#i think the problem is that people think his apathy is super genuine but his apathetic before comes from TWO things

[oceanwithouthermoon]

the way some people in this fandom are convinced that saiki kusuo is an emotionless robot is sooo funny to me

seen so many posts being like "u guys r mischaracterizing kusuo by making him be affectionate toward his partner and friends >:c" ??? WHAT ???

its not mischaracterization you dinguses.. he shows affection with words a lot in the series, and the entire series happens BEFORE he accepts that hes allowed to love and have friends.. so literally what makes you think he would be totally apathetic towards a romantic partner or to his friends further in the future??

"stop making him cry in fan media he would never do that >:v" WHAT ARE YOU ON BRO HE LITERALLY CRIES IN THE SERIES... just because sometimes there are situations other people think he WOULD cry in and you dont agree, doesnt mean its mischaracterization, it just means you interpreted kusuos relationship with the situation or the situation itself a little differently ?

i once read a comment that had a lot of people agreeing under it that said he would never cry in front of his partner and wouldnt cry if his brother DIED and wouldnt cry if he got BROKEN UP WITH? im genuinely convinced that some people in this fandom are so far up their asses that they genuinely believe kusuo is like an abusive boyfriend tf is wrong with yall

#ive said this before and i'll say it again #you guys dont understand that EVEN SOMEONE LIKE SAIKI still needs to communicate his feelings in order to have successful relationships!! #if he had a partner and was ENTIRELY apathetic toward them he would get called an asshole and immediately broken up with #because why tf would he date someone if he didnt care ? yall dumb as fuck #i think the problem is that people think his apathy is super genuine but his apathetic before comes from TWO things #1) his autism traits and 2) his TSUNDERE traits #his powers obviously tie in but thats because of his trauma.. they tie in with everything about him #saiki k #tdlosk #the disastrous life of saiki k. #saiki kusuo #meows post #meownalysis

[moredancesmyraptheart]

i think a big reason bo burnham is so popular with people of a younger age groups, especially gen z, is that the views he expresses surrounding social media and technology and how they're affecting the youths are some of the most sympathetic and nuanced i've ever really seen.

as a member of this kind of age group myself, most of the people i know have at least some level of hatred of social media and the way its taken over all of our lives. however, when people start talking about how terrible social media is for us, especially if they start fully blaming us or saying it's stopping us from forming any real connections, i find that most of us (me included) tend to get really defensive about it. and to me, that makes sense, what they're saying doesn't line up with our experiences.

these views are typically very black and white, and very rarely take into account the aspects of social media that those most affected by it find harmful, for instance, the way that the culture that has been established on the internet means a lot of people my age find it very easy to overshare but very difficult to be emotionally vulnerable in any way.

the ideas bo burnham conveys, however, are much more cognizant of the actual root of these problems. i think there are two main aspects of this: his discussion of how this generation's addiction to social media has essentially been manufactured, and his deeper understanding of what the problems with it actually are.

in contrast to the idea that's pretty widely pushed that young people are pretty solely to blame for all being glued to our phones, bo explores the way that being the first generation to grow up with technology having this kind of prevalence in our lives has affected us. for instance, in 'make happy' when he says "the arrogance is taught, or it was cultivated", or in that bridge of 'welcome to the internet', when he says "mummy let you use her ipad you were only two/and it did all the things we designed it to do", for me, at the very least, i felt a lot more seen by those lines than i ever really have in discussions about the harms of technology in the past. i think the fact that he doesn't entirely absolve young people of our responsibility for ourselves and our actions (e.g. the line in '30' about "your fucking phones are poisoning your minds [...] when you develop a dissociative mental disorder in your late 20s don't come crawling back to me") is what, to me, makes it an actually effective critique of social media, because the way he expresses these ideas is actually sympathetic to the problems we face, but it's still sort of saying 'ok, things are fucked for you guys, so what are you going to do about it'

similarly, when he talks about how social media has been harmful, i think it's more empathetic to the difficulties we face as a part of it. for instance, in my opinion, in 'welcome to the internet' the ideas he discusses of "a little bit of everything, all of the time" and "apathy's a tragedy and boredom is a crime" are much more significant aspects of the damage technology has done than a lot of the mainstream arguments against social media. for me, i know as a kid before i had super regular access to the internet, i hated being bored more than anything, but now that i'm a bit older and i can literally do or see anything i want at any time, i'm never truly bored anymore and i miss it so much. similarly, in 'make happy', bo's description of the way social media makes us "perform everything, to each other, all the time for no other reason" actually gets at the core of what has made this generation the way we are and why our relationship to social media is as fucked as it is. by actually discussing the issues that young people view as problems with social media, bo is able to make a truly effective and genuine critique of social media and gen z's relationship with it that has done more to inspire me to distance myself from social media than pretty much any other critique on the same topic

#fuck me i don't know how this got so long #didn't proofread this so it probably makes zero (0) sense #also yes i know i write too many run on sentences and use way too many commas #deal with it #hope this made ANY sense <3 #bo burnham #make happy #inside #comedy

[whirld-of-color]

hiiii welcome back to the gay people. the first image is based off of kiss by death by bruna kazinoti! gonna go on a very long ramble about why exactly blueberry and mango are Like This below the cut. before that here's some more textposts

okay! so the main thing About Them is that they're both very mentally ill. mango is so driven with purpose and revenge that he's gonna kill himself to get rid of minecraft. blueberry is so utterly empty and purposeless that he is constantly passively suicidal. if you throw two people like that at each other they fucking explode, right? yeah it's great. because they almost balance each other out, if you look at it right! blueberry tamps down on mango's preemptive self-destruction and mango cuts through blueberry's apathy to give him a reason to live. hypothetically they're fine. the thing is that they're still both super mentally ill

like, okay- blueberry keeps mango from working himself to death. what he doesn't do is ever try to dissuade mango from trying to destroy minecraft. because that's not The Point. the things that pull them together are the things that are going to destroy them. mango is attracted to blueberry’s calmness and apathy but that character trait only arises in the ways that it does due to blueberry's incredible depression. blueberry likes mango’s sense of purpose and internal fire except that fire is burning him alive and it's gonna drive him to try to kill an entire videogame's worth of sentient beings. the things that draw them together are going to kill them and neither of them are going to stop it, is the thing! why would they? like honestly as if they went into this relationship to get better? don't be ridiculous they don't even really have proper conversations about their problems, they just sort of pingpong off of each other and make each other worse

(literally any time one of them doesn't want to talk about something they just start making out. unofficial "shut up and kiss me" rule. this is really funny to me personally and it's a decent indicator of the way this whole ship functions)

so that's the main thing. it basically affects every single aspect of their silly little relationship. for example it's implicitly understood that there's a timer strapped to this relationship and all of this is temporary because mango's probably gonna go run off and destroy minecraft and die within a year or two (and then blueberry can sink back into his empty husk of a life and carry on until someday he finally slips off of a building and dies), so they're lowkey out here perpetually treating their relationship like a short-term thing even when they've been doing this for like, 8 months. i think they've only ever gone on one actual date pre ep-30

i will say that at some point within that time they do start genuinely liking each other for their personalities and not just their mental illness, which is neat! i should fucking hope they did! this is helpful for post ep-30 content because it means they'll probably get less toxic later down the line when mango gets redeemed

#animation vs minecraft #animator vs animation #alan becker #avm oc #avm mango tango #avm king orange #original posting #blueberry tag

[heycoyotegirl]

wait actually quasi-rewrite of paxton's s4 arc:

starting this off by saying that I do genuinely enjoy the "people don't like me? oh shit i have to leave immediately" plot point (slaps the top of paxton's head: this boy can fit so much adhd coding in him), though I think it should've been longer than two weeks (and maybe not Just social problems)

also I liked miss thompson and thought she and paxton were fine together, but daxton owns my heart and soul, so she's just living her best life being a sub at the school, completely unaware of paxton's existence

with that out of the way, alt paxton arc:

I think it would've been fun and sexy for there to have been some sort of swim team tryouts/meeting at ASU, where paxton could blow everyone's times out of the water (pun intended) and then have some of the people on the team dislike him specifically for the thing that made him super popular in high school, in addition to his roommate's total apathy, but that's an optional change

first major change is don't have him go straight to working at the school. I'd either have him get a job at a community pool or maybe work out some sort of deal with the coach to sometimes get access to the school pool (the latter is logistically harder, so I'll be going the community pool route for the rest of this)

as in canon, devi needs something athletic for her applications. she reaches out to paxton to ask, and he suggests the girls swim team (does their school even have a girls swim team? who knows, but I'm going to say that it exists and has openings) ((I also think it would be good for devi to do something she’s BAD at. we got a bit of that from the relay race, but it was overshadowed by her scheming re: aneesa. and that was a one-time event, compared to training to join an actual team and participate in competitions))

devi is obviously leery of the prospect but paxton reassures her that he'll be right there and wont let anything happen to her

insert fun reference to him pulling her out of the pool at ben's party and probably a joke about the role reversal from when devi tutored him

also a deeper discussion about how she became paralyzed in a pool and could've drowned (this is a show about processing and healing from trauma, so let them Talk About The Trauma. the emotional and narrative through-line of "devi loses feeling in her legs" -> "devi regains feeling in her legs because of paxton" -> "paxton rescues devi from a pool" -> "paxton helps her feel safe to swim again" do you see the Vision?)

paxton teaches her to swim again. there is a pool kiss, obviously.

and at this point we can bring eric in (preferably with less fatphobia). he's noticed that paxton has been giving devi private lessons and also wants private lessons. paxton isn't sure because, yes, he really liked helping devi, but well, he lov really likes devi. also eric is annoying

devi encourages him to give it a shot, since he's a really good teacher (aka fun parallel of them both encouraging each other and pushing each other to be their best)

like canon, paxton teaches eric and realizes, oh shit, he might actually like teaching. like, in general and not just teaching devi specifically

the coach sees how he successfully trained eric and then tells paxton about the job opening, which segues into Daxton Drama (do they breakup so he can take this job? do they try to hide their relationship while paxton works at the school, and does that bring up old insecurities for devi, or has she gotten past those? does he turn down the job and go back to school right away? and in that case do they try long distance?)

#if paxton does end up working at the school I'd probably cut the partying subplot because it felt kind of ooc to me #tho idk that could just be because i havent watched the earlier seasons in a while #he could still have beef with a high schooler because that's always funny #daxton #paxton hall yoshida #nhie #nhie s4 #nhie s4 spoilers #nhie spoilers #never have i ever #devi vishwakumar #paxton h y #my post #my writing #my fic #not really but im throwing it in that tag anyway

[edoro]

character bingo (obligatory ones first)

Belos (could even do present belos vs philip if you wanted aekrmga) Hunter Terra and maybe gus and kikimora?

i already did Belos and my feelings about past Philip are p much the same as my feelings about him currently, so: Hunter! Hunter is the blorbo of all time. he is so traumatized. his molested energy is off the charts. he is so simultaneously cool, competent, and completely pathetic. he was born all alone in a wet cardboard box and raised in a cult. everything bad ever has happened to him. i project onto Hunter like it’s my job. it’s more than a vocation, it’s a sacred calling.

he is genuinely so important to me and one of the best characters i have seen in a cartoon in a long time. the depiction of his trauma is out of this world. he is so autistic. he doesn’t know anything. his backstory is twenty pounds of fucked up in a ten pound bag.

i love him and want only the best for him and am going to put him through ceaseless unspeakable torment in fic because this soothes me <3 sorry Hunter

also i think that basically everybody should date, kiss, and/or have a crush on him.

Terra is the scariest bitch in the entire show and i love her so much. i think Belos might have made her in a lab in order to have someone even close to as horrible as he is around. i support women’s rights but more importantly i support women’s wrongs. 

Gus is so good, i adore him. he really doesn’t get given enough screentime and it’s a shame because he’s so interesting! can definitely relate to the anxious gifted kid thing, and i just love how he’s both a sweet goofy doofus and also a very insightful, caring, observant kid. his dynamic with Willow and Luz is super fun but i am in love with his burgeoning dynamic with Hunter - they make SUCH good bros and have so much in common and i just really love the idea of the two of them getting to know each other and being besties!

also i am fascinated by the glimpse we got into his persistent and serious mental health issues! you know the crazier a character is the more i love them, and this boy involuntarily projects fully immersive self-loathing hallucinations?? Gus, honey, they make medicine for that. why don’t you try an Elixir Of Risperidone and see if you feel better.

Kikimora was also born all alone in a wet cardboard box, and unlike Hunter, she decided to make that everyone else’s problem. she is three foot nothing and full of spite and rage and only wants to bite and kill and i for one think she should be allowed. her blood feud with a literal teenager is so hilarious.

people get like genuinely mad at her for being mean to Hunter and i simply do not understand that. it’s funny as fuck and it’s really interesting to contrast her open malice towards him with the frustrated projection of someone like Lilith or the wounded, defensive apathy of someone like Darius. 

she and Belos should be evil besties. they deserve that. she deserves that. she wants him to carry her around in a handbag like a tiny dog And He Should.

#hunter toh #terra snapdragon #gus porter #kikimora #the owl house #ask games #csa mention

[pointofvee]

I Remember You/Hello Monster - Rant/Review

When it comes to crime/mystery kdramas - it's almost impossible to write a spoiler free rant. So I go and scream into my notes app with heavy duty paragraphs. But I will try my best here.

To give a short summary - The story follows Lee Hyun, a crime profiler's son and his brother Lee Min after Lee Hyun accidentally meets Lee Joon Young - a serial killer - as a kid. We get to see the after-effects of what happens when a serial killer finds profound sense in a child who barely knows himself.

There are a few main points that I'd really like to highlight which make this show a worthwhile watch, albeit it might not be up to everyone's taste:

The whole story is tightly paced, and takes an unconventional approach to the usual style of detective-based crime dramas that SK usually produces. The real suspense in terms of plot direction does not lie within the revealing of incidents, or identities for that matter (cause that was very easily predictable) but within the kind of choices each character arrives to despite their situation. You have all the cards on the table and it always feels like a ticking time bomb to wait for the decisions because you know what the person is capable of. And as someone who loves tightly paced mystery I initially assumed 1/3rd way through the show that I would lose interest by predicting everything. But as each episode progressed I found myself watching without feeling the impatience to hit the fast forward button. That's not an easy feat to achieve.

THE ACTING - In all caps, cause all of our protagonists and antagonists delivered by the truckloads. Especially Bogum. I've never seen Bogum as an antagonist before so it was surprisingly refreshing to watch. The performances of the antagonists were especially layered because you do find yourself wanting to believe in their delusion, find yourself understanding why they can't understand the morally wrong implications of their crimes despite all the voices of dissent around them. There's a scene mid-season where you see Bogum playing a character who looks a little too genuine while faking empathy towards someone and when the camera isolates him from the surroundings, the drop in expression sent shivers down my spine. While I observed weak moments of acting from the rest of the cast here and there, Bogum delivered 110%. Not once do you see him react in a truly unusual way, there's no awkward stumbling of lines. There's also the deliberate distinction of reasons regarding why our antagonists feel no remorse for their actions. One comes from a place of feeling wronged, while one comes from a place of consideration towards wronged people. The show knew what it wanted to be so the actors delivered the nuance with an enviable ease.

The super adorable sibling dynamics - I MEAN, you should actually look at Lee Hyun and Lee Min to get a true sample of tooth-rotting fluff that's not overdone. My heart was all squishy with all sorts of warm feelings from these two :') It's a shame that one of them is a serial killer but it also makes the dynamic more delicious cause it brings into question about how much responsibility you can shoulder regarding a loved one's actions, whether or not you're the true cause of the problem and in turn the true monster, struggling with the knowledge that your brother has no true concept of consideration, and almost deluding yourself into believing that killing people is okay as long as it's done for the right reasons even though you're fundamentally not that kind of person. Can you really stick it out and not be pulled under the grey area of apathy when there's basically no space between you and a psychopath? Can someone have redemption when they don't think they need it?

Genuine friendship between our main female lead and Lee Hyun - there's a romance subplot too but it's just a tiny part of the drama. They start off on a misunderstood note but by the time the show ends I did believe they truly understood each other and even if they never became lovers, they'd always be precious to each other.

You're given a truly open ending regarding the paths the antagonists and protagonists can take in the future. So many possibilities!

Reasons you might be put off by the drama

There's the rude-smart-boy trope with which we're introduced to Lee Hyun and it can make you want to grind your teeth with cringe cause the boy has basically no respect for the law enforcement in SK and it also undermines the genuine police work that officers put in day-in and day out. (You know that similar scene where the police work day and night to gather the facts but can't put a coherent story together but one stranger walks in, no permission whatsoever, and inserts himself into the investigation - manages to solve it in 5 min?) As the story progresses, you do see this dynamic quiet down and eventually disappear but yes. I almost stopped watching half way through ep 1 because it got on my nerves.

The minute details - What kind of cop enters a crime scene with no gloves?? There are basics we'd expect to see nailed down despite how unrealistic the investigation can be in movies and shows but my eyes were hurting looking at their hands like "ARE YOU SURE YOU'RE NOT DESTROYING EVIDENCE RIGHT NOW, COMING IN LIKE THAT?" And a civilian being able to walk into crime scenes all the time, never being taken into custody despite always being a suspect?

There's one episode of stalking that turns out helpful later on in the show but it was almost uncomfortable how it was portrayed so harmlessly. There was no malicious intention on behalf of the stalker but something like that can have very real implications and I wish the show didn't gloss over it just cause it turned out to be useful.

While I liked that the crime and identity part of it was all predictable it might not be everyone's cup of tea.

When you see truly strong performances interspersed with weak moments in between it can throw you off the loop a little bit. But Bogum and Choi Won Young kind of bodied so much of the action and Seo In-guk also did considerably well and they carry most of the show.

This got kind of long-winded but I'm working on writing more concise and well thought out reviews as that's the end goal of starting this blog so please look forward to more improvement. Thank you for reading!

#kdrama review #tv show review #hello monster #I Remember You

[funkymbtifiction]

hi !! i’ve been studying mbti and enneagram for a few years now and i’m certain that i’m an infj- for a while i thought that i was an infp because i’m very closed-off with my emotions and i don’t express them outwardly very often, but the ni fe ti se function stack fits me so much more. also, i know that my enneagram tritype is 9w1 6w5 4w5, i just don’t know which my actual type is. i can rule out 4w5, but i go back and forth between 9w1 and 6w5 (particularly sp6 and sx9). it’s odd because 6s and 9s can be very different, but i really relate to both descriptions. can you please explain the difference between those two enneagram types for infj?

9s abdicate themselves in favor of maintaining a state of inner calm, which means they are easily persuaded, influenced, and able to get lost in other people when around them; they merge into them and disappear, not knowing what their own feelings or thoughts are as separate from yours (especially with 9 and Fe). They are far, far less likely to say what they think than a 6, which is suspicious, doubtful, tests others, and a contrarian tempted to stir up trouble (just a little) to find out what people are made of, to establish whether the 6 trusts them or not. 6s push buttons to figure out who their friends are and how far they can push them. 9s fear that would cause people to get upset with them. 6s can be quarrelsome, in addition to their witty sense of humor (they instantly spot inconsistencies). 9s can be far more tolerant and forgiving of differences (which 6s can take as a threat -- one way I can't trust you). 9s are too naive and trusting, 6s need to trust more and be suspicious of motives less. 9 mistakes involve being too tolerant of the wrong people, 6 mistakes involve getting suspicious about someone and treating them that way, causing them to dislike the 6. It doesn't matter what your MBTI type is, they play out the same way -- through fear and avoidance.

Projection is a real aspect of being a 6, and it's squeamishly uncomfortable to admit to it. Any 6 can look back on their life with horror and recognize moments in which they assumed someone did not like them or was out to get them, either without proof, or then they did something about it to worsen the situation. For example, when I was about 13, I got convinced that our pastor's wife did not like me. She singled me out several times in ways I did not want, and never cast me in church productions in the part I wanted, ergo she did not like me. I then combed through my memories to try and figure out the minute she started hating me. Was it this? That? It makes me cringe to think of now, it was so obviously not true (or was it?). I did the same thing at about 20 years old when I started doubting an online friend was telling the truth, and felt that she was singling me out and censoring me on her blog. I decided to test this a little bit. At the time, I assumed her reaction was proof. Now, knowing what I do about 6s, I know I caused the entire problem by treating her in a suspicious manner, therefore making her dislike me. She genuinely escalated into hating me after that, and it blew up in my face in a very public way that I'm now ashamed of.

Don't ignore the super negative things attached to both types. One of them is something you've done, that you don't want to admit to, like Projection for a 6, or Apathy for a 9. Being so inert, you just let things go by without bothering to try for them, out of an expectation you won't get them. Avoidance is one of the main problems with a 9. I knew a 9 who would avoid people whenever she had anything to say she assumed they didn't like, thinking that the pain of talking to them would cause unpleasant emotions for her to deal with (remember, at all times, an 9 wants to inner peace). Of course, doing this only worsened the inevitable confrontation, because whenever she was finally forced into talking about it, not only were they mad about the initial problem, but angry at her for having hidden and avoided and not communicated with them for a month. So she would create these worse scenarios of her own making, by refusing to deal with things, and then have to do a lot more unpleasant discussing and "fixing" to make up for her passive-aggressive behaviors. Another problem with 9s? Thinking but not doing. Losing friendships because they don't put any effort into communication or staying in touch. Floating in and out of people's lives. Losing a sense of yourself, because all your passions and interests either need others' approval or they introduced you to them. Being fearful that admitting to certain of your interests will cause others to look down on you.

Comb through all the good and bad things about both types. Think about whether fear or self-numbing is your main problem. Do you only get anxious under conflict like a 9, or do you have to work hard all the time to reach an inner state of calm like a 6?

#question #enneagram #enneagram 9 #enneagram 6

[huskeddevotee]

Music tastes because this game owns my soul

Amara: Nothing but calm, peaceful indie worship for meditation, or Partali Rap for everything else. Does enjoy the occasional rock opera, but not enough to make a Playlist for it.

Ava: Emo grunge and sad lo-fi. Typical sad 13 year old girl songs, but the sadness level varies. Sometimes its "ah, 13yo blues", sometimes "Oh, yeah. This is a child who's gone through some sh*t and is clearly not coping." Everyone uses her Spotify as a mood tracker to check in on her.

Axton: Bluegrass country, old school rock, and - god bless - the most basic pop in the world. Like, retail pop. Radio pop. Pop music no one likes and only hit the charts because of grocery stores playing it on repeat. He genuinely likes it, too.

Brick: R&B and jazz. Most people assume its violent screamo, but why would he want to listen to that when he's relaxing? That's punching music, not kicking back music.

Clay: Either super catchy and suave, or a blatant cry for help. Classy Jazz and touching Southern Gothic, Jimmy Buffet. Songs about confidence, Jimmy Buffet. Ballads for smuggling and general crimery, Jimmy Buffet. Why is he listening to Jimmy Buffet? He doesn't know. He just is. Wainwright has a therapist on speeddial for the day when Clay has listened to nothing but Jimmy Buffet for three weeks.

Fl4k: Anything dark and moody, actual genre doesn't matter. Prefers quieter, slow paced songs. Songs about leaving home for the better fill their main playlist.

Gaige: Screamo metal. The most offensive screamo metal you will ever hear. Has hearing problems from this. Don't use full volume, kids.

Hammerlock: Jazz, classical, folk, orchestra - elegent stuff, as per usual. He isn't stuffy about it like some people. Varied taste, he just has some quirkiness with his preferences. Rap is fine, he just likes old rap from his youth. Will absolutely grumble about it getting worse each year .

Krieg: Doesn't like music, it freaks him out. But, he is known to listen to someone singing. Axton's humming in the garage, Maya's shower concerts, Lilith's quiet memorial songs when she thinks no one can hear her. He doesn't like music. He likes singing.

Lilith: Rock sung by female leads, female rappers, and girl power ballads. Just appeals to her. The only male singer she liked was Roland.

Lorelai: Same as Lilith, but kicked up to a level that makes you think she's part of a coven. Does like the occasional country power ballad, though; songs about community and sticking together and such.

Maya: Music you could fall asleep to. Its the calmest, most zen playlist you could ever find. It's very vocal, with emphasis on slow instruments. The music you listen to when you want to study or transcend. do not find her guilty pleasures playlist.

Mordecai: He could tell you every artist he has ever listened you, and you will have heard of none of them. It's not intentional, he just fell down a rabbit hole and moved in. His taste is very folk, indie, rural country - lots of guitars and percussions.

Moxxi: Carrie Underwood country. That genre of country thats just women killing men. Sure, she likes a sultry jazz, maybe a suggestive pop, but her heart is meant for a raspy-voiced woman with a guitar crooning about poisoning her husband.

Moze: She likes a lot of things, especially old synth-pop. Upbeat rock with old sounds the remind you of fruit for some reason? Her jams. Her favorite song is a mystery, though. Its in a different language you've never heard of, it has no identifiable instruments, the title is Track 1. Someone listened to the entirety of it and died the next day. Definitely haunted. She says it's just a national hymn from her home planet, but no one buys it.

Salvador: Back-porch country and ballads. He likes things that come from the heart. His favorite songs are ones of people singing about their home with pride. He has a soft spot for emotional climax songs from musicals, too. Detests bro country and retail pop.

Tannis: Hates music, but likes wind chimes. That's it.

Tina: Has 218 playlists for every conceivable mood. Her library of saved songs is over 10k. Has no favorite genre, but her favorite songs tend to lean towards the alternative or rap variety.

Troy: If you look at his Spotify he will cry. Barely any his playlists have a title, just keysmashing. The only one that has a title is just an eggplant emoji and it's nothing but dominatrix power balleds. His most played playlist is filled with songs about Cain and Abel. As for genre? Rap. Rock. Punk. Screamo. Everything your mother doesn't like.

Tyreen: Not an active music listener. But! Her Spotify is nothing but love ballads. Her top 50 each year are the sappiest romance songs known to man. A lot of soundtracks of musicals and movies, too. The genre does not matter, what matters is if someone's name pops into your head when you listen to it.

Wainwright: Emo country. Like, Southern Gothic if it was even more depressed and spooky. He has not evolved from his taste as a 13 year old in an unhappy family. Only started listening to happier music when he met Alistair. Would die of embarrassment if this got out.

Zane: Likes literally everything, but has a soft spot for the rock and folk that came out of Pandora during the Gold Rush times when the corps were fighting for tech and power. Those songs stuck with Pandora, and the songs are important for every clan. They're about greed, apathy of corporations, the mystery of the Eridians, the harshness of Pandora. He gets in a mood when he listens them, like a grandpa watching the news report on the war he just got back from. He tells stories when he gets like this. Sometimes they're sad, sometimes they're bitterly hopeful.

Zer0: Techno that sounds like someone vomiting out their soul. Moody, atmospheric, unsettling techno. They say they refuse to listen to anything that has color in its album art.

And it's all a lie.

Zer0 likes the pinkest bubblegum pop and the stupidest meme songs. Carmelldansen? They've listened to it for 1000 hours.

The only person to find their secret Spotify was Rhys and he was too busy admiring this strange account's taste in music to realize that every playlist title and description was a haiku, and that the account was called "atlas.n1nja.b0ps". Rhys brought it up to Zer0 like "I found my soul mate, we have the same favorites!" And Zer0 would have sh*t themselves if they could have.

#bl3 #borderlands #gangpost #tumblr add more colors on mobile challenge

[whimsywit]

hi! i just wanna say your blog aesthetic is SO cute! i love the concept of the menu and flavors~~

that being said, may i have a red velvet truffle? i'm a sagittarius girl with no gender preference (but i do lean towards guys!). i like bubble tea, the art genre french impressionism (my favorite piece is "the bar at the folies-bergere" by eduoard manet, but i also enjoy works by monet and van gogh), anime/manga, and kpop. i also love to write and draw. i really like sushi, takoyaki, and matcha mochi (i'm obsessed with matcha lolol). i don't like idiots (lolol), especially those who are narrow-minded and/or insensitive. as i said before, my hobbies include writing and drawing! watercolor painting is very fun also. i'm kind of an all-rounder in talents? i learn pretty fast ^^ academically, i do very well in all subjects and i'm pretty good at drawing. i'm decent at athletic things! i'm a beginner at volleyball & i fare decently. i kind of have a talent for teaching (but this probably came about from the fact i had to teach my peers a lot from a young age). some of my positive qualities are that i'm intelligent, witty, and funny (i think!! sjnddjd). some negative qualities of mine are that i have trust & intimacy issues. i don't trust many people and often put up a happy persona that no one sees through. i am also socially anxious at times. as mentioned before, i have intimacy problems, so i do have a fear of intimacy. i'm also terrified of all bugs. i get scared easily (i jump at loud sounds and CANNOT stand any scary movies. i thought goosebumps 2 was scary lmao). i deeply aspire to be kinder & someone people can look up to. i believe that apathy is the world's greatest enemy! i aspire to be truly happy with myself & where i currently am. i deeply admire kindness & perseverance through adversity as well as passion in others. the thing that gets me hooked? intelligence. i love love love holding and maintaining deep conversation with others (as opposed to people staring at me in awe...). so, i also like people who don't glorify me. i dislike insensitive idiots & narrow-minded people. i also hate people with unpredictable anger issues (bakugou is an exception 😔😔 i relate to him too much as a gifted child). some extra info is that my hogwarts house is ravenclaw, i'm an infp/intp, and my enneagram is 5w4.

thank you so much!!! this ask got super long >< but if you've read this far it means a lot 💕

thank you so much for being my first non-mutual request lmao but THANK YOU even more for your praise i worked really hard on the concept so it means the world!! I was stuck between two people for a while but eventually decided to pair you with...

Tenya Iida!

«────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ──────»

Okay so obviously the intelligence was a big factor, but the other parts of his personality, like his extreme dedication to everything he does and his clear caring of his peers and desire to help them also contribute to you guys ending up together! And cmon, where are you gonna find someone more passionate? Exactly.

Overall he admires so so many things about you, from your creativeness, your witty remarks, your athletic inclination, and just the fact that you can match him in academic prowess was the nail in the coffin. GOSH he loves learning, but from you especially, and thinks it’s great that you can teach others so well too! Don’t take this as him worshipping you though, he’s all about improvement, whether it be in him or others, and won’t hesitate to point out your flaws (but also help you work them out dw lol).

Okay so... the loud n jumpy outbursts might be an issue i’ll admit BUT!! He’s more than willing to tone it down once he sees how jumpy you get because by god if he isn’t gonna be a beacon of goodwill and trust for everyone!! Speaking of trust, he would be okay with your issues with it, and wouldn’t force you into feeling anything. Rather he’d work endlessly in proving himself as someone worthy of trusting, just because of how genuine he is, maybe that genuineness even inspiring you to lessen your persona and be more honest with how you think and feel? Possibly 👀👀 And honestly I can see him having trouble with intimacy as well (his awkward and flustered moments would get cranked to an 11) so tl;dr your relationship would be a slow, but strong one.

His upbringing would allow him to appreciate your artistic interests on a level no one else would, and I could see a good number of your dates in various museums as you talk endlessly about the pieces, their history, their deeper meaning, all of it. But ofc you’d have your more casual outings of sushi shops and boba stands, where you’d have either more long convos or silly back-and-forth’s of you joking with him and him taking it way too seriously but that just making it all the funnier ;0 (also PLEASE try to get him into kpop, one it wouldn’t be hard cause he’d be infatuated by the sheer effort that goes in the choreography and cinematography of their m/v’s, two it’d be mad funny to see him do the moves in his lil angular way, three you could def convince him to take you to one of their concerts cause hes got the funds sis 😙)

There’s a bunch more I could say here but I gotta cut myself off because this has so much potential and the dynamic would be fantastic. You guys are just the pinnacle of mutual respect and consideration and understanding, so yeah good luck being the cute smart couple and everyone envying y’all forever ûwû

#order up: red velvet truffle! #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #mha x reader #bnha x reader #mha matchup #bnha matchup #anime matchup #tenya iida #iida tenya #iida mha #iida bnha

[simptasia]

lost characters based solely on how i portray them in my text post memes

jack: constantly crying and/or screaming. no emotional stability. no social skills. terrible bedside manner. endearingly bland. into powerful women. loves the red sox... a lot. daddy issues. doesn’t believe in himself. has shitty tattoos. being crushed under the weight of everybody’s expectations. more or less hot. he is not cool at all. repressed attraction to guys. chronic hero syndrome. adorably embarrassing as a dad. passionately and violently overreacts to the mere concept of people believing in things. mansplains but in a non malicious way because he is literally that oblivious. gets into fights a lot. dissociates in mirrors. gets injured a lot but doesn’t wanna make a fuss. thinking about caves

kate: desperate need to protect women. bi. is frustrated by jack and sawyer’s personalities but wants to fuck them oh so much. rowdy. feminist. biceps. will call you out. is love with claire and jack and sun and- she has a lot of love to give. she can be ur angel or ur devil. exasperated. doesn’t understand astrology but she’s trying. she’s the slytherin friend every hufflepuff needs. uses guns. doesn’t know how to cook. go to relationship advice is “dump him” or “suck his dick”.  just because you put things in her vagina doesn’t mean you know her. gemini

hurley: sad clown. haha laughter! hiding real pain! has debilitating mental illness. he’s doing his best to stay positive. virgin. genuinely kind soul. overwhelmed by food. awkward around girls he likes. much smarter and wiser than anybody thinks, including himself. a special boy who we all love. says dude a lot. the only valid rich person ever. doesn’t like himself. sees dead people. kinda silly. also he’s fat (but i don’t joke about it in a cruel way)

sawyer: compulsive need to nickname people. from the south. bewildered by charlie’s english slang. covering up vulnerability with jokes and being mean. loves juliet. is an asshole but a loveable asshole (this varies, mostly he’s an asshole). conventionally attractive to the point of boring. got a Thing going on with miles. can’t stand daniel being smart around him. babies freak him out. treats animals poorly

locke: very supportive and new agey type. i’ve made two jokes about him encouraging people to jack off, that wasn’t on purpose but Okay. he doesn’t know what its like to have friends. he says Deep Sounding but odd things. he’s super duper into nature. he suffers. he’s very forgiving of ben to the point of absurdity and he desperately wants ben to love and fuck him. or maybe they are fucking. Who Knows. he loves knifes

sayid: sexy, suffering shannon fucker. he doesn’t respect boone. his life is an endless parade of misery culminating in going on autopilot. respects women

jin: he has no idea what’s going on and his life revolves around sun

sun: beautiful. perfect. very passionate about gardening

claire: bi. frequently ignored. cutesy and sweet. super into astrology and new age stuff. her cheery demeanour can only hold on so long before she loses it. kinda dumb. has baby. vanilla, at least for now. loves charlie but is kinda frustrated by him. goes feral and “kitten thinks of murder all day” sums it up

charlie: that he needs attention and validation to survive would be a gross understatement. bi. trans. punk. stupid. english. really horny and slutty. adores music more than anything. drug addict (again, i refuse to be cruel). severe jealousy issues. inferiority superiority complex. hates himself but will get offended if you hate him. can’t take any form of criticism. is bewildered by sawyer’s american-isms. bit of a madonna whore complex. smol but will go the fuck off like a terrier nipping at ya heels. catholic and riddled with catholic guilt. goofy and obnoxious and he knows it. passive aggressive. terrified of bees. nice ass. mood swings. did i mention he’s short? anyway here’s wonderwall

ben: ugly. just plain terrible. beaten and bruised. seething with rage and pain on the inside. virgin. liar. just causes problems on purpose. resembles a lemur or rat, rodents in general. loves bunnies. doesn’t think sex is real. just a really bad idea for him to be around juliet. has no friends. doesn’t care about other people. says creepy shit just because. he knows he’s a terrible person. killed people. the friend nobody likes and a general nuisance to the other characters

(also my literal first text post meme about ben was a joke about him eating his parents??? 2014 sapphire, i wanna talk...)

juliet: mom friend. seems very calm but she’s screaming on the inside. basically she’s the This Is Fine meme. depressed. has big tits. low-key kinky. feminist in a very gentle way. has no ill will towards kate and will only fight her for fun. concerned for daniel’s well being. has no chemistry with jack. loves sawyer. flat measured calm way of speaking. she’s breaking apart at the seams but will offer you a nice glass of water :)))

michael: has a son..... uh...... enjoys minecraft?

(i’m sorry)

desmond: scottish. drinks. easily and constantly confused. magic psychic time powers, like visions and electromagnetic dimensional stuff. easily angered. fucked off by the concept of time and destiny in general. hhhhhhhot

smokey: Hello Fellow Humans I Promise This Is My Own Skin Haha

miles: bi. aro. loves money (trying to fill the hole in his heart with money and things). emo/punk. pretends not to care but he really does care. thinks emotions and romance are dumb but of course is emotional... and kinda wants love. but not that he LIKES you or anything. exasperated. thinks everybody else is weird. kinda slutty or at least trying to be. masochist and into BDSM. mean to daniel for no reason. daddy issues. resting bitch face. jaded, bitter and salty. responds to romantic things dan or char say with vulgar or mocking comments. grew up poor. can hear dead people. trying too hard to be edgy. deadpan snarker. Fuck Off I’m Not Sad Don’t Look At Me [cries only around the audience and his mom]

walt: becoming older than 10 was when things went downhill for him

shannon: seems vapid but is more than that. deeply insecure. feels she can’t do anything right. constantly put down as worthless by other people. yeah she’s sad but she Looks Great. wants sayid to pound her (mood)

(gee, that was dark)

richard: very old and ageless. sees ben as a son figure. really not holding it together. seems smart but he has no fucking idea whats going on. cult mindset. quips curtly back at miles’ vulgar jokes. in love with miles based on very little interaction. misses his dead wife. has a cute giggle. is also hot. overwhelmed and just wants to go into the jungle and scream

frank: doesn’t understand what anybody is talking about. the only normal person here. doesn’t understand these kids today with their weird kinks. just wants to sleep. pilot. bit of a conspiracy theorist

boone: bi. stupid. soaked in blood a lot.  (L I T E R A L L Y all of my boone jokes are about him being dumb and bi and horribly injured and combos of those. i haven’t even made any incest jokes! what the actual fuck)

ana lucia: “[with tears in her eyes] DO U WANNA FIGHT??”. highly volatile. lesbian. bros with jack but will roast him. angery, sad and underloved

daniel: bi, agender, neurodivergent, just, just especially brain weird. The Scientist trope but kind of a shitty scientist. smart. in love with charlotte. in love with desmond. likes rats a lot. talks weird and soft spoken. withdrawn and polite but with bursts of bitterness. his mom won’t let him live the live he wants to live. time travel weirdness. loves music. gifted kid burn out. has a mental and emotional collapse. thinks a hydrogen bomb will solve all his problems. skinny. touches people a lot. he’s not okay. romantic. overwhelmed. memory problems. his lack of life experience and softness is used to contrast miles. takes some statements literally. pretty vanilla (for now) and doesn’t know what certain kinks are. likes that charlotte is Tough & Rowdy. doesn’t swear much. bad hair. was unhinged in college. has radiation poisoning

libby: neurodivergent and in love with hurley

eko: yeah... i’ve legit only used him for jokes where charlie says something EXTREMELY vulgar and eko says “go to church”

charlotte: bi, loud, passionate, beautiful, angery, knows All The Languages, huge nerd, loves daniel and thinks he’s a Snack, outspoken feminist, archaeologist/anthropologist and wants to explore some fucking ruins, The Lost Lenore trope, loves chocolate, exasperated, great smile, subtly insecure, doesn’t get that she could just tell daniel how she feels, has had many indiana jones like adventures (off screen, of course), for example: crashing her dirtbike into all 7 wonders of the world

danielle: french and unhinged, has seen some shit

alex: just a young lady with no chill

jacob: suffers from terminal apathy. has little understand of human behaviour. doesn’t care about people. he just plain sucks. has no endearing qualities. causes many problems. beats the shit outta richard. doesn’t like technology. so removed from humanity that he’s a touch uncanny valley

christian, eloise, charles and anthony jokes each have their own kind of flavours but fuck it, i’ll sum them all up as: contemptuous cunts who deserve to die

aaron: just a baby boy. does baby things. has like 5 parents

vincent: a dog. a good boy. does he know more than he lets on? is he mysterious? no, he is just a dog

#and as you can see this is 98% accurate #this is mostly just a summary of these people pfffttt #interjected with memes and orientation headcanons #i haven't made many jokes about sayid or sun or jin or michael #i haven't found them very dunkable #it's not like im avoiding them either #i just work with whatever joke sparks with me #anyways holy SHIT i make so many different kinds of jokes about charlie #you can tell the ones i favour making jokes about from this huh

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Episode 126: The Good Lars

“Maybe I should be trying to fix my life.”

The Good Lars is a massive bummer, and it makes me so, so happy.

Lars has always been a character with a ton of potential that, in my mind, is muted by his inability to learn. Pretty much all of his focus episodes have been about him taking a big step towards his character growing, but then resetting to his typical jerky self in his next episode instead of actually continuing that growth. On a rational level I can appreciate the realism in a stubborn character’s inflexibility, but even if it’s by design, it’s super frustrating to watch. The Good Lars shows that he still has a long way to go, and pointedly lacks the Lars Learns conclusion that Lars episodes like to bait us with, but this is where it finally feels like his story is going somewhere.

The New Lars was apparently the first step that stuck: seeing everyone, including his parents, prefer Steven-as-Lars to Lars-as-himself must’ve been a wake-up call. I love his final speech in that episode about hating how weird Beach City is, as it casts a surprising new light on his surly attitude, but after so many false starts we need some follow-through to make that speech fully land, and The Good Lars fits the bill.

Right off the bat, we see Lars take a genuine risk and put his food out there for Steven to try. We’ve known since all the way back in Lars and the Cool Kids that Lars’s apathy is a practiced act, and it’s hindered him again and again and again in every relationship he has. And we’ve known since Island Adventure that he’s a skilled cook, so it’s not a stretch that his abilities extend to baking. That he’d hide just how much he likes making food is totally in line with what we know about him, so it’s gigantic that he opens up about it here.

Steven is a terrific test subject for Lars’s food, as beyond his general kindness and enthusiasm, we’ve already seen him praise Lars’s food before in Island Adventure. The problem is that Lars is aware of this, which allows his self-destructive nature to undermine his sense of accomplishment in seeing someone love his baking. There’s not much critical value in praise from someone who only ever provides praise, and when presented with an opportunity to take an even bigger risk by letting the Cool Kids try his food, Lars flounders.

He may be growing, but he’s still cagey and irate. He takes a big step, but he’s too afraid to leap. But because he might move forward at last, because he might change his status quo on a show where the status quo is more than capable of changing, Steven and Sadie and the audience are given room to hope. Just enough room to hurt us when he can’t go through with it.

That fragile sense of hope radiating throughout The Good Lars is amplified by its status as the calmest episode in the show’s third act. It’s just so quiet compared to its surroundings, with no major confrontations by virtue of Lars’s pivotal moment of cowardice occurring off-screen. Our happy scenes are tinged with melancholy, and our sad scenes have glimpses of joy, and it’s the perfect tone to set for our last moment of peace before Steven’s life falls apart again.

All of my issues with Lars over the past 120-odd episodes are given new meaning as we see him waver back and forth in The Good Lars. Yes, it’s annoying that he refuses to retain lessons he learns throughout the series, but we see here that his dismal self-confidence doesn’t allow him to trust that he’d be accepted for who he is, so of course he falls back on prickliness over and over again.

To be fair, it’s hard to tell where he stands with Buck, who seems to enjoy messing with Lars but who also seems to genuinely appreciate Lars, but who also might only genuinely appreciate Lars out of irony because that’s totally a thing Buck would do, but who also might love irony so much that his ironic appreciation of Lars might wrap back around to genuine appreciation. It’s awesome that we see Buck in his Shirt Club tee showing off the guitar skills he picked up from taking lessons with Greg; referencing an episode that explored the downside of Buck’s allergy to sincerity paints Lars’s own attempts to hide how he feels in a damning light. Even we the audience can’t be sure if Buck thinks Bingo Bongo is “transcendent” because he likes it or he thinks it’s dumb and that it’s funny to say that it’s great. I'm pretty sure it’s the former, but from the episode alone there’s just no way to be sure.

So it makes sense that Buck, whose mastery of the detached facade is undeniable, is an aspirational figure for Lars, who’s uncannily bad at playing it cool. As much as I’ve praised the Cool Kids for being far more delightful than the Cool Kid trope often allows, they’re not without their flaws: it’s a little stinging that they still use terms like “Donut Kids” and “Donut Girl” instead of real names with their ostensible peers (but then again, they’re often referred to as “The Cool Kids”). Nobody, not even Lars, is fully to blame for Lars’s insecurity, but Buck’s affected demeanor sets a poor example for a kid who puts him on a pedestal.

Lars’s wavering consumes the first half of the episode, and throughout the baking montage we get shots like the above, where Steven and Sadie are capable of relaxing but Lars is obsessed with getting things right. It’s refreshing to see him so passionate, but this obsession is just another manifestation of his insecurity, his need to be perfect so that he’ll fit in. There’s a subtle cultural element to his ordeal, as ube is a traditional Philippine dessert that Lars writes off as “my family’s weird purple cake”—while I somehow doubt the Cool Kids are racist against Filipinos, it tracks that a kid who’s desperate to fit in would fear anything that sets him apart.

Still, it’s a pleasant sequence where Lars lets his guard down, first in the joy of baking and then as he opens up to Steven. His opinion that baking is lame is perhaps the most adolescent aspect of this very teenagey episode, because it’s an absurd notion which he believes so strongly that he can’t seem to fathom that it’s about the coolest skill you can bring to a group whose idea of a good time is a potluck. Lars thinks he’s lame, and he loves baking, thus he thinks baking is lame. His lack of self-worth even extends to people who like him, as he casually asserts that nobody knows he likes to bake when Sadie and Steven are right there; it’s a rotten thing to say, sure, but it comes from a severe confidence shortage.

Lars’s attitude is simple to understand early the series: he’s insecure, so he acts like a jerk to hide his soft interior. But The New Lars and now The Good Lars thrive by diving deeper and showing just how bad his self-esteem issues really are. This isn’t run-of-the-mill teen angst, it’s the kind of depression he describes in Island Adventure, and when we understand how much he’s suffering he suddenly fits right in with Pearl and Lapis Lazuli at their worst. This is what we needed of him for his big moment in space to hit home, so thank goodness we get it right on time.

Steven’s pep talk seems to do the trick, and we move into our third act with that bubble of hope just waiting to be popped. It becomes clear pretty quickly that something’s gonna go wrong when Steven excitedly amps up the ube, and seeing Sadie alone hammers the hard truth home, but before we make it official there’s a lovely moment of Sadie, who’s no stranger to awkwardness herself, quickly winning over the Cool Kids. I’ll never get tired of how great these kids are, and even Sadie will talk about it soon enough.

The search scene is a fascinating montage, showing Steven failing over and over but accompanied by a jaunty score that keeps our hopes alive despite what’s now an obvious conclusion. Steven’s leap into the air is the first big moment of the episode that involves weird Gem stuff, and its sudden appearance highlights how down-to-earth our little adventure has been; in the same way, his instinct to use mind powers is soon trumped by the human pragmatism of just calling Lars. It sets the stage for an all-too-human resolution to Lars’s story, as Steven’s phone call ends with him finding the ube in the trash right outside Buck’s house, right as he’s imagining aloud a reality where Lars lets himself be happy.

Which leads to our story’s greatest trick, the aspect that cements it as one of my favorites: despite the name and the deep focus and the new insights we gain from that focus, The Good Lars was never a Lars Episode. It’s a Sadie Episode, and it’s a beautiful one.

Sadie, like Lars, is afraid to branch out. But unlike Lars, she’s brave enough to try anyway, and shares her hidden love of singing with the Cool Kids. She’s so invested in helping others that she forgets that she’s allowed to help herself, and if that sounds familiar it’s because it’s Steven’s entire character arc. When the mood dips to its lowest point with the ube in the garbage, we could’ve had an ending that matches the sadness of a hurting kid failing even when his friends believe in him. But instead, we get a scene of quiet grace as Sadie shares her voice and is praised in the way Lars strove for. She hears that he’s not coming, and takes a deep breath, and lets it be. She can’t control his night, but she can control hers, and she chooses her own happiness instead of letting his issues ruin her evening.

She and Steven have both accepted Lars for who he is, and while both want him to move past the barriers he’s set up, the lessons of Sadie’s Song return with a vengeance in a way that makes me wish so badly that I liked Sadie’s Song. Steven has traces of his worst self from that story by wondering if they should’ve pushed Lars even harder, but as Sadie starts to agree with him, she realizes that no, they shouldn’t, because it’s not up to them to make Lars happy. They can try, and they should, but friends aren’t failures if their friends can’t take steps for themselves. It’s a hard lesson to learn, but it’s one last reminder that Steven shouldn’t put the world on his shoulders before Steven goes and puts the world on his shoulders.

I call this a Sadie Episode because she’s the one that grows in it. Lars is in his rut of inaction, just as Steven is in his rut of misplaced responsibility, but Sadie gains the confidence boost of new friends and a new perspective into her relationship with a guy who came this close to admitting that he loved her to Steven. Lars is about to fail her through his cowardice in the same way Steven is about to fail Connie through his hubris, and like Connie, Sadie will use the opportunity to stand up for herself. And let’s not forget that this is the episode where Sadie Killer meets the Suspects.

The cliffhanger from Doug Out goes unacknowledged until the very end of The Good Lars, especially because Sour Cream seems unfazed by Onion’s disappearance for now; perhaps some viewers watched the episode waiting for the other shoe to drop, and I imagine such a lens colored the whole story in a way it didn’t for me. I wasn’t surprised by the reappearance of the two Gem silhouettes, but it remains a spine-chilling way to end such a human-centric tale. And even this provides us with hope, allowing us to imagine that Lars didn’t bail after all and was simply kidnapped by aliens. Stuck Together soon snatches that hope away, which is par for the course for Lars’s arc, but it’s a powerful episode that can make a character’s kidnapping seem like a good thing.

I understand the irony of me saying that an episode about Lars going nowhere is the episode that finally sees Lars going somewhere, but as Mindful Education (and therapy in general) suggests, acknowledging the problem is the first step towards solving it. Lars is about to become a major player, and Sadie is about to earn a new arc of her own, and I can’t think of a better way to set up both of these threads than The Good Lars.

Future Vision!

Beyond the reveal that he trashed the ube before his capture, Stuck Together generally acts as a direct sequel to The Good Lars.

“Bingo Bongo” was magical from the start, evoking Root Beer Guy’s equally magical “Bingo Bango” from Adventure Time. But seeing Lars own it as a badass space pirate is great shorthand for how much he’s grown.

Steven’s pep talk to Lars about going to the party is echoed in his pep talk to Lapis about returning to Earth in Can’t Go Back. Not only because both speeches are good advice, but because unfortunately neither succeeds to make the listener move past their anxiety by the episode’s end.

A story about Steven trying to help someone hellbent on sabotaging themselves and hurting others? That sounds like a good idea for a movie!

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

As always, I’m a sucker for tone, and The Good Lars gets that feeling of teenage dreams grappling with the nightmare of depression just right, both for the victim and for friends of the victim (some of us got to be both!). It’s not overwrought, and we’re still allowed some joy, but it sucks to be so stuck in your head that you can’t move, and this episode captures that sensation way more succinctly than, say, Hamlet. Am I saying it’s better than Hamlet? Not really. But I heard somewhere that brevity is the soul of wit, and it’s certainly briefer.

Top Twenty-Five

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

Last One Out of Beach City

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Mindful Education

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Earthlings

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

Steven’s Dream

When It Rains

The Good Lars

Catch and Release

Chille Tid

Lion 4: Alternate Ending

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Back to the Moon

Kindergarten Kid

Buddy’s Book

Gem Harvest

Three Gems and a Baby

That Will Be All

The New Crystal Gems

Storm in the Room

Room for Ruby

Doug Out

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Bubbled

Adventures in Light Distortion

Gem Heist

The Zoo

Rocknaldo

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

Know Your Fusion

Future Boy Zoltron

Tiger Philanthropist

No Thanks!

     6. Horror Club      5. Fusion Cuisine      4. House Guest      3. Onion Gang      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

#the good lars #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

[dragonshoard]

@markala5 

(Because the thread was getting too long i made a new one // I’m sorry for any typos ;( I’m super tired lol)

I agree with the fact that she is super stubborn. She’s set on not only creating an alternative for the extermination Hell goes through each year but also proving herself to her father and the people of Hell in general. It would definitely be something inherent to angel!Charlie because she aches for people to care about her and people to care about. 

She’s definitely developed her own sense of self after all these years, but the problem is that it’s based off of validity from people around her which IS NOT HEALTHYYY. It’s actually really sad. She’ll be her perky self and be immediately shut down by the people around her. She may be willing to brawl, but she’s just as likely to shut down. 

Long post is long so I’m putting it under read more

On the thing about apathy. I find it an interesting concept with this world. There is a certain level of Apathy to Hell but its the type where everything is super active and violent, just everyone is super blase about it. There’s the half of hell actively always looking for a fight/power and the other half that just sort of... exists in misery.

As an angel who not only needs people around them but also NEEDS a purpose, it’s an extremely toxic environment. With the system you’re describing... just ow. I can only imagine how many times Charlie has nearly faded and just what needed to be done to get her back. 

Like, Vaggie is a recent development (not even 10 years) and there hasn’t been anyone else around Charlie that would function as a support other than her parents, possibly. 

(I’m still shocked that Vaggie only died in 2014. She’s super young but comes off as acting like one of the oldest - I genuinely thought she had been childhood friends with Charlie lol)

I’d imagine that instead of fading away, it would be more like she falls into a coma (I need Disney references, she’s literally a Disney princess). And I’d like to think that its more like a self generative state because, again, been established that you can’t exactly die naturally in Hell (or Heaven, presumably). Longest she’s slept would probably me... probably a year? It’s been established that Lilith and Charlie have a close relationship, so I’m thinking that most of the time it’s Lilith bringing her back after the fact and supporting her. There was one time where her father showed he cared enough (the time she slept for a year - he was even nice enough to preen her feathers) but he went back to being mostly apathetic after that (jealousy is no good :/). 

Because even people with the strongest sense of self and will power will crash in that environment. Lilith would definitely be her number one supporter until Vaggie (and especially how now Lilith is very busy in canon time), but it wouldn’t be enough (especially when flocks typically have around 10-15 people). 

She’d fight for as long as she could. Towards the end of the “cycle” (about to go to sleep) it would be the hardest for her not to sing and her passive song would be the strongest and most violent/desperate (enough that even her Dad can vaguely hear it and typically starts preparing her room). At this point it would be the hardest to keep her angelic features in so she starts isolating herself, speeding up the process. Her song would come out stuttery (imagine the first song in the pilot - constantly singing that one but in between sobs) and she’d try to stay awake but would fall asleep each time. 

And when she wakes up her song would be bright, loud and optimistic, determined to break the circle (it never works).  

Alastor would have no clue that this happens so the first time she goes through it after meeting him, he is beyond curious. He knows little about angel biology, only bits and pieces he’s picked up over the years. He spends the two weeks she spends sleeping taking care of her and feeling out her (for once) peaceful song. 

(I do the same. Making myself sad should be a professional job lol)

Charlie displays steel and passion on her shoulders just as clearly as her insecurities. Alastor was drawn to her from first song, tbh. There was something about it that he found fascinating and when he actually met her she was far more interesting. To be frank though, I’d imagine that initially she reminds him of the type of people he would hunt when he was alive. Meeting her, it would kind of reinforce that because he doesn’t really see her thinking for herself. The more he would get to know her, the more he’d see that she is truly someone born of Hell and the more interesting she becomes to him. She’ll say some things that are so blatantly inhuman that it’ll just make him double take. 

She would be an itinerary of knowledge for horrible things (like how to kill, how to torture people, etc) but she doesn’t use or like any of it. It’s just a result of living with her family and in Hell as a general concept. I’m kind of imagining a young Charlie being forced to sit through executions and torture sessions either performed or ordered by her father (maybe even forced to do it herself). 

....ok i went on a tangent whoops. 

And YES SHE ASSOCIATES HELL AS HERS ALL HERS. This is canon. Actual canon. She doesn’t care about silly turf wars, doesn’t care about who is on whose side. They’re all hers. I remember reading in the wiki that she takes the approach of treating rehabilitating sinners like children. I think this would come in here. 

It would kill her to lose so many souls so constantly but, holy hell, she’s also getting just as many people daily so she’s constantly hearing new songs join the already mixed and jumbled song. It would be really distracting and sometimes interferes with her higher process thinking.

But you gotta admit the angel part of her would be super confused at all the killing because, technically, it’s her own kind that’s killing off her people. One half of her would be screaming “WHY WHY WHY DO THIS KIN WHY ARE YOU HURTING ME” while the other half is screaming for blood and respite. 

And yeah, being unable to do anything about it and no matter how much her Mom tries to calm her down and how thick the walls of her bunker are, it doesn’t stop her from hearing the screaming and sheer devastation. Coming out after the fact is draining and she spends at least a day or so crying and singing her heart out (her voice practically broken at this point from her own screaming). Her skin would be especially ill-fit but there’s no part of her angel half willing enough to show itself. It’s akin to feeling like you’re swimming in a sweater that’s three sizes too big. 

....she is totally a lion. She has the mane for it despite identifying as female xD

Tbh honest, when I first thought of angels in this universe and what not, I likened them to being a species in which you’re one or you’re not. So a hybridization like Charlie is not only rare, but unstable. Her demon and angel halves fight for dominance and, eventually, one half will win and there’s no going back from there. Omg CHARLIE BEING THE FIRST SURVIVING CHILD IS SO SAD. NOOOOO ;((((((

Charlie goes underground during the extermination for a good reason lol. As she gets older, her instincts would severely change. The older she gets (and the more powerful), the more prone she is to fighting back. By the time canon comes around, she has to be chained during the extermination and Lucifer or Lilith have to be there to make sure she doesn’t break out of the chains.

Charlie is aware of this and so she would be terrified af when her friends suggested they get together during the extermination for support. By this point, Charlie is starting to feel more stable and feels that she might actually be able to control herself better with her flock surrounding her. 

Alastor probably wouldn’t know about it until he shows up out of nowhere and sees them barricading the hotel and is like wtf are you all doing. He side eyes the chains that Charlie sneaks past her flock. He immediately decides that it would be a splendid and fun idea to join them. Vaggie tries to deny him, but Charlie is quick to agree, hoping beyond hope that she wouldn’t have to be chained. 

She sticks close to him when the clock hits midnight and the angels descend. The chains were a precautionary measure and in between Alastor and her flock, she thought that she wouldn’t have needed them but she was WRONG. 

Somehow, Charlie manages to hold herself back until an angel shows up at her door. A part of her is whimpering cousin-friend-family-brother-sister while another part of her knew what exactly this meant.and was screaming in the only way she knew how to tell the angel to GO AWAY. 

But yeah, they don’t and they get messed up and Charlie ends up revealing her eldritch form to her friends (other than Alastor who has already seen her in this form by this point).  Alastor would definitely draw her into a duet to bring her back to herself. 

During this Alastor would be so excited to see his angel kill an actual angel. Sadly (to him) they end up getting away. The feathers clenched in her hands were trophies of another kind. He wanted to pin and frame the wing in one of her clawed hands. 

But it’s still kind of a horrible moment too because the extermination is still happening and Charlie can still hear and feel her people dying. She’d be crying to tell him to make it stop and all he could really do is sing quietly to her, emphasizing his own song to try and mute some of the carnage. 

But if there’s anything Alastor can do, it’s talk and talk about everything but nothing. 

FUTURE LA MUERTE/XIBALBA AND ADAMS COUPLE VIBES AHHHHH. I support this so much. I see them in the future as a fairly antagonistic and competitive couple I don’t know why (so kind of like La Muerte and Xibabla xD). They love each other more than anything but, at the same time, they can only handle each other in contained doses. There would of course be the honeymoon period, but eventually when they settle, their personalities and morals combat each other quite a bit. Both of them are unyielding in their beliefs and unwillingness to change so it would cause some clashing. 

Can’t live with em, can’t live without em’.

They would be that couple that’s always singing and dancing though, from tango to intense and dramatic songs to slow ballroom. It would annoy everyone around them and Charlie would feel some embarrassment at first but, in the end, absolutely love it. 

Lol this was all very very great :DDDDD  I feel you. I feel like I’ve written a fic but its great xD

#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel charlie #charlastor #hazbin hotel alastor #hazbinh #origin #markala5 #long post #angel!Charlie

[forgenotes-archived]

okay nevermind i’m doing the parent meta now !

OKAY ! S O ! i’m focusing this in three sections :  1- the matching pair of patio dinner scenes, 2- the “patronize bunny rabbits” scene, and 3- the two convos they have when they confront her about jd’s suicide bait and after barbara finds veronica faux-hanging in her room. i’m also putting it under a read-more bc like. it’s going to be A Fucking Doozy.

in this essay, i will - 

PART ONE -  PATIO SCENES . 

this one is more set-up to portray how shallow their arguments are in the second section? but it’s still important for me to get across how. absolutely DISGUSTING it is that they treat heather’s funeral with the same tone and cadence as the remington party. it logically makes sense that veronica would be more blase about it, seeing as she Actually Did It, but like. one of the stages of grief is denial. 

the beats of both conversations go: come sit down! how was the first day since break/heather’s death go? meet any cute boys? why do i read these books or smoke these cigars/because you’re an idiot/ oh, you too. gotta motor to party/funeral. completely identical tone and delivery, all the way down to mirroring the word choices in each scene. and it’s entirely intentional!! this is a tonal and thematic choice to further hammer home the fact that adults do not care about what happens in the lives of the youth, which is arguably the real villain of the film- complete and utter apathy. i could go on about that shit for ages but i will do that later lmao-

but like. as parents. first of all, you shouldn’t care so little about your child that somebody could predict exactly what you’re going to say before you say it, that you work off a script, even WITHOUT a massive traumatic event happening to them. they clearly acknowledge heather’s death, they just move past it completely dismissively. it’s disgusting and it clearly sets up that they don’t actually see her as a person, in all reality- her death is just a marker of the time, not the loss of someone important to their child. they don’t know the intricacies of their toxic friendship, so all they know is their daughter’s best friend killed herself. that is NOT the correct reaction to that situation. 

this further exemplifies the idea, for me at least, that their main objective is to keep up appearances rather than build a strong, stable, healthy human being in their care. as long as everything looks alright, sounds alright, it is alright for all intents and purposes. there is no WAY that conversation does not REEK of neglect. 

PART TWO -  PATRONIZING BUNNY RABBITS .

this is mostly barbara, but henry shows his blatant idiocy for a brief moment, too. the biggest part of this scene is barbara’s “little miss voice-of-a-generation, you ARE being treated like human beings” spiel, specifically because she’s not right at all when she says it. or half-right. it’s complicated.

she’s right when she says it’s not just a game of “doubles tennis” and that adults can be horrible to each other too- that’s like. objectively fact. but that’s a non sequitur argument and not at all relevant to the topic at hand, in all reality; because in saying that, barbara has likened people being assholes at work or talking behind each other’s back with EXPLOITING CHILDREN’S SUICIDES FOR FAME. barbara changes the argument in order to make veronica look irrational- what she wants is for people to be fucking NICE to each other, which isn’t an un-noble goal to have. 

veronica wants people to give everyone decent respect, and she’s learned that isn’t possible in the way things are at the moment. she’s frustrated, she’s angry, she’s dealing with guilt and fear? she’s dealing with a fuckton! and she’s mad that flemming is exploiting the death of a student (never mind her personal feelings involved with chandler, she still knows this is wrong) for television crews and ribbons. she sees that flemming ALSO doesn’t care about her students other than for appearances. she’s seeing similarities between all the adults in her life, and she’s finally ready to snap. 

barbara saying “when teenagers are mad about not being treated like human beings, that’s usually because they are being treated like one” (or whatever the exact quote is) basically solidifies the fact that there will be no change in the way people are going to act in these situations. they are not listening to veronica’s point of view here, and they are changing the scope of the argument to make her look unreasonable to dismiss her again, and they explicitly say, a la bethesda, “we aren’t planning on doing anything about it”. 

it’s an important discussion because barbara isn’t. entirely incorrect! she’s just brute-forced the argument into a different direction so that veronica can’t be correct anymore, either. 

also- note that she offers veronica pate at the end of it; she’s trying to return to the status quo, to proper appearances. sneaky bitch. 

PART THREE -  YOU’RE SUICIDAL .

this is. where they come out of their shells a little bit more, as parents, but i’m not entirely positive it’s for the right reasons. 

they are actually concerned, now that death is on their doorstep; however, it very clearly seems like showing this kind of care and emotion is foreign or new in their relationship. instead of sitting her down and asking her how she’s feeling, if she’s dealing with all of this okay, if there’s anything they can do to help- they start rambling off the instructions jd, a literal teenager, more than half their ages, gave them. they have NO idea how to deal with this situation, which is. partially understandable? there is no prenatal parenting class that teaches you how to navigate if your kid grows up to be suicidal, but. there’s obvious things that you can do that they just flat out did not.

they didn’t even notice she’d left the room! they were so wrapped up in their own chaotic “keep away from sharp things, toxins, high ledges, etc.” that she just. left the room. and they didn’t notice she was gone until she was already in her room! 

rather than saying this is evidence towards the fact that they don’t care about their daughter (which i don’t actually believe, for this part at least), it feels more like proof that they have never cared about her in this particular fashion- which is, to say, genuinely. having an emotional and caring connection is new, and they don’t know how to do it; which points towards them never having done it before in ronnie’s 18 years of life. which is severely damaging to a child turned young adult. 

later on, when barbara finds her hanging from the fake noose, i’d like to just. take a look at what she says-

“i should’ve let you get that job at the mall, i was just worried about you coming home late-” 

what. in the ENTIRE fuck. was that?

her ONLY THOUGHT when confronted with the DEAD BODY of her ONLY CHILD is that the ONLY THING ronnie could have been upset about, or the only thing she could’ve changed in her treatment towards her daughter, was getting a summer job. i know this line is supposed to be a joke (heathers is a black comedy, after all), but jesus fucking christ, barbara. get a grip. veronica has all but told them what’s been bothering her, up to and including the death of her best friend and the subsequent treatment of it (albeit not in a particularly forward or constructive manner, but can you blame her? seeing who raised her?), but barbara is the sort of person that would give a eulogy that said “i never could have imagined she would have done this. she seemed so happy! if only she’d asked for help... if only she’d reached out to us... we would have SAVED her...” while ignoring all the warning signs. 

CONCLUSION -  IE , I RAMBLE FOR A BIT .

in canon specifically, there’s no way that there’s a healthy relationship between veronica and her parents. they care more about LOOKING happy than BEING happy and that’s a huge problem in a lot of parent-child relationships, especially at the time this movie was made. not only that, but like. they don’t believe there’s anything WRONG with the way they are, and that’s most likely the most damaging thing about the dynamic. barbara and henry sawyer are neglectful, dismissive, unempathetic, mostly uncaring, and obsessed with their outward appearance; but they don’t think that’s a bad thing, and that has massively fucked up veronica’s mental health in a VARIETY of ways. i’ll talk about the effects on her at a later date, bc this shit is already over 1k words and my brain has now turned into super mario sunshine goo. 

#i was doing icons?? and i #stumbled across the patronizing bunnies scene and i got #IRRATIONALLY MAD #❝ - 𝙄𝙏 '𝙎 𝘼 𝙂𝙊𝙊𝘿 𝙆𝙄𝙉𝘿 𝙊𝙁 𝙎𝘼𝘿 . / meta. #❝ - 𝙉𝙊𝙏 𝙄𝙉𝙉𝙊𝘾𝙀𝙉𝘾𝙀 - 𝙋𝙊𝙒𝙀𝙍 . / isms. #this actually came to a little over 1.5k words #somebody handcuff me

[catzpah]

in a canon that doesn’t relegate heather or valencia to emotional support, what do the rest of their arcs look like?

heather has an intellectual curiosity that is underexplored. early in the show, heather was characterized by her tendency to get bored and ditch. she stayed in community college for seven years. she took every class, some classes she took more than once. she regularly integrated what she was learning in class into her conversations, showing genuine interest and retention. heather LIKED school and she liked learning. i think she was intimidated by the prospect of choosing a four year school and choosing a major and just stayed in community college forever. but she showed a lot of passion, just like, talking about her marine biology class and i think although the prospect of choosing one subject scared her, she also would’ve been happy and satisfied with whatever she chose since her interests in college were so broad. i want heather going on to grad school and i want heather getting to do her own research! i think that would thrill her. heather stays in school forever, getting her phd and becoming a professor. her classes always fill up fast. she teaches at a four year school but also has a handful of classes at the nearby community college, wanting to initiate passion for community college students and give them guidance. 

heather is also characterized by her superhuman emotional maturity. one of her best moments is when this bubble pops, in the episode after after “don’t settle for me,” when she tells greg that she’s NOT super chill with being broken up with, actually, and wants throw a dart in his eye. side note: don’t settle for me is vella’s best musical moment (followed closely by her dance in “we’ll never have problems again!). it’s a shame that heather’s apathy is what has defined her music numbers and we haven’t seen a full number where she channels that winning charm a la don’t settle for me. SO ANYWAYS, i would’ve wanted to see more of the show playing with the perception of heather’s superhuman emotional maturity. either she’s or a total hypocrite, awful in relationships, ditching people the way she ditches jobs and giving others the advice she knows she should follow herself OR she really is that mature, but she’s burnt out on always being expected to what to do, never being given the courtesy of being treated the way she treats everyone else. i could see an episode where we follow heather having an awful day, and then mid-episode, rebecca comes to her upset about her own romantic shenanigans. heather snaps at her, compounding rebecca’s self-hatred and rebecca spends the rest of the episode trying to making it up to her (doing the thing where she arbitrarily chooses someone to tell her she’s okay). while heather initially finds this annoying, she eventually decides to relish in being catered to. eventually, rebecca comes to an understanding of heather and the emotional burdens she carries and the episode ends with them on equal footing, sharing a glass of rose on the couch together, laughing about greg’s weird penis. 

basically my ideal arc for heather would be her learning when it does and doesn’t benefit her to be chill (WHICH MEANS NO FREE REPRODUCTIVE LABOR FOR A MAN SHE BARELY KNOWS LOL). i want to see heather get upset and get emotional.

i would’ve liked more paula and heather. they’re both brilliant while being bored and frustrated with life. their interactions in the halloween episode were great.

i also would’ve wanted to see an episode where valencia and heather are pained up together (NOT JUST STANDING NEXT TO EACH OTHER!). valencia’s so high-strung and heather’s so chill, they really should’ve been foils for an episode!

i also would’ve liked an episode where heather’s ex-boyfriend zeke returns in her life for an episode. the episode treats heather and zeke’s relationship like something we’re invested in - music swells as heather sees this guy that we as the audience have never seen before. the relationship is totally unhealthy but it’s all framed romantically, frustrating even the most sentimental members of the audience. this gets paralleled to whatever dysfunctional shit rebecca is up to with nathaniel or greg that week.  

the valencia stuff i’m not gonna go in as detail with since i’ve talked a lot more about valencia than heather in general. what i really would’ve liked to see with valencia is her dating for the first time as an adult. i don’t think the show had done nearly enough with the fact that josh and valencia a) where together since high school and b) where together for over ten years. you know that moment in “who’s the cool girl josh is dating?” where she just randomly picks a dude at the bar to sleep with because she needs to get laid and is like “eh, he’ll do.” ? that’s what i would hinge a valencia-starts-dating arc. she would be going out with guys and just find it boring and frustrating and maybe she’d arbitrarily chose one to be her boyfriend and all of her friends are confused and pushing back on her because she was going off on how ugly the guy was right after their date. heather tells valencia she’ll fix her problem and changes her tinder settings to show women. valencia isn’t open to it and changes them back but is shown swiping through women later. heather catches her and valencia admits to being intrigued by the idea of dating women. heather agrees to go on a gay double date with her so she doesn’t have to be alone. the double date majorly freaks out valencia because it’s three other women and she gets confused about whose her competition and who she’s attracted to her and she just reverts to her mean girl ways. this is where we start to untangle valencia’s internalized misogyny and the ways in which that’s contributed to her staying closeted. valencia’s arc should’ve been about her learning to understand her own desires. 

also once valencia starts dating a woman, there’s a whole episode about how she’s afraid to eat pussy. 

i’ve talked about this a lot but the way josh’s friends treated valencia needed to be addressed. valencia being bitchy to hector was great, but i also needed her to be bitchy to greg and whijo lmao. 

i’m not sold on valencia being a wedding planner but it could’ve served as a great vehicle to interrogate valencia’s views on marriage and why she wanted to get married to josh so badly even though she often seems to despise him. like the episode where rebecca is trying to stop marty and ally from getting married and valencia’s mad at her because she’s trying to ruin one of her gigs? valencia should’ve also been supporting the marriage because she believes everyone’s miserable in marriage but it’s better than not getting married. 

[sammorzz]

( JACK FALAHEE, CISMALE, HE/HIM) — ✧ that looks like LYLE CROCK/SAM M’ORZZ! they’re the TWENTY FIVE YEAR OLD SON of LAWRENCE CROCK (BIOLOGICAL, ESTRANGED) and M’GANN M’ORZZ (ADOPTED AT FOURTEEN). they are also a POSTGRAD STUDENT at paragon. i hear they’re QUICK WITTED & STRATEGIC, but tend to be DECEITFUL & MANIPULATIVE. his file says that his power is ENHANCED DURABILITY & ADVANCED COMBAT AND WEAPON TRAINING. { Em } 

Backstory: 

Lyle Lawrence Crock, the youngest child of Lawrence Crock, started going along with his father on missions when he was ten, after training for the majority of his life. Lyle grew up under abusive conditions, but would has only recently come to recognize this. He was trained to lie, manipulate, and cheat until he got what he wanted. To conceal emotions in favor of the game. Unfortunately, these are all traits that stuck and are ingrained in him to this day.  Sam is, and this is important, incredibly apathetic to most things and people in his life. There are some exceptions.

ANYWAY, A team of heroes eventually busted them (both Artemis and M’Gann were in attendance), Lawrence bounced w/o Lyle, and 14 year old Lyle thew his hands up. “He killed my parents when I was 9, I’ve just been along for the ride since!”

“What’s your name?”

“Sam!” (a name he pulled from nowhere)

From that day on, his name was Sam. And his last name was M’orzz. With no next of kin in sight (LOL) or able to be found (lol x2), Sam was taken in by M’Gann. From then on, he was Sam M’orzz. Walking the straight and narrow. No one knew a thing about Lyle Crock, or even knew he existed. 

He eventually became less closed off with his adoptive mother and told M’Gann, who had already gone through his mind and knew, everything. His true name, what he had been training to be, the apathy he felt toward most things. But he reassured her that he no longer felt the urges that he had while he was with his father. He just wanted to go to school and be normal. And maybe he didn’t back then, maybe he wanted to give normal a try. How dull could it be??

He enrolled at Paragon as an undergrad in Chemistry. Lawrence Crock made contact with Sam shortly after he turned 21. And in a series of dumb decisions, Sam started doing minor missions for his dad. Around 23, he was doing small missions under the Sportsmaster Moniker. Hockey mask and all.  

He purposefully selected jobs that wouldn’t be big enough to attract the attention of say, Artemis or his mother. But the jobs kept getting bigger and bigger and, yeah, he got caught. All of his lies came out. His real biological connection to OG Sportsmaster and Artemis. How he’d been back doing crime for years now. His lack of emotional attachment to the people he’d been with for the last decade. 

Sam’s been in jail for the last year, while originally set to face something like 20 years, the charges that were brought against him were mostly dropped due to a convenient technicality. The year he served counted as time served for the one charge they could get him on, and now he’s out on parole. 

The terms of parole: has to reside at home with M’Gann, no contact with Lawrence Crock’s, must wear an ankle monitor, must re-enroll in his graduate studies, has to meet once a week with his official parole officer and another, court approved, mentor. Meets with a therapist once a week. Must volunteer every other weekend. 

Sam has only been on parole for..not that long at the start of me introducing him. He doesn’t know what to do with himself just yet, besides follow the schedule that’s basically been laid out for him as his conditions for parole. He’s trying to make things right with his mom, for sure. Sam still doesn’t see the things that he did as /wrong/ but he knows that he’s fucked up in M’Gann’s eyes and is actively trying to be something resembling a good son again. 

Personality: 

As hinted at above, Sam’s emotional range is limited. Growing up, he was taught to conceal what he was feeling, in favor of appearing the emotion that best suited him at the time. He has a limited emotional range. He’s never differentiated between right and wrong in his own in his own mind. He understands what others view as right and wrong and is able to fall in line with that, but he doesn’t reconcile with that. 

I feel like a lot of this post-prison time is going to be filled with Sam really figuring out who the hell he is? Is he Sam? Lyle? Sportsmaster? Someone else entirely? He doesn’t know. 

The Facts:

He goes by Sam. Call him if you want Lyle but he won’t care. But he still writes Sam on his papers and introduces himself as Sam. 

He’s good a sports!!! Who would have thought?? He did both varsity track and field and soccer throughout high school. He was the guy that always gets carded and thrown out of soccer matches for rough play.

Sam is intelligent. He’s an average student, but he’s always got a plan. or a strategy. or a new idea for something in the lab. 

is honestly so disinterested in most things? A lot of the time he sort of speaks in sort of a trademarked monotone? Unless he’s trying to make you like him?

Fun fact: I think in another life where he hadn’t felt constrained to this future as Sportsmaster or become like, addicted to the adrenaline that comes with crime, Sam would be kind of a goofus? Dad jokes? Obsessed with going to watch baseball? Alas. Maybe in 25 years. Those who were like, genuinely close with him (see wanted connections), would probably see this side of him. 

SAM LIES OKAY. SAM HAS A PERSONALITY FOR EVERY PERSON HE EVER ENCOUNTERS AND ITS A VERY CALCULATED, MANIPULATIVE THING. IM SORRY. Y? idk that’s the way he was raised.

Final fact: This is a fact, y’all shouldn’t trust Samyle M’Crock. He can’t trust himself tbh. Sam’s lied, stolen, he’s killed people, little of which he shows remorse for. He doesn’t see the problem with what he’s done. Sometimes he’s done “good” things, sometimes he’s done “bad” things, they sort of go either way for him. 

Wanted connections:

Wow real life feelings?? // Friends!! //

Super limited due to Samyle’s lack of emotional range. I imagine that there are at least a couple of people, outside his mother, that he actually formed some sort of attachment to. They likely did not know about his becoming Sportsmaster, so it would have been a shock to them. But hey, he tried to call them from prison so that’s how you know it’s real

// “friends” //

People who were absolutely floored when they heard about the arrest. Wasn’t Sam the nice kid M’Gann adopted? Who the fuck is Lyle Crock? Probably people Sam pretended to be close with for years, probably feel v. Betrayed by him being Sportsmaster, please give me this angst.

// hello, fellow criminals //

People that he worked with at some point during his tenure as Sportsmaster. They could have known who he is or not, we’ll plot that out. I also think it would be interesting if he were “romantically” involved with during his time as Sportsmaster. Mostly a tension fueled relationship.

// Parole officer(s) //

Sam has a couple of people he is court ordered to meet with once a week. This should be an adult who’s, ya know, out there being successful in life. 

// science peeps //

Sam’s forced back to grad school! The man enjoys science and it would be interesting for him to connect with someone who is nearly unaware of all he’s gotten into.

^^ SPOrtzMAsTER

Hi if you’ve really made it this far ur grand please come plot with me

#hiiiii #sidekick.intro #abuse tw #because it's implied? I think

[heatherc1212]

Story Links and Deep Thoughts

So just in case you haven’t seen it this summer, I started a new Dawsey fanfic and it’s actually going really well (UPDATE: Story is now complete!). I’ve gotten a lot of great feedback which has been so encouraging for me. That story is now completely done but I all ready have plans for another one to write in conjunction with the new CF season (if I’m not gonna get any good Dawsey on the show, then I sure as heck am gonna write some, both for myself and for the other fans) and I’m super excited about tackling that story. I’m going to post the links to both stories here and this Tumblr post will be pinned on my Twitter profile page.

You are the Reason: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12944940/1/You-Are-the-Reason-A-Dawsey-Fanfic

Luckiest Souls: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13065660/1/Luckiest-Souls

Hopefully you guys are interested in reading that second story because I cannot wait to start putting that one together! The outline for it is all ready over 3 pages long if that tells you how much thought and love is going into it, LOL ;)

I also need to post a rant about some things that have been bothering me this summer. This is gonna be long so bear with me while I try to put all my thoughts together. There are two parts to this rant and I apologize now if none of this makes any sense. I think I just need to get it all out of my system.

A.  Since when does everything happen in absolutes? This has been on my mind a lot lately as I continue to process the thought of watching CF without Gabby Dawson. There are so many people that seem to think she’s never coming back and I can’t quite figure out how they got there. I don’t live in that sort of absolute world and I know from being a fan of TV for a very long time that the TV world can be fluid and also very uncertain. This could turn out to be a rambling rant of unreadable garbage regarding CF but I need to get it all out (this is rant number one).

First off, here are just a few reasons that I came up with to completely dispute the theory that Monica is never coming back to CF (I seriously cannot figure out how people got there…)

1.    Monica didn’t leave on bad terms: We have absolutely no reason to believe that she hates the show, hates the network (heck, she’s on this big directing initiative thing with the SAME network so clearly she has no issues with them), or hates her coworkers. She’s been in touch with Derek off and on since she left and we saw her recently return to Chicago and attend a concert with some of the other One Chicago ladies. Why on earth would she not be receptive to coming back? That makes no sense to me. If she had cut everyone out of her life or something then I might believe it but she didn’t so that makes no sense.

2.    This Director’s Initiative is only for one year:  This director’s program is only for one TV season so it won’t keep her busy for longer than that and quite frankly, I feel like it could open the door more for her to come back in S8. She’s mentioned in the past how much she would love to direct an episode of CF and learning and working with another director for a solid year could give her a leg up on getting that opportunity with her old show. I’ve checked around and she doesn’t seem to have any other projects lined up during this gig either and usually when a person leaves a show for good, their project list starts filling up on IMDB and hers hasn’t done that. That’s public information that goes into that database so why wouldn’t she be lining up other things if she’s gone for good?

3.    The Storyline: Gabby and Matt are definitely in a rough place right now but I don’t see it as the final ending that other people seem to see (and honestly, I think the only people who see this as a final ending are the asshats who hate Gabby and just want her gone…they’re seeing what they want to see and not what’s actually happened). I can easily see Gabby needing time to process the news that she shouldn’t get pregnant because of the risk to her own life because that is a HUGE deal to women. She’s been yearning for a family with Matt since they lost their baby in S4 and now someone is basically taking that away from them. That is a freaking GIGANTIC blow to this little family. Heck, I’m in my early 40s right now and I’m constantly wondering if being a mom will ever be in my future (i.e. my age now makes it riskier to get pregnant, plus I’m not even dating anyone right now and I won’t have a baby without a husband). That isn’t something that’s easy for women to process and Gabby is such a strong willed and passionate person that being told she can’t or shouldn’t get pregnant is a hard pill to swallow. We saw how much she wanted to give Matt a baby, it’s the one thing he’s wanted his whole life, and how she didn’t care how risky it was….she was going to give that to him no matter what. She’s not seeing things beyond that and Matt isn’t seeing things beyond the possibility of losing her which IMO, has caused them to talk AT each other more than talk TO each other. Time apart is not a bad thing for these two to process the shock and sadness of that baby news and I would understand completely if it takes Gabby a while to come to grips with it because I haven’t come to grips with my own issues yet (and I don’t even have any female problems). If the writers thought that Monica was never going to come back, they would have killed Gabby off IMO because it would be the only way to get Matt to move on at some point. Keeping her alive, the fact that they’ve done research about long distance relationships, and having Matt still processing everything himself screams to me that they have a long term story that they still want to tell and are putting things on hold with the hope of getting her back someday to finish it right. Derek admitted recently that he knows he messed up her exit back in the spring….I can see him not wanting to give up on their story so easily and again, the fact that he’s spoken to her a few times since she left the show should give us hope that she wouldn’t be opposed to coming back to complete Dawsey’s story. And seriously, Monica is such a passionate, intelligent, and creative person herself…do you honestly think she would be okay with her character being left in such a bad place? This season will tell us more as it goes on because if they keep her and Matt together long distance for S7, then I will absolutely believe that she’s coming back sooner rather than later. We will have to wait and see on that one but she’s not dead guys…she’s just in PR. (I’ll refrain from going on my rant about how military families have to deal with long distance stuff all the time and how those couples don’t just give up on their marriages when they go through hard stuff or are apart for a while. There’s definitely a way they could tell a Dawsey story without having Monica around and I will be watching intently to see if they actually do this or not. The lazy story is to just end them and throw Matt into something else at some point but the challenging and more interesting story is to figure out this long distance thing and get Monica back at some point so my preference is for them to go that way. Again, we’ll have to wait and see though.)

4.    The fanbase is a little fragile right now: This might seem like a weird reason but bear with me for a moment. Dawsey fans are on edge because we don’t know the details of how they’re going to handle this whole story. Dawsey haters are all dancing because their most hated character isn’t there and they seem to think that Matt will just jump into another relationship like two weeks into the season. General CF fans are on edge because the writing was lazy at times in S6 and storylines are getting repetitive. The show’s ratings have been way down from what they were on Tuesday nights and now they’re the show that got sandwiched right between the other two Chicago shows for this upcoming season. I firmly believe that NBC did this on purpose because the fanbase is so fragile right now and they’re worried about ratings. You piss off the Dawsey fans and you’re gonna lose a giant chunk of your audience. You piss off the non Dawsey fans and you’re gonna lose a different chunk of your audience. If you keep telling the SAME stories in different ways over and over again, your audience is still going to shrink because the general fans that don’t really ship anyone will jump off the bandwagon and move on as well. This show cannot afford to lose more fans and I’ve seen a lot of posts on social media or online articles from both Dawsey fans and general show fans who all ready won’t be watching S7 for the two reasons I shared earlier in this paragraph. CF has to be really careful with how they tell their stories in S7 because from what all I can see, if they don’t pay attention to this sort of thing, then they’re gonna be in genuine danger of not getting a S8. BTW-The other thing I’m seeing from the fanbase is apathy which is the WORST thing that can happen to a show. When fans stop caring, they stop watching and CF is in danger of that too as people lose trust in the writers to create something worth watching. This will definitely be an interesting year for the show and as annoyed as I still am with that S6 finale, I don’t want the show to fail (I still genuinely like all the actors and people there) but I also won’t watch a show that doesn’t entertain me anymore. I’ve quit shows that were on my all-time favorites list before and I won’t hesitate to drop CF like a rock if they stop entertaining me this season.

5.    Monica’s note: “See you on the ice.” When I read the message she posted on Twitter earlier this summer, that phrase stuck out to me like a sore thumb because I had no clue what it meant. Well, it turns out it means something very interesting. From Urban Dictionary:

“Something you say when you know there is going to be a long period of time before seeing someone again however the intention is that day will come.”

Monica doesn’t just write or share things for no reason. She’s not stupid and maybe this is just my opinion, but I think that was her way of telling her fans that she doesn’t plan to be gone forever and that we will see her on the show again someday. I have no idea when that someday will come (I’m gonna be bold and predict that she comes back at the end of S7 so that Casey can actually have a good cliffhanger for once) but the proof of a possible return is right there on her note IMO and I choose to believe that she does have every intention of returning someday.

DISCLAIMER: I totally understand if there are people out there who don’t agree with all my thoughts here and that’s fine. This is all my opinion and the the last time I checked, I was allowed to have one without being ridiculed or being treated badly. This fanbase has had some bad apples out there treating people horribly simply because they don’t share the same opinion and boy does that need to stop. No one deserves to be treated badly simply because they have a different point of view than someone else. “Do undo others as you would have them do unto you.”

B. The other thing that’s been bothering me this summer is harder for me to talk about but I’m going to try to put my thoughts into words now. This will be rant number two but this is more of a confession than an actual rant.

I have been struggling hard to process this whole CF thing with Monica leaving and what that’s going to do with my OTP but that struggle has been more of a personal nature than anything else. That Dawsey fight and finding out about Monica leaving hit me deep in a place that I hadn’t felt since OUAT killed off Neal years ago. Normally I can deal with changes to my TV shows or when people come and go pretty well but this was literally my only OTP left and watching it fall apart in the finale was beyond difficult. I’m still struggling with it all these months later to be honest and that’s become a big concern for me.

Why does this affect me so much? Its a fictional TV show, with fictional people, and it just isn’t that important in the grand scheme of life. Yet I find myself thinking about it often and the emotional reaction I had to it actually woke up my creative side and now has me writing fanfic just so I can fix the mess that CF left behind (I do love writing but I hadn’t felt compelled to do it in nearly a decade so that caught me off guard even though I find myself enjoying it). It bothers me that I’m so affected by a stupid TV show and I have found myself wishing that I could turn my heart off so I can just forget about it and move on. That would make life so much easier (and I’m truly envious of people who are able to watch TV and just not care that much about anything that happens there). Unfortunately I can’t do that though and now, all these months later, I’m not sure I want to do that anymore.

Perspective is a funny thing and I’ve been getting a lot of lessons in that this summer from things that are happening to the lives in people I consider some of my best friends. One of my closest friends has basically been watching her mother die of pancreatic cancer for over five years (mom has been going through chemo and other sorts of treatments and this year has been particularly hard). Earlier this year they thought they were going to lose her and it was a scary and emotional time for all of us wondering about mom’s condition. They went on a family vacation in July and things seemed to be improving but about two weeks ago, mom ended up back in the hospital to get fluid taken off her heart again and she made the decision to stop all of her treatments. The doctors told them that she might have about two months left, if even that, so now the family has to deal with all these emotional choices and my friend is struggling because of all those decisions that they have to make now. I’m doing my best to support her but its hard because I’m such a passionate and emotional person so while trying to be strong, I’m also hurting for her and her family (I’ve known her mom for a while and she’s one of the sweetest and kindest people out there). In addition to that news, I also found out this week that another of my best friends is about to lose an uncle to cancer and not only is that hard because it’s her dad’s brother and it’s all happened so suddenly, it’s also rough on the rest of her family because of a bunch of drama going on with some other family members. Its really quite a mess and I just saw her tonight so I could see how much it’s taking out of her to be there for her dad while worrying about her uncle’s health. I also have a sister in my Christian women’s sorority who is dying of cancer (she’s in hospice right now) and that’s been emotionally breaking me since I’ve known that sweet lady since I was in college years ago. She is by far one of the most precious ladies I’ve ever known and seeing her struggle just hurts my heart along with all my other sisters hearts too. I don’t know how much longer she has but it’s very likely that we won’t see her at our national council next summer and that thought is hard for me to process since she’s been there ever since I joined the group. Real life has definitely been tough this summer and I’ve been stuck in this emotionally draining place going back and forth between processing things in my real life and in my TV fandom.

This brings me back to the CF mess and two questions that I’ve been asking myself all summer: 1. Why am I letting this fictional show mess me up so much when there are SOOOO many other more important things I should be concerned about, and 2. How do I get past this so I can truly be there for my friends and family that need me. I wish I had some answers but I don’t have any right now. I don’t think this is something I can get past in the blink of an eye. I can’t just turn off my heart because that wouldn’t allow me to be there for those who need me and I still haven’t come to grips with how the show is going to change so the struggle continues for me. As a person of faith, I know I should be lifting these things up in prayer but I find myself unable to put things into words. I know I’m not the only one trying to figure out how to move forward after getting so invested in a fictional story and that actually helps because I know it’s not just me. This probably sounds silly to those of you who are able to turn your hearts off and move forward (and I have no problem with that...more power to you) but it’s something I’ve been working through this summer and all I can hope now is that I find some peace at some point before the TV season starts.

I’m not sure what all I wanted to accomplish by posting all of this stuff but I really felt compelled to share it just in case anyone else is feeling the same way that I do. Please know you’re not alone in feeling a bit lost, emotional, confused, frustrated, and wishing for some peace and a happy ending regarding the CF mess and I hope you all know that you can reach out to me if you want to talk about anything. I’m just a message or a tweet away. Thanks as always for reading one of my epicly long posts! =)

/end rant (and more power to you if you actually read this entire post)

#Chicago Fire #dawsey #fanfic #casey x dawson #edtv #ranting