#years later and as i rewatch i keep getting upset about things

[kuekyuuq]

Supercorp - Rehashing the Fallout once more

Today's menu: Kara Danvers' Double-Standards.

I am rewatching Supergirl, and it occurred to me why I am with Lena on the "you lied to me" point. (Not the brain-wash the planet or taking a year to get over herself and realize her own - horrible - mistakes parts, though.) Not because of the lie itself or its content, but its context with Kara's very own history!

Let's take a walk...

In the pilot Kara gets mad at Alex for her having kept her double-life as a DEO agent secret from her.

Kara is utterly disappointed and distraught at the secrets her parents kept from her (Medusa, Myriad), some of which affected her directly (Krypton's impending destruction).

Kara finds out that James is Guardian before he told her and she was pretty upset, explains it's because they are humans throwing themselves into danger.

When J'onn explains to Kara how bonded Martians share their minds, Kara expresses how she thinks the “no secrets, no lies” sounds “beautiful”.

Kara ends their relationship with Mon-El over him lying about his true identity (and him being the Prince of a cruel society), ignoring him when he said he tried several times to tell her. When Mon-El let himself into Kara's apartment to apologize, he BEGS for forgiveness

but Kara says she deserved better than being lied to… Yes, she secretly forgave him at this point but still breaks up with him (Rhea told her to do so) and cries over it.

Music Meister teaches Kara (and Barry): “Love is about letting yourself be saved, it's not just about saving other people.”

Trust.

Lillian tells Kara, she doesn't need to spill SG's identity, because when Lena FINDS OUT, it'll be so much worse.

(And Lillian was SO on point!)

When Kara and Clark spar and have a heart-to-heart, Kara wonders if she can have it all, Clark assures her about the most important people make keeping the secret worth it and how letting (only) those important people in IS enough. Later, asked the same questions, Cat tells Kara that women have the guts to be vulnerable, lists her accomplishments.

Kara does not take Lena possessing some of Lex's Kryptonite nor the whole Sam/Reign-secret kept from her well. Gets even angrier when Lena creates her own Kryptonite (in her quest to fight/cure Reign …and cancer and other human ailments).

Or Mon-El hesitating to tell and keeping from Kara about his time-travelling, marriage and his actual mission…

That is up until mid-s03 and not even counting the many times how the show also taught us through Alex', J'onns and Lena's lenses that lying and pretending to be someone one is not to those important/close to oneself, is harmful to their (romantic and platonic) relationships and themselves.

Do I need to go on?

...Kara is clearly fully aware at that point that secrets (even her own) do not bode well in any type of relationships she would like to have and keep.

And, yes, I am fully aware of the "point of no return" argument, in all its validity, that at some point the lies had stacked up so much, that the hurt was inevitable, the fear of rejection more and more founded, of Kara wanting to be "just Kara" with Lena… Every season, every in-show year that passed and Kara kept her secret(s), it became impossibly harder to come clean. But, re-watching the show, it just seems so… irresponsible? And the more often Kara makes a point herself being lied to is a bad thing, even …hypocritical.

I am not saying any of the people who lied to or kept things from Kara were in the right or wrong - a totally different discussion that would require individual assessment. But, Kara, making the same point over and over again? Several times about the very topic of hidden/fake identities and double-lives… But then proceeding to keep her proclaimed best friend in the dark about herself, still?

Yeah, that bugs me. A lot.

IMO, after the whole Mon-El returned thing Kara would or should have had an epiphany about telling Lena the truth about herself… but then Reign beat her into a coma and all kinds of hell broke loose.

But… Yeah. Not even for Supercorp reasons. But internal logic.

From a story-writing perspective; you have your (main) character face a (similar but slightly different) situation a couple times before they learn their lesson. You plant the seeds (in this case: identity reveal) and then have it play out, based on what the character had learned(!) this far. And you have them deal with the worst-case-scenario backlash, if you need any for drama's sake, but it should make some level of sense… Instead they had Kara learn nothing, had her lie to Lena for another two years, and turned Lena into a spiraling madwoman. And Kara… well, now in Mon-El's shoes, could not quite understand how Lena (in Kara's former shoes, but with much more tainted personal experiences) was deeply, intimately hurt, devastated, and struggling.

Kara saw this coming - but tbh, when Lillian spoke so (unintentionally) truthful, Kara should have focused on the implied "if someone ELSE but you tells her", and when talking to Kal, realized that he didn't keep his secret FROM his most important people (Lois, James…) to protect them. Taken Cat's advice to have the guts to be vulnerable to reap Lena's long-term trust instead of settling for "for now this works, right?".

Not to mention that the whole show over and over stressed, that Kara could "have it all" without revealing herself to the world (the 100th episode even making a point that telling the world WILL put her loved ones at risk) or deciding on one half of herself, but then the show ended, and… yeah… I guess, some sort of witness protection for everyone?

No more casual strolls for "just Kara" through the park…

I adore the show, but… continuity?

It's just a bit painful to re-watch the show and watch Kara fault and shame others over and over again, only to go ahead and do the thing herself... Aware, yet oblivious. And NOBODY calls her out on it. (The one time Alex asked her and Kara was all like "I had to take the dog to the vet" is too little too late.)

Thankfully the fandom is so amazingly creative <3

#Kue out.

#supergirl #supercorp #the reveal #lena luthor #kara danvers #kara zor-el #lies #none of the pics or gifs are mine! #rant #picture heavy #long post

[ninainthetardis]

13 reasons why Teen Wolf the Movie is a big NO (Spoilers)

No Stiles

All the characters are 30+ but still acting/talking like they were teens. And I thought Eli was the one supposed to keep the "teen" element alive!

They brought back a character who'd been dead for like 18 years at that point in the story, and unnecessarily killed one of the best characters in the show (a character that had already suffered enough and was finally in a good place and had reasons to live for)

Almost all the couples broke up, but why? I mean, how did Malia and Parrish even happened? Just because they were the only ones who stayed in BH? And Melissa and Chris? They were adults, they could have worked! I get the kids, it would not be realistic if all the couples were still together 15 years later, but at least they could have told us HOW and WHY they broke up!!!

No Isaac, no Theo, no Ethan, no Braeden (soo, who's Eli's mom if we left Derek with her and he's clearly not her son?), but mostly NO STILES

Lame plot tbh (the revenge thing was awful and how is that teacher even alive? And I mean, I rewatched the show a year ago and I didn't even remember him). Also, what happened with the hunters after the series finale?

The Nogitsune was the best villain of the show, they ruined that too (but it was a long shot from the very beginning, as in s03 Dylan O'brien did a marvellous job with that character it was nearly impossible to live up to the expectations). Even its schemes were dull, in s03 the Nogitsune was bloody brilliant

Where did the chemistry this cast used to share go?

Shouldn't Allison be the same age as she was when she died? Therefore she shouldn't be with Scott at all? She literally regenerated herself wtf this makes no seeensee, also she was with Isaac when that happened, it was already bad that in her final moments she was thinking only about Scott, but now it's like Isaac never even existed, she didn't even mention him!

They took back the stydia endgame. THE AUDACITY

Liam and Mason didn't even meet wtf

Why did Scott suddenly go full Enchantix in that scene, what was that?

Kira's substitute just being put there and robbing us of the Thiam dream (assuming that he's in a relationship with her, I mean, they only hinted at that)

I know I passed the 13 reasons, but the CGI was so awful that I have to mention that. The same goes for the dialogues.

And also, 6 seasons of "being a pack" and 15 years later they all live in different places and barely talk to each other. Disappointing.

I was so happy when this movie was announced. Now I feel like it was so unnecessary... I guess I never learn... I hate revivals so much. It's always like this. I'm sure I could find other stuff I didn't like about this movie, but Derek being dead is the most upsetting of them all, so I'll just end the rant here and pretend this movie never came out in the first place

#teen wolf #teen wolf the movie #stiles stilinski #lydia martin #stydia #derek hale #scott mccall #malia hale #thiam #liam dunbar #peter hale #chris argent #melissa mccall #sheriff stilinski #jordan parrish #jackson whittemore #isaac lahey

[poisonedapples]

So I’ve rewatched episode 5 of Hazbin Hotel like 10 times now, and I REALLY want to talk about Alastor in this episode since it seemed like it was an Alastor-focused episode disguised as a Charlie one.

First thing, the most popular theory is that Alastor is under contract with Lilith. Which I fully agree with. I also saw this one post about how Alastor might be under contract with someone else, but struck a deal with Lilith that she’d be able to set him free if he did some things for Lilith. Which I kinda hope is true instead because I like the complexity of that a lot more (especially since the only two people who could possibly put Alastor under contract is Lilith and Eve, and I’d love to see them both in this story). But either way, Alastor is 100% at the Hazbin Hotel under Lilith's orders.

And it was REALLY weird to see Alastor suddenly care about the hotel and about Charlie. Because he’s NEVER acted like that before, and it seemed like he was just doing it to piss Lucifer off. But why? Lucifer had no idea who Alastor was. Any beef that they had before that musical number was so one-sided it’s laughable. So here’s my theory: Alastor needs to be deemed as useful to Charlie in order to get whatever he wants from him and Lilith’s deal. And Lucifer, as the only one there that is stronger than him, was an active threat to his usefulness.

Alastor’s job in the hotel is to take care of it. He makes sure the place doesn’t fall into disrepair, and he does anything that Charlie asks him to in order to maintain it. And he ONLY does this because Charlie asks him to. You get a few hints that Alastor is only pretending to care in his conversation with Mimzy:

“You deliberately brought danger to this place. I can’t have that here.”

Look at his face when he says he “can’t have that here”. He’s kicking Mimzy out because he HAS to, not because he wants to. He’s clearly upset he has to say it in the first place, and Mimzy says later that Alastor loves taking care of her. Considering the way they interact and the way Alastor brushes off Husker’s concerns about Mimzy causing trouble, it seems like he actually does. Him and Mimzy are close, and he’s powerful, so cleaning up her messes is just a minor inconvenience for him that’s typically worth it. But here? Alastor can’t afford danger to come here. Because he has a job at the hotel, and he needs to stay on Charlie’s good side. He HAS to be useful to her, not a menace. And that means pushing away the friends he cares about.

Husk is also very well aware of this. That’s why he warned Alastor in the first place. Considering the things Husk said in this scene, wherever Alastor has been for the last 7 years, he took Husk with him. First because Husk knows that Alastor is also “on a leash”, but also just because of the way he said another thing in this scene:

“I mean, you’ve been gone a while. And it’s not like anybody knows why.”

To me, this sounds like Husk does know. Especially since it seems like Alastor uses Husk the most out of all the souls he controls, since Husk is so useful as an ex-overlord. Which is why he tries to warn Alastor about Mimzy. He knows the detail of whatever deal Alastor has, and he knows Mimzy could mess everything up. If she was just an annoyance, I doubt Husk would go out of his way to tell the boss he clearly hates to get rid of her. But if Alastor fails, then Husk is probably at risk too, as a soul under his control. So it’s in Husk’s best interest to keep Alastor afloat as much as he can (especially since Alastor is clearly not as nice to his souls as people may hope, since he left Husk shaking with just a threat. So if Alastor gets into trouble, I wouldn’t be surprised if Husk might face a consequence for “not warning him”).

So, Alastor has to be useful to Charlie. Whatever he does, he has to do his best to stay on her good side. His whole soul is probably dependent on Charlie eventually giving a report to Lilith about how helpful Alastor was. But also, Lilith probably hates Lucifer. I’ve never heard of a divorced couple that doesn’t completely hate each other, and considering Lilith literally took Charlie away from her dad, Lilith probably doesn’t want Lucifer in the picture for whatever reason. So, if Alastor NEEDS to be on Charlie’s good side with this hotel, but then it gets back to Lilith that LUCIFER of all people came back and helped more than Alastor did? He’d be fucked. Say goodbye to whatever hope Alastor had for this deal, because his soul’s getting destroyed and permanently erased with those odds.

And we know Alastor doesn’t do well with people hurting his pride. Considering his face when Carmilla insulted him, Alastor wants to be all powerful and feared by everyone. So if Lucifer came into the hotel and started doing BETTER than him in his one-day stay than Alastor had in five months? Alastor CAN’T have that.

He knows this the second he sees Lucifer. Maybe Lilith warned Alastor about him, or he knows immediately that Lucifer is a threat to his image. Either way, Alastor is immediately in defense mode. And he starts IMMEDIATELY trying to get onto Charlie’s side. Because he NEEDS Charlie to think he’s better than Lucifer, and he needs Lucifer out of there ASAP.

And thus, hence the most confusing moments in this whole episode:

He immediately starts complimenting Charlie, reminding her of how much he’s done for her. Saying he’s proud to fulfill her “bizarre requests” (while also sneakily insulting her in a way that she won’t notice).

And Charlie is desperate for someone’s approval on this project she cares so much about, so she takes the bait. She also probably has developed a soft spot for Alastor after all this time, so she’s happy she’s finally getting her love returned.

The only upper hand that Lucifer has over Charlie’s good word is the fact that he’s her dad, and Charlie is ALSO desperate to have her father back. So what’s the quickest way to not only piss Lucifer off, but remind Charlie of how much he’s done for her and keep himself on her good side?

Well first, reminding her of his constant loyalty:

“Who has been here since day one? Who’s been faithful as a nun?”

Second, saying they’re “like family” and has been more of a dad to her in these five months than Lucifer has ever been:

“You’re like the child that I wish that I had. I care for you just like a daughter I spawned.”

And third, implying that he’s more useful to her than Lucifer could ever be because he’s “the easier help”:

“It’s smart to choose the path of least resistance.”

There’s multiple other moments in this song alone where Alastor tries to up himself over Lucifer, typically by using the “found family” argument to say him and Charlie are closer and that Lucifer “is a dud”. Alastor’s been around long enough to know how to manipulate Charlie’s feelings, and he’s using that to his full advantage to make sure Lucifer doesn’t get in his way with an ally he desperately needs.

It’s all pure manipulation. Alastor may have a soft side that we see with Mimzy, but the Hazbin Hotel is just a means to an end for him. And once Lucifer and Charlie make up, we don’t really see Alastor again. Which makes me wonder how he was feeling after Lucifer was able to get Charlie a meeting with Heaven, something Alastor would never be able to do.

I honestly can’t wait to see how Alastor acts in later episodes. With the extermination coming up, and the reveal of him being under another contract, I feel like we’re going to get more snippets of Alastor’s true motivations, mixed with how Alastor acts towards the souls that HE’S in charge of. Reminding us once again that Alastor may have been human, but he’s still one fucked up dude who has well earned his place in Hell.

This is gonna be a wild next two episodes.

#bird chirps #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel spoilers #Just my thoughts but its been plaguing my brain so I had to put it somewhere #I wanna see more of Alastor being just the worst person #I wanna know what this man’s deal is so bad #Especially when it comes to his and Husk’s relationship but that’s a post in and of itself #alastor hazbin hotel

[quantumshade]

okay actually i rewatched potd the other day and. i have so many gripes with that episode. so many. but what really got me is how like. inconsequential 13's death feels, and not inconsequential in the right way.

honestly 13's regeneration feels a LOT like 10's, but missing all of the beats that made 10's work. let me explain:

(under a cut because HOLY SHIT this got long. don't let classicists write dr who meta)

both 10's and 13's regenerations are prophesied to them. ten gets the woman in planet of the dead, carmen, who says "he will knock four times." thirteen gets the Literal Incarnation Of Time telling her, "beware of the forces that mass against you. and their master."

both their regenerations happen after a short-ish period of time, at least for a time lord. 10 regenerates after only a handful of years, a decade at most, and 13 spends the majority of her life in prison for decades. that's nothing!! 11 and 12 both had centuries.

ten cheating regeneration with tentoo and then regenerating a few episodes later anyway 🤝 thirteen cheating regeneration after being forced into being the master and then back again and then dying almost immediately after anyway

they both almost make it out!! but they don't, and it's heartbreaking!

what's different between them, to me, is their reactions to their deaths. a lot of people who don't like rtd era/ten complain about the scene where he has a breakdown before saving wilf, complaining that he's being whiny or whatever, but in my mind, he has every right to be whiny and upset. regeneration is a death, as established earlier in the episode. it's hard, starting over again and again and again, becoming someone new, especially when he's only had this body for a couple of years AND he believes his next body is his last.

yknow why he's upset in that scene? because he could just walk away. he could just let wilf take the fall, let one, inconsequential old man die, and go off and have adventures forever. but it's not a choice for him. because he's the doctor, and the doctor would never, ever take the other choice. he was always going to save wilf. there's no world in which he didn't.

but he's scared of dying. he's scared of change. he's lost everyone he's ever loved in this body, often in horrible, unchangeable ways. and it's a sad story. but it's an incredibly narratively satisfying one, because it's a culmination of ten's entire arc. he lost his way, broke all his own rules, and was punished heavily for it, but in the end, he still does the right thing, because at their core, the doctor is a good person.

there's a running theme in just about pretty much all of doctor who from 1963 onwards that every single person is important and every life matters. 9 dies to save rose, but is also prepared to die permanently to save the human race. 10 dies to save wilf. 11, after centuries of running away from responsibilities and problems, settles down to protect one town on one planet, accepting he will die for good there. 12 dies to save a handful of people on a ship--"maybe not many, maybe not for long"--accepting all of this might be for nothing, but he does it because it's the right thing to do. because it's kind. the doctor does these things, lays down their lives one right after another because they are fundamentally a kind person.

13 lets people sacrifice themselves for her. multiple times. like. four different people she BARELY knows sacrifice themselves for her (i.e. the derry girls grandpa in "the timeless children" and the one pirate guy in "legend of the sea devils"). and she LETS them. i'm not saying this as a gripe against her, but rather, the writing that doesn't consider those lives important.

people sacrifice themselves for other doctors, of course, it happens all the time. to keep using ten as an example, river is one, and that prickish kid from the sontaran episodes, but he doesn't LET them. they don't give him that choice. and when he IS given that choice, to let someone "inconsequential" die in his place, he doesn't take it.

and then the way 13 does die just feels so... nothing. the master's angry at her, so he aims a large and slow moving Beam at her, and she basically stands there while it hits her. and that's it. honestly i would have been much happier with it if they said it was a product of the forced regeneration from earlier. that would have made a lot more sense. but the whole thing with the qorunx (is that what it's called??) just feels so... last minute. like they forgot that she needed to die at the end of the episode so they just shoved something in. it feels like an afterthought.

yaz's exit feels the same way. you're telling me she fought for four years in the past to get back to the doctor, and now she's just leaving because the doctor is regenerating? it feels like yaz and the doctor both had endings because the narrative said they needed endings, not because their character arcs had come to a satisfying close.

they deserved better. yaz deserved an exit that was fair to her as a character. the doctor deserved a death that mattered. and she deserved to be more upset about her death.

she gets a little bit, just a taste, of an emotional moment: "No. No. That's not right. I need more time. I want more time!", before immediately accepting her death and coming to terms with it. "And I have loved being me," she says. but me, as a viewer who cares about characterization and storytelling, asks, "have you?"

because 13 spent more time of this life IN PRISON than out of it. her life outside was never easy, either, she rarely got moments of true happiness. hell, in this regeneration, she found out her entire life was a lie!

...but she loved being her?

i think 13 should have gotten to be angry and upset that she wasn't given those moments of peace or happiness. she didn't get a lot of time being her, and the time she did get was fraught and difficult and painful. she should have gotten to be upset about not having more time for more than 0.2 seconds. she should have been allowed to be afraid of dying. or at least upset about dying.

i don't know. i don't know if this post is at all coherent but i'm just really disappointed in potd and my rewatch really cemented that. it didn't have the emotional resonance that i wish it did. it felt rushed, overstuffed, and, much like the rest of chibnall era, not well thought out.

#obligatory disclaimer that me criticizing chibnall is not me saying i think rtd or moffat are perfect #because they are most certainly not #but their writing resonates with me emotionally much more and i like examining why #doctor who #doctor who meta #power of the doctor #doctor who crit #meta

[adhd-merlin]

merlin S1 rewatch: episode 9

let’s move on to ep 1x09 because I need to get on. with my life. I already re-watched this ep months ago and I can’t be arsed to do it again so I’m going to use screencaps and perhaps the transcript to refresh my memory.

kilgharrah warning merlin that excalibur MUST NOT be wielded by anyone but arthur, and merlin handing the sword to uther literally the next morning is so funny to me. it's kind of the same thing that happens with the cup of life, when iseldir tells merlin “hey this is important so don’t lose it okay?” and five minutes later we see the cup rolling down a hill. I love consistent characterisation. please don’t give this boy anything important for safekeeping he has enough on his plate already!!

I think Arthur’s coronet looks a bit dumb but still it’s nothing compared to the horrendous Burger King crown he'll wear as king. why did uther get such a prettier crown. why couldn't arthur just wear his father's crown. so many questions

why did they name the undead knight tristan, was he supposed to be the tristan? I think he was. I think their take on tristan and isolde in S4 was so disappointing btw. anyway moving on

Merlin: Gaius have you seen that knight’s crest before? Gaius: No, I don’t think so. I didn’t see it clearly. Actually I’m not even sure I saw a knight. Perhaps it was a trick of the light or a collective hallucination

Sir Owain: I don’t need luck Arthur: oh fuck he’s going to die

Arthur’s face after Uther holds him back and someone else picks up the undead knight’s gauntlet. so much self-sacrificing acts of bravery and NONE of them done by him. wrong and upsetting

S1 Arthur I'm not sure how to tell you this so I'll just say it. your haircut looks dangerously close to a mullet

Merlin: maybe arson can fix this

Nimueh telling Uther she was his friend!!! fuck season 6 I want a Merlin prequel

he’s a precious baby. he’s shmol. only tiny

gwen doing her whole “you know I'd grant you anything merlin… I mean, not anything! haha” meanwhile merlin is too worried about keeping arthur alive to notice. GIRL HE'S BUSY

WHY. who stands like this

he holds this stupid pose the entire time morgana is talking to him. imagine begging someone not to commit suicide while they brood and look out of the window like a sullen byronic hero. I would have pushed him out of the window. drama ass bitch

this is the second nighttime encounter between uther and gaius in this episode. uther saying goodbye to gaius before going to fight in arthur’s place. toxic yaoi. is this anything

YOU KNOW NOTHING YOU STUPID CHILD. I love that Kilgharrah is a hater and a bitch. to be fair to him he spent 20 years in solitary confinement so he's earned it

gaius drugging arthur then gently helping him into his bed is hilarious. he’s so good at lying and drugging people. big fan of gaius using his evil talents for the greater good, or just to have a laugh sometimes which is equally valid

what a fine blade you have there… it would be a shame if something were to happen to it

he’s wearing silver bracelets!! plural!!

[Enter Arthur, visibly furious]

Gaius [gathering his things]: I've just remembered I've left something on the stove. I must go right now immediately

Arthur [while Gaius scurries away]: YOU HAD GAIUS DRUG ME??

arthur and uther little father and son moment was cute ngl

there are a few more scenes until the end but I don't have much to say about them except that I love gaius and merlin's relationship

Gaius: [stares loudly] Merlin: [pretends not to notice]

#a very serious commentary of ep 1x09 #rewatch1.jls #merlin's body count: still 4 #I'm sorry about the horrible wide spacing it is tumblr's fault

[trillscienceofficer]

okay so i’ve seen voyager all the way through once like a few years ago and i am currently rewatching it, plus i’ve been in the fandom sort of for like a couple of months, but like, i’m not sure i follow why b’elanna would be so extremely upset abt c7? i know there were some unresolved feelings(??) in the earlier seasons, and like sure, she might find it weird or that it doesn’t make sense, but why would she be like Super Upset and Resentful at Chakotay for it? is it something i forgot from the later seasons or am i just a bit dense LMAO 😭😭

You aren't dense and I don't think you've forgotten anything, as always when it comes to hypothetical scenarios I'm just laying out my opinion and my interpretation of each character, and it's totally fine if you see things differently.

I think there's also a misunderstanding here, in that I don't actually think B'Elanna would be 'super upset and resentful' about it, I just believe that she'd be disappointed in Chakotay's choices and wouldn't want to talk to him for a while because of this. I understand why this happened as I've made jokes about it for the most part and so I exaggerated things a bit, and that's on me. I don't think B'Elanna is the type to be resentful for petty reasons at all, and if I were to write this in a more structured narrative I would take a different approach in showing the situation.

My reasoning is mainly based on the fact that B'Elanna in canon doesn't really like Seven, and has also the kind of rapport with Chakotay where B'Elanna assumes (or hopes) he is on 'her side', but it's not always the case. I keep thinking about this dialogue between them in “Extreme Risk”:

TORRES: This whole thing is so ridiculous. I don't report a few scrapes and suddenly Janeway thinks there's something wrong with me. Typical Starfleet, huh? CHAKOTAY: You have been running holodeck programmes without safety protocols.

B'Elanna is referencing their shared history in order to make him stop questioning her decisions, but he isn't buying it. In this case Chakotay was justified in ignoring the attempt (she was injuring herself), but there are so many similar cases over the course of the show in which Chakotay explicitly does not take her side even when she's not in the wrong (like about her supposed 'anger issues' in “Juggernaut”). Additionally, Chakotay was the one who ordered B'Elanna to work with Seven when B'Elanna didn't want to way back in “Day of Honor”, completely overriding B'Elanna's authority, and I can imagine B'Elanna having sort of internalized the fact that Chakotay won't be on 'her side' whenever Seven is involved, which hurts all the more given the mentor/mentee undertones they've had ever since their Maquis days. A relationship between Seven and Chakotay would be the ultimate confirmation of her gut feelings, and while I don't think of B'Elanna as a resentful person, she does see the world as an 'us vs them' kind of deal. From her perspective, I think, it would feel like Chakotay is 'betraying' their friendship by forming a relationship with a person with whom B'Elanna's had so much difficulty getting along. She would be deeply disappointed in Chakotay for not understanding, but of course it's not like she's ever said anything to him about the way she sees their friendship.

It's obviously not a very "mature" response but honestly, I think it's very... human to have mixed feelings about a friend dating someone you can't stand (and that they know you can't stand) have had such a difficult time with in the past, and you still don't necessarily want to interact with very often (ETA: see discussion in the replies). And it's just as likely B'Elanna would never even mention that it's a problem for her unless someone prods her, although I do think she'd at least land a couple of sarcastic remarks about it, which may or may not feel like unwarranted attacks to Chakotay, hence the disagreements. But again, ymmv.

#askbox #c7 #voy #eta: i think it could spiral very easily also because i can see chakotay getting defensive about seven

[rhys-ravenfeather]

In Defense Of Kevin McCalister

WARNING: Super long, pointless rant/character analysis about a now 33-year-old movie coming up.

You have been warned.

Also, disclaimer: it has been years at this point since I've seen Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and I'm like 99% sure that Home Alone 4 is set in the Bizarro Universe, given that all the original characters are played by new actors. So I won't be counting the events from either of those movies for this post, just the first movie. Also, for that reason I'm just going to keep referring to Marv and Harry as the 'Wet Bandits' throughout this whole post, instead of going back and forth between calling them that and the Sticky Bandits.

Anyway! It's December now, and I think at this point everyone and their dog theorizing about how Kevin is a psychopath, or sociopath, or grew up to be Jigsaw (no, really, for those who don't know that IS an actual theory) because of the torture he put the Wet Bandits through is almost as much a holiday tradition as actually watching the movie.

But I finally got to rewatch the movie recently, and I have a few thoughts.

I. The McCallisters

So um, I don't know about you guys, but from what we see of the entire extended McCallister family at the beginning of the movie, they kinda seem like a lowkey toxic bunch:

Okay, maybe 'toxic' is a bit much--to their credit, there are a lot of extra people in that house, they're about to go abroad for a trip, so it's not surprising that everyone would be stressed out and tensions are running high.

But that doesn't make their behavior right.

Early on, we see the family, kids included, pushing their stress and misery onto each other, and especially onto Kevin. Granted, Kevin himself is kind of a brat at the start of the movie, but guess what?

He's still an eight-year-old kid.

He's the youngest, at least in his immediate family, and the whole night he's either ignored by the adults, insulted by his siblings and cousins, no one bothers to help him pack, and he's told he'll have to bunk with his cousin, who is a bed-wetter. That's a LOT for a kid to deal with, and with everything piling up, can you really blame him for snapping over something as simple as a cheese pizza?!?!?

So to sum up: This eight-year-old boy spends the entire night getting dumped on and looked down on by all his older family members, and in the one moment he finally dares to retaliate, it results in a mess that gets all of them even angrier at him, and he's sent to his room angry and upset, and feeling like all of them hate him.

You're really going to tell me that none of you ever had an experience like this with your families as a kid????????

Can you really blame him for wishing his family away after a night like that?!?!?

Also just a quick side note: Someone else pointed out that, well, Kevin thought he made his family disappear. So it's not really surprising that the kid would probably think he's tough enough to take on two grown adults after that.

Now, that all being said, let's talk about:

II. The Wet Bandits

Look, I'm not going to act like I didn't wince watching some of the torture Marv and Harry went through, especially Marv stepping on nails and Christmas ornaments...talk about agony of the feet (don't boo me, that's the actual trope name!)

But there's one teeny, tiny little thing I think most people tend to overlook when talking about these guys, and the hell they went through...

MARV AND HARRY ARE CRIMINALS.

We literally start the movie with Harry pretending to be a cop to get information on the McCallister's home, and their security defenses, so that he can rob the place with Marv later.

And okay, to their credit, it's not like the pair start off trying to hurt Kevin right off the bat.

Doesn't change the fact that they were still planning to rob his home, and very likely WOULD hurt him if/when they found him in the house they were planning to rob.

And yeah yeah, the McCallisters seem to live in a rich neighborhood, and seem very well-off themselves, but you can't tell me that you would see THIS outside your house:

And NOT get scared, especially if you were a small child left at home with no family to help and protect you.

Kevin doesn't go full Jigsaw on them right away--in this scene, after tricking the pair into leaving by turning the lights on, he runs and hides under the bed, like the scared child that he is.

To address another post that I've seen once--'KeViN cOuLd HaVe CaLlEd ThE pOlIcE aNy TiMe!' No. He couldn't have. The phone lines were down.

Also, the police, for most of the movie, seem uncaring at best--when his mother calls the police to get them to check on her son, they all but roll their eyes when talking to this worried, scared mother who wants to make sure her son is safe, and while a police officer DOES come to check on the kid eventually, Kevin is still too scared from seeing the burglars to answer the door. Because, again, he is a confused, scared child.

And again, the very first 'police officer' we see in this movie is revealed to be one of the very criminals trying to rob his house.

And yet, when the kid accidentally steals a toothbrush (because he was scared of his neighbor, who was in the store with him), a cop goes after him.

Oh yeah, and it's not like Kevin goes full torture technician on the Wet Bandits the SECOND time they come around either--just uses a lot of dummies, cut-outs, and strings, as well as Christmas music, to make it seem like the house is full of people.

Then the Wet Bandits find out they've been had.

And it's then, and ONLY THEN, that Kevin turns his house into a Saw trap--remember, these grown men are dangerous criminals who fully intended to rob his place, and again, it's not a stretch of the imagination to think that, even though they didn't want to hurt him originally, they wouldn't have ANY PROBLEM WHATSOEVER doing so when they came to his house again after finding out that he tricked them.

TL;DR: KEVIN WAS A LITERAL CHILD WHO WAS LEFT TO FEND FOR HIMSELF AGAINST TWO BAD PEOPLE WHO WOULD HAVE HURT HIM, OR *WORSE* IF GIVEN THE CHANCE JUST TO GET WHAT THEY WANTED, AND WAS JUST TRYING TO PROTECT HIMSELF.

#rhys-ravenfeather signing on #home alone #yeah sorry i know this is dumb but honestly? #those 'kevin is a sadistic xyz' comments/theories are getting old #also yeah i definitely give the mom credit for doing everything she could to get home to her son #i will also acknowledge that parts of this post might be a bit disjointed and there might be some things i'm missing #feel free to correct me on some things or debate me #i just had to put this out there

[after-nine-at-the-oasis]

Hey guys! Time for HSMTMTS Appreciation Week Day Three: Favorite Quote/Scene/Original Song/Performance! I honestly don't think I would be able to pick for both of those, but I'll at least talk about one of my favorite quotes (if I try to talk about anything else this will most definitely be late, because it's midnight in 8 minutes, so we'll see - or maybe I'll make another post sometime lol. Coming back here with an edit from later in the post: yeah it's past midnight lol. Ignore that - I'm sure for other people it won't be xD).

And that quote is: "And now we're all here, maybe for the last time together. For some of us this has become. . ." "Family."

LISTEN OKAY!!!

XD Yeah, maybe a stereotypical quote, but it's always the first one I think of when I think of HSMTMTS quotes. It's just so relatable to almost any theatre kid, and I totally feel it. Especially given that this is in 1x06. At the end of the year before last, my amazing theatre teacher left. And last year, our musical was cancelled, shortly before we lost one of our members. I know that fear. During my rewatch, it hit me how much I did, when EJ said "I'm sorry no one will get to see you play Gabriella" (something like that). And that specifically relates to ANOTHER experience lol. My first real musical was High School Musical. I was cast as Sharpay, and I was so excited. COVID killed it, and after months of waiting and trying, we performed it on Zoom.

So I just feel this scene so much. They all have no clue what's going to happen, they're angry, they're upset, they don't want to lose this. And they're just barely starting to come together as a cast. But they know. They know that they're family. And it's right after this quote that they decide to do something about it.

And it brings me back to how much I love the Wildcats (guess I'm going to talk about that every post this week lol). They truly are a family, and seeing it from in Season 1 is just so special. And even though they keep going from here, and keep growing, this quote is the moment we know. The moment THEY know. That they're a family, and they're not going to give up on each other. Despite how different they all are, and despite their different opinions and emotions in that moment or all the time, they're not going to leave or give up. And I just love that, so, so much :').

I don't know if I managed to find all the words I wanted to there, but yeah lol :'). Now, since it's past midnight anyway, I will actually talk about the other options for today a bit lol.

Again, I could never truly pick a favorite of any of these lol, these are just examples of some of my favorites.

Favorite Performance: Stick to the Status Quo. Is this because of Seb? Maybe, who knows. But seriously xD, it's so good. The dancing, to AAHHH GINA'S BACK!!! AND SHE'S AMAZING!! To SEB MATTHEW-SMITH SLAYING THE HOUSE DOWN!!! It's just so good xD. And it's at the point during the show where they're all still having a good time, not switching roles and losing their minds yet lol. The amount of times me and my sister would be watching YouTube and see if in the search history and just. Look at each other. And immediately watch it again xD. It's just so epic.

And, this could be a point for or against it, it does make me feel some feelings (besides love for my babeys). Related to previously discussed crazy theatre happenings lol. It's kind of a bittersweet thing for me, just feeling a tiny bit off "I never got that". But it's worth it lol.

Favorite Scene: Honestly I genuinely don't know what to put for this lol. I want to put SOMETHING specific, even though this is probably harder to pick anything close to a favorite than any other category, but still lol. Okay, I thought of one lol. Yes, it includes a seblos moment, but shush, I can do what I want lol. Anyway! Carlos welcoming Ashlyn to the queer community :'). That entire scene lol, with EJ coming up after that and supporting Carlos, and then SEB!!! MY SEBLOS REUNION!! AND A KISS!!!! It's just such a good scene, I love it so much :'D. Like, seeing Carlos welcome Ashlyn and give her the pin :') - especially considering it like 100% definitely for sure confirmed it <33. And then seeing a bit of Carlos's insecurities, but EJ reminds us of that Wildcat love in saying that he doesn't have to do anything he doesn't want to do :'). And then Seb, showing up and being the cutest ever, and Ashlyn looking so happy that he's there, and Carlos seeing him, and just aAH!! I love them all so much <33 😭❤️❤️❤️🥰. I love all of those mini-scenes in one scene so much :') :'DD.

Favorite Original Song: Oh my gosh, I love them all xd. Okay, here are a few of my favorites (but it's a lot of them lol): In a Heartbeat, Born to Be Brave, Second Chance, and You Ain't Seen Nothin'. But honestly those are just some of the ones that get stuck in my head a lot or I listen to a lot lol.

In a Heartbeat: the perfect Seblos song. Also Ricky just. Being there. Always makes me die xDD. But seriously, it's SO CUTE, and it's a BOP (and Frankie's voice is amazing)! But seriously it's perfect for Seblos, like I said, and it's just so sweet :'). I have literal records (like in documents where I talk about it lol) of me freaking out over In a Heartbeat lol. It's perfect <33. Also, don't even talk to me about the homecoming suits sequence ❤️❤️.

Born to Be Brave: The icon of the series. I mean, clearly, since (SPOILERS) the last episode is named after it. Honestly if there's not a reprise of it I may riot /hj. But seriously, it's such a cute and empowering moment between Nini and Kourt, and of COURSE it's also empowering on Carlos's side :'D. And as someone who loves just dancing crazy however I want with my friends at dances? Yeah :'). Love <33. Anyway, it represents such big moments in multiple character arcs, and I just love it so much :')). Plus, again, it's a BOP!! And the ACOUSTIC VERSION!!! Don't even get the started on that :D.

Second Chance: THIS SONGGG!!! It makes me feel so many feelings 😭😭❤️. It's such a great summary of all four of their character arcs, and the VISUALS!!! They just kill me so much. Everyone back in their episode one outfits 😭😭💔❤️. And it back to the core four, especially knowing Nini's pretty much done :'(( ❤️. Honestly, I really want a song similar to Second Chance for everyone at the end of Season 4. I know we probably won't get it, but just- flashbacks to everyone's first outfits (honestly I'd take/love flashbacks in general 👀 but the point here is like Second Chance lol), everyone getting a part. And oh my gosh, if they all had individual lines? Like the little phrases the core four have in Second Chance? I don't know how that would even work (four overlapping in Second Chance works but everyone would be a LOT lol o.o xd), but it would be so cool. Anyway, Second Chance makes me so sad and nostalgic but it is SO GOOD!! It hurts but it hits xD. I just love it so much <33.

You Ain't Seen Nothin': This one, like I just said, just hits xDD. It's a BOP!!! And the video call format of it is really cool :D. But honestly, everyone gets their own part (as I saw pointed out in the comment section of it once lol, it fits everyone's voices, like Belle), and it's so upbeat and GOOD and just AGH!! I love it so much. It also accidentally makes me feel a bit of Feels™ (we're not worrying about that phrasing right now), because happy/"yeah let's make them most of this"/"we do amazing things and we will do amazing things" songs do that to me sometimes lol, but still. It gets stuck in my head SO MUCH!! Like the other songs I feel like are more appreciated/iconic than this one, but it just STUCK to me. I don't know why, but I don't care xDD. I love it <33. Also, it brings together everyone from the episode really well, just like the calls did throughout, but with music :D. And again, it's just so uplifting :). And also again, I love it <3 ❤️🥰🥰.

Also, special shout-out to the beginning of Here I Come for getting STUCK in my brain!! It's just. OUAGH!! Not that I don't love the entire song, but there's something about that beginning 👀. And also, again, the Wildcats loving each other gives me feelings xdd <33.

Anyway!! So those are some of my favorites of all those lol. This got pretty long, but I should expect that by now lol. I do hope y'all enjoyed seeing me freak out over a bunch of HSMTMTS scenes (and such) for 10 paragraphs though lol :). It's pretty much how I roll xD.

But yeah! I am so excited for Season 4 :DD. Just two days, people!!!

#hsmtmts #oasis's hsmtmts chatter #high school musical the musical the series #hsmtmtsnet #hsmtmtsweek23 #seblos #this is almost 45 minutes after midnight for me lol but whatever xD #we're counting it 😌 #totally not late :p xD #anyway yeah I just love all these and them all (the characters) so much <333 🥰🥰🥰❤️🥰 #😭😭😭❤️ good crying #and also crying because I'll miss them xdd #anyway :D!!! #hope y'all are enjoying all my analysis stuff for hsmtmts week lol :D #I can't create stuff quickly but I can often rant about my emotions about them :) lol #but yeah! #SO EXCITED FOR SEASON 4 :DDD #not ready xDD #but also totally ready :DD!! #lol #love you all ❤️❤️❤️ :DD!!!! #byeeee :))) 🥰🥰🥰🥰 <333!!!!

[thepeanutbutterwizard]

Hello hello hello please give me more VT I’m literally starving for it

1, Morro. I wanna know more about what his situation is. You’ve mentioned in a post before about how he takes over Kai instead of Lloyd but something is curious about

Does Kai happen to learn anything about Morro while their sharing a body? I can only imagine so.

But on the topic of things about Morro is how is his upbringing in this au? Is he still taken in by Wu? Perhaps as a newly deemed master somewhere between training with Chen and the venom fully corrupting him, he took in Morro for his first attempt at ruining the prophecy. Only hitches in his plan was A, he wasn’t as well versed in his manipulation as he is now, and B, Morro is a lot more spiteful then Kai.

This would connect Kai and Morro even more so it’s interesting. But obvi if you have a different idea I’m literally always looking for fresh crumbs of brainrot.

And does Morro get some redemption? 👀 if so then that would be freaking awesome to get some wojira duo content maan. :0 maybe Morro grew his horns and scales at some point? (Either in his time with Wu or the years in the cursed realm. Or heck maybe if he turns human again)

2. Does Cole still become a ghost? And if so, does it happen to worsen his latent codependency issues? It’s prob a traumatic situation, especially the whole “fading away” sitch.

3. Does Nyas role in Skybound change because of her independence? And maybe with her previous knowledge of tiger widows?

Sorry this is long but I’m restraining myself from dumping all of the blorbs I cooked up in my brain during my 2 hour binge of the au anyway have an awesome day/afternoon/night 👏😎

I'm glad you're enjoying this! And no worries about long asks, I love having an excuse to ramble about this au! Questions have actually been really helpful for me developing this au, so don't feel shy in asking any!

Starting with Morro, this post (hopefully the link works) goes into more detail, but the basics are:

Wu came home early from training under Chen, while Garm and Misako were working together to hide the Golden Weapons. He finds Morro and takes him in, and this actually helps stabilize him against the Venom. Bc he believes he's the Dark Lord in the Prophecy, and he suspects that Morro might be the Green Ninja, he tried to hide the Prophecy from Morro.

Morro still discovered the Prophecy, and accidentally triggered a Venom episode. Wu scared him away, and later regretting this and asking Misako and Garmadon to help him search for Morro once they're back, despite him being upset they've started dating.

Morro, who knew nothing about the Venom, believed that Wu's episode was caused bc he was so unworthy of being the Green Ninja that even asking about it was a massive insult. He then decided that if he could prove that he was worthy of being the Green Ninja by doing something like finding the FSM's Tomb, than Wu would want him to come home.

And the he died.

For the possession, there are a lot of risks involved with possession, both for the Host and the Spirit (fun fact for this au, Misako is immune to possession bc her IronDragon tattoos technically count as a possession on a very small scale and immunize her from other Spirits.). One of these risks is that if the Host and the Spirit are too similar, they can start to...merge.

Kai, at first, fights hard against Morro, so most of Morro's energy is spent keeping him under control, and almost none is being used to separate their memories. So when the two start to see what the other went through bc of Wu, they start to sympathize with each other, and realize that they’re more similar than they are different.

And after that they quickly start to blend together. Pretty soon they break away from the Preeminent's plan in favor of trying to find Wu, who at this point has escaped from jail and has completely disappeared (for now).

Morro does get redeemed, but rn the details of his redemption are up in the air until I get the chance to rewatch Possession and get all the fine tuning done.

An idea I'm playing with is having Kai and Morro being unable to separate after the Preeminent is defeated even though they both want to, and since I've rearranged a few seasons (more on that later) and DotD comes directly after Possession, have them find a way to separate during all that. Possibly by using the Yin Blade or the Rift of Return?

But that's just a possibility. Morro might still die (again) at the end of Possession and then be brought back to Ninjago by Yang where he helps the ninja and then is able to stick around. Or maybe he doesn’t die and doesn’t get stuck to/in Kai.

Regardless, Morro will join the main cast during DotD at the latest.

As for Morro's Dragon heritage, he initially looks completely human as a ghost, since he died completely human, but since Kai is not only also part dragon but also descended from the same dragon as Morro, once they're separate Morro has his own Draconic heritage on full display.

And those traits stay if he does get back to being alive. I’m 90% set on him being revived by the Rift of Return, but there’s that last 10% that kinda want’s to keep him as a ghost, but he possesses a mannequin of himself someone helped him steal from the museum purely bc I can be funny with that. But Morro is probably getting a body again.

As for Cole, he might still become a ghost, but he might not. The ghost stuff is going to go a bit different from cannon off the bat, since no one knows where FSM's staff is. Wu hid it somewhere after forging the Mega Weapon.

But if someone is going to get turned into a ghost, it'll be whoever I end up shipping with Kai.

And Skybound is waaaaaay different.

I'm shuffling some of the seasons, so after Wu and Chen it goes Possession -> Day of the Departed -> Hands of Time -> The Island -> Seabound -> Skybound -> Sons of Garmadon

I did this partially bc I didn't want to shelve the drama that will come from Ray and Maya being rescued from Krux by having then disappear for 6 seasons, partially bc I'm excited about some things I have planned for Seabound and didn't want to wait so long, and I can justify it in the narrative.

In the Seabound stuff, Nya tries to merge with the Sea like Nyad, but instead she turns full dragon (concept design here); this boosts her Elemental power to an overwhelming degree, and the transformation kinda messes with her memories.

She disappears into the Endless Sea after everything with Kalamaar (am I spelling that right?) and Wojira for a year, before the lantern memorial catches he attention (with some help from both Nyad and Wojira). Instead of the words on the lanterns helping her remember tho, several of the lanterns smell familiar.

A big part of why Nya took off was bc her power suddenly increasing as much as it did did draw her to the Endless Sea like in cannon, but once she’s had a bit of time to adjust that need to be surrounded by her Element dissipates. And once its gone she realizes something:

Something is Missing. Something Important, she can’t quite remember what, but she know she has to find it.

So she searches the Endless Sea, trying to find the thing she Lost. With a nudge from Nyad (at Wojira’s request) she finds the Lantern Memorial.

Like in cannon, the Memorial is on the one year anniversary of Nya...leaving. The Lanterns have messages written on them, but Nya can’t really understand written or spoken Ninjargon anymore. Luckily, there is something on the Lanterns she Recognizes.

Scents

Lloyd (who is about 14 and has been defaulting into his Dragon form bc of how much he misses Nya) had the idea that maybe if they can make some of the Lanterns smell strongly like them, it’ll help Nya find her way back home. He’s spent the past year insisting that Nya isn’t gone forever. She wouldn’t just leave. She wouldn’t, she’s Nya. She must be lost or stuck somewhere, but she was coming back.

So he convinces the other to help him scent a bunch of lanterns. They use things like a perfume Maya used to wear all the time before she and Ray were taken, the types of oil the Pixal and Zane each prefer, two can’s of Kai and Ray’s prefered hair styling products, Jay sacrifices one of his lucky socks he insist never be washed (I don’t think Jay canonically has lucky socks, but he strikes me as the type of guy to have a pair of unwashed lucky socks), Kai, Morro, and Lloyd (and mb Maya and Skylor) all sacrifice some loose scales (and have to be stopped from going after scales that weren’t already coming loose), Ray lint rolled enough hair from everyone’s rooms to cover two lanterns (as effective as it is disgusting), they try anything and everything they can think of to make their Lanterns reek like them.

They get some very weird looks from the other participants.

But Lloyds plan worked (something he is forever smug about) and Nya follows the scents to Ninjago City. Right in time for Nadhakhan (I don’t think that’s spelled right) to get loose.

I moved Skybound back like this bc it solved two problems I had; what to fill the space left by Jaya not being a thing in Skybound with, and how to integrate Nya coming back with the start of the Oni trilogy. The solution? Use Skybound as a buffer between Seabound and SoG.

So Nya finds her way back to her Family, her Home. She doesn’t Remember any of them or anything they went through together, but she Recognizes them as Home.

Mystake guesses that, given enough time, Nya’s memories should return. Luckily, she has a tea that should speed the process up a fair amount.

So Nya’s memories coming back and her adjusting to that and to her being back and everything that’s changed in the year she was gone fills in the time in the Sky Pirates stuff that used to be focused on the Jaya plot, and giving Nya time to adjust before getting into all of the everything that happens in the Oni Trilogy.

Ok, I think I got everything. But dont be shy if you have any more questions!

#ninjago #lego ninjago #ninjago au #venomous teachings au #ninjago morro #morro ninjago #morro wu #wu ninjago #ninjago wu #ninjago garmadon #garmadon ninjago #ninjago misako #misako ninjago #ninjago kai #kai ninjago #ninjago cole #cole ninjago

[fighterkimburgess]

Trash Pandas

Summary: When they move into the new house, Makayla and Adam have a secret that they know Kim isn’t going to be happy about. But they’re her friends, so Adam helps keep her new raccoon buddies a secret.

For Burzek Appreciation Week Day 2 - What did you do this time?

Words: 1.4k

Warnings: none

—

If questioned, Adam would swear that he didn’t know how any of this happened. He would swear on his father’s non existent grave - on Al’s all too real one - that he wasn’t sure how any of this had happened.

Because Adam Ruzek was in a grocery store at six thirty, ignoring the calls from his girlfriend while he bought forty hot dogs.

In his defence, it was one of the things that he and Makayla had bonded over since they’d moved to the house. She’d read a book about raccoons and kept drawing them, insisting they were cute. On the long summer evenings they’d talked about them and she’d insisted that she wanted to learn about them. So when they discovered that there were some living in the back yard she wanted to be friends with them.

Adam knew he should have said no, he knew he should have insisted that it was a really bad idea. But when Makayla smiled with the gap toothed grin and her brown eyes shone, what else was he supposed to do?

So he ignored Kim’s every few nights rant about “there’s trash pandas living in our yard, Adam, we need to get rid of them!”, instead going outside every couple of nights with Makayla to feed them. She’d even named each of them, insisting that they needed R names “because they live at the Ruzek house and they’re raccoons!”

His reminder that more than half of their household was Burgesses fell on deaf ears.

It took Mack a couple of days to decide the names of each of the raccoons, and some quick thinking on Adam’s part to decide there were two boys and two girls to save learning how to tell if a raccoon is a boy or a girl. There was Renee (thanks to the actress from Hamilton, Makayla’s latest musical obsession), Ramona (named after the Ramona Quimby novels that he and Kim had been reading to her), Rodney (that he thought she got from his rewatch of Only Fools and Horses on BritBox), and Robert (unfortunately named after his dad).

It was the one secret that he insisted to Mack they needed to keep from Kim. That entire conversation was complicated, punctuated by him taking photos of Rodney sitting on the porch swing beside Mack and eating his hot dog. That was the only visual reminder of the entire conversation they kept.

“I know we say that you shouldn’t keep secrets from me and your mom, but you need to keep this secret from Kim, ok? If anyone else ever asks you to keep a secret we need you to tell us, but this time only you have to keep this to yourself.”

“Why can’t I tell Kim? Won’t she want to meet them? Mom always wants to meet all of my friends.” It was said with all the innocence of a seven year old, an ecstatic grin on her face as she threw another one to Renee.

“I mean I’ve met them.” She nodded at that, Adam looking across at her. “But if Kim finds out she’ll want them to find a new place to live. So we need to be quiet about it, and you need to be careful to make sure you don’t get hurt because they’re wild animals.”

“Ok.”

And it was an easy secret to keep. Makayla giggled outside with them, washing her hands and arms carefully after each time she spent time with them to make sure she stayed clean and safe. Most of the pictures she drew were of the four raccoons. Kim thought they were because of her weekly complaints about “why do they need to live in our yard”, not because of Makayla’s love of the strange, weird creatures. He thought it was fine. That he could keep it quiet until the gaze of raccoons inevitably left their yard and moved on to somewhere with a better variety of food.

He should have known that wouldn’t happen.

Makayla had been upset when Adam arrived home, frustrated that he was home later than he was supposed to be and why wasn’t he there. As soon as she saw him she began to calm, curling up in his arms on the couch while she did. She’d been better about slight changes to routine, but it was a tough day at school and she needed the reminder that he was there for her. Once she was calm she got into pjs and came outside to have their story and unwind. Which was when everything fell apart.

Generally Kim left them alone when they were outside, but today was the exception. It was entirely his fault, he’d left the contents of the grocery bag visible and shed come outside to ask him about it.

“Adam? What did you do this time? Why are there four packets of…MAKAYLA WARD BURGESS WHY ARE YOU HUGGING A RACCOON?”

The four startled at her appearance, Ramona grabbing a final hotdog out of Makayla’s fingers before scurrying away. The three human inhabitants of the lot were left staring at each other in silence.

“Makayla, wash your hands and go to bed. Right now.” Kim’s voice was quiet and serious, Adam fully aware of just how angry his girlfriend was when she became just that quiet. To her credit Makayla went straight away, nodding at Kim and mouthing “sorry” to Adam, who gave her a small smile while they waited for her to leave. Once she was gone Kim’s full attention was turned to him, and he felt a rush of pity for the poor perps who’d had to face down his girlfriend in the box.

“What the fuck, Adam? How could you do this? It’s a health hazard, they’re incredibly dangerous, and you just let her go and play with them? And hold them? What if she ends up with rabies for them or something worse? It’s so irresponsible and stupid and—“

“Hey. Kim, I know you’re annoyed, but please don’t start acting like I’m an idiot and don’t know what I’m doing. Sit down, take a breath, and let me explain what’s happening?”

Kim sat opposite him, taking an exaggerated breath that made Adam want to laugh. Instead he kept his face straight, swallowing once before speaking.

“Makayla befriended them anyway. I came outside one evening and she was playing with them, and I knew immediately it’s’ not a good idea. But our genius, brilliant daughter has decided to name and train the raccoons who live in our back yard. They’re Renee, Ramona, Rodney, and Robert. She told me she named one after Disco Bob, how could I get mad?” Kim’s face began to soften and he went in for the kill. “She’s taught them how to wait for their food, and she’ll sit and cuddle with them. I have a really cute photo of her with them, two of them fell asleep on her. She’s never been bitten, and if she has any scratches she knows the rule is she’s not allowed to touch them. Its not safe, but we’ve mitigated the risks as much as we can. Plus, she loves spending time with them and they make her smile.”

He pulled out his phone and brought up the picture of Makayla sitting on the swing, two raccoons asleep on her legs and one in each of her arms. The smile that could light up the world was clearly visible.

“She’s really happy around them?”

“She even asked me what she needs to do in school to become a vet thanks to them. She loves them.”

It was quiet for a moment, Kim’s hand linking with his and squeezing gently, relaxing into him and laying her head against his shoulder.

“We need to make sure that she knows all of the risks, and at least one of us is there with her at all times. Deal?”

“Deal.”

The next morning when Makayla discovered that Kim was ok with her playing with the raccoons, there was no force on earth that could handle the excitement. And when they began birthday party planning that afternoon, both her parents should have realised that the theme was going to be raccoons.

Burzek Taglist: @aruzlover @haiileyshalstead @morganupstead @adamruz @fullwattpadmusictree @redpoodlern @everythingaddictxx @write4life13 @jeanjacketjesus @tuxieboy101-blog @thelittlepterophyllum @planecrazylex @sophiatellerrhodes @ossypooh @kimburgess-ruzek @thestarrynightslover @reidskitty13 @etamne @torreshalstead @itsnotpersonalbut @kellykidd @dedlund82 @pinkwhitebrown @mmacke3613 @upsteadlovingheart @ittybitty-tittycommittee @takemetooneverlanddd @oracle23 @thedefinitionofendgame @headlightsatmidnight @butterflylies @afriendlyneighborhoodhufflepuff @withakindheartx @bebataylor84 @whoiamwhoistrivetobe @multicouple-lover @keenmarvellover @daniellexoc3

#burzek #burzekaw22 #Chicago pd #kim burgess #adam ruzek #kim x adam #adam x kim #kim burgess x adam ruzek #adam ruzek x kim burgess #makayla ward burgess

[darlenicy]

Winx Rewatch: 1x12

a.k a. leni watches Winx

okay, okay but before we start: I’m gonna mention how the episode might be seen as problematic in the following. However, I don’t think that rainbow had any bad intentions scripting this episode. It’s a filler episode that shows us how mean the Trix are. Point. That’s it. It’s not intended to harm anyone. But I will come to this later.

Bloom: The nine nymphs are sculpted on the facade. The middle nymph is Daphne.

➡ And I will say it again. You don’t get sculpted in the facade of a temple, if you’re only 16 years dead. It has to be longer ago ago.

Not Paladium sounding as he didn’t fkn care if Stella was ill ir something after Bloom said, Stella had been to the infirmary this morning. 😆

Icy: You remember Lucy? She asked me if we could help her win the beauty contest.  😈

➡ Darcy:  She’s got bats in the belfry   😆

➡ Stormy: She doesn’t need us to win. She needs a MIRACLE.

➡ That’s just one of the best disses of the Trix everrrrr I can’t.

➡ And now before you stone me: 

Yes, I can see why people find this episode problematic. After the waves of body-positivity etc. I can see why. However, this episode has to show us how mean the Trix are. They use Lucy simply for entertaining themselves. They are mean. Yes, and this episode has to show that to us. And I think, the way they diss Lucy is very well written. And I find it mean, what they do. But after all, being mean is their job. I am not a fan of beauty contests at all. They often deliver a wrong image of perfectionism that I don’t share. And again, that is me. Some people might find validation in it. After all, people are all different. However there is a certain beauty standard, that most people share. And one can not deny, that Lucy does not fulfill this one. The intention of her design is being ..ugly. Truth hurts sometimes but it is. If you compare Lucy to her new fake-appereance one has to admit, that most people would prefer the latter. And it IS mean, that Lucy couldn’t win the contest with her real looks. But it’s a beauty contest after all, those stupid contests are superficial af. Again, this episode doesn’t want to show us, haha lucy is ugly, it wants to show us uhhh the trix are mean bitches. The second thing, that is criticized is this scene:

There was a YouTube short recently, that showed this scene and marked it as problematic. Bloom hears a girl crying and looks what happened and than the girl here said, that her hair suddenly puffed up. Now, many people consider this as racism because of how the hair style turning into an afro is described as something bad. HOWEVER, if you search for racism, you will find it anywhere. I, as a little kid, always understood it in a different way. She wasn’t complaining about the look of hair hair but of the consistency.

When Bloom touches it, it is all wobbly. Not like a normal afro should be. So it is the texture of her hair that changed. And yes, the girl said, she had straight her before but it’s her hair getting wobbly which made her upset. I can see how especially for people with afro-like hair see this as a discrimination. And it sucks, but I think that rainbow did not want you to feel bad at all. The scene is risky, yes. It could have been scripted better, yes. But I doubt, that there was any harm intended. 

To sum this up, I don’t like the episode too much. It’s a filler episode and a bit boring too. (But it’s nice to see the trix having fun ngl). And I can see why many people don’t feel well watching it. But we should all keep in mind, that rainbow created this show for little girls. To make them happy, to make them belief in themselves and not to question their style. Winx has so much diversity in it, so that everyone can relate to the characters and I love that. I just hope, I could take the bitterniss a bit out of this episode, if you were offended by it. I just want to remind, that Winx is overall a series of great diversity and positivity that certainly doesn’t want to harm the watchers in any way. Okay, let’s continue the episode:

What makes the episode way more problematic, than it actually is, IS following:

WHAT are Faragonda and Griselda doing there? Isn’t it mostly teachers who should not support these kind of events? And btw, there isn’t much audience there, is it? Maybe Miss Magix is a super odd contest, which nearly no one under 40 is watching in the magical dimension, who knows.  😂

what would have made the episode better too, would have been if the viewer would think, that Lucy’s talent, doing ballet, at least would be real. But the sparks surrounding her suggest, that the Trix also gave her that talent. Which is a pity. It would be cool, if Lucy would excel in ballet.

Yes Bloom, of course there has to be something going on if a person dares not to be immediately nice to you. Omg Bloom, whyy. Stop being such a bratty main character.

ngl I never quite understood, how Stella thought dancing like that is a talent. but hey. It’s kinda nice that they gave her a funny talent like this and not something girly.

It’s also super mean that Stella gets an F for her test later. I mean, she DID something in the test. It wasn’t all good, but her intions were right, weren’t they? Mean of Paladium. a D or an E would have been rough enough imo.

#winx club #winx #miss magix #leni watches winx #winx rewatch #winx stella #winx bloom #winx trix #winx lucy #winx daphne

[venting402]

I rewatched Wakanda Forever and kind of annotated it 😅 I had time today yall. Grammar and sentence structure were not in mind when I typed this all in my notes app fyi

The music picks up during the scene when the queen and Shuri were sitting at the edge of the water maybe marks when Namor shows up specifically. He did say he heard when Shuri wanted to burn the world which is during that time the music first picked up before his appearance

Since Namor was in Wakanda undetected, what if he still has soldiers stationed in the waters? How did they know where to find Shuri when she went to get Riri? A conversation I had with @mrsnadeem about an au idea came to my mind that maybe they are in contact with some surface people. Like informants. What would be ulterior explanations for how they knew where to find them?!

The queen was the first to call him Namor…well well well 😭 before it was just fish man. Also later in the film they compare his differences to the talokanil to a jellyfish because he has no fins…lol the jellyfish at the beginning of the film has a new meaning now

Shuri’s insect thing she uses to get Ross is so fucking cool

No seriously: how tf did the talokanil know where to find Shuri, Okoye, and Riri?!

Mf was stabbed IN THE ABDOMEN with a wakandian spear and that makes my hc that Namora and Attuma were shits to Namor and plucked his wings as children that much more real. He healed, they grew back. Like when a kid scratches you.

Attuma could have killed Riri since Okoye didn’t have her spear and would have to get up from the ground in time to stop him but instead he chose to keep fighting…mans makes sure u come every time and he won’t let a session go without equal releases no matter how much your begging him it’s too much

“The people who took her spoke Yucatec Mayan” going back to what @chicagosfinest2021 posted a few days ago THE AI COULD HAVE TRANSLATED WHAT THEY SAID AND ESPECIALLY INFORMED THE QUEEN ABOUT HOW SHE VOLUNTEERED TO GO!!!!

Namora and Attuma probably speak English they just do not want to

THIS MAN REALLY SAID WE’LL KEEP THE SCIENTIST, LET’S GO AFTER THE MOST POWERFUL NATIONS BECAUSE THEY ARE THE ONES WHO’LL WANT TO COLONIZE AND ONLY THEN WILL SHE BE ABLE TO RETURN TO WAKANDA (she has not been there yet! 😭 he in it for fucking blood)

Shuri wants to burn the world because she’s still upset and grieving her brother, Namor wants to burn the world because his mother’s homeland was colonized and his ancestors and their descendants experienced those hardships. From that he vowed that his people would never go through any of it so he started preparing them to be warriors about 500 years in advance—which would span many generations. Ross just fucking told the U.S. government that there is another nation in the mix, one that knew about and destroyed the vibranium detector in the middle of the Atlantic who shown no sign of ever being there just so he could protect Wakanda because the gov was trying to find a reason to take their vibranium and with Riri’s abduction they finally found one. This all gives another “Ah FUCK!” element to the beach scene with Namor and the queen where he threatened to kill her if anyone found out about him and his nation

IF THE TIME COMES WHEN SHURI NEEDS TALOKAN’S HELP AND THE MOVIE FINDS A WAY TO STILL KEEP THEM HIDDEN FROM THE REST OF THE WORLD I’m sorry I’m gonna go apeshit

#I did this for another movie I just forgot which one #I actually payed attention this time #if anything was obvious to you WELL IT WAS NOT TO ME #wakanda forever #black panther wakanda forever #black panther #bpwf

[minitwin]

Dramas 2022 post

Time for the annual drama post. haha I think I massively slowed down this year because I couldn't make myself stick with dramas until the end. I think only 5 of these were in september or later? Comparing to last year it looks like K/J dramas stayed about the same but the number of chinese dramas dropped drastically. It's funny to look at 2019 where I thought 15 was slowing down and said things like "I’ve only watched 5 Korean dramas that aired this year which seems so small to me now" half way through the year. *stares at my 7 for the year*

I'm so confused about where my time went but I guess it went to traveling and work? I'm hoping that in the next couple months I can find the gems that I somehow missed this year.

Looking back on the comments that I made about what I was watching and the future, Our Beloved Summer was great and stayed good but I found them so frustrating I don't know if there's any rewatch value. Delicious Romance I loved all of them but the male leads were so crappy that I couldn't take it.

Total dramas: 24 Korean: 7 Chinese: 9 Japanese: 6

I think the dramas that are going to have made the biggest impression on me this year are Reset, Business Proposal and She and Her Perfect Husband (honorable mention to Sh**ting Stars) for a ton of different reasons.

Reset was so fun because I watched it with friends and we would pause to analyze flames and try to get ahead of where they were in the story. The cast was great everything was so well done that I've recommended it to basically anyone that has asked.

Business Proposal was almost a parody but Sejeong and Ahn Hyo Seob but their whole heart into it and it really showed. I've honestly already rewatched it twice lmao.

Finally She and Her Perfect Husband was my light shining at the end of the tunnel for cute modern Chinese dramas this year after all of the ones I could actually finish either had a smart female leads who had turned off their brains or an a**hole for a ML. When it got delayed I was so upset I didn't know what to do with myself QQ. I think the plot got too messy and the second leads were ridiculous but I love the main couple and Li Dai <3 <3

I didn't watch that many movies but of them "And so the Baton was Passed" really got me. I loved how they played with the timeline and all of her parents were so sweet. The romance part of it is pretty meh but I don't think it reduced the quality for me.

There wasn't really a Japanese drama this year that stood out to me above the rest (haven't watched Silent yet so maybe I'm just missing out) but everything I watched was really cute with a lot of heart and made my days better. Kono Hatsukoi wa Fiction desu is probably on the more garbage end plotwise but the kids are soooo cute. i've followed them all on instagram so there's no going back for me.

Time for this blog to go inactive again until next year :) (unless twitter actually dies)

List of dramas that I watched below the keep reading

Kieta Hatsukoi (J)

Tsumari Suki tte iitai n Dakedo (J)

Our Beloved Summer (K)

Kono Hatsukoi wa Fiction desu (J)

Why Women Love (C)

Reset (C)

Dine With Love (C)

Cherry Magic (J)

Business Proposal (K)

Kamisama no Ekohiiki (J)

Master of my own (C)

The Oath of Love (C)

The Sound of Magic (K)

Sh**ting stars (K)

Binary Love (C)

Night of Love With You (C)

Nice Flight (J)

Semantic Error (K)

Let’s Meet Now (C)

Once Upon a Small Town (K)

Fukou-kun wa kiss suru shikanai (J)

She and Her Perfect Husband (C)

The Fabulous (K)

Movies:

Listen to the Universe (J)

Sora Ni Sumu (J)

Living in Your Sky (J)

And so the Baton was Passed (J)

I’m Underaged but I’m not a child (J)

#dramas #dramas 2022 #kdramas #cdramas #jdramas

[sharpferrets]

drew this yesterday as a vent post, i didn't explain things on insta but i kinda wanna here bc I just feel like people on Tumblr are more understanding and open minded.

Again this is a vent, read at your discretion

So we have C-DID, pretty sure this is public knowledge, and we struggle a fuck ton with worthlessness. (We're living with abusive parents and the way our mom treats us and devalues everything we do is really really like, bad) and ig we were just having a really bad moment. Voltron's always been a big comfort show for us, and we've rewatched it recently and the whole thing with Shiro and Keith's "I'm not giving up on you" situation makes us cry constantly because like, to be honest we just wish that we had had someone like that (We had adult figures but most of them failed us or were actively really mean and awful, or turned out to be really horrible. We've also lost alot of friends once we became aware of our abuse and we just feel really left behind/like we're the sort of person that people gave up on (It's not their fault we genuinely were jerks to some (not all))) and we've been really into schoolbus graveyard recently too. And C-DID so splitting happens, so it has it's own implication there but we're sort of covert right now mentally (we call it the veil) and externally (safety reasons obvi) so I don't really want to talk about like, thaaaaat that much. But basically it was just the theme of a character that had sort of been given up on + a character that knows what it means to not give up on people offering that solidarity that he's not going to quit or call shit when it's hard and leave ig. Yeah. Just a big "Hey fuck you and everything" being acompanied by someone who gets it and isn't about to ditch because he knows that all people usually need is a person who won't give up on them.

Sidenote- this is just venting about something hyperspecific but i'm crying and upset and honestly i keep joking about it but it gets to me. I'm dyslexic and I was so convinced that my mom just never knew bc I'm autistic and 'gifted kid'ed my way through elementary. But apparently my english grades were at 70 and my spelling was below *50* and honestly the amount of sting that brings me. Because my older brother went to tutoring for years, so did my younger brother. But just knowing that it was so obvious and there was no way my parents didn't see those awful scores, yet I spent 2-3 hours, twice a week, for like 2-3 years in the *waiting room* of my *older brother's* tutoring. I honestly just feel really neglected and it's really fucking hurtful to know that. Like it really is. And I was just convinced that I got stupider later bc that's when I realized my bad spelling, but no I was just straight up *ignored* as a kid. Ignored when my brothers just weren't. Like it was always that bad. I'm just really upset.

#art #vent #vent post #vent art

[panharmonium]

old bookends!au meta that i typed up in a frenzy one night during our last rewatch and then never posted because things disappear in my drafts, but i’m cleaning them out today

under the cut because it’s really only relevant to padmerrie 🙃

“I LOANED IT TO YOU THREE YEARS AGO!!!!!”

this whole sequence is reminding me of a recurring bookends thought i often have which is just that kakashi actually allowing himself to have fights with people who aren’t obito is kind of a big thing for him and a sign that’s he’s (still!) getting better all the time

like - i imagine that bookends!kakashi in the aftermath of obito disappearing goes through a long isolationist period because:

a) he can barely keep his head above water as is and he does not have the time or energy or brainspace for anything that isn’t keeping a child alive and semi-well-adjusted (always at kakashi’s own expense in those early years, because preventing sasuke from becoming “like him” and suffering “like that” is the reason he’s running up that hill, to the point where it’s just.  bad for his own personal and emotional well-being but simultaneously a necessary sacrifice that he doesn’t regret and that sasuke will someday recognize for the herculean lifesaving choice that it was) 

and b) he’s reeling from the fact that the person who rewired his worldview and taught him to love/trust people abandoned him and left him to drown, and at some point, you know, the lesson about not relying on anyone else sinks in, for a kid whose father killed himself right where little kakashi would find the body, for someone who then grew up in a system of state “care” and fled from it when his one possible way out (minato) was murdered for the entire country to see, who survived on his own and never had anybody to take care of him ever and then got burned by the one person who ever convinced him to give human connections a try again despite all of that - if that person could do him like this, then how is he supposed to trust anybody else to have his back? 

if kakashi can’t count on obito, he can’t count on anybody.  the stakes are too high here.  sasuke is too important.  kakashi can’t rely on anyone to Save the Child (read: to prevent the creation of another kid with kakashi’s own brand of trauma) except himself.  anyone else is too much of a risk, and he literally does not have the brainspace for "friends” just now.  

and then, a little later, when he’s starting to come out of his shell and reconnect with old friends (yamato gai etc) and make new friends for the first time in ages (iruka), he’s still not letting himself be totally free with them, either, because kakashi, as we know, internalizes everything and carries the weight of the past on his back even when the guilt isn’t his to claim, so there is this subconscious piece of him that remembers the last time he lost a friend and is still half-convinced that he was the one responsible for obito disappearing on him (no), and we know kakashi already has this underlying streak of thinking he’s intrinsically less worthy than everyone else, he’s hard to love, it’s hard to be his friend, he’s the trash and other people are the trash collectors cleaning him up and making him better.  so he doesn’t let himself be his full authentic self with his new connections either, because that would mean he’d have to have feelings and needs and maybe he would even get sad or upset or angry sometimes, and you can’t DO things like that when there’s no room for error in your life, when every little thing you do might torpedo the tiny bit of stability you’ve cobbled together for yourself, when every little mistake you make might destroy the relationships you’ve started building.  

he holds himself to an impossible, inhumane standard, because that’s what he’s always had to do to survive, and his relationships are stunted as a result, because it’s hard to be deep, true friends with a person who’s always wearing a mask, even if said person is doing it to (supposedly) make things easier for you.  and it’s hardly fair to the people currently around him, who would never begrudge him his bad days or condemn him for a less-than-proud moment, who would never reject him because he once expressed himself poorly or reacted to being hurt.  him withholding those parts of himself is a trust problem on his end, and even though it’s wholly understandable, it impairs his relationships for years.  (like - people like gai and yamato have known kakashi long enough to know when he’s doing this, and while gai possesses an impressive level of immunity to kakashi’s behavior, yamato is always second-guessing himself, because if someone is supposed to be your friend, and then they don’t actually trust you to, you know, be their friend, it’s like - “what am i doing wrong?”  it’s a constant reminder that you aren’t the intimate friend you want to be, that they won’t let you close that distance, and you have to wonder what is it about you that makes you not enough.)

so i love this image of kakashi, several years on, being for once SO delightfully unrestrained, so quick to speak up when something pisses him off, so ready to risk having the fight.  he’s spent so much time swallowing his own feelings and putting his own needs aside and never letting himself be visibly angry or upset about anything (because anger takes energy, anger distracts you from surviving, anger makes you a less effective caregiver [especially to a very angry kid], and if you let yourself be angry about one thing you might suddenly realize that you are angry about a LOT of things, and that will open up a can of worms you can’t repack), so him actually allowing himself to get mad and have a stupid fight with someone who isn’t obito (without expecting said person to bail on him like obito) is like when you see a little crocus nub clawing its way out of the snow and you’re like “oh!  that plant isn’t dead after all!  look at him go!  look at him grow!”

#bookends!kakashi has spent so many years being what other people need him to be that he's still figuring how to be himself #the goofy late-night infomercial purchases and the terrible reality tv shows and the home furnishings that give madara indigestion #the heroic self-sacrificing parent AND the dogs in dumb little sweaters #the trashy literature AND the long-overdue degree hanging on the wall #the baggy sweats with inappropriate text printed on the butt AND the big dreams for a better world #the insane pseudo in-laws he constantly wants to strangle AND the kid he's ready to adopt the minute said kid actually asks #for the first time in his life he's allowing himself to be a whole person #puzzling himself together #one piece at a time #bookends

[kiss-my-freckle]

Besides the flashback of Katherine compelling Damon to leave when he asks her a yes or no question about what she feels about his love for her because of her later starting a thing with Stefan too I noticed another instance of her compelling Damon in 1x06. (I've seen multiple SErs defend her compelling him and call Damon names for being in her room even though she was expecting beforehand and they were in a relationship. Her mood changed from flirtatious to serious after her conversation with Stefan, and he just asked a question. It's not like he would've stayed there all night considering how shy he was. He wouldn't risk violating the norms of the era unless Katherine was upfront about wanting him to stay the night). Stefan said to Elena in 1x06 that Katherine compelled both him and Damon to keep secrets from each other. Considering how submissive Damon was to Katherine her having to compel him to keep something a secret from Stefan must have been a big deal and would've definitely made their relationship more unconsensual like Stefan's but many people only see Stefan as the victim. I didn't catch that dialogue until I rewatched. What do you think Katherine compelled Damon to keep from Stefan?

Katherine expected Damon to be in her bedroom because he told her he would be. She's only upset that he's in her bedroom because of her conversation with Stefan. She wanted to revel in his words and his kiss, and Damon was ruining that moment for her.

Stefan assumed Damon had to be compelled because he was. Damon willfully kept things secret from Stefan because Stefan is pure at heart. I view Damon very much like Elena. He has a certain darkness about him. Their mother died when he was 17. Their father was physically abusive and had no respect for Damon. He was trying to raise both into his life of hate. Damon lost their father in an emotional sense, and there's grief to feel in that. I believe Katherine pushed Damon to own his darkness the same way Damon pushed Elena to own hers.

I consider Damon a victim, but in different ways. She's got him involved in a love triangle with his brother. That alone requires a great deal of manipulation. Getting a hero like Damon to help her kill people in the road... a great deal of manipulation. Yes, Damon is a rebel, but being rebellious doesn't necessarily mean being murderous. He was the kind of rebel that would date a woman his father didn't approve of.

While many consider Stefan a special vampire because he's a ripper, I consider Damon a special vampire too. Vampirism changed Damon into a completely different person because Katherine was centered in it. Unlike every other vampire in the show, his human qualities were devoured rather than amplified. In that regard, I consider him to be more Katherine's victim than Stefan was. She didn't just string Damon along for 145 years, she literally ruined him. Stefan lost 145 years with Damon because she turned him into a monster. The real Damon stopped living in 1864. That's why Stefan's goodbye to Elena is all about Damon. He's... sorta thanking her for bringing his brother back to life. I cry every time I watch that scene.