#I didn’t notice the parallel until I was rewatching

[moonlit-typewriter]

Episode 2 -> Episode 5

The way he says it with so much conviction the second time.

The way that it goes from being a fault of his to a strength of hers.

The way that he goes from focused on his dad seeing him succeed to focused on making sure the quest succeeds, regardless of whether he’s there when it does.

[happylikeasadsong]

carmy’s always running out of time

i just need to get this out of my head once and for all.

i don’t know if someone has already mentioned this, but time is a recurring issue for carmy this season. He often feels like he’s behind schedule or something.

watching it for the first time i didn’t notice carmy’s mention to time until i got to the syd and carmy scene in episode 9., so i decided to rewatch just to catch every time he mentions it throughout the season.

so he’s reasoning to stop smoking was time, not health. it was the means to get to the end goal (get the star, not let the team alone) he wants to stay sharp and focused and he can’t waste five minutes on a cig break. so he gets the nicotine tablets instead.

(just a side note: ijbol every time his speech was compromised by the damn tablets I couldn’t take him seriously when he was fighting to not spit that thing out. i also wanted to smack that shit out of his mouth so many times)

not smoking leaves him impatient and more sassy than ever, and I can’t help but to trace a parallel line between not smoking and his sudden bursts of anger (him telling nat to figure out the money thing and stomping out of the office)

when sugar comes in she asks him why is he doing all that for, his answer is straight forward:

we see the first glimpse of the carmy we’re gonna see for the rest of the season: impatient, anxious and snippy.

in episode 3, doors, when richie comes up with his own non-negotiables list, he gets angry and defensive that someone would try and challenge his ideas. but he doesn’t have time to explain why cause he’s running out of time. He doesn’t even want to listen, cause he’s running out of time.

in episode 5, children, uncle jimmy brings the computer to run an analysis on the restaurant finances and things aren’t looking too good, but carmy, once again, refuses to listen, he just wants to get back to work and block all noise

it gets to the point jimmy has to pull him aside cause he’s being so annoying about it.

then we have episode 7, legacy, where we have this:

this scene, once again, reinforces the idea of him always getting ahead on the next thing, never really enjoying the moment he’s in cause he has a job to do.

he barely lets sydney finishes her sentences, he already has everything mapped out in his head and thinks he doesn’t need to let her in the loop. he never slows down, is go go go time in his mind.

every second counts.

then finally, episode 9, apologies, where he apologizes to syd, he’s tired of always getting ahead, he wants to do differently:

she’s the only person he apologizes for constantly pushing for time and making her constantly having to play catch up.

as sydney states, it wasn’t a skill issue, but communication, something that she told him before and he didn’t listen. he never enjoyed the moment.

it made me think of when sydney asked him in episode 5 if he knew what he had was special when he was working under chef terry and he said he was always too busy to know it at the time.

now that he’s faced with ever closing, a place he thought it would last forever, I think he’s ready to admit that he doesn’t have to run anymore, he needs to stay in the moment.

(now this is just crack but this is so non-stop by hamilton coded lmfao

the man thinks he’s Alexander Hamilton writing the other 51 confederalist papers, assuming he’s the smartest in the room and that attitude will be his doom, sorry for the ref)

[gothra]

I’m currently on a rewatch of Supernatural, and I’m noticing a parallel with an aspect of Eric Kripke’s other project, something that I didn’t notice or care about the first time(s) I watched the show, but now I can’t stop thinking about. This relates to Sam Winchester’s consumption of demon blood and character’s (Hughie’s especially) usage of Temp V, and the language pertaining to morality that surround both of these aspects of the story.

Spoilers incoming.

In the earlier seasons of Supernatural, we establish that Sam Winchester has psychic powers due to being giving a demon’s blood as an infant.

As an adult, Sam starts getting visions pertaining to what are now his growing psychic powers, it’s only until later in the early seasons that we learn that Sam has discovered a way to control demons, by drinking demon blood, which heightens his psychic powers.

The powers he has are very useful and they come in handy multiple times. Sam can exorcise demons with his mind, a job that, before the use of demon blood, was done with a long Latin spell (that usually had to be uttered while a demon was rocking their shit) or couldn’t be done at all, requiring Sam and Dean to kill demons with a special kind of knife. Exorcism is safer for the vessel, but difficult to do, and stabbing the demons is a bit easier (not including getting within stabbing range) but it kills the demon and the vessel, which, from time to time is still being inhabited by a poor human soul that is forced to watch as the demon uses their body to do despicable things. Sam’s powers save their lives, too. He can toss demons around like ragdolls, too, and THAT comes in handy, too.

Sam’s powers are fucking cool. Not just that, they’re nearly a net positive.

Sam’s powers don’t really have a serious downside. It really seems like they would have written a severe downside into something so extreme as drinking demon blood, but they didn’t! No physical side-effects, meaning Sam’s physical body does not change, chafe, rot, or fall off every time he drinks the blood. He doesn’t hallucinate or get sick or get crazy headaches when he drinks it, just when he uses his psychic powers, and it hurts less the more he uses them. The only time he experiences physical side-effects is when he suffers from withdrawals from it. It doesn’t really alter his personality outside of the stress of hiding it and the shame of drinking it, which is to be expected. Like my friend Tyler said, “It doesn’t even make him bitchy, like when he was soulless”. There’s not even any moral problems with the method that Sam uses to collect demon blood. He drinks the blood of a demon he’s in a sexual relationship with, and she consents and encourages him to do so. He doesn’t run around kidnapping random demons and bleeding them until their vessels have run dry. He doesn’t have to do anything bad to get the demon blood. Sam doesn’t even need to drink a lot of it to deal with the demons they typically run into. Sure, he’s had to drink a lot more when it’s a bigger demon, but I wouldn’t expect anything less.

So, you can imagine my confusion upon rewatch when I realized that nobody else seemed to be on board. It would be understandable if they were tentative, or awkward or even squicked out by the blood aspect. But basically everyone Sam tells about his powers is disappointed in or angry at Sam for drinking demon blood. Mind you, this storyline is coming at a place in the Supernatural story where demons are running rampant. Sam is being mentally plagued by the demon that dropped blood into his mouth as an infant, all while he’s working with the demon who gives him the blood and helps him with his powers to take down an even bigger demon. It’s demons all the way down, yet, everyone takes the time out of their busy demon-slaying schedule to admonish Sam for drinking the blood and using his powers to help out.

Let me tell you, it’s maddening, watching people get angry at the wrong thing. It’s maddening to watch people apologize for doing something good because someone else has decided that their wrath is more important. Dean (Sam’s brother) has Sam in a moral chokehold the entire season, lecturing him, insulting him, pushing Sam aside for something that ultimately is nothing more than Dean’s personal issue. And because it’s Dean’s personal issue and Dean is a narrative favorite, his emotional and psychological needs are ultimately more important. Often, Sam doesn’t get what he deserves. His character experiences (literally) soul-destroying setbacks, and still, he is made to feel bad for doing something, when the benefits of that thing far outweigh the positives, and the negatives of that thing come off as a noble sacrifice.

You’d think I would get tired of talking about how much of a let down Season 3 of the boys is. But I got a burst of renewed energy once I realized I had something to talk about that intersected in a way that I could actually witness with my own eyes. Do I regret getting pulled back into SPN? A little bit. But, here’s the point of this:

Hughie and Sam play the same role in their respective stories. They are two people who have been deeply hurt, traumatized, damaged, and who desperately want to do some good. They both want to make a difference and make a dent in their missions.

Temp V is different than demon blood. This time, Kripke added side-effects. But the side-effects of Temp V don’t change the fact that the benefits of using it are obvious and immediate. When Butcher and Hughie use Temp V, important things happen. They came close to killing Homelander, just a pinch away. It worked. The thing that they were using the drugs for almost happened. So, denying its usefulness would be pointless.

This time, Kripke learned from his mistake. Sam didn’t experience any negative side-effects, and his personality changes seemed to be due to the stress of hiding it from his brother and constantly arguing about and attempting to justify his actions. The benefits outweighed the negatives. Hughie, on the other hand, experienced a remarkable (some would say, completely unbelievable and out of character) personality shift. Suddenly, his motives were different, ego-driven, selfish, and they tainted his actions, turning them from moral and noble, to self-centered. In Hughie’s case, the negatives and the positives are placed on an equal scale, in my opinion, by force. I think that the personality changes that they wrote for Hughie are absolutely not fitting at all, but were put in place because if they weren’t there, anyone who thought about it for more than one minute would realize that admonishing Hughie for his use of a helpful super drug is stupid. If Hughie only experienced the brain damage, he could be considered noble and brave for what he was doing. It would be tragic that he’d have to stop, and if he considered continuing to use the drug to take down Homelander after he learned about the side effects, it would endear us to Hughie and his self-sacrifice. If he only experiences the psychological side-effects, than we can even the score, then his selfishness could be enough to paint his use of Temp V as bad, as if his selfishness alone is enough to overwrite or match the immediate benefit to the mission, as if Hughie’s personal morals being in jeopardy outweigh the fact that their goal is to kill a maniacal rapist who, if given the chance, WILL kill them all, and ANYONE who stands in his way or upsets him or makes him feel inferior.

For both Sam and Hughie, they are being positioned against characters who should be considered wrong, and who should be confronted with their wrongness and never are, because their feelings on the issue, likely act as a stand-in for Eric’s feelings, and therefore, they become the narrative favorite. Dean is the suave, handsome womanizer with the gruff, yet charming personality and combat skills, and Sam is his brother. Annie is the Strong Female Character, who defies everyone because Eric needs to prove he knows how to create good female characters (he hasn’t proved that) and Hughie is her boyfriend.

Ultimately the similarities are striking. I’ve got many ideas about the reasons why Eric wrote Season 3 this way, and why he wrote Sam’s story like that, and the likelihood of these reasons increase and decrease the more I think about each of them, but that’s a separate issue and I’m very tired 😞

@deliciouskeys and @bisexualhomelander how did I do?

[notyoureve]

SEND HELP!!!

The girl is too carried away and cannot stop!!

I write about them, I sleep with them, I eat for them..!

This is not my Magnum Opus (which I write in parallel) but I'm so invested in this one it's kinda scary🙀 I’ve been writing this for over a month, and the words keep coming to me — at this rate, I’ll get to the plot of the third game, having written it myself🤪😆

Btw, it’s funny and quite interesting that while I'm in the process of writing this work, several fics came out, and they have such similar moments with mine that I wonder: are we all so smart and we all have one brain cell, or is there a possibility that NT also thought about something similar, but they themselves didn’t get around to it..?

...Or is it generally the fault of only these two that it is so obvious to all of us what they were thinking and what should have happened between them outside of what was shown in the game?😂 Because even the wording of some of the descriptions practically coincides that I even had to correct something to be slightly different😁

The most interesting thing in all this is that for the sake of writing this fic, I have already reviewed the walkthrough of the game 10 times, and each time I discover some new details that seem to have never been talked about or discussed here before🤔

So I’m also eager to create a post with an analysis of what I noticed during my multiple rewatching; I hope yours will be added to my observations when the time comes!

I would really like to share at least something with you, but, perhaps, I’ll keep the intrigue until the release..? In turn, I will try to finish as quickly as possible!

[woozapooza]

The Sopranos notes to self

This is a thing I do sometimes when I watch a really good show. Just some questions and themes to keep in mind when I inevitably rewatch The Sopranos. I may add to this if other ideas come to me.

Inflection points–when people had a real chance to make the right choice

Moments when characters actually do the right thing, or at least right-ish

Try to make sense of The Blue Comet (Melfi’s exit) and Kennedy and Heidi (Christopher’s death), both of which I found jarring (for very different reasons)

Character pairs to compare and contrast: Tony/Chris, Tony/Meadow, Tony/AJ, Carmela/Melfi, Silvio/Melfi, Richie/Ralphie (at first Ralphie felt to me like Richie 2.0, but he ended up being very different), Tony/Janice, AJ/Chris, AJ/Meadow, Chris/Jackie

Intra-episode character parallels and anti-parallels. (Examples that I’ve already noticed include Janice and Melfi in “Employee of the Month,” Caitlyn and Tracee in “University,” and Tony and Vito in "Moe 'n' Joe.")

Intertwining of selfish and selfless motives

In particular, why does Melfi continue to see Tony?

On the flip side, why does Tony keep coming back to Melfi?

Dreams!

Animals: Pie-O-My, Cosette, the bear, the cat in the finale, the Rottweiler in Melfi’s dream, the crow that Christopher may or may not have hallucinated, and of course the ducks

Various characters’ ethical codes or lack thereof, especially Melfi

How did Meadow go from “I hate being a Soprano” in s1 to full Soprano mode in s6?

What did Tony and Carmela do right and wrong as parents?

Parents and children in general

The Godfather and other mafia media

Happiness–when and why do characters experience it?

Responsibility, both in the sense of duty and in the sense of blame

The concept of the “good old days”

The American Dream or whatever

When characters come close to changing or making the right choice, what pulls them back?

Literally just everything to do with Melfi, especially in the first two seasons because I didn’t start to appreciate her like she deserves until season 3

Different characters’ philosophies about agency and responsibility

Walking the line between principles and realism (mainly applies to Melfi, but maybe other characters too)

“if you watch the sopranos without the Melfi parts Tony will be as bad as the other gangsters” (YouTube comment): true or false? 

The mob characters’ non-crime interests (film for Chris, animals for Tony, trains for Bobby, etc.)

Tony’s attitudes toward women, both as individuals and collectively

Role of the pool (this could be an interesting point of comparison with Breaking Bad)

Ups and downs of Tony and Christopher’s relationship

Tony repurposing other people’s words (most often Melfi’s, but others’ too)

The relationship of the civilian characters (the Cusamanos, Melfi and Richard and Kupferberg, AJ’s friends, etc) to the mob world

The different styles of therapy depicted

The stories people tell about themselves and each other. A story is true, a story is untrue…

[paintingformike]

I got really curious after one of your latest posts about your thoughts on bi mike vs gay mike. what's your main evidence for bi mike?

personally, I was a bi mike truther until I started my latest st rewatch a week ago. I always thought that mike had a genuine crush on el in season 1 but this time I noticed that mike didn't really show any romantic interest in her until lucas pointed out that mike likes el. before that, it was just mike being his friendly and caring self. and idk, every romantic moment between them seemed so forced to me, like mike was just doing what he thought he was supposed to be doing. and yeah, that whole dialogue before their first kiss was also weird. I haven't started season 3 yet, so maybe there will be some moments that'll show that mike is bi but for now, my only evidence of him being bi is byler/rockie parallels because vickie is clearly meant to be bi. I'm just so confused now, honestly, because I was so sure that mike is bi before this rewatch lol

sorry if some of these sentences don't make sense, my English is really bad...

nooo anon dont worry about your english, you’re perfectly understandable! to me personally i do see them portraying mike having genuine (but shallow) feelings for el via the inherently romantic tropes applied to them in s1-s2 (getting interrupted, the tiny bit of tension between them and all that), but that’s it, and the way i interpreted the painting plotline also makes me believe he had a shallow infatuation for el, but i’ve read a lot of gay mike analyses that have made me reconsider my stances on his sexuality and the byler storyline.

the byler/rockie parallels are also strong evidence of bi mike (and byler getting together in general) but it’s not really enough for me to discount the possibility of gay mike in the show considering a lot of points that make me believe they might go that route are narrative choices for his character. one example being the way he only showed interest in el after it was pointed out to him by other people, like you said, the stark contrast in how they make lucas and dustin show interest in multiple women but little to nothing from mike in comparison, they’ve also made him mirror will in this aspect (the way they both react to max in s2 compared to lucas and dustin).

season 3 was the most “i’m just doing what i think i’m supposed to do in typical het romantic relationships” season for mike because...he really was just being coached around by lucas constantly, looking totally clueless without him and most of his actions just him trying to adhere to societal expectations like getting his girlfriend a gift (?) and just. not initiating anything himself out of genuine love for el, he really needed a third party to hold his hand through navigating his relationship 😭 also the byler fight in s4 and how he said “thats because shes my girlfriend will” emphasizing the status of their relationship instead of saying something more genuine like el being important to him so obviously he’d write her letters...the majority of it was just him putting up a performance.

tbh he can still be bi and conforming to whats considered “normal” and thats what i was always firm in, but it can also be that they’re trying to portray how he really has no clue how to act when it comes to girls because he just feels no attraction to them. like the reason he needs his hand held through his relationship with a girl is because as a gay man it was never meant for him from the start, and the reason he can’t tell her he loves her is because...it was always impossible for him to feel anything towards her. he didn’t realize it at first (he wasn’t even sure of the difference between platonic and romantic before they kissed) but by s4 he was fully aware he only felt platonic care for el and was scared of losing her if he was honest about his true feelings (which explains the desert heart to heart he had with will.)

the duffers (or any other person from the writer’s room) have watched shows that portrayed internalized homophobia and characters that dated women while being cloested gay men, such as dawson’s creek and eyewitness, so that’s another factor that makes me think they could be writing mike to be gay because they’ve already gotten ideas of what it’s like, they’re not completely clueless. anyway this got too long (sorry anon i got carried away asjdksj) but the bottomline is i think both bi and gay mike have equal chances of being canon and are strong contenders in their own right, and while i used to think they wouldn’t explicitly confirm his sexuality, i realized they basically have to because they also need to clarify in the plot the true nature of mike’s feelings for el throughout their relationship and if he ever really loved her or felt attracted to her, it goes hand in hand with his sexuality arc and they can’t really just brush this over without leaving some kind of gaping hole in the storyline. mike’s gonna have to express how he really felt about el throughout their relationship so yeah...those are my two cents 👍

[1960z]

the vat of acid episode isn’t one I rewatch very often ngl, like even by rnm standards that episode is just all around very dark and outside of the vat of acid joke itself I don’t find it very fun to watch.

that’s all to say I didn’t notice all the parallels between that episode and this latest one until the very end but damn it was such a genuinely cool way to show rick’s character arc throughout this season while also getting a fun callback to that joke.

the only thing I kinda worry about is that it all felt very “final” if that makes sense. like either rick’s development is considered done or something’s gonna happen next episode that pushes it back considerably and tbh if they’re gonna go with anything I’d still prefer the latter. it’s been said a lot but morty has not had a lot of agency this season and I think for the arc to be truly complete morty deserves to express how he’s felt about everything that’s happened on his own terms as well and if this was the last opportunity given to explore that then I think that’s a shame.

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Tuesday, January 9

XANDER: No, no, no. You're not going out. SPIKE: I have to go. XANDER: Buffy was very clear about the not leaving of you. SPIKE: I know what the Slayer told you. It's not true. Now let me go, and I'll find a way to prove it. XANDER: OK, I'm gonna list the reasons that won't happen. One - (Spike punches hi in the nose, knocking him out) SPIKE: Ow!

~~Buffy Season 7 Episode #130: "Sleeper"~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Disaster Avoidance Strategies (Buffy, T, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure xover) by madimpossibledreamer

Up All Night (Buffy/Spike, M) by veronyxk84

finds me unafraid (Xander, T, multiple xovers) by madimpossibledreamer

When she failed her sacred duty (Buffy, Willow, G) by FPBarbieri

Beckoning Beat (Oz/Reader, G) by CasuallyShrieking

It's you that I lie with (Oz/Reader, G) by CasuallyShrieking

Music to my Ears (Oz/Reader, G) by CasuallyShrieking

The Depth of You (Darla/Kendra, T) by MadeInGold

A Sexy Meal (Buffy/Spike, M) by DeamonQueen

Wanting (Buffy/Giles, T) by zombiesam

Untitled (Giles, Buffy, unrated) by

Creature of the Night (Faith/OC, M) by smartycvnt

[Chaptered Fiction]

Vamp for Rent 17/18 (Spike/Xander, M) by forsaken2003

Forgiveness Doesn't Come Easy Ch. 15 (Buffy/Spike, E) by slaymesoftly

What If Love Was Enough?, Chapter 7 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Spikelover4ever

Three Little Words, Chapter 5 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Maxineeden

Ressentir la peine, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, G) by Miss Kitty

Who's Pole ?, Chapter 1-2 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Desicat

Pack My Box with Five Dozen Liquor Jugs, Chapter 9 (Buffy/Spike, E) by honeygirl51885

The Neighbor's Point of View, Chapter 75 (Buffy/Spike, ) by the_big_bad

A Waxy Gent Chuckled Over My Fab Jazzy Quips, Chapter 9 (Buffy/Spike, T) by violettathepiratequeen

Poor Man's Treacle, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, G) by mcgnagallsarmy

The Witch‛s Gift, Chapter 30 (Buffy/Spike, E) by RavenLove12

Constellations, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Maxineeden

Truth and Consequences, Chapter 4 (Buffy/Spike, M) by JamesMFan

Truth Hurts, Chapter 5 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Geliot99

A Second Chance- Their Story, Chapter 6 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Loup Noir

Lesson the Second, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Girlytek

Wayward Girl, Chapter 2 (Buffy/Spike, E) by ClowniestLivEver

Love Lives Here, Chapter 6 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Passion4Spike

Clean Slate, Chapter 2 (Buffy/Spike, G) by hulettwyo

It's Easy Time, Until It's Not, Chapter 8 (Buffy/Spike, G) by hulettwyo

The Freak Show, Chapter 8 (Buffy/Spike, E) by hulettwyo

Love Ridden, Chapter 4 (Buffy/Spike, E) by scratchmeout

Liquor Good, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Girlytek

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork:Balthazar by drawandpaintbyfire

Artwork:Angel sketches by genericaces

Artwork:Buffy, Dawn, & Willow by pzyii

Video: AtS Women | Rid of Me by mercer-queen

[Reviews & Recaps]

PODCAST: Episode 111: Season 5 Wrap Up by Mythtaken

PODCAST: BTVS 507 - Fool For Love by Another Buffy Podcast

PODCAST: Two To Go S6 E21 by Buffy and the Art of Story

PODCAST: Episode 10 - Chocolate Hurricanes and Chicken Tender Subs (Nightmares) by The Sunnydale Diaries

[Fandom Discussions]

Day 8: Favorite Season 1 Episode. by k0nstantly-tragic

Was rewatching Homecoming earlier for unrelated reasons when I noticed a familiar name on Buffy’s list of likely voters by coraniaid

I find it so funny that in Something Blue, Spike seems to hesitate by hermyohkneegranger

This was fantastic! I picked up on an interesting parallel with watching this video. by girl4music

rating buffy characters for how disproportionate their reaction to buffy’s 3 month absence was by hauntedhikingsociety

Urban Fantasy Worldbuilding and the USA by alpaca-clouds

Two of the most critically acclaimed episodes of Buffy are episodes that I don’t really care for. by wendyliddel

If you think about it in Buffy The Vampire Slayer theres a loophole to create infinite Slayers by takato1993

Another thing that Wynonna gets right that Buffy didn’t. by girl4music

What music goes with Lilah Morgan? by Pumpkins217

What if Lilah Morgan and Jenny Calendar met? by Pumpkins217

AtS Season 4 is the worst by modeyink

Opinions on each season of AtS by Pumpkins217

How would Wesley react if Lilah had survived in season 4 by LightBlueSky55

Best ship of each season? by Pumpkins217

Joyce’s Death. Did she really need to die? by thrasherbuffy

A better villain than the Initiative? by buffysmanycoats

Pylea by pengchod

Buffy killing the knights of Byzantium by SafiraAshai

5x16 and 17 by ZealousidealMiddle13

I started watching Buffy in October, currently in mid-S6. My thoughts so far. by InnocentPerv93

Comparatively, how strong is baseline Buffy? by mbene913

Question on Illyria’s disguise (spoilers) by JellyfishDry9464

Anyone else love seeing the start of Buffy and Riley’s relationship? by Suspicious-Thing5215

Hot take: Dawn wasn't real by vasopressin334

Crack theories. by ZombiePhantom

Is there a term for how characters in BTVS speak? by Inspirational_Owl

Can we discuss the Pylea arc? by Pumpkins217

What is your favorite season? by Pumpkins217

S2E8 The Dark Age by Pumpkins217

What is your favorite season premiere in the Buffyverse? by Pumpkins217

Which seasons did you find the characters most likable? by Excellent-Durian-509

A lot of talk about Riley, but there's one thing that I haven't seen discussed... by RuthlessKittyKat

S2E17 “Passion” by Pumpkins217

“I Only Have Eyes For You” is amazing. by Pumpkins217

Any good long Buffy/Angel fics? by goodandpure

Rent by pengchod

Angel the Series on the Internet Archive by emerald447

Cordy and Angel by pengchod

Did Buffy the Vampire slayer gain any controversy when it was airing? by Toni-Cipriani

Any theories you had while watching that never came true/were proven? by Could_Be_A_Spy

Wesley’s such a heartthrob in season 4 by modeyink

Doctor Xander? by UpsettiSpaghetti16

Fred's voice by BabsLuck

Where do we go from here. by Syn_33

Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!

Join the editor team :)

[pbear]

Ranking Black Clover OPs

This is a personal ranking. All of them are actually solid OPs and I think Black Clover consistently makes good ones.

Max of ten videos to a post so the bottom ones link to the OP.

13. Stories by Snow Man (OP 11)

Not bad but it doesn’t do too much. A little basic. Kinda checks all the normal boxes.

The shot of the map is cool

You flash through a bunch of characters.

Group Black Bulls shot.

I thought they were showing flashbacks but there are episodes that revisit Kahono and Kiato, Zora’s backstory, and the Queen of Witches which is nice.

Awww Loropechika :(

Some magic and fighting shots

Yeah, it’s not outstanding

12. Eien ni Hikare (Everlasting Shine) by TOMORROW X TOGETHER (OP 12)

Starts off with some cool shots of squad members against shots of their captains (expect Yami ofc because you couldn’t fit all his kids)

Yuno finding himself surrounded by his friends in the Golden Dawn is really sweet.

Some magic fighting with the captains this time which is super cool

Asta and Yuno growing up as they run together is sweet too.

Not much that I found interesting but it looks nice

11. Gamushara by Miyuna (OP 5)

Solid but doesn’t stand out too much.

The song has grown on me from when I first watched the arc.

I was intrigued that in the opening shots of the Black Bulls, Vanessa and Finral are in different shots when they’re shown together a lot of the time. I think that’s because this point in the story is when their individual stories start getting focused.

Back to the illustrations in the grimoire which is cool.

Vanessa seeing Rouge for the first time is so touching as she realizes the power she holds.

Ending shot of the squad is always good.

Definitely more of a static OP

10. Grandeur by Snow Man (OP 13)

I love the song for this one.

The surprise watching it for the first time is that you find out Asta becomes even more buff.

And then he goes sword surfing.

Good action

Amping up the threat of the Dark Triad well

The hints at Nacht and Liebe are nice

Actually doesn’t show too many characters. The Black Bulls (as a squad) aren’t really there.

9. sky & blue by GIRLFRIEND (OP 8)

I thought this song was not appropriate for this point in the series the first time I watched it. Like, the elves are wreaking havoc and we’re having this nice little calm tune. It is a good song though.

Good action in this one.

Lots of elf trauma.

I didn’t notice the brief shots of Leo and Luck until I rewatched it to make this list, but they’re appreciated for their moments during this arc.

Lots of Asta and Yuno focus.

I feel like I don’t have much to say about it.

8. JUSTadICE by Seiko Oomori (OP 7)

I like the symbols of the squads in time to the song

Great group shot of the Black Bulls

I wasn’t sure why Grey and Gordon were both screaming but once you know, it’s great.

Mimosa in the spotlight because she’s important this arc being on a team with Asta.

Cool Zora shot.

Elf trauma.

Yami being super sus about William and William also gets this creepy shot where black hands grab him.

HENRY REVEAL

Everyone coming towards Mereoleona at the end to form the Royal Knights is nice.

Screaming Black Clover at the end is such a moment

7. rakugaki paige by Kankaku Piero (OP 6)

Lower down in terms of song for me but the visuals are damn good.

Love some of the transitions in this one.

The opening shots of different wizards in environments similar to their magic type is cool. Then, they all fade to black which is where Asta appears. Very nice.

Interesting that Asta and Yuno are reaching out to each other instead of their normal fist bump.

Lots of action in this OP and it’s great.

The transition from Finral and Langris in red to Noelle and Solid in blue is satisfying. The parallel of sibling issues.

Zora seeing his father is a good transition too.

That shot of Langris angry is scary but it transitions to Finral opening his eyes to see his friends protecting him :’)

6. Paint It Black by BiSH (OP 2)

This OP changed as the arc went on. I was skipping it on some episodes and when I decided to see it again, I had to take a step back. Then, I watched it almost every time.

I was excited for this arc because Luck was getting attention and the OP reflects this but at the split shot of him half crazy and half as we normally see him made me think “That’s concerning”

I like the red, blue and black throughout it. Very reminiscent of the rustiness of Asta’s sword too.

Watching the arc, I liked trying to identify everyone’s grimoires as they flew past at the beginning.

5. Haruka Mirai by Kankaku Piero (OP 1)

Start of the show so it’s mostly Asta and Yuno based which is fine because you haven’t met many characters yet but I prefer the ones that include more of the characters

I like that the shots of the Black Bulls and Captains are like illustrations in the pages of a grimoire.

I remember this OP making me think Magna was going to be more important than the other Black Bulls because there’s a shot of him riding on Crazy Cyclone with Asta and Noelle. Like, I thought they were going to be a trio or something.

This is the OP that they play during scenes in the show so it has some nostalgia as the first one and it shows how much Asta has grown.

Being the first OP, it hits different and has a special place, but I think there are better ones down the line.

4. Black Catcher by Vicke Blanka (OP 10)

Cool OP because there is a drastic change between its two versions

Song is really good.

The first one fits that point in the story well because it’s colorless and raining and everything seems hopeless.

Secre flying through the air as the past plays out and then a shot of Asta shows how she’s been around for years.

Cool action fighting the devil.

When light breaks through the darkness and Secre cries :’)

As for the second version…

Secre falling through the sky but she has the Black Bulls cloak on now is nice.

I like Asta running through the illustrations of all these people he’s met. It’s recalling all the adventures he’s had so far.

Creepy shot of Gordon’s family which probably jumpscared me the first time I watched it

I want to punch Damnatio in the face

Some cool action

More foreshadowing ooooooo

Another good ending shot of the Black Bulls

3. RiGHT NOW by EMPiRE (OP 9)

Hype OP which is good for this arc

DRAMATIC LIGHTING

More elf trauma

Interesting that the first shots of the Black Bulls don’t show their faces really

I like how they show the backstories of Finral, Luck, Gauche, and Noelle on backgrounds that look like their grimoires.

Really good action shots

Mereoleona and Fuegoleon are going feral

Asta breaking through the black is cool.

Oooooo foreshadowing

2. Black Rover by Vicke Blanka (OP 3)

OH BOY

This was one of the openings I already knew before watching the show and I could not wait to get to it. Having the context just made it better.

Never skipped this OP. Ever.

Song goes so hard.

I was so excited that we were going to see Yami in action

There’s also a small fight with Magna, Luck, Asta, and Noelle against these cloaked figures you assume are the Eye of the Midnight Sun. They’re the characters we mainly know so far and it’s a cool bit.

This is the OP that I feel sums up Black Clover as a series the best. Like, I would show this to someone to try and convince them to watch the show.

Guess Who Is Back by Kumi Koda (OP 4)

YESSSSSSSS

An OP I never skipped

This song goes so hard.

While Black Clover is the OP that I think sums up Black Clover, this is pure Black Bulls awesomeness. It’s so hype.

I like shots of the grimoires. They’re fun.

I love their dramatic ass poses at the beginning with the lighting shifts.

The shots of Asta, Magna, Luck, Vanessa, Finral, and Noelle going from rougher sketches to more vivid and dimensional (I don’t know how to describe this). I want to scream at this part, it’s so good.

Then, the group shot at the end as they face Vetto.

It’s just so so so so amazing and gets you excited.

[roxy206]

Or what about a Bones au where T & K were detectives or like, them being Booth and Brennan, I would love to see their dynamic translate to that scenery:0

I would see T as the Booth & K as the Brennan if that were the case. I started thinking last night about who lines up the most

But I think I really sold myself on the crossover idea tbh! I haven’t even begun to sort out all the details, but I’m thinking maybe a newly established relationship Booth & Brennan or very established Booth & Brennan vs the slow burn of T & K would be very interesting! I didn’t think about how many parallels there are until after rewatching The Parts In The Sum Of The Whole

The confessions of attraction that unravel between them & to others. The kiss that’s meant to lead to them sleeping together, but ultimately doesn’t. Knowing that it would be so much more than just sex. The way everyone can see there’s something there. Work being both a hurdle & an excuse. The intimacy that develops over time, as much as they want to think it’s platonic — as much as they need to convince themselves it’s platonic. The fierce protectiveness

There’s so much there

And I love the thought of Sweets seeing these parallels. Of Booth & Brennan noticing too & each of them mentioning something to their counterpart because they understand, because they’ve been there, because they know that fear of taking that leap, of not being enough, of risking the person who’s everything to them by taking a chance — a chance for so much more

[lydiaas]

I was doing another rewatch (again) of our little boat show and I never noticed the parallel in episode 2x4 when Sarah goes to meet Ward to tell him to choose between her and Rafe and asks him to confess and tell the truth about what happened if he wants to have her back home but he just twists everything refusing to do so and being his egoistical self protecting his own ass TO THEN LATER ON THE EPISODE seeing the scene when John B gets arrested and we have that shot in slow motion of him looking around to see Sarah, Kiara , Pope hiding from the cops scared as fuck and JJ loading the gun ready to basically get himself arrested if not shot and killed on the spot and John B just chooses to come out and turn himself over to the police. The contrast of Ward refusing to come forward to protect himself hurting Sarah in the process and not giving a shit about what’s gonna happen to innocent people involved to John B on the other hand who’d rather get arrested for something he didn’t even do rather than see the people he loves get hurt and dragged into this mess for “his” fault.

I didn’t even realize how obvious that parallel in the same episode was until today.

OOOOF OUCH, great pickup! Season 2 went off with the parallels between Ward and John B actually. I did this gifset after S2 which was a similar theme. Ward really doesn't understand what it means to act with honour and to put others above himself. Even his sacrifice in S3 was due to it really being his only option in that moment.

I know I've dragged John B for being a little selfish but, like all the characters, he's very pure of heart.

[glennethph]

I know that a lot has been said about The Goodbye Girl being a sort of parallel between the main characters. In many ways, both Ellie & Joel are The Goodbye Girl (Paula) - they have been left behind and abandoned by pepple in their lives (for whatever reason). And even if the metaphor is a little too on the nose, I agree.

But I have to bring up this one little bit that I didn’t notice until another rewatch. The ending of TGG is Paula being left again by the man she falls in love with but the twist is that he leaves his guitar with her to be restrung. She then suddenly realizes that he may be leaving her at the moment but he’s coming back because of the guitar (and her).

IMO this is echoed in Joel asking Tommy if he can ‘borrow’ his rifle. There is an unspoken promise when you say ‘borrow’ instead of asking. or just taking it. It’s a lovely fantasy….if it happens.

[theteasetwrites]

So I’m rewatching the whole show over agin (for the fourth time😅) because I’m doing an analysis chart on Daryls character throughout the show, and since I’m hyper focused on him I’m noticing a lot more

In the first episode he’s introduced, in the scene where he pulls a knife in Rick because he chained Merle on the roof, Shane puts him in a choke hold to restrain him.

I noticed that Daryl seemed to panic. His breathing got harder, but not in a ‘I was just fighting’ way but in a fight or flight kinda way.

When he’s trying to get out of Shane’s grip, he says “choke holding is illegal” and this line strikes me as odd because Daryl isn’t one to crack a joke in this type of situation…but why would he bring up the law? They’re in an apocalypse…

After Shane let’s go, the camera switches to a wider shot but you can see Daryl in the background scoot away from Shane quickly and point at him, almost like he couldn’t believe he did that

I think the choke hold triggered his trauma from his father, and the reason he brought up that it’s illegal is because he didn’t expect Shane (a cop) to do something he only knows as brutal and life threatening

I remember later on in the series, he puts Rick in a choke hold (this whole scene was a parallel to Rick and Shane tbh), and I think this was meant to show his development and how his new family and support system could have helped heal some of that trauma.

Choke holding isnt life threatening now, it’s just a restraint to calm someone until proper communication is accessible

I’m still working my theory, this is just a rough draft of my thoughts😅 I’d love to hear what you or anyone else thinks!

Oh wow I never noticed all that! That's super interesting. I do recall that during that scene he seems more upset in a sad way than an angry way, but he doesn't really know how to deal with his emotions properly so he just resorts straight to violence. I like that he becomes better at handling those emotions as the series progresses.

I think you're definitely onto something there.

[thebrokengate]

Not to add to the insanity, but I just rewatched these movies recently and I noticed a bunch of parallels between them too, and I’ve probably been overanalyzing them to death in the back of my mind ever since, so I’m very happy to hear I’m not the only one who noticed this. Throwing out the basics here because I’m losing it:

Bolded words = Connections between pairings.

Barbossa commits mutiny and maroons Jack on an island, Jack gets his revenge 10 years later. Davy Jones is charged with the duty of ferrying souls to the other side, that duty coming with the burden of being unable to step on land except for once every 10 years.

Barbossa & crew set sail to Isla de Muerta (an island that cannot be found except by those who already know where it is - AKA, hidden) after Barbossa’s betrayal of Jack where they end up being cursed after taking the gold from the chest of Cortez, one of said results of the curse being a lack of feeling (Barbossa being quoted as saying that “I feel nothing”). After feeling betrayed by Calypso when she didn’t show up after his completed 10 years of looking after those who died at sea, Jones showed the pirate lords how to bind her to human form, then cut out his heart so he would feel nothing, hiding his chest away from the world (”him carve out him heart, lock it away in a chest, and hide the chest from the world” - Tia Dalma, Dead Man’s Chest), and beginning to corrupt his purpose. (Sidenote: both Isla de Muerta - where Cortez’s chest is located, and Isla Cruces - where Jones’ heart chest was buried, are Spanish-named islands, which probably means little to nothing in the grand scheme of things, but.. just throwing that out there, too.)

An interesting point of connectivity in motivations: Barbossa is the one who planned to and eventually did free Calypso in At World’s End. Jack was originally going to do the same for Davy Jones and take his place (”I can set you free, mate” as he said to Jones before their fight began) until Jones stabbed Will and Jack made the choice to save him, helping Will stab Jones’ heart instead.

Both Davy Jones and Barbossa are killed via the heart - Jones being stabbed in the heart by the blade of a sword, Barbossa being shot through the heart.

As you mentioned, the references to freedom. For Calypso, it’s straight up physical imprisonment (”It has been torture, trapped in this single form. Cut off from the sea. From all that I love. From you.”) But for Jack, it’s more.. metaphorical and symbolic (Jack telling Elizabeth in Curse of the Black Pearl that “... what The Black Pearl really is.. is freedom” and to call things back to the mutiny and subsequent marooning on the island, Jack was cut off from the sea, from all that he loves [”my first and only love is the sea” - Jack in Dead Man’s Chest], and equally.. from Barbossa). (P.S. I need to collect some screenshots but haven’t because I’m too lazy, but there’s even more references that I could match up involving conversations about freedom. For instance, Jones and Calypso’s conversation on the Pearl where she tells him “I will be free. And when I am, I would give you my heart, and we would be together always, if only you had a heart to give.” Connect this to the Pearl being referenced as “freedom”, and Jack shooting Barbossa through the heart - Jack symbolically free again, but unable to be together again with Barbossa because he symbolically gave up his heart when he left Jack to die and took the Aztec gold.)

I’m sure there’s way more than what I could get to come to mind at this moment in time, but that’s all I could remember for now. But anyway, THANK YOU for bringing this up! :)

not to go insane but we need to talk abt the potential for sparbossa and jones/calypso dynamic parallels like. me when the man I love strips me of my freedom and attempts to confine me to land without even having the balls to straight up kill me himself

[mistyfoxxy]

Y’all let’s talk for a second. I rewatched ASIAS at the ER last night and I noticed something. Now forgive me, this might be a long post buttttt hear me out. I think of Willow wouldn’t have found out quiiittte yet that Hunter was the golden guard, the guard that Luz had talked about, she would’ve started liking Hunter. I think she actually might have developed a crush on him already, and here’s why:

On there first meeting, you know how the story goes, she’s looking for recruitments and sees Hunter playing flyer derby with a griffin for his boot. She’s immediately amazed by him. Ok? Now we haven’t had much throughout the series on Willow herself but we know she started off bullied, her best friend was forced to unfriend her- and she’s a powerful witch. She’s gained this new confidence now that she’s able to legally act on that.

Sure, he’s a little wierd upon first meeting. But their meeting towards eachother is totally parallel! They’re both confused by eachother, hunter bc she didn’t think the was to uhm.. test the recruits was deathly courses, and Willow, bc of how he thought they should test the recruits.

And then the next scene we get, where he’s showing off the flying skills to help Willow,

They both quote eachother. Not literally, but they’re impressed, even amazed by each others talents and recognize each others strengths. Both stating the the other would make a great edition/ and if there’s any others like them. Now ofc, Hunter is upset, like really upset that the so-called “best and brightest” are what she presented to him. Now that upsets her, bc she understands what it’s like to be misjudged at one point, but then she hears what she’d felt her whole life. “If you’re considered a half-a-witch like me” and she understands.

What I’m trying to say is, TOH producers and crafty and smart. They know what to create. I believe they did this parallel for a reason, I think it was for her to develop a crush on him this episode, just as I knowwwww he did as we see later on in future episodes. Now all of this stuff stuff you’ve probably picked up on your own, but I want to go to this one scene, that made me want to look into this.

AINT NOBODY ELSE IN THIS SHOT LOOKING AT HIM LIKE THAT. I think she started to like him. I think she saw this scrawny, cute, cocky, a little judgemental at first(with reason she begins to understand), having fun, she was having fun with him. I think she developed her crush then. I think she still likes him. And here’s why.

When she starts to put the pieces together after his grand introduction. She’s nervous, confused, and even upset. Very upset if you ask me. This was the golden guard LUZ had told them about. The right hand of belos that ain’t none of them like. She had let the golden guard join their team. She thought the GOLDEN GUARD was a very neat fellow. Maybe even thought he was rather cute.

She’s hurt. She immediately puts her guard up. She quotes, “I made a bad call” implying, trusting Caleb. This new guy. Someone she’s never seen before and blames herself. She put her team at risk. And even goes to quote, again another parallel from earlier in the episode, “I’m just half-a-witch-Willow” I believe at this point, she put her guard up. As seen on the following episodes, she does what she can to help him, like in the episode where the school gets ilusioned up, can’t think of the name at the moment. She saved him, her and the Emerald Entrails (except for Gus ofc) but she still had that guarded look on her face. Sure, they’ve texted back in forth on penstagram, and o think she was ok with him, but I believe she didn’t want to put her friends in danger again by trusting what he said until proof. I believe once she fully trusts him, she’ll be able to develop proper feelings without having her guard up and the blushing and nervousness will begin. But there you have it. That’s my very bad grammar, not fluent and all take on Willows crush on Hunter.

[lupon]

Water symbolism

I noticed water and drowning bring brought up a lot for a while now and I’ve been trying to figure out what it all meant. It wasn’t until I rewatched the scene of El first going in NINA that it finally clicked

“We shouldn’t have just thrown her in there like this, she’s gonna drown in there”

“She will learn to swim”

They were referring to El drowning in her trauma and bad memories her brain was blocking out. Suddenly it all started to make sense. A lot of people have noticed the same lyrics playing when both Max and Will died:

“I don’t wanna swim the ocean, I don't wanna fight the tide when it’s cold I’d like to die”

Right before Max died, one of the last things she said to Vecna was “Now I lie awake at night praying something bad will happen to me” “I want you to make me disappear” Will has also been referenced to be dealing with depression.

“Sometimes when you’re different, you feel like a mistake”

“Stop treating me like that, like everyone else does like there’s something wrong with me. It doesn’t help, it just makes me feel like more of a freak”

“Stupid. So stupid. Stupid stupid stupid”

“Because you’re my brother and I love you, and there is nothing in this world, okay, absolutely nothing that will ever change that. You got that?”

“When it’s cold I’d like to die” parallels the “He likes it cold” quote

Here’s some other times water was mentioned/referenced in the show:

“The anniversary of an event can bring back traumatic memories and sort of open up the neurological floodgates so to speak”

Bob tuned on the water which attracted the demodog to it

“I wish I could swim like dolphins, like dolphins can swim” 

Nancy was taking a shower when she was having flashbacks of the Demogorgon

Billy was taking a shower when he couldn’t fight the Mind Flayer anymore at took his first victim

Will turned on the faucet after he puked up the slug, had an episode, then turned it off

Water was dripping from a faucet when Will had an episode in his house 

Barb died in a pool

Will’s body was found in a lake

When El looked at her reelection in the water she saw the part of herself she didn’t like and screamed, compared to saying she was “pretty” and “still pretty” when she saw herself in a mirror

Dustin named the gate to the Upside Down watergate

Dustin was walking around offering injured people at the gym H2O

“Water still works” in Hoppers cabin, when the camra was panning around to show how the place had been destroyed by the Mind Flayer in s3

Heather and Billy both took a cold (He likes it cold) bath when they were flayed

*insert Heather being dragged underwater in the mind scape when she was flayed*

*insert Steve being dragged underwater into the Upside Down*

(Maybe a reach but Billy was surfing on top of the water when he was with his mom, possibly symbolizing how he was able to handle his father as long as his mom was there. Being able to “fight the tide” and “swim the ocean” until she left)

So then I got thinking about the scene in s3 when Erica wanted to drink the green liquid from the Russians:

“We can survive a long time down here without food, but if the human body doesn’t get water, it will die”

“I hate to break it to you, but this is not water”

“No but it’s a liquid and if it comes down to me drinking that shit or dying of thirst, I drink”

Then I remembered something Dustin said in s4:

“What if with each kill, he’s not simply killing them, he’s making a powerful psychic connection to his victims, a connection powerful enough to rip a hole in the fabric of time and space”

If water represents traumatic and unhappy memories, and Vecna is killing people/opening gates by showing them all of these memories, then the artificial “water” the commies made was meant to substitute that needed ingredient in order to open a gate. 

Because here’s the thing: did the gate in s1 open because El touched the Demogorgon, or did it open because El felt a extremally powerful emotion, one strong enough to rip a hole through the fabric of time and space? El was also extremally emotional when she opened a temporary gate to send One/the Demogorgon through. Vecna used people’s bad memories against them to make them feel a strong emotion in order to open gates, the reason could possibly be that he just doesn’t feel strong enough emotions to be able to do it himself. Or, maybe you need to use good memories to make a gate to the right side up world from the Upside Down, and he simply doesn’t have any. So instead he makes gates from the right side up to the Upside Down, which is why a gate appears where the victim died instead of where he himself is. After all, he isn’t the one who’s feeling a strong enough emotion to open a gate. 

Anyway back to the water theory:

There is no water in the Upside Down because the Upside Down IS the water. That’s why voices have a strange effect whenever characters are shouting/yelling and why it has a blue tint. The Upside Down is metaphorically a place where bad memories live and “fester” as Kali said in s2. Note the parallel:

Will: “It’s like they’re (the vines) are growing and spreading... killing”

Illusion Brenner: “You have a wound Eleven, a terrible wound. And it will grow, spread, and eventually, it will kill you”

El’s pain and suffering directly parallels the creatures from the Upside Down. And since water represents those thoughts and feelings, there is no water inside the Upside Down. 

So, how does this play into how they will defeat the Upside Down? Well - “I wish I could swim, like dolphins can swim” “I don’t want to swim the ocean, I don’t want to fight the tide” “she will learn to swim” How did El learn to swim? She confronted her pain and became stronger because of it. Will’s arc in s5 will likely follow the same route. In order for the characters to beat the Upside Down they need to learn how to confront feelings and memories they don’t like. Only after they do that will they be able to face the place that represents all of their pain. Erica said they would die without it because they could never learn to swim without water.  Once they all learn how to swim, the water holds no power over them.

(@will80sbyers I saw you posting about your water theory and it inspired me to finally finish this one I’ve been working on for a while. Figured you’d be interested)