#ep: mother's day

[dailytalesofarcadia]

TOP 5 EPISODES OF SEASON 2 OF 3BELOW AS VOTED BY OUR FOLLOWERS

↳ 3rd Place: Mother's Day

[pronouncingitwang]

something something the spark in claudia's eyes at "a woman vampire!" the way she starts off translating for louis then just talks to daciana alone ignoring his requests for her to translate what she's saying when it used to just be her and louis and their secret language of telepathy against lestat and the way she uses romanian (a language she worked and killed to learn while louis was slowing them down. when she first introduces him to those soldiers she says he can't speak!!!) aloud instead of telepathically so he knows exactly in what way he's being shut out of the conversation but she's not even thinking about that she's just so happy about finally not being alone

[artbyfuji]

She left me roses by the stairs,Surprises let me know she cares.

[mybrainproblems]

hello, i'm finales georg...

i don't want to further clutter up the notes on this post while responding to the tags below but the persistence of the "finale is short/scenes are missing/extra ad break” conspiracies drives me absolutely bananas when i've watched the finale ten times and have posted about this A LOT trying to clear things up. (disclaimer that yes, i'm a goddamn destiel shipper but i care about Facts above all.)

ok but this is weird because i'd swear the episode was shorter (11 missing scenes!) but okay. maybe we all mandela effected ourselves into #beleving that. because it felt shorter. but i will die on the hill that it had another ad break. i understand this person has the thing #recorded with ads so i am thinking maybe different ad breaks in different idk time zones??? #because the finale did air an hour earlier in canada so maybe idk i am reaching here but maybe different states or whatever had different #ad breaks??? as for the last minute changes - wasn't the cover band asked for permission to use their version of carry on like a week before #the thing aired??? so even if the episode was 42 minutes and had no additional ad break - which i am side eying but lets say all was normal #i will always say they were changing thing until the absolute last minute (carry on my wayward son X 2 #the crew on the bridge which is not only giant 4th wall breaking but also wow they really got all those people in one place in times of #covid???) #anyway. tinfoil hat stays on sorry guys :/ (via @officialmisha)

short and snarky: there are plenty of real and sourced examples of network homophobia and scripted/directed destiel scenes being cut to point to. we don’t need to make this stuff up just bc the finale wasn’t what we wanted. so it’s not the mandela effect — it’s ppl repeating a conspiracy/rumor bc it supports their narrative and it’s easier and more fun to repeat something that supports a narrative they already believe (misha or something destiel was cut) vs the boring act of fact checking.

longer circumspect answer with links bc like many ppl i am in my debunking era and i rewatched "roblox_oof" last night.

like i said. i've watched the finale ten times. i’ve gone over the episode with a fine toothed comb and posted a detailed breakdown of timing marks on my blog. it’s actually extremely obvious where the ad breaks are once you know roughly where to look for them (they have a longer fade to black instead of a quick cut scene change). there’s no room for extra ad breaks and i think this conspiracy/rumor persists in part bc the episode feels so sparse in terms of cast and the fact that the episode’s momentum hits a barn post (and rebar) less than 20min into an hour-long programming block.

also i’m begging ppl to actually look at that timing mark post. it’s very straightforward and i spent a lot of time on it. i don’t care if ppl plagiarize it at this point if it means this conspiracy stops. i've got almost every second accounted for.

the "eleven missing scenes" that you're thinking of are probably from the finale script of questionable authenticity that @spnscripthunt acquired back in 2021 which can be found here. it's dated as the “final draft” from 11 sep 2020 and filming on 15x20 wrapped on 10 sep 2020. as noted at the bottom of this superwiki page "[the] script came from someone claiming to have been the person who did the closed captions for the show in Russia. There are some indications that it possibly may not be authentic, but this has not been confirmed."

if we go with the possibility that this was a transcript meant for subtitles, the "omitted" scenes were probably written but never filmed since it's the "final draft" and not a color revision (blue, green, yellow, etc). unfortunately, i’ve lost track of where i read it and a preliminary duckduckgo search isn’t bringing it up bc there's a program for script writing called final draft, but iirc the “final draft” version of a script is a transcript of what was filmed (e.g. there are parts of that 15x20 script that ended up being deleted scenes on the DVD). spnscripthunt also has an example of a confirmed final draft for 09x02 (funnily enough, also a dabb-penned ep). if anyone can confirm with a source that i have the purpose of the “final draft” version designation wrong, please let me know! i love being proven wrong with Facts.

i do want to acknowledge that the two “final drafts” do look different from each other and the 15x20 one doesn't look like a “real” final draft script since it lacks the revision/versioning dates that a script would normally have on the cover page. it could be that it was intended for subtitles; there's the chance it's been re-typed to anonymize it if there was anything indicating who the "owner" was, tho that seems a wee bit cloak and dagger to me. and again: it's considered of questionable authenticity. there are some things that don't quite line up but oh dear god i don't want to get even further out into the weeds than i already am.

i won't disagree that it's weird as hell that neoni only got asked about using their cover seven days prior to the episode airing (tiktok here). my personal theory is that they were hoping to get a more expensive song (maybe a zepp song, idk) and didn't manage to secure the rights in the end. again: this is pure conjecture on my part! but i could absolutely see someone working on the show hearing neoni’s cover and liking it and then maybe they were using it as a placeholder until it got down to the wire and they had to make a call/send the ep to networks. because yes, it is baffling they played a song and then a cover of it with only a 40 second break between. (i do actually really like the neoni cover! the placement is just weird and i think it could have worked if they had the kansas version at the beginning and closed with neoni's full cover.)

as to the 4th wall break COVID stuff: robert singer talked with variety magazine about filming the last two episodes and the logistics of filming during a pandemic. whether they should have been filming during a pandemic is a separate discussion but their use of office vs set pods, strict quarantining and daily testing meant that they had zero positive tests in the month they were filming (18 aug to 10 sep). so given all that, i personally don’t think it’s totally out of pocket to have everyone standing outdoors on a bridge for maybe an hour to get a drone shot of them together. (i won’t get into incubation periods and viral load, but if everyone tested negative that day and every day for a month prior, it was a fairly low risk scene to film outdoors and for all we know everyone was masked until the last possible second. there were plenty of outdoor masked protests in 2020 that weren't superspreader events.)

and before anyone brings up “but misha was in vancouver!” i know someone who looked into it and they said no dice, nothing matched up between the backgrounds in those pics and places in vancouver. his statements about “us” going back to set over the summer were pretty generic in hindsight and “we”/"us" could be him or the spn crew generally. unfortunately i’m not able to find those tweets but the use of “we” was likely so as not to give away he wouldn’t be returning to set. (bc we were absolutely casbaited!) and bc it comes up a lot: the "onion field pic" was from when they were filming 15x17 and was not taken while filming 15x19 and 15x20.

besides, it would be ridiculous to go through the financial and logistical headaches of bringing someone into the country to film during a pandemic, only to cut their scenes in the end! honestly, the script is pretty tight when the scenes are given so much breathing room! the only thing i could see being further cut down is The Monologue and even then, i don’t think there was any intent to cut it down given it was filmed in fairly long takes.

i’ve said it many times before, but i believe the finale was fucked long before they returned to set. walker got the green light in sep 2019 and it was being marketed heavily as a “follow on” show to spn given jared’s involvement. the demo they were courting for walker has little to no overlap with the demo for destiel fans — why would they want a finale that catered to a demo they weren't interested in courting? we just went through a historic double strike that exposed so much of the rot of business interests overriding creative vision. this isn't completely unfounded conjecture.

i will not apologize for the length of this bc i wanted to be thorough, but i do want to give context that i think the reason these conspiracies and rumors grind my gears so much is because anyone can fact check all of this. the truth is out there and absolutely none of it is that hard to find. the most time consuming/difficult part of this was finding someone who had a DVR’d copy of the finale from when it aired live and they actually found me themselves after i’d been low key asking around for a year!

and like. i get it. conspiracies are fun. but there are so many sourced instances of network homophobia and destiel being cut that it's like. why is this something folks are hanging onto? the cw is notorious for having upper level meddling with finales bc there's a follow-on show they want to shuffle fans along to and spn is no exception.

[lazyveran]

shego shld have been all over mrs possible like a rash

[lizmitches]

if melissa makes regular appearances at howard family events it makes me wonder more than ever about the implications of their private/intimate/two-person christmas parties like ??

[shania-twain]

[caracolcondiarrea]

I love how Sheldon is canonically a SpongeBob fan.

[this-world-of-beautiful-monsters]

the thing is that lisbeth and karen are cloth and wire mommies but they keep switching roles depending on which Diaz brother you're talking to. for Sean Lisbeth is the cloth mommy who talks a nice soft game but whose promises are all empty bullshit, while Karen is the wire mommy whose very presence is painful but who provides support he desperately needs. for Daniel Lisbeth is the wire mommy whose rules are harsh and whose demands are physically exhausting, but who provides communion and Communion, provides the maternal nutrients he's been starved for his whole life, so he chooses her over Karen, who tries to prevent a softer alternative in the church, but isn't offering him anything tangible based in his memory. because the monkeys only reached for the wire mommies when they needed food and the brothers are both so starved in their own ways, so they hold on tight until there's nothing left and then they have to cling onto each other instead.

[amyriadfthings]

Sometimes you´re out grocery shopping and idly browsing the frozen veg section when you suddenly remember that the queen threw up after Erik´s death when Wille said he´s always been compared to his brother and Wille threw up when he realized he´s going to have to keep being crown prince.

And you think about similar reactions to stress of parent and child and you remember the queen told Wille to take three deep breaths when he freaked out over Simon´s date and how she sends him to therapy to control his outbursts (ugh).

And you think where did it all go wrong that she can´t ever connect with her son when she´s obviously got some experience in that department. I think we meet her so far into her own history of controlling her emotions that she´s unable and mostly unwilling to connect even when Wille is outright asking her to be his mom (gah!), because oh hey, those would be more emotions she would need to allow to break through, and those walls are staying. Maybe in her mind even for Wille´s own good, to teach him how it´s done.

And there´s certainly reasons for those walls and it´s probably part self-protection and probably people telling her from a young age she needs to have them, and probably also because she´s a woman on the throne, so people would probably insist a little extra on them.

The most honest and raw I´ve seen her in the show is the moment she throws up.

(I usually question what she´s saying to Wille or August, no matter what warm or soft tone she´s using about what the court allegedly wants her to do, how it´s not really her, and how she actually supports Wille etc, as she´s been proven to manipulate Wille (and August in S2) into doing what she thinks is best for the institution she´s the head of. The one whose survival is always the priority, as per her own words.)

She´s shown to do royal business in what looks like pyjamas after all, the most casual and private of clothes, telling us there´s no separation, ever, that she´s always the queen. She rolls her eyes at her son after ending a phone call in which a rattled Wille sits among shards of glass negotiating with her (!), after she wanted to forcibly remove him from school. She doesn´t ever truly seem torn or conflicted, except that one time she throws up.

When her emotional core literally breaks its way out of her against her will.

No wonder she completely underestimates Wille and the depth and power for change his emotions hold after he´s finally allowed some therapy (that he could have used long ago just for growing up in that institution) and experienced actual emotional growth and healing instead of using it for control like she probably has. No wonder she and the court collectively underestimate Simon and what his love, what their love and connection mean to Wille. (Looking at you, Jan-Olof, allowing Wille a moment with Simon, you fool!) It´s simply been too long behind those impenetrable walls that she can´t even see it anymore. Until her son shows her. And you wonder if he´s even breaking through to her, or if she´s just been confirmed in her fears about his emotional unruliness and will dig in deeper inside her fortress. (Another time if feels like we see some honest emotion from her is of course in S1 when she´s visibly angry as she says that nobody ever chooses the royal life, so maybe Wille can relay Boris´ message about choosing how to live your life to her? Maybe she´s not beyond Boris´ wisdom. Anyway.)

The show shines such an unforgiving light on that institution that chokes all feelings and individual freedom out of you, especially over such a long time as with the queen, but I love love love how hopeful and defiant Wille´s journey of deliberate progress is in the face of it.

And I do hope he´ll continue therapy and never allows his own walls back up once they´re down.

[ouroboroscully]

emily was going to be buried with scully’s crucifix necklace on!!!! emily was going to be buried with scully’s crucifix necklace on!!!! emily was going to be buried with scully’s crucifix necklace on!!!! oh my god oh my god!!!!!!!!!! the gravity of this oh my god

[docholligay]

I hope at least once in this show, Winry gets to just fucking LAY YOU OUT FLAT. I want this for her. I dream of this for her. Winry I will help you beat Ed up and I hope he cries.

I know you're six, but "A doll without a mind" EDWARD DO YOU HEAR YOURSELF.

Actually this is more proof to me that their mom has done a shitty job letting them know anything about alchemy and how it works, and more importantly, what the inviolable rules of it are. Guns can be really fun too, and they can be useful, but they can also be very very dangerous and deadly, and their mom is the equivalent of some idiot with a bunch of unsecured guns who isn't teaching her kids anything but "cool!"

Please read me before commenting or sending an ask!

[causeimcrayzeebee]

my current arsenal of fixations is insane cause wdym my brain has different parts that are thinking about gay teenagers trying to navigate being a gay teenager, gay teenagers with a whole world in their phone to help them cope with their issues, gay teenagers singing and dancing while still recovering from war ptsd, and gay teenagers killing each other and watching each other die

[3416]

I hope you don’t mind me asking, but what’s the deal with Mitch and his dad? Last night prompted a lot of Mitch Daddy Issues Marner comments and I was kinda lost. I know he started hockey like. Ridiculously young and there was one video I saw where he mentioned something about like a hockey deal with his dad where he was like yeah I won’t get into that and it had iffy vibes but?

i don't know like. full full details either tbh. but there is this vid from when mitch was little and he and his dad were in a local news story and that's one of the first things i ever saw about mitch. i think his dad's just been a pretty extreme helicoptor parent and made disparaging comments about how ppl dont take mitch seriously bc of his personality and involved himself in mitch's contract negotiations w the leafs to a degree that reflected badly on mitch. i think you can tell how there are definitely problems with their relationship in the way he talks about his dad to the media and how his "father" knows not to mention hockey around him bc he doesn't want to hear it... the evolution of that relationship where mitch now no longer wants him involved. to me......... he just kind of seems like a guy that was like way too heavily invested in his young kid getting into this sport and there's definitely something fractured there bc mitch has a lot of warmth for his mom and his brother when he talks about his family, but sometimes his dad is excluded from that. (AND as a purely speculative section to this, it's interesting that mitch finds himself very attached to dad figures on the team like patrick marleau, matt martin, jumbo, muzz, bogo, etc... like clearly there are some Feelings there and potentially a paternal void that he likes to fill by glomming on to men who aren't afraid to give him affection praise and love that he definitely craves.... there's an essay to be written abt this but i'll save it for someone funnier)

[archerbeans]

Ok I'm genuinely annoyed at the fact there has been no Halloween or Thanksgiving episode this season, like this show is literally known and iconic for their themed episodes and have always been some of the most high effort episodes. Bob Actually has LITERALLY won an award. This season has been pretty decent but its extremely frustrating especially for the biggest fans of this show to not have its themed episodes. I hope it makes up for it.

[evilpenguinrika]

SO.

that shmuck that came by months ago to check on our water leaking (re: the niagara falls in my goddamn fucking bathroom) and claimed it was "condensation" (yeah, because condensation will totally cause water pouring out of my ceiling/air vent like fucking piss) was totally wrong about what was going on and they sent an actual person who actually cares about these water leaks

TURNS OUT IT'S ALL UPSTAIR NEIGHBOURS FAULT like they're unsure if something was clogged in their toilet pipes or if there was a burst, but they cannot check because the inspector deals with vents and not an actual plumber so we're--and I mean the upstair neighbours--is going to have to call a plumber and deal with this bullshit. ALso turns out when they flushed their toilet to check where the leak was coming from, we very much saw where the leak was happening and also turns out their bathroom floor was flooded with water too which, gross. And the inspector person said that it's all on upstair neighbours to deal with this issue and not us because they're the ones causing damages

listen buddy

if you've been renting out your place as an illegal airbnb and the guests who started this whole shit back in 2019 are the ones at fault

i will astral project myself up and haunt your ass and I don't care if that's just gonna make me vulnerable to the astral entity trying to get me preggers so they can exist in the real world, I don't care

this shit started back in 2019 and y'all lied about having "fixed your toilet" so many times and even had the caretaker be in on this lie as an accomplice

or, if you are just an unfortunate owner taking over the assholes who decided they were gonna flush unflushables down a toilet, then I am so sorry you're dealing with this shitty aftermath maybe you can hunt those previous owners down and make them pay you for damages or something idk is that legal lol

also, also, turns out another unit is having the same problem as us with their upstair neighbour flooding their bathroom (all on different floors) so that's interesting and I hope they also get that issue fixed because nobody wants to have toilet water dripping down on them