#he doesn't own a tv until s3

[doesnotloveyou]

he literally didn't own any of those things they were on loan from the dept 😂 he was canonically broke/underpaid and he desperately needed trauma therapy starting with Vietnam, breezing through his estranged wife and son, his myriad disaster girlfriends, witnessed suicides/murders, manslaughter, survivor's guilt, and culminating in his dissociative identity disorder

if you offered me twice his salary I still wouldn't be him dear god it isn't worth it, caroline was right. sometimes i think he married caitlin just so he could live in a house again lol

Sonny Crockett from 80s Miami Vice lived my ideal lifestyle. It’s the only fictional character I’m jealous of like Don Johnson played him so iconically.

Sonny had great hair, lived on a luxurious yacht, had a pet alligator named Elvis, wore Versace and Armani suits everyday, drove Lamborghinis and Ferraris, had stylish friends, ate at the best restaurants in Miami, dated hot girls and lived in a place where the temperature is perfect all year round.

And all on a cop’s salary. Idk how he did it but it was the 80s I guess. When ppl say their life goal is to be a doctor or a lawyer I’m just like um I would rather be Crockett and feel my hair blow in the salty ocean breeze everyday. Miami Vice was The Influencer-esque show before all that was even a thing. It was like a high-end fashion catalogue and a rich lifestyle guide rolled into one.

[fantastic-nonsense]

obviously I'd be thrilled to just get the whole PJO series adapted and then end it there. However: Heroes of Olympus as a story can be cleaned up sooooooo much in a way that PJO just doesn't need to be, and a tv adaptation offers the perfect opportunity to do so

like honestly my hottake is that I think Disney could solve both the problem of adapting a long, convoluted sequel series and a lot of the problems HOO as a story has if they a) do The Lost Hero and Son of Neptune in the same season and b) deliberately wait until the PJO actors are in their 20s to do it

Just thinking about this a bit more:

three 12-14 episode seasons, with TLH/SoN in S1, a modified MoA in S2 that deals with some of the Argo crews' HoH subplots, and then HoH/BoO in S3

Percy and Annabeth are in their 20s and newly engaged when he disappears. This sets up the arc of Percy dreaming about settling down with Annabeth in New Rome in a more organic, functional way and also gives us as viewers a chance to see that the aftermath of the Titan War has resulted in tangible, lasting change for the demigods of Camp Half-Blood

Grover replaces Coach Hedge as the Seven's collective Protector+chaperone, which solves the series' problem of Grover's absence and the absence of the PJO Trio's friendship

the whole show/story takes place over ~6 months instead of the year it did in the books, and Percy+Jason's individual quests happen concurrently (simply not letting Percy sleep for 8 months and making an episode where he establishes himself at the Roman camp for awhile before he's forced on the quest with Frank and Hazel would solve about half of the problems on the Roman side of the series)

Season-wise, things mostly sort themselves out:

The first season starts off introducing the Lost Hero trio and we find out that Percy's missing at the end of the first episode. The second episode opens with Percy waking up at the Wolf House and starting his journey to New Rome. We get one episode entirely devoted to amnesiac Jason and Percy integrating into the new camps, making friends, and learning about their missing counterpart before the quest plots start up.

The season then alternates between Jason, Piper, and Leo's "Find Hera" quest and Percy, Hazel, and Frank's Alaska quest, with intermittent jumps to the Greek and Roman efforts to find Percy and Jason. It ends with Percy and Jason regaining their memories and each camp realizing their leader is on the other side of the country in "enemy" territory.

The second season opens around a month later as the Argo II docks in New Rome. Percy and Jason have both been given time to make friends, integrate themselves into the opposing camp, and become adjusted to a different way of life with all of their memories intact. They haven't physically returned to their home camps as they've both independently come to the conclusion that Hera switched them to initiate inter-camp unity and are wary of doing anything that would disrupt that goal. However, Percy and Jason have both managed to get messages to Annabeth and Reyna respectively at some point in that month, so everyone knows everyone is safe when the Greeks finally arrive in New Rome.

Cue MoA's various plotlines, which would be cleaned up and streamlined significantly while also integrating in some of the HoH arcs like Hazel learning how to manipulate the Mist, Frank learning how to use his shapeshifting powers, Piper coming into her own as a daughter of Aphrodite, Leo's seventh wheel arc and the Calypso subplot, Jason struggling to figure out what his place is, the Jason-Nico friendship, etc. Also set up the Greek v. Roman dispute and Reyna following them to Greece. Season ends with the Annabeth-Arachne confrontation and Tartarus fall.

The third season combines HoH and BOO; the season alternates between Percy and Annabeth's journey through Tartarus while the rest of the Seven finish their various character arcs via gathering the elements for the Physicians' Cure and journeying to the Doors of Death. After they rescue Percy and Annabeth and close the Doors, they plan to head straight to Athens to take on Gaea. Reyna reaches them just after, and Annabeth sends her and Nico off with the Athena Parthenos with Grover as their Protector.

The final battle switches between The Seven+Gods vs. Gaea+The Giants at the Acropolis and the Greeks vs. Romans at Camp Half-Blood. The Gaea plotline is resolved at the Acropolis, the Greek-Roman plotline is resolved as Nico and Reyna triumphantly arrive at Camp Half-Blood with the statue, a functional Greek-Roman working relationship, and the gods' blessing. This helps streamline the mess that was Blood of Olympus and actually provides a workable story resolution.

We get a final aftermath/epilogue episode that sorts out and ties up all remaining plot threads, teases Solangelo, and ends with Percy returning home to see his mom and planning out how to move to New Rome after he and Annabeth get married.

Obviously this is the roughest possible sketch of how it could be done, but I genuinely believe doing something like that could fix some of the biggest issues HOO has conceptually while streamlining all of the quest bloat. It'd be interesting to see them try, anyway.

[schizosamwincester]

Dean always thought he was good at handling Sam’s episodes, right up until another one stared him in the face. He’d much rather deal with a demon. He understood demons. Sam’s brain was a mystery. 

1k, Schizophrenic!Sam Winchester, Sam & Dean Winchester, Dean POV, S3 E11: Mystery Spot

A short fic that gave me a chance to show Dean's perspective of Sam's schizophrenia, how he's learned to handle it over the years, and what he really thinks about it. Oh, and Mystery Spot. Obviously everyone loves mystery spot.

[pynkhues]

Am I the only person alive who would find it (darkly) hilarious if Armand did erase the rest of the 70s interview memory at Louis’ request? I think we can all agree Armand has taken a lot of liberties with the truth and he’s a pretty seasoned manipulator but I’m just so amused with the idea that that was one of the only times he was telling the truth (mostly because of how hard Daniel was rolling his eyes over it and because of how insane it sounds.) it’s got that same energy as that one co-worker who’s always causing trouble who you finally call out, only to find this was the one time they weren’t responsible.

On a similar note, because of how Louis is portrayed (ie with a spotty or unreliable memory at times) and how Armand is portrayed (lying, sometimes directly and sometimes by omission) how do you think about the bits of story we get from the two of them re authenticity? I see lots of takes that just…sweep anything complex or unsavory under the proverbial ‘blame Armand’ rug or the ‘Louis’ brain is Swiss-cheese’ blanket as opposed to examining each action and element of the story through the lens of where each character is coming from in that moment. (For example, I’ve seen plenty of folks question if Louis’ memories of lestat can be trusted at all or if it’s all just Armand’s tinkering to make him look bad and just…it’s a tv show. From a practical standpoint they literally cannot rip up everything they’ve shown you. Rehashing memories can only be done some of the time or the audience gets frustrated. And from a story perspective, can’t we take Louis at his word at least some of the time until shown otherwise?)

(Side note and ironic given my ask but I wish we had half as much discourse about Louis as a capitalist and his understanding of the commodification of experiential human things such as art as we do about whether all his memories are unreliable re his romantic relationships. Thank you so much for including the gallery scene in your fic.)

Hahah, I don't think you'd be alone in finding it darkly hilarious if Louis had asked Armand to take the memory away. Hell, the ambiguity of that scene works because it's believable that Louis would ask - Louis really pendulums between heavy handed repression and unrestrained self-indulgence, and it seems like a dam burst for him that night when it came to Lestat. His name had been unuttered in their home for 23 years! And given Armand can read his mind and could clearly sense thoughts of Lestat in Paris, I imagine he's not been deliberately not thought about too. And suddenly a night with Daniel and it's all he can say! All he can think about! The pressure he's placed on the box he keeps Lestat in has loosened just enough to let it all come out!

To know Armand tried to contact Lestat, to feel his own weakness, to know Lestat might know not just his mental state but his crumbling resolve in terms of the promise he made him in Magnus' tower - - it's not hard to see him asking for Armand's help in repressing it all again.

And in terms of their authenticity in the telling of their stories - - I think it varies! I think Armand definitely and deliberately finds the truth malleable, but that doesn't mean I think he lies about everything. Like you said, he tends to prefer to omit than outright lie - like omitting Gabrielle in his recounting of 1800s Paris or the truth about San Francisco, or, I'm sure we'll discover in s3, Lestat being in Paris in the 40s.

I actually don't think he would've tampered with Louis' memories of Lestat at all though - I don't think he would've needed to. Louis is a really punishing character and Lestat's a volatile one, I don't think it would be all that hard for Louis to focus on Lestat's worse behaviour, or to allow his memory to re-write certain events with the most bad faith interpretations of Lestat's actions, thoughts or words as a means to keep him at an emotional distance. Memories aren't facts, even when we want them to be, and I think for Louis they're as malleable when he needs them to be as the truth is for Armand.

The result is that they enable each other's untruths, I think, which goes to the facade of their relationship. Louis can try and mould his memories into something that justifies his choices, and Armand can mould the truth in a way that makes their love story something more than it is, but that doesn't mean that it's entirely lies or entirely inauthentic. It's a version of a story that they've enabled in one another to perform a happiness neither of them feels, but neither knows an alternative to because Louis' grief struck, traumatised and clinically depressed and Armand has been groomed by a monster, has undealt with trauma of his own and an incapacity to be alone.

So yeah, I think a lot of it is true, it's just not a whole truth.

[beezabub]

A small amount of Ninjago rambling about something I realised! Sorry it's so disorganized..

Tl;dr Zane and PIXAL's whereabouts during the season 3-4 timeskip are a mystery, but I think it has something to do with the Mechanic

Bonus theory (which also has notes below the main rambles): The Nindroids are all Pixane children technically

Main theory thing:

The gap between seasons 3 and 4 is a large one.

Jay had a TV show that ran for over 70 episodes and had a Christmas special

We're looking at a minimum of 2 years here for him to A get the show and B film the episodes, realistically bringing this closer to 3 years

We are shown something which we assume to be Zane rebuilding himself in the S3 ending

So why didn't he tell anyone he was alive? And where were him and PIXAL during this three year gap?

How did 2 nindroids with 1 person's fighting experience between them manage to slip completely under the radar for so long? Where did they go?

The Mechanic was arrested at some point before the ninja were and showed a particular interest in (and familiarity with) Zane

This could be explained just by Zane being a Robot and thus naturally interesting to him, but there are a few other factors to consider

The mechanic was already in Cryptarium before we ever meet him so he's kinda a mystery, asides from one little detail

He drives a Chen's noodle truck

He also shows more interest in taking apart Zane than PIXAL, as shown when he doesn't kidnap her while she's incapacitated in Ninjago Confidential...

Perhaps because he has already done so? He already knows how she works so she is of little interest to him

Zane wakes up on Chen's island with no memory, and PIXAL has already been dismantled, but oddly not destroyed entirely... Almost as if she's still being studied

I like the idea that Zane used his own blueprints and so gave himself a memory switch (bad idea) that someone used on him pre-season 4.

For angst reasons this could be PIXAL trying to spare him in the only way she is able - by protecting his memories.

If this is the case? He remembers everything. All 3 years of hiding out together, of being in love, of everything she means to him, being removed entirely from his memory.

And if this was done by PIXAL, then she must feel so sad being the only one to remember, potentially feeling like she can't tell him what he's missing

It's worth noting that their motives are really unclear, as they have money (billionaire Borg) and no need for revenge (it's only season 3 and the Overlord is gone, so there aren't really that many people left) which leaves... Love.

It still doesn't entirely make sense though, because what reasons would Zane and PIXAL have to go completely no contact, not leaving so much as a whisper in the streets of their whereabouts for so long, leaving behind grieving friends and family who assume they are dead.

Mini-theory:

PIXAL scans Zane and later uses his blueprints to create the Nindroids

She swaps out some of the parts (~50%) so the product is half Zane's design and half her creation

She then makes these things. A lot of them.

I doubt she counted them. Just kept going until they literally ran out of materials (remember Mindroid?)

So technically they had hundreds of children together after literally 1 conversation lmao

Bonus points for is Zane and PIXAL realise this suddenly post season 8 (when it is established she has her own body back) that they literally have So Many Children

Anyway Cryptor isn't Zane's evil twin, he's Zane's Kylo Ren (I don't know shit about Star Wars. Assume this means Evil Son)

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

Hi

Not OFMD specific but might be of interest

(copied without permission given to reproduce)

Found in Private Eye 16-29th Feb

Warner Gloss:

Labour's business charm offensive continued last week, as Keir Starmer proudly posted that he had met with David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros Discovery, aiming to "work in partnership with the creative industries to drive growth".

Named by the New York Times as the man who "blew up Hollywood", Zaslav in fact seems to be doing everything he can to prevent growth in the industry. Having merged hi cable TV company, Discovery with entertainment conglomerate Warner Bros in 2022, Zaslav took on $56bn in debt and enacted cost cuts of £3bn.

To achieve this he set about binning TV shows and films that had already been completed in order to claim large tax write-offs - most notoriously superhero caper Batgirl - and removing shows from streaming services to avoid paying residuals fees.

In a move that might have had more appeal for St

armer, Zaslov also hired Chris Licht as CEO of CNN in 2022 to make the news service more appealing to conservative viewers - but then fired him within a year after ratings hit rock bottom. Under Zaslav's watch, the stock price of Warner Bros Discovery Inc has fallen by nearly 60% - probably not quite the growth Starmer would hope to discover!

END

Firstly thank you for your round-ups, much appreciated!

"make the new service more appealing to conservative viewers" Why am I not surprised.....

Secondly I am disturbed that the possible future leader of the UK or his advisors didn't do more investigating before agreeing to or asking for this meeting, very disappointing.

Thirdly "removing shows from streaming services to avoid paying residuals fees" Should we be concerned by this for series 1 and 2?

best wishes

Susannah

Hey omg I'm like 3 days behind on messages/replies/asks I'm sorry! This weekend was crazy! Hi Susannah!

Oh interesting! I've never read Private Eye, I'll go check them out now! Oh darn- looks like a paywall, thank you for pasting the text! (And no problem about the recaps! Thanks so much for reading them!)

To address your second point: I wish I knew more about Keir Starmer! I'm in the US so I only know tangentially about him. You would think someone would have vetted the situation a bit more though (although you know Zaslav has been a bit of a sneaky little fucker about everything until he was outed more recently). Sorry I don't have much to say on that point!

To address your third point:

Yeahhhhhh, my hope is that it won't affect OFMD too much because it's a bit more of it's own thing (and not a WB proprety like the Coyote movie). I think they could actually make money selling S1 and S2 as opposed to loss since there's such a demand for it, so personally I don't think it's going to be much of an issue, but I have no real authority or reason to believe that except common sense (which we all know hollywood doesn't always have).

@fuckyeahisawthat had a good take though, it's kind of anything goes unfortunately.

I have faith though... because like a lot of my tumblr colleagues have said, David Jenkins would have probably told us by now if in fact, there was literally no hope. He's been pretty good about putting out hints and letting us know where to focus our efforts, and as of yet he hasn't flat out said "Thanks anyway guys, but its not going to happen.

That in itself gives me hope for s1, s2 and s3.

Anyway, thanks for the write in Susannah! I'm really sorry again it took me so long to answer, and then I doubt I gave you anything of real substance @_@. I hope you're having a lovely day, and would love to chat more!

Take care, sending love!

Abby

[starry-mist]

S5e15 and s5e16 thoughts:

Obviously I need to do these ones together. I'm also going to try to do this as sort of a review rather than general thoughts...it's my first time trying this so be nice, LOL.

I have a few thoughts before I jump into the episodes.

One of the main reasons (other than the obvious one of having these additional characters with their own storyline that initially seems separate from what the series regulars are doing) that this initially felt like a backdoor pilot is because one of the titular characters is noticeably absent. And we know this was because John and Meghan were expecting their third child to be born right around the time this was scheduled to film, so he wasn't available. I'm not saying it couldn't still be a backdoor pilot, but I think it's unlikely for the moment.

The story we got was very different from the original synopsis in the article about the Ontario government funding production in Northern Ontario (https://www.nugget.ca/news/five-film-tv-productions-receive-funding) which again, is likely because John was unavailable so they launched Sarah and Jesse into the spotlight for this one.

I know Jesse fans have a lot of feelings about his glasses, and I agree that the explanation for why he no longer wears them is pretty weak. Fans of this show do have a tendency to fixate on changes in character appearances (see also: much controversy on Facebook about Charlie's season 6 hair.) Anyway, characters evolve, people change, I'm just going to leave it at that. Maybe Justin was just sick of wearing them.

Without further ado:

We open with a lovely aerial shot of “Webster Bay,” which I’m sure is 100% a real place and totally not North Bay, Ontario. (It's absolutely not a real place.) A couple is having a romantic moment by the side of the road. Very sweet. Until it turns out the man is there to rob the house across the street. That's...perhaps a little less sweet.

The home invasion/robbery hits a little snag when the homeowner is, well, home, and goes at the would-be robber with a sizeable pair of scissors. He accidentally knocks her out trying to disarm her, and it's time for the happy couple to GTFO.

Roll credits.

Back in St. John's, the Major Crimes team has ordered lunch. Jesse gets an ominous phone call from his previously-never-mentioned sister.

It's the season of new family members coming out of the woodwork. Sigh.

Anyway, Jesse's sister is in Northern Ontario, as far as he knows (which is apparently where they both grew up...look I'm just going to keep rolling my eyes at all of these things that could have been mentioned IN FOUR PREVIOUS SEASONS) and is in trouble. Come quick. No cops. Doesn't sound sketchy at all...

Jesse's ready to go to her rescue, but Charlie doesn't think he should go alone.

Sarah: You want to go with him?

Charlie: I was thinking you. And Rex.

(Yeah, remember those establishing moments I mentioned in the previous two episodes? Those are now relevant.)

Apparently Charlie has some important stuff he has to take care of.

(Please remind me I need to someday write a fic about Charlie’s guilt at sending the trio into harms way.)

This whole scene is a little forced, IMHO, but anyway, off they go.

Cut to Ontario, where we now have MEGAN FREAKING FOLLOWS, OMG, BE STILL MY ANNE OF GREEN GABLES-LOVING HEART. At this point, I should note that I do love these fleshed-out original characters and their stories, which initially feel strange given we've never seen them before, but will make sense later.

(Pause for my usual commentary of same actor, different character: Cihang Ma previously played Holly in s3’s Seeing is Deceiving. Here they play Detective Kai Huang, and let me just express my appreciation for a non-binary actor playing a non-binary role.)

Anyway, Detective Anne of Green Gables Sidney Scott is on scene and having flashbacks. It looks like she lost someone close to her. Kai thinks the people who broke in were addicts. Sidney has other ideas. She talks to the victim's husband, Tim Cooper, who apparently worked with her husband as well. But she makes it clear that she's definitely off work and totally not on the case.

Right...

Back to St. John’s, Charlie is having someone dig up Constable Charlie Hudson’s incident reports from October 30, 2009. Okay first off, I would have appreciated some flashbacks to a younger Charlie, but I don't always get what I want (rarely, in fact.) And we find out that Charlie is investigating his "white whale" of a child abduction case that has haunted him for 14 years, which has of course been foreshadowed in prior seasons because this show is so amazing at continuity. /s

Cut to Charlie's house, with him taping up a makeshift "murder board" on the wall. My dude, you're going to need to repaint...

Meanwhile in Ontario, we have lovely wide shots of fall colours. So pretty. We also have rapid-fire voiceover exposition from Sarah and Jesse on their arrival, where they're going, how long it's taken them to get there, and honestly, this is yet another of those "show, don't tell" moments that this show struggles with.

The trio arrive at “an old Cold War missile site” where Jesse and Crystal came when they were kids, riding their bikes down from his uncle’s place. Questions abound about who actually raised Jesse, who has mentioned his mom (in a throwaway line in s2) and a deceased father. Now there was apparently an uncle? Okay we'll go with it. Anyway, Jesse and Crystal used to hang out here and build camps in abandoned buildings.

Sarah and Rex are the third wheels (actually fourth and fifth, I suppose) in the Jesse/Crystal/random sketchy boyfriend scene as they head into an abandoned hangar. Sketchy boyfriend (who has a name that I'm not bothering to look it up given he won't be around that long) wants to know if these new additions are cool.

Sarah: Dr. Sarah Truong, hi. We’re cool.

(I don't know why I find that line so amusing.)

Rex senses danger. Looks like it's time to GTFO of the hangar.

This is where I point out that two of these characters are weapons-trained cops, one of whom we have seen is basically a sharpshooter…And none of this apparently matters as neither of them have a weapon on hand that they can use. Oops.

Going to have to suspend disbelief at the fact that the sniper can instantly kill the bf, shoot out the tires on Sarah and Jesse's rental car (that's going to be a hefty repair bill,) but then they're all just able to run out in the open and magically escape…right.

This is pretty elaborate for a scene that is essentially just a setup for the plane crash.

Sidney Scott visits a man named Elvis Migwan outside the local hospital. We learn that there is a local Indigenous community whose water has apparently been affected by runoff from a mining operation. Elvis's daughter is sick. And this is a really relevant topic given how many Indigenous communities in Canada lack access to clean water.

Back to the airfield, and I'm just going to speculate that they blew the budget on this next scene and on the plane crash.

Apparently flight simulator games have taught Jesse enough that he can figure out how to fly a plane...again, suspending disbelief. The team take to the skies and are promptly shot down by the sniper, as my anxiety begins to ratchet up.

The remote lake where they crash would be a pretty place to camp in any other circumstance.

Anne of Green Gables Sidney has a nice, large house. It's actually pretty big for one person. Hey, Sidney has that in common with Charlie. They should hang out. Inspector Yousef Ali stops by and brings Sidney dinner. It's a salad. She's displeased. I start to ship them.

Charlie and Joe have a scene at Charlie’s house and it's just not working for me. I can't help it. The whole Alison case appearing out of the blue feels forced.

(However, Joe is totally checking out the new, shall we say, feminine touches in Charlie’s house.)

At the crash site, Jesse manages to smash open his door when there were two perfectly good open ones on the other side of the plane, because reasons? Crystal’s wrist is probably broken, Jesse’s got some cracked ribs…but at least they have a doctor with them who’s totally in one piece and definitely not injured.

Sarah asks for a first aid kit, presumably to do, you know, actual first aid...oh wait, no, instead she scribbles some notes on a piece of paper, which she rolls into a little case that she attaches to Rex's collar. With a tearful hug, she sends Rex off into the wilderness.

Cue “The Littlest Hobo” theme.

Rex wanders the woods.

Sidney Scott decides to go back to work.

Back at the crash site, we find out Crystal’s a pretty big screwup, and Jesse chastises her for her messing up her life. Not super helpful at the moment, Jesse.

Sarah starts to look disoriented and possibly in pain. This is going to get worse before it gets better.

Rex encounters some sort of bird of prey (I think it's a hawk, but I'm not an expert.) No worries, he'll just hide under a bridge for a moment.

Another "same actor different character" moment: the actor playing Bertrand Boyle previously appeared as Tucker Moore in s4’s No Man is an Island.

Rex is under a sky full of stars, which I'm sure he'd pause to appreciate if there weren't a pack of wolves nearby. I believe I read somewhere that Sherri Davis who trains the dogs actually trained all the animals that appeared in this one. I’m in awe of her talent.

Morning at the crash site. Crystal is about to peace out. Jesse talks her into staying. And Sarah wakes up in rough shape.

And here is where I state that Mayko Nguyen is the best actor on this show, fight me. She completely nailed that subtle shift when Sarah realizes that she's injured, and more seriously than she initially thought.

(Side note: I love that Mayko is wearing her trademark huge puffy warm coat. She is apparently always cold.)

So anyway, Sarah has realized that she's bleeding internally, and tells Jesse that he'll need to operate.

Right…

Sarah: You can do anything you put your mind to, Jesse Mills. You just flew a plane!

I really hope they submitted this episode for this year's Canadian Screen Awards.

On his continued trek through the wilderness, Rex encounters the most fearsome of woodland creatures: a skunk. Oh no! What if he ends up smelly?!! Anyway, Rex wins the territorial battle, and over the log bridge he goes.

Oh look, an owl.

So many critters.

There's a road! And with a short swim, Rex has officially made it back to civilization where he is promptly picked up by some sinister characters in a truck.

I'm not going into the gory details of Jesse doing field surgery on Sarah, because I still find it hard to watch, but anyway, give Mayko an Emmy. Hell, give her an Oscar. Give her all the things.

...right now, because I’m not watching these separately.

Ugh. Field surgery. I feel very much the same way as Jesse does when it comes to blood.

Cut to the Ontario Police Service (or whatever they’re calling their version of Ontario Provincial Police) HQ building, which I’m pretty sure is part of Nipissing University, as is the “hospital” we see later.

Detective Scott, meet Rex. He'll keep you on your toes.

See you later, sketchbags in the pickup truck. Nobody messes with our boy Rex.

Oh hey, it’s Charlie Hudson. Kind of forgot about that guy for a moment. Anyway Charlie and Joe get a call from Sidney about the plane crash. Charlie holds back...really any emotion whatsoever.

Sidney! Rex! Helicopter!

Sidney sends Charlie a photo of the note that Rex brought her, and Charlie recognizes Sarah’s handwriting. Joe tries to be reassuring. Okay, now they're showing a little bit of worry at the unknown fate of their friends.

Sarah is now semi-conscious and making last requests.

Sarah: If I don’t make it you have to find Rex…tell Charlie…

Jesse: No, you’re gonna tell him yourself…

Me: Tell him what, exactly? Because you've been a couple more than long enough that I refuse to believe there have been no "I love yous" exchanged, even if we've yet to see it said on screen.

Anyway Sarah passes back out, while I continue to hyperventilate.

Cut to St. John's. Charlie feels guilty for not going. Joe steers him back into his B plot. It still feels forced.

Sidney chatting "with" Rex as he leads her through the woods cracks me up.

At the crash site, Sarah wakes up feverish. She knows she probably an infection. So she should totally drink the unfiltered lake water Crystal brings her, because what’s a little E. coli going to do? Anyway apparently it’s all good as long as the paramedics push IV antibiotics…whatever. Sidney and Rex of course arrive at exactly the right time!

Rex lays protectively on his “mom.”

And the look Sidney gives Crystal tells us her shit is officially about to hit the fan.

Jesse has a phone call with Joe and Charlie to fill them in on all the nitty-gritty. Charlie wants to talk to Sarah, who is now in actual surgery. Jesse goes to check on his sister, who is now under arrest.

Crystal: I just watched my boyfriend get shot and killed and was pretty sure we were all gonna die in a plane crash. It’s been a lot.

Sarah Swire's deadpan delivery of the above lines is just so good.

Sidney questions Crystal, and it become clear that she definitely has a personal stake in this. Crystal swears there was no gun at the house her boyfriend robbed. She wants Jesse to cover for her by taking the backpack full of money, which of course he does. For now.

Sidney: Are you here as a cop or a brother?

Jesse: I have to be both.

Rex wants to help Sidney track the shooter. This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship!

In Sarah's hospital room, she's sitting up in bed and talking to Charlie, albeit briefly. That conversation should have been longer and more emotional.

Tracking the shooter leads to more amusing Sidney and Rex "conversation." They find the type of gun that was used to kill Sidney’s husband. Suddenly Sidney's personal stake in the case makes sense.

Jesse and Sarah chat in her hospital room where she's looking pretty well recovered considering she just had two abdominal surgeries...and then she’s up and at it looking over forensics with Kai. It turns out Kai had the wrong time of death.

Joe reassures Charlie, who is feeling stuck on the Alison case, that he’s a great cop, great detective, blah blah. Says he needs to figure out how to move on so he can be ready for the next people who need his help. So clearly we’re done with this case and it definitely won’t reappear in a future episode...*eyes the next episode on the list*

The totally-not-the-shooter guy whose name I can’t be bothered to learn thinks Sidney’s husband would want her to move on and enjoy the life she has left. Okay then.

It seems that Crystal did in fact know that there would be money in the house. Also she knows about the contaminated runoff situation from the mine. Working as a cleaner, she managed to overhear all kinds of things, and through creative use of french fries, casually explains to Jesse how the mine’s money laundering scheme worked.

Incoming sniper. Again. Rex attempts a takedown but the sniper nearly runs him over with his car. Well, at least they should have a license plate now, assuming Jesse can actually see it without his glasses.

Seeing that it's time to come clean, the Mills siblings take the backpack full of money to Sidney. Crystal reveals how she knew the money was at the Cooper house by basically rehashing everything she just told Jesse. And maintains that her brush with law-breaking was "just one time."

Jesse to Crystal: Rex is really disappointed in you.

Sidney goes back to Elvis Migwan and asks how he knew about the mine runoff. And we now know that her husband faked the reports that said the water was clean.

Back at home, Sidney rips down her wall murder board. She's coming to terms with who her husband really was. He was killed in order to keep him quiet, but he knew a lot more than he let on.

Sidney goes off to question Tim Cooper, who is the actual mastermind behind all of this. Inspector Ali tells her she needs backup. It looks like she rolls up with just Rex, who stays in the car.

Sniper dude is on the scene. Oh, apparently his name is Wayne.

Rex takes him down.

Sidney gets a confession from Cooper.

And the rest of the backup team comes out of hiding.

Sidney, needing to make amends, takes a USB with proof of the falsified mine records to Elvis Migwan. It's everything he will need for his lawsuit against the mining company.

Jesse and Crystal chat as he is ready to head back home. Maybe she'll visit St. John's someday. (Here’s hoping.)

Sid puts away a photo of her and her husband. Ali shows up. Sidney tells him she's planning to sell the house, and that she doesn’t like salad. He's brought her a burger this time.

Could be love.

Sidney swears she's getting groceries tomorrow, and will be back at work on Monday. She's picking up the pieces. She also wants to choose her own partner. Say hello to Little Rex.

Sarah, Jesse and Rex head for the plane.

Jesse: You know, second time's the charm flying the plane.

Sarah: Too soon!

Charlie pulls the pictures of Alison off his wall. He's letting it go.

The door opens, and we get probably my favourite Charah scene ever. The clinging hug. The concern for each other. The intimacy of their foreheads pressed together as they gently sway.

Swoon.

Best episodes ever.

[skeilig]

i am on my knees begging for more info about the kieran-jeremy beef...

oh boy, i used to dream of asks like these.

so a lot of it just me reading into things (bc i think a basically harmless beef btwn 2 costars who did good work together is fun and spicy lol) but most of it stems from the original, infamous new yorker profile of jeremy. of the cast's remarks, most people read kieran and brian's as being the harshest. brian ofc had doubled-down on his issues with jeremy's method since then (see the "method acting masterclass" bit from fallon), in a way that is kinda extra and cringe imo. the kieran-jeremy beef is more subtle and unspoken and therefore classier (and kieran is sexy and funny so he can do whatever he wants).

some of kieran's remarks in the new yorker profile i think have been a bit misinterpreted. for instance, he was quoted saying that jeremy's method "doesn't work" for him, which is kinda ambiguous. is he saying that jeremy's approach to acting inhibits his own ability to work OR is he saying that jeremy's method wouldn't work for him personally if he were to try it. i lean toward the latter. the worse parts of the article imo were just cringe-fodder, such as kieran and jeremy's disagreement about whether the show is a comedy, and kieran speculating that jeremy prepares improvisations for set, and he repeated one such "improvisation" ("rooting-tooting good time for all the family!" which made it into the climactic scene in austerlitz) in so many takes in a row that it began to grate on other cast members, until sarah snook snapped at him in character and said "SHUT. UP. KENDALL." kieran sharing this anecdote definitely is NOT flattering to jeremy. i can see how from another actor's pov, when you're encouraged to improv on set, and how vulnerable and intimidating that can be (kieran struggled with improv at first but grew to excel at it!), it could break the trust on set to have one actor not playing by the same rules.

in a later profile of kieran (i wanna say GQ but i'm not gonna cite sources sowwee), he was asked to reflect on the jeremy profile and his remarks that caused a lot of buzz. his response was cordial but he basically just quickly shut it down and the journalist editorialized that "maybe he's learned to keep things to himself." which i think may be the case!

ever since then, i've just noticed the many times when kieran has conspicuously failed to mention jeremy. in a pre-s4 profile, there was an account of their last day of filming, which was the scene between the 3 siblings in the kitchen in barbados. after they wrapped, kieran made a speech and apparently profusely thanked and poured love onto sarah snook (as he should!). it was not stated whether or not he addressed jeremy, his other scene partner for this last scene. he might have, but it was not confirmed one way or another. and then there's just his many acceptance speeches (the emmys being the most recent) where he names other lead cast members but does not mention jeremy at all, even when they have been nominated in the same category (a bit strange, i'll admit!).

so in conclusion this is just me speculating for fun. it's not a big deal, i don't think either is in the wrong or a bad person or anything. it's a personality mismatch but they were still able to do amazing work together (kendall/roman scene in the finale is sooo cwazy). it's just kinda funny when a lot of popular tv shows are very invested in the "we're all a family and love each other" image for their cast/crew, to see a show that's very well made but has some obvious interpersonal tension. reminds you that interpersonal conflict is not bad and evil which is something i think a lot of people forget, lol.

EDIT BC I FORGOT: sometime during s4 there was an interview where it came out that roman's rant at the end of s3's episode "too much birthday" was at one point cut from an early draft of the script and kieran fought to have it added back in, and he stated that it was his favorite roman scene. he also stated that jeremy disagreed with the scene being in the episode. which is just a funny thing for him to add. like, yeah jeremy didn't want the scene in the show.. but daddy jesse agreed with me 😁

[every-dayiwakeup]

I've got a few things to get off my chest:

🔵The next time I see anyone saying "yeah he died and apologized but it's still not enough" my response will be:

So tell Jesus that sacrifice isn't enough and neither is "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing".

Actions speak louder than words, and on top of that Billy's last words were an apology.

But I guess when you add it all up in the Catholic calculator, it means absolutely nothing.

Too much talk of change without mentioning the integral step for change, which would be getting Billy support and him leaving his abusers.

We write fanfictions where he gets to do that because canon would not give it to us, which is ultimately what fanfiction's sole purpose is.

Unpopular opinion maybe, but I don't think Billy is the one that needs to change here. I believe that his environment makes all the difference, and even then it sure as hell won't be easy.

There's nothing wrong with him, and I often see people overexaggerating "what he's done".

Why aren't other characters in the hot seat? Why specifically Billy? Why are any characters obligated to make up for whatever they've done?

Fiction gifts us escapism, and I've seen an uptake in people blurring the lines between the two.

I don't want Billy to change who he is, and I think it's kind of funny that to some, being in a relationship with Steve (or anyone) will "fix him". Let's not act like Steve Harrington doesn't repress his emotions. He's also like 19, and it makes no sense to me that anyone would want to be in a relationship with someone who's goal isn't to love you, but to "fix you" somehow until you're "worthy of love".

You're basically dating a therapist.

🔵Let Billy Hargrove be messy. Quite frankly other characters should be, too! He is a textbook abuse victim, and if you can't accept or bother to understand what abuse does to someone, that's a you problem.

Let characters make mistakes. Relating to Billy aside, I enjoy him because he stands alone among npc characters, and I firmly believe if not for the narrative:

not being able to handle him

trying to reduce him to a joke like damn near every other character (yes hahaha have a bunch of forty year olds creepily watch a teenager, and just for extra laughs let's make him look like a homewrecker and his groomer a feminist!)

framing said victim repeatedly as the big bad teenage "oh he's mature looking" boy (like we don't have enough of that bullshit 😒)

going directly against Dacre's Billy (pushing the whole womanizer thing for one... "happy screams" 😑)

guiding an immature audience to hating a character because he's not a main

refusing to condemn canon abusers while shitting on an abuse victim (for the love of fucking hell, if you feel the need to tell your audience who to hate and who to root for, then I guess you don't think you've done enough of a job as a writer)

... maybe just maybe viewers wouldn't hate or misunderstand Billy as much. Plus in addition to overexaggerating they also tell blatant untruths, so there's that.

I don't know about y'all, but I don't see the point in herding people to like or dislike characters. Let them come up with a conclusion on their own.

I wouldn't even give a flying fuck about what other characters in ST have done, had it not been for the general fandom demonizing one character while putting on their hypocrite hats and their bloated sense of self morality.

They act like Billy is worse than Vecna, Brenner, those bullies in season 1... They refuse to even bring up Neil, and conveniently "forget" that Billy was possessed for most of s3.

The only people I really see making excuses are Brenner and Vecna stans. Oh, and Jason, too.

I don't really care who stans who, but if we're going to keep playing this bullshit morality policing game (with fictional characters 💀), let's not act like the worst character on TV is Billy Hargrove.

Seriously, I can come up with a list of characters (Stranger Things included) who are worse.

The difference being it doesn't keep me up at night... because they're not fucking real.

[will80sbyers]

Hi. Since you believe Mike really like/love El but also Will when do you think he understand his feelings for Will? The Duffer and Finn said that Mike doesn't know or understand Will's feelings yet so this mean that for now he's not thinking about Will in that way and this destroy all bylers theories or not? He already have feelings for him or will be falling in love in s5 when he will start to think about Will just not like as his friend??

I believe Mike had a puppy crush on El when he was little but his feelings changed with time, they became more platonic!

I believe he had always feelings for Will too but he thought those were completely platonic until s3 when he "lost" Will, now in s4 he knows he has some feelings for Will that are DIFFERENT from what he feels for his other friends but he doesn't want to change the relationship between them and thinks Will is straight anyway lol

it doesn't destroy any byler theories for how I interpret the show :)

The Duffers and Finn says he doesn't understand that Will is confessing his own feelings in the van, this doesn't mean that Mike doesn't see Will in a different way already, he is acting awkward with him because he already has some feelings for him subconsciously and is jealous and all but he didn't have the FULL realization yet that he's feeling in love because Mike is slow with feelings and relationships, he was always presented as oblivious for these things since s1... he will get there!! I think he is really confused for now, he's 14 after all lmao

I think Mike is going to fully realize that he is in love with Will in season 5... he's already in love with him in reality, he just needs to realize it and have his "Oh, it's you" moment... it happens a lot in tv shows and movies that one character realizes he was always in love with his best friend without realizing it before

he started to realize he feels different towards Will at the end of season 3 but he's repressing it/ignoring it for now, the van speech made him just fall more in love with the feelings Will has for him but he doesn't know yet that Will feels like that for him, he believed Will's lie because he trusts him completely!

I think s5 will bring Mike to understand who he really wants and accept the change 🌈❤️

[inspotlight]

a brain dump for nini's scream verse is below the cut. spoilers are very present but this is also severely canon divergent when it comes to a plot point in the movie. i do not suggest reading this if you have not seen the movie yet. this will also spoil season three of the scream tv show.

the beth and kirby mentioned in this brain dump are specifically the beth and kirby that i write at @maskedsocio and @wylmn respectively

okay so for this verse, nini is kirby's cousin. biologically at least, but until she was 18 and met her dad officially, she didn't know. so she decided that even though her dad wasnt really up to being her dad, she wanted to know his family, bc theyre her family, too, and if he's not against her telling his family that she's his daughter, then she's gonna try to forge those relationships bc family is important to her and hers was always so small, so.

kirby, having been in atlanta, invited nini to come stay with her for a month or so that summer after senior year and nini was so excited. she'd heard about kirby before. woodsboro was a bit far from salt lake city, of course, but she'd heard the stories. she was actually a little stunned when she learned she was related to kirby reed.

so, nini is hanging around atlanta for a couple months, and she meets a girl named beth, who kirby introduces her to. they're not that close in age, there's like... a 3/4 year difference. so basically the sam/kirby age gap (which i think has been retconned a little bit bc its been a year and now theyre saying sam is 26 but she was only only like 22-24 in the last movie, but i digress)

anyway so nini and beth kinda hit it off and then after the summer, nini heads off to nyu. since her ties arent to the scream 5 kiddos im not sending her to blackmore tbh. specifically, she's enrolled at tisch and will be pursuing drama as undergrad before pursuing a cinema studies degree as a grad student. nini doesnt really think anything of beth and goes about her life.

so here's a little canon divergence: beth should def have been dead for like 4 years at this point so im converging the scream s3 timeline w/ the scream 5/6 timelines to make this all work. therefore, after nini leaves to head to school in new york, beth commits her murders, and is "killed" (i still dont believe this and had hoped they were gonna ref her in the movie but... its fine)

so basically, some more divergence, the whole time, kirby was actually beth's mentor. while she was in the fbi, she was also connecting with beth after she was fired and declared mentally unstable (because i will be going that route for these portrayals) so nini is kinda blissfully unaware of this and they write off the atlanta murders as a copycat who was just really into the stab franchise and the true crime story of woodsboro. kirby being in the fbi benefits her because she can cover up any trace of her involvement with beth and she's one of the police officers on the scene when beth is declared "dead" (she's taken to a mental hospital where she will be for a while) but kirby decides to follow nini to nyu and start enacting her own requel/spinoff bc why not??

kirby has snapped and she's ready to avenge charlie, who she kinda sees as her guardian angel. she's definitely romanticizing the guy who killed/almost killed her and in her delusional state, she has convinced herself that they were supposed to die together, but now that she's alive, she should be continuing the legacy.

nini, for her part, is blissfully ignorant about beth's murders and kirby doesn't mention it on the phone. but when the murders begin anew in nyu and kirby comes on the scene pretending to be with the fbi, nini is happy to have her cousin back in town. she gets to know the core four + friends this way and kinda worms her way into their circle. of course, they like her, but they dont necessarily trust her, and like... of course they shouldn't, that's just good logic.

but nini is just happy to hang out with some people her own age who have a connection to kirby. and kirby doesn't let nini in on her little murderous secret, so nini gets attacked at some point and "left for dead", but also kirby calls in the attack bc thats still nini and she's no jill roberts she's not gonna leave her family to bleed out and die.

kirby does survive and there's a showdown bc the kirsch family are still involved, but she frames them all for all the murder so that she doesn't get arrested or sent to a psychiatric facility of her own like beth. but she has plans... she's kinda growing her own little online group of ghostfaces around the world to start a reign of terror. meanwhile nini really has no clue but she's def be emerging as the sidney prescott of this verse when she does realize what's going on and steps up to the plate.

[arbitrarygreay]

@mimeparadox and I recently completed a full Nikita rewatch. My opinions on S1 and S2 remain largely unchanged, so the main point of interest would be to see if/how I reevaluated S3 and S4.

My opinion of S3 did go up a lot, and I now share mimparadox's opinion that it does actually rank about equal with S1. S3 is more ambitious than S1, which compensates for some of its pacing issues that are tied to the execution of the more ambitious themes that it is address. You can see why the writers made the decisions that they made for each individual episode, and each individual episode pretty much works on its own (a thing sorely missing from continuity-heavy TV now).

So what remains in that undeniable lingering dissatisfaction with S3 are the serialized elements. Sean being "new-Division's first recruit" is underbaked, it doesn't really go anywhere. Devon won't really get a handle on portraying Sam with full immersion until S4, so that storyline doesn't have nearly the striking impact that it should (especially when the Alex storyline is way more interesting). The Dirty Thirty storyline is awkwardly unresolved, which is useful for a hypothetical world where the show got longer future seasons, but that's not what we got.

And the feeling I have niggling in my brain about how Amanda was kind of overused after S2? As with the writing for S3 and S4 in general, you can see exactly why they made the decisions they did for any given scene or episode or even the whole arc, but something about how the whole looks is off-kilter. I think that maybe in that the latter seasons are trying to be much more about themes of institutional corruption outweighing what individuals can do, focus on Amanda takes away from that message. Her presence as an individual is too large. (It's that eternal tension in a show that wants to get away from Great Man Theory but nonetheless cannot escape that narrative storytelling longs for Great Men characters for both protagonists and antagonists.) Unfortunately, I don't think the show could have avoided this issue, really, because they're writing things one season at a time and downgrading Melinda from regular is a total non-starter.

S4 has major structural issues, mainly that the Alex-and-Sam show is siloed off in each episode to do wholly unrelated things to whatever Nikita's side is focusing on. It being the Alex-and-Sam show also means that Alex is just servicing Sam's arc and has nothing real for herself, bleh. I don't completely loathe Sam as much after this rewatch, but he undeniably stands out as an execution under par to the rest of the show. (The fixit I joked about with mimeparadox that I more and more unironically support is the Killjoys approach of having the redemption/relationship dynamic transition happen entirely between seasons so we can focus on other things instead.)

Which is the general theme I got here. In Olympic scoring terms for events like gymnastics or diving, there's a difference between deductions and penalties. You start with the potential full score based on the difficulty of the routine, and deduct based on execution divergences. But for a penalty, the performer not only gets zero points for the move they attempted, but actively loses points on top of that. What I saw on this rewatch were basically only deductions, and not really penalties. (Other than critiques that would ding the show for not being something other than a CW spy TV show that has certain production limits. I don't need or want Nikita to be The Americans.)

[shrinkthisviolet]

1, 5, 8, & 15

1. Have you pulled inspiration from media sources other than the property your fic is related to (a plot point from a TV show that has nothing to do with the characters/setting of the fic, a line from a book, etc.)? If so, for which story? Why did you find that media source compelling?

When it comes to general trends, I tend to pull from Star Wars and Ace Attorney (mostly the themes for the latter, not so much storylines). Mostly because that’s just the media that sticks with me the most. Even from LOTR sometimes, although it’s been a while since I’ve seen those movies. In terms of specifics:

To write Morgan & Jesse, I pull from Parent Trap, specifically Hallie and Annie’s dynamic! Which is hardly a secret, given that the two sets of twins share a birthday 😅 granted, Morgan & Jesse DO get along at first until the Zoom thing happens, but…honestly, I think they’d rub each other the wrong way regardless. Meeting your doppelgänger from another Earth doesn’t come without ~some~ insecurity…

To write Barry & Morgan, I draw…well aside from my own experiences (with my dad mostly, as I am the oldest sibling), I draw from other brother-sister relationships that I love! Especially from Justin & Alex in WOWP (the movies specifically—I know in the show they tend to have a bunch of ups and downs, and Barry & Morgan are a bit more steady aside from their rough patch in s1…and in s3). Also, as weird as it sounds, from Zuko & Izumi a little bit too 😅 at least regarding the protectiveness aspect, not so much the father-daughter aspect (Barry isn't Morgan's dad, he's her older brother, even if those two positions sometimes overlap in some situations...even if Barry at times feels like he's doing things for Morgan as her brother that Eowells ought to have done as her father).

Also, I haven’t written s3 yet, but I’m gonna draw quite a bit from Star Wars 👀 not gonna say how or why, because that’ll give too much away, but you’ll know it when you read it.

For Lucy & Astra, I pull from female friendships I've seen in multiple places...Astra even has a little Mara Jade in her with her quick wit and sarcasm.

(Also ofc for some storylines in my Morgan AU, I’m pulling from the comics, but like. Ofc I am, that’s the source material even beyond the show, and as we get more and more divergent, it's a nice way to validate myself and the changes I'll be making 😅 because some of them are gonna be major)

5. Is there a tiny detail in one of your fics that you feel goes tragically unnoticed?

I’ve answered here, but here’s another:

In Chapter 10 of i still love you (i promise), I incorporated that bit about how when Eowells takes off his glasses, he's speaking with complete honesty, or something close to it (a Tom Cavanagh quote if I'm not mistaken):

“Yes, well…when I was growing up, that is what I was taught.” He sighed, taking off his glasses to rub his eyes. “Sometimes I wonder how much of what I was taught is really true. But…I suppose I can’t help it. Right or wrong…I can’t bring myself to regret anything I do for you.” He lifted his steely gaze to meet hers, and…maybe it was her imagination, but he seemed to be challenging her. It was almost…almost as though he knew— No. He couldn’t. He hadn’t come to see Ronnie and Stein off—there was no way he knew— “Anyway,” he interrupted, “I’ve taken too much of your time, I fear. Remind me when your acceptances are coming in?”

He's speaking with an intense honesty here, essentially saying he doesn't regret what he did (people caught that latter part, but him taking off the glasses is me accentuating that “hey, he really, really means it”)...and also hinting that he knows about something else. Something that Morgan clocks but tries to deny (and continues to deny, otherwise she would've brought it up to Barry and Iris at the end). Hmm but what could that possibly be?

8. Is there a story idea you have that you would love if it could appear fully realized but that you do not think you’ll ever write yourself?

So I’ve read that Iris was apparently supposed to be a criminal psychologist in the original pilot of the Flash? And now I need a fic of that so badly (preferably with Westallen endgame, but Westhawne would be sweet too). Whether she ends up a reporter by the end or not, doesn’t matter—I just wanna see Iris using a loophole (“you said I couldn’t be a cop, you never said I couldn’t be a criminal psychologist”) to work in the CCPD, and her and Barry teaming up for cases.

Could even be a great way to show how she and Barry approach things differently — have them on the same case, and Barry is very logical/clinical while Iris is more empathetic/big-picture.

Ooh and Iris figuring out Barry’s secret because “Barry. What kind of idiot do you take me for. I work right alongside you, we’ve worked cases together—do you honestly think I wouldn’t notice when your habits changed, when you ducked out of work, when you ducked out of meetings with me?”

AND and Iris figuring out Eowells’s secret that way too, because she knows how criminals think and Eowells is fitting that profile very well as time goes on. Barry won’t hear of it. They argue, day in and day out—that’s what their tension throughout the season is about, not Barry and Joe lying to Iris.

Iris & Joe teaming up to investigate Eowells too 👀 as Joe has come to see Iris as a professional equal much earlier and now treats her as such

Like!! The potential!! I don’t know enough about criminal psychology to write this (and I don’t have the brainspace to devote to researching it fully) but I’d be so down to read a fic like this.

15. Is there any genre, trope, or style that you find particularly challenging to write? Do you enjoy the challenge or prefer to avoid it?

Misunderstandings, simply because of how much I usually dislike the trope 😅 it can be useful if done properly…but it’s not always done properly. Sometimes it’s a very basic misunderstanding that has no reason to stretch on for as long as it does, because it would really take one conversation that only plot contrivance is preventing.

To some degree, I felt like I was falling a little into that trap by the end of i still love you (i promise) and that was a challenge (a welcome one, though) 😅 to most, Barry probably appears very stupid, much like the version of the trope I despise. Which is fair! But hopefully when I finish his POV fic, it’ll become a little more clear what he’s thinking. In any case, it’s definitely a learning experience for me as a writer, and that’s always a welcome thing.

fanfic ask game!

[bobafett]

Setting aside my Mandalorian Philosophy Thesis for the moment (there's a powerpoint, it's too much to type, etc), I just cracked open the first three episodes of The Bad Batch s2, and it ended up really effectively crystalizing exactly what is bothering me about the new season of The Mandalorian. Fundamentally, I think the thing that makes something a good episode of TV is that it has an A plot with an emotional B plot nested inside like a little engine that makes it go. Mando s3 is apparently allergic to this concept.

I am putting the rest of this analysis under a cut because it got long and also contains spoilers for Bad Batch s2 and Mando s3.

The first two episode of Bad Batch do the A plot/B plot construction effectively: you have your A plot (can the crew successfully steal a Serrano war chest) and your B plot (Omega overhears a conversation that makes her feel like she's ruined the crew's lives and the only solution is successfully stealing the war chest, which leads to her priorities sliding out of alignment with the rest of the team). The A plot provides surface level action, and the B plot gets people invested in the characters and provides conflict.

The problem is that no episode of Mando s3 has successfully done this. The closest they come is the fucking Andor bonus episode in episode 3, which has an A plot (can Perishing successfully integrate into the New Republic) and a B plot (Pershing's pride and intellectual ambition is baited with the temptation Elia presents, which creates an incredible amount of tension regarding whether or not he'll get caught). Now you might have noticed the obvious problem here, which is that it doesn't involve any of the show's primary protagonists.

Episode one is Fetch Quests: Marathon Edition and has no plot to speak of. if we're being generous, the A plot is "Din wants a droid." There is no B plot because there is no internal conflict here. Episode 3 is almost entirely disconnected from the theoretical main plot of the season. I say theoretical here because I'm not actually confident what the plot of this season is supposed to be, but I feel like "involves Mandalorians" should be a safe bet. Regardless, as previously discussed it does have an A/B plot, but that plot doesn't involve any of the main characters. Episode 4 has an A plot (can the covert defeat a murder bird) but no B plot.

And then Episode two technically has an A plot (will Din be able to successfully redeem himself by taking a bath) and a B plot (Bo Katan has failed by every metric she's ever measured herself by, and her solution is to isolate herself until suddenly Din forces her to walk through the carcass of her culture and ask herself whether she can be redeemed), but those plots don't actually have anything to do with each other. Bo Katan's struggle over what it means to be a Mandalorian and her personal relationship to that is fucking fascinating, but the show makes no effort to connect that with Din's own relationship to being a Mandalorian. Moreover, the show itself seems incredibly and weirdly resistant to acknowledging that Din's relationship to being a Mandalorian is something that needs to be talked about in the first place. Like, the man almost died in s1 rather than take his helmet off, and taking it off to save Grogu's life in s2 was this immense struggle. And then in s3, apparently he's just like "Well, I took a bath about it, so it's fine now" which is insane. That is not how people work. Like, the end of s2 entirely turned on the character beat of Din giving up his entire identity for the sake of his kid, and then s3 just hits ctrl-Z on that without ever seeming to address the effect that should've had on him. Even though Bo Katan is right there and is a natural foil for it.

I actually don't have an elegant way to land this post, but I guess the thing that's really bothering me about this season is that Din has become a complete non-entity. He's entirely reactive, and it's unclear what internal conflict is motivating him at this point because the previous seasons' conflict (will he make the switch from a cold blooded bounty hunter to a man who's willing to devote himself to raising a kid) has been resolved, and the thing that could've replaced it (what will he build his identity on if he thinks that he can no longer be a Mandalorian) effectively got fast forwarded through. And the result is a show that just doesn't feel like it knows what it's about anymore.

[deluweil]

I was doing the S1 rewatch because I've seen around people complaining about Hen and Buck’s supposedly getting closer in s6 instead of seeing buddie more.

But the thing is Buck and Hen have always been close.

Hen has been the older sister to Buck from the beginning. (Not to replace Maddie, of course, but Maddie wasn't there for Buck in S1, and later, when she came, she had and still has her own problems.)

Hen talked Buck through his first wild weeks when Bobby wanted and did fire him, they played games on the tv together.

They helped Bobby through his rehab and basically developed a siblings relationship where the two of them, along with Chimney, wore Bobby down until he lowered his defenses and let them in.

A cute big sister Hen moment is when Abby comes to the firehouse for the first time and Hen is giving her the third degree, while embarrassing the hell out of Buck and seizing her up on whether she is worthy of her younger brother.

It's not for nothing that Aisha and Oliver are close, they were in this together from the beginning.

Now in S6, Eddie is just getting out of a rough patch and finally looks to be feeling better, same thing with Maddie.

The two closest people in the world to Buck are finally feeling better, and he doesn't want to burden them with his issues.

(A lot like in 5x11 when Eddie sees Buck laughing with the team and walks away because he didn't want to bring Buck's mood down - also fair chance that he was jealous of Lucy, like Buck was of Lena in S3.)

Buck originally went to Hen about the sperm donor thing because she and Karen had been there, and he wanted to know more.

But also Hen is a sounding board to Buck and an excellent secret keeper.

If we're looking farther back Hen was the one to welcome Buck back to the firehouse after the lawsuit and was also the one to stand up for him with Bobby, pointing out respectfully that Bobby is just being an overprotective dad (being respectful while calling him an idiot the entire time 😉).

Buck's connection to Hen is different than the one he shares with Eddie, for obvious reasons.

Imo, the sperm donor issue, falls under the same category as the gfs did. They don't talk about these things. I'm getting more and more convinced that for Buck, Taylor, Lucy, helping another couple to start a family, it must feel like sort of betraying Eddie.

Because they do talk about everything else, the year of possibilities, making captain, Buck's parents, Eddie’s family, everything involving Christopher, and so many other things we don't see but learn that they have talked about them.

When Eddie reluctantly tries to ask Buck about the donation, Buck looks almost traumatized lol which is the exact opposite reaction he had when he talked to Hen.

When Chimney tried to ask, Buck had a "nope, I'm not doing this with you, shut up" look.

But Eddie is different. He falls under husband category, and I will not take any arguments to the contrary.

Now the Buck and Eddie's communication and relationship this season is a whole other post.

But in the spirit of S1 parallels, Hen and Athena are finding their friendship groove again, and Buck reclaims his sibling bond with Hen again.

That doesn't make her more important than Eddie. In fact, it'll probably make her vital to the buddie pairing because if Buck confessed his love for a certain gorgeous medic/firefighter, it would definitely be to Hen.

I will hazard a guess that when Buck gets hurt and ends up in the hospital, we will most likely get a Hen trying to comfort Eddie and be with him until he can see Buck.

[willqayers]

MIKE'S MONOLOGUE BREAKDOWN

i went ranting about this on twitter a while ago but i thought might as well put it here. as i said before, this is a compilation of my own thoughts and also theories i’ve seen on the internet. let's start with the first section of mike's monologue

he doesn't know what to do at first, he's scared and he's trying to comfort el by saying he's right by her side, this might be me analyzing too much but i noticed the frame where the vines start to tighten more is when el hears mike speaking for the first time. el scans the environment searching for mike, but she doesn't see him, this also could be a symbolism of mike only being able to express his feelings whenever she's not looking (kissing her at the airport while wearing glasses, saying he loves her in s3 when she's not in the room and immediately regretting it after, him wearing vision obstructing glasses when they're sitting together in the “the piggyback” episode).

he doesn't know what to do, nor what to say, even though we saw in previous episodes what was the thing she wanted to hear from mike, even at that he doesn't say it on his own. not until will reminds him "he's the heart" that he has to keep going. i can notice even a bit after that he's still doubtful of what to say, and then he reassures her again making her know he's there with her, after that we can hear an audio cue indicating that the vines are still tightening around her neck. she doesn't really feel mike is with her, or at least, they're not on the same page anymore.

"and…" he looks to the side, the left side, to be specific. this tends to be a common thing when people don't know what to say, are thinking about what to say, are doubtful of their own words, and in some cases is a way to show the person is lying.

when mike finally says "i love you" you can see pain in her expression, the vines tighten again, and then you can hear and see thunder and lighting, as you might already know this is a common resource in tv media and films to indicate that the person who's talking is lying, and remember everything is on purpose and everything's there for a reason. as i could also observe while rewatching the show, we can see the same method being used in s2ep5 when joyce lies to bob about will's condition, will is possesed by the mindflayer and she tells him he's fine. el doesn't believe mike, or at least she didn't want to hear mike finally say those words when she's on the verge of dying, it doesn't feel genuine, it's like he's being forced to say them because he knows she might die and thinks that's what she wanted to hear at a moment like this. "i'm sorry i don't say it more" okay, then he knows el was right when they fought? this confuses me because then why did he get upset at her when she said "you never say it" replying to her "i say it". did he had a moment of realization throughout the episodes? or did he get mad at her and was defensive because he maybe didn't want to accept he doesn't love her anymore, at least not in the way he's supposed to love her.

"it's not because im scared of you. im not. i never felt that way" we can see some instances when mike shows clear fear about el's actions, for example at rink o mania when el hits angela, we can see his expression followed by an audio cue that indicates clear fear, and again in s1 when she pushes lucas with her powers, mike clearly scared and angry, saying to her "what's wrong with you?". then again we can see the thunder on el's side and the audio cue AGAIN of the vines tightening. she knows he's lying, she knows he's scared of her and she knows mike also lied during their argument when he said "i was surprised [...] i just didn't know what to do"

"but i am scared that one day you realize you don't need me anymore" we know how mike struggles with the feeling of being needed for those who he cares for, he even says to will in the previous episode that he's scared of el realizing she doesn't really need him. mike just wants someone to need him, he strongly needs someone who he can protect. but doing this, he forgets that el is her own person and can make her own decisions (throwback to max in s3, who was the one to teach el that). when mike and el met eachother, she needed guidance, protection, and mike saw in her that need and chose to protect her.

"and i thought that if i said how i felt it would somehow make that day hurt more" when he says those words we get a close up of will looking at him with a devastated look in his eyes, the directors wanted us to see his reaction for a specific reason. mike is using the same words he told him in the van and transforming them into a non genuine love confession. or maybe it can also be interpreted as will realizing mike and el's relationship isn't as happy as he thought it was, remember will being our unreliable narrator. he always showed us from his point of view that mike and el were a loving couple, maybe that sentence was the one who made him realize mike wasn't actually showing her how he really feels, because again, will didn't know that. it might be a stretch but i think it's worth looking at it from both perspectives.

"but the truth is, i don't know how to live without you" we were shown in s2 he was definitely able to live without her. yes, he used to tried and contact her before the whole thing with will happened, but in my personal opinion i think that was only because he cared for her as a friend and felt guilty that she was the one who sacrificed herself for their safety, nothing more. they almost didn't know eachother at that point and didn't have any kind of development whatsoever. we can see that on the first episodes but then he kinda just, forgets el even exists until she appears again at the end of the season.

"i feel like my life started that day i we found you on the woods" something that might be a stretch but i'll point it out anyways, the fact he says 'we found you'. if this was a genuine and intimate love confession why saying "we" instead of something like "the day i saw you" or "the day i found you", again, this is surely a stretch but there it is. mike's first impression of her was that she was a crazy person and he even wanted to send her to a mental facility not even two days after meeting her. he was definitely lying because it was not love at first sight. will had disappeared the day before that and that was mike's first priority, not even to point out he said that with will being right beside him, but then again, he might not have realized because again, he was telling el what he thought she wanted to hear. also, mike mentioned to will in the van scene that finding her wasn't fate nor destiny, it was just "simple dumb luck", so the contradiction in his choice of words give a lot to talk to about.

"you were wearing that yellow benny's burger tshirt and it was so big it swallowed you whole" the first smile we see in el's face was after recalling a silly memory, but the vines are still tightening around her neck because it wasn't actually a good memory, she had just escaped the facility that trapped her her whole life and i personally think that was the last thing she wanted to remember at that moment, especially after knowing the truth of what really happened. but then again, mike didn't know this so i don't personally blame him.

"and i knew right then and there that i loved you" again with the bull, i already mentioned this, but mike at first thought she was a crazy person, and we know for a fact that the writers of the show don't believe in love at first sight, as they stated it on a tweet in 2019, meaning that it couldn't be on purpose, they actually don't believe in love at first sight and the fact that they even used that trope as a part of a supposed love confession for one of their main pairs definitely means something. we also know that the only reason mike let her stay with them in the first place was because she recognized will in a photo and knew how to find him.

"i love with your powers, i love you without your powers. i love you for exactly who you are" throughout the seasons we only see mike referring as her qualities being a "superhero", "superman" (very curious choice of words since wonder woman existed in that time). there too few if not none scenes of him saying something that involves her actual qualities as a person outside of her "being a superhero" or "she saved the world twice". we can also see that el is crying, i personally think she was hoping that mike would say something different to her, she always thought that mike did love her for who she is, but she realized it wasn't true.

"you can do anything, you can fly, you can move mountains, i believe that" this is just straight up idolization. we never even see el do those kinds of things in the show. if you love someone for who they are you would have something more to say about them than only enlisting things around their powers. like, come on, they had cute scenes together, the snow ball scene being the first one on the list. why not mentioning their memories together? the whole reason mike and el fought in the first place was because she thinks of herself as a monster that doesn't belong, she realized that the monster was brenner all along, but she doesn't want to be seen as a superhero, and in that fight they had it was clearly seen that she wanted someone to see her as more than just that. this is definitely not what el wanted to hear at all, and you can see that on her face, she's tired of being referred as a superhero. she's being choked yeah, but she's also paying attention to everything mike says, pointing it out again that the vines are still tightening around her neck.

mike then says that she has to fight, vines tightening once again and again the thunder in the background, this is when mike's voice begins to fade a bit. it's only when she looks at max that the vines stop. necessary to point out, even though everyone knows, that max was the first one to actually see el for what she is, a person. she encouraged el to learn how to be herself and showed her that she can make her own decisions and choose her own future. we can also see how the vines start to tighten once more when she hears mike speak again, again thunder, which can mean she's purposely trying to silence mike and focus on max. she can then finally break free, it was max the one who freed her, not mike's words.

in conclusion, mike’s words did not help el at all, in fact it might have made things even worse. the last words he says to her didn’t reach her at all because she purposefully silenced him, it was the memories with max that helped her defeat vecna. mike definitely loves el, i’m not even doubting that, i just don’t believe the kind of love he feels is romantic by any chance.