They dragged a man out of his car right in front of one of my friends as she was leaving her house. They left his car running in the street until someone came out of their house and parked it on the curb.
It’s pretty cold here.
They tear-gassed one of my favorite pizza shops.
We’re just trying to get through it.
They shot a nurse. They shot him ten times after knocking him down, because he was getting donuts and tried to film them assaulting and kidnapping people off the street.
We’re still trying to keep our heads up.
Every time I leave the house I watch for cars, trucks, or vans that seem out of place. If I can get the plate, I let our neighborhood watch know.
I’m kinda tired.
They arrested clergy members for sitting down on the ground and praying.
We’re doing ok.
Neither of us have slept well in weeks.
I’m doing OK.
They tried to snatch kids from the school bus a couple days ago.
I’m doing my best.
I can’t do much, it’s not safe for me either. But I have to do something. I can’t just stand by and watch.
I love this. It shows what a joke ICE is, how the protesters are peaceful and brings unwanted publicity to those fascist thugs in ski masks
I even heard an ICE agent thought he was clever by pepper spraying into the vent of one of the protesters in costume, and from accounts the guy shrugged it off - he was Mexican, he'd eaten spicier tacos 😂
saw this being debated and just wanted to talk about it too.
"is it rude if I politely ask a writer if they use ai or chatgpt on their works because I'm almost certain they do?"
yes, it is rude. no matter how polite you are being when you ask them this.
you say you are almost certain. so you are not absolutely certain.
unless you are absolutely, undoubtedly certain — with actual proof — that their writing is ai generated, never ever ask an artist if their work is ai generated.
I know several writers who would stop writing and delete all of their works if they were ever accused of using ai. so it doesn't matter if you are polite when you ask them this, you are suggesting that their works are ai generated, that they didn't create the works they could have spent hours, days, weeks, months or years working on.
ai and chatgpt are trained on real humans' works, they are trained to mimic the way real humans write. so if you say a genuine writer's work "looks ai", I'm gonna have to ask you what you think ai was trained on.
a writer whose English isn't their first language may also write in a way that "looks ai" to some, if they write in English and have to rely on translator.
using em dash isn't a sign of ai. I do it all the time. my fellow writers all love em dash.
having long paragraphs with "overly described scenes" isn't a sign of ai. I do it all the time, and so do my fellow writers.
all the "ai signs" are actually just what most writers actually do. they get mistaken for "ai signs" because sometimes the way writers write or describe a scene in a fanfic or an original work is different than the way people talk or text. because they're writing a fic and describing a scene, not chatting with a friend. the way I talk is different than the way I write my fics.
if you suspect a work was ai generated, but are not 100% sure, you can always just stop reading said work without saying anything.
if someone does use ai to write, they will either a.) deny and continue using ai to write or b.) admit because they see nothing wrong with it and continue using ai to write.
if a genuine writer was wrongly accused of using ai, they may stop writing altogether.
asking a writer if they use ai or chatgpt to write will always do more harm than good. witch hunting will always do more harm than good.
you are not "fighting against ai" by throwing around such accusations. you are harming genuine writers and artists.
You know what would have been great? Grandmama Frump hearing about Wednesday's failed attempt to become Tyler's master and having that be the current thing that she keeps nagging Mortcia about
-
Morticia: [talking about the ball]
Grandmama: [dramatic sigh]
Morticia: Is something wrong, Mama?
Grandmama: Hmm? Oh nothing, dear
Morticia: As I was saying-
Grandmama: I was simply thinking about how Wednesday nearly became the master of her very own Hyde
Morticia: Mama-
Grandmama: And not just any Hyde but one that's already killed well over a dozen people
Grandmama: Really, Mortcia, who wouldn't want their daughter bound to a homicidal monster? I know I would have
Grandmama: I'm rather surprised it was you of all people, bleeding romantic heart that you are, who put a stop to the whole thing. Seeing as if the rumors are true, Wednesday has an infatuation with the boy bordering on obsession, and he her
Grandmama: Not to mention I would have expected you to be in tears that the this whole little failed encounter took place in a Nevermore chapel of all places
Grandmama: But enough about that. Do continue, dear
Every time you look into the mirror, your reflection is doing something slightly different… until it starts waving at you.
You hear whispering through your bedroom air vent. It's not the neighbors. It's nothing technical. It's not human.
There is suddenly a lake in the middle of nowhere and instead of asking where it came from, people jump in for a swim.
You find an old MP3 player at a thrift store. Every song describes a death that happens the next few days.
The people in the family photo on your wall keep changing and none of them are your relatives.
An abandoned TV in your attic turns itself on every night, showing footage of your house… from inside.
You wake up in the morning, but get confused because it's still dark. And the sun doesn't rise again.
You meet a man who claims he can bring someone back to life for a price. And that's all you ever wished for.
You find your childhood diary, but the entries aren't written by you. And they predict your future.
There are sounds coming from the basement. But there is no basement.
The fire in the fireplace suddenly starts to dance and turn into scenes from your life.
You walk into your house, but every door leads back to the same room. There seems to be no escape.
One night, a star disappears from the sky. The next day, people start vanishing.
You go camping and find a tree with hundreds of names carved into it including yours.
You're a rideshare driver. A passenger asks for a destination that doesn't exist… and leaves something behind after they suddenly vanish from the backseat.
A photo from your vacation shows a face staring through your hotel window. You were on the 9th floor.
A new door appears in your hallway. No one remembers building it and no one can open it.
Your partner sleep-talks, but one night, their voice changes and it starts speaking in a language you've never heard.
You buy an antique painting at a garage sale. Now you wake up each morning feeling watched.
A forest appears overnight where a neighborhood once stood. You swear you saw a house inside.
A child's doll begins writing in a notebook left beside it. The entries are chilling.
Your reflection always smiles before you do.
Your phone rings. The caller ID says it's you. After answering the call you hear yourself speaking, saying they're from the year you died.
A child asks you to walk her home. Her house is located inside the local cemetery.
You take a group photo at your birthday party. There's an extra person in every photo that no one remembers, but that interacts with everyone else in the photos.
You find torn pages from a lighthouse keeper's log describing creatures from the sea.
A package arrives with no return address. Inside is a video of you sleeping.
You move into a new town. Everyone seems nice and open, but stares at you blankly as soon as you're alone. As soon as someone else comes by, everything is back to normal.
A friend dares you to play a childhood game you forgot. When you play, something ancient answers.
Your grandfather's old clock begins chiming a 13th hour and something comes through.
You find an unfinished manuscript. As you read it, you realize it’s describing everything happening to you right now…
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I need a fic of s2 after tyler/Hyde pushes her out of the window and is watching from afar waiting for her to get back up and continue their back and forth, but then she doesn't move.
Killing Wednesday should have been a challenge, it can't be over this easily, she can't be gone just like that.
And he scoffs like come on, I know it takes more than that to take out Wednesday... But still she doesn't move and his mind starts to race and he's rationalizing it like it was supposed to be a long torrid affair of trying to kill each other, a struggle tile the end.
To him finding out she's in a coma and stalking her room waiting for her to finally wake up. Just so he can finish the job, of course.
Tyler thought the ambiguous/implied incestuous relationship between his mom and uncle was weird…. And then he found out that Thing, the hand who brought did everything to match him with Wednesday, probably did naughty things to Françoise….
I’ve been thinking about this scene so much since Season 2 Part 2 came out. It’s just so rich in terms of the implications for Tyler and Wednesday as well as their relationship with each other.
This is the moment Tyler asks her to kill him. It’s deeply depressing that he wants to die, but it really says a lot about his mindset and how he views himself. He’s dealing with suicidal levels of self-loathing and thinks he’s nothing without his Hyde, even though it’s cost him so much and will eventually cost him his life. But he sees the Hyde as a core part of who he is, and if he can't have his Hyde, he doesn't want to live. He claims being a Hyde is the freest he’s ever felt, even though (up till this point) he has to have a master controlling him, or he’ll go insane and die prematurely.
Which means he felt so trapped before becoming a Hyde that being a monster under someone else’s control still feels like freedom to him. It isn’t, it’s not true freedom, but it’s the only freedom he knows. More on this later.
Another thing that’s striking about his request to Wednesday is that he doesn’t even beg her for help. He doesn’t think he deserves it, least of all from her. He’s done some pretty awful things to her and to the people she loves, and I suspect he blames himself for it all, even the things he didn't have a say in. So he sees her holding the axe and just surrenders to her, because punishment and death are what he deserves, right?
Also, he’s asking her to kill him, yes, but in a strange way, it’s also an act of trust. He’s placing his life in her hands. He has nothing and no one left except for her because even his mother and uncle have betrayed him. This is the girl he deceived and betrayed, the girl who trusted him and opened herself up to him (which for Wednesday is huge, given how afraid she is of emotional intimacy), only for him to break her heart, humiliate her, and mock her over what happened. And yet he still trusts her to kill him because she’s all he has left, the only person he knows he can count on even if on paper they're still bitter enemies. It's like he's saying, “If someone has to kill me, I want it to be you. You deserve to get to do this after what I’ve done to you.”
This moment is especially striking after the graveyard scene, where he watched Isaac bury Wednesday alive and couldn't do anything to help her. I think he desperately wants to be punished for his inaction by the very person he failed (on top of paying for his other misdeeds), even though his mother likely told him not to help, plus Isaac would've sabotaged him anyway if he'd tried. He also probably thinks he deserves to die over tossing her out the Willow Hill window while in Hyde form, because that moment at the hospital after he's seen her safe and alive and awake for the first time since then, the anguish and sheer relief on his face when he thinks no one else is watching just says so much. Sure, some of it was probably due to the physical pain he was in, but I think a lot of it was driven by his feelings for Wednesday.
He also speaks softly enough in this scene that Isaac can’t hear him, only Wednesday can. He doesn’t want to ruin her chance to kill him, and it makes the moment feel strikingly intimate, like these are his deepest darkest secrets he only trusts her with: his self-loathing, his vulnerability, his death wish.
Now, onto Wednesday’s side of things. I love how she lifts the axe like she's about to do it, she’s about to kill him, and then her expression changes, and you realize right at the same time she does that she can’t do it, she can’t kill him.
She’s staring into his eyes and he’s staring at her because he wants her to be the last thing he sees, much like she kept staring at him when she was being buried alive. And then it’s too much and he squeezes his eyes shut like a lost, frightened child and braces himself for her blow.
And that’s when she makes her split second, impulsive decision to free him.
This moment is so, so huge, because it’s such an important turning point for her character arc and shows so much growth.
This was Wednesday’s big chance to get her revenge, to permanently end the threat to her life and Enid’s life that Tyler has posed ever since he escaped Willow Hill. It was also her opportunity to avenge her broken heart and satisfy her wounded pride. But she shows Tyler mercy and compassion instead.
He’s quite literally completely at her mercy, strapped to a table, unable to free himself or use his power, and he’s being tortured physically, emotionally, and mentally as his Hyde is being forcibly removed, and she does the merciful thing and frees him because she can't bear to watch him suffer like this any longer. We all know this is a girl with a sadistic streak who normally loves witnessing torture, especially when it's someone she doesn't like who’s getting tortured. Just look at her face as Dort is exposed and then dies just an episode before, she 100% enjoyed that, much like she enjoyed unleashing the piranhas on the boys who bullied Pugsley in Season 1.
And yet she doesn’t enjoy Tyler's pain here. She can't enjoy it. That really speaks to the strength of her feelings for him, especially because she was so easily able to gloat over his situation back in Episode 2. But there's no denying she has feelings for him still, and in this moment, I think it hits her for an instant (before she goes back into denial mode) just how deeply these feelings for him run.
This moment is also really important because she's the first person to truly free him. Everyone else in his life has put him in chains, physically and psychologically, and even Wednesday herself tried to chain and control him earlier this season with her plan to become his master in Episode 5. She also tried to strangle him as a werewolf in Episode 6 until Enid talked her down. It shows so much growth on her part that she isn’t trying to control Tyler anymore, that she relinquishes the control she tried so desperately to grasp and gives him his freedom instead. And this is true freedom, born from the desire to give him back control over his life and fate that everyone else, even his own family, has taken away from him. And that gift of freedom gives him the strength to defy his mother and master as well as his uncle, and he repays her merciful act by fighting Isaac and Francoise and thus helping her save her family.
By saving him, she’s also telling him that there’s something in him worth saving, worth sparing, even after everything he's done. She believes this about him even when he doesn't believe it about himself. For someone like Tyler, who loathes himself and quite literally spelled out that he believes he deserves to die, that's life-changing, and I think it's going to kickstart his growth to become a better person. I also think her giving him back his freedom is going to drive him to be his own master along with the support of the Hyde community.
I also love that in freeing Tyler, Wednesday defies him in a way, and she also denies his death wish. It was just such a Wednesday thing to do. She can't give him exactly what he wants. That would be too boring and predictable, and she can't let that happen.
I also love the moment when he realizes he’s not dead, he’s free:
And I love the look of shock and awe and disbelief on his face:
So much good stuff has already been said about “Why?” and “I missed,” but I’ll say a few things as well. Jenna and Hunter did such an amazing job with their acting this whole scene (and season), but especially during this particular moment. Tyler looks so shocked. His voice breaks and his “why” is so soft, like he can hardly believe what just happened. He never even dreamed Wednesday would free him, and his entire world just turned upside down because she did. And now he wants an explanation. He thinks he's undeserving and unworthy, and he desperately wants, no, needs to know what drove her decision. Why me, when I'm a monster. Why me, after everything I've done to you and your loved ones. Why me, when you could've and should've killed me.
And I think a part of him also wants to know how she feels and is begging for the confirmation his heart hardly dares hope for. He’s asking if she feels the same way about him that he feels about her deep down, beneath all the anger and confusion and pain.
And then “I missed” is just such a perfect Wednesday answer, and props to Jenna for improvising it from the sounds of it. Wednesday never misses, and she and Tyler both know that. She certainly never misses at point blank range with an axe. Which means she did it on purpose, and again, they both know it.
But of course she's not going to admit to that, let alone the feelings that drove her decision. “I missed” is the most she’ll allow herself, and it speaks volumes. She's a very proud person to the point she tips over into arrogance quite frequently, and yet in this moment, she's willing to slander her own abilities to admit, in her own roundabout way, what she can't bring herself to say out loud.
And Tyler wouldn't love her if she wasn't her delightful Wednesday self. I love the look of disbelief he gives her after she says “I missed,” like, “Yeah right, we both know that’s BS, now please give me a second as I desperately try to process the implications of the depth of your feelings for me because this is A Lot and I've had a long night.”
And then of course he transforms after this and helps her, and they get right back to the business of sabotaging Isaac and his machine, stopping his mom, and saving her family.
Couples that slay together stay together, am I right?
Anyway, I just had a lot of thoughts and feelings about this scene that have been stewing in my brain for several weeks that I had to write out. Thank you for reading this, and feel free to chime in with your thoughts!
Watching these two gifs, I just realized Tyler not only is concerned by Wednesday's fate, but also by Thing's. The hand was a Weyler shipper in Season 1, almost a friend... Tyler is loosing another significant person in his life in this scene.
Nearly 4 hours of work on my back by Dave Grave, who was very nice and professional, and really paid attention to the details from the original picture.
For those who don't recognize it, it's the cover page of The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey (with less children, I know, give me a fucking break...).
I've been fascinated by this image for years and I've wanted it as a tattoo for so long... And this is not me spending money at 40 on stuff I wish I had done at 20 but couldn't affort back then. Absolutely not. I am not having an existential crisis. I'm simply acknowledging the fact that, had I known the concept of chaotic academia back then, I would have felt a lot less weird and lost. Better now than never, I guess!
