😂😂😂

Folks let me talk about Crowley and sunglasses, because I have a lot of emotions about when he wears them and when he doesn’t, and Hiding versus Being Seen.

We’re introduced to the concept of Crowley wearing glasses even before we’re introduced to Crowley, by Hastur: “If you ask me he’s been up here too long. Gone native. Enjoying himself too much. Wearing sunglasses even when he doesn’t need them.”

Honestly Crowley’s whole introduction is a fantastic; we learn so much about his character in a tiny amount of time. The fact that he’s late, the Queen playing as the Bentley approaches, the “Hi, guys” in response to Hastur and Ligur’s “Hail Satan”. I like this intro much better than the one originally scripted with the rats at the phone company, but I digress.

Crowley wears sunglasses when he doesn’t need them. Specifically, he still wears them around the demons, and when he’s in hell.

You know where Crowley doesn’t wear glasses? At home.

We never once see him wearing glasses in his flat, except for when he knows Hastur and Ligur are coming. That’s an emotional kick to the gut for me. Here’s one of the only places Crowley’s comfortable enough to be sans glasses, and when he knows it’s going to be invaded he prepares not just physically with the holy water, but by putting up that emotional barrier in a place where he wasn’t supposed to need it.

An argument could be made that Crowley actually never needs glasses. We’re shown that it’s well within the angels’ and demons’ powers to pass unnoticed by humans. Crowley and Aziraphale waltz out of the manor in the middle of a police raid, and going unnoticed by the police takes so little effort that they can keep up a conversation while they stroll through. Even an unimaginative demon like Hastur apparently doesn’t have trouble with the humans losing it over his demonic eyes. The humans in the scene at Megiddo are acting like “this guy is a little weird” and not “holy shit his entire eyeballs are black jelly”

That means that Crowley’s glasses are a choice, just like Aziraphale’s softness. Sure, he could arrange matters so that nobody ever noticed his eyes, but he doesn’t want to. Crowley wants acceptance, and he wants to belong, and he’s never, ever had that. He didn’t fit in before the Fall in Heaven, he doesn’t fit in with the demons in Hell. With the glasses, and with the Bentley and his plants and with the barely-bad-enough-to-be-evil nuisance temptations, he’s choosing Earth. This is where he wants to fit in, perhaps not with the humans, but amongst them.

Even after Crowley is at his absolute lowest, when he thinks Aziraphale’s dead and he’s on his way to drink until the world ends, he takes the time to put a new pair on when the old ones are damaged. He needs that emotional crutch right now, even with everything about to turn into a pile of puddling goo he’s not ready for the world to see his eyes.

Which is why I swore out loud when Hastur forcibly takes them off.

It’s about the worst thing that Hastur could have done. Rather than leading with a physical threat, his first act is to strip away Crowley’s emotional defences. It’s a great writing choice because god it made me hate Hastur, even more than all the physical violence we see him do.

It’s also the moment that Crowley really truly gets his shit together, and focuses all of his considerable imagination on getting to Tadfield and Aziraphale to help save the world. He’s wielding the terrifyingly unimaginable power of someone who’s hit rock bottom and realised it literally could not get any worse than this. He doesn’t put another pair of glasses on after discorporating Hastur, and he spends the majority of the airbase sequence without them.

He puts them back on again, I think, at the moment that he really lets himself hope. When he thinks ‘shit, there may be a real chance that we get through this to a future that I don’t want to lose’.

The vulnerability is back, and he needs Adam to trust him. In Crowley’s mind being accepted by a human means he needs to have his eyes hidden. Someone give the demon a hug, please.

Interestingly, there’s only one time in the whole series that we see Crowley willingly choose to take his glasses off around another person. Only one person he’ll take down that barrier for, and even then he’s drunk before he does it.

Dear God/Satan/Someone that makes my heart ache. Crowley’s chosen Earth, but he’s also chosen Aziraphale. He’s been looking for somewhere to belong his entire existence, and it’s with the angel that he finally feels it.

When the dust settles and the world is saved and they finally have space to be themselves unguarded, I like to imagine Crowley takes off the glasses when it’s just the two of them; the idea of being known doesn’t scare him quite so much anymore.  

my favourite trope is when both people understand that they like each other but it’s still unsaid between them and they’re not quite 100% sure the other likes them back so they keep having awkward-flirty moments/interactions and don’t know what to do after it happens so they just ,,, look at each other for a moment before changing the subject…and then it happens again

Wholesome #BoysWillBeBoys stories!

I love genuinely innocent “boys will be boys.” Just saw a guy come out of a frat house to poke a pair of jeans they’d left outside - they were frozen solid, and as soon as he confirmed that, like twenty more boys came rushing out of the house going “YOOOOOOOOOO”

Bonus gif:

Movie Rec: "Jab We Met" (Bollywood)

“Jab We Met” is a pretty traditional romance narrative at surface level, which is also quietly but very effectively subverting a lot of the common romance tropes.  It’s one of my favorite Bollywood movies, but it’s rarely one that I use to convert people mostly because it isn’t a movie that could only exist in Bollywood.  It’s a pretty universally awesome romance narrative, all around. 

HOWEVER, there is an aspect of it that makes it more subversive given the cultural context, which is that the heroine, while wanting a romantic happy ending for herself, wants one that’s traditionally frowned upon by her culture.

While the narrative starts with the premise of a Brooding Hero meeting his Manic Pixie Dreamgirl, that’s where the similarities end.  Because we find out a lot more about Geet, her hopes and dreams, and her family than we ever do about him.  One of the only things we do know about him is that at some point in his childhood, his mother ran off with another man because she didn’t love his father.  The language used to describe her elopement will give you an idea of just how huge of a deal elopement is in this culture, and what kind of social disgrace Geet is possibly setting herself up for by wanting to elope. 

However, the movie has Geet identifying with the mother pretty early on, and before the movie ends, this turns into an epic commentary on women and their choices and about doing what makes you happy rather than following social conventions that stifle you.  So the most important thing we DO know about him still becomes about her.  <3 

I never have much to say about men in fiction, but the male protagonist of this movie is one that I quite like.  He spends a good part of the movie being in love with her, but never even telling her, because he sees that as his own issue, and nothing *she* should be burdened with.  Like, he has ZERO need for his feelings for her to be validated or returned.  Which NEVER happens in romance narrative (except for in “Pride and Prejudice,” and that’s why it’s my favorite.)

And Geet!  <3  Geet is one of the most self-assured and confident heroines I have ever come across in any narrative.  She knows what she wants, and she has no hesitation or doubts about how she’s going to get it.  She has a strong sense of self that briefly wavers in the face of the utter force of everything that’s against her, but comes back stronger than ever. 

This is, by all means, set up as a narrative where the heroine would Learn Her Lesson about Wanting Unconventional Things, but the entire movie sets out to show HER way of life as the correct one, with everyone around her adapting to her worldview.  Even though the specifics of what she wants for herself change, she still gets the exact kind of happy ending she set out to chase for herself.

 I also love her need to create drama and constantly strive to write out a more interesting narrative for herself than the one life would otherwise give her.  She reminds me of Jane Austen’s Emma Woodhouse or Catherine Morland, except that both of these women had to learn a lesson about Needing to be Serious/Mature (from the men they loved), while Geet keeps on being herself, and the guy has to change himself to adapt to her viewpoint.  <3

Like, the speech that both Emma and Catherine get from the Men Who Love Them and Know Better?  Geet gets that about halfway through the movie, only to totally set the guy straight, and that is literally the actual moment he falls for her.  BECAUSE SHE REFUSED TO SUBSCRIBE TO HIS WORLD VIEW.  And then he subscribes to her awesomeness.  You should, too.  

Hey all, remember when I said I’d never do another picture-fic because I don’t have photoshop and it’s straight up the devil’s work? Yeah, I lied. 

someone give me validation this took forever 

Discredit - Excerpts from A.Z. Fell and Co.’s Yelp Page 

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Take a moment to say thank you.

Thank you that I am alive.

Thank you that I am healthy.

Thank you that I am able to pursue my passion.

There may be darkness. At times, I may be tempted to give up.

But I don’t.

And not even the strongest of flames can burn this undying gratitude of mine.

For I will always be thankful.

~Nic A

second hand pride