#i guess now i'm waiting for you s4 that's the only thing keeping me going tbh

[rainparadefromhell]

a new show hasn't sucked me in a long time so now i'm not even really using tumblr and it sucks. i also can't post abt my older fandoms that much or i'll start looking like this

[pizzaqueen]

I've had this scene in my mind of Eddie encountering Steve’s dad at the hospital post S4 for a while but I didn't know what to do with it. I've written it up, anyway, and I'm posting it here instead of letting it languish. Maybe I'll do something else with it one day?

Just over 800 words, warnings for being in the hospital, I guess and maybe being a little angsty

The first time Eddie meets Steve’s dad, it’s at the hospital, after everything. He’s seen Steve’s dad before, of course he has, everyone knows the Harringtons. But it's always been from a distance, and Mr. Harrington has always seemed arrogant and out of touch.

Eddie waits until Wayne is asleep in the chair beside his bed to get up. Between the shit he's hooked up to and the tightly bandaged wounds, it's not easy, but he needs to do this.

He pulls back the edge of the curtain dividing his bed from Steve’s, then pauses. Steve is lying there, dark circles under his eyes, unconscious and pale and looking less like one of the heroes from Eddie's stories and more like a boy who's seen too many awful things, given too much of himself to them.

Guilt wells up beneath the cotton wool feeling of the painkillers that have been pumped into him. It’s not because it’s Eddie’s fault, but Eddie’s here, on his feet, and Steve isn’t. He will be, though. He has to be.

There’s a vague memory playing in Eddie's mind of Steve carrying him out of that fucking place, Steve's breathing labored, his arms strong but trembling. He'd barely made it out of there before he'd collapsed to the ground with Eddie still in his arms. Everything goes kind of dark after that.

Eddie’s about to step forward, say something—thank you, would be a start—even if Steve can’t hear him, but then he notices that Steve isn’t alone. There’s a man sitting by his side, in the twin of the crappy plastic chair Eddie’s uncle is hunched over in on Eddie’s side of the curtain. He’s wearing a gray sweater and he’s got a sweep of dark hair that looks like he’s been running his hands through it and his nose is the same sharp line as Steve’s.

"Jesus Christ, Steve," he says, voice small and broken, "what the hell did you get yourself into?" His hand rests by Steve’s on the stark white hospital sheet, his pinkie finger hooked over Steve’s.

Steve’s breathing is deep and steady and Mr. Harrington chews on his lip, watching Steve so intently he doesn’t seem to have noticed Eddie standing at the corner of Steve’s bed.

After a few minutes, Mr. Harrington sucks in a deep, shuddering breath and says, "C'mon, slugger, you gotta wake up before your mom gets back from terrorizing the doctors, okay? You know how much she worries…” He trails off, looks away, puts his head in his hands.

And Eddie knows he shouldn't be watching this, but he's frozen. If he ever spared a thought for Mr. Harrington, it was just to think of him as some rich asshole Eddie didn't give a shit about. He has no idea if he's a good dad or even a good person but, right now, Eddie feels bad for him. It makes him miss his own dad and then he feels guilty about that, too. Wayne is right there, sleeping by Eddie's bed because he didn't want to leave him alone and he's a better dad than Eddie's father ever was.

Mr. Harrington makes a small frustrated noise and Eddie finally comes back to himself. He goes to turn away, but, as he does, his foot catches on something and the sound is small but it's loud in the hush of the hospital room.

Steve’s dad looks over, brow furrowing.

“Sorry,” Eddie says, “I wanted to… Sorry.” He shakes his head, which makes it spin. Or maybe it’s the whole room that’s spinning. “I’m Eddie,” he says, and he doesn’t know why. “Munson.”

“The boy wanted for murder?”

“No, I— I hope not.” Eddie breathes out and it feels harder than it should be. “That wasn’t… I didn’t…” His legs feel weak and he should just turn around and go back to bed but he keeps talking: “Steve, he— Saved me.” And it’s only part of what happened and it’s more complicated than that but it’s the truth.

“He—” It looks like Steve’s dad doesn’t know what to do with that and then Eddie’s legs give way and the only thing stopping him from falling is Steve’s hospital bed. “Whoa, hey,” Steve’s dad says, pushing himself to his feet, “you should, um…”

“Dad?” Steve’s voice is croaky and confused. His unfocused gaze slowly moves from his dad to where Eddie’s slumped by his bed. “Eddie? You’re—” He coughs, then winces, and his dad forgets all about Eddie.

“Steve,” is all he says, leaning over his son, hand hovering.

And then there’s a hand at Eddie’s elbow, guiding him away. "C'mon, kiddo," Wayne says, "you shouldn't be up," and he gently helps Eddie up onto the bed.

On the other side of the curtain, there are voices—Steve’s dad, a woman that’s probably Steve’s mom, doctors—but it’s quiet on Eddie’s side. Wayne is there, awake now, watching as Eddie finally lets himself fall asleep again. At least he knows Steve’s awake now. And he’s not alone.

[rookfeatherrambles]

So many ideas. Dumping them here for a pinned comment to keep track. When these have AO3 links, I'll list them here The Angel that Cries Ink (Jmart, Jonelias) Jon has been locked under the Magnus Institute for 200 years, waiting for one person. Martin Blackwood. IN PROGRESS)

Bound by Spider's Thread (Jmart, time travel, somewhat fix it, No sex, Annabelle asks Martin to kill a bitch for her in exchange for saving Jon's life somewhere else) WIP)

The Beast in your Heart (La bete dans coeur) Jonelias, Eventual jmart, Hunt!Jon, Kai!jon. Jon finds out about the watcher's crown ritual and chooses the nuclear option. To throw himself at another fear. He is subsequently transformed, and elias is not nice to jon when he finds out what he's done. Dead dove, very dark, very smutty WIP)

Chiaroscuro (Jmart, timsasha, Artist/Muse au. Jon is a infamous artist who paints the most captivating art but has remained out of the spotlight. A medical diagnosis makes him decide to retire, but he's going to do one final piece. Enter Martin, and Jon's inevitable falling in love with his final muse, no sex, ace jon (WIP

Under skies and sea (Vast Jon. No sjhip. Jon is becoming a sea bird. this is problematic for many reasons) WIP)

Sable Island AU (Jmart, Foggyskies, Jon is a low profile environmental researcher that takes a job on a remote island studying seabirds. He starts to become one, and chronicals his journey. Then Martin, the sun of Peter Lukas, one of two men that are wagering over Jon's life, crashes the supply boat onto the island. They reflect on life, and death (WIP

The Storm Singer : (Jmart, Jonpeter, Foggyskies) Jon is the last siren in the bay and he's sworn to destroy the man who ruined his life. Peter is the fisherman turned monster hunter that massacred Jon's people. He wants Jon dead because he killed his wife. Martin and Simon are also there and they are in love! (not with eachother) Sirens and Sailors! Smutty (WIP

The Lonely Bride: Jonpeter forced marriage. Martin refused to run away with jon in s4 and Peter offered him an alternative way out. Dark, exactly what it says on the tin. smutty (WIP

The Hunter's Stag (Jonpeter, fantasy au. Faerie au.) Jon is a magic white stag that was cursed by a faerie king, to run until he's caught and killed. Peter is the hunter that doesn't want to do that. They become friends. And then more. (WIP

Wintergreen AU: (noship. Jon is 8, has a boat, and is going to america. he gets caught in bad weather and picked up by the Tundra. Now there's a child on board his ship and Peter Lukas doesn't know what to do with him. Silly, lighthearted fun i guess. WIP)

I'm not your Protagonist (I'm not even my own): Jmart, Jonelias) Jon wakes up somewhere else and realizes he's not happy. He does his best to figure out why. (EVERYONE HAS TRAUMA AND GETS THERAPY FIC) WIP)

YEOMYTIM (Your eyes on mine, your Teeth in me _Jondaisy, WIP)

The Hearthwitch's Cat (Jmart, Fantasy) Jon is a powerful arch mage that learns a terrible secret and for his safety, becomes a cat. Martin is the hearthwitch he chooses to adopt as his owner. Fluffy, romance, silly fantasy shenanigans (WIP

The red strings of fate (Can go fuck themselves) Jonelias, eugenics au) Jon is someone who never ever wanted to have a partner, but the system matches him to some bastard name Elias Bouchard. Jon's only way out of having children (legally) is to be a holy terror of a wife. Shenanigans ensue. Smutty, fluffy, light hearted i guess. Elias is not evil and Jon is ace spec WIP)

Non TMA stuff:

Dawn of Shadows (Wip, fantasy)

Everyone loves Fucked Up Houses :) (wip, horror)

That weird creepypasta thing, (wip, horror romance)

A real War (wip, Everymanhybrid)

Mabel vs the Grim Reaper (wip, Gravity Falls)

Grimoire Falls (horror fantasy, gravity falls au)

If I think of more of these, I will add them!

ALSO IF YOU ARE CURIOUS, SEND ME AN ASK ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT! Seriously yell at me about my ideas please im desperate :))

EDITED 3/29/24

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

so this post is inspired by a person who sent an ask to @my-nitpicking-self (i hope you don't mind me tagging you), who mentioned the confrontation between katara and zuko in atla, in reference to glimmer's and catra's relationship in spop. i thought it was an interesting comparison, so i'm going to expand on it.

so two very similar scenes in atla and spop: katara and zuko being stuck together in crystal catacombs and glimmer and catra being stuck together in horde prime's ship. two things to note here - zuko was beginning to heal at this point and had almost completely given up his mission of capturing aang, while catra has just finished conquering salineas and was neck-deep in villainy.

as soon as katara sees zuko, she becomes outraged. keep in mind, zuko did not kill katara's mother. but she still had a valid reason to be mad at him. she holds him accountable for everything he has done.

K: Why did they throw you in here? Oh, wait, let me guess. It's a trap. So that when Aang shows up to help me, you can finally have him in your little Fire Nation clutches!

K: You're a terrible person! You know that? Always following us! Hunting the Avatar! Trying to capture the world's last hope for peace! But what do you care? You're the Fire Lord's son. Spreading war and violence and hatred is in your blood!

Z: You don't know what you're talking about.

K: I don't? How dare you! You have no idea what this war has put me through! Me personally! The Fire Nation took my mother away from me.

here, zuko doesn't try to argue with katara until she implies that violence and aggression is an inherited thing, because he's from the fire nation. zuko accepts his mistakes but he is also aware that being a fire nation citizen or even royalty alone doesn't make you a bad person. even then, he doesn't raise his voice or lash out at her, he just calmly disagrees.

after katara mentions her mother, he apologizes and sympathizes with her.

Z: I'm sorry. That's something we have in common.

K: I'm sorry I yelled at you before.

Z: It doesn't matter.

K: It's just that for so long now, whenever I would imagine the face of the enemy, it was your face.

katara also apologizes but zuko understands that it was completely in her right to blame him. and then we get to the crux of the issue. katara's mother was killed years ago but she still hasn't been able to move on from the grief.

now, of course, zuko again turns back to villainy but this was an important confrontation. and it wasn't the only one. as you all know, after zuko's official redemption, the gaang still doesn't trust him and katara is the last person to forgive him. she is still upset and disappointed by the way he betrayed her after they had begun to bond in the catacombs. and zuko has to prove his loyalty before katara could forgive him.

now let's come to glimmer and catra. catra DIRECTLY caused the death of glimmer's mother. and it was recent. glimmer had been grappling with her grief in the last season, to the point where she spirals into a small corruption arc. s4 of spop does NOT forget angella's death.

so obviously, you would expect there to be a confrontation between glimmer and catra in s5, especially since they were alone together in a confined space. but let's see what happened.

Glimmer: You again. Why do you keep coming back here?

Catra: Just...bored, I guess.

Glimmer: No, I mean, Horde Prime told you not to talk to me. He's gonna catch you eventually. Why risk it? ...You're lonely, aren't you?

so far, no confrontation, no apology.

Catra: What do you know? You're the prisoner here. I can go where I want. So, stay here by yourself for all I care.

Glimmer: Okay, okay, you're right. It...helps having someone to talk to. Even if you're the last person I'd ever want to be stuck here with.

Catra: Trust me, Sparkles, the feeling is mutual.

and just like that, they're on better terms now. glimmer doesn't bring up angella's death, she doesn't bring up the way catra treated adora, how she and bow were kidnapped by catra, nothing. they seem more like casual rivals than enemies here. catra doesn't seem guilty in the slightest, she just has to threaten to leave and glimmer immediately makes her stay.

and not just that, they joke about adora's paranoia that was rooted in her trauma, as if it's just a fun quirk. at this point, it's clear that the writers are not even trying to make it seem like they don't favor catra over all the characters.

and the one time glimmer somewhat confronts catra—

G: Please, Catra. Do one good thing in your life!

C: Don't talk to me like you know me! You don't know anything about me!

of course, catra shuts her down immediately. and afterwards, even when catra saves glimmer, she makes it clear that she's only doing it for adora. while on the surface, this might still come off as a good deed, it's clear from her later behaviour that catra's goal wasn't to help either adora or glimmer. my best guess is that she was practically awaiting death at that point and didn't expect to face the consequences of her actions, so she wanted to go out with one good deed, much like shadow weaver.

it's crazy how zuko, who was just an antagonist and has done very little to directly hurt the gaang, faced the consequences of his actions and got a drawn out and detailed redemption; while catra, who spent the entire series hurting the protagonists out of her own interest, gets off scot-free.

any time her past actions are brought up, they are mentioned in the vaguest terms possible i.e. “she made some mistakes” or “shs hurt people”. it's so clear that the writers were hoping that if the other characters forgot everything that catra did, the audience would do the same. and the worst part is that they're right. 90% of the fandom were willing to accept catra's redemption because no one in the show ever holds her accountable or confronts her properly.

[markantonys]

Idk if you saw the Josha Collider interview but he kinda hints we might get some Randlayne in s3? Which I am curious about that cause I didn't think they'd have time. Also that the Randfear relationship will continue where it left off and get even more complicated (which is very much their Shadow Rising dynamic)

i'm gobbling up these randlayne crumbs!!

but he keeps it very vague here and i don't think there's anything too surprising in what he says - the fact that the show took the time to signal randlayne in 2x08 definitely implies to me that they plan to follow up on it in SOME way in season 3, and given that daniel was already talking about having filmed some lanaeve scenes way back in june which according to the block filming schedule would probably mean those scenes are somewhere in the first block (eps 1&2), i think we can pretty safely assume that the tanchico & waste travel groups won't split up right away, and that we'll see rand and elayne interacting early in the season.

now, that doesn't necessarily mean they're going to be making out all over falme or declaring their love for each other already! "a gradual thing which needs to be organic" definitely makes me feel pretty good about my prior randlayne guess, which is that they'll be getting to know each other and building a connection early in s3 and laying that groundwork for romance, but nothing explicitly romantic will happen between them before they split up for their respective journeys. because they wouldn't have included that Moment between them in 2x08 if they didn't intend to build upon it pretty promptly at the start of season 3, so we've got to be seeing SOMETHING more on the randlayne front, but i don't think it will be anything huge. and what josha says here supports both parts of that prediction, i think! his comments on rand's headspace at the start of s3 also make me think it's unlikely rand will be jumping straight into brand-new romance during the first episode block, and since we know tanchico & the waste are both in, i don't think rand would see elayne again until the second half of s3 at the earliest and perhaps not until s4 (in person, anyway; further randlayne development through TAR chats is not outside the realm of possibility!)

and of course, avirand isn't something josha would be hinting at even a tiny bit in interviews since it's way too much of a spoiler, given that the two of them haven't even met yet, so randlayne being the s3 romance he's discussing doesn't mean avirand won't sneak in there and end up happening first! but all this being said, i am always ready for the show to surprise me and prove me totally wrong haha

and he made intriguing comments about randfear too, like you say!

in a couple of today's other interviews he said he wants randfear endgame djkjfg i'd have a shipping war with him about that, but i love how much he's loving digging into this relationship! lanfear positioning herself as ~the only one who understands him~ despite him being surrounded by his friends definitely sets up some toxic shit and i can't wait to see where that goes in s3. i love Mess!!

(..................i'm saying nothing about book!min positioning herself as ~the only one who understands him~. nothing at all!)

wait a moment. literally right here josha says rand is with his friends at the start of season 3, so that pretty much confirms we'll be starting off with the gang all still together!!!!!! (of course, he could mean just that he's with mat & egwene en route to the waste, but given daniel's confirmation of lanaeve scenes, i think at this point we can feel very very confident in seeing the whole gang still together at the start of the season)

[meyerlansky]

twenty questions for fic writers!

tagged by @redbelles AND @inkpot-demigod 🖤💙🖤💙 took me eighteen years but i figured i ought to get it done before the emoji asks >_>

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

39!

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

133,253

3. what fandoms do you write for?

right now it's just masters of the air, because i really only focus on one fandom at a time but i also don't really LEAVE fandoms so much as they go dormant for a bit. in the last year i've at least TOUCHED wips for boardwalk empire and the witcher, and once bachelor route drops i will probably go back to some of my pathologic 2 fics and maybe come up with new stuff. same with HotD s2, although i don't know how much new stuff will come out of that vs finishing up things in metamorphoses.

4. top five fics by kudos

keep safe broad shoulders, warm hands keds and tube socks vestis virum facit denuo

so mostly burakhovsky smut, except for keep safe which is outsider pov nearly-gen lambden (from the witcher and specifically witcher 3) fic, and i have NO idea how it's my most-kudosed fic; and keds and tube socks, which is a long-ass (for me) steddie fic that i WILL finish at some point i am so sorry to everyone who's subbed to that fic /o\

5. do you respond to comments?

I TRY MY BEST ;___; i really like talking to people about fic, mine and others', so every comment i've left unresponded-to haunts me, but sometimes i can't get over my own anxiety enough. the only time it's deliberate is if the only content in the comment is "you have to write more of this" or anything similar and phrased EXCLUSIVELY like a demand, because It's Rude and also i have no idea how to respond to that.

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

explicitly angsty is probably with my ash-stained palms or broad shoulders, warm hands because neither ryuzo or daniil get what they want in those ones, though i think bswh!daniil would get what he wants eventually. ryuzo, maybe not >_> dancing cheek to cheek (to cheek) is also probably up there, but that's more interesting because it's not angsty on the page! and i WAS planning on leaving it as is, originally! that's why it has the canon compliant tag! but now i'm 8k deep in a canon-divergent sequel so idk if it counts anymore. genuinely i was planning on answering this with "i don't write a lot of unresolved angst" but. hm.

...wait, also hot blood, deep roots. which is the dark mirror nightmare counterpart of bswh and is... definitely worse. and i have something even worse in my wips okay i guess i write more angst than i thought

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

probably vestis virum facit, since the final section is implied to be far-enough post-plague that they're Gonna Be Okay. but like the angst question, i don't really think of too many of my fics as the And They Lived Happily Ever After, The End type so much as like... they're happy In That Moment and that's what matters

8. do you get hate on fics?

i got put on the patho fandom blacklist for associating with Freaks And Criminals, and then i wrote hot blood, deep roots to cement my spot on it, so if that counts that's the extent of it afaik. i do worry about catching flak for stuff down the line, but honestly haters tend to be cowards, sooo

9. do you write smut?

LOVE WRITING SMUT. LOVE IT WHEN MY GUYS NAIL EACH OTHER. IT'S MY FAVORITE. i had like a year-long stint before stranger things s4 where i only posted genfic and i was SO disappointed with myself, even though the stuff i posted was GOOD genfic

10. craziest crossover:

don't really do crossovers! but entertaining daemon au thoughts is how i know i'm in a fandom deep enough that it's gonna stick for a bit, even though i've only posted daemon au fic for bwe thus far

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

not to my knowledge

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

also not to my knowledge!

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

i'm not opposed to spitballing with people, and some of my best bwe work has come out of very long headcanon exchanges with @goatsandgangsters and @therestisdetail in particular, but i am not a consistent enough writer to saddle anyone else with my habits, so that's the closest i've gotten to cowriting anything.

14. all time favorite ship?

L A N S K I A N O. they are my forever boys. nothing will topple them. ever.

15. what's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

NONE OF MY WIPS ARE ABANDONED THEY ARE ALL GOING TO GET DONE EVENTUALLY DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT

16. what are your writing strengths?

snappy dialogue and the internal character work involved in a tight third person pov, which is good since a tight third is the only way i like to write

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

speed. if i don't finish something inside of a week of starting it, it will drag out for an infinity and a half and i'll have to chip away at it and hate myself for being slow the whoooooooooole time. i also... i have no idea how to explain this, but i don't consider myself an especially creative person, so i have trouble if i don't have a jumping off point to start with? most of my fics have pretty solid touchpoints in the canon and tend to be one-shots, if not single-scene. coming up with new shit for my dudes to do can be a struggle. which, tbh, adds to the speed thing, especially for stuff that tilts off into canon-divergent territory

18. thoughts on dialogue in another language?

alright, listen, i might have an entire buryat dictionary database downloaded onto my hard drive to spice up patho fic, but i'm in agreement with previous answers on this one: it can get dicey to write in a language you don't know, and if your readers don't know it it will interrupt the flow in a way that's not usually what i'm looking to do in a fic. that said, most of my fandoms have at LEAST one non-english language involved, if not multiple, so i do end up doing a lot of research into those languages, and i'm absolutely not opposed to pulling out single-words or phrases after either a. checking with someone who speaks those languages, if it's a real one, or b. pulling them from their usage in the canon itself and/or sometimes extrapolating out a bit, like the high valyrian i peppered into chrysalis

19. first fandom you wrote in?

boardwalk empire my beloved 🖤🖤🖤 i played around with some stuff prior to that—i think i'd noodled with what would technically be alice in wonderland fic in high school, although i don't remember what happened in it—but nothing substantial enough to count as Actual Fic, and definitely not anything i have access to anymore

20. favorite fic you've written?

MAN. HOW TO CHOOSE. it's maybe a little bit of recency bias to say dancing cheek to cheek (to cheek), but i think it's a tie between that and junkyard dogs, and both for the same reason, which is that i am really proud of the character work they do with curt and eddie, respectively. i'm not SURPRISED jd is as low on the hits/kudos/etc scale as it is since it's genfic and billy is...... divisive........... but i really think i nailed eddie in it. with dctc(tc) it was fun to get to play with curt, who's... look, i'm just gonna say it, i think he gets mischaracterized in a lot of the other fandom stuff i've seen involving him, so it was fun to get how i read him down on the page. it's also interesting to not only develop curt internally but to look at the buckies from an outsider POV, because they are UNDENIABLY the love story at the center of MotA's narrative, but they're both IN IT so they can't SEE IT. i also don't usually do scene breaks? like most of my fics are single-scene but i dragged dctc(tc) out and shockingly it WORKED? so yeah idk i'm just really proud of it.

OKAY. WHOOF. TIME FOR TAGS. let's seeeeeeeeee i will tag @goatsandgangsters @hosseinis @chirpybirdy @sweaterkittensahoy @reiverreturns

@samuelroukin @stoportotouch @notgrungybitchin @adriennefrombrooklyn and anyone else who wants to, but no pressure as always!

[cloud-somersault]

For me personally, I read it as Xianglu feeling sympathy for MK. He wanted MK to have a life. He didn't want MK to just be a sacrifice. He wanted him to experience the joys of living and make the choice to either save the people he loved or die with them. The world was always going to end, and the cycle was always going to begin again. Atleast enjoy it while you can.

Also the cycle Nuwa was talking about and the cycle of reincarnation are two separate things. What Nuwa was talking about a hard reset of the world. The current world would end, and a new one would take its place. Chaos, I'm pretty sure, can only be reached when the world ends. So I don't think he really cared what MK chose. If he sacrifice himself, Xiangliu still has the chance to return to chaos. If he doesn't, the world is plunged into chaos. Either one is a win for him. What he wanted was for MK to make the choice for himself, which is why he stopped the Monkie Kid crew from interfering.

It also relates back to his own backstory. He implies that he was in the same position as MK. He sacrificed himself to try and fix the pillars. He thought that that was the only way to save the world. Which is why he was upset that MK found another way. It means he could've found another way. It means he didn't have to give up his friends. His friends, like Wukong, would remember him. He wouldn't be treated like a monster. He could've done something different. Like he said MK found another way. Which relate back to the larger themes of the show, destiny not defining who you are, you can always chose your own path, that pain doesn't outweigh the love and joy of life, and that you don't have to do things alone. I know you thought the themes of this season were a bit repetitive, but I think it's nice that its a constant thing that is brought up. A little reminder to not give up and rely on others even when the going gets tough.

I definitely think Nine felt sympathy for MK and wanted MK to experience the world he was going to sacrifice himself for. He wanted MK to have more context, which is admirable, but not something he had to necessarily do for his wants to be realized. It's just bonus content.

That doesn't change the fact that MK didn't have to be born for the world to end. MK would save the world, and the world was going to end regardless. I guess what I'm complaining about is I would've liked a more concrete tie between MK and the guy who awakened him. I'd like there to be more of a "cause and effect" there. Like MK has to wake up for Nine's dream to come true. But Nine could've just freed Azure, had him fight the Jade Emperor, have him break the Pillar, and then Nine could get out.

If you mean the Cycle of Reincarnation as what the Ten Kings did with souls, then I understand that's a separate thing. My problem with that specifically is that we don't know if that's continuing or not now that the kings are gone. People now have magical powers at the end of the season. Can they still de? Where do they go.

If you mean the Cycle of Reset or whatever that Nuwa is doing, yeah. That was going to happen regardless of what MK chose. It only happened now because Nine orchestrated things. But what I'm getting at is - neither of those outcomes are contingent on MK being there. Nine could cause the world to end by orchestrating things without MK being there, and the world would still end. He could also just wait for the Cycle of Reset to happen on it's own, and the world would, again, be free for Chaos to come in. I know Nine didn't do that because he was impatient and he wanted it to happen right now. But I.

I never said I had a problem with the themes of the show, my problem mainly is the connections between things and the cause and effect of the plot. The themes are fine. The repetitiveness is that MK has to keep learning the same lesson, which Wukong also points out in s5e3.

And we're kinda…Like all this setup and stuff happened in s4. One season ago. That's when MK's backstory became plot important, it's when those whole themes…came into play largely. So it seems a little fast because, up until s3, we were all on the "MK is just a powerful monkie kid and he's got these powers and he's gonna be saving the world every season or doing something like that" there was the general "hey, where did MK come from or where did he get these powers?" stuff that the fandom thought of, but the characters in the show didn't ask those questions. They were like "yeah, alright."

But anyway, back to Nine - I get that Nine was presenting a choice to MK to see what he'd do. He felt sympathy for MK. He sees a connection between them. And the backstory and stuff happens so fast, we don't really see if MK also sees that connection between them. We didn't have time to build up on that dynamic between Nine's character and MK's. But that's a pacing/budget problem.

And I understand what you're saying. I get that Nine wanted to see what MK's choice was for himself and that he's got an emotional investment here, but. That is the only thing tying him…to sticking around and holding the Monkie Kids hostage. And MK making the choice himself…

Okay, honestly, I think Nine's entire thing. was to be present to give the Pigsy and co. context to what MK was going to do, because this kid was not going to tell his friends that he was going to sacrifice himself. Nine holding them in the mountain and exposition dumping allows everyone to be on the same page of "Oh, MK's going to die" vs. MK just charging ahead and disappearing and them realizing after the fact.

Because MK still went up to Nuwa and was all too willing to sacrifice himself to save everyone. And it was only when Nuwa said that the cycle would reset that MK was like "oh no actually. Nah." If Nine hadn't stopped the Monkie kids and didn't show up at all and MK just put the stones in the statue, went into the Pillar and charged ahead, that conversation between MK and Nuwa still would've happened. And MK would likely come to the same conclusion because he doesn't want to lose anyone.

My problem is -- Nine isn't tied enough to the cause and effect of this plot. You could remove him in some instances, and it wouldn't matter.

MK's connection to the world ending is not firm enough. He didn't need to be around for the world to end and, apparently, the world could've ended if someone just broke the pillar/stole the Jade Emperor's power. Neither of those things require the Harbinger of Chaos being alive and present and there.

Nine's connection to MK is mostly emotional, which can be enough, but we needed more time. And I feel like they could've tied up these loose ends and made the plot and motivations of Nine a bit tighter with a few adjustments.

I'm not arguing the themes; I'm arguing the execution.

[chaoscradle]

assigning GUTS songs to stranger things characters (i know this has been done a ton of times already but i'm doing it anyway):

all-american bitch: nancy

"I know my age and I act like it"

"I'm a perfect all-american bitch"

"I know my place, I know my place, and this is it"

"I'm the eternal optimist, I scream inside to deal with it"

"I pay attention to things most people ignore"

(el could also work with this one, but i felt like with the whole nuclear family thing the wheelers have going on that nancy fits better)

bad idea right?: max

"'I only see him as a friend' the biggest lie I ever said"

"can't two people reconnect?"

"but god, when I look at you, my brain goes 'ah', can't hear my thoughts"

vampire: joyce

"every girl I talked to told me you were bad, bad news"

"you're so convincing, how do you lie without flinching?"

"I've made some real big mistakes, but you make the worst one look fine"

"the way you sold me for parts"

"you said it was true love, but wouldn't that be hard? you can't love anyone, 'cause that would mean you had a heart"

"I loved you truly. gotta laugh at the stupidity"

lacy: el

"I linger all the time, watchin', hidden in plain sight"

"aren't you the sweetest thing on this side of hell?"

"I feel your compliments like bullets on skin"

"and I despise my jealous eyes and how hard they fell for you"

ballad of a homeschooled girl: mike

"and I hate all my clothes, feels like my skin doesn't fit right over my bones"

"the party's done, and I'm no fun, I know I know, I know, I know"

"I made it weird, I made it worse"

"everything I do is tragic"

"I'm shocked I'm still alive"

(this could also work for robin tbh)

making the bed: mike

"another perfect moment that doesn't feel like mine, another thing I forced to be a sign"

"push away all the people who know me the best"

"every good thing has turned into something I dread"

"and I tell someone I love them, just as a distraction"

logical: will (psa this is from will's pov i don't think any of this of mike)

"come for me like a savior, and I'd put myself through hell for you"

"and I fell for you like rain falls from a February sky, but now the current's stronger and I couldn't get out if I tried"

"oh, why do I do this? I look so stupid thinking two plus two equals five, and I'm the love of your life"

"'cause if rain don't pour and sun don't shine, then changing you is possible"

"you lied, you lied, you lied"

"I guess love is never logical"

"the sky is green, the grass is red, and you mean all those words you said"

"I know I'm half responsible, and that makes me feel horrible"

"I know I could've stopped it all, god why didn't I stop it all?"

"'cause loving you is loving every argument you held over my head"

get him back!: max (NOT about lumax, just how she'd handle a different breakup)

"I want sweet revenge, I want him again"

"do I love him? do I hate him? I guess it's up and down"

"I wanna make him really jealous, I wanna make him feel bad"

"I wanna break his heart, then be the one to stitch it up"

"I wanna meet his mom, just to tell her her son sucks"

love is embarrassing: will

"and then, you kissed some girl from high school"

"waited by my phone like a goddamn fool"

"god, love's embarrassing as hell"

"and I consoled you while you cried over your ex-girlfriend's new guy" (minus the new guy part)

"you found a new version of me"

"I give up, I give up, but I keep comin' back for more"

the grudge: lucas

"how could anyone do the things you did so easily?"

"I try to be tough, I try to be mean, but even after all this, you're still everything to me, and I know you don't care, I guess that's fine"

"one phone call from you and my entire world was changed"

"and I doubt you ever think about the damage that you did, but I hold onto every detail like my life depends on it"

"and I know in my heart, hurt people hurt people"

(this song doesn't 100% represent lucas and max's relationship in s4 imo but it comes the closest)

pretty isn't pretty: el

"there's always something in the mirror that I think looks wrong"

"when pretty isn't pretty enough, what do you do?"

"I could change up my body and change up my face, I could try every lipstick in every shade, but I'd always feel the same"

"fix the thing you hated, and you'd still feel insecure"

"I chased some dumb ideal my whole fucking life, and none of it matters and none of it ends"

teenage dream: will

"they all say that it gets better, it gets better, but what if I don't?"

"when am I gonna stop being wise beyond my years and just start being wise?"

"I'll blow out the candles, happy birthday to me" (birthdaygate)

"but I fear that they already got all the best parts of me"

"will I spend all the rest of my years wishin' I could go back?"

[dangerpronebuddie]

Now that it's been pointed out to me, I can NOT stop thinking about it! It's a long ramble, so it's under the cut.

Eddie runs when things get tough.

Shannon got pregnant-> military

Shannon wants to move-> he shuts her out

Parents want to take Chris-> moves away

I am in no way blaming Shannon here, but I am saying that this is probably where most of this behavior was learned. It could even be from Ramon always being away, and being emotionally absent when he was present.

The thing is, when Eddie ran, no one stopped him. Shannon didn't put up a fight when he joined up. His parents let him walk away. When Buck wants to talk about the shooting and Eddie shuts down, Buck doesn't push.

So Eddie has learned he can get away with it. No one's going to push back, so why push at all?

I have noticed that he doesn't enter arguments unless provoked. When he comes home from Afghanistan, his parents and Shannon criticize every little thing. So he puts up his carefully crafted walls and shuts them out. He only starts the peacocking gym fight when Buck turns his aggression on Chimney.

Now the grocery store fight is a whole other ballgame. It's grief disguised as anger. I will admit, and I will die on this hill, that Eddie's "you're exhausting" comment was uncalled for and I would've burst into tears if someone said that to me. But that's what grief does to him. It's so overwhelming, and having grown up in a house where he had to be the man of the house as a child, showing no emotion, it's not surprising. If you're not angry when you're upset, you're not a man.

But I'm getting off track (as usual.)

My point is, no one's given him reason to keep fighting through the issue, so he simply walks away from it.

Which makes the cemetery scene even more incredible and interesting. Frank is my hero, honestly, and Eddie's growth has been amazing to watch. He's not running from Buck in the cemetery scene, he's offering Buck the chance to fight for them.

Instead of taking the lead, being in control, or walking away, he's giving the reigns to Buck. His last attempts at trying to get Buck to get over his near death experiences didn't work. He tried to get Buck out of his own head with the ladder truck, so he makes Buck go out into the world again. Only to be caught in a tsunami. He tries again (poorly) in the grocery store scene, asking him why he can't move on and suck it up. These attempts only made Buck internalize his emotions. Because that's all Eddie knew.

Thanks to Frank, Eddie's learning. So instead of inserting himself into Buck's issues and trying to make things right as fast as possible, he's actually allowing Buck "time to process" (seriously, how could Eddie possibly give such advice to others when he couldn't follow his own in s4?)

He lets Buck come to him in 6x12, and only asks how Buck's really doing after they talk. He's trying to follow Buck's lead for a change.

Same with the cemetery and "you don't have to be anything for anybody." Buck keeps looking to Eddie like Eddie's supposed to tell him what to do, but Eddie's learned that that doesn't work. Buck HAS to make decisions for himself or he's never going to grow. So, Eddie thinks that if Natalia is who Buck wants, then he won't stop him.

Now he did comment on how it was a bad idea for Buck to date people they've met on calls (kinda hypocritical dude!), but that's the only objection he's voiced.

Something else just popped into my head about how Eddie came to this conclusion. He saw Buck with Taylor and without her. Guess which version he preferred? Which version was happier?

That's because, when Buck breaks up with her, it's his decision. He chose to end things instead of waiting for "when the woman flees." Buck stumbles into relationships, and waits for shit to hit the fan. He doesn't put in the work either.

Buddie can either be really really good or really really bad with this. Eddie leaving the ball in Buck's court lets Buck make the decision to be with Eddie. He has to confess, because Eddie's resigned himself to pining forever. When Buck does, they can either have hundreds of problems, or learn to communicate and operate as a couple.

Forcing the decision into Buck's hands makes him choose for himself what he wants. Buck always has to be chosen, but Eddie's telling him he doesn't have to be. Eddie's always choosing, so giving Buck the lead is not only a huge display of trust, but it's a giant step forward in terms of how Eddie handles relationships.

Now, had Eddie not done this, this might've been a major issue for them. Buck would keep following Eddie's lead, not put in any effort, and Eddie would bail the moment they had even a small tiff.

But thanks to giving the decision to Buck, they have a better chance at a successful ship.

What needs to happen now is they need to address the things they haven't dared talk about. Namely the will, the shooting, and the lightning.

I know the show doesn't leave loose ends, and foreshadowing (especially when it comes to Eddie) can take several seasons to unfold. So, it's not improbable that the Will will be brought up again. I know they talked about Buck's death and the shooting, but not what it did to each other. And, I have a little theory about Eddie's comments about the shooting.

He remembers more. His body language in that scene absolutely says so. He barely looks at Buck, does a subtle head shake, and keeps his comments to a minimum. Because he needed to in that moment. Telling Buck everything he actually remembered wasn't what Buck needed. Buck needed the assurance that he was going to get better. That he'd actually process it. Eddie couldn't tell him the whole truth and expect Buck to feel fine about it.

Welp... this got way out of hand very quickly. Random thoughts while doing dishes will do that, I guess. I just think the cemetery scene has a lot more layers than I first noticed, and every time I think about these two, something new to analyze comes up.

[gregoftom]

I love Greg, but if I was Tom I would have teared the bitch to pieces with my teeth if I saw him having a ball of a time with the fascists, after having agreed to go to prison for him. He did the same thing with boar on the floor and the proposal of a business open relationship afterwards. Which in retrospect is very fucking crazy. Dude had to stand in an empty pool and got pissed on, but still didn't talk because of a little 'pls 🥺' only for Greg to break-up and blackmail him. Love them, fr.

JASJAKSJAKJSAS yeah i'll be honest that hurt me too.

it's kind of crazy the way that greg reacted then compared to now and you make a good point - twice tom makes these big proposals of love and twice it's kind of thrown back in his face. this is something he's used to so it makes sense that he goes off and pelts bottles at greg. you can kind of understand tom, LOL.

but he keeps pursuing him! like a lovesick little bitch! it's so..... A. there are probably multiple reasons why greg reacts the way he does to tom at the start; 1. he thinks that's the way this world works having observed the family acting that way [tom even praises him for the blackmail, in the end greg is mostly satisfied with being treated better and respected and being given a sense of belonging. tom knows just how to seduce him right back in] 2. he's not sure, like i was when i first watched boar on the floor, just how long these kinds of gestures could and would last so he doesn't take it quite so seriously hence trying to leave after [also up to that point tom had been uh. pretty mean to him!! and he gravitates towards niceness, it's only then i guess that he managed to pluck up the courage to ask to leave bc tom had this sudden burst of kindness and greg felt like he could leave without getting Killed lol.] 3. he's just being selfish - he takes these gestures and runs with them, esp the getting out of jail free card. he's like, oh thanks! then thoughtlessly celebrates his freedom with a bunch of. dudes. anyway.

BUT THEN LATE S3-4?????!?! WTF HAPPENED HASKJASAS this bitch was like minnesotan dick got me acting unwise. "prove it" shut the hell up slut!!! tom can't even react properly cuz he's like HUH?????? i thought you didn't even like me back!!!!! and it's just so fucking fun bc it pairs up very nicely with how much tom acts like a schoolboy around greg. these mfs be acting like high school idiots and it's so entertaining. it's like i said somewhere else on a post; one of them will take steps forward while the other steps back. the nero sporus scene was greg's "oh!" moment, i think. that was the moment he was like, oh wait, this is for real? bc ever since then he's been glued to tom's side and in the latest s4 episodes been singing his song like hey hi i'm greg of tom, i'm tom's mistress, how is everybody, hi mr president did you know i love that country boy. also i am here. like he mentioned himself second!! not exactly a huge thing like botf, but it's still a gesture! just a shame tom wasn't there to see it; maybe it'll be addressed in some way in the finale or he'll bear witness to greg doing the same thing for him in kind and we'll either get a break up as a response [touche greg] or... not?? which!!!!! A but i'm kind of expecting something within the former range. but i don't think it'll be an easy decision for tom and tbh, i'll take that. it at least means greg is important to him.

something happened between s3 and 4; they became friends, the trust grew, they must have spent a lot of time together. the disgusting brothers [which atp could just be them fucking each other and calling it disgusting bc they're fucking dumb and internally homophobic] bullshit, which sounds like something some idiot frat bros would come up with. "DIGUSTIBUS" GREG U WANNA FUCK THAT SENIOR CITIZEN SO BAD IT MAKES U LOOK STUPID. like. we had tom acting like that, now it's greg's turn. the scales tipped the other way and now tom is like. whadda hell... he likes it for sure we can see it here and there. but he's taking the step back now. i just think that's interesting!

ANYWAY SORRY I MADE THIS INTO A HUGE POST LOL but the point is. i also love them fr and tom should've [redacted] whenever greg was a little unappreciative asshole.

[mlobsters]

supernatural s15e20 carry on (w. andrew dabb)

well. i started watching this show last year around end of february. more or less since maybe a bit through s1, i've been watching one episode a day. sometimes it takes me a few days to get through one episode, other times i need a break because of some bad stuff in the episode prior. i've been posting a recap thing for every episode since about midway through s4.

297 posts under my spnwatch tag, which has some doubles because of reblogs when i split up the watch etc. so yeah, only a year of my life, but i've spent so many hours writing about the show now that it's like i'm wrapping up some large project by finishing it. that said, because i didn't write up those first few seasons (only when i recognized someone and did a hey i know you), i do think i might go back and write those up when i start a rewatch. so i have a project extension waiting in the wings 🤪

i made a fanvid, i've made spn gifs and even some j2 gifs

i've also painted a good amount of things from the show now

so i guess this is all to say, this show has been so creatively inspiring and i'm thankful for that - despite all my regular complaining, i do care so much for these two characters and the relationship they forged and shared on screen over all these years. i'm late to the party but i'm glad i got here nonetheless

i'm nervous to watch this episode. i know the main moments but not how it plays out. and i've been upset about and complained about dean's ending for many a season knowing it was coming down the pike

i gather there's no official time on when this takes place, but that jared has said 5 years later and the script linked from the wiki said 6 months but however long it was apparently sam has learned to use a towel with a hot pan handle in this little domestic slice of life montage

DEAN What? What's wrong? SAM Nothing. I'm fine. DEAN No, come on. I know that face. That's, uh... That Sad Sam face. SAM I'm not Sad Sam. I'm just... I'm thinking about Cass, you know? Jack. If they could be here. DEAN Yeah, no. I think about 'em, too. You know what? That pain's not gonna go away. Right? But if we don't keep living, then all that sacrifice is gonna be for nothing. So, quit being a friggin' Eeyore, huh? Come on.

get busy living or get busy dying

can't complain about going out on a monster of the week episode vs the any of the prior ridiculous mainplots

is it happening already? there's a barn. and vampires. i mean, that's kind of funny that they brought back some very minor evil side character and immediately killed her off. ok well and they showed us dean once narrowly missing the rebar so i guess so.

i knew i wasn't going to handle dean dying well, and i'm not handling it well. he's so young and they went through so much misery for basically his entire life. and insult to injury is sam having to live without him for so long.

DEAN I must have stood outside your dorm for hours... because I didn't... I didn't know what... What you would say. I thought you'd tell me to... to get lost or get dead. And I don't know what I would've done... if I didn't have you. 'Cause I was so scared. I was scared, 'cause when it all came down to it, it was always you and me. It's always been you... and me. SAM Then don't leave me. Don't leave me. I can't do this alone. DEAN Yes, you can. SAM Well, I don't want to.

and with the callback to the pilot moment and exchange about doing it alone...

DEAN Hey. I'm not leaving you. I'm gonna be with you... (Dean is crying as he places his fist over Sam's heart) Right here... every day. Every day you're out there and you're Li... And you're living and you're fighting, 'cause you... You always keep fighting. You hear me? I'll be there every step. I love you so much. My baby brother. Oh, man. Well, I did not think this would be the day. But it is. It is, and that's... Man... that's okay. I need you to... I need you to promise me. I need you to... To... to tell me... that it's okay. I need you to tell me that it's okay.

i really hate everything about him dying like this but i can appreciate the words they gave us for their love for each other.

i really would like to finish this in one go because i don't want to be crying for two days.

not a fan of the licensed music choices jay gruska (ofc) made. lyrics fit but music itself, pass. maybe for the best, if there was something better in this collection of sam grieving i might not be able to handle it. not really handling now either tbf

DEAN So, Jack did all that? BOBBY Well... Cass helped.

that mean cas is out of the empty then? i'd think i would know that, and with jack fixing everything that would make sense

DEAN It's almost perfect. BOBBY He'll be along. Time up here, it's... it's different.

but it isn't for sammy... but i guess he's happy with his kid and blurry wife and all that, so.

if they were gonna do the gray wig on jared, the least they could have done was some aging makeup as well

counted i think 3 variations of the mushy music theme between dean dying, something else i don't wanna backtrack for, and on the bridge

i know this is a happy ending but just like i considered a fic where the mains die in the last moments when they're old still mcd, this falls under the same kind of thing for me personally. some things make me cry, and it's cathartic. i cry easily, obviously. this is engineered to make me sob and i don't like the premise of him dying early, or that we had to follow the story through them dying to reunite in heaven. it surely adds to the romance of the story, but i also find it incredibly upsetting and i don't particularly like feeling this way. so this is why i'd been dreading this episode for months.

so, that's that, i guess.

Eric Kripke revealed in an interview with EW, that after learning of the show's planned ending, he had attempted to think of different ones to pitch back to Andrew Dabb and Bob Singer, but ultimately came to the conclusion that their planned ending was the right one. Saying of his proposed alternate ending: "There's only one scene that I haven't done that I would've done for the end of the show and I'm certainly not going to give it away, maybe one day I will. But I can assure the fans that my ending was so much darker than the ending they're going with, so anyone who's like, 'Kripke should've ended it,' I'm like, 'You would've hated my ending!' Because it was a horror movie and it was going to have a horror movie ending, so I can promise you the ending [they went with] you'll love much more than if you had let me end the show."

i can only imagine and yes i'm sure i would have hated it too

Dean II: Dad. It's okay. You can go now.

As he described at the November StageIt panel, it was Jared's idea to mirror Dean's death with Sam's. The line "You can go now" was inspired by what director Bob Singer related he had said to his own father.

yeah yeah. my mom made me tell my dad this too when he was dying from cancer when I was 16.

[chirpsythismorning]

Predictions for Songs That May (or May Not) Be Used to Promote the Final Season of Stranger Things!

While in the process of making my ST5 Vision playlist (with up to 200 songs), I noticed I was subconsciously making categories. And one of the categories I found myself getting especially fixated on, was one for songs that I could actually see being used, in either the official trailer for s5, or some other form of promotion, whether that be a teaser, sneak peak, or even just a simple 10 second clip of all the main characters dramatically looking up at the camera.

As I continue to stress myself out over the near endless possibilities for this playlist, I wanted to share a few songs here right now which I think, with (some) good reason, could end up being used to promote the show, ie. what Separate Ways was for the official s4 trailer.

Now, I want to make clear that I'm just theorizing here. This is all educated guesses at best. Don't take my word for it and please refrain from getting bitter in the case that you dislike one or more of the songs. If you must know I predicted exactly ONE song that ended up featuring in s4 (Object of My Desire), despite only having like 20 songs on my 'ST4 Vision' playlist (and despite not even taking it that seriously last time), so please give me some credit here! TBH I myself don't even like all these, but I'm still willing to consider them after researching through all the options that are out there.

I also want to add that most of these songs require some imagination. I think it's likely that whatever song(s) they do end up choosing, they'll most likely be modified to sound slightly different than the original. It all depends on the vibe they want to go for. And while we wait for the final season, i figure it might be fun to see if we can guess some of the DNA for s5 by doing stuff like this, which is why I wanted to share!

Keeping all of this in mind, here are my predictions!

The Final Countdown (1986) Europe

Likelihood Rating: 9/10

Yep. I'm starting with the most obvious. Sue me. Honestly though, I don't really have any strong opinions about this one. Like, it fits. It's 'the final countdown' aka the final season. This song is most often used in intense environments, like sporting events, etc.. So there is this element of appeal in that it could be quite fitting for an official trailer, let alone a final season trailer. I have said in the past that lyrically there is some potential endgame byler coding in these lyrics, meaning this song would be fitting not only because of it's literal title, but also in a way that could foreshadow what may end up happening in the show itself (wouldn't be the first time). There's this mention of 'we're leaving together', 'missing her so,' as well as something a little more specific, '-- still we stand tall, cause maybe they'll see us, and welcome us all'. I could genuinely imagine this being used to foreshadow Mike and Will leaving for the city (together) at the end of the show, missing El who stays, and the audience maybe (hopefully) accepting that as a satisfying ending (also a Separate Ways parallel: here we stand vs. and still we stand tall).

I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire (1941) The Ink Spots

Likelihood Rating: 2/10

Yep. I'm going from the most obvious to the most obscure. Sue me. To be fair, I don't think this song is that obscure (you might even recognize it from angsty s4 Will Byers edits: here and here to name a couple). And although it is very old and therefore would not necessarily fit with the 80's vibe specifically, Stranger Things is no stranger to featuring songs that came out well before the setting of the show. In fact, almost every season, we get at least one major oldie. And so, I guess if I had to choose my prediction for the oldie to feature in s5, it would be this one! It should be noted that the preview Tumblr offers for this song does not do it justice (nor do the other previews listed here for that matter), so definitely listen to the whole thing before giving it your full consideration. I do think that the s5 promo version would indeed be modified quite a bit to match the vibe they want to go for. What made me sort of instantly transfixed by this song in particular, is that it sounds and carries itself like a love song, and that's because it is a love song, no doubt. But because of the lyrics, it also feels like it could be framed in an eery way (I've Got Five On It from Us comes to mind). I think by fully embracing the apocalyptic-toned lyrics, while also embracing the romantic-toned ones, they could invoke a really incredible feeling out of the audience. Now, when it comes to the lyrics, that's what really got me intrigued. "I don't want to set the world on fire" reminds me of the expectations for Will's character going into ST5, with much of the GA being convinced that Mike not loving him back is going to result in this villain arc for him, which will inevitably end with Will sacrificing himself (also Will Byers fireball homage). But the truth for Will, and just like the song also argues, is much less stereotypically violent and a lot more surprisingly pure. The truth is that Will, 'just wants to start the flame in Mike's heart'!! And so we've got flame in heart crumbs, with a dash of end of world crumbs? Sign me tf up.

Mad World (1883) Tears For Fears

Likelihood Rating: 6/10 -

I feel like we need at least one Tears For Fears song in Stranger Things. Although I'm convinced (delusional) that Everybody Wants to Rule the World will feature near the end of the series during a happy moment, solely because of how much that s2 behind the scenes video has changed the brain chemistry of the entire fandom, to the point where a lot of us have been convinced it was used in the show at one point. But for the sake of this list, I think song(s) used to promote s5 before it premieres, are going to be less 'uplifting good', and instead more 'eery good'. We're still in hopeless, assumed failed mission territory and so 'No tomorrow. No tomorrow' is quite fitting. While there is hope going into the final season (we've been reassured the ending is beautiful) there's still a battle ahead in the mean time. Unless they plan to change our relation to that song, from aww to OH SHIT (which they definitely could...), I do think Mad World sort of fits the bill in respects to the impending doom a little more than EWRW, which feels more victorious in comparison. Lyrically, Mad World reminds me of Henry's villain monologue at the end of Vol. 1. I also think it's a good example of a song that has some lyrics that fit very well, while other lyrics don't fit as much. And that's okay. In the past, there has been songs used for ST promo, and even in the show itself, that followed a similar criteria, where they even tweaked/removed parts of songs that didn't match the message they wanted to convey. So keep this in mind as the list goes, because I do think a lot of layers go into their final decision for song choices, especially in regards to promotional picks. And so in this case, I guess you can't go wrong with a birthdaygate easter egg either...

Crazy Train (1980) Ozzy Osbourne

Likelihood Rating: 5/10

This song is extremely well known, and I do think it has the range to mesh well accompanying badass frames of the characters fighting and surviving in the trailer for the final season, as it has been used a lot from this sort of hyped up lens before (fingers crossed Megamind is on the ST5 inspo board!). Lyrically, we've got 'mental wounds not healing, life's a bitter shame, I'm going off the rails on a crazy train'. 'Mental wounds not healing', could parallel to what was going on with El at the end of s3 and throughout s4, with her powers not working bc of the memories she was suppressing, and it could also be related to Max ending up in a coma at the end of s4 at the hands of Venca, with her going into s5 somewhere in between life and death. 'Life's a bitter shame', pretty much sums up a lot of what the characters were feeling in s4 (also Heroes crumbs mayhaps?). 'I'm going off the rails on a crazy train,'... I shouldn't even have to acknowledge the implications of them using this song, or any song that includes the word Crazy in the title for that matter, as the official song for the season... and so, I wont. TBH I feel like this song is a little too similar to Separate Ways, and so maybe it wouldn't get picked based on that reason alone? Or maybe the exact opposite? Maybe it would get picked for that very reason? Regardless, I could see it.

Have You Ever Seen The Rain (1970) Creedance Clearwater Revival

Liklihood Rating: 3/10

This is another example of a song that would need to be modified quite a bit in order for it to work with the vibe of the final season. However, I do think there is quite a bit here to work with. 'Someone told me long ago, there's a calm before the storm, I know, it's been coming for some time'. Those lyrics alongside some eery s5 frames, like, it works. And they feel deeper than just the literal storm itself, as everything likely to go down in s5, has indeed 'been coming for some time'... Also, if I'm being totally honest, any songs I can find that involve storms or thunder or rain, I'm there! And so this is just one in particular that stood out to me. This emphasis on rain pouring tremendously, while the sun shines brightly... I love it. Also we know songs by Creedance Clearwater Revival are very very capable of being covered and changed to something more creepy, Bad Moon Rising ring any bells?

Somebody to Love (1967) Jefferson Airplane

Likelihood Rating: 3/10

Now, ST has used a song by Jefferson Airplane before (White Rabbit), which is from the same album as this song Somebody to Love here. Although I don't necessarily think that alone rules out this song being a possibility, I still felt like it was worth mentioning. Lyrically, we've got, "When the truth is found to be lies. And all the joy within you dies. Don't you want somebody to love? Don't you need somebody to love? Wouldn't you love somebody to love? You better find somebody to love." This could fit very well with what's going on with El towards Mike in s3-4. Though I think she already knows the truth, which is that his monologue wasn't romantic and that he's sort of stringing her along with this falsehood, this song captures an emotion that I think is present with her still, and will be until they finally end things romantically. I also think the audience still hasn't realized the truth themselves, seeing as most of them assumed she loved the monologue. It's almost like the audience would also be discovering the truth aka the lie, and so if a song like this were to be incorporated in some type of promo, it could be interesting... El also very much deserves someone to love her the way she wants to be loved. Whenever someone finds themself in relationship, where they're giving 70% and the other is giving 30%, it might be time for the person putting in more to let go and remind themselves they deserve somebody to love them, truly. And this could also apply to every character on the show, as most songs used in promo apply to more than just one character. However, I do think the initial lyric at the start of this song definitely applies to El and her relationship with Mike, along with her desire to love someone and for them to love her back equally. Oh and also "when the garden flowers, baby are dead, yes and your mind, your mind is so full of red"...

Smalltown Boy (1984) Bronski Beat

Likelihood Rating: 1/10

I don't want to hear about how unrealistic it is, it's called manifestation. We all know Smalltown Boy is the very first song on Mike's official Spotify playlist, and so there has been a lot of hype in the byler community that it could potentially feature in the final season, aka the same season Mike's feelings for Will are anticipated to be revealed. To be fair, You Spin Me Round featured in s4 (at Rink-O-Mania where Mike was being an absolute gay disaster bc of Will) and was also on Mike's playlist, along with Mad World which I also listed as a prediction for s5 promo. Even still, personally, I can't really imagine this song in the show itself, as like non-diegetic nor diegetic sound. I could however imagine it being used outside of the show for some kind of promotion. I know all the Netflix socials release more than just teasers and trailers, but also like small snippets of promo, for example the one with the main party all looking up at the camera dramatically for ST4 promo. I could totally see a short clip of s5 Mike looking up at the camera all worried, and accompanied by that notable Smalltown Boy (Bronski) beat.

Should I Stay or Should I Go (1982) The Clash

Likelihood Rating: 7/10

Even though I try to not dwell too much over songs that have already been on the show, I feel like this is one of the clear exceptions. Should I Stay or Should I Go had so much importance early on, like it was literally the Running Up that Hill of the first season. And so if we're going to see a lot of things coming full circle, with us getting some big questions answered related to Will and the Upside Down, I think it's possible and even likely we could hear it on the show again. There's a bunch of popular theories that Will could get Vecna'd based on a decent amount of substantial evidence, meaning we could hear this song play on the show again in attempts to save him... However, it's probably not likely to play out exactly like this, since we know Vecna/Henry needs Will and doesn't want him dead (as far as we know at least). I do think it could also be used as promo for s5. There's one TikTok edit in particular that made me realize how awesome something like this could look. It would feel very much like we're back to s1 vibes if they used this song, and I think that since they've admitted to going back to their roots, it's definitely a possibility we'll hear it again. (Also another iconic s5 concept edit from this user bc they’re a legend!)

Down Under (1981) Men At Work

Likelihood Rating: 2/10

This is probably my most unique prediction of all, because although there aren't a lot of lyrics to go off of here, we don't really need a laundry list of lyrics, as it first and foremost depends on the style of promo the song would be used in. The title itself could parallel to the Upside Down, aka 'Down Under'. Lyrically, we've got, '--Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder? You better run, you better take cover'. It doesn't take a lot to recognize this fits pretty well with what we're going to presumably be thrown into at the start of s5. I do think this would be another case of them having to edit the original drastically in order for it to work. But again, I could really imagine it working well for promo that's smaller in length. And if given really eery, edgy modifications in the ST version, I could honestly see it being pretty epic too. A lot of people know this song from other entertainment over the years, so it would be instantly recognizable, but also unique and engaging enough to impress viewers. Underground is another song from this album that feels slightly Upside Down coded, though not as well known so probably not as ideal for promo purposes. (Double also, Men At Work have a couple extremely Mike Wheeler coded songs, including, but not limited to: Who Can It Be Now and Man with Two Hearts)

AND that's all for now!

I'm curious to know if any of you can imagine one or more of these songs featuring on the show in some way? Or if there's any other songs you can think of that might work for s5 promotional purpose? So please don't hesitate to share! I would love more inspiration!

It's been a lot of fun making this playlist, especially knowing there's at least a small possibility in guessing some of the DNA of the final season in doing so. I feel like with previous seasons, it wasn't as easy to guess the music that might feature because there was just such a broad understanding of what was to come. Though, with this being the last time around, there's just so much to go off of in terms of the expected tone, especially with the whole 'end of the world' aspect.

As of now, I'm not sure if or when I'll ever post the ST5 vision playlist. I could see myself being able to release it in chunks, like I did here first with songs that I could see being used in s5 promotion. Some of the categories include themes involving catastrophic weather conditions/war, doors and/or locks, hearts, unrequited love, sleepless nights, magic/powers, etc. are just some of the few categories I have going on. If there's any in particular you're interested in hearing next, don't hesitate to ask!

[willel]

Don't know if you have read the news about the play, but they have revealed some info and potential clues about the story. It looks like what I suspected was right (or might be right) in the sense that the writers are really trying to connect the whole story to the past with this play. Now, I don't want to sound like I am shitting on the play before it comes out, but imho the whole thing just seems to be very obvious and cheap as a story with the info we have been given.

My guess is that Henry and Patty (Bob's sister whose character is now revealed on Twitter) will have some sort of a romance, whereas the other characters and mainly Patty & Bob's father aka 'Father Newby' will be against their relationship. Probably because Father Newby will suspect Henry of being not normal due to his powers, and maybe he will try to help him, but it will be unsuccessful and vice versa... and then Patty will die a tragic death in an accident or something and then it will fuel Henry's hatred against the town and the other characters (My guess is that it will be the memory he used to fuel his powers, aka the memory that made him angry but also sad as he said in S4).

This event might be the reason why Henry feels some sort of resentment not only toward the town but also toward the characters, mainly Joyce and Bob and potentially Hopper. Thus it is the reason why he messed with them once he was able to reach them after the gate was opened. With the context and clues about the play, this seems more likely, since we now know that all of these characters knew each other from the past. It is pretty unlikely that Bob died out of coincidence or that the Byers family ended up being targeted for some random accidental event if Henry knew them all from the past... which he knew.

I am open to ideas, and to be proven wrong because I don't particularly like this. 'All of the plot from S1 and onwards was for a reason, and it ALL happened because of what happened in the past in 1959' is such a 'retcon' that with the new additional story pieces. It just changes the whole context and story point for me, and I personally do not like it. But I think it is where the Duffers are going for with this additional play story.

I'll probably catch up with the info later, but isn't Henry like, 12? I mean, I know the kids group were also dabbling in romance when they were 12 so it wouldn't be that weird for their to be a romance but eh.

I'm kinda hoping they keep it simple and just say Bob's sister (???) was his first and only friend and something tragic happened to her.

I still dunno how this connects to Joyce at all because supposedly Joyce had no idea who Bob was in high school. Bob said this himself in season 2, so I'm assuming the Duffers are retconning their own timeline a bit there if Joyce is in any way connected to Bob in high school.

I'm not really on board with the theory that Henry has a personal grudge with any of these people, but I can imagine if he was friendly with Bob's sister and he blames the town overall for what happened to her, then yeah, Joyce and Hopper ARE part of the town so.

They took a lot of inspiration from Freddy Kruegur and I know Freddy took particular revenge against the children of the parents who burned him alive... but still. I kinda get the impression it's ALL the people of the town he had a grudge against. I doubt he had a list of each and every single parent present that day. Or maybe he did, he's a weirdo like that.

Maybe I'll make a post about it later when I decide to check out all the information released, but to be honest, I'm kinda just want to wait and see what the play even is.

I'm excited to see Joyce and Hopper's past as well as the trigger that set Henry on his path of destruction but I'm still questioning the timeline of some things tbh.

[elialys]

I'm reading your anon messages and I love that you become a fringe/Anna guru... That is no one better for the title lol

And I kinda wanted to participate too hehe so... I just read the answer you give about season 4 and the hatred people had for Peter. I'm from that time, but I had forgotten how real it was. I was quite young while the fourth season was airing, and I always loved Peter and Polivia, but I have to admit that he annoyed me a bit at times hehehe, and I often felt like it wasn't the right time to focus on him, but today I don't know if that happened by the influence of what was happening in the fandom... Besides, I was so focused on the multiple theories that were floating around that I didn't fully enjoy that season. Recently, I rewatched the entire series, and it was great to just enjoy the journey already knowing the ending. I understood Peter's side much more and was able to see things in the character and in that season that I hadn't been able to see back then. I also can not express how much I agree with you that in the end, Peter was just a victim of multiple changes of paths from the writers and the bad execution of their ideas. I know that you're going to start rewatching it now... Do you have any expectations? (Some kind of revelation hehe) Or do you think your opinion will change about anything? Hope this doesn't upset you, I'm so excited that fringe fandom is active again! xx

Hiii! Thank you for your message, always happy to hear from other people who experienced the show live! ❤️

I am clearly VERY biased when it comes to Fringe and its characters, especially Peter and Olivia because I spent so many years of my life writing about them and their psyche, I can't untangle my own headcanons about them and their thought processes from what's actually canon. So I'll never claim my opinions to be sound or objective, they are definitely emotionally driven 😅

That being said, I do think the very very strong reactions/opinions that were all over the fandom back when the show was airing influenced us all who participated in it. Like, to this day, as I said before, I am incapable of reacting normally when people criticize some aspects of s4, even though they are *right* to do so, and I even agree with some of those things, rationally. Except that I am not rational at all when it comes to people being super harsh on Olivia and/or Peter in that season because, fandom trauma haha

I was actually thinking about how much/how well I remember the show, since I'm about to rewatch it after 6 years. I basically still remember the first 3 seasons by heart, I watched and rewatched them so much. But season 4? Some episodes, I only vaguely remember the plot 😂 Season 5 too, to an extent, but that's more because rewatching it back then was too painful and too closely linked to feelings of 'REMEMBER WHEN FRINGE ENDED AND YOU WERE HEARTBROKEN?'

I don't really have any expectations for my rewatch, save for the fact that I expect to be crying basically all the time. I've been waiting all week to start, and I keep randomly crying when I get thinking about some aspects of the show, especially the characters. Granted I'm hormonal but still, I'm slightly emotionally compromised, I feel like my 6 years of bottled-up feelings are bursting out, it's already been an interesting experience and I haven't even started 😂

I guess I'm most curious about how I'll handle season 4 now? I did rewatch it a couple of times after the show ended, but I hadn't really had any time to distance myself from all the BS lol. I don't expect my opinions to change much though, on anything. Like I said, I'm too wrapped up in old feels for me to be objective about anything xD

[devitalise]

heyy it's charli anon :) i'm sorry i've been gone for so long life has just been so wild. i've been meaning to send smtn but honestly i haven't had time for music, but i miss our little talks so here i am <3

that boy's a liar pt 2 is so catchy, my first pinkpantheress song, i hope i'm making you proud. i rly like the instrumental of welcome to my island remix, but honestly i haven't had the proper time to really listen to it, next month maybe

the last of us has been so good i have so many thoughts i love it sm, i watch it with my mum and keep saying that was/wasn't in the game every 5 min it's great

i'm made a simblr and it's been really fun, but i think i'll stick with anon with you, i like the mystery of it all lol. your legacy has been so cute though, i sent the ask saying i can feel your fun through the posts bc it's so true!

oh and i'm thinking of getting one of those pretty glass candle warming lamps, if i can find one that ships to my country. idk if you're a candle type of person but this is very exciting for me

ok ok enough about me tell me everything, all the things you've liked and disliked recently, all the details. hope you have a wonderful day and i can't wait to hear from you <33

literally how i feel getting this ask! HIIIIIIIII i've missed our talks too so glad this is continuing in 2023 let me go under the cut so i can really get into it!

i can't believe boy's a liar pt 2 is your first pinkpantheress song.... i guess the only way is up from here. (not to say i dislike it i think it's cute but pinkpantheress has such a singular sound that i don't think always works with her collaborators!) i listened to charli's welcome to my island remix, too! i think it's very cute i love when she raps. fine.

i'm not watching tlou! not for any reason other than i'm not a zombie person. also i'm in my succession season 4 gear up right now like idk it's been a real struggle for shows to grab me i'm on charmed s4 right now but it's still a bit of an effort to watch.

omg thank you! welcome to simblr i hope your stay isn't traumatic. i didn't expect to be posting sims with any regularity at all, honestly, but i still prefer being hands off with the community at large and mostly engaging with my mutuals my tumblr time isn't what it once was.

i love candles! love a scent! you absolutely should!

i've been in such a limbo i feel but it's just because i had such a busy january i was doing something every weekend of the month which was incredible for seeing my friends and feeling like a person part of something, terrible for how tired i was! i'm actually going paintballing this weekend, which i'm really excited about

rebecca black's debut album literally just dropped, and i can't wait for kelela's album tomorrow i'm sooooo ready for it

[mayabruhbruh]

Oh man oh man😭😭 Jonathan lying about college acceptances, Joyce and Murray lying about Alaska, ROBIN "LYING"(hiding, technically) TO VICKIE RAHHHH the list goes on and on.

I think what all of these have in common is that they're all of characters that are lying to the people most important to them.

If they actually meant for this to be a continuity within the season (eg. a theme that gets referenced by a larger plotline) I think it could very well be something they intend to address subtly next season. By sort of singling out Mike in this instance, giving us something to want answered, it really seems to imply that it will show up later. In this specific case, the truth, I guess, as opposed to the lie he led with this season.

(To be clear, it's quite obvious in s4 that the lie has something to do with El and his inability to say the L word. As a matter of fact, the lie may as well have been the confession itself, but for now we're under the impression that he is the odd one out for some unspecified reason LOL.)

An example of this happening in previous seasons is season 3, when everyone was sort of acting unlike themselves. El was going to the mall, wearing unfamiliar bright clothing, trying too hard to be like Max. Mike was also wearing brighter clothing, ignoring things he used to love, and being abnormally teenager-ish. All of the kids were being annoyingly teen-ish lol. But in that season, I think they most singled out Will. By showing him as still stuck in his old ways and wanting to be kids and getting mad about all of the change going on, it made him the character that was distinctly different. They later addressed it with the plotline about getting older and additionally the one about his sexuality a season later.

Basically: "hmm, everyone here is being weird for some specific reason. wait, what about this guy? why isn't he being weird/what is his reason for being weird that we can't see?" lol.

This is just one of many theories that simply state that Mike's internal conflict is not over yet. It happened with Will, where we/the general audience assumed the plot of his coming-of-age was simply having to grapple with growing up, only for it to come flying back at us full-force with the acknowledgement of his sexuality. Giving reason to the conflicts shown in the previous season. That's what I can only assume they might also be doing here with Mike. But then again, a lot of my recent posts' basic points stem back to the fact that everything we don't know yet will be addressed next season. So there are plenty of other ways to back this up, in fact, you can see them on my page lmao, but this is just one of many ways to interpret it.

There is always a reason for patterns. In the case of screenwriting and storytelling, and the use hidden meanings within a framework to tell, it's true that plenty of things happen by accident and just happen to work out for the story. Apparently, based on how many surprise hints and patterns we see in the show that aren't always on purpose, there's really no way of telling what is intentional or not when it comes to theories that are this far from the objective fact. The Duffers are smart, but they also have a lot of happy accidents, I'd say.

Definitely keep that in mind, whether you're developing theories or reading up about them, there's always a certain spectrum that ranges not-so-vastly between plausible and wishful thinking. In the case of this post, it is RIIIIIIIGHT on that line about to cross into wishful thinking territory. Sorry lol.

Me theorizing solely off the desire for it to be true:

To be clear, I try MY VERY BEST to avoid that LMFAO lmk if I'm doing a good job.

Thanks for reading!! Love hearing y'all's observations bc all perspectives are insightful and thought-provoking!! Feel free to drop your opinions/asks/etc. in my inbox and I'll offer my best response. LOVE YALL SO MUCH OKAY BYE.

thinking about that post i saw when s4 dropped about how every character was lying/hiding something during the season (lucas lied to jason, dustin lied about his grades, el lied about angela, will about the painting, max lied about her trauma, etc etc) and the only character who’s “lie” wasn’t ever shown directly was Mike’s