#which in an off itself is a step up from s3

[plantsjustwannahavefun]

I used to think that the reason I wasn't satisfied with Izzy's death was because I was too attached to his perspective as a character and couldn't focus on the big picture of the season and the main Gentlebeard relationship enough. I mean, I was still convinced that his death and the way it was carried out was a shit writing decision, but everyone else outside the Izzy Canyon circles seemed fine with it, so I was starting to think that maybe they were right.

So I looked back on the rest of the season and rewatched the finale... And realised something that I'd been trying to ignore because it was too painful to admit. A huge part of why Izzy's death hit so hard (in a bad way, not that delicious masochistic pain of having a beloved character die a good, narratively satisfying death) was because throughout this season he was the only character who actually had a satisfying arc and development. Practically no one else did. I didn't actually care for Gentlebeard this season, not the way I cared in S1. From episode 1 to 8 and a half, Izzy's arc was crafted with more care, kindness, subtlety and narrative weight than the main Gentlebeard arc which, in comparison, felt like a string of choppy beads badly tied together in an approximate shape of an arc, but collapsed as soon as you looked at it too closely.

Yes, we all know this season suffered for being 2 episodes too short, but I don't think that's all there is to it. This is starting to feel like GoT season 8 all over again. Would it have been better if it wasn't so rushed? Maybe. Or maybe it would have been even worse because this season just didn't seem to know what to do with itself or the characters. The themes and symbolism are all over the place and completely inconsistent. Ed and Stede's characters are practically back at the same place they left in S1. All they did was bounce off the walls back and forth with no real growth. As soon as they took a step towards fixing their relationship or growing as people, they either tool three steps back or it just got dropped. Stede letting fame get to his head? Interesting and realistic development. And how was it resolved? It wasn't. Stede and Ed being whim prone? I'm glad they brought it up. And then they just fell for another whim and it was presented as a satisfying ending.

Ed went from the Kraken, to taking the first steps towards being Ed, then suddenly all the way to being Ed by way of a Night of Magical Healing Sex that he he didn't actually want to happen because he wasn't ready. And then all of a sudden he pivoted to abandoning Stede and piracy and becoming a fisherman... for 5 min. And then back to Blackbeard again because two fishermen were mean to him for 5 minutes. And then abandoning it again to open an inn. How was any of this even remotely coherent or satisfying? They didn't even have a single conversation about any of it. Ed had more proper closure and communication with Izzy during his dying scene than with Stede and the rest of the crew put together. Izzy's arc got sacrificed to do the heavy lifting for Ed's arc and became nothing more than a shortcut to speed run his character growth. Except it didn't even lead anywhere. "Ed, they're your family, they love you" no they don't, he didn't even have a single positive conversation with any of them except Fang. Of course this could have been the point, and Ed could have seen Izzy's death, his own discovery of found family and his dying words as a pretext to repair his relationship with the crew. But he just left them and stayed with Stede instead.

Sure, you could say this was only the second act of the story, and S3 will resolve everything. But the second act is still meant to move the story and the characters forward in some way. Yes, of course if we get S3, I imagine Stede and Ed's life as innkeepers won't exactly be idyllic. But the problem is that the conflicts they'd have will only be a rehash and repeat of the same conflicts they've already have, or were supposed to have, this season. Multiple times, even. We already know that Ed is simply unable to live with himself no matter what life he chooses. The title of S1 was literally "wherever you go, there you are". We already know Stede's love isn't enough to fix him. We already know their goals in life are completely opposite. Maybe they could have shown Stede realising, after his humiliating in S7, that piracy wasn't all it was cracked up to be or he isn't suited for it, and that's why he chose to leave it behind and open an inn, but that's not the explanation we were given. It was just another whim. They literally didn't learn anything this season. They had two baby conversations in E4 and E5 and didn't take anything from it, just kept doing the complete opposite of anything. "We're both prone to whims, let's take things slow" became "let's take things extremely fast by moving in together permanently and becoming entrepreneurs". They never talked about the actual, deepseated, longstanding trauma issues they needed to resolve before they could even begin to have a proper relationship. They literally got a heavy-handed glimpse in what their life would become if they just stuck together without addressing their own personal issues, and chose to do that very thing. It that's what S3 is going to address, then why were Anne and Mary part of this season instead of the next one?

I remember everyone saying they wanted Ed and Stede to reunite as quickly as possible in S2, and I get why. They have great chemistry together. The season is about them. But for it to work, spending more time apart is exactly what they needed. They needed to learn how to live with themselves and others, first. Romantic love alone can't fix you as a person. You have to fix yourself first. Community can help (as with Izzy's case), but you still have to put in the work. In retrospect, I'm glad that Izzy didn't get a love interest this season - because he wasn't ready yet, and had to learn how to have normal relationships and friendships with other people before attempting an intimate romantic relationship, lest he ended up falling head first unit another toxic mutually dependent relationship. That's what Stede and Ed should have tried too. Instead the show just ended up using Izzy's death as a quick surgical fix, robbing Ed of his agency and having to do the hard work repairing himself and his relationships with other people. There's a sad irony in getting exactly one character's arc just this, and then using it as a sacrificial lamb to patch over the main character's arc.

#another long rant #I should probably start tagging this accordingly #ofmd critical #I mean I still love the show and always will #I don't want to be associated with unhinged haters or anything #the reason I criticise this season so much these days is precisely because I love the show so much #it deserved better #it had so much good going for it #so much promise and potential #and in the end much of it was wasted #ofmd #our flag means death #izzy hands #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers

[spacedlexi]

i just think a "friended/romanced + saved + trust aj" violet does such a good job rounding out the plot and characters of S4 and i dont say that lightly

she walls people off out of fear just like S3 clem did and learned to grow out of through the compassion of others. feeling like she could have done more to save minnie being what initially makes her step up to lead, but her accepting her love for clem (and clem choosing to save her) is what leads to her Truly accepting the school and everyone inside it as her Home and gives her something to fight for ("i tried my damnedest not to care about either of you. and i still couldnt tell you why." "i know where youre coming from. after losing so many people, sometimes its easier to keep everyone at arms length." "and then you wonder why you fight so hard to stay alive. i dont wonder anymore."). this being the reasoning behind violets detachment from the school, as well as a negative home life impacting her idea of what a home even was. but together they turn ericson from a prison into the home theyve BOTH been looking for, renaming it together, and envisioning it for the future together. the two of them understand each other deeply, from what theyve lost to how its affected them and the poor ways theyve decided to react to it. but through their support of the other, they BOTH get to evolve into more relaxed and confident versions of themselves, who know Exactly what theyre fighting for

her troubled relationship with brody and getting to learn more about what happened with the twins/violets reaction to it and how she ultimately blames herself/brodys guilt about her part in it and how she misses violet. getting the chance to mend that relationship before its too late. the 3 of them becoming closer because of it. and getting to develop clems friendship with brody leads to a more impactful moment later in the basement

her relationship with tenn reflecting clems relationship with aj, in the way they both made the decision to look after their respective boys after their primary guardians died (ajs parents, tenns sisters). both of them can understand the responsibilities they have taken upon themselves, and how hard it can be to do right. the 4 of them become a tight knit group quickly. especially in EP2 as vi supports clem while tenn supports aj through the marlon fiasco

her confused relationship with minerva introducing interesting conflict both within her relationship with clem (who has her own personal conflict with minerva, which vi still ties into through her relationship with both minnie and tenn) and the over arching plot, which has themes of learning when to let someone go because they are no longer who they once were (clem and lilly "we were family once", mitch about ms martin "you get all caught up in who people used to be, and you cant deal with whats in front of you", violet about minnie "the real minnie? shes been gone this whole time and i have to stop mourning her")

having a saved violet on the boat expanding the conversation with minerva about her motivations with the delta. violet apologizing for never looking for her, minnie saying she knows she would have but that its too late now, so sure this is just the way things have to be. getting to hear minnie say "you can be rewarded, just like i am", giving us insight into her character. and clem getting the last word before she rams the door down, her and violet fighting minnie Together. and violet saves clems life, making the Choice to shoot minerva, which in and of itself is a huge moment for violets character in regards to her relationship with both minnie And clem

and aj shooting tenn on the bridge brings things full circle, by putting violet in the same position louis was in EP2, where aj has killed the most important person to her, in an effort to save her life, and now she must reckon with those feelings the same way louis had to about marlon. not so easy now is it violet? ("so youre mad, but sad" "can i be that for a while?" "yeah, its ok")

just... ough... violets whole character just fits into Everything so well, but in a way that elevates the characters and plots around her, while also developing her into her own

#plus tenn dying with minnie feels like looking at a clem and aj Bad End and that feels intentional #and vi being there fighting minnie for tenns life....the boy she took it upon herself to look out for.. and losing him 😭 #ALSO i feel like the whole point of S4 is raising aj into someone clem trusts. like did you do a good job raising him or not?? #like through the decisions i made i Did naturally trust him in that cave. but after seeing other routes i can def see why some didnt #but even if clem doesnt trust him in that cave he still proves later in the barn that he knows when to make his own call #its more about what clem has to lose/how long it takes for her to trust aj. he knows what hes doing now. clem says as much #none of this is me saying picking louis' route is BAD. im just pointing out the ways violets works on so many levels for me #esp since the season is already so short. all of this really helps to flesh out the plot and side characters in those 4 eps #but anyway this is why i cant stand violet slander especially when people say she was underdeveloped compared to other characters #i just think youre not paying attention to her #but what else is new for female characters #twdg #it speaks

[ouroborosorder]

Arknights VFX question: Any highlights or personal favourites as far as the "Stick a whole background/huge jpeg in there behind the character" category of skills goes?

Oh I like this question. This made me consider things I've never looked at before, so thank you for that. I had to do research.

So, there's not a lot of ops like this, and shockingly, I don't have many positive things to say about them. BUT I did find a few interesting highlights I think are worth discussing.

First off, I will leave Eine Variation out of this, as I have made my thoughts on that Thing very clear.

But, my favorite skin in the game actually does indeed have the Background.Jpeg - Specter's As One!

Aaaand it's easily the worst part of my favorite skin. Don't get me wrong, i think it's probably one of the better executions of the idea, since it's like, a skybox, it matches the pallette, matches the artstyle of the skin, it's almost perfect. I wish it was a LITTLE less static, maybe have some distortion ripples across it like waves to keep the stars moving, or maybe have them twinkle a bit or something. But it's fine. But a good effect isn't everything.

Effects relies heavily on the principles of animation, too. Appeal, weight, color, and most importantly of all - timing. Having a proper lead in can make a bad effect good, and having a bad lead-in can make a good effect fucking terrible. And having no lead-in at all will absolutely fuck your effect and make it super clear that you took a jpeg from the skin art and superimposed it behind your operator.

Here. Look at the picture above. Now, I am going to tab back literally just one single frame in the animation and...

oh ...there's no fade in at all. It just literally appears in a single frame. It draws way more attention to itself than it needs to just by virtue of literally popping in. It's SUPER obvious that it's just Skybox.jpeg. If it faded in with some sort of noise mask (which takes literally less than 2 minutes to make,) it would be so so so much better. Again, this is my favorite skin in the game, and I already think S3 is quite beautiful, so this is nitpicking, but this skybox always bugged me a lot.

Now to say a sentence no one has ever said - going up a step in quality from Specter to Hoederer!

I can't fully get this one in a still image and I'm too tired to record a video / gif so just go with this, alright?

This one is ALMOST GOOD. ALMOST. IT'S SO FUCKING CLOSE. The texture is being distorted by a wavelike noise that is giving it the rippling effect of fire, which is the standard thing to do for making a stylized fire. The problem is that... The texture itself doesn't fucking move? It's just being UV distorted, just a bit of offset to the material and I just AUGH.

It's so so so obvious that it's just a static jpeg of fire that's being waved around like a flag to get it to contort into being fire. This wouldn't bother me if the actual fire texture didn't have implications of movement in the little waves and fades and stuff. I hate it it's so irritating it's so CLOSE. But also, animating an entire fire flipbook would have taken a lot more time, and I can 100% guarantee you the VFX artist is also unhappy with this one. Their A team was probably on Arturia or something. Speak of the devil -

I've had a few people ask how I feel about Arturia's S3 after I expressed my hatred for Eine Variation, and I am here to say - this unambiguously fucking rules, for a few reasons.

First and least importantly, THE MONSTER MOVES. The monster itself has slight movement, you can notice its arms wiggle a little and mouth open and close. This is a small thing that goes a LONG way to make it feel way more dynamic and alive. It's also being distorted by a noise like Hoederer is, which is quite nice as a touch, really helps to make that limited movement feel way more significant than it is.

Second, is that the texture is monochromatic, but in a different way than Arturia is. The grays are colder, harsh blue-grays to contrast Arturia herself, who is a very warm gray. This makes it so that it adds a really nice background that looks like part of her, while also standing out and allowing her to stand out against it. It's a really smart use of monochrome to create visual interest using just different subtle shades of gray.

But that bluish hue also serves to compliment the only color in the effect - the blue light from the cello. Your eyes are naturally drawn to brighter glowing things, which is also the only colored spot on the effect - the cello from which her Arts emerge. As a result, the Beastie.jpg fades out of your attention, becoming monochromatic noise, which, due to being just kinda chaotic and aesthetically dissonant, you interpret more as abstract Shape than anything else. That abstract shape then makes a cone which leads you down into Arturia's center, which is her cello, which is where her Arts are coming from.

This is basically to say - These are very emblematic of what I think makes good effects textures in general. They work best when they're not alone. When these backgrounds are part of a larger whole that's all coming together to make an effect, rather than being the centerpiece of the whole thing. When I notice the background, it's a problem, in my eyes. Maybe people disagree. They keep putting them in skins, and a lot of people thought the Eine Variation goat was cool as hell, so clearly I'm in the wrong here, but hey. Who gives a shit.

I'm sure there's way more examples of this, (actually I know there are,) but I'm extremely tired and need to go the fuck to sleep. If there's any particular backgrounds ya'll want me to take a look at, lemme know and I'll get back to you when I've woken from my dread slumber.

#arknights #arknights vfx breakdown

[riverhag2]

my favorite characters die in my favorite media all the damn time

my current hyper focus is a tragic opera that ends with my blorbo having his life flash before his eyes in a horrid fever dream where he's confronted for perhaps the first time with how horribly he's failed everyone he's ever loved and then he dies

death isn't the problem

pointless and hurried stuff-her-in-a-fridge death that doesn't actually even serve the narrative purpose cobbled together as an after-the-fact explanation is the problem

the idea that Izzy's arc was "over" is frankly ludicrous

he'd only just begun to rediscover the parts of himself he'd buried away or lost to piracy, to Blackbeard, to Ed

he'd only just found love with the crew

he'd only just started the arc that Stede and Ed set off on in the beginning of s1

his death does nothing for his character

it also does nothing for anyone else's

smarter people than me have spoken extensively on why the "mentor/father figure" thing is just outright non-existent in the text

even without that, the show is obviously trying to use Izzy's death to free Ed from the mantle of blackbeard and that would be a valid and interesting narrative choice if you'd set that up at any point before the last five minutes of the last episode but um

Ed had already begun the work of releasing himself from blackbeard, and even when he dons the leathers once again, it's not even the tiniest bit for Izzy's sake nor in any way at Izzy's insistence or encouragement (and in fact, Izzy had already encouraged him to step away from it)

whatever is still tying Ed to blackbeard, it is textually very much not Izzy

Izzy's dying sentiment of "they love you" holds no water because out of Ed, Stede, and Izzy, only one of them has actually connected with the crew this season and it sure as fuck isn't Ed

Izzy's dying admonition of "you're surrounded by family" is immediately followed by Ed and Stede fucking off and leaving the ship

there's nothing in Izzy's death that serves Ed narratively

there's apparently then the argument that Izzy is representative of old piracy, a dying world, and therefore he must die (which, ok, fine, but to what end?) but that's *actually insane* in the context of a show entirely about starting over in middle age

killing a character is often a good narrative choice, but if you're gonna kill him, doing it with a stray bullet in the middle of his arc in a way that does nothing to further anyone else's narrative is at best a cheap emotional punch

death also is the problem though

in a show where mortal wounds seem to pass almost unnoticed amongst our heroes, casual death by a stray bullet is bonkers

in a show where the only real villain is a cruel and corrupt state, to punish with death someone at the mercy of that cruel and corrupt state is bonkers

most importantly: in a show that presented itself as ultimately being about queer outsiders finding family in each other, there's no good reason for any of the foundlings to die

even assuming they're planning some miraculous resurrection for Izzy in s3, they work very hard to show you precisely how dead he is here

they want you to know and believe that he absolutely is dead

Lucius falls into the sea in a way that no one ever once believed actually meant he was dead

in contrast, we watch the light go out of Izzy's eyes after he tells Ed he's ready to go

we see him buried in the dirt

if this truly is meant to be impermanent, then it is even more cruel and meaningless than if they actually just killed him for nothing and no amount of "indestructible little fucker" foreshadowing redeems it

I hate everything about this ending, for everyone involved

it's such a disappointment

#ofmd izzy #izzy hands #ofmd #ofmd s2 #our flag means death season 2 #ofmd spoilers

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Haii (⁠✯⁠ᴗ⁠✯⁠)

I'm just curious on where the big schlong John thing ever started from lmao. Have a nice day (⁠~⁠‾⁠▿⁠‾⁠)⁠~♡

Hey Nonny!!

ACTUALLY, it was sort of joked about pre-S3 because of the way Martin carries John's character, but it's the show itself that actually confirmed it, in HLV:

SHERLOCK: Not bad. BILL (still looking at John): An’ I further deduce ... (Sherlock raises his eyebrows, and he and John exchange a brief glance.) BILL: ... you’ve only started recently, because you’ve got a bit of chafing. (John looks down his body.) SHERLOCK: No – he’s always walked like that. Remind me – what’s your name again?

[...]

JOHN: Er, I ... right. I should probably tell you ... (The man reaches into John’s jacket pocket and takes out Bill’s flick-knife.) JOHN: Okay, I ... (he points to the knife) ... That. (The man pulls John’s jacket open.) JOHN: And ... (The man stands up, holding the tyre lever he has just taken from John’s jeans and looking at him sternly. Sherlock looks startled. John steps closer to the man and speaks confidentially.) JOHN: Doesn’t mean I’m not pleased to see you. (The man does not look amused.) [x]

If you don't understand the context... basically John is SO used to having something large between his legs that him walking around and kicking ass for the first 20 minutes with a HUGE assed tire iron down his pants is NOTHING to this man. It's subtly implying he's used to carrying around a large and heavy package up front.

And how do we know that it’s not implying that John’s junk is small enough to fit a tire iron in his pants? Because of the “set-up and payoff” nature of these two lines within minutes of each other in the episode. There’s a reason I included the first chunk: Sherlock establishes to the audience that John ALWAYS walks “like that”, BEFORE we – and he – find out about the tire iron he’s been carrying around. This sets the precedent that John ALWAYS walks “like he’s chafing” but Sherlock deduces it’s because he has a giant dong.

This is immediately paid off with the big reveal that John has not only been carrying around his junk, but also a huge-assed tire iron too WHILE being a BAMF, and in turn surprising Sherlock because, “holy hell, wow that’s hot”. Sherlock was turned on, I like to think, LOL.

You can read more posts on my John’s Giant Junk (Masterpost) which has many fine voices in the fandom going into SERIOUS analysis about... John. Yes.

So, the TL;DR of it is that it's canon John has a giant dong, and Sherlock misjudged just how big it was and was shocked.

Take from that what you want, and enjoy, Nonny! <3

#steph replies #sherlock meta #sherlock transcripts #who is john watson #the quality meta we're all here for #john's giant junk #that sherlock likes very much #and probably has imagined ~~scenarios~~ with

[norsecoyote]

I do not as a rule read a lot of fanfic. This is partly because I don't get much time to read, period, and partly because I still have a bit of a cringe reaction to the whole concept, but also because I will get turned off a story quickly if the author gets something wrong either about a character (which I gather is common) or about the broader themes or point of the original story.

This is by way of saying that, now that I've thoroughly outed myself as an unironic fan of French children's animated superhero show Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir, I want to do what I believe is the next required step on tumblr.com: complain about something the fandom gets wrong.

Fair warning: this is not a meta-post about fandom or fanfic generally, this is 100% me, a nominal adult, bitching about People Being Wrong About Miraculous On The Internet. You stand at the Cringe Event Horizon; read on at your own risk.

So: the central interpersonal tension that powers the show is the "love rectangle" between the leads, where Marinette loves Adrien and Chat Noir loves Ladybug but neither knows the other's secret identity. The obvious solution is absurdly simple: reveal their identities and collapse the quantum superposition of crushes.

A ton of fanfic about the show does exactly that: contrive some scenario where they accidentally discover who each other are, they kiss, they live happily ever after (plus or minus one maniacally obsessed supervillain). And I get why, I think -- the show absolutely looks like it's going to keep this will they/won't they tension going forever, since it's one of its two central narrative motors, and a whole ton of early episodes play with one of the two trying to get closer to the other, failing, and returning exactly to the status quo. Given that, it makes sense why fans would want to just write the goddamn resolution already; it isn't until S3 that the two start making any real progress towards being together.

But. The problem, on many levels, is that the show's writers are smarter than that. Like on the very basic one, the show makes clear from very early on that the old master who gave the heroes their powers explicitly forbade them from revealing their identities, because doing so would let Hawk Moth find and defeat them. And this isn't like an arbitrary concern: Hawk Moth's whole deal is corrupting random people and getting them to work for him, so if he ever happened to even accidentally akumatize someone who knows their identities, that's more or less the whole ballgame. If you're writing a story where Ladybug and Chat Noir learn who each other are but they haven't defeated Hawk Moth yet -- and there are a bunch of these -- you have missed something rather crucial about why they couldn't just do that already.

(The first half of S5 -- which to be fair only came out a year ago -- does a very clever thing where it systematically explores basically every possible workaround to this issue, considering every new power or possibility opened up by events from across the previous four seasons, and methodically rejects each one by showing how it wouldn't solve the actual central problem. I bring this up not to throw shade on any fanfic authors, most of whom were writing before S5 released, but to credit (again) the show's writers for the depth of their understanding of what makes the show tick.)

More fundamentally -- and this is an insight very much stolen from that CJ the X video -- on a character growth/emotional level, Marinette and Adrian aren't ready to be in a relationship yet. Like, sure, they will be perfect for each other, but (at least for most of the series to date) they aren't yet. Marinette starts out with an extremely adolescent crush on a literal fashion model, and Adrien at first is clearly much more in love with his unexpected new freedom as Chat Noir than anything specific about his new partner. They are, to put as blunt a point on it as the show itself repeatedly does, kids.

And, critically, the show understands that they both need to learn to accept themselves first. From an adult perspective it's just duh that you can't have a mature romantic relationship without a solid sense of self (and self-confidence), but that's not remotely obvious to kids at the age of the show's target audience and it's genuinely refreshing to see it acknowledge and reflect that obstacle. One of the few active benefits of the show's extremely episodic pacing is that the writers have time to show both protagonists' slow but genuine character growth, Marinette building up her confidence in her own abilities and decisions and Adrien forging an identity separate from his father's business asset, until when they finally start building something real together in the fifth season it feels genuinely earned.

This emotional arc, in other words, is baked into the show's structure from the very beginning. Fanfic that tries to shortcut this process has, again, fundamentally failed to understand the characters it's nominally telling a story about. Like, I get wanting to experience the emotional high of seeing your favorite characters get their happy ending, but -- the fact that they can't just get that is kind of central to their entire characterization! Are you even writing about the same characters at that point?

#miraculous ladybug #chat noir #children's media #fanfic #stupid petty bullshit #there is plenty of actually good stuff out there of course #but man it's frustrating when an otherwise good story ends with this shit #like it's an afterthought #anyway I'm done posting about this kids show now #we started watching Avatar with her yesterday and she immediately declared herself to be a firebender/waterbender combo #so that's off to a great start

[blinkaftermidnight]

S3 Fic Outline

I've talked about this fic like right after s2 was released, but just to refresh memories, this outline covers basically what I thought a realistic take of s3 could look like. Since we received some disappointing news, and since I’m not sure I’ll ever manage to finish this fic, I thought I’d at least share my outline for it. I apologize if some of it doesn’t make sense, because I know I’ve left gaps for myself to mentally fill in. Each chapter was meant to contain two timelines, a present and a flashback, with Leah’s POV for the present and Fatin’s for the island flashbacks to fill in gaps I felt s2 left us with.

I’ve never publicly shared such a rough version of any of my work, so this is kinda weird for me, but I thought it’d be nice to show anyone who’s interested the ideas I came up with for a s3. So under the cut is my completed outline, roughly 6k. Also it’s not in the outline itself but in one of the chapters I’d written, but I’d like you to know I had Leah and Rachel constructing a birdhouse together.

Chapter One

-       Present: Leah

-       Pick up immediately on the roof, with Fatin going to Leah and grabbing her shoulder to stop her from screaming, which has set the boys on edge

o   Fatin pulls Leah back into the bunker, and Leah confesses that she thought they’d won, that this was over, and Fatin says they’re going to get through it

-       Cut to the girls regrouping in the bunker, claiming a section for themselves before Kirin arrives as de facto leader of the boys to negotiate with the girls (with Ivan and Henry), and Dot steps up, says they need to discuss a plan

o   Kirin’s surprisingly level and says they should explore the island to see if they can find anything useful on it, and they agree to split into two groups to inventory the bunker’s supplies and determine what they might have to live off of from the island

o   Leah volunteers to be on the island exploration group, so Fatin swiftly decides to go with her

o   Dot suggests that it shouldn’t be girls vs boys, that they should mix, go eight and six, and though some of the girls (Fatin and Toni) are wary of mixing, Henry says he thinks it’d be good for them to start getting to know each other since they’re trapped together

o   They agree to split their groups in half, with the island group receiving the extra person, and regroup early in the day to get going tomorrow

-       They find some food and their clothes/some of their belongings

-       Fatin visits Leah in her room in the bunker before bed, and she tells Leah she slipped her the you were right note, and Leah says she knew, and Fatin asks if it was handwriting recognition in surprise, but Leah says no, she just had a gut feeling and decided to trust it

o   Leah hesitates but asks Fatin to stay with her for the night, and they cram into Leah’s twin sized bed, and Fatin makes a crack about how jealous Dot is gonna be

-       Flashback: Fatin (2x01 ish)

-       Events leading up to Leah’s suicide attempt, Fatin’s reaction, and her growing resentment (mostly directed at herself) to explain her reaction

-       Fatin catching herself watching Leah more, justifying it by claiming she’s watching Leah’s mental state

-       Dot calls Fatin on staring, and Fatin plays it off

-       Fatin distracts herself with Martha’s book and makes sex jokes about it to Leah, trying to gauge Leah’s reaction to it

-       Shelby talks to Fatin about Leah’s suicide attempt

Chapter Two

-       Present: Leah

-       Leah wakes up wrapped around Fatin and extracts herself from that, burning with embarrassment, before Fatin can catch her and make a joke that would make Leah even more uncomfortable, but she lingers to look at Fatin for a long moment before Dot interrupts to retrieve them to regroup with the boys

o   Island group: Leah, Fatin, Rachel, Dot; Kirin, Ivan, Raf, Henry

o   Bunker group: Shelby, Toni, Martha; Scotty, Bo, Josh

o   Josh puts up a bit of a fight about being stuck in the bunker but relents

-       They pack water and some of the snacks (sparingly) for the journey, with Kirin offering to take the backpack but Dot seems wary, though he promises not to screw them over; Leah’s unsure if she trusts him

-       As they realize the extent of the island, Kirin suggests splitting up, and Dot refuses unless they blend, so they each have a stake in both sides

o   Fatin refuses to leave Leah, so they split Leah, Fatin, Raf and Kirin, and Dot, Rachel, Ivan, and Henry

o   Fatin takes the lead between her and Leah, clashing with Kirin, though he’s fairly diplomatic until they both get more and more agitated, resulting in Leah and Raf stepping in to calm them down and remind them they’re here to work together

-       Unbeknownst to Leah in the moment, Dot’s group finds fresh water and Marcus, but in the meantime, between all the bickering and comparing of islands and threats (and Nora, who was an operative, which leads Kirin to think Seth was) and Leah and Raf trying to play referees between Kirin and Fatin – Fatin seems to be acting territorial, and Leah calls her on it, watches Fatin deny it and claim Kirin’s douche bro vibe isn’t her thing, and Leah calls her a liar, and Fatin rolls her eyes, dismisses it

o   Kirin and Raf fill Fatin and Leah in on Seth but don’t tell them exactly what he did, just that he violated the group’s trust and was exiled for a good reason; Kirin says he’s violent and mentally unstable, and Leah looks to Fatin, who looks wary

-       Leah’s group stumbles across a body, causing a slight panic until Leah gets closer and realizes it’s Nora

-       Flashback: Fatin (2x02 ish)

-       The party supplies and Leah’s unhinged laughter

-       Shelby checks back in with Fatin about Leah

-       Fatin’s ongoing denial of what she’s feeling as she reads Martha’s book and starts to have genuine sexual thoughts about Leah and pauses to analyze that and determine if it’s purely physical attraction

-       Fatin approaches Rachel about how Leah’s doing and asks how Rachel’s doing with her hand and Nora, and Rachel says she’s figuring it out, slowly, but adds that they don’t have to talk about it

-       Fatin gets curious about who might’ve written in Nora’s journal since, swears to herself it’s not about Leah, and starts to get sucked into the conspiracy

Chapter Three

-       Leah checks to see if Nora is alive and announces she has a pulse and is breathing, plus has a backpack

-       Kirin hauls Nora back to the bunker as Dot’s giving news of a fresh water source and Marcus, and the remaining boys are confused as the girls – especially Rachel – freak out over a still unconscious Nora

-       Dot thinks Gretchen’s team drugged Nora and dropped her here, and that they just have to wait for Nora to come out of it while Rachel freaks out

o   Leah approaches Rachel privately, talks through it with her, pitches it to Rachel as a second chance to repair her relationship with her sister and talks about how fucked up Gretchen is and they probably hug, though Rachel comments that this is weird for them, and Leah agrees and stops hugging her

o   Rachel stares at her for a moment and offers to talk about anything Leah might need help with, and Leah plays dumb even though her mind drifts to Fatin

-       As they wait for Nora to regain consciousness and deal with their supplies in the bunker and the lay of the land, music starts blasting through the bunker (not Personal Jesus, but something else), and Leah says someone else is here with them

o   Ivan points out that, if their operative was dropped alive onto the island after thinking she was dead, maybe Seth is alive and here with them somewhere, which would explain the music, as Seth is probably fucking with them and trying to keep them on their toes because there’s nothing they can do about it

o   Ivan’s theory prompts a second full search of their bunker

-       Fatin holds Leah during the night as the music echoes through the bunker

-       Flashback: Fatin (2x03)

-       Toni nearly getting crushed spooks Fatin and makes her keep a closer eye on Leah, starts getting jealous of all the time Leah’s spending with Rachel

-       Martha tells Fatin she just cares as she’s taking more of an interest in the journal and suggesting a system/schedule, and Fatin gets worried that Martha’s catching onto her thoughts about Leah – which she hasn’t determined – and tells Martha she misses dick; Martha questions how Fatin can be so chill about that, and Fatin puts the pieces together and reassures Martha that she’s there for her for anything

-       The home scene, and after, Shelby approaches Fatin to ask if she’s okay, and Fatin debates over bringing up her potential feelings for Leah but doesn’t and blames her mood on the awful music and they share a laugh

Chapter Four

-       Present: Leah

-       Nora regains consciousness and explains how she ended up there and how Gretchen forced an extraction when Leah got too close to the truth to protect the integrity of the experiment

o   Nora tells them she has no idea what Gretchen’s up to next or why Gretchen dropped her with them, except to play mind games and cause conflict, especially with Rachel

o   The boys ask why they should trust Nora, ultimately splitting the girls against them – though Kirin, Ivan, Bo, and Henry all want to hear Nora out

-       The boys determine they can’t trust that Nora’s telling the truth, and even Leah is skeptical, but Nora tells Rachel in front of the group that she’s done lying, and she’s done helping Gretchen, and she’s going to get them all out of this

-       Kirin asks Nora if she knows anything about Seth, and Nora confirms she knew about the boys’ experiment and that she thinks the operative was named Seth

o   Kirin comforts Josh when bringing Seth up, but Josh seems off, and Leah notices

-       The girls regroup to decide if they’re rallying around Nora or not, and Rachel is the first to side with her, which convinces Leah, which convinces Fatin, which convinces Dot, then Shelby, Martha, and Toni

o   The boys split 3-5, with Kirin, Raf, and Henry thinking Nora’s telling the truth and the others being too uncertain to agree

o   Leah thinks she notices Raf watching her at the same time that Fatin shifts closer to her and takes her hand

o   Dot warily suggests that they should stick to their separate sides of the bunker and not cross without permission, to protect Nora, and Kirin agrees to keep the rest of the boys out of their way

-       Flashback: Fatin (2x04)

-       Dot’s birthday and Leah’s bad lies and Fatin making fun of Leah for not only misspelling diarrhea but being so bad at making up a cover story, and Leah blushes, and Fatin grins and thinks about how fucked she is if she’s already thought about fucking Leah and now finds her awkwardness cute and endearing, so Fatin goes a little easier on her and tries not to remember the sex dream she’d had

o   Fatin admits to having had a sex dream when the conversation lulls in an attempt to determine Leah’s feelings, tells Leah it was with a girl to see how Leah reacts, and Leah doesn’t really react

-       Dot’s birthday celebration winding down and Fatin seeking out Leah after (during what would be Shelby and Rachel’s conversation)

o   Leah asks why Fatin isn’t with birthday girl Dot, and Fatin says she already had that squared away, came to see if Leah’s doing alright and Leah tells Fatin to stop worrying about her, and Fatin balks, feels a bit hurt

o   Leah apologizes but admits she’s still on edge from Fatin’s threat from after she went after Rachel, and Fatin apologizes for that, and Leah calls to the not cutting the threads people hang by metaphor and tells Fatin she feels like that’s exactly what she’s doing, hanging onto her sanity by just a thread

o   They sit together in the sand and hold hands, and Fatin lies to herself that it’s nothing, that this is just friendship, but it starts to unravel

Chapter Five

-       Present: Leah

-       They’re overturning the bunker for evidence still while Dot forces Nora on bed rest, on their designated side, and Leah finds the files on all of them, goes through her own, which sends her into a spiral with all the stuff Gretchen knew about Jeff, but she finds a prediction that Leah will latch onto one of the other girls for emotional support, perhaps at the expense of said girl’s own wellbeing, which really sends Leah spiraling as she connects it to Fatin

-       Leah flees the bunker with the files in hand, and Dot notices her leaving and shouts after her, prompting Fatin to chase after her, though she’s behind and eventually catches Leah in the water

-       Fatin prevents what she thinks is Leah trying to drown herself at the new waterfall, rushing into the water after her, but Leah says she was cooling down, seems surprised/confused by Fatin’s concern, and Fatin pulls Leah into her anyway while they’re in the water and admits she thought Leah was trying to die again, but Leah assures her she’s good

-       They get out of the water and lay some of their excess clothes out to dry, making Leah inexplicably nervous as she checks Fatin out and blushes when Fatin catches her, but Fatin doesn’t make a comment

-       Leah explains what she found in the files, and they discuss that together and Fatin convinces Leah to give her the files (to save as evidence) and walk back to the bunker together, and Leah’s still nervous when Fatin looks at her

-       Flashback: Fatin (2x05)

-       Fatin’s highkey jealousy over Jeff and Ben Folds at the waterfall, and her disappointment that dream different doesn’t prompt a feelings confession for Leah, and she hates how she feels watching Leah strip and jump into the water, and she helps Leah dry off, her skin warm against Leah’s and Leah shudders at her touch

-       Fatin finding proof of Nora’s involvement with the journal and her sweatshirt

-       Fatin trying to approach Leah after the funeral they hold for Nora, but Leah rebuffs her, and Fatin’s more hurt than she expects to be

Chapter Six

-       Present: Leah

-       Leah goes to Nora to hand over the files on the girls to store in her backpack for safety, and Nora realizes she hasn’t even looked in her backpack and pulls out water, some food, and to her surprise, her phone, but it’s dead

-       Nora and Leah approach the group to show them that Gretchen was dumb enough to leave Nora with her phone, but it’s dead, so they start their search for a charger but can’t find one and realize they’ll have to ask the boys

o   Leah agrees to try to reach out through Raf, but Fatin doesn’t want her to venture to the boys’ side alone, and Leah thinks it’s odd that Fatin wants to accompany her and asks Fatin (sort of jokingly) what she’s so afraid of, and Fatin says the boys admitted Seth was violent and there’s no telling what they could be hiding; also Fatin’s just jealous of Raf, which Leah wonders about

-       Leah and Fatin approach the boys side but are confronted by Scotty, who’s on watch, and Leah asks to see Raf, and Scotty wants to know why, and she says she knows Raf will believe her, making Scotty suspicious

-       Fatin, to Leah’s surprise, asks for Kirin, and Fatin extends an olive branch, tells him about Nora’s phone but that it’s dead and she needs him and the boys to look for a charger so they can try to contact someone, and Kirin agrees

o   Fatin tells Leah something like aren’t you glad I came with and Leah snaps that she doesn’t need a babysitter and Fatin backtracks, admits she misses Leah and is looking for ways to spend more time with her which leads Leah to apologize and offer to spend the rest of the day with Fatin while the boys search

-       They explore more of their side of the bunker together and locate Gretchen’s office, and Fatin watches Leah wander and think too much and shuts the door, confesses that she could hear Leah scream while they were being held across from each other and says she tried to scream back, but Leah confirms she didn’t hear her and asks why Fatin brought it up

o   Fatin says something about how Leah doesn’t know how much it hurt, knowing something was wrong and not being able to do anything about it, and they get kinda close but Leah hesitates, and Fatin doesn’t make a move, so they have an awkward standoff where they almost kiss and almost acknowledge there’s something between them

-       They go to check if the boys have reported back, but Dot says they haven’t been approached yet as she’s playing a board game with Shelby and Toni stares yearningly from afar, which Fatin points out to Leah once they leave

-       Fatin walks Leah to her room for the night and asks Leah if she wants her to stay or if she should go, and when Leah hesitates, Fatin starts to say she’s gonna go, and Leah rushes to ask her to stay but says she doesn’t want to sleep yet

o   They sit cross-legged on Leah’s bed and Leah asks Fatin about the concern she’d showed at the waterfall, and Fatin tells her about how she felt guilty and upset and then angry when Leah tried to kill herself, and Leah can’t explain why she did it

o   Leah says she doesn’t want to talk about depressing shit and makes a crack about Fatin telling her about more of her sex dreams, like from the flashback, and Fatin rolls her eyes, says she hasn’t had one lately and Leah asks if she’s just accepting her sexless situation

o   Fatin asks, jokingly, why Leah’s suddenly so interested in her sex life, and it gives Leah pause, and Fatin assures her she was kidding, and Leah grabs onto Fatin’s knee and tells her she’s always admired how open and unashamed Fatin is about sex and they have another awkward pause moment

o   Fatin plays it off as well, while they’re admitting things, and she brings up Leah’s Ben Folds crush in relation to Fatin having a crush on Megan Fox at the same age and she’s like I know it’s so basic, and Leah laughs as Fatin tells her that was when she knew she was in no way straight, and Leah looks at her fondly, biting her lip, and owns up to her crush on Lana Del Rey that she says kinda hasn’t gone away and Fatin teases her about her thing for obscure musicians while Leah argues Lana Del Rey isn’t obscure

o   As the silence gets charged between them again, Fatin dismisses herself to Leah’s bathroom, and Leah gets off the bed, starts pacing as she listens to the water run, thinks about how Megan Fox has brown hair and blue eyes, wonders if it was supposed to be some sort of hint

o   Leah gets the idea and isn’t sure where it comes from but says the I’m gonna try something line when Fatin gets back, and Fatin’s eyebrows raise, and Leah kisses her and after says she feels like Fatin was waiting for it, and Fatin just asks her if she’s okay, and Leah says to Fatin you tell me, and they look at each other before Fatin kisses her again

-       Flashback: Fatin (2x06)

-       Fatin sets Leah off with the rewind moment and Leah says the cutting threads thing, and Fatin feels guilty and seeks Leah out at the hot spring

-       Fatin asks about the tension between them, and Leah denies that there’s any tension, and when Fatin pauses and asks if she’s doing okay, like, mentally, Leah snaps at her and tells her she obviously didn’t care before, and Fatin asks what she’s talking about, and Leah says her Nora funeral concern and Fatin redirected her only to try to drag her back in, and Fatin hesitates and apologizes

-       Fatin offers to get in the hot spring with Leah to relax, and they sit together, and Fatin swears she catches Leah checking her out after she strips down, and Fatin gets nervous and comments on how she hates that for herself, in her brain, but out loud she tells Leah she’s pretty hot, and Leah blushes and rolls her eyes and tells Fatin to shut the fuck up, and Fatin tells her to own it

o   Leah teases Fatin for looking, and Fatin defensively says she’s in the midst of the longest dry spell of her life

-       End with something like it’s hard to focus on the small good moments when Martha totally snaps later that night

Chapter Seven

-       Present: Leah

-       They’re making out on Leah’s bed, Leah pinned beneath Fatin, and Leah’s sort of overwhelmed like mentally and from the sensations as Fatin’s hands roam and grasp at whatever they can, while Leah does the same, but she starts to get too much in her head, realizes she doesn’t want to fuck Fatin without any feelings, and Fatin senses her hesitation and pulls back, asks her what’s wrong and says Leah can’t just not tell her

o   But Leah panics and just says she can’t do this, and Fatin gets off of her, looking kinda confused and upset, and Leah walks her to the door, but when they open it, there’s a pile of clothes waiting for her, and Leah looks across the hall to find the same for Fatin

o   Leah confirms it’s only been maybe just over an hour, and she wonders to Fatin if it’s possible that these new, formal clothes were planted by Seth, and Fatin grabs Leah and rushes to find the other girls but instead, they run into Ivan and Raf, who says they were sent by Kirin to warn them that Seth’s somewhere in the facility right now, and they tell them about the clothes, and Ivan’s like we got it, too

o   Fatin acts protective of Leah again

-       They regroup with the other girls, who agree to cross to the boys’ side for safety in numbers, and there, they discover Scotty unearthed a charger that might work for Nora’s phone, so they plug that in while discussing how to handle Seth

o   In the middle of that, loud music starts again, leading Kirin to cussing Seth out verbally in spite of him not being there, freaking some of the girls out, but Ivan tells them that Kirin is harmless, mostly. Sometimes

-       Kirin says they need to go investigate the music but be aware that Seth could be anywhere, but Dot wants them to have an actual plan

o   Dot wants to set a trap for Seth and lock him somewhere he can be contained, but Kirin is for restraining and controlling Seth at all costs, while the girls still don’t know why he’s so dangerous

o   Scotty says Henry is Seth’s stepbrother and even turned against him because he’s so dangerous, but Henry looks uncomfortable with the idea of attacking Seth and wants to go with Dot’s plan

o   Kirin relents, but Leah thinks he won’t go along with it

-       They head into Faber or Young’s office, and find Faber’s golf clubs, and Ivan berates that, but they arm a few people with clubs, and Kirin says they should split into groups to accomplish tasks: setting up the trap for Seth, investigating the music, and doing a comprehensive sweep of the bunker

o   Dot takes Shelby, Henry, and Scotty to set the trap

o   Kirin takes Fatin, Leah, Raf, and Josh to investigate the music

o   Toni takes Martha and Ivan to sweep one half, while Rachel takes Nora and Bo to sweep the other half

-       Nora makes sure to grab the phone and the charger, says they can try again later

o   Fatin warns Dot to be careful, Shelby tells Toni and Martha to be careful, and Leah tells Rachel and Nora to watch their backs

-       Kirin’s group ends up in the room with the podium, where the music is blaring there again, and there’s a whole setup, with a SENIOR PROM banner hanging over the stage and balloons, and Kirin’s like wtf while wielding his golf club

o   Fatin sticks close to Leah, as does Raf, and Fatin competes for Leah’s attention while Leah acts polite to Raf, and Josh sticks with Kirin

-       Kirin wonders what the hell Seth is playing at, and Leah wonders if he wanted them to split up, if he’s messing with them

o   Fatin panics and says they need to regroup with the others, like if he’s planning to ambush someone specific – and Leah assumes it’s Nora and the phone, and Raf agrees, and Fatin’s like of course you agree, it’s Leah, and Raf’s like you don’t own her and you sound jealous, and Leah cuts them off right before Kirin and Josh get the jump on Seth

-       Flashback: Fatin (2x07)

-       Fatin comforts Leah after Martha snaps, but Leah’s not very receptive, is sort of out of it, and Fatin worries about her

-       Leah falls into Fatin’s arms while they’re sitting, and she allows Fatin to hold her head against her chest and stroke her hair around the other girls, and Fatin’s heart pounds wildly, but she also worries about Martha obviously

Chapter Eight

-       Present: Leah

-       Kirin restrains Seth, has him pinned to the floor beneath his shoe at the chest, and his face is sort of healing from his beat down from Raf, and Raf tells Leah that Gretchen let him believe that he’d killed Seth with his bare hands and treated him like a murderer

-       Kirin asks Josh what he wants to do, and Josh hesitates and says they should lock him up, like Dot said, so Kirin wrestles Seth to where Dot’s set up to restrain Seth to a chair and lock him in a room

-       Rachel’s group returns, and Rachel takes the phone from Nora

o   Seth sees this and stops cooperating, goes wild in a dive for the phone, and knocks Nora out of the way in her effort to shield Rachel, who’s with the phone

o   Kirin reacts, shouting, and swings the golf club at Seth before Seth can reach Rachel, catching him in the jaw and sending his ass to the floor

o   Bo determines that he’s not dead, but his jaw’s probably broken, and Kirin and Bo haul Seth into the chair and allow Dot to secure him to it, and they commit to locking and blocking him in the room

-       They head to another room to plug the phone in and wait around for it to come up while Toni’s group returns to inform them that they found Seth’s hideout, packed with supplies, and Nora informs them that the phone won’t work with the charger, but Martha holds up Seth’s phone

-       Leah asks to take it and contacts Ian a second time, and he responds pretty quickly to tell her that he’s working on it with the FBI to locate them and tells them to hang tight, and they have a little moment

-       So then everyone’s left wondering what to do, and Shelby points out that Seth left them formal attire, and with all the supplies from Seth, they could set up a real meal and get dressed up and play more tasteful music and have a decent night now that they know actual rescue is around the corner

o   And surprisingly, no one objects

-       Leah goes to Rachel while getting ready to ask for advice about Fatin and admits they kissed but isn’t sure what she feels, and Rachel’s like I’ve known you’ve had feelings for Fatin since you sang Home straight to her and danced around the campfire together, and Leah says she’s not sure she’s ready, and Rachel tells her she’s pretty sure Fatin’s willing to wait

-       Flashback: Fatin (2x08)

-       Extended talk between Shelby and Fatin about feelings after they retrieve the device

-       Shelby asks what Fatin thinks she feels, and Fatin confesses but isn’t sure about how Leah feels, and Shelby says she’s pretty sure Leah doesn’t know, either, but that Leah really cares about her

-       Fatin says it’s so gross how she has feelings and cares so much about a girl she went to school with but barely knew, and Shelby says it’s funny how things work out sometimes

-       When Fatin and Leah reunite at the hot spring, Fatin anticipates that Leah’s going to kiss her but face plants into her chest instead, and Fatin tries not to be disappointed, though it fades as Leah reaches for her hand when the helicopter shows up

Chapter Nine

-       Present: Leah

-       She’s kind of uncomfortable in the dress, but it fits, and she arrives with Rachel

o   Dot tells them that Fatin took control of the aux and plays club music that Kirin’s already going wild to with a reluctant/grudging Ivan and Henry, but Josh, Bo, and Scotty are having a blast, all in suits, though Josh is wearing a Hawaiian shirt

o   Dot’s in a suit, as is Shelby, who Leah spots talking to Fatin in the corner, and Leah’s eyes linger on Fatin’s dress – shimmery, tight – and Rachel tells Leah to stop drooling

o   Toni arrives in a suit with Martha and Nora, who are carrying a bucket of Seth’s supplies, which is full of prepackaged desserts and protein bars, and they joke that it’s better than nothing

-       So they have snacks and some of them dance, and Leah watches Kirin jokingly dance with Josh, watches Toni approach Shelby and touch her shaved hair, and they smile at each other, and watches Martha drag Rachel and Nora to go dance, and Leah meets Fatin’s gaze from across the room

o   But Raf interjects and awkwardly asks Leah to dance, and Leah agrees to see if it’ll push Fatin to interrupt

o   Raf tells Leah while they’re dancing that he knows she has a thing for Fatin and genuinely just wanted to dance with someone rather than being off alone, and Leah grins and decides to let loose, encouraging him to do the same, and they dance and laugh, and Leah’s aware of Fatin’s eyes on her as she starts to roam, dancing with Kirin and Josh, then Henry, then Toni and Martha, then Rachel

o   And Rachel tells Leah that her girl’s been watching her, and Leah’s all flushed, and she tells Rachel she’s gonna go for it, and Rachel encourages her

-       Leah makes her way over to where Fatin’s standing alone and asks why she’s not dancing with the rest of them, and Fatin says she was letting Leah have her moment, and Leah rolls her eyes, and Fatin admits she was letting Leah decide for herself if she’s ready

o   Leah awkwardly holds her hand out and asks Fatin to dance with her, and Fatin rolls her eyes and takes Leah’s hand as the playlist switches to something slower, courtesy of Rachel, who sends Leah a thumbs up when Fatin isn’t looking, causing Leah to blush harder as she does the awkward middle school dance thing with Fatin, with her hand on Fatin’s waist and Fatin’s hand on her shoulder, though Leah admits she doesn’t know what she’s doing

o   Kirin and Josh waltz past them then swap partners, Kirin going with Ivan briefly and Josh dragging Scotty into it while Bo dances with Nora and Martha dances with Henry, and Shelby and Toni dance, and Rachel’s with Dot and Raf, and Leah comments on how happy everyone seems

-       Fatin says some gay shit like “no one’s happier than me” and Leah lays her head on Fatin’s shoulder, and Fatin jokes that she’s glad she’s wearing heels and Leah’s in flats

-       Leah asks Fatin if she can say some depressing shit that’s gonna make her look genuinely crazy, and Fatin tells her to go for it, so she tells Fatin that before they were rescued, she hallucinated Ben Folds, and he started listing off the crushes she’d had, but she cut him off before he got too far, because she knew what he was gonna say, and Fatin asks what, and Leah looks at her and says he was going to say Fatin’s name

-       Fatin cuts in, tells Leah she’s sure of what she feels, she’s sure she wants Leah, and Leah laughs, throwing Fatin off

o   Leah tells Fatin about the tampon story, tells her she thought about it for a month because Fatin was so pretty, and totally acted like she didn’t have a crush on Fatin around Ian, even though it was painfully obvious that she did

-       Fatin asks something like “so if I kiss you right now, in front of everyone, is that going to be okay?” and Leah gives her permission

o   Dot yells get it, Fatin, Shelby and Raf clap until Toni stops Shelby, Rachel yells at them to get a room but grins wider than everyone, Kirin howls his yeow and jokingly asks which of the boys has fallen in love with him

o   Leah giggles when they stop, and Fatin tells her she’s gorgeous and that she can’t wait to rip that dress off of her, but also that they should get her some therapy when they get home, and Leah says right back at you

o   Kirin dances with Martha, genuinely, and Fatin comments that she expected Kirin to be a bigger douche before Leah calls out her jealousy surrounding Raf, and Fatin scoffs that Raf still has heart eyes for Leah even if he’s respectful enough to let Leah chase her girl

-       Present: Fatin

-       They wake up in Leah’s bed together after Leah fucks Fatin against a wall (callback), and Fatin’s happy and snuggles closer to Leah’s warmth, and Leah mumbles that they should’ve done that on the island, if she hadn’t been so dense and unaware of Fatin’s feelings

-       They get ready and join the others for breakfast, and Nora delivers good news from Ian that the FBI has a lock on their location and they’ll be there to pick them up, but they’ve been directed to go to the beach

-       So they get dressed, and they all head to the beach together, Fatin and Leah hand in hand, Toni and Shelby hand in hand, Rachel and Nora hand in hand, and they stand together along the shore, Fatin between Leah and Dot, Leah between Fatin and Rachel, and to Fatin’s surprise, the boys do the same thing, present a united front, all taking hands, and at the very end of the girls’ line, Martha reaches over and takes Henry’s hand, linking all of them together as they stand in front of the ocean

-       A boat arrives to rescue them

o   Fatin overhears Josh telling an agent that Seth is still inside, and that he’s committed crimes, while Kirin holds onto his shoulder for support

-       Fatin sits, holding Leah’s hand in her lap, on the boat, and when Ivan asks how they got here so fast, Dean Young steps out and informs them that they weren’t far off the coast of California, and Ian had some additional help, and he knows all about Seth and will have it taken care of, and Gretchen’s already in the FBI’s custody

o   Leah smiles at him, and Fatin asks what that’s about, and Leah tells her that Young helped her out before Gretchen fled the bunker

-       They say their goodbyes in California, as the priority for now is to get them home but keep them in contact with the FBI for the investigation, so everyone goes around and exchanges contact info and says goodbye

-       Leah and Fatin are sent back to the Bay, and Leah has Ian get them from the airport, and he’s surprised to see that they’re together, like holding hands, but says he’s happy Leah found someone better and more worthy of her

-       Flash forward to the school year starting, first day of school, Leah’s POV, and Leah, Fatin, and Ian are sitting on the hood of Ian’s car, Leah and Fatin holding hands, and Fatin snickers as she’s scrolling through Instagram – Fatin looks like her usual hot self again, and Leah looks good -  and they all get a laugh at Kirin’s latest lip sync post and Ivan’s comment about how green is totally Kirin’s color, and Josh’s comment about Kirin’s moves, and Fatin comments looking hot captain daddy

-       Dot texts about coming to visit for Leah’s birthday

-       Fatin’s like oh fuck and asks Leah if she can borrow a tampon, and Leah’s like I thought we already went over this, no, but you can have it, and Fatin busts out laughing for real, and Ian’s confused, and Fatin falls into Leah and kisses her, and Leah grins, and Fatin comments that Leah looks good, and Ian tells them to stop being gross and for Fatin to go take care of her problem, and Fatin’s like if you didn’t save our asses from a fucked up experiment and come through for my girl, you’d be on thin ice, but they grin at each other and shit is good idk

 Fatin’s flashbacks are all about establishing Fatin’s growing feelings and growing awareness of her feelings for Leah while Leah’s present timeline pushes plot forward and shows her growing awareness and understanding of her feelings for Fatin, though she thinks they’re unrequited

#my fic #the wilds #leah rilke #fatin jadmani #leatin

[urlocallesbiab]

(an old-ish previously unpublished meta from last september, because i still think it's good)

i think one of the most interesting things, aside from s3 seeds, that i've gotten from the show bible, is a vague understanding of how the sole showrunner, detached from his future team, thought about the show and it's characters.

firstly, mostly as a curious observation: there's less kindness. the only person consistently described as kind is todd: dirk is rude and patronizing and dismissive (which, True, but what about his friendliness or exciteability or empathy?), farah is cold, calculating, detached and anxious (which, some yes some no, but what about her deeply caring nature, her protectiveness, or the softness of her voice?), amanda is described as becoming an adversary, of all things (what she ends up doing is just a rebellion crisis; she doesn't even do any evil, she straight up helps and helps and helps!)

like, the people who came to work on that show have influenced it; have made it softer and kinder, i think.

but secondly, as a main point of this post — dirk, and his relationship to himself and his powers. i notice, both in the bible and in the script snippets, that dirk's cheerful demeanor is painted directly and deliberately as somewhat fake, and his pain and fear are presented as something more real and genuine.

from the show bible (emphasis mine):

We'll come to understand that Dirk's vocation of “Holistic Detective” is more complex than the average “Superhero Trying To Do Good.” What actually drives Dirk is a mysterious, unstable blend of altruism, guilt, boredom, ambition and wanderlust — and somewhere deep, there's a painful sense of having been born trapped into a life and an ability he doesn’t necessarily want.

from the s1ep2 script (again, emphasis mine):

Dirk assumes a listening pose.

TODD

No. I’m not.

Dirk looks actually sad. There’s something desperate about him that’s been peeking through. Something that says “if you’re not with me on this, no one is.”

DIRK

…Please?

Todd turns and starts to walk away. He walks further and further away.

DIRK (CONT’D)

You’re still wearing the shower curtain!

Todd flings it off, and kicks it. Dirk looks hurt; that curtain represents their adventure and vis a vis this, their entire friendship. It is a shower curtain rife with pathos.

DIRK (CONT’D)

Oh don’t kick it!

Todd continues away.

DIRK (CONT’D)

Todd!

Dirk’s blase manner cracks oddly. Again we see an odd, sincere, vaguely desperate young man peek through.

DIRK (CONT’D)

Hey, you think I like this?

and i don't thinks this dichotomy between "fake optimism" and "real pain" is particularly untrue to the final show itself; we do get to see more of his worries as we get closer to him, it is something that makes him deeper and more truthful — it's just that in the show, recognizing and accepting this pain is only the first step of the journey. the fear isn't quite the ultimate truth of him.

in season 2, wallowing in the fear is shown as useless and even harmful, and accepting where he is led and doing so with confidence and grace is shown as a virtue, and by the end he is rewarded with a more intimate understanding of what his blessing-curse does and why it exists.

it's just — after so much internal turmoil and conflict, he kinda goes back to where he started, "i am doing this because it's the right thing to do, and i'm great at it btw", just with a little bit more honesty and maybe sincerity? it's just kinda fun to see this as a "fake it till you make it" scenario

#dghda #dirk gently's holistic detective agency (tv 2016) #dghda meta #dirk gently #vika's personal dghda tag #vikarambles #continuation in the reblog chain

[taughtdefense]

i'll need to update ethan's bio & whatnot, but it bears mentioning on both blogs that wade & vanessa claiming that they didn't "deem it necessary" to train ethan in martial arts - despite both of them being years past TAV & SK winners - is nothing more than a smokescreen to hide ethan's genuine strength/knowledge in the sport, & to some extent, his eldritch nature.

all three of the wilsons didn't want ethan's genuine knowledge to be displayed & potentially taken advantage of by anyone, nor did ethan want to be seen as a threat, because he's tired of accidentally hurting humans who don't deserve it, & he desperately wants to learn how to STOP, because he feels like he's proving his Creators right, that he IS the monster they think he is. which is why ethan pretends to be a novice. he sells it incredibly well throughout s1-s3, like he's breathing. he doesn't try getting on the wheel - sam nor robby could match his height, anyway, so there wouldn't be that fairness. No One knows he's faking literally anything, except for my own eldritch oc's, who know him inside & out. none of them will expose his secrets, though. none of them would do that to their closest friend. this chaotic eldritch motherfucker can & will ACT his ass off when the situation calls for it. it's something he very quickly picked up from the humans he would come to live among trillions of years in the future: the art of deception. how to lie, & sell a lie well.

ethan wants to "build up" his defense in a more peaceful setting, without the pressure of ck/johnny's expectations to be the Best looming over him. it's why he joins miyagi-do over cobra kai. he wants to protect himself, the people ethan would eventually come to view as friends or lovers, & find inner peace... something johnny & certainly kreese's cobra kai didn't offer. that balance & those more peaceful teachings are missing from cobra kai, & it's not something ethan wanted to pursue for various reasons. not to mention, going straight into offensive maneuvers, & showing off his knowledge/strengths with cobra kai would have set off red flags in kreese's mind ( when he comes around ). that was something he wanted to avoid at all costs, & he did.

that pretending is the very reason why there's massive inconsistencies in his strength later on, in s4/s5 - particularly after @taughtpain / robby joins cobra kai - to his growing, almost uncontainable bloodlust in season 5 because of his near death experience at the hands of silver ( either my own npc version or @opponentcompel ), to after said bloodlust subsides with silver's arrest & ck's takedown, making him revert back to "normal".

wade & vanessa being winners of TAV/ST - & them + ethan being from that earth - is a fabrication in & of itself; ethan used of his memory manipulation ability on the entire world prior to walker!ethan creating his leo!vessel self to exist in that universe, then entered the world ck takes place in, with both of his parents in tow. he basically inserted himself & his parents into the narrative - all for reasons ethan will never explain to anyone even in his eldrtich nature reveal verse... not even to his fiancés/fiancées. that's mostly to spare them the confusion & surefire existentialism that conversation would bring.

although, what ethan told daniel upon first meeting him remains true: he doesn't want to hurt anyone, he just wants to protect himself & his friends. it's all he's ever wanted.

that's his main motivation behind every single thing he does. doesn't matter if it's good or bad, right or wrong, smart or dangerous. ex: in a fit of protective anger, singlehandedly confronting robby & the rest of cobra kai directly after he finds out that hawk's mohawk was shaved off by them. sometimes directly stepping into a fight or keeping an eye on sam during any of the miyagi-do vs. cobra kai fights. defending robby from what the valley thinks about him in aftermath of the school fight in s3. putting an arm out in front of robby & tory to push them both behind him during the miyagi-fang vs. cobra kai rumble in 5x10, then once again when silver shows up at the dojo glares at them.

it's why he directly stupidly confronted silver alone after he found out about stingray's beating, & the way robby started acting in season 4 when silver came into the fold. the No Mercy mindset of robby really fucked with his head - not to mention the betrayal ( something ethan'd never really experienced before ).

that's who ethan wilson is at his core - someone who would do ANYTHING & EVERYTHING he can in a "human" way to protect his friends & loved ones from harm, especially if they've been hurt by someone else's actions, or if he feels like they've been wronged, used or manipulated somehow.

#headcanon. ( miyagi!ethan. ) #saved. #im insane about him #dyn.: taughtpain. #dyn.: opponentcompel.

[siobhans-roy]

What did you think of the Ted Lasso finale? It was very emotional but everyone in my dash right now seems to have strong opinions about it, either good or bad, and I was wondering what your opinion since you haven't really said.

it had a lot of issues but i guess i feel mostly positive about it (and the whole season in gerenal). i think the more i rewatch nitpick it the more i'll find those loose treads, and there were definitely choices i didn't like, but overall i never felt the ethos of the show was really compromised???

my main issue with this season was time-management and pacing. back when it was still airing, during the fist half of the season, i kept feeling like they were wasting precious screentime on new, under-developed side characters, but also kept hoping it would all tie itself together in the end. there were also a lot of misleads i didn't really understand. looking back, it’s not that they were wasting time, it’s that a lot should just have been cut. the episodes were very long. i think maybe they were worried about balancing the comedy and the drama, but they excelled at that in the previous seasons in a way that didn’t seem organic in s3… but in terms of the actual main character arcs i’m not that mad, personally. i understand that, considering where s2 left things, a lot of us were expecting a more “confrontational” season (nate and ted, rebecca and rupert, jamie and his dad, even roy and keeley) with more tension filled scenes that would end up driving the narrative forward by way of friction. i’m sure that would have been satisfying in it’s own way, and yet there’s something about their refusal to be antagonist, the softness of coming into yourself and your role and your worth on your own, with just the right push…. i mean that’s the whole ethos of ted lasso right there.

like. it’s the general message of “love people for who they are and forgive them for who they aren’t”, but it’s also “i give you a job, the life part is up to you”. the entire spirit of the Lasso Way is that it’s just the initial domino that sets off the effect. there’s no guidelines, other leading with his heart and creating a support system that harnesses people’s talents. ted doesn’t drag people kicking and screaming into being a better version of themselves, but it’s just that much easier to do when you know you’ve got someone in your corner. which after two years culminates in a final season that, in my opinion, is all about finally having the confidence to shed negative self-thoughts, motivators and coping mechanisms, even if some storylines were certainly clearer and more well-executed than others: roy sheds self-doubt and petty hang-ups and manages to step into his leadership role more confidently. colin breaks free from his fear of not being accepted by his peers by coming out to them. keeley relinquishes some of her internalized shame, inferiority-complex and the stigma of her public image, being able to conciliate it with being a taken seriously as a business woman. rebecca let’s go of her hatred of rupert, jamie of his hatred of his dad, and nate of his self-hatred. and ted finally unshackles from his incapacitating fear of abandonment and of not being a good father to his son.

but, i think when it comes down to it ted himself was almost more cathalist than character for the narrative/message. he comes into these people's lives and he changes it forever, but it's not really his home, "it was never really about him". and i can understand people disliking this, finding it a bit cruel. i think i do as well, a little. but what u gonna do abt it 🤷🏻‍♀️ i'm choosing to not let it take away from the actual spirit

#i also feel like the people who are really really mad are mad about their ships #honestly valid but i don't really function like that #ted lasso #ted lasso spoilers #answered #anonymous

[homemade-ghosts]

What do you think about the obstacles Tim mentioned in the interview? Something about Gina being upper class now, that surprised me and that people who watched the documentary will have opinions on them (I assume bad? cheating allegations? I don't know I never seen a plot like that tbh) For some weird reason and I'm a very negative worrier person I'm not worry

When Tim said Gina is an “upperclass person” now, I think he just meant that she’ll be a junior (in high school, typically, freshman & sophomores are considered lowerclassmen + juniors & seniors are upperclassmen) not in the socioeconomic sense.

Based on that hilariously awful/inflammatory doc trailer, if I had to guess, I’d say Channing made it look like 1. Ricky’s plan was to “steal” Gina from EJ (he was tasked with the ‘jilted ex’ role, after all) & 2. Gina cheated on EJ with Ricky. We know he has Ricky looking jealous & walking out after pw sang “Love is an Open Door”, nearly the entire “What Do You Know About Love?” performance, Ricky & Gina hugging at Color War and Ricky getting pissed off at him backstage mid-show (with Gina in the background) all on camera — so, it wouldn’t be hard for him to manipulate that footage and string together a narrative that Rina, potentially, had some kind of showmance-turned-romance behind the scenes.

I could see him editing it in a way that’s open to interpretation for the audience, though. Like, within the show, there are people who watched the doc and think Ricky pursued Gina and might blame him for EJ & Gina’s breakup & there are people who don’t. &/or maybe there are people who think that Gina cheated on EJ & they blame her. & there are some people who, maybe (hopefully?) see through all the bs, ship Rina & think (rightfully so) that EJ was responsible for the pw breakup + they just weren’t right for each other. I hope I’m making at least some sense here lol — basically, viewers within the show see the doc and have differing opinions, a parallel to how fans in real life react to hsmtmts itself.

It would be funny if they had the characters reading people’s tweets about the doc and being like, “This is the worst take I’ve ever seen.” / “I never said that!” / “Did they even watch the documentary?” I can just imagine someone calling Ricky a “homewrecker” in a tweet because, after seeing the doc, they think he came to camp to “get Gina back.” & him reading it like, “What?? C’mon, that’s not even remotely what happened!” & Carlos responding with something like, “That doesn’t even make sense. We all know EJ wrecked that home all by himself.” All of which would be a direct nod to how pws/rinis consistently invent non-existent plot points & misunderstand/misinterpret the show in real life.

We’re getting the OG HSM cast, playing a version of themselves playing their HSM characters in an HSM 4 movie that’s being filmed at East High, which the kids will all be featured extras in — all while they put on a production of HSM 3: Senior Year. Tim & Co. are clearly not afraid to go full meta, so they might as well take it one step further and include a representation of the actual show’s fanbase reacting to the doc the way some people react to hsmtmts irl. I’m not going to pretend I wouldn’t be laughing my ass off watching these characters put #them on blast for getting the show so completely & utterly wrong. 

(Side note: did reading all that hurt your head? Because it hurt mine. There’s a lot of layers to the meta aspect of s4, I’m just hoping I explained them somewhat coherently.)

I know a lot of people wanted Ricky & Gina to be secretly dating in s4, even before s3 aired, and I think there’s a possibility we might get that. If the documentary becomes as huge as they’re setting it up to be, and part of the audience thinks Gina cheated on EJ &/or that Ricky “went after” Gina, then maybe neither of them wants to be seen dating in public because they know that, if someone caught them, it could potentially be used against them to confirm the “cheating” storyline/rumors. The upside of that, for us at least, is that it could lead to some cute private dates that Ricky plans at his apartment because they can’t go out.

& maybe school is the one place they can be a couple in public, post-doc release (no press allowed on school grounds) but then surprise! HSM 4 starts filming at East High soon, which means there will be cameras everywhere and they’ll have to navigate that. Do they keep trying to hide their relationship? Or do they just say “screw it, who cares what people that we don’t even know think about us.” (Hint: if they go this route, it’ll be the second one.)

I’m not sure that I particularly love this idea, but I can’t deny it could be entertaining to watch and it sets Rina up with an immediate obstacle in their relationship that’s relatively easy to overcome.

Apart from anything doc-related, I’m sure there will be some discussions about their future. Ricky’s graduating this year and Gina will still have one more year of high school left after that — but I feel like s4 will pick up close to where s3 left off, so they’ll still have nearly an entire school year to figure all of that stuff out. 

Tim has been building Rina for three seasons and he talks about writing for them with so much excitement, that there’s “a world of opportunity for them to explore.” So I’m not worried either, anon. I think whatever conflict that’s presented to them will, in the end, just serve to prove how well they work as a couple.

#ricky x gina #rina #hsmtmts #hsmtmts s3 #hsm s4 speculation #asks #anon

[spacedlexi]

I am madly in love with your artstyle and its been a big big inspiration for me as of late. Also, what are your thoughts on Jane and Bonnie? Do you like them or not

AAA thank you so much thats so flattering to hear 🥺💕!!

my feelings on jane and bonnie are nuanced just like my opinion on many of twdg characters. but i love twdg for all its messy fucked up characters :) its fun :) so while i dont hate either of them they definitely still do things that piss me off

in janes case, i think her mentorship/sisterhood with clem came more from her guilt about her sister than actually wanting to have this 11 year old around. so while she would teach clem important survival skills, she was also always quick to leave or act selfishly (clems "i thought you believed in me 🥺" always makes me sad). and this is just solidified by her actions in her S3 flashbacks. i do think she TRIES to work with the group, but she just gets in her own way and is never able to fully integrate, especially since the S2 cast is a fucked up mess in and of itself so its understandable. her actions at the end of S2 are born of pure selfishness, leaving a newborn infant in a random freezing vehicle so she could "show clem what kenny was really like" when clem is WELL AWARE of the thread this madman is hanging on to (having already faced the brunt of his frustrations MULTIPLE times at this point, and is desperate not to lose anyone else). she wanted a fight and she got one. i think maybe she told herself it was about saving clem, but honestly i dont think that was really ever her goal. again i just think a lot of her motivation comes out of the guilt of leaving her sister behind, so she saw clem as a second chance to make things right. but depending on clems actions, she can end up on her own without either of them, and jane can be the sister left behind to die. its interesting to see clem kinda pick up janes personality in the first half of S3 now that shes also at a point where she has no one and trusts no one, and is deep down lonely and longing for community. the difference is clem is not selfish (while still caring about self preservation), and actually likes being able to help people when she can. shes more so just afraid of caring for people again to protect herself from what she sees is the inevitable pain of losing them, as opposed to janes "theyre all just gonna bring you down so you should be on your own instead" outlook. but i definitely saw jane (and luke) as a bigger mentor/big sister(/brother) figure to clem than kenny was to her. jane actually taught her how to take care of herself. kenny was just someone from her past she didnt want to let go of

in bonnies case, she can be really horrible to clem if she listened to luke and stayed back instead of trying to grab him, so i'll literally try to save luke just so i dont have to hear it 😭 but also i like the convo her and clem have on the steps if you tried to save him. its an important character moment for clem, being asked what SHE wants instead of what the people around her want, and that she should start thinking about that, which is formative to the decision she makes (or fails to make) at the rest stop. the way bonnie is initially dismissive of carvers behavior i think is supposed to mirror the way clem can be dismissive of kennys behavior after leaving howes. will they come to see the man they once respected is becoming someone unstable? (i used to be in the "kenny might be going crazy but he'd never hurt clem" camp UNTIL i picked the "lee shouldnt have tried to save me 😔" option in the car and kenny threatened to smack her for it AFTER giving it a moment of hesitation so he KNEW what he was saying there. my jaw was dropped. but kenny is just another interesting flawed character in a game of interesting flawed characters (although they Heavily backtracked on the kenny/carver parallels in the S3 flashbacks. you can make the argument hes happier now but idk he cant come back from the threat for me he MEANT that)). bonnie leaving with mike is fucked but understandable, and she can show real concern after clem gets shot before getting chased off by kenny. i hope her and mike are still out there somewhere i dont hate either of them, even tho it was horrible of them to steal ALL of their supplies when they knew they were leaving TWO children behind. like cmon. but overall i liked bonnie :) shes a bit of a mess but i like her for it

in the end i am a twdg woman character forgiver :) i do love all the fucked up ladies its refreshing let them do dumb shit and make mistakes!!! i love mess :)

#replies with lexi #plamglam #twdg #all the misogynists in this fandom GET BACK these female characters are refreshing for being so fucked up #if your fucked up fave men are “understandable” you can understand the fucked up women too 😐

[divinekangaroo]

I’m loving your new fic w the pov being from the Doctor’s— to see Tommy’s life from the outside. You mentioned darling Lizzie quite often, and to see her and Ada in parallel pushing Tommy to therapy or whatnot because they are the only two with hope left in him :

“‘My sister,’ Shelby said. ‘And my wife. They encouraged it. I never told them much. The people who love us have a habit of laying on labels that are unwanted and often not true.’”

Him acknowledging Lizzie’s love for him (and Ada’s) i would imagine is a big turning point— however then he mentions that his wife needs to have clothes and jewels worth twice as much as the ones the women wear who step into his foyer. Which makes me think of her more as property, arm candy. But then I see this;

“…and beneath that dress she wore her old boots, like a Cossack on the run.’”

And i think of lizzie and her humble roots and i love her lol. And i think that grounds her to a post with tommy as well.

“I sometimes fuck my wife. I once fucked other women, but I don't fuck other women no more.”

The instance of him saying “no more” twice in the fic is so important to his character.. i feel like he tries to be so posh to a point and this is so not. But on the quote itself, what do you believe was his reasoning behind this, and when did he stop fucking other women? Does he know make love to his wife in his head, or is lizzie to fed up with him to even want to fuck? Or is she in this last stage of trying so hard to “fix” their relationship that it might even feel like making love to him?

Thank you for your feedback! I'm so glad all the little details are being enjoyed and love hearing how they're interpreted.

The language structure Tommy uses in the show absolutely fascinates me as to what it means to his state of mind. I don't know if it's the scriptwriters or CM's layer, but the switching from Tommy's almost-proper English into deep working class grammatical structures, and then whatever the hell was going on in S6 which was almost archaic -- I try so hard to embed that into the writing. The "no more" was from his final conversation in Michael in S6 and it's stuck with me. I use it with very specific intent. So am very pleased this comes across.

Onto the question when did he stop fucking other women?

My rambling headcanon mixed with aspects of canon:

He stopped hiring prostitutes in S4, after his Christmas Eve fail!prostitute (he didn't even take his reading glasses off; he looked at that woman partially naked and shook his head and paid her to leave, and she was all, dude I might even do you for free Xmas special, and he nearly had a traumatic flashback to Lizzie and sent her off and went back to his book).

During the rest of S4 getting prostitutes was noted as difficult (needed vetting to avoid an italian assassin) so I imagine he didn't bother. But meanwhile, he was reaching out (Jessie, Lizzie, May) for some kind of meaningful connection.

End of S4, all the deferred trauma of Grace's death that he couldn't acknowledge because he had to get through S3 and then S4, catches up to him. And this is crushingly compounded by how he never dealt with the war trauma in the first place. And his brother's death. So now he has combined childhood, war, brother and wife trauma.

Post S4 and before S5 is about 4 years after marrying Lizzie. Here I imagine monogomy by default - he was too busy with trauma repression and learning how to be an MP and drinking and opium addiction and actually having a wife ready and available to seek out other women. But also, opium kills libido (desire) and erections (actual physical capability), so even with a wife ready and available they probably had mostly crappy sex. It would have started ok, warm and desperate, as I do think marrying Lizzie was him partly using her to try to address the trauma, and declined over time as his addictions and unstable behaviour increased. Imagine, Tommy swinging between a week of crazy all-night drunken marathons and then weeks where he initiates nothing because he can't even get hard, and Lizzie's quietly burning up next to him, assuming he must be spending it on other women because all that lust doesn't just...go away, right?

I also think he never thinks 'i am monogamous now because I'm married' because 1) he feels he has the right to be non-monogamous and 2) he's confident he'll break monogamy at some point, as his father did, as Arthur did, as John does without care. But, he sort of doesn't want to, because it's just another 'fated to bad things' / 'fated to be bad' sensibility; he won't think 'I am monogamous' because it'll hurt him when he breaks yet another promise, but he behaves monogamously because it's no extra skin off his back to do so, if that makes any sense?

S5 starts, and there he is, monogamous by default or laziness for four years after marriage, while his relationship with Lizzie is deteriorating for other reasons to the point of divorce. He then reconnects with Jessie; he looked like he was trying to work himself up to having sex and got so plastered, similar to how drunk he was with Tatiana. Then he self-sabotaged any sex: deliberately offending Jessie in so many ways, ending with his (hilarious) lurching/looming across the table proposition, and she leaves in disgust. And he went back home to Lizzie and they had that super interesting 'here are my conditions where I will accept your infidelity' / 'i own you but will also let you into my head (give you intimacy) sometimes' scene. I picture him telling Lizzie in anger he was going out that night to fuck Jessie, and when he came home early, Lizzie realised he didn't, therefore offered herself/her conditions for her staying with him.

Then there is S6 which has the S5 trauma load added on: Polly's death, his fear of fascist war, and his failure with Mosley. The failure with Mosley is also a sexualised kind of thing (literally in my AU, but canonically) with how Mosley has attacked Tommy's wife, Tommy's symbols of power and Tommy's territories, making Tommy feel impotent. So it looks like Tommy's honoured his deal to 'let Lizzie in sometimes' because he has a much more intimate relationship with Lizzie in S6, but it's still broken, this broken-carer relationship. He is pouring so much energy into restraining his impulses and addictions, I cannot imagine a very good sex life. Immediately post his detox, I imagine he goes through a period of feeling like he's got to do better, and being better/more intimate with Lizzie is part of this, but I imagine across four years it declines downwards until we reach that point in the season where Lizzie feels like having sex is a box he's ticking off on a list.

During those S6 years, I shift into the headcanon which is: he has Lizzie's conditions where infidelity is acceptable, and yet still doesn't indulge because he's tired from too much self restraint, because maybe abiding by Lizzie's conditions might not hurt her but breaking his marriage vows (behaving like this father) would hurt him, and so. I frequently have him think about fucking other women, including 'fuck this, I'm going to a hotel and getting that escort', because he also has that mentality that it's his absolute right to do that, but just not doing it and not thinking too hard about why he's not.

He does have the prostitute he has sex with in America in S6, but I'm contemplating MAYBE writing what I think happens there, so will pause that thought. It's definitely weighted by what I think was at least four months of a trade mission. So maybe once or twice in America. (In my fic, he's yet to leave for America so he can say he's not fucked other women.)

So, it's always fucking in his head, not making love, but I don't feel like this is derogatory or bad for Lizzie, because in my head she also thinks of it as fucking. I don't think either of them with their pasts put any weight in 'making love'. But I think over time there is an ease to it between them, and sometimes sex is very comforting or very intense, in a way that having someone long term can be; an ability to be more intimate and exposed, to do things like talk about sex (liked that, didn't like that).

I think I remember writing Lizzie thinking most of their sex was like having a mutual wank except with bodies, and that to me is their main married couple mode. Which, alas, is not super interesting to write, which is why I'll write the all-night marathon instead...

[viscountessevie]

how you seen alergy wedding and lack of kathony ☠️☠️

Oh how I've missed asks but also need to reply to everyone from way back then. But baby steps we'll do this one tonight and I'll take on the old ones tomorrow!

Hi anon, thanks for the ask! Yeah so I was unwittingly following S3's production for a bit (thanks Twitter moots posting all over my TL). Honestly after a while, it just made me angry because my bar in hell about barely any Kathony in it and Allergy getting everything was turning out to be right. So I stopped paying attention for my sanity.

However, from a film graduate perspective and as someone who was trained as a producer, I will say it's VERY interesting for me to watch this car crash of a season production. Especially with them reshooting from the start - I may be wrong but this is the second time I've seen many scenes being filmed AGAIN when they were initially filmed months ago.

Sorry Anon I kind of got off track about how S3 is a money pit now and how there might not be an S4! Under the cut:

Anyways reshooting costs money, I mean we all can draw this conclusion. However with Bton's scale, each day is costing them AT LEAST an amount in the HIGH Thousands. So at this point, S3 is a money pit. It has definitely gone over budget and I will not be surprised if this eats into their S4 budget. Due to this, Netflix could potentially rescind S4's renewal.

The viewing numbers will be worse by the time the show rolls out. This is genuine biasness aside, numbers WILL drop because of Netflix's new password sharing rules. There will NO longer be the 80 million viewers/accounts by the time S3 comes out. Everyone is cancelling their accounts left and right. So the official numbers will dwindle and won't be up to the Bridgerton Standard - which is still more views than the usual shows but it may not be good enough for the Netflix executives.

Honestly after how Bton's production has shown itself to be completely unprofessional, it needs to die.

From the way they've treated their stars of colour (and it's telling how multiple cast members keep leaving), trash talking their characters of colour (see: The EPs like Tom Verica, Betsy Beers, Shonda talking about Kate and even Marina's writing) to showing blatant favouritism towards white leads while still championing itself as a "diverse ensemble show". And of course not to mention day drinking on set with heavy equipment (I have more to say on this but it's neither here nor there but feel free to ask in a follow up!)

If S4 is Philoise rumours are true, I do hope Netflix yanks back it's renewal. To be completely honest: no one else, other than the small group of yt fans, want to see two back to back white couples. The fact is most of the GA and a large portion of the fans within the fandom are people of colour who tuned in to see the diverse casting and characters of colour. The show was built on the promise of diversity. To have them negate on it now, is just very disappointing and not what a big portion of us signed up for.

Now with so many more other diversity shows (I'm BEGGING yall to go watch Mr. Malcolm's List, Sandition and these two recced by Michaela @minim236 : Tom Jones and The Confessions of Frannie Langton), people are obviously going to gravitate to these shows. Ones that are made with heart with good storytelling, treat their stars and characters with respect and are just fun to watch!

I am getting off the Bridgerton train and definitely won't be watching S3 (maybe a Kathony cut online).

I will say, if yall can let Kathony go slowly like I did, jump ship and explore other shows/books similar to Kathony because this show will continue punishing us for liking them. They do not care about what the viewers want at all which is a shame, because these are the people they are ultimately profiting off.

After expanding my HR book tastes and finding new shows like the ones listed above, I've found there is so so much out there. Feel free to hit me up for recs (I will warn you it's limited variety rn) and also you can scroll through @hptriviachamp and @mermaidsirennikita's blogs for HR recs as well shoot them, @jeanvanjer and Michaela (linked above) asks!

#Bridgerton #Bridgerton Production #The Viscountess Answers

[explosionshark]

So Bad Girls, real good, gets even better with Consequences (also cool more drowning in Consequences with Faith drowning Buffy this time), with Buffy's reaction to the coverrup and Faith spiralling and she really comes into her own as a mirror for both Angel and Buffy around about now, I love Angel as her murder sponsor I wish it lasted longer. I also love that the whole Slayers murder people sometimes it happens Watcher'sll generally just move past it. It's just great fallout and great mess. Her dynamic with the Mayor also great, perfect mixture of affection and veiled threat from him and her just wanting someone to tell her she's doing a great job, and it's also a good mirror for the Buffy Angel dynamic in parts I have written down for Choices a quote from the Mayor talking about Angel and Buffy "Keeping a blossoming young girl from the life she should have," which is also gonna happen to Faith since I know she's gonna end up in jail at some point as a result of siding with the mayor. Also like the gradual building her up to be his Dragon with him not sending her to kill Willow in Doppelgangland, her killing the demon who had the books in Enemies (sidenote I have written down great outfit for Faith this episode, and I just checked what she was wearing and yes that was a correct note(Double sidenote: I also did not see that the Angelus turn was a fake coming either)) but clearly not handling the blood on her hands well reminding her of the deputy mayor to casually killing with the bow and then chopping off the guy's hand in Choices and then even more casually killing that Geologist with a knife in Gradutation Day, its a good step by step it wasn't like immediate.

The big sewer break up in The Prom was worth all the mini break ups, I guess, Sarah Michelle Gellar is just so good at that crying she does and that line and delivery she gives in the scene with Willow afterwards "I think horrible is still coming. Right now is worse. Right now I'm just trying to keep from dying," was sooo good. Also I knew the Class Protector moment was coming but it was still nice to see.

Anyway I watched Graduation Day part 1 last night and I gotta say they did a great job this series with keeping Faith looking strong for the big fight with Buffy, they've thrown down a few times but gone out of their way to make sure there's not been a clean proper ending to one of them yet, unlike last series with Angelus who IIRC got slapped down pretty conclusively the episode he lost his soul and survived entirely on the merit of Buffy not wanting to kill him (which is a fair dynamic don't get me wrong and Angelus got a lot of good psychological play), and that combined with the dynamic of Buffy going hard for the kill in this fight and Faith loving it along with the actual fight itself, it's definitely my favourite of the show thus far, and then falling off the roof onto the truck just to spite Buffy so she's killed her nothing great stuff.

Also wasn't expecting Anya to become a regular, she's fun I like her, but also shout out to Willow for being the only core cast member capable of a relationship not with a demon vastly older than them or worse Wesley.

Also also since I watched Graduation Day Part 1, gonna watch Part 2 tonight and then I gotta figure out what the rotation I'm gonna go with for Angel I assume there's gonna be some crossover even though I don't remember anything that seemed particularly weird from back when I watched it all that time ago, though I do wonder if they cover the whole the sun got turned off for a few weeks, Satan himself walks the Earth and Angel lost his soul again, guess that's a job for Faith in jail to solo she's got it.

Really enjoyed the first have of Series 3 but I really really enjoy the second half

okay sorry this took forever to reply to! i'm just bad at answering asks sometimes!

anyway as always, love hear your thoughts, and very glad you enjoyed s3. i don't think the high school years of buffy are better than what comes after (some of my favorite episodes come in the later seasons!) but I do think 1 - 3 are really special in the way they're very tightly woven together. season 3 is about season 2 which is about season 1. there's still continuity and reverberating themes in the later seasons, but nothing AS direct and i honestly love the 1:1 moments.

now that you're caught up through s3 i'll leave you a few of my favorite fics to read:

moonshot by aliceinwonderbra - this is a two-shot canon-divergence AU starting at hearshot that focuses on what could have been different if faith had been present. if buffy had insight into faith's fractured mindset, could that change things? first chapter is the episode re-write and has some incredibly good character study. second chapter is the timeskip happy ending, very cute. and very smutty.

coexist by coraniaid - total s3 AU. canon divergence from season 2, beginning with the question of "what would have changed if angelus had killed giles instead of jenny calendar?" the answer is: A LOT. LIKE. SO MUCH. but also not everything. beautiful, intricately latticed stuff here, dude. major s3 events are changed, subverted or replaced in ways that are gonna have you like :0

to hold off the lightning by cinnamonfiglatte - canon divergence starting after finch is killed. this story explores what would have happened if buffy and co actually HAD been able to get through to faith and pull her out of her spiral. faith's arc is so richly and powerfully written that her lack of full-blown villain arc does nothing to lessen the depth of her journey and complexity. it fuckin owns. amazing slow burn romance here and the characterization is incredible.

#replies #Anonymous #fic recs

[multimetaverse]

HSMTMTS 3x01 Review

Happy Campers was a very strong start to S3, which managed to resurrect some of the charm of S1. Let’s dig in!

Having S3 take place at Camp Shallow Lake was just the change of pace the series needed. The outdoor scenes and bright natural light are a huge step up from the often poorly lit indoor sets of S2

Camp Shallow Lake almost feels like a character itself. There’s a clear sense of history to it which also shines through in the camper’s friendships and traditions

Portwell was great tonight, really sweet and an improvement on their lacklustre ending in S2. Of course, it’s not gonna last as the show drops any pretense of subtlety and telegraphs that Ricky will come between them

They clearly weren’t planning to effectively write Lily off so soon but the actress landed a lead role in a CW show so it couldn’t be helped

Tim’s ruthless purge of the cast would make Joseph Stalin proud. All of the new characters introduced in S2 were disposed off, most of them off screen. And Big Red, Seb, Mazzara, and Miss Jenn have been downgraded to recurring. It reminds me of Ryan Murphy basically scrapping S4 and S5 of Glee and starting S6 afresh

In an interview Tim elaborated that with so many characters and only 8 eps they just couldn’t fit everyone which led to what he described as some difficult conversations. The flip side of that is that he’s introducing a bunch of new characters so the cast doesn’t actually shrink at all

Interestingly, he described his Disney executives as asking which new characters he’s gonna introduce that will draw in new viewers. That obsession with growing the audience is why Netflix is so famous for cancelling shows after 2 seasons, they found that most shows stopped bringing in new viewers by that point. I suspect it’s much the same with Disney + shows. There’s probably not many people who are just now stumbling upon HSMTMTS and deciding to watch and their focus would probably be better served on making sure they don’t lose any of their audience

Also the idea that new characters will draw in viewers seems flimsy. Unless they’re played by well known actors there’s little reason to think that an audience will tune in for a character until after they get to know them. Maddox and Jet and the other newbies seem fun but should we be getting attached to them? Are we ever gonna see them again after S3? Which ties into the big question looming over the entire season, how much of these new characters and settings and plots will end up mattering when the show moves back to East High for S4?

Nini going off to be Olivia Rodrigo isn’t that entertaining but it is what it is. Suprisngly last night Liv actually attended the S3 premiere and posted about it which is the most promo she’s done for the show in a very long time. And even more shockingly she actually took photos with Joshua Bassett and they seemed to be getting along. Wonders never cease

The songs were fun but Finally Free had way too much autotune

This Corbin Bleu stuff is so damn meta. It was hilarious that they made it seem like he was about to be whisked away on a helicopter

In late breaking news, we learned EJ’s full name from the D23 website. His real name is Eric James Caswell. He’d probably have a bit of a WASPier name or at least a biblically inspired name given that he’s from a family of rich white people born and raised in Utah. But I think they took the right route and didn’t try to make a big deal of the name. It never seemed to be any kind of secret in universe and dragging it out would just make the eventual reveal anti-climatic. Or worse they could have tried to surprise the audience or go a comedic route and give him a ridiculously embarrassing name even though that would be highly implausible and would end up making EJ seem more like a cartoon then a three dimensional character

Until next week, wildcats

#HSMTMTS #Gina Porter #Ricky Bowen #EJ Caswell #Portwell #Rina #HSMTMTS Reviews