#I DON'T KNOW HOW TO PLAY BUT IVE LIKE HALFWAY MADE A CHARACTER ALREADY. HELP

[sol-shines]

GOT ACCEPTED INTO A LANCER CAMPAIGN AT MY SCHOOL'S TTRPG CLUB. WE ARE DOING IT SCARED

[variousqueerthings]

[ @syrupmap said: variousqueerthings I thought "he's going to be SO surprised!" You have a gift. Please predict the ending. Ooh! How is everyone going to end up? That might be fun to reread after your first watch]

okokok i wanna try this, i think it'd be so fun!

im gonna repeat a bit some of the private messaging to you, with some new Stuff:

learning that this is the Halfway Point got everything together in my head in terms of season three/season three part 1 (is there an official way of talking about the structure?) so definitely this idea of halfway-through is informing how I'm coming at season four/season three part 2, but it's also making it harder to predict because should i think of this as the second half of one season or as two seasons? we won't know until we watch! but certainly that makes a difference in terms of structure

SO. ive watched episode one, which was a relatively light-hearted return to the story. im awaiting some slightly heavier episodes, which idk. finale will be i assume Plot Heavy (safe bets). which leaves 10 episodes in the middle. of those, i'll give PG at least two zanier more surreal plots perhaps. one (slightly spoiled) physical!whump for fraser plot. i'll guess that one may be in the latter half, but it's hard to say, because it depends on whether im looking this as 13 episodes (self-contained) or 26 episodes (in which case we're in the latter half already). it all comes down to how the show is broken up, which i can't predict. also at least two, maybe more like three more light-hearted episodes. and something heavier for ray kowalski as well. which leaves us with three open spots that could go in any direction. i WANT them to be heavier/more emotionally damaging for me, because im that sort of person, but this show goes in many directions, so we shall see 🤪

also... stella and meg coming back into play in some way. i wonder whether stella is going to be more of a background-ish character as she has been outside of her Big Episode or if there will be another focus on her before the pilot. meg, im assuming they're going to continue with the adoption plot, but it'd be cool to involve her more in the way they did in seeing is believing and mountie on the bounty

also, will these women continue to be love interests in some capacity? im assuming yes, but i think not in the most uncomplicated/obvious way (see my finale predictions below), because that's been the structure of the show thus far

things I know are: - fraser and rayk have made a commitment (as of mountie on the bounty) and i presume this will be more and more evidenced throughout these next 10 episodes -- the main focus will be following these two (although, i was surprised that episode 1 didn't do that so much, it was more about fraser and welsh, which, listen, definitely not complaining about!!!) - welsh being dad!vibes continues, but he's had his big focus episode now, so assuming he's mostly back to being police chief (commissioner? i never know what police roles are) - ray vecchio returns in the finale in some capacity

so early days prediction for the finale with the caveat that currently things are wide open:

meg will adopt a kid. idk if this will happen before the finale or during. my gut feeling is before, because then the kid is already there and the plot doesn't need to spend too much time on that part of it. will the kid be massively important to the finale, plotwise? mmmmmmmi don't think so, other than i wonder if it'll readjust meg's priorities

meg and fraser.......... will be ambiguous. i feel like it may veer towards fraser and her not getting together, but with an acknowledgement of feelings of some kind

fraser will hm. not stay in chicago. fraser has been offered the chance to leave chicago twice now and both times he's decided to stay after a great deal of deliberation for someone else's sake (either to protect, as with rayv, or to help grow, as with rayk). there's been elements of doing it for himself too, that he wants to help this community, that he has some roots now, and that he could grow himself if he commits, but ultimately i don't know if chicago is the place where he Belongs. to naysay myself, maybe it ultimately does become that place.... maybe he stays for himself at the end (wow, well done with predicting the two most opposite possibilities). it depends, i think, on how that settling into himself happens here in the tailend of the story. does he find a new place to live? does he get another community? does he feel connected? currently he's still very much fighting against real-boy-ification/domestication, and the question is whther the story leans more towards some of the warnings of s2 (like mask or the edge) or if something will change. so i lean the first, but the second if these stipulations are in place

diefenbaker. i Do Not Know. i hope that wherever fraser is, diefenbaker remains. but it depends on where the story goes vis a vis diefenbaker as a manifestation of fraser's soul + fraser's brother + manifestation of the wild being domesticated... (the wild bunch really lives rentfree with me forever)

ray vecchio and/or ray kowalski get love interests. i don't want'em to. but it's the 90s. i just realised with the current women on the show this would be rayv with stella and rayk with frannie. hm. i don't want it. but it wouldn't be the worst comphet in the world. but i don't want it generally

rayv and rayk will not like each other at first. but i hope they become friends. maybe, if fraser leaves, even partners. dunno. there's something about both of them and partners in their respective stories...

mmmmmmm i want rayv and rayk to work together to save fraser's life in some way. don't care what way. but i want it. work through your differences and help The Boy! and maybe have a good natter about how difficult it can be to keep him alive sometimes

oh sooome kind of full-circle with the pilot. possibly returning to canada for a bit? some kind of catharsis with his ghost!dad? some sense that this story began at that point and now it has ended in a similar place (emotionally, geographically, stakes-wise, narrative callbacks, etc) -- maybe ghost!bob finally finds peace and leaves... that would do it for sure.....

this is maybe not useful, but i doooo think it will be a very good finale that won't give me everything i would want to see. i think it'll probably have some frustrating 90s stuff (like love interests) but it'll have a lot of really good stuff, and it'll be open enough to imagine a "and what comes next is for you to decide, dear viewer..." post-narrative. i want it to not be too neatly wrapped up

things i don't predict but youknow. in my heart and soul:

fraser leaves the mounties (because man has he been screwed over by law-enforcement a lot, but it won't happen and also that would be a whole Other story of having to become a whole new person, his essence is wrapped up in Being A Mountie. it's everything he's got. but. youknow)

rayk and rayv leave the police department. im making everyone leave law enforcement. i want them to be private detectives!!!!!!

elaine returns (she won't, but she does to me) (she also becomes a private detective with them)

we get to explore what happened to rayv in las vegas (cue my brutal noir spinoff show)

stella gets a girlfriend

(lol the girlfriend is frannie, IVE SOLVED IT!!!!)

meg and fraser start a casual D/s thing, super chill, good for them both (im getting silly now) (technically they had that in s2) (but in my version meg also puts fraser in a corset) (ok done now)

I THINK that's about it, pieces-wise. we're at a crossroads about to embark on the final part of the story. both very exciting and ngl preemptively sad about that