#(yes i decided it was time for yet another s2 rewatch)

[markantonys]

wheel of time season 2: everybody wants rand carnally, and nobody wants mat carnally

[on-till-morning]

The Final 15 Min: You’re a dark horse Mr Fell

Or: Azirawhy?

I’ve spent the better part of this weekend in bed with my cat, drinking cocoa, rewatching scenes from GO and reading and writing thousands of words of s2 meta, so first of all, thank you again Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaimon and this incredible fandom - you’re all geniuses and as a result I am literally living the dream. Secondly, after writing and rewriting my own extremely long meta a dozen times I’ve decided instead to link to the other metas that have essentially already said everything I wanted to say and condense my comments beneath them. I’ve also added my theories for season 3 based on my analysis of s2. However, despite my best intentions and having just using the word ‘condensed’ this turned out to be pretty long anyway, so you can find all this and more under the jump below.

My favorite possible explanations for the ending:

1) Aziraphale is lying to protect Crowley

I first found this theory here and here

And then it’s brilliantly explained with great attention to detail here. This piece includes SO many details that I had missed from the convo, referencing back to scenes from s1 as well as 2. Hats off and round of applause to this author. Just, wow.

I love this theory so much and a part of me wants it desperately to be canon - it explains away all of Azirphale’s foot-in-mouth shortcomings and cringey to downright horrifying wtf moments from the final scene, but after watching the final scenes 26495362893 times I’m landing more on the side that:

2) Az is being expertly manipulated by Metatron, and these shortcomings are all of his character flaws coming up and out in one horrible regurgitatation.

Extremely detailed and thorough multi piece meta going into exactly how Metatron is manipulating him and why it works here.

Briefer but also clear and thorough single post essay here.

3) Or some combination of the two.

Again, having watched this countless times I just do not buy that every single think Az says in the final scene is part of a master plan to deliberately break up with Crowley, but I do think

He’s as scared as he’s relieved/excited

And I don’t know if he’s actually relieved/excited but he’s definitely confused, surprised and increasingly panicked when Crowley insults him, turns down the offer and leaves, which is part of why I don’t think it’s entirely option #1

He is trying to stop the love confession or at least delay it for another time when Metatron is not standing right outside the door (hold that thought!)

And finally there are some lines that just don’t make sense, even from the angel who we’ve heard spout all kinds of nonsense about how “I am good and you are, unfortunately, evil.” Yes, I might buy that he might still think heaven is ultimately good and “the side of light” that’s just been run very poorly by “bad angels” who aren’t as good as Aziraphale at knowing what god really wants in the situation (as he tells himself in the Job episode). But “I’ll run it and you can be my second in command.”???? A blank stare at “if heaven ends life on earth it’ll be just as dead as if he’ll ended it”??? However, this brings me too…

The character arc we didn’t see

I love this post about expectations as a fandom and what we’re actually shown versus what we as ravenous shippers want and expect to see and couldn’t agree more.

What were we actually shown about Aziraphale and where he’s at with his repression and denial? Right in episode 1 Jim says “You know what it’s like when you don’t know anything at all and yet you’re totally certain that everything would be better if you were near one particular person?” and Aziraphale panics, jumps upright and begins backing away frantically while saying “NO. I have no idea what that feels like. What makes you say that?”

We haven’t seen Aziraphale have his come to Jesus moment yet (pun intended) in season 2. While we get to see Crowley hit over the head with the ‘holy shit this is romantic love’ anvil, Aziraphale has a different realization coming and we’ve already been told what it will be.

It’s not “they look at each other and realize they were made for each other.”

It’s “they realize they had misunderstood each other.”

I think in many ways Aziraphale is already unconsciously acting like they are a couple, possibly more so than Crowley, but we don’t see him acknowledge his feelings out loud. We see his evolution through the 3 mini episodes to go from everything is black and white to life and Crowley and even himself are made up of shades of gray, but apparently that wasn’t enough to finally seal the deal for his ultimate “realize they had misunderstood each other” moment, otherwise the season wouldn’t have ended the way it did. Despite how far he’s come he hasn’t fully yet come to terms with his deeply rooted belief that demons=bad or mostly bad and angels=good or at least better than demons. I think that those beliefs showed their face in the worst possible way during that final argument, and that’s part of why Crowley was such a hard no to the whole situation. It’s not just a no to going back to heaven as an angel, it’s also ‘I can’t believe you still think that way about me.’

I don’t, however, think Metatron knew things would go that deep. I don’t think he knows either of them very well at all, but he knows Crowley would never go back to being an angel and he felt confident enough to manipulate Aziraphale (once on his own) into proposing just that and then he pushed them together before Aziraphale could process anything and stood back and let the explosion happen.

There are a couple very well written posts already out there about how the problem is not so much miscommunication as it is fundamentally not agreeing, how deep down Aziraphale doesn’t like that Crowley is a demon and still thinks of him as the angel he was, and how Crowley twisted the knife in Aziraphale’s insecurities that I think all add up to spell out this story really well. To this I’ll add, I think they both condescend and in ways look down on each other. While still being very much in love. I want to keep this short so I’ll try to stick to one example: in the Job episode Crowley said “you’re an angel, you can’t be tempted” while obviously tempting him (“you’re an angel, I don’t think you can do the wrong thing”) which is gentle but also mocking, because Crowley is literally tempting him in that moment. Then there’s times when he’s less gentle (“how could someone so clever be so stupid?”). From Aziraphale we have endless examples of his “holier than thou” attitude. Yes I think some of it is part of their coded-spy-talk but when you say and behave a certain way for years let alone eons even if some part of you knows you’re joking it becomes real.

To sum up - in season 2 we got our realization that they were made for each other from Crowley for sure and maybe from Aziraphale - I mean, those were a LOT of heart eyes in the bookshop before Metatron arrived and the whole grabbing his arm thing when B talks about finding something better than choosing sides. But the realizing they’ve misunderstood each other is what we’ve been set up for in season 3 and I think the misunderstanding is on both sides.

Final thoughts:

The coffee or death metaphor as literal - YES. Both in the first time we see it where Michael is threatening death and Metatron arrives to offer coffee, and secondly when Aziraphale asks “where would I get my coffee” (I.e. not die) and Metatron answers by not answering and saying instead (summarized) “we know you’ve partnered with Crowley, come to heaven and he can be an angel again and you can work together - that’s where you’ll get your “coffee” (as opposed to the (false) other option which is death).

I don’t feel like enough’s been said about the final scene with Metatron in the elevator. His whole body sighs as if in relief and he gives Aziraphale A Look.

This whole body sigh sigh says to me “thank fuck I finally got this gd angel in the gd elevator” and the final look over at him seems to have a taste of “what trouble is this idiot going to cause me next?”

Oh Metatron, you have no idea 😈. Because Aziraphale is definitely planning something, from the second he heard the phrase “second coming.” We already know he would stop Armageddon alone if he has too.

Because it’s all about protecting for Aziraphale. Did anyone else think it was odd that Aziraphale, who was soooo keen and literally bouncing up and down with joy at having The Mystery of Jim/Gabriel to solve, suddenly switched to dropping the mystery entirely and it never comes up again? Then on one of my many rewatches I realized Aziraphale was 100% in detective mode until Shax casually mentions that Crowley is risking destruction for him, which is the first Aziraphale has heard of Crowley being in trouble. Michael Sheen gives us the eyebrow raise of infamy and seems pretty cool, calm and collected about it but Aziraphale then lies to Crowley about anything strange happening and goes on to then frantically plan the greatest shopkeepers and trade association monthly meeting of all time and never questions Gabriel about who else he was at the bar with and never mentions The New Clue again. He drops solving the mystery entirely and throws himself into the ball. Because he wants to dance with Crowley?!?!! 😍🥹🥰 Maybe. But if Nina and Maggie get together then heavens suspicions are allayed, and Aziraphale has just learned that Crowey’s entire existence is in danger. He can’t protect him from hell but he can try to get Maggie and Nina together and protect him from heaven. That doesn’t happen but what happens instead? THE Voice of god herself, the top of the bureaucracy, shows up and offers Aziraphale the very protection for Crowley that he just tried to Jane Austin into existence?! Regardless of whether he fully believed Metatron, partially believed, or is 100% playing him for a sucker, he believes going along with Metatron will protect Crowley as well as “make a difference.” Which one is the main goal and which the happy side effect? Is there a difference? Does Aziraphale have any conscious awareness over what he’s doing? I have no explanation for the bitter “I forgive you” and have not yet read a theory that resonates.

[nalyra-dreaming]

im sweating no one has asked it yet. i have been sitting on an ask for a while that suddenly seems a lot more plausible and therefore worthy of asking. I also have a couple of things that caught my attention.

1785 refering to nicolas and lestat joining the theatre makes a lot of sense. I mean what else can go there? Nothing. Non of the characters (in the show) have anything important happen around that time. Plus it makes sense for lestat to rise through the ranks of the theatre over the course of years instead of several months.

!!!if nicki is there he needs to be cast which means we also meet him way before we thought we would. !! Also that might mean that the other unexpected character from the vc is Nicki!

This also means that the books are a lot more condensed than we originally thought. And if the joining of the theatre is in s2 what from tvl will they add as well and what will they leave for a comprehensive tvl 3rd season? Tho i have to say that it would make sense to put tvl partially in another season because i just cant see how you can properly adapt that book to only 8 40min episodes, there is just too much happening.

Uhhm more chaotic thoughts......

Oh yes! That ask i had been sitting on.

2. so about a week or so ago i was doing some writing and suddenly i had this thought. You know how we have been speculating that dubai is in the merric era and that lestat maybe in a coma in another room? And how we will find this out at the end, which then leads us into s3? Like they show us unconcious lestat and fade out? Yeah what if they open with it tho. What if the first episode starts on a shot of Lestat, in dubai, unconcious. Actually this makes no sense cause that would ruin louis further narrative before daniel has even gotten his hands on it. And like it would have been sort of hinted in the synposis right with "with the apperance of an unexpected factor" or something vague like that? The reason im telling you this anyway is because; how can there be flashbacks from lestat if he, or some representation of him isnt there? Did he write diaries too? We know there was a paragraph of the wolfkiller in one of the claudia diaries. I think someone had discovered that in a frame back in november or something. I dont quite remember and i couldnt find it upon rewatching, but maybe i should pay closer attention.

3. I also realised we know quite some things about lestats timeline already. I dont know if anyone has mentioned this already. So i had been rewatching episode three, the bit where lestat offers the tickets to 'donazettis comic masterpiece' the opera i dont remeber the name of. He describes having met donazetti and having seen the premier 73 years ago in Salle Ventadour. Salle Ventadour is in Paris, 1917-73= 1844 which means he was a vampire and hasnt left paris yet. Is this takingplace in lestats era before turning nicky where he is going to all these society events as gentleman death and meets armand? No obviously not, that would make nicky 60ish by the time he is turned. So its after, its probably in that time just before he decides to go seek marius. The time in which nicky, post vamp transformation grows to resent and distance himself from lestat even more. What if lestat tries to distract himself from his nicki who is getting more and more antagonistic as the years, in this case , go by, by going to operas and stuff? It would make sense for lastat to hold hope for a long time, to endure for a long time (you saw how fast time started passing in season 1 as soon as the vampirism hit) It would also make sense for lestat to take decades to find marius. So timeline!!

1760= lestat born >(lestat gets the green pendent form the marquise)> 1884ish 24 yo= nicky and lestat run away to paris (maybe the wolfkiller happens in the same year) >> 1785 25yo=nicky and lestat join the theatre >> 1794 (middle of the french revolution, girls(gn) what a time to be turned into a vampire)= lestat is kidnaped and turned into a vamprire, im not actually sure they are going to show that in too much detail as they have already talked about it. > i think gabrielle gets turned before the FRev ends and nicky between 1800 and 1810, that would make 1 century before Louis > 1844= lestat sees the premier of DON PASQUALE DONIZETTIS COMIC MASTERPIECE, i remember! Nicki is turned, but lestat is not out of paris so nicki is not dead yet.> between 1844 and 1909/10 there is a fallout with nicki, lestat leaves paris, looks for marius, nicki dies, marius is found, those who mist be kept, lestat goes to america in very old clothes that he doesnt bother to change until louis tells him to. (If not for his father why does lestat go to america here?)>>1910=lestat arrives in new orleans.

That was all i have for today, damn, i hope that made some sense:) And I hope you have a nice day!!

Yes!! You made sense, I just answered an ask also theorizing in regards to the changed structure (but I didn't combine them because would have been too long^^ and also:)

1785 also marks the point in time where Armand would have needed to vacate Les Innocents with his coven, since the bones were relocated to the catacombs in 1786. That must have been quite the change for him - no matter how it happens, and it changes some of the story of The Vampire Lestat already!

The "mistake" (what they called it but while that may be true I don't know if I should believe them^^) of the diary entry being part of Lestat's story is in episode 4, where Daniel thumbs through one of the diaries. It could be used to give us a part of Lestat's story, yes, but... you know, I bet we will see Lestat in a coma towards the end of the season, and I could easily see it beeing Armand who is taking Daniel there to show him - and Louis might use that moment to try to kill himself. (I would love that. Can you imagine Armand being with Lestat down there and slowly realizing what's happening, and then Lestat's eyes opening?????? PLEASE^^)

Yes, I also was thinking about that the other day, but you are totally correct, and I haven't seen much about this either. >> As you correctly point out the remark to the premier is particularly interesting. The date of said premier was January 3rd 1843. It has already been theorized that Lestat's turning was likely during the Reign of Terror, as he himself said he was turned in 1794. For him to be staying in Paris for such a long time after the turning... that is quite the change. (If we take it as him staying, rather than him returning at some point, which is also possible I suppose) the ties must have been very strong. What if... what if Nicolas actually was successful, too, and then couldn't be anymore since he became a vampire, too. And yes, Nicolas must've been turned (just) prior to 1810 (if we take the 100 years literally) and after Gabrielle, but that still makes a few years in which he would have mourned Lestat?! Which makes me also think the relationship between them will actually be portrayed as even deeper. What if there is an echo to what is happening to Louis later... what if there is more to Nicolas' depression than we thought? And also... I think for me it all depends a bit on where Armand was during that time. What if Armand went back to Rome for a bit? The Roman coven is gone after all when Lestat gets there, only some vagabonds around... What if Armand went there when Les Innocents was closed, realized that Santino had abandoned his teachings and it all crumbled there before he returned? But yes, I also think that Lestat's travels likely took place between 1844 and 1910 - and I also think that they kept Marius and TwmbK more or less unchanged (at least for now).

I personally cannot wait to see where they take these changes... there is so much already in there, so much set up. I've said it before, they not only have done their homework but they are also fearlessly rearranging, and I love it. AND they must have a bigger plan already worked out, because there’s just... too much details already. Too many little things. Choices.

I love it.

[semifinel]

February - 2023

Games

Disco Elysium- I’ve actually been slowly going through it for over a year (I would play for a few days and then take a break for a few months and then forget where I am and restart). However I finally finished it and I can very easily say it’s one of my favorite games ever. The writing, the style, the music- what’s not to fucking love.

I could talk about this game for hours and I have actually done that enough to convince friends to play it as well. But I probably can’t say anything that hasn’t been said before me.

Great game- I might be in love with Kim kitsuragi.

Rain world(?)- to be honest I haven’t played it (yet?) but I spend way too much time watching gameplay of it and videos about it, went into a deep dive in the wiki. This world absolutely fascinates me, the ecosystem is just wow- even though it seems like a very difficult game I might actually get it one day.

Decide to include it cause it’s my list and I make the rules, also it ate a chunk of my month.

Monster hunter rise- this is my second time trying to get this game and last time I (apparently) quit before even going on a mission. To be fair it was a combination of my own stupidity and the game’s absolute horrible tutorial that made me drop it so fast.

However given a second shot I’m already having more fun, flipping and riding and monster hunting.

I have no idea if anyone ever cared about a character in this game but the monsters are cool and I love them lots.

Why is there a tower defense section is beyond me- I never liked any kind of tower defense, but this is very much the wrong game for it.

Can’t wait to try a hunt with friends- I heard it’s awesome.

Start again: a prologue- a delightful lil rpg that made me feel a lot. I love time loops as a concept already and this was executed so well- I will cry about it.

Can’t wait for in stars and time!! I need more of this cast and world.

Lookouts- another game I’ve been making my way through oh so slowly, no reason here since it’s not really long. It’s a visual novel and I have trouble focusing on reading, that’s my main issue.

However I’m happy I played it- trans cowboys on opposing sides falling in love and find a way for them to have a life- I am the target audience. I love them.

Hue- sure was a puzzle game. And it was a nice one, pretty sure I got it for free and I mostly used it as something to play while I listen to podcasts. It’s cute and not very long and the puzzles were nice.

Shows

Mob psycho s2- still doing my rewatch, still love my sons.

Darry girls s3- finally got around to it, honestly liked it less then the other seasons however it was a nice end to the show as a whole and I’m glad they wrapped it up nicely.

Animation vs Minecraft- what if I told you the animation you used to watch on YouTube as a child kept going on while you looked away. That there is now a storyline spanning several hours which is very neat and dear to my heart.

How simple are your blorbos? Mine are literally just different colored stick man (they are my sons and I love them very much).

I want everyone to watch it, you can’t understand how hard it goes in the final episodes you don’t understand ahhhhha.

Podcasts

Something rotten- did I start this podcast just cause I wanted more Jacob Geller? Yes.

Am I happy I did that? Also yes.

I do not care even a little about the games they talk about but it’s still fascinating to hear them talk about them (along other kind of related topic)

Personally never heard of Blake Hester before but glad I know him now.

Can’t wait for next season where I might play along since I have one of the games in my library for some reason.

Etc?

The prince by Abigail throne (philosophy tube)- so like one of my favorite trans creators writes a play and uploads it in full- I had no doubt it was gonna be good.

Love the characters, love the themes, and the setting (of being stuck inside a play) is very fun.

But man do I not understand Shakespearean speak but that’s more of a me thing.

Felt a lil cliche/sappy at times but it was cute so I had no problem with it.

[k-s-morgan]

Hello! I came upon your Black Butler fic Those Gentle Slopes that Lead to Hell by accident a few weeks ago, and I just wanted to let you know I adore it. I first watched the anime when I was 13 (over 10 years ago now), and have since long fallen out of the fandom. Your story made me remember just exactly what I used to love so much about Black Butler and the dynamic between Ciel and Sebastian, so I wanted to thank you for that. If I'm not mistaken, I read that you plan to follow the anime in your story, including season 2. It made me curious what your thoughts are on season 2? Personally I rather disliked it when it came out, but I haven't rewatched it since. If you don't mind, I am curious to know your thoughts about it since you are able to put them so eloquently! Anyway, I am very curious to read how you will continue your story and how you will use the storyline of season 2 in it, I am sure that whatever you have in mind will be brilliant!

Once again thank you for your work, I really love it!

Hi! Thank you so much for your words, I’m so happy you liked this story! I have a lot of passion for it. And yes, I plan on following S2 - I absolutely love this season and consider it a love letter from Sebastian to Ciel! It has ellipses and missing words, sometimes missing sentences; some pages were left intentionally blank, but ultimately, it’s all about feelings. The whole premise is basically Alois wishing for Claude to destroy Sebastian, and Claude deciding to do that by taking Ciel from him. It’s pretty huge when you think about it. In addition, there is Sebastian wanting to prolong their contract and re-structuring everyone’s lives to accommodate Ciel’s amnesia, giving him another chance at revenge; being unable to kill him even after Ciel becomes a demon. 

There were some elements I disliked, like heavy and inappropriate sexualization of Hannah - many characters suffer from it, but sometimes it felt like they created her for this very purpose. S1 was more dignified in this regard. But all in all, I enjoyed the season a lot.

I like Claude as a contrast to Sebastian. From how I see it, he is an actual normal demon: he’s cold, shallow, with no morality or interests other than eating something & getting power. Claude doesn’t care about Alois, he’s really just fulfilling his duties. Sebastian is actually living a life of a butler, going out of his way to please Ciel and earn his favor. Claude kills Alois without a second thought; Sebastian cannot bring himself to kill Ciel no matter how many times he has a chance to do so.

I’m in love with the ending. It’s fascinating that Sebastian actually allows Ciel to become a demon. He was told clearly that the moment Ciel wakes up, he’ll do it soulless. Rather than killing him on sight, Sebastian cradles him in his arms and waits. He attacks afterward, when it can’t actually hurt Ciel. Instead of still killing him, Sebastian goes along with the charade and keeps doing his butler duties. Demons can kill their masters without serious repercussions, we saw that on the example of Claude and Alois. Sebastian has every right to kill Ciel - more than that, he’s in direct proximity to the sword that can help him with this. And yet, he stays.

Ciel acts like he’s in control, Sebastian acts like he has to obey him, but they both know it’s a charade. It’s so palpable in the moment where Sebastian pretends to make tea and Ciel pretends to drink it. They try to stick to their routine desperately because they feel lost, confused, and scared. Ciel knows what could happen to him any moment - he saw what became of Alois. He could also tell Sebastian to leave him and start navigating his new life by himself, unburdened by anyone and anything. And yet he not only keeps Sebastian close, he actually makes an emphasis on Sebastian having to stay with him for all eternity! And Sebastian acts all miserable when he can make a decision to kill Ciel any moment, putting an end to their contract once and for all.   Sebastian knows he doesn’t have to do anything anymore, but he can’t bring himself to kill Ciel to terminate their bond. He can’t face the idea of being invested in someone so much either, though, because this is it - he told himself countless excuses before to prolong the contract, but now there are no lies left. So he’s miserable and lost, going through motions and unable to make a decision, incapable of admitting he needs Ciel yet equally incapable of killing him. It’s such an open ending, but I find it extremely beautiful. 

[mittensmorgul]

Since the finale aired, I’ve been yammering on about how it would’ve only worked as a finale to s2, and now that I’m actually rewatching s2, I stand by that even more staunchly. The finale doesn’t work in a post-s2 supernatural universe.

This is the version of Dean we saw in the finale-- the one whose only mission in life was to Save Sammy, to help him get his revenge and allow him to go out and live a Normal Safe Life pretending that hunting and monsters don’t exist. The one who just wanted some pie, to drive his car, and had no real connections beyond Sam in the world outside of Bobby. Even Dean’s characterization in the finale is this far younger Dean who’d never allowed himself to crack open and truly understand love. It would take me years to plow through everything I’ve ever written about him as a character and his long struggle to emotional maturity we saw evolve over the next 13 years beyond this episode, but the tl;dr will always be “this s2 Dean is the same as the Dean in the finale.”

The goal of s2 was saving SAM from his “destiny,” too. In this era of the show, Dean didn’t have a “destiny” the same way Sam did. The ONLY thing that mattered was freeing Sam from “becoming evil,” and being manipulated into terrible things. What Dean wanted, what he was “destined” for by the narrative was irrelevant, because all of his choices and emotional burdens were tied only to saving Sam. To freeing Sam so he could safely return to his “normal life.” Go back to college, have a family and the white picket fence life.

This was before Dean truly began fighting for HIMSELF. Which only really and truly began after he sells his soul to resurrect Sam. That’s when Dean truly begins fighting for himself. Sure, he’s angry with John during s2 for trading his own life for Dean’s, for putting the burden of “if you can’t save Sam, you’ll have to kill him” on his shoulders with his dying breath, but Dean is still fighting against John’s authority and the complicated tangle of feelings of his own childhood and not actually coming to terms with his own wants and needs and wishes out beyond that yet. He’s still unwittingly confronting the “destiny” John had set up for him, and hasn’t moved beyond that yet. It’s only trading his soul for Sam’s that finally brings Dean into the cosmic narrative that will fuel his introspection and personal growth for the rest of the series.

And out beyond that point, his entire character arc explodes into orbit.

Dean’s entire character arc in s3 is confronting this very basic fact: he doesn’t deserve to have been sacrificed just to save Sam. He doesn’t deserve that burden, and he does deserve to live. This is the realization he comes to before eventually being dragged to Hell and then rescued by an angel, who literally tells him, “you don’t think you deserve to be saved” in the aftermath of that. From that point on, we have TWELVE SEASONS of Dean struggling with what he “deserves” versus what is “fate” and “destiny” and eventually confronting what he WANTS if he truly could choose his own destiny.

Plus, out beyond that point, he has Cas. And nothing changes Dean, pushes him to grow and understand himself, and accept himself-- all of himself, from the good to the horrific-- than the pure and unflinching acceptance of Castiel. Cas never looked at him and said “you are evil,” or “you are worthless.” (well, they’ve both said some pretty awful stuff to each other over the years, but there was either brainwashing or other deeper issues pushing those things on them, and they have ALWAYS eventually come back to one another, and the awful stuff was dealt with). Point is, Dean and Cas both began running these parallel arcs of duty versus desire, and for Dean, the duty was always framed around “taking care of Sam” versus pursuing any sort of ambition or goals for himself. They would fight for this for most of the rest of the series, until eventually the goal for ALL of them would be about discovering what they would want for themselves.

The show explicitly dealt with this, repeatedly, over later seasons, asking all of the characters the big questions: is this what you would choose for yourself? What WOULD you choose for yourself if you could?

And then they made the narrative of the final season, of the final Big Bad, the fact that they had NEVER had real freedom, and that their entire lives (and the entire history of not only this universe but every parallel universe) had been Chuck’s Puppet Theater, and true free will had been a lie all this time. Pushing all of the characters to confront their own choices and understand what about who they were as people was separate from what Chuck pushed them into choosing and doing all these years. The main thing that Dean (and also Cas, and to the extent she was included in the narrative this was Eileen’s issue as well) were being pushed to come to terms with what really was real, and were their feelings and choices their own or imposed on them for the furtherance of Chuck’s story.

At the end of the road, finally free and out from under Chuck’s control, they knew what was real. For Sam and Eileen, they had chosen each other. Cas had chosen Dean, but Dean hadn’t yet had a chance to reply, but anyone with two eyes and a brain knows what he would’ve said in return. It’s what Cas stopped him from saying even back in Purgatory in 15.09. And yet, for some reason Sam and Dean forgot all of that, as if none of it had ever even really happened at all, and we went right back to who they were right after they finally defeated the YED, before we even knew Azazel had a name, let alone the fact that the ultimate boogeyman of their entire lives to that point had been nothing more than a fanatic pawn in a much larger destiny for both of them.

The end of s2 was the last time Dean sacrificing himself so Sam could have a normal life, where Dean really felt there was nothing more for himself than fulfilling his father’s orders to save Sammy, even feels remotely plausible. It’s the last time we can feel like Dean might find peace and contentment in a Heaven where John is nearby to be proud of him, and where Dean would actually feel like that validation was even relevant to his own life.

And that finally brings me back to s2, where that was actually addressed through John’s self-sacrifice to save Dean, to serve Dean up to the narrative and provide a stage for this self-transformative journey INTO being a version of John himself. Only... Dean DOESN’T choose that. He fights to save Sam at all costs, even when it seems clear that the right answer would probably be to KILL Sam instead. When not only the ghost of John Winchester plaguing Dean’s mind would make him doubt his own drive to save his brother, but the John Winchester Insert Character of s2-- Gordon Walker-- basically put Dean’s own doubts out there in plain words in 2.10:

GORDON: I'm surprised at you, Dean. Getting all emotional. I'd heard you were more of a professional than this. Look, let's say you were cruising around in that car of yours and, uh, you had little Hitler riding shotgun, right? Back when he was just some goofy, crappy artist. But you knew what he was going to turn into someday. You'd take him out, no questions, am I right?

DEAN: That's not Sam.

GORDON: Yes it is. You just can't see it yet. Dean, it's his destiny. Look, I'm sympathetic. He's your brother, you love the guy. This has got to hurt like hell for you. But here's the thing. It would wreck him. But your dad? If it really came right down to it, he would have had the stones to do the right thing here. But you're telling me you're not the man he is?

This, the episode where Dean finally confesses John’s final orders to Sam, where Dean has decided that saving Sam is all that matters, even when circumstance and everyone else is practically screaming at him that this could all be over if only he gave in-- be it his own self-sacrifice OR killing Sam. Six of one, half a dozen of the other, the universe doesn’t care (and neither does Chuck... especially at this point... and the proof of that is Sam’s s15 nightmares where one of Chuck’s alternate universe endings for Sam and Dean was Sam actually going Darkside on demon blood and killing Dean... any iteration of the old drama, Chuck has explored all potential endings-- oh, except the ending where TFW gets to just be happy and live... that’s the one ending they never get and the only one they deserved in the end).

also from 2.10... loads of chat about “destiny” and one of Dean’s first “we should just lay all this shit down and take a vacation” moments when he suggests they go to Amsterdam and enjoy some of the not-coffee-coffee-shops, which Sam counters by doubling down on the fact that Dean has a destiny in all this as much as Sam does:

SAM: Well, come on, dude, you're a hunter. I mean, it's what you were meant to do.

DEAN: Ah, I wasn't meant to do anything, I don't believe in that destiny crap.

SAM: You mean you don't believe in my destiny.

DEAN: Yeah, whatever.

SAM: Look, Dean, I've tried running before. I mean, I ran all the way to California and look what happened. You can't run from this. And you can't protect me.

DEAN: I can try.

And that’s it, right there. This is the “neither of you can try for a normal life outside of the other while the other is still alive.” This is Sam pinning a destiny to Dean that’s just as inescapable within Chuck’s narrative as Sam’s demon blood and psychic powers. 

This is the core essence of Chuck’s story about them. The sibling dynamic that Chuck failed to free himself from, and that Sam and Dean failed to free themselves from after Chuck’s demise in 15.19.

Destiny. One must die so the other can live.

And considering the next 13 seasons of the show and the long and emotionally grueling character arcs Sam and Dean proceed through where they truly confront the core of who they are as people-- as individuals outside of their duty and destiny-- the finale ceases to make any sense outside of Chuck’s narrative for them. If 15.20 really happened exactly as we saw it on screen, then Chuck still won.

And they had to loop Sam and Dean all the way back to where they were emotionally at the end of s2 in order to make it seem plausible. Which, for those of us who actually care about what they endured after s2, makes the finale entirely implausible as a whole.

[traumatizedkids]

Some fun facts, info and More about the S3 and the comic in general.

 I made this long ago with the S2 hiatus, so i decided to do the same again with new funfacts, and some new info about S3 (without going into spoilers of course, i hope you guys like it)

As you can notice, the new profile cards has a section called Logo, those logos are a new thing i added to the comic, What’s the purpose? They are made for pannels were the character’s talk but they are not in scene, this is an example from the new season:

When i announced King in Black i didn’t have almost any plans for the next issues, but i liked the Agony plot so i decided to make the story about that.

The Scene were Alec uses Jake as a Bat is a reference to the Blackbird Epilogue were it’s said Jake turns into a Bat of Intention releasing Andrew’s soul.

I wanted to elaborate more the scene were Jake is awakened from the illusion, but it was too many pages and i had to use the Bro thing, i am sorry if it was Lame, for me, at least it is.

When Alec met Hazel, i had plans to explain Alec dad’s were already dead, but i decided to not add that scene.

Alex (Hazel’s daughter) is 10, and She’s a Demi-Girl, 

The reason why i started to read Disney Chills was because i wanted to find new traumatized kids from a different media than the ones i already use.

In the moment i read Planet of Symbiotes: Toxin i knew Bren has to be in the team.

Millie was intended to appear revived for a Symbiote after KIB, but i discarded that because we don’t really know her fate and there’s chances she could came back in FF epilogues.

Hazel works as a Lawyer

I want to make season 3 more separate from FNAF, because this comic was turning into a FNAF comic more than a crossover.

The Bonnles came from a Joke i made long ago on Twitter

I suffered a lot in season 2 because i really wanted to use Dylan, but the idea of a Time skip was soo good to not use it, Return of the Kids was totally my fav moment.

Oswald’s Scar plot from Familiar Rabits is gonna come back on the Summer Special.

Traumatized Kids Island is gonna be 10 episodes long i dunno if it’s gonna be Weekly or every 2 days, i have to think that.

Sora Ogami was a character i loved to add and i hope to use it more in future episodes.

I already told that, i changed the Henry’s hairstyles to make them inspired in the actor Jared Gilmoire, the one who interprets Henry in Once upon a Time.

The real name of this comic is: Niños Traumados.

Not gonna lie, i want to add Sleeper in this comic, but i don’t know what happened with him in comics, i am worried :(

The reason i am redesinging some characters is to gave them a personal touch (and because their shows are over)

Dipper and Mabel were requested a lots of times, i hope to use them more on season 3 now i rewatched the show since years.

I dunno if someone get it, but this is a reference to Kingdom Hearts:

I have plans to do a reference to the original trilogy of FNAF Books.

I started this blog because an user called Puffy started to reblog the first 3 episodes saying she was enjoying them, i am very grateful for all her suppor and i love her reblogs, thank you so much.

This also goes for Hide, i dunno if you’re reading this, but thanks for all your support, i love to have you here.

Bren Waters and Dylan Brock are gonna be gooooood friends.

I think it’s pretty obvious, this is an AU, so i take some creative liberties for some designs and relationships, i still use the actual stories from the characters, but some things like Normie and Dylan friendship (who in comics stopped being friends in a comic that we don’t even know if it’s canon) are changed.

In King In Black 3 in the Adults plan i had plans to introduce the crystal gems, but i thought Connie would be a better idea so i could introduce her.

Yeah, Connie is gonna come back, also she accepted Steven proposal after Steven got corrupted again, 

There’s gonna be more adults on the Season 3

Not gonna told who, but one of the Founders members of the Meeting has appeared on one episode, not gonna tell wich.

Oswald loves more Springmatt than the Bonnles.

At first i didn’t wanted to confirm Chuck and Sam relationship, but then i was like: Why not?

Season 3 is ubicated AFTER The cliffs epilogue, but BEFORE Gumdrop Angel epilogue.

I confirmed 4 new kids, but i don’t deny maybe new kids would join in the future, someone wants to talk about dinosaurs?

What Oswald says about the name is already taken in KIB 1 is a reference about the fact there’s already a Symbiote called Agony.

At first i had plans to make art-trades with people to have variants of King in Black with another artist but i wasn’t brave enough.

I want to apologize about my shitty english lmao, sometimes i mess up the translation.

If you’re still reading this reblog with a #Yes

ok thanks, i aprecciate that.

sorry for this being so long lmao

For the people who read Disney Chills (and the people i hope i introduced to them like that ask someone sent me) i am aware about the Second Star to the Fright ending, but i wanted to use Barrie anyway, i love that boy.

Not gonna lie, i would love if someone makes a fanart or a dub of this series, if someone wanted to but was afraid to ask, you can, don’t be shy.

For the people who doesn’t knows, i am making an Into the Pit Graphic novel and a Dylan and Normie Graphic Novel, this comic is helping me to practice with Panel composition.

This is the first Splashpage i ever made, and i am very proud of it, i hope to make more on the future:

Goblin symbiote design was inspired in the Goblin Childe and the colors of the green goblin.

Some kids like Oswald are not going to have a Profile Card yet, that’s because Season 3 spoilers.

Im doing an Animatic about Dylan in the other Earth talking to Codex, at first it was a personal project, but i decided to add it to the traumatized Kids Canon.

When Robin is with the Cape on is because i am lazy to draw the body, sorry, i am human too lol.

I am sad no one got it, but that answer about the meeting room and a cat of the founder members was a Doraemon reference, yes, i confirm it, Nobita Nobi is in the 80s meeting.

At first i had plans to introduce Billy and Tommy into S3 but then for obvious reasons i didn’t (But i still can, maybe someday)

Steven’s weeding is gonna be a S3 arc, and it’s gonna be the last time we are gonna see Steven, it’s hard for me, but some kids have to leave in order to other to enter.

Welp i think i gave so many facts, this is a long list, i dunno if people is gonna fully read them, but if you did, thanks a lot for your interest.

Soon i will share more things in this acc, have a good summer.

[hithelleth]

First Lines Of Your Last 20 Fics!

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favourite opening line. Then tag 10 of your favourite authors!

I was tagged by @eveningspirit, thank you! I always like to walk down the memory lane of my writing exploits, they are a nice confidence boos. :)

The Ice King and the Star Boy (The 100 | Bellamy/Roan | E) (aka the monsterfic, as you know it ;))

Banishment.

Impasse (Revolution | CM2 | E)

Charlie finds Bass stretched all lion-like on the king-size bed, studying reports, when she enters the tent.

(Filling) Empty Spaces (Revolution | Jeremy/Charlie | NR)

Charlie was just going to drop off the files Miles had forgotten again, but Jeremy waves her inside as he opens the door.

Only Human (The 100 | various characters | G)

“You’re presenting a puzzle to Rani and Lana.”

Lost (Yellowstone | Jamie Dutton | G)

The plaque on the wall is like a signpost. So, of course he goes to Beth. Because he doesn’t know what to do, whether to accept Rainwater’s – a good man, Perry said, and Jamie might be naïve, but he is not that naïve to think that if everyone plays dirty Rainwater is an exception – patronage or not.

Homework (Station 19 | Vicley | G)

Homework: Write a 100 words about your family or about what you want to be when you grow up.

Now Is Not the End (Station 19 | Vicley | T)

Vic waits with baited breath for that moment she is not ready for. Waits. Waits…

Thoughts on the Future Pasts (Timeless | Nicholas Keynes/Emma Whitmore| T)

The future is... confusing.

Dominoes Falling (TVD/TO | Elena/Elijah/Klaus | NR)

It turns out sometimes late is worse than never.

Close Encounters (Revolution | Charlie/Bass | E)

Bass gets to work well after midnight when the hotel at last falls silent, the partying vacationers having tired themselves out and the early-rising business people not yet up. He is done cleaning the pools before dawn and he sits down in a shaded corner, enjoying the peace and quiet of those last dark cool minutes that offer reprieve from the summer heat.

Reasons to Fight (The 100 | Clarke/Roan | NR)

Roan comes round to something tugging at his hand, constricting his movement. Panic surges in his mind for a moment before he pushes it down and starts cataloguing his surroundings with the methodical precision he learnt as a boy.

Prompts Exist to Be Filled (Revolution, prompt collection, various)

She was a good woman – Jeremy sensed that, although he knew her life had been – perhaps still was – intertwined with Bass’ and Miles’, which also meant that it was fucked up, because those two managed to fuck up everything they touched and he only needed to look in the mirror to find an example; yet, whatever it was up with her and Bass and Miles and however fucked up it was, Jeremy saw her effect on Bass whose eyes lost the glint of craziness and paranoia the moment she appeared: Bass suddenly seemed the man Jeremy met fifteen years ago – the Bass with a sense of shame for his blatant lie and a remnant of naïveté that used to drive him to do the right thing, a man redirected to the path he had lost.

Alien Encounters, Changing Fates, Business as Usual (Killjoys, Revolution, Supernatural | various characters | NR)

After what seems like ages, the turbulence ends with one final jolt that rattles every single bone in their bodies, a clear signal that they have landed – somewhere.

It’s Us Who Own the Apocalypse (Revolution | various pairings | NR)

2030

For the umpteenth time in her life, Rachel regrets getting involved with the goddamn DOD – and for the umpteenth time as well, she acknowledges that she would have done it again if it meant saving Danny – when she almost stumbles into her office from yet another meeting in which she had to fight tooth-and-nail against the bastards trying to use her work for their nefarious purposes.

Convalescence (Quantico | Clayton Haas | NR)

Clayton flinches when he hears the door being unlocked. He always flinches when someone is at the door, although he knows the chance of anyone finding him here is miniscule. The shame at his own cowardice makes him nauseous for a moment; he didn’t use to be one to succumb to fears, but he supposes a near-death experience would do this to a man.

When the Night Breaks (The 100 | Bellamy/Roan | E)

“I’m sorry about your arm.”

The Princess and the Pirates (Revolution | various characters | T)

“Sail out. My brother Miles is out there at sea. He’ll help you.”

Each of Us Is Broken, Always and Forever (The Originals | Elijah/Rebekah/Klaus | E)

“Good evening.”

Hollow (The 100 | Bellarke | NR)

He hadn’t realised it would be like missing a limb. Like in those stories he had heard on the Ark long ago, of a person’s left hand trying to scratch the right one that is no longer there, of phantom pain where there used to be a body part.

There’s a War… but All I See Is You and Me (Agents of Shield | Bakshimmons | E)

It is a stupid thing to wish, but if he were able to stop the time, he would freeze them in those minutes when Jemma giggles between kisses before collapsing on the bed and pulling him down with her.

***

Oh, this took me to 2015 and that shitshow we do not mention, although am sorry I haven't finished this particular fic (but I won't. Nope, nope. Because I'd have to rewatch S2 for that and no, no, no. No. Yes, that's how many no-s it deserves.)

Thank you for the tag, ES, it was nice remembering things I did well, if I say so myself!

It took me so long because on the day you tagged me I started writing it right away and then tumblr decided that e and l are not acceptable letters - I got scared my keyboard was dying, but nope, it worked just fine when typing in word or even into a search line on another tab in the same browser, but tumblr just wouldn't 'take' them.

Also, I remember doing something similar before but with only 10 fics and I could've copy-pasted that and just add the next ten, but do you think I remembered it before I'd already painstakingly did 10 fics? Of course not.

And then, as I think you saw I was too scatter-brained for anything.

Why I'm even explaining this? I think it's the lack of contact with like actual normal humans and this is the closest, so I over do it. Oh, well, if I've already put in the effort to type it all. ;)

Oh, right, patterns: I tend to really vary in style? Though maybe shorter openings are more frequent than more wordy ones.

And my favourite are those from Hollow, Dominoes Falling, and Convalescence. Which one is yours?

Tagging (if it helps you feel better, otherwise, feel free to ignore): @bea2me, @jadedbirch, @abedsmessedupmeta, @stargazerdaisy, @vesperass-anuna and IDK who ever is still writing, oh @blue-charlotte and anyone else who wants to do it! :)

[captainshazamerica]

If this Bruce doesn't adopt Tim I will! But I'm kinda scared for Tim I mean he's either gonna end up with Buce or the titans at some point, im afraid that something terrible is gonna happen his family and then titans/bruce takes him in? That boy loves batman and robin so much like even his family seeing the news knew how much it would upset him although I will say that for the brain that kid has he makes some pretty stupid decisions, hes driving around GOTHAM plastered in the bat-symbol that's not a good idea! the amount of lunatics that roam free in Gotham (and possibly have escaped from arkham) and hate the bat and hes driving around with the bat symbol on him KID be careful!

Some kind of Anti-fear toxin does seem more accurate cuz he's clearly taking something to not be afraid. Maybe it's something he found in Gotham and decided to try it and got addicted so he's using that lab place to try recreate it? and maybe he can't recreate it perfectly cuz in the crowbarring scene he seemed kinda anxious about his surroundings and he'd just taken that inhaler thing to overcome fear so I dunno?? Or maybe he went to arkham to see Crane for some reason and Crane has orchestrated the whole thing and told him about the drug but then wouldn't Crane have to know everyone's identity then? Dude I dunno I need more episodes even tho the low quality glitchyness is painful lol

There's probably an abundance of rooms to choose from at Wayne manor yet Jason takes Dicks old room and keeps the flying graysons posters up! I like to think that he does view dick as an older brother and just took his room to kind of have a connection to him and that he admires him hence the graysons posters being left up, yooo dick calling him his brother! I really want a nice family reunion with dick jason and bruce 💕

Babs was too mean to bruce when she went off like I get where she's coming from but yo lady his son just died dial it down like a notch yikes but also babs being like 'i wonder how long it'll take for bruce to replace jason and dick is all 'what no the last thing bruce is gonna do is rope another kid into this mess'. Cut to scene of Bruces potential robin folder 😅 but I also like that dick was trying to be considerate and compose himself for bruce but once he found out that bruce is idiot enough to pull another kid into this, that that's when he got mad and bruce so brokenly begging dick to come back and be robin 😢😢😢

I know the show is constantly trying to push bruce out/sideline him cuz it's a titans show not a bruce wayne show and I know they're going for a different portrayal of bruce which I'm not complaining about I do like this version of bruce (more than I thought actually) and this universe but I feel like they could have gave more cracks you know, I like that they showed him trying to avoid the reality of jasons death and just not stopping not even for a second and just immediately jump into another case and that breakdown verge where he's begging dick to be robin and then when he finally I guess let's the weight of jasons loss sit on him to the point where he whacks in jokers head with a crowbar just like he killed jason (he could have killed joker so many other ways like a less violent bullet to the head but oh no brucey crowbars him to death!!)

There's a lot of character stuff that i do like but that scene where he's in the cave on his knees scrubbing his sons blood out of the suit he died in, the suit that he only ever wore because of batman. 😢 I feel like they could have had him crack there and let out a gut wrenching scream and then just continue on doing what he was doing as if nothing happened and dick walking in on that should have had more of a reaction!? like he could have stopped in his tracks at the sight of his brothers blood all over his father and bruce screaming, dick could have like took a step back almost like he's gonna run but forces himself to stay there, because who wouldn't want to run from that and no matter how much horrible things you've dealt with before sometimes your brain does just take over against your will and makes you react, the rest of the scene just could have played out the way it did. Literally one ounce more emotion is all I wanted.

No one really emotionally cracked at jasons death. I get that it just happened and that people put walls up and denial can be such a prominent thing when a loved one dies but it couldn't have been that difficult to put in little mannerisms now and again to show that everyone is deeply hurt but holding it in. Honestly gar seemed more hurt to me than dick did. But I do like that dick reacted in detective mode and started trying to figure things out from jasons side so at least there's that.

This redhood is defo not an anti hero he has well and truly landslided into villian territory and I dunno how that's gonna be reconciled? they better not kill him off! and they better not just straight up keep redhood/jason as a full on villian! but if they do get through to jason and bring him back a little how the heck is that little man gonna deal with what he did to Hank?? I feel like they had a bond you know and for all Hanks talk about putting Jason down I really don't think that Hank would actually have killed him even if it came down to Hanks life vs Jasons I think Hank would rather die than kill Jason (but that's heavily biased cuz in my mind jason is my son and I freaking love hank sooo) but Hank to me puts on a hard front like 'yeah I'll get in your face I'll come at you b*tch' but internally he's like 'yeah I'll come at you to help you' 😅 like internally he defo has a lot of soft spots though that's not to say he'd be like this for someone like the joker or scarecrow or whatever guys like that he'd be like no screw you you die or go to arkham like byeee

Nevermind how jason is gonna come back from this though HOW IN THE ACTUAL SH*T is dawn gonna come back from this!!?!!

Random side note here but imagine Jasons first time in the batcave he would be so excited and trying to mess with everything and being like ohh what's that do and pressing random buttons and bruce having a hernia trying to get jason to stop before he accidentally blows the cave up 😅 also he has probably been caught several times trying to 'borrow' the batmobile, I can just picture him trying to sneak down the halls of the manor without the floor creaking and making it all the way into the cave and doing a victory dance cuz he didn't get caught and he hops on into the batmobile in his pj's and let's out a scream cuz alfred is sitting in the freakin passenger seat waiting for him and then they just hang out in the batmobile alfred had the good foresight to bring a flask of tea books and a blanket for jason

Speaking of Alfred I think it would have been more angsty and hurtful if Alfred died shortly after Jason and after a few days Jason claws his way out his grave and the first thing he sees is Alfreds headstone and that's how he finds out Alfred died : (((

This is so long girl I'm sorry I know it doesn't seem like it but I did restrain myself 😅 one more thing before I go maybe this Dick is the absolute worst mf and the reason babs feels betrayed by him and is so upset with him could be that he left her (or cheated on her) with Dawn cuz of that weird flashback thingy in the other season where dick dawn was a thing I dunno I hope not though that would be ughhh

Oh crap, you right about probably something bad will happen to Tim for Bruce or Titans to take him in, I was gonna say he could just demand to be in their lives to save Bruce/Dick like in the comics but he also has kinda shitty parents normally and these people seem cool so really it could go either direction, but like it’s Titans so it doesn’t look good lol. Also, I wonder if it’s gonna be Dick who is basically gonna adopt him this time since we already had a huge track record in just 2 seasons lmao. But I know right, true I like how his parents knew immediately how much the news would effect him 😭 I hope he goes down the making himself robin and forcing himself in Dick and Bruce’s life xD I love that route. Lmao, the kid is all book smart, very little street smart when it doesn’t have to do with outsmarting someone XD

I was also rewatching and that gas he takes def has to be some anti fear toxin cause he mentions fear so many times and flash backed to his near death fall, which he felt was probably holding him and back and thus had to prove himself and adds to whatever is influencing him. But ohhh he did seem pretty dang anxious at the carnival grounds, that’s a really interesting theory but recreating something he found hmm, I can see that.

Apparently according to a YouTube who got to see the first 5 episodes, we find out what his deal is a lot more in episode 5, so one more week hopefully

Brooo trueee, I couldn’t believe jason took dick’s room and like didn’t even change anything. Like Jason looks or at least use to look up to Dick SO much, like in his first episode in the first season, he went on quite a lot about how much he had always wanted to meet him and how much he looked up to him, which is probably also fueling his red hood rage, being hurt by your idol and brother like he did in S2 must have really just killed the boy. But yes omg, there freaking better be a dang family reunion scene like, after so much angst we deserve that 😭

And yesss, I loved seeing how mature Dick is getting and just how much he is growing as a character, the fact he was so calm and considerate with Bruce at first really shows that compared to s1 Dick, only breaking when Bruce tried to get more kids involved. That scene by Brenton was sooo well acted omg, the way he yelled that he doesn’t want to robin again, heartbreaking man. And Bruce begging like that omg

Yeah, this version of Bruce is def so different than any Bruce we have seen on screen before, like def the most emotionally constipated, and that’s saying something xD But I like how they are taking a risk, it also helps Dick’s character more and give him more of an arc, as he seems to be taking on Bruce’s normal role with Jason and red hood. Bro, you are so right omg, like the fact Bruce could have killed the joker in any way and he does it with the dang crowbar. It really shows how broken he really was and why the man shouldn’t depressing any and every damn feeling and emotion lol.

Omg, I love how you have the exact details of what you wanted to happen in that one Bruce and Dick scene 😂👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 bro if you dont already you should totally write fanfics cause that was so detailed, I love it

Yeah, I do wish someone cracked (other than Bruce lmao) a bit more, but I do think each character reacted in character though, like it is very Dick(at least this version of Dick, other versions may break down tbh) to put everything into solving the case and figuring out what was up, that’s more this version’s way of caring than just breaking down, like he rarely ever has broken down completely. I think dawn could have been a little more emotional about the death (tho she has enough coming for her lmao). Connor didn’t know Jason that well so it makes sense he would just be sad. Gar seemed pretty sad and in character about it, maybe could have had a bit more, same with Kori, tho she showed it by being almost angry and fiercely protective of everyone else, so I think that makes sense for her. It would have been interesting to see how Rachel and Rose would have reacted though (where did rose go btw?! She would so have a reaction to Jason’s death). But yeah, i wish there was more resolution and break downs for Jason, but also it may have just not felt real since they weren’t there? But I agree

You think? Idk, I think they could def still make him an anti hero towards the end, especially if it’s crane behind the whole thing. Cause if they don’t they are gonna have to go down the gosh awful overused villain gets redeemed while he dies/only to die right freaking after , and I will be so freaking livid if they do that omg. Like they better freaking not. But true, he would be broken by what he did to Hank, oh yikes. But I can see him then that leading to the anti hero path, like he would never go back to be on the titans cause he would feel too guilty, thus giving more of a reason for the anti hero life. But I know, I loved Jason and Hank’s love hate relationship 😭😭😭😭 You know Hank secretly loved the kid and probably saw himself in him.

Yikes poor dawn, you right. Like I have no idea how she is gonna be now like wow.

OMG GIRL, You are on a hc angst train today!!!! That scenario of Alfred dying right after jason and Jason climbing out to see Alfred’s?! Heartbreaking!

But I can’t believe they killed Alfred off so casually tho😭

Omg I swear if they freaking show Dick having cheated on Babs I will be so freaking pissed omg, he better have not! Im hoping they had a more high school romance thing/grew up together then got together type of thing

And omg don’t apologize I LOVED IT and reading your asks!!! I feel ya too!

[isthemicon]

Writers really did Blair dirty in s5

*super long post because I’m angry as hell*

There was a time when I thought that season 5 is overhated. I’ve been telling myself that sure, Blair is acting unlike herself but that’s because this season is looking at her from more psychological angle and it’s looking at her character more deeply.

But then I’ve rewatched it and I’ve realized that they’ve ruined Blair completely. The depth that I was seeing is in maybe 3-4 episode and is often overshadowed by other things. And usually the deep moments are happening through other characters.

Blair in s5 is barley her own person, she does nothing that isn’t related to her relationships, she isn’t working on her status, position, career. Her whole character arc is regressed to her trying to figure out which guy should she choose or how to make the relationship she is in work.

I mean come on even Nate and Serena have bigger stories and actually do things outside their relationships.

Blair barley ever even makes her own decisions, someone else makes them for her or has to push her to make them.

In other seasons her love life is a big part of her story but in the same time she is doing something else as well.

In s1 she is trying to build her position in school, in s2 she is fighting for Yale and her position in school, in s3 she is trying to figure out her life at NYU and trying to build her position outside high school, in s4 she is going to Columbia and trying to start a career, even in s6 despite its ridicules soap opera like plot she is building her career.

And in s5? Let me tell you what Blair does in each episode of season 5

Recap of all of the episodes

05x01 Blair returns from Monaco, and the whole episode we see her trying to be able to plan the wedding. Wait is pregnant? No it’s Dorota, joking Blair is pregnant too

05x02 Blair is trying to hide her pregnancy from the royal family, while Beatrice and Dan are snooping. That’s all.

05x03 Blair is trying to figure out who is the father. Of course she can’t makw the decision on her own so Dan needs to force her to do it because of course she can’t do it on her own (still very nice friendship moment). I like ending of this episode, it’s deep and sad and emotional. And tells a lot about her mental state and what is going inside of her.

05x04 Blair is trying to convince Louis that Dan’s book is just a fiction, she is angry because the book threatened her relationship, not becuse it affected her career like in Serena’s case, not because she didn’t like the way she was portrayed like Nate and Rufus, it just that it made her fiancé doubt.

05x05 Blair and Louis tell their family about the pregnancy. Eleanor is unhappy (the only one that has a normal reaction) but then they have a beautiful mother and daughter moment but it’s a moment of Eleanor’s depth not Blair’s. Oh and also Blair is pawn in the battle called “where should they live? Which grandma will have more to say?”

05x06 Blair is trying to choose her bridesmaids (entertaining episode and shows her power, still resolves around her relationship). Probably one of the the very few were she is actually doing something.

05x07 Blair is trying to provoke Chuck to show that he hadn’t really changed. And Chuck and Dorota have to form a plan to make sure she believes he didn’t because she will be more comfortable with her relationship with Louis, again it’s not Blair making the decision someone else has to make it for her.

05x08 Blair has a bridal shower. The trouble is Serena is making it seem it’s not like Blair would like it so she is sad, but no it was a lie she has a perfect suprise party, oh and Louis is a jerk and wants to make her believe her friends aren’t her friends. She takes a break from Louis (good for you girl)

05x09 Blair is following Chuck because he had changed and she wants her fiancé to change as well. One of the lowest moments, Blair is absolutely heartless and selfish in her plan. (A very deep scene in the end but it’s coming from Chuck and just happening to Blair)

05x10 This episode I like it’s actually very deep. We are exploring her fear of being alone and her trying to figure out what’s the best thing to do. If she should listen to her heart and choose Chuck or if she should listen to reason and stay with Louis. We see Dan understanding her and trying to help her. That’s a real good episode.

05x11 Another deep episode exploring Blair’s trauma after the accident. Not gonna say anything bad about as I actually like it and here I think the focus on her being unable to stand on her own is important. And her losing her real self is actually very undrstandble here.

05x12 Blair has a bachelorette party and everybody is able to outsmart her and out plan her and Blair doesn’t see a thing. She needs others to save her because again she can’t do anything on her own. Oh and Chuck is following her.

05x13 Blair is getting married, this episode has some depth and action but again Blair does nothing on her own, Eleanor, Chuck, Serena, Louis talk to her and she just responds. But in end she wakes up and tries to run away. Finally she make her own decision.

05x14 Blair is running away from her wedding, Dan is helping her, Serena and Chuck are looking for her. But in the end Blair has one big moment when she takes responsibility and decides to stay in the marriage, doesn’t allow Chuck and her mother to buy her out.

05x15 Blair is back in the city for Valentine’s, goes to the party at Chuck’s place forcing him to leave his own party, she is followed by some woman with the most annoying accent. She is trying to play a cupid, Dan kisses her, Serena is mad, Blair is trying to explain it. The end

05x16 Blair is trying to convince Serena there’s nothing going on between her and Dan. She finds out what’s in a book and realizes Dan has feelings for her. So she decides she may want to start the relationship so she kisses Dan in front of Serena as her grandmother is dying. Sure Blair is doing things but that’s all relationship related, she is not even yet divorced and she is already thinking about going into another relationship.

05x17 Blair thinks she maybe able to get out of her marriage and be able to be in a new relationship, turns out no, she goes to Cece’s wake. She finds out about the video,Chuck and Dan fight for her, she tells Chuck she can’t be with him right now, photo of her and Dan gets out, meaning she will need to divorce and pay dowry. But Georgina says she might be able to help her out.

05x18 Blair tries to have sex with Dan and tries to be able enjoy it so she gets drunk. That’s honestly the whole plot of her story in this episode. (The worst episode in the whole show)

05x19 Blair is about to sign divorce paper, refuses to talk to Chuck, Dan is worried about the papers and tells her Chuck paid her dowry she accuses Chuck of trying to buy her, he tells her she was never meant to find out, she is sad because of the fact she will no longer be in the royal family. She doesn’t come to the conclusion that she can be strong without the title, she needs Dan to give her he fake princess moment where she is basically a tourist attraction.

05x20 Blair is trying to organize the party that will launch her and Dan’s relationship. Party is ruined because of the drama of other people. That’s it

05x21 This episode where Blair is actually doing something related to her social status. But she does it by trying to sabotage her boyfriend’s event? Very grown up.

05x22 Now we are getting to episode where she actually does something. She reunites with her friends as they try to figure out the whole Elizabeth and Jack thing. We finally see her do something outside her relationship. Of course at the same time Dan is worried and follows her outside the city. And lies to her about Rome.

05x23 An interesting episode, again Blair is actually doing something but it’s still connected to her love life. Blair is trying to help Chuck but at the same time she should be with Dan taking to the guy from the program. So she is torn. But at least she is scheming and using her talents.

05x24 Blair has to finally choose between Chuck and Dan while her secrets are being published on gossip girl and she tired or stop it. Finally she talks about her future outise love life but it’s Eleanor that starts the conversation.

That’s all she does, every single scene is related to her love life, she has no plans, no aspirations. Until the very last episode we don’t hear her talk about her work related plans and even then she talks about the matter of her heart. In season 5 Blair isn’t her best self, she doesn’t do a thing. Things are happening to her but she isn’t making them happen, she is just responding to them. And they related only to her love life. Gone is the girl that wanted to be a powerful woman, she doesn’t want a thing, even after she got divorced and is with Dan. She doesn’t talk about her plans, the closesest to her talking about future is when she talks about it is when she is wondering is she wants to go with Dan to Rome, on his writing program and when she decides to do it she is planning the trip, on where they will be eating and what will they be seeing. Not even for a moments she thinks about her future, about what she wants to do.

Blair in season 5 is a shell of a character, regressed to the love triangles, she is woman that does nothing outside her love life. So in conclusion, season 5 is the worst when it comes to the way Blair was treated. She is so much more than her love life and in s5 they completely they forgot that. And yes it’s a season of very big growth to her as she is faced with crushing realization that fairytales and movies are not real, that reality is brutal. But that’s not how you do it, multiple characters have a character growth in this season and yet we see them actually do something not just wonder which guy should she choose and not the end waiting for someone else to choose for her.

It’s an emotional season but again thoes emotions and depth are in few episodes and are usually are not really coming from Blair. More often it someone else’s growth and understanding of her that is creating thoes moments.

[afraschatz]

Leverage: The 12 Steps Job

It‘s been a while since I‘ve done one of these, but I‘m rewatching Leverage yet again (SHOW, I MISSED YOU) and here are plenty of things I love about ‚The 12 Step Job‘: I love…

… The montage of Hurley in the car and how he walks into his office. Man, that is one NEAT character introduction because when you first watch this, of course he could pass as an absolute jerk and the baddie of the week – despite the client‘s description of him as enthusiastic and sweet. But at the same time this is just how he is later on in this ep and when he returns in The Boys‘ Night Out Job: An absolute slob and a complete mess but also very congenial (how much he knows about all his co-workers? Sweet) and with his heart in the right place.

… Nate being a complete dick and so fucking in denial about his alcohol problem here. I haven‘t watched season one in a while and it‘s so interesting how his and Sophie‘s relationship is so different here (the biggest shift of course being between s2 and s3 where Nate decides to take a vacation in prison and Sophie runs the crew in the meantime – this changes things forever). But it‘s so cool how Gina‘s acting walks the thin line between being the one who is absolutely in the right here and being just that bit annoying that allows Nate to justify implying that she‘s overly dramatic

… Eliot‘s hair is ON FIRE in that episode, wow and that blue shirt *chef‘s kiss*

… how the team works together in figuring out where Hurley might be. Yes, it‘s season one and Nate is very much calling the shots – and he is the one narrowing it down here – but Eliot and Hardison specifically absolutely pitch in.

… Sophie‘s and Eliot‘s little eyeroll at Hardison‘s dropping strip club knowledge

… ‘if Billy was a drunken sex fiend’ – hahaha, Parker, spot on as always – and Eliot‘s and Hardison‘s responding expressions. Come on, boys, don‘t deny it, you‘re in love with her already.

… that look on Nate‘s face when he figures out how to find Hurley. His whole expression changes, his gaze focusses, he leans forward and that drunken haze is gone for the moment

… how Eliot and Hardison constantly share the same frame <3

… Eliot‘s little DELIGHTED smile. Okay, his and Hardison‘s delight in strip joints doesn‘t quite fit later seasons, so we all can just agree that Hardison asking for change for 100 in singles is just because they really want to tip generously for the chicken wings there or something :)

… Eliot‘s and Hardison‘s synchronized walk off

… ‘Don‘t get mad, Eliot, I may have spilled slushie in your car’ and his badly acted expression of contrition hahaha, no one is buying that, Hardison

… Eliot and Hardison being extremely sexy in sitting in Eliot’s car (and as so often, look at the perfect way that shot is lit! Hardison’s and Eliot’s faces both fricking glow)

… very smartly dressed random thugs

… the messy way the fight scene is shot – close ups and very wobbly camera moves, and how you can still tell how efficiently Eliot fights and how… well not all that efficiently Hardison is. And yes, again, it’s season one, so Hardison grabs the gun and shoots it, too, instead of just sitting back and chilling while he watches Eliot beat people up (which is way better than the strip joint idea anyway)

… Eliot being annoyed with Hardison

… ‘Is he sleeping?’ LOL, yes, Sophie, that’s why Hurley is using the air bag as a pillow

… Nate looking progressively more like the absolute mess he is as the episode progresses

… - how confusing is it that Sterling’s Theme is used and Sterling isn’t immediately around the next corner? That is SO cool because yes, he shows up later, or rather: withdrawal!Nate hallucinates him; and so his theme music this early in the episode is almost like foreshadowing

… everyone in group therapy apparently understanding Sam perfectly well aside from Nate

… Parker having to read from the cheat sheet she wrote onto her lower arm to get her three-sentence-character-intro right

… Hurley’s massive list of addiction, with the climax of “Tacos”

… “Uh-huh” - and Sophie and Nate having another fight while everyone else in the group is already tired of it. Especially Parker, if one were to judge by her VERY subtle expressions.

… Parker aggressively chewing on the meds the doctor gave her. I absolutely LOVE the way she constantly gives other people this uncensored WTF-look in season one

… Eliot being smart in the parking lot. I have so much love and respect for how that’s played here again – Eliot is the one who has to have 360 vision, it’s his job to anticipate problems in all forms and sizes

… Hardison’s bricks-on-the-seat plan. That’s so great because he might be the smartest guy Eliot knows TM, but he is fucking afraid here and panicking and that’s not conducive to coming up with super clever plans, is it?

… Hardison and Eliot working together while bitching at one another - “Yes, there are a lot of wires! It’s a Com-Pu-Ter!!”

… Hardison’s brain rebooting as he figures out that it’s a computer bomb and the system needs to be re-booted

… Eliot trusting Hardison’s knowledge, and Christian’s acting here – knowing Hardison is right, being low key annoyed by it, being just a bit unsettled (that lip quiver!) “Run that sack of bricks by me again...” - “Are you ready?” - “NO!”  and his trembling hand - he is so good at rapidly changing expressions and tones

… “I’m gonna go and freshen up a little bit. Maybe cry a little”

… Hardison thinking on his feet and that sweet Jamaican accent – Eliot thinking that is sexy, and backing him up with a bomb

… and again, Kane’s acting – that beat and that look before he says “Sure” when Hardison asks whether he’d have saved him as well

… Nate’s withdrawal. So well done. Over all, the show is SO good at showing that alcoholism is a sickness and a serious problem, even if (especially if!) Nate doesn’t acknowledge it

… HARDISON AND ELIOT’S DATE AT THE RECEPTION DESK. - So, while in the scene before, Hardison takes the lead in acting their way out of the situation, here it’s Eliot by shamelessly flirting with the receptionist. And Hardison’s FACE throughout this. Like, bro, do we have time for this? DO WE? - And then “I’m with him”. And Eliot trying so hard not to burst into laughter, especially when Hardison is doing that thing he is famous for which is shamelessly over-acting just to piss Eliot off. - The ringing of the reception bell and “Bring yo ass”. And none of that even being mentioned in the next scene. - So much quality content in this episode.

… Sophie taking over for Nate when Nate very obviously can’t, and her tone of voice changing to what we’ll get to know from season three Sophie

… Parker coming up with a believable story and selling it. Up to the point where her make believe parents found gold under their trailer…

… Nate’s withdrawal getting worse, Tim’s acting is brilliant here.

… Sophie talking differently to Nate than before. Yes, she still seems to focus on Nate and how Nate is being a dick to them and particularly her, but her voice is different and she uses the real emotion between her and Nate’s exchange to get what they need from Hurley; the list of people he wronged. Brilliant little twist here, because of course Sophie is focused on the con and on helping their client, especially now that Nate is threatening to lose his focus entirely

… that Genesis? Veeeeery subtle product placement, Leverage hahaha

… “I checked your notes - he seems like a deeply troubled man” - Thank you, doctor, yeah. Nate IS a deeply troubled man. And again: Nate’s withdrawal getting much worse, and the con threatening to get out of hand. I said it before, and I’ll say it again: It’s really great how they used this episode to focus so much on Nate’s alcoholism. It’s something so important not only for later seasons but also for the upcoming s1 finale, and we’ve watched enough episodes at this point that we understand WHY this happened to him. And this episode doesn’t offer an easy fix, nor do the following seasons. “Just give me something to do” is what Nate says here, and Sophie has to decide whether or not this is really the right thing to do

… “He is an addict, he knows how to manipulate people, my father was an addict, my grandfather was an addict, I know how these people operate” - yes, Nate, we know who you’re talking about. And so does Sophie

… Sterling as the one Nate hallucinates. Because Sterling knows him, because they used to be friends, because Sterling is as ruthless as Nate is (well, nearly), because Nate is still projecting and in denial that he is in fact talking about himself. So what does he do? He imagines his former friend who is now on the other side, chasing him. - I’m not too big a fan of Sterling in later seasons but this is such a STELLAR use of his character, and Mark’s acting is brilliant here, and so is, of course, Tim’s.

… “Knocking on heaven’s door” - ouch

… Nate’s aggression towards Hurley, first in a physical form and that is scary but also less dangerous because it’s unfocused; and then when his mind has something to focus on, that sharp sharp focus – fuck, he’s one scary dude indeed, it’s rather disconcerting that one is looking at Hurley for emotional reassurance in this scene…

… Parker’s strange walk because of her meds and the return on her focus when her thief-self kicks back in

… “If you’re doing it to help someone, doesn’t that make it okay?” Good question, Hurley. Your answer, Nate?

… Nate shoving Hurley in the hallway rather than explaining what’s going on. Funny, and sliiiightly sloppy, Mr Ford

...Tacos :)

… Eliot and Hardison sharing the same level of annoyance and then acceptance. So in tune in this episode, these two

… re-using that bomb. Everyone does their part in sustainability and careful usage of resources ;)

… the thugs thinking the bomb thing was done by the Jamaicans, aka Hardison and Eliot

… Eliot’s and Hardison’s reservations in the flashback. “Uh---why?” from Hardison and Eliot’s emphatic headshake

… the cash in the tire. Very practical choice, Hurley

… HURLEY JUST WANTS A HUG

… Hardison going the extra mile with Hurley’s new identity by getting him a gym membership

… Parker’s brilliant drawing!!!

… Parker smelling the Sharpie

… Parker running, PARKER HUGGING ELIOT AND HARDISON!!!! OT3!!!

… and that song, that is a variation of “What shall we do with the drunken sailor”, right?

Seriously, this is such a dark episode for Leverage standards because of that focus on Nate’s addiction, and yet, it’s counterbalanced by so much Hardison/Eliot fun and competence porn, by Sophie’s strength and by the fact that the villain of the week has a redemption arc. I love this show so much and this mix shows why again; such a delicate balance, so beautifully handled

[extreme-technicality]

does talking to an anon help about ninjago help? cuz I'm down

DHDKCKGSC YES IT DOES THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR OFFERING YOUR SERVICES

Okay now that I know I won’t be clogging people’s dashes buckle the fuck in my dude and I should stress that I literally would not be talking about this as much as I will be if I didn’t genuinely enjoy the show. I’m gonna go season by season and just Rant

S1 has the serpentine as the bbeg and like, as far as villains go they’re p lit. They’re early enough that they haven’t been done to hell, things are fresh, the characters and dynamics are being fleshed out, and all in all s1 is a pretty solid season. There’s some fuckery that gets brought up re: how the FUCK aging works and what the actual timeline of Ninjago is and how Wu and Garmadon fit into that timeline, fuckery that LITERALLY NEVER GETS RESOLVED IN A SATISFYING WAY BC ITS REVEALED IN A LATER SEASON (s8, dw we’ll get there lmao) THAT THE ONLY REASON THE FIRST SPINJITSU MASTER, WU, AND GARMADON LIVED AS LONG AS THEY DID IS CUZ THEYRE BASICALLY DEMIGODS AND ITS IMPLIED THAT LLOYD WILL ALSO LIVE FOR A LONG ASS TIME WHICH MEANS ONE DAY HES GONNA OUTLIVE ALL HIS FRIENDS AND EVERYONE HE EVER LOVED WHICH IS A FUN THING TO THINK ABOUT AT NIGHT But anyway I digress, s1 also coincidentally introduces Lloyd (he wasn’t in the pilot episodes that set up the rest of the series) and the existence of Evil Dad Garmadon.

S2 is where Garmadon starts acting a lot more Evil and a lot less Dad. He’s the main antagonist for that season, and I actually read somewhere that the show was originally slated to end after s2 which high key explains the fuckery of literally every single season after this lmaooooo. Much like s1, I really can’t find much to complain about, the first two seasons are pretty decent as far as I can remember

Season. Fucking. Three. Where the fuck do I start??? I hate season three for entirely personal reasons revolving around the STUPID GODDAMN ROMANCE WRITING. okay lemme back up and explain a thing first so, Jay is dating Nya and they’re fine, they’re going steady, aND THEN????? THE BEGINNING OF THE SEASON INTRODUCES BULLSHIT LOVE TRIANGLE FUCKERY FOR ZERO GODDAMN REASON, BITCH I HATE LOVE TRIANGLES AND I HATE THEM EVEN MORE WHEN THEYRE DONE FOR NO GODDAMN REASON!!! AND THEN. AS IF THAT WERENT ENOUGH. THEY SHOEHORNED A ROBOT ROMANCE BETWEEN ZANE AND PIXAL AND I KNOW I RANTED ABOUT THIS A LITTLE BIT WHEN I WAS ACTUALLY WATCHING BUT I DIDNT GO INTO ENOUGH DETAIL!!!! THEY MADE THE OTHER NINJA OOC IN ORDER TO PROP UP THEIR SHIP!!!!!! AND AT ONE POINT ZANE GOES “its like we were…made for each other” AND I HAD TO FUCUCJDHVE I HAD TO SCREAM INTO A PILLOW BRO, IM SO TIRED!!!! NO THE FUCK YOU WERENT!!!!!! YOU WERE MADE FOR YOU AND PIXAL WAS MADE FOR PIXAL AND IF YALLS WANNA BANG BOLTS THATS FINE BUT DONT IMPLY THAT EITHER OF YOU WERE MADE INCOMPLETE!!!! THATS AN INSULT TO YOUR MAKERS AND YOURSELVES, MOVE ON, PLEASE AND THANK YOU. anyway that season also killed Zane (for the first time, but not the last) (spoiler alert lmao) and like, not to be an emotional little shit but I did cry a bit at his funeral.

S4 is honestly one of my favorites, even though the romance crimes continue (the love triangle bullshit is continuing and honestly I maintain that Cole, Nya, and Jay should all have gotten together and in my personal canon they DID, and also Kai has a forced romance) the VILLAIN makes up for it imo. He’s campy!! He’s funny!! He’s a clown!! He’s serious enough that if he says “I’m gonna kill you” HE MEANS IT and that’s so fucking refreshing!!!! S4 is honestly 8/10 just for the villain alone, don’t like that it retconned the SHIT out of the elemental masters and how many different elements there are TO master but eh, it’s ninjago, shit is stupid.

S5 was…interesting? OH WAIT I FORGOT TO MENTION THAT S3 INTRODUCED A GARMADON WHO WAS A LOT LESS EVIL AND A LOT MORE DAD, HONESTLY I THOUGHT IT TOOK A LOT OF THE FLAVOR OUT BUT THATS JUST ME LMAOOO. anyway s5 killed Garmadon, and I was a little sad cuz I like him okay??? I just think he’s NEAT, he’s got big dad energy, he was teaching Lloyd some shit that just got DROPPED and literally was never brought up again which is honestly a theme in Ninjago. Ninjago drinking game: take a shot every time they introduce a plot point or ability and drop it at or before the end of the season. WHICH THEY ALSO DID IN S5 WITH A DIFFERENT POWER ACTUALLY, so all the ninja are masters of Spinjitsu right, well s5 introduced the concept of Airjitsu which only Spinjitsu masters can learn and it lets them FLY and they used that for seasons 5 and 6 and then they nEVER BROUGHT IT UP AGAIN EVEN THOUGH IT WOULDVE COME IN HANDY FOR S E V E R A L DIFFERENT SITUATIONS ACROSS THE SEASONS, ONE OF THEM WOULD BE FALLING TO THEIR DOOM AND MY ASS WOULD BE YELLING “YOU CAN FLY, DUMBASS” - anyway, they do that again later lmao it’s fine. But what’s low key NOT fine is they made Nya the WATER NINJA!!! Like I’m not mad she has powers, except I kinda am, she was doing just fine as Samurai X and honestly the only reason she has super special ninja powers is for plot reasons. Also Cole got turned into a ghost, but by s7 he’s????? No longer a ghost????????? And that’s NEVER addressed or reasoned away, so like. Cool lmao

S6 didn’t happen. Like, canonically, s6 ends with wish fuckery that undoes the entire season and none of the characters remember anything that happened except Jay and Nya because S6 is the season where they get back together so they remember all those events for???? Feelings reasons?????? Unclear, moving on. The actual bbeg for S6 was a djinn with a vaguely Spanish accent, and to this DAY I don’t know why they made him have a SPANISH accent. Djinn are Arabic, not Spanish!! They’re not central or South American, either!!!! Your villain design makes no sense, do better

S7 had MORE time fuckery, and retconned what happened to Kai and Nya’s parents and hmmmhmhmhmhmhm that makes me Upsetti Spaghetti :3 not just the retconning, but the fact that they LITERALLY brought them back oNLY TO NEVER MENTION THEM AGAIN!!!!!! LITERALLY!!!!!!!! Okay so at the VERY very beginning, like pilot episodes beginning, Kai talks about their dad like he died/left fairly recently, BUT s7 contradicts that and claims that both of their parents were essentially abducted when Kai and Nya were little kids, which makes me question what in the fresh fuck two little kids were doing for all those years alone. SETTING THAT ASIDE FOR A HOT SECOND, their parents were also apparently good friends of Wu’s and old war buddies (from the Serpentine wars, which is YET ANOTHER bit of the timeline that doesn’t quite add up but honestly I could make a whole other post about that shit). But if they were such good fucking friends, why didn’t Wu check in every now and again??? What the fuck was Wu doing that was so fucking important that he couldn’t have been assed to visit his friends ONCE in like TEN MOTHERFUCKING YEARS and realize “oh shit, they’re not here and there are two tiny children running around unsupervised…My Kids Now : )” LIKE????? WU YOU LOW KEY SHOULDA LOOKED OUT FOR YOUR FRIENDS’ KIDS BETTER, THEY COULDA DIED BRO!!! Uhhhh the time fuckery also results in Wu getting yeeted ahead in time a bit and the ninja gotta find him

Season. Eight. I have…mixed feelings about this one. The beginning absolutely SLAUGHTERED me, and not in a “this is so fucking funny” way. No, the beginning made me feel like I was being flayed alive with just about every episode because Ninjago was back on its forced romance bullshit and this time it was Lloyd’s turn on the chopping block. That hurt my soul cuz like, look at that mans color scheme, he’s CLEARLY alloaro, why are you forcing romance on my aro man, why would you hurt me like that, BUT ALSO BECAUSE HE AND THE GIRL HE WAS BEING SET UP WITH HAD A LITTLE HEART TO HEART REALLY EARLY ON AND IT WAS THE MOST QUEER CODED SHIT!!!! IT DEADASS READ AS A CONVERSATION BETWEEN AN OUT AND PROUD QUEER AND A CLOSETED QUEER AND THEY MADE!!! IT!!!!! STRAIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!! The only thing that kept me watching at first was wanting to find Wu, and then I started enjoying myself once Cole found a plot-relevant baby and had fatherhood thrust upon him. Everything went from “ehhhhh” to “holy shit this FUCKS” once it was revealed that Rumi (Lloyd’s love interest) wAS PLAYING HIM THE WHOLE TIME AND WAS EVIL AND HAD AN EVIL GIRLFRIEND!!!!!! LITERALLY IMPROVED EVERYTHING ABOUT THE SEASON FOR ME, I COULD EVEN FORGIVE THE WHOLE “let’s resurrect Garmadon, but as evil as possible” BULLSHIT!!!!!!

S9 is a continuation of s8, Garmadon is back and 1000% Evil, 10% Dad, but none of the Dad energies is directed at Lloyd - it’s all directed at Rumi, and honestly I could write a whole ass post on just RUMI cuz that’s honestly my DAUGHTER and I LOVE HER and I’m MAD SHE DIES AT THE END OF THIS SEASON!!!! SHE DESERVED THERAPY AND TO LIVE WITH HER GF AND MAYBE SOME CRIME. AS A TREAT. RUMI DESERVED BETTER AND LOW KEY IM GONNA WRITE A FIC ABOUT IT, BUT ANYWAY WHERE WAS I

Ah right, so s9 has the four major Ninja stuck in the original dimension with no way home, while Lloyd has no powers (cuz he almost died last season) and has to somehow lead a resistance against Garmadon (who has taken control of Ninjago City and is working on the rest of Ninjago). Actually, s9 is pretty cool. Like, the end of s8 and into s9 are low key my favorite episodes, and I kinda wanna rewatch them now -

S10 is a FUN one. Garmadon got got last season, but he didn’t DIE, so he’s in cold storage and now there’s Another Threat and he’s the only one who knows wtf they’re up against so they let him out and he works with them. The funny part is, he is still Very Much Evil and doesn’t quite Get emotions like he did when he was, uh, human lmao, sO HE WOKE UP EVERY DAY DURING THAT SEASON AND DECIDED TO CAUSE PROBLEMS ON PURPOSE. IT WAS THE FUNNIEST FUCKING SHIT. 1000000/10 MY FAVORITE GARMADON, he ended that season by literally fucking off into Ninjago and they never decided to track him down 😭😭😭😭😭and I’m so SAD about it dude

S11 has another Serpentine as the bbeg, though in the setup to that they retconned how the fucking Serpentine tribes and history work??? I think???? Also Wu was a good 150% angrier and generally Done with the ninja’s shit, which was honestly refreshing tho I’m not quite sure I liked what the refreshed view was, but whatever lmao. S11 also had the ninja get yeeted to the dimension farthest from Ninjago, and honestly - okay, so they didn’t all go at the same TIME, Zane left about a week or two before the others did but there was time dilation fuckery afoot which I’m not too mad about cuz low key it makes sense. What I AM mad about is that they didn’t play the angst up to its full POTENTIAL!!!!!! Zane was EVIL in the other dimension!!!! Okay so I’m Ninjago he was only gone for maybe a week or two, but DECADES had passed in the other one, and all that time Zane was alone and disconnected from everyone he knew and loved, with a staff that boosted his power while slowly corrupting him and Turning Him Evil to help him, and like???? The thought of Zane trying to find a way home, trying to get SOME sort of message back, while he has to use the staff more and more to help him survive the long, lonely decades, so that by the time his family DOES show up its too late??? BRO. B R O. THAT JUST HITS DIFFERENT, BUT NINJAGO DIDNT DO THAT!!! THEY MADE HIM EVIL DUE TO MEMORY WIPE!!!!!! MEMORY WIPE IS BABY SHIT COMPARED TO A LONG, SLOW CORRUPTION!!!!!!

S12 was alright. It went into Cole’s mom, touched on some of the adventures she had had, threatened another forced romance (this time on poor Cole, just leave my mans ALONE) but thankfully didn’t follow through this time, introduced cool new powers that honestly hasn’t been elaborated on since that’s the most recent season I think lmao

Anyway thanks for reading and letting me rant!!!! I have,,So Much More I could talk about, PLEASE ask me about Rumi, some of my headcanons re: Garmadon and Wu’s dynamic, the Serpentine, my top five times they butchered Kai’s character for Plot Reasons, or anything else I brought up here that you want me to elaborate on!!!

[notquiteaghost]

helo i love yuo

so, you may have seen this post where i ramble at length about the admiral (the best magnus archives character). this is that, but... even longer. 3′000 words long, to be exact

this rambling contains the admiral; jon&georgie friendship; the beholding throwing jon a bone and letting him talk to cats; the admiral: this time he's yelling; georgie/melanie origins; & bad things exclusively happening off-screen. we are on fluff about cats 24/7 lockdown

and it’s also on AO3

jon definitely had cats growing up and is the kind of person whose life feels Wrong if he doesn’t live with any

he says this to georgie offhandedly, one day, when they’re living together in a decent flat (as opposed to the Hell House they lived in the previous year with various other uni friends), and both have decent jobs (jon in a small, independent bookshop and georgie as a copyeditor), and in general their lives are Going Good

and he’s not trying to hint or anything, (or at least not consciously), just, tells a story about the small angry ex-feral his grandmother had who hated everyone, frequently disappeared for days, had to be sedated for basic vet check ups, but would lie on his feet in the evening while he read and purr, so quietly he felt more than heard it

and georgie doesn’t say anything about getting a cat in that moment either, just tells a story about her own childhood cat’s habit of stealing socks and hiding them under cabinets

but then a couple days later jon comes home and on their sofa is a tiny ball of orange fluff

georgie is sat next to him and she grins and says, “this is the admiral”

“where did he… come from?” jon asks, because he knows georgie, and he’s having visions of her breaking into the house on the end of their road and just. grabbing a cat.

(the house is occupied by an older man who cares for his many, many cats just fine, aside from how he won’t spay any of them and it seems like with every passing month another six cats have appeared)

“rebecca — she works at the library, you’ve definitely met — her cat just had a litter. he’s ten weeks, he’s had his first two shots, she gave me a huge bag of kitten food”

“right. and you decided we’re getting a kitten…?” “this morning.” “oh, of course.”

the admiral is very small, and ginger and long-haired, and he really likes to curl up on them — on georgie’s chest while she’s on the sofa, on jon’s lap when he’s reading. his favourite place to sleep very quickly becomes across their shoulders, snug between them and the back of the sofa, like a kitten hood

he’s very vocal, and has many demands, and you will listen to them. he follows jon round the flat shouting in the evening until jon gives in and goes to bed, and then the admiral lies on top of him and purrs up a storm

he’s an indoor cat, because jon and georgie live in a third floor flat, and so one of his other frequent demands is for someone to trail a tie along the floor for him to murder (yes, they have bought him many actual cat toys. yes, these are all incredibly boring and all he wants to chase are georgie’s shoelaces and jon’s ties)

he likes marbles, rubber balls, bottle tops and other small things he can bat around the tile in the kitchen, and he especially likes when someone stands at the other end of the kitchen and bats them back. they call it tennis. he always wins

if either of them do anything in the kitchen he has to be sitting on the counter to supervise. he doesn’t usually care about the actual food (unless it’s chicken) but he Has To Know

in general he just likes to have his people in his line of sight at all times. if they’re in different rooms he’ll alternate between them, sometimes with increasing frequency until he’s getting up every five minutes very pointedly and narrating his journey angrily, which almost always has the desired effect of them giving up and moving

he sits on georgie’s lap more often, because if jon’s sat on the sofa it’s rare he’s arranged in such a way to make a lap. often the admiral will sit sideways on georgie’s lap and reach out a single paw to rest on the closest part of jon. sometimes this is jon’s face

he loves new people. anyone who comes to their flat is obviously here to see him, and he’s very happy to accommodate that. if any visitors sit down he will be on their laps within seconds. why else would they have sat down! he’s lovely and they love him, obviously

he hates the hoover, it’s his sworn mortal enemy and one day he will kill it. this is unfortunate, as he’s long-haired and fluffy and without regular intervention, all the carpet in the flat would be ginger. he can’t be in the room being hoovered, as he pounces on the cable with enough murderous intent to do real damage. and after the hoovering is done he sulks

he sulks for weeks when jon moves out

he is, in fact, the reason jon & georgie remain in contact, because regardless of how vicious the things they said were by the end, the admiral pines. he lies on what was jon’s pillow and looks incredibly mournful, and georgie doesn’t think it’s fair if only she has to feel guilty about it, so she takes a picture and texts it to jon

and jon isn’t any less angry yet, but dammit the admiral is his cat too, so then they have this weird unspoken agreement where they never discuss themselves but georgie sends him frequent admiral updates and every so often jon comes round and lies on the floor so the admiral can sit on his chest and knead his stomach with pointed force while scolding him at length

(eventually they start talking properly again) (you can pry platonic jongeorgie out my cold dead hands) (jon gets distant during s2 but prior to that they go out for coffee every couple weeks) (they text a lot. jon has to come round georgie’s at least once a month or the admiral starts shredding the hoodies of his georgie has permanently stolen)

when georgie starts what the ghost, of course the admiral has to supervise. he likes to curl up in her lap while she records. if she stops petting him he reaches up to headbutt the mic

whenever he isn’t on her lap he sits on top of her script / reference files / any other sheet of paper she could need to look at. he loves to sit on paper, especially paper she doesn’t want him to sit on

the what the ghost twitter account is 30% episode announcements, articles, behind the scenes stuff, etc, and 70% admiral pictures

one tweet in particular has like 50k retweets. it’s a video of georgie getting up mid-recording to get a drink and the admiral, sat on her desk, leaning forward to meow into the mic as if continuing what georgie was saying

jon is campaigning for georgie to make the admiral his own twitter account. georgie knows she’d almost immediately neglect her own twitter account and she kind of needs to keep that up for her job. jon argues that the admiral would reach people who might otherwise not check the podcast out; georgie counters that if he thinks it’s such a good idea why doesn’t he run it; jon points out he doesn’t live with the admiral and also has a job of his own; work/life balance is a well-worn argument topic in of itself so generally then they drop it

and then jon is accused of murder and moves back in with georgie and the admiral is overjoyed, he purrs nonstop for three straight days, he tries to lie on top of jon nonstop for three straight days, he is the single good thing in jon’s life right now and jon tells him this frequently

then after a couple weeks jon starts to hear words, when the admiral meows, which. is a thing. sure is a thing. that is happening.

jon stumbles into the kitchen at 4AM, able but unwilling to sleep, on the hunt for more tea, and hears a concerned voice call “jon? jon are you okay?”, and he calls back “i’m fine i just couldn’t sleep— ” before turning round and seeing stood in the doorway not georgie but the admiral, who meows again, except jon also hears “i will lie on you”, and then he has to sit on the kitchen floor for a minute

the admiral comes over, of course, and sits on his lap, and purrs and headbutts jon’s jaw and kneads his stomach, and says “yes love you” when jon says, “thank you admiral”

so then jon stares into space for a bit, still stroking one of the admiral’s ears, before asking, hesitantly, “have you… always understood me…?”

but the admiral mrrrps in that way of his that means no, and says “since you came back” so, that’s good, at least jon’s cat isn’t walking around with a wealth of blackmail material

because, of course, he’s the kind of loud shouty man you can keep up a conversation with, and jon and georgie both have a habit of talking through their problems with him

and he doesn’t tell georgie, because this is before he comes clean about All Of It and also this is, in his opinion, a touch more batshit than even evil doors or women made of wax. and he talks to the admiral like he’s a person and they’re having a conversation anyway!

but, the thing is, georgie isn’t an idiot, and notices that when jon asks the admiral what he did with his day, he seems to actually listen to the answer, and then knows about things that the admiral saw but jon didn’t

so a couple days after jon finally explains about the eldritch fear beings and how he works for one and some others want to kill him, after georgie insisted they both stay in for a day, no mention of anything remotely supernatural, just rewatching monster factory and eating ben & jerrys, the day after that georgie sits down across from jon at the kitchen table and asks, “so, you know things? that’s the deal, yeah?” and jon nods, not awake enough to be wary about where this could be going, and georgie adds, “things like what the admiral’s saying?”

and jon. freezes. but georgie just rolls her eyes, says, “what, i can accept you’re on a crusade to stop evil mannequins from ending the world, but you talking to the cat is too far?”, and, well, that’s a good point

so then, as well as having very surreal conversations with the admiral about the relative merits of various brands of cat food, and his thoughts on the reasoning behind various human activities (“georgie is trying to befriend the microphone.” “no it's– the microphone isn’t alive.” “georgie knows that?” “she’s recording, so other people can hear what she has to say without being here.” “!!! record me!!! tell everyone to bring chicken!!!”), and why jon is an idiot fool who should never go anywhere alone again (“don’t even have claws, jon. take me, i will bite.” “i appreciate that, but–” “i am very sharp! i bite hard! i draw lots of blood!” “yes, you’re very dangerous, and that’s why i need you here, to keep georgie safe.” “i’m not kitten i know you are manipulating” “i love you very much, and i promise to be more careful, okay?” “hmph.”)

as well as that, jon is also acting as translator for georgie — if jon’s around, the admiral can understand georgie, but georgie can’t understand the admiral (if the world wasn’t ending, jon would find that absolutely fascinating, but alas)

the admiral tells them both he loves them, a lot. after they feed him, when they’re petting him, but also sometimes he’ll wake up from a nap, see jon sat in the other armchair (georgie’s flat has two armchairs, one with big armrests she found in a charity shop that’s the reading chair, one with a very low back that came with her flat and is the admiral’s), say “love you jon” with great contentment, then go back to sleep. it makes jon tear up every single time

he’s VERY upset when jon moves out. he does not agree with jon’s logic at ALL, and he rants to georgie about it at length, but she can’t understand him anymore

georgie knows the gist of it, though, and when, four days after he left, jon stops replying to her texts, or picking up her calls, she does get a touch worried, and turns up at the institute for some answers

she has melanie’s number, of course, but melanie has also been getting worse and worse about actually responding when contacted (because she’s so angry, all the time, and she just wants to hurt something, and georgie wants her to get out the institute, and melanie is worried what might happen if they argue about it again), so she goes in person, and finds basira

basira doesn’t know where jon is, hasn’t seen him in a while but that’s nothing out the ordinary, and the only person who probably would know is elias, and elias isn’t exactly… forth-coming

so georgie leaves without answers, and decides whatever jon’s done now, he didn’t see fit to tell her about it beforehand (even though, after mike crew, she made him promise), so he obviously doesn’t want her help, so fine. fine! she has enough going on, without worrying about an idiot with a death wish who she definitely doesn’t still care about to an alarming degree

she does, also, decide the institute, the– eldritch fear gods, whatever, they don’t get all her friends. she goes back to the institute the next morning, and refuses to leave until melanie talks to her

melanie looks like shit, visibly buzzing with rage but also with an air of deep, deep exhaustion, and she hasn’t even finished asking what the hell georgie wants before georgie has grabbed her arm and is dragging her outside

and melanie — there’s a knife in melanie’s pocket (there’s always a knife in melanie’s pocket), but she doesn’t reach for it, there’s no sudden surge of mindless rage, she lets georgie drag her all the way out the institute, and into a cafe four blocks away, the one that does the pastries martin likes

georgie doesn’t say anything about leaving the institute, or where jon is, or the unknowing. she orders them both drinks (a cinnamon latte for melanie, with extra whip cream, meaning georgie remembers her favourite drink still, which makes something in melanie feel fuzzy), and just immediately launches into a rant about this source she’s trying to track down for a what the ghost episode

and then she keeps doing that, every week, barging her way into the institute and barging back out with melanie in tow until melanie starts replying to her texts and answering her calls and waiting for her outside

the admiral still thinks they should be more worried about jon, but he no longer has any way to tell georgie that, and he likes the sound of melanie

when jon returns from being kidnapped, he doesn’t actually visit georgie, or even reply to her texts. she finds out he’s back from melanie, and then has to, again, turn up at the institute and demand jon come back to the flat in person. she’s incredibly angry, but not actually at jon

the admiral has a LOT to say when he sees jon again, mostly to the tune of “i TOLD YOU” and “georgie doesn’t listen” and “weeks!!! lucky you aren’t dead!!!! not safe alone!!!!!” and “idiot, idiot, love you, most idiot”. jon just sits down on the floor of georgie’s entryway and lets the admiral sit on his chest and yell

he, of course, does not agree with jon’s decision to not only leave the flat but the country. jon is a FOOL who will DIE doesn’t he love the admiral!!! doesn’t he want to stay safe!!!

georgie leans against the wall behind them and nods emphatically the whole time

once jon leaves again, the admiral is, to say the least, Upset

jon calls as regularly as he can, to reassure them both he’s alive, and georgie starts spending more and more time with melanie

the admiral loves melanie. she’s sharp and quick, would be good in a fight (not that he’s ever seen her do any violence, cats can just tell some things), and she makes georgie happy, and she’s good at ear scritches, and she doesn’t know what he’s saying exactly but she’s pretty good at getting the gist

he tries to tell georgie that melanie should move in, but can’t get her to understand the specifics. she does start inviting her round more, though, which is good. sometimes they talk into the microphone together, now

after jon returns to england and actually goes back to the archives he shows everyone who stays still long enough admiral pictures

mostly that means martin. and basira (basira is a cat person, thank you) (she hasn’t met the admiral in person despite georgie offering because she Isn’t Here To Make Friends) (but she’s still very invested in him and his exploits)

martin will come into jon’s office with tea and to check he has actually eaten today and jon will immediately go “look look come look at this” and show the video georgie sent that morning of the admiral trying to attack a fly on the other side of her bedroom window

“he’s such an idiot” jon says fondly, and martin looks at him and thinks i know the feeling

and, also, this means jon and melanie have something to talk about that isn’t a) No, Seriously, What If We Stabbed Elias, b) the circus apocalypse, or c) are you… dating my ex… 

melanie is not dating georgie. melanie is possibly the only person who doesn’t realise she only isn’t dating georgie Yet

melanie would probably realise she’s in the first third of a slowburn friends-to-lovers if not for, y'know, the slaughter. she knows being around georgie makes the anger dissipate, somewhat, but it’s not yet enough to make room for any other feelings

jon asks, of course, once he’s been back a couple weeks, lying on the floor of georgie’s living room with the admiral being a loaf on his chest while georgie sits on the sofa and edits audio

“so,” he says, and georgie hits pause on the audio file and raises an eyebrow, “melanie, huh?”

“we are only talking about that if you admit you have a crush on martin,” georgie fires back, immediately

and, of course, at this point jon has a) spent several hours going On And On about martin to georgie, b) listened to Those Tapes, c) gone gallivanting round the globe and thought ‘oh martin would like that’ approx two hundred times, so he just says, “sure. i have a crush on martin, and once we’ve successfully survived preventing the world from ending, i will probably ask him out. so — melanie?”

georgie lets out a long, low groan, because melanie

she scrunches her nose up when she’s annoyed, and she’s read every goosebumps book, and one time she nearly started a fight with a guy in costa because she overheard him say something shitty about the homeless guy sat outside, and she hums old folk tunes when she’s thinking

and elias really fucked her up with that shit about her dad, and the speed at which she jumps to violence is incredibly worrying, and if georgie doesn’t remind her sometimes she forgets to eat

“once we successfully survive you preventing the world from ending,” georgie says, at length, “i will ask her out.”

jon nods. the admiral says, “been telling her melanie should move in” and then makes his annoyed mrrp noise when the force of jon’s sudden laughter almost dislodges him onto the floor

[safflowerseason]

veep rewatch - 3.03

Season Three, Episode Three - Alicia 

aka - The One with the Announcement 

Tracie Thoms is well cast in the role of Alicia. 

When Jonah runs across the street, you really get a sense of how ill-fitting his clothes are (and also how freakish they make him look as a result). His pants are at least two sizes too big. 

Amy back in a skirt suit very reminiscent of her S2 outfits. 

Love the behind-the-scenes quality of the scene in the Veep’s office, with Selina getting fitted while her staffers work on the speech. 

Sue: Ma’am, it's Amy. She sounds uncomfortable. Like she's with a member of the public.

And now Amy in a beautifully tailored purple dress! This is not my personal favorite shade of purple (I would have preferred something a few shades darker…this is a bit too “crayola” purple for me) but the dress is super cute and it looks wonderful on Anna Chlumsky and fits her like a glove. I adore the peplum detail on the skirt and the little sleeve flaps.

Selina in another black and red outfit, in yet another episode where she wrestles with what she can say publicly versus what she actually believes. Definitely a consistent fashion theme of S3 so far. 

Gary: It's like SNL is going back in time and abusing a child.

Love the ongoing balloon bit in this episode. 

Kent: We need to rewrite the speech! Dan: I can’t rewrite the rewrite, Kent. I'm still writing it! Kent: That’s the reality, Dan. If you don't like the reality, go live in Oregon and make quilts with my mother. She could use the help.

Dan/Amy parent!watch Amy: Do…do I take her hand?  Alicia: Yes, hold Miss Amy's hand. Mike: Amy was born to be with kids Amy: …Peeing is fun…!

Amy: Okay…great pee.  Dan: I wanna know who's responsible for that sketch, you cock…*sees Amy and Halo*…tail napkin. Yeah, you heard me! Doyle: Dan. Amy. Dan: Shit, I gotta go.  Amy: Senator Doyle.  Doyle: I have a meeting scheduled with the Vice President right now and it is "right now” right now. Amy: Dan, you take this…right now. Dan: What?!

I always thought this little tussle, as well as Dan and Amy’s very brief interactions with Halo, indicate that while parenting would have represented a chaotic (and comedic) learning curve for both of them…it’s not like they don’t grasp the basic reality of what it means to be responsible for another human being. Both of them willingly hold Halo’s hand. Dan cuts himself off in the middle of cursing out the SNL guy, Amy doesn’t really know what to say to a little girl but she still tries to make her feel comfortable…these are small things, but there’s an awareness, however limited, of what it means to manage small kids. Yes, Dan and Amy are dramatic and completely obsessed with their work and have limited emotional intelligence. But they are also technically functional adults who have a base level of propriety and social awareness. In contrast, during S7, Mandel’s attitude toward the idea of Dan and Amy as parents seemed to be that they would be practically criminally negligent, monstrous in their grotesque selfishness and sociopathy. Which, like, sure, I wouldn’t want Sex-Psychopath Dan anywhere near my daughter. But it doesn’t track with the earlier seasons of the show.

Ben: Because then they sound like they're the result of war. Kent: It’s the curse of the unintended narrative. Dan: Okay, but you still want military first?  Selina: Yes!  Dan: *grumbling* Yeah…I’ll just say them simultaneously.

The show never gets into it much, in either era—and it seems like BKD was always tragically doomed to be nothing more than a plot device—but there was always a little spark with Ben, Kent, and Dan’s dynamic. It’s not hard to imagine that the three of them, together, could have grown a very successful business in DC (…I have imagined it). Dan always works best around people who stomp on his ego and boss him around, which Ben and Kent certainly have no qualms about, but he’s also active and ambitious in a way that they aren’t, so they actually make a decent team. Also, Dan views Ben and Kent as men in a way he doesn't with Mike and Gary, which affects how he interacts with them. 

Doyle is a real dick in this episode. His presumption. It is so infuriating. It reminds me of all the male senators during the Kavanaugh hearings.

Selina: Seniors are the easy vote. Child care is a principle.  Ben: Ma’am, you have plenty of principles…you just gotta pick another one.

Dan: I don’t do offended…but I am affronted that you’d even think that.  A classic Dan line. 

Selina: I'll tell you what happens. They get bullied when they're little at school, and then they perpetuate the cycle by bullying me.

JLD’s face when she sees Catherine’s dress…masterful. 

Amy sends Gary a great “oh shit here it comes” look right after Selina starts to blow up at Catherine.

Also JLD’s fake laughing reaction to Doyle’s “L’il Selina” line. Brilliant.

Selina: So…I’m supposed to let a bunch of dead-eyed white guys shit all over absolutely everything that I stand for? An iconic line that is sadly even more applicable in 2020 than it was in 2014. 

Selina, in a rage: I have DECIDED that I'm going to LET them dictate to me. Because that is MY decision. Do you understand that? I am LETTING them do that! Get it?  Ben: Yes, ma’am. Selina: Right! But they do NOT own me!  Ben: They really don't, ma’am.  Selina: No, they don't! No, they don’t! *flings herself into the armchair*

Gary doesn’t do much in this episode, but he gets in some great little physical comedy bits, like trying to sneak Selina something to drink and then shying away. 

Mike calling Dee a “stupid cow” opens up such a dark crack into the normally sunny Mike. Matt Walsh really nails it, though, his own horror at his words…you really feel for him, even though it is a truly awful thing to say. I wonder if it’s a line they would have given to such a sympathetic character (for Veep, comparatively) in a post Me-Too world. Like, the audience just watched Mike get married! To Kathy Najimy!

Catherine: Amy, what the fuck is happening?! Is Mike on crank?! Amy: That’s actually the least of my worries right now. Your mom has gone quiet. 

Ben to Mike: You gotta go lower! You gotta go lower than the lowest lowlife. You gotta dig and dig and dig until you get to the point where you wish you were dead. Okay? And that's base camp.

Dan: Is there any way to snap her out of this Diving Bell and Butterfly shit? She should be rehearsing my speech right now. I mean…I am just impressed that Dan “only watches movies with Owen Wilson” Egan knows  about The Diving Bell and Butterfly.

Catherine: Your entire life has been leading up to this moment. And as a result of that, my entire life has been awful.  Sarah Sutherland’s delivery of this particular line is extra great…that little waver she puts on ‘awful.’ This whole monologue is so funny and spunky! 

All of the Selina/Dan interactions and miscommunications re: the speech and SNL once again foreshadow that their partnership is going to be a disaster. I appreciate how subtle the foreshadowing has been…while also undeniably consistent. 

I like that after an episode of being totally shit on by Doyle, Selina manages to get a win over him at the end, manipulating him in front of Alicia and Halo because of course he can’t say no in front of potential voters. Of course, she’s also manipulating them, but it’s a nice instance where Selina’s public machinations actually pay off for her. 

[ambitionsource]

S2 Rewatch - Maggie’s Take [ 202 ]

yes, i am behind. yes i am running the promo season. we exist. my excuse is that i’m writing s3 so. i think that’s valid!

Favorite scene

The one that jumps out to me every time I think of this episode, whether I’ve read it recently or not, is the scene where Farkle throws up and Charlie tries to comfort him. I don’t think I meant for it to be something I’d particularly remember when I worked on this episode, but I feel like it plants so many small details so well. Like Farkle’s emotional state, Charlie trying to bond but Farkle shutting him down because he doesn’t have any of Charlie’s emotional context (which he will later get on accident), reiterating how they’re not really friends despite Charlie being nice and how that changes a lot by the back half of S2... I think their dynamic is really fun and interesting, and this is one of the first scenes where we really play with it. The runner-up though is Farkle and Lucas’s scene in detention where they highlight the parallels between their devolutions.

Favorite performance

Super easy. “Tonight.” There is no competition at all for this episode. Like sure, there are other good performances (“Looking At Me” is definitely up there, as it feels like the true comeback number with all the energy and flourish, and “Smooth Criminal” is a banger for Maya & Farkle), but “Tonight” cuts right to an emotional core of the show and gives us our first real taste of Zay & Charlie. I love how effortlessly they fit in the dialogue / narrative pieces of West Side Story with really just minor tweaks, and how it prompts the exchange of embarrassing nicknames. Also the whole thing taking place on Charlie’s balcony allows for this super interesting exploration of romantic tension through space -- how even when they try to put space between them throughout the number, and dance around one another in that confined space, they always end up right back together. And of course, the fact that all this happens literally outside Charlie’s house... it’s a display of growth, even though we know he has so much more growing to do.

Favorite character (within context of the episode)

Again, no real clear standout for this episode for me. Maybe I’ll say Farkle, because this feels like a premiere for him actually since he was kind of... out of it during 201 and not really present for half the episode. On the other hand, Charlie gets credit too. I’ll give it to the two of them, given that they had my favorite scene.

Favorite line(s)

“Remind me why I haven’t fired you yet.” –Jack Hunter, to Shawn

“Izzy isn’t just some “project” for me. Believe it or not, I don’t compartmentalize my friendships by how they most benefit me.” –Maya Hart

“It’s network TV, it doesn’t have to make sense.” –Rosie Gardner

“Applegate? I thought she was great in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.” –Dave Williams (I know I wrote it, but this line makes me stupid-laugh every time)

“You know, at the risk of sounding totally kitsch… you know you’re my favorite duet, right?” –Zay Babineaux, to Charlie

An underrated moment

Dylan and Asher win this one, with their exchange when they (obviously) decide to be partners in the background of Lucas brooding over Isadora ditching him for Maya. Dylan suggesting they do Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark, i.e. one of the worst shows in Broadway history, and Asher’s “no babe, no...” You know, to be fair, I think if anyone could save it, it would be Dasher.

First impression vs your reread impression

Oddly enough, this is always the S2 ep I kind of like... write off in my mind. Like I remember not being excited to write it when I did, I think because I was so eager to get to all the juicy stuff later that I was dragging my feet trudging through all the build. But build up is necessary, and reading it with a year of distance, it actually flows extremely well for an episode. It feels cohesive and tight, which is a relief. So even if it’s not my favorite by any means, I think it holds up better than my brain convinced me it does.

[38sr]

I wanna know everything

WHERE DO I BEGIN, VULPES????

Okay okay, I’m just gonna list off the things that I’ve already written for this AU and hope I don’t get into spoilers for the Undercut DJ. To make things clear, this AU is like a mix of canon divergence/fix-it since I’ve been taking the time to rewatch VLD and analyze the story as a whole. So let’s start at the beginning~

Voltron 2020: A canon divergence/fix-it AU based on the 2016 VLD series. I only call it Voltron 2020 since the stories I’ve written/drawn for it so far wouldn’t be out in the public until next year haha.

Where does it start?

V2020 (I’m just shorten it to this) keeps S1 and S2 in canon and kicks off in S3. There’s only one small change I would make to S1 but I’ll get into that when I talk about Shiro in this AU.

These haircuts??? Explain please???

Haha, yes I’m a fan of the idea of Keith, Lance and Allura (yeah you heard me) having shorter haircuts. More so Lance because compared to the rest of the cast’s original designs, his hair maybe be simple but lacks a bit of flair. Lance is the one who get’s his undercut first and the story behind how it happens is covered in a fan comic called undercut that’s slated for release this year.

How Keith and Allura get their haircuts are part of the story as well but doesn’t come until maybe S4 or after (I have to figure out the details on that). But for now, I just wanted to see how Keith looked with short hair and it looks pretty good! 

Keith is in BP suit and Lance is in RP suit?

Yup, one of the things that drove me bonkers in VLD was how they didn’t match their lions. This is more of an OCD thing because I prefer matched colors over mix-match. However, once again changing their suits also has a reason behind it in the story. You can sort of call it…truly stepping into their new roles in the Paladin team. For Keith, becoming the leader Shiro always saw in him. For Lance, becoming the right-hand man and gaining confidence in his skills as a pilot (also becoming Keith’s rock haha).

Okay the real question: Does Shiro die in this AU?

Here’s where things get…a bit interesting? I have two versions of this AU where Shiro does die in his battle with Zarkon and the other where he does not die. So a divergent…within a divergent haha. I have to preface this with I don’t hate Shiro by any means and love his character with all my heart, which is why I made a version where he doesn’t die. Shiro as a disabled, LGBT and PoC character has so much potential that killing him off would be a waste for storytelling. Since the AU takes off in S3 where it was implied that he died, that’s where I took the story and started writing how his death affected the team, mainly Keith. The main point I want to get across is that Shiro needs to lose his connection to Black Lion in order for Keith, Lance and Allura to grow as characters.

In the case I choose to have Shiro die….

As per usual, Keith reluctantly becomes the Black Paladin, Lance becoming the Red Paladin and Allura is the Blue Paladin. We see how Keith is struggling with his loss of Shiro and how he feels incompetent being the leader of Voltron. This would then lead to into the undercut comic and spark a more genuine, supportive friendship between Keith and Lance. I would also keep how Shiro’s conscience remains in the Black Lion, which only Keith knows about cause he’s BP now. This would be great thread to connect Keith and Allura who have lost someone dear to them and rely on technology to keep them alive (when in reality they will always live in their hearts). 

I would also keep the Kuron idea but instead of him joining team Voltron, Honerva and Zakron use the Shiro clones and make their own version of Voltron with the Robeasts we see in S7-8. That way, we could keep The Black Paladins fight since that’s a very emotional and groundbreaking moment for Keith having to face someone cares deeply for. 

In the case I choose to have Shiro live….

I wouldn’t have him be BP again since that prevents Keith from growing into a leader, which then prevent Lance growing as a character and then prevents Allura from growing as a character. If anyone has noticed after watching the series, the character development kind of gets wonky when they decided to bring Shiro back as BP. If anything, it really hindered Keith, Lance and Allura’s character development since S3 focused so much on the dynamics in team Voltron shifted (which would have been super interesting to see as time went on). Since this idea is fairly still new I haven’t quite figured out how I would write the story if I went this route. But, I’m not opposed of having Shiro being involved with the Altean colony…again gotta workshop some stuff here but killing off Shiro is such a waste of potential!

ALSO, if Shiro stays alive, then we need to address Adam in S1 E1. It can be simple like when everyone is at Keith’s shack and Adam’s name gets dropped casually like this:

Shiro: How did you get all this information? This is classified stuff from the Garrison…

Keith: I had someone help me.

Shiro: Someone….?

Keith: …it was Adam.

Shiro: Oh…

Not exact but my point is that could have been a great moment to tell the audience Shiro and Keith have a connection with Adam (more so Shiro because we all didn’t know he was gay until much much later in the series). But lemme move on before I get too into Adam cause so much needs to be written out before I spill it all haha.

Next big question: which ships are canon?

Y’all don’t burn me at the stake but….

Allura and Lotor. 

I KNOW I KNOW! BUT WHAT ABOUT KLANCE!?!?!?!?!??!

Y’all know I will ship Klance until the end of time but right now I haven’t gotten to a point in the story where confirming Klance as a romantic relationship feels natural and right yet. If anything, in V2020 I really want to build Keith and Lance’s relationship as friends and teammates which in turn can lead into something more. But the groundwork needs to be done in order for that to happen.

But yeah Allura and Lotor are confirmed in V2020 cause that feels right and Lotor deserves so much more than what we saw in the show. I’ll leave it at that for now.

Is the ending the same?

HA. NOPE. FAR FROM IT!

This is probably biggest change I made in V2020 but when VLD did this it made me worried for the show as a whole:

Zarkon remains as the main villain and final boss for the entire series.

I would have not killed off Zarkon as early as they did in VLD simply because Zarkon was made out to be such a big threat in the beginning. Don’t get me wrong, Honerva and the war factions are a cool idea as opposing forces but they could have happened first and left Zarkon for last. 

Honevra regaining her memories and going on her rampage could have happened first. Lotor could have found out that she was his mother  and had to confront his abuser. Allura would have to face the fact someone of her own kind was doing horrible things and that evil isn’t determined by (alien) race. All of that could have been presented before killing Zarkon and would have pushed Allura and Lotor’s character development. Also, having Honevra written off first would give Zarkon even more incentive to do what he’s doing cause well, that’s his wife and love makes you do crazy things. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The war factions could have happened after Honerva and that’s where we learn more about the Galra empire and society. Where are there are cracks in the system? How are half breeds like Keith and Lotor viewed? How do factions like the Blade come into play and help team Voltron? All of that could have been explored! Honestly, the war factions arc(?) is an opportunity to further develop Keith and Lotor characters and their relationship since they are both half-Galra. 

As for the final battle and ending of it all, Allura doesn’t die and Voltron (the robot) is the one to be sacrificed.

I wrote a whole theory on it after watching S8, so if you wanna read yet another long post you can check it out here haha.

The point of keeping Zarkon as the main (and final) villain in V2020 is to keep the overarching story simple. Think of ATLA, the story as a whole is really simple: 4 nations based on elemental powers are under the tyrannical rule of a dictator and only one person can stop him and save the world. By keeping the objective of the story simple, there’s room for character development and world-building. Instead of a dark, broody space epic (if that’s what you wanna call it), V2020 focuses more on the characters and world-building that are affected by the main opposing force known as Zarkon. A lot of the stories I have in mind are more episodic but I think that works best for a show where the stage is as grand as space haha.

Pidge and Hunk??

As for Pidge, she kind of….gets everything she wants in the show?? There isn’t really anything drastic I would change since the show fixed her issues…

As for Hunk my baby boy sweet cinnamon roll, don’t worry. I’m making sure he’s more than just a scaredy cat who loves food. I really liked how in the show Hunk learned about Galra diplomacy so maybe I can work with that! 

___

Yeah, I think….that’s everything I can tell you about this AU and I’m so sorry, Vulpes, that I made this answer so long! ^^; Thank you showing interest in my AU!