#dreams being a theme in s3

[number-onekidqueen]

ok so the thing u just posted about belly having a dream about cheating with conrad. in the book she has a dream about conrad the night she gets engaged to jeremiah so maybe they'll switch that one out for a more sexual one?

Ok, just to clarify: technically what they were doing in the dream was cheating if she was still dating Jeremiah, but that’s not the point of the dream itself. I don’t think in the dream she’s conscious of it cheating.

The point of the dream is to point out the fact that she still has strong, burning feelings for Conrad. Basically, she still loves him even though she’ll brush it off. And she still wants him.

However, yeah, that’s entirely possible and likely even. However, that dream is more symbolic and I think that that symbolism and hidden meaning is important to the story and Jenny will want to include that.

I’m pretty sure the dream is where her and Conrad are swimming in the ocean, and he sees a storm and tells her they have to go so she refuses and he stays with her until it’s literally upon them and they’re both running home and scared. And she begs Conrad to take her home and is crying but all he keeps saying is that he’s as scared as she is and he doesn’t know where to go because he’s lost too. This might not be entirely accurate, but I think that was the gist of it.

When Belly has this dream, she wakes up in bed and just starts crying, because i think she knows that within her this is a metaphor for her relationship with Conrad.

They were both happy and in love. The storm is probably Susannah’s death and Conrad’s grief and mental health which Belly brushes aside in the dream to keep playing. And when she realises that she has to get out, that this isn’t safe anymore, they’re both scared and crying and they don’t know how to fix it.

I don’t know if this is was some dreamt delusion or a hope I have, but I think after she called it off with Jere, she had another dream they found their way home and Susannah says something like “we love you, I’m so glad you guys made it home after you were lost,” To be fair, I think that is a delusion my brain made up, but I really would like some confirmation about that from Susannah in the third season in another dream Belly has.

I also feel like if this bad idea right dream were to actually happen, it would be at the beginning or middle of the season. Belly would sort of wake up with a gasp and feel really guilty because she’d feel like she’s cheating on Jere and she’d deny her feelings for Conrad, because she still is in that delusion.

And I think after the actual dream in the book, she wakes up and she just feels so sad because I think within her she knows she does love Conrad but in her head she has to marry Jeremiah.

And that’s an important plot point, so I’m hoping they keep that dream and have Out of the Woods playing over the top, and also have the bad idea right dream at the start. It’s a lot, but I can dream 😂

Thank you for the question, I hope I at least made my opinion make sense.

[elusivedew]

💌 | Cubitum eamus ?

✧ synopsis ⤐ it takes you 2 years from the minute you meet spencer to confess how much you like him, and it all happens on a random wednesday night.

✧ contains ⤐ friends to lovers but they both know what's up, s3 spencer who's been through a handful of shit, brief mention of alcohol consumption on two occasions!!suggestive themes but no straight up smut, spencer reid experiences happiness for once, reader is his only hope in life, reader wants him real bad and he knows. My spencer reid debut yay! Title translates to "will you go to bed with me?" w.c ~ 9.2k

Working at the BAU is not an easy job. In fact, Spencer thinks, working at any unit in the FBI is the closest thing you'll ever get to hell on earth. This feeling of agitation and exhaustion seems to aggravate every time he's working on a particularly draining case. Not only does the content of the cases get into his head often, and sometimes into his dreams, but he's also been directly harmed by the criminals they’re chasing. How can you remain completely objective about something when you become a victim too?

Over the few years he's worked in the BAU, he's received more harm than he ever expected. Drug addiction was not something he had in his five-year plan when he first joined the FBI. It's not something anyone who works in law enforcement expects, really. 

Needless to say, he's tired. The kind of fatigue that makes you bedridden for days. 

He also happens to be alone on a Tuesday night in the middle of June. 

The latest case he worked on took a little over two weeks to wrap up, an unsub that likes to take his time and has such a disorganized MO that it was almost impossible to see the patterns. All the physical and mental work completely knocked everyone off their feet, except for him. His colleagues all went home and passed out of exhaustion, and he’s still up. 

Spencer can't sleep. He's too busy thinking. 

It's something he does a lot, for his job, for himself, for the duration of his whole life. The gears have been turning in his head since his very first word, the minute ‘mama’ was out of his baby mouth, he’d been tasked with the weight of the whole fucking universe. The price of knowing so much from a young age has cost him a lot. And tonight, it specifically costs him his peace, his right to pass out after a long day of work. 

And he'd love, more than anything, to have an off button somewhere inside. But because that hasn't been invented yet, and his nervous system feels like it's on fire, he's still up by the time it's 10 pm. It’s not late, objectively, but he’s been home for more than three hours now. He tried a lot of sleep remedies— herbal tea, audiobooks, aroma therapy, hell, even exercising to tire himself out, but all of them failed. And now he's just left with sore muscles and an even more tired brain. 

By the time it's 11 pm, he's lying on his couch, feeling like death. His head is pounding with the feeling of an oncoming migraine, and he knows that he’s in for a particularly long night.

That's when his phone rings, and because he’s so alert and so sensitive to stimuli at the moment, he almost kicks it off the coffee table. But he doesn’t do that, because he’s still a little sane despite everything.

Instead, he reaches over and checks the contact name, and his whole face lights up. He feels absolutely ridiculous for not making this call first, because his nervous system is now very much alive— and not in a way that makes him feel like an overheating microwave, no, this is a good thing. And good things don’t happen to him often. He runs his hand through his hair, a nervous habit, and picks up the call. 

Suddenly being awake doesn't feel so bad. 

“Agent Reid.”

Your voice comes through the phone like a cool breeze of air during the grueling heat of June. He finds himself relaxing a little, releasing tension he didn't know he had in his muscles when he was so distracted just a few minutes before.

“I'm begging you to stop calling me that.” 

“Aww, why not? I like feeling like your boss,” you're smiling on the other end, he can hear it, “what's his name again? Aaron?” 

He rubs his temple with a smile he can't fight off, “That's agent Hotchner to you.” 

You laugh and he feels proud of himself for eliciting such a pleasant sound out of you. He's immediately thinking of other ways to get that sound out again. If Morgan could see him now, he'd never let him hear the end of it. 

The good thing about you and Spencer is that no one knows. Not his colleagues, not your friends, not your families. That's the good thing, you get to keep this precious thing between the two of you. The bad thing is that you're not really together. You're not even romantically involved, you've never uttered the four-letter L-word around each other (like or love, both), and you don't even really flirt with each other. 

To put it into simple words, you and Spencer are just friends. 

But friends who relieve each other's stress nonetheless, and god knows Spencer needs that right now. 

“You're back from your recent trip, right?” You ask, audibly crunching on something. It sounds like you're also lying on your couch, he wonders if you were going through something similar when you decided to pick up the phone and call.

“Yeah, thank god.” 

“I take it that it wasn't a very good one then? I mean, none of them are good but, I'm guessing some are worse than others.” 

Spencer sighs, “You guess correctly.” 

“How are you feeling?” Your voice is softer when you ask, concerned, and even though he doesn't like to make you worry, your well-intended question is a very welcome sentiment. He’s almost relieved knowing that there's someone who'll always ask, someone who'll always notice. 

“Not very good. Tired.” It's a short answer, but he knows you understand. You've understood him for a very long time now, nearly two years of knowing each other. 

“It sounds like you had a very long day.” A very long month. “Why didn't you try to catch some Zs?” 

The way you phrase it makes him snort, and he knows you're proud of yourself for that one. “I can't, me and the Zs never had a very good relationship. Trust me, if I could turn my brain off, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.” 

You hum, “Do you wanna talk about it? I could give you some very valuable, life-changing insight, maybe you'll be able to go to sleep after.” 

He smiles, “I've actually had enough of this case, I'd like to talk about something else.” 

“Oh, I can definitely do that. Tell me, what did you have for breakfast?” 

Breakfast is a terrible topic, meals in general, because you know that he misses a lot of his meals when he's on the job. You always lecture him for it, berating him for being so skinny at his big age, but it's always underlined by concern. He knows you worry about him, he wouldn't blame you. 

“Not much…” He trails off, knowing you'll catch on. 

“Oh honey, I know your eating and sleeping habits are fucked, but can't you at least lie to me?” 

The way you call him honey should not be making his stomach turn like that. 

“I could never lie to you.” 

“You literally just did.” 

You both laugh and he's so, so glad you called. If he didn't think you were asleep he'd have called you first. 

“Okay well, I didn't ask that question to find out something I already know. I asked because remember that café we were constantly visiting before you went on this trip? They finally brought the chocolate chip cookies back.” 

The chocolate chip cookies case (the quadruple c) is a very vital issue in your relationship with Spencer. Because for weeks, the both of you have been visiting that place close to your apartment, hoping to get some chocolate chip cookies, only to be met by raisins. It was a very devastating experience for both of you, having to settle for something else on the menu every time. But now it’s okay! The chocolate chip cookies are back. 

Spencer is so glad he's done with his silly criminal case so he can focus on the real problems at hand.

“And I was thinking, if you're not too tired tomorrow, should we have breakfast together?” 

It's sweet, it's earnest, it's you.

It's such a characteristic gesture, asking him to have breakfast with you after particularly draining cases, checking on him as soon as you can tell he's home, and sounding so sweet and concerned over the phone when you know he's feeling down. It’s the small, thoughtful actions coming from you that have helped him keep it together so far. 

And the feelings that thought brings out in him lead him to realize, in those few seconds, that he liked you much more than he planned on. Not that he ever planned to like you in the first place, but he thought it was a small crush that would eventually go away, it’s happened before with the pretty women he befriends, and he didn’t think this time would be different. 

But it was, and now he’s totally screwed because he doesn’t think he’ll ever be able to say no to you. 

“Absolutely, I can't wait to have those chocolate cookies again.” 

You're ecstatic over his response, your tone picking up about 3 octaves when you jump to discussing the other plans you have this week. Your favorite artist is releasing an album soon, your favorite game is finally available at the video game store, the finale of that show you've been talking to him about is airing in two days, and it seems like your life is full of positive sequences.

The juxtaposition between what he sees at work and the enthusiasm you bring into his life almost gives him a headache, but it could very well be sleep deprivation. He wonders if all the misfortunes that have happened to him are the evil equivalents of the things you brought into his life. 

But if all the bad things that have happened to him and around him got compensated by you, he doesn't find it such a bad tradeoff. Because meeting you on a random Monday night and somehow catching your attention enough for you to leave him your number— even when he was so frazzled by the need for coffee so he could grind out some paperwork before his deadline— it feels like he used up all his luck on that fateful encounter.

And having someone he could always meet up with, outside of work, has been very grounding. 

You talk his ears off for the rest of the night, rambling about one thing or the other until his eyelids get heavy again, and he feels tired enough to sleep. You tell him that's been your plan all along and wish him a good night. 

Later, when he’s under the covers of his bed, drifting off to sleep, for a few minutes his brain isn't aggravating him with the thoughts that have been haunting him all day. For a few minutes, all he can think about is you.

He is so fucked.

Emily Prentiss is a very smart agent. 

She’s been told that ever since she was a little girl, and though it was often complimentary, people sucking up to her mom and whatnot, it was never a complete lie. She grew up thirsty for knowledge, mastering everything she could get her hands on, and even as an adult with a grown up job, she continues to excel at what she does

But then, if she's so smart, why the hell can she not figure out why Spencer Reid is so giddy while doing his paperwork? 

It may have to do with the fact that it's Spencer, and that kid has always been a little perplexing to her. He's bright and brilliant, but she could never truly understand how his mind works. But, at the same time, there's such a thing as habits, and Spencer is not typically so smiley while doing paperwork. No one is smiley while doing paperwork in this line of work, because it makes you relive the nightmares. For goodness’s sake, this is the behavioral analysis unit, and Spencer is behaving weirdly. 

It seems like she isn’t the only agent at the office who noticed the peculiarity. Agent Morgan stands behind her, his third cup of coffee in his hand, squinting at the young doctor. They observe him like a wild animal in his natural habitat; had they not been so tired from all the work, they would’ve been picking on him by now.

When Emily feels her presence behind him, she turns around, and they exchange a mutual look of understanding. They've never seen Reid act like that in the time that they’ve worked together, and they know one thing that they've never seen him experience during that time either. 

They realize it at the same time, and Morgan nearly drops his coffee. 

Spencer Reid is in love.

There have been many misfortunes in the 25 years that you've been on this earth, and you're convinced that a lot of them have been aimed at you. You're the only person who has ever suffered that much during your whole life, it's a known fact. It's a fact that you like to remind Spencer of, to make him feel better about his work, and when he laughs at it, you remind him that people called Jesus a liar too.

You've been through a lot of suffering, but the task of getting dressed before Spencer knocks on your door in approximately ten minutes may just be the worst thing that's ever happened to you.

He thinks that just because he has a day off, he could pressure you into a sudden— very much unplanned— date? He thinks that shooting you a text to get dressed so you can go to the record store and then have dinner only twenty minutes before you're supposed to do the aforementioned activities is allowed? He's absolutely right, and you hate him for it. 

Not that it's really a date, you know you and Spencer have never crossed that line, but it feels like it. Especially if he's making you feel like a teenage girl high on hormones having her very first crush. Her very first date. The particular action you're thinking about has to be kept to yourself, just so you don't jinx it. 

You really shouldn't be thinking about that when you still haven't figured out which outfit to wear. More thinking about clothes, less thinking about boys. Specifically one boy. 

It takes all your willpower and energy to finish getting ready in those ten minutes. You settle for your most comfortable pair of jeans and a white button-down with a vest over it, and for good measure, you throw your coat on— the long beige-brown trench coat that makes you feel like you're Sherlock Holmes about to solve a crime. You realize that it's very fitting for an outing with a profiler, he's kind of like Sherlock Holmes if you think about it. 

It's fall now, and it's much more chilly. You hope your precious profiler brought his own coat because, as much as you care for him, you won't be lending him yours.

When he rings your doorbell, you're finishing up and tossing the rest of the necessities into your bag. You make him wait for a minute, to avoid seeming eager, and then make your way to the door.

The minute you lay your eyes on him, you feel sick to your stomach.

Spencer Reid is beautiful, this is a fact that you've known ever since you met. He pulls off the dorky yet hot look so well, with that stupid smile of his when he talks like a smartass. And you're reminded of this every time you see him, the fact that he's so adorable that it physically hurts to keep your hands off him all the time. Tonight is no different, he's dressed in a dark button-down with a brown vest over it, covered by a beige coat that contrasts the dark colors beautifully. It takes you a couple seconds to realize you're wearing similar outfits, almost like a matching couple.

“Copycat.” You accuse, fighting off a smile with warm cheeks. He grins in retaliation, “Hello to you too.”

God, he’s beautiful. In the dim light of your apartment's entrance, you catch the gleam of his eyes. They're warm, earthy, and familiar, you don't think you'd ever stop staring at his eyes if you had the chance to do it without looking crazy. His eyelashes are unfairly long, and his light brown hair forms waves around his face like a frame around an artwork. He always tucks a few stray strands behind his ear, and you always mess it up for him– which is something you do for two reasons, you like annoying him, and you desperately want to touch his hair. It’s just simply unfair for him to be born that beautiful. 

He seems to notice you staring because his cheeks are a little pink, and he has a little bashful smile on his face. “Ready to go?” He scans your form like the little detective he is, “Looks like you could get ready in 20 minutes after all.” 

Now you remember why you were so annoyed at him, good looks be damned. 

“Oh shut up, never do that again.” 

“Or what? You'll cuss me over text messages again? How will I ever live with that.” 

His shy smile is replaced with a smug grin, and you hate to admit it, but it's one of your favorite looks on him. Because Spencer isn't always able to genuinely smile like that, he's usually stressed about one thing or the other; and knowing him, he's always reliving some terrible event that happened in the past two years, and sometimes even further back in time. So while his amusement comes at your expense, you'd rather see him smiling like this all the time. 

“God, you're so mean to me.” 

Even though you mean to sound stern, you can't hide your smile. 

You pick up your keys from the hanger by the door and toss them into your handbag, he follows your movements with his eyes, “that's not true. I'm always so nice to you, sometimes a little too nice.” 

You lock your door behind you and give him a fake offended look, “You could never be too nice to me. Let's go, agent Reid. We've got a long night ahead of us.” 

Then you're strutting ahead of him, motioning for him to follow you like a helpless little intern. Even though he rolls his eyes and laughs in disbelief, he ends up following you anyway.

‘Albert’s records’ has been your favorite record store since you moved into your apartment in Quantico— and not only because you’ve met Albert, the sweetest little old man to ever exist, but also because Spencer always looks mystified inside the store. It’s like something about vintage things just makes him tick. 

You're checking out vinyls that are selling for discounted prices, old pieces of famous artists and commonly known albums, while he's looking at the posters on the walls, admiring the artistic work of the rustic-looking store. He’s always trailing behind you, and you don't mind because it makes you feel safe and cared for. You didn't know being trailed by an FBI agent could feel so comforting. 

Your eyes catch on a certain record, and you turn around, “Hey, Spencer.” 

He stops eyeing the posters on the wall and turns to you, hair falling over his shoulders adorably. 

“What do you think of this?” 

You're holding a classic black Billy Joel vinyl in your hand, careful not to hold it too tightly. It's his 1977 release of The Stranger, an album you're not too familiar with. You've only listened to Vienna and a few other songs. Spencer eyes the cover carefully like it triggers a memory deep inside his brain. You're expecting him to go on a tangent about Billy Joel and 70s music, but you're instead met by a very sentimental response. 

“My mom loved that one.” 

He's quiet, using that careful but lost tone of voice, and you worry that you accidentally triggered something unpleasant. You knew Spencer had a complicated relationship with his parents, namely his mother. On the rare occasion where he had a few too many drinks, he spilled a lot more than he intended to. Drunk Spencer was always so painfully honest and you admired how easily his filter would come off a few drinks in, but you never wanted him to feel embarrassed by it. On those particularly emotional nights— after he calls you to pick him up because he's too drunk to drive— you would listen to him ramble the whole drive to your apartment, force him to stay over so you can take care of his pounding headache in the morning, and hold him until he passes out on your couch like a partying college student. 

Something he’s never been before.

Those incidents have led you to know more about Spencer than he ever thought he could share, and one of those sensitive topics just happens to be his mom. It's not an uncomfortable topic, you've talked about it before when he's not too drunk to realize what's going on. Even though it was hard for him at first, talking about it became easier the more he shared, you understood more and more things without him telling you. 

And because you’ve talked about it, you're not scared of his response when you ask with a lighthearted smile, “is that a bad thing?” 

That seems to bring him back to earth, and he gives you a reassuring smile, “No, not at all, just brought me back to some memories I'd honestly forgotten about.” 

You hold the record to your chest, almost certain that you're going to buy it now, “Well would you like to make some new memories in relation to this record?” 

Would you like to come to my apartment and listen to it with me?

“Yeah, I'd love to.” He smiles in a way that makes you feel a little lightheaded, knowing he's comfortable sharing this much of himself with you. It's so intimate, knowing that in this public store, you're still sharing private moments that no one else knows about.

You’re about to go back to checking out vinyls, trying to conceal the giddy feeling bubbling in your chest, when a high-pitched voice intrudes on the moment you were having with Spencer. 

“Oh my god.” 

You both turn to look at the source of the voice and when you look to Spencer to see what this is about, he looks like he recognizes the source. He looks terrified. Your gaze falls on two blonde girls, one gaping at the sight of you, and the other being the source of the dramatic reaction that broke through the silence a few minutes ago.

Her blonde hair is styled in waves and she's wearing such a colorful, creative ensemble that you're mesmerized by the intricate details of her outfit. The hair clips, the makeup, the platforms that she's wearing, you wanted to talk to this girl so bad. 

And it seems like you're in luck today, because she's immediately rushing to your side with wide mesmerized eyes.

“Wonderboy, you've been hiding her from us for how long exactly?” 

You're guessing “wonderboy” is Spencer since she seems to be his friend and your chest feels warm knowing his friends nickname him such cute things. Spencer deserves to be known for all his good traits after all, and he sure as hell is your boy of wonder. 

“Garcia, please, I'm begging you to act normal about this right now.” He mutters, trying his best to keep this conversation quiet.

She shakes her head, “This is the most normal I can act about you hiding a girl from us.” Then she turns to you again, extending her arm for you to shake. You eagerly extend yours back. “Penelope Garcia, tech analyst at the FBI, and genius boy's co-worker. Oh and, your source for any dirt you want on genius Reid over here.” 

That explains how someone like her is in Spencer's social circle, but it doesn't explain how someone so bubbly could work at such a gloomy unit. Working for the government when she should be at the club? It's a crime to you. 

“They're keeping a gem like you in a dark, creepy room to dig up information for them?” 

You honestly didn't know you could commit such flattery and Spencer is looking at you in disbelief, but she giggles at your poorly concealed flirting and you feel proud of yourself. 

“Oh, wonder boy, how did you ever snag a wonderful girl like her.” 

Spencer is blushing so hard at this point you could probably fry an egg on his face. You're introducing yourself to Penelope, filling her in on your occupation, when the other blonde introduces herself as Jennifer Jareau, JJ for short, and she's even more excited to meet you. 

She's also heavily pregnant, and you hope that she's currently on maternity leave. 

“We were looking for more records that this little guy here could listen to, it's incredibly engaging to include him in our vinyl pick-out process.” JJ rubs her stomach as she explains and you're so fascinated by the idea of childbearing and birth for a few seconds that you almost forget that it's terrifying. 

“What about you guys?” Penelope jumps in, eager to put Spencer on the spot again. 

“Oh we, uh,” Spencer's eyes shift between you and the two girls, like he's surrounded and begging you for help, “we're just checking out the vinyls on sale.” 

“Yeah, I was honestly waiting for these discounts because I'm not selling a kidney for some records, you know?” You step in, hoping to take some heat off Spencer, because the poor boy looks like he’s about to combust.

You're also well aware that the two girls in front of you think you and Spencer are dating, but they haven't said it out loud and Spencer hasn't attempted to correct their assumptions, so why would you be the one to ruin their fun? You'll let them think you're on a date. 

“Oh that's so true,” Penelope nods in understanding, “it's like I just want to listen to music, you know?” 

You nod in understanding, you do know. 

And you also know that you're absolutely going to adore Penelope Garcia and JJ and everyone that you meet who’s involved in Spencer's life. Even though this meetup is so completely unplanned and coincidental, it makes you excited knowing you can prod Spencer about more details now, talking about work in a way that doesn't concern the cases. You’d kill for some office gossip that doesn’t involve yourself.

“Oh, Morgan is going to lose it when he hears about this,” JJ says, almost talking to herself. 

Penelope jumps to add more wood to the forest fire, “Oh my God, remember what he said to Emily? He was right.” That catches Spencer's attention, “what did he say to Emily?” 

“He said that you're all giggly at work because you're in love.” Penelope answers without missing a beat, and she says it so casually, as if she didn't basically strip Spencer naked right in front of you. 

You’re subtly stealing glances at him from the corner of your eye, suppressing a smile at the way he blushes deeply and looks at the ground as if he wants it to swallow him whole right now. Something tells you you're absolutely going to love Penelope and he's going to pay the price for that relationship. 

“Spencer is giggling at work?” You ask, like she just told you he joined a cult.

Penelope nods eagerly, “Oh yeah, I've never seen someone look so cheerful while doing paperwork, every time I'm out of my office for a coffee refill he's just there giggling to himself like he's hearing voices. Except the voices turned out to just be a pretty girl, which I have to say,” she puts her hand over her heart dramatically, “I’m so glad it did.” 

Spencer squeezes his eyes shut, the shame overwhelming him, “I'm begging you to stop talking.” 

Penelope and JJ are giggling, enjoying torturing him like this for your pleasure, and you’re close to joining them, but you choose to stay loyal to Spencer— if only to make sure he doesn’t get a migraine from all this embarrassment. But you're also just giddy, knowing Spencer cannot conceal his infatuation with you to save his life. Despite all the hints here and there that he definitely likes you, and all the discreet touching and staring at your lips when you talk —something you know he can't tell you noticed— the way he doesn't deny any of what's being said tells you that you're, at the very least, a person of interest. 

A person of Spencer's interest. Your smile is getting harder and harder to hide.

“Okay, okay, lovebirds, we'll leave you alone now. But trust me, you haven't heard the end of this, once Derek finds out, oh Spencer Reid, you might never want to step foot in that building ever again.” You nod eagerly, excited to hear more about how they’ll taunt him later on. They give you their rushed goodbyes as Penelope guides JJ outside the store, you can hear her quietly complain about leaving empty-handed when she came all the way, but your mind is someplace else, neurons buzzing with ideas of how to torment Spencer now that you’re alone again.

You turn to look at him, no longer holding back your smile, “so…” 

He immediately puts a finger to your lips, “Don't start.” 

You reach for his hand to move it away, giggling like a schoolgirl, “you're fawning over me at work? Oh my God, Spence, I didn't know you were that far gone, baby.” You hold onto his hand, as a way to restrain him, but also because you just want to hold his hand. 

“I was not fawning, they made it all sound so much worse than it actually was.” You raise your eyebrows at him and he continues, looking more flustered. “I was smiling, can I not smile to myself anymore?” 

You absentmindedly lace your fingers with his, bringing your joint hands to your chest like something precious, “You're smiling like a lovesick fool about me at work, Spencer, you're so fucked.” 

Your amusement is so palpable, and your cheeks hurt from smiling, but there’s also something else there.

Something you haven’t fully experienced before, not its rawness and neediness. Something that you can tell will grow in your chest until it fully conquers your whole body and claims your mind. You don't know what you'll call it yet, but it's something a lot like love. 

“Alright alright, I get it. It's National Embarrassing Spencer day, let's buy this record and get out of here. We have a dinner to get to.” 

The weight of his hand in yours almost made you forget you were still holding the record, handling it so carelessly just to bring him closer. You realize you're drunk on affection, and eager to have more of his attention for the rest of the night. When he doesn't make a move to remove his hand from your hold, only dragging you behind him to check out, you feel like there will be a lot of new developments tonight.

The rest of the night goes as well as you would imagine.

Despite your incessant teasing, you have plenty of conversations that aren't centered around embarrassing Spencer and enjoying it. You sip wine together while he tells you about the letters he's been sending his mom; apparently, he's started telling her about you. While you're surprised he's only just doing it now, he confesses that he wanted to wait until he was sure you'd stay before he made such a decision. Unfortunately, with his line of work, he's right to be worried about things like that, but you stayed anyway, and now his mom knows about you. 

And you have her favorite record in a plastic bag that you carry on the way home. 

When his car pulls up to your building, you're hesitant to get out. You don't feel like the night is over yet. It was lovely and unforgettable, meeting his friends, learning about his mom, and having a very nice dinner together, but you feel like there's still one more topic that needs to be discussed. 

When you don't make a move to get out of the car yet, he calls out your name in concern. You turn to look at him and your gaze is so intense he's almost intimidated.

“Is everything okay?” 

You nod absentmindedly, too lost in trying to figure out what's missing from such a wonderful night. 

“Well, we're here. This is your apartment, you know?” You can tell that's not the sentence he aimed for, but you're aware that Spencer stumbles over his words when he's nervous. You don't fault him for it. 

You give him a genuine smile, “Yeah, I know.” 

Then you're moving to unlock the car door, the newly bought record in your hand, and you get one leg out of the car before you realize exactly what this night is missing. 

“Spencer?” You turn to him, he's already looking at you. 

“Yes?” 

Slowly, carefully, you ask, “would you like to come upstairs?” 

Your apartment is somewhere that he's only seen while extremely drunk, hammered out of his mind. You realize that this is the first time you invite him up when he's actually well enough to walk on his own, and you also realize that it means something to you. You hope it also means something to him. 

“Uh, yeah, sure? If you want me to walk you to your door, I'll definitely do that.” He's picking at the leather covering the wheel, cheeks slightly flushed like they’d been earlier. Multiple times during the night, you note how he’s always glowing red around you like a pulsating organ. Is it the slight chill of the weather or the heat behind your eyes? You hope it’s the latter. 

“I think you know what you want.” 

You weren't sure if he knew, but knowing Spencer, a line like that will trigger him into thinking about it so hard that he'll actually figure it out. You watch the gears turn in his head but he still looks confused, you hope that by the time you get to your door, he'll realize what you're talking about. 

“I'm not sure, but I'll figure it out.” You give him one last smile before you exit the car. 

True to his word, Spencer walks you up to your door after parking his car somewhere close. When you reach the apartment, as you dig for your keys in your purse, he stands next to you, looking a little lost because he clearly didn’t expect this. He fiddles with the ends of his vest while observing you. 

You unlock your door and get inside, leaving it open so he can follow you. You drop your purse on your dining table and lay the record down next to it, watching from the corner of your eye as he steps into your apartment cautiously, like he's stepping over booby traps. 

The door locks and you can't escape the conversation any longer. You also can't bear seeing him so lost, because god blessed him with eyes that make him look like a sad baby deer all the time. And every time he uses them on you, you immediately cave, because letting him suffer feels like letting a baby animal die.

“Spence.” You call, sultry and slow.

If you catch the way he slightly jumps at your voice, you don’t react.

“Yes?” He’s quiet, worried.

You lean back against your table, a relaxed smile on your face, “you know why I brought you here, right?”  

He swallows, tucking his hair behind his ear. “A woman inviting her date up to her apartment could lead to a variety of things, but most commonly it leads to either sexual intercourse or murder.” His cheeks heat up at the words ‘sexual intercourse’ and you want to eat him alive. “And I'm kind of hoping you didn't invite me up here to kill me.” 

You raise an eyebrow, the desire to tease him so strong and unforgiving, “So you hope I'll have sex with you then?” 

That really gets him. His whole face goes red— blood rushing down his neck and up to his ears. He opens his mouth to say something, but he can't. Instead, he just opens and closes it a couple of times, unable to articulate anything. If you were in a different situation, you'd have called him a fish, but you also realize something very critical: he doesn’t deny your previous statement.

“Spencer,” you call his whole name this time, voice low and heavy with something that alarms him further. “Can you come here, please?” 

He hesitantly leaves his spot, taking slow, careful steps to your side. He stands at a considerable distance, making sure he gives you your personal space. If he’d done this at any other time, you’d have been fawning over how considerate he is, but right now you want him as close as possible, personal space be damned. 

Feeling particularly brash, you reach out and pull him closer by a fistful of his shirt. He’s startled, but he lets you move him closer as if he were a rag doll, now you're barely a few inches away from him. Your hand moves to his neck, feeling the warmth that spread there a few minutes ago, the warmth that you caused. If it feels like it's getting warmer under your touch, you don't comment on it. 

It's the first time you've touched him this much, this intimately, and it feels like you've been missing out for the past two years. 

He watches you carefully, eyebrows furrowed as he tries to figure out what you're aiming for. This is probably how he acts at work, you think, staring at something until he’s able to break it open and decipher its message, will he decipher your message too?

You look up at him through long lashes, peering into his eyes, hoping to communicate something with your eyes before you can put it into words. You feel a certain need in your stomach, tying knots and constricting your airways— it's what you guess people would call butterflies. Right now, you'd call it absolutely torture. 

“Spencer.”

It's the third time you've called his name so far, and this time your noses are touching and you practically breathe his name onto his lips. This encourages him to put an arm around your waist and raise the other to cup your face affectionately. You lean into his touch, welcoming the reciprocation.

“I'm here,” his voice is low, more certain now, almost like he figured you out, “you can tell me.” 

You nearly melt in his hands now that he's using that self-assured voice. You love it when he's shy, but god do you adore it when he talks like he knows exactly what to do with you. The things you'd let him do to you would probably get you placed on a watch list, but you don't mind as long as he's the one watching. 

“You know what I want to say, don't you?” 

He blinks, the gold flakes in his eyes so striking when you're this close, “maybe I do, but I'd like to hear you say it.” 

He's in no place to be making such demands. He should be melting in your hands, not the other way around. You shouldn't be getting this weak at the knees just because he's using that stupid husky tone, sounding like he knows all your secrets. But, fuck, he absolutely knows all your secrets. He could probably read you like an open book— which you actually wouldn't mind at all because you've seen the way his hands stroke the pages when he's reading, and you'd love for those fingers to be all over you like they're all over those stupid books.

Your eyes glaze over with desire and you're getting impatient, while he watches you like he's studying your next move. Goddamn profilers and their dirty work. He should be getting dirty with you.

You mutter a quiet fuck and step back to separate your bodies; even though there's no place to go because the table is right there, you're at least not directly face to face anymore. His warm breath on your lips was driving you insane, and you brought him up here to talk, you needed to have this conversation. For your sanity. 

He gives you space, because he's always been so caring and so perceptive about what you need, and the gesture makes you want to bounce on him. You have to remind yourself that if you keep thinking with your lower regions, this will be a counterproductive night.

You realize you can't do this while standing up, so you hoist yourself up on the table, and wiggle around till you get comfortable. Your trench coat isn't bending to your will and it takes you some more shuffling to beat it down. You really should've taken it off when you stepped in through the door. 

The sound of Spencer's chuckle makes you realize that he's still here and he's very much observing your embarrassing fight with a trench coat. Your cheeks feel warm, but this is not the most shameful thing you've done tonight, and you're probably aiming to beat that record anyway. 

“Don't laugh at me,” you mutter, embarrassed but smiling. 

“Okay,” he laughs, “I won't.” 

“God, you're such a liar. Is everybody at the FBI full of lies?” 

He shrugs, “Depends on who you ask.” 

You laugh and you're so in awe at how all the stress leaves your body so easily when he's talking to you, it makes you wonder why the hell you can't just say it. One sentence, something he already knows, something anyone would probably know by observing you for five minutes, it should be easy. But as obvious as it is, you're also well aware that once you say it, it becomes real. And you can't escape It. You can't pretend like it's something casual between you if you get your heart broken, or if he feels like you're moving too fast. The minute those words are out of your mouth, you'll have to confront the reality of your situation. 

And you're scared. 

You're scared that once you say those words and it becomes a real living thing, you could actually lose Spencer. You could get into an argument later and it ruins everything between you, or he could fall out of love, or you could fall out of love. There are so many bad endings to a relationship and the possibilities make you hesitate. 

Spencer must've noticed that you're taking a while to speak, that you're too busy stressing out about it, because he comes close again (leaving enough space for the holy spirit this time) to gently hold your hand. It works like he intends it to. The skin-to-skin contact is grounding and you relax a little, wishing you could just melt into him and never have to go through any uncomfortable conversations.

But when you look up at him, and you're met with the familiar trustworthy eyes of the guy who has been your god-given solace for months now, you wonder how the hell you could ever rethink taking a chance on him. 

Even if the risk is terrifying and you're scared of ruining things, you know Spencer would be worth the try. Plus, fantasizing about a reality where it works out and you get married in a few years is actually much more fun than thinking about impending doom. 

You don't want the world to end before you tell Spencer the raw truth of your feelings, and not through subtle gestures or sneaky glances, you want him to hear the whole thing. 

You squeeze his hand for one final reassurance. He smiles and squeezes your hand back. 

“Spencer, I've got something very important to tell you.” 

Slow and stead. 

“I'm listening.” 

You lick your lips. 

“Okay well, remember how I told you a few months ago that there were currently no guys who were interested in me?” 

He nods.

“Well, I lied.” 

He raises his eyebrows, amused at the route you're taking, “oh yeah?” 

You nod, swallowing heavily, “Yeah, yes. There was this… guy at my job, he doesn't work there anymore because he got transferred because of ‘new chances’ or whatever, but he was working with me this time last year, you know? Anyways, he'd get really close to me whenever we were handling the same task, not in a sexual harassment way but in an ‘I have a crush on you’ way. And I realized that he was interested in me because he kept dropping hints and I'm, surprisingly, not that oblivious. I can tell when a guy likes me. He actually asked me out once to this new donut place near the office, but I declined because he has really bad table manners to be honest and, god I'm glad he's not working with us anymore because he'd hog all the coffee and we could barely find anything to drink by the end of the day— but that's not the only reason I rejected him, I actually rejected him because… because I couldn't imagine going out with anyone else who wasn't you, and I guess what I'm trying to say is- that's when I realized that I like you, Spencer. And I've liked you for almost a year now.” 

You're out of breath by the time it's all out, but incredibly relieved. You look up at Spencer and he has this amused twinkle in his eyes and a very dumb smug smirk on his face. Once you're fully and completely done with your little speech, the first thing he does is laugh.

You're so offended you immediately take your hand away from his and slap his chest, “Don't fucking laugh, I just confessed my feelings for you.” You hit him some more, but he won't stop laughing, “Spencer, this is so fucking rude, oh my god, just reject me like a lady if you're going to mock me like this.” 

He catches your hand before you land another weak punch on his arm, and you have very little time to react before he reaches forward, cupping your face with his other hand and joining your lips for a long-awaited kiss. 

You've fantasized about the way he kisses for a very long time. After you’d heard about his little make-out session with that actress in the pool, it took everything in your body to resist asking him to take you next. You've thought about kissing him nearly every night when you were falling asleep, he was even haunting some of your dreams like a fiend, kissing you like his life depended on it, only for you to wake up to the cruel, harsh reality of never having kissed Spencer Reid.

But that reality is different now. 

He uses both his hands to cup your face and angles your head just right to get as much contact as possible. He tastes like the wine you've been drinking all night and smells like cedar wood and sage. God, even when kissing you he has to smell like a perfect little herbal garden? You'd get mad at him if his lips moving against yours weren't melting away every ounce of sophistication you have in your body. 

You use the chance to be greedy and reach your hand into his hair, making sure to mess it up so that there’s proof that you were here, in his arms, kissing him. 

He's sweet with his kiss, despite knowing you both waited for it for so long, he doesn't push you to go further even though you'd love for him to. You'd let him take you on this table right now.

But the absolute worst thing about Spencer is that he's so respectful that he pulls away after a few seconds to watch for your reaction. He's flushed with desire and his eyes have gone dark in a way that you've only seen when he was really angry. You can tell that he's restraining himself to not make you uncomfortable. His eyes scan your face eagerly, his hands resting on either side of your face.

“God, you're so… ridiculous.” 

The comment is so unexpected that you laugh, and the sexual tension seems to ease into just… sexual existence. “Hey, what's that for? You're going to kiss a girl and then immediately insult her?” 

His smile mirrors yours, “my apologies, your highness. I have just never heard such a ridiculous confession in my life before.” 

You frown, lips curling into a pout, “not true, that actress in the pool had a ridiculous confession too.” She didn't, but you never fully got over her kissing Spencer before you could. 

“Oh yes, I'm sorry, I forget about any other woman when I'm with you.” Then he plants a quick kiss on your lips with a poorly concealed smile, and you can just tell that he's going to be doing that a lot to get away with whatever bullshit he's spewing. 

“You’re unbelievable, Spencer Reid.” 

Then you’re kissing him again, craving more of what he gave you during the first kiss. The desperation for contact has you pulling him closer by his collar, leaning into the kiss like you were starving before him. When he finally slips his tongue into your mouth, you moan so pathetically it makes his grip around you tighten, body drawing impossibly closer to yours.

You're kissing for such an extended period of time that you're dizzy from the lack of air when he pulls away, and you're greeted by that lovely shade of crimson on his face. You desperately want to find out just how red he can get and in what other places.

You're admiring his face, lost in the haze of the kiss, and chewing absentmindedly on your lips when you suddenly remember something very important. You draw back a little to shoot him a very serious look. 

“Hey, you never said you liked me back.” 

He laughs in disbelief, “do I have to?” 

You nod like a petulant child, seriously alarmed.

He playfully rolls his eyes, “alright, I like you too,” he kisses you, “I like you a lot actually.” 

You're satisfied with that answer, melting into his touch again, like a helpless pet. You admire the post-makeout look that adorns his face and makes him more beautiful than you could ever imagine, and he gazes at you with stars in his eyes. For a while, it feels like the universe belongs to the two of you and no one else. 

Until you remember how late it is and the fact that Spencer actually works tomorrow, then you're not that happy anymore. 

“What's wrong?” He asks, nose rubbing against yours as if you could ever focus on anything when he's that close. 

“You have work tomorrow, and it's very late…” 

He draws back from you, as if broken out of the trance by your words, “Oh no, you're right.” He's starting to move away when something inside you kicks in and suddenly your legs are flying to lock around his waist to secure him in place. He raises his eyebrows at you, amused and surprised.

“You can't do this.” 

You nod your head menacingly, “oh yes I can.” You know he could easily break out of your hold if he really wanted to, but the fact that he's entertaining your antics tells you that he's not very eager to leave either. 

“Angel, I have to go to work in the morning. Like an adult with responsibilities, you know?” 

If you were in your right mind, you'd be offended at that comment, but he's just kissed you senselessly and then called you ‘angel’ for the very first time. No one could blame you for not being very wise. 

“You can still go to work in the morning, you just... don't have to leave right now.” 

“You want me to stay? Here?” You nod. “My love, you don't even have a change of clothing that can fit me.” 

“Then sleep naked. I won't complain.” 

He laughs, “What about a toothbrush? You don't have an extra one for me.” 

“I change my toothbrush once every three months and I always buy extra, so I do actually have a completely sealed, never used before brush that you can use. It will be yours from now on.” 

He shakes his head in disbelief but you can tell he's starting to budge, your technique is working. 

Plus there's the unsaid promise that, if he stays, there will be a lot more kissing going on. 

“And you want me to go to work tomorrow in this same outfit?” 

“Mhm, we'll hang it and it will be just fine.” 

“I don't have my badge with me, I can't go to work without my badge.” 

You scoff. “Then wake up early and drive by your place, stop creating irrelevant problems, Spencer.” 

He’s in disbelief at your brazenness but seems to cave in anyway. “Fine, yeah, I'll stay.” 

You smile, very proud of yourself, “yes you will.” 

At this point, you're aware that your leg is still around his waist, and you're holding him in place like you took him hostage, but you honestly don't feel like letting him go just yet. Months of pining for him like a lovesick fool, you think you deserve to relish in the power you exert over him. He seems to notice the hunger for power in your eyes because he's coming closer again, placing his hands on either side of your thighs. 

“You have other plans for me tonight, don't you?” He's using that husky tone again and looking at you with glazed-over hazel eyes. Like a predator hunting its prey. 

You place your arms around his neck, back where they belong, “and if I do? Will you punish me, officer?” 

His warm breath fans over your lips and you're shaking to your core with anticipation, “I don't know, maybe I will.” 

Then he puts an end to all your antagonizing conversations that are distracting you from more important matters by bringing you in for another eager kiss. You take all of him in, the stubborn grip he has on your face, the teeth clashing when he shifts your positions, the low moan he releases when you pull on his hair — you take everything he gives you with eagerness and hunger. You could swallow him up whole right now if you could. 

When he pulls away to take a breath and you're confronted by his disheveled face once more, you realize that there are a lot of things you're going to do to him tonight. You realize that it’s going to be a good while before either of you goes to sleep.

[highfantasy-soul]

Can I just say, I know people were upset we didn't get to see Rand and Lan training the sword in S1 and S2, no mention of the flame and the void, etc, but I really think it thematically works WAY better including it here in S3.

In S1, it would have just been...idk, here's something on a checklist we need to do: have male protag learn sword as he's starting his adventure. But that wasn't where Rand was at - they really didn't think they'd need to physically fight too much, then at the end, he wasn't going to duel Ishy at the Eye, it was really just a 'show up and hopefully you'll just know what to do' situation

S2, Rand thinks he's completed his task! He's trying to grapple with eventually going mad and yes, he does get a little bit of 'training' from the war veteran, but it's really just small things like how to hold himself/hold a blade. Nothing to become a master. And still, it wasn't time for him to learn. Defeating Ishy, again, was a battle of wills and Rand accepting that this fight wasn't over and wouldn't be over for a long time.

NOW in S3, Rand is accepting his responsibility - both physically and mentally. He's tasked with so much that he's supposed to control, but has no way to - he can't control going mad, he can't control the divide in the tower, he can't control the Forsaken coming after him and his friends, he can't control the Aiel's perception of him, he can't control his confused feelings for Lanfear and her dipping into his dreams every night. What he can control: his physical training.

It's thematically relevant now to bring in the Flame and the Void - emphasizing how Tam was a father to Rand and taught him swordmaster techniques of control that Rand is now having to fall back on as he's taken up the responsibility of being the Dragon Reborn and needing an anchor to steady him for the long fight ahead. Now, it's thematically relevant for him to hone his physical skills as a way to regain focus in a situation where his focus has to be on a thousand things at once.

The show has a limited time to show us the themes and character development - we don't have hundreds of pages of down time where the characters can do what they did in the books.

Moving Rand's sword training to S3 fulfills SO many roles: Rand narrowing the group of people he goes to for advice, the difference between Lan's approach vs Moiraine's and how Rand feels about that, Rand battling for control and needing something stable, Rand leaning on his adoptive father's lessons/remembering his upbringing for the days to come, showing the difference between him and the Aiel he needs to lead as he is learning the sword, not the spear.

I think the way the show has progressed Rand's character has been really really great and now, the sword training feels like it FITS rather than just being tacked-on as something that just has to be included.

[sepublic]

The Owl House Pilot Leak!!!

            Oh my titan.

            The Owl House’s original pilot episode (basically a bunch of voiced-over storyboards) just got leaked and OMT. Watching it felt like experiencing the original magic of the show all over again… Reminding me what it was like to fall in love the first time!!! The hype and rush, the excitement to type down my thoughts after a new episode, analyzing and gushing over both big and small moments, the details!!! The pilot has reiterated all over to me again why I love these characters, from Luz's powerful earnestness, to Eda's chaotic demeanor! It’s like having the whole show open ahead of me, the possibilities endless when knowing this is just the beginning and we could go anywhere from here!

            What’s interesting is that Luz’s conflict with Camila doesn’t really exist here; In fact Camila isn’t present or mentioned at all! What brings Luz to the isles is Amity, who’s been learning in the human world, under the guise of being a human by disguising her ears! It’s alluded to that Odalia and Alador made her do it, though we don’t know why…

            But WOW that must’ve been so meta, doing S3 with Amity stuck in the human world with Luz, hiding her ears! It must’ve been a fun way to bring back the older concepts in new form! And indeed, we see a couple of stuff we’ve already gotten glimpses of, such as the storyboards of Luz offering her friendship art to Amity! I love that we get to see the actual scenario of how Amity accidentally defended Luz in the first place, since we heard that but didn’t get to see how it turned out.

            It’s interesting that Lumity is basically the inciting incident of the story, though I can see why the final version opted instead to emphasize Luz’s conflict with her mother. Especially with how she chooses to stay in the isles in the final draft, which leads to guilt over lying to her mom, having her ‘coming out’ moment that eventually occurs in Yesterday’s Lie, etc. So more agency when it comes to Luz losing her access to the human world. Plus in the pilot, there isn't the same emphasis on Luz trying to live out her dreams of being a witch, and her obsession with stories that ties back to Manny and forms the basis for a lot of other themes and arcs.

            That said, I also appreciate what this alternate take offers, and how Lumity helps tie everything together, it really is the queerness that is such a foundational part of the ‘weirdness’ theme that the show is about, and it’s intertwined with the pilot! God Luz being heartbroken when Amity dismisses the drawing… And then crying when Eda compliments it without realizing who it’s about! Or maybe she did, she could’ve recognized Luz there and figured out a way to stealthily make Luz feel better…!

            I love Luz routinely lock-picking her locker because she presumably forgot the combination! And it’s interesting that we have a setup of there being multiple dimensions that the Boiling Isles has access to, and not just the human world and Demon Realm. That plays a role in the climax, more on that later. Given we have what is basically an airport for different dimensions, I wonder if we would’ve seen Luz find her way back home much earlier on, under much less intense circumstances, in a S1A episode?

            The ‘Emperor’ is also alluded to in the pilot, which we didn’t get actual mention of until the fifth episode in the final show. He apparently dislikes humans and wants Luz brought over to him, is this still operating off of the ‘Pupa’ version of the character who claimed to speak on behalf of the true ruler, trapped in their metamorphosis by him? So maybe he wasn’t always human, or maybe this is Belos’ hypocritical way of ‘protecting’ humans by keeping them away and in blissful ignorance of the demon realm.

            We also establish Hexside much earlier! IIRC Hexside was always part of the show, but executives pushed for it to have more emphasis, which the crew continued to follow through on in S2 onwards because that had already been set up. Lilith is the principal, and I recognize the storyboards of her, including her bat transformation! We get a Tinella Nosa cameo, we see Amity, and there’s also a brief cameo of Willow too! Nice way to set her up before her proper debut.

            The ‘barrier’ containing King’s crown turns out to just be a regular human locker, which makes me wonder if the writers updated the final draft to make it a force field that only allows humans through, because of the whole Belos twist. Which makes me wonder if in this draft, Belos is Pupa, who never was human, or maybe they realized the opportunity to insert foreshadowing into a big twist regarding the main villain. Makes me wonder if the house we see Amity enter in the pilot, which is on sale, would've had any significance like in the final show. Love how Tinella Nosa is a student at Hexside, and also Dana having to occasionally insert lines for Wendie Malick and others was great.

            Lilith is a lot more openly adversarial, which is different compared to how her actual debut provides a softer side to her; I imagine this would’ve been apparent in a later episode of the ‘Pilot AU’, and her transformation has me curious; Was she originally the one with the curse, but then the writers changed it to Eda? Or did they both have a curse? Eda also has an owl form she can summon and control at Will, maybe all Clawthornes have a beast mode that’s less of a curse and more of a talent. Lilith ends up trapped in another dimension, which makes me wonder if she’d have a temporary replacement –possibly Pilot Bump- or if she’d return offscreen. We see the portal key get destroyed under much more casual circumstances, though it’s less as big of a deal for this and the established ‘dimension port’ we saw before.

            (Also, Amity recognizing Luz in the hallway… Everything to me!!!)

            Warden Wrath doesn’t exist and neither does the Conformatorium, it’s Lilith and Hexside. With her as principal and Amity as student, I wonder if we would’ve gotten more of their relationship in the pilot AU, if Covention was a way of carrying over that former connection since Amity would be a teacher’s pet in either version of the story. And speaking of ties to Covention, it’s interesting is that Eda’s chest gem seems to be linked to the Emperor’s Coven, as ‘Pilot Kikimora’ uses it to control her. Curiously, we have a scene at the end mirroring what we got with Lilith in the final draft of the show!

            I feel it implies that Eda DID join the Emperor’s Coven with Lilith, if only for a brief moment, but then defected; But the chest gem is basically the pilot version of the Emperor’s sigil, except with the explicit function of being a shock collar. I find it interesting that Eda still has the mirror to contact the EC with, instead of just getting rid of the thing. Is she a rogue agent who hasn’t totally cut ties, because she can’t? Won’t?

And the fact that Pilot Kikimora can just shock Eda at will makes me wonder if the Emperor is low-key just letting Eda roam around, which makes me wonder if he’s aware of the familial connection, is using Eda to find Luz, already knows about her doing that because of the time loop, etc. We’d of course have gotten an episode where Luz finds out about Eda’s connection and helps her deal with the gem… I realize now that Luz learning Eda also wanted to join the EC with Lilith is a carryover of this idea.

I can see the ups and downs between both versions; The final draft sets up Luz’s conflict with Camila and the reality camp, which is foundational to her character arc throughout the whole show. Her pain over being ‘sent away’ is just so vital that I appreciate its inclusion in the first episode. But I also like the inclusion of Lumity and the earnest desire to be friends with someone who showed her, unwittingly, any kindness at all! We get explicit bullying from Luz’s peers in the pilot, but in the final draft we also get her thoughtlessness that plays a big part in her S1 arc. And Luz’s arrival in the isles is more intertwined with Eda and King in the final version, which also feels right; The show is about these three in particular!

All in all, this was wonderful to watch! The magic was experienced all over again, not just in watching an episode, but also commentating on one that was just ‘released’ as well? I thought the last time I’d do anything like this was with the series finale Watching and Dreaming… But as Luz said, it really comes full circle with watching the first episode all over again! So maybe we have other stuff to still look forward to after all… At the very least, we have an eternal anticipation with an unexplored universe ahead of us, that will never reach completion; So it's like our ever-lasting final gift from TOH, and a good last one. So until next time: BBBBBYYYYYEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

[kradogsrats]

Revisiting the Arc 2 Opening

So particularly @raayllum had done some detailed analysis and predictions based on the comparison of Viren and Callum's variant arc 2 openings, but I want to return in the post-s6 space now that we have Claudia's opening as a third point of comparison because that addition has an impact on how the original two relate to one another and what each one is saying.

The basic sequence of each opening is the same: from the initial star-map zoom (associated with destiny/time-blind vision of future events) the camera circles the principal character, placed at the celestial Sea of the Castout, as they turn to stone. Aaravos's giant hand swoops down and plucks up the statue, now contextualized by size as a pawn or other game piece, to admire from within his prison with a satisfied smile.

The most important point to understand about this sequence is that Aaravos doesn't personally turn Viren, Callum, and Claudia to stone, but is able to capture and manipulate them as pawns because of it:

This doesn't seem like much of a distinction at all, particularly because the petrification that results in Aaravos's satisfied claim on each mage is a representation of dark magic, which is... what allows Aaravos to influence/control those who resort to using it.

We get the direct link between the heart, dark magic, and Aaravos's influence/control explicitly spelled out by s6, and (as many noticed before)... go figure, in all three openings the corruption petrification begins at the heart.

Now, Callum is actually the only one who knows explicitly about the connection between dark magic and influence/control by Aaravos. Viren has sort of intuited it by the end of s5, in that we can see by portions of his dream that he's aware on at least a subconscious level that he was not in his right mind during at least the latter half of s3. This is why the distinction between the petrification being a factor allowing Aaravos's control, rather than an effect of it, is important—the conflicts and dynamics being represented are more complex than that. For example: Viren's opening, it turns out, isn't about Aaravos at all.

That's a Reach

When the primary arc 2 opening, featuring Viren, was revealed as part of the lead-up to the s4 release, there was a decent amount of speculation as to what it meant—the connection with Avizandum's death was recognized immediately, but what did that signify? Would there be further-reaching direct consequences of Viren's involvement and the archdragon-killing spell? Would Avizandum himself somehow have expanded significance? What is Viren reaching for: Aaravos, redemption, another chance at life?

Mostly, it set the tone for s4 and arc 2 in general, particularly regarding Viren's character arc, with strong mood and themes of helplessness, the past, regret and consequences, cyclic harm, and (of course) death. Not even to mention the looming presence of Aaravos and his relationship with Viren as his pawn. It was a vibe.

It wasn't until after s5 and/or s6 that the opening came into full context: Avizandum, in his final moments, turns his back on the battle with Harrow—the cycle of violence that he, himself, has contributed to perpetuating—and reaches for the child he will now be unable to protect from that violence.

Viren, as it turns out, does the exact same, as we see explicitly in s5 and continued implicitly in s6. Like Avizandum, he reaches for his children, unable to save them from the damage he has already done—all of it through dark magic.

On its own, it's an elegant implementation of the parallels TDP is so fond of to demonstrate that both sides of this long-time conflict have inflicted harm on each other and themselves in very similar ways for generations. Even at the time of s4, however, we had Callum's opening obviously derived from Viren's, and after s6 we have Claudia's, as well—both of which come with their own context that builds off of Viren's in different ways.

Lost Child

So while Viren's opening actually has very little to do with Aaravos (prior to Aaravos's actual appearance grasping him as a literal pawn), Claudia's (and Callum's, which we'll come back to in a bit) is difficult to interpret as not being related to her personal dynamic with Aaravos.

Interestingly, Claudia's opening places her at a very specific point in time, since it's visibly between two major physical changes to her body/appearance—her lower leg is missing, severed by Rayla in the Sea of the Castout at the end of s5, but she still has her long hair from before prompting Terry to cut it off for her early in s6. Even more specifically, she has the half-and-half split of black and white hair, which is already majority-white in s6e1:

This is Claudia in a moment we don't see on-screen—when, having failed to collect Aaravos's prison and not knowing that Viren has been offered and rejected the Infantis Sanguine spell, she turns to Aaravos in the dark of night and is willing to do anything to save her father.

I could do a whole thing here about the nature of Claudia's perception of Aaravos as both a paternal and divine figure, but the relevant part is that her only association between dark magic and Aaravos is a positive one—as far as she's concerned, Aaravos gave humanity dark magic as a benevolent gift, and her main reason (at least that she's willing to voice) for hesitating to give it up is that Aaravos kept his promises to her and it would be right to keep her promise to free him. In her opening, she goes from pained and defeated to looking upward with total trust and hope—looking to Aaravos the way she would have looked to Viren.

Her petrification shares the single tear with Viren and Avizandum, really cementing her place as another loop in the cycle of harm between humanity and Xadia that has dark magic at its heart. That callback to Viren's opening also puts hers in dialogue with him as much as with Aaravos, placing her in the same position as he is in a reflection of his horror and dismay that she has followed his path and example so closely.

Given that Claudia dramatically changes appearance (and, to an extent, attitude) immediately after this opening is introduced, it's possible that we'll see a different variant for s7... but given the end of s6, she actually hasn't really changed all that much. She has doubts about how to proceed with her life after Viren leaves, but as soon as Aaravos re-enters the picture, her conviction is back. She may not have done any dark magic after s6e1, but I don't think that's because she's decided to give it up.

Key Framing

Given the context of Claudia's opening, Callum's opening becomes unusual because it references Viren's without tying back to Avizandum and that cycle of harm. It's still on some level about dark magic, but Callum's relationship with dark magic isn't tied up in family and inheritance like Claudia's and Viren's are—instead it's focused entirely on fate vs. freedom, and on Aaravos specifically.

Callum's opening appears only for s4e4 ("Through the Looking Glass"), where he is possessed by Aaravos and it is established that his single use of dark magic is what allows that control, and for s5e8 ("Finnegrin's Wake") when he uses dark magic a second time. The shared opening puts those two episodes in obvious dialogue with each other, since s5e8 never makes explicit that the danger of dark magic for Callum is control by Aaravos—something he has already asked Rayla to end his life in order to avoid.

The focus in Callum's opening, both by its visual prominence and Callum's own gaze directed at it, is the Key. While Viren and Claudia's petrifications end the way Avizandum's does—with the single tear—Callum's ends with the Key in a blaze of light.

I expect we will see Callum's opening return for s7, possibly even as a primary opening, but it will almost certainly be recontextualized at some point and possibly even changed to a variant that reflects that new context. The Key is an element that will contribute to Callum's doom or salvation—or both, as a key can both lock and unlock—and its prominence in his opening reflects that and will likely be informed by how that resolution develops.

All of Us, Stardust

Speaking of alterations to the openings:

The final, altered version of the Viren opening kicks off s6, acting as a last, fun little extension of the "is Viren dead?" cliffhanger of s5. Aaravos's hand reaches down as usual, but instead of firmly grasping the petrified Viren, he very briefly hesitates before pushing it slightly, instead. The petrified Viren then crumbles and collapses into dust.

We first saw (or rather, had described to us via frantic convention attendee note-taking) this opening at the first reveal of s6e1, which was originally shown without any of the scenes revealing Viren to be alive. There are a lot of ways it could be interpreted, from a straightforward "he'd dead, Jim," to my own kind of fanciful theory from the time regarding Viren, dead or alive, having been made unusable by Aaravos as a pawn.

One way to contextualize this opening is with this old illustration from Patience, which ties in closely with the Aaravos chess/pawns motif (and was a significant part of contextualizing the arc 2 opening as "pawns"):

Now, there are a lot of things about this image that are important, not least the confirmation/reinforcement of the chain of manipulation of dark mages by Aaravos across thousands of years from Ziard to Viren, with the implication of Callum in the future. What I'd like to call attention to is that in chess, tipping over a piece is a gesture specifically used only with the king, and specifically to indicate that you are resigning the game and the opponent is victorious.

I don't think there's anywhere we've seen Aaravos truly lose, except for possibly when he was imprisoned, because his plans have levels of redundancy that mean they don't depend on any given individual—a game of chess hinges on the king, but Aaravos is essentially playing six or eight interconnected games at once, and a loss on one board only reinforces his remaining pieces on another. Losing Viren, deliberately or not, empowers his influence over Claudia... exactly as we see in the sequence of arc 2 openings. It would be difficult for them to have replicated the tipped-over/toppled king imagery with the petrified Viren without having to do some labor-intensive camera work on the existing opening pattern (e.g. do they show the ground when he falls? What even is the ground?)—so I think there's a strong likelihood that him crumbling to dust is meant to have a similar resonance.

Anyway, I'm kind of dancing around some complex theorizing and analysis of Viren's death that I go back and forth on depending on the day, but basically I do still think the important takeaway from this opening variant is that as far as Aaravos is concerned, Viren is off the board. That it's the opening for s6e1, rather than a special use for s6e8 (as Callum's variant openings are handled) is also IMO a positive sign regarding Aaravos's loss of control and direct manipulation of Viren over the course of s6. I don't think we've heard the last about Viren, and between Claudia, Soren, and Kpp'Ar there will definitely be a multifaceted interpretation of his legacy with significance in s7.

Opening the Final Season

Ultimately, given the dialogue between the three (four?) variant openings we have seen so far for arc 2, I think for s7 we can expect:

the Callum variant will appear at least once

at least one new Claudia- or Callum-based variant, OR possibly even an Aaravos variant

a new variant (possibly one of the ones from the previous point) to close out the arc for at least s7e9

That's my fevered ramblings about this 20-second repeated sequence, thanks for coming to my continuing insane TED talks on this and other ridiculous topics.

[theuncannybookdragon]

WoT s3 ep 1-3 reactionssss:

Episode 1-

Yyyyep, RIP Ihvon 😔

Moirane saving Siuan?? Awwwe 😊

MAT SPEAKING HIS FIRST LINE OF THE SEASON IN THE OLD TONGUE!?! Iconic

Mat and Perrin teasing Rand about Selene is everything

SNAKES AND FOXES!!! THIS IS NOT A DRILL WE'VE GOT SNAKES AND FOXES!!!

Egwene being still traumatized from Renna but also being rebellious af and slaying the arches???? Then telling off Siuan?? Iconicccc

MAIDEN'S KISS!?!?! HELLO?!?! AHHHHHHHHHH

After when Mat has cuts on his neck from the spears?!?!? OHOHOHOOO FORESHADOWINGG

AVILAYNE REAL!?!? LIKE- REAALLLLL?!?! THIS IS SO BIGGGG GOOD FOR THEM

The bubble of evil shit being specifically orchestrated by Lanfear is SUCH an interesting choice

A GREY MAN??? IN MY TAR VALON???? ITS MORE LIKELY THAN YOU'D THINK

The party being split but Mat making a dick joke about the White Tower is SOOOO in character

Also- Elayne and Rand talking politics is incredible, AND Rand and Moiraine power games starting??? We love to see it!

Episode 2-

HOLY SHIT MORGASE! Was not expecting that in the cold open god damn

The pettiness between Morgase-Siuan and Siuan-Elaida is INCREDIBLE

Gaebril already being a part of the family is SO INTERESTING

Honestly, incredible casting choices for Galad and Gawyn

Mat letting the Aes Sedai channel on him??? Book Mat would never but it's an interesting change and shows his desperation/character development for sure

PARTING THE SILK MENTION

Also the soundtrack is going SO HARD this season

MINNNN BACK AT THE WHITE TOWEEER! THE VIEWINGSSS!

MAT BEING A MANWHORE, NO SURPRISE THERE (assfsjsgsgsgsk I'm so gayyyyyyyy aggh)

Gawyn being showy and getting swept onto his ass by Galad is HYSTERICAL

Mat being upset that he got upstaged LMAO

TEL'ARAN'RHIOD BABEYYY

Mat opening his robe and everything before opening the door and Min being there and then telling him to cover up is PEAK COMEDY

Galad and Gawyn getting action but Mat not- PPFFFFFT

Gaebril and Elayne having a father-daugther relationship is very INTERESTING

"Normally, I would never be one to brag" LMAOO Mat ur so full of shit

MAT GETTING CALLED OUT BY SIUAN AHAHHAHHHH

Daaaam, we got the uncle comparison straight from the books!!!

"I'm no hero" HE SAID IT HE SAID THE THING

Oop- Tigraine reference!

Episode 3-

THE FORSAKEN ARE BEING PETTY! I REPEAT, THE FORSAKEN ARE BEING PETTY!

Oooohohohoooo Mazrim Taim namedrop!!

"That is Wise Ones' business" we love to hear it Rhuarc!

"No one would do this", "The Shaido might" TRUE

FAIIIIILE!!! SHE'S HERE!

The girls are investigatinggggggggg

WORLD OF DREAMS TER'ANGRIAL SPOTTED

Elaida giving seer advice to Min was NOT on my bingo card

SWEAT TENT SCENE!! WE HAVE A SWEAT TENT SCENE!!!

Oooohhhhh Melindhra is Malkieri?!?!

Cenn Buie getting told off is HILARIOUS

HANGSHADOWNG COURTESY OF MIN LETS GOOO

MAT BEATING GALAD AND GAWYN'S ASSES LETSGO I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE!

But seriously, Nynaeve's exasperated "Oh, Mat", the "Dovie'andi se tovya sagain"!!! HIS THEME KICKING IN THE MINUTE THE FIGHT STARTS!! Nynaeve THEN LOOKING IMPRESSED/PROUD!! Mat KNOCKING OUT GAWYN!? INCREDIBLE!!

All in all, an amazing start to the season!! I'm a big fan of how they're incorporating more things directly from the books

[willielli]

"but, tumblr user willielli, does this post of yours mean you believe any ship will be endgame as long as one of the characters is in love?" absolutely not, my lovely imaginary opponent! just being in love doesn't save a character from ending up on a losing side of a love triangle, au contraire, stranger things has a character exactly like that. and, as you might've guessed, it is no one other than steve harrington himself!

so buckle up, ladies and germs, we're doing an impromptu will&steve comparison/analysis! hopeless loverboys, fear me, i've come to dig in your guts-

just to preface, please note that i'm perfectly neutral on steve, which means i have not spent too much time thinking about his character, so i might be wayyyyy off here, but: i firmly believe that steve's endgame is going to be staying single & better for it, maybe finding someone in the epilogue. so, in other words... steve's endgame is exactly what some people on reddit envision for will, lmfao.

yeah, both steve and will are in love with their respective wheelers, both have dreams of happily ever after, but this is about where the similarities end. they are opposites when it comes to narrative ideas and character arcs, which is why their outcomes will be different.

first off, this point has been beaten half to death, but i'll repeat it anyway: stancy goes against the main message of stranger things, while byler supports it. in the jancy vs stancy love triangle, steve represents conformity: nancy choosing steve means leading a life terrifyingly similar to one of her parents, safe, but also miserable. this theme was first introduced in s1 with the jancy gun shooting practice scene, then amplified by murray in s2, and in s4 they repeated it via steve and his six nuggets talk. it's enticing, this image of happy and peaceful life, and while nancy is interested, she isn't won over by it in the end. steve represents an easy way out, but it also goes against what nancy, a very ambitious and driven woman, actually wants in life.

byler, on the other hand, is a queer relationship in the 80s, meaning it's the definition of non-conformity. the other, conforming option for mike (the center of this love triangle) is mil*ven, a relationship that was explicitly shown to be ridden with lies and play pretend. both of them are unable to be their true selves when with each other, both of them act like they are enjoying things they actually don't and are ignoring things they actually love. the biggest evidence here is mike's relationship with d&d in s3 and s4: he acts like he's too grown to be interested in the game while el is in the picture, then doing an 180 and joining the hellfire club the moment she's out. being with el is an obstacle to doing what he actually wants, just like it was for nancy with steve. will, on the other hand, shares mike's interests and encourages him to partake in them, be unashamedly himself.

the second aspect to this is how steve and will's character arcs (the romance parts of them, anyway) are actually total opposites. their starting points are mirrored: steve starts off in an established romantic relationship with nancy, confident and secure that nancy wants him; will is convinced that he will never fall in love — a romantic relationship is simply not an option for a gay kid like him. steve is proven to be incorrect, of course, when nancy doesn't get what she needs from him and breaks up with him, giving his head the biggest thump of his life and kickstarting his arc/development/redemption. the purpose of steve's love for nancy is for it to end up rejected, serving as an inciting incident that changed the trajectory of where steve's character was headed, allowing him to escape bad influence and grow from a douchey jock to the compassionate and open-minded person he is now. his arc is still not over, though, as steve is yet to find his worth, purpose and confidence, the lack of which manifests in his romantic failures, but i have a feeling he's not going to find that through nancy. just as for nancy this relationship means going against who she is, for steve it would mean a regression.

when it comes to will, his conviction is going to be challenged as well, since it's very obviously the Lie — stranger things is not a show that will reinforce a queer kid's belief that he will never be loved romantically. will's love for mike isn't tied to negative aspects of his character (unlike steve's, as his jealousy for nancy turned him into into a jerk and a bigot), as will was shown to be self-sacrificing, loving and supportive of both mike and el, unwilling to hurt them despite all the pain he's going through. moreover, the van scene is him giving up his love, conceding defeat without fighting, which comes as both an outcome and a reinforcement of the wrongful belief that romantic love is an impossibility for him. him ending up rejected would not be the cause of some character growth — there is no lesson to be drawn from a heartbreak for him. it's not giving a thump on his head to make him go in the right direction, it's headshotting a corpse.

now, will's position going into s5 was set up by the writers 100% intentionally. they chose to write themselves into this corner in which mike reciprocating is the only logical outcome, because it's a combination of several deliberate writing decisions. they didn't have to write will expressing that he will never fall in love, his struggle with his queerness could've come in a different form. they didn't have to write him have feelings for mike and mike only, it could've been anyone, existing character or new. they didn't have to write him in love, it could've been an infatuation or a childhood crush. they didn't have to write mil*ven lie to each other about who they truly are, they could've had a strong connection and understanding. they didn't have to write will giving up his love for mike and el's (dubious) benefit, he could've fought and gotten mean with it.

they could've written him being worse for loving mike, but they chose not to.

the writers gave both will and steve love triangles, and both of them are in the position of hopelessly in love third party as of s4, but their arcs are not parallels. both characters are in love, but love serves opposite purposes for them — for steve it's something to overcome and grow from, for will it's something to embrace and allow himself to have.

[yannaryartside]

SYDNEY AND THE BEAR: ANOTHER SINKING SHIP

I do not think the show intends to tell us that Sydney's character development is to learn to "not give up when things get hard." I recently watched a TikTok of this woman talking about Sydney accepting responsibility for the Bear going the way it has, and how she taking the Shapiro offer would be like running away from her problems.

Now, interestingly, the only extended portion of her past that we know about is another business failing. But I wouldn't say she gave up on that when things got hard. I actually interpreted it like she didn't know when to stop holding on to a sinking ship.

Her credit got ruined, and she lost her apartment. If she had been realistic about what she could achieve on her own, she would have taken it slowly and maybe paused when she was more stable financially, but she didn't because she was too eager (I think) to prove herself that she wasn't a failure.

Truthfully, Sydney doesn't have more responsibility in The Bear sinking than anybody else in that restaurant. Carmen's journey is becoming a parallel to Michael's. The whole S3 was about the staff, especially Carmen's family, enabling him or making things worse.

Sydney accepted that she had failed to stand up to Carmen; she said, "I am an accomplice," because, yes, she is, and so is everybody else. She hasn't signed the partnership agreement because she doesn't want to be in an enterprise like that; she knows that signing now is saying that she is alright with all that. She wants to make a difference. But at some point, staying beside somebody is not a guarantee of them ever growing,

So, no, Sydney's arc is not about "enduring the bad stuff" but learning to stand up for herself and what she wants. It is about growing up and realizing that only she can make her dreams a reality. Is about confronting the ugly and the painful and bringing it all front.

She will reject Shapiro's offer because, at the end of S3, she realizes she cares a lot about these people. They are her family, and she will be a good captain and stand with her crew while the ship is sinking. Because that's what she wanted, she was a lonely kid who wanted a place to belong. As she told Luca, after enduring that bad stuff, you can have proof that it was worthy, that it was good. That's beautiful, she found her people.

She will ensure everyone is squared up, and eventually, she will confront Carmen, too. Personally, her capacity to stand up to him is essential for me to be okay with them being together.

But she hasn't failed because she doesn't have the eggs to get through the bad stuff.

Little sideline: I keep getting mad at people giving her shit for quitting at the end of 1x08; Carmy was also at fault for that fuck up, she told him to wait to go live, and he was too worked up in the review that he ignored her. If they had the chance to check before like she wanted, that error would have been caught. I worked in restaurants, I get it, but sometimes walking out is the only power you have left to bad managers or policies. In a show about the cost of enduring and justifying toxicity, Sydney walking out is entirely on theme.

Her patience with the staff in s3 has been an indication of her determination to not to let this ship sink. She has told Carmy to calm the fuck down. She is the anchor of all these people. (sorry, a lot of ship metaphors).

Her creative block is also a metaphor for this. She has the brains and determination to become a star. She just hasn't heard her voice yet (therefore, she cannot create original concepts for menus without using Carmy as a reference, and Carmy cannot be anybody's point of reference right now).

I suspect she hasn't found her artistic voice because she is actually afraid of finding it (because of trauma or just the way society feeds young women who want to go into the arts).

[brokenwinebox]

Marcus, Mikey, Sydney, & Claire

This will be talking about Marcus, Mikey, Sydney, And Claire. It’s a deep dive on the song [Nice Dream] by Radiohead. This is the second part to my meta, “What’s Your Character’s Theme Song?” Highly recommend reading that before this one!

What’s Your Character’s Theme Song?

Text / Spoilers for s3 below

In this commentary of the Legacy episode with Lionel Boyce, he talks about Marcus following the ghost of Carmy's footsteps. I've had thoughts on Carmy being the older brother to Marcus but hearing him talk about this episode really solidified it for me.

I quote tweeted the post on Twitter that involved this particular video with this:

This is so interesting. This definitely feels like Carmy is the older brother to Marcus. How insane is it to say he could even heal from a dynamic that’s similar to Mikey and his relationship? Only this time, Carmy is at the other side of it and wants to do the opposite?

Then, I remembered after the scene between Marcus and Carmy (3x01), They had a song play as the credit rolled that talked about being loved like a brother.

I went back to reconfirm this and did some research on the song, [Nice Dream].

They love me like I was a brother They protect me, listen to me They dug me my very own garden Gave me sunshine, made me happy Nice dream Nice dream Nice dream I call up my friend, the good angel But she's out with her answerphone She says that she'd love to come help but The sea would electrocute us all

Marcus And Mikey

On one analysis of the song, they talk about how Radiohead describes being loved like a brother as someone protecting you, listening to you, and giving you a garden and sunshine.

Mikey had struggled deeply with addiction and his connection with Carmy. We even understand that Mikey felt resentment towards Carmy for being able to go and explore his dreams to which Mikey pushed him to do.

It feels like because of it, the resentment goes both ways. Carmy didn’t really care about being in high prestige restaurants. It was always his family; more specifically Mikey, that he dreamed about. Mikey himself, being shackled to The Beef, would dream the things he pushed Carmy to do, if he allowed it.

I’ve always wondered if Carmy would’ve been happy staying at The Beef or feel adrift to doing something bigger than the family restaurant.

Carmy and Marcus having a potential similar dynamic to his and Mikey’s relationship makes me feel very hopeful about what season four can bring. Especially if Carmy wants his dynamic with Marcus to be more healthy than what Mikey let it be.

Since we didn’t really have that much of an arc for Marcus in season three, it would be so nice to have Marcus fully hitting his stride for season four if it’s the last of the series.

“Take us there, Bear,” could be the significant moment for Carmy and us, making the audience realize that he’s in the role of being an older brother like Mikey. It’s a beautiful thought that Carmy would heal from a similar dynamic he has with Marcus because he has the opportunity to understand his older brother and change the choices Mikey made.

Desperately wanting to be connected to his older brother but Carmy ultimately found out he didn’t even really know Mikey at all. Only after becoming an older brother does he have more of a grasp on who Mikey is than he initially thought and embraces Marcus in the way Carmy wished Mikey did him.

A full circle moment.

Sydney And Claire

Doesn’t this feel like the discussion they had on legacy? In this meta about the best meal Sydney ever had, it talks about how the restaurant is a metaphor for family with Sydney even having a “family tree” behind her.

What gets me the most about this is how they talk about the importance of listening. How it’s a key aspect for a loving relationship.

I did a deep dive on a forum and there’s so many different type of thoughts about the potential meaning for the song!

Essentially I find this to be the most evidently sarcastic song in the history of Radiohead releases. We all know the feeling of being discarded under the false pretense of , " I'm not ready for a relationship," or " We are such good friends...wouldn't want to spoil it." And now here is a song about this scenario. The " Nice Dream" in this song is the presented illusion from a girl-friend who has given many excuses to why a relationship will not work, a diversion from the truth. the last two lines, "...if you think that you're strong enough/if you think you belong enough." are in reference to the personal strength and honesty one must have to realize all of the excuses, are lies. ....and so it's a nice dream, when you don't know.... (x)

Another interpretation of the song’s meaning is certainly interesting. (X)

It’s already been talked about how Carmy said Claire is peace and I’ve been pondering over that for a while. I’ve always been very sure that Claire isn’t Carmy’s peace but what if she is really his peace to some extent? After it said peace, it said security.

Security doesn’t necessarily have to mean good things. I’ve been navigating if comfortability (settling) and peace align in meaning for the sake of this show.

Security is about the things you’ve already known, so could Claire be his peace?Sydney are new emotions and something that demands change from him but Carmy has been fairly consistent in not doing that. Instead, he’ll change the menu, a substitute, to deny himself the opportunity to love someone who doesn’t invoke emotions from the past.

I’ve also heard discussion around Carmy being self aware in his feelings for Sydney, which is why he puts himself in that fridge to apologize to Claire out of guilt. Burying himself in this fantasy of Claire to attempt to ignore his feelings for Sydney makes sense in this context then.

He’s willing to change the menu/change his thoughts of Sydney to Claire.

Another thing is that Carmy is used to his dynamic with his family. I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility that the dysfunction of his family is what gives him some sense of “comfort” because it’s quite literally the only thing he knows. He talks about how he hates surprises and I think it extends to his love life as well. He gave Claire a fake number but once she had his number and basically invaded in his comfort zone, it could’ve reached to a point of understanding that Claire has the familiarity of breaching his protective barrier like his family. (I could be wrong about this though.)

A Sea Apart

I actually made a prediction of the water between Carmy and Sydney and how they are a sea/lake apart. This part of the article is so fascinating because it discusses that if the narrator gets shocked out of their fantasy, they’ll realize that the friend can’t help them in the way the narrator wants. I try to flip alot between Claire and Sydney when it refers to this friend in the article to see what makes more sense.

With the recent thought I’ve had in my meta about Carmy and how he could run away from kindness, would he also run away from it because he’s cemented in a strange fantasy?

I briefly discussed how season three’s theme is about isolation, guilt, and regression. Carmy felt fairly isolated from the whole group. It was so strange. Carmy was basically this roaming ghost that could talk, touch, and feel but was stuck inside the shackles of his own mind. A prisoner of his own creation.

It’s important to note the analysis talks about how the narrator desires to be nurtured by loved ones because of a potential worsening mental illness.

Carmy’s potential desire to be taken care of makes me think of the metas that we’ve discussed before.

I’ve explained before that Carmy may want to be taken care of but perhaps he feels like he needs to be fixed first. The tumultuous emotions could be a lot of things he’s been dealing with internally. It’s quite sad to think that Carmy might believe that his worsening mental illness could be alleviated but instead of reaching out, he isolates himself with it.

Hopefully in season four, Carmy tries to be more open to being vulnerable to his loved ones.

Carmy [Nice Dream]

As a person in my twenties, I’ve tried to be more introspective and have come to learn that certain situations should’ve been handled with more care and consideration. All of that to say, I’ve thought about how Carmy thinking that Claire is peace shouldn’t be fully shut down just yet.

Comfort, peace, and security could also have negative connotations. I did some research to see if anybody could describe it better than my constant struggle with pinning my thoughts and putting it all together in coherent sentences. I ended up finding something that I instantly thought of Carmy and Claire in an aspect.

Ever heard of the saying, “I’ve made my peace with it.” ? What if this is what’s going on?

make (one's) peace with (someone or something) - To reconcile or come to terms with a person or thing that was a previous source of stress, conflict, regret, etc.

Carmy could be resigned to any dynamic that’s similar to his family. With that growing comfort, it’s interesting to think about how going into the fridge could be his prison from reaching out. It’s making me think that Claire might be his bridge to preventing himself from truly connecting to others. Was he also getting comfortable in his guilt in season three?

Season four might have that answer.

I have one more part to this to tie it all together and I’ll be done making this series! Thanks to whoever read this and I’m very sorry it took so long to make lol! Feel free to disagree with any of these thoughts!!

I would absolutely love to hear your personal interpretation of this song! I wrote most of this back in August.

[anneofthethousandays]

The Horrors of Sacrificial Love: a Reimagining of Shauna Shipman

A disclaimer before I jump into this long-ass essay: I love Shauna Shipman, I love that she’s in her villain era, and I have absolutely no problems with the main story beats of season 3. I do, however, have MANY problems with the how’s and why’s of those story beats, particularly where Shauna’s character arc is concerned.

So this is my re-imagining of how, imo, Shauna *should* have become our final Antler Queen, without compromising any of the depravity we now know she's capable of, and how s3 could have truly capitalized on the idea of these ritualistic murders as a perversion of all-consuming love.

S1 of Yellowjackets introduced a lot of heavy, complex themes: religion, fanaticism, love and loyalty, and how those exact same themes play out in the context of The Wilderness vs. Teen Girlhood. We were set up for an exploration of mob mentality vs. group survivalism by showing us some largely ordinary girls committing grotesque acts of violence because the wilderness demanded it. But because a god is nothing without anyone to worship them, the girls and the wilderness are inextricably intertwined regardless of whether there's an actual supernatural entity or if it's all group psychosis/scientifically explainable. Yet for all of the violence we've seen, most of it was actually rooted in love: Misty cutting off Ben's mangled leg, Lottie allowing Shauna to beat her to a pulp, even the girls watching Javi drown because nobody wanted Natalie to die. I think s1 planted the seeds for this by immediately linking Jackie's heart necklace to both the hunt and to protection in the pilot episode ("Here. Now nothing can hurt you."), and solidified the idea when Shauna tearfully placed it on Nat in s2. What the girls are doing is horrible and indefensible. But it was done for the good of their teammates, friends, romantic partners. On a very surface level, the necklace is shorthand for "We love you, we're sorry, we will never forget that your ‘sacrifice’ kept us alive."

Now, all of that being said, what does this have to do with Shauna's character trajectory in s3, and how do we reconcile the monster she becomes with everything I outlined up above? The answer is that the story should have leaned into Shauna's grief for her son, and the girls' subsequent worship of the baby as part of The Wilderness.

It felt like the story was starting to head in this direction at the top of s3. While planning the solstice ceremony, Lottie instructed the girls to create a special headdress for Shauna “as the child’s mother,” which Shauna aggressively rejected. She’s visibly livid that her baby is being named during the ceremony. She goes as far as to dig up her baby just to give him a secret, dignified burial in private, away from the girls’ prying eyes, and when Melissa follows her, Shauna puts a knife to her throat. No matter what she does, the group clings to her baby in a perverse mourning ritual that Shauna neither consented to or was consulted for. Much like Akilah’s clearly metaphorical vision of Ben as their bridge home, Shauna’s post-birth fever dream of the group cannibalizing her son was a metaphor for their eventual consumption of his very being (as opposed to the Jackie aftermath, in which Shauna managed to keep them from consuming her memory, if not her body, by refusing to let them take Jackie’s clothes). To the team, this is Their Child. Apart from Lottie’s attempt to “crown” Shauna as his mother, Shauna was a complete afterthought in their collective grief.

Suppose, instead, that the writers continued to show us how Lottie lead regular ceremonies deifying their dead and The Wilderness. This is where Shauna’s rage begins to come to a head - but rather than becoming the feral attack dog we see in canon, she instead embraces this ritualistic role of The Mother that the team is insisting she accept - she’s already desperate to be a leader, and this is yet another form of leadership in the eyes of the cult. Shauna would absolutely justify her increasingly unhinged behavior as a last-ditch effort to protect her son: “You all want to metaphorically cannibalize my child by claiming him as your own? Fine. But you will do it through ME, his MOTHER. You will not separate us. You will not discard me. And I’m going to lead us in hunting our friends and lovers until you, too, understand the agony of watching the world devour the person you love most.”

We can also reimagine Shauna’s ascension to Antler Queen as less of a dictatorial power grab and more of a natural consequence for Natalie defying the group’s wishes concerning Ben. During the trial, Taissa verbalizing the reality of Ben’s abandonment of Shauna (and by extension Their Child) finalized his transformation into their own Judas. Of course Shauna would be livid that Natalie granted Ben a merciful death behind their backs - not only did she disrespect the group’s wishes, but she disrespected the memory of Shauna’s son by denying him the justice that Shauna, his mother, felt they were both owed. Sentencing Natalie to become the new butcher isn’t a final twist of the knife so much as Shauna dragging Nat with her into the pain of seeing someone she loves (Jackie, Javi, the baby, and now Ben) being physically and ritualistically dehumanized. Cue the girls finally turning on Natalie and accepting Shauna as their new leader, brutality and all.

(This could also add a fascinating layer to Shauna’s actions in the Pit Girl Hunt. She’d be furious that Van was playing god, so to speak. Shauna had no control over whether Jackie or her son lived, but Van, once the most fervent of believers, thinks herself above the chaos of the Wilderness and wants to rig the cards? As far as Shauna is concerned, this is akin to spitting on her child’s grave. Of course the Antler Queen, the very personification of the savage hunger of the Wilderness, is going to insert herself and deny Van the power over life and death.)

Which, of course, brings us back to Jackie’s necklace as a final symbol of love from the team to their intended victim. The victim sustains the others physically and spiritually - her “sacrifice” is indicative of how much love and respect the team has for her (or for him, in Ben’s case). It’s brutal and horrifying, but so is the intensity of the love these girls have for each other, platonic or otherwise: JackieShauna, TaiVan, MistyNat, LottieLee, even the Martinez brothers (Travis had so much trouble expressing his love for Javi, but he also went to extreme and grotesque lengths to care for him). The deeper meaning of the necklace, however, comes in the form of Shauna commanding them to “never forget this” during the Pit Girl Feast: the implicit threat here is that nobody should forget that this meat was once their friend Mari. Consume Mari’s body, but do not, under any circumstances, consume her essence. The necklace is a final farewell to their victim, and a visual warning to the group against dehumanizing her into yet another deity for the cult without acknowledging the weight of her loss (“Here. Now nothing can hurt you”).

Not only is this SO much more in keeping with the original themes and thesis of the show re: the power of groupthink and the ferocity of girlhood, but it also serves as another facet of the story’s fascination with the perversion of love in the face of societal expectations. Shauna couldn’t comprehend, much less indulge in, her love for Jackie due to the heteronormativity of post-AIDS 90s America, so she took the next best thing in sleeping with Jeff. Shauna couldn’t properly love, nevermind mourn, her baby because he was immediately appropriated by Lottie’s cult, so she does the next best thing and accepts their fetishized worship on the condition of loyalty. In her final effort to shield her son from being devoured, Shauna becomes the Wilderness’s demented version of Mother Mary, the Queen of Heaven (“I love the saints, they’re all so tragic”).

This also brings us back to Yellowjackets’ meditations on religious fanaticism and the perversion of sacrificial love, not to mention a fabulous deconstruction of motherhood as this pure and gentle thing. Shauna’s reclamation of power in this scenario is a complete inversion of Catholicism’s Virgin Mary, who gave birth to a son free of original sin knowing that he would ultimately die for the salvation of the world. Shauna’s son was conceived in many layers of sin, and was posthumously deified by the masses as a justification for their savagery. So of course she becomes the final, most vicious Antler Queen of all. She is a mother defending her child from being totally consumed in the only way she can (“It’s you and me against the whole world, kid”). She is the embodiment of The Wilderness’s demand that the girls understand the weight of their loves and losses. And if upholding these roles means means slaughtering the girls one by one so that they, too, can comprehend all-consuming grief, then so be it.

To wrap up, I want to reiterate that I am SO here for Shauna’s downward spiral into a monstrous, villainous Antler Queen. The bones of this descent are all there, but repositioning it as Shauna reconciling her ferocious anger with that of The Wilderness, and finding a way for that anger to coexist with Lottie’s cult, would have made her transformation so much more satisfying, and ultimately a richer, more delicious exploration of how Yellowjackets conflates extreme horror and extreme devotion.

[icy-watch]

And that was s2 of LEGO DreamZzz.

I'm legit still crying over here. I was not expecting it to hit me this hard, but when plots revolve around siblings... yeah.

Alright, no new villain was shown for s3, but I am cautiously eyeing 1 particular human who named himself King of the Creatures. It'd be a change up from the dream creatures being the antagonists.

Unless the turtles or the red pandas suddenly become villainous, he's really the only 1 I can see coming out of this season.

Either that, or he helps whatever antagonist comes next.

We didn't get much of Lunia this season. Mentions here and there, but not as much as last season. Which is fine. But it's making me think some things.

I know other people have probably given this hypothesis before, but my mind has been mulling it over since I went over all of my predictions for this season.

What is Lunia is the Never Witch's sister?

The timeline is... iffy. But it is possible.

Idk, it's just what my mind was thinking earlier today.

I had something else that crossed my mind before I started going over all of this, and I lost it. Ah, well.

Anyway, if you haven't voted yet on what movie(s) I'll liveblog next, let your voice be heard!

I'm going to take the next few days off to let the poll run its course, and then I watch whatever y'all selected for me. So, until then!

Correct and incorrect predictions are under the cut.

Correct

We won't see the Sandman for a while. Almost all season! TToTT

We’re going to get more information on the Night Hunter’s background in ep7. I wasn’t sure if we’d actually get that in ep7 or ep8, but we got it! And it’s sad.

Izzie will be the first to realize Madteo is Mateo. She knows her brother.

The Dream Chasers will have to go to the Gnorfs to fix the pocketwatch. Well, they did technically go there, but the Gnorfs never got to fix it.

Mr. Oz’s Landing will be space themed or in a space-y area. There was many space. Much stars. And danger ‘pedes.

The Never Witch will get all of the items she needs before the end of the season to complete her spell. This was pretty obvious. It’s legit in the story writing code for this to happen.

Izzie will make a lot of friends in the Beast Realm. She sure did. She also made a lifelong enemy - and locked him in a cage.

Dizzie will fill in for Izzie at Jose’s birthday party. And boy did she! So much chaos unleashed on the unsuspecting partygoers, Jose, and Jasmin.

The Night Witch will use Izzie against Mateo. She did, just not in the way I expected her to.

Incorrect

Logan and Cooper's friendship with Mateo will revert back to the way it was during ep1 bc of the memory loss. Thank goodness it didn't actually happen like that.

The Never Witch is gathering memories to either free herself or to become more powerful. She was gathering memories, just not for either of those reasons.

Izzie is not going to get her missing memory back until the midseason finale. A few episodes later…

Cooper is going to spend most of the season having to think around not having his tech skills. Putting this here, bc it is the rest of his life. 

Someone in the Never Witch’s past forgot about her. Forgot about her? No. Her sister could never forget about her.

The Never Witch will notice the tag on her raven and send the Dream Chasers on a wild goose chase. That would have been good.

Izzie’s going to lose her memory again. Thank goodness she didn’t.

The Never Witch’s twin was taken from her. Thankfully, her twin left on her own free well - to explore the Dreamworld.

The Nightmare King has the Crown of Control and it is the crown he’s wearing. Good news! He’s not. Terrible news! He’s not.

Logan is going to fit right into the Beast Realm. We were robbed. /j

Royce will have a change of heart about the Brooklyn Bureau at some point this season. Or die. Alas. But he did kind of get better as a person. Just a little bit.

Partial

Mateo is going to release the Nightmare King because he needs a friend. Well, he did release the Nightmare King. But not bc he needed a friend.

Neither Logan’s moms or teachers will realize anything is wrong with him after being doom domed. His teachers… this is kind of questionable, but it didn’t seem like any of them were really concerned that he was running around on all 4s after Diz. We, sadly, never got to see how his moms reacted.

The Never Witch wants to go back to the way things were so she can see her sister again. Yes but also no? If that makes sense.

Zoey and Mateo will use the memory the Never Witch locked away in a flask to get her to stop the spell. Another yes but also no. (Which is why it’s here). It seemed like that was the plan. But not entirely.

Unconfirmed

The Never Witch took Lunia's memories. Honestly, this would have been interesting.

The Never Witch’s sister became the first Dream Keeper. There’s nothing confirming or denying this, but it feels right.

The Never Witch needs a memory of a song for her spell. Putting this here bc it seemed like it was a something - especially since that was the memory taken from Logan and it seemed like it was a memory that was going to be taken from the Night Hunter.

The Never Witch will lock the doppelgangers away after she takes over the Dreamworld. Putting this down here, bc their actual fate of what would have happened to them once she completed the spell is unknown.

[the-other-art-blog]

The myths of Pygmalion & Dibutades in Benophie season (reality vs fantasy)

Just like s3 used the myth of Eros and Psyche as support for Polin's love story, these two myths can do wonders for Benophie.

Why?

Both myths talk about art and love, but also about reality vs fantasy, all major themes in Benophie's story.

Dibutades (left painting) was a young woman whose lover left. She traced the contour of his shade projected on a wall to remember him until he returned. This is considered the origin of painting/drawing. In s3, Benedict took a break from painting after the Academy fiasco, although it was clear his art was a point of conflict for him. Once he meets the LIS, he'll return to it, though privately, because he'll want to remember her.

Meanwhile, Pygmalion (right painting) was a man who sworn off women after finding them all lacking (fucking yerk). Because he was a gifted artist, he created a beautiful ivory sculpture of a woman and named her Galatea. Not surprisingly, he fell in love with her (like the idiot men who prefer robots to real women). In the end, Aphrodite turned Galatea into a real woman. Ignoring the obvious problematic aspects typical of Greek mythology, I can see Benedict longing for Aphrodite to come and bring his drawings of the LIS to life.

Fantasy vs Reality

The question of fantasy vs reality permeates both myths. How much of Dibutades' lover truly remained in that drawing? How much of the LIS is in Benedict's drawings? Same for Pygmalion. The sculpture was not a real woman; it was his fantasy. Does Benedict know what he's getting if the LIS comes back?

Something about Benophie is that the time they spent apart altered their memories of the masquerade. As intense as their first meeting was, it only lasted 2 hours. That's all they had for 2 YEARS. Naturally, memories get fussy and imagination fills in the gaps. Over and over again, Benedict and Sophie compare their dreams about each other with reality.

Benedict didn't remember her voice or eyes, not even the feeling of her kiss, but he imagined her.

Then he met Sophie and everything got confusing. Book!Benedict has internal conflicts whenever he thinks of a future with Sophie. He's always comparing her with the LIS, one being an ideal but distant memory and the other a real but unsuitable person standing in front of him.

The inclusion of Pygmalion and Galatea's myth serves also as a representation of Benedict's apprehension of the LIS, which prevents him from seeing the real Sophie and marry her.

There's a whole process where Benedict gives up the LIS because she represented a fantasy. Much like Pygmalion, LIS existed to serve his desires for the perfect woman. I can't remember a moment when Benedict thought of the possibility that the LIS had found someone else. He was sure she'd marry him once he found her again. In contrast, Benedict got frustrated with Sophie whenever she didn't accept his offer. She was real with a mind of her own, one that didn't agree with him.

Once he realizes the LIS and Sophie are the same woman, there's no way of avoiding reality anymore: Sophie is a servant and an illegitimate daughter.

He got Pygmalion's miracle, although the real Sophie was not as ideal as he thought. But she was still real and better for that reason (I can't say Pygmalion was equally happy about Galatea).

Meanwhile, Sophie dreamed of Benedict as her Prince Charming.

It all crashed when they met again at Cavender's party. Suddenly, Sophie realizes Benedict might not be the man she thought he was.

Of course, Benedict is not like Cavender, as Sophie soon realizes when he rescues her, but he still goes to the party. In the show, we've seen Benedict attending parties, drinking, getting high, and having casual sex, behavior I'm sure won't be part of Sophie's fantasy. Nevertheless, this is the real Benedict.

Sophie also goes through a process where she meets the real Benedict. He can be the same considerate and romantic man she has loved for 2 years, but he can also be infuriating. Even though Jess promised a more delicate and sensitive Benedict, he's still not the perfect prince. He has a lot of issues, including terrible commitment fears and impostor syndrome.

She's like Dibutades, holding on to the memory of her lover, but when he comes back, he's different.

Sophie as a real person

Another aspect of Sophie's character is her status as a servant. Unfortunately, the ton does not see servants as real people which is why they do whatever they want with them. They had to be as invisible as possible, even using different stairs and entrances.

She hid her true identity cause she knew her dreams wouldn't come true.

However, this situation changes for Sophie when she remeets Benedict.

Even more, it's like she came back to life!

Drawings vs Oil Painting

Lastly, I want to point out in the book, Sophie convinces Benedict to try oil painting. Eventually, this takes him to the National Gallery!

I think this could also be symbolic. Drawings can be works of art in themselves, but oil painting brings color to them, brings life. This also follows a long debate of the supremacy of painting vs sculpture. For painters, color was a quality that sculpture could not replicate (back when Western sculptures were white because they thought that's how Greeks and Romans did it, but they were just washed away). So they thought paintings were superior because they were more life-like.

I like to think Sophie brought color and lifeliness to Benedict's art through oil painting.

I know the probability of getting the mythological references are almost 0, but at least they should keep this last point of Benedict's art. I hope to see Benedict mainly sketching. We've already seen him using oils, but since he's depressed and dubious of his talent, he may stick to sketches.

I have an idea for a fic that I will publish soon.

Thanks for reading!

I have many more posts about Benophie in my tag:

#BENOPHIE WISH LIST

BENOPHIE MASTERPOST (Regular Updates)

Here are some previous benophie posts that talk about art:

🎨Artistic headcanons 🎨

🎨Benedict as a Romantic artist (freedom from the Academy, landscapes, John Constable)🎨

🖼️Art that could be in Benophie season🖼️ - Landscapes, Cinderella, vanitas, Saint Sebastian, and bubbles

COMING SOON: Benophie is PRISMATIC

[mdhwrites]

If you have already addressed this issue please feel free to ignore what follows and direct me to your appropriate post.

I'd like your thoughts on fans who, went confronted with writing flaws in The Owl House they can't headcanon away, default to blaming Disney's cancellation for the show not being perfect. They will even do this for writing flaws that were evident well before Disney pulled the plug.

I have absolutely tackled this from a LOT of directions, such as how the early writing was not actually as good as we think it was, it just had a lot of potential, how S2A nukes much of that potential, how the found family was never real, how themes were always fucked, etc. like that to the opposite where I pointed out that for S3, ANY sort of S3 that was anything like what we got, S2B essentially had to be exactly what it was before so either S3 was inherently flawed by a godawful setup where you have no threats and most characters wrapped up entirely or TOH has always been full of it and wanted way more than three seasons which makes a lot of sense for how TOH has some of the slowest storytelling in all of kid's media. Oh, and of course the fact that they kept adding to the story and threats even after the shortening, such as the fact that the Collector only ever shows up in a dream sequence before S2B and even the creators have admitted they threw it at the wall in response to the shortening because they just wanted to see what happened.

For today though, I want to mention that in my Discord, someone linked a Reddit post that called the second episode kind of boring. That's it. Second episode wasn't great but the rest of the series was. As far as softball complaints go, you don't go much simpler. However, the top comment on it still had a person who seemingly out of reflex decided they had to bring up the shortening for the SECOND. EPISODE.

They didn't bring up Disney meddling.

They didn't bring up that it was finding its footing.

They didn't even bring up potential good points of the second episode, something even I could.

It was the shortening before anything else for something that happened over a season before the shortening took effect.

The shortening was the best possible thing to ever happen to TOH's Legacy. Not TOH itself, I'm not that big of a dick, but to its legacy. Anything that is praised as rampantly as TOH was is always due for a backlash, whether reasonable or not. Steven Universe went through this. She-Ra went through this. Frozen went through this. Bioshock Infinite is INFAMOUS for how its re-evaluation destroyed it as we all realized that even for the time, it wasn't good storytelling and just not a great game either.

This larger backlash has never happened to TOH because there's an impenetrable shield for many. "Disney screwed it over. A full S3 would have made it perfect." All complaints can be deflected because they can be blamed on someone else, something the show even encourages mentally due to how it treats Hunter, Lilith, The Collector and, of course, Amity. As such, people who might have normally seen my blogs and actually had to pause and question the show don't. I'm being unfair after all by not considering its production, which is admittedly a pretty shitty way to analyze media because we still need to evaluate the end product. People still call Molly McGee's ending being rushed despite being so much more cruelly treated than TOH's.

BUUUUUT I also think this is why ten years down the line... It's going to be forgotten. New people will come to the show and maybe they'll like it but they won't be able to love it. The cracks are obvious to any who perceive it. You can still enjoy it of course but to be diehard like the fans right now? You need something to plaster over it and those won't be in as active discussion ten years later. You won't have had an entire season of bracing yourself for any criticism like TOH's fandom had after S2A. It's a show doomed by its late stage flaws to be terrible for those who binge it who are unlikely to like it enough to want to see why this happened. Maybe word of mouth spreads it but like... If you look at the ratings, they were never much more impressive than Amphibia so bare minimum, a more rabid fanbase only ever got TOH more piracy, if it actually got it that much larger a fanbase, especially amongst normal people and not all of us, myself included, who are chronically online.

There's also a lot of stuff about TOH that falls into this category. Raine will seem almost worthless once a popular cartoon with an NB character with, you know, an actual character shows up. Lumity will seem pathetically written once an actually nuanced couple in animation shows up. Belos will lose so much of his bite once there are not a billion people screaming colonialism/racism about the generic evil dictator. TOH is propped up with excuses and accolades that make people think it is beyond reproach. That criticizing it is wrong and thus never evaluate their own thoughts on the show.

They stay in their bubble, dreaming of a S3 that doesn't, and couldn't, have ever existed. Swept up by their sweet lies, they shall stay in their fantasy world just like Luz did. See you next tale.

======+++++======

I wonder if a lot of this is also why I've only gotten one person on Tumblr to REALLY try and wage war on me. My blogs are too long and thorough to refute easily or just get mad over. I've had people try of course, some who try to dissect my blogs but their posts go nowhere and their arguments are limp because when you're up against someone like me... Well, I'm proud of what I do here, even if I do it as casually as I do.

That or how long my blogs are makes people not interested in things critiquing TOH just skip them. Also, I didn't link specific blogs because Tumblr's search function sucks and so I have no idea if I'd even be able to find them.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[raayllum]

Will you ever do a long meta on Runaan's character arc? If not, that's okay. I just think that there would be a lot of aspects to unravel.

I've written a few Runaan metas in the past:

Callum & Runaan parallels (probs my longest meta on him thus far)

Some Ezran & Runaan thoughts

Rayla (+ Runaan) going into S7

Mini meta: Runaan & 3 doorways/thresholds

Mini meta: Runaan's similarities to Claudia (post-s3)

but none have ever been particularly long, I think. Part of this is because I put a LOT of my thoughts on Runaan and how he operates into "if time is money" (a now wildly canon divergent post-s3 decoining fic, but in terms of characterization + headcanons verging on analysis, I think it holds up very well).

The other part is a few things, I think, said with a lot of love for his character:

1) Runaan is mostly characterized through his bond with Rayla (her characterization / her understanding of their culture) given that he just isn't in the majority of the show, and isn't usually the Focus even when he is (i.e. in 7x02, he's effectively a plot device with very few lines and makes zero choices other than agreeing to go with Rayla). A lot of Rayla's actions are also in opposition to what he (or her troupe) would want (see bulk of arc 1) or are because of her own mindset(s) she's taken from him / her other parents years ago (arc 2), so it's also not super effective at exclusively characterizing him (which I don't think is the intent, anyway). (That said, the question of where the distinction between Rayla's internalization of Runaan vs Lain&Tiadrin's teachings or mindsets, the difference between them if there is literally one or just one in what her or her parents' takeaways of each other's are, could be interesting.)

For an alternative example, Harrow is also not in much of the show but we routinely get flashbacks or dream visions with him. He, as an individual, heavily influences Ezran and Viren as characters as well, and we consistently see how in specific ways (often directly quoting him, referencing him; making decisions based in specific opposition or alignment, etc).

2) On the one hand, Runaan is both very connected to the themes of the story — he starts off perpetuating the cycle, does a 180, develops worldbuilding, helps kick off the monster motif and mirror foreshadowing — and very limited in his thematic scope at the same time. His primary concept is being "already dead," but there are characters in the story who embody it better by having been literally dead (Viren) and/or killed (Aaravos) for example. Most of his thematic groundwork is there to serve Rayla and when he does re-enter the narrative, he's mostly there to challenge Ezran. This makes sense, he is a side character and they are main characters, but it does mean most of his character — at least to me, as evidenced in my metas linked above — is deciphered relationally rather than individually. And one of my joys of true foil examination is being able to carve characters out as individuals and then see how they exist together in the narrative; Runaan largely just has the latter. A lot of his character / thoughts is speculation (what are his views on dark magic, for instance?) and while I deeply enjoy speculation for lore, it's not as much my cup of tea for characterization.

3) Runaan's character arc doesn't have a ton of stages. I think this is one of the reasons why — despite writing a fair bit of Ruthari — neither him nor them haven't held my long lasting attention in terms of meta. Like: we can do speculation on Runaan's childhood (which I have in detail; linked fic above) wherein he perpetuates the cycle. He is then regretful in the coin and out of the coin; after being saved he is readily forgiven and loved by his family members who harbour zero anger or pushback towards him; he regrets killing King Harrow and decides (presumably) to no longer being an assassin. Ethari loves and supports him and doesn't try to sway him even in all of these decisions (outside of telling him that Rayla probably wasn't ready, which he folded on anyway) and I'm a bitch who THRIVES on fictional interpersonal conflict up the wazoo.

Getting him from Point A to the last stage has always been the most interesting part of Runaan to me, hence writing like 100k about it, but it's not heavily explored in canon, nor are there that many ways to get in (in fic, Ezran was his breaking point; in show, Ezran is his breaking point, albeit in different ways/fonts).

It's kind of like... what is Runaan's character arc now? They could dream up one for him that would be super interesting and I'd very happily eat my words, but I can't really deduce one right now beyond "post-7x09 Runaan will have changed to not want to sacrifice anymore, and will influence Rayla to do the same" in arc 3. Other than that he is presumably going to be... vibing? And that's just less interesting to me than characters who are being heavily challenged or pushed to change / reveal new sides to their characters, or who have narrative tension stapled on top where yeah things are fine now but you know they're inevitably going to Snap (arc 2 Terry and Ezran).

I also think, much like Soren, a lot of what we see is what we get. Runaan has like, one (1) cognitive dissonance (being an assassin) and it's directly addressed blatantly in canon. He's grumpy and a bit stern but not necessarily overtly judgemental, and despite being secretive we always know 100% of what his secrets and feelings are. It's a bit open-and-shut (again like Soren, who despite adoring I also don't write a ton of meta for) and that's less interesting to me from a pyschological standpoint. He's almost too easy to understand so I don't feel the need often times to dig deeper.

ALL OF THIS SAID, there are a lot of interesting things about Runaan, and probably lots of things smarter / more invested (in him) people have noticed that I have not. Additionally, here are some other interesting things I noticed:

Runaan's "you cannot carry his pain for him" being something that both enabled Runaan's ability to be an assassin/shirk the pain he inflicted, and something he had to then accept more internalized responsibility for in 7x09 ("I see now that you carry that pain inside you")

"And yet you've managed to lead with grace and kindness" about Ezran for a king / side of the boy he's never truly personally seen but undoubtedly knows about and believes in (who told him — Rayla? Callum? Delicious)

All of his Viren parallels, down to the "hand / arm wrap thin white strip of cloth" etc etc (1x01, 2x08) and monster parallels.

Runaan eventually visiting Katolis and the Valley of the Graves

Runaan's potentially changing position in the village following no longer being an assassin

If people ever wanted to suggest aspects or drop request for specific Runaan related things in my askbox, I'd definitely be down to look into it and it may get the gears going. But as is, he just doesn't grate my cheese, most of the time.

[gingergofastboatsmojito]

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#GINGERPOVS BEAR META °Masterlist°

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So here you will be able to find all my musings, all my POVs, all my theories, metas (?), etc about this show that I love soooo much. Enjoy, follow the #tag & share, please!

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🐻 Sydcarmy themed↓

Not being capable of saying "I'm sorry"

Leading with the ❤️

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Come back

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The Bear

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773

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We may never meet again

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🐻 Miscellaneous ↓

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Season 4 Predictions Vol.1

Remember to Reblog this thingy and thank you so much for loving The Bear! 💋

[markantonys]

WoT s3 album drop at midnight!! No singles which makes me sad, but I wrote up my thoughts on the track list and am curious what you think? Any wishlist items?

AAAAAHHHHH i'm so excited!!! and i love all your thoughts on the track list, they feel like good guesses!

it's so interesting that rand and perrin are getting new themes. but now they join egwene, nynaeve, and mat in having a theme that is named after the character; maybe the s1 "dragon reborn" and "goldeneyes" themes may transition into being somewhat more about the overall concept of TDR and wolfbrothers than rand and perrin specifically. though i do absolutely adore the s1 TDR theme so i hope it doesn't get pushed TOO far aside in favor of the new rand theme haha that's always my dilemma, i'm excited for new themes but i still want to continue hearing the existing themes get used a lot!

not sure if you were able to watch the early 3x01 screening on saturday, but the end credits music for that episode was a song with a singer singing - i don't remember at all what the lyrics were, but i wonder if it might be one of the tracks included on this album that lists an additional artist besides lorne balfe.

alas, elayne will have to keep waiting for her individual theme! that's okay with me though, i can imagine the andor theme will be versatile enough to fit moments with her as well as with the Royal House (like how the aes sedai theme keeps getting used for big nynaeve channeling moments instead of her individual character theme, to the point where there's that one particular variation of it that feels like it's Nynaeve's Theme TM even though it also applies to aes sedai more broadly).

wild thought, could "the maiden in the dream" be about lanfear creeping on rand's dreams and trying to style herself all egwene-like in his randgwene memories?

i wonder if "the hills of tanchico" might end up being an in-world folk song. they've teased that characters will sing in tanchico!

and my biggest question of all, do we think this is solely the Themes album and there will be an additional album released closer to the end of the season with the in-show music, as has happened with prior seasons, or is it only going to be the one album this time and it's a mix of Themes and in-show? i dearly hope for the former!! i want as much officially-released s3 music as possible!