#also I rewatched the 2x08 fight for this

[darkshrimpemotions]

The thing is that Stede is actually not a mediocre man who thinks he's exceptional. YMMV on whether he's a mediocre man or not--I think that greatly depends what you're measuring by--but it's extremely clear that he doesn't have any illusions about who or what he is anymore, if he ever did. I mean consider:

"I don't fit here anymore do I." (1x10)

"The Republic of Pirates is no joke." (2x01 - said to essentially a past mirror of his worst possible self, both acknowledging that he didn't belong there before and recognizing that he's changed since)

"I am (a screw up). And I'm alone! Don't be like me." (2x02)

"I messed all of this up." (2x03)

"It recently occured to me that I (know nothing...could learn at the feet of one of the greats)." (2x05)

"I've been a failure my whole life." (2x08)

He doesn't posture, deflect, and lap up praise wherever he can get it because he thinks he's the greatest pirate to ever live. He does those things because he knows he isn't. He does those things for self-protection, and because the only thing he's starving for more than affection is validation, and it's obvious. He doesn't put a ridiculously optimistic spin on terrible situations and odds because he doesn't know how dire things are. He does it because he does know, and that's the only way he's ever learned to cope.

I used to think his attempt to fight Zheng Yi Sao was an uncharacteristic moment of chest-puffing, but on rewatch? It's really, really not. The man is devastated. He's about 3 seconds away from crying. I don't think he even thinks he stands a snowball's chance in hell of actually beating her.

It's more that if he got everything he thought he wanted, but it means watching what he really needed all along leave him anyway (his found family, his love), he doesn't care if he loses. He's self-destructing and perhaps he's also trying to show the people who cheered when he killed a man for them just the night before that he'd do it again, that he'll always fight for them so they don't need to leave.

[maul-of-shame]

I was a big fan of haladriel at the end of season 1 because Sauron as Halbrand was very charismatic to me, but his Annatar turned me off because he was too cold, too creepy, and then the Galadriel/Sauron confrontation was just underwhelming to me. There was no serious talk between them (not like the Galadriel/Elrond scene in 2x02, that was so emotional), some lines felt poor, and the fight was too long for no reason (and that's because Sauron was toying with her, the moment he'd had enough, he stabbed her).

I was not looking forward to the Elrondriel kiss (found out via leaks), but I surprisingly liked it quite a lot, and I went back to watch their scenes from season 1, and they were simply so tender... I mean, I knew, but it's now even more obvious. Also, who offered comfort/healing after Galadriel faced Sauron in 1x08 and 2x08? Elrond.

Like, at this point, I hope the Dwarf-hater Celeborn stays dead because I'm gonna have a hard time accepting the fact that he's supposed to be much better than Elrond and deserving of Galadriel's undivided attention.

The Elves will fight Sauron, Elrond will defend Imladris, Gil-galad will give him Vilya and name him vice-regent of Eriador... and Celeborn is gonna come back and eat the screen time? Like, please stay dead. 💀

Oh, I feel this so much. I get why Haladriel was intriguing in Season 1—the charisma, the mystery, the tension. Sauron-as-Halbrand really pulled off that dangerous allure; he was smooth, and the chemistry was undeniable.

Heck I WAS in that boat too! XD

[TW: Long rant and if you love Celeborn, DON'T READ LMAO]

But by Season 2? The allure absolutely crumbled. Annatar felt so hollow, so calculating—it was as if any remnants of charm had been stripped away, leaving nothing but cold manipulation. And don’t even get me started on the so-called "showdown" between Galadriel and Sauron. Watching him toy with her only to end it with a stab literally yeeted me out of that damn ship for GOOD.

Elrondriel, I shipped it for funsies but I didn't think it would be "super serious". And ehhhh boy, how WRONG I WAS.

The tenderness there was something else entirely. I went back, rewatched EVERYTHING and it just clicked. Their connection is soft, grounding, and just so real. He’s the constant. Elrond’s compassion, loyalty, and understanding genuinely make him someone Galadriel can lean on. All of their scenes were full of chemistry, of feels I feel like were desperately lacking when it comes to Haladriel.

Meanwhile, Celeborn.... I'm gonna get heated LMAO.

Celeborn who? More like Cele-gone if you ask me.

I get his fans clutching their canon pearls, quick to remind us that Elrondriel "can’t happen" because "Celeborn exists". But let’s be honest here, canon Celeborn barely existed.

He was a racist, condescending mess, and they think he deserves Galadriel's undivided love? She’s supposed to fall for the guy who openly dismisses Dwarves, disrespects their culture, and disappears for decades, conveniently missing some of the most formative years of their daughter’s life?

And sure, let’s also forget the fact that Celeborn’s been MIA during Galadriel’s whole battle with Sauron. Who’s been there every step of the way, ready to pick up the pieces, help her heal, and stay steady when she’s barely holding it together? Elrond.

The guy who would give his all to protect Imladris, who'll fight tooth and nail against Sauron, who'll step up as vice-regent of Eriador, all while showing Galadriel the kind of partnership she genuinely deserves.

But nope—Celeborn’s the one who’s supposed to come back and eat up screen time because… tradition??????

Because some believe Galadriel’s big arc should end with her standing by a guy who barely even stood by her?

If they’re that dead-set on “canon,” maybe they should take a long look at how that canon actually portrays Celeborn. Because if anyone’s proving their worth right now, it’s Elrond.

If they want canon, let’s give them canon!

Let's hand them Celeborn, the man with the personality of a dish sponge after a holiday dinner and fifteen rounds in the sink!

This is the guy who refused to relocate his household, not because of some noble sense of duty or deep-rooted love for his people, but because the route would’ve passed "too close to Khazad-dûm", and he just couldn’t be bothered to cross paths with Dwarves. Imagine Galadriel’s face, realizing her partner for eternity turned out to be less passionate about cultural exchange than a moldy sandwich.

And don’t even get me started on his little "welcoming committee" scene with Gimli.

First words out of Celeborn’s mouth to a guest are suspicions and accusations because, "oh no, there’s a Dwarf in his fancy Elven halls".

You’d think someone who’s supposed to be thousands of years old could manage a shred of grace—or at least muster a polite hello.

Instead, we get Mr. Wet Toast himself, less tolerant of other cultures than the rocks Gimli probably walked over to get there. The entire dwarf population has more bravery in their pinky fingers than Celeborn has in his entire silver-haired head, and he’s meant to be the Elven standard of strength and honor? Please.

Meanwhile, Galadriel’s over here as a literal ethereal powerhouse, tackling her demons, taking on Sauron, and actively working toward peace. Celeborn is lucky if he can look a Dwarf in the eye without his spine turning into pudding.

You seriously want me to believe that Lady Galadriel—the warrior, the wise, the one who went through hell and high water, the one who’s fiercely loyal, and who has formed deep bonds across cultures, Dwarves included—would settle for this guy?

This guy, really?????

The "lord" who has all the charisma of a damp rag and the empathy of a particularly judgmental houseplant? Not to mention he’s named “Teleporno.”

Really, of all the Elves in Middle-earth, this is the guy who’s supposed to be her equal?

This is the same Galadriel who’d probably have her own ring in "Order of the Istari’s Most Likely to Smack Down Evil", and yet we’re supposed to believe she’d sit around sighing like a maiden over Celeborn, who’s basically the Elven embodiment of a “meh” Yelp review?

He had the GALL to look Gimli up and down like he’d just tracked mud into Lothlórien, while Galadriel herself had the courage to embrace and respect the Dwarves. She saw the good in Gimli without a second thought; Celeborn saw only his own prejudices and assumptions.

This is “Tolkien’s favorite character”? I think not.

And don’t even get me started on the “Teleporno” situation. Like, how are his fans so quick to clutch their pearls about canon purity when their “most beloved” is literally named something that sounds like he moonlights as a backup act in Valinor’s least reputable theater?

Meanwhile, Elrond, the epitome of loyalty, wisdom, and dedication, is over here supporting Galadriel through thick and thin, understanding her losses, and respecting her as an equal. Yet some people insist on clinging to this sad loaf of stale bread as her true love?

If they want canon, they can have it—every single clunky, Teleporno-laden, xenophobic line of it.

We'll be here with Elrond, the guy who genuinely deserves her and actually gets her, cheering on Galadriel as she rolls her eyes and reclaims her independence from Mr. Wet Toast.

Sorry, not sorry—I got heated, but honestly, I can’t help it. Celeborn just brings it out of me. XD

I mean, how can anyone read about this damp dishcloth of an elf who straight-up dismisses Dwarves (after his own wife saved their butts, no less) and say, “Yes, that’s the one for Galadriel”?

Every time I think about it, I’m reminded just how much I despise this man’s entire vibe.

Celeborn’s the elf equivalent of a soggy biscuit who just happens to be standing around in the same forest as Galadriel. I can’t think of a character with less spark, less drive, less anything. And yet, his diehard fans are here waving canon purity in our faces, ignoring every quality that actually means something to Galadriel—loyalty, respect, a bit of humor, maybe even a spine?

So yes, I might’ve gone off, but he’s been “gone missing” for so long for a reason. And let’s be real, no one is rushing to find him, not even his own """"wife""""".

[flythesail]

I've been rewatching s1, and what's become interesting to me about Bess's arc is at the start - it seems to be about finding a family. Her entire thing is coming to Horseshoe Bay to be a part of the Marvins. Of course, she is for a little. But that doesn't last, and I also have to question whether being a part of the Marvins would have given her what she was searching for in the long term. As much as they are a family in a literal sense, it's also a performance through extravagant parties and how you present yourself. Is that who Bess is? Or, merely the role you take to fit.

After Diana breaks ties with her in 2x08 it's the Drew Crew that is there for her. They have become her real family. Yet while that's certainly implied by Nick, George, Nancy, and Ace gathered around her in the living room, it's not so much stated. Side note: this is "show don't tell" in its most basic form lol, but this still brings me back to the initial thought of what exactly her arc is.

Subsequently in s3, Bess continues her search for a place. Only this time, it's not as a Marvin but as a Woman in White. Her nightmare in 3x04 is about being kept out of the Women in White: "I'm supposed to be here! Please!" It's the same idea about her desire to be a part of the Marvin family. In that case, it was "I'm supposed to be here because of my blood."

When this theme reoccurs, it becomes clear her arc is about belonging. Sure, that's what she gets with the drew crew. She does belong with them. Yet it's not necessarily what fulfills her arc as it goes deeper than family.

S4 fortifies this idea with the conversation she has with the Chief: "This town... is my home, too. And as long as I'm Keeper, I'm gonna do whatever I can to defend it."

There's two things to note here. First, Bess has found her belonging not with a group of people, but in this place. Second, she's found belonging in the form of purpose. This aligns with her s3 desire to become a Woman in White (and with much of the show's message - following each member of the drew crew as young adults).

Bess is the Keeper and it is literally her job to defend Horseshoe Bay, but it's also what she fights for. She didn't fight to stay a part of the Marvins to the extent she could have.

Interestingly, through this she becomes the person she once needed to others. For instance, mentoring Jesse and Birdie in the supernatural. The significance isn't only that she's teaching them about the supernatural, but that she's a figure in their lives who offers a place where they can belong. Her search for belonging results in her finding it herself and becoming that place for others.

[youlooklikeabeeandilikebees]

Ok here is the reasoning behind each choice of clip in terms of what I felt each taskmaster moment represented:

1x01 - Lolly's "Friendship is truth" = the trio's close friendship that's very well established in the first episode

1x02 - Iain's "scumbag" = Tully is a scumbag lol

1x03 - Joe's "how'd you feel about death" = the episode focuses on death

1x04 - Doc's nursery-rhyme turned rap = Mitchell and George not always knowing how to talk to Bernie and trying to connect with him

1x05 - Mike's "Tick tock it's tough guy o'clock" = I know other stuff happens in this episode but I always just remember the awkward fight with Seth and I thought Mike joking about being uncharacteristically violent matched Annie and George's similarly out of character violence.

1x06 - Ok this one was probably the only clip that I knew immediately had to be David Correos and also that it probably had to be something from the diss rap task. So yeah this one is referencing killing Herrick. David's intensity in hyping himself up, their team name being "the three friends," and them telling Matt and Urzila "Fuck you" all just felt way too perfect for that whole climactic sequence.

2x01 - David pretending that his task went "Perfect" then walking off and screaming = George's delayed reaction to finding out he infected Nina

2x02 - Josh and Anne's "That was gay!" = this being the only episode in the show with a confirmed gay character, Carl.

2x03 - So this is my least rewatched episode of the whole show so it was a hard one for me to do. I just remember Mitchell's line where he goes "My name is John Mitchell and I've killed more people than you've met" and I was like well I guess it sounds like he's on his top sensitivity level lol

2x04 - Nish's sudden outburst of "bubbly fuck" which has immediate consequences = George's new swearing tic making things difficult for him

2x05 - Johnny's "me and teddy are going on a bender" = Mitchell's 1960s bender with Herrick in the flashback

2x06 - Judi forgetting who Greg is and pretending she said "Heg" = Alan Cortez losing his psychic powers and awkwardly making things up on stage

2x07 - Daisy and Richard ravenously eating watermelon = box tunnel massacre. This was another easy one. I almost changed it to Romesh and Tim eating the watermelon after smashing it but I thought Daisy and Richard feeding it to each other and Daisy making zombie-like noises just captured it way better lol.

2x08 - Lou hiding from Alex in the bin = Mitchell sneaking up on everyone at the facility

3x01 - Bob's "I'm a sinner" = Mitchell admitting his past crimes (sins) to Lia

3x02 - Mark's cheeky texts to Greg that go from playfully cheeky to just "I have a big dick" = Adam trying to be suave but mostly just being crude and awkward

3x03 - Victoria yearning for death = Sasha accepting death

3x04 - Ed's "If I'd have known in advance I wouldn't have made a baby" = George and Nina worrying about their baby

3x05 - Ivo's "curse of politeness" = the way that the gang have to pretend that everything is normal and be polite and calm in front of the social worker.

3x06 - Greg's "compaatative daaad" = George spending time with his dad (who I wouldn't call very competitive but this just had to be the chosen clip, it's too funny)

3x07 - Josh being confused about whether or not the person he just airhorned was actually Paul or not = Mitchell's paranoia about who the wolf-shaped bullet is

3x08 - Paul's "bastard's crying innit" = everyone crying at Mitchell's death

4x01 - Ok this was one of the hardest ones, if not the absolute hardest and I didn't have time to actually rewatch every single Taskmaster episode to find the perfect clip. I wanted to find a task where someone did a skit about the apocalypse or something but I couldn't (and only after posting did I realize that maybe Jenny Tian's scarecrow apocalypse could've worked but oh well). So I went with Sally's surprised reaction to her absinthe-marmite on toast cause I feel like episode 4x01 is such a weird episode that feels very different from the rest of the show so her reaction to the toast was sort of like our reactions to the show idk. Also the introduction of a more sci-fi like apocalypse future when the show hasn't previously had any storylines like that is sort of like two things slapped together that maybe shouldn't be (aka absinthe and bread).

4x02 - This was another hard one. I considered the clip from series 4 of Lolly, Noel, and Joe's bathtub task where they keep sabotaging each other since that kind of matched the awkward incongruencies between Annie and Tom v. the new trio. But I felt that I couldn't really trim down that clip without losing the humor of it. So I went with Greg talking about Joe and Sian's awkward meeting cause episode 4x02 is one with a lot of awkwardness between the two groups. Also Joe saying he's "just a weird guy" kinda captures Hal pretty well.

4x03 - Rhod's edgy gothic poem = Michaela's edgy gothic poem

4x04 - John secretly sabotaging his team = Kirby secretly sabotaging the trio

4x05 - James telling Greg to open the box and Greg going full teacher-mode and scolding him about his language = Yvonne constantly going full teacher-mode and scolding Adam for his language

4x06 - Guy and Paul's awkward but sweet date = Tom and Allison's awkward but sweet relationship

4x07 - This was another hard one and originally I was trying to find a task relating to a nightclub but landed on Roisin making Alex eat the hot toothpaste pie cause it made me think of Cutler getting Hal to drink blood. They both are very reluctant to do it (for very different reasons lol) but ultimately give in haha.

4x08 - This was one of the other really hard ones (what is it about season 4 that was so hard to capture with taskmaster lol). I wanted to find a task with some explosion-like creation to imitate the bomb but couldn't find something that seemed to match well enough without rewatching 17 seasons. But Julian politely insulting Alex by saying that Alex and confident aren't two words you normally associate really reminded me of Mr. Snow with just the way he says it.

5x01 - Lucy, Sam, and Julian badly running a hotel = Hal and Tom getting jobs at the hotel. I wish I could just put the entire hotel task as the clip for this one haha. I tried to pick the most chaotic clip from it. I realize that they don't actually do much hotel work in this episode though but it is the episode where they get hired.

5x02 - Mike's haunted house trying to scare Alex = the trio's house being haunted by Oliver who's trying to scare them

5x03 - Aisling's "dignity intact" dancing in her underwear = seems like something Lady Mary would do lol

5x04 - Ed realizing he's been put on a team with David = Tom being snobbish about Bobby

5x05 - Ed's nice date with the chickpea only for the chickpea to be tragically killed = Tom liking Natasha only for her to be tragically killed

5x06 - Joe begging "please don't take this away from me" = the trio initially not wanting to leave their human lives but also how we as viewers don't want the show to end :(

every being human episode described by taskmaster clips

[youstupidplonk]

Gene Hunt being a COMPLETE Hypocrite in Ashes to Ashes Series Three

I’d like to preface this by saying I really enjoy series three, I love the shift in tone to the darker, more supernatural side and I love the growth we see everyone go through. HOWEVER the more I think about Gene’s actions (and specifically his interactions with Alex) the more I get annoyed at the hypocrisy of it all. Spoilers under the cut. I’d also like to apologise if this is confusing / hard to read / just doesn’t make sense. It sounded good in my head but when it came to writing it down I really struggled. 

So the main thing that Gene is hypocritical about is calling Alex out for not trusting him in regards to what happened to Sam Tyler. The only reason he has any reason to think she doesn’t trust him is the fact that she’s looking through old files, and he gets word of that through Keats. Keats is also the one who pushes Alex to find out more, the one who pushes Alex away from Gene. This can be paralleled with Gene and Jenette in the series two finale,which I’ll come back to. 

There are several things to unpack here. Number One, Gene knows that Alex knew Sam in some capacity before he met her. They have a conversation about it in the first episode. 

Gene: Sam?

Alex: Tyler. I knew him. 

Gene: Poor sod, that explains a lot. 

Alex also has a conversation with Ray about Sam in the first episode, along with mentioning him to Jackie. So it’s known to the other characters that she and Sam knew each other. Gene also draws attention to the similarities between the two, most notably in the fight he has with Alex in 2x08. 

Gene: First Sam Tyler and now you. Why do I always attract the liars and the weirdos? 

This is followed by him threatening to kill her and ultimately him shooting her. Let’s remember the first interaction they have after Alex’s shooting is him slapping her across the face. It wouldn’t be a massive stretch to think that he could have done something to Sam, even though Alex’s gut instinct is that Gene is innocent. 

The second part of this is that Keats is the one who reports to Gene that Alex has been talking to Manchester and Gene believes him, however whenever Keats gives Alex information Gene tells her to ignore it. That Keats is a lying tosser, or words to that effect. Essentially Keats can only be trusted when it suits Gene to trust him.

Thirdly, the parallel between Gene and Jenette and Keats and Alex can’t be ignored. Both Jenette and Keats come into CID with the intention of driving a wedge between Alex and Gene, however Jenette is much more successful than Keats, even though she and Gene spend less than twenty four hours together and Keats is trying over the course of several months. This gives rise to an implication that Gene almost doesn’t want to trust Alex which is cemented after he hears the tape. Although being upset about the tape isn't unjustified, shooting her is. Even threatening to shoot her when every other officer (including Ray who doesn’t even like Alex that much) is ready to defend her. 

In addition to this Alex gives Gene countless opportunities to explain himself in series three and despite his reluctance or just downright refusal to talk about what happened. Ray and Chris’s unease around the situation and the accusations from Bevan in 3x05. 

Bevan: The only difference is you got away with it [murder]

Alex REFUSES to give up on him or stop trusting him. Even in the series three finale, when she talks to Keats before leaving for Farringfield Green she still trusts him and doesn’t believe he could be a murderer. The only time that faith wavers is between her finding the body and finding the warrant card. Even during that time she admits how much she believed in him. We also see her consistently stating her belief in Gene’s innocence, throughout the series (right up until the series finale), in contrast Gene joins Jenette in down talking Alex almost as soon as she arrives in his office.

Jenette: Does that DI of yours notice those eyes? 

Gene: She’s a little bit too in love with herself.

I could maybe forgive this if it was said in the heat of the moment after hearing Alex’s tape, but it isn’t. It’s just casually dropped into conversation when he has no reason to think badly of Alex (other than her obsession with Summer, which she later tries to explain to him). The only possible explanation (which isn’t canon confirmed but is popular in fanon) is that Gene and Alex sleep together at some point between 2x07 and 2x08 and because Gene is emotionally repressed this is his attempt to convince himself he doesn’t care. Even if this is true it would only reinforce the trust Alex puts in Gene throughout 2x08, only to have it thrown back in her face. Gene seems to do a complete 180 between episodes 7 & 8 in terms of how he feels about Alex. She is the only member of the “inner circle” of CID whose loyalty isn’t tested by Gene but by the next episode he seems to have no respect for her. 

 Not only that but Gene gives her ONE chance to explain herself before he decides she doesn’t deserve his time or a place on his team. Even though Alex doesn’t dodge his question and tells him the truth, he still reacts with anger. It could be argued that he is angry about everything that has happened over series two (Mac and Chris) and the idea of Alex being bent is the final straw, but in the aftermath as mentioned, Ray comes to her defence. Ray, one of the most misogynistic of the team and arguably the most loyal to Gene defends Alex. If Ray and Chris mean as much to Gene as he makes out they do, it seems wrong that he wouldn’t take Ray’s opinion into account. It is also mentioned earlier in the episode that Alex isn’t well, both in 2008 and in 1983. She has just spouted lots of nonsense in Gene’s office, but he doesn’t consider that it could be down to ill health, he gives her one chance and that’s it, not even relenting when she cracks the case. This makes Alex’s patience with him in series three all the more jarring. 

The main difference between the two I think comes down to their faith in each other. Alex knows there is every chance Gene won’t understand the truth, but she still trusts him. It could be argued that Gene couldn’t tell Alex the truth in series three because he doesn’t remember and that he gained his memories gradually until they arrive on the hill. However the other characters (mainly Ray and Chris) know that Gene wasn’t involved in Sam’s death. Ray even mentions that Sam went against Gene’s advice and that’s how he met the accident. But I believe he must have remembered enough to know that he didn’t kill Sam, or at least if he didn’t remember use the evidence provided by those around him and also what he knew about himself, the only reason I can think of for not using the latter is that Alex’s shooting made him doubt whether it was the kind of thing he was capable of doing (even though Alex’s shooting was an accident), but Chris and Ray would both confirm he didn’t kill Sam. 

Alex doesn’t want Gene’s entire life story, the inner workings of his mind (ok that might be a lie), but after witnessing him burn all of the evidence she collected from Manchester and having him dismiss her concerns and curiosity, all she asks for is the confirmation he isn’t a murderer, which given the fact he nearly killed her isn’t completely unreasonable. She doesn’t want him to talk about the emotional intimacies of his relationship with Sam, all she wants to know is that he didn’t kill him. Gene doesn’t give her any kind of answer, but she still trusts him. 

I’m not sure if this makes sense (it sounded good in my head), or if I’ve covered everything I wanted to but these are my thoughts on Gene and Alex in Series two and three and why Gene’s hypocrisy bothers me. 

I could probably write a whole separate analysis on Gene and Alex through the course of the show, if that is something people would be interested in, but that’s another can of worms for another day.

[raayllum]

yeah no hi I was just rewatching the Rayllum fight in 3x08 (SUCH a great scene for them, sets up TTM, etc.) and I was just overcome again by the fact that Runaan gave Ethari the moonstone necklace, didn't come back, then Ethari gave it to Rayla, not knowing whether they'd see eachother again, then Rayla tried to pull the same on Callum and he straight up broke it. Like he very literally and figuratively broke the cycle. I'm unwell again -queenofthesurfacestreets

not sure if tumblr cut off my ask but YEAH. That 3x08 scene is so good for them and it really drives home Callum's thing about breaking cycles, which you've probably talked about before, but I revisited it today and I'm UNWELL

Okay yes Callum as Rayla's literal and metaphorical chain-breaker is so fucking good and I love it so much. (Have touched more on 3x08 here specifically)

Like in 1x02, Callum talks - almost pretty successfully - Rayla out of being an assassin, or at least a proper assassin. Then, by shattering the primal stone in the finale, he leads to the chain of events (geddit?) that result in the removing of her binding, which is her core metaphorical/literal chain symbol in the series. We see this pop up again in 2x07 as he frees her from the Cycle emotionally / philosophically as she explains to him, and then he follows it up by literally breaking the chains of the dragon she's trying to free. (Side note: I do love the 2x07-2x08 subplot so much because it's what reaffirms the larger theme of the series, where breaking the cycle alone in action isn't enough - the methods you take to get there also matter.)

Then last but not least in 3x08 he breaks the literal circular pendant she gives him that's a symbol of her family's grief, goodbyes, and remembrance, saying that just the memory of her isn't enough, and allowing her to make a choice unburdened by guilt.

The framing shot similarities too of each one having a hand close up, then crushing something, save the primal stone which gets a darker toss inversion (like the 1x04 cube) when he smashes it.

(Also: the pendant meaning "My love will be with you even when the moon is not," Callum seeing and knowing that exchange, and then "And wherever she is, she loves you too" like ugh, it's so freaking good and heartfelt in all the ways)

Also because I've been compiling and rewatching so much of Rayla's trauma surrounds a lack of agency / being restrained & immobilized. She's such a physical character this makes sense (Callum and Ezran have their own prison motifs, but Callum gets stuck in his head and Ezran is weighted by the crown, which is its own complicated thing) but it is interesting to see how much it pops up. Her ability to use both hands fading, refusing to leave the dragon and being cornered in, stuck under rocks with Sol Regem, trapped in ice by Viren, etc etc. And most of those cases results in Callum freeing her as well, which is neat, I think!

Another note building upon Rayla's nature to get stuck (aka a constant cycle just like the moon, even as her phases/character still changes) is that for most of the characters, they're resolving or showing little ways that they're changing from their predecessors.

Janai is not the traditionalist her brother wants and has her own plans for her people; Ezran is missing but actively resolving to be different/better than Harrow; Callum picks through Viren's things, but wants to be nothing like him (how successful that is, we'll have to see); Janai and Amaya have greatly changed in their relationship, with Janai carrying a healing salve to never hurt Amaya again, etc etc.

But Rayla isn't doing any of that. She's just repeating the footsteps of her parents and predecessors, the same way she was in 1x02 and 1x06 and 3x08 and arguably even in 3x09 as the Last Dragonguard, and especially in TTM. And it's patterns that destroyed all of them, their relationships with her and her own sense of self worth along with it. (Thanks for nothing, Silvergrove)

Now she's repeating Harrow's, leaving a letter, convinced she has to pay the price for her mistake (not successfully killing Viren, in her case) and that no one else can or should pay that price - not realizing there doesn't have to be a price paid at all.

H: The last time I saw your mother, she said, "I will see you on the other side." I don't know what lies on the other side, but I do know I will be watching over you and your brother. Always.

R: I will think of you under every full moon. Please don’t let this hurt too much. But, if it does—if you feel that soft aching—know that that piece of your heart isn’t missing. It’s not missing at all, Callum: I’m carrying it with me! Always.

In some ways Ezran's key thematic purpose is to explore the concepts of the Crown / explicit Legacy and Nature, Callum's is Freedom and Magic/Power, and Rayla's is Duty, Sacrifice, and Paying the Price.

So like, TDP owes me emotional compensation / will be paying for my therapy bills, but what else is new?

[itsonlystrange]

THE WORST AND BEST EPISODES OF STRANGER THINGS

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER..

THE WORST EPISODES OF ST:

Season 3 episode 1:

I’m sorry but literally nothing was accomplished in this episode besides 2 make out scenes and the characters being so annoying and out of character I just find it so hard to watch during rewatches. It was so slow and just so boring to watch. Worst opening to a season ever

Season 2 episode 7

I actually love this episode as a stand-alone episode however it did not mash well into season 2 and it’s the only episode that you can skip and still have the story make sense. Yeah, it gives el the ability to close the gate and I enjoy the new characters however it felt so long due to it only having El and the new characters in it. I feel like they should have had El run away to chicagi in season 2 episode 6 (the only episode in the whole series where el is not in it) and have this plotline be mixed in with all the others instead of having it be the only plot lie in one stand alone episode and then just ditching the plotline later on

Season 3 episode 5

This also just felt so slow as well. I didn’t enjoy the pacing. The only enjoyable plot in this ep for me was The Scoops Troop. Hopper and Joyce’s bickering was funny at first but it got old quick and it just felt so out of character and it just got unbearable. The hospital plot was enjoyable towards the end however it felt like the kids had nothing to do for almost all of that episode up until the hospital scene at the end. All the kids really did was bicker with eachother and again, felt very out of character and like none of them were really taking it seriously. Will says it best “that’s what you’re concerned about right now?” He literally points out the stupidity some of the kids held that episode. And the adults

THE BEST EPISODES:

Season 2 Episode 8:

This accomplished so much in only about in hour. In just an hour we had: Bob die, the gang reuinite, them contact Will, the labs electricity gets shut off, then shut back on, and some awesome communication moments too. It really got everything it needed to done quick and efficiently and it felt authentic and real. The acting was great too.

Season 1 Episode 8:

This one is also just phenomenal. Again, it gets everything done it needed to and it felt authentic and real. It’s not AS good as 2x08 but it’s pretty close. It’s emotionally enjoyable and the characters really all worked together. There were some awesome revelations made in that episode too.

Season 2 episode 2:

This is just one of the most fun episodes of the series. I loved getting to see the party actually act as friends and this is one of the only times we actually get to see that. I also loved El in this episode and I enjoyed the flashbacks too. The Halloween party was done great and really felt like you were in the 80’s. Again, a lot of revelations were made in this episode and this is one of the first times we actually get to see how much Jonathan cares about Nancy and how much Mike cares about Will. It’s a fantastic episode all in all and the nostalgia is just great. The music is some of the best music ST has ever created, too. Overall, I really enjoy this episode:

BONUS EPISODES:

Season 2 episode 9:

Again, I love the conclusion of this episode. The stakes were high. Millie and Noah’s acting was great. And that whole sequence where the mind flayer is leaving Will and where El is closing the gate was incredibly acted so I applaud Noah and Millie for their phenomenal performances. It feels like a great conclusion to a season and although I didn’t LOVE the snowball, it still was a sturdy epilogue. All the plot lines meshed well, and I felt like it wrapped everything up pretty well in a way that felt real and made sense. Also I loved how everyone pitched in to save Will. I don’t love the Mileven kiss at the end of this but besides all that it was a pretty dandy episode and put a neat bow on everything. Also the cinematography was ON POINT

Season 3 Episode 4:

One of my only favorite episodes from season 3. You can probably guess what I have to say about this episode already but this is the only episode in season 3 where we really get to see everything blend really well. This is also one of the only episodes in season 3 where characters actually felt in character and worked together. I loved how we got to see Lucas, Mike, and Will actually work together on this one. Max and El’s friendship was great, I loved the opening to this episode. Also Millie did great in that fight scene. Not to mention the closing for this episode was great and so spooky and We’ll Meet Again was PERFECT for this episode. It’s also one of the only episodes in season 3 where we see Jonathan and Nancy act as a couple. I love Jancy so much and it sucks that we barely got to see them interact as a couple in season 3.

THATS MY LIST AS OF RIGHT NOW! Comment your opinions if you have any. Do you agree or disagree?

[likethecities]

In “Defense” of Bo-Katan in Mandalorian S2

(or, why Bo’s refusal to accept Boba as Mandalorian in 2x08, after Din did accept it in 2x06, is internally consistent with her character and view of Mandalore, and is not only because she’s a self-serving ass*)

*(although she is both of those things)

NOTE: This is a discussion of why her view of Boba is logical for her character and where I hope/think it will go in S3 and the concept of “Mandalorian”. It is NOT an endorsement for her behavior.

This is ONLY based in current, Disney canon, not Legends. In Legends, Jango was the leader of Mandalore for several years if not decades. However! that line conflicts with TCW. So we’re using the old rule of “if it conflicts, current canon wins” and tossing it out.  If it gets recanonized, we can come back to it.

Okay first! Let’s break down the major Mandalorian characters/factions in the Mandalorian.

Din Djarin/Children of the Watch

Bo-Katan Kryze/Nite Owls

Boba and Jango Fett

What do they have in common? All three groups place a lot of practical and symbolic/ancestral value on their beskar armor. Bo and Din also place a lot of importance on the value of the Way, although with different interpretations. Lastly, Bo specifically cares about Mandalore as a place. Unsurprisingly, they all have different interpretations of what it means to be Mandalorian.

Let’s start with Din and the Children of the Watch (CotW). Here’s what we know about their definition of Mandalorian:

high cultural and symbolic value on Mandalorian armor

foundlings/non-Mandalorian children can be raised Mandalorian

very strict interpretation of the Way/Creed

non-Mandalorians cannot wear Mandalorian armor

As a final note, they don’t appear to have much actual beskar. Most of their armor, though forged in Mandalorian style, isn’t made of beskar, but other metals instead. It’s a big deal when Din rolls up with enough beskar to forge a whole suit; that kind of windfall doesn’t just happen.

So when S2 rolls around and Din runs into people wearing Mandalorian armor who don’t follow the Way as he knows it, he assumes they aren’t Mandalorian, with the following results:

Cobb (2x01): admits to not being Mandalorian when Din challenges him, offers to return armor to Din (standing in as a representative of all Mandalorians) once Din helps him. Din agrees, helps, and then leaves with the armor.

Bo-Katan/Nite Owls (2x03): claim a different interpretation of the Way, declare ownership over their armor through family heritage. Din recognizes their claim.

Boba (2x06): identifies himself as the rightful owner of the armor, refuses to claim clan ties or the Creed.  Din (eventually) recognizes his claim.

Once Din has accepted that other Mandalorians don’t have the same interpretation of the Way that he does, he’s willing to accept proof of ownership as enough.  Likely, this is because the CotW don’t have much beskar, and so they recognize prior claims much more strictly. For Din, at least, owning the beskar is enough to drop the argument about being Mandalorian or not. Now let’s move to Bo and her supporters. Here’s what we know about them:

high cultural and symbolic value on Mandalorian armor: status symbol, but not required by all members

looser interpretation of the Way

high value on clan/community membership, or connection to Mandalore as a planet

non-Mandalorians cannot (or at least shouldn’t) wear Mandalorian armor

We know from SW Rebels and TCW that Bo, her followers, and most of the Mandalore-based people that you do not have to wear armor to be Mandalorian. Sabine’s father is an artist and is never seen fighting or wearing armor, but no one questions that he’s Mandalorian. The armor and Creed alone aren’t a requirement.

How else do we know this? Because Bo spent several seasons backing Pre Viszla and the darksaber for the Mandalorian throne, but when Viszla lost the darksaber - and his head - to Maul, Bo objected. Maul wasn’t Mandalorian; he didn’t care about the place, the community, the culture, or the Way. So Bo turned to Satine, the leader that she had just deposed, as a more “Mandalorian” challenger. Satine still has her House Kryze ties and close attachment to Mandalore as a place; that was enough to make her Mandalorian and a better choice than Maul, even though she’d nearly completely broken with old Mandalorian ways.

(And, we should note, that some Mandalorians did switch their allegiance to Maul after this, because they recognized the right of the darksaber over any community or clan ties. They’re also still Mandalorian.)

So when Bo and her team meet Din, they recognize Din as Mandalorian.  He’s part of a Mandalorian offshoot sect: that’s his clan/community. They think his rules are weird and antiquated*, but they recognize them as related to the Way as they know it.

*yes, Bo is a jerk about this, because Bo is a jerk about a lot of things. She does accept it, though, which is the important part for this discussion.

Okay, now let’s turn to Boba.

Boba never explicitly claims to be Mandalorian, with Din in 2x06 or in the bar 2x08. He says that Jango was a Mandalorian foundling, but despite Din giving him multiple opportunities to claim to be Mandalorian, Boba rebuffs every single one.  He doesn’t have any clan or community ties, and he doesn’t care about the planet; he’s actively derisive about Bo’s goal to retake it. He doesn’t appear to follow any parts of the Way.  Frankly, Boba doesn’t seem to even want to be Mandalorian, he just puts up with being associated with them because of the armor.  He certainly doesn’t care who considers themselves Mandalorian or why. The only things that Boba cares about are that a) his ownership of his armor is acknowledged, and b) he’s recognized as Jango Fett’s son. That’s it.

Again, for Din, that’s enough. Boba can prove that the armor is his and he can prove that Jango obtained it properly (ie, as a Mandalorian foundling). Conflict solved, everyone move on.

For Bo and her followers, that’s not enough. The armor isn’t the sole thing that marks you as Mandalorian, and Boba (and Jango after becoming a bounty hunter, apparently for much of his adult life) has none of the clan/community ties that are part of her definition and no attachment to the planet or culture of Mandalore.  Ergo, he’s not Mandalorian, and rightfully-obtained armor or not, him wearing it is against their culture. And yes, Bo is being racist (something -ist, at least) when she calls Jango his “donor”, but she also has a point. There are millions of Jango Fett clones in the galaxy, and none of them were raised in Mandalorian culture or have any connection to Mandalore except DNA.  Rewatching the bar scene, she doesn’t seem to have any idea who Boba is until she recognizes his voice and identifies him as a clone.  Why should he or any clone deserve to wear Mandalorian armor, especially when they don’t participate in Mandalorian culture?

(the answer, obviously, is because Jango raised Boba as his son and heir and chose to pass down his armor/ship accordingly. But Bo has no reason to know this and she wouldn’t consider him Mandalorian either way, so there’s no point in Boba proving his ownership even if he cared enough about her opinion to bother.)

This also ties into the problem of the darksaber. Gideon isn’t Mandalorian, and it seems likely he obtained the sword when the Imperial Remant “glassed” the planet, so he’s not recognized as ruler of Mandalore even when he holds the darksaber. Din

is

Mandalorian, and he won it in combat. That’s an undeniable claim. He’s also worked with Bo multiple times, it’s not his fault that Gideon outplayed both of them, and he’s very, very good in a fight. Bo really wants that weapon to shore up her claim, but she also knows it’s not very honorable to attack an ally who didn’t ask for this, and she probably doesn’t want to risk the possibility that she might lose. She’s in a bind.

Similarly, Din really doesn’t want the darksaber or the responsibilities that go with it, but he can’t just hand it over because that’s against the Creed. Sabine did, but she never “won” the darksaber; she just picked it up out of Maul’s garbage cave, which was vague enough for everyone to accept her passing it up. (She was also probably 17 or 18 at the time and was considered a traitor by most Mandalorians, which probably helped). But Din is also very honorable; if he can’t find a way to pass the saber off, he’ll probably feel obligated to fulfill the requirements to the best of his abilities until he either does find someone else to take them or accepts them permanently (kinda like Grogu himself HMMMMMM).  We already know that Din is fairly good at diplomacy from 2x01, but he’s never worked with Mandalorians outside of his clan before, so he’s got a steep learning curve.

So my guess: S3 is going to be about reuniting the disparate Mandalorian groups, all of whom have different versions of what it means to be Mandalorian, and finding some common ground. They will either attempt to retake Mandalore or find somewhere else to make a homeland, or possibly make the decision to stay dispersed. If Bo stays as a major character, we might see her trying to recruit Din into her clan to influence him; if not, she might slink off and wait to see how he does.

Something that could be cool? Din putting a lot of effort into trying to connect with other Mandalorians and Bo admitting that he’s actually doing a pretty good job, even if she wanted to do it herself!  #growth for both of them.  Meanwhile Boba, who again appears to not give two shits about any of this, will probably be chilling on Tatooine, maybe throwing some info or weapons Din’s way if he thinks Din actually has a shot at something.  Or ignoring all of them and taking over the Hutt empire instead, who knows.

Either way, I hope we get more discussion of what happened to Mandalore, Mandalorian identity, and Mandalorian politics in S3.

[austennerdita2533]

Hi! I would love to hear your seven favorite Luke/Lorelai episodes? Some of mine: Double Date, That Damn Donna Reed, Run Away Litl Boy, The Ins and Outs of Inns, The Incredible Shrinking Lorelais...I could pick like 25 just off the top of my head, but it's interesting how many of my favorites come from before they were actually dating! (They're an OTP for me no matter what, but I did prefer how LL were written---and how pretty much everything about the show was written---in the first four seasons over the final three and the revival!)

I love, love, love the first four seasons of Gilmore Girls! I rewatch them the most, honestly. I think they're my favorite partly because Luke and Lorelai have so many great scenes/episodes together.

Here are a few of my favorite L&L episodes. There are way more than seven because it's so hard for me to narrow them down lmao.

Pilot 1x01. They had me at "Junkie." "Angel. You've got wings, baby."

1x10 Forgiveness and Stuff. I love how he tries to cheer her up with the Santaburger, drops everything to rush her to the hospital, handles Emily like a pro, and then they also have that cute "you know you always look good" convo in the hallway. Lorelai gifts him his trademark blue hat in this one, too!

1x12 Double Date. They flirt, they play cards. My face always morphs into 😩 mode when Mrs. Kim bursts in and interrupts them. HE. GETS. SO. CLOSE. TO. ASKING. HER. OUT. WHYYYYY.

1x14 That Damn Donna Reed. Whenever I think of this episode, I can see Lorelai pulling Luke into her house by his puffy green vest *swoons* and then can hear him saying, "There really is a chick loose in here!"

2x07 Like Mother, Like Daughter. She gets so jealous when she sees him talking to that Chilton mom. "Date her, marry her, make her Mrs. Backwards Baseball cap, see if I care!"

2x08 The Ins and Outs of Inns. How can I not love this episode when we find out Luke was a Trekkie?

2x10 The Bracebridge Dinner. The sleigh ride! It's about the ambiance and the intimacy of them being snuggled up, thigh-against-thigh, beneath a blanket.

3x07 They Shoot Gilmores, Don't They? They have that lovely discussion at the dance marathon about wanting more kids while he's fixing her shoe. All of the foreshadowing was there, dammit!

3x17 A Tale of Poes and Fire. I love that Luke and Lorelai are basically finagled into a forced proximity trope because the inn catches fire. She has to spend the night at his place. She's in the bed, he's on the couch. Then she tells him about the dream she had earlier in the season about being pregnant with his twins. I just--it's so cuuute. 😭

4x05 The Fundamental Things Apply. Their first movie night! It's essentially an undate date. A precursor to them becoming a couple and finding things to do/share together, even though neither one of them realizes it yet.

4x11 In The Clamor and Clangor. I will never be over them sneaking into the church together to break the bells. It's iconic! It's also snowing, which just sets the mood. And then that whole "why don't you want me to move" conversation is so emotionally and sexually CHARGED. I die of feels every time I watch it. Die.

4x21 Last Week Fights, This Week Tights. Luke. Can. Waltz. That's all I gotta say.

4x22 Raincoats and Recipes. He brings her flowers. She's so nervous and giddy she faceplants into a door. What's not to love? Also, I can honestly say that I think Luke and Lorelai have one of the best first kiss scenes of any show I've ever watched. Their bickering pre-kiss is just so quintessentially THEM. It's perfectly in-character, so believable and funny. Like, I love that Luke gets so fed up, so overwhelmed with feeling because whoa! she reciprocates!, that he can't help but bark "will you just stand still" before wrapping her in his arms and planting one on her, FINALLY, after years of pining. It's like all the unresolved tension they've accumulated over the years reaches a boiling point that busts the lid clean off in that moment. I love it so much!

5x03 Written in the Stars. Their first official date. He's "all in" and I will never get over the fact that he kept that horoscope in his wallet for 8 years. Proof he is sentimental at heart!

5x12 Wedding Bell Blues. They were so precious and in love this episode, despite Hurricane Christopher blowing in to ruin everything.

7x13 I'd Rather be in Philadelphia. Lorelai's married to Christopher, which is extremely painful for my L&L-loving heart, but the way Luke shows up for her after Richard has his heart attack despite everything they've been through as a couple speaks volumes. It's EVERYTHING. There's nothing he wouldn't do to make her happy, to bring her comfort. Nothing. It doesn't matter if they're together or not together. He's always there for her. Always, always there. It's unconditional. I like to think that's the moment she realizes she'll always love him, that she's still in love with him. (She should've BYE FELICIA'D Christopher right then and there.)

[missmaxime]

Thoughts on the Death flashbacks: Having rewatched the episode again I really do feel like these flashbacks are a lead-in to the end of Beth and Dean’s relationship. I think it’s important to note when the three flashbacks are placed in the episode: right before and or after we focus solely on Beth, like she is reminiscing these three moments in time with him. Times she has fond memories of for good reasons, but at the same time show us the cracks in their relationship that we still see now. What are these pivotal moments? - Beth meets Dean for the first time - Dean asks Beth to prom - Dean meets Beth in the hospital on Prom Night #1 Lead-in to this flashback is the moment just seconds before Beth meets Dean while he’s in jail. Everything between them is at an absolute low, there’s even physically a wall between them. I’m not surprised they counter their burned out relationship by the exact moment it once ignited. Beth tries to remind herself in this episode about the good moments, but I think it’s also very telling those are moment from the first months of when they met – and not, say, when they got their first apartment, or had their first baby, or got married. In the flashback Dean strikes up conversation with Beth while his buddies start a food fight at the diner (Dairy Queen) she works at – perhaps even with an ulterior motive of distracting her while they wreak havoc. He does so by asking for a refill for something ridiculous, because if you’re not Ikea who gives refills for ice cream? But he’s got her attention. And if that attention was genuinely geared towards wooing her he could even have gone the corny way of complimenting her eyes, or her bright smile – but he chooses to focus on the fact that she’s a cheerleader.

This gets interrupted by his friends getting into the food fight, and Beth calls out for him to say something to his friends. In answer he joins into the fight and runs off with said friends, leaving Beth to clean the mess. A little later he returns (and with this, he also doesn’t lose face with his friends) to charm her with an apology and helping her out to clean the mess him and his friends made. Which, as we know, has been a recurring theme between them way into the future. (Not to fangirl out to much about this, but I’m living for the fact that Dean calls her Elizabeth at first, but when she correct him to Beth he goes with that. While Rio called her Elizabeth from the start, and she never corrected him on that.) It’s not hard to see why Beth falls for Dean here, even if we can see the patterns because we know the Beth and Dean from decades later. He’s handsome, witty, popular, the quarterback – and he’s interested in her. Sees her. While he’s the one who made the mess, he cleans it up, telling her that ‘he’s got it’. Something he can do now with spilled food, but we know he can’t when messes become grown-up messes. After the flashback we’re back in the jail, looking at Beth’s reflection in the glass as she stares at herself before Dean takes place in front of her. He’s understandably hurt and upset her actions got him there (and even more because she admits Rio was a part of the scheme all along). Even her voicing a desperate ‘I love you’ doesn’t make him stay, he’s done with her. She says she’ll ‘Fix it’ like Dean promised her in the flashback, but he’s not having it. In the final shot we zoom out, framing Beth with darkness – counter to the flashback where we zoom in on her smiling face. #2 Leading up to the second flashback Phoebe questions Dean, and tries to bribe him with some packs of ramen to tempt him into selling out Beth. She talks about the cheerleader she used to be friends with in high school, and how she got tossed aside when the girl didn’t have any use for her anymore when her Fake ID got taken away. Phoebe talks about how the girl is like Beth, using people and tossing them aside when they’re tired of them – Dean knows very well that’s not Beth at all, not in the context of him at least. In the flashback Dean comes to Beth’s house, where we learn he’s been leaving her a lot of messages. This is 1991 so we’re on analog phone time, not giving Beth an opportunity to see some caller ID, so if she doesn’t want to talk to Dean I don’t feel like it’s weird that Annie answered the phone to hear who’s calling. Annie’s obviously not a fan of him, but we don’t know whether that is because they’ve had some sort of fight or whether she doesn’t like the idea of Beth having a boyfriend altogether. I think this flashback really shows how both Dean and Beth are people who are very image-focused people, albeit for different reasons. Dean arrives in a flashy red sportscar to enhance his popular quarterback persona, Beth chooses to have the conversation outside to shield the outside world from the dire situation on the inside. Again Dean focuses on how Beth is not there for him. He called her five times, but doesn’t ask if she has something going on, or if she’s studying hard for a test, or if any of her friends are in trouble. He states that ‘she hasn’t been to any of the games’ – HIS games, not even shifting it to ‘I didn’t see you with your squad’. It’s all about him. His ‘I thought we were cool?’ entices her to come up with an excuse, doubling down with a ‘I don’t want to be a dick’, even if he clearly already is. Annie steps out of the house, visibly sporting yet another injury (she had her arm in a cast in the 2x08 flashback) and asks Beth about their mom’s meds. Two things Dean could just ask about, even if it’s just a flippant ‘oh, is your mom sick?’ or ‘did that monster hurt herself?’ because both could be explanations on why Beth hasn’t called him back. Yet he ignores all this and goes back to making her feel bad by putting the blame on him, casually working in the ‘oh I was going to ask you to prom?’ in a way like don’t bother if you’re not interested. It’s so unromantic the way he drops this, yet Beth latches on immediately because it’s a chance to do some normal teen stuff for a change and who can blame her if her days are spend taking care of her mom, raising her sister, going to school in the day and working a job in the evening. It’s a tactic Dean keeps using on her as an adult. Scene that comes to mind is that Dean already packed his bag, admits that he cheated on Beth with Gayle, and she’s like - fine, maybe don’t leave. Back in the jail Beth waits for him, but Dean has left a clear message that he doesn’t want to see her. #3 First we watch the girls wait for Eric to get arrested, but we all know how disastrous that ends. Her plan to frame Dean’s friend for her wrongdoings falls through, she failed him. Which piles onto the guilt that Dean’s in jail in the first place. It’s then she searches her brain for a moment when he was there for her, when she truly started feeling that he was going to be her rock. Beth’s waiting in the hospital, she’s not panicked or worried, rather annoyed and tired like this is yet the millionth time she’s here because her mother needed her stomach pumped. We still don’t know for sure what’s going on with the mom, but from 2x08 we know she spends lots of time laying in bed and needs meds, the stomach pumping indicates overuse of a drug (most common alcohol) – I’m leaning to depression combined with substance abuse – but we don’t know for sure. We also learn that the dad is not in the picture, or no one to rely on in the very least. It’s just Beth and Annie. Dean bribed Annie to tell him where Beth is – it’s prom night and he came to pick her up to go to the dance. Now there’s more than one way to read this scene. The first way is that Dean is genuinely concerned about this whole ordeal and he wants to be there for Beth, which is definitely the way young Beth must read into this. Another part of me thinks there’s some self-interest from Dean mixed in as well. If he didn’t go to Beth, he’d go to the prom, dateless – embarrassing for our quarterback star. But helping out your girlfriend with her sick mom is a great excuse to avoid that situation. We know how upset Dean got about being wifeless at the Spa Competition, Beth’s an asset to his image, her not being there breaks his image down. And I’m not saying he’s not interested in her, but from all the conversations we’ve seen them have in the flashbacks none of it really revolves around how Beth is doing. From the start their relationship has been around transactions. Image, deeds, quid pro quo. Even if you can read the ‘do you want anything from the vending machine?’ and the ‘your sister took all my money’ as something fun, it’s yet another reminder that he paid for her time. That she owes him, even if she really appreciates him being there for her. Back to Beth in the car with Eric and the girls, where our girl looks more than unhappy. Like Dean paid Annie to see her, she’s paying Eric to see Dean. Granted the stakes are immensely higher, but the juvenile situation carries on into the presence. While Eric comes up with even more terrible plans Beth’s getting increasingly emotional �� which still could be interpreted many ways but I think she realizes that the normal from back then, the happiness Dean provided to her, it’s never coming back – plans executed correctly or not. Dean might still be that guy, but she’s not that girl anymore. Eric talks about how he’s invisible, and how that changed when Dean became his colleague. How beforehand no one saw him as him, but Dean made him feel like he was part of the work crew, called him by his name – it made him feel seen, made him feel like a real person. And that’s of course exactly what young Beth was feeling – she didn’t feel like a real person because no one saw her as Beth the teenage girl. She’s a caretaker for her mom, a mother figure to Annie – a cheerleader to Dean. But in the memory she can recognize that he made her feel like a real person. Eric proposes that ‘They don’t make ‘em like Dean Boland anymore’. And they don’t for him. But Beth also knows that the feeling wears off, that at some point Dean Boland won’t like you anymore when you don’t play the part he signed on for. Eric’s giving up everything to be a loyal friend, like Beth has for over two decades to be his loyal wife. And while she’s technically still his wife, she’s not loyal like she used to be – not financially, physically or emotionally. She doesn’t need Dean anymore to make her feel like a real person. She’s her own real person. --- Beth comes home to Fitzpatrick lounging in her kitchen like he belongs there, helping himself to a cup of tea. Our girl is already on edge what with the father of her kids possibly spending years behind bars, her plans miserably failing, and now this douche want even more of her time. She’s done playing a part to get what she needs, so she goes right to the point. Fitz touches on that she wants more out of her life, which is true. Unfortunately for him Beth has come to the point that no man – not like Dean did in the flashbacks – will do that for her anymore. She’s the one steering the ship, not some guy anymore. But while all these flashbacks Beth is experiencing might put some things in a different light to her, it doesn’t scrub away what Dean made her feel. Because he is the father of her kids, they are what will forever link them together, the connection they both care about deeply regardless of whatever troubled feelings they have towards each other. She might not be a true wife to him anymore, but they are parents to the same children. Her dad wasn’t there for her, but there’s no reason why Dean can’t be there for his kids. ---- So all in all I actually really liked seeing the flashbacks, especially because we experience them through Beth, and how they parallel with the now. In the final scene we see Phoebe looking at the perfect Boland family picture, the perfect image that they both crafted together. But hidden on the backside are the lies and the deceit, yet also Beth telling Dean how to take care of said family. Because she knows she can’t trust him to take care of it, unlike when they were teens and when she’d like to believe he could. Their real personas are on the table, and they don’t like each other anymore, can’t trust each other anymore. To me the final scenes read like the only thing they can still be: parents. I have no doubt they both love their kids, and those four humans will always bind them together, regardless of their relationship status. Beth is giving Dean the only genuine thing she can: her trust as a mutual parent, and the opportunity to enjoy the love of their kids. But it’s laced with melancholy, this is what’s left in the ruins, these four good things. Everything else is gone, and I think they both realize this. 

[firelxdykatara]

hello!! i just wanted to ask- i wanna do an ouat rewatch bc CAPTAIN SWANN but its pretty long and i honestly dont care for the other characters/how badly the overall writing was handled.. which are your favourite captain swan eps? anything them centered and i think ill just skip around to rewatch their romance as they did invent romance 😭😭 ty in advance <3

they absolutely did invent romance, you are right about that and i love them so much

UHMMMM as far as my favorite CS eps, here’s a roadmap of what I personally consider key eps in their journey (some of this is from memory but I haven’t done a full rewatch in a while so i’m going through the episode list as a refresher)

2x06: Tallahassee--this is a must-watch ep for any CS fan, and I really think this is the episode that sparked the fire that CS would become as a fandom. It has everything--flirtatious banter, all kinds of tension, deliberate parallels drawn between Emma and Killian’s pasts, as well as their first meeting being intercut with her relationship with Neal (which serves, especially in hindsight, to highlight just how sketchy that relationship was, and why she couldn’t bring herself to trust Killian--because the last time she felt this way about anyone, it ended horribly)

2x08 and 2x09: Into the Deep and Queen of Hearts--these episodes cover the race to the portal between Emma&co and Hook/Cora and while they don’t do a ton for CS as a relationship since they’re still enemies at this point, it lays great foundation for their future relationship development. Plus, sexy swordfight, Hook going out of his way to save Aurora’s heart--he may be a pirate, but he has standards ok--and Emma realizing Cora can’t remove her heart without her permission? Poetic Cinema

2x11: The Outsider--more of a Killian-centric episode, it shows a lot of Killian at his worst but it’s necessary for his overall character arc and I genuinely love looking back and seeing just how far he managed to come, to the point of eventually even letting go of his (very understandable) grudge against Rumplestiltskin.

2x12: In the Name of the Brother--am I including this purely for Emma&Hook banter in the hospital, and Killian saying ‘hey beautiful’ when he’s lying on the road because he just got hit by a fucking car? You bet I am. Also, go to youtube and look up ‘ouat season two deleted scene jello’, because it’s beautiful and there was a tremendous outcry in the fandom when we realized it had been cut from the episode lmao (It’s also the episode that made me start shipping Frankenwolf, which I’m still sad never went anywhere, but they had a lot of potential and great chemistry.)

2x22: And Straight On Till Morning--A few of the episodes in between have some fun minor interactions and flashbacks (and I always approve of episodes where Killian gets one up on Rumple, so 2x15 is fun for me if i ignore all the Neal bits) but the finale is where we finally get a glimpse of who Killian could be beyond his need for revenge. He didn’t have to come back, he didn’t have to bring back the bean and help the town--but he did.

Season 3a: there’s a lot of really good stuff here for Hook and Emma that is interwoven between the A plots of other episodes. I think, as far as half-season arcs go, it’s one of the best (and everything after 4a bombed hard, but I digress) But there are a few episodes that stand out if you don’t want to watch the whole season. (I recommend starting with the premier though, it was a really solid season starter overall.)

3x05: Good Form--this is the culmination of David’s poisoned-by-dreamshade arc, and is also Peak Captain Charming Bromance. Hook not only keeping David’s secret, but doing everything he can to help save him??? Poetic cinema. It also provides some crucial Killian backstory, showing how he lost his brother to the very same dreamshade. Plus, the character development--Pan offers Killian a chance to escape the island with Emma if he kills David, and instead, he saves him, refusing the deal and damn the consequences. Also also? The first CS kiss which drove the fandom WILD.

3X06: Ariel--not only to I love OUaT’s take on Ariel, but this episode has the infamous Echo Cave scene, which involves a lot of feelsy confessions and Killian being the one to tell everyone that Neal is alive and helping Emma save him despite his own growing feelings for her.....IT’S JUST A LOT AND I LOVE IT.

3x07: Dark Hallow--oh man, I’d forgotten about this episode, but it has Killian and Neal fighting over Emma, which may sound eye-roll worthy, but Emma is allowed to tear them a new one about it and it’s one of the few times she’s allowed to actually???? put her own feelings first so I have to include it here on spec

3x11 and 3x12: Going Home and New York City Serenade--these mark the end of 3a and start of 3b respectively, and it has some amazing shit like Killian vowing never to forget Emma and Emma smiling as she replies, “Good.” And then she and Henry are in New York with their memories completely altered, but Killian shows up because Storybrooke is back and in jeopardy, and he helps Emma get back to her family and her home and, much later, Emma finds out he sold the Jolly Roger to be able to do it and it’s just. It’s beautiful ok.

3x17: The Jolly Roger--there’s honestly not a whole lot in the back half of season 3 (until the CS movie) but of course anything named for Hook is a must-watch, and this is where we get the iconic line I swear on Emma Swan--which is Killian saying he’s in love with her before he even realizes it. We also find out just what he did to Ariel, and his attempts to make amends are what lead to Zelena being able to curse him, so it’s great from a character perspective as well.

The next four episodes round out the end of the season, and there’s a lot of great stuff in them--Hook refusing to get Emma to kiss him, but Emma feeling like she can’t trust him because he didn’t tell her about the curse to begin with, and then kissing him anyway to save his life regardless of the consequences.... but the only ones that are absolutely necessary are the final two episodes.

They are colloquially termed ‘The Captain Swan Movie’ for a reason, after all.

Killian and Emma essentially have an entire Time Travel adventure all to themselves, where they accidentally ruin her parents first meeting and have to fix it so that she’ll even be born, Emma finally getting into the storybook, the pair of them dancing at a ball, Killian rushing to save Emma only for her to get out of the cell herself, because “The only one who saves me is me.” Killian saying “I would go to the ends of the world for her... or time.” Finally fixing the timeline and making it back to Storybrooke and Killian feeling like he doesn’t deserve a place at the table so he doesn’t go inside, but Emma comes out to him anyway and finds out he gave up the Jolly Roger for her, the true start to their relationship...... IM CRYING JUST THINKING ABOUT IT I’M SORRY.

I personally really enjoyed 4a, the Frozen arc was one of the last good half-season arcs of the show, but a lot of people disliked it so it’s really up to interpretation. I don’t have as many Intense Opinions on this season (except hating almost everything about 4b and the queens of darkness arc), but I will say the episodes with good Killian/CS moments are 4x02 (Emma nearly freezes to death, Killian is desperate to save her, Captain Charming teamwork, my heart hurts), 4x04 (Emma asks Killian out on a real date, he tries to get his real hand back from Gold, things go massively awry and he winds up back under Gold’s thumb), 4x08 (Killian tries to save Emma from Gold’s plans), 4x11 (the 4a finale is just great in general), and then..... it cannot be overstated how much I hate season 4b, but 4x15 is the Killian-centric ep where his past with Ursula is revealed and he makes amends to her in order to get her to leave the QoD alliance and it’s great character stuff for him, and then there’s the season 4 finale.

Both parts are worth watching, if only because Deckhand Coward Hook still being a braver, more heroic man than ‘Hero Rumplestiltskin’ warms the very cockles of my heart, and of course the second part of the finale has him helping Henry to save Emma and it’s beautiful and also Emma watches him die for her and it is angsty as FUCK but gods I love it. Here’s where it gets tricky, though--my recommendation is, turn the episode off right after Emma finds Killian back in the present day of Storybrooke and they reunite.

Just turn off the episode there and skip right ahead to the s6 musical episode (Emma and Killian’s wedding ep) and pretend they got married and none of seasons 5 or 6 ever happened. >.> (Although I will say certain parts of the Underworld arc were incredibly feelsy despite how much I overall hated the season: 5x11 (the 5a finale, Killian as the dark one STILL being a better man than rumple, we love to see it), 5x15 (I am not immune to Brothers Jones feelings ok), 5x20 (emma literally takes a True Love Test trying to find a way to save killian, you don’t get more romantic than that--also Killian telling Emma to promise she won’t put her armor back up just because she lost him again??? my HEART), 5x21 (Hook does what he can from the Underworld anyway and zeus sends him back to Emma, they really just said ‘today I will invent romance’ and then Did That)

And then, yeah, just skip to the wedding. It’s beautiful, I enjoyed the music, personally, though I know musical episodes are hit or miss with most people. And if you turn it off when the last musical number starts (after the wedding ceremony, I believe) you can pretend it was the end of the show! =DDD

.....Oh my god I just rambled for years. I HOPE YOU FIND THIS USEFUL, ANON. I 100% support a CS-centered rewatch, their episodes were consistently some of the best across the entire series, and they are truly one of my favorite romances of all time.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Connections Between Nebraska, the CRM , and TWB

Morning Everyone! I wrote this last week and it jumps around a bit, referencing some old TWD episodes, a TWB episode, an a few other things. The biggest thing here is just making connections and showing that the symbolism is the same across all shows in the franchise. That all of them are connected. And that the writers are telling one, huge story, and have been since very early on.

So, while speaking with a follower last week, I ended up making some interesting connections. Nothing groundbreaking. Bit of a rabbit hole, but not too deep. ;D

But someone sent me something yesterday that said on the walking dead wiki page for the CRM, it says they’re based out of Omaha, NE. Now, they definitely talk about the Omaha location in TWB, but I didn’t remember it saying the CRM is actually based there. 

So I went and looked at the wiki page. What it says is that it’s part of the Alliance of the Three, and Omaha is one of their locations. The actual base of the CRM is still unknown.

But I started thinking about TWD 2x08, Nebraska, and decided to go back and watch that episode again. It’s honestly been years since I sat down and watched it beginning to end. I did, and I’ll come back to that in a minute.

(CRM Page HERE.)

A/B Theme

But further down on the page, it also defines the A and B symbolism. It says A = a strong leader who is spirited and willing to fight back. And B = someone who either can’t fight back or won’t.

But it also has a note under the A that says 1x04 of TWB confirmed that A also = Bitten. That seemed a little weird to me. I didn’t remember them confirming that for sure in the episode (we would have talked about it a LOT more). And Jadis called Rick a B, which suggests he’s not bitten. So I was like, Hmm. What’s this about?

Well, I went and rewatched 1x04. I really need only have watched the after-the-credits coda, since I’m fairly certain that’s where they’re getting this. (And of course let’s remember that anyone who is a member can update wiki pages; so this isn’t exactly a confirmation from tptb.)

In the coda, as you will remember, the woman is eating a sandwich and talking into a recorder about test subjects. All of them have an A before their numbers. And the camera pans over all of them, clearly showing bite marks. So, I’m thinking that’s where they’re getting that A = bite from. But to me, that’s not exhaustive evidence. I still think Rick was bitten, and I still think we don’t entirely understand the definition.

I COULD get behind there being two definitions going on here. One that they’ll acknowledge in the show as the actual way the CRM uses the numbers, and one that’s more symbolic that tptb will never confirm or deny. I mean, they did this with the A on Daryl’s shirt at the Sanctuary. And then there’s the A Sam had in 6a, and the A painted on FG’s church. Are we supposed to believe they’ll all be directly linked to the CRM in the show?

So, I’m wondering if the strong fighter vs weak fighter is how the CRM actually uses it. But symbolically, that’s where the bitten/not bitten comes in.

And you may ask, even if that’s the case, why would Jadis call Rick a B? I mean, he’s clearly one who will fight back.

But here’s the thing. When she had him prisoner in his blue skivvies in the yellow storage container, she wrote an A on the outside. So clearly, whatever it means to the CRM, she thinks he’s an A. And obviously he wasn’t bitten then. So either B does mean bitten, or else she’s just lying about him being a strong leader and fighter. Why would she do that?

I’m thinking about Grady. They saved Noah but left his father behind. And I’m thinking that given what we know of Noah’s weakness, his father was probably the stronger fighter. You could also argue that they saw Beth as weak and took her, but when they saw Daryl in their review mirror, they sped off. I think they only take vanilla people they believe they can control. So maybe Jadis said it because otherwise they wouldn’t have taken Rick, and she wanted to save his life. And because he was hurt and weak, his rebelliousness really wouldn’t have come across to the guys in the helicopter.

Boy are they in for a rude awakening!

So yeah, basically it confirmed nothing for me, lol. The symbolism is still clear as mud, no?

Nebraska

As for Nebraska, when I watched, I mostly saw more connections to what we’ve learned recently, about the CRM and the Great Britain theme (Revolutionary War) and such.

So, I wanted to specifically listen to what the guy says about Nebraska. I wondered if he could have ties to the CRM at all. I didn’t see any evidence of that, but there was still kind of an interesting hint. He was talking about how they’d met lots of people, who all had stories about where some community might still be functioning. And one of the things he said was that they met someone who was sending supplies via RAILWAY toward Omaha, NE. And that was it. They went on about Nebraska in a few other lines, so we’re clearly supposed to take note of it. 

But what we CAN now confirm via TWB is that one of three communities in the Alliance of Three is in Omaha. So, to me, this was definitely a very early, very subtle CRM clue.

(Clearly from the above pic, which is not mine, other people in the fandom are also putting these things together.)

I’ll give you one more small thing and then the part that gets kinda wild. His shark t-shirt. Um…Stafford Sharks, I think? And I know we’ve talked about this before in the sense of it being a water clue. But the Stafford Sharks thing is a real place that’s based out of the UK. Their website even ends in the “.co.uk” suffix. And of course there’s an 11 on the back of the shirt, which we’ve talked about for a long time and, as has recently been pointed out, MIGHT among other things point to S11.

So for me, we have the 11, a hint at the UK (Julia Ormond’s character is British and represents Cornwallis in the Revolutionary War template), and a subtle reference to where the CRM is, all in one person/conversation. And if this guy, at a broad level, represents the threat of the CRM, I think it’s important that Rick kills him. Yeah, Rick’s totally gonna knock the CRM on it’s butt by the end of the series. (Yay!)

But here’s the other thing I thought about. This episode is THE next episode after Sophia comes out of the barn.

Think about that. 1. Missing girl 2. Girl found 3. Hint at CRM    

Just saying.

TWB 1x04

As I said, I rewatched the entire episode and probably didn’t need to, but I was actually glad I did. If I had more time, I do rewatches of literally EVERYTHING right now. Unfortunately, that’s probably not going to happen just yet.

I didn’t nail down the TWB template until the final episode of season 1, so rewatching it, I’m just seeing things I didn’t pick up on before.

This was the episode where they went into the high school to get out of the rain, Silas and Iris dance in the auditorium, etc. And mostly I was focusing on the pairings. We picked up the idea of Iris and Silas being Bethyl proxies when we first watched it. That much was clear. But now that I know Felix = Daryl and Huck = Carol, I saw more.

They divide into 3 groups and what really jumped out at me is that in this scenario, Huck and Faith are together. If anything, because she goes into the CRM at the end, Faith = Beth, right? Which we talked about. So I was thinking about what I’ve said that Daryl and Carol will split up and Carol and Beth might have the first reunion, and kind of watching it through that lens. Nothing huge jumped out at him until…

…the wolf.

Remember the wolf that was building a nest and protecting it’s young and dragging walkers through the halls? I don’t even know how to interpret it in a forecasting way, but since TWD ep 21, where we saw Daryl fixing the bike and hear the wolf howl, it really jumped out at me. The idea that the wolf symbolism will return with Beth and be an important part of the story.

Beyond that, I think we MIGHT be able to take some clues about Daryl’s future arc from this little sequence with Felix and Elton, but nothing huge jumped out at me. So, I’ll probably have to go back again later, maybe during or after S11 as we learn more.

So yeah. As I said, very meandering thoughts and connections today.

Thoughts?

[blanket-hole]

Im calling this the faberry files cos I feel like a spy when I'm really just very gay

This is just basically timestamps of every faberry moment I could find as I was rewatching season 1-3. I don't know if anyone wants to see it but I just put it here cos why not. I wasn't really planning on posting it but here we are so it features my gay ass commentary. Anyway there u go.

gay ass looks-

-1x04- so far I’ve seen a gay ass look Quinn gives Rachel at 35:36

-1x05-39:50-not that gay but a little bit, also long

-1x09-43:02 she looks so adoring

-1x10-during endless love

-1x11-9:37 voiceover is mean but just look at those eyes and tell me I’m wrong,34:00 she literally looks so adoringly I can’t

-1x12-10:41 pretends not to see her only to look straight (or not) at her

-1x15-35:02 they’re even talking about love at the time and sitting weirdly close for enemies

-1x16-41:30 

-1x20-43:06 I can’t really see where she’s looking under those long ass lashes but I think when Rachel does that little giggle she stares at her while smiling, might just be Faberry goggles tho

-1x22-9:05 I think thats like the cutest smile my little gay heart, 14:23 Quinn is fully checking her out rn like not even subtle they’re on stage

-2x04 16:12, 41:48 at Rachel singing

-2x07-23:19 that could in no way be regarded as a platonic look of enjoying the song, especially since its just started 

-2x09- 43:04 part of dog days but its just so cute them holding hands also weird since they are still meant to hate each other lol

-2x10-6:03 this could just be my Faberry goggles but im counting it :D, 31:20 staring at Rachel while she looks sad

-2x11-11:04 could be at puck but she was looking at Rachel before when they were further apart so imma take the w also Diana looks really cute in this bit

-2x16- 4:27 is being kinda mean but also the way she looks at her <3<3<3 :DD also 5:21 if u don’t want to wait through a bit of a scene and the look then is suuuuper gay, 43:17 she looks so proud of her girlfriend :DDDDD

-2x18-52:49 she looks like such a proud girlfriend in this bit

-2x21-1:29 its only a quick look from Quinn tho

-3x06-28:26 Quinn gives Rachel the GAYEST lingering look at the end of the song (unless my eyes deceive me but I don’t think they do cos I’ve checked like 3 times :DDD)

-3x07- 25:00 this is possible the outright gayest look from Quinn ive ever seen, its during one of the songs but I had to put it in

-3x08- 41:10 the look of joy on Quinns face when Rachel touches her shoulder is just pure gay energy

-3x14- 17:27 ‘for the rest of my life’ looks at Quinn, ffs just get married already, 24:07 she literally bites her lip like wth how is this not canon

-3x19- 39:08 kind of but Quinn looks really happy when he says Rachel Berryand its so cute

Scenes together-

-before I had this idea- the “eavesdrop much” talk, and a couple of other things e.g. the ru Paul scene and the sweetie scene. 

-1x05-41:59 during somebody to love weird foot tap thing

-1x06- 18:34 gay ass looks as well, 22:58

-1x07-21:45, 28:53 (the you obviously have a lot you need to express scene), 32:07 they just get wierdly closer for no reason

-1x09-26:09 not much but still

-1x13-3:06, 11:01

-1x15-34:18 sitting really close together next to each other when they’re meant to not like each other?

-1x20-5:42 they also sit really close and a bit of gay staring

-2x02 35:40 (on left of stage next to mike) they’re seen really close and talking, 38:55 standing unreasonably close and also in weird positions for a conversation, 31:28 Quinn looks really sad when Rachel sings to Finn (could also be a Fuinn thing tho so idk)

-2x04 28:11

-2x08-9:44

-2x13- 30:51

-2x14-8:19 its shortcut the level of gay panic on Quinns face is enough for its own spot

-2x15-0:03 how closeted is it to be the only two in the celibacy club fighting over a guy that neither of them want or need lmao I just think its really funny

-2x16-9:31 the level of gay panic on racehls face when she says she’s right is just a mood, 22:27 I think this is  a scene about miscommunication and Quinn blatantly states that she thinks Rachel is much better than Finn and that she believes in her I have a lot of feelings about this scene but ill leave it at that

-2x17-16:20

-2x18-2:38 not much tho, 10:53 they’re being civil and touchy feely also leads into pretty/unpretty, 21:50 when it pans to Quinn it makes it seem like it would be a Fuinn jealousy scene but she doesn’t look jealous at all just a bit sad i think she possibly is worried about Rachel and while she understands (which is why she’s helping) she wants her to feel beautiful in her own skin sorry if I read a bit too far in lol

-2x20-29:42, 33:12, 35:30 I love how finn last episode said Quinn was so closed off with her feelings and then this scene like maybe she can be herself around Rachel idk

-3x01-10:57 Skank Quinn fully checks Rachel out as she’s leaving in this scene also right after a scene where she said she’s not interested in the boys

-3x05-22:55 talking about finchel tho

-3x08-0:00, 21:54, 37:48

-3x11-14:28,20:00 is also a gay ass look but shes talking to Rachel so I put it here

-3x12-13:09 she only taps Rachel tho

-3x13-15:43 Quinn is acting like the stereotypical ‘gentleman’ and its very Faberry canon esque, to put it the best can

-3x14-34:28 this scene I just can’t the way Quinn lights up when she see her and her voice softens a bit and what she said this is the gayest scene no-one can explain it it a hetero way just ahh

-3x15-10:28 they’re holding hands :DD

-3x19-31:48 

-3x22-23:12 those tickets cost so much money I swear they should have been way better friends after high school pft, 40:15 Quinn looks so proud of her girlfriend

Possible scenes, could be just drama-

-1x09-29:27 could be at Rachel

-2x10-12:40 kind of about being sad about Finn but could be jealousy?

-2x16- 34:47 could be about Faberry but is framed as finchel or fuinn

-2x17- 37:28 probably just finchel drama but still Faberry jealousy

-2x18-17:16 they say how they’re ‘fighting about Rachel again’ and Im putting it in idc about finchel :DD

-2x19- 23:19 more about Fuinn like always in this category but Faberry jealousy

-2x22-2:27, 3:29, 8:25 finchel/fuinn/faberry jealousy

Sitting really close when they’re meant to not like each other-

-1x15-34:18 

-1x19-32:33 

-1x20-19:16 in the scene Quinn kinda checks her out but then they stand really close so I put it here

-2x02 23:24 sits really close to Rachel when she dresses in her Britney Spears costume and in the scene Quinn looks like she’s purposefully trying not to look at her and at 29:20 Quinn chose to sit right behind Rachel again, 39:52 seen sitting right behind her again

-2x10- 35:03 standing really close when it would make a difference if Quinn stood anywhere else (e.g. next to her friends or boyfriend) I just think its weird lol

-2x15- 6:28 (before Quinn starts plotting against Rachel, they’re in celibacy club together but all they do is argue so its still a bit weird)

-3x07- 4:54

I dont know where to put this-

-2x17- 35:10 they kinda just look a bit nervous and small interaction I just wanted to add this because I thought it was cute the way they moved around each other idk

-2x20- 14:46 Rachel knows Quinns eyes so well she knows the flower and colour of the ribbon (also gardenias are for secret love which it would surprise me if Rachel already knew)

-3x04-20:26 Rachel isn’t sitting near her boyfriend or anyone she’s even really friends with its a bit weird that shed be sitting in the corner right next to Quinn away from the other chairs

Songs- Ive probably missed a bunch of these but I tried lmao-

-somebody to love

-halo

-ride with me

-no air

-keep holding on

-bust a move

-proud Mary

-crazy in love

-imagine- there is a gay ass look

-you can’t always get what you want

-dont rain on my parade

-my life would suck without you

-gives u hell

-hello goodbye

-like a prayer

-home(kind of)

-give up the funk

-any way you want it

-faithfully

-dont stop delieving 

-Empire State of mind

-ice ice baby

-toxic

-damn it Janet

-time warp

-sweet transvestite

-start me up/living on a prayer

-hot patootie

-forget you

-umbrella/singin in the rain

-I think I wanna marry you

-just the way you are

-ive had the time of my life

-Valerie

-the Dog days are over

-the most wonderful day of the year

-welcome Christmas

-heads will roll/thriller

-fat bottomed girls

-sing

-blame it on the alcohol

-tik tok

-do you wanna touch

-afternoon delight

-get it right

-loser like me

-pretty/unpretty

-born this way

-pure imagination

-New York New York

-Fix you

-last Friday night

-hit me with your best shot/one way or another

-I cant go for that/ you make my dreams

-I kissed a girl

-feed the world

-summer nights

-we found love

-gotta be starting something

-Im sexy and I know it

-stereo hearts (not technicaly but a lot of Faberry so I’m putting it in)

-fly/I believe I can fly

-heres to us

-its not right but its okay

-its all coming back to me now

-paradise by the dashboard light

-we are the champions

-tongue tied

-you get what you give

[enigmaticxbee]

S2 Rewatch - MSR

When we start the season the X-Files are closed and Mulder and Scully are no longer partners. Mulder is depressed, pushing Scully away - because what are they to each other if they aren’t partners? - because he can’t get hurt by her moving on if he pushes her away first - because it’s too dangerous. But Scully is steadfast - she believes in their work and she cares about him and she shows up. By the end of 2x01 Little Green Men he tells her “I may not have the X-Files, Scully, but I still have my work. And I’ve still got you. And I still have myself.” He’s realized that he can still move forward, and that he isn’t alone on this any more. Starting later this season and throughout the rest of the show they refer to each other as their partner, yes, but also as their friend. It always feels important to them to emphasize that. It’s a way of conveying that this person isn’t just a work colleague, that they’re important personally to them (without straying over a relationship line that they just aren’t emotionally ready for). They aren’t partners any more at this point in the show, but he still has her.

I don’t know if Scully’s feelings about Mulder change drastically over the course of this season. She was pretty all in (on Mulder and the X-Files) by the end of the first season. She left medicine for the FBI because she thought she’d be able to make a difference. Being Mulder and Scully against the world, fighting for the Truth, you’re the only one I trust, has got to be a rush. Going back to teaching and standard cases after the things she’s seen on the X-Files? She’s just thrilled whenever they get to work together. (My headcanon: Scully would have been totally up for it early season 2 when they’re no longer partners, but Mulder’s a hot mess, so it’s not really on the table). After her abduction she just wants to get back to “normal”, focus on working fascinating cases with her partner, and avoid anything emotionally messy that would make her deal with the trauma of her abduction that she’s repressing.

I’ve already written a little about the Abduction Arc, and what it reveals about Mulder’s feelings at this point. If I had to pick when Mulder realizes that he LOVES Scully, this is it. But along with the deep feelings her abduction also brings out his GUILT. His behavior towards her definitely changes after she’s returned, he’s much more protective - he knows now how much he needs her (not just for the work, but personally). She’s aware of this protectiveness and feels it as a negative - that he thinks she can’t take care of herself - and that she has to prove herself to him.

The second half of this season after Scully is returned and they’re back on the X-Files is when they settle into their classic dynamic - the one they’re afraid to disrupt, and later fight to get back to, and fight to get out of over the next few seasons. They’re not feeling each other out the way they were in season 1 - they trust each other, they’ve got the partnership down, they’ve got the banter down, and they avoid anything too personal or emotional. The important thing is the Work, and they love working together - it’s challenging and exciting and meaningful. What do their personal feelings matter next to that? Or at least that’s what they tell themselves if they allow themselves to think about it at all.

My favorite Mulder MSR moment this season is in 2x08 One Breath when he chooses just being there in the hospital with Scully over vengeance. There’s nothing he can do to save her but getting revenge won’t help her either. As Melissa tells him “Even if it doesn’t bring her back at least she’ll know, and so will you.”

My favorite Scully MSR moment this season is Scully SHOOTING Mulder in 2x25 Anasazi. It probably says something about me that one half of my OTP shooting the other makes me so happy, but it’s just so The X-Files and so MSR. It’s over the top and romantic in a way that makes no sense out of context - she’s actually SAVING him, trust me, plot stuff! And it’s a completely tough as nails, badass Scully move, which I love. And Mulder’s reaction - Scully shot him? Yeah, Scully’s the best.

[pineapplesperhaps]

I’m thinking of rewatching all the “frenchie and kimiko” episodes... you’ve probably already answered this before, but what’s your favorite moment between them?

I do that sometimes! It’s really fun.,.. except for when they’re fighting :(

oohhh my favorite moment hmm. It’s hard to pick because everything just kind of builds up with them ya know?

The first one that comes to mind is less about Frenchie and Kimiko themselves and more about the writing - it’s that scene where she hold his hand after he says she can stay and help the boys stop Bad Guys™ or he can take her to the airport. The interaction between them alone is magical. The way Frenchie takes in a breath he was holding at the end and the way Kimiko is just so comfortable holding his hand makes my heart flutter.

But I think I thought of that moment first because the writers paired the scene up with the dialogue on the tv that they’re watching - when Frenchie is telling her that he’ll take her to the airport and stuff the narrator on the tv is saying something about a male shark interested in a potential mate. And then right at the very moment that Kimiko takes his hand the guy on the tv says ‘when the Female returns his feelings...’

So that’s how I knew the writers knew they were endgame lol

But man I also adore all the moments in 2x08 when they’re using sign language. That’s just everything I’ve ever wanted for them.

and of c o u r s e the dancing!!!!!!!! I’m still not over the fact that they fulfilled my prediction a whole season earlier than I thought they would.

In short: all of them are my favorite except the ones in the beginning of s2 because I think they made Frenchie OOC just so they could have them fight which would lead to them being closer. I think they could have shown the necessity of him learning her language without basically making him forget how he understood her in the first season. The Frenchie we know from s1 wouldn’t just be like ‘idk what you’re saying babe’ and give up. He would ask her more questions. He would really try to understand and put in the work to help her get her ideas across in a way he would understand.

But things are fine now so I shouldn’t be ranting lol. Thanks for the question 💕💕

[raayllum]

I'm just rewatching TDP once again and I still have the same impression on the scene in s1 when Callum tells Amaya that Rayla is a "bloodthirsty monster" and later Rayla is really hurt by that. Callum seems to never actually apologise for it properly. What do you think of this scene? How did it affect their relationship? Do you think Callum should be more sorry or was his short "I'm sorry" enough?

I’ve talked extensively about it in another meta called Narrative Lens and Audience Sympathy: In Defense of Callum. But, quite frankly, I think Callum does more than enough. Callum has already internally taken responsiblity for putting Rayla at risk at the Lodge in general even before she’s temporarily captured.

Then, when he signs that to Amaya, he doesn’t say it out loud. If Gren hadn’t answered Rayla’s question of “What are you saying?” and translated what Amaya said in turn, Rayla never would’ve known what Callum was saying. And Callum said what he did to save her life. 

C: Ah, it worked. I can’t believe it. R: I can’t believe that you’re such a jerk. C: What? What’s wrong? R: You called me a bloodthirsty monster. You have no idea how that feels. C: But I don’t actually believe any of that, I was just trying to scare her. I thought she’d back down.

But Callum can also recognize that although it was unintentional, his words did cause harm, so he apologizes anyway. 

From the meta: “He calls her a bloodthirsty monster in a way that she was never supposed to realize, explains himself, makes it clear that he’s never seen her as a bloodthirsty monster (or he wouldn’t have debated her or defended her in the first place back in 1x02 and 1x03) and acknowledges that even though he didn’t mean to hurt her, he still did. So he apologizes. And keep a pin in that, because that’s important.”

C: I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant to happen.

He doesn’t say, “But that’s not what I meant to happen.” He apologizes anyway. And when Rayla tosses him the cube, he’s surprised, ie. he forgot all about it and was just concentrated on trying to get all of them, and her, out alive and ultimately unharmed. As soon as things went south he was never expecting Rayla to get the cube.

And like I also say in the meta, Callum learns from this mistake. In 1x07 when they’re going into the human town, who’s the one worrying about Rayla’s safety? Callum. 

R: I knew I saw smoke. Maybe we can find help. C: Okay sure, we might find a dragon egg expert, but we will definitely find a bunch of elf hating humans. R: Pfft, no problem. Get ready to meet, human Rayla! C: Yeah, I’m not sure that’s gonna cut it.

When they go to find a ship captain, who’s the one prioritizing Rayla? Callum. 

E: Well, we need a boat. And a captain who can make it go. C: Right. Specifically a captain who doesn’t hate elves.

Every time Callum and Rayla have an actual argument in any of the season, who folds first? Callum. In 1x04 he apologizes; in 1x06 when they’re arguing over the Egg he’s the one who takes a leap of faith and calls her a friend to her face (before she does the same to him and Ezran) and apologizes for being a jerk. He comes back to her when he’s ready in 2x03 the way he said he would. He never defends himself to her for using Dark Magic in 2x08. In 3x08 when he’s arguing on behalf of her survival he’s still the one who makes the first move to make up with her. 

Rayla is a jerk to him all day in 1x06. All day. Directly to him and on purpose because she’s trying to cover up the fact she’s actively lying to him and Ezran. And she never apologizes. She never actually says “I’m sorry�� to him for that offense (she only says sorry about when they think Ezran is gone and when he found out Harrow is gone). 

And in all of their fights that I’ve listed above, Rayla never folds first, either. Even whenever Rayla is blaming herself, Callum attempts to shoulder the blame:

R: I dropped it. This is all my fault. C: No. I should have trusted you. Things only went wrong because we kept fighting.

Basically: I’m not saying that Rayla doesn’t have a right to be upset, because the whole day has been kind of hard on her. But I do think the fandom has a tendency to be more upset at Callum on her behalf about this incident than is reasonable and don’t hold her accountable nearly as much for the arguably bigger and more consistent mistakes she makes that in actuality cause a lot more harm.

If Rayla didn’t wait to be honest until her breaking point, the egg wouldn’t have gone through the ice. If Rayla didn’t continually push Callum away in 3x04, Nyx wouldn’t have had the opportunity to steal Zym. If Callum hadn’t argued for Rayla’s life in 3x08 and hadn’t pushed on his own, Rayla would’ve died at 15 years old over a misunderstanding and for her parents that 1) hadn’t actually run away and 2) whose ‘mistakes’ were never her responsibility to die for. 

Callum also pays, for lack of a better word, a fuckton of amount of attention to Rayla’s emotional state and how best to comfort her and is continually updating how he handles things so that he can take better care of her.

All of this to say: Callum makes a mistake, actually apologizes for it (which is more than Rayla tends to literally verbally say) and then 100% learns from it in all scenarios going forward. He more than makes up for it.