Please!!

Disclaimer: contains major spoilers from House of Earth and Blood and House of Sky and Breath.

I still can't get over how Eliot and Hardison do their "secret" handshake- even though Eliot is miffed that Hardison ate his sandwhich.

I still can't get over how Parker calls Eliot "Sparky," and he's scared enough to rip open his apple- because he actually thinks Parker somehow got a razor blade in it.

I still can't get over how Eliot tells Hardison that he won't help him if he goes to far with "Ice Man," and when Hardison calls him out on it- Eliot blames Parker.

I still can't get over how Hardison comes to Eliot when he needs help brushing up on wine.

I still can't get over how Parker goes to Eliot when she's looking for something to love and he teaches her to love food.

I still can't get over how Parker is allowed to poke and push Eliot.

I still can't get over how Hardison riles Eliot up and it's just reflex for Eliot to say; "DAMNIT Hardison."

I can't get over how they became a little family all on their own.

i LOVE the idea of "i can't win, but you can lose" in fictional confrontations it is SO fucking tasty. the human nature to self destruct and the human nature to survive by any means necessary combined at its finest.

I really love Lockwood & Co's relationship with food. I love how when things get too stressful, they eat something sweet together and take a beat. I love how they pass around chocolate too keep up their energy. I love how they retreat to make tea and how Lucy even says it "stops the world from falling in on you." I love how Holly the health nut comes to see the value in sweets and joins in and even starts to bake. I love how snacks and foods usually portrayed as unhealthy are depicted as actually fortifying and encouraging and something to bring people together in dark times <3

Revisiting this point from an earlier post of mine about how much I love that Lockwood & Co. specifically does not do this to Lucy:

Can we TALK for a SECOND about how the writers wrote the whole Towel Scene (which admittedly did not make the final cut but still) and managed to make LOCKWOOD the most uncomfortable out of three?? Because he's a massive dork??? Instead of the girl who's literally standing in a towel in a hall with two boys???

Like they put the love of Lockwood's life in a towel in front of him and rather than taking it as an opportunity to objectify her and make her an object of lust, they turned it into an absolutely hilarious moment that showcases not only how much of a dork Lockwood is, but how SAFE Lucy is in that household. Yes it's funny and very awkward but it doesn't broach the sickening feeling of a girl being exposed and unsafe and objectified.

I can't even begin to express how comforting it is, the way this series lets Lucy be safe in this area. I wish I could explain it more clearly but the words aren't wording. Y'all get it.

↳ Live Hardison Reaction:

LEVERAGE "The Nigerian Job" [S01E01]

Poseidon and Sally being good co-parents is really healing something in my child-of-a-divorcee heart. Sally can JUST summon him and he will JUST arrive.

"you won't want to hear it"/"no, but tell me anyway" MEANS SO MUCH TO ME. Like yes! Poseidon bearing part of the mental load means a lot to me.

So my older sibling jokingly said that the cloaked person in the flashback was the trickster (like the big dude with no eyes and scary teeth from Sarah jane adventures) cos we used to love Sarah Jane as kids but like the trickster is part of a group called the pantheon of Discord. The pantheon like Maestro. And if you go even further the beetle on Donna's back in turn left is part of the trickster brigade. And what was the beetle trying to do? Stop the doctordonna. And who has just come back? The doctordonna. And who caused the bigeneration? The pantheon. This theory is getting concerningly close to being true. If my sibling is right I'm gonna be so mad they will be insufferable.

The way that Grover keeps saying he's 24 when we know full well that satyr's age half as fast as humans.

Can we take a moment for Grover, because at the mental age of 12, he's given charge of another person's life, and his only job is to protect him. He swears to keep him safe and keep him alive. He's failed in the past and that lurks in every dangerous situation they encounter. He keeps bringing up that he's 24 maybe for comedic relief or maybe to remind himself he's had 24 years of world experience, even if he just feels like an overwhelmed 12-year-old, placed in charge of two danger-prone kids who keep trying to sacrifice themselves for each other, on a quest doomed to fail?

The satyrs have been protectors for decades, but It just occurred to me that they're basically just kids trying to protect kids from monsters they probably wouldn't be able to beat.

the vague sexuality of YD

I was thinking about Young Dracula and things I could talk about... so I took a look at the episodes and was once again reminded of how it really toed that line between being a children's show and something more. As a kid, you're not really noticing it, but as an adult... it makes you sad they couldn't openly do more stuff like:

I mean, it's seemingly apparent that Vlad and Ingrid are aware and unfazed by their parents' sex life. He walks in on this and is mildly annoyed because of the failed plan, and she's not bothered by having to photograph them (for blackmail purposes). Plus:

If this was a teen show, I wouldn't have batted an eye but the fact that I was in primary school watching these two casually discuss their parents having sex and then Vlad suggesting Magda had sex with Patrick and that's his baby, not their father's... it's a lot lmao.

It's not even that. There are moments throughout the entire show, like the Count pinching Mina's ass when he's in Eric's body, OR the "lock up your daughters" about Boris. There are so many, I'd be here all day. It's why I get ahead of myself, like in Season 3, I always expect Ingrid and Bertrand to just GO AT IT.

Like, what the fuck is this, CBBC? They have better tension than some couples in adult shows and I'm just supposed to forget about them? Without even one kiss scene? I was truly robbed. They kinda disintegrated in Season 4, but the enemies-who-fuck thing they had going on in Season 3 is unmatched. After losing Will, the love of her life, Ingrid deserved to have a hot thing with Bertrand, dammit!

I even read too much into scenes like this:

I can't have been the only one who thought (as wrong as it is because it's her father saying it) that Adze was going to enter the show and straight up seduce Vlad. How else is she supposed to "persuade" a blood-free, already-in-love guy to do whatever she wants? There's even a scene later that season where Ramanga encourages her to "play" with Vlad on the wedding night before killing him. What does that mean? Other than what I'm imagining? Torture? Because the implications kinda overpower that.

Vlad and Erin, after he bit her, was a trip too. They became a lot more... charged. Their exchange and back and forth when he calls her out on biting breathers and catches her with Bertrand...

It obviously doesn't scream "sexual tension". I don't think their relationship does in general, but with the extra vampirism involved and the possessiveness that comes with Vlad biting Erin and making her a vampire, and the "hatred" festering... it does create some, shall I say, questionable moments like the one above, where I'm like "am I supposed to be feeling like they'll start violently making out, where in the midst of it, Vlad is saying she is his and Erin is saying that she hates him".

Like, half of these two interactions was, yeah, about him being paranoid and pressured because of the peace treaty. But like I pointed out in that other scene, Vlad seems to grow even more irritated by finding her stood close to Bertrand, tucked away in Malik's room, all alone together. Hence why he's used the choice words of "cosy little chats" here, like an overly jealous, paranoid husband. It gave off the same vibes as him saying "I know you're into Malik, maybe you're with Bertrand too, since you hate me so much".

This scene also. It intrigued me because Vlad was showing that possessiveness for the first time. We've seen him get possessive over his title and status as the Chosen One and as the Count's favourite child, but never over a person, never over Erin. And I just loved it.

It showed the darkness and the sexuality of vampires, and how far Vlad is pushed into that when it came to the idea of losing Erin. I think, before, when he hadn't absorbed the evil reflections, he would have maybe scoffed at the idea of a macho showdown for a girl. But he's dead serious, taking in Bertrand's advice, like "yeah, if I kill Malik, it'll turn her on and she'll be all over me and I'll win her back".

It's all interesting, is all. I feel as though the vagueness of sexuality in YD served its purpose enough, but it would've been cool to have seen a more adult portrayal (like I always say) because of the lack of blood and gore, and the lack of open sexuality that naturally comes with being an immortal, supposedly evil supernatural creature. I always picture Ingrid and Bertrand getting hot and steamy, or Bad Vlad being caught in the bathroom with piles of bodies (which the Count and Renfield have to dispose of and come up with a cover story). Stuff to really make me believe they're adults and vampires.