what is your top 10 favorite upstead scenes/moments?

The shoulder touch in 5x05. It's so small and kind of not really important; but Jay's sitting at the computer and Hailey just casually puts her hand on his shoulder when she leans forward to look over him. They'd barely known each other for that long at this point but it seems so effortlessly and habitable already???

5x18 - especially the ending scene when Jay shows up at her place because he knows she doesn't really wanna be alone and he knows that she's not alright so he stays.

The ending scene in 6x07. This is the first moment when they really give voice to the thing between them and how/why it works so well. And Jay opens up to her and they head out for a beer? and it's just so fucking them.

the "we're good and we're always going to be good" scene in 6x10

6x15 Hailey’s “I’d follow you blind” scene and the look on Jay’s face and also her "i've trusted you from the day I met you" because knowing Hailey's history and her abusive father - there's probably not a lot of people, but especially men that she can say that about.

The "I'm going where you go in 6x22

7x10 - the ending in the hospital when Hailey sees that while Jay is busted up, he's okay and that smile on her face????

Is it cliché to claim their kiss in 8x03? Cause I do. You can just tell how shy Hailey is about the whole situation and how she admits to him that she doesn't wanna take the job because of him??? Oh i'm trash for them.

9x01 when Jay proposes to her in the middle of their living room.

9x09 - their wedding - sure it's mostly a voice over with just a montage of them at the courthouse; but I just love it so fucking much because running to the courthouse in their casual clothes are just so fucking them, I can't

Honorable mentions

4x21 - I think I have to mention their "first" meeting; because the way Hailey just takes charge over Voight? And the clear look of amusement on Jay's face. It's everything tbh.

"Of course I love him, he's my partner"

9x04, when she starts having that panic attack in the locker rooms and Jay grabs her hand and talks her through it?

random Mayans thoughts, episode 5x05 edition:

- Miguel and Angel's conversation was actually really good, although Angel didn't say much. Miguel is actively trying to protect him and whether or not he wants to be the big brother, I'm seeing it that way and I like it. because here's the thing: Miguel went out of his way by not telling Soledad it was the Mayans who raided that cook house, even after her specifically ordering him to drop the sympathies he might have for these low-lives. and with Potter letting that cat out of the bag, Miguel is in a lot of trouble with her now. in return, Miguel wanted Angel to go to "someone EZ would listen to" but with Sofia blindly loyal to EZ and telling him what Angel said, it puts him in a world of trouble too. and to make matters worse, he slipped and said "I should've just fucking burned all this fucking shit down too", basically confessing to the warehouse fire.

- when confronted about stopping all of the insanity EZ said he doesn't want to lead as a dictator and I was like... since when? but then again, when he did ask the other members in the templo if they want everything to stop or keep going, everyone wanted to move forward. especially with that kind of cash on the table because money is a powerful motivation.

- btw, Guero and Downer had some sort of banter going on from day one and I'm so here for it. Guero: You realize, those have probably been in at least like a hundred strippers’ sweaty ass cracks? Downer: God, I hope so. my man's not only hot and badass but he’s also funny, I can count on these two to make me laugh.

- Hank didn't know it but telling EZ that Creeper will have the rat's name soon was a huge mistake. soon came quickly, and while at first Creeper didn't want to believe Kody when she told him who the rat is, after the other dude gave him the same name he couldn't not believe it anymore. then when EZ came to visit, he should have played it down and not tell him that he knows it's him. I feel so fucking bad for Creeper, he's easily the most tragic story in the club. always been loyal, only ever wanted to be there for the club and his brothers because they're the only family he has, and this is what he gets back. he's also easily the one with the most injuries. I was so fucking sure, it would be Gilly in the coffin from the trailer but now my fear that it's Creeper keeps growing. Kody should be leaving town fast, she'll be on notice too.

- in that conversation where that other dude warns Patricia Devlin to stop digging around a Potter-adjacent "very powerful, very effective and very protected" individual, they must mean Miguel. confirmed by her showing up at Miguel's house later. Potter cleared Miguel from Palomo’s murder Adelita framed him for, yes, but at what cost... now he controls, and pays for, Miguel's entire life and lifestyle. honestly, I kind of want Miguel to work with her and get rid of Potter. sure, I want that fucker dead but how satisfying would the visual of him behind bars be, knowing he'll never get out no matter how much scheming he tries. and if that means Miguel would have to spend a decade or two in prison himself, that's still better than getting killed. I've said it long before season 5 started but if Miguel ends up in prison by the time the show is over, I could live with that. at least he'd be alive, and that's all I really want. btw, what was that dick competition necessary for that Potter threw around??? yikes. how do I unhear that...

- the Grim Bastards, yeah sorry but I have no idea who they are or where they came from. from what I've gathered they're a leftover from the SOA show? the president made a good point about how the feds investigate and only come knocking on your door when they have enough to already nail your ass. good for them, trying to broker peace.

- that fight during the meeting with the Sons was fucking insane, and ngl, it was pretty damn satisfying to see EZ get his ass handed to him for a minute. even though he ultimately won, which admittedly is good for the club, on a personal level I wouldn't have minded if that giant had taken him out right there. that scene in the clubhouse might be their version of a party but all of them yelling EZ's name and slamming their fists on the tables like maniacs had something very cult like but maybe that's just me.

- I feel so bad for Izzy, and Marcus is getting on my nerves with his head stuck in the past. motherfucker, you have a beautiful life and family right in front of you, pull your head out of your ass and start acting like it before you lose them. by the end of the episode it seemed to have sunk in, with Izzy's ultimatum and all. hopefully it’ll last.

- I'm really glad Bishop is doing so much better, it was kinda awkward between him and Maggie's son but he was sweet with that little baby girl. I think after having lost his own child and possibly not having been around any so closely since, holding that little girl might have cracked him open up in a way he didn't think was possible again.

- Letty and Hope's dance party was fun, Coco would have loved to see that, but what the fuck, Isaac found them... that was pretty shocking and I'm scared of what he'll do to Hope and what he'll make Letty do. anyone else thinks that a) with Hope kidnapped, it's gonna be Letty who's gonna join the Broken Saints out of desperation (episode 7 synopsis, my first thought was Emily) and b) there's more between her and Hope? or at least there could be more feelings developing?

top 5 merlin scenes that make you go feral (in a positive or negative way)

5 - the parallels to arthur's speech in ealdor in 1x10 to his speech in 5x12........... like........ yeouch.

4 - 1x13 - "it was my destiny to protect him. we haven't done all the things we were meant to do."

3 - honorary mention to gwen and arthur's first kiss in 2x02 because its so good (the lighting, the way they look at each other) but ALSO the last scene in the ep when arthur walks away from gwen and he TURNS!!! AROUND!!! TO LOOK AT HER!!!

2 - in the freya episode when she is dying and merlin is holding her and he desperately wishes he could have done more for her and could have saved her and she says "YOU ALREADY SAVED ME, YOU MADE ME FEEL LOVED" like ARE !!! YOU KIDDING ME !!!!!!!!!!!!! fuck

1 - the scene in 5x05 where merlin and arthur are sitting by the camp fire and merlin is explaining to arthur how he knew the forest was sacred, and how he can feel the vibrations of the earth (AKA MAGIC!!!!!!!!!!!) and arthur goes "you can feel all that?" and merlin responds "don't you?" and arthur shakes his head no. that scene makes me loony toons tansmanian devil levels of feral.

ask me my top 5 anything make it merlin related

What do you think Winston would do if he had the titular Billion dollars

at last....the Billion

earnestly i don't know lol, we have little to no info & other characters never talking with him doesn't help. it's like this is winston, he's just hanging out. like ok but not that clear why he's able to be so stalwart in doing so

supposing the three main explanations for his especial Motivations In Hanging Out Around Here as a character are like

being here for taylor, when being introduced via their character both as one-off quant kid 2 & as recurring winston means that of course this has to be a premise for things. & he keeps following them around & wearing his tmc tee to declare loyalty & this is even verbalized in 5x05, if indirectly lol, by another character but hey.

he genuinely likes math & coding just like, in life, for fun.

working to get paid, & in finance to get deluxe paid.

so making stuff up around "what would winston do with a billion dollars" re: these driving motivations is like

difficult to suppose how a billion dollars would play into or be played into w/regards to his taylor mason loyalty. i suppose he could offer it to them personally like hey will you tousle my hair & tell me Good Boy for this one? and maybe they would, since taylor also is after the Billion lol, that would sure afford them some more leeway / security in that realm. mission already accomplished. of course the [Winston IS Thee Taylor Mason Loyalist] angle, or [i am talking about billions] angle, always points to tayston, like with a billion dollars maybe taylor would love me, or at least pay more attention to me for a start 😳

it'd be like "well maybe with a billion dollars, for one thing, he'd just quit. Fuck You money" but then, if his job happens to also be this personal passion overlap Enrichment to him, as can be inferred as at least part of the reason he hangs around, then if he suddenly had the billion that wouldn't change. maybe he'd be riskier / bolder about things which might not be great for Getting Results lol, but hey. maybe there's some job that he would be even More passionate about but that doesn't pay great that he could now get into full time as an amateur or a professional who, say, doesn't want to need grants/funding/an academic gig to fund the theoretical work or what have you. highest level math. writing a guide to malbolge. this is like, genuinely half an idea here lol. Early Retirement, do whatever passion project w/o having to worry abt finances, take on some other job that's potentially more enriching (if relevant, maybe stock stochasticity is peak enrichment) w/o having to worry abt finances, & the like. lot of things to do re: math, coding

focusing on the "being at this job to get paid" angle is sure just like yep fuck you money / early retirement / Just Walk Out, You Can Leave, and not have to worry about income. but as for what he'd do with it just like point blank here's your check what are you gonna do, difficult to say. he can presumably already afford some fancy shit but we don't know anything about it. it's even bothered to be pointed out like hey his outfit is more avg priced than anyone else's, except his glasses costing money, whatever that's supposed to be about either re: his glasses in particular or the whole outfit, i'm just presuming it's meant to be a dunk on him. is it like, way to go winston for not properly knowing / wanting to wear more expensive things? way to go for theoretically wanting to but refraining b/c he's being so cheap about it? you Know it'd be a dunk either way, i.e winston wears pricey things? wow ugh way to go 9_9, winston's outfit is a hundred bucks? wow ugh way to go 9_9....no further info abt getting to take wags' expensive car for a spin, what did he enjoy about that, he probably doesn't have Any car b/c it is nyc so there's not even like, necessarily planning on car ownership at all, though i guess the Luxury List just presumes like. well great now you can own cars, houses, supermegayachts, etc, but there's zero info that's what winston in particular would want to do. it could even help simply knowing more about what he Likes to do, what he Likes to go actively indulge in? even mentioning like yep sometimes i chill out & play a simple video game didn't imply like oh you know he'd get a fancy epic gamer rig. for amongus. he likes math meetup, can't really ramp that up into some Luxury Edition, he could...easily afford travel & lodgings at Math Meetup Expo (something i've just made up. idk there's gotta be math conferences)....he owns the tron cel as something he just Wants & Likes, but with that kind of fact alone it's like well again wouldn't have to be luxuriously wealthy to obtain that, & how would we suppose if he had the billion dollars he'd be able to Elevate / Escalate that? he buys every cel one at a time until he owns the original master cut of the movie. there's something i guess, maybe his very vague, very inferred Sci Fi Media genre of interest could be like, he does a lot of collecting lol.

even when the tl;dr is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ i can still put it in plenty of words....tfw i simply like rotating & talking about winston regardless of the general lack of concrete info Or lack of coming up with stellar hcs out of the clear blue sky, and take a lot of words to talk about anything ever....will gladly muse & expound on an "yeah i dunno" thesis anytime, thanks for a prompt about it

“I do LOL at Stefan not being able to say a nice thing about Tyler even in death, disliked his ass until the very end. “ ugh makes me remember the waster potential of Sterowood 🥹. The Tyler/Caroline/Stefan triangle would have been better than the Tyler/Caroline/Klaus one, and the fact that Tyler and Stefan both sincerely loves and accepts Caroline sighs still bitter about it lol

FOREVER AND EVER BITTER! I got mad all over again about this missed opportunity watching S4 because that is how you do a triangle and they just wasted it! No contrived drama needed the animosity has been there since S1, Stefan and Tyler never liked each other and it was because of who they both are as people not whatever supernatural drama could be thrown at them. And it was building up since S2 because Stefan had no reason to stop Damon from killing all the werewolves except Caroline asked him to help Tyler. The scene that always gets me is 4x09 when Tyler says "you told HIM" like THE HATRED when he says him and then Stefan positions himself in front of Caroline to protect her from HER BOYFRIEND and Caroline can't even speak. Then as Tyler is telling Stefan to basically go fuck himself he keeps looking at Caroline because he needed her on his side and time and time again she keeps bring HIM into their secrets and plans. And Caroline loves them both and she never knows how to handle their animosity to the point I think she ignores it until like this scene where it blows up in her face.

I mean Stefan should have been removed from the triangle of doom in S4, after his S3 arc I'm sorry but he became too interesting to get dragged down by that anymore. They were already hinting at romantic SC in S4 so they could have just kept building up to that and then in S5 they could have had the TC break-up in 5x05 but skip the forest sex and then second half of S5 were doing Sterowood triangle! Instead the show made Enzo be a Klaus-lite fill-in to create a "triangle" no one cared about until S6 when the writers had no idea what to do with that stupid character. Trevino and Wesley also played up the animosity in interviews! There’s one where Trevino was so excited he got to kill Stefan and like joyfully rubbed it in Paul’s face. Then they both said they’d kill each other first in the hunger games.

johnny to ethan in 5x05: hey ethan. i need you to stay away from robby & miguel for a few hours (he’s Scheming about how to get those two alone to fight out their differences, & he’s [correctly] assuming that having ethan there would make [ethan] stressed the fuck bc his bf & bff are Fighting in front of him. he’d break it up, too, which isn’t what johnny wants)

ethan automatically assuming he’s done something wrong to piss johnny off so he’s barred from seeing them, but is highly suspicious nonetheless:

also ethan, who is VERY clingy with his boyfriend already because of all of the shit that happened to him previously: alright. i kind of don’t like you right now, but fine :(

weve all been crying about how adora says “i’m going to take you home” and catra’s first reaction is to say “promise?” like in reference to the promise they made as kids, because she associates “being home” with “as long as we have each other.” home is just, being with each other, as least we know it is for catra...... however

i truly think that conversation meant the exact same thing to adora!! like “im going to take you home” SOUNDS literal but actually i dont think she was talking about etheria at all... all she really meant in that moment was, i’m sorry, i forgive you, i still love you, come home to me. i really believe like in canon, in-universe, thats what adora was saying with that line. maybe it was sort of an unconscious association between home and being together and keeping her promise

for catra though, it wasn’t unconscious, those pieces were already in place for her.. she immediately understands everything adora wants to say but doesn’t quite know how to and THATS why she says “promise?” Like it wasn’t out of nowhere adora brought it up FIRST, catra could feel the whole essence of it wrapped up in what she said.

and then the way adora reacts with such emotion brings me to fucking tears because shes like yes!!! thats it!!!!! this is what ive been trying to tell you for years you do remember what that word means you finally understand!!!!!!

also like can i just say 

1x11: “nothing really bad can happen as long as we have each other” / “you promise?” / “i promise.”

[years of fighting and heartbreak]

5x05: “i’m going to take you home” / “promise?” / “i promise!”

it’s a wedding vow renewal. its a wedding vow renewal. its a

5x05 Reaction

WOW it’s been a while since I did an episode reaction post.  I’M EXCITED ABOUT THIS SHOW AGAIN!!!

The bughead walk home.  I liked this! I liked how it was awkward.  WHAT WAS IN THE VOICEMAIL??? Does Jughead even know what’s in the voicemail? 

Varchie walk home.  Cute! Friendly.  Was getting zero romantic, or even tense vibes.  He tells her that he hasn’t been in a relationship since her, which completely makes sense considering he’s been in the army since high school.  He didn’t say he hasn’t been with anyone, just that he hasn’t been in a relationship.  

Ok how old are the twins? Shouldn’t they be like 10? Alice is talking about them like they’re babies lmao “shhh, I just got them down”

Poor sad Jug.  I actually really like this turn for him... reminds me of S1 Jughead which was honestly the last time I really loved his character?? And obviously they are setting him up to be at his lowest so he can only go up from here (with a few bumps, probably) 

Kevin and Betty friendship YES!!! HOW is Betty only going through Charles’ stuff NOW, 7 years later after he was discovered to be a serial killer? I know it’s obviously just so she can play the Polly tape which is relevant to the plot of this episode and we shouldn’t be asking more questions but COME ON

Veronica and Hiram... this seems... repetitive... but I liked what happened with her character by the end of this episode. 

BOSS TONI I AM OBSESSED!!! And I love that they are all mad about his book, it’s great.  “You mean, the Vipers?” LMAO

AND MORE BOSS TONI!!! THEY’VE BEEN WASTING HER FOR 3 SEASONS SHE IS AMAZING

And Archie back to savior mode, we love to see it.  

Jugitha? Tabhead? I like their banter.  I’m into it.  I’m just really hoping that they don’t use another WOC as a plot device for Jughead to get back with Betty. If it happens, make it meaningful.  

MORE BOSS TONI!!! I love that Toni has never once strayed from her morals... no amount of money is going to make her screw over a bunch of students and work for Hiram lodge. 

“It used to be Kevin and I would sneak peaks through that window, hoping you were shirtless” BETTY YOU ARE SHAMELESS (also I absolutely LOVE a pilot reference) 

Wtf is Reggie doing.  Will he have a redemption arc? I really hope so! Like that he was blackmailed into working for Hiram and he is protecting his family in some way? Or something? Or maybe they have decided that he’s just “bad” now.  His hair is certainly bad...

Ok so Veronica is looking at getting a job as a... sports agent?? In LA?? Ok, Riverdale.  Sure.  And I guess she’s just done with Chad? Which ok, sure, that guy’s awful.  

SMITHERS LIVES!!!!!!!!!!

Lmao of course Monica Posh is back.  And this guy just casually has $30K cash laying around? Sounds legit.  

Ok I really thought the Betty gun scene was going to be Archie but turns out it’s Polly! Which I am happy to see!!! So it seems like Alice and Polly are bitter with Betty for “abandoning” them... which like, I don’t think that going to school and getting a job in a different state is “abandoning” your family.  But it does sound like Betty doesn’t call much and basically hasn’t been back to Riverdale since she left for college? Which is like... kinda shitty.  I wonder if that will be delved into a bit more.  Oh, who am I kidding, I know what show I’m watching.  

Toni at the Cooper house? Toni and Alice team up?? We love to see it!!!  

Ok Jughead lying about staying at the 5 seasons and actually staying in the bunker is just the saddest thing ever.  

Ok, I LOVE Tabitha?? “I think I’d remember a weird-ass name like that” LMAO. I Also love that she called the guy “pumpkin” in response to him calling her “sweetie” lol.  So good.  

Veggie comeback?? I miss them!!! But his hair... I can’t get past his hair. 

I actually love this plot point with Polly being involved with the Ghoulies and that being what gets Betty passionate about the raid (she had already offered help but now she’s IN)

The Betty and Archie arm touch? “You good?” I CAN’T

Can Kevin ever say a line without being interrupted? That’s just a running gag now lol.  I did enjoy the Succession reference though.  AND MORE BOSS TONI like seriously it’s so good.  

Ok I love how the plot point of Riverdale “going private” exists solely to allow all the main characters to become teachers there without having any teaching qualifications whatsoever LMAO.  Sure yes ok.  

I feel like Veronica should be asking her mom for help with Chad and not her dad? Wouldn’t she be more experienced in that side of things? Oh wait, we’re not supposed to ask questions about logic of storylines.  I do like the Hiram refused her help and brought up the scene “7 years ago” where she compared him to a dog, lol.  

Ok I feel like Betty is justified in questioning Polly about lying about where she’s working at the drugs (and since when has she ever done anything sensitively or discreetly?) and Polly is also justified in being defensive about it and thinking it’s none of Betty’s business since she hasn’t been around.  You know who’s business it IS, though? ALICE’S!!! Maybe Alice is overcompensating for sending Polly to SoQM years ago but she is all kinds of enabling her now.  

BARCHIEEEEEEEEEEEEE I could write a whole post on this.  Maybe I should? THE TENSION!! THE AKWARDNESS!!! “Cool” ---ARCHIE WAS SO NERVOUS WITH HER!!! THE SHOWER!!! OF COURSE BETTY CAN’T GO NEXT DOOR AND SHOWER AT HOME THAT WOULD BE TOO LOGICAL!!! THE LOOK THEY GIVE EACH OTHER THEY BOTH JUST FUCKING KNOW!!! THAT WAS SUCH A LONG AND EXPLICIT SEX SCENE FOR THE CW!!!!!! I KNEW IT WAS COMING FROM THE PROMO BUT I WAS STILL NOT READY!!!

Ok I’ve caught my breath... thoughts on this: 

This was LONG overdue.  I thought it was perfect.  They are adults, they both wanted each other, there was absolutely nothing in their way, and the show made sure that there was NO ambiguity about what they were doing.  They fucked in the shower, that’s it.  Some other notes - Betty twice in this episode talks about how Archie hasn’t changed - he is STILL the boy she has loved since she was a kid.

AND THEN THE CONVERSATION IMMEDIATELY AFTER!!! This show would normally not even have the characters address it.  We would have gone straight to the Pop’s scene with no discussion. “Something we’ve been wanting to do since high school but never got around to” I SCREAMED.  And their SMILES they are both so happy. I LOVED THIS!!! So we’re getting FWB barchie, great, I’m here for it.  You can see though, by both of their expressions, it’s more than that for both of them.  BETTY’S LIP BITE AT THE END GIRL IS IN LOOOOOVE

Jug’s speech at the retirement party was really good.  

Ok this Choni scene is just lovely.  They are both so soft I’M CRYING. “If our love ever meant anything to you, help us” SOB. 

Betty is the first one to agree to help Archie, noted.

Uh oh, Jughead is going to get in trouble again for writing about all his friends.  Or will he dig his way out of this? 

One last barchie moment TEXTING they are SICK

Jughead and Archie roomies!!! I love this!!! So much potential for tension and akwardness!! 

TL;DR - this episode was GREAT, barchie is HOT, and Toni is BOSS, this dynamic change up was NEEDED

s5 thoughts

okay, holy crap. so this is probably going to be long and rambly, and i’m writing it without having seen a single gif set or reaction from the fandom – scary. anyway, more below the cut! also spoilers, obviously.

first of all, asjsdklasjsjsjajkfds – i loved it so freaking much. canon deckerstar, fucking finally???? that sweet kiss in ep5? them not immediately breaking up again and instead working together on the issues they’re facing!? omg. it had so many amazing moments, and so many great stories for our characters, and so many little weird things that have always defined this show, and i am so so happy with it!!!

have some thoughts on every ep! i’ve only seen it once so this is far from elaborate meta, but i have to scream into the void somewhere before i dive into the madness of my dashboard. a little cautionary: there’ll be a bit negativity, but I’ll always put it in brackets so you can skip it easily.

5x01: really sad devil guy

i guessed mr. said out bitch would turn up in hell, and it was such a cool episode! i loved how they interwove it and showed lucifer ruling hell and them solving the case at the same time. and how michael showed up? they almost had me fooled there that it was actually lucifer. well done!

(the thought that it has already been thousands of years for lucifer again is so incredibly sad, like i really can’t think about it for long. an old otp of mine was separated for 20 years and i’ve always found it unbelievably cruel, so thousands of years is just… i don’t care that he’s used to greater spans of time, i really can’t think about it for long. and i don’t like that everybody just accepted that he’s gone now. that there was no rescue plan or anything like that.)

5x02: lucifer! lucifer! lucifer!

friggin’ michael, seriously. amazing scene with the wings though! and chloe bringing burgers and fries to the penthouse, omg. and that ending with her shooting him?? and that she knew something was wrong since their first kiss? i screamed. you go girl!! i was getting kinda worried through the episode but this ending was perfect. and a nice little nugget of knowledge regarding what they’re thinking about lucifer in heaven. very curious what michael’s grand plan turns out to be and what god’ll have to say to all of that!

(maze though. i get she’s going through a lot and i do emphatize with her but the constant scheming… i don’t know if i’ll ever really warm up to her.)

5x03: diablo!

the clowns in the hell loop, lmao. and their actual reunion and lucifer’s soft smile and chloe immediately embracing him again and them holding hands – someone hold me. of bloody course everything went to shit right after, but this was so very sweet! and lucifer bonding with dan, amazing. and the meta of course, lmao. their confrontation at the end ripped my heart out, but it hurt so good.

(the michael/lucifer fight wasn’t as spectacular as i’d hoped, but whatever!)

5x04: it never ends well for the chicken

unexpected, but totally awesome! such a fun ep, and i love that we finally know the backstory for his ring! and step-satan, yay!

(trixie kinda playing lucifer for maze felt a little icky, though, and i’d have loved it if they confirmed that she actually believes in him being the devil.)

5x05: detective amenadiel

again, lucifer and dan bonding, amazing! the case was pretty fun too, but amenadiel’s revelation was the best by far. i’ve never exactly thought of the whole miracle/immunity situation like that, but it’s such a great interpretation. it’s not that lucifer finally has a challenge in chloe, it’s that she’s the only human with a chance to see him and love him for who he really is, and… damn. if that isn’t some big romantic shit. and i bloody loved the kiss at the piano!!

5x06: blueballz

these little loved up idiots holding hands and flirting on the case?! aiaiaiai can you tell i’m still smiling from ear to ear??! lucifer being jealous and tribe night and the guys collectively trying to calm charlie down… amazeballs. also dan reveal? did not see that coming, not at all, but it was a nice punch to the gut after they finally got along again and lucifer even wore his stupid bracelet. and new devil face, again! this one’s actually a little bit scarier than the last one. and the deckerstar sex scene, for real, without interruption? loved it, loved that chloe was apparently on top and his awed little “incredible…” – be still my heart!!

(i mean i’m greedy and it could have been longer or more explicit but i get that filming these scenes sucks and that’s what fanfic is for, anyway.)

5x07: our mojo

i melted at the morning after scene!! and did not see the mojo storyline coming at all, but it was fun, and they’re such a great team together! dan’s scene at charlotte’s grave was so powerful. and the scene in the flower shop, I could only think of @thewolffgang’s fic! chloe hyping lucifer up was so sweet, but then it was so scary seeing him paralyzed like that. that sweet penthouse balcony scene, and then dan trying to ruin the evening. i don’t know what it means that he’s not vulnerable around her anymore (and i don’t necessarily like it) but i hope they’ll resolve it together in the second half of the season.

5x08: spoiler alert

just, holy crap. these last episodes really had me at the edge of my seat. watching lucifer realize chloe’s been kidnapped?? painful, but good shit, good good shit. him thinking they’re too late and chloe is already dead? god, no. that little “detective?” broke my heart. but him doing all the detective work? amazing. i was so bummed for ella though!! i really thought pete was a good guy, but oh well. so creepy, omg. i’m so grateful that there was no cliffhanger with chloe’s rescue. i really, really liked how god showed up at the last second. can i have the next episodes now, pretty please??

(what was the point of charlie’s flu, though? and wtf does michael think he’s doing? and maze, really, with the questionable alliances?)

overall i feel like s4 felt a little tighter or more coherent, but i don’t care because deckerstar is finally canon and there’s a ton of great potential for the next half and i’m so deliriously happy because of that. yay! going to check my dashboard now, wish me luck!

A little controversial question... If the show ever made Scott go dark/evil/make a terrible but necessary decision, how would you want it to happen in a way that would make sense.

I think we already saw how it would happen in Ouroboros (5x08) with Scott’s violation of Corey’s mind.  

Make no mistake, in this scene, Scott betrayed everything he had stood for from Season 1 in a desperate act to save Liam and Hayden.  I love this scene, because it laid out that the very things that could push Scott into darkness were also the very source of his strength: his friends, his pack, his family.

Look at the relationships involved in that scene.  His father-figure, Deaton, had vanished.  The sheriff, who used him as free labor, had arrested his girlfriend for murder.  His mother had mouthed some bullshit about ‘I can’t tell you not to be a hero’ and then turned around and demanded he be a hero.  Liam had basically made him swear a promise to do anything to protect a girl Liam had started having feelings for a literal week before.  That’s on top of the responsibility Scott felt for Liam as beta.  Meanwhile, Stiles and Lydia were pulling away, leaving him unsupported.  He’s suffering from asthma. Fandom likes to paint Scott as oblivious, but even Scott knew he was losing, and people were dying because Scott wasn’t perfect.   In his own words: “I know something’s coming. And all I can think about is how good am I going to be if I can’t even breathe?“

Every single season, Scott had been pushed by the people he cared about to be a super-hero so they didn’t have to be.  In Season 1, Stiles literally tortured Scott and then had him beaten by seniors because he’s pissed off, yet then turned around and said “Look, you have something, Scott. Okay? Whether you want it or not, you can do things that nobody else can do. So that means you don’t have a choice anymore. It means you have to do something.”  In Season 2, his own mother didn’t talk to him for a week out of horror for his new state, and then when she finally did talk to him like a person, she says “If you can do something to help, then you do it. You have to.”  

In Season 3, Scott literally was inspired to commit suicide because he couldn’t take the pressure of having to save everyone.  Allison tries to tell him that Derek wasn’t his fault, but he doesn’t believe her, because no one before had ever acted like that was true.  Instead, he’s guilted out of suicide by having Stiles insist on dying with him. It was touching, but Stiles’ action didn’t address the underlying problem.  By this point, Scott had clearly equated his self worth with being a hero.

Scott was never convinced that it was okay for him to fail as the True Alpha, a power he never asked for and didn’t want.   Derek basically crowned him Protector of Beacon Hills and then fucked off to South America.   His heart literally stopped and his mother told him that same night “You’ll get them back.  You have to.”  His best-friend screamed at him “Where were you?” when he had been lying dead.   That same mother whispers from her possible death bed “Don’t run.  You fight.”  The sad part of this is, I could go on with more examples of people equating Scott’s personal value with his lycanthropic status.

No pressure there. /sarcasm

The only three people to ever tell Scott that he doesn’t have to save everyone were Alan Deaton, Chris Argent, and fucking Theo Raeken.   Alan Deaton was the only person on the show (leaving romance out of it) to value Scott without preconditions, to like Scott for Scott and not what his powers could accomplish.  He’s the one who cautioned Scott about taking on burdens he might not be able to handle.  Chris Argent is the only person to treat Scott like he didn’t have to be personally responsible for winning all the time and was willing to put his money where his mouth was by flying from France not to just to help but to also take responsibility. 

Look at how Theo in 5A and 5B gets under Scott’s skin.  He was the only person to recognize the amount of pressure Scott’s so-called friends and family had put him under.  From “You guys do this a lot, don’t you … Get involved.” in A Novel Approach (5x05) to “Just let it happen. Let it go. Let everything go.” in Apotheosis (5x20) Theo recognized that his pack’s requirement that Scott be the hero they needed – without regard for the fact that Scott was just a kid like them – was Scott’s weak spot.  And Theo used that, big time.

This all added up, and it never stopped.  In the freaking series finale, Scott was confronted by his greatest fear, which wasn’t that he’d die before he went to college or that he’d be perpetually locked in a battle with the supernatural and never have control over his own life, it was that he would fail to protect his friends and family.   

You want to imagine a scenario that would drive Scott McCall to the dark side?  Take a teenage boy, turn him into a werewolf, and then teach him, repeatedly, that the only way people can love him is if he becomes a flawless paragon of heroism.  If he screws up, a person he loves will die in his arms.  If he screws up again, another person he loves will be locked away in the desert, maybe forever.  If he tries to explain why he failed, sneer at his petty excuse, “You’ll heal.”   Make it clear to him that if he doesn’t win all the time, he’s a monster.  Then have him lose – welcome to the dark side.

It could have easily gone that way.  Imagine what would have happened, if instead of “being lucky this time” as the Sheriff put it, Melissa, Lydia, Mason, Chris, and Rafael had died when Gabe shot up the McCall house in Werewolves of London (6x17).  Malia too wrapped up in Peter’s bullshit.  Inexplicably, Deaton hadn’t even talked to him during 6B.  Liam – Angry Wolf – would have held him back?  We were very close to the scenario you were talking about, right on the screen.  

Maria watches friday night lights (#26)

5x03 here we are, Julie’s bad decisions are piling up! (I watched 5x04+5x05 too, just gotta edit all my ramblings into coherency.)

under the cut:

Wow the level of Lions pride there now is is truly amazing. It’s wild that Buddy now owns this East Dillon watering hole! Weirdly like...growth? Given how many different types of people are gathered to celebrate this team that was revitalized only a year ago? Wild.

Uh oh, why does Vince’s father getting out of prison seem like a bad thing. God things were finally going well for him!

Also love how I was equally as disturbed as Vince was by his mom cleaning, knew something was up!

Omg the video with Maura went viral! 2,000 hits. That’s like everyone their age right? 😬

“We didn’t do any of this crap when we were kids.” Tami’s look of “yeah right” made me lol

“You think maybe people change? You changed.” I was about to say it but then Vince did: “I don’t know. I ain’t gone to jail.” Bc the problem is — the prison system ensures that people remain in a permanent underclass once paroled, making it nearly impossible to escape the cycle. so unfortunately it seems very unlikely Vince’s dad changed for the better while in a prison, which is an inherently violent and traumatizing place to be, let alone for five years when he already had a track record for treating your mom like trash...oh babe.

Oh nooo Buddy Jr. is smoking weed. West coast, brother! Lol

Yikes this is really sad, Tami is like trying to subtly be like to Maura, ‘sooo did seeing a bunch of guys passing you around while drunk on video like...maybe traumatize you a bit?’ And Maura’s like ‘WE WERE HAVING FUN HAVE YOU EVER PARTIED.’ Hello, internalized misogyny and a need for therapy, plz honey. Seems like her parents are a lot angrier than she is!

“daddy issues.com, I feel you” is literally what I nervously sang out loud at Vince and his father reuniting.

Omg they’re forcing the girls alone to listen to a really boring lecture on alcohol? This just doesn’t seem effective.

Holy shit two of the football players were making fun of the video.....? Disgusting. Rape culture is the fact that people are making fun of a girl being passed around like a rag doll!

The TA giving Julie a C- bc he’s “spent time with her” and “knows she can do better” is super manipulative and creepy and oh boy I hate this harmful dynamic. He’s literally GRADING HER PAPERS. Nope nope nope.

oh god not the ol “weekly salon for promising students the professor just so happens to host” trope! OH GOD

Ooooh making Jess equipment manager??? Tami is the best. Aw Jess is so excited! I’m so glad that within five seasons they included a character like her who is a girl who also grew up with football and loves it more than some of the guys on this show do!

Ooooh they’re doing shirts and ties instead of jerseys on game days and community outreach. Mmhmm ok revive your image

Vince is losing his confidence and motivation as a captain now his dad’s home noooooo

Lol I knew Buddy was gonna blame the weed on “that hippie Kevin.” So predictable.

“You know maybe it’s not about you and it’s not about Pam, it’s about your son, who happens to need you.” YES ERIC TELL HIM

“Nobody said being a dad’s gonna be easy.” OOH OOH Eric give my dad one of these talks next

“Girls in locker rooms are bad ideas.” I can’t. Lol Tami got lil toddler Grace to say “think about it, daddy!!” She doesn’t play nice.

LMAO I have never related to Vince more than in this moment: “did you talk to your dad?” “Yep.” “how did it go?” *sprints away without answering*

Okay here we are, douchey assholes at the ~salon~ and Julie with a glass of champagne and a devious smile looks like she’s on a mission.

“You must be so proud to have such a distinguished wife.” Oh Jesus TA’s wife’s away on a “sabbatical in Boston.” I see where this illicit romance is going and THANKS I HATE IT

Oh geez Vince doesn’t like Jess being equipment manager? She looks so cute and excited!

Oh boy, Maura is clearly going through some shit, she is relishing in being caught. I know that Tami is judging making out in a supply closet as a concept, but it can be hot—however, in this particular case, i have to agree on not romantic.

“Everyone thinks that I’m married but I don’t feel like I am.” Lines men say before they cheat on their wife with an underage student under their tutelage they shouldn’t be pursuing even if they’re single.

“You’re an awesome girl, Julie Taylor.” Key word ‘GIRL.’ Now he’s saying he feels “comfortable with her” and “if it were a different time and a different place.” This is what grooming sounds like.

Ewwwwwww

Oh noooo Julie you’ve been in college for like five minutes and you’ve already fucked a married TA. Oh honey NO.

Poor Vince. So much trauma between his mom and his dad.

Wowwww the transition from Vince fighting with his parents to walking in suit and tie past all the fans with signs 😭

Yes Eric reiterating he’s proud of Vince and so are his teammates after he goes off — I love how he can like tell something is off with him. He shuts the door and gets Vince to explain the home situation in like five mins.

“He never taught me how to better! How am I supposed to be better?” Omg yessss I feel you babe 😭

Oh god is Vince’s dad showing up gonna cost them this game

NOPE he just did an INSANE touchdown instead!!! Go Vince! “They call that the Tinker shuffle. They get a flag for excessive celebrating and who can blame them?”

“That was a hell of an effort. That’s character, Vince.” Awwww Eric’s so proud of him. His dad is sad. Welp, no thanks to you.

Omg their 3 and 0 East Side cheer at the bar sounds so much like the cheers our predominantly Black football team would do at our pep rallies I love it. This team has so much more heart and soul than the Panthers.

Omg Buddy Jr. is coming back to town???? Intrigue.

TA apologized and and acknowledged he knew it was wrong for teacher-student reasons! Yikes! Bc you know it’s gonna happen again!

“Only 17 years old and you’re already better than I ever was.” Damn Vince’s dad apologizing for not asking to move in after seeing him shine at the game, #growth

“Tonight for the first time in my life I knew what pride felt like. I mean, boy, that was crazy out there. You the man for real.” OMGGGG VINCE IS CRYING wow 🥺

what's your favorite: 1. fic of all time / 2. av fic !! / 3. x files episode/s / 4. literary trope / 5. place to write / 6. song right now in this moment ?? (feel free to skip/ ignore any you've already answered or don't want to answer)

fic of all time: big bird by wtfmulder its MASTER CLASS oh my GOD

av fic: if i dont say wht its like to shine then who AM i

x files episode/s:

- 1x05 jersey devil (this is like. my episode. like i feel like everyone has tht one episode of their favorite show tht doesnt have to be the best but they undoubtedly love it and jersey devil is My episode)

- 1x08 ice (this isnt just the best ep of s1 this is one of the best episodes of the entire series and i stand by tht like oh my god this is one ive seen probably as many times as ive seen the pilot)

3x22 quagmire (i think abt sitting in the car watching this ep waiting outside my therapists office and just like. falling in love again and again w this show bc of it)

5x05 the post-modern prometheus (sav. sav its a cher themed episode. it has the most tender fucking ending. oh my god this ep makes me crazy)

5x10 chinga (this ep isnt actually tht scary but i have a fear of dolls so its like a thing for me but it still ranks as one of my favorites bc *ben wyatt voice* its abt the sculder)

6x19 the unnatural (this legitimately may be my favorite ep of the entire series like. jesse l martin is there and he made me bawl and i still tear up when i think abt it)

literary trope: childhood best friends to lovers babey! thts where its at like. the intimacy of knowing someone through every piece of there life, of having been there for them through it, of growing and growing up together and still wanting to be w one another, of wanting to see every shade of life tht comes after. god thts love...

place to write: i love writing at my desk bc its a custom pieve so its set up just how i want it but lately ive come to love sitting in the corner of our sectional sofa. also its not smthn i get to do a lot but sometimes ill write in our garden or on the front porch which are both god tier but i esp love to do it when its rlly cold outside bc theres just nothing like it there rlly isnt

song right now in this moment: back 2 good _ matchbox twenty (im losing my mind to the album this is from 7 days a week but the lyrics below. GOD)

send me 'whts your favorite..." asks!!

“Poor Scott was inspired to commit suicide because he had to save everyone but was GUILTED out of it by Stiles instead”

“Poor Scott was inspired to commit suicide because he had to save everyone but was guilted out of it by Stiles instead”

https://princeescaluswords.tumblr.com/post/615021898044243968/a-little-controversial-question-if-the-show#notes

@taylorswiflt: A little controversial question… If the show ever made Scott go dark/evil/make a terrible but necessary decision, how would you want it to happen in a way that would make sense.

@princeescaluswords:

I think we already saw how it would happen in Ouroboros (5x08) with Scott’s violation of Corey’s mind.

Make no mistake, in this scene, Scott betrayed everything he had stood for from Season 1 in a desperate act to save Liam and Hayden. I love this scene, because it laid out that the very things that could push Scott into darkness were also the very source of his strength: his friends, his pack, his family.

Look at the relationships involved in that scene. His father-figure, Deaton, had vanished. The sheriff, who used him as free labor, had arrested his girlfriend for murder. His mother had mouthed some bullshit about ‘I can’t tell you not to be a hero’ and then turned around and demanded he be a hero. Liam had basically made him swear a promise to do anything to protect a girl Liam had started having feelings for a literal week before. That’s on top of the responsibility Scott felt for Liam as beta. Meanwhile, Stiles and Lydia were pulling away, leaving him unsupported. He’s suffering from asthma. Fandom likes to paint Scott as oblivious, but even Scott knew he was losing, and people were dying because Scott wasn’t perfect. In his own words: “I know something’s coming. And all I can think about is how good am I going to be if I can’t even breathe?“

Every single season, Scott had been pushed by the people he cared about to be a super-hero so they didn’t have to be. In Season 1, Stiles literally tortured Scott and then had him beaten by seniors because he’s pissed off, yet then turned around and said “Look, you have something, Scott. Okay? Whether you want it or not, you can do things that nobody else can do. So that means you don’t have a choice anymore. It means you have to do something.” In Season 2, his own mother didn’t talk to him for a week out of horror for his new state, and then when she finally did talk to him like a person, she says “If you can do something to help, then you do it. You have to.”

In Season 3, Scott literally was inspired to commit suicide because he couldn’t take the pressure of having to save everyone. Allison tries to tell him that Derek wasn’t his fault, but he doesn’t believe her, because no one before had ever acted like that was true. Instead, he’s guilted out of suicide by having Stiles insist on dying with him. It was touching, but Stiles’ action didn’t address the underlying problem. By this point, Scott had clearly equated his self worth with being a hero.

Scott was never convinced that it was okay for him to fail as the True Alpha, a power he never asked for and didn’t want. Derek basically crowned him Protector of Beacon Hills and then fucked off to South America. His heart literally stopped and his mother told him that same night “You’ll get them back. You have to.” His best-friend screamed at him “Where were you?” when he had been lying dead. That same mother whispers from her possible death bed “Don’t run. You fight.” The sad part of this is, I could go on with more examples of people equating Scott’s personal value with his lycanthropic status.

No pressure there. /sarcasm

The only three people to ever tell Scott that he doesn’t have to save everyone were Alan Deaton, Chris Argent, and fucking Theo Raeken. Alan Deaton was the only person on the show (leaving romance out of it) to value Scott without preconditions, to like Scott for Scott and not what his powers could accomplish. He’s the one who cautioned Scott about taking on burdens he might not be able to handle. Chris Argent is the only person to treat Scott like he didn’t have to be personally responsible for winning all the time and was willing to put his money where his mouth was by flying from France not to just to help but to also take responsibility.

Look at how Theo in 5A and 5B gets under Scott’s skin. He was the only person to recognize the amount of pressure Scott’s so-called friends and family had put him under. From “You guys do this a lot, don’t you… Get involved.” in A Novel Approach (5x05) to “Just let it happen. Let it go. Let everything go.” in Apotheosis (5x20) Theo recognized that his pack’s requirement that Scott be the hero they needed – without regard for the fact that Scott was just a kid like them – was Scott’s weak spot. And Theo used that, big time.

This all added up, and it never stopped. In the freaking series finale, Scott was confronted by his greatest fear, which wasn’t that he’d die before he went to college or that he’d be perpetually locked in a battle with the supernatural and never have control over his own life, it was that he would fail to protect his friends and family.

You want to imagine a scenario that would drive Scott McCall to the dark side? Take a teenage boy, turn him into a werewolf, and then teach him, repeatedly, that the only way people can love him is if he becomes a flawless paragon of heroism. If he screws up, a person he loves will die in his arms. If he screws up again, another person he loves will be locked away in the desert, maybe forever. If he tries to explain why he failed, sneer at his petty excuse, “You’ll heal.” Make it clear to him that if he doesn’t win all the time, he’s a monster. Then have him lose – welcome to the dark side.

It could have easily gone that way. Imagine what would have happened, if instead of “being lucky this time” as the Sheriff put it, Melissa, Lydia, Mason, Chris, and Rafael had died when Gabe shot up the McCall house in Werewolves of London (6x17). Malia too wrapped up in Peter’s bullshit. Inexplicably, Deaton hadn’t even talked to Scott during 6B. Liam – Angry Wolf – would have held Scott back? We were very close to the scenario you were talking about, right on the screen.

~*~*~

Scott/Posey Stans do really enjoy painting Scott McCall as a whiny crybaby who’s neglected and mistreated by his ungrateful friends because they refuse to recognize how ‘better’ or ‘superior’ he is, don’t they? It’s never Scott’s fault, it’s always someone else’s – doesn’t matter if canon directly contradicts each and every single one of their self-insert power fantasies and delusions

Here’s an example: “I think we already saw how it would happen in Ouroboros (5x08) with Scott’s violation of Corey’s mind. Make no mistake, in this scene, Scott betrayed everything he had stood for from Season 1 in a desperate act to save Liam and Hayden. I love this scene because it laid out that the very things that could push Scott into darkness were also the very source of his strength: his friends, his pack, his family”

Pew tries to justify Scott’s disgusting violation of Corey by painting it as a selfless, heroic act, and claims that Scott did it to save Liam and Hayden. But canon explicitly shows us that Scott lashed out at Corey (“You’ll heal!”) to make himself feel better about using Hayden as bait against the dread doctors without her explicit consent, and that Hayden (Liam’s girlfriend) was literally DYING because of him. So no, what Scott did to Corey in Teen Wolf Season 5A was neither selfless nor heroic: it’s just abuse.

The most hilarious thing though is that any Teen Wolf fan who watched the actual show can easily dismantle every single lie Pew spews in this post – and on his blog in general – with canon receipts

Especially that delusional “Stiles and Lydia were pulling away, leaving Scott unsupported”, “Every single season Scott had been pushed by the people he cared about to be a super-hero so they didn’t have to be”, “Scott literally was inspired to commit suicide because he couldn’t take the pressure of having to save everyone. Instead, he’s guilted out of suicide by having Stiles insist on dying with him”, “Scott was never convinced that it was okay for him to fail as the True Alpha, a power he never asked for and didn’t want. Derek basically crowned him Protector of Beacon Hills and then fucked off to South America”, AND “Theo recognized that his pack’s requirement that Scott be the hero they needed was Scott’s weak spot” garbage

-

COOKIE

I’m sorry but. Scott was inspired to commit suicide because he couldn’t take the pressure? 

No. Full stop. 

Scott, BOYD, and ETHAN(? was it the other one?) tried to commit themselves because they were magically compelled to. It had nothing to do with Scott’s supposed “self-lessness”. And I’m sorry, but only PEW would take Stiles risking his own human life to save Scott, whom he loved like a brother, as a fucking guilt trip. I am more convinced than ever that this bitter old man has never had a friend in his life. 

it’s helpful if you know, like fifteen episodes & a year & a half later, i can like remember to gently touch the door of Canon to its jamb so i can consider winston character study type fics which i probably won’t write but to Consider It is step one regardless....and it’s difficult to do that if i’m like, oh but lemme wait on what’s offered re: riawin in canon lol. wherein at this point it’s not even like, oh it’s Completely Impossible they’d do anything with that, nor do i feel like oh it doesn’t seem like rian likes winston at all / will have or has any positive dynamic with him, mostly that i’m not sure the writers would allow it b/c so far there’s been no signs winston’s allowed to have Serious Material, vs. how much of him being a character besides [guy who gets dunked on] stems from the acting. like as a Serious Character i'm not sure rian would be allowed by the writing to consider kissing winston or anything, & i’m sure not sure if they’d want to do anything with that theoretical romance anyways, since you know, if it provided motivation for rian, that’d confer some Seriousness / regular stakes to something about winston, and again, the thesis statement here is the writing has never seemed to be willing to do that lmao. was just comparing & contrasting like well ben was having like a subplot or two or three that gave him earnest focus by his fourth season on the show, and next season will be winston’s fourth....before remembering i was also thinking of some subplots ben was getting by his Third season on the show, and that winston is Already on his fourth season, as of season six lmaooo....f

wait right and yet Even Now i’m like, rian’s talking about a Relatively recent breakup of a Relatively serious relationship ft. the implication that due to this she hasn’t been raring to get into relationships since? unfortunately fits fine with the hc i came up with of “what if rian had a long term gf during/stemming from college & it was fairly serious but they parted ways mutually enough and maybe in part about some Practical Issue like rian planning to move to nyc or what have you. for the drama” but Also for the [kind of worked back to that as a Hypothesis about like hmm we don’t know much about rian, If she thinks she ever even Could return winston’s sentiments here, could there be some other stuff going on that doesn’t really have to do directly with This situation but that would make her want to hold off on either going for it Or telling him it’s never gonna happen] reason lol like well she just might be generally hesitant about relationships for things like: recent enough sad enough breakup (also that rian not specifying the gender of the other person involved in that relationship: continue to presume she’s bi until proven otherwise. they’re all bi (tmc) and no one wants him (winston))

so like the point is until they have rian like, tell winston to fucking forget it (which, if he’s The Guy Who Gets Dunked On, rian’s not like dying to spare his feelings at all times and will be spontaneous with him & do that dunking, and she’s told him he’s not hot & like been annoyed at him and, for reasons that i guess include “personal targeted attack on me specifically,” simply says Don’t Press in 5x05 rather than that being an obvious opportunity for more of a God, No (eugh gross never etc) type response as would Seemingly make sense if she felt that way (but maybe they have her Not so that the running joke(?) of winston having a crush can continue more indefinitely(?) i guess lmao. idk why they’re doing all this) it’s like, i too will tenderly carry this scrap of hope about riawin and certainly think of it when thinking of any What Ifs / transformative material about winston lol But.....also may be easier to write Around anything that isn’t ambiguous enough with it, and that would seemingly align with canon like, indefinitely out here lol, which is convenient. like i always say (just now lol)....wynnstannery is about being strung along forever with little a hope about what tiny gifts they may surprise us with with canon winston material, but also about interpreting the character in a way canon may never have done and may never consider doing (like that no, he need not be damned to Especial Inherent Disdain nor for some reason never focused on in earnest / for his own sake nor not replaced with other more serious(tm) characters whenever Anyone else could step into some role winston could possibly have (advisor, employee, friend, lover, etc)) & weathering disappointment as well, as is the Curse Of The Winston Billions Carer lmfao, due to this inherent conflict w/whatever the writers seem to be considering out here (or rather, Never considering)........and then i just write some transformative What Ifs anyways where one must consider like okay do you explore the [character analysis] of how if you do take winston seriously it’d make sense for him to be like miserably depressed at any given time, but if you account for how the written canon glimpses go, he Must shrug things off easily enough in the moment & without any of this discouragement really Accumulating or else he wouldn’t be able to keep speaking up with things that give a scene some offbeat flavor &/or set other people up to get to dunk on someone (him)....or do you try to find some kind of balance like, well, like [Ambiguous riawin elements], so too do i write [Ambiguous winston is internally screaming] things lol.......i Do write winston billions fucks though like damn it if nothing else my guy can get some. latest ideas include just that. artists’ motivation = horniness & revenge

A Buffy rewatch 5x05 No Place Like Home

aka your bratty demon children are doing their best!!!!

Welcome to this dailyish text post series where I will rewatch an episode of Buffy and go on an impromptu rant about it for an hour. Is it about one hyperspecific thing or twenty observations? 10 or 3k words? You don’t know! I don’t know!!! In this house we don’t know things.

And today’s episode jump starts this season’s plot with a bang of reveals, while life goes on for characters outside of our main action.

We always talk about the 7th episode special with Buffy, that usually comes in with the big thematic reveals or plot starters that would become crucial to the season. No Place Like Home feels a lot like those, so much so that it got me thinking that maybe there’s a 5th episode rule we’re sleeping on.

(There isn’t of course. Once I looked up, I saw that our past 5th episodes include such gems as Reptile Boy and Beer Bad - both episodes that I admittedly enjoy well above the general consensus, but definitely not ones that qualify by those measures. The fact that this wasn’t immediately evident for me too once again also proves just how bad I am at remembering episode numbers.)

Regardless, this is a big moment for the season. For the last four episodes we’ve been kind of just having fun with the characters with no Big Bads in sight. Everyone’s on their journey, being adults. Buffy is putting in some extra work to learn more about her power and heritage, some arcs are winding down from last season, but overall, there wasn’t a big through line indicating where we were headed.

Except of course the unspoken Dawn device. Truth be told, I can’t really remember what my first watch through of this plot looked like, and whether or not I bought the sister twist at the time. Sure, Buffy talked about being an only child in the past many and more times, but TV shows do retcons and there are always some writing inconsistencies if a show goes on long enough. Like how Giles just fucking lied in 1x03 about how that was his first spell.

We’re also pulling a lot of the good old fashioned red-herring that I complained a bit about with The Replacement. It mostly works here though. Even if the show is trying to put Dawn in a creepy demon child light, there’s nothing really out of place or character when you watch those scenes with full background knowledge. All children are just naturally creepy I guess - especially ones that make tea for their moms.

If you stop and think about that scene in its real context, it’s actually incredibly sweet and reveals a lot about how Dawn’s dealing with their mom’s illness. She’s copying Buffy’s behavior from earlier, when she made breakfast for Joyce. In that scene, Dawn may have been incredibly bratty with how she took credit for Buffy’s efforts, but in reality, she’s just as scared and worried as Buffy is.

And honestly, there’s nothing wrong with how Dawn acts with their mom. Buffy’s annoyance with Dawn in those scenes is really about her own resentment that she’s not the child her mother dotes on anymore. She’s slowly taking over a parental role in their home and she’s resisting it with all she’s got.

Unfortunately, a lot of that blows back on Dawn as a result. Because of that, I felt Willow’s plea to Buffy to take it easy on her a bit. Dawn might be a bit of a brat, but there’s a lot of unfair projection in how Buffy treats her in these early episodes. And she’s going through stuff here too with their mom’s mysterious illness.

Not to mention all the hurtful things Buffy says to her in this episode, while and after she’s performing the revealing spell. Watching those scenes trying to see them from Dawn’s perspective is actually quite painful. I’d be a creepy bratty demon child too if my superpowered sibling told me that I’m not their sister, and threw me up to the wall.

Following that, thinking about that last scene between Buffy and Dawn in all that context gets me a bit teary, ngl. I’m always a slut for a good sibling dynamic. And these two have a lot coming for them yet.

It’s probably Buffy’s tenderness that gets to me the most. She just found out that Dawn is a supernatural device in human form... but she’s also an innocent. And Buffy could never turn back on someone who needed her help. (Dawn is also the metaphor for Buffy’s own innocence, I guess - this is Buffy after all, we’ve gotta have our metaphors.)

And she’s her sister. We can see it in each and every gesture of Buffy’s that she’s accepted and embraced that. She’ll say this out loud later on in the season too, but it’s all there already - no matter how or where Dawn came from, she’s her sister now. Nothing else matters.

Then we got introduced to our Big Bad. I’ve always enjoyed Glory, but I’m not sure I’m ready to have a take on her. Or if I ever will be ready for that. There’s probably a lot to unpack there about mental illness that I feel grossly unqualified to talk about... Not that ever actually stopped me. The truth is that I just can’t seem to find the handle on her yet.

Another aspect of season 5 that I quite like is that we now can have completely unrelated B plots and whatnots in the background. The whole storyline with Giles and the magic shop has absolutely nothing to do with what’s Buffy’s facing, but it’s delightful.

Earlier seasons of Buffy almost always had a thematic through line to each episode, that connected the characters. Which helped keep the focus and develop the characters in parallel to each other, making sure we’d relate to them. It’s one of the things that makes Buffy what it is in the first place.

But by now, the show has also earned this. Just peppering in these moments in the lives of the Scoobies, while Buffy is going through this huge life-altering realization. It also helps underlining a theme of independence for these characters. They now all have to learn starting to rely on themselves more and more.

Well, Willow definitely shouldn’t rely on her own gift-wrapping skills though. I laughed at that bit even more so than I did at Spike’s 5-word one-liner.

Next stop is Family. I think. I’ll never trust my own memory of Buffy episode numbers again.

5x05 and 5x06 rewatch

-FRIENDLY REMINDER: everyone is coming in and trying to take Clarke’s home, the only place she’s been safe for 6 years. And guess what, when giving advice....she’s RIGHT again!

-clarke has pictures of her mother and Bellamy hanging...hmmm

-clarke you’re not tired, you just don’t want to tell him that you called him for 6 years

-zavennnnnn

-my memori heart

-bellamy helping clarke up after the worms. Bless

- when cooper states the obvious and Clarke says “thank you go!”

-listen that clarke looking at b*cho jealously scene was not put in there for shits and giggles

-also e*ho looking scared is honestly comical

-clarke sees how much of a tyrant oct*via is and is right about everything she says and does after she realizes it

-ShE pRoVeD HeRsELf dOzEnS oF tImEs On tHe riNg

-they saved that dumb horn

-e*ho close your fucking mouth! I can’t stand her

-and already I dislike bellamy. He was very much so in character in the first five episodes and now? Not so much. He always had an ability to see the other side and now he doesn’t

-there is way too much e*ho in this episode.

-let 👏🏼 the 👏🏼 fucking 👏🏼 flame 👏🏼 die👏🏼

-We FoUnD eAcH oThEr In a CaGe GROSS AF. Someone explain to me how this is a good thing? You had no other choice so you got together? Great

- this sex scene is disgusting! Why is her arm so stiff. Obvi you’re trying to hide your boob. Be a better actress. Also pick someone with more chemistry with bob next time

-oof this clarke and madi scene. Eliza is such a good actress

-the fact that bellamy didn’t understand why clarke was leaving is exactly why he is not in character. He would understand that more than anything

Conclusion: 5 was good and then 6 just took a complete 180 and I hated it. Why did Jason actually think anyone wanted a b*cho sex scene? There’s literally no buildup, no chemistry, and I don’t care a single lick for her. Is it a shipping matter? Yes. A little. But it’s also because we have been shown NOTHING of how she “proved herself.” We were told. And sorry if I don’t believe anyone when they’re not acting like how they used to. I don’t want her story