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oneatlatime · 1 year ago

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Ten episodes in!

Roughly half way through the first season, so it's time for a bit of a round up of my thoughts and impressions.

First, and most important: IT'S SO PRETTY. Seriously! The animators didn't have to pour so much love into each background and sunset, but they did! Introductory shots that last for three seconds or less ought to be framed and hung on a gallery wall. And I think that really sets the tone for the rest of this show: as a viewer, you can feel that everyone who worked on this show has love for it. There are background flourishes, pauses in plot for character and vice-versa, delicate and thoughtful treatments of difficult themes, and just so much heart. Not insincere performative heartwarming chicken noodle soup for the soul forward to five of your friends and then the whole bus clapped garbage either. Genuine heart. I feel like I'm watching something that is well loved, that comes from a happy home.

And that heart is the reason this show works. The concept of 'Kids' cartoon about a genocide survivor' never would have made it off the drawing board otherwise. It still sounds crazy when I type it out.

My thoughts so far on the characters:

Aang: Sweet little guy. Literally the only child currently alive not born into a world at war, and it shows. Also exactly the dose of fun and light-heartedness that the world as it is seems to be lacking. Has enviable serenity and a deeply rooted sense of self/self-confidence (probably thanks to Gyatso) that most adults don't. Deceptively deadly, if he ever chose violence. I am really hoping that the show doesn't make him grow up and kill people. He's lovely as he is right now.

Katara: Huge heart, too much trust. Intense. Frankly a bit much at times. Certainly feels way too much quite often. Ride or die for Aang. Would kill for and kill her brother. PEAK little sister. Has a borderline irrational amount of compassion that, when paired with her explosive temper, would make her the most deadly person in the world if it ever got twisted around to face the wrong direction (if that makes sense - like the potential for some really bad outcomes is there). Totally the girl who stole from the mall in 8th grade. Not over her mother's death to a borderline annoying degree. Tries so hard to be an adult, but keeps slipping up and acting her age.

Sokka: My favourite by a mile. Funny, delightfully sarcastic, wicked smart, can keep up with (and in fact is in charge of babysitting) the most powerful bender in the world and a fairly volatile, half-trained bender with temper problems. Perceptive (looking at you, Jet). Also ride or die for Aang and Katara, just in a more quiet way. The fact that he was willing to single-handedly face down a fire nation ship and certain death to protect his family & village kind of says it all. Either completely over his mom's death or has bottled up all emotion to the point where he wouldn't recognise her if he passed her on the street. Swings regularly between far too old for his years and half-grown teenage boy with manliness issues. Motormouth. Somehow both comic relief and linchpin. If he ever gets really quiet, you'll know things are getting serious - like there's a fire nation ship about to attack his village.

Appa: How many times has his big fluffy butt saved the day? Understands an amount of English that changes from episode to episode depending on the needs of the plot. Probably as deadly as Aang, if he chose to be, except with teeth and several tonnes of weight too. Both Aang's dog and Aang's dad. Why does he have six legs? Do extra legs present any flying advantages? Are they just for enhanced hugging? I hope so. There's a reason he's plastered all over this blog and it's not his martial prowess.

Momo: I'm not sure if he knows what's going on? Appa and the humans are very much aware that they're all on a quest, but I think Momo is just chilling. Can be very useful when he feels like contributing (thinking of the pirates and the keep-away scroll shenanigans), but is certainly the group's cat-equivalent. Also seems to vary wildly in size depending on the needs of the animators. I love his noises.

Zuko: I don't know? Winter Solstice Part 1 Zuko and Waterbending Scroll Zuko are two different people. Either highly volatile with wildly inconsistent reactions, or poorly written. Judging by the quality of the rest of this show, where even episodes I hate contain something I love, I'm guessing it's the former? Either way, it must be pretty exhausting to be Zuko. Has drive for days, smarts, leadership, logistics, and seamanship abilities, and temper problems. Oddly, his temper seems to be his most predictable aspect. I can predict what will set him off (most everything) much more accurately than I can gauge what crawled up Katara's butt. I honestly thought he was in his twenties, probably late twenties, until it was mentioned that he was 16. He comes across as much more adult, despite (or maybe because of?) the temper tantrums. Then again, if that Zhao guy is representative, maybe fire nation tempers run hot?

Iroh: Much more consistent characterisation. Something going on here. Deep well of firebending knowledge contrasted with doddery old man persona/personality (which is it?) contrasted with some not-so-subtle attempts to obstruct Zuko's quest. I'd better not find out that he's been leading Zuko on a wild goose chase for years.

Love Bumi, love what little I've seen of Gyatso, Roku seems pretty calm, Zhao is an asshole, but he's so good at it.

Relationships:

Whoever wrote Sokka & Katara's interactions obviously grew up with siblings. I'm not sure I've ever seen such accurate sibling dynamics on television. Long-suffering super smart idiot of an older brother attempting mostly in vain to claim some authority vs. ruthless little sister with a nose like a bloodhound for mocking opportunities and a contractual obligation to sharpen her claws on said brother. That's good stuff, and I love to see it.

Zuko & Iroh, partly thanks to Zuko's inconsistent character, flip flop between long-suffering mentor and hot-headed student (episodes 1 & 2), bickering old couple who love each other really (Winter Solstice Part 1 & 2), and no-nonsense super soldier whose hippy uncle came along for the ride (Waterbending Scroll). In all iterations of their dynamic, they give off the impression that they've been together for a long time and know each other well. Which is nice! I feel like Zuko especially could use a friend.

Bending:

Airbending is stupidly deadly. I think, from looking at the whole monks and temples thing, that the airbenders as a whole leaned pretty hard into the pacifist lifestyle, and (if you'll forgive the momentary foray into fanfiction territory) I think that they chose this lifestyle because they realised how crazy deadly their powers could be when misused. Aang can send a whole row of soldiers flying with one swipe of his staff. He flings people into walls without effort, without even looking. He can run faster than any other human we see, he can fly (albeit assisted), he whips up a tornado when fighting Bumi. Presumably (fanfiction territory again) he could control/prevent breathing, therefore control/end life. Gyatso certainly obliterated a bunch of comet-enhanced (I think?) firebenders. Now, some of this might be because Aang is the Avatar, which maybe gives him an airbending power-up? What I really love about airbending (or at least Aang's approach to it, which let's be honest, is the only one we're ever going to see) is how integrated it is into his daily life. Why stand up when you can airbend yourself up? Why twiddle your thumbs when you can twiddle marbles? It's thoughtless in a good way, as in it's effortless. Is Aang even aware of how often he bends? How much of it is unconscious bending? Is this because he's the avatar? Can other bending styles be so central to how a person lives their everyday life?

We haven't seen any master-level waterbending yet, but what we have seen invites speculation. Unlike airbending, where air is air is air, water is kind of defined by its variety. Solid? Liquid? Gas? We've already seen Katara bend water to ice, bend snow, bend salt and fresh water. Is waterbending the most limitless of the bending styles?

Unless you're Bumi, earthbending seems to promote stupidity. I was blown away by what Bumi could do, but every earthbender since has lost, and lost badly. I don't count the earthbenders in Imprisoned, because they had some hefty psychological factors at play, but the earthbending soldiers in the Winter Solstice part 1 who capture Iroh were literally surrounded by their element, with numbers on their side and their captive in chains, and they lost to a naked guy and a teenager. Does being a non-Bumi earthbender have a negative effect on cognitive abilities? Does the solidity of the element prevent creativity?

Firebending is dangerous, not in the way airbending can be dangerous, but in the way a drunk with a firecracker is dangerous. Probably the element that requires the most responsibility and self-regulation, ironically gifted to the most volatile people. All we've seen so far are fairly large plumes of fire - is precision firebending possible or is it more of a 'point it in the general direction of the enemy' technique? It does feel like an outlier, in that it comes from within, not the surrounding environment. That being said, airbenders can also be said to carry their element wherever they go, because everywhere humans can go (at least for more than a few minutes) has air, so fire isn't actually that much of an outlier. Also, either Zuko is suffering from a serious case of cartoon physics, or firebending causes some sort of muscle intensification and bone hardening, because last time I checked you can't kick a flying rock the size of a small child out of mid air or shatter handcuffs with an axe kick.

Final thoughts:

I think I'm preferring the monster of the week episodes to the season-long plot episodes. I think I want lower stakes while I'm still getting to know the characters. I want - no I NEED - more Appa. Give me an Appa episode. Give me a Sokka episode too. I also want more Gyasto - he seemed like a stand up guy, and I feel like he is what an older Aang will become, if all goes well. Obviously he's dead, so if there is more it will be flashback only, but I'll take what I can get.

I think the best point of the show, and what's really drawn and kept my attention, is the finality of things, even in these early, fairly plot-light episodes. Whatever blew away half of Zuko's face hasn't been undone. Sokka & Katara's mom is dead, and looks to stay that way. Aang really is the last of his people (and so, I suspect, is Appa). Aang disappearing for a century has left a duty in some way unfulfilled, and the world has suffered for it. Legitimate consequences, which means legitimate stakes, which means I feel like getting invested in the show is not a waste of my time. No Marvel fake-out deaths here! This world is one in which actions, and inaction, have weight. No bait and switch, no last-minute saves, no "it was _____ all along!" I don't think this would have mattered to me at all if I had seen this show as a child, but as an adult who is sick of how much of modern media shies away from sincerity, this show is refreshing.

Rankings so far:

Best episode (as in most competently executed) and favourite episode are getting different categories, because in a show that deals with some heavy themes, sometimes the most expertly done episode isn't all that pleasant to watch. I think the best episode so far, by far, is Jet. It feels head and shoulders above everything that came before it. It was at times uncomfortable to watch for how accurately it portrays both what war does to children, and what war-torn children will do to/with powerful children they happen to ensnare. Like I said in my post about it, I'll probably never watch it again because it's a little too real, but it is an episode that hums along like a well-tuned engine. A close second on the best/most competent list has to be The Southern Air Temple. The way the two stories weave together, and the way they mirror each other despite depicting characters destined to be enemies, AND the way all that gets represented in contrasting colour palettes is all so clever. It also gave me my first taste of the kind of long-term thought and planning that I'm already detecting hints of. Could you really write an episode like The Southern Air Temple without knowing how your season, even your series, would ultimately end? It's the episode where I first got a taste of the wider world, the scale of the stakes, the eventual endgame.

The worst executed episode so far is probably Imprisoned. I found the tonal switch in the middle completely jarring. I know what it was trying to say about Katara (compassionate and impassioned and will act on both to protect the innocent), but honestly the message I got was that Katara is closed-minded, naive, without any sense of proportion or any ability to pick and choose battles, with no long-term planning skill, and who is far too used to having Sokka around to clean up her messes and do her thinking for her. That being said, the worldbuilding was well done: this episode told us earthbenders' weakness (take away their element by sticking them in the middle of the ocean on a metal-only rig) and what life is like under fire nation rule (pretty hairy).

My favourite episode so far is The Winter Solstice Part 1: The Spirit World. I have literally no idea why, but it made me happy. Things I liked about it include: -It's so PRETTY -Sokka being ride or die for Aang to the extent of being subjected to spirit kidnapping -Zuko pulling the Exhausted Parent (TM) move of 'five more minutes on the playground then I'm leaving with or without you,' followed by not following through -Katara being stirred to action by Appa's worry -Zuko and Iroh absolutely flattening those earthbenders -Zuko and Iroh's odd couple dynamic throughout the episode -Zuko being competent at something! -How genuinely alien that spirit thing was, especially its movement. -Aang's "I have to try, don't I?" If I could have reached through the screen and given him a hug, I would have.

My second favourite is The King of Omashu. Maximum goofiness at all times is just delightful. Bumi has an enlightened way of looking at the world that gets all the more poignant when you realise how old he is and what he's lived through. There is serious angst potential there. But the episode is so light-hearted that you don't realise that while you're watching it. Also the absolute pinnacle of earthbending so far, and some pretty peak airbending too.

My least favourite is The Warriors of Kyoshi. They gave me a badass troupe of warrior ladies and then nerfed them so that Sokka could learn feminism. Sokka (as he was characterised in that episode at least) did need to learn it, but the trope of the male student effortlessly surpassing the female master is just so tired. At least the b-plot of the avatar title going to Aang's head was both fun and necessary story ground to cover.

An excellent run of episodes so far, despite my many and varied gripes with mostly minor things. Bring on episode 11.

#atla #avatar: the last airbender #avatar the last airbender

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madnesstaleofficial · 1 year ago

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🎉♥Happy 8th anniversary Undertale✨🎊

Today marks 8 years since this gem of the video games came to light and to celebrate I did something special with my au.You already know Madfri,Charness,Flowey and Kris but taking advantage of this I wanted to introduce Madness!Temmie (Tami) along the way to present her,by the way I want to share something that I had in me for a long time even before starting Madnesstale definitively.

⚠Warning:This is gonna be long and also talks about things i didn't share with anyone until now so i don't know i someone its gonna be offended.If you wanna give your opinion in the comments please do it with respect.With that say here we go.

I found Undertale in 2016 when I was 12 years old,at that time I wanted to dedicate myself to drawing but I was going through a difficult time and my depression was beginning to arise,giving me a large series of problems along with a lot of regrets that haunt me to this day.Thanks to the game,its community and its aus I began to feel better and I was able to get inspired again to do my projects and in this way help others or inspire them.

With all this,I also had the intention of making my own au and in that way contributing to the community,but the problem is that no matter what concept or name I gave it,they were all already taken.It wasn't until August 2020 that I decided to take it up again,I didn't have Internet at that time and I was bored wandering in my thoughts and looking at the gallery on my phone until I saw several images of series and video games and a fanart of Frisk in Wonderland that everything began to form and that was when everything was decided.

I started slowly since I had no experience drawing monsters,so I decided to go with the humans first and tried to make the plot of the history,what to do with each character,if include Deltarune,etc.Thanks to the fact that I took the end of 2021 and more than half of 2022 on sabbatical before going to college It helped me not only work on the au,but also on my other projects and I also looked for inspiration in youtubers,video games of all kinds,series,cartoons,anime and more to have more ideas,I even went back to watch the first season of Underverse and finally see the story of Xtale for it,both incredible projects of course...But when I saw the first episodes of the second season of Underverse everything took an unexpected turn for me.

At first I was excited,I hadn't started watching it until they released the first part of episode 0.7,everything was going well until I saw episode 0.6,to avoid spoilers for those who haven't seen it I'll say a little about what happens.From the events of the first season of the series,Cross arrives in the Omega Timeline,a place created by Core! Frisk and habitants of Aus that no longer exist or from genocide routes who only want to live in peace,the residents of all aus from the multiverse are temporarily there (Except the original universe)because their homes were destroyed by Error!Sans and they wouldn't come back to them until further notice.During the episode Cross is angry about the current situation happening apart related with his au and being in the omega timeline even though he told Core that he would go for his friends to the point that he pushes to Dream who only wants to help him and he is already hurt,he decides to give up and falls into a deep negativity which brings many problems,but it helps him remember the purpose for which he fights, redeem himself from his mistakes and accept Dream's help.You can see it is a great evolution in Cross as a character but now comes the question¿What is my problem with this episode?¡None!The truth is this is one of my favorite episodes of the series so far since you can see the work and quality that Jakei puts in their projects as well as the large number of aus that the Undertale community has created, but this is what happens.

When I watched the episode you would think that I was very happy and excited like everyone else and I was,but after see it I started to feel angry with Core for the way she acted that seemed indifferent to everything and everyone's attitude towards Cross that later they acted as if nothing happened between him and Dream and decided to support them later during the battle of the episode so he could win,so I ended up relating it to hypocrisy and feeling bad for Cross along with great anger and frustration.But some time later after I calmed down,I decided to watch the episode again and I realized that I made a big mistake and came to conclusions without thinking beforehand.Although Core seems indifferent and doesn't care about others unless it's for her convenience,she really does and in Part of it can be reflected in his attitude towards Cross when he expresses concern for him as well as for others and it is true that everyone reacted badly because Cross pushed Dream and his hostility,but it was nothing else because of that,they did not blame him for what happened to their worlds since Error was who did that and in the fight he decided to redeem himself and trust Dream and when everyone tries to help them they generate positive feelings and during this it is seen in the dialogues that they are supporting Dream but also Cross as I think they realized he tried to redeem himself and that's why they supported him.

Thanks to this I was able to reflect and realize that the anger I felt was not because of the episode but because I didn't feel capable of achieving with Madnesstale or my other projects the same as the rest of the creators of aus or Jakei herself and not becoming part of something like this and started feeling powerless and useless,but along with that I could see that I identified with Cross in many aspects since I also have many regrets and I want to redeem myself from them and improve as a person.Despite to all this bad experience that I created and that keeps coming and going even until now,I remind myself that I should not let it affect me and remember again and again that I managed to realize that I was wrong and see the positive as that I am already contributing little by little with the community.Even over the years I still love Undertale and what this wonderful community has created that continues strong despite the years and that has served as a great source of inspiration for what I want to do in the future.

If you have read this far, thank you very much for taking the time to read my story, relief and analysis.The truth is that I have not told anyone about this since I have no one to talk to about these types of things and even if I told someone online It could seem uncomfortable and I want to avoid having problems of any kind due to bad experiences in the past.I also cried writing all this and honestly i feel better with everything and myself.Even if no one see this or don't care,especially because this account is recent and doesn't have so much followers,i'm glad to vent out about this and keep going with my goals.

With that said Happy Anniversary Undertale and tha still receiving more love ahead in the future. ♥

#undertale #undertale au #traditional art #madness!flowey #madness!frisk #madness!chara #madness!kris #deltarune #kris dreemurr #underverse #reflection #xtale #madnesstale

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flower-boi16 · 1 year ago

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A new era of Disney TVA is upon us...let's talk about that.

So recently the finale to The Owl House titled Watching and Dreaming aired on April 8th, not only is it the end of that show, but was also the end story-driven serialized era of Disney TVA. In this post I'm going to discuss my thoughts on this current era of Disney TVA we're in and my thoughts on each of the shows in it. Note that for most of these shows, this going to be just my first impressions on each of them based on how much of each of them I've seen. So...let's begin.

Big City Greens

In this current era of Disney Channel we've been getting more episodic shows, these shows still have continuity character development and some major status quo changes, but they aren't super story-driven like shows such as The Owl House or Ducktales 2017. Big City Greens is the first of these. Big City Greens follows the misadventures Cricket Green, a mischievous country boy whose family moves into the big city. The main appeal of the show is to see whatever hilarious chaos the green family can unintentionally cause.

The show currently has three seasons with a fourth season coming next month and a movie coming out next year. I've seen a lot of episodes of Big City Greens whenever the show pops up on Disney Channel and this show is pretty great! I like Cricket as a protagonist; he's a mischievous little shit but a little shit that still cares about his friends and family. Most of the other greens family is cool too. This show is also really funny, from the episodes I've watched I laughed a lot while watching it. I'm not saying much about this show because I'm planning on making a review on it, hopefully, I can watch all of the first three seasons before season 4 comes out, but for now, my thoughts on this show are pretty positive so far!

The Ghost and Molly Mcgee

This is the second show of this new era of Disney Channel. The Ghost and Molly Mcgee follows an upbeat and optimistic 13-year old girl named Molly Mcgee, whose family moves into Brighton. However, turns out their house is already a home, a home to a ghost named Scratch, and Molly and Scratch become best friends over the course of season 1. That was probably a bad description of the show's synopsis but ehh whatever. The show has two seasons so far with the second season still airing. This is another show that I'm planning on making a review on so I'm not gonna say much about it here, however, I also quite like this one.

I think Molly is a good protagonist; she's funny she's likable and is always willing to help anybody out and wants to en-happify the word. I always kind of like overly optimistic female characters and Molly is one of them. Scratch is great too, his development is decent and he's just pretty funny. Again, I'm planning on making a review of this show soon so I'm not going to say much about it here, but The Ghost and Molly Mcgee is a fun cute little show.

Hamster and Gretal

So...I don't know if I could have much to say about this show. Created by the same guys who made Phineas and Ferb, Hamster, and Gretal is a show about a superhero girl named Gretal and her superhero animal sidekick Gretal. Oh, and she has an older brother too. I don't really think I have much to say about this one, since I've only seen one episode. It was the episode that had that one villain who can talk to onions. Based on the one episode I've seen...it looks fine. I'm not a huge fan of the voice acting, idk it just sounds weird to me, and the animation doesn't really look that great, but it also doesn't look terrible. The characters seemed ok and the jokes were kinda funny. Hamster and Gretal looks like a fine show, I know it isn't fair to judge something based on one episode, but this is a first impressions kind of post for each show, not a review so ya. Anyway, this show looks fine, but I'm not really interested in reviewing it.

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur

I already made an entire review of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur before so I'm not going to repeat my thoughts on the show here. So I'm just going to say, I LOVE this series. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur follows 13-year-old Lunella Layfatte and her best friend Casey. One day when rebuilding a portal that a scientist left the blue prints for, she opens the portal and a giant dinosaur named Devil comes through the portal, from there they become a superhero crime-fighting duo Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. Again, I already made a review of this show before, so just to recap; I absolutely LOVE this show. I love Lunella as a protagonist, I love Casey and Devil, I love the songs, I LOVE the animation, I LOVE the finale, everything about this show is amazing on every single front. This is easily my favorite Disney show of all time and my favorite show to come out from this current era so far. Again, if you want to see my full detailed thoughts on the show, go check out my review of it. Suffice to say this show is AWESOME!

Kiff

Kiff is a show about an anthropomorphic squirrel named Kiff, and the show revolves around her adventures with her best rabbit friend Barry in their town. Of the few episodes I've seen of Kiff, it looks like a fun show. It's pretty funny and I like the characters and some of the songs. Don't have much to say about Kiff other than it's a pretty fun show.

Haily's On It!

Haily's On It is a show about a girl named Haily who doesn't really like trying out new things. But one day a scientist from the future comes and says that Haily needs to complete every single thing on this list or else the world will end. Haily's On It looks decent based on the episodes of it I've seen. Haily is a likable enough protagonist and Scott is fine, I'm not a huge fan of the art style and animation though...it just looks kinda of stiff. Don't have much to say about this one either, it looks like a decent 7/10 based on what I've seen.

Upcoming shows

There are a few shows that are going to be released soon. First there's...Primos, the show that caused quite a bit of controversy when the theme song dropped due to its racist depictions of Mexicans, and the creator's response to that controversy. I'm not gonna go into much detail about the drama aside from that, but I don't really think I have much interest in this one. The character designs suck and I don't really know if the premise really interests me. Maybe I'll review it when it comes out in 2024, but this still doesn't look that exciting.

I also heard that there's an upcoming Darkwing Duck reboot coming soon so that's cool and Phenias and Ferb is getting a revival for seasons 5&6.

Conclusion & Overall Thoughts

So what are my overall thoughts on this era of Disney TVA? Well, I'd say it's pretty good so far. Sure, most of them are very episodic and slice-of-life but I think that's ok, not every show needs to be story-driven or that stuff. The new shows we've been getting have still been pretty good, I'd say that of all the big three networks (CN and Nickelodeon) Disney Channel is the only one that did remotely well during the 2010s and early 2020s. This channel is still able to create consistently good to great shows to this day, and that's certainly an accomplishment when you look at the current states of CN and Nickelodeon right now. So in conclusion...this era of Disney TVA is pretty good and I'm looking forward to whatever new shows are gonna come out. So...bye.

#disney #disney channel #disney cartoons #disney tva #big city greens #tgamm #the ghost and molly mcgee #moon girl and devil dinosaur #mgadd #moon girl #marvel #hamster and gretel #hailey's on it #disney kiff #disney's primos #primos

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janicho88 · 2 years ago

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Operation Christmas Couple: Decorating Day Timestamp

Pairing- Jensen, x Female!Reader

Word count- 1,788

Warnings- Some language

A/N- I signed up for Christmas Bingo in hopes of getting the writing flowing. Other obstacles worked against me, and this is the only square that will be filled. This isn’t beta’d, all mistakes are mine, and it was just written today. @spnchristmasbingo square filled Listening to Christmas Music

Summary- It’s season 8 now, but for the purpose of this fic some of the characters made earlier season appearances than they actually did on the show. This is the second Timestamp for Operation Christmas Couple. This one takes place a little over a month after the Weekend in Dallas Timestamp.

Series Masterlist

Jensen walks in the door of your shared apartment after a long day on set, and groans as he hears the “12 Days of Christmas,” coming from somewhere in the apartment. He’s thankful when he hears something about the 8th day, at least it doesn’t have that much longer to go.

“Hey Babe, I’m home,” he calls out while setting his bag down on the counter and taking his phone out of his coat pocket.

“Welcome home, I’m in the living room.”

He follows the sound of you singing along to the music and finds you decorating the Christmas tree in the corner of the room.

“I thought you wanted to get a bigger tree this year?” he asks.

“We can use this little guy here, and get a bigger one at the house in Texas.”

“Two trees to put up and two to take down, great,” he mutters to himself.

“What was that? I didn’t catch it.”

“Nothing, nothing. Tree looks…” he pauses to actually look at the little white tree now. “Why are those things sticking out of it?”

“The picks?” you ask, holding one up.

“Yeah, those.”

“Requirements for a Whoville themed tree. How was set today?”

“Fine, everything was in the bunker today.”

You weren’t working as much this week, Ali, was supposed to be up visiting Donna and Jody. This current episode was more focused on the brothers. You were okay with that, it gave you time to work on decorating the apartment for Christmas.

“Isn’t it a little early to be putting up Christmas decorations?”

“No. If it had my way they would have gone up Sunday when we were home,” you respond before going back to singing along with the Grinch song.

“Monday was Halloween. I thought we should get past that first,” your boyfriend replies with a shake of his head. “I’m going to go take a shower while you play with the tree.”

“Okay. Have fun!”

He hears you chuckle as he walks away, what was that about?”

He strips in the bedroom, and walks into the ensuite bathroom and freezes. That’s what your laugh was about. With a shake of his head he pulls back the shower curtain to turn on the water. Taking another look around while he waits for the water to heat up. He can still hear you singing along to the Grinch song in the other room and smirks when he thinks about how fitting it is. When the water has warmed up, Jensen steps on the new mat, and pulls the new shower curtain back before stepping in.

Dried off and dressed in sweats, the first thing your boyfriend notices when he steps out the bedroom is that the “12 Days of Christmas” is playing again. Great, you must have restarted the playlist on your Ipod. He bypasses the living room and heads to the kitchen.

“What do you want to do for dinner?” he calls out.

“I made stew, it shouldn’t be much longer. Will you turn on the oven for the biscuits?”

“Sure.”

He turns on the oven, then moves to the sink to wash his hands before opening the package of biscuits sitting on the counter. He stops when he notices the items next to the sink. With a sigh he regrets ever bringing up you turning the apartment into Whoville last year. He leaves the drying items alone and continues on. After the tray of biscuits is set in the oven, he turns back to you in the living room.

You’ve left the tree itself alone and seem to be placing items around the tree now. He has to wonder just how crazy you are going to go when you start decorating the house in Austin. Unfortunately, he is aware of the numerous deliveries that have been dropped off from Hobby Lobby already and he is slightly worried.

Jensen makes his way over to the couch, but finds it covered in full shopping bags, and empty delivery boxes.

“Please tell me these bags are ones you already had, not something new you bought.”

He turns, catching you biting your bottom lip.

“Um, yeah. Bought that stuff ages ago,” you reply without looking at him.

“Liar.”

Turning around he sees the guilty look on your face. “I may have met Bri and Kim for lunch today.”

“Is your lunch in one of these bags?”

“Lunch may have led to some shopping.”

“Do I want to know?”

“Eh, probably not.”

Shaking his head, Jensen clears a spot on the couch and sits down. Against his better judgment he starts to open a bag. He stops when he realizes what it is you’re singing.

“Why does this song keep repeating? Is your Ipod broken?”

“No, there are only 2 songs on this playlist, and I have it on repeat.”

“Yeah, no. I can’t handle these two over and over again.”

With another groan Jensen gets back up and heads over to the speaker to turn the other Christmas playlist he knows you have on instead. He hits shuffle and starts to walk away as “On the first day of Christmas,” comes over the speaker.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Turning around he moves to switch it to the next song.

Next to the tree, you are doing your best not to laugh. When “Baby it’s Cold Outside,” begins to play, your boyfriend moves back to the couch. Grabbing a bag he pulls out the first item. Max’s head and parts of the Grinch are the first things he notices. But he’s not sure what exactly it’s supposed to be.

“What are you doing with this thing?”

You have to turn around to look at him, “oh! That’s a lifesize Grinch and Max.”

“Great. Are you sure we need it?”

“I had to order it. It’s non-returnable. I thought we could put it on the outside of the apartment door.”

“How ‘bout we don’t?”

“Why not?”

“We don’t need to decorate out in the hallway. Let’s keep the crazy inside. I mean decorations.”

“It’s either them or the Grinch wreath.”

He starts looking around to see how bad that looks.

“It’s in one of the bags,” you tell him.

“Do we really need all this stuff? Can some of it go back?”

“I can’t return the decorations,” you tell him. Even if that isn’t the truth. “But I can return the bag from Victoria Secret’s that’s around here somewhere.”

“No, no, that bag doesn’t have to go back. What else do we have here?” He pulls out a picture of the Grinch in a wreath that says, ‘Merry Grinchmas.’ “This thing?”

“No, that’s a picture. I thought we could hang that on the wall over there.” Vaguely pointing behind you, you finish arranging around the tree. “Okay, I’m done. What do you think?” You move away so Jensen has a clear view of the tree and surrounding area.

He knows better than to say what he really wants to, so he puts on a smile and tells you, “looks great babe. Just like Whoville.”

“Thanks, I thought so too. And these boxes turn. Each side has something different on it.”

“Amazing.” He takes a closer look, “Did you really find a Grinch tree skirt?”

“I couldn’t find one I liked. So I bought a tablecloth with the Grinch characters on it and folded it up for a tree skirt.” You seem so proud of yourself for that, he just nods and smiles at you.

“I think I forgot to set the oven timer. I’m going to check the biscuits and grab a drink. Or two.”

Grabbing a bottle of his favorite liquor, he pours himself a shot before checking on the oven. Pulling out the tray, he shuts the oven off before going back over to you. By now you have the bag emptied and he sees the wreath you must have been talking about, another small picture, a stuffed Grinch and Max sitting in a bowl, and a table sign.

“And this is only the apartment,” he sighs.

He takes another look at the tree, and does have to smile, it is definitely unique. Turning around, Jensen watches you taking things off of the corner shelf in the kitchen now. He waits for you to come back to grab something from the living room, but you never do. Listening to “Jingle Bells” play in the background he sits back down. A few minutes later you tell him that dinner is ready and he comes back out to the kitchen. Expecting to see an empty shelf where you had been working, he’s surprised to see it filled with other items you must have been hiding somewhere else.

He pours the two of you drinks, while you dish up the stew and talk about your plans for the rest of the place. Honestly, he would rather not know, so he pretends to listen and just nods along. When you are finished talking, he just says it sounds great.

“What do you want to do for the rest of the evening?” you inquire.

“I didn’t have any plans. Is there something you would like to do?”

“How about a movie?”

“Sure, sounds good.”

“Great, I’m in the mood to watch the Grinch after all this.”

He should have seen that coming, Jensen thinks to himself. “Uh, yeah, sure.”

“Awesome, I just have a few things left to hang, then we can start it.”

Leaving your boyfriend to clean up the kitchen, you get back to decorating. Since Jensen didn’t want the lifesize cutouts on the hallway door, you decide to put them on the glass balcony door. At least this way you can enjoy them more. The felt Grinch wreath goes on the apartment door.

Cleaning up the bags, Jensen is sitting on the couch pulling up the DVR. “Babe, I don’t see the movie on here anywhere,” he calls out to you, knowing fully well that he deleted it a few months back.

“No, I looked for it the other day and couldn’t find it either. It must have been deleted,” you call back.

If you know, is this a trap to get him to admit he deleted it? “So, do you want to watch something else?”

“No.”

He checks for the movie on demand and he can’t find it, he passes that information on to you. “Might need to pick a different movie.”

“No need. I bought it while I was out with the girls today. Now I can take it to work and watch it in the trailer, too.”

“Oh good,” he says outloud. In his head Dean is screaming, “son of a bitch,” and stomping his foot.

Thanks for reading!!

Tags

@deanwanddamons @amyzombie1013 @maralisa124 @nancymcl @siospins2 @deanwithscissors @sexyvixen7 @kobe-mitchell @treat-winchesterswith-kindness @chlodavids @deans-baby-momma @samsgirl93 @hearteyes-j2 @440mxs-wife @leigh70 @stinawrites88 @bubblyyz @casdeservedmore @foxyjwls007 @xlynnbbyx @akshi8278 @jawritter

#christmas #jensen ackles x reader #supernatural #jensen ackles #spnchristmasbingo #Operation Christmas Couple #Jensen ackles rpf

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isekaiscreencaps · 1 year ago

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Hello!

I'm isekaiscreencaps! I post screencaps of isekai anime (sometimes, rarely, some non-isekai anime too...). You can call me "Kai" for short.

Isekai I am currently watching:

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime season 3

I Shall Survive Using Potions!

Journey Through Another World: Raising Kids While Adventuring

Current blog icon is Frieren, the main character of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End.

Current blog header is a scene from episode 1 of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End.

↓ More about me, my blog, and isekai anime! ↓

No, I do not "like isekai" or "enjoy watching it." I simply consume it every day of my life as if it were food or water.

Of course, I also watch non-isekai anime and read manga/manhua and light novels (both isekai and non-isekai, lol). If you want to know anything about that, feel free to ask. Send your recommendations my way!

I watch most of my anime on Anix and I keep track of it all on Anime-Planet. I use XnConvert to process screen captures. I try to keep up with seasonal anime, but I fall behind sometimes.

Isekai anime I have watched:

Am I Actually the Strongest?

Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest

Ascendance of a Bookworm ❤

As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World

By the Grace of the Gods

Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill

Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

Drifters

Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash

Handyman Saitou in Another World

I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in The Real World, Too

In Another World With My Smartphone

I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level

KamiKatsu: Working for God in a Godless World

King of Jin in Tang Dynasty

Knight's & Magic

My Isekai Life: I Gained a Second Character Class and Became the Strongest Sage in the World!

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! ❤

Overlord ❤

Parallel World Pharmacy ❤

Reborn as a Vending Machine

Reincarnated as a Sword

Re:ZERO: Starting Life in Another World

Saga of Tanya the Evil ❤

Skeleton Knight in Another World

So I'm a Spider, So What?

Sweet Reincarnation

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime ❤

The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me?

The Eminence in Shadow

The Faraway Paladin ❤

The Great Cleric

The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior

The Reincarnation of the Strongest Exorcist in Another World

The Rising of the Shield Hero

The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent

The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat

Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss but I'm Not the Demon Lord

+ about fifteen more that I started and left unfinished for various reasons...

I've also watched these reverse isekai anime too, I suppose:

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid

Re:Creators

The Devil is a Part-Timer!

Also, yes, I am an Isekai Quartet enjoyer.

#hiiiiiiii #about me #not screencaps #pinned post #send me msgs pls i like talking <3

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spoilertv · 7 months ago

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#SpoilerTV

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theultimatefan · 1 year ago

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Linda Hamilton, Jeff Ward, Peter Weller Head Next Wave of Celebrity Guests At FAN EXPO New Orleans

Linda Hamilton (The Terminator franchise, Dante’s Peak), Jeff Ward (“One Piece,” “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”), Peter Weller (RoboCop, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension) and Felicia Day (“The Guild,” “Supernatural”) headline the next wave of celebrity guests appearing at FAN EXPO New Orleans, set for January 5-7, 2024, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. The four will be joined by Lana Parrilla (“Once Upon a Time,” “Spin City”), Ethan Suplee (“My Name is Earl,” Remember the Titans), Sonequa Martin-Green (“Star Trek: Discovery,” “The Walking Dead”) and Eman Esfandi (“Ahsoka,” King Richard) as new additions to the convention lineup.

Tickets for FAN EXPO New Orleans are available at fanexpohq.com/fanexponeworleans/buy-tickets, with a variety of individual single day, 3-day and Ultimate Fan Packages to choose from.

Hamilton first turned heads in 1984’s The Terminator, following up with a co-starring role as “Assistant District Attorney Catherine Chandler” opposite Ron Perlman in “Beauty and the Beast.” She reprised her “Sarah Connor” role in Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Terminator: Dark Fate, and has shown versatility in her more than 80 credits with spots on “Frasier” and the lead in the Lifetime holiday film Home by Christmas.

Ward currently stars as “Buggy” in the action Netflix series “One Piece,” following up on a three-year, 45-episode spin in “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D” as “Deke Shaw,” the complex character who proved popular with fans. He also co-starred in the 2021 Netflix horror/drama mini-series “Brand New Cherry Flavor” and portrayed Charles Manson in the Lifetime TV movie “Manson’s Lost Girls” in 2016.

Accomplished actor, director, voice over artist and occasional professor Weller’s amazing career has taken him from the mean streets of old Detroit to the final frontier of space. He has appeared in more than 50 films and television series, notably in the title role in 1987’s RoboCop and its sequel RoboCop 2 and as the title character in the quirky 1984 sci-fi cult film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.

Day has more than 100 credits, from films to TV series to voice work, with many highlights including a 66-episode run on “The Guild” and recurring spots on “Supernatural” and “Eureka.” She teamed with original series host Joel Hodgson for a five-year run on the recent iteration of “Mystery Science Theater 3000” and had her first big fandom exposure in a recurring role as “Vi” on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

Parrilla appeared in 156 episodes of the ABC hit fantasy/adventure series “Once Upon a Time” between 2011-2018, for which she earned several awards, including TV Guide’s Favorite Villain, and numerous nominations. She has had recurring roles in hits “Spin City,” “Boomtown,” “24” and “Windfall,” and co-starred as “Lana Trammell” in this year’s Netflix release of the second season of “The Lincoln Lawyer.”

Suplee has had nearly 100 film and TV roles, from comedies like the Kevin Smith productions Mallrats, Dogma and Clerks III, “My Name is Earl,” and “Boy Meets World” to dramas such as Remember the Titans and The Butterfly Effect.

Martin-Green portrayed “Sasha Williams” on “The Walking Dead” from 2012-17, and has wowed fans as “Michael Burnham” in “Star Trek: Discovery” for the past six years. Some of her other major credits include Space Jam: A New Legacy and recurring roles on “Once Upon a Time” and “The Good Wife.”

Esfandi co-starred opposite Rosario Dawson, David Tennant and Mary Elizabeth Winstead in this year’s Disney+ miniseries “Ahsoka,” part of the Star Wars universe. He has also been seen in King Richard with Will Smith and The Inspection with Jeremy Pope and Gabrielle Union.

The eight newcomers join an already impressive autograph area that includes Danny Trejo (Machete, The Book of Boba Fett), the "Daredevil" tandem of Charlie Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio, Katee Sackhoff (Star Wars’ “The Mandalorian”), Jon Bernthal (“The Punisher,” “The Walking Dead”), Sean Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, “Avengers: Infinity War”), the “Charmed” duo of Holly Marie Combs and Rose McGowan, Peter Cullen (Transformers), Jason Lee (Vanilla Sky, Almost Famous) and voice acting stars of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” Barry Gordon (“Donatello”), Cam Clarke (“Leonardo”), Townsend Coleman (“Michelangelo”) and Rob Paulsen (“Raphael”).

FAN EXPO New Orleans features the biggest and best in pop culture: movies, TV, music, artists, writers, exhibitors, cosplay, with three full days of themed programming to satisfy every fandom. More guest news will be released in the following weeks, including line-up reveals for comic creator guests, voice actors, and cosplayers.

FAN EXPO New Orleans runs January 5-7 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont. Show hours are Friday 4 - 9 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. - 7 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Tickets start at $28 during the advanced prices window until December 21, and begin at $38 from December 22 through the end of the show; 3-day passes and VIP packages also available at fanexpohq.com/fanexponeworleans/buy-tickets. More information and updates can be found at fanexpohq.com/fanexponeworleans.

New Orleans is the first event on the 2024 FAN EXPO HQ calendar; the full schedule is available at fanexpohq.com/home/events/.

#comic con #new orleans #linda hamilton

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abcnewspr · 1 year ago

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ABC NEWS’ ‘NIGHTLINE’ RANKS NO. 1 IN TOTAL VIEWERS AND ADULTS 25-54

‘Nightline’ Outdelivers CBS’ ‘The Late Late Show with James Corden’ and NBC’s ‘Late Night with Seth Meyers’ in Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 for 8th Consecutive Week

Season to Date, ‘Nightline’ Is Posting Gains in Total Viewers

ABC News*

ABC News’ “Nightline” ranked No. 1 in Total Viewers (724,000) and Adults 25-54 (167,000)during the week of June 26, 2023, based on Live + Same Day Data from Nielsen Media Research. “Nightline” finished No. 1, beating CBS’ “The Late Late Show with James Corden” and NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers” in Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 for the 8th straight week.

For the second week in a row, “Nightline”was up on the year-ago week in Total Viewers (+9% - 724,000 vs. 663,000).

Season to date, “Nightline” is growing compared to the same point last season in Total Viewers (+2% - 896,000 vs. 875,000). In addition, “Nightline” leads CBS’ “The Late Late Show with James Corden” in Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49.

During this week, “Nightline” covered the Supreme Court’s rulings on student loan debt and gay rights, as well as affirmative action; a look at the battle over reproductive rights one year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade; an audio recording of Trump discussing a classified document; Christina Aguilera’s LGTBQ allyship as she’s honored at Stonewall; Harrison Ford’s return in “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”; “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts’ exclusive interview with Ralph Yarl; gang violence in Haiti amid political turmoil; Idina Menzel’s new album; influencer Bretman Rock’s new memoir; the latest episode of “Impact x Nightline,” which covered medical tourism being linked to an outbreak of fungal meningitis and more.

NOTE: CBS’ “The Late Late Show with James Corden” was retitled to “The Late Late Show-JC-ENC,” and NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers” was retitled to “Seth Meyers-SM.” The retitled telecasts are excluded from the season averages.

ABC News’ “Nightline” is late-night television’s prestigious, award-winning news program featuring the most powerful, in-depth stories that shape our lives and the world around us. It is anchored by Juju Chang and Byron Pitts. Eman Varoqua is executive producer. The program airs weeknights from 12:35 p.m.-1:05 a.m. EDT on ABC. “Nightline” has also produced numerous original documentaries available on ABC News digital platforms and Hulu.

Week of June 26, 2023:

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 6/26/23), Previous Week (w/o 6/19/23) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 6/27/22). Most Current Data Stream: Season 2022-2023 (9/19/22-7/2/23) and Season 2021-2022 (9/20/21-7/3/22). Nielsen ratings for ABC, NBC and CBS include additional airings in select markets. Beginning 8/31/20, national ratings also include Out of Home (OOH) viewing. Averages based on regular telecasts.

*COPYRIGHT ©2023 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. All photography is copyrighted material and is for editorial use only. Images are not to be archived, altered, duplicated, resold, retransmitted or used for any other purposes without written permission of ABC News. Images are distributed to the press to publicize current programming. Any other usage must be licensed.

-- ABC --

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allthemxses · 7 years ago

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[[ okay, so.... I have a sudden urge to do arby n the chief rping, if that's even a damn thing. Hit me up if any of you would be interested- my fellow halo fans ]]

#ooc #halo rp #halo roleplay #arby n the chief #indie rp #open rp #starter call?#idek #currently up to second episode of the 8th season #pretty caught up

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gunsatthaphan · 3 years ago

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~ Monthly BL Breakdown: November 2021 ~

Disclaimer: All shows can be streamed here, here or here! For more info about shows, check out their MDL pages!

- Updates coming every month - feel free to add stuff! -

What came out this month? (green tick = seen or currently watching)

🌟 Love With Benefits - November 1st (Thailand) ✅

🌟 Nilundon - November 7th (Thailand)

🌟 2Gether The Movie - November 11th (Thailand - cinemas)

🌟 Utsukushii Kare/My Beautiful Man - November 18th (Japan)

🌟 Money Boys - November 19th (Taiwan - cinemas)

🌟 Baker Boys - November 24th (Thailand) ✅

🌟 Paint With Love - November 26th (Thailand) ✅

🌟 Loveless Society - November 26th (Thailand)

🌟 The Couple - November 27th (Thailand)

🌟 Mr. Cinderella - November 28th (Vietnam)

Monthly likes/dislikes

❣️ Baker Boys & Paint With Love are my highlights this month. They both had amazing kickoffs; I’m loving the humor in Baker Boys and the vibes in Paint With Love. It feels different and especially Tae’s character is so on point lol I love it. Another thing I cherished a lot this month were the Between Us specials! They were consciously incoherent but super sweet and they made me even more hyped for the series!! 🤩 Another obsession this month remains Bad Buddy bc episode 5 was a masterpiece. Also the Not Me trailer. Holy hell.

👎🏻 Nothing I specifically disliked but lemme just say that if that My Broccoli series is actually happening then WabiSabi’s credibility is compromised lmao. I’m still waiting for the SIKE moment but it looks like it’s not a joke which..... if the plot ends up blowing me away then maybe we can talk. But for now it’s ridiculous lol.

New show announcements

🎥 Season of the Lost Forest (novel adaption) - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 Bungee Jumping of their Own (starring NCT’s Jaehyun) - Coming 2022 (South Korea)

🎥 Tinted With You (starring ACE’s Jun Hee) - Coming December 2021 (South Korea)

🎥 The Witcher (novel adaption) - Date TBA (Taiwan)

🎥 Club Sapan Fine ss2 - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 춘정지란 (manhwa adaption) - Date TBA (South Korea)

🎥 Cupid’s Will (starring EarthMix) - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 Dangerous Partner - Coming January 13th (Japan)

🎥 Future The Series (starring Boom Nattapat and BigBoom Jirayu) - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 Cafe In Love (starring Nanoob from LoveSick) - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 Our Dining Table (manga adaption) - Date TBA (Japan)

🎥 Pumpkin Time (gender swap theme) - Date TBA (South Korea)

🎥 Cherry Magic the movie (sequel) - Coming April 8th 2022 (Japan)

Other news from the bl world

❗️Tul Pakorn confirmed in an interview that him and Max will have another project together next year. It is likely to be the novel adaption of “Transplant The Series”.

❗️NCT’s Jaehyun will star in a remake of "Bungee Jumping of their Own” (the Thai remake was Dew The Movie), which is set to be released in the second half of 2022. Lee Hyunwook will play his counterpart.

❗️The new version of KinnPorsche is set to air in April 2022.

❗️Studio WabiSabi announced their lineup for 2022/2023: Between Us (starring BounPrem), My Only 12% (starring SantaEarth), Absolute Zero (starring TorMix), We Are The Series (no cast announced yet), My Broccoli (starring Boun), Dear Doctor The Series (starring NutKarn, filming has started)

❗️The upcoming thai bl “My Ride The Series” has been announced to air in January 2022.

❗️The director of FUTS tweeted about filming a sequel with the hashtag #FishUponTheSky2 but deleted the tweet shortly after, which sparked rumors for a possible season 2.

❗️A second season for the mix-bl drama “Club Sapan Fine” has been announced. OabGun have been confirmed as the mains, along with Up, PunPun, Max and others. Filming has already started.

❗️EarthMix will most likely star in the upcoming BL novel adaption “Cupid’s Will”. They were seen shooting the pilot trailer which will probably be part of the upcoming GMMTV 2022 lineup.

❗️The cast for the upcoming bl “Till the World Ends” has been announced. Art Pakpoom (What the Duck) and Best Anavil will be the main pairing, along with Michael Kiettisak (CIWYW) and others.

❗️ACE’s Jun Hee has been confirmed as part of the cast for the upcoming bl “Tinted With You”, which is set to be released in December.

❗️Korean singer Holland revealed that he is currently filming a BL.

❗️The streaming platform LINETV has announced its shutdown by the end of the year. There is no further information on if and how their content will remain available yet.

Upcoming shows & movies for December

☝🏻 What She Likes - December 3rd (Japan)

☝🏻 Never Too Late (part-bl) - December 6th (Thailand)

☝🏻 Not Me - December 12th (Thailand)

☝🏻 Komorebi - December 17th (Taiwan)

☝🏻 GenY 2 - December 21st (Thailand)

☝🏻 Tinted With You - December 23rd (South Korea)

☝🏻 Love at the End of the World - December 30th (Philippines)

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shadowsndaisies · 4 years ago

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codename: nightingale - Infiltrated

Reference: Young Justice Season 1 Episode 6

WC: 5758

synopsis: you ever kiss your best friend? bc I swear it was not on purpose. also we finally meet our favorite archer (no offense roy)

main masterlist

codename: nightingale series masterpost

MOUNT JUSTICE August 8th, 09:58 EDT

You smiled softly, head tilted up to the sky as the sun beamed back down on you.

“Hello, Megan! We should hit the beach every day," M’gann decided as you stood on the shore of a private Happy Harbor beach behind the Mountain. M’gann was wearing a yellow bikini, and you were dressed in a red one, currently covered by your halter top and jean shorts. Your surfboard was resting under your right arm, and a pair of sunglasses covered your eyes.

“First, a moment of silence for our absent comrade," Robin decided, and all of your heads dropped in despair.

“Poor Wally," M’gann frowned, and you nodded in agreement.

You set yourselves up before everybody ran into the water. Shaking your head, you shed your extra layers and laid down on your stomach on top of your towel. You were reading a book, trying to tan when you were suddenly picked up. The book fell from your grasp and back down onto your towel. After your initial shock, you were able to spot that Kaldur had picked you up and was carrying you toward the water.

“Kaldur!” you protested from over his shoulder.

“Birdy!” Robin mocked from somewhere nearby, causing you to roll your eyes.

“Kaldur, put me down!” you commanded, lightly slapping his back.

“Down?” he asks.

“Yes! Please!” you beg.

“Alright," he agreed, and you knew he was wearing a smirk because a second later, he had dropped you into the water.

Sputtering as you came up, you looked him in the eye; your sunglasses had just slightly slid due to the water. It was enough to flash your (e/c) eyes at him, a mischievous and murderous glance in them.

“This. Means. War," you immediately begin your attack by splashing at the older boy. It takes only a moment before all five of you are in the midst of a water war. (kaldur had an unfair advantage)

You all stayed in the water for a while, before getting out to eat lunch on the beach. You had barbequed hot dogs and hamburgers. You played sand volleyball, and you and Kaldur even tried to teach everyone else how to surf. Robin was the only one who got it. You had intended to stay out all day if you could, and you would’ve until you were called in.

It was almost comical as you all began rushing about within the cave. You showered and suited up. If any of your mentors were to walk through the locker room, they would see towels, civilian clothes, and swimsuits were thrown about. By the time you fell in line for the briefing, you were still content with how the majority of your day had gone; you were also sporting a fresh tan.

“Recognized; Kid Flash, b-03," The computer’s feminine mechanical voice announced, just as Batman was about to begin the briefing. Your eyes, however, stayed upon the girl in green who was standing beside Ollie. Oliver Queen was usually a straightforward man. However, now he seemed to be avoiding your eyes.

“The Wall-man is here! Now let's get this party star- Unh! -ted," when you heard Wally fall, that’s when you turned your gaze away from the girl.

You saw as the multicolored beach ball bounced away and had to bite back the laugh at the sight of your friend splayed out on the ground. With a short glance around, you noticed that you were not the only one.

“Wall-man, huh? I love the uniform," the blonde new girl smirks. “What exactly are your powers?”

“Uh, who's this?” Wally asks, gesturing to her and then looking directly at you and Robin, and your fingers began to fidget with one of your ring daggers nervously.

“Artemis, your new teammate,” she introduces herself.

“Kid Flash. Never heard of you," Wally’s eyes narrow.

“Um, she's my new protégé," Ollie stepped in, and your eyes narrowed on the beach ball as it began bouncing close to you, ring dagger swinging in your hand and stabbing at the beach ball when it was in reach.

“What happened to your old one?” you pressed, your voice sounding a bit harsher than expected, and the dagger still gripped in your hands as the now punctured beach ball deflated and fell to the floor.

“NG…” Robin called your name softly as you glared at Oliver. Your stare was icy, even with the domino mask.

“Recognized; Speedy, b-06," The computer interrupted, and Roy emerged from the Zeta tubes.

“Well, for starters, he doesn't go by Speedy anymore. Call me Red Arrow.”

“Roy," your entire body and face relaxed at the sight of him. “We need to talk,” you swallowed, twirling the ring dagger in your hand.

“You look-” Ollie begins.

“Replaceable," Roy spits, and your eyes narrow once again, in pure distaste of the word.

“Roy,” you repeated his name but got no response.

“It's not like that. You told me you were going solo," Ollie justified.

“So why waste time finding a sub? Can she even use that bow?” Roy bites harshly, and in that moment, you realized Artemis wasn’t at fault here.

Roy left; he told you he’d never join. You knew Ollie liked having a partner, so he found someone with the same goals as the rest of you, someone who wants to make a difference. You shouldn’t penalize her for that.

“Roy,” you say his name a third time, but again are ignored, you anxiously twirl the dagger once again.

“Yes, she can," Artemis shot back, stepping up.

“Who are you?” Wally asks again.

“I'm his niece," & “She's my niece," Came from both Artemis and Ollie simultaneously, and your eyebrows furrowed. Ollie didn’t have a niece.

“Another niece?” Robin asks but gains no reply.

“But she is not your replacement. We have always wanted you on the team, And we have no quota on archers," Kaldur says wisely.

“And if we did, you know who we'd pick," Wally tells Roy, and you can’t help but resent that statement for how unfair it seemed to be.

“Whatever, Baywatch. I'm here to stay,” Artemis defended herself, and you respect her for it.

“You came to us for a reason," Kaldur tries in an attempt to defuse the bomb of a situation arising by turning to face Roy.

“Yeah, a reason named Dr. Serling Roquette," Roy begins.

“Nanorobotics genius and claytronics expert at Royal University in Star City,” you say in awe. You’d read Dr. Roquette’s work with Felicity Smoak, one of Ollie’s friends. It was one of your favorite moments while adjusting to the superhero life growing up. It also served as a big enough distraction to hear what Roy wanted to say before you tried to pull him aside again.

“Vanished two weeks ago," Robin continues pulling photos and information up on the screen.

“Thought you might be intrigued, Birdy,” Roy shoots you a look that’s almost a smile before it returns to a scowl. “Abducted two weeks ago by the league of shadows,” he corrected.

“Whoa. You want us to rescue her from the shadows?” Robin asked.

“Hard-core," Wally smiled.

“I already rescued her. Only, one problem. The shadows had already coerced her into creating a weapon. Doc calls it the fog, composed of millions of microscopic robots, nanotech infiltrators capable of disintegrating anything in their path-- concrete, steel, flesh, bone. But its true purpose isn't mere destruction. It's theft. The infiltrators eat and store raw data from any computer system and deliver the stolen intel to the shadows. Providing them access to weapons, strategic defense, cutting-edge science, and tech," Roy explains.

“Perfect for extortion, manipulation, power broking. Yeah, sounds like the shadows," Artemis pitches, ultimately agreeing with Roy, and your lips pursed.

“Like you know anything about the shadows,” Wally smirked until he saw the ‘try me’ look on Artemis’ face. “Who are you?!” He explodes.

“Roquette's working on a virus to render the fog inert," Roy continues.

“But if the shadows know she can do that," Robin pieces.

“They'll target her,” you finish the thought, making eye contact with Robin.

“Roy I need to talk to you,” you repeated once more.

“Right now, she's off the grid. I stashed her at the local high school's computer lab," Roy completes, glancing at you for a second.

“You left her alone?” Ollie pressed.

“Roy,” you repeat his name, you were twirling the blade in circles around your fingers.

“She's safe enough for now," Roy promised.

“Then let’s, you and I, keep her that way," Ollie attempts.

“You and I? Don't you wanna take your new protégé?” Roy lashed out, and Ollie visibly deflated.

“You brought this to the team. It's their mission, which means it's hers now, too,” Ollie says after being stopped by Batman.

“Then my job's done," Roy scoffs before turning to walk away.

The blade in your hand lands with deadly accuracy by Roy’s foot, effectively stopping him as you stepped in front of him. “You and me, Thursday, no masks, no adults, our favorite place for breakfast, at 7," you decided, addressing him quietly, tired of trying to get him to respond to you.

“No,” he says, trying to push past you, but you stand your ground.

“I wasn’t asking,” you tell him, finally stepping aside, allowing him to walk by. “You better show, Red Arrow, don’t forget!” you bend down to grab your knife.

“Recognized; Speedy-” The computer begins.

“That's Red Arrow, b-06. Update," Roy says, correcting the Zeta’s as he beams out.

HAPPY HARBOR August 8, 21:59 ED

“Everyone online?” M’gann’s voice rang out over the psychic link.

“Ohh,” Artemis muttered, “this is weird.”

“And distracting!” Roquette interrupted. “Coding a distributive algorithm virus on a kiddie computer With less ram than a wristwatch is hard enough. Now I have to hear teen-think in my skull?”

“Someone’s a complainer,” you muttered at Roquette, though thankfully, she couldn’t hear you.

“Lady, do you always complain when someone tries to help you?” KF shot back.

“Pot, kettle. Have you met?” Artemis hinted, and your eyes darted between them.

“Hey! Hey, I do not need attitude from the newbie who drove Red Arrow off the team,” KF argued, and you bit your lip.

“That is so not on me!” Artemis negated.

Roquette let out a sigh, “Fate of the world at stake.”

Wally was quick to defend himself, “She started it.”

“Brat,” you murmur silently, rolling your eyes at Wally.

“How 'bout I just help Miss Martian and Superboy patrol the perimeter?” Artemis offered, moving from her spot in the room.

“Good idea,” Aqualad agreed, finally stepping in.

Robin smirked at you before sending something to the link. “You might cut her some slack,” he teased, and you knew exactly where he was headed.

You smirked back before adding on, “It was her arrow saved your ass against Amazo.”

“What? No, that was Speedy's - I mean Red Arrow's arrow, right?” KF stuttered.

Rob and I make eye contact before we both respond, “Not so much.”

“Humph. Well, still not giving her the satisfaction,” KF decided, and you rolled your eyes.

“You know I can still hear you,” Artemis reminded him, and a smile split your lips.

“Ahh!” KF let out a groan, and you and Robin guffawed slightly under your breath.

Roquette let out another sigh, “I couldn't get the Justice League.”

You sobered for a second, looking back to Kaldur and then the Doctor, “The virus won't be of much use if we cannot find the weapon,” he shared.

“Can you track it?” you asked her, tagging onto what he had said.

Roquette turned to you with narrowed eyes, “My utility fog is not a weapon,” she argued. “It's science, brilliant science. And of course I can track it, but I'd have to go online. Might as well rent a billboard with this address and "assassinate me" written in neon.”

You and Aqualad stepped forward, and gently you placed a hand on her shoulder, “We will protect you,” you assured her, and Kaldur gave the nod in affirmation.

Her attention shifted from the computer screen to you and Kaldur before she gave a little nod of agreement, “Tracking the fog now,” she relented.

As Artemis arrived outside with M’gann and Superboy, you moved back toward Robin, who was sitting on one of the desks. You sat down beside him and placed your hands beside his so that they were just barely touching. You had found yourself closer to Robin since the Amazo mission, both physically and emotionally. The small crush that had been there before seemed viable, and while facing the Shadows barely shook you, the idea of pursuing a relationship seemed unattainable. So, for now, you’d stick to just barely touching hands, and sharing the understanding looks that passed between you both.

It had been relatively quiet for a while up until Artemis spoke up, “Mhm, that boy.” Your face pinched in reaction, knowing that she had to be thinking of Superboy.

“He can hear you. We can all hear you!” M’gann challenged, defensively.

“Oh, I know,” you could hear the smirk in Artemis’ tone.

You faked a gag to Robin, who smiled and looked down, trying to stifle his laughter, though you stopped promptly when Roquette turned back to you. A blinking dot on her screen, she had found the fog.

Your gaze shifted to Kaldur, waiting for his next decision. “Miss Martian, Dr. Roquette has located the fog. Reconfigure the Bioship so that Robin and Superboy can pursue,” he ordered.

Your lips pursed as you glanced at Robin before looking back to Kaldur, “What about-”

“No,” he cut you off. “We need you here. Join Artemis and Miss Martian outside,” he instructed, and you bit your lip before nodding passively.

You decided arguing with Kaldur now may not be the smartest thing you could do, so instead, you and Robin got up and walked out.

“Hey, don’t die on me, okay?” you joked, but there was something a bit deeper underneath.

“What? And leave you here to deal with all of Wally’s bullshit alone? That’s a fate worse than death, and I’m not that cruel," Rob mused, and you briefly wondered if his eyes would’ve twinkled as he said it.

While excellent for identity concealment, Domino Masks made it challenging to gather the full range of expressions on a person’s face.

M’gann’s voice cut through the new silence, “Ready,” she announced, and your eyes darted from his face, back to the ground.

You offered a quirked smile as you arrived outside. With a slight nod and a brush of your hands, he’s running to meet Superboy, and you’re off to join the other girls on perimeter control. The two boys run onto the Bioship, and it disappears from view, leaving the rest of you to return to your posts.

M’gann didn’t miss a beat before turning to Artemis, “You embarrassed Superboy.”

“Didn't hear him say that,” Artemis challenged, and you observed her tensed body language.

“Must you challenge everyone?” the Martian shot back.

Artemis’ eyes narrowed as she began to walk away, “Where I come from, that's how you survive.”

“That sounds exhausting,” you decide, meeting Artemis’ eyes, but she doesn’t respond.

The three of you decided it might be beneficial to split up while taking another lap of the perimeter. You rejoined the other two by the front entrance to the high school.

It was silent until Aqualad’s hurried voice broke through, “Nightingale, M'gann, Kid, Artemis; we are under attack in the computer lab!” he shouted.

Your eyes widened and you spun on your foot before running in, “On our way.”

As the three of you took the halls, you realized that someone was missing, and you slowed to a stop in the middle of the hall.

“Kid Flash,” you heard M’gann mutter.

“I got him. You go!” you decide, turning around and heading to the last place M’gann ‘felt’ Wally.

You burst through the doors and onto the pool deck, braids whipping against your back as you look for your friend. When you spotted him in the water, floating face down, you dove into the pool without hesitation. You swim as fast as you could toward him. When you reached Wally, you turned him over, so his face was out of the water before pulling him to the pool deck. One arm on the concrete and the other around Wally, you pull him out of the water. You climbed out as soon as he was secure, before throwing yourself on top of Wally to check for a pulse. All that succeeded in doing was making you more panicked when you couldn’t find it.

Immediately you began to perform CPR, stopping to give him mouth to mouth when needed. After an eternity of a minute, Wally started coughing and spluttering water.

“Oh my God!” you breathed, collapsing back on your hands as Wally slowly pulled himself up into a sitting position.

Your chest heaved as you tried to get your emotions in check and avoid having a panic attack. A few deep breaths later, you stood up on shaky knees and pulled him up along with.

Then, you began whacking his arm. “Don’t. You. Ever. Ever. Do. Anything. Like. That. Ever. Again!” each word was punctuated with a hit.

“Okay, okay, I won’t drown," he surrendered, a playful smirk splayed on his lips, but you could see the way his chest was still shuttering with deep breaths.

“Drowning?” you repeat, staring at him. “I mean, dying! I cannot do that again, Wally!” you shout. He stares at you with wide eyes for a second and you launch your body at him, pulling him into the tightest hug you could manage. “Please,” you begged, your voice sounding weaker than before.

“I’m alive, and that’s because of you,” he reminds you, hugging you back. “Plus you can’t get rid of me that easily,” he mused, and you smack the back of his head in response.

“Okay! God! let’s go!” Wally huffed, picking you up bridal style and running you back to the computer lab.

You had arrived in time to see an assassin in green with a mask, she took a look at you and Wally before stepping back. “-Maybe a little too interesting," she decided, dropping a smoke bomb.

Wally lunged forward only to grab Artemis through the smoke instead. “Gone," he grunted.

“She's getting away! You're letting her getaway!” Roquette shouted.

Wally reared toward the new archer, “This is all your fault! You were on the perimeter! How'd that Shadow get in?” he was raging at Artemis, and your brows pinched.

“That's not really fair. I was outside, too," M’gann reminds him.

“So was I," you add, facing the red-headed speedster who’s eyes softened considerably as he stared at your disapproving expression.

“Outside being distracted by her!" he was grasping at straws as a fair amount of his rage seemed to melt away. “Besides, I can't be mad at you," he addes, turning his attention back to you.

“You gave me mouth-to-mouth,” he said telepathically, and you rolled your eyes despite the blush that appeared at the same time.

“We heard that!” everyone else shouted.

“Dang it!” Wally exclaims, walking away from you all.

Though you don’t let it go that easily. You push him until he’s in the hall, closing the door behind you, separating you both from the rest of the team temporarily.

“What the hell is your issue with her?” you whisper yelled. Wally West might be one of your closest friends but you couldn’t figure out what was going on with him.

“What do you mean, ‘what’s my issue?’ it’s the same issue we all have!” He shot back.

“Is it?” you challenged. “Because you’re the only one treating her like she doesn’t deserve to be here!” you added, voice rising slightly.

You receive an eye-roll in response.

“Do not roll your eyes at me. I would give my life to save you, Rob, Kaldur, or Roy. And I love Roy, but you can’t do this to her, because she, Wallace, no matter what you think, she belongs here and deserves to be here. On this team, with all of us. Ollie chose her, after Roy told him he was done. You cannot blame her for something she can’t control. Because guess what, West? She doesn’t control Roy. Roy controls Roy, and you better understand that you’re mad at him, not the new girl who is risking her life to help us," you argue. “She deserves your respect,” you finish and notice the look on Wally’s face.

You can see he’s trying to soak up what you just said, but at the moment you couldn’t bring yourself to feel bad about what you had said. Wally’s been a jerk to Artemis the entire time she’s been here, and that was not okay.

Your saving grace came as Robin’s voice crackled over the comms. “Robin to Aqualad. We're over Philadelphia. We've located the shadows' next target, Star Labs.” There’s a moment of silence before you hear Robin let out a low gasp, “We're too late. It's destroyed, totally destroyed. The fog decimated it. This is bad. Star Labs is cutting-edge science, And now their secrets are in the hands of the enemy.”

You swallowed, eyes on Wally as you spoke into the comm, “What's our next move?” you ask.

“Rescan for that fog. Find it. We're moving the Doctor," Aqualad decides.

You turn to Wally once more, “you need to get it together,” you sigh, opening the door and walking back toward the rest of the team.

While you and Aqualad went out on a perimeter patrol, M’gann, Wally, and Artemis put the plan in motion. Together, the two of you walked for a while in silence until Aqualad spoke up.

“I seemed to have noticed something our other friends have missed," he smirked.

“Really? What’s that?” you asked, turning away from your surroundings to look at him.

“You seem to be more prone to contact with a certain Boy Wonder than you have been in the past," he notes and your cheeks redden immediately.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” you can’t hide the smile that comes along with the shameless lie though.

“You forget, old friend, we met each other many years ago, in my home. I take pride in the fact that I still know you quite well," he smiles, and you look away, a small pout on your lips.

“Whatever,” you mumbled, gaining a soft chuckle.

When he calms a bit you give him a knowing look, “you know they’re probably glaring at each other.”

“Yes, I would think so,” he agreed, and you shook your head.

“Stop it, both of you,” you order, through the psychic link while sharing a smirk with Kaldur.

Both Artemis and KF respond immediately, “What?!”

“We can hear you glaring,” Aqualad tells them and you crack a smile.

After a bit, you notice some movement on the horizon, and Kaldur picked up on it too. It was time to put the plan in motion.

“Miss Martian, stay in camouflage mode and make a wide perimeter sweep," Aqualad ordered aloud, although you both knew it was a lie, Miss M was still with Dr. Roquette.

Kaldur gave you a nod and moved toward the right while you went to the left. Within seconds, someone came up behind you and conked you on the head. Everything went blurry, and while it was disorienting, it wasn’t enough to knock you out. You do however, make sure to fake collapse anyways.

You stay down with closed eyes and you listen to the Assassins move.

“The martian could return any second, and I'm not keen on evening their odds. We end Roquette now," a woman said, and you recognized her voice as the same assassin from before.

You follow the plan, waiting a few moments before slowly getting back up. You stay low in the tall grass to avoid being spotted before quietly racing back to the new location where you had stashed Roquette. When you arrived she was typing away.

“I've almost got it," she informs you.

When her computer beeps you look over her shoulder and your eyes widen, “The next target's a Wayne Tech facility," you mutter, suddenly very aware of how close to home this hits.

“We have company," Aqualad warns just as a smoke bomb explodes in front of you.

“Uploading now. And by the way, you said you'd protect me," Roquette sassed.

Both you and Aqualad turn around and see the attacker coming out of the vents. You pull out your escrima sticks as she shoots a bunch of darts at Aqualad.

“Let's test the limit of your jellyfish immunity, shall we?” the assassin drawled, and when Kaldur staggered back, she stalked further. “There. Limit tested," you could almost hear the smirk as Aqualad fell. “Now, Doctor, time for my appointment,"

“Sorry, but there’s a bit of a wait," you interrupt, eyes narrowing behind your mask as she lunges.

You use the escrima sticks proficiently against her, but it’s clear the shadows have trained her very well. After a few minutes, she manages to disarm you. She kicks you back and walks toward Dr. Roquette. You grab a ring dagger and throw it at her, the sharp blade attaches her to another table, slicing through part of her green robe.

She turns her head back to you, as you struggle back to your feet, “Impressive aim,” she notes, pulling the blade out, “but you’ll find mine to be better,” she chucked your knife back at you.

Your body reacted on its own, turning as the blade sped toward your face. The edge managed a cut to your cheek, before it embedded itself in the wall behind you.

You squared off with the assassin, grabbing more blades from their harnesses, though a sudden ding drew her attention away from you.

“So you finished the virus, eliminating the reason for your elimination, though not the entertainment value," she realized, slowly backing toward the door. “Lucky for you, my orders are clear. You live to program another day. After all, Doctor, the shadows may find another use for you," then she disappeared into the shadows.

You shoved the blades back into their harness and rushed to Kaldur first, “Aqualad?” your arms wrapped around him for stability.

“I will be okay,” he assures you. “What of Roquette?” he grunted.

“She’s fine,” you promise as you help him out the door.

Roquette crouched down and picked up your escrima sticks, handing them gently back to you. You smiled at her as you slid them into the harness on your back.

When you exit the building you spot Artemis, but no one else.

“Artemis, where's the assassin?” you asked, still supporting part of Kaldur’s weight as you stop before her.

A pained expression crossed her features, “She, uh… she got away," Artemis admitted depressedly.

Before you could tell her it was okay, Wally had interrupted.

“Oh, from you? Oh, big surprise. Notice we got ours," Wally brags, gesturing to the incapacitated people behind him.

“KF,” your tone has a warning edge, and the speedster rolled his eyes. Though they got caught on something down on the floor.

“Cool. Souvenir!" Wally rushed over and swiped it up off the ground.

While he was occupied you turned back to Kaldur, “This is going to hurt,” you mutter to the older boy as you wrap your hand around one of the darts.

“Do it,” he assures you, and you offer a small smile and you begin to pull the darts out of his skin.

“Alright,” you nodded, as you got the last one.

Slowly he straightened up before turning toward Artemis, “Her mask? Did you see her... her face?” Aqualad questions weekly from beside me.

“It was dark," Artemis stuttered.

“It is fine. Robin and Superboy neutralized the fog, And Dr. Roquette is safe, thanks in no small part to you. Welcome to the team," he was quick to reassure her before shaking her hand.

“I've always wanted a sister. Here on Earth, I mean. I have twelve back on Mars but trust me, it's not the same," M’gann smiled giddily.

“I wouldn't know. But thanks," Artemis nodded shyly.

“Anytime,” you cut in, before elbowing Wally in the stomach.

“Ow. Yeah. Welcome," Wally mumbled, sending you a subtle glare.

Slowly the team loaded back onto the Bioship once Superboy and Robin had returned. As you walked you stayed toward the back, stopping Artemis before the two of you could enter.

“Hey, Artemis,” you call her name gently, and she stops, turning to face you. “I know you’re not GA’s niece,” you tell her and her eyes widen and stature stiffens, “and I’m sure that League knows what they're doing. But when you feel ready, I’d like to get to know who you really are. If you’re anything like the girl I met today, I gotta admit she seems pretty cool," you give her another soft smile before boarding the ship.

She waited a moment before following in after you. She shot you a small grateful look as she sat down in her seat. Smiling you sat down in yours, next to Robin. Your body slouched as the seat melded into you.

“You good?” Robin asked, voice low, as M’gann took the helm.

“Just tired,” you hum, thinking back to the morning you had spent at the beach as you pull your gloves off.

“You got cut?” he asked, and your fingers moved to your cheek. They make contact and you wince. Pulling them back you see a little bit of blood.

“It’ll be fine,” you shrug.

Robin sends you one more look before nodding.

STAR CITY August 11th, 07:23 EDT

The rest of the week seemed to fly by and you found yourself sitting in an old diner in Star City, knee bouncing as you fiddled with your jacket zipper. You’d been sitting there for nearly half an hour and was beginning to lose hope when you heard the bell ding. Looking over a smile pulled your lip out from between your teeth.

The eighteen-year-old boy with the red hair walked over and slouched into the booth across from you, but before he could say anything, the owner walked up to the two of you.

“Roy, (Y/n), it’s been too long since I’ve seen your lovely faces in my diner,” Miss Lenetii smiled, and a warm feeling spread in your chest.

“Sorry Miss L, we’ve been busy,” Roy spoke with a small smile aimed at the older woman, and it was the first one you’d seen on his face in months.

“Well, I’m glad you’re back, I’ll send you usuals in,” she smiled, grabbing the untouched menus from the table and walking off.

You waited till she was out of earshot before you turned back to face him, “You came!” you cheered kicking his foot, gaining a roll of his eyes.

“I didn’t have a choice,” he argued with a pointed look. “You’ve gotten really good with those daggers,” he noted and you laughed.

“You think?” you smirked.

“I remember when you couldn’t even twirl them without one going flying at our heads,” he joked.

“Oh god, don’t remind me,” you shook your head, looking down at your orange juice.

“Ollie forced you to learn how to shoot after that,” he reminded you.

“Yeah, he did. To help build arm and hand strength as well as aim,” you quoted.

“It worked, you were a quick study,” he nodded.

“Bow and arrows aren’t really my thing,” you shrugged.

“And yet you’re a better shot than me,” he deadpanned.

“Debatable,” you shrug.

“Good job with the mission, by the way,” he added.

“Thanks,” you smiled softly at him.

“Alrighty we’ve got an egg over easy on hash browns with bacon and hot sauce for Miss (Y/L/N), and a meat lovers omelet with toast for Mr. Harper,” Miss Lenetii smiled placing down your food. She also placed down a cup of coffee for Roy and a fresh glass of orange juice for you.

“Thank you, Miss L, it looks awesome, as always,” you smiled up at the older woman.

“Enjoy sweethearts, this one’s on the house,” she winked before walking away, leaving no room for argument.

“She’s too nice to us,” Roy notes.

“Always has been,” you nod. Biting your lip, you look up from your food and to the boy across you, “Roy you should come back to the team,” you say softly.

His shoulders sagged a little bit, “(Y/n) if that’s the only reason I’m here then I’m going to take my order to go,” he sighed.

“No, just hear me out,” you pleaded.

He didn’t say anything, but Roy turned his eyes back to you.

“I love you, and you know that. I know you are a super capable person, but being on your own is not your safest bet, okay? The way the League treats us, it’s different Roy. We’re our own team and with our own goals. It may not be as big as the League but it’s an improvement to just doing patrols,” you explain.

“I’m not interested, Birdy,” he repeats.

“The boys want you there,” you press.

“I don’t want to be there, (Y/n). I want to be recognized as what I am, someone who’s grown up. I’m not a little kid anymore, and I definitely am not Ollie’s sidekick. I won’t go back as long as we’re still viewed as sidekicks,” he told you seriously, and then it went quiet. The two of you ate in silence, watching each other and the people who seemed to file in and out.

When the time came you knew you had to leave in order to be on time for morning training with Robin and Aqualad.

Heaving a sigh you looked Roy in the eyes. “We never viewed each other as sidekicks, Roy. We viewed each other as friends, as family. That was the important part. But if you think growing up is more important, I think you made the right choice,” you decided, standing up and placing a twenty next to your plate before grabbing your bag. He didn’t say anything as he looked at you with pinched brows. Nodding you leaned down and pressed a kiss to his cheek before walking out.

Maybe Roy really had made the choice best for him...

DC taglist: @grey-water-colors @batarella

CN:NG taglist: @psych0crybaby @smile-more19 @spiitfiires @crookedlyshamelessnacho @truly-dionysus @farfromjustordinary @sometimeseverythingsucks @dweeb-central @lucy-roo @casedoina @cipheress-to-k-pop @mikey-clifford202064 @seninjakitey @explodingwaffle789 @evermoore580 @whelmedparker @gwen-sux@skyl0rd5117 @officiallydarkgeek

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lesbianakaashi · 4 years ago

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The Forgotten Shounen: Katekyo Hitman Reborn

This is not a “Why you should watch/read khr” or anything like that. This is just me going into the deep dive and throwing my findings at you. I’m making this because khr used to be my favourite series when I was 15 (I had plushees, posters, tradingcards, the art book etc) and now as an adult I constantly find myself baffled at how unknow it seems to be.

1. Okay first what is khr?

Katekyo Hitman Reborn! or just Reborn! is a series by Akira Amano which was published in Weekly Shounen Jump from 2004 to 2012 (with 42 volumes) and got an anime adaption which run from 2006 to 2010 on Tv Tokyo (with 202 episodes and one OVA).

2. What’s it about?

Khr is a parody of the italian mafia and plays in a world where the mafia is heavily influencial. The protagonist is the japanese middle schooler Sawada Tsunayoshi who is known as “No good Tsuna” because of his failing grades, general weak and cowardly personality and weak physics.

He becomes aware of the mafia world when a 2 year old baby called Reborn arrives at his house claiming to be the greatest hitman and declaring himself his home tutor. Reborn was send by the 9th head of the Vongola famiglia who is ready to retire and looking for a new heir. Which of course, is supposed to be Tsuna and now it's Reborns job to shape him into a worthy sucessor.

Tsuna rejects the violence of the mafia world and refuses the position as the 10th. Thanks to Reborn and his general craziness Tsuna meets different people and starts to make real friendships. Reborn wants 6 of those friends to be Tsuna's future guardians, basically a group of people which will be closest to him in the vongola famiglia. Tsuna might have no interest in those positions but the friendships he builds with them become really precious to him.

Reborns arrivial also brings in the enemies of the Vongola family which leads to Tsuna being forced to engage in battles. Generally Tsuna openly avoids fights and prefers to run away but will put himself in danger for his friends' sake or because of something Reborn did.

Through out the series Tsuna matures and gains strenght but he never becomes a power fantasy. He's just a guy with many flaws who grows through the human connections he makes.

Personally I think the relationship between Reborn and Tsuna is one of the best student teacher reltaionships in all of manga only topped by Mob and Reigen from Mob Psycho 100. Especially the last arc really underlines their unique relationship to me.

Furthermore, khr offers a new and unique battle system: The flames. I'm not gonna go into to too much detail but the general idea is that one fights with their dying will flame which basically turns off your the savety switch so you can fight with everything you have. The flames are seperated into different categories such as: sky, storm, mist, rain, sun, lightning and cloud and have different attributes asigned to each one. Tsuna's use of the sky flame and his transformation when using it is still one of my favourite shounen transformations to this day.

3. What happened?

The series did really well and then not so well over the course of its serialisation. After the manga got an anime adaption it increased in populairty and video games, light novels, and other products such as CDs were created based on the series. Reborn is one of the best selling series of Weekly Shōnen Jump and has sold around 30 Million volumes overall. It was and still is very popular in Japan but rather unknown in the west.

According to the article "The Rise and Fall of Weekly Shonen Jump: A Look at the Circulation of Weekly Jump" khr was the 10th bestselling series in Weekly Shōnen Jump, with a total of 7 million copies sold in 2007.

This number increasing to 15 milion in 2008. Which placed khr into the 4th best selling series of 2008 in Japan.

Between 2008 and 2010 those sales declined but still kept strong with khr as the 6th top selling manga in 2009, 8th best selling in 2010 and then 24th best selling in 2012.

In November 2014, readers of the Da Vinci magazine voted khr number 17 on a list of Weekly Shōnen Jump's greatest manga series of all time.

After the anime came to an apprupt stop in 2010 for unknown reasons the manga sells took a visible hit. (Apparently the studio wanted to put the anime on halt because they were busy with other projects and give Akira Amano time to develop her story but I couldn't find any source for this claim) Furthermore, the rushed last chapters of the manga in 2012 declined the popularity of the series even more. There's no offical statement as to why the manga was ended in such a way but it's reasonable to assume that Jump either cut it considering the decreasing sales or Akira Amano choose to end it for personal reasons.

Nontheless, Tsuna not being included in Jump Force (a fighting game where you can play as different characters from Jump) in 2019 even tho he made it in earlier Jump Stars games also underlines the decreased interest in the series.

Rumors on a reboot or anime adaption of the last two arcs surface from time to time but are genereally unlikely. Artland the studio which made khr has gone bankrupt around 2015-2016. It might be taken on by another studio but rather uncommen especially with such an old series.

4. Art style

The khr anime ended over 10 years ago and the old art style might not be appealing to newer audiences.

Especailly because the anime adaption follows Akira Amanos old art style which heavily developed within the years. Here a picture comparing characters in the new art style:

A modern anime adaption in the new art style would be aesthetically pleasing. It would probably look similiar to Psycho Pass since Akira Amano did the concept art for this series.

(My personal art student hot take is that both art styles are unique and fun. Up to this day Akira Amano still has my favourite art style and even if the amount folds in the characters clothing is a little extreme I love it dearly.)

5. Criticism

The show is not without flaws and even if I greatly enjoy it it wouldn't be right not to adress them.

Daily Life Arc:

A lot of people view the first 20 to 25 episodes as fillers and quickly lose intererst in the series. This is due to the fact that Akira Amano inteded the series to be a gag manga and focuses the first chapters on world building, character introduction and comical narratives. It's rumored that the decision to develop the story into a battle shounen was made because the sales weren't doing well enough at first. So the first chapters/episodes may seem titidious but are necessary for the story and the development of the characters. The tonal shift from a more gintama like gag manga to a darker battle focused story can also be offputting to some viewers.

Either way a lot of people blame this arc when discussing why khr never got an english dub or didn't end up on Toonami. I've also read that the manga never finished serializing in the north america. However, it finished in other western languages like german and spanish.

Censoring:

The anime censors A LOT. From Gokudera's smoking habit, Yamamoto's whole character arc which deals with heavy themes such as depression and suicidal thoughts. The general bloodiness of the manga was censored and sometimes whole chapters and characters were left out even if those were important to the devolopment of others.

Filler episodes:

Out of the 202 episodes the anime has around 29 filler episodes which makes roughly 14 %.

Sexism:

Even if Reborn was written by a woman most female characters are rather flat and their storylines often tied to a male character in one way or another.

Genereal things:

Khr, like many other long running series, is sometimes criticised for a lack of world building or unpopular narrative choices.

6. Hope?

Khr isn't exactly dead. As stated before the series is still very popular in Japan and still gets new merch pretty regulary. There are also petitions floating around for a reboot or a new anime season but those never get a lot of traction. Furthermore #Reborn2期アニメ化 (#Reborn2ndAnimation) used to get some traction on twitter not too long ago. Last year the Anime News Network did a poll on which anime the readers would like to see a rebooot of and khr placed second.

Either way here's a collection of recent khr things I could find.

- In 2018 a new bluray set was released in north america

- The khr stage play reached yet another new season

- A mobile game was released last year

- Currently ongoing anime cafe event called "Concerto di Vongola"

- Last month there was an event with the former VAs and stage play actors where they discussed their favourite khr episodes.

- There has been an increase in blind reacts to the openings on youtube which might bring in a new fan base. The biggest one I could find had around 90k views and was made in 2019. On this note check out the soundtrack. The first openeing Drawing Days by SPLAY still makes me go insane (but I'm biased of course)

There also renewed hope for a new season/reboot because Shaman King, Inuyasha and Bleach got anounced for new seasons after a long hiatus. It's important to keep in mind that the circumstances for those series are differnt tho. For example bleachs new anime is often tied to the immense success of the gatcha game.

7. Conclusion

Khr is a series which used to be a flagship for Weekly Shounen Jump and is deeply beloved by it's fans, especially in Japan. It influenced other shounen series like bnha. It would be nice to see it gaining a bigger fanbase in the west :)

#khr #khr meta #anime analysis #shounen jump #katekyo hitman reborn #mirytalks #long post #manga

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punderfulowl · 3 years ago

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Top 10 Anime (That I've Seen) in 2020

Well now, it has certainly been awhile. I'm currently sitting at eight months too late for posting this, but, y'know, something something life happens. More accurately, I already made this list, but wanted to try out what response I'd get from Reddit. Turns out, they're not as cool as you guys!

Anyways, as the title states, this is not a list of my favorite anime that came out during 2020, but instead my favorite anime that I just so happen to see during that year. While it's fun to have an end of the year retrospective, I find that having a list in this format not only adds variety, but also helps bring attention to anime that might have been lost in the shuffle in previous years (I also don't have enough time to stay caught up in seasonal releases).

Honorable mentions:

Aggretsuko S3, My Hero Academia S4, Today's Menu For the Emiya Family, Interspecies Reviewers (yes, really), and I Couldn't Become a Hero So I Reluctantly Decided to Get a Job

10. Maid-Sama (2010)

In hindsight, I find it a bit funny that I wanted to watch something wholesome to kick off 2020. Anyway, Maid-Sama is about a high school girl that is also a no nonsense Class President and she kind of has to be at a school where, until recently, was an all boys school. While she kills it in academics and is good at shutting down any shenanigans from the male student body, her financial situation isn't the greatest and has to balance a job at a maid cafe along with her school-related responsibilities. She does her best to hide her employment there to keep up appearances, but is one day found out by one of the boys who happens to be a big flirt and, yeah, hijinks ensue. While this anime doesn't have too many surprises, our main leads bounce off each other well enough to keep me entertained. Nothing I haven't seen already in other anime Rom-Coms, but I think it has more than earned its place at the start of this list.

9. Haganai NEXT (2013)

It's a personal rule of mine when making these lists that I don't include sequels of shows that were in previous lists. While I DID see the first season of Haganai a couple of years ago, it didn't quite make it into the top ten at that time. Because of that, it meets the criteria for this year's list. While I found the characters were just as charming here as I did during the first season, the development of their relationships really took off. It's a shame that it will most likely not get a third season, but I'm happy with what ride this show gave me. But hey! At least I can read the light novels/manga to continue the story! Wait, nevermind, the Haganai fans on Reddit are saying that's a bad idea.

8. Engaged to the Unidentified (2014)

Based off of a Four Panel joke manga, Engaged to the Unidentified tells the story of a girl in high school suddenly getting some life changing news. As it turns out, her grandfather made an arranged engagement with her and the son of a family he knew. Next thing she knows, the boy in question, as well as his little sister, moves into her family's house! While the boy is unassuming at first, there may be more to him and his family than he lets on. Plain and simple, this anime has charmed me. There's a decent amount of drama and mystery despite the source material and I applaud it! Even though this also doesn't have much new to offer, even to the point where I would compare this to Maid-Sama, what made me pick this at the 8th spot were the color choices and animation quality. Give this a shot if you can!

7. Grimoire of Zero (2017)

It's a fantasy/adventure story starring a loli sorcerer and a huge, anthropomorphic white tiger man. I honestly can't say anything else. I won't be able to do it justice. That first sentence should intrigue you a lease a little bit. Read it, again. Please check it out. It's an underrated gem that no one is talking about.

6. ID: Invaded (2020)

Hey, here's something recent! Unfortunately, this is also not something I can say much about. There may not be too many deep characters and the secret bad guy isn't hard to figure out, but BOY is this anime cool! The best way to describe this series is that it's like the movie Inception, but instead of brain heists, it's brain murder mysteries.

5. Carole and Tuesday (2019)

A runaway rich girl has a fated meeting with an orphan and they decide to make music together...oh, this also takes place Mars. Joking aside, this show was something special with its music (a new song almost every episode no less), interesting setting (freaking Mars, dude), and endearing main cast. Shoot, the music itself would be top 3, maybe number 1, but what bogs it down is the show's second half. I can easily see myself watching this again someday, and maybe my opinion will lighten up, but for now, 5 is a dang good spot.

4. Fate/Grand Order: Absolute Demonic Front - Babylonia (2019)

Part of me hesitates placing this high up on list due to this show being animated, fan service spectacle for Fate fans. However, that hesitation is overshadowed by the fact that I am a Fate fan myself and I can do whatever I want with this list. Even if you're not a Fate fan or play FGO, if you enjoy some solid fight animation, this is worth a look.

3. K-On S1 (2009)

I'll admit it, I might regret not watching the second season then putting the series on the list as a whole, but this how I've been doing these lists and I'm such a creature of habit. There's not much I can say about K-On that hasn't already been said. By itself it's an anime classic and one of Kyo-ani's biggest properties. It's a sweet and wholesome watch, but be sure to have some insulin within reach.

2. Princess Principal (2017)

Imagine you're working with a team of programmers trying to make a mobile game then all of a sudden someone asks to make a show out of it. You know, a show with different character motivations, plot, twist and turns and all that? Most might say that's just a shameless, shallow cash grab, but it turns out okay for Princess Principal. Sure, most might summarize this anime as, "cute girls doing espionage things," but with its cast, visuals, and interesting alternative timeline, it works! Apparently there's a new season or movie in the works and I am all for it!

1. Beastars (2019)

I was not expecting this to be number one, but with much deliberation (with myself obviously) this feels right. It tells a pretty unique story while showing itself to be the exception to the rule when it comes to 3D anime.....it being that it's actually good. While I acknowledge that shows like K-On are classics and deserves to be number one on many different lists, it didn't line up with my personal criteria like Beastars did. My biggest deciding factor is: Now that I've watched this, do I want more? It's true that while I'm excited to start K-On S2, Beastars intrigues me more and ever since season two was announced, I'm looking forward to that more.

Sorry again for this list being so late, but at least the silver lining is that the next end of the year list is about four months away (in theory)!

#anime #k-on #beastars #princess principal #fate grand order #carole and tuesday #id invaded #grimoire of zero #engaged to the unidentified #haganai #maid sama

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spn-romantica · 4 years ago

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So I watched SPN for years, right up until the end of S11, when they brought back Mary. I heard that S15 would be the last season, and I was like ‘oh ok I’ll rewatch (for like the 8th time) and finish SPN then’ BUT THEN 15x18 happened and I was violently pulled back into the SPN fandom. I still haven’t caught up fully watching yet, but I’ve read so much discourse now...and I have thoughts. Hypotheses currently. I’ll wait to finish the whole show for real to call any of this theories but, I wanted to record my thoughts.

They’re about Chuck. As a villain. Which weirds me out. As an antagonist? Sure. As evil? No. Can’t envision it. I just finished my rewatch of S5 and, damn, but if Chuck is the ultimate villain, S5 reads very differently. :0

But I recently saw a post comparing Dean’s reaction in 1x18 (I believe) to his in 10x05 (for sure) about when someone mentions his mother’s death. In 1x18, it’s Sam when they were children and Dean gets angry. In 10x05, it’s a group of high school girls and Dean just bops his head along to the song. The post was framing it as 10x05 not understanding Dean’s thoughts about his mother, but I think that both episodes understand Dean. When Dean is a child, the trauma over his mother’s murder is still fresh. By 10x05, the event is 70 years in the past. Of course it still affects Dean. Of course. You never really get over something like that. But I’d argue that after 70 years, Dean has moved through the stages of grief to acceptance. It still hurts, but like an old ache, not a fresh, still-bleeding wound.

Interestingly, 10x05 is when we see Chuck, after a long absence. He’s watching the play, probably happy that someone loves his work enough to even make a musical, but he is also watching the Winchesters. The actual episodes of the show, aka the books Chuck writes, are what Chuck knows/cares about regarding the Winchesters. Despite being God, I’d argue he doesn’t pay attention to every second and all the little minutia of the boys’ lives. So, here in 10x05, we have confirmation that Chuck is around to see that Dean has healed from his mother’s death.

Later, in S11, Dean acts as therapist/life counsellor to Chuck/God, regarding Amara and Lucifer. And it works! Dean teaches God about family and about healing. Why does God listen to Dean Winchester, a random human? Perhaps it is because of S1-5. Perhaps it is because Dean and Sam were part of God’s test, as God himself describes it in 5x22.

What was the test? Was it God’s experiment about choice and free will? About freedom vs peace? Or, perhaps, was God trying to understand sibling relationships? He and Amara are two faces of the same coin. They are siblings, but with very different outlooks and it caused a rift between them, caused Chuck to seal Amara away before she could destroy his creations. Chuck regretted this, but saw it as a necessary betrayal. But then, some time later, Chuck’s angelic children experience their own betrayal and sibling rift. Lucifer tries to turn the angels against God, rebel and reject God. He makes demons, for sure, and maybe even Hell. But why? God figures that Lucifer was maybe jealous of the new baby (humans) like others in the show postulates. Or maybe Lucifer had beef specifically with Michael, because humans are little more than amoebas from an angelic perspective. Aside from Castiel, Anna and a handful of other angels, angels consistently view humans as humans might view dust mites. Maybe humans were the cause of the rift between Michael and Lucifer, but it was Michael and Lucifer’s relationship that needed fixing in the end, regardless.

So God is left with the sad conclusion that maybe close siblings will inevitably betray each other and be unable to forgive and heal. He wants to heal with Amara. But he also wants Michael and Lucifer to be able to heal. (It doesn’t occur to God that maybe Lucifer’s problem was never with humanity or Michael; it was with God.)

So God has research to do, to see if it’s possible for siblings to experience such deep betrayal and still heal. He turns to his little hairless apes, the only sentient species on Earth with potential to parallel the angels. He starts testing siblings. Cain and Abel are first up. Needless to say, but the betrayal was too strong and left no room for healing. But on down the line of Cain, God continues testing. Eventually, we come to Sam and Dean.

God has scheduled Michael and Lucifer’s family counselling session for 2010. All the data up to this point says it can only end badly. Maybe it’ll half-kill the Earth, but it’s finally time for Michael and Lucifer to meet and for one of them to die. God isn’t happy about this conclusion, but it’s what the data says. So, finally, the last test subjects, the last in the line who will be the vessels for Michael and Lucifer’s showdown, arrive. Sam and Dean Winchester are to be the last sibling test. The conclusion seems foregone at this point, but there is no point in cancelling the last bit of the test after so long, so it continues. God watches. And Sam and Dean surprise God. Siblings after siblings had failed for millennia to heal. Betrayals too strong, healing too little, too late. But Sam and Dean. no matter how badly they hurt each other, find a way to come back together and heal. They don’t give up on each other, despite millennia of data to the contrary. Still, the angels and demons push and push at Sam and Dean until their rift is as wide and as deep as Michael and Lucifer’s, as God’s and Amara’s (in late S4). It seems, despite the brothers’ best efforts earlier on, it’s all for naught.

But there is a further element of randomness, something God couldn’t foresee. Castiel. God hasn’t had occasion for romantic love in his own experience, so he is entirely blind to what choices Castiel is likely to make. He provides an element of randomness to the experiment, an essential part that gives Dean the ultimate chance to go back to Sam and begin to heal (4x22).

Throughout S5, Sam and Dean heal. There is hurt, still, of course, but they love each other and forgive each other. By 5x22, they’ve surprised everyone. Even the angels have given up on turning them against each other, and have shrugged and settled for using Nick and Adam as the vessels for the showdown. Sam and Dean passed their test. They were siblings who betrayed each other and healed from it. God reconsiders how family counselling will go with Michael and Lucifer. He figured it would be the Apocalypse, the end of the problems between Michael and Lucifer, as one of them dies, as had always happened before. But, Sam and Dean showed God, that though it is rare, it is possible to heal. So God gives Sam and Dean an out. He gives Sam the strength to seize back control from Lucifer, should things go south.

Finally, the showdown arrives. Michael and Lucifer meet. They talk things out. To God’s surprise, Lucifer reveals that he never had a problem with Michael. He had forgiven Michael long ago. But Michael couldn’t forgive Lucifer. He had to be a ‘good son’ and do what he thought God wanted him to do. But Michael didn’t realise, that God doesn’t give orders. Free will all the way, baby! But the whole thing comes as a surprise. Apparently, all this time, the problem relationship wasn’t siblings, it was parents.

Oops.

Good thing God had a back-up plan.

Sam throws himself and Lucifer (and Michael and Adam) into the Cage. Michael and Lucifer have an eternity to figure things out between each other now. But that’s beside the point. The point is, now, that God has to start testing all over again. Not how to fix sibling relationships, but how to fix parent-child relationships.

God restores Castiel, perhaps for a few reasons because God exists outside of time, but originally it may have been just for one. He likes Castiel. He is impressed that Castiel invented free will for himself, broke free of angelic programming (multiple times over), and did it all for love. It’s novel. It’s interesting. God might even think it’s sweet. But God has had time later, and thought about it, and he has a plan. And Castiel is essential.

But Dean Winchester is the key.

Sam and Dean’s relationship with their own father has been strained, but both boys find a way to forgive John his flaws and failings, and love him. Whenever they do get a chance to see him again, post his death, they don’t hate him. They’ve healed. John’s relationship with Sam and Dean is one point of data, Abraham and Isaac another. There are many data points that God can reflect back on and consider.

But as S6 through S10 roll on, God watches Sam and Dean and Castiel. He even watches Crowley and Rowena for another data point. Dean is his main focus, however. (This is a little meta, but as the story focuses more on Dean than Sam post S5, it ties in. Prior to S6, both Sam and Dean were essential - the sibling test. Now, post S5, the parent test, Dean is the most essential. Of course, Sam and Castiel are important too. But Dean is key.)

Dean is a good father. He was a good father to Sam, even when he was only 6 years old himself. He was a good father to Ben. He was willing to die for Bobby John. He’s always good with kids. Not only that, but Dean is blunt enough, brave enough, and crazy enough to tell God to God’s face what he thinks. God needs Dean’s advice, his perspective and opinion on family relationships, but he also needs to see what Dean would do if he were in God’s shoes.

[Edit (1/04/21): After seeing Michael and Lucifer (mostly) heal, and after seeing Sam and Dean heal their relationship, God finally has hope for him and Amara. So God logically wants to retrieve Amara from her prison. But how? Well, he could just wander on up to Cain and do it himself, but what would Amara say? “So I see you’ve come crawling back, eh, Chucky?” She wouldn’t be impressed with God. She wouldn’t understand, because she’s hopeless too. SO how to give her hope? How to make her see that she and God can be okay again? Why, stick her near Dean Winchester, of course! So God sets things up for Dean to get and lose the Mark of Cain, thereby ensuring that Amara will feel a connection to Dean and stick around him/keep him alive long enough for Dean to work his life-coach magic.]

In S11, God and Amara heal their relationship because of the hope Sam and Dean gave God, and also the direct advice Dean gives God. God and Lucifer, not so much.

God needs more data. He needs to see what Dean would do. In comes Castiel’s relevance. God sets things up so that Lucifer can have a son. A nephil. Jack. And God points Castiel in Jack’s direction, trusting Castiel’s ability for unconditional love to keep Jack alive long enough for the experiment. Castiel becomes Jack’s father. But Castiel will never betray Jack, the way God betrayed Lucifer. And, besides, Castiel isn’t the target of this experiment. But it is Castiel’s relationship with Dean Winchester that provides the link needed to get the experiment rolling.

Because Jack is Castiel’s son, he is therefore Sam and Dean’s nephew. Except, God has been watching Castiel and Dean. And, frankly, their romantic love for each other is so obvious even God cannot miss it. Through Castiel, Dean sees Jack as his son too. He loves Jack, exactly like a son. In this way, Dean parallels God, and Jack parallels Lucifer.

But God knows Dean would not easily turn on any child, let alone his own child. So God had a plan for that too. One that Amara helped him with.

They brought back Mary Winchester.

Mary is the one person in existence whose loss would hurt Dean enough to spur him to action. So, she was brought back to die. It was a matter of only a few years of gentle prodding to get everything in position. Jack causes Mary’s death. Dean is faced with a horrible decision. If Jack can kill Mary, what’s to say that Sam and Castiel wouldn’t be next? Mary’s death is like everything beginning all over again for Dean as well. Her first death set off a chain reaction, a series of unfortunate events that spanned decades and nearly caused the ruination of not only Dean’s life, but Sam’s and John’s and even the world. That scar, which had healed as well as it could after 70 years, that God saw was healed in 10x05, has been violently opened up again. It’s the only thing that could force Dean’s hand, that could get him to betray Jack and try to kill him. If Jack had killed Sam or Castiel, it wouldn’t have had the same effect. Both Sam and Castiel had died and come back so many times, and while it would hurt Dean and make him doubt Jack, their deaths would be a sacrifice that Dean would feel obligated to respect, to give Jack a second chance like they would both want. (And God has been laying the groundwork for Dean, convincing him that Jack is evil, will be evil like Lucifer, can’t be allowed to live. All things God has thought about Lucifer over time. Was Lucifer inherently evil? Was their rift inevitable?)

So, here it is. The big test. Will Dean kill Jack? Will he betray Jack and cause an unhealable rift? Or will he find a way to heal, like he did with Sam against all the odds?

And, once again, Dean impresses God. He refuses to kill Jack.

But now we’re in the endgame. Sam, Dean and Castiel are aware that Jack’s life was only on the line because of God. It’s not something they can forgive, or understand. They’re all God’s guinea pigs, and while he loves his guinea pigs, he knows he’s hurt them in the name of science, of knowledge. or healing, and God can’t undo what he’s done. Free will is linear, after all. So it is time for the Winchesters, Castiel and Jack included, to be done with God. God is done with them, too. It’s time for them to be free and at peace. The experiments are done. God has decided not to kill Lucifer. He has decided to try to heal. He can get Lucifer out of the Empty and talk and try to fix things. He has forever to fix things, now that he knows he can. (The last element of this, Jack forgiving Dean for trying to kill him, is something I have limited knowledge of, but I am under the impression happens so... To be added in the edit once I finish the series.)

But the only way the Winchesters will be able to rest, is if they think God, the last and greatest villain, is out of the way. They know they’ve been manipulated their whole lives, first towards the sibling experiment and now the parent experiment, so they need to think God is gone so they can feel secure in their free will once more. Truthfully, God never took their free will. He set them up in situations, maybe even gave a bio-chemical nudge of anger (Dean) or attraction (Sam and Eileen) every now and then. But the choices were always theirs. Still, God knows they won’t see it that way. So he sets things up so that they can defeat him.

He lets them win. He wants them to win. They cannot defeat God, after all. It’s not God’s time, and Death is the only one who can claim God in the end, as the two embrace as friends and walk to the next existence. But the Winchesters need this, and so God allows it. A last gift, to the beings who have been such help, hope and inspiration to him.

With an eye for an eventual S16, 15x20 is written to be ‘an ending’ but also one that could easily be reframed as a bad dream.

For example...

Unfortunately, after Jack, suped up on a extra Grace God lent him, restores the Earth and expends all the Grace (”giving up the mantle of God so that their is no God, no plans, only Free Will”), and Dean, Sam and Jack head back to the Bunker to regroup and gather the ingredients to do the spell to rescue Castiel from the Empty, they’re jumped by monsters who are angry with how much God has fucked with them on behalf of the Winchesters. 15x20 is all a djinn dream Dean is trapped in.

16x01 is Dean waking himself up from the djinn dream, Sam and Jack escaping their own monsters, and then the end of 16x01 is Dean saying something about waking Castiel up from his own dreams in the Empty. The rest of S16 sees the boys save Castiel, reunite with Eileen, start a monster-hunting Bobby Singer/Men of Letters-esque organisation, Dean and Castiel getting together and getting married on Valentine’s Day, Jack getting to live a normal life, going to school, making friends, etc.

If their is no S16 ever (which would be criminal), then 15x20 makes no sense, unless it is plainly a recount of an old, hopeless ending written by God. However you spin it, 15x20 is not the way it seems (like owls).

All things being said, God is an antagonist, but he’s not evil. He’s an asshole, sure, but he never once worked against the Winchesters, never bet against them, never tried to erase or end them. He wanted them to win. He wanted to see the fruits of free will be love, second chances, hope, forgiveness, healing, and happiness, not just betrayal, pain, selfishness, jealousy, disappointment, and hopelessness.

Why is the ending he shows Becky ‘hopeless’? Because God is. He has spent his long existence losing his most loved family members. Amara, Lucifer. How can things end well for God, when they can’t even end well for humans? But Sam and Dean defy the script, again and again. They surprise God, defying the statistics, defying the hypotheses, throwing the experiment into disarray. Giving God hope. Sam and Dean were okay. Dean and Jack were okay. If God had a romantic love, he would find hope from Dean and Castiel being okay. But when God wrote the book he showed Becky, he was writing what he thought would happen. In the end, surely, not even Dean can be enough to hold Sam and Cas and Jack together. But in the end, as we see, as God sees, he is proven wrong and he’s happy to be wrong. He’s hopeful. And he can leave Dean, Sam, Castiel and Jack, and all the angels and all the humans, to rule the Earth and the Heavens. He doesn’t need to learn anything more from them, so he heads to the Empty, with Amara, with Lucifer, with Death (Billie or not, Death is there for God in the end), and they can all depart for a better existence of their own.

If you read all of this, thanks! I eagerly anticipate watching the remaining 10 seasons so I can come back and edit the heck outta this, but until then, if y’all have any thoughts, I’d be interested to hear them~

TLDR: God is a morally bankrupt scientist and the Winchesters are his guinea pigs, but he’s not evil and he does love his guinea pigs, even if he could really treat them nicer.

#supernatural #spn #dean winchester #sam winchester #jack kline #castiel #god #chuck #amara #lucifer #mary winchester #destiel #deancas #this is what i get for living on spn tumblr in a post s15 world while rewatching s5 and having memories ranging from hq to 8bit about s1-s11 #be kind i haven't finished my rewatch/finished the show so i probably have stuff wrong #what if god isn't evil just has no inherent moral compass because he has to teach himself everything #and he's taken to using the winchesters as his guinea pigs/life counsellors

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