#have you ever thought about how tango ultimately ended up sacrificing himself anyways

[tubbytarchia]

Some Tango, rancher and Etho (!?) thoughts as I finished up Tango's POVs for 3rd, Limited and Secret Life

I've said it before and I'll say it again, it is near empty in this skull of mine so bear with my poor analysis skills if you can call it that. This is walls of text that I'm not expecting anyone to fully read but it's nice to get my own thoughts in order for the future, somewhat!

ahem Tango thoughts

Tango's loyalty KILLS ME. Similarly to Impulse in 3rd Life he recognizes the value in allyship but struggles to maintain any concrete ones, and then goes from a double agent to someone playing all sides, but even so, whoever his allies are at a given moment, unless he's been severely wronged by them, he's straight devoted to them. He seems to switch on a dime in 3rd life going from team to team, but that's not because of lack of care and he puts his best foot forward for them anyway. He wants to be trusting of and trusted by Etho even after their alliance strains, he was quick to defend the Crastle and offer reassurance to Cleo even after declaring the Crastle to be his enemies, he fought against Dogwarts alongside Impulse, refusing to back off even when it became certain death after Impulse died, etc

He might have a tendency to die stupid deaths but he did seem to have his value recognized unlike Last Life, where he was allied with the same people for almost all of it. He sacrificed a lot for team BEST to ultimately get no more than a pat on the back. I already made a post about this but I'm not gonna shut up about it!! The way he kind of gets tossed around begrudgingly when he's very rightfully upset about Dbubs killing him, and others just keep joking about his anger and treating him as dispensable, ahh it saddens me. Skizz WAS nice to him but even he, in the end, came over to try and threaten and intimidate Tango once he was red. Reds in Last Life took the breaking of any previous alliances seriously, as did Tango once he was also red, but even so

Then ofc Double Life <3

And in Limited and Secret Life he seems to have his value largely recognized again and is able to secure good teams, to whom, again, he's SO loyal to. He always has been, ever since 3rd Life and even in Last Life after the boogie incident. I don't think he ever wronged his teammates in ANY substantial way. He very openly made a deal for Scar to kill BDubs and that's probably the worst he's done, and even then, not like Scar did a very good job... But Tango is also someone who often talks big game (eg "oh just wait until I'm red" etc) only to not be very fatal to anyone. He threatened BDubs a lot but ultimately, hardly harmed him

Tango's devotion is undying and he really wants to trust people. He'd rather put up with team BEST making fun of his rightful anger than leave or harm them, and he's quick to join back up with the Crastle because he wants people by his side. He makes himself a good asset to prove his trustworthiness, if even subconsciously, because he certainly trusts whoever he manages to settle with first. I was kind of surprised at how much faith he had in team TIES as he was being hunted down by the entire server for being the last green name. He hardly ever doubted them and wasn't afraid to immediately come out of hiding upon finding them (and ofc then sacrificing himself for Skizz)

Tango's response to combat is VERY often to cower away somewhere. Maybe he's just being cautious but nevertheless his immediate reaction tends to be to back away, and he's admitted many times himself that he just hesitates. I think this has happened a few times but in LimL in particular he called Etho out for fleeing combat when the Bad Boys attacked them and the Clockers, even though Tango did basically the exact same thing. As if he doesn't even always realize when he's cowering off to the side? But seeing the ways that he usually gets himself killed, yeah! Understandable! Lol. And yet when things get dicey, he more often than not goes against this nature to abstain. Third Life, instead of fleeing from a battle against 3(4?) people once Impulse dies, he goes back in and dies. Last Life, he takes one for the team by charging at a minecart (though granted, in the moment he didn't seem to think it'd kill him, he did charge in without much thought). Limited Life, he refuses to disengage and gets himself killed in his pursuit of Scar instead of eating to heal from his half a heart of health and Secret Life.... oh ho ho

Tango's not as literally sacrificial as Skizz or Scott, and he might not be very good at protecting his friends due to his tendency to abstain from combat (because he's not much good at it so again, understandable) but he's very firm about who his friends are and man, does he do his best. 9/10 times he makes a good effort at best (lest we forget, the man has gotten very few legit kills across all five seasons) but then there are times like when he physically put himself between Etho and Martyn in LimL when Etho called for his help, even when it looked like Tango was trying to maintain distance from the confrontation. And Secret Life...!!!

First of all, got half the server to support him in the last session by giving him hearts ofc, very nice, very cute, very deserved. But secondly, I will not stop thinking about him going against Scar's deal. He was so very adamant about not hurting, let alone killing Skizz and very begrudgingly accepted Scar's offer for a heart in exchange for him swiping Skizz once. Only for Tango to start attacking Scar later, proclaiming that he could never betray Skizz. My condolences to Scar but fuck yeah, king shit!! He showcases his loyalty again but also just straight up initiates combat and goes at it for a bit. Like many times before he just gets kinda feisty as things get closer to the end, I suppose! Even when he doesn't really have many hearts to spare. I'm here for this

I have thoughts about Etho and him specifically too but thats below

Rancher thoughts

Firstly just some rancher moments that I'm sure all the rancherers already have seared into their brains but I'm noting them for me because I've seen them for the first time now:

Jimmy in LimLife, all bad boy, hits Tango and then immediately turns around to apologize to his rancher

When Tango gets blown up by Joel, upon returning, Jimmy bombards Tango with questions about how it went down

And it stuck out to me because it reminded me so much of the way Jimmy tries to inquire Tango about the amount of hearts he dealt to him in Secret Life (and ofc Tango being all indirect with his replies which ends up sounding like some strange off-brand flirting). Also Tango intentionally running into Jimmy's TNT and then sticking around him instead of fleeing. Also also "I like seeing Tango's reaction when he sees me, it's nice, he makes these weird sounds". That entire ordeal in session 5 is such gold

When Skizz is doing his affirmation thing with Jimmy in LimL, Tango and Impulse eavesdrop and Tango jokes about how embarrassing that was and that he needs to throw up right to their faces. And the way Jimmy had absolutely zero hostile reaction whatsoever. Even when it quieted down and he thanked Skizz, Skizz referred to "those idiots" and Jimmy's all "what idiots?" lmao. But then maybe he was just too taken aback by Skizz's kindness (of course he's also in on the jokes and doesn't always play up the upset factor, but I mean, it WAS his rancher very loudly voicing his disgust), which breaks my heart just a wee bit after all the kindness he got from Tango just one series prior, the same Tango who barely partakes in all the jokes going around at Jimmy's expense. But then, it's not like he made any direct jabs at Jimmy, I don't think he ever has but I might be wrong? And was playfully disgusted by the corny interaction in general, including Skizz

Ok I knew of this one but Jimmy interrogating Tango when his task was to talk to Torchy, but also I just love it so much that Flower Husbands is kind of in the mix too with Scott telling Jimmy to do the thing, for Jimmy to then attempt to do the thing, then defend Tango to Scott's face, to then attempt to do the thing again and get it completely wrong even though Scott knew exactly what Tango's task was and gave Jimmy all the pieces

Pearl giving Tango a pity flower only for Jimmy to immediately walk over and accidentally pick it up. Reminds me of when the same happened with baked potatoes in DL

I don't actually have a lot to add here for the rancher stuff, except that I think it's neat how the nature of Tango's alliances aligned? Which I just went into detail about but I think it's poetic that it went from Tango struggling to find one sure alliance, to Tango being in a mostly stable alliance but his worth largely unrecognized, to assigned soulmate ranchers, where Jimmy gave him all the affirmation in the World, even as the others made fun of them, and then Tango having very dependable alliances since then. Something something the way Jimmy rightfully supported Tango, seeing him for all his worth, and then Tango not having to settle for (much) less since then. That's just the way things happened to go but hey, I don't know about you but I see fanfic material and stuff about Jimmy leaving a mark on the course of Tango's Life series, or something

Going back to the Skizz affirmation thing for a moment too, I think it's also neat to compare how good he is at voicing intricate affirmation vs, well, Tango. Jimmy seemed so very genuinely touched by Skizz's kindness, something he obviously isn't subjected to a lot, except for Tango in Double Life with all his ornately worded "Great job!"s and "You're awesome!"s. That's just the thing that I love about ranchers sooo much that they're hardly ever graceful in what they do or say, more just bundles of strong emotions than anything, but they mesh oh so perfectly

suddenly Etho thoughts

Unrelated to ANYTHING but Etho's so cute!! Like ok, what else is new but ahh, just stuck out to me, probably because Tango keeps getting allied with him one or another way for half the seasons. I grinned so widely each time he went around "team meeting, team meeting!" or "banana!" in his small voice, and for me, nothing so far has topped the moment of him running into the TIES group, yelling for someone to help him craft some powered rails

Ok anyway it was SO nice to see his undying loyalty towards Tango in LimLife after what happened in 3rd and Last Life. It reminds me so much of his heartwrenching loyalty in Secret Life where he absolutely refused to give away his teammates' locations even as the success of his task depended on it. In the manhunt in session 4, the one person who saw Tango, completely vulnerable before he could continue his escape attempt was Etho, and the WAY Etho doesn't have immediate vocal reactions like so many of the other lifers do and can just stay silent is soo. I don't know man. It works wonders to make him intimidating but then there's also moments like this, the way he stays totally silent on more than one occasion so as not to risk betraying his teammates, and when he does speak, it's to give false information or whatever it takes to protect them. And just as with Cleo and Grian, in LimL with Tango, he was defending the last remaining green/s! That adds absolutely nothing lmao just an observation that I felt the need to point out

In Secret Life Tango and Etho also team up somewhat at the very end, at which Tango says "I'll carry you, as usual" which is a line that tickles me. Like, true, Tango has done a lot for Etho in their previous alliances but in LimL, it felt a lot more balanced, if not the other way around altogether. Again, the manhunt!! Not that Etho's attempt to misguide the others helped at all, but it's the sentiment that matters... Etho had Tango's back all throughout LimL and that makes me so happy. deserved

[mittensmorgul]

I wrote this post about 4.22 back on June 21, 2019, about two months after 14.20 aired, and before we began getting any real information about s15 other than our own headcanons:

https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185754144990/422-lucifer-rising-kinda-says-it-all-right

Go read that. It’s not very long.

*sigh* fine if you don’t wanna take five whole minutes, here’s the tl;dr:

But really, do we believe that anything they did could’ve altered the result of this season? Just as Dean had been confined to Hell until he broke that first seal, I don’t believe that anything could’ve prevented Sam from breaking that final seal. Because this is just another one of those scenarios where if Chuck wanted it to happen, it would’ve happened, no matter what they did to prevent it.

Aah, 14.20, you are a beautiful thing… Chuck likes everyone to think they’re entirely relying on their own will to succeed or fail, but when push comes to shove, he’s perfectly willing to snap his fingers and make the universe what he wants… and heck, isn’t that both terrifying and incredible? Because in the face of that unimaginable power, TFW still stands up and fights. Go team!

I just watched 4.21 and 4.22 again, with an additional 10 episodes of s15 for fuller context, and I’ve come to an even grander conclusion.

To Chuck, the Author™ of this whole story, s4 was his Moment Of Perfection. This was the one and only time his story, in his eyes, worked perfectly. He got everything he wanted, even with the last minute attempt by Dean and Cas to fight against the story they were apparently destined to fulfill, because it’s what Chuck had written. It was a super close thing, though. It nearly failed. If Cas had broken a few minutes sooner, if Sam had responded to Dean banging on the door of the chapel rather than giving in to Lilith’s taunts and Ruby’s goading, Chuck’s apocalypse never would’ve gotten off the ground.

All because Dean (and Cas...) had learned just enough to show them the TRUE choice they hadn’t realized they even had all season long. They could’ve chosen not to play the game. They could’ve chosen to stick together instead of fighting amongst themselves. They could’ve chosen... not to act. But they’d been so busy fighting amongst themselves over which one of them was right and which was wrong, thinking they actually understood the big picture at play here when they’d all been hopelessly led into the weeds for exactly this purpose, that they failed to realize just how badly they’d been manipulated.

In s5, they were still distracted by that manipulation. Chuck just... never let up on them. He zapped them from the Lucifer Rising spot onto an airplane, Dean angry at Sam for all of it-- letting himself buy into the poisoned narrative of s4, drinking demon blood and hiding it from him, lying about his powers and his plots with Ruby, freeing Lucifer and starting the apocalypse... all of it--, Sam feeling guilty like he has to atone for that failure, demons and angels both continuing to mess with them, Cas exiled from heaven for having rebelled... and then they start having to face Revelation come to life and Sam and Dean are nothing more than the destined meatsuits for Lucifer and Michael to wear to do the Big Armageddon Tango, and there’s no time to sit down and consider what’s actually going on, what the reason for all this mess is, and who might actually want it all to happen.

From 5.01 on, though... Chuck’s narrative began falling apart. Mostly in little ways, at first. And he still got the bittersweet “one brother sacrificed to save the world while the other endures while bearing the weight of the sacrifice alone” ending he thinks is actually satisfying in any way (what a fucking dumbass edgelord, amirite?)... until he didn’t because Cas refused to let Sam’s sacrifice stand as-is. So Chuck kept writing, kept interfering, kept pushing for endless retellings of his favored narrative in a vain attempt to finally “get it right,” to either wear down TFW until they capitulated and let his ending stand, or until they stumbled hard enough to tumble headfirst into his ending anyway. 

But there’s one thing Chuck NEVER factored into his favored narrative. The fact that he couldn’t un-ring the bell, couldn’t un-teach the lesson they all learned in s4. Namely, that Destiny™ is a great big pile of shit, and they aren’t completely powerless against it as long as they understand the truth of it. They know now, the full extent of Chuck’s manipulation, and they’re so shaken at the midseason point of 15 that they don’t know what to believe anymore.

Were they ever the heroes? Was everything they’ve achieved up to this point just “luck?” or worse, Chuck’s direct involvement in their lives making them into the heroes? Because down that road, along that sort of train of thought, lies madness. Hopelessness. Because how do you ever stand a chance of winning your way free from a story you have very little control over, and zero real power to resist? It drives them to make desperate choices, or to believe they have no other choice.

And for YEARS, literal actual years, I’ve been saying there’s no worse phrase on this show... we didn’t have a choice.

And in 15.10, they resorted to that old chestnut several times...

I think this manipulation goes back even further in the narrative, too. The terrible ultimatum Dean was given by John’s dying wish in 2,01. John, the consummate Chuck mirror, his last words to Dean have honestly shaped the rest of the narrative that’s come after--

You either have to Save Sammy, or you’ll have to kill him...

Because that’s what Chuck has been trying to force them to do since the start.

One brother kills the other.

That’s his story.

That’s his self-defense argument he’s been attempting to justify over and over again, through every iteration of the universe, both because he needs to feel “Big,” that he needs to feel powerful, but also because he needs to feel that HE did the “right thing,” locking up Amara so that he could create unhindered by her very existence in creation nullifying his perceived place in it.

As above, so below, and by gum he’s gonna keep forcing his narrative until he gets the ending he wants, even if he has to break all of reality to get it for himself. He will NOT be defied in this.

God was really, honestly, never on their side.

Only, Chuck refuses to accept that Sam and Dean (and Cas...) have never, ever, been on his side, either.

Through each new attempt to manipulate his desired ending out of them, TFW have endured. They’ve learned a little bit more. They’ve progressively made it harder and harder for Chuck to get the ending he wants from them, to the point he’s now entirely laser-focused on forcing them to capitulate to his will, directly, using the full force of his creative power to bring it about. And I think that will ultimately prove to be Chuck’s downfall... breaking himself because puny human free will and LOVE will prove a more powerful cosmic force than his own self-obsessive narrative.