why the PRETTY LITTLE LIARS finale ruined the show... *Who should have b... My favorite PLL-video so far and I agree 100%. Serena Skybourne is so damn good making these and I would take this ending rather than the one we got any day.

I know you wanna kiss me 💋

🌈 Queer Books Coming Out in April 2024 🌈

🌈 Good morning, my bookish bats! Struggling to keep up with all the amazing queer books coming out this month? Here are a FEW of the stunning, diverse queer books you can add to your TBR before the year is over. Remember to #readqueerallyear! Happy reading!

[ Release dates may have changed. ]

❤️ Spring on the Peninsula - Ery Shin 🧡 When I Arrived at the Castle - Emily Carroll 💛 Bloodline - Jenn Alexander 💚 Grey Dog - Elliott Gish 💙 Every Time You Hear That Song - Jenna Voris 💜 I'm in Love with the Villainess v. 2 - Inori and Hanagata ❤️ The Caravaggio Syndrome - Alessandro Giardino 🧡 Leather, Lace, and Locs - Anne Shade 💛 Firebugs - Nico Bulling 💙 I Married My Female Friend v.2 - Shio Usui 💜 The Final Curse of Ophelia Cray - Christine Calella 🌈 A Sweet Sting of Salt - Rose Sutherland ❤️ The Selected Shepherd: Poems - Reginald Shepherd 🧡 Rough Trade - Katrina Carrasco 💛 Aubrey McFadden is Never Getting Married - Georgia Beers 💚 Taming of a Rebel - Eada Friesian 💙 Dayspring - Anthony Oliveira 💜 The Titanic Survivors Book Club - Timothy Schaffert ❤️ Orphia And Eurydicius - Elyse John 🧡 The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers - Samuel Burr 💛 A Good Happy Girl - Marissa Higgins 💙 Winnie Nash Is Not Your Sunshine - Nicole Melleby 💜 Here We Go Again - Alison Cochrun 🌈 Women! In! Peril! - Jessie Ren Marshall

❤️ Blood City Rollers - V. P. Anderson and Tatiana Hill 🧡 The Prospects - KT Hoffman 💛 Crazy Like a Fox: Adventures in Schizophrenia - Christi Furnas 💚 WATCHNIGHT - Cyree Jarelle Johnson 💙 Love From The Sidelines - Tuesday Harper 💜 The Pleasure in Pain - Roxie Voorhees ❤️ Mal - Perla Zul 🧡 The Black Girl Survives in This One - Desiree S. Evans and Saraciea J. Fennell 💛 Darker by Four - June C.L. Tan 💙 Otherworldly - F.T. Lukens 💜 Hearts Still Beating - Brooke Archer 🌈 Tryst Six Venom - Penelope Douglas

❤️ Teenage Dirtbags - James Acker 🧡 The Heart Wants What It Wants - D.M. Batten 💛 Something Kindred by Ciera Burch 💚 Sheine Lende - Dr. Darcie Little Badger & Rovina Cai 💙 Rainbow Overalls - Maggie Fortuna 💜 Flowers for Dead Girls - Abigail Collins ❤️ Canto Contigo - Jonny Garza Villa

❤️ Court of Wanderers - Rin Chupeco 🧡 Molten Death - Leslie Karst 💛 Triad Magic - ‘Nathan Burgoine 💚 You, Me and Bad Movies - Twoony 💙 The Faithful Dark - Cate Baumer 💜 A Case for Discretion - Ashley Moore ❤️ Party of Fools - Cedar McCloud 🧡 The Last Love Song - Kalie Holford 💛 This is Me Trying - Racquel Marie 💙 Dear Wendy - Ann Zhao 💜 Sun Eater - Dre Levant 🌈 The Breakup Lists - Adib Khorram

❤️ Bad Dream - Nicole Maines & Rye Hickman 🧡 If We Were Stars - Eule Grey 💛 The Broken Lines of Us - Shia Woods 💚 Eye of the Ouroboros - Megan Bontrager 💙 Henry Henry - Allen Bratton 💜 Dear Bi Men - JR Yussuf ❤️ Paige Not Found - Jen Wilde 🧡 Mechanic Shop Femme’s Guide to Car Ownership - Chaya Milchtein 💛 Wide Awake Now - David Levithan 💙 Merciless Saviors - H.E. Edgmon 💜 Smile and Be a Villain - Yves Donlon 🌈 Crash Landing - Charmaine Anne Li

❤️ Call Forth a Fox - Markelle Grabo 🧡 Central Avenue Poetry Prize 2024 - Beau Adler 💛 Good Bones - Aurora Rey 💚 Curiosities - Anne Fleming 💙 Someone You Can Build a Nest in - John Wiswell 💜 Revisiting Summer Nights - Ashley Bartlett ❤️ Bright Spring - Emmaline Strange

❤️ Girls Night - I.S. Belle 🧡 Late Bloomer - Mazey Eddings 💛 Withered - A.G.A. Wilmot 💚 A Wolf Steps in Blood - Tamara Jerée 💙 It Always Finds Me - Anthology 💜 Dulhaniyaa - Talia Bhatt ❤️ Moon Dust in My Hairnet - JR Creaden 🧡 Blood Justice - Terry J. Benton-Walker 💛 Relinquishing Control - J.J. Arias

❤️ Selamlik - Khaled Alesmael 🧡 Houseswap 101 - Jaime Clevenger 💛 Earthflown by Frances Wren & Litarnes 💚 Covenant v.1 - LySandra Vuong 💙 Honey - Victor Lodato 💜 The Dragonfly Gambit - A.D. Sui ❤️ Double Dyno - Sharon K Angelici & Taylor Rose

Roman military helmet face mask fragment with Jupiter's eagle

ITEM Military helmet face mask fragment with Jupiter's eagle MATERIAL Bronze CULTURE Roman PERIOD 3rd Century A.D DIMENSIONS 180 mm x 123 mm CONDITION Good condition PROVENANCE Ex Alison Barker private collection, a retired London barrister, acquired between 1960s - 1990s BIBLIOGRAPHY RUCINSKI, E., Get the picture?: Iconography of cheek pieces on Roman Imperial cavalry helmets, Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies Roman military equipment is famous for its abundance of depictions rife with symbolical content. The so-called cavalry sports equipment, which used to be seen as being solely parade armour, can be distinguished from the infantry equipment not only by its function, but also by its design. There are numerous surviving heavily ornamented parts of Roman cavalry equipment and a number of studies have been published on their purpose and decoration. Whether the ornamented equipment belonged to parade armour or was also worn in battle is still under discussion. One of those groups contains the helmets, of which a relatively large number of different variations exist. Apart from the calotte with its neck guard, the loosely attached cheek pieces were also an essential part of the helmet. Cheek pieces as protective elements were used both for infantry and cavalry helmets. Read the full article

i’d say aria was my favorite but i liked spencer a lot as well! what did you think about the end of the series though? i was just really disappointed lol

Ugh it sucks that so many good shows have terrible endings. It was just so bizarre and stupid, A.D. being Spencer’s british twin and implanting Emily’s eggs in Alison??? Who the hell came up with this.

I'm sorry I think I might have asked that Mona and Alison question wrong. I didn't mean to say Mona didn't have a mental illness. I know she did. I'm Bipolar so I don't mock any mental illness. I was just trying to understand how so many people use that as a justification or an excuse for her extreme behavior even when she wasn't having a break with reality. A lot of what she did she did after she got treatment. The finale she locked Spencer in a bunker and that was really messed up.

I totally gotcha, thank you for clarifying! My perspective as someone who has studied psychology and is pretty well-versed in mental illness (as well as having a few myself!) is that it's a fine line. It's important to consider the impact mental health plays in someone's actions and not view them through the same lens as someone who is mentally healthy. But at the same time, I totally agree that mental illness should never be used as an excuse to do whatever you want. Accountability is so, so important.

When it comes to Mona's actions after season 3 or so, I think that why I find myself having more compassion for her is because it seems like she typically had good intentions, she just went about things in the wrong way. Her framing Alison for murder was insane, but it was done with the goal of finding out A's identity and eventually freeing her. She helped A.D. trap Spencer for the same reason - to try and find out who they were and ultimately stop them. Again, that doesn't excuse her actions, but I can't bring myself to hate her when she really was trying to be on their side, she just didn't always know how to approach that. Every character on the show had those moments to some degree - even the Liars, like when they planted Ali's hair in Mona's house because they genuinely thought she should have been arrested.

S2, E24

"If These Dolls Could Talk"

How does Alison know Spencer just found out about Jason? She's also talking to Spencer like she doesn't know they think she's dead. Why is Spencer talking to her like they don't think she's dead??? Just a casual update in the middle of the night.

These characters must have some very odd sleep tendencies if they can't tell for sure if they woke up in the middle of the night...that was a very lucid and clear conversation to be having at a time when your dream/reality barrier is blurred. I think it might be a common phenomenon for people with ADHD to confuse their dreams with reality- I certainly do, from time to time- and Spencer does canonically have ADHD. I wish "a fuzzy dream-life barrier" was established with her character before now.

Did this phone not have a "silent" mode?

Wait a second...Alison referred to herself as "A.D"??? I really want to believe something more interesting happened, here.

I wonder what this show would have been like if they hadn't stuck to making Jenna an antagonist so hard. These writers in particular would have fumbled it and made it an excruciatingly hard watch, but if they had been competent with the story, I think I would better buy Jenna as a wild-card anti-hero whose storylines tend to overlap with the Liars' and whose decisions can be helpful, harmful, or neutral to the protagonist's goals than Mona. I think they meant for Mona to be the ambiguous, morally gray "frenemy" who makes unpredictable decisions but they didn't do enough with it. Mona is criminally obsessed with being a member of the clique, whereas Jenna would be completely detached from it. It could have added something, in my opinion.

There is no reason for this random, creepy child at the doll store.

This child has surprisingly vivid memories about a weirdly specific thing that happened a year ago. That's pretty sus. A psychic child I would buy. I love that this city is close enough that a bunch of teenagers can easily go there after school but far enough away that Alison just had a completely different identity there.

The way these characters go about trying to get answers really baffles me, sometimes. Melissa was looking for Ian using "she/her" pronouns? Why would Spencer show that to her and then threaten to involve the police? There's no subtlety at all. If they aren't shoving videos in peoples' faces, they're breaking into houses.

Oh my god, the amount of guilt-tripping Ella's trying to do to Aria for calling out her father for something he actually, reasonably did. Poor, poor Byron- being shut up for once in his fucking life! This selfish fucking hothead needs to learn to shut his fucking trap more. They don't take into account how their family was affected by this trauma at all.

"He knew how she died! That was never in the paper!" I'm still pretty sure that was aired on the news, just before it was announced that there may be a killer at large in Rosewood and no one reacted to this news at all.

Man, this doll imagery is fucking epic. This show could have been an awesome YA horror/thriller.

"You're not gonna break up your family to keep us together" so keeping her family together is her job, again?

M4M&I — Day 18 : Dolls

There are very few characters in shows, films, books, plays and all the like that I think are appallingly stupid and a complete waste of time.

I mean — there are characters that are ridiculous (the Willy Wonka character from the version with Johnny Depp) and there are characters that are bad (Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory) and there are characters that are kind of disappointing (Bill from Doctor Who) but it is very, very rare I come across characters that I think were just a huge mistake and the writers should be completely ashamed of themselves.

However the “second half” of a series called “Pretty Little Liars” featured just such a character.

Alexandra Drake — Alex, also known as A.D. — was a totally, utterly and completely pointless character. But, to be fair, the entire second half of “Pretty Little Liars” was totally, utterly and completely pointless.

The first half — which, okay, was five and a half years, was well written, well crafted and incredibly well produced. The five lead characters (Aria, Hanna, Emily, Alison and Spencer) were all outstanding and the script was — for the most part — a work of genius. There were some parts that were a bit iffy but generally speaking it is one of the best series of its kind in recent history.

But the second half? I have no clue  what the buggering hell they were thinking. They had so many plots that would have made a better arc for the series, and instead they just throw a TWIN SISTER in? They literally go in for the most obvious, most ridiculous idea?

Why not bring Alison back in the shower? Why not bring CeeCee back in the shower? Why not bring them both back in the shower? (Okay — that sounded slightly more perverted than I intended, especially given that they’re sisters. Sorry. I will reign in my “better ideas” for now)

The entire “five years later” arc was — well I am not sure what it was. It was sort of adapted from the books, but apparently not very well.

But to return to the idea of bringing Alison back in the shower for a second, when I was growing up it was almost a universal joke about “brining someone back in the shower” because on Dallas, in 1985, they killed off Bobby Ewing. Katherine Wentworth was trying to run Pam over with a car, and Bobby pushed her out of the way. It was a pretty dramatic, and somewhat emotional episode.

For the whole of the next year, Bobby was dead, and gone, and Pam struggled on on her own. Like you do when your husband has been run over by a psychotic bitch in a car.

Then came…….. well then came the moment that TV writers, and film writers, have been parodying ever since.

Pam got married to someone new, and then she woke up after her wedding night to find Bobby in her shower.

It was — quite literally — the most ridiculous thing ever on TV up to that moment. Which is saying something, given it was the eighties.

If you compare and contrast this to — say — the Christmas episode of Eastenders just two months later. When Den — after learning that Angie’s story of having cancer was a lie — waited until Christmas afternoon to serve her with divorce papers.

It was the start of the “diabolical Christmas episodes” that have plagued the nation ever since and it was the most dramatic and shocking Christmas show in recent TV history.

It has been copied, and various shows — mostly soaps — have endeavoured to emulate it year after year (with more and more outrageous disasters every Christmas, usually with more and more casualties and more and more dead people) but no one — not single show — has ever succeeded in producing the shock and surprise of that first episode.

However a lot of people have produced something as ridiculous as bringing Bobby back in the shower. Mostly by bringing other people back in the shower (even it isn’t a sister and a sister who was her brother. Because that would be a little weird. Especially for a primetime show that doesn’t even use the word s**t)

If you look at the rest of pop culture, you can see the influence of both of these moments (the Den & Angie moment, and the Shower Scene moment) as well as hundreds of other tiny iconic moments and incidents that have become embedded into the collective consciousness of the world.

the four Hogwarts’ Houses — listening to people say “You’re a Gryffindor” or “She’s a Hufflepuff” is fairly common place now.

the coffee vibrating in the cup from Jurassic Park

the shower scene from Psycho

the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man from Ghostbusters

the One Ring and my precious from The Lord of The Rings

the force

toto

the psychotic Good Guy Doll from Child’s Play [1]

There are any number of tiny little things in random films that are used throughout pop culture — some you will know where they come from, some you will know but don’t recognise, some you won’t recognise but will have heard…….. but they will turn up time and time again, and the moment someone points one out you will hear them over and over again.

It is odd how often it happens.

[1] — Would you believe that Chucky was once the subject of an Amber Alert in Texas? The Texas state police issued an Amber Alert and said he was a suspect in a kidnapping. And they did it three times in quick succession.

So — you know — it’s good to know the Texas police are looking out the well being of their citizens.

“ I made you loser Mona once and you know I can do it again.” - Alison Dilaurentis

PLL..Logic & easy thinking theory.

Wren, Melissa, Byron, Jason, Sidney, Lucas, Caleb, Paige, Ella, Veronica, Toby, Ashley, Peter, Marry aren’t important characters enough to qualify in being A.D.

Jessica, Bethany, Cece/Charles, Wilden, Ian & Archer are all dead. I assume they won’t be brought back to life.

That leaves us with Alison, Mona, Ezra, Aria, Spencer, Hanna & Emily.

I rule out Hanna & Emily for being A.D, because the overall story (Bethany-Charles-Mary Drake) has nothing to with them.

I rule out Spencer, because she is affected the most in the overall story. She has a different mom, a step brother enz.

That leaves us with Alison, Mona, Ezra & Aria.

I rule out Ezra, because the writers already made him look shady & made it appear that he was A at some point. Plus he hasn’t got anything to do with the Cece/Charles/Bethany/Mary storyline.

I rule out Mona, because she was A at the end of season 3. I do believe that she is behind the Aria face time calls & that she created the board game. She’s jalous of A.D, that’s why she’s a helper.

That leaves Alison & Aria.

I think that Alison could be A.D, because the whole PLL story evolves around her. The liars exist because of her. Every character’s storyline is connected to Alison in a major way. We have always known that Alison was evil. The liars have always known that Alison was evil. But we never wanted to keep her evil. The writers did their best to make you fall in love with her again & again & again. They even stated that Alison could manipulate everyone that way. Why not manipulate the viewers of PLL that way. Alison was always Marlene’s baby. We know that Alison is a master mind, likes to play games etc. Mona could’ve somehow teamed up with Alison, because she wants to be in the popular crowd & she helped Alison escape Rosewood. Only problem I have is that it’s too obvious, because of the plotline in books. If Alison is the uber villain, that means that Marlene isn’t very original. Also Sasha Pieterse wasn’t really present in all episodes or set on a statue by media.

I think Aria could still be A.D. I can’t let go of the major part Aria’s overall storyline is. The first scene started with her. If she has nothing to do with being the uber villian, then why is her storyline so big? I also have found it odd that the official social media handle of PLL has put out Lucy Hale in the spotlights way more then Shay Mitchell, Troian Bellisario, Sasha Pieterse & Ashley Benson. Other media have also put Lucy and/or Aria on a statue way more then the others have. Also all the clues that were given over the past few years, they all had a connection to Aria in it. There is a website that literally points out clues in every episode until Cece was revealed to make it look like Aria is the Uber Villain (www.Ariaisa.com). In my opinion it would be brilliant if the clues were there all along & that we flirted with the idea of Aria being the uber villain, but at the same time we couldn’t imagine that MK would go through with making a liar & the most popular character the bad guy. I mean it was right under our noses all these years! Also that Mona is still working for the Uber Villain adds up. We never have known what Aria whispered into Mona’s ear & of all the male characters why would Mona have dated Mike, a foolish young dumb jock. Why does Mona have a big storyline with the Montgomery’s? Aria knows that Mona has skills & we know that Aria has them too. I think that the last episodes where Aria wore the hoodie might be to through us off guard. We think that if she worn the hoodie, she probably isn’t going to be the Uber Villain, but you can look at these scenes from another point of view. Maybe Aria is so clumsy because the web around her is closing in & that’s why she isn’t on top of her game. Only problem I have is where does Aria fit into the Cece/Charles/Bethany/Mary story? That could be revealed in the last episode?Also the torture of Hanna, Spencer & Emily doesn’t quite add up to me yet? Maybe she likes it or she’s just mad at Alison that she also tortures her minions for the fun of it.

To me Aria being A.D would be a brilliant move, but does I.Marlene King have the balls for it?

How PLL should've ended

Once again fell down the rabbit hole of watching some genius Alison is A/A.D/has a twin-videos (when I should be motivated at starting the new year at the uni, oops). Damn, this show had so much potential.

Thoughts While Watching PLL “In The Eye Abides the Heart”

1) Did Sasha Pieterse and Shay Mitchell win any awards for this twisted baby plot? Because...damn, the scenes between the two of them are just a whole new level of incredible.

2) Seriously, the way Sasha gently steps around the script and the way Shay uses her whole face and her voice to convey her feelings. Her voice fucking CRACKED with raw emotion. It’s really amazing.

3) These creepy-ass face-chats with AD and Aria are horrifying.

4) If one puts a gluten free, dairy free, sugar free, fat free cupcake inside a box…does said cupcake actually even exist? Food for thought.

5) A.D. does not like her calls being screened. She would fucking hate me.

6) I bet Hanna and Caleb were adorable babies. And I bet their babies are going to be adorable, too.

7) Bahahaha, Hanna and Emily got REALLY into that comic book Lucas and Charles wrote. My beautiful nerds.

8) When Aria brought up the possibility of Lucas being A.D. and possibly being the father of the Emison babies I automatically started to wish they HAD made a little baby Lucas/Emily. Because that baby would be gorgeous.

9) Emily’s “no, no more…” *pause* “…maybe just a splash” is totally me with my vodka.

10) Emily: “I didn’t come here for you to tell me what to do.” *takes a beat* “What am I gonna do?”

11) Typical Emily Fields talking about how mad she is someone did this to Ali, and typical Spencer Hastings reminding her that it’s okay if she’s hurting, too, because it’s happening to her as well. Team Spemily.

12) Spencer and Mary writing each other letters in bottles like they live in 13th century England.

13) Paige’s response after she finds out about the Emison baby: “I’m buying the next round. And probably the one after that.” I finally like Paige.

14) “I thought it (the game) ran on bitchiness.” *snort* Classic Hanna.

15) The board game ain’t afraid to cut a bitch. And the fab bitch Mona ain’t afraid to cut back.

16) “I have learned so much from loving you. One of the most important things you taught me was not to get greedy.” The episode where Paige actually becomes a likeable character is her last. Shame.

17) Awww, “This is the third time I’ve said goodbye to you. I’m never gonna say it again.” Paige really did grow a lot throughout the series. I didn’t see that the first time I watched this.

18) Emily: “I have to do this.” Paige: “Of course you do. That’s what makes you Emily.” Then that kiss and Paige gently nudging Emily’s jaw to help her keep her chin up. What a way to end Paily. Lindsey Shaw did an incredible job with that. Okay, bye Paily. I’m over it.

19) Ezra: “Aria, what Nicole went through…it was the worst thing in the world.” Me: “Um, you do realize all the shit Aria’s been through, too, right?”

20) Paige creepin’ into Ali’s house…that shit was fucked up.

21) That scene between Paige and Ali where Paige confronts Ali about her feelings for Emily was beautifully executed by Lindsey and Sasha.

22) “I know how I feel when she looks at me. I’ve never felt that with anyone before. It’s like she sees who you really are. Maybe that’s the scariest part. You look at her. You look at…you look at her eyes and you want to be worth the effort. You wanna be the person she sees.” Powerful words, perfect delivery. GIVE SASHA A DAMN EMMY!

23) Hanna, giving Mona the game is like giving a crackhead their fix. Don’t mess with the queen’s head.

24) If anyone didn’t suspect the twin theory when Ezra ran into “Spencer” and Wren at the airport then they are as blind as Jenna Marshall.

25) Troian, you fabulous creature…you directed the shit out of this episode. It was phenomenal.

It’s the End of an Era.

Pretty little liars 2010-2017

Roman military helmet face guard fragment with shield ornament

ITEM Military helmet face guard fragment with shield ornament MATERIAL Bronze CULTURE Roman PERIOD 3rd Century A.D DIMENSIONS 130 mm x 110 mm CONDITION Good condition PROVENANCE Ex Alison Barker private collection, a retired London barrister, acquired between 1960s - 1990s BIBLIOGRAPHY RUCINSKI, E., Get the picture?: Iconography of cheek pieces on Roman Imperial cavalry helmets, Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies, Fig. 12 Roman military equipment is famous for its abundance of depictions rife with symbolical content. The so-called cavalry sports equipment, which used to be seen as being solely parade armour, can be distinguished from the infantry equipment not only by its function, but also by its design. There are numerous surviving heavily ornamented parts of Roman cavalry equipment and a number of studies have been published on their purpose and decoration. Whether the ornamented equipment belonged to parade armour or was also worn in battle is still under discussion. One of those groups contains the helmets, of which a relatively large number of different variations exist. Apart from the calotte with its neck guard, the loosely attached cheek pieces were also an essential part of the helmet. Cheek pieces as protective elements were used both for infantry and cavalry helmets. Read the full article

But could you imagine how iconic the series ending would be if this was the last scene:

The girls are all together to say goodbye to Aria who is about to go on a three week honeymoon with Ezra. Aria: "guys I'm leaving for three weeks, why is everybody crying?" All the girls laugh and let out another sob at those words. Alison looks at her best friends one by one and says, "I guess it feels like it's the end of something." Everyone grabs onto eachother even tighter and nods while fighting back more tears. Spencer takes a deep breath and speaks up through everyones sobbing, "Even if it really is the end of something, our story will live on in our hearts." She looks up and smiles at Aria who almost wishes she didn't have to go on a honeymoon. "Yeah, well our story will probably also live on in this godforsaking town too for a long time," Hanna says with her infamous hint of sarcasm in her voice. The girls all laugh at this and look at eachother again once more. Emily lets her head rest on Alisons' shoulder as Alison looks at Hanna and then to Spencer. She can't help but put on her bold smile she was most known for when she was younger, and as she takes a deep breath she says, "That's immortality, my darlings." THE END