I'm on the roof

Franticyoohooing on AO3. Ask me about my secret identity.

[slunch]

tl;dr: all "algorithmically" pushed stuff on a newsfeed is mostly ads. nothing that's really surprising form this vulture article, but it is dismal and makes me grateful for one website where you only see things from people you follow WITHOUT horrible short-form video content

[bitchking-of-angmar]

The Feed Is Fake

What if every viral song, movie, meme, influencer, and celebrity drama in recent memory was the result of a stealth marketing campaign?

https://web.archive.org/web/20260515113210/https://www.vulture.com/article/social-media-feeds-chaotic-good-projects-clipping.html

Have a paywall free link to the source!

[franticyoohooing]

What do you, personally, think Neal Caffrey is doing after the events of White Collar? For the purpose of this survey, let’s not count living under a fake ID or using faked credentials as illegal.

Continuing with his career as a forger and thief, creating his own cons

Working as a thief/forger for hire, like Gordon Taylor

Non-felonious, art-related job (such as art restorer, gallery worker/owner)

Non-felonious, security-related job (including museum security)

Artist

Chef (or something else in food and beverage)

Working with law enforcement

Working with Sterling Bosch

Teacher/professor

Travel instagrammer

Something totally different

Gentleman of leisure

Voting ended onJun 7

[franticyoohooing]

You know what’s interesting? None of you think he went on to work with law enforcement. Only about 15% of you think he’s doing something illegal. So Jeff Eastlin’s original ending where it was a coin flip whether he was a great criminal working with Mozzie, or a great lawman working with Peter, would have worked for almost none of you.

[viaalterego]

[trishacollins]

Actually, my therapist has told me this is a healthy way of processing things. Because you can get the trauma out of your head And you can write the ending you wish it had. The trusted person rescue, the catharsis of getting to kill the one who hurt you.

It's good for your brain. It's healthier than bottling it up. Fiction is where we go for emotional release. That can be true with trauma too.

[erelierraceala]

so what you're saying is

character: NO

therapist: YES

[vmures]

Adding @dear-massacre's tags because they are so true:

#this is why it's important to remember that fictional characters are fake #they have no agency. they're made up #it hurts no one to make any character go through the horrors #it is healthy and cathartic

[yeahokayillreblogthat]

yeah okay ill reblog that

[fleur-alise]

Peter ships Neal and Sarah more than I ever could and that's both saying something and is the most vindicating thing ever

[troublesome-bog-beast]

Been having a lot of thoughts about Peter Burke's oh-so-briefly touched on minor league baseball backstory. I feel like in the vast majority of cases, when a character is forced to make a choice between pursuing what they love at a high personal cost or abandoning it, we are told that a life lived following your passions is worth every cost- that there is a right path to take here and it's the one where you slowly destroy yourself. The fact that Peter Burke DOES abandon that particular passion and we don't even learn about it until 3 seasons in, when he is already firmly established as a character who HAS a fulfilling passion and fulfilling relationships, who has been living a personally meaningful life all this time and can look at what he chose to give up as a different chapter of his life that was no more or less meaningful, is remarkable. I think it's a worthwhile and kind of rare message: there isn't ONE thing worth living for! If you leave one passion you can find others!

In my opinion it also serves to highlight an important difference between him and Neal- that Peter is NOT the type to destroy himself for love and Neal IS. This is in that part of season 3 where anything and everything is being used as a metaphor for the choice between staying and leaving that Neal is faced with (up to and including gay marriage but that's a different post haha), and it's like. Well. Well Neal is destroying himself for love RIGHT NOW. He's living this life where he has no freedom and no privacy because it's the most meaningful thing he's ever had and he's trying desperately to convince himself he can keep it up forever. The narrative is impressively morally neutral on the matter- neither man is right or wrong, and they have good reasons for thinking what they do. (Why might Peter believe more chances will come along while Neal thinks he only ever gets one shot? What in their upbringings gave them such different levels of perceived stability)? It's just a rather tragic difference between the two. And all packed into 5 minutes at the end of the fucking baseball heist episode

[franticyoohooing]

This is so insightful. One of the things I really like about White Collar is its optimism that we can learn things from our relationships; Neal is certainly learning things from Peter (and vice versa), so let’s hope the possibility of having a second act that makes us equally happy and fulfilled is one of them.

[only-cat-memes]

[franticyoohooing]

What do you, personally, think Neal Caffrey is doing after the events of White Collar? For the purpose of this survey, let’s not count living under a fake ID or using faked credentials as illegal.

Continuing with his career as a forger and thief, creating his own cons

Working as a thief/forger for hire, like Gordon Taylor

Non-felonious, art-related job (such as art restorer, gallery worker/owner)

Non-felonious, security-related job (including museum security)

Artist

Chef (or something else in food and beverage)

Working with law enforcement

Working with Sterling Bosch

Teacher/professor

Travel instagrammer

Something totally different

Gentleman of leisure

Voting ended onJun 7

[dykeofthedirt]

Found family? No I stole them fair and square

[tocappuccinosintheclouds]

[quinoaphoenicks]

I love you guys but I think a lot of you are the kind of people who are susceptible to falling in with a cult.

[teaboot]

You’re right. We should all band together under a trustworthy and influential leader who can keep us safe from outside threats

[emeraldincandescent]

My unpopular Murderbot casting opinion is that every SecUnit that appears in the show should be played by a different Skarsgård

[thegenderdruid]

walking down the street and saw someone walking the other direction with a pig in a harness and leash and I stupidly asked, "is that a pig?" and he replied, "I sure hope it is, it was a pig when I left the house"

[kosmogrl]

trauma dumpling

[just-your-average-tangerine]

The thing that kills me about the white collar finale is that like, in the last two seasons Peter really doubles down on the whole 'Neal's just a criminal/Neal can't be trusted' deal which is frustrating given what Neal has done for him throughout the series but it also really makes sense. We see a few times the different lives that Peter gave up to be an fbi agent. He could have risked the injury and played baseball. He could have gone the corporate accountant route and been wildly rich. He gave up on those things because he thought it was right, he believed he was helping people.

But by this point in the series he's watched the system that he believes in take advantage of his friend with no regard for how it hurt him or the people he cared about. He watched the system fail him when James framed him and he only got out of that because of Neal breaking the rules. Its been proven to him time and time again that the problem is bigger than a few rogue agents.

His faith in the system is being tested and when that happens people dont just immediately abandon it and change their minds. Especially not when they've made the kind of sacrifices he has and when those sacrifices have paid off in other ways (Elizabeth). So of course he doubles down on Neal. Either Neal is wrong or everything Peter has ever worked for, the better life he gave up, was wrong. Thats a hard thing to accept. And its so easy to blame Neal, hes a criminal of course he's wrong.

If the series had continued from there the fbi would have had to go back on the deal to release Neal, something Peter already said he didn't agree with. Which would put Peter in the position of either defending the fbi and losing the respect and trust of his friend. Or defending Neal, putting his career on the line to defend a convicted felon, which is a risky thing for someone in his position to do in any circumstance but especially with a new baby on the way.

But Neal leaves, he fakes his death and leaves and in doing so he saves Peter from ever having to make that choice. He gets his freedom sure, but he sacrifices his home, his family, the life he built, things he's resisted giving up at every turn, to protect Peter from his own decisions.

[franticyoohooing]

”Either Neal is wrong or everything Peter has ever worked for, the better life he gave up, was wrong.”—- this is so smart. And I think the way out is for Peter to realize that goodness doesn’t come from your job, it’s something you bring with you.

[memewhore]

[tha--snazzle]

BANDIT PLATE

[wizardnuke]

fake relationship but its a king and his concubine that was once an amazing soldier but he couldn’t go up the ranks for whatever reason so the king was like listen. hear me out. you can be my strategy dude. u just gotta be okay w walking around shirtless a lot. and soldier dude is like man that’s an UPSIDE and yknow they end up falling in love

[aethersea]

some idiot advisor: I can’t believe his majesty lets his boytoy attend these council meetings, it’s an insult to the noble institutions that uphold our nation, it’s an outrage—

a somewhat smarter advisor: you’re just mad bc he pointed out how dumb your naval attack strategy and no one laughed when you made a mean joke about him

[fieldbears]

Boytoy has gone from a top fighter who was well respected but in constant danger to wearing silks and eating grapes on daises. That fucked up rotator cuff was the best thing to ever happen to him

[mzminola]

Bonus points: at least half the other concubines are experts in assorted fields, the monarch brings them to relevant meetings to both play up a reputation for frivolity, and make sure at least one person there doesn’t have an outside agenda.

[aethersea]

my harem? 

did you mean: my chief strategic advisors

[kitten-kin]

The kingdom is an absolute monarchy but the harem has become a secret meritocracy. The nobles and official advisors kind of side-eye His Majesty because wow some of these consorts must have like…really good personalities. Kings of the past have had their own specific tastes of course; size, shape, age, color, et cetera. More than one ruler has interviewed consorts feet first and Ardwin the Adventurous’s obsession - God rest him - with snuffling armpits like a sow rooting for mushrooms is well known despite never being alluded to in polite company.

The worst part of it is that the new king takes at least part of his harem with him everywhere and it’s so embarrassing. The Counselors of War have never once met with His Divine Majesty without that hulking battle-scarred consort interrupting with muttered growls or scornful snorts. And the Ministers of Finance all flinch at the sight of that fox-faced one, rumored to have been rescued from the gallows because His Augustness took a fancy to his eyes or some such nonsense. General petition days are even worse, with practically the entire harem drifting in and out of the Grand Hall in turns, insouciant and smug like granary cats who know they’ve been given full run of the courtyards and barns.

It’s absolutely infuriating that the kingdom has never before known such a period of peace and prosperity under this ridiculous monarch.

[absolutely-esme]

It has not yet occurred to anyone that, perhaps, his highness has a competence kink.

It will, eventually, and at least a few people are going to be embarrassed it didn’t occur to them sooner.

“Well, you won’t be catching the king’s eye,” becomes an entirely different sort of insult than foreigners tend to assume.

[heavensenthousepet]

you learn something new everyday. unless you're a historian. then you learn something old