#but I'm sure it will be a fascinating continuation of the established connection it all has with Ed's identity

[jeffsinnbythesea]

A post by @queerly-autistic got me thinking (thinking, thinking and drinking) about the main symbols representing the various personas Ed adopts in seasons 1 and 2. The way Ed yo-yos back and forth between rejecting and embracing things like the eponymous black beard, the leathers, etc. tells us a lot about Ed's relationship with his own identity at a given point in time, and more broadly, how his views on what people generally can and can't do, and who they can and can't be evolves over time, in fits and starts.

We get the sense early on that Ed's worldview is that people don't change and their path in life is more or less set. His mother tells him early on, "Well, it's not up to us, is it? It's up to God. He decides who gets what. We're just not those kind of people. We never will be." He learns about the Gentleman Pirate, a total oxymoron, and he's immediately fascinated. It knocks his socks off, it shakes his worldview, in which he is Blackbeard - just look at his black beard, and his leather getup, and his gun, etc.

Ed's very first act on the Revenge is to ditch those clothes and parade around in Stede's instead. The very next episode he's wearing Stede's clothes again but now he's Jeff The Accountant. However, each and every time he does this, he gets rebuffed. By Izzy, who tells him to knock it off, get real, and then by the French, who gas him up initially only to ridicule him in the end. Each time he resets back to his Blackbeard persona, back in the leathers, even though we know explicitly that he's totally over this routine. He wants to pack it all in, retire. And it isn't just because he's bored, though that is part of it. When he chooses the scariest story he can think of, he tells the Blackbeard origin story of killing his own dad. He knows Blackbeard isn't a Good Guy. But he already adores Stede - just ask Izzy. How could Stede like him, a murderer, a Bad Guy? But Stede says, actually I quite like you as you are, and you aren't a bad person. Ed feels seen and accepted in a way he probably never has in his life, or at least since becoming Blackbeard.

Calico Jack shows up as this interloper on the Revenge and Jack and Stede's characters clash so much that Ed figures, hey, this little adventure sure has been fun, but it turns out at the end of the day: "This is who I am, Stede. Can you see me now? You were always gonna realize what I am." That whole scene with the tub, and everything since, must have been a fluke. He thought he was being seen and accepted beyond the persona - the good and the bad all at once - but evidently not.

Fast forward to the Act of Grace. Unequivocally Ed makes this sacrifice for Stede, but outwardly at least, he takes everything in stride, especially compared to Stede. I'm not sure you can say that he shaves the beard for Stede.He says, "Now, it's time to accept our fate. Besides, kind of comforting, really, once you get your mind around it." He's folding socks, he's excited about soap! I think this is a man who is deeply relieved to be "forced" into doing the thing that he actually wants to do. Jumping forward, is that not what was going on with the whole end of s2e2 suicide-by-mutiny thing? The show has been telling us all season that Ed doesn't care about Being Blackbeard, he actively wants to stop being Blackbeard, but fundamentally doesn't believe there are alternatives, a belief reinforced because both times he dropped the Blackbeard persona for something else (haha, jokingly, but were they really?), it ended poorly.

Stede hasn't picked up on this and these factors come together and create this tragic scenario where Stede is mourning the end of the beard (the extremely obvious symbol for Blackbeard) because he thinks Ed has lost something integral to who he is, that he's in fact been ruined by Stede, while Ed comes to think that Stede is mourning the end of Blackbeard the myth, the legend, the celebrity, and perhaps he never wanted Edward at all, as pointed out by @queerly-autistic. I'm reminded of the Rita Hayworth quote that gets to that same feeling Ed probably has here: "Men go to bed with Gilda but wake up with me."

Ed goes back to the Revenge alone, heart shattered, but he doesn't immediately go "Well, Blackbeard's back! Business as usual!" Like Erin says, he escapes it briefly. He's got his hair down, he's wearing the robe, he's probably getting into a skincare routine. He says, "Actually, I do want to be called Edward from now on" and "Why are we even being pirates?" The scene with Izzy confronting him in the cabin after this is supposed to be horrible and uncomfortable to watch. It is violent and cutting and things spiral from this point through the end of s2e2. Ed has tried to shed or replace the Blackbeard persona numerous times over the season and each and every time he is rebuked by Izzy and his crew, by the rich jerks, and even by Stede. This final attempt to just be Ed rather than Blackbeard even comes with a threat on his life.

Backed into a corner, still in immense emotional pain from Stede's rejection, and having his deterministic worldview confirmed again and again, is it any wonder Ed reverts to this worst iteration of Blackbeard, the Kraken? Why would he try something different when all of his experiences thus far tell him that it's futile? If Ed feels that way in his middle age, who knows how many times over the course of his life he might have tried and failed, or more likely, saw others try and fail for a different life, a better life? He tells us in both seasons that they're pirates - most of them are dead. As her post says, the Kraken armour is about survival, physically and emotionally, and it's about despair. He can try again and again to break free but it always. Comes back. To this. The only real escape is death. S1e10 is the beginning of the spiral that has a, I'm not sure goal is the right word, but all these acts of violence and destruction against himself and others are leading to his death and he knows this.

Jumping to the end of Fun and Games, Ed sums up his worldview very succinctly, in that resigned tone: "Buttons, people don't change, not into birds or otherwise."

And then Buttons changes! Dramatically! Ed changes, clothing at least. I think this was a really interesting choice by the show - to indirectly convey how the crew is feeling towards Ed by targeting the thing most symbolic of Blackbeard-turned-Kraken now that the black beard isn't really an option to take out of the picture and his face is washed clean. As for the cat bell, well we don't have time to delve into that. I can't help but observe that once again this is "forced" against his will, but is it? Ed probably certainly wouldn't choose to wear the Contrition Era sack, if nothing else it looks itchy, but I don't think he's moaning about not having the leathers.When they let him out of the sack, he puts on Buttons old clothes, not his own.

S2 is one big identity crisis for Ed. The guy essentially died. There's no going back to Blackbeard. That persona was one he was miserably tired of, but now it's well and truly poisoned by its evolution into the Kraken. Not to mention the trauma he feels from it, trauma from decades of piracy, from the violence done to him and by him. With the leathers put aside for now, other vestiges of the Kraken era are dealt with. The Guilt/Gilt Room is transformed into a celebration for the crew, a sort of apology and an opportunity to show the crew and Ed reconcile. Ned Low comes back as the final nasty nail in the coffin that he resolves to leave it all behind. The leathers are dumped overboard and Ed says good riddance to them, and good riddance to Blackbeard, and good riddance to that life. Burdened with the old trauma, and now the fresh trauma of Ed and Stede almost getting killed by this lifestyle again, Ed sticks to his guns and commits to leaving. Yes, it is impulsive and a bit cowardly, but the motivations behind it make sense. He and Stede haven't graduated to Communication University yet and are still working out the kinks there.

A lot has been said about Ed later diving in to retrieve those leathers and going on a bit of a rampage against the navy dudes. "The music, the costume, he clearly regressed back into the Kraken!" "The show is saying that being Blackbeard and piracy is the only thing he's good at!" On the surface, it might seem like yet again the universe is confirming Ed's original deterministic worldview that people don't change, that he's chained to this life. I choose to interpret this differently. For one, there is extremely little airtime given to the Ed scenes between dumping the leathers and retrieving them and I think the storytelling would have benefited from more, obvs. Bear with me on this part, but I think this is where the show says, you know what? Symbols-schmymbols. The beard, the leathers, the name, none of those things are what make Blackbeard Blackbeard, or the Kraken the Kraken. As people, we are not the clothing we wear. We are our actions. Ed can put on the leathers or the sack or a tutu for all I care but his actions are what define who he is.

"If you were ever good at anything, go and do that." Ed doesn't take this to mean go back to the worst version of yourself that you hate, it means loving and protecting Stede and the crew. Going with the moral system established in the show's universe, killing bad people might saddle you with trauma but it doesn't make you a monster, particularly when it's in service of the ones you love. Stede's parting words to him were that he's a coward. He is choosing to not be a coward. And that means not running away from Stede, or away from the British, or off to China, or from himself anymore. You can't run away from yourself. Wherever You Go, There You Are, right?

Essentially, he goes from:

I can't change. Nobody can change.

to:

Maybe I can change...but only if Blackbeard dies and all his symbols are dumped overboard. But subtract Blackbeard from Ed, and what's even left? And who would care about that guy?

to:

I am Edward and Blackbeard and the Kraken and the sum of all my past selves, and they all did good things and they all did bad things. That doesn't mean that I'm not capable of loving others or myself, or that I'm not lovable. Sometimes the things you hate about yourself can be spun into something good - poison into positivity

What you end up with is a complex and even contradictory person, but a whole person. He can reclaim his clothes, he can sport a beard, albeit much shorter and salt and pepper-y, and he can reclaim, or at least he's now free to create a sense of self, secure in the knowledge that he isn't alone. There are people waiting for him, and they're not having second thoughts.

"They love you, Ed. Just be Ed."

[twistedlily]

Crackpot Theory: Five and Viktor are the Beginning and End to Everything

A friend told me months ago to write an essay after hearing my crackpot theory about this show that is my Joker, so here I am, doing just what I was told. (Yes, I know this won't come true. That's why it's a crackpot theory. I'm only writing this for fun and to get this idea out of my head before S4 drops tomorrow. Anyway!)

Disclaimer: I will be using Vanya and she/her pronouns to refer to the comics character, and to the show character in S1 and S2, and Viktor and he/him pronouns for S3. I am doing this for the sake of more easily understanding which seasons in the show I am referring to when I mention my points.

Anyway, without further ado...

I am putting too much faith in the show's writing here and am convinced that the show is hinting that Five and Vanya/Viktor are the key to everything.

Here is why:

In S1, we see quite clearly that Five meant something to Vanya. She tells Pogo in the first episode that "You know what's stupid? I used to leave the lights on for him. ... Every night I'd leave a little snack and make sure the lights were on." Following that, we also see Five return, looking exactly the way he did when he left, and one of the first things he does is make himself a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich, which is the very snack that Vanya would continually make for him when he was gone.

Later on in the episode, we see him get attacked by the Temps Commission, and after said attack, the place he goes to for safety is—Vanya’s apartment. There, we get to see her patching him up, get to see them talk and in turn have a better understanding of their particular dynamic. Vanya asks him why he’s at her apartment. He says, “I’ve decided you’re the only one I can trust.” She asks him why he’s opening up to her specifically, and at first, he says, “Because you’re ordinary.” Of course, those words sting with her, and it shows on her face. So he amends his statement shortly thereafter, with a “Because you’ll listen.” The show quickly establishes that Vanya found Five important in her life, and in turn, affirms that he finds her meaningful as well.

Unfortunately, as the first season continues, we don’t get Five and Vanya interacting together as much, if at all. The second episode features Vanya managing to briefly stop Five in his tracks after he declares she’s too young and he made a mistake in trusting her, saying she “hasn’t seen him in a long time” and that she “doesn’t want to lose [him] again.” But then he leaves her apartment, and he makes little to no effort to contact her for the rest of the first season until it becomes apparent that she is far more important to the end of the world than he initially believed.

However, we do see more of their intriguing bond in the moments we’re shown of their shared past and younger years, with how Vanya shaking her head gave him genuine pause before Five’s impulsive decision to leave and perform spatial jumps in defiance of Hargreeves. Additionally, her name was the first Five called after landing in the apocalypse, and as we are made aware in the first episode, he found her book and read it while away. In said book, she writes that he "was [her] sole confidante." He even writes in the book, and continues to do so upon returning to 2019.

(A little note on something I found fascinating that may be something, or may be nothing: when drunk, Five tells Diego that he’s “the Four frickin’ Horsemen.” Traditionally, the Four Horsemen signify the bringing of the Apocalypse to the world, hence the tale of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Now, in the show, if Five is the Four Horsemen, and Vanya is the Apocalypse... does that not mean they’re inextricably connected?

Again, this could mean something, or it could be me seeing things where things were not meant to be seen.)

I will also note that their bond in the show does not, in fact, come from the comics. The comics feature a Vanya who is emotionally linked to Diego, and the Five we see in the comics is far colder than the one in the show. He even tells Vanya outright at the end of the Apocalypse Suite arc that he “never liked [her].” So this shift in relationship dynamics does exist purely in the show, which I personally find works in its favour due to its character-driven nature.

Anyway, let us move onto S2 and how it too shows their bond, and we start off with Five insisting that Elliot search for sound waves as he tries to prevent a second apocalypse via the Cold War, given Vanya’s sound manipulation power. Does that explicitly show their bond at all? Granted, no, but what happens later on when Five manages to find Vanya does—he finds her in a cornfield and gives her a rather soft smile as he introduces himself as her brother. He then proceeds to inform her (over a cup of coffee) of what happened in S1, but notably pauses and swallows when she asks what caused the apocalypse. He then states, “Asteroid impact,” and omits her role entirely, because he cares enough to not want to hurt her, which exists in contrast to how he acts around every other member of their so-called family, i.e. constantly insulting them and threatening to harm them.

This is also seen in how Five firmly insists they "need to stick together," and how he would, most likely, blink into the car when Vanya plans to drive away from him if it were anyone else, but instead takes a breath and knocks on the window to get her attention. It may be because she’s a bomb that he doesn’t want to set off, but given his behaviour around her even in S1 before she’s revealed to have powers, we get to know that he is and always has been patient with her, and impatient with everyone else. He even mumbles to himself later on about how "she'll come around. I know she will."

Also noteworthy is how his old body self learns from Luther that Vanya is the reason for the apocalypse, and in response to this news, all he does is shrug and say, “Fair enough.” It is remarkable how the very thing that he obsessed over for decades upon decades in the apocalypse is set aside with a simple acknowledgement of its cause being his closest adopted sibling.

(Another thing that I find most intriguing is how in the comics, Five’s calculations to return to his timeline and escape the apocalypse are not, in fact, bungled when he finally attempts to jump again. He realises through Dolores that he “forgot to subtract the two from the one” and only fails in his goal when the Temps Aeternalis pulls him out of the time stream against his will. In contrast, the show has Five arguing with his old body self, and the apparent solution to his calculations is a misplaced decimal point—“It’s 0.57, not 5.7!” which may be me reading into it too much, again, but if not, then an argument can be made that Five and Vanya (Number Seven) are meant to work together and stay together, instead of being placed apart due to circumstances beyond their control.)

Moving onto S3, there is the same issue as present in S1 wherein Five and Viktor rarely get to talk to one another. The only instances of their relationship coming into play are when Five runs back to ensure Vanya/Viktor is okay when they’re being attacked by the Sparrows, the easy acceptance of Viktor changing his name and beginning to transition, and of course, the talk they have near the end of the season. The talk in which Five is caring and vulnerable enough in his lecturing about powerful people and ants to tell Viktor, “If you ever need anything, I’m always here for you. But lie to us again... Viktor, I’ll kill you myself.”

There is, too, the fact that they share a long look at the end of the season before walking off in different directions, yet again separated instead of going off together.

The trailer for S4 revealed that this time, Ben is the cause of the end of the world, and it seems the show is gearing up to explore the Jennifer Incident and Ben’s death in detail (which, alongside the Sparrow Academy, the comics have yet to touch upon fully). While I am aware this show emphasizes that this so-called family is stronger together than apart, and I don’t mean to undermine their marketing with this essay, I do find this message does not yet work unless every member of the Academy is willing to work together and stay connected. Obviously, this includes Five and Viktor especially, seeing as Five set out to save the world from the apocalypse at the beginning of the show, and Viktor was the cause then and continues to cause problems for everyone.

In conclusion, I (most likely falsely) believe that the show is pointing at a resolution for its “oh no the world is ending” plot that torments each season via the full reconciliation of Five and Vanya/Viktor’s bond and that ultimately, these two teaming up and properly communicating with each other will be the way to get to a timeline where the world doesn’t end for once and happy lives can be had for all.

If you’ve read all of this, I thank you for sitting through it. If you disagree with it, that's totally fair, and I welcome you to keep scrolling and ignore this post entirely.

[atamascolily]

The mirror crack'd from side to side; 'The curse is come upon me,' cried The Lady of Shalott. --Alfred Lord Tennyson

One thing that I appreciate about the ending of Rebellion is how reality literally splinters when Homura grabs Madokami's hands. It's such a visceral and compelling way to illustrate what is happening as everything that we took as "real" falls apart. This isn't quite what people mean by "breaking the fourth wall," but it's a similar effect, as it draws attention to an invisible barrier that we in the audience didn't even realize was there until it was broken. And of course it mirrors--pun 100% intended--the shattering of Homura's own soul gem moments earlier because any distinction between them no longer exists.

We often talk about a "mirrorverse" (thanks, Star Trek!) as a parallel universe where everything is reversed/inverted, but isn't that exactly what Homura has created here--a mirror universe?

And with the mirror come reflections. Lots of them. Everything is doubled, again and again.

It culminates with the tearing apart of Madoka from the Law of Cycles, complete with the sound of breaking glass.

What I hadn't quite realized before I watched this scene in slow motion is that as the glass continues to crack, it ends up forming a shape very similar to Homura's own soul gem--both have simultaneously broken and re-formed. (Note that even with all the "cracks", a series of nested diamonds--Homura's signature visual motif--are visible within it.) Only then do the "curses" come out and envelop everything...

...which leads to this fascinating series of everyone and their reflections being swallowed up.

I'm not quite sure how to interpret what happens next, but there's actually two parts: a crystalline structure that comes first, followed by the "curses" themselves.

Both end up covering the universe--but the "curses" end up forming a shield-like design while the mirror fragments/crystals remain in place.

Then, of course, Homura shatters her soul gem in her mouth, and it re-forms into Dark Orb (omg, I cannot write that with a straight face), which is basically the same thing that we already witnessed with a different set of symbols. At this point, the cracked glass imagery disappears, having fulfilled its purpose: the universe might be different now, a mirror version of what it once was, but it's no longer broken because it has been remade.

Breaking soul gems/glass is a major visual theme in Rebellion--Homura shatters her own soul gem with a bullet (doesn't take, because it was never real to begin with) and she and Madoka shattered the soul-gem shaped glass "bell jar" the Incubators have put her in--and here it reaches its apotheosis along with Homura, in a compact and striking sequence. On first watch, this scene feels like it comes out of nowhere, but on reflection (sorry not sorry), it's clear the entire movie was building towards this moment from the beginning.

I initially didn't read too much into the first key visual for Walpurgis no Kaiten because I assumed it was a placeholder from footage already on hand because they hadn't actually made the movie yet, but looking at it again in light of this discussion makes me reconsider my stance. This is not to say that I think this particular image will necessarily appear in the movie, but it does tie into the themes established in Rebellion of broken reality symbolized by a cracked mirror, and of Devil Homura reaching out to Madoka (hands again!) but being unable to connect because of a barrier between them, one that Homura no longer can control. However, my guess is that Walpurgis no Kaiten will express these same themes with unique and different imagery rather than completely re-hashing that of Rebellion.

That said, we're clearly not done with this theme entirely, because the second key visual has Homura facing off against a mirror version (mirrorverse?) of herself.

(in light of this discussion of cracked glass re-forming, that salamander head on the phone starts to make a lot more sense)

Furthermore, the trailer heavily features inverted/backwards writing, which also ties into Tarot symbolism and the concept of "reversed" cards--again emphasizing mirrors and mirror images. If Rebellion had echoes of Alice in Wonderland, it sure seems like Walpurgis no Kaiten is going for Through the Looking-Glass!

All the mirror/double imagery in Walpurgis no Kaiten didn't come out of nowhere--like so much of the movie, it appears to have been subtly foreshadowed in Rebellion, and is almost certainly a direct consequence of Homura's actions in this particular scene. All actions have consequences, and we'll find out what they are in the next movie.

tl;dr: It's all done with mirrors. :)

[lover-of-mine]

The thing I find fascinating is that the show runners are fully capable of writing engaging couples. Henren, Bathena & Madney – their relationships are beautiful. And then we have Buck and Eddie with their respective LIs. It’s almost as if they want the relationships to fail.

This season, they had every chance to set up Tommy as a suitable LI for Buck. But they didn’t? They didn’t even have to show a grand love confession or the likes, but at least some small gestures. Them holding hands in the hospital, Tommy dressing up for the bachelor party, being a little more sensitive when they ran into Eddie during that first date… Just a few simple things that would have made all the difference.

I feel like most of the love for Tommy comes from headcanons the fandom accepted as universal truths, while there isn’t much in canon to support it.

This isn’t meant to be hate on the character (though it probably will be taken that way by certain people), it’s just that I don’t think he is a good fit for Buck. He’s guarded and deflects with a dry sense of humor, when Buck needs a person to be vulnerable with. You know, someone who is so soft and sickeningly sweet with him. So far, I didn’t get much of the sorts from Tommy. But then again, we didn’t get to see a whole lot of the relationship actually playing out on screen, so who knows.

And the other thing that started to bother me is about the daddy issue thing. There is nothing wrong with showing (or alluding to) a couple having an active/kinky sex life. In general, I’m all in favor of it.

But looking back at season one, Buck used sex as an unhealthy coping mechanism to feel a connection to people. And he doesn’t have the best relationship with sex to begin with (Remember 7x05 and the talk with Eddie, where it hadn’t occurred to either of them that saying no is an option? Doesn’t sound healthy to me.) If they wanted to set Tommy apart, they should have put all their efforts into building an emotional connection between the two. I’m not saying that sex can’t be a part of it - not even that it can’t be kinky - but that the show should have put much more emphasis on the emotional aspect of it rather than the physical attraction.

Maybe it’s just wonky writing due to a shortened season but the relationship between the two isn’t half as good as it could have been.

No, but I made a post about this during the s6-7 hiatus, because it's not like the show doesn't know how to establish a love interest, bathena and madney work because all of them exist individually and Henren was introduced to us in a way where we would side with Karen, so even tho Karen only exists to be Hen's wife we care about her in a deeper way because Karen has never done anything wrong in her life. With Buck and Eddie all of the love interests are presented to us with something wrong with them. Shannon never had a fighting chance because she left and Eddie himself was never sure about her, Eddie was dating Ana and Marisol because he thought he had to, and I'm not even gonna go there with Kim. Abby breaks every possible protocol to call Buck, and she's never in it in the same way Buck is, Taylor tries to take advantage of Bobby's addiction for her personal gain and continues to take advantage of him to get ahead, Ali is never there, Natalia is too interested in Buck's death and Tommy is callous. There's a weird metaphor in there, but the basketball scene, the way Buck hits Tommy and ricochets back and Tommy doesn't even flinch. Buck needs someone who will bend. But the show didn't even try to establish an emotional connection between the two of them, everything comes back to the physical and with a character like Buck, who was shown using sex as a bad coping mechanism, to constantly make it seem like this new relationship isn't going beyond the sex is concerning. There were better ways to imply they are having sex. Even more considering the way the show had the opportunity to make it seem like they are building some sort of emotional connection and just chose not to. Every scene we had with the 2 of them could be rewritten adding the idea that they actually care about each other beyond the attraction, and that's a choice. To go the route they went is a choice. I'm still not over the way they had Tommy not dressing up and then Eddie suggesting matching outfits in the next scene. Like, it was that easy because they showed Eddie doing it. And I don't wanna compare, but with the constant triangle formation and the way they were showing Eddie as the person who understands Buck and Tommy as the dude Buck is fucking, we have nothing happening in our screen that makes it seem like Tommy is even a little fond of Buck and all I can think about is Buck standing in front of a hot air balloon with a huge bouquet of flowers for a woman who referred to him as a boytoy. Buck deserves someone who's gone for him and none of his canon love interests gave me that impression. And they make a very explicit choice to not make that implication. They could've been something, but right now they aren't. If you just watch the show you don't know why they are dating. They are just there. And coming from a show that wrote bathena, madney, and henren, and the way that Tommy being a firefighter gives him a fighting chance because it's real easy to make him exist outside of Buck, it's on purpose.

[themattress]

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Continued from my last post.

I cleared Chapter 3 and recruited the Ashen Wolves from Abyss on all three save files.

- More interesting character insights! On the Black Eagles file, I am again reminded what a precious bundle of nerves and neurosis Bernadetta is, and I enjoy the emotional conflicts between Hubert and Ferdinand over how to best service Edelgard and between Caspar and Petra over the former's father killing the latter's. On the Blue Lions file, I am amused by Annette's clumsy antics and fascinated by the conflict between Dimitri and Felix plus the related conflict between Dedue and Felix. And on the Golden Deer file, the relationships Claude, Hilda, Lorenz and Marianne all have with one another are great, as is the emotional conflict between Ignatz and Raphael over (again) the former's parents causing the death of the latter's. And of course, the Ashen Wolves are all fantastic, being unique representatives of all four factions (Church, Empire, Kingdom and Alliance) while also being their own faction.

- Because Lord Lonato is Ashe's adoptive father, I was sadistic and brought Ashe in as my mission assist character on both the Black Eagles and Golden Deer files, meaning he had to help kill his father on all three playthroughs! But that brings me to an interesting point: since the Black Eagles version of White Clouds was written first, they thus established Lonato as a character first and then created Ashe as his adopted son afterward; they would do the same in connecting Annette, Mercedes, Sylvain and Felix to Gilbert, Jeritza, Miklan and Rodrigue respectfully. But Ashe is a unique case in that....there's really not much purpose to him after this event. When you consider that the rest of the Blue Lions are the tightly-knit group of Dimitri, Dedue, Felix, Sylvain and Ingird plus the bestie duo of Annette and Mercedes, Ashe feels glaringly out of place. I don't mind the kid, but he's kind of a throwaway character.

- Speaking of Lonato, I'm not entirely sure how sympathetic I find him. His gripes with Rhea, Catherine and the Church of Seiros are absolutely valid, and while some other characters give him grief for involving the commoners he reigns over they are clearly following him of their own free will so I can't share their view. But on the other hand, he will flat-out try to kill his own adopted son when he's only trying to talk him down and reason with him, and in the Golden Deer version Claude says he and his insurgency would have ravaged all the small villages of innocent people on their march to sack Garreg Mach. Perhaps he was being manipulated by the Western Church, but Lonato ultimately seemed to let his grief over his eldest son blind him to everything else and make him go about things the worst possible way.

- As much as I love the Golden Deer route, I'll admit that it has the weakest scene following the battle. In the Black Eagles route, Edelgard reveals more of her character and how self-aware she is about the paradoxical nature of her philosophy: no hesitation or backing down from those with unreasonable views of justice that causes them to do terrible things "for the greater good" while also acknowledging that she isn't really any better since this requires her to risk the lives of others and take morally dubious actions in the name of what she considers "the greater good". Dimitri in the Blue Lions route, meanwhile, anguishes over this very philosophy and desperately wishes to believe there is another way, one which avoids bloodshed. Him noting that the insurgents killed were "fathers and sons" particularly highlights his own personal trauma from the Tragedy of Duscur, while him being against slaughter in the name of an alleged just cause hints at the shame he feels over what his kingdom did to the Duscur people. Claude, meanwhile, just loredumps, and it's information that you could find out elsewhere (ex: the first Support between Claude and Lorenz already discusses Claude's heritage and situation in the Alliance). Hilda at least brightens the scene up when she comes in, showing that she's more shrewd and perceptive than she lets on.

- Ummm....

So yeah, with this horrifying theocratical insight, Rhea's getting even more interesting.

[ben-talks-art]

Why I like Asa and Yoru

"Hypothetically…if one person in class…had to jump off a roof…and that person was to be chosen by a vote…I think they'd all vote for me. I'd vote for me too."

Chainsawman has probably my favorite cast of female characters in any action shounen manga. Something about the way this author writes women just really works for me.

I always hate in manga when a female character is just the male lead's friend, or the male lead's love interest, or the male lead's mom, or teacher, or secretary, or dog walker or whatever... Basically, they tend to either have no character or life outside of the male lead's world.

Something I really like about Chainsawman is that all the girls and women act like they could be the protagonist of their own stories. They all act like they have their own problems, their own goals, their own sh*t to deal with... They all feel like actual characters and not just things to be added to the male lead's story. If something happened to Denji and he were to die or something they each would still have a life to live and a story to tell.

So when I saw that part 2 of the manga would focus on a girl as the new protagonist, I got really excited!

(spoilers for Chainsawman)

And just as I imagined, it took me just one chapter to completely fall for Asa. I love this girl.

Just like all the other girls in the series, she feels like she has her own struggles to deal with. She hates devils and yet has to live in a world where everyone's biggest hero is a devil, both of her parents are dead and she has no friends which means she's always alone, and everywhere she goes she keeps attracting bad luck after bad luck, be it a devil trying to kill her, her classmates trying to kill her (in more than one ways), or the crazy girl inside her head threatening to kill her.

But what's really interesting is that, even though she deals with a lot (and it really is a lot, my God I feel sorry for her...) she is always true to her ideals.

Even though Asa has probably all the reason in the world to just be the most miserable person alive, she never stops being a nice person. Any time she's offered the option to help someone right in front of her she takes it, even if things don't work out in the end and she ends up getting really hurt as a result.

Something that I don't feel many people often realize is that being a selfish jerk is easy... Like, absurdly easy. There is nothing more tempting than just saying "My problems matter more than yours, so deal with it!"

Again, by all accounts, Asa should be the world's biggest supervillain because almost everyone and everything treats her like garbage... And yet, for some reason she still remains a good girl, never betraying her standards.

I'm not sure if it's because she knows how ugly it is to be a bad person and she refuses to be like them, or if the little love she received in life is enough to stop her from falling into temptation, but for whatever reason, she still continues to be one of the noblest heroes I've ever seen, even despite all the misery she faces every day.

But aside from being a noble and kind soul, Asa also has amazing chemistry with her internal roommate, Yoru.

I've always been a big fan of this trope, the two souls in one being, the devil in your ear, the demon that hides a secret power in the protagonist's body.

I liked it in Naruto with the fox, I liked it in Bleach with the inner hollow, and I also liked it in Soul Eater where they have people turn into weapons and have their souls literally connect, or in the Kane Chronicles where they have the protagonists be hosts for the Egyptian gods.

It's just a really fun idea with the concept of establishing a strong bond with another being and having them understand you on a deeper level than most people would. Having someone that knows your whole story, your secrets, your fears, your worries... It's kinda scary but at the same time fascinating because you have someone constantly looking at you and making you realize things about yourself you didn't even know about.

And that's exactly what Yoru is.

She's always pushing Asa to question and challenge her ideals. making her see who she truly is, and what she truly wants. It's like having a psychiatrist inside your head, constantly talking to you about who you are... And they do it in such a charming way.

Yoru keeps going back and forth between being this threatening creature holding Asa hostage to this complete dork who has no idea how the real world or how people work. It reminds me of Shen and Po how Asa goes from being scared of her to just being baffled by her.

These two have such good chemistry, probably the best one I've seen from this trope. I could watch them just talking to each other forever.

I love how Yoru keeps acting like she's so elegant, sophisticated, and gracious always making these exaggerated poses as if she was in a perfume commercial or modeling for a magazine... But when you hear her actually talking she kinda sounds like she's five years old, and you just have Asa looking at her antics and trying to process how to even react to her. It's just great mood backlash that really works.

I know it's weird to like a character so much when these two only had about 10 chapters of existence so far... But even from the little pieces I've seen from them I feel so many things clicking just right for me.

Great chemistry, great ideals, great personality... And I didn't even talk about how awesome their "war powers" are.

I completely adore this duo and I'm very happy with this new direction for Chainsawman!

Favorite character list>>

[bthump]

It’s clear that Guts irrevocably loves Casca, and holds a deep intrinsic trust for her. This has been the case since their first meeting. During golden age Guts was Casca’s one ticket out of a life of pining and living for a man and dream who had never given her a second thought. With Guts she had experienced camaraderie and understanding, and each were mutually fascinated by the other, their loyalty and motivations and their ways of thinking because in each other were they only able to find someone who would stare back. Mutual recognition forged their relationship and so they loved each other. Ignoring that they loved each other, perhaps even love each other now makes Guts’ character development post-eclipse entirely void. There is no humanity in Guts without Casca. I don’t think arguing about this from a 30 year old manga is what Miura would want for his masterpiece like don’t y’all ever get tired of squinting your eyes and deliberately ignoring parts of your favorite story just to push an agenda?

I debated just ignoring this like I usually do lol but I already had a functional answer written up in response to someone else's ask, so I figured what the hell, I'll post it first and link you to it.

voila

So like, speaking of ignoring parts of your favourite story just to push an agenda, it's convenient that you've forgotten all those incredibly unromantic, often downright cold and cruel moments that aren’t very compatible with irrevocable love.

But also since I'm answering this anyway I might as well add: Not only are their feelings for each other never described in terms of love throughout the entire manga (despite some incorrect scanlations you may have seen), but Guts' feelings for Casca are being deliberately portrayed as ambiguous. There's a reason we cut away after Roderick asks who Casca is to Guts, and it's because we don't know. We're not meant to know, yet. Guts’ relationship with Casca is far from loving, and I would argue his feelings are much more complex and darker than love.

And I don’t think Guts has to be/have been in love with Casca for his character development to make sense lol. That development started with Puck, post-Eclipse, and it started with Griffith in the Golden Age. It has continued with a whole entourage of characters, and since he let himself get possessed and nearly killed Casca, then nearly assaulted her sans possession afterwards, before letting them join him, I think they’re just as if not more important to his character development. Protecting Casca is one facet of what drives his character right now, and he doesn’t have to be in love with her to want to do that - frankly I fully believe she could be replaced with any of the Hawks and he’d be doing the exact same thing right now (aside from the assault) because first and foremost, as detailed to us in chapter 130, described by Guts in chapter 94, and often shown in how he thinks of her in her commander role, she represents the Hawks to him.

Oh and lastly as a sidenote, I assume you’re calling Guts not freaking out when he woke up with her in chapter 13 “deep intrinsic trust,” but that was textually because she’s a woman rather than a man, not because of some magic spiritual connection he has with her specifically. It’s actually pretty homoerotically suggestive, especially considering he’s also cool with Griffith’s touch in the very next chapter.

And then there’s what Miura has to say on the subject in interviews, such as:

“The point I had to pay attention to was making sure the flow of the story wasn't completely severed with the Eclipse. That's why I spared Casca. If she had died and the serialization had continued for a long time, I feared the reason for revenge would become something of the past; and if Guts were to establish new relationships, then his incentive would waver. It may seem calculating and unpleasant, but it's because Casca's by his side that he can never forget the Eclipse.”

“I actually hadn't planned for Guts and Casca to get together, you know – it just occurred to me partway through that it'd be more dramatic that way.”

Neither of which suggests to me that he ever intended to write a straightforward romance. Casca is there for added drama and she’s there so Guts can’t forget the eclipse (underlining the Beast of Darkness’ suggestion that she’s precious because she’s the wound Griffith left, incidentally).

I've never said Guts doesn't have positive feelings for her, but so far their relationship hasn’t been an epic, or even a realistic and sweet, romance, and it doesn’t have to be for Guts’ character to make perfect sense.

[whosscruffylooking]

The Purest Things: Wingmen (Aaron Hotchner x Female BAU! Reader)

this is based on season 10 episode 10 “amelia porter”

Warnings: None. Pure Fluff.

A/N: I am so beyond obsessed with the mutual pining. Initially, this was going to be one part, but I have to slow burn the heck out of this, so it'll be a few parts. Enjoy!

The Purest Things Masterlist

august 2014

Bookend: "You meet thousands of people and none of them really touch you. And then you meet one person and your life is changed forever." – Love & Other Drugs

I walk into the jazz club, searching for Rossi. For the past year and a half, we have frequented this classy establishment, bonding over our shared passion for jazz and fine liquor. We come here every Friday unless the job keeps us away. It's a form of escapism that I have grown to cherish deeply. With a job like ours, finding something to look forward to each week, some semblance of a routine is crucial.

I stroll over to “our” booth, but instead of seeing David’s familiar face, it's that of the Unit Cheif. I throw my head back and laugh, “Of all the people I could have expected to see here...you were not one of them.”

Don't get me wrong; I'm not upset to find him here. I could never get enough of him. I see him nearly every day of the week, I have weekly movie nights with Jack, and Aaron and I have been to hell and back with each other over the years.

He shakes his head and smirks, “What can I say? I'm full of surprises.”

“So tell me Aaron Hotchner, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company this evening?”

“David Rossi, ” he emphasizes.

“So you’ve been recruited as one of his wingmen too huh?”

“Apparently so.”

“Well I'm glad you're here.” I slide into the booth next to him.

He glides his cup in circles along the tablecloth, “Me too.”

“May I pry?” I inquire.

He nods, “You may.”

“Why exactly are you here? Believe me, I'm thrilled you're joining us, but David and I have been coming here for over a year. Why'd he invite you now?”

His shoulders tense up, and then he inhales deeply, the tension releasing when he exhales.

“If I'm being completely honest, I think it has something to do with the fact that Beth and I are no longer together.”

“Oh my God, Hotch. I'm so sorry, I didn't know.”

Aaron looks up at me; the professional man, the profiler I'm so familiar with, is gone. Instead, he looks at me with the eyes of a vulnerable man, someone who loves so passionately and craves that same love in return. This isn't the first time he's looked at me with those eyes, and I pray that it is not the last time. If it were anyone else, the prolonged eye contact would deter me; my glance would dart in the other direction. But, for years, I have savored these intimate moments with him. I'm not exactly sure when this connection began or when it deepened to the awareness we now have of one another.

Most likely, it began shortly after Haley’s death, when I started to spend more time with Jack or those late nights working in the office with him. Maybe it was that time I brought him his favorite coffee and bagel to his house because I knew he wouldn’t feed himself otherwise.

(Aaron’s P.O.V.)

I gaze at her with utmost fascination. She is a mystery I have never been able to solve, a profile I cannot complete. She is whole, a pillar of strength for our team, her family, me, and Jack. Yet, there is a fear within her that mimics a young child scared of the monsters that are both imagined and real. She’s seen and experienced things that no one her age should have to witness. I can see through the worn expression on her face. She’s holding herself together for the sake of everyone around her, but inside she’s slowly falling apart. All I want is to help mend those crumbling pieces and hold her together. She doesn’t realize that she has been doing that very thing for me for the past four years.

In my life, I have had the opportunity to love deeply and freely. But two of those loves stand in realms of their own. The first time I fell in love, it was with an opposite. A precious, symbolic tale of love and loss.

With Beth, I did love her. She gave me the strength to feel something again after Haley died. I found the ability to move forward with hope and recognition that I deserve happiness once again.

The second great love came in the form of a mirror. We share an empathy, an understanding of the fundementals of life and love that shapes our individual values. I was far from perfect when we met; I was detached, damaged, and hopeless. I felt like I was barely a man. Truth be told, I won’t be perfect after the fact either. But, she gives me a sense of realness that I never perceived as possible. And since the day we met before I even accepted the actuality of my affections for her, I strove to better myself. Every day since, and for the rest of my life, I want to work every day to be the man she deserves and needs.

Awakening from my trance, I speak up, “I am grateful every day for the relationship I had with Beth. I truly did love her. I love her still for the person she helped me become. I realized, through her, that I can choose to move forward with my life.”

“You deserve to be happy, Aaron,” she interjects.

“Some time ago, Rossi came into my office encouraging me to start dating again. He reminded me that Haley wouldn’t want me to avoid moving on. Of course, my immediate instinct was to deny that I was guilty of just that. But he was right. He told me that I am no good to anyone when I’m miserable.”

She throws her head back and laughs, “Miserable? No, I wouldn’t call you that. Slightly uptight? Absolutely.”

I gasp, exaggerating a look of offense, “I’m hurt.”

She touches my arm, and I can feel my heart stop for a beat. Something about her touch elevated my heart and soul to another plain. It’s as if her small hand on my forearm revealed the certainty I had been searching for.

I chuckle, “Don’t worry. David and I came to the same conclusion.”

“Phew,” she breathes out a sigh of relief, “Good because I didn’t know how I was going to dig myself out of that hole....but please, continue what you were saying.”

I take a deep breath, “When you and I met I had already lost my entire world. Haley had just recently taken Jack, we were fighting constantly, and then...” I feel my eyes beginning to sting, and I realize that she hasn’t taken her grip off my arm once she squeezes it reassuringly.

“When Haley died, it felt like I was staring into an abyss. After the funeral, you found me alone, in some room that I had escaped to for some solace. But I didn’t feel any relief. And then, you came in. You sat across from me, and we just sat in silence. Somehow though, more was said in that silence than I had ever dared to utter out loud to someone. You didn’t know it then, but you saved me that day. You saved Jack too.”

I hear her short intake of breath and look over to see her lip beginning to tremble.

“Aaron...”

As much as I want to hear her melodic voice speak to me now, when I am most unarmed, a feeling that is entirely foreign to me, I have never felt so driven to yell from the top of my lungs a profession of love for this woman.

I begin to speak again, and I am immediately interrupted by Rossi, accompanied by the jazz singer hooked on his arm.

“La mia bella ragazza! Finalmente sei arrivato,” he says, kissing the top of her head. She blushes slightly, her eyes flickering to me briefly.

“You are a sight for sore eyes my dear. Is she not Aaron?”

I take a sip of my drink, glancing at y/n, her beautiful y/e/c sparkling back at me. How can anyone put into words just how beautiful she is?

I nod, “She is indeed.”

I’m suddenly made aware of the absence of her touch on my arm. How can someone’s touch both simultaneously have such a stronghold on you and also set you free? Regardless of the reason, I long to savor that feeling once again.

“Well,” she inches out of the booth, “I’m going to get a drink. Can I get you boys anything?”

We shake our heads in unison. Rossi suggests that his date join her.

He places his hand on my shoulder, “So? Any progress made?”

“I don’t want to overwhelm her. There’s so much I want to say. But I feel like I’ve put her through enough already. I’m an old man Dave. I’m a widower with a son. The damage I’d be asking her to cope with, the burden I’d be subjecting her to...”

David clears his throat and slips his phone out of his pocket. He swipes through some photos in his camera roll and lands on a photo of y/n and me. It’s from a cocktail party he hosted a few years ago. Jack, y/n, and I are sitting on the grass in Rossi’s backyard playing with dandelions. I can still hear their laughter filling the air: Jack’s squeals and y/n’s child-like giggles. We felt like a family. I would give anything to relive those moments of genuine bliss, to feel that sensation of being complete, heart, mind, and soul once more.

“Sometimes,” Rossi begins, “when people are destined to be together, their love grows over an undetermined span of time. It could be months, weeks, even years. You both may feel the shared pain of this rollercoaster called life and the hurt that comes from being separated from one another, but this helps you better grasp the priceless value and purity of the love you share. There is no easy road to love. Anyone who claims otherwise is doomed to be plagued by the mediocrity that is a false sense of security. The path you are on, Aaron is the one walked by the greatest lovers in history. In layman’s terms, don’t screw this up.”

[michals]

Ooh yes, I'm digging that angst potential. I'd love to see the return of complex, character-centric storylines like that again. I think everyone got simplified for S2... We got great sibling moments for it, but lost some depth in the process for everyone in the process, RIP. Man, though, S2 AU where Luther was with Reginald? That would be WILD. Imagine Luther interacting with human!Grace, or him being there to see the serum used on Baby Pogo.

I think what s2 did was focus more on the siblings with each other vs them with themselves which definitely meant that them as individuals had to become kind of simplified. Lost some depth from them for sure, but maybe now that the new guidelines for their relationships has been established they can shake up the characters as individuals and use those relationships in a new way. (Like, vanya’s obviously bonded with allison and klaus even more so if she gets her own moments we can see how that effects her relationships with them). Also right?? I mean it’d kind of hijack his whole storyline for s2 but the idea of Luther being with Reggie during that whole time in the 60′s? Could have been so fascinating. Cause I see it as Reggie would treat human Grace and Pogo the same as he actually does but Luther really would just be an outsider at that point (that Reggie uses as a bodyguard or something?) so him seeing Reggie treat them with actual human kindness would absolutely mess him up but he’d still stick around cause he doesn’t know anything else. 

I do like Luther and Diego and I appreciate the two of them together in s2, they really put effort (writers and actors) into making them an interesting, but funny, dynamic. Very def someone behind the scenes realized there was too much himbo power for it to be continued to be contained. But I can see s3 pushing them apart again if they do go with Luther having conflicting feelings about Reggie. Like, I like the idea of Diego seeing the Sparrows and everything Reggie’s done and being all ‘fuck this, fuck you, fuck them, right guys??’ and Luther dealing with his loyalty and connection to Reginald and shrinking away from that. 

[funkymbtifiction]

Hey ! So this maybe isn't your thing but I'm a bit lost with all this Ne Si stuff... I know I'm an ENFP and understand my profil (which is kinda accurate to be honest) but what about my Ne/Si or whatever ? I know you're an ENFP too so if you could help me figuring that out that'd be super nice ! 😊

The Basics: Ne is shorthand for Extroverted Intuition, which means your insights and ideas come from the external world, through building connections between unrelated topics – the more you learn, the easier it is to make these connections and form intuitive perceptions and reach conclusions. An example would be me at breakfast, having briefly read something on how rituals can ‘anchor’ and comfort you, because your mind likes to be ‘settled, taking that information, applying it to someone in my life whose habitual behaviors confound me and perceiving that she has gone too far to the extreme, and become a slave to her rituals – she is in bondage to her rituals. It’s like… OCD in that she cannot break away from her ritualistic behavior, which in her mind establishes a ‘safe zone’ that she runs to whenever she feels threatened.

If you have Ne, your mind continually changes as it meets new information. So, last week my conclusion about said friend might have been simply OCD, and the week before that, anxiety disorder. I try on different perceptive insights until I find one that fits, that makes sense, that seems right… in the full knowledge that this Ne-based insight will shift in another few days to include something else. My mind naturally moves from one possibility to the next, and only comes back to former ideas if they seem the most likely or continually tug at me, as if to prove that they are the right insight / conclusion / something to pursue.

This is unavoidable … and to people on the outside of your mind, looks random, scattered, and undisciplined, because this happens with everything, all the time. For a Ne-dom, life is a constant influx of information, but your mind automatically presents you with alternatives to everything. I’ll give you another example: I often like villains in stories, because I find many of them intelligent and emotionally damaged or complex, and as an amateur psychologist I find any kind of emotional disorder fascinating. But even if I were to start defending a villain on an emotional level, and pointing out reasons not to hate him, my mind would automatically supply me with arguments to my own statements – with the result that at the end of the debate, if I did not take and hold to my position, I have probably concluded… nothing.

Right now, I’m trying to decide what type I think Petyr Baelish is in Game of Thrones. My Ne can see truth in arguments for INFJ and ENTP. After reading a couple of solid Ni-dom arguments and thinking about it, I felt fairly confident about INFJ. Then I read some convincing arguments for ENTP and… I’m back in the land of “I do not know.” I will have to sit down, write out something on Petyr, speculate as to his motives, and discern his methods, to reach a conclusion on his type… and even then, I’m open to the idea my perception may be wrong. (I lean more toward Ni-dom, though.)

This indecision and inability to choose between alternate perspectives is useful in that it makes me objective in any argument and able to see how both sides’ opinions have equal worth and deserve equal consideration… but it comes at the cost of, and because of, low Introverted Sensing (Si), which is a stabilizing force in types who have more of it than I do. The people more sure of their opinions, who can handle and remember details, who do not change their minds constantly and seem to have a ‘secure’ position in their mind have higher Si, whereas I struggle to develop mine, to figure out how to process and store information, to know what my bodily needs and limits are (I tend to push myself too hard on intellectual levels and wind up emotionally and mentally drained; I look at the SJs in my life and wonder, “How can you relax like that?!”), and to remember my position on this topic last week.

The nice thing is that when I’m working on something, I often get good ideas for other things to do that stem from some innocuous comment I just made, but I can get distracted and have poor follow through unless I focus and force myself to work on one thing at a time.

Not sure if that sheds any insight for you, but it’s all I’ve got. I’m tired.

- ENFP Mod

[elizabethrobertajones]

Yeah, i'm trying not to speculate too much either, but I agree, I feel pretty certain that the Cas that healed Dean and later died was definitely our Cas. I think the differences in him people are pointing out are due to the ways the nephilim is subtly controlling him as you said. AU cas seems to be a very popular theory, but I just don't get it. Also, i don't know how AU Cas could manage to look like exactly like our Cas when Bobby said the AU angels are very different.

Hi! Yeah, the not wanting to speculate part makes this something I don’t want to particularly talk about because it’s almost all dead ends where we run into speculation. 

What I saw was in 12x19 a very competently executed episode with callbacks and symbolism and framing to suggest Cas was moderately-to-severe fucked up by the nephilim but with the end scene, in a very ambiguous way about his concern to the Winchesters or sense of free will being impacted - just that he had a new “right” to follow. In 12x23 he’s basically Cas except he’s having key Destiel conversations with Kelly (using “of course” to her is SUCH a tell I feel like I should get one of the compilation gifsets of it and slap a gif of that at the bottom :P) and saying he would die for the nephilim but also raise her son - totally contradictory but he was explaining his deepest heart and motivations at that point. THOSE were changed, Cas himself was not any different than a regular tuesday in how he felt and acted and treated Kelly and his duty, and then when Sam and Dean showed up, how he treated them. 

He WAS defensive of Jack to the point of knowing the rift was made by him, that Sam and Dean would flip and treat it as a bad thing. Objectively, “this baby tears holes in reality” is a horrifying statement, but Cas calmly says that of course Jack will close it and he has faith. They don’t and Crowley dies to close it, and Jack is never tested on if he would have done it or not despite what Cas thought. I suspect if this is his main horrifying new power we’ll get it tested again and find out how Jack feels about doing it but since I hate speculating, whether I think he’ll do that for good or bad is totally up in the air to me and I genuinely don’t have a stake in it because any which way will tell an interesting story and serve his purpose in the narrative on what they choose to do with it.

Cas also then could act normally and fight with Sam and Dean to protect Jack when Lucifer showed up at the front door, but I think when he charged into the rift, it was at that point purely to spite Lucifer (see also: endless Cas n Crowley parallels) and to see what was going on as Sam and Dean still hadn’t returned from the rift and it was still open and he had full freedom to be worried about them, so I don’t think he did that for Jack, the more I think about it, although if he WAS being controlled, a rage to kill his father would be thematically fascinating and I feel Jack did reject Lucifer in 12x19 already.

I also think Cas could in no way have been replaced the first time he went in the rift as we saw enough to him meeting Bobby and that was all Cas, and no way in HELL Bobby would let AU Castiel come near them (and he would not look like our Cas) and Bobby only didn’t shoot Cas immediately because he looked so harmlessly dorky. I get that him coming out the portal unharmed seemed suspicious at first but once we knew all the details and that Cas had been under Bobby’s watch the entire time I can’t see ANY room for AU Castiel to swoop in and take him, because Cas’s first trip in Bobby was there the whole time, and the second time in, Lucifer was a much bigger problem, and as I said I think he made Cas leave the portal because Lucifer urgently wanted to NOT be stuck in the AU and it was more fun to kill Cas in front of his friends. I think that was probably Cas’s angel blade and he walked Cas back to the portal, shoved him through, and then killed him. So again, total character continuity for Cas, and there’s no room for it to be anything else, and no implication in the story that put a MASSIVE neon sign on rat Crowley to swap Cas out.

They also showed a flashback of Cas filling with the power when he was talking to Kelly earlier in the episode, about Paradise, and spouting all these lines that go right back to season 5 and what Dean got told over and over about what the angels wanted and how they’d make paradise on earth, which goes hand in hand with the neon sign that Cas having faith is a bad thing because it confirms Jack’s vision of the future is equally as bad as the one Cas fought in season 5, and what he lost his original faith over, so even while showing Cas fully in control of his actions and feelings, his motivation and purpose were clearly derailed and we were shown Cas being overtaken with that power before he said all that so… I feel like it was a visual demonstration of the power going into him and Cas’s heart being borrowed to protect Jack’s paradise.

These are all things I see in the events that actually happened this season, and as I’ve been talking to Mittens today about not caring about speculating, I’m genuinely 100% content, Destiel went canon in that last shot of them together, I have nothing to ask, I’m sitting back and letting whatever happens in season 13 happen, and for me trying to outguess the plot is no fun. As a meta writer I’ve always most enjoyed playing with established canon and thinking deeper into what we already have to expose the truths and feelings underneath it, rather than treating it as a puzzle to explain what’s happening next - in that respect we have like 3 puzzle pieces from 2 different games, while with the whole canon we have a 8mil piece puzzle and every one of us analysing the show is only ever going to manage to put together a few thousand pieces in some random corner of it, and a few patches here and there elsewhere :P But at least I can build a hell of a lot more of the puzzle than I could trying to speculate because if I get one piece wrong, I’m attempting to build an entire puzzle connected to the wrong thing, and the next thing that happens in the show might take the one bit I was sure of and unhook it from the entire seemingly finished picture I tacked onto it without realising I had the wrong bit of sky from another puzzle :P