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cheri-cheri · 3 years ago

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[L&N] Jesse’s Main Storyline - Reunion

🍒 Warning: Contains detailed spoilers from Chapter 8 of the main storyline of Light and Night 🍒

Previous section: here

He’s Jesse? But the youth who was with me that day-

Staring blankly at the clean and clear face, my heart thumps heavily. That’s right. Those eyes are stubborn and bright.

Jesse: There’s something unique about MC’s designs. She likes drawing four-sided stars. You could compare it with her earlier drafts. It’d be clear at a glance who copied whom.

But this is a little secret between me and my grandmother. No one else would-

I’m in a daze. I’m basically a dummy.

One other person knows about it. Someone who was almost forgotten with time.

I stare at him in disbelief, and have the illusion that this is a game of hide-and-seek which has been going on for seven years.

This instance is akin to a movie scene. The years accelerate in reverse, each frame filled with memories engraved on my heart.

Him at 13 years old: What kind of adults do you think we’d become next time? I really want to travel to the future and have a look.

Him at 11 years old: Since you gave me Chinese tuition, I’ll reluctantly go to the same junior high school as you and teach you math.

Him at 8 years old: Next time, I’m going to be an outstanding person. Outstanding people will have lots of money, and I can afford to buy everything you want to eat!

MC at 7 years old: Hey, why are you squatting on the floor with mud on your face?

Him at 5 years old: [crying] T-they threw mud at me. They said I’m a fatty, and that fatties are most useless...

MC at 7 years old: Don’t be afraid! I’ll wipe it off for you. Next time, just follow me. I’ll protect you! Don’t cry. Real men don’t cry.

Him at 5 years old: Sob sob sob... okay...

MC at 7 years old: What’s your name?

Him at 5 years old: My name is Xia Ming Xing. Xia for 夏天 (“xiao tian” - summer), Ming for 一鸣惊人 (“yi ming jing ren” - amazing the world), and Xing for 星星 (“xing xing” - star)-

MC at 7 years old: What a difficult name. Can I just call you Xing Xing?

Him at 5 years old: That sounds like the relative of monkeys.

[Note] In Chinese, 猩猩 (“xing xing”) is “gorilla”

MC at 7 years old: How about Ming Ming?

Him at 5 years old: The uncle next door is called Ming Ming.

MC at 7 years old: Hm, I’ll call you “Dumpling” then. You look like a dumpling.

Him at 5 years old: Sure, dumplings are so delicious.

MC at 7 years old: Let’s make a pinky promise to always be friends.

Time moves in reverse, and once again returns to the present. I feel as though a gust of wind that was stalled in the past is now coursing between us, blowing away the many years apart.

MC: Dump-

I smile, unable to help myself as I call his name. The moment I say one syllable, he clasps a hand over my mouth.

The composed youth from earlier is now flushed, giving me a pitiful look.

At this moment, Wu You’s face is ghastly pale.

MC: I’m uninterested and have no time to play such games with you. This is a competition, and it has its rules. I can afford to lose and can afford to win. I accept a just contest, but I reject dishonest tricks. There are many more designers, including your sister, who are striving to make even better products. That’s the meaning of designing. I’ve already explained what I had to. I trust that everyone can make their own judgements.

Grabbing Dumpling’s hand, I turn around to leave. Now, there’s something even more important waiting for me.

Feeling the warmth in his palm, the youth’s expression turns from astounded to beaming with happiness.

Jesse: Let’s go.

Pulling him to a place where we won’t be disturbed, I suddenly feel a little speechless.

What should I say? Exchange conventional greetings? Would that be too formal?

But we haven’t seen each other in so many years. It might be awkward to talk about other things.

He seems to realise this as well. He looks at me, dumbfounded and at a loss for what to do.

MC: Erm, Xia Ming Xing, it’s been a long time.

Jesse is taken aback for a moment. Then, he bursts out laughing.

Jesse: Who are you? Why are you calling me by my full name? Give that fierce girl back to me!

He reaches out to pinch my cheeks, his appearance as playful as back then.

MC: Stinky Dumpling. You’re the one who’s fierce. I haven’t asked why-

Before I can finish speaking, I’m pulled into a hug. It’s cosy and tastes of sunlight. The second half of my question melts into his arms.

Jesse: Did you know that it’s been a very, very long time since I heard the name “Dumpling”...

He tightens his grip, burying his head in the crook of my neck.

MC: Dumpling...

Jesse: Mm.

MC: Dumpling Dumpling Dumpling!

Jesse: I’m here.

Jesse: Did she bully you earlier? It’s my fault for arriving too late. She made things difficult for you for such a long time.

His voice brings with it a nasally tone. It’s gentle, like a cup of hot milk gradually flowing into my heart.

MC: Why are you only asking me about that?

Jesse: What else should I ask about? What’s more important than you getting bullied?

MC: I’m fine, thank you.

Unexpectedly, he’s given a fright and blinks incessantly.

Jesse: MC, have you gone silly? You actually thanked me?

MC: ?

Jesse: Aren’t you going to throw me a left hook, then ask where the hell I’ve been these years-

I place my hands on my hips, pretending to be angry.

MC: Why would I ask where the hell you’ve been? Didn’t we know each other just two days ago?

Jesse: What do you mean “two days ago”?! We’ve known each other for 15 years and 9 months!

MC: But why do I recall how a certain person refused to talk to me unless he wore a strawberry headgear?

Jesse: I... I was afraid you’d ignore me once you recognised me. I wanted to meet you again in a more formal setting.

MC: In that case, why did you rush into the room furiously?

Jesse: They were bullying you right under my nose. How could I hold myself back!

Jesse: Don’t be angry, okay?

He shifts closer to me. No matter where my eyes look, he meets them immediately.

Faced with such a pair of pure eyes, my temper dissipates. It’s as though everything in the past has been written off in them.

MC: Shouldn’t you give me an apology before I forgive you?

Jesse: Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry-

He continues on and on, as though he'd continue saying this till the sky turns dark if I don’t get him to stop.

MC: That’s enough, I forgive you.

And with that, a bear hug lunges at me.

I’ve genuinely forgotten if his hugs were this warm during childhood.

Now, these pair of arms are filled with a comforting ease.

There are so many things I want to ask him. I want to ask if he’s been living well, and why he didn't give me a single call.

More than that, I want to ask why he left without saying goodbye.

But when I open my mouth, I swallow the words back down.

He mentioned that he couldn’t see me due to certain reasons. In that case, I’ll ask next time. Anyway, we’ve already reunited, and there’s still a very long time ahead.

MC: All right all right, you can let go now.

Jesse: Hang on. We haven’t seen each other for 7 years. Shouldn’t we make up for what was lost? One hug per year will do. That means seven, each lasting 5 seconds. In total, 35 seconds!

He actually calculated it seriously.

??: Cough.

I hear a cough from behind me, and feel Xia Ming Xing’s body stiffen. He lets go of me reluctantly.

MC: Jiang Lai?

Jiang Lai looks at me awkwardly, then drags Gao Cheng from his hiding place behind her back.

Gao Cheng: We didn’t want to disturb you two.

Jiang Lai: We just wanted to tell you that the producer decided to use your designs.

MC: Really? That’s great!

Jiang Lai’s a tsundere so MC has to take the initiative to ask the three of them to form a team

Jiang Lai and Gao Cheng leave

Jesse: They’ve already left, so why are you still looking? The person you should be looking at is here.

Jesse: Can I send you home? Just like in junior high.

MC: I was clearly the one who brought you home, okay? I sent you safely into your mom’s hands. Little Brat.

Out of habit, I reach out to tousle his hair, but realise I can only reach it by standing on tiptoes since he has grown much taller.

Jesse: Don’t call me Little Brat!

MC: Well, I’m two years older than you.

Jesse: But I’m already taller than you!

The youth lowers his eyes to look at me, his smile dazzling.

Jesse: Let’s go home~

MC: Let me test you. Which bus did we use to take? I moved houses due to work, but I still take the same bus.

Jesse: 102.

MC: How are you still able to remember?

Jesse: Of course I remember everything. I remember things related to you even better than yourself. The bus is here, the bus is here!

He places a hand on my back and we hurry onto the bus.

Although it’s a weekend, the bus is filled with students in uniform. We have no choice but to grip the handles while standing.

Jesse: Do you think they’re attending make-up classes? Isn’t today a Sunday?

MC: Many students have classes over the weekends these days. It’s unlike our time, where we had two days to rest.

Jesse: Wow, that’s great. Sigh. If only we were born a few years later.

MC: Let me off! Why didn’t I know that you were so enthusiastic about learning in the past?

Jesse: I’m enthusiastic about learning now. Is that wrong?

Jesse: Hey, look at that pair-

He points to the last row of the bus. A boy and girl are sitting next to each other, one earpiece in each ear. They aren’t interacting at all, and are staring out of the windows.

The boy would occasionally turn his head and glance at the girl, but will avert his gaze before the girl realises.

Jesse: Don’t they resemble us from back then?

MC: In what way? We were so boisterous.

Jesse: Correction. You hit me one-sidedly.

I shoot him a glare.

Jesse: But they’re still far from us. He wasn’t as handsome as I was back then.

MC: ...

Jesse: Look at them. One hand holding their school bag, the other placed on the seat. At a glance, it’s clear that they want to hold hands but don’t dare to.

MC: They look like junior high students. Where’s your mind wandering off to?

Jesse: These eyes of mine have seen through too many things. Sigh, what dummies! Just shift over slowly and grab it.

MC: You sound as if you’d actually do it.

Jesse: Of course I would. It’s just that I didn’t dare. Otherwise, I’d have-

MC: You’d have what?

He glances at me, then shakes his head, lips tightly sealed.

MC: Boasting again.

The bus suddenly jolts. The boy’s phone tumbles onto the ground, rolling in front of us. Xia Ming Xing picks it up and returns it to them.

Glancing at the tune that’s currently being played, I realise that it’s the male singer I liked most back then.

MC: How nostalgic. I was the same back then, only daring to listen to music on the MP3 after school.

Jesse: I was different. I listened to it in broad daylight in the classroom.

MC: Which is why The Exterminator confiscated it five times.

Jesse: But afterwards, I exchanged it with five exam scripts with full marks.

MC: Show off. Back then, I thought about how the days passed by so slowly. I wondered when I could grow up, because I’d finally be able to do the things I wanted to. I didn’t expect for time to speed by. After becoming an adult, each day passes by so quickly, and I don’t even have time to listen to music. In the blink of an eye, the people around me changed.

Jesse: But some things didn’t change, did they? We became the type of adults we are based on what remained.

MC: What remained for you then?

He no longer speaks, looking at me quietly with a silly smile.

MC: I realised that the frequency of your silly smiles are a little high.

Jesse: I’m looking at what remained for me. If we had gone to the same senior high school, what kind of people would we have become?

MC: You probably wouldn’t have gotten slimmer. After all, you came over to my house every day to freeload on meals.

Jesse: Do you think I can’t tell that you’re being sarcastic?

MC: Hahahaha-

How would we have turned out? I have no idea either.

When I travelled across the ocean after my grandmother’s death in my sophomore year, we would have parted anyway.

MC: Fortunately, we’ve met again now.

An earbud is suddenly stuffed into my ear. An acoustic guitar prelude instantly pulls me back to those youthful years.

I originally thought that I had forgotten the lyrics since a long time ago. But I can still hum “small yellow flower” and “playing on a swing”.

It turns out that the things we thought were forgotten are engraved in our minds, waiting to be awakened.

MC: There’s a similar MP3 in my house, but it’s broken and I need to get it fixed by a servicing shop. Oh yes, why are you listening to this song? Weren’t you distasteful of it in the past?

Jesse: It isn’t bad after listening to it again and again, although it’s still a little lacking as compared to me. In the past, you used to say that I was the God of Singing in your eyes.

MC: Hahahahaha, fine fine, God of Singing. I didn’t expect you to really enter this industry and become a musical actor. It’s miraculous.

Jesse: Miraculous?

MC: When we were younger, there was an essay where we had to write about what we wanted to be when we grew up. You wrote about being a singer who sang for the entire world. Afterwards, your mom saw it and forced you to erase it all off, changing it to a scientist.

Hearing me talk about his embarrassing past, he scratches the back of his head abashedly.

MC: Being able to make your dream come true, especially if it’s a dream which isn’t understood or affirmed, is truly incredible.

Jesse: That’s because I have a secret strength supporting me.

Hearing the music, I suddenly think of the outfit I had designed for him. Perhaps I could add a few more elements related to youth.

Taking out my notebook from my bag quickly, my head suddenly feels dizzy, and my nose bumps against his shoulder.

MC: That hurts!

Jesse: [sighs] ...

He turns his body in resignation, bending his back.

Jesse: Draw while leaning on my back, Miss.

MC: Mm!

The sky gets dark very early in autumn. The evening breeze raises a hue from afar, and leaves rustle from the trees.

The hubbub of voices on the bus and affectionate teasing seem to have been dispersed by the breeze, leaving without a trace. What’s left are the both of us walking home in silence from the bus-stop.

Moonlight leaks from the trees along the roadside, outlining the side of Xia Ming Xing’s face. It’s no longer roundish, and has become a little foreign.

MC: Dumpling, why did you suddenly move away back then?

I have no idea why I suddenly asked this. There was simply a strange feeling that he’d disappear again if I didn’t ask about it.

A twinge of guilt flashes past Xia Ming Xing’s face.

Jesse: Do you still remember the call I gave you on the day I left?

MC: Call? What call?

Jesse: You don’t remember? You picked it up, but hung up after I said a few words.

MC: ...when did I hang up?

Why do I have no impression of this at all?!

MC: What’s going on?

Jesse: Back then, my family was moving. I managed to fight for one week with my parents, wanting to stay behind to finish the competition with you. I didn’t have the guts to tell you because I was afraid you’d be upset if you knew. Afterwards, I summoned my courage and gave you a call. But you weren’t willing to listen to me.

MC: That never happened. Why didn’t I know about this at all...

Jesse: So you never hung up?

He grabs my shoulders, his fingers cold as ice. I can almost feel his body trembling.

Jesse: It wasn’t that you didn’t want to hear from me?!

He asks once more, his tone seeking confirmation.

For a period of time after he left, I refused to hear the name which was equivalent to “betrayal” in my heart. But no one knew that I was secretly looking forward to him returning one day.

At the very least, it could prove that I wasn’t the party who was abandoned.

But why was this the answer? A mistake? A perhaps irretrievable mistake from such a long time in the past?

With this thought, my chest feels suffocated.

MC: So that’s why you didn’t look for me in all these years?

The youth remains silent, orange strands of hair blowing up with the wind.

Jesse: I had my reasons for not contacting you. It had nothing to do with the call. I... just wasn't brave enough.

I suddenly have no idea how to respond to his calm gaze, and I also understand that neither of us were at fault for the parting back then.

MC: Xia Ming Xing.

Jesse: Hm?

MC: Were you the one who put the MP3 into the tin?

Jesse: Mm.

MC: So you put the card in there too.

Jesse: Mm. But I didn’t participate in the competition with you, and couldn’t stay by your side. I don’t seem to have kept any promises.

I shake my head forcefully, eyes already damp.

Jesse: But now, I won’t shirk from it. As long as it’s something I promise you, I’ll definitely do it.

He takes a step towards me. The years have caused the once delicate youth to change entirely, turning into the man in front of me, whose eyes are especially resolute. With such a gaze, I’ll always choose to believe him, no matter what.

After sending me home, he stands in the corridor as he watches me enter, just like in the past.

Five minutes later, a rustling sound comes at the window.

Jesse: MC, open the window!

Opening the window in confusion, the image before me almost causes tears to leave my eyes.

Pink confetti flutters and blooms in the city sky, dancing gently in the clear summer night, akin to that snow which had yet to appear many years ago.

Amidst the pink coloured snow, the youth reveals a bright and hearty smile as he waves at me.

Jesse: You asked if I regretted it. The answer is - I regret it. I regret it very much, and at every single moment. Summer is already over, but why do I feel as though this summer has just begun?

Jesse: Next week, come and watch my performance. This time, it’d be my turn to wait for you.

MC: Mm, I’ll definitely be there!

Only after the snowflakes finish their descent does Xia Ming Xing reluctantly walk home. If he was slightly braver and slightly stronger back then, would the ending to their story be different?

He doesn’t know. It seems that particular rainy day is still before his eyes. It’s late at night, and a figure flashes past at the end of the dim alley.

Jesse: Who’s there!

The surroundings are completely silent. Xia Ming Xing turns his head and looks at the girl’s illuminated window, then quickly chases after that figure.

A crow flaps its wings and flies past at a low altitude. The moss-covered corner is encased by deathly pale moonlight. Xia Ming Xing stops in his footsteps, black blood soaking his shoes.

However, he doesn’t pay any mind to it. His gaze is locked tightly on that figure whose knees are on the ground, bowing devoutly towards the moon.

Jesse: Who are you?

That person turns around slowly. It’s a girl around ten years of age, and she’s small and petite.

Black hair covers her cheeks. She lifts the white candle in her hand, stuffing it into her mouth and chewing on it. The two golden bracelets on her wrist jingle.

Jesse: Her soul has been taken-

The moonlight grows increasingly bright. An indiscernible black spot suddenly appears on the girl’s chest, and the stench of something burning begins to fill the air.

Seeing that the girl is about to bite the tip of her tongue off, a rope flies from his hand, binding and tying the girl up.

The white candle falls to the ground. Xia Ming Xing lifts up two fingers, twisting a charm towards the girl. With a tearing sound, the charm turns into ashes in the air.

Three days later, it’s the day of the final competition of “Upper Hand”

MC is caught in a traffic jam along the way and decides to alight from the taxi halfway through

Sadly, she arrives just as the curtain falls

I hesitate, not knowing if I should approach him.

However, Xiao Ming Xing is already walking towards me. He has changed out of his performance outfit, and is wearing a simple t-shirt and jeans, looking clean and fresh.

Jesse: How was it? I didn’t embarrass you, did I?

I don’t really have the guts to look at him.

MC: I’ll tell you something, but don’t get mad.

Jesse: Every time you said that in the past, nothing good happened.

MC: Really?

Jesse: The first time you said it, you broke my game console.

MC: ...

Jesse: The second time you said it, you cooked me expired cup noodles for supper.

MC: ...

Jesse: The third time-

MC: Enough!

Why do I have such a black record!

Jesse: Go on, I’ve mentally prepared myself.

MC: Actually, I only heard the last five seconds of that song.

Jesse: ...

I can clearly sense that he’s akin to a deflated balloon. His eyebrows, which were arched earlier, droop downwards.

MC: Sorry. I’ll treat you to orange soda and vanilla ice-cream until you’re stuffed, okay!

I lift my hand up, gesturing a vow. Pulling a long face earlier, Xia Ming Xing suddenly bursts into laughter.

Jesse: MC, why can’t I get angry with you?

MC: You’ve forgiven me?

Jesse: I didn’t say that.

MC: But you just said that you can’t get angry with me.

Jesse: If you want me to forgive you, sing a song with me!

MC: ...what?

Before I can react, he grabs my hand and rushes towards the stage.

The youth has a smile which says that he has gotten his way. It’s as if this moment is something he’s been plotting for a very long time.

The moment we step onto the stage, a familiar melody sounds. In an instant, I feel as though I’ve travelled to a lifetime ago.

Jesse: Still remember this song? We named it together - “Portrait of Youth”.

How could I not remember? This was the song we wrote together for the competition back then.

It’s the song that we wanted to clinch the championship with.

It was a song we didn’t get to sing in the end.

In an empty basement, we’d hold our cola cans like microphones, practising till late at night.

We had immaturely mimicked the lyrics we didn’t understand at that age. But many years later, I realise that each line has turned into our story.

It’s as though something in the depths of my body is being awakened. It’s the fervour and anticipation that a youth has for the future, throbbing and pure.

My eyes can’t help but feel warm, and I find myself singing along with him involuntarily.

Portrait of Youth (audio here)

That vanilla ice-cream

Melted in our rainy season

That old piano

“Ding dong ding dong” - is the tapping of the hour hand

Back then, I always loved to tease you

But didn’t allow anyone else to make you cry

You always said that I was a koi

But I was always asking you for tuition before exams

Dragonflies fly past our heads

Our inseparable shadows when we were young walk slowly in our memories

On the bicycle, I’m the only one with sweat like rain

I’m the only one left on the bicycle dripping with sweat

You were long gone from behind me

If the storm didn't block our vision that day

If I knew how to say goodbye that day

The flower petals in the diary

The unwashed roll of film from the camera

They wouldn’t be lonely longings

If the string of the kite didn’t break that day

If I could have been slightly braver that day

The empty pages in the diary

Wouldn’t have been filled with moss

The seven years in which we wandered off can’t be lost.

The lights gather in his eyes, and I'm reflected in them. It has been the case since many years ago.

All the stories seem to have ended with summer, but they begin with summer as well.

Fortunately, summer will always arrive. This unfinished story shall begin on this summer day.

#light and night #and that wraps up Jesse's main storyline~

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balillee · 3 years ago

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why 'there's no lore going on' right now in the dream smp - The Misfits Analogy

Fans of television, especially British television, will probably be familiar with an early 2010's show called Misfits. The show ran for five seasons spanning 2009 to 2013 - while the first two seasons (the first moreso than the second) are regarded more as cult classics, the latter half of the show completely falls in writing and production quality due to one significant change - the cast.

Seasons one and two of Misfits was centred around the original misfits gang - Nathan Young (portrayed by Robert Sheehan), Kelly Bailey (portrayed by Lauren Socha), Simon Bellamy (portrayed by Iwan Rheon), Alisha Daniels (portrayed by Antonia Thomas) and Curtis Donovan (portrayed by Nathan Stewart-Jarrett).

The show was good for two different factors from my perspective -

The intersection of superpowered television and interpersonal conflicts that broke the norm for stereotypes.

How the cast reflected modern British society.

In summary, the show followed a group of five young offenders at a community service centre. Not too interesting - but give them relatability, realism and explore their character development and their existing stereotypes/tropes through the use of superpowers? Genius.

Nathan was most definitely the fan favourite character of the show - he was outgoing, annoying, larger than life in a lot of ways and in all senses, he was a skeevy asshole who would insult characters at every turn. He was very much the class clown of the show and any British viewer could probably see someone they remember from school in Nathan, except Nathan was lovable and you could sympathise with him because you could see him struggling primarily at home and with his family.

Spoilers for the show - Nathan's power was immortality and the ability to resurrect himself from death. This power wasn't explicit immediately either to Nathan or to the audience unlike all of the other young offenders, and it reflected his 'nothing can hurt me ' attitude. Nathan was a character who could take any comment and brush it off like it was nothing, and he in the physical sense could take being thrown off a roof, impaled and practically buried alive and be sitting in his own coffin with his iPod all fine and dandy.

Kelly was also another standout example - her character reflected the stereotype of a chavvy girl, 'council house and violent' - loudmouthed, not very smart, questionable fashion choices and a bit abrasive. The only difference is that the show knew they had to subvert that stereotype - instead, Kelly was smart in her own way and she was empathic -> her superpower was the ability to hear other people's thoughts, and later, she became superintelligent and when her character left the show she decided to move to Uganda use her newfound rocket-scientist level intelligence for good. She was still loudmouthed and definitely chavvy, but she was also a whole human person who cared about other people and who was definitely intelligent.

If I kept going, I'd be lamenting about how season one's cast well reflected and subverted stereotypes and expectations using their superpowers, but I'd be here all day and that's really not the point I'm trying to make.

By the end of season 2, Robert Sheehan, as the standout performance from the show, decides to move on to greener pastures (which,, I don't blame him, being stuck on E4 would have been a nightmare for his career and look where he is now? He's a fan favourite as Klaus in TUA now!) - thus, Nathan is written out of the show in a post- season 2 special in which he gets locked up in prison in America.

This was the first character to get written out of the show.

In season 3, we lose Kelly who moves to Uganda with Seth to defuse landmines, and Simon and Alisha are both killed, and the only remaining member of the original ASBO five is Curtis.

Season 4 rolls around, and we pretty much have an entirely new Misfits cast - Curtis, and then we have Rudy (who had been present since season 3), and then we have new additions Jess, Finn and Abbey.

Let me tell you that by this point in the show, all of the fans had lost interest.

Not only had the two biggest fan favourites, Nathan and Kelly, left the show, but you now have to replace four out of the five original cast members with new ones that don't function the same way the originals did. What type of person is someone with X-ray vision trying to represent? You could argue that maybe Jess is good at figuring people out, but I don't really remember this being explored that much in the show. And the difference between this reflecting a minor personality trait is that the original cast didn't do that - in dumbed down terms, Alisha was a 'sket' who had the power to make people horny for her, oftentimes against her wishes, through skin-to-skin contact. That's much more impactful and there's a lot more to explore there.

Episode 7 of Season 4 of Misfits is the clearest indicator of the departure of the original show's intentions and explains perfectly why it didn't work the way it used to.

For the entirety of the season, Jess had been crushing on a guy called Alex from a bar she frequented (who later went on to replace Curtis as the fifth Misfits member in season 5, go figures) who, as far as we had seen, not at all reciprocated those feelings nor was there any indication of him wanting to.

In episode 7, we figure out why.

Jess, using her x-ray vision, finds out that Alex's penis was stolen by a trans man.

I'll be honest, when I first heard it, I thought it was a joke.

The show went from having a diverse cast, not only in terms of having two black characters in it's main cast, but also in it's diversity of character tropes that they aimed to subvert - to then having a mainly white cast in a show that actively perpetuates harmful stereotypes about trans people being dangerous.

Now, and I want to preface this, I don't think that the Dream SMP is malicious in the same way that the writing of that episode of Misfits is. I don't think the SMP is malicious at all. What I want to highlight is how the change in cast directly mirrored when the audience dropoff was and when the show itself started to go south in terms of quality, production and what they wanted to achieve.

For the sake of my argument, there is currently three seasons of the dream smp. The start of the server up until the end of the initial disc war is the prologue, season one encompasses Wilbur's L'Manberg and the Pogtopia arc, ending on November 16th, season 2 starts November 17th and ends January 20th (the disc war finale) and season 3 spans from January 21st to the present day.

Most of the fans of the Dream SMP can tell you that the primary story of the server is centred around quite a few certain characters who viewers started watching to see more of. I'm guilty of this myself - I primarily watch the SMP for Tommy's story, and I also stick around for Wilbur, Tubbo, Ranboo and a little bit for Phil, Techno and Jack Manifold. Those were the people I was invested in and those are the stories I like to follow. Not to discredit or to downplay the work or the stories of other characters, but I can imagine that there are a few people who watch the SMP primarily for a close few perspectives/storylines, and following some storylines over others just because you're not interested in them is completely fine and there's nothing wrong with that at all.

In season one, there was always things going on with my favourite characters. Tommy was always getting himself into spots of trouble and making up different schemes to get people to come visit L'Manberg as a tourist attraction, or getting people to support the rebellion, and this was interspersed with the heavier, plot-driven moments such as Wilbur's mental breakdown, the festival, the pit fight and the season 1 finale. This got me invested in him as a character because he had been there for quite a while and we'd seen him develop and grow into the character we now see in season 3.

In the back half of season 1 came Techno, who really shook things up and threw a spanner in the works and provided a totally different perspective - unlike Dream he didn't hate L'Manberg because he couldn't control it, and unlike Wilbur he didn't have a personal connection to it and he didn't know it's history. Techno initially hated L'Manberg because it was a government he knew nothing about (and still knows nothing about even today), and because violence and destruction is kind of his thing.

We had a well balanced cast of characters - not too many - that we could follow and who all had varying perspectives, experiences and personalities. We had clearly defined groups of individuals with different morals: you had the people on the side of Manberg, the people in Pogtopia who wanted Manberg blown up, the people in Pogtopia who didn't want Manberg blown up, and on the side to compliment it all you also had the Badlands, comprised of three longstanding members of the server,,,, and then Antfrost who was kidnapped by Tommy that one time. It was all wrapped up nicely in a neat little bow and there was structure to it all. There was one plot that went in one direction, and despite the many perspectives, it all ended up in the same spot and the story ended. There was a conclusion.

In season 2, the two primary additions to the 'cast' were Phil and Ranboo, whose characters complimented the existing story well. Phil functioned mostly as a successor to Wilbur alongside Ghostbur by exploring well the departure of Wilbur as a character in that moment, and he also functioned well as a companion to Techno's character. Ranboo, on the other hand, had a pretty good complimentary solo story that could be followed alongside the main plot, however his story wasn't too distant from the main story to the point where he was completely removed from it - he had direct involvement in different events such as the exile conflict, his connection to Dream as the main antagonist of the season and his involvement in blowing up the community house.

Season 2 starts with a focus on two different spaces - it breaks up a longstanding duo and the storyline diverges into two halves: Logstedshire and New L'Manberg, and you have Techno's short 'retirement' arc working decently to compliment it and also to set the tone for his character going forward in that season. In Logstedshire we see the aftermath of Tommy being exiled from L'Manberg by Dream - we see him endure what is (in canon) at least a month of isolation and physical and psychological abuse and it culminates on December 15th when Tommy rescues himself, jumps from the tower and goes to hide in Techno's house (which acts as a good precursor to his involvement in Techno's storyline in that season). On the other side, we follow Tubbo in L'Manberg dealing with Presidency - he talks a lot and gets 'friendly' with Dream, he prepares to run against Ranboo in the coming election cycle (primarily because he doesn't want to be President) and we see his interactions with the power-hungrier Quackity who all too often takes the reigns and this culminates in the creation of the Butcher Army, and following the Butcher Army's attack on December 16th, once again, we have two clearly defined sides:

One one side, we have Tubbo, Quackity and Fundy who represent L'Manberg, and on the other we have Tommy (who is unaware of the Butcher Army's attack), Phil and Techno, and more in the middle we have Ghostbur and Ranboo.

Season 2's finale format is a clear departure for the format of November 16th, but it's not a poor choice - I think, especially considering the story that they were telling, it worked perfectly. On November 16th, pretty much everyone was streaming their perspective of the event; at the time, there were even compilations of everyone's reactions to Wilbur blowing up L'Manberg. On January 20th, however, we only had two perspectives - Tubbo and Tommy.

I'll say it now, while Season 2 was definitely Clingyduo's season, it didn't focus solely on them. There was also a big focus on Techno as a character, whose arc came to an end a little earlier on Doomsday, and there was also a focus on Ranboo a lot as a solo character, and he streamed a little later on January 20th with what I refer to as the 'epilogue', where there was also a shift in his character to expect moving forward.

Why season 2's finale worked is because it was centralised around only three characters, only two of which we ever see the perspectives of, and it was the finale of the longest running storyline of the entire narrative - the disc war. Two boys who were on their last life, making their last stand at the one man who pulled the strings to make their lives miserable - those two perspectives only, and it worked. We didn't have compilations of everyone reacting to the things happening around them which worked for season 1, instead, we focused on these two characters whose turn it was to get the focus, and we had iconic and moving moments. We had the two boys walking down the prime path saying what they could only assume might have been their last goodbyes to the people that still had a shred of care for them, we had the two sailing to where they would face off against Dream for their final stand and finally talking about their feelings a little and dreading the implication that if they were both to die, nobody would live to tell their stories, we had Tommy choosing his best friend over his discs time and time again, and we had Punz - Dream's last confidant - standing against Dream and bringing everyone with him and sending him to prison, now on his last life too.

Everything about it was perfect. The more focused ending worked for the ending of season 2 because it was their time to have their climax moment - and it wasn't some spectacular display of explosions or violence like in Wilbur's finale on November 16th, where the ramifications hit everyone and we got to see it, nor was it a show of violence and almost oppressive dominance like Techno's finale was on Doomsday, where we saw everyone's breakdown and how the people contributing to the destruction of L'Manberg, no matter how righteous they thought they were, did not care to understand how much they were hurting and destroying the lives of the country's citizens. On January 20th, Tommy and Tubbo went into it thinking they were going to die, they got their asses handed to them despite how hard they tried, and they had their behinds saved by Tommy's preparative thinking by people who weren't there to save them more than they were there to get rid of Dream.

Season 3 suffers a lot from a lack of focus, awful pacing and really poor timing.

Seasons 1 and 2 occurred during the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic, where everyone was stuck at home and had more time to stream because it was their primary form of content and because it was the best way to communicate with their friends. Thus, the pacing of those seasons was extremely steady and things were always happening.

Now, lockdown restrictions have eased quite a bit, and creators can branch out a lot more and can meet with each other in real life and can do vlog-style content. Therefore, they don't stream as much, and the focus of the Dream SMP story has shifted more towards newer or sideplot characters. If you enjoy those characters, that's fine, but when they take the focus away from the characters and the storylines the majority are expecting, a lot of people won't try to keep up with it and from their perspective there'll be a massive lull in narrative content.

What I'm saying, is that Tommy streaming for thirteen days in a row in July 2021 is a fucking pipe dream. It happened in December because the story was consistent and the pacing was steady and he had the time and the want to be there. Now, Tommy's off making his vlogs and hanging out with his friends and thus he can't stream as much as he used to. He's sort of suffering from the Robert Sheehan problem, isn't he? Tommy is still involved with the Dream SMP and his story is definitely continuing, and his narrative in season 3 is really starting to pick up with the newer developments, it's just that he doesn't have as much time to play the role anymore because he isn't streaming as much.

I'm not saying this is a bad thing - it's obviously making him happy that his content is changing and I'm fully supportive of that.

So when all of these meetups are happening and we don't have as much content from the main characters that we follow anymore, what happens?

Well, the fans get a little itchy. This fandom, especially. They might throw out a comment or a tweet asking when they're going to stream on the SMP, or if they really don't understand why the Dream SMP is good, they'll ask when the next 'lore stream' is, and they'll lament a little about how the content and the story has slowed, especially in contrast to the fast pacing of season 2 which only lasted a little over two months with much more story going on than in season 3 despite it having been going on for triple the time. What they'll get in response is that the Dream SMP is still going on and that lore is still happening.

On all accounts, these statements aren't incorrect. Lore still is happening.

But when you've been following lovable characters for two seasons, setting up their struggles and then switching the focus onto newer or 'sideplot' characters that you haven't really followed before, there's going to be a bit of moaning about it on twitter dot com.

The SMP now suffers from having too many characters, too many unfocused narratives, and poor pacing/ditched or unfinished storylines from the characters we used to follow and love while we're being told to love other characters instead.

I never really cared too much about the egg subplot, I'll be honest. I was a little interested in the involvement of Sam, Puffy and Ponk, but other than that, I wasn't really too invested. It very much tried to replicate the 'you should have paid me more' moment from January 20th at the Red Banquet, and it really didn't hit as hard because most of the characters there were either ones that didn't belong there at all (like Niki, Fundy, HBomb, and Purpled), weren't that involved with the plotline and felt out of place with the established characters in that storyline (Techno, Quackity and Ranboo), or were new characters that were difficult to get on board with because they hadn't really had too much of a story beforehand (Hannah and Foolish), or in the case of Antfrost, characters with no known motivation to be there other than that being the storyline they're currently in. Not to discredit those involved or their characters, but the Red Banquet really tried to replicate what the disc finale did with it's focused perspectives and it's Punz moment, and it failed.

Now, following the egg subplot's finale, I'm meant to focus on Las Nevadas, Snowchester and the Syndicate.

Las Nevadas is the most consistent storyline, however it's biggest problem is that it is filled with new characters or ones that are barely there. Despite how long he's been on the server, Purpled really is a new character if only because he's only really become a character recently - Foolish is still considered new, Slimecicle is new, Fundy rarely streams on the SMP. The only consistent longstanding and heavily involved characters that are a part of Las Nevadas are Quackity and Sam, and even their streams are infrequent, with a lot of Sam's perspective not even focusing on Las Nevadas but instead the prison.

Snowchester's plot is very much dying, dead and in the water. She's suffering. We haven't seen Michael in over a month, a nuke is still missing, Jack Manifold is dubiously a citizen and Tubbo doesn't even think he has a character on the SMP. It breaks my heart.

The Syndicate suffer from a lack of existence. The four characters really aren't a friend group in canon - all of the stuff about them hanging out all the time and them basically being a book club is all fanon. They've hung out as a four all of twice, the first time they ever got together they celebrated someone's death and then basically invaded Snowchester to give themselves a reason not to destroy it, terrifying Tubbo in the process. The second time was because it was Techno's birthday.

Now, Techno is in prison, and the only reason Phil hasn't read the will to progress the story is likely because of difficult scheduling with other server members, which is written off in canon as Phil not wanting to accept the possibility of Techno potentially dying.

Literally reading the will and having the Syndicate figure out that Techno's in prison with Dream will solve all of season 3's formatting issues and have the story back on track.

Currently, we don't really have two clearly defined sides the way we always had. We were meant to root for L'Manberg against the Dream Team, we were meant to root for Pogtopia against Manberg, and in season 2 we had a lot more moral ambiguity and room for side switching between the forces of Dream, Techno and Phil against L'Manberg, and then we rooted for Clingyduo against Dream.

I can predict that if the will is read, here's how a good conflict can arise.

Two clearly defined different sides - Las Nevadas on the side of Pandora's Vault, and the Syndicate (currently consisting of Phil, Ranboo and Niki), and you have compromises to make. If the side of the Prison wins, Techno and Dream stay in Pandora's Vault without a proper trial and being treated inhumanely, and there's also the threat of the rest of the Syndicate also being imprisoned. If the side of the Syndicate wins, the prison is taken out and Techno and Dream are no longer being treated inhumanely - problem is that Dream's out, and he's very much dangerous because despite what c!Dream apologists will tell you, he's not docile and he's not going to have a healing arc with Techno because he doesn't think he's done anything wrong and Techno can't tell him that he's done anything wrong (because Techno is the most wilfully ignorant character who gets to be political it's INSANE) - he'll go right back to the evil, abusive bastard he was, obsessed with Tommy, probably worse now that he can easily get Wilbur to do anything he wants and more vindictive against Quackity. Plus, if the Syndicate take down Las Nevadas they'll hold the most power on the server systematically and the so-called anarchists will ironically be the top dogs of the server.

Then towards the middle you'll probably end up having Wilbur, Benchtrio and Jack Manifold - Tubbo and Jack would prefer Techno and Dream staying in prison, except Tubbo's really not on the greatest terms with Q at the minute (because Q's paranoid and making conflict with parties that would have otherwise helped him out and thought they were friends), whereas Tommy would be stuck between wanting Techno out but needing to either keep Dream in or kill him, and Wilbur will be having to pick between aiding Dream's escape from prison or staying with Tommy, because he can't have both. Ranboo will probably be having the same problem as Tommy, except he's on the side of the Syndicate and will have to pick between the Syndicate or keeping Dream imprisoned.

Season 3 is salvageable, it really is. You can fix the poor pacing and you can fix the lack of focus with literally one revelation from fucking Philza M|necraft. But as it stands now, season 3 suffers from a similar situation as Misfits - almost replacing the cast of characters we've followed for the longest time with a new one in a format completely different to the original seasons.

#dream smp #dsmp #dream smp analysis #dsmp analysis #dsmp meta #dream smp meta #long post #esclapoanalysis

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movie-magic · 4 years ago

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Supergirl’s Melissa Benoist & Chyler Leigh Look Back on the Danvers Sisters and Ahead to the Finale

When it comes to TV sisterhood, Supergirl’s Kara and Alex Danvers — played affectionately by Melissa Benoist and Chyler Leigh — fly a little higher than the rest. Whether fighting side by side or drinking wine on Kara’s cozy couch, these two women are the heart of the CW hit. Now the action drama is kicking off a two-parter that explores the roots of their bond even more.

In “Prom Night” on April 27 and “Prom Again!” on May 4 (the second half was directed by Leigh), heroic Nia Nal/Dreamer (Nicole Maines) and the data-crunching Brainiac-5 (Jesse Rath) travel back in time to prom circa 2009. Their plan? To see if the teenage Danvers siblings (Izabela Vidovic as young Kara; Olivia Nikkanen as young Alex) hold the key to locating present-day Kara — aka National City’s savior Supergirl — within the Phantom Zone. She’s been trapped in that parallel dimension since the first episode of the sixth and final season, a storyline that fortuitously accommodated Benoist’s maternity leave. Leigh calls the throwback episodes “an origin story of the Danvers sisters.”

Here, the fan favorites behind the adopted alien from Krypton and her warrior sis prove that family is all just relative.

At what point during shooting the series did you begin to feel like sisters?

Chyler Leigh: It was pretty instantaneous. And it was a surprise, I think, for both of us to look at each other and go, “Wait a minute. I’m made for you!”

Melissa Benoist: Our first couch scene [Season 1, Episode 3, “Fight or Flight”]. I threw a pillow at Chyler and thought she was going to catch it. It smacked her in the face and we couldn’t stop laughing.

Leigh: The [couch scenes] are such special moments. It brings a reprieve from all the action…and there’s so much of Mel and Chyler in there, I think that makes it even more special. I would say the vast majority of those scenes that we have done, it’s all improv by the end.

Alex has officially taken on her own super moniker, Sentinel, after a long journey as a lesbian field agent turned director of the secret agency the Department of Extranormal Operations (DEO) and, later, a vigilante. Melissa, how was it knowing Chyler would be joining the Arrowverse’s heroes to pick up the slack while you were on maternity leave?

Benoist: To me, Alex was always a superhero, so it only made sense that she got her suit and her Hand of the Soldier gauntlet [which transforms into any weapon she desires]. Like, it’s about time. And with David Harewood [Martian Manhunter] — the three of us are the OGs from the very get-go — it’s so solid that any of us can step out and the show is in good hands.

Leigh: Khakis and an Under Armour shirt [Alex’s DEO uniform] will only help you survive for so long, you know?

Chyler, you were a mom first, and Melissa, you directed the show first. Did you two trade notes on either?

Benoist: I’ve gotten to see what a wonderful mom Chyler is…she’s such a mama bear to us on the show. I learned by watching her.

Leigh: To see Mel’s eyes twinkle, I have no doubt she’s going to be a phenomenal mom. From a directing standpoint, I had a much different experience [from Benoist]. I’m not in [“Prom Again!”]. But I think we can both say we did a pretty damn good job.

The midseason finale airs May 11, and then you’re on hiatus until summer. What’s in store for the Danvers sisters in the remaining 13 episodes?

Benoist: Oh, good question! [Laughs]

Leigh: Well, eventually Supergirl has to come out of the Phantom Zone, so maybe another Danvers couch scene is in order!

Is there a Danvers sisters tattoo yet?

Leigh: [Laughs] No, but we’ve talked about it!

Do you hear from fans or sisters who see themselves reflected in Kara and Alex’s relationship?

Leigh: Oh, yeah. [Fans are excited to see] that you don’t have to have sisters that are catty. These girls have each other’s back, and they fight to the death for each other, which has happened pretty much every season.

Have there been discussions about Kara flying off into the sunset as the show wraps up?

Benoist: The ending that was pitched I was really happy with. Of course, I’m not going to give anything away, but I am very happy with the strength and the empowerment that comes with the way we’re ending the series for Kara.

- Tv Insider

Supergirl, Tuesdays, 9/8c, The CW

#supergirl #season finale #melissa benoist #chyler leigh #cw #arrowverse #tv series #news #movie magic

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holyhellpod · 4 years ago

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Heyoooo, it’s another episode of Holy Hell! This one is dedicated to the manchild himself, Dean Winchester.

Apple | Google | Spotify | Instagram | Patreon

Transcript below!

CW: discussions of child abuse, child death, suicide, alcoholism, family trauma, mental health

[Music]

Dean Winchester is, in a word, my soulmate. I started kinning him when the show aired in Australia on Fox8 and I have not been the same since. From his devil-may-care attitude to his undying love for his family that pierces the veil of death to save the day, he really is the most. I have to say at the beginning that this episode of Holy Hell will not include discussions of Dean’s sexuality and gender. I’m saving that for its own episode, so stay tuned my pals.

What we know of Dean as he develops over the course of the first episode is: he’s been hunting, and hunting alone, he’s 26 years old, he drives a sweet ‘67 Impala, he wears an old leather jacket, he listens to 1980s metal, and he has an arsenal of weapons and supernatural fighting talismans in his trunk. He’s also a smartarse, one of his most endearing qualities. He gets defensive about their mother and her death, and he defends their father over and over. He’s a loyal son and brother. The impetus to bring Sam back into the hunting life, after Sam decided for good that he was going to leave, is to bring his fambily back together.

The quality that defines Dean Winchester is how much he loves he loves his fambily. In the first episode, he is so worried about his father that he recruits Sam to help look for him, even though Sam and Dean haven’t spoken in two years, and Sam ran away to college rather than continue to live with their father. He spends most of the first season defending their father, but when John comes back and starts arguing with Sam, Dean protects his brother from John. It’s one of the most significant examples of character growth Dean undergoes throughout the entire series, and it’s where his loyalty shifts from John to Sam.

In the episode of season 2, “Croatoan,” Dean decides not to shoot Sam when Sam contracts the Croatoan virus which turns people rabid and makes them kill. In the next episode, “Hunted”, Dean reveals that John told him to kill Sam if Dean couldn’t save him. But Dean doesn’t. He says that John begged Dean not to tell Sam, but it’s not John’s words that keep Dean silent. It’s his love for Sam and Sam’s wellbeing. And this brotherly love slash codependency is used by characters throughout the entire series, from the demons in season 1 to the literal character of God in season 15, to manipulate Dean and Sam. As many characters have pointed out, including Dean and Sam themselves, they are each other’s weak points.

At the end of season two, when Sam dies from a stab wound in his spine, Dean trades his own life for Sam’s. He makes a deal with a crossroads demon—his soul for Sam’s life—and subsequently dies and goes to hell at the end of season 3. Dean literally dies a gruesome death and spends forty years being tortured in hell because he couldn’t live without Sam. At the end of Season 8, Sam is dying from the effects of the trials, which he undergoes in order to close the gates of hell, and Dean convinces him to stop because, again, he can’t live without Sam. Sidenote: this is where I stopped being interested in their brotherly dynamic to the point of losing interest in the show. It became clear to me that the showrunners were more concerned with rehashing the same tired storylines between Sam and Dean than focus on characters who could expand the world and make the show better. In fact, they killed a lot of the interesting side characters in order to keep the show solely focused on the brothers. The exception to this is Castiel, and the reason they kept Cas around is because when he died in season 7 the ratings tanked. If that wasn’t a clear enough sign that the showrunners needed to open up the show to more than just Sam and Dean’s caustic dynamic in which they die and kill for and then betray and lie to each other over and over, then I just don’t know what the fans could have done to convince them. Nothing, apparently, because they ended the show with just Sam and Dean.

Dean’s relationship with John is fraught with insecurity and codependency. Dean has so little sense of self that what he does consider to be his carefully curated list of likes and dislikes were inherited directly from John: his car, his leather jacket, his hunting abilities, and his music taste. He also throws himself into hunts without any regard for his own safety, because he doesn’t believe that he is worth saving, or that his life is worth living. His personality is crafted from both John’s reliance on him as a son, hunter and partner in crime, and the woman he assumes Mary to be. Dean’s sense of self-worth relies on how many people he can save. This is why, in season 2 episode “What is and what should never be,” Dean’s dream reality is one in which he’s a low life loser who disappoints his family—because without John pushing him to be a hunter, Dean doesn’t save people, and because he doesn’t save people, he isn’t worth anything. Bear in mind that this is the best reality Dean’s mind could conjure for him: one in which his father is dead, and he himself is not worth saving.

In one of the most famous exchanges, he asks Cas why an angel would rescue him from hell, and Cas replies, “What’s the matter? You don’t think you deserve to be saved.” Twenty-nine years of bluster, insouciance, and a give-em-hell attitude crumbles in two sentences, wrought by a being Dean refuses to believe exists because, again, he doesn’t think that he deserves to be saved by them. He says, “[Why me? I don’t like getting singled out at birthday parties, let alone by God].” He thinks of himself so lowly that he accepted a one-year deal in exchange for Sam being alive. Dean cares so much about his family he lets it kill him.

But it’s not just Sam, Mary and John. Dean’s family grows to encompass a number of side characters: most notably Bobby their surrogate father, Charlie Bradbury the hacker, Claire Novak, Jack Kline, and Lisa and Ben Braeden. Even Mary makes another appearance in seasons 12 to 14. Unfortunately, because the show is the way it is, Dean puts Sam above all of these side characters, and then these characters are written out of the show. I should specify that Cas is not a side character; in most seasons, Misha Collins is billed as a main cast member, with his name appearing after Jensen Ackles in the credits. But he still dies in the third-last episode in order to have the show stay about the brothers. Even Jack, inarguably Cas and Dean’s son, is written out of the show in the second-last episode after dying multiple times. I say inarguably because I am not gonna argue with anyone about this. Claire and Jack are Dean and Cas’s kids. Dean and Cas are great parents who chaperone Jack’s prom and buy Claire her first hunting bow. They’re all one big happy, queer, neurodivergent family.

Dean loves the people in his life with reckless abandon. The times he’s excused Cas’s behaviour after Cas has done something ridiculous or foolish are too many to count. He grieves Cas’s multiple deaths, often succumbing to his alcoholism and entropy whenever Cas leaves him for more than a day. In a truly beautiful scene, Dean wraps Cas’s corpse in a curtain and watches, utterly and completely devastated, as his body burns. By this point, they have done so much for each other that it’s impossible to even envision the show without Cas, and indeed imagine Dean without his love for Cas. And we don’t have to for very long, as he always comes back a few episodes later. Even knowing this, the episodes where Dean mourns Cas are so heartbreaking and haunting that I cried for days after watching them.

Dean is great with kids, and every time he’s not is completely the fault of whoever is writing him in any given episode. We see him bonding with Lisa’s son Ben in season 3 and 6, Jesse in the season 5 episode “I Believe The Children Are Our Future,” and Lucas in the season one episode “Dead in the water”. With every child he meets, Dean gets on their level, empathising with them in a way most adults can’t. Like Claire and Jack, Dean has a complicated relationship with his father, who dies in the beginning of season 2 after bargaining his soul for Dean’s life to the demon that took their mother. Just like anyone else’s life, right? Must be Tuesday. This means Dean can relate to most children with traumatic backgrounds involving their parents, as a victim of parental abuse and having his mother die at age 4. I can’t find any sources to back this up, but a theory that rolled around in fandom was that Dean became mute after Mary died, which is what happens to Lucas after his father drowns. He says in “Dead In the Water” that he loves kids, and it’s true. As one tumblr user put it, Dean wanted to be baby trapped.

Dean carries the deaths and pain of his loved ones with him like Atlas carrying the world on his shoulders. When Claire is bitten by a werewolf, the characters administer blood of the sire wolf that bit her in order to cure her of her lycanthropy. Dean has to leave the room while she’s in pain, because he can’t bear to watch her die. The same goes for when Jack dies. Thankfully, Claire lives and Jack comes back a few episodes later.

When thinking about Dean being a father, I’m reminded of that scene from Scrubs when Dr Cox says he’s worried about being a father because his own dad was an abusive alcoholic. The difference between Dr Cox and Dean is that Dean doesn’t have his reservations about raising kids. He fits into Lisa and Ben’s life easily, at least for the first year, and we see a montage which includes him teaching Ben how to fix cars. When Claire lets her guard down enough to hug Dean, he hugs back just as hard. When he finally deals with the trauma of Cas dying in season 13, he accepts Jack into his life, and even grieves Jack when he dies. Dean escapes the intergenerational trauma that plagues his family by being a fantastic dad to the random kids who happen into his life by chance. He was born to be a father, and the fact that this show took that away from him and us as the audience makes me want to kick the showrunners into the sun.

Until season 6, Dean’s family only included men. The concept of the nuclear family—two sons, a husband and a wife—was ripped apart in the prologue of the first episode when Mary dies. Dean doesn’t know family for the first 5 seasons of the show outside Sam, John, Cas and Bobby. I do consider Ellen and Jo to be important to the story, but they’re only in a handful of episodes and die in season 5 for a reason that is plainly ridiculous. Did the Winchesters have to lose every single person in their lives to the fight? Clearly Kripke thought they were going to be cancelled after the fifth season, because it shows. And honestly? Maybe they should have. Let’s retroactively cancel the whole show. It can’t hold power over us anymore, because it’s dead and we cremated it.

But when Dean moves in with Lisa and Ben, he discovers a new type of family he didn’t have before, and new family dynamics. Instead of the 28-year-old son that Sam is to him, he takes the opportunity to teach Ben about cars and spend time with him and Lisa without the need to hunt. He gets a job, he makes some friends, and he lives the safe, apple pie life he begrudged Sam for in the pilot episode. It’s only when Sam reappears in his life that Dean’s codependency strikes again and he realises that he can’t live half in the normal world with Lisa and Ben and half in the hunting world with Sam. Sam says this himself in the first episode of Season 6, “Exile On Main Street”. Despite the ways Dean tried to settle down throughout the rest of the 9 seasons, the showrunners ultimately decided a man who was healing from trauma and alcoholism, who had adopted two kids as his own, and was learning how to bake cakes for his son’s birthday, deserved to die at the ripe age of 40, a week or so after he’d learned that his best friend was in love with him. You gotta laugh. Instead of getting the ending both Dean and we deserved—which was Dean settling down, opening a bar, and living the next forty years in relative gay peace while he got fat and watched Cheers reruns—well, we got something else. And I will always be bitter about that.

While it’s clear from the first season that he has reckless and suicidal tendencies, he doesn’t stop fighting to the bitter end. Even when faced with his own impending death in the season 2 premiere, “In my time of dying,” he fights to stay alive for Sam and John, while working the mystery that is overcoming his own death. Devastated as he is by Sam diving into hell at the end of season 5 and seemingly gone for good, Dean still gets up everyday and makes a life for himself in Lisa’s home. While season 6 was overall a bummer of a season, just god-awful in every aspect, saved from my complete vitriol only by “The French Mistake,” it did show us how great a dad Dean can be, and readied us for what was to come—being Claire and Jack’s dad. The lengths he goes to for his family are immense and all-consuming. As Cas says in “Despair”, Dean is a being of love. He loves everyone else, even when he can’t find it in him to love himself. He really thinks that he’s just a killer, not a father or a husband.

I’ve never subscribed to the idea that we have to love ourselves before we can love anyone else, or before anyone else can love us. Sorry Rupaul, you old bitch. We are all deserving of love, because love sustains us and helps us grow. And when we don’t know how to, it’s through loving others that we can learn to love ourselves. If Dean knew what a great father and friend and husband and brother he is, if he could see himself the way others, in the show and out of it, see him, I think he’d burst. You don’t like getting singled out at birthday parties? Well tough shit, Dean Winchester, because I’m gonna devote an entire podcast to you.

I talked about Dean’s carefully curated list of likes and dislikes before but I’ll go into more detail now. Things he likes: guns; rock and roll; nice cars; women; fighting; scamming people at pool; back alley blowjobs, probably; pie; driving across the country; Ozzy concerts; cowboy movies; being in control of every little thing in his life. His dislikes are: flying on planes; hair metal; angels and demons; anyone who harms his brother, his best friend or his kids; boredom; and being jerked around.

Okay I literally cannot talk about the cowboy movies without mentioning that he makes Cas watch them with him, in his Deancave, and the implications of that make my head roll off my body and into the dirt. Like they literally have gay little movie nights and watch their gay little cowboy movies together and Dean says all the gay little lines. I said I wasn’t going to talk about his sexuality, but mentioning cowboy movies leads to Cas wearing a cowboy hat and saying “I’m your Huckleberry.” This makes me insane. Excuse me, I must have my daily scream.

Okay, I’ve collected myself. Have I? Let’s just move on. In the Winchester tradition of inherited family trauma, Dean gets all of John’s interests, and Sam gets all of John’s mistakes. Dean’s personality throughout the show is basically quippy remarks, pop culture references, laughing with food in his mouth, and grouchiness. In case you haven’t realised, he is amazing to me. Every time he fires a rifle or pistol? Couldn’t be better. Eating a burger made of out donuts? Fucking incredible. Even when faced with beings with untold power, he doesn’t lose his cool. One of my favourite exchanges is when Zachariah comes to Chuck’s house in the first episode of season 5, “Sympathy For The Devil,” and starts soliloquising at him, Dean tells him to “cram it with walnuts, ugly.” Cram it with walnuts, ugly. It’s been ten years and that still makes me laugh. Top ten Dean lines for sure. Like all of my main characters throughout the years of writing original fiction are just “Dean Winchester but girl,” and I’m a good writer, but I can never come close to the level of hilarity that he achieves. And every single writer on the show seems to get that. The only times I can think of where Dean’s characterisation has irked me on a writing level are in season 6—basically the entire thing—and the way he treats Jack in the later seasons, specifically late season 15. But it’s really rare for me to watch an episode and not enjoy Dean. Even throughout the Mark Of Cain era, which I loved, when things were very serious, he had such style and panache and held himself so confidently that I was like, wait maybe he made some points? Maybe he should kill everyone?

Dean is a hunter and a killer, but that’s not all he is. He’s very skilled in hand to hand combat, weaponry, and tactical manoeuvres. Even when something doesn’t go exactly to plan, he’s usually able to improvise something to end up with a win. Because he is the main character, his choices and reactions, while sometimes extremely problematic, are never questioned, and that’s to his detriment. In the last episode of season 14, “Moriah,” Dean is unable to kill Jack, but in early season 15, he treats Jack’s betrayal as Cas’s fault, because he can’t take it out on Jack. Cas leaves, but it’s framed as a good thing because Cas is Jack’s father, and has to take responsibility for what Jack has done. In this instance, I don’t blame Cas at all. Okay I rarely blame Cas for anything, including the things he’s done wrong, because no he didn’t and you can’t prove it. But he especially didn’t do anything wrong when Jack killed Mary, and he didn’t do anything wrong by killing Belphagor. But by the middle of the season, in the episode “The Trap,” Dean admits his wrongdoing in taking his anger out on Cas, one of the only people who loves him without conditions. You’d think this would be a defining moment of character progression, but then Dean chooses to act exactly the same way by throwing Jack under the bus. Like, throwing him harder, under a bigger bus. So what was the point.

Anyway, those are choices the writers made, and not Dean.

Going back to what I was saying about being neurodivergent, Dean has adhd. I know this because I have adhd, and I’m Dean-coded. He’s wildly creative, impulsive, has a touch of OCD, and he has a hard time making long-lasting friends, although this is mostly due to how all his friends die. His best friend is an autistic angel and the only reason they’re still friends is because they’re obsessed with each other, in like a really unhealthy way. One of the funny things about his and Cas’s relationship is that every time you see them in the same shot, Cas is standing perfectly still and Dean is constantly moving. They are almost complete opposites, aside from their queerness and neurodivergence. But then, I haven’t met a single queer person in my entire life who isn’t neurodivergent or disabled in some way. That doesn’t mean we can’t live perfectly functional and normal lives, it just means we’re better than everyone else.

Dean also exhibits black and white thinking—to him all felons are redeemable and all monsters should be killed. Felons are redeemable because he himself is a felon, and monsters should be killed because they all do monstrous things. When faced with the possibility of angels being real, he refuses to believe it for the first two episodes, because, as he says, “he’s never seen one.” Eventually he learns how to see in shades of grey and not kill every monster he meets, but this is because of his time in purgatory with Benny, his Cajun vampire boyfriend.

Another sign of Dean’s ADHD is physical sensitivity. In the season one episode “Bugs,” he comments on the shower’s water pressure. Like it’s a big deal to him, when he’s only ever used 1-star motel room showers. In the later seasons, he’s also seen to wear a fluffy robe and soft pajamas with hotdogs on them and socks that say “Send Noods” but noods spelt like noodles. And so he should! Dean deserves comfort! He’s a special boy.

ADHDers often have problems with executive function—remembering appointments, cleaning up after ourselves, showering, eating, even going to the toilet when we need to pee. The hunting life excludes Dean from the normal functions of usual life, such as dentist appointments, dropping the kids off at school, meal prepping for the week, or turning up to a job on time. These were only factors in Dean’s life during the gap between seasons 5 and 6 when he lived with Lisa and Ben, and it’s not shown how his executive dysfunction impacted his suburban, settled life, but Lisa does mention that Dean drinks a lot. It’s another thing he inherited from John, much as I did my alcoholism from my father, and my adhd too. But Sam doesn’t drink to excess more than a handful of times over the entire 15 seasons, whereas Dean subsists on alcohol to get through the day. At one point in season 11, I’m pretty sure, don’t fact check me, he is shown to be drinking a beer at about 10 in the morning, because, as he says to Sam, “You drank all the coffee. What do you want me to do? Drink water?” Dean your liver must be quaking.

Excess is a common problem for people with ADHD. We have problems with limiting ourselves—because our dopamine machine broke, anything that gives us a little bit of high—such as sugar, sex, alcohol, stimulants, any kind of food that is bad for us but tastes real good—we usually have it in excess because we can’t help ourselves. In the season 4 episode “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester,” Dean eats the entirety of the candy in the Impala. The only reasons I don’t eat everything in my fridge every day is because, one, I don’t have the money, and two, it’s all ingredients I have to prepare and not ready-made food. Whereas Dean has only known fast food for the first 10 or so seasons until he starts cooking and baking and settling into domesticity. Like anyone who gets UberEats every day instead of cooking for themselves knows how expensive that is. He also engages in meaningless sex, although people have pointed that Sam actually gets more on screen action than Dean. But I know a lot of amab people who engage in casual sex with randos because it satisfies a base need. Dean could be classified as hypersexual in some regards, but I know what hypersexuality feels like and it’s like this overwhelming miasma where you can’t think about anything except how horny you are, and I don’t think Dean has that normally. Maybe when he was a demon in season 10, but generally I think he can control himself.

His settled life in the men of letters Bunker is a far cry from his flashbacks in season 8 to Purgatory. From what we know of purgatory, the land of gods and monsters, it was a year-long monster hunt, but without any of the boring paperwork. Dean got to fight and kill as many vampires, ghouls, leviathan, etc as came his way, which is why it’s absolutely ridiculous that he died by rebar in a vampire fight. He spent an entire year spilling blood and chopping off heads, day and night, and he dies by metal bar to the spine? And he’s not even coughing up blood? Andrew Dabb, I’m coming for you. Of course purgatory is the perfect place for Dean because it’s constant adrenaline, constant excitement, constant stimulation, which is what every day life lacks. Even Dean’s every day life is like, 20% monster killing and the rest is leg work. They go weeks or months between cases, and sometimes don’t find the monster at all. So I’m not surprised he gets bored easily and drinks. Would if I could too, my pal.

Which leads me onto Dwelling. Dean dwells on the horrors of his life in a way I do and my carefree older brothers don’t. In the season 4 episode “Heaven and Hell,” he reveals to Sam that he remembers his entire forty years in hell, and there are flashes of his memory littered throughout the season in creepy, split-second increments. He dwells on the people who die, doing his thousand-yard stare into the funeral pyre of everyone they cremate. In the most egregious display of dwelling, he rewrites history TWICE to deal with his grief — in season 8 he makes himself believe that it was his fault Cas didn’t come back from purgatory with him, and again in season 13 he invents the story of Jack controlling Cas to deal with his grief over Cas’s death. His PTSD twists the truth until it becomes another way to torture himself, because if someone gets hurt it’s on him; everyone who loves him is just one more person to disappoint.

On a lighter note, Hyperfixations, equivalent to Autism special interests, are a common trait of ADHD. Some of Dean’s hyperfixations include: hunting in general; cowboys and cowboy movies; the musical Rent; the movie Braveheart; larping. He loves dressing up and acting, and what is putting on a monkey suit and lying about being a Fed if not larping? Oh god the meta of that coupled with the season 4 episode “The Monster At The End Of This Book” is making my head hurt. And actually, the next episode of Holy Hell is on the subject of meta-textuality so stick around if that’s something you enjoy.

One of the amazing things about ADHD is creativity. Since we’re easily bored and easily amused, we’re constantly pushing the boundaries of our curiosity. In season three episode “Bloodlust,” Dean decapitates a vampire with a miter saw, something that even veteran vampire hunter Gordon Walker comments is a thing of beauty. Dean creates a Ma’lak box in season 14 episode “Damaged Goods” as a way to contain Michael if he ever inhabits Dean’s body again. Dean is always making up words like “were-pire” and “Jefferson Starships,” and he has an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of pop culture, which he references in almost every line of dialogue. Like tv and movies raised me, but even I don’t understand a lot of his references. It’s almost like he’s a character in a tv show being written by dozens of people. But that’s not right. He’s a real person and my friend. My friend Dean Winchester, who shouts me burgers and passes out on my couch.

Also, I’m bragging now but as of the day of writing this I got my ADHD diagnosis and it feels so good to have a doctor, a psychiatrist in fact, confirm my belief. After about three or four years of figuring out I have adhd and then trying to make everyone else believe me when I say I do, it feels like a huge weight off. Dean deserved to feel that. He deserves to put a name to his differences and be in charge of his life instead of letting his anger, confusion and impulses control him. If anyone is worried that you might have something and don’t know whether to pursue a diagnosis, my two cents are that it has only improved my life. I was diagnosed with Bipolar Affective Disorder in 2014 and it allowed me to go on medication, which snapped me out of the worst period of anxiety I have ever gone through and also a psychotic episode that featured talking walls and a swarm of Christmas beetles. Trust me, we all need help sometimes, and some people like me need more help than others, but you can take control of the forces in your life that hold you back. As my mother used to say to me when I was a child, the world is your oyster. It really fucking does get better, and since I started on the right anti-depressants for me my life has improved so goddamn much. The world is fucked right now, and it’s impossible to even function on most levels. We all need therapy. I myself have a gp, a psychiatrist, and a psychologist and they keep me relatively sane. I would not be alive if I didn’t have years and years of ongoing therapy and good drugs. Plus I journal everyday and practice gratitude. I’m still crazy but the craziness is contained and doesn’t hurt me anymore.

Despite never going to therapy, Dean grows from being a loner with one friend (his own brother) to someone with a wealth of connections and family. He picks up new people to love like he’s velcro, and when he goes in he goes all in. He would die for the people he loves. He’s constantly putting himself in danger to protect his loved ones. In the Season 6 episode “Let It Bleed,” Dean captures and tortures demons in an effort to find out where Crowley took Lisa and Ben. He then has Cas wipe their memories so that they don’t remember him and can live their lives without him, at his own great distress. In season 5, he goes to Stull Cemetery to impinge on the fight between Lucifer and Michael, just to be there for Sam. As Dean says, he’s “not going to let him die alone.”

That being said, I do have to talk about Dean’s very few, but ultimately life-ruining, flaws. His emotional dysregulation makes his moods unpredictable at best. By virtue of his black and white thinking, he forces the people he loves to choose sides between him and other characters, such as Sam and Ruby, Cas and Crowley, Mary and the british men of letters, and Cas and Jack, and when they don’t choose him, he passively aggressively, and sometimes just aggressively, tortures them until something else usurps their betrayal. His anger issues are par to none, and often get him in a lot of trouble. But since he is the main character, he never really faces consequences for this, and neither does he mature. Even in the final season episode “The Trap,” while Dean admits how angry he is and how wrong he was for taking it out on Cas when Jack died, mere episodes later in “Unity” he turns Jack into a nuclear reactor to take out God, and Jack dies again. His characterisation in the last few seasons, especially in regards to Jack, is all over the place. I would have to start a murderboard to explain how Dean feels about Jack and how he reacts to what Jack does in every episode. Like, pictures and red string and everything. And even then I would not be able to comprehend exactly what the writers did and what they thought they were doing.

But unlike me, Dean always believes the best in people until proven otherwise, and he does always come around to the people who atone for their sins. Even when Sam refuses to get his soul back in season 6, Dean keeps trying until Sam is put right. Between seasons 7 and 8, He spends a year in Purgatory looking for Cas despite how Cas sent Sam insane, ingested billions of monster souls, and became God. When the people he loves choose him, he chooses them back.

But even when they betray him, lie to him, deceive him, and hurt the other people in his life, he can’t stop loving them. He never stops loving Sam or Cas or Jack or Mary or John or Bobby. He loves with everything he has. He is, as Cas says, a being of love.

Oof. That was a lot of words and I feel like I only just scratched the surface. Like realistically I just talked about fambily and ADHD. There is just so much to Dean Winchester that maybe I’ll make another episode sometime. But I am definitely making an episode purely about Dean’s gender presentation and sexuality in the future. You can find the show at holyhellpod on Tumblr where I post transcripts for the episodes and Instagram where I post memes.

I don’t see myself doing an episode about Sam any time soon, Not because I don’t like Sam, but because I can’t stand Jared Padalecki. He’s done some things that I can’t support, and I’m really bad at separating the art from the artist. Especially when it’s something like Supernatural, which is not art. Supernatural is an experiment. It’s not Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry. Like Jared Padalecki didn’t invent rock and roll, you know what I’m saying? However, if you really want me to do an episode about Sam, you can pay me 101 Australian dollars and 50 Australian cents at patreon.com/holyhellpod. I’ll talk to you next time.

Links

http://www.scififantasynetwork.com/dean-winchester-has-adhd/

#supernatural #spn #supernatural podcast #dean winchester #holyhellpod #transcripts

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dimitrescus-bitch · 4 years ago

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All Over You (Jessamyn Duke x Reader)

You had arrived at the event separately. Tonight was a big PPV and NXT would be “crashing” it. In an attempt to keep your storyline with Shayna from NXT alive, you were coming into her match. It was going to be really fun for you, especially since you didn’t get to see the main roster superstars nearly as much once they put you back at NXT.

“There she is!” Naomi squealed when she saw you. She wrapped her arms around you and hugged you tightly. You smiled as you hugged her back. When you separated, you saw both of the Uso brothers standing behind her. You hugged them both, Jey’s hug lingering a bit. It was no secret that he had a thing for you, but never had the chance to really act on it. Most of the roster thought that you were single, but you’d actually been with Jessamyn since your move to NXT over a year ago.

“Damn, what kind of training they got you on at the PC now?” Jey asked and you shrugged. “Whatever it is, it’s working because you look fine as hell.”

“Maybe you just haven’t seen me in a long time,” you countered and Naomi made a noise of disapproval.

“Oh no, there’s something very different about you. You definitely seem more confident,” Naomi told you.

“Confident? Oh no, look at those new muscles,” Dana Brooke said as she put her arm around your waist. “I’m thinking there’s a new flex champion now.”

“Y/n, hey,” Jessamyn said. You smiled up at her and reached out to take her hand. You could tell that she was nervous about interjecting herself into the conversation, but you wanted her to get to know some of your older friends better.

“Jess, what’s going on?” you asked her and she leaned in like she was going to whisper something to you. Before she could, you heard a throat clear behind you. You turned your head and saw Bianca smiling excitedly at you.

“Are you ready?” Bianca asked and you nodded. “Well good because I’m gonna need you tonight.”

“You can count on me,” you promised and Jessamyn just left after that. It was clear that everybody was going to be crowded around you, so she just stayed as close as she could. It was no secret that you’d always been beloved by the other talents on the roster, but Jessamyn wasn’t completely sure who had loved you more than everybody else. However, when she saw Lana approach you, it became clear that you had been more than friends with the “Russian blonde.”

“That was such a good match,” Lana complimented you. You blushed and thanked her. Within seconds, she had her hand on your arm, rubbing up and down. “You’ve really grown as a wrestler recently. I’m very proud of you.”

“Oh, thank you. You’ve been getting better too,” you told her. It was true, she wasn’t exactly a great wrestler, but she wasn’t as bad as she used to be.

“Maybe I could join you in training and you help me get even better?” Lana asked and you nodded. She beamed and hugged you tightly, kissing your cheek. When she backed away from you, her hand lingered on your abs, which hadn’t been nearly as defined then as they were now. “Wow, you really have been going hard in the gym. I’m kind of sad that you can’t be all mine anymore.”

“Alright, nope, let’s go.” Jessamyn hoisted you up over her shoulder and carried you away from Lana. A few people were watching you curiously to see if it was part of a promo or something, but it wasn’t.

“Jessie, put me down,” you said and Jessamyn set you down on your feet. “Baby, talk to me.”

“She was all over you. Everybody has been all over you except for me, the person who is supposed to be,” Jessamyn said and you could see that she was super worked up. You hugged her and ran your hands up and down her back a few times. She relaxed and you let go of her. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, don’t apologize. I should have been paying more attention to you and not letting everybody get so close. I want you to know that I love you and that nobody, and I mean nobody, else gets to touch me tonight except for you,” you promised her and Jessamyn smiled. “Now, let’s go home. Marina definitely put me through the ringer out there.”

“I’ll tell her to be gentle next time,” Jessamyn promised you. “Or tell her not to touch you.”

“That’ll be difficult considering we have a match against each other on Wednesday after I attack her husband,” you said and Jessamyn nodded. “But thank you, the offer was sweet.”

#jessamyn duke imagine #jessamyn duke imagines #jessamyn duke x reader #jessamyn duke #nxt #nxt imagines #nxt imagine #nxt x reader #WWE #wwe imagines #wwe imagine #wwe x reader

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saturn-j16 · 4 years ago

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My Thoughts on Miraculous World: New York...

Long time no see everyone! Wow it’s finally here. Fans of miraculous have been waiting for this movie for a while and even more so since the end of season three a while back. To be honest, I didn’t know it was getting released and I only found out because I saw someone post about it on social media. Then I proceeded to freak out thinking I had missed the hype of it by weeks or even months and that everyone would have already moved on. But thankfully I saw it was aired on Sept 25th. So then I sat down to watch it!

As always it will be split in sections so read what you want :)

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Storyline - The storyline was pretty good! While everything was wrapped up in the end, the story and ending did feel a bit rushed but that’s understandable for a TV movie special thats only one hour. Another thing is that the story is a little crowded. What I mean by that is this special introduces a new location, lots of new characters and designs, and still builds on the main cast. The audience has to absorb so much information in 60 minutes and there wasn’t a lot of time to process what happened in the previous scenes. That being said, the good part is that it wasn’t really predicable. I didn’t know what to expect when the movie first started and about a third of the way though I realized it was just like a long version of regular miraculous episode. You know, Mari crushing on Adrien, the villains come, and then everything is back to normal. But there were definitely parts where I didn’t know what would happen and I was eager to find out what happens next. It also got kinda deep as the special gets closer to the final battle but I’ll go more in depth with that further down.

Ladybug and Chat Noir - I had no problems with how they were presented in the special! I think the conflict was well planned. You can look at the conflict from both ways and understand what LB and CN are feeling and why. Ladybug was worried about leaving Paris in danger and feels somewhat betrayed when she finds out her most trusted ally didn’t stick to his promise. Meanwhile, Chat Noir was struggling with his hero life and personal life which is something we mostly see Mari dealing with. He finally gets to be free for once as Adrien Agreste but also has duties to LB and Paris and hates that he has to leave and let LB down. He feels like he failed as a hero and even renounces his miraculous. It was really interesting! Lastly, for LB and CN we finally get to see more power ups with the Astro powers but we never get a good look of them because they’re barely on screen. I was super excited to see them but hopefully we’ll see it again later up close.

Jess and Aeon - I love these two new characters! We see not one but two new people of color! They also have great personalties that match each other really well. As superheroes they’re pretty cool and they each stand out in their own unique way! The last thing was that I had trouble remembering their names as I don’t remember them properly introducing themselves and they’re were so many new names and faces I just couldn’t remember. They probably did introduce themselves but maybe it wasn’t as noticeable with lots of other things going on. But I love them!

Alya and Nino - Alya and Nino were pretty cute in this movie! I’ve had some problems with Alya’s character in season 3 but she really pulled through in this special when she had her moment with Marinette and was completely honest with her. Also side note, Nino and Adrien’s BFF moment where Nino held Adrien’s face to show him the big city on the bus was so freaking cute!

Adrienette - We get so much Adrienette screen time in this movie! Finally they have some character development in their relationship. What I’m about to say is going to be kind of confusing but hear me out. I feel like Mari and Adrien are on the same level in this movie. Like sure Mari still gets flustered and some of her more “Adrien Fan Girl” traits come out but at least she can talk to him. And with Adrien he’s definitely letting go of his “perfect model” personality a little bit and is being more of a young teen with Mari. Basically they’re just two goofballs for most of the first half of the movie and are finally getting to the same page with each other. So cute!

The second big conflict scene > Adrienette - This is where the special actually got deep. Miraculous is pretty lighthearted for the most part but the Adrienette car scene was just on a whole different level. I actually got really sad when Adrien first renounced his miraculous and then left NYC feeling totally defeated. And then we have Alya’s important scene where she did an amazing job telling Marinette that it’s time to be honest with herself about her feelings for Adrien. And when Mari finally come back to her senses it’s too late. And just the way she desperately tried to chase after that car and not lose another friend just hit different.

The Diversity - Up until now, Miraculous has been decent with including not just racial diversity but also LGBTQ+ diversity... *cough* still waiting for Julerose to be confirmed canon even though they practically are at this point *cough*. However, that complete changed in this movie with the superhero mom couple with two racially diverse daughters one even being an android which is awesome! And even more so with the new Eagle Miraculous being tied with Native American Culture!

Final Thoughts - I thought this was a really good movie and I definitely loved watching it! We got new characters, character development for our main heroes, diversity, and a whole new location. It had lots of twists and turns and kept me wanting to find out what happens. I wish it was a little longer so we could fit in some smaller things like the new power up suits and more interaction with friends but it flowed nicely for the most part. I will definitely be watching again!

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Thanks for reading! Whether it was only a few sections or the whole thing! I really did like this movie! I haven’t really been active in this fandom or been on tumblr recently as I decided I wanted to watch more animes that have been sitting on my to-watch list for ages now. Hopefully now that this movie is out I’ll be more active again. And I’ll definitely be back for season 4. See you soon! :)

#miraculous ladybug #ml spoilers #ml #mlb #ml new york #ml new york special #ml new york spoilers #ladybug #chat noir #miraculous fandom

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wunderlass · 5 years ago

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I’m feeling so deflated to be writing this post. S1 had its flaws but those could be placed at the feet of a freshman showrunner who could learn from her mistakes going into S2 and up her game. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, and S2 was a mess.

S1 had a clear central plotline: the mystery of Rosa’s death, leading to justice in the form of Noah’s death and Rosa’s resurrection. S2’s central plotline was…um. The kidnappings? Leading into the plot to blow up Crashcon? I think? But there was so much other stuff gong on it’s hard to tell.

Carina – if you happen to come stumbling into the tags for reactions – you’ve already acknowledged that you struggle to edit your scripts down for length. And it does show in the finished product. But you also struggle to edit your ideas down to fit into the episode count you have. There were too many extraneous plot threads this season, too many guest characters, and the ideas you had were shoddily and sloppily executed.

There were shining moments scattered here and there and the occasional good episode, but for the most part this season lurched from badly paced episode to badly paced episode. Stuff was crammed into each episode and yet somehow the plot also treaded water until 2x11 when it all kicked off – and this was because so much of what happened in the earlier episodes didn’t feed into the main plot. Even Max’s death, the overarching motivation for many characters at the beginning, was shoved to the side for other ideas.

And the payoffs for each of these storylines was too often underwhelming. Max can’t come back because he’ll be full of dark energy and a destructive force! Resolved in 30 seconds by him blowing up a pile of stuff. Max can’t remember Liz! Fixed in the same episode. That pattern continued with the finale feeling like it was trying to wrap up all these storylines without really having a story of its own. The various cliffhangers from Crashcon were tied up before the title card and then let’s spend the next 40 minutes treading water again.

There were good moments in the finale. Max and Isobel’s discussion, the Maneforrest kiss, Rosa and Helena’s reunion. But as for the rest? Hear me whine:

- Jesse’s death was anticlimactic. His line about “no more Manes men” makes no sense given as far as he knew Flint (and maybe Clay?) is still alive. His death should have been poetic because one of his son’s killed him but it didn’t hold the weight it should have, possibly because it came so early in the episode.

- It would have been far better if Jesse had discovered that Harlan killed Tripp and buried him beneath the shed. How awful would it have been for his entire worldview to be shaken by that revelation? How perfect would it have been if he discovered that Tripp loved Nora? If he died after learning all of that, becoming desperate and sloppy in whatever scheme he was trying to pull off (self-immolation via the bomb?), it would have been a fitting ending.

- So many characters this season were badly served. Alex, Michael, and to a lesser extent Max, had real arcs and progression. Alex especially you can see them setting up his growth for a payoff in the finale.

- Kyle was shafted, shoved to the side for the Steph storyline that didn’t feel like it was going anywhere, and I suspect we got a lot of that cut away to make room for other stories.

- Rosa’s story started off strong and then mostly got tied into rehab or helping Isobel. Them having her out and about in public in Roswell is complete nonsense.

- Max had a line for Isobel about her becoming her “entire self” this season, and that rang false to me. We’ve only seen Isobel develop her powers. Her personality has shifted each episode, fractured and inconsistent, dependant on what the writers needed her to do. She didn’t get much of a storyline of her own – the abortion was redundant, serving as a political soapbox for Carina rather than anything that served the character – and while she’s found out more about her heritage, that’s never been as important as Michael or Max finding out about theirs. She said she wanted to become more like her mother and that never went anywhere.

- I was so hopeful that Carina had listened and understood the criticisms with Maria’s handling in S1 and worked to improve it. She certainly gave her increased screentime. Except, so much of that screentime was tied into Michael, and latterly Isobel. She lacked interactions with Liz or Rosa. She was in two whole scenes in the finale and after she broke up with Michael, she disappeared from the story, and if that doesn’t say it all…

- And that break-up was contrived bullshit. I’m not saying this as a shipper. It felt like they’d planned to have them break-up in the finale and wrote it even though the motivations hadn’t been properly established. Seeds were sown but they were communicating well as a couple and resolving their issues as they went along. Suddenly those issues got un-resolved and were enough to break them up.

- The most galling part is that so much of what follows comes from Tripp’s diary, and Maria is excluded. This is her story too! Louise was her great-grandmother! Rather than sitting around her in the hospital room reading this stuff, they do it in the Crashdown.

- Which fits the pattern of what’s happened all season. Maria found out she was part alien and it was about her powers, rather than her legacy, rather than what happened to her great-grandparents.

- And it became clear that it was done so they could do the Nora/Tripp and Malex parallel.

- Which completely solidifies for me where Carina’s priorities lie. She’s been clear that Malex is her favourite ship on the show and Michael is her favourite character. But this season has shown that she’s incapable of ensuring her favouritism doesn’t screw over other characters.

- The sad thing is this really does show up in marketing. Carina always pushes and praises Vlamis and barely ever mentions Jeanine on her SM. Media outlets write about Malex as the centre of the show and they aren’t supposed to be. We have a sci-fi show with a Latina leading lady and nobody cares – not the showrunner, not the media (outside of Latinx-centric publications), not the fandom. I’m not Latina and it frustrates me so I can’t imagine how actual Latinx people feel about that.

- Maria was dragged into a love triangle that Carina never had any intention of doing justice to. Maria and Michael were always only ever meant to be a pit-stop on the way to a big Malex reunion. Sadly it’s clear the same goes for Maneforrest. Why write something if you’re only going to do it half-arsed? And it clearly was. That’s why the Maria and Michael break-up was so perfunctory and illogical.

- While I’m on the subject of Maria – last season Mimi was clearly deteriorating and didn’t recognise adult Maria anyway. Now that seems to have shifted to Mimi’s mind moving through time. It’s still unclear if this is the alien DNA or what was done to Patricia Deluca in Caulfield. I don’t understand why they introduced both elements – apart from being able to give Maria a line about unethical science which OH BOY what a contrast with Liz.

- Speaking of Liz.

- Wow.

- If the central storyline was the kidnappings and Crashcon shenanigans, she really had no involvement with that all season apart from the very end. All the investigation went to other characters. Her mother was involved, but not Liz.

- Let me repeat that.

- Our lead character was not involved the central storyline of the season.

- Alternatively, if you think Max learning about his history, and all of the reveals about 1948, and Maria’s heritage etc etc were supposed to be the main storyline…

- Doesn’t matter because Liz wasn’t involved in any of that either!

- Liz was a subplot in her own show after they brought Max back. Hell, she was a subplot even when she was working on that.

- The narrative focus really has centred on Michael, Alex, and later Max.

- I wonder what they have in common with each other.

- If you don’t believe me, check out the screentime figures for this season. Liz had the fourth largest amount of screentime in the finale, and she’s only had majority screentime in a handful of episodes all season (2x01, 2x07, 2x11).

- And then realise that the plot kept moving after Liz left Roswell. She’s just not part of it anymore.

- I watched the finale and kept asking myself where Liz was because she kept disappearing for whole chunks of time.

- She was in her own subplot about science for the back half of this season, and honestly, I’m going to have to write an entirely separate post about Liz and ethics in science because NOPE.

- Max was right. Liz deserved to follow her calling but she had options that didn’t involve risking the aliens.

- As such the Echo break-up was stupid but whatever, based on this season I guess it needed to happen.

- Did Max even care that Liz left? He loved her for twenty years and then when he had her, it didn’t matter anymore? What the fuck? Are we ever going to get answers as to why he fell so hard and loved her for so long, or is the “Malex is cosmic” story more important?

- Also the whole thing about the Genericorp lady not being interested in Liz based on meeting her at the Crashdown was stupid. You hire scientists based on the previous work they’ve done and their credentials. Diego’s word should have been enough to convince her, and then maybe an actual proper job interview to make sure she was a good fit. Not “let’s sneak into her secret lab to look at what she’s working on”.

- When Liz does leave, she only says goodbye to Rosa and Kyle. Arturo is mentioned but not seen. Which means the whole ICE sequence this season, which should have been a solid motivation for Liz to take the Genericorp job on its own, has been resolved without a proper payoff. All that stress – scenes that I know felt genuinely stressful to some viewers because of how close to home it hit – and we don’t even get to see Arturo seeing his “genius daughter” leave with his future secured.

- It’s plausible that Liz said goodbye to other characters – Maria, Isobel, Michael – off screen BUT SHE’S YOUR LEAD CHARACTER AND HER LEAVING TOWN SHOULD CARRY SOME EMOTIONAL WEIGHT FFS

- Compare Liz leaving and arriving at the ocean to Buffy Summers leaving Sunnydale in Becoming Part 2. There is no contest.

- It’s clear to me that the audience Carina writes this show for is herself. And that’s fine. Plenty of writers do that. But that means she’s writing a show for the women in fandom who like epic mlm romances with lots of angst. And the problem with that is that this show has a Latina lead who is not being done justice.

- This is not me railing against Malex. There is space in the show for both things. This is me expressing my frustration at a showrunner and creative team who are not taking care with all characters equally.

- Carina uses her platform to throw in politics and use characters as mouthpieces without considering their impact. She thinks she’s educating the straight white people in the audience without thinking about how scenes of ICE intimidation, homophobic violence, and racism will affect the people who are impacted by those things in real life.

- Am I done with the show? Probably not. I’ve got fics I want to write and while I’m not hubristic enough to think I can write better than a team of professional writers, I’m going to at least try and do some of these neglected elements of the show justice.

- Hubris. Remember when I thought that was going to be a theme of this season? Apparently not. There was no theme, unless “no editing, we die like men” counts..

#roswell new mexico #rnm spoilers

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 5 years ago

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So let’s say you’re now in charge of creating a Spider-Man TV Series, as many seasons and episodes you want, as long as it remains genuinely faithful to the comics; Peter gets his powers when he’s 17, only Flash and Liz are with him in high school, ect, and ending it all with a Revelations like series finale. You’re allowed to streamline some things now that there’s the benefit of hindsight. You’re also allowed to be as faithful to the comics as possible. What do you create?

Lol I’ve been planning this for like 15 years. Currently I’d do this. 12 seasons 26 episodes each, and 3 movies.

I’d play it as a biography of Peter’s life from the day he became Spidey to the day he stopped, with a mind of making a version of the MC2 universe the canonical future for this version of Spidey. I’d set it in the 1960s as depicted by Ditko but have the technology and fashions change to broadly speaking reflect the time periods that Peter spent parts of his life in. In other words his high school episodes will be set in what looks like the 1960s, Gwen would die in what would look like the early 1970s and he’d get married in what would look like the late 1980s. But cultural references would be kept to a minimal. Effentivly it’d be set in a world where fashions and technology happened to occur way more quickly thanin the real life, so 1962-1998’s fashions and technologies all happened but across like 12 years.

Also I’d have Peter’s look change. He’d start out with the Coke bottle glasses and keep them throughout season 1, and he’d have a black and red costume, complete with a big blue spider on his back and web pits. The idea being this is a rookie spidey who’s awkward and not yet become the Spidey we perhaps recognize. He’d sell his glasses in the final episodes and get his costume wrecked in the finale, requiring him to make a new one, the classic Romita Senior outfit minus the web pits. He’d keep that until he got his black suit which would be modelled on Frenz’ take upon it. the cloth Black suit would have more of a McFarlane influence with huge eyes. MJ would make him a new red+blue costume before his first big showdown with Venom which would resemble the McFarlane/Bagley 90s look. Obviously Scarlet Spider’s look would be modelled on Bagley’s design, Spider-Ben on Romita Jr’s and his final outfit would be modelled on Romita Jr’s too. And Sal Buscema’s take would be the outfit worn by Flash when he pretends to be Spider-Man.

Movie 1: Amazing Fantasy: The Birth of Spider-Man: The origin, MAYBE rounded off with ASM #1’s plot.

Season 1: Basically everything up to when he graduated with every issue serving as an episode. I’d omit guest appearances like the F4, the Torch, DD, the Circus of Crime. I’d supplant the ASM #5’s plot with one about Jason Macendale armed with tech abducting Flash when he’s dressed as Spidey. He’d be a stand in for the Headman from Untold Tales and the episode would end with his mysterious boss speaking to Spidey remotely through a camera. This would of course be the Goblin who I’d have debut in what was his second appearance hijacking the Spidey fan club. I’d have Doc Ock unmasking Spidey end that episode and have most of it dedicated to Betty Brant’s origin told in flashbacks as she’s abducted. I’d do Spider-Man No More here, combining it with ASM #18’s plot line as it’d redundant to have him quit in big ways twice. So one episode would be ASM #18’s plot with bits of ASM #50 mixed in, ending with him throwing away his suit. Then the next episode would be about his Spidey free life before he triumphantly returns. The Molten man episodie would end with Aunt May collapsing rather than Spidey graduating.

This would lead directly into the MP Trilogy’s main storyline but to spice things up the Master Planner would hire some of Spider-Man’s villains as extra obstacles in his way, thus we’d adapt the original Sinister Six story too. The last episode would end with Peter graduating and then sitting alone to make a new suit. Also Betty would leave town.

Season 2: It’d kick off with a recovered Peter starting college and someone hiring Kraven to go after Spidey like in ASM #34. The key difference here being that Kraven dons Spider-man’s old costume and when Spidey finally shows up to deal with him he’s sporting his new red and blue Romita Sr threads. Then we’d get the Robot Master stuff, the first Rhino story and a few other stories before around episode 6 or 7 getting to the Goblin unmasking Spider-Man and revealing himself as Norman. I’d have Norman seriously injured to the point where Spider-Man has to save him or else he’d die. He’d sweat about Norman knowing the truth like in Spider-Man: Blue before finding out Norman has amnesia and that most people don’t recover their memories. Seeing how happy Harry is, he decided to let it go and give Norman a chance. The rest of the season is basically adapting the big Romita era stories (sans Spider-Man No More of course), with an emphasis on Kingpin and fewer Doc Ock stories. POSSIBLY I might do Doc Ock’s origin from Unlimited #3 here, I dunno. It’d either be here or next season though. The season would wrap up with George Stacy’s death and with Gwen leaving.

Also I’d foreshadow a little that Norman has a healing factor via his speedy recovery.

Also, also, rather than space spores creating Colonel Jupiter, I’d have it be the Moon Gem that actually turned him into man-Wolf. It’d be an artefact he’d bring back from the moon and it’d increase his strength and affect his mind so that he’d desire to have the gem for some unknown reason (we’ll find out later).

Season 3: This would be half a team up season, introducing characters from the Marvel Universe who’re relevant to Spider-Girls’ stories, so the F4, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Doctor Strange, Spider Woman, Arana, Julia Carpenter, the Avengers, the X-Men, etc. It’d begin with Peter heading to London to find Gwen and inadvertently winding up in a team up, I’ve not figured out with whom yet (maybe Ice Man and Firestar for funsies, MAYBE Excalibur so we’d get Spider Phoenix????), anyway it’d adapt ASM #95 in any case. Then we’d go to the drug trilogy but I’ve not yet decided how to handle this. On the one hand it’s iconic. On the other it’s questionable by modern standards to have Peter see Norman remember the truth and then just let him go on, hoping he doesn’t remember. Maybe you could play it as him being worried that turning Norman in could trigger his memory, I dunno. I feel you could swap out the action part of the story with something else, provided you kept all the Harry drug stuff the same, and maybe had the story be about Norman STARTING to remember and unravel. When peter goes to him for a job though he’d catch a glimpse of a weird painting, depicting the Scriers and Norman would give a little background on their alleged history.

I’d also have the Six Arm Saga and debut of Morbius happen here, but link it in with some illegal genetic experiments someone within ESU is doing on the side for the mob. These experiments would lead to the creation of Vermin who owns Spidey’s ass until he’s saved by someone at the end of the episode. After Vermin beats a retreat, that someone helps Spidey up and it’s Captain America! Cue an ep of Spidey and Cap on the helicarrier with Chameleon using Artificial Life similicra to infiltrate it. Cap is abducted at the end of this episode and the Avengers show up accusing Spider-Man of it. Cue the next 2 episodes where Spider-Man teams up with the Avengers to take on the Hulk in Canada and Seth, the Serpent God of Death. This would then lead into the final 2 episodes which I’ll get to in a moment.

Also in this season I’d have a two part team up with Spidey and Spider Woman. Madame Web would summon them and reveal she is a member of the Spider Clan. Her granddaughter Anya Corazon, has been abducted by the Tarantula clan and Peter and Jess need to rescue her. This would allow Spidey to meet Madame Web, Jessica Drew and Anya of course and foreshadow the Black Tarantula. The Tarantula Clan’s outfits would resemble Julia Carpenter’s Spider Woman and Arachne outfits. This would lead to a ‘filler’ ep about Spider-Man fixing his suit and daydreaming about other costumes and powers he could have. This would be an excuse to pay homage to the Spider Armour, Captain Universe and a few other classic outfits for Spider-Man. the episode would end with him tossing away a doodle of the black costume inspired by his previous adventure. Later we’d get Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut but the story would end with the X-Men showing up. The episode after that would be a Spidey/X-Men team up but Mastermind would mind control them into fighting, thus we’d get Spider-Man vs. the X-Men like Secret Wars #3

The final 2 eps would be the Death of Gwen Stacy. I’d keep this pretty much the same but with the exception of having Gwen awake and trying to escape. The moments just before she’s knocked off the bridge Peter would try to earn her trust by starting to unmask.

Season 4: It’d kick off with the Jackal hiring Punisher to take out Spider-Man. Apart from that it’d be basically ASM #123-149, all about Peter grieving Gwen, falling in love with MJ, etc. I would cut some of the dumber stuff out though and condense some multi-parters into single stories. I’d whack in some team ups for good measure too as MTU was around at this time. One major change I’d make is that I’d have Man-Wolf show up as a result of similar experiments that created Vermin and ditch the moon gem stuff. However, Man-Wolf would eventually go after the Moon gem but it’s energies would in fact revert him to normal. The clprit behind Man-wolf and Vermin would be revealed as Miles Warren.

One smaller change I’d make would be to omit ASM #150. It’s a great issue but it’s not a great season finale like ASM #149 would be. BUT I’d keep the MJ scene from it by simply moving it to the events of ASM #149. The idea is that when the bomb hits zero, everything fades to white, Peter would wake up amidst debris, when Gwen asks how he knows he’s the real one, he’d respond that ‘he just knows’. Later as he’d be approaching his apartment we’d get a flashback revealing that he was thinking of MJ as the bomb hit zero and so he couldn’t be the clone. Cue him finding MJ in the apartment, end season.

Season 5: Basically the Len Wein run with a dash of Marv Wolfman. It’d wrap up with a combination of 3 Wolfman era stories. MJ proposing to MJ, Spidey vs. the Burglar from ASM #200 and finally Peter graduating. A major change would be that MJ would literally leave town immediately after rejecting Peter, and it’d be a break up not just a rejection. But we the audience would see a private moment with MJ where we can tell she wasn’t nearly as casual about it as she let on.

Movie 2: Mayhem in Manhattan: Mid way through the season I’d adapt this Spider-Man novel into another animated film.

Season 6: It’d kick off with Spider-Man meeting Black Cat. The season really would be about Peter dating different people casually and more seriously. Deb Whitman, Cissy Ironwood, etc. He’s work for the Daily Globe and start Grad school. The season finale would be the Owl/Octopus War ending with Felicia seriously injured and Peter ripping out Otto’s arms as a result. The season would end with Spider-Man and Black Cat now an item. But I’d omit the events of Spec #77-79. Also at the Daily Globe Peter would meet and work with Eddie Brock.

Season 7: It’d start with the debut of the Hobgoblin, cover Felcia’s recovery, gaining new powers (from other people continuing Warren’s experiments with animal DNA), MJ’s return, Peter dropping out of Grad school, MJ’s big reveal and origin, and culminate in Peter and Black Cat breaking up and Kingpin leaving NYC. The Kingpin battle would be taken from Wolfman’s run moreso than Spec #100 because that’s just a better fight.

Of course the Alien Costume Saga would happen. I’d keep the canon stuff but add in the elements of it corrupting him, with the extra spice of Felicia actually preferring this darker Spider-Man.

Peter would get the costume differently though. Instead of Secret Wars, criminals would try and obtain the Moon Gem, which was being hosted as ESU. The fight would culminate in a Kinglsey clothing factory and as a last resort Spidy would smash the gem by throwing it into one of the machines in the factory.

Licking his wounds afterwards he’d be leaning against the conveyer belt when a tiny black ball would emerge from the shards of the Moon Gem, enlarge and when Spidey noticed it we’d recreate Secret Wars #8.

BTW, to give readers clues to the Hobgoblin’s identity I’d have him record a voice journal but with a voice changer so we get his inner thoughts sorta.

Also Jason Macendale would show back up but not as jack O’lantern.

Season 8: It’d start with ASM #260-261, the Rose/Hobgoblin story where they abduct a pregnant Liz Allan. The season would omit a lot of irrelevant stuff like the golden notebook subplot, the Beyonder, etc. But it’d keep stuff like Crusher Hogan, When Commeth the Commuter, Web #13 and other classic stories. The three central subplots of this season would be the Ned/Flash/Betty love triangle, Peter and MJ’s ‘will they won’t they’ romance and the Hobgoblin mystery. However instead of Lance Bannon, Eddie Brock would be one of the suspects. Brock would be threatened directly by Spider-Man when he starts writing Sin Eater articles and that’s just about the only thing I’d change from the Death of Jean DeWolff storyline. Most of the real important stuff from this era (sans Doc Ocks mental breakdown) I’d keep the same with the exception of not making Jason Macendale the new Hobgoblin. After Peter and Felicia break up I’d have Betty go all Cult of Love from later in the comics before the finale being yet another way later story: Hobgoblin Lives. It’s just more logical to wrap up the Hobgoblin mystery here rather than end it badly and wait years to fix it.

Season 9: This is kind of the least accurate season but hear me out. Okay so we start off with Peter proposing to MJ, her rejecting him, then her agreeing, just like in the comics. BUT...we don’t have them then get married. Something as huge as your protagonist’s wedding should be the first or final episode of a season, not episode 3 or 4 or even the mid-season finale. So I’d grab a load of post-wedding stories and tweak them to be about Peter and MJ as an engaged couple. The stories would be selected to somehow tie-in with their relationship. The idea is to have the couple gradually develop doubts. So we’d have Jonathan Caesar. We’d have the Drunk Spider-Man issue but with Jason Macendale now the Demogoblin (it’s just a costume no demonic stuff) instead of the Hobgoblin. MAYBE we’d even have a heavily rewritten Jason Jerome subplot. We’d have Felicia turning back up to stir up trouble as she did in the 1990s. You get the picture. Because the finale is the wedding, which is obviously light on action, the episodes before the wedding I’d finally do Venom. Venom is great at generating dynamic action set pieces so he’d kind of compensate for no action in the actual finale. Venom is also an ideal choice because this whole season is about a romantic relationship, and Venom is in a sense an ‘unholy union’ between two entities. We’d draw upon the fact that Brock’s wife left him and ASM #300’s climax happening in a church bell tower is just too perfect for the wedding theme of this season. One element I’d throw in though would be for Spidey to have his ass handed to him by Venom once only to get away. MJ makes Spidey a new red and blue costume. The idea being that in wearing Venom’s colours the colours Felicia preferred him in, the colours that don’t represent his true self, he won’t win against this dark version of himself. But the red+blues are Mj’s preferred suit, MJ’s colours and reflective of who he really is.

The season finale would be the wedding but split over 2 episodes. The first ep would end with Peter going to see Felicia the night before his wedding and MJ going off with Bruce (or maybe Jason Jerome).

The actual final episode would be them vocing their doubts and insecurities to Felicia and Jason/Bruce and through talking with them, and reflecting on the events of the season and their lives in general they realise they’re just getting jitters. If they weren’t going to go through with this they would’ve walked away a long time ago. In fact their hardships this season prove they can handle it and make it work. So they get married but in typical Parker luck fashion their ride gets caught in traffic en route to the honey moon, so they gotta web swing their way there into the sunset.

Movie 3: Fearful Symmetry: Kraven’s Last Hunt: I briefly considered making this the opening of the next season, the season finale of the last season or the mid-season finale of the last season but it just didn’t work. It’s too iconic to change up like that it HAS to happen shortly after the wedding. Making it a movie would help sell the fact that for the first time ever we’re suddenly hearing Kraven and Vermin’s inner thoughts which would be weird to happen randomly in the middle of a season. A movie though can sort of be it’s own thing.

I wouldn’t change anything beyond adding a kind of prologue chronicling Kraven’s history up until now, who Vermin is, Peter and MJ’s marriage, Ned’s death, just some stuff that’s a small story unto itself and can allow the movie to stand on it’s own a bit more.

Season 10: Basically this is the Harry Osborn Saga from DeMatteis’ run. I’d cut down on the Vermin stuff. Maybe I’d cut out Peter’s parents from Child Within. I dunno because I would totally do a rewritten Robot Parents story arc in this season because I think that story could be compelling if done properly. I’d just have it happen BEFORE Harry dies, which naturally would be the season finale. Also in this season we’d introduce Carnage, Tombstone, the Joe Robertson/Tombstone subplot and the Return of the Sinister Six. One thing I’d add into the latter story would be the character of Carolyn Trainer who’s quite taken with Doc Ock. Spidey and Ock would have a huge showdown adapting their battle from Spec #79 since that’s probably the best Spidey/Ock fight ever. I might also do an adaptation of Soul of the Hunter and/or Torment, both because it’s a famous Lizard story and because it’d set up Kraven’s death withint he context of the show and thus give Chameleon motivation for the Robot Parents stuff.

Season 11: A heavily abridged and rewritten version of...the Clone Saga!

I’ve actually plotted this episode by episode. The gist is Aunt May has a stroke, Ben shows up, we introduce Carrion who busts out Carnage in exchange for some of his symbiote. Spidey fights Carnage but when they’re both affected by a poison Carrion tests out, Ben steps in to help. Venom also escapes, leading to Ben becoming Scarlet Spider. Peter is dying of the poison leading into the Web of Death story where Doc Ock cures him and Kaine then kills Otto. Web of Death could’ve been the ultimate end for Doc Ock so in a show that’s finite it makes sense to end him with that.

Anyway, Peter learns MJ is pregnant, he and Ben reunite with the Jackal, Carrion and the Gwen clone. They learn Carrion is a clone of Warren and was in fact the Warren from Shea stadium, he’s got telepathic powers and is using them to keep Gwen’s clone (Joyce Delany) under Warren’s control. Warren sows doubt as to who the real guy is.

Aunt May dies, Peter goes to jail, a third Peter Parker shows up. But instead of being Spidercide I’d make him a human/symbiote hybrid, and he’d be this show’s version of Toxin.

Peter becomes Scarlet Spider to clear his own name, learns who Kaine is, finds out he’s a clone, DOESN’T hit MJ but he does run away distraught, etc.

I’d have Maximum Clonage happen but very, very differently. No army of spider clones, no Punisher, no nonsense like that. Warren is going to unleash his virus but wants to keep MJ safe as her baby could be interesting to study. So he abducts her and gives inoculations to the virus to everyone. MJ refuses so he asks Gwen to do it as she’s MJ’s friend. Gwen’s clone is kind of not all there due to the mind control so when MJ breaks her own dose of the inoculation, Gwen simply administers her dose to MJ. Ben shows up to save MJ and knocks out Carrion. Carrion as it turns out was keeping Toxin under control so he freaks out, grabs MJ and Gwen, asks Ben to choose between them and tosses them both off the roof, but then he pins Ben so he can’t save either. Peter shows up to save MJ, Warren instinctively jumps after Gwen to save her but out of nowhere, a new Green Goblin shows up to save her and Warren dies. The Goblin, Kaine, Ben and Peter fight Toxin who’s gonna be losing until he bonds with Carrion and is now too much for everyone else. Gwen meanwhile would be trying to defuse the device that’d be administering the virus, but starting to degenerate due to the stress.

Her last ditch effort would be to implore Carrion/Toxin to save them all. He’s a clone of Peter and Miles Warren so he loves her and since she’s not inoculated she’s gonna die. Carrion/Toxin smother the virus and absorb the poison into themselves, dying.

Kaine takes Gwen’s clone away as he understands the pain of degeneration and Peter retires, making Ben the new Spider-Man.

The second half of the season is a condensed Spider-Ben era but with Lady Ock, Spider-Carnage, Green Goblin V and Blood Brothers as the central storylines. We’d do some flashbacks to Lost Years and wrap up with Revelations. As a final little change I’d have Peter’s new Spider-Man costume be one created by Ben before he decided to make his own one.

Season 12: Basically the post-Clone Saga era. This final season would be wrapping stuff up, giving a lot of characters their swan songs, but the focus would be on Peter and Norman’s rivalry, Norman owning the Bugle, etc.

We’d introduce Black Tarantula, have a final gang war storyline in which Kaine is hired as a mercenary, Daredevil and Richard Fisk would die, and Kingpin would finally go to jail for good.

I’d also sort of adapt the Revenge of the Green Goblin storyline. I’d have Mysterio on Norman’s orders create a ‘dream’ for Peter Parker where he imagines MJ dies in a plane crash and everything goes wrong, Norman would torment him and try and tempt him into becoming his son and heir. Peter resists and escapes the nightmare.

The season/show would wrap up with Peter reclaiming baby May and a final showdown with the Green Goblin. Norman would be rocking his Marvel Knights armour and be juiced up with Phil Urich’s strength enhancing Goblin mask. Also Phil Urich will have been black mailed into becoming the Goblin on Norman’s behalf so he could clear his own name.

I’ll spare you the details, but essentially Norman’s plan involves murdering billions of people, taking control of the world and potentially endangering the life of baby May. He’s ultimately killed when his identity is revealed to the press, his glider decapitates him and triggers a gagillion explosions. Said explosions would wreck the Bugle leading to Spidey lifting it up like in the Final Chapter. Before he died though, Norman would try to beat Spidey by administering an antidote to his powers that he would’ve tested on Scorpion. He’d not give Peter the full dose though.

When all is said and done, Peter’s got an injured leg (but he’s not lost either of them) and his spider powers are gone, maybe forever, so he retires to be a family man.

This then leads into Spider-Girl where we learn over time he regained some of his old powers but they amount to allowing him to crawl on walls, have a vague reading from his spider sense and render him fit for his age. His leg injury still plays up though. Basically he’s got power but not so much that it’d be reasonable for him to go back to heroism.

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sparrowsabre7 · 5 years ago

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Detroit Become Human Thoughts - Spoilers

Playing through Detroit is a very different experience to Heavy Rain. By and large I find myself impressed more on a technical level than an emotional one. The story is familiar, an allegorical civil rights that is seen in countless sci-fi and fantasy media, albeit one that leans more heavily than usual on real life civil rights imagery and iconography. The familiarity is not necessarily a fault, there is plenty of room for DBH among the genre, fitting comfortably alongside X-men and I,Robot etc. However, the choice to overtly homage aspects of civil rights history is little uncomfortable at times, given that the game largely doesn’t acknowledge it. Aside from one POC character late in the game, no one ties the androids struggle together with that of real world minority groups, which means the decision to cast a large number of these deviant androids POCs doesn’t always sit well, particularly when their fate is frequently in the hands of a white character for better or worse. This being said, it is not every game’s duty to cover all issues, but it does ring a little false when a game telling this particular type of story seems unwilling to recognise the link, content to leave it as subtext even when innocent POC characters are gunned down by police and others kept as literal slaves by white characters.

Equally Kara’s story is very hard to watch at times, when it seems each successive incident gets worse and worse. David Cage has come under fire for the way women are treated in his games before, but to be fair to him, in HR I largely felt it fit with both the tone and genre of the game. Yes, the women in the story get into horrible situations but also by and large have their own agency and agendas. The violence was schlocky, but in an old school thriller way, it didn’t feel too gratuitously out of place. In DBH it feels like Kara goes from horror to horror with little reprieve. She also has very little agency compared with the other player characters. Even when she breaks free from her programming, she is only able to shoot Todd by accident in self-defence (when I quite happily would have gunned that motherfucker down) after he slaps the gun out of her hands. Again, child abuse and domestic violence are important issues which can and should be discussed, but the portrayal feels exploitative rather than meaningful. Compare this with the scene where Markus drags his broken body through the junkyard; this too is a horrific scene, however it’s one that fits well in the context. It’s a complete whiplash from Markus’ treatment by Carl and is a pure nightmare to navigate, but it punches you in the gut with how androids are treated and gives an immediate sense of “this is what we are fighting for” and Markus’ climb out of the pit is a triumphant moment. Kara doesn’t really get any of those triumphant moments, merely evading or escaping, sometimes very narrowly, though admittedly does get the more heartwarming moments too, though much later in the game.

Having said all of this, these issues with the story largely fade away heading into the final third. The game becomes both more interesting and whether it becomes less problematic or just feels that way because I was becoming more wrapped up in the story I’m not sure, but my feelings towards the end of the game towards the game as a whole were much warmer than the earlier chapters. Equally, to be fair to Quantic Dream, the arguable “lead” character is a POC android and is the driving force of the game, along with a number of other strong supporting POC characters. I also don’t think any of the missteps come from a place of malice, I believe DBH is earnestly trying its best to be inclusive and the fact that it ended up telling its story a little clumsily in this regard should not be a damning indictment of the game, but a call to try and improve next time.

I’ve also gone a long time without talking about my favourite character pairing: Connor and Hank. I should take a moment to say that all the main player actors perform admirably, Valorie Curry’s quietly resolved Kara, Jesse Williams plays Markus (at least in my run) with a determined understated performance which nonetheless has a commanding presence which makes you believe he’d be able to lead an android rebellion. However, it’s Bryan Dechart – funnily enough the only one of the three I’d not seen previously in TV or film – who has the most captivating performance. In part This may partly be due to his story being a more straightforward detective/thriller story, one the writing team has more experience with crafting, but Dechart’s efforts certainly elevate it portraying Connor with subtlety and nuance, accompanied by a surprisingly soulful turn from Clancy Brown. The prologue featuring Connor – also released as a demo – was the reason I picked up the game, as it hit that sweet spot which I subsequently found in HR of narrative and gameplay synergy. Clinically collecting evidence in order to talk down a hostage taking android, each clue providing more options to negotiate.

Speaking of the gameplay, by and large, the QTEs involved in DBH are less immersive than those of HR, none provoke the same visceral sensation that the trials did, or the instinctual gunshot, or even the cathartic shootout. The fight scenes have improved though and do feel more immediate and better choreographed - understandable, given the superhuman nature of the androids. I do also appreciate the newer mechanics like the investigation sequences - more involved and detailed than those found in the Batman: Arkham series – and the “route planner” style puzzles.

I also very much applaud DBH for allowing the android revolution storyline to be played entirely pacifistically or violently; were this a movie, the characters may begin peacefully, but become violent and vengeful after an inciting incident, but pleasingly DBH never takes that choice away from you. Equally heartening is the statistics at the end of each level, showing that the majority of players usually choice the peaceful choice. The choices in general are frequent and more gradual, creating a slow burn approach that allows you to waver and change your mind. My Connor was very much undecided through most of the game, wavering between deviancy and the mission, emotion and logic. These smaller choices work very well in keeping you invested in the characters and slowly building up the picture.

I’m very nearly at the end now, hoping I don’t mess it up as badly as I did in HR.

#games #thoughts #detroit become human

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kije999 · 6 years ago

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Far Cry: New Dawn – Hope County got a Nuclear Makeover

Ubisoft’s latest installment for the Far Cry franchise has been released and been out for a couple of days now. The game is a direct sequel after the last game in the franchise, which is beloved among many fans.

So let’s get into it. Warning: spoilers ahead

The events of Far Cry: New Dawn takes place 17 years after the events of the last game and features some of Far Cry 5’s cast and introducing new as well. One of these new characters is none other than Carmina Rye, the daughter of Nick and Kim Rye who was only briefly seen as a baby in FC5. Carmina and her mother play a big part in the storyline of New Dawn.

The game starts with a cinematic introduction, where Carmina tells us, the player, her life story. How she was born on the day of The Collapse, how she lived in the bunker for 6 years before she ever saw the sun and why she came to Thomas Rush for his help. As she wraps up her story, the screen fades to black and we hear the train she is on crash, followed by screams and chaos.

And then the game begins. We meet the hero of the story, ambiguously called The Captain and their boss, another key-character, Thomas Rush. After a quick-paced running sequence, we also meet our main antagonists, twin sisters Mickey and Lou, the terrifying leaders of The Highwaymen.

After another cutscene, we officially enter the beauty that is Far Cry: New Dawn.

I played and finished the game in two days, I got a little bit earlier access to considering I live in Europe and I’m on spring break. So I could stay up until 4 a.m. in the morning after its release around midnight.

So yeah, the game is not long. The storyline is much, much shorter than its predecessor, FC5. As is the map. The game mechanics are practically the same, aside from the new level system that is more seen in RPG games à la Borderlands.

Arguably, it is retailed at 40 euros compared to the 60 euros you have to pay for FC5. Although, this might be the broke student in me talking, is still quite a lot.

But let’s talk about something positive, the graphics are breathtaking. The scenery is so bright and gorgeous, despite it being a post-nuclear setting where it’s popular to see dead vegetation and terrifying creatures roaming about. But no, New Dawn features a brightly colored world, with beautiful animals roaming the county.

The moment I saw and heard Carmina, I was in love with her character. And considering she is the baby you, as the deputy, saw and became a godparent in FC5. Her character design is awesome, I personally love how blue her eyes are. I pretty much felt very protective over her in-game, and wouldn’t let her die on my watch, which usually resulted in my own death as well.

Another character I fell in love with was Thomas Rush. This is a bit more on the superficial side but I don’t care, he’s good-looking. The relationship between him and the captain isn’t much explained but I could feel they’ve known and trust each other. And I was very upset when Lou abruptly killed him.

Speaking about being upset. There were moments in the game, especially when first time playing it, where I felt so sad. Seeing all these familiar places and hearing about familiar people from the previous game, reading the notes (Thanks for the feels, Tracey). Especially seeing Boomer’s grave, and the mentions of Peaches and Cheeseburger, hit me hard. Yeah, I care for the FFH a bit more than the GFH, sorry Jess and Addie… (Poor Grace though, losing her eyesight like that…)

But there were moments that put a smile on my face, like “reuniting” with Sharky and Hurk, who now has a baby with a new GFH, Gina Guerra. The Rye family reunion pulled on my heart-strings (of joy!) as well.

Now, let’s talk dear ol’ Joe. He’s still kicking, albeit missing from the first arc of the New Eden storyline. I have mixed feelings about Joseph, I never really cared that much about him in FC5 (John, however, won me over fast) and I guess you can say he’s a broken old man at this point, exiling himself from his family in New Eden.

He also has a son now, Ethan. It’s not fully clear if Joseph is his real father or considering the evidence we got. Ethan is…complicated. As a character, he might have had potential. But alas, he is poorly written and comes over as an annoying brat who throws tantrums à la Kylo Ren style. I don’t hate him, I even felt sorry for the guy at some points. But yeah, I have a feeling his character is an afterthought, as well with the rest of the ending regarding Joseph.

So now, about the ending… Like I just mentioned, it felt like an afterthought. A loose end they needed to wrap up, considering Joseph was the Big Bad in FC5. In my opinion, they should’ve ended it after the boss fight with Mickey and Lou. On another note, I like the mercy the player can show in ending. To have the choice to spare Mickey and Joseph.

In my gameplay, I killed Joseph, which I considered a mercy kill. I accidentally spared Mickey, I didn’t know she would live if I left, I assumed she would bleed to death if you walked away.

Anyway, I think it’s time to wrap up the review. I started off how I was taught, but it got personal and I startled rambling on. This review is a bit of roller-coaster, oops.

PRO’s

Amazing scenery, absolutely stunning and a fresh take on a post-nuclear apocalypse

Loveable new characters (Although I have my problems with Ethan)

It’s a lot of fun

Homestead building and seeing the cutscenes for it

CON’s

Short story

A bit pricey

Limited Map compared to FC5

Grinding for ethanol and materials gets tiring fast.

So yeah, I might have forgotten some points and If you’d like to talk to me about the game hit me up and I’ll give you my discord.

#far cry new dawn #fcnd #far cry new dawn spoilers #fcnd spoilers #fcnd review #carmina rye #thomas rush #joseph seed #kim rye #nick rye #sharky boshaw #hurk drubman jr #ethan seed #I'm too lazy to tag other characters #I'm exhausted after writing it #this is really long

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trr-fangirl · 6 years ago

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Remember Me - IX

Pairing: Liam x MC x Drake (Drake x Olivia)

Word Count: ~ 2,475

Warning: Strong Language, Sensitive Topics, Angst

A/N: We are in the last four (or five) chapters of Remember Me! I can’t believe I’m about to finish my first series but don’t worry, I’m not done with this storyline yet. The next series will be a continuation under a new name because frankly, I don’t think my next topic fits under this title. Though there will be references to this series per usual. Don’t worry though, the continuation will be much longer than 12 chapters. Also, I do use my MC’s family in these last few parts. If you want to read about them feel free to here, though it isn’t required. (It just helps to know them by name) Please enjoy!

Notes: I used my King and MC’s names for this fic. This is set after the events of book three. A read more cut is inserted below and is also tagged as long post and long text.

Tags: @choicesfanatic86 , @captain-kingliamsqueen , @gracepedia , @hopefulmoonobject , @hhiggs , @umccall71 , @mfackenthal , @heatherfilliez , @flowerpowell , @writtenbycandy , @flyawayblue56

MASTERLIST

Disclaimer: All character used belong to Pixelberry. This story is only for entertainment purposes. (Excluding any OC’s)

"I missed you so much!" A young girl yelled as she ran up to her family and hugged them tightly.

Kimiko watched as she slowly walked through the airport with the small bag on her shoulder. She looked around before sighing and walking outside where people were looking for their families. She leaned against the wall next to the door and took a quick glance at her phone before holding it against her chest.

She glanced around her immediate area. It wasn't exactly the way she remembered it but she enjoyed the familiarity. She was about to look at her phone again when she heard a voice calling out to her.

"Kimiko?" A woman with long black hair called again as she approached her. When she saw Kimiko's face, her eyes lit up, "It is you!" She yelled before engulfing her into a tight hug. For the first time, Kimiko had a genuine feeling of safety and happiness as she hugged the woman back. As she pulled away, her eyes glittered.

"Oh! I didn't mean to make you cry, sister!" The woman said as she kissed the top of her head.

Kimiko shook her head quickly and smiled at her, "I'm just really happy to see you again, Jessica." She told her before wiping her tears away and looking at her with a grin plastered on her face. Nothing could take away or ruin the feeling of joy she was feeling at that moment. Her cry for help and to be around people she recognized was louder than she expected it to be. She needed this. She needed her family and if it meant sneaking away, then so be it.

Jessica took her little sister's wrist and cheerfully lead her back to her car. When they approached the car, Kimiko frowned, "You drive a Nissan Altima? I thought you hated small cars?"

Her sister rolled her eyes as she walked over to the driver's side of the door, "I do. I’m only driving it because it’s the only care available aka it's Mom's." She corrected as she stepped into the car and Kimiko followed suit. Jessica fixed her mirrors and seat before starting the car and pulling off.

The drive was quiet at first since it takes a lot of concentration for Jessica to drive. She glanced over at Kimiko before breaking the silence, "You didn't say much while we were on the phone. What brings you back home?"

Kimiko sighed, "Well..."

"I know about your accident and coma. The King called us as soon as it happened, he wasn't... himself when we talked to us. He was... crushed in a sense." She said before abruptly stopping the car when she realized she almost ran a red light. She groaned when she heard a car honk at her, "Well, shit! I'm sorry!" She yelled before giving them the finger in the rearview mirror.

Kimiko giggled at her sister's road rage before letting out a shaky sigh, "I need a little help. No one's told me anything about my time in Cordonia... I don't remember what happened in the past two years and it doesn't seem like anyone is going to help me remember so... I--"

Jessica glanced at her through the corner of her eye as she focused on the road again, "So, you left? Typical little Kimi, huh?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked defensively. The car became silent again, the radio only making the air less tense. Jessica shook her head as she turned down a side street.

"Running away from your problems instead of facing them. I thought you had changed since you practically reunited an entire country." She explained before turning into a suburban neighborhood.

"I'm not... running away from my problems, Jess. I'm just trying to remember my past. I thought you as my sister would understand." She spat as she crossed her arms and gazed out the side window.

The older woman sighed as she slowed down at the stop sign, "I'm sorry. I should understand that you want to learn what's happened in your life. Mom did say she had a feeling that you would come home at some point." She muttered as she turned into one of the parking spaces. She parked the car and turned to her sister as she turned off the car, "I'll see how much I can help with your memory."

Kimiko smiled and hugged her sister firmly before getting out of the car, "So, this is Mom's house?" She asked as she grabbed her bag and placed it on her back.

Jessica shook her head, "Mom still lives somewhere downtown. This is the family home. Our aunt got it for the whole family to use when they come into town. There's like five or six bedrooms in here."

"Why?" She asked curiously, following Jessica to the door.

"I... guess she had some extra money," Jessica said, her voice wavering a bit as she looked for the house key. She unlocked the door and stepped in before hearing barking and nails scratting against the tile floors.

Two small dogs ran from the kitchen to the front door barking aggressively, not at Jessica, but at Kimiko. The dogs stopped barking and sniffed Kimiko's legs rapidly before one began to growl at her.

"Hey, Coco! Luna! Leave her alone!" Jessica yelled to the dogs, who ran back to where they were. She looked back at her sister and sighed, "That was Coco and Luna. My dogs. Don't worry, they're friendly once they get to know you. They're just.... super protective of me."

Kimiko laughed nervously before taking off her shoes, "What kind of dogs are they?"

"Coco is a Shih Tzu and Luna is a Yorkie. You can imagine my apartment in Maine." She said and they both began to laugh before Kimiko looked around. There was a separate hallway leading to the bedrooms while the front of the house was an open living room and kitchen. Kimiko slowly crept into the kitchen to see an older woman standing in front of the stove with her hair pinned up.

"Mom?" She said softly, almost childlike.

The woman turned around and her face lit up. She and her mother, Jasmine, looked almost identical with minor differences in facial structure. Kimiko ran up to her mother and threw her arms around her, causing the woman to stumble back a bit, "Careful, Kimiko. The stove is hot!" She warned with a chuckle.

Her mother wrapped her arms around her daughter once she heard tiny sniffles coming from under her. Jessica walked into the kitchen and leaned on the pantry door, watching her mother and sister's embrace.

"Oh, sweetheart. I've missed you too." She whispered and held her tighter. She pulled away from Kimiko, "Let me wash my hands and we can go sit down and talk, alright?"

Kimiko nodded slowly, stepping away from her mom and walked out of the kitchen to put her things away. Jessica followed behind her and showed her which room to put her things down in before hugging her gently as she turned to walk out of the room, "This has been bothering you for a while, hasn't it?" Jessica asked.

Kimiko nodded before pulling away from her sister and heading back into the living room.

Jessica laid on the sofa with Kimiko laying on it with her, cuddled up next to her as they waited for their mom to finish dinner. Jessica played in her newly dyed black hair while Kimiko let tears stream out of her eyes silently. It wasn't long before their mom came out of the kitchen and smiled softly when she saw her daughter's embracing each other.

"Kevin wouldn't like to see you cry, would he?" Her mother asked and to her delight, Kimiko smiled a bit. She instantly remembered her twin brother and wiped her eyes. Jessica smiled at her and helped her sit up before she handed Kimiko a tissue.

Jasmine sat in the chair next to the sofa and studied Kimiko's face, "I know you wouldn't leave Cordonia for no reason..."

"I just want help... remembering everything. I feel so helpless and out of the loop on everything. I feel like everyone is hiding something from me." She explained to her mom and sister as she wiped her eyes with her thumbs. She thought back to all the times she asked Aiden about sensitive topics, like the reason why there were bullet holes in the fountain and missing marble near the ballroom. Kimiko was taken out of her minimal memories when she felt Jessica rub her back. She hadn't even noticed she started crying again until she felt the hot tears fall down her cheeks.

The room was silent. Her mother couldn't bear to watch her youngest child cry so much but she knew she needed it. With all she had gone through in the past two years, she knew Kimiko needed it. Jasmine looked away from the girls as she felt her own tears threaten to fall. She blinked them back before turning back to them, knowing she had to be strong for the both of them. She took a deep breath, "There were so many times I thought I’d lost you. But the first attack was probably the worst."

Kimiko and Jessica looked up at their mom, they exchanged looks briefly before listening to her closely. Jessica knew what she was talking about but Kimiko, on the other hand, was lost in all sense of the word.

"The first time was at the Homecoming Ball. You had just left New York after getting engaged. I knew you were so happy, your sister even sent me pictures of you and Aiden after the announcement. People had snuck pictures of you at the ball and you looked absolutely gorgeous in your gold dress." Her mother recounted as she looked out the back door, a smile forming on her face and her eyes glittering in the sunlight. Her face quickly changed as she turned to her daughters, "It wasn't until the next morning, I woke up with tons of text messages and missed phone calls from colleagues, family members, and your siblings... Telling me that there was an assassination attempt at the royal palace a little while after I had fallen asleep that night."

Jessica bit her lip as she relived the horrible moment, "We were all so worried about you. I was scared that those cruel people had taken my sister away from me. And for what?" She said, her voice become deep as anger rushed through her veins. Tears began to form in her eyes as she held Kimiko’s hand tighter, "Because they wanted the throne for selfish reasons? They only thought about themselves! Not the fact that you were an inspiration to all those sacred people. You were uniting a small broken kingdom. It was their fault those citizens were so scared and afraid for their lives!"

Her mother looked at her and put a hand on her oldest daughter's shoulder as she shook violently as more silent tears fell. Kimiko stared at her sister for a moment before pulling her into a hug. She squeezed Jessica tightly as she felt her shake and sob in her arms, "It's okay, Jessica. I’m okay." She whispered.

Kimiko soon realized that this 'trip' wasn't only for her... She needed her family and they needed her. As she pulled away from her sister, she put her hand on her neck and her eyes grew wide. Her mother and Jessica watched in confusion as she frantically looked all around the sofa and floor.

"What are you looking for?" Jessica asked.

Kimiko felt around her neck again, "My necklace! My necklace is gone!"

"Sir. We've searched the entire palace twice and she is nowhere to be found. We spoke to the guards and servants in Valtoria already and she isn't there either." Bastien reported as he watched his charge pace across the study for the tenth time.

Aiden turned to Bastien, "Check the palace again. I want extra men to thoroughly check around Valtoria and Lythikos. I want every duchy in Cordonia searched from top to bottom." He said, his voice stern. He hadn't made eye contact with Bastien once since he woke up. He was even tempted to lockdown the Captial until she was found. Bastien held in his sigh before nodding and leaving to order the rest of the King's Guard to search the area again.

Once the King's Guard left to fulfill their duties, he walked out of his study and to the gardens where the Queen Mother was waiting for him for unknown reasons. He walked over to the table where she was enjoying her tea, completely unfazed by the chaos that was going on around her. He hesitantly sat down across from her, notably cautious.

Regina looked up at him and turned to her guard, dismissing him. She took another small sip of her tea before putting it down and smiling at him, as if it was an ordinary day, "How are you today, Aiden?"

The King narrowed his eyes at her, anger beginning to fuel within him, "Regina. I'm not here to play your silly childish games. If you haven't noticed my wife is missing and--"

"Oh. She's not missing, my child."

"Excuse me?"

Regina glared at the man across the table from her, "She's not missing. You should probably call off your little search party too. They look so tired." She said as she put her teacup down and lightly wiped her mouth with a napkin.

His eyes soon widened as he realized what she knew something. His anger finally getting the best of him as he balled his fists, "Where is she!?" He snapped, his hand hitting the glass table. A nearby bird flew into the air, the abrupt sound scaring it off. Regina held back a chuckle before putting her teacup down and reaching into her lap. The silver and blue royal necklace glittered in the sun as she pulled it up.

"I knew when Constantine gave this to her, she didn’t want it. I had a little faith that she’d keep it though." She said to him as she handed the Cordonian Crest necklace to Aiden, "When a guard found it in the middle of the drive, I thought she might have dropped it while walking that mangy mutt of hers but when I was told that the Queen was ‘missing’... I realized why. In reality, the foolish girl ran off. Just like your brother’s mother."

Aiden gritted his teeth before taking the necklace out of her hand and looked at it, "You're lying..."

"I wish I was. But I think our country will be better off without her." Regina said as she stood up from her chair, "I advise you call off that search party of yours and start searching for a capable woman who can withstand the hardships of our country. I think Olivia is still single. She'd definitely be a worthy Queen."

With that, she left the King alone in the gardens.

#trr #the royal romance #trr fanfic #liam x mc #long text #long post #fanfic #remember me #scheduled

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holylulusworld · 4 years ago

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Catch & Release - Catch

Summary: When your fiancé dies days before your wedding you find yourself confronted with his lies. When his best friend attends his burial things become even more complicated as you slowly fall for the green-eyed man.

Pairing: AU Dean x Reader; Sam x Reader (mentioned), Sam x Jess (mentioned)

Characters: Benny Lafitte, Jimmy Novak

Warnings: angst, betrayal, cheating, main characters death, grief, sadness, arguments, language, comforting, angry reader, mentions of infidelity

A/N: Loosely inspired by the movie Catch & Release. Dialogs and characters are not the same as in the movie. Sam and Dean are not brothers for my storyline.

Catch & Release Masterlist

“How could I not see Sam was not the man I believed he is? Am I dumb? Was I too blinded by my love? Hell, I gave everything to him. Sam was my whole world and now I must realize, I never was his world,” you sniffle, looking helpless at Dean.

He’s still not used to comfort a girl. Dean Winchester never was the kind of guy who soothed a girl; he was rather the one breaking a girl’s heart.

“I can’t tell you, sweetheart,” he mumbles instinctively wrapping his arms around you.

Sobs wreck your body when you must hear Jess’s voice become louder. All you can understand is that Benny seems to want her gone, but Jimmy, well he wants her to stay.

“Figures,” Dean whispers, running his hand over your back to soothe you. “Jimmy always was into other guys girls.”

“Dean, I want to escape this nightmare. I want to just climb out of the window, run away and never remember Sam’s name or that I wasted so many years on him,” you hide your face in Dean’s chest, almost clinging to him whilst he feels his heart flutter anytime you reach out for him.

“I can’t tell you what to do, Y/N. I barely know you, but we can sneak out of the window if you want to,” a smile crosses your face until you hear Jess’s voice raise again. “I’m sorry.”

“This is not your fault, Dean. Sam was the one cheating on me, not you,” he rests his chin on top of your head, closing his eyes for a moment. “I know this must be odd for you. Soothing your dead friends’ fiancé.”

“Nah, I had worse dates. Once a girl brought a parrot to a restaurant. At first, I believed she tried to be funny but that feathered guy was her spirit animal or crap. I had to pay for the bird’s meal too,” you snicker, looking up at Dean. “I swear, it’s true.”

“You had odd dates,” humming Dean wraps one arm around your waist, presses you closer to his chest. “Any other funny dates you want to talk about?”

“There was that girl, she was a belly dancer, smoking hot and all…bendable,” you grin, following Dean when he leads you toward the window. “Long story short – she was a twin and wanted a threesome with me and her brother.”

“Gosh, did you…?” you poke Dean’s chest, giving him a knowing look. “I bet you kissed a guy and liked it!”

“No, but she’s a nice girl, still sends me Christmas cards and calls on my birthday. Even asked me to be her best man at her wedding with the parrot lady.” Dean wiggles his eyebrows before he bursts into laughter. “You believed me, didn’t you?”

“All a lie,” you whine. “The bird lady too?”

“The bird was real, sweetheart. It pooped onto my jacket, called me a jerk, and flew around the restaurant. In the end, we got kicked out,” laughing you look at Dean. He gives you a soft smile, glad he could distract you for a moment or two.

“Can we just run away for tonight?”

“Phew, that was a close call. They almost caught us sneak out,” Dean smirks, holding out his hand to help you sit on the hood of Benny’s truck you stole to drive to the lake. “Haven’t been here for like twelve years.”

“Sam liked to fish, but I couldn’t watch him kill the fish,” you lean your head against Dean’s shoulder, just watching the water.

“I don’t like it either,” smiling you watch Dean who points toward the lake. “I like to eat fish but don’t want to kill it first.”

“Sam and I, we didn’t share interests or hobbies. I never thought I would say so, but when I look back at my relationship with Sam, I don’t think we were meant to be.”

He doesn’t say a word, nor does he react when you rest your head on his lap. Dean simply watches you close your eyes, smiling when your breathing evens out.

“Just sleep a bit, sweetheart. I will not let that girl hurt you, promised.”

“Where have you been? We were worried sick,” Jimmy exclaims, glaring at Dean who has one arm slung around your waist.

“You mean you were worried sick,” Benny grunts. “I told you she’s safe with Dean. Now be quiet. I don’t think Y/N needs more stress than you already caused. Letting that chick, the proof of Sam’s infidelity, inside,” you never saw Benny that mad before. His nostrils flare and he balls his hands into fists. “Leave Y/N and Dean alone.”

“I was simply worried, Benny. They could’ve told us…,” Jimmy stammers, watching you look at Jess who still sits on the couch. The blonde runs one hand over her belly, not missing the way you follow the motion.

“We kinda didn’t want to meet up with a certain person. Just drop it, okay,” Dean grumbles, too angry to handle Jimmy’s jealousy. “I suggest you send Jess to Sam’s mother. I bet Mary Winchester would be happy to see the girl who ruined Y/N’s relationship with Sam.” Dean leads you toward the backyard to take a few deep breaths.

“Thank you,” mumbling the words you run one hand over Dean’s back to calm him. “I don’t know if I want to pity Jess for carrying her dead lovers baby or to beat the shit out of her,” you laugh, covering your mouth with the palm of your right hand when the laughter turns into sobs. “How could he do this to me?”

“Oh-sweetheart, Sam was a fool,” you run into the house when Jess walks outside to get fresh air, calling your name. “You shouldn’t have come here, Jess.”

“I had to,” Jess sighs. “I’m alone, pregnant and just lost my job. Sam was as much responsible than I that a baby is on her way,” Dean looks away, not wanting to pity Jess. “I can understand why he came to me, Dean. Sam always seemed to be under pressure. Now I know why – she’s unique, lovely, and beautiful. Smart too, according to Jimmy.”

You flatten against the wall, hiding in the shadows to listen to Jess’s words.

“Sam, he relaxed with me. I was nothing but convenient when the stress of playing the perfect man for Y/N was too much. I never wanted to get pregnant, that wasn’t the plan.”

“What was the plan?” Dean huffs. “Fucking Sammy until he gets married or did the two of you plan to keep on doing it?”

“Honestly…,” Jess hangs her head, shaking it lightly, “I don’t know Dean. When we parted ways after college, I always tried to reach out for Sam. One day, he was at your place, we ran into each other and the spark reignited. Back then he said it was only this once, that he loves Y/N, and believe me, he did but…”

“The need to relax was stronger, I get,” Dean watches you sneak into the house, a sad smile on his lips. “Sam should’ve made a decision, not fool two girls…”

“He wanted to end things or rather did so. Sam didn’t want to come to California before his wedding, but I insisted that he needs to help me with the baby,” Jess rubs her arms, looking at Dean. “It’s my fault he’s dead, Dean. If not for my selfishness Sam could be alive, married to the woman he loved.”

“True, but Sam decided to drive to California instead of telling you no. We saw the pictures, Jess. He came to you, had fun, took nice pictures, and drove back to his fiancé,” Dean’s patience is wearing thin when Jess tries to excuse the pictures.

“One last nice memory, you know. That’s what the pictures are, nothing else.” Dean brushes past Jess. He looks over his shoulder, not hiding his disgust.

“You mean you fucked one last time before he drove off to marry someone else. Whilst you decided to wait in California for him to come back and do it all over again.”

“You should’ve known better than letting that girl in,” Benny chastises. “Y/N is vulnerable, hurt, and devasted and you just threw that pregnant girl at her.”

“Benny, calm down. We are all tired,” Dean rubs his eyes, hating he can hear sobs come from inside your room. “I’ll check on Y/N. I hate to say it, but we can’t let a pregnant girl sleep on the street. The first thing in the morning we will do is to call Mary Winchester. She can take care of her sons’ concubine,” storming off Dean ignores Jimmy’s angry grunts.

“Who does he think he is? Mr. One-night-stand can’t just act as if he’s Y/N’s best friend,” Jimmy narrows his eyes, not liking Benny silently nods at Dean. “Great, you are on that asshole’s side.”

“Whoever can make Y/N feel better is welcome to try. Dean is a good guy. Believe it or not, he never cheated on a woman. He’s a heartbreaker but never promised a girl to marry her only to fuck his ex. That was Sam’s specialty. If you excuse me now,” Benny grunts. “I lost one of my best friends. His fiancé, my friend is crying in her room and I’m tired enough to fall asleep standing.”

“Still, he shouldn’t be with her…”

“You didn’t have to come here, Dean. I understand if you are tired of catching me whenever I fall. You barely know me and,” he’s pressing his index finger to your lips, shaking his head.

“If I didn’t want to be here, I would’ve left hours or days ago. How about we try to get some sleep?” giving Dean a sly smile you nod; thankful he doesn’t want to leave you alone tonight. “I need confirmation, ma’am.”

You giggle, mumbling ‘yes Sir’ before you crawl onto the bed, resting your tired body onto the soft mattress. “Dean, thank you.”

“Bake me a pie one day and we are even,” he smirks, shrugging his jacket off his shoulders. You don’t want to be a creep but you can’t take your eyes off Dean when he unbuttons his shirt. “Did you ever think that it was Sam’s fault, not yours? He was the one cheating on you. There is nothing wrong with you.”

Dean lies next to you, carefully running his fingers through your hair. “I’m no one you want to stay with, Dean. Look at her and then…” Dean’s lips press against yours and you gasp before you lose yourself in the kiss.

At first, it’s slow, gentle but you grasp for his hair, tug harshly at the soft strands, causing Dean to growls against your lips. “Catch me one last time, Dean…”

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#Catch & Release Masterlist #angst #infedelity #dean winchester #au dean winchester #au dean winchester x reader #au dean #au dean x reader #au dean x you #dean winchester fanfiction #dean winchester x you #AU Fanfic #dean winchester x reader #dean winchester SPN #dean winchester fanfic #former Sam x Reader #sam x jess #Catch & Release - Catch

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dandidactic · 2 years ago

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What can we expect from The Flash season 9?

With The Flash season 8 having wrapped up a couple of weeks ago, and it has been confirmed that the people behind the show are taking a lengthy break from starting up the storylines and writing for the upcoming season 9, from what has went down and the details in this previous season is what I want to discuss of how it can play out into next season.

Villians

For those that have been remaining fans of The Flash after season 6, are well aware of the new leadership that The Flash fell under, when current showrunner Eric Wallace took over as showrunner.

Wallace’s format of the seasons following have been broken up storylines in a each season, ranging between 2 and 3 per season, in which he calls “graphic novels”.

During the end of season 8, we were taken to a lab of an unknown scientist in the distant year of 2049.

In the lab, we saw a blue crystal that began glowing more bright, and fans began to raise questions about if this is a tease to a long awaited villian we have been wanting on the show, Cobalt Blue.

This might be confirmed for season 9, as we are to get 3 graphic novels in the upcoming season, and Rick Cosnett (Eddie Thawne), expressed his interest in returning in season 9, with fans pestering for him to play the villian Cobalt Blue.

As for the remaining 2 villians that are set to be appear, their identities remain unknown.

2. Suits

With The Flash’s suit on the show being complete perfection, as now with the new addition of the golden boots we got this past season, I wouldn’t be expecting any new Flash suits for him.

I would love for Barry to dawn one of his old suits, such as season 1 and season 4’s suits.

As for the other heroes, now with Allegra and Cecile becoming more relevant to the show as heroes on the battlefield, I would expect for there to be new suits for them as curtesy of Chester, or even Cisco maybe.

3. New characters

New characters for an upcoming season are always common for The Flash, and we got a big one to be introducd at the end of season 8.

With Caitlins and Marks attempts to bring back Frost from the dead, we seemingly got introduced to a new fusion of Caitlin and Frost without actually seeing who it was.

Other new characters would have to be the upcoming villians we will be getting in the show, and I am very excited to see who it will be.

4. Other storylines

With Jesse L. Martin’s character Joe West leaving the show but only as a series regular, that leaves us without about 6 main characters left in the show (Barry, Iris, Caitlin, Allegra, Cecile, and Chester).

With the story of Team Flash facing the villians all together remaining the same, I am actually wondering about seperate storylines we will see in the season.

Barry and Iris will most likely become more intimte with each other, and subsequently have Iris get pregnant so we can see little Bart and Nora Allen running around.

Allegra and Chester will most probably finally get together, as the show has been awkwardly forcing them to throughout the entire last season (no one really cares about if those 2 get together, or at least that’s my opinion).

Allegra and Cecile will learn how to be better heroes on the battlefield, now that they are appearing more frequently on it alongside Barry.

Caitlin will definitely have a storyline with this new Caitlin/Frost fusion that she “accidentally” created.

The Flash season 9 doesn't arrive onto our screens until the next new year, so until then keep theorizing on what you think can and will happen.

#theflash #cw #grantgustin #run barry run #entertainment #season9

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chevynni · 3 years ago

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Last fall ABC premiered its newest medical drama, The Good Doctor. The show was met with almost immediate acclaim and top viewing numbers. It seems everyone loves the show, and for good reason.

In case you aren’t already watching we are here to help you out. Here are our reasons why we think you should be.

1. Great balance between the medicine and the human connection

Sometimes, medical shows struggle to find the perfect balance between the compelling medical aspects and the heartfelt human ones. The Good Doctor really seems to have found a way to combine them both in a way that keeps us hooked and interested.

As an audience, we also find ourselves learning a thing or two. We come for the doctors but stay for the medicine and the story. Going into Season 2, we are excited to know more about the medicine so we can see if there is hope for a few of the doctors.

Some of Dr. Murphy’s greatest lessons during Season 1 were centered around his connection to the people he was treating. There was one patient who looked almost exactly like his brother and another one who challenged his concept of emotions and feelings.

It’s all important and well balanced with everything else going on.

2. There are no overly dramatic stories

One of the reasons I stopped watching ABC’s other hit medical drama, Grey’s Anatomy, was their overly dramatic plot points. There are only so many things that could logically happen to a set of doctors at a Seattle hospital.

While some people are okay with that kind of story, not everyone is. If this describes you then The Good Doctor is more your speed. They never over-dramatize anything.

In fact, the craziest thing to happen all season was a prisoner lashing out the doctors. To me, that is more realistic and logical. Something that fits really well with our main character, Dr. Shaun Murphy.

To me, the realism of it all harkens back to the first medical drama I ever fell in love with, ER. Their storylines are compelling and interesting enough to keep us on the edge of our seats, but they never go for the shock or wow factor.

3. Female Empowerment

In today’s world, we are constantly looking for female characters we can love and believe in. We look for shows that accentuate the strength of women in power fields.

The Good Doctor consistently tackles such elements through their mainstays: Dr. Claire Browne (Antonia Thomas), Jessica Preston (Beau Garrett), and Alegra Aoki (Tamlyn Tomita). These fierce women constantly show their power and strength through their passion and command against the men in their lives.

Related TV News Wrap-Up: 'The Flash' Loses Two Original Cast Members, 'Leverage: Redemption' Premiere Date, Jesse Williams to Exit 'Grey's Anatomy'

Bonus: each of these women are from different ethnic backgrounds.

4. Diversity Unifies

If you want a true representation of what our wonderful nation is about, just take a look at the doctors of San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital. Not only are they all from a diverse set of racial/ethnic backgrounds, but they also have their own set of qualities that set them apart from the world.

The biggest example is, of course, the focal point of the show, Dr. Shaun Murphy.

He is an autistic savant who struggles with day to day human interactions. However, through his relationships with the other doctors and patients, he learns how to grow and expand socially.

The faith that each of these doctors has in Shaun is astounding and well worth the watch. It’s a faith that is earned and not done so overnight.

Another big unifier for this team of doctors is their all-around mutual respect of each other as individual humans. They have many different social, economic, and racial experiences to contend with, and it almost never gets in the way of their work.

It’s a unity our great nation really needs right about now.

5. Their differences are their biggest strength

As mentioned before, these doctors rely heavily on each other, and so their differences can’t get in the way. It’s not always easy, but fundamentally they make it happen.

One prime example of strength through differences comes on The Good Doctor Season 1 Episode 15, “Heartfelt,” when Dr. Browne wanted to give a patient a second chance, and Dr. Park didn’t believe he deserved it. They agreed to disagree morally and find the best way to medically help their patient.

The differences aren’t always between the doctors though. Sometimes, it is between the doctors and their patients.

One of the most talked about instances came on The Good Doctor Season 1 Episode 14, “She,” between Dr. Murphy and his trans-patient. Through discussion, Dr. Murphy learned to better understand and accept his patient as she wished to be seen.

It’s a hard lesson to be learned, but in the end, he’s a better doctor and person for it.

6. It has heart

The Good Doctor is teeming with heart and soul. How could a show centered around the success of an autistic doctor not be?

We are made to care about the patients and their struggles, but also the doctors and their separate stories.

We want Dr. Melendez to become the dad he so desperately wants to be. We want Shaun to find a friend who cares about him as much as he deserves. Dr. Browne has us cheering for her success in spite of her mom.

Related TV News Wrap-Up: 'Loki' Renewed, 'WandaVision' Enchants Emmy Nominations, Broadcast Network Fall Premiere Dates

This all happens because the writing on the show is phenomenal and worthy of our time and attention. They draw us in and connect us to these characters at their most basic desires.

7. Connection to current affairs

The best shows in 2017 were the ones that successfully addressed current issues and concerns with an open mind. The Good Doctor is definitely one of these shows.

In a subtle way, the series addresses the issues of African Americans and racism. It also blatantly address the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace.

On The Good Doctor Season 1 Episode 10, “Sacrifice,” Dr. Browne had a situation with a male superior making her feel sexually harassed and uncomfortable. She mentioned it to her boyfriend but told him she would handle it. Then when her boyfriend tried to defend her, she pointed out that while his actions were chivalrous they were unnecessary.

This is not only a show of solidarity with the real-life women reporting sexual misconduct but also a show of female strength and independence. Dr. Browne is inspiring girls to always stand their ground no matter what they believe.

8. Talented Cast

Whether we are looking at screen veterans or newcomers, everyone on The Good Doctor is extremely talented. They all bring little nuances to their characters that keep us interested in them, rooting for them, or basically despising them.

First and foremost, we have the talented duo of Freddie Highmore and Richard Schiff. Their prowess proceeds them and is a big draw for many of the show’s fans.

Then there are Beau Garrett, Hill Harper, Will Yun Lee, and Nicholas Gonzalez. They all have roles that speak volumes to their fans. They bring their experiences with them to their newest roles to add just a little bit extra to our screens each week.

We can’t talk about the talent without also mentioning our other interns working alongside Dr. Murphy. Antonia Thomas, Chuku Modu, and Fiona Gubelmann are fantastic parallels and foils to Freddie Highmore.

Overall this vast, talented cast works well together, and no one person outshines another. They all mold together seamlessly in scenes.

9. All characters are equal

This may seem redundant just looking at the title, but bear with me. By this I mean that unlike many hierarchy-driven work environments the doctors and interns are on an equal footing.

That is not to say the attendings aren’t above the interns and the chiefs aren’t above everyone. Conversely, it does mean that all of these doctors are trusted and respected on the same level.

Interns aren’t simply dismissed as being ill-equipped or inexperienced. The attendings and the chief listen to their ideas and concerns.

They don’t always agree with an intern’s assessment, but the channel of communication is there. No one goes unheard by anyone. It makes for a more secure and trusting environment.

10. Renews our faith in the health care system

One of the biggest draws to this show, for quite a few fans, is the faithful attention to the reality of health care. The Good Doctor created a world in which the doctors see issues with their own system and work tirelessly to fix it.

More than once there is a story focused on a patient that is being cheated by the health care system. The series makes strides towards bridging that gap of mistrust between patients and doctors.

Knowing that there really are doctors out there who care about their patients over their ability to pay or be insured gives us faith that someday soon it all will change for the better.

It’s important to believe in the health care system, despite its flaws, because it allows us to make great changes. We have to understand not everyone blindly follows or trusts it.

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