#Hello Approaching Supernatural fans

[clearwingedmaven]

So. Since I've noticed quite a bit of Supernatural fans(or Jensen Ackles fans) are coming on board for Tracker Episode 12, decided to put together a little crash course to help out if needed.

Tracker is... kinda like a procedural? It's not a typical procedural, it's more like something akin to the Fugitive from the 60s, or Reacher(circa now, on Amazon Prime). It's one man carrying the show, but it gets a little complicated from there.

The show focuses around Colter Shaw, a drifter type and "rewardist" who grew up in the Sierra National Forest after his father had a psychotic break and moved the family there. He's an expert survivalist and tracker because of this, and roams the country helping people find, well, people.

However! The twist comes from the backstory. Ashton Shaw(the father) died mysteriously, and Russell Shaw(Jensen Ackles), is the prime suspect in Ashton's death(According to Colter). But we don't know everything. (It's been spoon fed very sparingly, so, we don't know).

The series is admittedly interspersed between past and present, with Colter pursuing various jobs in finding people.

We also have such storylines as:

-Hey, what if this drifter helped take down an actual cult

-For my first episode I will leap with you from this cliff with a bullet rattling around in my shoulder

-Uncovering corruption in a really fucked up town and family and being shot at and stabbed repeatedly

-Dark school conspiracies(TWICE), but also dealing with abusive people

-Dismantling illegal poker rings and dealing with lawyer corruption

-Visa schemes and illegal fighting rings

-That poor horse and the dark shit of the horse racing world

-The Fetanyl trade and trying to be better than your past

-Hey what if basically you were kidnapped just cause and missing for three years (Actual horror)

-Man goes skydiving after a missing plane with people in it, comically overprepared and basically a chase through the Idaho Wilderness.

-I reunited with my sister-Oh this got DARK. (I think it's trying to play on the Theranos scandal? They name drop it in the beginning of the episode)

You will encounter such characters as:

Teddi and Velma Bruin: An older lesbian couple who serve kind of Colter's handlers, they have a lot of dogs and are in general big Worried Mom energy.

Bobby Exeley: A double amputee computer whiz, is often fed up with Colter's bullshit but loves him irregardless. Was saved by Colter from something, but he refused to elaborate.

Reenie Green: Colter's ex, badass lawyer extraordinaire. Has taken out grown men with pipes, will literally run through red tape to help clients and Colter. Also fed up with Colter but enjoys working with him.

Dory Shaw: The little sister. She's gone onto be a college professor, like their parents, but her field is physics. Works in Wyoming, lived with their aunt and uncle after Ashton Shaw died. Gives Colter crap, but is a badass in her own right.

Russell Shaw: Yup, Jensen Ackles himself. The big brother. Who Colter suspects killed Ashton, but has been calling Colter throughout the show to try and talk to him. He joined the military, but other than that, we don't know much about him yet.

And that's all, I think? Without too many spoilers. The fandom is admittedly small online, and on Ao3, as, as of May 1st, there's one total fic for the fandom.

Hope that helped. And enjoy Tracker before Sunday night!

[clearwingedmaven]

I have a feeling the Supernatural fandom will stick around for a bit, Jensen(and Russell Shaw) will return in Season 2.

For those coming on board for Episode 12, basically: Main character and his family were raised as like a... survivalist type thing after their dad had what we think is a psychotic break. Father died. We have no clue what happened. Jensen Ackles is the older brother who went off to the military after all of that went down. Colter(Justin Hartley) is the little brother who's an expert tracker and goes around the US(for now) finding people for the reward money.

If you like Reacher, or twisty procedurals, it's really good.

I would have recommended this show whether Jensen was gonna be in it or not but y'all should give Tracker a little looky loo. I'm mostly caught up and it's very interesting so far! It's got Big Sky vibes if you ever watched that but it's own thing too. The character of Colter Shaw is intriguing with what I'd call "I'm a nice guy that could fuck you up if I wanted to" energy. Plus fans of SPN will recognize a few locations and faces 😉

Justin taking off his shirt multiple episodes doesn't hurt either 😂

[utilitycaster]

In thinking about the new information we've recently learned about the gods of Exandria, I started thinking about epic fantasy novels. The thing is, Exandria's deity lore is not actually terribly unique. This isn't a bad thing! But the idea of an idyllic age when gods were not just powerful but present and united; the fall of one (or many) gods and an ensuing devastation this causes; and the gods subsequently withdrawing or diminishing is a very, very common one in fantasy (and, to be totally honest, world religion). Similarly, the idea of a much more advanced age that has since passed into distant memory is also an extremely common trope. I think it's less common to have both of these tropes working in tandem though certainly not unheard of (hello, Wheel of Time), and the nature of the storytelling method in effect here means that the fallen advanced civilization is more thoroughly developed in the worldbuilding than it is in many other stories, but none of this is a wildly new concept.

I want to talk about genre, medium, and actual play, which is sort of both and sort of neither. I think people talking about actual play tend to mash all three of these things together when they really shouldn't.

(this is a long one so it's under a cut to not wreck your dash)

The genre of Critical Role's main campaigns is heroic fantasy, which I know I've covered in the past, and of epic scale. This is honestly pretty typical of D&D. NADDPod (especially Bahumia) and TAZ Balance and Graduation are also arguably within this same broad genre, just more comedic and looser with aspects of the worldbuilding.

Despite the fact that Brennan is very well-versed in fantasy novels, D20's main deal is that it's not classic heroic fantasy. I think this is actually a bigger factor in why people prefer CR to D20 than many people think. The shorter length is definitely another factor (though that too feels almost related - the critically acclaimed indie comic run to Critical Role's series of doorstopper novels) but Dimension 20, while it comments on classic heroic fantasy with Fantasy High and Escape from the Bloodkeep, only ever dips into anything actually approaching that genre with the Game of Thrones-inspired low fantasy seasons and, funnily enough, with the Dungeons and Drag Queens miniseries. Otherwise, it's telling school stories, urban fantasy, space operas, heists, murder mysteries, comedies of manners, and action-adventure. Similarly, TAZ Steeplechase and Amnesty very much aren't of this genre. Critical Role meanwhile touches on supernatural horror with Candela Obscura.

Actual Play is a means of telling a story, and typically the system at least puts in place the general expectations of what can be done within the improv. Some systems (such as Candela Obscura or Blades in the Dark) set a particular genre; others, like D&D, favor one but permit a good degree of flexibility. Actual Play is not really the same as genre, as discussed above; D20 genre hops quite readily, as does The Adventure Zone, even while using the same TTRPG systems.

Finally, there's medium. This one is easy. Critical Role and D20 are filmed shows (though are available as podcasts); so is, to give a non-Actual Play example, The Bear. NADDPod and TAZ are podcasts. So are (for example) The Silt Verses and Midst.

The reason I've outlined all of the above is to say that I think people tend to assume simply being actual play is somehow closer than sharing genre. This is also to an extent true for longform fiction podcasts (though it is less true for TV and books). I think this has led to an influx of fans of actual play (and, tbh, podcasts) who aren't familiar with the genres within which actual play shows are working.

I do not say this to gatekeep (though honestly, gatekeeping is both not inherently bad and also, not possible in this context). It's more of an exploration of what I think may be a reason why, particularly in the Critical Role fandom, it feels some of the Campaign 3 opinions feel somewhat half-baked.

You can be a fan of heroic fantasy and enjoy actual play but not actually be terribly into actual play that isn't heroic fantasy. I think some people who loved Critical Role Campaign 1 but nothing after that and no other actual play fit into that category. I think Campaign 1's fandom was, indeed, heavily skewed towards fans of fantasy and fans of D&D (as a venue to roleplay one's own fantasy story and as a game itself heavily shaped by heroic fantasy fiction) more so than anything else. If you like, say, The Kingkiller Chronicles or the Stormlight Archives or the Wheel of Time or Lord of the Rings? You might like Critical Role.

By 2018, and definitely by 2019-2020, the landscape had changed, and the attitude was much more one of "if you like this actual play, you'll like this one" which is actually...nowhere near as true, in my mind, as recommendations based on genre. I think this is also when people started folding in "longform speculative fiction podcasts in general" which to be honest was already an issue with the medium of longform fiction podcasts. Wolf 359, The Silt Verses, Midst, The Penumbra Podcast, and any season of NADDPod are all longform, plot-based speculative fiction podcasts with queer representation, but that doesn't actually mean someone who likes one will like another. (Also? Queer rep? Gets treated like podcasts or actual play, to be honest. It's extremely possible to love only one of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, The Woods All Black, and The Priory of the Orange Tree despite all of these being novels with queer relationships, yet a lot of the time Queer Rep is treated as a genre, an "if you like this, you'll like that!")

I think it is true that there are people who enjoy actual play on a fairly general level (myself included), and with podcasts especially I think there are people who enjoy fiction delivered in this manner and people who have some difficulty with it. But I think there's a tendency to push people who like one actual play towards other actual play when they may be more interested in longform audio fiction, scripted or not; or might be inclined towards a particular genre. To go back to the examples I've given, someone who likes Candela Obscura might find The Silt Verses and The Woods All Black more appealing than, for example, Fantasy High, despite that also being filmed actual play, because the latter two are also supernatural horror with exploration of class.

Because actual play, in its weird not a medium, not a genre, but kind of both space is, well, in between spaces, it gets treated as the most specific element of works of fiction when that's not always true. The consequences, therefore, end up being twofold. You get people who come to AP series because they liked another one that doesn't actually have a ton in common, and it ends up hit or miss (this is one of my theories why the D20 fandom can be extremely weird about Critical Role; because it was pushed on them when it's really not what they're into, which is neither their nor CR's fault); and you get people coming to specific actual plays and enjoying them without much familiarity with their genres, which I think is behind some of the weirder C3 takes since C3 is arguably the first campaign that truly began after Actual Play began to be treated as a genre.

[selenacosmic]

Hello there. May I have an Ikesen request?

How do you think the Warlords would react to a witch MC? (I'm a big fan of The Vampire's Diaries and The Originals TV series). Thanks ☺️

Hello! A witch mc, huh? I think I never really wrote about one, thank you for the request!

Witch MC.

Oda forces.

Nobunaga Oda.

Nobunaga could tell there was something different about you, a mysterious air that surrounded you. He noticed that the moment you saved him from the fire, when you rushed out of the temple with him, it was as if the fire moved out of the way.

There was also your knowledge over herbs, he even thought you might have been a healer and that you would fit in as Ieyasu’s student. He found out the truth after interrogating you personally, Nobunaga was curious after hearing about strange “medicines” that you were able to make (AKA potions).

Hideyoshi Toyotomi.

Hideyoshi, as usual, kept his eyes on you since the very beginning. He could swear he saw you make a vase levitate, hideyoshi was about to help you carry it since it looked heavy but stopped on his tracks. Of course, it was for a split second as you carried the vase yourself.

He wasn’t one to focus on believing in the supernatural, but he also didn’t disbelieve it. Hideyoshi wondered if you could pose a threat to Nobunaga, but his mind changed after you prepared a special medicine for him when he got sick from overworking himself. It worked like magic as it made his fever go away immediately. Well, whatever you were, you didn’t seem to have bad intentions.

Mitsuhide Akechi.

Mitsuhide was naturally curious about you, since you showed up out of nowhere and saved Nobunaga. But he felt intrigued the more he investigated you. Your strange behavior by talking to animals, how you would manage to make objects disappear when no one was seeing.

Different from Nobunaga, he does his interrogation in a way that puts you on a spot, as if he is just making an innocent question. You are forced to reveal your identity, which would seem absurd had mitsuhide not seen with his own eyes. Considering your abilities, he will think about dragging you to one of his missions.

Masamune date.

Masamune found out on accident, he was going to the kitchen so that he could make dinner, but noticed that it was busy. He would have approached you had he not seen the strange ingredients you were using. Upon further observation, masamune saw smoke and bubbles emerging from the pot you were using to cook, or at least he thought it was cooking. Once you were done, he became curious about what you made.

Imagine his surprise when you appeared with a special kind of medicine for the soldiers that were still heavily injured that made them recover very fast. While that will make him confront you about what exactly you were making, he will just want to know as he was grateful that you used your knowledge to help the soldiers. What you made was really a healing potion.

Mitsunari Ishida.

Mitsunari was a bit more oblivious to the signs that you were a witch, though it wasn’t because he didn’t notice. It was more because he didn’t want to sound rude by questioning you. Sometimes you would come back with quite the different herbs for the medicine you were able to make, there were times he could swear he saw objects levitating.

He could be wrong, but he thought he saw you turn a bandit that cornered you into… a frog? Nevertheless, he was aware of your powers, though he pretended to not know for your sake.

Ieyasu Tokugawa.

Ieyasu was skeptical when nobunaga said that you would be helping him with the other healers of the castle, he didn’t trust you could handle it without proper training from him. However, he changed his mind the moment he saw the results of your medicine, it helped the injured soldiers and sick vassals heal immediately. He studied medicine for a long time, so it’s natural that he was surprised by how efficient you were making herbal medicine.

It hurted his pride a little as well, since he never discovered anything like it before. But, he could put his pride aside as long as you could show him how you made your so called healing potions.

Ranmaru Mori.

Ranmaru would discover of your abilities after he caught you making a whole decorative pot that was broken disappearing before his eye. He was about to turn around the corner to greet you when he saw you using magic. He preferred to keep a low profile and hide before you could notice him.

Being a ninja, it wasn’t hard for ranmaru to sneak around without being noticed, though he believed that, despite what he saw, you couldn’t possibly be a bad person. That’s why he would act like nothing happened until you were more comfortable sharing your secret with him.

Keiji.

Keiji knows how it feels to hide a part of yourself to stay safe, though in your case it seemed like something much bigger than a part of your personality. Just like you would inevitably find out about his two faced nature, he was able to discover your powers as a witch. In a way, both had blackmail over each other, which would create a connection and a bond between you two.

Besides, it’s not like he didn’t find your powers fascinating, so he was far from scared.

Uesugi-Takeda alliance.

Kenshin Uesugi.

Kenshin isn’t someone who would overreact or be surprised by supernatural things, as long as he could fight it, he was happy. Although you did manage to catch him off guard a bit. In the middle of a fight, he saw you using your magic to throw the opponent flying away from you.

To him it was unexpected, but that didn’t faze him to stop fighting. After defeating all of the enemies that caught you two off guard, he won’t waste time questioning you about how you were able to do that. And after getting his answers, he will ask (demand) that you use your powers again.

Shingen takeda.

Is this the power of an angel? Dramatic quotes aside, it won’t take long for him to discover of your abilities, there is nothing that can be hidden from this man after all. But he would keep a secret for your safety, he knew how stressful it was to keep something hidden from others.

You would feel so grateful that you would dedicate yourself to create a healing potion powerful enough to heal his sickness (it was only natural that you would be able to notice that he had an illness). Words just can’t describe how grateful he would be.

Yukimura Sanada.

Ah, he knew it! You are an evil witch who will turn him into an animal! Since the moment you two met, he was already calling you a sorceress for being able to charm people with your personality (that isn’t magic, just social skills). But to actually get a confirmation that you are a witch will make him feel very weary of you. It will take time for him to understand that you aren’t a threat.

Of course, eventually he will let himself go around you, seeing that you would turn him into a frog.

Yoshimoto Imagawa.

Yoshimoto wouldn’t pry in your affairs in any shape or form, after all he respected your privacy. So, even when he noticed some suspicious activities coming from you, he decided to give you the benefit of the doubt, not sure if he would regret it later. However, your never did anything to harm anyone in Kasugayama, he would trust you no matter how strange some of your actions were, just like he trusts sasuke (despite not having the best of relationships with him).

Even after finding out about your powers, he will treat you like a real celestial maiden (kind of like Shingen would, must be a family thing).

Kanetsugu.

Kanetsugu always kept his eyes on you from the moment you arrived at Kasugayama castle, being weary that you could be dangerous to Kenshin (though he highly doubted you could harm him). He was always stern, which made you be more careful about using your powers near him.

Though, even after he catches you using your magic, he won’t throw you in the prison cells. However, that does not mean he completely trusts you. For safety reasons, Kanetsugu will be glued to you, almost like you were his prisoner just to ensure you wouldn’t use your magic against his lord (eventually it won’t be bad at all to have him always by your side though).

Sasuke.

Sasuke would be one of the first ones to find out that you are a witch, one because he is already familiar with the concept since he is also from the modern world, and two because he could easily put two and two together to understand what you were. It all started after he goes to see you by going to your celling. He will accidentally catch you using your magic when you think that you are alone in your room.

He will apologize first of all for sneaking in like that, which will be followed by a million of questions, some of which include participating on a research of his own.

[lol-jackles]

Hello! I read a great deal of your posts and found all of them interesting. The ones analysing spn, Walker, The Boys, etc. Some about Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki caught my attention, as you talked about being a character actor or a personality actor (did I get it right?)

Could you please expand a little more about these kind of actors and their features?

Thank You so much!

A character actor turns himself into the character. 

A personality actor turns the character into himself. 

Think of the difference between Daniel Day Lewis and Tom Cruise.   Daniel Day Lewis has created a diverse range of distinct characters.  Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise in most of his movie roles.

I've said Jared is a character actor trapped in a leading man role because traditionally "character actor" and "supporting actor" were seen as interchangeable.  A leading man is supported by a cast of colorful characters often performed by character actors who have skills to play almost any role due to their ability to transform into variety of characters.  It's the character in each film or tv show that predominates, not the actor or the actor's own personality. That's why audiences often recognize character actors without being able to name them.

Personality actors are usually (not always but usually) the leading man because they are playing to a type that has been established as the thing that they can do and only they can do in their way.    While it may or may not be like their private personality, that's what it appears to be to the general audience and why they get labeled as “personality actors" or "typecasted".  None of us expect Dwayne the Rock Johnson to do any character acting, we just pay to watch him to do stuff that's exciting or funny.   At the same time Dwayne has a compelling personal style that audiences love to watch on screen. It’s one of the reasons why people tend to enjoy personality actors because they’re not subtle.  Tom Cruise’s characters’ meltdowns arem,always just as enjoyable as the film itself.  Jensen’s acting is not subtle and that’s okay.

In contrast the character actors are creating a personality for the role rather than slotting their own personality into a role.  It's why Jared was usually tasked with playing not!Sam characters on Supernatural because he can excise his own and Sam's personality out of Meg, Lucifer, Soulless, Ezekiel, Gadreel, and Justin and give them different personalities.  For example, in the beginning of season 6, Jared wasn't just acting as a Soulless Sam, he's acting as Soulless Sam faking being the real Sam for Dean and there were several times when Soulless Sam almost, but not quite convincingly pulled it off for Dean and the audience.  As someone who did theater arts during my misspent youth, I don't even know how I would approach that kind role.

Jensen is a personality actor, he's been successfully playing Dean Winchester since Days of Our Lives and it made him a multimillionaire in his 30s, so I never begrudge him for sticking to the archetype.  Nonetheless this style of acting was meant for lead roles and I believe this was the main reason why his fans are such unmitigated assholes for 20 years because he was stuck in supporting roles (even on Supernatural) until The Countdown, which they celebrated as Jensen's “employment era" at age 46.

You can read more about the acting stuff here and here.

[bustyasianbeautiespod]

hiiii! I love pocnatural and wanted to ask if you have any asiannatural headcanons ?

Hello Wanni!

I have spent a non insubstantial amount of time thinking about what supernatural would be like if it was set in the Philippines. (A lot of asiannatural headcanons approach it from the winchesters as asian people living in the United States angle, but I do not have that experience and so doesn’t really do much for me).

The thing is, the attitudes towards hunting would be completely different because most mythical creatures in the Philippines are fully believed by people. I believe in ghosts. I believe in aswangs and nunos and duwendes. Everyone in my family does too, as well as most people I know. Even the people who don’t fully believe will still do the things you ought to do to avoid these creatures or show respect “just in case”. When I was a kid there’s always news reports about some school experiencing a mass demonic possession.

Because of this I think perhaps being a hunter is just not something someone can be in the Philippines, because most people believe and therefore do the things to not be harmed and would not require outsider help. When someone is pregnant in our provincial house, we place a stingray tail by the window, which is assumed to keep the aswangs at bay. My mom salts her second hand buys to cleanse it of the past owner’s soul in case that person died. What else would we need Sam and Dean for?

To be fair, a lot of these experiences of mine are provincial in nature. It could be funny to have Sam and Dean be provincial boys who go to Manila for unrelated reasons and are so tired at these city people stepping on duwende areas and not saying excuse me first and then getting cursed.

Many people in my life who know me as a Supernatural fan actually has recommended to me an animated show that is allegedly “like filipino supernatural”. I have not watched it, but if you wanna check it out, it’s called Trese!

Also, while pondering over this ask I came across this tweet.

Anyway my newest supernatural spinoff, “filipino sam and dean”, will go on for eternity for “setting forward race relations to the 2300s” so we’re all good.

-Grey 🫶🫶

[nanabansama]

hi, this is tsutsumi-kurose!! i have sort of a two part question haha, i was rereading the picture perfect arc, and it seems like shijima and tsukasa have worked together before? in 54 she says "no good ever comes from dealing with you," as if she's done it a lot, so i was wondering if you had any thoughts on that, because idk if that familiarity ever gets explained?

also, in 52 shijima tries to convince him not to "grant her wish" by saying "honorable no. 7 will be angry!" and in 91 when tsukasa tells sakura he sent nene to no. 6's boundary she asks "did your brother say it was okay?" and it's so interesting that these two people who have at least some history with tsukasa seem to think he is swayed by hanako's thoughts and feelings, or like he'd want or need hanako's permission for things. tsukasa certainly doesn't give the impression that he cares much about getting permission for anything, so I was really struck by these instances and i was wondering if you had any thoughts about them!!

hope you're having a nice day!! ☺️

Oh hello!! Hello!! I'm a big fan of your posts 🤝

Great questions by the way! I hadn't thought very deeply about these before.

1. Have Shijima and Tsukasa worked together before?

I don't think so!

In Chapter 54, we glimpse a flashback of when Tsukasa approaches Shijima about his master plan to create the Picture Perfect world.

Shijima is hesitant about being around him, and for good reason. I mean, she says it right there: she heard about No. 3.

Her focus on No. 3 in their conversation makes me think her reaction is related more to Tsukasa stealing his heart than any actual business he and Shijima might have done before. You could argue that she's only bringing it up because it's Tsukasa's latest misdeed (Hell, it could've happened just a day ago depending on when this conversation took place) but...

I think it's good to recognize Tsukasa and Shijima's history as supernaturals.

You might already know, but Shijima likely died in 1999 or 2000.

You can see her birth year was Showa 58, which is 1983.

She also celebrates the Year of the Rabbit (notably not the zodiac animal of the year this was posted):

As for Tsukasa... I'm inclined to believe he's been locked away the entire time he's been a yorishiro, until he just recently broke out. If not, he was at least locked away for a substantial amount of time.

He tells Amane "Long time no see", and Amane is absolutely terrified. The strength of his reaction makes it easy to believe that Amane hadn't talked to Tsukasa since he murdered him.

As such, I just don't see any place in the timeline where Tsukasa and Shijima could have worked together... but hey! That's just the way I see it.

2. "Honorable No. 7 will be angry!"

I really like this line! And I like the idea that people might assume Tsukasa doesn't want to anger Hanako, for any number of reasons. Could be because he's his brother, could be because he's his yorishiro...

But here's Shijima's line in context:

Tsukasa is breaking Nene out of the jail that Hanako just purposefully put her in.

Shijima has been having to put up with Hanako's crap all day too, btw. Look at this bossy little jerk:

He's a bully!!! And a powerful one, at that. Shijima is aware of this, and it's why he's able to push her around.

Taking all of this into consideration, I don't think this line holds much deeper meaning... onto the next one!

3. "Did your big brother say it was okay?"

Taken from the DBS Scans fan translation.

So... I think Sakura is saying this because Tsukasa was meddling with Nene again.

What can I say?! Hanako's kinda obsessed with her!!

Taken from the DBS Scans fan translation.

Naturally, anytime someone messes with his assistant, he's going to be upset. I think he makes this kinda obvious, too. Most members of the cast must be aware of his giant crush on Nene.

In summary, I think these two aren't necessarily saying these lines because Tsukasa cares about Hanako's opinion, but because they do. Sakura and Shijima could suffer some repercussions if Number 7 decides to interfere in these situations.

Anyway, thank you for the questions!

[lightofraye]

New followers of your blog! Love your posts and deep answers. SupNat was part of my younger years when it was aired originally. I stopped watching after the 5th season and I will never rewatch past that but I am here for the tee. Especially about the personal connections because I love to try to understand human emotions and the reasons behind their actions. What do you think about the fact that Jensen went behind Jared’s back with The Winchesters? (a show shouldn’t be exist at the first place)

Hello there!

First off, love the username! Big fan of Practical Magic myself.

And thank you so much for appreciating my posts!

Can I just say though? You're missing some gems in season 6 and beyond of Supernatural. (One favorite? The French Mistake. I still can't stop cackling over that one. Sam and Dean find themselves in an alternative universe as actors, Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles.)

As for the tea, well... it's largely centric on Danneel, but you will find some things about Jensen and perhaps others. I hope you, uh, well I can't say "enjoy" regarding emotional abuse, etc, but um, perhaps glean some understanding? There we go.

And woof. You came with a loaded question.

So... initially, I'll be honest. I believed Jensen's side of things. But as I delved deeper into it, seeing deleted tweets and screenshots and the timing of it all...

I was disappointed. Vastly. Jensen essentially betrayed Jared. He knew Jared was working on Walker, was told of the whole process if I'm not mistaken and yet he couldn't tell Jared that he was thinking of a prequel? That he approached Robbie Thompson about it? Not one word?

No, I don't buy his excuse of being superstitious. He still could've spoken and confided into his longtime friend, his fellow co-star, the person he said was a brother to him? Because even if it "failed", at least he would've had Jared there for support.

Plus, the leak (and there's a popular theory that it was Danneel who prematurely leaked it, but nothing is confirmed) came... and Jensen lied about not having phones while on set of The Boys.

Plus, after all of it... Jensen never formally apologized. He didn't humble himself. Jared sucked it up and took the dive... because he was, sadly, the better man.

I get it. Jensen couldn't let go of Dean. Believe me, I really get it. But there were so many ways he could've done this.

I'm disappointed in him. I feel the fame of his time on Supernatural, the cult following, as it were, got to his head. Jensen started to get too big for his britches. Whether that's Danneel's influence, the c-lister fame, his fan following, or a combination, it got to him.

So yeah. Disappointed. I hope he looks back and humbles himself.

[paradox-n-bedrock]

Hey! I saw throughout some of your tags that you got to see both Macbeth and The Enfield Haunting! (to which I'm insanely jealous, please hand over your memories to me at your earliest convenience!) What did you think of them??

Oh hi!!

The Enfield Haunting was enjoyable. Reviews for it have been overly harsh, for the most part, and I think part of that might be the genre bias horror often faces. The dialogue is clunky, particularly in the beginning, but I can say it's a fun show if you're a Conjuring, Enfield Poltergeist, or general haunted history fan. It presents the supernatural influence vs troubled children aspect in a balanced way, as is necessary for this plot. It also builds tension rather effectively once it gets going, while letting Catherine punctuate it with moments of lightness and her usual impeccable timing. There are some really good parts where a theme seemed to come together of this overwhelmed woman dealing with a rotating cycle of overbearing men (invasive investigators, infatuated neighbor, disrespectful ex-husband, and the poltergeist, of course) making nuisances of themselves in her home while she's just trying to push through each day without losing herself or her children to their collective unhappiness. If the theme had carried through more cohesively, it would have been a strong play. Unfortunately, I was left yearning for a bit more of that story, as it gets messy and lost maybe two thirds of the way though when the focus shifts to the investigator. But mainly, Catherine is so, so talented. She carries the whole thing on her back, with some help from the young actress who plays a very creepy Janet. It's hard to take your eyes off of her as Peggy, even when she's harried and anxious or reacting in furious silence to the action happening on the other side of the stage. She just... draws your gaze. And when she steels her spine to stand up for her family and her space, she's positively luminous. Plus there's an unexpected delight in a couple of scenes where Catherine sings Only Wanna Be With You--very sweetly, just a bar or two--and my heart felt like it was going to fucking burst. Hello, her voice... I need her to do another musical, preferably one we get a soundtrack to.

And she's so kind at the stage door. It was a two show day and she had a con the next morning but she still took the time to speak to every single person that was waiting there.

__

Macbeth, I wasn't carrying even the slightest hope of seeing but then I was able to get a standing ticket in my cart while on the flight there (though I had to let it go) and realized my years of stalking concert presales were about to come in handy. Ironically, my partner was the one who did snag the tickets two days later. I... actually ended up with a first row seat, though she was in the standing section. But that's just me rambling about the process because I still can't believe it worked out the way it did.

I'm not even sure what to say about the show itself. The whole cast is phenomenal. The production is conceptually very cool. The audio tricks they play with the witches--via a headset for each audience member and the eerie sense of movement and foreboding conveyed by bilateral audio--plus the starkness of the empty white stage and simple dark costuming just work. The contrast of the blood when David is centerstage, distressed and panting as he washes it away, feels poignant rather than pretentious. He's captivating the whole way through, but especially then, when he temporarily strips away the ambition along with his stained clothes to reveal the broken and guilty thing underneath. There's nothing like how DT delivers Shakespeare--the meaning flows out of him as naturally as the words themselves and it's incredibly approachable without losing any of its gravitas. The dynamic between the leads is atypical in a really lovely way. David's Macbeth and Cush's Lady Macbeth come across more like codependent partners and ruthless accomplices than a greedy but hesitant royal and his calculating wife egging him on. He looks to her for support rather than a push to kill Duncan, and the adoration between them is palpable, even as they each deteriorate in their own ways. I walked out of this show feeling so deeply affected, it was like a religious experience.

(Macbeth also feels very gender, which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who's a fan of DT's Benedict, though this is obviously in a very different way. As does Malcolm, played by Ros Watt--who's non-binary--and Ross, played by Moyo Akandé. I adore the whole cast, honestly.)

[wsthproduction]

Hello! This is your invitation to a real-time online event happening February 27th to March 3rd for a website ARG blending slice of life, horror, and comedy with nerdy media galore. I humbly ask for you to just check out Weird Stuff That Happens. It's free — no ads, no BS, just my experimental web series and story experience. If you like Homestar Runner, Marble Hornets, Hypnospace Outlaw, or anything else with cool internet secrets, WSTH may interest you.

Weird Stuff That Happens is an ARG (alternate reality game) in the form of a variety fun fact blog website owned by a young webmaster, Thomas "Tomtab" Bennedetto and run by the site moderation crew. Among them are Tom's childhood friends: Mouse, a quiet but witty English major; David, the coolest dude Tom knows; and Ariel, a sugary sweet dynamo. Joining them are Tom's new friends: the enigmatic Calexta, aloof programmer Joey, and Pim — a pompous heckler turned ironic website nemesis. Tom, David, Mouse, Joey, Cal and Ariel all live in the curious fictional town of Cranesbill, Georgia. A strange air seems to linger there, touched with odd occurrences, strange secrets, and mythical mysteries.

Unbeknownst to most, Tom pours his heart and soul into the website to distract himself from a dark, heavy secret: Tom was attacked by something eldritch inside a VHS tape as a child. And the evil residing in that tape is still out to get him. Lucky for him, Cal miraculously knows how to deter supernatural monsters and other paranormal activity— but Cal's magic has its limits.

The dawn of March 7th, 2023 marks the 20th anniversary of the grotesque VHS creature attacking Tom. It approaches with each passing day, and Tom knows this date is gonna majorly suck eggs. What he doesn’t know is that his old assailant is already planning to infiltrate the one place he thought he was safe…

WSTH is an ongoing ARG with arcs, but you don't have to read the full shebang before shit hits the fan for poor Tom — assuming you don't just want to work backwards from the carnage. There are just a few specific pages that might give the series a little more context, and for you, a little more insight:

Character list (Link)

Tom's Dream Journal (Link)

Finch House Investigation (Part 1)/(Part 2)

Valentine's event (Link)

Out-of-kayfabe Discord (Link)

This March arc, without spoiling too much, will make Tom face his worst fears and completely warp the website. There will be a number of cool ARG puzzles spanning the site mid-event and the site's status quo will be altered permanently.

I would like to thank everyone who has helped me get this far in the project, and I hope you all enjoy the efforts put forth by myself and those I'm honored to have a helping hand from.

Are you ready for things to get really weird?

[pinkeoni]

I dont want to milk the discussion to death but i am writing this after reading the post and comments under that post on reddit. You dont have to answer i am just writing it as an observation.

Its understandable why people do not see Will's importance or role. What the writers did with him wasnt just holding the spoiler for the finale. After all you can still pull a plot twist while revealing some of the stuff or putting more setup. But theu revealed basically nothing with litte to no setup. In Will's case it doesnt help bc they also sidelined him way too much and separated him from the main plotline. That is just a writing mistake and admitting its not hating on the writers.

I dont want to sound rude. And Whenever i have this discussion with people i tend to keep an open mind to the both sides. Overall though i tend to agree that if your writing is pretty much alien to most of your audience then it is bad writing. This show isnt written for a selective part of the audience. I wish people would realize that. If i go to twitter, reddit, insta, tiktok or other sites that make posts and analyses about ST and i see the majority of people call Will unimportant then the writers failed at even hinting at his importance. People shouldnt be saying he is an irrelevant or unimportant character that doesnt do anything. It is not just El fans who say this, its the majority of the audience. It was the writers job to stop this accusation by putting more setup and adding more screentime for him before the finale season rolls, even if they want to pull a plot twist in St5.

People also dont like plot twists that has little to no actual setup. That is why plot twists are tricky. Also keep in mind that the same thing applies to byler going canon... i dont want to sound like i dislike the show because i dont. But i have to admit that they flopped the writing. I genuienly think that once St5 rolls people will realize this more. Heck even some Will fans themselves think he is not that important and what happened to him were all coincidental. Can we blame the overall audience for thinking that way?

My problem isnt that i think Will is unimportant but rather how the writers approached it. It is full of bad decisions and lack of good writing. And whatever plot twist that they may pull might not even have a positive pay off at the end due to how they have been writing things. In that case is it even worth to pull a plot twist if the pay off also flops? Imho the Duffers dont realize that their setup for a potential pay off is built on a weak construction site but they like the element of twists so they dont care about the coherent build up and progression.

Will the audience's response to what happens in St5 be "Wow this is so true how didnt i see it coming" or will it be majorly a reaction like "This is bullshit there was almost nothing that suggested this"? Because the latter one seems more likely to happen, unfortunately.

Anyways this was all over the place but admittedly i wrote it after reading the comments on reddit as an overall afterthought. I respect your opinion but in think there is a major disconnect btw the writers and its audience here in terms of writing imho.

Hello anon,

Decided to go to sleep before answering. No, I don't think you're being rude, and to be honest I agree with a lot of what you said. I think that the points we disagree on we may just continue to disagree on 😂🤝

I don't think you are hating the show for pointing out flaws in the writing, and in the post I just made about this I do at least try to acknowledge some of their shortcomings such as— shafting Will's presence and not balancing the supporting casts' storylines. I do agree that, like you said, that Will's role in the story could have been emphasized more.

The thing that I do disagree with, and maybe we just won't ever see eye to eye on this anon, is that there wasn't any setup at all, especially concerning his role in the supernatural plot. I listed off the evidence and gave my reasoning in my post, so I won't repeat here as to not sound like a broken record.

I also agree that no, the show isn't written just for the over-analytical people like me, but I think surveying reddit isn't an accurate depiction of the general audience. Granted I don't see much of sttwt, tiktok and insta so I'll just trust your word for it. But in that specific reddit thread, it seemed like fans who were adamantly trying to deny Will's importance, using faulty evidence as proof. It's interesting because these aren't really fans who watch from a surface level, they actively participate in fandom and willfully skew their perception of the text in order to fit their vision of things.

I think when it comes to revealing Will's importance and having it not come out of nowhere, it will all come down to execution in this final season. If the show reminds the audience of some of the hints leading up to it, then maybe they won't feel so vexed when the reveal happens. If they throw us in the deep end and start pulling out new details then it would definitely feel out of nowhere. It'll be a fine line for them to walk for sure.

But anyway that's where I'll leave it anon. I appreciate you sharing your opinion, although I still maintain some of my thoughts on this and I think you will too and that's okay 🤝

[hologramcowboy]

Hello, I’d like to share some of my thoughts on what Jensen said about his take on learning lines and how he may have gotten to this point. These are just my observations and “feelings” on it. So, I’d love to hear anything you might want to add. Or correct.

The more Jensen talks about his “craft” as an actor, the more it makes me wonder when exactly he stopped trying. Because I don’t think he was always the way he is now. He’s spoken of memorizing pages and pages of lines back in his soap days, and I doubt he was making up his own lines on Dark Angel or Smallville, and Dawson’s Creek, from what I hear, did not welcome line changes. So, he clearly CAN, or at least COULD in the past, memorize lines. The fact that he doesn’t now and frames it as just a “quirk” of his, or even a thing to brag of, speaks of huge entitlement or laziness. I’ve done some very amateur acting, and I can’t imagine acting with someone who never says the lines exactly how they are in the script. This approach to acting demands everyone else has them memorized backwards and forwards to be able to adjust to their costar not using the words on the page. I would think this would be more work for the scene partners. Unless everyone on set is skilled in improve. Obviously, Jared could work with this, but he reads his scripts multiple times and knows everyone’s lines cold. But if someone doesn’t know their lines as well, surely another actor not giving them their cues would be frustrating. No matter how pretty he is.

I think Supernatural and the atmosphere created behind the scenes and by fans has warped his sense of reality. I love the show and I’m glad we got it for so long (minus season 15), but I think it did a number on both Js. The constant praise making Jensen’s ego enormous, while the implied or direct comparisons to him adding to Jared’s self-consciousness.

After being petted and praised for over a decade for his raw talent and handsomeness, Jensen has clearly bought into his own hype, while getting lazier about his work. He was given too much free reign or the writers were too lazy to care to do the work to build up the characters. Late seasons Dean is like Sam’s version of Dean in Tall Tales, a slob shovelling food or drinks into his face, at times. It makes sense that people, and characters, would change over the years but they shouldn’t become caricatures of themselves. Dean became a parody at times and Sam became faded at tines.

The difference for me between Jared and Jensen in response to lazy writing is very telling. Jared found small ways to show Sam’s trauma even though the writers ignored it. He added unscripted things to build up a sense of history with his character when they didn’t care to. Jensen want done favours by the writers at times either, but he leaned too far into the extremes of Dean’s character and he becomes a bit of a buffoon or and anger bomb, depending on the scene. He still gives some great performances, but it taught him bad habits of winging it or leaning into the flashy.

I don’t always love the way Jared plays Walker. But he is a distinctly different character from Sam. Even though I don’t love the way Cordell speaks with the hesitation, I get that Jared has reasons for making that choice. Because he is a smart actor. He thinks about the characters inner selves.

Meanwhile, Jensen’s fans all coo about seeing glimpses of Dean again in SB and Beau, but that’s not really a good thing for showing range. SB should not have been a version of Dean, at all. Beau having some similarities is understandable, but he doesn’t have a clear character otherwise, so it’s not great.

To me, Jensen just seems tired and lost. He’s currently either unwilling or unable to do the necessary work to flesh out and solidify his characters. Whether it’s because he thinks he deserves better characters to play or he’s bought into his natural talent hype doesn’t even really matter because the end result is the same. Shallow characters. He needs to dial back the ego and get some testing or at least do the mental work.

He needs therapy and/or an acting coach (as you have pointed out a lot), or something because he doesn’t seem happy or satisfied. He seems empty and also frantic. He’s like a pebble skipping across the surface of a pond. He’s touching a lot is surface but never going deeper. Maybe he’s afraid to be still and go deeper into anything.

My final thought. A fan in Nashville asked J2 who they would like to have dinner with (they narrowed it down to choosing people who have passed away). Jensen said his grandfathers and Jesus Christ. The former because he regrets not getting to know more about them and the stores they could tell, and the latter because he has a lot of questions for him. The crowd cheered, probably assuming Jensen would simply give him an earful of criticism or something. But, to me, both of Jensen’s answers speak of someone feeling a bit lost, confused and looking answers, for a sense of belonging, and groundedness. Or maybe the choices were random and I’m over analyzing. Anyway, I hope he gets the clarity and support he seems to need for his mental health if nothing else.

Sorry for the length of this ask, and thank you for indulging me if you chose to post this.

Happy holidays!

I got teary eyed earlier but now I am in full tears. Thank you for taking the time to express eveything you perceived so eloquently, kindly and intelligently. You have no idea how much your post comforts me. I resonate deeply with everything you wrote and I too hope Jensen gets the support he needs before he ends up damaging his physical or mental health severely. I wish I could send him endless love and I wish he could feel it, if it would help. I hope someone from his side of the family will step in and look after him, help him find his way. I've perceived the same things you have and in my humble opinion I think there's deep suffering consuming him over something, yet I can't put my finger on what that is exactly but what I do know is that those that care about him need to step in and love him, show him support because he puts on bravado but he's clearly hurting.

May your Holidays be full of Love, Warmth and Magic! ♥️

[psylockexs]

Night Call Pt. 2

https://on.soundcloud.com/Emw25sskHLC9joy1A

Both men sat on opposite sides of the table. Eyes blinked. Eyebrows cocked.

 Mik: So, you not gonna say anything?

Morg: Aren't you? And look elsewhere! flushes

Mik: Maybe try sleeping with a shirt, next time. rolls eyes So, what were you doing sniffing around my cousin?

Morg: I was tasked by some woman to seek out talented supers for some squad. She's not said why though...

Mik: So what does Sean have to do with this?

Morg: You should know this yourself! You both are descendants of one of the strongest dynasties in the supernatural. Why else would you be at the top of my list? However, once I saw Sean has a family, I took him off the list.

Mik: cocks his eyebrow

Morg: The criteria for the squad is little to no attachments. Wife and kid = huge attachment.

Mik: But single man with an escort page is a good target? 🤨

Morg: Yes- wait, what?!

Mik: Exactly my point. This apparently single man still has a cousin. Isn't that an attachment?

 Morg: Yeah but he's not your son, right? Soooo...

Mik: So nothing. I don't care how exceptional we are. Why are you rounding up sheep at someone else's beck and call?

Morg: Like I said, I kinda had no choice! It was either that or she would keep harassing me to offer up helpless people from the Magic Realm. And you know we're not really the strongest among the supers. shrugs

Mik: Yeah, cuz y'all keep using your powers for 'good' and you leave out the most important things, like wards and hexes.

Morg: Yeah, well how often are you gonna use hexes?!

Mik: Heh. Anyway, back to the point. Why did you pick me?

Morg: Because you did us a great service when you got rid of that damn couple.

Mik: And that's such a feat in the world?

Morg: Yes, it is. Do you know how many youngsters fell for their scams? Their heinous contracts? How many times I had to get them out of those contracts? Why do you think I'm not a fan of hexes?

Mikhail sat forward, mulling over Morgyn's words for a moment. One thing still didn't make sense.

 Mik: You know I didn't kill them on my own, right? Why didn't you approach the fae that was with me?

Morg: Because she literally just got her soul back. That kind of wound takes years to heal.

Mik: Yeah well, you're dead wrong in that case. slaps the table and stands up

Mikhail's face was twisted with annoyance. It was always the same thing with these humans. They cuss you out one day, you kill the baddest thing in the universe then all of a sudden they're singing your praises. It's annoying. It's pathetic! 😡

 Morg: Wait, where are you going?

Mik: Forgot I had a client.

Morg: Nice try, redhead. Hey, if you're worried about me ratting you out-

Mik: turns, frustrated It's always the same with humans. You're their hero when it suits them. I am my own man, Morgyn. My skills are not for sale. huffs

Morg: Ok fine then. I won't mention-huh?! looks around in panic

Morgyn blinked just a second, and he was alone. No sign of Mikhail anywhere. Even the air seemed to have stood still 😮! No sound, no scent, nothing at all.

 Morg: Umm...hello? Did you just-

Mik: silently Guard your back better, sweetheart 😈

Morg: gasps What are you...doing.... 😴

Morgyn felt his vision cloud as he tried to figure out what happened. It was just a split second! He only turned around to make sure he wasn't hallucinating and then...this? What even was this state of mind? So lively one second, then sleepy in the next. Mikhail savored the rush of energy from this. Casters must have some really good mana reserves, huh. Only problem now...he's literally left holding the victim. Clever 😒.

 'Urgh, didn't think this one through. Welp, I did wake him up prematurely. Guess it's sweet dreams for him. I'll grill him later, for sure though.'

heavy thud, rustling sounds, receding footsteps

 At least Mikhail left the poor guy wrapped up warmly this time. He's not that cruel...yeah.... 🤔.

[sichore]

Hello hello! OC enthusiast here who was just kinda talking about this the other day. I'm part of a Discord for fans with dedicated sections for OCs and general creative endeavors!

So there's no real wrong way to make an OC since that's your little guy (gender neutral), that's your personalized nugget of fun. All I can share is my own process!

There's two ways to think of this to start with: do you wanna create (or imagine!) freestyle, or make a comprehensive story? Really this is just for mental organization uses because the #1 rule is that you shouldn't stress it. It's all for fun!

When I made Jimi, my first MTL OC, it was with the intent of making a MTL story that features her, to tie in some lore from the later seasons; I am not making Jimi's story that happens to feature MTL characters. There's a difference for me. Either way, there's all kinds of ways you can approach this wacky universe.

Like first and foremost, this is a comedy show that exaggerates celebrity culture. So your OC could be a mega fan who in the context if the show who probably be a fanatic and/or cultist :'D. Or they could be a normal person just trying to survive in an economy that wildly fluctuates based on the whims of five death metal dumbasses.

Or maybe you wanna smooch a main character, and in that case, the longer episodes of season 3 were the best for character exploration if you wanna learn more about the cast.

The deep lore about the guys being gods of a prophecy is more of a deep dive that doesn't fully come up until the end. I enjoy playing with the supernatural elements, but again, it's optional!

So the question is: what ideas do you have? How do you wanna play dolls with your little guy?

chat i desperately want to make an mtl oc but i have no clue where to start and i also feel weird bc idk if ive seen enough of the series to make one??? idk i just wanna make a silly little oc and not have their story rely too much on series lore but at the same time i feel like thats kind of inevitable. mtl oc people assemble ig 🙈

[heartfullofleeches]

Oc-tober Day Three – Haunted House

Yandere Supernatural Harem(Angel, Demon, Reaper) – Alasdair, Baron, Maddox

Word count: 1.5k

Tw: Violence and blood

“Suspect in multiple robberies is still at large. It is advised to-"

You shut off the tv as you walk by; sliding your jacket onto your shoulders. You had been invited to a haunted house hosted by none other than your housemates at one of their brother’s house across town. You use housemates as a loose term due to the fact you had little say in the matter. The combined three – demon, grim reaper, and your very own guardian angel- had taken up residency in your home for the better part of a year. They’re overprotective and barely give you space to breathe, but you’ve made your peace with their continued presence. 

-

Following the instructions given to you leads you to a three story house overlooking some beach. The yard is decorated in painted lawn gnomes and the garage is open; flashing lights and fog rolling onto the driveway. One of the gnomes holds an “enter here” sign pointed towards the old gate. You do as such, the door shutting as you step inside. 

“Welcome…”

You navigate the foggy domain with your hands in front of you, taking small steps so that you don’t trip. You can barely see anything, an open window keeping you from asphyxiating your only source of light. You nearly trip over and erupted tombstone, and scream at its feet ahead; rotted face peering through smog. Just a zombie prop. You continue a little further, bumping into a wall of black. Tilting your head up to face whatever it was, you’re greeted by a skeletal grin pointed at you. You freeze. 

The being’s blue eyes lock onto yours; shimmering like sapphires. It’s jaw hangs open in a single breath; the room growing colder as it exhales. The wind blows the smoke from its face; revealing its bony face to be nothing more than face paint.

“Maddox?”

The reaper nods. “Hi…”

You look at the rest of their body. They were dressed like a stereotypical grim reaper down to the plastic scythe they weld. They look a bit dejected, but smile faintly in your presence.

“Did I scare you?” 

“A bit.”

They sigh. “That makes me feel slightly better about this. Baron made me put it on in exchange for letting me do the majority of the decorations. I wanted to be a nurse. Halloween is still new to me, but it seems fun. Can we try this.. trick or treating later?”

“Sure.”

They point towards the garage door. “The others are inside. You’ll find them eventually. I’ll be here until you’re all done.”

“Alright. See you later then.” You head out the door; following the blood stained, sheet covered walls to the next location. The trail leads you to the living room. It seems relatively normal except for two glasses filled with a dark liquid on the coffee table. One has lip marks around its rim. You pick up the other and inspect it. It’s grape juice.

“oh~ has a little human come to join me in my den?”

You hear the sound of flapping wings; wind kicked up behind you as a black feather falls on your shoulder. You’re greeted by a horned figure; their points positioned in an angle that remind you of a broken halo. Four wings protrude from his spine; his body visible from the torso up as they wrap around him. He wears a sleeveless, open back shirt; black lines marked on his dark skin. His usual bow tie is replaced for a collar with an upside down cross. He sports a toothy smile; eyes flashing red. 

“Hello, Y/n.” Alasdair purrs. “It’s so lovely of you to join me.”

You step back as the angel steps closer, falling onto the approaching couch. He looms over you, reaching back to grab the untouched glass. He rests his hand on the cushion besides you as he leans in, the glass bushing your bottom lip. 

“You know, Baron gave me this role because he thought it would be a good laugh. He seemed to think he could decide everyone’s costume since Maddox eventually caved. He probably assumed I’d chicken out last minute…” He brings his arms around your neck, breath fanning your lips as his lips cress it. “but I’ve decided to embrace it.”

A smack against the glass panel of the backdoor catches your attention. You gently push Alasdair aside to see a football rolling into the grass. Curious, you walk outside and pick it up; a shout heard from across the field.

“Hey! Y/n! Throw it over here!”

You look up. The entire backyard had been transformed into an American football field. A player waves excitedly to you from the opposite goal. You’re unable to make out his face due to his helmet, but you see the faint pink hue of his eyes.

“Oh Lord, he was serious.” Alasdair steps outside; heels clicking against the patio as he folds his arms. “Baron! Get your ass over here right now!”

Baron runs across the field in record pace; a 666 displayed proudly on his shirt. The seven foot tall devil had been reduced to an even six feet and just as muscular. “What?”

“What the hell are you wearing?”

“I’m a football player! What else would I be.”

“You’re supposed to be scary!”

“And you are? The only thing I see you trying to do in that outfit is making my mate horny!”

“You choose the costume for me!” Alasdair sighs, rubbing his temple to calm the forming headache. “Alright. Y/n, please go back inside. This could last for a minute and I don’t want you to hear it. There’s refreshments in the kitchen and dinner will be prepared shortly.”

You walk back inside and shut the door as the screaming match picks up. Without direction you aimlessly wander the large house for longer than you’d like to admit. It wasn’t going the best for them in the scare factor, but you admired the dedication. You eventually find the kitchen and someone inside, looking through the drawers.

“Hello? Are you Baron’s brother?” Upon a second look you can see that he’s not just looking through the drawers, but dumping their contents into a large bag on the floor. He seems to notice where your eyes have trailed as he picks up a knife from the counter. You slowly back away as he approaches. 

“Look I don’t want any trouble…” 

He continues to walk towards you, clutching the knife so hard his knuckles go white. You bump into something as he charges; bracing for what’s to come. All that does is the splatter of something warm on your face and an arm around your chest.

“Don’t you fucking dare.” 

You open your eyes to see claws in the man’s chest; the knife falling to the floor as they’re ripped free. Blood trickles down Baron’s arm as he lifts it to his face. He shoves his fingers to the gates of his helmet and takes a lick; reaching at the taste.

“Even your blood tastes like shit.” He spits. The robber lays eyes widened on the kitchen floor as Alasdair rushes in. 

“What happened? We sensed that you were in danger.”

“Pencil dick over here tried to stab Y/n so I killed him”

Alasdair walks over to see the damages. “Honestly, Baron. It’s not like he didn’t deserve it, but try not to be so messy with it. Besides, he’s still alive.”

A spear of light appears in his hand as Alasdair stabs the man through his heart with his blade. The man twitches from the force before going limp. Alasdair kicks his outstretched arm back to his blood. He lifts his head up to shout. “Hey Maddox! We got another one.”

“I’m already on it.” The grim reaper appears at the man’s side; taking off their gloves and placing their hand on his head. His body shrivels until it crumbles away into human shaped piles of ash that slowly break away. “He’s been taken to the sands of time. You don’t have to worry about him getting a lighter sentence.”

“We still have to clean up.”

“Do we really have to?” Baron retorts. “There’s already like twenty bodies buried around this place. The most C.C will be mad about is what we did to the gnomes.” 

“I don’t want to touch vermin ashes either, but it’s the right thing to do.”

“Should’ve made him swallow his own tongue.”

In the time they had spent feeding you and caring for you were sick; you forgot the true horror of your band of misfits. They were willing to kill for you at the drop of a dime, and already had in the past. Retribution wasn’t in the cards for anyone who crossed you; their bodies destroyed by powers like no other and their souls dragged to a place where none could return from.

Maddox takes off their robes and drapes it over your shoulders. “Happy Halloween, Y/n.” 

[spidersmiceandeverythingnice]

Okay as promised - now we get to talk about Calanmai and the very bizarre issue that SJM has with consent.

So as my mutual pointed out, the "closest" Tamlin gets to the boundary pushing YA bad boy sexy scene in ACOTAR takes place during the Spring Equinox where he propostions and bites Feyre. This scene made a lot of people justifiably upset - I wasn't a huge fan either when I first read it - but believe it or not! This scene actually becomes so much worse when you put it in the context of ACOTAR as a whole!

So here is the context for Calanmai as a whole: It is the celebration of the Spring Equinox, where Tamlin, as part of his official duty as the High Lord of Spring, officially ends winter and imbues the land with magic that ensures that crops will grow - a ritual change of the seasons and literal demonstration of his authority and power as a High Lord. There's bonfires, faerie orgies - actually it sounds kinda like a great party and everyone is looking forward to it, but Tamlin hasn't mentioned anything to Feyre up until this point.

Lucien then explains that this isn't just like a fun sexy faerie party. As part of the Spring Court's celebration, faeries from the other Courts are invited into Spring to participate in the revelries. They don't have a lot of direct control over who crosses their borders given that Amarantha is currently in charge and her minions and spies are stated to be numerous and everywhere. Furthermore, Tamlin isn't just leading the celebration - he is going to invite some supernatural force of pure magic to possess his body in order to complete some magic coupling ritual, and when this magic enters him, he completely loses all sense of self until he won't even remember his own name.

Or in other words: Tamlin takes a magic roofie and is forced to have sex with a random ass stranger in front of many many other random ass strangers.

This is.... not good. To put it super super mildly. A lot of this is framed to make Tamlin seem sexually aggressive but it is, in fact, the only time he's actually sexually aggressive in any context. He and Feyre only sleep together once, after he confesses that he's fallen in love with her and she is the one who then invites him to bed, and initiates sex with him.

So the fact that Tamlin needs to take a roofie and have dubiously consensual sex (and again I am being super charitable in my analysis because I have seen many people outright condemn this as Tamlin being raped) to make this ritual is one thing.

The other thing is that Lucien confirms to Feyre that Tamlin is legitimately attracted to her, so the magic might "choose" her as his Maiden for the ritual despite her still being human. And because of the celebration's wildness and the ritual's dubious nature, neither of them want for that to happen. So Lucien and Tamlin both ask her to stay in her room, lock the doors, set up snares and traps and whatever she does, but don't answer the door if anything knocks and don't come out until morning.

So this already sketch ass ritual has now been clarified with a boundary.

Feyre leaves her room twice. The first time, we get Rhysands introduction. I'll get to this and the massive gaslighting that happens later but in any case - Lucien manages to find her and brings her back to the house and begs her to please, please stay in her room like they asked her to.

The second time she leaves the room, it's Tamlin she encounters, queue biting scene. Feyre smacks him across the face and basically tells him to fuck off, because she's a whole person with agency and he doesn't get to touch her without permission, ever.

And.... Tamlin does this. Granted, he lightly rags on her for not doing what he asked - and like, hello, Feyre? How hard was it to get earplugs and knock out for the evening rather than putting yourself through this ordeal which literally everyone warned you about ahead of time - but most importantly he also respects a boundary and does not sexually approach her again until she initiates at the end of the story.

One of my main issues with Rhysand as a character is that he continually, repeatedly, habitually disrespects and ignores boundaries if he believes that they aren't reasonable or don't suit him. We see this happen many times with his "illusion of choice" - we see this happen when he manipulates Tarquin to steal the Summer Court's treasure even though Feyre points out that Tarquin is the leader of a friendly Court and might just give them the Book of Breathing if they explain what it's for - we see this happen when he allows his homophobic abusive uncle access to his Saintly City despite his cousin begging him not to do this because she doesn't feel safe - etc etc etc.

The difference between Calanmai and the later scenes with Rhysand is consent. In the Calanmai scene with Tamlin, Feyre has character agency and strength. Has she made objectively stupid choices? Yes! But she's also allowed to do this in the narrative, and she's allowed to tell her love interest that he doesn't get to decide what's good for her because she'll handle herself. He doesn't get to put his hands on her until she asks him to.

Furthermore, Calanmai serves as Rhysands character intro and... Let me just find my ACOTAR copy real quick. Page 189 is where the chapter starts. Feyre says that Rhysand is the most physically beautiful person she's ever seen - but at this point, she finds all High Fae attractive and beautiful. Here, on 190: "Had I just traded three monsters for something far worse?"

She holds her ground, saying that "I was terrified of him, but I wasn't about to let him know," and lies about being at the bonfire with friends who will look for her if she's missing, frantically looks for ways to escape while Rhysand purrs and prowls and blocks off the path so she can't immediately run. She says at the bottom of Page 190, "I had never seen anyone so handsome - and never had so many warning bells pealed in my head because of it."

Rhysand, in Mist and Fury, tells Feyre that she wasn't ACTUALLY scared of him, which I'd be like, okay, fair enough for him to think that based on their introduction - except on page 191, Feyre says, "When I stopped shaking, I looked around at the gathered faeries."

Girl was so terrified of Rhysand that she started having a physical reaction to his presence. Rhysand later violates her sexual boundaries ("I braced myself to be drugged and disgraced again.") and has the unmitigated nerve to gaslight her in Mist and Fury by saying that he could tell she was attracted to him from the start, that she'd secretly enjoyed and appreciated her own sexual assault.

I literally do not have the words basically for how disgusting this. Like - SJM seems to realize that she wrote some legitimately Bad Shit with Calanmai. Like in ACOWAR it's revealed that Lucien volunteered to take Tamlin's place in the ritual - because he was upset over Feyre being kidnapped and didn't want to take a roofie and have sex with a random stranger - and "Some line was crossed," but even then, she seems to believe that a line was crossed because Evil Femme Fatale Ianthe got involved and not any inherent issue with the ritual itself. She also implied in Book One that all High Lord's preform a version of the same ritual Tamlin does - and then made one of those Lords an openly gay man. But instead of dealing with that story line - Tamlin doesn't seem to enjoy Calanmai, and its kind of obvious as to why - SJM just decided to reframe her narrative as "Uh Tamlin Bad and Aggressive, Rhysand Good because Choices" when the actual text of her story proves the opposite of this at every turn. Feyre has to loose sexual agency in her relationship with Rhysand in order to make it work - because she was established as a character who was in control of her sex life and Rhysand took that away from her. Rather than deal with that trauma, we make it so that Rhysand was her soul mate all along and Feyre actually liked being dressed up and made to do public lap dances under the influence tee hee how naughty amiright ladies?????

Anyhow fuck Mist and Fury especially.