Fandom: Gravity Falls || CW: Minor mentions of Blood  || Stan comes to Gravity Falls, but when Ford doesn’t show up he has to go looking for him. Amidst, a strange house and a mysterious presence he tries to figure out what exactly is going on and where Ford disappeared to.

Chapter: Answers

______(~10k words)______

omg so i’m new here but i currently have brainrot for 2 things

1) being a famous celebrity (sortaaaa like the famous streamer one but more famous) where ur like, an actress or model, things like that. and having a semi-public relationship with schlatt where you’ll be spotted holding hands on occasion, or on a red carpet but not really publicly discussing your relationship (even though everyone knows you’re together), and everyone is either super happy and ships the ever loving shit out of you, or they clown on you a bit and make “who’s punching up” videos and odd comments, and just not giving a fuck and being happy together but kinda wanting to be viewed like any other couple and not just another famous couple to be analyzed. (also similar to mutual break up but you don’t care about hate and stay together)

AND

2) schlatt made a joke about having his cock out in the latest chuckle sandwich episode and….. giving him head under his desk when he films….. for some things, like recordings where he’s not showing his face, it’s easy, but when he has his face out, it’s a bit more challenging. he has to restrain the urge to watch you and moan SOOO bad…. that’s all.

LMAO NONNIE THE FIRST ONE, I HAD TOO

okay, let’s say you’re a celebrity that is agreed by men, women, etc. to be absolutely stunning

so many people that love you, call you their wife, etc.

you are an absolute style icon, wearing pieces made for you to exclusive red carpet events

even people who hate you have to agree you’ve got a great style in clothes and makeup and yes, you’re iconic, at least a little

then somehow you make your way to the youtube community

people assume from you being so open and sweet and social is how you find yourself starring in a project directed by Ted Nivison

you’re so excited for it, interacting with other creators, etc.

Jschlatt knows of you, but thinks you’re probably like all those LA stuck up influencers that managed to make enough connections to get what you wanted

but when he has his first interaction with you on twitter??

he’s taking the chance to flirt with you publicly

in any way shape or form

and is so public about his crush on you to the point everyone is convinced he runs a stan account for you

you both do get closer behind the scenes but don’t tell much people about it

especially considering his jokes that people love taking seriously and out of context

you both are pretty secretive about it, super down low about it until the day he decides to pay for your nails

a small j is on the underside of your ring finger as to not show it off too much

it can’t even be seen unless it’s up close

then someone points it out on twitter in a selfie

you say it was dirt, but they know what they saw

then the paparazzi comes in and takes a photo that goes viral of you in sweats and a suspiciously familiar wilson hoodie

you say it a coincidence over and over again but the evidence is undeniable when you post multiple selfies in familiar hoodies that look just a little too large for you

small scratches and bite marks on your arms but you never mentioned getting a cat

then you appear in a chuckle sandwich interview

but the vibe is different in that video compared to the rest with guests

schlatt is polite??? and listening to you??

he looks at you with so much affection

yeah, your team does damage control and quickly

claiming that you’re currently single and focused on your career

then you fuck up on your own

a misclick on a story made for your close friends of you kissing your boyfriend’s cheek as he has the biggest smile ever plastered on his face

oh well, too late to deny anymore

so you don’t say anything until your next red carpet event where he’s essentially your accessory

like arm candy and dressed to match you

then everyone definitely knows

and let me tell you, some stans are sobbing

lots of “i waited 3 1/2 years, white man did it in one week” from fans and other celebrities

punching the air too

lots of crying and audios after they realize you’re dating him fr fr and not them

people definitely make memes out of it

goddess s/o and bf they probably found digging around in the trash and probably has rabies

yk that one meme of shining armor and princess cadence?

yeah, that + other attractive partner and their silly bf

so so so many of those “do you think we’re…in another universe?” slides

they clip any time he talks about you and use it for edits

editing characters you play with c! schlatt (it’s giving jack frost x elsa)

they love the two of you and seriously cannot get enough

but they really are punching the air when he marries you and when he gets you pregnant (if applicable)

So people are talking about a post in the Zolu tag by a certain tumblr user in regards to their issues with Zolu as a ship. They shall be unnamed because i dont wish to bring attention to them and instead just want to focus on their arguments because they're not the first people to make some of these points and so this is also an opportunity for me to talk about these things (a tweet is going around on Twitter containing these screenshots with the username so you can find it there if you need to anyway).

The way this person dismisses the relationship between Zoro and Luffy as a result of needing to pair gay Zoro with someone is too laughable, they must be very fit in order to be able to do these mental gymnastics. I believe that many people who are going on about the Zolu scenes in the OPLA were already Zolu shippers who were familiar with the original story and are enjoying the moments because they were well, really good Zolu moments? And there is actually, shockingly, many good Zolu moments in the original story too which is why many people ship them. Wild, I know.

Then there's 'straight-washed Sanji'. Equally if not more of a bizarre thing to believe. I might make some people mad especially the Sanji stans out there who constantly insist on the 'repressed queer' narrative with his character, but Sanji is written pretty explicitly to be seen as a cisgender and heterosexual character. The way you say with your whole chest that Luffy is 'canonically' aroace but don't acknowledge that Sanji is 'canonically' cishet is beyond hypocritical. If you believe Sanji looking like a 'misogynistic straight man' is different from the way he is written in canon then maybe you should go back and reread/rewatch series with your eyes open this time. If you wish to headcanon him with the frankly offensive repressed bisexual/transgender cliché then go ahead, but that is clearly not the intention Oda has with his character.

There's also the fact that aroace people can uh. Be in relationships. Get married. Have children. Did it occur to you that many people who ship Zolu ship them as an ace couple or-

First thing I want to say here, as a trans man who is 'mlm', can other dudes stop with this idea that women or fem-aligned individuals enjoying homosexual relationships between two men is inherently fetishising or that as a masc-aligned individual your enjoyment of a ship is morally superior in some way. Stop pulling out your 'mlm/ transmasc / cis gay' card in order to justify why your ship is superior. Its cringe af.

But if we are to insist that 'cishet female gaze fetishising mlm' is going on then ironically Zosan fits that the better than any ship in the fandom. It being by far the most popular mlm ship means there is likely a higher proportion of people who identify as cishet women who ship it. Its also the classic 'two men who dislike/hate eachother and have a toxic relationship but hot sexual tension' slash/yaoi stereotype. Majority of Zosan I've come across is depicting Zoro as the masculine male man in the relationship while Sanji the effeminate twink that Sanji stans project themselves onto and they go crazy for the bickering that is apparently reminiscent to them of a toxic heterosexual marriage. Meanwhile every Zolu/Luzo shipper I've interacted with has been some flavour of queer and Zolu is closest to the 'falling in love with your same sex bestie' narrative that the majority if not every non-heterosexual person has experienced at least once in their lifetime. This is just my personal view of course, but I think noting a difference in perspective on this topic is interesting and reveals that at the end of the day this is totally subjective and based purely on anecdotes.

Also it's just a very weird point here that apparently OP has 'plenty of varied queer rep' (it actually doesn't have that many canonical queer characters in relation to its cast size but anyway) and other media doesn't so shipping aroace characters in gay relationships is valid in those but not in One Piece … HUH???? So you're saying if One Piece had 'less' queer rep, then Zolu would be fine to ship? Idek my brain hurts.

"I have black friends so I'll speak for the black community and get offended for them" (btw this person then proceeded to block aroace people who had issues with their depiction of aroace people).

Also if we're talking canonical depictions, the only thing Zoro has been canonically depicted as is also aroace, equally if not moreso than Luffy. So by your own rules, you can't ship a cishet (sanji) with an aroace (zoro), therefore Zosan is now invalid. Stop erasing Zoro's aroace identity bigot.

'Categorically wrong' makes me laugh. I don't ship Zoro and Nami but like, people can ship what they want to??

'The general public is aware enough of gay people and how to spot them these days' uh... firstly this sounds very homophobic. Secondly the general public (cishet ppl) are famously bad at recognising queerness even when its in flashing lights before them. Thirdly you make it sound like Zoro was going around on roller skates and booty shorts listening to YMCA and Madonna in the show. I do agree he was gay-coded but it was mostly because he had sexual tension with every man he interacted with, not for the strange reasons you pointed out...

Its kinda the elephant in the room too but like. These are just headcanons. You can have multiple headcanons and interpretations of a character's sexuality. I can see Zoro as aroace virgin one day and a gay h*e the next. I'm actually allowed, legally, to do that.

The way they think shipping Zolu is harmful to aroace representation when BOTH characters are closest to being canonically aroace than anything yet ship Zosan, label being anti-Zolu as some kind of pro-ace activism, and then proceeded to block aroace people for criticising their incorrect depiction of what being aroace is...

This was a lot of words to say that you don't like a ship. Just say you don't like it, and it gets in the way of the ship you like, instead of writing a virtue signalling essay to justify your reasoning. Please.

They had some more to say on future posts I'll just pick my favourite bits

They really have this narrative that Zolu is only popular because of OPLA and can't fathom that its just a popular ship in general and always has been huh. And they couldn't make it more obvious that they're totally salty about it ranking in the top 100 most popular tumblr ships, lmao.

Your classic case of 'self-identifying ally who speaks over the people they are supposed allies of'. Its a general rule that you feel the need to declare yourself an ally you're probably not an ally, actual allies know they need to just shut up and do the work. Saying 'this character's aroace' and 'I have aroace friends' actually isn't what allyship is, thats just accepting that ace people exist which is like... the baseline.

Calling a wholesome loving ship like Zolu an icky ship is a severe consequence of online brain (this person is 26 years old btw)

this has been on my mind for a while but still didn't say it because I didn't want people to come after me and cancel me. just know I like ayato, but I don't like the overrated hype on him by people. I'm not hating on Ayato stans, because I was one myself but this overrated hype got me out of it after discovering more knowledge on other characters.

the way some people hype the Ayato "overrate" is too much. like I get it Rejet gave a lot of signs of painting Ayato as the main lead, but it was prolly to have some easier ideas on merch and fanservice contents (like youngblood). yes there might me Rejet's favoritism too here, especially in anime, like all the boys barely have any interaction with Yui except when it came to suck her blood, but that wasn't the case with Ayato. I feel like if Rejet had shown favoritism towards Subaru or actually tried to highlight Shu or Reiji or even Laito's trauma like they did with Ayato, then the main love interest would have pointed towards them.

people saying that Ayato "truly" deserves to be the ML because he had it "worse" are we starting to compare everyones' trauma now??? I'm sorry but trauma can never be compared because everyone has their own experience, sufferings and hardships going through it.

alright if you wanna compare "worse" then, what Ayato had worse? Cordelia abusing him to study 24/7 to become number one and not letting him play + venting her anger out on him? then what about Shu??? as the first born I'm pretty sure it was way worse for him especially how strict and cold Beatrix was. and the only solace, his friend edgar aka Yuma, was also snatched by him. If you guys would have read Shu's LE vampire end starting monologue, then you guys would have known how Shu was talking about his trauma and how he dealt with it using music, pushing people away, etc. + plus it's side effect on him.

"Ayato forgave Cordelia in DF in his route even after what she did to him" okay? so did Yuma. He forgave Reiji for what happened in the past. Laito also forgave Cordelia in his DF route after discovering Karlheinz's journal. Carla was ready to help vampires, the species he hates the most, just on Yui's saying.

Yes Ayato had development, but I feel like Reiji, Ruki, Kou, Shu and Laito had the best one and more better development than him. Like through each and every game you can see them coming over trauma through Yui's help and becoming a better person. While in Ayato's case I just felt like they dumped the "main hero" plot on him by reviving Cordelia. yeah DF was the only route I saw his development while in other games, I didn't see much unlike what I witnessed with other characters.

Subaru was the green flag from the start and if Rejet would have given him the screen time instead of Ayato, he would have become the Main Interest.

I know about the origins of the Bechdel Test, but I do think it's inaccurate to say it's not meant as a criticism of movies that don't do that. I think that when people stop thinking in binary terms of "is this feminist?" or "is this anti-feminist?" and instead look at things more holistically, that you can recognize both that a character like Mako Mori is great, a step in the right direction for female characters in action movies and especially WOC, go forth and stan her and write all the fanfic you want.... but yeah, it is also a valid criticism of the movie (and many others like it) that she doesn't talk to or have relationships with any other woman in the film.

I think one thing to help people realize just HOW much of women's lives are being left out of media representation when we never talk to other named women about something other than a man in movies, is to just think about your own life. I talk to my mom every day, and if we are not talking about my stepdad or my brother-in-law (and I don't think we've ever had a conversation that wasn't at least IN PART not about them or another man), then it passes the test. I'm a professor and when I talk to a female student about her homework or project (which is, again, something that happens pretty much every day I teach), that's passing the test. If I order food from a female cashier and she has a name tag, that's passing the Bechdel Test! It's literally just constant for the vast majority of women on the planet, and that's what's being left out of our stories.

Like, I like the takes I've seen about how part of the joke in Dykes to Watch Out For is that this is *particularly* alienating to lesbians - as a lesbian myself I agree - but I also think it should be frustrating to straight and bi and ace women as well, because like unless you are like exclusively interacting with your husband or male relatives every single day + you work in a workplace where you are literally the only woman, you are almost certainly passing the test constantly. That's a pretty big part of women's lives that Hollywood is leaving out!

But I think it's important to view it as just one piece of the discussion about feminism and women's representation in film, not the final judge on if a film is feminist or not. Which it wasn't intended to be - as you said, it was mostly a joke on the extreme maleness of 80s action movies. Honestly, I do not miss those days on Tumblr where people were obsessed with declaring certain movies/TV shows/other fandoms they liked as "feminist" or "anti-feminist" and the really bizarre granular discussions people would have between two works that BOTH had a long way to go in terms of representing women. I remember people in the Fullmetal Alchemist fandom would use this to argue about if the original anime or Brotherhood/the manga was better - when both have some fantastic female supporting characters, but are ultimately male-centered stories where even a lot of those women's lives and stories are centered around their male love interests and family members. It's better than a lot of shounen, but if that's your bar for feminism - either version - you have a long way to go (and need to watch WAY more anime because there's sooooo much of it that is female-centric). I also remember people coming up with other tests that were blatantly silly: like I thought the Mako Mori test about "if a woman has a motivation/story that isn't centered on a man" was fair because it did point out a legitimate criticism, but there was that ridiculous "Tauriel Test" where it was "a woman who is good at her job." And it was entirely about someone just disliking that movie critics and feminist commentators alike were down on the Hobbit movie trilogy, which a) were bad movies, sorry you have bad taste, b) are absolutely not where you should focus your attention if you're so concerned about women's representation in film, Tolkein has always been a sausage fest! And her big thing was being mad that people thought Judi Dench's M in Skyfall was a better female character, and so she arbitrarily decided she was "bad at her job" and Tauriel was "good at her job" even though that's completely subjective and can be challenged in both cases.... but also, once again, why are you looking to the fucking JAMES BOND franchise for movie feminism! There's nothing like comparing the relative "feminism levels" of JAMES BOND and LOTR to make it obvious that this is 100% about validating your subjective taste preferences by giving it a "progressive" excuse, not actually about feminism and not actually caring about women's representation beyond how it makes you look good. And yet SO many people took that transparently stupid post seriously. I'd see professional articles mention the Tauriel Test as "one of the new tests" like there was anything serious about it.

And then on the flip side, over-reliance on the Bechdel Test alone led to some clueless conclusions especially in anime fandom, given that anime has an abundance of shows that exclusively feature female characters in school clubs being cute, where those characters are nonetheless two-dimensional archetypes designed for the male gaze. Someone like fandomsandfeminism did a presentation at an anime con that called one of those types of shows "feminist" and some Japanese user eviscerated it, but that just led to the equally shallow fandom analysis of "everything a Japanese person says about anime is automatically more valid" and "any Westerner who wants to criticize anime on feminist/progressive grounds is culturally appropriating and ultimately coming from a place of ignorance, even if they literally have a degree in Asian studies."

Wow, this turned into a rant about the history of bad "feminist media criticism" on this website. Sorry about that, I think I had a point in here somewhere. I guess that the Bechdel Test is indeed a joke and those origins should be understood, but also, I don't think it's wrong to say that it identifies a real problem and one that people could probably take MORE seriously than they do - but as just one part of the conversation, not the Feminism Litmus Test, and certainly not as a dick-measuring contest about whose fandom gets them more progressive brownie points.

--

I think as long as we grasp that the joke is "The bar is so far under the ground that we might as well go home and eat popcorn there", it's fine.

The real issue with the test is that people started thinking a pass was meaningful.

If you say something like "X% of 2020s movies can't even manage this weaksauce level of women existing", that's a meaningful statistic. Even if you got a couple of data points wrong, you're not factually wrong enough for it to matter because X is going to be some massive, massive percentage, and the overall trend is so clear.

But a pass is nothing to celebrate, and that's where we went wrong.

Like you say, litigating which of two big franchises that barely do anything with women wins on tumblr points is idiocy.

I think people are so unaware of what media that genuinely centers women even looks like that it's hard for them to even begin having a discussion.

I personally have been a massive fujoshi type from adolescence, and media that centers female characters isn't actually what I typically want. (Though media that is by and for women and that doesn't give a fuck what men think of this is.) I am also not much of a fan of slice of life in general...

But when I was coming out and figuring my shit out, being able to go buy collections of Dykes to Watch Out For was incredibly valuable to me.

Ditto the other lesbian comic books that were just sitting there in the bookstore. I'm sure if I went back and reread them all now, I could find things to nitpick or ways they were more for lesbians and less for me as a bi girl, but the really distinctive thing they did was let me exist in a world where media isn't all 80s sausagefest action movies where women are not people.

In fact, they were a world where men don't matter terribly much—not because they're dramatically rejecting men in some facile and reactionary way but because... who cares? They just had other priorities... and this was normal.

It feels like people who've never taken a vacation from really mainstream media just have no concept of what it would feel like to exist in some other space.

And I think that's a pity even if, like me, they later choose to go read mostly BL later instead of focusing on female characters or they genuinely love trash 80s action movies despite everything wrong with them. It's not just sexist media that's the issue: it's that feeling like the fish can't see the water it's swimming in.

Happy FACE era and happy Jikook days to all!

I promise I'll write a few in depth reflections on the latest Jikook interactions and also will address 편지 in another post but I just wanted to get a few things off my chest so I wanted to post this first. (Sorry, this post will mostly include my reflections and no profound analysis so if you're not interested in my ramblings, you can skip this one)

*inserts these pics to catch your attention lol*

I guess I'll start off by this: I did make the conscious decision to lay off the petiness a few months ago though I can't help but think these few days (even weeks) happened for the sake of all the hateful trolls who have been making rounds even on here revelling in the fact both Jimin and Jungkook were mostly off-grid and Kook spotted having a social life, which somehow automatically discounted any possibility of him keeping in touch with/seeing anyone else for some reason.... but anyways... for the sake of keeping my karma clean let's move on.

Being an ARMY with a special fondness for 3J and Jikook I have to say my life is pretty easy, I just lay back and enjoy as their appearances happen and let things unfold without having to get angry or hateful. Mostly because my love for them doesn't hinge upon a never-ending need for validation for what has been a constant for the past 10+ years. And I hope by communicating and trying to explain more closely to you how especially Jimin and Jungkook interact, trying to help you bridge the language gap, I really hope you feel this sense of calmness as well. There is never anything to question, to fuss or argue about. (Not to stray too much off topic, but rest assured I deeply value and appreciate each and one of your replies and messages, despite the fact I am notoriously bad at replying to them 🫣)

Watching Jimin and Jungkook interact always feels like home, like you have been granted an insight into a familiar scene, with people that are so close they can't help but joke around or poke at each other yet at the same time can't hold back on their appreciation and softness for each other. (If you need a visual representation just take any moment Jimin talks about/with Jungkook and automatically gets all giggly and soft and Jungkook's last live where you could see the little goofball laughing at ex. the teasing scenes but at the same time couldn't hold back his starry eyed expression 🥹)

I have to admit though, I myself got proven wrong when I confidently posted about how they are both missing ARMY based on the Weverse interactions and then proceeded watching Jungkook turn on a live barely interacting with the comments (even remarking on the fact he isn't checking them yet people keep writing lol) just to watch over 1hr of Jimin content and admit to have been staying on top of all his promo releases...To then read Jimin's reply in which he left no room for debate. 국민 정말 미안해ㅠㅠㅠ

So what have we learned over the past few days?

Jimin and Jungkook are fine, in fact better than fine, and not seeing them in public proves absolutely jack sh*t (reverting back to a bit of my pettiness here)

Jungkook was involved with the album more than we could have ever imagined. (can't wait to talk more about 편지, I have to say not many songs have ever touched me as much as this one, for various reasons...)

Jungkook visited Jimin's rehearsal (and was really interested in watching him record for a music show too 🥺) and was also for that reason so confidently announcing that something "amazing beyond words" was coming before the teaser for Set me free pt. 2 dropped

As expected Jimin's latest schedules are recording/company-home-eat-sleep and repeat so he has barely any time left and Jungkook misses him a lot :(

Jungkook is as supportive and admiring of his hyung as ever- his words not mine (still a huge Serendipity stan though 🤭)

And once again highlighting: their communication feels very warm, friendly and familiar, there is no sign of them not knowing about each other or being distant

This was all I just had to write down before my head started spinning, I will be back with more of my nerdy language analysis posts, thanks for reading if you decided to! 😊

I just saw your recent post on AM stans hating on Milex stans… I need a catching up please. What about LV and Amanda (?) and Matt too? I rarely ever dive deep into bands and their members, I just like to appreciate their music.

Thank you ♡

! long post incoming and i want to point out that i don't plan on using this blog to discuss any of these people (only maybe very rarely) - i don't like them, i don't think they're good people, i don't want to argue with people who think otherwise, and i usually ignore whatever they're up to - my main focus will always be on milex/miles !

hi anon! <3 i have no idea how much you know already, or if you basically don't know anything related to these three, or any of them. i will say that i have no screenshots concerning the things that i mention, but searching their names up on tumblr and/or scrolling through blogs like @/shit-talk-turner and @/alexstorm will make things more clear.

this whole thing started when louise posted a screenshot yesterday of an am fan saying some dumb shit about her in the comments and bringing up alexa (i still can't believe she posted this). she posted this with some equally stupid words (i don't have the screenshot - you can find it on twitter/tumblr/ig/tiktok/wherever), and matt then reposted her story, jumping to protect her (maybe amanda did too, i don't know). then she managed to screenshot some nice comments and posted those too, saying that 'love always wins' or something similar, and that haters can kiss her ass (this definitely didn't come across as her craving and asking for some compliments; she definitely doesn't need people babying her in order for her to feel good about herself) - which reminded me of something similar that amanda said like a year ago, that they don't pay attention to the haters anyways, of course after posting a long paragraph paying attention to them (makes me laugh just to think about it).

there are so many other hysterical and foolish things she does, like posting pictures of a messy bed (look, i'm fucking alex turner!), selfies with suspicious rings, other pics hinting at alex's presence, calling paparazzis to take pictures of them on the beach, pretending to be jane birkin and alex to be serge gainsbourg, going off about how independent she is while living off of alex's money, somehow managing to make matt's and amanda's marriage about her (with amanda encouraging her), 'accidentally' always doing these when miles has important things going on, etc etc (the fact that her and miles never interacted in real life is also deeply concerning. alex, dear, you should always trust your best friend when they don't like your partner, they always end up being right - especially knowing that miles was always on really good terms with alex's exs). it's clear that she's deeply insecure and adores when the attention is on her and when people are talking about her, and if she goes for a long period without this, she just has to pull something that will get fans talking. she's trying so hard to fit in and be the sexy rockstar girlfriend that she just ends up looking stupid.

if you don't know the real reasons why some people don't like louise, i'm just gonna post some links about her that pretty much sum it all up:

https://www.tumblr.com/snarcticmonkeys/685972106927882240/can-you-recap-the-problematic-things-frencies?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/snarcticmonkeys/685366553489866753/everybodys-got-something-to-hide-except-me-and-my?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/snarcticmonkeys/685366736118235136/everybodys-got-something-to-hide-except-me-and-my?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/snarcticmonkeys/685155230049075200/louise-the-fangirl?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/snarcticmonkeys/685155226833059841/lyon-july-2018?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/snarcticmonkeys/685095240693170176/deleted-posts?source=share

about amanda... now, if i remember correctly, amanda had a blog dedicated to her music, and people dug up some screenshots in which she replies to someone and uses the n-word, and then another post where she's being racist. these screenshots are somewhere in the depths of my phone and it would be impossible to find them, and regardless, these screenshots are so old that she could've well changed for the better since then.

the problem with her is the fact that she's having arguments in the comments with young fans (asking stuff like did they have brain tumours for breakfast and other ridiculous things...or was that louise?) and posts even more ridiculous stories in response to people bullying louise, and protecting her like she's a toddler who can't take care of herself. the pure arrogance and self-importance with which she communicates her ideas is just mental, she thinks that she's on the top of the world, and encourages louise to act the same way. it's baffling that two 40-ish women think that bullying 14 year olds will achieve anything other than encouraging other 'fans' to act the same way.

the thing about matt is just basically the fact that ever since he's been with amanda, he acts the same way as her. now, i know there's been some issue about some idiots commenting about his daughter, which made him deactivate his ig account, and i have absolutely no words for the people who dared to say anything about that poor, innocent, completely blameless child. but even before this, he turned to the same kind of arrogance as amanda and reposted all her stories concering louise. the way that they need to say over and over again what a good person louise is, how much alex loves her, how great their relationship is, how beautiful and kind and caring she is... makes you really question if she really is indeed all those things (especially if you opened those links i posted). more importantly, what exactly do they plan to achieve arguing with teenage girls? it's so childish, my god, they are only adding fuel to the fire. god knows what they're telling alex and also god knows what he thinks about it all.

there's something that i'm not 100% sure about, but i'm gonna say it in the hopes that someone will see this and will tell me if this is wrong or not: matt cheated on breana when both her parents died (this one is definitely true), and left her with 1 year old amelia, and fucked off to live with another woman (amanda denies being the woman in question, i have no idea). she was solo parenting for a while (breana said all these in a podcast), then matt woke up and decided that he wants something to do with his daughter after all, and ever since then he takes care of her too - good job love, you're still horrible though.

in short, l&a's insanely childish antics dragged matt into the whole thing too. they're constantly throwing hissy fits, in hopes to achieve god knows what, and then they feel proud of themselves for telling teenage girls off. which makes you think, what would happen if am would be 10 times more popular than they are know, and louise would get 10 times the hate she gets now? or even better, what would happen if louise would get the same amount of hate miles gets on the daily? she said in her screenshot that she knows that it's only a minority of the fandom that leave such mean comments - then what's the point of paying attention to it? all this just shows another reason why these two definitely don't like each other - miles has brains, the other one... well, i'm sorry. i tried my best to like them and look past their mistakes,but i just can't do it.

Alby's Notes (#9)

Hello everyone! It’s been quite a while, hasn’t it? 😅

Well, time for us to take a seat and talk, ‘cause I’ve got some news for y’all. Dunno if this is going to be good or bad news to you guys, so I’m just calling it news

1. I’m not going to be very active on Tumblr, at least for the foreseeable future.

It has honestly been rather challenging for me to juggle acads, orch, personal stuff, writing, and managing this blog all together, so for the sake of my sanity, I’ve made the tough decision to take a few steps back from posting content here.

2. I’ll be closing the ask box for a while.

Since I haven’t been able to answer asks for a month or two, I now have a backlog of asks to go through. The number of asks I have in my inbox is rather overwhelming to me, to be honest 😅 And some of them are similar to others that have been sent previously, which I feel bad about because it’s like, wasted time, y'know, like, you wouldn't have needed to ask a similar question if i had answered the first one 😓

And some similar questions I haven’t been able to answer because they’re questions that I need time (and the brainpower honestly) to answer. 😓

So until I’ve cleared out my Tumblr inbox, I’ll be closing the ask box.

3. I’ll be shifting more towards using Discord

I’ve made a Discord server while I’ve been slowly chipping away at Chapter 1 Part 3 :) Special thanks to my lil bro @system-operations for being my guinea pig as I worked on and tested out the server 🤭

So, part of the reason why it’s been difficult for me to do stuff on Tumblr is because my access to it is rather limited now due to personal stuff; it’s nothing bad, don’t worry, and it’s not because I’ve been doing anything shady or illegal (I think it’d be the shock of the century to people who know me if they ever heard that I did something like that 😅). It’s just personal stuff 😅

I also think that part of why I’ve been overwhelmed with Tumblr stuff is because of the similar asks that start to pile up the longer that I’m unable to answer them, which is why I’ve set up some forum channels in the server where people can send questions and feedback and you guys can see what questions have been asked and which ones have been answered, especially without needing to wonder if I received your questions and answered them or not.

But the main purpose of this server is to provide a lil space where you guys can hang out and maybe interact with each other and with me :3 I’ve got a few things planned for server activities:

Game Night: We would play some of the games in Discord Activities and some other online browser games like Red Flags and Cards Against Humanity

Watch Party: We would watch some animes that are available on Youtube (such as Campfire Cooking in Another World [10/10 great anime in my opinion we stan wholesomeness in this household]) and Starkid musicals (the Hatchetfield trilogy is fire y’all), and probably some other Youtube stuff

Study With Me: Just popping into a voice channel and playing some music while I study helps me quite a lot apparently, so if that works for any of you who might join the server, it’s a-okay if you wanna join in :3

But of course, participation in these activities is very much optional! It’s okay if you’d prefer to lurk, I’m a lurker myself in most of the other servers I’ve joined 😅

However, I do want to make it very clear now that this will be an 18+ server, as it will not only be for ATE but also for the other IF projects that I have planned, some of which will contain content that is not suitable for minors. So just to be sure, I’ve decided to restrict the server to those 18 and above. Please, for any underage followers that I may have, do not lie about your age if you join because I will have to remove you from the server. You have been warned.

4. Now, going back to the Tumblr asks...

So now that I’ve laid out the stuff with Discord, you might be wondering what’s gonna happen with the Tumblr asks after I’ve answered the stuff in my inbox. Well, here’s what I’m planning to do:

Step 1: Compile all Tumblr asks into a Google doc 

Step 2: Add any Discord asks into same Google doc

Step 3: Share the Google doc for public viewing

Step 4: Re-open Tumblr ask box

Step 5: Update the Google doc as I receive asks, even if I’m unable to answer the questions immediately

This way, everyone can see the asks, whether or not you’ve got Discord or Tumblr, and the search for the asks is gonna be a lot more efficient! 

So long, Tumblr search, hellooo my old buddy ctrl/cmd+f!

5. And what about the Tumblr blog in general?

It’s still gonna be here, and I’m still going to post about significant updates to ATE! It’s just gonna be quieter once I’m done answering all the asks that are currently in my ask box.

So, yeah! That’s my novella of news 😅 I’ll be sharing the link for the Discord server in the next post so the link and the stuff I’ve said about it aren’t buried in the wall of text you just read/skimmed through. 😅

Thank you all so much for all the love and support you’ve had for ATE, and I hope you all have a great day/night ahead!

this is not to single anyone out, but i have a lot of new followers, and i would just love for you all to know... the search function on my blog is operational. if you search for epic the musical, you will find that i have dabbled in it. it is slightly annoying to be asked over and over whether i've heard of it, even by lovely, enthusiastic, friendly people.

i have another reason for not answering those questions, which is that when someone is being enthusiastic and friendly to me, i don't want to be mean to them. but if i'm going to speak from my heart as an odyssey lover, i don't think epic the musical is that good. it doesn't especially interest me as a standalone piece, but i also don't find it provides much insight on, or compelling points of comparison with, homer's odyssey. i'm glad you're all having a good time! please stop asking me about it.

bullet point review below the cut, for those who are more curious about my opinions.

things i like about epic:

astyanax's murder doesn't get brought up a lot in stories that are sympathetic to odysseus. it's optional when adapting the odyssey or the iliad, but i am definitely of the opinion that odysseus did it, and even if he didn't, he convinced the other greek leaders that it needed to be done.

the athena/odysseus duets.

i found the reframing of polyphemus' blinding compelling, where he's doing the same thing he does in the odyssey for a different reason. i also liked that the audience doesn't learn his name until he reveals it to polyphemus. that's a neat touch.

earwormy as hell.

the fanart! i saw odysseus fanart maybe 3 times a year before the troy saga dropped. i'll take that trade (for my sanity when i try to navigate the tags).

jorge seems to be invested in odysseus/penelope, which is like the bare minimum to hold my attention, but still.

anyhow jorge seems charming; all his videos and interactions with fans seem nothing but excited about what everyone can contribute. commissioning wolfy to animate a trailer? widely regarded as a great move.

things i don't like about epic:

as gutsy as i think it is to start with astyanax's murder, the main thing to me is not whether his hands physically threw the baby, but whether he is in some way responsible for it. more than that, astyanax's death isn't divinely mandated: it's a ruthlessly pragmatic preemptive strike against vengeance that the greek leaders are afraid of. it's 100% human. so framing it around zeus, known troy stan, forcing odysseus to do it and he feels so so bad about it ????????

baffling to me to start with a moral conflict about infanticide, and after committing it, odysseus is still like... maybe kindness is brave? maybe i'm not a ruthless person? please be serious. you murdered that baby.

(been talking to @littlesparklight about this but you could have started out with some version of sophocles' ajax, a death caused by the gods that odysseus actually is complicit in when he didn't necessarily want it to happen. i digress.)

don't like the way the fandom talks about astyanax, specifically, as if odysseus raising a kidnapped trojan boy whose people were destroyed and whose mother was sold into slavery in another land is ever going to be a fluffy au and meanwhile odysseus did very much murder that baby, so!

the songs are not... good. like i said, they're earwormy, but that's also because they're repetitive and predictable. the lyrics are distractingly bad at times, not only from a character perspective, but in the sense of using words wrongly or awkwardly to try to fit them into a rhyme scheme.

i like the reframing of the polyphemus episode. not so much the aeolus one. at that point, you have odysseus doing the opposite of what he did in the odyssey for opposite reasons, which makes him a character bearing no resemblance to odysseus at all.

and this happens while other characters (mostly gods) try to drag him kicking and screaming into his actual homeric characterization.

like, odysseus is haunted by the war in the odyssey, but not because he regrets what he's done as a moral injury. he chose violence on purpose. the gods did not force him to be this person. it's a narrative throughline that serves only as a bid to make odysseus more sympathetic.

... and in doing so, strips away his agency — in sacking a city, in lying and obscuring the truth with his crew (his lies are more than a quirk that endears him to athena, they have consequences!) — some might say his personality. i do have sympathy for odysseus, even at his worst moments morally, because i find his character as a whole compelling. you don't need to try to absolve him of these things! they tell you about what kind of person he is! they are evocative (and provocative) already! take them away and he is boring, because he is not choosing to do anything.

the new wave of odysseus fans seem unable to handle homeric odysseus' complicated aspects and character traits, and to a degree i blame this on the musical characterization. it's allowed to be its own thing, certainly, but now i regularly get people arguing about whether he's a good person when all they know is something epic made up and that was never the fucking point, anyway.

are we really going to pretend he didn't have sex with circe and calypso at all

You know as a former member of Vivziepop's cult and yes its a cult not a fandom anymore I am disgusted by a majority of the people in it.

Like someone on the subreddit brought up it being kinda tasteless or fucked that they sold sexy Stella merch in bdsm gear when she's abused Stolas physically. The post was deleted quickly and judging by my experiences in the fandom people were stanning Viv or harassing OP and that has got me thinking.

Why is Stella in bdsm gear? Like Stolas and Blitzo are canonically into it yet you give the abuser that...

Like isn't a bit fucked that instead of choosing the canonical practicioners in your show you choose to put someone who uses pain not to pleasure but to slowly break and hurt someone.

We know Vivziepop has a merch rep so how did that get into production?

I also find it fucked that Vivziepop and crew are attempting to tackle an issue as serious as domestic abuse and do it so poorly by writing Stolas and Stella as bickering children next we see them. Then the staff has the utter gawl to sell merch in general of Stella and the fans buying it up.

Like I understand autograph signings slightly but that's the only merch Stella should have.

Vivziepop's cult loves to claim that they utterly depise Stella and deserves to suffer because she's an abuser so how dare people want nuance or not just a generically evil cartoon villain but the moment she is drawn in a sexy way they start throwing money at that.

Like I just want to know how these people if their friends ask about the character on the pin will explain "Oh this is Stella who's a sexy domestic abuser"

Then again am I surprised when Vivziepop makes merch of a rapist and most of the crew have some weird fascination with Valentino and not in the way that he's their best written villain way more like they are simping over him.

I think a lot of fandoms, especially nowadays, have a lot of genuinely bad people who really need help/therapy but see nothing wrong in what they do or just keep doing that, though they know it ain't okay. That's so frustrating when you can't feel comfortable even in an Internet community. But Viv's "fandom"(I mean exactly these two shows, although Zoophobia also had...... not very pleasant people) is surely something... Where'd you find so many blatantly oblivious and blind brown nosers which keep pretending everything's good when there's already tons of red flags from Vivienne? Yeah, that's a rare case. I don't wanna interact with this fandom or even talk about it, tbh. I still watch the show cuz it's fun to see how it manages to be worse with every episode, though sometimes I don't make reviews as many other people do it faster and better and I just have nothing to say(I need to take my jaw from the floor). Regarding Stella – well, I don't know on what principles Viv or her team makes merch with the characters, but aren't all characters being sexualized anyway? They even have merch with Chaz, a guy who, like, died in the same episode. And they keep doing new merch with this jerk. And that's obviously because there are people who simp for him. I don't know if Stella's merch may be an insult to those who practice BDSM, I'm not into it, tbh, and I don't take these things seriously, but I find this just a bland sexualisation. Well, it's "sexy merch", but yeah, Stella's all character is based on being a mean aggressive yelling bitch, and this thing....... it must be a character trait, I guess? Or just a sweet treat for rule34 artists, like most of the stuff Viv does. Again, I don't take all of this seriously, this sexy merch was made to tease and please the simping fans, but there's certainly a part of irony in it. Like, people in this fandom hate Stella so much that they shit on people who simply want her to be a more complex character, and they're........ still buying all this stuff. They........ enjoy Stella being "hot dommy mommy" and still keep hating her? Ngl, only Viv's fanbase can do that, lol. I've seen this fandom from the start and I can say that many people here always had some weird obsession with Valentino. I even remember some person passive aggressively telling me that "he's just very charismatic and it's your problems if you can't see it". When there were, like........ A musical clip and a comic where he just was being an abusive jerk. Yeah, that's a really weird fascination. Also, doesn't one of HH's crew, who is an animator or a director(don't remember correctly), has a rape fetish and has drawn an animatic on their beloved ship Angel/Val? Hella ironic that a show about serious portrayal of trauma and abuse has a crew member(or members) which legit....... find it hot or cute. That's sick af but I guess Viv doesn't care who she hires. Oh, that's definitely not a pit I would like to fall in. I'm not sure there's any hope on Hazbin portraying trauma or mental illnesses properly, but I'll still watch it anyway. Whenever it comes out....

What do you think the Mikaelsons would be like if the Aurora fallout didn't happen?

TW: Mental Health/Mental Illness, bipolar disorder

I'm assuming you mean the Aurora fallout when she was human and not when she took the serum. I personally don't think it would be the fairytale a lot of Klaurora shippers want it to be. Don't get me wrong, I like Aurora's character and she did not deserve being compelled to be Rebekah for a hundred years and I also think she is one of Klaus' better ships. I also think we need more (and better than TVDU gives us) representation of mental illness in media. But I personally think people romanticize their relationship a lot. I do think Aurora is Klaus' first love and he loved her deeply, as she did him. But they were both in very bad mental places when they were together. This was only exacerbated by the vampirism. They likely would have led each other down a dark path rather than help each other out of it.

When Aurora is first turned, the vampirism makes her slightly out of control, which is not good considering the Mikaelsons had not mastered their control yet. This meant that shortly after she turns, Mikael tracks them down because of the carnage they were causing. If Elijah hadn't compelled Aurora, she would have run with them. She likely also would have wedged herself between Klaus and his siblings. This is especially true because Elijah would have likely still remembered that Klaus killed their mother and lied to them about it all of that time. The memory was behind the red door because of what Elijah did to Aurora, not because of what he discovered.

This would have created a huge rift between Finn and Klaus, likely causing Finn to do what he claimed to want to do and leave his siblings behind, potentially even seeking Mikael out to help avenge his mother. With Finn leaving, Kol would also part ways shortly after. We know this happens anyway as Kol is already on his own when the Mikaelsons encounter the Hunters.

Tristan would also have sent an army after the Mikaelsons to retrieve his sister, likely with the help of Lucien as I think he partly always believed Klaus manipulated Aurora. I personally was never a fan of how Lucien interacted with Aurora. He always acted like she was unable to think for herself so it would be easy for him to believe Klaus had manipulated Aurora and not that she rejected him. It also would give him an excuse to go after the Mikaelsons and make Klaus pay for "stealing" Aurora.

It would have been Mikael and whatever army he mustered up and Tristan/Lucien and their army chasing after the trio and Aurora. I think it would be a fascinating story and if anyone wants to write it, I would definitely read it. However, it wouldn't be positive for either Klaus or Aurora's mental health. We are told Aurora battles bipolar disorder. This mental illness, unfortunately, for the vast majority of the time cannot be handled effectively without medication. Bipolar disorder was not even diagnosed until the 1800s and it wasn't effectively treated until the mid-1900s. Because vampirism already exaggerates emotions, Aurora's battle with bipolar disorder was extreme. The symptoms of bipolar disorder are also exacerbated by stressful life events, like being on the run from your brother and your homicidal father-in-law.

Stans, and even Klaus himself, changed their tune after finding out about Klaus' first heartbreak and, instead of blaming his parents, shifted blame to Elijah for why Klaus behaves the way he does. But we have to realize that Klaus is Klaus. Vampirism and his werewolf side only heighten who he is. We see Klaus as a human get in angry, heated fights, he is still fairly self-centered (kissing Tatia without even considering her feelings), he kills his mother for lying to him before his heartbreak, he goes on a killing spree before this heartbreak. He wasn't some innocent, good-tempered person before all of the heartbreak and betrayal. He was also in a fragile mental state and it would have been easy for Aurora to convince him to leave Rebekah and Elijah behind. Klaus was clearly suffering some level of depression and likely PTSD from his childhood trauma. Aurora already thought Elijah was too obsessed with family and didn't have a positive association with family in general. To me, she would have wanted her and Klaus to be a family on their own. She even seemed to cast Rebekah aside as her friend when Klaus showed her romantic interest. She was so quick to tell Elijah she knew something about Klaus that even he didn't know. Whether intentionally or not, she would have caused a separation between the siblings. I personally think this would have been for the best for Elijah and Rebekah. They could have gone off and lived a happy life, finding love.

But Klaus and Aurora likely would have gone down a dark path. We already see them begin to right after she is turned. She, like Klaus, reveled in the gore of vampirism early on. Without Elijah or Rebekah there to even him out, Klaus may have gone off the deep end, making it easy for Mikael to find him. If Mikael had an army, it likely would not have ended well for Aurora and Klaus.

I've seen two people who were struggling with their mental illness try to make it work in real life and it unfortunately usually does not work. When you are struggling, you need someone who can support you, but if your partner is also struggling, that is too much pressure. They created a beautiful relationship in the comfort and safety of the castle but they would have struggled to support each other once life got hard on their own.

It is really sad because so many people in history suffered unnecessarily because of mental illnesses before treatments or understanding was available. Aurora's conversation with Cami gives us just a small insight on what people in her position were often forced to undergo in an attempt to "fix" them. If Aurora and Klaus had met in modern setting where treatment was available for both of them, I think they would have a beautiful relationship. It just was unfortunately the right person, wrong time.

Thanks for the ask! This was really interesting to think about. Sorry, it took so long to respond, but I wanted to make sure I really thought this one through. I try to be delicate any time I discuss mental illness.

As always, if you disagree or have a different perspective, feel free to share. All I ask, is that you keep it respectful, especially when discussing mental health.

**EDITED: To correct the improper use of BPD for bipolar disorder.***

other anon is right djats show>>>>>>>>> the book. like riley and sam. that's it. period. cause the entire book is just billy lying and downplaying his relationship with daisy so you spend 90% of it thinking he's full of shit and having to read inbetween the lines of what really went down with him and daisy since most of their relationship is allegedly them barely speaking or interacting except on stage. camila also deified to an annoyingly unrealistic degree so thank god we have the show to be like "nah this is what actually happened. daisybilly kissing. daisybilly falling in love. daisybilly sneaking out for lunch dates. daisybilly crossword puzzle love confessions. daisybilly backstage hookups" as far am i'm concerned the show is what really happened and the book was just the story the band wanted to tell 😂

I feel like one of the big issues with book stans / Camila Stans is they read the book and thought that Billy choosing Camila meant that he loved her more when that was never the case. Billy chose stability because of his past. So when you see that on the show it looks like Camila got the raw end of the deal when that’s always what Camila represented they just finally understand that him picking Camila doesn’t mean he loves her more. I mean they spelt it out in the book.“Passion is...it's fire. And fire is great, man. But we're made of water. Water is how we keep living. Water is what we need to survive. My family was my water. I picked water.” I do think Billy convinced himself over time that he did choose to love Camila more but the fact remains that Camila was a choice. That’s what you get from him in the books and in the last episode with Julia but Daisy was never a choice. Daisy was someone he couldn’t help but be drawn to and feel something so deeply for that he risk ruining his hard fought stability for “How could I be around Daisy Jones and not be mesmerized by her? Not fall in love with her. I couldn't. I just couldn't.”

its absolutely wild how book purists are sooo mad about the daisy and camilla hotel scene being taken out of the book/reworked into a different type of conversation, but when I finally decided to go look it up for myself it didn't give me woman supporting woman feminist vibes like people claim. like its not woman destroying woman either it just feels neutral. cami really tells daisy "he will never leave me" and daisy only gets clean because camila is the one to tell her that she should. IDK MAN i think its more powerful in the show where its daisy being self aware enough to tell cami "he will always choose you!" and for daisy to be the one to realize she needs to get clean because this life is really bad for her. not because, 'camila dunne thinks I'm worth saving' LIKE HELLO?? the book seems like it makes cami out to be this perfect angel woman. WHERE'S HER FEMININE RAGE!! HER MAN IS DEEP IN LOVE WITH SOME OTHER WOMAN AND CANT EVEN ADMIT!! i think she deserved to be mad as hell instead of whatever saintlike behavior she exhibits in the book. sorry I just needed someone to listen to my rant about the scene that so many people keep calling Emotional and Powerful when really cami deserved to be mad as hell and daisy deserved to be an active participant in her own life.

It's kinda crazy to me that Camila is the one in the book that basically tells Daisy to leave and quit the band to go to rehab. They don't even interact that much prior to this, and I always hated that part in the book. On 1 hand we know daisy is leaving a toxic situation, but we don't get the feeling that she'll be OK. If anything we feel that she's alone, and because( and this is how it felt to me ) that the band chose Cami over her. Cami is described like this virgin mary can do no wrong character, and her alienating daisy from the band just felt nasty( especially considering the band never had Camis back ). I love that in the show they gave Daisy that power, along with the fact that both Teddy and Simone are still clearly there for her and supportive of her choice( also showing Warren there for her too later on ) Like I don't understand why people wanted them to be friends so bad 😫 it's weird for the wife and the mistress to be friends, especially given how Daisily were in the show...

The ending didn’t work in the books either imo. In the books Camila tells Daisy I know he loves you but he’s never going to leave me. Like girllll you know your man is in love with another woman snd you just okay with that? She was entirely too accepting at least in the show she’s wasn’t okay with and was rightfully hurt & angry but then again Camila as a character was kinda bleh. Every time Billy talked about her I just rolled my eyes because he was overcompensating so hard.

I think the funniest antis are the ones that are clearly Camila Stans that claim DaisyBilly were “ruined” by the show bc they made out. That them having more physicality in their relationship some how changed the nuance. Like you can have a twin flame relationship and also be very attracted to each other. One does not take away from the other. And it’s frankly unbelievable that anyone believes that Daisy & Billy had a connection like they had and NEVER gave in not for one single second. Like please

When I tell you the show ending is so much better. And it’s not even the ending exactly it’s how they get to that ending that’s soooo much better. In the books they handed all of Billy & Daisy’s agency to Camila. In the show it felt like they all had agency and it was sooo much better.

all of u having the most book thoughts compilation

I just read a Sterek fic where Derek was already a True Alpha before the movie was even a thing that happened. I do not want to be accusatory, but do you have anymore instances of the writers taking ideas from fanfiction? Because there are so many stories where Derek stays an alpha even though the show tried to portray him as an incompetent one, and that seems to be the source of conflict among Scott Stans & Shippers who don't respect Scott. https://archiveofourown.org/works/28209924/chapters/69127125

i'm hesitant and wary to say they copied fanfic because that's really hard to prove and most creator's avoid it for legal reasons. however, given the history of teen wolf's interaction with and use of fandom i wouldn't be surprised if there was at minimum a cursory gander at what were the popular theories amongst fandom.

teen wolf still has an official tumblr after all.

off the top of my head stiles being possessed was a pretty hot idea amongst fandom back in 2012 because there was so much overlap between supernatural and teen wolf fans.

derek being a mechanic was pretty popular amongst au's but i'm sure jeff davis also saw the same photoshoot the rest of us did and probably had the same feelings about it.

derek remaining an alpha or becoming an alpha again is also super popular amongst fandom -- especially sterek fandom -- to this day.

personally, i think jeff always planned for derek to become an alpha again at some point but hoechlin left the show so derek's arc closed with him becoming an evolved werewolf and being triumphant over kate. derek wasn't so much incompetent (despite deaton's view) and more so inexperienced.

the failwolf accusations came from fandom making jokes and than it turning into some kind of ascended meme combined with a lot of fanon flanderization of derek's character.

i think people overlook the aspect of derek's arc where he has to overcome peter's influence over his ideas of power and control just as allison had to overcome gerard and kate's influence on her life. parallels parallels parallels y'all.

scott is a surprisingly divisive topic in fandom and derek and scott's relationship even more-so. it's messy and complicated. they both project a lot of their issues onto each other and it's part of their growth that they gradually overcome this.

i'm someone who likes scott. he's not perfect like some say. he doesn't always get his way like some seem to think. he fails a lot too. scott mccall is a messy bitch and the narrative does show that but like teen wolf's writing isn't the strongest.

it's one thing to not like scott. i can respect that. you're not always going to vibe and click with every character. i do, however, think there are those who do it in bad faith and are just downright rude.

people want to put derek and scott in competition. the only person who ever competed with derek was stiles fucking stilinksi in season 1 when he got in his feelings about derek teaching scott.

but really -- jeff wrote that movie by the seat of his pants because it in no way accounted for the two most central characters to the nogitsune plot wouldn't return. the whole thing waffled without stiles and kira being present. i don't necessarily put the blame on him entirely as i'm sure he was under time constraints by the studio.

you don't do two seasons of your six season show on the importance of stiles stilinski and than be able to have a functional narrative without him. scott mccall as a character doesn't make sense without his other half -- who is not allison.

but i think jeff really meant something with derek making the sacrifice to stop the nogtisune and "dying" in fire on top of the nemeton thereby earning alpha status again. i have theories about it bro.

....i'm also gonna check out that fic, thanks.

what are your opinions on Severus snape and lily evans, as individual characters and as friends?

oooh thanks for asking!! i love talking abt hp characters and their relationships with each other ajhkasgfi. warning tho, this is very looooooong.

ok let's start with severus first because i feel like my relationship with him has been the most... turbulent lol.

SEVERUS SNAPE

i was pretty neutral on snape's character when i was first reading the series, perhaps leaning more to dislike. It wasn't until DH where it was revealed that snape was in love with lily the whole time 13 year old me was SHOOK. i became the biggest snape stan and snily shipper. I hated both James and sirius (still loved remus tho lol). and i remember watching so many snape youtubers and yeah i would write praragraphs defending this man and how lily should have chosen him. lmao now u all know abt my snapie past.

However, during my next reading, in about 2018, i began to see snape's flaws more. I was also very active on the wattpad hp fandom (yes shhh ik) and a lot of my friends loved the marauders as characters (they were not in the marauders fandoms, they just liked the characters) and a lot of them hated snape. And then i began to hate snape too lol. However, i really enjoyed reading and watching videos that dissected his character. and i still watched videos from snape stans

i then joined the marauders and atyd fandom in 2021 and now was a pro snape hater. like mans was now the definition of pure evil. Made hating snape a personality trait lol. Though he was the worst of the worst.

it wasn't until late 2023/early 2024 when i became fed up with mauraders fandom and how they fanonise everything. especially considering so many of them stan regulus (which the way they characterise him in fanon is how canon kid snape was depicted anyway) and barty and evan and all those fucking death eaters who were wayyyy worse than snape ever was -- but no, snape is sill for some reason the No.1 evil.

now, i feel like snape is a much more interesting character than people give him credit for, and especially as a kid, was not as bad as marauders fans depict him to be. However, I don't really interact with the snape fandom so much because i feel like they either ignore excuse the shittier things he did as an older teen/adult. I am also of the opinion that James and sev were rivals, and it wasn't a bullying situation but yeah. i wish there were more people who enjoyed both the marauders and severus who didn't make either or both to be saints lol

LILY EVANS

Ok, I'll be honest, Lily's character did not really interest me until I read atyd. To be fair, jkr spent a a lot of time characterising harry's dad and his friends, but we were not given too much info on Lily, and almost no info on if she had any other friends besides severus.

I loved Lily's friendship with Mary and Marlene in atyd, and of course with Remus. and i loved how her personality in that fic to. I don't consider that fic to be canon compliant now and don't agree with a lot of the characterisations but it was still pretty good.

Lily was a bit too sensible in atyd, and whenever we're given descriptions about her from slughorn for instance, or her personality in SWM, she's presented as 'vivacious' and cheeky' so i like to think that she wasn't really a hermione 2.0 but rather more similar to snarky and sassy harry, tho perhaps more popular and well-loved. Her and James were totally academic rivals to lovers omg.

SEVERUS SNAPE & LILY EVANS

ok now onto what i think u really wanted me to address - sev and lily's relationship.

No, i don't think sev was 'obssessed' with Lily, i think he truly loved her but he was also a selfish person. (however tho, how would sev convince voldy to spare harry,, like that was literally all voldy was after like....)

anyways, as kids, they were very close -- maybe a little codependant. I imagine Lily was always facinated with Sev his talk about magic, and to sev, Lily was an escape from his abusive homelife. I think they both may have had a little crush on each other pre-hogwarts.

As they went to hogwarts, they grew apart as they were placed in different houses. Snape was surroundd by pureblood facists which slowly radicalised him, and Lily began making friends in Gryffindor. A war tensions grew, i can imagine snape and Lily's relationship became more tense and strained, and no one knew why they stuck together. But they knew things about each other that no one else did and understood each other in ways no one else could. However, after SWP, it was clear that they were heading down different paths so lily cut him and that was that.

Lily always felt hurt after their break up, but she had supportive friends to keep her afloat. Snape however, was filled with guilt, bitterness and regret and thus became deeply radicalised. I don't think tho that Snape was very high in the death eater rank until the search for harry/prophecy was on.

anyways still mulling things over but yeah, i think they're both facinating and i'd love to see their relationship explored in complexity in more fics!

general messy thoughts about sab s2 (spoilers ahead)

Things I liked:

- Genya. Daisy Head SLAYED completely she was SO GOOD. I didn’t like them downplaying her scars and I wished we had gotten the line “I am not ruined I’m ruination” especially knowing how much that line means to so many people but other than that Genya was everything Daisy did an INCREDIBLE job of playing her. I actually got teary-eyed at several points this season (and me and my emotions are not at all close so that’s a feat) and they were all either Genya or GenyaDavid scenes, which brings me to…

- Genya and David. They were so good. So wholesome. The best part of this season IMO. Like their brief scenes, them hugging in the woods, the tiniest moments STOLE the show. I cried for these two and these two alone. Also, David was so well-portrayed like I loved these two so much. 

- Several soft Malina moments that gave me butterflies and I felt accurately showed their dynamic, more toward the beginning of the season but they were there.

- Jack Wolfe as Wylan. I have some not-so-positive thoughts about the aged-up crows in general, but I still think Jack was a convincing Wylan and you can tell from both the show and from his interviews that he really cares about Wylan and his portrayal. Every time he LOOKED at Jesper I was like…wow just WOW.

- Getting to see Nina interacting with the Crows was nice. Especially when they turn around and she has waffles and Kaz has that annoyed moment but then we find out Nina got them the info they needed because she’s a spy and she’s incredible? 10/10 and one of the few moments that felt accurate to the real crows. Also, that part where she was talking to the guard and pretending she needed to pee (idk that was a weird way to describe it I know) but that was so Nina

- Also, just them together in a restaurant vibing was what I needed

- “The barrel doesn’t belong to kings. It belongs to bastards.”

- Tolya and Tamar were so cool in their introduction like they’re so hot and cool and powerful ahh

- When Genya, Alina, and Zoya are all at the Darling’s funeral pyre that was chilling

- The slivers of foreshadowing with Zoya.

Things I didn’t like:

- The weird slow motion in some of the fight scenes was so unnecessary lol

- Okay I’m not a fan of the Darkling and I’ve made that quite clear in the past, but I do think he’s a good and interesting villain and I like the Flavour he adds to the story but this season the Flavour was just…not there. It’s funny how many Darkling stans I’ve seen angry about this season because for once we’re in agreement. Like he was so boring and weird and just creepy instead of interesting and creepy? I wanted to skip all his scenes. Also, they took out so many of the awful things he did in the books like what about him killing Ana Kuya? When he says “you’ll have no shelter but me” that line hits so much harder and is so much more chilling and awful because he’s literally killing off the people in her life. Turning Nikolai into a monster himself?? The moment Alina loses her powers in the books and the Darkling tells her she’s nothing is SO IMPORTANT because it shows he’s just interested in her for her powers, which is a big theme in the books. As wonderful as Nikolai is, he needs Alina for what she can provide for Ravka. The Apparat just sees her for her power. Everyone wants to use Alina for something except for Mal who just wants them to be happy and able to make their own choices. Anyways, the Darkling didn’t feel like the Darkling from the books at all. Also, he was just cringy. Like I was laughing when he was like “I have returned. And I’ve made some new friends” and stared at the camera it was so bad.

- Ruin & Rising is my favourite from the trilogy and I was so disappointed with how much was cut out for the most random crap, like hallucinating and eating butterflies?? Instead of the bonding time with the whole TGT crew? And no Oncat I’m crying. There’s so much character growth that happens and so many relationships that are deepened in Ruin & Rising and WHERE WAS THAT?

- Personally, I didn’t think Paddy was giving Nikolai. Like he seems like a good person and actor and all that jazz but he just didn’t feel like Nikolai and since Nikolai is my favourite, this kind of hurt.

- Erasing Mal from the story and his struggles. Look, Mal is not by any means a perfect character. And he doesn’t need to be. Let him be messy. Let him struggle and sometimes be rude and make mistakes because that’s real that’s compelling. They could have shown all the book!Mal haters that maybe they were being too harsh on him because he was struggling SO MUCH but instead they just turned him into Perfect Supportive Man. His character growth in Ruin & Rising is so good especially after you’ve spent Siege & Storm thinking “what is going on with this man.” Seeing him owning up to his actions and seeing him working on his flaws and seeing his support for Alina is so good and we deserved it especially considering how talented Archie is.

- Cutting Zoya almost completely out, especially since this is the book where she goes through a lot of growth. Also, the fact that Alina choices they’re making are cutting into Zoya’s future story >:(

 Things I HATED:

- Killing off David. WTF. Obviously we didn’t see a body so he might come back but like…what’s the point. We didn’t even get to see Genya and David get married.

- Almost all of the Crows content. The rushed Crooked Kingdom plotlines with none of the significance from the books. Rushed Wesper. Matthias working with Pekka. Nina’s character completely revolving around Matthias. Kanej focusing on Kaz’s trauma but not Inej’s and making her contract with the Menagerie all about Kaz and his vendetta against Pekka and killing off Tante. Actually, pretty much everything Kanej this season was so awfully handled. Also, just not a fan of the Crows being aged up and I tried to be okay with it but this season made me more upset with the casting choices. The Crows stuff was so so so badly done I want to cry. Comfort rereading the duology right now

- The ending. Just…frick the ending. I hate it. Too many thoughts I just hate it I can’t even talk about it

- I’ve already reblogged a lot of posts that go into things I hated but just in general it was such a mess they combined too many stories without doing them justice and there’s more I’m upset about but this is it for now

Killing off Ilsa was both damaging for Grace and Ilsa

I already saw two accusation flying around saying that 1. we are pitting Grace and Ilsa against each other and 2. that we are reducing Grace to a love interest.

So let me give some context. When I was sitting in MI7 i was hoping the whole time we would see Grace and Ilsa working together. Or we would see Ilsa working with the female killer, to cause chaos. In short, for the movie to pass the Bechdel test. It didn't happened. Which already left me disappointed. So many women and none of them has a single interaction with eachother. What a shame

But why do I care so much? Its an action movie after all. Why do I excpect female characters to be treated correctly in the MI movies? In short, when the MI movies started they were like a second Bond. Especially the women were Bond girls. Easy replacable. Don't get me started on the femme fatale trope of MI1 or the damsel in distress in MI2. And the Bond movies struggle so much to get away from this hurtful potrayal of female characters. The MI movie didn't. Quickly they developed cool, kick ass female agents who were equal to Ethan and NOT his love interests. BUT (and that is thing everything boils down to eventually) they were still replacable. Not the men, they weren't, because they are men. But the female actresses all got replaced with every new movie being released. UNTIL Ilsa. And that makes her so special. We finally finally had a woman who got her time to devlop a character, a back story, because she stayed longer then one movie. And from the beginning onwards she was a troubled character (and not in the tragic damsel in distress way Nyah was.) She was complex because she had time to be complex. This isn't about ilsa. This could also have been Jane Carter or Nyah or Zhen, because they all deserved it. But it took us five movies and 16 years to finally get a female character who was allowed to stay around.

Then Grace appeared. When I saw her, my hope was that she would be yet another cool kick ass female character who would stay around for longer (so far, i was true) and work together with Ilsa. Female soldiarity. As equals. Finally making the team more female, moving it away from the whole tierd trope "three men and one women" (which is so outdated and still gets used in shows like Paw Patrol. It is like we haven't moved a single bit in female representation. there can only be one woman)

And this is the problem. I am sure there are Ilsa stans who pit Ilsa against Grace, no question on that. But the bigger problem is that the movie did it first. MI6 had this wonderful scene where Ilsa says about Julia: "I like her".

I hoped for something like that between Ilsa and Grace but what did we got: "Only one can survive" So it was always one against another. There can only be one woman. But why? Why MCQ? Why can't there be two?

Because now Ilsa is dead. And she isn't THE woman anymore. She isn't the woman anymore who was not replaced by yet another female character. No, now she is just one of many. Claire, Nyah, Zhen, Jane, Lindsey, Ilsa, Grace.

Ilsa is now just a name on a list. And the horrible thing is: Grace as well. By killing off Ilsa you showed that BOTH Ilsa and Grace are replacable. And thats horrible.

Hayley (Grace) was/is supposed to be the next Ethan Hunt. But now her role of a hero will be always founded on a dead woman. Which btw is the reason that many casual fans already said: They love Grace but the moment Ilsa died, they started hating Grace/ or: The moment ilsa died they decided they wouldn't watch another MI movie EVEN THOUGH they love Grace and thinks its a pity for her

And thats what I think too, you could have had TWO amazing female heros. But instead MCQ killed one of them to bring up the other. This is NOT the female representation i want in my movies

Also if Hayley will take over the MI movies she needs good starting conditions. Look how much people hated that a woman of color took over the 007 title for one minute. Imagine what will happen when studios say: Ethan Hunt is done, here is Grace" People (Men) will be furious anyway. Already making them furious now by pitting her against Ilsa and building her legancy on Ilsa is the worst start her character could have and i wonder why MCQ didn't considered that. I mean MI TV show stans are still angry at the first MI movie and refuse to watch the movie movies completly for what happened in MI1.

2. So is saying "Grace is just a stand in for Ilsa" sexist? No. But the movie treats her like one and thats sexists. Grace is amazing! She is funny, she is lovable, she is deeply human and a really clever thief. But instead of using those talents to let the movie shine, MCQ decided that Ethan would turn to her minutes after Ilsa died, touch her, nearly kiss her etc. Which is like...? Same things he did with Ilsa one hour ago in the desert. Does that reduces Ilsa and Grace to a love intrerest? No, both are so much more. But it is established that Ethan has a thing for brown haired women. His wife was one, his girlfriend was one, Ilsa was one and then Grace walks on the screen, with the same fashion scene as Ilsa etc. But without the established backstory. Still kinda helpless und clueless. Yeah she can fight and save herself and is kickass. But the whole thing is that Grace is "Before joining an agent organisation" and Ilsa is "after leaving an agent organisation" was... really telling imo. Take that the way you like

That Ethan seemed to have an instant attraction to both Grace and Ilsa was only a part of the mirroring, part of a bigger picture, it doesn't reduce Ilsa or Grace to a love interest

Edit: I noticed this part sounds confusing. To summarize it. Ilsa is: established backstory + fighting skills + saves herself + love interested. Grace is: no established backstory + thief skills + kinda saves herself + love interest. Because she doesn't has a troubled past like Ilsa the focus was shifting so much stronger to the love interest part of her, that even though that she is so much more then that, eventually she just felt like another: Amazing super agent who can kick ass, but who is eventually only there to kiss the male main character to boost his ego and to help him learn a lesson and become more humble" What we already had so so many times. And is so boring. Ilsa was more then that because of her backstory. But then go a stand in with Grace. And so we end up at the „both are replaceable“ part again

Funny that MCQ hated the idea of Ilsa being a love interest so much that he rather had her dying then her kissing Ethan. While it was him who wrote multiple kissing scenes in the first place and it was him who immeditaly wrote "and ethan gets all touchy touchy on Grace" So MCQ, whats the truth?

TL:DR: Killing of Ilsa hurted both Grace and Ilsa and was a step backwards in female representation in action movies because Ilsa and Grace should have fought along side each other. The legacy of one woman shouldn't be build on the death of another