#it is Such a thing there in s5 its so intense. the combination of how little sam wants this actually matters and how much lucifer wants him

[quietwingsinthesky]

gee wow god i wonder why im a samifer girlie. no one could ever guess this. no wait dont look back at the tags on that post about dehumanization and meaningless consent-

[backdraft-bimbo]

The musical genius of Castiel’s confession (15x18 “Despair”)

Let’s talk about the background music during Cas’ monologue; something I haven’t seen a single person in this vast fandom mention, so lemme just let y’all in on some genius moves Supernatural made with this scene. In other words: reason number 194850 of why it’s my absolute favorite. Here we go. 

The scene starts off with obvious tension, since Billie is trying to kill them and there looks to be no way of escape. Supernatural and a variety of other mainstream shows typically use the string section–violins, cellos, bass, et cetera–when needing to emphasize stress or anxiety. It didn’t really catch my attention at the beginning since it seemed like the generic Supernatural horror soundtrack.

But then, Cas finds the figurative light in the tunnel–their hope in a seemingly hopeless situation. Right as he says, “There’s one thing strong enough to stop her”, the string bass cuts out and leaves only violins, which slide into a falling cluster chord and allow a softer, less overwhelming bass to join in. They also used a bit of piano/some kind of mallet instrument to soften the mood even further. Since music tells you a lot about a scene even before the characters say anything, that’s kind of when I was like, Okay this is happening.

As Cas begins talking about how Dean sees himself, the orchestral sounds disappear and the piano takes over. I don’t know if it’s just me, but Supernatural seems to only on seldom occasions use piano. And even rarer occasions use piano alone; it’s almost always accompanied by strings. Just rewatch some of the emotional scenes in the past (Sam’s first death, Cas’ funeral, the Destiel hospital talk) and you’ll notice how Supernatural usually leans toward the clarinet, oboe, and typical orchestral sounds. Sometimes they use no music at all, like in the s5 finale where there was only the howling wind. 

Anyway, I could go line by line on Cas’ monologue and how excellently the music follows Misha and Jensen’s acting and the emotions playing out, but I’m just gonna highlight my favorite parts below the cut. 

“I know how you see yourself, Dean.” As Castiel gets closer to his eventual confession, the most noticeable tone shift starts right here. Clarinets and strings fade out, and the piano arpeggios fade in. There are some noticeable major to minor shifts that kind of caught me off guard because Supernatural rarely goes with that kind of style, at least not in my memory. 

But my absolute favorite part is when the camera cuts to Dean’s face as the piano climbs higher and higher with this gorgeous, romantic tone, right when Cas says in his most genuine voice: “It’s not.” Nothing else in 15x18 could compare to those few seconds of Superior Composition. It wasn’t just the music choice; it was a combination of the excellent acting, how Misha delivered his lines, and the cut to Dean’s lain-bare gaze. 

And the piano just seriously blew me away in this scene. Piano is, quite frankly, the most romantic instrument. I will defend that statement till I die, and I’m certain that its inclusion was not unintentional. It clued me in that something was different about this specific interaction between the characters of Cas and Dean. Like, come on. Just listen to it. 

But even if you completely disregard the music, the message doesn’t come across any less poignant. Context slammed into me with the force of a semi-truck. This man, Dean, has never heard anyone outright deny his faults in favor of his goodness just like that. You can feel the vulnerability in Dean’s eyes, how utterly lost he looks, as Cas tells him all these things that he needs to hear. And man, oh man, that single, fleeting moment redeemed the rest of that entire episode for me. 

Dean hasn’t been on the top of most folks’ Favorite Characters lists for this season. He’s falling apart, hurting those he loves, and going through a very long identity crisis arc. But you gotta take into account that this entire season has been building up the fact that Dean has a temper–this bleeding, aching rage he can’t control, that hurts everyone in its path. And it’s destroying Dean himself too. Right up until this moment. 

“And everyone who knows you, sees it.” Back to the musicality–when Cas finishes the first portion of his speech, it ends on a soft, simple chord. There’s no unnecessary additional instruments–it’s just this assuring, beautiful piano chord that accompanies Cas’ declaration that Dean is a better person than he gives himself credit for. 

Oh, and the piano doesn’t stop there. It just increases in intensity, strings getting louder, building up behind it, until Cas reaches his next declaration: “You are the most selfless, loving human being I will ever know.” And the piano just gets softer and higher after he says this, gone solo again. There’s this ingenious, continuous play of building up musical intensity with the script until it reaches a climax, cutting back the instruments until only one sound remains, and then restarting it all over again to make the viewer feel something. 

And right after Dean says, “Why does this sound like a goodbye?”, a mournful sounding cello kicks in, and I don’t know how anyone could make a more romantic soundtrack. It’s so good. I swear the more I watch this scene the more I fall in love with it. 

Finally, Cas speaks his deepest truth, an “I love you” to Dean, and the cello continues until he tells Dean goodbye. Thus returns the Sad Supernatural Piano that I’m seriously becoming attached to, and it shifts into orchestral, ending on this tragic, burden-heavy note as Dean tries to comprehend all that Cas has told him. 

I’m personally hoping for more of this kind of composition in the last two episodes since it worked so well with our characters in this episode. (Destiel smooch, pretty please?)

What did y’all think of the music? Personally, I loved it. Tell me what you think. 

[kingofthewilderwest]

Hello, Haddock! Now that Voltron (sadly) ended, how would you rank the seasons? Also, could you tell how many times you've rewatched them?

Hey there, friend! WAY happy to chat Voltron and all its seasons!

Unlike most fandom culture, I’m not a chronic rewatcher, and the default assumption is that I’ve only seen any show once. It’s rare for me to see shows more than once, honestly, even ones I love. I certainly will be watching VLD more times, but because of my normal watching habits, I’ve seen a large portion of the show only once. I’ve seen S1 probably about 5 times, S2 thrice, S3-4 twice, and S5+ once. I’ve seen “The Last Stand” from S7 twice.

These are rankings based somewhat upon my emotional attachments and not simply objective elements like narrative structure! XD I already know my preferences are going to be different than lots of people in the VLD fandom, haha. These rankings are also based on memory, which is pretty strong admittedly for VLD, but it leaves room to change with a rewatch.

EIGHTH PLACE: VLD Season 8

Let’s be clear: I don’t dislike Season 8 and there’s much I enjoy. Give it up for S8 love!!! Standout episodes to me include “Launch Date,” “The Prisoner’s Dilemma,” and “Day Forty-Seven.” The women going shopping together and Pidge dressing as 1980s Darrell Stoker made my life. Not to mention… it was fun spending time with the MFEs; they didn’t take a disproportionate amount of time, but gave us good moments to make us love them. I’m thankful for the S8 ending giving us both a sense of wrap-up for the plot conflicts, but also looking forward to what our Paladins will do to rejuvenate the galaxy. There’s much I’m thankful for with S8.

That said, S8 isn’t my jam as much as other seasons. I’m not much of a shipper and I wasn’t into the Allurance, nor did I get pulled into the magic-heavy plot conflict with Haggar and her Alteans. And while S7 does give great screen time to Allura, it felt a little less like an ensemble cast and more like a spotlight on her. Enemies’ minds changed too fast for me to feel realistic, and the magic-wonky plot didn’t feel as gripping and intense as S7. It’s the reason I’m placing S8 here: from my own preferences, I attached with other seasons more.

SEVENTH PLACE: VLD Season 5

For whatever reason, S5 didn’t make as much of an impression on me as other seasons. I wasn’t as invested in concepts like “Kral Zera” and “White Lion.” Given as S5 is an odd numbered season in the middle portion of Voltron, it has an innate disadvantage: it’s written in all but name as the first half of a season, which means story arc ending payoffs wouldn’t happen until S6. I also feel like S5 is where plot writing is at one of its most tangled or muddied, given as there’s lots being juggled and introduced conflict-wise and lore-wise and universe-wise and character-wise.

However, S5 - like all seasons - gives us cool stuff. We got Matt (one of my favorite characters) participating in an adventure, lots of Lotor screentime, and a callout to 1980s DOTU that I never thought they’d be able to turn into a good episode (“White Lion”). And!!! We get to meet!!! KROLIA!!!

SIXTH PLACE: VLD Season 3

I have particularly fond attachment to S3. This is the season where I started getting actively involved in Voltron fandom discourse, giving my own take on Project Kuron theories. This is the season that gave us the first glimpse of the Classic Voltron formation - Keith in Black, Lance in Red, Pidge in Green, Allura in Blue, Hunk in Yellow. I felt a thrill go through me as Keith, for the first time, said “Form Voltron!” Also… Lance really stepping up to show his leadership potential??? So good. And this is the season where we meet Lotor, another long-anticipated character… and oh my goodness is his character introduction gold. So there’s lots of stuff I hold strong affinity for in S3.

The reason I have to rank Season 3 back here is because it’s more about the Paladins floundering around than anything else. It’s meant to create a new sense of chaos and instability… their leader Shiro is gone, and now there are new unexpected threats like Lotor to handle. However, at the same time, since half of the season is just the Paladins floundering around not knowing how to work together, it makes me less attached to particular episodes. None of the episodes are favorites or standouts to me on their own. There’s lots of cool moments throughout S3, but I think the only episode I notably emotionally attach to is “The Journey.” But still? Good season!

FIFTH PLACE: VLD Season 1

I can’t believe I have this amazing season all the way back here. I want it to be higher, except that I do have to rank other seasons above this one. 

Season 1 is what gets everything started. It sets the stage for what Voltron’s all about, teaching us about lions and robeasts and Zarkon and the Galaxy Garrison and all that good stuff from 1980s nostalgia… all the while creating a new vibe and energy to the franchise. In retrospect, S1 feels much calmer and less high-stakes than the rest of the series (especially post S2). However, it’s a solid season with good episodes that never feel less solid and good. We get great Hunk material with him finding conviction; great Shiro and Pidge moments as they share different worries over the abduction; hilarious Keith and Lance clashes; lots and lots and lots of good things. It’s a very solid season, especially once we launch off Arus.

FOURTH PLACE: VLD Season 6

If you want to know how tight my season rankings are to each other, S6 was almost listed second place.

I attach to specific episodes in particular for S6. I love the visuals in “Razor’s Edge.” I died howling with laughter in “Monsters & Mana.” I fell into so many emotional feels regarding Keith and Shiro in “The Black Paladins.” We get one of the all-time best emotional, action-oriented episodes of VLD… and one of the most amazing, hysterical filler episodes in S6. Despite being seven episodes long, S6 is an incredible ride and adventure start to end. It’s hard to believe so much occurred in that amount of time!

There’s hoards of great stuff in this season. We get the Kuron arc resolved, with lots of emotional content between Keith and Shiro. We get the Lotor arc resolved, learning whether or not he can be trusted, with great Lotor and Allura time. We get Keith returning to the Paladins. We get the introduction of Romelle, which all DOTU lovers have been waiting for forever.

THIRD PLACE: VLD Season 4

I have to put VLD S4 here because of its emotional power. There are damned AMAZING moments this season, alongside some of my favorite episodes and moments of all time. I know I and some of the other fans aren’t huge on “The Voltron Show!” But fuck it, guys, S4 gave us “Reunion” and “A New Defender”!!!

Matt is a delight this season, from his first meeting of Allura, to his tour around the Castle of Lions with Pidge, to his technological connections with his sister and Hunk, to his participation in the Rebels’ fighting forces. We also get some of the funniest moments for me in Voltron, between learning how to milk Kaltenecker and seeing HOW Pidge finally managed to rig up the video game system.

Then there’s the opposite end of the emotional spectrum. “Reunion” is the single most emotional episode in all of Voltron for me. Even though I’d seen screencaps of Matt prior to watching S4, I felt as shocked and heartbroken as Pidge to come to his gravestone. There’s so much POWER to this gravestone scene; it’s one of the moments that resonates with me the most even after I’ve finished the whole show. It might even be my Number One FAVORITE moment in the entire show. It’s not my place to analyze that scene here, but DAMN. 

Furthermore, the climax with the battle of Naxzela was INTENSE, with Keith almost sacrificing himself getting me screaming. That was such a great battle and climactic moment in VLD. This was a great culminating moment, in which the series has officially built up from a small team to a universe-wide conflict.

We get standout moments with Keith being badass with the blades, Matt taking initiative, Pidge seeking out her family, Allura helping Voltron flee the gravity field, Kuron becoming increasingly more suspicious. VLD S4 ramps everything up from the emotions to the excitement, resulting in an awesome and intense six episodes.

SECOND PLACE: VLD Season 7

It’s really hard for me to put this as second place instead of first place. I originally had it in first place. I want it to be first place. I LOVE the second half of S7 so much. This is, possibly, my favorite season from an emotional standpoint because wow.

It’s all-around outstanding. S7 showed us how far the Paladins have come as heroes; they operate with great teamwork, skill, and professionalism that is oh-so-cool to see on screen. They’re still the characters we love and cherish, but they’ve grown SO MUCH since their first days on Voltron. This is fully-fledged heroes doing fully-fledged battles and it’s GREAT.

S7 gives us standout moments to so many characters, including Hunk, Shiro, Sam, Colleen, Veronica, and Keith. We even get some good adventure time with Romelle! And as far as character interactions are concerned, we get touching moments between Keith and Lance, Keith and Hunk, and so many other combinations.

The story raises the stakes to higher levels than ever before, with an emotional and exciting conquest of Earth. There’s nothing more horrible and high-stakes to audiences than a homefront war. We feel extreme pain for Hunk with fears for his family, and Shiro for the loss of Adam. We feel the great sense of danger and desperation starting with “The Last Stand.” We feel the drama of a long and extended climax fighting for Earth’s freedom, including moments where the Paladins control the Lions outside their body (so cool), Shiro commands the ATLAS (SO cool), and the ATLAS also transforms into a fighting robot (SO FREAKING COOL!). This has some of the most exciting, badass stuff of Voltron ever. I love it.

Highlight episodes for me are “The Last Stand” (two episodes without the Paladins about Earth fighting for its freedom? this was fucking amazing), “Trial By Fire,” and “Lions’ Pride.” Essentially - all of the second half of the season.

FIRST PLACE: Season 2

Season 2 is probably THE MOST solid season in all of VLD. 

Almost every episode is good, memorable, fun, lovable, enjoyable, classic. It highlights the full ensemble cast. It creates an EXTREMELY exciting, exhilarating, fun climax. It is a strong narrative season, cleanly and proudly finishing the first 26 episode long arc for VLD. This season shows VLD at its best. Since it consistently delivers, there’s nowhere else S2 belongs except the top.

We get great Shiro time, what with his arc spent learning to trust Black… leading to him being a badass unlocking the Lion’s wings and taking Zarkon’s bayard. We get great Pidge time, whether it’s her freaking out over video games or drawing deeper into the beauty of the world - technology and biology both. We get great Keith time, with him fighting for answers in the Blade of Marmora and infiltrating Zarkon’s base in an extremely dangerous mission. We get great Hunk time, between unlocking his Lion’s claws and taking initiative in the Weblum adventure. We get great Lance moments, where he shows us he truly can be a sharpshooter for the team. We get great Allura moments, especially in how she fought against Haggar in the finale. This season rocks it for EVERY Paladin.

Not only does every individual Paladin get good spotlighting, but S2 also rocks it with character interactions. How Allura handles Keith being Galra is a memorable moment of character development for both of them. How Hunk and Keith interact in “The Belly of the Weblum” is a delight. How Shiro loses his cool with Slav is hysterical. I can never complain to Lance and Hunk combinations, like in “The Depths.” And of course every episode focused on Keith and Shiro gives us good feels.

Standout episodes for S2 include “The Ark of Taujeer” (THE COLORS), “The Blade of Marmora,” “Blackout,” “Space Mall.” I cannot believe I watched an episode where the character dressed as space pirates and rode on a flying cow to escape a mall cop. That happened. It’s a delight. And S2 kept rocking it with the humor, down to Pidge creating all her Paladin buddies out of space junk and imitating them. But S2 also gives us some of the most memorable moments of VLD storytelling, what with “The Blade of Marmora.” That episode is a staple for many reasons. Not to mention… all of S2 works together cohesively for the long-term arc structure.

And then there’s the climax. So well-done. So exciting. So immersive. So intense. So cool. So badass. Great colors, great flow, great plot, great everything start to end. I was in a THRILL at the end of S2 because this climax was so unbelievably fun. In retrospect it’s got competition with S7, and S7 probably takes the cake now… but fuck it, S2′s end will always be awesome.

Every single season in VLD gives me something to be excited about. There are things to love each step of the journey. I’m thankful for every episode from S1 to S8. 

What a ride this journey has been.

[roominthecastle]

“Anybody can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody’s power, that is not easy.” - Aristotle, The Art of Rhetoric

Well, look at that ancient Greek dude rolling out a pitch-perfect summary of - what I currently consider to be - Liz’s core issue on TBL. My core issue is that I cannot keep things brief, so I’ll poke this some more bc damn S5 was so much better than I expected, and it left me with an urge to try and sort this canon mess into sth I can swallow.

What’s the deal with Liz, why is her relationship with Red in such a terrible shape at the end of S5, and why is that a likely promise of better things to come?

It’s possible to look at this deterioration as a more or less continuous (organic!) process that reaches back at the very beginning; a process to which both characters have contributed their fair share over the years and now they are reaping the consequences and setting themselves up for a potentially healing collision.

I. Liz has narcissistic traits. Red is a natural born charmer with closely-guarded secrets and a pervasive guilt-complex. Putting them together is like putting mints in a bottle of coke: even on a perfect sunny day it's the kind of fun that leaves a mess.

II. Liz’s traits are amplified by Red’s behavior and Red’s behavior is warped by Tom’s presence. When Red scales things back (i.e. stops going on guilt-trips whenever others don’t feel like facing the consequences of their actions), it only makes things worse. This is the dark side of their intense "lock and key" dynamic, the deep angst pit that has been fore-fronted since S3B due to a rapid sequence of betrayals Red suffers from those closest to him. Tom triggers both empathy and repulsion in him, which in turn feeds his self-hatred and prompts him to keep enabling Liz out of guilt, creating an unsustainable bubble that finally bursts in S5.

III. The current name of the game for Liz is repression and denial, for Red it’s still obsession and rumination. At any given time Liz works off of a partial image of him, which is less about him keeping things from her and more about her purposefully ignoring parts of him in a misguided and doomed attempt to keep an illusion of safe simplicity (she does this with Tom, too). Meanwhile Red displays clear signs of compassion fatigue, which comes with its own destructive habits and distortions of reality.

IV. Sprinters are bad at running marathons. This simple truth has been a background tension factor in the Red/Liz relationship from the get-go. It’s mirrored in Red’s earlier troubles with Madeline and in Liz’s “Tom problem”. It keeps them united yet out of sync, which leads to misunderstandings, doubts, and quite a lot of friction.

more on these behind the cut:

I. Liz has narcissistic traits. Red is a natural born charmer.

Liz has a narcissistic streak and a tendency to delude herself as a messed-up coping mechanism, all of which she voices right off the bat in the pilot episode when Cooper asks her to profile herself (and to give us a brief intro to the character). These manifest chiefly as

(1) angry, aggressive outbursts (2) a sense of entitlement/egocentrism (3) blame-shifting

and she displays these traits to varying degrees throughout the show.

Now add to these the standard “Reddington Effect” that gets pointed out by other characters, articulating what Liz has been feeling since day one:

“There's no one on earth who can make a woman feel like the center of his universe more than Raymond Reddington.” (204)

“I was star-struck. It was exciting and captivating and... it consumed me. My work, my marriage.” (411)

We can also witness this "soft power” in action when Red approaches Zoe, Berlin’s daughter, to use her against her father. We can see how easily he can charm and pull people in to get what he wants. Sometimes it hilariously backfires - as it should - but that’s beside the point rn. The point is, Liz seems to receive this standard treatment, too, and she’s immediately, intensely receptive to it.

We can see both the positive (fascination-attraction) and the negative (rejection-aggression) side of this chemistry early on. She gets exposed to Red’s regular charm routine but it’s ultimately a v different experience because what those women quoted above don’t know (and what Liz still doubts) is that with her, his feelings run very, very deep. She is both the means and the end, the journey and the destination. Neither can walk this road without the other but walk it they must.

II. Liz’s traits are amplified by Red’s behavior and Red’s behavior is warped by Tom’s presence.

Thank God I have Tom, because with you, I never know what to believe. I have never lied to you. How the hell would I know?

Red’s secretive, seductive, guilt-ridden behavior feeds Liz’s narcissistic impulses.

(1) His ingrained "I will never tell you everything” ground rule regularly forms a volatile mix with her proneness to irritability and anger. There are countless examples of this (often understandable) reaction with a wide range that goes from a raised voice to actual physical aggression.

(2) It also clashes with her belief that she's automatically entitled to be told everything, regardless of the possibility that knowing might not make much difference to her but could get others killed, or the fact that she’s often careless w/ sensitive info and sometimes straight-up ignores the answer anyway.

This is an irresponsible and wasteful way of going about getting answers. Wanting to know doesn't entitle anyone to know. It's not at all surprising that Red - whose very life depends on carefully calculated discretion - is rarely fully forthcoming. Still, this is a major source of friction, esp as it seems to run counter to him telling her how special she is and treating her as such with a consistency that most well-adjusted people would fall for. A narcissistic personality like hers stands even less chance. This triggers jealousy and possessiveness very early on, and later engenders a full-blown expectation that when push comes to shove, he would always put her needs above anybody else’s, including his own. This (partially conditioned) expectation is in play e.g. when Tom re-enters her life and also when he violently leaves it again.

(3) Red is also burdened with a lot of chronic guilt which makes him an easy target for blame-shifting by those select few he loves. He often allows Liz to push blame on him for things he is not responsible for and he suffers in silence because “in his heart, he knows he must pay”. This also enables her to delude herself into thinking that he's indeed the unified source of all her problems, which makes her receptive to Mr. Kaplan’s terrible Solution to Nothing that targets him as such. Red has branded himself a “sin eater” and this gets taken full advantage of in a way that veers into emotional abuse. It paves the way for Operation Possum and its fallout that ripples across the next two seasons.

These 3 major negative “lock and key” interactions combine and reach a very unhealthy peak in S3/B. Liz’s thoughtless, pointless fake death stunt pushes Red to an edge he barely manages to pull himself back from, and it throws a wrench in the delicate cogwheels of their relationship where the degree of functionality and “healthiness” has always hinged on proportionate reciprocity (of good and bad alike). The faked death plan is - among other things - so disproportionately cruel and so exceptionally dumb and pointless, it unhinges this interplay.

It shakes Red from his grief- and guilt-induced stupor and cracks his habit of putting Liz on a pedestal. In S4 it is now Dembe who gets to be referred to as the "light in the darkness", which, given the changed circumstances, is a much better arrangement for both Liz and Red. Red would never ask anyone to carry this burden but the truth is, he needs someone like that by his side to keep him from falling to pieces. Dembe is a centered, reliable, well-adjusted person who can carry this heavy weight. Liz can't and she shouldn't, either. Now Dembe needs to be the lighthouse keeper as they navigate their stormy relationship.

On top of pulling Liz from the pedestal, Red also begins to scale back his willingness to play buffer and absorb blame. He pushes back against the kind of behavior he partially conditioned and enabled. He refuses to give in to Mr. Kaplan’s absurd and reckless vendetta that still targets him as the “root of all evil” in Liz’s life. He refuses to keep serving as a scapegoat for Tom’s failings and Liz’s self-imposed blindness, but the most significant “slight” contributing to the big fracture in his relationship with her is his refusal to share the secret of the bag.

“That’s why you’re here. That’s… Not to help me, not to avenge Tom’s death, but to help yourself and get your precious secret back.”

It is less about the secret itself and more about Red prioritizing it above her. She is jealous again but this time it is not directed at a person but at his “precious secret” that ultimately separates him from her, and once again it masquerades as projected and misplaced anger stemming from her deeper desire for their relationship to be close and genuine.

We have been here before when the Fulcrum surfaced:

"That's why you came into my life then. And that's why you're here now. Not because of me or who I am to you, whatever connection we might have, but because of some... object. Some thing."

and after her name gets cleared in S3/B:

I thought maybe after all we've been through the past three months that you might want to take a break. It's a mythic battle, and it's not anywhere close to being over. It's your battle, not mine.

and then again with the bag of bones. “Not me but” is the underlying issue that gets to her in each of these instances and it always manifests as anger.

From her warped perspective (warped by pain, confusion, and narcissism) he is deeply hurting her and taking everything from her to keep himself safe and cozy. It is the complete betrayal of her (partially conditioned but still unreasonable) expectation that he’d always put her and her needs first. In her eyes, this is again proof that their relationship, just like the one with Tom, has been a mere tool, a manufactured illusion, which - coupled with the impostor reveal - must truly mean Red never really cared for her at all.

But her assessment is once again dead wrong because she refuses to take a careful look at all the available information in proper context - a broader context where her personal issues are not the only ones of importance and where Red not bending to her every wish, esp those that make him deeply miserable or an instant murder victim, is not a sign of lack of genuine feelings but of a healthier attitude. She is also projecting anger at her own dishonesty with herself on him, and while it worked back when Red was receptive to it bc it was conducive to his self-flagellation, this messed up coping mechanism is finally breaking down, too, due to his increasing resistance and the multiplying events that signal he was never that alleged single source of evil.

"We want the same thing."

Indeed. It's the need underpinning Liz's anger, the same one Red has already articulated, albeit indirectly: "an inextricable intimacy and a commitment." Liz uses anger to express this, Red uses fish stories and Tom.

We were both half right. Together, we were right.

Liz sees Red's commitment forever lying elsewhere: with his precious secrets. Red sees Liz's commitment tied up in her relationship with Tom even after his betrayal, even after his literal death. They’ve been longing for the other to break away and commit, but this longing still manifests indirectly and out of sync: she pulls Tom between them like a guardrail (and DG, too), so Red flees into his “work” as a defensive response, which she interprets as lack of genuine interest and withdraws further into safe denial, and we have a vicious cycle on our hands. Despite all that, she still wants him to give up his secrets and he still wants her to give up her fixation on Tom. It’s no accident Red is so captivated by her when she describes her fantasy to him. It’s v much his, too.

But they both feel betrayed right now and both cling to their respective security blankets: Red to his secrets, Liz to her anger.

III. The current name of the game for Liz is repression and denial, for Red, it’s obsession and rumination.

Liz's remark about Red during her therapy session is telling and relevant here:

"Some of what he's done is unimaginably bad. But some of what he's done for me is unimaginably good."

She has been privy to many good things Red has done for others (hell, an entire county once) but those are not factored in when she evaluates his "goodness". No, this is about her and again, it produces only a partial image. It is a good start to say to an outsider that they don’t have the full picture of who he is (or can be) and therefore their understanding is skewed. However, the same goes for Liz and she refuses to accept that her POV is limited, too, and that she is complicit in it being so. DG is a prime example: she is handed a DNA test and everything that contradicts the result is pushed aside at once. The same happened when Tom told her he was a changed man: she ignored the contradictions, so she could have the illusion of stability. Red withholds information but it’s Liz who blatantly lies to herself about many things.

But back to the quote above: so only what Red does for her is weighed on the scale of goodness. Only that defines his moral character. It is decidedly untrue but again it's a manifestation of possessiveness and something Red partially conditioned in her in moments where e.g. he says saving her helps him live w/ himself (104) or where he implies that being with her allows him to become less of a monster (209). As a result, he is reduced to something less but something confined to her, something conveniently simplified that - depending on her need - is easier to either embrace or scapegoat. When he goes along with what she wants (whether it is actually good or not), he is a welcome, positive presence. When he refuses her (no matter how justified or necessary it is), he is deemed toxic and gets rejected. But after Tom inserts himself back into their lives and after the fake death betrayal, Red seems to have less and less willingness to silently confine himself to her whims and wishes, and they finally reach a breaking point in S5.

Fans on both sides of the "why does Red care so much about Liz" fence focus heavily on love as his primary drive, and label the nature of the R/L relationship accordingly: parental and romantic respectively. What else could explain such grandiose display of unconditional love other than being related or being in love? To quote Red, "perhaps there's a third option." There is and despite it being on full display (or maybe because of it since the show has conditioned us to assume a convoluted mystery everywhere) we often overlook its importance:

With Red, guilt is the operative word. This is the governing emotion right next to love (a more recent development) to which many of his grand gestures are anchored. The pervasiveness of guilt in Red's life is pointed out several times in the show, most notably in episodes 104, 216, and 319:

“The farmer, who is no longer a farmer sees the wreckage he's left in his wake. It is now he who burns. It is he who slaughters. And he knows, in his heart he must pay.”

“The truth of it is, once you start down this road there's no logical place to stop. For the first few years, it may work. You'll draw some measure of virtue from being her invisible benefactor. But that won't last. It's all a fraud. That it's really not about her at all. That it's all about you. And you're just going through the motions to salve your own guilt. All the money, all the time and effort, all the favors in the world cannot possibly equal what you took away from her. Everything else is just a nice gesture.”

“It was a Hobson's choice. There was a woman and her child. Both were doomed. Both would die. I could either save one or lose both. I chose the child. It was the worst thing I've ever had to do in my life. Worst thing by far. I was arrogant. I presumed that there was an order to things, that there was... that if I nourished and protected and taught the child, she would be safe and happy. And she was neither. No matter what I tried to do, all I brought her was misery and violence.”

In each, the debilitating nature of guilt is given emphasis, the symptoms of which are exhibited by Red throughout the show. Chronic guilt can be an extremely powerful drive. As Red notes, "once you start down this road there's no logical place to stop". He genuinely believes he owes Liz an immeasurable debt and that nothing, not even wrecking or even giving his own life for her, could make up for it. If we look at his behavior from this perspective, the primary answer to why he is willing to go to such great lengths for her becomes obvious. He loves her, too, of course, but love is - as noted above - is a more recent, healthy development, and it still has to co-exist with deep-seated guilt that keeps it in a toxic choke hold. This combination is the main reason why he cannot deny Liz anything (see: Tom) and why he's so vulnerable to blame shifting. When someone believes they deserve to be used and punished by the one they also come to love more than anything, the danger of abuse skyrockets, too.

Guilt-driven gestures, no matter how grandiose, are ultimately selfish and fake, as Red observes. But after he finally meets her, love starts creeping into the picture, shifting their dynamic and imbuing it with something real and selfless. And Red starts pushing back a little now where Tom is concerned. This sprouting, deepening love, however, gets badly trampled on when the guilt-trips and betrayals come. Red endures them because guilt says "you deserve it", but it no longer has quite the same hold as it once did. Heartbreak is a somewhat sobering experience but until the still unknown source of his guilt is uncovered and addressed, his relationship with Liz, his love for her, cannot reach genuine fulfillment.

IV. Sprinters are bad at running marathons.

Red and Liz want the same thing (as we have established above) but she is impulsive and wants it now whereas he is wary and plans long-term.

“I can’t tell you what I’m gonna want 10 years from now. Even a year from now. I just know what I want right now.”

Liz is no fan of delayed gratification. She has wants and she wants those satisfied "right now" even if it means she has to trade a more secure, more enduring yet still unavailable future (Red) for a readily available present of poorer quality (Tom). The former requires hard work (of the sweat, blood, and tears kind), honest self-evaluation, careful planning, and lots of patience. The latter is just easy and right there, so she cuts straight to the finish line, then it all promptly comes crashing down on her.

This is what happens after her exoneration in S3B. She goes to Red but instead of some quality personal time, he acts prickly and distant, then whips out a giant map to show her how just much hard work still needs to be done before Odysseus can even consider returning home. Her response? She rejects it (and him with it) and goes straight back to Tom. He promises to give her everything she wants right there and then at a discount. She only has to bury her head in the sand regarding a couple of things and since Liz is prone to self-delusion and denial by default, she jumps at the opportunity. This is where her relationship with Red begins to go off the rails.

“Circumstances are far more complex than we ever imagined. I’m betting on the long play. The future.”

Red plays the long game when it comes to the most important things in his life, and he doesn’t shy away from torturous self-examination and self-denial to secure enduring results and a better future for those he loves. Liz’s relationship with Tom was a sprint with many corner-cutting and the inevitable letdown. They had a short present, but no future. With Red, there is a future still but Liz has to run a marathon to reach it and being a sprinter, she struggles a lot.

But she is not the only one struggling. Red is still traumatized by the loss of his family, which makes him instinctively reluctant to try to settle down again. Those who inflicted that debilitating loss still represent an active force in the world (see: the map). The longing to settle down is certainly there. It’s a dream he shares with Liz. They practically wish upon it under the stars while “Our House” is playing, but on top of his guilt and grief, the circumstances seem to be forever against him, so he doesn’t dare actively push for it like she does (he even rejects Agnes at first). He redirects his focus to the “job” to try and create a safer environment and maybe a future opportunity. This folds back to the marathon approach that Liz rejects at first but now, after Tom's demise, she must face. She vows to destroy Red but I don't think it will be a literal destruction. Deep down they still want the same thing and even though they have yet to admit it openly, they want it with each other.

Their time spent on the run in S3/A is immersed in the theme of a shared home. Liz and Red seek refuge in a theater where the stage is set as a home. This is where Liz tells Red about her fantasy and this is where Red immediately retreats behind a wall when he realizes that Liz will be pulled back into Tom's orbit.

“I’m not interested in what you want. I’m interested in what you deeply desire. I can sense that death and vengeance aren’t what drive you, Elizabeth. Or feed your soul. [What does?] A lost world, I suspect. Another life. If you can’t face your truths, I can’t be of service.”

The Djinn makes a clear distinction between “what you want” and “what you deeply desire”. It is echoed in the tension-filled dream Liz has where Red removes Tom from the picture just when he is about to spill a secret (nice piece of foreshadowing btw), then stalks up to her bed and asks her the same thing - not just what she wants but what she really wants. This image of Red stepping up as a sexual-romantic partner after her husband’s demise is shoved deep down in her subconscious. It is one she is not yet ready to face, but it is there - the option of making a home with him, an option he, too, keeps at arm’s length due to past trauma and present circumstances, and it adds even more tension to their interplay.

This exact type of unresolved tension has already popped up on this show when Madeline Pratt re-entered Red's life w/ some grievances.

"Florence was everything, our way out, a fresh start. But to you, it’s all just a job."

She feels betrayed and played for a fool because Red chose to continue living his danger-magnet criminal life, prioritizing it over her and their intended home.

"They used Pratt as bait, faked the kidnapping in order to bring Red into the Kings’ custody."

Later on, counting on his savior complex, she lands him in hot water to get even. She stages her own kidnapping and lures Red into a trap set by an enemy with a score to settle. If it sounds familiar, that’s because we see something similar play out between Liz and Red. It’s low-key in the background during S3-4 (w/ the whole home theme) and gets kicked into high-gear in the S5 finale (when Liz thinks he played her for a fool so he can continue living his criminal life):

We were out. You said the ship we were on was headed to Spain. Change of plans. Because? Because after far too much time playing defense, today’s the day we switch to offense.

They could get away and start a new life but Red refuses to quit his "mission". As mentioned above, he tells Liz they still have a lot to do and her reaction is disappointment, and when Tom offers her everything Red is not yet able (to go away and start fresh), she accepts. And this is when their downward spiral begins in earnest and all the accumulated hurt peaks in S5, in Liz's very Madeline-esque plan to fake a kidnapping and lure Red to one of his enemies for some answers and score-settling (the same business the Kings were into w/ their illicit auctions):

If you’re gonna tell him you hurt me, he’s got to believe you. You knew Reddington would come for you. He got to do what he always does: try and save me.

Indeed. And he is about to confess his greatest secret to save her life when they get interrupted and an alternate solution presents itself. He kills Sutton, takes the bag and leaves. Liz vows to destroy him after this and I think she is right. Raymond Reddington needs to die for good this time. He needs to die so the man behind that mask can finally emerge. He needs to die so Liz can finally face and understand the full picture.

Red’s guilt feeds on the secrets he keeps and Liz continues to cling to her anger because these secrets are a wedge between them. The murky past and their distorted perception of it (Red's warped by guilt, Liz's scrambled by memory manipulation) hold them and their relationship hostage, so it must be disclosed and sorted for both their sakes. The second chance will not come until this happens. When it does, I think it will be the most cathartic moment in the history of this show.

This collision course is their way back home.

[hopevalley]

What are your thoughts on the direction the show will be taking? The 'new' direction, I mean.

Hmm, again with the tough questions! I think my biggest issue with trying to answer this one is that I have no concrete understanding of what this new direction might actually be. I guess if I was attempting to speculate, I’d say they’re going to try and move away from the intense drama of S5 (both in-show and on social media) and toward calmer pastures—er, plotlines. Or at least plots that aren’t so busy that there isn’t time to hash them out in the allotted screentime.

Honestly? I hope that’s the case. Like I said in an earlier post, the setting of this series allows for some pretty organic drama to occur; there’s no reason to make it hamfisted or to shoehorn characters into performing roles just for the sake of upping the ante, especially not when they have limited space to tie things up in.

Let’s talk an example.

Plotlines like the rattlesnake bite of S5 weren’t bad on their own, but they were handled in a way that made them a lot worse than they had to be. Jack Wagner’s acting wasn’t what made the plot hard to watch (it was pretty reasonable IMO). It was a combination of the things that led up to the bite that didn’t make sense and poor timing of what I’ll call “meaningful moments.”

Let’s look at the lead-in issues, first:

1) Bill escorting AJ to Cape Fullerton by himself on horseback in the middle of the woods (not on a known trail/road) with no explanation as to why this was.

2) Implying that AJ intentionally didn’t tie her horse up just so that she could ride with Bill.

3) The camera angle making it look like Bill got himself bit on purpose.

4) The lack of time/space placement in terms of where they are at that moment and how far from Hope Valley they are.

Look, I know Bill was throwing out his arm as a defense and putting himself between the snake and AJ, but that is decidedly not how it looked the first few times I saw it. And it doesn’t fix the fact that the main components that are necessary for this plot to work…also don’t make sense or aren’t clarified. Why would Bill take a random backwoods trail when there are obviously main roads or a stage/train option, and why would AJ (a grown woman who has taken care of herself just fine all her life) purposefully try to let her horse go? If they’re not far from Hope Valley, why not try to go back there?

They could have had a really nice, organic plotline, but the showrunners tried too hard to make things extra difficult for the characters (see: dramatic), and in doing so made them act in ways that…didn’t quite work. 

So for a few examples on how to write this particular plot so that it’s more digestible and interesting…

Let’s say that Bill decided to take the back way because AJ isn’t dangerous and he doesn’t want to humiliate her by having to keep her handcuffed on public transportation all the way to trial. 

OR…they’re delayed getting on the road in the first place/the stage is running late or held up and rather than wait for the stage another day or two and make her late to her own trial, opts for a route he thinks might save them some time.

Either option works perfectly well. It’s just a matter of not forcing the audience to extrapolate all of the minor details themselves. A short scene where Abigail or Henry questions Bill for riding out with AJ more or less free (when Henry was taken away in a cage) might do the trick. Not that Bill would ever admit to Henry that he was making this choice to be kind to AJ, but he might say enough (in words or facial expressions) to tell us what’s really going on.

In the “before it rains” scene, which was pretty pointless, AJ could try breaking the silence with an annoying comment like, “Are we there yet?” prompting Bill to drop a hint about how far from Hope Valley they’ve traveled.

Alternatively, we could get a fairly long silent scene between them where AJ and Bill aren’t speaking but keep glancing at each other when the other isn’t looking. Bill could fiddle with that telegram in his pocket—even pull it out and read it. That could promote a conversation between them, starting with AJ commenting on what he’s doing, that, if nothing else, isn’t wholly unfriendly.

AJ’s horse can still spook and run away in a storm, but it makes more sense if we play it as unintentional on her part. Maybe she was the one spooked by lightning and failed to tie it up properly in her fearful haste to get to shelter. That wouldn’t be hard to portray in a scene at all. Then her asking Bill personal questions out of nowhere would seem more like…you know, her acting on nerves (and genuinely just trying to make conversation to distract herself, especially if the character flinches or jumps when thunder booms right overhead). If Bill understands this, him bothering to answer her makes more sense, too.

To go one step further, Bill does try to chase his horse down, and AJ physically yanks him back and keeps him from getting very far or AJ goes after the horse herself (but can’t keep up with it and ends up having to come back).

Want me to keep going? Sure. Bill’s “24 hours” comment might be fairly realistic in this time period, but it sounds out of place in the scene. AJ could ask how long they have to find help. Bill could act upset about the situation, or afraid and admit he hasn’t been this particular way enough times to know where the nearest hospital or doctor is for sure. He could still spitball ideas at AJ and determine they’re not concrete enough to pursue.

Then the rest of the plotline doesn’t feel as contrived or silly. Bill and AJ spent the entire rest of that day and part of the night together before she left him to find help, but the only meaningful part about it is that her staying with him meant something to him. 

But why? She’d already turned herself in. She intends to go stand trial and knows she’s headed to prison (hence her refusing to take the dress with her). She’s accepted her fate. It makes more sense if we assume Bill just doesn’t want to be left alone, probably because he’s afraid of dying alone. That could be hinted at earlier. He could persuade her to stay, even if not in words.

Again, it doesn’t make sense that she’d wait to leave him until after dark when it’s unlikely someone else will find them. She’s kind of his only hope. If she goes at least he has a chance at living. A low chance is still a chance! So showing her having a reason to stay would be a smart move.

What might work? A few things. She’s afraid to leave him because she’s a wanted fugitive and maybe nobody will believe her and come to his aid anyway. He’s confused and she’s afraid to leave him because she might not be able to find him again even if she gets help. He keeps telling her, or asking her, not to leave, and comes up with some kind of ‘home remedy’ she can try on him that ultimately doesn’t work. Anything to lead the viewer to understand he’s more afraid of dying alone than he is of just dying. While we’re at it, him trying to keep her from leaving for Safety Reasons might be interesting, too. It’s possible he’d be worried about her walking around alone out there with no protection and all that, but if he says it, at least it would give us a lead-in to when they’re reunited that would help to alleviate the harshness of most of their earlier interactions in S5.

As a quick aside, the whole “Adeline…Josephine…Foster” bit was beyond cringey in its implementation but could have been really meaningful if timed appropriately, or led up to in such a way that when Bill said it, it felt like he was confessing something important. Part of that is timing. It felt crammed into a moment that had already given us a bit of meaning (“Thank you for staying.”“You’re welcome.”) and didn’t have room for more.

To make it non-cringey and something that we, the audience, could believe in Bill (as a character) saying in a moment of clarity or raw emotion, maybe he just calls her Adeline. 

And…maybe we move that to a new scene when she’s about to sneak out of the camp. She builds up the fire and he stirs a bit and there’s a short conversation that ends in him telling her he’s never known anyone like her and it’s a good thing…he thinks. Maybe he says more than that and she tells him not to say things he doesn’t mean, touches his hair, “It’s just the fever talking.” “Probably.” “Try to get some rest.” Covers him up, waits until he’s asleep again and softly apologizes to him. Then we see her quietly leaving the camp, a worried glance back at him like she’s not fully convinced she’s doing the right thing.

Now that would feel meaningful, like she’s making a hard choice.

Speaking of which… I’d like it so much better if the Mounties she ran into were a complete fluke and treated, by the characters, like a miracle. This could have carried into the next episode, where Carson makes some kind of comment (being a doctor, this might carry weight from him) about how fortunate Bill was, or is, to be recovering so quickly from something that, given a handful more hours, might have been permanently damaging to his body, if not something that could have outright killed him.

(I’d push for this mostly because it doesn’t make sense that Bill, a former Mountie, would be unaware of an outpost in the area, one close enough AJ could walk to it in 7-8 hours.)

That we don’t see what AJ’s up to is…meant to make the viewer consider the possibility that she just abandoned Bill to his fate and ran away again, but it’s such a cheap trick in this instance (and completely unbelievable without more lead-in) that it would be better to just show her trying to get him help. I’d take her stumbling around in the dark at a dead run, falling down and getting right back up again, over nothing. And I’d definitely take it over just having Bill wake up without her there and panicking without…ever really finding out why he’s upset for sure. (Again, is he worried about her? Afraid she’s run off and he’s failed at his job again like Henry accused him of doing intentionally, before? Afraid of dying alone and wants to find her so that he doesn’t have to? If he’s worried about her, having him check for his gun and finding he still has it would make that a good option.)

Show AJ really going out of her way for him. Why not? It makes her likable. Falling down and twisting her ankle and keeping on anyway? Sure! And then she stumbles on this little mill town or something and there just happens to be an escort of Mounties moving through heading somewhere for a job, and then she has to get them to come with her, convince them that she’s worth listening to. We’ve mostly seen AJ be incompetent so it might be nice to see her doing something well. Then showing her return to an empty camp tells us she’s good at remembering things/good with directions (because she’s found her way back) while also giving us a peek at her reaction to finding him gone, and that fear she’d have to feel, because he could be literally anywhere (and when she left he was in pretty bad shape so it’s not likely he’ll be able to call out to them even if he does hear them).

That makes her finding him feel rewarding. He could say he was worried about her, which would give us a moment where he admits something genuine and kind. (And I’d probably write that dialogue with him just earnest asking her why she didn’t take his gun, and then admitting he was worried.)

That helps the goodbye, just a few hours later, feel like it comes too soon. Like there could be more but can’t be right now. Like it’ll be coming later. Which is satisfying enough for these characters at this time, IMO.

The problem with these “fixes” is that they’d take at least a full episode to implement, one without scenes featuring other characters.

What I’m trying to get at is this: there’s nothing wrong with breaking up plots like this over a couple of episodes to ensure the whole story—or a lot of it—is told, and moreover, is fulfilling and satisfying when it ends.

The rattlesnake bite plotline didn’t feel satisfying because Bill was so cruel to AJ in earlier episodes that the lack of resolution between them, the lack of an actual conversation beyond that somewhat one-sided, “I care about you and I don’t know why because you’re mean to me”, ruins the attempt at resolution that the series gives us…which is a kiss. A kiss doesn’t make up for the things Bill said to her, intentionally digging at her to hurt her feelings (and in front of other people, too). We know he actually cares about her and did the right thing from the start because he shows her the telegram, but it still doesn’t feel like it’s enough.

While he was busy hurting and feeling bad and afraid of dying alone, they could have had an actual meaningful conversation.

Yes, I get that Bill was under the impression that she was using him, and that because he was feeling some attraction to her (physically and personality-wise), being used hurt him pretty badly, but a kiss doesn’t wash away the complicated interaction they’ve had. AJ deserved more than that by the end of the episode. I know she’s not everyone’s favorite character, but giving her and Bill a plotline that twisted both of them to fit into specific roles to force the story to work? Wasn’t doing either of them any favors.

With more screentime, more organic interactions between the characters, and raw emotion (especially from Bill, who isn’t very good at Relationships or Feelings), the resolution could have felt acceptable in the “for now” sense, because we’d feel like the characters would have the chance to work things out—that this is a temporary way to say, “Yeah there’s something between us and we’ll deal with/explore it later.” Or, “I don’t have the strength or time to hash this out right now but this is what I feel.”

After all, in the end, the first thing Bill did was try to right something he felt he did wrong, which wasn’t to say, “Hey I was trying to help you this whole time,” but, I think, showing her proof to ease her fear about her future. He felt guilty about withholding that information from her, knowing it frightened her (and she was brave enough to try and go through with it anyway just to get on with her life).

So there was an attempt at something good. But the scenes were so short and incomplete-feeling that the message ended up being lost in the drama. Again, unfortunate, because there was plenty of room in the basic idea of the plot for some really genuine interaction between these characters.

My point with this long rambling post, using one specific plot example, was to say that I think S6 might be moving in the direction of longer, more time intensive plots that are resolved a litttle more slowly and without as much hurry to tie things up with a neat bow by the end of the episode. It would make sense. The earlier seasons were pretty successful with their plot juggling, mostly because they only juggled 2 or 3 an episode, and didn’t always resolve them all within that episode. Doing this would benefit the series a lot, and would help prevent dreaded plotline faux pas like, you know, the rattlesnake bite plotline, which just felt crammed into a single episode when I think we can all agree, could have been interesting if it had been given the time it deserved. With more time, I feel like the showrunners would have had some better writing for it, too.

[filthyjanuary]

5, 14, 17, 25, 30?

5)      Samjess, Sameileen, Samruby, Samcas, or someone else?

ALL EXCELLENT SHIPS except unpopular (?) opinion, I liked Sam and Eileen better as friends and truly did not feel any chemistry whatsoever when they shifted them to being a couple, and I also feel like Eileen lost a lot of her spark once the relegated her to Love Interest. I think Sam deserved more friends on this show and I found it frustrating that everyone he got to have the primary connection with was a woman who then became Love Interest, which is why I love Sam/Rowena so much. I know people shipped that a lot but I was so RELIEVED that Sam got to HAVE A FRIEND!!!! A WOMAN!!!!! JUST AS A FRIEND!!!! And then he still had to kill her because the writers hate Sam but I’ll take my small victories. Sam/Jess is so sweet like I know we meet Jess for like 15 seconds but I love her, I really do, and I think about Sam/Jess so much in the what could have been way. SASTIEL is /THEE/ Cas ship actually, sorry not sorry. They are SO fun when they’re together, and the whole dynamic of Cas going from ‘greetings blood freak’ to ‘nothing is worth losing you’??? HELLO!!!!! Human dude who feels unclean and is constantly clinging to faith and looking to divinity for absolution combined with angel that meets him because he’s following orders and who slowly becomes disillusioned with a system he sees as corrupt!!!!! HELLO!!!!!!!!!! Also Sam like... is actually nice to Cas and frankly if the whole Wall Thing hadn’t happened, I would be like shouting Sastiel from the rooftops but unfortunately, I am not willing to forgive transgressions against Sam Winchester (except for Dean, he sometimes gets a pass. S9!Dean do not interact). I loveeeee Sam/Ruby. It is fucked up and ugly and manipulative and I love fucked up dynamics (hence why I watch the show lol) and the chemistry was OFF THE CHARTS, and I also think there is something distinctly dark and fucked up and Very Supernatural of it to end with Sam holding her in place so Dean can stab her. Like the natural conclusion of anything coming in between Sam and Dean, Dean’s intense hatred of her that stems from jealousy, fucked up crossed wires bond phallic symbol etc., etc., there have been better metas written about this by people who are not me.

14)   Character most like you. Do you identify with them yes/no?

I /think/ I am a Dean-coded Sam-girl, as I am also an eldest sibling with mommy issues who would kill and die for Sam Winchester, but tbh, realistically, I am a combination of Kevin Tran Advanced Placement and the werewolf college student in Bitten who says he gets a workplace romance vibe off Sam and Dean. But tbh, no, I don’t identify with anyone on this show, everyone is fucked up and SHOULD go to therapy but it’s fun to watch them not do that. I think if they hadn’t brought him back, I’d unironically say s4/s5 Chuck is most like me because my job is writing and I do an absolutely mediocre job at it, and I also suck at taking care of myself and also putting on real clothes.

17)   What’s an aspect of SPN people often point to as a flaw that you really enjoy?

The codependency!!! Like... it’s the point of the show. The premise of a show cannot be its flaw. Like if Sam and Dean were normal, healthy brothers, with normal boundaries, there wouldn’t actually be a show anymore and that’s /why/ they only really hint at breaking that codependency in the finale (depending on how you interpret the finale/heaven reunion, I guess). If they did it any sooner, the show would fall apart. The reason I always came back to Supernatural was because Sam and Dean’s relationship is one of the most interesting, fucked up things I’ve ever seen in fiction. Like to quote Lisa THEE Braeden, they “have the most unhealthy, tangled up, crazy thing that I've ever seen.”

25)   You can only watch one season for the rest of your life. Which one?

So like my gut answer for this is 4, because it’s the first season I ever saw and it’s my favourite because of a) nostalgia and b) ADAM MILLIGAN (ghoul edition), but to be quite honest, watching S4 without being able to watch the rest would suck for real. 4 is so good because it’s the perfect culmination of everything set up in 1-3 and it’s ALSO setting up 5. Like it’s so tight, the stakes are so good, etc. Standalone, it would just make me miserable like... you’re telling me I have to watch the Sam/Dean hotel room fight and not see them work through All That in S5? NO.

So the actual answer is season 2. Because WHAT A SEASON. Most of the episodes contribute to the bigger season arc, the MOTW eps are excellent, both brothers are grappling with something really significant, I LOVE Azazel’s special children so so so much, and literally name a better two hours of TV than All Hell Breaks Loose.... come ON. Everyone peaked here. The performances, the plot, the aesthetic??? They finally get Azazel but what is the cost? WHAT IS THE COST? It sets up so much for everything to happen later on but it’s such a good, tight standalone season that I can watch it solo forever and feel fulfilled. LITERALLY EVERY EPISODE HITS!! PLAYTHINGS NIGHTSHIFTER BORN UNDER A BAD SIGN HOUSES OF THE HOLY IT JUST KEEPS GOING!!!

30)   Make up a fact about a character and convince me it’s true.

Sam Winchester IS bisexual, that’s why he summons multiple male crossroads demons, that’s why he wants to know about the Crowley/Bobby kiss, that’s why he never identifies as straight and never flips out when anyone thinks he’s gay, that’s why he describes past relationships in gender neutral terms, that’s why he has blurry spouse of ambiguous gender (thank you jarpad king!), that’s why Dean constantly microaggresses him and calls him gay. He and Brady dated in college before Jess, Crowley was fully telling the truth when he said Brady and Sam had a history and he was his demon lover. Brady x Ruby x Sam hell throuple WHEN!!!!! Other evidence that is not damning, but should be considered: can’t sit on chairs normally, calls wreath ‘yummy’, is theatre kid, is bonded w/ English teacher, did take art history course, tension w/ random bartenders, I COULD KEEP GOING.

This is not made up. This is fact. Trust me.

send me supernatural asks please <3

[universeinform-blog]

Nokia 7, Nokia 8 Leaks Tip Dual Camera Setup, Carl Zeiss Lens

New Post has been published on https://universeinform.com/2017/03/31/nokia-7-nokia-8-leaks-tip-dual-camera-setup-carl-zeiss-lens/

Nokia 7, Nokia 8 Leaks Tip Dual Camera Setup, Carl Zeiss Lens

HMD Global has to date unveiled the Nokia 3, Nokia five, and Nokia 6, and now the employer is predicted to launch new phones within the mid-range section. The Nokia 7 and Nokia 8 have been tipped in advance to game the but-to-be-released Snapdragon 660 processor, and now new sketches have surfaced online displaying design and digital camera information of the 2 phone.

The sketches have been leaked through a user named Nokia on Chinese social website Baidu.

These sketches show that the Nokia 7 and Nokia 8 both game Carl Zeiss lenses, something that changed into absent in Nokia’s previous releases. HMD International had confirmed that the Nokia 3, Nokia five, and Nokia 6 do now not game Carl Zeiss lenses, however, future devices could have it on board. via the seems of theses sketches, the Nokia 7 and Nokia 8 are going to recreation Carl Zeiss lenses.

Additionally, one sketch indicates a twin camera setup, and that is predicted to be the Nokia eight, to be able to be the greater premium device of the 2. The Nokia 7 will game an unmarried digital camera setup at the lower back, and the lens will be of Carl Zeiss as well.

As in step with previous leaks, one smartphone will game a smaller show with 1080p resolution, while the bigger display variation will boast of a QHD show. each the smartphones are tipped to sport a steel unibody, and thin bezels. The Nokia 7 and Nokia 8 will help a fingerprint sensor and will include fast charging assist as properly.

As for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 integration, the chip turned into anticipated to be included first into a Xiaomi handset,

However, now things appear a chunk unique. As according to previous leaks, the as-but-unveiled Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 SoC may have custom Kryo cores much like on Snapdragon 820 or may use a mixture of 4 Cortex-A73 CPUs clocked at 2.2GHZ and 4 Cortex-A53 CPUs clocked at 1.9GHz. The Snapdragon 660 will reportedly pass into mass production in the 2nd quarter of 2017 and is anticipated to electricity phones from Oppo and Vivo as nicely.

The Nokia 7 and Nokia eight could also release someday in the second quarter as nicely. There may be no reality on release or availability of those devices as of but.

Nokia Mobile Phone Deals – Get All Nokia Handsets at a Cheap Price

Nokia has many gadgets in its series. For purchaser’s convenience, it has put all of the telephones in two classes. Those two categories are known as Nokia N collection and Nokia E series. In each the types, you could discover superb handsets which can cater maximum of the each day desires. We want to tell you that Nokia labeled its phones for easy selection.

Nokia N collection consists of stupendous handsets which can cater gadget fanatics to a big volume. With such gizmos, they are able to without problems play online video games, listen to the song, watch films and surf internet. While Nokia E collection phones are most efficient for entrepreneurs and chat fanatics. They adore it due to the fact Nokia E series phones incorporate full qwerty keypad and huge screen.

Nokia E71 gray and Nokia E5 are the maximum famous handsets in Nokia E series. you could buy both these devices with Nokia E71 gray offers and Nokia E5 deals. Really, there are various offers available for brand new Nokia phones and you may without problems avail them with smooth manner.

Nokia E collection is maximum famous among chat fanatics because its

Complete qwerty keypad permits them to ship or get hold of emails and text messages quicker. Moreover, they can get admission to social networking sites with simple touches of the keypad. This carrier is fantastic and makes them best for sharing views and revel in with own family and pals.

As we advised you in advance, there are various Mobile phone offers available and you could avail them without difficulty. Such deals are worthwhile as Those schemes earn unfastened gifts without overspending. Probably, you may earn Lcd Tv, DVD player, digital digicam, gaming console, vacuum purifier, kitchenware or something else that you required for long term. presents vary with deals, as a result, you want to lock the right deal for proper mixture of present and device. online, portals can assist discover and relaxed proper deal.

Dual Cameras on a Smartphone Can Completely Revolutionize Smartphone Imaging

Dual Cameras on a cell phone are coming. And they are virtually correct. HTC’s upcoming flagship codenamed M8 is also rumored to have a Dual-camera smartphone. Corephotonics, an Israeli startup has confirmed it’s Dual digital camera tech at MWC 2014. Having Dual-cameras has many blessings aside from taking pictures in 3-d. Corephotonic’s prototype has one constant consciousness telephoto with a narrow discipline of view and some other is a normal wide angle. Using these two lenses in tandem can dramatically growth photograph high-quality and recognition pace.

How does it paintings, you ask? Properly, the customized software algorithms on the prototype compare the photographs from both the cameras, Pixel by pixel. It then determines which pixel is clearer in each the photographs and the clearer one is selected for the very last image. by using this, you get the clearest possible photo, one that may better the 41 MP sensor of the Lumia 1020 at the same time as additionally being appreciably smaller.

The slender field-of-view camera shoots in black and white so that the ensuing picture has minimal noise

Do not worry, the final photographs will still be in full-color, as the opposite digital camera nonetheless shoots in color. However, if a pixel from the slender subject-of-view sensor is clearer, it’s far chosen and then colored The usage of information from the alternative digital camera.

All this occurs in real time, without any discernible lag, which is due to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset under doing the yard work. The Snapdragon 800 turned into selected, because Snapdragon’s 800 collections are the best processors in the market with photo Signal Processors, permitting the chipset to obtain records from each the cameras and system them concurrently.

Due to records from 2 cameras, you may zoom in a bit without any visible degradation of exceptional.

Any other quirk of getting cameras is that HDR photographs are taken in only one shot, growing pace significantly. Other phones have to take three exclusive shots with varying exposures which add up in time and also introduces ghosting if there may be even a moderate motion.

Due to having cameras, obtaining recognition lock is likewise rapid and may take as little time as 100ms.

The usage of the 2 specific cameras, the software is also able to stumble on intensity.

Corephotonics says their imaging tech can come in smartphones as early as this yr, as most of the parts are already there in the marketplace, with a few adjustments. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 is already there in most of the flagships from the 2013′s 4th sector and the cameras are simply modified Sony thirteen MP cameras.

Corephotonics’ tech can bring better first-rate in a slimmer package deal not like the Lumia 1020 which has a bulky body. Corephotonics’ prototype is seen higher than the Lumia 1020.

We’re enthusiastic about the next massive change coming for cell phone imaging.

BlitzWolf BW-LS1, 3-In-1 Camera Lens Brings More Fun In Photography

To take professional snapshots, we pick out the expert photographing device. But, most of them are heavy in order that they may be inconvenient to hold while you go out. In this article, I can let you know something approximately a transportable product BlitzWolf BW-LS1 which permit you to take exquisite snapshots. It’s miles the 3 in 1 Camera Lens, and it must be used with the telephone.

Functions

This product includes a 230-diploma fisheye lens, a zero.63X wide-perspective lens and a 15X macro lens. The fisheye lens creates the round snapshots in front of the Camera and captures the ultra extensive 230 levels of visibility. The extensive-perspective lens offers the broader imaginative and prescient while you shoot the indoor snapshots and the panorama photographs. Whilst the macro lens is used to take close-up pictures, shooting first-rate details and small items.

With the well-known mounting clamp, you may use it along with your cell phones, tablet Computer, and laptops. Most significantly, the removable lens and lightweight aluminum frames carry more conveniences while you operate it. you can bring it to take the expert pics anywhere.

Operation Techniques & Attentions

The macro lens is designed for ultra near pictures. when you use it, please unscrew the huge perspective lens first. To make certain the sharp consciousness, you should maintain the space of the gadgets which you want to shoot between 0.4-0.8cm in far away from the lens. For huge-attitude images, please combine the macro and wide-attitude lens together.

Generally talking, the using Techniques may be summarized as 3 easy steps. First, screw the smartphone lens into the clip. 2nd, restoration the clip onto the phone. Third, start taking pix and enjoy your photography. Very easy and simple.

To be had cell phone Variety

Due to the confined duration of the widely wide-spread mounting clamp, it has the confined using sizes of the smartphones. It asks that the telephone’s thickness does now not exceed 10mm, and from smartphone’ s Digicam to the top of the cellphone does no longer exceed 28mm.

iPhone:

iPhone 7/ 7 Plus, iPhone 6 / 6 Plus, iPhone 5 5S 4 4S, iPad Air 2/1, iPad 4/three/2, iPad Mini three/2/1, and many others

Samsung:

Samsung Galaxy S7/ S7 edge/ S7 aspect plus, S6/ S6 side/ S6 facet plus, S5/S4/S3, Galaxy Word five/4/three/2, and many others

Xiaomi:

Xiaomi Max/ Observe, Xiaomi 5/four/three/2, Red Seasoned, Redmi Note four/three/2, and so on

Different:

Blackberry Formidable Contact, Sony Xperia, Motorola Droid

Precis

To sum up, this BlitzWolf BW-LS1 is a top notch product. It will deliver extra amusing when you take photographs with your phone. If you want it, you can have a strive!