#I can quote all of Cas’ lines

[prettybumblebees]

Finals Week! Also known as Playing Supernatural in the Background While I Study Week!

[souporsaladnatural]

Transcription of Jensen's full answer from That Part of his and Misha's panel

[Misha laughs, Jensen goes to speak but looks down shaking his head and grinning]

Jensen: “God… [Crowd laughs] Uh, professionally, [Crowd laughs again][...]”

Misha: “And you put that in air quotes.”

Jensen: “[Laughs] Use that term loosely. Uhm, there- there is- uh- there’s- there’s few people that, when the cameras are rolling, you get to um… truly create, moments that aren't on the page. Uhm, and it’s- it’s hard sometimes to find rhythm, and cohesiveness with everyone you work with. Uhh, and when you find the- the rare person that um, can- can, uh, play at a level that… makes you wanna be better, and also it almost is like a- it’s like a high that you get, when the creative juices are flowing and you're- you’re making moments that maybe didn't even plan to be there. ‘Happy accidents’ we used to call them. Of- Of emotion, or, uh- between-the-lines, uh- nuance moments.

And I think there’s a reason that the story of- of Dean and Cas skewed to where it was, was because, uh, I kept- kept being able to have that creative, um, ignition with Mish when- when those cameras were rolling that was uhh- that made me a better actor, uhm, and- and made me wanna be- wanna find that even more. And… and it’s- it’s a testament to not just his, uh, his talent but his- the way he preps, the way he plays, the way he- he uh, entertains, and performs. Um, there’s- there’s just such a uh, there’s such an openness. I say that um, that as- as an actor, you know people have asked me ‘I wanna be an actor, do you have any, uh, advice?’ I say ‘Know your stuff, but be emotionally available to any and everything when the cameras are rolling.’ And that is when you find the magic. And… the magic was always there when Misha would walk on set and those cameras would roll. So I think professionally that was one of the great assets that he brought on a daily basis, that I- that I got to be the beneficiary of.

In fact all- everybody, anybody that got to work with him, if they were available to it, and they noticed what he was doing was- was, you know, so nuanced, um, that it made them better. Um, so I really appreciate that gift of getting to work with him. Uh, the scene where he tells Dean goodbye, uhm, I- I- I blanked in that- in that scene. Because I became an audience member. I just simply was watching this unbelievable performance unfold and I had the best seat in the house. And then it was like my turn to speak and I was like ‘Oh, shit, uhm.’ I said ’Don’t ruin this for him, don’t ruin this for him.’ Uh, so when you get to work with somebody that has that level of talent and that level of expertise and- and- and knows how to- how to utilize performance the way he does, it just- um- it’s just really a gift.

Uhh personally, uh- the- he- he disgusts me. Um. [Crowd laughs] He’s just so dry that the oil never worked. [Crowd and Misha laughs] Buckets, of buckets of oil, it just… No, he- uh- I will say this, he’s- um- he- he’s such a man of- of many talents outside of just the acting field, uh, that it- it does truly disgust me sometimes. When he- in our meet and greet he’s like ‘What kind of hobbies do you have?’ and he’s like ‘Oh, I like to go into the woods and make furniture.’ I’m like ‘No!’ [crowd laughs] No! I see on- He’s like ‘What’d you do this weekend?’ ‘Oh, I went and like forged metal things with my kid-’ No! [Misha and crowd laugh]

Um… he’s such an amazing dad, he’s such an amazing friend, um… and… and uh, I mean this is very self-serving, but uh, it’s- um- he’s- he’s on the extreme short list of people that I would, that I would call, if I had a problem.”

[Misha gets up to hug Jensen, and Jensen immediately retreats to the other side of the stage. Misha hugs him, whispers something in his ear, and Jensen grins and hugs him back. They walk back to their seats]

Jensen: “[whispered into mic] He told me he loved me!”

What in the fuck was in the water this weekend

[Video] [Misha's Answer]

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

This is probably small in the grand scheme of things, but how did Emilie being noble play any impact in the story at all?

I mean, I'd get it if it was just a small detail to help deepen Emilie's character, but why nobility of all things? I don't know, from what I'm seeing so far, the whole "Emilie renounced her noble title" shtick just feels worthless if it's not going to impact the story or add depth to Emilie's character (like maybe upbringing or personal values?).

I don't know. Like everything else, the noble part just feels shallow and means nothing to the story, especially for a character like Emilie, who is the plot device for the whole show. Any detail about her, like her personality and life story, is supposed to influence the story and characters one way or another, namely Hawkmoth since she's his driving force.

So what was the point?

For context, this ask is about Félix's play which says that Emilie gave up her title to be with Gabriel. I'm gonna give a slightly larger section of the transcript of the play for full context, but the relevant but is at the end of the last paragraph:

Félix: The king and queen's twins grew up, each day as different in heart as they were similar in body. The firstborn, curious and brazen, despised life at court and escaped at every opportunity. The younger daughter, well-behaved and respectful, did everything she could to please her parents, and stayed quietly in the castle. Félix: (as Mr. Graham de Vanily) Oh, my queen. Did we entrust our legacy to the right princess? Kagami: (as Mrs. Graham de Vanily) She will fall in line, eventually. Félix: Confident that she would settle down as she matured, the king and queen allowed the curious princess to leave to study beyond the sea in another kingdom. There, she immediately found true love in a humble tailor. Félix: The tailor was making clothes so magnificent that they revealed the beauty of the soul of anyone who wore them. Although it made her parents furious, the curious princess gave up her rank, her wealth and her kingdom to live a bohemian life with the tailor.

Story wise, I have no idea why any of this was added since it adds nothing to canon. It's not like this finally explains why Gabriel and Emilie are poor while Amelie is wealthy. Along similar lines, it's not like Amelie's title has ever mattered. Prior to this play, I don't think that we even knew that she had a title or that she was the younger sister. The play is all about explaining things that we never had reasons to question in the first place.

My best guess as to why the writers wrote this pointless backstory is that they wanted to make Emilie seem even more pure and perfect so they went with the tired old trope of a rich girl giving up material things for the sake of love and art because good pure women don't care about material things! Only nasty, shallow women care about money. (Way to play into sexist tropes, guys.)

There may also be cultural elements at play here given that France doesn't have the greatest history with nobility, so giving up a noble title may be seen as good and pure to a French writer, but I don't know enough about French culture to say that with any certainty. If anyone who reads this blog is French and would like to chime in, then feel free!

While we're on the topic of the play, I wanted to point out that the above quoted passage is why I say that the Graham de Vanily parents can be as kind or as abusive as you'd like to make them. It's incredibly vague and you can read into it whatever you want to read into it. Were they good loving parents who were just upset about their daughter living in poverty or were they miserable controlling classist who Emilie fled England to get away from? It's up to you because you can get both reads from this. The play commits to almost nothing of value. Politicians could take lessons from this impressive level of noncommittal writing.

A better version of the play would have focused on things that actually matter to canon like the details of finding the miraculous and/or Emilie learning she's sick, but you could only have those details if they were coming from Nathalie or Gabriel. Félix is a terrible choice for a character to tell us the show's backstory because he knows so little of it, thus the play focusing on his largely pointless backstory.

[f-t-e]

I started watching SUPERNATURAL in November 2020. I know, I know. My partner and I had been isolating alone since March. The timing felt right. I went though a wild amount of upheaval and trauma over the next year and SPN was there for me through it all. It was THE show at THE time and it kept me afloat when I needed it the most. Since November 2021 I've written just about 110,000 words of SPN fanfic, a number that seems unbelievable to me, and that too has been a real blessing to my creative life, no matter what haters say. (why didn't I write my own novels in that time? Because I have a hobby, Karen, and I love it.) And I've read about 500000x that much fanfic, which has been the biggest blessing of all. (ETA: oh right, if you want to read my fic, you can find my stuff here, I wrote a fic where Dean reads books. Lots of books.)

I know I'm a nobody in this fandom but I thought on this, our #DestielDay, I would submit my own humble rec list. I've curated this very deliberately: every fic here has just about 4000 hits or less (most under 3000) and all were published in 2020 or after. So, sort of a rec list for some lesser known and newer fics, something you maybe haven't stumbled on yet. Especially thank you to @jewishcharliebradbury, her rec lists gave me a place to start back in the day and I have tried to model the depth and quality they brought to their lists. I tried to link to everyone's tumblr, but if I missed one, let me know.

Most of all, thank you to everyone who has EVER created something for this fandom, from 2005 to 2023. I am so thankful and, honestly, honored to be among your number. You're not supposed to be cringe and say a show saved your life...but SUPERNATURAL saved me, it really did. See y'all when the movie/reboot drops, to quote Ryan Gosling in The Notebook: IT WASN'T OVER, IT STILL ISN'T OVER. And I'm glad.

-----

Finale Fix-It & S15 and Beyond

What The Moon Was Saying by Amiril (@runawaymarbles)

This is hands-down one of the coolest “Dean Rescues Cas from the Empty” fics I have ever read and the concept is brilliantly structured to mirror the literal and metaphorical things Dean needs to give up and let go to get free. Every scenario is very satisfying and they make sense, is there any better feeling? Dean is very open in this, but in a believable way that still has edges. And, oh, the reunion is so good. Plus all the family stuff. Just excellent, exactly what you want in a fic like this: lovely, well-written, smart, fulfilling, all the pieces clicking, the show but better.

Awake and Annoying by skycruise

I love the use and passage of time in this one, it has some real impact, and I love the way Dean gets into the Empty (so smart, fits just right) and what I REALLY love in this one is the way it lets Dean be really clear-eyed and honest about his relationship with Sam, both the strengths and the weaknesses. And the last line, very clever and moving inverse of one of fandom’s favorite things. 

Living the life you chose by allthismusic

THEEEEE post finale Sam Winchester-Outsider-POV this fandom needs. Sam is absolutely awesome in this, the most believable, loving, realistic mix of “I knew all along” and “I had no idea” versions of Sam, landing somewhere I think that’s really true and in character. It fills in and develops so many gaps and silences in what the show let Sam know in the absolute best way. Best Brother Sam is a weakness of mine and he really shines here, there for Dean in the best ways but also coming into his own, I love it so very much. (this author also has a very great 2022 Big Bang fic, hugely recommend that one too.)

your ear to the wound that whispers by EmandFandems (@lazarusemma)

Who doesn’t love a HANDPRINT FIC?!? And boy this is such a good one. It follows Dean and his thoughts on the handprint from the first touch all the way to fixing the finale and it simply buzzes with longing and desire, tenderness and rawness. It’s great insight in lot of ways into Dean’s journey. It’s short but fulfilling and oh that very perfect last line. (this author also has a lot of great Jupernatural content.)  

Somewhere Off in the Dark by magickastiel 

Another awesome fic that traces Dean’s shifting/growing feelings for Cas from when he shows up in his hotel rooms to a HEA fix it after canon. Dean, again, is handled so deftly in this one, his confusion and sorrow at all the times Cas is slipping away from him all the way through the things he won’t let himself know. He feels really true in this one, sharp and tender in the best Dean ways. Also it has an agonizingly romantic end, you love to end up there.

Pins and Feathers by theskywasblue (@buttherewasnogod)

This author has so many freaking good SPN fics, omg it was almost impossible to pick just one to include on this list. Go treat yourself with their entire list because there’s so much good stuff there! But this one, oh I am a sucker for a finale fix-it that lets Dean be this tender. While I LOVE fics where he just jumps right into Cas’s arms (and write them lol) I also feel like this is so true to Dean too: that “maybe I misunderstood, maybe I shouldn’t say anything, maybe he doesn’t still –” And on top of all that, it’s a “they go the beach” fic and it gets the details of it so right, sand in your toes and all. Tender, amazing slow-burn, real, hot, full of heart and longing and everything unspoken and just waiting. Very satisfying!

i loved you first by kalmialatifolia

A set of four short fics that create an entire world of feeling and emotion. These feel like little whispered stories told under the covers, very atmospheric. There’s one very sexy one, a haircutting one (so good) and they’re just intimate. All together a great set and did I mention they’re in the “Cas saves himself” genre which is mmmm an underrated treasure.

no other faith is light enough for this place by anonymous 

A fix-it fic that has a particularly unique and beautiful visual of both how and why Cas comes back. The mechanics behind it are fairly standard but the way this author creates the visual of it, the sheer emotion and force behind it and how it happens, it really stood out to me and stuck with me. It’s Dean being brave enough to really feel and the way that just blossoms – lovely, aching, full-tilt wonderful.

 no proof, one touch by TakeThisWaltz (@watchinghimrakeleaves)

One thing I absolutely cannot get enough of is fic where Cas is hiding out from Dean in heaven. It just hits. And the only thing better is Dean chasing him down and the WAY he does it in this fic, methodically and – well the method (sobs) it is so endearing and OBVIOUS and gives Dean a chance to shout in all the best ways. This one is just real sweet and kind of goofy and if they have to be in heaven, I want them to still be these same two dorks.

Stay by redbrickrose

This is a post S15x18 from Cas’s POV and I think it’s very true to where he would be in the moment of getting yanked out of the Empty: resigned, hesitant about what he has in front of him, still a little in shock. And then. And then. Sweet and simple and Dean gets a chance to say, say, say it. This author has a good post series AU and a lovely little spate of S15 codas, all good. And then wrote this in real-time in the week after 15x18 Despair and right before 15x19 Inherit the Earth aired (could you just sob over the possibilities?!) and then hasn’t wrote anything since and that’s a shame but, like, yeah I get it.

like a one-two punch by Muir_Wolf (@muirmarie)

Don’t you love a short fic that feels like it’s a whole novel? This goes AU after 14x20 Moriah but it is a truly delightful twist on how Chuck could’ve reacted there and it makes Dean sharp as a knife, which is one really resonant image woven through this fic. Great imagery here and so many clever solutions for the lazy plotting of S15, including simply one of my all-time favorites in any fic ever solutions to Cas’s deal (genius) and getting rid of Chuck. Brilliant like a puzzle box yet still full of so much fucking joy.

maybe i like pleasure pain by tothewillofthepeople (@kvothes)

The fact that this was written in October 2023 and is so agonizingly good fills my heart with joy and tells me Destiel will never die lol. Cas, in particular, is great in this – he’s having a hard time adjusting to being in a body and with all the fuzz of the world. I love fics where Cas struggles with coming back from the Empty and this uses a really unique approach to it: Cas facing sensory overload and not knowing how to feel but wanting it all. Lovely, hot, Dean is just right in this too.

Earlier Canon (pre S15)

Proverbs 13:12 by starlingcas (@angelcasendgame)

Many might say I am biased because Renu has beta’ed everything I have written in the SPN fandom and they can read my brain and make everything I write better. But it’s not just that. Renu has done something beautiful and delicate in this fic, which is about Dean and Cas getting trapped in a net together (forced proximity trope, yes please) and weaves a web of its own; pulling you in just as they are pulled together. This is set mostly in early S14 (before fixing the finale in the most heart-healing way) and captures that feeling so well. There’s so much that’s unsaid between them yet still conveyed and Renu absolutely nails that, along with the tender longing that was always there. This is a fic to relish.

you may tire of me (as our december sun is setting) by deludedfantasy

You know how the show just sometimes is like “uh so anyway uh then Cas…uh…left.” and it just doesn’t make one lick of sense? FINALLY FINALLY a fic where Dean says “I’ll go with you,” and then goes because he actually would do that. This is a post Tombstone fic so it is exactly where/when he WOULD go and it is tender and hesitant and aching in just all the ways it would be between the two of them at this time. It’s about needing to keep someone in sight, it’s about having another chance to say something so important, it’s slow and soft and just right for the characters in this place. I could read this one about 100 times.

the anatomy of flightless birds by cowlovely (@dollhousemary)

This fic is basically the way you feel when you get all cozy and snug underneath your favorite blanket. This is a domestic-life-in-the Bunker S9 fic where everyone behaves like they are in character and not just like they have to get Cas off screen because the writers panicked. You’ll just want to curl up in this fic and savor it the way you wrap your fingers around a hot beverage on a very cold day, there’s no better way to describe it.

virtue by JenTheSweetie

I think I’ve read this about 100 times and it still gets me everytime? It’s a five things fic about Dean and Cas hooking up and it’s all you’ve ever wished for. This is set in an amorphous S8 and it is not just agonizingly hot but also romantic and very funny. It feels really in character! Sam is hilarious, Dean is clueless but bowled over and letting himself be swept up, Cas is delighting in every second and smarter than he lets on and it ALL feels fated and lovely and sexy and just splendid. (this author only has 3 SPN fics but they are all so good and if you try sometimes, well you just might find is an absolutely brilliant deconstruction of Dean learning the differences between “needing” and “wanting.”)

Romance at the Motel 6 by shelia_amour 

This fic makes me feel like Stefon from SNL. This fic has everything: Cas and Sam pretending to be married, just the right amount of jealous Dean, Dean randomly pretending to be married to Cas, Dean realizing maybe this isn’t so fake after all, motel vibes, Cas in Dean’s clothes, Cas getting bee slippers. If you are not sold on this already, we are very different people. So good, aches just right. (set in a kind of “whenever” of canon, but I like to put it somewhere in S8.)

que sera sera by Purple_Starflower (@hauntedpearl)

The epitome of how fanfic unfolds for us all the things that COULD happen. You can’t PROVE to me Dean and Cas never snuck off to snuggle and feed Dean’s touch-starvation early in S13. I had to check when I finished because I just couldn’t believe this fic was under 4000 words because it feels so full of touch, longing, the things unspoken, and all the ways Dean was reaching, reaching, reaching. The best kind of ache, and everything by this author is lovely. 

the hard edge that you’re settling for by lesspopped (@trekkiedean)

This is some S10 Demon!Dean that made my stomach hurt and my heart ache and I absolutely loved it and I absolutely hated it and it all felt so REAL with who Demon!Dean was and could have been. There’s a TW for mildly dubious consent in this, but to me, Cas was so agonizingly true to who he was/where he was at this point in canon too. This fic is gloriously, claustrophobically intimate. I say unbearable because as a reader you know that this closeness, this intimacy, is what Dean wants/craves/deserves but can only give himself as a demon and the author does an exquisite job at getting all that across. Hurts so good! 

four of swords by sundryvillians (eurythmix) (@perenial)

Can the world ever have enough post 12x12 fic? The answer is, of course, no. Dean and Cas bake bread and in the soft space of creating something with their own hands, get so close to the words Cas said. It’s about healing and anger and making something just because you are so tired of everything breaking. If that alone isn’t enough to convince you, let me also throw in this is another one of those “possible off-screen moments in canon” that gives them something honest and tender and raw and it feels so very possible. 

Fifteen Prayers From the Faithless by koyas_cat

Short, achy, that sweet sting. A set of prayers for Cas from the beginning to the end, full of all the things Dean doesn’t let himself say outloud and just reflecting the changes in their connection over alllll the years. So good.

[wellofdean]

Fellas, this quote from Jensen over the weekend... I LIVE!

"There's few people that, when the cameras are rolling, you get to truly create moments that aren't on the page, and it's hard sometimes to find rhythm and cohesiveness with everybody you work with, and when you find the rare person that can...play at a level that makes you want to be better, it's almost like a high, that when the creative juices are flowing, and you are making moments that you maybe didn't even plan to be there, "happy accidents" we used to call 'em, of emotion, or between the lines nuance moments, and I think there's a reason that the story of Cas and Dean skewed to where it was, because I kept being able to have that creative ignition with Mish, when those cameras were rolling that made me a better actor, and made me want to find that even more."

First, what I nice thing to say about Misha! It must be super embarrassing to sit next to a guy who is just singing your praises like a bird all the time.

Second, I know there are those in the fandom who will sieze on the word "accident" and think yeah, it was all just Jensen things, he wants to sit in Misha's lap and twirl his hair, and like...ok, maybe! But, what interests me here is his use of the word 'cohesiveness' and the end, where he is saying that those moments arose because playing opposite Misha made him better at acting, and better at finding nuance and communicating what was not on the page.

I've been thinking a lot about the cohesiveness Supernatural has despite all the writers room/showrunner turnover, because in some ways, particularly character ways, it is REALLY cohesive, and I think a lot of that is down to the actors, and A LOT of what is down to the actors is Jensen, because he is clearly very invested in Dean, and cares a lot about getting Dean right. I mean, he played this complicated, fascinating guy on this silly genre show with his whole heart for 15 years, which is AMAZING and humble and beautiful of him, if you ask me. And I think a lot about how he made Dean so cohesive.

Making a TV show or a film is not just playing out the scenes in order -- it's stopping, resetting, starting again, waiting around, starting, reshooting, etc. And, it really isn't just straightforwardly an emotional journey. I think people really underestimate the professionalism involved, and how fucking great at it Jensen is. What this quote tells me is that moments between Cas and Dean were cathected and emotional in ways he couldn't have predicted, but he KNEW what he was playing, what he was trying for, and that Misha, as an actor, helped him find what he needed to convey in ways he didn't expect and which were a little bit of creative magic. Cas and Dean's story went the way it did because Misha helped him be better at finding nuance and emotion in Dean that wasn't in the words he was there to say, but WAS in Dean.

Guys, I love. Jensen is so not a dumbass. He is so thoughtful in commenting on Dean and I am HERE FOR IT. I have so many questions! Like, I have never been to a con, and kind of feel like it would be embarrassing? But, I have so many questions.

[stanfordsweater]

hello i'm new to the supernatural fandom and you have been in my recommendeds for a while, reasons to ship wincest???

i thought for a long time about how to respond to this so imma link catherine tosenberger's excellent analysis of the first few seasons where "the most resistive aspect of Wincest fan fiction is that it gives the main characters a lasting happiness that the series eternally defers."

to begin with, there are a lot of people who will argue for the toxic codependency and i love them and also love it but the reason i've been here for well over a decade is because of the way that wincest offers you two paths: you can follow the path of those who write endless meta about how one or the other brother is abusive and how toxic it is and eventually brainwash yourself into being unable to ship it, or you can follow the path of love and light and perspective and recognize 1. these are fictional characters and b. there are no two characters in genre tv who are as devoted to each other as sam and dean. there is no plotline that follows through fifteen seasons of being obsessed with each other.

by choosing the incest pill, you grant yourself access to fifteen seasons of generally good tv ABOUT YOUR SHIP EXCLUSIVELY. sam and dean are the main characters and you will always know, opening up an episode, that they will be there, doing their weird-ass jealous obsessiveness, and you will never despair about not having them present, together, even if they're fighting or struggling or depressed. that is a very special thing!

now, beyond that, assuming you've watched the show, there's many reasons to cross the incest line. FIRSTLY, everyone involved was well aware of what they were doing. we have a few choice quotes i've collected below about their relationship that ramps up the intensity:

--

"Ultimately, they are pathologically dishonest with each other because John Winchester was pathologically elusive to them," consulting producer Ben Edlund says. "They learned that the truth is this dangerous thing, and that you shouldn't speak it. He even taught them to keep secrets from each other for strategic purposes." With all of the supernatural, apocalyptic, tragic drama woven into the show, Sam and Dean's relationship is rooted in human emotion. "When you look at the dysfunction that they show to each other, it comes directly from how they were brought up, and that's a kind of dysfunction that people in this world continue to face. 'Why didn't my dad tell me that he loved me yesterday?' We're just people sharing the same kind of thing," Edlund says.

--

"Why do you think Dean has had such a hard time forgiving Cas when he did forgive Sam for a similar betrayal?"

I think the easy answer is blood, I think the easy answer is family, even though if there was a family in this show it would include Bobby, it would include Cas, it would include these-- these-- kind of, broken war-torn heroes we've come to know, and you know, Bobby has that famous line, "family don't end with blood," but it is his brother, at the end of the day, that's the closest he has to a companion, and has had for a companion for many years, so I think with Cas there was always, "he's unnatural, he's an angel," and I think that for Dean, relating to someone like that, it's tricky, relating to monsters, relating to anything supernatural, his brother is flesh and blood, it's tangible, he can touch that.

--

Obviously the relationship between Sam and Dean is central to our show but we’ve been building this rift between Sam and Dean all season, so that led to the idea of having this young male character that sort of idolizes Dean and does all the cool stuff that Sam won’t do, and that’s Dean’s perfect mate.

(the thing sam won't do is literally swapping spit with him. tell me i'm lying)

--

in the hunt, page 37

--

Not all fans are content simply to attend conventions. Some of them want to take a hand in the story, and their fan fiction can explore areas mostly untouched on the show, like the latent homoerotic suggestiveness of the Winchesters’ intense relationship.

-THE NEW YORK TIMES

--

"eyefuck" became a well-known script shorthand because of how intense j2 looked at each other as sam and dean

--

it's a terrible life draft script:

Note B) They are supposed to be together

Note C) each been all alone in separate life finally found kindred spirit

--

in the hunt, page 158

--

i haven't included any eric kripke quotes because he has so much wrong with him that i don't want to enable it. this is a compliment. it is one of the highest i can give.

SO-- what these quotes tell us:

sam and dean are relatable because their relationship is intensely human

sam and dean have shared secrets they cannot voice to one another but that nonetheless make them inseparable

people have been writing motherfucking essays about sam and dean's homoeroticism since the show aired

within the mythology of the show, sam and dean are meant to be together above all other relationships

...oh, you need more? i didn't think i'd get this far. um... okay... look at them???

if you choose to walk this path you will find yourself crying and taking screenshots every time they look at each other or touch each other or hold each other and you will thank the lord in heaven that we were granted this intensely wild and beautiful homoerotic relationship back in 2005 and praise jesus that you can always return to their raw sexual chemistry-- "In fact, much like the early X-Files, the show is fueled past its failings almost entirely by the chemistry between the two principals, the boys who, like Mulder and Scully, generate enough sexual tension to power a small city" as quoted by whitney cox in 2006 in an article that otherwise fails to bring anything to the table, sorry if you love it for your meta but also literally just go read the catherine tosenberger essay

you still need more????? jesus, what have you shipped prior to this? well, go watch the pilot and enjoy the fact that the first scene these two have together they are wrestling on the floor (sexually) and getting all romantically silhouetted against this beautiful lighting

and then go watch a few fanvids like this or this and then watch the pilot and watch this and then read this post about how supernatural happily wields incest as a tool of horror and as comedy and then scroll through my entire family horror show tag to understand more and then watch this immaculate video that deals with the whole thing and think about how all these things were happening in 2005 and remember the fact that sam and dean are the main characters of the universe... and then maybe just watch the show and please do not become an annoying shit poster who just talks about how they hate it🙏

[purge-samauwu]

I'm watching heartbreak high and I just don't see how anyone can like Harper?? (I'm only on episode 4 or 5, the show is amazing but it's fucking whirlwind)

Granted I can tell some crazy shit happened to her and I'm already slightly spoiled to what it might be but I don't think that's an excuse for anything she does in the show for what I've seen.

She comes back to school after ghosting her friend, of which she's been friends with for at least a decade, and is completely unresponsive to her. (To a degree she must blame her for what happened but that blame must be not that much since she's so desperate to talk with her in the episodes after 1.)

Then proceeds to break Amerie's nose, or at the very least injure it, in front of everyone.

Amerie then tries to find a way to talk to her a a party. When she asks what happened all Harper can do instead of actually explaining is get defensive and cal her stuff.(If you don't feel like talking about something traumatic I'm not saying you have to but if you're going to hold it over someone's head because you believe it to be their fault you could at least give them the gyst of they seem keen on trying to fix it.)

And that's not even mentioning that Amerie didn't even think of snitching on her for participating in the whole thing that kicked this off. She really could have after the punch to the face. Because it is entirely unfair that she receives the brunt of the blame for something and the person that she did it with contributes to her alienation.

Then Harper fucks Amerie's crush. Which Amerie has no claim to the guy but Harper knew she had been crushing on him forever. Harper claims it just happened but I don't believe that for what happens next.

She then takes advantage of Malakai, Amerie's boyfriend, while he's under the influence and had just been freshly assaulted by the police. (With the help of Dusty, Amerie's crush, so he's disgusting too.) And the show doesn't specifically say it but I have every reason to believe she was at some level sober when she initiated the act. Which for obvious reasons is just fucking awful but also she slept with another person who held great value to Amerie. Even if she isn't conscious to it, she hast be unconsciously taking revenge on her. Her excuse for this was something along the lines of "I just wanted to help him🥺" or some shit. Which to quote Sarah (a girl in the show) "you just wanted to get your dick wet".

She then has the audacity to mad at her friend for not supporting her horrible behavior.

I've seen people try to excuse everything she's done (and will probably continue to do) all because she has trauma. Which I'm sorry but I have CRAZY amount of trauma and traumatic memories but I don't go around doing shit like this.

JUSTICE FOR AMERIE! SHE IS MY FAV BBG OTHER THAN DARRON AND QUINNI!! THEY ARE THE BEST TRIO AND I HOPE THEY LIVE BEAUTIFUL LIVES. (ALSO CA$H)

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

can you explain why you dont believe the titanic switch conspiracy theory? didnt they find a propeller with "olympic" written on it amongst the wreckage?

i feel like the phrase "you just activated my trap card" applies here but i have also never watched yu-gi-oh so dont fully know the correct use of that. anyway whats the text limit on a tumblr post because i think i might hit it with this response.

before we begin (if you wanna join me on this fucking journey), ill just drop some useful sources on the topic:

olympic & titanic - an analysis of the robin gardiner conspiracy theory dissertation by mark chirnside in july 2006

titanic or olympic: which ship sank? by steve hall and bruce beveridge

olympic & titanic: the truth behind the conspiracy by steve hall and bruce beveridge

with that shipkeeping housekeeping out of the way, lets jump into it after the cut

so hands up, how many people knew that this theory originated in a book from 1995?

yeah, its a pretty modern theory considering titanic sank in 1912. the theory originated in the riddle of the titanic by robin gardiner and dan van der dat.

and the theory argues that the ships were switched and titanic (actually olympic) was deliberately sank as part of an insurance scam. now they didnt do this at all for shits and giggles. instead, the theory posits that the navy enquiry that followed the 1911 collision between hms hawke and olympic was biased which meant white star line couldnt recover the costs of repair from lloyds (the insurance company), and therefore, they wrote olmpic off as too damaged to be repaired, lied about the amount of damage, switched the ships and sank olympic disguised as titanic to recover some costs.

far-fetched? oh definitely and it gets worse, but ill leave that til later in this gargantuan response because its really fucking funny.

(seriously, i recommend you read til the end or just skip to the part where i start talking about the sinking itself because fam, gardiners theory gets wild )

according to van der dat, who is a dutch journalist and naval history writer with an incredibly dutch name, gardiner had wrote the manuscript after researching the titanic for however many years and sent it to his literary agent. this agent had previously worked with van der dat and so sent it to him to double-check the information by going back to the original sources. he then rewrote the book with line-by-line consultation with gardiner.

and would you like to hear a quote from van der dat regarding the theory? i think you would:

"the publishers were disillusioned when the theory did not stand up"

he also, in correspondence with titanic author and researcher paul lee, called it "bilge" which is a fun ship joke alongside calling the theory bullshit.

anyway, the publishers went ahead with the book anyway because fuck integrity, i guess... thats kinda harsh considering this first book (oh yeah, theres more) was praised for stellar research and for being balanced, and the final chapter of the book literally acknowledges that the wreck has titanics shipyard number (401) on it, hence disproving the theory.

in 1997, it was published in the us under the name the titanic conspiracy - cover-ups and mysteries of the worlds most famous sea disaster, and it sold like sliced bread in 1928 because 1997 was titanic fever, baby!

unsurprisingly, gardiner's following books (titanic: the ship that never sank? in 1998; the history of the white star line in 2001; the great titanic conspiracy in 2010) were a lot less well-received and were not co-authored by van der dat.

-

"but wait, kai!" you might shout if youre up to date with issues of the times from 1914, "what about raymond asquith's comments? he was junior counsel for the board of trade at the sinking inquiry!"

and i would say, what about it? the letter asquith wrote to the times was a sarcastic letter in response to a prior stance taken by the paper.

yes, he said "the architect, the owner, and the captain to repair their desperate fortunes by sinking the ship and sharing the insurance money" but said letter also included the phrase "manipulating dummy icebergs".

if were taking sarcastic or satirical responses outside of their original contexts as serious quotes, then i guess i need to cancel my dropout subscription since the company holds the opinion that oj simpson is innocent.

and while were here, that single deathbed confession from james fenton is not evidence of anything. his name is not on any crew lists or survivor lists, and not a single payment was ever claimed by a crewman called james fenton. he was not on board the titanic and his claims hold no weight.

-

now, my go-to explanation as to why i dont believe the switch theory is that their insurance scam would have lost them money and they would know that it would have lost them money.

see, it cost white star (which was a subsidiary of the international mercantile marine) £1.5million/$7.5million to build titanic and they insured it by lloyds (you can check their records on their website) for £1million/$5million.

you dont have to be good at maths to see a problem here.

they didnt just not insure the rest; it was self-insured by imm's insurance fund, but that still means theyd have lost £500,000/$2.5million on the sunken ship.

this whole insurance thing was established by uh the united states senate inquiry report:

"the vessel fully equipped, cost £1,500,000 sterling, or about $7,500,000. at the time of the accident the vessel carried insurance of £1,000,000 sterling or about $5,000,000, the remaining risk being carried by the company's insurance fund."

oh and the £1,000,009 insurance was announced in the daily mirror on 16th april 1912

and the insurance scam seemingly thought up by someones whose first and only introduction to maths was golf isnt the only way white star would have lost money on this.

after the sinking, olympic was temporarily pulled from service to increase safety measures like adding more lifeboats. obviously, a logical move made by a company with a brand new, safer ship on their hands who were desperate for any money they can make.

white star also halted construction of britannic, titanics other sister ship, in order to alter the design and make it safer. this costs quite a bit of money and is, again, an odd choice for a company apparently desperate for money.

-

and hey, question for you guys: if you were alive in 1913 and needed to cross the atlantic, would you

a) choose the near identical sister ship of that ship that sank last year and was the deadliest sinking of a ship at that time

or

b) choose any other option such as the lusitania or the mauretania or the ss france or the ss imperator

personally id take my chances with option a, idk about you

yeah so the point im making here is that the sinking of the titanic was what the kids say

a marketing disaster

it was the loss of the newest flagship on its maiden fucking voyage and it had been touted as "practically unsinkable". maybe just maybe people wouldnt feel that comfortable getting on a white star line ship after that.

i dont have any figures for you because reading through a detailed account of white stars history just is not on my to-do list, but that doesnt even matter. what matters is that its clearly a massive risk and who the fuck is taking that risk?

as titanic author, senan molony states:

"one doesnt need to compare designs and count portholes - a moments serious consideration of the reputational risk involved - individually and collectively - is all that is required to end any entertainment of the notion"

-

anyway, you guys wanna compare designs and count portholes? yeah? okay, here we go!

may i present a non-exhaustive list of differences between the ships:

olympics wheelhouse was curved; titanics was flat

titanic was 4 inches longer

the porthole arrangements on shelter deck c were different

on b deck, olympic had a 1st class promenade; titanic had 2 private verandahs and suites (put a pin in this by the way, it comes back in the best of ways)

titanic had additional cabins on promenade deck a

olympics promenade was open all the way along; on titanic, the forward half of the 1st class promenade on a-deck was enclosed with retractable glass screens

on titanic, the forward bridge wings aft docking bridge on the stern extended over the ships side by a couple of feet; this would not be true for olympic until the 1912/13 refit

the officers deck house was pushed out more on titanic

the iron gates of the elevators were different between the ships and this is evident in the wreck itself

their propellers had different pitches and hence not interchangeable (pitch is a theoretical concept which is like the distance a propeller would move if it turned once through something solid, yeah i dont know either)

the wireless cabin had an outside window on olympic, but not titanic

further, it was placed on the port side of the officers deck house on olympic but amidship on titanic

they had different air vent arrangements around the funnels

white star line cut the ships names into the shell-plating at the bow and stern, four feet high and a ½ inch deep

now, please, close your eyes, take a deep breath and consider how much money it would cost to switch just the list above. now compare all of that to the -£500,000/$2.5million youre losing in the insurance scam.

truly, a spend less on candles situation.

and while we're here, shall we quickly talk about how much hush money white star would be paying to silence everyone about this since its apparently an illegal insurance scam.

not to make another non-exhaustive list but heres just who i can think of that youd have to silence:

the 15,000 workers employed directly by the shipyard

the 20,000+ workers in support services or sub contractors

any permanent or casual staff at the belfast dock and harbour comission

all of the officers and crew who came directly from olympic onto titanic such as the captain or stewardess violet jessop (puppet history fans rise up) who interestingly remarked on how improved titanic was compared to olympic

any staff at white star, imm and harland & wolff (where she was built) who would be in the know such as designers

passengers who had previously sailed on olympic who then sailed on titanic

just like anyone in belfast who walked past while the ships were docked together

olympics wreckers: thomas wards & sons who kept huge loose-leaf ledgers for each ships. the one for olympic was 72 pages long and funnily enough olympics yard number and builders I'd frequently appear in it, as seen below

bob ballard who was the one who found titanic. hes known as a very honest man and didnt even claim salvage rights on titanic because he assumed everyone else would also recognise it was a gravesite. he also said "i think it is the titanic at the bottom of the ocean"

every other explorer or researcher like james fucking cameron or us navy consultant and titanic wreck explorer, parks stephenson

its been estimated likely over 60,000 people were involved in just the building of titanic. this was ⅕ of belfasts population and ⅓ of the working population. heres a photo of them leaving olympic at the end of the day

now maybe im just a fool, but that looks like a lot of people you need to silence, and unless white star were blackmailing them or idk fucking killing them i guess, thats a lot of hush money just in the photo above.

i mean, theres also the claim, from noted liar james fenton, that the surviving crew were forced to sign the official secrets act of 1911, but that act was about espionage that benefits the enemy military so im not sure how this is relevant to the switch, and also, again, the guy was never on the ship.

are you perhaps starting to get the picture as to why i dont believe the conspiracy theory because im still going.

-

okay so as established, if the ships were switched, there would have clearly been a lot of work that would need to be done to switch the ships.

and i only mentioned some of the structural differences, i didnt get into the aesthetic differences like the floor tiles and carpeting being different colours, or how the lounge furniture in each ship having the ship name on them.

mind you, this is what titanic looked like (in the foreground) when olympic was first docked next to her:

this was taken around october 11. olympic docked next to titanic on october 7th for repairs after that whole catastrophic collision.

now how much time do you think it was before olympic sailed away? mind you, titanic has already been launched at this point and just needs to be fitted-out, and that normally takes around 4 to 6 months?

oh, what was that? 44 days? why, kid, youre going somewhere. it was 44 days exactly!

now, i dont think i need to get into the fact that the dock only had 1 crane (which you needed to install and uninstall funnels and machinery) that physically couldnt reach olympic unless she was moved or how olympic was painted white for her launch and then painted black and that the white paint would get exposed in rough weather so the same would have to be applied to titanic so it would look convincingly like olympic.

i mean, you have that information now, but im hoping just by the words "44 days", you might get how off the wall insane it is to suggest white star was able to switch the ships so well no one noticed for decades in 44 fucking days.

"wait kai, youre forgetting that they were docked together again!" you shout, "after olympic threw a propeller, they were docked together from march 1st to march 7th 1912"

and i dont know dude, im pretty sure white star cant warp space time so i really dont know what eight extra days is gonna do.

i hate to strawman but man, the late robin gardiner would have won a gold medal in scarecrow hide and seek.

-

lets also take a quick detour into the idea that olympics repairs were so expensive.

without getting into gardiners claims about the damage because theres no evidence of it and as mark chirnside states "there are no credible sources indicating that the damage to olympic was worse than reported at the time - and indeed ample sworn expert testimony to the contrary", lets just quickly go over some financial stuff.

during the case, it was unofficially estimated that the damage didnt exceed $125,000. imm, by including lost passenger receipts, wanted to claim for as high as $750,000, but they lost that case.

during the year 1911, imms surplus profit was $822,062. so weve got:

750,000 > 822,062

now as we might remember from key stage 1 maths, the bigger number eats the smaller number, aka, their surplus profit covered the costs of repair.

aka, no ill-advised insurance scam needed.

-

"thousands of people in belfast would have seen the switch operation - and yet there is not one word in the papers of reporters or photographers rushing out to find out what was happening."

-dr paul lee

so this is the section where i ask how did no one fucking notice?

no one on titanic, who had previously sailed on olympic, ever said anything about the switch other than one guy who was literally not on the ship at any point.

no one who has ever explored the wreck or done research on it has definitively stated it was olympic. rather, they have definitively stated otherwise.

for example, what remains of the base on the wheelhouse shows it to be straight and not curved, and as you might remember: titanics wheelhouse was heterosexual straight and olympics was curved.

(id be impressed if you did remember)

also, as parks stephenson has stated:

"weve got actual high def images of this wreck. ive seen with my own eyes. weve identified the name titanic on the port bow"

its difficult to make out but its there; the name is on the fucking ship.

also, as you might remember, titanics b-deck was different to olympics. the 2 suites there were nicknamed the "millionaire suites" and jim cameron has used rovs to go inside of them.

funnily enough, robin gardiner has gone on the record saying that these suites didnt exist so make of that what you will.

and further, no one noticed anything about olympic even though she sailed for 24 more years. theres no written record of anything, theres nothing in the board of trade reports, theres no photographic proof and theres not even fucking hearsay.

she served as a damn troopship in ww1, youd figure someone would figure it out as all of her fittings were ripped out.

but no, theres nothing.

as i mentioned above, olympic was scrapped in 1935, but some of her fittings were auctioned off and still exist today. and these have the number 400 on them because that was her shipyard number. titanics was 401 and the wreck reflects this also:

the wooden parts are from olympic; the other has been salvaged from titanics wreck.

theres even the famous myth that olympic or olympus as one person told me is written on the propeller at the bottom of the ocean. its not, but you can see the number 401 written on it:

-

and while were disproving myths about the name olympic being on the titanic, the story about olympic being engraved on titanics lifeboats is also false:

theres no written testimony, no sketches and no photographs of this.

white star didnt engrave names onto lifeboats, the names were on metal plates that were screwed on

do you really think they did all of this work but just didnt fucking swap the lifeboats? if theyre this stupid, how did it take until 1995 for someone to figure it out?

-

we can also discuss the stupid olympic room thing while were here. see theres a maritime superstition that changing the name on a ship is bad luck and obviously, if youre swapping the ships, youre changing the names.

so to... get around this? cheat luck? outsmart superstition? i dont fucking know, to take a detour to avoid this, white star named a room "the olympic room."

i cannot find any evidence at all that this room ever existed. its not in the design plans or the blueprints, and no passenger or crew has ever said it existed, so im pretty sure the room just didnt exist.

and even if it did exist, titanic was in the olympic class of ships. thats what olympic, titanic and britannic were. its not weird to have an olympic room on an olympic class ship. i mean it is weird in this case since the room didnt exist, but you get my point.

-

and heres some quickfire myths and falsehoods

the myth about the 14 vs 16 bow portholes is also a false. yes, titanic had 14 portholes on launch but an extra 2 were added before her maiden voyage so yes, the ship photographed departing southampton with 16 bow portholes is the titanic, and do you really think it would take 83 years to figure this out if it was this easy?

similarly, titanic did have evenly spaced b-deck windows on launch, but then the extra verandahs and suites were added so the window configuration was altered, so that photograph is off the titanic.

the idea that titanic had a 2 degree list to port like the olympic before her is evidence of the switch theory is, to borrow a word from dan van der dat, bilge. plenty of ships at the time and now have minor lists. the one on titanic was only recorded by 2 passengers and we know that the list was related to coal consumption. it means nothing.

jp morgan (owner of imm) did not cancel last minute. as mark baber points out on encyclopedia titanica, it was announced in the new york times that hed be in venice on april 23. at that time, transatlantic voyages took at least 5 days so it would at least be a 10 day round trip and likely not give him time to get to venice for the opening of a store of whatever it was.

also, j bruce ismays wife and kids also didnt cancel last minute. theyd already decided to go on holiday to wales rather than sail on titanic.

addendum to that point: if ismay knew it was going to be sank deliberately and so warned his wife, why would he get on board himself? further, why would harland and wolff designer thomas andrews (who did not survive by the way) get on board?

-

and we're finally at my favourite part of this entire mess: the sinking itself.

see, a deliberate sinking doesnt really make sense for titanic because the conditions under which she sank has led to the descriptor "freak sinking."

these are: a new moon meaning less light, unusually calm ocean that disallowed lookouts to watch for foam as waves hit any icebergs, ice having drifted further south than normal for that time of year, and a sideways glancing blow that breached more watertight compartments than the ship could handle and stay afloat.

and idk dude, is there not an easier way? like maybe some light arson. just call it an accidental fire that got out of control and led to the ship being a write-off, this isnt difficult.

but you see gardiner has an answer to this, and i am laughing as im typing this, he claims that:

titanic didnt hit an iceberg, it hit an imm rescue ship.

thats right, this guy fully says titanic didnt hit an iceberg. apparently it hit another ship and NO ONE FUCKING NOTICED

i mean we have testimony from survivors but fuck them i guess.

he claims that as titanic was apparently a "steel double-hulled vessel" so an iceberg simply couldnt inflict so much damage.

yeah titanic wasnt double-hulled. she had a double bottom, but it was only after titanic that shipbuilders were like ah maybe full double hulls arent an unnecessary expense after all.

theres also the issue of uh no evidence of this rescue ship ever existing? at all? i dont know where it came from, i dont know where it went, and who fucking knows, maybe it was called the rms cotton eyed joe.

yeah so weve got a theory riddled with problems and im just gonna introduce some more problems with this theory as gardiner has also alleged that:

the original plan was to open the seacocks and slowly flood the ship, but this was interrupted by titanic hitting another ship

1) titanic didnt have seacocks? and 2) was the rest of it a coincidence then? i think its meant to be a coincidence.

i believe his theory is alleging that the crew on titanic would open the seacocks that didnt exist to flood the ship slowly, and that the imm rescue ship that also didnt exist was in the area in advance to help evacuate passengers, alongside other ships such as the ss californian.

this is that ship that was like 10 miles away or something and didnt respond to titanics distress signals. according to gardiner, they were expecting a rendezvous with titanic according to the "original plan", but never received it.

instead, they saw the rockets of the fabled imm rescue ship and helped them instead.

this is fucking stupid.

i cant be charitable here, its a fucking stupid theory. i mean, that imm ship did not exist, and also californian is a ridiculous choice for a rescue ship. her capacity was 47 passengers and 55 crew; there were more than 2200 people on board titanic.

to counteract this argument, gardiner alleges carpathia was also in on the scheme as a rescue ship. she, at least, had capacity for the passengers, but theres also several problems with this too.

for one, it was fucking 50 miles away and famously arrived several hours after the sinking even though the captain had her running at top speed to get there.

for two, carpathia was owned by cunard, white stars rival. was their rival line in on the insurance scam??? how much money did they have to pay cunard for this????? why? just why?

do you understand why i dont believe it? please tell me you understand. i need you to understand. i need you to tell me that you understand that the guy who created this conspiracy claimed titanic didnt hit an iceberg.

[john4the4leper]

fan fiction quotes that I love so much<33

"Bella was beginning to wonder if the dissection was less for the sake of understanding the anatomy, and more for the sake of watching a thing bleed." (Hannibal) '

“Can I trust you now?” “You seem to already; lying about your whereabouts and crawling into the lion’s den in the dead of night.” “The lion doesn’t fear its ilk.” (hannibal)

"Are you stuck in your veins? does your blood feel like chains?" (tma doorway fic, I will be forever mad I didn't write this line)

"It is. When my head is all..." Lucy trailed off and made a wavy gesture without moving his face from Linus' chest. "You feel like rain." (the house in the cerulean sea fanfiction)

“Where Alana is a firefly, Will is the sun” (hannibal)

"She looks so small in that moment, so lost, like a little dove that flew right into a hurricane.” (honestly idk, probably Hannibal)

"We’ve always been here. You can have me, Cas, I'm yours." (supernatural)

“I love you. I did even when I didn’t know that I did. When I thought that I didn’t. You are the blood that gets caked under my nails after a hunt. I couldn’t wash you off. I threw you off a cliff to see if the ocean would make me clean.”  (nbc Hannibal, re: Will abt The Fall)

bonus with a funny one:

"Dean resisted the urge to toss his mug into the sink. It’d be satisfying, sure, but it was his Princess Leia mug, and he sure as fuck wasn’t tempting fate with that. Carrie Fisher would probably descend from the heavens and fuck his shit up."

Thank you For Coming To My Ted Talk

[angelsdean]

also re: my dean + sex work post, and especially the quote from 1x08 where dean's talking abt making money through non-legal ways like hustling and scamming and he says, "it's what we were raised to do" and then connecting that to the scene in 1x20 where john tells dean "you know what to do" cut to-- dean playing monster bait (and being nonconsensually kissed by a vampire) and then connecting that to the cut line from 14x14 where dean tells cas that john used to make him play the wide-eyed hitchhiker routine as monster bait on hunts. dean was groomed from a young age by john to see his body as nothing more than a tool and weapon. he learned from a young age that his body is an object. he is daddy's blunt little instrument. he is something that can be used for a purpose and then discarded. he's repeatedly used as a soldier and weapon by john when he's needed and then abandoned and neglected when he's not. and i think that mentality absolutely influenced how he saw his body in relation to sex and sex work. and i'm not saying sex work can't be empowering or positive for some people but in dean's specific case and circumstances it wouldn't have really been a choice but more a desperate last ditch option. but one that he doesn't even waver much on because of all these prior experiences that have primed him for being objectified. like he's already had so much of his personhood stripped, he'd already been objectified as a weapon, seeing himself as expendable and only useful when he's being used. all of this made him so vulnerable and desensitized in a way that sex work for survival wouldn't even be a huge jump for him. it's another way he can be useful and make sure he's providing for his brother and fulfilling his number one job as caretaker.

[touloserlautrec]

Character Voice Tag

Thanks for the tag, @mk-writes-stuff!

Rules: rewrite the quote in the voices of your OCs, then come up with a new line for the next person

The line I was given: “I really needed to leave an hour ago.”

From Sunset:

Alex: "Soooo... I'm like, very late. I gotta dash. Unless you've got more of that dip? I'm just saying, I could be convinced." Reeve: *sweating because he would never allow himself to run late, but here he is, stuck in his worst nightmare, and ohgodthisissoawkward maybe I can just telepath the issue away yeah that's it it'll be okay* Misha: "You wasted an hour of my life." *abruptly gets up and walks out on the conversation mid-sentence* Hannah: "Whoopsies, look at the time! I think I left my stove unlocked, so I better go check on that before my curtains escape! Byeee!" Gareth: "Sorry we stayed longer than intended! Guys, come on, we gotta hit the road." *proceeds trying to herd cats out the door* Emmett: "This meeting should have been over an hour ago. We all have things to do. But until you approve my proposal for new HVAC in the Terre 2nd sub-floor classrooms, consider this a filibuster. And if you think I'll cede the floor in anything less than 72 hours, you're in for a surprise. Hope no one needs a bathroom break." Anise to Fox: "Shouldn't you have been at work an hour ago?" Fox: *having just made himself a hot toddy and settling into his snuggie* "Hmm?" Anise: "It's 9 AM! What are you doing?? You have to go get dressed!" Fox: *Makes puppy eyes at her and sips his hot toddy*

I'll gently tag: @thatndginger @winterandwords @scribe-cas and open tag!

Your line is: "Can you not?"

(If you jump on this tag, please tag me so I can read your response, but please make a post of your own rather than attaching it as a reblog of this one. Thank you! <3)

[gamergirlbonestaskforce141riot]

Chapter 12 Nemo dat quot non habet (No one gives what they do not have) - Cartagena Part 8

Taglist: @glitterypirateduck

@letsreadallday

@jamesrifftapes

@mmyrrhh

@sofasoap

@sinyaaa

Previous / Masterlist / Next

The house was eerily silent, as expected, and still smelling like smoke and dust, even after two weeks since the explosion.

Moving in silence, Riot explored thoroughly the ground floor, with Gabi hot on her heels. Ghost had been right. It was like having a hand tied to her back. But it’d have to do.

‘‘Status.’’ His deep, calm voice resonated in her ears through the earphone.

‘‘Ground floor clear. Moving to the first floor’’

‘‘Copy.’’

Broken glass under their feet, pictures hanging crooked from the walls or on the floor, decorations either smashed or scattered everywhere. No photos, only landscape paintings that looked like the ones you get when you buy the frame.

The first floor was as empty as the ground floor, but somehow, it looked even more abandoned. Only bed frames, without mattresses or sheets. Empty wardrobes. As if only the ground floor had been used when Mejía was alive.

‘‘First floor clear’’

‘‘Copy. Proceed to the pool house.’’

Trailing gingerly behind her, Gabi was looking around with curiosity, holding the folder with all of the information about Mejía, the house, and the rest of the HeadHunters’ operators deaths to her chest.

‘‘Looks empty’’

‘‘Birds aren’t chirping’’ Riot grunted, crouching behind the living room’s toppled couch to take a look. Gabi blinked, puzzled.

‘‘What?’’

‘‘Birds were chirping when we parked’’ The sergeant kept her trained eyes ahead, checking the destroyed pool house through the open patio doors. ‘‘Mirlos… blackbirds. Now they’re silent’’

‘‘Heard that. Be careful’’

‘‘Roger’’

The moment she started to move from behind the couch, two silent shots hit the piece of furniture, coming from inside the pool house. Gabi gasped loudly when Riot pushed her to the floor.

‘‘Status’’ Ghost’s voice was as impersonal and cold as ever, but maybe there was a tint of urgency there after hearing Gabi’s gasp. Riot grunted, having landed on her bad knee when she threw herself to the floor after Gabi.

‘‘Shots fired from inside the pool house. We’re fine’’ Listening intently, she crawled on the floor to peek from behind the couch. ‘‘Can’t see anything but remains of the furniture. Whoever it is must be behind it’’

‘‘If they get out in the open I’ll get them’’

Carefully, Riot moved behind the couch again, leaning down to whisper to Gabi.

‘‘Crawl in a straight line behind me until you’re behind that half-wall’’ She made the young redhead follow her finger with her eyes when she showed her the path to follow. ‘‘And cover behind it while you crawl to the kitchen. Can you do that?’’

‘‘Y-yes’’ Gabi nodded slowly, her terrified hazel eyes returning to Riot’s face to find her cold blue-grey stare.

‘‘Good girl’’ She patted her cheek fondly, and then pushed her towards the way she had to crawl to. ‘‘Start moving’’

The moment Gabi started crawling Riot stood up from behind the couch to fire her gun at the open hole created by the explosion in the pool house. Shots were fired back at her right when she dropped back on the floor behind the couch.

‘‘I think there are two shooters’’

*

‘‘I see them’’ Ghost grunted lowly, still as aloof and cold. Next to him, Soap was watching the half destroyed patio and then the surroundings, alert, trying not to worry about his girl and his best friend down there.

Two tall, dark figures clad with dark tactical gear had emerged from the open wall of the pool house, with their guns drawn and moving towards the main house. One of them fell swiftly when Ghost blew up his head with his sniper rifle, and the other barely had time to react to his partner’s death when Riot’s shot killed him as well.

‘‘Status’’ The lieutenant demanded, feeling the damned cat purring and rubbing against his side. He nudged her lightly with his elbow. ‘‘Crema. Casa (Cream. Home)’’

With an indignant Mrow, the cute cat started her way towards the end of the roof to leave the way she had arrived, by climbing the vines. Soap chuckled darkly, his eyes still on the patio and trying to hide the worry he felt. Both of them could hear Gabi’s terrified sobs on the comm.

‘‘Unbelievable’’

‘‘She follows orders better than you’’ Ghost grunted, checking the surroundings with his scope before focusing on the patio again. ‘‘Riot, status’’

‘‘Sorry, was calming Gabi down. We’re fine’’ Her voice sounded calm, focused, and that made him feel a sudden rush of pride. ‘‘Cover me while I check if I know them’’

He kept his eyes on her while she carefully stepped out in the open, looking around with her gun still in her hands. Slowly, painfully slow, until she crouched beside one of the fallen figures and pulled up his balaclava after checking every pocket.

‘‘Don’t know this one’’  His eyes followed her while she carefully moved to the other fallen body and did the same. ‘‘Oh, well. I do know this one. Guess it’s true that HeadHunters is operative again’’

‘‘Get inside the house, I’m going to send Soap down to assist…’’

His words were cut off when the potent sound of glass shattering interrupted him, followed by Gabi’s loud shriek. Riot sprinted back inside the house, cursing something in Spanish that he didn’t quite catch, and next to him, Soap tensed.

‘‘Lt…’’

‘‘Get ready to climb down’’ Ghost cut him off curtly, and the sergeant nodded and started crawling on the roof towards the rope he had tied earlier to the chimney to rappel down when they were done.

‘‘Riot, what’s the status’’

*

Listening Gabi’s shriek had almost made Riot’s heart stop, but now that she had the sobbing redhead in her arms, after dragging her to a corner in the kitchen, she felt like she could breathe again.

Ghost’s steady voice in her earphones was suddenly louder than the blood rushing in her ears, and she swallowd the knot in her throat, feeling Gabi trembling against her.

‘‘We’re fine. Gabi has a couple cuts from the glass, but nothing else’’

‘‘Can you check the angle?’’

Riot looked up to check, and saw the window completely destroyed.

‘‘Negative, glass is shattered. I’m going to check the wall, but to hit that window the shooter must be on your three… maybe on that hill beyond the pool house’’

‘‘Soap, you heard it’’

‘‘On the ground and moving’’

‘‘They could have killed us’’ Gabi sobbed in her arms, and Riot stroked her hair soothingly, before checking the small cuts to make sure they weren’t serious, as she had told Ghost.

‘‘Nah, they wouldn’t. They want us alive, that’s why they’re aiming at limbs’’ She pointed at the hole on the half-wall where Gabi had been taking cover. ‘‘That’s where your legs were’’

Seeing Gabi’s face pale made her realize maybe it hadn’t been the best thing to say in those circumstances. Trying to reassure her, Riot lowered her mask to her neck, and grinned.

‘‘We’ll be fine, kitten. Your boyfriend is on the ground, looking for them, and Ghost will kill them if they try to shoot again’’

‘‘That’s if I see them. There’s a lot of bushes. But they can’t see me from there’’ His gruff voice made her smile for some reason.

‘‘If you see them fire again, will you be able to locate whoever it is?’’

‘‘Possibly’’

‘‘Dinnae even think about it, I ken ye!’’ Soap’s grunt sounded as if he was sprinting, but it also sounded pissed. ‘‘Stay under cover!’’

‘‘Lieutenant?’’

‘‘… could work’’ Ghost admitted begrudgingly, ignoring Soap’s expletive. ‘‘In and out, sergeant’’

‘‘Promise’’ Riot smiled, seeing Gabi’s horrified eyes when the redhead kind of guessed what she was going to do. ‘‘Ready?’’

‘‘What are you thinking??’’ Gabi sputtered, trying to melt into the floor tiles behind the counter, terrified. Riot patted her knee, almost sweetly.

‘‘I’m going to run the length of the kitchen, in front of these nice windows, so whoever it is fires at me and Ghost can find where he is. So that he can shoot him, or Soap can find him’’

‘‘You’re crazy!’’

‘‘Dinnae ye dare!’’ Soap sounded even more strained, as if he had picked up speed.

‘‘Ready when you are’’ Ghost’s voice was as calm and gravelly as always, but she could have sworn there was some tint of concern in there. ‘‘I got you’’

‘‘I know’’ Riot answered, almost sweetly. To Gabi’s horror, she was smiling. With the gaiter still lowered under her chin, her scar in full view, and she was downright grinning, as if the whole thing was just a joke.

God, Soap and her were peas in a pod indeed.

Before Gabi could think of a reason, of anything to make Riot stay in place, the sergeant was already moving. Without a second thought she crossed the length of the room, running while crouching down and covering her head just in case.

Following her, two silent shots shattered the glass on the windows, and the shards fell on her while she threw herself on the floor behind the half wall where Gabi had taken cover earlier. A loud gunshot without silencer echoed in the hills around the house, and that made her pause.

‘‘I thought you were using silencer’’ She commented calmly, shaking off her clothes to get rid of the glass, and then froze when Ghost’s answer came through the comms.

‘‘I am. That wasn’t me’’ His tone sounded disgruntled. Even offended. ‘‘I hit mine, though’’

‘‘Found a sniper nest, dead shooter’’ Soap informed, panting after what had surely been one of the runs of his life. ‘‘For the angle, not the one ye shot. Taking a photo of what’s left of his head, in case Riot can identify him’’

‘‘You always know how to treat a girl, Soap’’ Riot chuckled darkly, ignoring Gabi’s wide and horrified glare that was being sent in her direction. ‘‘Think you can find the other to do the same?’’

‘‘Will do, then I’ll go down to where ye stopped with the van to leave us’’

‘‘Be careful. Someone else is out there’’ Ghost warned grimly, and was about to add something else when the phone in the house rang.

Gabi gasped, looking up from where she was kneeling. It was one of those wall phones, still with a cord attached, not a modern, cordless one. It kept ringing, and she looked back at Riot, frozen.

‘‘What…?’’

Riot sighed deeply, and crawled back to the kitchen, moving the glass shards away with her forearms as she went.

‘‘Tell me that’s not the house’s phone ringing’’ Ghost’s voice sounded just as deadpan as ever, but for some reason it made her snort.

‘‘It is indeed the house’s phone’’ She wanted to laugh. It was ridiculous. Absurd.

‘‘And I guess you’re going to answer’’

‘‘What is life but an endless box of surprises’’ Riot sat beside Gabi, her back against the wall and looking up at the device as it rang. After a moment, she reached up and picked up the phone receiver, and put it to her ear.

‘‘What if it’s a bomb!?’’ Gabi hissed beside her, swatting at her arm, but Riot just shook her head. She could hear the sounds of a road, as if the caller was on a vehicle.

And then, the voice of a dead man spoke.

‘‘Tienes buen aspecto para estar muerta, Vega (You look good for being dead, Vega)’’

In spite of herself, she laughed. One of the bitter, short laughs, almost a bark, that the man on the other end of the phone knew well.

‘‘Y tú estás extrañamente hablador para haber volado por los aires, Mejía (And you are strangely chatty for having been blown up, Mejía)’’

[notafraidofredyellowandblue]

so I've heard in the past that some members of the band have hinted at not being 100% straight and richard has given hints at wanting to know what it's like to be a woman, could you please give me some sources to those since I've looked everywhere and can't really find them? thank you, if not, it's totally understandable

Another really really old ask, not because i didn't want to, but because i wanted to findas much info as possible 🌺 sorry anon for taking so long..

Well, the most recent 'hint' was Flake's podcast with topic 'gay/lesbian' where he mentioned that the topic came up one evening when the band were chatting and it turned out they all had their experiences 🥰

Rammstein is imo a band who has always been very 'inclusive' in any sexual preferences, and especially in Till's lyrics you can tell he is very interested in anything out there (not that that makes him 'not straight' (to be honest, i think he is, by some other quotes in interviews 😊) but i wouldn't be surprised if he tried some stuff somewhere in life).

Richard did an 2010 interview in Canada (don't have a link to the original, just this transcript) where he was quoted (about 'Mann gegen Mann')

"Actually, Till showed the lyrics to our Gay community, to our friends, just to make sure, because if you talk about something that you not really are, it's always kind of hard. Sometimes you cross the line, you don't think about it, but it could be offensive. If you do something because it's your experience, it's fine, but if you write something and you're not actually a part of it, I think you should make sure that everything you want to say is right. So he gave the lyrics to some friends, and they were very approving."

Which sort of confirms that they don't see themselves as gay so much. Also in interviews where they were asked 'are you gay', they usually end up with 'no'... interestingly, i don't think i've seen an interview where an interviewer explicitely asked 'are you bisexual' 🌺 (by the way, i would be really surprised if Richard hadn't some experience with a guy when he was younger, i vaguely remember he alluded to such in a really old interview, but i don't have a link).

--

Richard indeed has expressed ideas about his feminine side several times, in the interbiew above he says for instance

"If you talk to me right now, I'm a big believer in getting myself in balance between the female and the male side. I have a female side too, obviously."

And very striking was in several interviews ca 2021 after he did the cover 'Always on my mind' with Till for the Emigrate album 'The Persistence of Memory' and then made it a duet, stating:

"I mean, obviously, Till has also this very characteristic voice. And then it was pretty fast. He recorded one day. And then I was listening to it, and I felt a little bit that his performance was a little bit too male-oriented. So I felt I need a little female touch to it. So that’s why my personality came in. And I think it’s a good combination"

So he felt a female touch was needed, and added his own voice to Till's track 🥰

And ofcourse in 2023 he shared on his ig

"I've always wondered what it's like to be a woman"

Now ofcourse this could just be a Kruspe-caption 😊 but with the 'DT' video in mind and his role in it, it makes one wonder doesn't it... where is that making of when we need it 🌺😊

---

From the others i don't have quotes at hand...sorry...but maybe someone else has and is willing to share 🌺

[mothgardens]

im back again with another lyric analysis <3 this edition is for Sastiel (my beloved).

State Of Grace by Taylor Swift (preferably the acoustic version)

All Sam has known for his whole life is touch and go. He has never been in one place for more than a few months at a time (other than his escape to Stanford).

He also has been more aware and open-minded than Dean his whole life; he has a changing mind when given new information, like how he learns to understand that the ‘monsters’ they fight aren’t always evil, and that he can empathize with them. He learned this far before Dean.

He has always loved whole and hard; his love always bleeds, he has been hurt so much through losing the people he held dearest. They fade away.

“You come around and the armor falls” <— is literally the Gadreel grace retraction scene. Cas telling Sam “The only person who has screwed up things more consistently than you, is me.” !! So delicate and intimate.

They have each other. Even when Dean is missing or gone, even when they feel like they have messed everything up, they have each other. They don’t let go, they can’t, they won’t. <3

“Just go to my room and turn on Netflix, you will figure it out” is such an important line to me (even though i couldn’t find the real quote). Sam feels comfortable enough with Cas to let him be in his room, his private space, alone. Cas feels comfortable enough in Sam’s room to take his beloved trench coat off. They trust each other; when they are together, everything is wiped clean.

THIS IS THEM !! ^^^

Cas was never a saint. He didn’t succeed as God. He didn’t succeed as an Angel of the Lord. He didn’t succeed in Dean’s eyes. (“Something always goes wrong, Dean”; “Why does that always seem to be you.”).

Sam loved a werewolf. Sam loved a demon. Sam loved a witch. In Dean’s eyes, Sam always loved in shades of wrong.

They learned to live with the pain, separately at first, but, they also learned to live with each other’s pain. Cas literally told Sam, “I was lost until I took your pain”.

According to Google, Mosaic is “an individual (especially an animal) composed of cells of two genetically different types”.

Sam and Cas are systematically different on a surface level, obviously, as angel and human, but Sam also has demon blood running through him. It’s part of him. Sam and Cas, on an inner, biological level, are opposites. They’re LITERALLY “Mosaic broken hearts”.

When they’re together they’re brave. Especially when Cas is looking for Sam, or protecting him.

- “Who are you, and where is Sam?”

- “You wont take Sam Winchester. I won't let you.”

- “You come near Sam Winchester, and I will kill you.”

But, also, their love is wild, they have such s chaotic energy as a duo. They are unhinged, but also mean well.

To me, grace is literally their entire theme. (I am a bitch for the grace drinking ‘purification’ idea, too.)

Cas believes Sam is a worthwhile fight: “Nothing is worth losing you”.

This last line, to me, is totally post-Jack era. They have a family together, a son, that they both would die for. They love each other. Sam sent so many texts with Cas left, he was so worried. When Cas showed back up in the bunker he looked at him like he could make his world continue spinning.

Lastly, the chorus:

Sam never thought Cas would come into his life. A real angel. An angel who would later become one of the most important people in his life.

Cas never expected Sam to be this important to him. He thought of Sam as the ‘boy with demon blood’, an abomination. But, Sam proved himself to be so much more than that.

Neither of them would ever be where they are without each other, and they will never be the same.

———————

Okay :3 that is all.

[ladyhindsight]

sorry to bring up character ages in tid again, but i wanted to run a theory by you about something i discovered.

in chapter 1 of clockwork princess, tessa is being fitted for her wedding dress and she says this: “he would look so young. they were both so young. tessa new it was unusual to marry at seventeen and eighteen, but they were racing a clock.”

clockwork princess takes place in september/october (i think??) of 1878, and their wedding was supposed to be in december. what i’m thinking that tessa must be older than what cc has told us (in both the family tree and the “new” canon she established with the 10th anni of ca). based on the quote, we can probably assume that tessa is either already seventeen when clockwork princess starts, or will be turning seventeen sometime between then and december. which assumes jem’s birthday is somewhere in there as well. so will and jem being born in 1860 is probably correct, but tessa was probably born in 1861.

Bottom line: cc can’t even keep her own canon straight XD. im gonna try to write my own time line to try to make sense of it sigjdnd.

Waait a minute. Wow.

So, yes. Tessa's birthday is said to be January 28, 1862. Clockwork Princess takes place from October to December, which means Tessa is sixteen and turns seventeen in January 1879, which is still a couple months away from the supposed wedding.

I guess they didn't have any confirmed dates of birth before the 10th anniversary edition of Clockwork Angel, just the birth years, but I found this part with Charlotte and Jem in Clockwork Princess, chapter 13 "The Mind Has Mountains":

You are still a child, Charlotte wanted to say, but she did not. He was only a few weeks short of his eighteenth birthday, after all, when Shadowhunters became adults, and if when she looked at him she still saw the dark-haired little boy who had arrived from Shanghai clutching his violin, his eyes huge in his pale face, that did not mean he had not grown up.

Which, of course, goes along with the whole

“Yes, though Charlotte’s rather fallen off in tutoring us lately, as you might imagine,” said Will. “One either has a tutor or one is schooled in Idris—that is, until you attain your majority at eighteen. Which will be soon, thankfully, for the both of us.” “Which one of you is older?” “Jem,” said Will, and “I am,” said Jem, at the same time. They laughed in unison as well, and Will added, “Only by three months, though.”

part in Clockwork Prince which takes place from July to August, but the rest of what was previously discussed gives the idea that they both have already turned seventeen in 1878, especially when juxtaposed with Gabriel's and Nate's ages and the rest.

Otherwise it does work that Will is born in late December and Jem's birthday is in November, other than that whole mess with being "three months" apart in age. But the language is weird, Tessa won't be marrying at seventeen no matter what, though Jem' would've recently turned eighteen.

Will telling Cecily that:

“You can’t be married, Cecily! You’re only fifteen! When I get married, I’ll be eighteen! An adult!”

Will turning eighteen a week or so after that Christmas when he proposed to Tessa works in that context as well. Though they apparently married two years later in March 3, 1880, according to the bonus content.

Though not exactly on topic, I want to point out that in said bonus content, Will thinks that "It wasn’t strictly a Shadowhunter wedding, because Tessa wasn’t strictly a Shadowhunter. But Will had decided to wear wedding gear anyway, because he was going to be the head of the London Institute, and his children would be Shadowhunters" though, at least according to the comic, James' conception was such a surprise because they didn't know if Tessa as a warlock could have children. And James was born in 1886, six years after the wedding.

Anyway, it's still a bit of a mess because, though some parts do fit, other parts of the text seem to have been written in another frame of reference in any case.

The timeline idea sounds fantastic!

[danvillecheese]

why do u think act ur age is fucked

[cracks knuckles] alright. essay time. you asked for it.

I’ve done a similar response to this before here and mentioned something else about it here but I’ll go over it again since those posts are both from a while ago. also bear in mind I haven’t seen aya recently bc I don’t like it. okay let’s get into it

[also im gonna preface this saying maybe i sound very pessimistic but im ranting and its just gonna sound like im complaining because i am. i mean no real malice by the way. im simply a person with a blog.]

first off. they don’t use the show don’t tell as well as they could. in the what might have been montage, sure, they showed potential scenarios and how phineas felt (very briefly) when isa stopped visiting his backyard but it just feels so rushed. I get that they only had like 11 minutes to show it but idk there has to be another way to write it. or just not have it at all idk its just from a writing point of view the whole episode feels rushed and out of place from everything else continuity-wise. why not use little easter eggs planted in the show beforehand? operation crumbcake? pharmacists? meapless in seattle? god theres so many episodes with evidence that phineas liked her back even if he didnt know. just. continuity!!!!

second. why did their friends not try something sooner. it’s not like they didn’t know. like phineas seems to be okay with saying “i wish! i am so in the friend zone there” in front of his friends (that quote alone makes me lose my shit but that’s a whole other point) so clearly they knew about phineas. and isabella also wasn’t quiet about it (source: pnf s1-4). they had like four years of high school to do something and they planned it the day isa left for college? nah its just the least realistic thing ever for me. also them being 18 is like yeah okay maybe the slow burn was worth it and theyre way more grown up (i love a good slowburn) but ohhhhhh my god SURELY their friends were getting sick of them dancing around each other. just me?

third. and I’m sorry to ash simpson but oh my god I hate the character designs like They Would Not Fucking Look Like That. it almost feels like it completely disregards their arcs during the original summer. like yeah child chub disappears over ur teen years but sometimes it stays a little longer! make phineas less twiggy!! make isa look more like her mother! (am i about to redesign them again? whoops)

four. and i know this is no fault of dan and swampy but the show was about to end anyways and yet the entire friend group was paired off into hetero ships?? get fucking real. none of those kids are straight. realistically, i know it was a different time and gay marriage wasnt even legal in the us yet so it wasnt all that common to have queer romance on screen let alone on disney channel but like i said, the show was about to end. what were the disney channel execs gonna do? cancel it? lmao

five. "I am so in the friend zone there." "we are guys. we do not talk about our feelings." WHAT!!! i cant believe this shit is real. these lines of dialogue are canon. what the hell. what kind of message does that even send to younger, impressionable viewers? if ur a 10 year old boy watching that (ok fine maybe that isnt gonna stick with you forever but listen) and you go 'oh its okay to just bottle everything up and not tell my friends about my feelings about anything ever' that is insane! thats not how things should go!! like i get the whole "im so in the friend zone" and yes, this also has to do with the era but like if they wanted to be a more progressive cartoon that kids look up to and enjoy maybe they just. shouldn't have put that whole conversation in.

i barely have any problems with the b plot. in fact id watch the episode just for the kazoo solo. because that plot lines up with the continuity. i can totally see heinz having bowling night with perry and carl and monogram every week! i can totally see perry and monogram retired! and carl running owca and getting payed for it! that all checks out! that one makes sense and works with the canon! if they got that plot so right how did they get the a plot so wrong?

i can answer this question: fanservice. its an awful word, i know. act your age is a fanservicey episode which is why i think it crashed and burned. mml season 2 is rooted in the same issue: doof is very present and takes away from the original plot of the show. like, the one he wasnt even in until the last episode of s1. slightly getting off topic but it is the crux of the issue. fanservice doesnt make for good storytelling. even if it brings in the big bucks. at its core, telling the story the way it should be told is the best one. even if it pisses people off. a good portion of the viewers will still appreciate whatever ending the creators come up with. and no, im not saying phinbella shouldn't have become canon, in fact i really like the ship and all their dynamics, i just think they went about it the wrong way.

as someone who's written and published fic about them getting together in different universes (granted, they were from when i was younger so its mildly terrible. take them with a grain of salt) there are a lot of other ways to tell that story canonically. honestly, i think the best way of doing it was to keep it ambiguous. dont tell that story. let the viewers pick their own ending for phineas and isabella. maybe they dont get together after all. who knows!

thanks for the ask! hope you had fun getting lectured <3