Anyway: Last Thing About The Fox.

anyway: last thing about the fox.

I think the order in which the team reacts to frank fielding* hurting himself is pretty interesting.

Gideon and Morgan are first, simply because they're the ones closest.

Hotch and Elle are next, with Elle a little behind...

But when it comes to actually restraining Frank, Elle, who is still new and less experienced, lingers behind. If you watch the scene carefully, she actually backs away, too.

And finally, Reid stands at the very back. He enters the room but doesn't go any further, and the camera pans down to show him rocking back and forth on his feet, like he can't decide if he wants to run into or out of the room. I think it's possible that Diana self-harmed at some point in the past (although granted, the self-harm in this scene is a different "type") and he may have been having some unpleasant memories.

*the brother of one of the victims, who goes to her house despite her husband not wanting him there, is seen by her through the window, and thinks she mouths "go away" at him when she actually mouths "help me"

One thing I keep thinking about is that Reid joined the FBI below the minimum required age right? But he also failed a bunch of qualifications in the academy. So he was not only the wrong age but also not exactly qualified and it's safe to assume Gideon is the one who got him in despite all that since he is the one who convinced him to join the FBI. Reid certainly couldn't have forced his way in lmao

But why? What was the hurry when it seems he could have used those extra years of experience? It always felt to me like he was very much pressed for time to get this job Right Now, and the only reason I can think of it that maybe it was immensely difficult to pay for Diana's care in these years ever since he was 18, and perhaps Gideon was sympathetic to that while also seeing potential in him.

request guidelines

do not be afraid. i am a reasonable person. probably. hopefully!

things i will not write:

general

first of all: none of this is a moral judgement on what other people write. tag your stuff appropriately and we'll get on great. everything is either in line with a personal headcanon or a personal discomfort.

adult/minor ships, even if one or more party's ages are changed to make the relationship legal.

incest

romanticized abuse

sex scenes with underage characters, even if they are aged up to be 18+

onscreen rape/"non-con"

reader-insert

a/b/o

oh also pregnancy. for some reason.

okay just to reiterate. none of the above is a judgement on what other people write or read. just things i, personally, don't want to write for one reason or another. no idea if this is something that needs to be stated—this may well be holdover from the fact that i joined tumblr in *shivers* 2017

atla

endgame zuko/any women (mai/zuko mutual beards to besties is delightful and welcome)

toph/any men

endgame azula/anyone (not because i hate her, but because i ship her with therapy. i specify endgame because i won't not write her in a relationship (esp partial to tyzula), the relationship just won't last.

zuko/sokka where sokka permanently relocates to the fire nation. most zukka i write, if i write it, will also involve sokka/suki because i adore them, but i won't not write monogamous zuko/sokka.

cm

unsub!bau (owie)

jj/reid

prentiss/any men (actually, prentiss/anyone except for me /j)

i know this is...very long. advice on cutting it down is welcome. i don't expect people to memorize this and i won't bite you if you slide into my asks asking me to write endgame mai/zuko—all of this is more so people who are looking for that kind of content know that i'm not where to look.

may or may not write:

smut and romance, for the simple reason that genfic is my shit and i'm not nearly as confident in my ability to write either or those. probably more likely to write f/f because i am a big ol' lesbian. if you do send a request for smut, i'll only fulfill it if a. your age is in your bio (incl. given as a range) and b. that age is over eighteen. i'm not your mother and i can't control what you read but i'm uncomfortable with fulfilling 18+ requests from anyone who isn't at least eighteen.

major character death. depends on how mean i'm feeling.

pleasepleasepleaseplease:

genfic

found family

mental health issues

angst

hurt/comfort

complicated relationships

expanding on what canon neglected. if that makes sense.

so. this scene has been talked about a lot:

I think this scene is a really interesting example of the criminal minds writers giving tiny pieces of character backstories that are never elaborated upon, (or, more broadly, forgetting early established character details) because unlike a lot of examples where lines are said and immediately forgotten about, I do think this revelation informs a lot of Hotch's character. I'm not necessarily saying that the writers always had it in mind when writing Hotch that he experienced childhood abuse, but I do feel like you can see the ways in which he was affected. I don't know—this made more sense in my head, but it feels a little less forgotten about and a little less thrown in than some other examples. I think a big difference between this scene and some later ones is that:

The trauma happened pre-series

and

It was established in the first season.

criminal minds isn't great at letting their characters be affected by their in-series trauma for more than a few episodes (and then maybe it'll come up once or twice down the line because the writers remembered it happened) and a lot of later instances* of characters being revealed to have some major pre-series trauma suffer because the impact it would have reasonably had on them isn't consistent with earlier portrayals and sometimes even contradicts established information.

not that it can't be interesting to look at those earlier portrayals of their characters with the backstory that is added later. again, this all made more sense in my head: essentially, the reason i think this feels different to me is that the writers knew when they started writing hotch that he was abused as a child, while other characters who have traumatic backstories revealed have those backstories added much later, and so the writers have a not-great choice between showing the effects their trauma had on them when there was no sign of it earlier, or moving on with their character as if none of it ever happened.

*i'd like to quickly establish that i'm not talking about morgan here. that was also a pretty early reveal and feels consistent enough with early characterization that i wouldn't be shocked if the idea was first floated while season one was being written

reid dresses like a lesbian especially in the early seasons. source: i own a nearly identical shirt

i interrupt your regularly scheduled fandom content to bring you a clip from my friends’ band’s set last night. the band is borderline thrills and the clip is from the end of their song deadnamed, which is exactly as transgender as you think it is.