#“Other Fathers” Deleted Scenes and “Things to Prove”

[randomfoggytiger]

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part XV): "Other Fathers", Deleted Scenes, and "Things to Prove"

Never Again is precipitated by Dana Scully’s sidekick complex, a trickle down from her childhood daddy issues. While I’ve discussed her feeling of neglect with regards to Mulder (posts here and here), this analysis will zero in on Scully’s strivings for perfection, feelings of neglect, and subsequent discouragement and rebellion blooming from a failure to secure someone’s pride and attention. 

FATHER COMPLEXES

The first time Scully displayed vulnerability in Beyond the Sea was at her father's funeral, pleading with her mother for reassurance: “Was he at all proud of me?” By the end of the episode, she takes Maggie’s “He was your father” to heart, turning down a chance to give her father a final goodbye via the shady conduit Boggs. 

After her abduction and return, Scully meets her father once again in the land between Life and Death. Standing at his daughter’s side, Captain Scully pours out his heart in a touching monologue she takes back with her into life.  

More importantly, her father was the only person who knew she wouldn’t die--”We’ll be together again, Starbuck. Not now. Soon”-- and Mulder the only person who believed in her strength. Scully came back for Mulder, yes; but she still had to process her family’s hopelessness and her father’s visitation. 

An interesting and important note: Scully was aware when her family gave up in One Breath-- “When they found me-- after the doctors and even my family had given up, I experienced something that I never told you about. Even now it’s hard to find the words. But there’s one thing I’m certain: as certain as I am of this life, we have nothing to fear when it’s over.” 

Melissa, her voice (post here), was right: Scully was right there; and her spirit did speak back and forth with her sister in limbo. Knowing this, it makes sense why Missy pushed Dana so hard to accept every vital part of herself and her experiences in Season 3-- trying to prevent Scully's self-destruction through purposed ignorance.

The only problem is, Scully wasn't-- and isn’t-- sure how to understand her experience: on the one hand, it gives her a sense of peace when facing death (telling Mulder they have nothing to fear in Dod Kalm); but on the other, embracing that experience would require her to embrace other aspects of herself she is running from-- buried memories of her abduction, the paranormal happenings drawing naturally to her (post here), and her own fear of belief. 

In A Christmas Carol, Scully can’t sleep because of her father’s disappointment in her career path; in Pilot, she glibly tells the Assistant Directors her parents considered this change “an act of rebellion” (post here); and in Beyond the Sea, she is thrilled to be on closer terms with Captain Scully (though they struggle to connect with unaddressed issues between them, post here.) Her sense of self-worth is attached to her usefulness, which is measured by the praise or adoration she strives to earn from the people she looks up to. 

Avoiding instead of internalizing leads Scully from person to person-- man to man specifically-- looking for the acceptance she will only find in herself (all things.) 

She is drawn to men that open her mind to new possibilities-- Daniel Waterston, her teacher; Jack Willis, her instructor; Fox Mulder, the paranormal and little green men expert-- but are also devoted to their work and expect her to come along for the ride. Scully, enthralled, follows their lead; but after time passes and she remains second priority, Scully rebels and leaves. 

Scully has stayed with Mulder longer than any other romantic partner, miring herself in danger and intrigue and murder for over three years. And she has seemed-- despite the oddity of their situation-- content to be challenged and thrilled over pursuing the domesticity expected from peers her age. Yet Scully takes a sharp left turn in Never Again, contemplating her circular life path and seeking reassurance from Mulder for her decisions-- equally reaching for and rebelling against the second-place position she assumes he places her in. 

I’ve already written at length how Mulder completely misinterpreted his partner’s signals (thinking she was resenting him and the work rather than wanting assurance of her place in his life) and that his resulting actions accidentally confirmed Scully’s worst assumptions and fears (compelling her into the arms of Ed Jerse); but cutting that important angle out of this episode, let’s focus on the residuals of her father’s legacy that sends her into an ouroboros of insanity. 

MEASURING UP TO SUCCESS

Captain Scully lived in pursuit of accomplishment. “I’ve went at a proper pace-- many rewards-- until the moment that… I knew, I… understood that I would never see you again. My little girl. Then my life felt as if it had been the length of one breath, one heartbeat.” Although decorated properly in his medals of honor, her father's afterlife appears empty and alone, allotting ample time to count his successes while waiting for his loved ones to join.  

We see the echoes of that achievement mindset when Scully reexamines her life: the endless cycle of what she’s lost or the little she’s accomplished. The lesson her father tried to impart to her from the world of the Dead is blocked by her unwillingness to fully believe; and the gnawing of bereft dissatisfaction continues to build in the wake of personal tragedies and her partner’s inability to do or express more in their relationship. 

THE BEGINNINGS OF ONCE AGAIN

Scully stands behind her partner, tuning out his interrogation of a witness as dissatisfaction starts to pulse through her. Having already dismissed the case, she wanders off, trying to pinpoint or escape her swelling emotions, coming face-to-face with a wall of venerated names. These people are the embodiment of legacy: what they did mattered, who they were is remembered. Their service is recognized; their sacrifice is honored. 

Their names may be what draws her, but not what keeps her. Unlike her father, who wanted his named etched in higher rank or bigger history (Personality Type post here), Scully’s attention and emotions are captured by the personal, heartfelt memorial at the bottom of the glistening pillar: “BROTHER, TWENTY YEARS LATER… I STILL MISS YOU. WE KNOW WHAT YOU DID WAS RIGHT.” She slides down silently as her thoughts begin to solidify. 

Touching one of the rose petals, she ruminates on the loss of a life so insignificant to the rest of the world but so important to the ones he loved most-- that not only did he matter, but he mattered because what he did was right. 

Scully may be a woman who places herself in second position, but she is also a woman that demands respect and devotion-- proof that she is valued, loved, and cherished (Personality Type post here.) Furthermore, Scully lives her life by her morals and ethics, by what is right-- breaking up with Daniel Waterston before crossing an unbreakable line, holding herself to a standard of decency and honor, and demanding Mulder hear the truth even if it's hard to accept.  

As of late, there isn’t enough cherishing to balance out her self-doubts; and now that the scales are out of whack, her life seems unfairly disjointed. Because Scully is fixated on identifying and solving her problem, she misdiagnoses its cause, wondering if her presence would even be missed, nullifying the importance of her decisions and choices. And who does Scully look to first to set everything back into order? “Other fathers”-- or in this case, the Ahab to her Starbuck. (And this Ahab completely misses the memo.) 

These doubts plague her hours later: holding Mulder’s plate and sitting behind Mulder’s desk in Mulder’s chair, Scully sees her workspace with new eyes, noting how lacking her presence (seemingly) is, despite the devotion she’s poured into the X-Files. The rose petal’s significance has left its mark. 

Mulder poking Scully about abandoning him scratches at the open wound of “WE KNOW WHAT YOU DID WAS RIGHT”, flipping her concealed disillusionment into more outward hostility. 

Still, she tempers her annoyance, slipping it under Mulder’s radar… until: “Hm. Have you confirmed the identity of these individuals?” 

“That’s your assignment while I’m gone.” 

Her back immediately arches at assignment: sharp intake of breath, stiffened posture, and lowered eyes-- more signs of her anger. When she refuses, both of them are left frustrated. 

“So, you’re refusing an assignment based on the adventures of ‘Moose and Squirrel’?” Mulder teases, battening down his own anger with humor. 

“Refusing an assignment? It makes it sound like you’re my superior,” Scully replies, stepping around his olive branch and digging her heels in. 

When Mulder snaps, misreading her mood as disinterest in his work, she sighs, cryptically replying, “And it’s become mine.” 

Stung, he softly asks, “You don’t want it to be?”

Scully does her best to explain the chaotic whirlpool of emotions sucking her down-- “This isn’t about you. Or maybe it is indirectly, I don’t know. I feel like I’ve lost sight of myself, Mulder. It’s hard to see, let alone find, in the darkness of covert locations. I mean, I wish I could say we’re going in circles, but we’re not. We’re going in an endless line: two steps forward, and three steps back. While my own life is… standing still”--     

--but her response isn’t direct enough for Mulder’s suddenly resurrected abandonment issues. 

“Well, maybe it’s good we get away from each other for a while,” he surmises, assuming she’s sick of being around him; which causes her to close up, assuming he’s sick of listening to her problems.  Then he flees before she can rethink things further; and she sits and feels her admission has been ignored and minimized. 

Mulder is her Ahab; but he doesn’t expect subservience in their equal partnership. Now four years in, he and Scully both expect her to waltz off to the next case in his absence; and she is nettled by their assumptions, and he baffled by her response. Scully cannot see past the tall and commanding figure of her father to notice Mulder-- shrinking from her raised hackles, blaming himself for consuming too much of her time, calling her later because he wants her a part of his life, even in absentia-- reading his withdrawal as disapproval and rebuke.  

Scully has a long wait for Fight the Future’s declaration. In the meantime, she is crying out for validation and reciprocation; and stumbles across a form of it in Ed Jerse. And after a brief investigation into the Russians and Mulder’s commanding fumble over the phone, she decides to pursue that path as soon as possible. 

THE ALLURE OF DISOBEDIENCE

Ed Jerse is her mother’s cigarettes personified: sinful and satisfying, different and dangerous. The tattoo you deserve. 

“I’ve always gone around in this, uh… this circle," she tells him. "It usually starts when an authoritative or controlling figure comes into my life. And part of me likes it-- needs it, wants the approval-- but then at a certain point, along the way I just… y’know.

“My father was a Navy captain. I worshiped… I worship.. the sea that he sailed on. And,” she admits, looking down or up or away to keep her emotions in check, “when I was thirteen or so, I went through this… thing where I would sneak out of my parents' house and smoke my mother’s cigarettes.” 

Her monologue in the bar exactly parallels Luthor Lee Boggs’s extracted confession in Beyond the Sea: “There was... that one time when I was fourteen and my parents had gone to bed and I snuck downstairs all alone. Got one of my mom's cigarettes and went out onto the porch in the dark. I was so scared: my heart was beating-- I mean, they would have killed me if they knew. But I was so excited. Not because of the cigarette-- I mean it was gross, but... because I wasn't supposed to.” 

Even now, her eyes light up in recollection, a sly smile pulling at the corners of her lips. 

“And I did it because I knew that if he found out, he would kill me. And then, ” Scully wraps up, halting as her voice drops in disgust, “There are other… fathers.” 

“Sounds a little like… your time has come around again,” Ed posits, smooth and attentive with his unspoken promise of a good time. “I want things more like a straight line,” he adds; and so compelled is Scully that she forgets a straight, endless line is worse to her than an endless cycle.

To commemorate her breakthrough, Scully inks the chains of her life onto her back… in the same place where Mulder frequently steers her around. The tattoo she deserves, after all: trying to turn her self-punishment into liberation; glorying in the pain-- in the wrongness of it all-- in an effort to produce something new and exciting and beautiful. Starbuck, thou art aptly named. 

All for naught. 

“All this because I,” Mulder questions after it’s all over, “because I didn’t get you a desk?” 

Scully is once again caressing the rose petal; but looks up, surprised, that he bothers to ask her about anything other than their next case. Seeing that he’s serious, that he’s willing to listen, she says, “Not everything is about you, Mulder. This is my life.” 

Scully has figured out, rather late, that “other fathers” were not at play here: that her search for approval was an effort to conceal her aching loneliness because Mulder-- no matter how good his intentions-- isn’t ready to be a part of “my life.” 

And Mulder intuits this, too; and falls silent. 

ADDRESSING MEMENTO MORI’S DELETED SCENE

The last mention of Captain Scully in Season 4 pops up in a deleted scene from Memento Mori. 

There are many reasons why I dislike (loathe, really) this scene-- the depiction of her brother, mainly-- but those are secondary to the thoughts I want to explore here. 

Scully wakes from her round of chemo to a man in uniform by her bed. A flash of her coma visitation shines through; and she calls out, “Dad?” softly, with a smile. 

It’s Bill Scully, Jr. that advances out of the light instead, grabbing her hand in anxious confusion. “Dana?”

“Bill?” Scully, aware of her mistake, quickly withdraws her hand and sits up, momentarily humiliated. Laughing at herself, she starts, “I thought you were, uh…”

“You were expecting someone else,” Bill smooths.

In hindsight, this is a rather morbid remark on his behalf: clutching her hand like she’s dying and half-expecting her to be expecting apparitions of the dead. (It turns out this scene is framed around him deciding she's already got a foot in the grave.)

She thanks him for coming, Bill leans in to give her an awkward hug, and the two try to regain their equilibrium in the silence that follows. 

“You look good,” he lies; and Scully makes a face, not believing it but thanking him, regardless. “Charles is sorry he couldn’t make it,” he adds, confirming that he and Charlie would have been in contact had this scene remained canon. “Think he’ll call you tonight, if you’re feeling up to it.” 

“Sad cause for a family reunion.”

“Yeah,” he agrees, fake chuckling. 

The two fall silent before Bill expounds on his new orders-- alluding to the fact she and he might not regularly communicate about much other than work. (Another aspect that might but doesn’t quite fit with their characterization in Gethsemane; but I digress.) 

“Oh, did Mom tell you? Got new orders-- NAS Miramar, Dad’s old stomping grounds.” 

So, Bill Scully also keeps in contact with Maggie (no surprise), making he and his mother the communication lightning rods of the family-- and likely Melissa, too, since she visited her family and followed up with regular phone calls (The Blessing Way, post here, and A Christmas Carol.) 

“Yeah, I was out there not long ago. Lot of old memories,” Scully reminisces, an allusion to her Piper Maru investigation (post here.) Cool call back, actually.  

“Yeah…. Lots of ghosts now. Dad… Melissa. Mom’s gettin’ worried there’s no one left to carry on the Scully name. Guess the pressure’s on, huh?”

I, personally, believe Bill would have more tactful in this situation-- and he is, even when confronting his sister in Gethsemane and A Christmas Carol-- and am glad this scene is no longer canon.

“I didn’t choose this, Bill.”

“No-- but you chose to join the FBI. Mom and Dad sending you to med school-- you were going to be the one to save lives.” 

Scully gasps, turning away to collect her words. “When Dad died, I asked Mom. She said he’d forgiven my choice.”

We have confirmation here that, while her parents were both disapproving of the FBI, it was her father that was angered by it. This fact is also backed up by her and Melissa’s conversation in A Christmas Carol (again, post here.) 

I’m going to gloss over the rest of the scene because Bill is unreasonably cruel, ridiculous, and out-of-character, blaming his sister for Missy’s death when he doesn’t appear to do so in Gethsemane, Redux II, A Christmas Carol, or even Emily.  

The takeaway is: 

Bill feels angry at Scully’s choices but doesn’t voice them until she calls attention to his subtle pokes. 

Bill is moving to his dad’s old stomping grounds, meaning he’s beginning to measure himself against his father’s legacy. Meaning, Scully may have been able to break away from her parents’ expectations, but he has not. 

Not only that, but Maggie piles her expectations for grandchildren onto Bill and Tara’s shoulders (despite their struggles with infertility) while somehow forgetting her other grandchild via Charlie Scully (previous post here.) 

All in all, this scene badly damages the extended Scully family quite a bit. But the fact that Bill is choosing to follow his father’s journey step-by-step leaves some interesting implications (to be explored in a future post.)  

REMEMBER DEATH, PART II

Scully’s father also left an impact during her fight with cancer. 

Fearing she wouldn't be strong enough for her Mulder or her mother (again, post here), Scully’s courage begins to crumble in the face of futility and exhaustion: “Mulder, it’s difficult to describe to you the fear of facing an enemy which I can neither conquer nor escape.” 

After Mulder runs to her side, afraid she'd been hurt or recaptured, he finds and reads her journal, later confessing: "When I came to find you and you weren't in your room, I got scared something had happened. And I read what you wrote."

She exhales, embarrassed. "Oh. I didn't want you to read that. I decided to throw it out. 

"I decided tonight, that, um…,” she continues, pebbling her chin to keep the tears back, “that I’m not gonna let this thing beat me.” Squaring her shoulders resolutely, she adds, “I came into this hospital able to work; and that’s how I’m leaving.” At his encouraging nod, Scully pauses, smiling back.    

Mulder finally gives her the reassurance she’s been searching for: “Scully, something was done to you, something that you’re just beginning to remember-- you can’t quite figure it out, but it can be explained and it will be explained. And no matter what you think as a scientist or a doctor, there is a way. And you will find it, to save yourself.” The truth is, he’s always believed in Scully, even when she doesn’t believe in herself. 

Scully spells out her new focus-- “Mulder, I can’t kid myself. People live with cancer. They carry on. And so will I. You know, I’ve got things to finish-- to prove, to myself, to my family. But for my own reasons.” 

It’s an incredible leap forward for the captain’s daughter; and Mulder knows this, giving her a blooming smile and wrapping her up in his first initiated hug. 

Scully beams in his praise and soaks up his comfort-- the right time for both of them, in spite of everything. 

Mulder’s “The truth will save you Scully. I think it’ll save both of us” draws out a smile while his tender forehead kiss brings her to the brink of tears. 

It’s enough for both, for now; and she pulls away, walking back bravely into battle. 

CONCLUSION

Captain Scully’s long shadow stretches from beyond the grave, shading the milestones of his children’s choices and accomplishments. While he tried posthumously to give consolation and encouragement-- like Bill Mulder did for his son, post here-- the effects of his example have left grooves that circle Scully (and her brother) around and around, faster and faster, until she breaks free of those patterns and starts her own journey. 

Only then-- not unlike the late Melissa Scully-- can Scully (and Bill) truly be free. 

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

[whimsicallyenchantedrose]

Season 3 Rewatch Drabbles: 3x10 The New Neverland

(gif by just-be-magnificent.tumblr.com)

Summary:  A series of 100-500 word drabbles to accompany my    rewatch of season 3 of Once Upon a Time.  There will be a drabble–either a deleted scene, a “fix it” fic or a character musing for each episode of the season.  Focus will be on Emma, Henry, the Charmings and Killian–with an emphasis on Captain Swan’s epic love story.

Word Count: 736

Other Chapters: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) (19) (20) (21) (22) (23) (24) (25) (26) (27) (28)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Killian sat brooding on his bar stool at Granny’s diner nursing a mug of beer.  As he watched Emma converse with her lad, his heart sank.  He loved her, wanted her more than he’d wanted any woman in centuries.  He wanted to be with her, be the man she came home to at the end of the evening, the man she confided in, loved, gazed at adoringly, the man she allowed in her life and in her bed.

But more than anything, he wanted to see her happy.  They understood each other, that was true enough.  Though the circumstances couldn’t have been more different, their lives were similar in a heartbreaking way.  Like him, she’d seen too much pain, too much hurt, too much fighting just to survive.  He deserved the fate he had, but she didn’t.  She deserved everything, every happiness life had to offer.

Even if it wasn’t with him.

He’d had hopes when they were in Neverland that he could be a part of that happy future with her–especially after the earth-shattering kiss they’d shared.  He’d been quite serious about pursuing her, courting her, winning her heart honestly and with no trickery.

But it had all been a beautiful but unattainable dream–as odd as it was to have one of those on a land seemingly built on nightmares.

He’d seen that clearly as soon as the Roger had touched down upon the waters of Storybrooke and his passengers had disembarked.  He hadn’t expected a ceremony in his honor, effusive speeches of gratitude.  He hadn’t even really expected thanks, but he had hoped for…something.  Some acknowledgement, some camaraderie, some, any, sense of belonging in the group of triumphant heroes.

For a split second, he thought he’d get it.  The lady Snow had spoken of someone they needed to give credit, someone they needed to thank, and his heart had lept, thinking it was he of whom she spoke.

But he should have known better.  It was Regina who was the focus of her gratitude.

No, Killian could see it clearly at that moment.  Pan had been right.  He was, and would ever be in their eyes, nothing but a pirate, a villain, someone with whom they could make temporary alliances when the situation called for it, but someone to never truly trust or allow within their inner circle.

He couldn’t blame them, truly.  He’d spent centuries committing the vilest of acts in pursuit of his revenge.  There was far too much in his ledger that he could never wipe out.  Swan deserved someone worthy of her.  Henry deserved a better father figure.

Whether or not Neal fit the bill, he didn’t know.  Swan hadn’t given him details of how Baelfire had hurt her, but it was clear he had, deeply so.  Perhaps the wound would prove to be too deep to overcome, but Killian had to give the lad the opportunity to try.  He owed him that much at least.  He would not be the cause of another family breaking apart.

Maybe a miracle would happen.  Maybe in the end, Swan would choose him, but in the meantime, Killian knew what he had to do.  He had to back off for the sake of the boy–both the boy Baelfire had once been, the one Killian had betrayed, and Swan’s own lad.

Aye, perhaps a miracle would happen, but Killian didn’t trust to hope.  He’d long since lost the right to wish for miracles.

Note:  Grrr!  If there’s one thing (other than Neal just being…well…NEAL) that makes me crazy about 3x10, it’s the fact that the heroes just seem to dismiss Killian.  Look at what he did for them: He went back to Neverland, the place he’d spent centuries of the worst years of his life.  He chose to bury the hatchet and work with his sworn enemy.  He’d offered his ship and his services for as long as they needed them, and in exchange?  In exchange they took it all for granted, not even thanking him, barely even acknowledging his presence.  They’ll give Regina credit for the role she played in saving Henry, but they won’t even acknowledge the far greater role Killian played, and it just makes me both sad and angry for him.  Thus this fic.  We know Killian suffers from a good deal of self-loathing.  This is what I assume led to his decision to back off when it comes to Emma.

NEXT CHAPTER->

[daymeeawn]

DayMiiAwn And The Magic Railroad (Director's Cut)

I feel I'm one of the few people who really likes the Magic Railroad Deleted Storylines. Here are some random thoughts on it.

For starters P.T. Boomer wasn't at all what I expected, but I enjoyed him none the less. It was weird how Doug Lennox delivered certain lines ("It's gonna be mine, all mine" is just begging to be said in an over-the-top maniacal voice), but there was a lot of restraint to the performance that made the character feel more real and menacing. He was basically just the aged-up version of how a playground bully would behave in this kind of movie, and I think it adds some relatability to the dynamic between him and Burnett. This is more a personal note, but I find characters (not just villains in specific) who are willing to carelessly destroy other people's belongings to be deeply upsetting, so watching him stroll through Burnett's garden and punching Mr. Conductor's flower basket might have really scared me as a kid, which I'm not saying is a bad thing. Funnily, I think the general character trait of disrespecting nature is pretty good for Boomer. It could be a nice additional subtext to the movie, if the steam engines themselves weren't so bad for the environment.

I don't really mind the lack of engine characters. Before the workprint and deleted storylines released, I was only really interested in the missing Sodor scenes, but when these things released with so little to offer, I took the time to really watch these new human scenes, and I think together they make a perfectly compelling story about familial discourse. Burnett is the grandfather. In Lily's eyes, that means he's supposed to be a warm, welcoming figure. But ever since the love of his life passed away, Burnett has become a recluse, contacted only by his far away family and his occasional errand boy Patch. Lily no longer enjoys visiting her grandpa, but if finally forced when her father is away on business and her mother is about to give birth. She crafts him a friendship bracelet, which her grandma taught her to make, in the hopes that it will finally cheer him up. Despite how mature Lily makes herself out to be, she still maintains a childish mentality about the whole thing, that because Burnett is the grandpa, he's supposed to remain a consistently positive presence. When Lily does arrive, she shares a deathly quiet dinner with her grandpa, in what is probably the least cheerful scene filmed for the movie. Afterward, she shows Burnett the bracelet and tries in vain to put it on him. Burnett pushes her away. Lily goes to bed, and only after she's gone is Burnett willing to let his grief show. The next day, Lily tries to casually bring up the subject of her grandma, and Burnett plays dumb. Sick of trying to connect with him, Lily storms off to where she ends up meeting Patch. It's good to know why she looked so pissed off in the finished movie.

Patch is hardworking, loyal, and deeply respects his elders like Billy and Burnett. Though he comes off as kind of a blank slate in the final movie, in the deleted scenes he's one of the nicest characters in the movie. Just his willingness to maintain long, wistful stories from old men proves that he has the patience of a saint. He's just a good, old fashioned country boy who's willing to help anyone. He brings Lily to Shining Time Station, then leaves for a while to do one of his many errands. And when he returns Lily is missing. Patch has shown interest in the mysterious before, but he's never shown any awareness of the magical properties of Shining Time, so when Lily simply disappears, he doesn't know what to think, leading to my favorite Cody McMains performance in the whole movie, where he sounds genuinely distraught by everything that's taken place. Something I find interesting is how Burnett's grief over his wife and his grief over Lady are treated as two wholly different plotlines, one pertaining more to Lily and the other pertaining to Boomer. Patch sits in the middle of both conflicts, and it's a little awkward watching him juggle all the different roles he needs to fill. Most noteworthy is the scene where he shamefully admits to Burnett that he doesn't know where Lily is. That Burnett put his trust in Patch, and Patch failed him. Surprisingly, Burnett isn't angry, but as he quietly walks away, Patch then flip-flops to questioning him about the lost engine, and even gets sort of interrogative with him, when he was just apologizing to him a moment ago. Then Boomer shows up, and tries to bribe Patch for information in what's actually a kind of creepy scene. Here is where Patch shows him true colors. He stands by Burnett and refuses Boomer's offer, and it's the most firm he's ever been with someone. Here we get the complete version of Lady's backstory, which was senselessly chopped in half in the final version of the film. Presenting the big reveal scene in two separate halves makes Patch visiting Burnett in his secret workshop look like a common occurrence, and doesn't really achieve the same impact the scene was written with the intent to have.

Lily leaving to go to Shining Time is when the wedge in her relationship with Burnett is driven the furthest. Burnett knows where Lily went, and in his eyes, it means she doesn't want to be around him. In Lily's eyes, Burnett is just some sad sack who wants to wallow in his own misery, and sees her presence as a burden. Meanwhile, on Sodor, Lily has observed the behaviors of Mr. Conductor and Junior, one a responsible gentleman, the other a party dude, and when they're together, they never stop arguing. Yet, when Junior is abducted, Mr. Conductor is deeply concerned about him, because in the end, they're family, and they love one another unconditionally. When Mr. Conductor explains this to Lily at the campfire, he's not lecturing her, he's simply stating a fact, then asks her opinion. Lily seems to reject the idea momentarily, but slowly realizes there's nothing there to disagree with. She does love her grandfather, no matter what mood he's in. She decides to go home. She reunites with Burnett, and the two finally share a heart-to-heart. Burnett opens up about his grief for Tasha, and manages to tie it back into his failure with Lady. This time, when Burnett shows a slight hesitance to speak, Lily supports him, rather then running away. Lily tightens the bracelet around Burnett's wrist. He doesn't push her away. Tasha and Lady are intrinsically tied. Bringing Lady back also honors Tasha's memory. From here, Burnett is like a different character. Even during the chase scene, where he vicariously confronts Boomer, he seems to have a playful attitude about the whole thing. That's the hidden beauty of the chase scene, I think. Burnett is enjoying it the same way the audience is enjoying it.

In the final movie, we don't see Burnett or Lily again after the transition from the bluebird, but of course, in the workprint and deleted storylines, Lily narrates the story' conclusion, and shows us that after coming home, Burnett was willing to let people into his life again. Inviting the whole family over to visit and reconnecting with Billy Twofeathers. He lived out the rest his days peacefully. Patch, by allying himself with the side of good, not only got to see the sights of Sodor, but would also end up marrying Lily, showing how this strange experience helped him form lifelong bonds. And our protagonist Lily has learned the true value of family. Oh, and Thomas is there too.

[sunrizef1]

I'm gonna push back on that anon about the sacrifices comment. Yeah, the Sargeants aren't hurting for money (though it should be noted that Logan's funding was non-existent after 2020 and he had to work his tail off to get to F1). But not all sacrifices involve money. You can't buy time with your family, with your friends. Logan moved to Europe at 12. That is a sacrifice beyond anything most young drivers on the European circuit can imagine. And his family went home eventually. That's a huge sacrifice for a family to make. I don't criticise Logan's Americanness because I can easily see a shy child clinging to that last part of himself when he's alone in a hostile environment that so clearly doesn't want him. We don't criticise Zhou for being proudly Chinese, or Yuki for being proudly Japanese, or Oscar and Daniel for being vocally Australian. I think Logan's ready to move on from that being his only thing, but what's he supposed to do? The only time people pay attention to him is to criticise. As for politics, all we know is that he's not registered to either party. Let not the son pay for the sins of his father (or his uncle). And no, I'm not American; but I can call out the sheer hostility of the European single seater scene towards "outsiders".

I agree with you, anon

I do think some of the patriotism can be attributed to wanting to hang on to that last part of home when you haven't been back in a while

Because he has said he does still think of Florida as home which is probably hard for him considering he moved away at 14 or somewhere around there and never really got to go back

And people don't really let Logan be anything else. He's “the american”. He has the flag on his helmet, there's constant reminders since he has three home races, he, unfortunately, looks like a stereotypical American frat boy so he's kinda stuck.

And, like you said, he hasn't outwardly proved his political opinion aside from a, now deleted, Instagram post when he was like 15. (And I think the environment he's in doesn't exactly lend itself to the politics of his family but I digress)

And you're right, pretty much any non-european drivers are seen differently and forced to just be the country they come from. Danny and Oscar get Aussie stuff constantly but they have the fortunate fate of being good drivers in popular teams so they get to be something other than just Australian, which is a fate that other drivers to not get.

The second you're not in a top 4 team, you're not really your own person. This kind of happened with Daniel where he really got pushed to the side once he got in the VCARB. Daniels been such a character and such a popular person in the paddock for years but, in the vcarb, he's just Daniel Ricciardo, f1 driver. I could also say the same with Alex, considering how good he is and how overlooked he's become in the Williams. Theres also a lot to say about the correlation between being a backmarker and his nationality but thats a whole separate, long, thing lol

[musicandrockfan128]

More Ed Norton movie reviews cont.

Wrote some more movie reviews!

Everyone Says I Love You (1996)

Thoughts on his acting: It was funny watching Norton turn from a devious character to a funny, sweet character who is in love. He also sings and dance, which pays homage to his Broadway experience. While the movie’s story line was not captivating to me personally, Norton’s individual story line, romancing and singing to Barrymore’s character was charming.

Keeping the Faith (2000)

My two faves Ben Stiller and Edward Norton in the same movie? Im totally hooked! Norton directed this movie, and his talent as a director shined. Norton is a character actor and how he can act as an unlikable person, to a love-sick man boggles my mind. But he pulls it off. His acting as a confused priest in love with his childhood best friend was entertaining. Norton does have a playful quirkiness to him when he acts in comedic roles, which I appreciate.

The Score (2001)

Thoughts: One of my favorite movies. In addition to owning Richard Gere in his first movie, here Norton tries to outsmart Robert DeNiro, and manages to pull it off… almost. I don’t see any other actor doing such a thing. But the acting, to the tense heist scenes, to Norton’s switch from likable Brian, to cunning Brian made his character two-fold, with more depth. How Norton plays unlikable, flawed characters in various movie genres proves he does well in not being typecasted.

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

This was a better depictions of Hulk. It was scary, tough, yet had character and empathy for Betty Ross (Liv Tyler). The movie, though felt too short and scenes felt too abrupt. They should have let Bruce have more scenes, and more romance honestly. I didn’t see the power of his performance shine in this movie. It felt unmotivated to me. I would have loved to have seen Abomination and Hulk in more scenes, more scenes with Bruce making the serum from the flower in Brazil, him running away, to having dinner with Betty (as the deleted scenes showed).

Stone (2010)

Thoughts: In the movie, Norton is this lost, questioning prisoner who wants to reach enlightenment by following a new world religion-- believing God is within sounds and chanting “Hue.” He is unbearable again with his attitude, as he pushes his P.O (DeNiro) over the top with his ramblings on wanting to be better, and chit chats about his wife. Norton’s dive into his character is again realistic. I love when he plays a different character in every movie, and while he did a great job playing an annoying character, it made me appreciate Norton’s acting more.

Glass Onion (2022)

Thoughts: Rian Johnson did fantastic writing and directing the first movie, Knives Out. For this sequel movie, Norton’s presence and Kate Hudson’s funny acting were the only highlights, as the movie as a whole was alright. I liked Norton’s facial expressions, and casual acting as a know it all, but really doesn’t know what he’s doing. This role seemed like a comedic relief to the serious ones he’s done in the past and you can tell everyone had a fun time being in this movie.

Extrapolations ( Apple TV show), Episode 4 (2023)

Thoughts: From singular character, to now, a divorced father with a son shows the progression of character through the years. I would have liked to have seen him have more emotions when asking his son to come back home, to stop the climate change actions the son is planning. Also would have liked for Norton to be in more than one episode, but that’s just my bias.

[thatsolacegirl]

I'm in a mood to break some stuff so let's talk about how much I hated Loki S2's deleted scene. (I'm going to rant. This is an anti-Loki series post.)

We'll go through this one by one.

Variant!Loki is fresh out (somewhat) of the Battle of New York so, whatever happened Thor: TW onwards don't apply to Larry here.

He is the problem? But how? Didn't he attack Jotunheim Odin's approval. So, he tries to prove that he too could be like Thor (who was in fact very much in favour of killing frost giants since childhood). Also, didn't Loki work under Thanos' coercion (read: tortured because of the way he looked in Thor 1 post-credit scene & in the opening scene of The Avengers) to get the Tesseract? (1) (2) (3) What is this scene even? The start is just so jarring.

Let's go through the roll call:

Nick Fury: Well, he did indirectly call him a problem because Loki was threatening to invade Earth. So, yeah. But directly, he never called him a problem.

Erik Selvig: He was enthralled by Loki via Mind Stone. I don't think in any one of those scenes he was ever shown talking to Selvig which would imply that the latter even said to him that. I think the one time Erik Selvig bad-mouthed Loki was in T: TW where he was relieved that Loki was dead.

Bor: So, I'm going to admit this was tricky but, hear me out on this one. Bor is Odin's father. Odin became the king only after his death. Alright. So, if we are going according to the timeline by the time Odin went to war with Jotuns and consequently adopted baby Loki, he was already the king of Asgard. Bor was dead when Odin went to that war. Thus, Loki never met his adopted grandfather. SO, APPARENTLY, A DEAD ASGARDIAN CAN TALK TO LOKI? HOW COOL IS THE FACT THAT LOKI HAD THE ABILITY TO COMMUNE WITH THE DEAD?! (/s)

Laufey: Another can of worms, I suppose. So, in Thor 1, it had been shown that after the war in 925 AD, the Asgardian contact with Jotunheim had been forbidden. Loki let some of them in to ruin/delay Thor's coronation. The one time he met Laufey, they made a deal, never once Laufey told that Loki was the problem. Laufey, canonically (Thor 1), never even knew that Loki was his son.

Amora: I, for once, think that it would've been cool to see her, either in the series or in Thor 4. But it is often the fate of MCU women to either be a footnote in the men's stories or completely ruined by the narrative, or the writers' incompetence makes them unlikable (only a few are well-written female characters). So, I'm happy about the fact that the queen is still untouched.

Jane Foster & Darcy Lewis: Jane met him once in Thor: TW. During Loki's invasion of NY, she was hiding in Norway with Darcy. Jane had only met Loki because she went to Asgard for Aether's cure. Darcy, on the other hand (even tho I love the way he spoke her name and Tasertricks is my OTP), had never met him. She heard about him, she saw him destroy New Mexico via Destroyer but she had never met him to explicitly say that he was the problem.

Maria Hill: When did she even say that he was the problem? When she was chasing him?!

Heimdall (Heimdall was a big one, he got very upset): Okay, yeah, I get that. Heimdall & him had a long history. Again, I have no idea about their dynamics. And whenever we see them interacting, the animosity is very visible since Thor 1.

Warriors Three (Fandral, Volstagg, Hogun): Again, the history thing here too.

Absorbing Man: So, AoS canon? Also, when did Loki come down to Earth to fight the absorbing man and why I didn't know about it. When did pre-Avengers Loki meet him? I want to know.

Donald Blake (who Thor pretends to be when he goes to Earth): So, this made my eyebrows twitch for the reason that I saw Thor 1 recently (to add to a Darcy post) and everything he said about Donald Blake was just plain wrong. Thor took up the name of Donald Blake (1) when he was given the shirt by Jane--real Donald Blake was Jane's ex before Thor, (2) Darcy made a false driver's licence which mentioned his name as Donald Blake and not Thor, and (3) when Erik came to retrieve Thor, he called him Donald Blake. So, if Thor didn't choose this persona & was given to him by his Earth friends, then how could he had pretended to be him? Also, this name was only used in Thor 1, after Avengers 1, everybody knew him as Thor, his real name.

Hercules: Don't know much about this one here because (1) he's introduced in a post-credit scene & (2) in a Thor film I hate passionately. But he's as old as Thor & Loki, so, a history might be there. We don't know. The TVA series didn't show exactly how they were connected.

So, y'all might be thinking Sol, why are you whining and moaning, it is a deleted scene after all??

You see the writers wrote this scene. The writers who should've, no, must've made themselves familiar with the lore, WROTE THIS BULLSHIT SCENE. AND THE DIRECTOR(S) FILMED IT.

Also, Loki's series could have been the show in that he could've interacted with the people he mentioned but he didn't because it wasn't truly a Loki series, it was a TVA series.

I'm livid.

[kwamikikkitale]

Elemental Delete Scenre- Overall Thoughts

After seeing all the delete scenes, I came to the conclusion that I am happy with the version that we got. And how making an animated movie is far more complicated than we thought.

Ember's Mom Rejects Wade: On early versions, it was Cinder who was gonna be against Ember and Wader relationship rather than Bernie with Bernie supporting Ember. I am glad they reverse it. Because by the look of that delete scence if Cinder was going to be a traditional Asian mom and there would have been complaints of "another Turning Red mom".

Welcome to Elemental City: In this early version of the intro instead of Bernie and Cinder arriving to the city it was gonna be another fire family with Ember showing them around how the city works and accommodating them. In the end, it makes sense for the story to change to Bernie and Cinder intro rather than some random family.

Dante Challenge: First, I am gonna ignore the whole controversy of Wade feeling attracted to Dante. In this scene Ember and Wade help Dante accomodate into a non-fire apartment in the end fail due Dante severe allergies. I am glad they got rid of this because Bernie was acting more antagonistic towards Ember. He seems to prove Ember more why it was impossible to live among other elements. He was even glad that Ember failed at her job to help Dante live outside Firetown. Heck, at first, he even suggested Dante to live with Ember at her apartment, which is not a nice thing for a dad to do. I'm glad that we got a more positive father-daughther relationship.

Beach Proposal: A proposal were originally Ember and Wade were already dating for a long run instead of getting to know each other. Shame that they got rid of this. But in the end, a proposal was too soon for the story that we got.

Brook Dinner: After watching this, I came to the conclusion that some movies are better off without a villain, with Elemental being one of those movies. Brook was originally going to be an antagonist. Not only was she against Wade dating Ember. But she pretty much blackmails Ember that if she didn't break up with him, she was not going to fix the pipe leak. Suggesting that originally, the destruction of the dam was going to be an attempted genocide rather than an accident. Have they gone through this, people would not only complain of another evil parent (and contrary to antis Bernie is not an antagonist) but that the story was a copy of Zootopia. Nice, we got a supporting mom. Also, a small nitpick from this scene is that Wade doesn't manage to make Ember cry in the "Crying Game". Destroying the purpose of Wade managing to get through Ember's heart.

Steam Baby: Yes, the famous steam baby that was meant to be the original ending. They didn't go through because they were hoping the movie would become popular enough for a continuation. Which I came to understand. We all have wanted to see a baby, but just like the beach proposal, it was too soon for that. Even if they have gone through a large time skip.

From all these delete scenes, the ones that hurt not making it to the final product are the beach proposal and the steam baby. Just hope one day we see them fully animated. Either as a sequel or a short.

[oswildin]

I don’t know how I feel when people say they ‘want the old Loki back’…

Whilst I get it, trust me, Dark World Loki made my knees weak, but I think the version we have now is so much better… Ragnarok Loki quickly became my favourite for the pure fact that he finally began to accept himself, he was willing to sacrifice himself to save Thor, because there ain’t no way my man picked up that dagger and didn’t know he was gonna die I—

TVA Loki is more grounded. He was shown that his whole desire for a throne was ultimately meaningless (I mean in the grand scheme and tbh he never really wanted it in the first place, just wanted to be Thors equal). Even when Miss Minutes and He Who Remains tries to tempt him into getting his throne, sure he falters for a moment, but he knows that isn’t his purpose now. He is actively trying to not do what led to his mothers death. Be bitter and callous (or at least portray that that’s who he is when we all know he’s always had a heart and is emotional).

Sure, i get it, you want intimidating Loki, powerful Loki, threatening Loki… But episode two showed he can still be those things, except now with more restraint. And I actually think it makes him more intimidating that he was so ‘goofy’ and casual in how he spoke to Brad during the interrogation scenes. His calmer demeanour instead of blind rage is scary.

Loki has a duality that many characters don’t. He can be the tough intimidating guy, he can be the emotional guy, he can be the problem solver and the problem maker, he can be a good friend and a bad one… He’s so multifaceted and I think only wanting the ‘villainous’ side of him diminishes his character slightly.

I related to Loki in Thor 1 because to me he was someone who was lost, confused and hurt, lashing out like… well, like a child. And we now know that that role had been thrusted upon him due to his supposed ‘path on the sacred timeline’, that he was ‘made to cause others pain’. But he’s learning that it doesn’t have to be that way, that he can simply be himself without the hardened armour, the mask of a villain. It was always clear he didn’t enjoy hurting people. The fact he cried when he was fighting Thor, he cried when his mother died, even when his father died he was upset (despite me thinking odin didn’t deserve it but anyways…)

And everyone likes to reference the scene where Loki is taking that man’s eyeball in the Avengers, but if the theory is correct he was under the influence of the mind stone, then it was most likely amplifying his darker thoughts and emotions, hence the smile. He finally felt like he held the power, he had the upper hand. It wasn’t about the torture he was inflicting, it was about how people finally were viewing him as someone to take seriously, be afraid of. (Plus I really doubt at that point marvel even had in mind how his character would progress considering I don’t think any of them expected Loki to become a beloved character, hence why I take that scene with a pinch of salt).

People also say ‘how did he go from this to this’ or ‘this the same Loki that did this’, like… People can be multifaceted… They can have different sides to themselves… I think if deleted scenes with Loki weren’t cut, it wouldn’t feel that way so much to some people. For example the deleted Thor and Loki scene from Thor 1 where he turns the wine into snakes, showing his childish like mischief, him telling Thor he loved him despite his own jealousy. That one little scene would’ve added more depth to his character (in that film), and the scene with his mother where he gets given the throne? Ugh, should’ve been kept in because it showed his shock at being given that power. And also, his plan - whilst yes, bad and misguided - was all about trying to prove himself, and protect his family in the process from the ‘monsters’ that he saw himself as, almost to be like ‘see I’m not like them, look-‘.. I—

I want to see Loki feel accepted, banter with Mobius, eating pie even though it’s too sweet, embracing his powers and magic for good (and mischief ofc), be honest and talking about his past/emotions, beginning to realise that he can be whoever he wants. He doesn’t have to fit in a box, not a villain or a hero, but someone who is flawed and is trying his best.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[randomfoggytiger]

The Scully Family In-Depth: All Parts

So proud to announce that the Scully Family In-Depth series, a project spanning more than a year's time, is complete.

Feast your eyes on all 25 parts!

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part I): Childhood and The Pilot

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part II): The First Christmas Death

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part III): A Facade and a Funeral

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part IV): Luthor Lee Boggs, Love, and Letting Go

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part V): Miracles, Lyle Parker, and Psychic Charlie?

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part VI): Maggie Scully and Mulder Meet

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part VII): Mulder, Maggie, Melissa, and the Snake

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part VIII): Maggie Calls Mulder "Fox"

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part IX): Mulder and the Two Scully Sisters

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part X): One Breath and the Scully Men

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part XI): The Last Conversations of One Melissa Scully

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part XII): Prophecy, Death, and the Question of Fate

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part XIII): The Erosion of Scully’s Security, on Tape

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part XIV): When Nature Turns So Cruel

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part XV): "Other Fathers", Deleted Scenes, and "Things to Prove"

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part XVI): Crouching Cancer, Hidden Motives

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part XVII): The Doubting Thomas

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part XVIII): Best-Laid Schemes Often Go Awry

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part XIX): Eyes Averted, and Final Decisions

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part XX): The Brotherhood of Miscommunication 

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part XXI): Faith, Fear, and Scully Symbiosis, Part I 

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part XXII): Faith, Fear, and Scully Symbiosis, Part II

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part XXIII): Loss, Second Chances, and In Absentia 

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part XXIV): Guardian Angels and Inverted Nativities

The Scully Family In-Depth (Part XXV): The Mulder-Scully Family, a Convergence of Fate and Freewill 

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

[no--net]

Willing to be punched in the face again for you (Part one) Byomjit Angst

(before reading this I recommend watching the movie detective byomkesh bakshi and watching its deleted scene (mainly scene 3) or else their might be some references you might miss

Hope you like it and I will try to update it soon (suggestions are welcome) and please comment somthing ....yes I'm asking for validation)

It had been a horrible day for Ajit . Why you may ask? Let's rewind I little bit

The last evening Byomkesh and Ajit were on a case ,long story short it turned bloody and Byomkesh had to be dragged home once again. All of the exhaustion might have caught up with the detective but not his friend unfortunately.  While byomkesh slept like a baby Ajit was dragged to the police station for details of the case. So after no dinner and no sleep he thought breakfast would make things better but nope! Turns out Byomkesh had the audacity to get invited to a friend's house. Alone! Eating alone just doesnt hit the same so lunch was a bye bye and now here we are to the present and guess what's happening? Yep Ajit is being dragged to another case ! for goodness sake! "Byomkesh I've went inside and checked out the crime scene and I advice you highly against it" said ajit who went to check on the blood situation inside.

"Mr Bakshi you are our last hope I need you to get on this case" said the police officer "Sir why do you worry I'll go right in and right out and the case would be s.o.l.v.e.d solved!" Mr smartypants boasts "No we will not be taking the case" said Ajit in quite the stern voice "Fine then WE won't...but I will" Announced Byomkesh while going towards the building "Alright listen here" says Ajit as he drags Byomkesh aside "For once listen to me Byomkesh,don't take the case" "Ajit you dont understand this-this is such an important case! It could be the highlight of my career!" Byomkesh says as he throws his hands out trying to prove a point .

"You'll solve the case once you actually process what's going on in there" "What do you mean-"

"Their is too much blood in there,and you completely shut down the moment you see it" Ajit's voice and anger were rising every second "I wont! You'll see it will be fine"

"Byomkesh I saw the mess you were yesterday after seeing a dead body-honestly speaking it wasnt even that much blood but there is blood on the ENTIRE WALL in there , please I cannot do it today . I don't want you to take the case-" "Yeah you didnt say that when it was your father's dead body!"

"Do not bring my father into this!" At this point it wasnt a conversation anymore it was a full blown argument

"No because when it's about YOU and YOU ONLY then you dont care!"

"It was different then!" "It wasnt you hypocrite" Byomkesh whispers in the nastiest tone Ajit has ever heard him in "maybe I was wrong ,maybe your father not wanting a son like you was your fault"

Usually when dialogues similar to this are uttered a punch usually lands on the detective's face which frankly he was expecting but.....that didnt happen. Ajit didnt shout or punch or came up with a comeback He just stood their

So disappointed

So tired

So....heartbroken?

"Fine you go take the case" it was barely above a whisper

Pretending to not notice any of that at all Byomkesh Bakshi turned around to face the building with pride "Yes Ajit ! I'll show you that together we-"

"No" "No?"

"Not WE ....you . I'm going home" he says as he turns around and starts walking

"No but-" it wasnt like his friend ,his best friend didnt try to go after him "Mr Bakshi will you be taking the case then?" The conversation-or the one sided speech that the police officer gave kind of blended together as Byomkesh tried to spot ajit in the darkness "No sorry sir" said the man as he took off after finnaly catching a glimpse of the other man

A few turns and 5 minutes of running later Ajit was nowhere to be seen...shit

"He must have went home...yeah .home"

After Practically running back to his house you could imagine how Byomkesh felt when he saw the door still locked "He's not here"

[whimsicallyenchantedrose]

Season 3 Rewatch Drabbles: 3x5 Good Form

Summary:  A series of 100-500 word drabbles to accompany my    rewatch of season 3 of Once Upon a Time.  There will be a drabble–either a deleted scene, a “fix it” fic or a character musing for each episode of the season.  Focus will be on Emma, Henry, the Charmings and Killian–with an emphasis on Captain Swan’s epic love story.

Word Count: 745

Other Chapters: (1) (2) (3) (4) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) (19) (20) (21) (22) (23) (24) (25) (26) (27) (28)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Killian touched his lips softly, almost reverently, as he sat alone in the forest. She’d kissed him.  She’d actually kissed him.  Killian reached for his flask, needing the familiar burn of the rum on his tongue to prove to himself that he was awake and was not, in fact, in the throws of a delicious dream.

He’d flirted with her, smiling his teasing smile and playfully touching his lips as he suggested a way she might thank him for his service toward her father, but he’d never expected her to take him up on his suggestion.

Not that he was complaining.  That kiss had been…. He blew out a long sigh.  Even for a man so normally silver tongued as he was, there were no words.

It was more than the kiss itself–that had been steamy, passionate, blissful, of course–but it was more than that. It was….it was what the kiss revealed.

He loved her.  He was in love with her.  She’d snuck under his defenses as stealthily as any pirate could have, and without his knowledge, she’d taken possession of his heart.

It was an uncomfortable feeling, if he were being honest.  He’d never been one to bestow his love lightly, but when he did, there was no going back.  He’d spent two-hundred bloody (often literally) years in Neverland because of love for Milah, for heaven’s sake.  The thought of moving on from her, of bestowing his heart on another and giving her the power to crush it as thoroughly as Milah’s death had done…

He took another long swallow.

Well, there was nothing for it now.  It had happened.  He’d fallen in love again.

As he continued to sit and ruminate on the events of the day, it occurred to him that while the revelation of his love was momentous, it was by no means the only noteworthy thing that had happened that day.

This place, Neverland, had a truly ghastly effect on its inhabitants.  It had a way of bringing one's worst fears, one's greatest insecurities, one's biggest regrets to mind.  This place was depression in physical form.  He’d survived his last stint here with the aid of one thing and one thing only–his revenge.  That goal, that singular purpose had allowed him to keep his wits about him.

This time around….well, the fact that he’d allowed the Crocodile on his ship, formed a tentative truce with him, proved that he had given up on that revenge.  Without that singular focus to ruminate upon, he’d spent the hours on this island this go around reminded of his sins, his faults, the fact that he was a villain whom the heroes tolerated only.

Hadn’t David said it himself this morning? “Let me give you a bit of advice, Hook. She’s never gonna like you.  How could she?  You’re nothing but a pirate.”

Though he’d tried to keep the mocking grin on his face, it had stung, and for the first time, Killian realized how very much he wanted to change his life, become the kind of man Emma’s father–a man who was so much like his own hero, Liam–would approved of.

But at that moment, the gloom of Neverland had descended, and he’d come to realize he’d never be that man; he’d never overcome his past.  He’d never reach a higher status than “the pirate with which we’ve formed a temporary but begrudging alliance”.

And so it had continued throughout the day.  David had taken pains to make his disdain and dislike known and felt, taking small verbal digs at him, even as he attempted to save his life.

So it was that the second most astounding event of the day–second only to the kiss–had happened.  When they’d returned to camp after achieving their ends at the top of Dead Man’s Peak, David had not only given him credit, but had toasted him, had bestowed on him the look of approval and gratitude Killian had never dared hope to receive from him.

It had embarrassed him a bit, having the entire company of heroes and Regina (he still wasn’t sure where upon the hero-villain spectrum she truly belonged) raise a flask to him, but the warmth it engendered had been as potent as his rum.

For the first time, he could see a way forward.  Maybe he didn’t have to be forever defined by his past villainous deeds.  Perhaps….perhaps there was a path to redemption available for him after all.

NEXT CHAPTER->

[hislittleraincloud]

I'm a Wenclair truther(why are they so gayly written for each other) but you've also turned me into a Wenovan truther (because they're kinda... perfect?) so now my days consist of:

•waking up

•eating 1294838 meals (repeat as desired)

•thinking about Wenclair/Wenovan

• switching between the two every time I go, "Oh! Wenovan/Wenclair are different in that way!"

•do it again

...Ficwife? Not ficwife. Ficwife would just DM me. So!

I'm def not a Wenclair Truther, but you are quite adorable. I don't know how one makes the jump from Wenclair to Wenovan (and back), but I'm glad someone else sees what I see. Some day soon, after 8 is published (or maybe before, who knows) I intend to make a post/video re: the Wenovan moments from the show. I think one of my favorites is when she completely disses Tyler (and her snood...sorry Wenclairs 😭) after he gave her that cappuccino and lied about the Gates Mansion, popping the Hell up the very second she sees the sheriff walking up to the counter.

That moment couldn't be any clearer. She said quite plainly, "I solved the old case you were whining about all of these years and proved you wrong about my father, come solve the current murders with me." There's no other person she willingly pro-actively interacts with on the show with the intentions of doing something 'great'.

I have this really 🔥 WIP that takes place on Donovan's birthday, July 22, 2023 (this is unedited, saved as it was written in the summer):

This will probably be placed after After the Burn/"Season 2" since I'm starting to think that AtB will only cover January 2023 to...maybe April 2023? I have to think in terms of a season's structure, and in-between the end of 8 and the beginning of AtB, I'm thinking that I might give little shorts/insights that aren't part of any chapters but are fun or informative (kind of like the deleted scenes). I have a really funny one that takes place during Halloween 2023, too...it involves Enid and tight 'sexy' costumes. Poor Donovan LOL

See, people? Sweet Anons get previews and tidbits.

After the Burn (this has always been the sequel's working title, but I'm thinking of a new title, maybe) will feature the same characters from the first season (even the dead will appear, in flashbacks). There might be some more introductory stuff, like with the Breedings (we haven't seen Samuel active in the fic yet, and my GOD he is a nasty piece of work...he might be in the opening scene, I'm not sure yet). We haven't seen the last of Laurel Gates, either. My main concern is how much I can write and keep Wenovan's story behind the main one, like in S1, or if that's even doable. As it stands: Morticia is going to have a bigger role, as will Pugsley and his support dog. Xavier's father Vincent Thorpe will also get a good chunk of my attention, since Chancellor also is present for a good lot of the story (and is, actually, key to The Story of why Wednesday even lives to breathe another day). Vincent and Chancellor have the kind of hate for each other that makes you wonder if Vincent is just suppressing his desires. But I assure you, it's hate. The Goodmen storyline will likely be the main storyline, along with more Hyde fun (among other weird 'creature' things, like giving Mishizu Herz a bigger role because she's good enough to be a Nightshade...whether she participates in their sex parties is something to think about, because boy would it be weird if she was fucking someone and her face morphed into the dude's mom or something 🤣), but MorningSong cult will also be causing a little bit of trouble (and are tied to past controversies with norminal society's rules/statutes about outcasts). There is some cool shit that'll be happening with the Nightshades (young and old), we'll learn about Morticia's past and how she got together with Gomez, we'll learn about Goody Isabel Addams (I gave her a real name) and her husband. I just have to get past 8, and within 8 I'm planting some seeds to get what I mentioned rolling.

I think about Wenovan a lot too. Since I have the show on loop, I can't escape them (LOL, I just looked up to my TV and it's the scene where she dumps the evidence she collected on his desk 🫠🥰). But, I've been seduced by Cairo and Jon from Miller's Girl. Like I mentioned in one of my reblogs w the Freeman Fanatic (💖✨), they're the softer version of Wenovan, and Cairo scares me more than Wednesday. Probably because she's more real and her mental issues haven't at all been addressed (unlike with Wednesday, who goes to a therapist...OOOOOH it would've been so funny if Buscemi was her new therapist). I want to see just how far a 'regular normie' would go to keep her man, because we know that Afterburn Wednesday would disappear anyone who tried to flirt up Donovan and do it in a memorable way.

But anyway, yes. Wenovan all day, every day. And I apologize for the long wait for 8. I'm still mentally drained from RL b.s. I have the headers for 8.1 and 8.2 still in my tired brain (I know what I want them to look like, I just need to sit my tired ass down in front of the laptop...maybe I'll do that tonight or something). I have 8 in their bits and pieces and am still writing, but the bulk of 8.2 has been around since last year (almost exactly a year ago!), when I wrote the rest of the outline. Eugene gets lines! 🤣 I think I did him justice.

Daddy needs sleep or something, bc I haven't been feeling well. I need to get back on a Night Owl schedule, since I write best at night. I probably should re-read through Afterburn just to remind myself of which seeds I've already planted and what I need to incorporate or get rid of from my WIPs. I haven't done that in a little while. I'm glad that you probably do, and thank you for the kindness. I don't get any of the sort IRL since I (necessarily, for health reasons) isolate. It's just me and the dogs. 🫠💕🔥✨

[kim-ruzek]

He did want to make someone else the father, timing was just not on his side.

He did use the miscarriage to separate them further again.

And even Eid in his crappy abilities as a showrunner knew it would just be so out of character for Adam to not freak out. Plus I still have issues with HOW he did that 🤣

he wanted to make blair the father and because of timing it did not work i know. but adam is not only other man in chicago. they could have made a character from fire or med or a random character the father

the miscarriage separate them for only a little while. then in s8 they were closer than ever, hanging our together all the time. they became close because of the miscarriage. “do you think maybe thats the reason we’re even closer now? why we want to be together all the time? why we act like a couple? because of this terrible thing that happen to us” “of course it is”

he did not freak out like that when kim was kidnapped in 6x14. he was worried but he didnt freak they were not together in 6x14 and 8x16 so it would not be out of character if he didnt freak out like that so rick eid could have wrote it so he was only worried for kim but not freaked out. what issues did you have? that hailey was the hero? 😂

when al died in s5 the unit was in the hospital waiting room. when jay was kidnapped and shot in s7 the hospital waiting room was filled with the unit and other police. same with kim in s9 after she was shot and kidnapped in s8. and when she had miscarriage in s7. who was showrunner all those times? rick eid. what happen now with gwen as showrunner? we did not see hailey in hospital in 10x20. we did not see team be there for her in hospital. if rick eid was still show runner the whole unit would have checked on hailey after jay left. but now because gwen is show runner we never got adam and kim asking her how shes doing. we did not see anyone other than kim and trudy in the hospital for adam in 10x22! if rick eid was still showrunner the episode would have ended the entire police force in the waiting room for adam! but with gwen it ends with voight drinking because gwen is obsessed with voight 😂 you can rant about jay’s character and upsteads and what rick eid did wrong on chicago pd but you cant say what you find wrong with svu s18. why not? 😂

I'm not touching most of this but-- if Sigan is obsessed with Voight, it's not like she's the first showrunner who is. And we can debate the importance of Voight all day long and if he should've got that spot or if all the showrunners should've been "obsessed" with him but the fact remains that he's the lead and unfortunately that means sometimes people prioritise him over other much needed/wanted scenes.

And lmao it's not even Eid who first had everyone gather in the hospital when one of their own needed them so. Plus. The hall was filled with cops, they showed Kim and Trudy, they had a deleted scene where Kim was at Adam's bedside. So that doesn't prove anything. And with Hailey, her injuries didn't put her in hospital overnight, and the unit WAS at the hospital, we just didn't see it. Because the whole point of that episode was not to injure Hailey, but to get some traction on her ending the marriage.

Finally, I reserve the right to not talk about something that isn't fun for me to talk about. I've said that's why I don't want to go in depth about svu. It doesn't make me happy to do so therefore I don't.

And you know, I answered the initial svu ask in good faith even though I knew it was you asking not actually someone else curious, but I like giving the benefit of the doubt and I answered it anyway and you are making it really fucking hard to keep giving anon asks the benefit of the doubt. Which sucks because I love my non toxic anons and I deeply believe in giving the benefit of the doubt and I'm finding myself taking the more negative way of interpreting things now rather than most positive interpretation so I hope you're happy. You've stomped all over my good faith.

[twistedshipper]

Gods, Kristya, I am obsessed with this!! You capture the simultaneous longing and guilt in Morgana so perfectly. While she never did act upon her past feelings for Arthur before they "dried up" during the onset of her magic (she had more pressing things to worry about) still there's the memories of how she used to perceive herself in relation to him and so of course the incest guilt is there even though they never did anything together, hardly touched at all.

Which makes it only more interesting that Morgana becomes more tactile with Arthur in the deleted scenes of season 3 when she knows the truth about them but Arthur doesn't. On the one hand, after this moment she's plotting his death to take back her birthright as Uther's daughter and then on the other hand she's extremely tender with him in the moments when they are close (moments like how she gives him her favor in 3x11) and that this is done on purpose perhaps so that once Arthur does know the truth about them (3x12-13) he is left feeling as sick as she did in 3x05.

I've said before that Morgana seems like two different people in this season and I don't believe that's all due to her "acting abilities" but rather a shattering of her sense of self due to her trauma which we have in 2x12 when Merlin poisoned her and then again in 3x05 once she learned that Uther was her father not Gorlois and that he had kept the truth from her about Arthur and then when she pressed him to it, begged him to admit what she wanted most to hear his confession (something she would have given up her cause to hear) he denied the truth of their kinship to her face, causing herself to splinter further. It's why we have these deeply moody shots of her contemplating what to do next, as she plans to take her father's life in revenge. It's personal this time though unlike her first attempt which is about following Morgause's plans (and her own plans by extension).

Also, I'd be remiss to say that Morgana's tactics don't switch from attempting to assassinate Uther to killing Arthur once she learns the truth about Gwen's feelings for Arthur (3x06) and Arthur's feelings for her in return (3x10), proving that those old feelings aren't completely gone inside her despite what she now knows.

Anyway, I love this edit and your genius as always. Could I ask for your thoughts on this?

“I keep recalling things we never did„ | Morgana realises Arthur was is her brother | by Taylor S.

[yvtro]

reposting this piece of meta i originally wrote in a response to someone who deleted their post.

jason became robin because he was inherently just and wanted to do the right thing even when batman ignored him. this is literally his origin story. 

the pattern of him being naturally kind and sensitive to injustice preserves throughout all of his robin days. even when he was written by starlin – a writer who hated him on principle and wanted to make him as unlikeable as possible, he was still motivated by how much he *cared* about other people and how much he wanted to be loved. the incident with garzonas, for example – he chased him because he was so deeply traumatised by learning that a woman he knew for mere minutes committed suicide. the whole reason for which he wanted to find his biological mother – he wanted to be loved!

now, utrh (and some earlier flashbacks) already retconned a lot of this stuff to create the idea of the ‘angry’ or the ‘mean’ robin. that’s an issue especially when you consider how classist it is to insist that a child who was taken off the streets can have no other fate than becoming a criminal. but even there, in the utrh, jason was anything but cold. was his plan calculated, was it cruel in many ways and morally questionable? it was. was it cold? no. honestly, i just don’t get how you can read a scene in which a teenager offers his father an ultimatum between killing his killer or him and think it’s a reasonable, cold decision. on the contrary, it’s utterly delusional and desperate. if jason wanted to just get rid of the joker, he could – but he wants bruce to prove that he still means something to him. he wants to be loved. he cares.

“delusional” and “desperate” also describe his methods in general pretty well. i know it goes against a popular reading that jason is very down to earth and pragmatic because he’s intimate with the way crime and evil works. it is true, to a certain extent. but his aim itself, that is to do everything he can to minimise harm of other people, no matter the cost? is it not utterly delusional? and yes, he doesn’t agree with batman’s moral code. but the reason he feels so strongly about it is because they have essentially the same goal – protecting people, and he sees that batman sometimes fails at it. and jason cares so much, he can’t take any failure, he can’t let anyone be harmed, he takes it all personally. 

even in jason’s villain era (I’m talking the battle for the cowl shtick for example) jason was anything but cold. his targets were always extremely personal. and that’s the content when he was written as a villain, it’s not even canon anymore. 

it’s also pretty ironic that you say that he has a pretty strong sense of identity, given that he completely commits to being the red hood and doesn’t even have a civilian identity. and ‘red hood’ is a cruel reference to a man killed him, too. that doesn’t seem like a strong sense of identity to me, it seems like he sacrifices himself for what he thinks is right and like he identifies with his trauma so strongly that he can’t move on. 

you’re talking of jason being ‘soft’ in fanon but that’s the point of his character in comics. he cares too much and it makes him cross the line. it makes him cruel. he’s a very interesting twist of an anti-hero archetype because of that: anti-heroes usually lack idealism, and act out of self-interest. their heroism is more of a side-effect of their actions. jay is the polar opposite: he is an idealist at the core and his heroism is what makes him defy conventional ethical codes. and I love seeing that, i love seeing him morally failing when his only goal is to be *moral.* what do you call an urge to keep other people safe, if not moral? 

but the thing is, sacrificing yourself to become an authoritarian murderous robin hood will not change the world. i think at some point he would fuck up and harm people he intended to protect. and jason cares. so it would make sense for him to step back and consider his actions. 

jason is no punisher nor deathstroke. he has a considerable baggage as a legacy character, and your reading completely disregards his original robin story. and that’s boring, tbh. because what makes him so appealing and tragic is that he is all of those things that he was when he was a robin still – an idealist, a protector, someone who cares. even the most awful plotlines point it out. i hated most of that specific plotline, but when damian said that jason is ‘the most emotional one’? facts. 

[melis-writes]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lNEbUqEbUG0

Hi! I was wondering what your opinion is of these deleted scenes? I’ve seen some people claim they prove that Michael truly loved Apollonia and never stopped loving her, but I’m not really sure what to think anymore 😅 (especially since I’ve come to realize that the people who claim this tend to glorify Michael and hate on Kay unfairly, plus your recent posts criticizing Michael and Apollonia’s relationship have been making sense to me). Curious to know your thoughts!

Ah yes. 😂 The only thing these scenes prove to me is who Michael Corleone really is. This isn't revenge for Apollonia, it's revenge for Michael. 💀 Michael would never let Fabrizio or anyone for that matter get away at an attempt on his life, let alone a daydream if he found out about it, ya know? It's the same thing with one of the reasons why Michael killed Fredo. Even if Michael loved his brother to death, letting Fredo live would be a sign of weakness and Michael's enemies would gain from this. At the end of the day, Michael's a mobster and they always get revenge and payback. There's no expiration date for that to them. 😅 This is really bare minimum for Michael lmao.

Truly if it was revenge for Apollonia why wasn't she mentioned? Why wasn't a photograph of her looked at? 🤔 Apollonia's death was sadly just collateral damage if you really think about it. Knowing Michael's a cold, cruel mafioso and wanted revenge on Fabrizio for years for trying to kill him (never mentioning "my wife died, I need revenge for her" in any way), I think it's just another reach and you'll see a lot of those because there is again no proof Michael ever "loved" Apollonia. 💀 There is however plenty of proof he was extremely attracted to her, aroused by her, lusted for her and wanted to "possess" her which is for sure, but Mario Puzo mentions Michael "loved" two things: he loved his father (Vito) and he loved Kay.

I also think Apollonia's character and the whole Sicily arc is important in the film/book and very interesting. I've nothing against it or her character, but I really am not going to say I ship a teenager and grown ass, bored/horny Michael Corleone who have nothing in common let alone any proof Apollonia was even attracted/in "love" with Michael. 👁👁

Michael was a rich, powerful man who came from a rich, powerful family that Apollonia's father especially mentioned... The topic is always about "Michael loved Apollonia" but never "Apollonia loved Michael". 🤨🤔 Because homegirl didn't lol, she loved the freedom and money. Not that I blame her at all but it's really apparent lmao.

Just as you mentioned, some who glorify Michael x Apollonia viciously hate on Kay for all the weirdest reasons and it's always so malicious. You can love Apollonia and what she and Michael had without... you know... saying some of the most vile shit about Kay who can't be compared to Apollonia at all, really. 😬

There is no other person in The Godfather other than Vito Corleone himself who wanted the best for Michael, genuinely loved and cared for him like Kay Adams did. That's why I highly recommend reading the book because their relationship is so beautiful, their love is raw and real and their trust and honesty is strong with one another. ❤ Not to mention they have their happy ending. If that existed with Michael and Apollonia (eh... the age gap needs to change too), I'd feel the same for that ship.

Just the way I view it, especially having read/analyzed the book and the film it's what I think! ❤ These are just my opinions.