#did i rewatch this while i was sick? heck yes i did

[kcgarashi]

Actual footage of Rera telling her friends she broke up with Shinbei

[fandomscombine]

The Hargreeves Kerfuffle  Part 1 : Disastrous Childhood (Prologue)

TUA Series Part 1:  Disastrous Childhood

The Hargreeves siblings x Hargreeves!Reader (Familial Relationship)

An idea came to me at 2am after binging TUA S2 and rewatching S1 right after!

BG: The Reader is Number Eight. It follows how you fit into the structure of Season 1 and the family dynamic of the siblings.

This part follows when the young Hargreeves Siblings had their powers manifested and the development of The Umbrella Academy.

Contains: Sibling Angst and Fluff. Reginald being a crappy father but sometimes not really?

The series will consist of 10 parts. Where the reader would have a focused interaction with each sibling. (Eg. After this part, it would be Luther x Reader, then Diego x Reader and so on! –Yes Ben is included)

WC:2649

A/N: This is my first ever TUA fic and I’m doing a series. WOw ambitious I know. Anyways I hope you enjoy! And tell me how you feel about it!

>>MASTERLIST<<

>>THE HARGREEVES KERFUFFLE SERIES MASTERLIST<<

READ: [PART 2]  [PART 3]  [PART 4]

>>JOIN MY WRITING CHALLENGE!<<

~

On October 1, 1989, 43 women across the globe gave birth despite them not being pregnant when the day began. In news of this mysterious happenings, Sir Reginald Hargreeves immediately went out of his way to find as many of these special babies. He has successfully adopted 8 of these children and you were one of them.

One might think that when a person adopts not one, but eight kids would have so much love to give but they would be mistaken. Sir Reginald Hargreeves—Dad, was not a loving father. It would be a miracle for one to see the man show any other emotion apart from anger. Sir Reginald Hargreeves was distant and treated the children like they were experiments that the dynamic felt closer to a doctor/patient relationship. The children weren’t given actual names, only to be called by their numbers based on the order Sir Reginald Hargreeves had procured them. It was only when Grace, their robot mother insisted they have a real name, were the children given them. And so, the children were:

Number One - Luther Hargreeves

Number Two – Diego Hargreeves

Number Three – Allison Hargreeves

Number Four – Klaus Hargreeves

Number Five – Five Hargreeves

Number Six – Ben Hargreeves

Number Seven – Vanya Hargreeves

And finally,

Number Eight -  y/n Hargreaves

For 6 years, the only special thing about the children was that they were miraculously conceived and birthed within a day, the same day. However, on the 7th year , October 1 1996, more strange things started to happen to the children.

It first started with Ben at breakfast. Dad as usual is cold and strict more so in the early morning. ‘Sit up straight Number Six.’ He directed without even a glance up from his newspaper at hand.

‘Yes Sir.’

Beside him you place your hand on his and whispered, ‘You alright Ben? You look sick.’

He gulped. ‘Yea y/n.’ Wiping the cold sweat off his forehead.

‘You sure?’ you questioned, not buying it.

‘Umhmm never bett-----’

You expected vomit to come out but what happen next is something you would never though was possible.

Screams broke out everywhere.

You feel yourself being raised above the table. Looking down, you were 5 feet off the ground held by what seemed to be tentacles.

‘Take that!’ You hear some shout then a thud. Diego had brought down a knife to the tentacle that had suffocated him and in now laying on the floor covered in green blood.

The sight finally snapped you out of your shock, your fight or flight reflexes kicked in.

A quick sweep of your surroundings showed Five and Klaus on either side of you, they too are struggling with the ever-tightening grip of the monstrous arm.

While on the ground, Vanya and Allison are making their way to Ben in hopes of helping him control whatever all this that was coming out of his body. While Luther is fighting off the arms away from Diego who seem to have broken his leg from the fall.

Dad, Mom and Pogo are nowhere to be seen.

You move your head to the left, knowing that Klaus doesn’t do well in small spaces. ‘Klaus it’s okay buddy, Dad would find a way to fic this. Just breathe’ You choked out ‘Just breathe Klaus, everything’s gonna be alright.’

‘mmmm!’ That was Klaus’ only reply but you were thankful to see him to fidget less. He seemed to have taken your advice – how much of the second part of that advice be true, you genuinely don’t know.

You try to move your head to face the right towards Five but no dice. The arm was wrapping itself closer to your neck. ‘Five’ you call out, but it was barely a whisper. ‘five..’

‘Y/N!!’ Five’s scream was the last thing you heard before everything went black.

~

‘She’s broken a couple of ribs and sprained her neck. But’s she’s gonna be okay. Just needs time to rest.’

‘And how long would that time Pogo?’

‘She would need to say in bed for 2 to 3 months, Sir.’

You open your eyes and are greeted with blinding white light. Dad, Mom and Pogo surround your bed.

Grace tucks a stray hair behind you ear. ‘My baby, y/n. How are you feeling?’

‘Sore.’ You reply, noting the coarse sound of your voice. ‘How’s Ben? Klaus? Vanya?—’

Grace cut you off. ‘They’re all fine y/n. Though Ben is a bit roughed up.’ She says truthfully.

‘Number Six has appeared to have powers of summoning monsters with his body and he is currently under supervision.’  Reginald stated.

But something didn’t fit right. ‘But how did you calm him down? The whole fiasco back there was in total chaos?’ Voicing out all your thoughts and questions. ‘No one could get him to take back control, unless…..’ You couldn’t continue the thought. Your eyes go wide. There was no way. It was too harsh, but it was dad after all, he would do whatever means necessary to get what he wants.

Your dad smiles proudly ‘Ah yes. Y/n ever the cleverest of the bunch.’ You had observed that he had addressed you in your actual name instead of your number for the first time in your whole existence.  ‘Unfortunately, I had to sedate Number Six. You do understand that it was the only way.’

You open your mouth to argue.

‘No buts, Number Eight!’ Ah and now we’re back to number, you thought.

‘I’ll have Grace by you side whist you recover and Pogo here would relay your recovery progress to me daily.’

He was almost to your door when he faced you again. ‘Oh and Number Eight, When you feel something different or unusual. Do inform me of it immediately.’ And with that he left.

‘Pogo? What does he mean by feel different?’ Your nerves go up, worried about your siblings. ‘Is anyone hurt?’

Pogo sighs, after much contemplation he begins ‘Y/n dear. Today’s happenings uncovered that there are stranger yet special things about you children.’

You nod, not wanting to interrupt but also wishing he would hurry up and continue.

‘Ben isn’t the only one who have gotten powers today. During the kerfuffle, Diego has shown skill with a knife, Luther immense strength and Five had shown ability to teleport.’

Once again you found yourself in shock.

‘Your father has gotten the idea that you children have varying power wish are “activated” so to speak when reached the age of 7.’

‘Haha-OW’ You clutch your side.

‘Careful y/n, try not to do sudden movements—yes and that includes laughing too.’ Mom says, caressing your cheek.

‘When can I see them?’

‘I’ll try to persuade Reggie to allow them for a visit dear. But now I need you to rest.’

~

Sibling Visits are limited to 30 mins a day, right before the bedtime curfew.

All your siblings (expect Ben who was still under strict supervision and is recovering himself) came to see you the following night.

Allison was the first one through your door and ran to give you a hug. ‘Y/n! We are all so worried!’

‘Aww thanks—OW OW OW’

‘Oops sorry’ releasing you from her death grip of a hug.

Seeing that movements still hurt you. The rest opted not to hug you, Klaus and Diego held your hand, Vanya is sitting on the edge of you bed, Luther gave you forehead a quick kiss and Five being Five, greeted you with the typical sibling teasing. ‘Glad to see you not drop dead in front of me.’

Diego showed off his leg cast and asked you to sign it, which you happily did so. Signing ‘Badass as always. -y/n’ beside Ben’s note of ‘Diego is cooler than Batman’

The 30 minutes consisted recaps of what happened the day before, the gushing of the boys showcasing their powers and debating on who’s the most powerful.

And just like that, the time was up and each had to go to bed. Everyone kissed your head for goodnights, even Five.

‘You know I love you right?’ His eyes softer than you ever seen before

‘I know’

‘You really scared me yesterday when you blacked out.’ Five had his tough façade down. ‘I thought you died y/n.’

‘But I didn’t.’ You reach up to wipe his tears away. ‘It’d take something bigger, if you wanna get rid of me.’

He chuckled. ‘Night, y/n’

‘Good night, Five.’

~

3 weeks had passed, and your siblings never failed to visit you. Over that time, Klaus and Allison had manifested their powers. Klaus can conjure the dead while Allison could ‘rumor’ people to her will.

Ben came by 2 weeks later. His color is back to normal, not like the blueish tint it had the last time you saw him. Though he still had a few remnants of bruises and scars across his arms and face.

‘I’m sorry y/n.’ He said leaning on your door frame.

‘Ben!’ You exclaimed. ‘I’m so glad you’re back up and running!’

Ben was caught off guard. ‘You—You’re not mad at me?’

‘Why would I be mad at you?’ You questioned, genuinely confused at your brother’s words.

‘Cause, Cause I almost got you killed. I am a monster.’

You sat up straight at those words, your ribs hurt a bit at the sudden movement, but you didn’t care. Your brother was blaming himself for something he couldn’t have controlled.

‘NO BEN!’

Ben jumped from your sudden outburst.

You motioned for him to come closer.

‘Ben…’ looking into his eyes. ‘Ben you are no monster.’

‘But—’

‘uuh uh I’m not done’ You held his hand in yours. ‘You are no monster what happened then was an accident, nobody knew, heck nobody expected powers to just show up. It was beyond anyone’s control. It took us by surprise.’

His shoulders relaxed.

‘It wasn’t your fault. I don’t blame you for what happened.’

He gave you a bone crushing hug. ‘Thank you y/n. You don’t know how guilty I was feeling.’ Voice muffled by your shoulder, which is now wet with his tears. ‘I kept thinking about the pain I caused you and I wasn’t allowed to leave my room even when I begged dad to see you and say sorry. y/n’

‘Shhh shhh’ Rubbing his back. ‘It’s alright Ben. What’s important is that we’re all here now. Alive, Safe and sound.’.

~

You still have a month left for recovery.

Only you and Vanya are the one left who haven’t had their powers revealed.

Dad had created a group called ‘The Umbrella Academy’ in which he trained your super powered siblings. He even given them codenames to go along with their newfound powers.

Number One - Luther Hargreeves aka Spaceboy

Number Two – Diego Hargreeves aka The Kraken

Number Three – Allison Hargreeves aka The Rumor

Number Four – Klaus Hargreeves aka The Séance

Number Five – Five Hargreeves aka The Boy

Number Six – Ben Hargreeves aka The Horor

With this new training program comes with the downside of spending less time with your siblings. Your traditional Sunday afternoon sister bonding time Allison and Vanya is basically non-existent now. Sure the rest of siblings still drop by to check up on how you’re recovering but it is not as frequency as they once were- you totally understand though, it must be tiring to be part of ‘The Umbrella Academy’ but girl were you still hurt and wanted more than anything to be a part of it.

So, you spend most of your time with Vanya nowadays. You didn’t mind, it is nice to have someone along. Most of the time Vanya practices her violin in your room.

‘That was beautiful Vanny’ you commented after she finished a rendition.

‘Thanks y/n’ Her face flushed. ‘Maybe someday I’d be a famous violinist!’

‘I know you would.’ You say truthfully. ‘And I better get the best seats at your concerts okay? Nothing short of VIP treatment for your favourite sister!’

‘Don’t worry, I’ll make sure Allison would get that.’ Vanya teased.

Placing a hand dramatically to your chest ‘uhh I am offended! I thought I was your favourite sister!’

‘well... you thought wrong.’ Vanya tried to keep a straight face but failed. ‘You y/n are the VVIP guest!’

‘Now that’s more like it.’

~

That night you were tossing and turning in your bed.

In the training room, huge boulders were being tossed onto Luther’s back. He currently had 3 on him. ‘More’ he cried. It was an impressive feat to see. A 7-year-old carry the what had to be at least 5 times his weight.

It was at his 6th block when his legs start to shake.

‘Straighten up Number One!’ Reginald voice came through the speakers.

‘I-I’

‘Fix your posture! And stop babbling!’

He was trembling all over, the weight was far too much and carried far too long for just a young boy.

Any second now, he is gonna be crushed by the boulders.

‘LUTHER!’ You screamed. Cold sweat was plastered all over your face. You were still in your room- but it all felt so real.

You look over to your bedside table, 9:07

Training would have started an hour ago. You had time.

You took the stairs two at a time, bursting into the training room. ‘STOP’

Reginald stood from his seat. ‘Number Eight. What in the world are you doing here?’

‘STOP! Luther is gonna get hurt please stop it--.’ Ignoring his question.

‘Number Eight, what are you talking about? Number One is doing perfectly fine!’ He gestured towards the front.

He was right. Luther looks fine. In fact it looked like it was carrying a light backpack instead of 3 boulders. ‘But- But I saw—’ Then it hit you 3 boulders. 3 not 6.

‘More’ You heard him cried out, just like you had in your nightmare.

You stared at Luther, how could this be?

‘I saw him sir, he is gonna collapse from 6 boulders.’

At this, Reginald took interest. ‘You saw?’

‘Yes, I-I must have dreamt it.’ You slumped against the free chair, defeated. ‘but it felt so real.’

‘Let me everything you saw, and don’t miss a single detail’

And so, you did. By the time you finished, Luther was with his 6th block.

It was exactly like how things went down in your dream. ‘No No NOOOO!’

‘Release him!’ Reginald called at the last second. Standing he faced you. ‘Now y/n dear would you please come with me.’

He didn’t speak again until you were both in his office. ‘It seems to me Number Eight that your powers have finally manifested.’

‘what—’

‘A slight delay compared to your siblings, but I presume that it was due to you recovering from your injuries that your body had focus on your recovery first then powers.’

‘What about Vanya? Would she have powers?’

‘It seems that Number Seven has no powers gained.’ Standing in front of you. ‘But no matter now, what’s important is that you’ve got them.’ He placed his hands on your shoulders. ‘You would do great things Number Eight. To see into the future is a valuable asset to have indeed. For this I shall name you Foresight.’

This was it! You own codename!

Number Eight -  y/n Hargreaves aka Foresight.

‘I’m gonna be part of The Umbrella Academy?’ Overjoyed by your father taking pride in you that every other thought left your concern.

‘Yes Foresight. You will.’ Standing straight again. ‘However, your training would only start once you have fully recovered.’

‘Thanks Dad.’ Hugging him and for once showed the affection back.

You wish you could say that it was at this point where you and your siblings finally gotten a loving and healthy childhood. But you were wrong. Things only deteriorated from here on out with the Hargreeves household and by extension the dissolve of The Umbrella Academy.

END OF PART 1

READ: [PART 2] [PART 3]  [PART 4]

Taglist [All]: @gruffle1

Taglist [TUA]: @herecomesthesun1969  @ultraviolet-m​ @winterierwriter @lordofthunderthr​  @alabaster1223

[winterspellsfrozenkit]

After Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, you should replay Breath of the Wild.

Warning SPOILERS mainly for Breath of the Wild, but some for Age of Calamity!

I finished Age of Calamity and I wanted to talk about how it impacted me in terms of Breath of the Wild. 

So, I never finished Breath of the Wild properly. Breath of the Wild was a fun game and I love it, but I am a person who loves the lore and story of a game and those are what drive me. With Breath of the Wild, we get fragments of an incomplete memory and somehow these fragments are meant to make us want to save these spirits. While exploration is fun for me, emotional connections are what motivates me to finish a game and Breath of the Wild is designed to make the player feel isolated and alone a lot of the time. I notice I hang around places in Hyrule that are more often filled with people and when I get sick of it, I go out into the vast world, but I go more often to places I find beautiful and relaxing, like Satori Mountain or the Tabantha areas of Hebra or the Zonai ruins area and just stay put there for a while. 

Now when I stopped playing Breath of the Wild, I was really close to finishing it. I only had the last few Koroks or so to collect and well, I got spoiled for the ending where Zelda asks, “Do you really remember me?” 

It bothered me. 

I felt guilty to even attempt the ending, even though I had gotten all of the memories because while yes, I, as Link, knew Zelda, Link didn’t remember everything. Link’s memories are fragmented and I felt so guilty to even try for the end because I felt like since I only had pieces, it wasn’t right. 

Anyways, I stopped playing and while I deep dived into lore (ie. I purchased Creating a Champion, etc.) to try and figure out Link’s past from 100 years ago, I didn’t feel like returning to the game. Then Age of Calamity came out and while I consider it only semi-canon, I felt like I understood everything a lot better and I decided I was going to finish Breath of the Wild. 

Since I finished Age of Calamity, I decided to rewatch all the cutscenes so I could remember what had happened and it HURT A HECK OF A LOT MORE THAN I REMEMBERED. Let me explain. 

As each Champion is describing the Blight and that it killed them, I could see the fights from Age of Calamity and I could picture how each one died. It made me feel a lot more sense of loss and anger because I now truly knew these Champions, I got to really see their personalities and who they were, and how haunting and awful it really was. 

When I got to Mipha’s freed spirit looking over to the Zora’s Domain and asking, “Father, are you well I wonder?” I began to sob, startling my family. When I first played Breath of the Wild, I felt sadness at this scene, enough to tear up a little, but I didn’t full on cry. But now because of Age of Calamity, I now really felt the true depth of the loss. 

The other Champion I cried at was Urbosa. Urbosa’s words to Link to help Zelda shed her worries now really stuck with me because Urbosa could not do that for Zelda during her lifetime, no matter how hard she tried. It was a regret she had and she was entrusting the task on to Link as she could no longer attempt to do that for her best friend’s daughter. 

As for Daruk, I chuckled when I first watched his freed soul scene, but this time, I actually teared up. I knew Daruk better now and it was so bittersweet to see him see Yunobo and realize his people had survived the Calamity, even if he had not. 

It’s well known to my friends that I despise Revali. His attitude in the memory, “Revali’s Flap” made me so angry I went and finish a ton of side quests before I finished Vah Medoh because I was infuriated at the level of mockery and antagonizing he gave Link because Link’s spirit has to reincarnate every time Ganon comes into Hyrule thanks to Demise’s curse and I was so frustrated that Revali would state that he should be one to fight Ganon, when Link’s spirit doesn’t ever get to rest eternally thanks to an eons long curse. Getting to see more of Revali’s antagonizing of Link in Age of Calamity really did not improve my opinion of him and I have purposefully left him as my weakest hero out of sheer spite. I hated how he called Link lucky because I had felt he had not changed at all. However, when Revali’s soul was freed, this time I could recognize the growth he’d had due to his death and being imprisoned for 100 years and I felt a little less antagonistic towards him. He’s still not my favorite, but I lost some of the vitriol I had before. 

I’m getting ready to finish Breath of the Wild now and I feel a lot more confident about that ending. Do I really remember Zelda? Not exactly in a pure canon way, but I now have such a level of understand on everything that it feels right to answer that question with a resounding yes. I will probably cry when I get there, but it’ll feel a lot more personal to me now. 

In short, if you want a Try Not to Cry Challenge, after you finish Age of Calamity, play Breath of the Wild again. Age of Calamity gives you context and makes the Calamity and the effects of it so much more painful and the ending that much more bittersweet. At least, in my opinion. 

[purplerose244]

Rewatching Trollhunters season 3 while waiting for Wizards 😍

Here we go, last season... not sure if I'm ready to rewatch this 😱

Thinking about it, so much needs to happen here! How did they put everything within 13 episodes without making it look rushed?? This show is WOW

After this thinking that Blinky apparently is not with Jim in Wizards and is probably worried sick breaks my Trollhunters shaped heart 😭😭

Bless Anton Yelchin for his phenomenal work on this show

I love the way they handled the change between his voice and Emile Hirsch in the episode with the Gravesand. I ADORE when a change of voice actor is handled in a smart, thoughtful way 👌

Bad Coffee is one amazing episode, it hit me as a filler at first, then slowly became just another meaningful character development point. A very big one, between Steve and Coach Lawrence's bond, Mrs. Janeth viewpoint about teaching (I think her confidence got better, another reason why I believe she took position with Senor Uhl in the Krel vs Seamus situation in 3Below), Strickler still loving Barbara. Like, secondary characters get such a development it's magic 💪💪

Okay, this

I didn't notice at first 😂 A fanfiction would be great to show the moment Steve gave it to him. Did he craft it himself? That would be even better! 💕

Reason number 138 why I can't wait to see Morgana again in Wizards: Morgana possessing Claire is kind of hilarious really, I wanna see how she is... or she was? Still not exactly sure how it will play out 🤔

Also she seems so proud of her "I have many names" 😂

Forgot to mention NotEnrique, freaking, he's got such a development since the beginning and he is so lovable!!! 💚💚💚

The parents finding out and being supportive, absolutely amazing. I genuinely can't name another show with something like this, it's usually all about staying in the dark until the very end. Barbara is an MVP in this episode, and in general 💪💪

Also I appreciate how much is evident that Jim did train a lot, like he never could have done some of the moves he is pulling this season, and sometimes he is even without amulet. Proud 😍

I'M AM

NOT OKAY 😭😭😭

And after seeing him die again I am on such a high level of not ready to see Draal again in Wizards I don't know what do to with myself, Seklos and Gaylen HELP ME 😱😱

Now that I rewatch it, in general Merlin doesn't bother me... at first. BUT, I hated how he kept dissing Blinky and Strickler 😡

Just by this you know this woman will end up dating a deadly general 😂

I've decided to give a personal rewatch of 3Below without making a post... mostly because I rewatched it too much on my own 😅 Also I think I don't have many interesting thoughts besides KREL YOU BEAUTIFUL BABY ILY 💙💙💙

Speaking of, another thing I love about this show is that you think you know a character, then you actually see their point of view and BOOM, everything changes

We saw Krel from the Trollhunters' point of view and without shame I thought he was super annoying... now if anything happens to him in Wizards I'll kill everyone in this room and then myself 🙂

This consideration actually makes me curious about Douxie, because yes it bothers me a bit that he seems to be flirting with Claire, but I know that he will be one HECK of a character judging from @tenyai's beautiful arts 😍 So definitely looking forward to that

Mm, I noticed that In Good Hands does show similarities between Aja and Krel and Merlin: they are all very unusual, kinda sounds like they know better (more for Krel and Merlin at least) and definitely seems like they haven't been out much. Besides this kinda forshadowing that the Tarrons are not from this planet, it also makes me wonder what we will find out about Merlin since Wizards is a time travel

He is also... kind of coherent? He doesn't really lie about what he wants and what he thinks it's right. He justifies what he is sure needs to be done by the "centuries" he went through, and feels like he is above everyone. That is something very clear

I'm not saying Merlin is not a jerk. HE IS. AND HE IS SO ANNOYING LIKE HE IS ABSOLUTELY WITHOUT GUILT OR SORROW FOR POOR JIM

This is not a justification for what he did to Jim and how he did it, this is merely what I think might be his point of view. But I do like his character a lot. And I'm looking forward to what exactly turned him into the man he is now. Maybe to see the pure heart he said to have had once?

Man the transformation scene is breathtaking. The ultimate act of Jim the best boy, everything in order to protect the one he loves 😭😭😭

THE SUPPORT JIM GETS FROM HIS FRIENDS AND FAMILY, I LOVE THIS SHOW SO FREAKING MUCH 👌👌👌

Kind of hilarious that while all this mess happens, there are two extraterrestrial children running away from dictatorship and trying not to get Earth destroyed by an evil general. Poor Arcadia 😅

The story of this show is so good sometimes I forget the animation is AWESOME SAUCE 😍😍😍😍

If you're asking yes, I did cheer when Morgana was beating the crap out of Merlin, sue me 🤷‍♀️

Also I somehow imagine Blinky having this pic in an imaginary wallet

Just showing it to everyone being like "This is my son, he is the coolest, I love him"... and he would don't lie to me 😚

ANGOT ROT OMG HIS ENTIRE ARC WAS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING

It feels weird rewatching the finale of Trollhunters knowing that in two days Wizards will make this amazing story continue. I know 3Below did continue it already, but we'll see the original trio again!! Doing stuff!! STUFF!! 🤩🤩🤩

Alas, the rewatch is over. I'll forever be sorry for those who haven't watched this amazing show, because it really is wonderful 👌

So... here we go towards our final part of the trilogy, the videogame in September, and the surprises coming after. I feel like we're not at the end after all 😅

Well my friends, see you on the other side!

[pluviophile-bookworm]

AWAE 2x9 rewatch: thoughts and reactions

This review is dedicated to Dalila Bela, who turns 19 today. Happy birthday!

After a long wait, there she is at last - Muriel Stacy, decorating her new home with potato stamps. What a lovely way to show she is a kindred spirit. She’s basically like an older Anne. 

Marilla and Anne utter the same words upon passing Miss Stacy, who is cycling in the opposite direction at top speed - ‘My heavens!’ - except their intonations are so different. Marilla is shocked at the sight of the unconventional-looking stranger, while Anne is in awe of her, and especially the fact that she’s wearing trousers. I don’t think the women of Avonlea, be they progressive mothers or not, won’t be so fascinated with her, though.

And again, Miss Stacy acts exactly like an older Anne, going on and on about potatoes and tardiness and motorbikes before she’s even caught a breath. I can’t wait for Anne to finally meet her. And that concludes the cold open. 

I don’t care what Prissy and Josie, or their mothers, say about Miss Stacy- I’m with Anne on this one. They shouldn’t judge their new teacher before they’ve met her up close. She’ll warm her way into their hearts, I’m sure. I actually know it for a fact.

I simply cannot believe Billy brought a gun to school and is openly proclaiming he’s about to kill an animal, a living being, with it. And it’s not just any animal - it’s the fox, Anne’s fox. What has it done to him that he’s so personally violent towards it?

Again, Gilbert alone is the voice of reason (unlike season 3 Gilbert, who is the most confused individual I’ve ever seen and has the eyebrows to prove it). ‘There’s no fox here, so how about you put the gun away?’ It’s as if he speaks for me. 

Who does Billy think he is, calling his teacher ‘little lady’? He’s lucky she’s not Phillips, otherwise he wouldn’t get away with such disrespectful behaviour. 

Once again Anne uses the exact same words as someone else, but with a different intonation. Prim and proper Tillie’s ‘Oh my goodness!’ is one of disapproval (which she’s not to blame for, that’s probably just what her parents have taught her), while Anne’s is an expression of pure admiration and fascination. [Side note: Let’s put things into perspective, though - what would you think if your new teacher showed up to school with no bra on, on her first day at that? I don’t really know what to think of corsets anymore, so I’m not sure how to take this. You tell me.]

What, now Matthew and Jerry, two of my favourite AWAE men, want to catch the fox too? I understand it’s stealing people’s chickens, but hey, a fox must eat too, and it’s not like it can get its food in another way.

What’s happening to Bash? Is farm life not his speed? I’m worried about him, I hope he’s alright. 

For this next scene, the introductions, I’ll insert a note from when I first watched this episode. I notice I’ve been doing that a lot lately, but well, it seems I’ve got quite a lot of first impression notes on this season written down, so why not make them public now, here where it’s appropriate? Here goes:

And, just as I was fascinated, things got dramatically bad. Anne wouldn’t stop saying quite private things about everyone who spoke, and Miss Stacy reprimanded her for spreading gossip, resulting in her being unable to come up with words to describe herself (the method used for introductions was everyone would use words starting with their initials to describe themselves. I really wanted to know what Anne would have said about herself, as nobody else seemed to struggle much with the exercise (although I myself always do when asked to do it).

Alright, now I’d like to add something to this. When Ruby describes herself as ‘romantic’ and looked for a G word for ‘Gillis’, I could swear she thought of a certain young man right to her left - heck, she even looked at him before quickly blurting out ‘girl’. Well, yeah, she is a girl. But she’s also defining herself through Gilbert too much. I hope she knows how much potential she has beyond him. Besides, he only has eyes for Anne. I wish we’d got another season so we could see how far Ruby and Moody go. I liked them, but we saw too little of them together. #renewannewithane

Ok, but... it was like Miss Stacy just finished Anne’s sentence. ‘Ruby has a crush on...’ ‘Gilbert Blythe?’ Well, yes, but that’s not what we’re talking about. See, I’m noticing details I did not deem significant enough to note down the first time around. This is what rewatches are for. 

Rachel Lynde needs Marilla’s help. That’s a first. Oh, well, it’s rumours, what else. She’s against Miss Stacy. I really don’t like her right now. 

No, seriously, what is happening to Bash?

Of course, what the mothers of Avonlea fail to see is that, female or not, trousers or nor, corset or not, Miss Stacy is much more capable of teaching the young minds of Avonlea school than her predecessor. Or at least she’s much more willing to educate them properly. Of course she’ll tutor Gilbert. And Anne will soon find her way into her good graces. I hope. Nay, I know it. 

‘Appalling, stupid, clueless...’ this is what I hoped wouldn’t happen, but it happened anyway. Now Anne is beating herself up for the scrape she got into by complete accident. Gosh, I hope someone can fix this.

From my old notes:  And again, Cole knows how to fix things, and he does so, brilliantly I would say. Also, with the way he goes out into the nature, raises his hands and shouts out “Come to me, Muse!”, I can totally see him being a pagan... and who’s to say he’s not? I mean, Anne has the makings of one too, remember the Beltane ritual in season 3?

Rachel’s only job seems to be to stick her nose in other people’s business. She has no right to go around asking about Muriel’s marital status and whether she wants to be an old maid. But as anyone who’s watched the full series knows, this will be carried over into season 3.

Seriously, Rachel right now reminds me of Anne earlier with all the gossip, and I see now why she (Anne) made such a bad impression on Miss Stacy. Unfortunately, she (Miss Stacy) cannot assign Rachel Lynde an essay.

Anne’s mind is all taken over by the fox... so much that she’s fallen asleep over her papers... and now, disaster after disaster lead to a small fire, which grows into a bigger fire. If Anne’s essay burns in it, I’ll literally cry. I know a thing or two about lost work. Why, half of this very post I had to write a second time after my computer decided to restart the page with the unsaved draft open. But hey, this is not about me. 

So I guess they’ve figuratively and literally forced Miss Stacy into a corset. That’s sad. But I see she’s not giving up on her unique identity.

Oh, great, now the found brothers are fighting. I guess it turns out Bash’s problem is he’s inexperienced in farming and he needs help, but Gilbert is pursuing his own future now and doesn’t seem to care all that much. I feel bad for Bash. But we know Gilbert will stay at least another year and Bash will figure farming out by the time he has to leave. 

Ah, I see Anne is feigning sickness so as not to go back to Miss Stacy after yesterday’s fiasco. Well, I’d do the same if I were her, but I’m not quite sure that’s the best solution to the problem at hand. Marilla’s suggestion seems much better to me. Going together so Anne has someone to vouch for her... reasonable and concerned like a true mother.

I see Bash is trying to figure out horse-riding on his own. It looks tough. But he can manage it. 

It’s a shame Jerry won’t help Anne with the trap... but well, he was promised good money, and his large family is so poor... the ends sort of justify the means here. Still, Matthew is not in the right to plan on skinning the fox for money. 

Gosh, things are heating up between Shirbert. Anne seems to be all the more determined to find and develop her vocation now that Gilbert is working on his. And he doesn’t seem to care much about her feelings right now, being so busy studying and all. But I wonder how this whole thing really makes him feel. 

Hey, there are the potato light bulbs! The first science lessons Miss Stacy teaches the class. And they never forget it. How inspiring!

Hey, I just realised something. In her ramble in the cold open, Miss Stacy mentioned that you can use potatoes for a lot of purposes... well, here’s the second one she demonstrates in this episode. Stamps and... lighting a bulb.

Marilla, who took up Miss Stacy’s offer to stay and observe, seems to be a new supporter of the young teacher. See? If people only gave her a chance and saw what she does and how she does it, she might soon be a hit in town. But no, some choose to condemn her instead, as if she’s ever done them wrong. Just like the fox. Except the fox stole some chickens. Miss Stacy is perfectly innocent. 

And... poor clumsy Moody had to ruin everything just as Rachel and the ProgressiveTM mothers came in. Too bad. But hey, it’s him who recalled this very first lesson later on when they were graduating, isn’t it? 

Hey, Bash has gone to see Mary. Things are getting serious. I guess.

Alas, the mothers are not too pleased with how the lesson turned out. Luckily, Marilla was there to see the whole thing from beginning to end and can support Miss Stacy in front of the rest of the women. And it seems Gilbert and Anne are ready to step in and defend her as well. On their second day with her. That speaks volumes. 

Oh, so he’s visiting Mary to talk about Gilbert. But he also talks about himself and his idea to go deep into farming. His story is truly an inspiring one. And also, he’s staying with Mary for supper. As I said, things are getting serious. 

Anne decided to show Miss Stacy the story clubhouse... nice. But she’s made another blunder in doing so. She’s forgotten Cole is hiding there from his parents. And now they’ll force him into farming again... as my younger self said when I saw this for the first time, ‘this episode is one of the most devastatingly dramatic ones of this series – ever. What a way to lead up to the season finale’. I think that says it all. 

Ah, yes, nobody told Gilbert that Bash wouldn’t be home for supper this evening. Too bad... now he’ll think Bash has run away on him. Meanwhile, Bash is having a good time with Mary. But there’s no way for Gilbert to know that. How unfortunate. 

One shot, one gunshot and... wait, it seems the fox has not been killed yet. But the poor clubhouse... Billy is the worst person in this series, hands down. I can’t even. I’m crying. Real tears. Right now.

See, Anne’s blunder was not telling Miss Stacy about Cole. After all, she swore her to secrecy. But it was a blunder nonetheless because Miss Stacy takes her duty as a teacher more seriously than her promise to Anne. If only she’d known the full story... Cole might have been saved. 

Miss Stacy riding with Harmon Andrews... I wonder what Rachel, aka the Avonlea yellow pages, will make of that. 

‘Sometimes you just have to use your imagination.’ This is powerful because it comes from Marilla. Also, perhaps this is the hidden sense of humour that L.M.Montgomery talked about in the book, which I’m currently rereading. 

I can’t, I just can’t. Now Cole feels betrayed by Anne, and Anne is devastated about the clubhouse.... and the women of Avonlea are against Miss Stacy, and Matthew disappointed Anne... can nobody be happy in this episode? It’s truly tragical and devastating. I should not have opted for rewatching it right before going to bed, on a school night at that. How will I sleep now?

Gosh, Cole really has had it now. I’m not saying Billy Andrews did not deserve it (he did and he does), but violence is never the answer. Still, I guess it’s justified now. Too bad it will probably lead to even more trouble for Cole. See, even he’s scared of what he’s done. He surely didn’t mean for it to go that far. And to the creators - this is no way to end an episode.

Let’s sum up: we meet Miss Stacy; intonation matters; the fox is in danger; Billy the bully has a weapon now - how bad can things get?; Bash struggles with farming; Anne accidentally makes a bad impression on a kindred spirit; appalling, stupid, clueless; ‘Come to me, Muse!’; Rachel Lynde sticks her nose into things that are not her business - what else is new; potato light bulbs; Bash visits Mary; the clubhouse is destroyed; Anne accidentally betrays Cole, leading to dramatic consequences; a disastrous ending to a devastating episode.

[takaraphoenix]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 5

1. Favorite character of this season?

Anya, I love her arc this season. She's just kind of been... there, in season 4, running along. No one really acknowledged the demon thing, there was no real bonding between Anya and everyone, she was just there. This season, finding her place in the world? Working at the Magic Box, then her in The Body – I mean seriously, her confronting mortality like that, I love it. I love her growth.

2. Outstanding minor character (positive or negative)?

Dawn. Sure, technically you could argue she's a “main character”, however... she's barely even a character, she's a plot-device so that really qualifies her as a minor character for me.

I always disliked Dawn, even when I was a teen myself. With some things, perspective shifts when you grow older, but Dawn just... always sucked. As a teen, I found her to be a cringey parody of the teen girl experience and now as an adult I still think that this is the peak of what a middle-aged man thinks the teen girl experience is. She's a cheap, one-dimensional caricature of a teenager.

She is a whiny brat, she constantly acts like “no one sees the real me”, she becomes a kleptomaniac to try and gain attention, she acts like no one loves her even though everyone constantly fawn over her every chance they got, she is a spoiled little brat that is completely unappreciative of all the things she gets. It's like they crammed every single shallow teen stereotype into this one character, making her a very one-dimensional character. Which is a bafflement considering Willow, Xander and Buffy started out as teenagers but they were always fully fleshed out characters with actual personalities. Heck, Cordelia was the most stereotypical character in the teenage years but even she got more depth and individuality.

Though I'd like to point out that while, as a character, Dawn is incredibly obnoxious, I do like her as what she is – a plot device. The way she creates new dynamics among the Scoobies, how other characters play off her and grow on her existence, the villain-plot she triggers.

3. Favorite character dynamic?

Too many, honestly. I adore the way Tara-Buffy grow in this season. Generally the friction between Spike and the Scoobies. Spike and Dawn in particular. The Buffy-Dawn dynamic too – Dawn being such a blank slate of Teen AngstTM allows for the other characters to shine in comparison. They get a new dynamic here, through the New Kiddo that puts them in perspective. Caring, gentle. The sisters-angle is a new one for Buffy and I do love her as a big sister, even if I wished her retconned sister had like... an actual personality.

4. Favorite canon romantic ship?

Spike/Buffy. Sue me, I'm Spuffy trash. Always been. The way he cares for her, the things he's willing to do. The little things. The self-sacrificial side, how he drops everything to help her whenever she needs him. And, I know, I give other ships flag for things equal or less in comparison to some of the shit that's happened/happening between Spike/Buffy, but see that's where taste comes into play. Liking and disliking things is just... all about that taste and tastes differ. For me, Spike/Buffy hits all the right spots. I love them so much.

5. Least favorite canon romantic ship?

Riley/Buffy. Once again. Seriously, this is just such a bad relationship. From the get-go she constantly put herself down to lift him up. Holding back her powers – which, of course, because otherwise she'd snap him in half during sparring – but pretending that's the max. She is always going out of her way to make him feel special and useful.

And he goes and gets fed on by a vampire and has the audacity to blame it on Buffy, because Buffy doesn't make him feel wanted enough. Even though she continuously tries making him feel important. It's ridiculous. Complaining that she didn't think about calling him when her mom went to the hospital, like she didn't have something else in her mind there? Setting her an ultimatum that she has to give him a reason to stay. After he essentially cheats on her, by sneaking around with vampires and letting them feed on him for the rush.

Now to go and leave with his little military buddies once more. After everything the military has done to him...? Their relationship was so bad for Buffy.

6. Favorite episode?

The Body. This is the singularly best episode... ever. In all television I've ever seen. This episode is overwhelmingly good. Sarah Michelle Gellar's acting is overwhelming in this episode. The choice to exclude music entirely, not even sad ones. How silence is allowed to longer, how unnerving the background noises become due to this silence.

The writing too, of course. Anya's words about death and mortality are so intense, they'll always stick with me. And not just her. Xander, Willow, Dawn, how they all handle this in a different way.

The choice alone that Joyce dies from something so fundamentally human, something no one could have prevented, something Buffy couldn't have fought. And – yes, that reaches ahead some – but the fact that the next episode also serves to have this unfold. It's not just “death and move on”. It's being dealt with, it's being digested, it's being taken seriously.

Too many writers feel the need to fun things up when it's getting serious, because they are afraid to lose their audience if there isn't a joke every five minutes. There is not a single joke in that entire episode. This show is funny as hell, but they know when not to joke. There is nothing to be made light here, this is serious, they are truly suffering. They know how important that is.

I've seen this episode surely a dozen times now. I cry so much every single time. Not just once. There are so many well-written, well-acted and well-executed moments in this episode. It's brilliant TV-making. It encapsulates what's so brilliant about this show overall; the human element, suffering, pain, dealing with pain, the balance between seriousness and humor and knowing when not to use humor.

7. Least favorite episode?

Episode two Real Me. It's the Dawn introduction episode and I've made clear what I dislike about Dawn; this episode introduces it all in the most teen angst cliche possible – writing a diary entry about how no one sees you for who you are and like no one could ever actually understand you.

8. Favorite Monster Of The Week?

...Dracula. I still... I consider that episode a fever-dream. It's one of the ones I opt to forget about whenever enough time has passed since my last rewatch because it just... doesn't fit into this show at all, it feels like a whacky filler arc in an anime, or a one-shot comic spin-off. But it's fun.

9. Least favorite Monster Of The Week?

This season doesn't actually have much of those. There's 4 or 5, depending on how you'd count, out of those 22, because this season is very streamlined about the Big Bad, more so than previous seasons were, and it is also very focused on the human issue – on Joyce's sickness and then her death. Out of those few, I guess the “let's split Xander in half” demon from episode 3 was my least favorite. It was... boring and due to this season's streamlining the fact that this was the most fillery filler episode felt a bit out of place, really.

10. Rate the overarching villain!

SO FREAKING GOOD.

Glory is a truly glorious villain. She's a god. But she is so – so frantic, so manic. She is fun to watch as a villain. The sheer size of the threat too. Which, it figures. There's always an escalation of threat.

(We will get back to that in the season 6 review though.)

Glory may just be my favorite Big Bad on this show, which only adds to how much I love this season. It's one of my favorites. Granted, I have a lot of favorite seasons.

Bonus: Other thoughts?

I love this season so very, very much. The human element, the growth, the villain-plot, the relationship developments. It's an incredible season. I'll get back to this when I finish my rewatch and actually do my ranking of seasons, but I am rating each episode – 1 to 5 – and getting the point-average, to have a more factual look at how much I loved a season. This one is through the roof, it scored an entire 1,5 more in average than season 4 did. There's only one episode in this that I gave a 1 to, but there are so many 4s.

That ending, to truly kill off your main character like that. So many gut-punches – but deserved gut-punches, not the ones that come out of nowhere and only serve shock-value.

I greatly enjoy and love seasons 1 to 3, but this season – this season reminds me why Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the best damn TV show ever created.

[mittensmorgul]

i obviously did not think this through

So the other day I thought it would be fun to make up my own Essential Rewatch List leading up to 15.01, and boy howdy was I ever wrong! This post is the result of that. Instead of a conveniently streamlined list of important episodes for meta and character development highlights, instead have this 15k word probably-useless behemoth...

I debated not even posting this on tumblr because it’s just so massive. But heck this was a lot of work so here it is.

For reference purposes, I refer a lot to my rewatch notes, but mostly in later seasons. If you’d rather just go to the beginning of my tag for the most recent rewatch, 1.01 is the last post on this page, and then you can just continue chronologically from there:

https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/tagged/s14+hellatus+rewatch/chrono/page/3

If you want to read more about a specific episode, every singe episode is filed on my blog with the episode tag. For example, all posts about 1.01 are tagged like this:

https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-1.01

To find a different episode, just plug in the correct episode number and voila.

If you’d prefer to skip an episode but don’t fully recall it and just want a quick refresher, every episode is linked on this page of the superwiki. Those links will serve you up a tidy synopsis as well as link you to the transcripts for every episode (linked at the bottom of each episode page):

http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/Category:Episodes

I started out making reasonable, logical entries for every episode, and then... kinda went off the rails toward the end... apologies for how chaotic this might read. Most of it was typed off the top of my head, and I haven’t edited it so apologies for any errors. Under a cut because FIFTEEN. THOUSAND. WORDS.

Good luck.

1.01 Pilot Obviously this episode sets up everything that comes after, and gives us a platform from which to understand exactly how the show’s mythology will eventually evolve. It also establishes a baseline for understanding Sam and Dean and their personal character evolutions and family dynamics. Probably essential viewing in any rewatch...

1.02 Wendigo Like so many early episodes, we learn more about Dean and Sam, and the missing father they’re searching for. And here we get “Saving people, hunting things, the family business” that becomes the motto of the Winchesters.

1.03 Dead in the Water

Sam is shocked to learn that Dean’s good with kids, and how Dean was traumatized as a 4-year-old. Like, dude, he practically raised you, Sam… makes sense he’s good with kids...

1.04 Phantom Traveler Specky the Wonderdemon, who was terrifyingly beyond their pay grade at the time. Kinda hilarious in retrospect… (also first use of Dean’s homemade EMF meter)

1.05 Bloody Mary Aah, Sam is keeping secrets from Dean (about his psychic powers and that he’d foreseen Jess’s death), and we learn ghosts can be attached to items that must be destroyed to banish the ghost.

1.06 Skin ooh Dean, take off that shirt yes… no… wait… stop… you can stop with the shirt you don’t… no please put your skin back on… (no, seriously, we learn A LOT about Dean from the shapeshifter, and so does Sam… There’s a heck of a lot Dean keeps buried. Also a reminder that shifter episodes tend to involve these sorts of buried secret things for Dean. Also Dean’s first “legal death” even if not actual death)

1.07 Hook Man Another ghost attached to an object, Sam’s first flirtation with anyone after Jess’s death, and Dean’s proficiency and innovation in hunting techniques continues to surprise Sam-- with the first use of salt shells for a shotgun.

1.08 Bugs Oh look more first season talking of their different experiences and memories of childhood and especially their very different relationships with John. If you can ignore the bug-related portions of the episode. Also I think still the only time in canon Sam and Dean have used umbrellas.

1.09 Home

Well if you absolutely need an in-depth exploration of the Winchester Family Dynamic as it stood in s1, this is a good baseline episode. Mary’s guilt expressed by her ghost in the house where she died, more exploration of Sam’s psychic powers, and we first see John on screen in the “present day.” Sam also learns it was Dean who carried him out of the house when he was a baby, and uses the exact same line John told Dean in this episode (take your brother outside as fast as you can and don’t look back)

1.10 Asylum So much of s1 was Dean getting orders from John and… following them. We get an interesting glimpse inside Sam’s head (having heard some of Dean’s dark secrets in 1.06) and via ghost interference Sam says some pretty bitter things to Dean (and would’ve shot him if Dean had been dumb enough to hand him a loaded gun. lucky Dean’s smarter than that). But now we have their baseline issues laid out on the table for us.

1.11 Scarecrow Sam is sick of taking orders from John and decides to go find John on his own rather than following another order. He meets Meg hitchhiking, and she tries to lure him in. Luckily Sam realizes Dean is in trouble and goes back to save him. They decide to stick together again. Of course.

1.12 Faith Here we go… the first moment the show realized it had the potential to be something bigger than a MotW horror/fantasy road trip. Dean’s first brush with capital-D Death (in this case, a reaper). The first time in canon anyone suggests that Dean was “chosen by the Lord” for a greater purpose.

1.13 Route 666 Racist Ghost Truck. But also the first time we learn an important difference between Dean and Sam. Sam hid everything about his life from Jess (a woman he was planning to propose to), but Dean fell in love with Cassie over a matter of weeks and told the whole truth to… and she dumped him for it because she thought he was lying to her. That heartbreak goes a long way toward the cavalier attitude Dean puts on toward relationships in general in the early seasons. Tell them the truth and they’ll leave you for it, but he won’t live the lie that Sam was perfectly happy to...

1.14 Nightmare Aah, more of Sam’s powers (darkest timeline edition with Max), and Sam credits John for being a better father… until he sees Dean’s reaction to that comment… and we get that Dean stood between Sam and John’s… lack of parenting skills >.>

1.15 The Benders “Plain old people are often worse than monsters”

1.16 Shadow The return of Meg, who is Up To No Good messing around with scarier demons than good old Specky was. We finally have John in the picture, but he deems it too dangerous for them to stick together, blaming their vulnerability on their care for each other, and just PFFFFFFT how often has the show kicked this notion to the curb? Give it a few more episodes… Sam also expresses his desire to finally get their revenge so he can leave hunting for good and go back to his “normal life.” Dean is crushed and upset by this revelation.

1.17 Hell House Aah, the prank war :’), and the idiot ghostfacers :’). It’s a tulpa.

1.18 Something Wicked Well if you need your heart ripped out with Dean Feels, you’re in the right place. Sam learns even more about Dean’s struggles as a kid under John’s orders, and what “failure” to obey meant to Dean-- that it once almost cost Sam his life. Sam gets a better idea of the burden of guilt and the weight of responsibility that Dean has carried for far, far too long. And Dean gets a bit of closure, finally killing the shtriga.

1.19 Provenance Sam gets to unburden himself a bit from Jess’s death and make a real connection with a wonderful woman who gets a real peek into the reality of their lives and the supernatural. Still, he walks away, and completely loses touch with her for like… 7 years...

1.20 Dead Man's Blood Sam and Dean are sick of blindly following orders, and sick of wild goose chases. And they demand answers from John. We learn about vampires for the first time, and are finally introduced to The Colt, which will take on so much significance over the seasons that it’s RIDICULOUS. A weapon Mary heard bedtime stories about as a child, now become real to be used to get their revenge on the demon who killed her? Which will resurface again and again to either become their hope or destroy their hope… so much baggage attached to a single gun.

1.21 Salvation So much plotting, but the demons get their way and get the Winchesters separated and set up. Sam fails to shoot the demon with the Colt and John is captured.

1.22 Devil's Trap As the title suggests, this is where we learn about the Devil’s Trap. And see the “single step” exorcism performed (not the two-step Specky exorcism from 1.04). Dean rejects John’s orders and “wastes” a bullet from the Colt to save Sam’s life. But it’s still all a trap, because the demon is possessing John. Dean realizes it when John is NOT FURIOUS that he “wasted” that bullet. It nearly kills Dean, and Sam refuses to kill John in order to kill the demon. The demon escapes, the Winchesters have one bullet left in the Colt, and then they’re run over by a demon-possessed semi trucker.

2.01 In My Time of Dying Dean’s second brush with Death (again, reapers). He learns a lot while mostly dead that unfortunately he won’t remember for a long time (until 4.15, to be precise) about reapers and their powers (manipulating reality, etc.). Sam is desperate to save Dean, and John trades his life (and the Colt) to the Demon for Dean’s life, lays one HELL of a burden on Dean-- either save Sam, or you’ll have to kill him. No further details, just that horrific fact which Dean will try to shield Sam from as long as he can, which will (as per usual) probably only make things worse when they eventually come out. Dying wishes on this show SUCK DONKEYS. Remember that when we get to 5.22...

2.02 Everybody Loves a Clown Spoiler alert: nobody actually loves a clown, especially not Sam. But heck Dean driving the soccer mom minivan is priceless. And we’re introduced to Ellen, Jo, and Ash at the Roadhouse. Sam and Dean are like… whoa there are actual hunter gathering places? And begin to uncover just how sheltered and weird their lives have been, even for hunters.

2.03 Bloodlust like 1.15, “sometimes people are the worst monsters,” with a generous side helping of “sometimes monsters aren’t actually monsters.” Dean gets to question a lot of what he was taught his whole life by John, via the proxy of Gordon Walker and his hate-on for vampires. But Dean realizes there’s a limit to killing everything not-human… the beginning of the era of “killing what deserves to be killed and not just anyone will do”

2.04 Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things Zombie. Considering Jack’s longtime fascination with zombies, and how 14.20 ended… possibly relevant thematically on several levels… Girl resurrected by a dude for love (she didn’t love him in life… but was basically a “soulless person” as a zombie, as we will come to understand in later seasons). It’s a terrible idea to try and bring back the dead… >.> But this is all wrapped up in grief and how Sam and Dean each deal with grief in their own ways, and how they don’t really understand how the other is processing John’s death. In the MotW language of the show, zombies are about grief for the past and an inability to express it or move past it. They’re just emotional baggage (like shapeshifter eps reveal hidden truths and vampires are about revenge)

2.05 Simon Said More special children affected by the demon exhibit psychic powers… Sam is unsettled by the mind control, but unlike Dean he’s immune to it… He’s scared he’s gonna turn “evil” (and this is the first hint he gets that Dean might feel the same, based on the horrific dying promise John extracted from him that we still haven’t heard, and which we’re reminded is clearly weighing on Dean anyway)

2.06 No Exit Aah, Jo. They hunt the ghost of HH Holmes with her and learn some terrible things about their father’s history-- that he probably played a part in Jo’s father’s death. We also learn Dean sleeps real funny in chairs...ow it just looks so dang painful :’D (but they do comeuppance real well on the ghost…)

2.07 The Usual Suspects I love this just for the structure of the episode, showing us Hunting with Sam and Dean 101-- how to avoid arrest and imprisonment edition. This just gives us so much insight into how well they work together as a team, and the degree to which they’ve developed code words and references and how they are able to craft seamless backstories in the event a hunt goes south. It’s just… delightful.

2.08 Crossroad Blues The introduction of Crossroads Demons. And the first confirmation to Dean that John did indeed sell his soul for Dean’s life. Uncomfy revelation. The demon offers Dean a deal… his father resurrected and ten years to enjoy his company before Dean’s soul would end up in Hell instead. Dean declines. But their arsenal of weapons against demons (and the newly-introduced Hellhounds) grows to include goofer dust.

2.09 Croatoan Aah, a terrible time was had by all… the demons are scheming, creating demonic viruses and testing Sam’s immunity to them. But of course Dean and Sam don’t know that… Dean’s comment as they leave town: “I'm already starting to feel like this is the one that got away.” And ends on a cliffhanger of Dean about to tell Sam what John told him in 2.01.

2.10 Hunted Sam is enraged Dean would keep that from him, and wants to seek out more Special Children to learn what they can, but Dean wants to hide out and bide their time for safety’s sake. And maybe it’s just because I was in my 30’s when I first watched this show, but Sam pulls what I still think of as one of his signature childish moves and runs away in the night. But down that path lies revenge against the demon, so of course Sam runs into vampire-adjacent Gordon Walker. We learn more about how the Winchesters work together, the secret code word “funkytown,” and that sometimes they actually get the authorities to work in their favor. They’re good at manipulating the system...

2.11 Playthings Ghosts, Hoodoo that wasn’t to cause harm, but to protect against the ghost. Sam gets spectacularly drunk and makes Dean promise to actually kill him if he goes bad. Yikes. We also have the “why does everybody think we’re gay,” and Sam’s reply of “you’re kinda trying too hard to be butch” that Dean… doesn’t have a response to. Sam gets to SAVE somebody (he puts a gold star in his book as proof he’s not turning evil yet)

2.12 Nightshifter This is one I recommend actually watching… another shapeshifter (not a mandroid), so uncomfortable truths time. Sam lies thinking he’s protecting someone from danger, but it just drives Ron into even WORSE danger (and gets him killed). Everything about this hunt goes sideways, except they do actually kill the shifter, but now they’ve got the FBI on their tails. This is Winchesters Scrambling In A Tight Spot nirvana.

2.13 Houses of the Holy The first hint that the show… could possibly someday include angels, but they’re still on the BS list by the end of this episode. We learn more about Sam’s belief in God, Dean’s utter disdain for the idea of God, and the fact that Mary had believed in angels. Dean witnesses something he can’t explain, and Sam points in Dean’s direction when asking, “That’s Michael, right?”

2.14 Born Under a Bad Sign From holy to Hell… Sam is possessed by Meg, who leads Dean on a wild goose chase and does some pretty horrific stuff with Sam’s body. >.> They learn about the antipossession charms from Bobby (and probably get the tattoos shortly after this). Dean still refuses to kill Sam even when he begs (though we learn it was Meg testing or goading all of them).

2.15 Tall Tales We’re introduced to the Trickster (who’s even tricking them about his actual identity). Sam and Dean are completely bamboozled until Bobby shows up and points them to what’s really going on. There’s a lot of fun stuff about Sam and Dean’s relationship and how they see themselves and each other in here, though. And of course we know who the trickster actually is, which makes this all so much more interesting in retrospect… bit of comeuppance and lessons learned.

2.16 Roadkill An interesting take on a ghost MotW episode, where one of the ghosts doesn’t realize she’s dead, and how Sam and Dean work with her to save them all.

2.17 Heart Sam’s first actual sort-of-relationship with a woman. Who happens to be a werewolf… oops. There’s a lot of Sam Pain in this one, and Dean feeling like he’s failed in protecting Sam, yet again. But we are introduced to werewolves, which take on the monster meta shorthand of exposing or understanding their own inner monstrousness.

2.18 Hollywood Babylon And it’s Dean’s turn to have a little fling, where their concept of a “vacation” is “deal with mysterious haunting and death on a movie set.” And like in 1.12, this all comes about because some dingdong thinks he can do whatever he want. ALSO! The true monster of the week here… IS A WRITER. A writer who is furious that his story was trashed, and produced into something unrecognizable as his actual writing. I think this one might be HIGHLY relevant to 14.20, just for that. For the deadly tantrum of a writer who didn’t get his way. (plus the brilliance of Dean going from complete noob to the best PA in the history of Hollywood in like… a day… he’s just that good :’D)

2.19 Folsom Prison Blues In doing a favor for their father’s marine corps buddy (so the ghost of John hangs all over this one), they deliberately get themselves arrested and put in jail. Dean fits in there just as well as he did as a PA. He’s… really just that good at acting. Now I have Green Onions stuck in my head and I want a milkshake. And a donut.

2.20 What Is and What Should Never Be DJINN. aka the monster meta signal of deep personal introspection. What we learn about Dean in this episode is just heartbreaking. What he would wish for (Mary alive, Sam happily at Stanford Law School engaged to Jess) and the consequences he’s willing to endure for that to be a reality (his own life’s work negated, where everyone assumes he’s a drunk and a thief and a loser). 

2.21 All Hell Breaks Loose: Part One Dean just wanted pie. Instead Sam gets taken by demons. We finally find out what the demon wanted with him (sort of). Sam plays in the Demon Hunger Games, and loses at the last moment… (Dean gets to feel what it’s like to have a psychic vision, and hates it)

2.22 All Hell Breaks Loose: Part Two Dean sells his soul to resurrect Sam for the bargain price of one year before he’ll be dragged to Hell. Well learn about Samuel Colt’s Hellgate, which can ironically be unlocked with the Magic Kill Anything Gun (the Colt). In retrospect, this was just the beginning of the larger narrative arc of the Apocalypse, where Azazel released Lilith (along with a lot of other demons) to get that party started now that they had their hooks in Dean’s soul, but hey, at least Azazel won’t live to see it all happen (Dean finally shoots him with that last Colt bullet, rendering the gun useless but at least it did what they needed it to, with an assist from John’s ghost).

3.01 The Magnificent Seven The Seven Deadly Sins, the introduction of Ruby and her Magical Demon Killing Knife. Dean tells Sam he can’t be saved because if he breaks his deal, Sam would die.

3.02 The Kids Are Alright We meet Lisa (who Dean had a fling with years earlier) on Dean’s “relive his greatest hits before he goes to Hell denial roadtrip.” And Dean thinks he has a son for a hot minute (he does not, but he likes the kid anyway). Weirdness with them will ensue until they finally get to move on with their lives in s6. >.> But we’re introduced to our first fairie-adjacent creatures: Changelings. And Sam learns Ruby is actually a demon...

3.03 Bad Day at Black Rock Sam lost his shoe. We learn about curse boxes, Sam and Dean learn that John kept a secret storage unit full of weird and possibly dangerous stuff. But also some relics from their childhood-- Sam’s soccer trophy, Dean’s first sawed-off shotgun. And if that isn’t shorthand for the fact they had very different childhoods, I don’t know what is. Anyway, we meet Bela, and are entertained by good luck going bad… kinda the theme of s3?

3.04 Sin City more demons, we learn more about bigger plans they had for Sam, and Dean comes THIS CLOSE to actually considering letting a demon go… but Ruby helped Bobby make the Colt work again, and Sam kills both demons.

3.05 Bedtime Stories A pseudo-ghost of a girl trapped in a coma acts out fairy tales as a cry for help. Dean doesn’t want to kiss a frog. The pie is poisoned and Dean has to fight the big bad wolf… I swear that all makes perfect meta sense.

3.06 Red Sky at Morning Bela again. And like the ghost they’re hunting, we learn she got her revenge against a family member. The first use of the name “Castiel” in the spell to summon the ghost’s brother’s ghost so they could splish-splosh each other out of existence. That’s… all you really need to know.

3.07 Fresh Blood Gordon Walker, vampires, and vengeance. Taken to an extreme. Dean basically throws himself into danger because what does he have to lose if he’s already destined for Hell? But he’s beginning to crack, and Sam’s getting pretty desperate to get Dean to admit he’s scared and do something to save himself. Gordon’s desire for revenge gets him captured by a vamp and turned… and Sam ends up beheading him with razor wire. Yikes… so much for that revenge, eh?

3.08 A Very Supernatural Christmas Yuletide fun and eggnog. Pagan gods they end up killing with a Christmas tree. But they do reach a personal emotional plateau with Dean’s whole “half a year to live” clock ticking down.

3.09 Malleus Maleficarum Witches. Ruby. And a demon who knows Ruby leading a coven of suburban housewives who believe they’re just doing something harmless and not slowly selling their souls to said demon. Ruby saves Dean’s life, earning his reluctant gratitude for the time being, but not exactly his trust. This is the first we learn of Lilith, the demon apparently leading all the rest of them. Dean also learns that demons are just human souls that have been tortured in hell, and that’s what awaits him after he dies.

3.10 Dream a Little Dream of Me VERY IMPORTANT EPISODE. African Dream Root, which mimics the sort of djinn-dream experience. Dean has to literally confront his demon self. For the first time he admits he didn’t deserve any of this, any of what John put him through. And he admits to Sam that he is scared of going to Hell. Oh, and Bela steals the Colt, aka the only weapon they have against Lilith.

3.11 Mystery Spot If 3.10 was about Dean’s internal trauma, 3.11 is about Sam’s. The trickster puts him through a time loop forcing him to relive endless Tuesdays, and Dean dies each time and he wakes up again. The power to do this is just… insane. Just when they think they’re out, Dean apparently dies “for real,” and it drives Sam on a six month long rather terrifying revenge mission. Only to finally come face to face with the trickster again after having proven the horrific lengths he’s willing to go to in order to save Dean. Also a very, very important episode. Trapped eternally in someone else’s looping story and forced to act it all out endlessly? Yeah. That’s not 14.20 at all >.>

3.12 Jus in Bello very nearly the series finale. They work with Ruby after FBI agent Henriksen discovers they weren’t lying about the supernatural and they exorcise him from demon possession. Dean gives him The Talk about what’s real, and refuses to sacrifice someone to perform Ruby’s spell that would supposedly save them all and kill all the demons. Everyone lives… for a little while, at least. At least Sam and Dean are marked among the dead, so they won’t have to worry about law enforcement chasing them for a while, but Ruby holds this over them (in addition to losing the Colt, if they’d just listened to her everyone would still be alive… in theory… she’s really good at this manipulation thing!)

3.13 Ghostfacers And interesting perspective to see what Sam and Dean would look like uncensored and unbound from the traditional episode format, and through the eyes of other people.

3.14 Long-Distance Call Crocotta. Dean is lured in by John’s voice over the phone, believing it might be a ghost situation, and that John may have a way to save him from Hell. It’s all just a trap that leaves Dean feeling even more hopeless, knowing he can’t expect John (or anyone else) to save him from this. 

3.15 Time Is on My Side Sam gets desperate, and we have another mention of zombies… which if you’ll recall, signals grief and desperation and an inability to let go of the past. Which kinda defines Sam’s state right now. Dean tracks down Bela to retrieve the Colt (but it’s long gone, and Bela’s about to be dragged off by hellhounds herself). Sam tracks down Doc Benton hoping to get him to share his secret for immortality as a last desperate attempt to save Dean. But Dean doesn’t want to live like that, killing other people for their organs as his would wear out, just to keep himself out of Hell. And honestly good for him because ugh.

3.16 No Rest for the Wicked Dean’s seeing through the veil, able to see demons’ true faces, and the hellhounds that are on their way. They steal Ruby’s knife and go after Lilith, and fail completely. Dean’s dragged to Hell, and Sam’s immune to Lilith’s powers.

4.01 Lazarus Rising CAS GRIPPED DEAN TIGHT AND RAISED HIM FROM PERDITION. Honestly if you don’t know the meta import of this episode, this list ain’t gonna help you.

4.02 Are You There, God? It's Me, Dean Winchester We really learn about the Apocalypse, the seals breaking that will eventually free Lucifer. Supposedly the angels want to stop them from breaking… and Dean and Cas have their first real conversation about all of this. And this is the episode my tag for God comes from, “If you say mysterious ways, so help me I will kick your ass.” Dean’s already set himself up with Cas to defy God.

4.03 In the Beginning Angels can send you back in time! Dean sees Mary and John’s relationship, the death of Mary’s parents, and the fact Dean talked John into buying the Impala AND now feels responsible for having lured Azazel to Mary in the first place… he witnesses the deal she makes to bring John back that would effectively shape the entire narrative on both sides of this episode. The things we do for love… Cas told Dean to stop it, and in the end tells him he never could’ve stopped any of it. It is what it is. It’s the first instance of Dean getting this glimpse at the bigger picture, and taking away his OWN lesson from it rather than the one he was supposed to learn… 

4.04 Metamorphosis Dean finds out about Sam working with Ruby to exorcise demons with his psychic powers. And the inevitability of falling victim to those psychic powers plays out in the MotW, the rougarou who gives into his hunger. Sam promises to give up using his powers lest that happen to him.

4.05 Monster Movie A straightforward, black and white case. A shapeshifter (so buried truths), but this one becomes Hollywood movie monsters trying to give the monsters a happy ending… essentially trying to rewrite his own story. Sound familiar? Dean gets the girl, at least. I love this episode.

4.06 Yellow Fever Dean vs his own fear, compounded by the fear of a ghost who infects him with ghost sickness, inflicting his own suffering on Dean. This was Dabb’s first episode, and as such, is definitely worth watching for the themes, and what Dean is truly afraid of-- i.e. of going back to Hell and being tortured by Lilith, of Sam being a yellow-eyed demon. The rest is just awkwardly fun watching Dean squirm.

4.07 It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester Sam breaks his promise not to use his powers when Samhain rises. We meet another angel- Uriel- who isn’t as fond of humanity as Cas. Sam meets Cas, too. But this is truly the episode where Cas begins to differentiate himself and show his doubts in Heaven’s orders. He warns Dean that bigger tests are coming, but he doesn’t know what they will be yet. This is still the true foundation stone of Cas’s entire personal character arc for the entire series, when he went from maybe-three-episodes-then-dead interesting side character to 11-years-and-counting truly a Winchester.

4.08 Wishful Thinking I love this episode… you can’t just wish for what you want without consequences. This was like primer-level Cosmic Consequences stuff.

4.09 I Know What You Did Last Summer Dean learns what Sam was up to while he was in Hell being tortured by Alastair (conveniently the antagonist in this episode), why he trusts Ruby now, and voluntarily works with Ruby to save Anna-- a woman who hears angels talking. This is effectively continued in:

4.10 Heaven and Hell Where Anna remembers that she’d been an angel who fell from Heaven by choice, removing her grace to experience life as a human. Which… is kinda important a concept to know exists… >.> Heaven (and Cas) judge her harshly for that choice, and yet… there’s just too much just go read my rewatch notes from this episode at the very least.

4.11 Family Remains They think it’s a ghost but it’s not a ghost. All you need to know is this is the episode they wrote on a dare to see if they could write an episode that the network would refuse to air ever again. They were actively trying to write the worst possible episode they could imagine, and this is the result.

4.12 Criss Angel Is a Douchebag

Sam had a thing for stage magic as a kid, but now he runs around with a demon. The concept of “will we be in this life until we die or it kills us” and “what would life even look like to us if we were actually to grow old” is batted around for possibly the first time. 

4.13 After School Special

From contemplating retirement to flashbacks to high school. Another look at Sam and Dean and who they are as people, and how their very different childhoods shaped them into who they are now.

4.14 Sex and Violence Dean’s Siren was a dude. (oh, and the director of this episode? whose last episode was 6.15? is directing 15.03, so maybe worth a peek...)

4.15 Death Takes a Holiday Dean vs Death again. The return of Tessa the reaper from 2.01, and Dean finally remembers. They save Tessa, save a seal, and capture Alastair, but discover they’ve been manipulated into doing it by Cas/Heaven. Heaven loves its manipulations… Pamela the psychic warns Sam that what he’s doing, despite his intentions, is not good. He ignores that advice. At the very least read my rewatch notes for this one. >.>

4.16 On the Head of a Pin There is absolutely too much going on in this episode to sum up in this post. Read my rewatch notes, read the superwiki, watch the episode. This one is huge, for Dean and for Cas.

4.17 It's a Terrible Life Heaven’s Grand Manipulator, Zachariah. Or he thinks he’s pretty grand… he’s really not all that good at his job

4.18 The Monster at the End of This Book CHUCK. The inevitability of destiny, or at least his attempt to write that version. In this episode, all of Chuck’s plans go according to plan… until Dean drags him back into the story and forces a different ending. (and we learn Sam’s demon blood drinking is so distasteful to Chuck he didn’t even include it in his books) Remind you of anything? Like, oh, 4.22, or 5.22, or 11.23, or 14.20? Yes, this episode is the key to everything.

4.19 Jump the Shark Since Adam will reportedly be back in s15, watch this one and understand Dabb’s exact intention in creating the character in the first place-- literally as a decoy who never existed with any narrative weight of his own, as a ghoul (a creature that feeds on the dead and takes their shape). I wrote about this one recently, so I won’t waste space repeating myself here.

4.20 The Rapture CAAAAAAAASSSSSS. He gets dragged back to heaven for disobedience, and is tortured back into obedience. Obviously this one is huge for Cas as a character, and for Dean’s relationship with him. But they both learn about why Sam’s powers were getting stronger, and are not pleased...

4.21 When the Levee Breaks Sam’s detoxing from demon blood until Cas lets him escape. Cas rounds up Anna and has her sent back to Heaven for her own round of torture/reprogramming. And Dean and Sam have her Big Falling Out that drives Sam to do the horrific… however good his intentions are, what he’s doing is still bad.

4.22 Lucifer Rising The grand manipulation is unveiled. Dean talks an angel into rebelling from Heaven to stop the apocalypse, but they’re still not in time to stop Sam from breaking the world. Chuck… is less than fully helpful, despite Cas literally volunteering his own life to protect Chuck. Pretty sure this is a critical episode for rewatching. Chuck’s mostly pleased his story is going to plan.

5.01 Sympathy for the Devil Ugh, no we do not have sympathy for the devil on this blog. Chuck recruits his biggest fan to deliver cryptic messages to Sam and Dean. Dean learns he’s Michael’s true vessel, destined to be his tuxedo for the apocalypse. Cas returns without having a clue how he’s even alive. And it’s all Chuck’s doing… even if we don’t know that yet.

5.02 Good God, Y'All

The apocalypse is in full swing, and the Horsemen are coming out to play. In this case, War manipulating people into destroying each other. Cas sets out on his mission to find God and convince him to help stop this mess. We learn Dean’s amulet had the power to find God all this time, and they’d never known it until now. Convenient!

5.03 Free to Be You and Me Just watch it already, you know you want to. Defines Dean and Cas’s relationship for years to come, though. Plus Sam learns he’s Lucifer’s destined vessel. I’m sure that will all go fine… 

5.04 The End I know most people will disagree with me on this, but the only useful meta takeaway from this episode is the same as one from 4.17: Dean doesn’t learn the lessons he’s “supposed to.” He makes his own lessons. There is literally zero other relevant information to take from this episode, aside from it being Cas who saves him from it. Watch if you enjoy it… but literally nothing about it is any more real than the djinn dream in 2.20 or the dreamroot dream in 3.10, and it’s all been rendered irrelevant by later canon anyway. Especially by 14.20 and that moment Dean refused to play Chuck’s game anymore.

5.05 Fallen Idols More John baggage disguised as an old god. Worth watching just to hear poor Consuela the housekeeper wail about Abraham Lincoln killing Mr. Hill, and Sam being attacked by Ghandi.

5.06 I Believe the Children Are Our Future Dabb’s second gag on the fandom… the antichrist. Dean admitting Cas is his friend. :’)

5.07 The Curious Case of Dean Winchester Dean gets to be an old man for a day.

5.08 Changing Channels Just watch this one, read about it, whatever. Refresh yourself on it. The trickster is unmasked as the Archangel Gabriel, and he’s attempting his own ploy to force Sam and Dean to “play their roles.” They convince him they’re not gonna do that, but to break out of the endless loop of literal television shows he’s forcing them to act out for his own entertainment (and sort of to teach them that lesson), they’ve got to do more than just refuse to play their roles, they’ve got to best him at the game. Kinda like they’re probably gonna have to do with Chuck in s15. 

5.09 The Real Ghostbusters Oh, speaking of Chuck… here have a Supernatural fan convention, and a key piece of information on what actually happened to the Colt after Bela stole it. But most importantly, Dean gets to yell about how much he doesn’t appreciate the story of Supernatural.

5.10 Abandon All Hope… They find the Colt, and Crowley, and discover it never would’ve worked against Lucifer anyway, and then promptly lose the Colt again. Lucifer gets to stare down Cas and Cas doesn’t blink, Meg’s hellhounds kill Jo and Ellen, and really everything’s kinda bleak. Lucifer raises and binds Death.

5.11 Sam, Interrupted WRAITH, aka a monster that uses mind altering venom to “cook” her victims to perfection, so like a djinn and other mind-altering, perception-altering creatures, when they sneak up on you unawares, things get… complicated. Massive insight into the essential character of Sam and Dean.

5.12 Swap Meat Body Swap. That one time Sam was actually Gary.

5.13 The Song Remains the Same More time travel, Sam’s second resurrection, we finally meet Michael face to (Young John Winchester’s) face. Mikey seems pretty confident in his “destiny.” Dean’s second warning to Young Mary about her death is wiped from her mind. Contemplation of Cosmic Consequences: it’s better never to be born if it means stopping the Apcoalypse-- clarified in 12.23-present that… nope, definitely worse. “Team Free Will” coined. Watch this one. It’s the stage on which all the s12-present Family Dynamics will be set.

5.14 My Bloody Valentine We learn Heaven set up John and Mary, that they couldn’t stand one another before Cupids intervened and made them “the perfect couple.” I’ve written a lot about the effect the Horseman Famine had on all of them-- especially Dean and Cas, with the reminder that s5 was the season of “lol nope” to the category of beings attempting to manipulate all of them, including the Horsemen. Important just for all of that (and Edlund’s confirmation that Cas’s cravings were actually his own, and that my read that he was being a shifty liar blaming it on Jimmy was correct-- Cas does have his own human cravings, going all the way back to this point, that he was ashamed of, or terrified of, or both...) As well as Sam’s struggle against demon blood addiction, and his fear of and gradual acceptance and internalization of his own powers)

5.15 Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid ZOMBIES. ZOMBIE PIE. JODY MILLS. As I’ve said above, zombies are grief and unresolved baggage from the past, and in this episode, the denial was so strong even the normies in town were willing to accept the return of their dead loved ones, clinging to them until they “turned” and devoured them… the Mary parallels, Karen’s talk with Dean about what we do for the people we love… this one’s important.

5.16 Dark Side of the Moon Dabb, and our first look at the structure of Heaven, and how human souls see the place. Probably one of THE most misunderstood episodes in the entire series. Please see everything I’ve ever written about it for reference. FINALLY they toss out the toxic, worthless samulet. (which we literally learn in 11.20 that chuck “switched off” and INTENTIONALLY rendered worthless, because it suited his plotline and amused him). Still think this is vital to understanding Dabb Era overall.

5.17 99 Problems We see what it looks like when Dean gives up, loses hope, and is about to do Stupid Things™. Cas too. Probably useful just for that.

5.18 Point of No Return We finally see Cas really let loose on Dean, and admit what he gave up because he believed in Dean. Because Dean asked him to. Dean nearly gives in to destiny, but because of Cas, because of Sam, he fights through it. Zachariah and his manipulations end (getting stabbed in the face tends to end that sort of thing). Also the irritating return of Adam only to be the meatsuit for Michael when Dean refuses. (and we learn the truth about Adam-- that everything ghoul!Adam told them had been a straight-up manipulation, and Adam only ever cared about his mom. by the time he learns the truth, it’s too late for him, the gullible idiot vs the power of propaganda)

5.19 Hammer of the Gods The return of Gabriel, aka Loki, and a ton of other pagan gods Lucifer will slaughter. Interesting in light of Gabriel’s return in s13, and because of the mirror of Chuck in each of his archangels. And the Winchesters win another angel to TFW.

5.20 The Devil You Know Crowley’s good at manipulation, but again proves himself to be… mostly trustworthy (as long as they’re all working toward the same end). And re: manipulation, Sam gets a glimpse of just how thoroughly his entire life has been manipulated by demonic forces, which… relevant to the revelations of 14.20 vs Sam’s persistent faith in God despite everything.

5.21 Two Minutes to Midnight Cas is effectively human. Bobby sells his soul for Death’s location, and Pestilence falls to teamwork. Cas learns the value of a shotgun. Dean has pizza with Death, who WANTS him to succeed at locking Lucifer back up and explains exactly how to go about doing it. Sam thinks he can overpower Lucifer if he gives in and says yes.

5.22 Swan Song Sam was not totally wrong in 5.21. Cas resurrects Bobby, and explodes and is resurrected (again!) himself. Sam drags two (2) archangels into the cage and is promptly pulled out (only missing one critical bit…). Dean… actually tries to live up to at least one of Sam’s dying wishes, and it basically ruins his life for the next year. Chuck is a smug, self-satisfied bastard who pats himself on the back for a story well-told before flapping off and proceeding to write variations on his original fic using his favorite characters. >.>

6.01 Exile on Main St. All I can hear is Dean’s heartbreak and anger that Sam had been “alive” for a year and forbade anyone from telling Dean that he wasn’t actually suffering tortures in Hell all that time. If ever there was a YIKES moment on the show, this is it for me. This one’s probably good to watch just for the setup of soulless!sam and s6 in general.

6.02 Two and a Half Men Dean’s even good with monster babies. And after a year of unsettled living with Lisa, he’s more duty bound to protect them than he is wanting to stay because he’s actually happy there. Sam is a creepy hunting machine.

6.03 The Third Man CAS! But heck he’s acting shifty, but so’s Sam, and Dean’s feeling even more alone now. The introduction of the concept of Angel Marks on souls, the Profound Bond, and biblical weapons. And the war in Heaven, and the seasonal antagonist stepping up into Michael’s shoes: Raphael.

6.04 Weekend at Bobby's BALLS. Woodchippers trump everything. We discover that burning a demon’s human bones will perma-kill them, and learn a bit of Crowley’s backstory.

6.05 Live Free or Twihard Dean becomes a vampire for a hot minute. We learn there is a vampire cure that works as long as they haven’t had human blood yet. And we learn something really, really is wrong with Sam...

6.06 You Can't Handle the Truth Dean is now 100% positive that something is horrifically wrong with Sam, and is distraught that nobody else seemed to know it for a YEAR.

6.07 Family Matters Cas figures out what’s wrong with Sam and promptly becomes even shadier around the Winchesters. We meet the Alpha Vampire. And vampire eps are about revenge, right? There is a LOT of shady going on here.

6.08 All Dogs Go to Heaven weird dog episode that I always forget exists between rewatches.

6.09 Clap Your Hands If You Believe… hands down the best soulless!Sam episode. You fight those fairies! I’m still waiting for another fairie episode where Dean can still see them and nobody else can :’D. Just watching Sam try to logic his way into being more human is educational about the struggle to be human in general.

6.10 Caged Heat Family betrayal, Sam and Dean nearly get fed to ghouls, Cas would rather be with them then fighting his war in Heaven. Angel blades can kill hellhounds. They finally entrap meg into working with them instead of always trying to kill them >.>

6.11 Appointment in Samarra I think this is still in my top five favorite episodes ever, and one I think everyone needs to rewatch. Dean and Death episodes usually are. And in this one, Dean IS effectively Death for 24 hours. But there is a LOT in this episode, from Death “testing” Dean on multiple levels-- forcing him to make choices AND process the consequences of his actions and how it affects other people… this is a big one for the cosmology of the SPN universe and Dean specifically. Even in Dabb era.

6.12 Like a Virgin Dragons are a thing. Eve pops over from Purgatory.

6.13 Unforgiven Sam’s soul/hell flashbacks start when he goes poking at the wall, but he keeps poking anyway. Giant spider people. Eurgh. But unfortunately the whole “web of lies unraveling” thing kinda fits.

6.14 Mannequin 3: The Reckoning The haunted kidney episode. But Dean finally breaks it off with Lisa (again… >.>)

6.15 The French Mistake We actually learn something about the angel wars… sort of. We also learn AU’s are actually real. (this was also the last episode the director of 15.03 directed, so probably worth watching if they’re bringing him back after all these years…)

6.16 ...And Then There Were None Monster Possession is apparently a thing now. The last of the Campbell hunters die (that was a quick trip through the family dynamics there >.>). The main takeaway here is from Rufus’ funeral: Life’s short, and it’s not worth carrying guilt and regret (takes them a really REALLY long time to actually internalize it with each other, but at least they got the spirit)

6.17 My Heart Will Go On Cas just lying to their faces, creating an alternate timeline just to generate souls as a power source (the specific number of 50k souls comes up, and will come up again in 6.20, as the number of souls Crowley “loaned” Cas at the beginning of the war in Heaven, with the suspicion that Cas was attempting to “buy his way out of their deal”, but the plan fails and he’s forced to put everything back… but he does ensure Sam and Dean both remember the entire experience, but we get an idea of the extent of the power angels can actually wield.

6.18 Frontierland Dabb has referenced this one several times during his era, but again, the history of the Colt is involved, a Phoenix, and Dean in a cowboy hat. We learn even the other angels think Cas is up to something super shady. But it’s their first real moment of hope.

6.19 Mommy Dearest Eve uses Mary’s face to torment Dean, we learn Crowley is not dead, and Cas… has been doing shady things with him. Cas is again effectively human for an episode.

6.20 The Man Who Would Be King Well this is where everything both falls apart and comes together. This episode makes sense of the entire rest of s6, as painful and sad as it is. If you only watch one episode from s6, it should probably be this one.

6.21 Let It Bleed Dean’s worst fear comes true, and people he cares about but leaves behind for their own protection are used against him. Not just by bad guys, but by Cas. Ouch. Still incredulous that Dean did recognize HP Lovecraft, or even make a Metallica reference at the mention of “Call of Cthulhu.”

6.22 The Man Who Knew Too Much Sam putting himself back together. Cas tearing things apart.

7.01 Meet the New Boss That one episode where it looks like Cas will be the unwitting bad guy and s7 will be about saving him, until it’s really really not. That whole exchange between Dean and Cas about forgiveness and finding some way to make it up to him, though… that’s what will carry us through the bleak middle of s7 and generate the grief arc for Dean in the meantime.

7.02 Hello, Cruel World It looks like Cas is really, truly gone, and all Dean has of him is his trenchcoat. And we’re stuck cleaning up his oozy black mess for the next 15 episodes before getting him back again. Sam’s Hallucifering all over the place and finds a connection to reality through squeezing the scar on his hand, which will become a symbol in show for reconnecting with reality for him for years to come.

7.03 The Girl Next Door Sam thinks pie and cake are the same. In their own respective messed up mental states, Sam thinks Amy is worth saving, Dean doesn’t trust that and kills her. Let the guilt ensue.

7.04 Defending Your Life A good setup of Sam and Dean’s issues for s7.

7.05 Shut Up, Dr. Phil I can’t believe they melted Tula’s painting. But it takes a couple of bickering witches for them to finally get a hold on the Leviathan, so that’s something.

7.06 Slash Fiction Aah, going back to the beginning as a trap for Sam and Dean-- the Leviathan using the Supernatural books to lay a trail case by case from Sam leaving Stanford (Crowley will do the same in 8.22, and the end of 14.20 gave a lot of people the impression there will be a similar progression in s15… but honestly that’s really only sustainable for a single episode, but this may be relevant for like… 15.01-02). Also, Dean finds it satisfying to behead himself (or the leviathan version of himself)… so yikes.

7.07 The Mentalists I love this one just for the Dean feels. He’s really hurting.

7.08 Season Seven, Time for a Wedding! Sam’s love-spelled. Mind control is always a terrible thing. Demons trying to game the system and cash in on deals ahead of schedule. So that’s a thing.

7.09 How to Win Friends and Influence Monsters I love this one. Poor Dean. This is the first time he’s actually felt good in like… ever. Too bad it’s from monster goo.

7.10 Death's Door Bobby :’( And Dean essentially falls apart.

7.11 Adventures in Babysitting Vetala. Which only Dean knew hunt in pairs, so hunter after hunter had been falling victim to them, including Sam. Meanwhile Dean finally got a decent nap.

7.12 Time After Time Dean gets booped back to the 1940’s to hunt with Eliot Ness. Still, they defeat Chronos, yet another god whose prophecy will be tossed aside by the Winchesters.

7.13 The Slice Girls Dean accidentally has a monsterbabby, Sam kills her. Amazons.

7.14 Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie Just watch it. This is the only episode in the entire series that just… is purely good and fun. Sam has to confront his fear of clowns, Dean faces a villain who was blamed for his brother’s death when he was just a kid and his parents should’ve been doing their jobs instead. I mean...

7.15 Repo Man The guy who was trying to lure back “his demon” exorcised during the Apocalypse era, by continuing his murder spree. Sam loses to Hallucifer by acknowledging his existence as separate from Sam’s own subconscious. There’s… a lot in this episode. At least read my rewatch notes.

7.16 Out with the Old Sam eventually succumbs to his Hallucifering, Dean nearly succumbs to a pair of toe shoes. Peter Yankit of Johnson Lane nearly succumbs to a cursed porn magazine. Cursed objects are fun.

7.17 The Born-Again Identity CAAAAASSSSS! He’s back, even if he doesn’t remember who he is. Dean tries to break it to him slowly, but instead unburdens a lot of his personal hurt over Cas’s actions to the oblivious “Emmanuel,” And Cas tells Dean his feelings are completely understandable. This is setting up the entire rest of Cas’s arc, probably through the end of the series. This is what motivates him, his need to repent. And He gets a start by taking on Sam’s trauma, healing Sam.

7.18 Party On, Garth An alcohol spirit enacting personal revenge, and despite all evidence, Sam continues to doubt Dean’s theory that Bobby is somehow still around. Dean’s season-long grief-drinking becomes a punchline, and Dean’s literally the only sober one in the final fight scene.

7.19 Of Grave Importance Yep, Bobby is a ghost, been there all along. Also, ghosts can sort of… cannibalize each other? For their power? whatever, moving on.

7.20 The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo CHARLIE.

7.21 Reading Is Fundamental KEVIN. But also CAS! Is awake but not quite himself and in full denial mode, like he was awakened against his will before he was done cooking >.>. we learn a bit more about prophets as we see Kevin awakened to serve the Leviathan Tablet.

7.22 There Will Be Blood more manipulation, and the Alpha Vampire is back, so we get a double whammy of manipulation/deceit AND revenge. The alpha vampire cooperates with the Winchesters. So does Crowley.

7.23 Survival of the Fittest Cas doesn’t want to fight, but in the end he steps up. They get the Leviathan, Dean and Cas are beamed to Purgatory, and Sam’s left alone and pulls a Sam. He runs away from reality.

8.01 We Need to Talk About Kevin Dean comes back from Purgatory without Cas, but with a vampire friend… so s8 is about Dean making pals with revenge. This will fuel his arc for a good long while to come until he can finally make his peace with it. It affects his interactions with Sam for most of the first half of the season… because while Dean was fighting for his life, Sam was… pretending to be a normal guy and ignoring everything else. Including Kevin.

8.02 What's Up, Tiger Mommy? The push to do something drives them to seek out the Demon Tablet with the promise of closing the gates of Hell forever at Kevin’s suggestion. Plutus, the God of Greed is the baddie in this one, if that’s any sort of meta statement on their overall plan to take this particular course of action… the narrative basically condemned their plot before the season even started. Hubris, ahoy. But we also find out why Cas ran away in Purgatory-- to protect Dean. And why he wanted to stay-- guilt and penance.

8.03 Heartache Oh, a case where a curse is passed on to others after death? And the original death didn’t actually end the curse as intended? Nice.

8.04 Bitten I love episodes were we see Sam and Dean through other people’s eyes. And this one, an episode where we learn new things about werewolves (remember: an examination of inner monstrousness).

8.05 Blood Brother I’d point out the agony of Winchester Secret Keeping being toxic, but since we’re largely out past that by the end of s14… *shrug emoji*. Dean helps his vampire friend get revenge against the vampires who killed him. Double revenge! And Sam… does not like Benny. But we know exactly why DEAN does… he literally saved Cas’s life in Purgatory, despite repeatedly wanting to leave Cas behind. He saved Cas for Dean.

8.06 Southern Comfort Garth again, and his serenity is basically there to point out how toxic Sam and Dean are by comparison. The spectre that possesses Dean to leech off his vengefulness has zero effect on Garth. But Dean gets out his feelings of anger that Sam never looked for him in Purgatory, so that’s on the table to provide drama for years to come.

8.07 A Little Slice of Kevin CAS IS BACK AGAIN! But he has no idea how he got here (he’s been mind controlled by Heaven again, and is desperately trying to make amends, but is literally blocked from doing so at every turn, which is a tidy mirror for what Chuck’s done to the entire story since… forever… so this is probably a must-watch episode, or at least read my notes on it.

8.08 Hunteri Heroici This one’s fun, until it’s owie, and then sad. Magical powers don’t save the day, they only end up hurting people. Cas desperately wants to make amends, but he is afraid to face what he’s done. Instead, he just gets manipulated even harder. At least read my notes for this one, too.

8.09 Citizen Fang Oh, manipulation moves directly to the Winchester brothers, no heavenly interference required. Vampires again, but this time Dean again sides with Benny, but against Sam… who again refuses to hear the truth and pulls another Sam. He forgot the lesson that sometimes it’s not the monsters being monstrous, and it’s important to kill the RIGHT monster, not just the convenient one.

8.10 Torn and Frayed Just like the episode sounds… Cas goes to Dean for help,  and then brings Sam onboard and asks them to stow their crap. By the end of the episode, Sam and Dean will have resigned themselves to being on their own again because Cas is… something is not right with him...

8.11 LARP and the Real Girl CHARLIE! Fairies! Dean does one (1) fun thing for his birthday. But this is about using a book to manipulate events to suit the Bad Guy’s whims. Sound familiar?

8.12 As Time Goes By Sam and Dean meet their grandfather, fill in a huge gaping hole from their past, and discover their legacy, the Men of Letters, and the Bunker that will become their home.

8.13 Everybody Hates Hitler Yep. It’s true! Nazi necromancers, and another new ally in Aaron. They settle in to the bunker.

8.14 Trial and Error They take their first steps toward closing the gates of Hell, killing a Hellhound. I wrote about this one recently, so go read that. :’D

8.15 Man's Best Friend with Benefits another weird dog episode

8.16 Remember the Titans Prometheus, Artemis, and Zeus. Curses passed down through families to fall on innocent children. And Zeus is delighted because it causes even more suffering.

8.17 Goodbye Stranger oh the agony. We see what it took for Heaven to control Cas, and what it took for Dean to break through to him, only to fall to yet another mind whammy by the angel tablet. Of course Dean takes this personally, abandoned again. Definitely watch this one. Read the notes. All that.

8.18 Freaks and Geeks In case anyone missed the point, we have manipulation and vampires. And Dean reminding everyone that finding the truth is important (let’s not be so bloodthirsty that just anyone will do).

8.19 Taxi Driver The second trial, the horror that Bobby’s wrongfully been in Hell all this time, and Sam is stranded in Purgatory until Benny shows up to escort him to the portal. Sam finally gets why Dean’s loyalty to Benny never wavered. He was literally willing to die for Dean. This guilt will carry Sam into the third trial eventually but for now...

8.20 Pac-Man Fever Let’s look at Dean’s guilt/fear. That he’s failed to protect Sam and won’t be able to save him from the trials. Fear is a terrible thing. But we have djinn AND dreamroot, so all the false realities.

8.21 The Great Escapist This is still among my favorite episodes, but Cas finally begins fighting for himself, and we uncover the extent of Heaven’s duplicity, and meet Metatron, aka Chuck Lite. Definitely watch or at least read.

8.22 Clip Show Aah, I mentioned this one back in 7.06. This is Crowley’s turn to use the boys’ history against them, but instead of manipulating them, they trap him (at the beginning of 8.23, after whoopsie accidentally freeing Abaddon because of Crowley’s manipulation distracting them from their job…) We learn that “curing a demon” is a thing.

8.23 Sacrifice Cas is so embittered by his experiences with heaven that he refuses to believe Metatron is lying, and thus falls victim to the worst manipulation yet. Sam’s dying from the trials, Cas is human, and angels fall. (and also some of the worst, most toxic relationship stuff between Sam and Dean, which contributes to all of that, along with their hubris to think this was a good idea in the first place… I mean it’s literally what the big bad of s9 did to Heaven so why were they trying to do the same to Hell again?)

9.01 I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here Cas is human, confused, and alone. The big bad is basically Diet Chuck, and Dean is manipulated into doing a Terrible Thing to save Sam that will strain their relationship for the rest of the season. (Don’t worry, Sam will return the favor in s10 >.>) Buckle in for a season all about manipulation by more powerful cosmic forces but with all new levels of guilt over having caused these problems in the first place!

9.02 Devil May Care Abaddon makes a play for the role of big bad, but will ultimately lose the title to Metatron.

9.03 I'm No Angel The Worst Possible Take on Human Cas. Mostly I ignore this episode.

9.04 Slumber Party Oz. Dorothy. Wicked Witch of the West. Sam’s angel possession gets a bit tricky… Direct mind control instead of the manipulative sneaky kind we usually see. and CHARLIE. The Winchesters lives are directly compared to Dorothy Baum’s, where her “fictionalized” version didn’t even come close to describing the horror of her lived reality. (also that one line swap incident that still pisses me off… and pissed Robbie Thompson off enough to write a whole SCENE in 11.04 they couldn’t screw around with like that… “god helps those who help themselves”)

9.05 Dog Dean Afternoon oh look another weird dog episode

9.06 Heaven Can't Wait the Best Possible Take on Human Cas. Well, while Dean’s still being held hostage against telling the truth to him about the angel possessing Sam… and not being able to just bring Cas back home with him. :’)

9.07 Bad Boys Sam learns another major lesson about just how much Dean was manipulated into lying to him his whole life, and another look at what Dean has given up over the years to protect Sam. The origin of my “the story became the story” tag. 

9.08 Rock and a Hard Place Breaking vows is frowned upon. Vesta. And Dean tries to tell Sam about the angel possessing him, but he’s prevented from doing so. And he’s really beginning to realize just how bad a decision this may have been...

9.09 Holy Terror Cas is back in town. He can’t stand by when he might be able to help, but again Gadreel (because now we know that’s the angel possessing Sam) refuses. Gadreel is lured in by Metatron, and things for Sam go from bad to worse. Cas steals another angel’s grace because he had no choice. And Gadreel kills Kevin and runs off. All of a sudden, Dean’s alone.

9.10 Road Trip Just when Dean can finally tell the truth to Cas, Cas isn’t human anymore. They literally never got to actually just BE. Crowley poughkeepsie’s Sam into kicking Gadreel out. Abaddon is becoming more of a problem. Probably at least read the notes on this one. At the end, it’s Dean that “pulls the Sam” and runs away. Which is interesting because they’re essentially gonna swap narrative roles for like… the next season and a half. Buckle up. Things get rocky >.>

9.11 First Born And definitely watch this one. Cas and Sam bonding hour, while Dean goes off with Crowley and is manipulated into taking on the Mark of Cain so he’ll be able to kill Abaddon for Crowley… (and for everyone else, but mainly for Crowley).

9.12 Sharp Teeth Sometimes family can be a werewolf pack. And Garth is now part of one of those, but there’s still zero monstrousness in Garth. As Dean’s beginning to wonder if he should regret taking the Mark (just as Cas wondered if he should regret cannibalizing grace… which he said made him barbaric)

9.13 The Purge A genuinely altruistically intentioned monster, or at least one who attempted to use her monstrousness for good. But her blind spot was her brother, out there just devouring whatever he wanted and not wanting to play by the rules of society or worrying about staying hidden and safe. Plus, DONNA. Even if she doesn’t get to play a big part in the monster hunting.

9.14 Captives We learn more horrors about the s6 angel war from Bart, and pushing Cas toward siding more and more with humanity and against all the heaven nonsense (until he’s manipulated back in DIRECTLY by Metatron and his magic typewriter… but that’s four episodes in the future yet). Linda Tran gets a bit of revenge for being held prisoner for half a year anyway...

9.15 thinman ghostfacers, back to face their own ghosts. If you like getting hit in the face with anvils...

9.16 Blade Runners Crowley’s addicted to humanity. Dean finds his own addiction in the First Blade. And we get our first glimpse of the darker side of the MoL.

9.17 Mother's Little Helper Misha directed it, and it’s got one of the most beautiful scenes in the whole series (Sam freeing the stolen souls, but Dean drinking and playing pool ain’t half bad either). Soullessness, which Sam handles on his own, and learns the truth of how Abaddon infiltrated the MoL.

9.18 Meta Fiction A MUST WATCH. Writers lie. Read my posts. What makes a story? Seriously, Metatron is just Chuck with training wheels.

9.19 Alex Annie Alexis Ann Vampires. More revenge. This time for stolen childhood and lost family. Plus Jody, and the first seed that would become Wayward. Dean is also beginning to succumb to the Mark’s darker urges.

9.20 Bloodlines Dabb’s idea of a joke, I’m pretty sure. 

9.21 King of the Damned Well, Abaddon’s dead, at least. Time trave wtf’ery. Dean is… not okay...

9.22 Stairway to Heaven Sam and Cas pop culture road trip. The level of Metatron’s manipulation becomes horrifically apparent. And Cas gives up his army because he refuses to kill Dean. (also Dean really loses it at the end…)

9.23 Do You Believe in Miracles? Crowley reveals the truth about what the Mark is doing to Dean, and we see the final truth when Dean wakes up as a demon.

10.01 Black Demon Dean Part 1. Bad karaoke and random murder. Cas is languishing because of stolen grace, and Sam is off the rails interrogating demons for Dean’s location.

10.02 Reichenbach Demon Dean Part 2. Cas struggles to teach Hannah about humanity, Sam struggles to find Dean.

10.03 Soul Survivor Demon Dean the conclusion. Cas hugs the demon outta Dean. Er… that’s what happened, pretty sure. But he’s still got the Mark.

10.04 Paper Moon More fun with Werewolves: Siblings edition. While Dean struggles to come to terms with his own literal inner monster...

10.05 Fan Fiction Just watch it. And read my rewatch notes for it. I mean, it’s about rewriting the story. And Chuck shows up at the end and gives it a “Not bad.” Probably kinda relevant.

10.06 Ask Jeeves Supernatural: Clue edition. With a shapeshifter that Bobby had known about for decades. Buried secret things again.

10.07 Girls, Girls, Girls Our first real introduction to Rowena. :’) She’s not a friend in this one...Hannah finally gets a taste of humanity through her vessel’s grief and pain, and decides that it’s wrong for her to remain in her vessel. She returns to Heaven, and Cas is left to ponder how he affected Jimmy’s family (since Jimmy’s long dead now) by his possession.

10.08 Hibbing 911 DONNA AND JODY. Donna gets “the talk,” in a vampire case, and finally gets to prove her mettle as a hunter.

10.09 The Things We Left Behind Cas has found Claire Novak, and does what he can to help her. She’s been taken in and manipulated by an unsavory character, who Dean kills in a fit of mark-induced violence (granted he was surrounded by dudes who wanted him dead, but it was still upsetting and mirrored his nightmare from the opening scene). The burger date. (go ahead and watch it)

10.10 The Hunter Games More Claire drama, but this time she stops it. The Longing Retcon. Cas uses emoticons. And Dean nearly kills Metatron while demanding he tell him how to cure the Mark. Things are getting kinda desperate on that end… All Metatron says is “the river ends at the source”

10.11 There's No Place Like Home OZ. CHARLIE. At least read my watch notes. I’ve been banging on about this episode since it aired. But at the very least read the last round of watch notes. Possibly relevant again because of how it was relevant to Chuck and Amara in 11.23 (yes, this is basically how Dean saved the universe).

10.12 About a Boy Dean gets zapped into a 14-year-old version of himself by a witch. Plus: the mark disappeared for a few days, probably giving him a mini-vacation from enduring it and refreshing his control a bit.

10.13 Halt & Catch Fire ghosts in the machines… plus a John reference that is reinforced when a clip from this episode is reused in the horror movie trailer in 14.04 (so skim my rewatch notes for that if you’re still following along for that sort of thing… post 14.13… *shrug emoji*)

10.14 The Executioner's Song Watch it. Read the notes. This is a big one. Free will-wise.

10.15 The Things They Carried Khan worm: homoerotic sweat lodge edition.

10.16 Paint It Black Worth it just for Dean’s confessional scene. At least read my rewatch notes.

10.17 Inside Man We learn some interesting things about Heaven, Cas gets Bobby’s help to break in and talk to Metatron, they sneak him out, steal his grace, and have their leverage over the one person who might know how to cure Dean AND get Cas what’s left of his own grace back… Meanwhile Rowena tries to kill Dean, and he has a heart to heart with Crowley about what Family really means. Definitely watch, or at least read my notes. A lot happens in this one.

10.18 Book of the Damned CHARLIE. And the wtf’ery of the Styne family begins >.> Sam has a good chat with Charlie about his own life. Metatron leads Cas to another book containing his grace and then escapes with the demon tablet. Family dinner. At least skim my notes on this one. (basically anything with metatron is probably relevant to Chuck stuff…)

10.19 The Werther Project Watch this one. I just wrote notes on it. The beginnings of an interesting relationship between Sam and Rowena (yes that started in 10.18, but this is where it gains weight in Sam’s own subconscious). Dean confronts himself in his own vision about the burden he’s laid on Cas (to kill him if he goes off the rails again). There’s a lot of emotional baggage in this one, too. But seroiusly-- watch this one for the Sam and Rowena stuff, because Rowena… isn’t even really there… 

10.20 Angel Heart Claire, and Cas’s finally laying to rest his baggage associated with the Novak family. Dean and Claire finally bonding. Dean and Cas went to the Hot Topical.

10.21 Dark Dynasty w. t. f. (if you want to be pissed off, give it a watch)

10.22 The Prisoner If you just want the comforting revenge portion of the program, just watch this one instead. Or if you can’t bear to, at least read my notes on it.

10.23 Brother's Keeper Whoopsie, Dean kills Death. Whoopsie, Sam doesn’t stop everyone else from executing the spell to cure the mark. Whoopsie, that releases the Darkness. Also for people who don’t “see Samwitch,” uh… please note that this is a major inciting incident in Sam and Rowena’s relationship-- she’s being held prisoner to complete this spell, and literally kills the only person she ever loved for it, on Sam’s order… (technically…), which will fuel the ongoing antagonism of early s11. Their relationship isn’t fluffy. It’s built on this mutual pain.

11.01 Out of the Darkness, Into the Fire Amara. I think a lot of s11 is gonna be relevant thematically to s15, but...

11.02 Form and Void I think a better focus of “what is relevant thematically” will be found by looking at Dabb’s episodes and influence over this season… I’d start a rewatch with this one, and the introduction of Billie, who will become Dabb’s in-show avatar as he takes over the reins.

11.03 The Bad Seed Rowena finally undoes the spell she’d cast on Cas. but they’re all traumatized. Please at least read my notes on this one, too.

11.04 Baby This episode sets the new tone for Sam and Dean’s relationship going forward. They are more open with one another, and the main drama isn’t them hiding things that eventually blow up in their faces like it had been in the past. There’s still elements of that, but things never really go back to the toxicity of s9 and s10 after this. Ghoulpire.

11.05 Thin Lizzie Fake haunting at Lizzie Borden’s house, Amara eats souls.

11.06 Our Little World Cas is clearly struggling with PTSD, hiding in the bunker until he spots Metatron by chance and finally gets upset enough to go after him. Dean’s first confrontation with Amara outside of his Darknado Vision, and she… tosses him aside like a used tissue. Sam’s still having visions of the Cage and still thinks the visions are coming from God… >.> 

11.07 Plush Donna! And haunted masks! Foreshadowing that Sam’s about to confront Lucifer in the cage-- creepy clown in the elevator.

11.08 Just My Imagination Sam’s childhood imaginary friend was actually real.

11.09 O Brother Where Art Thou? Dean is yoinked from a park by Amara to have a chat about how they’re destined to become one and all that creepy nonsense, while Sam decides to go directly to Hell to talk with Lucifer and doesn’t wait for Dean. Granted, Rowena has been manipulated with lies from Lucifer in this scheme… but she’s about to learn how bad a decision that was. Dean does get to see just how casually Amara can destroy angels, though… which will become relevant it...

11.10 The Devil in the Details Where Dean tells Cas to run if Amara isn’t actually dead… but Cas is convinced he’s useless by the end of the episode and says yes to Lucifer. Owwwwww. At least read my notes on this one. They’re from last week...

11.11 Into the Mystic We meet Eileen, and I just wrote notes about this episode a few days ago. Banshee, which feeds on broken hearts, Dean’s told he’s pining for someone, and is concerned that Cas doesn’t seem himself… >.> He’s also asked if he wants to know the secret to a long and happy life… “Follow your heart” (and he confesses his powerlessness in Amara’s presence to Casifer) https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/186891847375/1111-into-the-mystic-heck-ive-written-a-lot

11.12 Don't You Forget About Me Wayward! Family learning what it means to be family. Vampires-- so the element of revenge, but this time it’s the vamps seeking revenge on a human. 

11.13 Love Hurts Quareen. A monster that basically feeds on obsession, toxic “love.” For Dean, that manifests as Amara trying to rip out his heart. I mean… this is the episode he confesses to Sam that he can’t control himself in Amara’s presence, and Sam reassures him it’s not his fault. And he explicitly says it’s not love. It’s horrifying to him, because this episode, this monster, had nothing to do with love, but with possession and control.

11.14 The Vessel What a wonderfully apt and layered title. Thus begins Dean’s s11 “pining for Cas” arc, where his entire focus shifts to Cas after unburdening his Amara issues onto Sam in 11.13. I also consider this episode to fall definitively into Dabb Era. Probably goes for episodes back to 11.10, but this is where that shift is truly evident to me. Definitely watch this one, read my notes, etc. etc.

11.15 Beyond the Mat https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/186962895400/1115-beyond-the-mat-jerry-wanek-directed (just read my notes, this is a Dabb co-writing credit episode)

11.16 Safe House Maybe I should just start copying my rewatch notes here for every episode… https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/186963627365/1116-safe-house-more-blasts-from-the-past-in-a 

11.17 Red Meat You should just watch this one, and remember this episode isn’t glorifying the codependency between Sam and Dean, it’s shattering it… It’s werewolves, after all (inner monstrousness brought to light) and read some of my past notes on it.

11.18 Hell's Angel The first half of the episode is just a lot of talking, but hooboy.. Rowena is back from the dead and we learn more of why she seeks out power-- self-preservation. Worth watching just for the second half, the failed Poughkeepsie scene, Dean’s heartbreak and fear for Cas, and Amara’s shock that with Cas standing between them, she doesn’t seem to have any affect over Dean at all… 

11.19 The Chitters For a MotW episode, I think this really captures on a meta level what Dabb intends for the whole series. It’s worth watching for itself, but have my notes as to why: https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/184690946610/weve-finally-hit-1119-on-the-tnt-loop-this

11.20 Don't Call Me Shurley Chuck, and Metatron. I think everyone really needs to watch this one, just to remember how absolutely shady Chuck was. Basically from here right through the end of s11, if you pay attention to these episodes, nothing about 14.20 is the least bit shocking...

11.21 All in the Family Just like 11.20...

11.22 We Happy Few Just like 11.20 and 21

11.23 Alpha and Omega Do we not all think s14 is gonna end on a similar thematic note? Minus all the cliffhangery stuff?

12.01 Keep Calm and Carry On I can picture Dabb rubbing his hands together preparing to run the narrative in loops ad infinitum until he gets word they’ve got one season left to wrap it up. Worth it for the Dean and Mary and Cas. :’)

12.02 Mamma Mia https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/184126233100/cass-flashback-to-his-time-hunting-with-mary-as (written recently…)

12.03 The Foundry The companion notes to the link in the last episode: https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/187007192830/1203-the-foundry-yes-ive-already-written 

12.04 American Nightmare If you haven’t noticed, I’m just pasting rewatch notes links now… >.> https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/184740345285/im-watching-1207-on-the-tnt-loop-and-yeah 

12.05 The One You've Been Waiting For See the link at 12.04 (Dean also killed Hitler)

12.06 Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox see the link at 12.04 (Also Billie is in this one, so of course I think it’s important to the ongoing Dabb Era narrative)

12.07 Rock Never Dies see the link at 12.04 (Lucifer’s nihilism laid bare, no different from Michael’s in s14)

12.08 LOTUS The episode that brought us Jack. Well, eventually…  I’m putting these notes here, even though they also cover 12.09: https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/184761652205/so-the-tnt-loop-has-continued-into-s12-and-after 

12.09 First Blood (see above, plus Billie, plus Cas laying it out on the table what he will do because he loves the Winchesters... he does a lot of pining for Dean)

12.10 Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets Nephilim, Lily Sunder, Human souls as angelic power sources, the deceptions of heaven (and love versus obsession again). https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/184762915965/last-ep-on-the-tnt-loop-today-1210-reminders 

12.11 Regarding Dean Watch this one, 100%. But also have my whole tag for this episode… I haven’t actually made rewatch notes for it recently, apparently? Which is a shame, because we have Sam working with Rowena, Dean riding Larry BEFORE losing his memories to a curse. There’s a lot of excellent character stuff in this one, for all of them.

12.12 Stuck in the Middle (With You) Watch this one. Cas is family. He loves them. This is the point I became frustrated with myself because there’s a huge gap in my hellatus rewatch notes that I thought I covered and apparently… did not… I don’t have recent notes to point you toward for convenience...

12.13 Family Feud Rowena gets her revenge on Crowley for making her kill Oskar in 10.23. Too much time travel wtf to even bother mentioning anything else.

12.14 The Raid The lengths Sam will go to to have any sort of relationship with Mary… including lying to and manipulating Dean. Vampires… and the Colt, and Sam finally kills the Alpha Vampire.

12.15 Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell between the Crowley and Lucifer drama, Sam kills the Alpha Hellhound (essentially). A lot of other deceptions and lies come to light though, and Cas disappears off to Heaven and from just one call, Dean’s already concerned about him. https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/184853801830/still-on-s12-in-the-tnt-loop-and-heck-s12-looks

12.16 Ladies Drink Free (covered in the notes linked in 12.15) Werewolves, and an actual werewolf cure.

12.17 The British Invasion (covered in the 12.17 post) Eileen is back for her last real episode.

12.18 The Memory Remains https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/184854556715/that-last-scene-of-1218-where-sam-and-dean-are 

12.19 The Future https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/184875554515/i-find-it-endlessly-fascinating-that-i-can-rewatch (this post covers… most of the rest of s12 and loads of s13)

12.20 Twigs & Twine & Tasha Banes (see the link in 12.19)

12.21 There's Something About Mary Mary is being stripped of her will. And Free Will has been what this show has been about… forever. And what will be recontextualized in the wake of 14.20.

12.22 Who We Are And here’s where Mary’s will is restored to her.

12.23 All Along the Watchtower The proof of the spiral narrative. But also the point writing this post that I’ve determined this is all probably neither useful nor interesting to anyone other than myself, and I lose the ability to simply discuss these episodes individually anymore. From here on out, it becomes a weird blur of everything. This post is already over 14,000 words long and I still have 43 more entries to make, and I have no idea how to convey the meta import or Character Development highlights from this point forward. I don’t even know how to eliminate most of these from a watch list of essential character and meta points. So I’m just gonna… wing it… 

13.01 Lost and Found Watch this one for the soul-crushing agony, and our intro to the Nougat.

13.02 The Rising Son Jack is nearly manipulated by the Kentucky Fried Demon

13.03 Patience Our second Wraith. Watch it for, if nothing else, Dean shouting down Sam about Cas.

13.04 The Big Empty TFW in group therapy with a shapeshifter. Cas vs the Empty, defending his life with a statement that he wants to live, but… again he is unclear on his mission going forward.

13.05 Advanced Thanatology Must watch for Billie, for Dean’s complete loss of hope, and Sam’s inability to “fix him” with things that worked in the past.

13.06 Tombstone Yeehaw! Cas is Dean’s big win.

13.07 War of the Worlds Michael has been effectively “playing God” in the AU. The first rumors that Rowena is actually alive after 12.23, and Cas is captured by Asmodeus, who manipulates the Winchesters into thinking Cas is still at liberty… That’s probably all you need to know. >.>

13.08 The Scorpion and the Frog https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/184946657745/so-im-still-out-ahead-of-the-tnt-loop-but-i (this also covers 13.15)

13.09 The Bad Place Wayward!

13.10 Wayward Sisters Wayward again!

13.11 Breakdown Donna! Wayward part 3! And the reminder (via Vampires) that not everyone who has a brush with the Supernatural will feel compelled to pick up a life of hunting.

13.12 Various & Sundry Villains Zombie! (which makes it relevant to Jack stuff even indirectly) Rowena! And Sam giving Rowena what she needed to protect herself, which honestly is what she’s been seeking since her introduction in s10. Sam. Just handed it to her. Let that sink in. Maybe watch the episode. It’s fun, anyway.

13.13 Devil's Bargain Heaven sucks. The bits about Sister Jo describing the feeling of weakened grace allowing her to feel a little bit human is relevant to our interests, though. 

13.14 Good Intentions Watch this one. It sets up Cas’s special power to strip memories from a human mind, and the results of that. And Dean’s wishy-washiness about just telling Cas he’s wanted, not just needed.

13.15 A Most Holy Man (see 13.08)

13.16 Scoobynatural Dude… it’s scoobynatural. just watch it because you want to.

13.17 The Thing this post covers 13.17-13.20, for convenience’s sake: https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/184996231285/so-ive-watched-four-more-episodes-since-my-last 

13.18 Bring 'em Back Alive (see above)

13.19 Funeralia Billie and Rowena, Sam’s “destiny” to kill Rowena, and Castiel’s forgiveness by Naomi in Heaven as she explains how badly heaven is broken and shows him to the door, knowing he won’t stay. This is a must watch.

13.20 Unfinished Business Revenge doesn’t fix anything.

13.21 Beat the Devil https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185000752455/still-watching-s13-and-1321-is-owie-but-im 

13.22 Exodus (see 13.21) https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185000920730/dean-in-1322-so-close-to-ready-to-letting-all 

13.23 Let the Good Times Roll (see 13.21) But I have a list for this episode… maybe just read my tag starting with the posts I made on May 19, 2019… https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185002926095/1323-vs-1420-lets-start-with-1323-jack-tell and https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185003462010/1323-was-so-ridiculous-i-mean-dean-basically 

14.01 Stranger in a Strange Land At this point, I think everything is at least tangentially relevant… I mean look at this nonsense: https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185004920575/on-to-s14-and-one-of-dabbs-big-pet-themes-for

14.02 Gods and Monsters https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185014835950/aah-only-18-more-episodes-to-go-and-48-hours-to

14.03 The Scar https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185016627975/aah-1403-power-doesnt-fix-anything-dean-is 

14.04 Mint Condition https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185018115175/im-gonna-lump-1404-and-1405-together-here-for 

14.05 Nightmare Logic (covered in the post linked for 14.04)

14.06 Optimism https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185030339610/1406-jack-im-already-writing-isnt-that and https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185030940270/jack-vs-zombies 

14.07 Unhuman Nature (see that first post in 14.06)

14.08 Byzantium https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185042798280/omg-wait-literally-in-1408-while-theyre-all 

14.09 The Spear https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185043896890/haaaaa-1409-and-michaels-speech-at-the-end 

14.10 Nihilism Not rewatch notes, but a post made after the episode aired: https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/182171684160/were-working-on-the-power-of-love

14.11 Damaged Goods https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185047861195/the-boxes-of-1411-omfg-a-demon-trapped-in-a-box 

14.12 Prophet and Loss https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185048948905/aah-1412-tony-you-cant-you-cant-do-this 

14.13 Lebanon https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185050918250/ive-been-holding-off-starting-1413-because-i 

14.14 Ouroboros aka the point where I firmly believe they were 100% sure s15 would be the final season, and began actively setting up the endgame. (I mean I think they knew well before this, but this was where the turn happened narratively) https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185052705595/i-wrote-a-little-about-1414-earlier-today-in 

14.15 Peace of Mind WHEEE! My delightful personal vendetta against Chip, the MotW, the direct Chuck parallel who even called himself a god, and who manipulated everyone else around him to make HIMSELF happy… like seriously, major definitely must rewatch. https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185074234960/mittensmorgul-once-again-in-1415-cas-is (I wrote so much about this episode it’s ridiculous)

14.16 Don't Go in the Woods https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185056380525/so-i-started-watching-1416-intending-to-write 

14.17 Game Night (see 14.16)

14.18 Absence https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185065385445/1418-and-1419-both-will-require-additional 

14.19 Jack in the Box (see 14.18) 

14.20 Moriah Writers lie. I think this is now officially my favorite episode of the series… 

[throwingideasatthewall]

Clone Wars      Episode 2

         Rising Malevolence

 Starting off I really like the title which implies things are going to get a little heated

  Title scene sequence still the same

   Nice

   Ok this time’s quote is a little bullshit

  Belief is not the matter of choice          But conviction

   Conviction is literally how much energy      you put into a choice 

   Little worried considering last episode’s good quote     left with an okay episode

   Okay, whoa, whoa, got a lot of things, at once

   Firstly, Ahsoka  

   Her face looks lumpy?

   The narrator...sounds kinda - bored

    Lot of things happening at once

                         Not really tied together

                       It’s-

                    Someone’s really                            abusing                       the jump cut

                   It literally gave me nausea looking at it

                      Not cool                           dude

   Then again    I guess they’re going for        Fast thrown together war footage

   But seriously       chill dude      On the jump      cuts

  And     nothing   seems    to     match   up

 If      I   can   actually    remember   what     happened       from   this   jump   cutted   mess     I   would   make     a   joke   about   the     off     piece            /    paced      sync        Up     But     for       the     sake       of     me       I        can’t    (And     I’m      Not      Back       rewatching)

(I     Tried...)

 Oh   here’s    one;    Growing     Fear          The   enablers      Just   Standing   around    Mate,         I   don’t   give      a   shit   about   them    (And   those     words   don’t   match)

The       Pictures

Still    recovering...    from    seasickness

So   excuse   my   scrawl     not   being    on   point

            I’m sorry, I was sea sick           Something about menace  

              Not happening again  

           Fear  

            Of the thing they enabled 

         I have, no idea, what is going on.          And I’m too afraid, of the editors, to go back

     Whatever, things are - moving -forward

     ‘parently

     Red sun like planet

      Ships heading towards it

      Little stabilized

     Person

    Plo Koon           Standing         In Front

    Oh good         We get to       see what the other enablers are up to

    That’s nice

    Would be thrilled

    If the jump cut abuse         Hadn’t left me           In a state of not being willing       to handle the enablers-

   We’re not jumping straight into that     Right?            Like,        this            is          a       quick         photo       shot?

   Okay never mind we are

   Fuck me up episode

Someone-  

 Realizes-    

Tracking-       That’s not so bad

 Hahaha

 Okay, giant ship in front of the Sun, Why!!?

 I am no longer hung over

 I’m good

What the frick?

 It looks like a shark

 It looks deadly       what the heck    is going on?

   Why is the boss music playing?

   I mean it’s thematically appropriate and more than we got in the last episode

    Just wasn’t expecting music

         Or Obvious Villain

        Before I think about it too much

        Detail

       “Oh my Red!”

        That is a lotta Red.

       I don’t think you could get much Red

   “We are tracking republic cruisers”

    Okay wait, We were on Plo’s     ship

     Now we’re on Dooku’s

 “Ships in the area...

  I’m assuming they’re going to      intersect

  And is Dooku -       Is Grievous  Dooku’s apprentice?          I guess that would make sense         Given           That last episode             We learned                  Of Yoda’s and Dooku’s              Connection            Learning            more about the villain isn’t such a          bad idea

       No more jump cuts please though

       “-Do”

      “Jam their transmissions,”

       Alright, straight to the evil      no hesitation           Possibly ending in murder?               What? It says ‘Rising Malevolence’!?               Murder would do that!

       The Fleet is holding it’s position sir

      Why?

     “I think it’s wise to report our position before we attack,”

      Good plan

      ‘Skywalker’s fleet is nearby’

      A teenager, you’re trusting this to a teenager?

       I mean they have to obey orders          You’re trusting a teenager that Obi-Wan order programmed?         A less developed version of Obi wan?          I know Yoda has a seat at the head of the garbage fire council

       But Obi-Wan has a seat there for a reason

       - note I’m pretty sure this is true for all continuities             so I’m not calling out movie Obi-Wan specifically  

           All of his continuities                 Garbage fire

            Which doesn’t have to be a bad thing...

             Logic sin

            “Perhaps he can reinforce us,”

             Teenagers can’t reinforce shit

             But they can pick you up

              Like a taxi service

            “ From what I hear Skywalker’s always looking for a fight,”                      Great, Obi wan ordered him to give only aggressive answers and self destructive orders                                    /answers

               Kid’s going to get killed                    If any adult sets their mind to it

               * Which seeing as you set him to ‘attack attack attack’

  Well, someone to be preparing his gravestone

              Good job, Obi wan                  Dumpster fire

              I do not regret it

             “So I’ve heard,”

               And enabled!

               Trash Fire Council, everyone

               “~~~~, Master Ploon,”

              “~~~~, Ahsoka,”

              Oh they share a language 

               Interesting

            “how’s the hunt for the mystery weapon going?”

              They actually tell him things?                    Instead of just yelling orders at him?

              Also, so that’s what they were doing

I     was   spinning

            “We’ve tracked it to the outer Greknow (excuse spelling) system,”

               “I need reinforcements”

               Wait, need?

               Earlier, it was a “ it would be nice,”

               Now you need the teenager to hold your hand while you confront the other adult in your stupid war?

               “ I have to ask the council Mr. plo I was given strict orders,”

                 Translation; I need to ask Obi-Wan                                  Also; this, this is how you write teenagers

              A little bit too much energy

              But this is how one would react

               If confronted with an order and ordered to give that response

               Good job, writers, you used your experience ( and knowledge) as a human being, to create a realistic human being

                Get a cookie for that

                Carry on

              Breaking up

              Signal jammed

          Oh yeah clearly shows that Ahsoka is asking “what’s wrong?”                Immediately move out the general area     also is someone not monitoring interference?          Shouldn’t alarms be going off?

   “ what’s wrong with the transmission,”

     A) you’re the leader you should figure that out

    B) asking a in superior isn’t going to help

       - if it’s their chosen thing then just let them do it without          leaning on them

   Nothing ever got better from micromanage

  “There’s too much interference, sir”

  Run

  We’ve lost them

  “You heard Master Ploon, he needs her support, we need to go help him,”

       Good job writers, that is how a teenager would react, you even got the stunted - robotlike speech down - and energy level

       Another cookie for you

      “We’ve got to go help him,”

       A bit of energy there but still good

     “We have to see what the Council says first,”

      Anakin, Perfect, 10/10, you know how to write children,            Perfect monotone

Fantastic     Job   writers

  *And          Actors

            The logic was pretty sound to

              “This is an important meeting, Ahsoka”

              Perfect

 I’ll   stop   gushing   about     that

         “Speak only when spoken to,”

          Perfect

        “Don’t I always”

         Okay,            little noticeable breach               there

         Little             too            much            energy                       Children               Don’t               Have            Person               alities-                Still           Developing-

        Nor          Attitude

       This       mystery        weapon            has            Strucken                a         dozen        systems             And     disappeared       without           a         trace,”

      That           Sounds         Really             Severe

      Only             Wish            I’d             Know             What              It            Does

      We       cannot       afford            to        lose        any       more       ships       my     phone

   “Oh,”

   How -         One           Of       you         had          to      order       him

    The          Chancellor         must       not       of     been     there

 “The    Enemy       ship       is   closing”

 Well      it      makes   sense    that    they   aren’t       running

  As   contacting    others     with     their   location     and   getting   reinforcements      was   something        that        they     were     supposed       to      do     and    ‘would      be         nice’      respectively

  And         they     did     both

    * Technically

   “General Greivous,”           Oh so now we get to learn of the relationship         Or what Dooku claims it to be

    “This will be            a suitable test              for        our new weapon,”

          Oh, or that

         They             have              the           weapon

       Interesting

       Also             a             great           excuse            to          show             Plo          Koon        suddenly         getting            his           shit         recked

   “Yes        My         lord,”

   [Oh       wait       now         I    remember        he’s       Ventress’s       master

   General            Term             Is            Lord]

      Does             he        have           a        button?

     “A       large        energy      reading       from        the      target,         sir,”

  Run!

 “Open       Fire,”

  Then       Get       Out          Of       Range

  “Fire!”

 “Brace       For      Impact!”

  Wait         You had Three whole ships   and you decide to clump them all together            Approaching from the same direction               Towards a giant space hole?                  You...               You got what you deserved

      “We’re losing all our power,”

      No duh         Space wave          * Shock wave

  Energy field , defenseless

      No duh

   “ Their shields are down         Full cannons,”                “they’re tearing us apart, one by one”

     Uh, Space                         pods?

         “[Ship explodes]

           Well I hope they got to the escape pod

           Quickly, into the pods!

         [ Plo being Captain Obvious]

        Well one fricker hit debris and exploded

       Really stable pods

      Well shit               It was just a ship        At least everyone      who wasn’t an idiot       is alive

   “ that was a successful test wouldn’t you say, Count?,”

   That’s        surprisingly normal given the side is supposed to be the  overinvolved                                                                                                    negative

      I’m surprise he isn’t abusing his in superiors by now

      Then again his ‘abuse’ style, based on name, is tech   

       Which isn’t an abuse style  

       Or negative thing

       “Maul”

        Is either a weapon or to chew something         savagely

     Sidious           Is        just        this     version’s     Absolute      evil   (Human,   Sentient   version)

Dooku      .....     I         have    no   idea

He’s   clearly   meant      to      be   conflict       in   general       But       The      Name       ....       I   have     no   idea

Sorry   went      on     a   name   rant

    “ I       want           all           of      those        life       pods        destroyed,”

   Brutal

   What       was           the        deal        with         the       sound     Greivous        was      making?            And         why           is        that       droid      laughing?

     We’ve         had         no       further       contact         with       General           Plo                Koon 

     And        nobody         is     panicking

    Then    everyone         else         is      enablers         so         I’m        not     surprised

    They       knew       what         they            were   getting      into     with     this    stupid    war

 “The   absence     of   distress   beacons        indicates      that      his     fleet     was,”

 Destroyed       killed

   Also     there’s       no      beacon         or      way         to      signal      for       help      in     those   light     pods   

The         Galaxy’s    huge

“-was”  A   bit   too   much   hesitation     there

           I’ll                accept              a            slight              bit             that             Anakin                was          ordered              not               to                talk            about                   death               in             front                   of              Ahsoka

         But              a             bit             too           much          emotion

         & personality

       And it isn’t overrided by one of his elders,            Obi wan specifically

       Or Understood by          the others

      We’re about to     launch a    rescue     mission

  Hasn’t clone intelligence reported this weapon     never leaves any survivors?

   But not that they had a giant stab wound through the   chest?

 Enablers, man

 Again, children don’t care about them

   They haven’t even developed a personality

   Nevermind the ability to form and remember      healthy preferred relationships

     With individuals

     Of their own age group

     When they’re Adults

      This ‘everyone’s afraid to say ‘die’ in front of Ahsoka Is bullshit

      Even      the              expression           doesn’t             feel             natural

       They are tidy they don’t want any witnesses

         See, that’s even acknowledging that they know some foul play is about

     ‘They’ is not the weapon

     It’s a person 

    “ these losses are tragic,”

      Not enough to stop the stupid war and             stop enabling

        What great friends      Plo Koon has      

      “ prevent more, we must,”

        You aren’t doing   shit

       Capsule

The Music      just      give       me       the     feeling       that      they’re      sitting      around     playing      cards

  “The power grid is burned out”

   Okay and that took out this whole life pod   functionality?

    Like are these not for emergencies?

   Shouldn’t have multiple backup power sources?

    Or some rudimentary fuel  

     Also, the force,

      Like with it you can exactly   have any moments of tension

       Like   normal humans

        Like            if you want to get out of the situation     there’s like 10 options

   Humans are space orcs

   Like just use the force to       paddle to safety

   Or power the ships

    This is   definitely   not as bad as a situation   as they’re going to make it out to be

 “Life support recharge.”

  Well good thing none of you is dying

   Oh did they mean     oxygen recycling?

   My bad

 So we’ll just sit here

   And hold our breath

  Snarking doesn’t really help it

  “someone will come looking for us, right?”

  Generally speaking, yes

  You clearly sent out    communications

  And abided by all the   rules        But you signed up with the enabler’s United Toxic Foundation, while everyone did sign up for a basic war - Palpatine’s things that one kid in the E for for everyone Minecraft let’s play role-play that insists everyone be allowed to swear

Like yeah everyone agreed not to do that       But you still don’t kick him

And the second you avoid accountability   things were on rocky basis

  You can kick him to a higher level of accountability

     (Or lower)

   But not accountability

   I don’t think that’s coming back from levels this   tox

 And     Everyone knew      it

   Including      this      guy

  “ let’s get the power restored     , so we’re here to be found”

    REASSURING

    Also if you could do them   why were you wasting time?

I know the address they’re assholes who don’t care about their own        life

But still dude

 Logic sin

  [not storytelling]

 Holding a bit too long on his face   for a jump cut

Ships

“ All our battle convoys will be sent to guard our   supply lines,”

 Meanwhile them selling them out

 Including yours   Skywalker

  Nice friends      you have there,       Plo Koon

 “i’m sorry we can’t risk any more ships with the rescue mission”

 Any more

   Meaning you sent some

   “wait just because there hasn’t been any survivors...”

    Dude

   Bit too animated

   Like holding on the thin string of     orders

  And      still it should be                                stunted

Even     under the order of                                         ‘feel sad’       their eyes would still be moving around like they don’t know what                                        they’re doing

“ doesn’t mean they won’t be any this time,”

  Animation...a little choppy

 Like beforehand the stiff moment really worked with the fact that they were children

        That I thought it was   intentional

  This little awkward bit of moment   doesn’t

 Maybe it’s the     overall movement of an of Ashoka as a   character

   It doesn’t work

  “ boldly spoken for one so young,”

    And almost unrealistically     so

    If not for the string of   orders

  I could possibly be reasoned by   Plo    issuing an overriding effect

 Assuming he was her first     and longest caretaker

  His order    if I’m in danger do this      Might still be   in system

But    it   wouldn’t   cause     an   outburst     like     that

  Not     that     loud

  Or   emotional        at    least

 Just     monotonously      Repeat         ing          the      line

 Which   would    still    get    the   same   reaction

Working          better       with          the       military        child      soldier      theme

  “ Yes she is learning from Anakin,”

      They’re child soldiers

          They’re both still operating under your    orders

 Anakin likely taking her up under   your orders

[If Common sense is      to be       believed]

   If anything ‘she sounds like   Plo Koon,’ would be a better   option and highlight the   his-tory, they have   together as well as makes sense why   she would be   sent 

 “ Excuse my Padawan,”

  Excuse that     bullshit

    [I have a thing against        un child like          behavior]

   “ I will deploy as   instructed     master,”

  Ahsoka      [turns her back and     leaves]

   I swear     if this leads   into a fight

And     one     with     them          not    talking             like         robots

Are   emoting

I’m    calling     bullshit

  If they’re not just repeating orders at each other

“Ahsoka,”

    How long do you think Anakin heard that tone of   voice?

    [Because he’s not doing it on his own]

  Little more     disappointed computer    needed   Too much   vitriol         But     Still     valid

  “if   anyone   could   survive,”

Stunted     tone     good

  Few    jumps     in   logic

And   conclusions      that     don’t     think     they   could’ve    ordered

 But   overall   serviceable

 “I don’t   understand,”

 “what you don’t   understand,”

Well there are remarkedly   a few bumps here and   there,     This does play out     The way two   assumed authority   kids     would    play out

 Good job writers,   actors   and   animators,     you     did     a   good   job

  “....Jedi protocol,”

   Know your place       My Padawan

   “Know your place,”

    Too          much         Energy

   “Admiral,”

     Anakin  

      Has too           much energy  

      And perso          -nality

      Never    mind             it’s fine

        “ isn’t that              risky?”

           No, approaching/confronting an enemy from only one Direction when you know they have an unpredictable weapon, is risky

                And stupid

                This is a patrol                and as such                   it’s a relatively good move

           “ The mystery weapon out there,”

            No, Plo Koon       wouldn’t have found himself             in that situation         had he done this

     Also are you mouthing off       to      a superior

   Fair       enough          you’re             older            and            have          nothing             to            fear            from               a             child

          But       you              agreed             to              serve                  under              said                child

           Stop            breaking           immersion

     I       like       the      fact      that      they   immediately      show      that    Anakin‘s   superiors       are   abusive        to        him

 While    it’s     true   Anakin     broke     code       by   addressing   someone       of      lower        rank

  This    dude      is     lower    than     him   

(And       older)    And   still   gives   back   toxicity

(No ne    Reflect   ed)     Too

 “It might be,”

 “But I know you     won’t argue my orders,”

Wow,        Not a really good picture of    Obi-Wan    we’re painting

 He possibly   (very often)    compared   Skywalker     to his       in superiors    Derogatorily            Or   at least gave him     an order     to do   so

 Yikes!

 Come     on       Snips      

   Come on          [Pet name]

    Bit       too      much   personality

    But     Still     managed      a     lot

“The      air         in      here            is   getting          a         bit          stale,”

    Then        stop         using           it             up

       And           focus              on             fixing

       “Don’t           look             at             me                it’s             Boost               sir,”

             Tox

*also       no one keeps a plant      on them?

    “He only takes a bath when    he’s        on      leave,”

   Dude seriously not cool   throwing someone under the bus     like that

      “ save it work on fixing the   pod,”

   Yeah you’re running out of air    and this seems to be the only dude that doesn’t wanna die

   “ Not your jokes,”

  They’re toxic anyway

So the air quality isn’t getting much   better

“ Do you think we’ve got a chance,            General?”

You have several   chances  

You have a   Jedi     on board

You could      doggy       paddle      to     the   nearest   station

“I know if we walk together we will stay alive,”

 No, you’ll run out oyour oxygen, and die

Also the rest of you are doing       nothing

Lay down      And save some oxygen

If you’re not going to be   helpful

Someone will find us

  Yeah, God

Or, in this case, hell

   If you believe in      that sort of thing

         And                Not          secure       nothingness

“ With      all      due respect,”

Strategically        it   doesn’t     make     sense       for   someone          to      come       look        for        us

  Yeah     you���re       all     enablers       no        one      has        more   inherent     worth      than      the     other

   If I was in command I’d be hunting that weapon down

 Humans are more important than weapons

    Our decisions decide       whether our time together          Will be pleasant          Or        non-       pleasant

 I value your life 

   Involved in this war that will likely take it

   “-more than finding that weapon”

As   noted   that’s       a   valid   thing

But   doesn’t    have    much      value       in       an    enabling         war       and         a         poisoned    generation

   “Sir,      there’s        another       pod           out        there,”

    No      duh

   You    launched      from      the     same     place

  The            only        people     dead       are       the      ones         that       ran       into       that      debris

   And   exploded         On    contact

 There     was         a       gulf      of     flame

 Likely     from      the     impact       of      the      ship

  But     no   indication     that   anyone      else          died

 (Not       like      he   could’ve     just   willed      them     out      of     the     way     with     the   force        Or     not   splurged      on        the   exploding   escape    pods)

 “If only if we had power we could contact them,”

  Again you should be working on that

 Also what would that do?

 You’re both

 ‘helpless’

   In the    pods    how   about      we just wave   Hello   when the viewfinder   comes back around?

Because that implies it will   rotate

 *Waves hand*          See?

  Completely      preventable

   Can     get out of this situation     at any time

   How?

  Like that glass is supposed to be   surprisingly strong

  Like plastic

I’m calling   bullshit

“They’re dead,”

One-hand    that extremely sucks        (The loss of life is a     terrible       thing)     Then again     completely     preventable

“ Someone         busted their pod       wide open,”

    Oh,         that’s clever         writers

      But      that looks shattered        from the impact

     That glass       is some           weird            stuff

       Really           I’m           just        sinning            the           fact               that           they         would          have         glass       anywhere           on            this      supposed           to          be         very       durable        space        pod

     Like        that        shit’s             a      safety         risk    regardless       of   where         it      is

 Time      to ravage their ship for any supplies  

  What, they’re dead?

They       won’t      be     using       it

  And         this         is   supposed       to       be        a      ‘life        or         death     simulation,’!

  “ We’re        not         alone        out            here!”

   Really?!

   Also       this        is      why         it’s         a      good       idea       to      get       down,    fix        the           ship       And     Get     Out

  (Why      you    even      have      a     window      when   cameras    would   suffice         ...)

 “ Set those coordinates,           R2,”

    Cool

  “ I should tell you why       I spoke up    before,”

    That     would      be     nice

But     if it’s Overinvolvement of Plo Koon       in your          upbringing

    A few things should be         more   obvious

    “You don’t have to explain,”

      Anakin        was taught not to question                                         things

       Including dedication to            previous scouts

    Oh, the deadpan

Ahsoka             is having a bit too much   reaction

But ot’s justified    in      confusing          orders

   Good start

 Oooh 

 That’s      a lot of Ships

   Nice music

   Very uppity

   With a sense of     authority

    Our ships    are in defensive formation          sir

 “Oh Obi-wan,”

 “Alright commander     I’ll check on Anakin’s progress,”

  ASSUMED  A U T    HORITY!

 “Admiral,”

 You’re not     supposed to be here

 “How       goes        escort,”

He looks    terrified      of him

  Convoys     Are     preceding on schedule general

The   fact    he’s   used    to     answering     to   him    says   something

“No          sign of enemy                           activity,”

Liar

 “and      where’s        Skywalker,”

    Susp.ic

     “The         general felt the redeployment of this fleet would increase our defensive perimeter,”

        Dude’s            really on his case on respecting the            Council’s orders

       “I see        thank you            Admiral       that will be all,”

    Nice       chat

  Problem         Sir

“Anakin     has       just   redeployed    himself,”

  How        is     that     sus?

  Didn’t          You       Give           Him        Orders?

   Someone had to have given him some orders       that got missconstrued

    Again

   Then    someone       else      gave      him    orders?!

Weird

Rt,     set up the     scanner

Mystery Weapons    

No Rt,   tune the scanner     for life forms     Highest sensitivity

Interesting    Anakin was given more   orders      To value human   life          over objects/      The   Mission

Interesting enough   this could’ve been     what they referred to   as any more ships

As an      Anakin   and     Ahsoka    had   already    been   assigned

And   given   specific   orders   by someone   who spends more time with Anakin therefore has more authority   to ignore the other orders

My   moneys     on   the     chancellor

He’s    supposed   to be   grooming   Anakin

And     it makes sense     he could get away     with     a    “no other Jedi” order       without including       himself

Not to mention     get more time       with Anakin   to justify     the authority   override

I would   also   make     sense

Given   Obi-Wan’s    -bluff-?      (Whether      you   believe       he      did       or      did      not         know     about      the       order)           That        he          was     surprised         that       Anakin         wasn’t       responding          to           his         seniority*

 *Face   Value

“ Why   would     we      Scan     for   lifeforms      to     find      an   enemy   weapon?”

 Too     much        energy

Droids

“The Abogado system”

Too     much    amazement

   More    ‘statement’       needed

   Smirk

     Do you know normally I would        criticize this        but it has the perfect          half           assed         energy

      So           good job everyone involved         that took  skill

    “ so it’s fine when you don’t follow what the council      says,”

  Ooh       that’s a          miss

Doing   what    the   Jedi   Council   says   that’s   one  thing

 How     we     go   about      it,      that’s   another     thing

 That could possibly count for double   answers

  And does count for   misconstrued orders

Considering a lot of orders can be fit into a          lifetime

Some do contradict and mix   to form up     interesting   combinations

And results

“that’s what I’m trying to teach you   my young Padawan,”

Good   answer

“So   you   always   meant      to    come    out   here    for   survivors,”

Better      Read

“Live are in danger of     Ahsoka,”

“We just     can’t turn   our backs   on them,”

“That’s       what        I,”          No        good       try      that’s       too      much     emotion

   Tip         toeing        into   emotion   adult

  Watch it

   “ I know              But        the        way        you         said         it          was       wrong,”

     Now Anakin’s following

     Got to watch that        realistic tone

     It’s hard      not to write   emotional characters

   But it makes   the moments when they are   all the more sweeter

I’m really looking for that   ‘I realized my life was a lie’ moment

“We haven’t got much     time-”

  How?

“No           that’s not it-”

   Time for the   idiots!

     Well honestly the time with our Villains - enablers               - are just as       entertaining

it’s slow burn            But decently so

“We       don’t   want      to       make     things         worse,”

  “How      can       we        make     things     worse?”

 Death isn’t fun

“ When        you      ask       for      trouble,        you      should        not           be   surprised      when        it      finds        you,”

    OK      Boomer

    Who        has        never         helped          at         any          point             in          this        procedure              (And             is              the             big                g               est               enabler              of           anyone              here)                *Tox

“ I think trouble already found us, sir”

   Good job!

What if we connect these two     wires right here

It’s an     electrical   puzzle game

 I thought   something   was   actually   broken

“ I’m     getting        something,”

 Great

There are 14 minutes left

What goes wrong?

Despite     maybe a   fight

 Oof

 They managed to figure   it   out   quicker

Now we get to listen to someone dying

In       extreme      detail 

  “That signal is weak, it must be close by,”

    Uh, what?

     I think          he might’ve        misspoke

       What?!

      That’s            a         giant         Crane!

       I        don’t        know          what         to        expect

   But      that      was      not         it!

   Go          Get         ‘Um          Boys

    They’re        Normal         Droids

   “Pod—”

   “The       Droids          Are      Cutting      Behind        Us,”

Cutting.   through

   They      just      sat       by and watched as their friends die

  And we know    

Plo Koon can move   the   ship

Brutal

“ Things got a lot worse,”

 And you watched    it happen

 Soco       -paths

 “The Scanners are practically useless “

   How?!

   The Ship left

Shouldn’t the jamming signal   be gone too?

“ Got anything    on the emergency channel    R2?”

How   do you not?

Also   

please save those guys

Like they’re enablers

But I’m a fan of   accountability

Not       death

You   can’t   hold   dead     people      accountable

“ We   might    find   something    you   don’t   want    to   find,”

“ he’s     one      of     my   oldest   friends,”

 That      is     the   perfect    tone   good    job

-everyone

“It was Master Plo   Koon Who found me   and brought me to the temple   where I belonged,”

Oh yeah   that doesn’t   smell of indoctrination!

HaHaHa

(help!)

“ I think someone noticed     We’re gone,”

Too much Emotion!

“Anakin,      where      are     you,”

Conflicting     orders

 “ we are making a quick stop      in the Avogadro system,”

  On point

   “A rescue mission I suppose,”

   “You had other       orders, you know,”

    I don’t like that someone else is      ordering you around       And has   higher   authority       Then      Me

“ it   was    my   idea   Master   Obi-Wan,”     

Too    Much     Argh-

“ oh I’m sure,”

You’re both child soldiers    

but I’m going to blame the   oldest

Despite   all orders

“ Well, have you found any survivors?”

 “No,”

 That is an “order to be sad’    Eye flicker

Good job

“ all the more reason for you to join the defensive   escorts,”

Adding   pressure to break   authority

“You’re      Going       to     Miss   the       rendezvous      With       The      Fleet         If      You     Don’t     Hurry,”

    I     want   you     to      be      my    back      up      escape     not         Plo’s

“We’re      on     our       way,”

   So   whoever    gave    him    this   order   didn’t   give      him     an   order    that   would   contradict   joining      the   fleet   afterwards?

“ i’m sorry         Ahsoka,”

  Wait,     what?

  He’s   getting   over   written?

  By    that?

*Squeaking*

  “R2-ooie        Thinks              He’s          Got        Something              On             The           Emer           gency,”

      Please-          Stop          calling          him              R2-ooie

      “Can he trace it?”

        Hopefully

      “Let’s get going,”

        Too-

“ I think they see us,”

Wait,       what  “Uh       -oh,”

   There’s     another        pod         over        there

    The      droids        got            a         lot        less        cute

  “Dadada,”

  Ominous

     Also         the         droids         are            so           cute          for

    Genocidal            Manics

    “It        is        time        to         go,”

   “Go?”

  Yeah your boss has essentially been letting you die this entire time

   “Outside, to destroy the enemy,”

    Again, could’ve done that anytime

   “ I can withstand the pressure for a   brief time,”

      Oh, that’s the     excuse

      To be fair I don’t think humans can be   either

      Not without seriously draining...

      I will give him that   notion

    Not, however,  not moving the     ship

    To safety

In fact all of this is just       badassery Like he could’ve easily rescued those guys and stop the, from the safety of the inside of his pod and without wasting the probably be limited oxygen       By going outside

   But         enablers

    “ Put         your            helmets          on,”

       I’m        about               to suck               all the oxygen             out of this                 damn                     thing

                “If                       you                        say                       so                       sir,”

                  ‘I’m                    willing                        to                         die                         for                         this,”

                   That                       one                       sane                       guy’s                        like

                    “ This                           is                           a                             difficult                      situation,”

                       Y’all                             making                             it

“ There remains a possibility we will   survive,”

 Great!

That’s good enough for     me

Everyone besides that one dude is     down     for   death

Love   how   that   one   dude’s    just   staring    at   them

“Kick    their    ass,”

Also you waited till they were right on top of you

‘Wolf   keep   the   communication   signal   alive’

I mean is the oxygen on, is the   electricity?

Like you could do more than just     fight?

“It’s   our     only   chance   someone   will   find   us,”

Bull

“ Let’s just hope someone’s looking for us,”

This is enabling   hell

“ Are    we still   picking up   that   signal,”

“ but    why    aren’t     we     finding   anybody,”

 Are   you   following   the   signal?

“ I don’t know,”

I don’t know either

“ what’s           a       Jedi        doing       out     here?”

 Real question     what’s a random person   doing out here?

Like   are    these    droids   Plo Koon        fanboys?

*Shoves*

Weak

If is anyone out there,        This is Ahsoka Tano,”

Seriously, you weren’t trying the transmissions   before?

 Oh so those guys had blasters?

And can stick to the roof

But     those   other   two   just   got   blown   out

Didn’t   want     to   fight

Accepted     Death

“I can’t get a clear shot,”

How?

“ Time to put the squeeze on them,”

   What?

“ is there anyone out there?”

Dude not paying attention

 You had                    One Job

“ It’s Ahsoka,” Just press buttons

He can’t hear you   he’s outside in space

“ keep the signal   alive   commander,”

What-

He has   a point

Dude’s    been   slacking

 “Boost       the     reception”

“Argh,”  - - -

“We’re        Losing       The     Signal,”

He   just     threw      a   fricker

Seriously

 That’s all        it   took?

Death   seekers

“Uh-Oh”

 Karma

“ Sir,       we have lost contact with the     Pod hunter,”

 Only    one?

Also yeah, after multiple people died     Plo Koon     finally decide to do something

“ Perhaps some survivors are putting up a fight,”

Big leap 

 More likely your   robots      fell off    something

“ that is something we   cannot   allow,”

Cut        To the   Senate

Okay...

We must find a way to destroy     this mystery weapon

Don’t fly right into it

‘end this war,”

Not gonna   happen

“Dooku     always   seems,”

“Tell     me,!”

Oof

Looks    proper    creepy

“Master Plo       koon     Or         his    fleet,”

“No,   we must fear     the worse,”

After we did nothing to stop it

Go, enablers!

Survivors

On whose   authority?

“His own   I’m afraid”

Bullshit

Someone     gave him an      order

 ‘His own’     only means you don’t know      Or are lying

But I’m going with     face value   for   Obi-Wan

With       His   flight     out   of   position

You trusted a teenager with a fleet

This is your own fault

Oh never mind   his fleet is fine

So Windu     was complaining out of his ass

And his Padawan

so whoever gave the order is fine with him having his Padawan

Oh yeah that does leave   Yoda sus

Twice the trouble     they have become

You gave them the order!     Abusive     old man

A reckless decision,        skywalker          has         made

   Teenagers             can’t              make            decisions

         “ Let                   us               hope                it                is                 not                   a                 costly               one

   “Well general another fine mess we’ve got ourselves into”

   The tox level is getting pretty   high

“ your sense       of humor       is improving,”

   No his ability to be a dick     is

   Well technically it was always there

    He’s just really utilizing it

Right now

  Toxic bastard

“ I don’t mean to say I told you so,”

Dude even a slight bit of accountability is acceptable   around now

Also wouldn’t the com’s guy be more accurate?

Pretty sure     he was the one     trying to guide everyone   away from death

“ I never believed anyone would come looking for us,”

Enablers

“ Anakin, the council was furious”

I decided we couldn’t just give up on Master Plo Koon

Bullshit

“But     the council    feels,”

Please     listen to me     Anakin

Return       at   once

Okay here I’m a little conflicted

It could be literally anyone

“ Yes, Excellency,”

Nevermind

It is him

Good job   writers

“ we have         to        stay,”

Note I’m assuming the vision is a metaphor an action   order

         Because Visions     just no

         Too much emotion

          “Ahsoka,”

He   allows   her   to     do   this

“ sergeant why are you so certain no one is coming,”

Because they’re enablers

And he’s     particularly     negative

He’s       a     person   that’s     his   choice

(That       you’re     enabling)

He     still     toxic

“ We’re just clones,sir,”

That’s          a     good       excuse

 The past trauma doesn’t justify     creating present trauma

You’ll be     held       accountable         the       same

“ we’re meant to be expendable,”

Yeah,   doesn’t justify this bullshit

“ Not to me,”

Bullshit

You       were       

instrumental

In what occurred to     them

You enabled them

* This        Situation

 This      is       like      a       boomer     comforting         a     millennial     abuse       victim!

You       were       instrumental       in     what     happened       to     them

Point       being;          If       you    actually     cared     what       was       happening       you       would’ve       stopped     it       before     it       began!

Now       everyone’s     an       enabler

‘Light’,         assumed to be heroic     turns           into         actual       light

Okay, good

Was worried there. for         a second

Ready tow         cable

 Why wouldn’t -

Okay,       they’re moving him     towards the     door

Good        They        were          running        out       of       oxygen.                  Sometime                            There                       were                      no                       real                      stakes      

           “ Come on                     hurry!”

What’s the rush?

They’re fine

“ are you ok,     master Plo,”

All this work and build up      and he’s dead

“ there’s         someone          in           the        pod,”

That       poor           guy

Pretty       sure        he       was           the       one       who       least         wanted       to      die

“argh,       argh,”

Oh       now       there’s       health       problems

Now     that       they’ve         been       rescued

Was     talking      fine       just           a        few           minutes       ago

Sudden        medical     droid

When     both         Anakin         and           Ahsoka           should            know           how         to          do           first          aid

   Will          they          be          alright?

      Not               at                that                pace               they             won’t

And     with        that         acting 

 “The         pressure       suits       provide          some     protection”

   Some?            They              were       completely         fine           up           to            this        point

  “ but           they         require           a     medical       frigate,”

  Why....

 Did they bother...?

Bringing you?

   “I         will     stabilize      them        sir,”

  How?

             Pics                      or                         it                       didn’t                 happen

            “Your                     men                      are                      safe                    now,”

                Dude                        he’s                   sleeping

“were      there       any       survivors,”

IDK, Mister      I′m gonna.   sit-around       while-     people-      Die!

       Probably          would’ve                 killed               them                 himself

 This        was         his     favorite        unit

 Hahaha

*Fake         Guilt*

 After        he       caused           and           let           all           of          it       happen

‘Hunters’

    You          let           it     happen

    And          them

But      mostly         you

    Authority        -claimer

“ I’m           sorry,”

   Not        her         fault

   That.                This         Dude       Is                 An          Asshole

  So          Heading        to           the       big          battle

  Not.             A             word

*Plo’s      voice  

   *No             Plo*

Behind both of them??

Telling this story, why??

To a teenager??

Also       see        he’s fine

“ an ion cannon,”

Standing in front of it     surprisingly didn’t help

“An ion canon,”

 Some thing neither Plo                                                 nor                                                    the Jedi Academy apparently covered

“ neutralizing all power to our ships”

                  ‘Wow, if you knew all about it then why didn’t you make some.                           defenses to prevent from knocking you out’

                     ‘Shh, I’m sacrificing my men!’

                      “ Defenseless,”

                         ‘ yeah we obviously shouldn’t                                     alert the council            right now,’

“ massive vessel approaching,”

Run!

“ shut down the power systems,”

Okay,      Boomer

It’s not like we could contact the council

    While running!

“The droid”

R2-D2

Nearly         gets       everyone       killed

“Sorry       Little     guy,”

Don’t       get         down         or         anything

“ That’s           one            big          cruiser            crusher,”

     Yes            and          this              idiot             went           right            into            it!

*Intense       noises *

   Dude, they’re not going to see them

Yeah       it’s             big

“there’s still no signal from the pod- hunter,”

  That’s - repetitive

  Did you think it         would be 

   Like it’d           suddenly                come back online??

     This stupid quest for            someone else                  would end?

“Reactivate your scanners,”

   Turn it back off and       on           again

    “ We will find who is responsible,”

     Who could be no one

     Or left the system

“ hey what’s         with the lights,”

    “Power’s gone out,”

 Five minutes in         and already complaining

        Also shouldn’t you guys     be asleep

      After the cold vacuum of       space?!

 What did the robot         put you on??

“ Maybe the         ship has returned,”

   Now He’s          panting??

     Like dude,            didn’t even fight!

      We didn’t even            hear or see him get hurt                   at all

       (Only                squeezed!)

           What                 The-

Faker!

*Getting         Caught*.                 “You          are          too       weak,”

Suddenly           and       only       now

 Would           make           more             sense             for            one           of           the         soldier-

              For                      Him-

The             Injur-

Also         doctor,               Maybe                  help              him   To              The           Location,           Summon                   Some               One               Or         Bring          him              to                 Bed

“ Let             me           go           see       what       is     wrong,”

Close

  Uncomfortable                  close                  up                on           face

     Two           soldier            guys        Jump       Ing            Up             -            But            Like           -

 The...         Roles    should               Be                 Reversed

   You.      Should          Be        Him

    You.               Received                More          Damage...

  Anyway!

*Mischief          Music*

  Still             Looking                at         the              ship

While          their             Ship                Hurdles             (Dangerously)          Close               To             a            Star      “We’re            Picking            up            a                    faint               signal         from          a         droid,”

Seriously,        That            was            Five         minutes            ago

 That                  Long?

 Catches                 a                signal?

 Also,           yeah,          so         what?

“One             of             ours,             they’re             right             behind        us,”

 So?

“Move.                        Us                   Into             Attack         Position,”

 Dude,

  1 to 10

   Real              Quickly

  Like he doesn’t even know     anyone’s on there

The ship he’s about to shoot   resembles          A       Wreck

      And              Could         Very         Well               Be                  One

    With         Only         a        droid          On           It

      Like                 Dude            is          Just        Down           To          Blow              Stuff             Up !

     They’re         Coming             Back

      “Are            All           Systems...”

    AHHHHH!

  I paused      At the

  Exactly...

      Wrong

       Time

Five Nights       at Freddy’s         Bullshit

  Anyway,                     After        That        Bull-     terror-        Fuel

 Yeah       Shit’s       fuck     ed

“Is there       A Pro       Blem -s      -ir?”

  “You       for-”

  Seriously,

   That       Dude         Had         One       Use,        Not         Even         Why?

  Power       Back        On

  Which       You    should’ve        done      from       the   beginning!

You’re    smaller         And     faster  

 RUN!

 “Can               I          Be          of      Assistance?”

 NIGHTMARE              FUEL!

*Who-        ever         Tho     ught       This         Thing          Would          Be            Com         Fort            ing?!            !

    That             Is            My         Programming         Sir

    Ah!

“General           I         Don’t        Want       Any       Wit     ness        es,”

 How?

Your   ship      Is   so   big   And     Difficult       To    Maneuver

How?!

 Any     scout      ship   could     out     maneuver!

“En    -er       -gize,”

Still       It         Only       Points         One        Dire       -ction        And        Moves          Like             A           Barrel             Ing            Ox!

   “Program           the          Navi        computer,”

  You- “You             We turned        Off!”                    Forgot                    Him

                        Appreciated but                                Still too                                   Much                                       Sass

    Aww, nice

   He was        gentle

    “ ~~~         Droid,”

   I’m going           to assume       “You nearly               Fucked               Every          Thing             Up,”             Is           What               That            Means

       “ Target             range            almost              locked,               sir,”

         SWIRVE

         They’re                   Not               Gonna                Make                     It               If              They              Don’t            Move             Slightly                To                The              Left!

    “Program             a      Hyper-drive,”                   What?!!

     “Any where!”

       ???

     “Enemy          ship          target            ed          Gen             er              al,”

   Going         to            the       Prometheus       School            of       running         away          from           things

      (You           Can           Literally             See              The            Ed              ges)...

      Master...

       This              Was             Your              Plan

  Good job     *Turns)

  We’re        Clear

  Plo       Koon         Not      Sitting      Down

   “Errr”

  Possessive

    Like        How        Does             He             Know??

    Now         the       republic         will        learn         of        our        ion       cannon

             ???

            Then don’t-

      Like        a scout-

                     I just                              Don’t                         Think                         They                          Cared

                      Dooku                           Quiet

                      ‘Sidious                                Is                            going                                 To                              Beat                             Our                              Ass

                     “Your                           Failure                           is                           most                      unfortunate,”

   Correction;         *Yours

       “ I will              have              to            discuss               this               with              my                master,”

     “Rawr!”

     Get Back             To            Work’

        There’s                 That           Abuse                 Of              in superiors,              I was                    Looking              For

     ‘Roger,          Roger’

  *Grievous            Head       Pressed           To        That           Board,”

     Ship             Brig            ade

      Impress            Ive

        Dock            ed          Sur            Prised

      “Thanks               for               getting             us              out            of          there            in            one           piece,”

      ‘It’s           More          Than           Master           Koon             Would             ‘ve           done!”

        Even                if              you           have              no         choice          since         you’re          just              a        compilation             of          orders !

      Too             Much        Personality           Also         Didn’t         Happen

“General Plo said someone would come for us,” nobody said in the most enabling way and seemed to imply enablers

   Also, again, child soldier

Skywalker it’s time to give our report to the council

    “Right-”

    That            Just       Doesn’t-           Hit            Right

      Too          Much           Person-          Ality

  “C’mon      Ahsoka,”

  “You       Want        Me      There,”

  He needs you   there

    The       Council           Pret       -ty            Much          Ordered         Him            To            Take          Care                  Of             You           (If we’re          follow-ing           non-stupid              logic?)

     “ I figure           because            of                before,”

      He HAS TOO

      “Ahsoka,”

       ‘I was ordered to            by a bunch of Deranged sociopaths             who think child soldiers             was a good idea,”

        “You did              A              Great job,”

         [Sigh]

        Line work,            Wasn’t so            Good, near              the end

     “ but if I’m getting in trouble              for this,              You           share            the       blame         too,”

        I             feel           like          there        was          a        tortured         attempt            to       connect            it          back          to       Dooku          and     grievous        but         that         only      works   because        they’re       adults         capable          of        Malician,”

  “ Right       besides          you       Sky Guy,”

                           Alright

                        First off; 

                   Misleading title

                   Nothing really                  escalates

             (Nothing really rises                Except for               the Introductory                sec                            Which                    will                   make                  you                    feel                       like                  you’re                    in                high tides

               Before                    Red                     Please                       For                    the                    Love                       of                      You,                      Skip                        to                          the                         Red)

             As we            don’t really           have a scale

       Enablers do things

       It’s not really a scale of an            intensity

       Nothing basic yet

     The plot I feel was on the     weaker side

     Finding a weapon from     out of nowhere

     ‘ oh wait we know everything it does,’

      Didn’t really come to a conclusion

    But assuming they might follow it   up

    As for now I feel that    they really could’ve gone for a       Fight ending

  Really hyping   up this weapon

  In Master Koon’s       Return

 Only for     us     to see nothing

  In      terms of    an equal battle

  But, hey, maybe that comes in to play later

         The one thing I can say really improved

   Or was just better/ Good to see

                  Was the better writing                          Of the                      Child                           Characters

             Although

          There were     a few       minor           Slip          Ups         Here        And       There         Especially         Near          The             End

         Where there was a line

          “ You did a great                                         job!”

          That sounded...

         Well it sounded like something from one of those cheap         TV shows

        Or commercials

     * hopefully not too harsh

I don’t    hold    Any    grud      ges

        It was just an awfully recorded line

        Any way next is; Shadows of Maleviolence

[alexiealducsdrawings]

get to know the blogger

I was tagged by @willhernandezdraws  Thank you my dude ~

last...

1. drink - water 2. phone call - Been a long while...probably my clinic 3. text message - a great friend who happens to be my ex 4. song you listened to -  The Wind That Carries Me Away by AFI 5. time you cried - yesterday while watching Steven Universe (I’m weak)

ever 6. dated someone twice? - yes 7. kissed someone and regretted it - no 8. been cheated on - no 9. lost someone special - yes, to time and diverging paths 10. been depressed - yes 11. gotten drunk and thrown up - no, got high and sick, though

fave colours 12. all shades of purple 13. fushia 14. Most shades of blue are amazing too

in the last year have you… 15. made new friends - yes 16. fallen out of love - no (tried to rekindle a relation but I wasn’t in love to begin with) 17. laughed until you cried - no, but got out of breath once or twice 18. found out someone was talking about you - no 19. met someone who changed you - yes 20. found out who your friends are - Sort of 21. kissed someone on your facebook friends list - yes, my ex is on my friend list

general 22. how many of your facebook friends do you know irl - I knew my high school friends back then, can’t say I do now 23. do you have any pets -  I live with 4 cats :3 24. do you want to change your name - no 25. what did you do for your last birthday - Went to a medieval themed restaurant that I like (even though there was loud people...) 26. what time did you wake up today - 11 am 27. what were you doing at midnight last night - browsing Tumblr before bed and getting excited at my art getting notes 28. what is something you cant wait for - Living with people that have the same points of view as me so I don’t feel uncomfortable 90% of the time 30. what are you listening to right now - nothing 31. have you ever talked to a person named tom -  I don’t think so 32. something thats getting on your nerves - My brother-in-law, my mental health not getting anywhere good 33. most visited website - tumblr, facebook, various comics and idle game sites 34. hair colour - dark blonde/ chestnut  (I wish I could afford to get it bleached and coloured...) 35. long or short hair - short, used to have a shaved side and a long side 36. do you have a crush on someone - no, I don’t frequent enough people for this 37. what do you like about yourself - Don’t expect an honest answer to this question. 38. want any piercings? - I’ve thought about some more on the ears or an eyebrow one 39. blood type - don’t remember.... 40. nicknames - Alex, Al 41. relationship status - single as heck 42. zodiac - Gemini 43. pronouns - She/her, They/them if you want 44. fave tv shows - Steven Universe (can’t remember another show I’ve been passionate about and keeping up with..) 45. tattoos - got 3 ; left hand, right forearm, chest. And I want more! 46. right or left handed - right 47. ever had surgery - Got 1(one) wisdom tooth removed 48. piercings - lip ring (left), 2 on the right ear 49. sport - absolutely not, maybe swimming for leisure? 50. vacation - I’m scared to travel outside of my province, also no money, but roadtrips are nice I guess 51. trainers - I’m gonna interpret this as “Pokémon Trainers” and I’d be the ghost type

more general 52. eating - Cranberry & Almond corn flakes 53. drinking - Coffee 54. i’m about to watch - nothing 55. waiting for - the week to go by, my therapist appointment on thursday 56. want - just a little bit of financial freedom 57. get married - absolutely not ; I get the importance of it for people but it just seems like a waste of money.... 58. career - I like drawing and petting animals, don’t know what the heck I should do with this

which is better 59. hugs or kisses - hugs. Kisses are cool as long as it’s not french kissing 60. lips or eyes - lips, can’t look into another’s eyes to save my life 61. shorter or taller - who cares??? 62. older or younger - I’d prefer someone my age, but older is okay as long as it’s not too old 63. nice arms or stomach - arms, I love to fiddle with arm hair and hands 64. hookup or relationship - relationship 65. troublemaker or hesitant - I prefer “confident“ over troublemaker

have you ever 66. kissed a stranger - no 67. drank hard liquor - no 68. lost glasses - no 69. turned someone down - yes 70. sex on first date - nope 71. broken someones heart - I hope not, I don’t think so 72. had your heart broken - yes 73. been arrested - no 74. cried when someone died - yes 75. fallen for a friend - yes

do you believe in 76. yourself -  * cricket noise * 77. miracles - maybe? 78. love at first sight - no 79. santa claus -  I used to 80. kiss on a first date - it could happen to others, not necessarily what I want for me 81. angels - yes, ghosts too

other 82. best friend’s name - I don’t know if I have a best friend, I just annoy the hell out of anyone I try to talk with 83. eye colour - blue 84. fave movie - I have some titles I like to rewatch, but not an absolute favourite 85. fave actor - I like the appearances of many, but I don’t revere anyone in particular This was Fun! And I don’t dare to tag anyone, do it if you want :)

[1337wtfomgbbq]

Uh, I wanna talk about this. I wanna, I wanna. May I, great😆

Let me tell you. I started watching Spn when I was about ten years old. My best friend got me into it, she was a Sam girl, so I became a Dean girl because🤷‍♂️

But then we got to episode 16 of season 1 and😳 I don't know what it was about that episode that made me realise that I was into John/JDM. I think it was the realisation that John cares so much for his boys that finally sunk in completely with this episode.

Going through the whole show, season 1 to 5, it was about the story as a whole for me, so I didn't pay that much attention to specific characters. But on my rewatches, learning more and more with each season... I fell deeply in love with John's character.

For me it was hella interesting to learn during season 4 and 5 just how much influence heaven and hell had in all of this.

Mary and John getting together? Helped by/ if not entirely orchestrated by heaven.

Mary dying? Due to a deal Mary made herself which was part of Azazel's masterplan.

John being constantly on the road, on the run and paranoid as hell? All because of Azazel and his gang pulling them around like puppets.

Not gonna say that John didn't fuck up, he did, but with all that we learned in season 4 and 5 alone I gotta say, he didn't have much of a choice in the grand scheme of things. (A choice that wouldn't end with the world in shambles I mean.)

Past season 5 it's a fucking shitshow. The writers use John's character as manpain for the boys, especially Dean, so much and disregard everything that was layed out by JDM in season 1 and 2.

Gems like, "are the bruise in bad boys really from a werewolf though? John clearly beat Dean😠" While Dean and the writer of the episode say it was a werewolf, and both Sam and Dean say John wasn't physically abusive as far back as season 1.

The show took this greatly conflicted and nuanced character and just completely butchered him. JDM said he never played John in a way that there was any malice toward his sons. He played John as a man that loved his family, that didn't knew how to show his love in the right way/ the way the fandom wants, that was greatly conflicted BUT who didn't mean to intentionally harm his boys.

The fandom interpretation and misinterpretation of John is what really gets me heated up. I honest to god do not understand how, with all the info we have from season 4 and 5 alone, people actually really think John intended for any of this to happen. The man said himself that he wants for Dean to have a real home, and for Sam to go to school, and for Mary to be alife. He wanted to stop fucking loosing people.

They had such a big chance with a character like that and what did they do? They went manpain, they went the easy to swallow route that the moronic autience can grasp more easily.

Who needs nuance and grey area, and characters that are complicted and have actuall depth when your audiance is made up of people that have daddy issues for decades.

And thinking about this made me realise something: The John is bad bad bad takes didn't really start after Swan Song. They still got JDM on for season 3 to voice John in 'Long Distance Call'. The shit takes started after season 3 and with season 4. I can blame the fucking writer's strike for that one too🙆‍♂️

(John would have a second family. Give me a break🤦‍♂️)

And yes, I am mostly ignoring everythig that happened after Swan Song. I admit I stoped watching when they killed Benny off. Doesn't mean I don't have the internet at my fingertips and that I can't get my hands on episode transcripts, and the wiki- Heck, I watched the vomit that was 'Bad Boys' only to be able to completely tear the "John beat Dean uwu" argument to shreds.

The fandom really is to blame for this. The fandom with the most daddy issues.

People saying Dean could dig his way out of his grave in season 4 cause John probably buried the boys to train them for that case???! Are yall good??! What kind of sick things did your dad do to you??!

People saying John beat Dean because he looked scared in Dark Side of the Moon' when he remembered John's reaction to Sam running away under Dean's watch?? It makes me wonder about those peoples familys because I would never interpret this as John beating Dean. Not only because Dean already said in season 1 that John didn't beat them, but also because I got yelled at for stuff my sisters did (yep even running away on my watch) and I still remember that with an underlying sense of fear. Which doesn't mean my mom is abusive, it just means that parents are only human too.

John's character is the epitome of writers fucking over and retconning an established character and the fandom being dumb as bricks and filled with daddy issues they don't deal with adequately.

Did any of you  watch a movie/serie/book/piece of media when you were younger and have an opinion about it and then when you watched it again when you were older you realize that what you were watching and your idea about it was completely different? Yeah, well I do. Two things first, I am about to start ranting and two, yes this is about Supernatural. (Actually is about a lot of things but this post is about Supernatural). So here it is

When I started to watch Supernatural I was like 10, I think and I was rather naive. So when John friking Winchester has his “redemption arc” and makes the deal to save Dean I was like, ok you know good parenting right here. Then on season 5-6 I stopped watching for whatever reason and I became an irregular watcher of the show (I watched in disorder and missed some). Fastforward to two years back when my obsession returned and I started to look for more Tumblr posts about the show and I was shocked to see a lot of people hated John and because my knowledge of the show was a little bit mushy  (and at this point I had had others wake up calls where this has happened)  I decided to review some scenes again and watched the evidence the posters presented and I was completely shocked because what I was seeing was not what I remember. My brain couldnt compute this version it had on my head with the version the show was portraying, so I leave it be, but the seed was planted. So again fastforward to this year where I decided to rewatch Supernatural again this time in order, and again picture me shocked because the posts somehow managed to fell short. John Winchester was a terrible parent.  But, and this is where it kills me a little bit, 10 year old me had made an image already about him that 21 year old me had to tear down, and its a work in progress I am not going to lie. So somehow my views had to meet in the middle somehow and I come to this conclusion. 

John Winchester was a terrible parent, borderline abusive (if not all the way). Did he love his children? Yes he did, Did he turned them into soldiers? Again yes, Did he tried his best? I think in his mind he did, Was it enough? No, absolutely no. Did Dean and Sam deserved better? 100% certain 

Feel free to ignore or if you want to add or put your experience or start a debate, also welcome, just respectfully please 

[reactingtosomething]

Reacting to Baby Driver

The Wright Amount

The Setup: For this post we’re thrilled to bring you two Guest Reactors, both former film school classmates of ours, and both Edgar Wright aficionados. One is Andrew, one half of the Punder Twins (we hope you’ll meet the other half in the foreseeable future), and the other wanted a codename like Bats and Buddy, so we’re calling him BOB. All caps, because BOB likes that it works as an acronym for “Boring Old Bob.”

SPOILERS -- and fan/re-casting -- after the jump!

MIRI: Ok, so what did we think of Baby Driver?

ANDREW: Oh we're starting this? It was very, Edgar wright-y

KRIS: I don’t know how much this will matter, but for context I thought it might be fun to start with everyone’s favorite (pre-Baby Driver) Edgar Wright movies/moments

MIRI: I went into the movie not really expecting to like it (the trailers just didn’t grab me the way they did SO MANY people) so I was actually really pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it

Ooh, I like that

What are yours?

BOB: "You ain't ever seen Bad Boys 2?" - Hot Fuzz

KRIS: With the caveat that I haven’t rewatched any of them, I think my favorite is Scott Pilgrim

ANDREW: The entirety of Scott pilgrim vs the world 

KRIS: which admittedly has the unfair advantages of Anna Kendrick and Aubrey Plaza

But also “Chicken’s not vegan?”

Just an insanely stacked cast

ANDREW: I was about to say that!

MIRI: I’d have to go Sean of the Dead

*Shaun

BOB: 

KRIS: Of the Cornettos I do think Hot Fuzz is my favorite

ANDREW: Mine too! I still wish he directed ant man. I mean, I liked ant man. But...

MIRI: Hot Fuzz is excellent, but Shaun of the Dead just surprised me so much in so many delightful ways

KRIS: Oh also I liked that in the big GQ interview Chris Evans did when he got cast for Captain America, he mentioned that his friends thought his Scott Pilgrim character was hilariously spot-on, though maybe they thought this ironically

I’d have to revisit the piece, which I feel like is semi-legendary in entertainment journalism circles

BOB: I really like how he took that film and made it both a reflection of the action genre as a whole while also making it very much so an original film 

KRIS: I’ll try to find and link

MIRI: Yeah, he does great things with loving parodies

KRIS: Shaun of the Dead was definitely revelatory, although I probably saw it a year or two too early to fully appreciate it

BOB: Which when I watched Baby Driver, you could say he does the same to an extent with heist and car chase movies

MIRI: This didn’t feel as much like a sendup to me as it did just an example of the genre

BOB: It has a little Reservoir Dogs / The Killing (Kubricks) feel to it with the nicknames

KRIS: Guillermo del Toro’s very complimentary Twitter thread about the movie made a point of stressing that where Wright has previously been ironic, Baby Driver was newly and lovingly earnest

MIRI: Yeah, I’d agree. And in some places that worked better for me than others

ANDREW: I concur with the famous director.

MIRI: I’m curious--on a scale of 1-10 how much did you guys love this movie?

BOB: 9.5 

ANDREW: ...8?

BOB: Maybe cause i am sucker for the non verbal acting in the first half and the syncing of music with action 

ANDREW: That's true. The non verbal acting was top notch.

KRIS: I’m probably a 6.5 - 7? I liked but didn’t love it, and the framing for my expectations is that I follow approximately 3 million film critics on Twitter and everyone who saw the movie screen at Austin L O V E D it

MIRI: I’m somewhere around a 6.5 or a 7. It’s totally fun! The performances are great! But it’s also pretty lazy in some ways and has some plot issues. But the action is GREAT

KRIS: The physicality of Baby was definitely great

(Do we know that actor from anything?)

BOB: Fault in our stars

MIRI: Kris, I love you

He’s also in the Divergent films

and he’s the new Han Solo

ANDREW: He is also in baby driver

MIRI: This definitely seems like a step away from the teen heartthrob of it all for him

KRIS: The new Han Solo is Alden Ehrenreich. Same initials, different dude

MIRI: Ohhh oops

BOB: Fact check - han solo is alden something

They look very alike though!

MIRI: Was Elgort in the mix at one point or am I 100% wrong?

BOB: However... he is credited as Ansolo in Bad Santa 2

Yes he was

MIRI: Ok, that makes me feel slightly better

BOB: Damn this guy is only 23!

MIRI: OOOhhh, Alden Ehrenreich is the kid from Beautiful Creatures

I’m never going to get them fully separate in my head now

ANDREW: Bob! Don't look at ages!

It's depressing.

KRIS: (To our guests: we also have frequent and lengthy digressions)

(we very briefly tried to fight it but we know our limits)

MIRI: My favorite person in this movie was definitely Joseph, the foster dad

ANDREW: My favorite was Kevin spacey's kid.

KRIS: I kind of wished we’d gotten more of Jon Bernthal but I did love the Joseph scenes

OH YEAH

He was great

ANDREW: Oh my god, yes! I thought Jon was gonna come back!

I almost forgot he was in the movie.

BOB: Back to BD, BOB is very interested in getting his hands on seeing how much of the movie was motivated by the actual words on the page. A bevy of characters like the nephew and Jon Bernthals limited scenes. Heck even the small bits like the postal worker were interesting

MIRI: I liked the interactions with the postal worker

The headshake played really nicely

BOB: One plot hole for me was who was the hero that tried to ram them (The Flea/Brian Tee trio) because that guy had some guns on him

KRIS: I did really like how IMMEDIATELY everything went to shit in that moment

The second act really dragged for me but I thought this started and ended really strong

MIRI: That’s the plot hole that bothers you?

KRIS: Say more BOB

ANDREW: Damn you good Samaritan! 

BOB: Seemed like a setup that wasn't fully explained. Was Brian Tee's character in on it? Is that why he got s bullet in the head? Or was it more so over the fact that he fucked up 3 times

MIRI: He seemed like an ex-military hired security guy to me

BOB: Mike myers, dragged getting into car, left his shotgun

KRIS: I think he was just a Good Samaritan but he had a Marine Corps hat

BOB: I noticed that hat too but unsure if there was a fix there

MIRI: Oh, I thought it was additional hired security since there had been so many robberies lately

BOB: Miri good point!!!

KRIS: Oh, I didn’t think about it after the movie but in the moment I thought the lost shotgun would come back to bite them

ANDREW: Ooooh that's smart. ... I hope that it.

BOB: Yes likewise about the shotgun 

MIRI: Yeah, I definitely thought the shotgun would come back

I did like the clear willingness to take out allies like that

BOB: What plotholes bugged you MS?

MIRI: BUT that makes me buy Doc helping Baby TO THE EXPENSE OF HIS OWN LIFE even less

BOB: Yes that was good. Start of seeing how Bats was real fucked up

KRIS: Yeah, I did like the setup of Doc’s operation a lot

BOB: Bats killed him

Not Doc

MIRI: I get the weird affection, but that carried it way beyond believability to me.

There’s no planting of that (at least not any that works for me)

ANDREW: I don't know. I bought doc helping baby.

MIRI: Oh, Bats killed him? How do we know that?

BOB: "Moment you catch feelings, moment you catch a bullet."

KRIS: But it would’ve been on Doc’s orders, right?

MIRI: But the guy didn’t catch feelings, he was just bad at his job

BOB: He was already riled up. And he is very trigger happy

Perhaps Docs orders but he didn't seem type to get dirty.

He caught a feeling of being dumb then! Lol

MIRI: I don’t buy Doc helping Baby. Baby destroyed his whole operation, put his actual loved ones in jeopardy, and is now leaving him meaning he can’t pull any jobs for/with him ever again. Plus Doc definitely seems like a survivor above all else, which helping Baby totally invalidates

BOB: Would it have made sense if say Doc was like a relative ala how we see him train the nephew?

MIRI: Sure, but he’s not

BOB: I thought it was gonna go in that direction

ANDREW: You’re right, but he essentially raised Baby and worked with him for like a decade. Albeit forcefully. Do you really think after all that doc would just shoot baby in the face?

However logical it seems?

MIRI: For the level of betrayal Baby has just given him, maybe

ANDREW: Doc seems likes family man to me.

MIRI: Or at least let him twist on the rope he’s put up himself

ANDREW: A sick

KRIS: I buy Doc not killing Baby, if not the risks he then takes on Baby’s behalf

MIRI: He definitely seems like a family man, but I don’t think he treats Baby as family enough to justify the turn for me

ANDREW: That fair.

MIRI: Agreed

KRIS: I think meeting his son, and seeing how the kid is totally well adjusted, is part of setting that up

BOB: Doc shooting up people was a stretch 

MIRI: The kid was his nephew, I think

BOB: I buy the take this money and run angle a lot

Yes nephew

ANDREW: Then baby is the son he never had!

Son of a bitch!

MIRI: But he’s clearly close with him--watches movies with him, etc. He doesn’t spend time with Baby outside of business

BOB: He bought him dinner!

ANDREW: He bought him dinner!

MIRI: i’m with Kris--I don’t think he would have killed Baby necessarily, but he goes way further than I believe

He bought him dinner once, and partially as a chance to threaten Debbie and get Baby back into the game

BOB: He talks to him perhaps more so whenever he picks up him for a job

KRIS: I can sort of see dots to connect from Doc being willing to order terrible things but deliberately distancing himself from them to avoid catching feelings, because he knows or suspects that if he gets too close then he’ll stop being the criminal mastermind he wants to be

MIRI: He’s clearly closer with him than with most employees, I’m not denying that!

I just don’t think they put in enough groundwork to make me believe the turn

KRIS: I don’t think the movie does that work for you

MIRI: The movie expects me to buy emotional connections that it doesn’t show on a couple of fronts

The fact that Deborah is willing to run away with a guy she BARELY knows is ridiculous

BOB: Stop trying to catch feelings Miri!!! Bats may be listening!

ANDREW: Bro, that train I can get on.

MIRI: Even without the bank robber, just shot someone right in front of her thing

ANDREW: I kind of wanted Debra to say "thanks but no thanks" in act three.

That would have been a funny twist.

MIRI: I would have been into that

BOB: It happens... maybe she felt protected?? But they do have moments where they are similar. The love for the road, the music, the need and want to escape 

Maybe she was tired of the old humdrum reality of things

ANDREW: But baby just shot a man at the diner

BOB: Ala Thelma and Louise

MIRI: Right, they have the building blocks for dating, but not “Run away from everyone you’ve ever known with me forever”

Thelma and Louise were lifelong friends

BOB: I'm comparing the desire versus status of relationship length

MIRI: Baby and Deborah have had like 7 conversations

KRIS: (Oh god for like days I’ve been confusing Lily Collins with Lily James)

ANDREW: Most of them are about names.

MIRI: (Me too! Can I blame you this time??)

KRIS: (Yes, because you were there when I did it out loud)

BOB: Too many Lilys and Han Solo look alikes!!

MIRI: BOB: Right, but the “you jump I jump” of it all makes sense because of the love that’s already there. You don’t risk it all for a virtual stranger Basically, I think some of the relationships are weak. They knew what marks they wanted/needed to hit, but didn’t do the work of getting there well

KRIS: I think they do establish that Debora doesn’t have anything in her life early on, but I agree that across the board the movie wants me to make emotional leaps that it doesn’t work to achieve

HOWEVER

MIRI: When there’s an actual depth of relationship like between Baby and Joseph it WORKS

Buddy and Darling work

KRIS: For the sake of argument, there’s this “all the characters in Baby Driver are archetypes” case I’ve seen floated

MIRI: (we have three spellings of Debora’s name going and Kris is right about it)

KRIS: Which doesn’t work for me, but I want to know how you feel about it

In fairness, I have IMDB open

MIRI: Eh. Feels like an excuse. Especially when there are the examples of genuine emotional connections

ANDREW: Can we talk about how there are only two female characters in the movie? 1 is a love interest and the other is fodder for Jon Hamm to be the villain?

MIRI: I would say that Debora and Darling fit the Madonna/Whore archetypes to a disturbing level

KRIS: AND EIZA GONZALEZ IS 20 YEARS JON HAMM’S JUNIOR

ANDREW: Genre be damned. That's a little ridiculous.

MIRI: more than a little

BOB: Hmmm interesting point Andrew! But what about the Mom? So 3?

KRIS: She’s not a “character”

MIRI: The mom isn’t a character

ANDREW: Fodder for baby to have tinnitus?

MIRI: she’s an excuse for maintain

*manpain

BOB: Ahh man pain 

MIRI: She has no arc or actions, and her only voice is filtered through Baby

Also, they do an interesting thing of rarely showing her face fully, which I assume is due to his memories being limited/fading

and it’s very cool on that front

BOB: Ditto with Miri

MIRI: but also she’s about 1/4 of the women in the entire film and we barely see or hear her

it’s not great

Can we take a moment to imagine how much more interesting the Buddy/Darling dynamic would have been if their ages and roles were reversed?

Just for fun

ANDREW: No. I was kind of hoping for something more out of Darling. But then she got shot... a lot.

BOB: Maybe if Doc was a female then perhaps the whole giving themself up in Act 3 seems more believable

MIRI: Because I would have been totally there for that

ANDREW: I was just thinking that Miri!

BOB: She got shot the fuck up

This movie put the female characters through the ringer in terms distress and pain

MIRI: The whole benevolent tolerance of Baby thing that Buddy does would have hit so harder from a potential mother figure when it went away

Yeah, it’s very lazy on that front. And--much as we love him!--not super surprising from Wright

He doesn’t seem to hate women by any stretch, he just doesn’t really seem to think of them much

KRIS: I want writer-directors like Edgar Wright and Christopher Nolan to have to take a seminar co-taught by like, Ava Duvernay and Patty Jenkins

MIRI: Is there more than one female character of note in any of the films he’s written and directed (not based on preexisting property)?

BOB: Now you have me catching feelings... questioning my overall thoughts

MIRI: YES

Also, I want to take those seminars too!

Sorry, BOB

BOB: Sign me up

MIRI: But also not sorry because it’s important to be critical of the media we love!

And the dude is clearly smart and awesome and I expect better of him

ANDREW: True that!

MIRI: Female Baby would have been interesting too

BOB: Very true... i guess I was caught up with the beauty of the action and syncs with music. Didn't take a step back to examine the archetypes 

I'm down to an 8 now

KRIS: I do think that Lily James and Eliza Gonzalez both do a lot with a little, but I also want to point out that that’s something actresses in every genre and every budget range have to do all the time

MIRI: SO true

KRIS: Also here is a tweet for Miri:

https://twitter.com/carolineframke/status/880639492025090048

MIRI: HAHAHHAHAHA

BOB: Still thinking about your posed question

MIRI: I love Caroline Framke

KRIS: About reversing the age dynamic?

BOB: I loved Lily James in this

KRIS: I’m trying to think of who I’d like to see in that reversal

BOB: Daisy Ridley?

MIRI: Ooh

BOB: Or in the Buddy / Darling?

MIRI: Wait, Daisy Ridley as female Baby? I’d be into that

KRIS: Buddy/Darling I mean

Ohhhh

BOB: Helen Mirren / Dave Franco 

KRIS: I don’t know that she’s my first choice but I could see it

MIRI: Ooh, interesting! Even more of an age gap, but I’m not it

ANDREW: No... James Franco. 

Spring breeeeeeak

MIRI: Maybe Marisa Tomei and someone?

BOB: Susan Sarandon / Zac Efron

MIRI: (Spring Break fo’evaaaaa)

BOB: Ahh Marisa! Aunt freaking May

KRIS: I almost went with like Kate Beckinsale/anyone but then I thought about all the thinkpieces about movies/TV that keep pairing brown men with white women

MIRI: She’s a similar level of hot and unexpected for a vicious role like this

GINA TORRES

GINA TORRES AND SOME HOT YOUNG DUDE

BOB: Hmmm let's switch it up.... Viola Davis / White dude

KRIS: Or like Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lopez would’ve killed in this

BOB: Ahhh J Loooooo

MIRI: Omg yes to both of those

BOB: J lo and Drake

MIRI: Drake’s not young enough, is he?

ANDREW: De age him 

MIRI: Ooh ooh ooh, John Boyega

JLo and John Boyega

BOB: No he seems to big in size

For J Los taste

MIRI: This tangent has gone wildly afield and I like it

KRIS: This is making me think we should make fan-cast pieces a regular thing on Reacting to Something, not that it’s super original but it would be fun

BOB: But i like that it'd be interesting to see her be the one in control and she is super tiny

MIRI: YES LET”S DO THAT

BOB: slap hands!! Yes

MIRI: I think JLo could play that

KRIS: It’s also making me think of a writing exercise Writing Teacher likes to suggest, where you have a stack of locations, a stack of actors, and a stack of genres on index cards, and you draw randomly and have to come up with loglines

BOB: 

MIRI: Wait why are we not doing that as a party game?

KRIS: Oh she also always includes tequila when she says this

MIRI: I am IN

KRIS: Literally always

BOB: I like tequila

That would be a fun game 

MIRI: I might do gin instead sometimes, but I am IN

KRIS: We’ve never actually done it but she likes it as a brainstorming thing

MIRI: ok, we should maybe talk some more about Baby Driver

Let’s talk about the awesome music some, because it really was great!

KRIS: Yeah

BOB: Actually I have a game like that minus the whole actors/ actresses names

KRIS: You still have to write a Saoirse Ronan movie, BOB

Film school cohort reference, sorry readers

ANDREW: I would like to talk about something I did really like though, and that was the use and portrayal of tinnitus. I know a few people with the condition, one more severe. But whenever there isn't music, there is a faint ringing in the sound.

KRIS: (I like that the all caps just comes off as accusatory)

MIRI: Say more, Andrew

ANDREW: How it’s something he lives with, but it's also his biggest weakness.

Like when Jon Hamm blows out his ducking hearing at the end.

BOB: Don't remind me Kris :-(

MIRI: Oh I misread that as something you DIDN’T like, whoops

ANDREW: Fucking*

MIRI: OMG that was such a vicious move!

Honestly, I didn’t expect it

And I may have jumped in my seat a little

BOB: It was vicious and a great line/scene

MIRI: Totally

KRIS: Yeah

MIRI: I expected the whole kill your girl thing, but the hearing was a great touch

ANDREW: It's just nice to see people acknowledge that it exists. And having it shown with accuracy.

MIRI: Did anyone else not super buy his whole Quirky Thing?

ANDREW: Which quirky thing? There are like 30z

MIRI: Exactly

KRIS: And whose quirky thing?

MIRI: Baby’s

It felt like a very deliberate persona

ANDREW: It did, yeah.

KRIS: I mostly bought the mixtape stuff etc. as an extension of his obsession with music between both the tinnitus and his mom

MIRI: I liked him a lot when he wasn’t performing--when he’s dancing around in the apartment, etc--but as just a dude on the street who doesn’t care that he’s walking out in front of people all the damn time it’s a bit much

The mixtapes I buy

ANDREW: I liked that he had 5 pairs of sunglasses.

KRIS: I actually bought his clumsiness on the street because I read it as a cost to having to pump music into his ears all the time

MIRI: And the iPods, now that I’ve read the Edgar Wright explanation that he finds them (and the sunglasses) in cars

BOB: I can understand it as him thinking its a little game the first time he does that

But yeah running into people is just rude!! Expected someone to deck him

ANDREW: Ooooh I like that he finds them in cars.

MIRI: He just felt like he was trying really hard to be weird a lot of the time

(Right? that’s a nice detail!)

ANDREW: I didn't even think of that. But I love it!

MIRI: But then again, he only feels comfortable with a very small number of people, so I guess a persona is not surprising

BOB: Just thought of anther Baby - Chloe Grace Moretz! 

KRIS: I’ll say I didn’t really buy him as turning out to be a badass

MIRI: And the bigness of it all makes a lot of sense with Joseph, since ASL relies pretty heavily on exaggerated gesture to convey tone

KRIS: I’m going to pitch Saoirse Ronan, who is also 23

MIRI: Really? It semi made sense to me as an extension of his driving insanity

KRIS: Not just because I’m giving BOB shit

Hmm

MIRI: omg YES to Saoirse Ronan

KRIS: (BOB have you seen Hanna yet?)

MIRI: Like, he’s super willing to take risks and put it all on the line when driving. He doesn’t have a desire to be violent, but when put in the position to be I believe him capable

BOB: Yeah not a badass. The him running and jumping scene when he escaped and jumps over the car was a little crazy. Only reason I could see it being believable is because he had a pull up bar in hid kitchen and he might work out or like to swing around and shit.

MIRI: (I haven’t seen Hanna yet and I know I need to)

KRIS: (I FORGOT YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT)

BOB: (no ... stop making BOB feel bad)

MIRI: Him being able to outrun the cops surprised me some

(I KNOW, I KNOW)

ANDREW: I... also haven't seen it.

BOB: (Let's watch Hanna Miri)

MIRI: (Is ist streaming anywhere??)

KRIS: I almost bought the parkour-lite, because it seemed to be an extension of how in tune he is with his physicality

ANDREW: Sorry Kris.

BOB: (Checking Netflix)

MIRI: Yeah, that makes sense. Except that I’m also supposed to be ok with him being super clumsy and unaware other times

KRIS: I forgive you Andrew

MIRI: Maybe it’s all a matter of focus?

KRIS: (Miri/BOB Guest Reaction!)

BOB: (no sadly)

MIRI: (I’m checking Amazon)

BOB: Yes matter of focus like an adrenaline rush??

ANDREW: Yeah, probably.

KRIS: That and it doesn’t involve him in direct confrontation with another human

BOB: (No to amazon)

KRIS: the same way driving is impersonal

ANDREW: I empathize with that.

MIRI: (rentable, though. We could do a watching party sometime)

KRIS: I own Hanna

MIRI: (Oh, sweet)

KRIS: should’ve led with that

MIRI: Way to abandon the parentheses convention too

KRIS: SORRY

MIRI: 😉 

SOMEONE TALK ABOUT THE MUSIC IN BABY DRIVER

I liked it

ANDREW: Is there a reason half the convo is in parenthesis?

MIRI: Yes, because it was an aside about Hanna, not anyhting about Baby Driver

KRIS: I thought it worked the way Wright wanted it to, and BOB and I talked about how it’s almost like the logical next step of what Guardians of the Galaxy does with its music supervision

MIRI: it theoretically helps keep this tangle all straight when you read it

Does it, readers?

BOB: I liked how he used the music to drive (pun intended) a lot of the action and dialogue 

MIRI: Hmmm, how so, Kris?

ANDREW: Ooooooooooooooh. I get it.

MIRI: Also, how many steps between this and the jukebox musical format? Because I feel like it’s getting close

KRIS: But we’ve previously established on this blog that I much prefer instrumental scores to needle drops, and at some point that’s more a taste thing than an artistic criticism

MIRI: Not that I mind that

ANDREW: Like one. Baby needs to actually sing.

BOB: Wright had the music in mind as he wrote it ala James Gunn but it does more than just be backdrop music or something that comes on when play is clicked

MIRI: Kris hates excessive needle drops so much, you guys

BOB: I love needle drops

MIRI: Does the fact that it’s all diagetic make it more palatable, Kris?

KRIS: I guess what I mean -- and BOB please interject here -- is that Guardians uses really well chosen needle drops as a critical part of Peter’s emotional arc

Yes

ANDREW: I agree with that too, actually.

KRIS: And Baby Driver takes that to 11 by syncing it to the physical action

MIRI: I’m with you

BOB: Like the Jamie Foxx scene where he tells him to play something funky --> shootout --> Tequila line

KRIS: That like half-second shot of Buddy cocking Darling’s pistol in time with the music in the warehouse gunfight is super cool

BOB: The music itself lended to the shootout scene

KRIS: And of course the timing of Buddy’s shots in the shootout with the cops when Darling gets killed

ANDREW: That was pretty sweet!

MIRI: I also liked him making them wait for him to restart the song on the second job

BOB: Whenever a drum banged, a gun shot rang out

ANDREW: That's me. That's what I would do.

MIRI: God, that one was screwed from the beginning, wasn’t it?

KRIS: Yeah, and I read that partly as a way he has to compensate for his hearing being compromised

BOB: Haha yes it was Miri

MIRI: Yeah, the shooting synchronization was obviously awesome

KRIS: Presumably he knows all the streets of Atlanta really well so he figures out his route ahead of time and syncs it to his playlist

Have any of you been to Atlanta?

Or I guess spent serious time there?

MIRI: Yes, but it was about 6 years ago and I didn’t drive

So no

ANDREW: Nope!

KRIS: I’ve seen/heard different opinions on how well it’s used as a location

And I was just curious if any of you knew it well enough to comment

BOB: I've seen the show... that count?

MIRI: Yeah, lots of relief that something shot in Atlanta is actually being presented as Atlanta instead of New York or whatever

But some people feel like they kept it very surface level, right?

KRIS: Right

Almost touristy, I guess is that line of thought

MIRI: I’ll agree that it didn’t have a particularly Atlanta feel in anything other than Baby’s accent (which ALWAYS surprised me every time he opened his mouth)

BOB: Yes much relief!! I liked that. Wish they had used Ludacris now that i think about it in the soundtrack... but perhaps since he is in F&F probably thought otherwise

KRIS: Hahaha

BOB: It felt somewhat like a different city when he walkef around during the coffee runs

Driving on the highways too.

This move may have been Miri’s favorite thing Baby did all movie

So it didn't have the NYC or LA feel to it

KRIS: Yeah, the first coffee run scene for sure definitely felt distinct in that way

“for sure definitely”

shut up Kris

MIRI: Don’t tell yourself to shut up, Kris

ANDREW: I didn't really realize it was in Atlanta. To me it was nameless city.

But, I don't know anything about Atlanta, so... *shrug*

Can I tell Kris to shut up?

KRIS: I also had that!

The not realizing where it was exactly

And yes

BOB: (Gonna be driving for next 10 mins - so a little radio silence on my part)

It felt like a Southern city though

Thanks to the accents

ANDREW: Good! I'm glad I'm not the only one, Kris. Now shit your pie hole!

KRIS: I need to get better at placing accents

MIRI: I guess the food didn’t feel very regional to me, and I would have expected it to

Better like you didn’t pick up that they were Southern? Or better like you didn’t read it as Atlanta specifically?

ANDREW: The second one, for me personally.

KRIS: Both that I definitely didn’t read Atlanta specifically, and that while I recognized Southern accents I didn’t connect the dots to “oh this is in the South”

MIRI: I don’t think most people not from the South would read it as Atlanta specifically, so I wouldn’t worry about that

KRIS: Partly because I think Southern accents are sometimes used in kind of a tropey way with characters like Debora

MIRI: They so are

ANDREW: Right!!

KRIS: And I guess I’m also just used to hearing Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood?

MIRI: Yeah, I think I am too

ANDREW: Me three.

MIRI: Ok, any points (or random thoughts) left to address? 

ANDREW: Man, the last two action films I saw had Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright in them respectively...

MIRI: What Does It Mean??

I thought the dude describing guns as cuts of meat was incredibly Extra and I liked it

ANDREW: That we are in... a house of cards?!?!

KRIS: That we need a movie where Robin Wright punches Kevin Spacey in the throat

I also liked the gun thing

Although it’s hard to beat John Wick 2 for that

BOB: Lol a house of cards?!

Need to see that still

MIRI: “we need a movie where Robin Wright punches Kevin Spacey in the throat” YES YES YES OH MY GOD YES

I just need there to be an Antiope movie

And for most if not all of it to take place on Themyscira

I NEEEEEED it

KRIS: I feel like most people would agree this is a very surface-level movie, and that where opinions diverge is on whether that’s A) deliberate and especially B) a good/cool thing

MIRI: That’s fair

Where does everyone stand on both points?

KRIS: I have definitely liked style-as-substance things very much before

I mean again, John Wick comes to mind, at least the first one for this point

MIRI: John Wick might be style over substance, but I think it’s consistently so

KRIS: And Tarsem Singh’s wild Greek mythology action movie Immortals

But I don’t know, this lost me for a good long while in the middle

ANDREW: It also very auteur. In the sense of, if you watch this film, you either learn what wright is like as a director, or recognize his directing.

KRIS: For sure

MIRI: That’s the hanging point to me--if you want that as an excuse, you can’t go deeper on some parts. You have to stay on that level and have fun there 

ANDREW: Even if there are better films in his roster.

MIRI: Yeah, you always know you’re watching an Edgar Wright film

ANDREW: For me, it's more surface than anything else. Stylish and fun, but there are much better films of his, and better stylish films in general.

I guess it depends on how much you like Edgar Wright.

KRIS: Yeah, I definitely wouldn’t put this in the upper half of his filmography

MIRI: It’s definitely a fun movie. I enjoyed the whole thing in the theater, with some moments of having to just accept the flaws. 

KRIS: Which I guess is why the reactions out of Austin surprised me in hindsight

Oh I did really like that Baby didn’t get away

MIRI: Basically, if you can resist pulling the threads and you want a car chase movie it’s exactly what you want

KRIS: Although I don’t know that I loved him getting out of prison early

ANDREW: Me too!!!

MIRI: Yeah, I’m surprised it’s been as critically loved as it has (and largely without caveat)

ANDREW: What a twist!!!!

MIRI: Yes, that was an actually unexpected beat and I really liked it!

KRIS: Yeah I was really like “Man, how is he going to end this?” and then he really did the right thing and went with something that felt both surprising and inevitable

MIRI: Props to Mr. Wright!

ANDREW: I was still expecting him to escape Bourne style into the water until he got the cuffs thrown on.

MIRI: That would also have been a turn

ANDREW: Like Debora would smile as Baby swims away and the action music will play.

And credits.

KRIS: And the structural success there again makes the characterization choices frustrating to me

https://twitter.com/tvoti/status/881358030016618497

MIRI: HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHA

KRIS: I didn’t actually CARE that much about Baby

MIRI: Well that’s not a great thing, is it?

KRIS: I would’ve dug a Bourne style ending

Although I could also see it feeling tonally more like previous Wright films than this one

Because it was such a “Fuck yeah!” moment in Ultimatum

MIRI: I think Debora should have busted out unexpected abilities and gotten them out

KRIS: And I guess this was generally more elegiac

ANDREW: The Baby Ultimatum.

MIRI: hahahahaha

KRIS: A+

ANDREW: Or the Bourne Driver?

KRIS: We need a Punder Twins reaction at some point

I’m out of stuff but I want to wait for BOB to get back to check in one more time

MIRI: Btw, if Baby’s Saoirse Ronan I still want Debora to be a girl (which I know surprises no one)

ANDREW: The Punder Twins will always be there Kris, when you need us.

MIRI: Hmmmm, what should we have them React to?

KRIS: Something they could use as a Nostalgiology tie-in

#crosspromotion

ANDREW: *Shrugs* I'm up to anything.

MIRI: ANASTASIA

Because then there can be gifs of the dress to fully convey the wonder of it and I can talk more about Anastasia

Which is always a goal

KRIS: I have not seen Anastasia

MIRI: KRIS

KRIS IT’S A GODDAMN DELIGHT

ANDREW: In the dark of the night... Kris will watch it!

Watch it!

You'll get that someday, Kris.

MIRI: ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ 

KRIS: BOB I am starting an arbitrary countdown

I am not sure what the units are

Or how many of them

But it is happening in my head

MIRI: That is the most arbitrary of arbitrary

I like it

KRIS: What was the first song in Baby Driver? Let’s do the runtime of that

MIRI: I don’t know

KRIS: 

ANDREW: I think "Bellbottoms?"

Oh hey!

KRIS: THIS IS A VERY GENEROUS COUNTDOWN BOB

ANDREW: Let's hope he doesn't... bottoms out?

IM NOT SORRY!

KRIS: Oh now that I’m listening to it this was a REALLY fun opening wasn’t it

MIRI: You’re never sorry

ANDREW: It was!!!

MIRI: It really was

Although!

KRIS: Offscreen action is almost always a fun choice

MIRI: Him operating the windshield wipers dry BOTHERED ME

KRIS: Like in Mission Impossible 3

ANDREW: They didn't do a good amount of off screen action.

KRIS: I guess it wasn’t really offscreen here

But it sort of feels like it in my hazy memory

MIRI: But it was removed--we were seeing it from a distance

KRIS: BOB has 2 minutes

ANDREW: And the heist gone wrong had off screen action too. Before the Good Samaritan got involved.

KRIS: Oh yeah and that was used pretty well as a dramatic beat rather than a comic one

MIRI: The Heist Gone Wrong is a good title

What genre would we put this in?

ANDREW: Rom com

MIRI: I’ve seen it described as a comedy and it isn’t to me

Andrew

ANDREW: What?

MIRI: If it was a rom com she’d have held him not talking to her in front of his friends against him way harder

KRIS: Oh maybe that was also part of why it didn’t totally work for me, in terms of expectations

BOB the song is over

BOB

ANDREW: I was taking about the Heist Gone Wrong as a rom com!

MIRI: A lack of communication gone horribly awry is fundamental in rom coms

Ohhhhhhh

That makes sense

I meant to ask about Baby Driver

ANDREW: Oh! Action... thriller... musical?

MIRI: Is The Heist Gone Wrong our alternate universe version of this film with Ronan, JLo, etc? Because I’m into that

It is now

KRIS: Hmm

MIRI: Yeah, I’d put Baby Driver as action drama, not comedy

ANDREW: Yeah, it wasn't really funny.

KRIS: I’m thinking of how the Golden Globes lumps musicals and comedies together

MIRI: I mean there are definitely comedic beats! But they’re not the focus. Plus way too many people die if we’re going classical on our definitions

KRIS: There’s an element of genre snobbery

MIRI: Very much so

ANDREW: A lot of people do die in Shaun of the dead though.

KRIS: I like action musical

MIRI: But it’s not actually a musical

KRIS: Hmm

ANDREW: Its more of a... ballet

But with driving

MIRI: Yes!

Very apt description!!

ANDREW: And murder

Why thank you!

KRIS: Yeah, that’s good

MIRI: A...Ballet but with Driving and Murder for sub-heading?

KRIS: BOBDAMMIT

Yes

MIRI: hahahahhahahahha Bobdammit

Ok, we may just have to call it, guys

KRIS: I won’t hold anyone else hostage here if anyone needs to bail but I’ll wait it out

MIRI: Ok. I have to get my Orphan Black thoughts in order to post, so I’ll be around

ANDREW: It's up to you two. I'm a guest here.

BOB: Sorry reading 

KRIS: BOB!

MIRI: BOB’s back!

BOB: What's the question?!

KRIS: Just anything else you wanted to bring up

MIRI: We just didn’t want to wrap up without you

BOB: In a different life I am Baby

Very interested in the idea of reclassifying films such as this one with an alternate casting

Got me thinking all types of things now

MIRI: We should definitely make that a thing we do

KRIS: I actually really want to hear more about you-as-Baby, if you have more to say about that

BOB: Overall down to an 8 after the very Wright-ful comment on lack of women

MIRI: Andrew, he’s coming for your pun king crown!!

BOB: Well based on him driving and my life as a Lyft driver i started thinking about what I jam out to

ANDREW: Welcome to the fold, BOB.

BOB: But I enjoyed the film thoroughly and as mentioned yesterday want to get my hands on the script

To see how the link up and syncing up with action and music

MIRI: I wonder if Wright is a better director than he is a writer

BOB: I believe that despite its flaws with some characters and a few plot holes, as a whole should be considered for something award worthy because of its ingenuity with music and action

ANDREW: A Wright... er.

MIRI: I wouldn’t say it deserves best screenplay or anything, but a sound design nom would be well deserved

Especially factoring in the ringing

(Is that sound design or sound engineering? I always mess them up)

BOB: I think a Golden globe nod

ANDREW: I think design!

I could be wrong.

I'm probably wrong.

MIRI: Whichever I mean, that one!

KRIS: For the Oscars, Sound Editing is for making effects, Sound Mixing is for how you layer them together

So I could maybe see nods for both in this case

MIRI: So design isn’t even an option

That seems right

KRIS: I tend to say “sound design” as a safe/cop-out catchall

Oh I could totally see a Globe nod

BOB: How about its cinematography?

KRIS: in that weird Best Musical or Comedy category

MIRI: Hmmmm. I never really noticed the cinematography the way I did the sound

(don’t tell my dad)

Miri’s dad is a camera operator

KRIS: Same, except in that single shot coffee run

MIRI: Yeah, that was fun

BOB: It was shot really well

KRIS: But I would believe it was a hard movie to shoot, since most of the effects/stunts were practical

MIRI: They ought to get recognition for the stunts/driving

ANDREW: It was shot very stylistically too.

MIRI: Is there a stunt Oscar or Globe?

ANDREW: How many cars were destroyed in the making of this film?

BOB: Not yet

KRIS: I feel like I’ve heard that stunt people have been pushing for an Oscar?

Which should definitely be a thing

MIRI: Yeah, looks like no go yet

BOB: The Wright amount of cars were destroyed

KRIS: Oh my god

ANDREW: Son of a bitch!!!!

MIRI: Roughly 150, apparently 

ANDREW: Is that really the number?

Holy shit!

MIRI: http://www.cinemablend.com/news/1665810/the-crazy-number-of-cars-edgar-wright-used-for-baby-driver

Not sure they were all wrecked!

Just used

KRIS: I think we may have a new title contender

That’s also going to be hard to beat as an exit line

ANDREW: I will play Angel by Sarah McLaughlin as I think of those cars this evening.

Thanks very much to Andrew and BOB for Guest Reacting! You will almost certainly hear from them again.

For even more pop culture reactions -- just, uh, mostly from people who aren’t us -- follow us on Twitter!

[originaljediinjeans]

MCU Rewatch: “Captain America: Civil War” (2016)

After everything Bucky has been through, I really wanted him to be doing better after walking away from Hydra. He DESERVED better. I’ll bet I’m not the only person who feels the same way.

The person who really needs to be called out for their behavior is the lady who confronts Tony in the hallway at MIT. I’m sorry, I don’t care about what you’ve suffered, YOU SHOULDN’T DO THAT TO PEOPLE. THAT IS JUST CRUEL.

I don’t think Tony is in a good place at all in this film 

I don’t think I realized how deep Tony’s daddy issues went until this movie came out

I definitely think the Staron kiss was unnecessary 

but other than that Sharon Carter is a Queen(TM) in this movie and deserves respect. She deserves a mini-series/TV show.

Thunderbolt Ross is a pompus twat

Natasha’s hair in this film is her best hair

Redwing is cool, and the fact that Sam Wilson has a drone like that hints that he probably knows a bit about computers and AI--not necessarily as much as Tony Stark or even Natasha, but he knows a bit

the Lagos fight scene is so great

The airport battle is either Feels or literal LOL. there is no in-between

Brock Rumlow is a drama queen. yeah his face could’ve turned out worse but it’s not as ugly as his soul

The dead look in Tony’s eyes when he sees Pepper’s name on the teleprompter

Natasha apologizing to King T’chaka for the deaths of his emissaries was necessary. The Avengers owed him that much even if it was an accident. And it was.

Civil War is the darkest and most intense Marvel film. Partly because some of the fight scenes are filmed in shaky-cam mode.

It was a cute nod to Sebastian Stan to have Bucky be hiding in Romania. But was Atlanta/Berlin/Puerto Rico really the best place to film those scenes? Because I don’t think Romania has that nice of infrastructure.

How much has Bucky been running? The answer is, a lot.

Also, how often has he found himself trying to escape and stuck awkwardly in the middle of traffic?

The demo “memory” in Stark’s simulator at MIT is probably 90% fabricated. Tony probably didn’t interact that much with his parents when they said goodbye IRL. 

“I know that road--” In spite of how much SHIELD/Hydra covered up the real nature of the Stark’s deaths, Tony was still acquainted with what happened. Like, he had detailed knowledge of anything that wasn’t covered up

I love how Vision is still loyal to Wanda even after they choose different sides. I love how he is trying to help her from the beginning, because he probably knows better than anyone that she is really down on herself after Lagos

I’m not sure how much on purpose Rumlow and his thugs chose to go after a bio-weapon kept in a developing country, but (A) he knew the Avengers were going to catch up with him at some point, and (B) collateral damage would make the Avengers look bad--their popularity had been declining since even before Sokovia. I’ll bet Rumlow watched the remainder of the events from Hell laughing at how much trouble he’d gotten the Avengers in. 

Plus the suicide vest: he wanted to take as many people with him as he could. He was already wearing it so he was banking on having to make a quick exit. He was even hoping he would run into Cap so he could get them both. Rumlow is SO evil.

The really unfortunate thing for the Avengers is that the people really responsible for the things that they are getting blamed for--Ultron, Hydra, Rumlow--are dead or in prison. So who do people blame? The people who saved the world from those idiots.

Vision states when explaining his feelings about the Accords that he’s noticed that in the last 8 years the number of world disasters has gone up. He’s right about the Avengers’ strength being challenged from the Universe. It may not look like it to a normal person within the MCU but there is causality. But as much as those events are related or unrelated Vision knows there’s something up. It’s like he knows Thanos is coming without being able to put a name on it

Helmut Zemo may be evil but Vasily Karpov is also a disgusting human being.

Karpov in the flashbacks: he’s deaf to the sounds of suffering but he hears when there is silence

Wanda’s arc in this film is about dealing with growing up

THIS WAS THE PERFECT INTRODUCTION FOR SPIDER-MAN

If Steve Rogers was condescending to anyone, it was Spider-Man

NO ONE of the Avengers was happy to see Secretary Ross show up at their compound. Even Tony looked like he was going to be sick--if he wasn’t already ill from the sheer awfulness of the situation. Like that look he gives to Steve is “I’m sorry, I don’t want this either.”

Tony is just under a lot of stress and he’s desperate to keep the team together. He knows that working with Secretary Ross and trying to make his team sign the Accords is a terrible idea. and he knows Bruce would hate him for it But to him, it’s the only option.

Tony may be acting cooperative but Thunderbolt Ross still treats him like garbage and it burns me. Thunderbolt treats all superhumans like garbage. 

I’m not sure Tony was at all hopeful that the authorities would play nice, including Ross. But if he did, or if he thought he could protect his fellow Avengers, it was a very slim hope, and he was gravely mistaken.

However, Tony is rude and condescending to the Avengers and to Steve the ENTIRE TIME. Except for when he goes to Siberia--but as we all know that doesn’t last long, thanks Zemo

The airport fight, Tony is like “YOU LISTEN TO ME, YOU ARE DELUDED, YOU ARE A PROBLEM, HAND OVER BUCKY”, he practically yells at Steve. Steve’s “You did that when you signed” is a low blow but he doesn’t say it in a mean way at all

Even after Natasha fought on his side in the airport battle, Tony took out his angst over Rhodey getting hurt by talking down to her--a woman he has known and respected for a long time. No wonder she walks away.

So much for Tony “protecting” his friends

I’m not mad at Tony, really. I’m really sad for him, in fact.

It can also be argued that Wanda Maximoff was genuinely mad at everyone except for Vision, she totally meant to hurt people at the airport

But tell me how that justifies the authorities putting her in a straightjacket. If Wanda has an attitude problem, that’s her problem, not an excuse to punish her for being who she is.

One thing that has always bothered me about this film and Doctor Strange is that right before the climax, the leading female characters disappear and it’s all about the men. Not that the climaxes of either film are poorly executed but it still bugs me

okay maybe FRIDAY counts but I’m not a huge fan of Friday

Why the heck didn’t Steve or Tony or Bucky destroy the computer while Zemo was playing the video?

Steve was definitely defensive about the Accords, but he was Woke about how corrupt they were and how Zemo was bad news. True, he was going on instinct for some of it, but his instinct was correct, and experience told him that it wasn’t worth trusting higher authority. He refused to compromise because of how it was unfair to his teammates, and to the world he was trying to save.

I’m still definitely Team Cap. 

But the Sokovia Accords were a no-win situation for anybody no matter which “side” they were on

It’s kind of hard to not be on an Avengers team with Steve Rogers and not at least know that Bucky is kind of a big deal to him

The shot of the inside of Rhodey’s helmet after he gets shot down, there’s no AI or computer projections--that is scary

There’s no reason Natasha wasn’t sitting in the back of the church at Peggy’s funeral. But the funeral may have been limited to just family and friends of Peggy and her family, so how would Nat have gotten an invitation?

The timing of the transition from the funeral to the UN bombing makes no sense, unless it was all happening on the same day and Sharon invited Sam and Steve to fly to Vienna with her. Which still doesn’t make sense.

Look, if Steve Rogers wants to be romantically involved with someone, then it makes the most sense, at least to me, for him to pick Sharon. 

The thing with Natasha is, her inner darkness is a lot different from Steve’s and she knows it, and that’s why in TWS she kept trying to set him up with someone else. They’re friends but in my opinion they don’t have to be romantically/sexually involved. In fact, Steve and Nat not dating makes their relationship stronger, in a way.

The kiss might have made more sense if Steve and Sharon had kept in touch over the last two years, but they’ve both been pretty busy

A Staron mini-series would also be great. IDK, don’t tell me that Steve and Sharon weren’t in touch between Germany and Infinity War.

Also Steve walked Sharon back to her hotel room, he’s not the same man that came off the ice but he’s still there with the old-fashioned manners

The authorities treat Bucky Barnes like an animal. Yes, he’s got issues, but it took Zemo specifically triggering his programming to get him to act out, and when he did the restraints were of no use. Gosh.

Two-on-one Natasha Romanoff and Sharon Carter versus the reawakened Winter Soldier HOW COOL IS THAT? Have they done that kind of thing before? Does Sharon need to be in the Black Widow movie? because she does. Does Sharon need to be a part of a someday all-female superheroes Marvel film? Absolutely.

Zemo triggering Bucky was a nightmare for everyone involved, including Bucky himself.

Call out Tony for whatever else you want but don’t call him a creeper for taking Peter with him to Germany

The beginnings of IronDad are actually beautiful to watch. He may have brought in the Spider-Dad to get an edge over Team Cap but he was still protective of his charge.

I also relate to Peter Parker’s satisfaction with nailing an Algebra test

Zemo probably had a long wait in the old bunker in Siberia. 

During the scene after the Winter Soldier attack Ross comes to chew out Stark. Ross says out loud that he wanted Barnes dead. I don’t know whether to shudder or to throw up thinking about that--and Tony felt the exact same way. Look, Tony is painfully aware of how much Bucky means to Cap. He offered to get Bucky into an American psych ward if Steve cooperated. Tony was willing to give Bucky a chance--until he found out that the Winter Soldier murdered his parents. And that’s when Tony chose himself over Bucky and Steve. 

Did I mention how much I hate Helmut Zemo?

Just a small observation: decisions made on impulse and based on emoton, such as attacking and murdering the person who was brainwashed into killing your parents, are often selfish

Wanda Maximoff was confined to the Avengers compound without her information or consent. How is that right? How is that fair?

Word on the street is that the Civil War comics ‘bent over backwards’ to make Iron Man the villain. The movie...in some ways did that to Captain America.

Part of the reason it LOOKS like Cap is the villain is because the film is structured so that everyone is aware of how much personal and psychological pain Tony Stark is in. And unfortunately Steve isn’t as aware of that. At least enough to be sensitive about it and give Tony the benefit of a doubt and compromise.

But you could also say that Tony Stark is made into “villain”--either because of his suffering or in spite of it

“You could at least recognize me”--I’m sorry, there is no other explanation. The Red Room happened.

“If it is any comfort, they died in their sleep.” No, that is not a comfort at all. That is horrifying.

Wanda Maximoff isn’t literally a “kid” but she’s still vulnerable. She’s been through a lot and she’s sensitive to criticism. Grown-ups can be vulnerable too. Case in point: Tony Stark.

The Raft prison scene: Clint is TICKED.

Rhodey’s argument for supporting the Accords is pretty logical, he’s not doing it just out of support for Tony. But at the end of the day, he’s the only person still there for Tony because Rhodey is the only person that Tony hasn’t been a jerk to.

Vision energy-blasted a line in the pavement in front of Team Cap. I grew up in Texas, just outside San Antonio. So I’ve heard a lot about the Alamo. I know the story about the Line in the Sand. It may be a legend, but I think it was referenced here.

Clint turns his bow into a baton/staff when he confronts Black Panther. How did we not see this as a hint at Ronin? Did anyone?

Can Tony sleep in his Iron Man suits on long flights?

“Oh, this’ll clear things up.” The dynamics between the new Avengers teammates--we don’t see enough of them but the’re fun to watch. Sam and Rhodey having arguments, then Vision cutting in with his uber-logic and them being annoyed with it. Darn, the new Avengers were great.

Sharon reading the quote attributed to Peggy and then looking down at Steve: I do not approve of the Accords and Peggy would not have supported them either

In the comics, the “no, you move” speech was originally Cap’s. The fact that they changed it to being originally Peggy’s words shows that the screenwriters and Kevin Fegie and perhaps other Powers at Marvel think she is important to the MCU

I wonder how much Sharon knows about what’s going down with the Accords? She’s just a CIA lackey, but who knows? Would she have told Steve more about it after the funeral? I’ll bet you she did

But that leaves me wondering what was in the rest of Sharon’s eulogy. And why she was important enough to the family that she gave that speech

Just for the love of everything LEAVE WANDA ALONE!

So did Tony actually want to kill Bucky or just hurt him really badly? It’s hard to tell the difference. 

The end of the fight: Steve really did ALMOST lose it and ALMOST kill Tony. But he caught himself after he broke the arc-reactor. And Steve DOES NOT LOOK HAPPY about what just happened--and what just almost happened.

If Steve Rogers compromised on one thing, it was acknowledging that he didn’t deserve to be Captain America and dropping the shield. 

Rogers didn’t leave Tony to die smh, he and Bucky went to Wakanda with T’challa and Tony took Zemo in the QuinJet to somewhere more hospitable, where he could hand over that son of a camel to the authorities (in my fanfic they go to Japan, bc it’s probably closer to that part of Siberia than central Europe)

The post-credit scene: Aunt May isn’t stupid y’all. She doesn’t know the whole story yet but she knows Peter is up to something.

Mid-credit scene: I don’t think Bucky consulted Steve at all about going under voluntarily. Bucky probably made the decision on his own with the doctors and then Steve was told and asked to come say goodbye ;kjfadslknj

There’s a shot where Bucky looks at the cryo chamber before Steve speaks to him and I wonder what he was thinking

Did Bucky even care whether or not he woke up?

On this viewing, him voluntarily going under does make some sense, his programming can cause him to do pretty bad stuff--but I’d still rather he hadn’t. I think it was partly out of self-loathing. “I’m too dangerous to have a normal life or be loved.” That thought that breaks my heart. Gosh darn it I thought this time I was over it but now I’m starting to collapse again...

There’s no arguing that Steve isn’t very happy about it

“Allow Barnes the dignity of his choice” Great insight. Where is the option for him to have a safe, normal, and happy life? Does he need to be unconscious for his programming to be fixed? Hm?

Oh yeah, I wrote a fanfic about that.

Also, there’s a deleted scene where the other Ross informs T’challa that he got extradition for Barnes. So maybe the “Let them try” line wasn’t necessary. Unless Thunderbolt was so determined to get Bucky’s head on a platter (*shudder*) that he literally did not care. Then again, nobody tries to invade Wakanda and gets away with it. Thunderbolt maybe thought it was a lost cause and he was probably right.

After I get Thanos, I’m coming for Thunderbolt Ross. 

And you better hope Ross got dusted and doesn’t come back because it won’t be pretty.

Steve’s letter to Tony is sincere.

The Raft was already built and operational when the Accords were created, it must have been in planning way far back--this has Thunderbolt Ross written all over it.

I really need more Steve and Bucky fighting together side-by-side and being bros. But I guess that just means I need to work on my fanfiction.

At the end of the day, it’s a tragedy that these wonderful people let their differences get in the way of getting along, but deep down and in spite of everything that happened they are all still friends.

I used to hate Spider-man. Tom Holland as MCU!Peter Parker is cute. And he’s probably one of the best things to ever happen to Tony, after Pepper. He can stay.

[theabominableblogger]

Rewatching “Path of the Jedi”

I’m just coasting through most of S1 right now because procrastination is a helluva drug.

Throwback time!

I love the shot of Ezra running through the field.

What is Kanan looking at on the holocron?

Oh it’s a map

*Ezra asks if he can come in*  I understand that yeah, they’re hanging out in Kanan’s room and Kanan’s the Space Dad, but you don’t have to sound like a vampire when you ask to come in.

The Force Theme!

Oooh, you [Ezra] did not just disrespect Depa Billaba in front of Kanan.

Apparently, according to some novelization of this episode (apparently almost the entirety of S1 had novelizations), they’re [Kanan and Hera] holding hands here?

A dynamic I like:  the teacher trolling the crap out of the student.  Lookin’ at you Kanan.

I love how in this show, there is so much emphasis on the Force and how it works.  They actually say in this episode that “all that remains is the Force.”  It’s not like TCW, where the main focus is the titular war.

Loth-cats!

Meditating!

There’s always this ringing sound when someone uses the Force.

Ezra’s face!

“Well dead guys are distracting!”  You said it.

“That’s what my master told me.”  I don’t need these feels, Kanan.

I still haven’t read the “Last Padawan” comics.  I want to though.

Oh my God, Ezra’s version of “Eeny Meeny Miny Mo”

Apparently the title of the soundtrack used here is called “Imperial Inquisition”

NO ONE EXPECTS THE IMPERIAL INQUISITION!

OK, Ezra has to know that it’s a Force Vision because Kanan A) refers to Ezra as “boy” and B) everyone’s fighting styles are terrible.

Even in a freaking horrible nightmare of a Force vision, Hera’s still the mom figure.

How the heck is Ezra gonna keep track of what constitutes as a Force vision after this episode?

God, Ezra’s gonna be so sick of the color red after this.

Wait nope, nevermind.  He trusts Maul in S2 and he opens the Sith Holocron

What is it with Sith users grabbing someone’s face?  I mean, it happened to poor Obi-Wan all the time in TCW

Oh wait a minute!  Both Kanan and Ezra both had trials that involved the Grand Inquisitor!

Ezra’s trial AKA this episode had the Grand Inquisitor now while Kanan had the Grand Inquisitor when he was still a Temple Guard.  Good vs. evil.

*high fives self for the meta*

Frank Oz!

God, and we get character development for Kanan!

I really need to read “The Last Padawan.”

“I won’t let him lose his way.  Not like I did.”  Kanan, you’re killing me.

Ezra found his way thanks to you.

This episode and the Empire Day arc is just character development galore.

This combo of Yoda’s somewhat theme and the Force theme is really pretty.

Yay, Ezra got his lightsaber crystal!

Yeah, you’re gonna use a Jedi Temple full of dead Jedi masters as a base?  Great thinking, Ezra.

“I know what’s in there.  The past.”  Thank you, Kanan.  See Ezra?  Exactly my point.

Oh my gosh, I didn’t notice Kanan looking at Hera while she was talking.

The people at Lucasfilm Animation just love screwing with us, don’t they?

Ignite the blade!  Yes!

I love how this episode is like “oh, Ezra’s faced many challenges but he survived and everything is good now” while in the very next episode (”Idiot’s Array”), everyone’s like “NOW BACK TO THIS SHITHEAD WHO HAD A LOT TO SAY ABOUT US A FEW HOURS AGO.  LANDO, WHAT’S GOOD?”

[omgnsfwisnsfw-blog]

NSFW #02: For Fun!

“Say Hey, EWC Faithful! We’re here with you at the lovely Crystal campground in the majestic Ouachita National Forest in Arkansas.” “We’re going camping, and you’re going to watch.” Indeed, NSFW was camping. A large two person tent was set up and just visible to the left, and framed right in the center of the shot were Bishop Church and Mike McGuire, sitting across from one another beside a large, cheerily crackling campfire. The evidence of their dinner sits atop a small cooler: hot dogs, tofu dogs, stadium mustard, ketchup, buns. Chocolate and marshmallows for s’mores. The night sky is star-flecked through the towering trees, and in the background are the sounds of rustling leaves and the babble of a nearby but unseen creek. It was a good campsite. This had been a good trip so far in general, marked by a good beginning: a Fourth of July party held at the magnificent estate of their good friend (and as far as they were concerned, the heir apparent to the EWC Undisputed Championship) Natalie Young. There had been a moment that, while perhaps not exactly pleasant, had lent some serious emotional gravity between the three of them, and though the unpleasantness had dissipated, the strengthened bond hadn’t. After the evening’s festivities they’d been wished a safe trip and, much to Mike’s delight, she got a kiss goodbye that’d set her in an outright giggly mood for hours afterward. Mike pulled a speared marshmallow away from the fire, sandwiching it between two graham crackers with a piece of Hershey bar before taking a bite. Bishop held a small assortment of notecards, and Mike had some of her own sitting on the log beside her. “As you can see, our efforts to save some cash on this cross-country roadtrip we’re doing have gone critical mass. We are Now Sleeping in the Fucking Woods. But since we’re camping… you wanna hear a scary story?” She leaned forward, her face illuminated by the flames in an eerie manner. “This is a story of a man. A man who surrounded himself with people he called his friends. But little did he know that these people were not what they seemed. They were… FUUUUUCKING HYYYPOCRIIIIIIIIITES.” Raising her arms up, she wiggled her fingers to convey spookiness. “Our story begins on a most jingoistic of evenings and our hero had just introduced a most marvelous of notions. He would captain a squad of five like individuals. They would bring forth a new era.” John looked down at the first card in his hand and read it aloud: “This is not a Revolution. We are not taking some grand stance against corruption or apathy or any other "cause". This is not about The Future. This is about right now. This is about bringing some fun back to the EWC. Too many competitors are wound up tighter than the blunts Smokey Jones rolls.” He tossed the first card into the fire. “Only it turns out, this little newly formed group of ragtag misfits, Freaks and Geeks, if’n you will, has a really fuckin’ interesting idea on what constitutes ‘fun’. And just to prove that we ain’t just spinnin’ this tale out of our asses, we did our homework. And we took fuckin’ notes. Let’s start with everybody’s favorite stoner, shall we? Smokey Fuckin’ Jones.” She brushed the graham cracker crumbs off her hands and picked up the first card off her small stack. “James Larson, you carry all the tools for success, but have done nothing more than play games with the likes of it. I say, you sacrifice yourself one last time. Sacrifice yourself to me in the middle of the ring and lie down on the mat for the three count and I will take you back to the top of your game.” She looked at the camera with a slightly tilted head, lips twisting into an inquisitive frown. “Let me preface this with saying I don’t mind a bit of the wacky tobaccy now and then. But I, no sane person, really, goes off and demands human fuckin’ sacrifice or whatever in the name of legalizing it.” Following her partner’s lead, she pitched the card into the fire before picking the next one up, holding onto it for the time being. “Now. I don’t think Cletus literally means human sacrifice. But in nearly every one of his bouts, he has made the ultimatum that if you don’t join him in The Promised Land, he’ll make sure you regret it.” “Y’know, for fun!” “Anyway, I’ve already spoken at length about Orianna Johnson. She is spry and cheery. She is only eighteen-years-old. Look at the jubilation she expresses in her every word. Happy statements to Lavender like:” Next card. “You’re about as sharp as the leading edge of a bowling ball aren’t you?” “Which is funny considering just weeks prior she stated:” "With the admiration of many, you've gained mine as well, and my respect, Lavender. You'll never hear me bragging about how I can go out in the sunlight and not be afraid. I won't rub that in your face like others have. You may not realize it, but you've won far more in life than your win/loss record in the ring says.” Whoosh. Into the flames. “A little condescending. We all have some quotient of snark these days. But Mike, there’s just something strange about this.” “You’re right, partner. I mean, I’ve seen that promo and rewatched it a couple fuckin’ times because it was so goddamn weird. She says somethin’ about the well deserved admiration of the people or some shit like that, and then, boom. She’s talking about something else out of the blue, in a different position than she was a second ago.” “Maybe she flubbed. When we started this whole ordeal, I certainly didn’t feel comfortable with all of this. Still makes me tense but I can deal with it. But yes, maybe it’s a promo cut together with the best takes. Or maybe…” “...given Little Miss Teen EWC’s track record on talking shit, she said something so fuckin’ untoward that even she couldn’t leave it in. Cuz if she did? Everybody’d know just what an ugly, rotten, two-faced little snake that girl is. And we can’t have that. She’s just a CHILD, right? Kids will be kids.” “Youth isn’t an excuse for being needlessly cruel. Although, this is just speculation. But we’ve got plenty of tape of how she views those of a lower station than her. Orianna Johnson: Dehumanizing others by referring to them as ‘it’ and the destruction and theft of private property.” “Y’know, for fun!” She looked down at the card she’d picked up, pursing her lips a bit. “Now, this one seems like a breath of fresh fuckin’ air, especially comin’ after the lovely Miss Johnson. Steve Barnes. Superhero. Would be fuckin’ bully killer. I quote.” “I am sick and tired of men like you in this business. They are everywhere, thinking they can do whatever they want, to whoever they want, whenever they want. Today that stops. Men like you are nothing more than schoolyard bullies; and I hate bullies. So, from now on, wherever there are men like you, I will be there. You want to keep coming at people like you just did, I will be there to stop you. My name is Steve Barnes...and I AM IRON MAN!” “Nice words. Would be an admirable cause. Problem is? You really really suck at it. Let’s look at the night you said all this. Sure, you came out, beat up on Collateral Damage, and why wouldn’t you? Beating up Draco Lazarus is fucking fun. There are few faces as outright begging to be punched as his. But where the heck were you when Az was getting shredded by a bunch of masked fuckers? I don’t recall Tony Motherfucking Stark bein’ all selective about his superheroism. Matter of fact…” She winged the card into the fire Frisbee-style and folded her arms, smirking a little in spite of herself. “...we’re doing a better job than you. Not that we’re out looking to be the Avengers, heh, the Guardians actually suit us way better if we’d even want to go that route. But how many instances of fucking shenanigans have Draco and his cronies tried to pull lately? And who’s usually there to beat his ass? Here’s a hint: NOT YOU.” “You certainly had your chance last Monday. Twice. You had a chance to make another grand statement. Instead you opted to say nothing whatsoever. When Mucho Grande! were the victims of another assault from Collateral Damage, where were you, Iron Man? If you’re going to virtue signal, at least live up to it.” “So much for having no cause except for ZOMGOD FUN, huh?” She paused. “Hey Church. You got one more card there. That who I think it is?” “Yes.” John tapped his last index card against the palm of his hand. “A familiar adversary. Kendrick Kross. Mr. Lutter’s tag team partner in our upcoming encounter. Two men who prior to this alliance were embroiled in a heated contest. But now there are no agendas and it’s all about entertainment. What does Kross really think about that?” “I truly have a love and respect for Nostalgia, he is someone that I can call a friend, he has his faults just as everyone else, one of them is having to please his followers, the Sentimentalists...what is the point in that? Why should you fight and please the Sentimentalists when all that you should want and need to do is fight to please yourself, that’s one of his faults that will get him in trouble one day, and that day will be at Scars and Stripes.” John’s hands are now empty as the last card joined the rest. “His plans were put on ice that evening.” “Yeah, unfortunately, Cherry Garcia decided to give him the fuckin’ cold shoulder.” They glanced at each other for just a moment, giving simultaneous slight snickers at each other’s dreadful puns. “But it makes me think, Mike, our cool friend essentially said that he does this for himself. That his leader’s selflessness will cost him one day. When do you think that will happen? Maybe in Oakland?” Mike nodded grimly. “Yeah, I mean, calling your tag team partner naive and prone to fuckin’ backstabbing don’t exactly harbor an atmosphere of trust, and as we can tell you, if you don’t have trust in a tag team, you’re fucked with a capital F. U. But I guess in your book, maybe if he’s that gullible, he deserves it, right?” “Although, if I were Mr. Lutter, I wouldn’t take much of what Kross says at face value. I happen to remember that his evaluation of me was of little worth. He has the habit of deriding every individual he comes across with backhanded compliments that culminate in him trying to run them out of the business. Friend or foe.” “Condensation and backstabbing. Y’know, for fun!” Silence except the crackle of the flames. John raised a finger in the air as if to correct her but then he withdrew and nodded in agreement. “You know, you’re right. He would technically do that as he defrosted.” Mike blinked, and then broke into wild cackles, falling backwards off the log she was sitting on. “Ooof. I’m okay.” Picking herself up, she sits back down, brushes herself off, and clears her throat. “Anyways. You may notice by now that we are fresh outta notecards. That’s because, well, we ain’t got nothin’ bad to say about Nostalgia. He ain’t a hypocrite, far’s we’ve been able to see: he’s the only one in this whole bunch who actually believes in his own fuckin’ mission statement. You’re a good dude, Nos. You’re a lot of fun, and you’re real fuckin’ talented. But when we got your manager out of a spot, and you asked us to join your group? We said we’d get back to you… an’ now we’ve got our answer.” “No. Not because of you. I like you. Mike likes you. You’ve been nothing but kind to us. You’ve said complimentary things about us. Here’s the thing. If we joined you, we’d be quoting ourselves all through the night.” “We’re just not like you. We don’t fuckin’ fit in your box or anyone’s. Do we like to have fun? Fuck yeah we do. But unlike what you said you guys are about? We DO stand for something. We’ve said it all this time, and if you missed it you haven’t been fuckin’ paying attention. Nuh-uh. We’re not freaks, or geeks. We’re us, and ain’t nobody like us.” She paused a moment, a dreamy little smile flicking over her face. “Cept for maybe Miss Natalie. She’s so fuckin’ cool, and strong, and smart, and she’s got the prettiest fuckin’ eyes, and it was so awesome of her to invite us over for the Fourth for that party…” “I enjoyed Natalie’s pie.” Mike sat up, suddenly looking slightly irked. “Hey, I thought you liked MY pie best! I mean, you ate a bunch of it before we left the house. Eh, on the other hand, maybe it wasn’t that great after eight hours in the car.” John looked directly at the camera. His words would be followed by thousands of fingers clacking away at their keyboards. “You both had me licking the plate clean.” Mike’s hand flew to her mouth, perhaps stifling a snicker, and her emerald eyes glinted merrily in the firelight. “Anyway. Don’t take what we do to you personal, Nos, but take this right now as a warning that we’re givin’ you as friends. I’d keep an eye on the company you keep. They may be playin’ along with you just long enough to swipe something you have that they fuckin’ want.” “Storytime is over.” John stood up from the log. “Coming up, Freaks and Geeks makes their official debut in the tag team division against us. Mike, lots of folks around here like history. NSFW stands before you and well, we don’t have a shot at the tag team gold. You train and train in the hopes of reaching the top and sometimes it just doesn’t happen no matter how much you wanted it to. Tell them, Mike, what does NSFW do when we just fall short?” “We pick ourselves up, fuckin’ reload, study up, and do better next time. We don’t run to the back and sob like little eighteen year old girls. So we’re not number one contenders right now. We will be. We said we’re gonna be fuckin’ Tag Team Champions, and we stand by that, no matter how many times we gotta start over. And you guys’ll be as good a handhold in our climb back up the mountain as any.” “And believe me, we aren’t marginalizing you two. Champions. Main eventers. Bonafide megastars. And here we are: the upstarts. That’s the nature of this business. Not fun. Notsports entertainment. Ask the Madison brothers what sports entertainment has ever done for them.” Mike got to her feet as well, standing with her arms folded at her partner’s right hand.“That’s where fun gets you when you don’t stand for shit. Goofing around, smoking a bowl, and lighting farts on fire. Is that what you really fuckin’ want, Nos? Is that all you want out of this business? It’s clearly not or you wouldn’t have fuckin’ main evented the year’s biggest goddamn show.” “That goes for them all. Kendrick Kross said because I didn’t know why I was here that I’d wash out. You know what? You were right. But as I stand before you with my partner, you’rewrong.” John put an arm around Mike’s shoulders. His hand hesitated for just a moment before he rested it on her bare shoulder. “NSFW. That’s what matters. That’s our cause.” “We believe in us. And not just us. We believe in our friends. We believe in every fuckin’ person out there who takes those four letters to mean somethin’ besides ‘Not Safe For Work’. We fuckin’ stand by that and nothin’s gonna budge or break us. Can you Freaks and Geeks say the same? I don’t fuckin’ think you can. It’s right there in your motto. You don’t stand for nothin’ but fun, and we already pointed out where that fuckin’ leads.” There’s a pause then, almost if Mike was very reluctant to pull away. But she did (though she was almost too slow about it) and strode over to the tripod-mounted phone, bending down, almost staring right through it at the people she was addressing. “See you in Oakland. I hope for your sakes you find a better fucking conviction than ‘FOR FUN’ before then.” The camera clicked off. After that, John and Mike set to tidying up the campsite- dousing the fire with water from the creek and stirring up the ashes, putting the food away in the cooler and out of the reach of hungry, mischievous raccoons, throwing their garbage into a sealed trash can not far from their campsite. All that done, they tucked into their tent for the night. It was one of those comfortable silences, little sound but the chirp of insects and soft rushing of the creek, the tent illuminated by the dim light of John’s Kindle as he finished the chapter of The Natural he’d been in the middle of. Mike smiled. He’d really gotten the hang of using it, just as they knew he would. They could only imagine the size of his digital library. Their voice softly broke the silence. “Hey, Church. I’m glad we did this.” John clicked off his book for now. “Me too.” Perhaps a struggle, John rewinded past everything, through all of the ugliness and told them: “Used to go camping all the time. In better days.” “We can keep doing it, you know. If you want. I kinda like it better than seeing the same fuckin’ hotel room insides every night.” Mike propped their cheek in one hand, and as if realizing they forgot to take it off, removed their hat, setting it beside their pillow. “If you liked it before, I wanna give it back to you.” “Maybe it isn’t necessary.” John’s back was to them. He nestled his head into the pillow. His tone was drowsy. “Mike. I don’t know how to put this but I feel like I’ve come back to life. And all of this, this can be what I like now.” “Yeah… I can see what you mean.” They closed their eyes. There was something dancing on the tip of their tongue, but it was colliding and conflicting with other things, growing affections, even. Things they felt. Things they wanted to say. It was unlike them and they found it frustrating, stewing on their words this way, but they were unable to just spit it out. It tied itself in knots, rearranged itself, and finally came out in something both completely different and exactly the same as what they’d originally had in mind. “John? You… know I’d never hurt you ever, right? I’d drop fucking dead first.” Silence. “...Church?” No sound but a soft, easy, contented cadence of breathing. They smiled, shook their head, and bedded down as well. Maybe it was for the best. “G’night, buddy.”

[mittensmorgul]

The Right Thing vs The Greater Good

I’ve been rewatching the middle bits of s11 on the TNT loop today (11.14-17), and throwing in 11.10 for Dabb putting his fingerprints all over the mytharc for s11, it really feels like this chunk of episodes is really when Dabb started exerting his influence all over the major themes of the series. And this group of episodes really clearly shows the sorts of themes that s12 is addressing in another way, especially since it seems like Dabb had been in cahoots with Bobo, and still is… :D

(pffft another way)

I included some of my chattybubble thoughts to Lizbob for both clarification and some just for funsies because I think I’m hilarious. :D

There’s the extremely surface level stuff about the MoL involvement in Europe in the past, and bringing that plot to the surface (heh because those events culminated in the sinking of a submarine, I crack myself up).

I’d like to point out that 11.14 and 11.16 BOTH deal with time travel, or stories that play with time in interesting ways, THIS is how you do time travel episodes. And the consequences of 11.14 are similar to the consequences of traveling to the past in the entire history of this show (4.03, 5.13, 6.18, 7.12…) WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE DREADED BUCKLEMMING TIME TRAVEL FIASCOES. Ugh. Okay. Sorry. Just had to say that.

Most of my thoughts on 11.15 and 11.16 ended up tidily summarized in our chats, so here, have a transcript of those, followed by my runthrough of the MAJOR INPORTINT THEMES in 11.17 that are still playing out mid s12. Under a cut, because I still haven’t learned the meaning of the word “brevity.” At least I’m still funny:

(edited for readability, and focus in on the main points. Y’all don’t need to hear such bits of this as me musing over the dozens of robins roosting in my birch tree or that Lizbob went out for a walk at one point...I bolded some key things if you’d prefer to just sorta skim this...)

Mittensmorgul: oh gosh mel's texting me, and I had to tell her that I'd rewound the "travel back in time" episode, she's like "ooh wrestling ep in 4 minutes!" and I had to tell her I'm "not caught up to real time yet." I hate time travel :P

Elizabethrobertajones: hahaha you're in a time loop. amazing :P are you up to the wrestling yet? Does it look any different from a Dabb vs performing Dean hindsight?

Mittensmorgul: It's a bit like an early "ghost of john winchester" preview to s12

Mittensmorgul: Heck I feel really bad for Harley, He believed in himself, turned down a demon deal, and ended up tortured and dead because of it :(

Elizabethrobertajones: yeah :< he was a Dean mirror at the time, right? I can't remember why

Mittensmorgul: He'd spent the first half grumpy at the "old guys." He was almost killed accidentally by the hangman's noose in the ring. the one whose funeral started everything. he was a suspect at first, they thought he was the demon for a bit. he was accusing gunner of being on drugs (he saw his dealer... er. demon). He was a hothead supposedly starting trouble, but really he was standing up for the "honor" (not the right word but whatever) of what they do, working for next to nothing night after night on the road. Ends up having his soul stolen by a demon against his will anyway

Elizabethrobertajones: right, he was a worst case scenario about souls being snatched, which we were worried about at the time

Mittensmorgul: and then in the end, after all Harley's yelling at Gunner about being dirty (via drugs, or via whatever...) Dean finally breaks through to Gunner with reason, with words\ Like Dean was an older and wiser version of Harley. Harley could never have guessed that GUnner's problem wasn't "drugs" but a demon... But Dean not only understood, he empathized, and talked Gunner into choosing another way

Elizabethrobertajones: heeey that sounds familiar :P

Mittensmorgul: honesty, accepting your responsibility, "It's never too late to do the right thing." ack gunner "I look in the mirror and I hate the face looking back at me. I got this coming." That hasn't been Dean in a while now

HELLHOUNDS

and oh my... Dean's "It's never too late to do the right thing" which he believes because "I have to." Because at the beginning his SOLE mission was finding a way to save Cas from having said YEs to Luci

And Sam's like, "If he even wants to be saved"

Dean says "He does, even if he doesn't know it yet"

RUFUS! I've been wanting to see this episode again since reading something about the parallel between Dean and Rufus via Ketch's arrival at the bunker

It's like Bobo, Dabb, and Robbie had all conspired to this theme of "fixing the past" via actions taken in the present by finding another better way

It’s literally it's the entire point of this episode

Where Dean's "better" spell doesn't just trap the soul eater, it KILLS it and frees everyone who's stuck "outside of time and space" in its nest

[we had a rambling discussion of just how much this foreshadowed everything that happened in 11.23]

Elizabethrobertajones: so Dean walked in and walked out And clapped eyes on a long-lost parental figure on the way out :P

Mittensmorgul: BUT in doing so he ALSO frees Bobby's soul, and the trapped kids from the past

Elizabethrobertajones: freeing the things from the past. yikes :P Like Mary was freed from the past

Mittensmorgul: This is literally the theme of s12… Having better tools, better info, a more complete plan for saving everything, healing the past so everyone can move forward

I remember seeing something about how 12.15 paralleled Dean to Rufus... and some of 11.16 does... literally putting Dean into Rufus's exact position as they switch back and forth between past and present. BUT THEN IT'S BOBBY WHO GOES INTO THE SOUL EATER'S NEST WITH DEAN Like Sam and Dean have flipped roles here. Or that they're interchangeably both bobby and rufus...

ACK the soul eater telling Sam "Your brother wants to go to the Darkness, NEEDS to go, but I can keep him here safe, forever." but... they ended up finding a better way through words and balance

Elizabethrobertajones: it's the only time they've seen each other since Bobby died, and Bobby's still technically alive on HIS end, so Dean STILL has never interacted with him, unlike Sam who has twice plus a dream

Mittensmorgul: We're picking at the ghost of John this season, but Bobby's a big part of "father figures" for Dean, and he's been there subtly all season too

ACK the bottle Sam and Jody found in 7.12. And the first call Bobby gets when he's free is from Dean... in the past... They're talking about Bobby maybe having been there "outside of space and time" and that Bobby had never written up his notes about that case... when Dean says "Let's get drunk and never think about this again.” Which is probably what bobby did.

AND THEN THE SAME SONG IS PLAYING ON THEIR RADIO THAT PLAYED ON BOBBY'S AS THEY LEFT

Okay, that was the end of our chat because we had to run off and do other things for a bit, but I did go on to watch 11.17 again as well. And that just neatly tied everything back together again, and there were some things there I believe are KEY to what s12 is focusing on. Back in s11 all of these topics were being dealt with “externally,” applied to situations beyond just Sam, Dean, Cas, etc. Yeah, Dean was central to the Chuck and Amara stuff (pffft as the firewall between light and dark), but now all these big themes are being applied to the Winchester family directly in a sort of  “As above, so below” sort of way.

A LOT has changed since 11.15 when Dean needed to take a break from research to clear his mind, because he’d been “spinning his wheels” trying to find a way to save Cas from Lucifer. But now in 11.17 it’s Sam who’s brought him this new case. Dean’s no longer spinning his wheels even if he hasn’t gotten any traction on solving the Casifer problem yet, but his drive to succeed has taken on the KEEP GRINDING motto. He doesn’t want or need to distract himself with this werewolf case, but Sam thinks it’s time for another “clear our heads” break.

Dean drags his heels, but relents.

Like many of the other “civilians” they encounter in s11, Michelle readily accepts the supernatural. Corbin had originally “rejected” the idea that these could be “monsters”-- specifically werewolves, and in the end he’d become the monster himself.

One of the big themes of 11.17 is miscommunication. Everything from Corbin questioning why they needed a landline phone (Don’t you have a cell phone?) because there was no signal service way out there in the woods, to Corbin lying about the extent of his own injuries and making Michelle doubt the evidence of her own eyes.

Michelle: Are you okay? I thought yesterday... Corbin: Just a couple scratches.

She’d seen him bitten, but he dismissed her concerns over and over again, even dismissing her “outlandish” claims when she’s finally at the hospital being interviewed by the sheriff.

Here’s another lovely pair of themes from s12 illustrated very concisely:

Corbin: I... look. Hey, Michelle's real sick, but she's got a chance. Him... he's slowing us down. And if they find us... Dean: We saved you, okay? We saved both of you. Corbin: It's three lives versus one.

Both the “you vs ALL of you” and the theme of “the greater good.” Compare that to I love you, I love all of you, and >.>. But also that last line, “three lives versus one.” That’s The Greater Good reduced to a simple math problem, which Corbin had rigged in his favor by “killing” Sam. 

(also bizarre aside, are trees out to get Dean? Here he has a fight with a tree, and in 12.11 the spell that made him lose his memories was carved into a tree and Rowena described the spell as written in “the Language of Trees.” Not to mention the bloody handprint on the tree that spurred him to giddily remember that their best friend’s an angel… okay, end random tree-related digression)

(no I’m reopening the random tree-related digression to postulate that ALL of this is down to the Vanir’s apple tree Dean burned way back in 1.11. I swear, that apple pie was probably freaking worth it... between scarecrows,pie, apples and orchards-- thinking of 7.05 here too-- and just trees in general, I think it wasn’t the broken mirrors from 1.05 that have haunted them all these years, but that dumbass scarecrow... okay, moving on for realsies now)

First it’s Sam’s turn to try and convince Corbin and Michelle to go, to run, to save themselves and leave him behind. Corbin sees the truth of it, though. He knows Dean won’t leave Sam there to die alone. So he makes the executive (possibly influenced by his loss of humanity, that he’s already becoming a “monster”) to suffocate Sam so that Dean will have a reason to leave.

For the greater good…

And at that point, Dean still needed to be convinced to leave Sam behind, but he promised to come back. He went along with the “greater good” of saving the “innocent people” since he didn’t know that one of them was literally and figuratively a monster.

This also neatly captures all the duality subtext in s12, as well. Nephilim, MoL vs hunters, people as monsters, monsters as people, angels as humans, angels living in harmony with a human soul, angels trapped in human bodies… there’s just a lot of this in s12. There’s also the lengths someone will go to in the name of “love,” however monstrous or misguided or even unwanted by the object of that love. More on that later.

Again, like 12.12 that told the story in a non-linear fashion, 11.17 employs a similar “messing with time” storytelling device, only revealing the past through the events of the present. We only understand how the story got to this point via small glimpses of “revisiting the past” through the events of the present. This was a HUGE theme of s11 (most clearly demonstrated in 11.14 and 11.16, as described above), considering the end result of s11 was a resolution of the original “problem” that resulted from the creation of the universe. S12 is doing almost the exact same thing, but instead of being framed around the Darkness being released and eventually reuniting with God, Mary has been released, bringing that universal conflict down to a human scale.

Back to the miscommunication…

Rather than explaining that there was another injured member of their party he needed to get back to attend to, Dean fights against the sheriff and ends up tasered and arrested. If he’d just used his words, the sheriff probably would’ve let him run back to help Sam, but then Corbin would’ve likely killed/turned Michelle without Dean there to intervene at the hospital, and he may have killed many others, as well.

Over and over, cell phones either don’t work in this episode, or they’re only working well enough to get a word or two through.

MISCOMMUNICATION IS THE EVOLEST VILLAIN.

Or maybe it’s actually this:

Corbin: I saved us. Look, you're hurt bad and... and I love you, Michelle. I can't lose you. I did what I had to do.

Seriously, if you hear I DID WHAT I HAD TO DO and don’t simultaneously hear Kill Bill sirens… you should be hearing Kill Bill sirens...

Meanwhile, Corbin knows exactly what bit him, and when asked directly by the doctor, he only tells her “I’m good.” He lies, he refuses to answer, he downplays the truth when someone else speaks it, even to the point of dismissing Michelle’s point of view entirely.

In the worst rendition of “unsuccessful communication,” the sheriff is unable to contact Charlie the Ranger for assistance because he’s already been killed by the monsters.

In another example of miscommunication, even between two people who are actively trying to help one another, Dean refers to Billie as a “Scary, crazy death machine,” and Michelle repeats back “Crazy, evil death machine.” She reinterpreted Dean’s words, and replaced “scary” with “evil,” and those words just aren’t synonyms, you know? Just because something’s scary doesn’t mean it’s evil. Proof that even when two people are essentially on the same page, they might very well have VASTLY DIFFERENT UNDERSTANDINGS AND INTERPRETATIONS of the situation at hand.

*coughRashomonEffectcough*

And… poor Michelle:

Michelle: Corbin? Corbin: Hey, baby. Please, don't be scared of me. I didn't want this. Okay, any of this, but... it's happened and it feels so... you'll see. [Michelle whimpers.] We'll be together. Michelle: No. Please. Corbin: Forever. Michelle: No! 

Forced love, or forced life, overriding someone else’s will, and yet Michelle decides what she wants for herself.

And then, a theme that’s been sort of haunting the narrative since the pilot episode, and has now been resurrected right along with Mary:

Michelle: They said I could leave... [she sighs] an hour ago. But... where am I even supposed to go? After everything we survived together... [turning back to Dean] I watched the man I love die. There's no normal after that.

This is what happened to John Winchester. He watched the woman he loved die, and there was never any normal after that. Now Mary is back, without John, and there’s never going to be any normal for her either. But that doesn’t mean there can never be anything worth living for again.