#Like every death makes sense to the plot and to further the plot except his and yes I can go into detail BUT I WONT

[insertcoolnameherethanks]

My one fear is that ST5 does go back in time and no one remembers, therefore Steve is still King Steve and loses the friendships he's made with the kids and Robin

[neonscandal]

something I wanted to understand, the author said that satoru was quite a womanizer, but then he said that geto was much more popular among women than satoru I didn't understand

Technically, the author said that they didn't see Gojo being faithful to one or a certain woman not that he was a womanizer.

With what we know about Gojo (and Gege Akutami's trolling ways, for that matter), I think that's up for interpretation.

FAN INTERPRETATION

Fans really took that sentiment and kind of ran with it because, to us, Gojo is high spec in every way. Canonically good looking, tall, competent at like.. everything according to Akutami, strong and presumably loaded. Of course someone like that would be a womanizer, right?

Except Gojo is an oversized child who still kinda refers to Digimon in conversation and primarily hangs out with 16 year olds. People project a lot of their BS onto him because they can't imagine ticking all those boxes and not being an asshole. But he’s a corny dork who is seemingly impervious to the outright disdain of most of the people around him. IT’S COMICAL. Personally, I think this interpretation is incorrect, demonstrably.

The other side of the fandom is naturally like... well of course he couldn't stay faithful to one woman. He's been faithful to Geto for ten years! I think we know what camp I've pitched my tent in *gestures vaguely to the rest of my blog* Especially when you bear in mind that Gege Akutami specifically designed Gojo and Geto to be intrinsic complements of one another.

CANON

I'm not so SatoSugu addled (once the brain rot sets in, it's terminal) that I am unable to disclose the secret third way we can interpret this. Canonically, when we look at Gojo as a character... it almost makes sense to assume he's simply not interested in dating at all.

Empirically finds it hard to relate to others

Even when he does care for others, he's still emotionally shallow and aware of it

Gojo clan leader with all associated unpleasantries and responsibilities from a young age

Single benefactor to two children; assumes direct responsibility over two more by staving off their execution

First line of defense for all of jujutsu society

Has a grand design of toppling said jujutsu society

Has experienced devastating loss which informs the grand design of his life's mission and he's always plotting, even when it comes to the seemingly altruistic act of "adopting" the Fushiguro kids or pressing Yuta and Yuji to learn under his care. When you consider that context, it furthers the idea that he's pretty divorced from emotion. Like, he wants them to have a childhood but its still at the pleasure of his convenience and ultimate purpose.

LOOK at this gorgeous, gorgeous boy from pop layer art because I need it and, when I covet, you must also covet. Edit: I'd accidently copied the wrong link there! It's been fixed 💙

In universe, we've seen maybe two canonical couples: Yuta & Rika and Hakari & Kirara (to be animated). This supports the fact that Gege's not really concerned with injecting "romance" into the plot unnecessarily. Undeniably and supporting the SatoSugu agenda, however, is the fact that JJK 0 very much aligned Gojo & Geto with Yuta & Rika with the theme coming to a head in season 2 with Gojo's sealment. For clarity, I mean how love ultimately cursed Rika and Geto after death by Yuta's begging her not to leave and Gojo not properly disposing of Geto's body. Love turned Rika into a curse and allowed Kenjaku to swoop in on Geto.

GETO'S POPULARITY

Geto is, quite literally, popular with everyone in universe and that was before he became a cult leader... which also indicates a predilection for popularity, I guess? As a character, he is principled, thoughtful, gentle and strong. I think, collectively, we tend to toil over the fact that Gojo spent more time missing Geto than he actually knew him. But... that's the same for Shoko and Nanami. After Geto's defection, Nanami couldn't forsake him even if he morally couldn't approve of his actions. Over ten years later as the night parade of a hundred demons is set to take place, Yaga starts saying something along the lines of finally getting rid of the scourge that is Suguru Geto and Shoko makes it a point to leave. I think it's because, after everything, she still holds affection and pity for Geto and would rather not hear him being bad-mouthed for breaking under the pressure of things.

He was the best of them, after all.

[anti-dazai-blog]

Hi, recently discovered your blog, love it <3

I started reading the manga around the Kamui Reveal, and back then already worried about the entire arc. Personally, the Dazai-vs-Fyodor-Setup felt undirected and predictable (back then and yet again at its end).

To me, it’s been already pointed out how Asagiri might have a hard time deleting the original cast from the story, which I don’t fault him for. (He likes creating and writing characters and you can tell, I actually love it.) My problem would just be that he needs to change stakes to the plot, it’s getting in the way of immersive storytelling (because he seldomly pulls through with the stakes long-term regarding the original character cast.)

You can actually write a story with good stakes that are consequential to actions without killing characters off; if you do it well, not having death threats hanging over every characters heads won’t take away from the story. (However, with a setting and worldbuilding like bsd it’s a little unrealistic to not have death as side effect/consequence or characters die.)

Back to the arc that’s been going on for years, it feels weird (unplanned), because that’s opposite to how the previous arcs (and especially the light novels) felt and it’s one of the longest arcs; I would have assumed Asagiri had something in mind for a proper (plot)conclusion (it’s a personal opinion that this arc is not properly concluded (currently)).

When we had chuuya drowns and dazai gets shot scenes, I wasn’t for one second thinking they actually died, I was thinking, how is Asagiri gonna write himself out of these scenes (because to me it felt like he didn’t have a solution, reviving the characters, prior to their death scenes), which is a pretty non immersive experience as a reader.

And it’s really weird to me, because I can’t think of a good reason of how all this happened.

Asagiri is not a bad writer, that’s established and the (i think) last „side“ project Stormbringer was exceptional (personal opinion (and I was still baffled(slight negative connotation) at Verlaine being kept alive (who knows wether he will play a role in the future)), it’s really weird thinking about Stormbringer and this arc being written out at a similar time. (I personally have a theory as to why the light novels are so good: He likes writing snd creating characters, but having them interact in this huge cast and series is understandably difficult, whereas the light novels can be seen as a backstory/part of a character, something he is incredibly good at constructing.(He also doesn’t really struggle killing off people here, because the consequences don’t affect the main story.))

He doesn’t „pander“ to people either I think, or at least it wouldn’t make sense. Bsd might possibly have attracted a shounen audience, but it got popular because of seinen themes and characters (which affects the plot) in the first place, so changing things towards to a shounen lane would be dumb, and also not something like Asagiri would do.

I’ve also skimmed across my rant here and I sound like I hate the arc or his writing, but I actually don’t haha, I actually liked a lot of this arc, themes and characters and still have faith in him as an author and this series, it’s just these particular things that kinda hugely scratch my opinion on this arc and how what’s currently happening feels like a non-answer to everything that came before it.

I’m interested in hearing your opinion on this, if you want to take the time for this huge complaint rant (I’m not mad if you don’t haha), in which ways you agree/disagree/could possibly educate me further.

You blog overall is really cool, love your analyses; lots of love <33

Thank you for the ask, I’m so glad you’re enjoying this blog!!!

You’ve summed up the current arc’s issues perfectly— it seems to be out of place when compared to everything else Asagiri wrote in both the previous arcs and the light novels. It came across as aimless— as if Asagiri himself wasn’t sure where he was going with it and was as taking it chapter by chapter.

That being said, I do believe that it might just be a matter of personal taste—maybe Asagiri’s tastes in storytelling has changed over the years, and the current arc is the type of stuff he’d be more interested to write about going forward. I’d be a bit disappointed if that’s the case (and as far as I could tell, I won’t be the only one), but he might form a new fanbase that this current type of story is more catered to.

Either way, I still have hope that future bsd arcs might revert back to how bsd used to be four years ago.

[sednonamoris]

teeth

Pairing: John Marston x gn!reader

Summary: John never returns from his scouting trip. You, Arthur, and Javier seek him out through the snow.

Warnings: Canon-typical violence, animal violence/attack/death (pretty brief), strong language, description of wounds, mild angst, snow storms, gratuitous horse content

Word count: 2,646

A/N: I like to think John made squeaky toy sounds when the wolves tried to eat him :) In all seriousness, though, Enter, Pursued by a Memory is one of my fav missions!! Really hoping I balanced the actual events with Ghost's presence well, but don't anticipate a rehash of every single mission like this. We had to establish a major plot point for John, but the rest of the story will mostly have the feeling of stranger missions as we see what Ghost got up to during the timeline of the game. My hope is to only 'redo' a handful of the really major missions - after all, RDR2 is Arthur's story!

Series masterlist • AO3

—

John is missing. 

He’s a grown man and he can handle himself and he was sent out to scout and surely he can follow your tracks here but it’s been days now and he’s missing. No one else seems to have noticed but Abigail. Maybe because the two of you are the only ones fool enough to care.

Everyone else is too focused on their own survival here at the frostbitten end of civilization. Colter, as someone recalls its name to be, is just as beat to hell as the entire camp feels. Its remaining walls provide shelter, but only just. The few threadbare blankets that made the journey aren’t enough to keep everyone warm, and the handful of cans of salted offal Pearson snagged for the journey are hardly food enough to keep everyone fed. The wagons are stuck until the spring melt begins, and it’s looking less and less like you’ll all make it ‘til then - already you’ve buried Jenny and Davey. You swear you won’t bury John, too, much less mourn an empty, snowbound grave, so on the second day you give in to your restlessness.

“I’m goin’ out looking,” you tell Abigail with a grim shake of your head. “He’s run off before, but… not like this.” 

“Thank you, Ghost,” she clasps your hands, and you hesitate only a heartbeat before squeezing back. “I’m— I knew you would understand.”

“Sure,” you try to offer a reassuring smile before heading out to tack your new mount.

Moonshine was Davey’s stud. He’s a stunning blue roan color with a powerful, compact build. He’s always been tough to handle, as wild and savage as his rider, but since Davey passed he’s been especially mean. That’s how you landed him; out of everyone in the gang, you’ve got the keenest horse sense. Already he’s bitten Charles in the short time he’s spent tending the mounts while his hand heals. Ever since, you’re the only one allowed to handle him. And still he’s a menace.

True to form, he pins his ears when you approach with the saddle and lifts a hind leg in warning. 

“Enough of that,” you chastise. 

“Sure that’s enough horse for you?” Arthur’s voice sounds from behind. 

You turn to face him and raise a brow when you see he’s got his own tack at the ready. The big painted bay he took from the Adler’s barn snorts softly. 

He shakes his head. “I still say Marston’s run off again, but Abigail asked me ‘n Javier to come with.” 

“Hosea’s worried, too,” Javier chimes in. He flashes an encouraging smile over Boaz’s back that offsets the sour look on Arthur’s face. 

You mount up and tilt your head towards the wilderness. “Let’s ride, then.”

—

Javier picks up the trail first, a set of hoofprints just past the stream that heads up further into the mountains. There’s an abandoned camp there still smoking, only a few hours old by Arthur’s reckoning. The embers in the fire have gone cold with the freeze, but you allow them to light a spark of hope in your chest all the same. 

John is alive out here somewhere. He has to be. 

The going is slow through snowdrifts and steep inclines, but the horses take on the challenge gamely - except Moonshine, who squeals and kicks out when Arthur rides up too close behind you. A quick spur forward redirects the stallion’s outburst. He prances and arches his neck before settling once more, and you pat his neck with murmured praise. 

“Jesus, that thing’s mean,” Arthur says.

“So is Ghost,” Javier teases. His eyes glint with mischief when he looks back at you, and you scoff a tired laugh. 

“So was Davey,” you say. “Still hard to believe that bastard’s gone. Everything happened so fast.”

“What did happen?” Arthur presses. 

You glance up at Javier, who lets out a breath. “We had the money, everything seemed fine, then suddenly they were everywhere.”

“Bounty hunters?”

You shake your head and grimace. “Pinkertons.”

“It was crazy,” Javier says. “Raining bullets.” 

As you climb the winding mountain path he explains how Dutch killed a hostage - a young girl, he says, in a bad way. You think about the blood on Dutch’s face as he dragged John to shore. The cold look there. Determination, not regret. You think about the feeling of a body going limp in your arms so many years ago. The eardrum that still doesn’t hear as well bursting with her head at the gunshot. The guilt you waited to feel that never came. 

“Bad business,” Arthur says with a weary sigh. 

You stay silent, staring past the falling snow. Bad business, alright. 

There’s little time to dwell on it as the storm picks up. Javier leads everyone higher and higher into these cursed mountains. A wolf cries in the distance. The sound rakes a chill down your spine that has nothing to do with the cold. As snow starts coming down thicker you urge the horses to pick up the pace. In weather like this it won’t take much to lose the trail. You brace against the wind, tugging your coat closer around your shoulders. It does little to keep the biting cold at bay, but it’s better than nothing. This high up the wind is even worse, and the path only gets narrower.

Soon the horses begin to flag. You pat Moonshine’s neck and the palm of your glove comes away damp. He’s steaming with exertion. It won’t take much for him or the others to catch cold this way. 

“Tough going,” you say. Your voice is laced with the worry you’re trying so hard to keep in check. 

“Lots of fresh snow,” Javier agrees. “I don’t see the tracks anymore.”

“We can’t follow nothin’,” Arthur says, and your hackles raise. He and John haven’t gotten along for years, but his reluctance still rankles. 

You turn in your saddle and open your mouth to snap at him when Javier makes the decision for you all that it’s worth pushing just a bit more. The trail could pick up again. John could be close. 

Arthur sighs, but without another word you dig in for the climb. 

A dark shape in the snow not too far ahead has your heart in your throat. When you canter up to it, vultures take off. You’re about to send up a prayer that it isn’t John when you realize it’s not a person at all, but a horse.

Dead in the snow. 

“Missy,” you say, but they both know. 

John’s faithful red mare lies frozen, petrified with death and cold. Something other than vultures has started to eat her as well, belly ripped open and guts strewn. The snow around her is stained red. You turn away with a sigh. 

“Oh… that’s…” Arthur trails off. You pointedly ignore his glance towards you, laden with sympathy. 

“John could be close,” Javier reasons, and raises his pistol above his head to fire off a single shot. 

The sound cracks and echoes off snowy peaks. You swear you stop breathing when you hear a faint cry for help from a scratchy voice you know better than your own.

“Hey! Help! Here!”

You canter a little further up the path, but all too soon it narrows enough that taking the horses further isn’t an option. The three of you dismount and ground tie your mounts before continuing the journey on foot. 

Arthur clutches his shotgun a little tighter as you climb. Your rifle is thrown over your shoulder, just in case, and even Javier loosens his revolver in its holster. Anything could be waiting for you; these mountains are not made for kindness. 

Crouching beneath stone and scrambling up rock shelves you make your way towards the sound of John’s desperate pleas. He seems scared. A stab of fear pierces your own heart for him. 

A narrow walled pass allows brief respite from the wind, and you all pause for a moment to breathe. Javier passes his flask around, and you let the whiskey sting warmth into you as it goes down. When you emerge on the other side the storm seems even worse. 

“John!” you shout over the wind. “Hold on, we’re almost there!” 

“I’m here! Out on the ledge!” he calls back. His voice sounds closer than ever, hoarse and desperate but alive.

“There,” Javier points, then raises his voice for John’s benefit. “We’re coming!”

You sprint through snowdrifts to the edge of the dropoff. 

“I’m here!”

When you reach the ledge and look down to see him you curse under your breath. He looks… bad. Some predator got to him - wolves, if you know anything. Tore up his leg and made a mess of his face. The entire right side has been slashed through, nose, cheek, and mouth. He’s lost plenty of blood. The remaining skin is red and inflamed, like it’s infected already. He’s lucky it didn’t catch his eye. He’s lucky to be alive.

“Jesus, John,” you finally say, because you can’t think of anything else. “They chew you up and spit you out? Can’t taste that bad.”

“Nice to see you too, Ghost.” He tries to smile but only winces in pain. The relief in his voice could make you cry. 

 “That’s quite a scratch you got there,” Arthur observes when he catches up only a moment later.

Despite his heckling he’s quick to jump down and hoist John up to you. Javier helps pull him upright and he sags between the both of you. 

“Never thought I’d say this, but… it’s good to see you, Arthur Morgan.” 

You want to squeeze tight and never let him go, but he’s hurt, and even moving him from leaning on your shoulders to thrown over Arthur’s is enough to make him groan. 

“You don’t look so good.”

“I don’t feel too good neither.”

“Hang in there, compadre.”

It isn’t a long trek back to the horses, but it certainly feels that way. You have to keep reminding yourself not to hover. All that pent up worry and fear has nowhere to go now that John is safe with you. Maybe a good cry later will get it out of your system, but for you just have to worry about making it back to camp.

Javier notices your hypervigilance and offers a smile. “Tranquilo, my friend. Not much farther now.”

You try to smile back at him, but your expression drops when you spy movement over his shoulder. Wolves. On the ridge ahead. Three of them. Their coats are mangy and they look thin, which scares you a hell of a lot more than it would otherwise; they must be as desperate as you are. A bone-chilling howl looses from the throat of their leader when its yellow eyes meet yours.

“Shit,” you say. “Fuck. Goddamnit. Arthur, you and Javier get John to the horses.”

“No,” he puts John down and shoves him into your arms. “You take him. I’ll hold them off.”

You have no choice but to nod your thanks and hobble as quick as you can to where the horses stand spooking. Moonshine’s eyes roll back at the wolves as they stalk toward Arthur, growling. He dances in place, but stands still long enough for Javier to help you hoist John behind your saddle, even when Arthur starts shooting. Two gunshots ring crisp and clear, and you wait for the third but hear a cry of pain instead. You whip your head over to Arthur and see one of the wolves has him by the forearm. Without thinking, you grab your rifle from your back and take aim. On the exhale you squeeze the trigger, and with a yelp the wolf falls to the ground.

Arthur looks up at you, eyes wide with shock and thanks, before running to meet you and scramble onto his horse.

“Nice shot,” he pants.

“Any time,” you tip your hat. “Now let’s get the hell out of here.”

You spur the horses down the mountain and don’t look back.

—

Apart from the initial excitement, it’s a quiet ride into camp. John is in rough shape, but his grip at your waist never falters. It takes three people to get him off the horse once you make it back, and even with the extra hands they catch his bad leg at an awkward angle. You flinch when he cries out. 

“Careful, idiotas!” Javier scolds.

Hosea steps out to thank the three of you for a successful rescue, but you don’t stay to talk. Arthur can handle that. Instead you linger in the doorway, watching Abigail fret over John. Besides dressing his wounds he needs to get warm, so you pull yourself out of your stupor enough to close the door. Just before you turn away he catches your eye and mouths a thank you. You manage a sad smile and leave them be. 

For the rest of the day you make yourself scarce, cooling the horses out and chopping firewood and even lending Pearson a hand with the stew. Only once night has fallen and everyone else is long asleep do you allow yourself to sneak back into the cabin to see John.

It’s easier than you’d feared to tiptoe around everyone’s sleeping forms and into the empty chair at his bedside. The hard part is ignoring the pang of guilt that comes when you spy Abigail’s beautiful, moonlit face asleep without that pinch of worry between her brows you’re so accustomed to seeing. Jack is snuggled in just as peaceful at her side. A family. John’s family.

But when you reach him, everything else fades away.

They did a good job cleaning him up, given the circumstances. Thick strips of cloth bandage wrap half of his face, even the eye. The other half has been sponged clean so the blood and grime is no longer caked frozen on his skin. His hair is still unwashed and limp, but no longer matted to his face. They even wrangled him out of his shredded clothes and into some of the few spares lying around. 

He’s dead asleep. The exhaustion must have finally hit once the adrenaline and fear faded away. You settle into the chair at his bedside and just watch him sleep. Each steady rise and fall of his chest reassures you that he’s alive. That he’ll stay that way.

Before you realize what’s happening tears begin to wet your cheeks. You sniffle quietly to muffle the sound but can’t stop. He could have died up there. All alone on that mountaintop with only the snarl of wolves and the snap of their teeth to send him to the other side. This life you lead is dangerous, always, but you haven’t had to look mortality in the face in a long time. It stares at you with an open maw and hungry yellow eyes through John’s torn flesh, and you shudder in spite of the fire. 

It should make you want to confess. To lay your heart out and speak the love that’s laden your tongue for years uncounting - before it’s too late. But when you glance over at Abigail you can’t bring yourself to say a word. Instead you grasp John’s hands as gently as you can and raise them to your chapped lips.

You press a soft kiss there where your hands are joined and smile down on him past the heartbreak. When you go to leave he closes his fingers around your wrists. You stop dead in your tracks.

“Knew you’d come for me,” he rasps. His unbandaged eye opens blearily and shines up at you. You squeeze his hands back. 

“Of course,” you say. Whether he means the mountain or this room tonight, it doesn’t matter. The answer is the same. “Always.” 

Still, you leave before he can convince you to stay.

[goldlightsaber]

the ‘you’ finale

kinda sucked? idk it was so rushed and i feel like they were so concerned with delivering an unexpected twist that they ended writing a story that didn’t make sense. first we have

- kate unflinchingly just taking over her dad’s company as if this is shiv roy finally getting daddy’s approval instead of kate, who had been trying to undo her past and live in opposition to her father’s legacy. it made 0 fucking sense that she wouldn’t like, defund or reconstruct the company and put the money somewhere else, or at least be super resistant to taking the role

- making it so that kate’s father was responsible for every single one of her successes undoes kate’s foundation as a character as well as her agency. it makes no sense either and didn’t really serve the plot at all except make another man be more powerful and clever than the woman

- same for joe once again outsmarting two women and ruining their lives (nadia and marianne). you’re telling me that after all that, their combined brain power couldn’t defeat him? it was so stupidly unsatisfying. i feel like the showwriters’ endgame is to always have him win and come out on top and i hate when writers worship their own villainous male character like that, as if he’s infallible. i was waiting desperately for things to culminate and for his crimes to catch up to him…but nah

- having all of his past victims confront joe in a vision felt freakin performative given the outcome of him not…coming to terms with being an awful person but steeping FURTHER into his delusion that he is good and is justified in his crimes

- literally all the women lose in one way or another, kate loses because she basically gets into a relationship with her father (ruthless murder who feels justified in his actions), marianne is traumatized and will live in fear of joe forever, nadia is in jail, phoebe never gets the agency to break things off with adam on her own, having yet another man (kate’s father) control the outcome of her life just for the shock value. there is never retribution and the women are somehow always weaker and one step behind the men

- evil, charismatic rhys was too sexy to just be a figment of joe’s imagination so kinda lame that that happened tbh. I would’ve taken ‘rhys has an evil twin’ over that

-that bridge scene was so stupidly for nothing, joe symbolically “killing” his demons literally meant nothing by the end and felt like it was just done for dramatic effect

- kate’s non-reactivity to joe’s crimes and to her father’s death was ridiculous. i feel like the whole point of her being pent-up was for the dam to break and the emotions to come loose but they just rushed through it all and made her unphased and had her question NOTHING, which is so at odds with her generally mistrustful and skeptical nature

- i hate the message. the finale communicates that you can’t escape or undo your nature. you are always bound to return to your bad habits and worst impulses. you can try to outrun your evil self but it will always win — this applies to joe but also to kate who, again, is dating the equivalent of her father and is running the company she hates. the good people (nadia, her boyfriend, marianne, pheobe) either lose or are forced to live as outcasts

[lord-squiggletits]

The thing about Elegant Chaos being an “anti It’s a Wonderful Life” for Megatron per JRO’s words makes sense. Because Megatron spent most of his life as an imperialist warmonger whose death toll is in the millions to billions, he eradicated and cyberformed multiple planets, it’s an objective fact that a universe without him existing would be a better place. That’s a really good thing for someone as egocentric as Megatron to learn.

Except then JRO wrote in the Functionist Universe almost immediately after, a universe in which Megatron not existing directly leads to a theocracy of monstrous proportions, in which literally insane shit happens like “people’s heads get blown up in the street if their alt mode is declared defunct” and “there are cameras implanted in people’s eyes so that they become part of the surveillance state without even realizing it” happens. So this completely destroys the (rightful and justified) idea that Megatron made the world worse, and instead makes LITERALLY AN ENTIRE ALTERNATE UNIVERSE REVOLVE AROUND MEGATRON’S (NON)EXISTENCE, completely undoing whatever criticism of Megatron was present in the narrative of Elegant Chaos.

And then, JRO also proceeds to make the Functionist Council racist xenophobe colonizers as well with the whole “they decided organics have no function therefore need to be exterminated,” which further destroys the idea of “the universe is better without Megatron existing” by basically saying, well if Megatron hadn’t decided to go out genociding organics, the Functionist Council would have just done it instead.

So the equation we’re left with is “Megatron exists = free Cybertron, organic genocide” and “Megatron doesn’t exist = enslaved Cybertron, organic genocide.” Making it so that all of the sudden, Megatron and all his shittiness is some sort of necessary evil that has to exist because without him Cybertron would’ve been so much worse of a place. Like, Megatron colonizing organics was the ONE THING that couldn’t be justified and JRO still managed to fuck it up by giving the Functionist Council the same evil trait. So now even Megatron’s unjustifiable evil doesn’t belong to him, it’s diluted by the Functionist Council who’s worse in every way, and Megatron gets to play the hero by fighting against them instead of you know, doing anything for the people in THIS universe which HE helped mess up.

And then of course Megatron gets to go to the Functionist Universe and LARP being a revolutionary again, getting a free do-over card, an entire planet that sees him as a hero, and people praising him for “saving billions of lives” in a so-called heroic action that ONLY EXISTS because JRO wrote the entire universe to revolve around Megatron. Autobot Megatron made almost zero positive impact on THIS universe and was completely detached from all the messes he left in the wake of his defection to the Autobots (Galvatron, Earth, the plight of the Decepticons left on Cybertron, etc etc).

Like I’m sorry but for all the hype that people gave MTMTE Megatron, for all the fact that I appreciate a more humanized Megatron who gets a more detailed backstory.... his redemption arc is nowhere NEAR as good as people say it is. As soon as I stop taking the plot at face value and scrutinize it further, all I see is an incredibly flimsy narrative that does a lot of last minute presentations of villains who are even worse than Megatron in order to make Megatron seem heroic in comparison. And of course this comes at the cost of a ton of other characters in the narrative as well, which just makes Megatron’s placement in MTMTE/LL even more glaring and unsuitable.

[tolkiendefiled]

Season 2 Episode 7

For the last two years, the showrunners claimed in interviews that the second season of the Rings of Power would be closer to the books. Well, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

This episode is a total affront to everything Tolkien wrote. It’s a pure desecration of his work. I’m not just talking about thematically. I mean every basic plot point. Everything this man wrote, they completely changed. I’ve mentioned this in all my reviews for this season, and I’ll say it again: there is no way to connect the Rings of Power to the Lord of the Rings.

Worse, the writing in this episode - from the plot to the dialogue - is so bad, it’s like the writers, one of whom is one of the showrunners, gave up on making it make sense. Shit just happens. No explanation. No setup. Important events happen off screen. We’re expected to care about characters we barely know. It’s just a total mess. This episode is titled “Doomed to Die.” Even the sweet embrace of death couldn’t erase the travesty of this show.

Let’s just start with the fact that this entire battle sequence is a lame ripoff of the battles of Helm's Deep and Pelennor Fields - except Peter Jackson actually thought about the battles and planned them out, and it’s apparent on screen, whereas in the Rings of Power, the Orcs just attack with the dumbest plan that makes zero tactical sense.

Here’s a wide shot of Eregion (attached). Technically, that’s the name of the region. The actual name of the city is Ost-in-Edhil, but that name isn’t in the Appendices, so Amazon can’t use it. As you can see, there are two bridges leading into the city surrounded by two rivers. It’s on a weird peninsula sticking out of the Misty Mountains, several miles west of Khazad-dûm. There’s no other way to get into the city than by crossing the rivers or coming from the East from Khazad-dûm.

So, the Orcs’ plan is to lay siege by attacking the city with trebuchets, but not the bridges. They don’t destroy the bridges. They don’t even occupy the bridges. No, instead they attack the city for a day or so, and then turn the trebuchets to the mountain to dam the river. But as you can see, there are two rivers, so 1) the water from the other river would flow into the blocked riverbed, and 2) there’s no way they’re knocking down enough rocks to plug up a river that’s damn near half a mile wide; but somehow this works. The Orcs run across the riverbed, which drains in seconds. That is not how this works. It would take days for this to drain, and it would be longer before the riverbed dried. You wouldn’t be able to run across it, let alone push some heavy machine half a mile through all that mud, but somehow this works, and the Orcs run across the wide open riverbed.

Have none of the Orcs ever seen Star Wars? The Elves have the high ground. Correction, higher ground because the Orcs dammed the river, so now they’re lower than the foundations of the city, so how are they supposed to get into the city? Well, see, they’ve got these ravagers the pull the stones out of the city walls. Okay, two points: 1) a city like this would have thick walls -  probably five to ten, maybe even 15 feet thick - so this wouldn’t work, and pulling the walls down brick by brick makes no sense when you have trebuchets that were designed to knock down thick walls; but 2) - and please look at the image above - the city isn’t surrounded by walls. You don’t see them fucking open beaches? Here’s another angle (attached). The Orcs drain the river, and then only attack the spots with walls? Why wouldn’t they just climb up the beaches? Did no one working on the show pay attention to their own city layout?

Here’s the kicker. How in the hell are they supposed to catch Sauron when he could always run away out the back of the city towards Khazad-dûm? Remember, he can change his appearance, so he could easily escape and cross either of the rivers anywhere along the miles between the city and Moria, and they’d never know he was gone. This is the stupidest plan ever. You’d think someone on the show would have caught that this siege makes zero sense. There’s no structure to the attacks. No coordination. No subterfuge. Nothing you’d find in an actual battle. I’m not claiming that what Peter Jackson did was perfect, but at least it made sense. That sets the tone for the episode. Why make any sense when you can just do whatever?

For example, the show randomly nopes out on showing King Durin falling to the ring. Narvi tells him about the attack on Eregion, but the king is only concerned about the money they can make, so he orders Narvi to force Prince Durin and Disa out of the way, but instead Narvi sides with the prince and lets him know that Elrond is there. Durin tells Elrond that he’s about to overthrow his father, and Elrond pleads for Durin’s help in saving Eregion. Okay, fair enough. Durin riles up the Dwarves with a rousing speech, and gets them to agree to go to war.

Meanwhile, the king skulks away with an axe in hand. When Durin goes to leave with his army, Narvi shows up covered in blood, saying that the king manhandled - excuse me, Dwarf-handled - all of them and is going to free the Balrog. Except, we don’t get to see any of that. We’re just told it happened. That’s an interesting choice considering how the show had Durin break down over his father’s situation. If they wanted people to be invested in this story, why wouldn’t they show the king flipping out? Especially against Disa, who he seemed to like? That would be a major moment to show how far he’s fallen, but nope. No time. No interest. No concern. We just move on, so now Durin must choose between stopping his father or helping Elrond. I’m just going to get to it now. He doesn’t show up in Eregion. So all that buildup is totally wasted.

But then we get to it - the great desecration of our age. I genuinely don’t know how this show managed to fuck up Tolkien’s work this badly. It’s just butchered beyond all recognition. It completely breaks the lore in ways that obviously hurts the story. I don’t know why the showrunners did this, and I don’t understand why they claimed that the second season was closer to the books when everything we see is pure hate-fiction. I would be embarrassed to do this to someone else’s work. Even if I didn’t like the person. Even if I hated them. I would never do what these guys did to Tolkien. It’s nothing but disrespect. You’ve got to hate Tolkien to do something like this to his stories.

Celebrimbor is still under Sauron’s illusion spell, and he’s putting the finishing touches on the Nine Rings. However, he starts to suspect something’s wrong. He notices a missing stone from Fëanor’s hammer. He notices the mouse that seems to claw, at the air, at something that’s blocking his path. He also sees his face in a mirror covered in dust and blood. But when Annatar comes in, he assuages Celebrimbor, pushing him to complete the rings, but the Elf isn’t totally convinced. The crazy part about this moment is that this is what makes Celebrimbor suspect Annatar - not all the obvious scheming, not the bizarre demands, not the dubious backstory. No, it’s that everything seems too perfect. Like I’ve said before, the show makes Celebrimbor look stupid at every turn, and this episode hammers that home. Only an idiot would be tricked by someone like Annatar because the man is barely hiding that he’s conning them.

Case in point, Annatar leaves Celebrimbor and goes to Mirdania and the other Elves, who demand that Celebrimbor helps them. Annatar says that the Elf won’t come out, and all of them buy this. Remember, Sauron told Mirdania that Celebrimbor was being taken over by the shadow, but the rest of the Elves don’t know that. So why would they assume Annatar is telling the truth? Sure, Celebrimbor has been acting out of character, but they’ve known him for decades, if not centuries, and they’ve only known Annatar for what? A few days? Maybe a few weeks? Why would none of them go and check for themselves?

Worse, when Annatar says that he’s taking control over Eregion, no one questions this. On whose authority can he do this? Why would they go along with it? Why have none of them contacted Gil-galad to let someone know what’s going on? All of these things you’d expect intelligent, wise people - like the Elves are supposed to be - to do, but they never do it. Ironically, the show had a way around this. Every time they tried to tell someone, Sauron could have stopped them. That would get old very fast, but it would at least make the Elves look smart instead of all of them getting played to their faces.

Meanwhile, Celebrimbor finishes the Nine Rings, and… What’s this (attached)? Why, they look better than the other Rings of Power. So, those other designs weren’t an accident. They look shitty on purpose. I just don’t understand. These rings look cool, but the Elven Rings look like hot garbage? Why?

Then Celebrimbor notices the mouse again, and marks a candle. When Annatar returns, Celebrimbor points out the mouse and the candle, which hasn’t melted. He finally realizes he’s in an illusion, so Annatar admits it, claiming that he was trying to help. Celebrimbor snaps and throws Fëanor’s hammer in anger. It breaks a window, and the sound of the siege comes in, so he goes and checks, and sees the true Eregion. And then he wept, precious, he wept to be so gullible. Bruv has a complete breakdown and, for once, the show is accurate because this is exactly what every Tolkien fan is doing when they watch this show. Just like Celebrimbor, I’m like, “Why have I done this to myself? How did I let this come to pass?” You would hope that the scene would just move on, but no. The show is hellbent on making Celebrimbor look like the dumbest man in the world, I guess because Galadriel needs a friend.

Anyway, he knocks down the mithril dust, which turns out to be Sauron’s blood. Sauron holds up his hand with a half-ass black stigmata. I have so many questions like: Has he been walking around with an open wound this whole time? We see him cut his hand in the previous episode, but there was no context for it, so I didn’t mention it. Now we know what he was doing, but still, shouldn’t this have healed? Shouldn’t he have covered this up? Wouldn’t someone come across a bloody handprint? You want me to believe that the Elves - you know, the race with the keen eyesight - didn’t notice this shit? And are we to assume that the reason Sauron has such control over the Nine Rings has nothing to do with the flaws of Men, but instead that the rings were made from his blood? Doesn’t that ruin the point about the rings - that they prey on Men’s weaknesses? And how does Sauron influence the other rings since he didn’t use his blood before? The show made this big deal out of using mithril, but it turns out that it wasn’t needed, so how come Celebrimbor - the greatest Elven smith of his age - didn’t realize that? They took a very simple story, and made it so complicated that they ruined the whole angle.

Anyway, Celebrimbor runs and tries to tell the Elves that Annatar is Sauron, but they don’t believe him because he says crazy shit like telling them to cut open Annatar to check the color of his blood. Annatar holds up his hand, and it’s a normal blood color. I’m going to give the show credit. They had Sauron tell everyone that Celebrimbor was cray–cray, and he does look crazy, so this part actually makes sense. What doesn’t make sense is how Sauron randomly controls Celebrimbor’s body to make it look like Celebrimbor kills Mirdania by tossing her off a wall, and an Orc acquainting her with its axe. Why would he do this when none of the Elves believe Celebrimbor? There’s no reason to kill her. Yes, he’s a villain, but it still doesn’t make sense when she’s on his side.

Sauron then tells Celebrimbor to finish the Nine and he’ll spare Eregion - or what’s left of it - and I’m still trying to figure out why Sauron needs Celebrimbor to finish the rings. Remember, Sauron is supposed to make the One Ring on his own, and that’s the Master Ring to control all the others, so he shouldn’t need Celebrimbor to do anything. This is just madness.

Kind of like these Elven helmets. Please look at the attached shot. Elrond, Gil-galad and their forces arrive at Eregion, and this is the armor they chose to wear. Listen, I know the ladies, and some fellas, like a big helmet, but come on. These obviously don’t fit right. They’re too wide and too thick. They look silly. It’s impossible not to see it, so why didn’t they fix it? If it looks this bad on camera, it looks worse in person. Why didn’t they fix it? The crazy part is that the rest of the armor looks fine. It’s just the helmets that look god damn ridiculous.

Speaking of ridiculous, the Elves attack the Orcs, but right before the armies clash, Adar reveals that he’s got Galadriel, so Elrond treats with Adar, who demands Nenya in exchange for Galadriel. Elrond claims not to have the ring, but he’a actually wearing it around his neck, which is unbelievably stupid, so keep that in mind. He refuses to hand the ring over, so Adar tries to flatter him by comparing Elrond to Melian, Lúthien’s mother. That implies Adar either knew or saw Melian, so just who is Adar? That’s the only worthwhile question in the show, and that’s because Adar is the only worthwhile character in the show, and he’s been squandered this entire season because the showrunners decided to try to follow ten different storylines in eight episodes. No one in the show has enough time to flesh out their stories, so when they do things, most of the time, it doesn’t make any sense.

For example, Elrond kisses Galadriel. I will repeat that: Elrond kisses, lovingly kisses, Galadriel - like, “let’s make babies” kisses Galadriel. What the fuck? Everything about this is wrong. It’s not just breaking the lore. It makes shit weird because, later on, Elrond marries Galadriel’s daughter Celebrían. So, he’s making out with the mother of his future wife. What the fuck? By the way, Celebrían’s not even in the show yet. She should have been born and an adult by now, and she and Elrond are supposed to be secretly in love throughout the Second Age. But no, the show throws that out for this canon breaking kiss that comes out of nowhere. When have these two even been in a relationship? What, because he touched Galadriel’s face in one episode? No. No, no, no, no, no. Fuck all of that. No. Then Elrond gives a brooch to Galadriel with a hidden pin so she can free herself, and then he tells one of the Elves that he expects the Dwarves to show up at sunrise, they don’t. I mean, how are you going to have him French kiss the mother of his wife? No. The best case scenario is that this was just a ploy to keep Adar from noticing the brooch, but this shit just crosses the line. Seriously, what the fuck?

Galadriel tries to escape, but winds up at some burial ritual, and we see Adar crying over dead Orcs. Now, I know this is where certain people will lose their minds over the show humanizing the Orcs, and I won’t name those people because they’re the most sensitive of snowflakes, but I will remind them that only Adar cries, and he repeatedly says in the show that these are his children. They are probably of his blood, if not literally his biological children. We don’t know how these Orcs were created, but what the show does tell us is that some aspect of Adar’s former Elven mind is still a part of him. It makes sense that, as an Elf, he would mourn them.

Of course, Galadriel gets caught by the Orcs as she tries to leave, but then gets saved by Arondir, who’s got a death wish. He wants to kill Adar to avenge Bronwyn, and doesn’t care if he dies trying. The show really wants us to care about this, which is weird since they spent maybe 15 to twenty minutes this whole season dealing with Arondir’s story. This is what happens when you have a cast of nearly a dozen characters, and only eight episodes per season. No one gets enough time to develop their stories. There are just too many characters to juggle. What little we did get of Arondir was so underplayed that you never get a sense of how much Bronwyn’s death affected him. In a normal show, this would be a season - maybe a two season - character arc. For the Rings of Power, it’s been whittled down to twenty minutes. At any rate, Arondir is so committed to his death wish that Galadriel changes his mind in seconds.

Back in Eregion, Sauron chains Celebrimbor to the workbench and forces him to finish the rings. He also plays the victim, claiming to have been tortured by Morgoth. If by tortured, the show meant becoming Morgoth’s most loyal and willing servant after fangirling over Morgoth’s desire for power, then yes, Sauron was relentlessly tortured. This is such a bullshit change that even the show couldn’t maintain it. Celebrimbor immediately calls Sauron out for his hypocrisy. This whole thing of Sauron being a victim of circumstance or misunderstood is such a needless change. Sauron intending to bring order, perfection, and becoming twisted from his desire for power and domination is a much more interesting story. The reason is because he doesn’t think he’s doing anything wrong. He’s convinced he’s right. By the time he finds out that others disagree, he’s too full of himself to change his ways. But if he’s sitting there doing these things he knows are wrong, admitting they’re wrong, and then trying to gaslight people, that doesn’t make him interesting. That just makes him an asshole.

After Sauron leaves, Celebrimbor tries to destroy the rings by throwing them in a fire, but they come out cool to the touch. Off the top of my head, I don’t remember that being a thing. I know the One Ring can’t be hurt by fire, but I don’t remember anything saying that the other rings couldn’t be hurt by fire. After all, most of the Dwarf Rings were destroyed by dragon fire, but whatever. This show is just not going to follow any of Tolkien’s rules.

Since fire didn’t work, Celebrimbor decides to escape with the rings, but he’s still chained. He tries to free himself, but can’t break the cuffs, so instead he cuts off his thumb. Okay, I have a question. Why not cut the chain link? Even if this machine (attached) couldn’t cut it, there’s got to be something else in this workshop that could. Or are we supposed to believe that the greatest Elven smith in the world has nothing to cut through a chain he probably made? Then again, this is the same guy who had to be taught how to make an alloy, so maybe he’s not that smart.

He immediately gets caught by the Elves, but Galadriel comes in for the save. He spills the beans about Sauron, flat out telling her that the Nine are meant to enslave Men, and gives the rings to Galadriel. This is just insane. Remember, it’s Sauron who gives out the rings to Men. Unless Galadriel loses the rings, why would they end up in the hands of Men if she already knows they were created by Sauron? Also, Celebrimbor didn’t know Sauron’s intentions when he made the rings. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have made them because, in the book, Celebrimbor isn’t an idiot. But in the show, both he and Galadriel are total buffoons.

All the power players now know that the rings are corrupted, including the Elven Rings, so no one should use them. Ever. Remember, all of this happens before the One Ring is created, which is the opposite of how things play out in the book. None of these people should ever use the rings now that they know what they are. This is just unbelievably stupid.

Speaking of which, Galadriel admits this is all her fault. She brought this onto everyone. Why? Because she is the dumbest person in the world. This is a total desecration of Galadriel. Through and through, the complete destruction of her character. The wisest of the Elves, who knew not to trust Annatar the moment she heard of him, who warned everyone to steer clear of him, now reduced to a crying halfwit so wrapped up in revenge that she didn’t realize she was palling around with the guy she’d been hunting for centuries. I’ve never seen someone destroy a character like this. No character has been decimated like Galadriel. None. And for no good reason. Nothing they changed improved her character. They only made it worse, like their mantra was “Tolkien did something cool. How can we make it suck?” It’s just embarrassing, and this continues through the rest of the episode. There’s just tons of random shit thrown in because the showrunners keep wanting these powerful moments, but won’t take the time to build them.

For example, there’s some female Elf who gets Boromir’d. No buildup. No development. I think Elrond mentions her name once. She’s supposed to take down one of the ravagers with a flaming arrow, gets riddled with arrows herself, but still gets off her shot, and blows up the ravager. Since when did Orcs have explosives? I ain’t seen no explosives. Did you see explosives? Where did this come from? How would she even know to do this?

Then Sauron turns into a Sith Lord. Celebrimbor and the Elves go back to the forge to challenge him, and Sauron uses the dark side to make the Elves kill each other. Since when this dude got the Force? This is the first episode we see him do anything like this, and there’s no explanation. No setup. He just has whatever powers the showrunners want him to have. I thought this was supposed to be the Rings of Power, not deus ex machina.

Meanwhile outside, the troll arrives. Remember him? Now, this fight does look awesome. The whole sequence is crazy. Lots of gory kills and brutal action, but basically wasted because the troll gets killed in a few minutes. He dies laughing, which would be awesome if we had any context for why, but this isn’t that kind of story. Instead, the Orcs attack again, and in seconds, the Sun rises. Elrond looks to the North, but there are no Dwarves; just a sole Elf on a horse, skewered with arrows. He tells Elrond that the Dwarves won’t come, and Elrond sits there muttering to himself as the Orcs attack. You see what they did there? They took the whole thing with Gandalf coming down with Éomer and saving Helm’s Deep, and then they inverted it. See how clever they are?

Meanwhile, Arondir challenges Adar, but gets stabbed for his troubles. I don’t think he’s dead, though. I mean, they already killed one black Elf. Two would be too on the nose. Then, Adar captures Elrond, and takes the ring Nenya from him. Adar takes Galadriel’s ring. The ring she never gave to anyone. The ring she always wore. One of the Three that was supposed to be unsullied by any darkness or evil, now in the hands of a fallen Elf. Total bullshit, which would have been the title of this review if I had done it in video form because that is what this show is: total bullshit. No one is supposed to have that ring but Galadriel. This is part of showing her wisdom and power that she was never seduced by Sauron. The show completely flipped this, ruining every aspect of this woman’s character. Just a total desecration of Tolkien’s works. There’s still an episode to go, and plenty more to ruin.

Supposedly, Celebrimbor was going to be in this season, but he hasn’t shown up yet. I can’t imagine what they’re going to do with him. You’ve got all the shit with the Númenóreans just hanging in the air. You’ve got the shit with the wizards. And then, somehow, they’ve got to tie in the Hobbits, who have fuck all to do with the main plot. For the showrunners to lie and claim that the season would be closer to Tolkien’s work is bold as fuck. I don’t know how they could say that with a straight face. I see people complaining about the War of the Rohirrim, acting like it’ll be worse. How? In her wildest dreams, Philippa Boyens couldn’t come up with something this bad. We all saw the Hobbit films. They’re masterpieces compared to this show.

Now, this is where someone will go, “If you hate it so much, why watch it?” My answer is simple. I like Tolkien’s stories, and this is a high profile adaptation of his works. I can’t ignore it, especially not with how much I talked about it before it came out. So, I will watch it, review it, and I will not pull a single punch when I do it because it’s so unbelievably bad and so painful to watch. Some might find that sadistic, but I like to believe that you’re all aware enough - especially now - to know that there’s nothing sadistic in my reviews. This moment, this is me at my most masochistic.

[mt-musings]

To Inherit the Night - 5

Yuri looked up as the War Room door opened and Cecily stalked inside, a handful of papers in her hands. Rook looked up from where he and Yuri had been going over a new route through Bergliez and whistled. 

Cecily hadn’t bothered cleaning up, blood splattered across her face, her hair. He knew she did it on purpose, that she wanted the rest of the birds to see what exactly she did, what she was willing to do. 

Not that it was necessary anymore. Everyone in the roost knew what she would do to protect the birds, to protect the people they’d managed to smuggled out of Abyss. They were loyal, not just to the gang and to him, but to her, because she’d proven, time and time again, that she was someone worth being loyal to. 

She just didn’t realize it. 

She was always ready for a knife in the back, for a bitter betrayal, to be used for what she was, for her blood, her power, her ties to others. 

“Fun morning, Mags?” Rook asked, grinning as his gaze flicked over the blood. No one within the gang knew her as anything other than the Magpie, his childhood nickname for her, which mostly just got shortened to ‘Mags.’ Most of the birds went exclusively by nicknames, something that made it safer for everyone.

“It was productive, at least,” she said, tossing him the tightly folded bits of paper. He unfolded them, ignoring the bloody fingerprints. It laid out half a dozen other agents, details about the palace, efforts to infiltrate the Alliance, and a few of the Empire safe houses in the area. Yuri nodded, tucking the paper away for further perusal. 

“So are you hanging around for a bit? Weaver and Robin are back, we were going to go dancing down at the Rusty Quiver. You’re invited too, Boss, obviously,” he said, giving her a lopsided grin. 

“Maybe next time, I’ve got to head out,” she replied, voice dull. 

“I thought you weren’t leaving until the end of the week,” Yuri said, brows furrowed. He was looking forward to spending some time together and he was hoping she’d go out with her friends, go drinking and dancing like he knew she loved.

She hadn’t, since Dove had been killed. Even though Rook asked her every time, just like he’d used to. 

“Yeah well, I have to deal with that,” she said, motioning to the papers in his pocket. “Best not let it wait too long.”

“Makes sense,” Rook said good-naturedly. “You’ll know where we are if you change your mind. I’ll see you guys later, I gotta deliver some things to Paloma.”

He left with a wave, pulling the door shut behind him. Cecily was already pouring over the map, memorizing the new route.

“You should go, tonight,” Yuri said as he watched her brow furrow in concentration. “It’d be good for you.”

“Maybe next time. Imperials managed to set up a safe house on the edge of Gloucester, got to shut that down fast.”

Yuri nodded. “Just—just be careful. Don’t flush it out yourself, at least get Lorenz to go with you and some of the knights.”

“It’ll be fine. I should go pack.”

“Stop back, before you leave, okay?” He asked, knowing she’d prefer to just slip out without saying anything. 

He hated it. 

She rolled her eyes but agreed, disappearing back out the door. Yuri sighed, rubbing his hands over his face. Sometimes it felt like he was watching the light slowly die behind her eyes. She hardly laughed anymore or joked, was no longer interested in annoying him for sport, or in much of any of the things she’d used to revel in. Dancing had been her last respite from the war, the nights spent drinking and forgetting what awaited them the next day. 

Now she just poured over notes and schematics and plotted and counterplotted, or messed around in the makeshift lab she’d put together, making poisons and whatever else he pointedly did not ask about. Nothing mattered except her war on Arundel, on the mages who’d imprisoned and tortured and bled her, who were using her blood to commit atrocities. Every death, every loss weighed on her like stones around her neck and with it she grew more stoic, more jaded and paranoid, more brutal. 

It made her an especially efficient little bird, but it broke his heart every time he saw more and more of his little sister slip away.

Maybe it would be good for her to spend some time in Leicester, away from the Empire, the frontlines. She had friends there, had distance from the horror, the suffocating sense of duty she forced on herself. She usually returned in better spirits and better fed than any of her routes through the Empire. 

He turned back to the map, hoping the new information put then closer to being done with this damnable war. 

~~~

Hubert looked up as one of his spies entered, looking more frightened than he would consider to be normal in his presence. 

He bowed quickly and handed him a note. It bore an unfamiliar seal and there was a puncture through the pages, as if it had been tacked to something with a knife. He turned it over before opening it, noting the smudges of blood on its edges, the scrawling hand that spelled out ‘VESTRA’ in all caps. 

Whoever it was was bold at least, if entirely lacking in manners.

He turned back to the seal—a simple, geometric impression, nothing associated with any noble family or group he knew of in Fodlan, which was a feat. Perhaps it wasn’t a true seal at all, but simply something at hand at the time. He doubted they’d willingly give up a seal they used with any frequency. He popped it open, pulling out the folded page without ceremony.

It held only two lines, the page smudged with dried blood. 

I would not go hunting if I myself were easy prey. Perhaps a lesson you should impart on your subordinates. —c.

He stared at the writing, at the once-clumsy letters in a hand he now scarcely recognized. She’d struggled with spelling, still, at the academy, her handwriting childish and unrefined. It had made sense for a person who’d only learned four years previous, but now her hand was confident, letters well-formed, even if they were a seemingly random mix between cursive and print. The tone of the threat was familiar too from their school days, but it too had been refined, spoke less of an urchin living amidst a street gang. 

“Where was this found?” He asked, keeping his voice neutral.

“In one of our safe houses in Arundel close to Barnabas.”

“Were there any survivors?”

“Lennox, but he was doing reconnaissance in Charon.”

Hubert sighed, and nodded. “You’ll tell no one of either the letter or what happened at the safe house.”

“Understood, your Grace.”

“You’re dismissed.”

The spy gave a curt bow before turning and leaving, clearly more than pleased to be doing so. He just stared at the letter, at the concrete proof that she still existed at all. He should be furious, he knew, had lost six agents, plus, he assumed, Karter, whom he’d sent to flush out any trace of her in Rowe. Her should be furious that she seemed to very clearly to be toying with him, that she had the gall to insinuate his agents to be amateurish. 

But he wasn’t. He felt only a numb sort of relief knowing that, at least as of two weeks ago, she was alive, that Arundel hadn’t managed to hunt her down, even though she foolishly lingered about his territory.

It was the first time in four years she’d directly targeted one of his outposts, rather than Arundel’s. He’d lost agents to the crossfire, but she hadn’t managed to track down any of his safe houses.

Or so he thought. He knew this was very direct retaliation to him sending Karter after her, that it was meant to show him that she could start after them any time she liked, that she’d been choosing not to. 

And he still didn’t know how she was managing it, or why, precisely, Arundel wanted her so badly. He knew she’d been in Rowe, but he would bet she’d picked that safe house to cull in order to throw him off to her real location.

Sometimes he hated how clever she could be, how calculated. He’d gotten rare, fleeting glimpses of it in the academy, mostly because she had a nasty habit of purposely downplaying her own abilities in order to seem average and uninteresting. It was only on missions, real missions where life and death came into play, had he seen an inkling of the schemer that lay beneath the facade. 

A schemer he might dare to say could be his equal. 

He’d have killed to have had her join their side from the beginning, to have her and Yuri’s network of resources, their expertise in the underworld at his disposal. And now, it seemed, he’d kill to ensure her safety, her preservation. 

He told himself it was because she would be an invaluable resource in the wake of the war, that she was the most successful person at hunting down and killing Those Who Slither in the Dark that he’d ever met, her track record unparalleled. 

He knew it was more so a case of damnable sentimentality. He should want her dead just for that, for presenting an opportunity for weakness in his vassalage to the Emperor.

He wondered if Lady Edelgard would see it as an affront, should she know. 

Perhaps that was why he’d been so dutiful about keeping it from her. 

He stared back at the page, memorizing the script, the hurried hand. He wondered if any of the blood was hers—the thought raised an unpleasant feeling in his chest. He gave the letter one last once over, idly tracing the ‘c.’ 0f her signature before he tossed it in the fire. 

It wouldn’t do for anyone else to find it, to go digging into who ‘c.’ might be. 

Even if he’d have preferred to keep it as some sort of sick memento. He swore, turning away from the flames rather than watch the paper curl into ash.

~~~

Cecily ducked into the kitchen door of Gloucester manor with little heed of decorum. She had one hand pressed to the wound in her ribs, all of the effort not spent staying upright poured into forcing as even breaths as she could manage. She could feel the poison spreading, feel her lungs seizing from the toxin—Hell's Tooth, if she was right, and she had better be, considering the time it had taken her to get to the manor. 

She ignored the gasps and shouted questions of the kitchen staff, instead pulling herself into the hall towards the stairs she knew would lead her to the infirmary. She stumbled from shadow to shadow, not caring anymore if anyone saw her strange teleportation—all that mattered now was that she get an antidote as fast as possible. She half tumbled into the infirmary, crossing to the apothecary’s bench without bothering with any of the candles—she didn’t need them, had never needed them. 

She’d always seen better in the darkness than in the light.

She grabbed ingredients, tossing them in the mortar with little care for the jars she knocked over in her haste. She ground the mixture roughly, fear beginning to properly seize her as her fingers began to lose strength, a sure sign that the Hell's Tooth was taking hold. Soon she’d lose the ability to move her extremities before the rest of her muscles failed and she suffocated as her lungs ceased being able to inflate. 

She dug out a glob of the barely-ground antidote, forcing herself to choke down the vile concoction before tearing her ruined shirt over her head and forcing the remainder of the antidote into the still-bleeding wound. She didn’t care that she was only in her short stays and trousers, couldn’t care less for modesty’s sake, not when considering the alternative. She bit her lip so hard she tasted blood but didn’t dare stop, jamming all that she could into the stab wound to negate the effects of the poison. She closed her eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks as she slid down the cabinets to the floor and held it in place, not able to muster the strength to search for gauze to secure it. 

She tried to focus on her ragged breaths, on the feeling of the poison halting in her veins, on the warm, welcoming night of Gloucester manor. She’d never known a place with shadows so particularly pleasant, though it wasn’t hard to guess why—the place was beautiful, tranquil, and they seemed the sort to feed on starlight, rather than blood. 

It was an agreeable change. 

They murmured of footsteps before she heard them, not needing to be told whom the familiar well-polished boots belonged to, not when she could hear the oaken heel of them even through the plush carpet that lined the hall. 

Carpet she’d no doubt dripped blood all over.

She didn’t move as the candles flickered to life with a wave of magic, nor at the sound of a gasp, still trying her best to keep her breathing steady. While she could feel the antidote had halted the poison’s progress, the clumsy, unrefined product was taking far longer to reverse the effects of what had already taken hold. 

“I—I’ll ensure everything is c-clean and replaced,” she choked out, the words and the breath the required a special sort of agony. 

She hated Hell's Tooth. Or at least hated when it was used on her. That’s what she got for thinking she could wait to replace her antitoxins until she got to Derdriu. 

Idiot.

She wondered if Yuri would be happy she heard the condescending condemnation in his voice. 

“What on earth happened? By the goddess, someone wake Loudon—“

“It’s fine, Lorenz. I only need a moment,” she said, cracking open her eyes to see him standing in the doorway in shocked horror. He bristled at her words, striding to one of the cabinets and grabbing a handful of gauze.

“You must be delusional, if you think this is fine,” he retorted, kneeling at her side to pull her hand away and instead staunch the wound with the cloth. “If Josephine hadn’t noticed the blood on your hands when you stumbled in no one would have known to get me. What happened?”

“Bastard coated the blade in Hell's Tooth. I hadn’t—I hadn’t replaced my antidote. Stupid, I know,” she said, each word punctuated by a heaving breath. She let her eyes flutter shut, preferring the darkness of her eyelids over the flickering warmth of the candles. It hurt worse now, if only because the antidote was working, filling her chest with the feeling of piercing needles, of tiny, razor sharp teeth.

The only fucking antidote that hurt nearly as bad as the poison it counteracted. 

She let another handful of tears slip down her cheeks, too focused on the pain to care if Lorenz thought her weak for it. She was surprised by the feeling of a thumb swiping them from her skin, the feeling of a hand gently combing back her filthy hair from her face. She looked up at him in almost uncomfortable surprise—it was the sort of thing her mother would have done when she was small, or Yuri, after he’d taken her in. She didn’t knowhow to handle that sort of comforting touch from anyone else, especially a fussy noble like Lorenz. Part of her would rather get stabbed again than muck through the wave of complicated feelings it dredged up. 

At least she knew how to handle that. 

They both looked up as Loudon nearly skidded inside, eyes wide as he took in the scene—the mess she’d made of his work bench, the blood on the floor beneath her, the way the gauze Lorenz held to her ribs had already soaked through. 

“By the goddess, you do know how to keep me busy, Miss Cecily,” he said, shaking himself from his initial shock and gathering a handful of supplies which he placed next to the examination table. “My Lord, if you wouldn’t mind helping her up.”

“Of course,” Lorenez said, lifting her with greater ease than she would have guessed. She couldn’t help the pathetic whimper she made when he moved her, no matter how she tried.

“Sorry,” she managed as he placed her gently down on the clean linens. “Sorry.”

“Don’t,” Lorenz retorted, brows furrowed. “Tell me what happened.”

“It’s—it’s nothing. I got sloppy. The presence across the Airmid is growing and with it comes a certain contingency of…friends I’ve made over the years,” she said, knowing better than to go into the absolute shitshow that was the underworld at the moment. It was barely controlled chaos at the best of times but with the war raging—every upstart gang and shadowy cabal were trying to get their hands on whatever power they could sink their greedy little fingers into, and that wasn’t even accounting for the shadow war being fought beneath the surface between the Empire and everyone else, and that was before taking into account that the Empire had sided with the monsters that had bought her as a child, that experimented on countless innocents in order to create weapons and whatever else was of use to them. 

She suspected the agent who’d stuck the knife between her ribs had been one of Arundel’s, though she hadn’t had enough time to make sure. He could have just as easily been one of Hubert’s. She doubted very much that he’d taken kindly to the ‘gift’ she’d sent him. 

She didn’t know why she hoped it was Arundel’s. 

“Some of them made it across the river, set up a m-minor operation on the border of Gloucester and Müller. C-cleaned them out, but you’ll want someone t-to stay and sit on the house for runners,” she stammered, her chest seizing painfully with each breath. She squeezed her eyes shut, gritting her teeth. 

“Loudon, isn’t there anything you can give her for the pain?” Lorenz asked, sounding frazzled.

“Not until the poison is purged,” he said, voice tight. “Hell's Tooth?”

She nodded. He sighed and hurried over to the apothecary bench. She closed her eyes and curled into a ball on her side, wishing Lorenz wasn’t watching her lose any sense of composure. She’d worked hard to be taken seriously, to be looked at for her value, not her low birth within the Alliance, had mastered the noble detachment and double-speak and here it was, all falling to the wayside because of a little pain. 

A lot of pain.

She fought the urge to wretch, tugging her knees tighter to her chest. 

“Sit up, sit up, sit up. Take this. It was very clever to pack it with the antidote, but it’s going to hurt even worse when we flush it,” Loudon said passing her a vial of brackish-looking liquid. She choked it down as he forced water into the stab wound, flushing out the ground herbs with a syringe full of water. She let out a pathetic whimper before she could bite it back at the lancing pain of the concoction being forced out, of the poison and the antidote lighting her veins aflame. She dug her fingernails into her forearms, trying to force her breathing to remain even. 

“Just one more.”

She nodded, squeezing her eyes shut, surprised when her fingers were pried from her skin and looked up to see Lorenz dwarfing her dirty, scarred, blood-smeared hands in his pristine ones, staring at her, ashen-faced. She couldn’t help but squeeze them, too hard, as Loudon flushed the wound again, this time somehow worse than the first. Then she felt the familiar sensation of healing magic, though something was off.

“Damnit, I was worried about that,” Loudon swore, flitting off back to the cabinet of supplies. He returned with a needle and thread, manhandling her onto her side. 

“Lorenz, you’re going to have to hold her still. This will sting,” he said and she tried not to think of the indignity of it. She’d have preferred it had been anyone else but Lorenz—Claude would at least have the decency to make fun of her to lighten the tension and Hilda’s complaining would be a welcome distraction. But Lorenz looked at her so seriously, with such pity in his gaze and she hated it. 

She held as still as she could, forcing herself to ignore the stitching as best she could. She was no stranger to stitching herself up, had had to do it more than once while on runs. Still, the Hell's Tooth lit her nerves on fire, making everything ten times more painful. She hardly noticed when Loudon finished, dressing the wound in clean linen, so focused on holding still and staying silent. 

“Here, this should help with the pain. It might be diminished, something in the poison is preventing magical intercession,” Loudon said, handing her another vial. She thanked him softly before downing it, curling back in on herself. “I’ll check on it again in the morning. It might just need time.”

“Thank you, Loudon. I’m sorry for waking you—“

“No, no, none of that. I’ll get you settled in one of the guest rooms—“

“I can handle that, Loudon,” Lorenz said quickly. Loudon nodded and left without another word, face stony. “I’ll fetch something for you to cover up with.”

“I have a spare shirt in my bag,” she said, making to get up and cross to where she’d discarded it next to the apothecary bench. 

“I’ll get it,” Lorenz said, darting over to root through it before she could stop him. He held up the shirt in question, her only spare, already stained with blood and soot that hadn’t washed out completely and made a face. “This absolutely won’t do. I’ll find something suitable.”

She watched him tear off, feeling utterly mortified. She waited until he’d disappeared down the hall to haul herself off the bed and painstakingly make it to her bag, picking up the discarded shirt and pulling it agonizingly over her head. She didn’t bother with the buttons at her collar like she usually would have, the pain in her side too overwhelming to raise her arm. 

Still, she pushed out of the infirmary, half supporting herself on the wall as she slowly made her way to the War Room. She wanted to update troop positioning while it was still fresh in her mind, wanted to notate what she’d learned at the safe house on the edge of Müller for Count Gloucester before it was made fuzzy by the painkiller.

She pushed into the familiar room, wiping her hands on her shirt before approaching the table map and surveying the positions of troops marked. Those in the Empire hadn’t been moved since her last visit, something that was unsurprising considering how few spies House Gloucester employed. 

She focused on moving them where they needed to go, on laying out everything she could think of, rather than concentrate on the pain of the poison still lingering in her veins. 

She should have cleared the entirety of the house before she started rooting through drawers, knew better than to assume the coast was clear. It was what she got for flushing them exhausted after her journey and after sending her very pointed message to Hubert.

Hopefully he’d know well enough to back off now. 

She hated how close his agent had gotten before Jay had caught him skulking around and dragged him back to the cells, hated that it wasn’t just her that it put in danger but the rest of the birds and Yuri and they people they’d managed to settle out of Abyss. 

If it was a fight he wanted he could meet her out in the open, where he wouldn’t have access to hostages. 

She knew he wouldn’t be above using them.

She looked up as the door opened and Lorenz entered, irritation clear on his brow.

“What on earth are you doing? You should be lying down, you were just stabbed,” he said, brandishing a clean nightgown she’d bet was his sister’s. 

“I just—let me focus for a moment,” she said, readjusting the pawns in Arundel territory. 

“Absolutely not, you must get out of those filthy clothes and rest.”

“Don’t mollycoddle me, Lorenz,” she retorted, though she could feel exhaustion tugging on her limbs. She railed against it, focussing on her work. 

“It’s hardly mollycoddling—Father! Good, perhaps you can make her see sense! Loudon ordered her to rest.”

She gave a bow in the direction of the door without looking up, instead continuing her arrangements with new fervor. She needed it done before she slept, before she forgot anything. 

She felt the little box of pawns tugged from her hand. She looked up then to find Count Gloucester giving her a piercing look. She ducked her gaze again, altering the lines in Hrym. 

“You’re shaking, child.”

“She was stabbed,” Lorenz supplied pointedly.

“I’m fine really, and I’m nearly finished,” she said, reaching out for the box of pawns. Perhaps it was bold, but she wouldn’t be able to relax until it was done, until someone else saw the worrying way in which the the formations were shifting to flank the Alliance. 

She hadn’t expected him to give her back the box, had expected him to show the same sort of indignation as Lorenz, but he did, brows furrowed as he surveyed the map.

“Do you know the reason for the concentration of troops in Arundel?”

“Are you familiar with what happened to the Ordelia children after the fallout of Hyrm?” Cecily asked, carefully rearranging the troops in Rowe. Count Gloucester stiffened, gaze turning sharp. 

“Lorenz, leave us.”

“Father—“

“Now, Lorenz.”

Lorenz made a face but did as he was told. 

Next

[percontaion-points]

Everlife (Everlife #3) bonus chapter 1 & chapter 1

Today's review might be difficult for some; reader discretion is advised

Click to see the rest of the snark & image descriptions

Bonus chapter 1

Message Directory MYRIAD: Laborer Sloan Aubuchon: S_A_5/46.15.33 Sir Zhi Chen: Z_C_4/23.43.2 Abrogate Javier Diez: J_D_2/43.3.19 Laborer Killian Flynn: K_F_5/23.53.6 General Hans Schmidt: H_S_3/51.3.6 Laborer Leonard Lockwood: L_L_5/19.36.2 Laborer Dior Nichols: D_N_5/62.4.1 Laborer Victor Prince: V_P_5/20.16.18

I’m not fucking memorizing this, holy fucking shit. 

Get ready. The war is about to take a drastic turn—for our better! 

Might Equals Right! 

General Hans Schmidt

Bonus chapter 1 summary: We open on a group email between all of the Troikian generals. Except that I’m pretty sure that they’d never been actually introduced. I sure as fuck don’t recognise ANY of those names! Anyway, they’re all upset that Ten is the only one who is allowed to pick who to bring back from seconddeath. Mainly because they can’t reach her, and they know that she’s hiding out with Killian somewhere. They make plans to get rid of Killian, but others warn that doing so might further push Ten over the edge. 

Also, they talk about how it’s now mandatory that every Troikian have a talking animal companion. (Animals can talk in the afterlife. It was mentioned as a throw-away line in the middle book, but was never actually relevant.) One of the complains that his companion is a poodle, while another brags that she got a bear. 

Then we have to see Sloan’s desperate email to Killian, begging him to come back and help. But after it was deemed undeliverable, Sloan is kind of yelled at. The general tells her that she has a new teacher, Victor. He’s lost both of his hands during the fight at the end of the second book, but they’ll regrow. But until then, both he and Sloan will be in shells. 

Chapter 1

Myriad claimed Caroline’s spirit Fused with the spirit of a newborn infant the day of her death, but I think they lied. I think all Myriadians wind up in Many Ends, like all Troikans wind up in the Rest. 

If people knew, they might not sign with Myriad. Falsehoods and propagandas keep business booming.

She says this like Troika isn’t full of shitty people doing shitty things, too. 

I’m still on the side of HART. I wish that we’d explored that way more. 

“I doona want ye doin’ something you’ll regret.”

This series should probably be called “Ten does something stupid and immediately regrets it”. 

“You’ve been a spirit all your life.”

So if Killian’s been a spirit his whole life (reportedly he was a stillborn), and he was raised in the afterlife, surrounded by the “gift of language”, why does he have a Scottish accent? Make it make sense. 

My heart stops, stealing my words as a man and woman storm into the cave.

Chapter 1 summary: Ten and Killian are in their special cave in Russia. Ten begins to tell us about the events of the middle book… But mostly this is drowning in purple prose about her love for Killian. I read a review on GR where the person said that they “started to only look for the dialogue after a while”. And three pages into the first chapter, I can understand why. For every line of dialogue, there’s at least half a page of purple prose that adds literally nothing to the plot. If you want to know why this book is over 400 pages long, this is why. 

Anyway, the two of them want to pledge to each other, and they call this “getting married”. So they make their vows to each other, and then they’re kind of blown back by the immense power exchange of it all. 

Ten had been connected to the light grid, which manifested itself inside of her head as an endless hallway with doors that connected to either people, information, or power that she’d stored. Now this hall is filled with shadows too, which obviously come from her new connection to Killian. 

Ten then has a memory of Killian’s time in the orphanage. Being raised up because they thought he might have been a reincarnated general, but then being abandoned when they realised he wasn’t. 

At the end of the chapter, two people show up to the cave. 

[epicyclical]

Dear Author Letter -yes it's done now! Sorry!

Dear Yuletide Author,

Happy Yuletide season! My favorite time of the fandom year :). I am always happy with any gift, so no pressure and feel free to ignore any prompts/suggestions!

Without further ado, my requests!

1) Rivers of London (up through Foxglove Summer)

I’m getting the other books for Christmas so I doubt I will have read them by Yuletide, so if you could avoid spoilers for anything past Foxglove Summer that would be very kind! But I couldn’t resist requesting RoL anyway, because I am SOMEWHAT OBSESSED. (Also I consume it as audiobooks so apologies for any misspelling!)

Soooo I love Thomas Nightingale an unhealthy amount. Stylish, self-possessed, an INSANE TANK-DESTROYING BADASS, with a dust-dry sense of humor and deeply buried trauma. What’s not to love? I also like Peter although DEAR GOD BOY keep it in your pants, for real. I love their relationship, how seriously Thomas takes his responsibility to Peter as his ‘master’, how exasperated Thomas is with Peter’s experiments (and tendency to only use his brain to make pop culture references).

Ship-wise: I love gen, I like Peter’s love interests (except the jazz vampire, I forget her name) but would prefer a story not focus on his relationships, I personally ship Thomas/Varvara secretly in my heart. I haven’t read any Thomas/Peter but am willing to be convinced!

Things I love: Thomas being a badass, other people talking about how much of a badass Thomas is, master-apprentice dynamics, protectiveness (going either way), Thomas’ adventures pre-RoL, Peter please stop telling people you’re a wizard I’m begging you, daily life in the Folly, Molly and Toby, cop talk

Things I DNW: the usual (rape/non-con, permanent major character death). Canon-typical violence and gore is fine.

2) Dracula

Yes I’m basic and obsessed with Re: Dracula (the podcast), sorry not sorry. I'm also Magnus Archives trash so I have imprinted on Jack Seward like a baby duck, but I love every single character!

So I read this when I was much younger and didn’t really engage with it on a Fannish level, so I’m absolutely delighted by all the tumblr discourse surrounding dracula daily and re: Dracula. Seeing fans talk about this book from 1897 the way they talk about Supernatural is just so weirdly charming to me, so really I don’t have any specific requests re: characters/plot/etc, but I would love to see some old-fashioned fanfic, if that makes sense. Shipping trash, h/c, crossovers, AUs, meta, songfic, bodyswap, genderswap, sex pollen, soulmate, etc -- everything you would ever see on a cliche bingo card. (I’m an Old Fangirl, sue me) What kind of fic would get written if this book had come out in 2005? Or 1995? (Honestly that goes for any of these requests, I love this stuff)

If that doesn’t float your boat, no worries! Things I would love: OT3/4/5/+, Jonathan and Mina OTP 5EVA, Jack/Abraham, Jack and Abe’s adventures when Jack was in school, the Suitors having adventures (esp pre-canon), Everyone is Poly except Dracula, Everyone Is Poly Including Dracula, what-ifs (Lucy vs Mina, Mina vs Jonathan, etc.), Victorian sensibilities, Victorian sensibilities being absolutely wrecked, train travel, boat travel, horse travel, gothic atmosphere

No DNWs for this -- if you want to lean in to the Darker Elements, go for it.

3) Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

I've been playing DnD for *mumble* years and this movie was the first that really captured how it FEELS to play Dnd. It's not the lore, gods and kingdoms, it's the party of different classes trying to accomplish a small scale task chaotically. I love that you can tell in the movie when they fail a skill check. (Though I am still sad that we didn't get any real Bardic magic from Ed. I love a good bard singing during fights!)

So meta is highly encouraged! Anything acknowledging that it's a game, the rules of the world, etc. would be delightful! Showme the players if you dare haha

I also really enjoy pretty much all the characters from the party, I am a total sucker for Found Family in all its forms! I also adore: Ed and Xenk's ridiculous dynamic, Ed and Holga's platonic bro-hood, Holga as Kira's warrior surrogate mom, Forge and his scheming, Simon's awkward crush on Doric, Jarnathan and the poor patrol board -- basically everyone lol. I adore backstory -- all the stuff that gets referred to in the opening montage, how everyone met, various previous adventures. Or future adventures! Where to next?

Just let me hang out with these doofuses some more haha.

Shipwise I ship Ed/Xenk but am happy with gen, please no Ed/Holga (their platonic-ness is too precious), I think anything else is fair game. DNW: rape/noncon, character death. DND-typical violence/gore are fine (and somewhat encouraged haha)

[sarah-dipitous]

Hellsite Nostalgia Tour 2023 Day 209

Do You Believe In Miracles?

“Do You Believe In Miracles?”

Plot Description: Dean feels the effects of the First Blade, and Metatron makes his move against humanity. Meanwhile, Sam, Dean, and Castiel face shocking consequences

(I guess you can’t give away TOO much of the plot of the season finale there)

Would I Survive the First Five Minutes??: No one died but Dean’s not lookin so hot

Cool, Dean, you’re coughing up blood now…

I hate everything Metatron does.

You know, Crowley does deserve a nice massage and relaxation. I’m glad he’s getting it.

I half expected Crowley to show up exactly as he was for Dean summoning him

Why does the bunker have so many smells? Crowley mentioned one, now Gadreel

Omg the pan to an annoyed Castiel when Sam said Dean and Crowley had been bromancing this whole season (like, if you didn’t want us to ship destiel why do you do that?? I mean the answer is queerbaiting but anyway)

Amazing how Sam has been all “I wouldn’t save you” all season but now it’s “this isn’t some mindless weapon, this is my brother!”

Crowley teaching Dean to value the time of restaurant workers. I love this for both of them

I feel like angels shouldn’t lie, not because they’re angels, because they’re really bad at it. With perhaps the exception of Metatron. But that’s all the stories he’s encountered all his life

Oooooooo, this other angel is…oh, for a second there I thought he was a plant to make people like Metatron even more since his last miracle. Then I remembered what show I’m watching. I mean, he might as well be one but he’s very earnest. And now he’s dead. RIP nameless ginger angel

Wtf Dean?? Sam did nothing to deserve that sucker punch

Oh. No. He’s turned all these desperate people against Dean now too…maybe.

And just as I was starting to like Gadreel…RIP, buddy.

I forgot Cas was looking for the angel tablet because that’s what’s got Metatron so super powered

Aw hell yeah hell yeah hell…..noooooooooooooo. Just as Cas found it, Metatron stabs Dean in the gut with his angel blade. FUCK. FUCK. FUCK…

Yeah, no shit you being okay with Dean dying by sacrificing himself was a lie

Oooooo, okay, even if he can’t yet save Dean, broadcasting Metatron’s Bond villain speech to every other angel was a good move

“I’m proud of us” EXCUSE ME DEAN?!?! HOW DARE you say that and make me cry my own tears

So both Cas and Dean are standing at death’s door…Dean’s…a little further through the door

Well, Metatron’s not dead but he IS imprisoned in heaven. Which…I guess?

You know, though, it’s been a while since Dean’s DIED died or been on that verge

OH!! OHHHH!! I don’t know that I made it this far back in the day. SO! Cain died at some point in the past (which does make sense since he became a demon and was the one to create AND destroy the Knights of Hell), but the First Blade wasn’t quite done with him…and now, it’s not quite done with Dean either.

Dean’s a demon now, besties

[maspers]

I can totally see where all the "could not catch, could not survive" folks are coming from, and yall are probably right... but I'd like to make my case that not only would Adolin catch Kira and survive, it would be THEMATICALLY APPROPRIATE for him to do so.

Adolin Kholin is a pretty high-profile person, yes. And Adolin is also not a super smart detective man. Light Yagami would have no problem identifying, outwitting, and killing Adolin when he needs to. But that right there is the rub: one of Light's greatest weaknesses is his belief that if a person can be manipulated by him then they aren't a threat, and thus he doesn't need to kill them. Take the Kira Task Force aside from L, for example. By the end of Death Note, every single one of the Task Force has played some crucial role in bringing down Kira (heck, Matsuda is ultimately the guy who kills him) but despite being explicitly hunting down Kira from the get-go Light doesn't really treat them as anything more than a resource at his disposal at best, and an annoyance at worst. None of them are even on Light's priority list, and by the time the story is over most of them have survived.

And Adolin Kholin is predictable. Everyone knows who Adolin is and what he's like. He's a guy with a giant sword who fights in honorable duels and follows his father's instructions even when he doesn't like them. He's a pretty jock who hogs the spotlight and goes out of his way to show off, but ultimately obeys the rules and adheres to a strict code. This is what everyone knows about Adolin Kholin. That's how people see him in public, and that's how they see him in private too for a really long time. To Light Yagami, Adolin Kholin is so far removed from being a threat, the very idea is almost laughable. They're sending this doofus after Kira? This guy can't even read. Sure it'd be easy to kill him and be done with it but why bother? A little observation has already proven that this guy is exactly what he appears to be. So let's keep him around. It might be fun. Adolin is a total Matsuda, getting him to do some silly things would be a piece of cake.

Except everyone is WRONG about Adolin. There's a REASON why Sadeas never expected Adolin to kill him, right then and there. And there's a REASON why Dalinar never even considered the possibility Adolin did it, nor did anyone else. And Light would underestimate Adolin for the exact same reason.

Let's talk about L's successors for a moment. The reason Near and Mello are so important to the overarching plot of Death Note is because they bring the illusion of Light's God Complex crashing back down to earth. Regardless of whether or not it was his intention, L's constant mind games with Light, their race to see who could corner the other first, only served to benefit Light. L treated Kira as the ultimate puzzle, a deadly enigma that needed to be solved. In a sense he was right (L is right about things an annoyingly large amount of the time) but this had the effect of boosting Light's ego further. And when L ended up losing, well, by that point Light was untouchable. He had beaten L. He clearly must be a god.

Near and Mello don't do that. Despite being L's successors, between the two of them they play the Kira hunting game quite differently. Oh, Near puts on a pretty good show of mimicking L's mind games, but it's not up to par with the original and everyone knows it. Both Mello and Near are much more spontaneous that L is (especially Mello), and much more willing to take risks and make sacrifices. There's an urgency to the way both of them fight Kira, and the reason for this is pretty clear, I think. Whereas L was trying to stop Kira by solving him, Mello and Near are trying to solve Kira by stopping him. Or to put it another way, L is a completionist, the successors are speedrunners. Mello and Near don't need to be 100% certain about every little thing before they take action. While L was trying to corner Light and pressure him into a trap, Mello was just shooting at everyone on that side of the room with an automatic rifle. And then Near used that knowledge to realize "Hey, Light Yagami is pretty close to that metaphorical corner of the room. He must be Kira."

Mello and Near treat Light as a killer, a human target that can be stopped and must be stopped by whatever means necessary as quickly as possible. They're smart and talented, yes, but compared to what L was doing their respective tactics are pretty simple stuff, basic attacks and diversions that could easily be accounted for if Light just thought about it a bit more. It's blunt and impersonal and likely to lead to disaster, so Light dismisses them almost from the get-go, only treating them as a threat at all because they claim to be L's successors. Ultimately Mello dies and Near isn't certain of Kira's identity until literally the last second. But it still WORKED. Because Kira is not a god. He's just a madman, a guy who can make mistakes and be defeated and destroyed like any other.

That's what Death Note is leading to. Light fails. Kira falls. Mello and Near defeat him. Matsuda shoots him. And the god of the new world dies to the flawed tactics of (relatively) ordinary men.

Going back to Adolin, and why I think he'd beat Kira: Adolin is a Mello/Near (likely more of the former but considering some of the mental skills he's displayed in more recent parts of the series there's certainly a chance Adolin has at least one Near Brain Cell) who really, really, REALLY looks like a Matsuda. 99% of the time Adolin might as well be exactly what he appears to be. Even when he's acting very serious in the pursuit of Kira there's no possible way he could be a THREAT. No possible way he could puzzle out the Death Note and outwit the god of the new world! He may be an expert with swords and fashion but how will that help him?

So Light, in his arrogance, would let Adolin be. And then it would only be a matter of time before Adolin, the smarter-than-he-looks emotionally intelligent Adolin, starts to notice that there's some things that really don't quite add up about Light Yagami. He doesn't need to be certain. He just needs that churning feeling in his gut that whispers "You know, it would really make a LOT of sense if Light Yagami is Kira."

Just like with Sadeas, nobody would see it coming until Light Yagami's body is found and the Kira murders stopped. The god of the new world dies to the tactics of a (relatively) ordinary man.

So yeah. Would catch Kira (by killing him). Would survive (because of Light's arrogance). The Story of Light Yagami was always going to end this way, so surviving it is just a matter of being in the right role in the plot. And I think Adolin would fit this role rather well.

Also I think it'd be funny if Adolin chopped Ryuk in half with Mayalaran by accident. Maya seems like she'd enjoy chopping a Shinigami in half.

[reidandweep]

Stitching

Spencer Reid x Reader (female)

A/N- Much like Adam Driver, I have been a huge fan of Matthew Gray Gubler and criminal minds for years. With quarantine, I decided to re-watch the show from the beginning and I had some inspiration. My writing tends to take a while but if you have any requests or idea for Spencer Reid, please send them my way.

Word Count- 6286 words

Warning- Angst, mentions of violence and torture, fluff, tears, and the usual criminal minds details.

If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge? -William Shakespeare.

QUANTICO, VIRGINIA

“Good morning my lover and friends. As of 8:45 am, yesterday morning, four bodies have been found across the Washington State area. Locations confirmed to be Pomeroy, Baker City, Salem, and Mill Creek. All victims were very similar in physical appearance; Caucasian, red hair, brown eyes, approximately 5ft 4’.”

Garcia swiped her tablet to display family photographs of the victims on the screen. The team watched, in the debriefing room, as they scanned through their own tablets; reading through the details. Spencer’s eyes flittered over the images as his fingers scanned across the words in his paper file; still adamant on not working with technology like the rest of his team.

“What about the cause of death? How were they found?”

Garcia shivered at Rossi’s question.

“It’s not a pretty image. Each victim was dismembered at the elbows, knees, neck, and stomach. Further cuts were made vertically down the stomach and across the face, arms, and legs. Not deep enough to cut through bone, but deep enough to bleed out. Where the unsub cut our victims, he then sewed them back together.”

Emily looked up at Garcia.

“Are you saying the lacerations were made before the victim’s died?”

“Precisely. Each autopsy report came back the same with the cause of death pointing to the direction of blood loss; specifically, from the throat.”

The team looked at the new images before them. Multiple pictures appeared on the screen, showing the bodies of the victims. The pictures showing the women laid out in the same pose, thick thread holding together the pieces of their corpses. All had their eyes closed, except one.

“Garcia, the last victim, zoom into her face.”

Garcia did as Spencer asked.

“Her eyes are closed.”

Spencer nodded, glancing towards JJ as she spoke.

“Meaning that he felt remorse for this murder.”

Derek scrolled through the pictures on his tablet.

“The other three victim’s eyes are open, indicating that he wanted them to look. To watch what he was doing, whatever it may have been.”

Spencer looked across the table at the questioning faces.

“So, what changed between the third and the fourth victim?”

Hotch stood from his seat, indicating the others to grab their belonging.

“We can discuss further on jet. Wheels up in thirty.”

WASHINGTON STATE

Being greeted by the local police department in Clagstone, Spencer and the team began their investigation into the murders. Spencer did not know what it was, but the stitching on the bodies felt familiar. Like he had seen them before.

Looking up from his files, Spencer watched as Derek walked into the room, ending a call with who he could only presume to be Garcia.

“Garcia has just completed background checks on our latest victim. Lily Trent visited local film screenings at the Southview Centre religiously, to watch horror movies in particular. Seems like the girl loved anything horror and Halloween; according to her roommate and her computer history. It seems that are other victims did also.”

Spencer stood from his seat and walked towards the whiteboard at the back of the room. Writing down the details Derek stated, his brain began to filter through the relevant information needed.

“Halloween is ranked the ninth most celebrated holiday in the world. With different interpretations of the holiday occurring according to country and culture. Wearing costumes at Halloween did not even become an occurrence until 1585, with the first instance recorded in Scotland.”

Derek chuckled at Reid’s excitement. He knew the boy loved Halloween.

“Well it all looks like they were pretty huge fans of the holiday and horror films. Maybe our unsub was too.”

Spencer looked down at the photos in his hand, scanning his memory for any correlation.

“Maybe, it’s not just horror, but a particular film. If all the victims were presented in a certain way, maybe the unsub is trying to replicate what happened to a character in a particular film.”

Derek crossed his arms over his chest.

“I’ll call Garcia to search through all the victims search history to see if any particular horror films come up in each one. Do you know of any films that the unsub could have replicated?”

Spencer shook his head.

“I can collate his actions to hundreds of films but, the method of torture and look of the victims, I can’t think of one horror feature that pinpoints all that the unsub has done.”

A thought unexpectedly popped into Spencer’s mind. Derek cocked his head at the sudden halt from the resident genius.

“But I know someone who might.”

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

“The importance of genre in film alters many of the other aspects. The characters and their narrative arcs, the music score, cinematography, the edit, and so much more. Sometimes genre even dictates the director who signs onto the project. Dennis Dugan would not have a directing career if Adam Sandler stopped making comedy movies. Because that is what he directs. He doesn’t direct comedies; he directs Adam Sandler comedies. Which, in my opinion, are a whole genre on their own.”

The class chuckled.

“Genre plays a part in everyday life. Sometimes, your day will be led by romance, or grief, or action. There may be drama, or comedy, or even silence.”

The class looked on in concentration as Y/N walked across the floor. If someone who did not attend the college walked past the classroom, they could’ve presumed that she was a student. She looked young enough.

“It controls the way the characters talk, act, and move. How the plot thickens and pushes forward and…”

The doors at the back of the auditorium opened. Y/N looked up at the sound of the intrusion to see figures that she could not recognise, and one that she did.

Clearing her throat, she continued.

“And how it even ends. We shall leave it at that today. What I want you to do in the meantime is research a genre in particular and come up with examples that counteract the stereotypes that have been enforced upon the genre itself. Hand it in to your professor first thing Monday morning. Thank you.”

Y/N watched as the students collected their things and filtered out of the room. The figures waiting till she was only left before they walked down the steps.

Coming to a stop in front of her desk, Y/N crossed her arms and waited. Spencer stepped forward with a crooked smile on his face.

“Hi Y/N.”

Y/N couldn’t help but giggle.

“Long time no see stranger.”

Spencer’s cheeks burned at Y/N’s words. The team shared looks between them at the unfamiliar display. They had seen Spencer blush at people before, but not for a long time.

Spencer cleared his throat, preparing himself to act professional.

“This is Dr Y/F/N Y/L/N. Y/N travels across the country to guest speak at different universities on her topic at hand. She specialises in film studies, more importantly the focus of characters and genres. If I can’t connect the unsub’s actions to a film, Y/N most definitely can.”

Y/N smiled at Spencer’s praise.

“Nice to meet you all. So, what are you here to talk to me about Doc? Obviously, you’re here on a case and if you are asking for my help, I’m guessing it’s going to be pretty gruesome.”

Spencer blushed at the nickname; caught off guard by the word slipping of her tongue.

Sending a raised look towards Reid, Hotch began to explain why they were there.

“Were looking into a case of connected murders. All victims were found to have been mutilated and tortured in the same way. As well as showing resemblances in their physical appearances. With research, we’ve found that each victim was particularly fond of horror films and Halloween. We would just like for you to take a look and see if you could recognise if the ways in which they were harmed stemmed from a film in particular.”

Y/N nodded her head.

“Of course, anything to help.”

She reached for the files from Spencer’s hands, ignoring the tablet pushed in her direction by JJ.

“Sorry, I prefer to use paper. I only really use technology for my lectures or to watch films if they cannot be purchased in physical form.”

Derek smirked, shooting looks to his team, as his eyes landed on Spencer. He never thought he would meet a technophobe like Reid.

Y/N scanned through the pictures and documents, looking in detail at the lacerations at hand. She identified the similarities between the victims, as her mind swirled through the images and characters from the films, she knew held similarities.

“What were the names of all the victims?”

Emily looked towards the woman.

“That information is classified.”

Y/N did not blink at her abrasiveness.

“Were any of them called Sally?”

The team looked perplexed at her question.

“No. Why that name in particular?”

Y/N continued to scan the pages as Rossi questioned her.

“Because the unsub isn’t replicating anything from a horror movie. The unsub is replicating the physical appearance and staging of a character from an animated movie. A Disney one to be more specific.”

A light bulb flickered in Spencer’s mind as he stared at Y/N in realisation. The hair colours. The stitches. It made sense now.

“The Nightmare Before Christmas.”

LOCAL POLICE DEPARTMENT

“The Nightmare Before Christmas is a 1993 American stop-motion animated musical Halloween-Christmas fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced and conceived by Tim Burton. It became a cult classic during the early 2000s with orchestral concerts occurring every year to celebrate the spectacle of the film.”

Spencer indicated for JJ to change the monitor as he and Y/N stood in front of the team to explain the information.

“Originally, the story began as a poem written by Tim Burton. Both narratives follow the protagonist, Jack Skellington, into his journey to Christmastown, and how he tries to make Christmas his own. The character in question that your unsub is replicating is the love interest of our protagonist. Created by Dr Finkelstein, Sally is a ragdoll-esque character whose body is covered with stitches to keep her together. The form in which all the women were found is identical to this scene in the movie.”

The screen changes to show the scene in question; paused at the precise moment to prover her point.

“All red haired, all Caucasian, all eerily the same. The stitches are exactly the same and the pose in which they are in the pictures are also.”

“We now know which film our unsub is mimicking, but how can we produce a distinguished profile of our unsub? All we can say is that between his third and fourth victim, he suddenly began to feel remorseful of his crimes.”

Y/N looked towards Spencer, waiting for him to speak as he knew more details about the case.

“Garcia checked into the victim’s computer histories and found that all four victims attended a horror convention in the Washington state area over the course of the past month. The convention in particular runs every other weekend, focusing on different horror films to highlight. However, they always make an exception for one film; The Nightmare Before Christmas. Whilst reviewing receipts for the tickets, they were all brought through the convention’s website, which is run by its board of organisation every year. Up until recently, the board has held the same members.”

Derek tapped on his tablet to the convention’s website.

“Last month, the website released details stating that a distinguish member was no longer part of the board due to unforeseen circumstances.”

It suddenly dawned on Y/N who Derek was talking about.

“Dean Faulkner.”

Spencer whipped around towards Y/N.

All eyes laid on her as her breath increased.

“You know him?”

Y/N nodded at Hotch.

“I guest spoke at a panel with him a few years back at a separate university. We were both there, amongst others, to talk about the works of a genre that are expertise were in. I was there to basically provide loose ends for what they could not answer. Dean’s specialised area was horror. The whole time he spoke about what he described as the true villains of horror and of the world.”

Y/N gulped, her mouth going dry.

“Women.”

The wheels began to turn in the team’s heads.

Spencer stepped closer towards Y/N in assurance, seeing that her thoughts were becoming overwhelmed. He quickly stepped back after he realised what he had done.

“He went on a raging tangent about the damsel in distress and the final girl. Going on and on and on about how women are weak and would never be the last one standing if faced against the monsters in real life. How they manipulated the men and made the monsters seem worse than they truly were. The only time he spoke positively about women was when we finally calmed him down and, during a Q&A session, a student asked him who the perfect horror movie character was. He said Sally because she was forgiving and would do anything for Jack; even if that meant falling apart and being sewn back together. I tried to justify that the film does not necessarily fall into the genre of horror. But he rebutted saying that it most definitely did, because of the fact that Jack’s dream did not come true.”

The room was silent for a second, taking in the information.

Suddenly, Y/N grasped the pen from Spencer’s hands. Her finger scribbling across the whiteboard.

“I need to know the names of the victims. Get Penelope on the phone and tell me the names.”

The team shocked at her erratic movements, sat in silence.

“Do you want to capture this guy?”

Spencer licked his lips and repeated the victim’s names.

“Susanna Cole, Alice Dawes, Liberty May, and Lily Trent.”

Y/N swiftly wrote the names on the boards. Each name below the other. Underneath the last name she wrote the letter Y.

“Can you ask Penelope to track any females with the first name beginning with Y who have purchased a ticket to the next convention?”

Derek quickly began to type to her. The rest of the team looking on in disbelief.

“There were twenty-three purchases, but with cross referencing with the similarities in the other victims, one matched. Her name is Yasmine Driver.”

Y/N wrote the name on the board. Circling all the first letters of each name, it became clear there was another connection with the victims.

“Their initials spell Sally.”

Y/N nodded at JJ’s disbelief.

“Reid, when is the next convention being held?”

Spencer diverted his attention to Emily.

“Their schedule every two weeks, so that would make it… tomorrow.”

The team swiftly moved into action.

“JJ bring together the police force for a debrief. Derek and Rossi, go to the convention centre and question the board about Dean. Ask them how often he visited and if they have any knowledge of the victims visits to the convention. Spencer and Emily, contact Penelope for Faulkner’s address. Once you have visited the home, if he is there, bring him in. We’re going to try and catch him before he gets close to his goal. I will locate Yasmine and bring her to the station for safety. We don’t know how far he is going to go and what the end goal of his fantasy is. But we are going to stop him.”

The team swiftly did as they were told, leaving the room with only Spencer and Y/N behind. Just before the door shot, Hotch leaned back in.

“Thank you, Dr Y/L/N, for all your help. If possible, could you stay here with JJ and look through the documents? You know this guy more than we do, so any more information that comes to mind, please let us know.”

Y/N and Spencer watched as Hotch left the room, the door shutting behind him.

As the silence engulfed them, Y/N and Spencer were hyper aware that they were now alone and had been for the first time in weeks.

Spencer swiftly walked towards Y/N and embraced her in a tight hold. Wrapping her arms around the slender man, Y/N breathed in his scent.

“I’ve missed you.”

Y/N chuckled at Spencer’s muffled words, as his head rested on top of her own. Pulling back, Y/N slowly released Spencer, letting her hands drop to her sides.

“I’ve missed you too Doc. We can catch up later, I will be waiting right here. Now, go and save the girl.”

Spencer chuckled at her words but did as Y/N said. Throwing her a smile, Spencer quickly walked out the room, leaving Y/N behind.

Y/N sat in the room, looking over the files as the time passed, waiting to see Spencer return with the rest of the team. A knock on the door startled her from her search.

Looking up at the door, Y/N saw JJ walk into the room with two cups of coffee in her hands. JJ outstretched the one hand, placing the cup in front of Y/N, as she took a seat and began to sip at her own.

“I didn’t know how many sugars you took so I estimated.”

Y/N smiled at the woman’s kindness.

“Thank you. Have you heard anything from the others?”

JJ sat up in her seat as she watched Y/N look over the documents. Her fingers moving across the pages ever so quickly. Her hand that wasn’t tapped continuously on the table in a rhythm.

“Spencer and Emily located Faulkner’s home, but it was vacant. They’re looking around the premises for clues for where he may be; as we speak. Hotch and Derek just called saying they are on their way down with Yasmine now.”

Y/N nodded at her words. Glad to hear that the girl was safe, but the main priority now would be to locate Faulkner. She wanted to truly help them, before anyone else could get hurt.

JJ grabbed her tablet and began to search through the files for any missed out information. Silence befell across the pair, until JJ could not help but ask what they had all been dying to know.

“How did you and Spencer meet?”

Y/N had been waiting for the question. She had seen the looks the team had shared throughout the day. The questioning gazes towards the pair.

“Spencer and I were both guests speaking at the University of California a few months ago. He must have finished his lecture early as he was wondering the halls when he came across the class I was teaching. I was stood on the desk, encouraging the students to do the same. Spencer thought I was a student causing trouble whilst the professor had left the room. He ran in sprouting facts about the percentage of people who fall and severely hurt themselves whilst standing on tables. Telling me that I should get down before he reports me to my professor.”

JJ chuckled at Y/N’s story.

“Sounds like Spence alright.”

Y/N giggled in agreement. As she spoke, Y/N couldn’t help but smile at the memory of their first encounter. JJ noticed the smile on the woman’s face. She knew what that smile meant.

“So, I told him that he better stay there to catch me, just in case I fell, as I was trying to teach my students about the importance of character actions, and how doing something as simple as standing on a desk can amplify the tone of the scene. Like in the film Dead Poet’s Society. Spencer finally realised that I was also a guest speaker and he actually stood there for the next 40 minutes of my lecture. I didn’t need to stand on the desk that long, but I wanted to see if he would stay. Once the lecture had finished, he apologised for jumping to conclusions. I apologised for making him wait for 40 minutes in case I fell. He told me I didn’t make him wait; he chose to. We’ve been in contact ever since.”

Just as Y/N finished her story, the door to the conference room opened once more. Looking towards the door, Y/N watched as Hotch entered, followed by Yasmine. The young woman looked scared, but unharmed.

Y/N stood from her seat, unsure of what to do as Hotch insisted for Yasmine to take a seat.

“Do you want me to leave?”

Hotch nodded his head.

“We shouldn’t be long. The rest of the team are outside in the bullpen. You can go ahead and join them. JJ and I will take it from here.”

Y/N nodded her head, leaving the room. She watched as Hotch and JJ questioned spoke to Yasmine through the glass, before she turned and walked down the corridor to find Spencer and his friends.

Turning the corner, Y/N failed to stop herself before bumping into a tall figure. Looking up to apologise, her eyes suddenly widened at the familiar face. Before a sound could leave her lips, a blunt force knocked her out cold.

Spencer and the team discussed where Faulkner could be when Hotch strode into the bull pen.

“How did it go?”

Hotch walked towards his team, ready to answer Derek’s question.

“It seems that Faulkner had been stalking the victims for some time. Yasmine detailed seeing him turn up at the conventions, even though he was no longer allowed. She had previously complained about his behaviour to the board before his dismissal. Stating that Faulkner had sexually harassed her. Rossi, did anyone at the convention mention anything about Faulkner that we don’t know?”

“It seems that Yasmine wasn’t the only one. The other board members went into detail about why he was fired. It turned out that all of our victims, including Yasmine, had filed lawsuits against Faulkner for sexual harassment. The charges were ultimately dropped and never recorded to keep the convention’s reputation clear. But they fired Faulkner and banned him from being able to attend any further conventions. Taking away the Nightmare Before Christmas dedicated stand was just a coincidence. They felt that the convention needed something new as they had been celebrating the film for over eight years.”

Just as Hotch was about to declare what the next step would be in finding Faulkner, JJ burst through the ball pen.

“Guys, you have to come quick.”

The team, in shock, watched as JJ ran back towards the conference room. All quickly on her heels. Entering the room, she took control of the laptop, streaming the image to the projector.

Spencer could no longer breathe as he looked at the image on the screen.

“Y/N.”

The screen showed Y/N tied to a chair and bent forward; clearly in pain. Her surroundings empty and dark.

Suddenly a voice was heard.

“I sense there's something in the wind. That seems like tragedy's at hand isn’t there Dr Y/F/N Y/L/N.”

The team watched in horror as Dean Faulkner yanked Y/N’s head back, her body letting out a strangled cry at the pain caused by his actions.

Spencer felt sick, he felt like he was watching himself when Tobias Hankel had held him captive.

“Emily, call Garcia to track his location. We don’t have much time.”

Emily did as Hotch told her to. Talking as quickly as she could on the phone.

“She can’t track it; he’s re-routing the IP address every thirty seconds.”

“She needs to track it. She needs to find her now!”

They all jumped at Spencer’s outburst, watching as tears filled his vision and his hands began to shake.

“Spencer, you need to calm down, we are going to find her. He can’t have taken her far.”

Spencer took in Derek’s words. Taking a breath, he looked back at the screen as he tried to distinguish any recognisable features of where she may be.

Faulkner moved his face to rest against Y/N’s hair, smelling the tresses. She tried to pull away only for him to yank her back again.

“Why did you kill them Dean?”

Faulkner let go of Y/N’s hair. Walking to her side, he grabbed her face in a vicious grip. Yanking her to look at him.

“Why? They ruined my life, everything I ever worked hard for. You all did.”

Y/N looked at him in confusion.

“I did nothing to you.”

Y/N’s breath increased at the vicious look he sent her way. Her eyes flickered to the camera, knowing that Faulkner was streaming what was happening to Spencer and his team. She had to find a way to tell them where she was.

“You made them question my authority. My position. My integrity as a member of the board. You ruined my reputation by belittling me in California.”.

“That’s because you know nothing about horror Dean. You think you know everything about it, but you don’t.”

Spencer couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Why was Y/N taunting him?

“Garcia’s looking to see if there’s any abandoned properties around the area that he could have taken her to.”

Spencer didn’t even acknowledge Emily’s words.

Faulkner reeled back at Y/N’s taunt.

“I know everything there is to know about horror. I’ve seen it all. I’ve lived it. I’ve created it. Ask me anything about it, I know the right answers.”

“But you don’t. You have an idea of horror, your own idea, that is wrong. You believe that women are the reason you lost your job and became the monster that you are. But they’re not. The reason you’re a monster is because of your sick and twisted fantasies. You made those girls feel small and weak, didn’t you?”

“Shut the fuck up.”

The team watched in apprehension.

“Garcia, the location, we need it now.”

Rossi looked between the screen and the phone in Derek’s hand.

“I can get the area he’s holding her, but not the specific building. The whole town is basically abandoned. She could be anywhere from a shop to a house.”

“Keep looking.”

Spencer chewed on his lips. He had to think rationally. If the unsub was upset about the changes and losing his job, what could have been the last straw?

“Derek what was the film they replaced Nightmare Before Christmas with at the convention.”

Derek and Spencer shared a look.

“Cabin in the Woods.”

Spencer ran across the rooms to the files at hand.

“In the location that Garcia has tracked her too, there are three cabins, all within a walking distance of the other.”

The team began to rush out the room, transferring the livestream to a tablet so they could monitor Faulkner and Y/N.

“You’re weak Dean. You’re just like all the horror movie villains. Ghostface, pinhead, jigsaw, all of them. You feed of fear and feeling in control. But the only thing you have in common with them is that you’re not going to win.”

Faulkner scream in rage. Pulling Y/N’s head back, he punched her in the jaw. Striding to the camera, he pushed his face to the lens.

“The party’s over!”

Spencer watched in horror as the feed went off.

“Hotch we have to hurry!”

Hotch sped up the car. Quickly arriving to the location, the team split up into pairs, taking a cabin each to inspect. Hotch and Derek, Rossi and JJ, and Spencer and Emily veered off to their targeted locations. Spencer followed Emily, trying to stay calm, as he slowly walked into the cabin to find it empty, when suddenly a gun shot was heard. Looking in the direction, the pair ran to the cabin that Derek and Hotch had been assigned. The rest of the team already there, looking into the cabin in shock.

“No, no, no, no. Y/N.”

Spencer pushed in front of them, tears pooling in his eyes as he a waited to see the horror before him. He looked in disbelief as Y/N stood from her position on the floor, the gun dropping from her hand as they shook. Faulkner laid a few feet away, in a pool of blood, no longer breathing.

Y/N looked towards the team. Raising her shaking hands towards Spencer.

“I didn’t want to kill him but he was going to shoot whoever walked through the door.”

Spencer rushed forward, grabbing her in a bone crushing hug. His hands stroking her hair as he soother her cries. Leading her out of the cabin, he allowed his team to sort out the rest as he continued to calm Y/N down.

The movement of the team were a blur as ambulances and police cars came. Taking them to the hospital as they sat in the waiting room as Y/N was checked over.

Spencer sat in the waiting room, his leg bouncing up and down with nerves.

Derek excused himself from the groups conversation as he went and sat next to Spencer. Clapping him on the back, Derek squeezed Spencer’s shoulder in re-assurance.

“She’s going to be fine pretty boy.”

“Physically, she has a concussion, bruising along her jawline, and needs stitches on her forehead. Mentally, I don’t know how she is going to handle this. When I suggested asking for her help in the case, I didn’t presume the risk of her being hurt. I should have.”

“Spencer, listen to me. We would have done everything to make sure she lived okay. She not only saved herself but she also helped save Yasmine and this team. Any one of us could have been shot if she had not thought fast and got the gun out of his hands. You know, better than anyone, how to help her deal with this.”

Spencer took in Derek’s words, nodding his head in appreciation, as he leaned against his friend in a comforting hug.

“Probably wasn’t the ideal way to introduce your girlfriend to the team though.”

Spencer stuttered at Derek’s teasing.

“We’re profilers Spencer. We’ve all noticed how you’ve been happier these past few months and seeing how persistent you were for us to consult Y/N, it gave us all an idea why. Seeing you together only confirmed our suspicions. So, how long has pretty boy had his pretty girl?”

Spencer chuckled at Derek’s words. Ringing his hands together as he spoke to Derek.

“Tomorrow is actually our six-month anniversary. She was going to be flying back today so we could celebrate; unless I got called on a case.”

“We can still celebrate.”

Spencer looked up as Y/N walked through the waiting room, fresh stitches on her forehead and an ice pack resting in her hands.

“The nurse said that there was no internal damage. That my body will just be sore for a few weeks. My concussion is light, so I am alright to travel home.”

The team gathered around to check on her. But her eyes could not leave Spencer’s as he rose from his seat. Spencer walked forward slowly, his eyes never leaving hers. Carefully he cupped her face in his hands, and to the surprise of Y/N and his team, Spencer bowed his head and placed a careful kiss on Y/N’s lips. Slow, protective, and full of love.

Pulling back, Spencer wrapped his arms around her as he looked at the beaming smiles of his teammates. Y/N couldn’t help the blush across her cheeks or the giggle that followed. Soon, everyone was chuckling at the pair.

“I would like to thank you Y/N. From the entire team. Your actions saved a young woman’s life, and what could have been one of our own.”

Y/N smiled in appreciation at Rossi’s words.

“You’re Spencer’s family. I would do it all again if I had to.”

“Statistically speaking, around 2,000 people a day are reported missing in the US. Approximately, 600 of those would be reported or considered kidnappings. It is highly unlikely for you to be put in a situation like that again.”

Y/N looked up at her boyfriend.

“I never thought I would say this, but your talk about me being kidnapped again is really attractive.”

The team laughed at the girl’s statement, seeing Spencer become physically embarrassed.

“Just to inform everyone, the jet will be ready to depart in forty-five minutes. As I was informed that today you would have been heading home, Y/N we have sent for your belongings to be collected; you can fly back with us.”

Spencer smiled at Hotch in gratitude, the older man knowing he would have only worried if she had flown home alone.

“Thank you, Mr Hotchner.”

Hotch let out a brief smile.

“Call me Hotch. Your part of Spencer’s life, that means your part of this family.”

BAU JET

It had been an exhausting few days for the team, and it showed, as they all were sporadically asleep throughout the jet. Silence encompassed the steel capsule, with only the sound of sleep filled breaths being heard.

Y/N laid fast asleep, with her head on Spencer’s shoulder, as the boy genius sat up wide awake. Looking down at the woman next to him, all Spencer could imagine was what could have happened if they weren’t quick enough. How many days he would have lost with her. All the things he wanted to tell her.

As though she could sense his deep thoughts, Y/N slowly awoke, rubbing her eyes as a yawn escaped her mouth. Blinking her eyes rapidly, she waited till she was fully conscious before she spoke.

“What time is it Doc?”

Spencer jostled out of his thoughts to check the watch on his wrist.

“It’s 2:36 am. You’ve been asleep for approximately 3 hours and 22 minutes.”

Y/N quickly sat up in her seat, wide awake.

Spencer turned towards her in worry, wondering what had made her so alert.

“What wrong? Are you feeling nauseous? Do you need some painkillers, as your due to have…”

Y/N grabbed Spencer’s face and placed her lips flush against his own. Their mouths moved in unison, as Spencer’s own hands moved to circle around her waist, bringing their bodies as close as they could be in the small space they had. They hadn’t kissed since the hospital, and before then it had been weeks. Spencer never realised until then, how much he truly missed her touch, her taste, her as a whole.

Coming to a point where they both lacked breathe, the pair pulled apart. Their eyes fluttering open as Y/N’s hands caressed Spencer’s face. Her one hand travelled to his hair, feeling the tresses that had grown since she had last seen him. She looked at him in a way no one had before. Spencer shared the same expression.

“Happy six-month anniversary Spencer. I love you.”

Spencer looked at Y/N in disbelief.

“Before you start spouting of facts about transference and how I am probably only saying this because you saved my life, you’re wrong. Because then I would be telling Hotch and Morgan the same thing.”

Spencer couldn’t help the watery smile that graced his face. For the second time in the past day, his eyes filled with tears. But this time, they were good.

“I’ve known I have loved you for a long time. For five months actually. I knew I loved you when we made pizza in your apartment and we ended up burning it, so we ordered one instead.”

Spencer laughed at the memory. It was the first time Spencer had initiated their make out. He had watched her cooking, in his apartment, and he had never found her more attractive than he did seeing her in his home.

“I knew that whilst you were spouting of facts about the invention of the pizza that I loved you and that I could listen to you forever. I love you Spencer.”

Spencer pulled Y/N closer to him as he rested his forehead against her own. The pair basked in each other’s presence.

“Past surveys show that men wait just 88 days to say those three little words to their partner for the first time, and 39 percent say them within the first month. Women, on the other hand, take an average 134 days. You knew after 31 days that you loved me. I knew after our first date that the way I felt when I was with you is a feeling that I could not even describe with my vast vocabulary. I knew after 8 days that the way I felt was stronger than liking you and that was a frightening thought. But its scarier to think what could have happened to you yesterday. That I could have lost you without you ever knowing. I made that mistake before. I will never make it again. I love you too.”

Y/N couldn’t help the smile and giggle that overtook her. Spencer, feeling high of the serotonin that was coursing through his body, couldn’t help his laugh either. Soon the pair were a giggling mess, unaware of the team who had all begun to awaken whilst the pair were talking.

The team congregated to the back of the jet, allowing the couple to stay in their own bubble.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve seen him truly happy.”

The group nodded at Emily’s words.

JJ smiled as she watched her best friend rattle of the possible movies that he and his girlfriend could spend their anniversary watching as she recovered. Her smile growing even wider at Y/N’s enthusiasm to watch the film’s in their original language. None of them could miss the look of adoration beaming between the pair.

“Yeah, it really has.”

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. -Lao Tzu

A/N- It isn’t the best but I really enjoyed writing this one.

[spideymarvelws]

can you do some technoblade x teen platonic reader headcanons about techno sorta being the reader’s mentor and being one of the only people on the smp who could actually defeat technoblade in a sword fight?

behold... another main character

Main Masterlist / Add Yourself To Your Taglist

Warnings : Violence, Death, Some cursing

Word Count : 4.0k

The Blade and The Survivor (1/?)

Technoblade x GN!Platonic!Teen!Reader

You’ve only ever heard the story’s of the famous blood god growing up

Your brother was the first to introduce you to the legend, the legend of a man who never died

Who’s fought battles that no person could ever dream of and walked out victorious every time

The well known anarchist who’s taken down government after government

You were hooked from the very beginning and after every tail he would tell, you would beg your brother to teach you how to fight like him

While your brother wasn’t the best, he knew his way around basic weapons from your grandfather and agreed 

He would bring you out to a nearby plains biome anytime you were free and teach you all he knew

And while it wasn't much, you were grateful for every piece of information and put your all into everything he taught you

He even reenacting some fights from the stories to make it interesting for you

You would always play along, acting as the infamous blade and running around with your brother

Sometimes you would shout “blood for the blood god” while killing cows or chickens

But you refused to kill pigs.

In fact you got a pet one and named it Bladey

For your birthday your brother got you a saddle and you made a carrot on a stick using the crops he stole from the farm so you could ride it across the village

He also gifted you a wooden sword and axe while he wielded stone

for safety of course, he wasn't about to give a child stone tools

Along with a shield that had the banner of your village

But out of every weapon, you were the best with a bow

You had a natural talent for it, every arrow you ever shot always hit its target

Your brother would always ruffle your hair and compare your aim to that of the blade’s, making you beam even brighter

“Who knew we have an archer on our hands, the blade could never compare,”

But all of this was done in secret

The village you lived in was safe, small and homey

Everyone knew one another, so the possibly of someone committing crimes or turning against someone was unlikely

The villagers were peaceful with one another

And with the iron golems patrolling every corner 

you loved to give them poppies from your mother’s garden as a thank you

There was no need to learn to fight when you lived in a place that never needed it

The village ran on balance, equality amongst each person so that everyone could be amongst one another in peace

Plus, at the time you were the youngest in the village, considered a baby by everyone

And while you had the kindness and curiosity to match it, there was always something missing

Training was the only thing that fulfilled it

Your brother thought that your practises would disrupt that balance so he never told anyone about your activities

And that stayed true until your last night in the village 

You, your brother and bladey were making your way back to the village after a long day of training when you noticed thick, black smoke rising from where it stood

You both started walking carefully to the area, you walking behind your brother with the pig in your arms for comfort

In the distance, you noted the shadow of pillagers and iron ore scattered across the grounds

You went to scream as you got close and run to your house, but your brother slapped his hand over your mouth and pulled you with him behind a nearby tree

But one of the pillagers heard the noise of leaves rustling and began to approach the both of you.

Your brother was quick to take out his sword, pushing you behind him 

“Listen to me Y/n, I want you to run okay? Run and never stop until you know you’re safe okay?”

You shook your head, “What about you? What about our parents?”

He smiled sadly, shakily ruffling your hair, “I’ll be right behind you... Now go!”

The sound of swords clashing and the screams of your brother were the last things you heard  as you ran, tears falling from your face 

Bladey squealed in your arms, wiggling and turning to get out of them, sensing the danger but you kept your grip tight, following your brother’s orders and running as far as pos sible

Needless to say he didn’t follow, neither did the rest of the village that was left in ashes and ruins after the attack

You couldn't find the heart to turn back, to fight along side your brother

You fled like a coward. Guilt, pain and hatred riding on your back 

But you didn't give up hope, plotting revenge against the mobs who destroyed your home

Who killed your family

You walked for days, stopping at villages, trading with them and improving your supplies

And getting a lot of carrots

Your wooden swords turned into iron, along with the rest of your tools

Your leather helmet turned into a full set of iron armor 

But you kept your old shield, repairing it every time it lost durability

You even crafted a crossbow that you learned was the main weapon pillagers used

You dreamed of pointing it at there neck, watching the sharp arrowhead puncture their skin and bleed out on the floor

You tended to sleep through the day and fight threw the night, taking out your anger on the mobs that spawned around the wood houses you made to keep yourself warm and isolated

Times when you weren't fighting and training, you spent in the library of any village you found, learning about anything you could

It was there you learnt about the rare ore diamonds, hidden deep in caves 

You also learned about enchantments, that made your armor and weapons even stronger

Soon enough you were geared up with full diamond armor and a set of diamond tools 

But it was never enough, you always needed more 

So you went to nether after repairing a ruined portal you came across

And began exploring

Gathered potions

All the materials you could find

Along with netherite

And fighting every mob you happened to pass by except piglins

For such a young age, you were stacked, maxed out to the point of boredom that you couldn't go further

Even Bladey had his own turtle shell, adjusted slightly to fit his head and allow him sight

You often wondered if this was what it was like to feel like technoblade

And throughout your journeys, you kept the stories your brother told you by heart, learning as much as you could about The Blade

You followed in his footsteps, using his successes as even more motivation to continue on your quest

And ready to finally get your revenge

It was easy to take down the pillage post, taking the banner and making your own shield that you kept as a trophy in your inventory as a reminder of what you lost

But it wasn’t enough, the loss of your family laid heavy and your heart

So you started protecting the villages you visited in exchange for lower prices in trades

You believed that was your purpose now, you had nothing else to do but fight for the people who couldn't fight for themselves

You wanted to help in ways that you couldn't all those years ago

You would wear a black cloak over your armor, the hood covering your head and a mask concealing your face

You couldn't imagine wearing a skull mask, even if it was for the aesthetic

You looked like death itself

Death with a cute pig side kick

Soon enough, word got around of a teenage warrior roaming the lands labelled ‘The Survivor’, catching the attention of Wilbur and Tommy who had just been exiled from L’manburg

“Why would we need them if we already have techno on our side?”

“Because we need all the allies we could get Tommy, plus we don’t want Shlatt to get to them first.”

You would be passing by Pogtopia on your horse with Bladey tucked into you lap sleeping, following a map to another village that needed help when a tall man stepped in front of your path, making you halt

“Why hello there, Survivor, care for a little chat?” he said ominously, leaning against your horse

You payed no mind to him, hitting his hand of your horse, rolling your eyes and moving around him

You’ve meet people like him on your travels before, people who only needed you for your skills and selfish reasons

At least, that how he came off and you didn’t care to stay and find out if your assumptions were true

“Hey, hey, hey, look, I’m sorry if I came off so forward but- I need your help,”

That made you stop.

“Need help with what exactly?”

He went on to explain his situation about a place called L’Manburg, an evil dictator named Jshlatt and his exile along with someone named TommyInnit

At first you said no.

You were only interest in keeping your own kind safe, protected people who needed it

And from the looks of it, it seemed that the two men put themselves in there position so they should be the one to take themselves out

That and you had more pressing matters to attend to than government

“What do you need? What would you want in return?” he started to beg, walking along side your horse as you started to ride away

“I already have all I need,” you croaked

“Well that seems boring. Don’t you want a bit of adventure in your life Survivor? A little bit of flavour to spice up it up? It must be so boring just fighting the same thing over and over again, why not work for a group? A collective?”

You grew tired of his voice, letting out a deep breath you began to consider his words

As much as you didn’t want to admit, he was right

You had been travelling around the lands, going insane, doing the same thing over and over

And while it helped people, it was growing tiring

Maybe one war wouldn’t be so bad, and perhaps you would learn some new stuff along the way

And the alliance with this so called L’manburg would be good for the long run

“If I agree... would you shut up?” you finally cut off his rambling and stopping your horse

He blinked in surprise, “Wow! If i had known talking would make you cave in, I would've brought up Tommy instead.”

You sighed, “I’ll help you okay? As long as I get free access to L’manburg afterwards along with all the supplies i need,”

“Done, done and done.”

The first day wasn’t as bad as you expected it to be

Wilbur was actually pretty chill, letting you make a new home out of the ravine they stayed in

Niki was also really kind, bringing sweet treats from Manburg every time she visited

It was nice to settle for a while, you couldn't remember the last time you slept under the same roof for more that a day

Your horse, Jewel along with Bladey seemed to settle well along with you

You also met Tubbo and Tommy, a lively duo that overwhelmed you at first but there energy was nice to see in such a grey environment

What you didn’t expect was to meet him

You would be mining a small space in the ravine for yourself and your pets when you heard a monotone voice sound from behind you

“Heh?! Who’s the kid?” 

You spun around, raising your sword to the intruder but froze when you noticed the familiar skull mask, along with pointy piglin ears hidden behind bright pink hair 

He didn’t seem fazed by your weapon, leaning against the stone door frame with his arms crossed

“You’re- you’re him.” you muttered in awe

Before he could respond, Wilbur popped out from behind him, “Oh, yeah. That’s Y/n, Y/n, Techno. Techno, Y/n,” he nudged his side, “They’ll be helping us take back L’manburg,”

Techno only nodded, “Nice.” he tilted his head, “Aren’t you that Survivor dude? That’s pretty pog.”

Cut to you standing frozen in place, jaw dropped to the floor, eyes wide in amazement

“You- you know who I am?” you squeaked, quickly sticking your sword in the ground and leaning against the handle, stumbling slightly

An attempt to seem cool in front of your idol

An attempt that didn't really work out

He let out a hum, “Heard the name from around yeah,” he pointed to your sword, “Might not want to stab your sword in stone, It’s not that affective.”

And with that he left

Leaving you in shock

If only your brother could see you now

After that interaction, you started to follow him around like a lost puppy, watching in awe at every little thing he did

You felt like a kid again, the warmth in your chest that you lost so long ago restored because the person who tied you and your brother together was here

Because you were training and fighting along side your childhood hero

He would act annoyed at first, always shrugging you off or moving to other rooms to avoid you

You were like a parasite 

He could never shake you off

He didn’t want to grow close to anyone, he was here to take down yet another corrupt government not to look after some orphan

That was Phil’s thing.

But after time he grew a liking to you, enjoying your presence while he was farming potatoes or visiting his cow farm

You acted different around him, the hard and emotionless exterior you showed to Tommy and Wilbur completely vanished and left an innocent, happy child

He always wondered why 

People never did that with him

He was a feared name across the lands of the smp, everyone usually kept there distance and became extremely cautious in his presence

But you didn’t seem to get scared, in fact, you were a talker, constantly asking question after question even if he gave no response

It was nice not to be alone after so long even though he would never admit it 

Even the voices started to take a liking to your bubbly and curious personality

Why is she asking the same question

Maybe you should answer her blood god

She seems nice

You really do take after your father

He saw a part of himself in you

Unlike Tommy and Wilbur, you weren’t fighting for government, you were fighting because you had nothing else to do

Because you were bored with your everyday life being, essentially, an assassin 

The thought always made him chuckle

He left like he could trust you over them because your weren't driven under a government

At least that’s what he told himself

He also wanted to see why they valued your alliance so much to give up half there riches to you from L’manburg

“Duel with me.” he said to you one day, out of the blue as you both made your way across a plain biome looking to animals to kill for food

“Heh?” you said under your breath, clearing your throat while heat rose your your face at his suggestion and the noise of surprise that escaped your mouth

Techno couldn't deny that his heart warmed just a little at the small things you began to pick up from him

“Fight with me,” he drew out his sword, turning around and facing you with the weapon raised in the air, “I wanna see what you’re made of ‘Survivor’. So come on, lets fight,”

This was the first time techno actually talked to you directly, uttered words other that demands, silly excuses or grunts of acknowledgement

“I-” you let out a deep breath, shakily taking out your own sword, “Okay, okay,”

After establishing some rules, the duel began.

He let you take the first hit, barely dealing him damage but you got the second hit as well, knocking him down two hearts

He was quick to regain himself, taking three hearts with his sword and a free hit with his bow

That gave you the idea to take out your own, running a good distance away and getting three shots in

It was a close fight, you didn’t mind if you lost. Fighting Technoblade was already an honour as it was

Then you jumped of a piece of stone, landing a crit and watched his items fall to the floor

Technoblade was slain by Y/n 

You let out a short breath, eyes widening in shock that you had just won

You just killed Technoblade

“I was only going easy on you- I- What enchantment do you have on your sword? You have creative mode don’t you? Yeah, you have creative mode... there’s just no way-”

You bit your lip, trying to suppress your laughs as the blood god ran over to pick up his items with a red face

“Hey! Hey don’t laugh! This isn’t a laughing matter!”

“It- it kind of is.” you said shyly, putting away your sword and eating some steak to regain the health you lost, “If it makes you feel better, I had one heart...”

“oNe hEaRt! She had one heart chat! What is this-”

His words had you rolling on the floor, wiping your eyes of the tears falling from your at how hard you were laughing

“What- What do I have to do for you to keep this between us-” he whispered after you calmed, looking around the the space, making sure it was just you and him

You shrugged, “Nothing really- I- uh, i didn’t mean to kill you... I’m sorry-”

Sorry? Who the fuck says sorry for killing someone

Who says sorry for killing him?

If anything you should be gloating, getting a billbourd and displaying the chat message for everyone to see

He’s never been gladder that nobody else was connected to the chat at the time

“I was going easy on you.”

“I- sure, sure okay...” you thought about it for a second, “If so... then why don’t you teach me the things you didn’t try? Like techniques and stuff...”

He froze at your suggestion, “You want- you want to learn from me?”

“Yeah!” you beamed, “You were... a big inspiration for me growing up and, I would love to learn from the source and not just through tails and stories.”

He thought about it for a bit, usually he would rely on his voices but they were all just insulting him

He didn’t see the harm in it, out of all the children on the SMP, he tolerated you the most

That and you had potential, it was rare to find someone with such skills and who acted humble with them

He sighed, patting the top of your head with a huff, “Sure... Sure why not.”

“Wait, seriously?”

“Yeah sure, I mean what’s the harm in it right?” he ruffled your hair

The action made your eyebrows rise and when you looked back up at the piglin hybrid, all you saw was the smile of your brother looking down at you

“Hey, everything alright?” he questioned, noticing your sudden glossy eyes

You quickly rubbed them with your knuckles, “Yeah, yeah I- I just forgot something at Pogtopia,” you said, backing away with an embarrassed smile, “I’ll meet you back there,”

“Sure, sure... I’ll just continue hunting,”

As you ran away he let out a deep breath, taking out swords and looking down at it with a scoff

“Chat... we never speak of this... again.”

After that, the both of you were inseparable 

Going on adventures with each other, looting and exploring together

Where ever he went, you followed in his footsteps as he taught you about whatever he could

He even took you to his secret base and allowed you to help him in gathering supplies to help the fight

“What’s with the pig by the way?”

“It’s my emotional support pig.”

“And his name is bladey?”

“...”

“It’s a short for bladder...now what were you saying about poisoned arrows?”

And while you appreciated the action, your favourite times where the calm ones

When he would take you up to a hight tower or hill so the both of your could relax, maybe eat some mushroom stew as he told you stories of his own adventures 

You opened up to him as well, telling him about your family and your village, how you were travelling around with so sense of direction

It was strange how easily he trusted you, maybe it was because you had similar experiences as him

You understood him and he understood you

You also began to make good friends with the rest of Pogtopia along with everyone else who started to betray shlatt and join there side, becoming more open with the reassurance from Techno that they weren’t bad people

You fit in well, a lot more that he did

You had potential for a bloodless life, he saw that

He didn’t want you to make the same mistakes as him, he didn’t want you to live the same isolated life

And while you agreed with his thoughts on anarchy, he didn’t want to you to have any part in what he was doing.

So when L’Manburg was taken back and Tubbo was but in power, he felt a sense of dread opening his enderchest and taking out his six wither skulls

Don’t let the wither’s hurt them

You’re going to hurt them more that they are

You won’t be able to protect

Protect them at all costs

It wasn’t just the voices that felt the urge to keep you safe

Over the months he’s grown a liking to you, treating you like his own student and teaching you the things he wish he knew at your age

But he could also be the one to corrupt you.

And he didn’t have the heart to find out which way it would go

You caught sight of the skulls in his hands before he switched to his sword, a hard look on his face as everyone began fighting each other

“Techno?” you walked up to him, “Are you-”

“Yeah... yeah I am.” he puffed out his chest, pulling you the side, “Look, things are about to get messy and when they do I want you to run-”

You knew where this was going, flashbacks of your brother fighting one of the pillagers to save you as you ran away to safe yourself, sacrificing himself for you

“No.” you cut him off before he could continue.

While you knew Techno was going to come out of this alive, you had the power to help him now, to help everyone, you didn’t need to run anymore

You considered Techno family now, well the closest thing you had to it and you weren't about to loose that

Not again.

“I’m staying with you Tech,”

He shook his head, “If you do, L’manburg would never look at you the same, you’ll be an outcast once again-”

“Then do what you have to do, but I’m not running away. What happens here is because of everyone’s belief and I believe in safety and protection so that is what I’ll provide.” you took out your sword smirking, “Plus, we all know what happened last time when you tried to fight me,”

“I thought you promised to never speak of this again!”

“I’m sorry I had to-”

“Okay kid, okay...” he took a deep breath, “Just stay clear of dream and his crew... and the withers... Actually? here take some golden apples-”

“Just go be an anarchist Techno,” you pushed him forwards, rolling your eyes, “I’ll be fine.”

“Actually, take this God apple and a few more potions-”

“I already have some-”

“Well take more. And some extra armor... just in case-” he threw the items at you before running away and setting up the soul sand, not wanting anyone to catch on to what he was doing

And with one final look around following the conclusion of his speech, he placed the skulls, unleashing ultimate chaos on the land once called L’manburg

...

Sorry this took so long! I always get ahead of myself with requests and end up writing a lot more that planned but i hope you enjoyed! I was making this so long that I had to spit this into part two, maybe part three to cover the rest of the lore and to be able to develop more on their relationship besides backstory

That and i really want to write the execution scene but this was already 4k words... 

Feedback always appreciated🥰

[tearsofgrace]

endings are hard... but they aren’t impossible

tldr; the good place fucking nailed the finale, supernatural completely and utterly bombed it.

tags: wc--4.5k, gif heavy, spn meta, the good place, supernatural finale, spn wank, all gifs are mine, if you read til the end there’s a pretty gif

so i recently finished the good place (i was watching w my family and we finally had time to sit down and watch the last season) and god fucking dammit that ending is FLAWLESS. literally flawless. 

and because i’m, well, me… i spent most of the time during that hour long finale thinking about how supernatural could have had even a fraction of that and avoided so much heartbreak. 

anyways. i decided to compare them. to REALLY compare them. to get into the nitty gritty of why the fuck the good place ending left me feeling, as the finale is all about, sated and complete. and why the spn ending left me confused, lost, broken, betrayed, unable to even enjoy my comfort show at all until a dear friend finally just watched an episode (8.08) start to finish with me. 

so without further ado (always wanted to say that) here’s the good place/supernatural finale meta that no one asked for

comedy

we’ll start small. both these shows have excellent comedy. in extremely different ways… but still

in the good place finale, the comedy was perfect. whether it was jason reappearing in the forest, michael trying to get through The Door, tahani reversing the “hot bod” bit on eleanor, every comedic moment was actually pretty emotional and added something to the show. they deepened characters’ meanings, added to their relationships, and made the audience think as much as they made the audience laugh.

in the spn finale… the comedy was the pie gag. the whole sam shoving pie into dean’s face. beyond this being… like meta as hell (the whole prank thing) it doesn’t have any depth to it.

and to add salt to the wound, this “hilarious” thing happens RIGHT AFTER salmondean have a conversation about missing jack and cas that is equal parts flat and infuriating. the brothers, in particular sam about jack and dean about cas, should care more. this is their family. and family is everything to them. but, no, by all means pie dean in the face.

last lines

this one IRKS me. okay. 

the last line of the good place  "I'll say this to you, my friend, with all the love in my heart and all the wisdom of the universe: Take it sleazy.” “All right.”  is ICONIC. okay?

it’s a reference to season 1 that doesn’t feel fan-servicey. it’s kinda honestly emotional cuz it’s like a message to us, the audience. it perfectly completes michael’s arc. it captures the light-hearted vibe of the show while also somehow managing to be poignant. you can see it coming like the second before it happens but it’s also not the obvious choice. it’s just. goddamn it’s good.

the last line of supernatural…. is… “and cut.” not even said by one of j2. i mean i know it’s a meta show but COME ON ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??????????

now i hear you shouting wait but that’s just the end of the thank you message. okay fine whatever. in that case the last lines are “Hey, Sammy.” “Dean.” (i couldn’t bring myself to gif that moment)

i’m sorry but. that’s predictable. that’s obvious. that’s boring. that’s flat. sure, it celebrates the bond between the brothers. but like… that’s not what this show is about anymore. it’s not just about sam and dean winchester it’s about what they’ve created. it’s about the world they’ve saved, the family they’ve made, about how they always keep fighting but nope we get bland, boring, coulda seen ‘em coming from miles away lines for the very end. that’s fine.

montages

the spn finale is like 50% montages that don’t make sense and are poorly done and not emotional

the good place has a montage of michael being human that brought me to tears

timing

here’s another short section. the good place finale was 53 minutes long as opposed to the usual 20 minute long runtime of every episode. granted, the fandom of the good place is very different, but STILL there was no documentary telling the fans things they ALREADY knew (there was a short special after the ep, but the episode itself was still far longer than normal). it was 53 minutes of plot. of really fucking good not rushed plot. 

the supernatural finale was… what 36 minutes long?? as opposed to the normal 40 minute runtime?? granted, we did get an hour long documentary of things we’ve all heard in cons and interviews a billion times so hey. take what you can get i guess.

character arcs

this is most of the meat of this meta. one thing we’ve all been harping on a TON is how they RUINED character arcs. soooo let’s go through and juxtapose some character arcs shall we

eleanor

eleanor shellstrop starts the show completely self-obsessed. she died getting hit by shopping carts while picking up margarita mix and let’s be real she’s a total icon. love her to death. she grows a ton, becomes one of the most selfless characters on the show, and starts to actually (jack forbid) CARE about things. it’s one of the most satisfying and relatable character arcs i’ve ever seen. 

it’s not just her selfishness either, her character is super multi-faceted and complex, and i feel like even in the end we’re getting to know her better. she’s afraid of commitment, always worried about what others’ actions will do to her, loves the trivial side of life, is queer as fuck (as acknowledged by the show in a way that’s not harmful at all but also isn’t explicitly bi/pan/unlabeled/omni etc, allowing queer fans to see their own identity in her), and is all around a HUMAN BEING. her ending at the beginning of the show was her death. her stupid, trivial, meaningless death where she was, as she puts it, all alone. and her final ending ISNT that. yes, everyone goes before her. and i think that’s purposeful. to show that she’s grown enough that being alone in some sense is okay.

but she’s never TRULY alone. and in the end. the REAL end. janet is there. the whole time. because eleanor asked her to be!! she got over her crazy need for independence and simply asked for help. and eleanor dies an amazing person that has become selfless, has found joy in philosophy while still enjoying trashy content, has fixed her relationship with her mother, and has found a sense of completion. eleanor’s life ends on her terms, and it’s beautiful.

dean

alright. now just as you’re feeling all warm and fuzzy let’s look at dean winchester’s ending. you’ve heard it a million times, so i’ll be brief. dean was raised to be a hunter, a soldier, a killing machine with no feelings and no purpose. he was raised to die scared on a hunt, his life over because of some mistake he made because he will NEVER measure up. at least that’s what john and everyone else told him with the exceptions of some of his family (and family don’t end in blood). he started to accept that he didn’t have to have this. he started to realize that he could CHOOSE what his ending was. 

the beautiful thing is, we never truly got to see what that was. i personally like to think it’s similar to the roadhouse michael locked him in while he was trapped in his own mind. a safe place for hunters, somewhere he (and cas in my opinion, but that’s not important) could settle down and still be in the life. it would be an amazing tribute to jo and ellen, and just all around a great ending. he wouldn’t have to be scared, but he wouldn’t have to conform to some apple pie facade of normalcy. and ya know what?? say that he died so he could have peace i dare you. because dean doesn’t find peace until sam is there anyway so i beg of you WHAT WAS THE FUCKING POINT. 

dean winchester died scared. dean winchester died on a hunt. dean winchester died on one of john’s old hunts. dean winchester died not directly at the hands of a monster, but at the hands of a mistake. his mistake. dean winchester died without ever working through the trauma of his best friend in the entire world confessing his love in a final act of self-sacrifice. dean winchester died in a way that leaves a sour taste in my mouth and does not at all show the audience what he’s been through and how much he’s grown. dean winchester did not die on his terms, and he deserved better.

chidi

okay back to happy. chidi anagonye. by far my personal favorite good place character (don’t tell anyone i always say jason cuz he and i are very similar). chidi in the last few episodes is SO DRASTICALLY different than the chidi we meet at the beginning. he’s decisive, confident, self-assured, and it’s amazing to see. he’s not afraid of life anymore. he’s not afraid to make the wrong decision and forever alter his reality, because he’s okay with failure. 

at the beginning, chidi was so petrified of life that… it killed him. and in the end, he’s completely at peace with every decision he makes, even the final one. yes, he considered staying for eleanor, but that just shows how his moral code and his compassion for others is still very much still intact. it shows the audience that you can be confident and decisive without being a selfish asshole. 

chidi leaves the good place knowing that it’s the right thing to do. knowing without a doubt that his time has come. the old chidi never would have been able to fathom being that sure about something. it’s beautiful. it’s a development that can give the audience peace, can show them that this drastic of change is possible, and that chidi became a better person for all of it. chidi went on his own terms, and it was beautiful.

sam

… this one might be controversial… but sam winchester. god i hated sam’s ending. at first i was kinda okay with it. like, okay fine he got his normal life. but, really, in the end that’s not what sam wanted. he started to realize that he didn’t need that apple pie, white picket fence life. he didn’t need the wife and the kids and the backyard and the barbecues because that is NOT sam’s personality and i will throw hands on that. 

that’s not to say he doesn’t want some sort of romance, maybe even kids, but not in that way. he lets himself see that he doesn’t need to be defined by his rebellion to john. doesn’t need to be defined by going to college or any of those “normal” smart kid things because it doesn’t fit him. and that’s okay! but how does sam’s story end? it ends with a wife (that isn’t even important enough to show her face). with kids. with a goddamn white picket fence. we think he’s still hunting to some extent… but it’s not the arc we were led to believe would happen. it’s not this amazing leader sam that we see in season 12-14, uniting hunters and organizing them. 

he had SO MUCH potential and they throw it away on a vanilla ending that shows only surface level pain at losing his brother. he doesn’t even invite the rest of their family to the wake for fuck’s sake. jared did an incredible job. pls don’t think i’m saying he didn’t. but that script…. sam winchester’s arc was cut short. he didn’t go on his terms, and he deserved better.

jason

jason mandoza. the only character that has ever embodied my complete dumbass energy to the insane extent that it exists. he went to hell for his impulsivity. he never thought before a decision. i aspire to be as reckless as jason while on earth. but he LEARNED. he got better, just like they all did. and by the end of the show, jason doesn’t need to be impulsive anymore. much like eleanor being left “alone,” the show does a masterful job with making him be the first one to go, capturing his old impulsiveness. but he chooses to leave. he takes his time in deliberation, waiting until a feeling of peace, of completion, of well, ‘true happiness’ (sorry cas stans, i’m right there with you) has settled over him. 

the ending of his story is one of growth, just like all these characters have been. and the best part? the show makes it comedic in the most poignant and beautiful way, because it’s jason, it had to be funny. we learn that jason has been in the woods for like, eons, just waiting to go through the door because he wants to give janet a necklace. he’s learned to simply wait. to be at peace with… nothing. his torture was being a monk, but in the end, jason embodies those ideals. his arc comes to fruition in an extremely satisfying way. jason goes on his own terms, and it’s beautiful.

castiel

this one is gonna hurt like a bitch. castiel is my comfort character. he’s my role model. he’s me in a lot of ways. i love him. so fucking much. so excuse me if this is slightly incoherent. i’m actually okay with cas’ ending… in a way. because his actual ending as an on-screen character? perfect. self-sacrifice while coming out and professing his love to dean winchester. a little bit bury the gays, but let’s be real, it’s supernatural. and “happiness is in just saying it” has to be the most powerful way to think of coming out. it takes away the fear, it takes away so much of the pain that can follow. because the joy is in just saying the words.

it’s how this was treated on the show that makes cas’ character arc terrible (and we haven’t even gotten to 15.20). YOU CANNOT JUST IGNORE A LOVE CONFESSION. that is god awful writing and i will never change my mind on that. cas deserved his family to care about him. to at least address and be sad about the fact he was gone. jesus fucking christ after everything castiel deserved at least that. and then we go to 15.20. cas is in heaven. cas is serving god. cas is right back where he started. now, i’m coming off a little strong. 

if the show had decided to show us cas and jack in heaven makin’ the world a better place… i woulda come around to it. i woulda realized that that’s not REALLY erasing 12 years of character development and cas realizing that his whole identity isn’t just him serving heaven and isn’t just him being an angel and that he’s so much more than all of that and he could still be happy as a human… because really he’s with his son. but they didn’t show us that. they barely even mentioned him. and to me. that counts as a bad character arc. and i’m sorry if you disagree. castiel may have gone on his own terms, but they treated that beautiful sacrifice with disrespect and disdain, plus resolved his arc by putting him back where he started. he deserved better.

tahani

*deep breaths guys this is a long post i’m sorry* anywayyyy tahani!!! we love tahani obviously. let’s talk about her arc, because it always kinda bothered me. throughout the show, we see all the other character’s growing and expanding their knowledge of right and wrong. and, don’t get me wrong. we see tahani grow a lot. but she makes a lot of the same types of comments and shit like that. but it’s how she treats the reactions to those comments. by the end of the show, she laughs at the caricature of herself that the others see. she isn’t looking for vindication in name-dropping, she just does it. she is far less self-absorbed, and is genuinely interested in those around her. she fixes her relationships with her sister and her parents in a way that doesn’t feel forced and actually feels like a beautiful, healthy family reunion. 

she has a list and she does everything on it. it’s worth noting, that the things on her list are not at all what they would have been at the beginning of the show. most of them are humble “labor” type tasks, and all of them are in self improvement. tahani’s end on the show is not the same as everyone else’s. she realizes that she doesn’t need to be done. that there doesn’t have to be an end to self-improvement. and she becomes an architect. the writers perfectly embody her transformation from a self-obsessed rich girl who has never done a thing for herself and laughs at the lower-class to a down-to-earth worker that simply doesn’t want the journey to end. 

it’s incredible how perfectly the writers were able to close off these character arc’s without it feeling forced, and without ignoring their character development. imagine that. tahani chooses her own way, and it’s beautiful.

jack

jack’s ending may be the only one that i’ve actually somewhat come to terms with. it’s not terrible. it’s not great. but it’s not nearly as bad. because ignoring that awful monologue about every drop of rain and shit, jack really does end up helping people. he ends up doing something that he loves and that makes the world a better place. and he doesn’t lose his personality in it. but. i dunno, that’s still his destiny, right? to create paradise. and this is a show about ripping up the rule book, about choosing free will above all else… so to have every single character just fulfill their destiny is cheap. 

still… i’ll try to be unbiased. because really at the beginning of jack’s time on the show, he’s unsure what he wants. and at least, in the end, he’s sure. he has a wisdom that he’s always had but he’s now using. and i’m good with that. but what’s NOT okay about jack’s ending is the lack of on-screen family. jack learns that family is important. sam, cas, dean those are the people he cares about. and you’re telling me he would just NEVER see them again? and be okay with that? i know he rebuilds heaven with cas, but we don’t even get a story about him rescuing cas from the empty. and he seems in 15.19 to not be that concerned about it (after the amazing emotional scene at the beginning). jack should have cared about his family. he did. but they ruined that for him. so jack kline deserved better.

michael

oh man where do i start. michael’s growth is the biggest on the show. i mean. he starts as a literal demon and ends a human. he gets better, he falls in love with humanity (*castiel fan in me sobbing again*) and he chooses over and over to be good instead of bad. his whole arc is a classic redemption arc, and every single beat just gets better. he chooses selfishly to side with humans but in the end it turns out to be the best decision he could have made. because he develops emotions, he develops compassion, he develops a moral compass. 

and his end reflects that. because to complete this arc of a demon becoming more human… he literally becomes human!!!! it fits so well. and he’s allowed to make mistakes and be happy and gain all that humanity has to offer. this just shows that human!endgame for cosmic beings that become more human WORKS SO WELL (and it shoulda happened for cas and jack that’s all i’m saying). michael went on his own terms, and it was beautiful.

eileen

oh boy… this one stings. because they brought her back, used her up, and we never saw her again. eileen was one of the best side characters on the show, and they rarely addressed her arc. she comes onto the show as a hunter seeking revenge, and gets that revenge in the same episode. her s15 arc is focused on what’s real and what’s not, with her relationship to sam admittedly being a central part of her character because… it’s supernatural and women can’t exist without that. but still! eileen grows throughout the show and in the end… we don’t even know what happens to her. it’s as if her arc wasn’t important enough to even glance at. 

it’s as if the connections the boys make outside of each other mean nothing when in reality they mean everything. they prove that the co-dependency is behind them and that family doesn’t end with blood and that real connections can be formed between people that last a lifetime. eileen was a disabled hunter that was shown to still be one of the best in the business, and they didn’t even give her the courtesy of a goodbye. eileen didn’t go on her own terms, and she deserved better.

janet

this is gonna unbalance my list but goddammit janet’s ending was perfect. she was a not-robot, not-girl that should have been incapable of feelings. but throughout the series we get to watch as she learns first-hand about human emotions and processes them. she cares about the humans in her charge and fights for them on multiple counts. 

in the end, we see janet come to terms with both her cosmic being side, and her human side. she never stops being with the “cockroaches.” she sees them all leave, she’s there for them while they’re there, and she also continues to speak her mind and live autonomously. janet was a non-human character done right. she lived on her own terms, and it was beautiful.

some honorable mentions

spn ignored (in the finale) chuck, amara, stevie, charlie, jody, donna, garth, bess, the other angels, claire, kaia, patience, alex, and the list goes ON in favor of focusing on JUST sam and dean. did none of those characters at least deserve a quick goodbye??????

the good place wrapped up multiple arcs i had completely forgotten about in a totally natural and not forced way. mindy, doug forester, (the mushroom guy, i know, it took me a second), pillboy, donkey doug, kamilah, tahani’s parents, eleanor’s mother, eleanor’s friends, chidi’s best friend, vicki, shawn, glenn, simone and so many that i’m forgetting all got satisfying ends that they totally deserved. 

they even fucking resolved FROG GUY’S arc and gave him a real frog. that’s right. frog guy (jeff) had a better character arc resolution than dean motherfucking winchester. 

heaven and hell

obviously in very different vehicles, both shows explore in depth the realities of the afterlife. and lemme tell ya, at the end of the day, one sits a whole lot better than the other. 

the good place finale ends this quest for the perfect afterlife by saying that everyone can improve and that an eternal paradise shouldn’t keep you from eternal rest. they pretty much make me wish that this is what our afterlife looked like. they handle everything with care so it’s balanced precariously in a way that doesn’t give you anxiety looking at it but instead fills you with peace and faith in humanity. 

supernatural addresses this series long battle between heaven and hell by creating a heaven where you drive for forty years without seeing the people (cough cough cas and jack not his parents) that matter to you and drink beer that tastes like shit. a place you can’t be happy or find any sense of peace until your brother has died and he’s there too.

and hell… well they barely even address it. there’s a new queen of hell i guess? but so what. it’s still very much heaven and hell in a way that’s the worst and hey plus to them… makes me wanna stay alive thank you very much. oh and purgatory is in shambles and not functioning properly cuz all that eve bullshit.

loose ends

whenever something is ending, you gotta tie up the loose ends. not in a “oh, we must wrap everything up and leave no stone unturned” kinda way but in a “wow, we should probably try to make this unambiguous because this is the last time we will ever see these characters” kinda way. 

the good place does that. so fucking masterfully. all these side plots with all these different characters were taken care of all while focusing on the main six characters. we get to see how their intervention has changed everyone else. for example, mindy’s arc is wrapped up perfectly, with eleanor going to save her.

plus different running jokes like “take it sleazy” are wrapped up, we revisit really old callbacks like the original neighborhood, and all of it feels natural and in the moment. it feels like full circle in a way that doesn’t erase growth. 

supernatural, on the other hand, left a million loose ends open. what happened to the boys they saved? where the fuck are jody, donna, etc.? did eileen make it back? cuz sam was pretty upset about that. what happened to it “being loud” in the empty? hell, what happened to the empty? what happened to hell? what about chuck? it woulda been nice to see just for a second what became of him. did charlie and stevie make it (i’m very invested in that relationship)? if we’re taking the original ending… why the fuck is jimmy there? did kansas just all,,, die? 

i’m not saying they needed to address everything… but god a few wrapped up storylines besides the brothers wouldn’t have hurt

coloring

can i just… real quick… as a giffer lodge a complaint

the good place has beautiful vibrant coloring in the finale

spn has like bland washed out whatever the fuck that is coloring. it’s not even the dark early aesthetic cuz they dropped that it’s just… ew. so. do with that what you will. 

conclusion

first… while writing this i realized just HOW MUCH it’s not about destiel… like believe me. i knew i wasn’t just pissed about destiel. but holy shit it’s not destiel at all like did i even mention destiel that much???? this was never about a ship. this was just a trash finale. 

in the end. the good place writers knew what they were doing. they knew their fans, they knew their characters, they knew their world, and they knew how to wrap it up in a way that was satisfying and sad and perfectly fit the tone of the whole show. it wasn’t out of character or rushed, basically every loose end was tied up without the audience even realizing that’s what they were doing, and i feel happy and complete having watched it. 

the supernatural ending was a betrayal. flat out. to the audience that has stuck by it in a way bigger way than the good place fandom. to the characters that have helped so many people. to the actors that have given so much of their lives. to the other members of the crew, to certain writers… all of it was just a slap in the face.

we deserved better guys. there are better endings possible. so i’m sorry. i really am. but i guess… that’s what fanfic is for, right?

[theregoesmylurkerstatus]

So... I have a lot of thoughts on the finale. I've deliberately kept my mouth shut, more or less, on the campaign overall because I'm a firm believer that you can't pass judgement -- at least not complete judgement -- on stories until they're over and done with.

Well, it's done! Kind of crazy. I've been watching Critical Role with almost insane consistency, viewing almost every single episode live, with maybe five-ish exceptions, since episode 19, and I've been blogging it for, what, two and a half years?

It's a weird feeling. It's been such a constant thing for me that I'm always gonna have love for it and remember with a lot of fondness.

...Which is in spite of the fact that I can now comfortably say I'm pretty eh on the ending. I know not being positive about something most of us have loved a lot for a very long time can sting a bit, but I personally think it also stings when people relentlessly crow over how good they think it is or want it to be, to the point where you feel you can't voice your absolutely valid upsets or dissatisfactions. So, here goes, if anyone's interested! I'd be curious to see other opinions, too!

I actually drafted a post talking about my overall frustrations with the campaign a whole two weeks ago, and then scrapped most of it when 140 blew me out of the water. I was really touched, and really happy. I hadn't expected it, but it shockingly felt right, you know?

Unfortunately 141 robbed me of most of that satisfaction and brought me right back to neutral.

The blanket statement you have to make, of course, is that you can’t criticise this as a DnD game, and you can’t be mad at the cast for playing it in a way they think is best for them. They’re the players, Matt’s the DM, and in the end it makes no sense for them to try to make themselves act how they think the audience wants them to, and I’m sure most of the audience wouldn’t like the result anyway.

That said, there is an audience. And that’s where I see this clash coming in. As a DnD game, as long as the players and DM have all enjoyed it and been satisfied, it’s a successful game! But for us, it’s not a DnD game. For us, we’re watching a story be written in real time through the medium of an RPG. And while as a DnD game you can’t fault it, as a piece of media, I completely get why the way things have gone has sat weirdly for a lot of people.

It's not satisfying to see so many character hooks dealt with so quickly or left as an offscreen "and then you do it." If they don't want to keep playing to dive into it, absolutely, but for us who have been watching this as a story with all these character elements get so built up, it's a huge anti-climax.

Which is a lot of what this campaign has been, really.

Oh, Nott’s cursed! But through a really cool character moment that problem is completely taken care of with no consequences we see. Yay, I want her to be Veth and that was an iconic move from Jester! Still, it kind of feels like this was built up to be a big problem and at the first success it was let go... Caleb's got a really intense frightening past he tries to hide, I wonder how the Mighty Nein will respond? Oh, they found out, but it's not a difficult revelation for anyone. Looks like it's easy for them to move past it and forgive. Yeah, that's healthiest for the characters, but huh, kinda undercuts it as a storyline or point of interest. Oooh, Avantika’s back! Ah, they’ve killed her and grabbed the eye again. I mean I don’t want them to die or for Uk’otoa to be free, but I’m starting to feel like that’s not much of a threat anyway. The Traveler’s been kidnapped! Nah he hasn’t, he tried to save Jester so he was let go with no further issue, and also he wasn’t actually in any danger anyway. Oh... Cool. So... Why should I care or be worried?

And these are just the biggest ones I remember being kind of let down by. I wanted to see them STRUGGLE for the successes to have meaning. To my view, threats of failure -- real failure -- really decreased the more the campaign went on, with a few exceptions.

Because don't get me wrong, we've definitely had struggles, and those have made for some of the best moments! Molly’s death, Yasha’s kidnapping, Yeza’s imprisonment. When failures that were threatened are allowed to occur, it’s far more gratifying when it’s followed by success, because you understand that that success was actually necessary. It shows us that what they do really means something.

Honestly, that's why the final battle really shut me up, because nothing makes you quite feel stakes and failure like having two PCs die, and having a resurrection ritual fail -- AND knowing that failure would be delivered on, had it not been for a seemingly miraculous roll of the dice to turn it around. One of the greatest failure's -- Molly's death -- made the success of his resurrection put a lot of my other issues to rest immediately, because to be honest? Molly's resurrection was the biggest success of the campaign, exactly because it was originally the biggest failure.

But this episode, we got to see the other side of making threats and successes feel disappointing -- when you get the impression that success was robbed from you. Again, their characters, their choices, but to have them roll an intervention to get Molly's soul, to convince Molly to come back with his own possessions they've so loved, after so long and so many struggles... only to apparently not get Molly at all?

Changed, of course. Memories, maybe he'd never get them back, though that seems inconsistent to how the initial resurrection was played and Matt's hints. It even makes sense that not having his memories and being a bit different, he might forge a new identity, but insisting Molly was a different person entirely after such a supposed hard won success to get Molly back, especially after what his death meant to the audience and potentially healing that old wound? It robs the narrative of a LOT of catharsis, at least for me and I know many others.

Trent, too, I'm very up and down on. He was so built up -- and what fun that build up had -- and I very much disagreed with the idea that the best story would be dealing with him offscreen.

It's true that you don’t need to explicitly address, confront, or explore every big aspect of character's story hooks and background ties for PCs to move past them and grow healthily. But that does not make it a satisfying viewing experience. People quietly healing in real life is healthy. People quietly healing in an explosive fantasy setting is frustrating for the audience.

What on earth is the point of a story if you don’t get to SEE THE ESTABLISHED CONFLICTS go anywhere? A lot of the characters got distant, quiet resolutions, if that, to everything we wanted to see.

Except, we did get to see Trent. It was a really fun, inventive battle, from opening to conclusion, but much like Travelercon, much like Nott's/Veth's problem with the hag, these were things that the audience in general wanted to see be really dug into and explored, and every single one of them got, in my opinion, quickly tidied up instead. Trent got beaten in the first and only proper battle they had with him, which, after all his build up, is pretty disappointing for a villain many of us wanted to see be a big deal. It really just felt like they were trying to tidy up to get on with the epilogue, which is not what a lot of us were looking for with Trent especially.

And that's how most of their endings felt to me. It didn't feel like any of them had reached a comfortable conclusion. Literally all of them, bar Veth and Caduceus, continued on their character journey threads, without each other and very quickly. Meeting Yasha's tribe and Vandran, Caleb finally openly debating changing time for his parents, Trent and Zeenoth's trials and the changing of the guard at the Assembly... All were things it would have been so fun to have all the PCs react to and explore together, and instead they were fleeting encounters in the latter half of a seven hour finale.

Is all this, from Molly not really coming back to Trent being a finale side plot to the Nein continuing on their individual journeys, potentially realistic to how these fantastical things might go down in real life? Sure! But that's not necessarily a good thing.

Stories THRIVE on conflict and resolution. That’s what makes them FUN! Conflict isn’t nearly so fun in real life and resolutions are often frustrating question marks, so no, past a certain point I don’t WANT stories to be realistic. I want stories to be SATISFYING.

And campaign 2 has fallen far short of the mark.

I haven’t spoken... Basically a word of this for most of the campaign, because as I said I’m a firm believer that you can’t necessarily judge something until it’s over, and because I ALSO firmly believe that being negative WHILE trying to enjoy something is counterproductive. I have had no interest in spoiling or naysaying the fun of the campaign for anyone, least of all myself.

But it's done now, and all I can say is... I really have had fun. I love the characters. I love their relationships. I’m pretty okay with where they’ve ended up. I’m not mad, really, and I’m still going to think of this campaign with a lot of affection. But it hasn’t been a satisfying story, even though for a week following episode 140 I thought, despite all the brushed over story threads, it might be.

So... to try and reclaim some of that satisfaction for myself, I might ignore some aspects of the finale proper. Namely Kingsley specifically. Taliesin's choice -- but to me, it's pretty clear that who we saw at the end of 140 was Molly, and the tags on my posts will reflect that, just as my 141 tags will be for both Kingsley and Molly, for clarity's sake. I personally want to believe Molly did come back, however others might want to interpret it. The victory in 140 that meant so much to me is hollow otherwise, and it just kind of hurts that we would lose Molly after everything. I was okay with him being dead -- I'm not so okay with his resurrection being stolen.

Kingsley will always be canon, but Molly is what I choose to acknowledge. I get if you don't like that take, and that's okay! I didn't care for canon's in the end. That's the good thing about storytelling, is that no one can stop you from making your own versions.

For the people who are hopefully hyped for campaign 3, heck yeah have fun! I’m on the fence. My investment, which... I think I can objectively say was pretty substantive as this blog will attest, doesn't feel rewarded, so I’m not convinced I can faithfully keep up for over three years all over again with a strong possibility that I will once again be left disappointed. It's been a huge chunk of my life, and... yeah!

I’ll take a break, probably, view (and liveblog, if people want!) campaign 1 when I’ve had a mental stretch and vacation, and then... I might start campaign 3. I definitely won’t be able to put the same time in it I did campaign 2 (my first love no matter what), knowing that it’s likely to not be so vindicated, in the end.

I swear I’m actually writing this in fairly good humour, but I totally get its always disappointing when the people you come to for fandom enjoyment just aren't sharing your fun. Honestly I’m half tempted to write all those frigging AUs I have sitting around! But I wanted to say my piece, and try and logically outline why this ending has been lacklustre for so many people, ultimately myself included.

Episode 140 felt right because it felt like a natural conclusion -- these disparate people coming together and finally being whole, finally soothing the hurt that MADE them so long ago. Episode 141 spat on that sentiment -- they all scattered to the winds, not as happy people to live out their dreams, but as confused people chasing up loose threads towards an unknown future, with the friend they thought returned still lost to them, ultimately.

It doesn't feel like the ending we should have gotten for the Mighty Nine, who were finally, finally all together. Until they weren't. So to me? I choose to acknowledge that they were, even if I have to force it to happen post-epilogue in my head.