#having flashbacks to the metaphoric war over here

[eddiemunsonsmiddlefingers]

This post drives me bananas.

Unless the work in question:

Is rated G or T when it should be E or M

Does not have appropriate archive warnings

Is tagged with unquestionably incorrect fandom(s)

Has an incorrect language

(FUTURE not now) Has an incorrect work type

...all you're doing by reporting it is clogging PAC's ticket system and making it take longer to deal with actual TOS violations.

Things that PAC will not correct:

Works tagged M or E when they don't contain mature or explicit content (Too high a rating isn't a legal issue)

Works tagged M when they "should" be E

Works tagged G when they "should" be T

Fandom tags that the author can reasonably claim are relevant to their work even if readers find the association nominal at best (Examples: a Wheel of Time work tagged as both book series and TV series; a Jack Harkness fic tagged as both Torchwood and Doctor Who; a Spideypool in the Death Star fic tagged with a whole bunch of MCU and Star Wars subfandoms that those characters and that location appear in.)

Relationship tags

Tags written into the "additional tags" section

Bookmark tags

The exception to all of the above is if there is clear evidence that the tags in question violate other general content policies, which usually pans out as "there is incontrovertible evidence that these tags were chosen to harass a specific individual AND that specific individual has filed a report."

(Source for all of that.)

I totally get why this kind of thing is annoying, but please don't rage report things that PAC can't/won't do anything about. Just block the person and move on.

nothing pisses me off more than when i see a fic on ao3 talking about reach. "this ship isn't here but i added them for reach" "this fandom tag isn't necessary but i'm adding it for reach" "reposting for reach" STOP IT!!!! this is not tiktok this is not twitter this is an ARCHIVE this is not how it works!!!

[ollycohens]

oh no you guys. i’m going to spew things i’ve realized while rewatching umbrella academy. I’m realizing were all being too sucked into fanon things after being stuck without canon content for so long. We have convinced ourselves Five acts like a mean mean dude to everyone but rewatching, i’ve realized he’s only stressed and is saying things out of panicked anger, especially in s1 with the apocalypse dooming over them. he acts soft to his siblings multiple times, he’s really not as mean as we write him in fanfiction. he is a little crap though, that’s for sure, and i love him for that <3

also realizing that the siblings don’t hate five. they just literally don’t know him at all. he came back a completely different person after 17 years for the siblings, they don’t know five, he’s a stranger so of course they’re gonna be cold to him. it’s like, “i don’t know you well, but you’re always going to be my brother in the end”.

ALSO. for those who ship some of the siblings, uhm… i’ve seen a lot of you guys try to prove that they don’t see eachother as siblings and more like academy students, but they very much say in just about every episode that they see eachother as siblings. they don’t actually SAY that word by word but they say things like “she’s our sister”, or “our dad”. if they say OUR dad… bro. i’m not even going to continue, you can put it together yourself. But, i do realize why people ship the siblings. I am not defending incest shippers but with umbrella academy i can see why people have resorted to it. only 3 of the characters in the main sibling cast has romantic partners. people like shipping people, people love writing romantic relationships, but with only diego/lila, dave/klaus, and sissy/viktor, (i’m not going to count five/dolores for now) people are desperate with the need to ship the rest of the siblings with someone, and since there are only a few actual canon characters in the show that interact with our main 7, people start shipping them together… yikes. anywho, that’s all for that peice. i blame the show writers as well for shipping luther/allison, they did not have to do that, but i’m hoping it was only to convey the severity of what childhood trauma does to people.

ALSO THIS HERE SHOOK ME. I actually think Reginald cares for the siblings. i hate to say it, but it’s true. caring for them does not mean being good, though. he was a horrible father, and person, but he genuinely did care for the siblings, in a like, “being the best is the best thing for you, i will make you better, for your sake, even if you don’t know it now, you will see that i am right” kind of way.

also why has NOBODY MENTIONED THIS. in season 2 when diego first reunites with five in the asylum, while he’s walking into the visitors room, he’s staring at five with this heartfelt, soft look, and then says “five…” in the most soft spoken voice ever 😭 your honor i love them

ALSO UGHHH THIS. IM GOING TO FREAK OUT ABOUT CAMERAWORK AND METAPHORS HERE SO BARE WITH ME. we as a fandom complain about the lack of flashbacks five has due to his ptsd. we’ve seen his first flashback since getting back to his family in s1 during the van scene when he gets triggered by those kids playing and starts thinking about his own childhood, i’m guessing. i ate that scene up, and was sad to see that be one of the only deeply vulnerable scenes he has in the season, and during my first watch i thought they’d never bring it back up. but they do!! i may be stupid for not realizing but whatever. in season 2, when five is trying to explain at elliot’s with all his siblings around that another apocalypse is coming, everyone starts talking about each other. as someone who studies film and camerawork, i love this scene. we see the camera focus on five as it slowly zooms in. it doesn’t switch scenes at all as the siblings voices overlap and echo over eachother. this whole scene conveys him getting overwhelmed and he starts to zone out, starting to think of the nuclear war he saw his siblings in. the scenes of the war start quickly switching through, showing many different scenes of it before it switches back to five, who says “guys, you all die. i want to forget it but i can’t” which just UGH its so well done there. if you think about it, he was starting to slip into another flashback. he was triggered by talking about their deaths in the war but was handling it well until the siblings started fighting, where we see the overlapping voices happen. it portrays him losing control and being unable to pull it back together with too much going on for him to focus on grounding himself. we DO however, see that five was able to pull himself out before he fell too deep into the flashback. i love how they show this through them still having the scene showing the war, but then fives voice starts talking over the scene which is still focusing on the war as if he was pushing it back and forcing himself to come back to the present.

thank you for reading if you’ve made it this far, i will continue to freak out another time <3

[still-a-morosexual-help]

Love it when characters casually reveal some insane childhood trauma with a nostalgic smile on their face because this is just a normal part of their childhood how fun! to the absolute horror of those around them who are very much in the 'that's not normal what the actual fuck' boat

Okay but here's what makes me tear up:

This conversation happens in a devilgram where Diavolo is picking apples for Barbatos to make an apple pie for him and it cuts to a flashback that shows Diavolo wanted an apple tree to impress his new angel friend and excitedly tells this to Barbatos. Barbatos then helps Diavolo plant an apple tree in the forest

Isn't that rattling your brain!!!? Aren't you foaming at the mouth!?!?!

The Demon King enchanted this forest to be full of things that could hurt and kill his child, all in the name of preparing Diavolo to be a better king

Then Barbatos helps Diavolo plant apple trees in it, because Diavolo wants to share it with their enemy, a gesture of friendship and good will that would eventually bring peace to the three worlds* which in turn helps Diavolo grow towards becoming a better king

Diavolo's father created a deadly survival course for a child so he wouldn't get bored, something that would keep Diavolo away from him, and the man who actually raised Diavolo spent time with Diavolo helping him grow apple trees in it

A labour of love grown and tended to for years, if not centuries, just so Diavolo could give his friend apples (another gesture of love) built upon the soil of something that was meant to push and punish Diavolo into being the ideal ruler

*(over a series of meetings Diavolo & Lucifer become friends -> Lucifer starts questioning things in the Celestial Realm -> Lucifer, pushed by the sentence against Lilith, starts a war in the Celestial Realm -> Lucifer seeks sanctuary in the Devildom -> Diavolo helps Lucifer + reincarnates Lilith -> Lucifer pledges his loyalty to Diavolo + through Lilith's line MC is eventually born -> through MC & the brothers' fates being tied Lucifer accidentally picks MC for the exchange program -> MC showing that people from all three worlds could not only be close friends but family starts mending bridges + MC wanting to stay in the Devildom permanently gets everyone actively pushing for peace leading to them becoming part of the student council/government and challenging the views of the older/more conservative demons -> all this eventually kickstarts both Diavolo & Lucifer's character & relationship development -> Diavolo learns to be a more considerate ruler & person who listens to others instead of immediately jumping in with his own plans & ideas + Lucifer learns to actually push back against Diavolo & not just be his 'Yes Man')

Also this Devilgram is called "The Seven Apples"

and with lines like,

"Still...I hope that all this effort bears fruit, someday"

"With enough care and attention, I'm certain that it shall."

"Ah, well. Good things come to those who wait, and all that."

And talk about the future of the Devildom and how they pick exactly seven apples, the whole tree talk/metaphor is 100% about gaining the friendship & trust of Lucifer and his brothers by putting in the effort, care and attention to one day, years in the future, have seven shining apples with you

BUT, EVEN WITHOUT THAT DOUBLE MEANING,

It's not just a tree.

It's all about love, isn't it and the things we do for the people we love.

[hestzhyen]

Leap of (Lack of) Faith

There's some discourse about Hakuri's suicide attempt in chapter 24 going around on Twitter that got me thinking. Well, actually, I just want to share my own pointless take. Yeah, I genuinely want to be perceived for once. But I hate trying to communicate in 240-character snippets on that hellsite, so I'll post here to rot in obscurity where I'm most comfortable.

Basically, there was a post in the Kagurabachi Twitter community that requested to talk about the abuse flashback-jump sequence. And yeah, uh, I'm kind of surprised at how little it gets brought up too. To quote myself:

Please don't ask me why I have three different usernames- there's no satisfying answer.

It's been a while since chapter 24 happened, so let's recap the lead up to this important moment. We first see Hakuri in Ch. 19 with his drink spilling out of his mouth, putting his inner monologue about "hav[ing] to grit your teeth and push through" to the lie. The very first shot of him, the very first food metaphor we see with him, is Hakuri being unable to cope. We don't know why he lost his his family, but he's clearly alone and not doing well. He's struggling.

Next thing we see is him being coincidentally saved by Chihiro. We get a full page of him narrating his impression of the moment, showing us the contrast between his desire to do some unspecified "job" and his fatalistic frame of mind. Then we learn he's weak as hell even though his heart's in the right place. He saves a little girl and insists on being taken back to the Yakuza's hideout, leading him to get kicked around and beaten up. He's a bloody, scribbly-eyed mess by the time he meets Chihiro for real. And this is exactly how we are supposed to see him until the moment he jumps in chapter 24.

It's so, so easy to overlook the hints towards Hakuri's painful past due to the way he's written. Most of his actions and dialogue are framed in a comedic way to bounce off of Chihiro's stoicism. Hakuri's pessimistic inner monologues when he's being hurt or nearly killed are right at home in this demographic too- wimps start at their lowest to leave lots of room to grow. And Shounen series always have a weak, lonely kid who's inspired to become strong. It's extremely standard stuff. But this moment right here was probably the biggest, most blatant hint that he's got more to his circumstances than the average zero-to-hero character:

That tiny little panel of him casually smearing the blood from his nose while he talks to Chihiro lives rent-free in my head. It's a throwaway motion in the moment, and not really out of place in an ultra-violent series like Kagurabachi. But compare that to how Azami -a professional combat sorcerer and war veteran!- screamed when he realized his hand was sliced in chapter 7, or how Chihiro is often shown wincing and having to adjust to his injuries. These characters definitely feel the hits that land on them. But the most hilariously pathetic character yet acts like the beat-down he received never happened. Nor like he's surrounded by bloody corpses. Hakuri is not only used to violence, he's used to it experiencing it.

Again, this is all framed in a comedic way due to his over-the-top personality and expressions. He's a freakish mess on the floor after taking the hit from Hiyuki, sobs in a silly way over Chihiro's backstory, is called "weak" and "a moron" and "a mess" by other characters, on and on. Hakuri's not written like he's supposed to be taken seriously after the first few pages we see of him.

The only other moments of foreshadowing came in chapter 23 as a set of blink-and-you'll miss panels and the last scene:

Hakuri's clenched, shaking fist when he talks about his "scary" older siblings isn't a huge tell. Neither is the insistence that they'd kill him on sight. We can comfortably assume that he's afraid of the consequences of betraying his powerful family despite being a weakling- that's where most authors would have gone with this scenario. But then why does his big brother Soya look so happy to see him? Was Hakuri over-reacting again when he talked about his family? Something's off here, but it's impossible to say exactly what.

The next chapter starts. Chihiro and Shiba are facing off against the Tou and it's looking tense. Chihiro flashes back to his dad talking about the Shinuchi, the fight's about to begin- but it cuts to Soya being a pretty normal person who misses his little brother.

And then we see this.

Suddenly a whole new and very serious dimension is added to Hakuri's character. He's not a goofy weakling that's going to improve himself with some determination and a training arc: he's a victim of abuse. This is the signal that the Sazanamis are truly fucked up more than we know, setting the stage for the major themes of the Rakuzaichi arc. And it makes re-reading those little bits of foreshadowing so much more painful.

This scene is the "oh shit" equivalent of Chihiro finding Char's severed leg in the car- yeah, the author really went there. And it's not even the last time we'll get a moment like this for Hakuri. The Ice Lady chapter is rightly remembered for it's impact, but Hakuri choosing to commit suicide should be held up alongside it IMO. Again: the author really went there, and not just for the shock value.

This moment should be remembered far more often than it is. It was the pivot from Hakuri being a generic potential sidekick into a complex and fully-realized character. Hakuri found people who could help him. Who treated him kindly. Who inspired him. But he chose death in an instant when his past came back to haunt him. Despite his improved circumstances, he had no hope for the future. He only felt fear and the urge to escape from looming torment.

Looking at what we know up to this chapter alone... how can you not feel for him? This goofy, ridiculous mess of a boy is really truly hurting and probably has been for years. But like many victims, he downplays and doesn't talk about it. He just tries to escape via whatever means he can.

So it burns me up that people are still reducing him to Chihiro's silly sidekick. If this scene was somehow not enough to dispel that notion, consider that Chihiro probably doesn't know that Hakuri had all those tools used on him, much less anything about Ice Lady. He knows that Hakuri was regularly ganged up on and beaten, and probably could infer that Kyoura deliberately looked away. But we haven't seen Hakuri talk about in detail about how "someone set him on the right path", nor mention taking a flying leap, nor share what's in his storehouse. He's still got a hell of a lot of literal and metaphorical pain he keeps inside. In the right circumstances, Hakuri could jump again.

Talk about this scene more often! REMEMBER it more often!

[emmys-grimoire]

The Nightbringer, how lesson 9-A tells us everything, and why it’s (probably) not Barb

I’m working on lesson 3 summary, but now that a good portion of the fanbase seems to have gotten through lesson 10, I feel it’s timely to get my thoughts out there ahead of covering lesson 10 because the story will likely continue before I’m done.

And I think a lot of you are ignoring some of the contextual clues.

Don’t read this if you don’t want lesson 8+ spoiled yet.

Ahead of the game releasing, most of the fanbase thought the prologue was a peek into how Barbatos met Solomon because it matched up with the lore in the OG game and Solomon was narrating. There were also other hints that Barb was behind things via promotional media and art. Pair that with his well-known time travel abilities, and it all seems very straightforward and obvious.

We learn in lesson 8, though, that the boy in the prologue video isn’t Solomon -- it’s Adam, and it’s heavily implied that he’s Lilith’s lover.

This fact alone doesn’t actually change much beyond the implied relationship between the Nightbringer and Solomon. It is relevant that Solomon is narrating, though, because they do have a significant relationship.

In lesson 9-A (and the node in lesson 10 that’s a continuation), which I have not gotten to myself yet, Solomon has a telling conversation with the Nightbringer after being confronted with illusions of Diavolo and Simeon meant to test his resolve. They’re squabbling over him, the obvious metaphor for humanity.

Solomon chooses neither, because he believes humanity doesn’t need either demons or angels guiding them. This is meant to mirror a choice he made in the past, as the self-appointed steward of humanity.

And furthermore, back then... the Nightbringer was likely one of the advocates of one of these sides. Furthermore, whatever this agreement he made with the Nightbringer is meant to ensure his “freedom”, even though...

The Nightbringer clearly wanted him to choose one of the presented sides, not neither. So which side was he on? He reveals his hand here, too, if you read into it far enough.

Why on earth would Solomon make this retort if the Nightbringer was actually a demon? If he was a demon, of course he’d be acting like one. It’d be no surprise, and certainly not considered an insult.

We got an angel who acts like a demon. This conversation doesn’t make any sense otherwise.

The Nightbringer is an angel? But that’s CRAZY!

Is it?

Is it really?

There’s one angel in particular who has a similar connection to Solomon as Barbatos, who has also had a significant role in his past: Michael.

We find out in the dream sequence flashback in S3 that Michael was eyeballing Solomon before the Great Celestial War. We know he’s the one who fished us out of that sequence, and warned us that the effect we had on the brothers past selves will carry on into the present (though admittedly this never manifests later). We find out he approached Solomon when he was lost and confused and we know he gave him his Ring of Wisdom, which grants the power to control demons. We find out in Nightbringer that Solomon waged war against the entire Devildom in an effort to leverage his newfound power to better humanity’s position. We learn that war was ultimately inconclusive. At numerous point in the story, Michael is referred to as a “demon in disguise” and a sadist like Lucifer.

We don’t know why Michael would give his very powerful ring to Solomon, but it likely was part of some agreement.

What doesn’t line up with this theory is a lack of motivation. I have no idea why Michael would want us to fling us back to this point of time, after the war. It sounds like he’d want to prevent the war entirely. Adam also meets the Nightbringer in the Devildom, and I can’t see the Devildom allowing Michael to just waltz in and meddle with things, particularly after the Great Celestial War. I’m not sure why they’d let any of them in, but I digress...

The other small details

There’s other small details strewn throughout the story that point to an angel, or at least someone that isn’t Barb.

Adam says he heard trumpets heralding the Nightbringer’s arrival. The king in the prologue also blows a trumpet.

You know what trumpets are associated with? Angels. According to this wikipedia article:

“In Christian Eschatology, all the first six trumpets are used to serve as a wake up call to the sinners on Earth and a call to repentance. Each trumpet blast brings with it a plague of a more disastrous nature than the one before it. The trumpet is used to build anticipation and tells the reader that an alert, announcement, or warning is about to take place. The seventh trumpet does not bring a plague with it. Rather, it is sounded so that glory is given to God and His kingdom is announced.”

There’s a bunch of other biblical associations, too. Barbatos has no trumpet symbolism in any point in the story. His callsign is portals.

Additionally, Barbatos interacts with time via doors.

The Nightbringer sees time as mud, which just might be the liquid swirling around in the Nightbringer trailer.

Who is the king?

The prologue implies that the Nightbringer is summoned via trumpets, and the trumpet is blown by a king. The Barbatos puppeteering art implies it’s a human king, but I’m not so sure.

Understanding who the king is may be instrumental in figuring out who the Nightbringer is. Is it a human king? Is it King Solomon? Is it the Demon King? Is it God? Is it someone completely different? It implies the Nightbringer acts at the behest of someone else, but so far it doesn’t sound like he is right now. And if he’s acting against Solomon, it would be quite problematic if he was tethered to him via a pact like Barbatos clearly is.

My conclusion

It’s either Michael and his motivations are simply more complex than I give him credit for, or it’s another angelic being that has gone rogue without falling somehow. I’m leaning towards the latter, honestly. I’d be really happy if we got a multi-season big bad.

It could still be an alternative timeline Barbatos if Barbatos was once an angel, and this is an angel Barb which has managed to avoid falling and doesn’t have the door motif thing going on. 

This is kind of why I hate time travel shenanigans. You have to account for so many damn possibilities that it gets tiresome having to sort through it all.

[soopsiedaisies]

suffering will be your teacher

I don't think it's too late to share this one :)

Rating: E, for violence

Tags: Time Travel; Scarless Zuko; Zuko & Zuko's Crew; Jee has only had Zuko for a day and a half but if anything happened to him he would kill everyone on this ship and then himself

Summary: Zuko falls asleep on the evening of his official coronation, when he’s twenty-one-years old and has finally reached his majority. Zuko wakes on the morning of the Agni Kai with his father, eight years earlier. This is annoying for several reasons, like the fact that the War is still ongoing, that he has zero friends, and that Ozai is not in jail. It’s time to scheme.

Also, here are some ficnotes under the cut, if you're interested in some of my reasoning in regards to how the Agni Kai went in this universe. It's a bit spoilery but not if you've read chapter 1:

I’ve received a small handful of comments being shocked and/or delighted by Zuko deciding to burn Ozai the way Ozai burnt him: hand over the face like wiping away a tear, and then just going to town with their natural flamethrower ability. Whether this would be seen as in character or not, I wrote it in because I think it’d be in character, and I suppose that’s a rather important bit of writing lol. 

You can probably interpret it as Zuko perpetuating his family’s violence, or suddenly being okay with being goaded into a fight. But here’s the thing: he’s not okay with it. I’ve tried to hint at Zuko being disgusted with himself post-burning, yet simultaneously satisfied—because, hey, he’s back to fight-or-flight mode. He’s gone from the relative comfort of a palace filled with people he’d show his soft underbelly to, to the metaphorical viper’s den that was the palace when Ozai still ruled. Despite it having been a few years for him, Zuko still knows that it’s dangerous to be there, and that he cannot, under any circumstance, show aspects of his natural personality that may be deemed as weak. He’s the Prince and kindness, or mercy, will be punished. And he also doesn’t want to be burnt again—he’s not going to take that challenge lying down. 

So Zuko takes a risk. He fights back and uses his own experience to get his father to his knees. He burns Ozai before Ozai can burn him, despite the detail that harming the Fire Lord is probably illegal. And yes, like Azula told him, a simple burn on the shoulder would’ve been enough… but with someone as dangerous as Ozai, it’s better to incapacitate him. Ozai clearly doesn’t care about fighting fair and nobody would’ve stopped him either: in the show, Zuko went on his knees, refused to fight, and begged for mercy, but Ozai burnt him anyway without any sort of protest from anyone there. Zuko was in an inescapable and incredibly violent situation where the only way out was violence from his side. It’s an easy choice at that point, I think. 

Additionally, it’s also a revenge fantasy come true. I do believe that during the confrontation between Zuko and Ozai in Day Of The Black Sun, Zuko would’ve considered killing his father for a moment—or at least harming him. He doesn’t because it’s Aang’s responsibility to do so, and because killing your dad at age 16 after a lifetime of loyalty is kind of…. hard, but I’m certain there was a brief moment he thought about it. And burning your father instead, in the exact way he burnt you in another life, with him on his knees instead of you? Possibly a little bit satisfying. Zuko was granted a chance and took it. 

So, he’s scarless (if you have trouble imagining it: think of his face in the flashback of The Storm, plus his Fire Lordly face in his fever dream in The Earth King). I can hear people go like, “But Soopsie, that’s not our Zuko! The scar is a very important part of his character!”, and that is very fair. But keep in mind that he’s a 21 year old man who only occupies the body of his thirteen year old self, and he’s actually older than the Zuko of the show. I also think it’s not the scar which makes Zuko Zuko, but rather the mental/emotional scarring that lies underneath. Ozai still very much burnt him. There’s just not any physical proof right now. 

(I also don’t need to do any physical character design for this, which is a plus. He’s a lot less recognisable rn)

[eek-a-tron]

Loki (2004) & Blood Brothers Thoughts

Or: Why Does This Loki Look Like An Old Man?

I know Old Man Loki is meant to look:

Different than usual, because of the (overdue) revisionism going on in this mini-series

Visually-opposite to Thor & other Asgardians via an art-style/surface-othering extreme

Like someone for whom the reader is supposed to have the same off-putting, visceral, Asgardian-esque reaction (at first)

But I’d rather think narratively, Brent! ;\

So, how come Loki doesn’t shift out of his old man shape? (Note: “he” pronouns incoming throughout, since that’s how Loki identifies in this comic.) Does Loki not shapeshift because he’s simply over it, or is this how he thinks he actually looks? I feel like one could interpret it either way, as in: “This is me, bitches, and I also have less teeth thanks to y’all so deal with it/look upon it” (very Skyfall-esque), versus the alternative: “This story’s finally being told from my POV, so how I look outside is a metaphor for how I’m personally feeling inside” (aged and tired, emotionally broken, and giving no fucks except in secret) ...

Deeper pondering beneath the cut!

It’s just … after Loki has this “interaction” with Daia, he looks notably different for awhile. This Loki has finally been to the salon. This Loki has had a protein shake and applied some moisturizer.

So, were either the sexytimes just that good, or … well, does he shapeshift for the sexytimes, but not for anything else? Not even when appearing vengefully before the entirety of Asgard? He only reserves a more stereotypical aesthetic for the intimate sexings? Really?! It's not exactly unheard of, but ... maybe we should unpack that! Orrrrrr perhaps: is this actually how Loki looks, since he just woke up that way, and the entirety of the rest is a self-loathing, this-is-how-I’ve-been-taught-to-see-myself, roiling-emotions-unkempt theater? (Note how, above, the grizzlings return when he plops ye old helmet back on and starts thinking about his lot in life again. Which is it?)

TL;DR: Excuse me sir, is your old man look intentional or a styling issue?! ANSWER THE QUESTION SIR etc

Other thoughts that fit nowhere else:

Loki's drinking so much in here; no wonder his nose is red! Does alcohol age gods after awhile? How's Dionysus holding up?

Perhaps Asgardians feel that a leader should look old and grizzly and Odin-esque ... if Old Man Loki is shapeshifted, maybe he's meant to imitate/mock Odin and a paternalistic all-father idea itself by doing so (valid)

Loki's birth mother has a similar face-shape, and yet she doesn’t look nearly as aged and grizzly — so even if frost giants age faster in this worldbuild, something else seems up (esp since Loki mumbles to himself about how he thinks Farbauti looks awful, yikes, and also how suddenly-aware he is that he's been raised to feel thusly, double yikes)

P.S. This mini-series gave me flashbacks to the once-prevalent Star Wars sequels fic trope: “Kylo becomes Supreme Leader but it sucks because he doesn't actually like or want it;” I’m certainly not complaining, yet now I feel old and grizzly in recalling it :p

Tagging @yells-of-the-not-so-danged here so I don't ponder-hijack your post! What are your three theories?

[agender-witchery]

Henry Kissinger and Canto V

Disclaimer: I have obviously not played part 3 yet because maintenance isn't over for another half hour

Okay, so as we've been progressing through Canto V, I wanted to wait until it was over to make any posts about it, I don't like speculating and prefer giving a review of a story in whole. In light of recent events however, I MUST speculate.

Throughout Canto V, we've been chasing a being that could only be classified as a calamity. We know for a fact that anything it touched was left changed forever, irrevocably damaged for the rest of time. This being was also described with one adjective in particular: pale.

It is here that I assert that the pallid whale is a metaphor for Henry Kissinger. I will be referring to it as such from this point forward.

When we're first introduced to Ricardo during Pilot's flashback, it's shown that he only feared one thing: a war criminal responsible for the death of millions. There's only one other thing we know of that the Middle would be reasonably scared of, and it's Roland, who is ALSO a war criminal responsible for the death of millions. This is NOT a coincidence.

Now, we also were introduced to the Indigo Elder during part 2. Indigo is notable for being grown primarily in tropical climates in Asia. Now, we don't know exactly where indigo's native habitat is, but both Cambodia and Vietnam have tropical climates and are candidates for this. Both countries were also notably fucked over by Kissinger, so my assertion is that the Indigo Elder is named such because he's from South East Asia and Henry Kissinger personally murdered his family, which is why he's hunting him to death.

Now, since part 3 is obviously about to release, and the Indigo Elder is obviously going to succeed in his mission, Project Moon hired assassins to execute Henry Kissinger perfectly in time with the release of the chapter where he dies in game.

[whinlatter]

author's note | chapter 7: caged 🪽

thank you for reading chapter seven of Beasts! this chapter, we see the fallout from the controversial punch, watch harry and ginny go through about ninety bottles of ink writing precisely one bazillion letters to one another (my loves), and fret as the residents of grimmauld place fight a losing battle with pixies that may or may not be a metaphor for our characters’ own multiplying traumas, chasing everyone around and refusing to be contained. pray for our babies, for no-one is thriving - let's chat chapter seven! (plus a sneak peek of chapter eight, which includes a letter from a character yet to make his Beasts debut...) 👀

✨ spoilers for this chapter below the cut  ✨

writing notes and headcanons:

vibes: this chapter, i wanted the vibes to be claustrophobic, tedium, all hogwarts, real focus on ginny and her restlessness and over-it-ness, her starting to write a lot, both to harry and to others, and her starting to push the boundaries and rebel now she's lost her sense of purpose in returning. (@pocket-lilacs brought up pandemic-era uni vibes of 'what is the point of studying when all this is going on' and that is exactly the energy here). the politics is more a backdrop to ginny's arc in this chapter, though the thicknesse trial has uncomfortable echoes for gin's own set of experiences, and i'm having so much fun but also banging my head up against the wall/grappling with turning up/turning down the volume on the different macro/micro plots in different chapters to try and get different effects and to follow ginny's own engagement with the Big Questions of the postwar wizarding world. scale is hard, who knew!

quidditch: by far the hardest part of this chapter to write was the quidditch scene. it was 3000 words long originally, and i had to go at it with a sledgehammer to bash it into bits, dump most of it, and then just keep the most important parts to fold into this much quicker, punchier scene. the worst part of writing is spending days crafting a section and in doing so learn that you don't need it lmao. so yeah that's why this chapter was a week late. this one was a nightmare but we got there in the end lmao

the forest detention: our first flashback to the war year at hogwarts! why haven't we had more? answers on a postcard, all will be revealed, including the context for the silver trio's forest detention, but for now will just say the fact that snape sent the gang into the forest with hagrid for detention after stealing the sword has a) always had me in a chokehold because all of the endless ginny/forest foreshadowing but also because i've never been satisfied with the explanation that the detention was just an obvious easy option. can't wait to share more !!!

harry and ginny: all i want to do is write more letters for those two. 'sneaking out of grounds, booze, leather gangs' - that was how @madammalkins23 summed it up beautifully, getting at the vibes i keep coming back to with both of these characters: the sirius-black-shaped elephant in the room, basically. escaping from hogwarts with buckbeak? the risk being what makes it all fun? harry fixing up the motorbike? fighting a war against grimmauld place and getting on the whiskey? the looming shadow of molly weasley? it's truly giving padfoot. the idea of harry and ginny in cahoots, as partners in crime, really kept me going when writing this chapter - like, what if harry for the first time did have another person in his life who was of the 'fuck it' school of thought? (i even went back and read that jkr short story of sirius and james on the motorbike lol). basically, the sirius echoes just sort of ended up writing themselves, as they always seem to do in this fic. when it comes to the letters, it's striking to me that in canon harry is very preoccupied with who does or doesn’t write to him - at the dursleys', but also after sirius' death ('It’s just hard,' Harry said finally, in a low voice, 'to realise he won’t write to me again.' - HBP). i've never really got fics that have harry as a non-loquacious letter writer in the post-war period, especially to ginny - harry seeks huge comfort and reassurance in getting letters from people who care about him, and channels his worries about people he's close to into letters, especially people he views as family (sirius, ginny). that harry and ginny would become a bit emotionally codependent through letters seemed in some sense a natural choice, basically, and although they're still being very avoidant, in some ways, i think they're building a foundation towards becoming each other's person in ways that's important. (i am putting together a sirius and ginny parallels meta playing with these ideas and character-trait overlap that i'll share hopefully soon, so stay tuned on that one)

why won’t ginny open up? by far the question i've been asked most this week! i am really really excited and happy about the arc i’ve got in store for ginny on this question, so don't want to reveal too much, but there have been some beautiful insightful guesses in the comments section about why ginny is struggling to come clean with harry or her family. here we see harry begin to see through gin's defences, a little bit, but also show his own blindspots that come from him not having asked the right questions or always probed about her interior life before now. i'm always so grateful and blown away by the trust readers have put in me to deliver on all these protracted question marks but this week especially i felt v glad for readers' compassion towards these characters and especially for ginny and hermione, as they fuck up and get it wrong and struggle yet still get grace in the comment section. both are on a journey, but i know more impatient readers could be sick of waiting for them to get there, so just to say i am really glad everyone is getting it and seeing where both characters are at with empathy and kindness, because ofc what they’re both doing is frustrating (and, when it comes to gin, harry is beginning to think so, too)

plus thicknesse: had a long chat with @saintsenara about ol thicknesse, because he's kind of a baffling figure - ex-auror who gets successfully imperiused, becomes minister and then goes on to actively commit horrific war crimes while under yaxley's control. what's fun about the trials, though, is that you can use them as a conduit to raise these big moral questions for postwar wizarding society - in thicknesse's case, it's questions about agency, free will, and culpability, in ways that has real implications for ginny's reflections on her own experiences. so cheers pius love u

harry's patronus: i am salivating at all of your theories for this one - obviously i'm saying nothing for now, but keep them guesses coming, i live for em! and if you guess right, i'll come up with some kind of prize lmao

detention, career advice (and graves' apathy): back in the site of former detentions, ginny shows her remarkably sparse knowledge of wizarding careers in a scene that i hope shows her trying on for size different role models/authority figures and seeing which ones she feels most like. (i like the idea that ginny would actually be a bit interested in being an auror, if only she'd been in of age and able to benefit from kingsley's hiring amesty after the battle). having ginny hover over the idea of being an unspeakable was particularly important for me, because i like the idea of the dept of mysteries being quite a formative space for her (i feel like all i do is say 'wait and see!' but... i have things to do and say with this dimension i swear!) graves is like, do what you want, babe, i don't care. i'm here for the pension, frankly

michael corner: 'surprise bitch!' - michael corner, probably. do i think michael and ginny were mates after the breakup end of ootp? no i do not. but i have always been so struck that ginny and michael must have actually spent a lot of very intense time together during DH as die-hards in the DA (michael is the only character we hear whose torture by the carrows after attempting to rescue a younger student is described as particularly severe, which i think suggests his level of commitment to the cause). readers will recall my open disdain for michael corner up til this point - i have described him as the jack berger of hogwarts quidditch, for my satc fans - but i'm afraid to say i have now decided i quite like him and am excited for him to rock up in person real soon. i think he's a know it all softboi but with a goodie core. also as a writer there's something quite refreshing about bringing in a character who is an ex who probably can see through some of ginny's shit by virtue of having spent a lot of time with her but no longer needing to/caring about impressing her, placating her or keeping her on side lol

hermione: alaskanastro left a comment that summed this up: 'Man, Hermione is really just doubling down on the whole "I'm going to try desperately to control something in life to feel like I'm in control even if it's my friend's life" isn't she? Or at least trying to'. yep, that's what she's doing! we still don't know all that hermione's going through, but this hit the nail on the head fr. i feel bad that this fic is ginny pov at this stage in its arc, because i think ginny sees hermione in a particular way rn (their final conversation in this chapter really speaking to these tensions - ginny does not want to feel mothered, at least not by hermione...), but these two have a long way to go to get to a point of mutual understanding. wanna write a meta on their friendship soon, hopefully will get chance to before i finish chapter 8. but anyway - wonder what's going on with her and ron... hope we find out soon... hope someone tells us... :) :) :)

everything but the ghoul: the dumbest pun, but had to use this joke in a chapter where ginny skips school (everything but the girl's most famous song is called 'missing'... get it)

songs from the playlist for this chapter:

girls getting grouchy and teenage in their feelings is the big ol mood this week:

the middle of the world - nicholas brittell | sidelines by phoebe bridgers | difficult by gracie abrams | simulation swarm by big thief | crisis by elizabeth m. drummond | delete forever - grimes | chinese satellite (copycat killer version) by phoebe bridgers

i did promise a sneak peek didn't i...

From the desk of the MINISTER OF MAGIC Whitehall, London Dear Ginny,  I hope you’re well. I’d like to meet with you on Saturday the 12th of December at 11 o’clock. It’s important that we’re discreet. Please vanish this letter after reading. Sincerely, Kingsley

[transingthoseformers]

Earthspark, shattered glass vibed kinda au idea

Megatron, Elita-one and Optimus all work in mines together back as D-16, Ariel and Orion Pax, they each have very different jobs but get along nonetheless. Eventually they start a revolution together(and start dating). Then tragedy strikes Orion gets nabbed by the council and when he comes back he's different. He bigger, stronger, he has a slightly different color palet and his eyes, are the wrong shade and now he's hell bent on killing Megatron and Elita at any cost. Megs and Lita just want their boyfriend back but Optimus Prime has started a war trying to kill them

Idk just a fun little thought

Hmmm, interesting because it shakes the game up pretty significantly!

I would be lying if I said I hadn't thought about a SG Optimus route where we see his design change as a metaphor for corruption (like what we see in tfp from Megs's Megatronus design in the flashback to Megatron's one in the series), but in that plotline it's a slow but steady thing from one change to the next.

I'd full well want to analyze what went down when Optimus became a prime here, was it part of the magical girl transformation sequence that comes with getting the matrix? Mnemosurgery and the council adding their own alterations? Both?????

How would Elita and Megatron run their faction (does this mean they get the SG decepticons in the divorce? Is this a situation where the leaders are swapped? Is it a different mixup of characters on different sides but some on the same sides?) differently than what we see in baseline canon or in other iterations of SG / SG adjacent?

Since you specified this as an earthspark adjacent au, does this mean we're zwoomed to the point where they're on earth, is the war over or still going? How does the three's connection to GHOST change, what is GHOST like in this situation? The malto family and the Terrans?????

[lightwise]

Ahsoka's Choice

(Content warnings: long post, implied depression and wanting to give up on life, mention of suicide prevention week). 

Life is not supposed to be a battle. I genuinely believe that it is not meant to be lived in survival mode, or be something to dread, or feel like a Sisyphean hamster wheel, climbing the same mountain over and over but going nowhere. 

And yet. 

It so often does. 

The good becomes so entwined with the bad that you can’t separate them anymore. 

Or even see any good at all.

Life is lived by placing one foot in front of the other, but our gaze is meant to be forward, not only down. 

There have been a number of excellent takes on the in-universe meaning behind the Clone Wars flashbacks, Anakin’s lessons, and Ahsoka’s choice in Shadow Warrior. How Ahsoka has been keeping herself small, living in survival mode, haunted by the fear of her past, by what Anakin became, by her fears of becoming that herself or inadvertently leading others down that path, by survivor’s guilt, by the inability to move forward.  (Please check out the excellent analyses below):

Anakin and Ahsoka learning to fight for the light

Recovering from PTSD and trauma and not letting the terrible things win 

Overcoming the legacy of war and death

Running from childhood trauma

Ahsoka choosing to live 

Ahsoka remembering who she is

However, without getting too detailed, I want to take a more metaphorical look at this episode and how it struck me personally.

My tagline is Daughter of Light. Ahsoka has been an extremely meaningful character to me since I first fell in love with Clone Wars several years ago, for her determination, her steadfast dedication to justice and kindness, and her strength in forging her own path in the midst of many difficult and undeserved circumstances. And this episode knocked me back in my chair, mouth open, trying not to cry at those four words: I choose to live.

The last few years have had some unique struggles in my life that have felt relentless at times, worn me down mentally and emotionally, and kept me in a state of difficult striving just to stay afloat on all fronts (financial, health, mental, etc.) I have honestly not wanted to stay afloat at points. And I’m still dealing with many of the effects of some of what I’ve been dealing with. 

(I am fine in this moment, btw. This post is reflective of where I have been, and some of what I have felt. So please don’t worry about me if you read this, it is meant to be encouraging more than anything. But I am acknowledging and honoring the struggle that it sometimes takes to exist and keep going when life is difficult or doesn’t turn out the way you expected, or is simply just too hard and too exhausting for a bit too long. It is also suicide prevention week, and therefore extremely timely for this episode coming out). 

“You lost a fight. Trust me, you lost.” - You can’t mince the reality of the situation, or pretend it’s better than it is, or that it doesn’t exist at all.

“So you do remember. That’s good, that means you still have a chance to live.” 

“Tell me what’s going on.” - She wants answers. She wants to understand what is happening to her so that she can know how to face it, so that it can be dealt with quickly. 

“I’m here to finish your training.”   

“It’s a little late for that.” - Where were you when I needed you. If only I had known what I know now a little sooner. All of this could have been prevented, things could have gone differently. 

“One is never too old to learn, Snips.” 

“What’s the lesson, Master.” - Alright, I guess we’re doing this. 

“Live…or die.”   

Choosing life—it means literally, and spiritually, and it means a life that is actually filled with wholeness and connection and purpose, not just an existence eked out in survival mode. And as much as I hate it, you have to engage with the pain and the suffering, you have to fight through them, in order to get there. You don’t get out of survival mode by not fighting, even when all you want to do is lay down in defeat.

“I won’t fight you.” 

In a vacuum, this is a decent sentiment. Maintaining one’s peace and refusing to give in to extraneous anger or regret is often a good thing. But that’s not the context here. It’s a negative, passive kind of choice, in this scenario at least. It’s choosing the lack of something, not the positive of something. I won’t fight…but what will you do instead?

All the lessons that Anakin begins taking Ahsoka through, forcing her to engage him, to keep going, to figure out ways to survive even when she doesn’t want to, when the cost feels too great, when her life has been handed to her against her will, is to get through to her the best way he knows how. To break her out of the isolation and defeat she has inhabited. To give her a path forward into momentum and purpose. 

They spar—Ahsoka still with only one saber, half her strength. He pushes her back, and then cuts the ground out from under her feet. And she falls.

“Why are we here?” - Why am I having to learn this lesson again. I thought I had already dealt with this. Why am I having to feel these emotions again. Why do I have to put my time and energy on this same problem again and again.  

“You tell me.”

“I don’t understand.” - She’s still trying to have logical answers before she can move on. We don’t always get them. If you wait for everything to make sense you’ll be waiting forever. 

“That’s your problem. This is your training.” - The casualties of war. Her mistakes. Her failures. Her guilt. Her grief. 

“The battle’s not over yet.” But oh how I sometimes want it to be. 

“This isn’t what I trained for.”  - This isn’t what I expected life to be like. This isn’t what I signed up for. This can’t be what all the effort of daily life adds up to. There has to be a whole greater than the parts. 

“I’m teaching you how to survive, and to do that, you’re going to have to fight.” 

“What if I wanna stop fighting.” - What if it’s not worth it. What if all the effort expended never actually leads anywhere that’s worth being. What if I’m too tired, too depleted to keep going.

“Then you’ll die.” 

“My part of that legacy is one of death and war.” - But what if that’s all there is? What if that’s all my life will ever mean, is struggle and loss and pain. 

“But you’re more than that. Because I’m more than that.” - But I’ve seen and felt horrors larger than life…how do I keep from drowning in them.  

“You’ve learned nothing. Back to the beginning. I gave you a choice. Live or die.” - You can’t stop from drowning in them. You can’t take the struggle out of life. You can’t take the pain out either, or the mistakes. But you can get back up. And you can keep going.  

“No!” - It shouldn’t have to be this way. It shouldn’t have to be this hard. 

“Incorrect.” - But for now, it is. It may not always be. You won’t know until you get there. 

“You lack conviction.” - I’m tired. I’m so tired. I don’t want to have to do this anymore. 

“Time to die.” 

Finally, technically defeated as both of her sabers are wrenched out of her hands, she takes Anakin's Sith blade and uses it against him. There’s a time when the way to get through difficulty is through sheer anger and force of will—I won’t let this thing beat me simply because I’m too mad to let it, I’m too bitter or resentful to stay down any longer…but while that can give you some fuel to get moving, eventually it will keep you stuck in place. 

And then, she tosses it away. And with ferocity and passion and acceptance in her voice:

“I choose to live.”

Living doesn’t mean Ahsoka has to kill the phantom of Vader that still haunts her or continue the cycle of violence. She doesn’t have to fight because that’s the only way to survive. The choice she makes to live, is accepting that living might involve fighting, it might involve pain, it might involve darkness…but that’s part of what makes it life. But it’s not the only part. It will always be so much more than that. So much better than that. The darkness doesn’t get to defeat the light. You get to choose not to let it. 

I choose to live. 

You are not just the bad things that have happened to you. You are more than your traumas and your history and your mistakes and your regrets. You are more than those who came before you. You are more than what has shaped you, dragged you under, torn you apart. Your history is not your identity. Your pain is not who you are. Even when it’s all you can see or feel. Even if it’s all you’ve known, and the life you want always feels out of reach.  

Life shouldn’t be a battle. We shouldn’t always be struggling or barely keeping our heads above water in survival mode. Sometimes letting yourself slip beneath the surface is necessary. You have to surrender to the waves, and accept the reality that more will come, before you can ride them. Just try to breathe in the process. 

Finally, there’s one other thing that brings Ahsoka back to the land of the living. It’s not just her choice alone. It’s other people not giving up on her. Searching for her. Refusing to give up hope. Jacen hearing what is really going on, telling his mom to listen, really listen. Friends working together to pull her out of the ocean. Huyang bringing her a cup of tea and a blanket. She is resuscitated and rehabilitated by others. By her community.

Let’s choose to live. Together. 

Hopefully, we can always make it worth it. 

[captainvulcant]

ATLA Live Action Review

I will preface this by saying that largely I enjoyed watching ATLA and I would watch a season 2, would even look forward to a season 2.

However, I did have a lot of issues with this series, issues which I don't feel can be solved by saying "well it's a different series it shouldn't be an exact copy paste of the original". If their changes are worse than the original then that is a failing, and there was a lot which was objectively worse. I'll begin with:

Dialogue Are these things written by AI now or something? The dialogue was giving me "I forced an AI to watch x hours of halmark movies and write one for me" but for your standard adventure series. Listen, we have had this already in 100s of other series and films. ATLA is so unique, could we not have kept the dialogue to that style instead of the expositiony "It's my responsibility" style basic adventure hero stuff? At best it was dull, at worst it was actively cringy. I felt that Zuko and Iroh's dialogue was better and most engaging, no real issues there, but only on a couple of occasions did I experience the Gaang's characteristics and dynamic that I was hoping for from the dialogue.

Music Would have very much liked to have heard some East-Asian instruments and music style. The bog-standard western orchestra did the same as mentioned above: it's dull, it's predictable, it didn't bring me into the world it took me out of it. I was metaphorically taking a shot every time the orchestra swelled at a dramatic or poignant moment. The exception was the little Leaves from the Vine motif they dotted in around Iroh, that was wonderful. Could have done with more of that for Aang's emotional moments.

Exposition So much exposition. Imo they shouldn't have shown the air nomads being attacked. We should have seen Aang fly off and then seen the fire nation making its way up the mountain ominously (on foot!! why do the firebenders have bending jet packs now??? this defeats the later plot??? why can everyone fly now????) before cutting to black. If they really wanted to show it it could have been in quick flashbacks as Aang makes his way through the air temple, which I think would have made it feel more personal to Aang and more devastating. As it was I was just reminded of Star Wars through the whole thing (so many Star Wars vibes at the air temple it really threw me off). Dialogue exposition also awful. If they had spent less time explaining every single plot point to the audience like we're stupid and more on the relationship between the characters and character development we might have actually felt like we progressed from episode 1 to 8. Which leads me to:

Characterisation I'm considering making an entirely different post for this honestly, but here it is in brief. I think we really lost something in this series, and for that I blame the 8 episode thing Netflix is obsessed with. The actors did a good job I felt, particularly with a script that was more rote phrases and platitudes than wise words and attitudes. We didn't really get to see friendships developing, they were just there. We didn't see the characters grow, and the issues which they faced and overcame in the series (which worked perfectly well!!!) have been changed for no reason. Sokka's dad was disappointed in him?? Why???? We already have Zuko whose dad is disappointed in him. I love Sokka's original character, I love seeing him getting over his mysogyny. You know what might have been helpful, in 2024 where all studies show that young men who spend time online become more conservative and sexism is rife?? Maybe showing that it's ok to change your views, that it's ok to work with and respect women, that people will still love you, and that it's not always your fault when you're taught stupid shit. That would have been useful. Taking away that aspect of his character meant changing Katara's and Sukis, and not for the better!!!! Like jesus Suki, my poor Suki. She's such a cool character in the animation. She has responsibility, she is competent and cool and knows her place in the world, but is also open to the idea of change. Why did they make her so awkward (original Suki is fun and funny as well) and unsure? And more parent drama?? Again??? Do they only have one plot?

I also felt that by missing key episodes like the Northern Air Temple we really missed out on Aang's character from the animation, and the emotional weight those scenes could have brought. This Aang doesn't goof off, he's already learned his lesson. This Aang doesn't struggle to balance his beliefs as an airbender (the last airbender, the only one who can continue them) with his job as the avatar, he's just 100% up for the fighting with no conflict. This is a huge part of his character's original internal struggle (and a massive plot point later on) and it feels like we lost something by taking it out.

Final Thoughts Once again, I did enjoy the series. I got super emotional at some parts, I particularly enjoyed the first 4 episodes. Overall I liked the casting and I think the actors did a pretty good job and I'm excited to see where this will go in season 2.

But, I do think that we are allowed to criticise and compare things. I'm seeing a lot of people on here being like stop over-analysing things!! No, lol. Firstly, this is tumblr, the over-analysing website. If you want a superficial review go to tiktok. Secondly, if I had one thing to place the blame on for my issues with this series it's that it is more generic and dumbed down than a cartoon made for kids almost 20 years ago. I am not alone in thinking that media is becoming very basic and sanitised (while at the same time becoming more explicit and violent? It's like no we can't have nuance or complex issues but we will show you explicit sex scenes and awful violence) and also it all feels the same. And I do think we should be wary of the homogenisation of media.

[bedlamsbard]

This is actually 3 things because ongoing breakup situation fried my brain so I kept forgetting. 1. That Peggy meta was a thing of beauty and I love that you managed to make her imperfect without ever falling into "this British aristocrat is a Relatable Underdog." 2. I kinda want to write my "alt!Loki hitting both his own and Thor's avengers beats" theory, but I don't want to make you feel like I'm trying to get you to go back to morning when I like Home a lot, your call? 3. Talk about Howard?

Aww, I'm sorry to hear you're not having a good time. <33333

I CANNOT get over the fact that the MCU tried to (a) make Peggy's and Whitney Frost's situations equivalent to each other in AC S2 when the flashbacks themselves made it clear that Peggy had every advantage Whitney didn't and (b) make Peggy's and Steve's situations equivalent to each other in CATFA and What If. I can actually see Peggy assuming growing up privileged but expected to fit into a certain role is equivalent to growing up poor, second gen, sickly, and with a single parent, but the narrative itself seemed to feel like those were identical, which is seriously uncomfortable.

I would be delighted to hear your alt!Loki theory! I don't get bothered about Morning the way I do with my Star Wars fic; I know exactly what's going to happen and how this story is going to end, I just haven't felt like working on it lately. So I would love to hear your theory!

Howard is a freak, which I say quite often and with affection. I don't think the MCU in any way intended him to be; it's a consequence of Howard mostly appearing in other people's memories, more as a plot device than a character, which is what he is in Tony's narrative. (And Tony says as much in his first scene in CACW.) We only see Howard as a non-constructed character on very few occasions and the only really extended occasion is CATFA, which is a much younger Howard than we see in Ant-Man or Endgame, or even his very brief flashback appearance in CACW. (I count IM2 as a constructed Howard because he's on camera and he knows he's on camera, he's just constructing himself here rather than being created by other people's memories/needs/etc.) Because Howard plays this wide variety of roles -- distant father, industrialist, inspirational father, casus belli, domineering boss, etc. -- it's easy to overlook what we see of Howard which isn't filtered through other people. I mean, literally, our introduction to Howard in IM1 is in newspaper articles about him. In IM2, it's Tony's memory of him, it's Fury using him to manipulate Tony, it's recorded videos -- and then CATFA we actually meet Howard, who is already at this point living the double life that Fury tells Tony about in IM2. Nobody knows he's involved with the SSR, just like for seventy years no one knew he was a member of SHIELD -- twenty years after his death! -- no one outside of SHIELD knew he was a member of SHIELD, including his own family. And the fact that Howard is the kind of person who not only could keep that secret, but actually did is such a major characterization note that should be the first thing anyone thinks of when it comes to him. Because everything else he does should be filtered through "this man is keeping a huge chunk of his life a secret." (and, I mean, one could definitely look at that as a metaphor for "Howard Stark was in love with a man for fifty years," but also it's...not a metaphor, he literally did that.)

[baenyth]

Bethany's Bizarre Miraculous Reviews Episode 3-24: The Expulsion Episode (aka Ladybug)

Alright, for research purposes I decided to watch Volpina just to go back to season 1 and see if I was being too harsh on Marinette. The results I came to were that Marinette was partially motivated by Lila being a crappy person. But yeah. Big Lila episode. Big salt episode. I bet the expulsion portion's going to be gone through in no time flat.

Long-ass dinner table. Seriously, man. Do you want yourself and your son to be that not-even-metaphorically distant just so you can have the edge seats of your dinner table with too many goddamn seats? Do you ever have any big occasions where a bunch of people come over and have dinner these days that would put this table to use?

...Marinette's having another birthday party so soon? It's getting even harder for me to believe that thi-wait a minute! This is a flashback!

Lila just conveniently being in a building near where Marinette's birthday party is taking place.

Gabriel's just like "What's the hold-up, Lila? You're supposed to be relevant to the plot, remember? You declared war on Marinette."

Oh god I'm getting secondhand embarrassment from how poorly Marinette is handling this. I can't watch.

Lila's mom isn't even there while Marinette's is lmao

I was right. It did go fast!

The funniest anticlimax. "Time for a massive battle royale! Sike! Natalie's sick from using the Peacock Miraculous like Hawkmoth knew would happen when she first used it!"

Alya's majorly looking out for Marinette. What an amazing bestie. Those fics were wrong. Marinette's parents seem to believe her too.

Natalie you doofus simp

So is Duusuu supposed to be like that or is that the effect of a broken Miraculous or?

So the Peacock Miraculous just needs an object? Not a separate person or anything?

...And none of the heroes said anything about Mayura even after she appeared on-scene? No one noticed either?

Another clone shootoff so soon?

Natalie killed sapient life when she couldn't fufill her purpose anymore. Points docked.

Well, he's less "grandpa" and more "pa" if you catch my drift, Cattablack.

And there's the lying disease. They should really tell that to the class so they don't fall into any misinformation pits.

Well, at this point I don't know what to say here. That if Marinette should be expelled, it should be for creeping on Adrien or something? This is getting tiring. And the next two episodes are Chloe's character execution.

You know what? Here's something.

I might've said this before, but the reason why I'm getting so into Miraculous in the first place is to write a fanfic where I enter the world of Miraculous as someone completely OP and suplex and utterly defeat Hawkmoth. I'll also be doing other work, such as breaking down the lovesquare and outing other evils in the Miraculous world such as Chloe's karen of a mother, and also Lila. Except instead of suplexing her, I'll have to get tricky. Psychological warfare. Lila is a smuggie and hates being called a liar, so I know she'll get fuming if you say she's bad at lying! Like, seriously. There are a thousand other pets Jagged Stone would be more likely to own than a kitten. Not to mention poking holes in her lies or busting out alibis or people that have a sixth sense for others' personalities!

[jackiestarsister]

OUAT Rewatch: Season 3

Spoilers for future seasons are noted in parentheses.

General thoughts:

~ I don’t like the pattern that the show developed of focusing on a new world and “big bad” antagonist each half-season. I generally prefer when most of the action takes place in Storybrooke, attention is given to the various townsfolk, and the different plotlines overlap.

~ Despite this, the introduction of Neverland for a while makes sense thematically. Peter Pan is full of children alternately rejecting and longing for parents. Neverland serves as metaphorical underworld, a place for the characters to wrestle with their demons and face themselves, and each other, for who they really are.

Episode 3x01 “The Heart of the Truest Believer”

~ This is an episode with no flashbacks, a rare thing in this show. It makes sense given how many different parties there are to juggle at the same time.

~ This episode starts with Emma saying “I can’t be a mother,” and ends with her saying “I’m a mother.” It’s like an encapsulation of her whole character arc in the show!

~ Henry is an interesting contrast against Greg and Tamara. He’s usually framed as the optimistic believer, but here, they are the ones showing blind faith while he asks logical questions.

~ “We don’t ask questions. We just believe in our cause.” So basically, Greg and Tamara are part of a cult.

~ Who are the “countless other people” Emma says they’ve lost since the curse was broken? Is she thinking of the refugees Cora killed? Does Emma know about Johanna and the others Cora killed or transformed in Storybrooke?

~ “The minute I let go of the belief that things will get better is the minute I know they won’t.” That’s an interesting take on optimism and pessimism. Sounds sort of like self-fulfilling prophecy, or the idea that “your focus determines your reality,” as Qui-Gon Jinn says in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Basically, your attitude shapes the world.

~ What are the rules for when/where Gold needs his cane? He needed it in Storybrooke even after bringing magic there, but he leaves it behind and seems to walk fine in Neverland.

~ Greg and Tamara unknowingly working for the Lost Boys doesn’t make a lot of sense, considering how much they supposedly relied on science to counteract magic. I would have preferred for them to be part of an actual network of people opposed to magic.

~ Tamara yells at Henry to run. Did she care about him on some level, despite killing his father?

~ Why does Henry immediately think he can trust the kid that pulled him out of the way? How does he know he isn’t also one of the Lost Boys?

~ Hook encouraging Emma, giving her Neal’s sword, and drinking to Neal’s memory is so sweet. He may deny being sentimental, but he does feel deeply, and he is sensitive to others’ (or at least Emma’s) feelings.

~ Hook’s answer about how long Baelfire was with him is suitably ambiguous, since this show likes to play with time, sometimes glossing over long periods, sometimes inserting stories within stories.

~ Everyone is so out of sync, each following their own ideas for defense against the mermaids. I feel bad for Hook trying to keep his ship steady while his new crewmates just add to the chaos!

~ How would catching mermaids in a net help? They shouldn’t want them on board!

~ Mulan and Neal’s scene feels like it’s more about her than about him. We already know what he did and why he did it, since he explained it two episodes earlier.

~ Those slow-motion shots when the waves crash on the ship are pretty cool!

~ How does Neal know about Rumplestiltskin’s castle? They never lived there when they were together. Did he learn about it from Henry’s book?

~ For someone who hated magic, Neal seems quite adept at detecting it and figuring out ways to use it.

~ Emma and Hook working together at the helm!

~ (Spoiler:) All the talk about outrunning a storm comes to a head in the lyrics of “A Happy Beginning”!

~ The weather-emotion symbolism may be heavy-handed, but honestly, the fights that break out make sense for who the characters are. Snow vs. Regina, David vs. Hook—they all have bad history, and in a crisis, stress can unleash bottled-up emotions.

~ Getting to fly must be such a dream come true for Henry!

~ Emma finally takes a leap of faith, signifying a turning point in her story. And although she says she blames her parents, and the recurring theme in Neverland is that she feels like an orphan, she trusts her parents to save her.

~ Hook is so quick-thinking and pragmatic, and willing to cooperate with the guy he was just fighting, when Emma is in danger.

~ Rumple is self-parodying now!

~ Neal and Rumple both come across items that had to do with both themselves and their fathers.

~ The interior of Rumple’s cabinet looks like it’s decorated with roses!

~ Hook raises his brow at Emma when she says they’ve been at each other’s throats; thankfully, she owns up to her part right away.

~ As they follow the heroes, Hook gives Regina a look as if to say “Oh, what the hell?” or “I’m game.”

~ “It’s so much easier to get people to hate something than to believe.” True words, even though they’re from Pan.

~ What happened to the freaking mermaid?! I’m going to assume that after the storm calmed they turned her back to flesh and set her free.

~ That last scene, with the Lost Boys coming out and surrounding Henry, is pretty terrifying cliffhanger. It lets us imagine the worst, but the following episodes make it seem like they haven’t done much to harm or frighten Henry.

~ This might be one of the best episodes of the show!

Episode 3x02 “Lost Girl”

~ It’s really cool to see so many characters—Emma, Snow, David, Regina, and Hook—share so many scenes. It’s a balancing act for the writing and directing, and it gives the actors plenty of opportunities for their characters to play off each other, in both old and new ways.

~ Emma may have declared herself the leader, but she backs up Hook as their guide, showing great trust in him. This is impressive considering how mistrustful she has been toward him and how untrustworthy he has been toward everyone.

~ Snow’s insistence that “It is never too late” doesn’t really make sense in this kind of context. They could quite plausibly reach Henry after he’s been hurt or killed. But Snow seems to take it back at the end, when she says they found Emma too late.

~ I had forgotten/not realized that Snow’s identity is questioned as much as Emma’s, Hook’s, and Gold’s in this part of the series. In the flashback storyline, she is told not to deny who she is, just like Emma in the present struggles with admitting who she is. While she cannot hear the children’s cries—probably because she knew her parents loved her, and she was practically grown when her father died—she did lose her parents and her home, so she is a type of lost girl.

~ Leaving the campsite to investigate the eerie children’s cries alone is not a smart move.

~ David says “Just name your price” way too easily, as if he doesn’t know how great the price of Rumplestiltskin’s deals can be. He should know better by now.

~ Hook and Regina both call Emma by her first name, something they rarely do. It makes sense that it would be when she’s wrestling with her identity, though I’m not sure it was intentional.

~ Emma’s voice is so flat and emotionless when she admits that she is the Savior. (Spoiler: Her proclamation at the end of season 6 is a huge contrast to this!)

~ Did Hook already know about Emma being the Savior, or did he follow up her admission with questions about what that means?

~ As much as I love Belle, the vision of her that Gold sees in Neverland is really weird. Did they just want to find a way to include Emilie de Ravin, keeping her part of the regular cast? Or was it so Gold would have a character to play off of as he wrestles with his demons? In a way, she is still serving as an angel/devil on his shoulder.

~ Hook mentions “what [he] did to Rufio”! Interesting way to allude to Hook. Since the Lost Boys are framed as villains in this version, it may not have played out the same way.

~ The moments where Pan and Regina simply call off their forces and leave their enemies alive doesn’t make sense. They have no reason to retreat. What was even the point of the battle with the Lost Boys?

~ The show never really delves into matters of governance and what makes someone a rightful ruler/leader. It is presumed that Snow and Charming were rightful because they were noble, heroic people.

~ I wondered why Snow was suddenly wearing an ostentatious necklace. It’s cruel of Rumplestiltskin to take that knowing it was her mother’s. Only, how did she have it at that point, after being driven out of her palace and living on the run for so long?

~ Hook actually hasn’t brought out the rum often up to now. The first time was to wash Emma’s cut, and the second time was to toast Neal. This is only the third time he offers it, but the first time Emma comments on it as a recurring thing.

~ Emma and Hook’s moments are natural and understated, and that’s great. They’re getting used to each other as teammates, and at the end he confirms that he wants to know her better. That last shot of Emma seems to be Hook’s point of view watching her walk away.

~ Appearance vs. reality is actually a theme throughout the episode. Hook warns that Pan looks like a boy but is really a demon. Snow thinks she has found Excalibur when it’s an ordinary sword. Gold has a vision of Belle. Emma and Snow’s identities are both questioned, along with David’s identity as shepherd/prince.

~ I hate the fake adventure/false confidence trope.

~ I like seeing David and the dwarves having tension. They may have helped Snow pursue him, but they really don’t know him, and it makes sense for them to be skeptical of him given how much Snow has put herself at risk because of him.

~ Despite what he has said about honesty being important in their relationship, David deceives Snow in both the past and present timelines of this episode.

Episode 3x03 “Quite a Common Fairy”

~ “You think you’re the diner at the feast, tasing the offerings: a little love, a little darkness. What you don’t realize is you are the feast, and the darkness has tasted you.” That’s an interesting metaphor!

~ Rumplestiltskin is the one who tells Regina that her rage is all she has.

~ Tinker Bell was the first person to give Regina a second chance!

~ Hook says David won’t see summer. Does that mean it’s springtime at this point (assuming Hook is referring to Land Without Magic time)?

~ Robin Hood and Neal also talk about second chances!

~ What did Tinker Bell mean for Regina to do? Have an affair, which could be considered treason for a royal consort? Forsake her responsibilities as queen, wife and stepmother?

~ Why is the Shadow still looking for believers at this point, after Henry has already been found? Does Pan still want to recruit Lost Boys anyway?

~ I want to see a whole series (or at least an arc) about Hook’s various adventures in Neverland, as it’s repeatedly hinted that he has quite a history with Tinker Bell, Pan, and the Lost Boys.

~ “Come with us to our camp,” as if they have one set up already?

~ It’s quite harsh of Tink to say that Regina ruined Robin’s life by not seeking him out. He ended up falling in love with Marian and having a child with her; that was pretty good. (Season spoiler: The way she really ruined his life was when she had Marian put to death.)

~ Why does Pan trust Tink? What is their relationship like? How did she even end up in Neverland?

~ Robin’s lion tattoo is probably a tribute to Richard the Lionheart!

Episode 3x04 “Nasty Habits”

~ Why does Rumple make and put on war paint? It’s true that he uses masks, but what is the practical purpose of making and wearing it?

~ Hook was probably the one who taught Baelfire/Neal to tie an overhand knot!

~ Baelfire was an artist, like Milah! He’s shown sketching as a boy, and the walls of his cave are covered with drawings. He drew the Darling family, their house, and the second star to the right; and he made a new version of Hook’s labels for port and starboard!

~ Baelfire in this episode acts more like Neal as we’ve seen him in adulthood.

~ Rumplestiltskin accurately predicts Belle leaving him someday

~ Regina smiles when he hears what happened to Greg

~ Hook acknowledges that Neal was Emma’s “partner in crime”

~ This may be Rumple and Neal’s first real father-son adventure. It seems a little too easy for them to get the squid ink after Rumple made it sound so impossible to get last season.

~ It seems a bit dissonant to see evidence of multiple points of Neal’s life that all had to do with Neverland

~ Charming insisting “I’m plenty hot”!

~ Hook throwing Charming’s own life philosophy back in his face is so ironic and interesting! But then Hook follows it up with “hope and reality are often worlds apart.”

~ Hook tries to be self-sufficient, lighting the torch on his own, and he looks so annoyed when David steps in to do it for him.

~ Part of Pan’s pipe tune sounds like “Hedwig’s Theme”

~ Strong Lord of the Flies and The Crucible vibes from the Lost Boys’ dancing

~ I’m impressed that Emma is the one to figure out how the star map works. Maybe she really does have a bit of pirate in her!

~ “This is a real family reunion.” The dramatic irony is that all four generations of men are in the same place, yet they don’t reveal it!

~ The irony that generational wisdom was passed from Pan to Neal and then to Emma, about never breaking in unless you have an escape plan.

~ Why can Henry now hear the music? What changed for him? Did his supposedly dreaming about Neal make him suddenly feel unloved?

Episode 3x05 “Good Form”

~ The teaser scene is a good way to show Henry getting more comfortable with the Lost Boys, but it doesn’t have much to do with Hook, and this episode is really focused on him.

~ Flashback Killian looks so incredibly happy when he sets out on his mission with his brother.

~ Snow watches Emma to see how she reacts to Hook’s flirting!

~ How many times does Hook call David “mate” in all? Seems a little too much.

~ Even Captain Liam Jones whoops in delight when the ship flies!

~ Killian used to tie his hair with a huge blue hairbow!

~ Killian expresses the hope that they’ll “never have to bury another sailor at sea,” but ends up adding to that number. Kind of like Frankenstein trying to reverse death and instead causing more of it.

~ Even Pan knows that Hook is good at surviving!

~ The cliff, rope and possibility of the person at the top killing the one climbing up give big Princess Bride vibes. When Hook says “You were supposed to wait,” I really expected David to reply “I hate waiting”!

~ It’s fitting that Regina’s chosen method of communicating with Henry is to use mirrors!

~ Henry using his sword to draw a home!

~ Why does Henry drop and break the mirror?! Keep that magical item, kid!

~ Charming’s triumphant musical motif when he’s healed!

~ Emma, Regina and Snow each pulling out their different weapons when they think an enemy is approaching is both funny and really cool!

~ Hook’s reaction after Emma kisses him = he is stunned! I agree with whoever posted the theory that that was the moment he realized he was actually falling for her.

~ The cut from his old crew cheering “Captain Jones” to Hook drinking alone is a striking contrast. He no longer has a crew following his lead, but he has true friends and allies and is willing to follow their lead.

~ Hook really is layered, in the sense that his actual motives are hard to figure out. At the end, there’s still ambiguity about how much of his good actions were because of his ideals of honor and how much were in an effort to win Emma’s favor.

~ Hook’s frequent tangling with poison is actually in keeping with Peter Pan, where he tries to poison a cake for the Lost Boys and Peter’s medicine.

Episode 3x06 “Ariel”

~ Did Snow lose consciousness when she jumped into the water, or was she resigned to drowning?

~ If Snow’s past experience with mermaids consisted of Ariel, she should have been more sympathetic to the ones that attacked Hook’s ship!

~ Regina trying to teach Emma about magic feels like a sudden development, and isn’t explored for the rest of the episode. There’s been no discussion of Emma’s abilities since coming to Neverland.

~ Hook, Snow, and David’s conversation about the nature of secrets turns out to be setup for what they have to do later!

~ It makes sense for Snow to blurt out the truth: she gave away Regina’s secret as a child, and lying is pretty against her nature. It would probably be even harder to attempt to lie to her daughter, who is already a pretty mistrustful person.

~ Flashback Snow affirms Ariel’s believe in love at first sight, but she herself denounced that as a reality when she met Charming.

~ Rumple got rid of his war paint

~ Why do Pan and Rumple say that Pan can only die if Rumple also dies? How does that work?

~ Pan foreshadows Rumple and Belle having a child! But how does he know what she looks like? And Peter Pan, boy of eternal youth, talking about a woman’s fertility, while eating eggs, is just weird.

~ So above-the-knee skirts are acceptable formalwear in Eric’s kingdom? Is that just so Ariel can show off the fact that she has legs? And is that a tail on Snow’s dress? Where did they even get these fancy outfits—did they steal, or use Ariel’s shipwreck treasures to buy or barter?

~ Did Snow give Ariel some dance lessons before they crashed the ball?

~ The dancing and talking scene is so awkward, as everyone else is watching while they discuss such personal matters.

~ There’s some irony in Regina being the one to save Rumple from an imposter, when she herself impersonates someone else in this episode.

~ “Happy endings always start with hope.” That’s Snow White’s philosophy in its simplest form.

~ “I can’t ask him to give up his dream for someone he just met.” Isn’t Eric asking her to leave behind her life for him?

~ Snow’s attitude about being open to love is fleshed out more in her conversation with Ariel than with Emma: “Even if you get hurt, you’ll know you tried.”

~ Making Regina the Ursula stand-in is weird. Lana Parilla does a fine job imitating the animated villain’s way of speaking and moving, but story-wise, it’s just weird.

~ The confrontation between Regina and Snow on the dock doesn’t make sense. Regina turning Snow into a mermaid in order to kill her more easily … just doesn’t make sense when she’s sitting on a dock. Snow could have jumped into the water and caused Regina to lose her trail.

~ I have to admit, though: Ariel using the fork as a weapon is great!

~ Hook only has a few scenes in this episode, but he shows so much emotion and character in those moments focused on him! He is so uncomfortable, yet resigned, about sharing his feelings about Emma with the group. Then, he looks so concerned and sad watching Neal hug Emma, while Snow is happy, and David is probably trying to decide whether he likes Neal or Hook better as a potential match for his daughter. And when he overhears Neal and Emma, you can see in his face and the cinematography that this is when he really starts to view him as a rival.

~ I want to know what happened when Neal crossed the rock bridge and faced Hook, Snow, and David. He’s barely interacted with Emma’s parents, but they know how much Emma and Henry care about him; and it his first face-to-face meeting with Hook since he was a kid. (Hook was unconscious when Neal saw him in New York, and Hook had just tried to kill his father, so it wasn’t much of a reunion.) How did they greet each other?

Episode 3x07 “Dark Hollow”

~ This is another episode that doesn’t use flashbacks, except at the very beginning to fill in a gap.

~ There are scattered references to believing in this episode, without much of a consistent theme: Mother Superior encourages Belle to believe in herself; Snow tells Charming he didn’t believe in their love; and Regina questions Gold’s belief in Belle.

~ The Darling brothers’ car has a teddy bear keychain hanging from the rearview mirror!

~ Hook and David are both feeling so awkward, as Hook has become a third wheel/part of a love triangle and David is being shunned by his wife.

~ The dwarves make a good point! Trouble seems to follow Snow and Charming like a magnet.

~ The Hook and Neal scene is so awkwardly written. Why does Hook throw it out there? And “dalliance,” while suitably old-fashioned, sounds like it could mean so much more than just a kiss. Did he really not realize Neal didn’t know? Or did he want to make Neal jealous?

~ “You came to Neverland on a pirate ship through a portal, but you draw the line at a magic coconut?” “Fair enough.” Indeed!

~ Ariel says “Look at this stuff!”

~ Considering that the show’s main theme is hope, it’s odd that they don’t talk about that aspect of the myth of Pandora when they introduce her box as a magical item.

~ It makes sense that after the secrets were shared in the previous episode, their repercussions need to be worked out in this one.

~ Neal’s reaction to Hook keeping and passing on his cutlass is the same as Emma’s: “I didn’t know you were sentimental.” He totally is, he just doesn’t want to admit it!

~ Emma and Hook’s scene is excellent! Honesty looks good on him, and gratitude looks good on her. He shows faith in her abilities. As serious as he is, he shows his arrogance in his certainty that he’ll win her heart, and he shows his lightheartedness at the end.

~ Ariel closes the door on their way out of Gold’s shop, but it seems to be open when they pass by it.

~ Snow’s declaration to David has so much emotion—anger as well as love, which is an unusual combination.

~ Snow and Charming’s theme sounds so sad when they hug.

~ Why does Hook ask about how to ignite the candle? Does he not have some method of starting fires, like flint, or his hook?

~ Ariel asks “Who is she?” as if the men’s sister must be someone known to them.

~ It’s sad that Baelfire sacrificed himself to prevent the Darling family from being torn apart, only for that to happen anyway. Wendy went back to look for him, and John and Michael must have spent some time there since they're still young men.

~ I still wish Greg and Tamara’s network had actually been dedicated to destroying magic. Then John and Michael’s involvement would have made a lot more sense.

~ Looks like Pan could have let Wendy live in relative comfort in that treehouse furnished like her old nursery, but instead he keeps her in a cage just because.

~ “It wasn’t the lighter we were fighting over.” Actually, they were, since Emma was the one who lit the candle!

~ Emma’s reprimand of the two men makes sense. Just a few days earlier, Neal was engaged to someone else, and then she thought he was dead; and Hook alternated between enemy and fair-weather ally. They have had no time to think or talk about what their relationships will be like when the crisis is over. Emma is nowhere near ready to “choose” either of them.

~ How does Tinker Bell knowing Baelfire/Neal fit in with her storyline with Regina? He was there a century or two before the curse was cast, but Tinker Bell only lost her wings about a decade or two before it was cast. Did she live in or visit Neverland even before losing her wings?

~ How long did Regina and Gold wait for Ariel on the beach? Her journeys and her adventure in Storybrooke must have taken her hours, possibly a whole day and/or night.

Episode 3x08 “Think Lovely Thoughts”

~ They did a good job casting an adult who looks like Pan and a child who looks like Rumple/Gold!

~ Why does Rumple have a Scottish accent when his father has an English accent?

~ Rumple’s father teaching him about the power of names!

~ Emma is the one who says “Family means being together!”

~ So when Baelfire got a bean to take him and his father to another land to be a family, history was repeating itself!

~ So apparently Hook told Emma about his brother at some point offscreen. I would have loved to see that conversation.

~ Rumple/Gold calling someone a coward is such a pot-calling-kettle-black move!

~ Emma’s reaction to Rumple/Gold agreeing to something just because Neal asks is great

~ David throwing Hook a knife and saying, “Here, in case your good looks fail you” is quick but hilarious!

~ Neal saying his father abandoned him, in front of his father, hits so much harder when you know Rumple’s father did the same to him!

~ If the Shadow predates Peter Pan, what is its origin?

~ Skull Rock is such an obvious Underworld—not only is it full of skulls and an hourglass, traditional symbols of death, but they also have to cross water in a boat to get to it, like Charon!

~ That musical buildup as Rumple/Gold enters Skull Rock is different from the score’s usual style, and it sounds epic!

~ Pan and Rumple are actually the same type of person: they consider themselves weak as they are (which may cause self-fulfilling prophecy), so they gather magic to make themselves feel powerful.

~ Pan shedding the responsibility of fatherhood is actually in keeping with J. M. Barrie’s story, where he wants to stop play-acting as the Lost Boys’ father.

~ Pan’s formerly Scottish accent comes out when he says “just as we planned”!

~ Why aren’t the spinsters who raised Rumple given names? Why are they never mentioned? They gave him a decent home and taught him a trade; they were the closest thing he had to family until he married Milah.

~ It is strange and unsettling to have a place of death set in a place of eternal youth.

~ “Any rule can be broken” = Pan’s life motto, and possibly a big influence on Rumple

~ This is when Regina and Emma really face the consequences of lying to Henry in the past

Episode 3x09 “Save Henry”

~ Why does Regina’s preservation spell have a time limit? For Daniel it endured for years.

~ Emma finding her identity as a mother in Neverland and becoming a mother-figure to the Lost Boys is so much like Wendy in Peter Pan!

~ It is so sweet to see Regina and Henry’s first meeting!

~ Hook pulling Felix down when he stands up to Emma says so much!

~ What story was Regina going to tell Henry on her first try? She is cut off after “there was …”

~ Dr. Whale confirms that Henry always had a strong heart!

~ I’m surprised Regina would let Snow White, the person she hates most, hold Henry, the one she loves most!

~ The hospital seems to be bustling with pediatric patients. Were they there during the whole curse?

~ Gold supposedly didn’t remember his old identity until he heard Emma’s name; but he really does act as if he knows what he did when Regina confronts him.

~ When the baby isn’t crying and the camera shows a good view of his face, he really does look like kid Henry!

~ Although Regina’s motherly love shines through in this episode, she shows that she still lacks remorse for her past wrongdoings. In her view, they were worthwhile because they led to her adopting Henry.

~ It seems a bit too easy for Regina to take Henry’s heart back from Pan.

~ Do the mothers just leave Pan on the ground? Why don’t Emma and/or Regina try to kill him, or capture him in Pandora’s box then?

~ Hook calls Henry the guest of honor! And gives him the captain’s quarters! That’s their first direct interaction, instead of just watching each other interact with the others, and it’s wonderful!

~ I’m extremely surprised that they would leave Henry alone. Even if there was really nothing to fear, I would expect at least one of his three parents to want to sit up with him.

~ What made Neal change his attitude toward Rumple/Gold? Was it learning that Pan was his father and had abandoned him as a child?

~ What does Rumple/Gold mean when he says “Blood magic works both ways”? Did Regina’s protection spell involve blood magic?

~ Gold telling Regina that she raised her son well is such unexpected praise from her teacher!

~ Who is the “bo’sun” that Hook calls out to? David? Neal?

~ David revisits Emma’s speech at the start of the season, and expresses, without explicitly saying it, just how proud he is of her becoming a leader and uniter of people.

~ Tinker Bell is absent this whole episode until her scene with Wendy on the Jolly Roger. Their interaction is sweet, but it raises a lot of questions: Did Wendy and her brothers ever interact with Hook and/or Tink during her time in Neverland?

~ (Season spoiler:) Neal is so sweet telling Henry that he has a dad, and always will; but it’s hard to swallow that if you know who Henry really is and what happens to Neal.

~ Jared Gilmore does such a good job of playing Pan, it’s scary!

~ Seeing the beginning of Regina’s relationship with Henry makes their interactions in the next two episodes even more heart-wrenching!

Episode 3x10 “The New Neverland”

~ Ariel and Belle look like they coordinated their outfits to be reverse colors.

~ Eric chopping fish as a nod to “Le Poisson” is funny, but how does he feel about Ariel being a mermaid?

~ Snow and Ariel reunited! I’m glad they showed that, even though there was no dialogue.

~ I was wondering where Wendy got that bathrobe/dressing gown; a while later I realized, it is the same one Baelfire wore when the Shadow abducted him and Hook rescued him! Either Hook must have kept it on his ship all those years, or Baelfire must have left it in his cave and got it back during this trip. Either way, one of them must have offered it to Wendy during the journey back!

~ What happened to all the Lost Boys that came to Storybrooke? Where did they stay that night? Did Emma and the others keep their promise to find them homes? Did some of them go to England with the Darlings? Or do they become vagrants in the Enchanted Forest after the next curse?

~ Good on Snow for giving Regina credit in front of everyone. She didn’t do that after returning from the Enchanted Forest.

~ David does the same thing in this episode’s past and present storylines: encourages the women he loves not to lose the joy of the present moment due to fear of the future.

~ Hook looks so sad and wistful watching Emma with Henry. He may act nonchalant with Neal, but he is really sad about the decision he is making.

~ Hook deciding to back off and let Emma and Neal have a chance, for Henry’s sake, is significant because it’s the opposite of what he did when he and Milah fell in love. He didn’t care about taking her away from her child and his father. Hook is trying to do right by Henry, as he did not do for Baelfire.

~ Earlier in the season, Emma said she couldn’t think about herself and the men who love her because they needed to focus on saving Henry; but even now that Henry is safe, she says she can’t think about herself because of what he just went through.

~ Why was Medusa living in the Enchanted Forest, rather than Greece or some equivalent? Are there other gorgons, as David refers to her, in their land?

~ Did they make a reference to The Lightning Thief when David talks about sending Medusa’s head in a box?

~ David saying he knew what he was getting himself into, after the way he fell in love with Snow on an adventure, is pretty sweet, and reassuring!

~ Neal sitting by himself is made more awkward by the fact that he’s behind Emma’s parents and across from his father and almost-stepmother.

~ David and Emma finally have a good father-daughter moment, full of parental wisdom and free of crisis or tragedy!

~ How can the Blue Fairy be (seemingly) killed so easily? Does she have no defensive magic?

~ David mentions Frederick! That’s a nice callback to a minor character.

~ If Pan and Henry switched bodies, they should be speaking with each other’s accents, not their own. Henry, at least, wouldn’t be speaking with a different accent; Pan would try to imitate his.

~ Snow and David talk about having a child in both the past and the present! The flashback carries such a poignant message, and is relatable to any parent or potential parent who has worried about raising a child in a world with so much suffering. And Snow is right about how they’ll always have someone or something threatening them.

~ Neal, Hook, and Tink could be their own trio! They’re all Neverland veterans, and apparently they all knew each other long ago.

~ Emma’s conversation with Snow and David is a nice contrast against their conversation at the start of the season. She is more patient and respectful toward them, and even affirms that they are good parents, even though she disagrees with them.

~ What Emma says about being the Savior sums up her attitude across the series. At this point, she more or less accepts her identity as the Savior and the responsibility that comes with that role; but in the second half of this season, after she has a taste life without that responsibility, she keeps trying to run away from it.

Episode 3x11 “Going Home”

~ The structure of this episode works differently than any other thus far: instead of one storyline told through flashbacks, it’s more like a series of vignette flashbacks. This spreads the focus across the whole cast of characters: the Charmings, Hook and Tink, Henry, Rumple and Belle, and finally Emma. It feels fitting for a mid-series finale.

~ Peter Pan calling something “child’s play” is a strange choice of words.

~ If Pan is telling the truth about never loving Rumple, then his appeal to him at Skull Rock was all a lie.

~ (Spoiler:) Tinker Bell talks about the Black Fairy, who apparently was exiled by the Blue Fairy.

~ Tinker Bell’s storyline really doesn’t line up with everyone else’s. Flashback Hook speaks as though they just learned about the dagger from Baelfire, but Tink says she lost her wings a long time ago, which would place the scene sometime after Regina became queen, only a few years or a decade or so before the Dark Curse was cast.

~ It’s interesting to see a battle in a church. For one thing, the shadow tries to get through stained glass windows. For another, the name Killian means “church,” and this is one of his more heroic moments!

~ David is the one who pulls Hook back to safety!

~ This might have been Neal’s first direct (onscreen) interaction with the Blue Fairy since she gave him that bean when he was a child. But they were in the same scene when August became Pinocchio again. Did she recognize him then?

~ Possible inconsistency: In Episode 2x19 Hook said Cora gave him the cuff, but now Pan says he made it.

~ How and when did Gold get the cuff from Greg and Tamara before they went to Neverland? By the time they all found out the truth about them, he was too distraught by the news of Neal’s death. And the cuff disappeared from Regina when the Blue Fairy healed her.

~ (Spoiler Alert:) Knowing that the Black Fairy is Rumple’s mother makes his use of her wand to defeat his father more ironic.

~ “Your happy ending may not be what you expect, but that is what will make it so special.” That is so true of real life!

~ So, since Ruby is inexplicably absent (I’m guessing the actress didn’t want to keep coming back), they have Granny use her wolf senses instead?

~ I don’t like the device of simply freezing everyone. It feels like a weak excuse so they can see the important interaction but not be able to intervene. And it takes away the actors’ ability to react openly. But you can see Belle reacting slightly to Rumple, realizing what is about to happen.

~ It seriously seemed like Rumple was going to cut off his own hand, which would have ben both an echo of his self-harm during the Ogre Wars and his amputation of Hook’s hand.

~ Rumple talks about wanting to give Baelfire/Neal a chance at happiness, but that was never really his priority. He wanted to find him so he could apologize and try to start over.

~ I was wondering where Rumple’s dagger and shadow were! Nice way to bring that back. Although I still don’t understand why Pan’s death required Rumple’s death.

~ This may be reading too much into a running gag, but Grumpy announcing “It’s here” whenever a curse approaches kind of makes sense for his character: his pessimistic personality has him watching for any approaching danger or impending doom.

~ Hook jokes about preparing their souls for death, and how his will take some time (spoiler: ironic knowing about the Underworld arc)!

~ When Regina is explaining the curse to Emma, there are two brief cuts to Hook, where you can see him reacting to the news that he has to be separated from Emma and possibly never see her again.

~ Couldn’t Hook and Neal also have escaped the new curse, since they weren’t victims of the first one? Did they decide to return to their realm just so they wouldn’t lose their memories? Or did they not want to force Emma to choose between them in that moment?

~ Emma’s second chance with Henry is such a “be careful what you wish for” moment. She is getting the kind of life she spoke about in the previous episode and the start of this one, a life free from the responsibility of being the Savior; but the price is being away from the rest of her family and friends, and that devastates her.

~ The shot of the smoke overclouding the storybook!

~ It looks like Emma and Henry had to leave behind everything—even the belongings she has always held onto, like her baby blanket.

~ Emma and Henry seem pretty well-to-do in their new lives. Does she have more money now?

~ From the end of this episode through the rest of the season, Hook now serves as the prophet, just as Henry was in Season 1, calling Emma back to her true identity and relationship with her family and kingdom.

Episode 3x12 “New York City Serenade”

~ This episode has so many callbacks to the pilot episode that then diverge from how that one went: opening shots of a rider in a hurry, only for it to be a non-emergency; Emma meeting a man in a restaurant, only for it to be a steady boyfriend rather than a stranger.

~ Why is David back in his bloodstained shirt from the day the first curse was cast, while the others have new outfits?

~ The curse was also a “be careful what you wish for” moment for Snow and David, since they had been talking about returning to the Enchanted Forest, yet when they return Snow is so dejected when she says, “We’re back.”

~ “Emma Swan always gets her man.” We’ll see if that holds true!

~ Since Hook and Emma didn’t meet until after she broke the first curse, it’s interesting to see him interact with her as an unbeliever. He’s in the same situation as Henry, Jefferson and August in Season 1. His words sound very much like The Matrix.

~ It can’t have been very long since Snow and Aurora last saw each other, maybe two months or so. How did Aurora and Philip defeat the ogres and “take back the kingdom” so quickly?

~ The dialogue is a little clunky in an effort to impart information about the time skip, like Emma’s reason for moving to New York and her first date with Walsh.

~ Adding characters like Tamara and Walsh, to who try to ensnare the heroes with romance, may seem like mere soap opera drama, but it actually is in keeping with fairy tales involving a true spouse and a false spouse. Some examples are Odette and Odile in Swan Lake, or Una and Duessa in The Faerie Queene. For a biblical example, it’s like the metaphor of Israel forsaking their relationship with God to pursue love with pagan gods/nations, who end up causing harm and destruction. It takes a prophet to remind them of their past relationship and call them back to it.

~ David and Snow are so disappointed that Hook is leaving! Despite their rocky start, after their week together in Neverland, they really saw him as a friend.

~ (Spoiler:) Hook is so emphatic about the Jolly Roger being his home and his need to find it! That speaks volumes to his actions during the time skip and what is revealed in the season finale.

~ Neal may have suffered the greatest loss out of any of them: he lost his father, lover, and son all in the same day.

~ Henry is so sweet, but his attitude is almost the opposite of how he was in Season 1. Instead of insisting that something is wrong in his life, he chides Emma for always looking for something wrong.

~ Emma’s dilemma in this episode is a relatable one: whether to stay where she is, in her comfortable life, or leave it for something that is more difficult but also more true and satisfying.

~ Hook has seen Emma take a literal leap of faith, at the start of this season, so it makes sense that he would be hopeful about her doing it again.

~ Emma chaining Hook by the wrist and him calling “Swan!” is just like during their beanstalk adventure!

~ Belle persists in hoping that Rumple can come back!

~ Regina refers to “our castle” so soon after David and Snow talked about whether it was hers or theirs!

~ Who are the mounted knights riding with the others?

~ Hook’s expression when she says he hasn’t changed = she is wrong, and has no idea how much! I think in that moment, he considers telling her about what he did to find her, but then decides against it.

~ “There was nothing for me in the Enchanted Forest. Why would I stay?” The implication of his words, with such a long, serious gaze, is clear: he had nothing without Emma.

~ It’s no wonder Hook pours another for himself: he has to sit and wait while Emma talks to the man she now loves.

~ Emma asks Henry to give Hook a hand! Pun intended?

~ Emma taking her red jacket makes sense, because it is pretty much the only thing she still owns that she had during her time in Storybrooke.

~ The part when Emma sees Mary Margaret is so well directed and shot! And that maternity outfit is so cute!

Episode 3x13 “Witch Hunt”

~ That may be the longest teaser yet: three separate scenes before the title card!

~ In the season 2 finale, it was revealed that Blue Fairy/Mother Superior had figured out how to make a remembering potion, using a hair from Pinocchio’s head. Why could she not do that for Henry to restore his memories? Did it only work for victims of the curse with double lives? At this point, Henry practically has the same situation, with fake memories of a normal life.

~ David smiles proudly when Mary Margaret says—not untruthfully—that she committed banditry!

~ So, this curse made Regina the mayor again?

~ Regina using magic to lift rocks = Star Wars tribute!

~ Who was in on the fact that Emma and Regina’s fight was fake? Did Leroy/Grumpy, Belle, Archie and the others know?

~ Is throwing her drinking glass at the mirror just Regina’s usual way of dealing with anger?

~ It’s funny that Regina is the one who thinks to make Leroy/Grumpy the town crier!

~ This episode kind of plays with how (over)dramatic the characters can be. Emma, Regina, and Leroy/Grumpy all play up their usual roles in order to deceive the townsfolk.

~ I wish we saw more of David, Hook, and Robin working together. As the romantic interests of the show’s three main characters, they’re probably the three most famous, heroic, and romantic male characters in this show!

~ I also wish we saw more of the Merry Men as a group. And why is Mulan not with them? I know she comes back later, so her absence is probably explained away, but just how brief was her stay with them?

~ So, do flying monkey bites work the same way as werewolf and vampire bites? If you’re bitten you become one?

~ “She couldn’t be prouder of you.” Regina is talking about herself, not Emma!

~ In an odd way, Regina and Henry are going through what Emma and her parents have been going through: they’re physically together, but emotionally distant, because at least one party does not know/remember their previous relationship.

~ The way Regina talks about the Wicked Witch and Hook refers to Emma as the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming makes me wonder how aware all the Enchanted Forest characters are of the fact that they are considered fictional characters in the Land Without Magic.

~ Rumple/Gold is back where he was at the start of the series, insane and locked in a cage.

~ How long was Zelena in the castle? What was she waiting around for? She had no way of knowing Regina would return from the Land Without Magic.

Episode 3x14 “The Tower”

~ It feels fitting to have an episode focused on David/Charming’s feelings about fatherhood. Mary Margaret/Snow is generally a more central character than him, so she has had more screen time with Emma, and her feelings about motherhood were explored when she and Emma were stranded in the Enchanted Forest together. Also, one of David’s primary characteristics is his “fearless bravery,” so it is very humanizing to see him wrestle with his emotions as he faces a future he cannot control.

~ In the dream sequence, Emma says “You found me,” just like Snow and Charming always say to each other, but it feels totally different.

~ Did Charming pick up Hook’s drinking habit?!

~ How did Robin actually help Regina break into the castle? He hardly did anything, just accompanied her.

~ “Speak of the handsome devil” sounds more fitting for Rumple or Hook, or even Zelena, Regina or Cora. Even what Zelena then says, that she’s there to make their lives “as easy as possible,” sounds like a devil’s temptation.

~ It is strange for them to hire someone they barely know, when they know someone in the town is the Wicked Witch.

~ Did Zelena actually know Johanna, or was that just a lie to get her in Snow’s good graces?

~ I love Emma and Hook’s music motif!

~ It feels weird to have a classic fairy tale play out post-curse, for a character who is aware of the Land Without Magic.

~ The Wicked Witch owns a bicycle!

~ The whole conflict centered around fear is reminiscent of Frozen—and David actually shouts “Let it go” to Rapunzel!

~ Charming saying they should build a nursery at the end of the episode shows so much growth from when he saw it in his dream! It’s an act of faith that their child will be alright and that they’ll be together.

~ Regina seems pleased when they find out Rumplestiltskin is alive!

Episode 3x15 “Quiet Minds”

~ It sounds as though Hook and Neal had a chance to talk in the Enchanted Forest, and that Neal expressed his ideas, even before Hook’s departure and Neal’s conversation with Snow and Charming. I wonder if Hook asked Neal to go with him to find the Jolly Roger?!

~ So, Rumple/Gold can run now? What happened to his limp?

~ It’s nice to see Snow and Emma finally interact directly with Belle, and actually look supportive of her relationship with Gold.

~ The fact that Emma can communicate a request to Hook just with a look, and that he understands and grants it, says a lot about how much they understand each other. It is a pretty big request, for him to help Belle and Rumple/Gold given his history with them. (Spoiler: His apology to Belle is so flippant here, I’m glad to know he gives a better, sincere one later on.)

~ It’s nice to see Neal and Belle finally spend some time together. They never really got a proper introduction, since she was suffering from amnesia and false memories when he arrived in Storybrooke.

~ It is ironic that Baelfire/Neal, who was so determined to rid his father of the darkness and magic, is now willing to use darkness and magic. This episode shows him doing some of the same things his father did, going to extreme lengths for his son’s sake.

~ Belle says Neal and Emma had “true love.”

~ Emma saying “We’re not in Manhattan anymore” = a twist on the line from The Wizard of Oz?

~ The idea of Leroy/Grumpy (and presumably the other dwarves) taking Henry fishing is cute!

~ That book looks beautiful, not “befitting the Dark One.”

~ This is the first episode since Season One that goes into the lore of the Dark One. Why are Belle and Neal not curious about how Lumiere knows so much about it?

~ Is Regina’s blue scarf significant? It’s such a bold color, which is rare for her.

~ Why is Robin near the farmhouse? Was he tracking the Wicked Witch on his own, or did the heroes give him an update?

~ Neal wanting Henry to know who he is may seem presumptuous, but kind of makes sense, because Neal knows what it’s like to think your father abandoned you. He wouldn’t want Henry to feel the way he felt.

~ Emma asking Hook to stay with Neal is kind of a big deal! They never resolved their complicated triangle of relationships.

~ I love Hook and Neal’s conversation! They’re finally seeing each other as friends again.

~ Belle and Neal talking about having the courage to die for one’s family … such sad foreshadowing!

~ David is the first one to get Emma to admit that she hopes she and Henry can go back to their lives in New York.

~ Why is it that Gold can hear multiple voices, but not Neal?

~ Regina has challenged the label of “Evil Queen," but here she says “The name served me well.”

~ I generally like Robin Hood, but he is way too quick to act all romantic with Regina. At that point, he barely knows her, and if he truly knows her reputation, how can he say the stories were exaggerated?

~ This is the first time Belle comments on what Rumple did by making the Dark Curse. She refers to it as a “mistake,” because it “condemned countless people to misery.” But it did reunite him with his son, so it kind of makes sense that Neal would have the same recklessness seeking a way back to his own son.

~ Emma and Neal laughing over their similarly failed love affairs is pretty funny. It’s the first time we’ve seen them really relax around each other since they reunited at this stage in their lives.

~ “I just want you to be happy, even if it isn’t with me.” For all his immaturity at times, Neal really does love Emma and want what’s best for her, regardless of whether he is part of that.

~ “You can’t hang on to both.” That is Rumple/Gold’s conflict in a nutshell, torn between his love of power and his love of his son.

~ Rumple/Gold actually taught his son something good, the power of sacrifice. But since that cost him his life, Gold probably regretted imparting that lesson. (Spoiler: Maybe that contributed to his character regression?)

~ The characters learning Zelena’s identity as the Wicked Witch would have been more impactful if it were also when it was revealed to the audience.

~ Cutting from Gold mourning his son to Robin Hood playing with his son is really effective!

~ That whole montage is almost as emotional as the actual death scene, and helps to show how the cast really is like an extended family. Regina now realizes she has a chance at new love, both romantic and maternal. Snow and Charming comfort Belle and Hook, who they’re not exactly related to but both had connections with Rumple/Gold and Neal.

Episode 3x16 “It’s Not Easy Being Green”

~ This episode’s title is way too silly in contrast with the serious opening. Neal’s burial is so beautifully solemn, as everyone who had a connection to him helps to bury him. The only thing I don’t like is the presence of random extras; why not just have some of the dwarves or other recognizable friends there instead?

~ The cut between the first shovelful and Rumple’s underground cage is so effective!

~ Emma and Hook’s conversation is one of their best. It starts out with their usual quips, but it then becomes quite serious, talking about vengeance and grief, and then offering and accepting great help and great responsibility. It’s not at all flirtatious, and not a word is said about Emma’s feelings or relationships with either Hook or Neal. It’s more like Emma and Hook have reached the point of trusting each other and being comfortable enough to confide, advise, and help each other.

~ What did Tinker Bell do after returning to the Enchanted Forest, and what does she do after being pulled back to Storybrooke? Did the Blue Fairy reinstate her, or whatever was needed for her to serve as a fairy again? Does she live with the nuns now?

~ This is the second time a character in this show has said “prophesized,” when I think the correct verb is actually “prophesied.”

~ I think the revelation about Zelena’s relationship to Cora and Regina would have been more impactful if it took place in this episode, rather than at the start of this half-season. When they meet in the Enchanted Forest, Regina does not have much of an emotional reaction, and the audience does not relate to the characters’ reactions in the moment because it’s been known for a while.

~ They’ve mostly stuck to the Hollywood version of The Wizard of Oz (which is annoying to a book nerd like me), but they take the silver color of the shoes from the book.

~ How did Rumplestiltskin not know about Zelena? He has the gift of foresight, and he knew that Cora’s daughter would be the one to cast his Dark Curse.

~ Why would Rumple tell Zelena about the Curse he plans to cast? He never seems to have told Regina. In fact, Regina traded it to Maleficent for the Sleeping Curse, as shown in the pilot episode.

~ “I don’t think that a sleeping curse would be good for the baby.” No kidding!!

~ What is with all the creepy closeups of Zelena, and of Rumple/Gold when they interact?

~ Why would Robin be so bold as to ask to read Regina’s letter, which she clearly is upset about? They barely know each other, why would he expect her to confide in him?

~ It’s so good to finally see Hook and Henry interact! Up until this half of the season, they had barely even spoken to each other.

~ It is way past sundown when Zelena goes to the town square for the showdown.

~ Zelena being in the clock tower seems like a nod to Wicked!

~ Why does Zelena bother with flying on a broomstick when she can just teleport?

~ Regina seems to be branching out in her wardrobe by adding vivid, bright-colored accessories. In the last episode it was a deep blue scarf. In this one it’s red gloves. Is this a sign that she is growing out of her Evil Queen persona?

Episode 3x17 “The Jolly Roger”

~ They totally stole the idea of a fake army in a road robbery from BBC’s Robin Hood!

~ This is the first time we’ve seen Hook in armor!

~ “This is a way of life. You have to fully commit to it.” Sounds like something a Jedi or martial arts master would say to their pupil. But Emma’s reply, “Not a problem,” gives a kind of false impression: she is only willing to improve and embrace her magical skills as a means to an end, not as a way of life.

~ The light reflecting off the water shines around Hook, making it look like he’s surrounded by light! Coincidence? Possibly, but still quite symbolic!

~ Hook saying “my reasons” when Emma and Henry are framed by him and Mr. Smee = they are both of his reasons!

~ Hook gets so serious and heated when he hears news of the Jolly Roger. He really does care passionately about his ship. But Smee is also onto something: what Hook says about the ship is also how he feels about Emma being gone from him.

~ Hook and Henry’s little exchange about cheating says a lot about what Hook is wrestling with in this episode! He could get away with nobody knowing about how he betrayed Ariel, but he chooses to come clean.

~ Blackbeard hardly has any beard to speak of!

~ Hook actually says he’ll “never give up the Jolly Roger without a fight”! If only he knew.

~ The shadows on the sail while they’re fighting are a clear reference to Disney’s Peter Pan!

~ If Hook and his ship were outside of the curse when it was cast, how did his spyglass end up in Gold’s shop?

~ Why would Eric being underwater necessarily mean he was dead? Isn’t it possible that he could have found a way to be underwater, just as she found a way to be on land?

~ The way Zelena wants Hook to remove Emma’s powers is really twisted in itself: it would be a kiss of betrayal.

~ Why did Zelena send Walsh to seduce Emma eight months before the curse was cast? Did she already anticipate Emma being a threat to her?

~ Emma actually expects/hopes that Hook will join her family for dinner! But now that she does, he pulls away, literally and figuratively, not wanting to hurt her.

~ Regina and Snow actually sit side by side for dinner! Henry may not realize how momentous this is, but it’s probably the first time he has all these family members with him enjoying a meal together!

~ Hook using the spyglass he retrieved earlier is a small but fitting setup/payoff. He is so wistful watching Emma with her family, seeing her so genuinely happy—he probably has never seen her so happy up close.

Episode 3x18 “Bleeding Through”

~ Regina makes the same move that Charming did in the first episode, throwing her knife the same way he threw his sword, only for their enemy to vanish!

~ It’s a mark of how much Regina has changed that her first question upon arriving is whether anyone was hurt.

~ Regina and Emma both wear vivid blue in this episode! But Regina covers hers with her black coat. Later, Regina has a white shirt on, opening to reveal a black top underneath. Is that symbolic, like she’s becoming light on the outside but still has darkness within?

~ I had forgotten about Zelena and Rumple’s scenes in this episode—I must have blocked them out, because I hate how sickening their dynamic is.

~ I’m a bit surprised that the Charmings all went along so easily with Regina’s plan to summon Cora’s spirit, and Regina’s confidence that they would go along with it, to the point that she didn’t tell them beforehand.

~ Did Hook really interrupt the ritual by bumping the table, or was that a joke?

~ When Regina tells Emma “Make sure you are [ready,]” Hook and Snow stare at her for a moment, like they can’t believe Regina is encouraging Emma, or they see that as a sign of how serious things are.

~ As they leave, Hook starts to reach out as though to put his hand on Emma’s back, but then he pulls his hand back.

~ This might be the first time Regina and Snow have been alone since right after Cora’s death, when Snow asked Regina to kill her.

~ Cora and Leopold starting a fire together is pretty symbolic.

~ Some interesting information about Snow’s parents is revealed in this episode, such as the fact that they were engaged since infancy. That may explain why Snow had such strong relationships with each of them, but we never see them onscreen together during her lifetime. Also, Leopold says he’ll have to have an heir “immediately,” but apparently, as in the original fairy tale, it took them many years to finally have a child, since Snow is years younger than Zelena and Regina.

~ Emma is surprisingly excited about progressing with her magic. It’s kind of sad that Hook is finally seeing her in a good mood, at a time when he is weighed down with worry.

~ What is Hook reading at Granny’s? Are he and Emma just hanging out there because they’re both staying at the inn?

~ How in the world did Leopold swing a proposal to Cora while his betrothed, Princess Eva, was visiting him? How did she and her family react? Why was she still there afterwards?

~ As selfish as Cora was, she must have felt more love for Zelena than she did for Regina, because she still had her heart when the first was born, but not when the second was born. I wonder if part of the reason she was so awful to Regina was because she reminded her of the daughter she gave up.

~ Snow and Regina are both literally and metaphorically cleaning up the mess left by their parents!

~ The last scene with Regina and Robin is so beautiful! While I think their arc in Storybrooke could have been written better, they do have great onscreen chemistry.

Episode 3x19 “A Curious Thing”

~ If Snow was about a month pregnant in the teaser scene, and then eight months went by, she really was full term when the curse was cast! I’m guessing that time was frozen in Storybrooke until this episode, when the curse was broken.

~ Why is Regina so contemptuous and contentious with Robin? What happened during those eight months?

~ There is a ceramic swan decoration in the hotel room behind Emma!

~ Regina’s bright red dress is beautiful—and considering it’s Emma’s usual color, and matches Mary Margaret’s coat, it seems to cement her as one of the good guys!

~ For such a formidable fighter, Hook seems to get abducted and/or tied/chained up quite often and easily!

~ Hook is aware of what a telephone is!

~ Gold abducting Hook could have been a really impactful closing scene for the previous episode or opening scene for this one. It must have been full of emotion and suspense for Hook, and extremely mixed feelings for Gold since they have such a bad history but also a mutual enemy in Zelena.

~ One interpretation of the spinning wheel in “Sleeping Beauty” is that it represents the cycle of life and time. Rumple alludes to this symbolism while using his own spinning wheel!

~ Was Leroy supposed to be supervising Henry? It’s strange that Emma is so comfortable leaving him behind with no magical protection, knowing that Zelena and Gold are at large.

~ Hook is like both a protective parent and a co-conspirator with Henry. I love it!

~ The way they talk about Snow and Charming’s child, it sounds like, even though he isn’t a Savior, he might have light magic of his own by virtue of being another product of true love.

~ Did Snow and Charming tell all their friends/followers that they were going to cast the curse, or did they make that decision on their own, without warning anyone? Even if they had a good and noble reason for doing it, not consulting the people it would impact is pretty messed up. They uprooted countless people who had already been uprooted before.

~ How many flying monkeys were there? And how can the heroes kill/destroy them so easily, knowing that some of them could be their transformed friends?

~ What happened to Mr. Smee? Did he continue running and leave Henry behind? That seems in line with what we’ve seen of his character.

~ The way the camera focuses on Regina as Snow and Charming say their goodbyes … what is she thinking/feeling? She probably still wishes she had a love like that, and may envy them theirs, but also has difficulty with the fact that they are sacrificing it.

~ Biologically, it would have made more sense for Regina to duplicate Snow’s heart rather than split it in half.

~ How is Neal able to communicate with birds? I thought that was just Snow’s talent? It does harken back to the bird that delivered August’s postcard to Neal in Season 2.

~ I really hope they figured out it was Neal who sent the message and memory potion!

~ The weather in this episode seems to fluctuate from moderate to winter/snow to moderate again.

~ This episode both begins and ends with a rose!

~ What is the “curious thing” of the title?

Episode 3x20 “Kansas”

~ Dr. Whale/Frankenstein, the man Mary Margaret/Snow dated and had a one-night stand with, being the one to deliver her baby is kind of messed up. I can’t see how Whale, Snow, or David are comfortable with that.

~ Glinda telling Zelena what she cannot do reminds me of Glinda and Elphaba in Wicked, and how Elphaba sings about refusing to accept limits that others set for her. Zelena is actually similar to her in that she refuses to give up.

~ Now that they know about Hook being cursed by Zelena, they should realize that him accompanying Emma is bad strategy.

~ What Glinda tells Zelena about innocence being reclaimed ends up being true of Regina in this very episode, and is also applicable to Hook and other redeemed villains in this show.

~ If Emma performed CPR on Hook under any other circumstances, he would be sure to say something cheeky when revived; but here, he gives no thought to their relationship, he is only alarmed and concerned about the consequences of her saving him.

~ The lights flickering as Mary Margaret gives birth strengthens my theory that the baby has its own magic.

~ It’s cool to see so many characters forming lines of defense to protect the royal family, but disappointing to see how easily Zelena blows past them all—even Regina, who out of all of them should have been able to hold her own.

~ Regina wearing red is a visual contrast against Zelena’s green, as they are opposite colors.

~ The writers seem to be trying to set up Zelena and Dorothy as analogues of Regina and Snow White: an older sorceress who feels threatened by a younger woman. Or maybe that is just the nature of those fairy tale archetypes.

~ Why doesn’t Dorothy talk about her desire to return home when she is with the witch sisters? Does she ever have her hero(ine)’s journey with the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion?

~ “If you believe you are evil, then that is what you will become.” Glinda is right about self-fulfilling prophecy, but it could also work for other people believing that someone is evil and then causing them to become just that.

~ Dorothy’s final scene begins with a closeup of her shoes, so the change to the slippers is more visually impactful.

~ I wish there was a longer focus on the lineup of heroes arriving: Robin Hood, Regina, David, Emma and Hook with their respective weapons drawn.

~ Zelena’s defeat seems to come too easily, considering it’s had a half-season of buildup. And in the end, as with the Neverland arc, it comes down to Regina alone, rather than a team effort with the wonderful ensemble cast.

~ “He can handle anything, just like his big sister.” So sweet, and followed by Emma having a protective hand on the baby’s head while David holds him!

~ Regina actually sounds like Snow when she talks to Zelena about second chances. It’s so interesting that they make the callback to her season 1 line “Evil isn’t born, it’s made,” now with the addition of “and so is good.”

~ The music in this episode is wonderful, the way it weaves in character motifs and emotional beats in each scene.

~ Hook looks so stunned and dismayed when Emma reveals that she still intends to leave, though he keeps his own emotions in check as she enjoys a happy moment with her family. His brief, wistful smile as he watches their reunion/first meeting is heartbreaking.

~ I can understand Rumple/Gold wanting revenge on Zelena and falling back into his old ways, given that she killed his son and enslaved and abused him. But Rumple/Gold pretending to give the dagger back to Belle doesn’t make sense. Why not just keep the real one, since she was willing to let him have it? It’s really contrived for him to pretend to give it up and lie about not having it.

~ The fact that Gold chooses that moment of deceit to propose to Belle is pretty messed up, because it means they are starting their marriage on a foundation of a lie.

~ Gold’s overall regression, starting now and continuing into the next season, makes Belle seem naïve for having faith in him when he is deceiving her; it’s kind of insulting to her intelligence.

~ In terms of theme and character focus, this episode feels a lot more like a wrap-up of many season-long or half-season-long arcs, rather than a self-contained episode.

Episode 3x21 “Snow Drifts”

~ The connection between the flashback and the present day is that Emma finally has the family she always wanted, but now is leaving them.

~ I wonder if Emma thinks that her parents don’t need her anymore now that they have another baby.

~ Robin and Regina’s scene may seem like fanservice, but it is FULL of foreshadowing.

~ Robin’s words, “Maybe things happen when they’re supposed to. Maybe it’s all about timing” is so in tune with both the show as a whole and this episode in particular!

~ The mention of Rumplestiltskin’s vault is also setup/foreshadowing within this two-part season finale.

~ It feels like there should be a scene setting up where Hook is at this point, since all the other characters had scenes like that.

~ It looks like Granny’s chalk drawing of the stork has the Charming family’s coat of arms on the baby blanket!

~ From what Leroy says, it sounds as though Aurora had her baby just a day after Snow had hers! I wonder if the two kids grow up sharing birthday parties.

~ Henry giving the storybook to Hook is a significant gesture. Both of them, at some point, tracked Emma down in order to bring her to Storybrooke so she could save her family. Handing the book off to Hook is like Henry passing on the role of reminding Emma who she is and where she belongs. This is a great show of trust and acceptance on Henry’s part.

~ Hook says that Emma defeated Pan and Zelena, but it was really Regina and Gold who did.

~ Hook telling Emma “Hold on” and Emma saying “I can’t” pretty much sums up their dynamic in this half-season!

~ When I first saw these episodes, I had never seen Back to the Future, so I didn’t get that the whole finale was based on that story. But the fact that they are self-aware about it, with Emma mentioning Marty McFly, and the way it impacts Emma’s character arc and relationships makes this seem excusable.

~ Emma’s reaction is so happy when she recognizes her parents and realizes this is the moment they meet.

~ Hook attacking his former self is not only amusing, it also has some psychological symbolism. It’s like putting to death his former self, who he now knows was not worthy of Emma.

~ Emma’s choice of the alias Leia is not only a laugh. It’s fitting in two ways: they are both characters associated with hope, they both have interactions with close family members without knowing they are related, and they both fall in love with thieving scoundrels who have a change of heart after meeting them.

~ Where and when did Hook learn how to waltz? Did his mother teach him as a child? Did the royal navy have balls? Did his pirate crew infiltrate such events in order to rob the guests? Did they have music nights on his ship? Did he ever waltz with Milah or other women he met?

~ Hook is clearly pleased to be in such a romantic setting with Emma!

~ I’m curious how the politics and hospitality customs work between neighboring kingdoms. Apparently Midas has to show deference to Regina, even to the point of letting her arrest a guest in his home.

Episode 3x22 “There’s No Place Like Home”

~ I really like that they brought Neal back for the finale, and that his words to Emma frame her arc in these episodes. Even though he is gone, she still feels his influence, and it leads her home.

~ Where did Emma get that new outfit? Regina might have taken away her ballgown, but she wouldn’t provide her with such a nice dress and cloak, with a matching headband to top it off.

~ Even if Regina went to the trouble of feeding her condemned prisoners, there is no way there would be metal wires on the spoons that apparently serve no practical purpose.

~ It’s hard to tell how much of the footage of Snow and Charming is from the first season and how much was reshot! It must have been a directorial and editorial challenge to hide Ginnifer Goodwin’s pregnancy while filming her as young Snow White; the camera focuses on her face to hide the shape of her body, and they probably used a double for the shots of her running, climbing, etc.

~ Hook and David’s heart-to-heart is simultaneously so earnest and so amusing! Does David remember that conversation in the future?

~ It looks like Hook is crying they see Snow White burned at the stake. They may not have had many direct interactions, and not many of those may have been positive, but he really does care about her.

~ Hook shares how he relived his brother’s death after losing him, but he probably experienced that with Milah too. Both of them died in his arms, and he probably blamed himself for both of their deaths.

~ Since Emma says “It’s so nice to meet you” after learning her brother’s name, I think she may not have actually touched or talked to him until that moment. She probably did not want to get attached to him when she was planning to return to New York.

~ I suspect that seeing her parents fall in love was part of what helped Emma accept and act on her feelings for Hook.

~ The fact that “home” is the big theme of this half-season, and particularly this finale, makes Hook’s revelation about the Jolly Roger even more impactful, both to Emma and the audience. He gave up the closest thing he had to a home, in the hope of helping her find her home and having a place in it.

~ Gold and Belle’s wedding seems like it may not have taken place the same night as the coronation, but the way it is visually and thematically interwoven with the other three couples is really beautiful.

~ This season finale feels as though it was written so that it could be the series finale if the show had to wrap, but then they got the green light for more episodes and wrote in cliffhangers to lead into new conflict in the following season. If it weren’t for Gold’s deception and the arrival of Marian and Elsa, this would have been a perfect spot to end the show, with the four romantic couples together and happy, and all the children happy with their parents (or potential stepparents in the case of Regina for Roland and Hook for Henry).

I plan to explore a lot more about this season in my character study fanfics!

[thewickedbohemian]

Thoughts on a show CBS should make room for and its perfect "roommate"

So Help Me Todd

In medias res so in medias I can barely follow

Okay so why is Beverly in France

I would take that as a Tyle tease if they didn't both have a date

Lylex, please, not in that much public

Todd, Lyle can hear you

And yet again with thing I interpret as metaphor for show's issues, this time Susan's career (#savesohelpmetodd #renewsohelpmetodd #wrongdecisionCBS #makeroomforsohelpmetodd)

Oh hi Gus Oh hi three patterns at once

That's a little too-suspiciously suspicious

Todd being all ADHD again

Of course the burner plays Pokemon music

Todd got punked, of course

And Todd gets revenge via emotional manipulation and a whole lot of donuts

Susan totally looking like more Margaret's daughter than Allison

generation wars, girl athletes who sound like walking TikToks and sus tennis coaches, did the writers of Elsbeth write this

And the prank war's still on

Wow, Judy cleans up nice

Way to be subtle Todd and isn't those distractions suspicious

Ok, Alex isn't Alex, and my hopes for a potential S3 involving a Lyle/Todd/Judy triangle similar to the Leverage and Librarians OT3s just went up

To be fair Todd kinda deserved getting got by his own prank after the glue

More proof SHMT and Elsbeth are meant to be together, yet another "Ball Girl" (Elsbeth S1E5) reference with Margaret playing tennis in astrobrite pink

Of course parking tickets tipped off Lyle

Judy's turned on by detecting ;)

Margaret/Gus = Tyle parallel?

was she supposed to be the one who got glitterbombed (I'm surprised she didn't forcibly shut down their prank war)

And so a trap is laid

Susan seems like yet another "kid" of Margaret's she has to save

Spontaneous date night go

So Alex isn't even Mabel and I have a crazy idea for how we get CBS to get this back if the two remaining episodes of the season don't contradict this; we have the real her join the ensemble of one of the FBIs linking SHMT to that universe without diluting it

Elsbeth

controlling parents, creepy bosses and people not being who they seem, I guess this is a dual-way parallel

could the dance guy be more obviously gay

Another dumb Elsbeth murderer, the tape makes it not look like an accident

Of course she found the cake

I love the throughline of the murders mirroring her adapting to New York

Convenient sus affair is sus

Please tell me those fleeting mentions of Fosse and Broadway aren't all that count as our Broadway-reference-of-the-episode

What is Elsbeth wearing?

So not gay just Extra^TM

Of course Elsbeth wants to learn that Chicago dance

even more SHMT flashbacks as Kaya whose side are you playing

For half a second I thought they were going to pretend to be lesbians and this was going to be SVU with Benson and Rollins at the fertility clinic all over again

Having a bit too much fun with the golf cart are we, I'd be the same if I could drive worth a darn

Oh so that's where the tape went

I know it's not the exact one but it's more than just rainbow; Elsbeth looks like she's wearing Riley's sweater from Inside Out

Yoda are we quoting?

Please don't ADHD out near the dangerous things in the kitchen

Dissolves in water, huh...

Time for a science lesson

Oh so there's the Hot Honey Rag, I was worried we weren't going to get a proper Broadway reference (and now I'm wondering how Carrie Preston's singing voice is as Elsbeth could totally pull off a Psych-esque musical episode just like SHMT)

Elsbeth's place is just so Elsbeth and there's everyone from previous episodes who didn't turn out to be a murderer and I think the intern chick and hip hop tour guide are going to be a thing (and fingers crossed these people show up in more episodes that didn't just spotlight them)

Uh oh here comes the captain and now things are getting as whose-side-are-you-on as they are for Susan on SHMT