Me, whenever I see a Batfam go to therapy fic/comic:

Captive/Owner

Re: the Milo and Darlin thing I also think it's even sadder because as much as I would like to see Darlin have tension with the pack I honestly don't even think it would occur to them to be mad about the difference in treatment :( it would just further confirm to them that they're not family like Milo is and I feel like they would even agree that "Well when Milo does stuff like that it's different because he's pack and nothing happened but I'm just an outsider and I put them at risk intentionally with my poor decision making"... I think they'd curl further into self hatred and blame a thousand times over before they ever thought it was unfair of the pack to treat them differently from Milo because they think so poorly of themself in comparison to the people they want to protect

That's also why it breaks my heart when Sam tells Darlin they do make sense and it isn't their fault if other people don't bother to understand them, because it really seems like the pack does have that mentality of "Oh that's just Milo being Milo!" Versus not knowing Darlin well enough to get their intentions or not trusting their instincts the same way they do Milo's because Darlin arrived later and was always on the fringes and ended up with a bad crowd

My 👏 point 👏 exactly 👏

Like I said, characterization and connotation. We want to believe that Milo is a good person who doesn't do these things without reason because of the way he's portrayed. The opposite can be said of Darlin, where we're made to believe they're rash and impulsive. That same logic can be applied to the pack and what they believe about these two.

It's in the same vein as "Boys will be boys" vs "Girls don't do that" kind of argument. Just because it's what's expected does not make it fair. This is why pack laws are supposed to be imparial, so that shit like this doesn't happen.

btw this might be me swinging a bat at a hornets nest but like. absolutely none of my disappointment from the tl finale comes from ship baiting or any relationships that didn’t happen (though to be clear, i think the tedbecca fake outs were meanspirited and served no narrative purpose - in noted contrast to the season's earlier jamiekeeley fakeouts, for example, which were explicitly there to demonstrate jamie's growth + maturity)

tedpendant is a really fun concept for me, and i LOVE the characterisation + thematic potential there!

but as someone who personally resonated with a lot of ted’s struggles, the idea that ted could leave richmond so… seamlessly, for lack of a better word, really doesn’t sit right with me. the thesis of the shows entire first season - assuming it can be said to have only one - was about how everyone needs the love and support of a community, whether that comes in the flavour of someone who hypes u tf up or someone who will relentlessly call u on ur shit (or, as happened quite frequently, both!).

rebecca, roy, jamie are the clearest examples as the characters with the most screentime: they were all deeply isolated and disconnected from the people around them, and that was making them miserable. the connections they made with the team, the vulnerability they finally allowed themselves to express (the ghost banishing ceremony comes to mind!), and them going on to want *more* out of their life are what made their arcs about *progression* rather than *regression*. without that clear theme of compassion + community inspiring positive growth in everyone who encounters it, there is, frankly, no season one.

my personal favourite scene from season one comes right after michelle walks away from ted, when they’ve agreed to get divorced. ted sits down on the bench looking gutted, and a little shell shocked - and beard sits down with him. hands him the drink, and they sit there together. silent, but together. to me, that scene is an implicit promise from the episode, to the audience: ‘it’ll be okay. it’s going to be hard, but ted isn’t alone, and his friends won’t leave him behind.’

it also makes it clear to the audience that ted isn’t the saintly-giver-of-grace who needs nothing in return, as one might assume on first brush, but rather that he’s Also struggling with his own shit (as is everyone, always, in real life!) and he has something he needs from the people around him too.

and looking at the text of s3, and the conclusion to his arc in the finale, i just don’t believe that he got it. he wasn’t just sad that he was leaving (which would be understandable!), he was completely closed off. unresponsive to the people around him reaching out, borderline confused as to why they were trying so hard!

(side note, while i completely respect the read of ted and trents last interaction being rather rude + ooc on ted’s part, i personally read a different motive into it. for me, it was more like… he didn’t understand where trents enthusiasm was coming from? like, he read that as trent being too invested in what other people think of him, and responded in a way that he hoped would emphasise that ted doesn’t *need* to laugh at everything trent wrote, bc trent Already Knows that he’s done something really cool and kickass, and he shouldn’t value anyone else’s reactions above that. basically, based on his demeanour in the episode, i genuinely don’t think it would’ve even occurred to him that trent was more invested in HIS reaction than he would’ve been with anyone else.)

again, looking purely at the text, the show had already established that ted has really strong depressive + avoidant tendencies, as well as panic attacks (largely triggered by his fear of not being ‘good enough’ in various roles, ie: a father). we saw one area he was able to calm HIMSELF abt these fears (worry for henry, which is a Hell of a choice considering the ending…), but in literally every other heightened moment, he had to rely on his support system to help him make the choices that he WANTED to make, rather than ones inspired by avoidance and fear (ie: confronting michelle abt jake, talking to his mum abt why she was visiting + his dads death).

and to be clear, this is a GOOD THING! we’re not supposed to go through life alone, no matter how bad OR well we’re doing. rebecca and keeleys friendship isn’t worth less for all the scenes where they’re both in good places. if anything, the opposite is true - it’s lovely that they both have someone who want to celebrate the achievements in their life!

and fuck it, we’re sure as hell not supposed to go through life with exactly one (1) person whom we expect to fulfill ALL of our emotional needs at all times either! like, im sure i don’t need to labour my point here, but tying everything to one (1) person in ur life doesn’t make u any less isolated than if u were going it completely alone, whether it’s a family member, a friend, or a partner. i won’t pretend to know the first thing abt what it’s like to be a parent, but i don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that no parent would be at their best if they had absolutely no support/camaraderie/general love provided to them from Anyone other than their child.

so when ted is SPECIFICALLY shown to be in a bad place, over and over again (did he come to terms w his fear to be close to henry overnight???????), and then removed from his community? of COURSE the audience is left feeling unsettled, and like the rug has been pulled out from under them. there was no time in this finale dedicated to how ted would still be in contact with anyone from richmond. no promises of visits, or phone calls - fuck, nothing about emails!! according to the text, we might as well assume this is a clean break (and the maybe-dream-sequence does Fuck All to assure us otherwise. if ted doesn’t go to beards wedding, what WOULD he go to????). and since the show has ALSO completely failed to give us even an IMPLICATION of who/what ted’s support system would be in kansas, there’s… a reasonable argument to be made that this is It for ted. that, after two seasons doing NOTHING but attesting otherwise, the audience is supposed to suddenly believe that ted can (and SHOULD!) pull himself up by his bootstraps, and cope entirely on his own.

that, to me, is a betrayal of the show’s premise. we were promised a show about how, no matter how dark things may get, none of the characters would be left to struggle alone. and then they ended the show with ted alone.

i don’t know. i guess if i had to give this post a tldr; if anyone has any gen fic/meta/Literally Anything in the pipeline, i would absolutely love to be tagged/directed towards it. i’ll be endeavouring to write something myself, as well, but it might take a while before i can return to my WIP, lol.

you put miss Piggy serving in a wonderful dress but chose the ugliest dress for Barbie, that's sabotage!!! You are not impartial, you can lose your pink girly judge card.

I chose the dress because it was part of Barbie's pink collection which felt appropriate considering the poll. Honestly I like the outfit and I think the skirt was well done.

Also I really don't think that the votes are going to be skewed bc some people don't like the particular outfit. The vote is for the character, not the dress I chose for them lol

+ image to shrink this

ok that info session was, on balance, pretty solid, i don't retract my complaining but i do want to mitigate it since most of the session was much more informational

predictably, 🌸's section (which came after my other post) was the most clear, information-dense, and actionable, and included no useless five minute anecdotes, because for some reason my girlfriend is superior to most other people on earth including in the realm of being a good public speaker who doesn't waste people's time, weird how that happened

but the whole thing got solid turnout and seems to have done its job in getting people more informed about a specific and achievable goal, so. nice

The thing that really pisses me off with their narrative of ‘celebrating Oct. 7th’ is that literally didn’t happen the way they say it did. All the videos I saw that day of happy Palestinians had a lot to do with the people of Gaza finally being able to walk beyond the barbed wired fence, some for the first time ever. I’m meant to criticize that?

also like.... even if they were celebrating i can't blame them? zionists act as if flattening gaza is a proportionate and rational response to one act of retaliation and will go on marches begging for more palestinian blood but palestinians celebrating a single 'victory' is something the world should condemn? like,,,, fuck off maybe?

i saw my therapist and it was so amazing and then i got immediately un-therapized by a horrible person

OOC.

i have not played fontaine's quest yet in gnshn, but my god when i heard that fontaine was a combination of france and UK, and that neuvi was the only judge ???? and ??? a machine determines the punishment in place of a jury ???? and there's an audience ?????????

judge penny ain't seeing heaven

not even catching a glimpse of it i tell you

bad decision maker (me)

Thanks to Stroob tho my demons aren't rotting me from the inside anymore. I'm still gonna get them out in the tags because the rot always comes back but like, my ribs aren't fucking disintegrating anymore, so thank u, you demonic fruit

I actually really hate how compelled I am to write out my feelings for all of these solos lmfao

…

I finally listened to “Style” properly (he performed it on his Go with the Flow con which I think spun me out on SMAP shit badly)

Fuck him…that is all (my tags are useless puddles this time but enjoy????)

actually not all: this played while I was still working and I had to sign off for the day…i mean it was about time to leave anyway but i was not getting anymore work done LOL

i got weak SO fast…like right when the song came on, my mouth fell open and I just got insta-chills

I HAD TO PUT MY HEAD DOWN ON MY DESK CUZ OF THIS SONG WHO TF AM I OMG

They're a 10 but they don't consider ATLA an anime

CONTROVERSIAL

They’re still a 10 if they consider it to be best thing they’ve ever seen 😭

Something something call yourself a community organiser when you're not on speaking terms with your roommates. Try to host a big bang when you haven't posted about the source material in a year and you haven't interacted with the fandom in longer