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#basically this is me realizing that I need to do a rewatch soon haha
personinthepalace · 2 years
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What do you think about some of my favorite (non-finale) episodes:
training day
disorder in the court
o vs the ballcano
flawed squad
cherry on top inator
odd in 60 seconds
16 and a half blocks
box trot
why did the chicken cross the dimension
Here we go! Please keep in mind that these are just my opinions :)
Training Day: slight confession, I didn't care much about this episode when I first watched it when it first aired haha. But my opinion on it definitely changed upon multiple rewatches. This episode changed the game! We finally understand Olive's PTSD and got an amazing introduction to OS best villain, Odd Todd! This episode had a big change in tone compared to the previous episodes, indicating that this show is more than just a fun kid's show- it can get serious and explore complex topics. So while it might not be one of my top favorite episodes, I think it is a GREAT episode that is very well written and acted and is a must watch for everyone!
Disorder In the Court: once again, another must watch episode since it is important to the story arc of season 1! One of the reasons I really love this episode is the focus on Olive's and Otto's partnership. Their friendship and trust is tested, but they come out strong in the end. Otto says one of my favorite quotes in the show, "Olive we're not just partners; we're friends. Nothing will ever change that." My favorite OS episodes are the ones that focus on the partners (in fact, my top favorite S1 episode is one that just focus on them during their plot). Also we get the return of Odd Todd which is always fun. And this is a court room episode, and they way they went about it is so fun. Between the two court room episodes in this show, this one was definitely the better one. Overall, I really enjoy this episode and can consider it as a favorite (I seriously need to make a list of my favorite S1 episodes someday haha)
O vs the Ballcano: I actually don't remember much about this episode, but Headquarters being flooded with the balls from the ballpit was such a fun thing to see! It must have been a fun day on set haha. Two things I really remember from this episode are Olaf losing his potato and O'Donahue shouting "Noooooo" during a flashback. I remember enjoying this episode though I don't know if I can count it as a top favorite
Flawed Squad: slight confession, when I first watched it, I thought it was one of the weaker episodes of the first batch that came out of season 2. But once again, upon rewatches, I find it much more enjoyable than I initally thought! I honestly didn't figure out the pattern at first, so that was fun to see Olympia and Ocean figure out. We got an Ocean and Olympia team up which was fun, and Owen being a cook was a nice touch! And if I remember correctly, this was the episode where Oona was trying to teach them to use the stairs, and then Olympia taught Ocean - I just find that hilarious haha. I guess the things I didn't care much about in this episode was the creature itself and the fake Big O/real Big O stuff. But overall while it isn't one of my top favorites, it is definitely an enjoyable episode with lots of gems I didn't notice at first
Edit 07/12/2022: okay I somehow convinced myself that the plot of Creature Whisperer was the plot of Flawed Squad??? Oops 😅 Anyway my thoughts on the actual episode: the first of the villain break-ins!! Anytime there’s a villain ensemble it is so much fun to watch and this was no exception. I found the ending a bit anti-climatic but then again these villains aren’t the brightest haha. Overall an enjoyable and very good episode that I liked but wouldn’t consider as one of my top faves simply bc there are so many great episodes in this season haha
Cherry-on-top-inator: now this is definitely one of my all time favorite episodes in S2! And maybe one of my top faves of the whole show haha. We get unhinged Oona who is completely fed up with her co-workers and just wants to destroy the gadget but they keep on interrupting. Crazy Oona is my favorite haha. All of the different forms of storytelling were so much fun!! My favorite is definitely the musical number with Olympia and Otis- it is also one of my favorite songs of the show (Odd Squad release the season 2 soundtrack PLEASE). But I love all the others as well especially Ohlm's film noir haha. Whenever it pops up on the PBS Kids player, you can bet I am going to watch it haha. So yeah one of my all time favorite episodes, and one I try to get everyone to watch haha
Odd in 60 Seconds: okay so I will confess that I am not a big fan of the Mobile Unit episodes. As a result, I haven't really rewatch these episodes and thus don't remember much about them. So this will affect my opinion of the upcoming episodes that you've mentioned. That being said, this episode is actually one of the ones that I remember really liking in Season 3. Now I don't actually remember much about this episode but the concept of villains coming in and trying to prove that they broke into the vault(?) was a lot of fun. I remember thinking that this was the best episode of s3 so I guess I'll stick with that haha
16 And A Half Blocks: I honestly don't remember anything about this episode. And even after reading the synopsis, I still don't remember much about it- Evil Sculptor coming to them for help sounds familiar but I still don't remember what happened. It is part 1 of the finale, and I remember thinking that the finale was okay overall? Like not the best (s1 still holds that title haha) but it was fine? But still I don't remember anything. So I honestly can't say what I think about this episode until I rewatch it haha
Box Trot: once again had to look up the synoposis bc I don't remember anything. I did find Seren's reaction video to it, and I fastforwarded through it just to get the gist of it. It seems like it's an episode with a villain ensemble which is always fun (honestly I think those are the better Mobile Unit episodes- when the episode focuses on a group of villains haha). Ahh and this also has orange Shapeshifter? Once again, vague memories haha. So once again, I can't really say what my opinion is of it, but since it has a villain ensemble I'm gonna say that I think it's one of the enjoyable Mobile Unit episodes?
Why Did The Chicken Cross The Dimension: okay so this came out as part of the batch of last OS episodes on the PBS Kids player last week. I initially watched it back in January (thanks VPN), but I was trying to rewatch these episodes since they are the final ones. I've watched the first two(?) episodes, and they are definitely a lot more fun than I initially remembered haha. But I still haven't rewatched this episode. From what I do remember though, the lesson was topography and it was kinda boring for me? But it also had the return of Logan so that was fun. Once again, I need to rewatch this episode to give an honest opinion bc I really don't remember much about it
And wow this turned out a lot longer than I expected haha. Hope that you enjoy my ramblings! And once again, these are just my opinions and a rewatch is definitely necessary for me to give an honest opinion haha. Thanks for the ask, and I would love to know why you love these episodes!! And feel free to ask my opinion on other episodes :)
Ask me anything about Odd Squad!
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ur-urmom · 3 years
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after having rewatched twilight and falling back in love with carlisle, i thought it would be nice if my first fanfiction on here was for him!
so that’s exactly what i shall do, write a one shot of him with a reader insert because what else do i have to do, literally nothing
and i’ll try to make all of my fics gender neutral so anyone can read them :)
—————-
Okay, That Hurt - Carlisle x Reader
(Part 2)
Genre - fluff
Warnings - idk maybe some cussing, injuries, age gap
Summary - Y/N has always been clumsy, but when they land themselves in the hospital they only have their clumsiness to thank for meeting a certain doctor that happens to make their heart flutter, and little do they know it might just be a similar situation for him as well
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Tick, tock... tick, tock.
I looked at the hanging timepiece resting against the wall in the living room. I needed to leave for work any minute now, and I was seriously debating whether or not I should just call in sick or something because I really did not feel like going today. It’s not like my parents would find out, I get home before them anyway.
“Ugh, fine.” I gave in. After all, I was already up and dressed, and the idea of getting paid was always appealing to me. Grabbing my coat, I stepped outside with my keys in hand. When I locked the door behind me, I saw my neighbor coming out as well.
Bella Swan. I was only a few years older than her, so we happened to become good friends overtime. I waved hello when our eyes met, a gentle smile on my features. I began walking down the steps, but ended up tripping on air or something because the next thing I knew I was struggling to keep my balance. Heading towards the hard concrete, I flung my arms around in hopes to regain my composure, and quickly grabbed hold of the railing to stop myself from going any further. Thankfully, it worked.
Standing back straight, I laughed off my shakiness and embarrassment when I realized that Bella had witnessed literally all of that.
“Haha, phew! That was a close one!” I grinned, my palm making its way to my chest. The girl across the yard from me chuckled, awkwardly looking around before tucking her hair behind her ears.
“Yeah, glad you’re okay.” She responded, clearly amused by my near death experience.
“Indeed I am.” I replied, continuing to walk to my car, finally away from those demonic stairs. Though, it was as if the universe hated me today, because as soon as those words left my mouth I slipped on the wet pavement and went tumbling backwards, airborne and afraid. There was no way I was saving myself this time, my body landed harshly on the ground, my right hand basically bending underneath my arm when I finally met solid earth.
Okay, that hurt.
“Oh my god! Are you okay?” I heard Bella run over to me, this time neither of us were laughing.
My eyes were shut tight to keep the tears from falling, and my lips were pursed closed so that way I wouldn’t fucking scream from the pain of my wrist which was most likely very broken right now. I breathed out a long and shaky breath, forcing my eyes open and letting my tears find their way down my cheeks.
“....I’m c-completely fine.” I cried, pushing myself up with my good hand, along with the help of Bella. “Is... is my hand... supposed t-to be dangling like this?” I asked, knowing damn well it was not.
“Let me drive you to the hospital, come on.” She put her arm around mine and pulled me up. I had a few scrapes besides the obviously snapped in half wrist.
“You have school.” The pain was still shooting but if I kept it still it wasn’t so bad. “Really, I’m fine, I’ll drive myself!” I smiled through my puffy eyes and wet face.
“My boyfriend, Edward, his dad is a doctor. I’m taking you to him, okay?” She guided me to her truck and aided in getting me all situated. At this point I wasn’t crying anymore, but you could still definitely tell I had been. “I can’t believe you tried to say you were fine.”
“Well, most of me is.” I sniffled, looking at the swollen part of my injury.
She glanced at me, shaking her head.
“And I thought I was clumsy.” She muttered. I audibly gasped, she knew I was just kidding...
Somewhat.
The rest of the car ride was silent apart from my sniffles and occasional stray tears here and there. My entire arm was throbbing, mostly my hand and wrist though.
Bella pulled into the hospital and found a parking spot, once again helping me out of the vehicle. It’s just a broken wrist, I’m sure I could do these things myself, but then again I was thankful for what she was doing too. Walking inside I had my arm up to my chest, making sure my unusable hand didn’t move even in the slightest otherwise I would be screaming.
After a few minutes of talking to the lady at the front desk, I was finally waiting on the doctor that was apparently my friends boyfriends dad. But like adoptive dad. Bella was sitting on the other hospital bed beside the one I was on, fiddling with her hands and swinging her feet back and forth. She was facing me, so her legs hit mine. I gently returned the kick, and then another, and another. We were giggling, fighting with our feet to pass the time. The door across the hall opened and closed, but we just assumed it was a nurse or a patient, both of our eyes were still locked on the actions at hand, or should I say foot.
Our laughter kept us from hearing the footsteps, so when another pair of shoes stepped into our eyesight we immediately came to a stop.
“Carlisle, hi.” Bella awkwardly greeted.
My eyes made their way to the man in front of us, and I felt my heartbeat quicken at how attractive he was. I gulped. His lips pulled upward in a smile, and I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful he was. Not just his looks but his aura as well.
“Bella, it seems like you two were having fun? It’s nice to see you can still do that in a hospital.” He turned towards me, and as soon as we made eye contact I swear my breath haltered. His eyes were so captivating and they were the most golden hue, i was afraid I wasn’t gonna be able to look away. “You must be Y/N! I’m Dr. Carlisle Cullen, my chart says you think you broke your wrist? Let me have a look, if you will?”
I nodded my head, holding my arm out for him to take. His skin touched mine and I almost gasped at how cold he was, not that I minded... it felt rather electrifying. He began to straighten my hand out, which definitely had me wincing.
“You are correct, you’ll need to be in a cast. You’ve also got some bad scrapes on your elbows, but nothing a little antibiotic cream and a bandaid can’t fix.”
Even his voice was smooth, it made everything in me twist and turn and flutter around.
“Y/N, I’m gonna go wait in the car... Edward’s here.” Bella stated, pulling me out of my trance. I looked at her, raising my eyebrows ever so slightly.
“Alrighty.” I replied. She gave me a small smile before making her way out.
Not gonna lie, I was a little salty. Bella will drop anything and leave anyone if her boyfriend is around. It gets annoying at times. I haven’t even met him yet, but now I’ve met his dad before him?
“So, your 22?” I was brought back out of my thoughts by that wonderful voice again. He had already sat down in one of those swiveling chairs and had everything he needed to cast my arm.
“Yeah, I’m getting old.”
He laughed a hearty laugh that came deep within his chest. I couldn’t help but smile myself, proud that I caused that reaction.
“Well, is it too old for a sucker?” He pulled out a couple of different flavors, and I saw my favorite in the bunch.
“Pfft! Hell no.” I took the strawberry one out of his hand with my good arm. “Thank you.”
“Of course. How did you even do this?” Dr. Cullen raised his head to look at me, one eyebrow raised and his stare boring into my own. I tried not to blush, but I felt the heat creeping up.
“Uuuuuuuugggggghhhh, it’s really embarrassing.” I started, wincing at my own clumsy stupidity. “I slipped on my wet pavement. It could have at least happened in a cooler way, but no.”
He chuckled, and I watched him continue his work with my arm.
“You need to be more careful or you’ll be seeing my face more often.” He joked, finishing up the cast.
Note to self: don’t be more careful only to see more of handsome doctor man.
Dr. Cullen chuckled under his breath. I don’t know why, it was silent after he said what he did.
“I will.” I replied with a grin, knowing I probably wouldn’t.
“Will you, actually?” He shot back, an eyebrow raised in a playful manner. It was as if he read my mind, but I just shook it off with a laugh and a nod of my head.
I noticed he was all done with my arm, my cast was my favorite color. How he knew that, I don’t know, maybe it was a lucky guess.
“Well, Y/N, you’re free to go. It was an absolute pleasure to meet you.”
I hopped up, not realizing how close we were when I did that, so I quickly backed up saying a quick sorry.
“Thank you so much, Dr. Cullen.”
“No, please, call me Carlisle.” He gave me the warmest smile I had ever seen, and I couldn’t help but mirror it. “After all, I have a feeling this won’t be the last time we see each other. It’s best to get acquainted now, sooner than later. You’ve got to get that cast off sometime, and I’ll be here to do it.”
Okay, maybe it was just me being a little too hopeful, but was this his way of flirting with me?
“Alright, thank you, Carlisle. I really appreciate it.” At this point I was sure my face was as red as an apple.
As sad as it was, it was time for me to leave. I gave another grin and a small wave before walking away. Though, right before I got to the doors, I decided to be bold. Turning around, I saw that he was already looking at me, which only made me more nervous.
“Oh, and Carlisle, don’t be surprised if I come in here next week with another injury.” I winked at him. This seemed to fluster him, because he shyly looked away with raised eyebrows, but quickly regained his composure as he winked back, this time catching me off guard.
I giggled, waving goodbye once more and making my way back to Bella.
Oh yeah, I’ll definitely be seeing him again.
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awhst-alt · 3 years
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I HAD THE BEST BYLER DREAM LAST NIGHT AND I REALLY WANNA SHARE IT WITH YOU ALL
it's so long (literally 2k words) so im gonna put it under the cut haha <3
so basically this would take place after mike and will start dating or something, idk exactly the time frame (i picture them being like 18 or something and this is the summer before college) and will goes to this summer arts program for like 2/3 months (i dunno how long american summer is but something like that) and its all the way far from home so there is dorms and stuff and he's "not in hawkins anymore" (no pun intended)
mike and will decide after will finishes his school they'd go to college together (cuz they're gonna be comic book artists together bc thats boyfriend shit) so throughout these months he's practically just waiting for will (<333333)
so one specific scene i remember from my dream involved will and mike getting off the bus to the school and then they hug and then mike grabs wills hand and brings him behind the bus and then he gives will a biggg kiss bc he won't be able to kiss him for 3 months. then they say they love each other and will gives him another quick kiss and is like "two kisses". they agree they'd call each other every day.
so will goes inside and mike goes back on the bus and goes home.
and basically the whole day is a whirl, until the end of it, in which mike is sitting in the kitchen near the phone waiting for like 3 hours for will to call, and will doesn't end up calling.
AND THEN IT GETS SPICYYYYY
so meanwhile at the arts program will asks like the front desk or something if he can call mike and they say phone is offlimits and they don't let him call mike
so then will goes to sleep and he's paranoid that he thinks mike is gonna hate him or something like that
mk than the next day in class there is this girl (they didn't reveal her name in the dream, ill call her stella) so stella is basically looking at will the entire class but will doesn't know it
so when they exit the class stella's like "hi" and will says "hi"
then stella says "i like your painting."
will is like rlly weirded out so he goes "thanks?"
"i um- hope this doesn't sound weird but i have no friends, do you want to be mine?"
"sure"
and then end of scene (this does not sound like a normal conversation but it's my dream so it doesn't have to make sense"
so BACK AT HAWKINS mike is still sleeping even tho it's like 3 pm because yk depressed boyfriend shit but then the PHONE RINGS and mike gets out of bed frantically and goes to the phone and he picks it up and is like "will?" and then it answers "it's el, idiot"
i feel like this is important for context but el speaks english very well now and hoppers back and she lives with hopper and not the byers anymore. ANYWAYS
el says "how's will?"
mike says "idk he didn't call"
"he didn't?"
"no, he didn't"
"okay. well maybe he will call later"
"yeah mb"
"wanna come over"
"ok"
so mike hangs up and gets changed and goes to el's house bc they r a couple o' besties and when he gets there it's like a therapy sessions bc mike usally talks to will every single day and he can't for like 3 months (unless will calls, but he's not going to) so he accepts he's gonna be depressed for 3 months and he's just talking to el about how he's gonna miss him so much and no be able to see his face and that shit
so el's like "well do u wanna do something to take ur mind off of him"
and mike's like "no im not gonna replace will" (I SCREAMED IN MY DREAM SRSLY)
but than el says "okay. guess im gonna go to the mall by myself" (ig starcourt is rebuilt by now)
and than mike bolts up and is like "fine"
"we can by something for will"
"okay yay"
so then they go to starcourt yasss!!
anyways back at the art school will is having lunch and stella is with he friends (even tho she said she doesn't have any friends) and one of her friends is like "omg did you see _____ he's so hot"
and another friend says "YESS! but ____ is cuter"
"what abt u stella? who do u have ur eyes on"
she says "byers" BUT NOOOOOOO WILL IS MIKES MAN
and they say "ew that kid who came back to life"
she says "yea. but he's cute, and shy, and once i wrap them around my finger i can get them to do anything"
so then she goes to sit down next to will at lunch
"hi will"
"hi"
"hru"
"im good"
"okay. good." and she gets upset because will goes ask how she is but she keeps her urging rage inside. and than they have this weird conversation and will is uncomfortable the whole time bc shes all like flirting with him and will is seeing someone obvi
but then she puts a hand on will's shoulder and he's shaking and then says something (idk what it is it wasn't explaining in my dream) then will stands up and runs to the bathroom. so he's just sitting in the stalls crying.
okay back at starcourt this part wasn't shown in my dream but im just gonna make up that mike and el go looking around starcourt for something for will (sort of like the mike/lucas/will montage where they were looking for stuff for el) and then i guess they find something for will and i don't have the slightest idea what they could have got for him BUT THEY GOT HIM SOMETHING GOOD
so mike's all happy but they'res still that depression inside of him lol
so fast forward a week, it really isn't explained but ill just make up that will still hasn't called mike, and he's super sad and all sleeping in but decides to look through his good ol binder full of will's drawings and in the arts school will and stella have a few more interactions im sure which are still very uncomfortable
okay so it's lunch again in the cafeteria and somehow will and stella are talking again but somehow it ends in stella kissing will and will like pulls away immediatley and is like "what is wrong with you!?"
and she says "what?"
"i'm seeing someone!"
"oh i uh- i didn't know."
the whole cafeteria is staring at them
so will's freaking out almost on the verge of a panic attack "idk what to do, he's gonna hate me and-"
"he?"
will has the look on his face like shit shit shit oh fuck no
"you're gay?"
"i-"
and will runs off once again. and everyone in the whole cafeteria knows that he's day and ofc with everybody being homophobic will knows it's not good at all bc everyone's gonna bully him
so then the next day he goes to class and the teacher is like "does anyone care to tell me where ___ is?" (it would be like a math question like 'where x is' but in art idkkk) and then the teacher calls on "will? can you tell me where ___ is?" and they'res a pause and then the teacher says "or perhaps you'd want to find your boyfriend instead?" (giving me anne with an e vibes prolly cuz i did a rewatch last weekend but i won't explain more in case some people haven't watched it but) anyways will stands up from his seat, everyone is looking at him, and he's shaking and so concerned but then he goes "fuck. you" badass will yeaaaa thats my boy
so then he runs out of the classroom and out of the school in a really cool montage way but then he realizes he's like 2 hours away from home but he runs and runs and he goes to a random bustop (it's not even garanteed if it takes him to hawkins but whatever) he gets on and tries to go back to hawkins.
and soon enough, he gets there, and immediatley goes to the wheelers because he needs to see mike and apologize for everything. so he's at the wheelers, and rings the doorbell, realizing he's still in his uniform lol but karen answers and mike is upstairs in his room sulking (i picture it would be 8 pm by now) so will asks for mike and karen calls mike. mike groans obviously because he doesn't know it's his boy, but he comes down, karen gets out of the way and as soon as he sees will they have a really big hug and it's super sweet and my heart UFHEIOSKA
mike says his usual "are you okay?" and mike is still confused as shit but will says "i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry" and mike says "you don't have to be sorry for anyrhing" but will says "ill explain"
so then they go to will's room, side-by-side on his bed and will starts explaining everything
(this is mostly improvised by me but it's still pretty similar to the dream)
"i hated it."
"the school?"
"yeah. there was no you, (mike blushes lmao), everything was terrible, i felt so lonely, they didn't let me call you-"
"what?"
"they said the phone was off limits. i wanted to talk to you so bad and i thought you'd hate me"
"i could never hate you, will, even if i tried." will smiles
"and then there was this girl, and she hit on me and i didn't know what to do bc i'd be the face of the school if i told her i was dating you and was gay and today she kissed me"
"WHAT"
"im sorry im sorry i didn't kiss back and i was so scared bc i never was in a relationship before and i was so scared it was considered cheating-"
and mike LAUGHSS
"what? mike? what's wrong?"
"if you don't do anything back, it's not considerd 'cheating'"
"oh. good. are you mad at me?"
"what? no! no never!" so mike opens his arms and says "come here" so will and mike hug or something like that and then mike says "do you need me to beat her up?"
and will says "you can't even beat eggs. besides, your noodle arms wouldn't be able to do harm to even a fly"
so mike laughs and says "i'm glad your home"
so will blurts "i cursed out a teacher"
"you? cursing?"
"yes."
"might have to start calling you a bad boy now"
will just smiles and says "i love you"
and mike says "i love you too"
AND THEN END AND IM SO PROUD OF MYSELF BC I LOVE THIS DREAM LIKE I CAN'T BELIEVE MY BRAIN THOUGHT OF THIS BUT IM OBSESSED
ALSO ONCE I FINISH WYBMFFAE ILL PROBABLY WRITE THIS INTO A FULL BLOWN FIC BUT AHIHFUSAH
edit: i have no idea what mike did with the present him and el bought for will but i guess they ended up giving it to him lol
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imagines-r-s · 3 years
Text
sticking it - j. farabee
chapter 6
a/n: now you’ll all see why i said be excited for ch. 6 lmao. (also, with ch. 5 not showing up in the tags for a minute, some might not have seen it, so i’ll link it here) but anyways, this chapter was difficult to write bc i’m not used to writing anything but angst lmao. and huge shoutout to my baby gracie for helping me out with this chapter. please enjoy and i’d love to hear feedback
also, like i told an anon, this is in memory of bee’s hair :((  (he still looks good with the new hair, don’t get me wrong)
taglist: @butgilinsky @barbienoturbby @sunsetholland​ @lovenhlboys @sortagaysortahigh @hockey-racing-fubol @oopsiedoopsie23 @iwantahockeyhimbo @dreamsndior
warnings: (2) your mom jokes, jealous!joel?, once again simp nation for the both of them, swearing (it’s a problem ngl), idiocy 
sticking it masterlist
wc: 4.1k
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(gif not mine)
When you told Marcus and Michelle that you had to be out for a month, they advised you to only come to the gym three times a week for two hours for the first two weeks and you’d figure out a plan for the two weeks after, that way you could take a much needed break out of the gym. The thing stressing you out the most was gym and they obviously realized it, so they were hopeful it would give you a chance to breathe. 
You planned to go to the gym Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays from 6-8am and then you would spend the rest of your day at home doing whatever you needed to do that day. The first Monday you spent those two hours doing ab workouts and helping the other girls around the gym, then you went home and stayed in your room for the rest of the day. You put your phone on do not disturb, so no one heard from you, which caused Kevin to come to your apartment to make sure you were okay. 
Tuesday played out the exact same way, early practice, then going home and staying in bed, and Kevin coming to make sure you were alright. Kevin even invited you to come out with him and some of the boys, which you politely declined saying they should have their time together. Wednesday, you simply stayed in bed, choosing to actually keep your phone on today, you were just tired and felt drained from everything going on right now that you couldn’t really muster up the energy to talk to anyone. 
Wednesday night, as you were rewatching Marvel movies, your phone started ringing with a call from Ryanne. Quickly answering it, “hey Ry.”
“Hey babes, how’re you doing?”
“I’ve been better, I’ve also been worse, so.”
“Me and Claude were wondering if you’d want to come over and hang out with us and Gav for some of the day, we’ll provide food and such, but we miss you, babe. So, we figured we’d ask while you have a chance.” 
In reality, Ryanne had heard from Claude that you wouldn’t be able to do extensive training for at least a month. She might not have known much about gymnastics, but she knew you well enough to know that you were always constantly training - she was well aware that if that ever got taken from Claude that he would be devastated if he was out for that long and with two weeks to prepare for a big game.
She had checked in to see how you were with Kevin one day after practice and when he mentioned everything that was going on, she was worried about you. She knew that she likely wouldn’t be able to help much, but she did know that there was one part of the equation she could help. Knowing that she already had a plan to have a send off party before the boys went on a roadie and also knowing that everyone on the team would be there, she somehow conveniently planned to invite you over a few hours before it started. 
“Oh, yeah, I’d love to, honestly. What time do you want me over?”
“Anytime after three is fine. I’ll see you then, hun. Oh, and wear something cute.”
“Why exactly?”
“Just do it,” Ryanne said, not having time to think of an excuse, “bye.”
As you were about to say something else, the ring that told you she had hung up rang out. 
…..
Joel wasn’t doing as good as he wanted to be recently and with an upcoming roadie, he knew he needed to spend more time on the ice before the game. Having asked a few of the guys to work with him during an unscheduled morning skate, he was able to work on what he needed to. 
“Wait, so she’s out how long?” Joel overheard Travis ask Kevin as he made his way into the locker room. 
“Like four weeks, but two weeks with the brace and basically no training, then two weeks with athletic tape on her knee and no hard landings. But she’ll only have two weeks before Championships, so she's not feeling too great about it. Plus, she has to use her brace and crutches again and she didn’t enjoy that the first time,” Kevin replied. 
“Is she going to be okay?” Joel hadn’t meant to ask his question aloud, but as soon as Kevin heard his voice a smile grew on his face. 
“Yeah, Lover Boy, she’ll be fine. She hasn’t really been up to do anything recently, but other than that I think she’ll be okay. She has to use her crutches again, which is honestly very entertaining,” Kevin stated before turning to leave the locker room, turning right as he got to the doorway, “random question, are you planning on going to G’s for the send off party tomorrow night?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Just wondering,” and with that Kevin was gone, leaving a confused Joel behind. 
Kevin knew that you had a lot on your plate right now and that you wouldn’t want to go to anyone about your problems. He also knew that the both you and Joel, were simply too stubborn to fix the problem going on between you on your own, hence why he had mentioned something to Ryanne. He knew that Ryanne would jump at the chance to be able to help you feel better and as soon as she mentioned the party set-up idea, he was in. The plan was then mentioned to most of the team, knowing that the help of many was needed in order to help the two idiots. 
….. 
After sending Kevin a quick text that you were leaving, you left your apartment and made your way to Ryanne and Claude’s house. Gently knocking on the door, you smiled when Ryanne opened the door, “awe, babe, I’m so happy you’re here, I missed you so much.”
“I missed you, too. Not to be rude, but where is the tiny human?” you asked, looking past Ryanne to see Gavin walking towards you, “hi, bub. Oh my god, you’re getting so big.” 
“Well if you came around more often, you’d get to see him more,” Ryanne mumbled, watching you play with the boy in front of you. 
“I heard that,” you said, in a sing-song voice.
“You were supposed to,” she replied, mocking your tone, “anyways, Claude is on his way back from the store, so he’ll be here soon, but I haven’t talked to you in forever, how’s everything? How’s gym?”
“Oh, well. I’ve been better, this last meet definitely wasn’t all that great and not being able to train doesn’t really help my case either, but I’m making the most of it,” you said, shrugging. 
“And you’re actually having to listen to Adrian this time around?” she said, pointedly, causing you to chuckle. 
“Yeah, I have to actually listen to Adrian this time,” you smiled, “I hate that I have to actually wear my knee brace, though. And I have to use crutches. Can you believe that?”
“Considering it’s you, I’m more shocked that you’re actually using them.” 
“Ry, shh, let’s not call me out too much today,” you replied. 
It wasn’t too long before you heard the front door open, Claude walking in a few seconds later, “awe, it’s my favorite babysitter. Come on, babe, let’s leave while we can.”
“Haha, I almost forgot how funny you are, G,” you said, sarcastically. 
“I’m sure, I’m sure. You know what would be nice though?”
“What?”
“Helping me put the groceries up,” he said, smiling sweetly causing you to groan. 
“Are chores and babysitting all I’m good for to you?”
“Well,” he looked up to the ceiling, as if he were thinking for another answer,”hm, nothing comes to mind, y/n/n.”
“Oh, that was mean,” Ryanne said, playfully elbowing Claude. 
“Thank-”
“She’ll never babysit again if we’re mean to her,” Ryanne smirked. 
“Oh, wow, I see how it is, don’t worry,” you said, the three of you laughing. 
As the three of you were setting out groceries - you mostly sitting on the kitchen island, taking things out of the bag - the three of you caught up. Claude talking about his hopes for these next few games, Ryanne talking about how Gavin was doing - not missing the few times Gav ran through the kitchen -, and you talking about whatever you could. 
“Ok, so we haven’t brought this up yet, but I was just wondering if you had any idea what’s going on with Beezer? I know you guys had gotten closer recently and he’s just not himself, so I’m asking if you know anything,” Claude asked, closing the fridge before turning back to you. Both him and Ryanne had a pretty good idea of what happened, but if they were missing something, they wanted to know. 
“Oh, um, well, about that one,” you sighed, gathering your thoughts, “me and him kinda haven’t talked since I told him I only wanted to be friends.” 
“Ok, but from the looks of it, it looked like both of you wanted to be more than friends?” 
“Yeah, but, there’s a lot more to it, you know.”
“No, actually, I’m a tad bit lost, y/n/n.”
“Look, I can’t have any distractions right now and I was worried about it affecting gymnastics, so I told him I only want to be friends.”
“That’s dumb,” Claude replied, quickly.
“Thank you, many people have mentioned that.”
“He has no place to talk in a situation like this,” Ryanne finally spoke up, causing you to look between the pair confused, “when his life was just hockey, hockey, and hockey, nothing could fill those spots. So, when our relationship was first starting he did the same thing to me that you’re doing to Bee.”
“This was supposed to be a philosophical moment and you messed it up,” Claude replied. 
“I didn’t mess it up, you’re just mad because you basically called yourself dumb. But pushing him away isn’t a smart option and it just hurts both of you in the process,” Ryanne said before walking back to where Gavin was. 
“Look, I know you said you didn’t want distractions, but this seems to be having a worse effect on you than you hoped. From the looks of it, when you started pushing him away, it affected your performance. Just pointing that out for you.”
“Yeah, I know. You didn’t have to point it out, you know.”
“Yeah, but you would have continued to ignore the obvious fact that you were just scared of a relationship in general,” he shrugged.
“I don’t even know how to talk to him about it or at least how to start the conversation.”
“Well, lucky for you,” he looked down to check his watch, “the guys are all coming over in like 10 minutes, so you’ll see him then.”
“Huh?”
“Yeah, it’s a send off party for the roadie this weekend, why do you think we got so many groceries?” and with that he left you in the kitchen by yourself. 
…..
Joel sat in the backseat of Kevin’s car, Nolan in the passenger seat, as they made their way to G’s house. By the time they got there, most of the guys had already gotten there, seeing a few familiar cars in the driveway, but one stood out in particular. He knew that it was yours from some of the times he had seen you driving, “what’s y/n/n doing here?”
Nolan and Kevin both chuckled at that, “she came over here earlier to watch Gavin, I think,” Kevin said. 
“Oh, cool,” Joel replied, attempting to sound nonchalant as possible 
“Don’t try to act like you’re not freaking out. You aren’t slick, dude,” Nolan added, shaking his head, “you two better talk, too. Because everyone is tired of the two of you being idiots and not talking shit out.” 
“We’re not idiots.”
“You are,” the other two said in unison. Joel didn’t try to argue as he followed the pair inside their captain’s house. 
As soon as he entered the house, he took note that almost all the team was here, most of the team was outside, but he immediately found you sitting on one of the barstools with Gavin sitting on your lap as you talked with Ryanne. “Go talk to her,” Nolan whispered, causing him to jump. 
“God, Pat. What the fuck?” Joel said turning around. 
“I said what I said. You’ll have to talk at some point, might as well just do it. Plus, she’s on crutches, so like, if she wants to run away it will take her a while.”
“Um, that’s- I mean, that’s valid, but-”
“At some point today, you should talk to her. I obviously can’t make you and it’s up to you, but I think it would help fix things,” Nolan said, shrugging.
“Yeah, I know, I know. I plan on it.” 
You and Ryanne had stayed inside with Gav since the boys were grilling outside, so when Nolan, Kevin, and Joel walked in, you were one of the first people to notice. Kevin made his way over to you almost as soon as he came in, “so, you enjoying the party?”
“Considering I didn’t know it was happening, sure I’m having a great time, Kev.”
“Well, I guess it’s a surprise party then,” you quickly shot him a glare, “surprise.” 
As you heard the back door open, you looked up to see Joel already looking at you, shooting you a quick smile as he followed his teammate to go outside. “I swear, if all you guys do tonight is spare glances at each other and don’t talk, I’m going to lose it,” Ryanne said from beside you. 
“I think everyone will, to be honest,” Kevin added, “well, I’m going outside. If you need any help, just let me know.” 
The boys had a few different plans in place to get the two of you to talk; conveniently sending Joel in to help while you were inside, telling Joel to go help out inside, asking Joel to get Gavin, and as a last resort, make Joel jealous. 
When everyone had been done eating, Claude asked some of the younger guys to help him clean up and bring out the cooler with drinks that was still inside. Joel had somehow conveniently avoided going inside while helping and when he did, he went straight to the kitchen and right back out. He wasn’t wanting to avoid you all night, but he didn’t know what to do. Shortly after, Claude had asked Joel to go in and get Gavin, somehow right as you had left Gavin with Ryanne, which also ruined that plan. 
Ryanne knew that it would be suspicious if they kept trying those same plans. So instead, she basically forced you to go outside with her. She helped you get outside, Kevin shooting up from his chair to help you get down the stairs of the deck, “you don’t have to help me out, Kev.”
“Knowing you, you would trip and break something. You’re already hurt enough,” he said, causing you to roll your eyes. As Kevin looked up, he didn’t miss the way Joel lit up as he saw you, “hey, your boy is looking over here.”
Looking up, your eyes once again met his, to which you sent him a light smile, “yeah, he’s been watching me since I stepped out here.”
“y/n/n, you would only know that if you were looking at him, too.”
“Yeah, I never said that I wasn’t though.” 
“You know, it’s obvious the two of you aren’t mad at each other or anything like that. So, why the fuck haven’t you talked yet?”
“Oh, um. Words are hard,” you said, walking away towards Travis and Nolan on your crutches. 
“You’re literally on crutches, you aren’t moving that fast.”
“You know who else isn’t moving that fast?”
“y/n. I swear, if this is another your-”
“Your mom,” you yelled back to him. 
“What is up with you and making your mom jokes?” Nolan asked as you got closer to them. 
“They’re funny?” 
“y/n/n just has the sense of humor of a middle school boy, that’s why her and Beezer got along so well,” Travis added, helping you move your crutches so you could sit down at the table they were at, “how are the crutches?”
“How’s your mom?” you laughed, causing the two of them to groan, “nah, they’re not fun. In any way shape or form.”
As you were talking to Nolan and Teeks, Kevin and Ryanne realized that none of the plans they had tried were working. Both of them knew that the only plan that would probably work was to make Joel jealous, so Kevin texted Carter, Morgan, Nolan, and Teeks to let them know that was the plan that they were going with. 
“y/n looks really good today,” Carter said, causing Joel to spit out his drink. 
“Better watch yourself, Hartsy,” Joel replied, shooting a glare towards his friend. 
“I was just being honest, she really does. There’s nothing going on between you guys anymore, right?” Carter watched as Joel visibly tensed at the mention of what was happening between the two of you, knowing that the plan was working he continued, “I mean, if nothings going on between you two, then she’s single, right?”
“Well, I mean-” Joel stuttered out, “we haven’t talked in a while, but that doesn’t mean-”
“I’ll be right back, okay?” Carter said, making his way over to the table you were at, causing Nolan and TK to chuckle as they saw Joel’s face drop, “hey, y/n/n.”
“Hey, Hartsy, it’s been a minute. How is everything?” you smiled. You kept talking to the group around you for a while, not noticing the way Joel was becoming visibly angry. He didn’t want to seem jealous, but he assumed that Carter had been flirting with you this whole time, so he made the executive decision to talk to you now. 
Since your back was facing him, you didn’t see him coming, but the three boys around you did, only trying to hide their smiles since the plan was actually working. “Hey y/n, can we talk?” he asked. 
You turned around to finally face the boy you had been avoiding, “yeah, hold on a sec.” As you continued some of your conversation, Joel was getting more and more irritated, mostly because Carter was sending looks his way that he couldn’t exactly read. Joel, being the impatient person he was, pulled the chair you were sitting at away from the table, pulling you up to stand before lifting you up over his shoulder, “Bee, what the fuck?”
He simply ignored you as he carried you up the stairs and back inside his captain’s house. You tried pushing yourself off as he made his way up the stairs, but it was deemed useless when he just tightened his grip, “Farabee, I swear to god. I will hurt you.”
Eventually, he opened the door to the guest bathroom and gently set you down on the counter before locking the door, “what the fuck was that for? If you want to talk, you could have just waited a second. But no, you had to be all dramatic about it,” you said, rolling your eyes. 
“Are you done?” Joel asked, crossing his arms and leaning back against the door.  
“I mean, yeah. Are you?” 
“Yeah, but I’m tired of us ignoring each other and I miss you, so we need to figure stuff out.”
“Awe, you miss me? That’s cute,” you smiled. 
“y/n/n, I swear, now is not the time for that one.”
“Ok, sorry. I’ll be serious now,” you said, crossing your arms to mock him. 
“I just want to know what happened at the lake?” 
“Oh, we’re going straight to the point, alright,” you sighed, “look, what I said at the lake wasn’t true. I got this idea in my head that if you were in my life, you were a distraction from what I wanted.”
“How’d that work out for you?” he said, smirking. 
“Oh, no, see that’s what we’re not going to do. No need for the attitude. Anyways, I had this idea that if anything happened between us, that I would mess it up and it would mess everything in my life up. So, pushing you away was the safest option.”
Joel took a moment to gather his thoughts before pushing himself off the door and made his way closer to you, ending up standing between your legs with his hands on either side of you, “look, I’m saying this and I mean it. I understand where you’re coming from with the fear of distractions thing, but I want you to know that I would never intentionally keep you from your goals and dreams. I’m just extra support, you know.”
“Yeah, I realized that after you ran from the lake house. We could have had this figured out by now, if you had stayed,” you said, sarcastically. Rolling your eyes for added dramatic effect. 
“Oh, shut up. You have no place to talk, babe,” he said, smiling when he heard you giggle, “what was that for?”
“I kinda missed you calling me babe, I guess. Kinda crazy, dude.”
“Awe, so you did miss me?”
“I never said I didn’t,” you said, quietly reaching up to wrap your arms around his neck. You saw the way that his eyes went from your eyes to your lips, “I also missed this,” and with that you pulled him closer until your lips met in a long awaited kiss. 
As the two of you broke away, your foreheads were still together, “hey, Bee?”
“Yeah?”
“You know who else I missed? Your mom,” you laughed. 
“Way to ruin the moment, babe,” he smiled, “That was funny though, so I respect it.”
“Dude, I’m so funny sometimes.”
“Looks aren’t everything, babe,” he said, laughing at the gasp you responded with. 
“Oh, that was rude. I’ll get you back one day though,” you watched as he went to leave the bathroom, “hey, Bee. I’m not supposed to walk without crutches, hate to break it to you.”
Rolling his eyes, he made his way back to you, turning around right in front of you, “here.” You leaned a little bit forward, wrapping your arms around his neck once again as he readjusted his grip on the back of your legs, so he could give you a piggyback ride on the way back outside. 
“You know, they didn’t tell me there was a party,” you spoke as he made his way back towards the door. 
“Oh, they said it was teammates only and then I saw your car,” he replied, pausing a moment as the two of you realized what had happened at the same time, “so, this was-”
“Yep.” 
“And Hartsy saying he was going to ask you out was part of it?”
“Hartsy said he was going to do that,” you started cackling. “Wait, were you jealous of him?” you asked laughing even harder. 
“It’s not funny.”
“Oh, yeah. I know, it’s hilarious.” 
“I will drop you right now,” he said, as he opened the door for outside, “and you’ll stuck right here, Ms. ‘I can’t walk down stairs right now’.”
“That’s a low blow,” you said, as the two of you made your way back to the table you were at. 
“Oops, sorry, babe,” he set you down close to your chair, but sat down before you could.
“Oh, so now you steal my chair, too?”
“Oh, shut up, you’re fine,” he said, pulling you to sit in his lap, “there you go.”
“So, I see the two of you made up?” Nolan asked, pointing at the two of you. 
“We also made out, in case you were wondering,” Joel replied, earning an elbow to the stomach, “ow, that hurt.”
“Sucks to suck, babe,” you replied, causing the smile on his face to grow even more. 
When Kevin and Ryanne watched the two of you walk back outside, they were happy to see that the plan worked. Ryanne simply laughed and shook her head as she heard the exchange between the two of you, “they are so in love and I don’t even think they realize it.”
“Ryanne, that is a big word, that I’m not prepared for. So, please, let’s not do that today,” Kevin replied, earning a laugh from Ryanne, “they’re happy though, that’s all that matters to me.”
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tenebrius-excellium · 2 years
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Douxie for the character ask meme, please? (If he's already been done, I'd love to hear your thoughts on Hiccup!)
Why not both? Let's do it!!!
Douxie
What I love about him: How this boy is so confident, charming, smug, stylish, reckless, cool, adventurous on one hand and yet so profoundly humble, deeply caring, super kind, considerate, weak, and hurting on the other hand. You don't see those two go together often and it's attractive. So often people are using the first persona as a facade to mask the vulnerability of the second. But with Douxie you know that he's openly both. He's honest to the core and, as so many have said about him before, wears his heart on his sleeve. He's real. I love his careless, free-spirited, figure-it-out-as-we-go attitude towards life, the quick wit he uses to come up with spontaneous ideas and solutions, and it's absolutely mesmerizing to see him have fun. I would trust him with my life, and I want to meet an irl version of him one day!
What I hate about him: His eagerness to please Merlin becomes annoying fairly quickly upon the occasional Wizards rewatch, but it's bearable knowing you're obviously only supposed to go through the same issue once in life. And because you know he gets better. Other than that, I...um...I have to confess that I don't really like moppet. I would have liked to see him have at least one (1) good idea to show us that the wits of the older and smarter Douxie were already slumbering in his younger version. Or, alternatively, something to show us that his tiny, moppety problems were ALSO valid. But all we got was the dead stupid apprentice. There, I said it. Jail for Mother for One Thousand Years from all moppet lovers XD
Favorite Moment/Quote: You're making me pick? Impossible. I'll narrow it down! Um... the unexpected guitar is a classic favorite, then the "Eternal Time Trap/I am Hisirdoux Casperan!" speech and "That was kind of the plan." Yup. That's about it :)
What I would like to see more focus on: moppet, I guess, as stated above, Ash Dispersal Pattern and his relationship with Zoe and Arch. You could basically have given me a 5-hour documentary about his ordinary life and I'd have watched it.
What I would like to see less focus on: Nothing. We all wanted more, not less, and rightfully so! :)
Favorite pairing with: ...................me, please? Haha <3 oh, to cuddle with a bf in a hoodie as comfy as that...nahh, not really. I'm in love with his personality but I'm not sure I'd like the goth aesthetic every day of the week. Also, he's just a teeny-tiny bit too skinny and pale for my taste...and he prefers Zoe anyway. So that's that. To be honest, I can imagine him just staying single as well. He's got too much great big brother energy!
Favorite friendship: Claire and Steve. To watch both friendships grow and improve in their own unique ways is super satisfying to watch. I'm still 100% convinced that Douxie had no choice but to look at Steve one day and go "welp. I'm stuck with this idiot, so I might as well be his friend." Steve values it deeply, though.
NOTP: With anyone else but Zoe.
Favorite headcanon: That famous Ash Dispersal Pattern concert in New York City I just won't shut up about. Somewhere, in some universe, it happened and he had lots of fun and carried the smile of a child in his happy place :)
Thanks for asking, anon! Doing Hiccup under the Read More because this is getting a bit long :)
Lots of love <3
Reddie
Hiccup
What I love about him: Oof. He wears his heart on his sleeve as well, but introverted haha. He's quietly observant, incredibly smart, daring and brave. He's honest to himself too, playing only to his strengths and not even remotely trying to be someone else than he already is. He's very handsome, beautiful and a deep thinker.
What I hate about him: Hey, remember the other ask meme? The one where it said "if you could, which character would you whack over the head"? Yeah that's HICCUP. HOW CAN YOU BE SO STUPID. HOW CAN YOU WHO WERE PRAISED FOR YOUR SOPHISTICATION DENY EVERY SINGLE BIT OF LOGICAL THINKING UTTERED BY YOUR FATHER AND WALK INTO THAT STUPID TRAP SET BY DRAGO. AND HOW CAN YOU NOT REALIZE THAT IN HTTYD 3, YOU NEEDED AN ACTUAL PLAN BOY; BECAUSE YOU'RE CHIEF NOW AND YOU'RE DEFINITELY, UNDOUBTEDLY RESPONSIBLE FOR LIKE 700 PEOPLE AND 2000 DRAGONS. No seriously, his development in the later movies drives me mad as heck. I projected a lot onto him when I was younger, and felt highly insulted when his character turned dumb. My greatest fear is that people will think that I'm that way. I'm all for spontaneity and taking chances, but NOT without thinking logically first.
Favorite Moment/Quote: Pheww...you're making it impossible to choose again. First one: That "Yes" after Astrid asks him whether he'd sacrifice it all for his pet dragon. Second: "Yesterday...when we flew together...it's like I got back something I didn't know I'd lost. And that's the part I'll choose to remember" (taken from a deleted Httyd 2 scene where Valka was still the villain). Third...the "Toothless made it easier" - "What are you going to do about it?" - "Probably something stupid" line from the last movie. Man, that scene was good.
What I would like to see more focus on: Frankly, the rest of his life. Because Httyd tells so much of his story, and well, life doesn't end as soon as you're married. I would have liked to see him be a great Chief. I wouldn't even want a Httyd 4 to be about his kids or something. Just him. I believe there's still more to him, you know.
What I would like to see less focus on: HIS OUTRIGHT STUPIDITY PLEASE AND THANK YOU
Favorite pairing with: Astrid.
Favorite friendship: Dagur. I just love how they were written to become brothers.
NOTP: Heather??? Whoever thought that was a good idea????
Favorite headcanon: Another happy flying scene where it's just him and Toothless in Httyd 3. And oh, yeah. The shield he brought to the cove in the first movie? It's still stuck between the two rocks. You bet.
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im-justso-bored · 4 years
Text
Week 5 of Clown Theories and Analysis
S03E05 - Are You From Pinner?
So this episode is definitely top three favorite for me. Jodie’s talent and performance continues to amaze me. Villanelle has really developed since season 1 and her development really peaked with this episode. Even her development throughout this episode was substantial which is what I will focus on in this post. 
Who are you? - V stopping to look at pictures and picking up things through the house was a nice touch. You could really see how she was transported back to her childhood in Russia when she picked up certain items like the soda. And how she was piecing together what she could of the years she lost with her family in the photographs on the wall. I can imagine it must have pained her a bit to see her mother in the photos seeing as she hasn’t seen her mother or pictures of her in many years. 
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There’s a lot of initial shock here, mixed in with nostalgia. I think a big part of the shock we see here is due to how content her mother looks in the photos with people V doesn’t know. Given her history with her mother, V might have expected her mother to be on her own, maybe with her brother, Pyotr. I think the last thing she expected was to see her mother happy with a family. Especially since V sees her mother carrying the same darkness and V is, for the most part, alone. So she might have expected the same of her mother. 
Whatever emotions she’s feeling though are soon buried and her behavior quickly becomes playful and coy when approached by the different members of the family until her mom comes home and she starts to panic. 
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She had to know that her mom would be there or at least, be there soon. So why panic? I think up until she heard the car in the driveway, she hadn’t really thought about the repercussions of going to see her family or what it would be like to see her mom again. I think once she heard her outside, the panic set in as it really dawned on her that she would really see her mother again. For a moment, she was transported back to her childhood and saw who her mother really was, and not the smiling wife and mother in the photographs on the wall.
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Here, V is clearly shocked by her mother’s reaction to seeing her daughter alive but about halfway through the hug, V’s facial expression changes to show a little bit of anger? Also maybe disbelief at her mother’s behavior, maybe she doesn’t believe her reaction to be genuine, instead she sees it as part of her act. It seems that her mother never shows her true self when other people are around, I can imagine it was much the same when V was a child since her father never picked up on who her mother really was. So V probably thinks the same of this scene, that her mother is putting up an act since other people are around.
Many is a very loose term. - So the details about the orphanage explains the arson in her prison file, well one account of arson seeing as she did it twice. I wonder if the manslaughter of a minor had something to do with the orphanage or perhaps that’s what landed her in a juvenile detention center later in life.
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You can tell that V’s mother really wasn’t bothered by the fact that V killed “many” people nor by the nonchalant response V gave her regarding that. This is one of the first hints we get about her mother’s darkness. You can also see that V isn’t bothered by the fact that she was dumped at the orphanage during this scene, they talk about it as if they’re having a normal conversation. Which adds depth to V saying “I didn’t mind that you took me there” at the end of the episode. 
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You can tell that V’s guard is still up around her mother but I think she lowers it a bit as curiosity takes over when going through the photos as she starts asking more questions trying to piece together the last several years.
“Why didn’t you leave him?” “Is that me?” “Where’s dad?”
It’s sad that V didn’t get to see a picture of her dad, you can tell she really cared about him.
Welcome home, Oksana. - You can tell that V is still feeling really out of place but she’s trying to fit in. I think a big part of that has to do with still getting over the initial shock of seeing her mother in a “new light” and getting used to the rest of the family. She seems to be really comfortable with Bor’ka and Pyotr though. I don’t think V really knew what to expect when she came to Russia but I think the last thing she expected was to play cards with her family and then break out into song. I think that’s when she realized that they’re all a bunch of misfits and that she actually might fit in more than she expected. 
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While rewatching, I found the scene where they were playing cards to be interesting. The step-brother (I forgot his name) was accusing V of being the “killer” but in actuality it was her mom, I thought that was an interesting parallel for the ending where V is saying that her and her mother are the same. It also made me wonder if her mother is actually a killer and if maybe she had something to do with her dad’s death. I don’t think they ever explained what happened to him. Correct me, if I’m wrong though!
Having a moment. - The relationship between Pyotr and V is really cute, you can tell that he really cares about her and missed her. And while V doesn’t show it much through her actions or her words, you can tell she cares too. Like when she’s telling him to get away from their mother and do what he wants to do. It also seems like he is the only one that V is most comfortable being herself around. 
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Also watching V eat in this scene with the way her teeth dragged against the fork made my teeth hurt.
She was different. - In the conversation with her step-father, you can see that V is trying to figure out if he knew the type of person her mother is. Through the conversation, she’s able to distinguish that the only things that her mother shared with him was how difficult a child Villanelle was and how things were so hard for her during that time making it seem like V only made it worse. Nothing about how her mother was basically the same type of difficult person that V is. Typical gaslighting. 
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You can see that V isn’t really surprised by it either. And then, right on cue, her mother comes out with tea and offers a gift to V. Throughout the episode, you see V’s mother being overly nice and emotional toward V who takes it with a grain of salt for most of the episode until the end, of course. I think V was genuinely surprised and happy to receive the gift from her mother, despite not fully believing the act she puts on. 
The Harvest Festival - It was really refreshing to see V actually enjoy herself at the festival when playing all of the different games and then when her family cheered for her when she won first place. I think this is where she really felt like she found somewhere she belonged. I think when Bor’ka lost the competition for best pirozhki and her mother came up to talk to him, she began to think that maybe she had changed after all (until she finds out what she actually said later on). 
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Also can we talk about how V actually feels bad for him? We’ve seen V continue to sympathize with so many people this season and it still surprises me each time. S1 Villanelle would never haha if that’s not growth then idk what is. I really like how V seems to care about Bor’ka and bonds with him throughout the episode, especially during the dancing scene at the end of the festival when he starts hitting himself. You even see her trying to console him in her own way. 
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Here is when V realizes that her mother really hasn’t changed at all and she’s probably upset with herself for believing that she did even if it was just briefly. I really liked this scene, how it distorted and faded out with the song playing “I see darkness in you” and the whole mood just shifts and transitions to V in the kitchen. 
I want to feel like one. - V asking her mom to clean her face for her was a vulnerable moment for her. Even the “please” she added after. How often do we hear V say please? V is often very childish and in this moment, she really need her mother to act like a mother but she didn’t. She was trying to connect with her mother in the only way she knew how. The last time she saw her, she was a child so V wanted to pick up where they left off only to be disappointed yet again. Throughout the episode, you see her mother putting up an act, pretending to be the nice mother that everyone sees, but when it’s just her and V while everyone is asleep, she shows her true self.
I am my mother’s daughter. - Another fantastic performance from Jodie! She never ceases to amaze me. This scene was the tipping point for V. Her mother’s response here is what would have made or broken her. V cared for her father a lot and having her mother constantly blaming V for “taking everything from her” and “controlling her father and taking him from her” took a toll on V. Especially since the whole time her mother was pointing her finger at her and never once acknowledging her role in everything. 
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The way V is literally kneeling in front of her (when have we ever seen her make herself smaller for anyone?) practically begging her mother to admit that she’s the same. She can barely keep herself together, it’s taking everything to keep it together. But her mother doesn’t relent, making V feel more alone and shittier than she did before. As soon as her mother tells her to leave again, you see V break her composure for a bit before making the decision to kill her. She even has to stop for a sec while saying it (”I think I need to kill you, mama”), because maybe she is even in disbelief by what she’s about to do, or perhaps hesitant to do it. But V probably thinks that the only way she would free herself of what she is feeling would be by killing her. Which, it doesn’t, of course. The damage was done and nothing could have made that better for her. It just left her all the more damaged.
On a side note, I like how even in the mental state that she was in, she still saved Bor’ka and left money for him to go live out his dream. 
Crocodile Rock - That’s the name of the song V was listening to at the end of the episode, right?
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So V is completely unhinged now. This trip to see her family left her more broken and hurt than she was before. She’s lost all her composure as you can see through the constant moving and jittering, trying to focus on the music but her emotions are spilling out of her, making that impossible. At some points, she’s almost smiling while there are tears in her eyes. Wearing the clothes her mother made for her, just adds to the broken mental state she’s in here. She’s desperately trying to keep her composure but she opened the floodgates and there’s no containing the emotions anymore. There’s no going back or doing things differently. This will definitely have lasting effects on V throughout the rest of the season. 
OVERALL - Amazing episode! I really really enjoyed it. Jodie did a phenomenal job as always. The writing for this episode was also really great, shoutout to Suzanne Heathcote. I know some people are saying that the plot didn’t really progress here but I think this episode is really going to drive Villanelle through the last three episode of this season. It’s going to have a huge impact on her and I think we’ll definitely be seeing that sooner rather than later. 
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Silky, I think I love you more by the moment! I haven’t seen the Lodger but I must now. My husband loves German Expressionism films. He was just telling me the new MacBeth movie (in black and white) has some some German Expressionism vibes. I think I’ve seen Notorious but it was so long ago when I was a kid that I don’t really remember. I’ve seen Psycho, The Birds, Vertigo, To Catch a Thief, Dial M for Murder, 39 Steps and maybe The Lady Vanishes but that last one I’m fuzzy on. Norman is such an interesting and heart wrenching character. Have you seen Bates Motel the tv series? I quite enjoyed the portrayal. Oooo now I want to rewatch Hitchcock movies again, maybe will have a marathon soon. Do you like catching Hitchcock’s cameos too like I do? Sorry for hijacking your AD asks/content haha. It’s just so much fun and kind of rare to find someone who appreciates old movies. (If I may indulge, do you like It Happened One Night? I love that movie so much. I’ve thought about how it would be fun to turn into an ADCU fic.)
I can’t wait to read your hitwoman/Gucci fic! I am READY for a version of Maurizio Gucci as interpreted by Silky! I’m sure it will be a heady delight! - 📖 (I will crawl back to my hole now and not spam you about non AD stuff lol)
Ugh, you have tapped into an obsession, my dear ❤️
Old timey movies are likely why I have this yen for a black and white aesthetic 🥰
I haven't seen the new Macbeth, but that makes it sound intriguing. And I've only found out after seeing most movies about his cameos, but I promised myself I'd watch carefully in the future 😄
I've watched Bates Motel on and off primarily for my lady love Vera Farmiga, expecting the show to be awful, and I was pleasantly surprised!
I love It Happened One Night! It's basically one of my ruined wedding stories, only really good 😍 It's definitely a great ADCU premise and I'd love to see it with someone who doesn't get much attention - Jamie could fit a storyline like that with a few tweaks, as well as Al Cody. Flip could work, also with some tweaks. I love those screwball romances ❤️
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You might appreciate this - my Paul ruins your wedding series is based, loosely, on His Girl Friday 😍
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That theme of two people who work way too much and very closely, and develop a special bond; the guy who realizes he's about to lose someone he thought would always be there; manipulating the finance (I originally had Paul be a lot more Machiavellian about it, but toned it down. Now I wish I hadn't 😂); luring the girl back in with a job she can't resist and falling into that cycle they're too far gone to break 🥰 I love it so much 💕
Ugh, and Maurizio ❤️ I feel like he needs so much work - first, to correct everything the movie got wrong, and second, to give him more dimension than rich daddy. I feel oddly protective of that poor character that deserved so much better ❤️
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pixelcookiez · 3 years
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Girls in Naruto & all the wasted potential
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(Image source: Dane!! On WeHeartIt)
SPOILERS AHEAD
I just finished rewatching Naruto (excluding the tedious filler), and Shippuuden up until the Invasion of Pain arc. (The show is kind of dead to me once the Akatsuki are offed tbh) It’s always held a dear place in my heart, since I was so into it during the majority of my teenage years, but rewatching it now that I’m in my mid-twenties, alongside someone more sceptical than me gave me a lot of insight. And it made me realize how much I hate the way they write female characters in Naruto.
There is so much wasted potential in every single one of the girls (with very few exceptions), and their writing is by far the most inconsistent in the series, excluding the two powerhouse main characters. It just makes me so sad?? I love them so much but they get undermined so many times in comparison to their male teammates.
1. They did Ino real dirty. She starts off as sassy, one of the strongest kunoichi in her class, someone who already had a handle on her clan’s ninjutsu. They could have explored her rivalry with Sakura further, how they both evolved, how they took different paths. But no, she’s essentially reduced to a prop further on, and loses any semblance of spine. I don’t recall her even casting a single jutsu in the entirety of Shippuuden? 
She was the perfect opportunity to build a solid femme fatale (and explore the themes of seduction missions, espionage - which her clan is proficient in, etc.), to be a force to be reckoned with, among others. But then, they somehow assumed she’d be better off on the battlefield as a medic? Taught by Sakura? It could’ve been used as a powerful moment of growth for the pinkhead, but that’s not even explored much. Their dynamic remains stagnant and shallow at best. It’s just such a waste.
2. Hinata is also pure wasted potential. Half her lines are just something about Naruto. Her arc in the chuunin exams highlighted just how strong and determined she could be, and thankfully, her strength is showcased later on, but never in any meaningful way. She’s always just been there to adore Naruto, and not much else. There was no major battle where she could show just how strong she’d become (and that confrontation with Pain was a beautiful display of love, yes, but she doesn’t get the chance to shine on her own).
I would’ve loved to see her stand up for herself more often, without needing to rely on Naruto.
3. Tenten is devoid of growth. It’s like they didn’t even try and just needed another girl for team Guy - so she’s essentially that one who just throws kunai around (weapons which are consistently shown as ridiculously inefficient during the whole show) and has perfect aim. But you never see her shine either, because so much of her fighting is not nearly as flashy as her teammate’s, and there’s rarely any battles she gets to win.
There’s so many interesting things they could’ve done, especially for a character with good aim. Tracking ninjas for example, which aren’t brought up at all for the rest of the show. Or you could’ve made her go down some darker route, involving assassination? Just throwing ideas out there. 
4. Tsunade is strong, yes. And a character with interesting flaws/quirks. But can we talk about how many times they represent her just by her tits for a second?
5. Karin, another massive waste of potential. Ffs, we have enough characters fangirling about Sasuke as it is. We don’t need a reminder that he’s beautiful, great, etc. She could’ve kicked so much ass, could’ve gotten an interesting arc, but instead she’s stuck being bitten for, you guessed it, healing. Because you know, that’s all that women in Naruto are good for, right, haha?
6. Temari is someone who was actually written up pretty well. She was a breath of fresh air, and I love her, goddamn it.
7. Konan is a powerhouse, someone stoic and wise. Its unfortunate she was killed off so soon after she left the Akatsuki, because I would’ve loved to see her life post-war and seeing what became of her.
Unfortunately, she’s also mostly cast off to the side. Even during the childhood flashbacks, Jiraya compliments Nagato and Yahiko because of how much they’ve grown strong. But not Konan, because “she’ll grow into a real beauty”. Man, seriously? She’s shown working just as hard as the two. What is it with this blatant sexism? 
8. And finally, my girl, Sakura. I leave her for last because they messed her up the worst. Starts off as a clearly flawed character, which is good, and teases the viewer with moments of growth (during Sakura blossoms, when she takes matters into her own hands). She grows more during her battle with Ino, and eventually asks Tsunade herself to train her. After that, you don’t see her for a while, and for the majority of Naruto, she’s just...there. She doesn’t train the way Naruto and Sasuke do, because they obviously have different ambitions and views of life, but it would’ve been awesome to see some more training arcs with her to show off some hard work. Alas, the damage is done, and for Naruto part 1, she’s doomed to be remembered as the annoying, useless one.
Then, at the start of shippuuden, her training seemingly pays off. Monstrous strength, mastery of medical ninjutsu, and even specific training centered around evasion. We’re treated to an insane battle with her and Chiyo against Sasori, one of the better battles of the show. She’d become an absolute beast who trained in all sorts of things, and came out on top. You’d think from now on, she’d be useful and stronger and more present during the show, but that is nowhere near the case.
The tenshi bridge arc that comes right after basically spits her right in the face. She doesn’t even bother to evade Naruto’s blow, that she could’ve basically sidestepped (you could argue the shock of him hitting her froze her but I don’t think that holds up), and is reduced to that one who fainted, that one who needed to be healed by the actual enemy, and who didn’t do a damn thing. 
Later on, she’s also plain useless. Naruto’s training arc? All she does is cook for him. Heading out to support Shikamaru’s team against the zombie duo? Nah girl, just stand there and look good. Even during their pursuit of Sasuke, nothing at all. 
During the invasion of Pain, at least, she gets to lead the hospital and show off some of that sweet medical prowess. But then, like the rest of the village, she has to cry out for Naruto to come help them. Yikes.
I remember something about her “confessing” her love to Naruto, which is seriously out of character too, no matter the reason. 
Essentially, the biggest waste. I’m so bummed. And I’d ship her with anyone other than Sasuke in that universe, seriously. I love this show and its characters so much, but man, the writing kicks so many of them (and not just female characters) straight in the foot.
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ellanainthetardis · 4 years
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Author Interview
Tagged by @flutteringphalanges​! Thanks!
Name: Karine. Ellana-san. EllanaSan. Ellanainthetardis. That’s a lot of names lmao.
Fandom(s): Mostly I’m hayffie exclusive those days. I’m hoping to go back to Lucifer. I kinda want to have a rewatch and hopefully find my love back for this show that S3 has detroyed... I loved writing fics for this pairing. I’m also anxiously waiting for the 6oC adaptation because I’ve hold off writing kanej fanfics for now but... I love them so much I’m not sure I will be able to resist the show. I am also currently obsessed with Phryne/Jack from Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries but not writing just stalking ao3.
Where You Post: Ellana-san in on fanfiction.net, EllanaSan on AO3 and ellanainthetardis on tumblr. I don’t post anywhere else and if you see my fic elsewhere it’s like been stolen. yes it has happened before. No it’s not fun.
Most Popular One-Shot: On ff, it’s a HP called The Shadow Of Death. It’s a time travel Severus & Harry mentor story I actually was quite proud of at the time. On AO3 it’s a Lucifer story called Redeeming The Devil in which Charlotte/Mom goes after Chloe and Lucifer has to step in so basically devil reveal and all of that. I think it’s one of my fav I wrote for this fandom.
Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story: On ff, according to the stats, it’s Have a Drink Sweetheart but since it’s a collection of one shots I think that doesn’t really count so the next one is “Les Cicatrices du Temps” which is probably the one I’m most known for on the French side of things. It’s a HP story, again with time travel and again with Severus & Harry mentor, and it’s actually part of a trilogy. I haven’t finished part 3 yet but I don’t despair haha.
On AO3 it’s Invictus which is a hayffie story that explore a canon au in which Haymitch’s family never died, forcing him to become the puppet rather than the example. I’m not sure it’s the longest thing I’ve ever written because of the trilogy I just mentioned but it’s the longest in one setting and I’m proud of having finished it. It took a lot of work, an amazing beta, and it was a huge part of my life at one point because it covered I think... close to two years?
Favorite Story You Wrote: It’s difficult to choose because it depends of fandoms. For HP, I would say the Cicatrices trilogy for sure. For Hayffie... It’s so haaard to choose. I think it would be a tie between Invictus, Into That Good Night and April Showers for very different reasons. Invictus because of the commitment it took and also because, as I said, I associated to a specific time in my life. April Showers because I really enjoyed being able to explore post MJ in a more psychological way and it allowed me to explore more characters. I may or may not have fallen a bit truly in love with everlark while writing that one actually. And Into that Good Night because it was so out there, so full of self-indulging angst - like Haymitch being forced to kneel and beg - that I don’t think I would have ever written it if I hadn’t been in an angsty place myself and needed an out. But I’m happy with out it turned out and I don’t know... That one I do have a lot of tender feelings for, I guess.
How You Choose Your Titles: There’s no methods for me. Either I will take it directly from the work or I will try to find something like a theme in the work or I will look up quotes or I will look up songs... I don’t have a specific go-to method.
Complete: stories? I’m not sure how to see that. Everything is on ff and they say I’ve published 188 stories... I know I have two WIPs in SG and HP, 1 probably abandoned in hayffie, 2 currently being posted, HADS though that doesn’t really count does it? One Buffy I never closed but it’s also a os collection... Honestly I have no clue I would say 183? In those waters. I thought it was more haha. Though, I guess if you take HADS alone... XD HADS frightenes me okay? I try not to look at the number of chapters.
Incomplete: Well... There is part 3 of that HP trilogy I have been neglecting for a while. One chaptered story in Stargate I gave up on. The Speed Finding Soulmate story in hayffie I gave up on too although I think about that one often and never say never I might revisit it one day. And obviously the two currently being posted When It Rains It Pours and Katniss The Vampire Slayer.
I always try to have the finished product before posting because I hate WIPs. In the case of the Speed Finding Soulmate story for instance it was supposed to be a one shot and then I added more and more but if I had thought it through, I would have writtten the whole thing first. I have unfortunately a respectable WIP folder XD
If I can’t have the whole thing finished, like KTVS for instance, I try to be comfortably ahead so I never run out of chapters and I can keep a steady schedule.
Basically if I can’t keep to a posting schedule it stresses me out. If I don’t have the next chapter ready, it stresses me out because I don’t want to let anyone down. So... Yeah. I like having everything done before posting.
Which doesn’t answer the question I realize... So incomplete work, not counting os collections, I think might have 5 (2 of which are actually being posted but finished or ahead enough).
Do You Outline?: Never if I can help it. If I write down or break down a story, I will lose the will because it’s all there black on white. If the story is big or complicated I will take notes on a notebook and, maybe, maybe a loose list of events but mostly my way of writing is forge ahead and figure it out as you go. Mostly, the stories write themselves I just type. Everything ends up making sense by itself.
Coming Soon/Not Yet Started: Well, I did finish E10 of KTVS so you know that’s good haha. I plan on writing E11 soonish. Right now I’m kind of in a writing slump of sorts. I should be finished the mind wipe story but I’m a bit tempted by a modern au involving a certain tattoo artist and this former army man... There’s a lot I want to write tbh.
Do You Accept Prompts?: Yes but you have to not be afraid of waiting a long LONG times. I sometimes publish prompts that have been submitted years ago. XD I have a lot of prompts and I tend to write the one that inspire me most but I do try to post the chronologically older ones first.
Upcoming Story You Are Most Excited To Write: Well.. there is this idea of a tattoo artist Effie. It would be cute mostly I don’t think lots of conflict. Also the mind wipe story which I was working on before the crack happened, which is basically an au in which they experimented on Effie during MJ and wiped her mind clean so she doesn’t remember anything at all. And there are a few others wips in my folder that might be cool to revisit so idk. I’m telling you right now I haven’t written in 3 days I’m angsty to start again but I’m not sure what to tackle. I want a a tiny break with KTVS before attacking E11...  OH and there’s also a modern au inspired by a prompt about effie ptsd in a modern setting that I thikn would also take chapters but basically I was thinking bodyguard au and YEAH. Lots of angst.
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calliecat93 · 4 years
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Top 5 Things I Liked About Red vs Blue: Season 2
(Top 5 Dislikes)
One post down, one more to go… and then twenty-six more to go for the rest of this series. Why did I decide to do this again? Meh, whatever. Let’s just get on with it as we resume looking over Season 2.
#5. Machinima
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Okay, this might sound weird, but hear me out. The machinima last season was… basic. Not bad mind you, there is only so much that you can do without a lot of creativity and resources. Resources that RT didn’t have at this point in time. But mostly, they just went through the default motions. Nothing really stood out. It had some cool stuff, like them somehow managing to blow the Warthog on top of Red Base. I think they even said in the commentary that trying to replicate it for the remaster was a pain in the ass. Still, it just didn’t stand out, though the humor made you not notice.
Clearly, the RT guys wanted to push themselves a little more now that they knew how Halo operated and they could machinimate better. Which they did. I noticed a lot of little things when watching the season. Like having Caboose jumping up and down during the opening gunfight while behind a rock, or even Doc just pretending to fire his blaster. Or having Simmons more or less trembling in the finale when his… ugh… fax parts act up and you can tell what Grif is staring at when he questions it. Or adding in things like Lopez’ note in the finale, and even having it written in binary. Heck, we even have smoke come out of Grif’s helmet when Simmons catches him in the act.
These are small things, but it helps make the world and characters feel a little more alive. Clearly, machinima has its limitations, and we’re a long way away from them adding in animation. But creative people will find a way to work within their limitations, and even use those limitations to their advantage. Considering how long this show has been going, I’d say that they succeeded.
#4. Caboose’s Mind
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One of the most memorable parts, and one with some actual effects on the characters, is when Church and Tex go into Caboose’s mind to kill O’Malley. It’s one of the weirdest, yet funniest parts of the season. We get to see how Caboose views everyone, with Tucker being stupid and Church being obsessed with being Caboose’s best friend. He gets them wrong, but it makes sense because it’s how /Caboose/ interprets these individuals. They aren’t supposed to be accurate. It’s especially funny when we see the Reds and only Simmons is close to right Grif is Yellow (which they outright did to prove that he was Orange to viewers), Donut is a girl since that’s what Caboose thought at the time, and Sarge has a pirate accent instead of a Southern one. 
It’s just funny to see Caboose, who at this point had been portrayed as the most dim-witted, and how he views these people. It kinda reflects what he wants with Church being his best friend and the Reds fearing him and his greatness. His ideal version of himself is pretty much a cool version of himself, though otherwise not too different. Church’s reaction and frustration at all fo this, especially Caboose!Church, only makes it funnier as is Tex being unfazed by all of it. It did kinda throw me off when I watched it the first time, but God it’s funnier on rewatch now that I know what’s going on. It’s a nice look into Caboose’s mind, and we got to see glimpses of the others int he S14 episode Head Cannon.
I think the biggest things though were for one, we got a location that wasn’t Blood Gulch finally. Sure it’s pretty much a standard video game map with a bunch of cubes, but after having the only setting be a canyon, it was refreshing. We also have some major impact with this since due to all the chaos, Caboose’s character becomes what it is now. We can debate all day how we should view Caboose and his intellectual level, but I do think that this helped endear the character to people and allowed him to stand out much, much more. Even now I know very few people, if anyone, who dislikes Caboose so while maybe they should acknowledge that he was more or less brain-damaged, the character himself has become better due to this. Which is nice~
#3. O’Malley Subplot
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Speaking of Caboose’s mind, the O’Malley plot was by far the standout in this season. At first, it wasn’t too much since only Tucker cared about Caboose’s sudden murderous behavior. But once Tex came back, things picked up. While the backstory wasn’t totally accurate, it would certainly lead to more ahead. The fight in Caboose’s mind was fun. Tucker got to show some genuine competence when he came up with the plan to make the Reds turn their comms off and even using Lopez as a backup plan. With how much more competent Tucker grows later once circumstances pretty much force him to, this was an early sign showing that he is capable. He just needs to be pushed into doing it.
O’Malley himself didn’t stand out too much, just being kinda murderous. Then he escaped into Doc. I’ll go more into this next season, but this was the best decision ever. Doc is a whiny goody-two-shoes while O’Malley is gleefully, over-the-top evil. The contrast of the two personalities works super well and is just really funny to watch, though again it applies more for the next season. By the end, O’Malley makes his move and firmly sets himself up as the first proper Big Bad of the series, and he’s the perfect villain for the Blood Gulch Chronicles.
Overall, the whole subplot was really fun even though it did kind of have a slow start. It brought back Tex, had some really funny moments like the Reds' reactions to Lopez’s horrible love song. At least Donut liked it, haha~ It gave us our first proper villain, which led to one Hell of an insane finale. Even everything in between with Donut getting captured by the Blues and them trying to use this to make Sarge build them new bodies was fun to watch. The first half of S2 s super fun, but the second half is, without doubt, the best part for me. O’Malley was the catalyst, and to this day is one of my favorite villains. Love it~
#2. Improved Production Standards
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Season 1 was good but flawed. It was clear that the RT guys weren’t really sure what they were doing. Audio quality was meh, jokes could drag, and the pacing was rather slow. It makes sense though when you read about what the original plans were. RvB was meant to be a miniseries, and nothing more. But pretty much a combination of them not getting to what they planned as soon as they thought (Donut was supposed to be in pink armor much sooner for example, and they realized how long it was taking to get there) as well as just coming up with more ideas extended things to a nineteen episode run. So there was no long term plan and things like writing and machinima were done in mere days in between releases. Plus there were only two main machinimators, Burnie and Geoff, and if you listen to the original S1 commentary they are both clearly exhausted. Burnie even said on a one-on-one podcast with Geoff on how they had pretty much had every conversation ever and they’d be like some old married couple just staring at each other. You can find it here if you’re interested, it’s a fun one~
So yeah… when you look back you can kinda tell that S1 was a bit of a rush job, and a tiring one at that. It’s still very good and like I said, they found ways to use so much you barely notice things were made up on the fly. But clearly, they needed a better system. Enter Matt Hullum. He had already been voicing Sarge, but he ended up stepping in to play a larger behind the scenes role. He joined Burnie on writing and directing, and thus they started planning things much farther ahead. As such, they knew the general plot and thus things could be tightened. The pacing is much better with episodes feeling faster, but having plenty of things happening. I already talked about the machinima improvements, which having Matt as well as Gus coming back from Puerto Rico also helped there. The voice acting, while still amateur, improved as well as the audio mixing. The filter is still a little distracting, but it and the general audio mixing is greatly improved. Pretty much every aspect of S1 was improved big time. It wasn’t perfect, but still, they clearly put a lot in creating a more quality product.
Season 2 had a hard job. Season One had to prove that this was a show worth watching. Season 2 had to prove that it could keep going and wasn’t just a one-hit-wonder. And ho boy did they. It’s funnier, it’s more ambitious, and even starts adding in some story. This season got the viewers from last time to come back, and probably brought in some new ones. It proved that this was a show that was sticking around and that RT had staying power. If this season failed, RvB would probably just be remembered as this funny Halo show. But it succeeded because they wanted the show to keep succeeding and be good, and that effort shows.
#1. Improved Characterizations
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The thing that I enjoyed most about Season 1 was the character interactions. They just had natural chemistry and their interactions were funny. The characters themselves though were a little one-note. They had personality, but they didn’t really stand out when you compare them to other comedies like The Simpsons or South Park. I guess that RT realized this as well because this is where the characters really begin to become the same ones that we know now. Not all of them mind you like Simmons and Tucker are the least fleshed out here, but even then the signs of who they would become are there with things like Simmons clinginess to Sarge and the joke about Tucker’s rock, as well as the previously mentioned show of competence when pushed.
Donut and Grif show more of their personality, with Donut expressing his hobbies like home decor and growing to like his lightish-red armor. Grif shows his more lazy slacker attributes, like sleeping during meetings and forgetting the ammo, and his unhealthy habits like smoking and his constant eating. Which he’s pretty much doing intentionally to annoy Simmons and mess up the parts that he got from him. Lopez also got a lot of personalities now that he can talk. Namely, after the Reds nearly kill him and the Blues use him for their own means, he hates them all and his apathetic personality has stuck ever since. Poor guy has had such a hard time, haha. And I already went into Caboose, so there's no need to repeat myself. Even Shelia got sassier this season~
The one I think got the most improvement though is Sarge. In S1, he was just kind of a standard sergeant character you could find in just about any military movie, and the voice reflected it. Here? Matt just goes off the wall. He said in the S2 commentary that Sarge is pretty much the combination of various 50’s character tropes, like the grumpy old guy and the mad scientist. It shows. Sarge’s hatred of Blues and love of warfare are much more evident, especially in the finale. His hatred of Grif is also much more played up. We see that he is absolutely insane with his conspiracy theories about Lopez being brainwashed by the Blues instead of reprogrammed and turning Simmons into a cyborg instead of just getting a new robot. Sarge is the opposite of sensible, and having this guy be the leader and forcing everyone to follow his plans due to it is freakin’ hilarious. Matt exaggerating the accent from this point on only adds to this characterization and is much, much more fitting.
The characters, in my opinion, are the best part of Red vs Blue. This season demonstrates that very well. Unlike S1 where there were only shades of their later portrayal, this one uses broad strokes. I think some of the better voice acting can also be due to this since the cast now has more of a character to fool around with instead of just having to more or less act like their everyday selves. The characters were stronger, and as such the interaction and humor were even better. As such, it is my favorite part of Red vs Blue Season 2. Can they keep it up in Season 3? Well… we’ll find out soon~
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readingraebow · 5 years
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Crazy Rich Asians Section One
Prologue - Part One: Chapter Twelve
1. Have you ever read this book before/seen the movie? I have seen the movie! When it was added to HBO, Dalton and I watched it and we LOVED it!! (We both really, really love Awkwafina!) And I am seriously so excited to read this book!! I literally went out and bought it as soon as Lizzy picked it and have been staring at it longingly ever since, haha. So I am so excited to get started and then rewatch the movie!!
2. What problem do the Youngs encounter when they try to check into the hotel? How is this remedied? So they'd booked the biggest suite and even confirmed two days before. But then when they get there, the manager takes one look at them, sees that they're Asian and won't give them a room. And one of the women, Felicity, even grabs the reservation book and confirms that their name is in there, booking the biggest suite for four nights. But he says that there's been some mistake and that he doesn't have any rooms available. So he kicks them out and Felicity goes and calls a bunch of hotels, can't find a room and then she ends up calling her husband. He asks what's the name of the hotel and then says that he played golf with the owner and has an idea. An hour after the manager kicked them out, the three women and their kids return WITH THE PROPRIETOR who reveals that Felicity's husband has just bought the hotel. And Felicity then promptly fires the manager before they go to the bar to celebrate with the old owner. Literally the ultimate mike drop <333
3. What warning does Astrid give Nick when he tells her he wants to bring Rachel home for the summer? She warns him that he needs to prepare Rachel for their family. First, it's the first time Nick has ever brought ANYONE home to meet his family so that's already a red flag. Astrid says that everyone will be assuming that Nick is going to marry her and by even asking Rachel to go, he's taking their relationship to the next level, whether he likes it or not. And second, Astrid asks how much Rachel knows about their family and he says basically nothing. Meaning that he hasn't told her that he's rich or basically anything about his life in Singapore. That's why Astrid warns Nick to prepare her. She says that Nick can't just throw Rachel into the deep end. Astrid says that she first started publicly dating her husband five years ago and he's still getting used to the lifestyle. And Rachel will be much the same. But Nick just seems to kind of wave off her warning????
4. Rumors that Nick Young is bringing a girl home reach his family before he has a chance to tell them himself. Have details of your relationship ever reached your family through the rumor mill before you had a chance to tell them? Hmmm. So my relationships have always been ~private because my family never really seemed that supportive of me dating. So I just never really told them. I literally didn't tell them I was dating Dalton until he moved in with me and that was only because I had to tell them (but that's a long story). Anyway, as for the extended family, sooo kind of??? Dalton and I were very private about our relationship for a very long time but I think my grandmother and cousins and such suspected that there might be something going on there? And then a "friend" told my aunt and she ~confronted me which is why I had to leave the church. So, in that aspect, yes. But it wasn't exactly a rumor that was passed on. It was one friend who found out and then told my aunt who flipped out (because sex before marriage, yada yada, all that bullshit) and then I told my parents because she threatened to do it. (My family is sO GREAT. Not.) So. ~Definitely more information than you wanted, haha.
5. What does Astrid discover at the end of chapter nine? She discovers a text message that says "MISS U NSIDE ME" which she can't understand and who would even be sending that to her?? And then she realizes that she's holding Michael's phone, not hers.
6. Why didn’t Rachel want to go on a date with Nick? Rachel had dated other Asians before and the relationships hadn't gone great so about five years ago, she instituted a "no Asians" policy. But it was more how all other Asian men treated her. When they entered a room, scanned it and found her the only Asian present, she would then receive ~special treatment and they would basically size her up for future marriage material. And Rachel hadn't been raised ~traditionally Asian so she wasn't about that life. She wasn't looking for another Asian just for show. Which is why she initially didn't even want to consider Nick: because he's Asian and because he was basically the exact opposite of what she'd thought she'd been looking for.
7. How did the first date go? So they were originally with the friend who had told Rachel about Nick and he seemed more interested in the (married) friend and asking questions about her department (since they're all professors). But then Rachel pretty much let go of her hangups and observed him and discovered all the things about him that her friend and liked and had thought Rachel would like. And eventually he did ~hit it off with Rachel and the friend decided to go home and left them alone. And Rachel and Nick stayed for another drink and another and then drinks turned into dinner. And somewhere in all of that, Rachel had a realization: Nick is the first guy she's ever been on a date with that she could see herself marrying.
8. How did the last first date you went on go? Hmm let's see. So my first date with Dalton I honestly didn't even realize was a date, ahaha. It was the day I moved to Missouri. We'd been texting before I moved and he called me when he got out of class and asked if I wanted to hang out later. I had spent all night driving and then immediately went to breakfast with my grandmother so he asked if I wanted to do dinner. I said yes and he picked me up and we went to Five Guys. Well my debit card had stopped working on the drive to Missouri (convenient) so he paid (which I am actually clueless and thought was just a friend thing). And then after we ate, he asked what else I wanted to do. He drove to one of the movie theaters in town but I was still tired so instead we ended up going back to his house and watching a couple of Stranger Things episodes. It was honestly a really great night <33
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  Section One Reading Journal
I am loving this book so far!!!!! It’s such a fun and easy read and all of the footnotes about Asian culture are so fascinating???
And, honestly, I’m really liking reading the book because I feel like I’m getting more of the ~story than I did with the movie. There’s a lot going on here because there are so many different characters and families and people to keep track of that I think I just... didn’t in the movie, haha. In the movie, I definitely didn’t keep up with how everyone is related. But I think it’s easier to track that in the book?
So I’m loving that I’m getting more details from this story than I did in the movie and, honestly, I can’t wait to rewatch the movie after we finish the book.
I am just really loving this story and this book overall and I can’t wait to keep reading!!!
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buri-art · 5 years
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we stan Please Save my Earth!! I always get so happy when i find a fan lol anyways did you read the sequel? i wanted to, like so so much because i've heard good thing about it but the change in the art turn me off, it is so bad?????
Yaaaaay, always good to find PSME fans! : D (This is primarily an Akatsuki no Yona blog, though.) I did read the sequel (Boku wo Tsutsumu Tsuki no Hikari, which takes place 15 years later) and although it has wonky art, I did enjoy it. I’m also four volumes into the sequel to the sequel, Boku wa Chikyuu to Utau, which takes place another 4 years later. My feelings toward both are a little complicated, so I’ll discuss Boku-Tsuki first (and I’ll also answer your other questions behind the cut, since this will get long!): 
I love PSME so much that OF COURSE I love having more of it and seeing what the characters are doing when they’re older (though I’m sad that characters like Rin’s mom and Boon never made appearances! Tamura himself only had one scene, haha). It’s a very different story at first, which a fun focus on the children of a few of the old characters (plus some other kids they meet). I liked the kids’ relationships and perspectives a lot, with the PSME lore as background. I was hit and miss with how the old cast wound up, and it inevitably has colored how I look back at them in the original. However, I found the last arc (which spanned a few volumes) pretty… I don’t know. The phrase that comes to mind is a Chinese idiom, “pulling up sprouts to make them grow faster”, which means “spoiling by excessive enthusiasm”. It started to feel like Rin, Alice, Mokuren, and Shion were getting strangled by excessive drama/development. It’s like their characters were no longer allowed room to breathe. And it was during this arc that Hiwatari noticed that it was started to become a different story, which was why she abruptly asked her editor if she could conclude the series and start a new one under a different title. That makes sense, because Boku-Uta takes those changes a lot further. With this one, I feel it’s really overindulging in extra background development, which takes away from the mystique of the original.It’s also…. just weird. Like, Hiwatari writes weird stuff,  that’s why she’s so beloved because her stories are so unique. ^_^ I’ve read a lot (but not all) of her other works, and I loooooved stuff like Global Garden because–although the art style was wonky–I’ve never read anything quite like it. Well, except for PSME–it’s funny how it uses so many similar themes but plays them in such a different way. 
But with Boku-Uta, it’s like her publishers just stepped out of her way and said “you know what, you have such a fanbase that people will buy it no matter what you write, so go ahead, add more magic cats.” 
So, like, I really want to like this one too, but I find it difficult to. I do really like the continued developments of the younger generation which Boku-Tsuki focused on, but other than that, I find it difficult to enjoy. I read Volume 4 around 2am in an airport and just felt angry by the time I finished because some of the new plot twists just felt so stupid. XDSo, in conclusion, yes, Boku-Tsuki has a lot of merits, but it’s going to change your experience of PSME, which is why I can understand why a lot of PSME fans didn’t like it or choose not to read it. Boku-Uta is a natural progression from the ending of that one, so if you choose to read Boku-Tsuki, keep that in mind. But hey, I AM such a big Hiwatari fan that I know I’m going to buy every volume of Boku-Uta anyway. Maybe it’ll redeem itself in my eyes, it still has some interesting elements keeping me going. Okay, on to your other PSME Ask: “sorry, i just found this tumblr so i’m going to ask a lot of PSME questions lol: favorite characters and why?“I love this question. : D Ironically I was just talking with a friend about this the other day since she’s borrowing the manga from me, and I didn’t really know how to answer it. As stated before, my perceptions of the characters has been affected by reading Boku-Tsuki.So like… just because they get the best development, how can I NOT love the Rin-Alice-Shion-Mokuren quatrad?? I keep going back and forth over the years between who of those four is my favorite. While reading the manga for the first time while I was a teen I think I usually leaned more toward Rin and Alice, but now maybe it’s Shion and Mokuren?? I don’t know XDDDAs for OTHER characters, though, part of what I love about it is that there are so many good supporting characters, especially beyond the basic seven kids and their past lives. So here are a few that come to mind to write some thoughts on: Haruhiko: I haaaaaaaated him with a passion as I was reading the manga because he was so whiny and helpless, UNTIL I got to the volume when he confessed everything to Alice, Jinpachi, and Issei, and it was like a switch was flipped and he became one of my favorites because of how much courage he had. You know how he really lightens up and gets comfortable talking with Alice later on? That’s the sort of person he remains in the sequel, which has made me like him even more. He’s mature and mostly at peace with his past, but not totally, and he can recognize that about himself without it taking over. But he’s not totally mature either—you know that scene when he fakes having heart trouble and then gets Alice to stop? And how he makes that “What did you think I was going to do? I’m not Shion!” joke right afterward? That’s the sort of nasty side of his personality that I love too. Looking back at the start of the series now, I see that he was courageous and understanding all along, he just had an extremely weighty situation to deal with. Mikuro: I can never see him the same way again after the sequel (in which he’s a major character). XDD It’s clear that he’s always been a pet OC of Hiwatari’s, but the cool, hard-boiled original character designs for him are nothing like the adult he’s become. He tries so hard to play it cool, but the guy’s a helpless dweeb sometimes. I always found it exciting to learn more about his EPIA life. An extra one-shot (Things Accidently Left Behind, I think it’s called?) gives a lot more backstory for him and introduces more of the EPIA characters, who I enjoy. (Fun fact: Remember his friend Tomoko who was briefly mentioned? She winds up marrying his brother Hokuto. XD Mikuro winds up in a complicated relationship with an American psychic named Pamela, whom I also really like, she’s a hoot.)Mode: I loved her as soon as I met her (and although I’m okay with how she was used in the final arc of the sequel, I sort of wish she could have been left as-is too). She was, through and through, such a good friend, but I like her sense of responsibility as a caretaker too. Lazlo: How can I not love Lazlo!!? The sob story gets played up a little TOO much and I think it was effective as-is in the original (like, we didn’t need to know that he and Kyaa got into the car accident while bringing home a toy for Shion to try to make him smile). In fact, it was Lazlo who made me realize that I have interest in being a foster mother someday. Rin’s Mom: She’s got such a rough job, seriously. She had a break-down, which I don’t blame her for, but I love the courage and understanding she shows after that. She’s the mom who Shion always deserved. Hajime: Always a favorite. XD But I also love that he’s not a huge influence on the story either, his mission has always been to support and take care of Alice, even if that means being critical of her decisions. There are a few extra chapters in Boku-Tsuki discussing Rin & Alice’s early parenting years, and they’re told from Hajime’s POV (he wasn’t exactly happy with the shocking situation), which I really enjoy. Daisuke/Hiiragi: He’s not as big a favorite now (because in some ways he and Jinpachi grew into lame adults XD), but I always liked him and found it funny how despite being the leader, he basically has no influence and is the least important of the seven. XDD It was liking him in a sort of feeling bad for him kind of way. The Lians: Part of what’s so cool about PSME is the development of the Homeworld, and I thought the role of the Lians fleshed out that world really well. Seeing Shion’s different relationships with them (they’re all doing their best, but the older one clearly has more of a way with him) was a nice touch. Plus, I just like and respect nuns in the first place, so that influences my view of them.
Tamura:  When I first read/watched it, I didn’t like him much because I thought he was too nosy and I just wanted to focus on the younger cast; the yakuza subplot was a turn-off at first. But looking back on it, Tamura is a such a great and unexpected driver of the plot for a shoujo manga. Nowadays if I rewatch or reread it, you’ll even hear me squeal about seeing Takeshi again. XDDIssei & Sakura: They are such a stinking cute, girly married couple in the sequel, and now it’s hard to ever see them the same way as in the original when I could just appreciate how their deep friendship took shape. If anything I didn’t want them to get married because that felt trite and like a Pair-the-Spares trope and it made it seem like that was the only possible result of a deep friendship between a girl and formal-girl-now-guy-on-purpose-due-to-failed-romance. BUT!! Boku-Uta does provide a nice insight on that, which I appreciate, and which explains why the other three are singletons (being from the Homeworld, they have a different wavelength from regular earthlings, which is why they harmonize well together (as do Rin and Alice), whereas Daisuke, Jinpachi, and Haruhiko can’t find partners to be in the same harmony with). But to back up a bit, Issei’s subplots was one of my favorites in the original. That scene when he “releases” Enju’s soul to go out and love deeply again was so sweet. : DSo like, I pretty much like EVERYONE due to deep attachment for the series, though my thoughts and feelings change over the years. These are just the thoughts coming to mind at the moment. XD
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annakie · 6 years
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I made it, and now there's no turning back
Hey, so, this is about to be a very long, spammy post about Critical Role season 1.  This is mostly for my own memory, so in the future when I want to revisit watching the show, I'll have my own log, of sorts.  It's really long.  And a lot of it is my chatlogs about the show with @janiemcpants , posted with her permission.   So if you hate reading other people's chatlogs, this may not be the post for you.
But if you wanna read a lot of words about a show where some nerdy-ass voice actors play Dungeons and Dragons, this may be the post for you.
Also, for unknown reasons, I’ve had Jimmy Eat World’s song “Cut” stuck in my head the last couple of days, and it’s basically all I’ve listened to today.  The words don’t really fit my emotions, but the overall feeling the song gives me does.  So that’s where my head is.  
I said some of this an a post I made a few weeks ago, but I’m saying it again now.  Ever since I heard of it, I was pretty sure I’d love Critical Role if I could get into it.  And so for two years I meant to catch up.  
I’ve played Dungeons and Dragons since the late 90′s, second edition, and have been in epic campaigns of my own before where I fell in love with not only my character but our entire party.  I love this party just as much as I’ve loved Annotea, Sekhar, Ike, Ta’Rik, Annwyl, Krivken, Liek, Colin, E’a and Rhyz.
I have looked for a post I made like a year and a half ago asking for help figuring out how to get into Critical Role on my blog a few times but either I tagged it badly or deleted it.  I don't know.  I remember some people said to start at episode 19. Some people said to use it as background sound when cleaning / cooking / driving etc.  I knew I didn't want to start midway through the part of the story we had, I was disappointed to learn they were already 8th level and we'd missed like two years of story before the show.
I have a post from June 2016 saying I'd made it an hour into the first episode, but I think I finished that ep, or got close, and didn't pick it back up for like, another year.  I think it was like mid-summer last year when I made my second push to get into it.  
I made it through like eight episodes, and I remember having episode 8 up in a web browser for weeks or a couple of months and things were just so crazy with everything happening with work at the end of the year.  And I only watched it as background noise at work.  I'd frequently realize I had no idea what was going on, and through like the first 30 or 40 episodes I'd find some kind of recap to read at the end of the episode to make sure I didn't miss anything important.
Here's some negativity, so skip it if you'd like: It took me a very long time to get through like episode 10 to 27 because long before I learned all the things that happened since he left, I couldn't stand Orion.  I've looked into it a bit and basically for all the normal reasons people didn't like him.  I respect that some people did, but being honest here, if he'd have stayed on the show, I probably would have stopped watching.  Around episode 20 I learned that he'd leave soon, and dragged myself through the rest of the episodes until he was gone.  And then, it was much easier to get into.
The first half of this year my job went from crazy drama to just plain boring.  I really didn't have much to do, and everyone knew I was just biding time until it was time to go.  So I'd watch like half the day sometimes, often while doing what work I did have to do.  But often that work was like, wiping laptops or organizing keys or just... busywork.  But CR made the days pass quicker, and it was enjoyable.
The Feels apparently really started on 3/09 when I sent this to JanieMcPants: Grog winning his second solo battle with the orc JUST BARELY thanks to Scanlan's sneaky inspiration is my new favorite moment in the show.
This would begin a very long chatlog of me just yelling feelings at her.  After this, my current comments are italicized. 
---------- 03/10/2018 janiemcpants: That whole episode is SPECTACULAR Did you finish it? I don't want to spoil anything if not!
annakie: I did, I got to the part in the next episode where Percy finally confessed a bit of what is going on with his life since they're back home and have been invited to some feast.  Still pretty early on in that ep, work got crazy yesterday. :)
---------- 03/23/2018 annakie: Man, I'm on ep 26 now (I watch in bits and bursts as I have time at work, it's real slow going) and I have to say, (I deleted some negativity about Orion here).  EVERYTHING ELSE IS GREAT though. I'm really enjoying everyone else and their characters.  The episode with the dinner at the Briarwood's was AMAZING especially and I'm so worried about Percy.  I was almost in tears as Liam was talking about him thinking about Keyleth and Vex when Vax was going unconscious and thought he was going to die.  That was so, so good.
BTW did I just miss it all this time that Vax has a thing for Keyleth?  Like I didn't notice it at all until that moment he was going unconscious and now it's obvious.
janiemcpants: Vax’s last thoughts about Vex and Keyleth KILLED. ME. That was also the first time I realized he was into Keyleth, and I think it was the first time any of the others realized it, judging by their faces. Liam did say later that he already was aware of it when the show started, and he dropped a few hints before he outright said it. I’m listening to the podcast right now from the beginning and there are some little things there that you can pick up if you’re looking for them, but nothing that would have given it away, I don’t think. So it was a fun surprise for everybody. (Vax and Keyleth are one of my favorite pairings on the show. I just love them.) This arc is THE BEST and so intense. So much suffering, but also so much goodness!
(We chatted more for awhile about Percy, and the cow episode (Very fun!) )
---------- 04/12/2018 annakie: OH MY GOD SO MUCH IS HAPPENING CASSANDRA IS ALIVE AND VAX IS KISSING KEYLETH. This is so good.  SO GOOD.
janiemcpants: I didn't see that kiss coming AT ALL It was SUCH A DELIGHTFUL SURPRISE And Percy gets one sibling back, MY HEART
---------- 05/02/2018 annakie: I've been studying a lot and haven't had a lot of time for CritRole but I watched some today like the END OF THE BRIARWOODS HECK YEAH and Cassandra is good again, and then VAX TRYING TO HOLD KEYLETH'S HAND ON THE TREE and she didn't know how to respond she's so awkward and unsure and needs time to figure it out. I was sitting there just staring at the screen instead of working for like 20 minutes during that part haha. 
And I watched the winter fair episode with Trinket winning the pie eating contest and Grog losing arm wrestling to Trish the Dish and that was GREAT.  I stopped like right after Matt had Tiberius leave the party for good.  It was a very good day of very awesome CritRole at work. :)
janiemcpants: Keyleth and Vax just KILL ME. It's such a slow burn until suddenly STUFF HAPPENS and then it slows down again and pulls at my heartstrings the entire time.
---------- 05/17/2018 annakie: "I don't want to be alone tonight."
"I haven't wanted to be alone most nights..."  And I let him in. THE SHIP HAS SAILED.  YAY!! :D
annakie: Haha aww Marisha switched seats so she could be closer to Liam, that's sweet.
lol of COURSE the VERY NEXT DAY they see Kashaw again. And Will sits on the other side of Marisha... that's great.
janiemcpants Yay!!! They’re the slowest of slow burns but it’s so worth it. Liam and Marisha manage to be adorable even when they’re seated far away from each other. And yay to Kashaw coming back! I had mixed feelings about him at first, because the second Trial of the Take group had a blend of personalities that was tough to work with, and he got lost in the sea of grouchiness. But he ended up being great and every time he comes back I love him more.
(I'd grow to feel the same way about Kashaw.)
---------- 05/29/2018 annakie: Episode 44 - Oh my gosh, there was a beholder fight AND NOW VEX IS DEAD WHAT IS HAPPENING? And yeah, I think Kashaw is definitely more stand-out-y here, I'm really enjoying his character here. :)
annakie Keyleth: "Why did you do that?  Kashaw: "Because I knew you wanted me to."  D'awwww....
janiemcpants: AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH Vex’s death there kills me extra because it comes AFTER they win the fight! Everything is supposed to be okay, and then NOPE. THANK GOODNESS Kash was there. They're so lucky he happened to be their guest that night!
I mean, they probably could have come up with another way to save her, but being able to do it right away was a relief. And it was a great character moment for him
--------- 6/15/2018 I made this post, and I was at episode 49.
----------
A lot happened, and I didn't yell about it much of anywhere. I don't know how I let 20 episodes go by without reacting much to them, especially when SO MUCH HAPPENED in there. Right about when the Chroma Conclave hit, I knew I was sucked in, completely.  
But in a month and a half I made it through 14 episodes.  Near the end of July, things started happening very quickly.  
---------- 07/27/2018 annakie: I'm on episode 63 now and I just realized today I'm JUST BARELY over halfway through this campaign. Which makes me both happy and not, haha.
Woah Tiberius.  This actually sad. :(
That was really rough and I cried a little.
janiemcpants: TIBS That was so sad All of it was, but "I encourage peace" really got me And when I rewatched it and realize that's what Percy's DM whisper was about, and you can see it on his face and then he has to sit on it for like 20 minutes AUGH
07/28/2018 annakie: Oh man I'm going to have to go back and watch that again.  I was touched at how sad EVERYONE was.   And yeah, the burial part and "I encourage peace" got me too.  It's always sad to lose a friend, but also Tibs defending Draconia was really the perfect ending for his character.
I started ep 65 and YAY. FINALLY.  KEYLETH AND VAX.  FOR REALS. I have LOVED the slow-burn of the last 40 episodes but I'm glad they're moving into an actual relationship now.
I got spoiled about Vex and Percy just the other day (No one's fault, someone I follow on twitter liked a tweet, which twitter OH SO HELPFULLY put on my timeline.  So, it's twitter's fault.)   There have already been some hints that it's coming with Vex's titling and all, but I'm looking forward to it.
(Getting spoiled accidentally about that was my "OK TIME TO CLAMP DOWN ON SPOILERS!!" wakeup call -- especially since that Really Big Thing happened in Campaign 2 right about then and despite trying real hard to not be spoiled I know all about it.)
And Scanlan, what character growth with his speech to Pike a couple of episodes ago, apologizing for the proposal and realizing he was more in love with the idea of Pike, even though he does really love her, so proud of that boy.  And the note he gave Pike awhile ago for if he dies AND SHE READ IMMEDIATELY.  That was like the first real sign she's given.  The only thing that's bothered me about Scanlan, (who is probably my favorite, though I love THEM ALL) is that he was nice-guying / trying to wear Pike down this whole time, albeit in a charming way, and now he gets that, so YAY!
---------- 07/28/2018 annakie Watching 65, and having Matt torture Marisha by having Kashaw ask Keyleth out the night after she finally gets together with Vax is masterful.  Haha
Awww Gilmore's parents, so sweet.  And then Sam "Well, they're both over 70, so who's going to kill them?" buhahahahaha
07/29/2018 annakie: Oh my God, episode 68.  I'm bawling.  I obviously know Percy will be back but this was really, really, really rough.  Taliesin took it better than anyone.  Matt seemed just as devastated as everyone else.  Marisha's crying made me cry. 
That ending, with everyone gathering around Ripley and each doing their own killing blow for Percy.... it was so, so, SO GOOD.
I hope the internet wasn't too hard on Matt that week.
(I really did bawl about Percy's death.  That's when the show went from “I love this” to "This is masterful.  This is amazing. This might be elevated to rank of "FAVORITE THINGS!" 
This is also when I started watching at home -- because I had to know what was going to happen.  And because I realized that this show will MAKE ME CRY and I can't cry at work.  I also started watching on the weekends, basically as much as I could, every night, all Saturday and Sunday when possible.)
janiemcpants: Keyleth and Vax took a while, but I think they played out perfectly in the end :) I’m so happy the way the official couples turned out, because they’re all so different and so great in their own way. Truly something for everyone! (Vax and Keyleth are my favorites, but I don’t think I have ANY NoTPs, which is awesome.) When I first started the show, I thought I was going to HATE Scanlan, specifically because of the nice-guy thing. But then that sort of started to taper off and he won me over anyway, and I was so happy that he actually realized what was going on and apologized for it. Especially since I love their relationship, as she’s more or less the group’s moral compass, but he’s also basically the group dad--the one who keeps the to-do list and helps everyone keep their shit together (even if it’s not in the most conventional way). Thank goodness he finally realized it was more important to keep her as a friend than to keep trying for romance and probably eventually lose her by being a shithead.
68/69 are two of my favorite episodes, and two of the very hardest to watch Rough, but really emotionally and narratively satisfying
---------
7/21/2018
I made this post,  My first big feelings post.
---------------
08/03/2018 annakie: I JUST FINISHED 78.  SO MANY FEELINGS!  VEX ANSWERING THE DOOR NAKED.  THE WHOLE PLANNING.  GILMORE IS WITH THEM!  AND OH MY GOD KASH AND ZARAH PLS DON'T DIE BUT IF YOU DO SACRIFICING YOURSELF LIKE THIS IS AMAZING, I LOVE YOU. Also I'm now watching Talks Machina too so each episode is an hour longer!
08/05/2018 annakie: OH MY GOD SCANLAN.  THIS IS SO MUCH WORSE THAN PERCY. I DIDN'T THINK IT COULD GET WORSE I AM BAWLING AT PIKE'S POEM OH THANK GOD SHE ROLLED A NATURAL 20
Liam breaking during Pike's poem double killed me
I'm also so glad Ashley could be here for this one. I wish Sam was.
Also I'm SO GLAD Keyleth was so amazing last episode, both the feeblemind (totally, 100% saving this fight) and spotting Kima and Allora in the ocean.  Just MVP'd the hell out of that ep.
janiemcpants: OH MAN that feeblemind!!! And I’m so glad it was Keyleth who landed such a huge blow on Raishan. And spotting Kima and Allura was such a HUGE RELIEF. What an emotional rollercoaster that episode was. I’m convinced the dice themselves have a sense of drama. That’s the only way to explain some of the narratively amazing 1s and 20s we’ve gotten
annakie: Oh my God, I know.  Just absolutely insane.  THAT NAT 20 MERCER ROLLED FOR THE FINAL RESURRECTION ROLL OMG
I didn't stop for Talks Machina between those eps.  I couldn't, I had to see what happened.  I'm so glad this entire ep was so laid back after the resurrection. 
This show... I'm so, so mad I wasn't into it from the beginning.  On the other hand, having to wait a week between THOSE EPISODES would have been the worst.
janiemcpants: IT WAS It's so good that they generally have breather episodes once something huge is over with, because I don't think I could handle the tension otherwise
---------- 08/06/2018 annakie: WHAT THE FUCK I THOUGHT THIS WOULD BE FUN AND HAPPY AND EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE. I had to stop watching at work
Because I started crying a little and then Percy gave his speech and I almost lost it haha That's where I am right now, raced home from lunch to watch the rest of this where I could cry
janiemcpants: Are you on episode 85? That one really hit like a slap in the face
annakie: Yep!
janiemcpants: That's the only one I think I won't be able to watch again
(I made this post.)
annakie: He's gone now, they're awake the next morning. Like I knew he was leaving but I thought it wouldn't be THIS TERRIBLE.  I thought it’d be like “Hey guys I’m taking some time off, love you, bye!” but nooooo.
janiemcpants: And it really felt like it came out of nowhere!
annakie: But also props to Sam because that was such a good representation of depression.
Like I really understood where it was coming from but yeah you really didn't expect THAT.
janiemcpants: Yeah, he's definitely not afraid to take risks and let his character be imperfect, and he had some good points and some not so good points in a very realistic way But BOY was that hard to watch
annakie: Yeah exactly.  Like, yelling that nobody cares about him.... that they don't love him.... I have felt that way about people who I absolutely knew loved me and that just shook me.  It was just... so... real.  And the way everyone reacted.  Man I just wish Ashley had been there.
I already know Sam plays someone else for awhile and eventually, Scanlan comes back but man... again... so glad I don't have to wait to KNOW THAT.
janiemcpants: You're lucky you know that! I totally thought he was gone for good Are you at the end of the episode, or still going?
annakie: Still going, they're at Whitestone still the next morning deciding what to do next.  Keyleth just scryed on Scanlan and Kaylee.
Grog: "I know you on a more intimiate level."  Vex: "Because you saw my titties."  Grog: Basically, yeah.
Real question: Can I watch the rest of this episode and maybe next without crying, so I can finish it at work, or should I not?  Gotta head back in a few minutes
Oh heeey it's already Sam's new character. :)
janiemcpants You can probably finish it up Since you met Sam's new character and he's pretty good And the next one has a lot of funny stuff in it
---------- 08/07/2018 annakie Episode 88:  The Kraken Fight.  FIVE AND A HALF HOURS (more like five after the break BUT STILL.)  I feel like I was watching this episode for a week.
janiemcpants That was intense! Them not being able to kill the kraken really added some stress to the fight Although they might not have been able to anyway
08/08/2018 annakie Yeah!  That added a whole crazy layer onto it!  I was pretty sure there would be more deaths than just Vax.  Not that him dying wasn't bad, but you know.  I think I'm becoming desensitized to the deaths because I didn't cry during his resurrection.  Also, poor Ashley, it feels like every time she's there lately it's to resurrect someone.
Finished Ep 90 this afternoon, Keyleth's Aramente ceremony was really good. :)
Also Grog and Tary potion shopping, I laughed so hard at work and had to keep it quiet, I'm sure my coworkers think I'm a maniac.
Ep 91 - Vox Machina Go To Hell... sounds amazing.  Just starting.
janiemcpants: Grog and Tary shopping was a total trash fire and it was so great And Vox Machina Go to Hell was such a good title! And a good episode!
---------- 08/11/2018
annakie: Ep 95!  Past the time skip!  The last two have been SO MUCH FUN and just what we needed after all the sadness and tension!  And YAY ASHLEY IS HERE FOR AWHILE.  SHE'S GETTING A STORYLINE!  Also I love Tary so much now, that character growth! :D  But I only have 20 episodes left noooooo
(later that night)...I should probably be doing other things with my life other than watching CR + Talks Machina but I'm already on 98.  Clearly Tary is leaving soon, it's neat to meet his family and all, though.  I'm gonna miss him.  I thought Tary would just be like... a filler character. But he's so great.  So.   Great.
---------- 08/12/2018
annakie: OH GOD IT'S SCANLAN HE'S BACK I'M DYING (also I'm real sad Tary is leaving soon, the conflict of emotions!).  I JUST got to the part where Vex runs up and hugs him and they go to break I'M CRYING.
annakie: EVERYTHING HURTS but Jon Heder's character is hilarious
janiemcpants: Oh no, goodbye Tary! Tary was a cross between Gilderoy Lockhart and a J Peterman catalog and I absolutely adored him, but it’s so good to have Scanlan back I wasn’t sure what to expect from Jon Heder, because I’d only seen him in Napoleon Dynamite and didn’t like it, but he was so great in this
annakie: Oh man I missed him so much.  He's having to apologize SO MUCH.  Poor Sam, haha.  The Talks Machina with him, Ashley and Laura was great, though and Laura saying Travis was too emotional to go on the show was so.... awwww.  I'm into ep 100 now  Yay the new look!  AND LADY BRIARWOOD IS BACK WHAT THE WHAAAT.  And Poor, poor Sam having to play three characters, though, he did this to himself. :D
--------- 8/13/2018 annakie (about the first Vecna fight): That shoulda just been called "Vox Machina gets their asses kicked." Vaaaaax
Scanlan MVP'd the hell out of that fight though No time for Talks Machina, I'll do that at work tomorrow, RIGHT ON TO 103!
janiemcpants: Episode 102 was an ABSOLUTE DISASTER Thank goodness Scanlan came back when he did!
Although I did enjoy everyone guilt tripping Sam for making him leave
And then THE ENDING
annakie: GOD EVERYTHING ABOUT IT. ALL OF THIS.  I NEED TO PAUSE TIME SO I DON'T NEED TO SLEEP AND CAN JUST WATCH CR STRAIGHT THROUGH FOREVER UNTIL IT'S OVER. These are disaster children and they are terrible I love them.
(I made this post.)
janiemcpants: I had to laugh at your last post because that's exactly what it's like! There's SO MUCH in each episode it's almost impossible to post about it. TOO MANY FEELINGS
And not enough time!
I think this last arc has really good flow to it You can feel the urgency, but it still gives things the time they deserve
annakie: It really is!  Like you know if I had a week between episodes than it'd be way easier to sort but I can't take any time I have to watch as much as I can now. I'm at the part where they're trying to sort out why Vax is back and I WANT TO DIE.
janiemcpants: WASN'T THAT A CURVEBALL I was expecting a tense, elaborate ritual like the others got, and they were planning for it, but nope! We're skipping that part
annakie: I read something like a tweet or untagged post MONTHS ago about Scanlan not being able to save Vax.  So when he got disintegrated I was like "Oh this is that that meant." and now I'm like "OH SHIT NO IT WASN'T, WAS IT?!"  I'm scared.
(Oh, you sweet summer child, you have no idea what you’re in for.)
janiemcpants I just love how Vax getting disintegrated totally changed the context of everything that happens, but not in the way anyone expected Matt's mind is truly a place of wonder
annakie: Also Yay Grog just asked Scanlan to hang out with him in Vasselheim :3 Nothing like a terrifying near-death experience to spread some forgiveness.
TRAVIS + SAM IS THE BEST, WHETHER IT'S SCANLAN OR TARY.
--------- 8/14/2018 annakie Me today: OK my boss asked me to go to this important meeting and take notes I need to concentrate.
What I actually thought about : SERENRAE GAVE PIKE A SPECIAL BLESSING AND LOVES HER SO MUCH AND ALSO TOLD SCANLAN SHE HEARS HIS PRAYERS AND HE IS A TRUE BELIEVER, HE HAS A HOLY SYMBOL AND FOUND HIS WAY TO THE TOWER HIMSELF WE ARE SO BLESSED. REMEMBER SAM AND ASHLEY'S FACES THROUGH ALL OF THAT IT WAS PERFECT.
Also Scanlans face when. Grog mentioned that he was looking for Scanlan, the moment passed so fast but I cried.
(later that night) annakie: I'm so mad I have to run my own game tonight so all I'm gonna have time to watch is to the end of 104 Glad I prepped my game a week or two ago though
janiemcpants: THEIR MEETING WITH SERENRAE, I WEEP It’s just so good to see both a character who’s been so devoted but struggled with it at the same time, and a character who had to develop so much to get there, actually be seen and acknowledged by their god
annakie: I REWATCHED IT WHEN I GOT HOME
janiemcpants: What a great moment for both of them
annakie: SO amazing, I loved it so much.
janiemcpants: Also, I love how it doesn’t even matter how the group splits up, any combination of them is going to be interesting and fun (But especially Sam and Travis because of their shared delight in chaos)
annakie: I'm RIGHT NOW at the part where everyone is talking about Vex to Pelor and OH SHIT SHE AND PERCY ARE BETHROTHED THAT'S THE SECRET YES that's so true every pair is amazing
Also once again Scanlan MVPs this, with his polymorph on Vex
janiemcpants: It's truly astounding how many times Scanlan single-handedly saves their bacon
annakie: Yeah as much as I loved Tary like... they really NEEDED Scanlan.
janiemcpants: They really did I wish they could have both!
annakie: When I rewatched the Serenrae meeting I watched Ashley's face and every time Scanlan did something positive like made it to the tower or Serenrae acknowledged Scanlan as a true believer Ash's face was just amazing. She's so pleased at Scanlan :3
janiemcpants: Ashley's just so good
annakie: I KNOW, ME TOO.  I peeked and saw that we don't see Tary again and I'm sad!  I hope he gets an epilogue!
Also I NEED VOX MACHINA PEOPLE TO ACKNOWLEDGE HOW GREAT SCANLAN IS BEING HERE.
Last Tuesday at 11:24 PM *screaming into the void* http://blog.annakie.com/post/177011924723/critical-role-stuff-spoilers-up-to-ep
--------- 8/15/2018
janiemcpants Everything you said is SO TRUE And I still just can't believe how Sam took what was meant to be a joke* and turned him into this incredible three-dimensional person who never fails to surprise me. Will he turn into a dinosaur and destroy a building? Will he sing at the giant monster instead of fleeing like everyone else? Will he melt my heart with beautiful words about friendship? Will he devastate my emotions when he stops covering up his pain? Will he make a dick joke? We never know! And he's grown so much! *(Apologies if you already knew this, but when they were getting ready for the original one-shot home game that started all this, Sam had never played before, and Liam helped him pick out his character. Sam said he wanted to be the worst, and asked what the worst character would be, and Liam came up with gnome bard. And here we are. That was all captured on the podcast they sporadically do together and it's pretty funny.)
annakie Hilariously, I just found that out about Liam helping create Scanlan an hour ago.  On the episode of Talks I was watching at work Sam kept mentioning his Reddit AMA and so I googled it and read it, literally an hour ago.  So if I would have seen this earlier, it would have been new information! And YES SO MUCH I AGREE.
Like I love them ALL so much but I mean... Scanlan.  Fucking Scanlan.  Fave.  Sorry.
(Later) annakie Darin DePaul is hilarious lol I was like "Uh who is this?" when he showed up but he keeps making me laugh.  I'm still in the initial fight right after they find Sprigg
janiemcpants Fun fact: Darin de Paul played D&D thirty something years ago with Matt's mom, and Sprigg is the character he played back then I think that old session ended with Sprigg disappearing or something, so this is the continuation of his story, set thirty-whatever years later He’s really terrific, though! I only knew him from Overwatch, but I get such a kick out of him here
annakie OMG, that's awesome!  Thank you for that fun fact!  I was wondering if he ever played before, he seemed to get it pretty quick with only a little help from Sam. He's saying goodbye now, aww, such a good end for a fun character!
annakie Oh good, Ioun told Scanlan how awesome and important he is to VM and Kaylee and in general, I feel better now. I'm a little sad that I guess Ioun is his god now I guess and not Serenrae but it also seems fitting.
8/16/2018 janiemcpants Yeah, I was surprised by that, but in the end I think I'm glad he got his own god who appreciates him, rather than being wrapped up in Pike's story Not that Serenrae didn't appreciate him, but I like that he got something of his own
annakie That is so true!!  Like Serenrae gave him comfort when he needed it, and accepted him, but he prayed to her because it's what he knew because of Pike, but I think he didn't do it FOR Pike. But it turns out Scanlan wasn't destined for Serenrae.
Also I meant to mention awhile ago that I really loved Percy holding everything together after Vax died and they were in the Feywild.  He really stepped up and kept everything from falling apart and I was really proud of him.
Scanlan being constantly dismissive of them talking about Tary is hilarious.  "Scanlan can you scry on Tary?"  "Who? Oh... you mean that fancy fellow?" haha
(Later) annakie Oh yay I'm glad they sent word to Tary that everyone is OK.
janiemcpants Yes!! I was so concerned about poor Tary. The necklace is a good idea in theory, but in reality all it does is tell him something is wrong, but he doesn't know what or how he can help What an anxiety-inducing item!
Also yes to Percy! His growth is really inspiring to me on a personal level (all of theirs are in different ways, but he's the most relatable to me personally) I love how, since they're all so different and grow in different ways, there's a good story there for everyone
--------- 8/17/2018 9:07 PM annakie Just finished the ep where they forge the trammels.  Starting to close in on the endgame :o
annakie OH MY GOD... hahaha using the love potion TARY gave Vax to prank SCANLAN, this is amazing, I love it so much.
I CAN'T BREATHE
Last Saturday at 1:15 AM Hi it's 1:14am and I'm still awake because I had to finish this live episode.
--------- 8/18/2018 annakie: In the middle of 112 now, and I have to stop watching to go to my Pathfinder game.... nooo... one of the few times I'm unhappy about going to gaming. :) I think I'm going to be able to finish tomorrow if I just power through and don't stop for Talks.
---------
(And here we go, into the endgame.  I woke up, turned on Critical Role, and knew I'd finish the campaign that day.  In addition to the gifs and posts I made: http://blog.annakie.com/tagged/episode+114, here's the rest of that experience.  I’m not going to link the individual gif posts.)
8/19/2018 12:53 AM annakie: THE STRANGLING WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS
This entire episode is like the most fucked up episode lol
9:21 AM BRIARWOOD FIGHT WITH Joe Manganiello!!!  I'M SO SCARED.
11:58 AM OH MY GOD KAYLEE AND CASSANDRA AND SHAUN THANK GOD THEY STOPPED AND FIXED IT OH MY GOD I'M CRYING
3:17 PM I'm liveblogging.  AND DYING.  ZARAH AND KASH OH THANK SERENRAE!!!
janiemcpants: I was out of town for the weekend and just got home, and I can't believe how fast you're going! Although once you hit a certain point you can't help but tumble unstoppably towards the end, because it's all going so off the rails at once I WAS SO WORRIED FOR KASH AND ZAHRA
annakie: I STILL AM
janiemcpants: And having Cassandra and Gilmore and Kaylee as death knights was a particularly cruel stroke of genius on Matt's part
annakie: Arkhan just got back though, so that's good I guess haha
SO CRUEL
janiemcpants: CAN YOU IMAGINE, if they hadn't left one alive, they might not even have taken their helmets off and they never would have known
annakie: GOD I KNOW I KNOW... That would have just been.... oh man I can't even imagine And thank God Matt let them revivify even though it could have been more than a minute
annakie: There's so much happening I can barely breathe I feel like I've been watching this episode for ten hours already All I've watched is 113 and this today.
janiemcpants: It's probably even better watching it all together like you're doing, because a whole lot of interesting things happen in a not-that-long amount of time There's so much!
annakie: Yeah... I mean TBH for the last month I've just lived this show, I haven't watched any TV shows.  It's been so great to just really LIVE IN IT and there's so much of it especially after taking a year to get to this point.
annakie: Well, it was around the point of Percy dying the really sad time to get to "OK I can't stop watching", that's when I started watching at home and not just at work.  And then I stopped watching at work much after Scanlan left because I was too invested to only sorta pay attention. Yeaaaaah Grog just kicked ass.
janiemcpants: Percy dying was right when I started watching live! I was trying to catch up on the old stuff before I started doing it live, but when I heard that happened I just COULDN’T stay away. What a hell of a pair of episodes those were.
annakie: OH WOW that's awesome!  How many episodes did you skip to get to that point? haha OH ALSO PIKE TELLING SCANLAN HE HAS TO STAY ALIVE BECAUSE OF WHAT HAPPENS AFTER.  MY HEART. I was a little worried because since she was back she'd hardly interacted with him, except for that butt-slap a few episodes ago and then this conversation happened and I DIED.  (And then Sam joked it was Scanlan2 and I refuse to believe that it wasn't actually real Scanlan, they're dressed different, she would have known.)
(Also in the Vecna fight Real Scanlan had to use the Death Ward Pike put on him so yeah, she said it to Real Scanlan.)
Oh also I found online where Sam posted the letter Scanlan wrote to Pike and OH MAN, TEARS.
janiemcpants: RIGHT?? At the beginning I never thought I'd be invested in Scanlan and Pike's relationship, just because of the nice-guy stuff, but it got really, really good as it went on I still had about 15 episodes or so to go when I started watching it live, so I missed a little bit of context, but it was worth it That letter was so good
annakie: Oh man we just almost lost Vex and the looks on Liam, Travis AND Taliesin's faces all killed me. I can't wait to start watching live, still probably going to be a month or so.
annakie: OH NO THE JENKY TRAMEL.
annakie: PIKE BLEW SCANLAN A KISS!!
annakie: I can't believe I still have an hour to go (probably 45 minutes of game time) and Scanlan and Grog just got banished.  Also I know something bad happens to Grog so I'm just waiting for that.  Maybe he never comes back from banishment!??!
annakie: Hahaha Scanlan dispelled Vecna's teleport and MATT'S FACE. Oh no, he's saying sorry to Liam This is why... “I was going to save Vax.” OH MY GOD  Sam is crying And Liam is crying
janiemcpants: That moment is where I cried the hardest in all of 114 Especially because they called each other Sam and Liam instead of Scanlan and Vax IT'S SO PAINFUL
annakie: THIS HURTS SO MUCH, I’M BAWLING. Most of the table doesn't even see what's going on Like they're having this private moment while the game keeps going.
annakie: Oh God that Nat20 for Scanlan to counterspell dominate person on Keyleth. Could you imagine this fight with Tary instead of Scanlan?  It'd have been over in round 2
annakie: lol I watched Jocks Machina on the D&D twitch channel awhile ago so I knew Arkhan was going to betray them, that's amazing how he did it. Also, so great that Keyleth was able to finish the ritual
annakie: Oh no Sam and Liam are crying at the end this is the worst
annakie: Annnd here we go.  115.
janiemcpants: GOOD LUCK
annakie: I'm really going to miss this credit sequence, I love it so much I always watch it every episode. I've seen the new one and it's cute but I love this one.
janiemcpants I miss it too! It's so good
annakie: I get why they did a more generic "look at us playing D&D" instead of character intro credits but this one is amazing I mean especially after what happened to Taliesin's character in season 2.
annakie: Yay Kash and Zahra :D I'm so glad they got a goodbye. :)  That was a great sendoff!
janiemcpants: It was so good! Even with Liam wreaking emotional havoc
annakie: vax is saying goobye and I'm bawling
even matt is crying, i can't
(I made this post.)
janiemcpants: I cried through that ENTIRE EPISODE
annakie: I'm taking a crying break to watch the fanart Glad Ashley made it just in time for that moment
Oh man this great series of fanart with the quote where Sam asking what's the worst character, and Liam saying gnome bard, and the art is all showing how Scanlan saved the party, that was amazing
annakie: Oh my God Liam isn't even at the table anymore THIS IS SO SAD
janiemcpants: That art sounds fantastic! Must try to hunt it down Oh no, I can't cope when they leave the table
annakie: "We'll fill in each other's gaps, we'll be the glue." THANKS LAURA NOW I'M CRYING AGAIN BECAUSE I LOVE VEX/PERCY SO MUCH.
That even broke Taliesin a little
There's a part of me right now that's still screaming "GO FIND GILMORE AND CASSANDRA AND KAYLEE!"
janiemcpants: I know!!! There's so much they should be doing, all at the same time! HOW IS EVERYBODY??
annakie: Percy just mentioned cassandra, maybe they'll remember lol
NOPE, off to a bar!
Yay Kima's there!
Oh ok good they're in whitestone whew
annakie: GROG NO DON'T PULL CARDS
Oh man Kaylee and Scanlan's conversation, I'm crying again.
janiemcpants: Grog pulling the card was so goddamn funny Especially in the midst of so much sadness
annakie: Oh my God he just pulled the card in whitestone
omgomgomg
AND ASHLEY'S INTERNET DROPS
Annnnnnnnnnnnd this is why they have to go rescue Grog omg omg omg
annakie: Aw, I was almost hoping they'd actually do one last adventure but that was funny.
janiemcpants: Yeah, I really wish we could have seen the rescue, but they were clearly planning on this being the last episode, and it would have thrown everything off But it was worth it
annakie: ASHLEY’S FUCKING INTERNET DIES RIGHT AS SHE'S ABOUT TO ASK SCANLAN ON A DATE I AM SCREAMING I'M SO MAD
Scanlan and Pike’s conversation was everything I always wanted THEN HER INTERNET DIES
annakie OK Scanlan's epilogue was awesome :3 “I will do literally whatever Pike wants to do.”
And YAY we get to hear about Tary!
YAY LAWRENCE!
janiemcpants: I'm so glad Lawrence wasn't dead! I was totally convinced Tary's dad had him whacked
annakie: Oh God Pike’s marriage proposal and one last grog & scanlan conversation I love it so much I'm crying again
I've known they ended up married for a long time but that was great. :3
janiemcpants: I just love that they both planned to ask each other out in their epilogues!
annakie I KNOW, so great :D
I'm really glad that Scanlan let Pike lead, that was amazing.
janiemcpants: Yes! That brought it from great to perfect
annakie: And he just wanted to follow where she went and helped out.  And they have a home, and Grog with them, and are a perfect weird family! :D
They're my favorite ship, though I love all three very much.
janiemcpants: And Grog gets to stay with his gnomes forever! And he's not left alone even though he didn't end up with a romantic relationship!
annakie: YES!
I love Percy and Vax being so Percy and Vax in their epilogue.  Kids with lots of names!  Tinkering!
janiemcpants: The part about Percy making clocks made me weep BUCKETS
annakie: Percy finding redemption helping Cassandra omg
YES
"Make a clock tower, make art and never make another weapon. I'm good." :D
annakie: Aww Grog taking punishment from Vasselheim
Hahaha the potion guy being the tutor ohhhhh my God this is amazing.
This guy never even got a name did he and yet he's brought so much joy
janiemcpants: I don't think he ever did!
annakie: Marisha is making Liam cry this is so sad
janiemcpants: EVERYONE CRIES SO MUCH AND THAT MAKES ME CRY EVEN MORE
annakie: "And every day that Raven comes to visit."
I'm dead.
Oh my God Matt and Marisha get married THE NEXT WEEK!?
janiemcpants:
YEP!
annakie: Well I'm completely emotionally drained.
(We said a bit more here, but it was personal.)
11:28pm:  I made this post. ) -----------------
I couldn't do much yesterday but think about this fucking show.  I'm catching up on the Talks Machinas I missed from like 108 through 115, I think I'm on 111 now?  I also watched Matt Colville's recap of the episode and why it's so great.  I'd been looking forward to watching that since he made it, since I watch most of what he puts out it's been sitting in my suggested videos like for almost every episode I watched.  That was perfect, as well.
I removed some talk about this in the chatlog Janie and I had but I'm going to take like this week off and catch up on the Specials & Oneshots I didn't watch before.  I need that cooling off period.  I'll probably power through season 2 after it's done and start watching live and wondering if It's Thursday Yet? within a couple of weeks from now.
I'm still sorting through feelings, too.  I'll probably have more to say.
But you know how there's a lot of media you like, and some that you love but only a few make it to that "Favorite things" level, the place where it turns into something that you love wholeheartedly and will remember forever and kinda wish you could erase from your brain so you could re-experience it for the first time again?
I have a few of those.  Futurama.  MST3K.  Parks and Recreation.  Psych.  Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.  The entire Mass Effect trilogy.  Neverwinter Nights 2.  The Thrilling Adventure Hour.  U2's Songs of Experience album.  Sugar's Copper Blue album.  The Princess Bride.  All of Star Wars.  The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Star Trek: TNG and DS9.  The Good Place will end up here once it's done.  
And now Critical Role: Season One.  
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Happy Friday!! We’re back at it again, with an exclusive profile of the one, the only @fandomtrashwhore​, aka Marie! You’ve seen her instagram aesthetics, from Hunger Games to Parent Thiam AU to New Years’ AU. And now, we had the opportunity to learn more about her creative process and her life well…behind the screens. Let’s get it started!
Marie! Why not start us off with a simple introduction. Who is fandomtrashwhore? Or the artist behind her? The twist: the word count should be equal or less than the # of letters of the characters in your favorite TW rarepair ship.
Theo Raeken + Mieczyslaw Stilinski = 29
My name is Marie, I’m 19 years old and from Germany. My life is dedicated to my fandoms but besides that I’m an apprentice as an technical product designer.
Ha, I see whatcha did there with ‘Mieczyslaw.’ Smart, very smart! A Technical Product Designer! What does that entail? Do you like it so far?
I don’t know if there’s a perfect translation for it and I’m bad at explaining (that’s why I’m not a writer and my answers in this interview are gonna be shit :’D). I like the 3D drawing part most and till now I’m quite good at it and even ‘job school’ is pretty good. I feel like Hermione cause I always know the answer and my grades are on point af (which definitely wasn’t like that in my previous schools. I never said anything in class).
Pst, who said you have to be a good writer to have a good time? Just do you haha. That’s what we’re all here for any. That’s super interesting though. What’s another thing our fandom would be surprised to know about you?
I have to confess that I didn’t really mind Theo or Liam before season 6? Like I knew they were there and I liked them but I was too focussed on other characters + I didn’t know they wanted to end Teen Wolf then and felt like they wanted to shove the main pack away to replace it with Liam and his gang. (Now I’m all over the puppy pack ).
AND I watched the whole show till 5B or season 6 (not so sure) in one go and that’s why it felt like Theo and Liam both joined around the same time. (Even if there was one whole season between them…wtf.) I remember that I sometimes couldn’t even tell who was Liam and who was Theo cause I thought that they ‘looked alike’…BITCH WHERE? This is more than embarrassing, but every time I watch a show in one go I have trouble learning the names (when the name is said in the show I usually know who they mean but if I talk about it to someone I sometimes can’t remember the names cause I watched 3 seasons within a week…. :’D ). I definitely need to rewatch and appreciate them more this time cause they’re such amazing characters.
*Actually Cackling* Were there any other characters you were hazy on? Like, would Garrett be the “angry, tiny blonde one” to you?
No it’s embarrassing af. :’D And I know who Garrett is and what he did and he was indeed an angry tiny blonde kid, but I don’t remember details. Sadly (I mean I think he only was there for a few episodes so I don’t think there was much detail so I’m good as long as I know his storyline). :’D
Truth. When I started watching Supernatural, until (at least) midseason 2, I called both Sam and Dean, DeanSam cause they were always together when someone addressed them. So, you’re not alone, eek. Now, THAT’S embarrassing.
So, how did you go from ‘kid, what’s your name?!’ to Thiam instagram aesthetics and our fandom? What drew you in?
I think I jumped on the train quite late (cause as I said I didn’t really mind them), but I think I shipped them before but just realized it last season. So, I think I first felt something for them during their fight in the hospital because I was ‘fun-shipping’ them (not really fun but I wasn’t deep into it cause I didn’t bother checking their ship name or anything but I was like ‘lol. They’re gay for each other) during 6B and then I completely lost it in episode 6 of that season and realized that it is a real thing and it’s love.
From that moment I was a mess and died the last few episodes cause I thought they either make it canon or kill Theo off (and maybe make it canon) but neither happened so….ok. :’D I’m sad that I only had like two weeks left with them but since then it’s been a wild ride and they brought me new internet friends ( a whole pack) and made me tumblr fame … it’s crazy how inspiring they are for edits. I just can’t stop. :’D
BUT how I found my way into the Teen Wolf fandom is a bit funnier I think…(at least for me) :’D
This has now become the moment where I ask, “Marie, can you tell us how you got into the Teen Wolf fandom? Lol”
Idk if it’s funny if you don’t know my friends and me personally. But I always had this little group to talk about series with. Mostly The Walking Dead and Game Of Thrones but sometimes other series. A friend of mine, Lucas, once mentioned that there’s a series called ‘teen wolf or something like that’ and that he knows that one character looks like one of our classmates (his name is Tobi). He was talking about Derek and even showed me a pic AND HE REALLY FUCKING LOOKS LIKE HIM (I mean in close up you know it’s not him but you know…).
He already had a beard really really soon (he looked like 20 when he was 15 or something because of it) BUT NOW he looks even more like Derek cause I met him again, like a year ago, in a club and he lost weight and is working out now and….he’s really a Derek look alike (I wish I could show you but privacy…).
After laughing about that I never heard about that series again till I watched the trailer on youtube, and I have no idea why, but it was around new years eve 2015 to 2016 cause I thought about starting it and told a friend of mine on new years eve and showed her the trailer and she also thought it was cool and we started it about a week after that and binge watched the shit out of it.
BUT I ALWAYS HAD THAT PICTURE OF MY CLASSMATE IN MIND WHEN I SAW DEREK. And I still call Derek Tobi when I talk to my best friend who doesn’t watch teen wolf about teen wolf and want to explain something to her.
Lol are you kidding me?! That’s hilarious! And, I’ll raise you. I have a friend Michael who is a spitting image of Scott–skin tone, jaw, hair and all. I wonder if your Tobi/Derek and my Michael/Scott met, would they have a Scott-Derek-esque relationship haha! Since we’ve veered towards Friends, let’s say you, 4 characters from TW, and 1 of you personal friend were living in a Friends-type sitcom. Who’d you bring into your inner circle and which antics would yall get up to?
Ok! This is exciting! So it would be Stiles, Theo, Mason, Liam and my best friend Michelle (she doesn’t watch teen wolf but the hell do I care). We would just be such a funny sassy pack. Do you know that ‘meme’: ‘My friendship comes in 3 levels: Sass, insults, inappropriate sexual humor’? That would be so us. Michelle and me are basically Stiles and that meme describes our friendship so well; we’re really soulmates so I want the whole pack to become that close too.. Theo is a sassy ass anyways and Mason is also on fire.
Liam would suffer under our jokes and always be the one who makes bad jokes only he laughs about and the rest just laughs about him, but we still love him. Michelle and me would ship the hell out of Theo and Liam (and Mason and Corey are goals af). Mason would be sceptical at first but together with Corey–I can’t have Mason without Corey…sorry?–we get him to join us.
Sometimes, Liam and Theo even go with it and flirt for fun just to piss Stiles off who somehow ended up stuck with us after Scott left for college and Stiles decided to quit the FBI and now works as a police officer at the station. Of course, Thiam gets real and no one really notice it at first cause we think it’s just another prank on Stiles until we catch them making out in my kitchen during a pack meeting. There are also a few other pranks since we’re the sassy pack. Stiles mostly uses his position as a police officer, like towing our cars or getting us a ticket. Theo’s pranks are a bit shocking at the beginning since he needs to learn how to be a decent human being. Liam and my pranks fail most of the time. Michelle and Mason are the prank master team; they always come up with the craziest ideas.
Yassss of course, Corey would be there. There’s always a significant other who’s there so often, they become part of the group lol. That sounds like my kind of party, all the chaos and sassy destruction. All the creativity, it’s the perfect segway to our next topic of the day: fandomtrashwhore, aka your creativity.
If your creativity was a person, what type would they be? What would they do? Wear? Listen to? Handle conflict?
I think it would just be a furious working single mother? Cause during the week I’m working and even if I have nothing to do after work I only seem to be able to edit at weekends and then I sacrifice my whole weekend to it like it’s my child. And furious cause once I have an idea in my head, I drown myself in pic finding which can be so exhausting and I bet I look like a stressed single mom during that cause I’m having so many tabs open and so many search phrases to throw at google in my head at the same time.
I also have specific pics in my head and I could cry if I don’t find a perfect pic to fit that image in my head. I mostly listen to the Airplanes playlist I made while editing but I also love artists like Ed Sheeran and Halsey so that would also fit quite well to keep that person calm and grounded. I also think my creative process is quite vulnerable and moody cause sometimes I can’t wait to edit and other times I feel like I never want to edit again and I need to force myself to (during editing I love it again tho). And vulnerable cause like I said I hate when I can’t find a decent pic and could cry. Same goes for if the app crashes during a long edit or if something won’t go how I want it and my patience dies.
Does that single mother furiously create outside of the Thiam fandom too?
Yes, I do social media au’s for all my fandoms (at least I want to, till now I only have a few.)  I’m not a writer but I have a started Sherlock fanfic with a trailer (I like the trailer tho and some one shots to several fandoms on wattpad. I’m ashamed of them cause I’m a bad writer but I can’t stop trying :’D So here’s my Wattpad. Don’t expect too much!!
I mentioned the trailer for my Sherlock before and right now I’m also working on a trailer ( more like ‘short movie’) for and OC (who ended up to be Marie Avgeropoulos) x Negan from The Walking Dead.Till now it’s 13 minutes long and I love the shit out of it. I never drew for a fandom before (german youtube back in the days, I had instagram fanpages. I still have them but I don’t edit for them anymore cause series took over my life. If you know german youtube and are interested contact me but they’re not that important for most of the people reading this, I think. ANYWAYS, what I wanted to say is that I want to draw something Thiam or rather Airplanes themed soon.
Oh AND I and my best friend (Michelle from before) used to write our fanfics (mostly about german youtubers) over whatsapp back in the days. It was legendary but also very unrealistic and hilarious. Sadly, we lost most of them when we got new phones which breaks my heart.
Dang, that’s tragic. Thankfully, you still have the memories. From trailers to Whatsapp/Wattpad fics, they’ve all led you to this moment: Instagram aesthetics. How’re you inspired when choosing a theme?
Most of the time I find a pic that inspires me to an edit theme. E.g., I saw the 3rd pic of The Buck’s party pic on Liam’s profile for the engagement & wedding edit coincidentally on tumblr or something and was like: “Yes, that could be Liam carried by Stiles and the boy on the right is Scott and the girl is Lydia and the pic was taken by Mason….why would something like this situation happen….A BUCK’S PARTY! I NEED TO DO A ENGAGEMENT AND WEDDING AU. Then, the other pictures and ideas just find their way.
I also accept requests (like the new year eve one) or I’m inspired by a post (like for example when I did the Thiam Mykonos one.
And when you search for photos, what’s your process for choosing the best ones?
Most of the time, the story of my au’s is formed by the pics I find. Like I have an idea and look for pics and then I see which pics make a logic story. Most of the time, I don’t know myself how I find so good pics and I bet I could never find them again (I tried once after I lost some), cause I found them so deep in the internet. Mostly, I google pretty weird sentences and I wonder what the NSA is thinking of me. :’D  For example, I googled “Throwing Tampons” for an Airplanes related edit once. I bet whoever observes me thinks I’m a killer when I look for aesthetics (especially when I did the The Walking Dead aesthetics) and googled for bloody pics. I nearly threw up a few times tho while doing so.
Finding pics is a harder job than you might think; I would say it takes more time than the editing itself, but I can’t say for sure cause once I start editing I’m lost in some sort of tunnel and suddenly it’s dark outside. When I want to google for ‘natural’ pics, I mostly add ‘snapchat’ or ‘instagram’ behind it (e.g. ‘couple eating take out food snapchat’). Also, you can find good pics on pinterest (my Pinterest name is ‘Marie Rosa’ btw), especially aesthetical and gay couple pics!
Deciding is even harder cause I often have 50 pics in my folder and can only use 12. Then, I check which one I definitely want to have in the edit and which I liked best and are the most decent ones to the images I had in mind.
When there are people on it, it’s also important that they look like the characters they should portrait. After that, I still have 20 pics left and cry because I love them all. Then I make two new folders to decide which ones are for Liam’s and which ones are for Theo’s profile and then I delete some more pics with a hurting heart (or I save them for other edits some day) and look which pics fit best together (when I edit aesthetics, similar color is a big topic). The biggest mess is when I get more ideas during editing or realize that one pic I thought I liked doesn’t fit at all and stop to look for more pics and the whole order I had is thrown away again and I need to start again. :’D
My goodness, I remember seeing you and Sammy (@glitter-cake20) talk about finding pics before on Discord, but that is…really involved. Are there times when you create your own images instead? If so, which edits/manips have been your favorite?
I would say the Hunger Games one was my best manip, but I also like the one in the Thiam parent AU  where I replaced Cody’s cat with a baby two times. And, nearly all manips I did for my Airplanes series, especially Disney Kiss (I just edited Dylan on Cody’s ex-girlfriend…lol…no regrets), the bowling pic, all the pack video calls in which I added some more heads and the ones of Derek and Stiles in NYC. I also love the one of Mason and Liam carrying watermelons in the Dirty Dancing AU and the whole Daredevil Thiam (+Morey) AU is also one of my favorites cause it’s so aesthetical. I mean in the end I nearly love them all cause I wouldn’t have posted them if not.
You’ve mentioned CaptainMintyFresh’s Airplanes a few times. What inspired the idea to make instagram posts for the guys’ journey? So far, which has been your favorite chapter to conceptualize? And why?
I don’t really know how it started but I was editing my other ones and Tagan kept mentioning certain pic scenarios. (I think it was around the waterpark chapter.) I was just like: ”She’s giving so many good patterns why don’t you try to make Insta profiles to the chapters.” It was one of my best decisions cause I loved it, even if it was a pain in the ass! I finally managed to catch up and since then I feel so empty…sounds strange but my past few months were spend with Thiam and Airplanes and suddenly, I’m free. I was looking forward to editing other things again and I did but on the other side, I feel lost and don’t even know what to edit or I’m not in the mood. I have an Airplanes hangover or something. :’D  
My favorite to conceptualize were probably the Disney chapters (it used to be the lake chapter but since editing Disney, I like that more) but every chapter was fun in it’s own way. (I’m planning on doing a commenting on the airplanes edits after Airplanes is finished).
I also think you can see how my skills improved while editing when you look at the first chapter edits and the last ones. That’s maybe the thing I’m most grateful about; it gave me the chance to experiment and grow along with the Fic and the characters.
Aww, that’s quite poetic. And, now we have Chapter  39 out, so you must feel the inkliest bit complete!
And, now I can feel the inkiest bit better about the next question to come.
CHALLENGE TIME! If you seen how BTS works, you know we love giving you the Time to Shine! For your first challenge, you can bring any of your insta posts to life in the TW Universe. Which would you choose? Set the scene for how that pic was taken.
I mean I would say the airplane series but it’s not my story so I’m gonna go with one of my single edits.
Then I would say the Parent AU cause I’m a bitch for parent Thiam. I’m gonna go with the pic of the crying baby with the title ‘Great. My son has my husband’s attitude’.
Liam sends Theo to the store with Leo after a discussion so he has some peace and can clean the house without interruptions. Leo won’t stop crying on top of his lungs in the middle of the store and Theo sighs while resting his forehead on the shopping cart (I hope that’s what it’s called).Then, he looks up again and gets his phone out to snap a picture and post it to show everyone that not only Liam is a whining little shit torturing him but now also his son. He laughs at himself for the joke which makes Leo stop crying and laugh with him instead. Theo takes that as an encouragement for his joke and carries him on his arm for the rest of the shopping trip, When they return home, he’s greeted by Liam who’s trying to look pissed but fails and just smirks at him and giving him a slight slap on the arm.
Hahahaha, yes! Dig it. And yes, it’s totally called a shopping cart (at least in my state). One final challenge before we wrap up? Since your images are always so unique to the theme, which pictures/ types of pictures would you use for these one word/phrase prompts:
Celebrity
Stuck at the Airport
Blind Date Gone Wild
Do you just want one pic or a collage of some good pics I would use? BUT I would love to do the whole edit. :’D
Heck yeah, we’d love a whole edit!!
FINALLY, done! Amen.
Wow!! I’m stunned. Over 80 pictures. 6 Days. 3 WHOLE POSTS!?! Plus Comment Posts! Honestly, how do you do it? Everyone, definitely go check these out; their linked with their respective challenges below!
[   Celebrity   |   Stuck at the Airport   |   Blind Date Gone Wild   ]
While we all marvel at that, can we expect any other Thiam instagram themes from you in the future?
Of course. I have an Thiam folder with 357 a folder for the upcoming Mockingjay AU with 37 and my airplanes folder with still 194 pics. Somehow and someday I’m gonna use them all. Planned is to finish the Hunger Games series, cause I still need to do Mockingjay and I also have so many good parenting pics left so there’s definitely going to be another parent Thiam AU and some random ones.
It depends on my mood and requests I get or if I’m suddenly inspired by a pic to edit a specific theme. I also want to make more of Thiam x other fandoms, like Maze Runner, Divergent and so on but I also want to edit for so many other fandoms and ships. Why is there so less time in my mortal life?
Who knows? If only time stopped during the Fandom spurts of our lives, then we could enjoy it as long as we wanted to. Aww, I’m sad to see us come to an end. Marie, what’s next for you?
Finish my apprenticeship in 2020 and have a job after that + moving out. The next thing I’m saving money on right now is my own car till august (I also want my first own TV and playstation and need a new laptop any maybe smartphone :’D). Other fix dates this year are german comic con in december or turning 20 on 27th June.
Of course, I’m gonna drown myself in more fandoms and editing (I mean I’ve already watched 7 new series in 2018).
Oooh, which new shows? (I know I said we were ending lol, but shows are my drug!)
I finally got myself netflix since streaming became officially illegal (it wasn’t actually legal or illegal before but they couldn’t do anything to you and it was safe) here last year and I used it to watch all the marvel netflix productions like Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, Daredevil, The Defenders, Luke Cage (which I haven’t finished cause Netflix won’t let me, every 30 seconds it crashes) and The Punisher. Jessica Jones and Daredevil are my favorites out of them. Then, I also watched How To Get Away With Murder….IT’S MY FUCKING NEW RELIGION! Coliver is giving me more than life. They’re goals.
(In case anyone is interested in what I’m watching and stuff here’s my TV TIME name: MarieRo)
OMG, Ok, Ok, let me end this before I start a rampage about all things Marvel. Thanks so much for hanging with us at the Thiam Lib and letting us get to know you! Is there anything else you’d like to add, including any life/creating wisdom?  Write until your heart’s content.
There are SO MANY intelligent things to say, but I’ll go with: Don’t give a shit about what other people think but always be open for other people’s opinions and teachings BUT don’t believe anything blindly. Just survive somehow tbh.
I have some other blogs on tumblr: @marierosaurus (random shit I like, sexual or funny af, just everything) @music-is-all-i-need-in-life (my music fandoms) @edsheeranfanblog (as you can maybe tell….a blog for Ed Sheeran?) @youtube-fan-live (blog for mostly german youtube)
(Instagram (about my traveling and just random private instagram shit): marierosarius)
I also want to thank you Minna for doing all this (bts is such a cool idea and keeping us inspired with the movie fest and stuff has to be so much work!) and especially for inviting me in the Thiam Discord pack chat 4 or 5 month ago. It’s been a wild ride and I maybe would’ve never known about that chat without you.
I love that chat and how we spend the christmas holidays together and thiam got so much more intense and it’s not even only about thiam anymore we also exchange about many other fandoms and we cried so many smut tears together (I mean that nsfw chat is on fire and I remember voice chat talks between in that christmas holidays we will burn in hell for and I love it :’D) and also fluff and angst tears but mostly smut tbh.
Just thanks for everything the Thiam community gave me, I said earlier that thiam gave me ‘tumblr fame’ and that sound stupid but it did, cause I edited before and nobody gave a single shit and reblogged or liked anything. Thiam was the best thing that could happen to me, even if I mostly edit for myself cause I like it and it’s fun, I can’t deny that it motivates you and makes you happy when other appreciate your work. Even not Teen Wolf or Thiam related posts / reblogs are noticed and it makes me so happy. Ok, sorry for bothering you with all my stupid talking. All I have left to say is: Meow
Awww, thanks so much for the love! Hahaha, our first Discord chat feels like so long ago now lol. And I also wouldn’t be here without my other Thiam Library Mods, esp Tiffany, Esme, Lizzie, Euthoxia, and Vis. They keep me inspired and grounded when life gets crazy. Just as you all, the Thiam Fandom, keep us inspired with your interactions and massive talent. We love you all!
With that, Behind the Screens presents Marie to you! If you want even more, you can read her questions that didn’t make it into the official interview here! Of course, the conversation doesn’t stop here. Not only can you chat with her on her 4 other blogs AND TV TIME, you can find her at these places too:
Main Tumblr: fandomtrashwhore
Inbox/Ask: fandomtrashwhore ask
Wattpad: Marierosarius
Instagram: marierosarius
Snapchat: marierosarius
Twitter: MarieRosarius
She’s also accepting prompts and the like, so hit her up!
We’d like to thank Marie for entertaining our many questions and challenges!! We have tons more BTS coming in the next few weeks, so stay on the look out for those <3
Have a Thiam Creator you fan over? Send us their names. Likewise, if you as the creator, would like to be a part of the Behind the Screens series, give us a shout too! We’d love to get to know you, as well.
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evenstevensranked · 6 years
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#19: Season 3, Episode 15 - “The Big Splash”
Louis surprises everyone by joining the diving team, but then surprises no one by only doing cannonballs. This eventually leads to Louis reevaluating the future he envisions for himself. Should he remain a class clown forever? Or should he start taking life more seriously? Meanwhile, Ren’s on a mission to win “Best Smile” in the yearbook.
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We start our episode with Tawny, Twitty and Tom (oh wow I just realized that all of Louis’ friends names start with the letter T lol) sitting in the stands at a school dive meet. Louis told them to go, yet he’s suspiciously nowhere to be found. Until a mysterious hooded guy walks out with LJH’s team, dramatically takes off the hood and… yeah. It’s Louis. Louis is apparently good at diving according to Twitty and Coach Tugnut (“Stevens, you don’t stink so bad!”) but he decides to squander his talent for laughs instead by doing cannonballs. It’s so cringy. Not only because doing cannonballs at a dive meet and soaking the entire audience & judges is beyond immature -- but, because his cannonballs are so fake lol. There’s the initial surface splash, and then an immediate second one that looks like a freaking nuclear bomb. Unless we’re all watching this from the perspective of Shallow Hal and Louis is actually 600 pounds, it makes no sense. I know it’s just for the lulz... but still. The gang gets a kick out of it.
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We cut to the subplot where we see Ruby rushing around and tallying people’s votes for yearbook superlatives. Ren finds out that she’s a lock for “The Big Three” -- Most Likely to Succeed, Most Intelligent, and Best Personality. Is it just me, or is Best Personality a little debatable? (No offense, Ren.) Monique asks who’s in the lead for Best Smile and Ren gets salty when she finds out it’s some random chick Kelly Kerwin. Sooo, now Ren is determined to beat Kelly for Best Smile, as if she doesn’t currently hold the title for literally everything else. Seriously, girl. Let some other people get their time to shine. Dang. 
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After school, Ren lets the cat out of the bag to Steve and Eileen about Louis joining the diving team. Steve is beyond excited and tells Louis he’ll try to make it to the next meet. Clearly, Louis does not want his family to attend and witness his latest goofball stunt. 
Next, we get a time-lapse of Ren being her own personal dentist in the bathroom before school because god forbid she doesn’t win Best Smile. It then cuts to Ren having a smile showdown at school with Kelly. This is the second time in the series where we get that annoying sepia, cowboy standoff thing. This cliché never works for me, ever. This goes on for 1 minute and 14 seconds which might seem like a short amount of time, but my god does this scene crawl by. Definitely the lowest point.
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Steve decides to attend Louis’ next dive meet and brings his boss, Mr. Kupchack, along with him. Oh, boy. Tugnut compliments Kupchack’s fancy blazer and he responds “Thank you. It’s the finest Italian suede” and all Tugnut can say is “.........too bad.” HAHA. Of course, Louis gets up there and does another massive cannonball, completely soaking the audience... Including Mr. Kupchack and his fancy Italian blazer. Steve is livid and rightfully so. 
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Louis’ guilt is starting to sink in... 
At home that night, Steve has a serious talk with Louis. He tells him that he was incredibly proud before the meet, (hence why he brought Kupchack along) only to be disappointed yet again. Louis tries to brush off his immature decisions by saying “I’m a kid. That’s what I do. I have fun.” But, Steve poses the question “It may be fun now… But where are you gonna be 10 years from now?” This really resonates with Louis. It cuts to a dramatic shot of him looking at a crap ton of “Class Clown” trophies later that night. Uh… When did Louis get all those trophies?! Where does he keep them? They don’t really let us see lol. It seems like they have their own private display room! Do schools even give out trophies for prestigious accomplishments such as “Seventh Grade Class Clown”? That’s the real question here. Anyway. This fades into a daydream Louis has of a 10 Year Lawrence Jr. High reunion.
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As a kid, I always thought 10 years was too small of a time jump. Especially because Louis imagines Tom married with two kids and another on the way. But, 2017 marked the 10 year anniversary of my own middle school graduation. Now I'm 24 and a recent college graduate. Not to mention a lot of my friends are already getting married, having kids and starting their careers of course. So… Looking back at this as an adult, it's actually pretty accurate.
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I love how since Twitty is a musician, they had to give him a ponytail down to his freaking butt.
I’d also like to point out that Tawny is a fashion designer, wearing rope lights as part of her outfit, and talks about spending time in Rome. Was Disney Channel under the assumption that clothes featuring rope lights are a high fashion ~Rome~ thing? Exhibit B:
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Louis’ daydream is so depressing... but I absolutely love it. He basically imagines himself as a total screwup man-child. He can’t relate to his accomplished adult friends because he never grew out of being his middle school jokester self. It’s too real. You just cringe the entire time because everyone is trying to have a mature conversation and Louis is literally incapable of doing so. One by one, they all become annoyed by Louis’ antics and make up an excuse to leave. Twitty’s the only one left in the end and asks for Louis’ email to keep in touch. We reach the final straw when Louis says: “It’s [email protected]..... With a K.” OHHHH GODDDDDD IT’S SO BAAAAADDDDD. I just wanna die of embarrassment. Twitty is fed up at this point too and peaces out. Louis snaps out of the daydream and whispers “No...” to himself -- clearly deciding against a future like that. 
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The moment Twitty lost all hope. 
That whole sequence is definitely the standout moment of the episode for me. Not because of how funny it is (like you might imagine a standout Even Stevens moment to be), but because of how not funny it is. It’s something we’ve never really seen on the show before. I think taking a peek into Louis’ potential pathetic future was so great. It’s almost like they expanded on what they started in Uncle Chuck. This profound moment segues back into the pointless Best Smile drama. I think it’s kinda interesting how Louis’ plot is very existential here and Ren’s is very superficial. I wonder if that was intentional or not. 
Since Ren was so desperate to win and forced herself to smile non-stop, her facial muscles end up getting stuck in a rather disturbing grin lol oops. She’s scheduled to sing the school song at the dive meet in 5 minutes. This somehow leads to Ruby giving Ren a makeover to “distract from the mouth.” She also gives Ren the brilliant advice to cut through the steam room on her way to the pool. The end result is the long lost sister of Pennywise. Ren, The Singing Clown: 
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Hiya, Georgie!! (No, but really. She looks terrifying.) 
Even though he wishes Louis would take it seriously, Steve still goes to the meet to show support. Kupchack also makes another appearance because his first-grader son (Played by Hayden Panettiere’s little brother) wants to see “The Cannonball Kid!”
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Louis has built up a name for himself apparently. There’s a massive crowd there to see him! I would imagine these are the same kind of people who stand right next to the log flume ride at amusement parks just to get soaked while fully clothed for whatever unimaginable reason. 
You can see that Louis is under a lot of pressure to either give in to the weirdos in the crowd and give them the cannonball they want -- or to take the first step towards seriousness and do an actual dive. In the end, his decision to do a real dive is so admirable!!! I love it so much. But, naturally, when he emerges from the pool and declares “You know what? From this day forward... Let it be known: I am not a clown” we see that he’s standing there as naked as the day he was born. 
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I was going to ask why Louis is the only team member who wears trunks instead of a speedo... but I guess this is the reason why, haha. He needed to wear something flimsy so it could fly right off of him later I guess? lol. I’d also like to point out Tawny’s freaking FACE: 
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Um... okay, gurl. I always thought it was weird how she (along with, like.. 50 other people) saw her future boyfriend naked in public like that.
Anyway, Louis scurries off embarrassed and that’s it! The “final minute” bit is Ren coming home from school with a copy of the yearbook already??? She won The Big Three... and the last minute honor of “Best Class Clown.” It’s like Louis and Ren swapped stories in the end. THAT’S WHAT YOU GET, REN! That’s what you get!!! This is also the second time we see Ren wanting to achieve perfection in the yearbook and having it totally blow up in her face. 
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I love this episode. It was actually the one I was most excited to rewatch while I was organizing my list. Since Louis is my favorite character, this one obviously gets a lot of “personal favorite” points for me. As I mentioned, it isn't even necessarily funny. As soon as Louis does his first cannonball, I get kinda depressed actually lol. The reason I'm ranking this one higher is because I just really love the plot-line and this more serious side of Louis which is seldom seen this prominently. In contrast to Uncle Chuck though, this episode spins the depressing factor into a positive and leaves you feeling optimistic about Louis’ future. You get the sense that he’s actually going to finally make an effort moving forward.
This episode would be even more effective if they actually aired it in production order!! “The Big Splash” is #320 in production. “Model Principal” is #319 — Ya know, the episode where Louis acts like an actual clown and singlehandedly turns the entire school into a circus??? Yeah. They decided to place that episode 3 episodes after this one. If “Model Principal” aired the episode before “The Big Splash” — LIKE IT WAS MEANT TO — it would’ve been so much better. We would’ve seen the height of Louis’ ridiculousness followed by the sobering episode where he decides to knock it off. The episodes leading up to “The Big Splash” in production order are all next-level zany Louis stuff. The few episodes that follow don’t include too much over the top stuff from him, so it would all make total sense. Instead, we get a really solid episode for Louis’ character development, later followed by a total regression of that development. Curse Disney’s f’d up schedule! WHYYYY?!?!?!
Thanks for reading!!
Oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR! Hope you all had a nice holiday. I took a break for Christmas, so yeah. I was actually so mad that the Christmas/Hanukkah episode wasn’t next on the list. It would’ve been perfect timing to review it last week. Oh, well. That episode is really good and deserves even higher than #19 ;) 
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gotgifsandmusings · 7 years
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Quick asks roundup
I’m going out of town this afternoon for labor dabor, and probably won’t be around much during the weekend. Thought I’d answer a few asks below--just a grab bag, with a vague focus on S7. Should be able to do a video one of these next week, and Julia and I are eyeing a UBS podcast episode pretty soon too.
Anonymous said to gotgifsandmusings: Have you read David Benioff's book City of Thieves? I'm curious how it compares to GoT.
I haven’t, no. I’m not sure if that’s something I want to subject myself to (it has been mostly positively received from what I know, though not across the board) when there’s so much I’ve been putting off reading as it is.
Anonymous said to gotgifsandmusings: Is cerseï pregananant in the boox?
She’s actually gregnant.
Anonymous said to gotgifsandmusings: Just read your criticism about Fair Game and wholeheartedly agree. You touched on the core of why your (and Julia's and Caroline's and Jess' and Turtle's) GoT analysis are so great: they understand the intersection of narrative flaws and social issues. Sure, some people may complain that they don't want "SJW" stuff, except, y'know, you don't stop being a feminist when you write a review. As you say, media is not produced in a cultural vacuum. Sadly, I admit I feel reluctant to...... Actively criticize GoT with people around me because the ones who dislike it also dislike ASOIAF and fantasy/sci-fi ("The show is bad because GRRM is a bad writer who isn't really character-driven, but it's not surprising since genre stuff is awful"). That sucks :(
Yes, exactly! This is in reference to this piece by myself and Julia, btw. That’s really depressing about that perception of genre fic, especially given what Martin does being so unique. I’ve never particularly understood that attitude; I want to read about cool places and stuff happening as much as I want to read about weighty character journeys, and why scoff at any that pull off both? Though Julia has a piece on that too. 
But absolutely, as we said, it’s asinine to ignore the ways culture shapes media and vice versa, and often the reason the writing is so poor is because it’s so sensationalist or reliant on shitty tropes and stereotypes. “Just enjoy it (or critique) without focusing on social issues” is the ultimate sign of privilege, and it drives me crazy because it’s tossed out as an appeal to “objectivity.” IF YOU’RE IGNORING PEOPLE’S EXPERIENCES YOU’RE ALREADY NOT BEING OBJECTIVE.
Anonymous said to gotgifsandmusings: I'm curious why you guys interpret Cersei's internalized misogyny as nothing to do with gender dysphoria. All because Cersei doesn't break down during her period doesn't mean you must read her as cisgendered. She treats femininity like her least-favorite subject in school, not like part of herself. You're welcome to read her story as about women internalizing misogyny, but her thoughts feel familiarly trans, and outright denying that reading closer-to-earths her
This is really interesting, and my assumption would definitely a result of my own distance with that experience. Are there any metas on it? I haven’t really considered this before (I’ve seen the case argued for Brienne), and I’m not very convinced Martin had much intentionality here, but that’s a reading of her character I’d definitely like to learn/think more about.
Anonymous said to gotgifsandmusings: How can Euron "Crow's Eye, Terror of Pentos" Greyjoy come across as such a wimpy villain that I'm missing Ramsay? Hell, effing Joffrey could have torn that cuddly pooh bear a new one.
But...he’s the storm. You weren’t quaking in your boots when his fleet armada magically descended on Yara’s?
Anonymous said to gotgifsandmusings: I haven't seen anyone else comment on this, but did you notice Cheryl says "You expect me to command our troops to fight beside foreign scum?" almost immediately before telling Jaime she's bringing the foreign Golden Company from Essos to fight beside their troops? Do you think the writers ever make it to second drafts or do they just knock out the first on the back of a Hooters napkin over Natty Ices and fist bumps and say, nah, we're good bro?
A showpologist would tell you it’s clearly demonstrating what a horrible hypocrite she is and actually rather cutting commentary.
It’s really, really hard for me to imagine a world where Operation Capture a Wight received a look-over. A whole lot of what they do feels thoroughly unedited.
Anonymous said to gotgifsandmusings: Hey, I really appreciate all your GoT analysis. 1) Is Cheryl's assistant actually Ezri Dax? 2) Did you see Linda's episode review where she called D&D "smug idiots?" 3) Is it possible to enjoy GoT as schlock? I can't and don't, but It is certainly bad enough and dumb enough. Thanks!
Thank you :)
1) According to wikipedia, Ezri Dax’s actor is currently starring in “Corrupt aka Trust No One” and “Where’s my Baby”, but I’m glad you made me look her up, because the resemblance there is quite uncanny. The maid is played by Sara Dylan, and has actually been a consistent, recurring character since Season 2. Apparently her name is “Bernadette” because why not.
2) Was it her newest review? I do listen to those in the background of work when I’m doing spreadsheet kind of stuff, so I may not have caught that exact phrase, but I did hear the part where she basically said “just don’t even bother writing a plot. Only write battles because everything else is terrible.”
3) I mean, the people enjoying GoT are watching schlock, so it must be possible. I happen to think the ardent defenders/honeypotters aren’t the majority, and most people turn it on to watch dragons for 60 minutes, then talk about how cool the dragons looked the next day at work. It’s just that GoT comes with a stamp of “SMART ADULT SHOW” for reasons that will never cease to amaze me. So yeah, totally, but for me, I have a hard time enjoying something when the more you think about it, the worse it gets.
Anonymous said to gotgifsandmusings: I would bet my right hand that someone in the GoT writers' room probably rewatched season 1 which is why there's so many callbacks to it like Arya's "that's not you", Dany's infertility, Bran's "I told you not to trust me", etc etc. Like it just seems so obvious that they realized they ran out of content and decided to just revisit past seasons to make themselves seem smart and like they planned ahead so much.
Oh 100%. Season 1 was this year’s Lord of the Rings, which they had obviously binged before last year. I love it because then all the critics are like, “ohh my god it’s so well-planned and deep.” But no. It’s essentially grinning into the camera going “remember when?”, completely on par with Gendry’s boat joke.
Anonymous said to gotgifsandmusings: The writers gave up 3 seasons ago, but it feels like no one was really trying this year. The cast looked bored. The wigs were trash: Dany's fire-proof wig is also boatsex-proof and freezing wind-proof. The costumes were either too anachronistic for a so-called prestiege Medievalesque Drama or straight up uninspired: Cersei's modern office wear, Dany and LF are shopping at the same department store, Lyanna S dressed up for a college roman-themed party. I guess the special effects were ok.
I’m very, very hesitant to call out costuming because I know Michele Clapton is like, making up these immaculate honeypots and ordering the finest fabrics from Lithuania to pull everything together. But...yeah, as a viewer everything was kind of clearly ridiculous (Euron’s jacket), and EVERYTHING WAS BLACK with the exception of Deadpan’s coat, that was, I’m sorry, objectively hideous. The reason people fawned over it was because it was actually contrasting the blah they had been seeing all season.
As for the cast, I mean...I think these guys are decent actors who get into their roles when they can. But who could get into anything happening at this point? Stuff happens, don’t question it. The directing was probably fine (I don’t know enough about that stuff), but when the script is fundamentally lazy and uninspired, it’s going to bleed into everything.
Anonymous said to gotgifsandmusings: (Regarding episode 7) So the only leak that didn't come true was "Cersei's" bed of blood prediction and I'm wondering if she'll miscarry next season because morally evil incest women like Cheryl don't deserve babies while morally good (with the help of our friendzoned Saint T🙏) incest women like Deadpan get to conquer infertility and birth a Targ with the help of Jonny Cardboard's magic seed. That would be one boring Aegon 2(3?) infant. Thoughts?
Honestly, I can’t make heads or tails of why she was even pregnant. Larry didn’t need that to stay on her side at all, and the only thing I can think was that it added an extra TWIST for us. Haha, viewer! You thought she might have actually wanted to fight the threat because of her unborn kid and how many times we’ve told you her only redeeming quality is her motherhood, but now she’s EVHUL and even idealized motherhood can’t save her!
I guess it’s...kind of trope busting?
I kind of agree though, I don’t see them letting a BAD woman give birth and mother. At the same time, I don’t see how enough time can even pass where this would be a relevant plot-point to anything. So...I just, I don’t get it. I’ve gotta figure out how to structure my sexism & s7 analysis, and going back and revisiting Cheryl is probably going to be one of the most confused parts of it. I see many paths for how this unfolds, and none of them are really too promising.
Alrighty, gotta cut it here for today. Everyone have a safe labor day weekend (I guess there’s no heightened risk for non-Americans, but a safe weekend all the same), and I’ll talk to you guys later!
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