#I'm just saying it's much better compared to the season 5 one.

[sskk-manifesto]

Ep 8 !!

[gardenfairie]

This question asked by a mileven to finn wolfhard might've been one of the best proofs bylers got today lmao.

There is so much to unpack here.

"What makes miIeven so strong?" — Finn didn't address this at all. Is their "love" really so strong if he can't easily speak on it? lol. Caleb was going on about how unconditional and forever lumax's love was today. Those were the words he used. And Noah went on and on about byler's bond at his last panel in 2024.

Instead of answering how their love is so strong, Finn starts talking about how romance was the last thing on Mike's mind when he met El. This easily kills the 'love at first sight' from the monologue, which is hilarious because the questioner is asking "how does Mike's monologue impact them after season 4". So not only did he ignore the question, but he also contradicts the monologue that the questioner wants to hear more about, not once, but THREE TIMES 😭😭😭

"I dont think romance was on his mind even when he initially found eleven" "didn't perceive himself to be in any romantic relationship" "that wasn't even on his mind"

Next he's comparing el to ET: the least romantic dynamic ever. ET is an alien that a boy named elliot takes care of. So apparently that's how Mike initially saw El— like a pet he had to take care of. (This is not news and has been said multiple times by the duffers and finn by the way). Oh and ET says goodbye and leaves at the end of the movie.

"relationship with a lot of people", "feelings towards someone" — Keeping it gender neutral I see :))

"first love", "that relationship is his first romantic feelings for someone" — Usually people signify the relationship being a first because it's not the LAST either *chuckles*. Interesting how finn doesn't say anything like "that relationship is his ONLY romantic feelings towards someone" if he wanted to emphasize how deeply in love they are like how the questioner so clearly wanted him to lol

"going into season 5", "still a couple going into it" — So he said not once but twice "going into..." He seems to want to make it really clear he's ONLY referring to the beginning of the season and nothing else, because it's literal common sense. mike and el ended off season 4 together, so yeah no fucking duh they're starting off season 5 together?? Like what lol.

"that's all I can say about 5" — So zero indication that Mileven are still together in the middle, or the end, or anywhere beyond the start of season 5.

Now what would be a better more pro-mileven response to this question? Probably something like this (I'm essentially taking stuff Noah and Caleb have said about byler and lumax and mashing them together):

The romantic relationship between Mike and El is a foundational element of stranger things. What makes them so strong and how does Mike’s confession impact them after season 4?

I think what makes Mike and El so strong is their unconditional love and connection with each other, just as what Mike's confession showed. I can't give spoilers about season 5, but I'm just excited for you guys to see it. Like I think all throughout the seasons, I have have so many great scenes with millie. I can't spoil anything but Mike and El's relationship has been so important all throughout, and you'll see what they will face in season 5.

[xxsycamore]

❝ CRADLE ❞

╰┈➤ Soon after you've had the "baby talk", Shingen already seems to be thinking ahead - but not all his thoughts are so innocent.

Shingen Takeda/f!Reader • rating: E (MDNI) • tags: Breeding; Mentions of Pregnancy; Nipple Play; Dirty Talk; Hand & Finger Kink; Body Worship • wordcount: 595 • masterlist

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ ࣪ request by @writingwhimsey <3 thank you!

IKEMEN BREEDING SEASON - Prompt 5. Imagining you pregnant

"I'm glad that you liked the cradle. I can already see you gently rocking our child to sleep."

The very moment Shingen gave you a brief pause from kissing you breathless, you knew he had something to say. Another killer line perhaps, something awfully flirty or downright naughty, just anything that will make your heart skip a beat as he knows best.

Instead, he brings up the cradle. And somehow, the result is the same.

It's only been a handful of days since the baby talk. Your relationship with Shingen has been nothing but dynamic from the get-go, and yet still, the butterflies in your belly now can only be compared to the ones from those early days. Suddenly there's so much to be talked about. It's no wonder how the late-night talks have turned into comparisons between what childrearing looks like in your head versus that of Shingen's. The modern ways versus the old-school. The shocking lack of baby cradles in Sengoku times, at least as you know them. The passionate declaration of Shingen that he'll definitely make one for your future baby.

Future baby. Yet there it is, standing in your peripheral vision; the wooden cradle he presented you with tonight, just a couple of days after you first mentioned the peculiar piece of furniture.

"Of course I would." You take Shingen's hands in your own, for a good measure before they get up to no good feeling you up and preventing you from focusing on what you want to say - and then you place a kiss on each one. "You were the one who made it. And you did a great job, too."

You linger on his right hand a little longer, with purpose. You can see Shingen's eyes darken with lust as you take his thumb into your arm just briefly, provoking him.

"I can see that you're already imagining things, Shingen…"

Shingen smirks, but the raised corners of his mouth soon relax into a softer smile, and it stays there, even as he disrobes you. He finds you wet and willing between your legs - which grants you a quick look with those intoxicating ashy eyes, capable of expressing things dirtier than his mouth does - but still prefers to toy with you before sinking his arching cock inside you.

"Oh, I've been imagining things alright. You'd be surprised exactly how much I've been imagining things."

You decide to be bold, as if carried by your instincts which are telling you that you absolutely must have him tonight. Silly thing considering he's got the same plans in store for you. Yet still, you raise one of your legs up his shoulder, beckoning him, seducing him.

"Tell me more…"

Shingen wets his lips and gladly complies.

"I've been imagining you with child. The way I'd wake up to you every morning, slowly becoming aware of all the little changes. Be assured, princess, I will notice. Your body that I came to know better than my own, how could I fail to notice it becoming more beautiful? Your belly swelling up with the life we created. Your bosom filling out."

The last part he whispers against your chest, his voice becoming muffled as he darts out his tongue to wet your perky nipple. Your own mind gets creative, imagining how much Shingen will enjoy your swollen breasts, and your belly, and then you trail off to all the parts of you he worshipped and the ways in which he'll worship them when…

"Please make it true, Shingen. I need it."

And so does he.

Taglist: @arsnovacadenza @kimi00twin @g-kleran @thesirenwashere @devonares @galaxyprison   @starshards26 @thewitchofbooks @acethephoenix256 @ikevamp-shrine-2 @nad-zeta @crystal13unny @lordsister @ikemen-banshou   @themysticalbeing @otome-scribbles @rhodolitesrose @kpop-and-otome @queen-dahlia @kisara-16 @chaosangel767 @ikemenlibrary @queengiuliettafirstlady @aurora-morning @ikemenlover24 @mcofthemansion @joy-the-reader @katriniac @ikemen-writer @tele86 @lovely-bubb1es @aria-chikage @babyblue0t7 @rhodoliteschaos @shrimpy-kitsune @nightghoul381 @xbalayage @lucyw260 @kittygrimm88 @lokis-laugh @natimiles @completelyshatteredbrokenmschf @groovylita @raeraeks @ethereal-blossom Let me know if you want to be tagged/untagged!

[antianakin]

I think I'm able to perhaps put a few words to why I really dislike that the Ahsoka show had her choose to come to the conclusion that Anakin was GOOD, that he was a good person and good teacher to her, rather than having her refuse to forgive him and just having to let go of him entirely.

Ahsoka is a character who has been, for her ENTIRE RUN on Star Wars, defined by Anakin and her relationship to him. She's never been able to escape that. She was created as an explanation for why Anakin "matured" over the three year gap between AOTC and ROTS, but her lack of existence in the films means she can have no greater impact on Anakin than that. She is wholly irrelevant to his character but she does not EXIST without him. In Rebels, she is only in one season where all of her appearances are fixated on her discovery of Anakin's betrayal and how that impacts her, leading up to their final confrontation where she appears to die fighting him. She comes back only so her relationship with Anakin can be used to help Ezra let go of Kanan. In TOTJ, she has an entire episode dedicated to explaining that the only reason she survived Order 66 was because of some kind of special training Anakin gave her that made her stronger, better, faster than any other Jedi. In The Mandalorian, her appearance was full of subtext about her trauma regarding Anakin and the way she reacts to other Jedi as a result of that. In The Book of Boba Fett appearance, that subtext is still there, primarily in her conversation with Luke where she even tells him how much he reminds her of Anakin. Which leaves us with the Ahsoka show itself and how it REVOLVES around that relationship, from Sabine being turned into Anakin 2.0 to everything in episode 5 to Ahsoka claiming she'll support Sabine in everything because this is what Anakin did for her to Anakin literally showing up in ghost form to Thrawn predicting everything Ahsoka will do because he has some familiarity with Anakin.

Ahsoka CANNOT escape this relationship, she cannot move out from this particular shadow and become her own person because her character seems to ONLY EXIST to be "Anakin's student." She can almost literally not stand on her own at this point. If her story doesn't revolve around Anakin in some way, it doesn't seem to really exist (please keep in mind here that I am mostly looking at HIGH CANON appearances for this because that's what I am familiar with; I'm sure that some comics have probably managed to move away from her relationship to Anakin a little bit sometimes but I haven't read any of them so they're not being counted in this analysis, especially since I don't think they're really impacting her higher canon characterization anyway).

It's even just visible in how other characters perceive her. She is constantly being COMPARED to Anakin, we keep hearing how like Anakin she is. The only time I can think of that she is compared to anyone OTHER than Anakin is when Trace and Rafa tell her that she acts like a Jedi even if she isn't currently calling herself one (bless their SOULS for this moment, they deserved so much better than the hate they got and one single appearance on fucking TBB). We never hear anyone say she reminds them of Obi-Wan, or Yoda, or Plo Koon. It's ALWAYS Anakin even though she's known Yoda and Plo Koon longer and she seems to spend almost as much time with Obi-Wan as she does Anakin.

By having Ahsoka decide to deal with her feelings about Anakin by just... setting aside all the bad shit he did and focusing ONLY on the good moments that he had and letting that define him, it makes it nearly impossible to separate her from him. If he's good, then it's a GOOD thing to compare her to him. If he's good, then his influence on her HAS to have been a good one. For me, it ruins ANY nuance that could have come from going the opposite direction and recognizing that while he had some good moments, he was in fact an overall bad person who was a terrible teacher to her. He betrayed her, he tried to kill her (and only failed because she was saved by someone else), he abandoned her. I don't care WHAT he did before this, this automatically makes him a BAD TEACHER.

And recognizing that Anakin was a bad teacher would force Ahsoka to look at HERSELF more critically, too, to recognize the places where she has made the same mistakes perhaps, where she's started leading herself down a similar path to his, and then choosing to NOT BE LIKE HIM. Anakin should be (like he is with Luke) the personification of her own darkness. Palpatine represented Anakin's greatest demons and personifications, Anakin can represent something similar for Ahsoka. He is an indisputable part of her now, but she doesn't HAVE to become him, she doesn't have to let that CONTROL her. And by making that choice, she frees herself from being defined by him for the rest of her life.

But now, the narrative has bound Ahsoka to Anakin forever. She'll never be anything more than Anakin's student because this has become what defines her as a person and a character. And it just... it sucks. Ahsoka deserved better than that.

[darklinaforever]

I am convinced that there must be a story between Lilith and Eve, and probably even an identity exchange between the latter at certain times. Why, how, and when, I don't know, but I am convinced that in all cases, there was an exchange !

Here are the official character cards from the hazbin hotel games :

Lilith's seems quite strange. First, the card supposed to represent Lilith does not contain the name Morningstar compared to her daughter and her husband. Of course, this may seem like a simple little detail, but I am convinced that it is not insignificant.

Second, Lilith's haircut and figure (or at least assumed Lilith...), not to mention the smile she displays, are much more similar to the depiction of Eve in the introduction to Hazbin Hotel than to that of Lilith.

And on top of that, a crucial detail, Lilith's face is absent (even though we know it very well, a strange choice), beckoning as if to keep a secret. And once again, she has almost the same smile as Eve in the introduction to Hazbin Hotel and just like Eve, her face is absent. And when else is Lilith's face missing in Hazbin Hotel ? Episode 5, absolutely.

And removing Lilith's face doesn't really make sense, since once again we know it and we even see it in the episode through numerous portraits. Well, it doesn't really make sense, unless it's to point out that something is wrong with her. And once again, the silhouette looks much more like that of Eve than of Lilith.

All this may seem trivial but I am convinced once again that it is not ! To drive the point home, the Hazbin Hotel Twitter account published a photo showing us a little better the two portraits that we were able to see in episode 5 located in Lucifer's office, with a message explicitly saying that the devil is in the details and to look a little closer at the two portraits of the Morningstar family.

And what can we learn from these two paintings concerning Lilith ? She has her eyes open to one, but not to the other (I will also add that we do not see Lilith's eyes in the beach scene, since they are camouflaged by sunglasses). She is very close to her family on one and more withdrawn on the other. She wears her wedding ring on her left hand on one and her left hand is not visible on the other. Another small detail being that Lilith's left hand was also not visible during the flashback of episode 5.

Probably many will think I'm crazy, but I'm convinced that whatever is happening with Lilith, it must have something to do with Eve and that they must have swapped places probably several times for various reasons. Maybe it's not really Lilith we saw at the end of season 1, who knows. But even if it's her, there must be a reason she's here. I doubt that she simply abandoned her husband and daughter overnight to become the real big bad as many theorize. After all, Lilith has literally been with Lucifer since their fall to Hell and lived a family life with him and a visibly happy Charlie from the portraits. So it probably stayed for thousands of years before suddenly mysteriously disappearing for seven years. Also, all this crazy stuff that a lot of people have saying that Lilith is bad because she kept Charlie away from Lucifer… from the portraits it looks like bullshit. Lucifer obviously had his own insecurities regarding his daughter, no point blaming Lilith for that. Especially since, regardless of whether it was Lilith or Eve in the flashback of episode 5, she simply seemed to bring Charlie back to bed damn it ! Don’t hesitate to give me your opinions in comments !

[lumosatnight]

24 Fic Recs 2024!

Another year of fics, another year of recs! I was so excited to make another rec list this year after hearing that @hprecfest was back, and I'm so glad I could squeeze one in before the end of 2024 (just barely oop). Here are 24 fics that I read and loved in 2024 (although some were written quite a few years ago) ordered by ship!!

🌼 - fluff | ��� - angst | 🔥 - smut

—

💫 DRARRY 💫

1. A fic over 50k

Earthbound Spook by bmouse (cest_what) [Drarry, T, 57.6k] 🌼💔 Dimension travel! Gryffindor Draco! What more can you ask for?? A wonderful fic in the time/dimension travel genre. An oldie, but a goodie.

2. A smokin' hot fic

Now I Wake Up In The Night and Watch You Breathe by @hoko-onchi-writes [Drarry, E, 24.6k] 🔥📷 Listen up! This fic has stalker Harry absolutely obsessed with Draco and Draco being an absolute slut for it (even when he's non-consensually asleep) and it is is absolutely unhinged and I love Hoko for writing this masterpiece!! (but yes, check the tags first)

3. A series

I Was Early (You Were Early) by @dodgerkedavra [Drarry, E, 12.1k] 💔🎨 Beautiful, gorgeous. First Harry and then Draco's POV. A lot of angst and grief, but it is so worth it for the beautiful love story between Harry and Draco.

4. A romantic fic

Nectar by @jtimu [Drarry, T, 2.0k] 🌼🍯 Nothing says romance like Draco's animagus form immediately seeking out Harry. This @unleashed-fest fic is sugarey sweet. Draco as a hummingbird is a stellar idea!

5. The best of your OTP

Fine-Fractured Halo by @rainjulyx [Drarry, NottPott, E, 29.0k] 💔✨ A One Day AU where we get to check-in with Draco and Harry one day out of every year. Beautiful, wonderful angst. Each scene is a work of art. The emotions practically jump off the page, they're so visceral. An instant fave.

—

💫 COMMON SHIPS 💫

6. First fic you remember reading

Amateur Cartography by worksofstone [Dramione, T, 21.0k] 🌼🛏️ Dramione was my gateway into fandom, so I still have a soft spot for some of the classics. I particularly like the virgin!Draco trope, so this fic is a fave. I recently reread it, and it's just as cute and funny as I remembered.

7. A comfort fic

Rest Your Head Close to My Heart by pauraque [Harmony, M, 3.6k] 🌼🍼 Truly, Pauraque can get me to read anything, and this fic does not disappoint. There's breastfeeding and age play, but also so much love and understanding. The emotions are so beautifully written.

8. A fic that makes you laugh

Mating for Life - Breeding Season in the Highlands of Scotland by @sillylittlebeans [Snarry, E, 3.3k] 🔥👃 This fic is filthy crack and it is absolutely glorious. Alpha Severus and Omega Harry get a little mating action, and Dudley gets to watch them on TV. Perfect. Superb.

9. A fic rated E

Nothing Compares by @coconutice22 [Tomarry, Drarry, E, 11.4k] 🔥💐 Muggle AU with fiery Harry and obsessed Tom. I love their dynamic in this. Drarry make a brief appearance but it's Tomarry endgame. And, oh boy, is the ending worth it. The perfect (emotional) climax.

10. Rec a fic that was recced to you

In His Skin by Guessingguessing, translated by @direwolf-summer [Wolfstar, E, 3.2k] 💔🚬 I wish my Chinese was better because I would love to read all of Guessing's works in the original language, but Direwolf does a spectacular job translating all the angst, heartbreak, and pining into English.

—

💫 RARE PAIRS 💫

11. A fic from a favorite author

Teacups & Tankards by @schmem14 [Rosifoot, M, 9.6k] ☕🍺 I adore Em's writing. She always writes the most divine rare pairs! Here we have Puddifoot and Rosmerta navigating their businesses and feelings during the 2nd war. A beautiful look into some background canon characters.

12. A fic rated M

Bespoke by kelly_chambliss [Millinny, Minmina, M, 5.8k] 🌼👔 Kelly is one of my favorite rare pair writers. The way she captures the unique voices of her characters is simply brilliant. Here we have butch Millicent being guided by Wilhelmina into buying her first suit!

13. A fic under 5k

Confidence by @skeptiquewrites [Pansmione, E, 2.9k] 🔥👗Pansy is FIRE and Hermione is a BAMF. Of course, they're perfect for each other. I love the confidence they give to each other. And yes, they are HOT together.

14. An underrated fic

Rusty Crowns by @if-fortunate [Panstoria, Blansy, M, 28.5k] 💔💎 One of the best Pansy character studies I have ever read. Hands down. Pansy is fully fleshed-out. Sympathetic and spoiled. Suffering, stifled, and still the snotty pureblood we all know and love. Engame Pansy/Astoria but I love the inclusion of other relationships as she grows.

15. A fic for a ship you don't normally read

Second Chances by @emotionalsupporthufflepuff [Theocissa, E, 7.4k] 🔥🍦 I don't actually read a lot of F/M fic, but I couldn't resist MILF Narcissa. Theo is enamored and Narcissa loves the attention. A delightful EWE fic (and hot!).

16. Most recent fic you loved

Be a Good Lad by @maraudersaffair [Padtail, E, 3.6k] 💔🔥 I NEED MORE SIRIUS/PETER FICS ASAP!! Their relationship is so painfully complicated with dubious morality, questionable intentions, and forced secrecy. I absolutely adore it! It adds such a rich layer to canon.

17. A fic rated T

The Once and Future Headmaster by allthegoodnamesaretakendammit [Harbus, T, 17.9k] 🌼⏳ Time travel, pining, and neighbors to lovers. I don't usually read this ship because of the giant age gap (try 100+ years) but the time travel neatly subverts this by remixing the ages of Harry and Dumbledore. I loved reading their new dynamic in this!

18. A fic with fanart

Not Far From the Tree by @mallstars, @itsphantasmagoria [Scarry, Drarry, E, 1.5k] 💔🔥 This might be cheating because it starts Drarry but the endgame is Harry/Scorpius, and OHMYGOD this fic!! The complicated relationships, the pining, the smut, the ART!! This fic has it all, I am entranced!

19. A rare pair

Treasure by @the-miss-lv [Gramander, Thesewt, E, 19.5] 🔥🐈‍⬛ I love most of Miss Liv's Newt/Theseus works honestly, but this is so deliciously hot and sweet and depraved that I keep coming back to this one. Cross-dressing Newt, powerful Auror Percival, and a dash of incest. The perfect combo!

—

💫 POLY SHIPS 💫

20. An AU fic

A Developmental Approach by brightened [Snarrius, E, 69.8k] 🌼💔 A Harry raising Harry fic with time travel, polyamory, and healing (also there's a baby Voldemort too). Severus is wonderfully prickly while Sirius is boisterous and charming. Harry is the glue that holds them together.

21. A fest/event fic

Snowdrift by @wolfpants [Dronarry, E, 8.6k] 🔥❄️ Wolfpants is a smut master. We must all bow down. Established Dron 'comforting' Harry after his breakup in this @dronarryfest fic is so steamy. I am sweating, hyperventilating, screaming from the rooftops how good this fic is.

22. A holiday fic

Wrestle with Daddy by dirtywrongandwholesome [Barlouie, E, 491] 🔥💪 Have some Weasleycest, as a treat. Dirty, bad, wrong, and HOT HOT HOT. Charlie/Bill and then Charlie/Bill/Louis... mmmmmm. Much of the fic happens over the summer/winter holidays so I'm counting it as a holiday fic.

—

💫 GEN 💫

23. A fic that makes you cry

Family Ties by Nope [Andromeda, T, 1.7k] 💔🖤 Snippets of Andromeda's life as she navigates the war, marriage, kids. The focus on her family and their tumultuous relationships is heartbreaking and incredible.

24. A podfic (and a fic)

Eternal Return by silverpard, read by @wilfriede [Harry, Tom | Voldemort, T, 27min] 💔💀 One of my long-time favorite fics in the time loop genre. Wilfriede brings it to life with Harry's inner voice as he grapples with doing things for the greater good.

—

💫 BONUS RECS! 💫

A fanart

What in Merlin's Name is That by @stazvlt [Luther, G, Digital] 🌼🦆 One of my rare pair OTPs and I cannot believe Shiaya drew them. Lucius is besotted with Arthur, of course, even if he doesn't want to admit it. This art is so silly and cute and I adore it with my whole heart.

A self-rec (because why not?)

In 5 Years by @lumosatnight (me) [Anthony/Astoria, T, 2.0k] 🌼💔 A reverse timeline love story with MCD, falling in love, and a meet-cute (in that order). I really enjoyed the alternate format of the fic and weaving their story together through snippets of their life.

—

⚡️ Want more fics to read? ⚡️

Try my rec tag: #lumosinthelibrary

Year in Reading, b-day oneshots, WLW Library

[kehideni]

The time has come... the aroacest person ever will rant about how in LMK Wukong's feelings regarding Macaque were hinted at.

And by hinted at i mean that ultimatelly it can still be platonic but yeah i get why people ship it. I'm grumbling over here like

so you can think of me as a reluctant shipper. (ugh)

Jesus Christ... how do i even start...

I guess with readmore because i'm going to talk about the whole entire show so far. Which means Spoilers for Season 5 (and 4... but like that's been out for a year now)

Also before i start, i'm not gonna talk about Macaque's pov in this because he is even more obvious than Wukong and people talk about him all the time. I should know i'm one of them.

S1E9 "Macaque"

First and foremost it's not much, but SWK's reaction to seeing Macaque for the first time in who knows how long is legit suspicious, not because it's anything special but specifically because it's such a toned down reaction. Even if SWK doesn't know that Macaque is supposed to be dead, Mac has been suggested to be at least MIA since their mysterious fight. He wasn't goofing around, he wasn't taking it lightly, but also he didn't take Macaque's appearance with the weight you'd think he should.

Let's just do a little mental gymnastics: In your mind replace SWK with MK and Macaque with Mei. Imagine that Mei has Macaque's backstory and MK has SWK's. Two long time best friends, with a serious fallout, Mei goes MIA and then comes back. Do you think MK would react the same way SWK did in the episode? Obviously not.

Now i know Wukong is rather secretive, exspecially in S1-3(for plot reasons) but the thing is, that DBK was also SWK's friend, a very dear one at that. His reaction to DBK is goofy, light spirited, hardly interferes with the MK vs DBK fight. He wasn't really shush-shush about missing DBK's company. (S2E2 Revenge of the Spider Queen)

In contrast to that, when he finds out Macaque is back he doesn't take it lightly, no goofing off, but also doesn't seem to want to fight Macaque? In this episode all he does is make Mac back off from MK. I guess he wouldn't want to, of course, but yeah had Mac been anyone else, Wukong would be actively working on how to get rid of him. Ie.: Lady Bone Demon or even the Major("how about him? Is he part of your destiny?" bit)

And we do know SWK was holding back, as he wooped Macaque's behind when he was possessed by LBD no problem.

S2E1 "Happy New Year"

SWK: "It's called misdirection."

MK: "Seems like a shady lesson."

SWK: "Too soon, buddy."

It's not really saying much- again-, after all it's just a one liner joke. It's just that no comparable joke was made in any other character's expense. Also the annotation in SWK's voice wasn't really silly. A "can't decide if i'm supposed to smile at the pun or feel sorry for SWK" thing.

(Now while we are ignoring Mac's side of things, rewatching Shadowplay while having S5 knowledge, it's kind of haunting what kind of parallels the show is drawing between MK and Macaque of all things but moving ooooooon~)

In most of Season 3, Wukong is back to his monkey-ing around personality. S3E1 "On the run" he behaves the same way he'd with DBK.

The next of note episode is pretty far off in S3E9 "The king, the prince, and the shadow"

The importance of this scene

specifically Wukong's expression, is that funnily enough, he believed completely that Macaque was working for LBD, when in truth he was going behind her back the whole time, working towards his own agenda (ie.: freeing himself from her) and also thought he could fool Macaque.

Macaque on the other hand easily read Wukong's intention, something that Nezha fell for completely, that the rings were fake. (Macaque knows Wukong better than Wukong knows Macaque.)

That means, at this point Wukong was convinced that Macaque is a bad guy (something he will mention right at the beginning of Season 5) and still he did not hurt him. He later on almost did, yes, but did not need much convincing from Tang to leave him be.

"If you hurt that kid, i'll..."

"What? Make things worse for MK?"

*cuts to that scene

Obviously intentional poetic positioning, reflecting Macaque in a position that is suggested to be the "made things worse for him" thing that Mac is referring to. Yadda yadda, had Wukong not killed him the LBD would not have her claws in Macaque right now as she wouldn't have resurrected him. *is still a hella sketchy story with holes and i don't intend to make Wukong out to be the bad guy, i'm working with what the show is er... showing us/telling us* !Which is fine!!! The story is on going!!! They choose to tell it as teeth-pullingly slow as possible for plot convenience! Sit down, we all know the truth will be far more nuanced than it was presented in S3

But to get back to Wukong's pov, if you notice, after he hears that Macaque is not loyal to the LBD he tries to tell him that he has a plan, one- presumably (if Mac would have listened) -Wukong would have involved him in. Possibly even help him get free from LBD.

Next in line would be the parallel drawn between Mei and Macaque

Wukong was impulsive way back then and now, hurting "those that care about you the most" But yeah... Macaque's line is also incriminating "She's completely out of control, if there's a time to go it is now."

MK countering it that- paraphrasing now but -"bruh that's not really a punk rock thing to do." Possible reason for ^ that cut to Wukong's reaction is that Macaque's line opened up some scars. Hearing that he'd abandon you when things go wrong is very much the first wound that SWK and Macaque suffered in their friendship (from Wukong's side, again imma just ignore Macaque's side in this post but so help me if anyone goes on a comment rampage about how Macaque is truely a piece of shit i will just tell you to go watch the whole series again because whole ass plotlines and characterDEVELOPMENTS fly right by you)

Nezha: "She controlled the fire? This is impossible."

^ Wukong getting a front row seat view of what could have been had they not given up on each other with Macaque.

"Mei was right, i need to stop dragging you into my fights."

ehm... you guys hear it too i'm sure, but we will get to that later

(On a slight tangent... actually i do recommend a rewatch of the show because LBD's lines get so much more meaning. Macaque specifically gets added to the destiny speech all the time, which is funny considering he should know all about destiny and he is the most againts the idea of a destiny existing, Macaque refuses his own powers???And i do believe Macaque has his future-knowing powers because he has reaction time to things that didn't even start happening yet such as LBD throwing the girl away, hiding from Azure and co. when he shouldn't have known they are free, etc.)

On another cute little side note, Nezha said Wukong is not a loner, no matter how much he seems to be.

Lookit that happy smile, fighting along side all his fwiends awww, go you funky little monkey man

This ending scene for it's few seconds is packed with things to point out. "I hate that guy so much, always acting like he's so cool." Literally no one ever said that or thought that Wukong. That was your take on Macaque's behavior. When i first saw that scene my thought was that "Yeah if i were Macaque i'd have left too."

Or even this gag bit can suggest Wukong being out of balance once Macaque leaves.

Stress eating...

Season 4 goes a bit more into detail concerning Wukong's issues

"Forever is a long time bud, trust me." Shows two monkeys hanging around, eating fruit, doing whatever they want.

So the scroll gets opened, and in no practicular order characters are shown that Wukong feels guilty about, looks properly sad when they show. The stress lines around his eyes start showing after Macaque is shown

Flashback scene, kinda is a thing in season 4 that Wukong is much more physically affectionate than Macaque

not gonna do more screenshots because i could literally just post the clip but the thing that we can take away from these is that Wukong insisted on including Macaque

"You're really going through with this?"

"Correction, WE are going through with this." i'm choosing to take it as a tie back to Nezha's line of Wukong not liking being alone.

Much of the brotherhood doesn't seem to actually care for Macaque and Macaque seems to not care for the brotherhood either. And Peng isn't even our first clue for this, since DBK and Macaque have been around since Season 1 and they have yet to interact with each other, eventhough they are sworn brothers too. Azure Lion and Yellow Tusk if name drop Macaque once the whole season, and Peng is the most vocal about their dislike/hatered of Macaque. (Also when the scroll wants to traumatise Azure it only uses Peng and Yellow Tusk)

You can headcanon that Macaque joined the brotherhood only because Wukong is there, but also it's not really a stretch to think that it was actually Wukong that wanted Macaque in the brotherhood and Macaque just agreed to join because Wukong insisted. Either and both can be true.

I just posted this screenshot because Wukong's face made me laugh.

Wukong being the only one paying attention to Macaque's thoughts and feelings, even if ultimately he brushes them under the rug. (Which says more about the brotherhood than Wukong actually...because the brotherhood just about ignored Macaque completely. Wukong paid attention but ya know... big plans and big dreams require big actions)

His speech is a nice promise, but the annotation is on "like we always wanted". The whole quote going: "Relax bud, when this is over we'll be back here basking in the Sun, getting fat on fruit for the rest of ... well forever!! Like we always wanted."

Since it's a conversation with only Wukong and Macaque in the shot, we as the audience are clued in that it was specifically the dream of those two, not the whole brotherhood.

Btw rewatching the episode, Azure says Wukong had the habit of keeping people at arm's lenght, like bruh that's a straight on lie.

(lmao that Tang joke with the water :'D not thirsty, Tang?)

Now Azure when talking with MK, showing him select few scenes to make himself look the victim says one thing. That Wukong imprisoned them. Did not kill, imprison.

I said this before, i will say it here too. Why would Wukong, who is closest to Macaque from the brotherhood, imprison everyone else, but specifically kill Macaque? Nah ah, i'm pretty sure that was not how it went down. But that's a to be cleared thing for season 6 hopefully.

As.... hilarious as this picture is, it's kinda proof of Wukong's sentimentality.

Finally i arrive at S4E11 A lifetime of mistakes

Nothing much to say about this scene, it speaks for itself.

"Everything i did was for us!" This sentence alone means Wukong's fear of death extended to Macaque. Macaque said that Wukong feared death more than anything which is true, but whenever Wukong talked about his goals the emphasis was on them together spending forever with whatever they wanted.

Third time reminding you of Nezha's statement, that Wukong is not a loner. Something that Azure flat out lied about, telling MK that Wukong kept them at arm's lenght.

It's 2+2 guys... spending eternity alone is boring as fk, of course you need a buddy. And a buddy just as immortal as you, since we know the heartbreak that comes with an immortal - mortal friendship. To the mortal that friendship is for lifetime, to that immortal it's just a small chapter of their lives. Wukong really DID do everything for Macaque, but well... he went overboard, like MK said. He could have stopped right here, he already had his wish:

They already were sitting in the sun, eating fruit and doing whatever they wanted.

But now look at thoooose stress lines

While the show doesn't even suggest what Wukong's full punishment was -because let's keep it PG it is still a kids show- Wukong also just lost his best friend.

In Season 4 peaches were the symbol of their friendship, something that Wukong -probably just out of sheer anger- rejected from Macaque in this scene, only for Macaque to crush said peach in answer and throw it away. My guys, this was an ugly UGLY divorce. Thing is that had cooler heads prevailed, they probably wouldn't have had this fight here. It's dressed up as a gag line, but Wukong says he really wanted that peach.

In the scroll MK and Macaque follow the memories that Wukong punched himself through, trying to find some good ones AKA memories with MK. Wukong saw this memory too, which was the last memory before MK and Mac found Wukong.

After seeing this memory and deciding to escape it he stopped in the next one. Meaning this memory is the freshest Wukong is thinking about.

"I just wanted to protect the people i care about." *camera angles to Macaque.

MK then quotes Wukong saying that maybe they can't fix everything, but they just have to leave it better than they found it. That's just another way to say "fix" btw... and he looks to Macaque, because that's what he wants to fix most.

Well he has an eternity to do it.

He was legit asking permission from Macaque here, idk what for if you are the Monkey King you don't need permission, right?

Next episode "The Plan man" starts with something i already said:

Wukong is looking for Macaque when he notices he is not in the heroic pose with the rest of them. Showing once again, where Wukong's priority laid. He needs to make sure he still has his buddy by him. Kinda going into Sun Mumkong mode, embarassing Macaque:

Do note, Wukong verbally said he wanted all of them to have the "happily ever after" but before that talk with Azure, Macaque was emphasized.

And the thing is, at first i thought, surely i'm reading far too much into this, but this weird Macaque-prioritising will appear in Season 5 too. We will get to that.

This was Wukong's wish, to not be alone.

Anyways, show uppy "tsundere" way of expressing, that he is happy Mac is there.

Like i said, peaches in season 4 were a metaphor for their friendship. Handing Mac a peach ice cream is kinda his way of saying "friends?" but maybe in a different way. The "try again" button in the game if you will.

Season 5 however hooo boi...

I ran out of pictures/post so i'll have to make a part 2, which will be season 5.

[thegayhimbo]

Stranger Things (1x03): “Holly Jolly” Review

I remember viewing this show for the first time on New Years Day in 2017. I managed to binge the whole season, but it was rough to get through. I was dealing with an ugly combination of anxiety and depression at the time (I still have those symptoms, but I have a better hold on them than I did 8 years ago), and even though this was a show set in the 80s (and I’m a big fan of 80s related media and aesthetics) I was ambivalent about whether or not I would like Stranger Things. By nature, I’m pretty reluctant to get into new shows, and it’s only been in the last few years I’ve started to overcome that. There were certain aspects in Stranger Things that set off my anxiety (particularly in regards to topics like bullying and abuse), and while I pushed through those issues at the time, it resulted in me only viewing that season once. Same thing happened for season 2. It wouldn’t be until season 4 came out in 2022 that I committed to doing a full rewatch of the entire show before the premiere.

I’m grateful I did at the time, and I’m glad I’m doing this again before season 5 drops. One of the nice things about rewatches is it helps you pick up aspects you missed the first time while also allowing you to reevaluate the show with a new perspective, especially with the knowledge of how later seasons will turn out. Having new life experiences as the years go by is also useful in allowing for a change in perception regarding certain characters or storylines.

Take Steve’s character for instance: I HATED Steve the first time I saw this show. So much to the point that when Jonathan beat the crap out of him three episodes from now, I was cheering, and saw it as long overdue karma. My feelings towards Steve mellowed by the season 1 finale when he came through for Nancy and Jonathan, but if you were to ask me who my least favorite character was at the time, I would have said him. I was at least willing to give Steve a chance in season 2 (which thankfully paid off) compared to characters like Troy, James, Tommy, and Carol whom I just wanted to go away and stay gone.

Viewing the show again, especially for these reviews, has helped me see a lot more clearly in regards to Steve’s character in season 1. There’s a lot of subtext, both in Joe Keery’s performance, and with the way Steve is written, that not only helps foreshadow Steve’s eventual redemption, but also establishes that the character had redeeming qualities to begin with. Compared to characters like Billy and Angela, who were bullies that got a sadistic kick out of cruelly putting down others, Steve’s reasons for his behavior, while not excusable, at least have more nuance and understandable context than I realized at the time.

Same thing goes for the whole show, especially with the release of season 4: I remember so many fans after season 3 (especially on Reddit and Tumblr) who turned negative towards the show, saying it should have ended at season 1, that the Duffer Brothers were just spinning their wheels and didn’t have a coherent story plan, and so on. It was hard NOT to get sucked into that mentality (Fandoms sadly bring out the worst in people). With the release of season 4, and the mytharc questions that are finally answered, a lot of those fan criticisms not only feel outdated, but just dead wrong. There is a clear plan for where the Duffer Brothers intended to take the story, and based on how season 4 ended, there is an endgame being built up to that I'm excited to see play out. I mentioned this to @skellybonesandtrees in my last review, but part of the reason for doing these reviews is untangling myself from past fandom perceptions, and looking at the show through my own perspective with my own opinions and theories.

Part 1: Barbara

Poor Barb. She really got the raw end of the stick this season. First, she goes to a party she had no interest in attending only because Nancy asked her to be there. Then she gets a cut on her thumb from being pressured into shotgunning a beer can. Then she’s left behind by Nancy for sex with Steve. Then she gets dragged into the Upside Down where she’s subjected to a gruesome and lonely death. It’s not a fate I’d wish on anyone (except maybe Angela).

I know there are people who complain about intercutting scenes of characters having sex while others get gruesomely murdered, and how tasteless and sleazy it is. In this case though, it serves a purpose further down the line: This is the moment that would forever taint Nancy and Steve’s relationship going forward. The same time Steve and Nancy officially consummate is when Barb dies alone, and it’s something that’s going to haunt Nancy for the rest of the series. Nancy already felt guilty about telling Barbara to go home beforehand, but it was easy to reassure herself at the time that she would see Barbara again at school and that she could explain to her that things turned out okay. Then Barbara doesn’t show up, and we see Nancy’s guilt turn to worry as she’s left imagining the worst: Did Barb run away (as Powell and Callahan snidely infer to Nancy in the next episode)? Was she kidnapped? Did she get attacked? Was the creature behind Steve’s house that Nancy sees later behind it? All of which leads her to telling her mom and Barb’s parents that she thinks something happened. Which it did. Even when Steve and Nancy later get back together, she’s still left wondering if she could have prevented Barb’s death by simply going with her, and that grief and guilt impacted her ability to be truly invested in any relationship with Steve. Four seasons later, she’s still feeling those emotions, and it’s something Vecna is all too eager to exploit:

With the revelation of Vecna and his connection to the hive mind, as well as what he specifically tells Nancy in “The Massacre at Hawkins Lab,” there isn’t any question that Vecna is the one who killed Barbara. What I’m curious about is whether he only acted through the Demogorgon he was controlling at the time, or if he was physically present in the pool with Barbara and did the deed himself. It’s a little murky since Barbara’s death doesn’t fit Vecna’s usual M.O. (i.e. limbs snapped and twisted, spine broken, eyes gouged out, etc), but that could easily be explained by wanting Barbara’s body to manufacture larvae that would eventually grow into future Demogorgons.

I talked about this in my review of The Other Side, but this is a big reason why I don’t subscribe to the theory that Vecna and the Mind Flayer only wanted Will to reproduce these creatures. They had plenty of other victims like Barbara (including the two hunters who disappear two episodes from now) that they could have taken and used if that’s what they were aiming for. Whatever reason for why Vecna and The Mind Flayer have a fixation on Will, it goes beyond that.

And while we’re on the subject of Will surviving and Barabara dying………..let’s discuss fan reactions towards Barbara’s death, and how that led to the #JusticeForBarb activism:

I remember watching season 1 for the first time, hoping that Barbara had survived, and being disappointed when she hadn’t. I also remember the fan fixation on Barbara’s death, and how it lead to a huge debate about whether the show was misogynistic in its treatment of female characters, about Fridging, and about the way Barbara’s death was treated by characters in-universe. I wasn’t even in the fandom at the time (I wouldn’t actually interact with people on social media until 2019), and even I was aware of this phenomenon when it happened. This was a big enough deal that the Duffer Brothers went to great lengths to address this in season 2, which is why we got the storyline of Nancy trying to avenge Barbara’s death and exposing Hawkins Lab in the process.

I’m just going to state this point-blank: I do NOT believe, nor have I ever believed, that Stranger Things is misogynistic. Not in its presentation, and certainly not in its treatment of female characters. I believe the show has explored themes of misogyny (internal and external) in relation to characters like Nancy, El, Karen, Joyce, and Max, along with their respective arcs, but that isn’t the same thing as indulging in hatred or condescension towards women. Girls and Women on this show have fleshed-out personalities, they have motivations beyond simply being the “Sexy Lamp” love interest to the male characters, and they’ve been allowed to have vulnerabilities and character flaws that help them avoid falling into the “Strong Independent Woman” caricature that Hollywood promotes, or even the “Mary Sue” stereotype. By the standards of other TV shows and movies with female characters, Stranger Things looks pretty damn progressive.

This is a horror show, and characters are inevitably going to die, regardless of their gender. Two episodes ago, Benny got violently murdered just because he was in the same room with El. Two episodes from now, we’re going to learn about the two hunters (Dale and Henry) who also become victims of the Demogorgon. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg in regards to character deaths that are forthcoming.

Barbara’s death is tragic and sad (just like Benny’s), but for fans to imply it’s only because of misogyny is not just insulting and patronizing, it’s missing the forest for the trees: Vecna is established as a misanthropic genocidal monster who views all humans as one in the same, couldn’t care less about gender, race, sexual orientation, social class, etc, and wants humanity wiped off the face of the Earth. We don’t know the reasons yet for why he wanted Will alive, but it’s fair to say it wasn’t out of the pure goodness of his heart.

As for the accusations of Fridging…………if the Duffer Brothers had gone with the original Montauk script, where Barbara barely had any personality beyond her interest in Nancy’s crush on Steve, was just there to drive Nancy to the bonfire party, and was immediately killed off in the first episode with barely anyone noticing, then I could understand that accusation. However, that’s not the version of Barbara we got in the final product. We had several episodes to get to know her where we saw that, while she wanted to be supportive of Nancy, she wasn’t above voicing her concerns, had zero interest in kissing up to the popular crowd (and even expressed contempt for individuals like Tommy and Carol), and was one of the few people next to Nancy who was concerned for Jonathan over Will’s disappearance. Supplementary Materials like Rebel Robin (both the book and the podcast) added on to Barbara’s character, both in showing that she was progressive for a high school student in the 1980s (i.e. knowing about Mr. Hauser’s homosexuality, but keeping it a secret for his sake), and demonstrating how she was a genuinely kind person overall. I’m not surprised Nancy and Barbara were friends for as long as they were:

As for the complaints about how Barbara was forgotten by everyone except Nancy (not helped by that stupid SNL skit), that's really taking things out-of-context.

First off, at this point in the episode, Barbara was barely missing for 24 hours the same way Will had been missing for several days, and everyone had assumed she was somewhere else during that time. It wasn’t until Nancy came clean to her mom and Barbara’s parents that they were even aware about her disappearance.

Second, Brenner and Hawkins Lab weren’t aware at the time of Barbara’s disappearance when they were faking Will’s death with a dummy. When it was brought to their attention later on, they took care of it: Barbara’s car disappeared, and the story was put out that she ran away. I know the SNL skit tapped into fandom outrage at the time (“NO BODY FOR BARB! NO FUNERAL FOR BARB!”), but let’s think critically about this for a minute: What would have happened if the Lab faked a body for Barbara like they did for Will? How were they going to present it in a way that didn't create awkward questions? There’s already a kid who disappeared, and a man who was murdered that was staged to look like a suicide. Assuming they presented a dummy to look like Barbara's corpse, would anyone actually believe Barbara’s death was a random accident at that point? Or would people start to suspect there’s was a serial killer in the area, and that these death’s weren’t just a coincidence? Given Hopper has dealt with a serial killer in the past (as demonstrated in the prequel Darkness on the Edge of Town), I’m gonna wager he would have seen through this immediately and launched a full-scale investigation. He was already suspicious of Hawkins Lab and what they were hiding to begin with, and the last thing Brenner wanted was to draw attention to a situation he was desperately trying to contain.

Third, out of all the main characters on this show, Barbara had the closest relationship with Nancy. Therefore, it makes sense that Nancy is the one who’d be expressing the most concern for Barbara's whereabouts during this time. Jonathan and Steve barely knew her (at least that’s the impression from their brief interactions with each other), and it’s questionable if Mike, Lucas, or Dustin knew her beyond simply being Nancy’s best friend. It’s not a case of others not caring for Barbara’s fate; it’s that characters like Jonathan, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas didn’t know her as well as Nancy did, and they were fixated on finding Will because they had a closer relationship with him.

I know this is lengthy, and I will talk more about Barbara in future reviews, but I wanted to give my due diligence to her character because she deserves to be discussed. That being said, let’s move on to the other teenagers.

Part 2: Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve

Even before I saw this scene for the first time, I could already predict from the previous episode that Steve was going to find out about the photos and there would be an ugly confrontation with Jonathan. I remember feeling frustrated with Jonathan and wishing he'd destroyed the photos he took (or at very least, only develop the photos related to his investigation into Will’s disappearance while destroying the photos of the pool party). And to develop them at the school where someone (in this case, Nicole) was going to inevitably see them, and run to tell Steve, Tommy, and Carol. Ugh! 😖

I’ve already made my feelings clear in the previous review over what I thought about Jonathan taking the photos, but just in case it needs to be said again: This wasn’t a deal-breaker in terms of liking his character. Yes, it was creepy and wrong, but the show acknowledged it as such, Jonathan later apologized for it, and he hasn’t done anything like that since. I know there are fans who want to beat this dead horse, but I’m not interested in joining in. It’s fucking trite constantly going over past wrongdoings.

In regards to Steve’s behavior in this scene, my feelings are mixed.

On the one hand, I don’t begrudge Steve for being angry about this. If someone was taking photographs of me without my knowledge or consent, I would be furious enough to want to smash their camera or phone. I cannot begin to express how enraging I find it when I hear stories about videos circulating on TikTok of people who were unknowingly filmed without their knowledge or consent, and those videos are later posted without their permission so the user who filmed them can rake up their view count. Doubly so if the people in those videos are being humiliated. It’s creepy, exploitative, and gross on so many levels. It’s another reason why I have such a negative reaction to the Rink-O-Mania scene in season 4: It wasn’t just enough for Angela to have her face smashed in. I wanted El to take the video camera that Angela’s friends used to film El’s humiliation, and beat the shit out of them with it until it broke.

On top of that, it’s noteworthy that, unlike Tommy and Carol who are just there for shits and giggles, Steve looks genuinely pissed:

So I get Steve’s anger and why he came after Jonathan over this issue. I’m NOT saying it was okay how he handled it, but it’s a lot more complex beyond Steve-Antis claiming that Steve wanted an excuse to bully Jonathan. As I've discussed before, nothing in the show or supplementary materials has ever given the impression that Steve targeted Jonathan for the LULZ the same way Angela did with El. The most he had for Jonathan beforehand was indifference.

Where Steve loses me, however, is when Nancy shows up. Like I said, I can understand Steve smashing Jonathan’s camera in anger, but the way the camera-breaking happens here makes it look like Steve was showboating for the benefit of Nancy and his friends. Doubly so for Nancy since I’m sure he wanted to emphasize to her that he was being a protective boyfriend. However, that’s not how it came off to Nancy. If anything, Nancy looks upset that this is even taking place at all.

It does introduce a self-absorbed side to Steve that isn’t pleasant to watch, and is something that turns Nancy off from him (even if she doesn’t vocalize it). It doesn’t cancel out the genuine concern Steve has for her (which we see when Nancy later leaves to go look for Barb), but it’s not a good look either.

What is interesting though is seeing Steve’s reaction to the aftermath of having sex with Nancy. Not only did Steve NOT tell anyone about their affair, but he still wants a relationship with her. Compared to Montauk!Steve, who would have immediately dumped Nancy and bragged to everyone and their dog about the details of his sexual conquest, Steve's quick to reassure Nancy here about her anxieties. Even the scene where Steve points to a butterfly sticker on Nancy’s locker (a not-so-subtle metaphor for Nancy losing her virginity and “transforming” in the process) is depicted as a sweet moment.

There’s also Steve’s interactions with Tommy and Carol. I didn’t pick this up first time around since I pegged all three of them as one in the same in terms of personality, but rewatching season 1 again has helped me pick up subtext regarding how uncomfortable Steve is with Tommy and Carol’s mean-spirited jokes, as well as how they seem to use Steve. We got hints of that in the previous episode (like Steve’s reaction to Tommy and Carol banging in his parents room), but we see it further when Tommy is a dick to Nancy at lunch and Steve tells him to knock it off, or Steve's unimpressed reaction to the gross cracks Tommy and Carol make about Mr. Mundy. The way Joe Keery plays Steve in these scenes conveys that he's bothered by how Tommy and Carol act, but grits his teeth for the sake of their friendship. That is NOT something that will last down the line as they continue to show no respect for anyone else’s boundaries.

It never ceases to amaze me how many people on social media act the way Tommy and Carol do, and then they wonder why others get fed up with their behavior and cut them off. 😒

Finally, in regards to Nancy and Jonathan, I will talk more about their interactions as they develop in later episodes, but if there’s one good thing that came out of the camera incident (even if it was unintentional), it’s that Jonathan got the photo of Barbara with the Demogorgon in the background, and Nancy was quick enough to notice and pocket the pieces of the photo. Nancy was already conveying in her body language that she wasn’t happy about what Steve was doing with Jonathan, but considering she was already worried for Barbara during all of this, and then saw that photo, I can understand why Nancy was willing to overlook the camera incident, and why she didn’t hold it against Jonathan.

Part 3: El and Brenner

One of the inspirations for Stranger Things, according to the Duffer Brothers, was an anime called Elfen Lied. Originally a Manga that ran between 2002-2005, it was adapted into an anime show released in 2004 consisting of 13 episodes and 1 OVA that lasted one season. It centered around a secret laboratory on an island that experimented with Diclonius, a mutated human-like species with horns growing out of their heads and invisible arms known as “vectors” that they use to kill humans, levitate objects, or slice through anything that stands in their way. Because Diclonii can spread their mutation through their vectors touching male humans, they are kept quarantined (and in most cases, killed) to prevent them from infecting humans and overrunning the population. One night, a Diclonius named Lucy, believed to be the Queen Bee of the species, manages to escape from the Lab (we later find out she received assistance via Professor Kakuzawa, the son of the Director overseeing the Program), slaughtering multiple people in the process, before getting shot by an anti-tank rifle, knocking her into the ocean and allowing her to escape.

The impact of the bullet, combined with trauma she’s endured during her lifetime (and even perpetrated), causes her to develop a split personality: Lucy, the ruthless Diclonius with her memories intact, and Nyu, a childish persona with no understanding of the world. She is taken in by a university student named Kohta (whom Lucy is later revealed to have known in the past as a child) and his cousin Yuka. The rest of the anime deals with Kohta and Yuka aiding Lucy/Nyu and helping her adjust to life at their home, all while government agents attempt to hunt her down and send other Diclonii like Nana/Number 7 and Mariko/Number 35 to deal with her.

There is a lot in relation to story, themes, and characters from Elfen Lied that works its way into the fabric of Stranger Things, not just in this season, but in season 4 as well. This episode especially pays homage to certain elements from the anime.

Take for instance the scene when El finds Nancy’s music box with the spinning ballerina, and how it mirrors Lucy/Nyu's fascination with a music box Kohta owned that played a soothing melody she liked:

The music box in Stranger Things was more of a curiosity for El and one of many interesting things she found in Nancy’s room, especially given she had next to nothing at the Lab AND this is the first time she’s aware of an older girl like Nancy and wants to know what she's like. The music box in Elfen Lied is a recurring plot element that foreshadows how Lucy knew Kohta in the past, and that they once shared a childhood friendship:

In regards to Lucy’s character, while there are parallels that can be drawn between her and El (particularly when it comes to their abusive upbringings, how they were treated as freaks for most of their lives, and the similarities between Lucy’s hellish experience in school and El’s miserable time in Lenora), it’s pretty disquieting how much Lucy and Vecna resemble each other in terms of personality and backstory. Even the play The First Shadow has certain story elements that come from this anime, particularly with how the childhood friendship between Lucy and Kohta mirrors Henry/One/Vecna’s childhood relationship with Patty Newby.

For this reason, I will save the more in-depth discussions about Lucy and Elfen Lied’s themes and motifs when I review season 4.

For now, I want to focus on the parallel that is obvious in this episode between Elfen Lied and Stranger Things: The relationship between Dr. Brenner and El, and how it mirrors the relationship between Nana/Number 7 and Dr. Kurama.

There are plenty of inspirations for Brenner’s character that will be discussed in later reviews, but Dr. Kurama is a big one: While he isn’t the head of the Laboratory (that would be the Director) he is a senior scientist who was hired through his connections to Professor Kakuzawa, and helps oversee the experimentation on the Diclonii. Unlike Brenner, who was trying to create as many special kids as possible via Henry/One/Vecna’s blood, Dr. Kurama’s motivation is to find out how the Diclonii spread their mutation and whether there’s a cure or an origin point for the mutation. He was also not above mercy-killing Diclonii babies, which he (and everyone else in the Program) viewed as a necessary evil to prevent the spread of the mutation and save the parents from their Diclonii children growing up and slaughtering them the first chance they got. Unlike Brenner, who specifically went out of his way to assert control over the special kids like El and made sure he was the dominant authority figure in their lives, Dr. Kurama’s connection to the Diclonius is tenuous as best. Lucy and Number 3 hate him, and Number 3 even infected him out of spite, which would later lead to his wife getting pregnant with Mariko/Number 35, another Diclonius that he has limited control over. The only Diconlius who really followed Dr. Kurama’s every word, and was desperate for his approval, was Nana/Number 7. And just like with El, Nana/Number 7 was conditioned to see Dr. Kurama as her “Papa” as a means of surviving the experimentation done on her while giving her something to live for.

The best way I know how to describe Dr. Kurama in relation to Brenner is that he’s a slightly more sympathetic take on Brenner's character (but only slightly). For all of his flaws, Kurama was genuinely invested in preventing loss of human life, and even showed concern for the well-being and safety of his staff, which contrasts sharply with the cold, dismissive attitude Brenner had towards employees who worked under him (as we see in the flashback with how Brenner steps over the bodies of the orderlies El killed just so he can reward El’s use of her powers with his affection). Unlike Brenner, who deluded himself towards the end of his life into thinking he was a good person and a loving “Papa” to the special kids, Dr. Kurama has no delusions. He knows he’s a hypocrite and that his actions towards the Diclonius were monstrous. And despite having killed plenty of Diclonii babies over the protests of their fathers, he was unwilling to do it for his own Diclonii daughter Mariko (albeit because his dying wife begged him not to as a last favor to her) and kept Mariko/Number 35 locked in solitary confinement with a bomb implanted into her because of Mariko’s psychopathic tendencies.

Neither Brenner nor Kurama are winning “Father of the Year” awards anytime soon, but at least Kurama takes responsibility for his role in the person Mariko/Number 35 became and for the damage he caused (which Brenner absolutely refused to do, even towards the end of his life). And while Brenner’s relationship with El was based complete control over her and her powers, with the implication he wanted to live vicariously through the greatness she was born with (at least from what Vecna infers about Brenner in S4), Dr. Kurama’s relationship with Nana/Number 7 was a lot more complicated. Yes, he used her to bring Lucy back, but when that failed and she lost her limbs as a result, not only did Dr. Kurama provide her with new artificial limbs, but he goes against the orders of the Director to terminate her for outliving her usefulness, and orchestrates Nana/Number 7's freedom from the Lab while providing her with money to survive.

As for Nana/Number 7, she eventually gets a second chance at an ordinary life when she's taken in by Kohta and Yuka (and even makes her peace with Lucy in the series finale despite what she did to her), but she still maintains that daughterly affection for Dr. Kurama. This contrasts with El, who outgrows her dependence on Dr. Brenner’s approval over the course of the series, and (rightfully) comes to view Brenner as a monster for what he did to her, her mother, Henry/One/Vecna, and the other special kids.

One aspect they kept from both the anime and Stranger Things was El’s aversion to hurting animals, similar to Lucy’s aversion to killing dogs. The scene with the cat and El at the Lab takes on a much different context come season 4 when we’ve seen what Henry/One/Vecna did as a child to the animals and pets around Hawkins. It wasn’t just about testing El’s powers on the cat the same way she did with the Coke can, but seeing if she could reach into the cat's mind and consume it the way Vecna would've:

I’m curious if Brenner assumed El finally did this when she killed the orderlies who were going to lock her up, and that’s why he awarded her with affection. If that’s the case, he’s dead wrong. El certainly killed them, but I seriously doubt she consumed them the way Vecna would have. There seems to be a very specific ritual to do that, and El did not follow that pattern. It’s even questionable if she knows how to, or if Brenner ever taught her how to based on his time with Vecna. In any case, it does act as future foreshadowing that El was NOT the one who killed the other kids at Hawkins Lab, no matter how many red herrings the Duffer Brothers planted in season 4 pointing to her.

Another call-forward to season 4 comes in the conversation Mike and El have later when El infers that Mike has been bullied and implies that the same thing has happened to her in the past:

Mike: I was tripped by this mouth breather, Troy, okay? Eleven: Mouth breather? Mike: Yeah, you know…..a dumb person. A knucklehead. Eleven: Knucklehead? Mike: I don’t know why I just didn’t tell you. Everyone at school knows. I just didn’t want you to think I was such a wastoid, you know? Eleven: Mike… Mike: Yeah? Eleven: I understand.

Conversations like this make me question how much El remembers prior to Vecna’s banishment to the Upside Down in 1979. She apparently recalls the tunnel Vecna showed her that she would later use to escape, and this conversation implies that she remembers being viciously bullied at the Lab. However, she doesn’t seem to remember the massacre itself at this point, or even Henry/One/Vecna for that matter. It makes me question what Brenner told her about the fates of the other special kids. Did he just not say anything? Did he tell her they all died, but wouldn’t give specifics? In any case, the fact El later believes she’s the one who killed them, and that Brenner never made any attempt to dissuade her from that belief (at least not until she completed her work with The Nina Project), is just one more example of him being an abusive figure in her life.

Part 4: Searching For Will (Mike, Lucas, and Dustin)

To call these scenes the highlight of this episode would be fair. In fact, if I were to pick the arc I was most invested in during season 1, it was the one pertaining to the boys and El and their attempts to find Will. They have a certain charm to them that holds up, and it’s nice seeing different inspirations from other media that were used to make the friendships between these characters work. One of those inspirations that’s present in this episode (and paid homage to in later episodes) is Stand By Me.

Stand By Me is a 1986 coming-of-age movie by Rob Reiner, which was adapted from a Stephen King story called The Body. It centers around four boys named Gordon, Chris, Teddy, and Vern who, in the summer of 1959, hear about a body of a missing boy named Ray Brower in the woods. Believing they can get famous and appear on TV if they find the body, the four boys venture into the woods to look for it. However, during the journey, they're forced to confront hard truths about their lives and what the future holds for them. It’s a bittersweet story, but one of Stephen King’s best, both in terms of his books and the movie adaptations based on them.

Also, for those fans who whine about characters like Lucas being politically incorrect this season, Stand By Me is a helluva lot more crass with how its characters talks about sensitive subjects. At the same time though, it comes off as how boys in the 1950s would’ve talked, and there’s a refreshing honesty with how the movie tackles hard topics like death, bullying, and ostracization that isn’t patronizing.

The main arc here for Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and even El to some degree, has its roots in Stand By Me, along with other 70s and 80s movies dealing with friendships and the ups and downs of them (The Goonies, Breaking Away, etc). The common theme in each one involves an adventure where the characters are forced to do some inner soul-searching, either regarding their flaws or problems going on in their own lives, and come out stronger and wiser in the process. It doesn’t magically make all their issues go away, but they at least are able to deal with them better than before.

In this episode, the journey has just begun. We have Dustin showing up with the snacks (which El later eats) and we have Lucas show up with all of his dad’s gear from Vietnam: Binoculars, Army Knife, Hammer, Camouflage Bandana, Slingshot. He came prepared. Or as prepared as he could be.

Both the show and supplementary materials (like the comic Stranger Things and Dungeons & Dragons and the novel Lucas on the Line) have subtly alluded to Lucas’s interest in what happened to his dad in Vietnam, despite his dad’s reluctance to talk about it. Given that Hawkins will likely become a war zone in the final season, especially with the military present, I’m wondering if that aspect could come into play, either through Lucas’s father getting an expanded role in putting his military experience to work (to help the Party of course, not Colonel Sullivan), or through Lucas finding out about what his father went through in Vietnam and putting that knowledge to use in helping to defeat the Mind Flayer’s army. Unlike Teddy from Stand By Me, Lucas has the athletics similar to Steve to be able to fight back (which we see him do against Billy and Jason in later seasons), is good at improvising, and could even get his father’s help in combat ideas. There’s a juicy story here for Lucas that the Duffer Brothers could explore in season 5 if they grab it by the horns. Lord knows that whenever they’ve given Lucas his own arcs, not only do they turn out to be great, they actually result in some neat character development that carries over into other seasons (just like with Steve).

In any case, the boys and El set out on their late night adventure, but unlike Stand By Me, where there’s a whole lot of introspection and deep conversations the characters have BEFORE they find the body, they end up finding Will’s body a lot quicker than they anticipated. Or so it appears:

I know this moment for many people was emotional, but for me, I didn’t buy for a second that Will was truly dead. I was skeptical about Barbara’s survival (especially because the Demogorgon was in the pool with her and we saw her get dragged under), but Will’s staged death here was easy to see through. This was only Episode 3, and we had 5 more to get through at this point. Considering how much emphasis the show had placed on flashbacks to Will prior to this, as well as Joyce’s entire arc in this episode, it would have been premature to assume he was dead because it would have rendered all of that moot.

Like I said, the parallels between this season and movies like Stand By Me are still there. They may be taking aspects of the story out-of-order as a subversion, but the journey Mike, Dustin, and Lucas undergo where they have to do some serious introspection is yet to come. And the journey to find Will and save him isn’t over yet.

Part 5: Joyce, Karen, and Holly

Ever since the Stranger Things Spoilers account on Twitter/X began releasing BTS photos for season 5 while placing a huge emphasis on Holly, it has inspired me to look closer at Holly’s role in the first four seasons. Particularly of note are the photos they released of Holly and Vecna at what appears to be the Creel House.

This makes me question whether Vecna and Holly are interacting for the first time here, or if that’s been a thing as early as season 1 and the audience is only now being made aware of it.

Take Holly’s scene at Joyce’s house for instance: The way Holly is lured into Will's room by the flashing lights before something starts to break through the wall makes me think it was Vecna doing this in that moment. I seriously doubt Will is the one who lured her, especially because he wouldn’t ever do anything to endanger Mike’s sister like that with the Demogorgon lurking about:

The last frame catches my eye because that doesn’t look like the Demogorgon’s mouth. That looks like a large hand. It’s possible it could be the monster’s hand, but what if it was Vecna’s?

I want to talk a little about Karen since, aside from her unhappy marriage to Ted, she doesn’t really get as much focus on this show like she should. Regardless of her flaws, I've always appreciated how she’s one of the few parents on this show to be emotionally available to her kids. We see that in her interactions with Nancy at the beginning when she’s upset about Nancy coming home late but also implores Nancy to talk with her, an offer Nancy takes her up on when she realizes Barbara is missing and might be in danger. We also see it at the end of this episode with her and Mike after Mike comes home in tears thinking Will is dead:

Personally, I feel like the show made a mistake not including Karen in the line-up of adults (Joyce, Hopper, Bob, Murray, etc) who find out about the Upside Down and what’s been going on with her kids. That will likely get explored in season 5 now that the Gate is open, but we could have gotten it so much sooner as opposed to dragging out her loveless relationship with Ted or her inappropriate crush on Billy (which was never going to amount to anything). I like that she gives good advice to her kids, and that we see hidden depths to her character beyond simply being a shallow, superficial housewife.

Finally, there’s Joyce. It should go without saying that her picking up on Will’s ability to communicate through the lights was inspired, and it led to this iconic and clever set design on her part:

The Duffer Brothers have talked extensively in interviews about the different inspirations for Joyce, from Richard Dreyfuss’s character in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, to Hugh Jackman’s character in Prisoners, to Jack Nicholson’s iconic role of Jack Torrance in The Shining. Each of these characters share the same trait of obsession and myopic fixation, to the point that it begins to impact their lives and alienates loved ones around them. The plot of Prisoners especially is central to this show, with both focusing on the disappearance of a child and a parent’s determination to get their kid back no matter the cost.

I will talk more about Prisoners and The Shining in later reviews as Joyce’s story develops, but Close Encounters of the Third Kind is relevant here, particularly with Joyce’s behavior. In that movie, Dreyfuss’s character, named Roy Neary, is one of many people who has a “close encounter” one night with a UFO, resulting in him getting half his face sunburnt and developing an obsession with the image of a particular shape that’s been implanted in his head by the aliens. What follows is Roy’s fixation on said image and what it means (later revealed to be Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, where the aliens establish contact with humans) at the expense of his family. His behavior becomes so unhinged and nonsensical to the point his wife takes their kids and flees to her sister’s house.

I saw this movie for the first time back in 2015, and even rewatching it years later for this review, I was never able to connect with Roy and found him unsympathetic. His abandonment of his family (whom we never see again once his wife drives off with the kids) left a sour taste in my mouth, and it made him look like an irresponsible parent. Steven Spielberg (who wrote and directed the movie) admitted later he wasn’t a fan of how he wrote Roy’s character, and would change it if he could to have Roy stay with his family, indicating even he came to recognize the problems with how this aspect of the character was handled.

All of this makes me question why the Duffer Brothers made Roy’s character and mannerism the centerpiece for Joyce’s character. Joyce is obsessed with getting her son back alive (as I’d imagine any parent would be in her situation) and while her behavior looks irrational on the surface to people like Jonathan or Karen, she isn’t trying to drag people into her fixation the same way Roy did in the movie (as we see when she demands Karen and Holly leave her house out of fear the monster may attack them). And unlike Roy, who discards his family by the end of the movie in favor of boarding the alien ship, Joyce establishes she does care for Jonathan and is trying to balance supporting him while looking for Will.

Funny enough, I would say Joyce has similarities to the character of Jillian Guiler. In the movie, Jillian has a three-year-old son named Barry who also sees the UFOs with his mother. Later, in an extremely creepy scene, the UFOs show up at her house, causing the electricity and appliances to go haywire (similar to the electromagnetic fluctuations that happen whenever something from the Upside Down is near) and her son gets taken by the aliens. Like Roy, she has the obsession with getting to Devil’s Tower at any cost. Unlike Roy though, where it comes off like he’s looking to have his obsession validated and therefore show he was in the right for how he acted, Jillian’s motivation to find her son provides a more sympathetic context to her actions, and makes it easier to relate to her. I would argue that sympathetic context also applies to Joyce, which is why the parallels with Jillian work better than they do with Roy.

As for Joyce’s situation with the monster in her walls, am I the only on who saw similarities to the video game Silent Hill 4?

Again, the Duffer Brothers have cited Silent Hill video games as inspiration for the show, particularly in relation to the Upside Down. I find it interesting how Joyce's story in season 1 parallels that particular game. The premise of Silent Hill 4 centers around a man named Henry Townsend who moves into an apartment that turns out to be haunted, resulting in him being locked inside and cut off from other people. All the while, he begins to have nightmares, and eventually finds a hole in his bathroom that allows him to travel to certain locations that turn out to have a connection to a serial killer and his victims.

There’s a lot here (particularly in regards to the killer and how he mirrors Vecna in his motives and the mindscapes both of them inhabit) that factors into season 4, but the main theme of Henry Townsend and Joyce being isolated from others while there’s a monster in their walls is notable. In Henry Townsend’s case, it’s supernatural (and even acts as a metaphor for how closed off he is from people due to being an introvert). In Joyce’s case, it’s self-imposed. She is able to leave her house, but doesn’t want to because Will is there, and she intends to stay there until he is found, regardless of how crazy her behavior looks to everyone else.

Part 6: Hopper’s Investigation

That reference from Powell about Hawkins Lab being “Emerald City” gave me a chuckle. The Wizard of Oz movie doesn’t dive too deep into the politics of Oz (I can’t speak for the books because I haven’t read them), but compared to the letdown of the Wizard being the “Man Behind the Curtain,” what lurking behind the curtain at Hawkins Lab would not be nearly as disappointing. Even Callahan’s snide remarks about “space weapons” pales in comparison to the horrors we’ve seen from this building.

In any case, I’d argue if you were going to draw parallels between this show and Oz, then the play Wicked, and its 2024 movie adaptation, would be your best reference. The way the authorities in Emerald City and the Wizard are depicted in those adaptations, with their sinister motivations, works a lot better as a parallel to the shady shit Hawkins Lab was engaging in, particularly its ties to MKUltra.

Speaking of which, this is the first episode that goes into the MKUltra program and how it connects to Hawkins Lab, specifically El’s mom, Terry Ives.

MKUltra was a real life human experimentation program created by the CIA which dealt with the use of different drugs and psychological warfare to control and manipulate human behavior. Mind Control and brainwashing were key themes in the program, particularly the idea of erasing someone’s entire personality and creating a new one through drugging, psychological torture, operant conditioning, all with the purpose of making that person susceptible to suggestions from the person exerting control over them. The proverbial Manchurian Candidate, if you will.

The program had its origins from the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), which was created from different branches of the military during WWII. This would eventually lead to the development of the CIA in 1947. While there were shady experiments done during this period, some of which were inspired by the Nazi’s experimentation of Jews with different drugs like mescaline during the Holocaust, it wouldn’t be until 1953 that the program officially became MKUltra. Some of the Nazi scientists, like Dr. Kurt Plotner, who oversaw the mescaline experiments on Jews, not only were recruited by the United States under Operation Paperclip, but were also encourage to continue their research, which was eerie foreshadowing for how MKUltra went forward with its research: Unethical human experimentation based on mind control and the use of drugs (about 125 different types were tested), stimulation techniques of the brain, sensory deprivation, hypnosis, you name it. There’s a video that goes more in depth about what kind of experiments took place:

One of the drugs used in the program was LSD, the same one Terry Ives took during her experiments at Hawkins Lab when she was pregnant with El. During the 60s, CIA specifically funded research into LSD to see how it enhanced the consciousness of a person. While the purpose was centered around making someone susceptible, either so they would spill information that the interrogator wanted, or to create a new personality within the subject, both season 1 and the novel Suspicious Minds (which is arguably non-canon at this point) implied that LSD was one of many drugs that could break down reality barriers set on the mind and allow those people to see other worlds beyond this one. It’s the idea that a mental gate is opened via the drug, which allows the mind to connect to different worlds and realities, including the Upside Down.

Unfortunately, while this idea was touched upon in the show, it’s not one the Duffer Brothers ran with. As we see with season 4 and The First Shadow, the reason El and other special kids like Kali/Eight have powers is because Brenner took Henry’s blood (which was altered due to transporting to the Upside Down as a child and encountering the Mind Flayer) and did blood transfusions to create multiple kids. In El’s case, Terry was likely given a blood transfusion without her knowledge or consent while pregnant during those times she was experimenting with LSD at Hawkins Lab. Pretty much in line with how unethical everything about this was to begin with.

MKUltra’s research allegedly stopped in 1973 due to distrust with the government that arose publicly after the Watergate scandal, resulting in thousands of documents related to MKUltra being destroyed to prevent a full investigation. What followed were a series of committee investigations into the CIA by the U.S. Congress, and even lawsuits from people who were test subjects in the program and were given certain drugs without their consent. Some of that is alluded to in the newspaper clippings Hopper and Powell view at the Library regarding Terry Ives’s attempts to sue Brenner and get El back:

Some people might question how Hawkins Lab is even able to be around at this point in the show (1983), but considering the shadiness and illegality of these government programs to begin with, as well as how there’s a history of programs starting out one way before it’s succeeded by another (similar to how Project Artichoke became MKUltra and MKUltra spawned other government sanctioned programs like MKNAOMI), I wouldn’t be surprised if Hawkins Lab became a program of its own that was off-the-books and pretended to distance itself from MKUltra, all while keeping the same ideology and techniques as its predecessor. It reminds me of the illegal CIA Treadstone program from the Jason Bourne movies. Treadstone was decommissioned after it got exposed in the first movie, but a new program called “Blackbriar” was introduced immediately afterwards, with the same people brought on board and continuing the goals of the previous program.

Part 7: Song Choices

For this episode, there were two key songs featured: “Waiting for a Girl Like You” by Foreigner, and “Heroes” by Peter Gabriel.

“Waiting for a Girl Like You” is self-explanatory in its lyrics. The song deals with the narrator who’s been desperately looking for love, all while dealing with crippling loneliness in the process, and finally finds it with a girl that he can connect with. Given this song plays while Steve and Nancy have sex, the impression is Steve believes that he’s finally succeeded in finding someone (Nancy) who loves him and that he can truly love and have a meaningful relationship with.

I will talk more about the relationship between Nancy and Steve, as well as the entire Steve/Nancy/Jonathan love triangle that exists in the first two seasons (and is sadly brought back for season 4) in later reviews. For now, I will say that, given everything that happens later, the impression on rewatch is that Steve’s belief is misplaced and Nancy isn’t the girl for him. He will eventually find love, but it won’t be with her.

“Heroes” by Peter Gabriel is the song everyone remembers from this episode. It’s also featured in the season 3 finale “The Battle of Starcourt.”

The song used in the show is a remix of the David Bowie version. The original version was recorded at Hansa Tonstudios in West Berlin in 1977, during the time Germany was split East and West by the Berlin Wall. The lyrics themselves depict two lovers on opposite ends of the wall who desire to be together, with the aspiration to transcend the boundaries that keep them apart (“swimming with dolphins” being a metaphor for freedom). David Bowie later would reference his producer, Tony Visconti, and his backup singer, Antonia Maass, as inspirations for the song, including the love the two of them shared at the time and how they would kiss by the Berlin Wall. There's a whole article here that goes more in-depth about this topic.

The song itself has been subjected to multiple interpretations about whether it’s optimistic or pessimistic. In both “Holly Jolly” and “The Battle of Starcourt,” the song plays at the end of both episodes during moments when it was believed a loved one died. In “Holly Jolly,” it plays after Will’s body is supposedly found in the quarry. In “The Battle of Starcourt,” it’s played after El reads Hopper’s letter following his supposed death while she’s moving to Lenora. It’s a downer song in the moment that becomes bittersweet in hindsight knowing that both Will and Hopper survived and are fighting their way back. Even the lyric “We can be heroes just for one day” is applicable to pretty much all the main characters. The idea that anyone, regardless of their circumstances, has the potential to be heroic, even if it’s just for a day, which is a recurring theme Stranger Things does an excellent job conveying.

[buffyfan145]

This is really unfortunate news to see about "Rings of Power" and it's US ratings. Deadline posted today Luminate's streaming numbers for 2024 across all of the popular streamers for how their shows and movies did this year. For ROP their numbers of total mins watched for season 2 dropped by 60% compared with season one. It's also far behind most of Netflix's shows that made this list and some of Amazon's. While we know the overall global ratings are much better in the end this is an American TV series and the US numbers are going to matter the most.

As much as I love the show and we are getting season 3 (which is going to start filming this spring), I'm fully convinced now we have to prepare ourselves that the show is likely ending now with season 3. Add in this US ratings drop to the delay with the renewal announcement, the writing staff changing, Bezos's political issues and what's going on with the US affecting everyone and everything involved with Amazon, Amazon's TV head saying they are sticking with 50 hours but never said 5 seasons in that comment, Amazon also making 3 more similar fantasy shows including "Fourth Wing" as possible replacements, the long wait between seasons, and the rumors that the direction of the show changed it all seems to be adding up.

Being so involved over the years in my other fandoms and how similar issues like this have played out over the years with my shows the writing is starting to seem on the wall that the show doesn't have that much time left. Again, I hate to post this as I love the show and being a part of the fandom (especially the Haladriel ship) but it's starting to feel like history is repeating it's self with the shows I've lost early too. All we can hope is that they somehow write season 3 in a way to work as a final season just in case, and/or if they actually announce the renewal and say they're ending it now. Three seasons is also considered normal now for a lot of shows too so it just feels that is what is happening now.

[quasi-normalcy]

Surprising Things I Learned From Rewatching All of Star Trek (as of mid 2022)

The first season of the original series is good. Like really, really, good. You can definitely see why it caught on.

"Spock's Brain" isn't actually all that bad. Like, for all it's infamy, I wouldn't even put it in the bottom 5 episodes of TOS. Maybe not even the bottom 10.

The Motion Picture is an amazing movie if you watch it like a symphony with incredible visuals, rather than an action movie.

The weird utopianism of TNG season 1 is actually really appealing now

Wesley was just as bad as I remembered

I actually like Worf. Quite a bit, actually.

Kinda wish that Deep Space Nine had kept a major focus on Bajoran politics. Like, the Dominion War stuff is good, but the political arc in the first few seasons is actually really fascinating.

Voyager has lots of absolute banger episodes, and they're good enough to forgive the overall lack of continuity

Seven of Nine's arc has uncomfortable overtones of reparation therapy when you know that she's queer (and even when you don't, it's basically seems like learning how to mask neurodivergence)

Tuvok is actually a brilliant detective. I didn't notice before.

Enterprise is...well, I'm not going to say "good", but I get what it was going for now. And the Xindi arc is way less jingoistic when considered as a whole than I remember it being.

(The fourth season isn't as good as I remember, just because the constant continuity references have gone from being an exciting novelty to being freaking everywhere)

The 2009 movie really doesn't have a lot going for it, in retrospect. The cast are good, though.

Into Darkness...was even worse than I remembered. Like I'd forgotten just how unlikable it made Captain Kirk. That said, the "anti-militarism" messaging felt somewhat less "tacked-on to the last five minutes of screentime" than I recalled

Even though I don't think it ended well, the first season of Discovery is actually a lot better than I remembered when I already knew where it was going.

The second season of Discovery fares much worse, though. Strange, because I'd thought it an improvement over the first when it was airing.

I'd been disappointed by how the first season of Picard had wrapped up it's plot threads, but on a rewatch, I actually thought it was close to being a masterpiece

The first season of Lower Decks is kind of lacklustre compared to all of the subsequent ones.

[bylrlve]

Warning! Potential spoilers for Stranger Things 5!

To recap, Alex received this dm on 13/2/23, seemingly confirming mileven breakup

She received this message on that day, which states that mileven are still together and happy. However it’s also instantly debunkable bc they’re absolutely not going to do the Hopper-Mike feud bs again. That is beyond clear.

On this past Tuesday, 20/2/23, she received a second message outright stating Mileven breakup.

Finally, on Wednesday, 21/2/23, she received this message full of pretty plausible statements, with mileven breakup included as fact. Interesting.

This person claims it’s all fake, with no rationale or alt info - what, is Will not important now?

Worth noting: Millie is currently doing promo for Damsels, so she’ll be out of commission re: filming for a few weeks. Early March is probably when she’ll come back, but Finn will be be busy with his Ghosbusters 2 promo.

Two conclusions:

1.) there will be no mileven scenes filmed for a few weeks. Filming schedules are very tightly planned to accommodate other actor commitments, so it doesn’t seem like this posed a massive issue. Hm.

2,) Millie will likely be doing any scenes she has with Sadie and Caleb, aka Max and Lucas, when she gets back. As this message says.

This person is probably just smart and well-informed enough to figure this out, but it’s interesting.

There has been some very intriguing activity on a stranger things set a few days ago - red UD ligthing, castle Byers.., and Will Byers. Will’s plotline for season 5 seriously looks like everything us Will stans have been dreaming of in terms of plot relevance, emotional catharsis, etc. This pic dropped yesterday, and the spoiler acc seems to have confirmed it’s Will:

Lastly,this also dropped today:

(Credit to @1987byler on twt)

Very strange framework, here. If the goal is to set up Will being rejected gently by Mike, but understood and accepted, why not focus on that? Why not have Vecna say ‘you’re afraid he’ll be disgusted by you. You’re afraid he’ll see you as the disgusting, broken boy you are’ or something like that? Elsewhere in the game, it’s being reported by players that Will is being taunted about how his friends are all ignoring him, and how Max fits into the group better than he does. This is canonically a sore spot for him - not so much the Max part, but the general point. So why not emphasise his fear of Mike’s rejection, rather than his hurt at Mike picking El over him?

Maybe because, if this is carried into s5 and we get scenes of Vecna taunting Will about Mike choosing El, it’ll be certain that Mike will indeed pick Will. Maybe this is a means of hinting that?

(Side note: at this point in the time line, El was really just a concept to Will. The one time he met her, it was for barely a minute as a delirious, dying child. By s4, it’s very clear that they’re close and loving. I’ll hear no critique of him for apparently not wanting her to come back - it’s very obviously Vecna twisting things, as he did with Max in s4 to make it seem like she actively wanted to murder Billy.)

Also worth noting: the best Mike can say about the girl he supposedly loved at first sight, after a whole week with her, is that she’s ‘cool’, ‘different’, ‘awesome’. Very lacklustre. Compare to how Lucas would describe the comatose max to a newcomer in s4.

Finally: Will quite literally utilises a never-seen memory of Mike and him in Castle Byers as his happy menory, his safe place. You know,like the Snow Ball and those other memories of good times with Lucas that Max clung to in s4?

Credit to @will80sbyers

This post by @nebulousfishgills reports Vecna saying that Will is ‘the key’, manipulating Will’s memories, and directly saying “You’ll finally matter to someone, Will.” Byler kind of has to be endgame, right? For this to make any sense as a narrative? ‘We can still be friends’ won’t cut it, not if, as the messages Alex is getting make out, Will is still so achingly in love post-time jump that he’s staying by Mike’s hospital bed after everyone else leaves and kissing his forehead (a). Not if they’re still emphasising that Mike is his safe place, his home, his light, in (technically) pre-season five promotional material.

All of this is… interesting, to say the least.

I’ll leave off by sharing the posts made by the wonderful @solgmorell on the set leak (x) and the VR byler stuff (x, y).

(a)

ETA: two of the previous dms Alex has gotten state that Will struggles with his friendships with the other party member this season due to being closeted. This game touches heavily on Will’s feeling disconnected from his friends, at least partly bc of his sexuality…. One is above, the other is here:

[psychopasss4]

PPP Novel is out❣️

...just in time for the Lunar New Year Eve, Feb. 9th. 🎉

Noitamina Shop will hold Arata Shindo-kun's bday campaign and at the same time promotes the PPP novel sale 🥂🥳.

Have you already prepared dried persimmons? 🤗 You know, in ancient times people used to wind-hang outside Hoshigaki, thus the Japanese lantern shape we know about today were taken from. 📸 Google Images.

Quick Review:

During the premier of PPP movie before the Global launch, fans kept asking Dir. Shiotani about

The meaning of empty liquor bottle in Kogami's desk.

Why Kogami removed his jacket during his balcony scene

And his answer were simple. Kogami didn't know the difference of wearing it inside or outside. At first, I thought it was some kind of a funny little joke, or I didn't understand the words full well (I'm not a full-bred Japanese though I studied Nihonggo way back in grade school).

But if you read the PPP novel, you will realize Kogami isn't fully adjusted from his traumatic experiences as a mercenary overseas 🤧. So he doesn't feel how to act just as he used to when he's back.

And ofcourse, we all know he and Saiga only emptied the liquor after long hours of chatting and Tonami profiling.

2. It's interesting that the writing team have taken the pulse of the fans during the Q&A session, thus some points in PPP novel is what we might've expect after all 🤭.

3. Some may say it's nothing new. As it seems the writing team pretty much remain loyal to the movie summary. But if you read between the lines, you realize how it is a bit forgiving & fan-serving, compare to the movie itself 👍🏻.

4. The locations...last minute alterations... 😆😂.

5. And ofcourse the last time Akane spent with Saiga on his detention cell 😭. She literally blame herself for asking him to come to them on Dejima in MoFA's HQ to retrieve the Stronskaya Papers a day after. Which we all know ended tragically.

6. She pulls the trigger. She question the justice. Which quotes the same kind of line from PP3 novel when she's writing her thoughts down in an analogue typewriter. From that scene she thought of Kogami's action and how Sybil judged him for that.

But in PPP novel, no doubt she puts into consideration the life of Atsushi Shindo and how he was used as a pawn, only to be a master pawn who puppets the life of another pawn like what happened to Akira Ignatov.

Aswell as Akira Ignatov's sacrifice. He volunteered to be a puppet for the sake of the future generation. For the sake of his brother in particular 😢😓😓😢.

7. Frede-chan's holding back and being indecisive to keep the truth about the mission to Kogami. Is like keeping her phone number to her crush 😹🤭. Sure, she's just conscious how would Kou-chan would react since she knows Saiga and him are pretty close 😮‍💨.

8. The writing team did a pretty good job by staying true to their plot work. They know what they're doing. As if taken up some piece of advice from Gege Akutami 😅😂.

9. The last scene is pretty much heart-aching but well executed 😘🤌🏻❤️

10. The General was a medical AI but I wonder if the creator of Sybil also created that?... how about BiFrost? Oh hello, Season 4! We're waving at you ☺️😀!

11. Many hate Akane for trying to control Kogami, again?! Let me get this straight, SHE ISN'T CONTROLLING ANYONE!

There's a MASSIVE difference when he a.) first pulled the trigger against Makishima (out of revenge) and when he b.) pulls that against Tonami.

Akane knows it best.

a) She doesn't want him to be a person swallowed by revenge like Sasuke (Naruto).

b) She hopes Kogami is back for the better but instead he acted again with his animal instinct which indicates he can still be easily outplayed by emotions instead of not letting it get the human out of him.

Akane still looks up to Kogami. She knows he was labeled as a latent criminal by Sybil. But the way Kou acted is like proving to Sybil that their labeling of him as latent criminal was right. And if there's one thing Akane isn't fond of, that is proving Sybil right.

So it's not about Kogami. It's about her campaign against Sybil's false and unfair judgement! So don't mock her! 😖

Lastly, PPP novel is enjoyable because a lot of fans are exerting efforts to translate it to English for fans abroad. Kudos to you all❣️

Not everyone have the time, capacity and dedication you've spent. Including me, I'm not good in translation. So thank you. You are the heart of PSYCHO-PASS franchise global expansion ❤️🥰.

End of Review.

Okay, so that wasn't a quick one 😋 sorry about that. I just hope you guys have a wonderful day. Have fun and enjoy everything that you do!

🥰🤗

Meanwhile, the original crew of PP1 are in their podcast discussing how the series have been progressing so far 😋😂

Nah! It's just a trace sketch of CD Discussion Vol. 1

🤣🤣🤣

[pochqmqri]

One change the Railgun anime adaptation does compared to the original manga is introduce Kongou much earlier. In the manga, she isn't introduced until after the Sisters arc, but in the anime, she's introduced in the very first episode of Season 1, and becomes a prominent side character up until the Silent Party arc of Railgun S.

I'm fine with what the anime did, because I think Kongou is one of the more underrated characters in Railgun, and she's great in Silent Party and the Daihasei Festival, but I also feel that the anime cutting out her proper introduction takes out a chunk of her backstory and characterization that makes her truly great.

To start off, there's this running gag where Misaka, trying to break away from a persisent guy, named Unabara, runs into Kongou, the new girl at school, and tries to pretend she's her friend so that she can get away from Unabara. This leads to a misunderstanding where Kongou beleives Misaka's name is Unabara for most of her introductiry chapters, and Misaka is too socially awkward to even introduce herself. It's absolutely hilarious.

Kongou is presented as this haughty ojou-archetype that's too in her pride, such as when she refused to accept help from Kuroko in escorting her to the dorms. Generally these characters can be one-dimensional, but we see with her that there's more than just the surface.

When she was just a little girl, Kongou learned from her father the idea that friends will naturally flock towards one of fine character, which she took the wrong way by allowing her pride and social status to get the better of her. She says to the other girls that they're "allowed" to be friends with her rather than asking directly if they want to be friends, which puts off those girls, who don't accept her indirect birthday invitation.

This reinforces her worldview that because those girls didn't want to hang out with her, they weren't worthy in the first place, rather than focusing on introspection.

Back to current day, and Kongou is the same, even more entrenched in her beliefs, putting herself on a pedestal, that if anyone has a problem with her, it's their fault and not hers. This is why she was immediately drawn to the idea of factions at Tokiwadai, because she desired a clique like the one Shokuhou has.

However, her facade begins to break, as she comes to term with her lonliness underneath all that bravado. She begins to wonder if she's the problem instead.

Her lonliness showed earlier when, after Misaka and Kongou break away from the pushy guy, they start to hang out, which the latter enjoys, stating that she had never done something like that before. But when Misaka finally breaks away at the end, Kongou remembers that this was only born out of a "pretend" situation. Because of the way she grew up, Kongou finds it difficult to be actually honest about her feelings, that all she wanted was a friend.

Misaka comes back to return something to Kongou, which confuses the sheltered girl as she wonders why she'd go through all the effort for her (it's not that relevant to the analysis but Kongou still doesn't know that Misaka is the famed Level 5 Railgun in the school). Misaka replies that it's because she's her friend, which touches the girl, to seemingly be finally considered a friend by someone.

It all comes back full circle at the end, where after Kongou realizes the errors of her ways, the two random girls she met earlier while faction seeking, Wannai and Awatsuki of the swim team, come to Kongou, ask to join her faction. Kongou turns them down, saying that she would rather be friends with them instead, which they accept.

And I think this is just wonderful, it sets up why Kongou, Wannai, and Awatsuki hang out together in the anime and why Kongou is so helpful towards Misaka in the later arcs. She could have easily taken on a more antagonistic and cliquey role like Shokuhou initially has, but her development is actually a joy to read through. It's such a shame that these few chapters weren't properly adapted into the anime.

Kongou is one of my favorite characters in Railgun, one that I find truly underrated, not just for her backstory, but also for how much of a team player she (and the two swim girls) are in the Silent Party and Daihasei Festival arcs. I want to write about that another time.

[hawkinsschoolcounselor]

It's so annoying to see people in the tag comparing Byler to other queer ships that didn't happen like no Byler is unique and wasn't made by bad writers. Idk if you were in one of those fandoms but it would be amazing if you could explain to all those people why Byler was written differently because I am tired of the classic: "they are queerbaiting you,deal with it". I am like :" wow they queerbaited the Lgbt+ community and the heterosexuals too then because a huge majority of the GA audiences who see Byler aren't from the Lgbt+ community". They also made the "main" ship do unlikeable that it lost at least 40% of their supporters between season 3 and season 4.

Well, I can see where they're coming from, even if I don't agree.

I have never been involved in a fandom before, but I have been a fan of shows/movies where I thought "so and so would make a good couple" only for nothing to come of it. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, though. This is the first time I've ever thought it was going to happen, and I've felt that way since season 2. Each season since has left me disappointed, as I don't want it to be a final episode "twist" in order to avoid losing fans, but it's still only become more and more obvious to me that it's inevitable.

I think a lot of fans get caught up in headcanons, particularly between seasons. As a result, they end up forgetting what is actually canon, and they create elaborate predictions that just don't fit the reality.

Yes, queerbaiting is a thing. I'm not familiar with many of the fandoms that this is used with, but I'll give the fans the benefit of the doubt on it. If a show hints at a queer couple, that's not enough for it to be queerbaiting. But if they continually build it up, only for it to go nowhere, then it might be. If they actively use it as a means to market the show, then it definitely is.

Without knowing more about specific fandoms, it's hard for me to make any direct comparisons. I suppose, should, somehow, Byler not be endgame, then I'll probably understand a lot better. However, I will also be extremely confused and will have lost considerable respect for the Duffers as writers.

However, Byler is a unique animals, as far as I can tell. It's something that has had seeds planted to it from the very beginning of the show. It's not some response to fans that the producers felt they could then exploit for marketing/merchandising purposes. It may not have been obvious back in season 1, but the clues were there. There was no retconning done to make Byler fit. There was no sly stoking of the flames in the fandom to get fans excited about it. That all happened organically as more and more people caught on.

I don't think the Duffers are dumb. They built a slowburn same-sex romance between main characters over the course of an entire top-tier series. As much as it annoyed me that it's taken this long, it does make the most sense, both in-universe and as a matter of mass appeal. Both the fans and the characters themselves had to come to terms with teen boys falling in love in the 80s. That's not something to be rushed if it's to be taken seriously.

Will, the one we've been told was gay, has come to terms with his feelings, only to come to the conclusion that it's not meant to be.

Mike, the one we've seen to have more-than-friendly feelings for Will, is still not ready, yet.

Season 5 will be the catalyst for Mike to realize what his deep feelings for Will really mean, so he can show Will that love is something for him to experience.

[pikaclerc]

ALPINE WHEN I CATCH YOU (Let's talk about Jack Doohan)

This is not something I've talked about online a lot but I'm a massive Jack Doohan fan. He's the driver I've most actively supported in F2 so you can probably guess I was over the moon when he got the Alpine seat last summer. You can also probably guess how I'm feeling right now (if not, the title gave it away).

If anyone is not caught up, let me give you a summary: There's been a few rumors going around that Jack might not make it to the end of the season with Alpine. Most of these were fueled by the connection Hitech has to Alpine and the positive comments that were being made by team members about Paul Aron and a supposed interest in signing Colapinto. These rumors just gained a new life today when Colapinto was effectively confirmed as a reserve driver for Alpine in 2025 with a multi year contract. In addition, there's been reports that Jack has a deadline: he has 5/6 races to show results or he's out. Given Alpine in the past 2 days signed 2 new reserve drivers in addition to Paul Aron plus Briatore straight up not denying a possible lineup change in 2025, the rumor Jack might be at risk of losing his seat very early in the season seems to no longer be a rumor but a fact.

F1 is a ruthless sport, we all know this, we don't lack examples from recent years but this is beyond being ruthless, in my opinion. This is not even giving Jack a shot at proving he deserves the seat Alpine gave him. Even worse, the only ones who seem to be questioning if Jack deserves the seat is Alpine themselves when the most impactful thing that Jack has done since they signed him is race for them in F1 once and doing what any reasonable F1 watcher would have expected him to do.

Jack's a rookie. No matter how good you are, no matter how much of a monster season you have as a rookie, you're gonna make mistakes, you're gonna have the pressure of being a rookie on you constantly. Jack has also the added difficult task of driving for Alpine which is an unstable team to say the least (sorry Alpine you've made progress but you know this is true) and he wasn't racing regularly at all last season. Putting an unreasonable deadline on him of maybe only 5 races is creating the perfect recipe for disaster which at this point seems like is exactly what Alpine wants.

With Paul Aron and the Hitech connection, with Hirakawa joining and with Franco on a multi year deal it's getting hard to imagine what can Jack possibly do to change Alpine's mind. What kind of results does Alpine expect from him and are those expectations even reasonable in the first place given the fact Jack, at best, will be driving a middle of the table car?

Maybe I'm being too pessimistic but I find it hard to believe Alpine hasn't made up its mind yet. Franco is more profitable and experienced at the end of the day and Paul Aron is also a talented driver who Oakes would definitely like to see make it to the team. I doubt Hirakawa has as good of a shot as these two but hey since Alpine's opinion of their own drivers seems to do a 180 in just a month, who knows?

What annoys me the most is why have they already given up on Jack? They can't reasonably say Colapinto or Aron are miles better than him. It's very hard to compare Franco and Jack, given Franco's little time in F2 and Jack's ONE race in F1. Jack and Paul's stats in F2 are INSANELY similar.

Jack's a good driver and it's not impossible that he could reach good results in his first few races but I doubt anything he does will be good enough for Alpine. His best shot at still having a chance in F1 will be for things to, ironically, go down similarly to how they did with Franco and he's able to impress other teams who'll keep an eye on him.

Alpine will end up with a talented driver on that seat but this situation will hurt them. It's unnecessary instability impacting an already fragile team and equally unnecessary damage to their academy project (which has probably already taken a dumb hit with Victor Martins just vanishing from any F1 conversations despite being a F3 champion and a F2 driver). They seem to be the latest hot team for rookies to join but when in just one season out of Jack Doohan, Franco Colapinto and Paul Aron they'll likely mismanage 2 out of 3 of these drivers, their reputation will take a hit and Hirakawa likely not being included in these conversations at all won't be a great look either.

Jack is the one I feel for though and if I'm right and Alpine has already made a decision, letting Jack stay for a few races just feels cruel and it's denying him a chance of finding another seat in another category so he doesn't spend basically 2 years of his career in a row not racing. Alpine has every right to do what they think is best for their team but I can't understand how giving up on a driver from their academy when they have not even given themselves enough time to figure out if whatever concerns they may have are justified can possibly be the best for their team.

[phoenixyfriend]

Ko-fi prompt from @thatclichedwriter:

If possible, could you explain why airline overbooking happens and how it “works”?

The answer to this one is actually pretty simple, and the same reason that hotel chains overbook.

The short answer is that in order to maximize profits, every seat needs to be full, and on average, there will be a handful of passengers cancelling at the last moment, so overbooking leads to Just Barely filling every seat after cancellations, most of the time.

Let's play with an example!

Our example flight is 100 seats. It goes from Houston to Pittsburg, and takes just under three hours. This is a flight that goes between two cities in the same country, and is comparatively cheap, in relation to international or intercontinental flights.

It is much more likely to be a flight taken for business purposes than for vacation, especially if it's not during a holiday season where someone might be visiting family in another city.

Version 1: The airline books 100 seats. Of those 100 seats, 5 cancel at the last moment due to a change in the business obligation, or an emergency at home. The airline is now flying 95 seats of the 100, leaving 5 seats empty. If each seat is $300 on average, then they have lost out on $1,500 of revenue. (If there's a cancellation fee, then they've lost out on less, but they've still lost money.)

Version 2: The airline books 110 seats. As in the first version, 5 cancel at the last moment. The airline still has 105 bookings, which is 5 more seats than the plane has. They need to either refund or reschedule the flights for 5 passengers in order to take off. They offer travel credit, possibly a hotel, in exchange for several passengers to delay to a less full flight. The airline loses money, but probably less than the $1,500 they would have lost if they'd had 5 empty seats, instead of 5 doubled ones. Depending on how willing customers are to compromise for a new flight, slightly overbooking is better than slightly underbooking.

Version 3: The airline books 105 seats. 5 cancel at the last moment. When the plane takes off, all 100 seats are full, and the airline has not lost any revenue to empty or overbooked flights.

This whole process is pretty complex, and varies based on the most common cause for travel (Sacramento to Fort Worth is going to have a very different set of customers than New York to Athens), the time of year, the time of week, the airline's popularity, and so on.

The causes of cancellations can vary or come in waves, say, a flu epidemic at a university causing a bunch of students to stay at the dorms for Thanksgiving, forcing half-full flights for a few days in November, which would be unexpected and difficult to plan for when most of the flights around a holiday are more than likely booked far in advance, due to the cost.

There are a lot of people on the internet that have done much longer, more math-heavy examples of this entire process. It's a science of its own, though I'd hesitate to call it an art.

But you came here for "explain it to me like I'm five" explanations, and I'm hoping I've managed to fulfill that!

(Prompt me on ko-fi!)