#1x04 commentary

[ihatewhentheyfight]

jared: in the background there, that, uh— *snorts* i remember that it was somebody who saw that we were filming, so she took her dog, and wherever the camera's facing, she would run right back there and play— jensen: she'd manage, she'd manage to find a way, yeah. jared: right. *laughs* she was a star in the making. she, you know, we shot in one direction and she decided to play with her dog in that direction— jensen: oh, and there was— there was a rugby game. jared: there was a rugby game going on, yeah. jensen: and they tried to stop 'em from playing and i was like, 'come on, just let 'em play! jared: that's right. There was a rugby team with about— you know just a pick-up game of rugby, with about, you know, 15... pretty big guys, 180 to 220 pounds, probably, every— every person. and they send out a production assistant, little PA, probably about 150 pound guy *starts to laugh* to go out. they tell him, hey, can you uh, get those guys to stop playing rugby, it's kind of messing with our shots. so here's this little guy who's running out, tryin' to go, excuse me, sir. uhm, can you— can you not play rugby?' jensen: *chuckles* jared: i felt bad for the guy. i thought we were gonna watch him get his butt kicked, right? jensen: i know.

[leslie057]

“if i had a nickel for every grown adult whose weird sexual comments were aimed at nancy and jonathan”

i would have 3 nickels (now was this before or after you changed out of your clothes)

which isnt a lot (trade you in for the younger model)

but its weird that there are that many (youre young and attractive)

(pull out joke)

[csidle]

CSIV Griss and Sara could take over the world tbh.

“I don’t know what magic you worked on her”

“She thinks I’m emotional so I leaned into it”

The triumph of tricking her into giving them the documents

The fact they’re just Scooby Doo-solving crimes together

I love them they love each other the domestic “you put the gloves where I like them”

the way he still looks at her even after all this time and all those years together. Her glasses. They’re just the best

[lunanightriderofthecove]

Love Ezran's focused sawing of the bread while Callum reads the letter 😆

[mlobsters]

supernatural s1e4 phantom traveler (w. richard hatem)

(this is a rewatch, so spoilers abound)

another early reaction report to watching spn lol

what's so funny to me too is that like. this show is very low on skin overall. seeing half naked leg is downright scandalous on the scale of what we ever see of them through 15 years. they keep very thoroughly covered almost all the time! meanwhile the show i'd fixated on before this, teen wolf, those boys were shirtless constantly (except stiles. never stiles)

ps i've had it on my sort of floating to-do list to, at some point, paint that ever so shocking full length view with the 2/3 naked leg

s1e4 paul jarrett as george phelps / the fall of the house of usher s1e7 as doctor donaldson

airport man, paul jarrett, has been in a lot of stuff i've seen. (supposedly?) twilight eclipse (aka the one with the very bad bella wig), the xfiles, the killing, the fall of the house of usher most recently... god i just wasted a solid 30 minutes trying to find documentation of any/all that

demon as particles that went into the eyes instead of smoke in the mouth, wild early days

s1e4 as jaime ray newman as amanda / the magicians s3e10 as irene mcallister

too many people :S she's also been in a lot of bigger stuff but the recurring part on magicians hey-o

i'll spare them a screenshot of the bad visual effects on the airplane

picked spanish captions first accidentally, that's sweet. cariño for good morning, sunshine (an endearment that's like honey/sweetheart)

DEAN Did you get any sleep last night? SAM Yeah, I grabbed a couple hours. DEAN Liar. 'Cause I was up at three, and you were watching a George Foreman infomercial. SAM Hey, what can I say? It's riveting TV. DEAN When was the last time you got a good night's sleep? SAM I don't know, a little while, I guess. It's not a big deal. DEAN Yeah, it is. SAM Look, I appreciate your concern— DEAN Oh, I'm not concerned about you. It's your job to keep my ass alive, so I need you sharp.

not concerned, my ass :p but an additional concern that he can't do the job (or even drive safely or be a functioning human) with no sleep

DEAN Seriously, are you still having nightmares about Jess? SAM Yeah. But it's not just her. It's everything. I just forgot, you know? This job. Man, it gets to you. DEAN You can't let it. You can't bring it home like that. SAM So, what? All this it...never keeps you up at night? Never? You're never afraid? DEAN No, not really. SAM reaches under DEAN'S pillow to pull out a large hunting knife and holds it up as evidence. DEAN That's not fear. That is precaution. SAM All right, whatever. I'm too tired to argue.

LOL, good call, sam. not buying he never gets scared either. savoring the brotherly chat in the beautiful (albeit dark) lighting

JERRY Well, he was real proud of you. I could tell. He talked about you all the time. SAM He did?

shitty way of showing it there, john. tell him you walk out and stay gone, and no contact since. but he's proud! grinds my gears :p dean lookin over to sam like, see??? fucking JOHN. ugh! lol

JERRY Well, we're missing the old man, but we get Sam. Even trade, huh? SAM No, not by a long shot.

oh, sam.

brian markinson (as jerry panowski here talking to salmon dean) has been in a lot my stuff and in fact i did a hey i know you when he was amelia's dad in the fuzzy brightly lit flashbacks in 8x08

LOL copy jack making fake IDs

SAM Homeland Security? That's pretty illegal, even for us. DEAN Yeah, well, it's something new. You know? People haven't seen it a thousand times.

makes a good point. i didn't realize it was a thing in 2005, but apparently it started in 2002 (makes sense that they made it happen quickly, like every shitty thing that got put into place after 9/11). guh

s1e4 birkett turton as max jaffe / the magicians s3e7 as vince

another person that's been in one of my shows..... almost turned alice into a vampire? lolol totally forgot about that. i should rewatch s3 again, been a while

the coloring and lighting just really did such lovely things for jackles, an already exceedingly lovely looking human

widow of plane guy was in a very small part in the killing but i am not looking this up. i'm t i r e d

DEAN Man, I look like one of the Blues Brothers. SAM No, you don't. You look more like a...seventh-grader at his first dance.

LOL get him, sam! also i was gonna blame the music on jay but it was actually just a bad sub by netflix yet again, was supposed to be black sabbath paranoid

so it's one thing to fake the paper/picture/card part of the fake id, but what about the badge shields??

also kind of amused that this is presented like it's the first time they're wearing the fed suits, in that they had to buy them. dean really didn't need one before with john? rolling up in his oversized jackets, flannel, ripped jeans and boots pretending to be any manner of official?? i can see sammy needing a suit, since all his clothes got torched (and might have had dress wear for say, law school interview, but maybe not a suit.) yet again thinking too hard about this :p not even halfway through the episode damnit

SAM Yeah, I know what an EMF meter is, but why does that one look like a busted-up walkman? DEAN 'Cause that's what I made it out of. It's homemade. SAM Yeah, I can see that.

ok so my 2nd-4th screenshots while watching this show? this interaction LOL. poor dean, sam not impressed 😔

stir-of-echoes on lj transcribed jared and jensen's commentary for this episode:

JP: (Bursts into laughter at Dean’s face when Sam informs him that he can see that they EMF meter is home made) JP: That is always one of my favourite moments. I seem to remember laughing over my coverage… JA: A little Dean comedy thrown in there…

so i guess this is part of my impression that they were pretty inexperienced with demons at this point. they didn't know the residue on the emergency exit of the wreckage was sulfur until they had the dude look at it under a microscope

the effects in this episode are definitely showing their age/budget. the airplanes and the demon particles woof

the stuff on the wall a la john, so impractical in a hotel/motel/holiday inn (i think i've made this reference before lol.) also those teeny tiny beds so close to each other

SAM Well, that's not exactly true. You see according to Japanese beliefs, certain demons are behind certain disasters, both natural and man-made. One causes earthquakes, another causes disease. DEAN And this one causes plane crashes? All right, so, what? We have a demon that's evolved with the times and found a way to ratchet up the body count?

feel i might give myself a headache if i think about this too much. so like. are we saying that a different culture's demon is doing this? but (will be) affected by christo/exorcism? or that all of those folklore creatures in different cultures were christian-hell-demons (surely not that one)? or that maybe if their demons were up to these shenanigans so would christian-hell-demons? ugh. nothing makes sense to me when i try to go outside the christian sphere for more than 2 seconds in this universe

DEAN It's biblical numerology. You know Noah's ark, it rained for forty days. The number means death.

okie doke

(perpetual irritation and frustration at how sometimes captions are greatly condensed and remove whole sentences of dialogue)

we all know the talking him through his panic on the plane but this conversation too where both their voices are going progressively higher is pretty cute as well. sam walking the line of a) got a job to do or a bunch of people are gonna die b) desire to mercilessly tease over the newfound weakness, as is the sibling prerogative

also, they are very smushed together in those airplane seats. also ALSO, jackles seems to have been getting different makeup than padalecki because he's got poppin highlights all over his face like it's pretty glossy looking regularly, where sam's cheeks are regularly matte in the same lighting. wonder what that's about. wonder if it's because jared sweats so much as he's having to wipe down so much he loses the sheen. maybe jackles was just more naturally oily and they went with it. anyway, his skin looks gorgeous in these early days

SAM Now, I found an exorcism in here that I think is gonna work. The Rituale Romanum.

more reinforcement that dealing with demons is a new thing for them. now i can't even remember why i'm questioning this. maybe it's because of how pre-series gets talked about later in the show or something. ugh. brain, get it together

DEAN Maybe the thing's just not on the plane. SAM You believe that? DEAN Well, I will if you will.

LOL sam's face. it's fun having dean be a mess without it going over the top broad humor which mr ackles tends toward

also funny that holy water in this first incarnation makes the demon's clothes burn like acid too. wonder if that was a one-off, definitely adds a lot of extra work to something they use on the regular later on

man, kripke apparently talked a lot of shit about the effects in 1x02 (and later took it back saying it wasn't so bad upon rewatch a decade later) but the effects involving the exterior "shots" of the airplane in this are 10x worse than anything in wendigo

DEAN You okay? SAM Dean, it knew about Jessica. DEAN Sam, these things, they, they read minds. They lie. All right? That's all it was.

so i guess my interpretation of that is with christian-hell-demon up to similar shenanigans as the japanese folkloric disaster causing demons which was only mentioned to add Flavor

so we got a sign of life from john via amelia's dad, by way of reconnected phone with new voicemail recording to call dean's current number

so, here's my guess as to why sam's lookin like this. dad is definitely still alive as of recently so there's that relief but he's also completely ghosted them. transcription says that sam "fumes" and gets in the car. but we got the sad string musical score and he's definitely on the verge of tears, jaw clenching/swallowing. i'm voting sad and frustrated and a skosh angry

and again from the commentary:

JP: (Jared talking about the scene where Dean and Sam are resting against the Impala and Dean is calling John’s cell phone) Now I remember this was a big milestone for the series at the beginning because this was the first time that we’d heard not only confirmation of the fact that our father was still around… JA: Right… JP: But that he had made communication with someone, so this was a big important scene as far as the series itself goes. JP: (Talking about the look of sadness on Sam’s face when they hear John’s voice on the phone message) And that’s why I have that look on my face… (Both laugh loudly) JA: (Talking about the look on Dean’s face in the same scene) Oh, and there’s the jaw-clench, was that a jaw-clench? JP: You can’t teach that Jensen, I remember getting this shot and we were sitting outside the airport and erm…

the commentary is a fun read and a lot faster than rewatching the episode to listen to it :) so thank you to stir-of-echoes for posting that in 2006 and miraculously still being around for me to read it 18 years later

[adhd-merlin]

hi! my friend who has never watched merlin before just watched a couple of episodes with me. one of them was the first lancelot episode. my problem is that I absolutely know I reblogged a post from you a while ago with arthur staring after lancelot asking him to come back and slay creatures with him and something about his soulful eyes, but I can't find it and it is incredibly important to me that I send this post to my friend. do you know what I'm talking about or is this totally incoherent? do you know how to find it? ps your blog is so fun and I love your takes on merlin

thank you! I also enjoy your takes on merlin and colin morgan (of course he can juggle).

I absolutely know I reblogged a post from you a while ago with arthur staring after lancelot asking him to come back and slay creatures with him and something about his soulful eyes

ooooh that does sound like something I've read and probably reblogged. but not written (I think?) I tag my posts but it's far from a perfect system. by logic it should be somewhere in here: arlance tag / lancelot tag / ep 1x05 tag but I had a quick look and I don't think I've seen it? I also wrote an episode commentary but that's not the post you meant either (I haven't re-read it but I don't remember writing anything about lancelot's soulful eyes).

let me know if you find it please, I am invested now!!

ps. I'm curious to know what's the other episode you made your friend watch. Because if it's not the pilot I'm thinking probably 1x04 and I wanna know if I'm right.

[trillscienceofficer]

While I hate how Picard forgot about Elnor for so long, I genuinely think Elnor was better off without him because it's clear he hates children and he would get him killed sooner or worse. So actually Elnor being raised by the lesbian convent , I mean Qowat Milat, was good for Elnor. Except Picard shouldn't have made that promise so the poor child wouldn't long to see Picard again.

(In reference to this post)

I totally get where you're coming from! I really am not sure what Picard would've done with Elnor had things been different, but there were imho several options in which Picard could've helped without having to raise the kid himself.

It's interesting that now that I got to 1x04 again I'm experiencing once more the same kind of 'wait a second I kinda like where this is going actually', in the sense that in the first few episodes of Star Trek: Picard we're shown the terrible consequences of the one time in his life Picard chose his pride over the commitment he'd made to several people, ie the time he resigned from Starfleet over the Romulan rescue efforts and went straight into early retirement. We see this especially with Raffi (whom also Picard had left to her own devices) and Elnor, and with Picard's own surprise at how bad things have gotten because too many people like him chose to not act when even partial, insufficient action, without any 'official' backing of any kind would have still meant something. It sure would've meant a lot to Elnor and Raffi at the very least.

I thought it could've been a really good commentary on the price paid for inaction and for believing that the official, sanctioned way is the only way anyone can do anything about huge, intractable problems, when in reality any decision that leads to lessening of people's suffering is worth making. But the show lost the plot of this already during this episode (by casting Picard as someone still 'deserving' a voice on Vashti among the Romulan refugees), and I'm not sure I buy either Raffi or Elnor eventually forgiving him or much less apologizing to him (for what exactly it's unclear, he's the one who let them down!)

Anyway, I had great hopes for this show and for Jean-Luc but I don't blame anyone who finds him insufferable now. Picard could've been again a vehicle for talking about responsibility and what we owe to each other even after we've made mistakes, like in TNG's best moments, but this show chose differently I guess.

[zalrb]

This is kind of weird and I’m going to preface this with saying that I think your writing is absolutely excellent. If I were Elena in your Steferine fics, I don’t think I’d be able to seriously believe Stefan loved me because of how addicted he is to Katherine. I know the purpose of the fic isn’t a HEA Stelena and that it’s meant to hurt her because it’s Stefan and Damon choosing Katherine over her, and if I were Elena, I wouldn’t be able to get over that, if that makes sense. Like I know Stelena have this bond, this soulmate love and Steferine is ultimately obsession and great sex and I don’t think Stefan needs to validate Elena when she chose his brother over him and Elena does need to face consequences for her actions, but Idk, after seeing them both with Katherine in the context of your fic (Stefan continuing to see her despite Elena’s objections and jealousy, Damon actively pining after her, hell even Matt agreeing to hook up with her), I would just rethink everything in my life and just leave town. I know Elena wouldn’t do that because she loves Stefan and would stay and fight for him, but after it was all over, I think she would, just for a little bit. Everyone who has ever claimed to love her has in a sense picked Katherine over her, never mind that she picked Damon over them because Elena is nothing if not a hypocrite, and I think that would eat at Elena long after it was over and Katherine was gone.

I’m not requesting that you write this or anything, this is just a badly worded way of saying I think the sheer hurt you manage to insert into your writing is nothing short of masterful, that if I were in that character’s place I would be utterly unable to take it. Ngl, sometimes I have a hard time reading it because I cannot fathom what I would do in Elena’s situation, but then again if I were Elena I would have tried to run over Damon with my car in 1x04.

Idk if this is the kind of engagement that you want from your readers, but I thought I’d say something. I hope I didn’t come off as critical of your writing because that is so not the case, you are absolutely incredible and these are just my deranged musings. Is there anything I can do to better engage with your stories? I do like and reblog them but in terms of commentary/discussion, what are you looking for and how can I do it?

Oh, this is great engagement, thank you! But who says it's not an HEA for Stelena? 😉 (I'm not saying it is either! but it's more like Steferine is the prominent relationship in the fic rather than Stelena).

I get what you're saying, though, because I definitely dial everything to a hundred in that series (even though I sometimes wonder if I go far enough haha) while keeping it as in character as possible for a scenario like this while also kind of being like, if we're going to be honest about what all these people mean to each other and really looked at how these people reacted to each other, the outcomes of these dynamics would be extremely messy and extremely painful. And that means Elena is taking some pretty hard Ls and actually has to deal with the emotional consequences of them.

But in the same regard what makes Stelena Stelena is that they stay through circumstances where other people would leave. Like, Caroline, for instance, isn't staying through something like this, not with Stefan, not with Tyler, that's just not who she is. And I certainly would just take my L and go, haha.

But Elena's journey through the series is fun because when it starts, she's just sick with jealousy, and she's just indignant and angry and reactive and realizing that she made a choice to be with Damon and fully feeling the loss of Stefan, like it really sinking in for her that she made the wrong choice and that she didn't think of what losing Stefan would actually feel like and mean

Stefan sighed and shook his head. “Elena. Katherine’s right, you made your choice. You moved on. You didn’t think I’d move on too?”

Elena gritted her teeth putting her hands to her head. “I just didn’t think it would–”

“Rip your heart out?”

Elena didn’t say anything and only looked at him, devastated. 

so the in "Toxic" she's here

but I make it a point for Stefan to explain that what he feels for Katherine isn't love, it isn't even affection, which in its own way makes Elena lose her mind

“I can’t believe you’re defending her! What, you have feelings for her again?”

Stefan rubbed his temples. “This isn’t about having feelings—”

“No?” Elena yelled. 

“No!” He insisted. “I know who she is, Elena, I’m not falling for her, OK?”

“OK, so it’s not about revenge, it’s not about emotions then what could it possibly be–”

“Maybe we just have great fucking sex!”

Elena flinched as if struck and Stefan closed his eyes, still indignant but regretful.

but she knows that despite it being intense, it's not necessarily profound.

Which is why in "Choices" when they meet and they have their shared memory of a previous Valentine's Day, what that night meant, what the sex they had on that night meant, when he confirms that nothing like that is happening with Katherine, she's still jealous but she's relieved

“OK, let’s just say I’m not releasing two dozen doves for anyone.” 

“Or going to any Victorian balls,” she whispered.

Their eyes glistened as if they were sharing the same memory of that night, the ballroom, the dancing, the feel of the bookshelves, of the fabric of the chaise, the ripe, wet urgency of their lovemaking…

“No,” he said finally, lowering his gaze. “Nothing like that.”

Elena’s relief was only outmatched but the nagging curiosity – if she could even call it that – about what he was doing and who with, she didn’t want to know but also wanted to with her whole being. 

and then in "Blood", when she sees the blood sharing, it breaks her brain

Elena had never thought of it before, Stefan drinking from someone who wasn’t her, someone drinking from him like she’d done. Sharing that kind of intimacy. Elena’s vision went off-kilter, the world tilted off its axis.

Was this how Stefan had felt when he’d found out about her and Damon? She didn’t know what that had meant at the time, not really, but Stefan did know, he knew now and he still …

The moment was over.

Everything happened quickly.

Elena sped forward and dragged Katherine away by her neck, ignoring the cries from Stefan and Caroline and Bonnie for her to stop.

but what's more is that even in the midst of all of this, they're still them, like it's not even just about a gaze, it's their physicality, it's impossible for them to not be them even when she just wants to be enraged and even when he's over his head in a toxic cycle

and then suddenly the pain was gone. Stefan threw Katherine to the side, her body crashing into the wall, and helped Elena up, bringing her to a corner, inspecting her head, her face, saying frantically, “It’s OK, you’re OK.”

Elena kept trying to push forward but Stefan held her back, his arms around her, He stood still as a rock, allowing her to battle against him until she started to calm, to feel the recognizable comfort of his arms around her and she eased into his embrace, unable to fight against the peace he’d always made her feel …

and then anger bloomed, anger at the familiarity, anger at the intimacy between them even now

and it's at this part where Stefan describes his relationship with Katherine at the moment as an addiction, which again inflames Elena's jealousy because he continues to see Katherine despite the wreckage and that's painful but it also catalyzes Elena into looking at the situation differently

“So, this is about getting back at me.”

“No, it’s not about that,” said Stefan firmly. “It has nothing to do with you, Elena, it’s about her, me and her.”

“What about you and her? What is it? What is this thing?” The images came to her again and Elena put her hand to her head.

“I don’t know,” said Stefan. “It’s score keeping, it’s – it’s, it’s kind of like an addiction.”

“An addiction?” said Elena, looking at him pained and alarmed.

so that when we get to "Boundaries" and Stefan is saying these hurtful things

“You don’t want me, Elena,” he said.

“Stop it,” she said.

“You just don’t want me with anybody else.”

“Stop. This isn’t you.”

“I’m your safety net, your sure thing, and you think it’s being taken away from—”

She slapped him. The action surprised her as much as it did him. Her hand stung. The sound of the impact still ringing in the air.

Firstly, he never talks about how he stopped loving her, he talks about how she stopped loving him. So kind of like 1x10 where she's like don't tell me how I feel to let yourself off the hook

Secondly, what he says

“We met. We fell in love. It was epic. And now it’s done. This,” he gestured between him and Elena. “Whatever this lingering … this …” He breathed heavily. “It’s done. We’re done.”

Elena nodded angrily. “Done.”

“Yeah,” he said.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “Finally.”

He looked at her. “Finally.”

And then he left.

still hurts but it's very reminiscent of how he acted in season 3

So, by this point in the fic, in Elena's mind, Stefan is going through another form of addiction. Katherine is an obstacle she needs to help him overcome because he never says that he loves her, he never even says that he likes her, and he admits that he isn't happy,

“I know that you’re not doing this to hurt me—”

“Good.”

“But this is what you want? Really?”

Stefan didn’t say anything right away. “Right now, yes.”

Elena’s lips trembled. “This is what makes you happy?”

“I never said that.”

it's just that he can't stop.

All the while they're having moments like this

She walked up to him, holding his face in her hands, pressing her forehead against his, and he exhaled like he’d just remembered how to breathe, just remembered what respite felt like. They stayed like that, drinking each other in, and then the door flew open, Katherine appearing.

and he's clearly affected by her, he's not indifferent, he's not hateful, he's not cold, he's in complete agony

“Elena, why are you he—”

“I don’t know why I’m here, I’m just here. That’s my point, Stefan. I had to be here because you were here. With her. You had to see me here.”

Stefan stared at her, at a loss. “I never did this to you.”

“Yeah, Caroline said the same thing.”

“I left my house. I left my town—”

“I know,” said Elena.

“So then why are you doing this to me?”

“Because throwing tables wasn’t enough. I’m not as stoic as you.”

so even though she's hurt and she's extraordinarily jealous, when he's having his outbursts, it's kind of like his blood lust outbursts

“What do you want to hear, Elena?” He was shouting. “You want to hear that it makes me sick? Well it does! But the rush I get? I can’t —” He took a deep breath. “I can’t stop! Is this what you mean? This is what you want to hear?”

same vibes as

“Fine, let’s talk about it! Let’s talk about how good the sex is, that I’ve had her every which way for hours on end and it’s still, somehow, not enough!  Let’s talk about how it feels like I’m addicted to her, like I’m hooked on the high I get when I’m around her! Let’s talk about how right now, I can’t see an end in sight! You really want to talk about that? You really want to hear that? Really? Do you want me to go on?”

Stefan burrowed his face in his hands, unable to bear the expression on her face. 

kind of like

and it's also a continuation of

and she repeats that they don't give up on each other, that's not what they do

exacerbated by the fact that she had chosen Damon.

What I think you had to suspend disbelief the most for is when she waits outside Katherine's apartment for him but I just saw it as her wanting to see his reaction when he sees her, to see if he really had moved on and it's the complete opposite

Elena.

Stefan felt the ground shift beneath his feet.

“Please don’t tell me you’ve been out here the entire time.”

She only looked up at him, teary-eyed, but the devastation in that simple motion was all the answer he needed,

he confirmation a lance through his chest. He could only exhale, anguished and overwhelmed. “Elena—”

so basically this series' Wickery Bridge

which is all to say this fic is as much about what SE can withstand as it is about the fun toxic psychosexual power dynamics between SK and how the two things feed each other and the point is kind of that no one else would be able to get through this but SE (if they do!)

In terms of engagement, commentary and discussions like this are great! Thanks for the ask :)

[penchanteds]

daemon / rhaenyra fic recs

watched the dragon show, became obsessed, and so here are some daemyra fic recs. original warnings apply. commentary is my opinion; go read and support authors 💗

modern au

potential by stannide

a masterpiece! required reading. this fic is probably a gateway drug, and it will ruin you for all modern aus after. the writing is luminous and intoxicating.

the beauty queen in tears by writingwhatidream

the crown meets a/b/o; there's something so addicting about this world where targaryens are modern royalty with a young princess rhaenyra at uni. the dual-pov is crafted so masterfully. [in-progress]

say my name, say it again by ineedyoursway

the prose is luscious and the story leans into the mafia-esque, age-gap vibes. it's sinister and alluring in the best ways. every single chapter takes my breath away and leaves me stunned. [in-progress]

somewhere in the haze by darkgods

corporate!targaryen is a deliciously fun modern setting, and this one peels back layer after layer. [in-progress]

scattered moonbeams by untouchable

they meet on a dating app after years of estrangement, but of course, it's so much more than that. miscommunication-fueled yearning is a gift.

ruled by siebilant 

they also meet on a dating app, but the prose in this one swelters. it's a push-pull, then take whatever you can get your hands on when it comes to these two.

anything charmtion publishes is poetry, including:

rosemary by charmtion

underbelly by charmtion

into dark, into water by charmtion

dirt nap by charmtion

(this is a non-scientific recommended reading order; the first pair has partners-in-crime family vibes, the second pair has running away-finding each other circularity)

other au

everything darkgods will ever write (consider this list a darkgods shrine), including:

a wing shaped from fire by darkgods

rhaneyra is betrothed to daemon from a young age, and a viserys consumed by dreams steps aside and crowns daemon king instead. one of my favorite characterizations of a young!rhaenyra, in all the fire and spirit she possesses as a dragon. [in-progress]

put down that gravestone by darkgods

this is probably the most beloved fic around the block. surprise, rhaenyra gives birth to daemon's twins after that fateful night in 1x04; daemon returns a decade later and our favorite scheming power couple reunites. [in-progress]

something wretched about this by darkgods

dead dove where king!daemon takes underage!rhaenyra as his ward and takes his tutelage very seriously, but he is very unserious about the extent of his feelings. [in-progress]

kiss my face and tell me i'm the chosen one by darkgods

domestic!daemyra with a brood of over a dozen little targs. after aegon ascends to the throne, rhaenyra retreats as the princess of dragonstone and slowly builds her empire. [in-progress]

a king for a queen | bone of my bone by FormerlyIR (Irony_Rocks)

a/b/o where daemon steals rhaenyra away and one of the story tags is "high valyrian as a love language" so they get it.

i only want your soul by sweetlovedoll

soulmatism, and the doom that befalls everyone in a three mile radius if you try to separate these two.

the tyrant king and his little queen by framboise

daemon targaryen and the boy!obsessed trope, describes how the king is endlessly doting upon his young niece-wife-queen.

the last beautiful thing i saw is the thing that blinded me by pentaghastly

more mythological dragon lore. the only way to describe this is incandescent poetry that drips down the sleeve after the first bite of an overripe fruit.

unwanted consequences by cartographies

we should all be team!rhaenyra begins to pick at the unresolved traumas around marriage and motherhood.

bad religion by stannide

a gorgeous daemon character study that unfolds through the first half of the season.

fix-it universe

crucible by stannide

sometimes we're all mad about the season 01 finale, and other times we read this as a salve for our wounds.



salt by charmtion

in the post-finale, simply unfold and dwell in the tender horror of this poetry.

bloodless by charmtion

daemon and rhaenyra survive the dance, but wounds linger and cannot be washed away.

burning times by lovily

the beautiful ebb and flow of these two losing and finding themselves in each other, hurt/comfort.

list last updated dec 2022

[electricbluebutterflies]

summer frenzy accountability post

In the name of me having a lot of time on my hands for the next couple months + wanting to vary up my content here a bit... time to post the watchlist I hope to at least cull through if not actually finish all of. This is not in any kind of order and will be updated as I get through stuff, and also isn't all of my planned programming for the near future (there's also one movie I need to rewatch, a few others that will be totally new to me, and a book series I need to get through). The goal is to fall in love with things, write as much as possible, and have a good time.

Housekeeping notes: if a show name is underlined, that means I already have a ship tag for something / that's a link. If it is not, I'm still eyeing some obvious bait unless otherwise noted. I've at least kinda started watching most of these shows and in some cases the "currently on" is a guess because it's been too long for me to remember. Any commentary on why I should prioritize something on this list above the rest will be listened to but not necessarily followed. (There are several things that I dropped because the timing was wrong for me.) Again, not an exhaustive list but posting it anyways so y'all have some idea of coming attractions.

Without further adieu, the list:

Rings of Power (currently: maaaaybe 1x04?)

Wheel of Time (currently: hell if I know, I am aware WHY I quit watching previously but can't remember exactly which episode it was / I do know it was somewhere in the middle of s1)

1899 (currently: no idea)

House of the Dragon (currently: 1x02)

Stranger Things (currently: early s2?) (yes I skipped ahead and watched the Chrissy episode because of the cuteness that is Hellcheer and it somehow made total sense to me but that's not even what I was there for)

Shogun (currently: 1x03?)

The Gilded Age (currently: somewhere in the middle of s1 / I think I finished the ep before the dress that got me interested in the show but I'm not totally sure)

Silo (currently: have not started) (almost definitely not a fic show for me but creative ideas in other directions?)

Foundation (currently: have not started)

Fringe (currently: have not started / if I remember right I did get through about the first season ten years ago but it has been a moment so I'll be starting over)

Fallout (currently: 1x02)

[ihatewhentheyfight]

jared: now this scene, i believe we filmed at the end of the day, at the end of the episode, and uhm... i'm chewing right now and you can't see because they cut it out, but i had to eat a donut and uh, they really made me— jensen: there you go, there you go. chewing away, buddy. jared: —bite into a donut and i'm chewing away, and they're like, we need to see you bite into the donut, and... i don't think it's ever going to show me bite into the donut. so i ate about fifteen donuts. jensen: *chuckles* jared: ...and they never even showed it. i just look like i'm— i look like a cow, chewing on it's cud. jensen: that's pretty much your daily quota though, isn't it? jared: *cute laugh* thirty is my daily quota. that was a light day. jensen: right.

[dragonseeds]

tbh i think the hotd characters aren't inconsistently written it's just the writers had to compress a lot of characterization in a short amount of time

hard agree after seeing some of the script excerpts. i think they did an excellent job overall considering the number of years + characters they were trying to 7-zip into one season, but ended up cutting too much away for rhaenyra and alicent’s characterizations in the last two episodes to cohere for me.

this commentary by @awildwickedslip on a cut from 1x10 and on one of the alicent excerpts from 1x09 sums it up perfectly. without those specific moments and the context they add, i really struggle to believe that the alicent and rhaenyra from 1x04-1x08 would act (or react) the way they do in those final episodes. like the consistency was there? almost?

[ncisfranchise-source]

NCIS: Sydney 1×04 “Ghosted” takes a closer look at who Michelle Mackey is. It only peels back one layer off the onion, but it does a lot to round out a character that started as the straight, tough, serious boss, but who has always been so much more.

DeShawn always knew it. JD kind of suspected it. And the rest of the team has already gotten a clue about it. And even if NCIS: Sydney is not yet at the place where everyone knows, the growth is clear. It’s only been four episodes. We still have four episodes to go this season. Imagine what we can get in those, or with a second, longer season.

Trust Is A Journey

Mackey and JD have come a long way, but they’re not there yet. And yet the fact that Mackey is willing to let JD in to the point that she has – the point where he knows that she’s keeping a secret, and she knows that he knows, is already a big deal. They’re not there yet, of course. And Mackey is afraid that if she lets JD in, if she lets anyone in the team see her vulnerabilities, she won’t be able to be an effective leader.

But Mackey has never had a team like the one she has now. In this team, vulnerability isn’t a weakness. And her team won’t think less of her if they learn she’s human. They might respect her more. JD surely will.

There is, of course, time to get there. For Mackey to understand. For the team to prove this to her. And it all starts with J.D. He is Mackey’s partner in all of this, the person by her side, the one breaking down her walls, little by little. And that means he’ll be the one who will, one day, get to see the other side of the woman she’s becoming – the one who is learning little by little what it means to actually have a team you can trust not just with your life, but with your heart.

A Time and A Place for Everything (And Everyone)

This episode does a great job of balancing the dynamics between Mackey and J.D and Evie and DeShawn with what’s going on with Blue and Dr. Penrose. Mackey and J.D carry the emotional burden of “Ghosted,” but it’s Evie and DeShawn who do most of the legwork in this hour. Does the case get solved without them? Unlikely.

But their dynamic is also explored, even if not as deeply as J.D and Mackey’s. What we’ve gotten from them has been a lot more banter-y and light, because they are not as serious as J.D and Mackey, which is perfectly fine. The last thing you want is for the dynamics to skew too similar. The characters have to distinguish themselves, and so far, they have. If we’re rooting for Evie and DeShawn, it’s gotta be because we want them together because of who they are and what they bring to each other – not because of anything that has to do with J.D or Mackey.

There isn’t much more to say other than, four episodes in, the show has done enough to convince me, a procedural old-timer, that there’s enough here to sustain the test of time. Now comes the hard part: keeping it up.

Things I think I think:

DeShawn’s Deek’s vibes were STRONG in this episode. The whole “law school” thing?

Actually, Evie and DeShawn were giving Densi.

JD, meanwhile, was the softest he’s ever been. We stan a man who just takes a step back and offers silent support.

The first time he and Mackey make some sort of gesture of mutual affection, the fandom might combust.

Blue’s awkwardness is the highlight of every episode.

Either that or Doctor Penrose’s matter-of-fact commentary on, you know, death.

[lunanightriderofthecove]

Callum's fear of spiders is so relatable.

Sometime last week I woke up with a scream because I dreamed someone pointing out a spider sitting on my head 😬

[alrightsnaps]

Am I the only one who thinks that the narrative portraying Rhaenyra as the 'villain' ?? with what happened with Ser Criston Cole and Alicent, i mean. The narrative justifies the reasons why They betray Rhaenyra when in the book it is clear that Rhaenyra is a victim of Ser Criston and Alicent not the other way around.

I can't help but agree tbh and that's definitely the takeaway of many got dudebros 💀💀💀

I was kinda put off by how they framed Rhaenyra in 1x04 for instance. The way they tried to contrast Alicent’s marital rape to the ~sexually liberated~ Rhaenyra in that brothel scene? It felt so tonally off given that this was a 17yo groomed by her uncle and used by him at the time (literally in the producers commentary on the episode btw).

And there was barely enough insight on Rhaenyra’s motivation when it comes to lying to Alicent. It came off as cold and manipulative, when Rhaenyra had a pretty damn valid reason to mistrust her given Otto’s political ambition– and the entire situation reflects just how fractured their relationship has become by this point.