#and it so deeply fucking shows even in stuff from s7 that i think they did poorly

[lovecolibri]

It was never more clear than in last night's episode that KR truly only thought of Buck as "big dumb pretty boy" who was around to be the hot guy on the arm of literally whatever woman they could find so long as it was a woman.

Season 7 has some sins to atone for, but I have tried somewhat to offer it the grace I give season 4 for being a short season shot on a last-minute time crunch and under covid restrictions. We didn't see much of Buck in season 7 and most of what we saw was internal, not a lot of emergencies, though the ones we did get felt more balanced and purposeful to moving the main characters along than we had seen in awhile.

But 8x01? 8x01 was Firefighter Buckley at his absolute best and GOD I have missed him! He was silly, he was spouting off bee facts, he was thinking outside the box and saving lives with his ideas, he was gently communing with the bees, he was gently bullying his work husband partner into being a honey trap for bees, he was having an RSD episode and acting out against the injustice of how everyone is being treated because they're supposed to be a family, he got reprimanded for his ideas but didn't let it stop him from doing it again and again because he KNOWS he can save people!! I just- Firefighter Buckley!!!! 😭😭😭

There is a reason Buck was a fan favorite and we got to see everything this week from his giant kid energy, to his deep anger at injustice, to his stalwart co-parent energy with Eddie and having his back, to his ADHD brain coming up with fun facts and useful solutions.

He wasn't dumbed down for the sake of a joke (fully incorrect info on sperm donation after saying he did tons of research (that the writers clearly did not do) so they could get some cheap masturbation jokes), he wasn't the butt of the joke (lightning killing me gave me math powers because he-he i'm dumb and they don't have a plot for me to deal with it in a meaningful way, we're waiting for a LI to "fix" me, I'm calling every woman I slept with to see if I satisfied them) he was SMART, and CARING, and FRUSTRATED he can't save his family from the abuses they are suffering from and it all just felt so GOOD, and RIGHT, and true to who the Buck the audience fell in love with is. No wonder Oliver said it was the best episode they have done in years. I might have to agree.

[fallingtowers]

btvs season 7 episodes ranked

we did it gang!!! we’re crossin the finish line!!! it’s finally time to dig into season 7, about which i have uhhhh mixed feelings. it is Not The Best season of btvs; frankly, it is probably the second worst, even if i personally like it more than s4. still, s7 does have a few standout moments, and i think it deserves props for its appropriately apocalyptic feel. it’s really bleak, even after the reception season 6 got, and i gotta respect that the showrunners stuck with their guns. well anyway check below the cut for the list! love you! take care!

22. episode 6, “him”: good grief. where do i even start with this one. in this episode, magic makes a gay woman fall in love with a man, and that’s only one of the many dumb and uncomfortable things that happen in it.

21. episode 13, “the killer in me”: this episode has got some good stuff, and alyson hannigan’s acting is incredible as always, but the good pales in comparison to the bad. not only is the gimmick dumb, it hinges on the whole willow/kennedy plotline, which even i, a known liker of girls kissing girls, cannot bring myself to care about. also, amy outright admits to kennedy that she was behind the whole thing, and yet this is never addressed or followed up on???

20. episode 14, “first date”: who cares about any of this.

19. episode 15, “get it done”: kind of boring, with just a dash of btvs’s trademark weird uncomf race stuff to spice things up.

18. episode 19, “empty places”: so, like, i get that the narrative demands that this be buffy’s darkest hour, and that the way to do that is to make her friends turn their backs on her, but it just isn’t written in a way that makes sense. like, it’s understandable that everyone has grievances with buffy at this point, but i don’t see how no one at any point stands up and is like, “maybe we shouldn’t literally exile our strongest fighter when we’re up against a world-ending threat. maybe that isn’t the most strategic course of action to be taking”

17. episode 2, “beneath you”: something something dune joke. this is an ok episode; it’s ranked this low mainly because the spike stuff doesn’t really work for me. he plays his role so well that it rings a little false when we find out that he was just acting the entire time. it’s frustrating, too, because it feels like such an easy fix! but whatever. i can’t get into what i would’ve done differently this season or this list will be a million words long.

16. episode 20, “touched”: i watched this one and then immediately forgot what happens in it. aside from the fact that everyone fucks. oh, and spike stands up for buffy. that part is good.

15. episode 10, “bring on the night”: on the one hand, this episode manages to make the first feel like a genuinely threatening villain, and buffy’s speech at the end is a banger. on the other hand, why the hell does the turok-han not kill buffy after it knocks her out? what is the rationale there? it just feels like sloppy writing. at least invent some lame deus ex machina to frighten it off or whatever. sheesh

14. episode 1, “lessons”: this is a solid opener! opening on the new high school lends it a nice sense of narrative balance and effectively sets the season’s “full-circle” tone. and you know i love a haunting.

13. episode 21, “end of days”: ok, like, obviously everything about buffy’s Mythic Scythe is deeply stupid, but it’s never more stupid than here. not only is there an ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TOMB in the middle of a sunnydale cemetery, BUFFY DESECRATES IT. she doesn’t even fucking hesitate! she just kicks the door in! god i love this stupid show. anyway, if you disregard all that stuff, this is a strong penultimate episode that’s got a bunch of good moments. even if it does lose points for angel showing up. get out of here, angel!!! begone from me, vile man!!!

12. episode 22, “chosen”: this one feels kind of like a microcosm of the season as a whole—it’s a little rushed, a little haphazard. it feels like they didn’t build up to it enough and it suffers as a result. like, why does angel of all fucking people show up without preamble in the last episode and just hand over the mcguffin that ends up winning them the climactic battle?? stupid. still, even despite all that, the good parts of this episode are really good.

11. episode 9, “never leave me”: this is a fun one! the scene where xander and anya interrogate andrew is top notch.

10. episode 18, “dirty girls”: it’s kind of weird that they introduce caleb so late in the game—it feels like another symptom of s7’s kind of haphazard writing—but overall this episode is solid. nathan fillion is a lot of fun hamming it up as caleb, and faith’s conversation with spike is great.

9. episode 8, “sleeper”: god lmao I never realized that aimee mann was in this episode. wild.

8. episode 11, “showtime”: the gladiator fight between buffy and the turok-han is such a banger. i don’t understand how killing the turok-han allows her to rescue spike though. like where was the first even keeping him? and why was it even keeping him alive??? well, whatever. btw it’s fun how willow is apparently so powerful that people can now just telepathically contact her instead of the other way round. always tuned to the frequency. on call 24/7. if she was snoring in the other room you could just scream in your mind until it jolted her awake

7. episode 3, “same time, same place”: willow i love you. i kiss you. this episode is fun! it’s got a good gimmick that’s executed well. the demon is a little goofy, and alyson hannigan’s acting kind of suffers from the whole “lying on her back paralyzed” thing, but still.

6. episode 16, “storyteller”: this one is packed full of good gags, and the ending is nice and affecting. it’s cool to see andrew get some character development.

5. episode 4, “help”: poor cassie :( this one is lovely. the actual demon stuff is eminently forgettable but the mood of it has always stuck with me. buffy’s grim determination in the face of bleak odds really encapsulates the feel of season 7 to me.

4. episode 12, “potential”: this one is great. finally dawn is the focal character in a good episode. the conversation between xander and her at the end is lovely.

3. episode 17, “lies my parents told me”: this one is a standout mainly for the spike flashback stuff, but the rest of it is also good. wood’s murder room with all the crosses on the walls is a great image. it’s a shame that the wedge this one drives between giles and buffy is never quite resolved, though.

2. episode 5, “selfless”: poor anya :( poor xander and buffy too. buffy’s speech about standing alone as the slayer is really good. anya’s death wish hits hard. that’s really my only problem with it—they shoulda called it “death wish” instead.

1. episode 7, “conversations with dead people”: god i still have a hard time watching this one because it scared me so bad when i was a kid. btvs has never nailed the haunting stuff more than it does here. i like that they definitely knew how good this episode was too lmao it gets an artsy little title card and everything

[weirwoodking]

i know we are on a got hate hiatus so this is a mockery meant as a joke it's not even rage filled. maybe you don't remember this because of how random and utterly hilarious that benjen saved jon snow from.... something... (? i wanna say wights) in s7. like he came back from the dead in s7, had a different hair colour (for some reason his hair was a horrendous red/orange??). so he throws jon on his horse, saves the day, maybe he dies but i'm not sure, and it is never explained what happened to him during the six seasons he was gone and his different hair colour. it's the funniest mystery i've ever witnessed. benjen stark deserved better <3

Firstly, we are never truly on a GOT hate hiatus, even if we’re not openly talking about it as much. Also, Benjen deserves better, present tense. And he’s gonna get that better story, in the books.

IIRC what they did with Benjen was turn him into the Coldhands figure in their version (even though GRRM has explicitly stated that Coldhands isn’t Benjen). Their explanation was like... he got attacked by wights and he was brought back by the singers as half-wight/half-human, and he can’t go south of the Wall so he’s just been hanging out up north since book 1 (apparently never caring to get in contact with anyone in the Watch, not even during the Great Ranging). And then in season 7 during that episode that made even casual show-watchers start to realize how ridiculous the writing was, he turns up at the last second to save Jon after he almost drowned and then he swings a little fireball around at the zombies (sacrificing himself) and sends Jon off on his horse. I don’t remember the hair color change, but it wouldn’t surprise me. They really did like giving the Starks the wrong hair colors.

Now, you’ve prompted me to go on a little rant, because what really pisses me off about that deus ex machina-Benjen moment is that Jon was somehow miraculously okay. So... he goes out on an expedition beyond the Wall (with no hat/scarf/clothing for his head or neck) and they immediately lose all their food and water. Then he’s stuck on an island in the middle of a frozen lake surround by the literal fucking gods of winter who “bring the cold”, so it’s probably sub-zero (Fahrenheit, I’m American) temperatures. Then he fights a battle after having not been eating or drinking water for like at least 12 hours. Then he falls into a frozen lake in multiple layers of heavy fur, somehow he gets out on his own (with his sword in his hand), and then is immediately put on a horse while still in sopping wet clothes and rides off into the cold wind. And then hours later he arrives unconscious on the horse (how exactly was he holding on?).

By the time he gets back to the Wall... excuse me but his organs are failing if they haven’t failed already, and, IIRC (I’m not looking up the scene to rewatch it), he wasn’t shivering when they got him off the horse, which means that his body is no longer trying to regulate his temperature and you’re not going to be able to fix this shit with just some blankets and the magic of wishful thinking. So, unless you’ve got some medieval form of heated IV saline and warm humidified oxygen, HE’S DEAD. VERY, VERY DEAD. Oh, and apparently he suffered no frostbite, not even on his nose or ears. Big shift from the books, where Jeyne Poole gets frostbite on her nose from the escape in the snow. (Also, if you want to try and make the excuse of “well maybe the power of R’hllor made him cold-resistant” or whatever… no. It’s not stated or implied that that’s what happened. Post-res Jon in the books may react differently to temperature, but in the show he was presented as just being a revived human with an unaffected body.)

The show is just all-around absolutely ridiculous in the portrayal of injuries, especially since they constantly talked up how much they prided themselves on the “gritty realism”. You’ve Jon getting shot like three times in the back and somehow not getting a punctured lung (and recovering fast enough to lead another ranging beyond the wall before the wildlings arrive from either side). You’ve got Arya getting deeply stabbed multiple times in the stomach and then jumping in a dirty canal (if the blood loss or organ damage doesn’t kill her, the infection definitely will). You’ve got very little or no armor (see: every Jon battle scene) and no appropriate cold-weather clothing. You’ve got Jorah having all the dermis (and hypodermis too, I think) flayed off his entire upper body. You’ve got Jaime somehow surviving getting tackled off a horse into a lake/pond in full battle armor and somehow coming out the other side completely unscathed and un-sunk to the bottom. I never saw 8x5 but weren’t a ton of main characters in KL as it was being burned? And no one felt any effect from the dust and smoke inhalation? The most fantasy-like part of the TV show was everyone’s miraculous plot armor against any sort of bodily harm. Unless, of course, you get stabbed once in the stomach with a dagger when you’re a woman getting put down like a dog, then you bleed out and die in 20 seconds.

The most infuriating thing is that the books are comparatively on a very strong level of realism with injuries. Just using Jon as an example (because he seems to be George’s personal punching bag), he suffers second degree burns from his right forearm to his fingertips, and he has to constantly flex and move his hand to keep the muscles from stiffening up. When he gets shot in the leg an entire chapter revolves around it being treated, and the injury has lasting effects on him, he has to walk with a crutch for weeks. When he gets assassinated, he thinks of himself as only having been “grazed” by Wick’s knife, but blood immediately wells between his fingers when he puts his hand to his neck, and the next moment when he tries to reach for Longclaw he’s suddenly too weak to grasp it. So we can infer that the slash wasn’t just a graze, the knife probably hit his carotid artery.

GRRM puts so much care into making the physical traumas and their consequences realistic, just like he does with the mental trauma of his characters. I know we joke about stuff like “the more she drank the more she shat” but I personally love that GRRM was like “nope, if you drink unclean water it’s not gonna end well for your digestive system”. The show just full on winged it and made different standards for reality wherever and whenever they felt like it, failing to portray physical trauma just as badly as it failed to portray mental trauma.

[piracytheorist]

thoughts on killian's redemption arc vs regina's redemption arc?

I don’t anymore think it’s fair to compare two different characters’ arcs, especially when we can’t be impartial judges.

Like, I’m super biased towards Killian and his story. I try to be more open-minded, but in general, I like the dude, I connect and sympathize with him, so even though I’m like “Yeah he did some really messed up stuff” I still think he deserves his place in Storybrooke. And we’re talking about a guy who even up to his last scenes was killing people in cold blood (see him running a random guard through in 7x02. Bro what if he had a family?) Bad guys, maybe? But still people.

On the other hand, I never connected much with Regina, and the tumblr crowd didn’t help, cause even now for some fucking reason people are still like “uwu I’m allowed to dislike stuff” and like, while that’s valid, it normalizes spending way too much of your time focusing on stuff you dislike. This is what the anti-Regina (and anti-anyone, pretty much) crowd did, and it reeled me in, and I spent nearly two and a half years obsessing over how I hated Regina instead of enjoying what I loved. Anyway, all that’s to say that I don’t have the most unbiased opinion about Regina either even though I’m way over my hate for her now.

All that said, I still don’t think it’s actually possible to compare the two characters and their redemption arcs - cause by and large, those two characters have different target audiences. There are overlaps like your average Venn diagram, but overall the two characters work differently. They’re two different people, going by their lives on different worldviews, different experiences, and different needs. Of course, there are similarities; hence the overlaps in the two target audiences, and hence people who can connect with both characters at the same time.

And since on that Venn diagram I exist only on the “Killian Jones fan” side, I don’t feel I have the berth to delve into how I see his redemption arc in comparison to Regina’s. And that’s not only because I’m not a fan of Regina, but because of another problem the show had.

The show never allowed us to see the actions of the villains from the viewpoint of the heroes, or the victims. That was especially true from season three onward. The stories focused on how tewwible the villains’ lives were before they turned villains, then they showed them murdering in cold blood, and oh who the fuck cares about this random peasant, we have a problematic fave to romanticize!

Seriously, that was a big issue. I love Hook, but seeing how from s3 on his victims (direct or indirect) weren’t allowed their own stories, and only got closure just so Hook wouldn’t have a burden over his guilt was really weird. Like, think about it. With Neal he was like “LOL remembered when I took care of you” and Neal was like “LOL yeah bro good times” and then he got killed. The real Ariel never heard Killian’s apology. Ursula’s story is introduced and concluded in one episode, never mentioned after. The Apprentice just gave him one stern look and then got killed. Merlin didn’t get justice. Belle threw him an “Oh you changed!” when he never directly apologized to her. Liam II rushed through forgiving him and bonding with him, then he disappeared off the face of the earth. David was barely even mad at him for killing his father. “It was a long time ago” Bruh he killed your father, not your favourite pet frog. And again, the only time he uttered the words “I’m sorry” was to Zelena posing as Ariel*. Those stories existed to give Hook angst and to justify the existence of an ex-villain to the audience, because yeah we know he murdered in cold blood but look how sad he is for that now. The characters and their pain for what Hook caused to them didn’t matter. Hook’s angst and character development did.

* I get that you can feel sorry and not say the words, but actually saying the words is a step towards taking accountability for your actions. Saying the words is actually part of making a good apology. But why did I even think the ouat writers would bother reading some social analyses.

And that was the same with Regina, Rumpelstiltskin, and Zelena. Take any of their victims; they are either forgotten, or forced to forgive them, or sometimes even vilified themselves (see Greg Mendell, Milah - or even Regina herself - and s7!Hansel respectively) because the ex-villains are sad and are trying to do good now! Bro I see that but you don’t need to put a victim down to show that!

In general, from a moral standpoint, ouat was a mess. They made the villains so deeply flawed and then tried to brush their crimes under the carpet by showing them do one (1) good thing then their victims forgiving them because the villains felt bad now most of the time.

I... digressed. A fuck ton. But yeah, I did have a point in all that.

In general, I do feel that Hook’s redemption arc was the only one that was unprompted by someone else, and he only took it because he himself wanted to. The other three had something to “win“; particularly, Henry and Belle all but threatened Regina and Rumpelstiltskin respectively to stop being bad or they’ll go away, and if you can’t see how fucked up that is then I don’t know what else to say. Zelena had kind of a... ready place to fit in once she killed Hades to save Regina. I will admit I cannot judge her completely because I skipped all her scenes in s6 so like, I don’t know.

But Hook had everything to win and nothing to lose by staying a villain; in s2 he could’ve simply fucked off in the end and enjoy the fact that Rumpelstiltskin was dead. Instead he came back with his ship at the end because he wanted to do right by Baelfire’s memory (and because he had realized that his revenge would never bring him the peace he was searching for). In 3b he could’ve simply not cared for anyone else, instead he sold his ship, left his secure pirate life behind to save Emma and her loved ones. All without a promise or demand of someone accepting him in the heroes’ circle. And in a way, that seems very genuine to me and it’s why I rooted for him.

But again, overall, the morality of all the redemption arcs in OUAT is totally fucked. So even though in my own biased opinion, I liked Hook’s redemption the most because it felt the most self-prompted and genuine... the bar is still very low.

[lovelylogans]

,,,,can I get some opinions on lorelai, specifically Lorelai's Love Interests?

*cracks knuckles*

i just answered an ask about rory’s main love interests but now i’m gonna go into lorelai’s

quick disclaimer: i have seen s1-s5, read scripts of key episodes of s6/s7. so. let’s get into it.

jason:

jason is literally trash lmao and i Dislike Him. least favorite of lorelai’s love interests. garbage man. if men have one thing it’s the Audacity.

okay first of all his whole introduction to canon was that he wanted to leave the business his dad groomed him for..... to piss off his dad. like. that’s his reasoning. that’s why he wants to go into business with richard. literally just to piss off his dad. Sir You Are Nearly Forty.

and then. and THEN. like his FIRST scene!!!! with lorelai!!!!! is when lorelai is like “hey you shouldn’t have gone behind my mom’s back and planned this business trip when she was planning a party! that’s kinda shitty of you!” and his response was to REMINISCE about their time at summer camp and he’s like “you still hold a grudge” because. BE. CAUSE. he stood up and tipped over the canoe when lorelai was fully clothed, and when lorelai pointed this out, this man. has the AUDACITY. to say. “i remember. green t-shirt, no bra. trust me, i was the hero of cabin five for the rest of the summer.”

GROSS. GROSS GROSS GROSS GROSS GROSS. FUCK MEN. as if THAT isn’t gross enough he came up with the nickname “umlauts” because her nipples were showing through her shirt!!! diSGUSTIN!! men! are! nasty! and literally less than TEN one-sentence lines later he ASKS HER OUT.  

and then literally the rest of his character is basically just “business.” like. that’s it. when he takes the day off to come to stars hollow literally almost the Entire Time he’s focused on business calls and not on lorelai, his girlfriend who he came to spend time with. and then when richard, being a Shady Bitch, double-crossed him and went back into business with his dad, jason wanted to SUE HIM??? BRO???????? YOU STILL EXPECTED LORELAI TO STICK WITH YOU WHEN YOU ARE SUING HER FATHER?????????

this doesn’t even go INTO all the other stuff about hidden relationship and they’re literally dating just bc it pisses off their parents, it’s just. jason sucks. dude sucks. don’t like him. not one bit.

christopher:

i have..... complicated feelings toward christopher. to steal a quote i saw from twitter when someone was like “he knows lorelai so deeply!” they said “he knows her past, it doesn’t mean he knows her.”

so, like, on one level. i think that christopher was a bad dad to rory. right. like, he isn’t a good dad. i come from a home with split up parents, so, like, i understand the complexities there, but. he wasn’t a good dad. he just wasn’t.

that episode in season one? it’s the first time he comes to stars hollow. the. first. time. in sixteen years he has never gone to see where his daughter (and friend/romantic interest) lived, which follows: he hasn’t been to any of her parent/teacher nights, he’s never gone to any of the performances she was in as a child, he’s never participated with her when it comes to town events that she’s so passionate about (being a pilgrim, all the things taylor lists when she turns down being ice cream queen, etc) he wasn’t there. he wasn’t there for all the small moments that make up being a dad. no helping with homework, no sitting with her and listening after a long day, no actual parenting—no being there when she’s sick, no disciplining her if she does something wrong, no being there to celebrate her victories. he isn’t a good dad to rory. he has his occasional moments (he starts calling her more often post that visit, but it drops off again post-sherry) but all in all? not a good dad. i would go far as to say “deadbeat dad” as the first significant financial help he offers, that we see in canon, is him paying for yale. not helping with chilton, or any other childcare costs.

that’s an important factor when it comes to evaluating him and lorelai. because, quite honestly? i think that if rory didn’t exist, christopher and lorelai would have been firmly in the realm of “we dated in high school.” maybe a former flame that gets a fling when there’s a high school reunion. but since rory exists, they’re tied together forever, and therefore those feelings keep cropping up and flourishing (esp in situations when they shouldn’t) and they’re so stuck in the past.

i think that teenage christopher and teenage lorelai are well suited. i don’t think adult christopher and adult lorelai are well suited. lorelai had to grow up very quickly when she had rory, so she got a job, settled down in stars hollow, and put in the work of being a responsible parent who provides for her child. christopher doesn’t start keeping a job until s2/s3, he’s still very much stuck in the past. his pursuit of her is almost entirely rooted in nostalgia, as is her returning interest. they keep coming back to each other because it’s comfortable, it’s what they know. but once they look past that lens of nostalgia, their compatibility kind of falls apart. christopher is still immature in general (getting angry over the character reference she writes for luke, getting drunk at emily and richard’s vow renewal and basically shoving himself in the middle of their relationship like “but THE OOOOOLD DAAAAYYYS” and that WHOLE storyline of where he turned off his phone and ignored lorelai’s calls when richard had a heart attack, do NOT get me started) and lorelai is very independent and she likes her life where it is and how it is.

so to sum up: christopher and lorelai’s relationship is almost entirely doomed to fail because they can’t remove their rose-colored glasses when it comes to their (mutually romanticized) past together, and when the glasses are knocked off, they aren’t compatible. they just aren’t. what ties them together is that nostalgia, where they’re most natural is when they’re joking and being friendly (like the old times!) and when it turns into a romantic relationship, reality is too much for that tenuous connection to handle.

luke:

OBVIOUSLY i am team luke. this is the ship i’m most dedicated to within the gilmore girls fandom. he’s there for her, they push each other to become better (lorelai keeping his father’s boat, for example, and him encouraging her throughout the opening of the dragonfly) they have that Longing and Yearning. they have amazing chemistry, they’ve been crushing on each other since SEASON! ONE! and honestly they are fantastic when they work together.

i will say that they have their issues, and it almost entirely boils down to lack of communication.

if lorelai had communicated the occasions in which she had seen chris, luke wouldn’t have been so caught off-guard at the vow renewal and cut off their relationship. if luke had communicated about april’s existence with the full honesty that he didn’t know about her existence, lorelai, as a mother, as someone whose child’s default father figure is luke, would probably take some time but ultimately understand the importance of a child. they should have communicated about the wedding being too soon, and all their other issues. that bickering that makes their flirting and crushing so great also gets in their way sometimes; it’s hard for them to have a serious conversation without lorelai deflecting or luke shutting down. honestly i think it would have been great if they’d gone to couples therapy (okay, look, almost everyone in gilmore girls needs therapy, including emily and lorelai, so i’m glad that at least that one got tackled somewhere in canon) and it would have really helped fix that main problem.

frankly, i think a lot of their problems are bc ASP and the other writers wanted “drama.” which fair, it’s a tv show, but frankly leave the drama to rory and there are other ways to manufacture drama other than breaking up your main couple: dragonfly drama, for instance, or liz and tj and jess, or dealing with rory’s dramas, or something like the emily and richard and luke drama but sustained to a point where it causes a similar family fight that might have even paralleled lorelai leaving the gilmore household for someone she loves, and seeing that relationship knit up. like i get this show was in the 2000s but honestly let the couples actually Be Together!!! let them explore those dynamics!!! the whole “break them up, put them back together, break them up, put them back together” thing is tired and it seems unrealistic. like!!!! luke says “i’m all in” to lorelai and less than like TEN episodes later he’s like “it’s too much. this relationship is too much.” LET THEM WORK THROUGH THEIR STRUGGLES AS A COUPLE AND LET THEM C O M M U N I C A T E. LET THEM!!!!!

otherwise? iconique. the Flavor. the taste. the vibes are immaculate. chef’s kiss. luke/lorelai is So Good. their chemistry is unparalleled. their support of each other unmatched. 

i can’t really remember any other love interests lmao OH SHOOT

max medina:

lol forgettable uh, i think that he and lorelai had an interesting partnership, but it clearly wouldn’t have worked out to the point of a wedding, which i feel like lorelai knew because she kept holding back on actually answering him for the proposal after the s1 finale. i think that his dynamic could have also really been utilized to play with the dynamic of lorelai re-entering her parents’ world and the different expectations that that maintains; i don’t think it should have gone so far to, like, proposal, i think it could have been maintained then max wanted to get serious and lorelai hesitates and pulls something similar to the show. anyway, interesting first love interest for lorelai, also helps ground the world of chilton, so nice little twofold purpose for max there

i will say his proposal was super cute tho the thousand yellow daisies thing was Excellent

[nightqueendany]

Game of Thrones and Lawrence of Arabia

I’m just going to copy and paste relevant parts of the Wikipedia summary below and go through point by point:

The story then moves backward to the First World War, where Lawrence is a misfit British Army lieutenant, notable for his insolence and education. 

Hmm, who do we know from the story who is 1) a misfit, 2) joins a type of “army” and 3) is known for his insolence and education.

Oh yeah, JON FUCKING SNOW. 

Over the objections of General Murray, Mr. Dryden of the Arab Bureau sends him to assess the prospects of Prince Faisal in his revolt against the Turks. 

Who also is sent on a mission that his Lord Commander isn’t entirely chuffed about, at the request of another commander, in order to assess/take care of a situation regarding a foreign group?

Oh yeah, JON FUCKING SNOW.

On the journey, his Bedouin guide, Tafas, is killed by Sherif Ali for drinking from his well without permission. Lawrence later meets Colonel Brighton, who orders him to keep quiet, make his assessment, and leave. Lawrence ignores Brighton's orders when he meets Faisal. His outspokenness piques the prince's interest.

Brighton advises Faisal to retreat after a major defeat, but Lawrence proposes a daring surprise attack on Aqaba; 

Now, this bit I could see being Dany vs Jorah, when he’s trying to convince her that she doesn’t need Yunkai and she wants to take it to save the slaves there, but the parallel is really weak. 

The parallel of Lawrence being a young but capable military commander could belong to both Jon or Dany.

its capture would provide a port from which the British could offload much-needed supplies. The town is strongly fortified against a naval assault but only lightly defended on the landward side. He convinces Faisal to provide fifty men, led by a skeptical Sherif Ali. Teenage orphans Daud and Farraj attach themselves to Lawrence as servants. 

Again, this parallel could belong to either Jon or Dany. Missandei for Dany, Ollie for Jon.

They cross the Nefud Desert, considered impassable even by the Bedouins, traveling day and night on the last stage to reach water. One of Ali's men, Gasim, succumbs to fatigue and falls off his camel unnoticed during the night. When Lawrence discovers him missing, he turns back and rescues Gasim—and Sherif Ali is won over. He gives Lawrence Arab robes to wear.

The crossing of the desert could parallel Dany’s journey through the Red Waste - but the purposes for crossing these deserts are two totally different motivations. Lawrence and co are heading for battle. Dany and co are just trying to survive.

Dany is never given native garb as a reward. She adopts the garb of her people to show them respect. However, Jon is given a white fur by Mance when Jon successfully convinces Mance he wants to change sides from Night’s Watch to Wildling. 

Lawrence persuades Auda abu Tayi, the leader of the powerful local Howeitat tribe, to turn against the Turks. 

This could parallel Dany convincing Daario and co to fight for her rather than Yunkai...I guess? Or perhaps it’s Dany convincing the slaves of Yunaki to turn against their masters. Or perhaps it’s Jon convincing the Wildlings and Northmen to fight together against Ramsay? Who fuckin’ knows?

Lawrence's scheme is almost derailed when one of Ali's men kills one of Auda's because of a blood feud. Howeitat retaliation would shatter the fragile alliance, so Lawrence declares that he will execute the murderer himself. He is then stunned to discover that the culprit is Gasim, the very man to save whom he risked his own life in the desert, but he shoots him anyway.

This could be Dany in S5 executing Mossador, but remember, that was a show-only add-in. 

The next morning, the Arabs overrun the Turkish garrison. Lawrence heads to Cairo to inform Dryden and the new commander, General Allenby, of his victory. While crossing the Sinai Desert, Daud dies when he stumbles into quicksand. Lawrence is promoted to major and given arms and money for the Arabs. He is deeply disturbed, however, confessing that he enjoyed executing Gasim, but Allenby brushes aside his qualms. He asks Allenby whether there is any basis for the Arabs' suspicions that the British have designs on Arabia. When pressed, the general states that they do not.

This is Jon Snow to a T. Jon is promoted to Lord Commander, he gives rations to the wildlings who agree to help man the Wall, and he’s in a delicate negotiation with Stannis in regards to the wildlings fates in relation to the Seven Kingdoms.  

Lawrence launches a guerrilla war, blowing up trains and harassing the Turks at every turn. American war correspondentJackson Bentley publicizes Lawrence's exploits, making him famous. On one raid, Farraj is badly injured. Unwilling to leave him to be tortured by the enemy, Lawrence shoots him dead before fleeing.

This could be both Jon/Dany or neither. There are *some* parallels to both their wars taking back their homes - Jon with Battle of the Bastards, Dany with the Loot Train Battle. But it’s a weak parallel for them both at best. 

When Lawrence scouts the enemy-held city of Deraa with Ali, he is taken, along with several Arab residents, to the Turkish Bey. Lawrence is stripped, ogled, and prodded. Then, for striking out at the Bey, he is severely flogged before being thrown into the street. The experience leaves Lawrence shaken. He returns to British headquarters in Cairo but does not fit in.

Daenerys is captured and beaten by the Dothraki in Season 6. Jon is captured and beaten by the wildlings in Season 2.

However, the “returning but not fitting in” is a parallel that belongs to Jon solely. When he returns to the Wall after being undercover with the wildlings, he is very much changed by his time with them. He “talks like a wildling” because he “ate with the wildlings, climbed the Wall with the wildlings, and lay with a wildling girl.” He gained an understanding of them and their culture and has adopted their ways of thinking as his own which is why in S7 Tormund tells him, “You spent too much time with the Free Folk, now you don’t like kneeling.” Dany, throughout her story, is both adoptive of all the cultures she encounters and also loyal to none of them, only participating in cultural practices to show respect, not because she has become fully immersed in the culture.

A short time later in Jerusalem, General Allenby urges him to support the "big push" on Damascus. Lawrence hesitates to return but finally relents.

Lawrence recruits an army that is motivated more by money than by the Arab cause. 

This actually most closely parallels CERSEI in Seasons 7/8 and her purchasing of a contract with the Golden Company. So who the fuck cares? LOL

They sight a column of retreating Turkish soldiers who have just massacred the residents of Tafas. One of Lawrence's men is from Tafas; he demands, "No prisoners!" When Lawrence hesitates, the man charges the Turks alone and is killed. Lawrence takes up the dead man's battle cry; the result is a slaughter in which Lawrence himself participates. Afterwards, he regrets his actions.

The “guerrilla war” on the Turks and this scene in particular are the only ones I can think of as to why Dany’s arc is compared with this film. However, in this last battle scene in Lawrence of Arabia where Lawrence “goes too far”, it’s not an entirely unprovoked act of senseless violence. Yes, in the film, it’s meant to be horrific. 

However, 1) they are killing Turkish soldiers, not civilians, and 2) the Turkish soldiers had just slaughtered an entire city. So it’s not as if they’re innocent men. 

(Please keep in mind, I am not a history buff. I have no idea about any of this stuff in actual historical context or if the film is historically accurate. I’m not saying the Turkish soldiers deserved this but again, not saying they’re innocent in the way the film frames them either). 

This more reminds me of Dany’s attack on the Lannister/Tarly troops after their sack of Highgarden than the massacre of King’s Landing. 

OR, it could be Jon Snow “getting the crazy eyes and losing a bit of his goodness” - Miguel Sapochnik - in Battle of the Bastards. 

But this is definitely not Dany’s King’s Landing moment. The Bells isn’t Dany going “just a little too far.” That’s Dany going outright batshit and killing full on innocent people with no hint of regret - which Lawrence does regret his actions. So this fucking parallel is idiotic. If Emilia were meant to see Dany as “Lawrence of Arabia”, then that arc would be finished long before Season 8 because Season 8 Dany has no regrets of the violence she’s participated in. Lawrence struggles with that question constantly - as does Jon Snow. 

Lawrence's men take Damascus ahead of Allenby's forces. The Arabs set up a council to administer the city, but the desert tribesmen prove ill-suited for such a task. Despite Lawrence's efforts, they bicker constantly. Unable to maintain the public utilities, the Arabs soon abandon most of the city to the British.

Lawrence is promoted to colonel and immediately ordered back to Britain, as his usefulness to both Faisal and the British is at an end. As he leaves the city, his automobile is passed by a motorcyclist who leaves a trail of dust in his wake.

The bickering among Arabs could be the bickering among the Northmen when Jon is King, or it could be Dany dealing with the former slaves and masters in Slaver’s Bay, but it’s unclear. 

HOWEVER, being useful to neither cause and getting tossed out like trash when his usefulness at bringing people together and fighting their fights is at an end, is full on Jon Snow, and like Lawrence, he’s sent back to his place of origin: the Wall. 

If Dany’s story were to be parallel to Lawrence, she wouldn’t have slaughtered King’s Landing and would have gone back to Essos. 

Add to all this, Lawrence is a bastard son of an English Lord, struggles with his identity, struggles with his place between serving the British Army and his love for the Arab people, and lastly his squeamishness with unnecessary violence, and you’ve got Jon Fucking Snow.

I really have no idea when or why D&D told Emilia that Dany’s story was like Lawrence of Arabia. Honestly, after now having watched this film, I think they likely told her this back in the early days of the show, so of course Emilia wouldn’t connect this to Dany’s “dark turn” because Lawrence doesn’t fucking have this gigantic 180 like Dany does. That’s not what happens to his character so why would Emilia have expected that? Or expected Dany to die the way she did?? Dany’s “go too far” moment, in the series, would have been crucifying the masters. That’s it. The masters were evil and did something horrible and she was “punishing” them for it. And it was a great morally gray moment, which she later questions about herself. Just like Lawrence regrets his actions in the slaughter of the Turkish soldiers in the final battle in that film. 

But to compare Dany’s “The Bells” moment to the final battle of Lawrence of Arabia does not fit at all. 

It makes no fucking sense. Just like the rest of this pathetic dumpster fire of a season. 

[zmediaoutlet]

spn meme

@wetsammywinchester did this and left it open who would follow, so hell yeah, let’s kill some time.

what season did you start watching supernatural? I started watching on Netflix during the s7-8 hiatus, in the middle of a flu, with a fever so high I was kind of hallucinating. Good way to start--it gets you through some of those early MotW episodes really quickly. :)

who was the first character you fell in love with? Sam&Dean. Honest. They aren’t separable.

who was a character that you hated at first but grew to love? Rowena! She was so smug all the time, gah. She’s so much more interesting now, with vulnerabilities and complication. (Tho possibly not anymore? I don’t know, I’m waiting for definite confirmation on that.)

which character would you most want to be in a long-term relationship with? erm. None? ...Donna, maybe, if I had to choose. She’s nicely grounded and not-fucked-up.

if you could go on just one date with one character, which one would you choose? Ha, um. Sam, I suppose.

what would you do on the date?  Maybe go to a movie Dean wouldn’t want to see with him, something arty with a tiny budget, and then talk about it academically over a few drinks, and then emphatically not have sex. I don’t wanna die, here. Just give him a little vacation from his job.

which character would you most want to be like? Maybe Charlie. Smart, enthusiastic, unembarrassed about her interests, positive and determined. A bit of a Mary Sue, but that’s not so bad.

which character would you most like to see brought back from the dead? FRANK. MY MAN. Please come back and bitch at Dean over the phone. I love you. Come back from Aruba.

which character would you most like to punch? Becky the Psycho Fangirl. Holy fuck is she awful. At least the bad guys are up front about being bad guys.

who is your absolute favorite character? Uh, Sam&Dean. Still.

which “big bad” do you think was the worst? Worst villain, or ‘worst’ as in badly done, or worst at being a villain? Worst villain I would say is Metatron--smarmy vile attention-seekers are the worst. (Cough, not to get political.) Worst usage is probably Abaddon--I love her simplicity, but as the season went on she got stupider and stupider and just became a prop for Dean to kill. A little dull. Worst at being a villain is obviously Crowley. He just loves the boys too much. :)

which character are you most like? Uhh. I think this is N/A. Maaaybe... no, I genuinely can’t come up with one that I feel like fits. If anyone reads this, if you have an idea, I’d be interested to hear it.

what death hit you the hardest? Ellen--only death that makes me tear up. Can’t deal with dying moms.

what season finale hit you the hardest? Hm! Probably a tie between Sacrifice and Do You Believe in Miracles. Big shockers, each.

what are your ten all-time favorite episodes? Oh, this is hard. In no real order: American Nightmare, Folsom Prison Blues, Sacrifice, On the Head of a Pin, Wishful Thinking, Baby, Safe House, Playthings, Nightmare, and Soul Survivor. Or at least half of Soul Survivor.

what’s been your favorite season? Probably a tie between s4 and s11. For very different reasons.

who is your favorite angel? Ha! Well, Cas, I guess. Though Michael would win if it was the potentiality of him in my head.

who’s your favorite demon? Crowley. Come on. He’s hilarious and so deeply complicated.

who’s your favorite evil character? Alistair. Sensuously evil. Such icky shudders as he flirted with Dean.

do you have any supernatural ships? Wincest!!1!!! Though I’m also open to Dean/Cas and Dean/Crowley. Sam, I’m only ever really interested in him being very... focused on Dean. :)

who’s your favorite supporting actor? Richard Speight I think really transcended what he was given, though Samantha Smith has been knocking it out of the park with Mary. Even when Mary’s storyline is goofy. (I don’t much pay attention to offscreen stuff, tho.)

what’s your favorite quote from the show? Zachariah: Most folks live and die without moving anything more than the dirt it takes to bury them.

if you could cast one famous actor in an episode of spn, who would you chose? Ha! Helena Bonham Carter, as the leader of the Grand Coven. oho, yes.

if you could write your own episode, what kind of creature would you like to see included? More faerie! Seelie vs. unseelie, oh yes.

who’s your favorite girl that dean’s hooked up with? The Amazon. Is that terrible? She put Dean in his place, is all. :)

who’s your favorite girl that sam’s hooked up with? Hm, probably Ruby, for the fucked-upedness.

what are some of your favorite convention moments? Ah. I don’t watch convention videos. From the gifs, though, I really like the story where Jared stopped all the trains in Europe, just from the various retellings. Oh--and the time dicksp8 yelled about how Jared’s a freak who doesn’t use a hairbrush.

if you were going to guest star (or be a recurring guest star) on spn, how would you want your character described? Pft! Clever but overly rational, I guess. My guest character would be hardcore skeptic. And then I’d die.

what do you hope to see in the next season? Mary dying again, more of the deeply married Winchesters of s11 & 12, maybe some kind of reference to Jesse the Antichrist, since he seems like the closest parallel to ‘Jack’ and it’d be nice if they didn’t forget him. But really, I threw my hands up in the air so hard over the major arcs of s12 that I just hope that s13 is good.

-40. if you had to choose…

bobby or john? John

bela or ruby? Ruby

jess or madison? Jess

jo or lisa? Lisa

charlie or kevin? Charlie

balthazar or ash? Ha! What a combo. Ash.

cas or crowley? Crowley

ben or claire? Claire

jody or donna? er, impossible. They’re hotdishes full of fun.

sam or dean? Don’t make me laugh.

I guess to pass it along, I will tag... @silver9mm, @baronsamediswife, @nomercles, @idontneedasymbol, and of course whoever else wants to do it.

[themegalosaurus]

Ok so here's a random question for you - I'm rewatching season 9, and I get to the end of "The Purge". Now I'm a Dean!girl and I love him, but I'm still so mad at him about the whole fallout from Gadreel. I don't feel like he ever really understood where Sam was coming from. Why do you think he just never got it? I know you're a Sam!girl and I love your meta/analysis so I was just wondering if you had any thoughts :-)

Oh gosh, this issue has in the past proven to be a bit of a minefield so let me try and pick my way across it with some caution. I’ll put it under a cut so those members of fandom who get war flashbacks at the very mention of S9 can scroll on by, haha. 

I definitely agree with you that during the fallout from Gadreel, Dean doesn’t ever really admit the grounds for Sam’s anger and unhappiness. He (sort of) addresses the fact that Kevin dies, and that Sam feels responsible - at least, he addresses it insofar as he tells Sam that Sam wasn’t responsible and shouldn’t feel guilty and ‘that’s on me’, although of course to stop feeling guilty about something is much easier said than done (and as Sam reveals at the end of the season, Dean labelling himself as the guilty party for Kevin’s death doesn’t help Sam with his intrusive dreams about murdering his friend). But apart from that he more-or-less frames the issue as Sam being angry with Dean BECAUSE DEAN SAVED HIS LIFE and beyond that perhaps that Dean lied to Sam IN ORDER TO SAVE HIS LIFE. In fact, of course, the reason that Sam is deeply upset by the Gadreel scenario is quite other than that. Sam has a history of having his reality manipulated by external forces which take hostile control of his body: the demon blood Azazel put in his mouth and the psychic powers it facilitated; his position as Lucifer’s vessel and the related knowledge that demons were possessing key figures in his life, throughout his life, as per 5x22; sort-of the soullessness of S6 and the fact that Sam’s body was making decisions and taking actions that Sam would not have carried out himself; certainly the hallucinatory mess of S7. As such it is not surprising that he should be extremely hurt by what happened in S9, where Dean (‘stone number one’, supposedly) not only allowed a foreign being INTO SAM’S BODY but also colluded with that being in deceiving Sam over several months, such that Sam was driven to question his own physical and mental health (he’s losing time, he feels exhausted and sort of emotionally thin, he despairs that he’ll be this way for ever, ‘maybe this is just me’ [9x08]). That he should find out the truth of this is bad enough but that he should do so through an extraordinarily traumatic series of events that includes his body being used for repeated acts of bloody murder, his skull being penetrated with huge great needles so that Crowley can access the angel inside him, and a double possession in which Crowley enters his body to help him expel Gadreel, is just… it’s so horrible. It’s horrific. 

So the fact that Dean can look at all of that and come out the other end with ‘Sam is unreasonably angry that I didn’t let him die, which was actually the Right Thing To Do because Sam is important to me and I wouldn’t be without him’ is… interesting and I think you’re right to question it. That’s particularly the case given that on one level Dean clearly DOES know what it is that has upset Sam, because it’s the reason he was reluctant to agree to Gadreel’s plan in the first place. In the hospital room he says quite clearly that Sam would never consent to being possessed and that he’d ‘rather die’. And then during the period where Gadreel is possessing Sam and Sam doesn’t know about it, again, Dean’s shown as being conscious on several occasions that there’s something very sinister in having an occupying power inside your own body. But at the same time, at that point he’s already committed himself to Gadreel’s plan, and I suppose to have let the angel into Sam’s body and then for it not to have been worthwhile anyway might feel a little like the worst of both worlds. Either way, it’s definitely clear that Dean does understand the issue with the idea of possession (leaving aside of course all the context from earlier in the show, all the stuff in S5 about not wanting to be Michael’s vessel, just look at his face in 9x02 when Abaddon is threatening to possess him). 

So when, in the Purge, Sam tells Dean that he wouldn’t 'save’ Dean under the circumstances of 9x01 (and god, there’s a whole other meta to be written on ‘saved’, especially (tho not exclusively) in relation to Sam’n’Dean, and all the messy uncomfortable meanings that the word takes on), anyway when Sam says ‘same circumstances, I wouldn’t’ and Dean takes that as meaning that Sam wouldn’t save Dean’s life at all under any conditions, I think it’s difficult to argue that that’s a genuine mistake on Dean’s part. At least part of Dean’s brain knows what that means. But I think the reason he responds the way he does is a lot to do with Dean’s fears and insecurities and about the unhealthy patterns that have developed in their relationship as a result of the fundamental tension between what Dean wants – Sam, beside him, enjoying the hunting lifestyle – and what Sam wants, which does often seem to be something else (and crucially, I think, DEAN thinks deep in his heart of hearts that Sam wants something else). Specifically, it’s clear that Dean is afraid a lot of the time that Sam will leave him. Like, that’s quite evident from S1 onwards (‘There’s got to be something you would want for yourself –‘ ‘Yeah, I don’t want you to leave the second this thing’s over, Sam’ [1x16]) and it carries on being true throughout the show. He says so, even, right then in 9x13 when Sam asks what the point is, 'what’s the upside of me being alive?’ (!!!! ugh my heart breaks): 'You and me, fighting the good fight, together.’ He says the same thing in 11x11, when Sam is apologising for the umpteen billionth time over the fact that he briefly settled down with Amelia: 'All that matters now, all that’s ever mattered, is that we’re together.��� So I think if we see that as a primary motivating factor then it helps to make a lot of sense about why Dean sort of wilfully fails to recognise Sam’s feelings about the Gadreel incident in season 9 and thereafter. 

Basically as I see it, Dean feels (at whatever level of consciousness) like if he admits that he really, seriously fucked up in inviting Gadreel into Sam’s body on Sam’s behalf - if he even partly concedes what an awful, fundamental violation it was - then surely Sam will go ahead and leave him. Right? He deserves to be left for it (which… we could discuss, I guess, but I think it’s not unreasonable for Dean to think that). If Sam feels righteously angry at Dean, if he sees Dean for the piece of crap that Dean so often declares himself to be, then what’s keeping him with Dean? Nothing. 

On the other hand - as Dean has just had opportunity to observe in S8 - something that is very GOOD at keeping Sam attached to Dean is guilt. If Sam feels guilty then he can be easily persuaded into changing his behaviour in ways that pay off well for Dean’s vision of Sam-n-Dean on the road together. He gets Sam back into hunting at the start of the season by guilting him about abandoning Kevin (‘He was our responsibility. And you couldn’t answer the damn phone.’), and when Sam makes the decision to choose Dean over Amelia in 8x10 it’s couched in terms of obligation: ‘She does make me happy, and she could be waiting for me if I went back… But… with everything staring down at us, with all that’s left to be done… I don’t know.’ It’s not hard to see therefore why Dean should think that the main way to keep Sam engaged in hunting is by creating something about or for which he can feel responsible. Obviously the crisis in ‘Sacrifice’ – which ironically is what precipitated the whole Gadreel mess in the first place - shows the dangers of pushing this strategy too far (Sam feels so guilty that he’s actually willing to die) but I can see why Dean would fall back onto it as a tried-and-tested method of keeping Sam at his side. That is not to say that I think this is a totally cold, conscious decision, but I think part of Dean’s mind understands this and that you can see this madeevident in the way that he reacts to Sam’s anger about Gadreel. As per 8x23 , Sam is enormously worried by the suggestion that he is not a good enough brother to Dean – that he doesn’t love Dean enough. It’s not true, of course. If he didn’t love Dean as much as he did then the suggestion wouldn’t really hurt; if he didn’t love Dean then we wouldn’t get that moment in 5x16 where Dean drops the amulet in the trash and Sam’s heart sort of gently chunks in two before our very eyes. But (I guess since Stanford?? at least since Stanford) it’s easy for Dean to point at something and go ‘you don’t love me as much as I love you, BECAUSE,’ and to have Sam drop whatever argument they might be having and bend over backwards to make up for it (for Stanford, for Ruby, for leaving Dean with Lisa while he was “running around with no soul”). And that guilt’s a good way to keep Sam in the kind of apologetic, frantic frame of mind that (Dean thinks, for his own messed up reasons but perhaps not without some element of truth) is his best bet for keeping Sam at his side. 

So what is Dean’s reaction to the events of 9x10? A) He tells Sam not to feel guilty about Kevin because that’s Dean’s fault, Dean is ‘poison’; b) he leaves Sam to deal with the trauma alone (or, with Castiel’s support, but then alone after that when Cas leaves to re-engage in his heavenly business); and c) he goes off with Crowley on a job which culminates in him taking on the Mark of Cain whilst deliberately turning down Cain’s offer to explain what precisely he’s getting himself into. The effect of which is a) to evade responsibility for what happened (this goes alongside the ‘it’s not something you’re doing, it’s what you are’ of 4x21 I think – if Dean ‘is poison’ then the bad things he does are somehow outside his agency, he can’t help them because that is just How He Is); b) to avoid having to confront the reality of how Sam is now feeling (this is about self-preservation mostly I think, and about Dean’s sort of inner need to feel like he’s more or less a righteous person – it’s a lot easier to feel like what he did was justified if he’s not been confronted, as Cas was, with the unpleasant hard reality of a newly suicidal Sam); and c) – this is a biggie – to push the onus of responsibility back onto Sam by making himself (Dean) a problem to be dealt with again. That is, by taking on the Mark of Cain (something that Dean repeatedly throughout S10 in particular will frame as a burden that he is nobly struggling to bear), Dean puts himself in a position where HE NEEDS SAM’S SUPPORT and Sam has shown again and again that he’s unable to resist that demand. 

Again, I am not saying that Dean like sat down fully calm and plotted this all out as the best strategy to ‘get away’ with what he did to Sam with Gadreel. I don’t think it’s as conscious or deliberate as that. But equally I don’t think that the fact he has (HEEEEUUUUGE) abandonment issues and that it panics him to think of Sam leaving him is sufficient excuse for him to behave in a way that leaves Sam feeling guilty for being as upset as he is about what happens in S9. He was fully justified to be very very angry. Dean might have massive issues but Sam is a separate person and he doesn’t owe Dean support to the extent of sacrificing his own autonomy to keep Dean happy. That’s particularly the case given that Dean had so recently been directly confronted with the result of the assault that his behaviour had enacted on Sam’s self-esteem (yes, I’m talking about 8x23 again). So. Yeah. I certainly don’t agree with (for example) the meta that crossed my dash a few days ago that described Sam’s behaviour to Dean in S9, post-Gadreel, as ‘downright abusive’. Absolutely not. 

Anyway. I think you can see a lot of the dynamic that I’m talking about in operation in episode 10x18, ‘Book of the Damned’. Here for example is the moment where Dean’s telling Sam and Charlie that they need to burn the book: 

SAM: Look, just let us translate the book, okay? If there’s a cure, we’ll do it and deal with the consequences later. I can’t lose you.

DEAN: Really?

SAM: Yeah, really.

DEAN: You change your mind on that, cause that’s not what you said last time.

SAM: Oh, come on, man. You know I didn’t mean that.

DEAN: This is my cross to bear, Sam! Mine! And that book is not the answer! Now we got to destroy it before it falls into the wrong hands, and that includes me! I’m gonna go for a drive.

Here we get ‘Dean with the Mark-as-a-burden’ (‘This is my cross to bear, Sam!’) (conveniently ignoring the fact that four episodes earlier Cain’s suggested that it may also be Sam’s cross to bear, when Dean eventually MURDERS him, haha) and also ‘Dean guilting Sam about being a bad brother in order to win an argument’ (‘Really?’). Sam switches straight into defensiveness and Dean’s able to move the conversation the way that he wants it (and like… come on. By this point Dean should be pretty clear on the fact that Sam wouldn’t just let him die. Sam’s saved his life more than a handful of times between 9x13 and 10x18). 

And then later that same episode, we also get to see the effect that this has had on Sam’s perception of the Gadreel incident. He’s talking to Charlie about that line of Dean’s, ‘that’s not what you said last time’, and they get onto Gadreel – but couched in terms that made me like… choke on my own tongue with outrage, aahahahaha 

SAM: So, awhile back, we had a chance to, um…close the gates of Hell. And in order to do that, I would’ve had to die. And, I was okay with that, and I am okay with that, but Dean was not. And so, he uh…

CHARLIE: He saved you.

SAM: Yeah, he saved me.

CHARLIE: And let me guess, in doing so, he did something you didn’t want, and that pissed you off. And you said something that hurt him?

SAM: Yeah, that sounds about right.

CHARLIE: Brothers.

Like… hooooooooboy. There’s that ambiguous ‘saved’ again but what I’m really interested in is the way that Sam ‘saying something that hurt Dean’ – which in this context specifically is, ‘Same circumstances, I wouldn’t’ has somehow become equivalent to ‘he did something you didn’t want’ -  that is, let another being possess your body, wipe your memories, commit murder with your very hands and then lie to you about it for several months. What do we learn from this? I guess, that Dean’s strategy of downplaying his own bad behaviour by making it an issue of LOVE, and who loves each other more (’brothers!’), has been pretty fricking successful. So I suppose I think that’s why he never ‘got it’ about Gadreel: he chose not to, and Sam (who does love his brother, and whose brief moment of assertiveness was built on a foundation of seriously shaky self-esteem) fell back into the pattern that they typically operate in, and here they are. 

One last time. I am not saying that Dean rationalised this all out in his head and behaved on that basis. It’s more like… he’s learned through doing that this is an effective strategy to deal with Sam, or to keep things ticking over more or less the way he wants, and he’s scared enough about what his life would be like if Sam did leave him to resort to this tried-and-tested behaviour even though he’s smart enough and EMOTIONALLY smart enough that if he actually acknowledged what’s going on here then I think he would be able to realise how very fucked up it is.

So. Apologies for the enormous length of this answer, and for its slowness in arriving, but I’ve been thinking about it for a long time and I wanted to have it written out in full.

[lj-writes]

I need to get more into Star Trek fandom, specifically DS9 because it was the only ST I watched from start to finish. Star Wars fandom is a fucking nightmare; I never dreamed I would ever run into as much abuse apologism, fascist stanning, racism, and just plain viciousness as I did in this fandom. Even fans on my “side” can on occasion be exhausting, though I know they’re reacting from their own exhaustion some of which is a sort I have never experienced and cannot imagine.

I was getting discouraged about the franchise anyway with the literal erasure of Finn and rumors of K. Kennedy shenanigans, and the new trailer didn’t do much to get my spirits up with Finn and Poe barely there and this prattle about “balance” that, if it goes the way I dread it will, could hollow out the core of the Original Trilogy. I hope to be pleasantly surprised, but it’s not good for me to brood about something I can’t control and I should leave room for other interests.

Speaking of which, DS9 is being updated to Netflix in my neck of the woods (God is real, says this atheist) and I should finish my second rewatch with the husband who never entirely understood my Star Wars obsession anyway. We were deep in Season 6 when my thesis and childbirth intervened and I don’t know, they say Season 3 is the best season but I always loved the big, messy, beautiful devastation of Seasons 6 and especially 7. I guess it’s that susceptibility to grand drama that also got me into Star Wars, because the heartrending destruction in DS9 S7 is known as Yet Another Movie in the SW franchise.

(If I may be Trek trash for a moment, I think DS9 makes the genocidal events more... awful? At the time A New Hope came out we didn’t know anyone who had died on Alderaan. Same with the Tuanul massacre and Hosnian system, except mayyyyybe Korr Sella if you’ve been following the tie-ins and deleted scene. She deserved better, damn it. With the destruction of mmmmfff in DS9 on the other hand--though the show is 20 years old and no spoiler jury in the world would convict me--we have an entire civilization that was developed in the course of seven seasons and most of the main and recurring cast bound up in it somehow, including multiple members of that civilization from different perspectives. We also get to be in the thick of things with characters we’ve loved and hated because the events are not as quick as Space Nukes wiping everything out in one go, and we also see a little of the aftermath. It’s powerful, deeply affecting stuff and I almost dread going into it a second time.)

So I guess I’ll dip a toe in and test out whether David Brin’s assertion that Trek is better than Star Wars pans out in fandom. With my luck though I’ll butt heads with Cardassia and Dominion stans and Dukat/Kira shippers, eh?

[rahirah]

Buffyverse tagging meme: Tagged by @demadingbillydolls – and just as I was telling myself I should stop getting involved in meta discussions, too... top fifteen characters? I like almost all the characters, and a few exceptions, it's very hard for me to rank them. 1. Spike 2-6 in no particular order: Buffy, Dawn, Willow, Xander, Giles 7-10 in no particular order: Cordelia, Gunn, Fred/Illyria, Angel 11-15 I no particular order: Lorne, Oz, Darla, Wesley, Tara favorite minor characters? Anne (who I think is the most heroic person in the whole damn 'verse), Harmony, David Nabbit, Clem ranking of favorite seasons of both shows? BtVS: 5, 3, 2, 4, 1, 6, 7 AtS: 2, 3, 1, 5, 4 top ten episodes of both shows? NOT EASY Buffy: 1. Once More With Feeling, 2. Fool For Love, 3. Hush, 4. Becoming Part 2, 5. Innocence, 6. Doppelgangland, 7. Selfless, 8. Dead Things, 9. Something Blue, 10. Tabula Rasa Angel: 1. Reunion, 2. Epiphany, 3. I Will Remember You, 4. Darla, 5. Are You Now or Have You Ever Been, 6. Smile Time, 7. Five by Five, 8. Disharmony, 9. Not Fade Away, 10. Rm w/a Vu ats or btvs? Yes. least favorite main character? Mmm, that's changed over time. There have been times when it was Buffy, times when it's been Xander, times when it's been Angel, times when it's been Wesley. Usually it's because the character is doing something I don't like, and not because I dislike the character as a character in the larger sense. In the long run... probably Andrew. I don't hate him, but he never grabbed me, and the vast fannish love for him has always baffled me. To me it seemed like Andrew never really reformed, just glommed onto the person he thought was the coolest guy in his general vicinity – first Warren, then Spike, then Giles, then the Immortal – and emulated them for awhile, until someone cooler and shinier came along. Like Buffy said, he was a mushroom. Him giving Angel and Spike that pretentious lecture in TGIQ that was obviously a proxy for the writers lecturing the shippers was the last straw. I will say that I think that as of S10, Gage successfully put Andrew through some real character growth at last, and I can believe he really is a better person now, as opposed to the writers just telling me he is. But I don't think I'll ever be a huge Andrew fan. top ten ships? (I assume this means canon ships only?) 1. Buffy and Spike, 2. Angel and Cordelia, 3. Willow and Oz, 4. Giles and Jenny, 5. Darla and Angel, 6. Spike and Drusilla, 7. Wesley and Lilah, 8. Xander and Anya, 9. Willow and Tara, 10. Gunn and Fred (If we include non-canon ships, then I have to throw Spike/Xander, Spike/Angel, Willow/Spike, and Buffy/Faith in there, plus of course the hottest yet sadly rarest of OT3s, Buffy/Spike/Faith.) do you write fanfic? Yes, in theory. Doing it practice has been difficult. :P what fanfic do you read? Mostly Spuffy, but if a summary catches my eye, I'll try almost anything once. when did you start watching? Summer of 1999, if I recall correctly. show recommendations for buffyverse fans? Farscape. Yes, I know, it's Muppets in space, but I swear to God you will find yourself gnawing your nails to the quick over the fate of those Muppets. The first season is kinda slow, but stick with it. It is a more hopeful show than BtVS in some respects, but it's got a lot on common with BtVS in that it uses humor to delve into some pretty damn dark stuff, and the protagonists go through hell and do not come out undamaged. For something newer, if you haven't checked out Lucifer yet, it's just on its second season, and a lot of fun. do you own/collect anything related to the shows? I have a few action figures, but they're ones other people have given me as presents. I don't collect fannish stuff much. how often will you watch an episode? I'll catch a rerun on TV now and then, but haven't deliberately rewatched in a long time. I was so unhappy with seasons 6 and 7 that I just haven't been able to bring myself to rewatch the show since; the unhappiness tainted my enjoyment of earlier seasons. I suppose I should give it another try now that some time has passed. how many times have you watched either show all the way through? All the way through, only once. Seasons 1-5 of BtVS, probably 3-4 times. AtS, probably 2-3 times. five unpopular opinions? 1. I don't think we know if Buffy is bisexual or not. If Willow can identify as a lesbian after sleeping with a guy, it's within the realm of possibility that Buffy identifies as straight after sleeping with a woman. Buffy has never said either way. It would be great if she is bi, but until she says something about it herself, she's Schroedinger's Slayer. 2. I think Spike was a more interesting character without a soul. For some reason, people always assume this means that I think Spike wasn't evil without a soul, when... that's the entire point. There's an inherent dramatic tension in an evil being trying to do good which is entirely missing once you give him a soul. 3. I don't think Spike was out of character in AtS season 5. Yes, I do think that the AtS writers couldn't figure out how to write him in the first part of the season, but not to a degree that I can't integrate it into The Compleat Spike. The corollary of that is that I don't think that Spike and Buffy's relationship in S7 was the be-all and end-all of Spuffy. It was better than S6, but that's a low bar to clear. In S7 Spike was deeply depressed, emotionally stripped raw, and generally fucked up. It's only in the last couple of episodes of S7 that he's making any sort of true recovery, and even then, I'd still call him passively suicidal. But he trusted Buffy with that part of him. He doesn't trust Angel. He's not going to be that guy with Angel, and he's out of practice being the guy he used to be, so naturally, he overcompensates. Any time he's interacting with Fred, you immediately see his softer side again. That's the key, for me; Spike has a softer side, but Spike has a lot of sides. And some of his sides are snarky assholes, soul or no soul. 4. I don't think Joyce is an abusive parent. She's far from perfect, but there's a huge middle ground between "means well, but fucks up sometimes" and abusive. 5. I don't think they should have given Willow so much power. It creates a huge problem plotwise; how can you have any tension if Willow can do anything? So they're forced to come up with handwavy reasons why Willow can't snap her fingers and save the day, and it all gets a little ridiculous. least favorite thing about the fandom? That thing where people take a character they already don't like and just make stuff up and insist it's gotta be canon. Like, Riley HAS to be physically abusive off-screen because he punched Parker and that proves he thinks Buffy is his property and... whatever. It doesn't matter how much I may dislike a character myself, if I see someone saying something about them that seems to be unfairly maligning them, I have a mad, quixotic urge to defend them. Every character on both shows has plenty of legitimate, in your face flaws and faults and moderately-crappy-to-genuinely-horrific things they've done. There's no need to make shit up to justify your dislike.

[thestupidhelmet]

Hyde’s Core Characterization

The writing and characterization on That ‘70s Show is inconsistent, but one can come up with a core characterization for each of the main characters based on a selection of episodes that define and depict them consistently. The characters’ personalities, goals, and feelings can -- and should -- be complex, as long as those complexities are substantiated by consistent actions and subtext.

I often write about certain behavior and choices I consider OOC for the characters. I do so because I’ve formed my understanding of their core characterization from a specific set of episodes. I write my T7S fanfic from this understanding, too. When a character acts contrary to previously established beliefs/feelings/behavior without a proper grounding for that contradiction, I consider those actions OOC.

My understanding of the characters’ true natures isn’t the only valid one. People can form their own understanding from a different selection or interpretation of the episodes.

But below the cut is a list of S1-S4 episodes, with explanations, from which I’ve formed my version of Hyde’s core characterization. I don’t list episodes from S5-S7 because they either confirm, further, and deepen what’s already been established -- or they evolve/devolve Hyde’s character based on his core.

“That Disco Episode” (1x07) = Not for the Hyde/Donna stuff, but for how Hyde interacts with Red and Kitty. He clearly has a trusting relationship/history with both of them.

“Sunday, Bloody Sunday” (1x10) = We learn some significant info about Hyde’s political beliefs. We also learn Hyde smokes cigs.

“Career Day” (1x18) = We see Hyde’s unhealthy relationship with Edna, learn about their history together, and see how both deeply affect him. We also learn that Eric’s the one he trusts the most. He seeks Eric out when he’s on the verge of tears after Edna’s latest berating of him.

“Prom Night” (1x19) = The first ep where Hyde’s compassionate, noble, self-sacrificing, protector-of-the-vulnerable  nature is depicted. Also where he experiences/sees Jackie as more than an annoyance the first time but as human. And as beautiful. Once he agrees to go to Prom with her, he does everything he can to make the night special for her and to make her feel better … even getting her back together with Kelso after all those eps Hyde wanted Kelso to break up with her. ”Punk Chick” (1x22) = We get more about his relationship with his mom and how oppressive it is to him. We also learn that he’s attracted to a girl’s personality first when it comes to someone he’d actually consider a relationship with (and not just a screw).

“Hyde Moves In” (1x24) = We get a lot about how Hyde deals with trauma, his survival instincts/abilities, and his relationship with Eric. We also see how he cares about his friends and people, in general (he brings everyone to his house when they’re all naked and lets them wear his – and Edna’s – clothes). He’s concerned when Jackie can’t find anything to wear. We also see how much Hyde fears/respects Red. ”The Good Son” (1x25) = Hyde’s gratitude. He doesn’t have an entitlement issue, which he could have, considering his background. He shows himself to be the opposite of the lazy good-for-nothing his mom always claims he is. (I totally believe he continued to do chores without complaint after this ep.)

We also get more of his self-sacrificing nature. He tries to take the blame for the busted TV, even though it could mean he gets kicked out of the Formans’ -- whereas for Eric it would just be a grounding. But Hyde got to live at the Formans’ because of Eric. He feels gratitude toward Eric, too, and obviously feels responsibility for Eric’s jealous and idiotic behavior. So he wants to protect him from Red’s wrath. ”Garage Sale” (2x01) = Hyde’s impish nature. Making and selling the special brownies. But also attempting to make up for his mistake (letting the parents eat his second batch of special brownies) by helping Eric get the Vista Cruiser back. Hyde’s also got a bit of an ego on him. “I rule!” he says after Eric tries to teach Hyde about consequences; but since Hyde had helped get the Vista Cruiser back, the consequences were nullified.

“Halloween” (2x04) = We learn a lot about Hyde’s childhood and his intelligence, etc. Also, the J/H interaction is golden.

“Vanstock” (2x06) = We learn that Hyde isn’t happy about Kelso cheating on Jackie, his conflict about ratting him out, and his solution (“laying traps left and right”).

“Sleepover” (2x08) = Hyde gets a job and gives Red and Kitty the money from his paycheck. Even though he claims he wants to be lazy at work, he’s the one who gets Leo to stop slacking off. This episode reveals a lot about Hyde’s true nature, same as “The Good Son” does. He doesn’t want to be a financial burden on the Formans, and he takes action to be less of one. He could’ve kept his money for himself (and I’m sure he kept some to pay for his stash), but he gives the majority of it to the Formans.

“Eric Gets Suspended” (2x09) = Further proof Hyde smokes cigs. We also get confirmation that personality trumps his physical type when it comes to dating girls.

“Red’s Birthday” (2x10) = Hyde listens to Donna’s parent woes, shows her compassion, and shares his own experiences and feelings about when his parents’ marriage was breaking up.

“Burning Down the House” (2x15) = Hyde’s treatment of Kat Peterson. He’s rather sweet with her, considering she’s just a fuck for him and vice versa. He could’ve slapped her ass outside his bedroom door and sent her on her way, but instead he walks her to the basement door and gives her a goodbye kiss/hug type-thing.

We also see his low self-esteem (which will eventually get better during his relationship with Jackie). He calls Kat choosing to be with him “slumming it,” and he also continues to be with her once he learns he’s a secret she’s keeping from her friends. He clearly doesn’t have a lot of respect for himself during this point in the show.

“Eric and Kitty’s Night Out” (2x18) = We learn about Hyde’s emotional process. Hyde’s initially rattled that Patty chose Fez over him. He resents it, in large part because Hyde “taught [Fez] everything he knows “ He clearly likes Patty (beyond just a screw) and doesn’t understand why she doesn’t like him back the same way. A person’s self-concept can be rather complex. Though Hyde does have low self-esteem, largely thanks to his parents, he also considers himself “a real catch” on some level – at least in comparison to Fez. (One can reasonably theorize that Hyde spoke to someone (maybe Kitty) after “Eric Gets Suspended” and/or  “Burning Down the House” about dating, and maybe she called him, “A real catch.”)

Hyde doesn’t take long to leave his resentment behind, however. He says, “Maybe I should just be happy for Fez. I mean, it's the first time in his whole life that he's ever had a girl, you know?” His friendship for Fez ultimately trumps his ego and resentment, and that takes a measure of emotional maturity and compassion. Hyde and Leo’s connection (they were both abandoned by their families) and relationship is solidified in this episode, too.

“Kelso’s Serenade” (2x21) = Hyde’s compassion is in full-effect here. He finally understands how hurt Jackie is by Kelso’s betrayal. It’s no longer amusing to him, and he chucks his loyalty to Kelso out the window and tells Jackie she can do better than him. He comforts Jackie both verbally and physically (not sexually). He puts his arm around her and strokes her hair—Jackie’s hair. This is a significantly characterizing moment for her, individually and in terms of how he regards/treats Jackie.

This is also the third episode where Hyde’s depicted as someone for whom personality trumps looks when it comes to romance. After rejecting her romantic advance (i.e. kiss), he tells Jackie, “See, I myself don't like you. I find you abrasive. But if I didn't know you, and I'd never talked to you, I'd think you were totally hot.” He doesn’t find her attractive because (what he’s experienced of her personality (thus far) rubs him the wrong way. But by the end of this episode, he accepts a kiss from her and characterizes her as nice to Kelso and Fez.

“Jackie Moves On” (2x22) = Hyde is protective of Jackie, even when she’s not present.

“Holy Crap” (2x23) = We learn Hyde’s views on organized religion.

“Cat Fight Club” (2x25) = If one wants only one episode to base Hyde’s characterization from when writing him, this is it.

He’s depicted in this ep as someone who is perceptive about other people’s emotions and how they operate. We learn about how he protects himself from people trying to invade his boundaries—and by teaching Jackie how to do the same, he makes himself vulnerable to him. His compassion for and protectiveness of her—and for vulnerable people, in general—is again evident. He makes himself less safe to help her become safer, which reconfirms his self-sacrificing nature.

“Moon Over Point Place” (2x26) = More Hyde complexity. Jackie’s begun to idolize him, thanks to the events of “Cat Fight Club”. Hyde rejects her friendship to protect both himself from her and her from himself (I explore this in Welcome to Hydeville). He gets arrested on her behalf because a) he’s protecting her from an experience he doesn’t think she can handle or should go through and b) she wouldn’t have felt compelled to prove herself to him by bringing him pot if he hadn’t rejected her, so he’s taking responsibility for a situation he believes he caused.

This is yet another episode where his self-sacrificing nature and his protection the vulnerable is depicted.

“Reefer Madness” (3x01) = And another episode where his self-sacrificing nature and his protection the vulnerable is depicted.

Hyde continues to protect Jackie, even though it means becoming homeless (i.e. Red kicking him out of the house). He could tell Red and Kitty (and Eric, etc.) the real reason why he’d gone to jail, but he doesn’t. He accepts his fate, and he also doesn’t want Eric getting in trouble on his behalf.

“Hyde’s Father” (3x03) = Hyde’s anger at and relationship to his (step-)father. Bud neutralizes Hyde’s eight years of anger by offering him a beer and taking him to a strip club. Bud spent years narcotizing his own pain, and he reinforces this unhealthy coping mechanism in Hyde. This is the start of a toxic relationship, and Bud hitting Hyde up for rent money cements it.

Red sees the problem and warns Hyde, but the wounded part of Hyde who’d been abandoned by both parents needs to try a relationship with Bud, regardless that it’ll probably be toxic.

The love between Red and Hyde is also depicted  in this episode.

“Baby Fever” (3x07). Hyde’s emotional maturity is shown in this episode. Jackie damages Kelso’s van, and Kelso wants to calculate how much he owes Jackie monetarily vs. the cost of repairing the van. After the results are hugely in Jackie’s favor, Kelso isn’t happy, and Hyde says, “You could’ve been a man and forgiven her, but no. You wanted to do the math.”

Hyde’s dialogue in the circle characterizes him significantly as a feminism.

“Jackie Bags Hyde” (3x08). This episode furthers Hyde’s characterization as a feminist.

He’s very protective of Jackie. He tries to vet Chip, to make sure he’s safe for her to date. He finds out Chip doesn’t respect Jackie at all but views her only as someone to serve his sexual desires. Chip also calls Jackie a bitch, and Hyde knocks him out.

Of course, we also learn definitively that Hyde has developed romantic feelings for Jackie at this point, but the show doesn’t explore this fact afterward and doesn’t acknowledge it once Jackie and Hyde’s romantic relationship begins in S5.

“Kitty’s Birthday” (3x17) = Hyde’s protectiveness of the vulnerable. Caroline is stranded at the Hub at night. Hyde barely knows her, but he offers to drive her home and does it.

“Eric’s Depression” (4x02) = Hyde’s compassion and love for Eric. Eric is too depressed to go to Funland, so Hyde says he and their friends will hang out with Eric in his room. Fez doesn’t want to do that, but Hyde frogs him as a message that Eric needs them more right now than Fez needs to go to Funland. Hyde leaves only when Eric rejects the company.

“The Relapse” (4x06) = Hyde comforts Donna about her mom having left the family. He holds her lovingly (not romantically) for quite a while listening and talking to her—and also while being silent. He makes a few jokes, too, in an attempt to make her laugh. This is a significant scene that shows his true heart.

“Hyde’s Birthday” (4x23) = We learn more about Hyde’s extended family. We also learn that Hyde believes the Formans’ support is temporary and that his prospects for the future are limited. Red disabuses him of both beliefs, and Hyde starts to accept that he’s part of the Formans’ family.

“Eric’s False Alarm” (4x25) = This episode shows Hyde’s loyalty to Eric and, perhaps, protectiveness of Donna—if one goes by what Hyde tells Donna in the next episode. It also characterizes Hyde as someone who doesn’t like exposing his heart and as someone who lies about his true motives to protect himself.

“Everybody Loves Casey” (4x26) = Hyde tries to talk sense into Donna about Casey.