#but Jack wasn’t revealed until book 5

[evita-shelby]

Finn’s mums and dads

Or the 5 times Finn called Eva mom and the one time he called Tommy dad

Gif by @outerbanksxpeakyblinders

“Bye, mum.” Finn said as he rushed out the door after getting his packed lunch from Eva.

She knew Finn had a crush on her, but somehow him thinking her as a mother figure made her apprehensive.

Should she tell Polly about it, or Ada?

No, it would be awkward enough as it is. How do you say ‘Finn called me mom and I am not concerned because now I feel old and responsible, but because I don’t know if that is okay with you, his real family’ without dredging up things that are difficult to speak of already.

Martha Shelby had gotten the baby blues and her idiot husband, the arrest of both Arthurs and not having the money to give Thomas a chance to use his potential in university had driven her to step into the canal.

Or that was what Polly had confided in her, and something Ada doesn’t know she knows.

Yeah, that seems sensible.

Keep your mouth shut and carry on, Evita, the witch tells herself as she goes back to her chores.

“Come here, kid.” Eva crouched a little to get a good look on the blood on Finn’s lip. “Does anything else hurt?”

A fight in class, one boy had called him names and called Ada a slut and Finn responded to those words with his fists.

Polly didn’t know yet, but she would be livid. Not at Finn, but at the boy and his mother who was already on Polly Gray’s black books.

“No. I’m fine, mum.” He said, still sniffling from being blamed for all of it.

“Finn calls me mum all the time, Ada too, he thinks the world of you. I hope you aren’t put off by it, Eva.” The older witch said as Finn played with colored pencils on the dining table.

This time Eva can’t keep quiet, especially when she tells Polly about Finn’s altercation in school.

“No, not at all. I just wasn’t sure if you were comfortable with that, Pol.” The witch said relieved. Some don’t like that; some utterly hate the idea of anyone thinking of other people being seen as a mother figure.

“Are you comfortable with that? With the idea of being a honorary Shelby?”

“I don’t think it is healthy that he calls your mother.” Grace expressed her opinion quite boldly after Finn called her mum as he thanked her for the ice cream she had bought him.

Finn had never seen a museum, and Eva had taken observing the Irish broad like a scientist observing bacteria in a petri dish.

She came here often, met up with a man Eva didn’t know and today, Finn tagged along.

“Mrs. Gray is fine with it, as is Ada Shelby.” Eva said coolly.

Grace was jealous of her friendship with the Shelbys. Apparently, she wasn’t quite sure her boy toy’s no at Uncle Jack’s proposition weeks ago was a real and firm no.

The witch feels guilty for using him as an accessory, but the kid also got to see the museum that Ada expressed a desire to work for until a background check revealed she was a Shelby, a communist and engaged to a Jewish man.

But Eva doesn’t give a shit her subject of interest is jealous of her, that is of no consequence to the retired spy.

What she does give a shit about is a lying rat telling her not to show love to a child.

So she pricks her with her next words.

“Besides, if I do end up becoming Mrs. Thomas Shelby, it will be easier for him to adjust to my presence.”

“Mum!” Finn runs to her, and Eva is relieved when the Billy Boy trying to show off being Kimber’s driver buys into the lie.

In the next second Eva stops being Miss and turns to Mrs even though she would have been eleven or twelve had she been Finn’s mother.

“Oi, you sweet talking my sister-in-law?” Esme lies with ease and a scowl that sells it even to John who is with her.

The driver stutters an apology and returns to the vehicle as the three Shelbys and Eva walk down the street to her grandmother’s house.

Finn comes over every chance he gets, more especially now that he has asked her to help him catch up to the other boys in school.

“That’s Tommy Shelby’s wife you’re speaking to.” John said making it worse.

He's planning to surprise Polly with an acrostic poem written and recited by him on her birthday.

A surprise Thomas knows about because the boy pilfered one of his books on poetry.

Well worn and well loved, and the last thing the witch had expected to know about the gangster she has only spoken to once.

“Your brother won’t think it funny, John.” Eva warned as the newly married widower jokingly called her his long-suffering sister-in-law.

“Let him and blondie fight over it, least we could do to him after what he did to Ada and Freddie.” Esme laughed.

“Happy Mother’s Day.” Finn stands there on her doorstep, with his hair combed and neat, in his Sunday’s best and holding a small but rather adorable bouquet of sunflowers.

“He’s giving all of the women he considers mother figures flowers,” Thomas explains as he stands there at her doorstep and the witch finds herself replaying that strange little fantasy where they are something more than friends.

But she wants him, loves him in the way she loved Antonia.

“They’re beautiful, Finn. I and honored that you consider me one of your mums.” Eva thanked him genuinely and the boy turned beet red and stammered a ‘you’re welcome’.

“There’s a poem too, Tommy helped me write it.” Finn said and Eva’s immediately drawn back to the man she cannot want.

“And who’s the lucky lady getting those?” Eva asked seeing the forget-me-nots Tommy was holding.

And it is because of that that she must refuse his offers of courtship at every turn.

“We saved the best for last; these are for our mother.” There is a pained undertone to his voice, a sweet sadness that is becoming on him.

“Tell her I said hello, then.” She said and sent them on their way.

“I love you, dad.” Finn mumbles in his sleep and clings to Tommy who doesn’t bother hiding the heartbreak those words cause him.

Eva is no stranger to him and the things he hides beneath the surface, and yet this makes him feel as if he’s somehow bare to the bone before her.

This was just supposed to be a drive to the countryside where they’d pick a pony for Finn, just Tommy, Finn and Eva.

It had been a beautiful fantasy, him with a woman he loves on his arm, quietly pretending Finn is theirs doing something any family does.

He should be used to it, Finn liked to make up for the lack of a father by calling those he finds worthy of the title by it.

And then it comes careening down when Finn says those four words after falling asleep on the picnic blanket.

Tommy, Arthur and John were his primary fathers, then Jeremiah, Charlie and Curly and now, Freddie fucking Thorne.

But it had stopped when they had come back and never with something as strong as an ‘I love you.

“I love you too, Finn.”

[thehiddengodsofficial]

The Hidden Gods Origins Book 5: Heinrik

!!TW!! Hefty stuff as usual do not read if you are under 18 yada yada

Jack Ricther was the son of a Human Man and a Demon Princess who was the Daughter of The Dark Lord Davoth. Jack was raised in a cabin with his older sister in the woods until he was Seven; When Demon Hunters came and Killed his entire family.

Jack was spared as a sick form of torture as he’d endure survivors guilt, and was sold to a circus; due to Jack’s heritage, He went through an Eye Injection of Holy Water every day to prevent him from escaping. However, one day they forgot to inject him, Jack tried to escape but realized he couldn’t leave unless he killed the guard. Jack hated violence and wouldn’t hurt a fly, even if to escape he couldn’t bring himself to do it; This is when his Demon side showed. His mind drew itself into a corner while Jack suffered an existential crisis. Which is when Heinrik Manifested.

Heinrik ripped the Guard Limb from Limb before killing every person who had a part in his agony. VERY LITTLE is known about what happened after this. But what is known is Heinrik became a “Time Remnant” which meant he was not anchored to any set time so the time he existed in would change frequently. The only place this didn’t happen was Hell. Although since Davoth and The Doom Slayer's defeat to General Sentinal Vinyxl'dan, Hell had become a barren wasteland and Heinrik found it worthless to rule over nothing.

So he traveled to another Hell that he found more interesting, Although unfortunately Heinrik’s status was stripped from him due to it not being his Hell, as it belonged to the Reich Family. He mainly made deals with Humans who summoned him and went on rampages in the Realities. However, one day he was summoned by a Scientist who was creating a monster. The Scientist said he needed Heinrik to do an intimate act with a willing human and she would bear the experiment. In return Heinrik would receive his soul, Heinrik accepted being bored out of his mind.

 Heinrik later on found out the human he had to be intimate with actually wasn’t willing at first and the Scientist had lied. Heinrik went berserk. The ONE moral code Heinrik followed and Oathed to keep that his Bloodline created was: 

“Never use someone’s body for your Pleasure, only their pain.”

Heinrik would Torture someone for days on end but anything that is sexual and meant to invoke pleasure IN ANY WAY was punishable by death as the Richter family saw nothing more disgusting then that. Before Heinrik could get his claws on the scientist, he Broke the contract so Heinrik couldn’t get to him by exploiting a technicality loophole. Heinrik as a form of vengeance gave the Child that would be created from him demonic powers on top of the regeneration and strength it’d possess. This would ensure that if the child survived, they would eventually come back to him after killing the Scientist…

One night while Heinrik was on Earth, staring at a wall for no particular reason, A woman passed him, seeing that she would ask him something. He preemptively turned his head towards her; She stopped and turned around before asking him

“Um Sir do you need something? I can feel your Eyes Wandering.”

Heinrik smirked,

“What eyes?”

Heinrik said as he approached her removing his Sunglasses revealing his Gouged out Eyes. She quickly examined Heinrik’s face before saying

“Eh, Magic exists for a Reason, and just by that I can tell that your not Human.”

Heinrik sensed she was digging through his head, intriguing him. The Woman smirked,

“Ah another Demon, and not of these Hell’s?”

Heinrik Shrugged,

“Eh, All Hell’s are the same to me. Shit.”

The Woman chuckled,

“I suppose they are all terrible.”

The two exchanged a Laugh before the Woman got a call on her Phone. She put it down after a few moments before taking it back out and muttering

“Fuck, What time is it?”

Heinrik blurted out

“21:37, Military Time.”

The woman paused as she looked at her phone and briefly looked into his head again.

“Ah Future Sight? Not common.” She remarked

She began to walk away but turned to see Heinrik right in front of her

“Ah yes wou- oh yeah I forgot, come this way.”

After a walk to a Dimensional Tear, She introduced herself.

“Oh yeah, my name's Ezmadora, you can call me whatever.”

Heinrik bowed to Ezmadora

“I am Heisenberg Richter, Former Heir of The Dark Lord Davoth, You may call me Heinrik. Honored to make your acquaintance.”

Ezma laughed,

“You can drop the formalities, it's not a job interview.”

Heinrik tilted his head,

“Well being in the presence of Princess Ezmadora I figured it’d be respectful.”

Ezma raised her eyebrow and chuckled to herself as they entered the Tear. When they exited, a genetically mutated and cybernetically augmented Elder Reaper interestingly enough greeted them. It spoke through a translator and led them to the Party in a Royal Mansion. Ezma wandered away from Heinrik, doing her own thing.

As Heinrik wandered, the first thing he would've noticed is a 25 Feet tall, 33 Feet long demonic Carcharodontosaurus, one of the last of its kind. But then Heinrik saw Gryphon. The man who single handedly slaughtered Exterminators and is clearly part of I.M.P. seeing as Flyers advertising it with him on it were everywhere. Heinrik studied Gryphon, noticing he had his sword at his hip obviously ready for anything at any time, he had clearly been through a lot based on his Scars.

After the Party, Heinrik approached Gryphon. Gryphon was going to say something but was cut off by Heinrik pulling a wad of Souls.

“I’ll pay you 1,000 Souls to fight me right here, right now, no killing.”

Gryphon turned his head confused. 

“Suuuure; anything else I should know?”

“Just that this is out of respect, not spite. I just wanna see something” Heinrik responded.

Gryphon unsheathed his Sword and ignited the Destined death within it. He nodded signaling they can fight. Gryphon charged immediately and swung his sword with all his might at Heinrik. Heinrik was caught off guard mentally from his aggression and tried to match it. Heinrik found how much power Gryphon was putting into his Swings and how he was swinging odd. Despite Heinrik saying they wouldn't kill, he was fighting like he was trying to kill Heinrik but clearly wasn't going all out. Heinrik threw a Right hook but swerved it inward.

Gryphon despite being out of his range tried to block with his Wrist. To see what would happen, Heinrik switched his normally defensive style to an incredibly aggressive offensive style. Unexpectedly to Heinrik, Gryphon did not try to block, instead he tried to match his aggression with even more aggression. But Heinrik would keep dodging and punishing his Attacks. However Heinrik would stop the brawl when he noticed through his vision that Gryphon would grow in size and stature and get a power spike from his saiyan heritage before Severely wounding him by Splitting his Soul.

“IGHT! THAT’S ENOUGH! I've seen what I need to.”

Gryphon sheathed his Sword and asked,

“So, what is it you wanted to see anyway?”

Heinrik shrugged,

“Wanted to see what Gryphon was capable of, however I did notice something.”

“Wha-” King tried to say but was cut off by Heinrik.

“What the fuck was that sad excuse for a defense?”

Gryphon gave a worried look before angrily explaining.

“We all have DIFFERENT Fighting Styles now DON’T WE?”

He began to walk away very distraught and annoyed.

“HEY!” Heinrik shouted. Gryphon turned and caught a wad of Cash. It was 10,000 Souls.

“I thought it was just 1,000?”

Heinrik laughed and tapped his temple.

“For what you went through up here, you earned every soul.”

Gryphon gave a neutral Scoff

“Hey, maybe you and I should get a drink sometime? Heard it was the best way to make Friends.” 

Gryphon flicked a Piece of Paper with his Number on it.

Heinrik caught it. “I don’t drink, but I’d love to catch up with you sometime.”

Heinrik put his fingers to his head and waved,

“Be seeing ya.”

Gryphon put his hand up and put it back down before they went their separate ways…

The Eyes

Jack: “I died a long time ago, I need you to Run as far away as possible; He is Coming and he’s more Hungry than you can possibly comprehend.”

Akamori: “What?! What are you saying!?”

Jack: “I didn’t rip that Circus Guard limb from limb, the Bloodlust did, I’ve kept him at Bay for so long, if I die; he takes my place, and he’ll be angry, you can’t stay here, you’ll die; or worse.”

Heinrik: *Awakens in a void* “He Died, Didn’t he?”

Later…

Heinrik: “You have a Nice set of Vocal Cords.”

Akamori: “What?”

Heinrik: “Are you really this oblivious?”

Akamori: “Jack, where is this going?”

Heinrik: “Jack told you before he died to RUN! Because I would arrive.”

Akamori: “Who- Who are you then?”

Heinrik: “I AM HEINRIK! I HAVE BEEN TRAPPED IN THAT F*CKS HEAD FOR THAT LAST CENTURY AND A HALF! NEEDING TO FEED! JUST WATCHING AS JACK DOES THE STUPIDEST THINGS, WAITING FOR HIS DEATH TO SET ME FREE!”

Akamori: “Jack, your scaring me, this isn’t funny.”

Heinrik: “HAHAHAHAHA! YOU THINK I AM JOKING?! WHAT I AM IS FAMISHED! And there appears to be only one entity nearby, with a VERY enticing Aroma.”

Akamori: “Jack WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?”

Heinrik: “Fueling the Flame.”

Heinrik: *Jaw Rips open spewing Blood and showing a Mouth full of Sharp Teeth and Grabs Akamori by the neck*

Akamori: “Jack- S- STOP!-“

Heinrik: *Opens his Mouth about to bite into her Neck*

Akamori: *Grabs a Nearby Stone and Smashes it into Heinriks Head*

Heinrik: *Roars*

Akamori: *Running and Crying*

Heinrik: *Raises his Battle Axe and Hurls it through Air*

Akamori: *Is hit in the Back and Falls*

Heinrik: “THIS THRILL I'VE MISSED.” *Approaches Akamori*

Akamori: *Rises swiftly and Gouges out Heinriks Eyes in Defense*

Heinrik: *Falls to his Knees and Starts Twitching Violently*

Akamori: *Trying to Stand*

Heinrik: *Grabs her by the Arms and Rises her*

Akamori: “J-Ja-Jac-k, no...”

Heinrik: “He will watch as I kill and Devour you, as he’s watching right now, I can hear him; Begging me to stop, Begging me for Mercy, Mercy is something I don’t believe in, especially after what he put me through; Say hi to The Father for me, Or Davoth, whichever fate you are bestowed.”

Akamori: *Sheds a Tear* “I love you; Jack.”

Heinrik: *Throws her to the Ground causing the Axe in her back to go through her Chest impaling her*

Heinrik: *Panting*

“YOU MURDERED HER! YOU F*CKING B*STARD! SHE WAS THE ONLY REASON-“

“YOU DO NOT HAVE THE CONTROL OR THE RIGHT TO USE THE BODY AS OF NOW! IVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS!”

“THIS WAS THE FIRST PERSON I LOVED! AND YOU TOOK HER FROM ME!"

"YOU COULDN’T IMAGINE THE DEPTHS I WOULD GO TO STAY ALIVE! FUELED BY THE BLOODLUST, THE DESIRE TO END THE WEAK AND MY SINGULAR HATRED FOR THOSE WHO ARE LIKE YOU! Pathetic. Humanity evolves; through CONFLICT!”

“You sick Fuck, you’re a Monster!”

“I SAID THAT THE DAY WE MET! NOW ENOUGH!!! I'M DONE WITH YOU TODAY! I MUST DEVOUR.”

*Sits down near Akamori's Corpse and Wraps a Blindfold around his Eyes* 

“It’s been long enough.”

Written and created by: Matt

Revised by: Fox (me)

Character/story assistance: Matt, Funny-Skeleton

[revive-the-fandom]

Was there ever a popular consensus on Jack's sister's name? Or does she have a name in the book's canon? (i've given up trying to get into the book's storyline, so 😅)

Oh! Yeah I know this!

The short version is: she’s called Mary because William Joyce said so.

The long version is: it literally doesn’t matter because there are so many conflicting theories and pieces of evidence. The movie was made years before the book, Sandman’s book came out in 2013 and Jack’s book came out in 2015. Rotg was released in 2012. Movies take years to conceptualise, plot, cast, act, animate and produce. It’s safe to say that even Joyce wasn’t 100% on what would happen in the book when he worked on the movie, plus it seems there was a massive rewrite for Jack’s book which delayed its release.

But if you’re looking for options:

Mary is the name that Joyce gave her over on Twitter/Instagram. I believe that she’s named after his daughter, who died in 2010 (I believe she was 18 and died of a brain tumour but I haven’t fact checked that so I may be wrong!). Her name was Mary Katherine Joyce and the movie was dedicated to her and the books were inspired by/written for her. Joyce claimed that a version of the script had her named Mary (me thinks we were supposed to see more of her).

It’s possible she was the movie equivalent of Katherine. (Though the books take a more romantic take on Nightlight and Katherine’s relationship.) Katherine’s character may have been split between Jamie and Jack’s sister, with Jamie providing the ‘first believer’ role as well as the apparent easy friendship with Jack and Jack’s sister providing the familial role and Jack’s motivation and/or key to his Guardianship. Either way Katherine was also named after Joyce’s daughter so it’s a strong possibility. (Joyce also has a son named Jack, so having Jack and a variant of Mary Katherine makes sense.)

Jack does have two adoptive siblings in the book. But bear in mind that there is no perfect match, the family he ends up with meets him when he is already an adolescent and I’m like 99% sure they’re Russian and living in Russia or adjacent to Russia. And also the Dad is very much present. Jack has a brother named Jacklovich and a sister named Ana (both younger). They act as his introduction to the nuclear family archetype and along with their parents provide a stable and safe environment for Jack to learn about people and how to live as a human. Because in Jack’s book, before he meets his family, he says that he has become something similar but not exactly human and expresses a desire to be human or normal. Jack does lose them rather quickly as they take up a whopping 30 pages out of 367. That’s less than a chapter (as a single chapter can take up over 100 pages).

Back when Rotg came out a few people noticed that the credits said “Jack’s sister/Pippa” and jumped to the conclusion that her name was Pippa. This was actually referring to two characters voiced by the same actress, Jack’s sister and the Burgess girl with the beanie who hits Cupcake in the snowball fight, tells Jamie that “there’s just no Easter anymore” and is the second to join Jamie in defending the Guardians.

Joyce had also at one point claimed on instagram that Jack’s sister was nicknamed Flee because she ran so fast after Jack fell into the ice. I find this strange and extremely morbid. Very few people use this to my knowledge because he released this knowledge years after the movie was released and the fandom had dwindled considerably. Also it’s... weird and mean.

Joyce also claimed that she was called Vanish on Instagram but then he retconned that and she turned out to be Tooth’s little sister?? Who never appeared in the books??? And also when did Tooth have a sister? We got told her story back in book 3 and there was no mention???? Her parents died and Tooth barely escaped how tf did this sister fit in??

The most popular name was Emma, back in the day. I also used to use this name. There wasn’t much reason to back this name other than it was short and simple to match Jacks name, and it fit the time period. If you’re looking for the most widely accepted name though, this would be it.

I’ve seen several people just pick any name for her because there isn’t really a solid yes or no answer on what her real name is. Jill was rather popular, presumably because Jack and Jill went up the hill. (I don’t like Jill bc my Nana is called Jill but that’s a personal preference.) Margaret or Maggie was the one used in the awesome fic My Stars and Your Valleys.

I think this is also a good opportunity to explain my choice of name. Personally I choose to call her Molly, for no other reason than that my Grandmother is called Mary and it makes me uncomfortable to constantly compare the two in my mind. However, Molly is a nickname for Mary and I find it a cute substitute. Molly and Polly are both nicknames for Mary, and considering that Jack is a nickname for Jackson I think it’s appropriate. So I keep their canonical names as Jackson and Mary but they are called Jack and Molly within the story.

And yes, the books are an absolute mess! The first four are meeehh, kind of okay to follow and kind of samey but the fifth is horrific! I love the concepts it introduced but there was no need to time-skip every other chapter and the plot seemed non existent as most events of relevance happened in the past. I also think that the tone of the book doesn’t match the ending at all. The final battle feels like this grand battle of epic proportions but the rest of the book feels like following a socially awkward highly charismatic kid who sometimes gets into deep shit. A Peter Pan with anxiety if you will. And if I’m being honest the plot is kind of hard to follow throughout the series, I tend to just live in the moment throughout the books because God knows what happened ten pages ago.

Anyway, I hoped this answered your question and wasn’t too confusing! 💛

[sorotrax-sideblog]

We Are What We Are - DP fanfic series

Equinox AU: In which Halfas become more monsterous the older they get, in the way that liminal film gets thinner the closer it is to the equinox. This follows a series of identity reveals, because honestly its a shock that it didn’t happen sooner.

Part 1: What Big Eyes You Have

Without meaning to, Tucker clenched his hand around the doorknob and his heart seized at the sound. The predator, his friend he tried to remind himself as he blinked rapidly, froze like someone took a remote to a TV and pressed pause. Slowly, horribly slowly Danny's head turned to face Tucker. The hairs on the back of his neck rose as green, reflective eyes met his. It was all Tucker could see clearly.

Part 2: The Better to Eat You With

Baring his teeth and outstretching his claws, Danny sprung from the roof only to flail and try to stop himself midair when he realized what, or rather who he was launching himself at.“Whoa! What the f-” came a voice that was super duper human voice of Valerie Gray. Or as she was now, the Red Huntress.

Part 3: Little Red Riding Hood

Wes had a grandiose idea of what he’d find in the boiler room. Maybe he’d somehow beat Danny to the boiler room and catch him becoming his ghost self. Or perhaps he was in the middle of fighting the ghost, so he could hide in the corner until it was over and catch Danny then. He took a deep breath, hands on his camera, and he opened the door.

Part 4: To Grandfather's House

A metaphorical light bulb lit in Jack’s brain. Normal methods of investigation from his field wouldn’t work, Danny clearly wasn’t a ghost. However, Jack thought, dropping his mug in the sink and jogging down to his small library of books on the supernatural and occult, Grandpa kept journals with ways to suss out the supernatural.

Part 5: Big Bad Wolf

It was kind of ironic that the reason they were going “camping” now was because of a camping trip that the three of them took a month ago. Sam had been getting into her Witch roots, after finding out about her great grandmother’s legacy through Grandma Ida. Sam was ecstatic that the craft wouldn’t end with her great grandmother, and in between college classes was investing all her time into learning more about it. They’d all thought a trip to the woods would be great for her, and it was! Sam was able to get in touch with nature, Danny had a great time flying through and above the trees, and Tucker… Tucker got bitten by a werewolf. And tonight was his first full moon. Written for PhantasyPhest Day 3 - Urban Fantasy

Part 6: Pending

[findingjoynweirdstuff]

Dream SMP Recap (January 5/2021) - The Second Festival

Today was the long-awaited, highly-anticipated, tension-filled, extremely melodramatic event full of one-liners, heartbreak, and ever-changing loyalties...

A Geoguessr stream, of course! 

I hope everyone had some fun?

---

DISC UPDATE: Dream now has “Mellohi”

---

- Fundy prepares the Festival games

- Ranboo speaks with Tubbo. Tubbo still feels like this is just history repeating itself, and he has reservations on whether it’s the right thing to do. Ranboo says he thinks it is.

- Fundy and Niki come to speak with Tubbo and Ranboo. The other guests include Puffy, Hbomb, Eret, Punz, Ponk and Jack Manifold.

- Quackity arrives. The cabinet leaves to convene at the Camarvan. They all agree that Tubbo deserves to be the one to get the kill, but...if things go wrong...Quackity takes charge.

- They stand on the podium and greet the guests. Tubbo gives a speech.

Tubbo: “Let the festival begin.”

- Afterwards, Fundy shows the guests his Ring Toss game!

- Meanwhile, Techno is at his house and speaks to Phil about his plans to attend the Festival. Tommy comes along. He wants to get the disc from Dream, and heard that Dream would be there. 

- Tommy brings out the Tubbo compass to help find him. Techno says that Tommy is worthy to wield the Axe and gives it to him. 

- Techno says if they see a chance to kill Tubbo, they should take it. Tommy protests and says they should be going for Dream, not Tubbo. 

- Meanwhile, Fundy and the others gather at the food stand for snacks! Sam has logged in.

- Tommy and Techno make it to land and stumble across the Vault, shocked and puzzled by it.

Techno: “I don’t think we’re in L’manburg anymore, Tommy...”

- Fundy has on the Butcher Army outfit and Niki confronts him about it. Tommy and Techno arrive at New L’manburg, invisible.

- Techno, still invisible, chases after Ranboo to meet with him. They meet in Purpled’s Skull Base. Ranboo tells them about Dream, and how he’d be following the laws...which means no armor.

- Dream joined the game. It’s time.

- The L’manburgians consider giving Dream a codename.

- Dream starts placing obsidian outside L’manburg

- They speak to him. He says Tommy fucked up and starts leading them somewhere...

The Community House is destroyed.

- Tommy says he didn’t do it when Techno asks, but the L’manburgians seem to believe it. Dream says that Tubbo is affiliated with the issue because he has one of the discs. Dream asks for the disc.

- Tommy can’t help it anymore and jumps into the ruins of the Community House to intervene. Techno joins the call as well.

- Tubbo agrees to hand over the disc. Tommy and Tubbo have a confrontation.

They then start to genuinely fight each other.

 Tommy: “THE DISCS WERE WORTH MORE THAN YOU EVER WERE.”

There’s a moment of silence and both of them stop.

Tommy tells Tubbo to give Mellohi to Dream. Tubbo does so.

- Tommy decides he wants to be with Tubbo. Techno is outraged that Tommy would switch sides.

- Dream tells Tubbo that he’s an idiot and reveals Ranboo’s Memory Book to Tubbo.

- Dream asks if Techno has any withers...3pm tomorrow, L’manburg is going to be destroyed. Tommy kills Tubbo’s dog.

- Dream leaves. Techno says that Tommy isn’t worthy anymore and asks for Tommy to give him back the Axe of Peace. Tommy says no...he is worthy.

- Techno leaves. He returns to his base and encounters Phil still working on his farm. Phil is confused at why Tommy hasn’t come back.

- Dream joins Techno’s call and comes over to speak about their plans. Techno leads him to his secret vault and shows him the wither skulls - though he’s hidden many of them away from sight. Dream says the plan for tomorrow is that he’ll do the destroying while it’s Techno’s job to protect him.

---

Dream: “I have one more key aspect to the plan, but I can’t tell you until tomorrow...just in case. It guarantees our victory, though.”

---

- Ghostbur joins the call and starts exposing taxes.

- Tommy rallies all of the people at the Community House into one army. Punz speaks and says that he feels that Dream has gone too far, and that he’s on L’manburg’s side.

- Sapnap speaks up. He isn’t sure if he can join L’manburg for this one, not when Dream is one of his closest friends. Tommy says he’ll speak with Sapnap one on one tomorrow. 

- Niki accuses Tommy of being the one to cause all the problems. Fundy gives a speech about how it’s “us vs. them” now, and they have to set all their personal issues aside. Tommy insists that the Community House wasn’t his fault.

- Sam asks Tommy to swear upon something he loves that the Community House wasn’t his doing. Tommy swears on Church Prime that it wasn’t him.

- Tommy goes to speak with Tubbo, but they just can’t do this right now. They’ll speak tomorrow. 

- Meanwhile, the army gathers at the Fortress. Niki is still angry at Tommy, 

- Quackity and Tubbo speak one on one. Quackity is livid about Ranboo betraying them and says he wants to see Ranboo executed.

Tubbo tells him that doing so would just be history repeating itself. They can’t do that. If he killed Ranboo, that would be treason.

Quackity tells him that he’s stepping away from L’manburg, and that Tubbo needs to put his foot down and establish some order in the country.

- Tommy sits on the bench and watches the sunset alone. There are no discs to listen to, just Minecraft music.

- Tommy speaks with Connor and evicts him from his house. Connor tells him that he doesn’t think Tommy’s a bad person, just conflicted. Connor now lives in Ninja’s old home.

- Ranboo asks why they are putting so much emphasis on sides rather than people? Eret gives a speech about the greater good. 

Ranboo points out that they’re just picking sides again.

Ponk: “It is what it is...”

- Fundy asks about the Memory Book. Ranboo gives his talk about how he picks people, not sides. Home isn’t where a country is! Conflicts should be between people, not countries.

- Tubbo gives a speech to everyone. Everyone is now standing side-by-side, gathered, united, with the common goal to save L’manburg. This is their final stand. 

Operation: Don’t Get Our Home Blown Up (DGOHBU) has begun.

- Sam reminisces about all the old times they’d had in the Community House

- Ranboo wanders off on his own. He thinks that he’s completely alone, and not even Fundy is with him anymore. Dream joins the call.

- Techno tells Phil about Tommy switching sides. He needs to get his dogs from L’manburg before Tommy tells the army about them. He says he can only trust common interest now, and he and Dream share that common interest. Phil agrees that L’manburg has caused only problems since he’s joined.

- They sneak beneath the Community House into the sewers as the army gathers above and find the dogs. They move them to a more hidden chamber.

- Fundy walks down the path on his own with his thoughts. 

- Fundy sees Technoblade running beneath the ground of L’manburg. He sneaks down through the sewers and sees Techno. Techno sees him.

Technoblade: Run.

- Fundy starts running and attempts to use his boat projection to try and keep safe, but Technoblade shoots him down all the same. He goes back to gather his stuff.

“I know he’s there....I know he’s there.”

- Fundy uses a boat to project again and sneaks down again to have another look around, but doesn’t find the hidden chamber.

- Phil and Techno panic now that everyone knows they’re there. They start running.

- Ranboo is in his obsidian shelter speaking with Dream, questioning if he really did the right thing.

- Eret cleans up at the Community House. 

- Dream points out that by not picking a side, Ranboo did pick a side.

Ranboo: “I didn’t betray anyone.” Dream: “...You betrayed everyone.”

- Dream starts telling Ranboo about all the bad things he’s done that Ranboo doesn’t even remember. That Ranboo helped blow up the Community House, didn’t he? 

Dream: “I’m not even real.”

- Ranboo is lost and confused about what to believe. He starts writing in a book again. He plays Mellohi and blacks out his screen.

- Fundy puts together a board of things he needs and monologues a lot about Technoblade while gathering resources.

---

Operation: DGOHBU will be tomorrow at 3pm

[theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin]

So I was showing my sister your amazing Q-A posts, when I came across Peter's. I realized that you just keep mentioning the incompetence of the Order, and how they're just a bunch of babysitters who don't do anything throughout many posts, but never actually wrote a rant about them and their members. Can you do that, while stating all the things they did/didn't do and their uselessness to the Order? What can I say I love your rants!

Caveat that it has been a while since I’ve read books 5, 6, and 7 of Harry Potter. I have a fantastic memory but some things may slip my mind. If I grievously offend anyone and it turns out the Order does actually do something, anything, of any vague importance then feel free to let me know and shame me on the internet.

With that, the story of why I think the Order of the Phoenix is a ridiculous organization that was mostly there because Dumbledore felt the need to have a guerilla resistance group (you’ve got to have a guerilla resistance group! Or, if Tom has a secret cult, I must have one too! BUT WITH BIRDS! COO COO KACHOO TOM RIDDLE!)

First, let’s look at our lineup.

Yes, we have a few aurors in the midst, but even with them the lineup is... worrying. In the first war we knew that key figures had presumably just graduated Hogwarts and joined the Order (James and Sirius). For all we know, they were recruited even before graduation. This makes sense as James’ is a big financial win for Dumbledore and was probably, perhaps with Longbottom, in charge of funding most of their operations. That and he and Longbottom give Dumbledore a voice in the Wizengamot (which so far as I can surmise is the only real governing body in the country, the ministry exists, but it all boils down to the Wizengamot). 

The point being, James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Lily are all barely squeaking out of Hogwarts not only when they join the Order but also even by the time they die. More, it could be because the books are from Harry’s point of view and he has a serious thing about worshipping James, but James in particular is made to sound very vital to the Order’s operations. A twenty-one-year-old who charged Voldemort without a wand (I really shouldn’t give James shit for this, it was a desperate situation, an attack they had not anticipated, he’s young, and panicking. I will still give James shit for this.)

Otherwise we have Mundungus Fletcher, who gives strong vibes of being an alcoholic and is just a generally unreliable, shady, dude who will steal your silverware and pawn it on the black market when you aren’t looking.

We have Molly and Arthur Weasley, whose only use I can possibly think of is being moral support and... I don’t know... providing safe houses maybe? Seriously, we have no indication they’re good at dueling (less so as Harry’s shocked when Molly takes on Bellatrix and miraculously wins). We know Arthur’s not a very intelligent guy. Arthur and Molly have no sense of... Well, suffice to say, if Dumbledore gave them any real information they’d run away screaming. They throw Percy out of the family for becoming Fudge’s secretary, I’m sure Dumbledore was just internally screaming and begging them not to do it so he can make Percy a spy. But he can never say as much as such a notion would horrify Molly and Arthur. Molly and Arthur are also presented as vital members of the Order by the way. Molly and Arthur. ARTHUR.

We have what remains of the Marauders in the second go around: Remus and Sirius. Remus, while a competent wizard, nobody can quite trust for the reason they couldn’t quite trust him last time: he’s still a werewolf and has no reason to support the current government. Sirius is recovering from ten years in hell and is in no condition to do anything, knows it, loathes it, and is clawing at the walls of the safehouse he was pretty much forced to provide the Order.

We then have the aurors. Kingsly seems competent enough but more than him we have Moody and we have Tonks. Tonks is young and seems very very green, she was a good enough duelist to get into the auror corps but we know she’s dreadfully clumsy and often seems to treat Order business as this very exciting super secret mission she’s on. Moody, is a paranoid wreck who is almost comical for his utterly ridiculous skepticism of everything and seems incapable of making any true plans or taking any real action.

Looking at the Order of the Phoenix is kind of like watching “Dodgeball”, you just have this really weird collection of people who try to dodge wrenches, only the Death Eaters aren’t much better, so it kind of evens out. 

But onto why I think they do nothing... It’s because we see them do nothing.

We don’t get much information on the first war but at best it seems like there were a few minor skirmishes in the street now and then. I always imagine something like the Sharks and the Jets in Westside Story. They’re walking along the streets, spot each other, dramatic music ensues and a rumble begins, then they scamper away when the aurors come in.

Remember that these guys aren’t a legitimate organization and really don’t have the structure of one. Back in the day they were probably, essentially, a street gang.

We get a little more evidence of what we see them get up to in the later books. And it’s all just kind of sad.

Remus is sent on the world’s most ridiculous and hopeless quest to recruit werewolves. Why do I say ridiculous and hopeless, what the hell does Remus have to offer these guys? Werewolves are ridiculously oppressed by the current government, they cannot obtain an education, they cannot hold jobs, they’re desperately unemployed and people routinely talk about wiping them out. Remus comes up to them and says, “Hey guys, come support the guerilla movement that supports the government that talks about killing you all the time! It’ll be great!” They’ll either put Remus’ head on a pike or if they’re nice just laugh at him until he leaves. I’d say it’d be worth it, except that it’s an exceedingly dangerous task that probably would end with Remus’ head on a pike. As it is, it ends in embarrassing failure. And this is one of the more legitimate Order missions.

Hagrid, similarly, is sent to talk to the giants and it ends in equally embarrassing failure for the same reasons (why would the giants ever support the ministry and or Dumbledore who promises them nothing). Also, sending Hagrid to talk diplomacy, with anyone, ever. Surely, there’s no way that could possibly go wrong.

Otherwise their big task seems to be to babysit Harry and transfer him from the Dursleys to the Burrow/Grimmuald Place. The first, they fail at, Mundungus gets put on the job the one day something actually happens and it’s a complete disaster. The second, they also fail at, as I never understood why they couldn’t just portkey him where they needed him to go or at least closer by. The polyjuice flight across the sky was... really unecessary. 

You can tell by the seriousness with which most Order members, i.e. Tonks, take the babysitting Harry duty that this is a very serious task for very serious people. Given this, Tom’s lack of overt action in the fifth and sixth books, the fact that we don’t seem to see them do anything even in the seventh book... Yeah, this and keeping an eye out for that prophecy are their most exciting jobs.

Remember that rescuing Harry from the Department of Mysteries wasn’t really Dumbledore’s idea. That was an emergency situation where he had to pull out the stops, more, I suspect Sirius went “CHAAAAAARGE” and gleefully rushed out into glorious battle with the Order directly behind him and Dumbledore going, “Well, shit.”

I guess the last thing I’ll say is that we also see that Dumbledore has very little confidence in the Order. He gives them nothing important to do and, more, gives them virtually no intelligence.

He never tells the Order about the horcruxes (their existence or Harry, Hermione, and Ron’s super serial mission to track them down and destroy them). He never relays to them that Harry himself is a horcrux. He never reveals the suicide ploy with Snape or that he was in fact dying before that point. He never reveals Malfoy’s assassination attempts. Dumbledore doesn’t tell them jack shit.

If he relies on anyone, usually when he’s forced to, it’s Severus Snape. This I think is not only because Snape is forced in a way to be loyal thanks to the life debt to Harry as well as his own overwhelming sense of guilt but also because he’s the only really intelligent and competent one there.

The Order’s just... if you need someone to pick up Harry or else keep an eye on him when Mrs. Figg is busy: they’re your guys. Otherwise, they make Dumbledore feel good about himself?

[wordsfromthesol]

Reconciliation

Author: @wordsfromthesol Taglist: togasbetch @malfoys-demigod @pricetagofficial Pairing: Tim Drake x Reader Summary: You seek the help of an old friend when you accidentally end up in the middle of a blood bath. Word Count: 1.8k

It all started ages ago, when you walked into the same class as the infamous Timothy Drake. If it wasn't for the Wayne Grant, your parents would never have been able to send you to such a fancy school…not that you understood that at 5 years old. Since that day the two of you were inseparable. You had practically lived at Drake Manor, and when Mr. Freeze killed your parents, you did. Not that Jack and Janet had any idea.

A few years later Jack and Janet were gone and Tim was taken in by none other than Bruce Wayne himself. Thankfully, Tim let you remain in his house. At first, everything was normal, but after the first year, he started to visit you less and less. He became more distant and secretive with each interaction and eventually, he stopped coming altogether. You made the decision to leave once you graduated high school, after all, it had been over a year since Tim had bothered to come see you. What would he care?

You jumped on a bus, clutching a backpack full of your belongings…and a few things from the Drake Manor. Somehow you lucked into a full-time nanny job for some wealthy family a few hours away. You were afforded a small living quarters, a stipend, and access to anything already at the mansion. The little girl was only 3 years old at the time. It's hard to believe that was 2 years ago.

You and Kaylee were upstairs when you heard a large group of people force their way through the front door. As you peaked out of the room, you saw a parade of people with their guns drawn. Immediately you rushed back into the room and whispered, "We are going to play a game."

"Game?" The child's ears perked up. You nodded your head as you made your way to the window. Opening it, you slowly climbed out and motioned for her to follow. You had no idea how long you stayed up there, pressed against the side of the house praying no one came looking. Eventually, the noises had stopped.

"Wait right here for me, okay?" She nodded as you made your way back to the window. "Don't move a muscle until I come for you." Your mouth hung open as you descended the staircase. Bloodstained the room as bodies littered the floor. As you walked over to the filleted bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Barco, your vision blurred as you felt the back of a hand strike your face. Staggering backward, you opened your eyes to see a man grinning before you. His eyes trailed down your cheek and landed on the sizable ring that graced his own finger. You began to feel the warm blood drip down your cheek. A state of panic washed over you just as you felt your knuckles collide with his ribs. Dodging his next blow, you thrust your shoulder into him and grappled for the gun tucked in his waistband. He looked almost pleased as he stared down the barrel.

"Whatcha gonna do with that, hun?" When you refused to answer, he continued. "You know you're going to be dead soon. What's the point…" Your eyes locked onto his hand, which was slowly inching towards your own.

**

The ringing in your ears had just barely subsided when you reached the top of the stairs. You slowly climbed out the window and ushered Kaylee to come inside. Her feet had just touched the ground as the words lucidly fell from your lips. "I need you to promise me that you won't open your eyes. We are going on a surprise trip." If Kaylee could tell something was wrong, she wasn't letting you know. You walked as fast as you could with the small child on your hip.

Your mind had gone completely blank, your eyes glazed over as you drove. You didn't know where you were going, but your motions seemed instinctive. As you pulled up to the gates, everything began to wash over you. Pressing the call button, the only words you could stutter out were: "It's Y/N. I need Tim." Thankfully, the message worked and the gates began to open. You drove up to the ornate front door, but couldn't force yourself out of the car. A knock on the window shook you out of the trance. It was Alfred.

"Mx Y/N, welcome. Perhaps you and your guest would be more comfortable in the house. I have already summoned Master Timothy." You just nodded as you stepped out of the car. Every move your body made relied on muscle memory: opening the back door of the car, unfastening Kaylee's car seat, placing her on the ground beside you. Alfred led you inside to the kitchen before kneeling down and facing Kaylee. "And what is your name?"

"KAYLEEEE!" She gleefully screamed at him.

"Ahhh, Miss Kaylee. How would you like a snack?" Kaylee's eyes went wide as she furiously nodded her head up and down. Kaylee looked up to you for permission as Tim rounded the corner, already speaking.

"Alfred, what's so --" Tim froze as he saw you sitting at the kitchen counter.

"You my Y/N/N's friend?" Kaylee narrowed her eyes as she glared at Tim. Her eyes softened as Tim slowly shook his head yes. "Make sure they get ban aid. Prefably a princess one." Once satisfied, she turned her attention back towards Alfred and her snack.

**

You turned towards Tim, revealing the gash on your cheek surrounded by a newly forming bruise. Tim rushed to your side, grasping your hand in his, just as the words began spilling from your mouth. "Tim, I'm so sorry. I just didn't know where else to take her. They were dead..."You felt your body giving out, "all of them…"

"Calm down. We'll figure this out. You need rest." He refused to let you speak anymore as he scooped you up from the chair and carried you upstairs. Carefully, Tim sat you on his bathroom counter and began cleaning the wound. Once it was bandaged he brought you over to the bed. "Now what happened?" He looked at you, his heartbreaking as he watched the tears fall from your eyes.

"They're dead. So many bodies. Tim, I can't see anything but blood." You collapsed into his chest, trying to conceal the overwhelming panic.

**

You had no idea how long you stayed like that, all you know is you woke up with Kaylee cuddled to your chest and Tim sitting at the adjacent desk.

"Tim?" His eyes shot up at the sound of your voice. You slowly got up and walked down the hall and into the study. You didn't check to see if Tim was following you, but you knew he was. Ignoring the unknown man already occupying the room, you continued onto the balcony. "I just don't know what happened." Your eyes glazed over as you stared into the distance. You knew if you looked at Tim, you would break down again. "People stormed in with guns. Me and Kaylee hid. Once I came back in, everyone was dead. Her whole family. Their security team. Everyone. And then this man came up and struck me. I thought I was dead. All I could think of was Kaylee, sitting on the roof, alone, confused. And I shot him." You turned around and stared into Tim's dark blue eyes. "They're going to kill me now. Aren't they?" The tears bubbled up, but you refused to let them fall.

"Y/N, how much did you know of that family?" Concern laced his voice. That voice that you hadn't heard in years. That voice that used to be your home.

"They were rich and needed a nanny." You looked down at your fiddling fingers, "I didn't have many options, so I didn't ask any questions."

Tim took a deep breath, pushing down his anger. "They are…were one of the biggest crime families in the country." The words rang in your mind as you forced your eyes back on the horizon. You didn't even realize Kaylee had woken up and walked into the study. Or that the unidentified man took her by the hand and led her from the room carrying a fairytale book. "You really didn't know?" Tim's brows furrowed.

Too many emotions were spinning around your head until one of them exploded. "Why the fuck would I know that?!" You made no attempts to sedate your anger.

"You worked for them for years, Y/N!"

"Well clearly you knew, so maybe an old friend should've warned me!" The anger wasn't geared towards him, not really. Though seeing him again, feeling all this again, that's something you never thought you'd have to do. And that was just the icing on the cake. An eerie silence blanketed the air. "I shouldn't have come here," you mumbled before turning to leave. "I shouldn't have put you in danger."

**

Tim stood stoic as your words played over and over in his mind. He never told you of his nightly activities for this exact reason. So you wouldn't be thrust into this chaotic world. And now here you are, begging for his help, and he let you walk away. Again.

A pillow slammed into his face, knocking him from the stupor. "Probably not a good idea to let them leave. Love of your life, Barco heiress, not a great combination."

"Shit." Tim pushed past Jason, ignoring his snide remarks because unfortunately, he was right. Tim grabbed your arm just as you opened the front door. "Wait!" Tim yelled as he pushed the door closed. "I can't let you leave."

"Wh --"

"Look," Tim cut you off and began pulling you through the house. "I need to show you something."

**

"Where…where am I standing right now?"

"The Batcave." His voice faltered as he stopped in front of his Red Robin costume.

"So you're a superhero? Are you kidding me?"

"I don't have any powers, so I don't think I would qualify…" Tim's voice trailed off as he watched your eyebrows raise and a disapproving smirk form. "Anyways. I can help. I want to help."

"I can't ask you to do that." You tried to turn away, but Tim laid his hands on your shoulders. His eyes lingered on yours.

"You were supposed to be safe. Away from me. That's the only reason I let you go. I was wrong. You're safer with me and I'm not letting you go again."

[longitudinalwaveme]

Worst Flash Storylines and Plot Ideas of All Time

As you’ve probably ascertained from the general contents of this blog, the Flash is my favorite comic book series. I love the characters and most of the stories. However, just like any series that’s been around for eighty years (counting the Jay Garrick stuff), the Flash does, unfortunately, have some truly terrible stories and plot ideas. 

In terms of terrible plot ideas that didn’t completely ruin the surrounding stories: 

1. Barry Allen uses the Mirror Master’s mirrors to manipulate Iris into agreeing to start dating him again (Flash #109). Creepy, Barry. Just creepy. The story is great Silver Age fun otherwise. 

2. Iris West: meanest woman alive. Iris was, by and large, incredibly awful to Barry up until maybe about a year before their 1966 marriage. Almost every time she shows up in an early Silver Age issue, you will admire her daring and independence (this is good) and be bewildered as to why on Earth Barry would want to spend time with a woman who is constantly calling him slow, lazy, and ambition-less (this is not good). It doesn’t really affect any one issue too much, but when read in a conglomerate, she starts looking really awful. Although as bad as Early Silver Age Iris seems as a romantic interest, she’s got nothing on Silver Age Superman and Lois Lane, the most dysfunctional couple in the DCU. 

3. Wally West’s zero-effort code name and costume (Flash #110). It really could not be more obvious how little effort the writers were putting into creating this character. The duplicate origin is also pretty cheesy, but there are enough differences from Barry’s origin for it not to frustrate me. But the name “Kid Flash” and the fact that his first costume was literally identical to Barry’s just feel incredibly lazy. Barry and Wally do have an adorable dynamic in the issue, though, so it’s by no means all bad. 

4. Barry Allen waiting an entire year after his marriage to tell his wife that he’s really the Flash. Frustrating and unnecessary; especially since Joan Garrick had been in on her husband’s secret since the 1940s. 

5. Iris Allen is FROM THE FUTURE. I both love and hate this idea. It’s so perfectly comic-booky, but at the same time, it opened the floodgates for the Allen family being a confusing, time-displaced mess. 

6. The Trial of Barry Allen. This one’s weird. I like many of the individual issues in this arc, and I actually think the last two issues are really great as an ending for Barry Allen’s original run, but this storyline dragged on for waaaaaay too long. There’s a reason I call it the Arc that Never Ends. Also, the titular trial is actually the least interesting part of the entire storyline. His battles with the Rogues and Kadabra are far more interesting. 

7. Wally West’s borderline creepy, chauvinistic attitude towards women under Mike Baron (and, to a much lesser extent, William Messner-Loebs). There’s being a hormonal twenty-something, and then there’s going through girlfriends at the rate other people change their socks. Messner-Loebs mostly avoided this issue by making it clear that Wally was under intense psychological stress that was negatively impacting his behavior, but under Baron and in some of his JLE appearances, he comes across as a real creep around women. 

8. Kadabra overkill under Mark Waid: I like Kadabra, but when he’s the main villain in like four distinct arcs, it gets to be a bit much. It’s like modern Eobard. He is legitimately written well, though, so he doesn’t drag down any of the stories too much. 

9. Pointlessly Dead Rogues: Killing off the Rogues in Underworld Unleashed for no good reason (the rest of the story is great, especially the Trickster). 

10. Pointlessly Dead Rogues 2: Electric Boogaloo: The Golden Glider’s pointless death to build up a character who was himself killed two issues later. (The rest of the story is decent.) Also, the treatment of Lisa in general post-Crisis is frustrating, since she becomes considerably more unhinged than she was before. 

11. Any time Waid tried to write McCulloch, with the exception of Flash vol. 2 #105 (and even there, he seemed off). It’s like he forgot Evan wasn’t Sam. 

12. Apparently, the Top trying to blow up both Central City and half the world makes him a loser? Also, he suddenly hates Piper for no readily apparent reason. (At least the story had some good Piper and Wally bits.) 

13. BARRY ALLEN HAS A SECRET EVIL TWIN! DUN DUN DUN! (The rest of the story, where we get to meet a whole whack of interesting future Flashes, is actually pretty good, but whoo boy, the Malcolm reveal feels like it came straight out of a soap opera.) 

14. In order for Captain Cold to ANGST, the Golden Glider’s pointless death remained in place for over ten years. It did give us a really, really good Capt. Cold story, at least...but it’s still fridging. 

15. Rainbow Raider’s mean-spirited murder by Blacksmith. Poor Roy. 

16. Albert Desmond becomes Hannibal Lecter, only twenty times as rude, for a Gotham Central arc that would’ve been terrific without him as the main villain. 

17. Owen Mercer is an idiotic child murderer and gets killed by the Rogues. Why was this necessary? (The rest of Blackest Night: The Flash is pretty good.) 

18. Josh Jackam-Mardon’s murder. The murder of small children for shock value is pretty gross. Especially since nothing was ever really done with it. 

19. Barry’s PARENTS ARE DEEEEAAAAD! (Okay, it’s really just his mom, but still. This is a very frustrating retcon, since originally his parents were alive and well until after his own death.) 

20. Albert Desmond was Barry’s jerk coworker; which never impacted the plot or led to anything. As a result, it’s just another frustrating retcon. 

21. Sam Scudder murdered someone before becoming the Mirror Master. Yet another Johns retcon that never went anywhere and only serves to darken the Silver and Bronze Age stories after the fact. 

22. Flashpoint (a decent story) wiped out a whole bunch of characters I really liked from existence for several years. Evan McCulloch’s still not back. 

23. Giving the Rogues metahuman powers doesn’t suit them, on the whole. They work better without them. 

24. Roy’s second pointless, brutal death in (I think) Forever Evil. 

25. IT WAS MEEEEE, BARRY! After serving as the main villain for like six arcs in eight years, I’m glad that Eobard finally seems to be getting a rest. The level of bad things he was responsible for was getting ridiculous. 

26. Sam/Lisa. WHY? (The only time it even kind of worked was in Forever Evil.) 

In terms of entire storylines I didn’t like: 

1. The Flash: The Most Terribly Written Man Alive. Poor Bart is aged up with no adequate explanation, loses all the traits that made him a likeable character, fights some awful villains, and then is murdered by the badly OOC Rogues. Meanwhile, Inertia goes from an at least somewhat sympathetic villain to a complete psychopath with little explanation, a murder is retconned into one of Captain Cold’s reformed periods, the Pied Piper and the Trickster completely forget that they’re supposed to be reformed, Abra Kadabra inexplicably teams up with the Rogues despite generally being a solo operative, and all of the Rogues act like total morons, willingly following a teenage speedster for no adequately explained reason. UGH. 

2. Countdown to Infinite Crisis: Even though Piper and Trickster were probably the best part of Countdown, that isn’t saying much. Both of them are uncharacteristically stupid (especially James), and James is a grade-A jerk to Piper for no reason. Also, both of them continue to forget that they reformed, and then James gets brutally murdered and Piper almost loses his mind. Also, the other Rogues cameo, and continue to act like idiots. Countdown: it really does ruin everything it touches. 

Superboy Prime will kill you! He’ll kill you to DEATH! And after you read Countdown, you’ll wish he had killed you to death. 

3. The Identity Crisis Tie-In Retcon: So, you know all that awesome character development the Rogues have had over the years? Well, forget all that, because it was all just Roscoe brainwashing them! Which was something he could definitely do before this story! And why did he do this? Why, because Barry Allen, one of the most upstanding men in the DCU, brainwashed him! Also, apparently, the Top had a huge bodycount that we never heard about back in the Bronze Age, because we need even MORE grimdark retcons for our cheerful Silver/Bronze Age history! I like Geoff Johns’ work, I really do....but BOY HOWDY does he need to lay off on the retcons sometimes. 

4. Identity Crisis: With the exception of Owen’s introduction and the establishment of the relationship between him and Digger, this story was pretty awful all around. More specifically, as far as the Flash was concerned, it was responsible for Digger’s second pointless death. It also killed off poor Jack Drake and poor, mistreated Sue Dibney, who deserved MUCH better. And the Justice League, including Barry, are A-OK with brainwashing, apparently. Comics are fun! 

These last two stories are pretty recent, and they did have some parts I liked, but on the whole I felt they also belonged on the list. 

5. The Trickster finally returns! Hurrah! Except it turns out that he’s way more like the Joker now than he ever was before, and he mind-controls the city in a super-creepy way. A very disappointing return for the character, especially since it was set up really well. 

6. Forever Evil: Captain Cold becomes a murderous dictator with a stupid Santa Beard, all of the Rogues get horrible costumes, and Sam completes his mutation into Evan-in-all-but-name. There are some good characters bits in the story (even for Cold), but on the whole, I found the story to just be unlikeable and depressing and thought Cold was pretty out-of-character. Poor Commander Cold....

So, what are your least favorite Flash storylines and plot ideas? 

[mojave-pete]

COLLUSION

COLLUSION How The Obama Administration Set In Motion Democrats’ Coup Against Trump Rep. Devin Nunes realized the purpose of Obama’s dossier. 'Devin figured out in December what was going on,' says Langer. 'It was an operation to bring down Trump.' By Lee Smith OCTOBER 28, 2019 The following is an excerpt from Lee Smith’s book out October 29, “The Plot Against the President: The True Story of How Congressman Devin Nunes Uncovered the Biggest Political Scandal in U.S. History.”

AFTER DONALD TRUMP was elected forty-fifth president of the United States, the operation designed to undermine his campaign transformed. It became an instrument to bring down the commander in chief. The coup started almost immediately after the polls closed.

Hillary Clinton’s communications team decided within twenty-four hours of her concession speech to message that the election was illegitimate, that Russia had interfered to help Trump.

Obama was working against Trump until the hour he left office. His national security advisor, Susan Rice, commemorated it with an email to herself on January 20, moments before Trump’s inauguration. She wrote to memorialize a meeting in the White House two weeks before.

On January 5, following a briefing by IC leadership on Russian hacking during the 2016 Presidential election, President Obama had a brief follow-on conversation with FBI Director Jim Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates in the Oval Office. Vice President Biden and I were also present.

President Obama began the conversation by stressing his continued commitment to ensuring that every aspect of this issue is handled by the Intelligence and law enforcement communities “by the book.” The President stressed that he is not asking about, initiating or instructing anything from a law enforcement perspective. He reiterated that our law enforcement team needs to proceed as it normally would by the book.

From a national security perspective, however, President Obama said he wants to be sure that, as we engage with the incoming team, we are mindful to ascertain if there is any reason that we cannot share information fully as it relates to Russia. . . .

The President asked Comey to inform him if anything changes in the next few weeks that should affect how we share classified information with the incoming team. Comey said he would.

The repetition of “by the book” gave away the game—for there was nothing normal about any of it.

Rice wrote an email to herself. It commemorated a conversation from two weeks before. The conversation was about the FBI’s investigation of the man who was about to move into the White House—an investigation from which Obama was careful to distance himself. During the conversation, the outgoing president instructed his top aides to collect information (“ascertain”) regarding the incoming administration’s relationship with Russia.

“To any rational person,” says Nunes, “it looks like they were scheming to produce a get-out-of-jail-free card—for the president and anyone else in the White House. They were playing Monopoly while the others were playing with fire. Now the Obama White House was in the clear—sure, they had no idea what Comey and Brennan and McCabe and Strzok and the rest were up to.”

Boxing Trump in on Russia Meanwhile, Obama added his voice to the Trump-Russia echo chamber as news stories alleging Trump’s illicit relationship with the Kremlin multiplied in the transition period. He said he hoped “that the president-elect also is willing to stand up to Russia.”

The outgoing president was in Germany with Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss everything from NATO to Vladimir Putin. Obama said that he’d “delivered a clear and forceful message” to the Russian president about “meddling with elections . . . and we will respond appropriately if and when we see this happening.”

After refusing to act while the Russian election meddling was actually occurring, Obama responded in December. He ordered the closing of Russian diplomatic facilities and the expulsion of thirty- five Russian diplomats. The response was tepid. The Russians had hacked the State Department in 2014 and the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2015. And now Obama was responding only on his way out.

Even Obama partisans thought it was weak. “The punishment did not fit the crime,” said Michael McFaul, Obama’s former ambassador to Russia. “The Kremlin should have paid a much higher price for that attack.”

But the administration wasn’t retaliating against Russia for interfering in a US election; the action was directed at Trump. Obama was leaving the president-elect with a minor foreign policy crisis in order to box him in. Any criticism of Obama’s response, never mind an attempt to reverse it, would only further fuel press reports that Trump was collaborating with the Russians.

Spreading Intelligence to Spring Leaks In the administration’s last days, it disseminated intelligence throughout the government, including the White House, Capitol Hill, and the intelligence community (IC). Intelligence was classified at the lowest possible levels to ensure a wide readership. The White House was paving the way for a campaign of leaks to disorient the incoming Trump team.

The effort, including the intended result of leaks, was publicly acknowledged in March 2017 by Evelyn Farkas, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense in the Obama administration.

Obama’s biggest move against Trump was to order CIA director John Brennan to conduct a full review of all intelligence relating to Russia and the 2016 elections. He requested it on December 6 and wanted it ready by the time he left office on January 20. But the sitting president already knew what the intelligence community assessment (ICA) was going to say, because Brennan had told him months before.

Brennan’s handpicked team of CIA, FBI, and NSA analysts had started analyzing Russian election interference in late July. In August, Brennan had briefed Harry Reid on the dossier and may have briefed Obama on it, too. Earlier in August, Brennan sent a “bombshell” report to Obama’s desk.

When Brennan reassembled his select team in December, it was to have them reproduce their August findings: Putin, according to Brennan, was boosting the GOP candidate. And that’s why only three days after Obama ordered the assessment in December, the Washington Post could already reveal what the intelligence community had found.

“The CIA,” reported the December 9 edition of the Post, “has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system.”

The story was the first of many apparently sourced to leaks of classified information that were given to the Post team of Adam Entous, Ellen Nakashima, and Greg Miller. The reporters’ sources weren’t whistle-blowers shedding light on government corruption— rather, they were senior US officials abusing government resources to prosecute a campaign against the newly elected commander in chief. The article was the earliest public evidence that the coup was under way. The floodgates were open, as the IC pushed more stories through the press to delegitimize the president-elect.

A Wave of Leak-Sourced Stories All Saying the Same Thing The same day, a New York Times article by David E. Sanger and Scott Shane echoed the Post’s piece. According to senior administration officials, “American intelligence agencies have concluded with ‘high confidence’ that Russia acted covertly in the latter stages of the presidential campaign to harm Hillary Clinton’s chances and promote Donald J. Trump.”

A December 14 NBC News story by William M. Arkin, Ken Dilanian, and Cynthia McFadden reported that “Russian President Vladimir Putin became personally involved in the covert Russian campaign to interfere in the U.S. presidential election, senior U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News.”

The ICA that Obama ordered gave political operatives, the press, and his intelligence chiefs a second shot at Trump. They’d used the Steele Dossier to feed the echo chamber and obtain surveillance powers to spy on the Trump campaign. The dossier, however, had come up short. Trump had won.

But now, on his way out of the White House, Obama instructed Brennan to stamp the CIA’s imprimatur on the anti-Trump operation. As Fusion GPS’s smear campaign had been the source of the preelection press campaign, the ICA was the basis of the postelection media frenzy. It was tailored to disrupt the peaceful transition of power and throw the United States into chaos.

Because Trump hadn’t been elected by the US public, according to the ICA, but had been tapped by Putin, he was illegitimate. Therefore, the extraconstitutional and illegal tactics employed by anti-Trump officials were legitimate. The ultimate goal was to remove Trump from office.

“If it weren’t for President Obama,” said James Clapper, “we might not have done the intelligence community assessment . . . that set off a whole sequence of events which are still unfolding today.”

Nunes agrees. “The ICA,” he says, “was Obama’s dossier.”

Changing the Intelligence Assessment Nunes is sitting in his office in the Longworth House Office Building along with his communications director, Jack Langer, a forty-six-year-old former book editor and historian with a PhD from Duke University.

“The social media attacks on Devin began shortly after the election,” Langer remembers. “They’re all hinting at some vast conspiracy involving Russia that the chairman of the Intelligence Committee is part of. And we have no idea what they’re talking about.”

Nunes points out that his warnings about Russia fell on deaf ears for years. “And all of a sudden I’m a Russian agent,” says the congressman.

Now Langer and Nunes see that the attacks were first launched because the congressman had been named to Trump’s transition team. “I put forward [Mike] Pompeo for CIA director,” says Nunes. “He came from our committee.”

The attacks on Nunes picked up after the December 9 Washington Post article. The assessment provided there was not what the HPSCI chairman had been told. The assessment had been altered, and Nunes asked for an explanation. “We got briefed about the election around Thanksgiving,” he says. “And it’s just the usual stuff, nothing abnormal. They told us what everyone already knew: ‘Hey, the Russians are bad actors, and they’re always playing games, and here’s what they did.’”

By providing that briefing, the IC had made a mistake. When it later changed the assessment, the November briefing was evidence that Obama’s spy chiefs were up to no good. “I bet they’d like to have that back,” says Nunes. “They briefed us before they could get their new story straight.”

‘They Kept Everyone Else Away from It’ Nunes acknowledges that he was caught off guard by many things back then. “We still thought these guys were on the up and up,” he says. “But if we knew, we’d have nailed them by mid-December, when they changed their assessment. ‘Wait, you guys are saying this now, but you said something else just a few weeks ago. What’s going on?’”

After the Post story, Nunes wanted an explanation. “We expressed deep concern, both publicly and privately,” says Langer. “We demanded our own briefing to try to determine whether that Post story was true or false. They refused to brief us. They said, ‘We’re not going to be doing that until we finish the ICA.’”

Nunes says the fact that the IC conducted an assessment like that was itself unusual. “I don’t know how many times they’d done that in the past, if ever,” he says. “But if the IC is operating properly, when someone says what can you tell me on X or Y or Z, they have it ready to pull up quickly. The tradecraft is reliable, and the intelligence products are reliable.” That was not the case with the ICA. There were problems with how the assessment had been put together.

“If you really were going to do something like an assessment from the intelligence community, then you’d get input from all our seventeen agencies,” says Nunes. “They did the opposite. It was only FBI, CIA, NSA, and DNI. They siloed it, just like they had with Crossfire Hurricane. They kept everyone else away from it so they didn’t have to read them in.”

‘Manipulation of Intelligence for Political Purposes’ Nunes released several statements in the middle of December. The HPSCI majority, read a December 14 statement, wanted senior Obama intelligence officials “to clarify press reports that the CIA has a new assessment that it has not shared with us. The Committee is deeply concerned that intransigence in sharing intelligence with Congress can enable the manipulation of intelligence for political purposes.”

After the statements warned of political foul play in the IC’s assessments, the social media attacks on Nunes became more regular. “They were constant,” says Langer.

Anti-Trump operatives recognized that Nunes was going to be a problem. The HPSCI chair had previously called out the IC for politicizing intelligence. “They said that we had defeated Al Qaeda in Iraq and Syria,” says Nunes, “and I knew that wasn’t true. Then they withheld the Osama bin Laden documents to conceal that Al Qaeda worked with Iran, because the administration was protecting the Iran deal. So when I saw them changing this assessment of the 2016 election in midstream, I knew it was the same old trick: they were politicizing intelligence.”

The speed with which Brennan’s handpicked analysts produced the ICA and then got a version of it declassified for public consumption was another sign that something wasn’t right. “All throughout Obama’s two terms, his IC chiefs aren’t paying attention to Russian actions,” says Nunes. “We give them more money for Russia, which they don’t use. But now they know so much about Putin that they manage to produce a comprehensive assessment of Russian intentions and actions regarding election interference in a month—at Christmastime, when everything slows down. And then they produce a declassified version in a manner of weeks. None of this is believable.”

Three different versions of the ICA were produced: an unclassified version, a top secret one, and another highly compartmentalized version. According to a January 11, 2017, Washington Post story by Greg Miller, Ellen Nakashima, and Karen DeYoung, an annex summarizing the dossier was attached to the versions that were not declassified.

‘Designed to Have a Political Effect’ The FBI had been working from Steele’s reports for more than half a year. Including the dossier along with the ICA would provide Comey with ammunition to take on the president-elect. Both he and Brennan were manipulating intelligence for political purposes.

“A lot of the ICA is reasonable,” says Nunes. “But those parts become irrelevant due to the problematic parts, which undermine the entire document. It was designed to have a political effect; that was the ICA’s sole purpose.”

The assessment’s methodological flaws are not difficult to spot. Manufacturing the politicized findings that Obama sought meant not only abandoning protocol but also subverting basic logic. Two of the ICA’s central findings are that:

Putin and the Russian government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump. Putin and the Russian government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him. To know preferences and intentions would require sources targeting Putin’s inner circles—either human sources or electronic surveillance. As Nunes had previously noted, however, US intelligence on Putin’s decision-making process was inadequate.

But even if there had been extensive collection on precisely that issue, it would be difficult to know what was true. For instance, the closest you can get to Putin’s inner circle is Putin himself. But even capturing him on an intercept saying he wanted to elect Trump might prove inconclusive. It is difficult to judge intentions because it is not possible to see into the minds of other people. How would you know that Putin was speaking truthfully? How would you know that the Russian president didn’t know his communications were under US surveillance and wasn’t trying to deceive his audience?

Quality control of information is one of the tasks of counterintelligence—to discern how you know what you know and whether that information is trustworthy. There was no quality control for the Trump-Russia intelligence. For instance, Crossfire Hurricane lead agent Peter Strzok was the FBI’s deputy assistant director of counterintelligence. Instead of weeding out flawed intelligence on Russia, the Crossfire Hurricane team was feeding Steele’s reports into intelligence products. Yet the ICA claimed to have “high confidence” in its assessment that “Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President- elect Trump.” What was the basis of that judgment?

According to the ICA:

Putin most likely wanted to discredit Secretary Clinton because he has publicly blamed her since 2011 for inciting mass protests against his regime in late 2011 and early 2012, and because he holds a grudge for comments he almost certainly saw as disparaging him.

“Most likely” and “almost certainly” are rhetorical hedges that show the assessment could not have been made in “high confidence.” Putin may have held a grudge against Clinton, but there is no way of knowing it.

The supporting evidence deteriorates more the farther the ICA purports to reach into Putin’s mind.

Beginning in June, Putin’s public comments about the US presidential race avoided directly praising President-elect Trump, probably because Kremlin officials thought that any praise from Putin personally would backfire in the United States.

This is absurd. Part of the evidence that Putin supported Trump is that he avoided praising Trump. It is difficult enough to determine intentions by what someone says. Yet the ICA claims to have discerned Putin’s intentions by what he did not say.

There is no introductory philosophy class in logic where reasoning like that would pass muster. Yet Brennan’s handpicked group used it as the basis of its assessment that Putin had helped Trump.

Moscow also saw the election of President-elect Trump as a way to achieve an international counterterrorism coalition against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.

This may be an accurate description of how Putin saw Trump. But Trump’s predecessor also wanted to coordinate anti- ISIS operations with Moscow. On this view, Trump would have represented a continuation of Obama’s ISIS policy. Why would this make Trump’s victory suspicious to Obama’s intelligence chiefs?

Curious Inaccuracies about Russia’s RT Network The ICA also pointed to documentary evidence of Putin’s intentions: English-language media owned by the Russian government, the news site Sputnik, and the RT network, were critical of Clinton.

State-owned Russian media made increasingly favorable comments about President-elect Trump as the 2016 US general and primary election campaigns progressed while consistently offering negative coverage of Secretary Clinton.

Curiously, just days before the election, the informant the US government sent after the Trump campaign praised the Democratic candidate in an interview with Sputnik. “Clinton would be best for US-UK relations and for relations with the European Union,” Stefan Halper told the Kremlin-directed media outlet. “Clinton is well-known, deeply experienced, and predictable. US-UK relations will remain steady regardless of the winner although Clinton will be less disruptive over time.”

The ICA includes a seven-page appendix devoted to RT, the central node, according to the document, of the Kremlin’s effort to “influence politics, fuel discontent in [sic] US.”

Adam Schiff appeared on RT in July 2013. He argued for “making the FISA court much more transparent, so the American people can understand what’s being done in their name in the name of national security, so that we can have a more informed debate over the balance between privacy and security.”

RT’s editor in chief, Margarita Simonyan, is a master propagandist, according to the ICA. The document fails to mention that Simonyan heads another Moscow-owned media initiative, Russia Beyond the Headlines, a news supplement inserted into dozens of the West’s leading newspapers, including the New York Times. Russia Beyond the Headlines has been delivered to millions of American homes over the last decade. By contrast, RT’s US market share is so small that it doesn’t qualify for the Nielsen ratings. Virtually no one in the United States watches it.

Taking the logic of Brennan’s handpicked team seriously would mean that the publishers of the New York Times played a major role in a coordinated Russian effort to elect Donald Trump.

‘It Was an Operation to Bring Down Trump’ Nunes realized even then the purpose of Obama’s dossier. “Devin figured out in December what was going on,” says Langer. “It was an operation to bring down Trump.”

There was no evidence that any Trump associate had done anything improper regarding the Russians, and Nunes was losing patience. “We had serious things the committee wanted to do,” he says. “With Trump elected, we could do some big stuff, like with China.”

Still, it was important for HPSCI to maintain control of the Russia investigation. Otherwise, Democrats and Never Trump Republicans were likely to get their wish to convene a bipartisan commission to investigate Russian interference—with the purpose of turning it on Trump.

“Before they started floating the idea of a special counsel, the big idea was a special commission like the 9/11 Commission,” says Langer. It was outgoing secretary of state John Kerry who first came forward with the proposal.

The point was to change the power dynamic. “In a normal committee,” says Langer, “the majority has the power, and that happened to be us. They wanted to strip our power and make it fifty-fifty.”

“Bipartisan” was a euphemism for “anti-Trump.” “It would have been a complete joke,” says Nunes. “A combination of partisan hacks from the left and people who hated Trump on the right.”

Democrats led by Schiff and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer were joined by the late John McCain, the most active of the Never Trump Republicans. After the election, the Arizona senator had instructed his aide David Kramer to deliver a copy of the Steele Dossier to Comey.

“God only knows who they’d have populated that committee with,” says Nunes. “Anyone they could control. It would have been a freak show.”

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan defended HPSCI’s independence. On the Senate side, Intelligence Committee chairman Richard Burr had only one move. To deflect demands for an independent commission, he effectively ceded control of the Senate investigation to his vice chair, Democrat Mark Warner.

No Evidence of Collusion Years Later Still, Nunes believed that all the talk of Trump and Russia was a waste of time. “They kept promising us evidence of collusion, week after week, and they came up with nothing.”

Nunes’s disdain for the ICA forced the Crossfire Hurricane team’s hand. “Right around the time that they came out with the ICA, they kept saying that we were waiting on something to show us, something important that was coming in,” he says. “They said it was some significant figure who they couldn’t quite track down yet.”

But the FBI knew exactly where its missing link was, the piece of evidence that they thought would convince hardened skeptics like Nunes that collusion was real. They didn’t have to chase him down, because he was sitting at home in Chicago. He submitted to a voluntary interview January 27 and without a lawyer because he had no idea what the FBI had in store for him.

The Crossfire Hurricane team was figuring how they were going to set up the Trump adviser they’d used to open up the investigation in July 2016: George Papadopoulos.

Lee Smith is the media columnist at Tablet. Photo White House / public domain

[ordinaryschmuck]

Marvel Comic Facts You Probably Know, But Also Probably Don’t #1

Hey, are you a casual Marvel fan who gets most of their information about Marvel characters from movies and TV? Well, here are some facts about some classic characters that you probably know, but also probably don’t. Facts involving their history and a few odd stories you might not have heard of.

Today, we’re going to talk about:

The Fantastic Four

Ant-Man

Hulk

Spider-Man

And Thor

So here are the facts:

Since most of these characters started the 1960s, a large part of these stories involved our heroes fighting communists. Now, you might be thinking “Duh. Lots of comic fans know that.” What you don’t know is how frequently they used it. Like the time the Human Torch fought a guy trying to destroy an amusement park, only to find out that it was a commie spy trying to avoid making his comrades get found out. Or the time that the Hulk went to fight Mongu, the galactic gladiator from space...only for Mongu to turn out to be a suit operated by communists so they can trick Hulk, capture him, and figure out how to turn other communist soldiers into unstoppable monsters like him. Hell, even the main reason why Reed Richards forced the rest of the Fantastic Four into that fateful incident into space was because they “couldn’t let the Reds win.” It’s all a bunch of understandable moments of historical pride for the country...but MAN is it uncomfortable to read now...

On the topic of history, Ben and Reed once fought in WWII, with Ben as a fighter pilot and Reed as a doctor.

The Thing would temporarily transform back to Ben Grimm, either through Reed’s own work or through a bolt of lightning...one time...

The Thing almost gave up the Fantastic Four so he could be Black Beard the pirate...Issue #5 of the 1961 run. Look it up.

And since we’re on the topic of weird s**t that happened in comics, here’s a weird one for ya: In issue #9 of the 1961 run, the Fantastic Four lost all of their money because Reed Richards made some bad stock investments. So, to make money, they went to film a movie produced by their arch nemesis Namor, the Submariner. Which was just a ploy so he could kill them all, and steal Sue Storm away...Yes. Really. Look it up.

And even weirder, did you know that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby are canon characters in the universe? They are. In issue #10, it’s revealed that they publish stories about the Fantastic Four, and Doctor Doom even came to them so he could lure Mr. Fantastic into a Freaky Friday situation--YES. REALLY. Look it up!

Originally, Sue Storm couldn’t do more than turn invisible. It made her feats practically useless in comparison to the rest of the Fantastic Four, which many readers complained about. It got to the point where Mr. Fantastic and The Thing broke the forth wall and yell at the readers, telling them just how useful Sue was. Because Lee and Kirby weren’t gonna have them berate such a respectable woman like Sue Storm. Issue #11. Look it up. 

Ant-Man and Thor didn’t have their own solo comics. They were add-ons to comics called Tales to Astonish and Journey Into Mystery respectfully. Both were anthology comic books that didn’t just rely on superheroes, and told tales akin to what you would find in The Twilight Zone. It wasn’t until Ant-Man and Thor showed up did they become regular appearances.

Ant-Man’s origin wasn’t about becoming a superhero. Instead, it was about a man who learned to appreciate ants after shrinking himself down and being saved by one ant’s kindness. It wasn’t until his second appearance did he finally become a superhero.

For a while, Ant-Man shrank down by releasing a gas that shrunk his body, only for a secondary gas to make him grow.

Ant-Man would figure out where he was needed by his ants sending signals to his helmet, warning him that someone needed Ant-Man.

To get to his destination, Ant-Man would use this device that would literally shoot him across town, only for his ants to catch him when he reached his destination...yes, really.

A lot of Ant-Man’s stories were more like something out of an episode of Scooby-Doo rather than an actual superhero story. His villains would often call Ant-Man for help to throw him off their trail, only for him to figure out their plans, rip off their masks, and explain what happened to the cops. All we’re missing is a villain saying “I would have got away with it too! If it weren’t for that meddling Ant-Man! And his dumb ants!”

Thor was a doctor...Well, sort of. Back in the day, Thor actually had a secret identity: Donald Blake. Don was a doctor with a crippled knee and had to rely on walking on a cane. One day, he found an older cane. And when he slammed it into the ground, it transformed him into Thor, giving him the same powers as the Norse God of Thunder.

The cane also transformed into Thor’s hammer, which had it’s own set of rules. If Thor lets go for a whole minute, he’ll be transformed back into Donald Blake. If he slams the hammer on the ground two times, he’ll summon a storm. And if he slams it for four, he’ll summon lightning itself.

And, Thor has the power of time travel...yes, really. In issue #86 of Journey Into Mystery (1952), he used the power of his hammer to travel to the future to fight the Tomorrow Man, who stole an atomic bomb from the past (Present? Whatever).

The writers kept changing how Bruce Banner would change into the Hulk. At first it was sort of werewolf rules, where his transformation would happen at night. Eventually, they found a way where Rick Jones (basically Bruce’s sidekick), would blast Bruce Banner with gamma rays that would transform him into the Hulk, but keep Banner’s brain.

For an issue and a half, the Hulk had a telepathic link with Rick Jones, the boy Bruce Banner saved from the gamma bomb that gave him his powers. The telepathic link allowed Rick to command the Hulk to do as Rick said, and even came to his rescue when needed.

Spider-Man did, in fact, make his iconic costume. So, point to the Raimi fanboys, I guess.

BUT, he also used that big Parker brain of his to make his own web fluid and shooters. So, yeah, go ahead and take that point away. Thank you.

The Human Torch had his own solo adventures...sort of. Much like Thor and Ant-Man, the Human Torch took part in an anthology comic series called Strange Tales, where he even tried to keep a secret identity as he faced crime.

Also, the Human Torch tried to keep a secret identity. It’s as stupid as it sounds, especially since the writers gave that up after a couple issues after finally realizing that people would know who he was because Johnny Storm never wore a mask with the Fantastic Four.

And did you know that the Human Torch could make flame duplicates of himself?! I sure didn’t.

And that’s all I have to offer for now. I’ll tell you more strange facts once I continue to read these iconic tales.

[skycruise]

Misha virtual panel Sunday 22 Nov, 2020

Tried to type as much as I could as he spoke. I know the whole thing will probably be up fairly soon so you can watch, but for now--

--He finished shooting in March

--Thought he had mourned the passing of the show & had processed it but finale was an emotional experience, took him out for a couple days

--Thinks the fandom isn’t going anywhere

--Favorite memory making recipe with kids and Vicky, talks about how cookbook came about, West made pasta with jam sauce for Thanksgiving

--Projects for future? Worked on political elections recently, planning to do more of that particularly Georgia in January. Publishing book of poetry. Couple of film projects but not as actor, one he’s interested in directing.

--How do you think Jack brought Cas back? There was a different ending that Covid made impossible, but not supposed to talk about it. Involved bringing back lots and lots of cast members from the past. In original ending, Cas hadn’t gone to rebuild Heaven there was a DIFFERENT CONCLUSION FOR HIM. He did not read the last 2 episodes after the changes. He thinks Cas and Jack are more “ethereal” when rebuilding Heaven. Pure speculation though, he doesn’t know. Will probably be better explored in fan fiction than what he could come up with.

--Fan from Brazil thanks him and asks a question I don’t fully understand. Misha talks about watching the finale with his kids. West and Maison asked him to tell them if a scary part comes up, but he had no idea. Evil clowns “shell shocked” and probably traumatized the kids. West wanted to watch something else to get it out of his head. Went to watch Curb Your Enthusiasm lol. Misha jokes he is doing a shitty job keeping his kids away from the horrors of the world.

--Castiel “melded” with Misha. Cas was just a soldier at first but over time we saw him unfurl so that he didn’t fit in anywhere “fish out of water” but tried to be a good person.

--What is the one thing he will take with him from playing Castiel? A lot. On a professional level, it was fascinating to play a character for so many years. Talked about it with J2, how the characters became part of them over the years. Watching Dean’s death scene, he cried but because it was Cas’s friend Dean. It was a weird thing on an emotional level because the lines were blurry between himself and Cas. He feels he will literally take the character with him. Cas is part of him. Maybe he should double down on therapy to try and untangle him lol. Has a “naive” idea the fandom won’t go away, at least right away. Feels grateful to be a part of that, the fandom community does a lot of great things. 

--Favorite thing to bake with the kids? Pies. Though he doesn’t love pie, but he does bake a lot of them and the kids like them. Favorite kind of pie? Probably strawberry rhubarb. Doesn’t bake enough cakes! Recently made fortune cookies and put little messages inside, he put lewd messages in.

--He wants to know if he’s naive thinking the fandom will be around awhile. Fan says NO he is not.

--Misha also teared up in 15x18.

--Anything more he can say about stuff that didn’t happen in finale that was supposed to? He doesn’t want to be the one to reveal, but what are they going to do, fire him? It was a version of Sam and Dean’s Heaven that was populated with all these people from their past, all of the characters that we love from over the years were there. But COVID. 

--Favorite bts memory with the boys? He doesn’t have one, they were close friends for 12 years, lots of antics. Laughing fits, fights, got pissed off at each other, fondest memories of any work he’s done were on SPN, so much laughing and mirth, he’s going to miss that.

--Why did Cas’s trenchcoat remain intact despite all his deaths? Cas never lost the ability to magically mend his clothing. It made no sense that if he got stabbed or shot, sometimes it ripped the shirt but sometimes it wouldn’t. Or it would be cleaned up by the next episode. They wanted him to look like Constantine at the beginning, costume was 3 sizes too big, finally (he doesn’t remember what season) asked for a better fitting costume. New suit first, then lost the tie but eventually put it back. One season they just got him a whole new wardrobe and never explained it. He stole some trenchcoats.

--Cas’s confession was one scene where there wasn’t much joking around, he needed to be in an emotional state. Sat on a folding chair and ruminated on his own. Stunt coordinator noticed that and just stood by, knew Misha needed his space, it was really sweet. Made sure no one bothered him. Didn’t ask him to do that, it was intuitive & Misha was appreciative. Crew was great about that during heavy scenes.

--How did he feel reading script where Cas dies? Knew it was coming, had had conversations with Bobo, was happy with it. Felt a little risky and brave, was happy to be a part of that. Happy his character could express love like that. Has seen people complain about bury your gays trope and doesn’t think that’s what was happening. Cas is in Heaven, rebuilding Heaven, and also so much good came from that declaration. Cas saved Dean which was essential to saving the world. That declaration saved the world and was of Cas’s own volition, he wasn’t forced to do that, it was his choice & that’s important. Maybe he’s naive but he didn’t think they were playing into that trope. He’s glad Castiel got to express that. He’s proud that the show did that. He’s sure it’s a conversation that will continue to be dissected.

--Will he ever get an SPN tattoo? Hasn’t thought about it, has thought about getting one related to his kids. Is that a “has-been” tattoo? Should he get Jensen and Jared’s faces? LOL. Tattoo of Cas’s face on his abdomen? Nah probably no SPN tattoo.

--3 things he does to be kind to himself? Has a tendency to be hard on himself. Sleep, run, meditate. He feels guilty he doesn’t spend enough time with his kids so he does but doing that he sometimes doesn’t take care of himself as much which makes him grumpier and not a great dad. Balancing act.

--Fave moment of finale was Dean’s death scene. Masterfully executed, well done, excellent performances from J2. Made him cry. 

--Best memory of last day on set. Everyone was being really sweet, lots of tears from crew and cast. Last scene was last thing on Friday, Him Alex, Jensen, Speight had to fly to convention next morning. Finished around 130 am, got on chartered flight, 15 minutes in flash of light and BOOM, one of the engines exploded, circled back to Vancouver and plane was shaking, really scary, during emergency landing they were texting their loved ones because they weren’t sure if they’d see them again

--Did angels get their wings back? Yeah probably. Why wouldn’t they? He misses Castiel’s car though. The Pimpmobile. Had hydraulics. Remembers car jumping up and down because JARED broke it.

--Cas would be a great security guard because he never sleeps. Would not be a great teacher or architect or artist...could be handy in a kitchen though.

--What color are Cas’s wings? Misha always thought they were black, but maybe they’re rainbow colored!

--Worst joke from J2? Jokes J2 are not good people, they got really excited leading up to him directing because they were plotting, they were going to break into his apartment and steal his furniture but Misha was tipped off by crew. Fish left under his car seat, again he was tipped off. One thing he remembers is Jared messing with his directors chair so that he would fall when he sat on it. Fell for it probably 5 times. Also Jared messing up his lines until Misha went to talk to him, which is when he got pied in the face. Everything looked blurry for like 20 minutes, Jensen brought him another shirt & apologized, then during lunchtime Jensen pied him too. 

--How did Cas feel when Jack became new god? Vindicated. Like, “we did it”. Also feels concerned that Jack is no longer Jack. But at his core Jack was still himself.

--Real story behind handprint? He doesn’t know, but it was a nice touch. Doesn’t remember how they came up with that. Great call back to very beginning. Poignant. 

--Favorite Dad joke? The one with the snail getting thrown across the yard and 2 years later asking what was that about.

--Didn’t hear this one well but what I picked up was Favorite con moments? He and Jensen have had really fun panels in Rome

--Favorite version of Castiel to play? Loved playing LuciferCas and HumanCas. Wishes there had been more HumanCas. But regular Cas was his overall favorite, wouldn’t have wanted to trade regular Cas for any other Cas.

--Miss you guys, love you, hopefully see you soon.

[i-am-not-busy]

Stalking Jack the Ripper

by Kerri Maniscalco

This is not the first book I’ve read by miss Kerri Maniscalco (Kingdom of the Wicked- 8/10), and it is certainly not the last I’ll read.

While I am currently withholding myself from reading the second book to Stalking Jack the Ripper- Hunting Prince Dracula, I will give my honest opinion on the book.

I liked reading this book all through Audrey Rose’s pov, and that’s saying something since I usually dislike books with first pov. She was an interesting character, and not just because she enjoyed cutting into dead bodies.

To set it up, this is placed in 1888, in the city of London. Murders are occurring and Audrey’s uncle has tasked his niece and his protégé (Thomas Cresswell) to figure out who the killer is.

I absolutely adore the plot. Some of it stays true to little historical facts, and the amount of creativity Maniscalco had to make details feel so real and so right- it just amazes me. She had me second guessing every character’s motives and I’ll admit I tried to figure out the killer as well, but it wasn’t until 5 pages until it was revealed that I guessed who.

My favorite character? Thomas Cresswell. Obviously. I loved his personality and his constant witty remarks. His ability to deduce such things so quickly is remarkable. He reminds me so much of Sherlock Holmes. Not to mention, nearly every sentence said to Audrey Rose is smoothly turned into a pick up line.

That’s right, folks. There’s a dash of romance in this murder mystery, and if you don’t fall for Thomas Cresswell, then you’re wrong. lol

anyways, this book has a strong willed protagonist (I really liked Audrey Rose and her composure among other things.) this book will have you craving for more. I know I feel like that. That’s why as soon as I post this I’m going to start reading the second book.

[jckelly]

updated intro / jack 101

Is that JACK KELLY? Wow, they do look a lot like VAN MCCANN. I hear HE is an NINETEEN year old FRESHMEN who are studying AEROSPACE ENGINEERING  at Luxor University. Word is they are an ARISTOCRAT student. You should watch out because they can be PHILOPHOBIC and INSINCERE, but on the bright side they can also be WITTY and IMAGINATIVE. Ultimately, you’ll get to see it all for yourself. [YUNI, 21, GMT, SHE/HER]

 the other two got updated intros n rat man felt left out

basics

full name: jackson noel kelly 

nicknames: jack (does not answer to jackson)

date of birth: december 25, 2001

zodiac: capricorn sun, leo ascendant, sagittarius moon

nationality: dual uk and us citizenship

sexual orientation: straight but will try anything once

course: aerospace engineering

appearance

faceclaim: van mccann 

voiceclaim: van mccann

ethnicity: white (english, irish)

height: 5′8 / 173cm

weight: 58kg / 127lbs

eye colour: blue

hair colour: brown

distinctive features: freckles (many), left ear pierced, scars on his wrists usually covered by long sleeves, northern english accent

clothing preferences: jack prefers to only wear black, or at a push grey, although he’s slowly improving and will Occasionally mix it up with ... navy. his style is pretty basic, usually just a sweater, jeans, and beat up black converse or doc martens depending on how emo he’s feeling. the sheffield united hoodie makes an appearance every time someone forgets precisely which uk city jack is from. 

personality

overview

positive traits: witty, imaginative, perseverant, passionate

negative traits: philophobic, disloyal, insincere, callous

mbti: entp

religious beliefs: atheist

description

the first side most people see of jack is the side he wants you to see. a total asshole. it’s not an exaggeration - he’s pretty much infamous for flirting with everyone, dating anyone and as a serial cheater. he’ll actively try to worm his way into your life, and then just when you start to care, he does something to hurt you. he’s strangely persistent, probably helping him to push people even further, until they snap. there is nothing which satisfies him more than managing to wind people up to the extreme, get them to the point where they give up. adopted parents, friends, nobody is immune to this side - he even tries it on the people he genuinely cares about, as if just to see if he’ll still be able to push them away.

the second side, which most people don’t see, is that at heart jack is a kid. he’s the type of person to ask if owls have ears at 3am, or get some childlike joy out of dumb jokes. of course, this is the side nobody but a very small number of people see. and even if you do see it, it never lasts long. he keeps his true personality under wraps even amongst those he does like, and it only slips out if he’s extremely comfortable with you. otherwise, he’ll go straight back to being a sarcastic, flirty piece of shit.

biography

jackson noel kelly was born in hell on ironically christmas day to his father satan......

jk

jack and his older half brother finn were born in sheffield, united kingdom, to a single mother. a drug addict, she was notorious among social workers for neglecting her children and as a result jack shuffled between foster homes and his mother’s home during his first ten years of life, with finn, less than four years older than him, being his primary carer even when he was back with his birth family. this cycle finally ended when jack was ten and he was permanently removed from his mother’s care, and placed in the first of a series of foster homes which didn’t last particularly long.

the thing was, jack’s remarkably good at pushing people away when he wants to, and as he got older his talents only increased. running away, wreaking havoc, insulting anyone who tried to get close and anything else he could possibly think of meant that for three years he lasted no longer than eight months in any one place. in fact, he frequently took himself back to live with his birth family until social services came to drag him out again. this lifestyle continued until he was fostered by his now adopted parents, claire and george, at thirteen.

much to jack’s dismay, no matter of hell raising would push these newest set of parents away. in fact, they seemed absolutely set on raising him as Their Son, even as his attempts to get them off his back got more and more extravagant. they removed him from his previous school, transferred him to a fancy private school, put him in therapy and tried their best to help him get through all of the issues developed through his slightly fucked up childhood.

the thing was, jack loves his mother. he still refuses to see her as being in the wrong, no matter what people tell him or what he himself recalls, in his mind he has one mother and that’s his birth mother. so he did not take kindly to attempts by his foster parents to become his “new” family, because in jack’s mind? he already had a family. and even though they were actively encouraging him to continue contact with his brother, he couldn’t help but see them as trying to replace his birth family.

jack’s fifteenth year pretty much became the year when all of these issues finally came to a head. he was adopted legally by his foster parents, who had now been fostering him for two years - which should have been a happy occasion, but for jack represented the final loss, the final betrayal to his birth mother and brother. then shortly after his fifteenth birthday his brother went to prison at eighteen for grievous bodily harm, having glassed another boy after an argument.

of course, it would later be revealed that in actuality the assault had been committed by jack. and that finn was simply covering for him. (they looked alike enough that questions were not raised, it had happened so fast.) but in the eyes of jack’s adopted parents, finn was now a dangerous offender and jack had to be protected from him. so he was then isolated from his brother, his mother had relapsed and his continuous guilt over being adopted played on his mind, culminating in a suicide attempt in march 2017. 

of course, he wasn’t successful, but this was the final straw in the minds of his adopted parents. they felt jack needed a fresh start, away from the people who had defined his life prior to that point. so by his sixteenth birthday, jack had been moved to the united states to be near the family of his adopted mother, and subsequently enrolled in luxor academy. 

where he continued to be a menace :))

although it did appear, for some time, that jack was showing signs of improvement. sure, he was still wreaking havoc at luxor. but at home, he had calmed, even showing signs of affection to his adopted family. until his mother overdosed suddenly and died when jack was eighteen and things started to immediately go straight downhill again.

he can’t help but blame himself, for allowing himself to be moved. for the move being his fault, if he’s being honest. and if the honesty continues, jack’s got a whole lot of other stuff to blame on himself. (see: ruining his brother’s life.) so now he’s just taking shit out on everyone to try and make them a fraction as miserable as him. 

npc connections

birth fam

finn kelly / fc: jake bugg / b. may 10 1998 / taurus sun, gemini ascendant, pisces moon

finley, who also refuses to use his full name, is jack’s older brother - same mother, different father.  jack thinks he’s boring because he doesn’t raise hell with every opportunity. finn calls this “being a sane person.” went to prison for jack and regrets it. pastimes include crying over murakami books and trying to look shocked when jack tells him about the newest crisis he’s having. 

lauren kelly / fc: elena tonra / b. february 20 1983 - d. april 1 2020 / pisces sun, aries ascendant, leo moon

jack’s birth mother, who was still a teenager when he and finn were born. she was an on again, off again drug addict and had jack removed from her care when he was ten due to continued neglect. instilled in him a love for oasis and a hefty number of mental health issues. looked pretty much exactly like jack. 

jordan taylor / fc: alex turner / b. october 12 1984 / libra sun, leo ascendant, virgo moon

jack’s birth father, who he knows little about. not for lack of trying on his father’s part, who was prevented from seeing jack as a child by his birth mother and blocked from trying to make contact by jack’s refusal to interact. he keeps trying to message jack and jack is running out of daddy issues memes to respond with. finn thinks jack should give him a chance to redeem himself. jack thinks finn should fuck off. 

adopted fam

claire fielding / fc: julia roberts / b. may 12 1964 / taurus sun, cancer ascendant, leo moon

jack’s adopted mother. loves him very much and is convinced he is a sweet boy who just needs love and help. has written a memoir about adopting jack. jack is mad at her constantly. when he is not mad at her, he is embarrassed by her existence. honestly deserves better.

george fielding / fc: timothy olyphant / b. november 6, 1963 / scorpio sun, capricorn ascendant, virgo moon

is proud of jack, but very deep down underneath a strong layer of calling jack out on his bullshit. has some loud ass shouting matches with jack. also really wishes jack would sort his hair out and maybe not look like a cheap liam gallagher. jack honestly just winds him up constantly and he knows jack is doing it but goddamnit it’s so hard to not be mad at the little rat. 

other

maisie adeyemi / fc: yewande biala / b. january 6, 1997 / capricorn sun, sagittarius ascendant, aries moon

finn’s fiancee. her goal in life is to try to get jack to ruin finn’s life at least 70% less often. she has yet to achieve this goal. her love language is setting finn’s phone to silent when he goes to bed to stop jack from phoning in with some sort of random crisis at four in the morning because the little shit forgot timezones exist. finn will never find out. maisie is grateful that men have no brains. 

[red-hood-vigilante]

hbo spn storylines, drabbles, ideas, thoughts, wishlist, whatever you may call it. it’s messy, nothing makes sense and pretty sure a lot of these contradict each other

more of sam at stanford with jessica/flashbacks. jessica potentially lives but is revealed to be a demon (but she developed actual feelings for sam and really did come to care for him because a demon falling in love with a human would be SO interesting) OR she lives but her memory gets wiped like dean did to lisa OR she dies like she did but she is a ghost that haunts sam (he welcomes it but eventually he lets her go -> character arc). he still dreams about her though and he has her keepsakes with him wherever he goes, her rings, her favourite book, anything that was left of her from the fire

you have to be extremely careful when making deals with demons because they are cunning and evil creatures. they will follow the rules of the deal but will find loopholes to put some sadistic twist on the terms. you want money? of course, too bad you’ll be arrested for fraud before you can use any of it and spend the next ten years in jail before i drag you to hell. you want a perfect husband? sure he’ll love you. in fact, he’ll love you so much he’ll keep you locked up in the basement to keep you safe etc etc. saving a person often becomes the person that causes or leads to your death.

the creation of jack: after s5, when lucifer is trapped in the cage again lucifer fuses his own soul with a human soul to create jack, who escapes to earth to find sam and castiel. i have a longer post about this saved in my drafts

lucifer is trapped for good in the cage after s5 but if he was to return again, dean would kill him while sam would kill michael - this would be nice parallels and a sort of fulfillment of the “one brother must kill the other” prophecy because one brother DO kill another brother, just not their own

more azazel and how he came to the plan of how to free lucifer; opening a hell gate earlier, more experimentations with the demon blood etc

mary was infected with the blood when she was a baby, sam is the first and only second generation special child (longer post about that here)

personally, i want to see more and know more about john and mary’s relationship. when mary died, john and mary had fulfilled their destiny (having sam and dean) so does that mean that his love and dedication to mary post her death was falsely fabricated by the angels to ensure sam and dean would grow up in ideal conditions to become hunters? or maybe, after mary’s death, john wakes up from the spell with two kids he doesn’t recognize and a wife he thinks he loved, but the memories of the past years of his life are like a fever dream; he never wanted to live in a town like this nor was he interested in having kids? but here the house is, and here are his kids, but now he’s alone and empty and with no answers. (idk i just find john and mary and their relationship very fascinating) if the latter, if john and mary see each other again it’s like the spell activates again and they become blindly in love with each other, but once gone, they return to their confused and hazey state of mind, like just woken up from a coma

i do like mary coming back but i love how in s5 when she wasn’t found in heaven it was hinted that she was just discarded because she had fulfilled her “purpose” and i think this adds to the whole notion of how heaven and angels can be really cruel AND how mary is this mythical, religious figure to both sam and dean and we only get to know her through their lenses, like religion and faith

ruby is present for a longer amount of time to make the reveal even more shocking. at one point or another, dean does actually trust her and they all work together on cases for a while. ruby’s backstory as a witch is more explored. i like her death in s4 because she’s in this total state of euphoria and has achieved a goal only she was entrusted with, and she is so convinced sam will understand, until sam holds her down while dean carves her heart out. so we either keep that or she serves lucifer for a while (until he kills her which she is happy about because of her blind loyalty to him, could again mirror dean and john/castiel and heaven) or she serves lucifer and like crowley she realizes lucifer will kill demons after humans (redemption arc, but i don’t really like that, let her be evil!!)

dean and sam helps bela out of her deal and she becomes their go-to person when they need a magic item or book. she doesn’t like it but she owes them. regularly hooks up with jo.

angels are really hollow soldiers - they only follow orders and don’t understand the concept free will or choice or individuality at all. they are extremely righteous and strike without warning often on a whim, often very bloody (explosions a la castiel in swan song). if something fall into what they consider justice they will kill it. no concept of love, attraction or gender. real form can’t be perceived by humans unless they want them to, which leads to eyes melting (pamela) or breaking a person’s mind (in 5.16 zachariah actually says that sam and dean sees him in his vessel bc they’re ‘limited’. so.)

castiel, anna, maybe uriel and some others are exceptions to this, but only becomes so after longer exposure to human’s world. even then, they don’t change their violent whims, just the reasoning and where their loyalty lies

hbo spn is s1-5 stretched out for 8-10 seasons with the aesthetics of s1-2. i’m cutting out demon dean, purgatory, the mark of cain, the men of letters, the alphas, leviathatan, god being the real villain all along and the other worlds because it was just too much and far remived from the roadtrip aesthetic. keeping kevin, charlie (she is introduced via ash bc they’re hacker friends), the trials, rowena, uuuh the angels falling is such an interesting concept but idk if it would fit. maybe metatron? but his motivations are different. soullessness + the concept of souls might be kept if it’s explained better. i’m torn on whether or not to include the campbells

hell, heaven and purgatory are explained but only seen in glimpses, keep these ideas ambiguous and up to interpretation outside of what we hear. remember the line ‘hell is...well, it’s like hell. even for demons’? leave it at that. the exception is 5.16 bc that episode fucks so hard

if we end on swan song and let the show be the tragedy it is, i want to keep the ambiguous ending. is that sam or lucifer? if it’s sam, will he contact dean or walk away? we will never know! there is also no ‘the world is ending’ more than once, it really lost its impact after the second or third time.

idk how i feel about the men of letters - it is logical that there would be organized hunting and an established network and system on how to do things, but for the sake of keeping it hbo-style and grounded, there are no networks beyond the roadhouse and singer’s salvage yard.

i want sam and dean not have a permanent home except the impala, motels and impala ONLY. the bunker had potential but it was just for the sake of convenience it was there with all the lore and answers they needed when it was necessary. maybe eventually they do stop travelling so much when it becomes more about the Big Stuff instead of the episodic cases that requires driving all the time but it will be like an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. i want sam and dean to never have a physical house as a home but they scrape together whatever they have make something similar to a show

as the show progresses, sam and dean become pretty hated by other hunters because they’ve started apocalypse and have an increasingly shitty reputation. and john was an infamous good hunter but also a dick. everybody knows that people who work with the winchesters often end up dead, that one brother will sacrifice anything and anyone to save the other and that they frequently work alongside demons. even the ones they DO work with (jo, ellen, bobby, rufus, bela) are hesitant to be involved with them

sam’s powers are strong but after killing lilith and the truth revealed to him, he represses the powers in shock and fear of how blinded he was by them and the rush of power they gave him. a little more about how sam fears what the lust for power and strength did to him. he continues to repress his powers, often to a dangerous point where he will be on death’s door as a result of not using them. when meeting jack and mentoring him in using his powers, jack asks him about sam’s powers after sensing them. sam eventually decides to lead by example and embraces his powers again, but remains extremely careful about using them (this also fulfills dean’s arc of having to let go of the holy-innocent-pure-ideal-not a person but an idealized version of sam-little brother sam he has put on a pedestal for so long)

bobby is viewed as a father figure by sam and dean but bobby makes it clear he doesn’t want that burden or relationship in his life after his wife died. he makes this clear to them too, but sam and dean have fucked up perceptions of parental figures so they don’t think bobby means it (they just latch on to whatever parental figures they can find)

we see more of sam’s relationship with the side characters; sam and jo hunt together on occasion, he hangs out with ash and talks hacking when visiting the roadhouse. he and ellen loves playing poker together. if anything, dean is the one who’s isolated - he only ever really cared about mary, john, sam and cassie, and never really had any friends. sam is way more well adjusted and sociable after spending time at stanford where he’s had conversations that didn’t only revolve around dead bodies and lore. 

this could also feed into dean’s extreme abandonment issues and isolation he feels and how this would affect his psyche

sam and dean are both unknowingly prepared to become the perfect vessels; sam loses his humanity by becoming more and more like lucifer (defying his father and his will) while dean becomes prepared by doing what michael did; casting his brother away in his time of need (blindly following his father and his will). very much like in s4 but even more intense and brutal (i love angst :))

we see different hybrids; demon/human (antichrist), human/(arch)angel (nephilim) and demon/angel (???), but none of them are all powerful bc narratively that’s really boring. they’re strong but have very specific powers that affects them and/or their surroundings in catastrophic ways (but no other worlds bs, we stick to the road trip aesthetic, keep it grounded). i want the only all powerful character to be god but he doesn’t show up at all, he’s the ultimate absent father. is it chuck? we never find out!

powers would for example include giving people diseases, force anyone close to them to tell the truth (not consciously, it’s just the air around them), read minds, create storms, light things on fire when they’re angry, make people hallucinate etc. like fucked up shit but not things that are too grande because again - that’s really boring

abbadon, the princes of hell and the four horsemen are more fleshed out villains instead of the one season reign the each had. 

being a prince of hell is a title that is inherited - after azazel dies, sam gets the title because he is the one with azazel’s blood in him OR meg does, but idk if that would be as interesting (if she actually was his daughter)

it remains a horror show throughout, lots of gore and blood

the moral code and ethics of the brothers are the opposite of the beginning; dean thinks in black and white, sam sees shades of grey and individuals instead of what they are. however, as the show progresses, their train of thought becomes opposites; dean becomes more open to how people are true evil and how monsters are often victims of their circumstance while sam becomes harsher and less forgiving after ruby’s betrayal along with finding out the truth of his existence and how there’s been demons around his entire life. eventually they’re on the same page and they see the circumstances. 

on the other hand; i also really fuck with the idea of dean maintaining his black and white morals on that all monsters=inherently evil, humans=inherently pure and good, but he is the only human on team free will. sam is half demon, castiel is an angel, jack is a nephilim, rowena is a witch, garth is a werewolf, mary is a zombie etc

demons become demons in hell by agreeing to become the torturer and thus giving up their humanity to be free of pain, does that mean they could become humans again by regaining some humanity? by doing good deeds? (potentially this is confirmed with jessica and how she came to love sam; genuine love and care for a human could reverse the demon process?) this also means dean was a demon in hell but was purified/turned back again when castiel raised him. this also plays into dean becoming like michael; in trying to absolve himself from what he did in hell he becomes ruthless, unforgiving and righteous to evil, much like the angels, regardless of his personal connection to a person and what he would consider “evil”

dean and pacifisim: after dean is cured from being a demon/the mark of cain/is made aware of his blind righteousness that he used as an excuse to kill, he becomes firmly determined to reign in his anger and violent tendencies by becoming a pacifist (like sam in s11) as a way to redeem all the blood he’s spilled. of course in his profession and true dean fashion he won’t be able to do it 100% so he decides to only act in self defense, and he only goes batshit violent on the offense when it’s about protecting sam

OR. dean’s self righteousness becomes his own downfall; the belief that all evil must be eradicated, refusal to see the circumstances and the shades of grey is what pushes him to lose his humanity and become a demon and therefore, in a potential ending the ruler of hell, because i think it would such an interesting journey from a to b, that dean starts out human, revels in his holiness, executes and kills in the name of his own holiness in the belief that he’s becoming the ultimate angel, the ultimate hero when it’s doing the opposite. if this happened then sam would take the opposite route; starts as a human, becomes more and more demonic, stops himself and returns to his hopeful and optimistic self, has faith and humility and that is what makes him ascend from abomination to purified and holy (trials). 

this could be a perfect 10 season structure as well: s1-5 are when sam and dean start off humans; dean becomes holy and as close to an angel a human can be, while sam drinks the demon blood and almost becomes one to gain the freedom and power he wants, but begins to turn it around to send lucifer back to hell. s6-10 is when dean becomes the unholy and sam becomes the holy even though neither realize because now there’s no grand master plan - this is who they are, who they choose themselves. don’t know how this ould end though; either as normal humans again (but there wouldn’t really be a ”normal” after everything) or they really go off the rails with sam like ruling heaven (not as god though, just as a good and just man) and dean ruling hell. castiel is human and stays on earth with jack.

the gothic americana aesthetic is kept throughout the entire show and is only shot on film

after s5 castiel returns to heaven to help restore order, and he takes charge for a little while, but eventually returns to earth after trying to introduce democracy to angels who didn’t get it. in his place, anna takes over and she rules heaven well (after trying to kill mary when going back in time she isn’t killed by michael, but narrowly escapes and remains in hiding to heal until castiel reaches out and finds her)

when finding out they are The Vessels and will be brought back regardless of what they try, sam and dean explore what this means more. dean throws himself into dangers and to protect others. he is burned, blown up, stabbed, electrocuted, beheaded and eaten, but wakes up the next morning in his bed without a scratch, without any pain and memories of his deaths. he revels in this untouchability. sam kills himself over and over only to be resurrected again and again by lucifer. he remembers the pain and blood.

that being said, while dean is like angel royalty, sam is demon royalty. the demons don’t go after him, they don’t hurt him. some even offer up themselves to be drained of blood, even after lilith’s death. it makes it really difficult to stay clean but he pulls through with dean and castiel actually supporting him. to help sam get through his addiction, dean stops drinking alcohol and they go through their withdrawal together

the angels almost worship dean as the michael sword and have an open disgust towards sam for being lucifer’s vessel - they always answer dean’s prayers and calls for help, they follow his orders if need be and don’t hesitate to heal him if he needs it. sam could pray until his vocal chords bleed or call out for help while holding his guts in his hands; none of the angels would come to his aid. the only one who answers sam’s prayers is lucifer as a voice in sam’s head or a hallucination. sam could call demons to help him out but he refuses

sam isn’t the first hunter to drink demon blood, to try to enhance his own abilities using the supernatural as a means to get there - there are hunters who have altered themselves with parts from werewolves and vampires to become better hunters, like the styne family (the guys from s10), blurring the lines again of what’s good and human vs what is evil and inhumane

if angels can’t find a vessel to volunteer, they will force them to say yes - the how is not important, only that the ‘yes’ is said, whether its meant or not, any verbal yes will do. the angels never sleep and they never eat, which is disturbing to sam and dean who are exhausted all the time and eat scraps whenever they can

castiel, like all other angels, is taught to despise and not care about sam winchester at all, but the more castiel gets to know sam, he becomes fascinated with him, how lucifer’s ultimate vessel, starter of the apocalypse and destroyer of god’s creation can be so kind and gentle, so full of faith, acceptance, optimism and hope. in dean castiel sees a good man, yes, but also a man who’s bloodthirsty, rages, revels in war, resorts all problems with violence, loves conditionally and expects unquestioned loyalty. sam too, has a darkness and bloodthirst in him, but it only comes out in glimpses. castiel thinks it’s funny, how sam turns out to be the opposite of lucifer while dean is so alike michael

[mattzerella-sticks]

Supernatural Crack🩹tober

Day 5 - Now That’s an Angel Blade 

           Sam comes to, blinking, staring at Dean’s door. He chokes on a gasp, stumbling backwards. Away from his brother’s room. From what he heard.

           “Now that’s what I call an angel blade.”

           He presses flat against the wall, jaw working hard at producing no sound. Stopped by the knot in his throat, clogged by the possibility of what might have been. Had Sam, not catching the panted moan, barreled through the door. Dean and Cas in such a compromising position Sam would be struck blind from the sight of their naked bodies –

           “No,” he wipes the thought with a flick of his twitching hand, “No. We are not thinking about that right now.”

           Recovering, somewhat, Sam stands without aid on shaky legs. He shuffles towards the door again, only for the book he dropped. Nothing else. Sam lifts it, scanning for any damage. The page he bookmarked was lost, but nothing else happened to the ancient tome. Luckily. Tucking it under arm, Sam spins on his heel. Body telling him he should run far from Dean’s room.

           He lingers, though. Stuck because of some light ruffling from the other side of the door. Curiosity betrays him, and he leans closer. Listens more attentively.

           Dean chuckles, “Come on, let me play with it.”

           “No Dean,” Cas says, “you wouldn’t know how to handle it. Just… let me do all the work.”

           Shame rushes down his back like cold water, every nerve in his body raw and sparking. He sprints through the hallway at a record pace. No set destination in mind. Perhaps he’ll snag an extra set of keys for one of the many cars sitting in the garage and drive. Drive until the tank empties and start a new life, with a new name. He’s always liked Jared for some reason.

           Jared Peterman. Normal guy, with a normal past and family. Tragically he has no siblings, not even a brother that any angels can romantically entangle with. Tragic.

           “Sam?” He trips over his feet, almost steamrolling over Jack. The younger boy steps aside, avoiding his large frame. “Sam, what’s the matter? Is there an emergency?”

           Not a real one. Years of memories being torn to shreds and restructured in a more accurate understanding would mean little in Jack’s opinion. But for Sam… it’s shaken his worldview. Up there with all the others. Angels being real, Chuck being God, and now Dean and Cas fucking.

           “No, it’s not –“ Sam winces, pain scratching at his skull. He rubs his temple, “I, I’m not feeling too good. Think I need to lie down…”

           “Oh…” Jack holds up his hand, brows furrowed, “do you want me to –“

           “No!” He jumps, Sam’s voice echoing in the hallway. “No, no you don’t…” Sam continues, softer, “that’s not necessary.” Tempting? Sure. If he asked, Jack could definitely wipe his memory of the discovery. Leaving him in blissful ignorance for when Dean and Cas actually reveal their new relationship in a manner that won’t scar Sam for the remainder of his life. But for such a clean slate, he’d be ratting them out to Jack. And while the boy might think of them as his dads, he’s not sure how he’ll explain them being his… dads. “I think some sleep might do me some good… or I’ll take a painkiller, or ten.”

           Jack worries his bottom lip, not sold on Sam’s excuse. Still, he relents. Hand resting at his side. “If you say.” He glances behind, frown deepening. “Hey… have you seen Dean?”

           “Dean?” Sam panics, stiffening. “No, why would I have seen Dean, I don’t think I’ve seen him at all. Ever. Never seen him.” Coughing, he hides behind his bangs. Avoiding Jack’s searching expression. “Why are you looking for him anyway?”

           “I have a question,” he says, “I thought he’d be helpful in answering.”

           “Okay. But, if I can’t find him he’s probably busy,” Sam tells Jack, “maybe he’s in the middle of something and – uh… doesn’t want to be disturbed?”

           Jack huffs, “It’s kind of important, and I haven’t found him in his usual places… the garage, the kitchen…” His face brightens, though, despite Sam’s dismissal. “I haven’t tried his room though!”

           “Jack, wait -!”

           “Thanks Sam!”

           He disappears around the corner, bounding down the hallways. Sam watches leave, too weak he cannot prevent the unfortunate series of events and conversations that will entail. Instead Sam shuffles towards his room. Hopefully, when he wakes up, the storm will pass.

           Hopefully.

🩹🩹🩹🩹🩹🩹🩹🩹🩹🩹🩹🩹🩹🩹🩹🩹

           Jack barges in without knocking, Dean’s grip on the sword faltering. “Holy hell, Jack,” Dean yells, catching it before the blade sliced through his foot. “Haven’t you heard of knocking?”

           “Sorry, sorry…” he says, wincing, “I wasn’t sure you’d be in here.” Glancing between him and Cas, the latter lounging on Dean’s bed. Feet crossed at the ankles, perfectly relaxed while Dean swung the relic around like a toy and not the heavenly prototype of the standard angel’s weapon with an enriched history that Cas spent the last three hours explaining to him.

           “Jack,” Cas speaks now, “did you need something?”

           “I… I wanted to ask Dean a question.”

           Dean hands the sword off, Cas accepting it. Laying it on the other side of him. “Ask away.”

           Jack wrings his hands, nerves making themselves known. “Okay,” he says, pacing at the entrance of Dean’s room. “So, I was in town earlier, and I ran into this guy. We started talking and, well… I think I like him.”

           “That’s good!” Dean nods, smiling. Faltering as Jack’s smile doesn’t mirror his own. “What’s the problem?”

           “I don’t know what to do next!” Jack throws his hands in the air, “What should I do?”

           Snorting, Dean closes the distance and wraps an arm around Jack. Guides him into the hallway, “Listen, talking to boys is real simple.”

           “It is?”

           “Yeah,” he says, “what you need to do is hang out with him, maybe get him talking about something he likes. That he’s interested in. Show interest, even if it’s fake. And, then, at the right time, ask if he wants to make out.”

           Jack arches a brow, “That’s all?”

           “Well, I mean if he says no then you’ll have to live through an awkward few minutes,” Dean admits, squeezing Jack’s shoulder. “But I doubt that’ll happen. I’m sure he likes you as much as you like him. So go and make plans, already.”

           “I will!” Jack yells, dashing off, “thanks!”

           Dean waits for the younger boy to disappear, closing the door as he re-enters his room. Locking it for extra measure. When he turns, Dean notices the critical stare from Cas. “What?”

           “That’s your advice?”

           “It’s good advice!”

           “When has it ever worked for you?”

           He grins, swaggering towards Cas. Leaning close, their noses brush. “Hey, Cas, d’you wanna…”

(Day 4: Cutest Curse Ever)

[cousinmarcustalkswrestling]

The Five WWE MVPs of 2020

5

Asuka

It feels like WWE views Asuka as a skilled utility player instead of one of the elite talents in their company. There’s a level where that’s disrespectful and indicative of their problems, but also with a company this size it’s not the worst idea to have an elite talent bounce around different positions. No matter what was going on, Asuka approached her role with the same quirky intensity and she was a joy to watch throughout the year. She gave Becky Lynch two great matches to further legitimize her year long title reign, then had one of the best moments of the year when Becky announced her pregnancy and relinquished the title to her. She became the main opposition to the Golden Role Models in the summertime and had great matches with both Bayley and Sasha. She even gave a lot to a motivated Zelina Vega in their Clash of Champions match. Very few people are ready for Asuka.

4 

Drew McIntyre

Talk about bad timing. Imagine the biggest moment of your professional career happening at the biggest show of the year without any fans there. McIntyre had probably the biggest starmaking moment of the year when he eliminated Brock at the Royal Rumble. But instead of the epic showdown they should’ve had at Raymond James Stadium, they had a 4 minute finisher fest in front of no fans. Ay it is what it is. But even with the up and down quality of Raw throughout the year, not an iota of blame can be placed on Drew. His charisma and strong talking was on display nearly every week and he never really had a misstep the entire year. He had a great match against Seth Rollins at Money in the Bank and an underappreciated brawl against Bobby Lashley at Backlash. His Orton feud suffered from Orton problems and a stupid title switch, but their Ambulance match was great. His epic clash against Roman Reigns was one of the best matches of the year and he ended the year with a great TLC match against AJ Styles. Great job, Drew!

3

Bayley

DING DONG!! WHAT A YEAR!! Bayley really didn’t have a lot of quality opposition for her Smackdown title all year. Lacey Evans just isn’t at that level and booking didn’t put enough effort behind her feuds with Naomi and Nikki Cross. But it didn’t matter because Bayley (with Sasha) was a one woman army of entertainment this year. She was brash, enthusiastic, and almost maniacal in her heeldom. Honestly, she didn’t even need a murderers row of talent and great matches to get her over, just put a microphone in front of her and let her go. Once her and Sasha won the tag titles, they were given free reign to go to all three shows and they were the clear highlight of the company in the Summer. Her match against Asuka on the July 5 Raw is one of the best TV matches of the year and shows how refined her heel game has become in contrast to her being one of the best pure babyfaces in history. Her attack on Sasha added a brutal edge to her character and it resulted in two of the best matches of the year. Her booking post Sasha has been a little so-so, but she’s begun a fun feud with Bianca Belair to carry over into the new year. Great job, Bayley!

2

Roman Reigns

Forget everything that happened before Summerslam. He was in a terrible feud with Corbin and then he was set to face fucking Goldberg at Wrestlemania before he went on his COVID vacation. He returned at Summerslam looking super jacked and super mean. On the Smackdown between Summerslam and Payback, Roman revealed his partnership with Paul Heyman and I knew we would be getting something special from there. Roman’s cousin, Jey Uso, becoming #1 Contender for the Universal Title unleashed the Tribal Chief and he’s been a blast to watch ever since that moment. He’s a brutal dictator driven by the survival of his family which is completely dependent on his success and his reign as Universal Champion. He and Jey had two of the best matches of the year that were driven by Roman’s determination in Jey acknowledging him as the Tribal Chief of the family.

Roman really deserved this character. For the years and years that he was treated with inexplicable scorn from “fans”, he deserved to have a character arc that is treated with tremendous care and precision. Every segment involving him shows perfect characterization in how he reacts to whats going on in his world like members of Jey Uso’s survivor series team not respecting him or Kevin Owens having the unmitigated gall to have no fear in challenging him. In the ring, Roman is a brilliant blend of the vicious Shield Roman and the more dynamic Big Dog Roman. He’s brutal and mawling, but he’s still a tremendous seller and never looks unstoppable. His interpromotional match against Drew McIntyre was one of the best matches of the year and just a great display of two great modern talents locking horns and his TLC match against Kevin Owens is one of the best one on one TLC matches we’ve seen. He’s on the run of his career and we should be grateful. I acknowledge you, Roman, I acknowledge you.

1

Sasha Banks

The year started very weird for Ms. Banks. She didn’t participate in the Women’s Royal Rumble and she was absent from the Elimination Chamber card. She was just kinda floating along being Bayley’s primary support until it felt like creative actually flipped the switch and decided to A) give them more time to be the hilarious obnoxious tag team of the year and B) subtly show Sasha constantly saving and sacrificing for the team to build to an inevitable break up and feud. This rub really breathed life back into Sasha’s career which wasn’t dead at all, but was too stagnant for a talent of her caliber. They captured the tag team titles and spread their ridiculous heel joy all over the company, even returning to NXT where Sasha showed some instant electric chemistry with a future star in Shotzi Blackheart.

 The moment everything changed was the Monday Night Raw where Sasha issued a challenge….to Raw Women’s Champion Asuka. It instantly became one of the most highly anticipated matches of the year and it was Sasha’s first solo PPV match of the year. On the way to that, she returned to NXT and had a banger with the NXT’s top dog Io Shirai. They main evented that night and to date is one of only nine nights where NXT defeated AEW in total viewers. Despite the terribly booked finish, her Extreme Rules match against Asuka was one of the E’s best straight up wrestling matches of the year and ended with her as Two Belt Bankz. Her world came crashing down as she was once again unable to successfully defend the title and lost it right back to Asuka. The Golden Role Models also lost the women’s tag titles and after an unsuccessful rematch, it finally happened; Bayley snapped and assaulted her best friend, attempting to break her neck and end her career.

 Their split instantly made Sasha the biggest babyface in the company and everything from that point seemed like good old fashioned catharsis from being held back and misused through the years. She ended Bayley’s year plus reign as Smackdown Women’s Champion in one of the best Hell in a Cell matches in history. For the first time in her main roster career, she successfully defended her title and defeated Bayley in one of the best TV matches of the year. At Survivor Series, she finally cleanly defeated Asuka in a great champion vs champion match and she ended the year by having Carmella’s best match ever at TLC. This final quarter of the year was just all around tremendous for her as she had classic matches, exorcised some of her booking demons, displayed her aptitude for making anybody look great in the ring and even outside of the subjective realm of wrestling, becoming one of the primary reasons for Smackdown’s ratings surge and arguably the face of the company. This was the year of the boss, where the E finally realized the star that they had and put the power of the machine behind her. The sky is truly the limit.