#can we lay all star wars trilogies to rest now

[criminalcinnamon]

BAKING (a nocozekiel oneshot)

I thought I'd write something more fluff-y after finishing the jacnoah fic, so here's that!

Sun streamed through the windows of the kitchen as Ezekiel tied on his apron. Cody was sitting at the kitchen table, leaning back on the chair while he looked up recipes in a cook book, and Noah was finding all the ingredients.

"This looks like a good one." Cody said as he showed Zeke a recipe he'd found for cupcakes. "Seems easy enough." He shrugged.

"Alright, eh. Noah? Can you get the flour?"

"Alrighty." Noah grabbed the flour and placed it on the counter.

Zeke grabbed the equipment while Cody grabbed the rest of the ingredients.

"What the hell is caster sugar?"

"Something we don't have." Noah rolled his eyes and leaned against the counter. "We'll have to use regular sugar."

"Same thing, eh."

Cody turned on the oven, setting it a bit too high, while Noah grabbed the cupcake cases and tossed them to Zeke, accidentally hitting him in the eye.

"Shit. You okay?" Noah bent down to Zeke's height.

"Yeah. I'm fine, homie."

Noah chuckled. "Can you put the cupcake cases in the baking tray, 'homie'?"

Zeke nodded and did as Noah said.

"So..." Cody said while mixing the batter, "how was all of your weekends?"

"Cody we live together, we had the same weekend." Noah sighed.

"Right!" Cody fiddled with his wooden stirring spoon.

"Hey Noah, no need to be harsh on him, eh, he was just trying to make conversation!"

"Alrighty, sorry," Noah leaned against the counter, "just tired."

"You really need more sleep man." Cody put the bowl down and ruffled Noah's hair.

Noah yawned. "I'll take over the stirring."

Before anyone could interject, Noah picked up the bowl and started stirring. It didn't take long for them to be finished and soon they were pouring the batter into the cases and putting them into the over, leaving more time to talk.

"We should watch a movie while we eat these!" Cody grinned, jumping up and down slightly.

"Oooh, what movie?"

"Let's watch Star Wars." Noah piped up.

"Woah, I didn't know you liked that kinda shit."

Noah shrugged. "It's not bad, and I know you like them so, why not?"

"I've never seen Star Wars, eh."

"Really? They're SO good. We have to watch ALL of the original trilogy!!!" Cody grinned, tapping the counter excitedly.

"Oh god, don't get him started, he'll yap forever."

And that's exactly what Cody did. He was STILL taking when they took the cupcakes out of the oven and started icing them with the buttercream they bought from the store.

"Noah?" Zeke waved his hand in front of Noah's face, Noah was zoning out as he listened to Cody, just staring at him starry-eyed.

"Huh?" Noah shook his head, snapping out of his daze.

"You were staring at Cody again."

"Right." Noah pinched the bridge of his nose. "You almost done icing?"

"We finished five minutes ago." Zeke clarified as he watched Cody rush to the living room with the cupcakes.

"Movie time!" Cody called out excitedly, hopping from foot to foot as he stared at the two.

Soon they were all sitting on the couch, wrapped up in a big, fluffy blanket. Noah had the tray of cupcakes on his lap so Cody wouldn't immediately eat them all - especially since he loved sugar - so Cody had to deal with the DVD. Cody tapped his foot on the ground as he slid the DVD into the DVD player before laying back on the couch.

Ezekiel smiled and nuzzled against Noah, who was sitting in the middle. Zeke had his eyes glued to the screen, not wanting to miss any detail, Noah lightly nudged Zeke.

"You have to blink, you know." Noah grinned as Zeke looked at him with wide eyes before blinking slowly, making Noah laugh.

Cody started whispering stuff like "it's getting to the good part now!" to Zeke, who was starting to fall asleep.

"He's cute when he's tired." Cody cooed.

"Yeah, he is."

"Oh shit, the cupcakes must be cold now."

"Goddamnit." Noah muttered as he picked up a cupcake and took a bite, discovering that it was, indeed, cold. Cody snickered, letting his head fall against Noah's shoulder.

"I can't believe you didn't fall asleep first."

"Me neither," Noah sighed, "we should get to bed, shouldn't we?"

"Yeah."

"Who's gonna carry Zeke?"

"Not it!" Cody grinned and tapped his nose.

Noah rolled his eyes. "Of course."

Noah dumped Zeke on the bed before grabbing his pyjamas and going to the bathroom to change, leaving Cody and Ezekiel alone. Cody smiled down at the sleeping boy, he still had his hat on too. Cody wondered what he was dreaming about. He gently rested his hand on Zeke's head.

"You STILL haven't changed, huh?" Noah smirked and looked down at Cody.

"Huh? Oh yeah, right." Cody got up. "Don't look man!" Noah nodded and looked away as Cody changed.

"Should we wake Zeke up?" Cody asked as he sat down on the bed in his boxers.

"Probably. He can't sleep in his dirty farm clothes."

Noah shook Zeke awake, who slowly opened his eyes and looked up at Noah, smiling.

"You gotta change, man." Cody held out Zeke's pyjamas to him.

Eventually, they ended up snuggled up in bed next to eachother, Noah had ended up in the middle, with Zeke clinging to him like a koala. Cody had his arms loosely wrapped around Noah. It might've been the most comfort Noah had ever experienced. And it was perfect.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey gang I hope you like this :33333 It's supposed to be way more simple than the jacnoah fic, but I had a GREAT time writing it.

[jbk405]

So, the VHS collection I brought to this apartment -- which I can now actually watch --  contains such eclectic content as...

Lexx Season One (Also know as Tales From A Parallel Universe), the four feature length movies that preceded the Lexx TV series.

Kill Bill, Volumes 1 & 2.  I believe these were the last tapes I ever purchased at my local Blockbuster.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, which I have since repurchased on Blu-ray.

The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, which I have since repurchased on DVD.

Astro Boy, Volume 9, which holds several episodes of the anime.  This is still in the cellophane, I bought it from my local comic shop when the owner was going through some personal issues and was essentially using the shop as an ongoing garage sale to empty out his house.

Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace.  A friend gave this to me when he was clearing out his old media while he was moving.  I do believe I have never actually watched this tape, since by the time he passed it to me I had sunk deep into my “The Prequels SUCK!” era.

Jurassic Park, the original.  I’ve actually got no memories associated with this tape at all, and until I started sorting a few days ago I had no idea it was even in my closet.  When did I get this?

Aladdin, which has the honor of somehow being a Blockbuster tape (I guess one time when me and my siblings were kids we forgot to return it?).  Aladdin is also the first movie that I recall seeing in theaters, so this is a big Nostalgia hit for me.

Superman II, this is the one tape in a fancy plastic case (The rest are either in plain carboard, or no case at all).  I watched this tape before I even saw the original Superman: The Movie, so this really lay the foundation for Superman for me.

And the pièce de résistance, the Original Star Wars Trilogy.  I picked this up at the Dayton Hamvention several years back, when I was desperate for any way to view the unaltered Original Trilogy.  Since then I’ve found various HD options online, but this way I get to own it.

Tomorrow afternoon I may go to my childhood home and dig around the basement for old cassettes that are still down there (I can semi-solidly remember having episodes of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon and The Adventures of Pete & Pete somewhere).

[ptergwen]

fluffy make out sesh w petey? <3

call it even

w/c: 1,074

warnings: like two swears?

a/n: i don’t know why this ended up being so long but it did lmfhwjwhs i hope it’s everything u wanted and more :D

-

“god, how much time is left?” you complain, circling your index finger around peter’s chest.

peter refuses to expand his horizons beyond star wars, so you two are watching revenge of the sith yet again. you’re seated in his lap and doing everything you can to get his attention. it’s the only way you’ll be able to make it through the damn movie.

unfortunately for you, peter has a huge crush on anakin. that means his eyes are literally glued to the screen.

“we’re not even halfway through yet. get comfortable, babe,” peter smugly replies. he grabs your hips and squeezes, cocking his head to the side to see better. you tilt your own head so it’s blocking his line of vision. “i am comfortable… very. are you?” your voice drops an octave.

a smirk crossing his features, peter finally meets your eyes. “i know what you’re trying to do, and it’s not gonna work.” you gasp to feign innocence. “silly old me? what ever are you talking about, peter dearest?”

peter moves an arm so it’s around your lower back, you batting your lashes down at him. you yank on his flannel collar to keep him in place. he leans in closer to you until his lips brush the shell of your ear.

he’s all yours.

“i appreciate the effort. now, if you don’t mind…”

peter pulls away from you with a terrible wink that’s stupidly adorable, but you’re too annoyed to admit it.

you give up your facade, swapping it for whining and tugging on peter’s shirt. “no fair! all i want you to do is spend some time with me, petey.” gazing over your shoulder, you shoot the tv a death glare. “fuck george lucas.”

“woah, woah! don’t go that far!” peter defends, chuckling nevertheless. he does feel kind of bad because he has seen star wars more than anyone else on this earth. it wouldn’t kill him to focus on you for a bit.

although, he’d still like to finish the movie.

peter brings your body in closer to his, pecking your forehead softly. “let’s make a deal,” he prompts you. you eagerly nod and sit up straighter. “i’ll give you as many hugs and kisses as you’d like-“

“perfect! you and that big brain of yours, my smart boy.” puckering up, you go right in for a smooch. peter holds out a finger and presses it to your lips to stop you, beaming. “i’m not done,” he laughs out. “i’ll give you as many hugs and kisses as you’d like, after the movie is over.”

you scoff and shove both peter’s shoulders. “why can’t you just multitask? you’d be getting the best of both worlds!” peter does not consider it. “and risk missing the most intense lightsaber duel in cinematic history? i don’t think so.”

“whatever you say… loser,” you mutter under your breath. he coaxes you away from him, keeping his arms around your waist with a scowl. “do you want your kisses or not, y/n?” this time, your mouth stays shut. “exactly,” peter concludes. “new deal, i’ll level with you and cuddle for a while.”

he hugs you to his chest, chin resting lightly on your head. you instantly settle in his warm embrace and feel safe in his strong arms. this will do.

“love you, petey,” you mumble against the skin of his neck. smiling to himself, peter peeks back up at the tv. “love you too, angel. but, shhh,” he shushes, resuming his millionth star wars viewing.

just like that, you’ve been replaced by darth vader. you need to fix this, and fast.

it doesn’t take peter too long to lose himself in the movie, which plays out in your favor for once. he just mindlessly rocks you side to side while he watches. his obliviousness, more so than usual, gives you the opportunity to reach over on the cushion next to you and grab the remote.

bingo.

you swiftly hit the power button, hiding it behind your back and eliciting a yelp from peter.

“y/n, what the hell? we had a compromise!” peter demands and lunges forward for the remote. grinning wickedly, you tuck it into your back pocket before he can. “we also had a deal, remember? movie’s over,” you elaborate. “kiss me, loser.”

peter can’t argue with that logic.

“sneaky,” he compliments, his forehead leaned against yours. his fingertips ghost over your chin. “i’m so impressed, i can’t even be mad. you win.” giggling, you place your hands on peter’s shoulders to balance yourself in his lap. “well, you’re the prize.”

“ugh, i love you so much,” peter sighs. he kisses your bottom lip gently, holding your chin between two fingers. “more than star wars?” you search for his hazel eyes. “more than star wars… all three trilogies,” he murmurs a sentence you never thought you’d hear.

your eyelashes tickle peter’s face, both of you sharing matching smiles.

“in that case…”

you close the small gap separating you two with your lips on his. peter reciprocates in a heartbeat, his own quickened as he melts into the kiss. one of your hands weaves its way to some fluffy curls at the nape of his neck. he cups your cheek tenderly, free hand on your side and a grin spreading across his face.

“i love you, too,” you whisper, your legs straddling his waist. “could tell,” peter acknowledges in a breathy laugh.

he uses the new position to his advantage and flips you so you’re laying down on the couch. him on top, you under and your legs still around him. the next kiss is initiated by peter, so soft it fills your whole body with butterflies. he continues to caress your cheek while his lips dance expertly with yours.

“you taste good,” you rasp, peter kissing up to the tip of your nose. “like what?” he wonders and punctuates his question with another kiss to the bridge. you’re sitting back and enjoying every second. “i dunno, something sweet… vanilla?”

“oh, yeah. i might’ve stolen your chapstick,” peter admits, his cheeks starting to feel hot. amused, you pinch one of them. “i was wondering where that went. i should’ve known ‘cuz you always ask me about it.” he dips down so his forehead falls on yours once again. “buy you a new one?”

your fingers thread through his locks, willing him to look at you.

“just kiss me, and we’ll call it even.”

[twjournals]

The Right Place

This is the third and final part of the trilogy. I can not thank you enough for the endless support. I did not expect to even turn this into a three-parter, but you asked and you shall receive. You guys are amazing!

So Wrong It's Right

What's Wrong is Right

Warning: dark!Peter Parker x reader, dub-con, all characters are of age, pregnancy, abuse, mild non-con touching, violence

Word Count: 5.4k

Summary: You're an old troubled friend of May's. Your life consists of being a workaholic, a party animal, and bringing home the shittest of guys for a one-hit-wonder. Just when you get your life in order, you're knocked right back into your old habits. Peter has watched you suffer long enough. He can make it all better.

Taglist: @discoverwhattheworldhastooffer

Your world was in shambles and any move you made to try and fix it only seemed to make what was left crumble. You did not speak with anyone since you had found out you were pregnant, not even May. You did not know what you could even say to her or how you could explain what was going on. You knew she would find out sooner or later, but you had planned on later. You could not even stomach the thought of telling her. It would not be easy and you knew you would probably lose her friendship in the process.

You avoided Peter as much as you could. He always messaged to check up on you, but you would never reply. You were disappointed in yourself. If you had just been the biggest person and moved on, if you had not have gotten drunk, you would not be in this situation right now.

Peter never gave up on you. He had hoped you would come around. That you would understand why your life was going in the direction it was. You needed to get away from the toxicity you surrounded with, especially Chris. You were meant for bigger and better things. You were meant to be more than a housewife. You were to be a mother, a lover, a soulmate. You deserved the world and he wanted so bad to give you it plus more.

You continued to shut him out though. You did not answer his phone calls or his text messages no matter how many times he tried. He sat outside on your fire escape many nights, listening to you crying yourself to sleep. It broke his heart to see you in this situation, but he wishes you would look on the bright side of things. Maybe it was not the greatest timing to have a baby, but it didn't mean your lives were ruined. Sometimes what we want is not always what we need. Sometimes change is required for what we need in our life and you weren't necessarily open to it.

He honestly had tried to give you your space. He stuck to the rooftop above you where you could not see him when you would finally leave the house for work. You always looked so beautiful to him, even if he knew you had been crying all night. If you would just answer his messages, he would not have to go this far.

Peter watched you many mornings on your way to work. He followed your bus all the way to the place he prayed you would never go. He kneeled on top of the building, watching as you stared sadly at the front doors of the clinic. He wished you would turn around. To save him from having to web you down before you got in the building. You were picking at your sweater. No matter the number of times you found yourself standing outside the clinic, you never could bring yourself to even reach for the door.

You were at war with yourself. Peter could tell you fought against the changes, but your heart could not bring you to stop them from happening despite how unhappy you were. It always ended with a sigh and with you proceeding to walk the rest of the way to work. Peter seemed to hold his breath until you walked away.

Work was always a drag now. You had nothing to look forward to anymore but everything in the world to worry about. You stared at your phone as it lay against the computer screen. You rubbed your face tiredly.

You knew it was time to let go of your past. You sighed deeply, taking your phone in your hands and clicking on Chris's old messages. You began typing.

Are you able to come by later?

You noticed he read your message right away. You sat your phone down, still staring at the screen when he responded back.

Of course. Just tell me when, and I’ll be there.

You told him you would message him once you got home. You were sure what time you would get off when it came to your job. You wrote a company and spent the hours necessary to do what you needed to do.

By the time your workday had finally ended, you were having mixed feelings about inviting him over. Being pregnant did not help your feelings from being all over the place. Your thumbs hovered over the keypad on your screen. You were hesitant. Even if he had said he respected whatever you decided, you knew he could not entirely mean that. You quickly typed out that you were home and hit send before you could give yourself time to think almost about it. Maybe you should have thought about it a little longer.

Peter was stuck at school for one of his night classes. He dreaded his night classes now more than ever considering your condition. He had already skipping enough classes due to worrying so much about you. He could not afford to flunk out of school now after all the time and effort he had dedicated already. As much as he wanted to keep an eye on you, he tried to give you room to breathe, to think, and process.

You pushed his bags in the living room by the door, straightening your sweater to keep it off of your stomach. You were not big to others, but to you, you worried if people can tell. You did not want to chance it and certainly not with Chris. You wanted this to go as smoothly as possible.

Your heart almost leaped from your chest at the knock on your door. You slid the chain from the lock and pulled the door open to see his face light up as soon as he saw you.

"Hey there, beautiful."

"Hi." You leaned against the door slightly as you moved out of the way for him to enter.

"I'm so glad you're giving this a second-" He stepped into the apartment, noticing bags of his belongings to the side of him and he grew quiet. "You're not giving me a second chance." He pointed out and you frowned slightly, still standing by the door.

"I think it is what's best for the both of us." Your voice was quiet and calm, but in your mind, it was the hardest thing possible for you to say.

"Is it?" His voice seemed bitter and you looked down at your feet, nodding slowly. Even without looking at him, you could still feel his eyes on you. He turned to face you fully and you hesitated to make eye contact with him.

"It is. I still want the best for you."

"Do you not believe I can change? I don't understand. What can I do to change your mind?" He pressed.

"Please don't think I haven't given this a lot of thought. It consumes my mind to no end. I just need to focus on myself right now."

"Imagine that." It was silent in the room and you glanced at him, only to find him shaking his head with a snicker. "It's not what's best for the both of us. Not for me. This is what's best for you. Can't imagine how I even thought you could be anything but selfish."

"Chris, I just want to keep this civil."

"Good for you." He pulls the door from your grasp and slamming it shut, startling you. "That's all you've ever been, hm? You're gonna have to lose that mindset if you plan on marrying me."

"I don't-"

"You will." He corrected, moving so close you could feel his breath across your face. "I put too much time into this for you to walk away from me."

You swallowed hard. The man who stared back at you was far from familiar. You tried to step around him but he only pushed you back into your place between him and the wall.

"Goddamn it, just get your stuff and go!" You raised your voice and he slapped his hand hard across your cheek. It was strong enough to make you see stars in your eyes. You yelped at the impact and held your cheek as it stung in pain.

"You watch your fucking tone." He stared down at you. He had never hit you before in the years you had been together. He never raised a hand to you, but then again, he never raised one for you either.

You could not imagine how much worse this would get. You left sick to your stomach when he grabbed your chin, tilting your head upright to look at him, stroking his fingers across your stinging cheek as his eyes flickered over your face in thought.

"Truth to be told, I think it's you who needs to change. I put up with so much from you. You had me in the beginning. Thought I was getting this wild, sex-crazed wife, oh, the fun we use to have. The drunken nights." He stiffed a laugh as he let his free hand grab the end of your sweater. "You really had me fooled, didn't you sweetheart?"

You were scared to move. Scared that one wrong move and he would hit you again, maybe worse. You closed your eyes, hoping Peter would answer your prayers. You regretted how much you ever took advantage of his kindness. How long you acted like you never noticed. You had always noticed. You felt his hand push underneath your shirt, and his gaze grazed over your stomach.

You noticed the way his hand froze against the small curve of your rounded stomach and he instantly lifted your shirt to see the problem. Your vision was blurred from your tears as he stared at your stomach with wide eyes. You could tell he was getting pissed.

"Really looks like you've been focusing on yourself." He lets your sweater fall back down over your stomach. His grip was still firm on your jaw, giving you no choice but to look at him. "You have some nerve to leave me. I could bet money it's Parker's. It is, isn't it?"

You could not bring yourself to admit it, but you did not have to.

He shoved your face from his hand, causing you to hit your head hard against the wall as he let you go. "You fucking make me sick."

You tried to keep your sobs quiet, listening to his footsteps moving away from you, listening to him jerking his bags up. "Better it's his problem and not mine." He muttered before slamming the door shut behind him.

You pulled your knees to your chest as you sat up against the wall with a sob. You didn't realize how much you needed Peter until now. You were sure he would have been successful if Peter had not have stopped. You hugged your knees as you tried to catch your breath in an attempt to calm yourself down.

After a moment, you took a deep breath as you pushed yourself to your feet. You let out a whimper quiet, feeling mild cramps in your lower stomach. You frowned as you turned the lock to the door, pressing your forehead against it as you held your stomach from the pain. It only seemed to worsen the longer you stood there. You weren't sure what was going on, but you had a feeling whatever it was, it was not good. You stood like that hoping the cramps would ease, but they never did.

It was close to the end of class when Peter's phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out of his phone slightly to see who it was. He glanced up at the professor who had still proceeded with his lecture and Peter lowered his head to answer. He knew something had to be wrong if you were calling him after all this time of avoiding him.

"Y/n? Is everything okay?"

"I think something is wrong." You whimpered quietly and he raises an eyebrow slightly.

"What do you mean "wrong"? Is the baby okay?" He looked up at the teacher who was making eye contact with him now as he talked.

"I don't know." You answered honestly.

That was all it took to get Peter moving. He grabbed his books off of his desk and tossed them in his bag while he scrambled from the classroom.

"It hurts." You rubbed your lower stomach like you always did when you had cramps before. Cramps were normal, but with being pregnant, you could never be too sure what they really meant.

"I know, love. I'm so sorry. Hang tight. I'm on my way." He reassured you as he sprinted out of the building.

---

You lay back on the hospital bed, sighing as Peter ran his hand over your bump in gentle circles. For once, you let him. Your cramps had surprisingly lessened since Peter had shown up, but he did not want to take any chances. It was better to be safe than sorry. He was so worried about you and the baby.

Nurses had been in and out of the room, doing blood work, swabbing, anything necessary to get to the bottom of this. Peter was quiet as he sat on the side of the hospital bed, focused on the massage he was giving your stomach. This was the first time he had touched you since the night you found out you were pregnant.

You could not help back to smile slightly to yourself as his long gentle fingers worked over your skin. He must have sensed your stare because it was not long before his eyes glancing up to meet your stare.

He raised an eyebrow curiously. "Is this okay? I'm not making it worse, am I?"

You shook your head. "It's fine. I'm just watching."

He smiled at you while he continued his massage to your tummy. His eyes looked toward the door when a nurse came in, rolling some equipment over to the bedside.

"Miss. Y/l/n, your lab work should not be much longer. If you do not mind, I would like to do an ultrasound to check on the baby. Is that okay with you?"

You nodded and Peter took his hands back to let her work. She rolled over a chair, taking some gel and squirting some across your lower stomach. The nurse rolled the transducer over the gel and smearing it in as she applied some pleasure in search of a heartbeat. You watched her roam your stomach, biting your bottom lip. Your eyes widened slightly when the sound of the baby's beating heart filled the room. Once the nurse got a clear view, she turned the screen to show you and Peter what she was seeing.

You looked over at the monitor, your heart fluttered slightly at the first sight of your baby. That was your baby, even if it was only a little bean now. You could not stop the smile from forming on your lips. This little bean was life was growing inside of you. This brought a whole new light to your pregnancy. It was like a light had switched on. You did not know how to explain the overwhelming feeling. It felt more real after seeing him or her.

Peter was just as taken back as you. His grin never faded at the sight of your baby. It only made him 10x more eager to be a dad.

"Look at that. Already looks like me." Peter teased and you giggled, considering he or she was not much more than a heartbeat at the moment.

"I can definitely see it." You grinned as Peter rest his hand over yours, sliding his fingers between yours. He brought your hand to his lips before pressing a kiss to the back of it. You watched him kiss your hand and shivered slightly. You did not know what to think of everything at this point.

The nurse checked the baby's heartbeat before turning to the computer behind her and check your lab results with a quiet hum as she scrolled through your charts.

"Well, it seems like everything is just fine. Your baby is certainly healthy and has one of the strongest heartbeats I have ever heard." You looked over at Peter and he only grinned. You could thank Peter for that and all of his spidey senses.

"Your blood pressure was pretty high though and considering your history, your blood pressure has always been perfect. Have you been stressed out lately?" She looked back at you and you nodded slightly.

You were ashamed at how stressed you had let yourself get. "Well, I won't ask for details but if it is anything I can help you with, I would be happy to help. If not, I would stay to keep the stress to a minimum. Your baby does feel anything you feel, so some things can be too much and really take a toll on them." She explained. "Think of this as your baby reminding you to breathe."

You smiled, feeling Peter giving your hand a warm squeeze.

"If your blood pressure does continue to be high, we will see if we can do something to help." You nodded again as she made out some prints of your ultrasound and handing them to you. "If you don't have any questions, I'll let one of the other nurses know and they can keep your paperwork ready for you to go home." She took a paper towel and wiped your stomach clean before tossing it.

With that, she gathered up her equipment before rolling it out of the room with her. You pulled your sweater back down over your stomach.

"Hear that. Now do me a favor and leave all of the worrying up to me." He looked up at you as your eyes stayed glued to your ultrasound prints. His eyes flickered over your face, landing on the bruising mark on your cheek. He reached up, moving a piece of hair back of your face to get a better look. You flinched at the contact. Peter seemed taken back by your flinch.

"What happened? How'd you get that?" You kept your head down with a small frown.

"I invited Chris over to get his stuff. He thought I was taking him back. He didn't take it well." You explained and his eyes widened.

"He hit you?!" You reached Peter's hand as he started to jump up from the bed. "I'll kill him. I swear to you-"

"Peter, please. It's over with now." You assured him, tugging his hand to pull him back to the bed to sit down again. "He's not worth it."

Peter frowned, letting out a deep sigh before leaning in and pressing a gentle kiss to your cheek. He did not want to stress you any more than you had already been. "I'm sorry he did that to you. I wish I could have been there."

"Honestly, I needed this. It made letting go of him a lot easier."

"Was that all he did?"

You grew quiet.

"Did he..."

"No, he didn't." You shook your head after he could finish his sentence. "He saw that I was pregnant and left."

Peter tried to keep his composure as his fist clenches out of your sight. He could not imagine how someone could lay a single finger on you with intentions to hurt you. He was quiet. He was trying to hold it together for your sake.

"He didn't say anything?"

You stayed quiet for a moment, rubbing your thumb across the print. "Just that he was glad it was your problem and not his." You shrugged your shoulders slightly. "Even though it's not a problem, I am glad it's you and not him. I can't imagine what it would be like to have a baby with someone that selfish."

His clenched fist loosened at your words and his eyes softened. He could not believe his ears. Were you really saying this?

His cheeks blushed a deep shade of red. "You mean that?"

You smiled at him with a nod. "I do. You're so selfless and care so much about what you can do for others. Even though I've been selfish, you still stuck by my side. I honestly couldn't ask for a better father for my baby."

His smile widened as he looked at you, resting his hand on your small bump. "Our baby."

You rested your hand on top of his with a smile, nodding your head. "Our baby." You agreed.

---

It was not long after that the nurse gave you the okay to leave. Peter had stopped to get you something to eat before he took you home. He wanted to make sure you had been fed. All of the little things like this had slowly pulled you closer Peter. You were not used to how observant and patient he was. As much as you knew how wrong your whole situation was, you could not help but to give in to it. Despite your age, Peter had treated you better than any other guy you had been with. Even better than the one you had been with for years. Peter was the blessing you never knew you needed. He was the blessing in disguise.

He held onto your hand, walking up the steps to your apartment and using the keys to unlock the door for you. He didn't expect you to let him stay. All he wanted was to make sure you were okay before he left you alone.

"Thank you for everything." You looked up at him as you both stood in front of your door.

He smiled down at you. "You don't have to thank me."

"You know I owe you."

He rolled his eyes playfully. "You don't owe me anything. You're having our baby. I consider that payment enough." He teases, his hands resting on your waist. He could not help but touch you. In every possible, he would if he could. Your cheeks blushed at his response, looking down but Peter let his finger hook underneath your chin to tilt your head back up. Your lips were barely an inch apart when the moment was quickly ruined.

"What the fuck is going on here?!" A familiar voice pulled you from your moment, making your heart sink to the pit of your stomach when the realization hit. You did not even have to look over to know it was May. Her face was red in anger when your eyes met hers. "You ignore me for weeks and when I come to check on you, you're smacking lips with my nephew?! What the fuck is wrong with you?"

Your lips parted to say something, but no words came out. You did not where to begin with explaining yourself to her. You knew this was all wrong, but it was all too late.

"I thought you were hurt, but obviously, you're perfectly fine." She was fuming.

You never wanted her to find out this way. You wished you had more time to think about it and figure out a better way, but this was it. This was the moment of truth and you were terrified to lose your best friend. You felt tears forming in your eyes and Peter frowned.

"Aunt May, stop."

"Stop?! I'm not going to stop! You're not going to use my nephew so you can get over your worthless ex-boyfriend."

"Aunt May!"

You fought to hold back your tears until you could not anymore. You felt the tears running down your face. As much of a low blow that was, you felt you deserved to hear it. "Peter, i-it's okay." You struggled to form your words. You were hurt, embarrassed, ashamed.

"No, it's not." He shook his head, pointing a finger at May as she stood only a few feet distance from the two of you by her car. "You've gone too far."

"I don't understand how you think this is okay, Y/n." She shook her head, ashamed at you.

"I didn't expect for it to be like this. I didn't mean for any of this to happen." You confessed.

"Just like you never meant for all those one-night stands to happen huh? I trusted you!" She yelled, making you flinch. You hung your head in defeat, glancing at Peter with sad eyes before going inside. You could not stomach the rest of the conversation without sobbing. You tried to calm yourself once you were inside.

"That's enough!" Peter yelled suddenly. "I am capable of making my own decisions. I don't need you to decide what is best for me, Aunt May. I'm not here against my will and neither is she."

"She's supposed to be my friend." She didn't know what to make of this.

"You're supposed to be my Aunt! You knew how hard I crushed over her. For years you knew."

"I thought it was just a crush."

He moved closer to her in the parking lot. It was never just a crush. He was head over heels for you. "I love her. I've always loved her. You're can either respect it or accept it, because it's either way, she's pregnant and nothing is going to change that." He stood by her car.

Her mouth fell open in shock. She did not know what to think. Never in a million years would have thought this would happen, but then again never would have you.

"Pregnant?" Her voice was quiet.

He nodded. "I'm gonna be a dad, Aunt May." He pulled his copy of the prints out of his wallet and showing them to her.

She was at a loss for words. He was right. There was nothing she could do about that. May stared at the prints for a moment, trying to process everything in the short time it had all happened.

"Peter... I don't understand..."

"She almost had a miscarriage today because she's been stressing herself out over Chris. You're not going to take this away from me." He looks down at her, taking the prints back from her." He looked down at her as she stared back with a small frown. "Go home, Aunt May before we both do something we'll regret. You can come back when you're ready to apologize for this." He held the car door open for her and she hesitated before slowly getting in the car.

She knew she was in the wrong for how she had handled things, but Peter did not give her the chance to even risk making things worse. Peter felt deep in his heart despite everything she would come around. She would realize how happy you made him and she would accept it, but for now, she needed to leave.

Peter walked back to your front door, knocking on the door with a sigh. After a few moments, you moved from your spot on the couch to answer the door. You opened it slightly to see Peter and you glanced behind him at May's car pulling out of the parking lot.

"How are you?" He frowned when he saw your red watery eyes.

"I feel awful."

He sighed when you finally let go of the door and he stepped inside of the apartment. He let the door close behind him. His arms wrapped around your body instantly, pulling you against mine as he hugged you, resting his head against yours and kissing the top of it. "I'm so sorry. I know it's hard to believe now, but she'll come around. Just give her some time."

"She was going to find out sooner or later. I expected that reaction. I just wasn't prepared for it right now." You pointed out as your head rested against his chest, letting him hold onto you.

You closed your eyes, listening to his heartbeat. You relaxed in his arms. Your eyes were burning from all the tears shed. Peter scooped your body up in his arms bridal style, carrying you down the hall to the bedroom. He laid you down on the bed, sliding into the bed with you as his arms naturally found their way around your waist. Your head fell to his chest as you got lost in your thoughts for a moment.

"I'm starting to think I can never make the right choices." You admitted, laughing slightly to yourself and Peter tilted your head up to look at him.

His lips pressed a kiss to your nose. "Sometimes, the wrong choices bring us to the right places." He assured you before leaning in to close the space between your lips and kissing your lips.

He was true to word. No matter how much you held yourself back, every wrong choice you had ever made in your life brought you to this moment with Peter. This opportunity with Peter to finally get your life right. It was your chance to allow yourself the happiness you knew you both deserved.

End Credits Scene

He was not sure how long he had been sitting with his wrists and ankles restrained to a chair in the middle of a dark room. Maybe hours. It even could have been days. He was not sure. His eyes blinked rapidly to adjust to the light that poured into the room when he finally heard a heavy door open.

"Oh good, you're awake." He was covered in sweat from fear and the heat of the closed-off room. He could make out bits of a red and blue suit. His eyes must have been playing tricks on him. When his eyes finally adjusted to the light, his eyes widened at the sight of Spiderman in front of him. He did not understand what was going on. Spiderman is supposed to save people.

His mouth was covered with solid webbing so he could not speak.

"I'm sure you're wondering why you're here." Peter moved closer to him as he spoke. He leaned down, ripping the webbing from Chris' mouth and making him cry out in pain from the grip it had on his skin. "You see Chris if there's one thing I hate, it's people who hurt the people I care about."

"W-What are you talking about? I haven't done anything."

"Don't play dumb." Peter gritted his teeth underneath his mask, backhanding Chris across the face before gripping his jaw. "You know exactly what you did, but that's okay because it won't happen again. You'll never touch Y/n again. I'll make sure of that."

Blood dripped from Chris's mouth from how hard Peter hit him. "I should fucking kill you for putting your hands on her." He smirked to himself when Chris starts squirming under his grip. "But I won't."

"I won't. I won't touch her again. I swear-"

"Oh, I know you won't." Peter let go of his jaw before backing up towards the door again.

"W-Where are you going? Aren't you going to let me go?" Chris started to panic as Peter pulled his mask off for Chris to see his face. He wanted this to be the last thing he saw if he died and the thing he would definitely remember if he lived.

"I didn't say I was going to let you go. I said I wasn't going to kill you." He smiled and Chris's mouth fell open slightly at the sight of Peter Parker standing before him. "I was thinking we could make a game out of this. I hear you like games. Let's see just how important you really are. I'm gonna leave you here and we're gonna see if your friends succeed with their search party if they even send one out. I can't imagine what they would care about scum like you for, but I guess we'll see. I give you about 48 hours before your body finishes you off itself. That should give you more than enough time to think about what I've said. That's if you do make it and I don't really have faith that's gonna happen, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. I expect you to get the hell out of New York. I promise to you if ever see you again, I'll kill you."

Chris swallowed hard as Peter stood in the doorway once more, the sun outlining his figure at the door. He was scared of the possibility of not being found. He was furious that a guy like Peter was capable of putting him in a situation like this.

"They'll find me and when they do, you're a dead man, Peter Parker." He pulled at the restraints on his arms with all of his might but he did not stand a chance against the webbing. Peter made it look so easy.

Peter grinned at Chris's promise. He loved the challenge. The possibility that even if someone did find him, he would have the pleasure of killing him himself. It amused Peter that Chris could even have the nerve to threaten him in the position he was in.

"Well, let the game begin." He gave a wave as he started to pull the door closed. Chris yelled to the top of his lungs until the heavy metal door ceased his screams.

[a-written-dream]

Chapters: 1/1

Words: 1,399

Fandom: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa/Han Solo

Characters: Leia Organa, Luke Skywalker

Additional Tags: Movie: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Pre-Relationship, Missing Scene, Light Angst, Conversations, POV Leia Organa

Summary:

Han thinks he knows exactly what she wants, and she hates that he’s right.

–

Or: Leia apologises for using Luke to get back at Han, and Luke gets her to admit more than she'd like.

Leia stops in the doorway to Luke’s room in the medbay. He’s reading a book she doesn’t think she’s seen before, a book that looks like one of those history books that shouldn’t exist anymore, those burnt and destroyed by the Empire.

Luke seems enthralled by it, entirely unaware of Leia’s presence, and it gives her a wonderful excuse to leave and do this later – or never. But she isn’t one to avoid something simply because it will be difficult and she came here with a purpose; she won’t leave without having accomplished it.

She still watches him turn the page twice before she finally decides to step around the anxious feeling in her stomach and knock on the doorframe.

“Luke,” she says softly, catching his attention.

He looks up from the book, a smile forming quickly on his lips when he spots her. It makes Leia feel all the worse.

“Leia! Come on in,” he says, tucking an access card between the pages of the book and placing it in his lap.

“Luke,” she says again, before she can reconsider and back out. “I-“

Luke tilts his head in question, eyebrows furrowing just the slightest, but his eyes are encouraging, kind, and patient. Blast it, it makes Leia even more angry with herself.

She’s never once been one to let her feelings dictate her, and yet she’d done just that a mere hour ago, letting Han get on her nerves and taking it out on Luke. One would expect more from a galactic senator and spy, and she certainly holds herself to higher standards than that.

“Luke, I’m sorry, about the kiss. I shouldn’t have-“

Luke waves her off even before she finishes.

“Don’t worry about it,” he says. “I know you didn’t mean anything by it.” His grin is reassuring in a way that makes Leia know that he really isn’t upset.

“Still,” she says, sitting down in the chair next to his bed and folding her hands in her lap. “I shouldn’t have used you like that.”

“You wanted to put Han in his place, I get it,” Luke says sagely, nodding as if it makes entire sense to kiss your friend just to get a guy off your case. Leia doesn’t think it’s entirely right, but she’s relieved to know she hasn’t jeopardised their friendship.

It’s what allows her to break, to show the frustration and irritation bubbling under her skin.

“He just- gets under my skin!” she exclaims, and Luke nods in understanding. It’s more than enough to encourage her to continue. “He’s so infuriating! He walks around talking all big about how handsome and attractive he thinks he is, and how he’s so damn certain I’m drooling over him like some- ugh! He’s so certain that I find him attractive and would want anything to do with that scoundrel, and I just- I just hate how he’s so- so-“

“Right?” Luke finishes for her. It almost feels like a slap to the face.

Leia’s cheeks grow warm and she’s certain the heat is showing on her face. It’s from anger, she tells herself.

She instantly opens her mouth to argue, but Luke interrupts her. “I know he’s overdoing it, but do you really think he would be doing it if he didn’t actually think there was some truth to it? Yeah, sure, he seems like a cocky asshole sometimes, but you don’t see him act the way he does around you with anyone else, do you?” he says. “As much as he doesn’t seem to pay attention to anyone but himself and the Falcon, I think he’s a lot more perceptive and caring than we give him credit for.”

Leia purses her lips, because she knows he’s right. She knows Han doesn’t walk around chatting up every person he lays his eyes on, knows he’s not as much of a sleaze as she tells herself he is. And she knows, too, how much attention he does pay, how much he does care, even if he won’t admit it. It’s in the little things, the small gestures, the way he wraps his jacket around her shoulders when he sees she’s cold, in the way he ruffles Luke’s hair and says something stupid to get him to smile when he’s having a rough day, in the way he gives Chewie part of his rations because he knows the Wookiee doesn’t get enough to eat, in the way he grins at her across the hanger when she’s stuck in a boring conversation for too long and he sees her start to lose focus.

“I’m sure he’d get off your back if you actually genuinely asked him to,” Luke gives her a teasing smile, “and meant it”

“That’s not- I don’t-“ she stutters, trying to deny the feelings she has been aware of for months but hasn’t wanted to acknowledge. Because telling Luke means telling herself and she isn’t sure she’s ready for that.

Besides, if Luke knows, it’s only a matter of time before Han does too, and she thinks she’d rather face Vader again than have that happen.

“You don’t have to pretend around me, I won’t judge,” Luke tells her. “We’re friends, right?”

Leia purses her lips again, holds her breath, and watches Luke’s reassuring eyes. She lets the breath go in one heavy sigh, and allows the worries and fears to settle over her.

“I just.. I’m helping lead a rebellion! I don’t have time for romance or whatever game he’s playing,” she says, sinking further into the uncomfortable chair. She isn’t about to let him woo her into something just to leave her with a broken heart. Because Han has said over and over that he’s leaving, time and time again. He’s even been close to it, a few times, and Leia doesn’t think she could handle it if she let him in only for him to leave.

“I don’t know,” Luke says thoughtfully. “I don’t think he’s playing any games.”

The worst part is, Leia doesn’t think so either, not really. But it’s easier to pretend that she does, and that he is. It makes it easier not to give in to the feelings she wishes she didn’t have.

“I’m not saying do anything you don’t want to, but I think he likes you, for real,” Luke says, voice soft and eyes softer. “And when will you ever have time, really?” he adds. “Who knows who gets to see the end of the war and who doesn’t?”

Leia knows that he’s right, and she hates it. There is no ‘right time’ in war, too high a risk in waiting for a time that may never come, and she’s not oblivious. She sees the way Han looks at her, feels the gentleness to the way he lets his hand rest on her waist when he guides her somewhere, hears the soft way he calls her Princess or Sweetheart, knows just as well as Luke does that Han isn’t fooling around, for all that it might seem like it.

But it can’t just be that easy, to let herself fall into whatever is between them; they’re in the middle of war, and either of them could be dead tomorrow. Leia doesn’t have time to be distracted by some cocky scoundrel, no matter how pretty his hazel eyes are, or how good he looks in that stupid leather jacket of his, or how his smile makes her insides flutter, or-

It’s not the time, not now, not when the Rebellion and the galaxy need her. And if that means that it’ll never be the time, then so be it. She has more important things to focus on than a man who looks at her like she’s more important than any of it, even when she wishes his gaze would be on her always. She has more pressing matters to concentrate on than love, even when her heart aches for her to take Han’s offered hand. She has more crucial things to think about, even if every day could be their last and she wishes nothing more than to know what it might be like, to love and be loved by him.

She has more important things to focus on, even if she aches to give all her attention to him.

Han thinks he knows exactly what she wants, and she hates that he’s right.

[milk--loaf]

original script of The 10th Kingdom: A Forgotten Fantasy MASTERPIECE. check out the video

So, I want to grant you the gift of a perfect fantasy movie series I can almost guarantee none of you have ever heard of. In fact, this series is probably older than a few of you, which blows my mind, and frankly I don’t want to think about that too long. 

When I consider the various film epics we’ve come to love dearly, the iconic fantasy series which we consider cultural touchstones, what comes to mind are the obvious—Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and dare I say it, even the Twilight franchise.

But what if I told you that there exists a perfectly-formulated five-movie fantasy franchise based around the secret world of fairytales? Does that interest you at all? Then let me tell you about The 10th Kingdom.

The 10th Kingdom, categorically speaking, is actually considered a mini-series rather than a franchise or saga, but each episode rounds out to be approximately an hour and a half long, and they all contain their own separate story beats united under a complex overarching plot, not unlike, say, Star Wars.

As a side tangent, I remember the first time I watched Lord of the Ring’s Fellowship of the Ring, I was under the impression that Frodo and his friends would reach Mordor by the end of that first movie, and the rest of the series would explore other plots not focused on this ring business. 

But no, obviously it’s a task that requires an entire trilogy to complete, and The 10th Kingdom has a similar expansive goal in the sense that our main characters are trying to get from point A to point B, except there are all of these detours which impede their progress along the way.

After the first leg of the series, or the first movie, our cast of characters from New York are thrust into a fantasy world made up of nine kingdoms, all of which used to be run by the famous women in Grimm’s stories—Rapunzel, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, etc.,

After stepping into this world, every enemy they face and every town they visit are all in an effort to find a magical traveling mirror, which will, in so few words, allow them to return to New York City, where the people are normal and they’re not trying to be killed off by trolls and evil queens. But I’m jumping ahead of myself.

To pull back, The 10th Kingdom first aired on NBC in February of the year 2000, and I remember my mom actually had the box set of this series on VHS. After a few years I managed to get my grubby little hands on the tapes, and when I was a kid all the way into my teen years, I’d play them on my shitty little cube of a TV, the kind with the built-in VHS player and the thick backside. I wore those tapes out.

I think my mom also had the companion novelization of the film, but I never put in the effort to read it, and still haven’t. From what Wikipedia tells me, when the film was airing, during commercial breaks they would advertise a toll-free number where you could order the package deal of the movies, the book, and the CD all as one. I don’t recall our family having the CD, but we had everything else.

I haven’t asked her about it, but I can just imagine my mom—hi mom—calling in and ordering it as soon as the series concluded, or maybe she got it as a gift, I don’t know. She’s super into fantasy series and either scenario makes total sense in my eyes. Regardless, I love that I now know about this series, because it’s secretly like forty percent of my personality.

So! When it comes to how I’ll be structuring this video, I do want to challenge myself to not spoil every plot detail from beginning to end. However, in order to have a coherent discussion about the series at all, I do need to lay a basic groundwork for the characters and the premise. 

For this reason, the very first point of discussion on my fancy numbered list will be a review of the first two hours of the series. You might say, two hours? That’s a lot! But rest assured, I’m still glossing over a lot of material within those two hours, and in the grand scheme of the series, that’s only about a quarter of the watch-time.

Even still, I’ll be providing various checkpoints for you to pause this video in case you haven’t seen the show and you find yourself intrigued. As a big positive, this series is available on YouTube for free, so there’s literally nothing stopping you from typing it in the search bar above me right now. 

So without further adieu, let’s jump into point number one, which I have lovingly titled:

#1: WHY THE HELL IS EVERYONE RUNNING AROUND?

So I’m moving around a few details, but the plot really kicks off when we see a shot of a fancy carriage traveling across an ambiguous but idyllic landscape. Inside this carriage is the first of this movie’s four main characters, and arguably the least relevant when considering character development and focus. However, without him, though, the entire plot would never have started rolling in the first place, so he’s still pretty pivotal.

I’ll dive into the mysterious fantasy world we are witnessing in just a moment, but for now, what you need to know is that this is Prince Wendell. In so few words, he is the grandson of Snow White herself, who, after the happy ending of her fairytale as we know it, lived on to rule her own kingdom, which will plainly be called “the fourth kingdom.”

Of what we’re told by Wendell’s assistant, he is traveling to an outer province of his kingdom, a small village called as Beantown, to meet his people and collect the gift of a throne for his upcoming coronation. See, not only is Snow White long dead, but Prince Wendell’s parents—the king and queen—have also been dead for, I think, seven years. 

Where Snow White died after a long and successful reign, Wendell’s parents were poisoned and killed by a very important woman in the story who us viewers will simply know as “the Queen.” I’m not sure how the Queen gained that title—at one point Wendell does call her “stepmother,” but we never hear about the drama of their family ties. It’s not the point of this story.

But we know the Queen killed the actual king and queen, and she’d planned to poison Wendell as well so she could wrest control of the fourth kingdom. Luckily, she was caught in time and imprisoned indefinitely. 

As it so happens, Wendell and his assistant, before visiting Beantown, are set to make a detour to the Snow White Memorial Prison to pay the Queen a visit and deny her plea for parole. 

But things aren’t so honky-dory in the prison right now. Not long before the prince’s arrival, we meet an ugly creature known as the Troll King. The Troll King, as far as I know, isn’t aware that Prince Wendell is also on his way into the prison, it mostly seems like a very lucky coincidence. See, the Troll King is sneaking his way into the prison in order to rescue his three idiot children.

I’m gonna talk about the troll children later, because they’re positively the funniest part of the entire series—or at least, they have the most obvious jokes and gimmicks in the series. They’ll have their time in the sun when I talk about him later. 

Also, second side note, the Troll King uses a series of very fun magic accessories and items to sneak into the prison unannounced. The nine kingdoms is absolutely riddled with random mystical energy, and spells, and magical objects, to the point that me trying to give shape to the complex magic system, sort of like a Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, is absolutely useless.

In short, he has two tool at his side: one being troll dust, which is this magic pink dust that can knock people out in a pinch for days, and the second being a pair of magic shoes which can make him invisible for a limited amount of time. Surprisingly, despite his brutishness, the Troll King does not strong-arm his way into the prison. 

The Troll King does in fact run an entire kingdom on his own, and has an entire army to back him up, but I don’t know, I guess he wanted to keep this low-key. So, having successfully rescued his children and knocked out the entire staff with troll dust, you’d think they’d leave, but no.

The Queen, who is locked away in a very high-security wing of the prison, magically calls out through the ether to the Troll King, and essentially bewitches him to her. In so few words, he lets her out of her cell and strikes up a deal that, if she follows through with a plan she wants to carry out, she can offer him half of Prince Wendell’s kingdom. Big stuff, I know.

So back to Wendell, he enters the prison to find himself captured by the evil Queen and the Troll family. Now, here’s one of the most integral pieces of magics to play into the story line:

For whatever reason, I guess years prior, the Queen requested to have a pet dog, and don’t. ask me why the prison would allow her to have one, but they do. It’s this really pretty golden retriever, and you see him very consistently throughout the series, and oh my god, he is such a good boy.

When everyone is in a room together and the Trolls are holding Prince still, the Queen sics her dogs at him, and when they make contact, they switch bodies. So from part one to part five, Prince Wendell is just running around with our gang of misfits as happy puppy who very slowly loses his marbles.

The Queen’s plan is to then kill the prince-turned-dog and keep the dog-turned-prince as a puppet which she can rule behind—or at least, at first. I always found this particular scene very strange because the Queen knows she wants to kill Wendell immediately in dog form, but as she’s teasing him, she like, turns away completely? And that allows Wendell to flee the scene.

So the queen sends the Troll Children to chase the dog, but the dog, running into the basement, knocks over another very important piece of magic—a magic mirror. You’ll notice, by the way, most forms of magic in this universe don’t typically have special names, so we’re gonna hear a lot about magic rings and magic combs and magic fish, without much differentiation. The word magic is going to get old real quick.

So Prince Wendell knows the trolls are quickly on his tail, and when he knocks over this mirror, he opens a portal to what we see is New York City, specifically Central Park. The Prince has no other option in front of him, so he jumps inside, and here ensues a very magical, very fun teleporting graphic.

Are you with me still? Okay. Well, here is where we meet our main character: Virginia Lewis, a disillusioned young girl in her mid-twenties, who lives on the edge of the park with her dad in a shitty apartment, working as a waitress to make ends meet. 

Virginia is easily the most complex character in the series, and I have a lot of, like, “end game” analysis I really want to get to regarding her character growth and the challenges she faces, but you’ll have to stick with me to the end of the video to really hear my thoughts on character.

But for now, what you should know about Virginia is she believes she’s going to live a boring life. She considers that she might have a husband some day, and dare I say it, move out from her dad’s place, but all things considered, Virginia has resigned herself to mediocrity. Some of her first dialogue is in narrative form, and she states plainly, 

“I guess you get to a certain age and you realize nothing exciting is ever going to happen to you. And maybe that’s just the way it is. You know, maybe some people just have quiet lives.” 

And right as she thinks that to the audience, Prince jumps through the portal and collides with Virginia’s bike path, making them both crash to the ground. For better or for worse, Prince has now made a detour to the tenth kingdom, New York City.

It turns out, Virginia was actually biking to her waitress gig, and because she can’t miss her shift, she walks her bent bike to the restaurant with Prince following behind her. She tries to get rid of him, but he won’t leave her alone. For now, I’m going to put a pin on the Virginia story thread, because we need to go back and introduce one more absolutely key character.

So if we’re thinking back to the evil guys, the Queen and the Troll King have forged an alliance, where the Troll King puts his trust in the Queen to cause some shenanigans and take over the fourth kingdom. But in order to succeed, she needs to have the Troll children follow her orders, and as faithful to the Queen as they may be, she knows she needs someone more substantially on her side. Someone who isn’t faithful to the Troll king.

So even though the Troll children are on the prince’s tail, pun intended, the Queen releases another prisoner—a character who we will know by the name of Wolf—to also follow the Prince.

And oh my god, I love Wolf. For many reasons, I love Wolf. He’s just a spunky, mischievous little guy. If the name didn’t give it away, Wolf is actually part werewolf, though the most we see of a wolf-form from the guy is a fluffy tail, yellow eyes, and riled-up hair.

If you’re wondering what his real name is, it is actually Wolf. Which is a little confusing, because Wolf isn’t the only werewolf in their world, so it sorta feels like when someone names their son Guy. At one point in part three he does use the fake name Warren Wolfson, so it’s like, is his name Warren? No.

But Wolf is easily the second most complex character in the series. In the very beginning, having been imprisoned for who-knows-how-long, Wolf is positively pent up with energy. And by energy, I mean he’s incredibly hungry for a good meal and he’s incredibly… frisky, to put it best. Later, when he’s more mellow, he explains to Virginia that, quote, 

"Putting a wolf into a prison cell with nowhere to bound, only able to stare at the sky through bars, now that's inhuman."

What Wolf deals with throughout the entire series is the compromise between his wolfish tendencies and his human ones. He never seeks to overrule or mask one half of himself, it’s more a matter of striking the appropriate balance, because denying his wolfish side would be to deny half of his existence. And he’s all the better for it, because he’s an absolute goofball. I’d go so far as to say that Wolf holds many of the traits of a himbo—he’s handsome, he can be dumb at times, and he’s very kind.

To give away a bit of Wolf’s character which we’ll get to in a moment, yes, he’s tailing Prince Wendell, and by circumstance, Virginia too, but the moment he sets sights on Virginia, he’s fallen head over heels in love with her, and forgets about the Queen’s instruction completely. 

He doesn’t know how to handle his love for her, and in fact goes about it in very inappropriate ways in the first episode, and this is a testament to the fact that he can’t control his wolfish side. But I want to set it into stone now—Wolf’s motivation throughout the entirety of the series is: do right by Virginia.  

Love her, care for her, accommodate to her. Virginia markedly doesn’t love him in the first half of the story, so he takes it upon himself to show Virginia what kind of man he can be, and prove they’re soulmates. This means striking that balance between wolf and human, and calm down those raging energies being in jail left him with. See how it all comes full circle?

So the Queen releases him from prison. But before he leaves her sight, she places upon him this invisible magic: the magic of the Queen’s evil will. Whenever the Queen is in one of these sinister modes, you’re always going to here very haunting female vocals and like, a glittery noise. 

Submitting to the Queen’s will, in short, essentially means she can call upon him from afar, invading his mind so she can communicate with him and enforce her desires. Because he’s so one-track minded in the beginning, and frankly, a bit stupid, he says yes and goes on his merry way, following Prince and the Troll children through the magic portal in the basement.

The last of the four main characters, and the one I probably need to give the least bit of explanation to, is Tony. Tony is Virginia’s father, the one she lives with, and he’s a janitor for the building they live in touching Central Park, which is the only reason they’re able to afford their apartment.

Tony, to spare myself the need to monologue about him, is the bumbling buffoon of the series, but that’s perhaps giving him too little credit. He’s the Zeppo—he’s the one who constantly has bad things happen to him, whether it’s his own doing or the world itself punching down on him. 

In trying to describe Tony, I’d say he’s fairly conservative-minded. Not politically conservative, I mean— the series isn’t remotely political, but I mean he’s conservative in the sense that he doesn’t think outside the box a lot. He has good ideas on occasion and plays a mean hand of Old Maid, but his faults often overshadow his positive qualities, and unfairly so.

A few things we know about Tony: he’s long divorced, he’s overworked and underpaid, he ruined a once-thriving business he upstarted through a bad investment, and when prompted to make a few magical wishes, he makes selfish and poor decisions. There’s a fair few other disasters that Tony initiates later in the series, but this is what we know going in.

But the thing about Tony is that he’s sincerely undervalued, especially by Virginia, but also in part by the other main characters as they travel through the nine kingdoms. And when they realize that at the end of the series, Tony as well, it’s only then that Tony receives his flowers. Otherwise, Tony’s character growth is pretty static from start to finish.

Now, indulge me for a bit while I recount some of the shenanigans that go on in the tenth kingdom. The rest of the story after what I’m introducing to you, you can reliably count on the fact that all four of our heroes stick together and are attempting to a reach a semi-agreeable goal. And if they’re apart, they’re still trotting along in the same general direction.

But part one sticks out because it does all the heavy lifting in terms of defining the characters—they scramble around on their own without an exact goal in mind, simply goofing off or trying to solve smaller problems. The latter is very true for Virginia, who doesn’t know what to do with this dog she found, and is getting harassed all around the city. Let me explain.

When Virginia finally gets to work, she keeps Prince in the storage room. Also, this scene—where she first shows up to work, I have no idea why nobody protests or scoffs that someone walked a dog into a room where they’re preparing food. 

But it’s fine, I guess. When he’s eventually in the storage room, nobody goes back there, and only Virginia has the key to the door for some reason. She tries to do her job, but hears Prince barking back there, and has to pause work to go make him quiet.

But look at this—when she walks in, Prince has left a message for her. She thinks it’s a prank, but through testing out Prince’s intelligence, she freaks out when she realizes the dog is responding to her with one bark yes, two barks no. By indicating she’s in danger, Wendell convinces Virginia that they must leave, and she travels back home.

Meanwhile, the troll lchildren are around, but they aren’t making much progress. Like I said before, they’re idiots, like, verified doofuses, so even though they possess the physical strength to apprehend and kill a dog, they have absolutely none of the wits. 

One of the best bits in the series is that, while they’re hunting in central park, they pointlessly assault a couple sitting on a bench and steal their stereo, believing it to possess some kind of magic simply because it plays “Night Fever” by the Bee Gees. They take this stereo back with them when they return home, and when the stereo eventually dies, they’re relegated to singing of this magical folklore instead. It lasts even into part five.

But Wolf, on the other hand, is on the hunt. At first, he’s so hungry that he completely forgets about Prince Wendell entirely, and when he’s in New York, he’s overwhelmed by the smell of meat and follows his nose to, very coincidentally, Virginia’s workplace at the edge of the park. But then, good news:

“I smell dog! Would you believe it? Work and pleasure combined.”

So when he’s sitting down as a guest of the restaurant, he talks with one of Virginia’s coworkers and remembers to ask about the dog. She spills the beans that Virginia is holding onto a golden retriever, and believing Virginia to still be at work, the coworker leads Wolf to the kitchen.

And this scene confuses me, because when she realizes Virginia’s gone, Wolf is like, give me her address, and then she’s like “no,” and then things get weirdly sexual? Nothing is shown of the restaurant or the girl after this scene, but it is confirmed later that Wolf obtained Virginia’s address, so I’m like… how did he accomplish that? Did he eat the blonde girl? 

Wolf, after all, is known to conflate hunger with sex or sexuality simply because of his wolfish nature, and the last shot we see of the two of them is when they’re standing very suggestively close to one another, in the private back room. Even weirder, the next scene Wolf is in, he’s calmed down remarkably. 

His lucidity and charismatic persona always appear more present and refined when his hunger is sated, and after this story beat, that hunger is less insistent. He’s still obsessive over food and love, but it’s not messing with his head so dramatically.

If you’re wondering, by the way, Wolf was not imprisoned for eating people. He later describes his crime was, quote, “sheep worrying,” so he caused nothing more than mischief. Overall, wolves in this series are alluded to having eat humans at some point in history, but wolves also face serious discrimination within the nine kingdoms in the present day, so it’s possible this is just some disparaging folklore. 

In that same breath, I believe in part three, Wolf describes his parents to be especially ravenous, and that this was the cause of their persecution on a burning pyre. Whether their crimes were legitimate or not, remains unexplained. Which is all to say, I really don’t know if he ate that girl. But he had to have sated his hunger somehow.

Virginia returns home with Wendell, but when they arrive, Virginia discovers that her place—infact, her entire apartment floor—has been ransacked, and various neighbors of hers are knocked out on the floor covered in troll dust. Tony, even, is conked out ina  recliner when she walks through her front door.

Yeah, the trolls found her apartment. But only through brute force—in the beginning, they managed to find Virginia’s missing wallet and a patch of dog fur on the bike path, which eventually led them to her door after threatening a New Yorker to commute them.

As much as I like them, they’re mostly a distraction, so I’ll leave this scene by saying that the trolls try to catch Virginia and Wendell, but she manages to trick them by trapping them in a broken elevator and fleeing with Wendell to her grandmother’s house. She leaves Tony behind, because even though he’s unconscious, he’s relatively safe.

And here is probably my favorite sequence of events that occurs in the first episode, and part of the reason why I went through the effort of chronicling everything thus far. Virginia stays at her grandmother’s decked-out apartment overnight, and the next morning, having learned of where Virginia is staying, Wolf makes a visit.

He poses as Virginia’s rich suitor and fiancé so that grandma lets him in the door, and after that… [video no audio of grandma being seasoned] well, he gets a bit distracted. But when Virginia wakes up, Wolf does what any sane fairytale wolf would do and dresses up as grandmother and hides in her bed.

At this point, you don’t really know what he’s trying to do? Like, you know he’s infatuated with Virginia, because prior to this scene, he visited Tony’s apartment and obtained an image of Virginia, who he now finds to be the most beautiful woman in all the kingdoms. Whether that means he wants to start a happy family with her or turn her into dinner, remains to be clarified

But he doesn’t even try to capture Prince.  Instead, well… [what big teeth you have, etc.]

Instead, when Virginia realizes it’s a strange man in her grandmother’s bed, she naturally treats him like an intruder and tries to fight him off. Meanwhile, Wolf is waxing very manic poetic about his feeling for her, which really, at this point, is just very exaggerated infatuation.

“Now that I’ve seen you, eating you is out of the question! Not even on the menu! Now, I know this is going to come out of the blue, but—how about a date?”

Luckily, Virginia manages to toss him out of, like, her grandmother’s second story window. The way Wolf feels about her remains very conflicted even after their first confrontation, because not long after, in a very inconsequential scene with a French therapist, he laments about his feelings—

“Doc, I met this terrific girl and I really, really, really like her, but the thing is that… I’m not sure whether I want to love her or eat her.”

Moving on, though, I can skip a lot of the subplots in this episode, specifically involving Tony, because, functionally speaking, yes they help build his character, but plot-wise it’s very inconsequential. In short, Tony has harnessed the power of six wishes, all of which he completely wastes on selfish, questionably immoral things. And they all come back to bite him in the ass.

The crux of this episode is when Virginia leaves her grandmother’s house with Wendell, she takes him back to central park and tries to leave him where she found him, because she’s tired of being chased by weird trolls and sexually ravenous home intruders.

Just to pause, when I first wrote that line, ���sexually ravenous home intruder,” it sounded awful. I’m describing Wolf, and I can’t say that I’m describing him incorrectly, but a thing about Wolf is that, while yes, he’s very riled up, he also feels very innocent. 

Sort of like a puppy who doesn’t know how to play correctly yet, like if you left him alone in the house for a while, you’d come home to find all your couch cushions torn open and stuffing everywhere.  You’d punish him, but you also might think, “ah, that little rascal.”

In that way, I think a viewer can rationally suspend disbelief on the questionable behavior of Wolf, simply because of his wolfish hormones.  But in the same breath, I also think that unfairly absolves him from his ogling and infatuated monologuing. 

It’s played off for laughs fairly well, I think, but at the end of the day I still think a viewer should interrogate those flaws in Wolf’s writing.

The point beyond that critique is, in attempting to drop off Wendell in the park, we experience a confluence of all the character in New York. Tony, because of his own shenanigans, is running from the cops in the park [it’s funnier if I don’t explain why], meanwhile Wolf is on their tail and the trolls have escaped from the elevator.

Tony meets up with his daughter and Wendell, and the only good wish Tony ever makes (which is also his last one) is that he wants to understand the dog. This is very important—Tony becomes the only individual in the series who can understand Wendell, who seemingly telepathically talks to Tony.

Which, thank god they never try to animate the actual dog’s mouth. Such a good visual effects decision. After that point, Wendell leads them back through the portal in central park to escape the cops. And so concludes our time in the tenth kingdom. Even though it’s the title of the series.

Rest assured, Wolf and the trolls do make their way back through the portal in their own time, and then the magic mirror portal is closed, keeping out the rest of their real world.

Remember, now, that the mirror itself is stored in the basement of the Snow White Memorial Prison, so they’re not exactly freely walking in the country. They have a bit of time before the bad guys catch up with them, so they walk through the prison and find that all the guards are still knocked out with troll dust.

Wendell takes the opportunity here to describe the nine kingdoms to them, and all the politics involved, but I’m going to wait to explore those elements in point number two, which is right around the corner. After the exposition, instead of immediately escaping, the three of them inspect the Queen’s prison cell.

Which, don’t ask me why. This ends up screwing them over because the trolls find them. And because they’re incompetent, instead of capturing the dog like they’re supposed to, they close the cell door on Tony and Prince, meanwhile they knock out Virginia and steal her, fleeing thereafter to the Troll kingdom.

[shrug] I really don’t know why they couldn’t just do their job. Blabberwart, the sister, says it’s because the troll dust on the guards will wear off any moment and they have to act fast, but it’s still an incomprehensible decision. They think Virginia’s a witch because of the elevator debacle, but that’s about all we get in terms of real motivation.

So Tony and Prince are for-real imprisoned when the guards wake up and find them, and the troll children flee to the troll kingdom with Virginia over their back. I’m not covering the prison arc. I actually think it’s quite boring and unremarkable. Like, can you imagine your first foray into a magical dimension was in a prison? Ugh.

Instead, we’re going to follow Virginia as she’s taken to the troll castle and tied up. She’s going to be tortured for information because the trolls believe she’s some big-league conspirator for what they dub the tenth kingdom, which is NYC itself, and want to know who its king is.

But here’s the rub: Wolf comes in and saves her, using the troll’s stupidity against them. The troll king is out on the town and planning shit out with the evil Queen, so for whatever reason, he’s left his magical shoes on display in the troll’s shoe collection. It’s this big weird feet joke, it’s really not that important.

What is important is, on her way out, Virginia nabs the shoes without Wolf knowing. By the way, she absolutely does not trust Wolf and plans to escape his side as soon as she’s able by wearing the shoes, but she never gets far because Wolf knows her scent and can follow her anywhere. It’s very romantic.

The shoes are very weird—as they’re escaping through Jack’s beanstalk forest of all places, Virginia is constantly enthralled by the shoes, practically drunk on their power, or potential power. But the shoes, unlike most magics, has a battery life, and must recharge for hours on end, so in large part if she’s not wearing them, Virginia is fawning over them.

There’s a really nice character beat for Wolf here, because it’s brief switch in their lucidity—Wolf is now in his element in the nine kingdoms, and maintains a fairly level head, meanwhile Virginia, when Wolf is holding the shoes, tries to seduce Wolf while under their enthrall, trying to get them back.

One of the reasons I really like Wolf is that he doesn’t play into Virginia’s weird sexual advances because he knows they’re hollow. Instead he continuously rebuffs her until she finally drops the act and returns to her usual self.

And here’s the first scene where the two of them really actually bond for the first time. I’d say this is important because, if they were not allowed this moment to hide from the troll’s hunting party, they likely wouldn’t have stuck together through the rest of the story.

Virginia, understandably, finally asks Wolf why he was involved in the chase, and intuits that he, too, was a prisoner set free, but doesn’t actually ask who set him free. That’s left out of their conversation. He explains what put him in jail, but then the conversation shifts to something very vulnerable—Wolf’s tail.

The thing is, this scene has some very present sexual innuendo attached to. In parts three and five, this innuendo is played up again in different ways, so it’s not exactly an accident on the writer’s part. Wolf’s tail, in so few words, is regarded as a fairly intimate erogenous zone, which Wolf himself roughly equates to breasts in terms of… acceptability of exposure, I guess?

And I don’t know, I guess it’s testament to the fact that I first watched this series as a kid, but I never considered this scene very sexual, despite the writer’s heavily leaning into it. What I see in this scene is that Wolf’s tail is a very corporeal representation of Wolf’s immediate decision to be open and vulnerable for Virginia.

Once he’s able to calm down significantly and join Virginia’s side, he really does come to terms with the fact that he loves her and wants to be with her, and he never shies away from showing her every aspect of who he is, both the good and bad.

Knowing that wolf-kind are actively discriminated against, persecuted, and in many cases killed in the fourth kingdom, including his parents, Wolf allowing Virginia to even see his tail, let alone give it a pet, shows he’s not trying to hide from her, even if it’s dangerous.

We’re nearly at the end of my opening review. The plan at this point is to return to the prison, use the shoes to sneak in and release both Tony and Wendell, and then find the mirror to go home.

But the prison’s been up to some shenanigans. After the guards wake up, they determine that the basement was disturbed or ransacked while they were sleeping, and thus cast suspicion on all the antiques stored down there. So they set up a trash boat outside the prison walls and throw all the junk on it to later be moved away. This includes the mirror.

On his own, Tony discovers that his prison-mates have painstakingly been carving away a tunnel to the outside for years, and he convinces then to let them escape as well. Luckily, Wolf and Virginia find Wendell and escape as well, so now the entire cast is unified as a group, finally.

Unfortunately, Acorn, one of Tony’s prison mates (that’s played by Warwick Davis of all people), takes the trash barge with the mirror and travels off to god-knows-where while Tony isn’t looking. And so initiates the much less complicated journey our characters will embark on to find the mirror and go home, and in the same breath, so ends this introductory review

I’ve alluded to it already, but nearly every character in this foursome, besides Virginia and Tony, have different goals in terms of what they seek to accomplish. Of course Virginia and Tony want to go home, but Wolf’s single desire is to make Virginia fall in love with him, or rather, make Virginia realize she’s already in love with him. 

There’s no literal point A and point B for Wolf, but if assisting with Virginia’s adventures means he can get closer to her, then he’s on board.

Meanwhile, Prince Wendell’s prerogative is entirely different. He, of course, wants to be turned human again so he can resume his coronation, become king, and probably get revenge on the evil Queen. To do so, he forcibly enlists Tony, who is the only person can understand him, to be his manservant, much to Tony’s disagreement.

He’s not seeking the mirror, and in fact regularly complains that Tony shouldn’t be looking for the mirror because he should be helping Wendell instead. I like that Prince has entirely separate motivations, but I also feel like the writers didn’t take these conflicting motivations far enough.

Seemingly against Prince’s personal goal, Wendell will often assist in Virginia and the team’s schemes to find and obtain the magic mirror, even though he has virtually no incentive to do so. I think I would’ve liked to see a bit more conflict in that regard, but Wendell, for the most part, is relegated to having the least complex character arc among the main cast, so his use as a pawn largely goes unchallenged.

With all the characters and the main adventure set up, let’s finally move onto point number two:

#2: WHERE THE HELL ARE WE? 

So, I’ve described that the tenth kingdom is New York City, and I’ve talked about the fact that the fourth kingdom is run by the lineage of Snow White, so what else do we know? Well, in part one, when our characters have just entered through the portal and all the guards in the prison are still asleep, we see a map of the nine kingdoms.

Prince Wendell describes to Tony that the stories we learned of Snow White, Cinderella, and all the other great fairytales occurred about 200 years prior, and the audience can reasonably deduce through this explanation and the map that the other great women went on to run their own kingdoms. This gets later validated when Wolf explains the lore of the five great women who changed history—

“She became a great queen. One of the five women who changed history.” 

Virginia: “Five women?” 

“Snow White, Cinderella, Queen Riding Hood, Gretel the Great, and the Lady Rapunzel. They formed the first five kingdoms, brought peace to all the lands. But they’re all dead now. Some say Cinderella’s still alive, but no one’s seen her in public in nearly forty years. She would be nearly 200 years old. The days of ‘happy ever after’ are gone. These are dark times.”

Also apparently Sleeping Beauty is still around, but if you look at [this really blurry map] of the nine kingdoms, she wasn’t even a great ruler, she actually appears to just be a citizen of Cinderella’s kingdom, so that’s sucks, she got demoted, and for what? We don’t know.

So you might be thinking, “this is so exciting! We get to explore the nine kingdoms, I can’t wait to see a little bit of everything!” Well I hate to break it you, but we don’t. Like, we see nearly none of them. We stay in the fourth kingdom for virtually the entire series except for two story beats. 

One of these deviations is near the beginning, with the Troll Kingdom, also known as the Third Kingdom, and the second instance is in the fourth movie, when our characters unwittingly trespass into the mines of the ninth kingdom. But this kingdom doesn’t even have a great queen! It’s just run by dwarves who make magic mirrors in an underground cave system.

They appear to be some derivative lineage of dwarves from Snow White’s story, and this proves to be more legitimate of an idea because Snow White’s grave is magically hidden in one of the fancier caves, but other than that, there’s absolutely no glamor or intrigue. It’s an important pit stop, but in the grand scheme of things, a very disappointing end.

However, the final chapter does give us a glimpse of what all the various royal lines look like. We see the descendants of Red Riding Hood, we see some elves and ice queens, and there’s even a special cameo from the only living great queen, Cinderella, so it’s a fair enough consolation prize. I just think it was a completely wasted opportunity

That said, the fourth kingdom does have a diverse series of towns, bogs, and castles for our main characters to travel through. Among the various sets our characters visit, we have Little Lamb Village, Kissing Town, the Palace of White, the Disenchanted Forest. Evenly dispersed along the way, we also encounter various iconic locations from Snow White’s story. 

The fourth kingdom itself, to refer to that map again, is situated in the very center of the fairytale world, with most of the other nations bordering it. Its location is highly coveted by the other kingdoms because of that strategic central location, and while it’s not commented on more than once, the other kingdoms are essentially nipping at the fourth kingdom’s heels to gain its territory.

Beyond that, not much is known about the other kingdoms. In reading the wiki a little bit, there are actually some interesting descriptions about the other kingdoms, and I’m assuming these come straight from the book, but they also read like it could be complete fanfiction.

As a regular peruser of these “wikia” pages across various fandoms and titles, I’m aware of the fact there’s very little fact checking and revision which goes into them. 

I would say, correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m rebuking that. Yes, big franchises will probably have highly scrutinized wikia pages, but the same can’t be said for any title that even remotely falls into obscurity... Wikia is the real wild west Wikipedia we were warned about in high school. 

And that about sums it up for my second point! Yeah, these other points, we’re probably going to run through them much faster.

So, to move onto point number three!

#3: MAGICAL OBJECTS, SPELLS, AND OTHER RANDOM CRAP

So, as we’ve already partially observed, the nine kingdoms are absolutely riddled with various magics, mystical energies, and generally fantastical creatures that can help or hurt Virginia and the team on their quest.

As I was viewing the series I made sure to take note of every consequential piece of magic which affects the plot, regardless of whether it’s incredibly important, such as the magic traveling mirror, or it’s the mere aura of magic, lightly nudging a character along.

I knew, going into this, that I could simply review the magic like I do everything else, but because I’ve done that enough with the plot itself, what I want to do, instead, is a tier list.

[Off-the-cuff, unscripted tier list of magic objects, spells, etc. I did not transcribe this.]

Moving onto point number four:

#4: ALL THE BIG BADS

I really just wanted to spotlight them, and give them their flowers before moving onto the rest of the video. 

Let’s start with the trolls. The troll king is arguably the most boring antagonist the heroes have to face, and that’s saying something because the way he’s just really cruel and nasty is still kinda fun to watch. And the more I think about, I’m pretty sure the heroes never actually have to face him. The Troll king essentially sells out his children to the queen, yes, and the children are a nuisance to Virginia nad her crew, but the troll king serves an entirely separate purpose in the story.

So he lets the queen out of her prison cell, right?  They make a tentative alliance to keep the circumstances of the queen’s escape secret (AKA the whole dog prince thing) so she can take over the fourth kingdom. For helping her escape, as well as the use of his kids, she tells the Troll king she’ll give him half of the fourth kingdom, just not the half with the castle.

But the troll king is impatient, and as we obviously know, the troll children fail to find and kill Prince Wendell, much less capture him, so there’s some rising ill will between both parties. In addition to that, in order for the fake dog prince to take the throne during his coronation, the Queen herself must train him to stop acting like a dog.

I’d say those scenes are some of the weakest in the series because the plights of this poor dog turned into man are very sad, and they use a little bit of gross humor, which I’m not a fan of. At one point you see him lift his leg to pee against a pillar, and then you see the pee on the ground, as if that wasn’t enough.

And then there’s another even more dramatic scene with the poor dog when he’s so tired of behaving like a human that he threatens to hang himself in front of the queen. The dog’s hanging attempt is laughably foiled, but it leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Maybe that’s the point, but it takes all the whimsy out of what could’ve been an interesting half of the story.

Anyway, the training of the new prince s taking far too long for the troll king’s liking, so in the meantime, instead of laying low and letting the queen enact her plan, he useless starts pillaging and terrorizing some of the outer provinces, such as Beantown. 

He does this because he knows the real prince is incapacitated, and let’s just say this sets up a big hurdle for the queen. In many ways, the troll king is an antagonist and a substantial distraction for her and not Virginia. She has to be doing something interesting before the climax of the series, after all, and this makes enough sense.

Then there are the troll children, and honestly, I really love these guys. They’re the comedic release of the series, which is saying something, because it’s not exactly a super tense series the whole way through. There are plenty of other light and funny moments. 

Blabberwart, Burly, and Bluebell are basically bumbling idiots throughout the series, and on rare occasion, whenever the characters get too comfortable, the Troll children will pop up and terrify them, and spur them onto the next big set piece.

The only criticism I have for the trolls is that, one, they’re the ones who name New York City the tenth kingdom, and they make some feeble attempts to maybe raid the tenth kingdom with a troll army, I guess, but by the end of the series, that motivation’s been completely nuked.

The other is that there is no conclusion for the trolls. I feel comfortable saying that because the final conflict between the trolls and our heroes is a very simple fight before the climax, and they lose, and are knocked out. And that’s the last we see or hear from them.

Which I understand on some level, because they were just entertaining time filler, but in a series that otherwise feels very tightly knit, they’re a loose thread, in my opinion.

The last enemy I’ll talk about is, essentially, a weapon working under the Queen. Unlike Wolf, who the Queen tries to vest control over, the huntsman works willingly. Where the trolls have some levity to them, and their threat is downplayed significantly, the huntsman represents a very legitimate mortal threat.

We learn of him in part three, and I’d say I really like his entrance because he’s an important figure between the Queen and Virginia. Virginia is often made parallel to Snow White through her behavior, and like the original story, Virginia at one point faces the huntsmen individually.

The huntsmen serves as the perfect middle man from the Snow White fairytale. In that story, at least the Disney iteration, we know the huntsmen to serve the evil Queen, and she sends him out to kill Snow White because she’s the fairest of them all. But as he raises his axe over her, he falters and instead lets her flee into the forest, keeping it a secret from the queen.

The interesting difference with this huntsmen, however, is that he’s become disillusioned, and it’s made fairly obvious when Virginia first meets him that he’s not one to turn over a new leaf. A large theme in the world of the nine kingdoms is that, understanding we are 200 years out from those iconic tales, the world has sobered up.

Wolf, at one point even, says that “happily ever after” didn’t last as long as we’d hoped, and the huntsmen represents the downward descent of their world into villainy. We talked about it briefly in the tier list, but the huntsmen possesses this magical crossbow, which, when fired, cannot stop until it hits the heart of the living being.

Don’t ask me how the logic works, but when the huntsmen was still a normal dude cutting trees in the forest, the evil queen comes by and offers him this crossbow, but only if he shoots it in a direction he chooses. He takes up that offer, takes position, and shoots off the arrow.

The thing is, the arrow hit his son, presumably hundreds of feet away, and kills him instantly. When the axeman pulls the arrow from his son’s chest, somehow that confirms that he is now the queen’s personal huntsmen, and he accepts the role willingly. End of story

Don’t ask me how that works, it obviously sounds like backwards logic to me. But in the same breath, I kinda like how backward it is, because it reminds me of those old fairytales where characters make very bad but very symbolic decisions. 

Fairytales, historically, aren’t inherently moralistic stories, because we know that they weren’t initially targeted towards children, much less teaching them a lesson. But obviously with newer iterations and the shifting of the fairytale paradigm into our modern-day understanding, leaving out a moral is virtually impossible. Heroes now make rational decisions because they represent models of good character, which children are meant to aspire to.

But the huntsmen’s tale, despite how briefly it enters the story, represents some of those more ambiguous stories without a proper lesson. The huntsmen’s story is about destiny, sure, but a kind of destiny that’s incomprehensible to our main characters because he isn’t following human logic. He’s following the contrary conventions of the oral tale. When Virginia hears that story, she calls him crazy because he doesn’t understand it.

And finally, there is the queen. She is the main antagonist in the series, and as things develop, she becomes Virginia’s opposite, even though they don’t meet until the finale.

And here is where I have a major, major spoiler for the final chapter of the series, which you may have already guessed if you watched the movies up to the point, but I don’ know, I just recommend pausing for a while if you’re still watching the movies. 

In light of telling the story’s big twist, I think this is a good time as any to say that I’m going to analyze some of Virginia and Wolf’s big character arcs later down the line. This means character conflicts, story beats, and the conclusion at the end of the series, all of which are massive spoilers.

So… [pause]

Okay, are we all back? Are we one board for spoilers?

Alright, so the grand reveal we get near the end of part four is that the Queen, who we’ve only vaguely known as the queen, is Virginia’s long-lost mother. I know.

It was impossible to really talk about the queen because, if we’re looking at her origins, it’s directly tied to her history in New York. In the first wave of being enlightened in part five, we understand the Queen, who once went by Christine, fled her home for some unknown reason.

Virginia doesn’t know, Tony hasn’t said anything, but she’s fled in distress to Central Park. From what I can glean, she had some sort of emotional break, but I don’t feel comfortable assigning any other kind of mentality to her. It just doesn’t seem appropriate. We just know she’s not well in the head

So as she’s fleeing in distress, she receives a call from a distant voice, an elderly woman’s voice, and suddenly we see a floating, amorphous portal, with an old hag on the other side, coaxing her in. This is the original witch, the original stepmother to Snow White herself.

In the nine kingdoms, the iteration of the story they go with is that Snow White wins out of the queen, and she marries the king and they live a happy life. But t he evil queen, as punishment, was forced to wear white-hot iron slippers on Snow White’s wedding day and dance for them.

I find this interesting, because when Virginia is first captured by the troll’s children in part two, before Wolf saves her, they prepare the same kind of white-hot slippers to torture her. In terms of parallels, this is interesting, given that Virginia is parallel to Snow White and not her mother. 

Maybe it’s a retrospective comment on lineage and shared traits, or maybe it’s just a clever way for the writer’s to insert the imagery much earlier into the story. Whatever the case, after “dancing” for Snow White, the queen is able to drag herself out to a bog, and she calls upon Christine from the other dimension to pick up the mantle of being evil.

The old queen essentially teaches the new queen all of her evil magicks, and bestows all her magic mirrors upon her in the hopes that Christine will destroy the house of White in revenge. Hence the later killing of Wendell’s parents.

In the grand scheme of things, this coincidence of lineage entering the nine kingdoms must be fate, right? Everything that occurs happens because destiny calls for it. I do like the idea of destiny in this story, as it sort of validates the truth that Virginia has something to offer the world around her, lifting her out of the mediocrity she feels relegated to. We’ll get to that comment later.

But it also feels restricting in that same way, in how it takes away one’s personal choice, and the idea of miraculous circumstances taking place due to the whimsy of story, rather than it being ordained by fate. I want Virginia to feel like she has something to offer the world—not because of a magically-enforced coincidence, but because she takes it by storm.

Back to the queen, after the issue with the troll king has been resolved and she’s able to focus more on the dog-turned-prince, I do start to wonder why exactly she turns her sights on Virginia’s crowd. She’s never able to see Virginia or Tony through her spying mirrors because Snow White has placed a magical veil over them both,

what we do know is she becomes informed of these two through the huntsmen, who previously captured and lost Virginia, and through Wolf, who  never so much as claims Virginia is out to stop the Queen. In fact, the Queen is barely on the team’s radar for the first half of the series, if not longer.

The only reason the Queen and Virginia are even forced to be in proximity to one another is because Virginia learns Christine has one of the traveling mirrors which can lead her back home. At some point along the way, Christine just designates Virginia as a threat without much explanation or reasoning.

I think as an audience member we can rationally assume that Christine has gained some foresight on Virginia without knowing the details. She learned of Snow White’s veil magic and assumes this strange girl must be a key threat to her, she just doesn’t know how or why.

Near the end of the story, the troll children do, in fact, capture Wendell the dog and bring him to the Queen, but at the point she’s like, “I don’t need this guy anymore, I need that girl, and I need her dead.” And it’s like, do you even know why yet?

Beyond that, there are some traumatic experiences which unfold between Christine and Virginia, both from the past and in the present, but I’ll get to those in the moment.

In light of nearing some of my more thorough analyses on Virginia and Wolf, I want to make a pit stop at point number five:

#5: THE TENTH KINGDOM: OUT OF CONTEXT

Instead of just describing all the random bits and quotes that I love to you, I put together this compilation for you guys to enjoy and perhaps convince you to watch the show, so please enjoy.

[compilation of favorite funny clips]

That was nice, wasn’t it? So moving onto point number six,

#6: A RETURN TO OUR MAIN CHARACTERS

We’re nearing the end of the video, and now that we’ve gotten past the point where I had to skirt around spoilers, I really wanted to dive into who Virginia is, and who Wolf is. I don’t think I properly gave them their dues when introducing the series, and that’s because you can only say so much without giving everything away.

To start slightly smaller, I want to give focus to Wolf, who uniquely straddles the line between good and… well, it’s difficult to call him bad, because even at the one point where you think he may make a downward descent into evil, it’s never because he actively wants to become evil. 

On all other accounts, Wolf is just “some guy: who just happens to be tagging along with the gang because he wants to. As I described previously in the video, Wolf’s motivation in the series isn’t to find the mirror and help Virginia home.

Rather, his ultimate desire is to make Virginia realize he’s the one for her, and make her see that she loves him. Wolf begins the series in this manic state, so when he first encounters Virginia, he’s very wild, and he confuses his attraction for her with his desire to capture prey. He’s mostly just hungry, in every sense of the word. He wants to be sated and comforted, and to feel full—both with food and love.

It's only after he’s been out of jail for a while and he’s able to loose all this manic energy that he starts to think more rationally. It’s here that you may wonder as an audience member, is Wolf going to forget about his infatuation with Virginia and do something more in line with the Queen’s will?

After all, she was the reason he’d been released. He effectively owes a magical debt to her, and in the meantime, he has to pay the price of that debt by getting harassed by the Queen as her face shows up in the moon, or sticks out of a water trough. It’s weird.

But no, he doesn’t abandon Virginia. And I think what’s so bizarre and interesting about Wolf is that, once he sets his sights on Virginia, even while he was trying to eat her grandmother, he recognized something real and powerful within himself: love. 

Wolves in the nine kingdoms have an innate sensitivity. Mostly this is just to make them aware of scents nearby or when someone’s feeling a certain way. But I think it also gives them a very powerful sense of intuition, to trust in one’s instincts and their aspiring will. In effect, this makes Wolf the master of his own emotions.

But we also learn that Wolf has never been in love. It seems like hat’s the norm for people of wolfkind—that once they meet their first lover, that’s it for them. They become mates for life and live happily ever after, or as he describes, they die of terrible causes. 

The thing is, with Wolf, he lays all his feelings out on the table, even when those feelings aren’t fully developed. It allows for honest and open communication, like when you’re excited after a first date and can’t help but text the other person like five times in a row. 

Wolf sees what he wants, and he isn’t afraid of revealing that fact, even if it makes him vulnerable, and he shrugs at what other people might feel ashamed in admitting so plainly.

While this may be called honesty, I’d also call this naivete, which may partially be because he’s never connected to a girl like this before. And this holds fairly strong repercussions for Wolf and Virginia down the line, when these emotions become more serious and Wolf receives the first sign of mutual affection.

So let’s enter the story around the time our heroes enters Kissing Town. By this time Wolf and Virginia have bonded platonically together on various occasions, and Virginia has allowed herself to trust Wolf. Wolf, on the other hand, is continuing to express his desires for Virginia romantically, but this behavior slowly becomes more restrained as they travel along.

I would say entering Kissing Town is something of an unfair advantage for Wolf when it comes to his and Virginia’s budding relationship. Kissing Town seems to pump this aphrodisiac of love through the air to all of its citizens and tourists, and what we know is that no two people can start falling for each other in this town unless seeds of romance are already in place.

But I’d say that visiting Kissing Town runs the risk of advancing affections way too quickly. In a way, as a viewer I’m a bit uncomfortable at the idea that I could swoon under circumstances I wouldn’t usually swoon. So I want to say, yes, the way Virginia is treating Wolf is genuine. But her responses and affections seem provoked in a way that, in retrospect, makes me side eye the entire town.

I also want to give Wolf the benefit of the doubt, because while he leans into these exaggerating emotions, I don’t think he’s pushing Virginia along intentionally. This is just the way their world works, and both of them are aware of the magic in the air, so they effectively consent. But when Wolf can see a potentially romantic happily-ever-after on the horizon, things go awry.

So let’s back up again. Virginia’s big goal in this series is to get home, no matter what. Wolf’s, however, is that he simply wants to “win” the girl of his dreams. Previous to this section of the plot, their motivations coincide because Wolf can simply assist Virginia in her plans.

Consider also: there’s this running gag during their travels that Wolf is reading a seemingly endless pile of self-help books he stole from a book fair in New York City, all which focus on self-improvement and winning the girl of his dreams.

Their entrance into Kissing Town perfectly coincides with Wolf reading the last page of the last book, and with their guidance, he feels equipped to moderate himself, and reign in this off-putting carnal behavior to become a better man. 

Previously he’s uselessly, openly pined for Virginia, but there hasn’t been much emotional heft or maturity to it, so Virginia ignores it or looks past it. But finishing that last book propels Wolf into finally stepping up and making a move on Virginia, and this is where their motivations noticeably begin to split.

In short, the rift plays out in very ugly fashion once Virginia realizes Wolf is acting selfishly. Let’s bring in some context to set the scene:

The reason they are in Kissing Town in the first place is to obtain their magic mirror. However, its magic is discovered while it’s being stored at an auction house, and the mirror is appraised at 5,000 Wendells, which is the currency in the fourth kingdom. And that’s way too expensive.

In an effort to make up that money before the auction, the team divides their measly thirty Wendells amongst the three humans and they split up at a casino, aiming to hit it big. Tony and Virginia separately fail, but Wolf ends up winning ten thousand gold Wendells while no one is watching.

Instead of giving Virginia this money or even telling her about it, he dreams up a plan to woo her and convince Virginia to marry him. Following through with that plan entails spending a ludicrous amount of money on a carriage ride, a luxurious nine-course meal, and an anthropomorphized engagement ring that speaks in rhyme. This also leaves him with nothing to spend on the auction.

What you can evidently observe of Wolf’s behavior is that he fails to take into account the reality of who Virginia really is, and prioritizes the idea of loving her and living happily together rather than the reality of what she wants and values: to get home.

Self-help books and written advice can of course teach us how to improves ourselves, genuinely, but in Wolf’s case, many of these books are laughably superficial, and lack substance compared to real human connection. Devouring a book called “How to Marry the Girl of Your Dreams” isn’t going to help when Virginia’s first goal isn’t to fall in love.

So while he may be learning to hold in his panting tongue and act like a trained pup, he isn’t considering either person involved—not Virginia’s wants and needs, nor the person inside himself who needs to grow up a little rather than curb a few surface-level mannerisms.

In a situation such as this, Wolf’s understanding of love is portrayed as sickly sweet, idyllic—their arrival in Kissing Town, where gentle music is playing and heart-shaped fireworks shoot off, bolster this idea, is no coincidence. Wolf’s definition of love is confronted as false when his actions betray Virginia entirely—revealing it as superficial, hollow, and more than anything else, selfish.

He may love Virginia, but more than that, he childishly loves the idea of being in love, and that ultimately leads him to not having Virginia at all. They lose the auction, they lose the mirror, and Wolf wasted their one chance of getting home. So they break up.

This is when he looks in a mirror and the Queen tempts him to join the dark side, and he tearfully, silently accepts. So let’s put a pin in Wolf for a second and shift our discussion to Virginia.

The problem Virginia faces on a character level works twofold within the overarching narrative: first, she’s complacent in her personal world; she feels stuck, permanently relegated to mediocrity, destined to live a boring life. 

As we remember, she lives with her dad in a run-down apartment and works as a waitress. As far as we know, she has no professional or romantic prospects, and what we do see is that she faces her world with a concerningly ambivalent disposition—it leaves her no room to grow, only to dwell in what she already has, and has lost.

Expanding on this, Virginia has some compelling narration lines in part one before Prince runs into her: 

“I guess you get to a certain age and you realize nothing exciting is ever going to happen to you. And maybe that’s just the way it is. You know, maybe some people just have quiet lives.” 

It’s kind of sad. The second half of that fold is Virginia is also angry at her world for being this way, and angry about the circumstances that led her here, allegedly—the loss of her mother, affecting her potential, and the ineptitude of her father, making her feel stuck in place.

In effect, Virginia feels a loss of power, or more accurately: a complete lack of agency, and she blames it on everyone without attempting to make change. Whether that judgment is fair or accurate gets confronted in the story itself, but this is where she begins. 

Virginia feels the circumstances of her world are out of her control because they are not perfect, so she effectively resigns herself to leading this boring life to spare herself from the possibility of trying her hardest and experiencing failure, heartbreak, or loss.

Later, in Kissing Town, when she starts falling for Wolf, Virginia even admits to him this exact sentiment before kissing him, which just goes to show how much effort she put into letting down her emotional walls: 

“I have hard time trusting people. I just never wanna jump unless… I’m sure somebody’s gonna catch me.”

This ties in especially well with a line from Wolf in part three, where we see how a full moon dramatically affects his disposition, making him mean, and at certain points, brutally honest:

“You’re pretending to live, Virginia! You’re doing everything but actually living! You’re driving me crazy!”

Lastly, and I’d say the first time this anger is revealed, comes in part two, when Virginia is having her fortune told by an enchantress, and the enchantress plainly states Virginia never forgave her mother for leaving them. 

At that point, it was shocking to the viewer, because up until then, we mostly understood Virginia to be this meek character, who shies away from the harsh reality of a progressing world so she can relegate herself to mediocrity and avoid the risk of trying her damnedest. In many ways, the nine kingdoms is just an active, lived-world confrontation of her own mental baggage.

To continue that though, in a larger sense, we can consider Virginia’s goal throughout the story—to get home—is, in large part, motivated by her need to return to that boring world, to try less again, to be unchallenged.

We can safely say that this anger is a plot point which survives into the end of the series, but the complacency and lack of agency is confronted earlier, in part three, not long after Wolf angrily yells at her that she isn’t living.

I won’t dive too much into this section because it involves a very good mystery I don’t want to spoil, but at one point, in order to obtain the mirror, Virginia has to dress up like a shepherdess in order to… well, win a shepherdess competition.

Virginia initially protests and wants to say no to the idea, but knows she has to take extreme action to reach her goal. Instead of employing shady tactics like stealing the mirror under everyone’s noses, Virginia finally, confidently leans into her world’s fantastical circumstances. She approaches the competition in full shepherdess regalia and faces her opponents with a head held high.

I think this hurdle she faces is truly overcome when she sings a farm animal rendition of Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” creatively re-titled “We Will Shear You,” which for copyright reasons I have to leave out entirely. I’ll leave that whole half of the arc there.

The other half, this anger, which we know is primarily aimed at her mother, is really only confronted in the final act of the story when Virginia must be in proximity of Christine.

For context, Virginia, Tony, and Wendell are trying to locate a new traveling mirror, and learn that it resides in the Palace of White, which, coincidentally, is the same place the Queen is currently staying. Previously, the Queen has been hiding in the dog-prince’s coattails as he prepares for his coronation, and he’s just recently arrived at the castle after a long disappearance.

But where did they learn this information? You might ask. Well, Virginia learned it from Snow White. Like, actual Snow White, which the story has confirmed to be dead for quite a while. 

To spare you the details, Virginia, without the presence of her father, encounters Snow White’s final resting place, which is a snowy cave deep in the underground of the ninth kingdom. Snow White appears out of a flurry of white, to help impart some wisdom and assistance to Virginia on her journey.

Snow White really is the bad bitch that calls out Virginia on all the shit she’s been repressing since her childhood. Snow White reveals that she, in her new role as pseudo-fairy godmother, has been the one to veil the queen from the image of Virginia and Tony. But Snow White warns Virginia that now is the time to see and be seen. 

This is calling back the dregs of Virginia’s complacency and lack of agency in the world, and it’s obvious that despite her evident growth within the story, idealistically, she’s still clutching onto her old ways, hoping uselessly that the status quo can return once she reaches New York. But Snow White effectively says that’s impossible:

“That is why you must now take charge. He needs you to save his kingdom, we all do.”

Virginia: “Me? No, I think you have the wrong person.”

“I have the right person. I’ve been waiting for you, Virginia.”

And here is where Snow White imparts her own story, her very own fairytale and the embedded moral therein, to Virginia. She describes being antagonized by the queen, nearly killed by the huntsmen, and soon protected and cared for by the seven dwarves.

Then there’s the part where the wicked queen attempts to visit her and kill her, which I really don’t think I can paraphrase well without losing some of the gravity of the story, so I’ll just play the excerpt now:

“Her mirrors found me eventually. She dressed as an older peddler and climbed over the seven hills to my house. Twice she came, once with a corset to crush my ribs, and then with a poison comb to drug me. But the last time she came, she brought the most beautiful basket of apples that I ever saw. And this time she stayed to watch me die. And to be sure, she held me in her arms until I died in front of her choking on a piece of poison apple.

“And I often think, ‘Why did I let her in? Didn’t I know she was bad?’ I did. Of course I did. But I also knew that I couldn’t keep the door closed all my life, just because it was dangerous, just because there was a chance that I might get hurt.”

The way I respond to Snow White’s version of the fairy tale is complex. My first response, because I like to put faith in the good intentions of the screenwriters, is that I really like it. This does apply to Virginia’s narrative in a very integral way. 

Again, Virginia’s problem is that she thinks she’s stuck in mediocrity, and she’s fearful of what could happen if she tried to live life fully and failed at it. In that respect, Virginia’s personal growth is largely about taking charge of one’s own story, and taking those risks for the betterment of one’s self. 

Moving past complacency, for better or for worse. In this way, Snow White’s advice is really moving, because it’s general life advice.

But more practically speaking within the series’ overarching narrative, it’s only at the end of part four that we truly see how Virginia’s character development will be put to the test. When Virginia, Tony and Wendell escape the ninth kingdom’s mines, Virginia learns that the evil Queen at large is her mother, the one who ran out on her family when Virginia was a child.

So thinking back now, when watching Snow White’s scene for the first time, the lesson for Virginia in the caves understandably wouldn’t or shouldn’t be perceived as literal guidance. It exists more as an allegory which Virginia could potentially apply to her character and gradually learn from. 

But now it’s become a very one-to-one narrative between evil queen and daughter, and at that point you really have to turn back to Snow White and interrogate her story less as a floating moral and, perhaps partially, as a piece of concrete instruction.

In that sense, Snow White’s direct advice to Virginia is that she needs to face someone who once abused her, controlled her, and ultimately neglected her. Virginia doesn’t remember that she was a victim of abuse because she’s repressed those memories, but Snow White, being a magic fairy godmother, likely possesses some knowledge of Virginia and the Queen’s past. 

She’s advocating for Virginia to risk her health and safety, and even in a magical universe with fantastical circumstances, that doesn’t sit right with me.

So sure, face your metaphorical demons, learn about yourself from intense self-reflection and grab life by the horns. But my second response is that maybe this is completely out of pocket. Snow White fully died, at least temporarily, in her retelling of the fairytale, so what are the moral implications in advising Virginia to allow the same (or similar) to happen to her?  

Previous to this, I haven’t really touched on this reveal of abuse either, because I felt it was a touch early. But we have talked about how Christine ran out to Central Park in a flashback, in distress and clearly having some kind of emotional break.

And that’s because, just prior to this, Christine is giving Virginia a bath while Tony is at work. Virginia is stated to be only seven in this scene. The water appears to be near boiling, and when she’s in the bath, Christine ends up trying to drown Virginia.

The only reason Virginia even survived is because Tony came home and caught Christine in the act, and presumably feeling ashamed and erratic, Christine flees. Obviously there’s no excuse for this violence, but we never properly get an explanation for what provoked this behavior in Christine.

At the end of the day, I get it—that detail isn’t important. What’s important is Virginia, and how this affected her life moving. But it still leaves me with a lot of questions. This abuse turns out to be a reveal to Virginia because she repressed the memory, so all she’s left with is both admiration and unplaced anger for her mother.

Now, Snow White had given Virginia a small hand mirror to ask a single question, and to answer, the mirror reveals the face of the Queen, Christine, who senses someone is watching her. This is what spurs on this recollection of resentment and childhood trauma. Tony can’t hold off the truth from Virginia because they need to get to the bottom of this.

And honestly, up to this point, yes, this series is iconic for me because of its world building, its magic, its comedy and it funny characters. But seemingly out of nowhere, as a culmination of all these more series scenes, we get a genuinely compelling monologue from Virginia, where she finally opens the floodgates:

“Well I knew she'd come back 'cause she'd left all her clothes, you know, she loved her clothes more than anything in the world. And I kept going into her room and checking on them. And then after a few months you suddenly said that we had to get rid of them all, so…

“I remember folding them all very neatly, and I kept hoping that there was going to be a, you know, a secret note or something that would be written for me, you know, just to me, telling me that she loved me and explaining the secret magical reason why she had to go, you know?

“... and I miss her. And I hate her. And I miss her. And I feel like I was on a train and it crashed or something, and no one came and rescued me.”

I think the power and value of this scene extends far past the confines of the magical world the story itself works within. When I previously heard Tony describing that a younger Virginia only wanted to hear the good things about her mother, I think, “Oh, that naïve-sounding behavior seems to contradict all the anger we heard about previously,” but this monologue from Virginia really lays out all of her feelings in a complex, human way.

The thing is, real human emotion is often complex and contradictory and, in that way, can feel incomprehensible to a person, and the feelings themselves often feel irreconcilable within one’s self. How are you supposed to feel when a person who was supposed to love and care for you more than anyone else in the world up and leaves without reason? How do you negotiate feeling hatred for a person who you so desperately want love and validation and connection from? 

One of the strongest lines in this monologue, I think, is the simple repetition of, “I miss her, and I hate her, and I miss her.” These feeling work in tandem, and this brief mantra actually reveals the fact that what Virginia is feeling isn’t incomprehensible or irreconcilable. 

She hates her because she misses her, and what’s left behind is scorn and scars which affect how Virginia approaches the world. 

You can only really feel loss and betrayal and hurt when it’s about a person that really means something to you, and having to learn that lesson in such a concrete way might make you never put your trust in other people ever again. The possibility of feeling that same hurt is worse than just living your life without passion or genuine connection.

So I get why Virginia acts the way she does, and as a viewer, I’m able to rationally and empathetically reconcile how someone can come across as meek and hopeful, while also coming across as disillusioned to the world and resentful of the people in it. It’s not a reveal or a twist in the traditional sense, but part five of this story really gives you the catharsis necessary to understand and connect to the characters. 

Being honest here, if you’ve ever come from a broken home, or struggled from a sense of abandonment, following Virginia’s story and being hit with this surprisingly honest narrative really helps to put in perspective one’s own emotions, and I’m really grateful to the series—I’d say it’s one of the main reasons I keep it close to my heart.

After this point, all we really have left is our team’s travel to the Palace of White, where the coronation is set to happen on the same evening they plan to enter the building and use the mirror, sort of like a cover.

I’ll keep the rest of Wolf’s narrative vague simply because I can, but along the way to the castle, Virginia and Tony are saved by Wolf, and he rejoins their last leg of the journey. Yes, the last we saw, Wolf submitted to the Queen’s will, and you can keep that in your back pocket. 

But for all intents and purposes, Wolf is a good man. He’s taken time to reflect, and he’s matured, and he’s there for Virginia in her time of need, supporting her because he loves her, rather than thinking selfishly.

Virginia still has an impending battle she must face, but just before the climax, the two truly make a proper reunion, and having learned a lot about herself with the help of Snow White, Virginia is ready to let go of her unnecessary precautions. The two of them are able to face each other as honest equals, and they consummate their relationship in the woods outside the castle. 

In moving onto the real finale of the series, I hesitate in addressing Virginia’s actual confrontation with her mother. Virginia has effectively grown, fully, as a character, and mostly needs closure on this relationship she came to resent so much.

It’s more interesting, I think, to take the perspective Christine with the last few moments, because in finally seeing Virginia in front of her, her reactions range from cruelty to denial to, at least by the queen’s standards, a kind of empathy.

In their first meeting, it’s when our team of heroes is first caught on the palace grounds. At this point, the Queen has taken over the castle from the inside, having threatened the entire staff into silence and submission. So they’re brought to the Queen pretty quickly, and Christine receives a flashback of Virginia, of bathing her.

She starts in a place of complete denial, thinking Virginia is using some strange magic to trick her memory, but it’s interesting after that. Without even a visual indicator of revelation, once Virginia starts asking the Queen questions about their history, she immediately claims that past as her own, but twists it. 

Virginia: “Why did you leave me?”

Queen: “You were unwanted. That’s plain to see. Haven’t you always known that? Secretly? That you were the ugly duckling? The sad thing is, your little quest has given you delusions of grandeur. You started to think you’re capable of great things. You were right in the first place—you’re plain. Plain, and ugly.”

She makes herself out to be a proper one-note antagonist, rather than the complex human person she really was, and still is. She was legitimately abusive and mentally unwell, but in the same breath, there was a part of Christine that really loved Virginia. I think that’s the toughest part of the entire series, the way abuse and love are consistently interwoven.

Instead of confronting that complexity, Christine uses their past as a weapon to separate herself even further from Virginia. Living in this world and becoming the evil Queen effectively works as a mechanism for Christine to distance herself from the responsibility of her actions, from her humanity and the faults of being human. 

In many ways, Christine’s disposition mirrors previous commentary I’ve observed about Faith from the Buffy series, who takes the route of evil as a means of repression and deflection. In that same scene, Christine deludes herself so greatly that she tries to kill Virginia, but when Virginia successfully defends herself, instead of properly going on the offensive, she stays vulnerable.

This is where Virginia’s new lesson, of trying your damnedest despite the possibility of failure, really shines through. She asks her mother, very simply, “In your whole life, did you ever love me?” Knowing that she could be hurt again, knowing that she could be rebuffed.

This, in effect, triggers the flashback of a younger Christine running away in central park, and the memory effects Christine:

“Oh, that’s not me!”

She looks almost repentant, but the expression fades away when the huntsman approaches and brings her back. 

After that scene, and feeling conflicted enough, Christine doesn’t kill her. Instead, she tells the Huntsman to lock her up with Tony. That in itself is the empathy Christine shows, I think. It’s the bare minimum—letting Virginia live—but it’s nothing a truly evil Queen would’ve allowed.

I’ll spare you the political conclusion to the story with Wendell, because I think it’s fun and also, Wendell’s story of personal growth is pretty simple, so I don’t feel the need to explore it in depth. It’s better to watch and feel thrilled than hear me dryly explain it away.

But midway through that arc’s conclusion, we do receive our final scene with Virginia and with the Queen. She and Tony have escaped from the prison cell, but yet again, Virginia is caught and brought to the Queen by the Huntsmen. 

Again, instead of opting to have Virginia killed, the Queen makes an uncharacteristically sympathetic decision and decides to let Virginia go:

V: “Are you gonna kill me as well?” Q: “I was going to let you go. I don’t know why—” V: “You know why.” Q: “Go. Leave me, get out while you can.” V: “No.”

This objection from Virginia is a reflection on her character growth. To try and love despite the possibility of heartbreak. Christine can’t handle it, and tries to deny her more blatantly:

Q: “You were nothing but an accident! You should have been killed at birth.”

[Virginia takes charge and slaps her..]

V: “How dare you. How dare you speak to me like that.”

I think that final slap really shows in practe how Virginia has taken to being an active participant in the world. She’s able to express vulnerability, she has an emboldened sense of agency, and she’s able to stand up against her abuser.

I’m going to spoil the last big plot twist of the series. So take that as your warning, pause now. That means you, Cheyenne.

After she slaps Christine, they get into a tousle, and the Queen tries to strangle Virginia. But do you remember that poisonous comb we briefly mentioned in the tier list? Christine is wearing that in her hair as a fascinator, and both women know that it’s laced with a deadly poison.

In order to, you know, not die of asphyxiation, Virginia takes the single opportunity available to her and grabs the comb, and lightly scratches Christine on the cheek. But it’s enough to do damage:

[Scene where Queen walks away and collapses]

“It’s too late… don’t cry, my little girl. My little girl… I gave away my soul.”

Oh yeah, and not to disparage this scene, but I recently spotted the lace on this damn wig, and oh my god, it’s so bad. Not to ruin the mood or anything.

So yeah, Virginia kills her own mother. The evil is dead, and Christine, in the last moment of her life, is able to be the woman she once was—or at least, the good part of her, the loving part of her, no matter how small or tucked away it was.

And that’s all I wanted to analyze in terms of the plot. Feel free to sit back, take a breather, and resonate in the emotional moment of the climax. Because we’re moving onto the end pretty quickly.

So! Point number seven:

#7: MY IDEAS FOR A SEQUEL

In the denouement of the series, we see Wolf and Virginia return to New York City to live out their life in peace. Tony, in the end, did not go with them because Wendell offered him a very integral role in his royal cabinet, so our two lovebirds are on their own. Here is the very last monologue we receive from Virginia:

“But that’s not this story. This story is done. And, when you live every day with all your heart, then you can be happy ever after, even if it’s only for a short time. My name is Virginia, and I live on the edge of the forest… and this is the end of the first book of the tenth kingdom.”

Did you hear that? Did you hear that little bit about the first book of the tenth kingdom? I know I did when I was like, seven. And also when I was twelve, and fifteen, and twenty-two, and today. Basically, any time I ever watched this series. And every time, I hoped that there was some sort of sequel in the works. 

But no! It never happens! However! If you look up Simon Moore, the creator and writer of the 10th Kingdom and find his AngelFire site page, you can see he did have plans, or at least a plot synopsis, for a part two of the series. I assume it was stuck in development hell or NBC and Hallmark never really gave it a shot.

Apparently it would be called House of Wolves, and it was set to take place in the kingdom of little red riding hood, the second kingdom. Wolf and Virginia happily run a restaurant together, and they have small a wolf baby, and Virginia wants to place a charm or something on her baby to make it look human. I don’t know.

Anyway, besides that, the second kingdom has intensive prejudices against wolves, which makes sense given the original fairytale, and there’s a school for young ladies, and Virginia and Wolf are set to get married under a full moon. There’s a lot of working parts, and it all sounds very exciting, but without a proper plot breakdown from Moore, it sounds like a big jumble

But I don’t know! I have faith in the guy. I think the story he crafted the first time around is incredibly memorable.

That said, when I think about how much time has passed since the series originally launched, naturally, much of the cast may not want to take part because they’ve moved onto other projects, and the cast that remains likely looks markedly old. 

And while they could recast the main characters and continue on with this story as-is, I can’t help but excitedly dwell on the alternatives.

My fantasy sequel would be that we get the main cast back, but given it’s been twenty-two years since the premier, we accept that twenty-two years have passed in-universe rather than a six-month time skip. Maybe it’s selfish, but I want to see what a fully-grown adult raised by Virginia and Wolf looks like.

To continue with this idea, maybe this son of theirs has never been able to visit the nine kingdoms since he was a child, and the entire family has effectively been cut off from the other dimension for unknown reasons. After all, the New York portal is amorphous and temporary, and is only available when engaged with on the opposite end. 

Before I move on to the rest of my idea, I did take notes throughout my original viewing of the series of loose threads or details that I find interesting and want to bring back around for a sequel.

We know that three traveling mirrors exist. The first was accidentally destroyed by Tony in Kissing Town, and the second one is now pristinely taken care of in the Palace of White. We learn through an anthropomorphic, all-knowing mirror that a third traveling mirror exists in their world, but it’s been long-lost in the great Northern Sea, sitting on a bed of barnacles.

The troll children are still alive. We don’t know what happens to them, but last we see, they are knocked out by Tony in the basement of the palace. However, there’s never any news that they’ve been apprehended, so we can safely assume all three escaped.

When Virginia is talking with Snow White in the cave, Snow White says this very vague line: “You will be a great adviser to other lost girls.” Who are those lost girls? We don’t know. That could be a throwaway line, but for our sake, that’s sequel bait.

Prince Wendell pardons all wolves in the nation. And while this is nice, this mostly seems like a hollow gesture, and something that would be difficult for their nation of people to accept. Knowing now what Simon Moore’s plans were for a sequel series, we can roughly say this is in line with his ideas.

Wendell hires Tony to singlehandedly bring upon an industrial revolution in the fourth kingdom. I’m not exactly a superfan of steampunk, but what I can get behind is steampunk with a magical twist.

So if we’re thinking back to our version of the sequel, I’m going to say that, unbeknownst to Wolf, Virginia, and their unnamed son, (let’s just call him Andrew, for simplicity’s sake) the second mirror that was pristinely kept by the palace of White has been destroyed by unknown insurgents.

Having been cut off from their world, Wolf, Virginia, and Andrew don’t receive any communication for years on end. That is, until they receive a trans-dimensional message from Tony, who indicates he is in trouble, and needs their help. But the message is fairly vague.

At the same time, Central Park inexplicably floods with oceanwater, and overlooking the scene from the now-refurbished apartment Virginia once lived in with Tony, our family understands that something miraculous has occurred: the ocean portal has been opened.

I’m not exactly a screenwriter, so I don’t have a fully fleshed-out idea on how they accomplish this yet, but I want them to travel through the portal and get shot out on the other end, finding themselves in the open ocean, trapped in the fishing net of some swashbuckling pirate trolls, along with the barnacle mirror.

Through hijinks, once they’re collected on board, I want there to be a separation of Virginia from Wolf and their son. Maybe they negotiate their freedom so long as one person stays behind, and taking responsibility, Virginia volunteers herself, much to the others’ dismay. In the aftermath, Wolf and Andrew are abandoned on the shores of the second kingdom.

Through a series of events, we learn that the second kingdom has invaded the fourth kingdom and vested control of its palace. We know the fourth king itself is very desirable land because of its strategic central location on their continent, so this isn’t a complete shock to Wolf or Andrew, who has been filled in on the old politics.

The rest of my plot a lot more loosey-goosey. I want there to be a new a character, a rogue, nymph-like girl wearing a red clock who has defected from a ladies school in favor of rebellion, and knows where Tony—along with Wendell, and a smattering of other royal cabinet members—are secretly sheltering. 

Part one, the first movie, would deal with the mystery of a flooded central park and our family’s travels through the portal, and the troubling negotiations with the pirates. Meanwhile part two begins with meeting this girl, who we’ll call Red, and traveling through the second kingdom. 

I want them to be chased and caught by second kingdom-appointed bounty hunters in league with the ladies school. I think this would also be a good place where it’s revealed that Red is the younger sister of the second kingdom’s queen, who is occupying the palace of White.

In order to continue their journey, Wolf and Andrew have to perform a heist and rescue her. Meanwhile, Virginia effectively vests control of the pirate crew by appealing to the female trolls and spouting feminist rhetoric, and talking about the advances of society in the tenth kingdom. With their help, they drop her off in the port town they last left Wolf and Andrew, and she’s accompanied by two of her troll crew.

Part three, perhaps Wolf, Andrew and Red come across Tony and the gang. My plot gets a bit vague here, because in truth, I only just came up with this as I typed up my script, so it’s really all in the air. 

There would be army of the second kingdom’s forces led by Red’ sister terrorizing the landscape, and maybe Virginia makes a detour to the troll kingdom and appeals to the three troll children from the first series. They know she didn’t kill their father, so perhaps things are fine. 

They’re still stupid, and while they don’t care for Virginia, they love chaos and war, so they back her by supplying her with an army. I don’t know. This is starting to sound like some Game of Thrones shit and I might be losing some of the magic and whimsy, so I’ll leave my ideas there.

The point is, the series is absolutely rife with sequel, or even series potential, and I’m mad at the world for letting Simon Moore and myself down. I need the content. Someone hire me for the content. I’m a writer. I have a master’s degree for it and everything.

And that leads me to the end of this video. We can call this point number eight simply for the sake of ending on a structured note:

#8: CONCLUSION

As a review of this entire video and the process of putting it together, I have to say I absolutely had a blast, especially because reviewing a smaller amount of content really gave me a lot of room to talk about the characters and the plots in more detail. I didn’t want this channel to just be a one-off: it’s something I really look forward to doing and have a lot of passion for,.

Beyond that, I’d like to thank you guys for watching, I sincerely hope you enjoyed. Please give this video a thumbs up and consider subscribing if that’s the case, because this is just the beginning. Also, comment if you’re a fan of the Tenth Kingdom, or gave it a shot because of this video, because I look forward to hearing what you guys have to say. Talk again soon.

[cjstalkingstarwarsagain]

hi! i’ve recently decided to rewatch all the star wars movies and take notes on them and then,,, share them with you. so if you’re even mildly interested in my star wars opinions, here you go :)

i’ll divide it into a couple categories so,,,

well start with rogue one!!

shit that made me giggle

"oh look, here’s lyra back from the dead. it’s a miracle."

everything K2 says and does. i love him and he’s perfect.

i love the continuous attempts by K2 to appear imperial and how he fails every time. not a single storm trooper or officer ever believes him when he starts running his mouth.

so sorry but bohdi getting his cable caught and trying to shake it loose is such an adorably human moment. makes me giggle every time.

i honestly thought this section would be longer, this movie made me laugh a bunch. 

stuff i don’t like or doesn’t make sense

why does jyn start believing in the rebellion? there’s no indication that she cared before they found her. there’s no real turning point that we can see. she just,,, suddenly is really into this shit. which is strange because the only reason she ever joined was because she was given a non-choice (either help or get put back in prison). i guess i can kinda see how her father dying could have changed her, but we see none of that on the ship after his death. we just get to the rebel council and all of a sudden she’s the poster girl for rebellion.

saw seems really stable at the beginning of the film, so why did he go seemingly crazy and paranoid? it’s probably explained in the novelization but that’s no excuse to just have a character go crazy with really no explanation or backstory.

that being said, a lot of the character development is pretty lacking. i don’t think i’d care about these characters nearly as much if i wasn’t already a star wars fan.

video game cut scene style general tarkin

bor gullet is supposed to make you lose your mind but bohdi was pretty much fine after like,,, a day

how does the death star,,,, move?? like i know it can but has that ever been explained? is it like little thrusters? like the ones you can see in real life to stabilize things in space? there’s nothing i can visually see. i’m not mad about it i just wanna know.

why does saw insist on staying behind? why doesn’t he come and help?? it would have been so easy to just leave but he insists on staying behind and just watching as death inches closer. i think it doesn’t make sense because we know *so little* about his character. give me more on him, make me understand.

since james earl jones is getting older, vader sounds older. was there??? nothing the audio or editing department could have done about that??? not super mad about this one just because darth vader is really cool and i’ll never really complain too much about darth vader screen time.

when the fuck did jyn become a motivational speaker??

my one gripe about pretty much every star wars movie is the sheer number of times people climb through huge shafts and jump around and shit and they’re always *fine*. no way they wouldn’t fall to their deaths in any normal situations.

can someone?? check the science of the hammerhead corvette?? because there’s no gravity or weight in space right?? theoretically all you gotta do is give that star destroyer a bump and it’s spinning out, right?? i know absolutely nothing about space physics but i gotta be right. maybe i’m wrong. i dunno. i’m dumb as rocks. hear that baby girl?? it’s the spare change rattling around in my skull. i got pennies where my brain is.

absolutely no fucking shot cassian survived a blaster hit AND that fall AND climbed out. my belief simply cannot be suspended that much.

DUDE I FORGOT THAT THE DEATH STAR CAN TRAVEL THROUGH HYPERSPACE HOW DOES WORK SOMEONE TELL ME!!!!!

why doesn’t vader just,,, force grab the plans. i know he sees them. why not just force stop the guy running away with them??

final note now that the movie is over. yes, it’s got a lot of issues. the plot is ehhh at times. the trailers don’t match up with the movie shots AT ALL (i wanna know what happened behind the scenes with that). the character development is lacking in many major ways (that has not stopped me from loving these characters though, but that’s the autism talking). but like i’ll say in the "stuff i liked" section, this is such a damn cool movie. i was once talking about it with an older friend of mine and he said seeing rogue one in theaters felt like watching the original trilogy in theaters back in the 70s and 80s and honestly that’s such a compliment. i love this movie, i really do.

just cool shit,,, you know the vibe

DEATH TROOPERS

krennic is probably one of my favorite imperial officers. for some reason he just really sells it for me, the evil and manipulation that borderlines in try hard. and (i mention it more later because you see it more in the "choke on your aspirations" scene) beyond that just the fact that he’s?? a guy. just a dude. at any given moment he could be described as just hanging out. but he’s trying so hard (for whatever reason, we don’t know his evil motivations) to be this big bad evil dude. and it’s just interesting to see someone *trying* to be imperial and *trying* to be evil, as opposed to a tarkin-type character who’s just naturally an asshole.

i love the rogue one main theme. don’t even talk to me. it’s so cool.

it’s cool to see more about the birth of the death star, seeing other people learn about it. sort of realizing the fear and terror that everyone must have been experiencing. especially after being a star wars fan for so long and being like, yeah it’s the death star it’s just a staple of this universe. it reminds me that "oh god this was a planet killer and this was the first time something like that had ever even been heard of".

there’s gorgeous visuals in this movie.

i like the "i’m wanted in 12 systems" guy cameo (did you know his name is cornelius? i googled it)

when the storm trooper asks for papers?? like fuck yeah show me what life is like under imperial rule. give me that shit.

chirrut is so badass i’ll never get over it

"i’m one with the force and the force is with me" i’m eating that shit UP! salivating over the meal in front of me. i really want more exploration of the guardians and jedi worship in general. like gimme that weird funky space religion.

seeing an at-st just walk around a town. i dunno i like that shit.

K2 saying sorry for hitting cassian. i’m so soft on this robot.

"clear of hostiles,,,, ONE HOSTILE"

jyn stepping in front of K2 to protect him after she (not ten minutes ago) made the comment “i’m just afraid they’ll miss you and hit me”. jyn,,, your soft side is showing,,,,

i like the cool machine blaster that baze has. it’s awesome seeing different blaster styles when originally the only variation we really saw was chewie’s cross bow style blaster.

i really wanna see more of baze and cirruit. i wanna know what happened that made baze stop believing. i wanna know how they met. i wanna see them evolve and grow together.

i like that jyn argues that 16 is too young to be a solider (she’s 21 in the movie). i like that she’s mad that she’s young and has been put in a position to protect herself and then later save the galaxy. (for context: luke and leia were 19 in a new hope. anakin is 19 in attack of the clones, ~22 when he became darth vader, and rey is 19 in force awakens. stop putting the fate of the galaxy in the hands of people who are *barely* adults)

the testing of the death star is awesome. love seeing wicked cool space weapons. when it blocks out the sun? ominous as hell fuck yeah.

it’s interesting that baze says cassian doesn’t look like a killer, that "he has the face of a friend", when one of the first things we saw him do was kill a man. i think about that a lot. does that say more about baze’s ability to read people or does it say more about who cassian is deep down, beyond what he’s done to serve the rebellion?

cassian’s relationship with death and killing is very interesting. you could argue that cassian is just as brainwashed and deep in the rebellion as anyone imperial. i really hope it’s something that gets explored in his stand alone show. he mentions he’s lost everything and has been a rebel since he was 6. gimme cassian andor backstory.

"careful not to choke on your aspirations director" is probably some of the most dramatic-anakin-skywalker shit i’ve ever seen vader do

i like seeing rebel infighting. so often it seems there’s always general consensus about what the rebellion wants, but it’s good to see that they don’t always agree on how to rebel.

i love the consistent "found family" rebel alliance shit in these movies. it makes my dick so hard.

ARTOO AND THREEPIO CAMEO FUCK ME UP THOSE ARE MY BOYS

okay i totally get that the empire is evil, i really do, but rogue one (and lots of moments in the sequels) really reminds me how fucking cool some of their shit is. like death troopers? imperial droids like K2? the base on scarif? vader’s castle on mustafar and his bacta tank?? fuck me UP.

i loved hearing the troopers doing their dumb small talk about the T-15s on the beach.

i think ben mendelssohn is perfect for the role of krennic, no notes there. he’s just like?? a guy and he’s doing everything he can to fit into this evil role and he just wants to be like this big bad imperial boy on campus. i don’t know. i don’t have the words right now to express how fuckin awesome he is. i’ll write an essay about it later.

THE AT-AT COMING OUT OF THE MIST?? CHRIST ON A BIKE. LAY ME TO REST. LOVE IT.

fucking love me some female fighter pilots. the women of star wars are so badass. doing justice to my return of the jedi ladies.

i think a whole lot about jyn giving K2 a blaster. the way he takes it and looks at it and holds it so gently. i think that’s the first time a human has trusted him with a blaster since his reprogramming. he seems so appreciative of that trust.

i love seeing the faces of baze and the other rebels when a few of the x-wings show up and take down an at-at. i’m so very soft for the relationship between these rebels. not to be cliche, but the *hope* that they have. it’s so moving. this movie is just so full of that quintessential rebel feeling.

hey so i’m super emotional about the death of K2 okay? because in the novelizations you learn that in the last second k2 had before a full shut down, he ran a simulation where cassian lived and even though he knew it was impossible, it made him happy. FURTHERMORE K2 is very well known and his name is often listed along side jyn’s in terms of talking about the history of the rebellion.

chirrut and baze’s deaths are so important to me. we know they’re best friends, and even though we don’t know how long they’ve been together, they love each other so deeply. chirrut being the path for baze to return to the force? touching. i so wish these dumb force husbands could have had more screen time. baze calling chirrut back?? chirrut telling him to find him in the force?? baze looking to see the man he loves one more time before he dies??reminds me of the silken quote about dying in your best friends arms because it’s all you know. anywho,,, if star wars canon has any mercy then these two lovers are force ghosts together rn. don’t care how you feel or whether you "ship" them or not. love comes in so many forms and they encompass all that love.

terribly sorry but i think about those two star destroyers colliding with the rogue one main theme playing over it every day. it’s,,,,, so,,,, ( ´∀｀)

i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again BEN MENDELSSOHN??? UH YEAH

krennic watching his weapon (his beautiful, successful weapon) power up and kill him,,, the poetic justice of it all,,,,

any time anyone says "may the force be with you" i dunno maybe it’s my religious trauma but i’m head over heels for that good shit

the star destroyer coming out of hyper space as the rebels are escaping and some of the ships hit the destroyer?? one of my favorite things in the new star wars movies is directors and writers saying "oh this can totally happen" and they DO IT

jyn mentioning earlier in the film that she isn’t used to people sticking around when shit hits the fan and then dying in the arms of cassian?? because he stayed?? and for the first time she has someone??

in that same vein: cassian also says earlier in the film that he lost everything too. his connection with jyn is also important to him, just as important as it is to jyn. they need each other. i can’t remember who on this hellsite said it, but someone mentioned that they hope the stand alone cassian stuff coming out doesn’t make him this swindling playboy who fucks around a bunch. i think having him as more of like?? a mandolorian type character would be really cool. like he’s a rebel assassin: make him one. make him independent and badass and cool and DONT give him a bunch of romantic or sexual interests because then that downplays the clear love he had developing for jyn. again LOVE COMES IN FORMS BEYOND BASIC SHIPS. and there’s a lot of love in star wars.

i’ve said it a million times but vader is so cool and over and over again this movie reminded me that he’s actually so scary. i saw star wars for the first time when i was 6 and i can’t remember my initial reaction to him, but i’ve definitely (like with the death star) been desensitized to the fact that if i was in star wars, darth vader would scare the shit out of me. he’s *scary* and that’s cool. i liked seeing vader effortlessly go fucking mad on these rebels. then you understand why they were so scared in that first scene of a new hope.

no i absolutely will not get over the vader scene. i won’t. his saber turning on. his force abilities. his effortless lightsaber work. the choral music over the scene with the hectic orchestra. don’t touch me i’m emotional.

i loved seeing leia. it touches me so deeply every time.

fuck i love this movie despite all its faults.

if you’ve made it this far, thank you!! i hope you enjoyed. please remember that this is totally a safe space for all star wars opinions and you can feel free to disagree with me! i’d love to hear what some of you thought :))

[kiwikipedia]

Hello and Goodnight

Fandom(s): Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars (Prequel Trilogy)

Rating: K

Summery: Ahsoka wanted to see the meteor shower, and unexpected visitor shows up at the docs but he's not an unwelcome one. || AU of an AU— Wolffepack against Child Abuse x MerMay AU

Pairing(s): PloKit, Micah/Plo (Past)

AO3

Part 2/3 of the May the 4th fics I have planned. Is this the cursed one? Probably not.

It's also my MerMay bit, though It might not be the only one I do for MerMay, we shall see

Edit: Originally posted on 5/4/21. The third of these mermay fics will not be reposted simply due to convince for me and the fact that it is smut and im lazy. but you can read it on my AO3 

Children, Plo Koon knew, were precious. From the moment he had held his baby sister— he had been six years old then— to his career as a teacher, and then as part of the Child Protective Services, to when he held his niece for the first time, to when he first started acting alone outside of the Protective Services…

Yes, children were very precious.

The first children that he had adopted had been when his best friend and first partner had still been alive and with them. They were the same age, though one had been eight when she had been brought into the family, the other seven.

Lissarkh had been the eight-year-old, and had survived in back alleyways, eating scraps from the ground and dumpsters, and had bitten him when he had lifted her up out of the one behind his and Micah’s apartment building. Now she was just older than Wolffe, her hair dyed green and working with Mace to uncover smuggling rings with the Courscant Police.

Or she would be, had she not decided to go back to school. And Plo was fine with covering the costs for both her and her sister.

Bultar Swan had been Plo’s— and Micah’s— very first child. She had been taken in a year before Plo rather unceremoniously found Lissarkh behind their apartment building.

Taken from abusive parents in the city of Kuat, Plo hadn’t the heart to allow the child to enter the Forster System and appealed to Micah then for help.

Ah, but that had been such a long time ago.

Micah had been shot and killed close to fifteen years ago. Bultar and Lissarkh had been twelve, and Lissarkh had only managed to have four years' worth of rather fuzzy memories with him.

Still, in grief and death, he didn’t stop his care of other children. When Bultar and Lissarkh were twelve, he had found Wolffe and his brothers.

And life continued from there.

Plo loved all his children. It was as simple as that.

And as the night continued on, and the embers of the fire began to die, he knew that. Children were precious, and he loved his children.

Plo gazed over the sleeping forms of Boost and Sinker, tangled with Nex and Nox, and Comet. Warthog, Ghost, and Wildfire sprawled in the grass nearby, and Ahsoka wedged between Wolffe and Tracer, with Bultar and Lissarkh nearby and a number of their other brothers and sisters laying in the grass around the once blazing bonfire.

Ahsoka wanted to watch the meteor shower that was due overhead rather soon. Somehow that had translated into inviting as many of the ‘Plo's bros’ from across Coruscant as possible and everyone having a cookout and bonfire in the fields by the docs.

Plo didn’t mind.

It was lively and rather amusing to watch Ahsoka and Maul gang up on Anakin and Obi-Wan. To meet Bultar and Lissarkh’s friends again, to see Sha again— though she didn’t live too far from Dorin, just on the edge of the city and no more than a three-hour ride to her apartment building.

It had been a good evening.

But now the children were all settled down to rest until they woke back up due to the numerous alarms set on various phones.

A splash down at the docks made him perk up a bit, folding his glasses back into their case and setting them on the picnic table. He stood, picking his way through the sleeping bodies and walking down to the docks.

Data and Cable (And Plo would never question the boys on the names they wished to choose for themselves) had a small boat that was docked there for when Data needed silence from the noise of the house, but that wasn’t what had alerted him and that's not what had splashed down there.

It didn’t take long to get there, nor did it require much effort to find the switch that turned on the lone lantern at the end of the dock, and a familiar form was leaning on the planks.

“Eve~ning~!”

Had the figure been a normal human, Plo might’ve been concerned about why they were on the end of his dock, but they weren’t— he wasn’t.

Not with green skin, large, dark eyes, and tentacle-like tresses instead of hair. No, this one was not human, though he did walk around in a human skin sometimes. He was a Mer, simple as that, though very different in appearance than the mermaids so commonly seen in movies and fiction. Most all of them were.

Nonetheless, Plo chuckled as he walked down the dock towards the figure.

“Hello, Kit,” he greeted, sitting down and crossing his legs upon reaching the end. A grin full of razor-sharp teeth was flashed his way before melting into a quizzical look.

“No glasses tonight?”

He chuckled. “No,” he told the other, “The light isn’t as bright at night, so my eyes aren’t bothered.”

Kit seemed to ponder on it for a moment before accepting it, something Plo assumed he would, considering how he knew a number of other Mer from the depths of the sea who were also sensitive to light.

Kit had been showing up at Dorin’s docks for a few months now, ever since Wolffe had accidentally fished him up, really. And then, of course, Plo had connected the dots a few weeks later and had met Kit Fisto the Mer-Rights activist, Kit’s human guise.

It had been a good few months of friendship, and, later, a rather interesting romantic partnership.

And Plo rather enjoyed the time spent talking with Kit.

“So what brings you by here?” he asked and the green Mer just flicked his tail, a few drops of water splashing onto his cheek where the medical mask wasn’t covering it.

“Heard some noise when I was on my way back from Aayla’s bar and decided to pop in,” Kit hummed loftily, before be paused. “Foul's still missing, by the way, so if you hear anything make sure to pass it on to her so she can get it to us.”

Plo nodded slowly at the mention of the other two— while Aayla herself wasn’t a Mer, nor was Foul, the two were still targets for the Creatures Trade. A faerie and a yeti, far from their homes, and now Foul was missing.

“I will,” he assured the green-skinned Mer, who just grinned again. “So, why are all of you and yours out this late?” he asked, leaning on his elbows as his tresses curled, flicking drops of water.

Plo hummed, glancing back at his sleeping children. “Ahsoka wanted to watch the Meteor Shower,” he told him simply.

The Mer clicked softly, chuckling before nodding. “Yes, a rather wonderful sight, even for us. If the waters are clear enough out in the open ocean, many of us head to the surface to watch when astronomical events such as this happen.”

“I think humans and non-humans can agree on that at least,” Plo chuckled softly as well, “I studied space in school a long time ago, and once wished to go, but ended up on a different path.” Kit hummed, tail and tresses flicking as he listened. “You humans are so interesting, thinking about duties you want to do for the future, even if they don’t come to pass.”

“While you Mer live in the moment.”

The said Mer just laughed, head tossed back. “Of course,” he agreed. “Why worry over something that is uncertain, and fret over what is not there yet? The future might not come, so live as you do now and enjoy it. If you look too far to the future, you lose sight of what’s around you.”

Plo couldn’t help but smile under his mask. “Perhaps,” he agreed before the sharp sound of phone alarms going off rang out in the night. Kit made a face, shaking his head as grumbles and groans came from Plo’s children, most still half asleep in the grass.

He glanced back at them, seeing Wolffe shake the sleep from his head before lightly punching Boost and Sinker so they woke up.

Kit whistled to get his attention again and Plo turned back around as the green-skinned Mer pointed upwards. He tilted his head back, smiling again under his mask as Ahsoka let out a whoop behind him. The first of many silver streaks crossed the sky, bright and beautiful and Plo reached over to the lantern, clicking it off without a word.

“Quite a sight, isn’t it?” Kit mused, “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen one at the surface. I was down near Muunilinst last time, all the way across the ocean. It’s rather bleak there, so I’m glad I’m down over here for this one.”

Plo hummed, watching the sky still as he nodded. “It is rather beautiful. I missed the last one. Feral had been extremely ill and the Nightbrothers were staying with us until he got better.”

There was silence for a moment before another splash sounded and Plo let out a slightly disgruntled noise as he was splashed, Kit hauling himself onto the dock.

He turned to gaze at the Mer, raising a brow, and Kit just grinned before leaning forwards. A single, clawed finger hooked on the edge of his mask, pulling it down and before Plo could say anything, Kit closed the distance between them.

It wasn’t a deep kiss, not like the first time Kit had kissed him out of nowhere, but it also wasn’t playful like the quick and teasing pecks the Mer had peppered across his face while he had been slightly tipsy at Aayla’s bar.

It was nice, either way though, as Kit pulled back. “Cute.”

Ah.

Plo reached up, touching his cheeks before huffing a bit and pulling his mask back up to hide his flush.

“Hush, you,” he huffed again, smacking the Mer on the arm as he laughed. That just made Kit laugh harder, tresses curling and moving in that happy way they did when he was delighted.

Plo rolled his eyes, turning his head back up to the sky as more and more meteors crossed the wide expanse. Behind him, he could hear his children talking, words of awe and wonder drifting down to the docks.

“It really is beautiful,” he murmured as Kit rested his chin on his shoulder, tresses curling and draping across the other one.

“Just like you,” the Mer teased, an equally teasing croon leaving him, and Plo bit back a laugh. The compliment was sincere, but nonetheless.

“I will push you off this dock, Kit.”

And Kit just laughed, wrapping his arms around him as the stars continued on their paths over head.

Dorin is the name that belongs to Plo's farmhouse, Data and Cable show up briefly in some of my other work and Nex and Nox showed up in the previous WPACA installment. Ghost shows up like all the time in my works hagjkfjghd. Anyways, was this the cursed one? That's for you to decide. Happy May the 4th!

[deafblindshorty]

Poe and Rey’s Underrated Friendship

I noticed that not a lot has been said about Poe and Rey’s friendship in TROS and related EU materials. That’s probably because it’s not the main focus, which I sort of understand. There are a lot of subtle moments of their friendship (even some hints towards a romantic relationship). Some of these points come from @greysmartwolf’s tumblr, others come from a discord server.

Disclaimer: I am not diminishing or minimalizing Finn’s importance to both Rey and Poe, but if it seems like it, then I’m sorry. That’s not my intent.

Let’s start from the beginning: Rey and Poe have a LOT of parallels throughout the trilogy (some of the same scenes, the same lines, they both face their past in TROS, they both blame themselves for the Resistance dying at Exegol, they almost gave up but two Rebel veterans gave them pep talks, etc). So, they have quite a bit in common including their love for flying and droids.

Also, about the age difference, age really doesn’t matter in Star Wars. Han and Leia are 13 years apart, Wedge is about ten years younger than Norra, and Snap is 16 years older than his wife Kare (He could be her father!). Huge age differences exist in other fictional materials set on our Earth- Brooke Taylor and her late husband from Legally Blonde are 34 years apart, Remus and Tonks from Harry Potter are 13 years apart, an old soap opera supercouple (Doug and Julie Williams from Days of Our Lives) are 20 years apart. As for friends, Will from Glee is in his 30s and is friends with a few 19-20 year olds and Sue who is in her 50s is besties with a 19/20 year old, 30 year old Launchpad from Ducktales is friends with 10 year old Dewey. So, 19/20 year old Rey being friends or dating 32/33 year old Poe isn’t that crazy or farfetched.

According to the TROS Visual Dictionary, Poe left BB-8 with Rey so she won’t feel lonely (and that’s probably also why BB-8 is with Rey on Tatooine). 

Poe was the first man Rey met whom she didn’t physically attack upon meeting him, and also smiled when they introduced each other. I don’t recall her smiling that wide whenever she was with Finn or Kylo.

They get along well in Poe Dameron #26-27. Poe was even a bit flirty with Rey.

It was Poe’s idea to build a Jedi training course for Rey in Star Wars Adventures, so Poe understands the importance of Rey’s Jedi training.

Rey understands what Poe went through with Kylo ( Poe also calls them ”Torture buddies!”).

When Poe, Finn, and Chewie return from the Fortress of Hothitude (I can’t remember what that planet is called. lol), Poe was so happy to see Rey. The way he walked up to Rey, his smile and his hands on hips. He badly wants to impress Rey. Alpha male!

And right after that, they have their only argument throughout the entire film. Poe and Rey quarrel in TROS was because they both didn’t listen to each other. They really only fight over the Falcon and BB-8. They both care about each other a lot, don’t blame each other in anything (except the Falcon being on fire and BB-8 missing a disc) and admit when one of them was right in argue (but prefer not to tell about that). Then Rey ends up smiling at him and Poe ends the argument by complimenting Rey (”You’re the best fighter we have. We need you.”). Also, Poe is the only one whom Rey talks to with sarcastic smile. Also, also, that argument is meant to parallel Han and Leia’s many arguments. Han and Leia argued every five minutes throughout the entire Original Trilogy, and they ended up together!

After sinking in the sand tunnels, Poe catches Rey and holds her bridal-style for a sec to steady her and was worried about her.

“He thought of protesting, of asking how Rey could possibly know which equally unremarkable direction was the right one. But Poe had learned that when Rey said things that way, her face determined, her voice unwavering, a fellow ought to just follow.” -TROS novel Poe knows Rey well. He knows when he must just shut up and do what she says. It kind of reminds me of Anakin telling Padme “Don’t worry. I’ve given up trying to argue with you.”

Poe taking the dagger from Rey in the novel and it felt like a weight has been lifted from Rey’s shoulders. It’s almost like he knew that would help.

The sand snake- I’ve never seen Poe so scared. But he is not afraid of that snake, he’s ready to combat it. I mean, he piloted the Falcon without fear into the mouth of a giant worm! Poe is afraid that snake could hurt or kill Rey. Poe wants to shoot that snake and pull Rey back, and he almost does that. And Rey amazes him again! And Poe sighs in relief when the snake calms down and slithers away.

In the novel, Poe didn’t scream “Nooo!” or “What have you done?!” when Rey “killed” Chewie. Poe knows there is no scenario in which Rey would harm her friends consciously. He most likely knows about her dark visions (Rey tells BB-8 everything, who obviously tells Poe all important stuff). Poe is not mad at Rey and doesn’t make her explain how that happened. And honestly, if he did do that, then he’d be a huge hypocrite, since he accidentally caused the deaths of the bombers in TLJ and the soldiers on Crait, which is why Poe was gentle with her. Rey understands Poe. His usual anger. They both have a huge responsibility. The Resistance on Poe and Jedi legacy on Rey. And she was ready to hear his anger, but he didn’t even plan to lay into her.

Rey likes that Poe can steal speeders and she finds his past interesting. Rey was really interested in Poe and Zorii’s past connection and Poe felt a bit smug when Rey was able to beat Zorii (He said “Don’t Dja’kanka” because he was afraid Rey would slice Zorii in half before she could help them). According to some audio book excerpts, when Rey was thinking about Poe’s past or his criminal skills, her voice was mysterious and nonjudgmental. Finn wasn’t happy to find out Poe was a spice runner, while Rey was completely fine with that, it seems she even liked that

After the Spice Runner reveal, as they traveled a snowy passageway, Poe glanced over at Rey, who was silent and frowning, lost in her own thoughts. Or maybe she was focused. Sensing something. 

When Rey rushed off to look for the dagger on Kylo’s star destroyer, Poe didn’t stop her and trusted her feelings. Poe knows when he must just follow her instincts. He learned to read her.

Look at pain in Poe’s eyes after Finn’s words. Poe wants to be closer to Rey, he wants Rey to trust him more. But Finn and Leia were still closer to Rey than Poe was. “Perhaps, she didn’t want to put the rest of the team in danger, but they had already signed up for that by joining the Resistance.” (TROS junior novel, Poe)

"She’s out there, heading toward the Death Star. Her skimmer keeps tipping over – it’s damaged. What the heck is she thinking?” (TROS junior novel, Poe) Poe is so worried here. And angry. Now he’s mad at Rey, but later he will be angry with himself for losing her.

“Rey’s nobility masked an impulsiveness that might doom them all – and as highest-ranking member of the team, Poe felt responsible for not curbing it. He had flunked the leadership test yet again.” (TROS junior novel) Poe blames himself, not Rey.

“Maybe there was something the general could do. During the battles of D'Qar and Crait she and Rey had shared beacons. Maybe there was a way she could reach out to Rey or Rey could reach out to her.” (TROS junior novel) Poe planned to find Rey!

So, Poe doesn’t think Rey abandoned them and doesn’t resent her for leaving. If he did, he’d be a big hypocrite here, too, since he abandoned his father, who was dying from a poisonous Lurker bite in Free Fall for the Spice Runners.

Poe trusts Rey and knows she can take care of herself. That’s why he didn’t rush after her like Finn did.

“Poe didn’t have his usual pre-battle swagger. He seemed distress. “What’s waiting for her out there?” he asked Finn.” (TROS junior novel) Poe worried about Rey so much! That she’s somewhere alone and they won’t be with her there.

Poe was incredibly relieved when Rey was revealed to be alive (and he was also worried about Rey when he found out the Emperor wanted her alive).

The way Poe takes Rey’s hand is special, it’s pure tenderness, and the way he rubs his thumb over her knuckles tells everything. Poe loves Rey more than friend. Also, Rey pinches Poe’s elbow with a hope, like she tries to reach him. And when Poe does the same, she happily closes her eyes and pinches him again.

Poe and Rey also acted so jealous of Finn and Zorii respectively. Poe kept asking Finn what he was gonna tell Rey when they were sinking in the sand. On Kijimi, Rey couldn’t stop thinking about what Poe’s past with Zorii was.

So, usually, men tend to date women who remind them of their mothers (Take Harry Potter for example! Ginny looks a lot like Lily Potter.). Rey and Shara Bey (Poe’s mom) look similar and they’re both brave, adventurous, and great pilots.

Men also tend to date women who remind them of their exes. Rey also looks similar to Zorii, plus they are both cagey, kept secrets, both love to argue with Poe, but they care about him, and are extremely loyal.

TL:DR. My point is that Poe and Rey are actually good friends and would be a great couple. Disney/LF were just a bit more subtle about their relationship. 

[winterreader-nowwriter]

Burn Out

I finally finished the ending! Since the ending was pretty short, I decided to just combine the two. I bolded part two so you can just scroll down to there if you want. So here’s the finished piece:

Details: Teen reader has fire magic, she gets hurt and then recovery.

We got a mission call early in the morning. Wizards were attacking New York City. Flying up to the top of a building, I turned around, looking for a wizard. You’d think a few wizards wouldn’t need the whole Avengers, but these wizards were strong. My senses start going off and I see one of the wizards behind me. Before I can move, my body stiffens and I can’t move. He’s started a spell. His clothes are a darker version of Doctor Strange’s. As he finishes, the spell I gasp as all the fire in my body disappears. I start gasping for air as he starts another spell. As black spots start blinking across my vision, I see Mjolnir fly across the sky and hit him squarely in the face. Air floods my body and I start falling. Panicking slightly, I push my magic trying to remain in the air, but it’s gone and with that thought, blackness closes in.

Coming out of the blackness, I feel rough concrete underneath me and I feel a hand on my shoulder, Mom’s. When I manage to open my eyes, I see a pair of crystal blue eyes and then my power starts surging inside of me along with something else. I can’t stop it so I push it far away from us so it doesn’t hurt Mom and Doctor Strange. In the distance, I hear an explosion. Then magic flares in my body and I feel like I’m on fire.

Doctor Strange yells, “The spell is taking over her magic. She needs cold water now!” I feel the spinning sensation accompanied with a portal, then ice, cold water. I start thrashing the thing taking over my power trying to get out of the cold water. Doctor Strange puts a hand on my forehead and I drop into a dreamless sleep.

3rd Person

Doctor Strange pulls his hand back and looks up at the ceiling, “F.R.I.D.A.Y., get Bruce in here.”

Natasha stands right by the medical tub, worriedly looking at her daughter and asks, “What the hell happened?”

Doctor Strange answers, “The wizard, as you call him, cast a spell on her to subdue her magic. The spell he started but did not get to finish was a killing spell. Her magic was drained and she’s fighting it, which caused the flare-up.”

Nat swallowed, “Okay. What about physically? And will her magic be fine when she wakes up?”

Strange replies just as Bruce runs in, “I’ll have to see when she wakes up, but it is probable that she will be drained for a few weeks and then have a lot of training in front of her.”

Bruce heads to the tub, “Is she safe to pick up now?”

Strange answered, “Yes, but I do not know her physical injuries.”

After the examination, Bruce replies, “Nothing major, thankfully Sam caught her. Her body is exhausted though. She’ll need a lot of rest.”

Back to Y/N

When I regain consciousness, my body feels like it’s made of solid ice. Prying my eyes open I blink against the harsh light. Blankets are piled on top of me and the heater is on high. I try and move, but I feel like I’ve run a marathon. Using most of my energy I push myself up, my head spinning slightly. Bruce walks in and his eyes widen slightly, “Y/N, I’m surprised to see you up. How are you feeling?”

Just then, I notice the Moon is out, it’s night time. “How long was I out?” I rasp.

“You’ve been out for four days.”

My arms buckle and Bruce gently pushes me back down, “Easy, your body’s still recovering. How do you feel?”

“Like I’ve run a marathon.”

“And your magic?”

I push my fire, but nothing happens. I push harder and blue fire coats my hand. Black spots float across my vision and the fire goes out. I’m breathing heavily and notice that my body is covered in a light sheen of sweat.

“You shouldn’t be touching your magic. Not for a week at least.” I look up and see Doctor Strange in the doorway.

I try and sit back up again, but fail and fall back down to the bed. Thinking back, my thoughts are all jumbled and I’m still exhausted. I blink heavily and my eyes start to close against my will. I push against it, I need answers. I force my eyes back open, “Why? What happened? Where’s Mom?”

Doctor Strange replies more gently, “Clint just told her to get some rest. Which you should also do. We can talk more when you wake up.”

Bruce gives a small smile, “Get some rest, kiddo.”

They both leave and I fall back asleep. Waking up the next time, the memories come right back to me. I open my eyes and see the light streaming through the windows and I try to sit up but Mom pushes me back down. She runs her hand through my hair, “Glad to see your awake. I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you woke up last night. Speaking of that, no magic for a few days.”

I sigh, ‘Can I train at least?”

She laughs, “Probably not, maybe you try and eat something first. On the bright side, you get to miss school for a few days.”

“Fine, I am hungry and no school sounds like fun. Can MJ and Peter come over?”

“Maybe tomorrow, you’re on bed rest for the rest of the day and probably tomorrow. Wanda is here for the rest of the week, then she and Vision will go back to Europe.”

I sit up and Mom frowns but doesn’t tell me to lay back down. I continue, “Yay, I’ve been meaning to spar with Wanda for ages!”

Mom shakes her head, “Nice try, no. I’ll get breakfast.”

When she comes back, I eat breakfast and she turns on the TV and puts on The Force Awakens. Whenever I’m injured, we have a tradition of watching the last trilogy in Star Wars. I think both of us could probably say the movies by memory… probably not a good thing.

Two weeks later….

I head down to the training room. Because of all the superpowers, Tony made a fireproof, lightning-proof, and probably bomb-proof area of the room.

I move to the section of training dummies. They’re spread out around the room, mostly for target practice. I take a deep breath, spread my feet wider apart, and aim for the training dummies. My fire hits the first two dummies squarely in the chest, the next two in the head, and as I aim for the next two, my magic starts flickering. I ignore it, and push through and hit the dummies. As I aim for the next ones, blue fire explodes across all the dummies and flickers out. Doctor Strange walks over and hands me a bottle of water, “You know you can ask for help, right?”

“I don’t need the water, I shouldn’t be losing control--” I cut off with a wince, as my fire flares up internally. Doctor Strange gives me a pointed glance, I roll my eyes and drink the water, and the burning goes away. “Better?”

I ignore the question, “What do you think I should do then?”

“First, when your magic is getting tired, stop. Then you’ll heal faster and be able to do more the next day. Bruce scanned your fire levels last night. You know your magic is just returning.”

I sigh, “I know, but if I would have been faster then I wouldn’t be so weak now.”

“If Thor had not thrown his hammer, you would have been dead.”

I wince at that. Doctor Strange continues, “You’re done practicing for today. You can try again tomorrow.”

I nod knowing he’s right...

(here’s part two!)

It’s been almost a month and my magic is back to normal, except when I use it for extended periods of time, or when my fire burns the most intensely, my body continues to flare up. Doctor Strange stated it was just a lingering effect of the spell, I just wish he could get rid of it or better yet find the wizard who placed it. I know; patience. Everyone keeps telling me. Maybe if patience worked, I would use it more.

“Mom, I’ve been patient, I’ve waited a month. I can control my fire and levitation and Doctor Strange said I could start going back on missions.”

My mom sighs and turns to face me on the couch, “Y/N, I’m just worried that it’s too soon. You’re rushing to get back to the field.”

I counter back, “Should I just wait casually then?”

She smiles at that, “No, I don’t expect that... I guess you can return to missions. But you’re going to start slow.”

“Yay! Thank you!” I squeal, hugging her. She smiles, “I’ll tell Steve and Tony tonight.”

I step off the Quinjet and walk towards Mom sitting on a crate. She stands up when I get close and looks me up and down, “How do you feel?”

“I’m good Mom. My flying and fire were good.”

She lets out a breath at that, “I’m glad you’re almost back to normal. There’s a mission tomorrow if you’re up for it?”

I smile, “Absolutely!”

I walk into the briefing room and Tony stops talking with Rhodey when he sees me, “Glad to have you back, Sparkles!”

Clint lets out a whoop and Sam cheers. Steve smiles, “I’m glad you’re healed, but let’s focus on the mission.”

“First wizards, now aliens. This city sure is popular,” I joke.

Clint grumbled, “I’d be happy if it was less popular.”

“But then we’d be bored!” I say while killing one of the aliens.

“Hey kid, leave some for the rest of us!” Clint jokes.

I retort, “Learn how to fly, and then you’d be able to get more!”

Tony cuts in, “As much as I love the banter--Kid, get to the ground now!”

I bank down quickly, landing next to Thor, who’s battling aliens on the ground next to a Shawarma place. Thor responds, “Young Lady Romanoff has landed, she is beside me.”

As I blast an alien, my magic starts flickering and dread courses through and I realize why just as Tony says, “I see Dr. Doomsday over here.” 

I grab a sword lying on the ground and resume fighting the aliens, Thor casts a worried glance at me but continued fighting. A few seconds later, Clint shouts, “No!”

Mom hissed, “Is Y/N okay?”

Then Bucky laughs smugly, “Yeah, he’s just being a baby because I took his shot. The wizard is gone.”

As he’s talking, I feel my powers coming back to me. Not weak, but as they were last month. Back to normal at last.

Taglist:

@snarky--starky

[shenanigans-and-imagines]

Can you give me your opinions on Phasma? And I want more than just ‘she did nothing so she sucks.’ Make it nuanced. (I feel they kind of made her a damsel in distress by accident, which led to me feeling protective of her and ultimately igniting my obsession with her. I still think she’s badass, don’t get that wrong, but I feel her vulnerable side is what made me love her.)

If you’re looking for any sympathy from me when it comes to Phasma, you won’t find it. However, I will attempt to make a more nuanced argument to explain how she fails utterly as the character she was designed to be. So, buckle in.

First, let’s lay some ground rules.

I will not be discussing any of her backstory given in the books, comics, or other forms of media.  This is a discussion specifically about how her character is utilized in the movies.  Her backstory, no matter how tragic or interesting, is irrelevant.

Second, let’s define what I mean by “the character she was designed to be”. All characters are meant to serve a function in the story.  A protagonist drives the plot.  And antagonist apposes the antagonist.  Even background characters are meant to flesh out the world in some capacity.

By the director’s own definition Phasma was mean to be, “the new Boba Fett”.  Meaning, her main function was to be a minor antagonist to one of the main trio, besides the main protagonist.  Yes, there are the superficial comparisons such as having a cool character design, not having that main lines or screen time, etc, but that’s all they are, superficial.  Her job is to be a minor antagonist, specifically to Finn.  Like how Boba Fett is a minor antagonist specifically to Han Solo.

Now what fandom has skewed for many people is that Boba Fett is not a deep character in the Original Trilogy.  He shows up in The Empire Strikes back, has a cool character design, leads Vader to Han and Leia and then fucks off.  Then, in Return of the Jedi, he’s hanging out in Jabba’s palace, kinda chillin’, and is killed unceremoniously by Han Solo. 

He’s a flat character, which is not a bad thing by any means.  A story needs flat characters just as much as they need round ones.  You don’t need to know his whole backstory for him to function in the story.  Just like you don’t need to know why Greedo is hunting Han Solo in A New Hope or what Maul’s deal is in the Phantom Menace.

A flat character is there for the round characters to bounce off of while they go off on their own journey.  If everybody is a round character in your story, there would be no focus.  Flat characters are still good characters.

Now, with those definitions establish, when I say Captain Phasma fails as a character, I mean she fails at her function at being a flat minor antagonist.

She’s flat, don’t get me wrong.  All she does in the story is carry out Kylo Ren’s order to kill the villagers, berate Finn for taking off his helmet, allow Finn and Han to capture her, turn off the shield for Star Killer Base, and get shoved down the garbage shoot.  She then shows up at the very end to fight Finn and die almost immediately.

Nothing really there regarding her backstory or deeper motivation. Which is, again, completely fine.  She doesn’t need any more than that.  She’s a muscle baddy, along the lines of Jaws from the James Bond franchise.  Somebody who serves to do the main villain’s dirty work. However, the difference between her and Boba Fett, or Jaws, or even Maul, is that she never had a moment of victory that impacts the plot.  She never really has a moment of victory, period.

While Vader is the one to put Han in carbonate, it’s Boba Fett that leads Vader to him.  There is even a cool moment on the ship where Vader steps directly in from of Boba Fett, pointing to him and says, “no disintegration” implying that Boba Fett has a reputation for disintegrating people, which is just kinda bad ass. Either way, Boba Fett’s victory impacts the plot of The Empire Strikes Back.  His action causes Vader to find Han and Leia, driving the rest of the story forward.

Maul, in The Phantom Menace does the same thing.  He just shows up to wreck Qui Gon’s and Obi Wan’s day.  Yes, he gets more development in The Clone Wars, but in the films, all we know about him is that he’s a Sith and is following the orders of his master.  He then gets one of the most bad ass introductions in cinematic history and proceeds to kill Qui Gon Jinn.  Qui Gon’s death literal changes the fate of every character in the franchise.  Even though Obi Wan kills him a few minutes later, Maul’s victor impacts the story.

Phasma never gets a moment like this.  Her being captured by Finn and Han is not her, “showing vulnerability”, it’s failing to do her job.  She then proceeds to do what they ask her to do, rather than do the more impactful thing like refusing to tell them.  Literally she could have been replaced with any lackey in The First Order and it would make no difference.  And in The Last Jedi, she does even less, ultimately losing to Finn with no really moment of true victory before to make it impactful.

All the posturing in the world doesn’t make up for the fact that she does nothing on screen.  Her one function as a character was to prove herself a viable threat to at least one of the protagonist, and she literally never does. 

So, in conclusion; she does nothing, so she sucks.

[stairset]

I think people who constantly compare the three Star Wars shows fail to appreciate just how unique they all are from each other.

Clone Wars was a show that took place in the middle of a huge intergalactic war. Since it was a passion project from Lucas himself, it had by far the biggest budget of the three shows and as such was able to regularly show huge, epic, cinematic battles, giving the show a massive, grand scale. It explored themes of corrupt governments and how war forces good people to give up their morals for what they believe to be the greater good, begging the question of "what's the point in winning a war if we can't live with ourselves afterwards?".

Rebels was a show that, like the OT, centered around a team of underdogs against a tyrannical Empire, but unlike the OT, which took place during open warfare, Rebels takes place BEFORE open warfare has been officially declared, as the many rebel cells don't officially come together until towards the end of the show. As such, there's only two huge battles, once in the season 3 finale and again in the series finale, while most other episodes show missions that involve recruiting people or stealing supplies that they need, essentially showing the Rebel Alliance slowly being built from the ground up. While the previous show explored the fall of democracy, this show explores a group of unlikely heroes laying the foundation for people to rise up to restore democracy.

And Resistance in particular was a pleasant surprise in how unique it is from its older siblings. Considering how the sequel trilogy went out of its way to hit the reset button on everything in an attempt to recreate the rebels vs empire story all over again, I was kind of expecting Resistance to be a carbon copy of Rebels, but, while they have similar titles and follow similar story structures, they're very different. Resistance explores how war affects average citizens who have been living in an age of relative peace until now, and uses a Battlestar Galactica-esque premise as the framing device for this. Only a handful of the recurring protagonists have any actual military training, while the rest are just normal people who were thrust into this conflict against their will and are essentially refugees now, and the main heroes have to keep them safe. Obviously Clone Wars and Rebels both had episodes focused on civilians as well, but it wasn't really a MAIN theme like it is with Resistance.

And the fact that all three of these shows are made by the same people just makes it even more impressive that they all have their own distinct thing to set them apart from one another. The Star Wars animation team has range and aren't afraid to try new things, and they understand Star Wars enough that they can tell multiple types of stories in the universe and give each of these stories having their own identity while still feeling true to Star Wars, and people really need to appreciate that more.

[feminist-propaganda]

The Star Wars Saga Is A Meditation On Single Motherhood

It recently dawned on me that the entire story line of the Star Wars saga is built on the lives, loves and tribulations of 3 generations of single mothers. There are monsters to slay and aliens to find and planets to explore, yes, but if you think about the powerful message in the movies, you’ll come to realize it was mostly a reflection on the status of single mothers, the outcomes of their offspring, and the conflict that lives forever in their descendants.

Each trilogy, once reframed, becomes the story of one woman, who finds herself in a situation that is as old as time. She is with child, but the person who planted the seed in her is not by her side.

Shmi Skywalker or The Good Single Mother

In the Phantom Menace, Jedi Knight Qui Gon Jin meets Anakin Skywalker, a slave boy with a talent for repairing machines. The Jedi knight is impressed with the child’s abilities. He’s knowledgeable, intuitive, and most importantly he’s also kind and thoughtful. When a sand storm threatens the group of travelers, Anakin takes them to his own home and offers them shelter. 

We meet Shmi Skywalker, who in many ways is the archetype of the good single mother. She is not just quiet. She has completely erased herself. She has no personality, apart from being Anakin’s caretaker. She expresses no needs, no desires, no dreams. She simply loves Anakin, and when she sees an opportunity for him to leave the desert planet ruled by the Huts, she doesn’t stand in his way. 

In a now famous scene, Qui Gon asks her about the child’s origins and Shmi famously responds “There was no father”. The line continues: “I carried him. I gave birth. I raised him. I can’t explain what happened”.

The immaculate conception myth refers to the idea in Christianity that Mary, much like Shmi, was impregnated by some magical force, a holy spirit. Both are parabols: images we use to discuss painful topics. Single motherhood has probably always been a part of the human experience. Jared Diamond explains in “Why Is Sex Fun?” that in terms of evolution, it is more rewarding for human males to be “super spreaders “ rather than “good fathers “ . The “good father” gene does not pass down to future generations, because in effect, not sticking around to raise the child is a better strategy for a human man to pass on his genes to the next generation. Not convinced? Just count how many women have been impregnated by a rapper like Future (8 last time I checked). If you’re not into hip-hop, you can think of the offspring of the Mongol Genghis Khan

The purpose of the parabol is to provide an image, to extract ourselves from the technicalities of onr person’s story and to instead talk about all single mothers at once. Indeed, single mothers come in all shapes and sizes. Some are widowed, some are abandoned, others are lied to, and some run away from abusive environments.

Shmi raises her son the best she can, and her love for him is unconditional. She doesn’t bat an eye when he is freed while she is to continue her life as a slave. She doesn’t even seem to mind when Anakin leaves the planet and never returns to free her, even after he marries into some serious money. 

But the story of Star Wars tells us that Shmi’s relationship to Anakin, because it was so fusional, because it was all that he had, led to his undoing. In Episode 2, when he senses she is in danger, he jeopardizes his mission to protect Padme to go rescue her. When he eventually finds her, he is so upset about her ultimate death that he commits mass murder, targeting the Tuskan riders of the sea of Dunes.

When Yoda first lays eyes on Anakin, he senses Anakin’s pain, he is just a child whose been ripped away from the only human that’s ever cared for him deeply. The turmoil inside the boy is palpable, and Yoda advises against training him. 

Padme Amidala or The Bad Single Mother

Anakin develops feelings for Padme, and in Episode 2 the pair decide to secretly get married in the lake district of Padme’s home planet Naboo. Their relationship is very intense. Both share a strong sense of civic duty: Padme was elected queen of the Naboo when she was just 14 &  Anakin is a keeper of the peace. They care deeply about issues such as how the galaxy must be governed, how much action needs to be taken versus when diplomacy must be prioritized. 

Their strong sense of service has made them lonely young people. They’re far away from their families, surrounded by advisors, servants and droids - not friends. 

They jump into their relationship with an eagerness that suggests it is their original caretakers they crave for.

Padme becomes pregnant while the Clone Wars are raging, and immediately Anakin begins to experience trouble with his sleeping. He imagines Padme is dying in childbirth, and the visions haunt him during the day. His fear that she will die ultimately leads to his decision to join the Dark side of the force. Senator Palpatine has manipulated him into believing that Sith Lords have discovered the power to prevent death itself. 

Just like his mother before him, we need to look at Anakin’s story in terms of symbolism. It isn’t really about his specific experience with fatherhood : it’s about the universal conflict that men feel towards their own offspring. Even the way it is announced to him, in the Senate chambers, barely hidden from the rest of the Coruscant elite, implies some sort of entrapment. The columns around them seem to be like a cage that is closing in on his life. He is in the middle of the Wars - he should be celebrating his victory over General Grivious, but instead he is stuck with his wife and he has to absorb her anxiety & reassure her. 

Anakin makes a weird, forced smile and says : “This is a happy moment.” But neither Padme nor the audience believe him. Nothing about him feels happy, he isn’t relaxed: he is tense.

At the end of Episode 3, Anakin attempts to kill Padme when she condemns the mass murders he’s committed against the younglings in the Jedi temple. Hr uses for the first time his “strangling” trick, which becomes his signature move in the original trilogy. 

Palpatine makes Anakin believe that he’s killed Padme, but the truth is somewhat more nuanced. She dies of heartbreak shortly after giving birth to twins. For anyone who thought this was corny, it’s actually been proven by the scientific community that heartbreak reduces your life expectation (it diminishes the size of the telomeres in your body cells, which is the molecule that helps replicate your DNA). 

As Lisa Feldman Barret wrote in How Emotions Are Made: 

Emotional harm can shorten your life. Inside your body, you have little packets of genetic material that sit on the ends of your chromosomes like protective caps. They’re called telomeres. All living things have telomeres—humans, fruit flies, amoebas, even the plants in your garden. Every time one of your cells divides, its telomeres get a little shorter (although they can be repaired by an enzyme called telomerase). So generally their size slowly decreases, and at some point, when they are too short, you die. This is normal aging. But guess what else causes your telomeres to get smaller? Stress does. Children who experience early adversity have shorter telomeres. In other words, emotional harm can do more serious damage, last longer, and cause more future harm than breaking a bone

More severe cases involve patients actually dying of a broken heart, the myocardia just collapses under the weight of the sadness the human feels.

The original trilogy should be re-viewed with all of this new information we have. In the 80s, when Empire Strikes Back came out, the “I am your father” line became instantly iconic. But the plot twist was more like an “Oh My gosh!” moment rather than a profound reflection on fatherhood. The audience sympathized with Luke not because his father had been absent and negligent, but because his father’s job was to serve a fachist leader. It was the actions of Darth Vader as a political servant that were questioned, not his refusal to nurture a smaller being. 

Padme is the opposite of Shmi. She is the archetype of the “bad” single mother. The bad single mother is the single mother who can’t deal with the situation and checks out of it. She collapses under the weight that she feels on her shoulders. She can't get over the heartbreak, she can’t find the will to live. 

Society tends to punish the Padme’s just as much as it praises the Shmis. Television programs like “Teen Mom” are set up to shame the young deviants into adopting the correct behavior. The purpose of the show is to judge these young women into becoming self-sacrificing mothers.

Leia Organa - The Non-single Single Mother

Leia Organa is Anakin Skywalker’s daughter. She is raised by an adoptive frailly on Alderaan after she’s separated at birth from her brother Luke. Much like her mother, she becomes a dedicated public servant, a trusted leader and a beloved public figure. 

She is raised by a wealthy family in the central galactic systems. The Organas teach her the ways of the elite political class. As an adult she serves the cause of the Rebels, and when she meets Han Solo in Episode 4, the mediocre smuggler fascinates her. 

In the now famous scene from Hoth in Episode 5, Leia declares her love for Han Solo right as he’s about to be frozen in carbonite. The ultimate bad boy responds his chilling, because realistic  “I know”.

Han is nothing compared to Leia. He drives a broken down ship, doesn’t have any morals or even a simple code of conduct, much less a cause that he’s dedicated his life to. He has nothing to offer her, and is definitely not in her league. But still, in Episode 6, the pair become an official item.

The last Trilogy was an opportunity to explore Leia’s experience with motherhood. By now we know that Leia’s grandmother was a “Good single mother”, she completely sacrificed herself to protect her son & more importantly she never questioned her status of sole caretaker (remember the “there was no father“ line). We also know that Leia’s mother was a public servant, and a passionate woman who allowed herself to fall deeply in love with a sensitive young man with a non existing support system. Leia’s mother was the “bad” single mother: driven only by her career (Queen of the Naboo, later a Senator of the Old Republic) she did not step up to the task when her destiny revealed itself to her.

Leia seems to share her mother’s taste in reckless young men with a lot of attitude and no emotional security to offer. It’s the excitement she craves, not the tranquility.

Her fate will be the same as her foremothers. She has a child with Han, but when she sends him away to be trained by Luke, she loses them both.

Their dialogue in Episode 7 goes like this: 

Han Solo : Listen to me, will you? I know every time you... Every time you look at me you're reminded of him.

Leia : You think I want to forget him? I want him back.

Han Solo : There's nothing more we could have done. There's too much Vader in him.

Leia : That's why I wanted him to train with Luke. I just never should have sent him away. That's when I lost him. That's when I lost you both.

The last trilogy develops Leia’s character in a way that allows her to be something else than just a single mother. She loses her husband, she even loses her son to the dark side: but she never loses herself. Leia doesn’t allow her condition to define her. She becomes a leader of the Resistance even if it means going after her son’s New order. 

In Episode 9, Leia even destroys her son to protect Rey - the symbolism is that she’s overcome her role as a mother, she’s rejected the notion that she must sacrifice everything for her son even if it goes against her own self interest (like Shmi). She also rejects the idea that her partner abandoning her is the end of her. It isn’t. Unlike her mother, she finds the will to live, and to lead the next generation of freedom fighters and peace keepers.

The saga ends on a hopeful note for all of us single mothers out there. It comes with a message for us : we don’t need to choose between the austere Shmi and the weak Padme. We can instead decide that this “single mom” problem is kind of like beauty : it lies in the eyes of the beholder.

Single moms don’t need to think of themselves as failures, they don’t need to live in modest conditions, they don’t need to beg society's forgiveness for merely existing. They don’t need to be ashamed. 

Single moms don’t need to erase their brains and their lives, and sink into an ocean of denial either. They don't need to be obsessed with their careers or caught up in romantic entanglements that are only going to exhaust them.

Single moms can just decide that they’re women, with beautiful, inspiring personalities and kind, loving hearts. Mothers are first and foremost, the leaders of the young, the protectors of the realm and the makers of the future. It’s not that it doesn’t matter that they’re alone. It’s that they don’t have to be alone at all.

[darth-schism]

So rumors of subverting the sequels/making them their own pocket universe have  pretty much been shot down. I mean...it was expected, but it was a fun hope while it lasted. That said, we might end up with something that would still be...I dunno...nice? Something that makes the sequels a little more bearable even? 

Getting right to it. Statements have been made that all these live action shows will be leading to TFA/the sequel trilogy. And as long as their going to do that, they may as well make it count for something. Therefore I’d like to present my top Please Do This Because It Would Be Nice ideas, for the live action Star Wars shows:

1. Establish the First Order (Get Hux. Get the Knights of Ren. Hell even get Pryde in there so things are at least a LITTLE more relevant).

2. Establish the Emperor (I understand. Bringing Palps back will always be a shit choice. But as long as we’re stuck with it, we may as well make it work as best we can. So get Snoke on scene and lay the ground works for Palp’s return. Is Snoke just the Emperor in a different body? Is he his own spirit that Palp’s cultivated into a body? [actually I got a whole post idea on that one, but for now] it doesn’t matter. He just needs to be used, and used in a way that makes the return of the Emperor slightly, slightly more excusable/enjoyable).   

3. Solidify Rey’s lineage (Again, another terrible choice, but at least something can be done to make it less random, and less garbage than how it was explained in film, and reexplained even worse through like...Twitter was it)?

4. Get. Mark. Hamill. On. Set (Give him moments of pure, “current age” [albeit probably with some hair dye] moments of badassery. Add layers to the reason he isolated himself [Keeping Grogu safe, keeping Snoke distracted/obsessed with finding him. Etc]. It doesn’t really matter as long as A: It’s for a reason he’d never be able to tell anyone about, including people who happen to find him, like Rey. B: Someone shuttles him off island for something cool here and there so he’s still a hero of the galaxy, even if he can’t be that public symbol of hope. C: Have him still very much struggling with what happened and holding to his convictions about the ownership of the force etc, Because that still has to stay relevant for TLJ. And D [most importantly] It proves that Luke HADN’T GIVEN UP. It would be just enough of a change that Luke’s story is still sympathetic. But reaffirms him as a hero and, most importantly, let’s Mark Hamill have fun with the character again). 

5. Make sure we know that Jannah is Lando’s daughter (Again X3, not the best plot device. But it’s better than the near pedo vibes Lando had going on at the end of ROS). 

6. You’ll never get Oscar Isaac back on set (you fools) but if you ever manage to...well...you crammed a real hard “no homo” moment in the last movie, at the last second, and it would not be opposed to you giving him a “big gay” moment to counter balance it. Food for thought. 

Obviously there could be dozens of more plot point refinement, explanation, and Easter eggs. But this covers the basics for me, and I’d love to hear what the rest of you think. What could be some other cool ideas? 

[loopy777]

Book two: earth seems to be your favorite from ATLA and it’s my absolute favorite season too. I love hearing reasons why people loved season two so I wanted to ask you what about book two stands out to you?

The narrative propulsion! Sure, it starts a bit slow (”The Cave of Two Lovers” spends too much time on a fairly nothing plot, I lowkey hate “Avatar Day” except for the Kyoshi flashback and the final gag, and I think “The Swamp” is boring, unnecessary foreshadowing), but once we hit “The Blind Bandit” -- which, I should point out, introduces Toph who is one of the most delightful characters in fiction -- it’s a straight-up solid run all the way to the finale.

I’ve said this on ASN back in the day, but Book Earth is outright one of best balances between a continuing narrative and episodic content on all of TV. Except for the episodes I mentioned in my aside, every episode moves the story along in some way, whether it be by advancing the plot, implementing character growth, revealing important context to characters or the setting, or some combination of all three. Every episode leads into the next, but every episode is also perfectly watchable on its own. Even the ‘two-parters’ are made up of two perfectly functional standalone episodes! That’s just showing off!

In comparison, Book Water and Book Fire tread water for much of their seasons. I’m still not sure why the gAang is traveling through the Fire Nation in the beginning of Book Fire, and Book Water is stuck in the ‘going north’ mode even after big revelations like the return of Sozin’s Comet: “Aang, you have a time limit on your subplot now, so keep doing exactly what you were doing before this episode!” Book Earth is the only one in AtLA that can be summarized as “This leads to this leads to this leads to this leads to...” And everything builds on what came before, leading to a weighty climax.

Book Earth also expands the cast. Literally the only regular who doesn’t return from Book Water is Zhao, and then it adds Toph, Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee. Suki and Jet get to come back from one-off appearances as more interesting characters with good subplots. But, despite all that, the returning main characters don’t suffer from the growth of the ensemble. Aang, Katara, Zuko, and Iroh all get deeper characterization and great chances for growth. Even Appa, the Clever Animal Sidekick, gets an episode devoted to him as a character!

I left Sokka out of there his is a bit of a unique situation; his character shifts into a completely different archetype over the course of the entire series, starting from the Stick-In-The-Mud comic relief to the Wacky-Sidekick comic relief. Now, he does get quickly developed as more than just comic relief, and he as a great character arc over the course of the series, but that shift in tones of his comedy does make for an odd feel. I mention that, though, only to point out that Book Earth is where is in that transition state between “No bathroom breaks!” and “Enemy birds!”, and that state is where he’s at his best. He’s still a bit of a no-fun guy, but he also spends an episode obsessing over whether to buy himself a nice bag, and then there’s the time he tried to feed Momo to a sea-serpent to save his own skin. Sokka hits that wonderful, charismatic happy medium in Book Earth.

But lets get back to the new characters. Toph. Need I say more? Azula. One of the greatest antagonists in fiction ever, IMO. Mai and Ty Lee. Fun minibosses who turn out to have characters deserving of a lot more screentime. And there’s even a new min-villain in the form of Long Feng, who’s perfectly despicable to a greater degree than Zhao, is the antagonist for one of the best sub-arcs in the series, and even has an interesting psychology and backstory that could have gotten more time. Book Earth was striking gold with every new character it brought in, one after another.

And, all that stuff aside, the writing is just so good. Zuko Alone? Appa’s Lost Days? Tale of Iroh? You could show that to people who have no idea about the whole rest of AtLA and I guarantee they would have their hearts broken. Everything else (again, aside from those three episodes I mentioned as not liking) is also super solid, with plenty of charm, fully functional arcs, great character interplay, some of the best action scenes on television ever, and plenty of human interest.

And then there’s that finale! It’s the perfect mix of counter-intuitive (no one expects Zuko to side with Azula) and perfectly logical (once we stop and think about, there was really no other satisfying way to show that Zuko has grown beyond the rewards he was being offered).

Of course, I do have to give credit to Book Water laying the foundations for all of this. Without introducing the great main cast and the well-defined, interesting setting, Book Earth would have nowhere to go. Book Fire is a bit shaggy, but it absolutely pays off on everything that was set up, so we can enjoy Zuko’s betrayal and know that he’ll eventually get on the right path. The Star Wars sequel trilogy shows how a bad ending can destroy everything that came before, and LoK shows what happens when the proper groundwork isn’t done for the characters or story. Book Earth gets to shine because it’s where the story can go wild and have fun, because all the pressure is off its shoulders.

Also, I have a soft spot for this season because the very first episode of AtLA that I encountered was the last ten minutes of “Lake Laogai.”

Let me tell you: Jet’s death gives a very interesting first impression of the series.

[sidehowriting]

Death’s Door

Masterlist in Bio! 

A/N: So, I got a request months ago and because of who I am as a person it has taken me this long to do it. I even entered a challenge to try to get me to write it faster. That obviously failed but better late than never? 

This is for @star-spangled-man-with-a-plan Multi Fandom Celebration! It’s also for fulfilling a request that was based on Supernatural 14x8 Byzantium.

Also, in case anyone is wondering as you read, it takes about 14 hours to watch the first 6 Harry Potter movies back to back. I have done this many times. 

Prompt:  “I think I’m having a feeling. How do I make it stop?”

Request:  Well, can you do one where Jack is sick and the reader is so concern (when like he is dying) and turns it to fluff?

Pairings: Jack Kline x Reader

Summary: You have a lot of unresolved feelings after Jack dies.  

Word Count: 3.1k

Warnings: Swears, fluff, angst, character death (not permanent), drinking

You’ve reached Dean Winchester’s other other other phone…

“Son of a bitch Dean!” You threw your phone on your passenger seat as you continued to zoom down the highway. Your fingers were tapping rapidly against the steering wheel, knuckles turning white. “Can’t just tell me Jack’s sick and then not pick up.”

Dean had called you yesterday and with all the studying you were doing you didn’t notice the voicemail until today. Then every time you tried to call him back it goes right to voicemail. All his cell phones. Sure, you could call Sam, but you found Dean to be better at giving bad news then his brother. Sam tended to sugar coat things more and that was not what you needed right now. 

Pulling up to the bunker you slammed the door shut and raced inside. “Hello!” You called, jogging down the stairs. “Sam! Dean! Cas!”

Cas was the first one to greet you, trench coat flowing behind him. “Y/N,” he said, his voice grave. “You came.” 

“‘Course.” You tossed your coat onto one of the chairs. “How is he?”

Castiel exhaled long and loud. “Not good.” 

Pushing past him you called back, “Why didn’t anyone call me sooner?”

“There wasn’t time,” Castiel said, easily matching your pace. “It all escalated quickly.” 

Groaning in frustration, you headed down the hall towards Jack’s room. You could clearly hear his coughs echoing in the corridor.  

Sam and Dean were in the room when you entered. Jack was lying on his bed, looking absolutely horrible. His face was so pale, forehead sweaty, eyes sunken in. What the hell had happened? But the moment he saw you, his eyes lit up. “Y/N!” He started to smile but that quickly changed to a coughing fit. 

Tentatively, you went to his side, Sam moving out of the way for you. “Hey, Jack,” you smiled sadly at him. “How you feeling?” 

“Not good,” he said between coughs. 

You looked up from him to the two brothers. Both of them wearing matching grim faces. Dean stepped out of the room, muttering to himself how he can’t do this. You ignored him, taking Jack’s hand in yours. 

You lightly stroked your finger across his palm. “Yeah, I heard,” you said so softly. 

“Shouldn’t you be away at school?” He sounded more concerned for you than he did for himself. 

“You’re way more important than that right now, Jack.” 

He strained to smile; lips tainted red with blood. “You’re so nice.” 

Despite the tears that were starting to form behind your eyes, you laughed. “Yeah, I guess I am. Don’t tell anyone, okay?” 

His sweet laugh was cut off by another coughing fit. “Have you died before?” He asked, trying to catch his breath.

Shaking your head, you said, “No. I haven’t. I think that’s more Sam and Dean’s forte.” 

“It’ll be an adventure then.” He sounded at peace with this which just made your heart ache more. He closed his eyes and that was that. He was gone. 

//

It was decided that Jack would get a hunter’s funeral but first, you guys wanted to drink and celebrate his short life. There was no way you were going to be able to drive back to school tonight, regardless of how much you drank. And you drank a lot. Anything to numb the pain of losing one of your best friends. 

“Can I stay here for the night?” You asked, several drinks in and suddenly worried that you never officially asked to stay the night. The brothers had made it clear beforehand that you were welcomed anytime but you were getting too drunk to fully recall. 

“‘Course you can, kiddo,” Dean said kindly. “You know you always have a place at the bunker.” 

You smiled, suddenly overwhelmingly tired. The alcohol hitting you hard and making you just want to lay down and rest. Pretend like today didn’t happen. You got up from the bar stool, unsteady on your feet. Your legs wobbled under you, making it hard to stabilize yourself. 

Sam, being the giant he is, grabbed you easily, helping keep you steady. “Easy there,” he said, still holding onto your arm. “Alright, you’re wasted.” 

“Am not!” You denied but knew you were. “I’m just not good at balancing.” 

The smile on Sam’s face wasn’t as forced as you thought it would have been. “You’re not completely wrong about that. C’mon, I’ll make sure you get to your room alright.” 

You didn’t fight him and said your goodnights to Dean and Cas as the younger Winchester helped you walk. He didn’t seem as impaired at all. You were such a lightweight compared to the three men. It wasn’t fair. 

“Sam,” you whined, halfway to your old room. “I miss Jack.” 

“I know you do,” he said, his voice gentle. 

“Why didn’t you guys tell me sooner he was sick?”

“Honestly, Y/N there wasn’t time. He hid it from us for so long that by the time things got bad, it was too late. Dean called you the moment we knew something was wrong.” You believed him but that didn’t make the pain any better. It just made you hurt worse. 

“It’s just… god this really sucks, Sam,” you said, starting to feel the tears fall again. 

“I know, kiddo.” He placed his large hand on your shoulder. “I know. I’m sorry you didn’t know sooner.” Making it to your old bedroom, Sam pushed open the door and the two of you stepped in. 

You sniffled and hiccupped, the alcohol still swimming around in your bloodstream. You sat down on your bed, still feeling lightheaded. You were going to have a hangover in the morning. But that didn’t matter now.

“Jack…” You whispered, “He’s dead. He’s dead and I… I, just…” Memories started swimming around in your brain. Days spent with Jack in the bunker while the brothers were out hunting. Taking rides with him with one of the cars at your disposal. Staying up late with him while you studied for college entrance exams. They were fuzzy from being drunk but the emotions behind them all were still there. “I think I’m having a feeling…” You felt a knot in your stomach as the memories continued to crash down on you. It felt warm and tingly and made you wanna puke-or maybe that was the booze-but you didn’t like it. “How do I make it stop?”

Sitting down next to you, Sam laughed to himself. “You can’t really,” he said, the bed sinking under his added weight. “Love doesn’t work like that.” 

“Love!?”

“Yeah. You’re in love with him.” Sam said it so matter-of-factly you were sure he had to be as drunk as you. 

“Pardon? I’m not in love with him?” Saying it made your insides feel funny again. 

Sam gave a slight chuckle and stood up. “Yeah. Right. You totally are.” 

“I’m not!” You said, louder than you intended. You jumped up from the bed, the quick motion making you lose your balance and you ended up falling back onto your ass. “I’m not!” You said again, deciding this time to stay sitting. 

Sam turned towards you, a smile still on his stupid face. “Everyone can see it, Y/N. It’s pretty obvious.” 

“Uh, no it’s not,” you countered. “Because there’s nothing to see. We’re just friends...were just friends.” His death, the finality, hitting you full force again. Whatever feelings you had for him; it didn’t matter now. He was gone.

“Get some rest,” Sam said, changing the subject. “It’s been a long day.”

“Okay,” you said meekly, throat constricting with sobs again. “You won’t do the pyre without me, right?”

“‘Course not.” Sam patted your shoulder before leaving your room, closing the door behind you. 

You were left alone, drunken thoughts and feelings swarming inside of you. You didn’t know what to think or how to feel. Jack’s dead. You’re in love with him? That history paper you were supposed to be working on is going to have to get turned in late. 

Climbing under the covers, tears started to roll down your cheeks again. You were not in the right state to deal with any of this at the moment. Instead, you got comfortable and shut your eyes, hoping the whisky would make it easy for you to fall asleep. 

//

You walked into the bunker, Jack right behind you. “C’mon,” you said, laughing. “We have all the snacks, we gotta start the marathon soon if we wanna get to the sixth one by midnight.” 

Jack followed as you lead the way to your room, bags of candies and chips and other junk food in your arms. Sam had shown the boy the Star Wars trilogy, and now it was your turn to show him the Harry Potter movies. He was excited about this, already a fan of sci-fi, you couldn’t wait to show him fantasy. 

You booted up your laptop and started with Sorcerer's Stone, breaking open the first bag of chips. There would be many more to come as the two of you watched and laughed and you answered all the questions he had. 

Sam and Dean left the two of you alone for the most part, only yelling about dinner when the time came. As the night progressed and you made your way through the series, you started to get tired. This wasn’t your first Harry Potter marathon and it was always your goal to finish through Half-Blood Prince the first day and do Deathly Hallows 1 and 2 the next. 

Except you were struggling to keep your eyes open as the sixth movie started. You remembered Dumbledore requesting Harry to help him get Slughorn and then the next thing you knew the headmaster was falling from the astronomy tower. 

You picked up your head from Jack’s shoulder (when did you lay it on him?) and squinted at the too bright screen. “Did I…? I’m sorry,” you said, peeking up at the half angel. “Why didn’t you wake me?”

“You looked really peaceful,” he said, his attention now fully on you. “And you’re a human. You need more sleep than I do.” 

Pushing yourself back up into a sitting position, you said, “That’s really nice of you, but you could have woken me up. I wouldn’t have minded.”

You thought you could see some red spreading across his cheeks. “I liked how you were laying on me.” 

No, he couldn’t be blushing, and his tender words definitely weren’t making you blush either. “You’re comfortable,” you commented and placed your head back on his shoulder. “I could probably sleep like this all night.” 

And you did. 

//

You couldn’t believe you got accepted to your first-choice college. It was like a dream come true. And you got a partial scholarship for your SAT scores. Sam and Dean were so happy and proud of you, offering to go out and celebrate...as soon as they come back from their hunt. That left you and Jack alone in the bunker to wait for them. 

“So,” Jack said, reading your acceptance letter again. “You’re going to be going away to school, like Harry Potter did?”

“Kinda,” you said, suddenly feeling sad you would be leaving your makeshift family behind. Especially Jack. The two of you had gotten so close and really bonded. He was your best friend, your confidant, and you were his. “I’ll still come back and visit though, a lot more than Harry did.” 

Despite the fact that he was smiling, Jack’s eyes looked really sad. “I’m really happy for you, Y/N.” He handed you back the letter and you tucked it away in your jean pocket. “Sam and Dean told me you’ve been working hard to go to college.” 

“Yeah, it’s been a dream of mine. I thought...after the hunt that went wrong and I lost my dad, I’d never be able to go. But you know Sam and Dean. They took me in and have done whatever they could to help.” 

There was a moment where neither of you spoke. You knew Jack was happy for you. The boy didn’t have a selfish bone in his body, but then why did his eyes look so sad? It couldn’t be because, in a way, you also felt sad. You’d have to leave the brothers and Jack and be forced to make new friends. 

Without thinking, you stepped forward and embraced him in a hug. He welcomed you in warmly, holding you tighter than he normally hugs. You felt safe in his arms, not only because of his ever-growing powers but because of how close he held you. 

“I’ll miss you when you go,” he said, the sadness now coming through in his voice. He tightened his hold on you, head resting in the crook of your neck. 

You stood up on your tiptoes, trying to wrap your arms around as much of him as you could. “I’ll miss you too,” you said, suddenly second guessing if this was what you wanted. 

As if sensing your new hesitation, he spoke up. “You’re gonna have a great time, though.” 

You inhaled deeply, trying to keep your emotions in check. So much excitement and happiness and now confusion and hesitation and maybe longing. You didn’t want to think about any of that anymore. You just wanted to focus on this moment with Jack.

“I will,” you said, closing your eyes and getting lost in his embrace. “And I’ll always come home to you.” 

//

The sun was shining way too bright and you groaned. You were going to grab a pillow and throw it over your head, but you were worried the motion would make you sick. 

You definitely drank too much last night, your stomach super queasy now. And you were agitated for being woken up when your dreams had been so nice and peaceful. Reminders of everything you and Jack had. Fuck, Sam might be right. 

But Jack was dead now. Your feelings for him didn’t matter. You were confident one of the brothers or Cas would march into your room at any minute to tell you they were going to start the hunter’s funeral. Until then, maybe you could close your eyes again. Just for a little bit. 

And that little bit turned out to be a lot longer than you anticipated. The next time you opened your eyes, the sun was in an entirely different position. Hours had passed. Your stomach felt better as a whole, just a little empty and needing food. 

Something wasn’t right, though. Someone should have woken you up by now. It was much too late in the day. The funeral should have happened by now. You would be heartbroken if you weren’t included for that. 

Slowly getting up, your head started to pound. Why did you have to drink so much last night? A glass of water caught your eyes on your bedside table. Next to it was a couple pills, presumably aspirin. Bless whichever brother, probably Dean, dropped that off last night while you were sleeping. 

You knocked back the pills and chugged the full glass, the water helping you feel better all over. Setting the cup down you stood up, not feeling as weak and nauseous as you tend to after drinking. 

You left your bedroom, faintly hearing Sam and Dean’s voice coming from the war room. You couldn’t tell what was going on, but you did start to hear another voice. One that sounded suspiciously like Jack…

Picking up the pace you went as fast as your hung-over body would allow you to go. When you finally made it, you froze instantly. Jack was there. Alive. Sam and Dean both hugging him fiercely like Jack was their own. 

“Wha…?” You took a few tentative steps forward. “I don’t.... Jack?”

The Nephilim looked up at you, smiling his typical sweet smile. He looked like he had died and come back to life but that didn’t matter to you. He was here.

“Y/N!” He pushed himself off the table he was placed on, legs wobbling as he walked over to you. “I’m back.” 

“I see that.” You reached out, first touching his arm, then his chest, then moving your hand up to his cheek. His skin was a bit sticky from sweat. “You’re back. Holy fuck, you’re back.” 

“I’m back,” he repeated, eyes staring right into yours. 

All the feelings you were trying to repress last night came up. You pulled him to you, hugging him like you would never see him again. “Jack,” you sobbed, fingers twisting themselves in his shirt. 

He reciprocated the hug instantly, his warmth penetrating your skin and going straight to your soul. “It’s okay,” he reassured, one of his hands going to your hair, his fingers running through it. “It’s okay.” 

“I thought you were gone forever.” You sniffled, burying your face in his chest. His heart beating rhythmically against your ear, signaling he was alive and in your arms. “I thought… “ 

“Sam and Dean,” he said, pulling away to look at you face to face again. “I’m not sure what they did but it worked.”

You peaked over Jack’s shoulders, seeing the Winchester brother’s smiling at the two of you. “We were going to wake you,” Sam started to explain.

“But when I went into your room you were snoring so loud it was like a truck was driving through,” Dean added, his comment making your cheeks burn in anger and embarrassment. You didn’t snore that loud. “So, we let ya sleep. Figured it was probably for the best. If this didn’t work…”

“We didn’t want you to get hurt anymore.” You appreciated Sam and Dean’s concern. And with how much you drank last night the extra sleep was probably much needed. 

You turned your attention back to Jack, just so happy to have him here. “Jack…” You gazed up at him, unsure what you wanted to say. Should you tell him how you feel? Is it too soon? You just decided that yes, you did love him. He might not even feel the same way. 

You didn’t have to worry about a response, Jack took the initiative and kissed you. His lips were softer and sweeter than you imagined, and you felt like you were on a cloud. It didn’t last long, but it was more than enough to make you breathless. 

His eyes slowly opened, and he grinned proudly. “Dean said I should do that.”

You glanced back over at the eldest brother who was giving the two of you a thumbs up. You rolled your eyes, bringing your focus back to the adorable boy who just stole your heart. “He was right,” you said, smiling at him. “And you should probably do it again.” 

He obliged, tilting his head and kissing you once more. There was a lot more you wanted to say. A lot more you wanted to talk through with Jack. But for that one moment, nothing else mattered.

Tags: @lancsnerd @teddybeardoctorr @panic5secb4exam