I’ll be honest with you, it rubbed me the wrong way that Ted’s mum came all the way to England to tell Ted that Henry misses him. As if it was Ted that decided that what he wanted most in the world was to go to another country to coach a team, in a sport he knows nothing about. When he did that because of the suggestion of his now ex-wife and their therapist, his ex-wife’s now boyfriend. And yes, he decided to stay, because he wants to finish what he started which is an admirable quality but it wasn’t really what he wanted in the beginning was it?

The audacity of his mother to show up unannounced and tell him that his son misses him. While being kind of a shitty parent herself. The whole showing up without saying anything, not going to see him coach his team on a game day, the whole “your son misses you”, clearly not picking up on how uncomfortable Ted is with her just showing up.

I don’t know I just hated it. But I am glad that he got to tell her off for how she has behaved in the past and present. But yeah… something about that whole thing just annoyed the crap out of me.

A Coward in Love

i loved you so much it was making me sick

I hate when people call Kyojuro weak for dying to Akaza.

It’s like “lol this 20-year-old human man got killed by the fourth most powerful demon on the planet that’s been gaining more power for thousands and thousands of years. Said 20-year-old man sustained what he was well aware was a fatal injury but he kept fighting up until his very last dying breath in order to ensure the survival of every other human there until the demon had no choice but to run away, which was very difficult for him to do because he punched the 20-year-old human man through the chest and the 20-year-old human man controlled his breathing so he literally trapped him there so the demon could not free his arm but yeah no the 20-year-old human man is such a loser for dying to that guy even though there were NO other casualties and he saved EVERYONE there”

Like shut up. Shut the fuck up do you hear yourself 😭

It’s so interesting to me in tfota that the characters with 'bad' reputations, Jude and Cardan, who are known for being antagonistic/defiant/hostile and cruel/wicked respectively, are the ones who have morals for the things that matter – i.e. their loyalty, the way they freed the human slaves, how angry they got seeing taryn/nicasia cry and how ready they were to fight because of it. Whereas the characters with outwardly 'better' reputations, Taryn and Locke, who are known for being sweet/nonaggressive/compliant and charming/the 'nicer one' respectively, are ironically the ones who prove to have poor morals when it matters, i.e. by betraying those who trust them, and showing little regard for things like loyalty and honour.

It's so interesting and for me at least seriously riled me up to read, because for taryn/locke it's like, you act like you're good but you're actually awful, whereas for jude/cardan it's, you act like you're awful but you're actually good.

WILD.

still thinking about how from ashton's perspective, fearne says "i'll probably make my rounds through everybody", spends months will-they-won't-they-ing with chetney, finally hooks up with him, and then suddenly starts flirting with ashton instead. i'm not surprised ashton doesn't think she really wants him.

"that's the one you get."

maybe i'm reading too far into it, but maybe ashton doesn't want to be part of fearne just making the rounds. (and maybe he wants something longer lasting, but they sure as hell arent gonna ask for it.)

batfam prank wars are pretty infamous but there are generally guide rules to be followed like don't trigger someone's ptsd etc etc

however, one of the rules added when Duke started staying at the manor was Do Not Startle Him

the first time Damian jumped out of the shadows at him Duke startled so bad he became a one man solar flare and half the kids had to be benched until the spots faded

Draft clearing. I think I had more of a point on the topic of Jenkins and genre I wanted to make when I gathered these, but I'm not feeling it anymore. However, I need spread awareness of his absolutely baffling ideas about pirate media and how he sounds half-convinced it must be a formulaic action/adventure. I only picked up on this by reading way too many interviews back to back so I'm not surprised I've never seen anyone else mention it, but like. It's wild. And he's SO additionally weird about how showrunning a piece of media about pirates relates to whatever concept he has of pirate media in his head.

Here's the link to my interview compilation if you want to check my sources on these.

Jenkins Quotes on "Pirate Genre"

"I think actual pirate stuff is fine, but it's not necessarily my cup of tea. And I think Taika [Waititi] felt similarly.

[...]

Showrunner Jenkins sees Our Flag Means Death as having "joy. A lot of joy. I like Stede because Stede is, to me, the outsider artist of pirates. And I think in designing the show, I was conscious [of the fact that it's] a hard genre to do anything to. It's a very stubborn genre because it's been done so well and so often. So I kind of tried to look at, like New York, like Alphabet City in the '80s via a pirate genre via Mad Max and try to throw all these different things at it. So I think you'll get a different feel than you'd get on a normal pirate thing. I think we achieved that with our amazing crew." - (Gizmodo, 2/22/22)

"I guess I really… I get kind of bored. How much pirate can you do? They're going to rob stuff. They're going to steal ships. There's only so many pirate stories you can do." - (Collider, 3/24/22)

Despite creating a pirate show, he himself says he's not a huge fan of pirate movies. - (EW.com, 12/13/22)

"I don't want to see a bunch of pirate things that I've seen in other things, I'll just go watch another thing if I want to see that. That's not really my thing. I like the genre, but it's a very hard genre to budge. I want to see relationships in a pirate world." - (TV Guide, 10/5/23)

"The pirate genre is fun, but I wasn't dying to make a pirate show. Taika wasn't dying to make a pirate show. But the thing that was interesting to me was that Stede finds love, and he finds it with Blackbeard." - (Variety, 10/13/23)

"I think there is something in the show about how piracy is a brutal way of life. It's essentially Mad Max, this world. There's no law, there's just strong and weak." - (Polygon, 10/21/23)

"And it’s also a pirate show, so he’s got to die." - (Vanity Fair, 10/26/23)

"Another thing I love is what I call shaggy stories, stories about people navigating each other. When you plug them into different genres, you get this great engine that comes with it. I'm not particularly dying to write a pirate thing, but I want to write a bunch of characters trying to navigate each other in a pirate thing." - (Vulture, 10/28/23)

"But I'm like you. I'm not a big pirate person. In general, it's a big creaky genre that's hard to budge, but I think the show benefits from we can pull pirate stuff out when we need it. Ultimately, yeah, I want to see these different relationships and perspectives on different relationships. Then it's fun to plug it into an overwrought genre.

[...]

Pirates of the Caribbean, those movies are great. That's not necessarily what I hunger to see, but in that genre, it's great. You're not going to beat that, especially on something that's lower budget. We've seen a lot of this stuff, so it's fun to take it then and don't do any of that stuff." - (Metro Weekly, 11/1/23)

"I think it's more interesting to me that I've never seen a love story like this in this genre, and you dream for that. Really, pirates, what can you do that's different with pirates?

[...]

To me, to tell the story about these two men in this very hetero action genre, falling for each other..." - (Metro Weekly, 11/1/23)

---

...This is the same guy who just ended a season on the British Navy blowing up Nassau for symbolism reasons that I'm pretty sure have nothing to do with the love story. 🤨

not sure if my ask sent BUT I’m loving people being vocal about the fandom not caring about eddie outside of buddie. it’s been happening since the dawn of time (lol) and there’s a reason so many vocalists about eddie decided to be loud and obnoxious about it (including yours truly). his journey is nuanced and he’s such a good character to explore a straight-maybe to bucksexual love with but it will take TIME for anything to happen because of that journey. still. you said eddie rights and i love that.

This is the only ask I got from you, so it probably got lost in the blue void if you sent something else. But absolutely, something I noticed during the hiatus, because while I have been lurking around the fandom since season 5, I only really started to actively post thoughts and stuff after the lightning, so I spent a really long time observing people even more when I started posting random metas, or just thoughts, people have this almost pathological need to make everything about Eddie about Buck. I legit remember making a post about Shannon and blocking several people because they kept making what happened with Shannon about Buck, and that's not it. Eddie is a FASCINATING character. He is so nuanced. And he is so well written and acted out. Like, I was casual about the show until fear-o-phobia (tbf that was the 3rd episode I watched live but still). Eddie grabbed me by the throat that day. And there's so much that people give Buck a pass that they would NEVER give to Eddie. And there's so much to explore with him. And yeah, I think his queer journey will involve Buck somehow, but because I truly believe that man is demi and I don't care about anything else. Making him have a complicated relationship with attraction as a whole is so much more interesting than saying he's just looking for a beard his whole life. And the amount of people I saw picking fights about people not shipping Buck and Tommy because "they have this need that Eddie should be the only man for Buck" (when literally everyone in the fandom hc Buck 1.0 as having slept with guys too) that are people I had seen saying that Eddie only ever loved Buck, straight up erasing the whole concept that he might've been in love with his wife is wild. If Eddie is not adding something to Buck and this idea that Buck is this baby that needs to be protected and can do no wrong, then he is being unnecessary or ooc or just plain weird and THAT'S WILD. Sure Buck and Eddie have a compelling relationship, and I LOVE exploring the possibilities around how much Eddie loves Buck, but Eddie exists for more than loving Buck and both of them exist outside of each other. Honestly, right now, Eddie needs some defenders because it's rough out here. If people can pick fights about Buck the way they do, Imma do the same about Eddie. If people don't agree then that's their problem.

Finished TGAAC around 2 1/2 weeks ago but only finished the doodles today. but still, here ya go!

# 107 DcxDp

The new boy is sitting at the table that Damian and Jon sit at, Damian is going to tell the boy to pick a different table but Jon walks up to him and starts talking.

They learned his name was Daniel (Danny) and is from a small town known as Amity Parker he had moved to Gotham with his godfather after his family had died. Damian and Jon have learned that Daniel likes space and making things, over the next couple of days Damian starts to notice things like how Daniel will often come to school injured and will not eat anything during lunch. Every day Jon offers to share his food with Daniel, and he always refuses saying that he can't take Jon's food. This went on until one day Damian brought an extra lunch with him gave it to Daniel and told him to eat it or he would force him to, Damian had done some research and found out that losing someone can cause a person to lose their appetite.

This routine went on for a couple of weeks before he and Jon found out how bad it was, Daniel had come to school late with bandages over his head and many new injuries and had claimed that he had fallen down the stairs before leaving his house, neither Jon nor Damian believe it but let it be. At lunch, Damian had Daniel his lunch and he ate in silence, he had decided that he needed to research Vlad Master and figure out if he was harming Daniel. After finishing lunch they all went to throw away their trash when Daniel tripped, Jon helped him back up, and once Daniel was up he told them that he was going to the bathroom before class and left. Jon pulled Damian to the side and told him that he thought that Daniel's injuries were much worse than they seemed and explained that he had heard several snapes that he thought were stitches.

Damian told Jon that he would go check on him to see if he was okay, When Damian got to the bathroom he heard Daniel throwing up, and when he opened the door he saw Daniel on the floor holding his side that was bleeding.

As halfas Danny and Vlad still need to eat human food but it needs to be infused with ecto. If they try to eat food that's not infused then their bodies will reject it and if they force themself to keep the food down it will start to rot and make them sick, and weak.

They can't eat out in public/front of people because the amount of ecto they need is enough to bring the food to life, and it can be extremely toxic to humans.

So the night before Damian found Danny throwing up and bleeding in the bathroom was the day that his and Vlad's food had broken out of its containment and started a war with them both that went on until morning, by the time Danny and Vlad had won and had both treated the injures it was time for them to go to work and school neither had time or energy to get more food to prepare and eat. So when Danny tripped he not only ripped some of the stitches but also almost caused himself to throw up the food he was trying to keep down.

In theory, Annabeth Chase is the responsible, mostly level-headed, no-nonsense member of the Seven.

In practice, Annabeth Chase is a math-obsessed ADHD girl that's been training to fight for her life since she was seven, has fought in two (2) wars by the time she turns seventeen, and is simply Too Tired™ to care about consequences of her impulsive thoughts, if she ever did.

What I'm saying is she pitches the dumbest hypotheticals to Leo and then they hole themselves up with limited food and sleep to try the idea out, no matter how stupid. Their cabins often join, sometimes others as well. It's a bit like MythBusters but with less regard for human life and even more explosions. Chiron and Mr D know Something Is Up if they haven't seen either of the two in too long.

returning here for one second to comment on the till/joe/alena/rammstein accusation thing.

you have to be incredibly naive to not believe it. everybody who’s been in the fandom for more than a year knows that there’s a whole system of picking out girls for till (and apparently for richard as well, idk, i was only obsessed with till) and getting them to afterparties. the only thing you need to do is be a hot young (in some cases very fucking young) female. that’s all there is and the talk about how “they sometimes also invite men” is ridiculous because men are never invited to row 0 for one specific purpose, they are there as friends of the band, not as sex objects. the fact that the fandom just accepted that a bunch of (often barely legal) girls are being picked out for every concert just to sexually satisfy their idol which they adore and would do anything for (that’s literally grooming btw, it’s not the case of “oh they wanted it” if they’re literally obsessed with a stranger 40 years older than them) is kind of fucked up if i’m being honest. i was the most hyped about rammstein when i was 17/20 and only now i’m seeing how destructive all of that was. defending someone who absolutely does not deserve it and being affirmed by members of the fandom who are way older that it’s all fine is not normal. i’m only writing this post to try to speak sense into some people here: stop acting like you know them, stop defending them because you’re a fan, stop being delusional and putting impressionable girls in danger because you can’t accept the fact that a 60 year old man in power is a fucking pervert and a sex pest.

Rogue: I just wanna fight people. Paladin: At least aim it at bad people. violence hurts both parties after all Rogue: No I'm going to aim it solely at good people [later] Rogue: I'm getting a lot of backlash for saying that I only want to fight good people, but please hear me out, it's simply because they wouldn't fight back and it'd be easier, stop trying to villainize me.

Annabel Lee & Fears: A Short Essay Based On Ep70

Here it is, folks, the truest crux of Annabel’s character, her deepest fears is not going mad or even people discovering she’s not as put together as she tries to appear, but rather:

Was that gambit of constant scheming and using others worth it, Annabel? Was always trying to think ten steps ahead and always keep yourself in a position of power and control truly worth it, because how can you ever be trusted when all you do is play 5D chess with everyone?

There is is, folks!!! Just like her greatest strength- her cunning willpower- is centered around a certain bright moon, Annabel’s greatest fear is rooted in Lenore. The deepest, darkest trenches of her soul, the one thing that would shatter her heart and send her lungs choking fer breath? The killing blow that would end her and make all these charades worthless? It’s Lenore seeing her constant conniving and asking Annabel, “Why would I be any different? You already have no problem using everyone else as a pawn, how could I ever possibly trust you, Annabel Lee?”

The way Annabel is SUCH a great morally grey character, y’all tell me you love hot villains yet many a time I’ve seen people calling Annabel too heartless. She’s the opposite! She cares!! SO MUCH!!! She would burn the world down if it meant kissing Lenore one last time, to the point where her deepest fear is losing Lenore in the process of trying to protect her. All Annabel knows is using manipulation to gain the upper hand because simply being born a woman in the Victorian era she was so throughly disadvantaged by such a horribly misogynistic society that girlypop had to scrape together any form of control she could. Annabel wants so badly to protect Lenore but all she knows are her own methods of protecting herself, which involves plausibility deniability and facades and sometimes sheer cruelty, and that’s where the conflict arises. From the start Annabel assumed Lenore and her had the same understanding of this ‘fake enemies’ ploy going on but surprise surprise babygirl, not everyone is overthinking four parallel universes ahead like you do. This boils over into her lover having doubts on what’s real and what’s not, which then culminates into Lenore asking if Annabel is using her affections as empty currency to get what she wants, and Annabel’s first move to tell Lenore to fucken kill her????

“To you alone, I have left myself completely defenseless.”

The drama of it all!! The shattered facade leading to exploding vulnerability of it all!! The dim sun sparking out into a heat death just to prove her sincerity of it all!!! The exposed innermost organs ripping out my heart with my bare hands and begging you, “Do you see it now? Do you see the way it beats for you and only you? Tell me you see it, tell me you see me…” of it all!!

Oh baby the way Annabel still retains this deep fear of Lenore not truly believing in the “only thing that’s real” to her, the way her lover’s ghost still lingers and haunts her and is then ripped up from her innermost psyche like a desecrated grave and given form by Ada’s power. The way, after all this time- and I mean all this time from Lenore’s constructed resurrection, to their relationship blossoming into a wedding, all the fucking way up to that bell tower scene, the fucken way Annabel still never truly let go of her fear that Lenore doesn’t see her, doesn’t see how she alone bashed through all of Annabel’s walls and made a home where her heart laid. I’m sure during their living relationship all the way until the wedding Annabel’s fears were greatly settled, but it’s the fucken way these panels implied that this wretched heartache never completely left Annabel’s guilt-wracked soul.

I just know, okay I just KNOW, that even up until she was putting her wedding dress on Annabel still questioned if she even deserved this happy ending because she still feel phantoms of guilt fer this betrayal. This comic only furthers this implication of unabsolved guilt when it’s made clear as day that Annabel’s biggest fear is Lenore not believing in her love. And before anyone argues how Annabel can currently feel guilt fer betraying Lenore when she hasn’t recovered the memory yet, I’ll argue back that from the very beginning of the comic these two were inexplicably drawn to each other even when they had NO memories. Therefore, even if she doesn’t have the explicit memory, I highly doubt Annabel’s subconscious would ever let go of something as huge as deeply hurting the one person she truly cared about in such a wretched way.

Fuck, dude, I mean Annabel’s greatest fear wasn’t even Lenore dying- which was already a huge thing if y’all remember her tearstreaked, panicked, “What is left? If she’s not here, what’s the point?”- no her greatest is Lenore!!! Not!!! Believing!! Her!!! Like yeah losing Lenore physically definitely would’ve cut so deep even her bones would bear the scars, but losing Lenore in the form of the other woman walking the same ground as her but choosing to stay away?? Call her fucking selfish because some people would rather have their other half still be alive even if they’re not by their side, but Annabel ain’t one of them that’s fer sure. Babygirl has spent a lifetime perfecting the craft of deceiving others fer her own gain, but the ONE TIME she’s genuine her heart is to be called nothing more but empty??? Oh babbyyy that’s gotta fucken hurt.

The thing is, I don’t think Annabel really loves herself all that much. I really don’t. A huge focus on self-preservation doesn’t necessarily mean one really loves themselves, and when we add the aforementioned guilt she carries? Plus, the fact that Annabel being forced to swallow down her anxiety attacks from a young age could easily lead to her having a rather sour view of her 'not normal' self? Yeah no yeah, I truly don’t think Annabel loves herself that much, if at all. So really, this line is adding immense insult to already grievous injury. Not only does Annabel deeply fear Lenore not believing her affections to be true, she also fears the New Yorker misconstruing her as nothing more but a shallow as hell, prissy, little pampered damsel, a role pretty much everyone else regulates her into whether she wants it or not (right from the beginning, before she even set her schemes in full effect, Annabel was already explaining, “Ada wanted a queen, so I gave her one”). Lenore, the only one Annabel had believed to ever really see her fer her, is now discrediting Annabel’s vulnerable affections AND seeing her as that unloving ice queen like everyone else?? Horrible terrible horrible!!! She may have a ribbon threatening to strangle her right now, but it’s clear that ghost!Lenore’s words are what truly cut her down to size. Y’all seeing that fucken pain in Annabel’s eyes? Her worst fear is just so… personal.

Which actually leads me to my next point, which is how just before Annabel’s worst fear is revealed in stark, horrifying detail, we see Prospero’s. Lemme just preface this by saying what Prospero went through is n o t any less terrible and is a super fucken mega valid fear/trauma, but let me cook y’all just hear me out. Prospero’s fear seems to be about medical malpractice and/or being conscious during a painful operation that likely went south (aka ‘oh shiiitttt he fucken DEAD-‘), and that’s fucking tragic as all hell. Yet, okay let me cook here, it’s more… I don’t want to say general, because that does NOT mean his fear is any less significant but it’s like. Way back when, death via medical bullshit was more or less fairly common, especially during wartimes (which is the era I headcanon Prospero to be from); meanwhile, Annabel’s fear is so uniquely hers, it’s borne of a culmination of specific experiences tied together by her relationship with Lenore.

By contrast of a more common fear vs something so deeply personal and specific to this one person- because it’s not just unrequited love, it’s being so vehemently denied and misunderstood by the ONE (1!) person who you wholeheartedly trusted in your entire life who also oops mega died on you- this distinction gives way to an almost more raw, more visceral feeling to Annabel’s fear sequence. Again!!! I am not undermining Prospero’s own trauma, I promise!!! But you have to admit that there’s something, from a narrative standpoint, that hits so much harder with how deeply personal Annabel’s fear is. The contrast is even more great when you look at how Prospero’s involved a buncha bloodied hands not really tied to any faces or even any indication of personhood like accessories, scars, etc etc. It could’ve been a group of anyone holding him down hurting him; on the flipside, Annabel is being restrained by one very specific person we see in full view. The faceless crowd who could’ve been anyone at anytime vs the lone perpetrator whose history you know like a second name. It’s just!!! So personal!!!

In conclusion, on the surface level, one would think a character so deeply ingrained in using deceptions and manipulation would have her greatest fear tie into having her true nature revealed to everyone she’d fooled, but then it turns out it’s the complete fucking opposite. What homegirl fears the most is her truest, innermost self not being believed and accepted by just one (1!) person. The way it’s framed is just so heartstabbingly personal, especially when you parallel it to a previous fear sequence just a few panels preceding it. This is it, your honor, this is Annabel’s deepest driving force broken down to its bare essentials. To hell with whatever reputation she’s carefully crafted! Who cares what anyone else thinks of her if she doesn’t believe her, if she doesn’t SEE her. Really, truly see her. Lenore is the defining point that Annabel has revolves around so wholeheartedly, and there’s no point to anything anymore if Annabel loses her. This crux of her character, OHHH BBAAABBYY it’s just so well done because we, as the audience, have been given clear evidence to build up this narrative of Annabel’s characterization fer so long now and to finally see it come together in a fiery explosion of lesbian angst with this latest chapter??? Gods, the writing of Nevermore will never not drive me absolutely insane in the membrane.