#Lawrence’s Cinematic Universe

[self-aware-sawtrap]

saw sitcom episode pitch: saw x alternate perspective that’s just lawrence & amanda’s 42 hour road trip from new jersey to mexico city. lawrence was supposed to stay behind to watch hoffman so they didn’t have a home alone situation on their hands but they just locked him in the trunk and took him with them. hijinks ensue. halfway through they hit a speed bump, knocking hoffman out & leading amanda to think that she killed him. lawrence knows how to check his pulse but allows her to continue thinking he’s dead to punish her for what she did to adam. this backfires when neither of them end up giving a shit. hoffman continues screaming for the rest of the episode, but neither of them notice (they’re too busy arguing over how they’re going to break the news to john). at one point he breaks through the tail light with his fist and amanda’s like. what’s that. and lawrence without looking up from the road says they probably just hit a squirrel. on the second day amanda’s driving and lawrence tries to jump out of the car like in lady bird but she just keeps driving and leaves him stranded in texas (this is actually the canon reason he wasn’t in saw x). b plot: strahm investigates hoffman’s sudden disappearance. he calls lawrence halfway through the road trip & hears hoffman screaming in the background, clearly being held captive. this confuses him, since he’s certain lawrence & hoffman are both jigsaw apprentices. obviously, he thinks, if they were on the same side they wouldn’t be trying to kill each other. he concludes that because of this they can’t both be apprentices and begins to question his entire worldview as he tries to figure out which one is really working for jigsaw.

[winterfieldfrontiers]

cary elwes IS EVERYTHING.

[littlechaoticpeep]

Ssso,,,I decided to read tcu again and then decided to draw poor Lawrence out of boredom.(basically what I’d think he’d look like :’3)

Toasty cinematic universe by @onebizarrekai and @freyfall

[lostinaflashforward]

Le news della settimana!

[theomenmedia]

Raghava Lawrence Joins The Lokesh Cinematic Universe

Big news for cinema lovers! Raghava Lawrence steps into the Lokesh Cinematic Universe. Expect the unexpected with this thrilling collaboration!

Read the full article right here: https://www.theomenmedia.com/post/raghava-lawrence-steps-into-lokesh-cinematic-universe-the-dance-of-thrills-begins

[quinngefail]

Been thinking lately about Adam and Lar both having problems with eating after the bathroom trap,, gonna put my ramblings under the cut, fair warning if descriptions about eating struggles are uncomfortable for you!!

(And also just warning for ((vague-ish)) descriptions about gore and such)

Like baseline. You have just The General Nastiness of the bathroom itself. I think either of them even vaguely thinking about the smells (and all the memories it brings) would be enough to make them lose their appetites 😩

Then they would both just have their own specific ordeals. Like okay in the QSCU (Quinn Saw Cinematic Universe™️)((just my headcanons I base my Saw stuff around lmao)) Adam spent at least two days alone in that bathroom before being found and saved. And y’know I just think I too would have just a few problems with eating after spending that time with front row seats to an actively rotting corpse 😩😩😩 I just. Imagine him being very susceptible to nausea after all that, and the thought of eating meat specifically makes him want to hurl... And he's just bombarded with these thoughts of what if this was the body. What if this was the body. What if this was the dead body. What if this was the dead, rotting body. What if this was the dead, rotting body being chewed and swallowed in your mouth right now.

It would simply make him sick to his stomach, I feel-

Then I just have to imagine Lawrence also has problems with meat going forward. Problems with cutting into it, and running a knife through it again, and again. And like with Adam, the thought of putting that in his mouth makes him feel so ill. He's just very prone to getting nauseated as well 😔

(Gotta mention too that Adam can't get the imagery of Lawrence sawing off his foot out of his head either and that's definitely a big point of Ick for him as well-)

And of course, sometimes their eating problems aren't even because of all that. Sometimes, they're both just in such a horrid state of mind that they simply cannot bring themselves to eat, or do much of anything, really. It's worse for Adam, and it inevitably, and concerningly, starts to show its consequences on his body,,

...But then I also have to think about nice things in regards to all of this, where once the two have reconnected and all that, they have to sit down together and try and figure out what sorts of things are 'safe foods' for making meals and such, y’know. And it's just this bittersweet sort of like ha ha yeah this sucks, but it's kinda funny that we both ended up dealing with this shit. And that we're both sitting here now, trying to figure out what we can and can't eat for dinner.

And they just gotta hold onto that thought of with time, everything will get easier.

...And when that happens, they are going out and getting the biggest, juiciest steaks this side of the planet 😤😤😤 Date night!! 😋

[nerdypuddincup]

So theory/headcanon time.

I'm reading through the Novelization of Wolfman 2010 because I love that film and I want more of it. But one thing caught my eye as I'm reading it. The old man who gifts Lawrence the iconic silver wolf head cane is an enigmatic figure in the film, but in the book there's something more to him. He feels a kinship with Lawrence. And when he offers Talbot his cane, their fingers touch for a moment. Lawrence physically moves his hand away from how deathly cold the man's touch is. And instantly my mind went to the cane's appearance in last year's underrated Last Voyage of the Demeter where the cane was in Dracula's possession.

So my theory now is that Last Voyage was an older script that was going to use the cane as connective tissue to the Wolfman and try to give the Universal Monsters another attempt at a cinematic universe. But due to the poor return on Wolfman they held off on the script.

And my headcanon shall now forever be that the old man was indeed Dracula sensing the kindred darkness in Lawrence, gifts him his cane. And that Wolfman 2010 and Last Voyage take place in the same universe.

[jessmalia]

assembling my character pinterest boards cause jo told me to

Jess Mariano — Gilmore Girls

Lorelai Gilmore — Gilmore Girls

Lucy, Edmund, Susan & Peter Pevensie — Narnia

Amy March — Little Women

Perseus Jackson — Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Rachel Elizabeth Dare — Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Nico di Angelo — Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Stiles Stilinski — Teen Wolf

Malia Tate — Teen Wolf

Rhaenyra Targaryen — House of the Dragon

Alicent Hightower — House of the Dragon

Enzo Scanno — My Brilliant Friend

Elena Greco — My Brilliant Friend

Rose Tyler — Doctor Who

Caroline Forbes — The Vampire Diaries

Johnny Lawrence — The Karate Kid/Cobra Kai

Elphaba Thropp, Glinda Upland & Fiyero Tiggular — Wicked (Stage Musical)

Merlin & Arthur Pendragon — BBC Merlin

Bucky Barnes — Marvel Cinematic Universe

[natequarter]

[id: gifs of becket (1964) interlaced with gifs of lawrence of arabia (1962). in the gifs from becket, henry ii says, "thomas..." bishop folliot says, "you love him, don't you? you still love him. that imposter saxon guttersnipe, that mitered hog." henry bows his head, nearly crying, before looking back up at the bishop. he grabs the bishop by the throat, choking him. he says, "holds your tongue, priest. all i confided to you was my hate, not my love." in the gifs from becket, howeitat says, "he is your friend?" "take your hand away," lawrence replies, pushing him away. howeitat says, "you love him." lawrence says, "no, i fear him." "then why do you weep?" asks howeitat. lawrence jumps away from him, pulling out a knife. he says, "take your hand away, howeitat!" /end id]

[plaintext: BECKET (1964) // LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962)]

BECKET (1964) // LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962)

[themousefromfantasyland]

I watched the crossover films of the Universal Monsters today, and I realized how one of the biggest mistakes of the Dark Universe was not starting with the Wolf Man.

Lawrence Talbot is probably the true protagonist of the Universal Monsters Universe. All crossover films revolve around him seeking a cure for his lycanthropy and facing the other creatures.

Talbot is the perfect protagonist. Not only he is one of few monsters who is unambiguously heroic despite his monstrous werewolf side, but he's firmly against Dracula and company.

I think he would the best character to start a cinematic universe, a tragic hero dragged to a universe of monster and demons that he knows nothing about. He is the perfect character to serve as the audiences' point of view.

@thealmightyemprex @ariel-seagull-wings @mask131 @the-blue-fairie @princesssarisa

[centaurianthropology]

Hammer Horror-a-thon: 'Dracula A.D. 1972'

I know I said that I would skip this one, but after I posted, my conscience nagged at me. I had said I wanted to see Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing face off again. I had said I might enjoy the worse and hornier sequels to 'Horror of Dracula' even more than I enjoyed the original.

And yet I didn't want to watch the terrible, horny sequel? Weak! Did I fall at the first shitty movie hurdle? NO!

Anyway, tonight I inflict upon myself and all of you ... 'Dracula A.D. 1972'.

From the off this movie commits a massive crime in my book: it implies that Dracula was already resurrected and faced off with van Helsing at least one other time, but probably often. Like, a full lifetime of cat-and-mouse between them. AND WE NEVER GOT TO SEE IT! Yes, I know I skipped all the sequels between the original and this one (I am here for this duo, and owe the Hammer cinematic universe nothing), because none of them had both Cushing and Lee in them, but this movie has the gall to imply that there is some other, parallel universe where there were like five other movies where these two tried to homoerotically murder one another?? And we were denied????

Crimes! Unspeakable crimes!

Anyway, we open with what is the final confrontation between the original van Helsing (whose name was apparently Lawrence rather than Abraham? I completely missed that in 'Horror of Dracula'). Both are killed. It's like Romeo and Juliet, but with a broken carriage wheel and blunt force trauma.

Look at them and imagine so many more movies of this. We could have had it alllllllll ...

But Dracula, who always comes back, is once again resurrected! How does this happen?

A groupie. Dracula got his ass a groupie, who calls himself 'Jonny Alucard', because Hammer Horror has never been about subtlety.

Wait, did 'Castlevania' steal Alucard from 'Dracula A.D. 1972'?? Because that's hilarious if true.

So groupie Alucard buries Dracula's ashes with van Helsing, which is fucking romantic in a creepy way, I guess, and then we flash forward to the swinging tunes of 1972. And I have to say, the cinematography in this film is coming on strong. It's dynamic, colorful, looks interesting, there's cool shots ... the director of photography, Dick Bush (yes, that is his actual name) is doing a lot with his little budget.

We arrive at a party in full swing. If there was ever a stereotypical counterculture party of 1972, it is this one. We have a band. We have sex. We have dancing. We have probable drug use. We have definite alcohol use. We are free of the Hayes Code, baby, and we are making the most of it. And in the middle of the color and the music and the abundance of varying-degrees-removed-from-hippie, we have Alucard (Christopher Neame in one of his very first roles!). The pretentious goth boy at the party, in his ruffles and black velvet and fedora. Before there ever were fedora-tippers, there was this lad.

You can practically hear the 'milady'

And I have to say, with our first real taste of it, the script is sort of solid? There's a fun patter to the dialogue, the characters come across as lively and snappy, and the whole thing feels way more fresh and fun than I was expecting after the fairly sedate writing in 'The Horror of Dracula'. The acting is also bouncier, with all the actors seeming to have quite a bit of fun in the scene. It's goofy, but it's in on the joke.

Turns out, he's a part of a group of counter-culture kids. You've got Alucard (same one? Descendent? Who knows, since grandkids have a tendency to have the same actor as the original, more on that later.), The Monk (I forget his name, but he spends the entire movie in a monk robe making wisecracks, so we're calling him The Monk), a few random cannon-fodder kids, and ... Jess (Stephanie Beacham).

She's got 'final girl' written all over her!

Alucard, to stave off the boredom of endless parties, suggests demonic rites, as one does. Everyone initially laughs, but they're young, dumb, bored, and, most importantly, the teenagers in a proto-slasher flick. So you know they're going to go along with it after they've given him some rightful shit for his continued pretentions. And again, the writing is a bit schlocky, but does genuinely capture the vibe of a friend group, ranging from people eager to give it a try to some who think it's silly to Jess, the most reluctant of the bunch. She thinks there might be some danger involved in trying to do demonic rituals in a soon-to-be-demolished church. And while in real life that's called being a killjoy, in this universe she has reasons to be concerned.

Reasons like her anthropology professor grandfather, Lorrimer van Helsing. Yep! We have another descendent-played-by-the-same-actor, and Peter Cushing is back as a new van Helsing for a modern era. Jessica is well aware of her family history, but both of them seem convinced it's a little more research-based, and she thinks it's fairly similar to any other new-age trip.

I have to say, I love what Stephanie Beacham does with this role. Jessica is young and hip, but also friendly and relatable. She's got a sense of humor, and with her delivering her lines in an easy, naturalistic manner as Cushing is a bit more old-school, you get a great sense of the generational gap between grandfather and graddaughter (no mention of her parents, but she seems to be living with her graddad).

I'm sort of blown away by how fun this movie is so far?

So the group of kids all show up to the soon-to-be-demolished church, which also happens to be where Lawrence van Helsing was buried. Jessica's more than a bit pissed, realizing they were arriving on the date of her great-grandfather's death (which makes Lorrimer Lawrence's child?? I don't think those dates work, but okay). But she ends up deciding that it's a coincidence, and is convinced to stick around by a fast-talking Monk.

The Black Mass scene is pure schlock, and it's hilarious. Christopher Neame really leans into the scenery chewing, and we finally kick off the horror part of this horror movie with gouts of magically conjured fake blood. It's a deeply stupid scene, and exactly the sort of thing I wanted from this movie.

It's so fucking dumb!

The kids scatter, leaving one of their friends behind (RIP Laura, you were great at screaming and getting covered in blood), and Alucard gets his groupie on as Dracula rises from the grave once more. Not that Dracula seems to give much of a damn about him. Poor Alucard, you go to all that work, are that dramatic, bleed all over a lady, and he doesn't even want to bite you. He goes for Laura instead.

So with Laura 'dead' (probably a vampire), Alucard goes about trying to convince his friends that it was all just a hoax, that Laura's fine, and they should definitely stick around to get picked off one by one.

Meanwhile, because we're now in the 1970s, Laura's death prompts an actual police investigation, and since Jess was one of her friends, the police want to talk to both her and her grandfather, who had apparently helped them before with blackmailing witches (can we see the white collar crime witchcraft movie, please??).

While the police are investigating, cannon-fodder teen #2 gets lured to Alucard's flat with the promise of jazz (RIP Gaynor, all we know about you is that you have good musical taste). Once again, she gets bit. Once again, Alucard gets nothing but a telling-off that he still hasn't managed to lure in Jessica (because Dracula is already fixated on the van Helsings). You'd think Alucard's going to start getting pissy about the lack of bisexual vampirism.

When will senpai notice him?

Van Helsing, much like his ancestor, can at least put the pieces together quickly enough (although one wonders why he hadn't already realized that 'Alucard' is 'Dracula' spelled backward, but he's on the trail. Was he trained to hunt vampires, or is he literally just a professor of anthropology in his 60s who's going to have to learn on the fly? We're about to find out!

Lorrimar van Helsing, Scrabble champion

Alucard throws a proper fit about once again being passed over, demanding to be turned. Dracula is not best pleased, but also clearly sort of into the begging. So in the end do we get bisexual vampirism? We do! We cut before it happens (boo), but Alucard finally has his vampire groupie dreams fulfilled.

Good for him

Van Helsing starts his investigation in earnest, grabbing a crucifix, a silver knife (does he know how to knife-fight??), and a bottle of holy water. And it turns out that the cops just believe him. No need to try to convince them about vampires, they're on-board, because we're int he Hammer universe, baby! At some level, everyone in this universe seems to already know that vampires and whatever else are real. He infodumps to the police inspector, who remains totally chill with this information and letting van Helsing run the investigation from here on out so long as they keep it on the DL.

Meanwhile, while he's playing detective, Jess is lured into a trap, since her boyfriend Bob has been turned into Bob the vampire by a newly-vamped Alucard. And unfortunately, she was not trained to be Buffy, so the best she can do is burn the shit out of Alucard with a crucifix before fainting. I'm not judging Lorrimar's parenting skills, but if he thought that that one obsessive vampire constantly trying to bite him and his entire family over multiple resurrections could, you know, get resurrected again, it might have been a good idea to teach her to at least carry a silver knife and a bottle of holy water around with her.

This is 100% an L for van Helsing parenting

Van Helsing realizes that Jessica's gone missing and starts trying his hand at vampire hunting in earnest as the baby vamps drag poor Jess off to Dracula. Luckily, one of the other cannon-fodder teens, Anna, reveals that she got high at Alucard's place once! Hooray for convenient info!

Van Helsing gets to cut his teeth at vampire hunting with a really fun fight-sequence against Alucard. And I have to say, I feel like horniness for the van Helsings runs in Dracula's bloodline, because Jonny really wants a bite of that old man. Luckily, goofy vampire deaths remain a mainstay of this series, as van Helsing takes him down with a mirror reflecting sunlight and a fucking shower of running water. It's so dumb. It's SO. DUMB, and Christopher Neame absolutely crushes it at the hammiest of vampire deaths. Positively gnawing on every inch of that scenery. I love him.

We get multiple vampire fights, and we start off with this? We are truly spoiled.

Tragically, we don't also have time for a fight with Bob, and we've sort of lost track of the other girls, because we're once more pelting madly toward that point of the movie we've all been waiting for: watching those old men fling each other around a room for a bit!

We kick off with some truly unhinged scene setup, as Van Helsing gets his whittling badge by digging a massive pit, carving a ton of stakes, and setting up and honest-to-God pit trap. Meanwhile, he also plants a crucifix on Jessica, who he finds in some sort of magical sleep, so at least Dracula won't be able to bite her before they can have their confrontation. Dracula manages to rip off the necklace, but van Helsing turns up, and its time for a good old lover's tiff.

Van Helsing demands Dracula remember him, and from that point on, Dracula only has (bloodshot) eyes for one man.

The disheveled nemesis ex bitch is back!

The expression of a man seeing his ex for the first time in a century, and the ex is still hot.

The ex is still hot!

And they get an actual verbal confrontation this time (at least Christopher Lee gets some really hammy lines!)! It's over-the-top! It's hammy! The fight choreography is deeply iffy. It's exactly what I wanted! Rough one another up some more!

Luckily for us, a hypnotized Jessica keeps this fight from ending too soon, and that ridiculous spike trap actually gets used, continuing the tradition of very silly vampire deaths. Seriously, does Dracula ever get a dignified badass death? Or does every movie end like a Loony Toons cartoon?

Alas, it's only a five-minute confrontation (I could have done with a lot more), and we end with the spell broken, Jessica fine, and perhaps a massive training montage in store for both the van Helsings.

So you know what? I am so pleased I watched this movie I almost avoided. Yes, it was ridiculous cheese. Yes, it was really silly, and you know what? I really fucking enjoyed it. I could still do with more Dracula/van Helsing fights (only five minutes??), but damn that was fun. Solid B-movie acting, an honestly fun musical score, and Dick Bush (did you forget about him?) really set up some great shots and got a really solid atmosphere going on a tight budget.

I really, unironically, enjoyed this movie!

And next time, we finish out the Dracula movies with 'The Satanic Rites of Dracula', this movie's direct sequel!

[dark-rpfinderr]

I'm on the search for some Baldur's Gate 3 (BG3), Game of Thrones (GoT), House MD, and Marvel/Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) threads.

About Me: 25+. She/Her. I write on Discord (servers or DMs) or through Tumblr messages. I like to stick to Tumblr for plotting. I write in third person, past tense and anywhere from 1-4 paragraphs (~100-400 words). I work full-time during the week, so I can't guarantee daily replies. I aim for daily when I can, but more realistically it'll take me 2-3 days to reply. I have no triggers. I enjoy writing NSFW/smut (any plot/smut ratio), but we can keep things clean, if that's your preference.

What I'm Looking For: Please be 18+ to interact. Write in third person (I don't mind what tense you use). No one-liners. Replies in 5-7 days. I don't mind waiting longer, as long as you let me know beforehand. I prefer canon x canon pairings but am open to discussing canon x OC. I'm just a lot pickier with those. MxM ships are my favorite. I'm open to MxF and FxF as well. I like canon/canon divergent plots the most. As long as the plots are set within the fandom's universe, I'll generally be okay with doing just about anything.

I'll just be listing the muses I'm most interested in writing as for each fandom (anyone in bold and italicized, I'm especially wanting to write right now). I'm open to discussing ships.

Baldur's Gate 3:

Abdirak

Astarion Ancunín

Cazador Szarr

Enver Gortash

Gale Dekarios

Halsin

Ketheric Thorm

Lorroakan

Raphael

Rolan

Zevlor

Game of Thrones:

Alliser Thorne

Benjen Stark

Beric Dondarrion

Brynden Tully

Daenerys Targaryen

Jaime Lannister

Margaery Tyrell

Petyr Baelish

Roose Bolton

Stannis Baratheon

Thoros

Tywin Lannister

Yoren

House MD:

Chris Taub

James Wilson

Lawrence Kutner

Remy Hadley

Robert Chase

Marvel:

! = More comics based than any other media.

Benjamin Poindexter (Netflix Daredevil or Comics!Bullseye)

Bucky Barnes

Frank Castle

Grant Ward

Kilgrave

Lance Hunter

Lincoln Campbell

Loki Laufeyson

Nathan Summers !

Andrew!Peter Parker

Phil Coulson

Ray Nadeem

Reed Richards !

Simon Williams !

Tony Stark

Victor von Doom !

Like this post if you'd like me to reach out to you.

like this post and anon will reach out!

[lawrence-gowan-fanblog]

"A Criminal Mind: One Last Heist" - head studies/doodles

To keep my skills up and warm up over the past couple weeks, I whipped up these head studies to practice expressions and angles of the Criminal Mind, with his silvery mullet that I have him donning in my current-time AU of the A Criminal Mind cinematic universe.

Done in SketchBook Pro between my laptop (for lines/drawing) and my phone(colors).

Art/One Last Heist concepts (c) Illia St. Onge

A Criminal Mind original concepts (c) Lawrence Gowan

[shapelytimber]

Welcome to my insane rant about Van Helsing, in the Dracula Hammer movies (with art)

*Quick* explaination of @quijicroix 's and I headcanons for Helsing, and why we think Lawrence (thought it was Abraham but no it's Lawrence in the Hammer cinematic universe) and Lorrimer Van Helsing are the same person (/!\ spoilers for the Hammer's Dracula movies obviously) :

At the end of Brides of Dracula (the second film in the timeline), we see Lawrence get bitten by a Vampire, not Dracula btw, and to remedy the curse he burns his neck and pour holy water on it. And ig by the power of jesus he doesn't get turned into a vampire (boring Hammer resolution) (and he doesn't even get a cool scar).

But we call bullshit on this ! Van Helsing definetly got turned into a (half) vampire !!

1) Lawrence and Lorrimer are both played by Peter Cushing and have the same face. Now I know what your probably thinking "this argument is lazy af", and if we stopped there, yes it would be. But we see Lawrence's son in 7 Golden Vampires (the last film in the serie, but not the timeline) !! And he looks NOTHING like Peter Cushing. So either the Cushing face skipped a generation (whitch is funny to imagine), or his son, who stays in china and never returns to england, serves as a way to help him hide his immortality by taking the identity of his own son, then his grandson Lorrimer.

2) Time for maths everyone ! In Dracula AD 1972, we learn Lawrence died in 1872. BUT !! In 7 Golden Vampires that takes place in 1904 (because the begining of the film is set in 1804 and these movies are obsessed with the 100 years later trope), who is still perfectly healthy and visiting his son in China more than twenty years after his death ?? Lawrence fucking Van Helsing. The only two explainations I see are either Vampirism or tax fraud.

And that would mean his son (Leyland Van Helsing btw) had to fuck very quickly after the movie for Lorrimer to be in his 70s (?) in 1972.

3) If curing vampirism was this easy, why kill the other people who got turned into vampires later in the timeline (rip a lot of the women and Johnny Alucard) ?? It paints Van Helsing in a way better light if you assume his miraculous cure didn't work *in the second film of this 9 movie saga*, and he doesn't just kill people he could cure.

4) it would be a very interesting take on the character, the renown vampire hunter himself becoming a monster, fighting to keep his humanity (but the Hammer didn't have the balls. And we thought about these movies way more than anyone involved in writting them-).

And the circle of violence theme is not between Dracula and the Helsing family anymore, but between him and Lawrence, whitch is way more personnal. And !! raises the stakes in both Dracula AD 1972 (already the best movie out of the 9 by far btw) and Satanic Rites since Dracula isn't the vampire his grandad fought, but his century long ennemy that keeps coming back.

And the scene at the end of Satanic Rites, where Dracula (for the first time in 9 movies) manage to align two sentences and basicly say he wants to end the world because he is tired of dying and coming back !!!!! Whitch is very heartbreaking already, but if he says it to the man who killed him (nearly) everytime ??? (We don't talk about that time Quatermass got him) Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Ok I lied this was not quick but this!!!!!! Is something that has been haunting us for months, and in the words of Quiji : "People need to know."

I'm also working on an illustration in whitch this headcanon of ours is pretty central <3

[steelbluehome]

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On 'The Falcon and the Winter Soldier's Curiously Iffy Relationship With Therapy

By Gregory Lawrence

Mar 28, 2021

I’ve been going to therapy for many years, and if you’re reading this, I suggest you do, too. It’s an exceptional tool in the ongoing journey of one’s mental health, a place where you can speak and be listened to without agenda. The therapists I’ve spoken with in my life have one common trait: Unflappability. They are professionals at navigating the complicated emotional lives of their clients while not becoming destructively emotional themselves. They don’t pursue anything but giving you a runway to find your truth.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is a welcomely grounded Marvel Cinematic Universe series, one less interested in the “big three” of supernatural baddies (“androids, aliens, and wizards,” as Anthony Mackie’s Falcon phrases it) and more interested in the traumas and struggles of getting chewed up and spit out by the systems of regular-ass life. Yes, Mackie’s Sam and Sebastian Stan’s Bucky are fierce warriors who have used state-of-the-art tech and super-soldier serums respectively to battle all kinds of strange folks. But two episodes in, the series’ fights are human-to-human, full of shades and nuance, and often hamstrung by the cruel machinations of a society so determined to make life hard for people (especially returning veterans).

That’s why I was happy to see Amy Aquino show up as Dr. Christina Raynor, Bucky’s court-ordered therapist, in the very first episode. As made evident by Bucky’s nightmare of the merciless acts of violence he took while under Hydra mind control (rendered with shocking horror-tinged brutality by series director Kari Skogland), he needs therapy badly. In their initial sequence together, we see Bucky behave the way we often see troubled protagonists behave in therapy scenes: He plays the silent treatment at best and is openly antagonistic at worst. He baldly lies to his mental health professional about his own mental health. I understand that our (anti)hero can’t suddenly be enlightened and peaceful and ready to move on from his inner conflict; I want to see him go through this journey over the season of television. But I still couldn’t help but want to scream through the TV at him, “Just tell her the truth! You’re only hurting yourself!”

Depiction doesn’t equal endorsement, especially when it comes to a complicated character like Bucky who has objectively committed murders, but there’s something that continues to be complicated about seeing the center of our journey, the person we’re to align ourselves with being so resistant toward mental health wellness, perhaps to provoke a response of “Aw, I understand, I’d behave the same way. Therapy is weird!”

Then again, Dr. Christina Raynor might not be the best therapist for Bucky, or any client. Dramatic license must be taken in any depiction of real life. Unlike the often aimless moments of regular-ass life, dramatic scenes must involve conflict, intention, agency, and a visible drive toward a visible goal. Thus Dr. Raynor, like many film and television therapists before her, takes an aggressive approach toward “meeting the goal of making Bucky well,” poking and prodding at him, trying her best to “get him there.” She simply drips with derision and disdain at every level of her interaction with poor Bucky, even snarkily acting out his past tendencies to commit brainwashed murders. On the one hand, she needs to behave like this for the function of the scene; to watch a character be a blank slate of non-provocation without any goal of her own would likely make a boring scene. The way the scene plays is a strong visualization of Bucky’s resistance and Dr. Raynor’s (and the audience’s) desire for him to know peace. But as she kept poking and prodding and needling and frowning, even while insisting that Bucky needs to trust her, I thought to myself, “Of course he’s not speaking up. Who’d want to spill their innermost secrets to this force who obviously has an aggressive agenda?” The scene attempts to justify some of this behavior by reminding us that Dr. Raynor is a soldier who’s seen combat herself. But the moment a therapist tells you “That’s utter bullshit” is the moment you find a new therapist, dramatic license or not.

Episode 2 pumps up some of the oddness of this therapy dynamic by injecting it with one of the key secrets to the MCU’s sauce: Tension-cutting banter. After Bucky is arrested for not showing up to one of his court-mandated sessions (another complicated moment of positioning the viewer as finding therapy to be an impediment to the characters’, and show’s, action), Dr. Raynor forces both Bucky and Sam to sit down in front of her and figure out what’s tearing them apart. Surprisingly, and quite touchingly, Stan and Mackie play this scene earnestly, the pain they feel toward each other and themselves seeping from the corners of their eyes into their full figures, even as they do bantery things like move their chairs close together without knocking their knees together.

But Dr. Raynor is over here roasting and toasting them like a damn Friars Club gala. She glibly but stridently positions the exercises she wants them to do as normally being done by romantic couples, not giving them any chance to breathe at the slightest moment of resistance, cutting her patients off at the knees under the auspices of helping them stand. She is sarcastic throughout, saying things like “No volunteers? How surprising,” and “Sweet Jesus” with the tenor of a middle school gym teacher ragging on the math nerd who’s getting whomped in dodgeball. And yes, there’s an attempt at fun and bravado in these back-and-forths, the way we see all kinds of other fun back-and-forths in other “serious” MCU moments, the way we see Sam and Bucky constantly treat each other like bickering children. But not every single moment of the MCU needs to possess this kind of tone, especially not when we’re trying to watch a mental health professional deal with such clearly damaged clients.

All of this, this brevity and impatience and snarkiness, is perhaps more understandable and better played in this episode, given the emotional states of our title characters and the fact that it’s framed by an increasingly sleazy, dehumanizing new Captain America (Wyatt Russell, simply throwing away the line, “He’s too valuable of an asset to have tied up, so just do whatever you gotta do with him, then send him off to me”). But it’s still odd and brittle in a way I find unnecessary, even unhelpful. The sequence ends with a genuine moment of clarity and understanding — a breakthrough, even — between Sam and Bucky, even though it ends with Sam leaving the room. Dr. Raynor’s response, simply, is a sarcastic, “Thank you. That was really great.”

“No bullshit tough love,” to use a word Dr. Raynor is fond of, is a sensible stylistic choice for any character in Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but I worry it comes at the cost of actual human connection, change, or empathy in these very sensitive moments. And I worry it all comes at a cost of further demonizing seeking therapy as a viable option for anyone watching. I love the way The Falcon and the Winter Soldier pushes forward in its darker-than-usual plottings, but I really love the way it stands still in its darker-than-usual emotional explorations. I don’t want Dr. Raynor, nor performer Amy Aquino, to suddenly become clipped or dampened or in any way made less of a human being. I just hope Dr. Raynor’s own in-universe therapist tells her to get out of the way of her own bullshit and let the characters explore themselves in future episodes.

[angelsdean]

in the dean killed john pre-series cinematic universe, 1x09 Home is thee turning point. it's the first time we see john on screen since Lawrence 22 Years Ago.

now this is obviously the point where the original idea to have john actually be dead was scrapped, like there's no going back, they made their choice, he's alive on screen in front of us. but in my little headcanon this is the point where we see john has been brought back. and it kinda works really well because john is avoiding them (dean specifically in this AU).

missouri asks him why he won't see his kids and john says he wants to but he can't until he knows the truth. and obvs in the show he's referring to everything with azazel but in my little dean killed john AU this line is about figuring out what happened to him. maybe he doesn't remember that he actually died, maybe chuck wiped the memories from john when he brought him back (but let dean keep his memories of doing the killing). maybe john just remembers a fight that got too heated. dean fighting back for once. maybe he wakes up with a whole lot of missing time. days or weeks later. and so he goes back to missouri, not sure what happened to him, but trusting that maybe she can help him uncover the truth like she did for him all those years ago.

this also fits in line with missouri acting "off" with dean. she's notably more sympathetic to sam and very dismissive of dean throughout the episode. in the dean killed john AU i interpret this as her maybe sensing something about dean, maybe not directly that he killed john, but definitely some energy that's raising some red flags. maybe she senses that he's been lying and is not actually all that worried about john being missing.

then there's dean's phone call to john. the dean that killed john would be trying to cover his tracks. eventually the "search" for john will have to come to an end, but he'll prolong it as long as possible. in the meantime, he'll lay down stuff like this, voicemails that they'll later find on john's phone, with a dead john. things that show dean totally had no idea john was dead. and hell, part of dean IS genuine in that call. because dean's feelings towards john are complicated. yes he killed him (and maybe it was even an accident), yes he misses him and is scared and doesn't know what to do. yes he wishes john were here to just tell him what to do next and help them confront their old house and trauma. yes he knows if john were there it wouldn't help much at all. he contains multitudes<3

anyway, so he leaves that voicemail, not knowing john's been brought back. john gets that voicemail and he's confused, he's suspicious of dean, and now he's just been reminded of lawrence and missouri and figures she might be able to help him so he hightails it over there but keeps himself at a distance until he can figure out what happened to him (part of him isn't even suspecting dean. a big part of him genuinely thinks the missing time and memories have something to do with Thee Demon aka Yellow Eyes).