hottest scene in the batman (2022) is when they were like "we got you down for assaulting a cop now" and batman said "i assaulted three"
it’s the way she keeps trying to be Good and do what the other version of herself wants, and one version of her reluctantly laughing while the other smashes the guitar, sitting intaking the lesson that ‘everyone will betray you’, willingly pushing through taking shots while the other encourages her. Like it really unpacks and goes into her need to Be Good And Please Those Around Her and she kinda goes along with it and does her part even though she’s clearly Not Having A Good Time and it just has me ): ): ): ):
The problem with having lesbian moms is you try to be super cool and cut all your hair off and buy a leather jacket and wear boots all the time and then you go to some event in your neighborhood and all these women three times your age start cooing “oh you look JUST like your mother when she was your age, my gosh what a blast from the past, oh I just love your hair”
i bet the dick is insane
Oh, this is incredible.
Improv swing dance to a Todrick Hall song?
And they killed it!
*thanks to the people who pointed out my oops
au where Steve is a famous Disney kid and Eddie is a teenaged singer-songwriter. They get pushed together at events because they're close in age, but they just quietly dislike each other.
Steve's got a new show starting, a spinoff of the one that made him a household name. They hire a newcomer, Robin Buckley, to play his best friend and the two quickly become BFF in real life.
The show runs for two seasons but when it comes time to renegotiate contracts, neither star is interested. They're older now, ready to live life on their terms and not the company's, or in Steve's case, his parents.
As soon as the finale airs, Robin and Steve celebrate by going to a gay club. A few weeks later, an interview is released where Steve comes out as bi and talks about how his parents mistreated him; how they worked with the network to pressure him to be a perfect "all-American" kid even off screen.
Meanwhile, Eddie's an impossible level of famous. He's had number-one hits, won a Grammy, headlined an arena tour, achieved every dream he had for himself as a kid growing up in a trailer park in Indiana. He's not shocked by the news that Steve is leaving Hollywood, but he's flabbergasted that the guy isn't straight. When Eddie reads the interview, he gets this weird pang in his chest, almost like regret. But he never even liked Steve.
Steve isn't in the news again and Eddie doesn't think of him for a long time.
Steve goes to college. He loves it. Not because he's great in his classes, or anything, but because he's free to be himself for the first time. He makes friends and goes to parties and relaxes. He and Robin share an apartment.
After a few semesters, Steve decides to take a couple of theater classes, and is quickly cast in campus productions. In the vague anonymity of college theater he rediscovers his love of acting. No one has expectations of him, no one forces him to perform. He graduates and slowly starts appearing in small roles in Indie films, gathering critical acclaim. He feels good. Happy. Hopeful.
Eddie is blissfully unaware of Steve's career resurgence, experiencing his own musical highpoints, until the day where he's scrolling Twitter, sees a Variety headline that's getting a bunch of attention, "Steve Harrington in talks to star in Max Mayfield's first film." Eddie's livid.
"Maxine, what the fuck?" He growls when she answers his call.
They grew up together in the same Indiana trailer park. When she moved to Hollywood to start a career as a screenwriter, Eddie was by her side. And when her first script wound up on the Black List, his involvement on the soundtrack and original songs sealed her production deal.
She gives a long suffering sigh. "Munson," she grumbles. "I know you have a weird history with this guy, but I swear he's the right choice."
"He's a stuck up rich boy who's never been in trouble in his life."
"He's changed."
"Doubtful," Eddie sneers.
"Look. I'll set-up a meeting. Come hang out and you'll see what I mean." Before she hangs up she adds, "Call me Maxine again and I'll end you."
They invite Harrington to Eddie's recording studio. His hopes are not high for this meeting, so he's already a little thrown when Steve Harrington walks in, all grown up. He's in a crimson sweater, tight jeans, hair grown long so that it flops around his face in tousled waves that actually look genuine, windswept and golden. Eddie's eyes instinctively trace the scatter of moles on Harrington's face and neck, a pang of something hitting deep in his gut. Fuck, this dude is beautiful.
"Harrington," he greets, sticks out his hand. Eddie barely hears the answering, "Munson," because instead of a handshake, Harrington pulls Eddie in for a hug. Muscles bunch under the sleeves of the sweater, against Eddie's chest, and he's assaulted by the scent of cedar and sunshine and Steve. Eddie's not prepared for any of this.
They make small talk, Harrington sharing about going to college, falling in love with theater, Robin Buckley who he calls his soulmate. Eddie's head rings with how wrong he was about this guy; the pretty kid he grew up alongside who seemed to have the world in his hands. Max was right, he's perfect. Except.
"Let's get down to it, Harrington," Eddie says. Can't bring himself to call him Steve yet, feels that will somehow change everything and he's not ready. "I'll admit that Mayfield had the right idea about you, but can you sing? Play guitar? You have to perform my music, dude. That's not a small ask."
Harrington smirks, asks for a guitar. He gets it settled across his lap before he speaks. "I started taking piano lessons when I was 4. Voice and guitar at 7."
Eddie belatedly recalls that Harrington's parents were the worst kind of stage-parents, pushing their cute kid to perform even as he sobbed about wanting to play soccer with his friends instead of going to auditions. He has a moment of shame that he forgets as the other man begins to play. It's one of Eddie's biggest hits, a ballad about a teenaged broken heart from a kid whose name he can't even remember.
Harrington's hair flops in a swoop over his forehead, his fingers move across the strings with ease, skill. His voice is a rasp, close mimic to Eddie's own, but not quite deep enough. Goosebumps spread across Eddie's arms, his neck, and warmth pools low in his gut.
Steve finishes the song, looks up, cheeks glowing pink, honey eyes bright. Eddie's fucking gone for this guy. He wants so badly he might choke on it.
"Good?" Steve asks.
Eddie's embarrassed suddenly. Unsure. He tugs at his hair. "Yeah," he laughs. "Good."
He reaches out to take the guitar, the one Steve's already handing to him, and their hands brush. Eddie flushes. Their eyes meet and Steve smiles. Eddie's thoughts are consumed with the desire to kiss his plush pink mouth.
"You wanna get dinner? Just you and me?" Steve asks.
"Yeah, Steve," he laughs. "I'd love to."
🎬🎸🎬🎸
Fifteen Months Later
"Former Teen Heartthrobs Make Love Connection?"
Fans of musician Eddie Munson and former child star, Steve Harrington, were in for the surprise of their lives last night as the men arrived together for the premier of Harrington's new movie, Small Town Sins, written by up-and-coming screenwriter Max Mayfield, featuring original music by Munson. While Harrington's performance and the movie itself are garnering quite a bit of positive buzz, it's being overshadowed by gossip about Harrington and Munson's budding romance. They walked the red carpet together, pausing for photos as a duo, holding hands and flirting. When asked for confirmation of their relationship, Munson answered, 'we're bros,' before winking and pulling Harrington close.
There's a TikTok video embedded below the article, showing the men being interviewed on the red carpet. Their arms are loosely around each others' waists, and when their eyes meet they catch and hang for a beat.
"So, longtime fans of both of yours are going feral online right now because of the rumors that you two used to hate each other. Is there any truth to that?" An off-camera voice asks.
The men laugh. "We've always been great friends," Eddie answers.
"Eddie thought I was stuck up," Steve giggles.
"I did not." Eddie slaps at Steve, who gives him an affectionate smile.
"Liar," Steve answers.
Eddie leans into the camera like he's telling a secret. "Harrington here was afraid of me."
"Fuck off, I was not." They wrestle around for a couple of seconds.
Steve shrugs Eddie off, straightening his suit jacket. "Okay, maybe I was a little intimidated back then, but then this morning you found a pretty rock and cried about it."
Eddie shrieks, swatting at Steve until someone in a black suit and name tag shoos them down the red carpet.
Eddie walks off first, so he misses Steve withdrawing a hand from his pocket and saying, "Still have the rock, though." He flashes the red, grey, blue striped stone at the camera.
His gaze drifts away, landing somewhere in the distance, hazel eyes soft and heart-wrenchingly fond.
the concept and idea of “you can always start trying to be a better person” is extremely important to me both in media and irl and i continue to be deeply deeply disturbed by the trend on this site pushing that these ideas in media are bad writing or even morally reprehensible
because theyd rather someone stay terrible or just straight up die than become a better person
from a compassionate point of view it’s deeply distressing and from a pragmatic point of view it’s outright frustrating
it’s fucked up.
just because alicent isn't complex in your understanding of her doesn't mean she isn't complex. all the claims i see of missing her one note, evil stepmother characterization from fire & blood are so fascinating to me, especially when the showrunners, actors, writers and directors have been so clear about the choices they've made for her in order to better expand her depth and worldview. despite that, we still have people claiming that the lack of portrayal of alicent as a clear cut villain is one that removes her "agency". do you really mean agency, or just your ability to simply hate her as a knee jerk reaction to your own bias and favorite characters in the narrative?
i really do find it so interesting when people claim they can only understand a female character's layers if she makes choices with clear intentions: purely villainous or purely good choices which then conveniently force her into one of the archetype boxes of madonna, mother, whore, bitch, etc, which are not particularly "complex" and in fact a very outdated form of storytelling most female characters suffer from. its the same shallow interpretation of a complex narrative that causes people to reduce a deeply tragic civil war between a family that results in the end of the dragons, mass death and war crimes on both sides into a narrative as simple and boring as "team green" or "team black" - rather than a commentary on the flaws of monarchy, patriarchy, etc.
just because a female character isn't making the clean cut narrative choices you want her to make to support your personal interpretations of "good" and "bad", does not mean she has had her agency or personality surrendered - but rather that you can only understand and process her as a caricature that fits into the judgements you already made about her.