#(plus there's more stuff about him and the resolution of that arc in the next seasons up to the very end of s7)

[darkpoisonouslove]

A piece of advice, in the form of one-shorts. One day, a story from the second season, another day, from the fifth. That is not line.

It should stop making rewrites that follow the line of the series and that there are written parts that are the same as the series. That's not a rewrite, it's a novelization. And to read something that I already know, I go back to see the series (I take this opportunity to criticize the rewrites in passing, sorry).

It's way too intricate for one-shots to actually work here.

[offshore-brinicle]

One thing I've noticed that may or may not be important in C6 is the different ways Dante and Heathcliff react to insults.

Heathcliff displays his anger quite clearly, even more so towards those with little to no power over him. Dante tends to either immediately pivot over to trying to make a joke about it, staying silent, or changing the topic [like how with Caiman, they were like 'thx for not murdering her' instead of adressing the things she actually says].

This may pose an issue during the canto, esp if Dante wants to try and help Heathcliff before he could potentially spiral into become more like his book version. And given the title, I'm unsure how much they'll be able to do with what little reference they have in terms of this sorta stuff. We're, what, six months into this whole thing in-verse? That's not exactly a lot of time.

I do think C6 will be what makes Dante really look back at the other sinners, and try to understand them beyond first impressions, especially considering just how much Heath alone has changed up til now.

Plus, I think Rodya and Hong Lu will have some Moments, and a sullen look or two from Sinclair or Outis wouldn't be unexpected.

Honestly, I see this very possibly. Canto V was essentially the start of Dante actually being an active force in aiding the Sinners, after somewhat trying and failing with Sinclair back in Canto III and then not being particularly relevant in Yi Sang's journey and growth in Canto IV compared to other parties involved to then them being a huge factor in Ishmael's realization and her changing her mind in favor of a better path for herself by actively reaching out. It feels like things have been progressively getting better but taking in count Heathcliff's lifelong abuse and the comments in Yield my Flesh hinting that from now on is when the "actual" plot begins makes me feel like next chapter won't be as...easy or straightforward, they might potentially even fail to gain the Golden Bough.

Heathcliff himself has been dismissed so much by the others lately that it feels...intentional, as a friend of mine @/ishcliff has gone more in-depth into that, which will probably end up being the point of conflict this time as he drifts away from the others.

Another interesting example of how you mention Heathcliff's changes is that Meursault is also showing subtle changes himself for example, from talking about his mother unprompted to purposefully not telling on Aeng-du dragging Kim away despite being scolded for not commenting on Sinclair's panic attacks in III, so I wouldn't be surprised if there is more pre-Canto character exploration like you mention, and even more how that character growth will contrast with what's to come, even for Yi Sang who's character arc isn't exactly "complete" despite his breakthrough in Canto IV because the story of the League of Nine still isn't fully untangled and he states this as being his personal resolution to Dante from now on and he still hasn't actually confronted Gubo and then you have the reveal of Rim and Young-ji possibly still being alive and around somewhere

Even in Yield my Flesh again we also had the mention of how Don Quixote has become less reckless and then in V when Rodion pulled Ishmael to the side...and the Sinners have also become aware of the pattern of each one of them having their past exposed and being tested during their journey, so with Dante also wanting to grow close with everyone else and slowly forming that resolution to watch over them and stay by their side I wonder how this will all come to the forefront and how trends will be broken from now on

Thanks for the message! It's all very interesting things to ponder on and speculate, I cannot wait for Canto VI genuinely

[ncisladaily]

NCIS: Los Angeles ended its 14-season run on CBS with a finale all about “New Beginnings” (hence the title), and while it was a mostly happy ending, everything wasn’t tied up neatly with a bow.

For example, yes, Callen (Chris O’Donnell) has learned quite a bit about himself over the years and did marry Anna (Bar Paly). Yes, Callen and Sam (LL Cool J) went to Morocco to join Nell’s (Renée Felice Smith) team in a mission to rescue Hetty (Linda Hunt), and we can assume that will be successful (especially with LL Cool J recurring on Hawai’i in Season 3). We know that Kensi (Daniela Ruah) and Deeks’ (Eric Christian Olsen) family will soon be one of four, with her pregnant.

But what about the storylines that weren’t wrapped up or the callbacks we didn’t get (like we did with Switch and Mr. Carl? “We’ve had fun over the years, no doubt about it, and so when you do come to have to wrap it all up, it’s a big task because it’s like coming into a hoarder’s house, you don’t know where to start cleaning,” executive producer R. Scott Gemmill told TV Insider with a laugh.

Below, he shares where some storylines could have gone next and more.

Is there anything you can say about where you imagined the Kessler (Frank Military) story going?

R. Scott Gemmill: I’m not sure. I imagine we would’ve finally brought him to justice. That would’ve probably been something we would’ve resolved in another season. Same with — we were really looking forward to doing an arc with Kilbride [Gerald McRaney] and his son [Christopher Gorham], and we had set that in motion, but we didn’t have enough real estate to finish that because that would’ve been a longer story. We would’ve probably got a good season with him story-wise out of that.

The scenes with Gerald and Christopher were so good.

Yeah, I love Gerald. I tried to get him on the show for years, and when I finally did, it was great. And that’s the worst part of having the show be done is not getting to work with these people and tell the stories that they were so great at bringing to life.

What about the resolution for the Body Stitchers case? That was the most disturbing case of the series.

Yeah, that’s 100 percent Frank Military. We always tease Frank that we have to let him write stuff like that so that it doesn’t happen. I don’t know; I’m not sure how we would’ve resolved that. I would have left that in Frank’s capable but sort of deranged hands.

I have to ask: Could Deeks’ mom (Pamela Reed) and Arkady (Vyto Ruginis) actually go somewhere if only for Deeks’ reactions to it?

I think we would probably do that. I think that was a given because Deeks would just be totally appalled, and that alone would be worth doing that. So I think if we were to have had another season, we definitely would’ve gone that route.

Was there anyone you wanted to bring back but couldn’t this season, especially once you knew that the show would be ending?

I would’ve liked to have brought back Barrett [Foa]. I would’ve liked to have brought back Linda. I would’ve liked to have brought back John M. Jackson and that crew that used to be Hetty’s sort of gang that she ran with when she was younger. If it was up to me, I’d have had everyone who would’ve ever been on the show back on, but it’s just not practical. But especially when you’re going out, and you’re starting to think about everyone who was on the show and who brought great stuff to the series, you wish you could have one big giant family reunion.

Are there any storylines you would’ve liked to explore in the final season that you didn’t get to explore?

Certainly why Hetty was overseas. In the end, our boys go to Morocco, but that story was set in Syria. I would’ve liked to have finished that storyline out, but we didn’t get a chance. And like I said earlier, I would’ve liked to follow through with Kilbride and his son, and I’m sure there’s a dozen more.

Kilbride had given Sam that envelope. How much longer do you imagine the team operating it as it has been before something changes?

Sometimes we use those as a bit of a throw-a-monkey wrench into the characters’ lives, and a lot of it depends on the actors, too. We’ve been on the show for 14 seasons, and if you look at any other shows that have gone that long, very, very few, if any, have all the original members. We have our four basically from Season 1. So eventually, some actors feel they want to go do something different. So we always have that option. If somebody wants to leave, we’re never going to stand in their way. So if somebody decided to leave then we would make a change, but as long as people wanted to stay on the show, we would accommodate that, obviously because it was such a great recipe for success.

Where do you imagine life taking these characters going forward? Especially now that we’re not going to see it, so you don’t have to be beholden to availability.

[Laughs] I don’t know. I could see Sam going into the private sector or Callen. I think all our characters love what they do. I could see Kensi staying with NCIS and Deeks becoming a stay-at-home dad. I think he would be quite content to do that for a while. Fatima [Medalion Rahimi] and Rountree [Caleb Castille] would probably stay with the team and be upgraded to the higher echelon of the team. And then I could see Kilbride retiring, especially if Sam and Callen moved on. Hetty, I think, will do this until her dying breath.

I have to say that the addition of the younger agents was so good.

Yeah, we wanted to see some sort of younger people in the capacity of what our guys do. And it gives you an idea of what maybe our guys were back in the day even, in terms of what they were like when they were young agents because our guys are so adept and have been doing it for so long that it’s nice to see sort of fresh set of eyes in that position.

[beyblaiddyd]

I do have many postable thoughts I just haven’t been posting them they’re private. well ok u can know about this one I have been thinking a lot about chainsaw man critically bc i like the set up of the universe and the way the powers work and the demon designs are a lot of fun. but (and this won’t be surprising coming from the ‘aki is the only character i’m invested in’ guy) I really can’t get over how much denji just should not have been the pov character

like he obviously was always going to be because this is fujimoto’s vent diary slash 15 year old boy horny nightmare fantasy manga but i love imagining an alternate universe where people learn to utilize effective writing and understand when a perspective should’ve been shifted

because the like emotional impact of the stuff going on with denji would’ve been much more effective if it had been like mostly implied/subtle to begin with and then slowly revealed through the eyes of aki, especially considering he’s implicitly (though it’s barely explored) been dealing with the same kind of abuse just less Directly from makima and himeno for years + aki’s emotional plot beats are the only ones that have any like actual punch to them at all. him being the resolution to denji’s emotional arc about whether or not he can still feel emotion by becoming the first person to ever truly care for denji for unselfish reasons etc etc.

aki also has the very classic anime protagonist trait of being like physically incapable of abandoning sympathy for other people no matter what terrible things he’s exposed to, plus the personal revenge arc, like he obviously has the emo boy death flags but he’s so weirdly positioned with classic Protag traits as well. it’s weird how completely rushed his storyline ends up being to serve like an edginess quota

i’m closing my eyes and imagining a version of this manga where you’re introduced to the world through aki in media res he’s been an investigator for a couple years now but not super long and he’s just being assigned this new troubled teen to join his already troublesome squad and like his dynamic/development with denji and power mostly plays out the same but there’s also much more emphasis on the local government politics inside the bureau of him trying to keep denji and power out of trouble while also trying to accomplish his own goals and like more time/story dedicated to the mystery solving of hunting down the gun devil and collecting the pieces rather than most of it taking place off screen/in the past for no reason because if we had spent more time WITH that process aki’s decision to try to back out of the final fight to save denji and power would’ve had so much more weight

anyways ultimately chainsaw man is just fujimoto’s attempt to exponentially raise the stakes in each arc as fast as humanly possible to speedrun the already oft mocked shounen manga format but he’s doing it in service to creating the next moment makima can do something #badass and #scary because despite despising her he also thinks she’s like the sickest character ever and has a weird amount of sympathy for her like he literally denji’d himself i mean no one is shocked because denji is very plainly his trauma dumping self insert i knew this going in you know this we all knew this but it’s insane that he has not reflected on the meanings of this at all and just wanted to draw panels of makima doing evil things and then spun together some bare bones papier-mâché plot to string those panels together

closes my eyes a second time and thinks about the snowball scene to calm down (starts the cycle over again)

[luckyqueenreign]

Suresh Route Summary Ep 32

OK Suresh girlies last one for today...and hopefully we get a private chat with Suresh...Spoilers under the cut

Also I should've mentioned this in ep 31 but why did Nicolas dress MC in business casual in literal 90 degree weather?? Nicolas girlies 😩😩😩 ur man really wants to play games with all the islanders and fake your connection to stay in the villa. I hate it here.

Even though I definitely told Dana that we needed space she of course pulls you for a chat to talk about Suresh and Lulu talking to Gabi. And whether or not MC thinks theres something btwn Gabi / Suresh

You get to walk around the villa and talk to Arlo & Pete, Meera & Alfie, Finn & Kat.

Arlo + Pete: are talking about fish and how Pete is scared of them which is ironic since hes literally dressed like hes going fishing...Pete digs himself into a hole and says that Lulu is way more his type than Arlo is 🫣 "she's got that cute girl-next-door vibe." "PLUS SHES GOT AN OUTRAGEOUS BOD ON HER." OMG PETE!!!

Alfie + Meera: to be fair they are quite cute together...they are chatting about Alfie's dog benji and how he fosters dogs, they ignore dumping talk. if you chose to wear the same outfit as Nicolas...MEERAS SNAKE ASS CALLS U OUT FOR IT!!! AND CALLS IT DESPERATE!! screw u meera

Finn + Kat: Kat lies to Finn about the Casa boys being all over her 🤣 u can let her have a win or call her out. either way she looks at them coming back to one another single as a win for them as a couple. Finn asks to pull MC for a chat (I think this might be if you chose the finn Gem scene prior to casa)

Finn Gem Scene: Finn tells MC that things are good between him and Kat and feelings are growing more but his feelings for MC are developing even more and he wants to explore that. he said he had goosebumps when he saw us at the recoupling 😭 and that he realized he had stronger feelings for us then he thought. (ladies if suresh doesnt wisen up.....) THE STUFF HE SAYS ABOUT WHAT HE LIKES ABOUT MC 😭😭😭...

Alfie Gem Scene: He's torn by having to send someone home and Meera wants to dump MC...of course she does...snake ass bitch. youre given an option of who you want to send home...I really dont think this makes any difference at all but I did choose Gabi and Dana 🫣 and then when Nicolas came over after he did say the two couples he thought he wanted to send home were Gabi and Dana or Alfie and Meera.

These episodes had entirely WAY too little redemption arc....way too little resolution and im annoyed and pissed that we are literally not getting suresh until the end.

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Higurashi Sotsu Ep15 [FINALE]

For better or worse I think Ryukishi achieved exactly what he set out to do with this series, and I guess everyone’s just gonna be forced to reckon with how they feel about his own perspective on this franchise versus how they feel about it, lol.

Anyway, thoughts under the cut, plus Umineko spoilers.

I’m not entirely sure where to even start with this, but I guess the TL;DR is that I honestly think Gou/Sotsu was ultimately just fine despite it’s issues, and part me of can’t help but be like ‘I told you so, lol’ about how this really did end with this episode, and also committed pretty hard to the Umineko prequel elements.

It’s not like all of my theories were correct in the end, but I at least think I was pretty spot on in my prediction last week that this would end with the miracle of them side-stepping the sword issue entirely and choosing the third option of forgiveness and reconciliation. And also them ending it with an epilogue where we go back to the Matsuribayashi timeline and get a happy ending for Rika and Satoko that provides a ‘non-magical interpretation’ for the story while also giving us an idea of how Bern and Lambda formally split off into their own entities and start the relationship we see in Umineko.

I didn’t quite expect them to go down the route of having them agree to just spend a few years apart and accept that they don’t need to literally always be together, but I think that was a really good way to wrap things up between them. It’s pretty much the healthiest compromise to their conflict that doesn’t come across like it completely invalidates one of their dreams. I get why it feels too anti-climactic and convenient for people, but when you pull at that thread you get into wider topics of what the entire story is about, since this was always going to end with Satoko being redeemed and forgiven. People might not have taken him seriously, but Ryukishi was 100% genuine about his regrets about Matsuribayashi’s ending, and how part of why he came up with this new story was to create a better ending, while also doing more with Satoko as a character.

Basically I think a lot of the fandom negativity towards this boils down to people fundamentally disagreeing with the idea that Matsuribayashi was even ‘flawed’ in this sort of way to begin with, or that Satoko was badly written. It’s valid to disagree on this stuff, but at the very least we all have to grapple with how Ryukishi has his own specific relationship with this series.

People like to focus on how he’s a troll who likes to mess with people, but I feel like this is a bit of a wake-up call for people about how he’s actually extremely sincere, almost to a fault, and he likes to use his stories as a vehicle for expressing his personal philosophies and ideals. 

This whole story is also a good example of how he just sees this as ultimately being a fictional story about fictional characters, and not literally a matter of real people who need to be sentenced for their crimes or whatever. As early as the original VN he was almost being outright preachy about the message that nobody is irredeemable, and that philosophy carries through to this. But to be more specific, nobody *in this story* is irredeemable. He’s pretty open about the fact that in practice you can’t apply this sort of ideal to real life, but fictional stories are their own separate matter.

I think this whole issue of how he views this as a story first and foremost is also the central reason why this ended in a way that comes across as Satoko being let off too easy for her crimes. One way or another, Ryukishi’s made it clear that he sees this as being no different to how other characters had arcs where they committed crimes but still got forgiven, or how Takano is basically a straight up war criminal who also got forgiven for her crimes.

Anyway, this episode at least committed to the Umineko stuff, so that was satisfying. Sure there’s people that still want to deny it, but at this point I think a lot of people are just being stubborn, so it’s not like anything would have really convinced them, lol. I’m also genuinely not sure what people even would have expected them to do beyond what we saw her, aside from having the two of them literally put on their gothic lolita outfits and turn to the camera and go ‘we are literally Bernkastel and Lambdadelta from the video game series Umineko When They Cry’. I almost feel like there’s some kind of misunderstanding from people who aren’t familiar with Umineko when it comes to the idea of what it even means for this to be ‘an Umineko prequel’, or ‘a Bern/Lambda origin story’. I mean, this is quite literally exactly what I expected and hoped for in that regard. It’s not like I was expecting them to incorporate anything related to, like, Beatrice or the Ushiromiya family.

I think this is also one of those things where you just have to decide for yourself whether or not you want to earnestly engage with the story that’s being told, or if you want to assume that there’s some level of malice or trickery going on.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting them to literally have Rika and Satoko recite part of Bern and Lambda’s final conversation with each other word for word, lmao. Combined with the scene at the end where ‘Witch Satoko’ talks to herself about how she’s going to give her body back to Satoko while she goes chasing after Rika, it was literally just the exact origin story of their relationship as it’s depicted in Umineko.

I still feel like this would all only really be ‘worth it’ if we actually get something like a full on anime remake for Umineko, but at this point I can’t help but feel satisfied with this part of it all.

It’s not like I think Gou/Sotsu as a whole is perfect or anything, though. I don’t hate it as much as basically everyone else does, but I think Ryukishi’s the sort of VN writer who really struggles with the shift to writing for an anime. I think a big part of the frustration people have is just from how this is formatted as a weekly anime series spread across basically an entire year, instead of being something like a stand-alone VN chapter that you can read at whatever pace you want, even if it ultimately takes the same amount of time to read as it would to watch all of Gou/Sotsu.

There’s also the whole issue of this being a sort-of-remake, which snowballed into a whole list of structural problems. They absolutely tried too hard to have their cake and eat it too, and they should have just committed to it being made for old fans only, instead of trying to sincerely incorporate elements from the VN that old fans don’t care about anymore because they’ve gone over it already.

And as I’ve said several times before, it was a major issue for them to decide to put Nekodamashi in the middle of Gou and then spend like 20 episodes on flashback answer arcs until finally getting back to that cliffhanger. I’ve been waiting until this all ended to decide exactly how I feel about that, and now that it’s all over I still think it was a really bad idea. I don’t think it was an issue for them to reveal that Satoko’s the culprit that early, but having the gun cliffhanger specifically happen that early just gave people misguided expectations and tainted the answer arcs because people were just impatient to get back to the cliffhanger. And then the cliffhanger itself ended up being somewhat anti-climactic, which is what I’d been fearing would happen. It would have worked fine if they shuffled it around so that the cliffhanger happened right before Kagurashi and was followed up in the very next episode, or if this was a VN where you could binge your way through the flashback stuff, but spending like half of an entire real-life year to get back to that point only to have the resolution be ‘Satoko just shoots Rika and the death loops keep going’ just didn’t really work properly.

I’m a lot more generous towards the Akashi arcs than most people are, since I think they really over-estimate how much re-used content there is there, but they still suffer from the central issue of the show trying to be accessible for new fans. It could have been heavily condensed otherwise, without losing anything in terms of Satoko’s whole character arc.

On the other hand I think the first half of Kagurashi was awful specifically because it highlighted how bad of an idea it was to put Nekodamashi so early in the story. They still ended up having to go back to that arc and repeat it anyway, in the most 1:1 recap-y way in the whole show, but that wouldn’t have even been an issue in the first place if that was instead the first time that arc happened in the show.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I would rearrange the story to make it flow better while still following Ryukishi’s intentions, and I think they could have condensed it into a 2-cour season with this sort of structure if they did something like this:

-First arc where Rika gets thrown back into the loop and quickly figures out that somebody intentionally caused this to happen, and it’s not Takano because at least in this idea of mine she’d try and investigate her only to find out that this version of Takano regrets everything and is planning to flee the village with Tomitake.

Basically I think this could tie into the idea of Satoko initially wanting to just concoct an idea world for Rika so that she won’t want to leave this time, but sort of like what I think happens in Saikoroshi, Rika would still reject it, and this time around there’d be the additional layer of her knowing that somebody did this to her for an unknown reason. Maybe they could even initially market it as a new adaptation or a remake of Saikoroshi, and then reveal that it’s a sequel, to keep that whole element to the series. Either way I think this would end with everything going to shit when Rika rejects that fragment and wants to go back to St. Lucia’s, and Satoko basically snaps and kills her, and that way the audience can find out about her being the culprit without Rika finding out about it yet.

Maybe there could even be some dramatic irony where Rika’s attempts to meddle with certain ‘trigger events’, and her displaying her looper side, inadvertently triggers people around her to get paranoid, and the whole fragment would start to spiral into tragedy from there. I think they could at least use the whole conflict in Tatariakashi about Teppei actually being good this time as a starting point for that sorta thing.

-Second arc, rounding out the first cour, which is basically just Satokowashi. I don’t think there’s much that you’d need to change here, but like I said above I like the idea of her initially trying to just invent a perfect world for Rika and her to live in, instead of jumping straight to murder. But maybe instead of her literally just watching Rika’s loops, she could instead just be stuck using her looping powers to try and figure out how to create that ‘perfect world’ in the first place, by personally investigating all of the different tragedies and how to prevent them.

-Staring the second cour, a third arc where we basically just get to see those loops Satoko goes through, and her whole process of solving the tragedies and ‘purifying’ characters like Teppei and Takano, until we eventually see her perspective on the first arc, and how she reacts to Rika ultimately rejecting the world she tried to make for her.

-A fourth and final arc which is basically just Nekodamashi + Kagurashi, where she just totally snaps and tries to just torture Rika into never wanting to leave the village again, and eventually Satoko gets exposed and they have their direct confrontation with each other.

With that sorta story structure, you’d keep all the relevant bits of Gou/Sotsu as it is now, while being more focused on Rika and Satoko instead of doing kinda half-assed reruns of the Rena and Shion arcs. It’d also push the big cliffhanger between them until near the end of the show, while still revealing to the audience relatively early on that Satoko’s the culprit.

I’d also like them to do more with Satoshi and Shion, so maybe like with how Teppei gets redeemed and Satoko almost gets to have a happy life with him in Tatariakashi, the central question arc of this hypothetical story could also involve Satoko making sure that Satoshi wakes up from his coma, and Shion also gets to have a good relationship with all of them. You could probably do something interesting with the idea of Satoshi and Shion being in the camp of not trusting Teppei and his whole redemption arc.

Honestly I could spend a long time talking about how I would have done things differently, lol. For one thing, I think the Akashi arcs would have been much better if they just changed it so that Satoko used psychological tactics to make people paranoid, and we completely cut out the whole syringe plot device. I get how it fits with Satoko’s whole certainty gimmick, but it made those arcs way too predictable. Even if we knew the outcome, it’d at least be entertaining to see exactly how Satoko might go out of her way to set up the different tragedies. We kinda got glimpses of that sorta plot point in Wataakashi when things seemed to go outside of her control, but they didn’t really do much with it.

Anyway, this is a whole lot of words to say that I think that in spite of the serious structural issues going on, I think Gou/Sotsu as a whole is fine, and was at least working with a lot of perfectly good ideas that could have been executed much better.

Also, on a side note, that one scene during their fist-fight at the start where the art-style changes a bit was kinda weird, but I really liked how it looked, and part of me almost wishes the whole show looked like that, lol. I like Akio Watanabe’s character designs, but I feel like that sort of stylized, almost TWEWY-ish art style would have been really fitting for this series, especially in the horror/action parts.

Oh, and the new rendition of You was so good it almost felt emotionally manipulative, lol.

[extasiswings]

That episode truly put me in such a sour mood after what they did to Eddie!! Like the real Eddie would never do any of that stuff! He's a devoted loving father (the best father) who wouldn't do anything that his son isnt okay with! And I'm still super bitter that we didnt get a Eddie/Christopher scene once he got him from Bucks. Like I love the Buck/Christopher scene and it was important and lovely and I'm glad it was in the episode but a Eddie and Christopher scene would've been even more important and definitely needed! And don't get me started on her calling Chris sensitive 🤬 and Eddie not having a reaction towards that like he should! Ugh this is not the mood I want for the next 6 weeks! I'm just hoping that our Eddie, The real Eddie is back in 6 weeks and stay permanently and doesnt let that imposter use his face again!

I feel like the worst part is not only how dirty they did his character but how much it was a total waste of an extremely important and emotional arc.  Like...Eddie taking his first steps into moving on and navigating that with Christopher should have been big, should have been meaningful, should have been handled with at a minimum the same care and attention with which they handled the skateboard incident and Eddie and Christopher’s related conversations in “Fools,” and should have been something that clearly established (or at least strongly foreshadowed) what’s going to happen with their development moving forward into the rest of the season.  I was looking forward to it!  I wanted to see it!

And at the beginning, the rest of the absolutely cringeworthy and barely watchable date scene aside, it was clear that yes! Eddie was reluctant to talk about this with his son!  He was worried!  He had concerns!  And I thought, oh excellent, this is going to go well.

Then, Eddie got home and immediately lied directly to Christopher’s face about it and I thought...oh no.  But even then I still thought, hey now, they can pull it back!  I did actually love Christopher’s reaction!  That part was great!  And honestly, I can even accept Eddie deciding to give Christopher time to cool off instead of going after him to talk immediately.  

There was no reason to have the video call with Ana.  It was unnecessary and only ended up being a vehicle for Invasion of the Body Snatchers Eddie to *checks notes* be totally dismissive of his son’s extremely valid feelings without even having had a real conversation about why Christopher reacted the way he did and what exactly his concerns were!  Not to be dramatic [lie, I’m always dramatic], but I felt like I’d been slapped, it was so abrupt and OOC.  [And, as I mentioned in a separate post, it makes zero sense to have had Eddie be worried about telling Christopher at all if he wasn’t going to actually care about Christopher’s feelings, so not only was he ultimately wildly OOC, his characterization wasn’t even consistent within the confines of the episode.]  

And I’m sorry, I love the Buck and Chris scene, I do, but as much as we joke and clown, Buck is not Christopher’s parent. Plus, their conversation wasn’t even directly about Eddie dating!  It wasn’t directly about Christopher’s concerns with Eddie dating [so therefore, I’m still not clear on exactly what those are/were although I can guess] and there wasn’t even a token attempt at directly addressing that particular elephant in the room!  Yes, kids need reassurance and support from multiple adults they love and look up to in times of crisis, but we got nothing from the most important person and most important relationship in Christopher’s life: his dad. 

It would have been SO EASY to have cut the video call [avoiding the OOC bullshit] and used that time instead to have added on to the Buck and Christopher scene.  Example: Buck and Chris end their conversation, Eddie arrives, having rushed over in a panic, hugs his kid and says some variation on “we can continue this at home, but I’m sorry I lied to you, I should have told you first, but just know no matter what happens or who else comes into my life, I love you and you’re never going to lose me.”  THERE! DONE! I FIXED IT IN THIRTY SECONDS! 

Ideally we would have gotten a longer extended Eddie and Christopher scene because, again, their relationship should have been the focus of this storyline, but if we had even gotten just that little bit on top of the Buck and Christopher scene, it would have cut my salt levels at least in half.  Instead though, we got NOTHING and the next time they were on screen it was because Ana was coming over to the house and suddenly everything was A-OK????? WHAT???? 

Writing tip 101: YOU CAN’T RESOLVE SOMETHING THAT IMPORTANT OFF SCREEN! Like???? Christopher ran away from home and we got zero acknowledgment of the severity of that, zero acknowledgment of the resolution of that, not even a token throwaway line about “we discussed it and everything’s fine now” [which would have been a gross cop-out but still would have been SOMETHING more than the whole lot of absolute BS NOTHING we got].

Once again...Eddie didn’t even let Shannon back into Christopher’s life for months when she came back, but we’re supposed to believe he’s bringing over a new woman he’s not even serious with yet after just a few dates because...what, she was Christopher’s teacher so at least he knows her?  Make it make sense!  [And as a side note, what was the point of having Ana point out multiple times that they could/should go slow with respect to Christopher if she was ultimately going to be totally cool with that weird Meet the Girlfriend introduction? And a side side note, I completely agree, the “sensitive boy” comment rubbed me the wrong way completely and came off as super condescending so thanks I hate it on MULTIPLE levels.]

Anyway...yeah, the whole thing was a goddamn travesty.  I may be a Buddie clown, but I am an Eddie Diaz lover first and foremost and idk who that was in the episode but it sure as HELL was not Eddie Diaz.  @ the guest writer for this episode, the door is that way, please let it hit you on the way out.  Hoping they can do some serious damage control after the hiatus [currently Christopher is credited for 4x9 but Ana is not so there may be some room to set things right] but right now I’m just...very pissed.  Haven’t seen a character assassination this bad since Lucy Preston in the Timeless Christmas Special.  Fucking YIKES.  

[shachihata]

me rambling about rejuv’s storytelling structure under the cut i didn’t edit this post so if i’m unclear well. That’s what you get

ok so basically as i do my *checks watch* third replay of rejuv, i’ve basically been putting together what i’ve been calling like... a “lore walkthrough” of it? essentially, i’m writing synopses of each of the “story beats” of rejuv in correlation with the “gameplay beats” of rejuv, as laid out by jra’s 100% walkthrough. which seems kind of nebulous, but i mean something like this...

where i’ve put the “story beat” next to, in parentheses, the one or more gameplay sections that they correspond to. and the way i’ve split up the story beats is, i’ll admit, pretty subjective. i’ve been sort of basing it off of the natural “flow” of events, with each chapter having some sort of exposition and then a main conflict/climax. for example, chapter 4 looks like this:

“goldenleaf town” sets up the exposition for the chapter conflict, while “wispy tower” is the main climax that provides some sort of resolution to this conflict. simple!

most chapters, i’ve noticed, are around 2 story beats long, with each story beat taking place in a different area from the last. chapter 4 is divided into the goldenleaf town exposition and the wispy tower conflict/climax; chapter 8 is divided into the magma stone exposition and the valor mountain conflict/climax; chapter 9 is divided into the past aevium exposition and the west gearen sewers conflict/climax. longer chapters sometimes break this flow by introducing what i call a “falling action” beat. an example of this would be chapter 5: from the pre-blacksteeple exposition of the disappearance of akuwa town, the blacksteeple castle conflict where you confront neved and madame x, and the terajuma island falling action where you’re introduced to the next main “hub area” of rejuv. i’m on chapter 12 right now, and the only chapter that’s been shorter than two “story beats” is chapter 3, one of the shortest chapters in the game gameplay-wise, anyway. the exposition and climax both take place inside of chrysalis mansion, and occur in such short sequence with basically no falling action to speak of; story-wise, there’s nowhere that feels “right” to split it up, if that makes sense.

now, i’ve noticed that what i consider to be the “weaker” chapters of rejuv actually are the chapters that have three story beats -- these chapters, as you might imagine, are the longer ones that tend to drag on in terms of their conflicts and resolutions. chapter 5 “naturally” ended with the ending of blacksteeple, but you have to sit through a sequence at terajuma island that imo breaks the mood of the chapter by introducing you to... a tropical jungle where everyone’s complaining about the heat, literal minutes after the INCREDIBLY intense sequence where melia reveals that she’s still alive, you’re introduced to who madame x even is, and madame x kills nancy. the conflict has come to its natural close, and yet you’re immediately thrown even MORE problems that DON’T have a natural conclusion with the end of the chapter. instead, they get “dragged on,” meaning that to end your gameplay session with the end of the chapter leaves you feeling “unsatisfied” with the few answers you’ve received: saki is missing and nowhere to be found, alex and sam reveal that angie is the next big bad guy of the terajuma arc, nim is getting weirdly sick and weak, a cutscene with ren shows him joining team xen... and so on.

obviously, in any story, there has to be an overarching plot and conflict that does span multiple chapters. like, i’m not saying that all the problems in a chapter need to be resolved in that chapter. i’m saying that the “weaker” chapters introduce multiple smaller conflicts that simply aren’t on the level of the main plot that don’t get addressed to any satisfying degree, which weakens the overall impact of the chapter’s conflict and makes it feel longer than necessary. if that makes sense!

it’s this tendency to “drag on” that makes rejuv’s storyline much weaker after act 1 (the ending at valor mountain), imo. chapter 8 was an incredibly strong chapter, definitely one of my favorite in all of rejuv -- magma stone exposition plus a powerful ending at valor mountain where a lot of subplots are either resolved or, at the very least, addressed in a way where the player’s reassured that they haven’t been forgotten about (just off the top of my head... crescent’s connection to the player, jenner’s love for melia, nim’s psychic powers and inhuman nature, zetta’s problems and disorders, team xen’s weird immortality-at-a-cost, etc etc etc). it’s a natural ending to the main conflict of act 1: Team Xen Has Problems And Wants Melia Soooooooo So Bad. you win! ...at a major cost. it provides satisfying resolutions to the problems that’ve been presented in the first half of the game, while still setting up the stakes of the next act (angie, team xen at large, Crescent’s Connection To The Player). you’ve got a pretty clear idea of What To Do Now and What The Plot Is Going To Address Next, but the main threat still on the table is Madame X And Co.

...and then act 2 comes in and starts muddying stuff up. the reason why act 1 works so well is because even though there are so many minor problems being introduced, the major problem is still hanging over your head at any given moment. melia dead? it’s team xen. keta’s dead? it’s team xen. aelita’s being tortured? it’s team xen. amber’s being kidnapped? You Guessed It, It’s Team Xen. there’s no ambiguity about what the overarching plot is, as opposed to the myriad of “overarching arc-spanning problems” that are introduced in each chapter in act 2. once again, off the top of my head: your role as the “interceptor,” the role of bladestar, kieran and clear, the puppetmaster, nim/lorna, angie, vitus/indriad, the stone incident... and team xen’s previously-monolithic strength is undermined by madame x’s role in the doomed future, as she becomes a semi-ally even though there was very little prior character development for her besides “evil lady who killed your mom and warned maria in the prologue and has some sort of goal that you’re unwittingly ruining.” their importance in act 1 is diminished by all of the new problems suddenly being thrown at you in act 2 that have arc-wide importance, even though you, as a first-time player, have no idea why so many problems seem to be having arc-wide importance.

expanding off of what i was talking about earlier with chapter 5: the problems “drag on”! a TON of problems are introduced with VERY little resolution in each chapter, and the previously-rigid story beats start falling apart, making the story less satisfying to play through even though you know there will be a resolution at some point in the future. take my (very very tentative) outline for chapter 11 so far:

i wasn’t... very sure how to split this one apart, tbh, because every beat has so many problems and so little resolution, everything ends up blurring together. the first beat, “grand dream city”: the missing rune. bladestar. valarie not recognizing you guys. alice and allen and karen and their connection to the theolias. cassandra’s connection to team xen. madelis’s new job. the second beat, “stone incident”: venam being turned into stone. isha and the hospital of hope. nightmare city. who the fuck is the puppetmaster. nightmare zetta. aelita’s problems and issues disorders. being the “interceptor.” the xenpurgis. the last beat, “rose theatre”: what happened to aelita. souta’s connection to the eldest. your crew being signed up for the festival of dreams tournament.

...how many of these are resolved by the end of chapter 11? uhhhhhhhhhhhh. Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. yeah. compare this to how much “tighter” chapter 4 felt! the first beat, “goldenleaf town”: geara coming to intercept you in goldenleaf. ren’s connection to goldenleaf. narcissa’s problems with goldenleaf. mosely’s conflict with goldenleaf. the wispy tower incident. the second beat, “wispy tower”: mosely comes back to help you! you realize that the wispy tower is somehow connected to team xen/houses information important to team xen, and beat geara’s ass in the process! you beat narcissa in a gym battle, and goldenleaf changes their ways! ren tells you that he has problems with goldenleaf because it was his father’s last wish that he “save” goldenleaf! it sets up future conflict (ren’s dissatisfaction with the outcome, what sirius and co. were studying in wispy tower, geara meeting up with jenner/zetta/nim in the altered dimension), but there’s a clear main conflict that gets resolved and ties back to the main enemy, team xen. it’s clear-cut, it’s strongly written, it’s done.

yes, act 2 expands the scope and heightens the stakes of rejuv a lot, which is why so many problems Are Introduced At All -- but the main conflict gets very heavily muddied with all of the minor problems that are thrown at you with every single conversation, it feels. i’m only on chapter 12 but from what i remember, this “dragging on” problem happens a lot throughout act 2 (although there are some sections i think are very strongly written, don’t get me wrong). that’s why chapter 15 is so good, in comparison: it provides so much fucking resolution. it’s a “return to form,” in a sense -- conflict is set up and resolved in that chapter, while questions from previous chapters are brought back and answered (to... some “vague” degree of “clarity”). this is very much opposed to a lot of the chapters in act 2 imo, where a bunch of problems are set up with no resolution in that chapter at all. idk. my memory of them is kinda fuzzy and i gotta just keep chugging through the game, it’s interesting just to break down how all this stuff works in a meta storytelling sense ig :T

[rachelbethhines]

Tangled Salt Marathon - Happiness Is

This is possibly my favorite episode of season two. Yet, it is also the point the where the series starts to fall off a cliff. Only that’s not something that you would realize upon a first watch; just in hindsight and only with some basic knowledge of the behind the scenes drama that led to this and the fall out with the fandom that followed afterwards. 

Summary:  Rapunzel begins to feel homesick for Corona when she finds an old letter written by her father in one of the many lanterns sent from her previous birthdays. In attempts to uplift her spirits, Rapunzel explores the island and comes across a magical idol that brings instant happiness to whomever possesses it. Rapunzel begins to hallucinate her family and friends back in Corona and soon shares the idol with the rest of the group. However, everyone starts to become obsessive over the idol, desperately wanting it for themselves. Rapunzel tricks everyone into giving her the idol, but when the Lorbs try to help Rapunzel, they fall under the idol's control and soon begin to terrorize the village.

Let’s Start with the First Elephant in the Room; Frederic 

So throughout the episode Rapunzel is struggling with being homesick. Which is fair enough, that’s an understable reaction to being on the road for months by now. However, to showcase this Rapunzel keeps seeing hallucinations of her father. There are some other characters too, but her dad is the first person she sees and the only one in Corona with speaking lines. He’s the one to tempt her with the idol. 

Did we just forget that Frederic is her abuser? 

Look, even if you accept his apology in Secret of the Sundrop and believe he has learned his lesson, that doesn’t just erase the pain he caused her. Her thoughts about her father should be more realistically complex then this. Now add in how she makes a such a clean break from her other abuser, Gothel, but still holds him on a pedestal shows a disturbing bias on the part of the writers. 

Also where’s this love for Arianna? You know the only real mother on the show? The show that’s aimed at little girls? The one parent who hasn’t flat out abused the main character yet? 

Seriously, Chris, what the fuck? 

This is a Missed Opportunity 

So part of the reason why I like this episode is that we get insights into each of the characters and their desires. As such this is one of the few episodes where the group actual feels like a group friends. However, Cass’s vision is wasted here. 

So at first glance this seems to aline with what we know of the character thus far. She loves her dad and wishes to impress him. That’s only if you take season one into account, though. Later episodes will contradict this goal. If you wanted to set up praise and validation in general as Cassandra’s motives, then here is where that should have happened. 

Show her getting a medal, have cheering crowds surround her, have her be a hero, or something. You can’t claim her relationship with her parents as the driving force of behind her later actions if you don’t actually involve one of those parents as part of the resolution to her arc. 

Either she lacking attention from her dad or she’s jealous of Rapunzel. You can’t have it be both because those two things don’t intersect. Rapunzel is not and never was a threat to her relationship with her father. 

So Umm...I Don’t Think This Plot Point Has the Impact That the Writers Think It Does 

So this hilarious, and it is intended to be funny, but it’s not for the reasons that the show gives. 

The idea is that this is some shocking revelation. That Rapunzel would never do this under normal circumstances and it’s a hint that the idol is corrupting her. 

Only the rest of the series doesn’t aline with that at all. This is just the real Rapunzel behaving as the she normally would but without the usual veneer of excuses. 

It’s funny because it’s the show calling out Rapunzel hypocrisy for what it is plainly, not because it’s out of character. 

But funny only gets you so far. The show is perfectly happy to play up Rapunzel’s awfulness for laughs, but then conventily ignore it when it comes time for the characters themselves to call her out on it so that she can grow and learn.       

The show runs under the sitcom idea that comedy excuses all sins; which then backfires horribly when it tries to be serious and mature. 

You can’t joke that the king threw a random person in a stockade for little reason and then expect us to still like him when he persecutes a child. Same applies here. 

The sitcom set up only works when there is minimal at stake and all parties involved are equally awful in their own ways. 

Then Why Not Just Go Home?

Once again, there’s nothing at stake in season two. Rapunzel has no real reason to be on this trip. Nothing is stopping her from just going home if that’s what she wants. The idol only makes her happy because it shows her want she wants, but she could actually have what she wants as soon as the next ship arrives. So what’s the issue here? 

This is why you need external conflict in order to make internal conflicts work. There’s has to be something preventing the main character from achieving her goal or otherwise she just comes across as a dumbass. 

And Now Here Comes the Second Elephant; Varian 

I have several things to talk about here, and none of them actually concern the scene itself but the creator’s treatment of the character and the show’s fan base.

For you see, Chris did a very, very stupid thing.  

He wrote the character driving the plot out of the show. The character who also happens to be the most popular person in the series. Only to then use said character’s VA and this one cameo as promotion for this whole season. 

Needless to say, fans were disappointed.   

However, the Tangled fandom is exceedingly polite; more so than most. The lack of Varian was met mostly with confusion, and maybe a few off handed jokes, rather than anger. When opportunity arose people naturally had questions concerning the character.     

And that’s when Chris put his foot in mouth. 

This Tumblr post details how Chris got kicked off the Tangled The Series Discord by bullying a bunch of Varian fans while on there. 

https://starxapple.tumblr.com/post/617852117763391488/zhantiri-uuugh-fine-since-people-are-getting

I shan’t get into it fully, but for those who discovered the show after season two had aired, this caused a massive backlash from the fandom. 

A good chunk of the fandom just walked away, and rightly so. The few that stuck around despite these remarks found themselves harassed by certain sections of the fandom who saw Chris’s bullying as permission to pursue the same behavior. However, most importantly, the ratings plummeted. 

Season one hovered around the the 1 million mark, give or take a five point difference. The first part of season two dropped to half of that, and after this episode and the hiatus it sunk even lower, down to the mid-thirties. That’s over 20,000 people who just jumped ship over this. That’s not a normal decline. 

No matter what your personal feelings are of the character of Varian or how he was handled in the show, that’s still a massive PR fassico that cost the series big time. 

To add to this mountain of bullshit, there was also a massive walk out of crew members after season one had finished production. Most of them women. They even desperately threw out ‘we’re hiring’ calls to cover this. Which given that’s it’s Disney and that nepotism is usually how one gains employment in the entertainment industry, something unusual must have happened behind the scenes. Especially if most of the people who left were women. 

We’ll probably never know what really happened. People don't usually talk about behind the scenes stuff like that due to contracts and the aforementioned nepotism. However, all clues point to Varian.   

Something changed at the last minute concerning his story. Chris himself had confirmed as much when discussing the note and the Brotherhood. We also gotten other hints that content was edited out at the last minute. Plus the writing becomes more shoddy as the series goes along, showing how slapped dashed everything is together.  

Then there’s the rumors. 

I must stress to you that this is only a rumor. As pointed out earlier, most animators aren’t in a position to talk freely about what goes on behind the scenes. Do NOT harass them over it or make things awkward by asking them to clarify this. However it’s been suggested that the female crew warned Chris that removing Varian from season two and re-writing his story, along with making Cass the villain, would be a bad idea before they left and Chris didn’t listen. Much to his folly. 

Chris is no longer a Disney employee and has yet to move on to any other projects. He says he left, but I more suspect that Disney just didn't renew his contract and no one has picked him up since. I take no joy in the idea that someone may have lost their job, but if true, then Chris has little to blame but himself. 

So What Did Change?

We don't know anything for sure. We know from discussions about the note that there was a proposed Brotherhood plot that involved Varian that was then cut. There was also talks about a Cass and Varian team up in season three. 

This was then changed to the Saporian take over, which is foreshadowed in this scene. However even that got edited down and under the flimsiest of excuses. 

One of the writers, Ricky, suggested that they thought cutting back to Corona would be too confusing for the audience; which is a load of bull. I mean how poorly do you think of your audience’s comprehension skills that they wouldn’t understand a change of scene or a flashback? Yet you fully expect them to pick up on your lazy foreshadowing involving the mirror? So much so that you sent them on a quest to find it between seasons two and three.

Then there’s this gem from Chris. 

Ok ignoring the fact that you so totally could have featured both Gothel and Varian, seeing as they serve two different functions in the story and mean different things to Rapunzel.... What guilt?!!! 

Rapunzel doesn’t ever act guilty over anything involving her treatment of Varian. 

That’s when you realize Chris isn’t talking about her feeling guilty about Varian’s predicament. He’s saying that Rapunzel feels guilty of leaving her father behind with this ‘dangerous’ criminal. Which is a big fuck you to everyone. 

That’s why Frederic is the center focus of Rapunzel’s hallucinations. Why she’s more concerned for his safety over Varian’s trauma. Chris really be out here trying to use the abused 14/15 year old orphan as a scapegoat for the grown ass dictator who ruined countless lives. Because he thinks a grown woman should feel guilty for leaving her abusive father behind and pursuing her life’s dream.

Dude, I try not to assume the worst of people just cause they write fictional characters that I dislike, but Chris really makes things hard not to when he treats his self insert this way. 

Oh but we’re not done yet. 

When Varian Fans Complain About the Lack of Varian; We’re Complaining About the Lack of a Coherent Plot. 

Certain sections of the fandom, bolstered by Chris’s BS, try to act like simply being a Varian fan is grounds for dismissal of any criticism of the show and it’s writing. As if having personal preference for something makes you automatically ‘entitled’ or some such bull. Yet doing so ignores the fundamental complaint that they are making. 

We’re not whining about our favorite character not getting enough screen time. No one would have complained about his lack of presence in season two if they had properly resolved his story in season three and had Chris not been a dick to the fans. But it becomes evidently clear as the series goes along that removing Varian left a major hole in the plot. One that makes the entire story and the rest of characters suffer as well. 

Think season two is boring? That’s cause they cut out their main villain at the last minute and failed to replace him with anything. 

Upset that Hookfoot was brought along for zero reason?  He’s the replacement character for Varian who no doubt was going to appear in season two originally. 

Wish there was more on the Brotherhood and the Dark Kingdom?  Their story impact was greatly reduced when Varian was written out.

Are you a Eugene fan and mad about how the Dark Prince plot went nowhere?  That’s cause the original Brotherhood/Dark Kingdom plot was dropped when Varian was.

Dislike how Cassandra’s character was ruined with her villain arc?  She was originally meant to be possessed but was changed last minute to be a Varian rip-off in the hopes that she would gain some of his popularity.   

Wish Zhan Tiri, Demantius, and the Disciples actually went somewhere and that ZT had coherent plan?   That plot were changed last minute to make Zhan Tiri a scapegoat for Cassandra now that her story was changed to replace Varian.

And of course let’s not ignore the character who suffers the most from lack of Varian.... Rapunzel. 

Chris’s defense for leaving Varian out of S2 is that it’s “Rapunzel’s Story” and that Varian was only ever a plot device meant to push her along on her quest.  Which means that Rapunzel no longer has anyone pushing her along on her quest!!!

All characters are plot devices. If they aren’t there to serve a story function then they need to be cut. Even Rapunzel herself serves a plot function. She’s meant to be the protagonist of a coming of age story. Which means she needs both an external conflict to face and an emotional arc where she grows as a person. Varian is the plot device that serves both of those functions but he’s now been removed and is no longer allowed to serve his original purpose. 

Chris reached into the machine while it was running and pulled out one of the main gears and acted like he always meant to do that. He legit sat there and pretended that everything was running smoothly even as smoke poured out and warring alarms blared. He then tried to shove bubble gum in its place hoping no one would notice as everything fell apart around him. 

Cause he’s the thing; no idea is without merit. It’s all about presentation. Removing Varian from season three still could have worked, but it required A.) replacing him with another foe and B.) making sure his arc still got a proper conclusion. 

I’ll talk more about Varian’s half-arsed redemption when we get to it; but for now let's focus on the more immediate problem. No one thought to give season two an actual overarching conflict in light of Varian’s absence. 

That’s a fundamental oversight that pretty much signals that season two was re-written at the last minute. You have an overarching plot in an action adventure show but no main adversary? I refuse to believe that everyone involved was too stupid to do that on purpose; but if they were rushed and lacked a crew because they walked out due to last minute story changes....yeah that’d I buy. 

Because there’s more than enough options to go around; Lady Caine, The Baron and Styalan, Hector and/or Adria, Zhan Tiri’s Disciples ect. were all options. So was keeping the rocks a threat, or have Cass start her villian arc earlier; with proper motivation this time. They could have even come up with someone entirely new. 

You had over four years to plan this shit out; why is it not more well put together?! 

How Come Rapunzel Can Easily Admit Fault to Pascal But Not Anyone Else? 

Pascal should have sat perched on Varian’s and Eugene’s shoulders giving Rapunzel ‘I’m done with this’ looks all throughout season three. It’s apparently the only thing that she responds to. 

Why is the untalkative camelanion the only one allowed to call out the main character’s BS without going villain? 

Conclusion

That’s all there really is to talk about in this story. The actual episode itself is good. It’s the behind the scenes crap that bubbles underneath its surface that needed to be discussed. That way when going forward with the marathon you’ll better see what I’m talking about when I explain how future episode suffered from the lack of planning and foresight. 

[princess-of-the-worlds]

Torchwood and the (Mis)treatment of its Characters of Color

Let’s be honest; despite its decent track record with queer characters, Torchwood has a problem with how it treats its characters of colors, and I say this as a South Asian, bisexual fan of the show. 

For the purposes of this post, I will only be looking at the Torchwood television series (so spoilers for Seasons 1 and 2, Children of Earth, and Miracle Day), and not as Big Finish Torchwood releases since I do not believe myself to be well-versed enough in them to be able to make an accurate post. And also, as much as I love Big Finish for eveything they’re doing, on-screen POC representation is very different from audio POC representation. (And for the purposes of this post, I will not be addressing the mistreatment of Martha Jones, which really, if you think about it, stems from Doctor Who and not Torchwood.)

TLDR; Torchwood has neglected or mistreated its characters of color, given them little or no background, and brutally killed them off, often for shock value.

Let’s start with Suzie Costello. 

Suzie Costello, played by Indira Varma who is a British actress of Indian descent, was promoted alongside the regular cast members in publicity material before “Everything Changes” aired, giving the impression that she would be sticking around for a while or would be a main character. Instead, she was unceremoniously killed off at the end of the first episode and only pops up once more in “They Keep Killing Suzie.” At no point was Suzie acknowledged as a woman of color or given much more background beyond her tumultuous, most likely abusive, relationship with her father.

Next, we get to Toshiko Sato, left as the only person of color on the team after Suzie’s death. 

Wonderful, gorgeous, caring Tosh who, for all intents and purposes, is essentially a walking stereotype. She’s an Asian (Japanese specifically) technology genius who is unlucky at love. Need I say more? (Check out this Teen Vogue article if you’re wondering why that’s a bad thing, or, honestly, just quickly search Google.) And all three of the Tosh-heavy episodes (”Greeks Bearing Gifts,” “To the Last Man,” and “Adam”) feature her being unlucky in love (Mary betraying her, Tommy dying, and Adam manipulating her). Plus, there’s everything with Owen where she pines after him for years only for him to finally recognize that before he dies, and then he, well, dies; that plot arc only ends in death and sadness.

Additionally, we only have limited background for Tosh in comparison to Jack and Gwen (who I guess you could kind of say are the main characters) but even in comparison to Ianto (for whom more background was revealed only because he became a more prominent character in COE.) We know she was born in London, moved to Japan as a child, and at some point moved back before growing up in the United Kingdom. She had a younger brother (mentioned in a deleted scene in “Captain Jack Harkness”) and a grandfather who worked at Bletchley Park (mentioned in “Greeks Bearing Gifts” and “Captain Jack Harkness.”) She also very much loved her family, or at least her mother, enough to commit treason for her, despite her mother only being seen in “End of Days” and “Fragments.” But that’s about it. 

There was so much more Torchwood could have done with Tosh. We could have seen more about her family or her education. We certainly could have seen more about her bisexuality; everything that happened with Mary was not a satisfying resolution. Instead, she was killed off alongside Owen in “Exit Wounds.” Torchwood used the death of a woman of color for shock value, and no matter how effective or emotional that was, it was not excusable. There was so much story left to be told with Toshiko Sato. 

Tosh’s death brought the racial diversity in Torchwood down to zilch.

Next, we have Lisa Hallett.

Now, Lisa Hallett...what do we actually know about her? She worked at Torchwood One, dated Ianto Jones, and loved him enough to maybe fight cyberprogramming for him - this part might be subjective to your own interpretation of “Cyberwoman.” We don’t know anything about her, really, apart from how she is defined and described for a white male main character, which...is problematic enough. I mean, would it have been too much to ask the writers for maybe some further description? I mean, I don’t know. Maybe where exactly she worked in Torchwood London? How she joined? How she met Ianto? If she had any family, any other friends? Why she loved Torchwood and worked there? Heck, a flashback scene featuring a non-cyberized Lisa and Ianto would have been brilliant. Is that too much to have asked of the Torchwood writers? I don’t know.

Then there’s the entire fact that Lisa was turned into a Cyberwoman. Now, I have many problems with how Doctor Who and Torchwood uses its Cybermen, especially regarding its continuous brutalization of black and brown bodies for emotional and shock value (Lisa, Danny Pink, and Bill Potts are only some examples.) It sends a very, very nasty message to these shows’ viewers of color, especially if they’re younger and more impressionable. Plus, the depiction of Lisa in “Cyberwoman” was uncomfortable and unnecessarily sexualized, but this is a whole different essay. But in the end, Lisa Hallett was pumped with bullets many, many times, and her death only added to the emotional pain of a white man.

Now, we come to more minor characters.

Beth Halloran was a human who did not know her true identity as an alien sleeper agent. She had a very interesting and action-packed story arc in “Sleeper” before ending up dead at the hands of Torchwood. She had an emotional struggle between her human identity and her truth as an alien sleeper and chose to help save the world, intentionally ending up dead at the hands of Torchwood. That being said, she was still another character of color who Torchwood had bothered fleshing out who ended up dead.

Next, there’s Dr. Rupesh Patanjali. 

Introduced in COE, he’s a medical doctor who catches Jack and Ianto working on a case and ends up piquing their interest after he makes some shit up. Spoiler alert: he’s an MI-5 plant. We see Gwen attempt to conduct orientation and recruitment with him. He has a fun setup to be a potential new Torchwood member and inside spy, but instead, he lures Jack to the hospital where Jack’s implanted with a bomb. And despite doing his job as requested and doing it rather well, Rupesh Patanjali is shot dead by Agent Johnson that very episode, just like Beth.

Then we have Lois Habiba, arguably the most interesting and fun character introduced in COE. 

She’s a naive newcomer, almost like Gwen, but during her first week working in the Home Office, she finds herself committing treason, conspiring against her boss Frobisher, and helping save the world from an alien invasion. She’s smart, resourceful, and principled, very much like Ianto. Like with a lot of the characters on this list, we know next-to-nothing about her background, which is odd considering her rather major role in COE. And despite being seemingly set up to become a member of Torchwood, we never see her again.

Finally, we come to Miracle Day and its two new characters of color, Rex Matheson and Dr. Vera Juarez. I won’t be getting into too much detail here, especially since MD has its own problems.

Ah, Rex.

Torchwood finally has a man of color for a main character who seems like he could be an interesting foil to Jack (a high-ranking CIA agent with a high bullshit meter), and what do they do...they kill him in his first scene. Oh, and they make him “lightly” homophobic, because that’s always fun. And then he ends up immortal in some kind of bullshit plot hole...I have enough to say there.

Vera, however, was quite interesting. Again, little to no background besides the basic (from San Antonio, had an ex-husband, is a surgeon), but she was still a Latina medical doctor. She had morals and was very stubborn and determined to save people, which is why she insisted into helping Torchwood sneak into the overflow camp. And what did she get for that? She ended up brutually shot in front of her lover Rex, which traumatized them both, and then literally burnt alive. Thrown on top of that? In a quite meta move really, the death of another woman of color was used to incite outrage around the country, and the world, and expose the wrongdoings of the United States government regarding the Miracle. Good stuff? Either way, it came at the cost of the death of one strong woman of color and the further trauma of another man of color.

Plus, there’s everything about how unnecessarily violent and graphic some of the deaths of these characters of color. To put it into perspective, think about how Owen or Ianto or Esther died. (I’m not trying to reduce the values of their deaths; I’m just trying to get you to think about it.)

So yeah, that’s all I have to say about that. Torchwood, you could have done better with your characters of color. (And thank you if you stuck all this way with me.)

TLDR; Torchwood has neglected or mistreated its characters of color, given them little or no background, and brutally killed them off, often for shock value.

[commanderbengiskywalker]

Pick your 3 favorite clones for #82. And if you add in anxiety or a panic attack, maybe?

@crc-commodore-s9

82. “Just breathe, okay?”

Characters: Fox, Cody and Rex.

Summary: Sometimes it can get a bit much when working at the Senate building. Fox has to deal with a lot of unfriendly politicians, but at least he has his brothers to help.

A/N: I have never written a panic attack or an anxiety attack before, so I tried my best. As well as with bring someone down from a panic or anxiety attack. This was good practice for another thing am working on. I would love the feedback.

It was just another day for Fox. He shuffled slightly from foot to foot as he was with the Ryloth representative, Orn Free Taa, as he was complaining of another mistake with the order. He tried to focus on his words though he couldn’t help but flinch with each move the Twi’Lek’s fist moved, up and down while occasionally slamming down on the desk.

“Are you paying attention, Clone?” Senator belowed, slamming his hand on the desk again.

“Y-yes, Sir.” He replied, trying to steel himself. “I will have it corrected at once.”

“Good...now leave.” Taa dismissed.

Fox tried hard not to run back to his office, as he felt his hear hammer against hid chest and his churn in his stomach. He swallowed thickly as he walked.

“Oi!” Someone shouted from behind him.

He stilled, hands shaking. ‘Oh, Kriff’s sake, can’t he leave me alone?’ He thought, as he slowly glanced over his shoulder.

He relaxed his shoulders when he saw the familiar blue and yellow of his vod. Cody and Rex. They walked towards him, smiling eagerly.

“How are you?” Cody asked, as he slowed his pace.

“Fine.” He said flatly, as he straightens.

The two glance at each other before looking back at him with concern flickering across their faces.

“We were wondering if you wanted to get some caf and catch up.” Rex said, smiling. “It’s been a while and Wolffe’s on a mission, so he can’t come. Sends his hello though.”

“It’s fine,” the red armoured Clone replied, fidging with his blaster in hand. “I was head back to my office anyways. Come on.”

They walked silently back to the office, passing by Senators and other vod on their way. He kept his gaze straight as he ignored the Senators. They stopped at the door to his office as he punched in the code.

“Come in.” He said, as he entered.

The office was covered with datapads and empty mugs of caf. To the right there was a desk and a chair with a computer on top of the desk with a tower of datapads next to it. To the left the couch had a pillow and a blanket folded on top of it. As for the coffee table, it was also scattered with loose datapads and mugs. To the back of the room below a window was a table with a caf machine and a few clean mugs.

‘Have to learn to clean up for visitors.’ He thought, as he set down he blaster next to the desk.

“I’ll get the caf.” Rex said, as he followed in behind him.

“Eh, you too, huh?” Cody said, as he sat on the couch. “You should see my office, covered with loose datapads.”

“I think mine is worse,” the blond chuckled, as he turned the caf machine on, “those vod’ika plus the Jetii are danger prone. They keep cause damage left, right and centre.”

“Yeah, but I have to fill out half of them because you’re exhausted half the time.”

“No you don’t! I do it myself thank you very much.”

“Next time you “decide” to visit the Negotiator, I’ll show you the pile you left me. Or if I see another datapad that wasn’t there before.”

Fox felt his ears ring as his two vods debated with each other on who had the most work to fill out, but it was too much. He felt his stomach twist again, as he proceed to hug himself.

“Maybe I will!” Rex, barked, as he slammed his hand down on the table.

Crash!

The mug fell to the floor, but Fox didn’t register it as he stiffened, heart racing against his chest while awaiting the next move.

“Please…” he whispered, he doubled over, staring blankly at the floor. “Please don’t...please…”

“Fox’ika?” Cody said, as he slowly got up. “Are you alright?”

Fox couldn’t hear him, as the steps became amplified in his ears. He hugged himself tighter., as those footsteps drew closer. White boots reached his peripheral vision, but he just blinked as he he shook more.

Who ever stood in front of him didn’t do anything, but that didn’t stop his heart rate from speeding up or his throat from constricting. ‘Why do they always wait?’ He thought, ‘Why can’t they just get it over with? I am just doing my job...I try my best… I didn’t want to get the order wrong or fail to stop the guy who took the wallet… I was made to fight..’

The thoughts continued to run through his head, as he unknowingly heaved.

“Fox..?” Rex asked, reaching out to grab his shoulder.

“NO!” Fox screamed, as he stumbled back, falling out of his chair. Noticing the colour blue in front of him. ”Please!”

The two stood still watching him, as he hyperventilated. They glanced at each other before Rex moved slowly towards his vod’ika.

“Fox?” He said, gently, keeping his hands in Fox’s peripheral vision. “It’s me, Rex.”

“R-Rex…?” Fox gasped, staring at his hands.

“Yes, it’s me. Can I remove your helmet? I am not going to hurt you. I promise.”

Fox stilled as he tried to take off the helmet himself, but his hands couldn’t stop shaking. ‘What’s the matter with me? I am I defective? Is that why they made me go to Coruscant? Was I not good enough for the battlefield?’ He thought, as he tried to regain control of his hands.

He tried again, but the familiar his hiss of the helmet being removed stopped him. He stared his hands as they shook while another pair rested on top of them.

“Fox?” Rex asked. “I just want to breathe. Can you do that? Just breathe slowly, ok?”

He tried to breathe, but his throat felt tight and his stomach churned every time he took a deep breath.

“I-I can’t…” he chokes out, gasping more, “I feel like... I’m going... to throw up…”

“It’s ok, it’s ok...Did I tell you about the one time that my General decided to make food weapons?”

“N-no…”

“Well, you know how General Skywalker is, always trying to avoid boredom. So one day, he was particularly bored….I mean with no action he was shuffling into the mess.”

“S-so what d-did he d-do?”

“Fives, the ever loving troublemaker he is, asked can rations be a weapon?”

There was silence asides from his breathing, as he tited his head up to look at Rex, who sat cross legged in front of him.

“What?” He asked, breathing decreasing slightly.

“That’s what we all said,” Rex continueed, smiling. “He said it again “can a ration be a weapon?” And Skywalker perked up at the question asking “why?” Fives then went on to explain how they were hard as rocks, like they can break your teeth.”

“Oh my gosh,” Cody groaned, tilting his head back, as he sat on his desk.

“Yep...General Skywalker picked up some ration bars and ran out the mess. The rest followed because they were curious. We caught up with him at the hanger bay throwing rations at General Kenobi.”

“I was so confused when I saw them flying at us. Obi-Wan ended up igniting his Lightsaber because he thought he was under attack.”

“General Skywalker kept asking “does it hurt” repeatedly while chucking them.”

“D-di’kut,” Fox muttered, as he started to slowly relax. “Who the Kriff... wastes perfectly good rations?”

“Oh, I should bring you aboard the Resolute, then you can see him in action. The others weren’t concerned as they were laughing their heads off. General Kenobi glared up at him and lectured him on how not to waste perfectly good rations.”

“Like him better.”

“Oh, you two would get along well. Anyways back to the General, he then got the idea to make weapon out of the rations.”

“I thought he already did that.”

“With glue..?”

Fox groaned as he tilted his head back. “What?”

“He went into his Commander’s office and brought out glue that General Koon gave her.”

Fox quirked an eyebrow at the “glue”. It wasn’t normal to have that on a ship. His shoulder relaxed as he leaned forward. “Why does General Koon have glue?”

“Because by Wolffe, he’s Buir and he likes to make old fashion cards by flimsi. Rex answered, rolling his eyes. “Said that they needed to lean how to craft.”

There was no doubt that the Kel Dor General was odd compared to even the likes of Skywalker. Though like most Jedi Generals had a knack for running blindly in or sacrificing themselves, General Koon also had a habit of doing stuff the vod. Such as getting food outside of ration bars or making gifts for them over time. Wolffe liked to complain for his recklessness, but he cared about him a lot and was skeptical of his gifts.

“Anyways, my di’kut Jetii was making a sword out of ration bars,” the blond continued, dragging Fox’s attention to him. “Worse of all my ARCs were helping. They managed to make two stable ones and he gave one to Commander Tano saying they were “sparring”. General Kenobi didn’t believe them, but Skywalker said it was “science”.”

They laughed a little, as Fox felt his hands relax. He liked hearing odd adventures that his ori’vods had as it was more intriguing than any of the complaints from the Senators or business men at the building.

“Obi-Wan got involved with testing the experiment,” Cody said, smiling like he always did when talking of General Kenobi. “He took Commander Tano’s ration blade and proceeded to wack General Skywalker with it as a response to throwning bars at him. All while saying “does it hurt?”

“He deserves it!” Fox laughed, as he doubled over.

“You ok, vod’ika?” Rex asked, as he hesitated on grabbing his shoulder.

“Yeah, yeah I am…”

He felt much more relaxed after the story with his heart rate back at normal pace and no longer feeling nauseous.

He sighed and sat up smiling. “Thanks, Ori’vod.”

“No problem,” smiled Rex, “it can get a bit much sometimes. We all get it, Fox.”

“Come on, let’s get you some tea.”

“What about the caf?”

“No, tea is better. More “soothing” is what Obi-Wan says.”

“Alright then.”

The trio got up and walked out of the office, as Fox finally felt a little lighter that day.

__________________________________________

A/N: I hope you enjoyed. I try my best and feedback is always welcome to help me improve. Especially since I never done panic or anxiety attacks before. Have a nice say/evening.

:D

[lifeofclonewars]

Decko and Lies

Part Seven of Pun Wars. As always, can be read alone. And also as always, AO3 link below. 

Summary: Before Fives could shift, a wall of plastoid slammed into him. It could only be one thing: his twin.

His strained knee locked, and down he went. His batchmate rolled past him. “Hey, kih’vod,” the traitor said before racing off again.

He groaned. “‘M older than you,” he mumbled.

The ground wasn’t too uncomfortable. He could just stay down here for the next while. It was a better friend than his brother was being.

Rex leaned over him. “I’d ask if that was normal if I didn’t already know it was.” He didn’t look amused.

Fives shrugged as best he could. “I should’ve seen it coming, in all honesty. That’s another batch thing of ours. We didn’t tackle as much until the two of us became ARCs, though, since we can take it better now.”

The captain sighed, muttering something that sounded awfully like, “This is my own fault for insisting I got them instead of Cody.”

--

In which Echo decks Fives to the ground in the middle of the mess, Fives decides to just lie there afterward, and some troopers have to change their perceptions of the Legion's ARCs.

----

It was an average day in the 501st Legion. Or, what they considered average and not what a civvie or even some other battalions would call average. Between campaigns and in hyperspace, troopers settled into routines and shifts and enjoyed the free time they found. 

Echo and Fives, recently returned from a campaign with the 41st, were more beaten up than the rest of their brothers, who were returning from a short shore leave. Echo himself wasn't too bad. Just some bruising and a few scrapes and plenty of sore muscles, but not at all unmanageable. He felt worse during ARC training, quite frankly, and he survived that. 

It had only been two days since they went straight from one battle and a short trip on a cruiser to the Resolute headed back out to the Outer Rim and he already felt antsy. Definitely a side effect of being an ARC now — any downtime longer than a day, much needed as it may be, began to feel too long. He couldn’t imagine what being stationed on Rishi would feel like now, as bored as they had all been before that fateful day.

Rolling a stiff shoulder, Echo stood from finishing up his mission report. He needed to do something about this restlessness that was pestering him. A good spar might help, or maybe an overly complicated brain puzzle someone was struggling with, get either his body or his mind working. Luckily, he knew just where to find both.

Exiting the ARC barracks, he headed for Torrent’s. The trip wasn’t long, officer and ARC barracks being far enough for privacy yet close enough to still feel connected to the men and any emergencies that may arise. Stepping inside got him just what he wanted: a handful of off-duty infantrymen arguing over the rules of sabacc while playing what appeared to be a completely different game.

“Echo!” Hardcase perked up from the middle of the circle, effectively silencing the group. “What can we do for you?”

He gave them a half-wave in greeting. “Have you seen Rex or Fives? I have a question for them.”

The heavy-gunner snapped in recognition with his free hand. “They were just in here, actually. Left for the mess not too long ago.”

“I’m kinda surprised you didn’t run into them in the hallway on the walk over here,” Jesse added. “It really wasn’t that long ago, about twelve-forty.”

Echo stifled a laugh. “Jess, it’s thirteen-fifteen.”

The group blinked back at him. For once, silence resounded in the Torrent barracks.

“Have we really been arguing that long?” Ringo asked, eyebrows near his hairline.

“Either that or Jesse forgot how to read a chrono properly,” Echo responded. Jesse put a hand on his chest, sending him a faux-offended look.

“Eh, well, either way, you might still be able to catch them as they leave,” Ringo said. 

The ARC shrugged. “Thanks anyway, guys. See you around.” 

A chorus of replies followed him through the doors, arguing picking back up before they fully closed again. 

The mess, huh? Great. So long as he had the space and Fives was there, Echo knew exactly what he could do, and it wasn’t asking a question. Or, at least, not at first. Plus, he could go for some food right now. It might be contributing to his need to move more than he initially thought. Two jarts, one stone.

Setting off with a purpose, the walk to the mess didn’t take long. Entering, the room wasn’t too crowded, considering the time of day and how the shifts aligned. Fives and Rex were easy enough to spot among the crowd. The duo stood conversing, the captain in an aisle between two rows of seats, the other ARC in the walkway. Their helmets sat on the table next to them, forgotten like the meals a quick glance told him they hadn’t gotten yet. 

Rolling his eyes to himself, Echo walked toward the beginning of the aisle Fives stood in. Now, if he started at this exact point... avoided the trash can... attacked from that angle... rolled tightly, so long as nobody walked past, he was good to go. He could continue on and get his food, and, considering how Fives’ stance seemed to be favoring his left leg since it’d only been two days, nobody would or could stop him. 

Perfect.

Reaching the first row of tables, he set his feet, shook his arms out, and sprung forward. Grinning to himself as nearby observers vocalized their confusion over his actions, he ran toward the duo. Trash can avoided, he dove, snagging his twin by the waist with his left arm. 

Down they both went. Using his momentum, he did a combat roll as planned, popping to his feet. Fives groaning behind him, he said a quick, “Hey, kih’vod,” and took off toward the line at the opposite end of the mess before either man could follow after him. 

Yep, that did the trick. He felt much less restless now. And now that he was thinking about it, he really could go for some food. Another successful plan, and, if Echo was being honest with himself, it was retaliation for Fives waking him up by pushing him off his bunk. 

Three jarts, one stone. 

----

Fives was glad to be back with the 501st after their campaign with the 41st. He had strained his right knee avoiding some droids early into the campaign and, while he could deal with working through the pain because of ARC training, having a medic threaten him to stay off it for a few days was surprisingly refreshing. 

Other than that, all he had was some minor bumps and bruises, though Echo certainly was the better off of the two of them. Nothing that could actually stop him from postponing his mission report for a tad longer and talking to Rex. Really, he would get to the paperwork. He just needed to talk to Rex about this next campaign. And training. And how he and Echo have been since they last saw their ori'vod. And whatever else that may spring to mind while they talked. 

So when Rex ran into him on his hunt to find the captain, he took the opportunity to do so. Nevermind the fact that they decided to get lunch together after checking in on Torrent and still hadn't gotten the food yet.

“So, is there a reason you’re talking to me about upgrades you and Echo have been working on instead of writing out your mission report?” Rex abruptly changed the subject. 

Fives scoffed. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, sir.” 

Rex gave him a pointed look.

“My brain works too fast for my typing skills to keep up?” Which wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t quite the current reason he was avoiding doing his report. “My whole batch had a problem with that, even as our typing speed increased.”

“If that’s so, then why did I just receive a notification saying Echo just sent me his to forward to Cody?” His older brother crossed his arms.

“Ah, you see, that’s one area he has better self-discipline than I do.” He shifted his weight more onto his left leg. Hopefully, that’d help the ache spreading through his strained knee.

The captain rolled his eyes, a ghost of a smile on his lips. “As long as you get it to me by the end of the cycle. Was there anything else you wanted to talk to me about?”

Fives clasped his hands together. “Yes, actually. Echo and I were talking about the upcoming campaign, and we had a few ideas that might work.”

“Great, let’s hear them.” 

Launching into the strategies they talked through last night, still adjusting to a different sleep cycle, Fives explained multiple possibilities for the legion. They were going to take the planet back, even if it took all of Fives’, Echo’s, and Rex’s combined plans (and Skywalker’s improvised ones) to do it.

Halfway through Plan Ebla, subpoint Holo point six, one of Echo’s, something rushed toward him. Before he could shift, a wall of plastoid slammed into him. It could only be one thing: his twin.

His strained knee locked, and down he went. His batchmate rolled past him. “Hey, kih’vod,” the traitor said before racing off again. 

He groaned. “‘M older than you,” he mumbled. 

The ground wasn’t too uncomfortable. He could just stay down here for the next while, rest his knee like he should have been. It was a better friend than his brother was being. Though he had a feeling Echo tackled him because he shoved him off the bunk this morning because Echo had slapped him upside the head the night before. Eh, whatever.

Rex leaned over him. “I’d ask if that was normal if I didn’t already know it was.” He didn’t look amused. To be fair, he didn’t look upset either.

Fives shrugged as best he could. “I should’ve seen it coming, in all honesty. That’s another batch thing of ours, though between Echo and Hevy it tended to be more aggressive-aggressive and not just lovingly-aggressive. We didn’t tackle as much until the two of us became ARCs, though, since we can take it better now.”

The captain sighed, muttering something that sounded awfully like, “This is my own fault for insisting I got them instead of Cody.” He held his hand out for Fives. Louder, he said, “You say stuff like that, and every single time, I have to reevaluate the hour or so I knew Hevy. Makes me wish I could’ve gotten to know the other three like I have with you two.”

Fives gave him a weak smile. “Me too, Cap. Though I think you’d have more grey hair if you did.”

The hand fell back to Rex’s side. “Alright, that’s it. Pick yourself up off the ground, trooper. I’m not that much older than you.”

His smile turned into a smirk. “Whatever you say, ori’vod.”

At that point, Echo reappeared, tray in hand. “Hey, get up,” he said, kicking Fives in the ribs. 

Fives groaned again, curling in on himself. 

Echo scoffed. “Oh, please, I didn’t tackle you or kick you that hard. I know you’ve survived worse.”

“Yeah, like growing up with you. You should respect your elders better.” 

Echo kicked him again. He slapped the foot away. “I’m older than you,” his twin had the gall to say.

“No, you aren’t.” The floor really was looking like the better friend at the moment.

Rex cleared his throat, the two of them turning to him. He had crossed his arms again. “Are you two done?”

They glanced at each other. “For now, sir,” they answered in unison. 

“Good. Fives, I’m serious, get up or I’ll let Echo or Hardcase pick you up. We really should go and get our food. We’ve been standing and talking for too long, and we need to finish going over those strategies you were telling me about. Preferably not on the floor in front of all the men.”

“You started to go over them without me?” Echo asked, moving away and placing his tray at the table the helmets sat on. Distantly, Fives realized Echo didn’t have his helmet on or on his belt; he must’ve left it in the barracks.

Sitting up, he stated, “I was going to comm you. Eventually,” he quickly added at his fellow ARC’s look. Standing up, he turned toward their older brother. “Okay, Rex, let’s go get some food before Echo decides to punch me again.”

Rex and Echo shared a look. “Lead the way, then.”

Off they went, Echo’s chuckles following them. Yeah, being back with the 501st was always a comfort, being able to slip back into habits and relax from the stress of missions. No matter how many grey hairs they may have already caused Rex. 

----

Etch still couldn’t believe he’d been deployed to the 501st battalion with Captain Rex, General Skywalker, and Commander Tano. The 501st! It was a dream come true. One deployment and his first, albeit rather short, leave on Coruscant later, and they were headed out to his first campaign. But they still had a ways to go, traveling through hyperspace for the next day or so. Nobody ever mentioned that even hyperspace travel could take a long time.

Lock and Key, two of his new squadmates who were batchmates, sat next to him in the mess. Etch’s own batchmate was off doing who-knew-what with the rest of their squad. Probably exploring the ship — the Resolute, he still couldn’t believe it. If he wasn’t so hungry, he’d be with them. 

Lock tugged on a bit of exposed blacks between his armor. Looking up from the (still as bland as Kamino) food, he asked, “What?”

Instead of answering, he pointed ahead and to their right. 

“Captain Rex and ARC Trooper Fives!” Key exclaimed. “Wow! I didn’t think we’d see Captain Rex again until maybe training or the campaign or something. I haven’t really seen him since he welcomed us on board.”

They weren’t part of Torrent Company, which was apparently the Captain’s personal Company. Not that they expected to be put there right from Kamino. The Captain spent a lot of time with Torrent when he wasn’t running the rest of the Legion or doing something with their Jedi. For now, they’d only seen him supervising their training, which Sergeant Pry ran, and giving orders during their first deployment. Other than that, orders had come from a Lieutenant or Sergeant Pry, and they hadn’t been able to catch a glimpse of the Captain in the downtime they were beginning to suspect he didn’t have much of. 

“When did the ARCs get back? I heard they were on a mission with a different battalion and that’s why they weren’t there when we arrived and the officers were introduced to us or on the deployment,” Etch asked. 

Lock shrugged.

“I don’t know, but I frankly don’t care,” Key stated. “Did you hear that ARC Fives once ripped a droid’s head off with his bare hands— ”

“I thought that was the Captain that did that.”

“— and another time he took down a Seppie base with nothing but a single detonator, a vibroblade, and his dual pistols while ARC Echo sliced into the base from a safe distance and gathered a bucketload of information that saved us a base or two? Or how one time ARC Echo faced down a whole droid platoon with an injured and unconscious ARC Fives on his back and came out with only a twisted ankle?”

“Wow.”

“I know, right?”

Lock nodded in agreement.

“Actually,” Etch began, “I heard you know ARC Trooper Fives considers you a friend if he punches you. That’s so weird, but, like, now I wanna see it happen, you know?”

Key furrowed his brows. “He does?”

“Yeah! It’s like how Sergeant Pry keeps patting us on the back and nudging us when we do something good, except ARC-levels of roughness or something. Now that there aren’t any kaminiise around, I’ve noticed everyone’s more open about doing that stuff. ‘Parently, the General’s okay with it, hasn’t sent anyone back for it.”

Lock and Key both had wide eyes. “That’s amazing.”

“Yeah, it is. Also, I heard that ARC Trooper Echo punches ARC Trooper Fives back in retaliation. But he doesn’t start it, as far as I’ve heard. I also heard they’re batchmates, that’s why they work so well together. Like, ARC Trooper Echo’s the brains most of the time and ARC Trooper Fives is the brawn, even though they can easily switch roles if they want to since they’re ARCs and all that. They just know what the other’s gonna do.” 

“Chip told me that Twos told him that Flopper told him that Zeck told him that he heard they were twins and when he asked them, they said ‘maybe’ in unison and didn’t say anything else on the topic.”

Wait, look, Lock signed. There’s ARC Echo. He pointed at the entrance of the mess. 

“Holy kriff, he’s here to talk to the other two, isn’t he? Do ya think if we get closer, we can hear what they’re talking about?”

“You mean eavesdropping on our superiors?” Key looked scandalized. He paused. “Count me in.”

Just then, ARC Trooper Echo broke out into a run. Etch stood to his feet. Why was he running? Was something bad happening or about to happen that he didn’t notice? “What —” 

The ARC Troopers collided, flying to the ground. ARC Trooper Echo rolled, stood up, stated, “Hey, kih’vod,” and continued on his way. ARC Trooper Fives stayed on the ground, groaning. “‘M older than you,” he mumbled to the empty air. 

As the Captain leaned over his ARC, Etch, Lock, and Key stared at each other. “I think something we heard was wrong,” Etch murmured.

Lock and Key merely nodded at him.

“Maybe we shouldn’t believe everything we hear about them.”

They continued to watch as ARC Trooper Fives stayed on the ground, conversing with the Captain. Soon enough, the other ARC headed over and kicked his brother. Once again, the trio shared shocked looks, unprepared for this development, almost missing the wack back ARC Trooper Echo received. Captain Rex, though sounding exasperated with what they could catch, looked… was that fond? 

This was not how Etch thought his meal would go.

As ARC Trooper Fives and Captain Rex went off to get food, Etch’s batchmate, Chip, ran over. 

“Where’d you come from? I didn’t see you enter the mess.”

“A cloning vat, thank you very much,” Chip replied. “I have more news!”

The trio leaned in, eager to learn more.

“I heard from Dean, who heard from Flopper, who heard from Feedback, who heard from Oz, who’s in Torrent Company that both ARC Trooper Fives and Echo once saved Captain Rex and Commander Cody from a Seppie base after they’d been captured with only a ten-minute window, a handful of droid poppers, and their normal gear, and against a whole fifteen rollies! They made it back to the rendezvous with four minutes to spare and Captain Rex took down three of them himself while midair and Commander Cody punched one to bits…”

And just like that, the group of barely-not-shinies forgot the lesson they just learned, getting swept up in stories and rumors of their commanding officers. Well, shinies are gonna shiny, after all. They’d have the lesson they learned that day knocked into their heads permanently in a month or so, once the shininess completely wore off. All in good time. 

----

Jart: Bird native to Ryloth

Kih’vod: Little brother

Ori’vod: Big brother

Kaminiise: Kaminoans

This was longer than I initially planned lol. Still shorter than my writing tends to get. Anyway, here's the first post of break! Hopefully, I will get to both Beginn and WK within the next two weeks I have of break. If not, Happy Holidays! Also, apparently, I'm incapable of writing any of Domino Squad without mentioning the rest of them now. *shrugs* I'm not sorry.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment or send me an ask or message

[cynthiaandsamus]

Bulbamun’s Top Ten Simpsons Episodes!

So now that my new smart tv has Disney+ on it I’ve been watching a lot of Simpsons lately and started thinking about just what are my favorites, this is by no means a definitive list, I may change my mind immediately after posting this but I do tend to hover around the same era when I watch and I just thought about which ones I keep coming back to or otherwise stick with me

10. Round Springfield

So this one fucking makes me cry every time, I don’t watch it as much as I have most of the others on this list but watching Bleeding Gums Murphy die and leave Lisa so distraught always gets me, they do the crazy James Earl Jones cloud ending and it never fails to have me in tears by the end. Also Bart’s small character arc with Lisa believing he’s telling the truth when he wrecks his appendix leading into the end is a very nice touch (and is something that happens in reverse later on in the list).

9. Lemon of Troy

On the other end of things, Lemon of Troy just always makes me feel kind of good, it’s really funny, there’s so many subversion gags that work really well and it’s a neat little adventure story that changes the setting up a bit. Shelbyville is mentioned a lot in various episodes so it’s neat to just go there and see the people are just as weird and freaky as in Springfield despite Shelbyville always seeming to be the better option in most conversations. Also, lemon-shaped rocks.

8. Homer Badman

So this is here for a couple reasons, first of all the Candy Expo in the beginning is an amazing setpiece and I love all the gags they get out of all the crazy candy convention shenanigans. And then the episode just kind of pivots and we get a pretty dire take on media sensationalism that just gets more and more relevant every year. It’s a weirdly nuanced take too since none of the original parties are particularly at fault since they both don’t have the full story but they get swept up into a media whirlwind. (Though the more I think about it, Homer DID still technically grab the girl’s butt even if it wasn’t intended as sexual harrassment there’s still a case to be made that he did do it, but she seems fine to drop it after finding out about Gummi Venus De Milo so I guess it’s okay)

7. Lisa’s Substitute

This is the other episode that never fails to make me cry, like every time I watch this episode I end up having a huge headache from crying so much. This one admittedly relies a lot on its ending and isn’t quite as funny or touching throughout but what an ending, everything from the train scene and Lisa getting the note to how the family wraps up at home and Homer proves he can be a good parent in his own way while relating to all three of his kids on various levels, it’s just really great.

6. Homer the Heretic

So this one is on the list for its atmosphere (and it won’t be the last one) I really freaking love how it sells the lazy Sunday morning feel in the first half, how Homer crafts a fun day off for himself with all these silly little events and snacks and such (which is also how I spend my days off so it probably hit a little close to home). The religious commentary is pretty good too, Lisa the Skeptic was very close to making the list for how it handled respecting people’s faith even when you don’t share it but I kinda like how oddly inclusive this message is for a show that’s usually pretty Protestant-focused, it kind of gets to a message about the intention of faith being more important than the dogma, but also that something like church can still have value.

5. Bart on the Road

This one and the next one are more atmosphere pieces, admittedly the vaporwave meme may have influenced my opinion on this a bit but I find myself coming back to this episode a lot just for the breezy attitude it has about the whole road trip aesthetic and how well Bart organizes this thing on the fly even though none of them have any idea what they’re doing, plus Nelson and Martin are always good to drag along together (see Lemon of Troy) and Lisa’s subplot about connecting with Homer and that being the final test that connects it to the resolution of Bart’s plot I always thought was really cute.

4. Bart’s Comet

Like I said, this is another atmosphere pick. The parts of this one that always get me are the beginning when Bart’s getting up at 4am and everything’s so quiet and still and the day hasn’t really started yet, and then the quiet anxiety that hangs over the town as their waiting for the comet to come crashing down (which if I remember high school earth science it’s not a comet if it enters the atmosphere but whatever). It’s got some really funny jokes and a variety of townspeople to play off each other and a really sweet and poignant ending with Flanders but the early morning scenes and the apocalyptic dread are my favorites here.

3. Bart Sells his Soul

I guess I’m a sucker for the theological/philosophical episodes of classic Simpsons because I love this episode. Just like in an inverse of Round Springfield, this one wraps up with Lisa giving Bart something that solves his grief, and her point about Bart earning his soul through desperation and effort and prayer is really touching. The Moe stuff for the B-plot is really cute and I like the setting of turning Moe’s into a TGI Fridays type deal, plus the oddly heartbreaking scenes of Bart walking around feeling like something is missing, it’s all really good and wraps up in a surprisingly touching way.

2. One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish

I feel like nobody talks about this episode as much as they should. Like it’s an episode about Homer Simpson facing his mortality and how that cuts to the core of his relationships with literally everyone in his life. It strips him bare and makes him thoughtful and introspective in a way we don’t really get to see while we take a quick jaunt through all his connections he’s made with the people closest to him. The scene of Homer mustering up all his dignity and listening to The Bible on tape and waiting to die really kinda touches me, I remember first seeing it as a kid and wondering what was going to happen, I knew they couldn’t kill Homer but part of that moment really sold it in a way I wasn’t expecting and approached mortality in a way that few others that use this stock plot do.

1. 22 Short Films About Springfield

Okay, Steamed Hams, you know it, I know it, Steamed Hams is one of the funniest things The Simpsons has ever done, but the whole episode is pretty great. The fact that it doesn’t have a central plot means that it can basically just be a gag factory and get a ton of variety, sweeping around the whole town and just punching in joke after joke of varying types. And despite its name and structure, it doesn’t feel like they’re isolated vignettes, it does feel like they’re going places since the shorts are decently tied together with good visual segues and some plots that continue throughout like Lisa’s hair story. Aside from the Cletus story and maybe a couple others there aren’t any hard cuts that divide one of the stories from another and it’s just really funny. Seems kind of weird to put all the touching and memorable episodes on the list and then top it off with a nonsense collection of hilarious gags but here we are.

[ahiddenpath]

Four Years news

I have a draft finished of the next chapter, so it shouldn’t be long before that’s done.  Uh- more below the cut?

So basically I changed some things around last second, hence the hiccup in posting.  Frankly, I’m not really interested in the summer arc anymore, and I’m in one of those...  “Do you want a perfect story, or a finished story?” moments that inevitably occur in every fanfic.  Perfection isn’t an option, so always, always choose to keep moving (although certainly, it’s great to take your time).

So next update, we’ll start the second year of college for Izzy and friends!  I’m a bit nervous, because all I really have written is a general setup of sophomore year and the Shauna resolution.  There isn’t much written for the other kids, although they’re around.  I’m not super sure where I’m going at this point!  I admit that I’m wondering if my goal is to wrap up the open drama and flash forward to year 3, where the older kids will live together just off campus in a rented home, and the younger kids will arrive on campus to provide some new personalities to bounce around.  FRESH BLOOD, lol!

There are about 24K words of material written right now, but I don’t want Izzy/Amy/Shauna stuff only, especially after that hefty summer arc.  I won’t be covering summers again, at least, not like that (I’ve toyed with the whole group renting a house in the Outer Banks together for a week or two over summer, or something like that).  I know I’ve written some ideas down.  One thing in particular is that I love Sora so much, I have a bad tendency to present her as...  Basically as close to perfect as a human can be.  Most of her “negative side” in FY thus far has been her hesitance to commit to anything in her future and her tendency to overwork/focus on goals to the point where she drops other important things.  

These days, I think I understand Sora much more than I did when I started FY, and I want to show her losing composure/snapping at people when she’s been under pressure for too long, nagging a bit, misunderstanding herself and others, suffering caretaker fatigue/resentment, and ignoring her problems by working too hard/focusing on others.  Like- she should get to grow and change, too.

We should definitely see some more of Hana and Tai, too, and maybe have Dyani come around...  I realized that Dyani kind of...  Reappeared to help Amy???  And she’s a really awesome character (if I do say so myself, lol!), so I want her to have her own problems and growth/receive help in return.  Like, she won’t hit the same involvement level as, say, Hana, but I want her to have more material.

I’m still not sure if I ever resolved how I’m writing FY Matt these days, lol!  You know I’ve been editing early FY chapters, and this boy is all over the place.  I think I’ve more or less???  “Resolved” it???  As, “Matt has a cool, arrogant stage persona that sometimes leaks into his normal life, which isn’t too surprising, given all the fame and attention it’s given him,” plus, “But Matt is an emotional, introverted, easily embarrassed mess who loves his friends so much he sometimes doesn’t know how to act.”  And, as I’ve said, Matt also has strong social intuitiveness, because I need a male character with this skill.  This isn’t... necessarily... true to canon (sometimes Yamato truly nails it, and sometimes he can’t notice a hint if it dances naked in front of him.  I haven’t been able to 100% understand why, but I think it might have to do with how calm he is in that moment.  If he’s not calm, forget it).

I haven’t even mentioned Joe and Mimi, lol!  What are they up to?

So yeah, I want to interweave more material into the Shauna arc, and then leap to year three.  And thennnn...  Davis!  Ken!  Mystery surprise characters!  TK and Kari on campus!  A few more faces!

Uh-  Uh-  I guess tell me what you’re most interested in!  And look forward to an update soon!  Okay, bye!

[inevitably-johnlocked]

hii steph!! do you have like an ideal version of s4? Like what would have happened if you wrote it or Mofftiss didnt screw up:@:/

Hey Nonny!

Ahhh, see here lies the big question, Nonny, because honestly, the umbrella answer to this question is “as long as it followed the narrative arc that they were setting up in S3 and TAB, I would have been happy”. It’s really vague, but I’ll try my best to summarize my Big Thoughts™ on this… I inevitably want to write my own fanfic, but I fear that the time has long passed to do so. *shrugs*

Most, if not all, of what I believed what was going to happen can actually be found on my MASSIVE S4 Receipts Masterpost Permalink here. Check out all of that if you want more details.

Okay, so here’s what I PERSONALLY believe they were setting up in S3 and TAB (and this isn’t to say that it SHOULD have gone this way):

that Mary was going to be either The Big Bad or at least play a MAJOR role in the Moriaty narrative. She was going to be either a Moran-type character [here too], or she was the next Moriarty, which I believed was actually a handle or company that was passed on, like the Bond moniker.

That the pregnancy was fake and was going to be the catalyst for John and Mary’s ultimate confrontation.

That in turn would then lead to John and Sherlock in an epic showdown with Mary that leads to the 3G moment and Mary either being killed or arrested.

Another theory I had was John ends up working with Mycroft because he’s tired of being left out, and John ends up saving Sherlock from Mary.

And on the side as like the small background subplot, I believed that Lestrade and Molly (mirrors for Sherlock and John respectively… Holy shit it JUST clicked to me why they didn’t make them a canon thing in S4) were going to be confirmed a canon relationship, which would then be foreshadowing Sherlock and John’s confessions as the cliffhanger for S4.

WHICH then leads to: I ALWAYS believed John was going to be shot in S4, to mirror Sherlock’s in S3 (shooting Sherlock’s heart) and as the big cliffhanger for S4 to build anticipation for S5, which would be the season where Sherlock was doing cases without John and we find out only at the VERY END of S5E1 that John DID survive the fallout with Mary, with Sherlock going to the hospital to tell John about his day or whatever.

I had some theories at the end of TAB that I suspected something big was going on with Mycroft, either he was part of “The M’s” or that he was going to die. I wasn’t really sure.

Janine possibly playing a role in all of it as well, and it being discovered she’s Moriarty’s sister.

So yeah, essentially, an ideal S4 for me would have been a Badass Villain Mary, Moriarty is actually dead and no longer in the picture but his legacy lives on with Mary avenging him or working for Janine who took over, John and Sherlock finally taking down the empire of Moriarty once and for all, and John inevitably triggering the confession out of Sherlock. 

I don’t know, looking back now it seems a bit weak of a plot, especially now that my brain is a bit fuzzy on what I believed may have happened… I do have a Plots section on that Masterpost, so check that one out for some thoughts there, definitely a bit more fresh than right now, because I’m tired and sleepy and it’s been 4 plus years since I wrote that stuff, so it’s all a bit fuzzy, hah hah.

Basically, I felt that S4 was a season that was supposed to have the big climax, the penultimate season of their 5-act structure, and S5 is to be the resolution season, where everything gets tied up in a nice neat bow. The S4 we got certainly had the climax feeling 10 times over, but then it tried to convince us that there is a resolution already, so in turn, it being the ONLY season without a proper cliffhanger, it left people thinking… is this… it? Yeah. I dunno. I’m not a professional writer so what do I know LOL. I just like stories to have a good narrative, is all. 

Cheers, Nonny. Sorry I’m tired and want to go to bed now LOL.

[orionsangel86]

I was the one with the ask. I want to apologize. I didn't wanna come across as rude. I love your blog. It was an honest question, since I haven't seen any spoilers which indicate that Cas and Dean are gonna make up. Also I have only seen spoilers where they said that the conflicts goes on after ep 9. Last thing was that Jensen didn't mention Cas as a reason for Dean being sad. But I saw ppl saying that Dean is gonna be shedding tears over Cas. I'd like to know if there's any reference material.

Okay so the first thing I need to stress here as in all cases is this: PR is not showrunning. I know I know, we say it all the time. You can’t really rely on small soundbites from the actors taken from interviews and put into clickbait articles usually to satisfy a specific writers agenda depending on the article they are writing. 

The second thing to remember: People are going to hype up and sensationalise things on social media to gain attention, likes, notes, etc. You cannot rely on this information either.

What we actually know:

Misha said this: “Cas will return to the bunker and the boys. He’ll be sort of driven back into collaborating with them because we’re still confronting the big bad, which is God. But that tension between Cas and Dean will play out for some time, and we won’t really have a resolution to that. I think the audience, and frankly Cas, will finally understand what it is that’s upsetting Dean so much in episode 9. So we’re a ways off from that arc feeling like it’s resolved.”

This quote is from this article.

Then at DCCon the other weekend, the last question asked by Mel aka @/mishasdiary on Twitter, was basically to know if Dean and Cas patch things up and Jensen answered this:

“I will say this, there is an answer to your question in the show. It will be in episode 9 which we just finished. Let’s just say that Dean has a moment by himself, where he prays to Cas. That is a bit of a confession on why he feels the way he feels and why he treated Cas the way he treated him.”

You can see the answer here at about 58 minutes in (last question).

In your ask you sent me yesterday, you also referred to another article (link here) written with soundbites from Jensen. I believe you were referring to this:

"I think the state of his brother always worries Dean. That's who he fights for," Jensen Ackles told TV Guide. "When that support, that base strength in his life starts to waver and [he] starts to second guess himself, that will certainly affect Dean in a way of, 'I can't let him go down this road' or 'I need to figure out a way to help him out.' So it'll be a struggle, not against each other, but for each other. Sam is struggling to find a purpose and Dean is struggling to help Sam find purpose."

But this is standard talk from Jensen and it is also correct so I don’t see why anyone would read this and feel threatened about Dean’s relationship with Cas? Come on now, we aren’t like Bronly’s threatened by Cas’s mere presence. This is very true what Jensen is saying because the brothers are toxically codependent. But there is a true bond between them which has been poisoned over time. Yes Dean will be worried about Sam because Dean is always worried about Sam, but Sam is not part of the Dean and Cas break up narrative.

Jensen also had this to say which I thought was interesting:

[about Sam hypothetically dying] "That would have to be a bridge crossed when he came to it," Ackles said. "Right now, and for a long time, Sam's been the reason that Dean keeps fighting. If you take that away from him, then what does he have? Is there a will to keep going? I don't know how that would shape up from Dean's perspective. Maybe he finds something to fight for or maybe he finds somebody to fight with. Maybe he calls it quits."

So this is Jensen contemplating what life would be like for Dean without Sam, and he’s hardly saying “well if Sam died Dean would also want to die” because Jensen most likely knows that isn’t the case anymore. Bobo has been picking apart that particular arc ever since he wrote Red Meat. 

So anyway, brushing off Jensen’s interview aside as nothing even remotely alarming or concerning for DeanCas fans (because we do NOT see Sam as a threat to our ship), lets talk about the prayer. We got Jensen’s spoiler first, and given this was fresh in Jensen’s mind, only shortly after he filmed it, I reckon we can safely assume that what he has told us is at least somewhat accurate (though we cannot of course account for how this may be cut in the editing room).

Episode 9 is Bobo’s episode. Bobo is basically holding the mantle for the DeanCas emotional arc this season (and last season) so I fully expect this to be the next big turning point in Dean and Cas’s relationship. Jensen has confirmed that when Dean is alone, he prays to Cas.

This is already setting a super intimate scene. Dean rarely prays as it is. We haven’t seen him pray to Cas since season 9. The fact that he is alone and not with Sam also confirms the level of intimacy. We can assume that Dean sought privacy for this prayer.

Now, Jensen goes on to say that Dean will explain how he feels and why he treated Cas how he did. This is already sounding like a proper explanation and potentially an apology. We will learn the mystery of why Dean (in Misha’s words) has been acting like such a prick. I never had any doubt that they would eventually explain it. I trust Bobo has planned this all out and knows what he is doing. He likes exploring Dean’s emotional responses - anger comes from fear and worry. Dean is terrified. That is usually why he acts out. Bobo has previously confirmed this and it was even stated in the show itself in Bobo’s episode 14x09 via Kaia. I think that Dean’s treatment of Cas is based on fear. This is why we are so excited (when I say “we” here, I mean me and the general group of wonderful people I scream with daily about this dumb show aka a bunch of meta writers or at least meta literate people). So Jensen has confirmed that we will get a proper explanation of WHY he treated Cas and also HIS FEELINGS on the matter. 

The MOST interesting part of Jensen’s spoiler, is that he called the whole thing a CONFESSION. Dude. The last time Dean confessed to anything was in a church and it almost gave me a heart attack. Since that scene was the closest this show has ever come so far to Dean actually coming out of the fucking closet.

So not only is this an intimate prayer to Cas, an explanation of his bad treatment of Cas and an admittance of his feelings over the whole thing, its also a confession. 

Interesting choice of words Jensen. Confession to what exactly? Because this is starting to feel suspiciously like a very profound moment between our two boys. It’s clearly an important scene. 

Then Misha on top of this, has confirmed that Cas hears the prayer. Which yay for starters, and also think about how he explained the situation:

“But that tension between Cas and Dean will play out for some time, and we won’t really have a resolution to that. I think the audience, and frankly Cas, will finally understand what it is that’s upsetting Dean so much in episode 9. So we’re a ways off from that arc feeling like it’s resolved.”

You have to read this entire paragraph as one: 

The tension will play out for sometime but Cas and the audience will understand what the deal is in episode 9. So we are a way off from that arcs resolution.

When Misha was talking about the resolution being way off, he was talking about the time between now and episode 9. He confirms that it is at least somewhat resolved in episode 9. That’s what I interpret as being implied here anyway. 

This plus Jensen’s entire answer was to the question “when will Dean and Cas patch things up?” Jensen answered “episode 9″.

Like??? How are people misunderstanding this and blowing it so far out of proportion? Bitter people are so desperate to cling to their negativity that they are totally misinterpreting the information they are being given. It’s extremely frustrating.

Anyway, the one other gripe you had was about Dean’s prayer being about Sam or because he is worried about Sam. Okay except that has come out of absolutely nowhere other than bitters who are actually threatened by Sam which I find utterly ridiculous. So what if the prayer is triggered by Sam? Maybe Sam is in a perilous situation and Dean doesn’t know what to do so he prays. I mean, is that really so bad? Dean usually IS motivated by Sam, so it’s not exactly a huge deal. The main thing to focus on here is that the prayer will be about Dean and Cas and THEIR issues. It will resolve THAT ARC. The arc that doesn’t involve Sam. 

Honestly, I don’t think that Dean’s prayer will be triggered by Sam though. Because Sam has never been part of this particular arc that Bobo has been writing. I mean maybe its possible that the whole thing could be triggered by Sam yelling at Dean to sort out his shit with Cas because they are stronger together and Sam is fed up of being stuck in the middle in which case GREAT because I would LOVE to see more exasperated Sam telling his brother to talk to his estranged husband. 12x10 is one of my all time favourite episodes BECAUSE OF SAM.

But again, I don’t think that an intimate private prayer confession from Dean to Cas will have anything to do with Sam because quite frankly, I can’t see how to fit him in a way that makes sense outside of my own 12x10 repeat above. 

So please, stop panicking over things we don’t know. Stop making negative assumptions. Focus on the good stuff and enjoy what the show is giving us right now. I’m still riding the DeanCas break up scene high because that shit was romantic AF and no one can tell me otherwise. I’m still amazed that in this shows final season Dean and Cas’s emotional arc is getting pushed into the A plot. In all the years of watching this show this has only ever been the case once before and that was in 13x01-13x06. This is a huge deal. Enjoy it and stop letting negative Nancy’s drag you down.