#and she doesn't seem to care about the amount of damage her recklessness causes

[ghostlyschwarbage]

Season 1, Episode 18: Life Lessons 

Skulker eats the ghosts he captures 

Valerie's bedroom is filled with pictures of Phantom all over her room: newspaper clippings; zoomed in photos; her computer has his image as its saver screen  

The Amity Park newspaper published an article wondering who Phantom was dating 

Valerie has samples of ectoplasm from at least 7 different occasions  

The first actual ghost threat Valerie comes across is Skulker, and she is immediately terrified of him and the ghost zone 

There's a door in the ghost zone that leads to a ghost train  

Tucker and Sam kissed

[sometimesoliloquy]

Ultimately the right question is: How is it a crime that Nick isn't a Mayday agent? (In the show because he is in the book) That doesn't make him a guy who doesn't fight because he condones what's going on in Gilead.

Exactly right. How is this the thing that makes Nick a bad guy? At this point June taking several years to realize that Nick's not some sort of revolutionary freedom fighter really seems like her issue, not his. We know he's not. But he's also not an agent for Gilead. He's always been in the middle, playing within the system but using it to protect those he cares about, and enact change where he can, to make things better. He's allowed Gilead to "win this battle" so to speak, but it's so clear it's because he was painted into a corner, not because he wants Gilead to win. He's not on their side. Even without knowing all the facts here, June should know this given their entire history.

No, he's never been a Mayday agent but he's also worked against Gilead's rules, or rather worked within Gilead's rules against Gilead. Working as an Eye to get some of the worst commanders out of the way (self-serving at times but also doing what's right). Doing little things he can, like smuggling the handmaids' letters to Canada. And he's not a Mayday agent but we know he's worked with them (which I still maintain that by Lily's definition in 5x03 means he is Mayday). Probably most explicitly at the start of s2 trying to get June out of Gilead. It's stated that he's working with Mayday here but implied perhaps for the first time, or at least in this capacity (smuggling people out). "I don't know, I've never done this before". But he certainly knew how to get in contact with them, and fast, whether because he had worked in smaller capacity with them before or just knowing from being an Eye, we don't know. 

And here's something that hadn't really occurred to me before recently, on my last rewatch--I really think that Nick would have had to call in a big favor--or be beholden to a fair amount of continued assistance/intel to Mayday--for them to agree to helping June escape in the first place. Especially if he hadn't worked with them before. Because as we learn in another episode, as a rule Mayday generally won't touch handmaids (let along a pregnant handmaid!). They're too valuable to Gilead and therefore too high profile, and too dangerous to get involved with. Do we really think Nick could have just run to them and they'd be like sure ok np, we'll just risk our entire operation to move a pregnant handmaid of a powerful commander without some sort of collateral from him(that we of course never see)?

And I think this is also an important reminder that, while they are fighting the good fight, Mayday also has their own priorities, their own code of what they'll do and what risks they consider too great to jeopardize the larger operation, no matter how good the cause or how vulnerable the people needing help. They don't just help anyone who needs it at any time no matter what. They exercise deliberate caution (well, this current s6 Mayday cell maybe not quite as much!) and they are aware of and willing to accept the unfortunate possibility of collateral damage. Which is exactly the kind of calculation that we've seen Nick operate with, the twist being that his motivations are largely very personal--surviving, protecting June and Holly--where Mayday's are largely strategic--striking against Gilead (and we know he's always been most reckless and ready to risk when it comes to June).

I think we should also not forget here the actions--or at least intentions--of other characters that in essence are not that different from what Nick did: Moira smuggling June on the NGO boat in s4, putting everyone involved in danger and the entire future of the humanitarian operations at risk. For personal reasons, for the one person she just couldn't stand to leave behind again. And June, ready to rashly do pretty much the exact same thing in 6x05 asking Janine to leave with them that night, which likely would have scrapped the whole Mayday plan AND put the rest of the women at Jezebels in danger (the two things she's ostensibly mad at Nick for). Both characters were rightfully scolded for their actions but it was portrayed as understandable, the human need to put those you love first (I won't even get into all June's actions that have put others in danger trying to get to Hannah or make Gilead hurt after Hannah is put out of reach). 

So why is it that Nick seems to be the only one who doesn't get grace for this? The only real difference as I see it is that he operates in Gilead, within a place of relative power. But as we've seen, power is often an illusion in Gilead, where you can gain or lose it in an instant, and there is always another man around the corner ready to put a noose around your neck or a bullet in your brain (or shackle you with a child bride, or a trip to the war front) if you get in their way. Nick knows this all too well, having been on both sides of the equation! But this is the thing that allows people to say what he did is so wrong, is so much worse than the others, because of this illusion of power, and the illusion of choice we also know exists in Gilead. Elizabeth Moss can say "but there's always a choice, isn't there" and yeah sure that's true, but in this case the other choice was likely for Nick to die, or be jailed and sentenced to death, and June stuck in NB with his vindictive father-in-law on the warpath. And how is that the best choice?

I've got to think that June is gonna realize this after she's had time to calm down and process, but emotions have been high and she's a very reactive person, a lasher-outer, so it's likely not going to be pretty in the immediate future. She's going to have to come to a reckoning and I think it's also going to be a good opportunity for her character to do some self-reflection on herself and the selfishness several characters have been calling her out on lately. If they don't go that direction they'll not only be doing Nick dirty but also do a disservice to the larger character development of June.

[castrotophic]

i definitely see where you're coming from on sasuke's defense here and also yeah sakura was stupid to think she could do it alone, but i also think that she was reckless because she loved him and honestly because she knew she had no reason to love him. what you said about how she has no reason or depth of emotion for him- i think that's honestly the point. i think she started out with a stupid little kid crush but instead of it going away naturally, sasuke left and her emotional growth was sort of stunted because she wasn't able to move on like she would have been had he stayed. this fight i think was a half selfish attempt to save him from himself but also to save her own emotions by allowing herself to move on. she was simultaneously trying to protect her love for him by keeping him innocent and trying to protect her own self from the continued pain of loving someone who continually does evil and hurts people she cares about. i also see your point- yes, sasuke would have been seen as a rogue shinobi either way, but at least he wouldn't be seen as the shinobi who destroyed konoha or caused any extreme amount of damage. i can't bring myself to believe that sasuke is justified in his actions against konoha, even if he is justified in his anger. genuinely, the way to peace is NO through revenge, which feels like the thesis statement of naruto itself. it's honestly surprising the amount of naruto fans i see who seem to disagree with this idea, and believe that sasuke is justified, because it is literally written into the very bones of the story that revenge is never the answer. the point of sasukes arc is that revenge isn't the way to happiness- violence isn't the way to peace. yes konoha is extremely flawed and its leaders are also, but sasuke's destroying them isn't helpful. it only hurts more people. he's traumatized but that doesn't justify any of his actions and he's unnecessarily cruel even in what he does do that you call justified- the way he goes through karin to get to danzo comes to mind. he's not a good person there, and sakura is justified imo in wanting to stop him. yes she was stupid and naive but her naivete is honestly only a sign of the strength of love she feels for both sasuke and naruto- she's willing to take this burden on herself alone, it's just a product of hope that she can make something better. i think it also stems from the inferiority complex she has about being the weakest person on the team- she wants to prove that this is something she can do. it's dumb, but honestly i don't think she needs any more scolding for it. isn't the pain of her failure enough? it would have been cruel of kakashi to yell at her about it after the fact. she knew that what she was doing was stupid, she was just blinded by her pain and her idealism.

mm I was thinking about the scene you mentioned of Sasuke defending himself against Sakura, and I have doubts, I understand the actions of everyone involved, but was he really defending himself? I ask this because I didn't read the manga, I only watched the anime, and someone once told me that Sasuke couldn't have known that Sakura wanted to kill him since no one had told him. Only Kakashi, Sakura and Naruto knew the truth but Sasuke didn't, so I have doubts that Sasuke was defending himself, rather I get the feeling that he wanted to get rid of Sakura there (just in case I'm not a fan of Sakura), and if Kakashi didn't arrive in time, she would have died

Regardless of what Sasuke wanted (and he very much could have wanted to get rid of her. We hear him tell Kakashi he’s ‘itching to kill him’ and this isn’t the same kid who avoided killing. He’s broken from everything he discovered) Sakura was showing an intent to kill

She had a poisoned Kunai in her hand

Intention doesn’t matter when someone is holding a weapon that in intended to kill you. You’re defending yourself as soon as they show aggression to you first.

Sakura was there to kill Sasuke

She had the Kunai in hand and her eyes on his back

The intent was pretty clear.

Even if we say he wasn’t defending himself that would simply put them on equal levels of intent to harm. If they both were wanting to/thinking about killing each other neither of them is in the right or wrong

They’re simply shinobi fighting

However as an audience we know Sakura went searching for Sasuke. If Sasuke wanted to get rid of her it was because she hunted him down. He was unconcerned with her until she was right in front of him telling him she wanted to join him when she didn’t even know why he was doing what he was doing.

Sasuke is simply existing. Sakura knocks her friends out, lies to Naruto and goes seeking Sasuke out

It seems pretty obviouse as a viewer Sakura is the one in the wrong and Sasuke had a right to defend himself. He never went seeking Sakura out to get rid of her