#c: michael westen

[burnnoticegifs]

Burn Notice re-watch | 2x16 | Lesser Evil

Bruce Campbell: Look. Donovan’s getting all gooey here too. Matt Nix: I remember watching this scene and when your voice, Michael [Shanks], hit that kind of *grunts* it hit Jeffrey. BC: Now, he’s got some weird thoughts here, guys. Did you see what he did with that gun? MN: Well, he didn’t tell anybody he was doing it! This was- He did this once. BC: That was creepy. MN: We were watching that and I was watching it and I was like “Is he going to shoot himself?!” BC: Right, right, ‘cause it’s those moments when you go this is all just not- this is not worth it. This is the downside of the spy business. MN: Yeah, and we were shooting that at 1 in the morning on the last day of shooting the entire season. BC: I don’t think Donovan could even stay awake that day. MN: It was really late and everyone was really tired and then he did that and the whole crew just burst out into applause. Everyone was hugging him and high-fiving and it was- ‘cause we knew- bam.

[darkskywishes]

I think a lot of Michael's more dick-ish decisions in S3 (and later in S5 and S6) make a lot of sense from an emotional standpoint.

This is gonna be long, so I'm gonna put it under a "keep reading" thing, lol.

I'm going to primarily focus on what you've written about Strickler, Tom Card, and Michael's general dealings with the Burned Spies Organization, as I completely agree with you about Gilroy, Sam, Larry, and the flight plans. I also agree with you regarding Michael and Fiona's relationship, but I have some more thoughts on that below as well :)

Regarding Michael's deal with Strickler—I don't think it's entirely fair to say that this decision came down entirely to Michael's wants. It's clear to me that Michael was quite worried about Management's threat toward him in the S2 finale—how Michael has no idea what hell will rain down upon him once they stop "protecting" him (quotation marks necessary since the only reason Michael needed protecting in the first place is because of their organization). In fact, I believe Michael tells Fi as much during one of their dinner dates.

So, coupled with the fact that Michael still feels rightfully wronged by being framed for all these things he didn't do and that he never left his job at the CIA of his own volition (a job that, for all intents and purposes, holds significant emotional weight as it was his escape from his abusive home)—Michael now feels even more driven to get back into the CIA as he, once again, views the CIA as his protection, and by extension, his family/friends’ protection. In Michael's mind, what chance do him and his loved ones stand against all the enemies Michael has when he's a sitting duck in Miami with no resources?

Additionally, it becomes quite clear that the Organization was never going to leave Michael alone; they burned him for a reason, and like Simon said in S7, they are weapons that will be used as tools until they're dead. Although working with Strickler was certainly a choice, I don't believe Michael himself really viewed himself as having a choice.

Michael is also someone who feels immense responsibility for all of the wrongs committed by others, especially if he's aware of them and also feels like he has the capability to prevent/change them. Knowing of the Organization's existence, Michael felt a personal duty to bring them down that went far beyond a personal vendetta; he knew that this organization would continue burning spies and using them for their own gain, a fact that becomes even more clear with Anson's appearance in S5. Victor's mercy death at the hands of Michael in the S2 finale is also something that affected Michael deeply—he saw firsthand what these people did to Victor and what they turned him into. If Michael didn't bring them down, what meaning did Victor's sacrifice even hold? What was the point of all the blood on Michael's hands? However, this once again brings us back to the CIA; Michael feels powerless against this organization without the resources and protection they offer.

Then, regarding the killing of Tom Card, I truly don't think Michael had intended to kill Card in that moment; he knew it wasn't the best play. He had lowered his gun, but then Tom Card said The Line: "I'm so proud of you, son". With the level of psychological issues Michael has surrounding father figures (and the fact that Tom Card was basically the only positive father figure Michael ever had), that line set him off completely; not shooting Card in the head was not a simple decision for Michael.

Furthermore, Fiona had kept encouraging Michael in the previous episodes to shoot Card; however, Michael's rationality and Sam's influence won over until that very moment. Killing Card is an easy decision to rationalize when you know you already have some supporters for that decision and when you're unable to think straight after such a huge betrayal. Not only that, but Michael had also just witnessed Card murdering Tyler Gray, who Michael had come to regard as someone in his exact shoes. What stops Card from continuing to manipulate Michael in the future only to have Michael killed off anyway? It was a no-win situation. Tom Card would have continued to pose a threat had he not been killed; the difference is whether they would have been able to deal with him without flagging all the authorities.

The more I watch and think about Burn Notice, as well as read some of the analyses you've written on the seasons, the more I think Michael was entirely screwed from the start—going all the way back to his abusive upbringing. He either truly had no choices, genuinely felt like he had no choice (even if he did), or had to choose between multiple awful options. I know you expressed similar sentiments during your S7 watch.

Then, regarding Michael's relationship with Fiona, I agree with you. Just to elaborate on some of my thoughts there—I think Michael was definitely aware that being involved with him was dangerous. One of Fiona's main objectives, however, was to show Michael that he's better with his friends than without them—he needs and deserves support too. Fiona never wanted to be protected by Michael, and thus, rendered without a choice by having Michael do what he thinks is best for her; she wanted to make the choice to be with him. This conflict between Fiona's safety and Fiona's agency is part of what, I believe, makes it so difficult for Michael to discuss his relationship with her. Michael already struggles immensely with opening up to people, and it's made even more difficult because of this. Despite all that, Michael has communicated multiple times starting in S1 that he doesn't believe it's a good idea for them to be together. And, although he blew off Fiona's efforts to discuss their relationship multiple times in S3, he was eventually completely upfront about his commitment to his work. At that point, like you said, it's up to Fiona to decide whether that's a dealbreaker for her.

Just as an aside, I relate a lot to Michael and had a similar upbringing as him, and he’s my favorite character as well (I’m sure you can tell lol). So, while you’re in Sam and Fiona protection mode, I’m in Michael protection mode XD I love reading your Burn Notice thoughts, especially since you don’t share the same biases as me!

Burn Notice - S3 take two and some AU musings

Season three is when I became strongly Team!Fiona and I’d been fully on board with Sam since season two. Season three is also when Michael starts to became more obsessive and make more dangerous choices, and those things clashed badly on the first watch as I went into full Fiona and Sam protection mode XD So, rewatching, and forearmed with knowledge of what’s coming, I could be more objective about Michael this time. He’s definitely doing some dickish things, and I still don’t like them, but I wasn’t as actively enraged by them the second time. And honestly, I suspect some of it’s also that I became a lot more sympathetic towards Michael in the later seasons. With everything that this show put the poor bastard through, it was impossible not to, especially in the first half of season seven. Michael spends a fair bit of time dodging Fiona at the start of season three. She wants to talk about their relationship, what it means, and whether there’s a future here, and Michael’s all, ‘No time! Got to go! Later!’ which is pretty shitty of him. But he does eventually sit down and tell her what she doesn’t want to hear – that for him, the job comes first and it always will. Which sucks for Fiona, but it’s Michael’s choice, and at that point, it’s up to her to make her own. She can either accept that this is the guy she fell in love with, that he’s not going to change and live with it, or she can move on and find someone who’ll make her the priority. The thing with Sam and the flight plans still bugs me. That’s a friendship with very little in the way of limitations, which is a damn good reason Michael should respect the few boundaries that there are, not push harder at them and expect they’ll go away too. But Sam caves pretty easily on the first point, which is his call, and on the second point he (rightly) refuses to, and in the end Michael does accept a compromise. Not great behaviour, but Michael eventually recognises that. And the worst of Michael in that ep is partly explained by the fact that he’s simultaneously trying to deal with Larry, which is definitely a strain. Michael’s deal with Strickler is what really raises all my hackles. Michael knows Strickler’s a snake, Fiona and Sam both loudly second him being a snake that Michael should have nothing to do with, and Michael goes for it anyway. Unlike in his dealings with Gilroy, there’s no argument here that Michael’s doing it for the greater good, to try and stop something nasty from happening. It’s entirely about what Michael wants, and it’s a decision that nearly gets Fiona killed and does get Diego killed. But it’s also a decision that sets into motion all the long, slow sequence of disaster that arcs through the rest of the show. Strickler leads directly to Gilroy, which leads to Simon and a deal with Management, and then Vaughn, and eventually to Anson. It’s a perspective that can only come up the second time through, and I’ve been trying to figure out how much, if any, of the decline might have been avoided if Michael had made a different choice here. If not for Strickler, Gilroy probably wouldn’t have latched onto Michael. He would presumably still have been paid to free Simon, though, just found someone else to help him do it. So assuming all of that happened anyway, Simon would have been coming after Michael, with Michael knowing nothing about it in advance. But Simon would still have had to find Michael, and Michael would have been better situated to deal with it because he wouldn’t have already been in high stress mode with the police and the FBI after him. Vaughn was able to get his hooks into Michael because he yanked him out from under arrest. If Michael had survived Simon without being arrested, would it have changed anything? Vaughn could presumably have approached Michael at some point, spun him the same tale of, ‘There are bad people and you can help us stop them.’ Michael wouldn’t have stayed to hear him out, though, if he had a choice. He would have told Vaughn to go screw himself, and Management didn’t try coming to Michael again until after he reached out to them, because they knew that. So I’m left wondering what else might have made Michael desperate enough to go to Management. He might have if one of the team screwed up and got some major jail time, and Michael thought Management could get them out. Unfortunately, I also have to conclude that Anson would have got bored of waiting for Michael to hang himself at some point, and done the same kind of set up-and-blackmail thing that he did with Larry and Fiona anyway. So there’s probably no getting away from that part, and on some level Michael was inherently screwed. But even then, all he had to do was NOT shoot his boss in the head in a public setting to avoid all the joys of season seven. Michael’s usually so careful and logical and thorough with his pre-planning, which is great, because when he does things that are reactionary and impulsive, they’re often not very good things…

[fan-burnnotice]

Burn Notice - 6x02 - Mixed Messages

Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan), Sam Axe (Bruce Campbell) & Tom Card (John C. McGinley)

[peppermintstranger]

blonde male, blue eyes? playable as 20!!

Hello!

You have: Michael Provost, Charlie Plummer, Hugh Laughton Scott, Frederik Westen, Augusta Alexander, Ruben Pol, Charles Bilgrien.

Hope it helps c:

[filmblabla]

BALLON

C. sagt:

Wie will man einen Thriller drehen, wenn jeder das Happy End schon kennt? Michael "Bully" Herbig probiert es trotzdem! Das Remake der wohl bekanntesten Flucht aus der DDR 1979 kann sich sehen lassen.

Hier und da gibt es aber Minuspunkte. So wurde schon etwas zu viel an der Dramatik geschraubt, dafür wurde bei der Musik gespart. Lobenswert ist vor allem die junge Besetzung, die zum Teil selbst DDR-Wurzeln hat. Besonders schauspielerisch auffällig ist mal wieder Thomas Kretschmann als Stasi-Ermittler. Interessant ist das Spezial auf der BluRay, wo Herbig erzählt, wie sie sich der Geschichte genähert habe, auf was sie alles geachtet haben, bei der Ausstattung, den Kostümen, was wie gesagt wurde – alle Achtung!

Man mag sich gar nicht vorstellen, was diese beiden Familien damals auf sich genommen haben. Was leider viel zu kurz kommt, sind die Hintergründe, was sie dazu treibt, dieses unglaubliche Wagnis auf sich zu nehmen.

Sehenswert ist der Film BALLON auf jeden Fall. Will man aber die DDR besser verstehen und was die Menschen dort umgetrieben hat, sollte man GUNDERMANN sehen, der gerade grandios beim Deutscher Filmpreis abgeräumt hat. 7 Punkte

Marcus sagt:

Als der Film im September 2018 in die Kinos kam, habe ich ihm schnell keine Chance gegeben, da ich ein Remake des 80er Schinkens MIT DEM WIND NACH WESTEN nicht interessant fand. Im Rückspiegel betrachtet, war das etwas zu kurz gedacht und so war es vor ein paar Wochen erst, als mir meine Schwester davon berichtete, wie toll sie BALLON doch fand. Jetzt, nach dem ich ihn auch gesehen habe, teile ich diese Meinung in vielen, aber nicht allen Punkten...

Grundsätzlich interessiere ich mich ja immer für deutsch-deutsche Geschichten, umso kurioser, dass ich BALLON damals so schnell abstrafte. Vielleicht traute ich Bully Herbig dieses filmische Unterfangen nicht zu, whatever. Ich kann auf jeden Fall sagen, dass es ein Fehler war, denn Bully hat dieses Projekt nicht nur richtig angepackt, sondern auch richtig stark umgesetzt. Schlüssel hierfür war sicher die Authentizität, alles sieht echt aus, ich fühlte mich zu jeder Sekunde im Jahr 1979 in der DDR.

Die Schauspieler sind allesamt gut ausgewählt und stark in ihren Auftritten. Besonders gefiel mir, dass die 4 Hauptdarsteller eher unbekannter besetzt waren, David Kross mal ausgenommen. Den stärksten Auftritt hatte für mich Thomas Kretschmann als Stasioffizier. Seine untergebenen Kollegen waren mir allerdings zu klischeemäßig, das hätte nicht sein müssen.

Die Geschichte an sich ist ja so unglaublich, dass sie natürlich auf jeden Fall verfilmt werden muss. Wie gesagt, gab es Anfang der 80er Jahre schon mal aus Hollywood und führt zu einem weiteren Problem: jeder, der die Geschichte kennt, weiß, wie sie ausgeht. Das ist natürlich dem Film nicht vorzuwerfen und in diesem Fall ein Extralob für Bully, denn trotz dieser Tatsache war ich die vollen 125 Minuten unter Spannung! Ob dann im letzten Drittel so viel Action und Dramatik sein musste? Ich finde, hier wäre weniger mehr gewesen...

Die Musik möchte ich noch ansprechen: in einigen Abschnitten erinnerte der Score mich an BLADE RUNNER 2049 und ich dachte, wow, wie haben die denn das gemacht?! Aber die meiste Zeit war es leider billigstes TV-Produktionen-Effekt-Gedudel. Sehr schade, denn das passte so gar nicht zu dem wirklich hochwertigen Kinolook des Films.

Alles in allem immer noch ein sehr starker, aufwühlender Film über eine der spektakulärsten deutsch-deutschen Geschichten überhaupt. Schon deswegen unbedingt sehenswert und wer noch mehr wissen möchte, schaut den Extrabeitrag auf der BluRay „Was für ein Aufwand: Ein Hintergrundbericht von den Dreharbeiten und den Zeitzeugen” - dieser macht den Film noch ein bisschen größer.

8 von 10 Stoffbahnen

P.S.: Die echten Protagonisten erwähnen, wie seltsam es war, ihre Darsteller kennenzulernen und dann später auf der Leinwand zu sehen. Ein bisschen kann ich es verstehen, denn der lütte Fitscher (Tilman Döbler) sieht tatsächlich so aus wie ich in dem Alter. Auch das hat meine Schwester gut beobachtet...

[newcountryradio]

New country 25e jaargang  #1150 (709) van  7 november    2022  (wk 45) tussen 19.00 -22.00 op Smelne fm

Album van de week: Live Forever : A Tribute To Billy Joe Shaver - Various Artistst     New West

          Artiest                        Title                                               

1.    Shania Twain – Any Man Of Mine

2.    Kenny Chesney/Pink – Setting The World On Fire   - 2016

3.    Keith Urban - Street Called Main

4.    Larry Fleet & Zach Williams – This Too Shall Pass

5.    Flatland Cavalery – How Long

6.    Willie Nelson (w/ Lucinda Williams) - Live Forever*album vd week

7.    Ryan Bingham (w/ Nikki Lane) - Ride Me Down Easy*album vd week*  

8.    Thomas Rhett Riley Greene - Half of Me

9.    Ingrid Andress w/ sam hunt-   Wishfull Drinking

10. Tyler Hubbard – 5 foot 9

11. Cole Swindell -  She had me at heads Carolina

12. Morgan Wallen – You Proof  -  #1

13. Zach Bryan – Starved

14. Phil Vassar – Just Another Day In Paradise 2000

15. Alan Jackson – Dallas

16. Lainey Wilson – Atta Girl    --favoriet    

17. Rascal Flatts -  These Days    (melt  2002)

18. Rascal Flatts – Mayberry     (melt   2002)

19. Shane & Shane – Liberty     Sofi

20. George Strait - Willy The Wandering Gypsy And Me.

21. Joy And Rory – Josephine   (verzoekje) .     .   -

22. Riley Downing – Start It Over

23. Garret T Capps – Goodbye San Antonio, Hello Amsterdam .

24.  Rodney Crowell - Old Five And Dimers Like Me.  *album vd week

25. Randy Rogers Band – Picture Frames   *albumvw  

26. Bailey Zimmerman –  Fall In Love

27. Zach Bryan – Happy Instead

28. Morgan Wallen – Warning    #1 album

29. John Michael Montgomery – The Little Girl

30. Travis Tritt – Best Of  Intentions

31. Hal Ketchum -  – Mama Knows The Highway     *Trucksong

32. ShaniaTwain – Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under

33. Mary Gautthiers – Dark Enough To See The Stars -*juweeltje

34. Sam Williams – Happy All The Time

35. Robert Weston - - A Million Things Wrong* Dutch corner

36. Hilde Vos –  What Would Dolly Do  

37. Dieter van  der Westen Band – Don’t Wait For My Money

38. Joe Diffie – C-O-U-N-T-R-Y      .

39. Travis Tritt – T-R-O-U-B-L-E

40. Tammy Wynette – D-I-V-O-R-C-E

41. Miranda Lambert - I’m Just An Old Chunk Of Coal (But I’m Gonna Be A Diamond Someday)

42. George Jones – Tender Years  

43. Nancy Griffith – Night Rider’s Lament

44. Willie Nelson -– City Of New Orleans

45. Florida Georgia Line - Cruise

46. Darius Rucker – Wagon Wheel

[zooterchet]

Operation: St. Peter

Stage A) Register your e-mail address as open to school library computers, in a town with a computer headquarters; generous, aren’t they.

Stage B) Register for a full time summer/winter job, part time school, minimum wage, 9th grade summer starting.

Stage C) Do a ton of drugs, with the CIA watching, while you e-mail half-written papers to yourself, then finish them, at the school.

Stage D) Get a pretty good job at it, dude, smoke freebase junior year of highschool, right before September, for a perfect attendance rate.  You didn’t take a varsity sport, did you, Cartman.  You got a grocery store job, as a stock clerk, and you’re Gentile anti-Semite, but you’ve got looks and smooth moves.

Stage E) Bail on school after an arrest ordered by the Democratic National Commitee, to see why you’re cheating, all these Hispanics can’t figure out “Boondock Saints”.

Stage F) Look at an Asian lawyer’s panties, at college, several times.

Stage G) Suck it up, and play bass guitar, on a drum riff, from learning hand pats, and watching WW2 documentaries, all night long, baby.

Stage H) Play that rock and roll, on your amp, in the dorm, and blow the shit out of that cunt.  Stay indie, you’ve got a bloody thumb.

Stage (I) Note an experience, from an old friend, that you bought amphetamines off of, with a weed trade.  (Mackelmore).

Stage (J): Your town gets investigated, and stomped like brutal hell, while you cruise around, doping, under CIA investigation, as Michael Westen.

Stage (K): War Forever.  Company Man gets rewritten, you are the head of the history department.

[darkskywishes]

Yes! It’s so easy to believe that he was an incredible spy that could do anything. What I find amazing as well is that Jeffrey Donovan actually has multiple black belts in martial arts and speaks Russian! He does most of the fight scenes and a lot of the stunts himself, which really contributes to audience immersion in the show and believability of the character, since one sees it’s actually him doing it!

Top 10 Michael Westen Cover IDs.

1x06, 1x07, 2x07, 2x11, 3x04, 3x11, 4x02, 5x03, 6x08, and 7x06.

Not fair for there to just be 10 so honorable mentions to 1x05, 1x11, 2x01, 2x03, 2x05, 2x10, 3x07, 3x14, and 4x16. And probably more I'm forgetting.

[intheseautumnhands]

I totally failed at Camp NaNo, and I have an exchange fic due in two weeks that I’ve not managed to start writing, and way too many WIPs to do anything new.

But here are the fic ideas my brain keeps generating this week while I sleep to Dollhouse.

Most of them involve Victor/Tony and/or Sierra/Priya. Shhh. I don’t have a problem. Shhhhhh.

Tony gets hurt, gets discharged, and ends up being scooped up by the Dollhouse as a handler instead of a doll. He ends up as Sierra’s handler. I have less of a very specific plot idea for this but I do have very clear ideas for him absolutely climbing the walls in the Dollhouse during the equivalent of Needs.

The role-reversal of that, where Adelle unexpectedly finds herself meeting and sympathizing with Priya during the whole art-party thing and ends up finding a way to get her working in the Dollhouse because it would help protect her. Probably not as a handler, though.

The fic idea based on someone’s -- theory or just would-it-be-awesome from way back when season one first ended, I forgot which, but: post-S1, Victor permanently imprinted as Laurence Dominic, who has no idea he’s been made into a doll and is being manipulated.

C o m p o s i t i n g. Will I be forever bitter that the interesting potential of compositing ended up being explained as something completely uninteresting, twice? Possibly. Anyway there’s some good composite!Victor and composite!Sierra fic out there but I would like more still.

That Burn Notice crossover where Nate Westen survives the techpocalypse and ends up leading a group of survivors by asking himself “what would Michael do” on a daily basis.

[burnnoticegifs]

Burn Notice re-watch | 3x04 | Fearless Leader

[korrektheiten]

»Turn down the heat!«

LePenseur:»Gastkommentar von Rücktreter   Das fordern die »Global Shapers«, die Nachwuchsorganisation (also was ähnliches wie die »Thälmann-Pioniere« oder die »HJ«?) des Führers des WEF Klaus Schwab — vielleicht sollten Sie sich statt »Global Shapers«  ehrlicher als »Schwabjugend« bezeichnen. Genauer gesagt: die vom »Vienna Hub« und vom »Budapest Hub«. O, wie schön! — Österreich-Ungarn lebt wieder auf, wenn auch nur mit einem Projekt: We are turning down the heat by 1°C every week until Russia has stopped attacking Ukraine.Lower temperature �� Less gas consumption ➡Less money for Russia ➡Fewer resources for the war against Ukraine1°C less saves 6% gas. Großartige Idee — die nur ein paar kleine Haken hat: die Höhe des Gaspreises hängt nicht nur von der Nachfrage, sondern auch vom Angebot ab. Und wenn die Russen angesichts der verhängten Sanktionen zu Gegensanktinoen greifen (was zu erwarten ist), dann heißt das: sie liefern Gas — aber eben nicht an Staaten, die sie sanktionieren. Sondern nach China, oder Indien oder sonst wohin auf dem Weltmarkt. Oder verbilligen ihre Produktionskosten, indem sie es im Land einsetzen.   Was das bedeutet, kann man an diesem Beispiel erkennen: die Russkis liefern schon seit letztem Herbst fast keine Düngemittel mehr Richtung Westen. Und was heißt das? Das: So etwas kann jederzeit auch beim Gaspreis  passieren. Und dann wird Österreich-Ungarns Schwab-Jugend ein bisserl weniger begeistert aus der Wäsche gucken ... Und wer sind die hoffnungsvollen künftigen Führergestalten unserer Globalistischen Statrapie Vienna?Curator: Sarah Haas, Vice-Curator: Lena Hödl, Impact Officer: Marina Bartoletti, sowie: Agnes Aistleitner, Rustem Akishbekov, Hamza Amin, Bedirhan Boztepe, Jelena Cerar, Stephanie Cox, Carolin Drewes, Thomas Gaar, Tobias Grabher,Felix Häusler, Stefan Yazzie Herbert, Fedor Holz, Michael Jayasekara,Goran Maric, Ximena Michemberg, Iris Neuberg, Sasaenia Paul Oluwabunmi, Andreas Onea, Nataly Daniela Ortiz Arias, Jonathan Pock, Marine Popoff, Francis Rafal, Anil Rai, Anna Riedl Katharina Rogen-hofer, Yannick Shetty, Lisa Maria Sommer, Johannes Stangl, Sofia Surma, Valentin Wiesner, Stefan Windberger, David Witzeneder, Hannah Wundsam, Natalie Haas, Nermina Mumic, Selin Öker. Namen, die man sich merken sollte! Wenn man darauf Wert legt, kein U-Boot in seiner Firma/Kanzlei/ Organisation zu haben — falls sich einer von denen um einen Posten bewirbt ... http://dlvr.it/SL6yCS «

[darkskywishes]

Just wanted to say that I love reading your thoughts on the final season! Also, I completely agree with you regarding Jesse. I loved him as an addition (great chemistry with the rest of the cast!), but I really wish we were shown more of his personal life and backstory, even if it was little details like his favorite foods or his hobbies.

How did you like S7? Personally, I think they needed a few more episodes to more thoroughly flesh out some of the plot and character arcs, but I know the City of Miami was pressuring them to end the show (there were lots of local news articles about that here back when it was on air, speaking as a Miami native), so it couldn’t really be helped. S7 was shorter than the rest (barring S1), and it would have really benefited from a full season. With the episode count they had to work with, I think they did a pretty great job, although I know S7 is quite polarizing within the fandom.

In fact, I think some of the best episodes of the series come from S7, like “Forget Me Not” and “Psychological Warfare”. Interestingly, I think all of the episodes taken individually were quite strong, but when working together as a season-long arc, more was needed (like I said above).

Also, with your Burn Notice season write-ups, you’ve expressed some of the best Sam-analysis I’ve ever seen for this series. I think you’re right on with describing him as having his own very particular set of morals.

God, I have so many thoughts on everything you’ve written with not enough time to express them, lol. Like you, I also saw it was apparent a couple of seasons back that there was no way for this show to end completely happily with no major casualties. The ending is as happy as it could have been while remaining true to the characters, the plot, and all the sacrifices that have been made along the way.

The more I think about it, though, the more I view the ending as more bitter than sweet (which isn’t a bad thing!). Ultimately, I’m happy that everything worked out well for Sam, Elsa, and Jesse, and I think they’ll be able to rebuild a life for themselves that they’re happy/content with. I think Jesse will have some more trauma to work with regarding Maddie’s death, as he was present in her last moments, with all the parallels to his own mother’s death—especially since Maddie really developed into a surrogate mother-figure for him. In a lot of ways, she was more of a mother to Jesse than to Michael, as he joined the group after Madeline had developed a greater sense and capability to act as a healthy parental figure (having learned from all her mistakes over the years). He didn’t have the same dysfunctional/complicated history with her that Michael did.

Sam, I think, is always going to worry about Michael’s well-being, and that’s where a lot of the trauma that he has to work on will stem from. Michael was one of the most important people in his entire life, if not the most important. I think Sam often felt a duty to protect Michael, both as a way to reciprocate everything Michael has done for him and because Sam, more than anyone, knows how affected Michael is by his environment and his traumas. Sam takes the “leave no man behind” motto incredibly seriously, as demonstrated by the story Jesse relayed to the client in the S4 episode “Made Man,” talking about one of Sam’s Navy SEAL missions. While Sam doesn’t outwardly show it, I think there’s a big implication in the final season that Sam feels guilty for not doing enough to be there for Michael and not seeing how much Michael was slipping; I wouldn’t be surprised if Sam feels like he abandoned Michael and failed in his duty to protect. I think Sam also feels grateful at the excitement Michael brought back into his life, and it’s going to be difficult being separated from his most important person for such an indefinite period of time—at the same time, he’s relieved that things are finally over in a sense.

Ultimately, I think Sam and Jesse are probably the most psychologically well-adjusted of the group, and I trust in their abilities to achieve fulfillment in this new era of their lives. My bigger concern is Michael and Fi (along with Charlie), and this is where the “more bitter than sweet” part of the ending comes in for me.

Now that things have calmed down, so to speak, Michael is going to be hit with the full brunt of all the traumas he’s experienced throughout his life. We’ve seen his PTSD symptoms get aggravated before in periods of calm when there’s time to process things more (back in S5, particularly in the episode “Mind Games”). His whole life, he’s been going from crisis to crisis (abusive home-> military -> CIA -> burn notice -> major series events), with no significant periods of respite to heal and address his issues. Now that that’s the only thing to actually focus on, I struggle to see him as someone that will be able to adjust easily to his new life. It’s going to take a lot of work for him to be able to function in a normal environment—that guilt and paranoia will probably never go away. He lost his entire family, and while he now has Charlie and is living with Fiona, Charlie will always act as a reminder of his loss. I actually think Michael would be a great father (as evidenced by his interactions with kids throughout the series and how much he’d want to avoid repeating his parents’ mistakes), but I don’t know if Michael will ever be fully happy.

And, then we have Fiona. I 100% concur with your assessment of her at the end. While she’s always been the one pushing for more normality in her relationship with Michael, it’s clear that that life isn’t for her. I definitely think she’ll get bored, and I think she’ll also be very worried about Michael. Also, given where their relationship was at right before the final episode, the two of them have a lot of stuff to work out as a couple, not to mention that I think Fiona is tired of being worried about Michael. It’s exhausting. Above all, though, Michael and Fiona truly love each other, and I think they’d rather be with each other than anyone else, no matter how hard or unhappy things get (which is something Michael said directly to her back in S1-S2).

Anyway, I love this show and all these characters so much, and I’m so happy that this show has captured the heart of another person! Sorry for writing you an essay! Haha.

Burn Notice - Season Seven

AKA the season of Michael torture, both figurative and literal. The writers said, ‘Let’s isolate him, separate him from his support network, and see how much we can put the poor bastard through. What horrible things can we make him do when he’s trapped and desperate and trying to decide which of his choices is the least awful?’ And they really went to town… Michael. Er, yeah, see above. When I was reviewing season five, I talked about a key difference between Jesse and Michael – that when Jesse was given his CIA job back, he decided it wasn’t worth the way they treated him and walked away, while Michael still thought it WAS worth it. Well, now he definitely doesn’t. He was still enthusiastically on board while he was working with Pearce, and then he told Fiona he’d get out in Panama, before he discovered his boss was corrupt. So I’m guessing it was his brother getting killed that triggered the change. The direct confrontation with mortality? The guilt over Nate, and not wanting to do that to his mother again, maybe? Michael hasn’t been doing great mentally for the last two seasons – constantly stressed, desperately plunging from one crisis to another. Season seven is not making that better. He’s not unaware of his precarious state either. When he’s told he can take one person with him for a mission, he chooses Sam. He could have picked Jesse, who’s younger, fitter, faster, but Michael doesn’t just need a field operative, he needs psychological support, and that’s the guy he’s trusted for nearly twenty years. The fact that he actually talks when Sam brings it up instead of insisting that he’s fine indicates just how bad it is. And then it’s back into isolation, and when he eventually concludes that the CIA are at least as appalling as any of the people they send him after, he’s wavering between borderline suicidal and becoming that Ends Justifies The Means lunatic that Fiona and Vaughn were both warning him about back in season four. Maddy – Michael’s relationship with his mother developed all through the series. When he first arrived in Miami, she barely knew him. He left home at seventeen and rarely came back. On Michael’s side, he still loved his mother, and felt some guilt over leaving, but he didn’t particularly like her. Over the years, they got to know one another as the people they became, and Maddy made a real effort to try and make up for failing him in his childhood. Maddy’s looking after her grandson now that Nate’s dead, and she’s determined to do a better job than she did the first time. She even gives up smoking, which Michael’s been telling her to do for years XD But she never lost the guilt she felt over the damage she put her kids through – that she wasn’t strong enough to walk away from an abusive bastard – and that means she won’t fail him again, won’t lose any more family. Fiona is So Done. She’s Done with Michael, and she’s Absolutely Fucking Done with the CIA. She wants to get back to the vibe of the early seasons when everyone was just having fun. She finds herself a nice guy who puts her first and has the same odd definition of ‘fun’ as she does. Unfortunately, that’s a decision she left too late, because the CIA are not done with her. And of course, she was only done with Michael because he didn’t keep his promise to get out, because she thought he chose the job over her. By the time she finds out the choice he was given was rather different, she’s already moved on. But when Michael needs to be saved, she’s still right there volunteering to do the saving. Sam is still Sam, with his own particular version of morals. He has no intrinsic objection to killing people sometimes, but he very much likes to know who he’s killing and why. He’s a lot less thrilled about shooting someone he knows nothing about just because he’s told to, but he’ll do it if he absolutely has to, and he’ll live with it and not let it drag at him too much. Because if he hadn’t done it, somebody else would have, and that somebody else might not have tried so hard to avoid it, and somebody else wouldn’t have been as motivated to protect Michael. Sam rationalises and compartmentalises, which is something of a job necessity. He also has total faith in Michael, and he’s the last one of the gang to recognise that Michael’s crossing too many lines. He won’t believe it until he actually sees it. Jesse’s loyal, dedicated and practical, and still here for any of the gang under any circumstances. Back in season five, I wondered what exactly was making Jesse stick with these people after they turned his life into a total bonfire – he wasn’t even around for most of the part where people were having fun, he joined just as they were starting the slide into disaster. Maddy asks him the same question here, but at this point I don’t think it needs to be asked. The original trio have already proven back in season six that they’ll pull the maddest of the mad stunts for Jesse just the same as they will for each other, and he’s fully entrenched. I never felt I got a handle on Jesse the same as I did with the others, though – I wanted to, and it didn’t happen and I’ve been trying to pin down why. He was only in four seasons, not seven, but that’s not the reason. I had a better feel for the others after three seasons than I do for Jesse after four. Part of it’s that we see less of Jesse outside the team – we see little snippets here and there of his day job, but we never see where he lives, or anything about his personal life. There’s that suggestion back in season four that he’s hot for Fiona, and then nothing. But honestly, I think most of it’s because Jesse’s just too damn nice. We know all of Sam’s bad habits as well as his good ones. We know that he’s particular about how he folds his socks. We know about Fiona’s temper, her domestic violence trigger and her thing for collecting snow-globes. And we definitely know Michael’s issues and flaws, in technicolour. We never really get to see a down-side or any weird foibles with Jesse, and it leaves him a bit one-note compared with the others. One of the big things was Burn Notice was that it was apparent a few seasons ago that there was no way for this to end with everyone alive and happy. If Michael had made the choice he made at the end of the series earlier (and late season five when he was being blackmailed by Anson would have been a great time, honestly), he wouldn’t have been at peace with it. He would have forever been wondering if he could have won, if he could have fixed it, and it would have eaten away at him. Some people who died would have lived, but Maddy would have been miserable, with Michael vanishing from her life for a second time, and no explanation she’d understand. And apparently Sam and Jesse are utterly unreformed and unchastened after their stints in cells, and are still planning to go out and do crime for good causes. Guys, I love you, but seriously… can’t you at least leave it for six months or so, act innocent for a bit and wait for some of the bad press to die down? No? And honestly, I’m not surprised. Jesse never really stopped, he was playing spy games one way or another the whole time. Sam did stop for two years, but that was before he realised that not stopping was an option, and it made him a borderline alcoholic. All of these people are fucking addicts. Nate said it to Michael once, and he was not wrong. Which leads to the question of Michael and Fiona. Especially Fiona. Michael’s burned out enough that he’ll probably be fine just chilling, at least for a while. But how bored is she going to get? And now I’m done. It feels a little weird to have finally reached the end - I almost wanted to put off watching the last two episodes so that I wouldn’t have finished it. It’s been two and a half months since I started watching, and two months since my brain vanished down the rabbit hole. But I’m also mid way through season three of the fanfic researching re-watch, so it’s interesting to see what has and hasn’t changed with hindsight…

[peppermintstranger]

Hello, I was wondering if you can suggest fcs for a young (20s) Roman demigod (Being the son of Helios) with short blonde hair?

Hello there!

You have: Michael Oder, Charles Bilgrien, Valentin Humbroich, Ben Sherrell, Frederik Westen, Kristian Einla, Baptiste Radufe.

Hope it helps c:

[burnnoticegifs]

Burn Notice re-watch | 3x05 | Signals and Codes

[darkskywishes]

Ahhhh, I'm so happy this brought you joy! I always feel nervous interacting with others' posts on Tumblr, especially after it's been a while since it was first posted :) Thanks for letting me know you appreciated my post!

Im rewatching Burn Notice and my new personal headcanon is that Michael is autistic

[fan-burnnotice]

Burn Notice - 6x02 - Mixed Messages

Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan), Sam Axe (Bruce Campbell) & Tom Card (John C. McGinley)