#but were finally getting into the meat of the actual series itself

[nowandevermore]

Life has been lifing itself up recently, and wow, new fandom brainrot is so real. And so once again I'm at a point of where I said with the last chapter of AWH that it wouldn't take me two months to get the next chapter out. Welllll, you see... we're past that.

But I've appreciated everyone who has read and continues to read my series -- both Into the Future, Out of the Past, and the Ranger series. I promise I have not forgotten about them (yes, including God in the Midst -- I will return to you again, I promise)

So, as a show of thanks and as a promise for my return soon, have a sneaky of chapter five of You Are Always Welcome Here.

[bitchfitch]

After years and years of having a schedule that was more a halfhearted shrug than a neat itinerary, there was a certain peace to finally having a dinner time routine.

Rice in the cooker, wild game cuts in the oven with whatever vegetables hadn't gone off since his last trip into town. The timer set for ten minutes longer than the meal ever actually needed. His stomach couldn't handle meat still pink with a memory of life anymore.

While it cooked he'd place a tarp before the back door. The blue plastic wrinkled along the lines by which he always found it folded.

Then he'd step out into the cool evening to where his freshest trophy would be hanging just beyond the edge of the creaky porch. It a was a deer today, it's back hooves tied to the rafter so it's blood could drain from the dainty gash across it's throat. This wasn't a necessity, it just lessened the mess he would eventually have to deal with.

He untied it, and carried it to rest it in the center of the tarp before pulling the corners up to encase it in crinkly darkness. The bright green climbing rope being used to bind the package closed while he made a note to himself to dig out the hank of rope again so he could cut a new, less gnawed on, piece for tomorrow's meal time.

He could hear the thing coming up the staircase from the basement. Stairs were difficult for it, always had to crawl up them on its hands and knees. Stopping every few steps to gather itself against vertigo.

"What's cooking?" it called in a chipper voice, its bruise darkened fingers scrabling at the lower edge of the door. Its cracked nails adding to the deep gouges in the old wood. "What's cooking?" it repeated like a scratched record. Its clawing growing more frenzied as it got more and more excited at the prospect of meal time.

"Deer." he responded, dragging the bundle to the locked door.

"Einer!" it said, its voice being stolen from a long gone day at the lake, "Home," it whined with defeat borrowed from a day it never saw, then a garbled growl as it's limited repertoire of echos ran up against a concept it didn't have the words to express.

"You know that's not how it works," Einer sighs with some glimmer of fondness. "Who am I?"

"Einer!" a perfect echo of what it had said before.

"Where are we?"

"Home."

"Who are you?"

The growl came on its cue, exactly as it had every miserable day since Einer managed to trap it and establish this little test of whether or not it might be able to be reasoned with today.

"Good, good. To your spot please."

It scrambled back down the stairs, heavy thunks sounding as its excited crawling turned into more of a controlled series of falls.

Then a loud metallic racket bounded forth from the vent slats in the floor as it slapped at the ancient pipe that connected the furnace to the rest of the cabin's mostly defunct air ducts. Their way of signaling when it was well and clear away from the stairs where it might damn them both by attacking its caretaker.

He undid the bolts on the door quickly yanking it open before kicking the plastic wrapped deer down the stairs and slamming the door shut again. The unspoken race between them commencing as he rushed to get the bolts and locks latched once more before it could get up the stairs in an opportunity fueled bout of blood frenzy.

Einer won today. He's won every day so far.

Its fingers appear under the edge of the door again, its breath ragged and sounding wet with too much spit as it uselessly dug into the steel toe of his boot.

"You know where your dinner is," he took a step and waited to see if he'd be granted one moment of clarity as it came down from it's frenzy.

It churred, a soft animal sound he didn't think something so human looking should be able to make. Its fingers stilled, then disappeared back into the darkness beyond the door before returning. Its hand palm side up this time.

He was quick to crouch, carefully curling his fingers against it's. Its skin porcelain, smooth and cold against the callouses he had earned in his time caring for it.

"Einer," it said, this echo being taken from a gentle memory of two lovers in their wedding bed, before its touch disappeared and it began its clumzy trek back down the stairs.

He always stayed knelt there a little too long, wondering if it knew he lingered there. If it cared. Before standing and checking to see if his meal was over done to his liking.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

Apparently when Aang was depressed and suggested that maybe they should abandon hope, he was actually ordering/Forcing The pregnant Couple to accept air nomad beliefs.

Also Aang apparently Regularly disrespects and refuses to learn from other cultures and Aang actually isn’t even a good airbender because somehow even though he regularly airbends, we don’t see him practicing at all.

Finally even though Aang allowed Katara to take Appa and acknowledged that she believes that she needs to go on the journey to Yon rha, Aang was forcing Katara to murder Yon Rha.

What show were Aang’s detractors watching?

I love the implication that somethings as simple as "having hope" is considered "Air-nomad exclusive belief", when that's a big theme throught the whole show and we have IROH telling Zuko not to give into despair, and explaining to the crew on "The Storm" that Zuko is so obsessed with capturing the Avatar because that mission allows him to hope he can come home and fix things with his dad.

They REALLY think that "pacifist" (which IS an air-nomad thing) MUST mean "hopeful, optimistic and cheery" like Aang - like we didn't see the air-nomads clearly freaking out so bad that they tell Aang he is the Avatar four years ahead of time, getting pissed whenever he is having any fun, and even want to separate him from his "father" because they knew something bad was gonna happen. Aka, they gave into despair.

As for him "forcing" the couple to give that name to their child

Husband: What should we name her?

Wife: I want our daughter's name to be unique. I want it to mean something.

Aang:  I've been going through a really hard time lately. But you've made me ... hopeful again.

Wife: I know what I want to name our baby now. Hope.

Husband: That's a perfect name. Hope.

That was a suggestion at most. Not an order, not intimidating them into doing what he wanted them to, and surely not forcing them to accept "air-nomad beliefs."

"The guy who spent the whole series traveling around to learn from different people, and was so understanding he was even sympathetic to the nation that killed everyone he knew and loved, did not respect other cultures" Bruh.

Literally the only two "disrespectful" things I remember Aang doing were:

1 - That bitter comment about "dead animals" towards Bato - which he only made because he was feeling left out of the conversation since his friends were so excited about being with someone from their tribe that they were completely ignoring him. Not cool, but totally understanding considering he's 12.

2 - Snapping at Pakku for not wanting to train Katara/trying to teach her what he was taught behind his back (even though the second one is on shaky ground since, even though that was a bit of a "cheat code" to make Pakku train Katara indirectly, he doesn't have the right to demand Aang never share his knowledge with someone he doesn't approve of)

And both of these, on top of being understandable, also have the disclaimer of "You can disagree with someone's beliefs/cultural habits without looking down on them" - hell, Katara full on says Gran-Gran left because she wouldn't let the Northern Water Tribes stupid customs ruin her life. Not to mention, the Fire Nation's culture for at least 100 years has been "fuck everyone else, only our way of living is the correct one" and the whole point of the show is "This belief is not only wrong and hurting the other nation, it is harming the Fire Nation itself"

"It's my culture" is a neutral statement. It does not shield said culture from criticism, and Aang disagreeing with someone's beliefs - be it that hunting/eating meat is okay, or that women can't be fighters, or that not all life is sacred - is not the same as him being disrespectful. He owes people basic human decency, not blind agreement with anything and everything they believe in.

So yeah, these people need to keep. Aang's. Name. OUT. THEIR. FUCKING. MOUTH.

[mostlyihyperfixate]

Okay. I gotta write 750 words a day to fill my quota, and I don't feel like journaling about my day today, so I'm going to do a quick-and-dirty discussion of my thoughts on "Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice" before I really get into the meat of the final case. I'll see if my thoughts change once I finish it.

I'm gonna be real honest: I don't think I like this game as much as the others. And I feel really bad about it! I didn't want to be the person that waltzed in and just was mad at everything because waaah it's not Phoenix. I went in here with the mindset that I was gonna like Apollo, and I was going to give him a fair shot.

Frankly, I think this game would be better if Phoenix was just, like, not in it. He could just be some legendary defense attorney who retired a while back and no one is quite sure he went (and it's certainly not to Europe to be with his husband or anything like that). Phoenix kind of weighs it down for me, because I am sad that he the way he is, and I'm mad that he's kind of being an asshole to Apollo who literally has done NOTHING WRONG, and I'm also mad that he doesn't really even seem to care much about Trucy. Maybe that's developed more in other games? I expected more out of that relationship. And so I am torn between wanting to know what Phoenix is up to, because I love him, and then being like, "Get out of here and quit being mean to Apollo with a smile on your face" every time Phoenix does show up.

And I like Apollo, but I feel he's…wanting. I don't feel like I know Apollo. Don't get me wrong; I know Phoenix was just kind of the generic every dude over his head in the first game. The most we really got out of him was one thing that happened to him when he was a kid. But he had enough of a personal connection or personal stakes in his cases (at the very least, his past relationship with Edgeworth was there because Edgeworth was the prosecutor) that I felt like I had SOMETHING to go off. And it's not like I need Apollo to have a tragic backstory or some deep reason to be an attorney. But I have zero! Zilp! Zilch!

He literally hasn't gotten to know a single one of his clients for one reason or another the entire game, so I don't feel like I have a grasp on them either! And Apollo doesn't even get the benefit of playing off the prosecutor like Phoenix did in every game. I don't dislike Klavier; his being a genuinely nice guy isn't bad. But he sure doesn't add anything to the story for me, and I don't think he adds much (if anything) to Apollo's character either.

And at the same time, I feel like this game is trying to be much deeper. It's trying to tell me something about the legal system, and corruption, and broken dreams. But at the same time, it's so much more cartoony than the previous entries. The first game was always the one that took itself the most seriously, I feel (and it's my favorite of the original trilogy), and I did say when I finished Trials and Tribulations that I felt it hit maximum soap opera in Bridge to Turnabout. I also said I loved it for that soapy-ness. But this isn't soapy. This is a cartoon. What's with all these characters suddenly changing appearances? What's with every single witness being an over-the-top weirdo? WHY is Spark Brushel????

Let's not even get into how much I loathed Turnabout Serenade. It gave me a much greater appreciation for Turnabout Big Top. I mean, sure, all those adult men were hitting on Regina, but at the very least I feel like Moe wasn't going to let anyone actually lay a finger on her afterward. She's in good hands. And Moe was self-aware that I wanted him to go to Clown Hell for all those massive penalties…

Now that I think about it, the tutorial case was probably my second favorite in the series, after the opening trial to Trials and Tribulations. But the other two…were not that interesting. I haven't been in a huge rush to finish this one. Which…I guess I started it two weeks ago, so it's not like I've been dragging my feet. But I'm perfectly capable of going a day or two without picking up my Switch Light to find out what happens next. I'm not staying up until, like, midnight to get to the next chapter.

I've tried hard to avoid spoilers, but I'm not sure I have any massive theories for how this is going to wrap up. I have been really suspicious of Trucy's uncle ever since he showed up. Now that he's in the flashback, I note that I have not, in fact, seen Trucy's uncle and Phoenix in the same place at the same time. So I wonder if he had something to do with…….something. And obviously Kristoph has something to do with….something. And Trucy's dad has the same first name as the guy that got killed in the first case, so clearly he came back to do…..something. I just don't know what those somethings are.

I will also say: No way did Phoenix ever have $100,000 to his name to pay someone to forge evidence for him, considering this (apparently???) happened two months after the end of the last game, and the only client that for sure ever paid him was probably Miles. Not sure if the game is going to try to red herring me on that or not. But I had a good chuckle at that.

Honestly, I'd love to see more of Apollo and Klavier (separately and together) because I think they COULD be interesting. So far, this game just has failed to develop them at all. Again, I think part of the issue is that Phoenix's presence casts such a long shadow. I understand the plan was not to include him in the game originally, and I'm a little torn because, again, I love him, and I want to see more of him…just not like this. And I think it's kind unfair to Apollo both in and out of universe that he has to share his debut game with Phoenix.

Someone reblogged my Klavier post to say that the last case in Apollo Justice was their favorite. I have read on other parts of the internet that it's generally considered the worst final case in the series. We'll see what happens.

[buzzdixonwriter]

Tie Me Dingo Down, Sport [FICTOID]

The dingo floated into the butcher shop.

“Gawddamn dingos!” Sidney shouted.  Actually all of Sydney shouted, “Gawddamn dingoes!” several times a day, but this particular Sidney owned Sidney’s Sydney Butcher Shop – “We specialize in kidneys.”

This led to a lot of confusion regarding black market surgery procurers but that has nothing to do with our story.

The dingo floated a good seven feet above the floor (a little more than twp meters for those of you anal about such things).  Its big, bloated body gave it the impression of a filthy, furry, feces stained blimp swarming with fleas.

The dingo sniffed the delicious carnal smells of Sidney's butcher shop and did whatever the hell it is that dingoes do when they do the equivalent of smiling.  

“Shoo! Get out! Beat it!” Sydney shouted, flapping his apron in the general direction of the dingo.

The dingo ignored him, propelling itself along with a series of short, sharp farts in the direction of the meat counter.  

Sydney's wife, Bidney, came out.  Bidney is an old Irish name but Bidney was only middle-aged Irish.  “Sure, and what be the ruckus going on out here -- oh, for the sweet love of Mary and all the saints!  Get that dingo out of here!”  

“I'm trying, woman!” Sidney said, still impotently flapping his apron at the floating dingo.  “Useless,” Bidney said.  “How typical.”  This is a profound insight into the contentious nature of their relationship and how they were trapped with each other due to their strict conservative Catholic upbringing, but again, but again has nothing to do with our story about a floating dingo -- focus, people!  Focus!

Bidney ducked in back and emerged a split second later wielding a broom.

“Out!” she said.  “Out!  Out!  Out”

She started swinging wildly at the dingo, missing the first two times, hitting Sidney in the face the third time (accidentally?  Hard to say; resentment can run deep and subtly influence our behavior), finally swatting the floating carnivore on the side of its head, spinning it like a top in midair.

Now at this point we shall pause our narrative to explain how dingoes came to float.  The official explanation is that the e. coli bacteria in their gut mutated to produce hydrogen instead of methane, causing them to bloat up and float.  According to current theory, dingoes had been doing this for centuries but only recently learned how to regulate the expulsion of hydrogen to give them neutral buoyancy and provide direction, earlier victims of the mutation simply floating off into the upper atmosphere where they exploded.

That, or leprechauns did it.  Take your pick.

Back to our narrative:  The spinning dingo began slinging saliva and parasites in all directions.

“Woman, stop what you're doing!” Sidney shouted, but Bidney refused to listen and administered another blow to the dingo's head that would have earned her a tryout for the New York Yankees.  

Dizzy from spinning rapidly, the dingo exploded from both ends:  Vomit and feces, spraying the interior of Sidney’s Sydney butcher shop as well as Sidney and Bidney themselves. 

Bidney shrieked an outrage, swinging her broom overhead and down on the floating dingo, bouncing it off the floor and ricocheting it off all the walls, thoroughly contaminating Sidney’s Sydney Butcher Shop.

“What's all this then?” the state health inspector asked, pulling out his violations book as he entered the shop.

The dingo took this diversion to snatch a long string of sausages in its jaws before propelling itself out the door in a series of derisive farts aimed in Bidney's direction.

Sidney and Bidney looked at the health inspector, literally pointing their fingers at each other.  “It's his / her fault,” they said.

“I don't care whose fault it is,” said the health inspector, writing up a citation.  “This shop is ordered closed until you clean it up and it's reinspected.”

Sidney gloomily took the citation.  “We can clean this up in a day,” he said.  “How soon can we schedule a reinspection?”

“My current docket is booked through next February,” said the health inspector.  “However, for a small surcharge, I can put you on my expedited list and schedule you for next week.”

Sidney sighed.  It would put a massive dent on their credit card -- no vacation in Tasmania that year -- but a necessity to stay in business.  “Very well, we'll pay.”  

The health inspector handed him a card, eager to get out on the street to follow the floating dingo to the next catastrophic health violation.  “Send the payment to this address, I'll see you next week.”  

As the health inspector dashed out the door, Bidney said, “That does it, we're going vegan.”

 © Buzz Dixon

[dundykelevesconte]

hi teddy <3 arctic sundogs and franklin for the terror ask game :)

hiii ellie!! :D thank you for the ask!! <3 this got kind of long so answers under the cut

arctic - how would you cope on a victorian ship?

honestly a life at sea sounds equal parts ideal and terrifying to me, so any time not spent staring aimlessly into the ocean would DEF be filled with keeping a very detailed diary … i’d be writing down everything. mate i don’t like made a joke today i actually found funny. disgruntled about this. if i were some doomed explorer and they found my journal hundreds of years later with my remains they would be like my god this guy just never shut the hell up did they. reading and writing both i think is what would distract me the most

sundogs - talk about a moment in the show that interests you most

ohh gosh i could talk about SO many but the first one that comes to mind is hodgson’s papist church monologue in ep9. he’s been on my mind a lot lately and i paid quite close attention to him my recent watch through and he stands out to me more so than some of the other characters because he’s a character who doesn’t speak an incredible amount throughout the series (despite being terror’s certified yapper) but almost everything he says is actually really telling about his character. we learn he plays an instrument at home, in his final scene he speaks some french, and just about every instance in which he talks it’s almost like he’s doing so through a direct window to and from his humanity (asking hickey “who” the meat he offers him is, visibly upset to learn what became of neptune). then we get to this scene that comes after he’s partaken in cannibalism, a scene that (to me at least) seems kind of out of nowhere especially being not directly at the end of the episode, but somehow it still fits in perfectly. we come to the crux of hodgson’s characterization here because he finally gets the chance to speak with no holds barred and he’s very particular with every minute he has to do so. the way he delivers this speech, the slow cadence and tone of his voice and even the subject of it, is just as much for goodsir as it is for himself i think. even when goodsir is pretty much as good as unresponsive he carries on anyway which in and of itself is yet another tell for him. we get an idea of his own sense of self here too (“i was frightened for them. i was told they were doing some great, unforgivable thing” “i felt forgiven of every poor, weak, or selfish thing within my soul” “i pretended to be ill. they knew i was pretending. to this day i don’t know why i did it” “if i were a braver man… i would kill mr. hickey, though it would mean my death, too” and of COURSE “i am hungry and i want to live”) like this is just such a RICH source of characterization for a character we’ve really only seen glimpses of up until this point when it all comes to a head when he gets his own little arc re: his involvement with the mutineers (which is a whole other can of worms i could talk about forever LOL). ntm the monologue itself is just so beautifully written, the delivery is of course on point but the words themselves and the picture they paint are so visceral and moving. sorry for the essay HAHA i’m just very very interested in hodgson as a character and this fleeting moment we have alone with him is just so endlessly compelling to me. especially when you factor in that he’s been steadily consuming lead for years now and has ended up on the wrong side of what remains of their crew but still he takes this moment to be so unashamedly human regardless. anyway ……..

franklin - who’s an underrated character in your opinion?

SILNA. NO QUESTION i do feel obligated to give a cold boy answer as well though in which case i will say dundy. not only is he criminally underrated but also criminally underUSED being that he’s a very close friend to fitzjames from the beginning and is quickly the only remaining lieutenant on erebus i just feel like there’s so much there they could have explored in terms of his and even fitzjames’ characterization were it not for his curse as a minor side character … whatever. i’ll write The Dundy Show if nobody else will

[amplesalty]

Halloween 2024 - Day 6 - Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005)

If you die in the game, you die in real life...

If this wasn't at all obvious with movies 6 and 7, we're definitely into the 'sunk cost' stage of this franchise. The first four all had their charms despite tapering off and I'm on record as a fan of Inferno but Hellseeker and Deader felt like a bit of a chore. But, as much as my lack of keeping to a schedule might dispute this, I am a creature of habit and the end is in sight. And, if anything, we're really due to go off a cliff next year so all the more reason to stick it out and see what depths we can plumb with this series. Hellworld was filmed back to back with Deader all the way back in 2002 but sat largely unused, saved for a few showings over the years, until the pair were released direct to DVD in 2005. It's always stood out on the horizon for me as I've worked my way through the franchise given the plot ties into the world of online gaming. A strange turn for the franchise, sure, but given we're 8 movies in now I think any subject matter is fair game in order to freshen things up. Plus, this would have been right around the time of a boom in online gaming and, given the film pitches Hellraiser as an MMO, you would have had things like Ultima Online, Everquest, Runescape and even Final Fantasy XI (World of Warcraft wouldn't have existed at the time of filming but would have been out by the time the films actually released) so I can sort of see the potential in touching upon the dangers of addiction, both as an analogue to the pleasure seeking that is so prevalent in Hellraiser but also to tie in to the hot topic parent scaremongering of the day.

Nevermind all those other games though, who remembers Graal?!

The video game stuff though is largely glossed over. A friend of our main characters is said to have killed himself following his addiction to the game but it's all very vague and skimmed over during an exposition dump during his funeral.

Even the game itself is shown only briefly and I was going to compare it to a Flash game from the time but I'm pretty sure I was playing Flash games on the school computers at the time that had more gameplay than this. The Lament Configuration doesn't exactly feel like the kind of thing you would adapt into a video game either, it strips away that tactile feeling of handiling the cube, twisting and prodding to try and open it up.

What little we do see of the game is little more than a means to shuttle our main characters off to the meat and potatoes of the movie, an exclusive Hellraiser themed party taking place at Leviathan house. This is something that irked me early on with the movie, it's often said that these later movies are just a case of slapping the Cenobites onto someone else's screenplay and that they barely even show up but these fet a bit tryhard in trying to shoehorn a bunch of references in early as if to say 'See, we're a REAL Hellraiser movie'. Very quickly you get mentions of Hellraiser, Hellworld, Pinhead, Leviathan, LeMarchand, the Engineer…it's like the other extreme of not showing them at all but just trying to cram mentions in within the first few minutes.

Among our crew of party goers is none other than Superman himself (well, one of them at least) Henry Cavill.

Plus Lance Henriksen as the party host, a man with a storied past in the horror genre and notable for me at least for his role in Pumpkinhead, though I think that may have gone undocumented on this here blog.

Our friends are shown around the house but all start to experience strange visions, usually very brief and sometimes involving Pinhead making thinly veiled threats.

Spoiler alert, the twist of the movie is that Lance Henriksen's Host character is actually the father of the friend that commited suicide and he's out for revenge for what he percieves as their actions in enabling his addiction that resulted in his death. It's revealed that upon their arrival to the party, the Host drugged them with a very strong psychodelic drug and buried them in shallow graves outside with an airtube to keep them alive and prolong their suffering. The events of the movie have been playing out in their heads with cell phones left in their coffins through which the Host has been using suggestion to influence their visions. Now, this actually does bring some degree of interest to the film which had been largely boring up to this point and I did appreciate the idea of how this could play into the overarching story of addiction. If these kids are so immersed in this game then these monsters from within it could be making their way into their visions in a very violent way. The problem is that because they made pretty much zero attempt to re-contextualize this film's world and to potray the Cenobites as characters within this game, plus the fact that this movie does the exact same drive by Pinhead scenes (to borrow my own phrase from last year), these interactions just feel like more shoehorned references to justify the film bearing the Hellraiser name. If they had actually taken the time to show these kids playing the game and some digital versions of the Cenobites from which they would have formed these assocations, the whole idea might have worked better.

It would have been all moot anyway though as it's revealed at the end that the Cenobites are in fact actually real when they show up and tear the Host to shreds. Thanks for ruining my shades of grey for me, lads. Whilst I can appreciate the efforts to make the series a little more contemporary by taking this video game angle, it does also strip away a small aspect I've always liked in that all of these movies felt like they took place in the same universe. It's always come across as an anthology piece to me, the Lament Configuration managing to find it's way into someone elses hands who have these delusions of how this is going to lead them to pleasure undivisible whilst we get to sit back and watch as several hooks and chains promptly tear those delusions asunder. Ultimately, it's one of those films where I can see the genesis of a decent idea that goes unfufilled. And whilst I'm all for taking wild departures this deep into a franchise, it does feel like too big of a disconnect from the series to have ever been successful.

And so, given that this is the last appreance of Doug Bradley in this famous role, it's a run that ends in a whimper rather than a bang. Somehow I doubt his successors have much chance of living up to his mantle, especially when our next stop, Revelations, is the film that drew Clive Barker's ire and led to that very infamous tweet I have been mentioning all these years…

[destinysbounty]

HELLO i am in your inbox because your post about ninjago cycles made me drop my phone, ive literally been thinking about this idea forever!

around when i watched s8, i literally started reading the entire show as one big time loop because of all the repetition and cycles in the show. i dont know if that phrasing holds true, but i think the idea itself holds up

i think what really drives the entire cycle of the show is the need for balance. i interpret ninjago the place as created by fsm to be a reflection of his worldviews: dragon vs oni; good vs evil; light vs dark. the fact that the overlord keeps coming back, and his descendants will have to keep fighting him is a part of a larger system put in place (accidentally or purposefully) by fsm. when one person is defeated, a power vaccuum appears that HAS to be filled, usually by a new villain

basically, balance is the mechanism by which all these cycles come to pass. its kind of a law of physics in ninjago, good will always win, but evil can never really lose. everyone has to keep repeating history, personal and global because the world literally will bend itself in order to achieve that balance.

(i hope this makes sense i wrote it very quickly lmao) thank you sooooo much for bringing up cycle symbolism in the show,,,, once you start looking for it its everywhere!

(Here's the cycle post in reference)

Thank you for sending this ask! I apologize for the belated response, but I wanted to wait to respond until I had the chance to get ahold of some screenshots that would be relevant to this discussion. With that out of the way, let's get into the meat of the issue!

First off, you are absolutely right! I think the circle motif represents a few key themes: balance, as you mentioned; recursion; and inheritance. And all of those things, in a way, tie back into the show's interpretation of destiny and the way fate is baked into almost every aspect of the story.

Balance is the most obvious interpretation, of course, and perhaps the most compelling. Like, not just because the circle is by design an incredibly balanced shape, simultaneously having infinite sides yet at the same time only one. But also because there are so many instances of circles appearing in the way in which the balance between light and dark is visually represented within the series - especially with regard to the creation mythology.

(On an unrelated note, I think it's actually kind of a cool detail how the FSM is represented as a grey being - not Oni of darkness, not dragon of light, but something in between. The child of both worlds.)

The world was created by the FSM, and while I can't remember if it was ever outright stated, I think there's enough evidence to at least assume spinjitzu was used alongside the Golden Weapons to create Ninjago (I'm happy to elaborate on this if asked!)

On this note of balance, I also think it's worth noting the attention drawn to the splitting of circles. As seen above, with the creation of the Dark Island, but also with the Battle Between Brothers! Now, I'm definitely overthinking this, but bear with me for a sec.

The Monastery of Spinjitzu is, quite iconically, arguably circular in shape. Well, it's really more of a hexagon, but you get my drift. And the sons of the FSM, each representing light and dark, were friends for a long time. But when Garmadon finally succumbed to the venom's influence and was banished to the Underworld, a crevice was torn into the ground, splitting that circle - and likewise splitting the two brothers in the process.

And again! The Lloyd v Garmadon fight in sesaon 8! Despite loving each other very deeply, they have both been forced into conflict by the forces of destiny time and again. Lloyd knows the drill at this point. "I've saved you once, I'll save you again." The fight itself takes place in a circular structure - the Kryptarium Prison panopticon. Lloyd enters this fight assuming the established cycle of fighting and redeeming his father will be reinforced. But when Lloyd is thrown through the wall, thereby breaking through the prison's circular structure, so too is this cycle broken as well (and with it like half the bones in Lloyd's body as well as his heart).

And of course, we can't forget the most iconic example - when the FSM created the Dark Island, banishing the Overlord and his Stone Army for the protection of the world he created, the circular continent was split in two. The destruction of the circle.

The destruction of the circle is also how the Oni are introduced in Mystake's story - the dragon creates a circle, and the Oni destroys it.

So to recap: a circle is balance, balance is stability and unity, and the dissolution of the circle is the loss of stability.

That in itself is a cycle - creating something, destroying it, creating it again.

Kinda like the show itself, in a constant loop of the world facing ruin and building itself back up again and again. Like how the Overlord can never truly be defeated, dying and coming back like the ebb and flow of the tide. Like the snake eating its own tail, a cycle feeding itself endlessly. Like how a circle has infinite sides.

That's interesting enough as it is, right? Just wait! It goes deeper!

As mentioned before, the FSM arguably created Ninjago to some extent using spinjitzu. Spinjitzu, which is both a martial art and a lifestyle that utilizes circular motion to create a tornado around the user. The quintessential example of the circle motif. Spinjitzu is quite literally the foundation of the show's identity and worldbuilding. This show is, on both a narrative and a meta level, built on the concept of circles. And according to the Core shorts, one of its principle values includes balance.

Which, in the end, boils back to what you were saying about how cycles are a law of reality in Ninjago. I agree!

If I have my lore right and Ninjago was created through spinjitzu in some degree or another, then that means it was created through circular motion. The world was made spinning. The world was made as one big cycle. So to some extent, I do definitely think that good and evil must constantly fight. If the world isn't constantly repeating itself, if this cycle of recursion ever stops, then the world will stop spinning. And what happens when the world stops spinning?

Chaos, as I'm sure you can imagine.

Although, we also have to consider that the Overlord said "there will be peace in the dark". Now, since he is a villain and also the embodiment of darkness itself we should take his words with a grain of salt, but it definitely raises the question of what it would look like if darkness or light truly did prevail over the other, or if such a thing is even possible in the first place. Will there be peace in the dark? Or does the Overlord have an arguably more compelling motivation - that is, as an immortal being incapable of death, locked in an eternal limbo between victory and defeat, he knows that the only way this deathless hell will end is if the balance is destroyed and the universe falls to pieces. Maybe that's what the Overlord means by 'peace in the dark'. That theory has a lot of holes in it, of course, but I'm certainly intrigued by what that would mean for the Overlord's character. This might also hint at the origins of Darkley's, but that's a weird little tinfoil-hat tangent that we're not gonna worry about right now.

Now, I mentioned earlier that there are three main themes that the circle motif draws on: balance, recursion, and inheritance. And those three themes all tie into destiny somehow. So far, we've talked about balance and recursion - how history must keep repeating itself, how the whole world must remain in eternal conflict between light and dark or else the circle will dissolve and chaos will reign. But what about inheritance?

This is the fun part, but also a bit obvious. First, inheritance comes through elemental powers - not only because powers are passed on from person to person, as well as the legacies of those powers, but also because the elements of creation all tie back to the Green Ninja. They all manifest in him, and while the other ninja are capable of wielding those powers independently they all tie back to Lloyd in the end. Like convection cells but instead of circulating wind currents it's magical powers.

And, of course, I'm not the first person to comment on how elemental powers can be seen as a metaphor for generational trauma, and how each character inherits the legacy and loss of prior generations vicariously through their powers. Other people have elaborated on this idea far more eloquently than I ever could. But it's still worth mentioning in this discussion, so here we are.

And!! Then you've got things like the Yin-Yang Eclipse (which, imo, didn't look much like the Yin-Yang symbol at all. It looked more like a funky Z if you ask me). With Yang telling Cole to "close the circle" - the curse of the Airjitzu Temple requires that someone always remain behind as the master of the house. Yang needed Cole to take his place as the temple's new prisoner. He needed Cole to complete the cycle of inheritance. He needed Cole to close the circle.

And that right there is the base essence of this show, isn't it? Closing the circle. Completing the cycle. The sins of the father laid upon the son. History repeating itself. Repetition and recursion.

This all pertains to destiny in ways I hope are quite apparent at this point. The scholars in the Cloud Kingdom write destiny. They choose what happens. They designed the Prophecy of the Green Ninja. Perhaps they're doing all this, perhaps they're putting the ninja through all this trauma and suffering, perhaps they're creating this history and this world to be endlessly recursive, in an effort to maintain the balance and protect the universe from spiraling out of control. Or maybe they're just doing it to get their sick kicks. Who knows? We've only seen the Cloud Kingdom for like one whole episode so at this point who's to say.

But a bit more blatantly to the point, according to Lloyd in 2.12 "Return of the Overlord" the below images show the symbol for destiny. And what do you see??? Circles!!!!!!!! Circles as unity! Circles as balance! And in the latter image, circles represented through colors, which denote their roles in destiny and likewise the powers they inherited from their ancestors! It's circles all the way down!!!!

Oh and before I go, here's some food for thought. The Overlord once said that "destruction comes from the eternal struggle between light and dark." And Oni have the power of destruction. Garmadon, once he's reached his true potential, is powered by conflict. "It's the fight that fuels him." Which does seem to corroborate with what we know about the Overlord himself - as Misako said, "where there is light, there must also be darkness." Conflict creates darkness, and darkness creates conflict, just as light creates shadow.

God, I'm losing my mind over this. Balance is the struggle between light and dark. Destruction is a byproduct of this struggle. Destruction causes darkness. Darkness plays a pivotal role in the existence of the balance. The balance is creating itself. The cycle ultimately cycles back in on its own self. We've come full circle. It's the freakin' ouroboros! The snake eating its own tail! Endless consumption with infinite return! Circular motion causing its own endless perpetuity!! It's a fight you can never truly win but also can't lose, because the existence of conflict creates conflict, and without conflict there cannot be peace! You cannot escape from the cycle because you are the cycle!

So, to conclude:

Thanks again for the ask! <3 God I sure hope this rant made at least a teensy bit of sense.

[devouraes]

if it were not for the sequel's final act, six's devouring of a nome ── one of the skittish little creatures she's had an otherwise mutually friendly relationship with, up until this point ── would easily be her most divisive action over the course of the series. and i by no means intend to downplay the horror of it, it's a disturbing scene that does exactly what it intended to, but i also feel like it's lead to many bad faith readings of six as a character and my intentions here are to try and dig past the surface level of it ; the consumption of the nome is framed as a bait and switch of sorts, with it offering her a sausage most likely smuggled from a guest's plate, unaware that it will be the target of her hunger instead. so first things first, why not eat the sausage ?

initially i read this as her hunger becoming more ravenous as it progresses, and this does seem to fit thematically with all that she eats over the course of the first game. first bread, then meat, then a rat, then the nome ; a sapient creature, and finally, the lady of the maw. however, this interpretation as a more literal reading of her actions has been debunked by tarsier in a post we'll get to in a second. i'm only bringing it up despite this because i believe that, while not being the actual textual events of the story, it still symbolically fits the narrative. now, for tarsier's post:

this tweet frames what many have interpreted as an act of senseless violence to actually be an attempt on six's part to escape the food chain the maw has built itself on. but that being said, the secrets of the maw chapters the hideaway and the residence come with the reveal that nomes are children under a spell. this is a piece of the story often used to further paint six in a malicious light, but the dlc put an emphasis on secrets ── it's in the title ── and the lady, the one responsible for the nomes, is defined by her mystery. nomes are one of the many little lost things in the nowhere, and six has no way of knowing of this. meaning, upon recognizing the food to be made from human meat, six made an ultimately futile attempt to keep herself separated from the guests and workers of the maw. to me, this strikes a balance between her nature as a survivalist and the fact that she is still a child, far from a normal one, but still one that refused to eat another to live, even if it was all for naught.

what follows this is six literally eating from the lady and also eating from the maw's guests in a more vampiric way as well. how does this fit into her previously trying to avoid consuming what she knows to be human meat ?

there's a lot of ways you can spin it, but my personal interpretation is that while her encounter with the lady is ── again ── a literal act, it's also invoking a lot of symbolism commonly tied to cannibalism in writing. cannibalism is often used to represent power over another, and when six takes a bite straight from her neck, she is imbued with the lady's magic. she's no longer just another runaway, now holding all of the strength and ability of the maw's ruler. but that said, i do not subscribe to the theory that she becomes the lady or even a lady, as stated in my rules page. when i say this, i don't mean she in any way gains power aboard the maw, personally i believe she leaves it behind, but she does sit at the top of that food chain now. this is one of the many ways the world of the nowhere is cyclical in nature, and it's worth noting how it fits into real world concepts such as the cycles of violence and abuse ; six devouring the lady was, to me, a defiant act, but one that showcases how children can often not escape these cycles on their own. six can ascend through the maw and leave it to rust, but not without taking a bite, not without shifting the power dynamic in place of escaping it. after all, what can she do to escape it ? she's only a child, one with a deeply supernatural hunger that's left her sick. she doesn't even begin to show signs of such hunger until the broadcaster, an adult, ripped something vital out of her ; violence left her empty, and she has to enact violence of her own to not only fill that void but to ensure she won't be abused again.

the feeding off of the guest's lifeforce further compounds this, reading less as an act driven by hunger and more of an eye for an eye, something displayed in LN2 as well, with her clobbering one of the bullies. these same guests previously tried to devour her, and so, she does the same to them. an unloved child will burn down the village to feel it's warmth, or however that quote goes. or as an achievementin the sequel asks, is it murder if they're bad people ? i'm not here to answer that, only to say that six is not the villain of this story, the adults who created this cycle she falls prey to are.

[popculturebuffet]

Next up for Disney TVA, who is your favorite character from the cartoons in the second half of the Disney Afternoon era (1993-96): Marsupilami, Aladdin the Series, Gargoyles, The Shnookums & Meat Funny Cartoon Show, Timon & Pumbaa, Quack Pack, and Mighty Ducks the Animated Series? Skipped Bonkers since you said in the last ask that you haven't seen it yet.

Okay so getting this out of the way again (And yup haven't seen bonkers) So in addition to bonkers Marsupliami (though ti looks good and snookums and meat . Aladdin the Animated Series: No faviorite as I've only seen maybe one episode in recent years , but I do hear it's a fun adventure show and remmeber it being okay as a kid. never realized as a kid the two dtv movies werne't their own movies but the pilot for the show and it's finale respectivley (both still stand find on their own and return has if nothing else I can remmeber your only second rate)

Gargoyles: I LIVE AGAIN! I really need to watch this series in full at some point.. honestly reviewing it might not be a terrible idea as it'd at least get me around to it. I'll figure it out. Faviorite is Xanatos. Even just READING about him I loved the guy, a villian so damn good at gambits tv tropes named it after him and whose clever as he is self serving. The show itself is again one I BADLY need to watch as i've only seen a few scattered episode but the one that sticks in my mind I Had on vhs in high school, Deadly Force sticks out. It handles gun saftey.. in a way that dosen't feel hackned or over the top. Elsa gets shot.. but she made the mistake of leaving her gun unmprotected and apparently the show is consitent in making sure she never does again. IT's a show with a deep intretsing mythos, voice acting royalty, and is worth a look. Again I wouldn't mind doing a retrospective at some point (Splitting season 2 up a bit ) covering the first two seasons, the slave labor graphics comics and the recent revivial comics following up on those. Not plugging there either I just think gargoyles is neat. It's disney's equilvent to batman the aniamted series in my mind and it's a shame they never really captlized on it

Timon and Pummba: Only seen some of this for a review, it seems.. okay. Not terrible by any means but nothing I really want to watch despite loving these two characters.

Quack Pack: Daisy whose redesign while attractive is also fun and is that nice sweet spot of being fed up with donalds shit sometimes but not you know cheating on him, abusing him or everything three cabs daisy did. Don't be three cabs daisy folks. The show itself i've only seen a few eps of, some for reviews some on my own time but honestly.. it's okay. It has a reptuation for being awful, for being garbage that brought down the whole disney afternoon.... but really.. it's fine. I think a lot of people raging against it forget that donald getting into domestic scraps is just as much a par tof his dientity as donald duck the greatest adventuerer who ever lived. most of his shorts come from some small incident such as his car breaking down, a raido cooking show or his cousin showing up to eat everything he has. So going back to that with a bit of advneture weirdness ocasionally thrown in seems fine. Some plots do sound.. insane but the show seems okay. The versions of the boys.. are a bit weaker but it's less for characterization (thier about the same as they were in ducktales just older) , and more for trying to make them sound cool and that despite giving them unique va's.. they didn't do much in the ones i've seen to actually defenrtaite them. And honestly the redesigns are solid

Daisy and Donalds are great an dth eboys are fine. Their hair and Louie's backwards hat are 90s as hell but honetsly they aren't half bad and now I think about it dewey's would perfectly fit the 2017's dewey's love of attention and need to be seen as a jock. The show is far from perfect and some episodes seem nuts again like Huey's dental surgery turning him into a super villian.. but overall it's just fine. Not super mediocre, but not as bad as it gets a rep for. Also the humans thing... eh why not. I prefer an all furry universe, but I get Donald has interacted with humans before.

Mighty Ducks: One I haven't revisited and don't really.. intend to. It's a weird piece of the duckverse, with aliens, 90's super powers and hockey. I might check it out for the novelty as I have gained a love of hockey due to certain canadian television series

But otherwise it's just kinda.. there. There are other 90's action shows to visit. Gargoyles is just down the block. BTAS exists. I just really.. dont' care.

[bolton-buried]

First episode of the new series is live on YouTube.

[[Video ID:

We open with a talking head of Charlotte, a black woman with rectangular glasses, and her hair pulled back into a tight bun. She has ditched the silvery backpack. Finally.

“Every series you find will tell you this, but we at the new Hunting Hauntings team are proud to brand ourselves as the only series to only investigate the truly paranormal. Today, we’re in Manchester, looking into reports of abnormalities in the meat section at a particular corner store.”

A shot of Dez, Charlotte, and Angie, walking into the corner store. They look an eclectic bunch.

Angie, a white woman with blonde curls under a bandanna and more crystal jewelry than anyone would are to count, speaks. The camera zooms in on her.

“My senses are tingling… there are restless spirits here.”

“Angie. We agreed, none of the psychic stuff.” The camera pans to Charlotte. “Stick to what is actually real.”

Dez, a pale redhead in pink with cat-eared headphones around his neck giggles, making a beeline for the refrigerated section.

A talking head of Dez.

“I was the first one to find the meats! They were in great shape if you didn’t actually want meat and were hoping to get mold instead.”

Back to Desmond in the store, bent over and looking at a refrigerated shelf of deli meats. They’re covered in various colors of fuzzy mold. Dez pulls a small pack of sliced turkey from his sleeve.

“Did you bring that with you?” Harold’s voice comes from behind the camera.

“I always have sandwich meat on me.”

“You… what?”

Desmond laughs, pulling a single slice from the pack. “The look on your face! Oh, no. I just thought it would be helpful for experimentation here.”

He drops the slice onto the shelf with the other meats. It’s immediately overcome by grey, green, and white mold.

“Well, that eliminates this just being a case of poor management.”

Harold snorts at Desmond’s joke.

Cut to

A talking head of Angie.

“We brought a pack of sliced ham back to London with us to perform a seance, through which we determined—”

Desmond shouts from off screen. “Angie! Script.”

Angie sighs and lifts up a sheet of paper.

“The mysterious mold issue is not to do with the meat itself, though it did stay moldy. When not on the shelf in this particular store, the mold did not spread to other food products. Experimentation in the store, headed by Mr. Parfit, yielded that the mold was not exclusive to meats, but was able to spread to breads, cheeses, various fruits, pasta, and a bic lighter.”

As she lists items, she is used as a voice over footage of Dez setting them down on the affected shelf and watching excitedly as they succumbed to the mold.

A talking head of Charlotte.

“But one thing was still bothering me. Two things, really. Firstly, the original tip off we received claimed that the first time she was in the store, there was no mold on the meats. She didn’t examine them closely, but she’s sure she would have noticed if they were as molded as they are.

“The second is the camera trouble we had with recording. According to Harold, our cameraman, footage he attempted to take with any modern camera showed the food pristine in its packaging, and only his camcorder was able to capture the mold.”

Cut to: Desmond talking head.

“And so, I got to thinking. And then I got to more testing. Roll the footage!”

Back inside the corner store, Desmond approaches a random shopper.

“Ma’am, hiya, we’re doing a documentary, would you mind telling me what you see over there?”

He points to the molded over shelf.

“Kid, it’s just a shelf of meats. I’m trying to shop, and I don’t need you or the meats today.”

Dez looks to the camera with a huge grin on his face.

Footage plays of a similar scene occurring with three other customers. Only one of them shows an appropriate level of revulsion, and only after Desmond points something out to them. Desmond’s voice plays over the recordings, sounding much more excited than his words imply.

“So, we figured out that unless you’re actively looking for mold on the products, they appear to be pristine and fresh, which fits perfectly with our original tip, where the woman grabbed something without checking for mold, then realized it was moldy when she gave it a proper look at home.

“It’s a fear, deliberate and specific, even though most people don’t feel it very strongly, that you’ll accidentally consume something unsafe due to a lack of diligence on the part of yourself or a seller. And what’s so interesting to me, is the real fear isn’t from the shelf itself—though that would give a strong sense of revulsion. Just think. Years down the road, people exposed to this might still be obsessively checking their food for signs of mold growth, terrified that they’ll miss something and fall ill. Isn’t it fascinating?”

At the last sentence, it cuts to Desmond’s talking head. Harold speaks from behind the camera.

“Dez, you’re at a 12. We need you closer to a 5. You sound insane.”

Desmond laughs.

Cut to Charlotte, in the store, speaking with the owner.

“Sir, my team and I have reason to believe that your meats shelf is an active danger to your community. We’d recommend its removal as soon as possible.”

The owner, a large, meaty man wearing a baseball cap and a seemingly permanent scowl, rubs the back of his head.

“Looks alright to me.”

“Sir, I think you’ll find if you look a little closer, there’s quite a bit of—”

“I said there’s not an issue.”

The owner scratches his collar as he raises his voice. It’s difficult to see, but a tiny bit of that dark grey mold is sprouting just under his shirt.

Desmond steps in front of Charlotte.

“So sorry, sir. My friend gets a little paranoid about expired food. The shelf is fine, we’ll just get going.”

“But—” Charlotte starts to protest.

“We’ll just get going.” Dez repeats.

The owner crosses his arms. “Probably for the best.”

Cut to:

A talking head of Charlotte.

“We were unable to get the owners to remove the affected shelf, but I did leave a Yelp review warning future customers of the danger. And now we’re making this as well. If you know of any other phenomena we should do an exposé on, don’t hesitate to leave a comment or reach out. Stay safe out there. You never know what’s just out of sight.”

Just when it seems the video is over, it cuts to Desmond, filming himself in a room lit with LED lights.

“Okay listen, nobody on the team is going to watch this after it gets posted, and I didn’t want to ruin their fun. But there’s something wrong in that Al-Ghizawi house the other day. I can feel it. I won’t be back investigating, and I don’t know what it was I felt, but there’s something there. I just wish I could put a finger on it… Parfit out.”

End video.]]

[mlobsters]

supernatural s15e4 atomic monsters (w. davy perez)

tumblr trashed my original post, it said it was processing the video but the post disappeared entirely so i'm having to re-write this from scratch. i was able to screenshot what i wrote while it was hung which is something, but this is something that's happened to me a number of times (usually on video focused posts though) and i'm FUCKING SICK OF IT. i always find all the fucking bugs. UGH.

oh, a becky episode. i really, really did not like her character. i understand the intent may have been all in good fun, but i only ever received it as making fun of fans. especially the way her actor played her. and i will never understand the choice to have her drugging and kidnapping sam to marry him.

is dean having an action hero nightmare about all his brothers-in-arms who died on his watch. it's pretty and a+ production values. bunker looks so much cooler in the red lighting. waiting for an explanation on the facial hair, scarf???, tactical vest, fingerless gloves look though. giving very military incursion.

(just noticed this is a jackles directed episode. hmm.)

reminded of that article with serge ladouceur and he mentioned why they didn't use slow motion in fights:

Clearly, your producers always had in their creative vision a show that was dynamic, dark, moody, and expressive. Tell us about the meeting you had early on with series creator Eric Kripke, and how you all found that you were on a similar creative wavelength. Eric wanted the show to be embedded in reality. He didn’t want to create a fantasy world. What he wanted to see were stories where the supernatural would manifest itself in real time and in real life. This is what he wanted to convey and I was in sync with this concept as I was talking about a naturalistic approach to the lighting. Moreover, and as an example, he was against slow-motion. He didn’t want to beautify the fights by camera techniques. Even to this day we sometimes ask ourselves, “What would Eric want?” And that’s one thing.

imagine this doesn't qualify since it's a nightmare/vision/whatever

excuse to get benny back (extremely briefly). and the screechy noise is back too. zero chance i'm getting through this episode in one sitting. (update: this is day 3 or 4, since i had to retranscribe it on top of it all)

am i seeing things or does that look like a keffiyeh. oh, right. the evil!sam vision thing, i forgot about that

lovely lighting and yes to sweaty highlights all day every day

SAM You know, I knew you’d come looking for me. After Sioux Falls… I suppose you had to. DEAN What you did to them… what you did to Bobby… to Jody… SAM They tried to stop me. But I will not be stopped. DEAN Sammy, listen to me. This is the demon blood. You have to fight it!

what year is this now? anyway so is sam gonna tell dean about this nightmare/vision/whatever fuckery orrr.

fingers crossed today is the day i can finally get this episode done. i get halfway into the conversation with dean calling out sam on not being okay and brain is jumping ahead three stations (dean's gonna make an assumption about what's bothering sam and so sam isn't gonna actually tell him what's going on)

SAM Yeah. But every time I ask for it, you say, and I’m quoting, "I don’t want any of that hippie, Sarah McLaughlin grass-eater crap in the Meat Man’s kitchen". Which, by the way, for what it’s worth, you got to stop calling yourself "The Meat Man." It… it doesn’t mean what you think it means. DEAN Yeah, it does.

i mean meat->dick thing i get but does anyone use that phrase

SAM I’m good. DEAN No, you’re not. The past few days, you’ve barely come outta your room. Look, man, I get it, okay? With Jack… and Rowena… Rowena knew what she was getting herself into. She knew what needed to be done. SAM Doesn’t make it any easier. DEAN No, it doesn’t.

so, no on the telling dean about the nightmare/vision whatever. at least in these late seasons, if it's a plot significant thing, i can have some confidence that they will talk about it sooner rather than later instead of dragging it out for half the season. but it also could have been a showy action piece that was fun to make but not really amount to anything :p

SAM That… that’s real bacon, Dean. DEAN You’re damn right it is. Meat Man!

jackles your eyeline is all wonky, what are you even looking at

DEAN Well, local police are freaked. Never seen anything like this. They got no idea how to deal. SAM Of course not. That’s our job. We keep them from dealing with the truth, with what’s out there, and we carry the weight. It’s great. Meanwhile, they get to go back to living in their white picket fence bubbles. DEAN You know, ever since you were a kid, you wanted to live in a town like this. Lame, normal… SAM Yeah, we don’t get normal. And these towns, everything’s the end of the world. You’re late for work, your kid doesn’t get into the right school… whatever. They don’t… They have no idea what’s out there.

that's a lot more bitter than sam usually goes. must be feeling really disillusioned

well, things are looking up on the becky front. first impression seems like she gets to be an actual human now instead of just a breathless obsessive creepy fan

BECKY You mean my work. Look, what you were writing, it was real… like, really real. You sort of channelled Sam and Dean’s lives because you’re a prophet. CHUCK I… Yeah. Yes, I am. BECKY And, sure, I got a little obsessed, and it took me to a dark place. What I did to Sam… [shudders] So, after some pretty intensive counselling, I realized I wasn’t in love with the real Sam Winchester. I loved his character. So instead of reading your stories, I kept writing my own.

well, i appreciate they acknowledge that plotline was gross and awful, if we're supposed to like her now

CHUCK Your own… “Supernatural”? BECKY Where the guys didn’t have to hunt monsters all the time. They just sit around and do laundry and talk, you know? I mean, that’s what people like the most, anyway.

show could take a smidge of its own advice here. like with the xfiles, you needed those goofy ass episodes to take the edge off the mytharc that you couldn't quite do with the monsters of the week alone. spn humor doesn't hit that spot (for me, at least) so how about just a little domesticity as a treat instead. like 11x04 baby

CHUCK Well, I mean, people like monsters. BECKY Meh. Anyway, I got an online following, and it wasn’t paying the bills, so I started making these handcrafted miniatures. They took off, started turning a profit, and here I am. CHUCK Right. Right, right, right, right, right. But people like monsters though. They do. I mean, Leviathans are cool. What? They’re all teeth!

first the bmol shade, now the leviathans. yes, thank you

CHUCK Things were said. Uh… Now I’ve found msyself low on, um… resources. I went to ask my sister for help, and she rejected me. ‘Cause she sucks. And now I’m just… stuck. So, I thought I’d come see you, my number-one fan. And, I don’t know, see if you can help make me feel big again. BECKY So, you want me to… fluff you?

uh huh.

CHUCK I mean, no. BECKY You do. You thought you could just come back to me, your pathetic ex, your number-one fan, and get what you’ve always gotten from me… a nice big crank on your ego. CHUCK Well, I mean… BECKY Well, sorry, that’s not me anymore, Chuck. I am married to an amazing man, I have two great kids, and I like myself, Chuck. For the first time in a long time, I like myself. So, I don’t need you.

tell him, becky. good for her. now this is a character flip flop i am 100% on board with and won't question

BECKY I’m a writer, too, Chuck. CHUCK Oh. I mean, fanfic… it’s not really the same thing… BECKY Writing’s writing.

100%. the rest of her speech is very boiler plate online writing advice but sure. the show does get kind of navel gaze-y meta about writers/writing

BECKY Okay. If I had to give one note… the jeopardy, Chuck. It’s feeling a little… thin? Low stakes? It’s fun to hear the boys’ voices, but a story is only as good as its villain, and these villains are just not feeling very… dangerous? Not to mention, there’s no classic rock. No one even mentions Cas. The climax is a little stale. Boys tied up again while we get the villain’s monologue, which, frankly, isn’t one of your best. A little originality wouldn’t… … hurt.

all-in on the meta shade

HENRY You don’t have children, do you? Because if you did, you would know, that to see your child in pain rips your heart out. And you’d know that you’d do anything. You’d die for them. JANET Or kill for them.

lol kids or (some) brothers

so the kid is offering himself up to be killed, like madison. ok. the music for the montage at the beginning i was groaning at generic rock instrumental but once the lyrics kicked in it was perfectly serviceable. and i see it's radio company/aka jensen's band's song. which the wiki talks about it was not at his behest. it's a little odd but his voice doesn't sound anything like dean, so it's not like it's noticeable. i had no clue until i read the trivia bits for it.

“To be honest our editor inquired about it. He said, ‘I know you did some music over the break, do you think we could take anything and plug it in?’ I wasn’t angling for that, I wasn’t pushing that, and in fact we didn’t even tell Bob or Andrew or anybody. We just floated it in there and waited to see if anybody said, ‘I don’t really care for that song, I don’t know who that is,'” Ackles says. “And nobody said that.” In addition to “Sounds of Someday” Ackles says he had a few other music cues in his director’s cut, including a big one at the end. “Two of the three got taken out; mine was the last one standing,” he says of his new single. “That was a small victory. That was a nice vote of confidence, especially from a show that prides itself on music so much.”

cringed a bit and felt guilty with that last line, being how consistently i've ragged on the music in this show. the licensed stuff usually is good to okay, occasionally i disagree with the tone. but it's the original score i take issue with for the most part. but still :p

and chuck zapped becky and family to i guess not dead-"away"

right, i stopped watching this (two nights ago now) because we're talking about being suicidal, again

SAM Yeah. What Henry did… we’d have done the same thing. For Jack. If we had the chance. DEAN Yeah. Yeah, we would. Look, man, I get it. I get it. We have lost way, way too much. And it’s hard not to feel like just… cashing out. I felt like that. After Chuck, back at the crypt. But you know what brought me back? You did. By sayin’ that what we do still matters.

before i rant about the music and shots, i went and rewatched that scene in the crypt which i thought was 15x01? i don't know what dean's referring to though, because they don't really talk about it? maybe like, 14x20 in the cemetary with the stupid gun? dean almost killing himself to kill soulless!jack? or maybe the lead up to sam shooting chuck

on to my rant about the clip. the filming is really weird in this scene. it's shakycam but at times, especially when on dean, it's tilting and floaty in a way that makes it seem like they're not in the car but it's a dream or something. and they have that driving at night film set down pat so it was a choice or something. and the music? buh.

it's a combo of reminding me of the original musical score to the magicians and i believe it's got the spn-interstellar-ish theme again that was in a sam and dean car conversation ([suicidal] deathbed apologies) in 14x12 (this ep is christopher lennertz and philip white, 14x12 was lennertz and tim wynn)

and the dialogue itself is very... speechy. combined with the weird fimilng angles and not getting right up in their business, it's kind of lost that intimacy of the car convo and moved it into inspirational speech

SAM I know, I know, I know. I’m sorry. I know. But… but what I’m saying is that I don’t feel free. What we’ve done, what we’ve lost, right now, that is what I’m feeling, and… and sometimes it’s… it’s like I-I-I can’t even breathe. But maybe tomorrow. You know, maybe I’ll… I’ll feel better in the morning. DEAN And what if you don’t? SAM I don’t know.

and sam describing to me what sounds like flavors of depression and anxiety that i'm personally all too familiar with, it's a lot. the bit about maybe i'll feel better in the morning, reminds me of a song that has struck a chord with me on the depression front for years now. you can't really do anything but try to just keep going even though everything is so hard and hurts

Sometimes in the morning I am petrified and can't move Awake, but cannot open my eyes And the weight is crushing down On my lungs, I know I can't breathe And hope someone will save me this time ... But the lows are so extreme That the good seems fucking cheap And it teases you for weeks in its absence But you'll fight and you'll make it through You'll fake it if you have to And you'll show up for work with a smile And you'll be better and you'll be smarter And more grown up and a better daughter Or son, and a real good friend And you'll be awake, you'll be alert You'll be positive though it hurts

and this edit after the s4 magicians finale to this song changed me at a fundamental level (it's a fix-it)

(also on tumblr)

i know jared's history with talking about his mental health, which i've very much appreciated, and feels like bleeding some of that into sam which is a little unexpected but i think it's good, just tilted me a bit because sometimes things that are too relatable are.. too relatable :p

[stoportotouch]

okay so I finally finished the terror and I don't understand why I was so surprised with everyone's death. they've been dead since the beginning ect and it's a historical event and it's been known. also for some reason I was convicted there was second season and kept wondering what it'll be about since everything was pretty much resolved.

I wish I could see what happened after the men left the camp. why did Little have all this shit in his face? did he do that to himself? did someone? it was heartbreaking hearing Francis talk about how he knew Edward and that he would come to rescue him. turns out he really did know him but he didn't understand the crew. and now he will never know how he wanted to but couldn't.

my man Goodsir kept class to the very end and however I was sad to see him go I'm glad it was that way. probably one of, if not the best death in the whole series.

Hickey's arrogance astonished me. did he seriously think that tongue offering would spare him or make him develop a relationship with it like it had with Silna, girl prophet, brought into the world with intention of being its keeper? I also don't understand why and how he got so many men chained up. they could've easily overthrown him and the monster probably didn't need as much helpless victims to attack. it's not a critique of terror, more of a curious question. was that his wit? charisma? manipulation?

I wonder if being alive is the best option for Francis. living with the weight of the whole world on your shoulders and body count lurking in the background, hundred men dead because of him, at least partly.

in my last message I should've been more precise. I was thinking if eating meat riddled with every known disease and some extra ones was better than not eating at all. all the possible puking and shitting considered, it could have went even worse than starving.

also, I really haven't considered it like that. that they can't ever go home back to civilized society because of the things they've done. probably because if my husband came home from arctic expedition and said "I had to eat human meat to survive but they were dead already I prommy" I would be like that's nice honey i don't mind. I find it kind of tragic that the most suicidal of them was the only one who survived. "I survived Franklin's doomed expedition and all I got was this stupid fucking seal fur".

okay, that's all. also fun fact, Silna means strong in polish though i doubt it has any connection. thank you for indulging me for the past couple of days.

MAN i get that though. i watched it the first time like, "hmm, maybe somebody other than just the one guy will survive". and somehow every subsequent watch i still manage to be surprised when only one person survives, in spite of the fact that... they are in fact dead and gone. but somehow that is the appeal of Foregone Conclusion Media, thinking "but maybe THIS TIME! they will survive their ordeal!"

with little specifically the... slightly boring historical answer was actually that the local inuktitut people said when they were interviewed that there were bodies that were Like That at the uh. they euphemistically called them "hospital camps" (and there were several of them along the way south to back's inlet). in the show i feel like it's a reference back to little saying that if they get out then the men deserve all the gold there is. and then in his completely addled half-dead mind, that turns itself into "if i do this to myself then that will summon rescue. somehow. because it's gold."

with hickey... he really just knows how to pick people. i think that's all it is; everybody in his little Crew are in some way the most vulnerable people there. either that or he Has Something on them. apart from des voeux, i have no idea what he's doing there but he doesn't always look like he knows why he's there either. just there like "well it would be awkward to leave now."

with the chains specifically i think there's the crab bucket mentality/just "we're at the depths of desperation so why bother trying to find a ladder?" but also hickey has shown himself repeatedly to be capable of absolutely dreadful things so there's probably a little concern about being trapped out there with him. like he killed irving and stole his coat and was about to torture hodgson when goodsir wouldn't butcher the man that he killed.

and, as hodgson explains it, "i'm hungry. i'm hungry, and i want to live." which, in conjunction with the fact that hodgson says that he isn't a brave man... really gets to me. since he's a lieutenant that makes him basically the one who has sunk down the furthest in the eyes of Polite Society back home. he would, if he somehow made it back home, be both utterly traumatised and faced with absolutely no sympathy. because he abandoned his men, his captain, his first lieutenant, for a mutineer. and then did cannibalism. but he still wants to live. right until the end. [rending my clothes and wailing]

billy was so utterly blinded by whatever the hell it was he felt for hickey that he would not have been able to look away from him. like even though he basically hated him by the time they set off they did... have something for each other in some really weird way. hickey has tears in his eyes when he kills him but he still kills him. :(

manson is extremely suggestible and also hickey had basically saved him from getting executed earlier in the show (when manson wouldn't go into the dead room -- he raised his hand to hit irving and irving would have been... not necessarily within his rights but within the letter of the law to have him executed). armitage he also has something on because him not shopping armitage out about kidnapping silna saved him from getting beaten up.

hodgson is... kind of a more complicated one because his situation more relies on The Cowardice Of It. all three of crozier's lieutenants are very close, and then hickey bumps off one of them. and then at his trial they're interrupted by The Monster (which could happen to any of us really). hodgson, instead of staying to fight, runs the other way and the person that picks him up is the mutineer who killed his friend. and at that point you, uh, you can't really go Back. (and the cannibalism cements that; you're bound to each other now because you've done That.)

and tozer. man that guy has been through it and hickey identified it... really early on (just after heather got his skull ripped off). the marines were essentially in a position where they would only be friends with each other and the officers because that was who they were there to protect. you don't get too pally with the men because if they mutiny then you might have to shoot them. but then when there aren't any marines left then there aren't really many other options open to him. add to that what happened to heather at the carnival and uh. trauma bonding innit.

and thank you so much for sending me Your Thoughts! i have thoroughly enjoyed it and your perspectives on The World's Worst Cruise. (and thank you for the Silna Fact; i love that.)

[dr-lizortecho]

Podsquad masterlist

in chronological order <3

within series

the future’s in the hand that you hold (Teen, 1.285 words)

summary: a look into how Max and Isobel’s psychic link could have been created, and their first ever meeting

content warnings: child abuse

left the worst unsaid (Mature, 3.882 words)

summary: Her heart beats in her ears as she peers around the corner, chest tight as she breathes shallowly. Fear and anxiety crashing over each other in her chest, cold and cruel as it grips tight at her heart, making breathing all the more difficult.

But Isobel only balls her fists to keep her hands from shaking, nails biting into her palms and the smooth glass of her sword pinching at her skin. If she lets the emotions get too big they’ll fracture out from her, sending a signal to everyone within the temple. And then her mother will know she’s not where she’s supposed to be. The exact opposite actually.

————————————————————————

or a look at what could have caused the Golden Triad to wipe the podsquad’s memories and pod them before heading off to Earth

content warnings: child abuse

suddenly everything changed (Teen, 1.455 words)

summary: Michael is worried about Max. He has been acting strange and he finally decides to confront him. Leading to a revelation he wasn’t prepared to face (canon divergent 3x01)

content warnings: fatal illness reveal

Three Becomes Four (General Audiences, 1.194 words)

summary: Canon Divergent from 3x10, in which Michael and Isobel reach out to Dallas without excluding Max from the story. Inviting him to join their modge podge of a family.

Dallas confides in Kyle, trying to find a way to tell his new friends that their parents were darker than they imagined…

content warnings: none

Decisions Not Temptations (General Audiences, 924 words)

summary: Max calls Kyle after his siblings don’t pick up, the after effects of a panic attack making Kyle check on him. While Dallas does his best to work with Max on his feelings about Jones (3x10 canon divergent)

content warnings: panic attack

Pod People (Teen, 1.067 words)

summary: His presence always felt like a soft white light at the back of her mind, a fuzzy warm feeling she could lean back on when everything else felt wrong. Even with their new found space and ability to exist not just co-exist. It felt like walking through a room with her eyes closed. Finding his emotions and latching onto them from a distance, feeling them along with him. Like they were two cogs in a clock, interlocking and moving in tandem.

Not one in the traditional sense. But pushing each other forward and pulling each other along. Growing together and apart, for better or for worse.

content warnings: none

come back and haunt me (Teen, 744 words)

summary: The sand gives way, swallowing them whole. It’s almost some metaphor for the desert itself, how the dry heat of it held so many secrets, ate away the meat off bones and saw more than its fair share of disappearances.

Then there was the irony of it.

Max and Isobel had come into this world holding hands walking through an unforgiving desert and now they left the same way.

content warnings: implied/refrenced child abuse

au

Hygge (Teen, 1.073 words)

summary: Jim Valenti finds a way for Michael to not float around the system without putting him in Jesse’s line of fire

content warnings: none

søskende (General Audiences, 1.412 words)

summary: Michael Ramos gets to meet his siblings for the first time in years

Max and Isobel are both thrilled in their own way, while Eduardo worries he might be failing his son

content warnings: none

[rhonddaandallaneuro]

Moved on through the Cornwall region today and it is stunning. Narrow roads are the norm but everyone seems to respect each other and we all take turns of driving through one lane roads in an orderly manner

We stopped at a fishing village, the home of St Mawes Castle and took a very windy walk around. This place is a time lost. No two way streets at all. Steps are the main way one gets from one street to another. Here we also took the time to sit and enjoy a “Cornish” pasty. They are something to believe.

From here we took the Brodinnick ferry (still main transport) to “Edens Project” where the future lies. A massive acreage facility that covers all good about a sustainable planet and the foods we should grow. No talk of meat here. Did not do the walk as it was getting late and you need to spend a full day at least to take it all in.

On our travels we stopped in to walk around Truro and here we found a church not so well known but with character some of its bigger brothers lack. Great reading the plaques and history.

The day ended at the “Stag” hotel in Falmouth and here we have had the greatest mix with the locals. The pub is old and I mean old but character abounds. Just wish the manager was a little more organised. Story goes his cooks mother had died so when we arrived (4pm) he still did not have our room ready and advised us no meals tonight. That was easily fixed with more liquid chops (beer) consumed. Haha Final joke on us though as he slept in so no breakfast.

Today however we have seen some of the greatest back tracks one could hope for. Did so many one lane roads and at times worried we had actually driven into a farm or two. Tried to go the “Hidden Valley” in Launceston however it was shut so back into the back roads we went as we drove through rain to Padstow. Then to Mecca, for Rhondda, the original “Rick Stein” Seaford restaurant. Great seafood with five star service. Will make the effort to visit other such establishments around the world after this. Foods was divine money well spent.

From here a short country drive through to Port Isaac where the television series Doc Martin is filmed. It is a huge walk down to the town itself as no cars are allowed due to the streets being so narrow. It is an even bigger climb back but the locally made mint chip ice cream was worth it. Here the seagulls are as fat as an over fed cat and the tide heights, requiring man made walls, to control are at least 20 metre in variance.

We had planned to visit a lot of sea towns along the coast but with wind and rain decided to cut a few and drove to St Ives. Now this place has character and charm and the smallest streets in the world. Our car is smallish but at one time we had three inches to spare on drivers side and scrapped the passenger mirror as we drove between two houses. Reversing is the norm here with one closest to “pull in” having to reverse. Rhondda even had to move a rubbish bin so we could drive down one lane. Delivery drivers must hate this place.

One thing that has caused a great deal of pain and created several divorce’s are the round abouts here. In more then one scenario there were six unnamed exits causing us to drive around and around until we could decide which was the one we wanted. Total bedlam at times.

Done for the day we drove to Penzance where we are staying for the night. The local rugby team is playing so car parking obscene. We have had to park away from our motel a fair distance and this place is only a B & B so no bar. The walk should do us well though. Found a local hotel for drinks and watched the six nations rugby match between England and Ireland. For company we has a rugby team from London who were staying at the hotel to play the local team the next day.

[iviarellereads]

Wheel of Time full series spoiler thoughts on EOTW 9-13

A probably semi-regular weekly bonus to my reread blog, since sometimes you realize things on reread that just make you need to yell in a full spoiler space. (Check out my project explainers here and here)

Seeing Shayol Ghul, where Lews Therin's Hundred Companions struck, and then Dragonmount and Tar Valon and the White Tower itself, whose shadow Rand will be trying to escape until book 13… what a dream sequence. And Ishy throughout, demanding Rand SERVE HIM. Well, given some of his outfits in the show, I think he's served plenty.

He slept with the sword digging into his side, giving him a sore spot on his ribs. Sweetie, I'm sorry, but you don't know what a sore spot on your side could begin to mean yet. I swear, the foreshadowing in this series.

Let's just take a minute to swim in Ba'alzamon and Beelzebub. The latter, of course, being a name that was taken from a god of a conquered religion, and turned into a demon prince's name, but often mistaken for the Christian Devil. RJ was telling us as early as chapter 9 that this isn't actually The Guy, it's just The Guy's lieutenant, if you know the name enough to look it up past your first assumption.

And, hinting at the Warder bond between Eldrene and Aemon, the consequences of it, and the parallel to Egwene's finale. (Yes I know RJ planned for her to live and raise Gawyn's child with Galad, shhh, the end she got was better for her arc and this parallel even if it fucked over the White Tower reformation, it's fine.)

I really do have complicated feelings about the Manetheren speech. I think it was SO much better handled in the show, honestly. They still have their song, even if they don't know what it means anymore, just like us cultural Christians who celebrate Christmas and all, but barely understand the references in the old carols, and they're only a few hundred years on. It's a more relatable balance than the complete loss of the book version. And, the parallels between Eldrene and Egwene are nothing to sniff at, but only the TV show gave my girl her due foreshadowing, because they had the ending to work toward.

Baby's First Weaving, keeping Bela up with the other horses. "His skin prickled, and his bones felt as if they were freezing, ready to split open." I know most people who have read the series a few times already know it, but in case we have any first-rereaders, hi, yes, this is when he channels, and then the channeling sickness fevers start sometime around Baerlon and culminate on the road to Caemlyn when he channels again with the lightning.

Lan making reference to Hightower with "I believe he might sell his mother to Trollocs for stew meat if the price was right." The fact that Asmodean threw his mother to the Fades on his way into the Dark hoping for immortality to develop his music. Do you think Lan knew it really happened once, or is it one of those figures of speech that gets passed down in the world?

And, the extraordinarily shoehorned Egg as Amyrlin Seat mention. RJ really did have his characters just… say what was going to happen, so much. Only, the statement implies that you need to be strong to be Amyrlin, but you really don't: it's political and personal strength you need, not the Power, even if the White Tower isn't very well equipped to tell the difference all the time.

Do you think Perrin insisted the farmhouse was no different than the ones back home, because his eyes were starting to change? We don't get any indication they go yellow until they split up, but who's to say what order things happen in. I like the idea that the journey's beginning starts them all along their paths.

Colander, the bowl that is not a bowl. I mean, Callandor, of course, what did you think I meant? 😉 The Karaethon Cycle and all that spins out from it... gosh. We've got so much fun ahead of us, don't we?