#here's hoping we get some plot for him outside of just the ~gabriel revenge of it all~ in the very short and packed season

[guardian-angle22]

Do you think you'll still be able to like Carlos when he's a ranger? (Assuming you like him now, ofc!)

Ah, so, here's the thing. I've always just sort of ignored every storyline that has to do with Carlos' job... because I hate his job. I hate the way they've dealt with quite a few of his job focused plots (the copganda is real). Since I've hated his job since s1, there's really no reason for me to feel any different about him once he's a texas ranger. It's the same job just a slightly different flavor of law enforcement and apparently an uglier uniform.

actually I guess this is an FYI for anyone who didn't follow me during the previous seasons but I have a fun little tag that you can add to your filter list if you don't want to see any of my complaints about his job plots once the season starts to air: ACAB🤠 [which is even funnier to me now given the cowboy hat of it all🤭]

[the-gilbird]

so i haven’t really posted anything like this before. but fuck it, because good omens is amazing, and i just shared this with the discord server, and they encouraged me to share it here, so. let’s-a-go, i guess

anyway. so. here it is.

so, we all know crowley is capable of massive feats, in terms of miracles. he can stop time on a whim. he can make a car make it through a ring of whatever the fuck kind of flame surrounded london via the m25, and then have it continue to function for several hours after that. he can pull two other entities (including the fucking antichrist) into what i can only assume to be a pocket dimension or something similar outside of time when one of the most powerful entities in the goddamn universe was approaching their location. and we also know why he is capable of the things he does: his imagination. crowley's creativity and imagination are one of the most powerful forces in the goddamn universe and that's not even an exaggeration. now, the other thing. aziraphale. he's smart, and cunning, and the biggest thing working against him is his lack of confidence in his abilities. he deciphered a large portion of agnes nutter's notoriously fucky riddles in one night. he figured out how to possess someone, despite no angel having done it before. and the reason he isn't higher in the pecking order in heaven is because he's kind, and loves the way angels should; and he is told for six millenia that he is not a good angel, which feeds into the lack of self confidence. but after ain'tmaggedon, he's free of heaven's influence. in fact, the only influence he really has now is crowley. and crowley's loved him for that six millenia, and probably sings his praises as often as he can now that crowley is likewise free of hell's influence, because he is a dumbstruck loveass. so aziraphale is more confident in his own abilities and traits, now. and aziraphale is intelligent. agnes nutter's final prophecy got them out of heaven and hell's line of view, and gave them time. but they won't stay away forever; crowley acknowledged that, right after the switch back in the garden. and aziraphale knows that it's only a matter of time before someone notices some discrepency, and they get caught (there's ten million angels and ten million demons, after all. someone's going to notice). so aziraphale begins to plan.

the first thing he does is plant the seeds, if you'll pardon the pun. after things have been settled for some time, he starts researching. pulling out the oldest ethereal (and occult) texts he owns (which are very old, and very numerous), and researching everything he can about the nature of angels and demons, and the nature of holy water and hellfire. and this takes up some time (seeds need to take root, after all. crowley needs to see him doing the research, after all). and occasionally, exactly as aziraphale knows he will, crowley will ask aziraphale what he's looking into, and aziraphale will say he's looking into protections against hellfire and holy water, for if heaven and hell ever figure out their little misdirection. (and crowley will hem and haw at him for referring to deceiving the entireties of heaven and hell, one of the greatest wiles ever pulled off in all of time, with the same language used to talk about magic tricks. and aziraphale will smile, because he loves every part of crowley.) and this will continue. and eventually, aziraphale will tell crowley that he's made a breakthrough. of course, aziraphale won't actually have made that big of a breakthrough. he has everything he needs by day three. but crowley needs to believe it. crowley needs to believe that aziraphale spent that entire time researching and plotting and planning and reading, because aziraphale is the smartest person that crowley knows, and if anyone can figure it out, his angel can. but what aziraphale tells him is that there wasn't any need of a plan at all, really. all this research has essentially been for moot. well, not for moot, because now they both know, but they didn't actually need to do anything with the information, aziraphale explains, because they're already safe, and have been for some time.

because, aziraphale says, holy water and hellfire can't affect them anymore. because crowley loves him with all of his heart, aziraphale explains, and he loves crowley with all of his. (don't technically have a heart, crowley says, still a bit blown away, what on account of them having corporations and not bodies, and all. oh hush, you know what i mean, aziraphale says back, and gives crowley a kiss on the forehead for his trouble.) and if a demon loves an angel, really loves them, hellfire won't burn them, because hellfire is the creation of demons, beings of destruction, generally, fueled by the hatred of their opposition, and so if a demon doesn't hate angels, it won't burn as strongly. and if a demon loves an angel, just one, then the angel won't be destroyed. and it works the same the other way 'round with holy water, aziraphale says, more excitedly, as crowley watches him enraptured, because holy water is blessed by angels, used to wipe out the opposition which they hate. and so if an angel loves a demon, that demon will be protected from the blessing, even blessings created by other angels. because love is a powerful force, it is the basis of the creation of humanity, when god first whispered the idea of them into being. when you love someone and have that love returned, you are giving yourself, wholely and completely, to another, and everything you are protects them with everything you have. it just so happens, aziraphale finishes by saying, that the respective weaknesses and strengths of angels and demons balance out rather nicely. humans put this phenomenon into very nice words, once; you must be subjected to the mortifying ordeal of being known, in order to get the rewards of being loved. and so they are ready. when they come (and they do come, they were always going to come, eventually), they take aziraphale first, just like last time. but unlike last time, aziraphale and crowley are together when their respective former head offices come to deal the killing blows. holy water said to be blessed by the almighty herself, and hellfire harvested from the deepest pits of hell, fueled by satan's everlasting rage. the strongest stuff there is, just so there is every guarentee. (the water fizzles gabriel's skin lightly, even, as a drop falls out as he carries it over, and the fire roars with a heat that even beelzebub inches away from.) it is volatile, it is deadly, and there is absolutely no hope for the traitors now. (or there wouldn't be, if aziraphale weren't so smart.) and crowley is shackled to the ground, his shoulders restrained by... demons? angels? he doesn't know, and he doesn't rightly care at this point, they're all the same to him, forcing him to face aziraphale, shackled and bound just as he is, being led into a roaring inferno of the hottest hellfire crowley has ever seen. and he knows, he knows they're safe, aziraphale looked into every possibility and he trusts aziraphale, trusts him with everything, trusts him with the name he had before the Fall and even with that he can't help struggling, and snarling, and doing everything he can to get out and run to his angel, trying every trick in the book but it's not working because there are too many enemies abound, too many hands holding him down and restraining him as his head is pulled back by his hair and he is forced to watch as aziraphale is shoved into the flames.

(aziraphale knew this, too. crowley is the heart, out of the two of them, he always was, and heaven and hell want every bit of revenge they can get, they want it to hurt. they know it will hurt worst if crowley is forced to watch the love of his life die in front of him, unable to do anything, and for aziraphale to die knowing that he can't protect crowley from what is coming next.) (really, it's no wonder aziraphale figured out agnes nutter's prophecies so quickly; for being two completely different entities, they think with remarkable similarity.) but aziraphale has already protected crowley. he has already protected both of them, because he is the smartest being crowley has ever known, and because he knows crowley, just as crowley knows him. and he knows crowley is, hands down, one of the most powerful beings in all of creation, and crowley's imagination is a force never to be reckoned with. all that stuff aziraphale spouted, about how a love from a demon can protect an angel, and vice versa? bullshit. complete and utter bullshit. aziraphale found what he needed to in those books he researched, and what he needed was just enough solid evidence for him to convince CROWLEY that it was true. it is the biggest, boldest, most daring lie aziraphale has ever told, and he will never tell crowley the truth because he can't. (he has practice, with this whole lying thing. he's lied to humans, he's lied to heaven, hell, he's even lied to crowley before. and he promised crowley he would never tell him another lie again but this one, this one he really can't help, not if it means keeping them both safe, and aziraphale will keep this close to his chest until the end of time. and he will only regret it for a single instance, and that is when he hears crowley's scream as he is thrown into hellfire.) the hellfire doesn't touch him. it can't touch him, because crowley believes it won't. despite being made of the purest anger the universe has ever known, it wraps around aziraphale like a warm embrace, like a gentle smile, like a 'welcome home.' and as crowley sees aziraphale's figure unwavering in the fire, his cry cuts out, and he smiles even as he is drenched, because it worked, just like aziraphale said it would. (and it worked. just like crowley thought it would, aziraphale thinks, as he smiles and sighs a breath of relief that they are finally (finally) safe.)

[silenthillmutual]

Danganronpa 1 & 2 characters as High School “recommended reading” books I actually read

Makoto Naegi

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee when i read it: 5th grade for fun, 10th grade for English class did i like it? well enough yeah content warnings: thematic & period-typical racism, ableism, and sexism about: Recounts a summer in which Scout and her brother, Jem, watch their lawyer father defend a black man accused of raping a white woman in the south while balancing raising them alone. Other stuff happens, but that’s the most important plot thread.

Sayaka Maizono

Medea by Euripides when i read it: i don’t remember, maybe 9th for drama, 12th for English? did i like it? yep! content warnings: child murder, infidelity, some pretty brutal other character deaths, sexism about: Medea, who has sacrificed everything to be with her husband - even committed treason - has been left by the man so he can move on to woo and wed a princess. And she loses her shit.

Leon Kuwata

The Adventures of Huckelberry Finn by Mark Twain when i read it: 11th grade did i like it? yeah! content warnings: thematic & period-typical racism (use of the n-word), domestic abuse, classism iirc? about: After his abusive dad comes back and demands money under the threat of death, Huck Finn runs away with a fugitive slave down the Mississippi River. Being Mark Twain, it’s a comedy, although Huck’s father is genuinely kind of frightening and his friendship with Jim is kind of heartwarming.

Chihiro Fujisaki

Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley when i read it: 10th grade for fun, 12th grade & freshman year of college for class did i like it? I’ve got mixed feelings; i love the book, hate most peoples’ interpretations of it. content warnings: character death, incest (depending on the version of the novel you read), unethical doctors, neglectful parents about: Thinking he knows better than literally anyone else he’s ever met, Victor Frankenstein decides it’s his birthright to play god. He robs graves to build the perfect body, and then, once he’s successful, flips his shit and refuses to acknowledge any part he played in the creation, wrecking the lives of like everyone he knows.

Mondo Oowada

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton when i read it: like 6th or 7th grade, for fun did i like it? i loved it! content warnings: abuse, thematic classism, character death about: Honestly the most obvious choice to make for Mondo. Ponyboy Curits, a greaser, recounts the last few months of his life in which, after being repeatedly harassed and then nearly killed by gang of rich kids, his friend Johnny stabs one to death. In order to keep Johnny out of prison and Ponyboy out of a boys’ home, the two run away. Considering Ponyboy is also being raised by an older brother, this totally fits Mondo.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru

King Lear by William Shakespeare when i read it: twice in college (discliamer: as an english major i had to taken an entire course on shakespeare, so he shows up a lot here between that and having done theatre) did i like it? no content warnings: a surprising amount of gore for a stage play, including a guy getting his eyes gouged out and someone getting beheaded iirc about: The king’s getting up in years, so he’s hoping he can drop the workload off onto his three daughters while remaining the figurehead. His youngest, Cordelia, who he loves best, refuses to kiss his ass by saying that he’ll still have power over her once she’s married, and this pisses him off so he disinherits her. Then her sisters, annoyed with their father and his favoritism, decide that with Cordelia out of the way they can now do basically whatever they want and determine to make his life hell. Since he named them Goneril and Regan, I don’t blame them.

Hifumi Yamada

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer when i read it: college, but i wanna say i read some of the stories in it for English classes in high school? did i like it? some of the stories i did yeah content warnings: varies from story to story, but i remember unsanitary, drunkenness, and infidelity about: The overarching “plot” as such is that a group of people are making a pilgrimage to Canterbury, and decide that to pass the time they will tell two stories each. Each story is told in-character, and whoever tells the best story has to...buy everybody dinner, or something? I don’t really recall. It’s a comedy, but it’s also unfinished because Chaucer bit off way more than he could chew.

Celes Ludenberg

“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe when i read it: 11th grade did i like it? probably, i’m a fan of Poe content warnings: drunkenness, murder about: This one got memetic on tumblr for a while, but essentially this guy decides to get revenge on an old friend of his for some kind of sleight by getting him drunk during Carnival, leading him into the basement, and burying him alive. Poe isn’t one to go soft.

Sakura Oogami

“A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez when i read it: 10th grade did i like it? no content warnings: objectification, something akin to torture about: A family finds an old man with wings lying face-down on the ground and decide to keep him like a pet. People see him and assume he is an animal, and the family decides to start charging admission like their own private sideshow, while onlookers abuse him. One of those extra depressing stories that makes you wonder why the hell you had to read it for class.

Mukuro Ikusaba

The Crucible by Arthur Miller when i read it: the first time, probably in 6th or 7th grade, and then several more times after that for a variety of other classes. it’s a theatre and English class staple.  did i like it? when taken in context, yes. but i’m also fucking sick of reading it. content warnings: infidelity, paranoia bait, period-typical racism & sexism (takes place during the Salem Witch Trials) about: The plot is a witch hunt, in which a girl who had an affair with a married man claims to have been taken over by the spirit of the devil and that all her friends and a variety of other townsfolk have too. It follows the trials as they try to determine who is and is not guilty, who will repent for their sins, and thematically is about puritanical hysteria. It’s about the Red Scare of the 50s, surveillance, the Hollywood Blacklist, propaganda, and tyrannical government. Naturally, teachers fail to provide any context for the play that actually makes it relevant or interesting. Compare to modern day callout/cancel culture. 

Kyouko Kirigiri

12 Angry Men by Reginald Rose when i read it: 10th grade (although i’d already seen the movie) did i like it? yes content warnings: thematic classism & xenophobia about: The jury of a case in which a teenager is accused of murder convene to determine their verdict. All but one man believe him to be guilty. The rest of the play covers his attempts to sway his other jurors into at least casting aside their prejudices to view the case impartially.

Byakuya Togami

The Federalist Papers when i read it: summer before 12th grade for AP Gov. yikes. did i like it? oh god no. i had to have my lawyer dad explain it to me. content warnings: legalese and it’s boring as fuck about: i mean it’s just a bunch of essays to promote ratifying the the constitution. I don’t even remember if we read all of them. that’s how bad my retention of the subject is.

Toko Fukawa

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka when i read it: 10th grade did i like it? kind of? content warnings: bugs, emotional abuse, depression about: A man awakens one day to find he has transformed into a giant cockroach. It’s a metaphor for his depression and what a burden he feels like to his family. If you read anything about Kafka’s life, you’ll understand why he was depressed.

Aoi Asahina

Hamlet by William Shakespeare when i read it: i’ve forgotten when my first time was because i’ve had to read it so constantly. if i had to wager a guess, i’d say middle school, though i’ve read it for fun, for drama class, and for English class. did i like it? yes content warnings: character death, suicidal ideation, incest vibes (depending on your interpretation) about: Hamlet, not over the early death of his father, is enraged that his mother has married his uncle. He’s really bringing everyone else down about it, and then he starts to see his father’s ghost on top of it all. No one’s sure if he’s just mad with grief or if the ghost is for real, but he starts making life for everyone else difficult when he decides to try and expose his uncle as his father’s murderer.

Yasuhiro Hagakure

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller when i read it: 10th grade i think? did i like it? if i believed in book-burning, this would’ve been the first turned to ash in my trashcan content warnings: infidelity, mediocre white men with narcissism, suicide, not sure what else about: An aging father who thinks he was robbed of success by circumstances refuses to face facts that he is a loser by projecting his failures onto a son that now hates him and thinking real big of himself for a wash-out.

Junko Enoshima

Othello by William Shakespeare when i read it: college did i like it? it’s my favorite Shakepseare play, actually! content warnings: thematic racism/xenophobia/Islamophobia, domestic abuse, character death about: A tragedy centering around the planned downfall of Othello, Moor of Venice. He’s relatively well-respected for his heroics and generally being a pretty cool guy, but for whatever reason, Iago wants to see him suffer. And when I say “for whatever reason” - it’s because Iago never gives a consistent one, but at the end he admits the entire thing has been his orchestration and he’s had no issue exploiting peoples’ bigotry as a means to an end. One popular and pretty text-evident theory is that Iago is in love with Othello. But - causing a ruckus, bringing society to its knees, and torturing a man just for shits n giggles? Getting it all done by sheer power of charisma? That’s all Junko ever does.

Monokuma

1984 by George Orwell when i read it: 10th grade for fun, 12th grade for class did i like it? yes but i don’t recommend it. i like tedious shit. content warnings: paranoia bait, sexual themes, torture, probably other stuff i’m forgetting about: Classic dystopia lit in which the government controls the flow of information to the degree of creating its own language (”newspeak”) to explain the technology used to survey its citizens and distill history-changing propaganda. Especially relevant in an era of “fake news.” Where Big Brother Is Watching comes from. Extremely difficult to get into.

Hajime Hinata

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck  when i read it: 10th grade did i like it? yeah content warnings: ableism, implied domestic abuse, character death, animal death, era-typical sexism (1930s) about: Very desolate and depressing novella about the futility of the American Dream to “make something of yourself”. Two farmhands, Lennie and George, arrive at a California farm seeking employment. They just want to earn enough money to open up a farm of their own - a rabbit farm - and things are all downhill from there. Well-written and one of Steinbeck’s shorter works.

Twogami

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald when i read it: 11th grade did i like it? yes! i loved it. but in the way that you love sleazy tabloid rag stories. content warnings: infidelity, car accidents, character death about: Stupidly rich people in New York in the 1920s being fake as hell. It’s about excess and decadence and the idea of having a rags-to-riches story, and it’s very homoerotic.

Teruteru Hanamura

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley when i read it: 10th grade did i like it? one of my top faves tbh content warnings: alcoholism & drug usage, thematic classism & racism (ie that’s the point), sexual themes, violence, non-graphic suicide (like literally the last sentence), character deaths about: You know how 1984 is a very pessimistic dystopia about government surveillance? Brave New World is like “what if everything was a utopia because of government interference?” It’s easier to get into than 1984. It’s about a man from the upper echelon of society discovering the dirty secret of how society is able to able to function the way it does, an outsider into his world to shake things up.

Mahiru Koizumi

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen when i read it: i dunno, summer between 9th and 10th grade maybe? did i like it? yes! i loved it. content warnings: there are a couple of guys who are sort of gross but there’s nothing that bad in it about: An upper-middle class family - more the mother than the father - trying to marry off the eldest of their five daughters. It’s largely character-driven and most of the plot focuses on Jane’s relationship with Bingley, Elizabeth’s relationship with Darcy, and the problems witch judging people based on first impressions.

Peko Pekoyama

Call of the Wild by Jack London when i read it: 9th grade did i like it? fuck no content warnings: graphic animal violence. if there’s other stuff i forgot because i fucking hated this book. about: I think it’s something like a dog getting lost in Alaska and has to learn to be a wolf in order to survive? It’s incredibly brutal and is one of those media where just reading it makes you feel cold. 

Hiyoko Saionji

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams when i read it: 10th grade did i like it? not really content warnings: man i don’t know, but it’s by Tennessee Williams so there’s probably alcoholism, daddy issues, and homophobia about: An overbearing mother embarrasses her son and disabled daughter when an old school friend comes to visit...I’m not sure if there’s more of a plot to it than that. Like most Williams works, it’s largely character-driven.

Ibuki Mioda

If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino when i read it: college did i like it? this is one of those rare exceptions in books where i read it, because i remember having a visceral reaction to it, but i can not for the life of me remember a single damn thing about it other than how stupidly difficult it was to read.  content warnings: it’s metaficiton. about: You are the protagonist. I genuinely can’t explain anymore than that.

Mikan Tsumiki

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams when i read it: 9th grade did i like it? not really, but i’d be willing to reread it content warnings: domestic abuse, rape about: Unstable Blanche DuBois goes to visit her sister, Stella, and meets her appalling husband Stanley. All Tennessee Williams plays seem to have a theme of family tragedy in them, with this being probably the most bleak example. 

Nekomaru Nidai

The Odyssey by Homer when i read it: 9th grade, then again in college for a classics class did i like it? yeah content warnings: your usual classical Greek-variety nonsense, including character death, infidelity, and partying. about: Odysseus attempts to make his way back home after the Trojan War, and has a time of it. Having pissed off Poseidon he’s gotten off-course and gotten lost another ten years, and had a whole slew of other adventures trying to make it back home and save his wife from the harassment she’s been getting since his disappearance.

Gundham Tanaka

The Tempest by William Shakespeare when i read it: 10th grade did i like it? not especially content warnings: thematic colonialism & racism...not sure what else but it’s hard as fuck to read. try reading it out loud & acting along to it. about: I didn’t totally get it but there’s something about a wizard having been banished and now people are coming back to find him for some reason? the people who exiled him & his brother & daughter have crash-landed on his island and now he might get his revenge. Thanks, TVTropes! All I remember is discussing in one class about how The Tempest managed to predict the “finding” of America and how the English would treat the native peoples. It’s a “romance”, which in that day and age meant it was about magic. Influenced some science fiction works like Brave New World (the title of which comes from a line spoken by Miranda). I should probably reread it.

Nagito Komaeda

The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger when i read it: 8th grade for fun did i like it? yeah content warnings: implied pedophilia. i’m sure there’s other stuff but i don’t remember it well enough. about: Perennial troublemaker Holden Caulfield is kicked out of boarding school, and takes a hell of a long time getting home from the place as he complains about his declining mental state, hypocrisy, and loss of innocence. It’s one of those books you either really love or really hate, and has been repeatedly challenged because Holden swears too much and might be bisexual.

Chiaki Nanami

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw when i read it: 12th grade, i think did i like it? yes content warnings: classism about: A linguistics professor makes a bet with a friend that he can take any lower-class citizen and teach them to speak formal English, well enough to pass them off as aristocracy to other rich people. It’s the plot upon which the musical My Fair Lady is based, although it was intended as a deconstruction of the kind of plot whose trope it now codifies.

Sonia Nevermind

“Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl when i read it: 10th grade did i like it? yeah! content warnings: infidelity, character death about: A guy comes home and tells his heavily pregnant wife that he’s been having an affair, and he’s leaving her. She doesn’t take it well. I won’t spoil the rest of it, as it’s a short story, but it’s fun to keep in mind that it’s be the same guy who wrote classics such as Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Kazuichi Souda

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare when i read it: 8th grade for a book report and then again in....i don’t know. i’ve had to read it a lot. did i like it? sure, it’s got some pretty great insults content warnings: men being douchebags including stalker-y behavior, and a woman falls in love with a man who has a donkey’s head (it doesn’t last) about: Hermia & Lysander are planning to run away to get married because Hermia’s father doesn’t approve of Lysander, and she’s trying to dodge the affections of Demetrius - the man to whom she has been betrothed, because he’s an ass who, among other things, slept with her friend Helena and then ditched her. Which Helena is still hung up on, even though he’s a gross creep. At the same time, a group of actors are trying to get together a play for an upcoming royal wedding, and the King of the Faeries is trying to win back his wife. This all connects because a faerie decides to fuck around.

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier when i read it: college, for an independent study did i like it? yeah content warnings: graphic violence, i think some homophobia? about: Kids and staff at a private school take a candy sale way too damn seriously. There’s basically a mafia at the school and some sort of weird popularity contest and hazing going on. 

Akane Owari

“The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell when i read it: 9th grade did i like it? i guess so content warnings: human hunting about: A man finds himself shipwrecked on an island, and is then hunted for sport. No, really.

Monomi

East of Eden by John Steinbeck when i read it: technically i’m in the middle of it right now, but that counts, right? did i like it? so far, i guess i do, but it’s mainly i care character who comes up later. couldn’t give less of a shit about adam trask, full offense content warnings: period-typical sexism & racism (set around the turn of the 20th century and published in 1952), implied pedophilia (that gets incredibly glossed over), ableism about: A combination of heavy-handed religious allegory (Steinbeck really just can’t cool it with the Cain and Abel theme naming) and family tree history. Follows the Trask family through Adam’s childhood, tumultuous relationship with his brother, even worse relationship with his wife, and horrible parenting of his children. The end (which is what the film adaptation covers) is more centered on his son Cal Trask grappling with the idea that he might be evil because of his genetics, or something. I think that’s an argument you could make of Monomi, being related to Monokuma (or at least, how i’m sure she’d feel).

[therichonnewritingnetwork]

Spirit of Confusion 

written by: charrrmed read more of @mayyoualways​ ‘s works at FFN 

The smell of their abject fear always alerted him to their presence. The odor barged into his nostrils and gave him a taste of how they’d felt that violent day outside of St. Sarah’s Church, watching as their fellow congregants succumbed to the undead, some attempting to help to their own demise and others running for their lives. He always smelled them before he saw them, and the smell always lingered after they left.

But they hadn’t left tonight. They were still roaming, and sitting in the pews, and going through the walls, and lining up for Holy Communion. Sometimes they forced him to hold mass. Those times, he truly felt like he was in hell, sermonizing to the people he had essentially killed, his voice trembling as he promised them heaven, feeling nauseous as he talked about the devil. In those times, he felt like the devil, preaching to those who were now bound to him, mocking them.

The church itself reeked of rage, fear, blood, and death. There was blood on the pews, the walls, floors, bibles, and hymn books. Inside of the bathroom once frequented by the female members of the congregation, blood flowed from Michonne’s hands and drained down the sink. She had long become numb to the sight. It didn’t repulse her, and the smell no longer made her want to retch.

Illuminated by faint candlelight, she rubbed her hands together like they were coated in soap instead of what used to be a life source. She shook her head as she cleaned her hands. “Doesn’t matter,” she muttered. “They deserved it.”

“You deserve it.”

Her stomach dropped to her feet at the familiar voice, and she spun around. A gaunt corpse lunged for her, and she screamed. She scurried around the sink to put distance between her and the walker while reaching behind her for the katana.

In the blink of an eye, the walker was gone. Vigilant, she scanned the room, heart booming in her chest.

She reached behind her with a steady hand and lifted the candle from the sink. “Hey,” she called out, voice strong.

Nothing. No walker reacting to the sound of food.

Maybe Father Gabriel was in the room. Maybe a final straggler from Terminus. Maybe a human. She crept to all four corners of the room.

Nothing. No one.

Father Gabriel’s unfortunate words echoed in her ears. This is the Lord’s house.

“It’s four walls and a roof,” Tyreese said slowly. “Now, I’m sorry, but that was disrespectful.”

“You’re thinking about that right now?” Sasha asked as they walked back from the graveyard they’d just created behind the church. Her eyes were unfocused on the light that Tyreese shined to guide their way.

“Better than thinking about the bloody church we ‘gon be sleeping in tonight. We just massacred a bunch of people in a church. That’s what we did!”

“I have a headache, Ty. I don’t care. No, I’m not looking forward to this, not the smell, not seeing it, not cleaning it. Goddamn, why does everything have to be so hard? Can’t we ever run into a fucking hotel? What’s the W lookin’ like?”

Tyreese snorted then openly laughed. Sasha started laughing as well, her shoulders shaking. Laughing made her feel even more tired, however. She had so little energy left for the rest of the night.

They fell into a contemplative silence, only interrupted by the leaves and sticks crunching under their feet.

“You still pray?” Sasha asked with a curious glance.

“Of course,” Tyreese answered.

“Of course,” she mocked. “None of this has shaken your faith, not even a little?”

Tyreese had an answer for that, but he waited a beat before sharing it. “When Karen died.”

Sasha stopped walking and faced him.

“When we got close…” he shrugged. “It made me feel like God still made good things happen, the small things, you know? Clearly, fixing this shit is gonna be on us. We probably caused it, you know? When I realized she’d been killed, and how she was killed, man, I didn’t want anything to do with that: God, faith, belief, none of it. I felt like if something was gonna happen, if she was gonna get justice, then it was up to me. Things weren’t just gonna happen.”

Karen’s burnt corpse was one that he still couldn’t shake from his memory. He still had nightmares about it. He still despised Carol. More than anything, he despised that he wasn’t capable of matching Carol’s savagery. He’d plotted to get back at her after his fight with Rick, but his conscious had gotten in the way.

“I’m really sorry,” Sasha said.

He regarded his younger sister carefully and then asked, “Did you enjoy what you had with Bob?”

“Uh, I don’t wanna talk about that,” Sasha answered. She resumed walking to discourage further conversation about Bob.

“I’m just saying: all you can do is enjoy the present for what it is,” Tyreese said as he followed after her.

“I said stop,” Sasha commanded, an edge in her tired voice. “I had it right the first time. I shouldn’t have bothered, shouldn’t have…cared. And now he’s…fucking dying. I prayed after we lost the prison,” she shared, stopping again. “I did, for the first time in a long time, because I wanted you to be okay. Even if I never saw you again for the rest of my life. I wanted you to be okay. And now I’m…back at square one.”

She wanted to feel nothing about Bob dying. At this exact moment, she hated his passivity. Because he was still in a good mood. Even though his hours were numbered.

She stared at the outline of the small church against the night sky. This would be Bob’s final resting place. Him and the Terminus savages. Did he care that he wasn’t going to be buried among illustrious company?

Probably not. He was probably just happy that he had made it this far.

Suddenly, she wondered how she would feel when it was her time to go. She wondered if she even wanted time to think about it or would quick and dirty be best?

Rather than contemplate further, she chose to address Tyreese’s reaction to the dismissive comment that Maggie had made earlier. “You know White folks tend not to be religious,” she said as she stared at the cross.

“Actually, my daddy was very religious.”

Tyreese yelled as he spun to shine the light on the newcomer.

Sasha whirled around and raised the bloody dagger in her fist. “Shit!” she cursed between clenched teeth. Her eyes flitted down to make sure that Maggie’s feet were actually touching the ground, because she had not heard anyone walking behind them.

“He always made sure we were in Sunday school,” Maggie said stoically. Her eyes drifted up to the steeple.

“Hey, we didn’t mean---” Tyreese began.

Maggie slowly lowered her eyes to him. She walked around the pair and continued to the church.

Sasha focused on Maggie’s feet. Her eyes widened. 

It was a calm night, for all intents and purposes. Hands on his hips, Rick stared at the trees that stood like some kind of barricade for the church. He could only make out the ones that were immediately in front of him. It was so dark that if someone were taking aim at him right now, he would have no idea.

The thought made his stomach quiver in fear. He had come to despise the darkness. Darkness meant cover for people who wished him and his family harm. Like Gareth and his people.

Why do it, he wondered? Why seek them out for a fight? Why not just gather their broken pieces and rebuild somewhere else? That was what his group was striving to do.

His group was made of a few, but it was mighty. They’d decimated an entire community in a matter of minutes. He was beyond proud of that.

He couldn’t pinpoint what would make Gareth and his team seek them out. Revenge? Arrogance?

Every possible motivation seemed stupid to him. Gareth’s group had lost despite the many weapons that had been at their disposable.

The leaves in the trees rustled, and his stomach clenched again.

What a strange place to build a church. For the first time, it occurred to him that there was no parking lot. How far away had people parked to come here? Then again, it was still entirely possible that Father Gabriel was a fraud. Maybe he’d found this place after the fall. Maybe his cassock and clerical collar were costumes.

Maybe the real Father was buried on these grounds.

“Rick,” Michonne called as she touched his shoulder.

The hairs on the back of Rick’s neck stood sharply on end, and he spun around and grabbed her wrist in defense, his heart racing.

His sudden movement made Michonne gasp. “Goddamn it!” she exclaimed as she tried to twist her hand out of his vice grip. It was to no avail.

Rick let her go. “You scared the hell out of me,” he said. He began walking back and forth to disperse the rush of adrenaline.

“You scared me! Damn it, that’s what I’m trying to get away from,” Michonne said, frowning and indignant that he’d startled her when she was the one who’d walked up on him.

“I didn’t hear you coming.” Then he realized what she’d said. “Why are you scared?” he asked, his eyes cutting sharply at the church, his thoughts on Father Gabriel.

“I don’t know,” Michonne said as she rubbed her arms, trying to get rid of the goosebumps. “It just got…strange in there. I…” She sighed. “I’m pretty sure I saw a walker in the bathroom, but…there was nothing there.”

“We just need more candles and flashlights in there,” Rick surmised. Ceasing his pacing, he refocused his attention on the trees, hoping no one was lurking among them.

Michonne watched him closely. Really, she was debating whether she should tell him all that had happened in the bathroom, about the voice she’d heard.

Rick looked at her, and she quickly looked away. Rick frowned. “You alright?”

Michonne inhaled, staring into the distance herself. After the screams inside of the church earlier, things felt too quiet now. “Why are you out here?” she asked suddenly.

Rick frowned again. “I was burying some of the bodies, and then…I just wanted to be out.”

Michonne lifted one of his hands. She could barely see it, but she did see clumps of something. She felt it, too. Blood and dirt. “Wash your hands,” she said. “Maybe you’ll have better luck than I did.”

Her hands looked clean to Rick, so he wasn’t sure what she was alluding to.

Michonne blew out a breath as she looked at the trees. Slowly but surely, her stomach began to tighten. She started to feel like she was waiting for something to happen. Something was coming. She wasn’t sure what. It was as if the land itself was holding its breath.

“Do think there’s anyone out there?” she asked.

Rick shook his head. “We swept the area. There shouldn’t be.”

Michonne looked at him. “But you’re not sure.”

“I…I was more sure before I came out here.”

“Should we do another sweep?”

“Maybe.”

A cool breeze flirted by, rustling the trees, and Michonne felt a strong urge to hide behind Rick, so strong that she took a step back.

Rick looked her way.

“What?” she asked.

“You tell me,” he said as he angled his body to face her. “You…honestly…you’re making me uncomfortable.”

“I’m making you uncomfortable?”

Rick tilted his head. Something felt off. Their communication was off, which felt…uncomfortable. He felt like something was going unsaid. Something was dangling between them. He realized then that even in times when they weren’t on the same page, when they had different approaches to a problem, they always knew what the other was saying.

In this moment, he didn’t know what she was saying. He hadn’t since she’d stepped out. He looked beyond her to the church.

Michonne raised her shoulder to ward off a sudden chill. Now, she wanted to move closer to Rick. She wanted his warmth. He looked like he would be very warm, very comfortable, a giver of good hugs.

Rick looked at her again, and her heart dropped, overpowered by dread.

“I hate the way you’re looking at me,” she said.

Rick didn’t blink. However, of all of the things he’d fantasized about her saying to him that one was not on the list. “Sorry,” he said.

She wanted to say that it wasn’t him. She didn’t know why she felt that was true.

Rick looked at the church again.

“Hey, can you…can you stop doing that?” Michonne asked.

“What?” he asked as he focused on her.

“Looking behind me.”

Rick smiled. “You hate the way I look at you. But I can’t look behind you. Should I look at the front?” he asked, pointing at the trees.

Unfamiliar sadness slowly crept up on Michonne and hugged her from behind. Rick pointing out her contradiction made her feel silly, low, like he didn’t think much of her.

She walked forward and hugged him, tying her arms around his waist and resting her head on his shoulder. She closed her eyes and tried to feel something familiar. She was always so sure when she spoke to Rick. His presence usually made her feel good. Now, there was a disconnect that she could not pinpoint. It made her feel alone, even as she hugged him.

Sadness made more room for itself, extending to envelop Rick and downplay Michonne’s contact. Instead of the comfort that Rick always imagined when he fantasized about hugging Michonne, he felt the urge to cry, confused about what she was doing. He closed his arms around her back. He registered her small frame, but he couldn’t find the comfort. He pressed his head against hers, searching for it to no avail. It made him sadder.

“I heard a voice,” Michonne said, her voice small like Rick had never heard before.

“A voice?”

“Yeah. I heard Mike, my ex-boyfriend,” she explained as she straightened to look at him, her arms still around his waist, his still around her back.

“Why?”

“I don’t know. I’m sure I heard him, but…the walker I saw was a woman. She was wearing a dress. And then she wasn’t there.”

“Tell me you’re not losing it,” he said as he pulled her in flush against his body, protective.

“I don’t know.” Michonne turned her head back to look at the church. “It looked different”

“The walker?”

“Yeah.” Turning to Rick, her face slack, she asked, “Do you believe in ghosts?”

“Ghosts?” Father Gabriel asked from the small attic of St. Sarah’s Church. “You don’t honestly believe in ghosts, do you?”

He was leaning against the wall and staring out of the window, at Rick and Michonne. Rick’s mouth moved only when his mouth moved. He wanted to flee but he was unable. Tonight, he was in hell. The spirits were going off script. He had been ready to sacrifice Rick’s group to them, like always. But then Gareth’s group had arrived. He didn’t yet know whether or not this month’s due had been paid.

Next to him stood the woman from the bathroom. She swayed as she watched Rick and Michonne, her long dress swishing around her gnarled ankles. She was enjoying the opportunity to move again, to feel again, taking up space between Rick and Michonne, unevenly weaving in and out.

Father Gabriel’s mouth moved only when her mouth moved.

Never miss a post! Follow Us, @therichonnewritingnetwork for new Richonne Fanfiction Treats! 

[nerdylittleshit]

Thoughts about Spn 13x18

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

This week on “how much plot can we cram into 40 minutes of television?” – the answer might surprise you. And look, there was a lot that I liked about this episode, but there was enough going on for at least two episodes. I especially felt that the Lucifer storyline was completely unnecessary and weirdly unconnected to the rest of the episode. And in general mytharc-episodes are always more plot-driven than motw-episodes, but ever since BuckLemming write the majority of the mytharc-episodes it is hard to keep track of everything. But as usual, let’s take a closer look.

A woman’s place is in the resistance

Ok, here we go:

CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARLIE!!!!!!!!!

I mean really, ever since the moment they introduced multiple universe we were all waiting for this particular character to come back (and Eileen, just saying). And in season fan fiction, where they bring back ALL the characters, nothing is impossible. Which is kind of the problem. I mean I am thrilled to see Charlie again, even though I feel conflicted that the writers who killed her in the first place brought her back. But starting with 12x23 we have now a pretty long list of characters they brought back: Bobby, Cas, Ketch, Rowena, Kevin, Gabriel and now Charlie. And even though Supernatural is known for bringing dead characters back they usually do it in form of flashbacks or as ghosts. And just as character deaths should have a purpose other than being a motivator for the brothers to get revenge/go to a dark place, the “resurrection” of a dead character should be more than just fan service. Death in fiction should be meaningful, and by bringing a dead character back you risk to take this meaning away. I feel that especially true for Gabriel’s return, because his death was meaningful, he did sacrifice himself for humanity, it was a perfect ending for his arc, and 9x18 left it entirely open if he was still alive or not. By now though it seems however like we get a repetition of season 5 where Gabriel refuses to help, only to (hopefully) return in the last moment.

In general I think instead of killing off characters especially as a plot device and then bringing them back later as fan service they should let their characters live, to give them time to grow and to develop, giving them a life and purpose of their own, the way they did with Jody, because in the end it makes a better story.

But going back to Charlie. I had hope for a minute it might be our Charlie who thanks to Oz magic transported herself in another universe. However the fact that this is a different Charlie makes me think she will stay in her universe, trying to rebuild it, but at the same time it gives Dean some closure that he could save another version of his friend. In general the idea of meeting AU-characters is interesting, as we know that they never met the Winchesters, and we only know those characters through the Winchesters. They are different but also in some ways the same, because they had lives of their own. Bobby is still a hunter, because he was one long before he met his boys. Charlie still fights the good fight, because she had already been doing this in our world (as a hacker, but still once exposed to the world of the Supernatural she becomes a hunter in every universe). The biggest difference is then Kevin, who of course is still a prophet, but without the Winchesters to take care of him, falls into the arms of angels, and helps them, having no real choice left.

Ketch was right in assuming that Charlie broke Dean’s heart, though in a different way. It is also interesting that refers to her death as being butchered (at least BuckLemming are self-aware) just as she is about to get butchered again. It is a really messed up situation between Dean and Charlie, because he is projecting his feelings for the Charlie he knew on this basically stranger. He is afraid to lose her again, but AU-Charlie is right in telling him that this is not his call.

Also speaking of her name, I was surprised she still went by “Charlie Bradbury” in the other universe, as this was only one of her many aliases. Sam & Dean stuck with it, because she happened to use that name when they first met, and I think at some point Charlie adopted that name because she saw Sam & Dean as her family. But why AU-Charlie? Why no other alias? Why not Celeste? And why did ask Sam “Charlie Bradbury”? How many Charlies do you know, Sam?

You had me at “impossible & stupid”

I admit I was the biggest fan of bringing back Ketch, but I did enjoy his story in the last two episodes (and I like seeing David Haydn Jones). The only way to bring him back and to make sense is to give him a redemption arc, which is exactly what they are doing, and I expect him to sacrifice himself for either Charlie or Mary. Now that the BMoL no longer exists (I think) he has no more purpose and no more duty to hide behind. He has to face his choices and the consequences and he feels regret. Because as he told Asmodeus he still has a soul. And unlike Dean he likes to be prepared when he goes in an unknown area, which honestly is the better plan. Because every plan is better than no plan. Having Ketch on the other side is a tactical advantage (unless Mary kills him again, which I wouldn’t blame her for).

We also learned a bit more about the other universe. Because as the angels talked about crimes against the archangel Michael I wondered how the humans outside of the resistance live. I imagine a lot of them were forced to become vessels and the rest are slaves. Fun times.

Speaking of fun times…

Hookers Porn stars & Monte Carlo

I’m not sure how to feel about Lucifer. I always found the characters to be interesting, but I could never get behind Sabriel, because to me Gabriel’s behaviour towards was always abusive. The way they ended his story though was perfect. They gave him a redemption arc in the way Supernatural knows it best, by sacrificing himself for the greater good. This is the reason I wasn’t as thrilled as others when they brought him back, because learning that he faked his death all along takes away the meaning. Yes he helped, but unlike Sam, Dean and Cas he was not willing to risk anything for it and returned to his old life of being not involved. That doesn’t mean he deserved what happened to him, but it takes away his character development. As seen by the end of the episode where he again chooses not to help, knowing that the next apocalypse is waiting to happen. This time however his abuse plays a bigger part in refusing to help. If he does change his mind in the last minute however it will be just a repetition of season 5, as a mentioned, so I hope they do anything but that. Still, right know only Gabriel and Ketch know about the archangel blade, and with both Lucifer and Michael as a threat it would a shame not to use it again.

People have already discussed about Sam’s “I need you” towards Gabriel, a big parallel to 8x17. Both times the angels are under someone else’s control: Cas was under Naomi’s control, Gabriel is still haunted by Asmodeus. Both times the “I need you” breaks them free. Both angels however leave in the end, though Gabriel only to protect himself, whereas Cas wanted to protect the angel tablet.

I think Sam’s “I need you” comes from a different place, and that is simply because Sam has no problem to distinguish between “we” and “I”. Dean hides his own emotions behind a “we”; admitting to Cas that he personally needed him was a huge step. Sam however is not afraid to express his own emotions.

In the end they took a risk with using Gabriel’s grace to heal him instead of holding it back to open the rift again. From a moral point it did belong to him anyway and they shouldn’t have used it without his permission. I do get Dean’s anger however. As I don’t think that Gabe will give some of his grace willingly I wonder if they make him to an antagonist towards the Winchesters now.

Also, goodbye Asmodeus. You won’t be missed.

The storyline I honestly couldn’t care less about

The only good thing about the Lucifer storyline was seeing Anael aka Danneel giving him shit and calling him a failure. I don’t think we learned anything new about Lucifer here. He is not his father and he never will be. He neither was the powers (to create) nor does he care about ruling heaven and humanity (what was it with the exorcism scene???). He only wants to be worshiped, not loved, the way people did when he used Vince as a vessel.

He is still powerful enough to threat other angels (and to kill them I suppose) but once they learn he made empty promises they will turn on him. I would love to see Anael as a new ruler over heaven, however I don’t think Danneel has the time to take a bigger role.

Next week however we will see what Rowena is up to and Billie returns. The same Billie who warned Dean not to cross over to other universes, which he didn’t tell Sam. Should be interesting.

[ravencromwell]

Thoughts on the Wolf 359 Season 1 Finale

All you folks who followed me in hopes of Wolf 359 meta and who're probably wondering if I've forgotten y'all: fear not. I liked doing ep recaps, and y'all seemed to enjoy perusing my musings, so have my thoughts on the S1 finale, Deep Breaths and Gas Me Twice.

If the other eps won me over on a narrative and structural level, this one's greatest strength is its message. The narrative and structure are fucking fabulous, don't get me wrong, and I'll ramble about them to embarrassing length momentarily, but I finally know what the beating heart of this show is. There were a lot of contenders up to this point: would it be humans vs. aliens? or humans vs. the inhospitable environs of space? or even humans vs. humans? But no: if this episode is anything to go by, it's humans vs. their worst selves, with a splash of humans vs. other humans. And to facilitate this sort of plot successfully, there has to be tremendous emphasis placed on what makes one human n: the creators have to have a fundamental understanding of the quality they think is uppermost in defining "humanity" from other animals, so they can set up folks grappling with and succeeding at achieving whatever it may be.

And the ringing shout at the core of this episode and I hope the core of this podcast is empathy. Not some sort of in-born empathy, but the choice over and over to walk in other people's shoes and to let that define our choices. Hera and Hilbert are set up as brilliant foils: and Hilbert, despite being blessed with all the intelligence that is supposed to make him human, being hampered by none of Hera's limitations--that we're aware of anyway--chooses again and again to remain tied to a code of conduct and a mission no one forces him to maintain, while she always chooses to reach out and help. And it's that choice that saves them all.

[spoilers beneath the cut]

But let's back up a bit, and ponder Doug for a sec before we dive into the darkness that's the last half of this finale. We're starting to see so many of Doug's flaws now, as well as his strengths. I'd say that one of the greatest flaws is that only in adversity do we see that strength. When left to his own devices, he crafts nonsense--if utterly hilarious--hijinks, like attempting to smoke a damn cigarette with an oxygen mask so as not to explode the ship. (Doug, seriously honey, just don't smoke 'till you're home! It's not like they didn't warn you there would be a limit to the luxuries you're accustomed to when you're in the middle of deep space ffs) He more and more strikes me as one of those really smart people who desperately needs external motivation, a really strong support network that can gently redirect his potential, to achieve things. But I'm also starting to wonder if he knows and doesn't much like this about himself. After all, he's the guy who no one remembers the birthday of. Admittedly, it is on Christmas, which does give folks some excuse, but it paints a portrait of someone always kinda buzzing around the fringes of circles, maybe irritating folks a bit, but never really getting close enough to matter enough to be remembered. He's really surprisingly touched when Hera remembers, like all the griping at the beginning of the episode was entirely genuine, if melodramatic in typical brilliant Doug style.

The way Doug uses humor as a defense mechanism is also really coming into focus in these one. The "Gas me once, shame on you. Gas me twice...well, still shame on you. But I'm not fooled" line springs immediately to mind. This's a man they've spent over five hundred days with, who's just utterly betrayed them, and his default response is dry as bone snarck. It forces you to examine some of his melodrama from things like Little Revolución. Was he actually more hurt that Minkowski and Hilbert made such a good team? That every time he thought he and Minkowski might be united in some small thing, she and Hilbert showed that they too were united and he was on the outside? And no wonder he feels such an affinity for Hera: also the outsider, sniped at by Minkowski and dismissed by Hilbert. He treats her the way he wants to be treated: which isn't entirely the correct way to treat her because she is right. There is a chasm between them, and it needs to be acknowledged. But it's a better way than Minkowski or Hilbert, and it calls to something in her, as we see here.

I know from the last couple points, it may seem like I don't like Doug. Which couldn't be further from the truth! I like him a lot, as much because of the flaws we're seeing revealed as anything else. Because if he can transcend those flaws, he has the potential to become something extraordinary. For all his silliness and insecurity, he brims with empathy and I adore him for it. The way he flirts! actually omg flirts with Hera, uses humor to reach out and bridge that chasm, to say see I see you; I believe in you. is one of the most powerful moments in the episodes. And when he tells her that she's smarter and stronger than Hilbert could ever believe: I wonder how much that's him telling her what he wishes someone had told him? This is a man after all who wanted to go on a deeply dangerous mission for years on end that's light-years away from Earth; still waters run deep.

Hilbert simultaneously infuriates and intrigues me. We get that marvelous soliloquy about the fear of being alone and what it signifies about the great unknown in ep 11. We have such intelligence! in this ep--like I was really on the verge of liking him merely because he was so damn quick and clever at figuring out that there was no way the music could be coming from Earth. And there was an odd gentleness in Extreme Danger Bug, when he was telling Doug to be still and that he would be right back. He wasn't just calm, which I might have expected on the theory that remaining calm keeps your patient calm; he was actively gentle Ok admittedly, his admission that he *thought* the antivenom would work was shitty bedside manner. But there was something that prompted him to be kind in that moment. So he can be oddly poetic, he's intelligent as hell, and he clearly has the ability to feel empathy. And yet, he actively chooses to betray these people he's been with for nearly two years! with no outside prompting! And yet. And yet there's something almost regretful when he says that Hera is gone--despite that he was the one that ripped her to shreds (I wanted to reach through the screen and throttle the bastard for that). He doesn't monologue at them after he takes over; he's immediately all business. There's no triumph in this coup, no personal vendetta being fulfilled. It's almost like it's a logical step, a necessary part of a formula or equation or something. And there's something almost...quietly wry in his question to Minkowski about whether it would change anything. Like he's almost regretful or tired. This's why I keep snagging on the idea that it's humans against their better selves that's part of what this show wants to explore. Because he knows what he's doing is wrong! and it's going to be fascinating to see if there're ever any mitigating circumstances or if he ever comes to regret his choices.

Going back to monologuing for a minute, I love how this show subverts tropes left and right. It's not the villain who foolishly monologues and gives away their advantage, but the hero. I was screaming at the monitor for a minute straight begging Doug to pls pls for the love of God shut up you're talking to a really brilliant scientist wtf are you doing! And his arrogance, or generously overconfidence, had horrific consequences. And yet, in another thing that made me utterly adore him, there was no great swearing of revenge, no shouting that it was unfair. Just a deep, exhausted realization that he'd fucked up, that they'd lost so much and their world was irreversibly altered.

The way show is utterly fearless in playing with your expectations still takes my breath away. The way it opens with Minkowski being so happy about preparing Christmas dinner--about trying to bring this mismatched crew together in something, stubborn and fiercely determined even when she has to know it won't go well. It makes you think that the first part of the episode will end happily. That they'll all be sitting around, eating dinner, bonded into something like a family by the extraordinary thing they've just done together--discovering first life outside of Earth is a hell of a present after all. You expect there to be governmental complications, of course, but you expect the core team to be all right. The way that rug is utterly jerked from beneath you, and the tension never really abates is masterful. Always before, our crew's been battered at the end of eps, exhausted or angry, but Doug's always found some humorous closing, even if it were melodramatic as hell. There's no humor at the end of this, just uncertainty about their next moves and about Hera, just two people clinging together. And that gradual tonal shift Gabriel's been enacting all season is finally complete. We've shifted into another gear, and he's weaned us a little more off what the show originally was and prepared us for what I'm hoping it'll become.

And in the vein of plot: the Hilbert reveal was Barr none, the most masterful reveal of its kind I've ever seen. There's always this niggling question with most reveals: but how could they not have noticed? But we get that answered, over and over. They do *notice* They notice that the physicals are out of the ordinary; Doug even suspects that Hilbert's doing something to him with the cigarette candy! But even the audience is convinced that Doug is an unreliable narrator there, that Hilbert is fundamentally a good person if a shitty doctor. And he keeps saying that he's not a doctor, but a scientist. So we put all his irregularities down to that. And having been fooled as the audience, we understand on a gut level how the characters could be fooled, would just shrug off what they saw as odd.

This episode feels like...the easiest metaphor would be a Chinese puzzle box, but that's not quite right. It feels like a wide-panning camera shot, wherein we finally see a full glimpse of the canvas. And it's as utterly terrifying as those moments when we finally see glimpses of the beasts we've only seen in profile in a horror film. Command actively wanted Doug and Minkowski dead. They actively wanted Hilbert in control, and the question, the terrifying, overarching question is why. And what will they do when they realize they've failed? It was terrifying enough to think of these people dealing with first contact with the full support of command, but with a hostile command, and a mutiny....yeah, I'm so, so ready for season 2. And in closing, I'm amazed and delighted that while weaving together so many lose threads, they managed to make Minkowski's obsession with the space manual from EP 1 important. I love Minkowski so. so much, with her need for order, and her obsession with obscure protocol that saves their asses every. single. time.

[ramblesofadreamerofthestars]

Therapy? In The Final Season of  The 100??

It’s more likely then any of us ever thought??????

Spoilers of course for the 100 7.07

Dr. Eric Jackson said “is anyone going to treat Literally Everyone for the trauma we go through” and had to wait seven seasons before giving up and doing it himself. I fucking love him and I Adore that Madi is getting therapy and that they are CONFRONTING WHAT HAPPENED TO A LITERAL CHILD. Jax read one (1) psychology book and decided he was now a licensed therapist and you know what? good for him. 

Someone....let me at Madi’s wardrobe. Babe looks like she rolled up fresh out of Amity from the Divergent movies and like...killing it but What was the inspiration. I am So Happy she gets to play soccer and have therapy sessions and just be a regular kid for what is apparently, the first time in her entire life. I Miss her and Clarke and i wish Clarke was here to see Madi starting to flourish because that dynamic has been pushed So Far to the side this season and I just miss them. I Love that they finally addressed how fucked up it was putting the flame in Madi’s head i seriously love love love it. yes it was necessary but it was also extremely traumatic and not something a child should have to go through and I’m so happy they talked about it (for at least a moment anyway)

Lindsey Morgan and her team said You get to deal with trauma, and you get to deal with trauma, and you - . No but for real, I was pleasantly surprised with the things that got addressed this episode- The flame, Octavia beating up Bellamy, the beginning of Becho. Not as good as Bardo lore but we take what we can get.

(Also shout out to Ms. Morgan for an incredible directorial debut, what a talented queen) 

I Loved Octavia saying outright how fucked up it was that she beat up her brother It’s been 84 years too many seasons of waiting for it, her growth this season? Incredible. That being said, literally What The Fuck was that comforting scene between her and Echo I’m. “You’re my family too” bitch Where. I understand Octavia trying to comfort someone she knows her brother cares for, and I know that Octavia saw how lost and angry Echo was, and this is just my own thoughts but probably recognized something in Echo that was reminiscent of her when she lost Lincoln, at least in her eyes, but it came out of no where?? These two have Never had a good relationship and while part of it is obviously Octavia’s growth the scene felt a little stilted. 

So. Echo. First thing right off the bat (as always, this should literally be the expectation but for the people in the back) THE ACTORS ARE NOT THEIR CHARACTERS, THEY ARE REAL PEOPLE, AND PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GODS LEARN TO SEPARATE THE TWO. I have so much respect for all the actors and crew who are trying their absolute best and making this show something I look forward to watching.

I had Such high hopes for Echo. And honestly the tiny little rat part of my brain that never lets things go still wants to hope for a satisfying end to the spy’s story. I Want her to reach a point where she can look at herself with clear eyes, and come through to the other side. I Want her to have happy ending where she understands that though loyalty is admirable, there has to be more in your life, that you cannot dedicate yourself to one person entirely. The realistic part of my brain that has watched this fucking show for years knows better. Tasya Teles is doing an excellent job of Echo’s continuing downward spiral, 10/10 choices. But all the lighting and framing and crazy intense gaze do Not bode well for Echo’s sanity and her carving the Azgeda marks into her face was I think the point of “no return”. Which makes me sad, to see this end for the character, but it is a path I can see Echo going down, as much as it sucks.

“We got shaved Bellamy but at what cost” makes me cackle but honestly, I liked the Ring flashback. Setting aside how late it is to be Doing ring flashbacks, I think it was a Very interesting look at Becho. Echo on the ring is so cute sorry not sorry, like I Love seeing that girl happy. Her and Bellamy’s little banter reminded me of their earliest dynamic which I enjoyed seeing because I do think those characters have an interesting relationship. Also, Bellamy using his own experiences of the dangers of blind loyalty to try and help Echo, love to see it but her “it’s not real” right before he kissed her...the implications. They knew what they were doing and I think it was a needed perspective into their relationship because we have barely anything except for people saying things about it which is Not The Same Thing.

Moving On! HOLY SHIT Y’ALL HOPE AND DIYOZA I FUCKING LOVE THEM THE ACTRESSES WERE INCREDIBLE, THE DYNAMIC WAS AMAZING, BEST STORYLINE OF THE  EPISODE BY FAR. I seriously just Loved watching their scenes, their relationship is So Good and I loved them trying to figure out the new dynamics they have to work through and the way they don’t really know how to act around each other in the beginning but at their core they’re still mother and daughter and Hope’s broken “they took my mommy” almost had me in tears seriously These Two Y’all. 

Hope thinks of Dev as her father...I’m soft :’)

I’m tired of Nikki. That’s literally all I want to say about her this episode like I’m so tired of the Sanctum storylines and I just do Not care about her little revenge plot. Nelson joining her side is stupid but he was in a very emotional place at the moment so I Guess. 

Emori tried So Hard to make things better on Sanctum and I want to give her all the things it’s what she deserves what a queen. (Luisa d’Oliveira an actual goddess I’m so happy she got a chance to shine this episode). Memori consistently being cute and domestic af love that for them, seriously these two fit so well together “ besides, you’ve been worshiping me for years” when I tell y’all I screamed. Also I’m not like, super convinced about the Emori is pregnant theory and don’t really know how I feel about it but “maybe it’s the palace life giving you that glow” was a...weird choice of words. 

Sheihedea shut up forever challenge. Seriously why does anyone let him speak?? The bitch is so dramatic when he starts going on his “I can give you want you want” speech just walk away from him?? Like what’s the bitch going to do start yelling after you?? And let everyone know how desperate he is to get people on his side and also that he only has one real strategy of getting people on his side?? I think the fuck not. Honestly though, he has one (1) method of getting people on his side and it’s psychoanalyzing them while they play chess which goes on ForEVER btw (like this post w h o o p s) i’m so tired of him. Murphy calling him on his misogyny was certainly a highlight of the episode though, good for him.

And Finally, that ending though. Wow I’m super shocked that the shepard is Bill Cadogan. What a surprise. Never saw it coming. I thin the ‘plot twist’ still worked ish mostly because everyone fucking forgot about his existence but idk it was what I expected and I just Don’t Care? You have crystal giants outside and you want me to care about some musty ass white man who’s been in the freezer for thousands of years?  

I genuinely thought (because I’m a dumbass) for half a second that the old dude in the freezer coffin was Bellamy because I though Anders was going to do some dramatic reveal of where he was stashing our king and the rage I felt in that split second when I thought they really had the audacity to do that. But no it was just Another Plot we get to explore :)))))

ALRIGHT CLOWNS YOU MADE IT TO THE END SO. HOW ABOUT THAT BELLARKE CRUMB WE GOT. Can’t believe I Still can’t retire my clown makeup, please just Give Them A Break. Ms. Morgan really did that though, the framing close up of Clarke, the Bellarke theme in the background, all the other characters looking right at Clarke as she breaks on the inside ( and holy shit kudos to Ms. Eliza Jane for that scene, the sheer heartbreak and almost feral desperation in one expression was Everything). I know I said I love parallel’s and who does parallels better then them but I feel like the “they do this every year” audio, just let them be together for more then Five minutes without some new crisis blease. 

Next episode will be a prequel (?) set up (?) which will be...interesting. Going to be real honest I don’t really care about the premise but Becca scenes are always a plus. More of the Diyoza women please, Clarke and Octavia deserve to have a (better) moment grieving over Bellamy together thanks, let Miller say more lines, and p l e a s e let Bellamy and Clarke be on screen together soon I miss them. 

Friendship ended with Gabriel now Levitt is my only friend

[buffster]

Pangs (BTVS 4.08)

This is part of my ongoing Buffyverse Project, where I write notes/meta for every episode in an attempt to better understand the characters and themes of the shows. You can find the BTVS list here and the ATS list here. Gifs are not mine.

I ended up watching Pangs twice because there was a lot to digest. It was a good episode for many reasons--Angel lurking, Spike joining the gang for the first time, Thanksgiving--but also an uncomfortable one because of the racial issues. Let’s just say this straight off: if you don’t have any POC in your main cast, you probably shouldn’t make the villains POC or attempt to have conversations about race. As far as some of the more intricate issues within the episode, I don’t claim to be an expert. So if you have some thoughts on the issue feel free to reblog and add them. 

Giles: It's not fair. You know that's what she'd say. You can see her and she can't see you.

Angel: Believe me, I'm not getting the good half of the deal. To be outside, looking in at what I can't... I'd forgotten how bad it feels.

Buffy has a couple of relationships throughout BTVS, but Angel and Spike are the only ones we see her be physically aware of and really have a connection to. There are multiple scenes in Pangs where she’s off her game because she feels something...and that something is Angel, lurking in the shadows watching her. I know the plot required he not reunite with Buffy in order to entice viewers to Angel, but it’s in character. This guy loves to lurk and avoid difficult emotional conversations. He does have a point about their interactions, though...both of them are an emotional mess in I Will Remember You. 

Xander finally gets a dignified job as a construction worker and Anya is loving it. My policy is to live and let live when it comes to headcanons, but personally I think Anya is about as straight as they come. She’s all about the rippling man bod (and, as some have pointed out, she’d probably mostly date women if she was attracted to them at all). 

Xander’s first project is a new cultural center for UC Sunnydale, which is where we get our plot. He falls into a pit and awakens the spirit of a Chumash warrior. The warrior then infects him with multiple diseases because that’s what happened to his people. One of the diseases is syphilis, which is where we get the “his penis got diseases from a Chumash tribe” line in OMWF. 

Willow: Thanksgiving isn't about blending cultures, it's about one culture wiping out another. Then they make animated specials about the parts with the maize and the big big belt buckles. They don't show you the next scene where all the bison die and Squanto takes a musket ball in the stomach.

The most emotionally affected is Willow, who has inherited her concern for indigenous peoples from her mother. Ironic that Shiela refuses to participate in certain holidays for concern of others but can’t pay attention to her own daughter. She’s bad at personal relationships but very firm in her beliefs and ideas. Willow is fighting to make some kind of peace with Hus throughout the episode while Giles is firmly for taking him down (as the one with diseases, Xander is on Giles’ side). This is one of the first times we see Giles and Willow start to clash and her begin to question his authority and wisdom. 

Buffy: The thing is, I like my evil like my men: evil. You know, straight up, black hat, tie you to the railroad tracks, soon my electro ray will destroy metropolis BAD. Not all mixed up with guilt and the destruction of an indigenous culture.

I can’t really explain why, but I love when characters/the narrative acknowledges something the audience has noticed (i.e. Buffy’s interest in evil guys). Although it is a little out of place here because she hasn’t had anything with Spike yet. I don’t think we can say she’s into the dark side until it becomes a pattern, and at this point it had not. Anyway, they all go back and forth throughout the episode about what to do with Hus. Giles thinks it’s too late to do anything. I like the “Vengeance is never sated, Buffy. Hatred is a cycle...all he will do is kill” line. I also believe, as the famous quote says, ‘Hate does not drive out hate. Only love can do that.’ No matter how many times Hus takes revenge he will probably remain angry. (( Since this is Tumblr, I’ll over explain so as not to be willfully misinterpreted: I’m not saying fighting back is never the answer. Just that getting revenge is never going to make your bad feelings go away. It might make other changes, but I think hatred and anger just grow. ))

We start to see some clash between Xander and Anya because he blurts out “you don’t talk to vengeance demons. You kill them.” He prefers to ignore Anya’s past misdeeds and I don’t think he ever really reconciles them. As long as Xander didn’t see you commit evil he’s content to ignore it.

Giles: Tell me again why we're not doing this at your house.

Buffy: Giles, if you want to get by in American society you have to learn our traditions. You're the patriarch. You have to host the festivities or it's all meaningless.

Giles: And this is in no way an elaborate scheme to stick me with the clean up.

Buffy is feeling lonely and particularly protective of Thanksgiving. She’s upset her mother won’t be doing it as usual and says “everything is changing”. But she “smells a turkey and (I’m) eight years old” so she’s hoping she can keep the spirit alive herself. Buffy really is about growing up and we see Buffy move farther and farther away from childhood comforts as time goes on. Her obsession with Thanksgiving this year is her attempt to cling to the past. While Giles and Willow worry about Hus, Buffy mixes ingredients and worries about all the little cooking details. 

Buffy invites Riley but he has his own plans in Iowa.

Riley: My folks are there. We always do Thanksgiving at my grandparents farm. Little place just outside Huxley. Corn and pigs.

Buffy: That sounds wonderful.

Riley: It is. After dinner, we all go for a walk down by the river with the dogs. And there's... trees, and I know what you're thinking, it's like I grew up in a Grant Wood painting.

I know Riley doesn’t exactly fit with our band of outcasts, but that’s not necessarily a bad point for his and Buffy’s relationship. Since Buffy doesn’t have that he could have been an avenue for her to gain it. 

Riley: What's the line --"Home's the place that, when you have to go there -"

Buffy: "-- they have to take you in." That's what they say.

Spike attempts to go home to Harmony, but she’s “in control of (my) own power now” and threatens to stake him. He finally turns to Buffy. 

Spike: I'm saying Spike had a little trip to the vet and now he doesn't chase the other puppies anymore. I can't bite anything. I can't even hit people.

Sensibly, the gang is still planning to turn him away until he says he has the inside scoop on the soldier boys. He’s tied to a chair and sits through all the chaos. 

Spike: You won! All right? You came in and you killed them and you took their land. That's what conquering nations do! That's what Caesar did, he's not going around saying "I came, I conquered, I felt really bad about it"! The history of the world is not people making friends. You had better weapons, you massacred them, end of story!

Spike: You exterminated his race. What could you possibly say that would make him feel better? It's kill or be killed here. Take your bloody pick.

Xander: Maybe it's the syphilis talking, but some of that made sense.

Giles: I made several of those points earlier, but that's fine, no one listens...

Spike’s pretty cold about what happened to the tribe, but he’s evil so it’s expected I suppose. The gang thinks he has a point about there not being anything they can do at this point and decide to fight. It was kind of a strange conclusion to the story. “Thanksgiving is a sham! So many atrocities! What can we do? Nothing. Ah well.” The message was just a little unclear and I think the story was more about plot than a political message.

The gang battle the spirits and finally triumph, but not before Buffy turns the main warrior into a bear. It was fun to watch Spike reacting to everything during the episode (and I love his smirk when Xander spills the beans Angel was there).

During the fight, Angel leaps up and breaks one of the warrior’s necks and he, according to the script, “drops like Jenny Calendar”. Anya then wonders what he’s like when he’s evil and we get one of our rare Angel-and-Angelus-are-in-fact-not-totally-seperate moments. Willow tears into the warriors as much as anyone else and feels guilty later.

Xander: I don't know. It kinda seemed right to me. A bunch of anticipation, a big fight and now we're all sleepy.

Character Notes:

Buffy Summers: Her mom is visiting Aunt Pauline for Thanksgiving this year. Buffy mentions she stole and lost Willow’s hairbrush, proving she’s still an annoying roommate--Willow is just more accommodating than Buffy/Kathy. 

Willow Rosenberg: She mentions there are some great spells that work better with an ear. Giles and Willow talk about Angel losing his edge because everyone but Buffy saw him.

Riley Finn: Forrest calls him “mama’s boy” in reference to Maggie and we see he is already attached to her.

Xander Harris: He accidentally says Anya is a strange girlfriend and she lights up at the word. But he claims to be delirious. 

Angel: He leads Buffy to Father Gabriel, apparently an old contact. When he first shows himself to everyone they all assume he's evil.

Spike: He explains that vampires that don’t feed become living skeletons.

[9r7g5h]

Facing the Minotaur- P7

Fandom: Xena: Warrior Princess

Rating: T

Genre: Action/Adventure

Summary: When the Queen of Crete goes missing, it’s up to Xena and Gabrielle to save her. But when that means delving into the depths of the Labyrinth, can they even save themselves?

Words: 2,408

AN: Sorry this is being posted a day late. I got drunk last night to forget the fact that a disgusting yam now rules the free world, and crashed without posting anything. So, sorry. Either way, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: i do not own Xena.

P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, P6, P7, P8, P9, P10, P11, P12, P13, P14

The mountain the Minotaur had left them on was not tall. In fact, it was one of the shorter, safer mountains nearby, with clear paths up and down its side. Well known for the easy climb, young and old alike, in less troubled times, often visited it, making it a day trip to escape the boredom of their day-to-day lives. The mountain was routinely climbed in a single morning by the elderly, who were able to make it back down the side of it and make it home in time for supper.

It took Xena and Gabrielle three days, their minds, bodies, and souls protesting every movement with vicious revenge.

They had started out alright at the beginning, leaving the camp they had made with the Minotaur with their heads held high, even if their legs felt a bit wobbly and their bags cut deep into their arms, the normally forgettable weight almost painful. Gabrielle, trying to take her mind off of the aches and pains in her body, had launched into a story, running plot points and details by Xena to see what she thought. Even with the warrior keeping mostly silent, with only a word or two here or there, Gabrielle had continued on, used to her friend’s silence and having to hold the conversation by herself.

Their leaving had started out hopeful and quick.

Xena had known it wouldn’t last, that soon their energy would fade and they would find themselves just as bad off as they had been stumbling out of the labyrinth, but she hadn’t had the heart to tell Gabrielle. She would find out on her own soon enough.

It only took an hour before Xena called for a rest, leading the two of them off into the woods and into a nearby clearing close to a stream- just far enough that, if they didn’t build a fire after dark, they wouldn’t be found by strangers. Without a word, she plopped down the bags she had been carrying and pulled out the sleeping furs, only then declaring loudly that they both needed a nap and some food before they continued on.

Gabrielle, close to tears, her lip bit through to keep them from falling, had barely been able to keep the look of relief off her face as she lowered her own burden, her legs visibly shaking. Climbing into the furs, she had barely had time to rest her head on Xena’s shoulder before she was out, sweet sleep bringing relief.

It was impressive, that she had been able to go that long. Xena had seen many men in similar conditions- her wars had taken her over some of the harshest land imaginable, where food and water were scarce, and only those who had earned it could get their portion from what the supply wagons had carried with them. She had watched men, those who weren’t strong enough of body or mind to keep going, fall from lack, meeting their end trampled under the feet of their comrades, who just kept going so they themselves wouldn’t meet the same fate.  

It pained her more than anything else to see Gabrielle in such a state, but at the same time she couldn’t help but be impressed- she had seen men fall under much kinder conditions after just a quarter of an hour’s march, and even though it had pained her greatly to continue, Gabrielle had until Xena called for the stop.

Not that she was in much better condition. Even for the Warrior Princess, such conditions were draining, and she knew her limits. If she pushed herself too hard, if she fought against the healing she could feel taking place within her, she was a fool. So instead she stopped, and they rested.

They didn’t sleep too long- the sun was at its height when they finally reawoke, still sore and tired but a bit more willing to face the day. The Fates were on their side- not much further into the woods from where they had stopped, ripe berries lined the riverbank, sweet and almost bursting with juices, lifting their spirits as they ate and refilled their waterskins, leaving their lips and fingers purple.

But even after their rest, they couldn’t continue on much longer, just another two hours before they had to stop once again, the pain a bit lesser but still there. Once again they scavenged for their meal, finding enough of something suitable to fill their stomachs before once again slipping into sleep.

They followed this pattern down the mountainside, keeping their pace slow, Xena calling for frequent rests, even though most of the pain had left them by the third day, leaving behind only a wearisome stiffness in its place. For the most part they didn’t mind- both knew they couldn’t rush, knew they would just end up dead if they tried, and what help would they be to the Queen or the Minotaur if they did? Though their frustrations were noticeable; instead of her normal chatter, Gabrielle kept silent most of the day, deeper in her own thoughts then she normally let herself get while they were on the road, where danger could be waiting at any moment. Xena herself was antsy, their stops becoming shorter and shorter with each one, just long enough for them to eat and the ache in their feet- the normal ache of a day’s walk, an ache Xena personally relished in, instead of the ache of dying muscles coming back to life- to wane before pushing them forward.

Finally, finally, the sloping ground beneath their feet leveled out into a well walked road, leaving the mountain behind them as they followed its path.

“How are we going to get Zeus to break the curse?”

“I don’t know.” Xena’s reply was honest, with a shrug of her shoulders when Gabrielle glanced over at her. “He cursed the Queen because she refused to sleep with him- and Zeus doesn’t take rejection lightly. We could always see if there was something he wanted more. Not one of us,” she quickly added, seeing a worried light appear in Gabrielle’s gaze, “but perhaps some kind of item, or a quest completed. You know how the gods love their quests.” She laughed a humorless chuckle at the thought, shaking her head as she ran through the list of things the gods had forced mortals to do in one age or another.

It was long and more often than not bloody, something she wasn’t looking forward to.

“How do you think we’ll find him?”

For a single moment Xena paused, her head tilting to the side, before giving it a little shake and coming to a full halt, turning on her toes to face the forest that ran along the side of the road. Glancing over at Gabrielle, who had come to stand next to her, Xena raised her eyebrow before looking back into the trees.

“We won’t have to- he found us.”

“Ares told me about your ability to sense us,” a deep, gravelly voice said as the old man stepped from the trees, his robes swishing gently around him as the wind picked up. Glancing between the two, giving Gabrielle an almost appraising look, he quickly returned his attention back to the warrior, not missing the warning flash in her gaze. He ignored it and smiled. “I hadn’t thought it was actually true, but it seems like I am mistaken. It’s nice to finally meet you, Xena.”

Xena bowed her head but said nothing, waiting for the King of Gods to continue on his own.

“I’ve been listening to your conversation,” he finally said slowly, breaking the silence, “and I know what you want. And my answer is yes.”

“You’ll take the curse off the Queen if we do something for you,” Gabrielle pipped up, stepping forward so she was standing fully by Xena’s side, an excited light in her eyes and voice as she spoke. “You really will?”

“I shall,” he said, nodding his head in agreement. “Though it is not a curse I will be lifting, but a gift.” Watching as the two women looked between each other, he gave a casual shrug- their thoughts or feelings of him meant nothing, and whether or not they believed him mattered even less. His words were his own, and they would take them as they would. “The labyrinth, as you know, is strong. And it holds a grudge, long after it should release it. The labyrinth has been a taint on this land for many long years, biding its time, waiting for one with already a touch of weakness of the mind to appear in the line that wronged it. Which she did.” Zeus shook his head slowly and sighed, beginning to pace. “From what I understand, it should not have developed for many years, not until long after she had gone gray, but the labyrinth touched upon it, far outside its own walls, and turned Pelopia. I came to her, yes,” he admitted, “but as a guide, not to take her to bed. I already have enough trouble with the mortal children I already have running around, I don’t need another.” He actually chuckled at that, shaking his head as he did. “But no- when she ran, I gave her what protection against the labyrinth I could. Which bound her to it, yes, but which kept her alive and well, I promise you that.”

“Why,” Xena asked, her face as neutral as she could make it. She didn’t believe him, not quite- there wasn’t an honest god among them, except for maybe Aletheia, and even then, Xena had her doubts. But his story was interesting enough, so she waited to see what he would say next. “Why did you go to her? Direct intervention isn’t really your style, Zeus.”

“Because the labyrinth is a danger to us all.” Again, his shrug was uncaring, though his words and tone spoke something else. “The labyrinth is old, as old as the golden age of the Titans, and was created with magic much darker and stronger than even I am aware of. And even with its lack of sacrifices, it’s been growing more powerful with every passing year. Strong enough to reach into Pelopia’s mind and turn what she saw- my attempts at gaining her help to defeat this evil into a seduction, the goodness of her brother into a toxic touch, the kindness of her people into a cruel reality. It will one day be strong enough to reach even those of a healthy temperament, and if it should?” He paused, turning to look Xena directly in the eye as he spoke.

“Pelopia, following the call of the labyrinth, ran directly into its depths, prepared to become its first meal in three generations. Should it become stronger? It will devour thousands, and who knows what might happen when it has?”

A chill ran up Xena’s spine at the thought- the slaughter would turn the mountains crimson, the grass slick and sticky, if the labyrinth had its way. Shifting slightly, she pressed her side just that much closer to Gabrielle’s, taking comfort in the soft warmth that rolled from her skin, the sickness the thought of that much cruel death had brought to her stomach calming as she felt Gabrielle shift as well, closing what remained of the small gap between them.

“So we defeat the labyrinth before that happens,” Xena said with a shrug of her own, flashing Zeus a grim smile. “Which we can’t, until after you agree to remove your…’gift.’”

“Which I shall, for a price,” Zeus said. “My solution- binding the Queen to the labyrinth- is doing a fine job of stalling its quest for power, her own strength and clear mind keeping it from feeding. She is cursed, yes, but my job is done. To remove that, to put the world back in danger? I’ll need you to do something for me first.”

“Name it,” Gabrielle said- earning an eye roll from Xena. You never said those words to a god, not one that wanted something, unless you were willing to give whatever they desired. “Xena and I can do anything you need us to.”

“I’m hoping you can, little one,” Zeus said with an actual, real smile. “There is more to this island then the Minotaur and the labyrinth. It is also the lair of the hydra itself. Or,” he said, seeing the question form on Gabrielle’s lips, “one of them. My son might have defeated the largest, but that hydra was centuries old, and had bred many times. Few of its offspring survived, one of which came to rest here. I want one of its heads. If and when you can complete this task, I will release the Queen and allow you to risk destroying the labyrinth…or it destroy you.”

“Why,” Xena quickly asked before he could disappear, her tone firm and demanding. “A hydra is no threat to you. Its poison cannot kill a god. Why risk our lives on something that doesn’t matter when we could be solving the real problem?”

“You speak brazenly, warrior,” Zeus said after a moment, eyeing Xena curiously even as his voice went sharp- a tone that normally had entire cities cowering before him, quivering at his feet as they begged for his forgiveness. Something that was not the case for either of the women standing before him, both just waiting for him to answer. “You’re lucky I do not turn you or your little companion into a pile of ash.”

“You can try,” Xena said with a shrug, though she shifted so she was slightly between him and Gabrielle, her hand reaching to rest on her chakram. “Don’t think you’ll get very far with that if you do.”

And Zeus laughed, his entire body shaking with mirth at the insolence the women before him showed. He was the King of the Gods, the ruler of the world, and to have these two standing before him, like no one had ever before done?

“I can see why Ares favors you, warrior,” Zeus said, wiping away the tears from his eyes. “Kill the hydra and summon me. Then I will release the Queen. But be careful your arrogance doesn’t go too far,” he added, his voice a warning. “You might find it costing you something dear.”

With that he was gone, a lightning flash blinding them as he returned to Mount Olympus. 

[dingoes8myrp]

We Take, We Don’t Bother - TWD

I have some theories on The Walking Dead. There will be some loose recapping of this week’s episode, but it’s mostly me babbling about theories and things. Spoilers ahead, probably.

“The King, the Widow, and Rick” made me angry, furious, frustrated - lots of not so nice feelings. This was mostly because I didn’t understand why anyone was doing anything, and I don’t like that. It feels a little like I’m on the outs with the Saviors, and I don’t want to be anywhere near the Saviors (except Dwight. He’s alright).

I have a list of things making me squirm right now, in order of intensity.

:1: Rick going to Jadis the Trash Godess... alone.

I don’t understand why he would even think to do this. He’d be better off going to Oceanside. That’s still around, right? I found this very out of character for him, so I didn’t get it at all. I’ve seen a theory floating around that this is part of a plan of some kind - a long con on Rick’s and possibly Jadis’s end - but since this situation ended with Rick naked in a box, I don’t see how this plan would have benefited him and his group at all. Is he forming a second front with the Trashies in case the Saviors take the Hilltop? If that’s the case, I could see the point of hiding Rick as a sort of ace in the hole... but that doesn’t explain why Jadis took all his stuff (including his clothes). While the long con theory would be a relief, I don’t see it, nor do I understand the point.

:2: Carl going off alone to find a rando he decided to recruit.

Okay, going off alone is just a bad idea, and people shouldn’t be doing it. But, this isn’t anything new for Carl, so I suppose he’s one of the few characters who can wander off alone and be fine (along with Carol, Michonne, and Daryl). I understand the spirit behind Carl’s decision to go find Sidiq. However, considering the situation Alexandria is in right now, it’s the worst time to be bringing in a newcomer (particularly one Rick is wary of). This goes along the same lines as Jesus bringing the Savior prisoners back to the Hilltop to build a community with them in the future. Sure, it’s a good idea in theory, but the timing is just idiotically horrific, and if these two don’t know that they shouldn’t have survived this long in the first place. Read a room, gentlemen. Or, you know, a post-apocalyptic survival compound/safehouse. Even if these people are cool YOUR people are not cool with them right now.

:3: Michonne and Rosita hobbling off out of boredom.

This was another one that struck me as very out of character, at least for Michonne. She’s injured. She’s BADLY injured. I mean, this isn’t a papercut we’re talking about here. She’s also one of the few capable strong combatants at Alexandria, because they are at war and there is a chance things could go sour. Still, she decides to take off alone just to see what’s going on over at the Sanctuary. She’s going to unnecessarily risk her life when she knows she’s needed to go check out the Sanctuary. Maybe she plans to fight, but, again, she’s not really in fighting shape, and even if she was, she’s needed as back-up in Alexandria. Rosita, also badly injured, goes along with Michonne. Now, this doesn’t strike me at all as out of character for her, mind you. Of course, they stumble upon some Saviors up to no good, clumsily get caught (unlike either of them to do at this point in the game), and have to fight. They still manage to be badass, but the fact that they’re out there in the first place was odd and clunky. They didn’t even try to make it feel organic. It’s just shoehorned into the story.

:4: Tara and Daryl going rogue because… stupidity?

These two are just… dumb right now. I know that’s mean, but neither of them are using their heads. This is very in character for Daryl. We’ve seen him go all Wild West, guns-blazing before when he’s lost people. The tough asshole shooting or swinging at anything he can is his coping mechanism... which is ANNOYING as hell in the middle of a very delicate mission that requires all the people involved to work together. As far as Tara goes, unfortunately, I don’t know her well enough to understand where her stupidity is coming from. I relate her actions more to Andrea’s way back after she lost Amy. She was kind of lost, depressed in a reckless, self-destructive way, but also felt the need to DO… anything, always. We never really got to understand Andrea either, and she wound up unceremoniously written out. I’m seeing a similar thing happening with Tara, where they’re just not spending enough time on her character storyline to make her worth watching. We don’t understand her, so when she acts out it just seems like a lazy way to throw a wrench in the works. She’s just not coming together for me, and I’ve given her a lot of time before deciding she’s just not somebody I’m rooting for. Anyway, her and Daryl as a team are just barreling forward focused on selfish, stupid revenge. They’re not thinking of anyone else, or how their actions are going to affect anything. All they care about is what they want right now, and it’s super irritating. I honestly wouldn’t mind if they both got taken out this season. I’ve hade enough of the repetitive Daryl storylines, and I could do without Tara altogether at this point.

:5: Enid and Aaron doing I don’t even know what.

I don’t even know Enid exists 90% of the time, to be honest. She’s pretty much set décor at this point. Here we have Aaron taking off sort of like Michonne did, but the why is less clear, other than maybe he feels the need to DO. Enid, inexplicably, decides to go with him. No idea what’s going on here other than “Let’s see, who else is left in Alexandria who could defend it? Ah! Aaron and Enid. Let’s get them out of there so we can do some awful shit to a defenseless Alexandria.”

This leads me to my first theory: we’re about to lose Alexandria. Here’s why I came to this conclusion.

:1: The seasonal formula.

Generally speaking, we get about one season in each major location we settle in (give or take). We’ve had Alexandria for a WHILE, so it’s about time for it to go away to unsettle our characters.

:2: The helicopter.

Rick saw a helicopter flying overhead. Meanwhile, we saw the Saviors discussing sending in a flyer to either the Hilltop or Alexandria (I forget the exact quote, so if someone remembers and wants to enlighten me, go for it). Point: the Saviors probably have fucking helicopters, who are probably about to swoop into Alexandria.

:3: No one’s there.

The show just literally went to bizarre, ridiculous lengths to get EVERYONE useful out of Alexandria. Rick’s in Jadis’s box. Daryl, Tara, Michonne, and Rosita are staking out the Sanctuary. Gabriel’s in Negan jail (and also very sick). Aaron and Enid just left. Carl’s off bonding with strange men in the woods. Carol, Jerry, and Ezekiel are at the Kingdom. Maggie and Jesus are at the Hilltop. There is NOBODY minding Alexandria. Like, it’s Judith and some redshirts. The only wildcard is Morgan because I don’t know where he ended up.

Now, let’s talk about the Trashies. I’ve seen a few theories floating around about these weirdos. I have my own that’s kind of underwhelming by comparison, but remember back in the early days of Alexandria when Deanna explained there were some people they had to put outside the walls because they weren’t working out? I remember because they never mentioned that again. What happened to those people? Are some of them Trashies? I wonder. My working theory is that the Trashies have beef with Alexandria because they used to live there, sheltered like the rest of them. And then they were exiled, so now they scavenge and they don’t trust outsiders. It would also explain why they flipped so hard on the Alexandria group after making a shaky alliance with them: because fuck Alexandria, that’s why. I don’t have much evidence to base this on, so if you have theories please share. I’m not familiar with the comics, so I’d love some insight there (I don’t mind spoilers). I also feel like all the Trashies are using aliases. Jadis was a character in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Tamiel is the name of an angel. Other names we’ve heard are Brion, Farron, and Winslow. None of these are run-of-the-mill names. I’m wondering if these guys took on new names at some point.

All that being said, here’s the stuff I love.

:1: Maggie.

I love, love, love everything about Maggie this season. She’s proving to be a strong leader, and she’s having a hard time making the tough decisions. It’s doing wonderful things for both the story and her arc.

:2: Jesus.

He did another annoying thing in bringing the Savior prisoners to the Hilltop. However, I understand why he did it and I don’t think it was a rash decision on his part. I think he always assumed their group would absorb the Saviors after the battle. He’s genuinely shocked at the idea of mowing all of them down - even horrified. He’s trying to bring reason to a lot of grief and pain everyone else is working off of, and people aren’t digging it. Well, I am. I may not agree, but I like this story and it makes total sense.

:3: Awkward team-ups.

While I may not like some of the clunky, plot-device-ish actions of some of these teams, I’m always a fan of an awkward team-up between characters who don’t normally interact. And that’s been a staple of the show since it started. We had Negan and Gabriel last week. We have Dwight and Eugene with this shaky alliance in the belly of the beast. Michonne and Rosita are such a badass team. I hope we get to see them fight together when they’re not beat to hell. That would be awesome. I like that Daryl and Rick are at odds, but still respect one another. The same goes for Maggie and Jesus.

:4: Carol.

I always love Carol, and her time with the Kingdom and Ezekiel is bringing out some great emotional stuff we haven’t seen in a while.

:5: Ezekiel.

I love what’s happening with Ezekiel right now. He’s been faking it for so long, it’s nice to see what was under there the whole time.

That’s all I got for now. Just a brain dump before bed.

[nerdylittleshit]

Welcome to Earth 2 – Alternative realities in Supernatural and their narrative purpose

(All screencaps by screencaped.net)

CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR SEASON 12 !!!

First of all I love alternative realities. It’s a trope almost every genre show uses at least once; some for just one episode, while it becomes a main plot line in others. It usually plays out a “What if”-scenario, by creating a different reality in changing a major plot element from the past (for example: What would have happen if character x never died?). It discusses the question how much certain events have influenced the character’s lives, but also how much they remain the same. The reason I love this trope is that if you do it right those episodes serve as excellent character studies.

The reasons for alternative realities are very different. Sometimes it is just a dream or a hallucination, especially if this trope is only used for one episode. Other times alternative realties can be created through time travel; by changing the past you can create a new timeline, different from the timeline you are coming from (a concept that has been used on The Flash). And then of course there is the theory that multiple universes already exist; fiction then plays with the idea of creating portals to visit other universes (see Fringe or DC’s multiverse).

While we have seen several alternative realties over the years on Supernatural, I would argue that none of those realties were real, but rather specifically created for the Winchesters. It wasn’t until 12x23 that it was confirmed that there are in fact parallel universes, something that I hope we will see more in season 13. Until then though let’s have a look back at the alternative realities we have seen so far.

2x20 What Is and What Should Never Be

You think these suckers can really grant wishes?

One of my all time favourite episodes of this show. A study in Dean. And of course super painful (what else did we expect?). A djinn attacks Dean and transports him into a reality where his greatest wish comes true: that his mother never died. What is interesting to me is that we don’t see the actual reality of what would have happened if Mary never died but instead what Dean thinks would have happened. Not even a djinn would have had the power to know how this reality would have actually looked like. By letting Dean create this reality though the djinn improves the chances of Dean staying in there. Because of course Dean would create a reality he thinks is realistic. Instead of waking up in a perfect world though we see a reality full with little flaws, that tell us a lot about Dean.

In a world where Mary never died Sam and Dean grew up normal; they never became hunters. Sam went to Stanford and proposed to Jess (just like the real Sam had intended to do), Dean became a mechanic the way his dad used to be and had a beautiful girlfriend with a respectable job (Carmen was a nurse). But his dad is still dead (even though he died less painful) and as it turns out he and Sam don’t get along. In fact Dean was kind of a jerk. People constantly ask him if he had been drinking again, implying that he has an alcohol problem in this world. Sam doesn’t even seem to be surprised when he thinks Dean is stealing from their mother. There is an excellent meta about how all of Dean’s failures (his drinking, stealing etc) are results of his hunting life, but the fact that he still has these flaws in this supposedly perfect universe tells us that he thinks this is who he is, not what his life as a hunter made him into. The more you look at this episode the more depressing it gets.

In hindsight to season 12 it is also interesting to take a closer look at Dean’s parents and the hunting life. Even though his mother never died in this reality John remains dead. Though there is no date on his gravestone we can assume he died around the same time as the real John did. The absence of John in Dean’s perfect world could be interpreted in several ways. It is possible that Dean wasn’t ready yet to face his father; unlike his mother’s death the loss of his father was still new. We could also argue that a perfect world for Dean is indeed a world without his father. Despite the fact that Dean loved his father he also acknowledged that his father wasn’t perfect. The show pretty much confirmed the child neglect, and there is enough subtext to at least discuss the possibility of child abuse. We also know that Dean knows that the marriage of his parents wasn’t perfect (see 5x16), so it’s possible he didn’t wanted to see them fighting.

The resurrection of Mary in season 12 is the biggest confirmation that the djinn-reality was in fact created by Dean, because his version of his mother has almost nothing in common with the real Mary we saw last season. Dean was only 4 years old when his mother died; he clung to the little memories he had of her and created a very idolized version of her in his mind (that the real Mary could never live up to). I think it was @elizabethrobertajones who pointed out that the Mary we see here has little to none personality. She is reduced to be a perfect mother, nothing more (does she have a job? Friends? Any kind of life outside her family?). She is worried about her son and in true Winchester fashion she comforts him with food; she makes him a sandwich. And for all the pie meta out there we should write a bit about sandwiches as well. Because guess what, in both 5x16 and 12x22 (where we encounter memories of Dean and Mary) Mary makes Dean a sandwich. Pie isn’t even mentioned in 2x20. (In all fairness though I think pie didn’t became a theme before 2x21).

The other aspect of 2x20 is the hunting life, or rather it’s absence. I have written plenty about Dean vs the apple pie life. Season 12 picked up this theme again, with Dean telling Mary in 12x01 that he made his peace with their lives as hunters and later we see Mary’s wish for her sons to have a normal life as the reason why she choose to work with the BMoL. In 2x20 Mary never died but monsters are still real. And in the end this is the reason Dean returns to his reality; he can’t live in a world he never saved. Even though the event that caused him to become a hunter was prevented Dean still remains a hunter. All of his flaws, caused by his life as a hunter, remain in this new reality. Opposed to this, the only good thing about his life as a hunter, his close bond with his brother, doesn’t exist anymore. None of this is enough though to make him return to the real world; Dean can live in a world where he sees himself as a failure (he still does in the real world), where he is no longer close to Sam, as long as his family is happy. What he can’t live with are the lives he never saved in this world.

This episode tells us a lot about Dean, how little he thinks of himself, how he cares more about the happiness of his family than himself. How he is willing to give up his perfect world for the life of strangers. How in the end he proves to be what he would never think of himself: a hero.

3x11 Mystery Spot

Okay, look. Yesterday was Tuesday, right? But today is Tuesday too.

It’s funny until… it isn’t anymore. This time an archangel fabricates an alternative reality in order to teach Sam a lesson. He lets Dean die over and over again, making Sam reliving the same day again and again, without giving Sam the chance to prevent Dean from dying. It is almost like an earlier version of 5x04, with both Lucifer and Gabriel trying to teach the same lesson: no matter how you change events the result will always be the same. You can’t outrun your destiny. Destiny vs free will becomes one of the major themes in season 4 and 5, but this episode serves almost like a foretelling of it. Even more so when Sam finally reveals Gabriel and he in turn lets Dean die again, but this time without resetting the day. Sam all of sudden his to live with his brother’s death and turns to the dark side. It’s a prediction of what we will see in season 4, though it leaves out Ruby of the equation.

The alternative realities (each Tuesday is a different reality) are created through time travel, something we see again in 6x17. Though I would argue that Gabriel didn’t create a parallel universe every time he travelled back in time (even archangels don’t seem to have this power), but just changed the present every time. Gabriel tries to teach Sam that he can’t prevent his brother’s death and that he has to learn to let go. Given Sam’s revenge quest I don’t think he learned his lesson. Gabriel still sends him back in time, with Dean alive, which was maybe something he had plan to do all along, because it wasn’t Dean’s time to die yet. We don’t even know if any of it was real or if all of it just happened in Sam’s head. And while Sam arguably didn’t learn his lesson Gabriel did; he knows now what the death of his brother will do with Sam. It is possible Gabriel knew about heaven’s plan for Sam (saying yes to Lucifer) and this was his way to find out how likely it would be that Sam would indeed say “yes”.

In the end it is not clear if Sam only remembers all of the Tuesdays but also the six months after Dean’s death in the alternative reality. Either way when Dean dies his reaction to it is very similar to what we see here.

4x17 It’s a Terrible Life

You don't wanna go fighting ghosts without any health insurance.

Or another time an angel creates a new reality. This time though it’s Zachariah (he does the same thing in 5x04). Again we see the Winchesters living a pretty normal life, though the lesson that Zachariah tries to teach is the exact opposite: that Sam & Dean are meant to be hunters and that any other life wouldn’t make them happy. Instead of giving them a life similar to what we saw in 2x20, which is probably still the closet to what a normal life would have looked like for Sam & Dean, Zachariah twists established facts. Dean becomes the opposite of who he is: instead of blue collar working guy he is the director of Sales & Marketing, he drives a Prius instead of the Impala, listens to NPR instead of classic rock, eats salad instead of burgers and is seemingly interested in feminine things just as watching project runaway or doing the master cleanse. He went to Stanford and his parents are Bobby and Ellen and his sister is Jo. Funnily enough a lot of those things are facts we associate with Sam. It is Sam who went to Stanford, who prefers salad over burgers and tries to live a healthy life. Sam on the other hand is “just” an IT-guy and the only other thing we learn about him is that he had a financee named Madison. Furthermore in this reality it is Sam who wants to leave his normal life behind, who feels like he doesn’t fit in, whereas Dean is the one who is reluctant about leaving his old life behind. And in the end it all comes down to Dean, because he is the one Zachariah talks to.

At this point of his life Dean struggles with being a hunter and with the task he has been given (to stop the apocalypse). Zachariah creates a reality/identity that is the exact opposite of what Dean is/what he has. And he does so to show him that the life Dean has, that as a hunter, is what he really wants and who he is destined to be. I think Zachariah gave Dean several of Sam’s characteristics because for once the show has always portrayed Sam and Dean as opposites (though the reality of course is a bit more complex than this). The other thing is that Dean perhaps is a bit jealous of Sam. Sam had a way out, had a normal life, even if it was only for a short time. So Dean, who see himself as a grunt, gets the higher education here, the better job, his adopted family becomes his real family (and his actual brother a stranger) and he is allowed to admit to like things our Dean would never (performing Dean anyone?). But it takes nothing more than a simply ghost hunt for the facade to break. Sam might be the first to suggest to leave their lives behind but in the end Dean comes along as well: he realizes that his current life doesn’t make him happy, that there are more important things to do. It is the lesson that Zachariah had tried to teach him all along: that he was born to be a hunter, no matter what. Even in a reality where he grew up normal, where he had access to education, had a great job and felt no longer the need to pretend to be anyone else he still ended up hunting. Zachariah tries to tell Dean that not the circumstances of his life made him a hunter but that it is in his blood. It is something we saw in 2x20 as well: no matter the circumstances Dean remained a hunter. But in 2x20 Dean’s memories of a life as hunter were still intact. And even though Zachariah tells Dean that he altered his memories (so technically this isn’t an alternative reality, but an alternative Sam & Dean) I think Dean still subconscious remembered his old life. Because he needed to in order to learn his lesson.

Zachariah’s lesson is that Dean needs to accept his destiny and that his destiny is to be a hunter, no matter the circumstances. It is the opposite of free will. Sam and Dean still had their old memories (Sam’s visions) and Zachariah carefully manipulated them in a way that they would get to the same conclusion as he did: that they are meant to be hunters. Ironically it is a lesson Dean has already learned: in 2x20 he remained a hunter even in his perfect life, and later in season 6 while he gets the apple pie life he can’t stop being a hunter and ends up back on the road. It is something Dean already believes about himself: that the only thing he will ever be good at is hunting and that he has no chance to live a normal life. By season 12 though he has accepted his life as a hunter, he values it and furthermore since 12x22 we know that Dean acknowledges that what happened to him wasn’t fair, that he never really had a choice, and that the circumstances made him who he is and no destiny.

5x04 The End

Whatever you do, you will always end up here. Whatever choices you make, whatever details you alter, we will always end up—here. I win. So, I win.

I always feel like this episode deserves a special place because it is the one alternative reality that inspired the most meta, fan art and fan fiction. My personal relationship with this episode is kinda complicated. From an objective point of view I appreciate that it is clearly one of the best episodes of the whole show, beginning with Ben Edlund’s writing and ending with the terrific acting from everyone involved. Personally though I hate to see these dark fucked up versions of the characters; it breaks my heart every single time to see them like that. But then again that was the point. And seeing how it is again Zachariah who was responsible for this, this is the reason why he is one of my favourite villains of the show.

The interesting thing about this episode is that when it aired nobody could tell if what we saw was time travel or an alternative reality. By the time the episode was written nobody could know the show would air long enough that we would actually get to see 2014. And up until then there was still some discussion if this reality might still come true. Even now there are some people who argue that Zachariah did indeed show Dean the future – one of many possible futures (the one where Sam said yes to Lucifer).

I personally always saw this episode as an alternative reality Zachariah created to get Dean to say “yes” to Michael. While angels have the power to travel back in time I don’t think they can travel in the future as well. The future is too fluid and could change every minute (and therefore Jack showing Cas the future in 12x19 should be another indicator for not trusting him). And in fiction showing someone their future never ends well (#self-fulfilling prophecy).

So let’s take a look at this episode as an alternative reality created by Zachariah for Dean. Zachariah wants to show Dean what happens when he doesn’t accept his destiny, doesn’t say “yes” to Michael, and Sam on the opposite does. Interesting enough it doesn’t end up with “all your friends are dead”-scenario. The only character that dies is Bobby (though I think he also represents hunters in general, because none of those we know seem to be alive anymore). No, Zachariah shows Dean that there are fates much worse than death. First of all the world as we know doesn’t exist anymore. The croatoan virus has killed many people and the few left try to survive somehow, gathered together in small camps. Cas has fallen, becoming almost human, whereas the angels don’t care anymore. He tries to numb himself with drugs and sex. He is broken and though it isn’t explicated stated the subtext makes Dean responsible for Cas’s state. If Cas is broken though, then future!Dean is something even darker. He kills infected people without mercy and is willing to sacrifice his friends and people who look up to him to have a shot at killing Lucifer. And then there is Sam, who has long ago given up and said “yes” to Lucifer. Sam exist no more, just his body who is worn by the devil. It is the final piece that breaks our Dean from the present. In the end Dean learned his lesson, but not the one Zachariah tried to teach him. He doesn’t say “yes” to Michael, but instead realized that the only way to stop the apocalypse is in working together. He tells Cas to never change, appreciates him for who he is after he saw how broken future!Cas was. He turns to Sam, forgives him, in order to prevent his little brother to say “yes” to Lucifer.

The brilliance of this episode comes from its darkness. If 2x20 showed us a more or less perfect world, this is the opposite of it. This is the worst case scenario for Dean. A world he couldn’t save, where everyone he ever loved is either dead or just a broken shell of what they used to be. In hindsight it showed us the darkest versions of each character: three men who stopped caring about the world and themselves. Who are no longer willing to fight. Who gave up.

I bet Dean still has nightmare about this world.

6x15 The French Mistake

Don't like this universe, Sammy. We need to get out of this universe.

Aka the most meta episode to ever meta. Seriously I don’t even know how casual fans watch this, because they miss out all the fun and references. I don’t think this episode had a big meaning for the overall narrative but was rather a gift for the fans, and the show making fun of themselves. Of course we can argue if the reality we see here is actual real, but then again I don’t think that an angel like Balthazar has the power to transport humans from one reality to another. I rather think that just like in 5x04 this reality was created, this time though not to teach the Winchesters a lesson but to hide them. It might be a stretch, but given that the Supernatural books exist in Sam and Dean’s universe it is possible Balthazar created an universe where those books were adapted and Sam and Dean are forced to act out their lives from their own reality. They still learn a lesson though: a) they are really bad at acting and b) they prefer their own lives, without money or fame, but where they get to be brothers and save lives.

6x17 My Heart Will Go On

You see, I save a boat, one thing leads to another, which leads to another thousand things, and yada, yada, yada.

Or an exercise in alternative history. Balthazar travelled back in time, prevented the Titanic from sinking and thousands of people who should have died didn’t and therefore changed history in a massive way. These people and their descendants then would cause thousands more souls that Castiel needed in the  Civil War that happened in heaven in season 6. Unlike the other examples where angels or a djinn created an alternative reality this reality was real. By changing the past Balthazar changed the present. A lot of the old reality is still true: Sam & Dean are still hunters and they still prevented the apocalypse. Some of the details of their new reality change though: they drive a Mustang instead of an Impala and Cuba is a popular holiday destination. The biggest difference though is that Ellen and Jo are still alive and Ellen is married to Bobby. Fate now tries to fix this mess: she kills the descendants of the people who should have died on the Titanic, as none of those people should exist in the first place.

This episode again focus on the theme destiny vs free will. Atropos, one of the three fates, followed the script until Sam and Dean and Cas no longer followed their destiny but wrote their own ending. Her job became obsolete. And it is because Sam & Dean & Cas threw out the script that Balthazar followed no longer the rules of not changing the past. While we had time travel episodes before (4x03 and 5x13) Sam and Dean never changed the past – they were also meant to go back in time, still following the script. And while it is possible to still change your destined future changing the past will have massive consequences.

The moral dilemma for Sam and Dean is that while they know what Balthazar did was wrong they also know that going back in time and let the Titanic sink once again will cause not only the death of the people on the ship but also Ellen and Jo’s death. In the end neither Sam or Dean have to make this choice (though they decided to kill Atropos) but it is Castiel who learns that even though destiny no longer exists you can’t change the past like this. Otherwise he could have prevented the apocalypse by simply going back in time.

Cas says you don’t need to be ruled by fate. You don’t have to follow the path that is destined for you. But in order to change your future, to become a master of your own fate, you need to let go the past.

12x23 All Along the Watchtower

This is a world where you were never born. It's a world you never saved.

For all my talking about alternative realities this is the first time I would argue that we see an actual parallel universe. All the other alternative realities were specifically created for the Winchesters, or in the case of 6x17 our reality was changed through changing the past. The world we see in 12x23 though is a world that exists parallel to the universe Sam and Dean live in. And it took the birth of a Nephilim (and not just any, that of an archangel) to open a portal to that world. So while I think angels have the ability to alter the reality in some ways (through time travel or for a limited time) they don’t have the power to travel to parallel universes. And there is a reason for it. Because if anything season 12 was about cosmic consequences (tagging @mittensmorgul because I know she wrote a lot about this).  In 12x09 Billie tells the Winchesters that breaking their deal (the life of a Winchesters for getting them out of prison) would cause cosmic consequences. Cas is the one who breaks the deal and seeing how he ended up dead in the end we can argue that these are the consequences. Billie’s deal though wasn’t about Cas originally but about the Winchesters. Technically both of them should be dead by now. They both died, multiple times, but were brought back again and again. They disrupted the cosmic order and cosmic balance. Bringing back Mary, who of course is supposed to be dead as well, is the cherry on the cake. If unsinking the Titanic caused a ripple effect than so does resurrecting Mary, even though the past stayed the same. We can argue how many of the things that happened in season 12 wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for her. By the end of 12x23 the universe in a way fixed that cosmic unbalance by taking Mary out of the equation again, though of course by now the damage is already done (the birth of Jack which causes another power unbalance). And while I personally loved that they brought back Mary and what they did with her character the show followed through with the thought that her resurrection would have consequences on a cosmic scale. And while I hope that they bring Cas back in season 13 I also hope they show that his resurrection will have consequences as well.

So what does this got to do with parallel universes? Now that we know they exist imagine they were ways to easily travel to them. Many people already speculated about the possibilities of seeing alternative versions of our characters (such as alternative Bobby). But what if they cross universe? Just like Mary they would be at a place where they are not supposed to be. Even the fact that Lucifer and Mary from our world ended up in another universe will have consequences. Because in that universe Mary is again supposed to be dead and there is a chance that this universe has now two Lucifers. Which is the reason I think we will see this universe again and fix some of the mess (though I hope they finally kill Lucifer in the process).

On a meta level this episode works back to back with 12x22. In 12x22 Dean confronts his mother about the deal she made – the deal that would bring back John, therefore cause the birth of her sons, marking them as vessel and would result in her own death. Dean lists all the consequences of that deal – how he had to grow up without a mother, what it did to his father, what it forced him to become (a parent), the horrible things Sam had to live through (losing Jess, going to hell etc). 12x23 now shows us a universe where Mary never made that deal. John died and Sam and Dean were never born. We can only assume some other poor souls became the vessels for Michael & Lucifer and the apocalypse that Sam and Dean prevented actually happened. It shows us that for all the horrible things that happened after Mary’s deal that in the long run it saved the world. In 12x22 her sons forgave Mary for the choice she made. 12x23 showed us the cosmic consequences of said deal.

No matter if the alternative realities we saw on Supernatural were specifically created or showed us in the case of 12x23 an actual parallel universe the narrative purpose is the same. Faced with different realties our characters are meant to learn something about themselves, about who they are but also how the choices they and others made influenced them. Some showed us their darkest versions (3x11 & 5x04) and in some ways served as foretelling. Some question if they are meant to always be hunters (2x20 & 4x17). In the end it is both the circumstances and our choices who made us who we are. We can’t outrun our past and the influence it has on us. But we don’t need to be ruled by our past as well: we can learn from our mistakes and find a better way. And if anything I think this was the biggest message from season 12.