#Doug is certainly happy about it :)

[commsroom]

when it comes down to it, however much i think about eiffel's memory, whatever my reasoning might be, i think there's a much simpler core explanation for why i feel the way i do. i've said before that, if eiffel did regain his memory, i would want it to happen through 'an eiffel version of change of mind' i.e. a personal inner journey where the narrative he tells himself amounts to some greater reminder, self-confrontation, and self-realization. and that's just it:

eiffel regaining his memory wouldn't be a cop out to me for the same reason that lovelace not actually dying isn't a cop out: it's not just a story beat, it's a catalyst for character development & a better understanding of lovelace as a person. eiffel has spent his whole life trying not to be the person he is, and i just don't feel wolf 359 is the type of story to let him off the hook for that, when the ending is as much about accountability (to ourselves and to others and all the ways those responsibilities overlap) as it is about hope. i think there are ways you could argue that eiffel can still be eiffel without regaining his memory, but i think i've convinced myself that the symbolic resurrection / self-confrontation and acceptance of all the people he's been in the past, in order to move forward, is the more compelling option, especially for what it parallels, and the "eiffel is still eiffel" part is non-negotiable. it doesn't even feel like a question to me.

(and it makes the most sense to me in the context of eiffel's survivor's guilt - "of course i was fine. the driver's always fine." - and tendency towards a type of self-sacrifice and self-punishment that the show ultimately denies him / that doesn't address his real problem. he thinks sacrificing himself for the people he cares about will make up for something, but it won't. having him make that sacrifice and then keep living and keep being doug eiffel, with everything that means, feels like the natural extension of constructive criticism.)

in another story, or in a more theoretical context, there are all kinds of questions you could ask about whether eiffel's memory loss means he's a different person now, but in this case... i think it's better understood in narrative terms and what it represents for him as a character than any broader philosophical conclusion about the nature of the self and human consciousness. (and it is in no way as absolute as people sometimes behave like it is, considering he still has a concept of, like... everything. but that's a whole other topic of discussion.) most importantly, i just don't believe wolf 359 is a story about ideas as much as it is a story about people, these people, and in order to (hypothetically) continue to tell a story about doug eiffel, well. he has to still be doug eiffel. one way or another.

[dullahandyke]

Sidenote I was never her biggest fan but whenever I see someone talk abt dahlia hawthorne as if she's some evil seductress who breaks hearts for fun I feel the intense urge to hit them with hammers. Fucker can you read????

[sysig]

The time for regrets has long passed (Patreon)

[coraniaid]

OK, so, for context:

I don't like Agent Riley Finn, at all. He is one of my least favorite characters in Buffy, by quite some distance. I hated him even before the events of Season 5, and I only continued to hate him afterwards. I think the show would be significantly improved if his character had never been introduced. I think Whedon's idea that Buffy and Riley represent the show's one "happy and healthy relationship" is nonsensical.

I don't like As You Were. It's arguably Doug Petrie's worst episode (well, worst so far, anyway: let's not forgive him for his Season 7 episodes just yet).

I don't even really like Season 6 much (certainly not as much as so many people on Tumblr pretend to do). I think the concept of the season is very good but the execution is often decidedly lacking. It is not a season I often feel the urge to rewatch.

But, that being said, I'll confess it is somewhat bizarre to see so many people reblogging a post that says As You Were would have been improved if Riley showed up contrite and humble and openly ashamed of his [yes, unquestionably terrible and indefensible] actions in Season 5, or that the episode is one last attempt by the writers to force the audience to like him. To me, that is just ... obviously not true. I don't even see how it could be true.

As You Were is barely about Riley Finn at all. It's about Buffy. Specifically it's about what most of Season 6 is about: Buffy being miserable and depressed, struggling with bills and a soul-crushing mininum wage job, resenting her friends for having brought her back to life, romanticizing her past and (wrongly) convinced that she somehow 'came back wrong'. Riley is only in the episode to further that aim.

So, yes, the episode ignores all of Riley's [very real, very irritating, very hard to forgive] flaws and past failings and instead presents him as a dashing and attractive ex-boyfriend; as the perfect guy who somehow got away. Yes, it focuses on how much Buffy's own fortunes have declined since they broke up. Yes, Buffy is meant to find him attractive and be sad that he's married to somebody else already. Yes, the show deliberately sets up Riley as being competent and put together and high status while Buffy herself is none of these things. But this isn't because the writers are somehow trying to trick you into liking Riley (it would obviously be a very stupid and ineffective way to do that if it were! it demonstrably doesn't actually make anybody who didn't like Riley change their mind! why assume that it is trying to?). It is because this is how Buffy sees things herself.

The episode is about Buffy first, and Riley ..., not even third. He is a plot device. Just as in Season 3's Gingerbread (when Joyce is possessed and tries to burn Buffy at the stake as part of her campaign to cleanse Sunnydale of all things supernatural), or Helpless (when Giles puts his loyalty to the Council above Buffy's own safety and well-being), in As You Were Riley exists primarily to tell us something about Buffy. In Season 3, Buffy was afraid that being a Slayer would ruin her relationship with her mother and that Giles didn't really want to be the replacement father figure she clearly wanted him to be, and those episodes have her fears come true. Both Joyce and Giles act in pretty repellent (and arguably out-of-character) ways in their respective episodes, but those actions are justified in that they are consistent with Buffy's own view of the world. You could replace both of them with nightmare versions of their characters (like Hank Summers in Season 1's Nightmares) and both episodes would play out the same way (and have the same glaring lack of follow-up in later episodes).

So too in As You Were. The writers are probably more sympathetic to Riley than the average Tumblr user in 2024, but they don't particularly care if you like Riley or not. He's not been in the show for a year and after this he's never going to be in it again. This isn't about him. What is important is that Buffy herself misses Riley and her relationship with him: not necessarily because Riley was so great [again, he wasn't: Riley sucks] but because he's a part of her older life that she wishes she could go back to. A time when she had a 'normal' relationship and was still in college (and doing well academically!) and her mom was still alive and things seemed to be going well for her. Because she misses the version of Buffy that she used to be. (Who exactly are we supposed to think the 'you' of As You Were refers to? I don't think it's Agent Finn...)

Sure, I'd personally think better of Riley Finn as a person if he showed up looking sheepish and told Buffy he was sorry for how badly he behaved in Season 5 and he said he'd fund all her future bills and help her get back into college before dedicating the rest of his life to campaigning against both missionary work and US-backed (para)military actions in South and Central America. I'd think better of Joyce if she'd ignored the two demon kids only she could see and supported her real daughter better, too. Or of Giles if he hadn't ever gone along with the plan of hypnotizing and drugging a teenage girl he'd sworn to take care of and protect and who, less than a year earlier, he'd promised his unconditional "support and respect".

But Riley being a decent human being and making Buffy feel better about herself wouldn't make As You Were a "better" episode. It would make it a completely different episode, one that belonged in a completely different season. It would make it something that was utterly at odds, tonally and thematically, with the version of Season 6 that actually exists. This is not a season where nice things happen to Buffy, and if you think it should be I honestly don't think you like the story the season is trying to tell very much.

As You Were is not primarily "the episode where Riley comes back" (in which the writers then decided to talk about how great Riley was with the aim of making the fans like him while Buffy ends up feeling like shit and being embarrassed about how her own life is going as some sort of collateral damage). It is an episode where Buffy continues to feel like shit and be embarrased about how badly her life is going (and, in order to further Buffy's arc, this time Riley is there too to make her feel worse).

Do I think that it works to have Riley fill the role he does in this episode? Well, no, not really. Like I said at the top of this post, I don't like Riley and I don't enjoy seeing him on my television screen. Into The Woods' awful ending makes me pretty angry and it is a shame we never got any pushback on the idea that Buffy "letting Riley go" was a mistake. Riley wasn't ever the perfect boyfriend As You Were has Buffy remember him as. This isn't one of the better episodes of Season 6. But an improved version of the episode wouldn't have Riley act like a better person. That more palatable, more fan-friendly version of Riley just isn't compatible with the story the show is telling. An improved version of the episode that was still trying to tell the same fundamental story wouldn't have Riley Finn in it at all.

[cal-daisies-and-briars]

Fic Update: go and kill, go and die

Happy Saturday! I spent a long day doing dog stuff. But because of some very large emoji asks, here's chapter five!

Summary:

Buck is reunited with his sister, and makes a new friend.

Snippet:

He comes skidding to a stop, breathless, the moment he sees her. 

“MADDIE!” 

It’s her. It’s really her. She looks like shit, granted. Sunburnt, overly thin, and tired. But it’s her. His big sister. The one he hasn’t seen since she sent him packing in her Jeep six years ago. 

She’s standing with a man who is most certainly not Doug, and a child who is too old to be hers. Unless she was hiding something pretty significant when he saw her last. Buck’s first thought is that he finds the man far more handsome than Doug. Which is, admittedly, a strange thought to have about the man his sister arrived with.

---

Tagging:

@epicbuddieficrecs @theotherbuckley @sevenweeksofunrepression @slowlyfoggydestiny @goldenbcnes

@diazsdimples @exhuastedpigeon @aquamarineglitter @loserdiaz @steadfastsaturnsrings

@your-catfish-friend @incorrect9-1-1 @hawaiianlove808 @babytrapperdiaz @watchyourbuck

@lyricfulloflight @tizniz @aroeddiediaz @estheticpotaeto @buckleybabyblues

@buddieswhvre @l0v3t0hat3y0u @mage8 @theautumnbard @lightningmcqueer8

@kultiras

As always, let me know if you'd like to be added to my writing updates tags :)

[buk0wskis]

let’s face it, i’m fashionably late.

well hello! name’s marshall. (mars works too!) my pronouns are he/him and i’m 22 years old. usually i’m a twitter addict, but recently i thought, y’know, why not expand to other platforms… and look where that got me.

in all seriousness, though, happy to be here.

currently i’ve got a crazy hyperfixation on aaron stanford, so definitely expect a lot of him around these parts. from what it looks like, a good majority of posts about, say, 12 monkeys or nikita, are from years back (there are some recent posts though!), but genuinely i’ve got no problem being the One Guy that talks about some of those older sources. naturally, i would like to encourage a resurgence. like, this shit’s still fire, guys. inform the children.

ah, also, i have a special interest in brenton thwaites! i wouldn’t be surprised if his face ends up somewhere over here, too. :)

i do like to write in my off-time; it’s just been a while since i’ve cooked up something new, but the aaron hyperfix has certainly inspired me to kick things into gear again. maybe some of that will be on here in the future, who knows? (i do really only write oc x canon content, it’s just kinda how i roll. my ao3 is only titans dickkory, which immediately disproves the prior statement… i was on a kick when i cranked those ones out. dunno when i’ll be putting more stuff on there, though.)

OH something i actually would love to brag about, if i may: i make character playlists! and pretty damn good ones if i do say so myself. i’ve made a lot of mixes for brenton characters, but there’s a couple mixes relating to some of aaron’s most popular roles that i recently made public. (and more on the way!) all of my character mixes are lyric-based, so genre whiplash won’t be that uncommon of a find. regardless, i’m proud of them! i’ll post a masterlist of what i’ve got out at a later date. :)

where else you can find me:

twt: buk0wskis

bluesky: buk0wskis.bsky.social

spotify: thwaiteshub

ao3: elalazul

letterboxd: buk0wskis

OHHH SHIT BEFORE I FORGET. i most definitely plan on showing off my halloween costumes this year once they’re all put together. i like having more than one costume; keeps me motivated to show off my current interests, especially irl. this year, i’ve got two: doug bukowski from the hills have eyes ‘06 and wastelander pyro from deadpool & wolverine. (pyro girlies, i’m with you. like that’s my goat. i went and saw dp&w like six times total just so i could see john and his stellar 2 minutes and roughly 24 seconds of screen time.)

[aragarna]

For the Fanfic Writer Ask Game—5, please.

Assuming we're talking about the same one ;-)

5. What rating do most of your fics fall under?

All my fics are General Audience. I honestly don't think the level of hurt/comfort I'm describing reaches a PG-13 level. And even my occasional romance or established relationship sort of fics are very mild and safe.

The main thing is, I just physically can't do too much harm to my favorite characters. It's too painful. To quote Doug Ross, "I have a very low threshold on your pain." I can barely imagine it - sometimes I picture very angsty scenes, but then I realize that it would require something bad to happen to get, like, a character to breakdown like that, or whatever. And I can barely *think* about it, and I will certainly never put it on paper.

To quote another great philosopher, "With great power comes great responsibility." As a writer, I feel like I'm given such a power over the characters, and I'm supposed to protect them. Keep them safe. Making sure they get a happy ending. So, at the very least, anything that happens to them, have to be fixable.

Of course, this is not a judgement on other writers. Heck, I don't mind seeing more serious stuff happening in canon. But this is just to explain how *me*, I feel, when writing. I actually love writing some very angsty stuff based on canon events. Those, I didn't inflict on the characters. It's the evil (affectionate) show writers who did. Now I'm just comforting the characters by sharing their pain.

(as for the absence of anything naughty or - god forbid - explicit, it has more to do with me being asexual)

Thanl you for asking! :)

[flynndesdelca]

For Day 18 (Doug Rattmann) of @chelltastic’s Portal Drawtober 2023 Challenge. As I’m not really an artist, I chose to write short pieces for the prompts.

Another mural to mark the occasion.

Being trapped in the facility and under the mercy of the (then) unknown computer had left Chell frustrated and angry.  Certainly, she completed the tests, but it was never out of a sense of desire.  It was only necessity that spurred her onward.  The notion that something, anything could happen once she completed the tests.  The idea of 'cake', a carrot dangled on a string over her head, had never been as much of a draw as whoever designed that system - the core-addled GLaDOS, perhaps? - had intended.  Chell only had one goal in mind with the completion of the tests: finding a way to escape.  Perhaps finding the people who were administering these tests and negotiating with them over her cooperation, or perhaps simply just punching them, stealing their keys, and running.  She was fine, either way.

In her displeasure she often deliberately attempted to do tests in foolish ways, just to see if she could get a reaction.  She wasn't happy about her situation and she wanted to show it.  Normally there was no reaction, but on the odd occasion that her actions did actually cause trouble, the calm voice of the computer would chide her in its way and then do something to get her out of said situation.  There were myriad ways for her to potentially kill herself, but yet these ones, the ones that didn't involve physical harm, the ones that involved her sitting and doing nothing until she died of starvation or maybe asphyxiation - it was hard to tell how well sealed some of those small chambers were - where the ones that warranted intervention.

It was during her rattling around in her anger that she found the first of the strange 'dens'.  She'd been accidentally - she doubted it was an actual accident - sent on a test course full of live turrets.  She'd been slowly making her way through, cursing everything she could think of silently, when she'd turned a way she perhaps had never been intended to go.  Rather than a dead end or a face full of turrets, she'd found a small secret room.  There scribbled on the wall was a statement that echoed her own misgivings:  the cake was a lie.  It also showed a method to deal with the turrets from afar, which she greatly appreciated.  It had been such a shock, to see signs of life in the otherwise empty, dead place.  Clearly someone had been... living here? Staying? Hiding, most likely.  She had a strange feeling of safety while there, as though somehow she was out of notice.  From then on she started to keep an eye open just in case there may have been more of the same.

She had been rewarded, of course, as in the next test chamber she'd found another place to squeak into.  She had to put down the Companion Cube to do it, but she had been rewarded with another discovery.  While she was certain she was being fed a line about the Companion Cube, whoever it was who had been staying there seemed to be obsessed with them, and was angry and distraught about one having been... killed.  The words chilled her to the bone to see, scrawled on the wall, and she spent the rest of the test being very careful with the cube... only to have to throw it in the incinerator.  She hoped that whoever this person was, that they wouldn't be angry at her for her actions.  If they were still out there, of course.  She hadn't actually seen any evidence of their presence outside of what had remained in those two hidden rooms.

The next one hadn't really been a secret room per se... mostly just a hidden corner, a reprieve.  She had ducked inside to catch her breath but also to try to come up with a plan.  The end was coming up soon and she hadn't thought that far ahead.  She sat and listened to the radio and its tinny little sound, wondering just who would have left it at that station.  Who was the cube-obsessed survivor? Where were they now? What were they doing? Had they made it out of the tests, or had they been one of those who had died there?

Finding the next one had been the furthest thing from Chell's mind when she stumbled across it.  She'd been quite busy after the attempted murder with stalking through the strange rooms she'd found herself in once she had broken out of the testing tracks.  Beyond the clean and sterile testing environment, Aperture had seemingly been left to slowly decay.  While there had been signs of people being there once, there was no longer anyone there.  They were all dead or gone.  Even the mysterious person whose secret sleeping room she now stood in.  She couldn't imagine how uncomfortable it would be to curl up on cardboard, terrified of the murder-minded computer lurking around just outside, calling out in the distant hope of somehow getting compliance.  Laughable, really.  Was that how the test was supposed to end, dropping the test subjects into fire? Or was that something reserved just for her? At this point she wasn't sure what to think.  Right now, though, she was glad for the moment to sit, to try to think beyond her next few steps.  Some of the rooms had bottles of water in them, the outside dusty and the contents stale from sitting but still drinkable, and she was grateful for it.  She was also intensely grateful for the guidance, as without the directions they had left for her to follow she wouldn't have had a sense of where to go in some of the areas.  Even the simple directional arrows had been a great help in navigating the confusing corridors of the rooms behind.

And then it had been her and her alone.  There had been no further signs of her unseen ally, and given the situation she had just managed to drag herself out of she felt as though perhaps they might not have made it through.  The rest of her journey she had made on her own, slowly picking her way through the last areas until she had finally come face-to-face with her tormentor and won her freedom.

Or so she had thought! She had woken up not in the parking lot that she had remembered seeing distantly in her dreams upon the computer's destruction, but inside a Relaxation Chamber as part of its standard subject revitalization protocol.  Had the whole thing simply been a dream? Had she imagined the whole thing, all of the tests and dealing with the mad computer at the centre of it all? Was this her really having finally been awoken for the tests she had been conscripted to? She had no idea what was real and what wasn't, and the ramblings of the crazed core that had taken her Relaxation Chamber and smashed it around before dumping her into an overgrown testing track hadn't helped her to confirm one way or the other how much of what she could recall had actually happened.

All of that reminiscence hadn't prepared her for what she was currently seeing, of course.  The feel of the Single Portal Device in her hands was oh-so familiar, like a glove that had been made for her, and her left hand curled under it instinctively while her right hand hovered over the double triggers with a familiarity that could only have been born of endless repetition.  She stared up at the wall before her, horror and shock creeping onto her face.  It was another of those secret rooms, she recognized the scrawling drawings, but she hadn't expected to see a huge painting of herself there.  This person had been alive the whole time, had seen her, and judging from the paintings in this room had been there for the whole thing right from the computer’s creation.  She stared at the mural of herself, almost certain that she could see paint trickling down from it as though it had only just been daubed up there moments ago.  It was bone dry, of course, but the fact that it was her...  Who was this person who had guided her unseen out of the facility? Where were they? How had they been watching her? So many questions swirled around in her mind.  Would she find signs of their passing again? More secret rooms where they had tucked themselves away? Would she finally get to meet them?

Escape was her plan, once more, and perhaps it would be more straightforward now that the facility was in ruins and she had actual help on her way.   A part of her hoped that she could meet the strange, cube-crazed person who had been so instrumental in her escape.  Knowing that what she had been thinking wasn't simply paranoia from being alone and constantly watched.  Knowing that it was okay to have those feelings had helped her to keep from going completely insane by the end.  If she did happen to find that person... she would really like to thank them.

Really, she hoped that she wouldn't get to see them because they had finally managed to escape.

[thebreakfastgenie]

⭐ the Carlye fic

Aaaa thank you! My poor, obscure fic.

This whole fic came out of the lyric that became the title, because I just got the feeling that line "she would've liked to say she loved the man, but she didn't like to lie" described Carlye's marriage to Doug. It didn't sound especially passionate, certainly not in comparison to her relationship with Hawkeye. But Doug gave her his time and attention when Hawkeye couldn't. That's why I decided for their first meeting, Doug regrets not approaching her and ditches work to run back and try to catch her. Hawkeye would never do that, and of course you can't blame him because you can't walk out on a surgery the way you can on a meeting. But that's the central problem for Carlye.

The man’s face brightens, but just then her plate of eggs comes out, and her hunger takes her attention. When she looks up, he’s gone. She eats her breakfast and doesn’t give him another thought, until she hears the door chime while she’s paying she check and turns to see him rushing back in, red-faced.   He lights up when he sees her. It’s cold outside, but he’s sweating.  “I made it in time!” he pants. “I was so sure you’d be gone… I made it all the way to the office, just kicking myself for not asking your name…” 

In trying to flesh out Carlye I came up with this woman who just wants to be a free, independent person. I decided to have her not love college for something different, although I think maybe she goes back to school someday, after the end of the fic.

Carlye and Hawkeye meeting in surgery was important to me. He talks about her nursing skills, so they obviously worked together back then, and it just kind of made sense. The skill and dedication is attractive to both of them, but of course Hawkeye's dedication drives them apart in the end.

I wanted her relationships with both Hawkeye and Doug to tell us something about her. It's not about Hawkeye or about Doug, but about how Carlye is with them and what that reveals about her.

I ended the fic kind of abruptly without getting to it, because I wanted to leave it open, but in my mind Doug forgives the affair but they divorce a few years later anyway.

The flat feels smaller the more alone she feels. He had a way of opening up rooms with his words, his crazy, believable dreams. Now the hunter green walls box her in. Now she thinks maybe it’s a good thing she can’t talk to him about it. If she gives him a chance to beg her, she’ll stay, and she thinks she’ll die if she does.  When she can’t take it anymore, she slips out in the night. She knows she should feel bad about it, and she does. The guilt clings to her and her gut twists with how badly she misses him. 

I have always felt the reason she left the way she did is that she couldn't give him a chance to beg her to stay, because it would have worked. I mean, look at how fast "no, it can be better" works several years later. The relationship isn't working for her, but she still loves him, and leaving is hard and painful. But she's sincere when she says "I know I hurt you."

He isn’t always exciting, but she never catches him muttering the names of suturing techniques while he runs his hands over her chest, 

I am slightly obsessed with this image. Rather than sexualizing medicine, he's medicalizing sex. Sometimes I think it would have been better if this had a happier counterpart, maybe the two of them doing anatomical dirty talk and joking about playing doctor early in their courtship. But I think the style of the fic would need to be slightly different for that to fit.

The version of this that's posted is the second draft and I think it improved a lot from the first one. I'm happy with it! The part about Carlye fantasizing about Hawkeye was better in my head when I first thought of it but alas I was half-asleep. It happens.

I just really love Carlye. Partly I have a huge lesbian crush on Blythe Danner. But I just love her and I love her dynamic with Hawkeye. I'm fascinated by the fact that they lived together unmarried in the 1940s. I wasn't trying to accomplish anything in particular with this fic, I just had a lot to say about Carlye Breslin Walton. Obviously I still do haha.

[rosemariad]

Supernatural season 13

I've heard of the widower arc that takes place during the early part of this season but geez

Dean looks so depressed – the desolation, the hopelessness. Poor Dean Bean, lost his angel yet again. You can't help but feel for the poor guy (for now…)

Then the instant 180, uno reverse this man takes in his demeanor. He's so happy Cas is back. AND having a big cowboy adventure! They're spoiling this man after the widower arc. Jack & Sam are not down for it but Dean's been so miserable they shut the fuck up.

Dean swallowing deeply when Cas quotes Tombstone – confirmation they have movie nights together (ALONE??????) if they were alone during these movie nights – they're basically dating w/o clarifying that they are actually dating – and they're coparenting, my goodness! The domestication is real!

We later find out Dean snuck a quick shot of Cas in the little cowboy hat he made him wear for the case. Wow.

But as a side note - I did NOT appreciate how shitty Dean was to Jack. He was basically abusing him verbally like WTF give the kid a damn chance - don’t make death threats to the newborn child that was literally born yesterday like the fuck #jackdefensesquad. Like anything bad that jack actually does, he’ll think back to the moments where Dean was like ‘oh he’s a monster’ ’when you go dark side, I’ll be the one to kill you’ yeah like maybe that’s what pushed him to that point. It’s no surprise Jack chooses to leave. My ass would’ve been gone. Also was Cas made aware of the threats Dean made to Jack???

They’re making it REALLY HARD to like Dean this season. MoC was bad, Demon!Dean too but evil forces were at work. This time he got no excuse — threatening at 16 yr old girl who has no one in her corner. They’re basically forcing her to help them for nothing in return. Unbelievable 🤬 And Sam, wtf? Would it kill you to stand up to your fuckin’ brother!

Anyway - Jack’s power is totally cool though.

Kaia…was killed by an alternate self? Whaaaaaat?

So this was the season they tried for the Wayward Girls? Shame it didn’t work out…like the premise is cool BUT since the main show barely give the women characters the time of day, is it any wonder that a pilot didn’t work? The showrunners only seem good with moments - but no building up of the narrative like the male counterparts AKA main cast. Also - what would be the conflict - give people a reason to keep watching the girls - their storylines seem more or less resolved - Jody has already mourned the loss of her family, its not like she became Batman or something to fight a war against criminality. Claire has also gotten past the loss of her parents (as far as we know but honestly she should’ve been part of the main narrative as her life had been directly affected by Castiel’s actions and we all know why Cas bothers to get up in the morning…anyway), Donna doesn’t seem to have anything going on - she’s divorced but over it, Alex is over her dark past, Patience is just seeming to get a hand of her abilities - like where are the stakes??? Sam and Dean had a whole quest to embark on, then they had to navigate fraternal relationship while fighting monsters all the time, slowly unraveling an overarching narrative that’s taken over their lives. Where’s that for the ladies????

I spoke too soon - Donna’s niece gets kidnapped and Doug is her boyfriend (wow totally forgot about that guy, certainly didn’t think he’d return) and once he gets turned into a vampire but cured of it, he’s done. Before he leaves Donna, he calls her a hero. Honestly, if I ended up having a partner/lover who killed dangerous supernatural creatures, I wouldn’t leave them. I’d stick by them and have them teach me a few things. Oh well. Maybe Donna will run to Jody to have a shoulder to cry on ;) I know y’all JodyxDonna shippers are out there.

Scoobynatural was fucking legendary! I loved watching Scooby doo as a kid, from when they were literal babies, to the OG episodes, to the revamp from the early 2000s, all the movies! (Zombie Island was the best!). It was a genuine delight watching the Winchesters (and Cas) cross paths with Mystery Inc. makes me wish they met Buffy and Ash from Evil Dead. That would’ve been awesome! Watching Dean say scooby dooby doo was total cringe tho :/ I love that Cas shut him down 🤣🤣

That ascot though? He’s wearing it all wrong, its supposed to be stuffed in, like how Fred wears it. And certainly not worn with plaid. SMH…

But now I totally want Supernatural as a fucking cartoon! Just like Scooby Doo - it would’ve been fucking glorious, Dean’s unhinge-able jaw, the kooky facial expressions, the comedic effects, and who knows, it would’ve given the show-runners the artistic freedom to reveal the true form of angels, namely, Castiel’s. Oh well.

Donatello is…dead? I know they said Brain dead but after Amara sucked out his soul and Cas fucked up his brain, isn’t he better off dead? Par for the course for a prophet though, sucks for him.

Funny how Rowena suddenly wants to be the good mom and try to bring her demon son back after CENTURIES of chances. Sure she may not have known what became of Fergus since she left him, but I’m sure it wouldn’t have taken much to find out. She just didn’t want to. Now she’s filled with regret. And Sam’s destined to murder her? And she didn’t take him out? Okay, well then I guess it’s only a matter of time until she dies😒 not this season though, she’s too useful with her witchy powers to be killed off until she serves whatever purpose is convenient 😒

Angels are almost extinct :( I know they’re meant to be seen as controlling jerks but so is Dean XD lol anyway that’s a bummer with devastating consequences cuz if there’s no angels - they said all the souls will fall to Earth and become ghosts - billions in number - yeah. If it were me I would’ve just said the souls disappear but it ain’t my show 🤷🏽‍♀️

Naomi is back and I don’t even care - I’m sorry but I just don’t care about Apocalypse world either, I feel like it’s a grand waste of time. The fact that Charlie and Bobby are there doesn’t even matter cuz it’s not them. It’s not the Charlie and Bobby we got to know before. They’re just counterparts of another world, echoes of the fallen. When Dean says I can’t lose you, dude you literally just met her. And they’re expected to what, abandon the world they were born into? The fuck?

And fuck this show for killing Kevin TWICE!!! Kevin you were too precious for this universe/multiverse, whatever.

ketch is the latest (aside from rowena) of former villains/enemies/antagonist in supernatural that's suddenly we're supposed to be sympathetic towards since they switch sides and help the winchesters for a change but what's the reason??? I feel it's a little out there that Dean especially would let ketch live after what he put his mom through but whatever. since the show runners insisted with this whole apocalypse world crap, Dean would have died without ketch's help 😑

Gabriel has returned…only to die…again…awesome. at least he got to fuck rowena before he passed away 🤣😅

Luci got fucked over hahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahaha

Bobby x Mary, oh man John would be roaring in his grave…if he had one 🤣 [got burned to ashes in season 2], Bobby finna take his whole family, first his sons now his wife ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Luci resurrected someone? And nothing bad happened? Now tht’s a twist. I figured since he’s Satan she’d turn into a demon or something, but i guess not cuz we’re definitely not gonna see her again…

You know since I’ve seen The Boys I can see a resemblance between homelander and the devil, they both blow up in anger very similarly. When jack tells Luci, you’re not my father, he raged in a way that was eerily like Homelander would’ve. Just thought I’d point that out…

Dean lets in Alt-Michael - Oh Lord above its the apocalypse all over again (this was a cool shot though) - meanwhile what’s OG Michael doing? Is he still in the Cage with Adam? Really? You had to bring an extra Michael into this nonsense? Ok 🙄 You know if Luci had possessed Sam too, it would’ve been a wrap!

Jack is powerless…for now? This poor kid was gonna kill himself?! Honey why? Ugh I’m blaming Dean for this. He put the seed in that kid’s head he was nothing but trouble and he was going to sacrifice himself, poor baby!

Cas why would you let Dean go?!?! Too sad to follow him into battle after Dean let Alt-Michael in?

Why can’t Sam get a super powerful Big Bad kill huh? Why is it always Dean? Geez.

So the only good things to happen this season were Scooby Doo and Jack meeting Cas. Ugh, their meetup was soo cute ^_^

Welp only 2 seasons left, the last that’s over 20 episodes. Which means we only have 40 episodes to go til the end…goodie 😅

[commsroom]

I had the question come to me while listening to his playlist.

How does Doug Eiffel dance?

Is he coordinated? Is he just jamming? How is he when it comes to dance with someone (aka like Hera?)?

i love this question. i know two things with absolute certainty: 1) eiffel loves to dance, and 2) eiffel is not good at dancing. he is notably not coordinated, he's accident prone, but he's a very physical person - always in motion, he talks with his hands, bounces his leg, taps on things, etc. ... he's got energy to burn. he's just jamming for sure; he's enthusiastic, and it doesn't bother him if he looks ridiculous because that's... kind of the point? i think he learned to dance in ways that would make people laugh because just hamming it up on purpose and leaning into that gets more of a reaction.

(and i honestly think eiffel has enough of a sense for music that he probably could be... maybe not a great dancer, but certainly a better one if he cared to really try, but really trying would require dealing with failure, dedicated practice, and a lot of vulnerability.)

but, that said, i think the fact he's kinda free-spirited and goofy about it gets people to dance with him who otherwise might not. he's good at... taking the pressure off? making people comfortable enough to get silly with it. he absolutely, like, comically 'waltzes' to the classical music transmissions for hera's attention, etc. if she had a body, he would step on her toes, but if hera had a body she could dance with, i don't think she'd really mind. eiffel's not going to be pulling off any fancy partnered dances, but he's perfectly capable of swaying to music and maybe twirling her around a bit. i think she'd be happy enough with that.

[popculturelib]

Fanzine Friday #19: Happy Halloween Magazine v. 3 no. 1 (2000) by the Global Halloween Alliance

Happy Halloween Magazine was a zine that "focused on Halloween, the historical and contemporary celebrations of Halloween, promoting a positive view of Halloween, and providing a network of Halloween lovers." While we only have this one issue, it's certainly jam-packed with Halloween enthusiasm. Check out some of these listings from its table of contents:

"How To's: Planning a Home Haunted House or Room" by Sarah Briggs

"Screams for Charity!" by Kathy Marcrum

"I Haunted GM" by Larry Redmond

"Doug Elliot's Ghoulishly Fun, Salt-Free, Environmentally-Save [sic], FDIC-Insured Vampire Trivia Quiz and Answers" by Doug Elliot

The featured article is about Bob Burns (a film editor) and his "Halloween Extravaganzas": elaborate haunted houses at his home in Burbank, California, in the 1960s-70s. The article focuses on Burns' new alien "friend" that arrived at his home in 2000, as seen on the cover.

Longtime Tumblr users will be interested to know that this edition features a review of Andrew Gold's album Halloween Howls (1996). Why that's significant: Halloween Howls is the album in which the beloved "Spooky Scary Skeletons" can be found! Gold wrote the song and its fellows to fill a niche of catchy Halloween songs that weren't too scary for his daughters. Did you know that "Spooky Scary Skeletons" was written to emphasize the letter 'S' on every major word?

The Browne Popular Culture Library (BPCL), founded in 1969, is the most comprehensive archive of its kind in the United States.  Our focus and mission is to acquire and preserve research materials on American Popular Culture (post 1876) for curricular and research use. Visit our website at https://www.bgsu.edu/library/pcl.html.

[petrifiedcrange]

Alma Bonnet is going to be the most badass pirate captain the seven seas have ever seen when she gets older.

She doesn't know when exactly she decided that — maybe when she was playing pirates with her dad ( the fact that her dad also went on to become a real pirate captain didn't help... even though until they reunited and she understood his reasons for leaving — he didn't leave them, her and Louis, he left the life that made both him and mom unhappy and now they are both happy and dad visits often, though not often enough, bringing his whole crew and Mr Hands along, so Alma can't really complain about the way it all turned out in the end — she wanted to become a pirate captain partly to spite her dad, because she was going to be the only Bonnet history remembered ) or when he was reading her pirate tales when she was younger or maybe she knew she was going to be a pirate captain since the moment she was born.

But she is going to be a pirate captain, and in order to become one, she needs to train a lot, like Mr Hands says ( he is the most badass pirate she's ever known and she doesn't quite understand why he isn't a captain because he certainly is better with the crew than Uncle Ed and sometimes her dad are ) but her mom can't know she is training ( because she thinks she is still too young for that, as if she is as little as Louis is ) so Alma developed a routine of training very early in the morning, before the sun rises, while her mom is painting during the day and late in the evening after mom and Louis go to bed.

This day wasn't supposed to be any different — she got up and took her sword from where it's tucked safely under her bed and was about to sneak out of her room when she suddenly heard footsteps in the hall.

This was new.

So Alma waited until the creaking of the second from the top step of the staircase alerted her to the fact that whoever was wondering the halls — her mom, most likely, and Doug because she heard two pairs of feet — was beginning to descend it and carefully peaked out, seeing her mom and a man she vaguely recognized but couldn't quite place go downstairs, talking quietly.

Curiosity getting the better of her — she was her father's daughter after all — she stepped into the hall and tried to creep close enough to hear what they were talking about. But by the time she made it to the staircase, their voices already faded.

A door, however, opened at the end of the hall and Alma barely had time to think about how much activity was suddenly going on in their house and that something must have being afoot and hide in the shadow before... her dad stepped out of a room and closed the door behind him gingerly, as if afraid of making noise ( which was logical if for some reason he didn't want her and Louis to know he was here which would be very odd but not unlikely, considering the way he creeped past Louis' bedroom ).

He didn't seem to notice her as he began to descend the staircase, even though he literally passed her on his way, and Alma could either praise herself on how well she hid herself... or get increasingly worried because the frown on her dad's face suggested he was simply too distracted by something bad or unpleasant to notice her.

In the end, unsure which route to take but feeling strange cold feeling pool in her gut, something like premonition, Alma peaked downstairs, didn't see anyone and turned towards the door her dad exited, quickly crossing the distance and, after a moment's hesitation as to how better to handle the situation, pressing her ear to the wood to listen to what was going on inside.

Murmuring, too quiet to be intelligible through the door, met her ear.

Biting her lip, Alma looked down at the sword she was still holding in her hands and thought about her options.

She could go back to her room and wait till the morning and see if her mom ( and dad? ) would tell her what was going on.

She could go on to have her trainining session like she initially planned.

Or she could open the door and see what was going on inside.

The first two options would probably be the most reasonable.

But Alma Bonnet was her father's daughter and future pirate captain and wasn't satisfied with the idea of simply minding her own business while something strange was going on inside her own house.

So she tightened her hold on her sword, turned the doorknob and resolutely stepped inside.

@unrely ( Izzy ) gets a semi-plotted starter from Alma based on that idea we discussed of Stede and Ed bringing Izzy to Barbados post-S2 to recover in better conditions. I imagine the man Mary was with is a trusted doctor ( probably someone she knows through Evelyn ) and Izzy and Ed are in that room Stede exited, Ed staying behind by Izzy's bedside.

[gaps-between-stories]

Fic Preview

Check out a sneak peek up an upcoming installment of my Step-Dad series Bonus (featuring a very special sneak peek at Sofia, who has me wrapped around her finger just as much as her grandfather's).

After four years of university, three years of law school, six months of studying, a 7-hour long exam, and fifteen more agonizing minutes, Alma was finding out her Bar results today. She’d flown back home from Ontario the day after her exam, sleeping for about a week straight before beginning her anxious wait for her results. 

Their kitchen had smelled incredible the past week given the behemoth amount of stress baking she was doing, and Stede and Ed had started pawning off her baked goods to the neighbors, coworkers, anyone who would take them. They were drowning in banana breads and strawberry jams and while they loved her baking, it was getting overwhelming. This was one of her healthiest coping mechanisms so they were more than encouraging, although Ed had had to talk her down from cutting her own bangs about three nights ago. 

Their kitchen had also become a concert hall for Taylor Swift, whose never ending discography Alma still listened to religiously, blasting it at a volume that Ed was convinced was to prevent her from hearing her own thoughts. 

Today their kitchen was in a flurry of chaos as Alma managed to cram seven different baking pans into their oven while scream-singing 1989, checking her phone every three minutes for the time. 

Stede wasn’t helping any by asking her every time she checked her phone whether she’d heard back yet. 

Doug was trying to set up Louis on a facetime call, a seemingly easy task made all the more complicated by the shoddy service the kid had up in the Yukon right now. 

And Mary was currently running late, having missed her ferry over from the island. That last tidbit certainly wasn’t helping soothe Alma’s frayed nerves right now. 

Ed was mostly trying to stay out of the way, counting down the remaining fifteen minutes til the results were posted as patiently as he could. He had been occupying himself by entertaining Sofia, who was more than happy to bounce between all three of her grandfathers to keep her out from under her mother’s foot. But about twenty minutes ago she’d demanded that Ed pick her up, before promptly falling asleep in his arms. 

The music suddenly cut out. 

“Uh-oh.” Doug had tried to mutter it under his breath, tried to keep it to himself, but Stede and Alma’s bat hearing prevented that. 

“Why uh-oh?” They demanded in unison. 

Doug clicked the laptop a few times, Louis’ face frozen on the screen, then checked his phone, grimacing. “Looks like there’s an issue with the wifi. I’m going to need to reset the router.” 

Alma’s head dropped into her hands on the counter, screaming into her palm. Stede moved to show Doug where their wifi router was, which was of course on the second floor, leaving Edward alone with Alma in the now silent kitchen. 

Alma exhaled deeply, dragging her hands down her face. “I’m just gonna go lay down in the street if you need me.” 

Ed shot her a disapproving look. “Orange.” 

She rolled her eyes, letting out an exasperated sigh. “Oh come on, I’m not allowed one joke right now?” 

“It’s not the one joke I’m worried about.” 

“Dad, seriously, it’s fine. I’m fine.” She licked the batter off of her spatula to demonstrate how fine she was, gesturing to her growing baking clutter. 

“What time does Eleanor’s flight get it?” He asked, tactfully changing the subject as he gently shifted Sophia on his hip, doing his best not to stir her from her napping. She snuggled her head deeper into the crook of his neck, letting out the smallest of sighs in her sleep as she did. 

“6 pm,” she answered, checking her phone again. Seven minutes. Her fiance was presenting at a conference in the States this weekend and wouldn’t be able to make it before the results came in. “She’s probably somewhere over Nebraska right now,” she groaned.

[popculturebuffet]

More Than Meets the Eye Retrospective Issue 4: "Life after The Big Bang" (Patreon Review for Brotoman.exe

Hello all you happy Autbots and welcome back to my issue by issue look at Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye, as funded as always by Brotoman.Exe, we chart a course through one of my faviorite comics of all time as a bunch of autobots head up into space on a quest or something but really just to find themselves, adventure and what not.

I"m really pumped going into this one for a number of reasons. The first is a simple: Transformers Earthspark just debuted and while I haven't seen it yet (I have a giant pile of shows to get to, though I fully intend to get to this one before the year end so it can be in contentoin my best animated episodes of the year list.) it sounds really promising. The fact Danny Pudi and Zeno Robinson, both voice actors I dearly love, are in the main cast dosen't hurt.

It's also notable for the fact that from what I have learned Earthspark.. takes a few pages from this era of IDWformers book. It takes place post war, though how the war ended is still vauge, Decipticons are given restraining bolts to prevent transforming, and biggest of all and something vital to this very series in the future.. Megatron has quit as leader of the decepticons and is now on the side of good, if not neceisarily agreeing with the Autobots despite allying with them. And yes for those of you knew, that's an arc in this series and one of it's best and most important, it just dosen't come into play till season 2 so we're years off from that. But given IDW Megatron was I belivie the first version of Megs to do this and certainly the most prominent, I wouldn't be suprised if it's where Earthspark got the idea to try it in animation and it's tremendous this comic had enough impact on things to do that. Now if we could only get some of our faviorite b-listers in animatoin again eh? Still a wins a win.

And to be fair to earthspark it does diffrent things with the concept and in a lot of cases better than Robots in Disguise and it's followups did: The autobots and cons are still stranded on earth so for now Cybertron is a non-factor, the rights of the imprisoned decptiocns are questioned far more and better from the looks of it, and the main villian is a human, but given a decent backstory instead of spike fuckboy witwicky and his bullshit. What i'ms aying is it sounds great and i'm excited the cartoons are FINALLY taking some of the comics, specifically this one's, great worldbuildling and ideas to a wider audience. Not that this comic isn't great or , for now, widely avaliable, I just want more. MOREEEEEE.

Anyways, the other reason is this is my first review covering an arc I haven't before. See I first covered MTMTE as part of last year's pride, intending to make it a retrospective. This didn't pan out due to me having delay it, other retrospectives, all kinds of stuff so I shelved it intending to restart it at some point. Brotoman either saw that review and wanted more or simply loved the series and liked me covering it but either way he asked for me to cover it and for constiancy's sake, I covered issues 1-3 again. I didn't mind, those issues are great and doing it one at a time allowed me to dive in fairly deep and notice stuff I hadn't in previous readthroughs, but it is nice to get going in full.. and to not have to dig through my images for reviews to see if I had already made one for certain moments. So get on board as we go to a snow planet just in time for the icy grip of winter as things get real john carpenter real fast while Tailgate decides he wants to become a decipticon with predicable reactions from the command staff, all under the cut!

So we open with a Journal entry like doug only about plauge doctoring

It's here we meet a new member to the cast: First Aid. He's an autobot medic who was once a doctor.. but got bumped down to nurse thanks to Rung reporting on his ocd and erratic tendencies

Yeah this bothers me for a number of reasons. For one, registered Nursing is an important, noble and often thankless perfection. You dont get "demoted" to nurse. I get this is a battlefield situation, but it's two diffrent if very important skillsets, not something you get as a punishment for OCD and collecting WAY too many autobot badges, as shown behind first aid. Even Optimus would have actually trained battlefield nurses. I've become a tad more touchy about the subject since I now have one in the family whose an absolutely lovely person but even before that i'd seen enough works of fiction with nurses, MASH in paticular which ALSO took part during combat, to know you show them respect. I get it this is cyberton, it can be handwaved but it's not a great bit of writing. Say he was bumped down to residency or to a lower position.

At any rate we soon find out why he's writing his journal like an apocalypse log: He works at Delphi, a wintery hothlike outpost on the edge of Decepticon Justice Divison Territory. Which again kinda frames that yeah this was a bad reassignement for them.

This also marks our first mention of SAID Decepticon Justice Division, one of the series biggest antagonists, and it's once again a nice bit of setup I didn't notice my first go round and didn't think of my second. We also don't learn much, just the basics but it's enough to make it both understandable why Delphi is such a remote outpost, why it' sonly on the FRINGE of said territory and why two cons come running banging at the gates for sanctuary.

The DJD are a specialized unit made by Megatron to hunt down deserters or defectors. This being Megatron they don't so much throw a goodbye party as horribly mutilate the bot in question as slowly and painfully as possible as a warning to anyone who would try. And all we see in the panel descrbing tha tis the remains of one bot, cowering in terror, his robot guts ripped out in a pool of his own energon.

While we'll see them hands on later, like I said their some of the books main villians, it's a nice setup that instantly shows why you should fear them and why the mere idea our heroes will face them later is horrifying. And you haven't even seen what those encounters are like yet.

So naturally it's understandable two cons, with no alt mode who were clearly amde as canon fodder want anyone to protect them. The head of the facility, Pharma, wants them gone, thinking it's just two more dead enemies. It's part of a theme we've already seen a bit but I don't think i've gotten into but's important to this arc: the divide between the deceipticons and the autobots and the shades of grey in the conflict. Don't get me wrong, the autobots are still the good guys: Megatron wanted to conquer everything and as seen with the DJD, he and his men did some truly AWFUL things. But as we've seen in countless other wars just because you put a gun in someone's hand.. dosen't mean their evil. They may just be sketchy or in the case of these guys seemingly just pushed into the war. Not everyone who saw the universe with a gun in their hand joined the deceipticons because they wanted to break things or dominate other life. Some likely joined because of the intital social disparity that lead to the uprising.. and then may of gotten trapped, or as we learn later were MADE for this and had no choice in if they wanted to fight for the purple or the red. You can't blame Pharma for being a tad hesitant but you cant blame Ambulon and First Aid for showing these guys compassion. And as we'll see throughout this series just because you put on the red dosen't make you a good person, and as we've seen already with Prowl and will again not letting go of the war, TRYING to move on and make something new.. will only damage YOU and cause harm to others. You don't have to forgive the deceiptcons, it's understandable.. but you don't have to hold on like it's still an endless war to destroy their evil forces either.

Team Hypocratabot Oath wins out and the two are put in cells but still kept in observation and taken care of… until they activate their wonder twin powers, something happens and we cut to two days later.

Ratchet is doing grizzled old timer things, in this case sitting at a bar morosely, having a drink and wondering how the hell this place exists. … Ed Asner would've made a great Ratchet and if he never played him, that's transformers loss.

At any rate the bar is the one Swerve talked about setting up last time, with the now iconic locale of Swerves fully up and running. Seriously I didn't talk about it last time but the circual design, nice diner type booths and cool giant rainbow vat of various bits of robot booze.. it catches the eye and really stands out. The Lost Light itself is decently designed but I admit the hallways and hab suites kind of run together. I get why, ti's a star ship packed with people, but they feel kinda generic even for generic locations compared to say the halls of both enterprises. I may not have WATCHED a ton of star trek but man those hallways…. and I may of reached a new low in my career, speaking whistfully about hallways. I don't care. Those hallways were dope and I stand by that.

But the actual locatoins? All fairly memorable while fitting the vibe the ship is just a standard ship our heroes bought that happens to have really sweet unique engines: Rodimus' office, Swerves, the med bay, rungs office: most important locations are memorable, and well designed so you know exactly where everything is. I was amazed thinking back to the first few issues and realizing just how .. every room is well mapped out. IT's a small thing , sure, but a good spatial sense of where things are in a location helps it feel that much more real.

This being Swerve he hasn't OFFICALLY opened the bar yet.. which is to say most characters we know are hre, I paticuarlly like Chromedome with a swirly straw in the background. May make that an avatar for the blog at some point.

He just hasn't told command since Ultra Magnus hates fun. Why he hasn't told Rodimus I don't know, I can't image he dosen't like free booze and good time.. well free for him. He is captain after all.

It turns out Ratchet is here for a reason and not to see this gem of a backgroudn guy who looks so confused

He got a datalog, basically a blog but beamed into your skull

Okay for ROBOTS it's probably healthy. This is very much a me thing: see in high school they had us read the Cyberpunk Novel Feed, about a future where kids are lethargic, relaint on tech and said tech is put in their brains via feeds. While it could come off a LITTLE

It did predict how widespread computer tech would become ahnd how isolating it can be.. via brain computers that slowly rotted you away. I don't remember much else. The fact Be More Chill did a similar thing with computer pills that slowly gaslight you into their world domination plans, does not help. Nothing good comes from putting a computer in your brain unless your a cyborg (and even then it' sa coin flip between dc's cyborg and A borg), or that's just how you were born.

It was a blog done on the old frequency for Wreckers: Declassified, done by Fistitron an optimus and wreckers fanboy we met in Last Stand of the Wreckers. And that brings us to yet another thing to talk about. This issue is kinda.. packed with way mor eof those than intended.

So in short: Last Stand of the Wreckers was done by the same team of this comic, only artist James Roche was more in the creatvie lead. In short i'ts the story of a rag tag bunch of autobots known as the wereckers, baiscally the Autobots verison of X-Force who go in and take on the most dangerous missions with every expectation they may not come back. Black Ops stuff. Last Stand followed a small group, including Mags himself, as they inflitrated a terrifying penal colony to rescue Fortress Maximus, giant city sized autobot and badass from Overlord, a terrifyingly powerful and amoral decepticon who was trying to cause as much of a ruckus as possible… essentially his version of doing THIS to megatron

It's a great work, plenty dark but in a well done way with really likeable characters your sad to see go. It's VASTLY important to this work as we'll not only see Overlord again, I won't spoil how, but Fort Max as well and the events of said book naturally come up given both played a part in it. We'll table both for now, but it's something I had to adress eventually and even considered covering. Ultimately I decided it just made more sense to jump into the setory itself, but i'd be up to covering it if anyone's interested.

Anyways a new datalouge was beamed int ot he brain last night and Ratchet noticed something: it was medical stats, specifically patient stats and he recognized Delphi's number.. and something in the last few days has caused the patients to be cut by half. Worried about it Ratchet decides to check it out since their close> This isn't his only reason thougH: if Pharama is there.. he's going to give over his roll as cheif medical officer to him. Ratchet's hands are still malfunctioning and as we established in the first issue, his main goal here is to pass on his legacy.

We get a brief scene with Rodders and Mags. Naturally Tailgate's request to be a decepticon has royally horked off Ultra Mags who wants to DO something about it. Maybe beat it out of him. He doesn't now day's young. Rodders is more worried about Magnus than Tailgate, pointing out even if he wanted to Tailgate can't become a con anyway as naturally for the guy who set up a group to hunt down anyone who leaves and tourture them to death, Megs also had to make the decitipbrand ritual as metal and edgelord as possible, with part of your spark casing being used.

Magnus on the other hand seems off and the why is quickly explained: With the war gone, everyone seems a lot more individual and naturally captain stuck up his tail pipe dosen't like this… and feels lost. He also points out when Rodimus tries to use the quest as a uniter that most of the crew.. really isn't here for that. And thus he dosen't know WHY he's even here. It's likelyt he crew's chaotic energy and relaxed manner was already a lot for sam the eagle here, and Rodimus advises him to loosen up budddy.. okay he dosen't say it that way but her certainly thought it that way. And shockingly he DOES have a plan to deal with Tailgate.

Back on MEssatine, where Delphie is, Ratchet has dispatched a team of himself, Drift and Ensign Ricky er Pipes. You remember Pipes right? He was alwasy there. Good old pipes. Strangely he's the only autobot here WITHOUT any red in his paintjob.

Pipes is loveable though, having been stationed on Cybertron or Space Stations his whole life he joind the lost light since unlike others he never got to see the universe even with a gun in his hand. So far he feels it's wet and kinda brillant. He is cautious about this being so close to the DJD as we get more foreshadowing: Swerve saw them in actoin once and coudln't talk. Swerve. Swerve coudln't talk.

We also get our first mention of forging, with Ratchet mentoning most of the best medics were. I'll get more into THAT later, as it's more mentoning it now to pique the audiences intrest for later. Like the DJD this will be important later. Honestly i'm thrown by how much Oda-Level setup Roberts tucked away in throw away lines.

Ratchet being a crotchety old goat who dosen't like his new agey collegeu's stuff decides ot needle him a bit, pointing out how Drift SHOULD be worried: this is DJD territory.. and as i've mentioned before Drift is an Ex-Con. And one of the most high profile ones at that. It's why Ratchet dosen't buy it: a small but brutal and near unstoppable band of killers versus an old man, a rookie and drift himself who while badass is someone they'd likely fully prepared for… and he's not worried

Their shouting gets interrupted as Pipes finds a giant red X on the wall.. adn given this isn't the x-men that cannot be anything good. So naturally he decideds to ram into it..

This.. gets him covered in corpses and railed out by Ratchet for being a dumbass

… honestly now i'm hearing more Kurtwood Smith. Who is still around and would make a perfect Ratchet. Just saying Earthspark crew. Don't think he's shown up yet and even with That 90's Show he's got time for it. Do it. Hav ehim put his foot up decipticon ass. He's even red. How I never thought of this before I don't know.

Drift.. decides to be smart and cuts up a zombie…. who was shambling and barely a threat. So a guy. He cut up a guy. A guy Zombie. With a melee weapon

So before ratchet decides to say screw the infection and put a foot up botht heir asses Red Alert shows up. He marks Pipes with a stay the hell away x and explains all of this is a plauge: some sort of virus has gotten loose (hence the casualties), confirming what the x said.

Back on the Lost LIght Tailgate is nervous as Ultra Magnus grabbed him out of his habsuite and told him he was going to teach him a lesson. Keep in mind Taigate is only about as tall as one of Magnus' legs. Turns out Hot Rod is he just wasn't going to phrase it that way because you know, that's terrifying coming from the guy in CHARGE. His solution is ellgant if mildly messed up.

Hot Rod brought in Rewind, who being an archivest has tons of footage of the big events of the war, and uploads the mdirectly into Tailgates head in teh span of a few seconds… basically filling him in on what went on in the war in seconds. (everything that matters)

Notably it includes Megatrons rise. He dosen't edit out the fact that Megatron was doing a good thing at first.. but it's mostly there to show that no, the deciptcons still weren't great and did a LOT of war crimes. And while I get why this was done, worse people coudl take advantage of Tailgates naivite.. it's still far from the best way to do it. Showing him the worst of the war thrown at him… was not the way to show him how bad the war was. Showing him the footage i'll admit was great: Rewind has both made and collected plenty and it's a way to show it without doctoring it for bias, evne edited together: this is just.. things people saw at ht eend of the day, thigns rewind saw. It's a godo way to hav eit sink in.. I just feel maybe speed running it was a bit much for the poor guy and not the thing heroes shoudl do. But it does help the ambigiuity WITHOUT making our heroes total monsters: what they did wasn't great.. but like I said there are worse people out there who coudl recurit tailgate for far worse. There's no telling WHEN they'll met a deciptcion whose decided the war is over when theys ay it is who could use poor gate as a spy or as a living bomb or something. And as we'll see next season, Tailgate is VERY susceptable to this sort of manipuation, as someone will play the same thing on him.. just not wearing the badge they were worried about.

Also I REALLY love the detail of getting to see Tailgate's optics up close> I always wondered how the visored transformers saw, even in this very series but simply just.. neve rnoticed those before in this scene. Beautiful haunting stuff.

Anyways back on Delphi we find out causes your optics to break down and leak rust, then everything does before you collapse. And while the medics themsevles have x's, their fine. It's only the patients who are in danger as well as the various staff other who all quickly died off, leaving it down to our three doctors. As for why they didnt send out an SOS commuincations been down since the "big bang" that caused it. They also find a patient that catches Ratchet's intrest, who will be revealed at the end, one whose been comotose.. but First Aid has a suggestion: spark jumping. Basically attaching fancy jumper cables to two sparks, using a healthy one to help a weaker one. See this is one of the many reasons I love james roberts: he'll ask deep questoins about war and what have you.. but he's also not afraid to introduce new stuff to the mythos that answers dumb questions he likely had as a kid like "can you jump a transformer" And it's awesome.

Back on the Lost Light… Tailgate dosen't take things well yelling at Cyclonus.. who tries to say "Did you think it was as simple as good and bad guys"… forgetting he actively asked Tailgate "I wonder which side would you choose". Then when tailgate hits him to no avail, understandably upset he had him askingm to be decpticon on a ship full of former autobots who might not take him asking to be part of them so well as the command staff did.. he BACKHANDS the guy and literally kicks him while he's down

Yeah… while I do think Cyclonus is an intresting character this moment soured him for me a bit. He knokws tailgate is out of it, out of time like he is.. and yet brutally if only mildly attacks him and leave shi ma sobbing mess.. for being mad at something HE DIRECTLY SET UP. I.. dont' get what James was trying to acomplish here and given where the two's relationship goes it's deeply uncomfortable. There were better ways to show how emotinallys tutned cyclonus is. Why.. why is it always slapping.

Back on Dephi we wrap up. Ratchet tries to talk to Pharma whose in the isolation cell.. only for things to go pear shapes. Pipe has explosive goopy rust happen, and Drift has to nonlethally incapa ciate him so they can get him on an iv. Then drift starts leaking out of his eyes.

As Pharma comes back.. thrown in by the cons, who have gotten weapons and escaped. Things seem bleak, even Ratchet's ready to surrender.. when we find out JUST who the vip was.. and that First Aid succeded in giving him a jump.

We'll get to this inevitble asskicking next month. Before we go soundtrack corner. Our first song is the Next Life by Suede. It's VERY good, nciely tying into the feeling of dread at hte start of the issue and the senes of hopelessness at delphi. IT just ended up on a movie soundtrack so THIS is the image I got when I looked it up on youtube

That may be one of the most 90s things i've ever seen. Still not as weird as the plesantville album cover.. nor the actual album art.

Why does this man have a manquein of taylor swift? Still really good emotoinal song. The next one, Smokers Outside the Hosptial Doors, by Editors.. is eh. It's very much just your standard morose ballad tm. Good guitar work nothing else. It fits the tone of the issue, but it's one of those clear signs me and james roberts just don't have the same mustic taste. I prefer peppy often poppy synths or rock music with some energy. He likes far slower more methodical stuff. I'm not agains tslow stuff, as I covered last time I friggin love the mountain goats.. I just like some stuff with energy to it more often than not, so i'm picker with the slower ballads. Suede worked, Editors diddn't. That's all it is really

Thanks for reading and have a happy holiday.

[hal-boy]

Finally finished House of Leaves (actually, I read it twice lol), and I really enjoyed it!! Though note I am the type to read literary criticism of actual real-life movies for fun, so I was able to get my head around the Navidson Record's format rather quickly: YMMV on that front.

On that note, I was originally interested in this book because I was basically told it was a good intro to ergodic lit, and I feel that it was: the style of 2 seperate stories being told almost simultaneously was rather engaging and, though certainly complicated to keep track of at times, I found I really like the genre! I bought a copy of S (which is a nightmare to look up: it's by Doug Dorst and JJ Abrams, yes the starwar guy) which I'm going to hopefully get around to reading soon :)

I'm typically not the type to say "go in as unspoiled as possible" about media, but because this is a book designed specifically around old passages being recontextualized by new information I'd say it's worth going in without much prior knowledge. A note, though: at one point relatively early on, there's a footnote that says (paraphrasing) "if you want to figure out what this character's deal is, flip to this section in the appendix, but if you want to figure it out yourself then don't read that part." I chose not to read that passage until after I finished my first readthrough of the book, and I was very happy with my choice given how significant that section is to understanding that character. I recommend holding off on that part.

Tagging @kimtranssexler cause you wanted to know my thoughts when I finally finished it :)