbur and escape from dream, like that mf gonna snap quackity as soon as he sees him, plus i’ve seen awesome theories relating quackity with the in-between, there will obviously be a connection with the fiances and karl and all the time travel stuff sometime, the casino, glatt etc. this man will get fucked sometime.

Also quick note: techno and dream are the most powerful people of the server and the only times they have been in genuine fer was because of this man, so yall better take him seriously because he has made gods plead for mercy. (not foolish tho, again, my man is busy finding the hole on the roof, he has got no time to do godly stuff)

uHHhH thx for reading, reblogs r apreciated, just sayiiin.

#dream smp #dsmp #dreamsmp #quackity #mcyt #big q #dream smp quackity #dsmp quackity #pog trough the pain #just killed an old man with heart problems

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mimiwrites2000 · 3 years

Note

3,5, 18, 20 and 23 for the ask game uwu♡

omg thank you so much for the ask!!

alright let’s get started! this answer is so long omg

Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

OH MY GOD LFJALFJA

Ok I basically love to explain these tiny details in my stories but I never do coz that would be lame, I think

Ok so, Legends is filled with symbolisms and a ton shit of foreshadowing, and I can’t really talk about them coozzz I don’t wanna spoil anything. But basically, every single line of every conversation has a future consequence, AND OH GOD I JUST FEEL LIKE THE SMARTEST BITCH IN THIS TOWN LMAO OK OK I’LL STOP

Alright sooo most of the metaphors I use are from real life experiences\emotions. I have notebooks where I write these emotions that happens for short moments, (coz I can’t risk forgetting about them)

One of them, is a sentence from Legends, chapter 13

Armin licked his lips, and he tasted salt, as if he kissed the ocean.

I wrote this line in 2019, before I even started writing Legends. I was on vacation, and just chilling by the beach, I licked my lips, and I felt like I kissed the ocean, so, with a sketch book in hand, I wrote that line, a year later or so, I used that line in Legends

Here’s the line btw, I know I have bad handwriting plz don’t judge

And also I tried to sketch Armin lmao

Anyway yeah, every emotion, is coming from a place within me, and I think that’s the reason why Legends means so much to me

here’s something else that I wrote in the same day in that sketch book:

The feeling on tiny waves bumping softly up against my feet. The air ruffling my clothes. The sea is trying to put me to sleep.

I’m so dramatic I know

What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would

An Aruani musician AU, I have a scene of Annie, singing on stage, for the first time, singing a love song, as Armin watches in the crowd.

It’s a long ass musician AU that I wrote a rough outline for it, but to be honest I don’t think I’ll ever get around to write it, even though I REALLY want to write this scene gkhajghd

What character that you’re writing do you most identify with?

Both Armin and Annie, and that is the reason I’ve been only writing them for over a year now.

I identify with Annie way too much, much more than I do with Armin.

I guess yall can kinda guess what kinda person I am LMAO

Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.

YES!

In Legends, Mr. Leonhart personality is supposed to be the complete opposite.

In the story, he doesn’t accept Annie’s feelings for Armin, and he’s so adamant that her happiness is in spending the rest of her life with him. (but, hey, don’t hate him, he finally reunited with his daughter after 9 years, and he feels so guilty, he wants to kind of force redeem himself, he’s too scared of losing her again.)

But, in my original draft, he was very accepting of Armin, and I even had a scene in my mind (that is still yet to come in the story) where he walks on them making out in the kitchen, and he either tells his worst dad joke or just walks right out with no comment, and then teasing them the next morning.

In my current version of the story… things don’t go like that.

But here’s the reason behind all this drastic change in character.

A very important plot was added last minute to the story.

The whole Annie losing her memory because of Eren and her father’s plan was NOT supposed to be in the story.

I was already 30k words in when I first published the first chapter, and my plan was to post the chapters as is, without any editing, buttt then, after posting a few chapters, I came up with the idea of Eren altering Annie’s memories… and, well, based on that, Mr. Leonhart character had to be completely changed.

And if you’ve been keeping up with Legends, you would notice that I used to post almost every week for the first month and a half or so, then every three weeks, and now, every few months, and it’s because of this plot change, I basically had to rewrite the story all over again, which is probably the best decision I’ve made in my life, but that’s a whole other topic and this answer is already getting too long.

What’s the story idea you’ve had in your head for the longest?

Oh… hmmm… well, probably Legends, other than that, there’s this new au that I’m working, I’m hoping I could share it soon uwu

Oh God it was so fun to ramble gfjakjda thank you so much for the ask and your efforts in making my tumblr less dead hahahha

I really, really appreciate

Thank you !!

#sorry for answering late!#uwu #writing #armin arlert #Aruani #fanfics

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lightsandlostbells · 4 years

Text

wtFOCK season 3, episode 4 reaction

Kiss kiss fall in love? More like kiss kiss stay away from me.

I have to warn you. This is the episode where I lost it. I had to go back and edit so much unhappy capslock out of my notes.

Episode 4

Clip 1 - Het drama again

Zoë shows Milan a video of the shooting prank. Milan asks about romance on the trip, Robbe says there were too many people and too little privacy.

Senne and Zoë have tension because Zoë is pissed that Senne was partying? And that he was posting pictures of parties on IG when she wasn’t there? I mean … look, I’m never a William fan, but this seems like Zoë’s problem. If you can’t trust him to behave when you’re gone, you SHOULDN’T BE WITH HIM. And if you feel like you can trust him, this dude going to bars or whatever shouldn’t bother you. At least it seems to be portrayed as Zoë’s issues. Milan mentions that she’s jealous. He seems to like Senne, and I do find that dynamic cute so far.

I do appreciate that the Noorhelm drama this time is boring and not like “Senne was mad about how Zoë handled her sexual assault” levels of offensive.

That being said ... Robbe’s story. Where.

If you’ve been telling a very tight story so far, where Robbe’s personal journey has been steadily progressing clip by clip, then a clip like this wouldn’t be that bad. We absolutely have not been watching a tight story. Even with the next clip of Robbe doing some introspection, I’m like ... can we not make every scene count toward his story when there’s so much catching up to do? Ten seconds of Robbe looking vaguely troubled out of a two-minute clip that’s mainly about Zoë and Senne’s relationship does not count. A better writer would find some way to make Zoë/Senne parallel to Robbe/Sander, like how Noora talking about William and “if he loves you, he’ll choose you” in the first clip of episode 4 is relevant to Isak sitting there texting Even and Even choosing his plans with Sonja over Isak.

Clip 2 - Milan and Robbe talk gaydar

Robbe checking out Sander on Britt’s IG … finally, some cyberstalking. Did he take a screenshot of a pic of Sander? Lol.

Milan sits down and asks Robbe his opinion of a guy on Grindr, sexy or not? Robbe is lukewarm, giving neutral answers, Milan says he’s allowed to have an opinion on whether a guy is hot or not.

It feels SO WEIRD to have this clip so late, and I’m trying to like … recalibrate my brain so it’s not just because it’s later than usual. I don’t inherently hate if a remake changes up the order of clips. But the problem is that we’re now FOUR episodes in and it feels like Robbe’s sexuality crisis has just begun, I guess? Or rather, efficient storytelling would start out with this clear view of what Robbe’s issues are, rather than muddling into it a few episodes in.

Milan’s all, this guy says he’s not gay, but he likes to blow guys. This turns into a conversation about Milan’s gaydar and how to know if a guy is gay. In the original scene, the purpose of this conversation with Isak and Eskild was there as a way of Isak figuring out if Even was gay. That ... does not really fit this version, because this clip is so late in the season. Isak was getting Eskild’s wisdom right after meeting Even, when he had nothing but a BJ reference to go on. But Sander eyefucking Robbe while kissing Britt and leaning in to kiss Robbe should be pretty big clues to Robbe that Sander likes men, no? And that he likes Robbe specifically. Yeah, Robbe might be doubtful because Sander is still with Britt, but nothing new has happened since the almost kiss to make Robbe doubt! It would make way more sense if they’d adapted the opening clip of OG season 4, with Even texting Isak that he had plans with Sonja, into the clip prior to this one. If Robbe had texted Sander an invitation to hang out, or even just a “hey, what’s up?” and Sander wrote back “plans with Britt” then it would be an understandable transition for Robbe to have some doubt about Sander’s sexuality in this clip, like hey, maybe he’s not actually into me, after all.

The scene might make sense if you think about Robbe listening and applying Milan’s words to himself. Thinking about how there’s “something trapped in them that desperately wants to come out.” Wondering if it’s obvious to other people that Robbe is gay. It still doesn’t quite work and I actually doubt that was their intention (I think it was all about how to detect if Sander is into guys) but I am searching for any scraps of Robbe introspection, so.

OK, at least they had Robbe immediately look up Grindr (I laughed that he searched “grinder”). Good! Sexuality conflict! Why is it so late! Although it was probably more about trying to find Sander rather than a personal move on Robbe’s part.

This is a very gay song, btw (I Like Boys by Todrick Hall).

Clip 3 - Robbe and Yasmina talk het drama

Aaron talks to Robbe about sitting close to his teacher to see her boobs and the teacher saying she knows why he’s sitting there. I highly suspect this is just a dream Aaron had, unless the teacher said it in a pissed off way. Throw his ass in the back row, big-breasted teacher!

Robbe meets up with Yasmina. Yasmina wants to know the dirt from the seaside, Robbe fills her in. Soooo are they good friends, or what? He tells her about Aaron and Amber and they laugh and stuff. I mean it’s cute and all but like … where is this coming from? Did they become great friends in the S2 that I didn’t watch?

And that’s the whole clip … again, I ask what was the point?

To establish that Robbe and Yasmina are friends? Way to undermine the development and importance of that relationship by basically cutting through the buildup and hard work to the payoff. Sana and Isak meant more to people BECAUSE they started off prickly and grew to like each other and respect each other via their actions and words, right? That their conversations were more interesting because of their opposing views and resulting friction? That the friction was extremely relevant to the religion discussion?

Was the point to talk about Aaron/Amber and how Amber supposedly isn’t interested? We don’t need Yasmina’s commentary on that at all since we could see how Amber herself reacted to Aaron. Like if Yasmina was all, yeah, Amber couldn’t stop talking about Aaron, she says she doesn’t like him but I think she does, then I guess I could see the relevance of this conversation since it’s “new” information ... but it’s just the same shit we already know. And again: why spend so much time on a SIDE HET ROMANCE during a gay character’s season? Two of out three clips in this episode so far have been about side het romances!

This clip was just not needed at all except to set up Robbe and Yasmina so the impending religion conversation feels mildly less like two characters who have barely spoken on screen suddenly have an intense and somewhat personal talk. Something they could have done in earlier episodes instead of the other repetitive, unnecessary clips they’ve done this season.

Clip 4 - Dance chicks

At Noor’s dance performance, Robbe’s pals are drooling over the performers (and honestly being rather inappropriate and distracting). At least they got Robbe’s lack of interest right. Even though they have established this FIFTEEN THOUSAND TIMES with the lack of interest in Noor, like this clip almost doesn’t feel necessary at this point! If they’d had it earlier in the season, sure, but now it feels redundant. Like we really super mega get it by now that Robbe’s not into the girls.

The instructor thanks the performers at the end and Robbe says that he was “so gay.” Hey, except you know what? THERE IS NO BUILDUP TO THIS MOMENT. ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NONE. Except for the homophobic jokes from his friends in the previous seasons, but there’s nothing I can recall in this season. But more importantly, Isak’s similar comment was prompted by him taking the gay test in a preceding clip. Taking a quiz about generalizations of gay people, rooted in homophobia! Which Isak applies to the dance teacher! In order to distance himself from being gay! WE GOT NONE OF THAT HERE. For fuck’s sake.

There is no setup or reason why Robbe goes from being somewhat neutral about gay people with Milan asking him about the Grindr dude two clips ago - where Robbe is just kinda like, yeah OK, whatever, you think everyone’s gay, Milan (but he’s not overly grossed out or homophobic) - to this moment where he’s making a derogatory comment about a person he perceives as flamboyantly gay. This scene just happens because it did in OG. And the thing is, obviously you can attribute Robbe’s reasoning here to internalized homophobia. We know internalized homophobia exists and why he has it. But this is a scripted narrative, and any scripted narrative needs to have things happen for a reason rather than just because.

I remember complaining that Skam Italia had a bizarre take on this scene. But that’s nothing compared to the laziness on display here.

Jens is like WTF at Robbe’s “so gay” comment, it’s clear he’s not feeling it. I do like that Robbe gets defensive when Jens scoffs at him. They ask Robbe why he’s such a downer lately and if it’s because of his dad, or because of the Vlogs. Robbe blames the vlogs and yells and walks off, they’re confused.

Lol I just realized that I don’t think there was any followup to the prank from the seaside trip that had Robbe all pissed off. Nothing to show that the boys reconciled or that Robbe didn’t get over it right away.

I have a big problem with the way the boy squad is characterized so far, and it might be because they come across as more self-absorbed than other boy squads, as well as having a more superficial bond. I feel like so far they’re a rather cynical take on teenage boyhood. Again, not expecting them to be perfect or to be overly mature, but this show has to do a lot of work to make me believe they have the empathy or maturity to deal with Robbe’s situation kindly. (EDIT from the future: lol)

Clip 5 - Robbe and Yasmina talk religion

Oh shit, somehow I didn’t connect that dots that Aaron mentioning the teacher’s boobs would lead to THE boob teacher making an appearance! Unless there are multiple teachers with notable breasts at this school.

Another scene of Robbe not interested in breasts ... I mean, not to sound like a broken record, but this would have been good about three episodes ago.

The teacher is talking about religion and Darwininsm and creationism, which prompts Robbe to complain about how people still have religious beliefs in 2019.

Heavy fucking sigh. Have we gotten ANY religious moments from Robbe’s mom this season? Or from anyone else? Do the writers realize that Isak grilling Sana about religion was prompted by his OWN MOTHER’S religious beliefs and his fear of her judgment of his sexuality? No? Not surprised.

For real, Robbe just complains about religion out of nowhere … and like, obviously religious homophobia isn’t a rare thing, it exists. But it has not been established why Robbe in particular cares about the effects of religious homophobia, compared to say, the casual homophobia of his friends, or gay stereotypes, or gay bashing … we don’t know why religious homophobia has PERSONAL relevance in Robbe’s life. And yes, this is a concern for every gay person! But from a STORYTELLING perspective, there should be some focus as to what Robbe’s main fears are about being gay. Lack of acceptance from his peers? His family? Religion? Violence? Homophobic slurs?

I would say based on previous seasons, the most compelling basis for Robbe’s internalized homophobia would be the homophobic attitudes of his friend group. A revised take on the dance chicks scene might have been done with this in mind, but it wasn’t, and so it’s all just very muddled.

Anyway, Robbe goes on this tangent and asks Yasmina why she believes in God. The teacher voices what I thought and is like, why the fuck are you talking in class?

Again, there is NO BUILDUP to the involvement of religion at all. They have this shoehorned in friendship, I guess so he can ask her. He does bring up homosexuality at least, and how religion is so black and white.

Yasmina asks him what he believes. ONE THING they got right: they had Robbe challenge Yasmina on an intellectual level, and so Yasmina challenges him on an intellectual level right back. Because a lot of their dialogue is lifted right from OG, that’s why it works. LMAOOOO. Yasmina points out that homosexuality is an evolutionary “dead end” so therefore it can’t be genetic, so what is it? A disorder? A choice? I will also give some credit for her invoking the most anxiety-causing options to get under Robbe’s skin.

But the tone of their friendship does come across very different, because in the previous scene they seemed like good chums who had a rapport, and here it’s like Robbe lashed out at her for no reason, even less than Isak did with Sana, because Robbe just decided to torch his friendship with Yasmina out of the blue. I guess the answer is that Robbe is cranky so he decided to grill Yasmina over religion, but again, the fucking question is: why was he cranky? Two clips before this one they were on warm, friendly terms. In the last clip, he lashed out at his male friends, but that has nothing to do with religion. What the writers are asking us to do is basically just imagine all the stuff that’s happening in Robbe’s brain instead of doing their jobs and showing it to us. You don’t have to spoon feed us but you don’t also get to stick a few peas on a plate and wonder why we’re going hungry.

(REALLY. IT WAS NOT PROMPTED BY ANYTHING, NOT A TEXT FROM HIS MOM. WHICH IS WHY ISAK WAS UPSET AND LAUNCHED HIS INTERROGATION AT SANA.)

(CAUSE AND EFFECT, MOTHERFUCKER)

Clip 6 - Bowie playlist

Robbe is doing homework when Sander sends him a Bowie playlist. Robbe listens to Space Oddity and has a brief Moment. It’s very nice but wow, wouldn’t it be even better if Robbe fell for Sander listening to that? Say, in the last episode? Before they almost kissed? And before Robbe was suddenly declaring himself a Bowie expert to Noor?

Sander calls him, I like Robbe fixing his hair before he answers. It’s a video chat, gotta look his best! They have an actual conversation about Bowie and they flirt. Sander invites Robbe to the cafe later and Robbe is happy except then Britt is in the background and apparently she’s going with them, so it’s not a date after all, oh no. Robbe’s actor is good at subtly conveying his disappointment here.

Robbe hangs up and sticks his head against the bed (lol) and then goes back to Grindr. He immediately gets messages for horny sex and then gets rid of Grindr.

At first I was like, yay, this clip had a clear point and a sense of cause-and-effect, but now I’m like ... ehhhhh. Because the purpose of Robbe checking out Grindr is either A) so he can look for Sander or B) so he can check it out as a general way of exploring his sexuality (or both). The suggestion is that it has a lot to do with the former, because it was part of Milan’s advice as to how to find out if someone’s gay. But it’s a little weird here, because Robbe just saw that Britt was coming along to the cafe, so he should be discouraged about Sander. I mean, I think it’s still possible that he’s trying to figure out if Sander likes him because he’s getting mixed signals between the playlist and Britt, but it’s just a little off. And as for option B, I’m not sure why now of all times is the best time for that, like if you think about it, the sting of getting his hopes dashed should be the predominant emotion here, would he go straight to Grindr just to be like hmmm, maybe I’m into dudes?

And it bugs me because there is a super easy fix to this clip! Just have Sander send the Bowie playlist, Robbe listens to it, and as he’s daydreaming and smiling a bit, he gets out his phone and checks out Grindr, ready to search for Sander. But there are too many sex messages so he’s just like WTF and gets rid of it. Then Sander calls and they have this conversation that ends in Robbe being reminded that Britt is still in the picture. (Or he doesn’t need to get the sexy messages at all, I mean they’re kind of funny but I’m not sure they’re plot-necessary here.)

Noor texts him that they’ll meet up later. It’s not 100% clear but it sounds like she knew about meeting up with Sander and Britt, so that means Britt probably told her previously. Which is a little bit of different context from OG, because I was under the impression that Even asked Isak to hang out with them hoping that they’d be alone, and then somehow Sonja found out and made it into a group thing with Emma, making Even grumpy. With this it seems like it was planned as a group thing from the beginning, Britt knows they’re meeting up later.

Or wait, when Sander says he’ll give Robbe advice at the cafe later, does that mean Robbe already knows they’re meeting up? That would make sense because it’s what happened in OG (Even invited Isak in an earlier clip and then Isak found out Emma and Sonja were coming in a later one). They’re incorporating all kinds of OG elements in this episode so I wouldn’t be surprised. But I assumed that this was the invite because we didn’t see Sander talk to Robbe earlier this week? Shouldn’t we have seen that clip since it’s the first time they’ve interacted since they almost kissed? I checked the texts for this episode and I don’t see anything like Sander inviting Robbe, either? Did I just miss something? What is going on?

Clip 7 - Robbe is late to meet Noor

Later that day …. Robbe rides a bike. Very fast. The music is dramatic! This would not be out of place for an O Helga Natt scene

And yet it’s not OHN, it’s Noor? Noor seems annoyed. Because Robbe is late. OH NO THE TENSION WHATEVER WILL WE DO. WE CARE A TON ABOUT ROBBE AND NOOR.

Noor is super pissed at him and starts screaming and shoving at him. What the actual fuck? She complains that she thought he was dead or something and is mad he didn’t even send a message. She says fuck you and walks off. Robbe follows her on the bike.

I don’t know how popular this opinion is, but Noor did not come across as great here, like when I watched it I was baffled at her response. I say this as someone who is chronically early and also gets annoyed at lateness. She has every right to be annoyed that Robbe is late and that he didn’t message her to tell her he’d be late, and I get that there’s supposedly more to her reaction than just this one incident. But the screaming and especially the shoving at him is just WTF.

Also, she told him to meet him at 19:00, and the beginning of the clip is at 19:21 (I see what you did there) and Robbe arrives like a minute or two later. So he’s 20 minutes late, which is certainly annoying, especially because it’s dark and chilly outside, but IMO not a cause for “I thought you were dead or in an accident!” and the OTT reaction.

Clip 8 - Robbe and Noor fight

Sander and Britt are in the cafe, Robbe and Noor argue outside about him giving her mixed signals. Has ... he ...?

OK, I’d say I half-see her case, and I half-don’t. If Noor can somehow sense Robbe’s disinterest during their makeouts or lovey-dovey moments or w/e, then I can buy that. I think there are slight moments where he doesn’t seem into it. But Robbe has put so much more genuine effort into their relationship than Isak did. He hasn’t even turned Noor down for sex, really, they’ve just gotten interrupted every time, or she’s thrown up. He didn’t want to go to her dance performance except then he told her he would go approximately thirty seconds later. He went to her dance performance. He went to the seaside with her and kissed her and slept in the same bed with her. This is the first time he’s actually fucked up with her.

Noor sounds ridiculous right now. “Do you still love me?” Uhhhh what??? You’ve been dating for less than a month, really? Did he tell her he loved her at any point? I’m serious, is there some material I missed? Some nuance in the language that didn’t completely translate?

I get it, I’m watching insecure overdramatic teenagers! I’m just wondering if I’m supposed to be on Noor’s side here. They could have portrayed this less OTT and more fitting to Robbe’s actual offenses.

Anyway Robbe and Noor have a screaming fight in the street and he says he can’t breathe anymore because of her. I can buy that even if it’s dramatic because he’s feeling trapped by her due to his sexuality. She walks off, Sander and Britt come outside. Britt goes after Noor and hugs her, Sander sings Space Oddity to signify the crash and burn of Robbe/Noor. He has on a Pink Floyd shirt so at least his musical taste is more varied than Bowie.

Clip 9 - Robbe and Sander by themselves

Robbe and Sander drink alone at the bar, they don’t think the girls are coming back. Sander texts Britt and then tells Robbe they’re going to do something else. He shows him Britt’s text saying that Noor needs some time alone. I mean. this drastically changes the context of them going off together … it’s not because they want to be together, necessarily (although they do) but it’s by default now.

So they leave.

Yeah, I do not love what they did with this scene. It’s short and to the point but I want to point out a few things.

First, because again, there’s no need to break up most of these clips into such short, choppy scenes just because 15 or 20 minutes have passed in-universe. It might be exciting if you happen to be watching and following at the exact time these are being posted, but it also messed with the flow of the scenes and the build of emotions. Imagine if we cut off after Isak and Even left Emma and Sonja and then 10 minutes later we got them riding around on a bike. We’d missed that beautiful transition from the silent, empty room to Isak on the bike and then Head Over Heels kicking in. That’s one of my favorite moments in season 3 and it’s because of that transition. It’s because I was sitting there watching this uncomfortable scene and wishing Isak and Even could be alone and then they got to be alone and my stomach swooped! If you break up moments like those, there’s just not as much build. (Or imagine - horror of horrors - an O Helga Natt where Isak gets the text from Even and it cuts off after he runs out of the church and then resumes when he arrives at the school, so we don’t see his journey. You lose so much.)

Second, there is a curious lack of romantic/sexual tension in this scene. It’s there on Sander’s end, I think, or at least you can read it there due to his focus on Robbe and even some of his body language. Robbe, on the other hand, seems more upset that his girlfriend who he doesn’t even feel genuine attraction to has walked out on him rather than the fact that he is sitting next to the boy he’s crushing on, alone together, right before they share their first kiss later that evening. And it just makes me want to know why.

I don’t blame Robbe’s actor at all, because it’s the director’s job to tell him how to play the scene. But I rewatched this scene trying to be generous, and there is not a single shred of attraction or tension from Robbe toward Sander. He checks the cafe door when it opens, he asks Sander to text Britt, and when Sander suggests they leave, Robbe’s first instinct is to ask what if Noor comes back. He sits there moping into his beer the whole time. He doesn’t sneak looks at Sander. He doesn’t try to talk to Sander about anything except Noor and Britt. No banter, no discussion that’s focused on them, Robbe-and-Sander, you know, the main couple of this season (supposedly). It doesn’t even feel like he’s consciously trying not to look or interact with Sander because of the romantic tension. No, it genuinely feels like Robbe’s #1 thought right now is Noor. Does that make sense to you? It makes sense for him to be a little out of sorts due to the fight, but does it make sense that Robbe seems to have no perceptible reaction to being alone with the guy he likes? Does it make sense that they didn’t take this chance to throw in some romantic and sexual tension in order to pave the way for the kiss that is going to happen very shortly? Gotta say that I think this scene exemplifies my earlier complaints about how Noor was so prevalent early in the season and how Robbe/Noor was built up. Because once again, Robbe/Noor has taken precedence over the undeveloped Robbe/Sander pairing.

Finally, as I said above, the situation makes it so that Robbe and Sander are on their own by default, not by choice. Combined with the bizarre lack of tension, that makes this scene fall totally flat. There’s no sense that these two really really want to be alone together. There’s no joy in them running off together. Robbe actually seems reluctant to go off with Sander. And not even because he’s fearful of what might happen, ooooo things might get a little gayer than I can handle right now, but like he’d rather sit here and drink and think about his girlfriend.

It’s like they were concerned that Isak and Even were too mean to Emma and Sonja so they decided Robbe and Sander would only be alone because it was the girls’ decision to leave them, not the other way around. We even get that text from Britt so we know that Noor totes isn’t coming back and it’s OK for them to leave. I have no idea what their actual motivation was to construct the scenario this way, though. I would love to know. (The answer would probably annoy me so I’m better off not knowing.)

It’s little stuff like this that makes me want to sit down the writers/directors/whoever’s behind wtFOCK and have them watch scenes from Skam S3 and write an essay on the construction and execution of clips. Do some homework about timing, tension, narrative structure, and everything else that makes S3 work.

Clip 10 - Smooch time

It’s 21:21 so you know what’s happening. Also, bullshit! Why is this happening so fast. You haven’t earned this!!!!

Sander buys them booze. The Sander actor is very good, honestly. I like his screen presence. It is a testament to his abilities that this relationship is working for me at all, because it sure ain’t the writing. (Robbe’s actor is doing well, too, but the writing is dragging him down since he’s present for all this nonsense.)

This scene of Sander and Robbe drinking and riding bikes is genuinely good on its own and they have strong chemistry when they’re allowed to show it. They have easy banter and interaction, there’s a callback to the booking.com reference from when they met. Really, this part makes me sad, because I can see the potential here! If the writing was GOOD, if the story had a legit direction, if it was just better storytelling all around … this season could have been wonderful, they had the right guys to do Isak and Even’s story justice. Instead it’s like this one terrific moment in a sea of wtFOCK.

If they go in the pool I will roll my eyes. C’mon, guys, you DO NOT HAVE THE SYMBOLISM to do this scene. It had a meaning in Skam, in most of the remakes it’s just an arbitrary location.

Yep, it’s a pool.

Sander takes off all his clothes so he jumps in bare-assed, and Robbe laughs. Sander yells at Robbe to get in the pool so Robbe does a fucking striptease while Sander watches, more or less, and he’s about to get in the pool in his underwear, but Sander is like “all the way or no way” so Robbe takes off his underwear after a brief moment of hesitation and jumps in. So they’re naked in the pool. Cool cool cool.

Seeeeee, on the one hand this COULD be a moment of liberation, I could see it, taking off the clothes and jumping in as a representation of abandoning the stale hetero life or w/e. But I don’t think wtFOCK has built anything resembling a clear arc for Robbe, to the point where this act means anything, really. (Can you imagine Isak doing this in episode 4? I don’t know if it fits his character at that point, but I could at least be like, OK, this is part of his ~rebirth and I think we’ve built him up enough that this moment of liberation feels like a culmination of something.) I’m also not totally sold on the way they presented this, like we’ve got a closeted gay kid alone with his crush and the crush takes his all his clothes off and then Robbe takes all his clothes off with only the barest reluctance (but he’s not like … distressed or worried, just kinda like “aw, man!”) For some closeted gay kids? Sure, guess I could see it! But in the context of “this kid is struggling with his sexuality and he’s alone with the boy he likes and he’s supposed to be going through Some Shit”? Why doesn’t this have a bigger reaction in Robbe? Since they are drunk and not necessarily overthinking things in the moment, however, I will let this slide. Cynically I think this is mostly about trying to make wtFOCK Sexxxxy. I’m not a prude and I don’t have an objection in theory to a teenage couple skinny dipping together, but wtFOCK has a trend of taking a thing that happened in OG and going “How can we do this but more?” and these remakes know Evak is the big sell in fandom, so. They’re making it spicier. (EDIT from the future: Jumping ahead to later content on wtFOCK ... they very much are trying to make it Sexxxxy.)

Also, these guys just haven’t had a lot of buildup yet! And I can see like … rewriting this scene so the first kiss isn’t necessarily some epic release of a simmering tension and growing love, but more of a tentative, pivotal moment with a gay kid kissing a boy for the first time, and having the relationship grow from there. But wtFOCK isn’t doing that, it’s trying to do the Evak thing with the epic romance, and they haven’t earned it.

They go underwater for the breath-holding contest, Sander tries to kiss Robbe (Robbe’s eyes are pointedly closed so this feels like some unnecessary POV breakage) and Robbe shoves him back. He’s still in a good mood, though. They go back underwater and Robbe kisses Sander. Yay, I guess.

Lol, I don’t actually want to sound like a bitter asshole. The song choice is lovely! The cinematography is pretty good! And like I said, they have nice chemistry. It’s just that the storytelling has been so messy up to this point that I can’t get too invested. The very first clip I saw in real time for Skam season 3 was the pool scene - I had just discovered the show a few days prior, and I kept watching the clips on repeat. I could not get enough of this story. I really really needed those guys to kiss. Yeah, I recognize that at the time the story was brand new and this wasn’t the fourth iteration of the same pool scene and the sixth first kiss for this couple, and you really can’t recreate that feeling of not knowing what comes next in a remake like this. Still, I think that if the writing had just been better, I could have been happy and invested in this moment.

I also think that the pool scene in particularly has a tendency to get written in kind of a rote way in the remakes. Some of them have put their own spin on it - I had plenty of criticisms of Skam France’s S3 but I did enjoy their first kiss and I praised that they made up their own symbolism - but some of them have gotten so close to the original, the exact same banter, the interruption at the end, and it doesn’t feel natural for those versions of the characters. I’m not sure if the remake showrunners think that the original scene is something the fans want to see or if they’re being lazy or if they think the OG is just that good (which it is, lol). I don’t think any remake has been that faithful with their O Helga Natt clips, by comparison.

Anyway they get caught, yadda yadda.

Clip 11 - Morning after the pool smooch

Robbe gets up and sees Zoë looking at Senne, seemingly hungover, on the couch. She makes coffee to spite him since the coffeemaker is loud.

Zoë asks Robbe about last night and says Noor was at the door. Robbe doesn’t tell her what really happened. Apparently Noor looked like she felt bad. I don’t think I can handle more Robbe/Noor, guys. I appreciate that OG didn’t drag out Isak’s thing with Emma once he kissed Even, but I’m not confident this won’t happen here.

Zoë asks if he’s all right. Man, the most effective relationship this season is probably Zoë and Robbe? Which is fine! But like … boy squad ain’t great, Sander and Robbe aren’t well developed, they fucked up Yasmina and Robbe already, Milan and Robbe are way behind schedule…

What if the reveal were that Sander were in Robbe’s bed?

It’s not. Instead, Sander texts him as a cover of Space Oddity plays. Robbe has angst and blocks Sander on WhatsApp. Ohhhh my. Another thing I appreciated about OG? That Isak was all in after he kissed Even, and that the angst came from different places besides the typical gay coming out storyline of “kissed a boy, regretted it, went back in the closet temporarily.” Not that it’s unrealistic, just that it’s done so much.

I think we’re supposed to take away that Zoë saying Noor was there looking sad made Robbe reconsider what happened with Sander? Or just general internalized homophobia. I don’t think the latter is totally out of Robbe’s characterization based on what we’ve seen so far, although I wish there was clearer writing so it felt more like “Robbe has internalized homophobia that made him block Sander” and less like “????? internalized homophobia I guess.” Again, I’ll letting this slide because I can also rationalize it as him being a little drunk last night, and now that he’s sober he regrets his choice, even if I don’t think this is a great choice at this stage in the season.

Clip 12 - The heaviest of sighs

The subs helpfully gave a trigger warning for homophobic slurs so I knew this was going to be “good.”

Robbe is listening to music as he goes home. Sander comes up to him, smiling, wanting to know why Robbe blocked him. Robbe says to leave him alone, that Sander got him drunk and took advantage of him.

L M A O welp, this would soooo kill this ship for me if I were invested.

FIND SOMEONE ELSE, SANDER, YOU DESERVE BETTER

Oh, so Robbe also shoved him and called him a dirty f****t! What a great romance!

No, really - this is the EXACT THING I was so glad that Evak DID NOT DO. I’m not saying their romance has to be free of flaws, that there can never be fuckups, that Isak can’t ever hurt Even and vice versa. But this is such a common and ugly trope in gay media.

Robbe goes inside and slams his door, Milan asks what’s wrong, Robbe tells him to leave him alone. We get Milan’s POV and not Robbe’s at the end.

Anyway lmao. wtFOCK indeed.

Did you enjoy the cuddle scene in Skam, where a same-sex couple got to be tender and sweet and open with each other for almost seven minutes? A clip that felt refreshing and even revolutionary for its normalization of gay intimacy? Hahahaha, fuck you.

Okay, seriously though. It’s not a problem that we didn’t have the cuddle scene immediately after the pool scene. It’s not a problem that they want to change up this storyline and make it their own - though again I would ask the creative powers at wtFOCK why they’re making these particular choices. It’s not a problem if Robbe and Sander’s relationship has some extra bumps along the way to their happy ending.

WHAT EVEN PROMPTED THIS CHANGE IN ROBBE, like I get the answer is “internalized homophobia” but Robbe was BUCK NAKED WITH SANDER IN THE POOL so like. Can we please get SOME context for why he suddenly had a freakout? Can we please get some narrative structure with cause and effect? Can we get a fucking reason that Robbe went from 0 to 100? Because if it was just the blocking Sander on WhatsApp, that’s one thing, but accusing him of sexual assault and calling him slurs is so vastly beyond that. If we’re supposed to take away that Robbe feels bad about Noor, that still doesn’t explain the ugliness of his reaction, rather than just telling Sander that he has a girlfriend and it was a mistake or whatever.

I’m going to add that I understand that Robbe went through some additional homophobic shit from his friends in previous seasons - I remember Moyo saying crappy things to him in S1, and I watched a S2 scene where the same thing happens. So I can understand if Robbe’s internalized homophobia is very strong. But they’ve also cut out so much stuff in this season that added to Isak’s internalized homophobia (no mom’s religion making him anxious, no gay test, no gay generalizations from Emma...) If they want to rely on internalized homophobia from previous seasons, then we really need a reminder in this season, such as his friends making homophobic jokes, which I do not recall hearing so far. And they need to show what happened between the kiss to provoke such a homophobic reaction.

After Sander said that thing about not knowing if anyone would ever love him … why did they do this? I love me some pain in storytelling but this isn’t just angst, this is needlessly cruel.

There is, believe it or not, a middle ground between “conflictless fluff” and “cruel homophobia and assault allegations” where you can have some tension, even have Robbe have a freakout, without bringing in this kind of material. Robbe could have told Sander to stay away without accusing him of assault or calling him slurs. He could have said he wasn’t gay or that it was a mistake or even “I was drunk” without following it up with “and you took advantage of me.” All of these options might have stung for Sander and for any viewers who were hoping for morning-after cuddles, but they also create conflict without pushing it over the edge into OTT cruelty.

HOW I WOULD REWRITE THIS EPISODE:

Ahahahaha

So far this season is like a disconnected set of scenes from Skam S3 with bonus filler scenes and unnecessary clips about non-Robbe things. It’s getting hard to think about rewrites because the point, if you will, so often so unclear. It’s also hard because this episode squeezed in so many OG scenes that were missing from earlier in the season that it’s like, well, shouldn’t we have had this a few episodes ago? Should we just leave them out now?

Okay. Start by getting rid of the first clip in this episode that’s mostly about Zoë/Senne, bump up the Milan clip. We start with Robbe looking at pics of Sander on IG, Milan comes in and asks if there was any romance on the trip, then they get into the Grindr talk, etc. The Grindr talk makes more sense before Robbe almost kisses Sander, but like. We can’t do anything about that now. What might be better is if the whole “how do you know if a guy is gay?” thing takes a swerve into not just Robbe trying to figure out Sander, but to something uncomfortably close to Robbe’s own behavior (like IDK, referencing body language and how a guy will lean in closer, like Robbe did with Sander) and then Robbe gets cranky because he’s worried he’s too obviously gay to other people. After Milan leaves, he starts looking up stuff like “how to act straight” or “how not to seem gay” or whatever. That leads us into the next clip...

... the dance chicks scene. Now we’ve seen plenty of Robbe being disinterested in girls already, so this time we’re going to show him trying to be interested in girls instead. Like he’s watching his friends’ annoying horny reactions and he’s clearly trying to imitate them and join in, but we can see that he’s awkward and not totally feeling it. But he’s trying. Then after the performance, Robbe makes the comment about the dance instructor being so gay.

There is a problem, IMO, in that Robbe’s friend group has been shown to be more homophobic than the average boy squad (as seen in S1 and S2). And frankly I don’t really believe yet Jens is the type to shut down a homophobic comment. Like in S2 Moyo and Robbe straight up start calling each other f*gs and Jens is like chill, no one here is a f*g, but if there were, you should date each other. That’s his idea of intervention. So I’m not sure how to handle that.

I don’t love this idea, because I hate what they’re done with Moyo in particular, making him pointedly more homophobic (to be discussed in a future reaction) but Moyo and Aaron could perhaps laugh at Robbe’s comment and start riffing off it, while Robbe is sitting there pretending to laugh but looking increasingly uncomfortable, and Jens notices something is off with Robbe, and he tells the guys to knock it off, the guy is gay, so what? Big deal. Then aside from the other guys, he asks Robbe if something is wrong, and Robbe snaps at him or attributes it to family problems again.

I was going to also say that the setting for this clip doesn’t really allow for Sander to swoop in, like Even did to return the snapback, but actually maybe it could? Noor could have invited Britt and Sander to watch the show, right? So maybe when Robbe makes this gay joke and his friends are laughing, Sander comes up while Britt is talking to Noor and is like, hey guys, what’s up? Robbe’s friends are just like, oh nothing, did you see how gay that guy was? Then Sander is like, sorry, what’s the problem with being gay? He tells them off a little. Meanwhile Robbe is standing there awkward as fuck, not looking Sander in the eyes, while Sander is looking at him for backup, but Robbe just makes an excuse to bolt. Maybe he walks past Noor without saying anything, so she looks confused.

Now onto Robbe and Yasmina. Man, I truly hate saying this. But: If you are not going to incorporate other religious themes into this season, then you don’t need to redo the Isak-Sana friendship. Again! I don’t like suggesting this! But what actually is Robbe and Yasmina’s relationship bringing to this season when it’s portrayed like this?

They left out the weed blackmail, which is really just a plot device in OG, but it’s a plot device that sets up Sana and Isak’s thread. It also gets Isak to kosegruppa to meet Even, something which is irrelevant here.

Sana’s main tie to S3 is Isak’s mom. Isak’s mom is religious, that makes him anxious, and it’s a hurdle to coming out to her. Robbe’s mom is not religious, Robbe’s internalized homophobia doesn’t seem to have anything to do with religion specifically other than this one scene with him and Yasmina. It’s just a disconnected tangent. What’s more, what is Yasmina’s eventual advice going to do for him? Sana’s advice led Isak to come out to his mom.

I really like Yasmina. If there’s another way that her presence is relevant to the themes of this season, by all means let’s find it and include her. As it is, either make it that Robbe’s mom is religious and include the Robbe-Yasmina subplot, or don’t and leave it out.

I would love to see in-depth and meaningful friendships develop among all the characters in the Skam squads, just because I love all those kids. Jonas and Vilde? Even and girl Chris? Eva and Mahdi? I don’t care how random, let’s have them all! But there is a finite amount of time per season, and we can’t extend time for all possible relationships - just the ones that are most relevant to the story we are trying to tell.

I mentioned above a fix for the Bowie playlist clip that makes it have a little more sense to me. If you include Sander in the dance chicks clip like I said, you could have Robbe thinking about Sander again and wondering if he’s into men since he called out the boys’ homophobia. That’s how he ends up on Grindr. Then Sander sends him the Bowie playlist, Robbe listens, Sander calls and they talk, Robbe apologizes for bolting out of there the other day. Sander invites him to the cafe later, Robbe’s all :D until he realizes Britt is there and is coming too, then he’s :(

He’s late to meet Noor and Noor is upset, but not like ... screaming and shoving at him. She’s more snippy and passive-aggressive, she walks off. She says she’s upset because he ditched the dance performance without talking to her, and then he’s late to meet her, it seems like he just doesn’t care that much. They have a fight but it’s like a normal fight and not The End of the World. Just tone down Noor’s OTT anger and make it more natural.

I don’t have a preference in this version whether Noor and Britt leave the cafe and Sander and Robbe know they’re not coming back, or whether Noor and Britt just go to get some air and cry it out and Sander is like fuck it, let’s leave. The important thing for me is that Robbe sits there with Sander, painfully aware that they’re alone, and there’s lots of tension and awkwardness and his brain is clearly hyper-focused on the proximity of Sander’s knee to his own. They banter and flirt and then when Sander suggests they leave, Robbe acts like he wants to go.

Don’t do a pool scene for the first kiss. Give a shit, make it your own. Except IMO they have done so little to establish this relationship in terms of larger themes or symbolism that they have nothing to choose from.

Man, what if THIS episode was about going to the seaside, after they had been talking for several episodes, and they kissed in the sea when they were alone? That would be at least somewhat plausible? A take on the pool scene/underwater kiss that wasn’t the exact same.

You could do something related to graffiti, perhaps? Instead of breaking into a pool, they break into the tagging place or wherever. Or something else related to Sander’s artwork, because I know that this comes up in their version of O Helga Natt.

I’m not wild about adding this blip in Robbe and Sander’s relationship after the kiss, because of how much ground we need to cover the rest of the season (it messes with the pacing yet again) and also just because I like that Skam didn’t do this expected route. However, if they wanted to make Robbe try to shut out Sander again: the strongest case for his internalized homophobia seems to be his friends. So have him meet up with them again the day after kissing Sander. His friends bring up Sander and how weird he was at the dance performance about the gay instructor, like it’s just a joke! He took their comments way too seriously! Is Sander gay or something? And maybe Robbe tries to defend Sander - no, he’s a cool guy, really - and then his friends are like, pffft, what, do you have a crush on him? Robbe denies and everybody chills out, but Robbe seems troubled. Maybe this is when Jens finally gets a fucking clue and realizes something’s up with Robbe, and in the future there’s a scene where he shuts down gay jokes. For now, though, we do see how Robbe would feel compelled to go back in the closet. Sander texts him and Robbe blocks him.

Now we come to the worst part. So. Take out Robbe calling Sander a sexual predator and a homophobic slur and pushing him, that’s for sure. If he must reject Sander, do it in another way. “I’m not gay.” “I was drunk.” “It was a mistake.” “I have a girlfriend.” It’s not actually hard to do this clip without adding this ugly taint to their relationship.

Since I’m trying to think of rewrites without just copying Skam, here is a radical change on how to include a post-kiss freakout from Robbe earlier on so the pacing isn’t as odd. In previous recaps, I suggested Sander should be introduced earlier as a mysterious stranger that Robbe is trying to find. Well, maybe we can rework that. Robbe and the mysterious stranger share a kiss in episode 1. They’re hiding from the police or security or something after getting busted at a party or while tagging or w/e, and they’re both a little drunk and high on adrenaline, they’re smiling and laughing because they actually got away, and it just ... happens. The mysterious stranger can initiate it, but Robbe tentatively reciprocates before running away. Robbe freaks out and it’s after this that he starts heavily pursuing Noor. Because, you see, he’s not gay, he was just drunk, and it was all that other guy’s fault. But at least he doesn’t have to see that random guy again, right? No one will ever know. Just like no one will ever know if late at night when he can’t sleep, he does a Google search to see if he’s gay if he liked kissing a boy or if he can’t get it up with his girlfriend. Or if he goes on Grindr to see if he can find the mystery dude. It’s a bust and Robbe gives up and settles into dating Noor. Except in episode 2, OH SHIT, he’s introduced to Sander again via Noor, and it’s awkward and fuck, Sander has a girlfriend. Well, that’s good, right? Totally not a bummer. Anyway, Robbe tries to avoid Sander or tiptoe around him but they end up spending time together because they’re stuck at the seaside under the same roof. Maybe they directly address the issue by Robbe saying he’s not gay and Sander being like “me neither” (which technically is not a lie, lmao) and brushing it off as a mistake, or maybe they both pretend that it never happened. Maybe Robbe is more aggressive about it at first and Sander is like, whoa dude, chill out, I’m not going to tell anyone. Still, they get to know each other, there’s heaps of sexual/romantic tension, and in episode 4 (or 5 or whenever) they kiss again and it’s Epic.

This arc is definitely not the same as Isak’s or Evak’s and I absolutely won’t claim that it’s in the same league as what Julie Andem did, but I can see a narrative arc like this making some sense. Better than trying to do Isak’s arc half-assed.

It occurs to me just like … how little we know about any of these characters in terms of subtext or something? No hints about Sander’s background, really? Let’s get some clues in there.

I think something I miss about Skam was how kind it was. How all the characters were at heart, good people capable of the most generous love and empathy. And maybe we’ll get there with these characters in the end, but overall, so many of these people just don’t feel like that! There’s so much more ugliness and cruelty involved in this story, and it doesn’t feel like it’s done with good intentions, like to show the audience how to handle these situations and to heal.

There’s this weird attitude of defense where cruelty, tragedy, and negative events are defended in the name of realism and there’s a backlash to the backlash, acting like the critics just want fluffy plotless hand-holding and cuddling, a conflict-free season, or a story where no one makes mistakes. And it’s like people forget that in Skam season 3, the story was FULL of angst! We know Evak get their happy ending but like … from episode 1 all through O Helga Natt, the story is packed with conflict. People hurt each other. Even in episode 10, not everything is perfect. It is very possible to do angst and conflict without this ugliness. Like … I have to assume people weren’t here for episodes 5 and 6 of Skam S3, or for the hotel scene, or episode 9 up to OHN, because I can assure you, there was no lack of angst. There was just a lack of shock value gratuitousness.

As always, let me know if I missed something due to cultural or linguistic context.

#wtfock reactions

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victorluvsalice · 3 years

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Opening Line Tag Game!

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line. Then tag 10 of your favorite authors!

Tagged by: @dont-offend-the-bees (thanks Newt!)

Welp, here we go, last 20 stories as listed on AO3, from the first chapter of each -- I suspect I already know one pattern, but we’ll see if it holds up:

1. In A World Of His Own -- "Come on, Alice, keep up!"

2. Secundus 2: Weird Weird West -- "Victor! Mail's here!"

3. Scenes From Secundus -- When Victor had been five, he’d asked his governess, Miss Horrocks, what exactly a family was.

4. A Wedding, A Wedding, We're Going To Have A Wedding -- "I am not getting married in that."

5. Imagine Me and You -- Alice jolted awake, breathing hard.

6. To Sum Up. . . -- Houndsditch was the last place either Victor or Alice had ever expected to find the love of their lives – and yet, here they were.

7. Fixing You -- Ahhh. . .so this is what peace feels like.

8. The Technicolor Phase -- "Eddie?"

9. Secundus -- It is a world that is both rather like and unlike our own, dear reader.

10. Scenes From A Multiverse Christmas Carol -- “Now, in this season of giving, it has been decided that – um – that we should. . . .”

11. A Dream Journey -- He was flying.

12. At The Beginning -- “He won’t have to share a room with any of these children, will he?”

13. Mallow Hallow Snippets -- "Hey. Hey you. Up and at 'em."

14. Welcome To Rapture (Twice, In Fact) -- Moving while feeling like you’re standing perfectly still should not be a familiar sensation.

15. Demolition Lovers -- He never thought it would end like this.

16. Nightmares And A Sweet Dream -- “. . .And wake.”

17. Rabbit Hunt -- Their first Christmas together.

18. Remembering You -- ". . .dear God. . . ."

19. In The Land of the Dead -- Well. At least the house isn't on fire anymore.

20. a) Losing You -- Gradually, the last of the butterflies that had once been the corpse bride vanished from view, swallowed up by the velvet night sky.

b) Triskaidekaphobia -- "They've been in there an awful long time. . . ."

Okay, the reason I did two for #20 is because I was as surprised as anybody to see Losing You listed after In The Land of the Dead. I must have EDITED it at some point in 2016 and forgotten. . .so yeah, I did the one that’s next in the list on AO3, which is Losing You, and the one that I feel SHOULD be next, which is Triskaidekaphobia.

As for patterns, yes, I think you can spot a reasonably obvious one -- I do like to start a lot of my stories with a line of dialogue or a character thought. Coming in mid-conversation or mid-observation really helps jump-start a chapter for me. I don’t do it all the time, though, as you can see -- and I think it has something to do with the type of story and the length. If I’m doing a short prompt fic, I’m a little more likely to start with an ordinary establishing sentence. Losing You is an exception, but there I was literally describing what happened right after the end of Corpse Bride, so. . . But yeah, I was expecting a lot more dialogue openers, to be honest. I guess it’s not as often as I thought! (Though I bet you if I looked at individual CHAPTERS in a bunch of these stories, it would become a lot more obvious.)

Tagging: I don’t think I’m even following ten people, so I’m just leaving it open -- though @nebbychan, @gaydragonwizards, if you want to give it a shot with your stuff, feel free!

(Oh, BTW, for anyone wondering what the hell items #13 through #17 are going on about -- they’re all part of the Forgotten Vows AUs series I have on AO3, collecting some fic I wrote while RPing as the Forgotten Vows Victor (here on tumblr and on Dreamwidth), most of it before even getting the whole Verse completed in my head. Rabbit Hunt is an alternate take on how Victor gets Alice’s toy rabbit back; Nightmares And A Sweet Dream some dreams I wrote up for my Victor back when he was still struggling from what happened with Bumby (includes an early version of the whole thing with Thirteen!); Demolition Lovers is the Bad End AU and I don’t like it; Welcome To Rapture (Twice In Fact) is two versions of a “Victor gets accidentally transported to Rapture” ficlet I wrote to “audition” for a Dreamwidth game (I didn’t get in); and Mallow Hallow Snippets are stories I wrote from Victor’s time in a game I did get in (and ran for a short couple of months), Mallow Hallow. They’re hardly required reading, but if you like early takes on some of the Forgotten Vows stuff, or just general weird shit, you can read ‘em.)

#dontoffendthebees #writing stuff #tag game #opening line tag game #fanfic #yeah I was going write along #thinking 'okay yeah this all looks ri-'#'wait what why is LOSING YOU here'#I genuinely don't recall why that one would have finished in 2016 #I MUST have made some small change that threw off its placement in the flat list #but I actually did want to show off its first line soo #congrats you get 21 first lines #and yeah trust me we look at individual chapters?#lots of dialogue openers #I probably use it as a bit of a crutch #but it's an easy way to get me into the middle of a scene #there's two versions of the 'Into Rapture' story #because I found the original draft of my writing sample and edited it #and then found the draft I ACTUALLY SUBMITTED in a different place #and decided 'fuck it I'm not wasting the time I edited there'#and to be honest 'Nightmares And A Sweet Dream' could be considered semi-canon instead of full AU #the first and last dream are definitely ones Victor could have had in the main timeline #just not the early appearance of Thirteen since he's surprised by him later #'Demolition Lovers' though #that was a prompt fic and now I look at it and it just makes me sad #queued

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pynkhues · 4 years

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1/2 i've got some writing questions for you, if you're up for answering, because i’m curious and you seem like a Real Writer: 1) do you use betas? 2) what exactly are betas supposed to do? i always figured they just checked for like grammar and stuff. megan @foxmagpie is betaing for me and she's done her very best to help me with figuring out my outline and character motivations and i always figured that was a bonus because she's a sweetheart and can see i'm a baby who knows nothing about what

2/2 she’s doing, but the writing asks going around made me start thinking maybe that's actually more standard?? 3) also, i know you're being traditionally published (btw congrats!!), so how different is a fic beta from an editor? thank you in advance if you decide to answer!! :)

Thank you for the congratulations, and of course!

This got a little long, so I’m dropping it behind a cut.

1. Do you use betas?

I used to! I bounced around a few betas when I was a new writer, and then I met Melissa who I had a terrific creative relationship with for about five years? We’re still good friends, but she’s not in fandom anymore and decided she didn’t really have the time to beta anymore after she graduated from college and became a vet. It sort of worked out perfectly, because that was around the same time that I quit writing fic (something I’ve obviously come back to, haha).

I don’t use a beta currently, but I do sometimes talk plot / storyworld things through with @foxmagpie or share bits and ask for her opinion / if what I’m trying to get across comes across.

2) what exactly are betas supposed to do?

It’s entirely up to you and your beta! They can just do grammar and punctuation. I know some betas who just check for Americanisms, Australianisms, Europe-isms, I know some who are hands on with workshopping a story, some who predominantly cheerlead, some who provide very detailed feedback and suggestions, some who provide very little, it all just depends what you, the writer, want, and what the beta is prepared or able to give.

It’s why I think every writer-beta relationship – no matter how close you are as friends – should start with a conversation about parameters and expectations.

If you just want your fic proofread for grammar, that should absolutely be flagged by you, the writer. If you want feedback on plot, characterisation, etc. that should be flagged too.

I don’t tend to beta that much really, just because I’ve worked as a professional editor for many years and have been involved in a lot of writing workshops where you’re often workshopping multiple stories a week, and I find it really hard to turn off that part of my brain. As a result, when I do beta, I tend to do a condensed version of a full edit which includes a structural edit (broad story feedback and questions about world building, characters, etc), a copyedit (this is grammar plus sentence and paragraph structure, word repetition), fact checking (hence the glass bowl debate, hahaha), and write up a page or two on broader feedback for the author overall i.e. patterns in their writing, areas to improve, areas they do really well in, etc.

This is obviously incredibly vigorous (and will take me usually a whole day or even two days - which is something I have to signpost when beta’ing too as I’ll need to have a day free to do it), and not something most betas do (as it probably should be, haha, fanfic should be fun after all). This sort of edit though is (hopefully) really about growth and improvement and challenging the writer to level up, so to speak. The writer definitely needs to be ready for it, and Megan was, which is how I ended up doing this for chapter 7 and now chapter 8 of Delinquents.

Again though, this was something she and I negotiated and worked out that she wanted, and I was actually excited to do, because I love Megan’s writing, and if I could help her be more happy with it and grow and feel like she was growing, I’d be honoured to do that!

If that’s not what she’d wanted, I wouldn’t have done it the way that I did it.

As for Megan helping you with the outlining and character motivation, that is something that’s very sweet! Writing at that point can be really challenging, and while there are a lot of betas who talk through that sort of thing, there are a lot of betas too who only look at things after a draft is written as well. Having feedback and someone to talk to about a story in the early stages, particularly during outlining, can be really helpful and can save you a lot of issues down the track, because if you’re unsure of motivations and what’s propelling your characters through the story, it can often ground your writing to a halt.

One of the best bits of writing advice I ever got was to constantly be asking your story three questions.

1. What does my character want?

2. What (or who) is standing in their way stopping them from getting what they want?

3. What’s my character going to do to overcome it?

Take these as literally or as broadly as you like, but those questions are really helpful at identifying what the narrative thrust of your story is at both a broader and scene-based level. :-)

3) How different is a fic beta from an editor?

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this also varies, haha. It depends on what the beta does and what that process looks like.

Like I said, I more or less do a condensed version of a full edit when I beta, but in traditional publishing (and what I’m going through at the moment with my publisher for my novel), the rounds of editing will usually be done by different people, so you get different opinions. So just to reiterate, a full edit involves:

Round 1: Structural Edit. This is done usually by a senior editor and involves broad feedback on the story and can include anything from scrapping characters to rearranging plots to changing settings. It usually includes a lot of questions which are designed to challenge the writer’s narrative choices or deepen understanding of story.

Round 2 & 3: Copy Edit. This is usually done by a junior editor (and they usually do it twice (or even more than twice if it’s a difficult manuscript or author) - so once, then the writer works on the changes and sends it back, then the editor does it again to the new draft), and is a closer look at the story. It rarely involves major story changes, and instead is focused on individual scenes, paragraph and sentence structure, and often character motivation or settings in specific scenes, as opposed to the broader story.

Round 4: Proofreader. At a big publisher, this will usually done by a contractor outside of the publishing house so that it’s a very fresh reader who’s unfamiliar with the story. At a smaller publishing house or a magazine / journal, this’ll be done by an editorial assistant, intern or even the junior editor again. This is strictly grammar and punctuation.

Round 5: Final proof. This goes back to everyone - the author, the structural editor, the copy editor and the proofreader, and is usually a PDF of the typeset pages, so everyone has one last chance to make minor changes before it goes to print.

So yes! A long process, haha.

I’d say most betas do a little bit of a structural and copy edit, but are predominantly proofreaders? Although, once again, it really just depends!

I hope this is a help, and feel free to ask if you have any other questions!

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lovelylogans · 4 years

Note

:o Please please rant about the 100 and Bellamy!! I was only marginally into it so I don't know much but I love to hear your meta on literally everything!!

all RIGHT. spoilers for the 100 past this point! also i’m gonna go ahead and preface this with a warning about racism, and also that a lot of this is based off stan twitter, but like. they aren’t Wrong.

oh, also, i’m gonna go ahead and drop my stan twitter: i rarely make original posts, but, ya know. it’s a jumble of content. feel free to follow if u want.

also! there’s this whole thread of hiatus drama, if you want a fuller picture than what i’m giving you.

so a quick, general sum-up of some plot that goes into this Whole situation: the sixth season of t100 took place on a different planet, after t100 spent ~5 seasons on earth, so this introduced new characters and also the concept of interplanetary travel. in the season six finale, hope (the daughter of a character, diyoza, who was still pregnant with hope, because ~time travel~) stepped through what’s called “the anomaly,” says “i’m sorry,” and stabs octavia, dissipating her into green mist. bellamy, octavia’s brother (who has had Issues and a Lot of storylines centering around octavia, which is a whole other topic of conversation (ft. bellamy’s storylines centering around white women (bob morley, who plays bellamy, is half-filipino) octavia’s treatment by fandom vs bellamy’s, and you can probably tell which side i’m on by how loudly i screamed “YEEEEEESSSSSSS” when bellamy said “you’re my sister, but you’re not my responsibility anymore” after SIX SEASON of—okay you see, i’m getting off topic)

anyway, the season closer was that octavia went through the anomaly, which (this is important!) a fair amount of the main characters saw (gabriel, hope, echo, and bellamy, namely) bellamy, in that same season closer, was running through the woods alone, yelling for octavia. season ending. good hook!

and then.... nothing.

seriously. the hiatus between season six and season seven of the hundred (the LAST season of the show, EVER!) there was next to no promotional material. no bts pics, no tweets from cast/crew, nada. nothing. which stirred up quite a bit of complaint in the fandom—one, it’s the last season, can we not have some promotion, and two, it’s the last season, and there’s no promotion by cast/crew/the cw, why is this happening?

seriously. the season seven teaser clip that got aired between episodes on the cw was released before the trailer. it became a meme, how long we were waiting for the trailer. like it was... what, 19, 20 days before the season aired, and all we had was like a stitched-together character poster?

there was also some drama throughout the hiatus, ft. the fandom getting on the news for not getting content in the hiatus, jessica harmon (who plays a guest role, nylah, and whose brother plays murphy) getting snappy at fans on twitter for asking for promotion, and isaiah washington, who played thelonious jaha (a character that died in s5) telling a minor (and also going into their dms!) that he’d call the fbi on them, good times, the 100 fandom is a Disaster and i live a nightmare every day

and then. the trailer drops.

which starts “where is bellamy?” like. people. were SEARCHING for bellamy. people were trying to be optimistic, but rapidly people were also coming to, like, the worst conclusions. however as always t100 fandom did have some jokes, so like, ya know

people were looking forward to other promo: the poster, and also, there’s this tradition of countdown bts photos for the show, and since bob and eliza (who plays clarke, the female lead) just got married, people had high hopes!

and then came the poster (which had no bellamy, or characters at all) and then the OFFICIAL poster (which had characters, but still no bellamy) which started the hashtag #whereisbellamyblake, because, seriously, he’s the male lead and it’s the last season. also bonus screengrab of this from jroth (the lead writer’s) mom’s twitter lmao

so people rightfully had questions: the excuse that was being given was that including bellamy would be “spoilery,” except, like, it’s a poster? and the only shot of him in the trailer was him being dragged along the ground despite the fact that he was the thumbnail for the trailer? like, okay, which led to some twitter meltdowns, and some more, and again people were fearing the worst, because like, see lexa, jason has a BAD track record when it comes to fan-favorite ships. people were HEATED, people were RANTING, it was a MESS

also. the edited posters were pretty funny, okay, then bob and eliza, bless them, dropped some a+ twitter content, and things calmed down a bit

and then, countdown days started. usually, the order goes bob on one more day, and eliza on show day. except this year? eliza was one more day. which. people were going nuts. because it was a tradition! and keeping BOB out of a behind the scenes where there weren’t any spoilers? it just seemed unprofessional—especially damning, given jason’s past history with ricky whittle, who played lincoln, and was bullied off the set. people were worried that, one, this was affecting bob’s storyline, and two, well. remember that thing about fan-favorite ships? here’s a whole thread of that, btw. and a video of ricky whittle, here.

it is a genuine fear of a lot of the fandom that jason will, in all his pettiness, not give in to bellarke. which is kind of nutty, given that it’s the core relationship of the show, and he himself had said that he’d been foreshadowing it. bellamy and clarke are literally “the head and the heart” of the show.

oh, yeah. so hard cut to the showday pic.

cast. crew. writers. everyone.

except? no bob.

people lost their gotdamn MINDS.

there’s a lot of subsequent drama; the fact that apparently they’re pushing through clarke/gaia (even though there was ??? no previous evidence of this??) still no bellamy for four episodes (seriously, it took clarke, like, two episodes to even cotton onto the fact that he was missing at all) a lot of criticism of jason (he’s shamed shipping and also, lmao, is trying to push through a spinoff?) and just. Yeah.

i’m really burnt out when it comes to the 100 fandom; i’ve unfollowed a lot of the t100-centric tumblrs i used to follow, once the show is over i’m gonna unfollow a lot of the twitters and just, yeah. i care about bob and eliza, and i care about bellarke, but the fandom wears me out and the unprofessionalism of a lot of what’s gone down has kind of just? made me lose interest? they’re recycling storylines (esp centering around octavia and bellamy) and continuity doesn’t seem to really be a priority. i just... yeah. i mostly care about bellarke and the fact that i bond a lot with one of my real-life friends through this show. if bellarke doesn’t happen, i’m gonna be like Really... disappointed, mad, irritated? like. imagine. it’s literally So Easy. the actors got married, ffs, you’ve gotten in trouble for ending two ships via very tragic death (in the same season, even!) like how is this Not Clicking

anyway that’s my (entirely too long) rant about t100!!!!

#the 100 #the 100 spoilers #not ts #Anonymous #ask

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darkpoisonouslove · 4 years

Text

Winx Club Season 1 Thoughts (4kids)

I decided to start rewatching Winx Club since there were strong nostalgia feels and I am getting more and more sucked into this fandom, so might as well just rewatch everything and pay close attention to it, right? So here are my thoughts (this gets very long so they are under a cut):

1x01:

- Okay, so we got classical “ordinary person learns that they’re not so ordinary” here. It’s a little weird how Bloom’s powers just activated out of nowhere but it could be because she came in contact with a magical threat that provoked her powers to awaken so no complaints here. It was actually very brave of her to try to help Stella, seeing how she didn’t know she had powers.

- Kiko is our little bunny buffoon - no complaints here either.

- Stella being so confident in Bloom’s powers and so encouraging was really cute. The friendship between them probably was a little rushed since they knew practically nothing about each other but whatever.

- Bloom’s parents were pretty chill with finding out their daughter was a fairy. Edit: Okay, that was covered in one of the later episodes. I do like that Bloom told Mike and Vanessa exactly what was going on and didn’t try to hide the truth from them (*cough* like she’ll be doing in a certain live-action series *cough*). And they were actually very supportive about it and didn’t try to stop her! Awww! All the family feels!

- I hated Brandon and Sky’s ruse back then and I hate it now. At least they’re good at it and know how to actually keep it up.

1x02:

- Unlike Bloom and Stella who couldn’t even last an entire episode. It was cute how much Stella wanted to help Bloom, though.

- Beware Stella, the Destroyer of Labs. I wonder if she ever managed to create that new shade of pink.

- Griselda is so savage. And Faragonda is there like flowers and sunshine. XD

- I have to say that the line about not getting caught by the witches of Cloud Tower may seem funny at first but it actually bothers me. It bothers me because the teachers know that the witches would torture and abuse any fairies they come across but nobody is taking steps to prevent that. Why is that allowed? It is terrible, although, I have to admit, realistic since the education system is shit and nobody does anything actually helpful to prevent bullying. Still, it is a problem and I really don’t like the way it is portrayed on the show. It’s like “Yeah, they might scar you for life but it will be your own damn fault even though we are the adults and we clearly can’t be bothered to do shit!” And don’t tell me there isn’t anything to be done. If there were negative repercussions towards Cloud Tower as a school when their students misbehaved, I doubt Griffin would allow as much of that as she does now.

- OMG, Flora’s idea to save the forests is so awesome. I would so love me some talking plants. You don’t have to talk to yourself when you have a plant to have a conversation with!

- Spying on some witches sounds like a good idea, Bloom. Except don’t get caught maybe. (Okay, I am not being fair here. She didn’t know that what Darcy did was possible.)

- But damn, Darcy’s powers are so cool! I actually liked the “fight” with the Trix. And we saw all their transformations for the first time. It was cool.

- Well, at least they didn’t throw her out of Alfea. That would’ve been a shame. And they’re quickly becoming friends. Apparently, the girls decided they were okay with not being told the truth. I would’ve loved to see that conversation but still.

1x03:

- Stella is being supportive... until she is not anymore. Stella has these sudden mood shifts but she is being a ray of sunshine most of the time.

- Faragonda is married? But why do they call her “Miss” then? It makes no sense. Btw why does Griselda look like she’s having the worst time of her life while Faragonda is announcing the ball? I mean, I know she’s not big on fun but that looks a little bit over the top.

- Griffin kinda pulled an ala Maleficent routine.

- How is it that Bloom always gets into trouble? And because she couldn’t find a pair of scissors.

- Damn, Darcy with that magic again! I love her! Also, Icy can dematerialize walls? That is so cool! (pun unintended)

- Bloom’s powers conveniently showed up. I was gonna complain that it was unrealistic for freshman fairies to be defeating senior witches but then I realized that they didn’t actually defeat them. In 1x02 Stella teleported them out of harm’s way and in 1x03 the Trix disappeared in order to go after Stella’s ring so it’s actually fine.

- I feel sorry for that duckling. Icy is being so cruel to it in next eps. And they just put it there as plot device. It was used more than once to give away the Trix’s presence to Winx.

1x04:

- Gotta love how Bloom is the only one besides Flora who can hear the voice of nature. At least they allowed Flora to hear it as well because if it had been only Bloom who was able to hear it, I would’ve thrown a fit.

- Tecna has done her homework. I love how she figured out the ship was taken out by an attack from the outside. I’m actually starting to like her.

- Classical Riven, all grumpy and ungrateful. Though, he and Brandon actually did manage to call a truce so... I guess that worked out well. I love that the Specialists were shown working together as a team as well as bickering. It helps build some relationship between them and that is sorely needed.

- Damn, the Trix just vanished an entire troll. I love how powerful they are!

- Okay, but... that abbreviation Stella suggested to be their group name that consisted from the first letters of their names? Was that subtle shade being thrown at W.I.T.C.H? Bc you know, “we’re too good to use their initials as a name, we can actually come up with a title”.

1x05:

- Spell for making good decisions? Really? Um... okay. Whatever. (that is so lame) But hey, at least we got those kitchen scenes that were absolutely hilarious! XD

- Okay, how did no one realize that that wasn’t actually Stella? Proves my point that they don’t actually know each other that well and that the whole friendship was rushed.

- So I have more to bitch about Bloom and her “leadership” here but I will actually save it.

- At least they managed to save Stella. (Question, though. Why was she in her everyday clothes if they caught her at the date? She went out with the dress. Did the animators forget about that?) The hug with Bloom was cute. And Stella was being all brave, telling them to keep the ring instead of begging them to save her. I think she will make a better queen than everyone realizes.

1x06:

- Starlight is the purest source of magic? Oh, hey, I didn’t know that! But if that is true why is Stella not more powerful than Bloom? I am a little confused as to what happened since it was pretty much explained as in the Big Bang created the Great Dragon that later created the magical universe. But where do the stars and magic fit in that? Also, I had not noticed up until this point that Faragonda says “she” when she talks about the Great Dragon. That’s cool. Also also, here’s a plot hole for ya - Faragonda said that the Great Dragon is just a myth and so is the Dragon Fire and that was when she was alone in her office. But season 3 later gives us the Company of Light storyline which contradicts that since Faragonda knew Marion who had the Dragon Fire personally. It is so much fun when you don’t have your backstory covered before you dive in. Leaves so many opportunities for plot holes for you to fall into and the writers are diving headfirst into this one.

- Breaking in Cloud Tower. When they were explicitly warned to stay away from the witches. Sounds like a good idea, right? At least they have a map and aren’t totally unprepared.

- Tecna totally rocked in this episode. She memorized the whole map and seemed to be strategic about everything and had a plan (which was about the best idea any one of them has had ever since the beginning of the show). And she did protect them all! I am really starting to like her a lot. I wasn’t even annoyed by her constant nagging to leave because that was a good idea. (Btw totally a side question but how did Tecna know which room was the Trix’ from the map? Did she also hack the computer system of Cloud Tower (that I doubt exists, considering Griselda was checking which fairies were arriving manually and their names were just taped on the doors in their dorms instead of something more computerized so it’s probably the same with Cloud Tower?)

- And Griffin had to go and try to kill them. Great idea! And when Faragonda goes to search for them after she realizes that they’re missing, what was Griffin going to tell her (I’m presuming that Faragonda would find a way to locate them or at least figure out where they’d last been)? “Nope, never seen them. Not even once. Well, except for that time I killed them but that’s totally irrelevant here.” Amazing logic! I know they broke into her school, but damn, she could’ve dialed it back a little.

- I had completely forgotten about Daphne. It took me a while to figure out what the hell was going on when she started talking to Bloom.

- And Bloom’s sudden and inexplicable desire to know about the Dragon Fire is executed in a way I am not really a fan of. I mean, you know what the fuck is up when you’ve already watched the show but on your first go that would probably just seem very random (even if she was insisting it was so that they could figure out what the witches wanted).

- It was so unfair for Winx to get punished without even being heard out. I’m mad on their behalf because yes, it does matter why they did what they did. Is no one going to tell Faragonda and Griselda about the theft of the ring? (Or the way it happened for that matter? Stella could have died.) That is a royal symbol and it got stolen. Why is no one talking about this? (on the show I mean.)

1x07:

- That punishment was harsh. But they proved they can handle themselves even without their powers. Who needs magic when you have cleaning supplies, am I right? XD

- OMG, Tecna, you don’t need computer or guidance to figure out a mop and a bucket of water. And Flora just standing there and watching Tecna completely misunderstanding the cleaning supplies and their usage and laughing about it? She’s not as innocent as she seems.

- How do the Trix know about the Dragon Fire if Faragonda herself thought it was only a myth? And where the hell did those crystals come from? I mean, I’m not complaining. Have you seen them? They totally rock. But I’m just curious.

- Winx really did a number on the Trix this time. And Faragonda and Griselda came back in the right moment. Though, I can’t get over the fact that she has zero idea what the fuck is going on between her students and the witches (not that anyone tells her shit but still). Now they went overboard? What about three episodes ago when they tried to kill Stella? And they’re making sure they’re not breaking the rules but who the fuck makes sure these girls are safe? Because they’ve been in more trouble from the beginning of the school year than a person gets into for their entire high school run.

- Did Faragonda take away the Trix’s powers too? Well, she should’ve left them powerless. It would’ve saved everyone a lot of headaches.

1x08:

- Fuck, this talk about Stella and Musa’s family situations is making me want to cry. I can’t see through the tears in my eyes. Help!

- I always loved this episode (1x08). But damn, why is Riven hitting on Bloom? Pls, stop! But at least she really ripped into him and then poured water on him which, frankly, he deserved. I mean, I like him as a character but he was way out of line talking to them like that.

- I love that Stella was being supportive with Brandon when Riven was trying to embarrass him. She didn’t care if he’d failed, only that he was okay. That was really cute!

- So the whole plan hangs on whether Knut can sell the Timmy vibe? Which he is not really doing all that well. Great job! This only worked because Bloom is not paying attention. Which I will cut her some slack for because of the whole thing with Daphne and then Riven.

- I feel like the writers do know how to build suspense, though, and I really appreciate that.

- I like Riven x Musa but I also like Riven x Darcy. When you forget that she was actually using him... and she put a spell on him. Ugh... Why is this so problematic? And also never addressed? Not to mention that Darcy totally did not look up any spells prior to that so she must have known it beforehand, and considering Icy and Stormy’s words, I think it is safe to assume she’s done this before... which is not okay.

- But on the plus side, she knows how to ride a hoverbike! I like that!

- Well, it did end in tears so job well done I guess. I am still having problems with Griffin’s behavior here. “Break some hearts, break some bones”? Umm, what? Can you not? (Also, sidenote, but Griffin’s remark about the celebration struck me as annoying tbh. I know she’s a witch but she has a family too. Can we, please, drop this idea that witches can’t love, thanks?)

1x09:

- Wow, this is the most interesting episode so far.

- Stella really got spelled there. And in the end with the oppositus spell. That part was really random, though. Was it simply because they needed Musa to run off to town?

- Aw, Faragonda hugging Bloom so readily was really cute! What the heck did she mean about the dark forces, though? Was that... Was that somehow caused by the Ancestral Witches? Because I am pretty sure the Trix had nothing to do with it. What the hell is going on?

- I wanna know about the First Witches! Tell me moooore!!! At least we know about Daphne now.

- Okay, this time the Trix and the other witches were gonna kick Winx and the Specialists’ asses. That was some awesome battle, though. I liked it so much. Real action. Plus, they got to show off their powers!

- Darcy’s powers are so awesome!!! (I’m sorry but I love her and I have to gush.)

- Now the Trix know about the Dragon Fire. (I love those damn crystals; they look so good!). It’s starting to get real. But let’s backtrack for a second here. They wrecked the place where there were fighting, not to mention the blinding light from Bloom’s powers and yet, somehow nobody knows what happened there? What? Why tf don’t Griffin and Faragonda know about that? I am pretty sure they wrecked multiple cars there so why is nobody filing complaints and tracking the fight back to them?

1x10:

- “Puppy dog to Stiletto.” I AM DYING!!! And the way they are showing how the communication between them runs through Darcy’s psychic channel is so cool! I love it!

- It’s the Magical Reality Chamber... Ugh. I am not really thrilled about that.

- And Palladium is busy Palladiuming here. I can’t help this thought but why is his design so different in season 1 from his design later on? What happened to him? (Obvious glow up but I mean why?)

- Tecna’s sass is killing me. I am so loving it!

- Oh, thank goodness Kiko is okay!

- What the hell happened to the Dragon Fire? Did it just decide to pack its bags and leave? How did it get away from the Whisperian Crystals? Also, if Faragonda and Palladium were watching how Bloom was doing, why didn’t they say anything about the Trix? Did they not see them? If they did, why didn’t they do shit about it? I am pretty sure what they did is very against the rules. So what the hell is up with that?

1x11:

- Okay, I totes agree with Bloom. Yeah, Flora messed up with all the plants but they legit let her go live in a swamp. Wtf, guys?!?!?! You’re her friends. You shouldn’t let that happen!

- Awww, they went with her! Okay, we’re good! (And even Stella went even though her shoes got ruined!) Also, Flora’s inventions are really cool. Baby can save the entire universe on her own and protect nature with her inventions.

- The nymphs are so cute!!! Not to mention well adapted! They can fly, breathe air and live underwater. Damn!

- Stella is finally hearing the voice of nature. Or whatever it is that is sending her that vibe that something is off.

- Why wasn’t Tecna affected by the mist (or whatever it was)? She was breathing the same air as them and all the rest were getting sleepy even before she put down her mask (whatever). So why was she not affected at all? (I’m not trying to poke holes into the plot, the plot is poking my eyes out with its holes.)

- An evil willow. Well, you don’t see that every day.

- Tecna’s apology was very Tecna and very cute.

1x12:

- Awwww, they agreed to help Stella with the beauty pageant because she was so passionate about it. That’s some real friendship!!! Also, I love how concerned they were with making sure she was going to pass the test. Sometimes the only thing that can make you study is indeed someone else forcing you to. So props to them for taking the time to make sure she was handling her classes.

- Lol, the Trix are at it again. But what did they do with Lucy? She looks like a completely different person. Also, they used a lot of magic there (and their reactions to how well it was working were just hilarious). And here I go again with my ranting. Why didn’t the contest have someone to make sure the participants weren’t using magic since that was against the rules? The Trix used so much magic and no one would be the wiser if not for Bloom’s spell. Other contestants could have used magic as well and no one would have been able to tell. It’s just not believable.

- Stella won the pageant and passed her test. Now that’s impressive!

1x13:

- That episode with Bloom and her parents made me cry, wtf! That was really emotional. I don’t get one thing, though. If she knew she was adopted, why didn’t she try to look for her birth parents even before that? Wasn’t she curious why they’d given her up? And why did she not think of them when she learned she had magic? I think it is logical after learning that you have magic and knowing that you are adopted to go “Hey, perhaps I inherited this from my birth parents”.

- At least Winx were very supportive about it. (I am a bit unsure why Bloom didn’t make the connection about Daphne when Mike told her he’d heard a voice when he’d found her. I mean, she also heard a voice (guiding her out of a fire no less) so why didn’t she wonder at least if perhaps that hadn’t been Daphne that talked to Mike?)

1x14:

- I just noticed this but remember how Bloom is complaining that she always has to go first at tests because they do alphabetical order? Isn’t Amaryl in the same class? She was with them during Wizgiz’s quiz (wait, that’s next episode) and when Palladium had them listening to the voice of nature. But then with the magical reality chamber and this exercise with Faragonda Bloom’s going first even though Amaryl should go before her.

- Omg, Sky is fangirling so hard! And he’s on for breaking into Cloud Tower. I have a feeling that is the worst idea but I know they’re gonna do it anyway so...

- So Griffin’s entire family consists of witches? Cool. And of course, her fave spell is a revenge one. Why am I not surprised? XD

- I feel so bad for Mirta. Everyone laughed at her. But she should’ve known that was coming and she should’ve chosen a different spell to describe. Actually, scratch that. She was brave enough to be herself and did not conform to what was expected of her so props to her for that! Though, the witches’ reaction suggests that having friends is something to laugh at which just... isn’t true??? Like, everyone needs a friend once in a while. I can’t stand it when kids shows make the villains these heartless, soulless people who feel no emotion whatsoever. Would it kill you to make a villain that actually acts like a person?

- Wtf, Lucy? That was nasty as hell. And does she really think that the Trix are going to hang out with her?

- The Trix’s plan is truly horrible. But I have to admit it’s a good plan. Seriously though, the poor duckling! Honestly, how is it still alive? They made an entire troll disappear but they can’t get rid of one little duckling? Does that mean that they didn't actually want to kill it (bc lbr they could've easily killed it if they wanted to)?

- At least Sky would’ve tried to comfort Bloom if she hadn’t pushed him away. (Question, though. Why didn’t Griffin learn they were in the library? Last time Winx were there she immediately knew. (It is probably a good thing, though, because she probably would’ve tried to kill Bloom... Again.))

- Awww, Bloom and Mirta friendship adorableness ensues!!!

- I loved the way Winx all used their powers to find Bloom! And Musa getting that sound wave reading that she then transferred to Tecna? Awesome! I wish we could get more extraordinary usage of magic like that! (in the later seasons I mean)

- Kiko and the duckling fighting is some peak comedy right there.

- Oh no, poor Mirta (again; dammit this episode!). But at least she’s among friends now.

1x15:

- That’s some drama with the test (understandable). And that’s some more drama with the answers.

- Bloom was a little pushy in that scene with Faragonda who was clearly exhausted from the spell but I’ll cut her some slack because of the circumstances.

- Was that a pixie that was flying outside of Alfea?

- Flora is getting angry over here. Honestly, she’s really surprising me. I remember her as this goody-two-shoes but the only reason she hasn’t really snapped so far is because something always happens before she can. If you really look at her expressions, you can see that she gets mad as often as the other characters. I actually kind of like that because it shows she’s simply doing her best to be nice all the time and she also has limits but she’s actually working on keeping herself in check. It makes her more interesting.

- Why is everyone so bad at sneaking around?

- That lesson about inner transformation was interesting. Definitely something to think about. (I’ll tell you what’s for sure, though. Amaryl probably wasn’t transformed at all by the temptation. She is just a bitch like that. (It’s all she’s shown so far.))

- Stella legit picked up her teacher and then dropped him LMFAO!

1x16:

- I really love how the Trix are casting so many spells and developing their skills. In this season they actually worked for what they were after and did not receive everything on a silver platter. It makes me actually like them even though they are as evil as ever.

- Poor Stella! That monster caused her to dream about her biggest demons. And poor baby is afraid nobody likes her. Awww! :/ I am legit crying over here again, dammit!

- Damn, the monster is growing as it feeds on their nightmares! And Musa and Tecna’s nightmares were horrible. Poor babies! They did have a good plan for catching it, though... kinda. (It was a good thing they managed to contact Mirta and she told them what it was at least.)

- Well, it was about damn time Faragonda showed up! That monster has been roaming her school for two nights now. And it’s not so sneaky and quiet either. Not to mention the enormous amount of dark energy it must have brought in the school. How did none of the teachers notice it sooner? Like, seriously, it was there for two nights, the girls were screaming, loudly, they fought it in their room, they fought it in the corridor, they fought it in the yard, it knocked down Musa and Tecna, the Trix showed up and froze Stella and Flora, the gargoyle caught Bloom and Faragonda showed up ONLY THEN? Are you kidding me? Took you for-fucking-ever! And on top of it Winx started apologizing they hadn’t been able to handle it on their own instead of being angry that the school is not doing enough to protect them. None of the shit that has happened to them since the beginning of the season should have been allowed, and yet, somehow it keeps happening.

- So Griffin didn’t care that they wrecked havoc but that they got caught while doing it? Nice. I love it how she just decided to magic a gigantic projection of her head and use it to kick the Trix out instead of going out in the rain. Power move!

- And now the Trix are hella mad. This is getting intense.

1x17:

- Well, Sky isn’t handling this well. And Diaspro is coming which means trouble. It’s not going well! (I can’t stress this enough. God, I really hate this episode.)

- Wait, so Timmy knows about the switch up between Brandon and Sky? I mean, if he knows why Diaspro’s visit is a problem, then he must know about that as well, right? Which means that Riven is the only one in the group that doesn’t know. Well, that doesn’t look too good. I mean, it was good for them they hadn’t told him but it might explain why he never felt like a part of the group. They were keeping things from him.

- That chat between Griffin and Faragonda escalated quickly. And damn, they turned a man into a goat? I mean, I expect that from Griffin, but Faragonda? I did not see this coming. Also, the dialogue was horrible. It’s pure exposition. Both of them know what happened. Why are they going over it? And it was just information without any added commentary from either of them which made it pointless and sort of an info dump. I’m cringing just listening to it.

- Okay, but Griffin’s seat was 26 G and Faragonda’s was 26 F. I mean, come on! It actually made sense for them to be seated together (and with Saladin too) tho since they’re the headmistresses of the schools.

- So Erendor went to Red Fountain too? I mean, of course he did. But please, who is buying the crap that Samara is a philanthropist? She is obviously a big snob and you can tell that just by looking at her.

- Politics is being brought to you by Musa.

- Too bad for Bloom that both Icy and Diaspro are horrible and she thought Diaspro was Icy. Smart call with the press idea, though. Also, Diaspro’s magic is actually really cool! It is unique and I really like it!

- And Riven and Sky don’t have it together either. Everyone is acting like they’re five years old in this episode. Also, I love how Saladin just blamed the whole thing on Bloom when Sky and Riven also had a big role in ruining the entire celebration. But of course, Bloom is the only one guilty here and Winx are getting punished again. At least, this time they told their teachers it wasn’t completely their fault. But what good did it do anyway?

1x18:

- Omg, Bloom, no! You can’t leave and just... leave your friends. Ugggggh, this is too sad!!! (And kind of annoying me because they told her they wanted her there and they were all together in this. Though, on the other hand I understand because guilt is something that you have to deal with yourself and only you can get over it no matter how many reassurances you get from outside.) But awwww, they all looked so cute when they were just chilling together while everyone was doing their own thing. True friendship!

- I am so with Stella on this one. Bloom’s their friend and they have to go get her back no matter what.

- Btw Griselda’s glasses can’t be functional at all. I mean look at them. The two lenses are so far apart, wtf?

- Go to hell, Icy! Earth is cool!

- Mitzy is so annoying. I would’ve used my powers on her a long time ago if I were Bloom. So props to her for (mostly) keeping her cool.

- Oooh, Bloom finally learned who she is (and ooh, we’re getting backstory!). And... she lost her powers. The way they just ripped the Dragon Fire out of her was terrible. It makes me hurt!

1x19:

- Stella is such a good friend! I love her!!!

- Oof, that battle between the Trix and Griffin. Griffin was so done with them when she was dusting herself off. And awww, she cares about her witches! That was so cute!!! Ediltrude and Zarathustra flying out of the window wasn’t cute, though.

- Stella is not being helpful with her “it might be the end of the world”. And Griselda’s mood seemed to flip pretty quickly from angry to concerned. Also, Faragonda with her “I believe we learn things when we’re ready to” may not have made the best decision. If Bloom had known, it could have been different. Not to mention that in the previous episode she told Winx she’d take care of Bloom when she refused to let them go after her but I didn’t see anyone taking care of anything. If Stella hadn’t gone to take her back, she may not have found her way back. What are you, guys, doing?

- Why does Cloud Tower have functioning dungeons, again? Also, who decided it was a good idea to keep the book for summoning the Army of Decay in Cloud Tower? I know you need the Dragon Fire to summon it and they thought that was gone, but still.

- I am so over the name of the spells. English words with Latin suffixes? I mean, really? Couldn’t actually come up with something better? (I wasn’t going to rant about that but they keep doing it.)

- I can’t decide if the Army of Decay is a good name or not. I think I like it, though. Either way, it seems to be a big deal since all the teachers looked scared as hell.

- Ah, the scene with Riven was painful. I really liked it, though. They got to show off their new powers and be nasty.

- Definitely a cool name. And an even cooler concept!

- The Trix were such great villains in season 1, though. They truly were menacing and were actually pretty powerful. And look at how creepy they are! I love!

- Does somebody want to tell me why Faragonda (and Griselda) weren’t helping the fairies fight the monsters like Palladium and Wizgiz were? Yeah, they need to keep communicating with Red Fountain but, like, isn’t there a more efficient way to do that that won’t keep the headmistress who is the most powerful person in the school from fighting?

- I like that Sky decided to stay and fight even if it meant dying.

1x20:

- Oh, look, the magical reality chamber can apparently be used as a teleportation device. Hmm, interesting.

- Darcy talking to the Army of Decay as if they’re little puppies was the funniest thing ever!

- Poor Knut (and the duckling). But at least he’s helping as much as he can! And he cares about his mom! Awwwww!

- Omg, I have for some reason been left with the impression that Saladin was a calm person but in the few moments he’s had so far he’s been raging far more than he’s been calm. And he did have a point about not trusting Knut but, jeez, can you calm down? Also, “everyone who survives passes the semester”. Oh yeah? How very generous of you. However, the semester is the least of your problems rn.

- If the Trix know that Winx are on Sparks, why don’t they attack Alfea?

- We finally saw a little of what Saladin can do. I think it’s weird that he’s a magic user when his school doesn’t teach magic. Can he fight without his magic? I mean, he probably can, but let us see it goddammit! I still liked the magic use, though!

- Ooooh, Icy unleashed some power there. Also, was she able to control the dragons because of the Dragon Fire? How are non-magical dragons related to the Great Dragon?

- Yeah, Stella is transformed and watching Bloom fall down a chasm and she’s asking “What do we do?” Fly down to fucking get her maybe? I don’t know.

1x21:

- How does Bloom remember the palace on Sparks if she was a baby back then? And it’s too quick for it to become “her palace”.

- Stella and Tecna took a Mathematics and Magic class together? Aww, that’s so cute! (Even if Stella slept through most of it.)

- Oh, look, Daphne showed up! When is she gonna tell Bloom that she’s her sister?

- I loved all the magical stuff here! The way they combined their powers and the attacks they used were super cool and felt really unique! Where did that go in the later seasons?

- Awww, Stella and Brandon are “friends”!!! Cool!

- Brandon is doing his best as Sky’s wingman! And he succeeded! Now if they can only fix the magical mess as easily as the romantic one!

1x22:

- Omg, Stella being so ready to help Knut is one of my favorite things! I can’t help but feel like this side of her was lost a little bit in favor of the more bitchy one in later seasons and I’m so sad.

- The entire Universe is in danger but girls will be girls and get all excited at the news of their new guests in the face of the boys.

- Going in without a plan is not the best idea. And that was such a positive reaction we got from Tecna.

- Stella is ready to go out with Brendon! That’s really cute!

- The Trix wrote “rule everyone” in their admission letters and Griffin still accepted them? What the actual hell was she thinking?!?!?!

- So Icy also comes from a lineage of witches?

- It was really cute that Griffin actually cared about Riven. So she’s only being a bitch to fairies then?

- Since when can the Army of Decay turn you into rot by touching you? I mean, they said that and a minute later Codatorta punched one of the monsters but he was fine. Contradictory much?

- So Riven just turned into the Red Fountain living instruction manual the way he was reciting all those things? Also, jumping out of windows is probably not the best action to undertake. Not that he had any other options left.

- Is Faragonda leading the battle? I thought Saladin would command the Specialists but it seems that she’s the one who’s giving all the orders. That is so cool!

- So much for sneaking in Cloud Tower.

- Awww, Riven saved the day and apologized for screwing up earlier! Plus, he showed how competent he is. All of that was so awesome and probably my fave part of the episode.

1x23:

- Tecna and Timmy, though! XD If they weren’t being attacked, that calculations talk would’ve practically been a date!

- Griffin just blasted the Trix like that! Damn! And she was legit glowing with magic! That was so awesome!!! She was so mad, I can’t. And that spell she put on them to trap them seemed to be very sophisticated, having in mind how many motions it needed to get activated.

- Did Griffin just compliment the fairies? Oh, I see, when they sneak in Cloud Tower under her supervision, she tries to kill them, but when they sneak in Cloud Tower while it’s under the Trix’s control, it’s brave. Nice logic we got here.

- Griffin, Faragonda and Saladin stand for the three points of magic? What does that mean? I mean, in terms of magic. What can the three of them do when they combine their powers?

- Btw why the hell would they need to enter the portal in alphabetical order? That was just so random, not to mention inconvenient.

1x24:

- What is it with witches and turning people into goats? Speaking of Ediltrude, where the hell are she and Zarathustra? They weren’t shown to be with Griffin and her students.

- Wait, I’m confused. Are they suggesting that the Trix are direct descendants of the Ancestresses and that’s why their parents never showed up? Because they don’t have parents? What the hell is going on?

- I like the idea that the monsters keep reforming because it really makes sense considering what they’re made of. And it is so epic! I am so here for this battle!

- I kinda feel Bloom’s worries about her magic being the only special thing about her, though we all have to give her credit for the fact that she keeps beating monsters with a stick. XD What was it? Her Earth powers? Do we all have those? I haven’t tried it yet.

- Wow, Faragonda and Griffin’s combined magic was so powerful! I love it!

- Awww, that Brandon and Stella moment that turned into the Specialists and Winx moment was so cute!!! But poor baby Stella. She just wants love and her parents’ divorce is really hurting her. (Also, that remark about her being the one to protect Brandon was cool! You go, girl!)

- The monsters attacked again. And just when they were ready to take the fight to the Trix, gdi! I have to say that I am actually wondering what Griffin meant by taking out the roots. I suppose she didn’t mean kill the Trix which is interesting to me. Considering Griffin’s general behavior and background, I’d say it is safe to assume that murder is not past her. But she never tried to really hurt the Trix even when she knew how serious of a threat they posed to the entire universe.

- Musa’s attack was so awesome! They got really powerful during that year they spent in Alfea. (Perhaps it would’ve been good to actually see them learn the new magic they seemed to have mastered but anyway, it is still cool.)

- That combined magic of all the fairies and witches was so epic! And I love the way it was done. With Faragonda and Griffin acting like a bridge between the light magic of the fairies and the dark magic of the witches. It was really cool!

- Magix sort of looks like Pompeii. Is that how people look when they’re turned to rot?

1x25:

- That was some very unladylike way of sitting that the Trix pulled there.

- Omg, Riven’s confession of his feelings towards Musa was so awkward, I can’t!

- Well, it was obvious that Bloom’s powers were still in her. First, that always happens on TV shows. And second, after the Trix stole the Dragon Fire from her she was still in her fairy form so... yeah. And I really hate the whole thing because I get what they were trying to do but it is so frustrating to know that they had to go through all this shit (they almost died! Multiple times!) only for it to turn out that her powers were inside her all along. It’s just... disappointing!

- Why don’t Stormy and Darcy know about the Invisible Road? And why the hell is there even such a thing? So that enemies can sneak up on you and attack you? The possible uses of that road do not balance out the danger it puts them in so why does it even exist?

- Lol, Codatorta beating Saladin in that game was a cool moment. I honestly expected him to lose because he looked distracted but it turned out it was the other way around.

- Faragonda and Griffin really know each other well. Though, I don’t think that Griffin was very happy about that. What I’m more interested in, though, is how they heard the Army of Decay. It still seemed pretty far away so I think it was their magic that enabled them to hear it. That’s totally awesome and I approve!

1x26:

- So Faragonda IS leading the battle! That’s so awesome on so many accounts. But the most notable is that that means she must have experience with battle strategy in order to pull this off (Well, of course she does, considering the whole action with the Company of Light that must have gone down)! I’m gonna scream here!!!

- Winx joining Bloom to help her against the Trix and the boys teaming up while discussing their love life was honestly the best. Riven and Sky are working together, I cannot believe it! It’s so cool!

- Okay, but even without the Dragon Fire Darcy and Stormy should still be stronger than Winx since they’re seniors. And yet, they seem to be losing. And kind of easily at that. And I’m not really sure what happened. Did Winx’s convergence turn Stormy’s attack on them?

- Is it only me or does it look like Bloom’s teleporting? (Also, props to the animators for only making Bloom’s powers look like a dragon to show who really controls the power, but they do lose points for making Icy and Stormy’s powers take the shape of a dragon as well in earlier moments.)

- Why did Stormy and Darcy’s monsters disappear when they were defeated if all the Dragon Fire was in Icy? That makes no sense.

- I love it how Bloom just carried Icy back like it was no biggie.

- Oh, no! Griffin is blaming herself for what happened (well, she was a little guilty but still). Opening a Bed & Breakfast? Wait, what? Did I hear right? That was so weird.

- Knut is so adorable! And Stella is so supportive of him! I love!

- Well, Lucy is just being a bitch.

- “We don’t do prom. We crash prom. So enjoy it. This will be the one year we won’t try to ruin it.” XD That was such an awesome line!!!

- So Griffin is the one who sent the Trix to wherever she sent them. Why are they still her responsibility if she expelled them? Shouldn’t she consult Faragonda and Saladin as to what to do with them? Or like... the Council? (Also, Griffin’s face when Saladin mentioned them was priceless. She is so done with them and I fully understand.)

- Why did the duckling go with Icy? It came to Alfea with Knut because it was scared of her. What happened?

- Even Griselda is having fun. That’s nice!

This was kind of... epic! Plot is perhaps not the strongest point of the Winx Club writers but they definitely know how to build tension. The season is a little weird in terms of time constraints in-verse but it was very enjoyable to watch! The powers and moves that they had were really awesome and actually rather original which I am very pleasantly surprised by. The season had some very strong moments and I really liked what they did, especially with the final episodes. I actually really loved it and I don’t think it is just the nostalgia talking here.

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