#alternate name for this episode would be “why mari deserved to be in a better show not written by inoue”

[christine-ye]

Pretty sure trying to Char Aznable your way out of this does not change everyone else in this show's view on you as a person actually

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

Marvel’s What If Episode 7 Reaction

No no this is the opposite of what I wanted. More Loki! Not less!

If they don’t have Thor being an absolute idiot without Loki being his voice of reason I’m gonna be upset

Wait what the hell I saw Seth Green in the opening credits lmao??? Now I’m just thinking about Chris Griffin

DARCY

Wow they got Jane back too

Soooo how do they know about aliens?

“HOLY MOLY” lmao

Hey thor my life isn’t that dull… okay fine that’s a lie

Sooo Thor is a frat boy?

YOOOO I NEED A SCREENSHOT OF THAT ART WITH THOR AND LOKI

ALL OF IT

Soooo in this world, Odin was a good dude and didn’t kidnap Loki and gave him back to Laufey? (Didnt Laufey abandon him tho since he was too small? I guess in this universe they simply… lost their prince? Lmao?)

Thor didn’t have Loki as his voice of reason I called it.

Night night Odin

Lmao Chad Frigga dipping Odin as soon as he’s asleep

I wonder if they got Idris Elba back for Heimdall?

“We are going to the most backward, backwater planet that not even Heimdall pays attention to.” D,: Thor why you gotta do me dirty like that???

Chris Hemsworth is definitely a better voice actor than some others

Oh yo it be Skurge

Darcy into probing huh?

(Romantic Music Playing) lmao

Man I love Darcy

Poor Howard the Duck lmao (oh yea that’s Seth green)

Skrulls huh

Honestly surprised Thor knows all of these planets. Including the grandmaster??? In the sacred timeline he didn’t even know Sakaar existed.

Wait so, are the Asgardians on good terms with Jotunheim then? If so, I wanna see party loki. Or maybe he’s too reserved for that. I wonder how Laufey raised him? IF WE DONT SEE JOTUN LOKI IM GONNA RIOT

Thor destroyed a star. That sounds about right

“Now that was an excellent party. You know, we lost Fandral for three days. Found him in a barn, curled up next to a baby goat. It was classic. Isn’t that right, Fandral?” “I NAMED HIM GARY!” “Yeah, you did.” “YEA GOATS!” Okay. Screw everyone else in the MCU. I love Fandral now. He’s the GOAT, pun intended

Oh not a star, he killed a whole planet.

I thought Asgardians were supposed to be more advanced than earth but making a tablet is so complicated?

Howard and Darcy was not a pair I thought expected

Yo it’s nebula and korg? So where’s Thanos? How is nebula allowed to go partying with Thanos looking for the infinity stones?

Drax too? Isn’t he in prison? And then Valkyrie? Seems like a lot more than just Thor being an only child is different in this universe. Most of these dudes should hypothetically be in prison or on super serious missions. And I just thought, isn’t Howard the duck imprisoned by the Collector? What’s the timeline for this?

DARCY MARRIES HOWARD THE DUCK? GIRL YOU DESERVE BETTER THAN HIM AND HIS CORKSCREW WANG!

Aaaaaand Jane and Thor got magic and science tattoos. Mighty fast character progression.

Oh? Hookups? That took a turn.

Awwwww Fandral snuggling with a bunch of Chinchilla looking animals <3

Unknown caller?

Dammit Rumlow

Rocket???

Acting director??? What happened to Nick???

KORG NO

Damn everyone crashed at Jane’s

I mean, didn’t seem like too much of a threat

PHIL!!!

Lmao the world isn’t gonna be destroyed by parties?

Oh Carol Danvers?

Okay so…. Lemme get this straight..

Loki and an army of aliens attacking the world? Shield: “nah not a threat.” Robot with robot army threatening to destroy the whole planet “nah Carol has better things to do.” A partying dude from space with no ill intent but just doesn’t seem to understand consequences? “CALL CAPTAIN MARVEL WE NEED HER!!!” Yea okay Shield

Thor loves waffles

LOKI

JOTUN LOKI

HES HERE

LOKI!!!

HOLY CRAP HES HUGE

HE HAS ICE HORNS

See everything would be better without Odin’s interference.

(That’s what she said)

YAY THEYRE FRIENDS

“You’re my brother form another mother man.” YOOOOOO

Loki just sang “Brothers foreveeeeerrrrr!” I can’t—

Aaaaaand fart jokes… “did you boom?” “I never boom. I only boom in private.” Dammit marvel I hoped you were better than this.

LOKI MAKE A WISH

White snake? Lmao where did she get that name lol.

What’s wrong with a party tho? Is this really top priority? Yea they destroyed another planet, but you never explained how

Why doesn’t she sound like Brie Larson? She’s still acting for Marvel Studios so it’s interesting they couldn’t get her for it… unless it is her and I just can’t remember how her voice sounds

Was that punch really necessary? Dude wasn’t posing a threat to anyone.

“You know, there’s a Midgardian word for women like you.” THOR NO—

“PARTY POOPER!” Oh thank God

“This ones for fury” but it wasn’t even Thor that hit him? It was korg and on accident! Cmon carol, I had hoped you’d be smarter than this and more reasonable. Not resorting to violence when nothing has even escalated…

Haha hammer to the face

And the back of the head lmao

BAHAHAHAHA HE JUST SMACKED HER INTO ANOTHER COUNTRY

THOR DONT BOOP STONEHENGE

Dammit Thor

Lmao I love that the countries have their names on them.

Okay just stay and fight here away from civilian population

Marvel really giving us what we want with the most powerful characters fighting

Mary Sue Captain Marvel

Her lipstick has stayed perfect somehow

Fighting in a storm eh? Can’t see how this could go wrong

Haha hammer timeout

Lmao I wanna see Frigga put Thor in a timeout

They’re chanting pooper at her. Is this elementary school again?

Bruh I just realized, Thor is supposed to be acting king while Odin is in Odin sleep lmao. I bet Asgard is going to either be in the best peace ever without Thor or utterly destroyed.

Leave south and north Dakota alone lol

Lmao I love Darcy

YAY GARY THE GOAT WAS SAFE

Wow Jane used the L word fast

Kicking Jane out of the helicarrier? Yea smart move kicking off the person who actually knows anything about this albeit she is a little blinded by love

Giant Loki holding a tiny phone

BAHAHAAHAHA “hey earth girl, you haven’t got a friend, have you!” YES LOKI ITS ME. MARRY ME

Stop throwing phones lmao

BRUH HOW IS SURTUR NOT EVIL EITHER? AND STOP FLIRTING WITH THE STATUE OF LIBERTY.

NO HE DESTROYED HER ARM LMAO

There goes the power grid

NOT THE SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE

Lmao there he goes

WHY DID KORG HAVE A PACIFIER IN HIS MOUTH

Bout time Heimdall popped in

Aaaaaand Jane got abducted by heimdall

Seeing as Heimdall hasn’t said anything, I’m assuming they didn’t get Idris back lol.

How is shield so chill on murdering Thor? Yes he’s destructive but they’re resorting to killing him so fast instead of talking to him! No one has even told him he’s putting the planet at risk! Dudes too dumb to know on his own!

JANE STOP DRINKING

Damn Maria Hill I had higher hopes for you

Lying Thor

Okay so shield trusts Frigga to help, but still irks me that shield was so trigger/nuke happy… seems the opposite of what we’ve seen of them (ugh just gotta ignore it and chock it up to this being an alternate reality)

Ew Drax

Loki calling the other jotuns “ice bros” lmao

It’s also mantis and Yondu!!

wait how did grandmaster just teleport away like the bifrost?

Nice going thor. You big hunky dummy

“MY MOTHER IS COMING.” Good lord is this high school now lmao???

How do they all know Frigga and why are they all afraid?

Damn the bifrost takes a lot longer than I would have expected

No no Thor the tower of pisa is meant to be tilted—oh whatever

Wait, but I don’t see loki helping, is he gonna be up to something last minute to ruin Thor’s cover up lmao?

I don’t believe Frigga would be tricked this easily lmao

Thor you are such a bad liar

Lmao here comes carol

Hahaha how did mjolnir get so trashed

Wow thor is so much taller than Jane

Wow this Jane and Thor seem to have more chemistry than the sacred timeline version ever did

Wait I want resolve for Loki!!

Uh oh

WHAT

ULTRON VISION WITH THE INFINITY STONES?? HOW

No resolution for that??? Well then. Rip this universe too lmao

Damn I wanted more Loki

There better be a Loki centric episode sometime. If they didn’t it’d a huge missed opportunity from marvel

Okay yea looking at the credits, Carol Danvers wasn’t played by Brie Larson but a lady named Alexandra Daniels. Odd they didn’t get Brie Larson.

Probably my favorite episode so far even with how absurd it was. A lot more upbeat than the past few ones with a better resolve to the story imo.

Also, if anyone can provide me of screenshots of Loki from this episode I would be very grateful

[onthecrosslook]

PATRICK MELROSE: EPISODE ONE

LIVE-BLOGGING I GUESS?

SPOILERS BELOW!!

Well okay this is starting off well- heroin is always a good choice

OH MY GOD HIS FATHER IS DEAD LMAO HE’S NOT GOING TO BE SAD

He’s not sad

Told you

Okay okay so he needs to go to a funeral??

Wait we get a sexy Ben shower scene, we are truly blessed on this day 😇🙏🏻

HE HAS SEX EW

Girl nonchalantly gives him drugs, nbd

STOP USING HEROIN

Why? His dad seems like a chucklefuck

IM SO FUCKING CONFUSED

wait no I understand now

Ohhhh

Oh.

Okay…um…wow. This is…yikes.

*watching through my fingers*

Ah. Yes. Drugs.

“iM nOt aN aMaTeUr”

*is an amateur* *chokes on a pill*

Ohhh shit he’s in the wrong room I’m cringing

FUCK I HATE HIS FATHER

I’m crying in a bathroom now, Patrick vibes are strong with me

STOP TAKING DRUGS DARLING

*flashbacks make me cry again*

*American accent* “Tryyyying to make me sad…bOo hOo.”

*crying again*

Oh fuck the drugs DO work- who would have known? *flashbacks to nOt bEiNg aN aMaTeUr*

Oh fuck you

*THUMP*

“It’s just the antibiotics…”

“NGGH!” *sqweeeeee* *thump*

“Mr. Melrose.” “hAh!” “All good?” *unintelligible moaning that sounds like “just jet-lagged”*

What the fuck

He’s using money to snort cocaine- IN A PUBLIC BATHROOM??!? WHAT THE FUCK AM I WATCHING??!?

*blAReA bLaRgA bLaH* “THAT’LL FOOL ‘EM!”

*Narrator* “RETREAT ESCAPE EJECT EJECT!”

*crying again* MY BABY DOESN’T DESERVE THIS

Tar-tare tar-tare tar-tare!

“Will…someone be joining you…?” *voice crack* “fUCKing hell, I hope not…”

“I eat not from greed, but from passion!”

“Fuck! Fucking FATE, fuck, fuck!” *hits a telephone repeatedly*

Patrick are you okay…?

“Suuure I was gonna stab you” Mark if you touch him I will tear your heart from your chest with my teeth-

Stop…doing…heroin…🔪

Fuck this is making me remember my own abuse

But will that stop me

HELLS NO!

Pfft. Rich people.

Absolutely CRINGING- needles are horrible I am gonna go cRy-

HE STABBED HIMSELF- PATRICK YOU IDIOT-

DAMN IT PIERRE

*cries some more*

Pleeeeeeease stop with the cocaine GOD DAMN

oh my ears are dead- is that a fucking train whistle

What is happening.

He’s screaming. I’m scared. This is a very accurate representation of cocaine.

“Become part of the silence. Good.” PATRICK P L E A S E-

WHY IS HE SUDDENLY AMERICAN

“Now take a revolver and shoot his fucking brains out- bANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!” Yes I agree, your father was a dick

Oh. Trauma. Lovely.

Where did his trousers go- yknow what, I don’t want to know-

“You shouldn’t be alone” Yeah, you fucking THINK?

Who the fuck is Mary Ann

“Oh, THAT Mary Ann.” Yes, this explains rather a lot.

Patrick is Not Okay™️

HE STOLE SOME POOR BASTARD’S ICE

Fucking hell, he put a television by the bath

Oh he’s pouring…alcohol on his head…?

Um. I did NOT need to see Benedict’s ass

Still did though. Trauma

HE HAS AN EYEPATCH

R E D B E A R D

“Just like your father.” I WILL FUCKING STRANGLE HIS FATHER-

he’s cursing so damn much 😭

“Nothing but the best, or go without.” Again, I would have murdered his father if he wasn’t already DEAD-

👏🏻Awk👏🏻ward👏🏻si👏🏻lence

This fucker’s name is ‘Ballentine’? Fuck you

stop acting like your dad, Patrick. You’re better than that.

Why…is he bleeding…God, Patrick, I’m gonna cry, sTOP DOING HEROIN-

HE’S CARRYING HIS FATHER’S REMAINS IN A PLASTIC “THANK YOU” BAG WITH A SMILEY FACE I’M CRYING-

Wait Patrick is dating Debbie

How did I fucking miss this

“WaS iT a dIfFiCuLt ReLaTIoNsHiP, pAtRiCk?” “…Yes, Nancy.” FUCK YOU ALLLLL

MARY ANN I DON’T LIKE HER UGH

“I’d give up drugs forever…or at least have someone attractive to take them with.” 💀

“There’s hard work and ambition involved.” Same, Patrick. Same.

*throws ashes on the floor* “REVENGE AT LAST!”

Can I just take one moment to appreciate how beautiful Ben is in this- his acting, the emotion, Goddamn, his hair is lovely- just…he looks and performs beautifully.

Wow. Mary Ann…Christ. What a bitch.

Oh shit

WHY WON’T THE FUCKER JUST BREAK

THIS THING IS INDESTRUCTIBLE

*hits it with a ceramic toilet lid* *lid breaks* “hOOOOOW?!!????”

Patrick PLEASE- JESUS-

Scared little boy. He’s just a scared little boy.

I’m so uncomfortable, I’m not going to go into this.

God.

…Okay. Well. Christ.

OH CHRIST ON A STICK

IS HE OKAY

…his mum actually looks really sweet…

Here come the waterworks (figuratively and literally)

HE’S ALIVE, THANK FUCK

“And the sun shone, having no alternative on the nothing new…”

Well, the eyepatch is gone! *laughs nervously*

“There will be rivers of blood, and the wicked shall be drowned.” Wow. That’s an A+ quote- is it from the Bible?

“Never mind.”

“Oh, fine, tried to kill myself last night.” I felt that in my soul.

“Christ, are you all right?” fUCKING NO, DOES HE LOOK ALL RIGHT???

He’s crying, ay bendito, the poor thing…

Conclusion: This series is…bloody incredible, holy fucking shit. Benedict’s performance is one that I am awestruck by- just completely flummoxed by how much he embodies Patrick.

And by God, Patrick Melrose…He’s been through so much, and he just needs help, for Christ’s sake. I really hope he gets better.

Tune in tomorrow for the next episode!

[lizzibennet]

Honestly, I *DO* like episodes 7, 8, and 9. BUT I would have LOVED if they did everything they did AS PLANNED, and then added the alternatives film (the versions we got) as a bonus. Honestly I hate ROS because Rey is related to HIM. Lbh, NOBODY would have sex with p*alpatine

the problem with episodes 7-9 is that each is a standalone film. that is not a problem in itself since every other star wars trilogy movies could technically be watched as a standalone and with a little context you’d be fine, since they tell an overarching story with three more or less independent characters. episodes 7-9 do not tell an overarching story, they are each chapters to a different telling of rey’s story. ep 7 tells the story of rey nobody, who is both the narrative foil and the in-world counterpart of one of the strongest force users alive, and that’s honestly already a really good premise, buuuuut if we’re going to have a trilogy then that main conflict should be resolved either in the second movie or at the very least in the first half or so of the third because things! need! to! happen! for! a reason! except that they don’t because at the climax of the second film kylo tells rey she’s a nobody, and apparently that changes nothing within her resolve which..... fine, let’s push it and say she’s going to deal with that in the third movie, whatever, but we get to it and actually she’s palpatine’s granddaughter so actually she’s all the jedi which. UGH. the point I’m trying to make is that she is a completely linear character being thrown in three different takes of her story, and I hate to say this because I LOVE her, but after the second movie I totally got it when people said she was a mary sue because her faith in the force and the jedi and her kindness and blahblah NEVER really waivers (except when she gets angry at luke which. saves everyone! how fuckin convenient!) and you could come out and say “lori, if we think like that luke skywalker is also a mary sue”, which, again, don’t get me wrong because he is literally my son but he IS. and in the 80’s that is FINE cause it’s the story we needed - a story about this starry (heh) eyed guy whose unwaivering faith in people and The Magic Around Him™️ may seem a little misguided at first but ends up saving everyone, but that was 40 years ago. and maybe it was silly of me to expect a nuanced take on The Human Specificity Of Empathy from a star wars movie but you know what, I don’t think it was since gareth edwards paved the way with rogue one that is the epitome of analysis of what it really means to be good or bad and I’m not going to rant about how rogue one is the best star wars movie today BUT it set the tone for a less us-vs-them view of the world which was VERY exciting and in line with what I think the 2010-20’s really wants from its heroes in general. so if we want to follow the narrative beats of the first trilogy or at least the first movie (no way of knowing where jj abrams would’ve gone in ep 8) I think that’s fine so as long as you make it your own, and imo jj abrams was, and then rian johnson was like nope lol, and jj abrams tried to fix the narrative 180 rian johnson tried to do, and like. episode 8 is a very fun movie to watch as a star wars fan but narratively it does not make any fuckin sense. I thought so then and now with ep 9 out I think so even more. rian johnson is a very creative guy, he had some REALLY interesting ideas, but WHY give him the creative liberty to do so in the MIDDLEEEEE of the trilogy??? WHY!?!?!? give him a star wars story film! he would KILL it! or you know wait a couple years so the director of the first movie who actually knows what the fuck he’s doing can direct the second, but noooooo the damned fucking mouse wants to wipe his ass with $100 bills so we cannot possibly wait. cohesive storytelling? we don’t give a shit about that in the house of le mouse.

that all to say, there is nothing Fundamentally wrong narratively with either of the three movies. they’re fun to watch. even ep 8, possibly my least fav of the bunch, was a fun experience in cinemas. it’s star wars and disney - they know how to make a blockbuster. the thing is that as a trilogy they simply do not make any sense. if you analyze each movie individually all three seem to have different core themes: ep 7’s is “nobodies are people too actually”, 8 is “maybe space fascists aren’t so bad, actually (also luke is here hey luke)”, and 9 is “I take that back, nobodies aren’t a people actually”. it’s satisfying to watch as a casual spectator who goes to the movies, seems some space gays with one braincell between the three of them and is like coolio and then goes home, but it’s not satisfying to watch as someone even the littlest bit invested in the story because there is no cohesive roundup of everything. the original trilogy was like is luke an idiot for being nice? is vader actually redeemable? is han deserving of trust despite being a space nerf herder? and sometimes u were like what’s happenin!!!! but in the end all your questions are answered quite satisfactorily. luke was right, han is sexy, vader was redeemable. in the prequels: how does anakin skywalker become darth vader? how do he and obi juan become the enemies we see in the death star? what happens to padme? and while the sequels are a beautiful mess that I love they do answer the questions they put out when episode 1 begins, so you know, imagine liking the sequels and hating the prequels when the PREQUELS make more sense, the PREQUELSSSS. anywhomst, point is: the sequels are like here is finn. finn is the first stormtrooper we see the face of! he defects! also the first stormtrooper we se defect. the other defector we know is bodhi from r1, who is very sympathetic despite being imperial, and clearly we’re supposed to feel empathy for finn. finn survives! finn finds rey! go finn I love u! and then. WHAT happens to finn? what furthers his character development into a full fledged person when he starts out with not even a name? where’s his anger? where’s his OBVIOUS narrative direction that should be “ex stormtrooper who shows imperials that fascism is bad actually”? nope, goes almost unmentioned from then on. and again, I love finn, he is literally baby, but he also froze after ep 7 because rian johnson decided to fuck shit up and also because disney is racist. poe? the do-good soldier who is supposed to be the Believer™️? actually he is the only one who was any semblance of a coherent role in ep 8... which is promptly retconned when jj abrams makes him a fucking spice runner in ep 9 lol. who is rey? and they’re like she’s a nobody and that’s why she’s spesh, wait no she is a nobody but she’s spesh because space fascist has the hots for her, oh, no, wait, she’s spesh because PALPATINE. what was the theme of this trilogy? what was the thesis? what questions did they set out to answer and did they answer them at all, never mind well? and it’s unclear, obviously, because three movies with three clearly different views behind them won’t magically make narrative sense just because you are trying to piece them together. they’re not pieces at all, they are three independent takes on the stars and the wars. enjoyable as little snacky treats, not as a three meal course. (also I’m not even going to TOUCH on how what was already a narrative mess was made worse by disney’s NONSTOP fanservice. sw sequels and game of thrones last season are the cautionary tales of why fanservice sucks and while a good, intelligent if cliche or predictable story is always better than a Shocking™️ one that doesn’t make any sense. but if I start on that I will LITERALLY not shut up SO AHEM CONTINUE @LIZZIBENNET)

ALL that to say: I agree w/ u and I LOVE your idea of each movie being an alternative version of the story. honestly, that would make more sense than what we have right now off the bat lol. can you imagine ep 7 being the rose colored version of the story via the heroes’ lenses, and then ep 8 being the “actually space fascism is good if ur kylo ren” version of the story, and then, ep 9 is what actually happened... told by rey nobody, who dances the line between the good and bad until there’s not a line anymore. CHEF’S FUCKIN KISS obviously much more risqué than disney would ever go for, but genius! much better than trying to make us care about these conflicts that they make up in the first 15 mins of each movie. ur mad because episode 7 follows the beats of 4? here’s three movies on why you were wrong when you judged it all true and therefore Bad. HUHU I love that

also the galaxy is a vast place... I am sure there are emperor fuckers out there

[ckneal]

I’m pretty sure I’ll never stop mentally workshopping an alternative universe, where Chuck snapped his fingers at the end of season 14, and instead of busting open every door in Hell, he murdered all six of the remaining angels hunkered down in Heaven, and all of the faithful souls to have ever died were sent tumbling down to earth. They had it set up in season 13 after all. I feel like it would have been so much more interesting, and so much bigger than what the show actually went with at the start of season 15 (end of season 14?). 

Even just going off things we already know from earlier seasons, it seems like the stakes would have felt higher. We know from season 9 that falling to earth is a brutal ordeal, capable of “shredding” angels, according to Malachi, who tells us that numerous angels (namely Ezekiel and Sophia) did not survive it. And angels are a lot more durable than humans. And we know that when human souls are left on earth for too long, they slowly turn vicious and lose their humanity, as per Bobby in season 7. Not to mention Kevin’s presence would have made so much more sense, since we know that Chuck personally sent him to the afterlife in season 12. And while, yes, they do reframe Chuck as an asshole in season 15, nothing is ever done with the fact that Chuck sent Kevin to Hell. He had zero motivation to do it, and the characters don't really go into it. Why even write it if you aren't going to address it? 

And I'm also going to say, if we had gone with Chuck breaking Heaven instead of Hell, we would have had the added bonus of never having to see the human souls the writers pitched to be Hell's escapees. (Do not get me started on the Jack the Ripper character). Instead we could have brought back good guys from earlier in the series. Jo? Henriksen? ACTUAL Charlie? ACTUAL BOBBY? Mary? Jess? Whoever's available, there are so many candidates! But if all of the good choices were really taken, they also could have doubled up with the actors they had on hand. Bring back Jimmy Novak for more punishment! Maybe revealed that that identical twin brother that Ketch mentioned in season 13, Alex, was actually a real person who died.

The urgency factor in those early episodes would have been about how innocent people were being submitted to this torturous ordeal as Heaven continued to leak like a sieve, and Team Free Will was watching people they knew did not deserve it suffer. And maybe in some cases, they were already starting to go a little nuts--maybe that can be where the ticking clock comes in, because the manner in which these souls were ejected accelerated the process to becoming poltergeists. AND/OR! There's also the fact that Team Free Will ahs seen what happens to reapers when Heaven's unavailable, as per Tera's breakdown in season 9. We could have also had reapers turning spiteful, because the Winchesters have subjected them to this AGAIN, and with Billie presumably being out of reach in the Empty at the time (as per the end of season 14), maybe those busy little worker-bee reapers staged a coup. Or maybe another group of reapers made a bid for power--we never found out what happened to all those freelance readpers in season 9. 

The point is, if we absolutely needed to have Rowena killed off to quash a minor disturbance early on in the season, it probably could have still worked by having her do so to patch up Heaven, whether it's to placate angry reapers or save everyone from crazed ghosts traumatized and angry from the fall (Jimmy has been through so much). They still call Rowena because maybe the rock thing can still serve as a pause-button for the souls going crazy until they can figure out a better option. They can't continue to cause havoc while they're contained. Eventually it gets to be too much when the renegade reapers join the fray, and Rowena does what she has to do. 

Does it sound crazy that Rowena has a spell to fix Heaven? Yes. Does it sound crazier than her having a spell to fix Hell?

And then we would have Billie show up after everything is settled, and Dean is pissed out, and Billie just says, in that unflinching way of hers, that she was busy, and it is not her job to clean up their messes anyway, even though now she is going to have to in order to make the system (that the WINCHESTERS have strained, according to her) work. 

When Dean asks what she means, Billie tells him, verbally, that the angels are all dead, and Heaven runs off the power of angels--they're a mutually sustaining cycle. But now that the angels are all gone, Heaven reapers are the closest equivalent that can still keep it going. In short, reapers are now going to have to serve the same functions as angels now as well--which would lend some legitimacy to how reapers were kind of equated to angels back in season 9. 

From what I can tell, having Chuck break Hell in the actual season 15 plotline served two purposes: killing of Rowena (which I've already explain can still work with Heaven, using things we already know from prior seasons) and enabling Michael’s return. (And side note, isn’t it funny that the results of this event for both characters are later crammed into the same episode, with Rowena being revealed as the new Queen of Hell in 15x08, the same time we finally see Michael reappear in the story?) 

Also there's Ketch. Can’t forget that. 

For Ketch, I feel like we can still give him a moment. We can keep the events as they are, with him being possessed by a random soul already on the edge (Jimmy has been through SO MUCH, and theoretically we are now two episodes into this three parter--we could potentially set this up), or we could have him be possessed by the ghost of his twin brother, who is 1) going crazy from trauma, and 2) angry, because Ketch killed him as part the initiation to the Men of Letters (see Mick's backstory). Either way, same beat can be hit that the actual writers for the season went with. Instead of the alternative he was given in the canon (do NOT get me started on Jack the Ripper).

(Though I will admit that the Men of Letters did that particular stage when the prospective members were very young, so. . .yeah, I guess we'd have to hire a child actor for parts of this storryline.)

More difficult to explain is how Michael and Adam get out of the cage. A part of me is very curious when they booked Jake Abel, because that seems like the determining factor in whether the writers went with Chuck busting open Heaven or Hell. Playing by the rules of earlier seasons, there are only so many ways to do it. Lucifer made a jail break when a willing vessel, namely Cas, gave his consent at a point when the walls of the cage were. . .made more flimsy than they ought to have been (which really cast Azazel and Lilith as a true sticklers for NOT cutting corners, since Hell clearly had witches at its disposal in season 1-4, but they adamantly went about freeing Lucifer the way God intended). But if the writers really wanted to do a call back, one thing they could have gone with is playing off the fact that the cage opens after 66 predetermined seals, out of a pool of over 200, are broken. Obviously, 200 minus 66 is 134. Meaning that there were 134 seals up for for the breaking by season 15, with only a couple that we know to be strictly non-negotiable. The first seal must be a righteous man breaking in Hell. The last must be Llilth's death. 

And isn't it interesting that Lilith just happens to be alive again in season 15.

What I'm getting at is this: Rowena dies, and she becomes Queen of Hell. Season 15's limited use of demon characters managed to establish the idea that not all demons are happy with Rowena in power. And Rowena, through her time with Crowley, knows who difficult it can be to hold the throne. And she was also present for much of season 13, where she saw a demon utilize the grace of an archangel to boost his own powers, and thus hold control over Hell. I fully believe that we could have had an episode start with Lilith's death by random characters revealed to be demons (if only because their eyes go black at the end of the scene), and a massive flash of light. Cut to Sam, watching the news in the bunker, about how there was a sudden explosion in that very same area where, ten years prior, there was a similar explosion at the end of season 4. Rowena would then just show up in the bunker to talk to Sam and Dean, because she fucked up. She would then drop a lot of exposition (not saying that that's what I would have WANTED, but playing off how the show was already handling things by season 15), about how--right at the beginning of her time in Hell--a righteous soul just happened to break. (After all, season 13, as well as the multiple children at Azazel's murder ranch in season 2, and Heaven's apparent willingness to use John as the first seal, all imply that the seals didn't strictly NEED Dean, they just PREFERRED Dean.) And being new to power, and understand better than most just how severely the wheel of Fate can turn, she thought about her options, and that led to breaking seals.

At this point, Dean would be very upset. And maybe say something like, "So you thought you could just crack open the cage and leash yourself an archangel?"

And Rowena would kind of fumble her composure a bit, and say, "Well, I'd HOPE he'd be GRATEFUL for his liberty--"

But it would be implied that if Michael hadn't been willing to make friends, Rowena was prepared to subject him to the same kind of treatment that Gabriel went through. Rowena is, after all, a survivor at heart, and she's a demon now. TOP demon, at that. 

And the gist would be that ROWENA set Michael free. But he popped out of that box faster than she ever could have imagined, she didn't even have a chance to try to flag him down, he was just GONE.

And in the bunker, Castiel would then talk about how wherever Michael was, he's probably angry after his incarceration, especially if he noticed what Rowena was planning to do. They had to be careful, this could be an intense threat to them personally, if not the earth at large--cut to Michael and Adam at the diner.

And now, there's one last thing to amend for this to work. And oddly, it's the bit that saddens me the most. Because I did love Lilith's interaction with Michael, but if we're to make this work, we need to consider the fact that she is already dead by the time that Michael and Adam are free. We need to alter the diner scene. And I submit, that instead of Lilith meeting Michael at the diner, we go with Donatello. 

With Rowena already on hand to tell Sam and Dean that Michael is loose, Donatello no longer needs to serve that function. I personally, would keep the scenes of Sam and Dean asking him for help, because they make sense. But I would also skip Donatello calling them to let them know when he noticed Michael. I would instead have Donatello go to the diner personally to speak to Michael, and tell him that God is trying to make contact, and have Michael be finicky about it. Castiel's reaction to Donatello in season 13 implied that Donatello is a disturbing individual as far as Heaven is concerned, a prophet with no soul, who is the first to have ever been corrupted--even if Donatello has recovered from that influence, maybe it's still evident to the eyes of an angel that has not be around for a very long time. Michael might not necessarily kill him (though, you know, if you need that. . .), but he does leave in a disgusted huff (remember just how uncomfortable Cas was around Donatello). 

From there, the season proceeds as canonically written (I'm not going to fix the whole thing--that's way too much work).

 and there are only so many ways to do it looking at the lore that we already have. Chuck could just open it, but that would kind of ruin the storyline we have with Michael, and if we’re trying to keep the story as similar as possible to what we were given in season 15, that just wont work. We are told in season 4 that the cage will open in the event that 66 out of over 200 specified seals are broken, and presumably there are plenty of seals left after Lilith freed Lucifer. Of course, it’s safe to assume that Lilith’s dying was one seal that was entirely non-negotiable, since we had a whole episode built around her moment of doubt. Bring back Jimmy Novak for more punishment! Maybe have Ketch’s twin brother Alex actually turn out to have been a real person. They could have made it work!

[alwaysupatnight]

Send you a character impressions ask: Arthur Morgan (so you can talk about your soft cowboy) and Seth Gecko, Kate Fuller, and... OH let's hear about Daryl Dixon too!

Seth Gecko

First impression: I’d never seen the movie okay. I didn’t know what to expect from him at all!! I honestly wasn’t sure I even liked him that much until like that scene where he punches out Chet at the Twister.

Impression now: THE TRASHY AF LOVE OF MY LIFE. I have so many feelings about Seth Gecko it’d be impossible to list them all here. I think about him nearly every damn day.

Favorite moment: I think it’d have to be in s3 when he’s trying to stop Kate from going after Amaru  with the shotgun and how he’s like “easy, easy” at her for getting too riled up. XD SHE IS RUNNING HEADFIRST INTO DANGER ALREADY AND HE IS TRYING TO PROTECT HER. But there’s honestly so many favorite moments. But also jfc that shotgun... all the phallic symbolism there. 👀

Idea for a story: SO MANY IDEAS. THEY JUST NEVER STOP. My latest one is this one where he and Richie are both coyote shifters. And I’ve had this idea for YEARS, but I’m just starting to explore it now.

Unpopular opinion: Seth is not the smooth mfer everyone thinks he is. He is awkward and dorky af and just really great at hiding that. XD And he is not adventurous in bed. AT ALL. HE DOES NOT WANT ANYTHING UP HIS ASS ALRIGHT. Unless, of course, if Kate is suggesting it…

Favorite relationship: SethKate obviously. :P

Favorite headcanon: SETH HAS A PRAISE KINK. LBR HE LOVES TO BE BOSSED AROUND BY KATE. HE JUST WANTS TO DO A GOOD JOB.

Kate Fuller

First impression: MY SUN AND STARS. I thought she was precious. Although maybe that was me projecting on Madie because I loved her as Ethel in Shameless so much. I really only watched FDTD because of her.

Impression now: MY SUN AND STARS. I LOVE THIS GIRL SO MUCH. UGH. JUST HER HEART. HER GOODNESS. HOW PROACTIVE OF A CHARACTER SHE IS. HOW SHE’S ALWAYS LIGHTING A FIRE UNDER ALL THE BOYS’ ASSES BECAUSE WITHOUT HER NOTHING WOULD EVER GET DONE. She’s definitely one of my favorite characters of all time now. I love that she’s not afraid to go toe-to-toe with some supernatural assholes (and a couple of regular ones too) even though she is TINY. She is cute, but she WILL FIGHT. I just love that about her so much. And how every action of hers comes from a place of love. But she’s not perfect, and she may be good, but she is NOT nice and WILL ABOSLUTELY WRECK YOU.

Favorite moment: There are so many, honestly. idk how to pick. But I love during the Mexican Honeymoon how she’s giving Seth so much shit for bungling the bank heist and then making excuses later. She’s not just gonna sit and take it okay. She’s giving him an earful about it and he’s gonna LISTEN DAMMIT.

Idea for a story: Well, I already mentioned the coyote shifters thing… There’s also the Yellowstone road trip thing I’ve been working on. And then the two alternate scenarios of Seth running into her at Jed’s that @yossariandawn persuaded me to write that we were coming up with ideas for yesterday. XD So I started working on a couple little ficlets for that. One where Kate is shackled, and another where Seth walks in on Richie and Kate holding hands during the blood bond, and it’s an awkward little parallel to the Twister “you show me yours, I’ll show you mine” bit. XD

Unpopular opinion: idk that this is an unpopular opinion necessarily, but some people don’t like to acknowledge or just don’t realize how much of a shit stirrer she really is!!

Favorite relationship: Sethkate.

Favorite headcanon: Okay, so I’ve definitely mentioned before that I headcanon that she is a Cancer sign. But after learning more about astrology, I think she’s definitely also an Aries moon. She can be really impulsive when she’s emotional, and she’s also got an anger streak lbr!!

Send Me a Character!!

Arthur Morgan

First impression: SERIAL KILLER!! Literally the first video I saw of someone playing him he was running people over in Saint Denis with his horse and racking up a huge bounty on his head. XD I really thought this game was just Grand Theft Horsey. :P

Impression now: LISTEN. I AM STILL CRYING OVER HIM THREE YEARS LATER OKAY LEAVE ME ALONE. XD

Favorite moment: There’s lots, but one of my favorites is in this scene with his friend and French artist Charles Châtenay where he’s watching a brawl break out at an art gallery over some risqué art that Charles painted. Charles gets a beating and Arthur is just laughing at him and being entertained by it all. XD I LOVE HIS LAUGH THERE SO MUCH. ONE OF THE FEW TIMES HE ACTUALLY ENJOYS HIMSELF. ARTHUR DESERVED HAPPINESS.

[Here] is a video if you wanna watch that scene for yourself. XD

Idea for a story: I did have an idea for a kind of time travel/fix-it fic that is also an Arthur/OFC story… I probably won’t write it now, but it’s like after his death in the game he time travels to the present day because of this talisman he got from a Native American chief and he meets a woman named Emma and they fall in love and get married and are expecting their first kid. BUT THEN. EMMA GETS SENT BACK IN TIME TO BEFORE THE BLACKWATER CATASTROPHE. AND PAST ARTHUR DOESN’T KNOW HER. BUT HE FALLS IN LOVE WITH HER ALL OVER AGAIN. lmfao it’s complicated which is why I never actually wrote it because I couldn’t figure out how to tell that story… But it was supposed to be like Outlander in reverse kinda...

Unpopular opinion: MARY LINTON IS TOXIC AF AND ARTHUR DESERVED BETTER

Favorite relationship: I think that has to go to Arthur & Hosea. THAT’S HIS REAL DAD OKAY. IDGAF. I just love how patient he is with Arthur, even if he teases him sometimes. It’s always really affectionate and playful. And I didn’t really ship Arthur with anyone in the game, but if I did it would’ve been with Charlotte!! I loved their scenes so much!!

Favorite headcanon: He didn’t actually die… and he lived out his days to the age of 100+. He was around for the invention of microwaves and television and pop music. He and Jack hung out sometimes and they celebrated the release of Jack’s first novel together. lmfao

Daryl Dixon

First impression: Umm I think I thought he was kinda cute. XD Him throwing the squirrels at Rick was funny too.

Impression now: idk I stopped watching that show years ago. But when I quit the series, he and Beth were my everything so I know I had a lot of feelings about him.

Favorite moment: The white trash brunch and “Oh” scenes. He was just so soft and open with Beth. He was TRYING.

Idea for a story: I don’t write for that fandom anymore and never will again. But I did have a couple stories in the works though. One was a ZA fic where he and Beth are married with a newborn at the start of the apocalypse and it just follows the first few episodes with some changes because it’s also set a few years later. And another story I had was a singer!Beth au where she’s just getting famous and is dating Daryl and they have to keep their relationship a secret. And there were definitely fights with paparazzi planned. lol And a lot of sneaking around.

Unpopular opinion: I can’t think of anything.

Favorite relationship: Bethyl. There was a quote by NR where he said something like when Daryl loves, it’s for life? I still maintain that there will never be anyone else. Even if there is later in the show, there isn’t. lol

Favorite headcanon: That Merle is actually his biological father... lol

[sarcasm-and-references]

hi! here is the spotify link for my Trollhunters playlist in which i chose one song to represent each episode, listed in order:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7mdB5Vss7D0jAAS2S1sbPP?si=RGdbyHgvQY6PUCM_djbRYQ

full list of why i chose each song + some disclaimers under the cut (very long)

first off: it’s named pretty inconspicuously because this is my personal spotify and i didn’t want my friends figuring out what it was

okay so i’m a musician and i love the use of music in media, so i will often draw connections between how i feel listening to a song and how i feel watching a film or tv show

as a result, i’ve compiled a playlist and an explanation for 52 songs (one to represent each episode of Trollhunters). it’s in order but you could also just shuffle it for a generalized Trollhunters vibes playlist

one final thing: this is by no means a definitive list, and it is heavily biassed because of my taste in music which means it is mostly alternative or indie pop and rock music (there are also a few explicit songs, just a warning) so just to put that out there

alright, here is the complete list of why i chose each song:

Becoming: Part 1

Mr. Blue Sky - Electric Light Orchestra

Nothing too specific, it just gives off the vibes of morning, a small town, and the start of something big. I think the lyrics work a bit too but the sound and energy are perfect in terms of cinematic elements so full send on this one.

Becoming: Part 2

Could Have Been Me - The Struts

Chances are, you know this song if you’re a tik tok cosplayer or have seen any video of that sort. This choice felt right in terms of both lyrics and the music itself. It’s very hopeful and it talks about wanting to make something of oneself. I tend to associate this song with Percy Jackson and there are some parallels there. Kind of a modern-day heroism feel, which is definitely fitting for this show and the episode specifically.

Wherefore Art Thou, Trollhunter?

I Wanna Get Better - Bleachers

This episode seems to me like more basic exposition and is just setting up the first arc of the story, so I chose this song not completely for the lyrics (although I do think they fit for Jlaire in terms of Claire and Jim’s interaction but I’m trying my best not to focus too much on them). I think the sound and energy is pretty good for this song, and if you strip the song to its most simple interpretation, it’s clearly about wanting to improve.

Gnome Your Enemy

I’m Just a Kid - Simple Plan

Ha-okay this choice is a bit of a joke because of the angst but honestly I do think it fits for the gang’s first mission and Jim’s attitude and reluctance towards trollhunting in general.

Waka Chaka!

Killer Queen - Queen

Yeah this is mainly for Nomura and her introduction. Not much thought went into this choice but as I make this list I’m finding that episodes that I choose a song for often end up with a song for a character that’s featured (dw there’s not too many of these).

Win Lose or Draal

Centuries - Fall Out Boy

Jim’s first real fight; showing off everything he’s learned so far. Being a moral person and not ‘finishing the fight.’ A hero in the making.

To Catch a Changeling

Brother - Kodaline

So I think this song could definitely be used to represent Jim and Toby, but I wanted to take the chance to choose a song for the protective trust that Draal starts to build with Jim. Obviously this episode is much more than that, but I see that scene where Jim is reflecting Draal’s fighting moves as the unofficial start of their brother-like relationship. So yes, I did pick a song because of one small scene.

Adventures in Trollsitting

Hey There Delilah - Plain White T’s

This one is a bit of a joke but Jim is definitely simping for Claire in this episode by volunteering to babysit so I have chosen a song to fit with that. (Also, wOw this explanation makes it VERY clear I’m gen z).

Bittersweet Sixteen

100 Bad Days - AJR

Lyrics specifically fit here. Yes, a lot goes wrong in this episode, but the relationships are strengthened (Blinky and Jim) and it’s sweet in the end.

Young Atlas

Number One Fan - MUNA

Not gonna lie, I wanted to sucker punch Jim in this episode. This song choice is kind of satirical but really just for being confident and self-assured. Lyrics fit for the chorus and parts of the verses.

Recipe for Disaster

Carmen, Suite No. 2: VIII. Habanera - Saint Petersburg Orchestra of the State Hermitage Museum Camerata

Wow that’s a long title. Okay this is the only choice that has no lyrics/is classical on this list, but that is mainly because I chose it specifically for Strickler because he seems like a classical music kind of guy (maybe it’s a changeling thing @ Nomura). Also this is a pretty recognizable piece (in my opinion) and I also think it would sound pretty epic and would make for some great cinematic effects if played during the fight in this episode.

Claire and Present Danger

Seashore - The Regrettes

Originally, I was going to go with a song that fit the heroism arc in this episode but! I focus on Jim a lot in this playlist. Instead, this song is a choice for Claire and where she is in the story (finally being brought into the action). I’ve always loved her for being feminine and badass at the same time, so this song is somewhat a choice as an anthem for her (especially her being so headstrong and determined).

The Battle of Two Bridges

Young Volcanoes - Fall Out Boy

Teenage recklessness and power. Reminds me of adventures and young adulthood, plus the whole modern heroism again. I think this song also correlated with a high-stakes battle which is exactly what happened in this episode. Plus? How sick would it be if there was a fight and the strikes and dodges were coordinated with the beats in this song??

Return of the Trollhunter

Kids in America - Kim Wilde

More for the vibes in the beginning when it feels like it really should have been a new season. I think the lyrics fit pretty well here too. Fits with Claire joining the team and the heroes starting to come into their own.

Mudslinging

What’s Up Danger (With Black Caviar) - Blackway

This one was fully for Angor Rot and his first real introduction. He’s presented as an obvious and looming threat. While this song’s lyrics fit more with the more badass side of modern heroism (connects to Jim showing off his skills), I think the sounds fit with Angor and how he has begun to raise the stakes. This also may be a result of me associating this song with teenage heroes since it’s from the Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse soundtrack.

Roaming Fees May Apply

Welcome to the Jungle - Guns ‘n’ Roses

What can I say? The gang finds themselves in an unpredictable situation. It’s an adventurous episode to say the least. I feel like this song is used for action movies somewhat often so I’m throwing it in for this episode.

Blinky’s Day Out

Hooked on a Feeling - Blue Swede

This is almost completely a comedic choice. Barely any thought went into this one, and the lyrics have nothing to do with it. It is purely for the good vibes that always accompany this song because I feel like Blinky’s time on the surface was (at least initially) a “good vibes” situation. The apparent simplicity of being human can feel that way.

The Shattered King

Never Gonna Give You Up - Rick Astley

I’m using this episode to focus on Toby. Although there’s not much character development in this episode specifically, I think Toby deserves a better arc and I do want to give him at least one song. While I think there’s a lot more to Toby than he lets on or that which is shown in the show, he’s often used for humor and is basically the stereotypical funloving best friend. He seems like he’d enjoy a feel-good, upbeat, “classic” song, and there’s silly dancing in this episode so danceable song! (Also if the show were more accurate to today’s teens, I wholeheartedly believe Toby would be a meme-lover).

Airheads

Little League - Conan Gray

I absolutely love the simplicity of this episode, even if it’s just filler, but I have indeed found a way to make it angsty. This song choice is fully for the lyrics (though the sound isn’t completely wrong for the feel of the episode). I think this show gets progressively more emotional throughout the seasons, and, at this point, the kids are competing for Spring Fling nominations while Toby and Claire deal with a ridiculous problem. Something about this episode just seems to represent naiveté and this song talks about longing to return to childhood and innocence.

Where Is My Mind?

Hotel California - Eagles

Seeing as the obvious choice might have been Where Is My Mind? by Pixies, I tried to branch out here. This episode is honestly eerie because the characters face their worst fears but never discuss them or understand why/how it happened. For me, the vibe was a sort of mellow rock song and a dreamlike state. Thus: Hotel California. If I think about it enough, the lyrics work because of the sort of ominous false sense of security that I imagine using this song for in a story. Ultimately though, it’s the sound and energy.

Party Monster

Candy - Robbie Williams

This is solely for the vibes just because it feels like a party song to me for some reason. Sorry I didn’t put much thought into this one. Also though? This song and its lyrics low-key remind me of Mary and this is one of the few episodes in which she was featured somewhat prominently.

It’s About Time

Blitzkrieg Bop - The Ramones

Definitely not for the lyrics, I think it’s just the sound and the energy almost completely for this song. For me, it just seems very high-energy and almost tense because of a fast heartbeat? I can just imagine this song playing as Jim is racing through town as quickly as possible. It’s a bit stress-inducing, honestly.

Wingmen

Victorious - Panic! At the Disco

High energy, but this is more of a simplistic choice to go with the fight scene and the progress we see from Jim as far as his training goes.

Angor Management

Carry On Wayward Son - Kansas

I chose this song as a representation of the dynamic that we see starting to form between Strickler and Jim. They’ve become unlikely teammates and Strickler is obviously a guiding figure for Jim, but I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s a father figure yet? Lyrics play into this choice a lot.

A Night to Remember

Just Like A Movie - Wallows

Specific to the dance scene. Nighttime lit up by emotion; bright kind of vibe. I thought about some other songs like Don’t Take the Money and Reckless Love (both by Bleachers), also Electric Love by BØRNS (didn’t choose that because I don’t really want to support BØRNS but I won’t get too into that). Ultimately, I think this one works best both with lyrics and overall sound. I’m a sucker for Jlaire so I had to focus on this part of the episode and how cute it was (sorry (not really tho)).

Something Rotten This Way Comes

Lessons - mxmtoon

Thinking about what you’ve learned and how to move forward in the present. Correlates more with where the story is at in this season finale, not as much with what exactly happens in the episode. Definitely a choice made for the lyrics (although Jim probably should have listened to the part about patience).

Escape from the Darklands

Hero - Weezer

Any upbeat, modern rock music for me always seems to fit the vibe for teenage heroes. I think the lyrics hit the nail on the head for characterizing Jim in this episode. He feels a huge responsibility and fear, and isn’t sure he can live up to it. Also I love him but going into the darklands alone? Not the smartest.

Skullcrusher

Off She Goes - Bad Suns

For Claire and her development in this episode. The emotion she has to use and how she pushes herself. The vibes are there but the lyrics in the chorus are what mainly influenced this choice.

Grand Theft Otto

Weightless - All Time Low

Not too sure about the sound with this one but I like the lyrics here for the dual plot of the episode. I think the whole thing with having a hard time and struggling but also not giving up hope resonates pretty generally with the trollhunters, but also specifically with Jim in the darklands and Claire and Toby (& Blinky) getting stuff done because they’re determined to save both Jim and AAARRRGGHH!!!

KanjigAAARRRGGHH!!!

Highway to Hell - AC/DC

This one is kind of a joke but kind of not. Seeing as this is the episode that the rest of the group goes to the *Darklands* to save Jim, I think the lyrics unironically fit in a humorous way. Can’t go wrong with classic rock either. (Can you tell I was struggling with this one?)

Homecoming

Life on Mars? - David Bowie

Okay, this is kind of just an excuse for me to throw this song in here, but it reminds me of a ragtag team of heroes who don’t necessarily win but live to see another day (probably because of this song’s feature in American Horror Story: Freak Show). Lyrics not so much throughout the song as a whole, but the vibes are definitely there in the chorus. A joke song that came to mind for this (for obvious reasons) was My Boyfriend’s Back by The Angels.

Hiss Hiss, Bang Bang

Sophomore Slump Or Comeback Of The Year - Fall Out Boy

Mostly for the vibes, correlates with the energy that Jim has after finally coming home. Also, lyrics fit pretty well here.

Hero with a Thousand Faces

Istanbul (Not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants

I was searching for so long to find a song to match the chaos and hilarity of this episode (idc if it’s filler I love it so much), and realized only something just as obscure would work. The song and the episode have virtually nothing in common other than they are both ridiculous and I love them for it (sorry if that’s disappointing but hey). Also ever since I saw The Umbrella Academy use this for a fight scene I’ve loved the idea of this song in shows/movies with heroes so maybe this could fit with when Jim fought Hunter!Jim.

Just Add Water

The Kids Aren’t Alright - Fall Out Boy

I love this episode for the irony of the flour baby assignment. The main group is just dealing with so much more than health class homework at this point and yet they still take it so seriously. I chose this song partially because I really wanted to fit it in this list somewhere but I also think it correlates with the characters being so heavily involved in this dangerous, heroic life and still flying mostly under the radar in their small town. They’re going through a lot yet no one seems to notice.

Creepslayerz

I Wanna Be Sedated - The Ramones

This one is for the eagerness that Eli and Steve have to fight the ‘bad guys.’ They’re excited to form a team and I think their dynamic works with this. Also I love their dynamic so much we need more of them.

The Reckless Club

I Was a Teenage Teenager - Green Day.

Really just a fun loving song about kids being kids. Considered Don’t You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds as a Breakfast Club reference but figured I’d try not to make it too easy.

Unbecoming

Generation Why - Conan Gray

Correlates with ordinary life, lack of adventure and wanting something more (both sound and lyrics).

Mistrial and Error

Run Boy Run - Woodkid

Purely for the scene in The Deep where Jim fights his greatest fear. The lyrics are perfect and I could absolutely see this song playing as Jim faces The Deep.

In the Hall of the Gumm-Gumm King

Revolution Radio - Green Day

I think high energy fights + the neon color palette and destruction in Trollmarket fit perfectly with the energy and sound of this song. Obviously also the epic portal escape at the end. I didn’t want to use Children of the Sun by Thomas Bergensen (although that’s a super good song and the instrumental version, None Shall Live, is used in the episode) and thought this one’s lyrics fit well with the team’s resistance/rebellion and renegade status.

A Night Patroll

Next Up Forever - AJR

This is not particularly chosen for the lyrics, but I do think they fit more or less. Correlates with this being the start of season 3, the tension is getting thicker and the stakes are rising. The vibe here is not necessarily being ready to take on responsibilities you know you have to, and being nervous to do so. (I am definitely focusing on Jim a bit much here, but the show is too).

Arcadia’s Most Wanted

Young and Menace - Fall Out Boy

Although the team has been acting as heroes for a while, this is their first time defeating regular crime - the first few phrases of lyrics fit with that the most. Figured it goes with underestimating teenagers. Also I’m noticing while editing that there is a ton of Fall Out Boy in this playlist.

Bad Coffee

The Reckless and the Brave - All Time Low

I chose this one for one of my favorite team-up dynamics: Jim, Toby, Steve, and Eli. The energy and the lyrics in this song I just think are perfect for this group and I think could also correlate with the whole grave sand training thing Jim did in the beginning (‘reckless’ & ‘brave’).

So I’m Dating a Sorceress

Love is Dead and We Killed Her - Doll Skin

Purely for Morgana’s raw badass energy. That’s it, that’s the explanation.

The Exorcism of Claire Nuñez

Rubi - Doll Skin

Specific to Claire, could also be seen as her possession but leans more into her own personal power. Lyrics are definitely important but I think the sound also fits Claire's character.

Parental Guidance

The Times They Are A-Changin’ - Bob Dylan

Not for the energy at all because I can’t really pinpoint that but! lyrics are important here and (even though I think it’s self-explanatory) represent the parents’ reactions.

The Oath

The Ghost of You - My Chemical Romance

The lyrics for this one definitely work - about pain and grief but also moving through it. Definitely chose this one for Draal but his death was the main event of the episode so that feels justified. I think the sound is a bit intense for the energy of this episode but I’m really pushing the angst and sorrow with this one. At least I didn’t use Another One Bites The Dust by Queen >:).

For the Glory of Merlin

Yesterday - The Beatles

This one is a bit of a stretch and it was difficult to choose for a while but I personally see Merlin as a morally gray character (although i wasn’t a fan of how he talked to Claire and manipulated Jim but anyway) and I think he’s got a very complicated past. He mentioned that he used to have a pure heart and I found that very interesting so this song is an ode to who he possibly used to be with its lyrics. Also they literally step back into a frozen moment in this episode in time so this felt fitting.

In Good Hands

California Friends - The Regrettes

More for the sweet relationship building that this episode does, and the potential of a closer friendship (the kind we see in D’aja Vu in 3Below). This song is arguably more about romantic love but I think it could work with platonic. (Also Arcadia is literally in California and we need a sunshiny song amidst all the angst in this season).

A House Divided

Ribs - Lorde

Ha-yeah, sorry guys but I had to do it. Quite obviously specific to the bathroom scene and especially the montage right when Jim steps into the tub, about loss of childhood and memories, growing up. I think a lot of people know and have cried to this song, much like a lot of us cried watching this episode.

Jimhunters

Untitled - mxmtoon

Slowly growing up, having to deal with changing relationships. Dealing with hardships while lonely is clearly a big part of most of this episode, but the song correlation breaks off a bit towards the end; the lyrics focus more on pushing through on your own while the episode talks about counting on one another in difficult times. I think it also plays into being a bit fearful of the future and having to adjust to new situations while remembering the past.

The Eternal Knight: Part 1

Don’t Stop Me Now - Queen

The vibes that go with the battle of the bands and also the onset of the fight when everything is getting more dangerous. Also the part of the battle before Jim takes on Angor Rot and Gunmar, where all the trollhunters, creepslayerz, and citizens are fighting together.

The Eternal Knight: Part 2

Time of Our Lives - Tyrone Wells

I know we’ve all heard this in fan-made edits after a series or show ends, but there’s a reason everyone uses this song. Feels like a very nice culmination, specific to parting ways with those you love after shared experiences. Really just for the last scene. This whole playlist idea came from me listening to this song in an edit and getting emotional so there’s that.

[sage-the-mage]

I'd like opinions please

I'm starting an extremely self indulgent fic where an OC of mine punches Lila in the fucking face, that has said OC Chara is Mari's cousin and co-Ladybug, Adrien and Felix as twins and co-Chats, and also serves as a bit of a fix it with some behavior issues of a few characters in general (Adrien actually respects the boundaries of his Lady and doesn't apparently let Paris drown or some shit (haven't seen any episodes past season one so I'm hoping that's an exaggeration but just in case,) the class doesn't decide Mari (or Chara) is a bully because she doesn't like someone, and we're probably going the 'Lila has some inherent power that keeps others from picking apart her obvious lies' route because I like it and I swear that class can't actually be that fucking dumb, probably at least the implication of poly shenanigans to come if not outright done) but. I can't decide between Adrienette or Felinette, because both have their merits but I can't do both because the boys are twins. And then I also kinda like the idea of Chara with both for different reasons, so trying to pick based on who I like them with better is difficult. Alternately, Mari gets Luka and Kagami, instead of Luka and Adrien or Felix and Chara with Kagami and the other twin, (or fuck it Mari gets all 4 she deserves all the love,) and Chara instead just hooks up with a character based on and named after Firebrand from the hero unmasked cyoa story app (like, it's basically him but the actual fire boy is a villain, but I don't think I quite wanna deal with that between Gabe and Lie-la in this fic so instead he'd just be a kid with fire powers that decides to help LB and CN) (ooooo actually what if all the protags had some power they aren't/are barely aware of? I'd have to think of stuff and I'd probably give out some to some other classmates too but that's a fun idea for while they start learning that there's magic aside from the miraculous themselves) (oh also the whole bit with forgetting when you give up being guardian and they would have to give up the miraculous if they found each other out is garbage and gone. I'm also giving a damn reason why he picked fucking kids for this)

[thugnan]

Treasure in the Royal Tower (PC 2001)

Story: 7/10

Characters: 6/10

Puzzles:7/10

Chores: 6/10

Final Rating: 7/10

I have this one still and I would rather pirate any other game in the series. The story is interesting but the puzzles and erraticness of gameplay drives me crazy. I’m pretty sure I’ve only played this one once, because the second time I tried to play it, I ran into one of those pesky glitches, and I didn’t care enough to go back and try again. I also don’t know if I’m the only person on this planet to find Professor Hotchkiss annoying af, if I didn’t need her help in the later games I would have totally stabbed her. This was the second game to try to weave history into the game, and it did it decently, I was just a little confused as to why they had to redeem Marie Antoinette’s character? It felt like they were making up their own alternate history as opposed to Message in a Haunted Mansion, where they used a fictional character to tell their story.

UPDATE: The glitches really took away from a solid game. Upon further evaluation I am giving it a better rating. It deserves a higher rating thank Secrets Can Kill for sure. 

Plot (spoilers obviously)

Finally after 3 attempted murders Thug Nan is cashing in on a well deserved vay-cay. Of course just because Thug Nan is on vacation doesn’t mean attempted murder took a vacation. Except no one was attempted murdered yet. Yet being the key word here.

Upon arrival we get snowed in immediately. We mull around this castle, eventually learning that someone broke into the library and vandalized it. Do I smell a mysteryyy?? You sure bet I do!

Your radiator tho, sounds like its about to explode so Thug Nan finds the guy managing the place and is like “u best fix my radiator”. This guy is no nonsense however, and is like “u best help me with these chores how bout da?” You get on those chores and on the way you meet:

Dexter: The manager, he’s angry all the time, but I totally kissed his ass to get on his good side. I’m sure this will work out in my favor later.

“Lisa”: Idr the culprit from my first play through of this game, but I don’t get good vibes from this girl at all. She’s a photographer allegedly. She is the first to spill the tea about the robbery. 

Jaques: *cue all French man stereotypes* I like Jaques, he seems like someone who could hang. He has a sad boi backstory where he bombed at the olympics and is on a path to redemption by the woman he loves. Could be a green card marriage, but yo this is the best episode of 90 day fiance. I think he works in the castle? 

Professor Hotchkiss: She wouldn’t annoy me so much if she would remember my name right. That’s mad disrespect yo. She’s a nerd, but so nerd that she doesn’t even have the respect of her peers cause she a lil wack. She’s writing a book I think. 

While Dexter is using Thug Nan for free labor, you get trapped in an elevator. Like wtf I haven’t done anything to piss off anyone yet. I’m only the errand girl. But by doing this the person unintentionally gave me access to the library so jokes on them! You discover that Dexter is looking for something in the library… suspicious. 

Upon further trespassing investigating, we learn that:

Marie Antoinette may have been in the super duper secret tower that’s attached to the resort

Dexter’s dad owned the resort

Dexter’s dad was also a chocolate milk tycoon 

Dexter was a webel, a real thug, my man even did time, so I better recognize. But his dad did disown him.

“Lisa”? More like “Lie-sa”! This girl isn’t who she says she is, she has a bunch of fake passports and identities.

Hotchkiss is batshit

You find your way into the super dooper secret tower and find… Jaques! How could u? He’s trying to saw his way into the tower like a suspect. He assures you that he’s only trying to finish what his grandpa asked him to do on his deathbed. Take a medallion and open some super dooper secret journal that may or may not be in a super dooper secret tower.

I like Jaques, so I give him the benefit of the doubt. MISTAKE. I go get the medallion from his locker and BAM, Thug Nan is knocked out cold. Idk what hurt more, the blow to the head, or the betrayal. 

When you come to, Jaques is convinced you stole the medallion. Okay so maybe he didn’t knock you out then. Unless its another ruse? Dexter congratulates you for finding the tower, and tells you a touching story about his dad taking him up to the tower when he was a kid. He’s like you should check it out, and I’m like holmes, I am ON it. 

I find a journal, but home girl failed the first semester of French so we gotta get someone to translate it. We drop it off with the batshit lady, and head out to find some medallions. We find one stashed in Dexter’s dad’s super secret garden. 

Next, Liesa gives us a “tip” about seeing Dexter take something to the shed. Out there we find another medallion, none of these medallions are the one that was stolen from Jaques’s locker. While you’re out there however, some b i t c h locks you outta the castle. Thug Nan is gonna freeze to death if we don’t figure out a plan. You turn on the ski lift as an SOS, and Dexter opens the door for you.

When you pick up your translated journal from Hotchkiss’s room you find… Jaques’s medallion! Thug Nan isn’t about to admit that she might have been KO’d by this punk granny, so she confronts her, and she says that some “maid” put that there… my peter tingle tells me this is probably Liesa…

With all three medallions in hand, I make my way to the tower again. Where I find a shiny diamond, which realistically, has no monetary value but something something about society and culture. 

Liesa has the audacity to show up, she’s a “jewel thief” by her own admission, and all I can say is, gurl this isn’t the old country, get a real job. This asshat pepper sprays me. But jokes on her because if I learned anything from Secrets Can Kill is how to yeet people down a flight of stairs. No one messes with Thug Nan. 

THE END. 

[doedipus]

I finally finished moyashimon

it’s honestly one of my favorite anime/manga that I’ve read in a long, long time. there are definitely some aspects of the work that frustrate me, but it’s not quite enough to sour the work as a whole in my eyes. if you’re in the mood for a really chill slice of life series with a lot of well-developed and respectfully portrayed female and queer characters, definitely give it a shot.

first of all, to anyone who’s only seen the anime adaptation, definitely, definitely, definitely look into the manga. some of the best parts in the series happen after the anime ends, esp. the craft beer adventure in volume 8 and american road trip in volume 10. plus, if you’re like me and are mostly drawn to the work because of kei, her involvement in the story only starts ramping up immediately after the anime ends, and she’s essentially the main character of the last 3 volumes. Plus, ishikawa and his team have a lot of fun with the medium that doesn’t always translate into animation.

All in all, picking up the manga is 100% worth your time if you’re even vaguely intrigued by the premise

more detailed thoughts and a handful of good reaction images under the break

I think overall the beer, france, and america arcs are the high points of the series.

The beer arc sticks out to me mostly because of stuff happening in real life during the time I was reading it. Basically, some of my friends talked me into taking a beer tasting class at uni with them. I’d never really liked beer very much beforehand, but it turns out I was just drinking the wrong kinds of beer. I’ll put my life on the line for a good IPA now that I know what that even is.

The beer section of moyashimon has mutou go through a similar process- she starts out by going on a huge tirade about how craft beer sucks and it’s only appealing to pretentious weirdos, and then over the course of the volume, they go over what different kinds of beer are like, how they’re made, etc. It ended up giving me a good idea of what to look out for in the beer class, and it was fun being able to compare what I was sampling to what the fermentation lab crew talked about.

There’s also a pretty cute gender-affirming moment for kei in there, where the gang gives her a women’s costume for the faux oktoberfest celebration the book culminates in. it’s a small plot point, but I liked it a lot.

The france and america arcs are pretty similar and I like them for basically the same reasons. Essentially it boils down to them tying really dynamic plotlines in with the usual culinary intrigue. There’s a real sense of tension to what’s happening in the story, and the food stuff is more directly related to what’s happening in the story than it usually is. In a lot of the other plotlines, the writers have a tendency to frontload all the technical stuff into one or two extended dialogue scenes, which can be kind of hard to get through in comparison

I also found ishikawa’s assessment of american food pretty fun to read through, and a lot of his comments make me want to try out some western restaurants in japan if I ever end up going there. For instance, he has the characters talk a lot about how burgers and stuff are much sweeter than they’re used to them being in japan, and it’d be neat to have a point of comparison for that.

Also the america arc is where kei and marie probably do gay things, which I am very down for

ultimately, I think upwards of 90% of people who stumble upon this series now, 5 years after the last chapter and last episode were released, are here specifically for kei. she’s the strong bad to sawaki’s homestar: you might not know it yet, but she’s the reason you’re here. if you’re impatient and wanna speedrun straight to the part where she transitions/goes full time/whatever, it’s halfway through volume 4 of the manga and episode 10 of the first season of anime. there’s a lot of fun plotlines that happen before that point that really deserve attention on their own merit, though.

I’m a big fan of kei’s characterization. she’s possibly my favorite trans (or trans-adjacent josou danshi, post-colonialism ho!) character I can think of, and certainly the best I’ve seen written by a cis author. being manga, there’s some dumb missteps that happen, but they seem to be mostly a result of the creators not knowing better rather than them just putting her in to gawk at like a lot of other creative teams tend to do. plus, I think a lot of it boils down to localization error. for instance, the scanslation I read consistently has characters and margin notes refer to her as “he,” but like, japanese doesn’t really use gendered language the way english does, so it’s more representative of the scan team’s biases than the writers’.

One of the things I really like about Kei’s depiction is that the author doesn’t try to make excuses for her behavior. There’s no throwaway line in her backstory about how her parents saw three crows and a capybara on the way home from the hospital and decided to raise her as a girl. She’s clearly attracted to Sawaki, but that’s never framed as her primary motive for transition. She just flatly explains that she thought about it real hard and decided that this was best for her. To me, that’s a much more compelling narrative than one where it’s something either foisted upon the character or something they just sort of haphazardly stumble into.

Another thing that sticks out to me about Kei is that she exists in a series that doesn’t construct its cast as a harem around a singular main character or the reader, which gives her much more room for personal motivations and interests. Like, even though I love Luka from steins;gate to pieces, she and the rest of the female cast in that series really only exist in order to be Okabe’s, and by extension, the viewers’ romantic interests. This ends up sort of limiting their ability for character growth because at the end of the day, they all have to remain available and receptive to Okabe’s advances. As a result, Luka can never really call Okabe out for mistreating her because the writers won’t risk making her route or subplot unappealing. The same goes for plenty of other series trans characters find themselves in, and it shows. So many of them are either smug tricksters there to tease viewers or utterly submissive waifs, and often lack development beyond what’s necessary to get otaku motors running.

Since Moyashimon doesn’t use that kind of restrictive casting structure, the author is able to untie Kei’s sense of self-worth from how Sawaki feels about her and allow the romance subplot to take a back seat while the cast works on their various projects. As a result, she ends up being more independent than most other trans characters and her self-confidence is more genuine. She’s designed from the ground up to be a more complete character, and it makes her inclusion in the main story as well as her subplot with Sawaki feel organic.

on the other hand, as punlich​ pointed out in their post, the series does take a couple passes at introducing characters that seem to be designed with the intent of giving the reader an outlet to vent their sexual frustration around kei, particularly marie and madoka. the former is frequently referenced within the work as being a cis palette swap of kei, and madoka is another of itsuki’s proteges who begins insisting that she’s going to marry sawaki shortly after she’s introduced and receives little characterization beyond that. Marie ends up being a strong character in her own right, but the work probably would’ve been better off if they’d given her basically any other design.

at least in my reading of the work, neither is really taken seriously as a preferable alternative pairing to kei/sawaki, since marie ends up being more into kei than sawaki in the end, and madoka just makes sawaki uncomfortable more often than not. it’s a clear step up from works like steins;gate, re:zero, blend-s, or oregairu, where the trans or GNC character is the one who’s never taken seriously to the point of being a joke inclusion more than anything. still, it’s irritating that the creators would feel the need to include that sort of character, given how they’re usually pretty good about not harem-izing their cast.

uh, and speaking of that, fuck most of volume 11. the central plotline for that section is that the school holds a beauty pageant for the cast, which is, uh, wildly out of character for the series to say the least. it’s to the point where I’m inclined to suspect some form of executive meddling. like maybe they were gonna get dropped due to lack of readership and the brass told the creative team to do a dumb fanservice arc or something. they talk in a sidebar about how they changed editors around the start of this arc, so I have a hunch that has something to do with it?  I guess only they would know, though. it’s not like I can read any interviews or anything lol.

there’s still good content in there, and like I mentioned earlier, it’s when kei starts to really dominate a lot of the screen time, which is a big plus. it’s just dumb and out of place.

I also kind of found the conclusion to kei and sawaki’s “will they, won’t they” subplot really unfulfilling. namely, there really isn’t a conclusion to it at all. at the end, it’s clear that kei’s finally become comfortable with her attraction to sawaki, but sawaki is still kinda hesitant about going anywhere serious with someone he’s been friends with since forever. and like, I can get that, it’s sort of a natural aspect of where that arc would have to go, it’s just a frustrating note to end on. it seems likely that they would get together in the future, at least. (and that’s why you should read my fanfics!)

One thing I really liked about the ending section is sawaki comes up with some proactive uses for his superpower. for most of the series, it’s just a vehicle for ishikawa to exposit about his fascination with microbiology and fermented cuisine, which works great with the lower-key tone the series went for. still, the ways he uses it at the end are pretty clever, and it would’ve been neat to see him go on to use it in other ways. It’s frustrating that one of the uses he comes up with involves doing mouth-to-mouth with madoka, however.

I kind of get the feeling that the series got cut short because a lot of plot threads get addressed and tied up really quickly and sloppily in the last four or five chapters, while a ton of others just sit there. idk if it was a popularity thing, or if ishikawa decided to go all-in on maria the virgin witch, or some other factor, but I guess that’s kind of the nature of serial fiction. it just goes on as long as the creators and publishers are engaged with it, and then it’s over and they all move onto something else.

I’m being pretty hard on the ending portions of the series, but honestly pretty much everything not directly related to the beauty pageant or madoka is really solid. I’m just laying it all out there so nobody gets caught off-guard by the jankiness more than anything.

For one reason or another, moyashimon really struck a chord with me, and it’s kind of hard to put into words why. A big part of it is that kei is a character that I feel a sort of kinship with, which is a rare occurrence as a trans person. She feels like a real person that I’d meet through a message board or discord lobby. The rest of the cast has shades of that as well- the students feel like people I could have met in school, and itsuki harkens back to aspects of professors I’ve had, from his weird sense of humor to his rather alarming past working for the military. It’s easy for me to subconsciously insert myself into their fictional friend group. I guess it’s kind of like how people tend to engage with redlettermedia or ensemble let’s play channels like game grumps or super best friends play. Reading about the gang’s antics confers a sense of belonging that I’m perpetually starving for.

Another aspect of it is that it’s just fun to indulge in someone else’s hyperfixations for a while. It’s why sci-fi authors like heinlein and crichton are so influential, and why internet personalities like cgp grey or jon bois are so engaging: they’re really adept at articulating how utterly captivating some concept or ideology is to them at the moment. Somewhere between most and all of what ishikawa has to say about food and microbiology goes directly over my head, but the passion he has for those topics is readily apparent in every jargon-infested, chart-saturated debate he has his characters get into, and I love it. In that sidebar he goes on about his relationship to his editors, he mentions that the top boy editor chewed him out a couple times for basically trying to sneak a textbook into the magazine. It ends up being compelling based on passion alone, even if I only really internalized a fifth of what he actually had to say.

Is moyashimon for you? Ultimately I don’t think it’s really for anyone besides ishikawa himself. But if you’re at all like me, chances are you’ll fall in love with this bizarre and charming edutainment series anyway. If any of this sounds even remotely interesting to you, I can’t recommend checking it out highly enough.

[nellie-elizabeth]

Supernatural: Exodus (13x22)

I was so, so, excited for this episode, and then I saw Buckleming's dreaded names flash across the screen, and my stomach dropped. This wasn't a bad episode. It had tons of good moments and ideas and things in it. But... it wasn't what I was hoping it would be.

Cons:

Buckleming episodes are always so crowded, and dramatic, and there's always so much A-plot happening, but for whatever reason, the emotional moments don't hit me as hard as they should. For example, Sam and Dean reunite, and obviously Jensen and Jared do a phenomenal job with the acting, but the direction and the script show them sharing a hug, and then going about their business. The trauma that Sam suffered at Lucifer's hands is barely addressed by anything more than Jared's facial expressions. If I had written this episode, I would have had Dean staring after Sam the whole way, keeping close by his side, worried that he was going to lose him again. Dean should have been shattered by Sam's reappearance, giddy with relief. Instead, the moment was underplayed.

In exchange for downplaying the emotions with the Winchester boys, we got an annoying amount of focus on Lucifer's character development. It seems he really is sincere in wanting to get to know his son, and Jack, understandably curious about where he comes from, seems willing to give him a chance to explain himself. Here's where I have a problem: Cas, Gabriel, Sam, and Dean all try to tell Jack, at various points, that he shouldn't listen to Lucifer, that Lucifer is a bad guy, but Lucifer has good arguments as to why he's just misunderstood. Why doesn't anybody spell it out for Jack? I get the idea of him wanting to come to his own opinions, but honestly. Why is it that nobody looks at Jack, and says: "dude, your father murdered Castiel in cold blood. He tormented Sam in the cage and continues to abuse and manipulate him every chance he gets. He has tried to kill both Winchesters on numerous occasions. Maybe he's not responsible for every bad thing in the universe ever, but he is responsible for the direct pain and suffering of the Winchesters and Cas, three people we know you care about." Wouldn't that go a long way to helping Jack understand the severity of the situation?

It bothers me that Gabriel is dead, because last week they were setting up that he might be a good candidate for running Heaven. It would have been the perfect way to keep him around without needing him to be in the story all that much. He could have popped in occasionally. I get that we completed his little mini-arc about not running away anymore, and standing up to the bad guy, but come on. This was such a wasted opportunity.

Oh, and one other little logistical note - the big idea of this episode is that everybody is going to come back through to Sam and Dean's world, regroup, resupply, and then go back to apocalypse land to take out Michael once and for all. But as the episode ends, Michael and Lucifer are trapped in the apocalypse world and Gabe is dead... and at no point does anybody wonder how it is they're supposed to get back through. Do they just have extra archangel grace lying around that I don't know about? It bothered me that nobody pointed out this obvious flaw in the plan.

Pros:

While I had some big problems with some of the emotional beats, and while I'm not even a little bit interested in a Lucifer redemption arc, I will say that there were some concepts and moments in this episode that worked quite well for me.

To start with, the basic plot is that Mary doesn't want to abandon her friends in the apocalypse world, so she wants to stay behind. Sam has a better idea - why doesn't everybody come along, so all of them can be safe? All... twenty-five of them? This is an awesome idea, and I love the concept of having an actual mini-army going in to the finale. It adds a level of epic that this show usually can't pull off with so few characters. It also means we've got Bobby and Charlie back in the story, albeit alternate versions of them. We also have Ketch, and a number of other resistance fighters who we might get a chance to get to know moving forward. I sure hope so.

If that really is the end of Gabriel, at least I'm glad that he got a good final episode. His conversation with Lucifer was one of my favorite moments we've ever seen from Gabe. He calls Lucifer out on his crap, saying that his whole victim act is really just an excuse for all of his abhorrent behavior. As everybody else seems to be oddly accommodating of the devil in their midst, Gabriel is the one person who is completely not here for it. And then that ending, where he stands up to Michael to give Sam and Dean a chance to escape? Aw man. So tragic. It was like Crowley all over again, only Gabriel has a better chance of being a force for good in the world, so it's an even more tragic loss. I was surprisingly moved by Dean's grief, and of course the expression on Sam's face was hard to watch as well. I like that the two of them and Cas commiserate over his loss back in the bunker.

We see AU!Cas this week, and although it's just a brief moment, it's always fun to see Misha giving a campy, over-the-top performance with a weird accent. I love that our Cas says he prefers humans to angels, as that really highlights the significance of seeing this evil, torturous version of Cas. This is what Castiel would be if he hadn't ever met the Winchesters.

And speaking of Cas, he got a lot of great moments. I loved the beat where he walks over to Dean's backpack, which Dean is still wearing, and pulls out the cuffs to lock up Lucifer. He also has a great line, when Lucifer calls Jack his son, and he responds: "this is Kelly Kline's son." Just... damn. You tell him, Cas. Much like last week, Cas played a generally supporting role in events, but it's always nice to see him backing up the Winchesters and being a bad-ass.

The scene where Dean and Sam rescue Charlie and Ketch from evil Cas was a surprising highlight. I was actually quite moved by both reunions. First, you have Sam hugging Charlie, and then pulling away when he realizes that of course this woman has never met him before. But Charlie smiles, and seems to realize enough of the truth to be okay with what has just happened. She gives Sam a friendly punch on the arm. God, I've missed Charlie. I really hope we get the chance to know this new version of her. And then Dean and Ketch... it took me a long time to care about Ketch as a character, and he's still under a microscope with me, but I really liked the moment when Dean rescued him and helped him out of the room. Ketch seemed very pleased to see him, and even cracked a joke about how it was about time that Dean returned the favor and saved his life for once. We also got hints that Charlie and Ketch have a partnership and a bond, which could be fun to see.

I did like the little Sam and Dean reunion moment, even if I think there maybe should have been more to it. But actually, it followed with what the fandom had been speculating. They thought that Sam would try to apologize for bringing Lucifer, and that Dean would shut that down, just relieved to have him back alive. That is essentially what happened. We got a nice long hug, and Dean saying "I thought I lost you," and I'm pretty pleased, all things considered.

I mentioned above that I'm not interested in a redemption arc for Lucifer. I almost put in the "cons" section the fact that everybody seems so completely willing to just let Lucifer tag along, because it seems unrealistic. But the ending fixed that for me - Sam asks Dean to let him handle Lucifer, and Dean agrees. As everybody goes through the portal at the end, Sam pushes Lucifer back and traps him. It was a ruthless, brutal moment, and it was exactly what Sam deserved to have happen after all of the torture that Lucifer has put him through. Obviously next week is going to mess with that, but I love that Sammy outsmarted the devil and got his revenge.

The final scene was quite lovely, with everybody in the bunker celebrating their successful escape. Sam, Dean, and Cas mourn Gabe, Bobby makes a speech and Dean remarks that he's already taking over, Jack sits forlornly in the corner, confused over Lucifer's absence, and Sam and Rowena have a nice moment as well, where Sam congratulates and thanks her for helping them out by holding the portal open. Rowena declares that Sam owes her one now, and she'll be sure to collect.

So... next week is the finale. I'm not really sure how to feel about the shape of this season overall. I think there are a lot of good elements, and I'm definitely excited to see Lucifer and Michael 2.0 come over and start mucking things up. That promo sure looks intense. We'll see how it goes!

7.5/10

[so-flashtastic]

Daddy’s promise 0.1

Request from anon: 083 would be awesome

Category: Pregnancy 083: "I can't be pregnant... or....OH, MY GOD! "

Pairing: Barry Allen x reader  Warnings: Girltalk where the word "sex" is mentioned a couple times (idk if that's a legit warning tho), mild swearing (I think there's like... three curewords or something), and a bit bad writing in the beginning. Words: 3516 

A/N: Just thought I'd give you the reason why I didn't post Cinderella part 2: it's pretty much because it's been a while since I wrote last time, and I want the second part to be perfect, AND I didn't have so many ideas – just thought you guys deserved an update quicker...

ϟϟϟϟϟ

When it came to sneaking in after a long night, Y/N Y/L/N wasn’t the best. Was the girl inexperienced? Well, maybe, but she blamed it more on her dominant gene of clumsiness. As expected, the door wasn’t on her side when she tried her best to get into her and Mary's apartment inaudibly.

Squeak! It was moments like these, Y/N regretted not getting their door fixed. Though she excused her laziness with the argument that it was a great (cheap) alternative for an alarm in case of thieves (as if anyone would break the law for her stuff, hah!), it wasn't funny when you tried your best to sneak inside after a long night out.

"Good morning," Mary, Y/N's best friend, and roommate smirked at her, two cups of coffees in her hands.  "We really need to oil those hinges," Y/N tried her best changing the topic, as she took the mug her friend offered her.  "Nice try, go shower and get dressed. You've got a lot to tell me, and I don't want you to be hung over while you're at it," at that moment, Mary was so determined, Y/N didn't dare nor care to tell her she wasn't that hung over.

"You had sex with Barry?! I can't believe it! I mean, you guys are like... the definition of cinnamon buns!" Mary exclaimed in shock. "Ugh, stop it, Mary. Now that I've told you everything about last night-" "He asked you to take som drinks with him and Caitlin, then you just ended up having sex? Who are you?"  "-can you just be the bestest best friend in the world and don't remind me about it for the rest of my life?" Y/N continued as if her friend hadn't just interrupted her, and hid her face in her hands.

"Wait, what? Why? Was he so bad?"   "NO! Jesus, Mary, no, he- he was good... But the sex is not the point!" Y/N shook her head.  "Well then, what's the problem?" "We're friends, and... and... and did you not just hear what's happened?! We had intercourse-" "Don't say intercourse, Y/N/N, it's old and it's weird," Mary interrupted. "Well, we did it-" "You're not five, Y/N, I believe the word you're looking for is-" "Oh my God, Mary, can we just not talk about this?! Please?" Y/n couldn't do this conversation anymore, and with a short "OK" from her noisy friend, Y/N left their living room. 

It had been days since her and Mary's conversation about Y/N's wild night with Barry. Luckily for her, Barry was needed in Star City for a week, so the awkward meet was yet to come. Of course, Y/N knew that it had to happen sooner or later, though later had worked out just fine for the past days, hence why she was still rooting for that method – despite Mary's constant nagging.

The morning came quicker than usual as Y/N woke up by the sudden urge to throw up. This confused her, considering Y/N was never sick – well, excluding the days she actually happened to be, of course. So when she found herself hanging over the toilet, she couldn't help being both frustrated as well as disgusted. 

"Y/N, are you ok?" Mary's voice came from the other side of the locked bathroom door. Y/N never locked the bathroom door – she feared she would get shut in and stuck during a fire – which happened more often than you would think (let's just say that Mary wasn't the best at cooking, or with fires). "Uhm... yeah, just-" She was interrupted by a second and hopefully last round of vomit. "Y/N?" "Yeah, I'm fine, just a sec, Mary!" Y/N was panicking. Y/N was throwing up. Y/N never threw up. "Y/N Y/L/N, I demand you to open this door before I get creepy Jack  down the hall to kick this door open for me!" And that's how Y/N got herself in lockdown.

It was never fun to be at home, sick. Especially when one wasn't sick, but one's crazy overprotective roommate and best friend forced one to stay home because one acted a bit off and looked a bit pale in the morning. Y/N was currently in this situation. She didn't like it. At the moment she was walking around their apartment, feeling 100% good to go to work. "You look terrible today as well, Y/N, you're not going anywhere. I'm telling Mrs. Norman, so if I get a phone call that your toe has even touched the air of the other side of that door, you'll be dead," Mary had told her. 

This was it, the last drop, she was done, finished, finito with staying home any longer. Y/N had just finished her third film of the day, and just laying there was getting her a migraine. 'OK, I'm going out! I'm a grown woman! A big girl, an independent girl! I can do whatever I want to! My best friend can't make me stay at home!' Y/N went for her purse and was ready to walk out the door, but as if Mary could read minds, Y/N's phone rung. "Hello?" Y/N sounded as chirpy as she could, feeling nervous as hell. "Hey, Y/N! Just wanted to make sure you haven't left!" Mary knew her better than anyone, and it was almost scaring Y/N a bit. Almost. 

Three knocks on the door followed by the sound of a pair of keys, and then the door opened. The familiar squeak made its way to Y/N's ears as she laid on her bed in misery. "Hey, Y/N, are you alright?" It was Barry. 'Barry? Is he back home?' Y/N tried not to let her panic take overhand. Anger suddenly washed over her, if this was Mary's work, a certain brunette would be in deep trouble when she came back from work...

"Hey, I uh... I brought flowers," Barry's voice could be heard from the living room, and Y/N's mind was twisting and turning: Should she go on and play sick? It would certainly delay the awkward conversation that was bound to happen... Deciding it was her best option at the time, Y/N made out a weak cough, and answered her friend: "In here, Barry!" as sickly she could manage.

"Hi, how're you feeling?" Barry stepped inside carefully, as if the floor would cause her more pain.  "I'm ok, my head hurts a bit, and I'm a bit nauseous," Y/N thought that her breasts being tender were a fact she didn't have to share. "Uhm..." looking as Barry's ears had just turned tomato red, Y/N scolded herself for saying her thoughts out loud.

"Mary told you to come here?" Y/N tried her best changing the subject quickly as well as keeping her act.  "Uhm, no, heard it from Caitlin actually. She was.. uh... on the phone with Mary I think. She, uhm, she's a loud talker," "Caitlin or Mary?" "Both," the two laughed, Y/N throwing in a couple of coughs. When the laughing calmed down, and the tension started to grow, it was as if her guardian angel saved her, and Barry's phone rung. "Uhm, sorry, I have to go, Captain Singh needs me at the office..." "Yeah, of course, you just go and save the city by stirring in chemicals," her good-bye made him laugh as he made his way out the door in a hurry. 

"Y/N?" Mary asked. They were currently sitting on the couch, eating pizza and watching How I Met Your Mother.  "Yeah?" "Pee on this for me, will you? I think you're pregnant," the brunette said, throwing a box at Y/N – who were almost choking on her food. "Excuse me?!"  "Just do it, it won't hurt, and you've been feeling bad for days. Now be quick and get it done already before I eat this up," 

"This is stupid," Y/N said. It turned out that Mary had seen the episode airing on TV "a thousand times", so they were now hovering over the white stick somewhat curious and excited. "Because I can't be pregnant... OH, MY GOD!” Y/N couldn’t believe it. It said positively. "Is it Barry's?" Mary broke the silence "What?!" "Well, you're obviously not Mother Teresa, and you're not the one to sleep around; I mean, I'm just tying up the loose ends..." "Oh my God, Mary, can we just not talk about this?! Please?" Y/N was still trying to cope with the fact that a living creature was growing inside her vagina. "Yeah, yeah of course..." And the night continued, Mary planning out how she would be the cool aunt of the unborn baby, and Y/N denying the scary fact that she would become a mother in roughly nine months.

"You need to tell him, Y/N," Mary said, looking at her best friend while trying her best not to tick off the ice cream-eating bipolar monster. 'I thought we agreed not to talk about this,'  Was what Y/N wanted and meant to say, though because of the piece of heaven that was melting inside her mouth, it rather came out sounding more like: "Eh ohuph uh a-edh umph uh ahk a-ou es!" Mary, on the other hand, managed to translate the faded message by the clear look in Y/N's eyes. "That was three weeks ago,"  "Ugh!!" And the monster sunk her head in the pillows surrounding her, letting out a loud cry of frustration.

"What about Coby?" Y/N asked her friend.  "Because Cody is too common for you?" Mary answered, still skimming through her magazine in the other end of the sofa.  "I don't know, he just feels like a Coby," Y/N answered, looking down at er stomach – if she really just concentrated hard enough, she could see the little bump forming. "Yeah, you've just begun the first trimester, so sorry hun, but the kiddo doesn't even have a face, let alone a pair of good functionating lungs,"  "You're right, but what about Bia? Or Dory? What do you think about those?" Y/N asked, and at this, Mary set her Vouge away and looked her friend straight in the eyes.

"I think that if you want to name your child after a Pixar/Disney-cartoon fish, you better talk to the daddy..." "Yeah, Dory was a bit too creative maybe... How about Elza? Elza is cool, or Logan? He was always my favorite. Though Jess was also-" Y/N's attempt on ignoring her friend's change of topic failed hard when Mary interrupted her. "Y/N this is getting serious. You haven't even hung out with Barry much for the past weeks. Remember when you two couldn't stay away from each other for more than six hours? I remember that very well. I also remember him being your number one topic to talk about 24/7," 

She was right. Mary was right and Y/N knew it, though she couldn't help it! All she could think of when picturing their first real talk since the one four weeks ago was BABYBABYBABY. Imagine how stressed he would be? He made one mistake, and now he was forced into a huge commitment. In addition to that, this was not what Y/N wanted herself. She wanted to get kids with the man in her life. And currently, that was her dad, considering her status on Facebook was still remaining 'single'. 

"But how Mary? How do I confront him with this? He's going to be a dad! And when I tell him, he will have two options: A, to agree to all terms and conditions, to become a dad and parent with me, or he can B, politely decline and leave my life forever! Mary, I can't bear a life without him!" She hadn't even realized the tears running down her cheeks before now.  "He won't leave you, do you hear me? He will never ever leave you," Mary tried her best reassuring her friend, patting Y/Non the head while whispering soft comforting words.

"You know, having a pregnant roommate is way more expensive than you would think," Mary came in the door with four bags full of food. "Yeah, yeah, where's the pickles?" Y/N asked frantically, to which Mary gave her one of the bags. "I mean, not only does it drench your wallet, but also your mentality. Here you go by the way, bought eleven jars, just for you," Y/N went for it, and opened the first one in sight. But just as she was about to open the lid and down all of the juice like she had done for the now empty seven jars in their fridge, she stopped. "Yuck, how disgusting is this? Do we have any chocolate?"  “Like I said, drenching my wallet and mentality...” Mary said looking up to the roof, shaking her head.

Y/N was currently in her thirteenth week, and her clothing style had changed drastically for a couple of weeks. 'They are meant for comfort and coverage,' she had told Mary when her friend had commented that she couldn't leave the apartment in 'the biggest sweatshirt in the building' and her pajama pants. So you could imagine Barry's shock when he not only saw his once best friend and crush clothed in uncharacteristically clothing but also for the first time in months. How Y/N had managed to avoid him for that long?

Y/N laid in her bed, computer on her lap, popcorn within her hand's reach, and sipping on a coke. Her mind was parallelled set on the kittens in the video she was watching, and how cool it would be when her stomach finally would grow to a proper, usable size AKA when she could drop the coffee table in the living room, and do a Phoebe Buffay. 

Interrupting her thoughts, her phone started ringing, leaving her annoyed as she had to pause her YouTube-watching. "Hello?" She said unaware of whom it wa son the other side of the line.  "Hey Y/N/N, just wondering where you-" It wasBarry. Her Barry. What was she to do?! "Sorry, wrong number," Y/N said in the deepest voice she could muster, as she quickly hung up on the poor, oblivion guy.

Though that wasn’t it, Y/N really was creative with her avoiding methods. She needed to go to the store? She asked Mary. Mary said no? She asked Mrs. Norman. Mary figured that out, got mad at her, and told Mrs. Norman not to worry about it? Y/N asked creepy Jack down the hall, whom she knew Mary wouldn’t dare to talk to. But how about her job? In addition to having a feminist extremist as a boss, Y/N was a writer for a magazine. So simply explaining her situation, adding a couple of white lies, and finishing with a strong apology with a touch of ‘I promise to work twice as hard at home,’ Y/N was off the hook. 

But just as any hormonal pregnant woman, Y/N got enough of her hiding – it should be him hiding, not her! To this Mary had told her that Barry didn’t have the knowledge to why he had to hide (which apparently, Mary didn’t have either) and she was being ‘irrational and not herself,’ which Y/N obviously ignored. Hence why she left their home to get the right chocolate milk, because creepy Jack simply didn’t do the job properly. 

"Y/N? Is that you?" Barry couldn't be too careful when it came to assuming  – let's just say this wasn't the first time he had "seen"  Y/N in public. Though at the mention of her name, Y/N turned to see who had said her name. Her eyes locked into his for mere seconds before Y/N turned away in hope her invisibility powers would quickly appear and hide her. Such a pity Y/N wasn't a meta...

"It is you!" Barry jogged up to her. Great, what was she to do now?  "Hi...!"  Y/N answered back, holding her basket with milk in a tight grip. "How've you been? I haven't heard anything from you for so long..." Barry said, just standing there in front of the girl he loved.  "Uhm, a bit ill actually... Yeah, that's why I haven't had the time to hang out," quite happy about her explanation, Y/N stood there ready to go. 

"For three months?" Barry asked, not completely convinced. "Yeah," Y/n faked a cough, "really bad flu,"  "I see, well, do you want to grab dinner Friday?" "Friday? As in now Friday? in three days?" Barry nodded, and Y/N shut her eyes as if she had to think of her plans for the rest of the week.  'Should I say yes? It would be quite suspicious if I told him no... But he will know! On the other hand, Big Belly Burger does sound tempting...' "Big Belly Burger?" Y/N asked with a smile on her face, which Barry gladly returned. "Yeah! Good, I'll pick you up at six," Barry winked at her, then left. 'What have I gotten myself into?'

"This is good, Y/N! Now you can finally tell him!" Mary said, proud of the maturity her friend was showing. "Telling him? Are you kidding, I'm not gonna tell him anything! We're just grabbing some burgers..." Y/N defended herself. Wouldn't that be scandalous, her telling him? He would flee the country to just get away from her. "You're not serious now, are you?" When Y/N didn't answer her, Mary took a deep sigh. "You are aware of that you're pushing him away from you, right? Because that's why you don't want to tell him because you don't want to lose him? So I'd use some more time to think before you just go on your date-" "It's not a date!" "- later today, and keep your secret safe," Mary finished and left the room for Y/N to remake her decision.

It had taken her blood, sweat, and tears – literally, but Mary finally made Y/N agree to tell Barry about her pregnancy. But after a brutal paper cut, an intense discussion, and while following the DVD-aerobic-instructor, Mary argued her way to victory, Y/N left their apartment in defeat.

Walking next to Barry, Y/N started to regret her choice of clothes – no scratch that, Mary's choice of clothes. Because Y/N was supposed to tell Barry she was pregnant anyway, and 'It's a date for fuck's sake, and you like him, you might as well dress proper!' So there she was. Next to the guy she loved, feeling more insecure about her body as ever, in hope Barry hadn't noticed. And even though he didn't show it, Barry did notice. But the thought of her being pregnant? That hadn't nor ever would've crossed his mind. 

"God, I'm hungry... Haven't eaten since lunch, how 'bout you?" Barry asked, not really sure of what to say. The conversation usually came naturally between the two of them. "Starving," Y/N said, but kept out the fact that she ate an hour ago. "I could seriously eat a horse, or maybe even the whole team, when I think of it," she finished, and made Barry laugh.  "A whole team of horses?" He asked with a smile, to which Y/N chortled at. "Yes!"  "I don't believe you..." Barry said playfully, loving the feeling of the normality between him and the Y/H/C girl.  "Bartholomew Henry Allen, you've officially been challenged to a duel," Y/N said in the stiffest voice she could muster.  "A burger-eating contest?" "Well, if you want it to sound dull, so yeah..."

“Oh Holy Moses...” Y/N sighed and rubbed her stomach. In front of her was a grinning Barry Allen, and five un-eaten 500g-Double cheese-bacon-burger with sweet potato fries. "Told you you'd lose, though I'm impressed, not many can keep up with a speedster," "Trust me, it's not that difficult when you're eating for two!" Y/N said with a laugh, but it quickly stopped when she saw the look on his face. It was a good mixture of shock... shock... and more... shock.

"Uhm... Uh... yeah, I'm uh... I'm pregnant... Sur-surprise?" Y/N had never been this nervous ever.  "You're pregnant?" Barry couldn't believe it. Who was the father? For how many months? Why hadn't she told him before? Was this the reason she hadn't talked to him for so long? However, he decided to keep those questions for himself, afraid of the answers – especially the first one, hadn't he meant anything for her?  "Uhm, yeah... Due date's 4th of April,"

"Who knows?" He asked again, "... is the father aware?" He finished. "Mary and you are the only ones. Mom and dad are kind of still in the dark..." Y/N felt ashamed saying it out loud.  "Ok, well, how are you feeling about it?" He asked, his concern warming Y/N's heart. She was so sure this would have ended completely different – hell she had cut off all contact for three months, and she'd continued if it hadn't been for their random encounter at the supermarket.  "It was hard to cope with in the beginning, though I've grown fond of the little creature,"  "I just want you to know that I'm not leaving your side anytime from this moment, Y/N. You're stuck with me, and there's nothing you can do about it."

ϟϟϟϟϟ

[cattythoughts-blog]

Game of Thrones: The Alternate Ending

Intro of Dissatisfaction

           Okay, so I’ve never been much of a revisionist when it comes to story-telling. Whatever ending I got, I could have mixed feelings about with no sway one way or the other to impact my overall enjoyment of a story. When stories go completely off the rails from what they once were (first 3 seasons of Supernatural vs everything after, Penny Dreadful season 3, Hannibal) I can still enjoy the show and, in the end, hold whatever first few good seasons I did have close to my heart.

           And, I think the reason for this is that all all those shows had an “ending” before their true season ending. That ending paid off everything and was consistent with theme and tone first presented. Which brings up the question: What do you do when you have a story as big as Game of Thrones, a grand-scale epic by design? There can’t be a satisfying conclusion mid-way through the Game of Thrones show, where everything comes together because there’s too much going on. Too many loose strings. Too many factions. Stannis Baratheon’s death after burning his daughter could have been that great end-point of the show (the Baratheons known for gaining power by drawing the blood of their relatives finally take infighting to the deepest, darkest conclusion and are left with ashes) if we’d only been following Stannis, the Battle of the Bastards for the stark plot (to resolve the imbalance of rule of the north. The show starting with Ned and his family losing power and this culminating in the ultimate regain of that power through virtuous means but also new compromise and understanding of the “Great Game” on Sansa’s part), go all the way back to the Red Wedding and that could be that satisfying cut-off point if we only cared about the Starks.

           Instead, there’s a show pushing a bolder of its own plot threats up a mountain, slowly dwindling in stakes and tension as the plot armor becomes too strong to kill of anyone important. That’s kind of a problem. The show has lost what made it, and the books, so great in the first place. Understand that I’m mostly talking about the show Game of Thrones, not the book series—but, this is actually a problem I have with both if George RR Martin and the writers are shooting in the same direction. If the TV show was without a doubt Full Metal Alchemisting these final seasons, I would probably not feel the need to write this. I’d just wait for the books and get my sweet, sweet, Brotherhood fix with George’s conclusion—but what if George’s conclusion is the show’s conclusion? If the end-goals set up in the show are the ones I’m to expect in the books then all I can say is—George…my man…my buddy…my better Santa…dafq?

The Core of Game of Thrones:

           Here’s what I mean:

           The main selling point of George RR Martin’s books is not realism—stop that, please. When people say “realism”, they’re talking about the feeling of stakes and motivation that copy realism. In realism, a lot more people would have died from drinking the bacteria in foreign fresh water and syphilis by now. George RR Martin doesn’t kill people without purpose. They have a thematic or plot-related edge to them that makes every death make sense in the grand scheme of things.

           The main selling point of Georg RR Martin’s books is the subversion of expectation, actively taking tropes and turning them on their heads, and the consequences of actions. Every character is out to get something and if you don’t know what they want or how to make them think you can get it for them, you’ve lost. Here’s the problem of the show since season 5, more prominent in 6, and overt in 7, there are no consequences. All that cold-calculated conversation where you were trying to figure out what someone really wanted in the end-game is gone. All those terrible decisions made by Danny don’t backfire and have an overall consequence on how she’s viewed as a leader. Cersei—well the Margery-taking-over-thing was pretty good and the religion backfiring—but no consequence for blowing up the church when (especially in the books) it is explicitly stated that any ruler who ever did that was turned on by the people? The Iron Born suddenly decide to go and team up with Danny and give up their old ways in a snap because we need clear dividing lines on who is good and who is evil to wrap up this thing. Arya gets away with “tricking” the many faced men—the ultimate deception crew? No!

           But, here’s the thing that frustrates me the most about all of this, up until Season 7, I could live with it. Fine. The overall story still had some promise to it. We have the “prince that was promised” thread, Tyrion “using” Danny to get revenge on his family or just see what happens (though in the show they kind of just make him love her and have no motive). Jon essentially usurping Sansa’s birthright to be lady of Winterfell and keeping Little Finger around while also having not told him about the vale, and then the whole Arya killing spree she was finally going to go on, Cersie dealing with a city/country that had to hate her after blowing up the church, the white walkers still had potential to be twisted as some kind of “no yeah, we’re sapient, and it’s cold and we just wanna go south, shut up” type-thing. Pieces were in place to be played with and set in order that was unexpected—an order with consequence.

Why Season 7 Fails:

           What did I get in season 7?

           In a nutshell: sister’s fighting over nothing from 5+ years ago—Danny and Jon, the 5$ love story. Cersei sitting in her chair with a fresh set of crazy pants and Jamie being angry, but not enough to do anything about it. And last—OH NO—That one! That dragon! I’m not sure which one but oh no…oh no…that one’s dead. Bummer. Wall down. Scene.

           So…what was the consequences of this season? What were the biggest changes? The wall came down because the walkers had a dragon. Everything else was putzing around until that point. I’m not even joking. Little Finger’s death means nothing because he’s an inactive player in the story at that point. Danny’s getting evil—except—she’s always been evil (well, like, shes no more ruthless than she had been before). She crucified an entire city, so burning two guys alive is not out of character for her and changes nothing about the propoganda. Jon being declared the prince that was promised means nothing because that prophecy is vague. Bran’s omnipotent and missed the part where his aunt whispered the baby’s legal name because…reasons. Oh, oh, and the sand snakes finally died. Cheers to that.

Petty Child Explaining the Petty Rant

           Now, here’s why I’m so mad. Because they have set up for—maybe not a great ending—but a good one that stays true to the tone of the books. Yes, this is the part where I say I can do better—and I really REALLY wish I couldn’t. The fact that I want every action to have a consequence, should not be something I have to insert to a story.

           The following is “fixing” Season 7 of Game of Thrones, working with the plot threads set up at the beginning. I’m not going all the way back to 6 or 5 because that’s too much work, and I’m honestly just doing this for my own piece of mind. You can tell me this version of season 7 sucks. Hey, you’ve got the real TV version written by people with more talent and success than I’ll ever see. I’m some idiot with a keyboard and some ranting issues. Also, I’m more editing things that already exist like “working off the same budget” not adding new things, just going with what they gave me.

______________

           So, the best way to fix this is to go narrative thread by thread, so let’s start with the 2nd worst one first. Danny. Oh…Danny, Danny, Danny. So much set up. No payoff. Loved you this season, girl. In the original Season 7, nothing changes with her character besides her becoming the ultimate Mary Sue with everyone falling in love with her left and right and her never dying on her dragons. Nothing she does or says or what people do or say to her this season have consequence unless it leads to getting into her nephew, Jon’s, pants (is anyone else not creeped out that there are literally no degrees of separation there. Her brother was his father. He’s sleeping with is aunt…no? And she’s totally going to get pregnant with an incest baby next season because they made a really huge point of saying she couldn’t have kids (and that’s mostly a man’s fault if you can’t have kids—like biologically speaking). Okay, it was a thing when the Lannisters were doing it but sure).

DANNY CHANGE:

           To explain how to fix Danny is to explain her overall relevance to the plot—the plot of Game of Thrones. Her mechanical purpose was two main things. 1. Bring dragons to the army that dies of getting burned so that they can be defeated by getting burned, but also so that they have a dragon to break down the wall and make plot happen. 2. Be the inspirational invader that provides pressure for the native forces to band together and fight on two fronts (north and south) while bringing in these foreign fighters.

           Danny is not meant to sit on the iron throne. Mechanically, she has been foreshadowed to be a great conqueror and a terrible, terrible ruler. In the books, it is better portrayed that she’s a little girl who can draw in inspiration, but has no clue what she’s doing when we get down to brass tax. In the show, she’s like mid-20s, so it doesn’t come off the same way. But, that’s the core of her. A girl who does not want to become the monster of her past, but believes that her lineage—not her actions—makes her deserving—not earning—of the Iron Throne. She wants to rule over this country because it exists and someone told her it was hers. Danny is a villain so letting the invasion play out is fine, but the two major threads need to be addressed. 1. Dragons are in Westeros (check), but now they need to go north. 2. Danny is leading inspiration and causing terror (check if you do the first 3 episodes of her plot the same).

           There’s two main themes for Danny this season that culminate into nothing. She’ll ask for advice and listen to no one after they’ve given that advice “Be a dragon.” That should make Tyrion more frustrated with her and put a strain on their relationship because Westeros is Tyrion’s home, and he’s trying to put a ruler on it that he can’t mold to his views so easily. She’s an impulsive child. That’s what you should get out of all those close calls where she takes her dragon and nearly gets killed. The other theme is succession. After Danny is gone, what will happen? Danny doesn’t want to think about that, but she’s this inspirational ruler that brought armies across the sea for her. What do they have to fight for if Danny is dead? This isn’t their home. They won’t care after she’s gone. That’s why the children thing kept being brought up, and it’s never acted upon. So, here’s Danny’s conclusion for Season 7.

           That stupid plot with the guys going across the wall to kidnap a walker happens, they’re on that lakebed… sure. Tweak it. As Danny swoops in to save them she is yet again not listening to advice and endangering herself. Danny drops with Drogo to go pick up the SQUAD and it’s too hot. She gets on a dragon, commands one to pick up the boys while she goes straight for the white walker kings (as the boys could have pointed out to her that you kill the boss, the adds die). And then, that Olympic-gold-winning javelin throw goes straight into Drogo (the only dragon you can actually tell apart) with Danny riding on his back. They both plummet to the ground behind a mountain or something (not in the lake because where’d the wights get chains?) out of sight and the SQUAD has to take the walker and run because one of the least favorite children dragons takes them away already. Jon can even have his stupid staying behind moment if he was trying to get Danny if they really needed that scene (he’d have a reason to stay in the middle of the army of wights fighting one or two because he’s just as impulsive and brash). I’d prefer everyone just left on least-favorite-dragon #1 or #2 and they flew back over the wall.

           Then, by the end of the season, the white walkers now have the ice dragon they wanted. Not just any dragon. The only dragon the audience could name/care about: Drogo. (maybe Danny’s in there too as a wight, or a wight king if we wanna apply the rule of cool—like this would be kind of dumb but I’d want to see it. It’s probably more poetic for her to fall off the dragon and one of her least favorite children to pull her corpse out of the snow and fly her home).

What does this change/do?

           Danny’s arc is a woman who doesn’t want to be an evil ruler but is not willing to learn or be flexible. Her inflexibility and inability to understand her limits because of years of have the ultimate advantage of dragons is what causes her death, ending that thread. Two, now what are Danny’s forces doing in Esos? Tyrion still has this army to deal with and they have no leader, no inspiration. That burning fire that has been carrying them is snuffed out and an entire group of people who’d hoped to find a great ruler (Tyrion’s hope) is dead. As for Danny, she did not want to become a mad king like her father, she did not want to kill hundreds of thousands, but due to her inflexibility, her ultimate drive for power, her defiance of death shown many times throughout the series—she has failed to reach her ultimate potential (and if we go with the white walker thing, she defies death for the final time becoming the ultimate conqueror of death and the destined ultimate conqueror of the nation she set out to rule, but not how she would have wanted. (but this one I’m ehh on because I got a better plan)) She’s fallen to tragedy because of her lack of familiarity with the country she was going to reign over. (also something else pays off from this in like 10 paragraphs, I’m sorry).

____________

           Chopping block goes to Cersei next…also not that long. Mostly because it’s not hard to make it interesting.

CERSEI FIXING WHAT’S BROKE

           Cersei’s character is fine. It’s not great, it’s not the best with the magic plot lack of logic, but it’s fine. Have her do the thing with the iron bank and take Highgarden…Highgarden—the wealthiest country—being overthrown because…rich people don’t have the biggest armies to protect their loot? Oh my god, Highgarden. The way the show presented it, I could run in there with a toothpick and win.

           Anyway, sure. But, the people hate her because she blew up their religion. (I know the show plays it off that the people think it’s an accident but…come on). Consequences is that she now has lack of support from the people while this foreign invader tears up her home. She needs aid. So…she’ll call upon the north, upon Winterfell because there’s a new Boss up there who may be wiling to work with her. She hears they’re in need of military aid. Why wouldn’t she band together as many men as she could from all corners of her country to kill Danny?

           When she summons Jon, he’s already south yucking it up with Danny so Sansa has to deal with that.

What does this change?

            Things remain basically the same, but Cersei has to be willing to drag in new allies like she did with the Iron Born. The Lannisters have always been a flexible group. With the North having a new power player, why wouldn’t she reach out to them? Also, she should be shown protecting the people to keep them happy. It has never been a more crucial time to get rid of the problem that is Danny. Danny is making the people unhappy as Cersei’s reign is starting with the terror of invasion. People already hate Cersei. The longer Danny’s around, the more they’ll hate her. Now, she has motivation beside territory claims to hate Danny. Motivation is clear, it’s present, and it relies on public opinion—something the Lannisters are slaves to. The lions do consider the opinions of the sheep.

_____________________________

That Meeting at the End Tho:

           Okay, that last episode was everyone bitching until nothing got accomplished or changed. Here’s how you change/fix it. Danny wasn’t invited. Cersei organized the meet-up, inviting Jon along with other lords she’s going to try to win over. Jon happens to be doing exactly what he’d been doing throughout the entire season with the walker expedition (there’s honestly just no good way to fix this, unless they break the wall early or if they just have Danny fly up, swoop down to grab a white and fly back. I get it. Mechanically, walkers need to be shown as real and dragon needs to die. Mostly, dragon needs to die) So the show can do whatever needed to happen to get Jon to meet Danny and be like…you’re a hot aunt. That…happened. Then the usual sich happens with Jon coming back with the walker. Sure. Whatever.

           But, we changed what happened with Danny. Danny’s now dead. Tyrion is the one in charge. So…what does he do when the Queen’s dead? Tell everyone pack up and go home? NO! He’s got a steak grilling on this army. He wants his family out of power and this is the only way he’s ever going to get anywhere. He’ll show up, uninvited, as the ambassador for the queen, a messenger protected by the knight’s law (or a dragon). He will take a seat at the council saying that Danny wants to negotiate peace in order to fight the wight walkers. Spin the excuse so that he says it was Danny’s plan all along to invade Westeros just to kill the things in the north and she has every intention of leaving afterwards (some kind of clever bs lie that gets his foot in the door and makes Cersei consider it).

           We’ll come back to this in a second, but the point is, this meeting had a reason to happen. Here, there’d be tension because…why couldn’t Danny come herself? Cersei has a reason afterwards to doubt the power of Danny. Tyrion is left a leader, unofficially an equal with his sister.

_______________

           Next important plot line is Sansa, but it won’t be touched on that much. Because, basically, for what they were going for, they did okay. Like…yeah…if you took Sansa, put her in her own Sansa box in this season and edited some things in your mind, it’s cool.

SANSA, LADY OF WINTERHELL:

           Okay, so first off, Jon has to scream at Sansa for not letting anyone know that she had a cavalry that would be a larger army. That knowledge alone would have prevented many deaths in the battle of the bastards. (or at least have it that Sansa told him and then they go like “Oh, I guess the vale didn’t show…shit we have to fight these guys on our own” and then it just turns out the vale was late. Jimmy stubbed his toe—anyway). Sansa and Jon have a power dynamic that is inherently interesting—until it’s presented to you.

           A bunch of old white guys chose a bastard over a queen and Sansa’s birthright was taken from her. Now, the reason this is cool is because, though the Starks are the closest family, they haven’t seen each other in years and Sansa has grown up in places of manipulation and deceit. Living with her Aunt should have broken trust she had in family ties. Jon, has usurped her and she’ll see it like that, but know that he’s too stupid to have done it on purpose.

           In public, she has to put on a bold face because if they go against Jon, they go against the Starks. She and Jon are a packaged deal in the eyes of the northerners right now, so she has to be quiet and kind in public, while in private, they can have those confrontations. (If Sansa learned anything from the series, it should have been to keep her mouth shut and pretend to be one unbreakable unit—but she doesn’t in the show. Pretend she did in this version and went against Jon only in private). Sansa would be caught between two things: The love and trust she has left in her family, and survival through playing the great game. She can love Jon, but think he is a terrible leader in Winterfell, think/ know she can do better, be great where Jon is failing.

            When that letter comes from Danny inviting the king of the north, it should be Sansa pushing Jon to let her stay in charge if he does go—because she knows he will go. Make it her decision. The consequences of her conversations with him are carefully crafted for Jon to instill confidence in her and leave Winterfell to her as if it was his idea. Sansa wants power because she thinks she can be better. So, Jon shoves off, and she’s lady of Winterfell, to many people’s chagrin.

           Then, she uses the tactics she learned in the south, throwing sly comments here and there that make people twist on themselves and acknowledge her as ruler and stabilizes her power. She’s not trying to take the throne back from Jon as much as she’s trying to secure it (instead of little finger doing all of this for her). The entire Season 7 could have been her dance between loving her family and desiring power because she can’t trust anyone else with it. Little Finger would be the devil on one shoulder, whispering encouragement to be tricky. She could employ him to sway the Vale her way, making their change in allegiance and sudden trust in Sansa not LIttle Finger make sense. Arya would be the voice family on the other shoulder.

            Little Finger would still die in the end. Sansa, the most Tully of the Starks, ultimately choosing family over the poison she’s seen in the slimy pursuit of power—but she will want to remain lady of Winterfell because she’s doing such a good job at it and Jon (who she hasn’t seen in years, has deserted the night’s watch, come back, and never even waved at her as he passed their home some 2 odd times on his travel past the wall and back) isn’t capable, and she uses her manipulation to strengthen the FAMILY not herself.

What does Sansa change?

           This basically gives Sansa more agency and culminates in payoff for her arc. That whole thing where Arya was accusing Sansa of wanting power comes off as flat in the show because you know Sansa already chose family and hasn’t been manipulative, it’s only been Little Finger. So…give those actions weight. If Sansa really is torn, show why, because she has more than enough reason to be.

           She’s a new ruler of people in uncertain times whose alliances are in a shifting period. Power is hers and Jon’s but unstable and she should be able to see it. She does in the show. The fickleness of the people around her is a danger and honest tactics, which rely on knowing another’s character, is impossible for someone like Sansa or Jon who haven’t been present. Have men whispering of usurping the absent Starks, saying things were better before this dumb war. Have them saying two children of Ned, their failure, will get them all killed. Have Sansa deal with that. She’s learned from her travels how to be clever, how to make people follow her, how to gain power, but only ever power for herself. Here, with her family, she’ll take the cruelty she learned and grow as a character to expand her definition of rule and make the Starks, as a house, as a name, strong as a pack.

__________________

           So, let’s go to the next major plot thread that made me gnash my teeth: Sibling rivalry. I think the worst part about this is that the fight between Sansa and Arya never needed to happen. It has no consequence. It had no reaosn to exist because niether sister changed status. Before, they were annoyed with one another but willing to work together. After, it’s the same thing. The presentation of this plot is also terrible. The writers leave you in the dark with Sansa and Arya because they want a cheap “shock factor” when Sansa puts Little Finger on trial. But for an entire season, Arya is bringing up bs from 5 years ago (as sisters tend to do) and threatening to murder her own sister over it! But, twist! Sansa and Arya actually weren’t fighting—but they were-and it was all a ploy to get Little Finger exposed…only we were only ever shown Arya saying she is super jiving to kill Sansa in a room with no one else around. Why would a single private conversation between them ever end with Arya threatening to kill her sister if they’re fine with each other by the end? It certainly wasn’t for Little Finger’s benifit, he clearly wasn’t around. It was to manipulate the audience, and it’s dumb. Simple as that. Dumb. Soap Opera levels of lacking in consequence. (In my head, Bran was the one to end it. Like the fight between the girls got so bad it literally created a future that would tear down Winterfell, so he had to grunt and wheel himself into a room with them. Then he used his omnipotent power and told both his sisters to stop being idiots off screen).

           Arya…oh god. She has plot armor just because she’s the favorite and it hurts. Nothing hurts more than seeing a 14 year-old rave about how they could have done everything better and you suck for bending to the world. And, unfortunately, she hasn’t had to compromise for a long time. Everyone she interacts with lets her get away with things that would kill other characters. (many faced men plot).  Somehow, she’s still one of my favorite characters in principle, but execution is….er… The girl needs a thematic slap on the wrist.

ARYA AND THE MANY-FACED CONTRIVANCES

           Let’s look at the core of Arya’s character again. She’s the reluctant princess. The girl who was wild and always wanted to be wild, and there were consequences for that for a very long time. She was never able to be a proper lady, and judged for that so she turned to being tough. That was great with the hound and the red wedding for a long time. Her learning the hardships and cruelties of the world and the need for compromise through a man like the hound was great. 

        Then, she goes to the many-faced men and…tricks them. The cult that makes a living understanding people and taking on the personas as their own indoctrinated a faker because 12-16 year old Arya was the first kid to try to trick them? By being good at the hazing ritual of being blind that everyone probably had to go through? It’s dumb, but roll with it because the books is doing it cleverly so I’ll live.

           Let’s say we keep that, but that the many-faced man let her go because he knew she’d only be more trouble if she stayed. (GLaD0s motivation pretty much. Want her gone because killing her has proven to be more trouble than its worth). Arya can have her Frey thing and the poisoning scene, but then she goes home to Winterfell. She was on a murder spree until she heard Jon was alive. When she gets there and there’s no Jon, she should want to go right back to murder. She’ll want to leave. But Sansa, seeing Arya is trying to travel alone to the most dangerous place in the country, will want to keep her around. As far as Sansa’s concerned, Arya is a child. To Sansa, if she goes out on her own again, she may very well die. Sansa has to keep Arya in Winterfell, lock her in for her own good, not wanting to split up a family. Arya can even tell Sansa she has people on her list to kill and Sansa isn’t going to believe her sister became a magical face-murderer. She’ll say “Okay, that’s nice. Wash up for dinner, don’t stab anyone, please stop creeping everyone out by staring at them like they all killed Nymeria.”

           So, Arya has a reason to bring up distrust and events of Sansa’s past. The sister fight now has a purpose grounded in the characters and their actions. The fight still shouldn’t last long. At best, two episodes. The consequences of a conversation/fight matter more than the actual fight/conversation.

            Set the scene so that Arya confronts and threatens to kill Sansa in that lying game. Sansa says something like this, “I’m keeping you here because I love you and I love my family. I don’t want you to die, and I don’t believe that you can waltz into king’s landing and kill the Lannister’s. You’re a child. You’re going to get yourself killed so excuse me for trying to keep what little of our family is left together. You belong home to be a lady of the house and help when winter is coming!” Only, you know, written well.

           Arya is told for the first time since bravos that she’s not “the shit.” (because who was listening to the waif or the many-faced guy. No one she’s taken seriously has talked her off of her high horse in a while and it shows). So the fight happens and though it ended with Sansa confessing her choice of choosing family over power, Arya takes it to heart that someone thinks she can’t take care of herself. She hates the the idea that she may still be that powerless little girl watching her father get executed from season one. All that’s been keeping her going since that point is that list. If she can’t check off the names, and can’t be a proper lady, what’s left of her? She’s stuck in the past, stuck in a fantasy that will be a revisionist history and keep her from achieving closure.

            Thinking this, Arya runs away from Winterfell and fast-travels to King’s Landing. There, she steals the face of another servant girl and tries to kill Cersei, but the mountain (or something) catches her and her face is removed. Cersei (who’d is about to have a council meeting with the king in the north) will now have leverage. She’ll use Arya as a pawn to win the Stark loyalty, showing her craft and desperate need for allies.

           Arya gets traded for Jon’s declaration of loyalty. He’ll choose family over Danny (who he’s been dicking around with for a while the same way as in the show, sure). Now we got a happy little brigade that’s going to fight the white walkers together.

What does this change?

           Now, there’s a reason for Arya to stay in Winterfell and for her to have a conflict with Sansa. It also fleshes out Sansa’s family vs cunning theme we were going for. Now, Arya can bring up her sister’s past mistakes because Sansa is actually trying to overthrow Jon, so there’s grounds for suspicion. NOW this fight has a consequence. It leads to Arya, who’d been a character shown to be consumed by revenge, relentlessly pursuing that path instead of truly coping.

           When Arya fails to kill Cersie, it makes an impact on her character. She goes to thinking she’s just as powerless as she was when she was little, and it crushes her, frustrates her, boils in her. She can’t stand that thought. She’s trapped in the past and now her purpose is shown to be infeasible. She’s the weak princess she didn’t want to be. (of course, she’s not actually, but that’s what she would think of herself as she’s taken down a peg and she’ll understand her sister’s need to play the game.)

           What else does this change? Something that I really hate. (coming up next).

THE PRINCE THAT WAS PROMISED

           I wonder who—it’s Jon. It’s always Jon. Sure. But NO! NO! NO! NO!

           Here’s why I say NO! Because prophecies in this show have been used as kind of like a cryptic underline to events that happen. Whatever is said is not always whatever is meant. Now, remember when everyone was theorizing who could be the prince that was promised and this is basically Game of Thrones Jesus? For the story to be in keeping with it’s original tone, Game of Thrones Jesus should not exist! Jon should not be him. He’s the most obvious choice and the show has built that up since day one. Sure. It was a three-way tie between Jon, Danny and Tyrion for a long time. But…how about this:

         Keep it the obvious choice everyone discounted. Keep it Danny.

           “But…you killed Danny in this narrative before anyone got to smash,” you say.

           “I did!” I say to you. “Because we’re going to make this prophecy better.”

           Arya has been set up as the girl who can steal faces, someone designed to slip into personas that aren’t hers and nothing of use has been done with that. (I mean in the overall plot. There’s this story telling tool that says you introduce a mechanic early on in a book and reuse that mechanic for another purpose later that wouldn’t be initially thought of. Face stealing is a mechanic with boundless potential).

             What if, at this meeting with Cersei, Arya is thrown in the center with the face of the servant she tried to use. Arya’s called a witch. Tyrion takes notice (because we put him at that meeting already). When Arya is traded back, and Jon has her, Tyrion takes Arya aside and asks her if she can slip into any face. (This is why we need Danny’s corpse back—Oh shit, Danny could be that white walker they present to Cersei. Like, they got what they wanted…you know what? They should have literally just brought someone [like a prisoner marked for death or something] over the wall, killed them, tied up the corpse, waited for the corpse to reanimate, walk back…ANYWAY). Tyrion and Arya have a conversation about the face-stealing-thing and a plan forms in his mind.

           He looks to Arya and asks, “How would you like another chance at ending the Lannister reign? I can help you kill all the people on your list.” (With better written dialogue). Arya’s super down for this plan. Why wouldn’t she be?

           They got the Danny-dead-body-face and Arya slips it on. Now, she’s impersonating queen Danny. In comes the Princess that was promised. Arya will be exactly who she wanted to be, Nymeria, the conquering queen, who has to juggle the duality of the game in her deception, with the gore and violent vengeance promised to her. Now, the legacy of Danny will truly be one of a merciless mad-queen driven only to kill the enemy. Burn them all, Arya. Burn them all.

WHY?

           Because I don’t doubt that Jon Snow’s birth would be a great twist, but it makes the prophecy too obvious now. It fits too well. I hate the prince that was promised prophecy because of how much it adheres to modern convention. I just think George has set up a world that can easily subvert the obvious. If it turned out that someone was wearing the face of the person who was supposed to be this prophesied messiah, that’s so much better in my opinion. (It also has to be someone the audience has as much attachment to as Danny. Someone from season 1, who won’t be a “lesser” replacement. You still want to keep people interested after killing off a major character so another major character has to take her place). Arya’s technically Danny from that point on, making her the prince that was promised. The “savior” is now Arya, the girl consumed by revenge and blood, the girl shaped in this world, taken all around it, and culminated into this leader for people she doesn’t care about. Her own goals are short-sighted, leaving her a pawn for Tyrion (a great ruler the people would never follow) to shape the world as he sees fit. You can even add Cersie’s prophecy that a younger queen will usurp her–Arya in Danny’s skin.

             You remember that phrase “The dragon has three heads?” One for Danny (the OG ruler), one for Arya/impersonator, one for Tyrion (the man who will rule in her name). I know it’s supposed to refer to the riders, but let me dream.

______________

           Oh my god, we’re finally near the end! There’s other plot points that aren’t great, but they either ultimately don’t impact the story that much, are implied with the changes, are fine as they are, or I don’t care. This is long enough as it is. A few closing thoughts: you can’t have a long-running series and kill off all the main characters while still keeping investment intact, I get it. Danny’s a favorite, so is Jon, so is Arya, so is Peter Dinklage. That’s why they have super thick plot armor. But, the show has grown toothless. The overall story is not the story of these characters. It’s the country’s story. How this one continent ends up scarred by the damage of people who ends up ruling it. Whoever sits on the Iron Throne says something about the world, not the people in it.

           The main conflict of the show is that there’s this terrible force coming in from the north. While it’s approaching, power has to be a loose structure and chaos has to run rampant through all of Westeros. If you watch everything before season 6 and say “Hey, looks like this country’s plot line is finally going to be in order and we may have a stable and just power structure”—No. That’s why you had the Red Wedding, that’s why you had the Lord of Light and demon baby, that’s why you have a line of dead Lannister kings. It’s a world-wide story. That’s why there’s no mini-cut off point with perfect plot resolution.

           Also, I know there’s a lot of cool stuff in the books I’m not mentioning. That’s because the books and show are separate entities with just the main stretch goals as their common ground at this point (I guess). So, most of this is show-based.

           I feel like I said this before, but I don’t hate this series. I love it. I’ve had a lot of fun with it. There’s a metric ton of talent going into the show and the books and I am glad they exist. I’m still dying waiting for the next book, and the show will have my groaning support every Sunday when it next airs. Until then, for my own piece of mind, I’ll just scream at this wall.

[dxringred]

SVU for the in depth fandom questions, of course!

Whoever sent me this is an angel and I am eternally in your debt. Also going to put this under the cut because I know before even writing it that it’s going to be long. x

Top 5 favourite characters: well anyone who knows me knows that Casey Novak is my favorite character, of course. I also really love Melinda Warner, and Elizabeth Donnelly. And Fin Tutuola and John Munch make me laugh quite frequently so they’d probably round off my top five.

Other characters you like: generally speaking I like most of the regulars? If I had to pick, like, five more they’d probably be, in no particular order: George Huang, Alexandra Cabot, Amanda Rollins, Judith Siper and Ruben Morales.

Least favourite characters: Any of the ADAs who appear after Season 9, apart from maybe Sonya Paxton whose complexity and uncountable character flaws I really loved; Dale Stuckey although I did feel quite sorry for him when it came down to it; Rafael Barba; and Elliot Stabler.

Otps: I won’t lie, I literally ship nobody from SVU? If I had to pick any ship it’d probably be Olivia/Casey because they’re mostly the only characters I pay attention to, and Olivia/Amanda comes directly after it. But I do have a soft spot for Munch/Fin because they’re pretty cute together. I also had a brief thing for Elliot/Casey during one rewatch which was weird as hell.

Notps: lmao anything involving Barba, particularly Barisi although I don’t watch the newer seasons so it’s not really something I have to worry about. I’m pretty much impartial to every other ship there is if I’m honest.

Favourite friendships: basically Casey and everyone? Though I really like her friendship with Munch, and I like Munch’s “friendship” with Fin. And I like Melinda’s friendship with everyone when it is shown. Bensler was pretty good too before S6 when everything went to the dogs between them.

Favourite family: there are practically only two families on SVU so this doesn’t help, but I’d have to pick the Stablers because I actually really like Kathy (and had a little bit of a crush on Maureen).

Favourite episodes: I have a list of all my favorites in my drafts and there are literally 40 names on that list. Night is definitely my favorite of all time (along with Serendipity and Raw) even if it does get me super emotional, but off the top of my head other episodes would include: Hate, Scavenger, Poison, Goliath, Parts, Painless, Game, Screwed, Influence, Alternate, Pretend, Authority, Svengali, Savant, Gone, Manipulated, Mean, Blinded, Impulsive, Reparations, Bound and Alien. (I’m pretty sure I could actually recite the entire list off of the top of my head which is pretty sad lmao.)

Favourite season/book/movie: I love all of Seasons 5-9 but Season 5 is probably my favorite in terms of episodes, with 6 at a very close second.

Favourite quotes: honestly most of the stuff Casey says because she literally just sasses everyone. But some of my favorites in general probably have to be:

“The Patriot Act. This convoluted piece of legislature isn’t worth the paper it’s written on!“ 

"I’m not saying I didn’t see crazies in Brooklyn but you guys are cuckoo magnets." 

"If you think Jack McCoy is going to let me get away with that then you are crazier than he is." 

"His dirty laundry is cleaner than my entire wardrobe." 

"D'you know what you get when you mix fertilizer and diesel fuel? Oklahoma City." 

“Your jacket has more than a few excessive force complaints and if IAB finds there’s any merit to Dixon’s story you’re a liability I just won’t tolerate." 

Best musical moment: I’ve got to say I love the opening theme. I also like the music at the end of Goliath, and the soundtrack at the end of Screwed because that always gets me emotional. There’s also a scene in Avatar where the background music is really good. Generally a lot of the background music is really good to be honest.

Moment that made you fangirl/boy the hardest: probably when Casey made her reappearance in Reparations; that sent me over the edge, let me tell you. Liv’s return in S8 also gets me quite a bit when I watch that episode.

When it really disappointed you: even though I’ve only watched the episode once, and have literally no recollection of it, Cold is an episode I will never talk about, never watch, and never admit the existence of. My other big disappointment is the end of Dana Lewis which I am so angry about, god damn it she deserved better!!!

Saddest moment: Night is the saddest episode ever, I absolutely cannot watch it without shedding tears. It’s bad enough that Casey gets beaten to within an inch of her life in her own office (fun fact: the actress actually got beaten up in real life for that scene which makes it 10x worse) but then you see her in the hospital and she’s crying and all banged up and I sWEAR TO GOD. Sometimes I put off watching the episode for days because I cannot mentally prepare myself despite watching it six billion times before.

Most well done character death: Sonya Paxton. It’s one of three I recall and really hurts me when I do decide to watch that particular episode. Because for me she was an interesting character and I quite liked her. And she really seemed to be helping herself out, and trying to get better. (At least from what I recall.) But then she just gets murdered and still manages to help nail the bastard who killed her.

Favourite guest star: Robin Williams in Authority automatically springs to mind personally, just because it’s one of the more memorable ones. I don’t really pay the greatest amount of attention to guest stars (because I never recognize anyone) but the other person I can think of is Mary Stuart Masterson who played Rebecca Hendrix in S6 and a couple of other episodes. Oh and Marlo Thomas as Mary Clark in S5, she was great too. I love watching her in the few episodes she appeared in. 

Favourite cast member: who am I kidding, everyone knows I’m going to say Diane Neal. God I love her. She’s super funny, passionate, and very into politics and I just love her.

Character you wish was still alive: Sister Peg. Plain and simple.

One thing you hope really happens: I lowkey really want Casey Novak to come back but I know that’s never going to happen, especially not while Barba is still around. But a girl can dream. 

Most shocking twist: for me Serendipity and Trade both had great twists. In terms of throwing you off, Serendipity is notorious for it, and Trade’s twist comes about in, like, the last few minutes of the episode and it’s pretty surprising. (Or at least I thought it was when first watching.)

When did you start watching/reading?: this is such a hard question for me to answer because I don’t entirely remember? I remember vague parts of my childhood where I watched parts of episodes, but that’s only because my mom used to have it on the television all the time. I think I finally decided to watch the entire show from start to finish when I was 11? So almost 7 years ago now. (Fun fact: I’m older than the show by literally only one month and a day lol.) Then after one rewatch I dropped it and occasionally watched the current season. And then I randomly got back into the show last May time, watching from Serendipity to the current season. And the only reason I started at Serendipity and not S1 is because I had a weird epiphany where I vaguely remembered the plot of the episode as well as the name and decided to Google it.

Best animal/creature: it’s got to be Basketball Monkey. For sure. That thing was damn cute.

Favourite location: the courtroom and the DA’s office. Courtroom scenes are always my favorite, for whatever reason, and I like the style of Casey’s office in particular. Very professional, and lots of books. I will also never forget the one time we went to Casey’s apartment.

Trope you wish they would stop using: Saint Benson. I just- it put me off of the show among other things, and I honestly don’t like it. Also, I don’t know if it counts as a trope, and obviously it doesn’t exist in current seasons, but Stabler losing his shit with the ADAs pisses me off. He does it way more than the other detectives and it winds me up. 

One thing this show/book/film does better than others: nowadays? Nothing, that’s for sure. In older seasons, however, I’d say things were more original compared to what I see on TV toady. It’s less soapy and more “hardcore”, with the different episodes tackling different issues. One of my favorite episodes in this sense is Alien, which I definitely recommend because it tackles sexuality as does Closet. Influence and Blinded are also rather good when it comes to mental illness, and Raw is fairly good with, like, addressing racial supremacy etc.

Funniest moments: that one time Casey made a house call to a judge and stumbled upon him playing a game of poker with, like, four other judges. That scene is forever etched into my mind and cracks me up every time I even think about it.

Couple you would like to see: probably Munch/Fin. Don’t know why, but it’d be them for sure. Out of the current cast I’d probably pick Amanda/Olivia, just because. 

Actor/Actress you want to join the cast: I would personally love to see an appearance from some of the previous NCIS cast members? I have no clue as to why, I just would. 

Favourite outfit: this is going to sound so dorky, but I’d love all of Casey’s wardrobe? From her casual clothes to her work outfits a lot of the stuff she wears is stuff I’d totally go out in. In fact, a lot of my school wardrobe is inspired by her work clothes so I’m already making some headway there. Shame I can’t walk in heels though.

Favourite item: it’s a clothing item so I guess it counts, but Casey’s “Sex Crimes” softball jersey. (I think it’s a softball jersey?) It’s the cutest and I love the colors. I also lowkey want her tan briefcase/satchel from, like, S5/6. 

Do you own anything related to this show/book/film?: I own Seasons 1-12 on DVD but, other than that, depressingly no because I live outside of the US and the NBC store doesn’t ship to me. (The bastards.) I’d kill - like literally murder someone - for their official SVU hoodie. And there is a poster on Amazon I’m considering getting for my wall, although where on my wall I’ll put it I have no idea.

What house/team/group/friendship group/family/race etc would you be in?: my favorite team is from Seasons 5-8: Novak, Benson, Stabler, Munch, Fin, Cragen, Warner and Huang. (Plus the others like O’Halloran, Judy and Morales.)

Most boring plotline: even though I love Kathy, generally anything involving Elliot’s marriage. Like dear lord there was so much drama there. I also wasn’t a fan of the Dani Beck episodes - I was pretty impartial to her as a character but for some reasons the episodes lacked a little more than usual.

Most laughably bad moment: no clue, sadly my memory isn’t doing well today.

Best flashback/flashfoward if any: I don’t typically remember anything before S5 or anything after S9 so if there weren’t any flashbacks in those seasons then I don’t have one and if there were then I don’t remember them lol. I’m terrible I know.

Most layered character: I am a biased piece of shit so obviously I’m going to say Casey! From what I’ve seen a lot of people tend to just paint her as one dimensional and arrogant, but there’s actually a lot more to her character and it’s dropped in through certain lines in certain episodes, and of course then there are episodes where you find out more about her - Influence and Blinded are key to getting the most out of her past. I love when they explore her conflicts with mental illness, and how she still feels guilt regarding what happened with her ex, Charlie. 

And then there are episodes like Gone where you get to see more of her emotional side and you realize how hard she tries and how personally she takes her cases etc. There are other things too, often dropped in little pieces of dialogue, but you get just enough about her to paint a picture but not so much that she becomes uninteresting if you know what I mean. I love her, personally, and think there’s so much more to her than just supposed arrogance etc.

Most one dimensional character: from what I’ve seen of current seasons, I’d say Benson and arguably Barba. 

Scariest moment: I don’t know about scariest, but the scene that always has me on the edge of my seat (or rather hunched over my laptop in bed) is when Casey gets attacked in Night; the same goes for the courtroom shooting in Raw. Creepiest scene? Definitely the one in Signature where they go to a serial killer’s torture chamber and it’s just very horrific. Well, not so much for me after the initial viewing because stuff like that honestly fascinates me, I won’t lie, but out of all the scenes I’ve scene it’s definitely one that stands out. There’s also a scene in Streetwise where Elliot shows autopsy photos to a suspect and one is of a little girl with her eyes gouged out and face slit from ear to ear. It’s a very horrifying frame if you pause it at the right moment.

Grossest moment: usually any time Warner (or someone else) does something involving blood/organs/whatever, because I’m a tad bit squeamish. One instance I can think of right now is in Serendipity when she extracts a tube from inside a man’s arm. Makes me shudder a little. 

Best looking male: honestly they all look the same to me. Probably O’Halloran? 

Best looking female: Casey Novak but S8 Olivia is very beautiful too.

Who you’re crushing on (if any): current cast? Nobody. From the show overall? Definitely Casey, though I’m pretty sure anyone reading this saw that coming.

Favourite cast moment: as in offscreen? Because there was this one time where Diane Neal did, like, a mini tour of the set and it was simultaneously the cutest and funniest thing I’ve seen. So probably that.

Favourite transportation: I lowkey love when everyone gets into their cars and all of the sirens go on and a car chase ensues. 

Most beautiful scene (scenery/shot wise): probably the end of Screwed because it’s all shot very beautifully. But I also like the overhead shot in Influence where Liv and Casey are on an upper floor in the courthouse looking down at the defendant and a gaggle of reporters.

Unanswered question/continuity issue/plot error that bugs you: usually I don’t pay enough attention to notice. One that I’ve seen others take issue with is when Casey reappeared in S12 and there was a debate about whether or not she was censured or disbarred and what was going on there, but it’s the only thing that springs to mind and it wasn’t like a big thing.

Best promo: there was one that got me back into SVU when I was a little younger, and I don’t remember what season the promo was for but I remember they played This is War by 30 Seconds to Mars in the promo because I spent weeks trying to find the song afterwards and watched the promo every time it came on the TV like it was a full episode.

At what point did you fall in love with this show/book: last May when I rewatched it was when I properly fell in love with it again, at least enough to watch it multiple times, buy 12 of the DVDs and follow a bunch of blogs on Tumblr.

[likestarsonearthj2]

What did you think of 12x14? While I like the episode itself, the end displeased me. I truly understand Sam's need to save the world as a way to redempt himself, but I don't think that forgetting what was done to him by BMOL and join them hunting is the best alternative. Plus I hate how both boys changed their attitude towarsds Maru at the end of the episode. I wish writers had given a different outcome to the end. Part 1

(2) Its worth to note 2 things about this episode as well: 1. Dean is a Killer, yes, BUT his reasons are different  from the British hunter (I cant remember his name): he  does it to protect people and make the world a better  place. While Dean channels his anger towards the bad guys,  he’s never sadistic about it. 2. Now its interesting to  see Sam being the one who tries to intermediate things between Mary and Dean, while when John’s alive was the other way around. What do you think?

I liked the ep too nonnie. 

Follow me under the cut!

I don’t think he’s forgotten at all what the BMOL have done to him just because he said that he would work with them doesn’t mean he trusts them neither does Dean, they never will. 

He’s seen that the BMOL are not as great as they claim to be. Maybe he’s thinking of a way to send them back or deal with them for good now that he’s seen first hand how they operate he may plan with Dean on what to do. As the saying goes “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.”

 About Dean and BMOL: Not sure if you’ve seen spoilers nonnie so I won’t say but I will post a link so you can look if you want here all I will say is it may give the answer of if Dean will work with them or not. 

I wish Sam and Dean’s feelings weren’t silenced or apologized for like they shouldn’t feel betrayed, hurt or angry they have every right to be they deserve to be heard and acknowledged. 

Sam knows Dean better than anyone. He knows him far more than Mary. He knows that Dean’s not only hurt but disappointed by Mary’s actions (Sam is too of course but Dean had a little more of a bond with her where as Sam was only a baby) but Sam’s source for all things Mary was John and Dean Sam doesn’t have any memories of her only the stories he’s been told I’m sure. Dean’s got a few memories from when he was a child, not many, he’s seen her when he’s gone back in time but it’s still not the same. She’s not the way he thought she would be, not what he remembers.

I think that’s why Sam’s trying to help Dean and Mary he knows how much Dean doted on and missed their Mother I also think it may have something to do with his regret for how his relationship was with John. Where Dean was trying to save the peace and have a happy (as happy as you could have with their lives) family with John and Sam, Sam now wants the same with Mary maybe?.

[karmatechfiction]

Witch Talent Precure!

So, years ago before Maho Tsukai Precure, I had an idea for a witch magical girl series. At first, it was going to be a original series that didn’t tie with precure, but...yeah a lot of my ideas for it, well, let’s just say there’s a lot of similarities between my series and precure and other magical girls, including Shugo Chara. Put it short, it just doesn’t stand out much as it’s own thing, but I still like these ideas and thought, well since it’s like a Precure series already, let’s just make it a Precure fan series. Than it’d be okay to use the different ideas from different magical girls.

 I really like the ideas Maho Tsukai had but of course, the development of the plot was a bit messy and the characters in Maho Tsukai, I like them, don’t get me wrong, (well except the idiot trio) but they all are under developed. So I thought, I need some baddies and few side characters too. So this will be, what if Maho Tsukai was written better. I had plan this series for years in my head, so the plot itself will be mostly it’s own thing. The only thing I really took was some concepts such as designs. Again, I will use maybe some characters from Maho Tsukai including a certain green horn guy, so at least they will be written better.

My main precure team are from my head though. So don’t worry, I’m not just using the Maho Tsukai Cures. This is gonna be completely different. In fact, one is based more on me and the other are based on two good friends of mine. 

I may write full “episodes” once in a while but it’s mainly gonna be done using pictures and explanation to give an idea of it. This is due to me having so many projects already. This is just something I wanna come back to sometimes just for the fun of it, since again. I’ve had this idea for years and I just can’t ever seem to abandon it so, I’ll just use it as a part time, fun project.

So without further a due, this is my precure team and their story. The theme is witches, magic, talents, music and a little romance/love.

 Celina, Nerissa and Lin are in a band together known as Magic Melody Lively. They are the top of their class at Balboa Academy for Arts and Athletics being not only are they good singers, but each has their own unique talent. Celina loves to dance and is good in sports, she’s in charge of choreography in their band. Nerissa is a great painter and musician, she’s also good at writing and is usually in charge of song writing and scheduling. She’s also the lead singer. Lin is great at tailoring sweets and clothes. She’s in charge in making costumes and outfits for concerts. She’ll also make some snacks for the team.

Celina and Nerissa are sisters but Celina was adopted. Years ago, as a child, a fire broke out and killed her family. Being Nerissa’s family and Celina’s family were good friends, Nerissa family adopted Celina in. Since then though, Celina is terrified of fire but soon, she needs to face her fear for when a monster attacks her favorite dance studio that she went to when she was younger. Not wanting so many people lose their talent, she must stand up and shout “Precure, Awaken My Talent!” and rises as Cure Dancer! Together with Cure Painter and Cure Tailor, they form Witch Talent Precure! 

So, the question is, Witch Talent are you?

Name: Celina Hinami

Name Origin: Celina is French for “Sky or Heaven” Hinami; Japanese “Hi” meaning “fire” “nami” comes from “Minami” which means “Beautiful Wave” so “Fire Wave” or “Fire South”.

Age: 15 (Yes these are high school age. Something different.)

Favorite Treat: Cinnamon Roles

Personality: Celina is sweet, shy and soft spoken at times, but when she gets on the dance floor or on the concert, there is no one passionate as her! She lets herself known to the world. She’s also pretty good at sports but she mainly prefers gymnastics and dancing. She likes to teach others how to dance. Makes her feel just as special as doing it.

(Yes her design is slightly based on Mirai. I really liked Mirai’s hair style. It’s cute and perfect for a character that loves to dance! Her outfit is based on 80s/90s style clothing.)

Name: Cure Dancer

Catchphrase: “Passionate and Courageous as a Dancing Flame! Witch Talent? Cure Dancer!”

Transformation Device: A gold bell (seen on the side of her.)

Weapon: Fire Ribbons

Finishing Attack: Precure Ribbon Salsa! (Wraps ribbons around enemy until they explode into flames.)

Healing Technique: (This is used to restore damages from fights) Elegant Flame!

(Note: As Cure Dancer, she’s kinda iffy on using fire attacks due to her past. She basically needs to get use to using fire base spells.)

Name: Nerissa Hinami

Name Origin: “Nerissa” Spanish/Greek for “Water Nymph” and the Goddess of the Sea , Hinami see above. 

Age: 16 (She’s the oldest.)

Favorite Treat: Triple Fudge Brownies

Personality: Nerissa is a bit boyish. Despite having long hair, she dresses like a man most of the time and almost never is seen in dresses or skirts. She’s not someone to mess with. Despite she hates sports, she does work out and acts “ the man of the house” because their parents are divorced. When she’s not singing, working on a song, writing or drawing, you’ll often find her on the waves surfing. “Siren of the Sea”, she’s sometimes called due to this. The ocean is her inspiration. Don’t let this tough chick fool you. She does suffer anxiety issues that cause her to fall ill sometimes and actually does have a weak body, she covers up with her boyish side. Singing and being on stage, one would think would make this worse, but actually it keeps her mind clear and she’s too busy putting effort into a good performance to let it get to her. This shows her true beauty and strength.

(Note, this is the character based more on me.)

Name: Cure Painter

Catchphrase: “Beautiful and Strong as the Shimmering Sea! Witch Talent? Cure Painter!”

Transformation Device: Conk Shell Ocarina

Weapon: Shimmering Radiant Brush 

Finishing Attack: Precure Watercolor Whirlpool! (Sends massive and colorful whirlpools that surround enemy, causing them to explode.)

Healing Technique: Aqua Aurora Antidote! 

(Yes this is the character that’s a little based on Chara Spade from Shugo Chara.)

Name: Lin Shuang

Name Origin: Chinese “Lin” means “Fine Jade” “Shuang” means “Jolly”.

Age: 15

Favorite Treat: Hard to pick but loves mooncakes most of all!

Personality: Lin is full of energy! She’s always working on a costume or a something sweet! Her family owns a restaurant thus learned to cook from them. She’s also got a good vocal range but didn’t pick up on singing until meeting Sirena and Celina. Despite being the most outgoing, she does have a few insecurities. She tends to break under pressure the most but thanks to her friends, she stands back up on her feet and ready to go!

Name: Cure Tailor!

Catchphrase: “Creative and Free like a Playful Breeze! Witch Talent? Cure Tailor!”

Transformation Device: Playful Mini Ruan! (It does become slightly bigger to play properly. Just becomes small for compact size. Sorry I wanted to keep in theme and drum is taken from my special cure which I will reveal later.)

Weapon: Honey Needle (A sewing needle about the size of a cooking spoon)

Finishing Attack: Precure Sweet Sewing! (Sends out a thread of honey from the loop end, that winds around the enemy until they explode)

Healing Technique: Silk Honey

(Was a challenge making her. I wanted to of course make her more Chinese base and not just be a typical maid look.)

Some questions/accusations you probably will have.

“But Tech, they don’t look anything like witches! Least MTP had witch hats!” 

Fear not! They do have witch forms and other forms to change into. In fact, they do transform into their Witch Forms first and then the outfit unravels into their element before their cure clothes pop on. It’s a neat idea in my head and like their hair becomes their element (fire, water, wind) as it makes its transaction to the cure colors. I just haven’t design the Witch Forms yet.

“You know, you could just add original characters instead of just adding the MTP characters as side characters? Don’t be lazy!” 

Again, I have other projects that I want to finish. This is just something I wanna do for fun once in a while. Also, no matter what. Fan anything is just that. Stuff dedicated to a franchise. Even if you do make completely original characters for it, in the end, it’s something you can’t completely call your own because it’s for a universe that already exists. It doesn’t mean you can’t be creative or put effort in. It just can’t be completely, 100% be original. 

I say this because most of the projects I’m doing are original stories and stuff I want to make successful one day. So I speak as someone that does create their own content. That’s why I’m not as harsh towards people who make things for fandom. Fandom is just for fun at the end. It’s just creative ideas made for something you enjoy and you’re free to be creative or lazy as you want. It’s the real original stuff you best know how to put 100% effort in. That’s when it really counts. 

Plus, hey, some of the the MTP characters deserve to be better written. Just think of this as an alternate reality kinda thing, where instead of Maho Tsukai, you have more mature team saving the day.

“Your characters are mary-sues/too talented!”

First off, Mary-Sue is a character that is perfect. No flaws or been through anything bad. (And if they have, it’s overly unrealistically depressing.) They’re also tend to be happy all the time and everyone loves them. All my characters have flaws, they’re not happy all the time and not everyone likes them. Celina is shy and soft spoken. She has a hard time speaking out what she wants. She also withdraws when she’s scared or nervous That’s why she must learn courage. 

Nerissa is independent and tends to push others away, including loved ones. She dresses like a boy to hide her insecurities, weaknesses and to get guys to back off on her, since she kinda hates men in some ways. She doesn’t think all men are bad, but she has a negative view on them, due to having so many negative experiences with them, including a break up and well hate issues with her father. 

And then you have Lin, she’s insecure as hell. She tends to act over excited when she’s nervous and tends to annoy people like that, but she’s also conscious about that. She's afraid of pushing others away and being left alone in the world. When she’s nervous or feeling insecure, she tends to really not think straight thus cause more problems around her.

So yeah, they maybe multi-talented but people are multi-talented in a lot of things. Look at the Go Princess Precure team. They’re talented in almost everything under the sun, yet they still have flaws to keep them grounded and real. It’s all about adding the right and realistic kinda flaws. 

“What’s their Mascot?”

A black fox name Stella, that does talk and she likes to use her own magic to take care of flowers. (Hmm...Could she be a cure?)

They also get their own familiars once they grow in magic.

What are the things they need to collect?

Magic stones. I dunno what to call them. I guess Mythic Change Stones, since they’re like the Linkle Stones. They change the cures into different forms, but I’m having a twist to them and having each transformation using the Mythic Change Stones be based on a mythical creature such as a mermaid, kirin and tengu. These stones fit into the heart gems of their transformation items.