#like if it was any other episode it'd be great but for the FINAL episode i'd hope to see abit more of my silly little guys yk??

[twelfth-dykector]

WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT

[blackbird-brewster]

Highlights from Catherine Tate's Q&A Panel at Armageddon Expo 2024 (NZ) :

[I took notes best I could during the panel but some may be paraphrased]

Q: What's your favourite Doctor Who alien?

CT: The wonderful Ood!

Q: Who's your favourite Doctor? (Crowd gasps in anticipation)

CT: Well, I get asked this a lot, and obviously it's David (Tennant). I don't know what number he is, he keeps coming back. But definitely, David. Although, someone recently pointed out that I was technically the first ever female Doctor. So you know what? Me, I'm my favourite Doctor.

Q: What's your favourite episode you were in of Doctor Who?

CT:The Runaway Bride, because that's where it all began.

Q: What's a favourite memory of working with David Tennant on Doctor Who?

CT: The scene in 'Partners in Crime', the one with the Adipose, there's the scene where Donna and the Doctor see each other from across a room. But they're both behind glass and they have the whole mime scene with the windows. Well, I remember it was about 3am when we were filming that - - Russel really likes to film at night if the story is taking place at night - so it was 3am, and I said to the director 'Uh, right here it just says Donna Mimes' and he said 'Yeah do whatever'.

So that whole scene was ad-lib during shooting and David and I were so in sync with it, we did that first take and the director said cut and print!

Q: How emotional were you filming your final scene in Journey's End?

CT: So, we didn't always film in order. And I'm not really a sentimental person, but I will say I thought Donna's ending was absolutely perfect. When she meets the Doctor she was always yelling at the world, and she was so different than what she was by the end, she had so much growth with the Doctor and she changed so much in her time with him, but then, she forgets the him and all those memories. And that final scene, what really got me was how he says 'Donna, I'm off' and she's just, I think she's on the phone, and she just waves dismissively. She doesn't know him anymore. Russell, the way he ties things together, he's brilliant, that man.

Q: What was it like working with Bernard (Cribbins)?

CT: Oh, Bernard. God, I love him. He was so funny and talented. He always had stories and voices and sound effects. He loved making people laugh. But we had a gag where every single time I called him I'd say (Donna Voice) 'GRANDAD!'

He'd say, "Who is this?"

"It's Catherine."

"Catherine who?"

"Catherine Tate"

"Never heard of her."

We did this every time I called him and I loved it.

Q: Is there anything annoying about working with David Tennant?

CT: No, absolutely not. He's perfect. He's the best person to work with. I will say though, I was annoying him a lot. When we did the 60th Anniversary specials, our trailers looked exactly the same and I never knew where my trailer was. I'd walk into his all the time!

Sometimes I'd walk in and see his shoes in the trailer and instead of thinking 'Oops, wrong trailer', my brain went 'What's he gone and left his shoes in my trailer for?'

It got so bad, sometimes I'd walk up the stairs and from inside I'd hear 'NO.'

Q: Was it weird coming back to play Donna after all these years? Especially when it was along side David Tennant?

CT: It was a bit weird, more in the 'Oh I hope i still know how to do this' way than anything. But I did think it would be hilarious if David and I arrived on set and every take we just did completely wrong voices. Just thought it'd be hilarious for him to go (in an airy upper-crust British accent) 'Ohhhh, hellloooo. I'm the Doctor'

Q: If you could take any prop from set, what would you take?

CT: Ohhhh, I'd have very large pockets and see what I could fit. But mostly I think it'd be a sonic screwdriver. It's gotta be a sonic screwdriver, doesn't it? It's small and mobile... Easy to steal. Plus, it'd fetch a great price on Ebay!

Q: Best show you've ever worked on?

CT: The Office, they paid me tons of money.

Q: My mum loves David Tennant, is there something you can say to dissuade her?

CT: Hm, something to convince her he's not.... Oh, he doesn't believe in astrology! I'll say 'It's Mercury Retrograde' and he'll say 'NO, NO, NO I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT'.

Other Highlights:

As soon as she came out, she saw the stage had no steps to the audience, so she stayed on mic and went the long way round to go into the audience and interview people, trying to find who had traveled the furthest to be here. She was sorely disappointed everyone was just from Aotearoa 🤣

Donna Lines She Performed:

"Oi Spaceman! You're not mating with me sunshine!" (Crowd went wild for that)

"Binary. Binary. Binary." (🥺)

She did some of her characters: Lauren Cooper mostly, but also wished someone Happy birthday as Nan

[scimagic]

SMG4: WOTFI 2024 Thoughts and Analysis Masterpost

WOTFI 2024 is finally here and I had so much fun watching it! I've even watched it a few times already!! I'm so glad this was my first ever live WOTFI, it makes me wish I knew of SMG4 earlier but alas! I'm still so happy I found SMG4 and it's wonderful community the way I did!

This is one large compilation of all my reactions, opinions and deeper analysis... -es on WOTFI 2024! I will go over the entirety of the video almost scene-to-scene with my OWN OPINIONS! (And yes, it gets hella long) I divided it into sections of the video and even included pictures for viewing convenience!

Hope you enjoy reading essays <33

Warning: Spoilers (duh).

✧ Before The Show

As said before this was my first live WOTFI, since the episodes release at 9AM for me I had to put on my alarm one hour before but I shut it off fhjkdsa

So you can imagine my panic when I had to make my breakfast 10 minutes before it started

Not my greatest planning but I managed to (somewhat) make it on time!

✧ Let's Jump Right In!!

WHUH HAPPEN

Loved the spin off of Mr Puzzles' jingle, I knew I was going to get it stuck in my head the moment the lyrics switched

I was amused when Puzzles re-enacted his life, thought he'd give a little more meat to work with but I'm glad he just explained what we already knew. Some of his charm lies in the mystery that is his life

"So I did what any ambitious, misunderstood young soul would do... I locked myself in my room and watched TV all day!" So real tho-

I'm surprised I didn't see many people react to Puzzles cursing so loud hfdskja maybe we're all busy with the rest of WOTFI but I SCREAMED when he went "-WERE VIOLENTLY FUCKING CRUSHED BY YOU LOT!!"

LET THAT MAN CUSS FREELY!!!!

"... yyyou!" <3

LOVE EVERYONE'S COSTUMES TOO!! They all look great!!

Maybe it's because of the teasers they gave but I thought the crew was going to go against Puzzles himself with the challenges, but pitting them against Mario and SMG4 made me pleasantly surprised (I will be a lot throughout all this!)

I ADORE THIS INTRO SO MUCH!! It's so fun and vibrant and the way it was animated was so cool!! I WANT THE POSTER SO BAD!!!

Haeheh big Puzzles from the website!!

Love how Saiko is just screaming at Puzzles too fhdskja

✧ Fun Carnival Torture Metho- Games!!

I didn't say what my challenge was but it was called Chuck N' Dunk: Who can dunk the other first in shark-infested waters?

It didn't make it but I do see shark-infested waters, so either I gave a bit of inspo or I'm just delusional hfdsjka

"I have to deal with internet comments all day! This is nothing!" HAH!!! THAT'S MY FUCKING YOUTUBER RIGHT THERE!!! (He still lost)

Love to see SMG3 and Puzzles appreciate the beauty of destruction together, gotta love two villains vibin over causing chaos, it'd make for a fun dynamic if SMG4 ever considers it

On that note, when SMG3 tries to shake Four's tight rope I knew that was Three straight up

Even under Puzzles' control, the cast still retains a bit of their personality, as shown here and in the Puzzlevision episodes

Bob has like- the coolest costume ever holy shit- I really wanna draw it some time

I KNOW IT'S JUST A MASK AND SOME RECOLORING ALRIGHT IT JUST FITS HIM AND HE LOOKS COOL

I LOVE HIM SO. FUCKING. MUCH. HE'S SO SMUG THE BASTARD

This is a really funny joke actually

PIE GUN GO BRRRRRRRRRRRR

I liked seeing Karen included in this WOTFI, she was a main character in a few episodes and her dynamic works well with the others! Just a tired mom wanting to work but pulled along silly adventures, grounding in a badass caring way

CHANGE THE WORLD. MY FINAL MESSAGE. GOODBYE!! God I haven't heard that meme in so long

Plus [Italian vc] YOU SONSOFFA BITCHES

"Hope you two have your running shoes on!" said in the gayest villain voice ever, I love him your honor

Bob going for the clown girl instead of the exit is the Bob-iest thing ever and it just drives my point of the crew retaining their personalities even under control, so people shouldn't be surprised when it happens fhdjksa (cus I've seen it!)

FOUR ONLY WINNING BECAUSE HE'S A CLOWN IS SO FUNNY YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND

So... Ben (SMG4's Thumbnail Artist) posted a lot of Gokus when someone mentioned Metallica's For Whom The Bell Tolls

That's why I thought there'd be some kind of reference to it in WOTFI which... now that I say it out loud sounds kinda dumb hfsjdka

But the moment Mario appeared as Goku I immediately thought of Ben and it had me gigglin fhdsjka

You'd think Tari would be in the ducky mini-game but you'd be wrong! <3

Final thoughts of the games, this year's WOTFI challenges were delightful!! They were all very clever from the audience and well chosen from the crew! Congratulations to the folks that got their prompt in!

✧ WHACK-A-LEGGY (aka forgive me father for this next part)

You........ CANNOT tell me he wouldn't treat you right- God- DAMN.

LISTEN. HEAR ME OUT. YES I'M GONNA BE SIMPY IN THIS REACTION POST FUCK YOU.

Puzzles is the type of guy to give you the best of the best simply because you say so and deserve it, doesn't matter if it's as tame as a big bouquet of flowers OR as extreme as absolutely destroying your enemies through the most painful torture you have ever witnessed

He would treat you RIGHT!!!!

THAT IS THE MOST PERFECT MAN RIGHT THERE

Oh yes and I love his interactions with Leggy, they're adorable, yes FHDSKJA

THEY MAKE A CUTE DUO

Speaking of Puzzles treating you right: I am on the FUCKING FLOOR. THAT MAN IS PROTECTIVE TOO.

It's just so endearing to me how protective he is of Leggy (yes yes I know I know he's done evil shit to Meggy I know) BUT LISTEN.

In an actual redemption arc, I can see Puzzles as the most loyal motherfucker that you've ever befriended, that man is going to go to the edge of the earth and fight for you if needed BECAUSE you're his friend and that is so lovely to me

It's cute how he's trying to tell Leggy where to go, where to hide and just how worried he is of her

Mind you, the contrast between Puzzles being worried and SMG4 and Mario wanting to curve-stomp that goomba to death is hilarious fhdsjka

So forgive me if I giggle like a schoolgirl over that man

✧ I'm Gonna Get Real With You For A Moment

MR STINKY

Oh this scene now- lots to unpack

First: Adore how this scene plays out, I love the portrayal of Puzzles' meltdown, induced by grief, sadness, anger and frustration over how things are playing out. It's a big "I'm supposed to win! Why don't you let me win!" moment, I simply adore when those happen.

The pitiful cries when you don't get your way when you've meticulously planned everything and done Everything to get it, and do everything did Puzzles indeed try

Second: The colors, the dramatic red light, the destruction of the park out of anger and overcharging it seems

It's basically a tantrum

Third: The voice acting is phenomenal, and that's been said all throughout the Puzzlevision arc, Brendan (Mr Puzzles' voice actor) is so good at his job- he's perfect in those high pitch inflictions of emotion and the lower threatening tones, that scream is chilling and painful

Fourth: I can try and decipher that blue screen

FATAL ERROR A problem has been detected and Mr. Puzzles has been shut down to prevent damage to himself. PUZZLEVISION.EXE Check to make sure any new show or movie is properly installed. If this is a new installation :It's not: ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any PUZZLEVISION updates you might need. :I don't need any: If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software. Disable CPU(?) memory options such as Unused Shows or Movies. If you need to use safe mode :I don't: to remove or disable components, restart yourself, press :nuhuh: to select Advanced Startup Options, and then select Safe Mode. :NO: Technical Information: *** STOP: 2xREADING (... xACTUALLY)

That last line is ineligible to me but I tried my best for y'all <3

Lots to unpack just in this tiny little message

In his system, Puzzles is programmed to shut down if damaged. Which is CRAZY TO THINK ABOUT. His OWN SYSTEM shuts down to prevent damage to himself.

Also he's SPEAKING THROUGH THE BLUESCREEN, he's actively saying No to "Safe Mode" and REFUSING any repairs his system suggests

THIS MAN DOES NOT CARE FOR HIS BODY (if you couldn't tell by the TV head part)

AND HE'S SO UNSERIOUS HE STRAIGHT UP TELLS HIS SYSTEM NUH UH!!!!

A little easter egg that someone else on Twitter found :)

Puzzles has become a rage horror monster and I'm here for it, the horror elements do go hard when they're played

URGH. AND THIS MOMENT. Many have pointed it out by now BUT THE TRAUMA OF THE CASTLE!! I AM SO WEAK

Puzzles REALLY plays into those psychological torture methods, it is so RUTHLESS of him, intentionally or not!!

✧ STEP RIGHT UP, MY FRIENDS, TO PUZZLEPARK!

He looks horrible in armor despite being everyone's pathetic knight in shining armor FHJDSKA

"You're MINE" I SURE AM SIR!!!

THAT GROWL THO- BRENDAN STRIKING AGAIN WITH THEM VOCALS!!!

AND THIS!! IS THE MOMENT WE'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR OH BOY!!

The transition into the actual song is SO GOOD, instead of going higher like the actual Disney intro it goes LOWER and it's PERFECT for the intro!! It makes Puzzles sound INSANE (RIGHTFULLY SO!) It also tricks you because you know the melody so well until UH OH!! WE'RE IN DEEP SHIT!! LET'S GET THE FUCK IN!

3!

2!

1!

IMMEDIATELY threateningly playful I LOVE IT!!

It sounds so much like the songs in Nightmare Before Christmas, Kidnap Sandy Claws, Oogie Boogie's song, it has their same vibes! The same devilishly playful with their victims kind of vibes and it's RIGHT UP MY ALLEY BABY

It has SUCH an energizing beat too!! It makes you wanna jump in your seat to the beat!

The set up is so fun too, purple is an interesting choice to go with.

I cannot stress enough how GOOD THE VOCALS ARE TOO I WAS ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT

AND THIS PART. GOES EXTREMELY HARD. THEY ALL LOOK GREAT

They cooked with the choir of minions fr!! They sound great together!!

The chorus of the song is just as catchy as Creative Control, I had worries that I wasn't going to like this one as much as CC but I was SO wrong!! It's right up it's alley! They both have their strengths and their unique way of presenting Mr Puzzles, I wouldn't be able to decide which one is "better" since they both have different points to send across

Creative Control is jazzier, it taunts the crew and introduces Puzzles as the master villain with a bit of backstory, it's used to show the control on the crew both visually and lyrically with Puzzles putting them in different scenarios while singing how they can't leave

Meanwhile Puzzlepark, while similar in the controlling part, has more going on. It's not just Puzzles trying to control/stop Meggy, SMG4 and Mario, it's also them fighting back when they couldn't in CC. It also has the rest of the group trying to detain them, mind-controlled by Puzzles. It's crazier than just putting them in shows and popular culture references, it's throwing things at them, attacking them and messing with the world, trying to enact revenge yknow!

I particularly like when Meggy and Puzzles sing together, their voices contrast well

"But it's time for you to die now." Haehah! Hello!! This is the part where I kill you!!

AND A LAWSUIT ARC REFERENCE TOO!? OH I'M IN HEAVEN!!!

The lyrics scratch at a very nice part of my brain, I think SMG4 has always had a knack for rhyming, they've perfected it over the years and it's paid off well

And combined with the change in beat it goes for extra points, mwah!! Chef's kiss!!

"That child is gone... Six feet under right WHERE YOU AND YOUR STUPID FRIENDS BELONG!!"

MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE PART FUCKING EVER!!!! THEY ABSOLUTELY COOKED

IT'S ABOUT HOW THREATENING PUZZLES IS IT'S ABOUT MEGGY STILL TRYING TO HELP HIM DESPITE IT ALL IT'S ABOUT HIM ABSOLUTELY REFUSING THE HELP BECAUSE THAT'S. JUST. HIM. PUZZLES. REFUSES. HELP. THINGS go his way or they don't go at all!!!

AND THAT ENDING NOTE MYYYY GODDDD GIVE THIS MAN AN EMMY RIGHT ABOUT FUCKING NOW!!!!

That was such a clean note, Brendan has an amazing singing voice and I'll be listening to this on repeat for A WEEK

SMG4 RELEASE PUZZLEPARK ON SPOTIFY NOW AND MY LIFE!!! IS YOURS!!!!

✧ In The End... It's For The Better...

They like using the trope of going inside a character's brain/heart/whatever to talk to them huh...

I'm not saying it as a bad thing! It's just a pattern I'm sure we've all noticed! I think it's cute!

SMG4 wouldn't be SMG4 if they at least didn't Try to save their villains, sure there's distasteful ones like that lizard that absolutely deserved it, but all the other villains had redemption arcs, heart to hearts, sympathy before dying... SMG4 is about chances, finding your people and having a heart even towards those who wronged you, even if in the end the worst happens to them

And I think that's beautiful

Regardless of having a heart, however, Meggy has the absolute right to be angry at Puzzles, maybe it wasn't right but I don't blame her for snapping at a kid, that kid Is Puzzles after all

I see two possible interpretations of Meggy becoming Leggy one more time: either- Truly to get close to Puzzles and become a true friend, or simple manipulation to get him to stop. Either are possible in my book, maybe with a little more thought I'd be able to know which one but for now I remain satisfied with being skeptical on this one, I don't care to find what the real intentions were since I know the ending.

Plus nothing is in black and white, there's a lot of layers to Puzzles' and Meggy's relationship........

And speaking of that ending-

HAH!!!!

I THOUGHT THAT SHIT WAS HILARIOUS!!

IN TRUE SMG4 FASHION YOU (SORTA) REDEEM A VILLAIN AND CELEBRATE SAVING THE DAY WITH A STUPID MEME

WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO FOLKS IT'S SMG4 IT'S THE FUNNY HAHA MEME SHOW!!

STOP TAKING IT SO FUCKING SERIOUSLY THE WHOLE TIME!!

IT CAN BE SERIOUS AND STUPID!!!!

Mr Puzzles SHOULD go to the psych ward, HE'S FUCKING INSANE

YOU DON'T GET REDEEMED IMMEDIATELY AFTER ALL THAT!!

I'm glad they didn't redeem him completely! I didn't believe him at all when he said he learned a valuable lesson! I was like No The Fuck You Didn't!

You can have a redemption later! That's okay! I trust the writers with handling the arcs and making them good! And you heard Luke, they might bring him back later! (Which is a definite yes!)

I would love for them to take it slow with Puzzles, not immediately of course, let him breathe and write another arc right now, settle things with everything and everyone and THEN you can break him out, the universe is full of possibilities, and I'm SURE I will enjoy whatever the SMG4 crew writes

Haeheh she looks like a nerd with those goggles

Someone's Artist Puzzles AU just came true btw-

"And Didney shut down..!" :D

The Showgrounds is gonna start looking more like an actual carnival too!! Wahoo!!

I WANT THAT FUCKING HOODIE-

That Puzzle plushie looks so ugly I LOVE HIMMMM

I WANT THAT FUCKING POSTER AND KEYCHAIN

SOMEONE PLEASE FUCKING COMMISSION ME SO I CAN BUY THEMMMMMM AEUGHHHHHH

Thank YOU LUKE AND SMG4 CREW FOR GIVING US THIS WOTFI!!! I LOVED IT WITH ALL MY HEART <33

I would love to hang out and go get some pizza with Mr Puzzles :(

And finally... that lil jingle to end with the rolling credits

✧ Final Thoughts

Believe me when I say I think this is the best possible ending for Puzzles, he doesn't die, he doesn't get completely redeemed, but he does face consequences and he gets a chance for the future, best of both worlds me thinks

I loved this rollercoaster that was Puzzlevision, I might've hopped on the train sorta late but I stayed for all the duration of the ride and I had a blast <3

Mr Puzzles was great and maliciously loveable, learning about all these characters and growing to care about them was amazing, I'm really happy I have a new series I can watch and analyze and enjoy!! I'll be remaining in my seat with my one ticket until I get off the SMG4 train, not sure when!! But until then you can expect me to still love this show, draw for it and analyze it much more than any reasonably normal person should.

If you've read this far, I love you soso much and hope you enjoyed this hell of a scroll, because I spent so many hours on this shit YOU WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND-

K BYEEEE <333

[skruttet]

What are your thoughts on s4? Personally I was actually kind of disappointed, a lot of the characters felt... off?? Not like themselves. Snufkin really didn't appear much and the Comet Episode was confusing and wasn't really all that Book-Accurate... And Snufkin got the 90s Movie treatment :(

Like there were definitely scenes and a few episodes I liked, but overall I feel weird about the season. And I'm curious what your thoughts are.

I will say that overall, I was disappointed.

To be fair to the series though, it arguably largely stems from my personal expectations and hopes? The two biggest disappointments for me were Joxter and Snufkin not meeting, and snufmin's relationship.

The Joxter stuff on the whole I adored, and really could never have dreamed of happening. Just seeing him - or any of the Oshun Oxtra crew, really! - interacting with the characters in "modern day" is great. And then he reunited with Mymble and it was so exciting, and then Little My started wondering about him and Snufkin, and then-! ...They didn't meet. Honestly baffles me why they'd give us so much fanservice but not include probably the main thing most fans would want to see with Joxter. Also interesting that they're afraid to even touch Snufkin's issues with family but they KEEP bringing up Little My's.

The snufmin thing surprised me because my expectations were LOW; during the wait I kept telling people not to get their hopes up, that snufmin would never be explicitly "canon", etc. And I still say they would never do anything explicit with them, however, I was expecting at least for the relationship to be on the same level as it was in season 3, but it seemed to take a step down unfortunately. I wanted more romantic subtext, more hints that something was up between them, and for about the first 4 episodes I thought Moomintroll and Snorkmaiden were finally just interacting as friends and I was hopeful, but unfortunately it was soon clear that they were still supposed to be romantically linked. To their credit, Moomintroll and Snufkin's relationship does maintain some of the development it grew throughout the series, and it funnily ends up presenting it almost as one-sided on Snufkin's side; he's now so much more openly affectionate and patient with Moomintroll, and their communication is a whole lot better, but the latter continues to pursue Snorkmaiden instead. I think Snufkin himself feels so mellowed out in this season, like he's no longer fighting against his own feelings or pulling away from others as much, which is nice to see (though I can see others complaining he's too out-of-character compared to his original counterpart, which is understandable, but I'm personally fine with the characters being "different versions" of themselves in adaptations).

Another disappointment for me was, like you mentioned, the Comet finale... it just wasn't as epic as I thought it'd be, and the stakes weren't high from the start, and after the journey was over the rest of the episode taking place in the valley was a bit dull and directionless. And inaccuracies from the book I expect by this point, but I'm personally not a fan of the ending change with them all just waiting outside to die but the Groke sacrificing herself but actually this is a family show so she's actually alive yaay 😂 Just a bit strange and not the send-off I was quite hoping for.

On the positive side, I LOVED Mamma and Pappa this season. Moominpappa kinda stole the show, and whilst the creators clearly favoured him in past seasons, in this one he finally lost that meanness he sometimes had in s1-3, so he was just a delight to watch.

The guest stars and characters were fabulous, which is a bittersweet thing as it makes it all the more sad that this is the final season and it's all we'll see of them.

The animation and music and sound and acting were all as wonderful as they always are. The crew did such a great job and it's a shame the story decisions dampened the experience for me.

[justin-chapmanswers]

I recall someone saying you wrote backup scripts for Invitational episodes in case the Immunity Votes messed anything up. Can you share with us any scenarios where things might have gone differently? Like who would have gone home in episodes 2 and 4 if Fan or OJ had been immune? And is there any way we could ever see any of those backup scripts? No worries if not!

Great question! So with my scripts, at least, I didn't really feel I've needed to worry about that, by chance. I worked on episodes that were set to have eliminations for: OJ, Tea Kettle, Test Tube, The Floor, and Bot (and of course none for the finale). For OJ's ep, based on the prior votes, we were thinking it'd likely be Yin-Yang or The Floor, maybe Paintbrush. For Tea Kettle it was very very likely Balloon, mayyyybe Nickel. By the time of Test Tube and the Floor, it was pretty clearly going to Yin-Yang, Bot, or Balloon. So just a lot of luck there, especially through pre-merge. I was very very excited at the notion of needing to get creative and play fast-and-loose were a situation to arise where we needed to boot someone other than our planned character, just didn't come up. As well, I don't recall if anyone else's scripts included alt drafts, I could ask around.

That-said, The Overthinkers had a different issue. We felt pretty confident based on prior votes (like Silver!) that OJ would not be immune, but we were less-positive that Yin-Yang WOULD be the one with immunity, which was plot-relevant that episode. Yin-Yang has been getting the votes prior, but it seemed like The Floor's vote percentage had been going up. Would it be enough to surpass Yin-Yang's come ep four?? We had to prepare! So, while not the craziest thing, there was a slightly-alternate draft written that covers this. Here's that!

[raayllum]

Thought I'd do a little update to my formal Key of Aaravos analysis now that we know more about the Key (+ book) and because we have more scenes. Will also revisit some (4x04) now that we have new potential rune foreshadowing understanding. I also realized that I never talked about any of its appearances in end credit art, so I'll be doing that as well. This is, as always, operating under the assumption that rune placement can foreshadow scenes, since Callum's rune placement in his dark magic 2x08 dreams foreshadowed him doing dark magic in book 5 ocean and for Rayla (moon rune on display).

First things first I want to talk about 4x04 again now that we know the Cube unlocks a book of knowledge, which makes this sentence be more direct and overt regarding the mysteries the cube/Aaravos could answer for Callum.

For great mysteries we have Moon, Ocean, and Star on display, which seems appropriate as the Moon is related to secrets/depth, Ocean is something Callum will unlock the following season, and Star in equalling Aaravos (or the Cosmic Council) is the mystery we're trying to solve. Earth feels like a callback to other cube appearances (its 2nd first, Harrow's letter) that potentially foreshadowed books 4 to 6 (aka Earth, Ocean, and Star) being the true Mystery of Aaravos with book 7 being more of a book of revelation. We then see Callum flip the cube from Earth to Sky, likely foreshadowing that later this episode he will lose his freedom / he will spend the next 4ish books attempting to fully reclaim his freedom from Aaravos. It could also refer to Zym, who may have an important role to play.

Then we have Star-Moon-Sun trifecta which feels more apt because we know it's possible that Moon and Sun magic is required for Aaravos' machinations to invert life and death / that using Sol Regem + Sunfire elves (s6) and potentially Rayla in S7 are important elements of his plan. This could also foreshadow Callum and Claudia, two of his most present pawns, getting the Moon and/or Sun arcanums respectively.

For end credit art, there are four sketches the Key of Aaravos appears in, three of them in S2.

Heart of a Titan (2x06), in which Callum learns what the Key is and what it's called, which harkens back to its 2nd shot appearance in 1x04 (hence the three runes) and features keys:

Fire and Fury (2x07), where we see the game and key motif with it get merged further, and the scratches on the ground indicate that the cube is being pulled from somewhere. 6x02 directly picks up this thread but does not feature in end credit art (we'll talk more about it later). The rune most prominently on display is the Star rune but right side up, as well as Earth (patience, book 4) and sun (Karim, Pharos). These are also the following books (Sun, Earth) after S2.

In 2x08 Book of Destiny the cube has only dark magic sigils on it in the end credit art. This represents the closing doors on Callum's potential that dark magic poses, the hold this will give Aaravos over him without knowing, and seems to be the biggest hint pre-S6 that the cube would be associated with a literal and not just metaphorical book of destiny.

This is also one of the reasons I thought it'd be fitting for the cube to be something bad at first, and then become something good and helpful to Callum. Just as he reclaims his agency/identity, he can reclaim the cube (and book 'of destiny') from Aaravos and make it his, now, and use it for good. But first... dark magic.

I'm going to wait to talk about the final end credit Key art from S6 because I want to talk about it in context with its episode / what we know about S7 so far.

In the meantime, I'm going to make a brief pitstop to 5x08 as despite the season not featuring the Key at all, or Callum being that worried about Aaravos' hold over him (he's much happier in the beginning of S5 compared to the beginning of S6, despite the mission to stop Aaravos being in a much worse place in 5x01 as compared to 6x01), the pawn intro featuring the key and its bright light is here to remind us that's still in play. Additionally, Callum's experiences in 5x08 and what he learns about himself and his strengths/vulnerabilities are a clear turning point that makes him more worried and paranoid in S6, which we see directly with the cube in 6x01.

He starts off by pacing/looking at the Star rune, if him being with the cube wasn't enough to bring Aaravos to mind. The show then has him be nervous when the Star rune itself glows up, once again the upside down version we're more prone to associating with Aaravos (and possibly Callum is too) + a little bonus Moon rune, which feels fitting that Rayla is about to show up in like 2 seconds.

We then get Callum's hand holding/covering the cube by the Sky rune (since Sky and Star are literal opposites on the cube, how's that for thematic design) and pushing the Star rune end into Rayla's hand with Moon on full display. As a treat for me and my "Callum will sacrifice his freedom (Sky) for Rayla's life (Moon) to Aaravos (Star)" and then all those things will be inverted with Rayla helping to restore his freedom to him from Aaravos back again (just like in S6).

Then we have a couple of wide shots where the rune changes despite the fact that it shouldn't (which happens in 2x08 of Earth and then to Ocean for the actual closeup / important shots) because it's not changing position. However, both the ones presented — Earth and then Star — have their own valid meanings.

For Earth, it can contrast Rayla's continual willingness to wait (let's maybe not try to destroy the pearl right now, no I'm not going to free my parents right now) — right or wrong — in the face of Callum's growing eagerness and impatience. For Star, it's precisely because he's discussing star magic and it's book 6 stars.

Then finally we have Rayla shifting to hold the cube to the point you can barely tell she's holding it, like it's part of her body / synonymous with her, and Callum looking at her after his "Somehow, Aaravos is going to use me" fear talk (cue screaming).

Then we have Callum looking at the Ocean rune after Rayla, Earth is most prominently on display, and Star (surprise surprise) on top.

He rolls it and since Sky is on top we know Star is on the bottom (even if I don't think that's the one that hit the ground, or that these ones particularly matter - but here for posterity anyway).

Star is again on top when he picks it up, with Moon most prominently on display (I wanna see this one as Rayla foreshadowing for me, particularly since it's related to where the cube is being pulled but like, who knows). I do in all seriousness think it's interesting that Moon and Sun are most on display given Aaravos' apparent desire to invert life (Sun) and death (Moon) next season, and presumably the Key plays some kind of role in... letting him get to the place where he can do that, at least as a step one.

Then we have the big reveal at the end of the season in terms of what the Key unlocks. This also put lines that felt like foreshadowing with the cube / Callum but it wasn't clear how exactly ("That the entire world would be in danger if she let me live with this knowledge" / "Having knowledge isn't the same as knowing knowledge")

No surprise again that we see the Star rune most on display, and again we get a shot of Sun and Moon.

We see the cube flip around (it seems like Aaravos is trying to decide which one) before he settles on Earth. We don't know enough about the Earth arcanum to really say if this is going to have meaning or not; it could reference that Book 4: Earth is when this plotline really got started in arc 2; it could be that Callum is going to use the book to help cleanse corruption (like the mushrooms for Zubeia, and maybe even Lux Aurea or corrupted elves/people/animals). It could also be Earth because that would be the easiest to visually convey spreading over the book for the audience's understanding.

The white light the Book emits when the cube goes in also intrigues me. On the one hand, we know that Moon and most overtly Star magic can take on a white light (although Moon also has blue, and Star has magenta) that might be analogous to the white light the cube flashes in the pawn intro. Alternatively, the white flash there could just be an evocation of the book itself (fitting, again, if Callum is going to eventually reclaim it alongside his identity).

As a finale note, I'm also assuming we see the Ocean rune here just to emphasize the insertion of the Key > any particular meaning and they needed Earth on top. I do find it interesting though (and maybe it was just shot composition) that they didn't want to go with the rune opposite of Ocean that also could've worked, as Sun presumably ties into 1) Aaravos' machinations with the Sunfire elves / Sol Regem and 2) symbolizes the life part of his life and death plans, whereas Ocean has almost exclusively been used in reference to either his prison or Callum's dark magic use (2x08, 5x08) / inner depths of the lengths he's willing to go for his loved ones. But hey, an nb can dream

In the meantime, I'm curious if the Earth rune's prominence here and in the Cube's appearances throughout the season will eventually come to pass foreshadowing wise in S7 (or in the future), but we'll just have to wait and see!

Last but not least we have the final end credit art from 6x09

Yet again, we have Star (upside down Aaravos) and next to the book, now that they're reunited - in terms of us knowing about them, anyway. Then we have Sun and most prominently Moon on display overall, which again bodes well for 1) life and death stuff and 2) possible Rayla connection to build on their prior consistency. I would've expected Star to be most evident or even just Sun (as it is on the side display in the pawn intro with Callum facing Star), but not minding the reinforced Sun-Moon that we've seen more and more the past couple seasons either

And that's that until we get another cube sighting! Dragons out

[loopnoid]

hey! I'm trying to indoctrinate my girlfriend into enjoying Queap... which episode should I show her first?

oh dear i'm just now seeing this so sorry!!! it depends on your girlfriend's tastes imo. because queap does genre eps so often and covers so many topics i feel like it's easy to be like "hey you like boxing movies? court dramas? noir detectives? vampires? mummies? glam rock? milfs??? let's watch This Episode

other than that though:

my personal favorites to use are private dancer (3x14) and miss deep south (3x06) because i feel like they capture the social justice themes of the show without being too intense as other Issue Episodes can be, plus private dancer is a great sam romance and miss deep south is thee girlsam episode, another two big aspects of the show<3

i've never introduced anyone through honeymoon express (2x01) but i feel like it'd go over wonderfully as well, as the first "okay now we actually know what we're doing with this show" episode it's a very good introduction to the show

good morning peoria (2x06), another mother (2x13) and sea bride (2x21) are some great lighthearted ones to get to know the characters

i wouldn't necessarily recommend starting out with the more dramatic episodes but if you think that'd get them hooked over anything else, unchained (4x10) and good night, dear heart (2x17) are great standouts

and finally "play ball" (4x01) is a good episode with a pretty standard leap but also featuring thee sam thesis statement (i know you! you're terminally good. if it was up to you, you'd save everyone) and the absolutely devastating reveal of sam and al's first meeting and the basis of their whole relationship so i feel like it'd probably work quite well too.

i definitely would not recommend starting with any lore heavy episodes like m.i.a. or shock theater or the leap home because those gain their strength 100% from already knowing the characters through their more goofy masks which is why the tragedy hits you like a freight train. other than that though yeah that's my 2 cents! this ask is like a month old so you've probably already shown your girlfriend some episodes so this reply might be useless BUT i'm still sharing in case it helps anyone else :-)

good luck and happy queaping <3

[sehtoast]

Hello there! Just watched s4 finale and have lots of feelings especially about Homelander and Ryan’s relationships. S4 had lots of great moments with them but i wish we got more (i can’t believe they didn’t show us the moment when Ryan found out about the bad room). I still think Ryan will be the one to kill Homelander cause it’s the only way it’ll make sense (even tho i know it’s gonna break my heart, cause i love their dynamic a lot). Personally i want Homelander to snap and destroy everything and everyone in the end but i know there’s no way they’re gonna end the show like that. I’ll be disappointed if Butcher or Soldier boy or someone else ends up killing him, it should either be Ryan or Homelander himself. What do you think will happen, any theories?

s4 finale spoilers:

i'm also incredibly bummed we didn't get to see if/when/how ryan found out about the bad room. i like to think he saw homelander coming into the penthouse after ep 4, all covered in blood, and had questions (who wouldn't). or maybe he was told outright. things like this are why we need more than eight episodes, because this would have added SO MUCH to our understanding of ryan's thought process in the moments before he shoved mallory. knowing what humans are capable of, knowing what they've done to the strongest supe on earth- it all would have been gasoline on the fire.

i 100% agree though. i've been saying for a very long time that i think ryan will be the one to put both butcher and homelander down and it shatters my heart to think of him having to do that. the boy's been through so much, and there's so much more coming.

if i had to pick a theoretical route for them to take, it's definitely that (i also haven't given it much thought yet on other possibilities, admittedly). maybe add in some some plays on caesar and brutus since homelander and sage seem to respectively match those roles so much. i'll be annoyed if they take him out with the virus in some manner, especially if it's related to his milk consumption, and very disappointed if butcher or soldier boy lands the killing blow. like you said, ryan or homelander himself has to do it. it'd fucking KILL me to see either way happen, but those are the only ways that don't like... suck lol

personally though, my ideal ending for him isn't even death- although i doubt kripke would go any other direction. i think the most satisfying (and heartbreaking) ending is for homelander to be depowered and put back in a box. death is almost too... good? it's too gentle and seemingly impossible anyhow. depowerment brings real agonizing consequences for his actions. he's thrown right back into his nightmare and childhood agony by being put in another bad room. again, this whole thing BREAKS MY HEART, but i do think it's the most appropriate ending for homelander all around. i reaaallly want to say this is a theoretical ending, but i still doubt they'd do it.

[vanmarkus]

idk if you've been asked this before but is there any scenario where you would be happy/ok with a bucktommy breakup? your gifset made me think he's already pre-approved by the most important people in buck's life and they (accidentally or not) made it work so well lol what on earth could they have planned IF they're not supposed to be longterm anyway

mm i do get some form of this question every once in a while, but you know, things change, people's opinions change, so i don't mind going into a bit again

to be very real, regardless of where this and any future relationship of Buck's goes, it won't really have a bearing on my enjoyment of the show, so let's start there.

i have my opinions and ideas about where the show might be headed, but you know, this could be the very last season or there could be 10 more and the writers have to kinda work with that in mind too, so whatever happens and when that happens have to work for either scenarios which is not an easy place to be in

but ngl a bucktommy breakup would definitely break my heart (shatter it to teeny tiny smithereens more like) however amicable it'd be and i absolutely wish that if that's something coming our way they stretch out their time together before, so we can see them bloom as partners and get to know more about their dynamic, maybe let us see some milestone moments (yes, i am very aware that it'd just hurt more, but if it's gonna hurt anyway, at least give me this!!)

more on the perspective of the show though... yeah, Tommy has everyone's approval and he's clearly a great match for Buck in many ways that we already saw and possibly in other ways we haven't yet seen. but that's not a guarantee of anything, good relationships can hit just one roadbump that's too big to overcome, people deeply in love can break up due to wanting fundamentally different things, life is a bitch and that applies universally, even in fiction.

i do think they will be longterm though, whatever that'll actually mean in the terms of the actual episodes. i also think Tim might be a bit more cautious this time around to take the fan's reactions into account and that he might have a general idea of where he wants to go with them, but the man writes episodes 2 days before the first day of shooting, so i think there's a lot of wiggle room either way

in any case, they accidentally turned this relationship into a narrative goldmine, so they'd be real stupid not to exploit it as much as they can (and give us a beautiful love story in the process, final outcome notwithstanding)

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

So basically there was no plausible way Azula, or any other character, could have been not straight because heteronormativity?

It wasn't because of heteronormativity, it was fulll on HOMOPHOBIA. Cultural homophobia and network homophobia, that were a result of literal decades of full on censorship and legally enforced homophobia on TV and films.

Until 2003, just two years before Avatar, it was totally okay for every state to have laws that were openly anti-gay, and some of them took full advantage of that. We're not talking just "No getting married or adopting kids" here, we're talking "You could get fired because of it. You could go to prison for kissing your partner in public."

Obscenity laws are still a thing today in some states. What are obscenity laws you ask? Basically a legal loophole that allows authorities to go "This thing you did is not illegal, but it offends me personally, so I can treat you like a criminal anyway." When asked to describe what even is obscenity, because that's a REALLY vague concept, one of said authories even said "I know it when I see it" and that was it. That was all you needed then, and if the "criminal" doesn't know their way around legal technicalities, it's all you need now. One dude getting offended at a song, movie or, you guessed, cartoon aimed at children, could make the thing ILLEGAL where he lives.

Nickelodeon would not allow non-straight characters in 2005. There were writters that had been trying to go there since the freaking 90s, and at best it'd result in banned episodes/episodes never got greenlit, and at worst in their shows getting cancelled - likely as a result of decades of the Hay's Code being legally enforced, and still having an effect on TV and film once it was no longer mandatory.

What did the Hay's Code forbid you ask? Oh, just a few things like showing married couples sleeping on the same bed, or interracial romances, or any mention of gay people - unless they were the villain AND the story not only highlighted that they were evil BECAUSE of their sexuality but also killed them in the end as punishment for their sins. That's where the "Bury your gays" trope came from.

Nickelodeon's primary goal is to make money. They were not going to spend money on a show that would result in angry parents, boycots, and episodes or the entire series becoming ILLEGAL in parts of the country.

Bryke themselves said they didn't even think to ASK PERMISSION to make Korrasami a thing until the very last second, almost a whole decade after the original show, because "Any kids network is gonna say no, and if you ask multiple times they might get mad and fire you" was the rule and everyone knew it. And even when they got permission to do it, it was just the two of them holding hands, in a season that was mostly only shown online because of the shows poor performance on actual TV. They didn't get explicit with the "THEY ARE A COUPLE" thing until it gave the show a HUGE popularity boost - aka when corporations like Nickelodeon FINALLY realized "Ooooohhhhhhh, gay stuff is PROFITABLE now, not something that will make us lose money."

It's great that gay characters being straight up illegal/something deeply controversial that could sink an entire series is not the reality anymore (for the most part, again, obscenity laws still exist), but lets not kid ourselves into thinking it was always common to see LGBT+ characters in children's shows.

It's totally valid to reimagine characters from Avatar as being gay or bisexal or whatever you want, but to claim it was CANON is pure delusion AND shows complete ignorance of the history of LGBT+ rights. I'm not even from the US and I know that shit, people, learn a bit of history for God's sake.

Oh, and lets not forget: now that Avatar CAN get away with gay characters, they made Kyoshi openly bisexual. Azula meanwhile continues to only show interest in boys and want only boys to think she's attractive, even after ships like Tyzula became so popular that the voice actresses themselves started to like it. It's almost like the writers ALWAYS INTENDED FOR HER TO BE STRAIGHT, STILL VIEW HER AS STRAIGHT, AND WILL LIKELY ALWAYS THINK OF HER AS STRAIGHT!

We can make headcanons and ship her with whoever we want, but let's not pretend the message isn't loud and clear here. It took years for her to finally be allowed to be written as anything other than just a walking ableist stereotype of a mentally ill person and be treated with any shred of humanity in the comics. Bryke literally said Azula fans are like a cult for feeling sorry for her. They are not interested in almost any reading of her as sympathetic. Not once have they ever so much as acknowledged the popular fanon idea of lesbian Azula.

They're not giving her a girlfriend, guys. It's already a minor miracle that Spirit Temple finally acknowledged she was also a victim of Ozai, and it still ends with her all alone and convincing herself that she is Totally Not Sad about it and will find herself a new group of friends that will Totally Not Leave Her even as she relapses into bad habits. Stop setting yourselves up for failure.

[mahi-does-some-art]

Sakuya's gonna be real lucky considering he probably drinks Mahiru's blood once in a while. (But he probably wouldn't realize it he would probably just be like "of course this blood is delicious, it's Mahiru's and everything about Mahiru is amazing)

Since Sakuya drinks blood like any other vampire via having to attack humans in secluded areas, blood-bags or blood-bags, he absolutely would notice. Mage blood is better than normal human blood and yes Sakuya has likely tasted his fair share but I do think Eve blood would knock the socks off any subclass.

I think it'd be a lot funnier if nobody knew the blood of an Eve was so much better because no subclass had the balls to try to feed off of an Eve or died trying.

I don't even think any of the Servamps would have known. Mahiru is Kuro's first Eve and any blood he had tasted was both hundreds of years ago and in a time where he'd absolutely dread it regardless of anything so Mahiru is the only blood he's had that was at a time he could properly take. He wouldn't have been able to tell the difference because of the gap in time. And Tsubaki is the only one whose never had a (human) Eve and feeds off mage and human blood-bags like his subclass.

The rest of the Servamps all have had Eve's one after another and get their blood pretty much exclusively from them and the taste of any non-Eve blood they may have found in their mouth would probably have been cast aside simply because it was unwanted or they weren't in good states.

So Mahiru is like. The first Eve to actually offer his blood to a subclass and it's Sakuya. Kuro wouldn't have any problem with it as long as neither of them get actually hurt in the process and all the other Servamps are just "Good for them".

So I think it'd be great if Sakuya finally tried and nearly passed out after he was pulled away because he just tasted the equivalent of vampire ambrosia. The reaction would make Mahiru worry, poor thing www

But also the next time Sakuya feeds like he normally does without Mahiru he can barely stand it because it doesn't even come close. His tastebuds are fucked like Kirito and Asuna in that episode of SAO abridged lol

[according2thelore]

I just saw a writing prompt that I HAVE to share with you when we talk about the Codependent Brothers(tm) because it'd be hilarious.

A reversal of the "there was only one bed" trope. Instead, I offer: too many beds

I just love the idea of Sam and dean, maybe post getting together, not knowing how to function when having to sleep separately. They're so used to cramped motel rooms with single beds, and after becoming official(read: declaring their love to each other in the moonlight and then fucking nasty in the impala) they feel even LESS able to handle this dilemma.

Maybe they have to put up an act for someone, maybe they are forced to eb separated by outside forces, or maybe they just forgot that that was an option. Either way I just think it would be hilarious watching them fumble their way through realizing they have to sleep in separate beds for once.

(This would also fit in the LS/ES Verse because LS! Sam and Dean would have to hide their relationship from their younger selves, who make it a point, and take great effort to actively Not Be Too Weird Or Clingy around their brother who they're secretly desperately in love with.)

"there's two beds."

dean looks up at sam's flat tone, and his stomach sinks as he realizes, oh shit. there are two beds.

the clerk at the counter must've given them a key to the wrong room.

they'd been carefully "accidentally"ing themselves into rooms with kings since that night a few months ago, dean's blood soaking underneath sam's nails and sam finally kissing the fuck out of dean--the absolute hell out of him--as he'd slipped into hypovolemic unconsciousness.

since then, dean had talked sam into sleeping in his room in the bunker. it started as sam sleeping over after sex, but they weren't twenty anymore, and after the sixth night of marathon acrobatic fucking, dean had said "maybe we could watch a few episodes of game of thrones" and tried very hard to strategically fall asleep on top of sam so he couldn't get up and leave.

after that, the convincing got less...well, convincing, but sam stayed anyway. somehow, his clothes migrated over to dean's dresser. his toothbrush sat next to his on the sink. his house shoes stayed next to the bed.

that's it. just the one bed. but now...

"i could," dean clears his throat. "i could go ask him to switch us."

sam tears his eyes away from the damning beds in question.

"huh? i mean. no."

dean blinks. sam shrugs, looking unsure.

"nah, it should be fine, right? it's just for a night."

dean nods.

"yeah. i mean we've slept in separate beds for thirty years." dean agrees, a factual statement. they stare at each other. they stare at the beds.

just two red-blooded american guys staring at two separate beds.

like god intended.

dean is in front of the clerk thirty-nine seconds later, being told that there's a boxcar rally in town. he won't find a king bed this side of the river.

or the next river. dean asked.

dean has been sleeping in a bed by himself--he does the math--for almost thirty-six years of his life. he knocked off three cumulative years for how often he and sam shared beds as kids and that year with lisa.

so he's used to sleeping in his own bed. never mind that dean has never been sleeping better than the past few months. he thought he just slept poorly, but he dares any person alive or dead to not sleep like a goddamn baby when sam has his hulk-hogan arm wrapped around your torso. you can't. it's a scientific impossibility.

it turns out that the regular soothing effect of hearing sam breathe that could get dean to sleep for the first forty years of his life (minus the first four for obvious reasons, dean doesn't really count those anyway) worked exponentially better when sam was actually exhaling against dean's sternum. who knew?

dean was getting a full six, a full eight, a full nine hours of sleep tucked up behind sam, and the hair in his mouth--while a trade off that deserved consideration--could be overlooked.

dean is sitting in his bed later that night, unsure of where to put his arms. or his legs. or his body. sam is standing next to his own bed, looking confused.

dean looks at him, and damn. this room is huge. he's like...really far away.

"so." dean says, voice a little louder so sam can hear him all the way over there, "we should get up at seven. to get to montana by tomorrow afternoon."

sam nods.

"yeah, okay." he says. he sits down on his bed. dean realizes that because he's used to sleeping on the side closest to the door, and sam is used to sleeping on the opposite side, that they're pressed to opposite sides of their separate beds, giving the maximum amount of space between them.

dean frowns. he turns the light off.

he can barely hear sam breathe in the dark. how the hell did he hear him before? he scoots over, and finds that sam has already done the same. they stare at each other across the three foot space between beds.

dean is hot. like he's...really hot. he kicks the blankets off.

sam has pulled his blankets up to his chin. how the hell is he cold right now?

minutes tick by. they build up on top of each other like snowflakes on a drift.

dean has his eyes closed, and thinks he's probably close to something, but just as he's maybe getting somewhere, sam turns over, and dean loses the sound of his breathing.

dean blinks up at the ceiling, wide awake.

"hey. hm. hey sammy. can you. uh. can you turn back over?" dean whisper-calls.

sam turns back over.

dean looks at the clock. it's thirty two minutes past when they laid down.

"what the hell?" dean smacks the clock a few times. it stays the same. he watches for over thirty minutes as it turns from 11:23 to 11:24. dean flops back against the bed. this is a fucking nightmare.

sam sneezes.

"gesundheit." dean says. sam thanks him. dean starts counting cars that go by on the interstate. he makes it to forty-seven when sam sighs heavily.

"okay," he says, firm, and he stands up. dean whirls back around to look at him, and watches as sam crosses the chasm between their beds, and kicks dean's body with his knee. "move."

dean rolls over immediately, tangling in his blankets in his fervor to get over.

sam wraps his humungo he-man arm around dean's waist as he crawls into his bed.

dean is asleep before his head hits the pillow.

in the morning, dean's left arm and leg are cold and numb, sam having squished all the blood and feeling out of it. they sleep through their alarm, they sleep so well. dean is pulling sam's hairs out of his mouth for the rest of the day. sam has a crick in his neck that dean sees him wincing about every time he turns his head.

"next time," sam says, folding himself into the passenger seat of the impala as they get ready to drive away, "we'll go to the next state if we have to."

dean nods.

it would be easier. it's not like they need it, though, or anything.

~~~

ES/LS BONUS!

"yes, it's time to go sleep in my bed," dean says, standing up. his teeth are clenched. "by myself."

his younger self looks at him like he's speaking a different language. dean glares at him. it's his fucking fault he's not getting any goddamn sleep around here.

"yeah." sammy says, hauling himself up. he sounds defeated. "a night of 'sleep' will do me good."

"why did you say it like that?" sam says, brushing his bangs out of his face, and looking up at his older self. "i heard those air quotes. what was that about?"

"because we sleep normally." sammy says, bitterly. "like regular people."

"do y'all hang from the ceiling or something?" younger dean asks. "what the fuck is happening right now?" "we're going to bed!" dean snaps. "because we're regular people, who treat each other regularly!"

"i have never felt more normal in my life," sammy agrees solemnly. "good night."

dean and sammy don't see the baffled what the fuck sam mouths at younger dean, or the way younger dean makes sure he has his silver knife in his pocket. maybe things aren't all they seem around here. bc what the hell was that?

but their younger selves don't see the forlorn look dean shoots sammy before he closes his door. sammy sighs ten minutes later, thunking his head on his own closed door. he forgot his toothbrush in dean's room.

~~~

this ask was DELIGHTFUL!!!!!!!

this was SUCH a fun prompt, and i had such a great time writing it, thank you sm bestie 🥹

trust that i have seen your other ask! i have been in a ES/LS rut for the past few weeks as i work on my big bang piece (an ES!Dean/LS!Sam fic that i'm excited for y'all to see later this year!). but i shall answer! i promise!

thank you for this ask, animangalover! mwah <3 hope you're doing well!

-lizzy

[real-total-drama-takes]

I think alenoah is similar to aleheather in the fact that they are both great rivals to lovers' ships. While I feel like alenoah started out as perhaps a crackship of sorts, I think if it had been cannon to any extent, it wouldn't have been a bad relationship.

Just like aleheather, I feel like it would be entertaining to see how Noah and Alejandros' relationship would grow, especially if Noah had been kept in the game after the I See London... episode. I feel like Noah would would try and convince the rest of Team Chris is Really Hot that Alejandro is bad news, but would fail for the most part, only having Owen somewhat believe him. I feel like the dynamic between Alejandro and Noah would be interesting if Noah continuously failed to convince his other teammates that Alejandro couldn't be trusted.

We could be given many comical scenarios of Noah failing to convince other contestants and Alejandro teasing him for failing. I feel like their dynamic would be similar to Alejandro and Heathers, with the distrust and flirting. Overall, it wouldn't be too different from Aleheathers dynamic, besides the fact that Noah isn't as "villainous" as Heather, so that's a difference that could possibly make the relationship better and maybe move it along quicker? (I don't think it'd harm the relationship any, perhaps they'd get together sooner than Alejandro and Heather though)

Now I don't know where Noah would be eliminated if he wasn't Eliminated in the I See London... episode. I feel like maybe instead of not eliminating him, we bring him back for merge instead of Blainley. (No offense to Blainley lovers, but she was very much, in my opinion, a filler character.) For obvious reasons (aka Heather deserved to win.) Noah wouldn't make it to the final two, maybe final four? (Perhaps replacing Sierra?) Honestly, I'm not too sure.

Personally I like this ship, and it is my favorite out of all Canon and non-canon total drama ships. I'm not sure why it's so appealing to me, but it is my favorite, so perhaps I'm slightly biased. But looking at it from a purely analytical view, I don't think the ship is bad in the slightest and would rate it a good 8.9/10

(ALSO NEMMA, ALENOAH, NOCO, AND ANY OTHER NOAH SHIPS THAT PEOPLE ARGUE OVER... CANT WE JUST ALL KISS AND BE CHILL?? thank you for reading this bs 💕)

.

[108garys]

Seared

so here it is, the previously unnamed Du'lie soulmate au

I went with the "first words" concept for how it could be played with in this context, it takes place during the game and I also wanted to see how it'd go to be like "oh no!" about the realisation of meeting your soulmate and this is very much "don't evil people deserve happiness too?" 😂

@kassiekole22 @delurkr @tatjana-fantasy @mybrainrotforreal @tinynightmarewoman @aydeenchan @qusok @unhingedlesbear @kindheartedgummybears @ctrvpani

warnings are: canon typical violence, blood, canon reinterpreted, obsessive serial killer stuff, medical stuff, dismemberment, the universe says so, nerve fire related to concept, everyone else is mentioned but they aren't making it out

I did abandon some further epilogue concepts because I felt the story ended where it needed to and anything after would just be extra

Also it has alternating povs

Charlie was destined to die alone.

As a boy he'd eagerly anticipated the appearance of the first words his soulmate would say to him, emblazoned proudly on his wrist as he comes of age… But none came.

He found himself suffocated in his youth. To be surrounded by, yet excluded from the obsessive nature of those who fixate on their 'one true love'… Even to the extent of excusing less than appealing words in advance…

But he'd built his own happiness.

He was married to the job, his employees his family. He'd roll his eyes at the concept and soldier on, he's got work to do after all…

When the call came through asking for him by name with an offer too good to be true…He should have known better.

…Charlie knew he was going to die alone but not here, not yet!

After settling into Du'met's castle he'd argued with his employees over creative decisions on the episode and the whereabouts of their host, then things had gone sideways… Topeka level sideways.

Erin was missing, Kate and Jamie were worried something terrible had happened to her but he'd dismissed it, too attached to the opportunity of a life time…

…And now Charlie stands on a pressure plate, a scythe rigged to drop… a man tied bellow it… He faced an unwinable choice: Move and the innocent groundskeeper dies. Stay and face the wrath of the masked man towering over him. The man, imposing in his HH Holmes inspired costume, held a blade to Charlie's face, the sharpened edge a hair's width from his nose.

The metal bars between them did little to calm him. Leaning back as far as he can from the small opening in the dividing wall as the groundskeeper pleaded, Charlie didn't know if he was nobel enough to keep his feet planted solidly on the pressure plate to save a complete stranger or if he was simply too terrified to move.

Jamie had retreated from his side and his eyes were glued to… Du'met? It had to be…

The masked man's eyes bore into him. Unreadable. The screams of the other, loud classical music and his own fear built up overwhelming him. Any words he might have said getting caught in his throat. Tears prick the edge of his eyes but he dare not move, "Please…" he finally managed in a small shaky voice before whatever else he intended to stammer out died on his tongue. God he was stupid, the groundskeeper's cries hadn't been heeded, what did he think he was going to accomplish-!?

-Du'met's other hand shot through the grate taking hold of Charlie's wrist, roughly tugging him towards him. Charlie instinctively grabbed the metal bars to steady himself and prevent movement off the plate. Ever mindful of the blade, now held a little further from him. He stifled a cry as his wrist was twisted painfully at odd angles, as if to inspect the words that never appeared. Charlie was going to die alone and even his killer would know that nobody loved him. Great. Three decades of denying that hurt and he felt humiliated, tears welling and cheeks burning, he was too on edge to stand here being judged over this… It was such an idiotic thing to waste his tears on-

Charlie stumbled back as his hand was released. The lights cut off. His pulse rung in his ears. The groundskeeper's blood curdling screams abruptly silenced.

"Take my hand." He'd forgotten about Jamie, he blindly reached for her, at least she hadn't fully abandoned him. They carefully shuffled towards the far wall until they found the lights but… They were alone? The groundskeeper and his assailant had vanished, leaving only a trail of blood… Charlie protectively held his wrist, his skin burning where the gloved hand had touched and panic was beginning to take root as Jamie lead him back to the lobby.

Predictably they were trapped. The front entrance barred and attempts to reach the others futile… With every new discovery his fear reaches new heights. He was certain that if he came into contact with that man again his heart would simply give out, depriving his host the satisfaction of taking his life.

It was a meaningless consolation when he found himself falling down a trap door…

***

There was a time when the single word represented hope…

That some angle would step into his life and make sense of it all, who would demonstrate kindness and care for him from the first word. It was an alien concept for him but that naive fairytale had died a long time ago.

The revelation that his person was short tempered, crass and merely said the word for fear of him was inconvenient and the sensation unbearable. The single word scrawled across his wrist burnt as if carved by hot knives. Granthem would be tempted to cut the damn thing out of his skin were it possible, he'd settle for inflicting this fire apon Charlie Lonnit… Even in the privacy of his own mind the name felt different. Right. His 'soulmate' was lost in the basement, it would be a simple thing to guide him into the furnace and be done with it…

He traced over the word etched into his wrist, eyes glued to the younger man who wandered aimlessly across his monitor.

"…Please…"

He was accustomed to hearing his victims beg but the single word scarred his psyche as surely as it had his flesh.

"Please."

He wanted to hear it again, wanted Charlie on his knees begging for his life, knowing this was fate.

"Please!"

Granthem's mind flooded with all the ways he'd draw the word from him like it was the only one he knew…

But no, he took a deep breath, He couldn't allow this matter to cloud his judgement, he'd already ruined the first trial, the burning sensation a distraction… The mild pity that crept in made him more certain of his decision as he made his way to the furnace. Their brief union would soon be concluded.

He couldn't afford another mistake…

***

Charlie was lost in the darkness… Steps echoing. Hand burning. His breath uneven and body sore from the fall… He felt out of his mind, jumping at every little sound… Eyes on every shadow…

He finds things, things he's not supposed to see… Learns things he was never supposed to know… This man… This monster, had been killing for decades and he felt drawn as he always was, to the truth, to the chill that runs down his spine… That people can be like this… His adult life and career ambitions driven by this… Feeling the knife's edge, starring into the abyss? What was he supposed to feel? A hundred cases, a hundred answers… He clutches his wrist as it burns, what the hell is happening to him!?

Dead end after dead end… His shoes clank on the metal grate running through the centre of the empty room with nothing but a pack of cigarettes and nothing to light them.

Foot steps echo on the basement floor…

The door shuts as Charlie turns, as he rushes towards it, trying to prevent himself being locked. Overwhelming terror mixes with a desperate need to survive as Du'met moves into view of the small slot in the door. Not again! He won't let it be like last time. Although his heart races a million miles a minute he's determined. This time he grabs the other man's hand. Holding on for dear life as he pulls as hard as he can in the desperate attempt to force the Du'met to open the door!

But he's having none of it. Charlie's face slams into the door as the stronger man jerks his arm back. Hitting the ground with a thud… Head spinning as he sits up… The slot closes… He fixes his glasses, searching for a way out… there must be… Something grabs his attention as he attempts to lift the grate.

There at the far end of the room, rising from the floor… A mannequin with a lighter?

Charlie pulls at the grate. His heart skips a beat as it budges, stops as the room bursts into flames. He can't breathe, can't stay calm as he tries to keep his head, throwing his all into this one chance to be wrong, to have a future. To deny fate.

He refuses to die alone.

***

He remains tense. The problem was dealt with, Charlie was burnt away to nothing and yet the pain still lingered. Had he been mistaken? Would the cursed mark forever burn like the 'love' he tossed to the flames? He tries to ignore it, Charlie Lonnit was nothing to him and he refuses to regret his actions…

Granthem gathered his guest's belongings, two were dead soon the others would follow. He needed to clear his head, disposing of the Lonnit crew's personal effects should serve as a suitable distraction…

He activated the crusher while these thoughts clouded his mind. This was unlike him. What did he expect? That his soulmate would fall into his arms and they'd live happily ever after… He'd heard that it often does happen that way but he wasn't so naive to think that they'd be anything but miserable but as each item fell he dwell in all the wrong places. He saw something in that man… A will to survive that wasn't entirely uncommon but it felt… Different. The way the man, pathetic during the first trial, had returned his earlier gesture… The dull pain in his shoulder vastly overshadowed by the fire lit by a single word to fall from the mouth of someone he should have been happy with… It was like his mother said. Any person doomed to be his was better off dying alone-

A sudden scream tears him from his introspection. He deactivates the grinder before he has a chance to process. Charlie! He's still alive? How!? The fire in his skin flared up as he peers over the edge… "Please! Please… You fucking bastard!" Charlie pleads between insults and pained sobs. This is explains it. His hand hovers over the button, he has a second chance at this. Kill him and be done with it… His hand remains a solidly an inch above the button. The begging continues, he grabs the control panel with his other hand, breathing slowly in an attempt to calm the fury building inside, at Charlie for insulting and defying him, at himself for allowing the man to do so, at the way his hand wouldn't budge. Is it possible that he was incapable of killing him?

He stepped back from the panel. Charlie would die in his own time, the job of disposal could wait… He turned to leave but the man's voice was intoxicating, he found himself climbing down to Charlie, to get a closer look. One of Charlie's feet was lodged firmly into the machine, he'll surely die if left unattended…

He stood there just out of reach. Watching. Charlie had become incoherent between pain and fear. Almost subconsciouslay Du'met thought about the syringe he keeps on his person, how it could be used to put Charlie under so he could be moved… He got closer assessing what he'd need to remove the younger man, he felt compelled…

Amputation. He'd need a tourniquet. Charlie's screams picked up with renewed intensity as Granthem touched him. The lower part of the leg was a loss. He was sure the Brit would pass out from his rapid breathing. The man's belt would be suitable. Granthem lent over Charlie, taken by surprise as the man's arms encircle him, clinging to him like a half drowned rat. He tries not to focus on the nails digging into the fabric of his shirt as he undoes the belt… His collar wet with tears, the trembling mess beneath him too far gone to fear him any longer...

Charlie whimpers as he pulls away, binding the belt tightly to the damaged limb. Unsure of what came over him, he leans back in planting a soft kiss on Charlie's forehead as he injects the younger man. He couldn't kill him, but he could watch as those beautiful blue eyes grew heavier, how they dulled as they try to make sense of what was happening and eventually Charlie's body went limp. He held the still form of his soon to be lover, reluctant to leave… But the limb still needed attention. Gently laying him as flat as he could, Granthem took in the sight, taking hold of the affected limb.

Dishevelled, bloody… Beautiful.

He smiles as bones break in his grasp, a sickening crack and so much blood…

***

Charlie squinted against the blinding light. A distant steady beeping sound he couldn't place… His mind was hazy and he felt as though he was being pushed into the ground… Was he even in the ground? A bed? A table…? A shadow fell over him as something passed, metal on metal echos somewhere near his feet… Glasses? Charlie thought reaching for where they aught to be, except-

He couldn't?

He tried again slowly moving his numb limbs but was met with resistance followed by a soft clinking sound. The restraints irritated his wrist, even in this state he couldn't escape the feeling… He tried to make out the shape moving around him, a man? Who is that? He tries to speak but only got out soft mumbling sounds… The man stood over him. What is that beeping? Cool hands soothe his nerves, gently caressing his face, Charlie pressed against them, breathing a sigh of relief… Blinking slowly he focuses as hard as he could through bleary eyes, unable to think of a single person who would display this level of gentleness outside of his mother but she was very far away… He thinks the man has brown eyes but he couldn't be sure as a fresh wave of exhaustion washes over him, he just needed to rest his eyes… Just for a little while… The beeping grew harder to make out as he sunk into warm darkness…

***

Granthem Du'met stalked the halls with confidence in his stride. With Charlie stable and the others dying one by one, everything is right in the world. Better than he thought they could be. He is certain he saw love in Charlie's eyes after he'd finished operating, even if it would take the man time to understand it…

He watched as the remaining crew danced to his tune, oblivious to the good news, Kate Wilder sat mourning for people who were dead and some who weren't and Mark Nestor gave a commendable performance… All the while they remain unsuspecting… He would correct his counter once they were gone… He would let the new guests settle in and soon, very soon, he'd have the happiness denied him for far too long.

He enjoyed one last look of terror as he pulled the trigger. Tying off the lose ends and making certain no can interfere with his happiness…

***

Charlie came to in a dark room... A single dim lamp the only source of light, casting strange shadows… It took him a moment to realize he wasn't alone, Du'met stood in the corner like one of his damned mannequins, eyes never leaving him. Charlie shuddered at the unnatural way the light play across his mask, lighting up his dark eyes…

The man strides over, closing the distance. He stops by Charlie's bedside, smoothing his hair with his bare hands. It felt somehow perverse as his warm skin gently skim over his own. Charlie hadn't believed his hoast capable of such an intimate gesture…

Charlie struggled to prop himself up as the tall man withdrew, leaving him alone in the strange room. His eyes adjust to the darkness as he puts on his glasses. Shocked to find he is at home in his own bed, in his own room, but no… The wallpaper in his apartment looks nothing like this and yet it is his room with his things… What was Du'met playing at? Did he empty out his home just to prove he could?

He frowns as the light is turned on, Du'met returns with a tray, Charlie doesn't even care what's on it. He tenses as the tray is sat on his bedside table, he stares directly into the other man's eyes watching as he assess him, moving to sit on the bed-

Charlie takes them both by surprise as a snatches a knife from the tray and throws his weight towards the other man as hard as he can, sending them both tumbling to the floor.

He steadies his shaking, his body feels wrong, different, as he sits atop his would be killer and the man does nothing… Why won't he do anything!? Charlie tears off the man's mask, knife in hand and the other man calmly looks up at him… Why did he feel like he was in the wrong and not this monster? He held the sharpened blade to the man's throat, unable to process and again unable to move… A thin line of blood trickled from the shallow cut and Charlie was gasping for breath. What's wrong with him!? Why can't he just- He flinches as his hand was taken, the knife uselessly dropped to the floor… He looked down not truly comprehending his missing limb as Du'met's other hand stretched out before him, a single word emblazoned on his wrist in a way that immediately made sense… 'Please' his own word thrown back as if the mere act of presenting it was akin to repeating it…

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." Charlie slumped forward having overdone it. This is his soulmate? He couldn't think straight as he was gently scooped back into bed… It must be a lie but… No, he could feel the truth of the matter… He was tucked in as exhaustion crept inside of him, he'd heard once that every thing a person does slowly drives them towards their person…

He thought he was better than that, that his passions had nothing to do with anyone but himself.

He let out an involuntary chuckle at the irony that his love of true crime had driven him into the arms of a serial killer who can't kill him… Of all the ways to prove him wrong, fate had picked the cruellest.

Some part of him accepted these facts as he drifted off… Engulfed by pleasantly warm darkness. Again.

***

Time stretched on as a new normal settled over the castle… Charlie's recovery was of utmost importance, he was moved to a wing inaccessible by outsiders, given anything to make him more comfortable with his situation. Once Granthem was committed to the truth of their connection he became cautious of messing up, at worst he'd have an unwilling prisoner in a stalemate to protect everything he'd built…

He would show him they could be happy. He helped him every step of the way as he learned how to walk on new legs, to see with new eyes… He even gave his friends a proper burial to make things easier. Charlie taught him sign language, his mother had insisted he learn just in case…

He wondered what it was like to have a mother that cared about his happiness…

As Charlie grew more competent he became more comfortable with the arrangement and today he stands unassisted in the lobby, both feeling a lifetime older than when he arrived, he leans against the wall under the counter '0200', looking up at the completed goal before looking to the man across from him. Granthem waits, unmasked and at ease for the man to speak.

"What's next for us?" he asks with his arms folded over his chest, he doesn't wait for an answer as he steps forward. "I don't want to stay here forever," he shakes his head adding, "I love to travel, now that you've reached your goal I'd love to get out there again."

Charlie smiles softly, sensing the other man's worry. "You're basically retired now, don't you want to see the world with me? ...or at least go on holiday for a little while?" he waited for an answer, Granthem had never thought of his life after reaching his goal, never considered that he could simply be happy. He nods, signing "I won't be parted from you, love." as he closes the gap, embracing his person. Charlie rubs his back, continuing. "I don't expect you to give up your hobbies so long as you keep me in the loop, if ever that old itch returns we'll discuss the best way to deal with it, love." He felt as if he was the one with missing limbs as Charlie took his face and kissed him, he'd never felt such peace in all his life and he knew this was how it was supposed to be, Charlie keeps his hands clean while he revels in the excitement and Granthem knows full well that he has it in him to cross that line and that in of itself excites him. Charlie pulls away as his phone rings, one of the many little freedoms he'd been allowed, Du'met watches him as he speaks to his mother on speaker. She knows about them, or at least a more palatable version of them. As far as she knows Charlie lost his leg in a car accident after they eloped and he'd nursed him back to health, maybe one day they'd make the marital part factual… To say say he was in Pam's good books would be an understatement and now he wonders if he'll actually meet her one day, a real loving mother so unlike his own…

He instinctively held Charlie's hand, ready to face whatever comes next so long as they were together.

[spaceorphan18]

Umbrella Academy Thoughts

So. I did end up finishing Season 4 last night.

I need to preface this with -- I actually really do love this show. The first season of it is still one of my favorite TV stories. I love the characters. I love the sibling dynamics. I love superhero element - where the powers feel fresh or interesting spins on old things. Five and Klaus are just everything.

I didn't love love Seasons 2 or 3, but they were solidly good.

But they could have left things be after Season 3. They could have left well enough alone. Because Season 4, man. What???

Okay, onto spoilery things.

I will say, I really love the concepts and ideas the season had. The strange alien goo stuff wiping everything out while enhancing powers? Sure, fine. The train station that went to different time lines -- inspired, loved that. Even the idea behind the ending -- I could get behind if done correctly.

They had six episodes to tell a really compelling story and just... didn't. Most of it was a waste of time, a bunch of it didn't make sense, and some of it was just plain stupid, and it really breaks my heart that a show that was so, so, so brilliant when it started descended into this mess.

One thing I did like was Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally as the two cult leaders. They were fantastically cast, and did a great job even when the scripts descended into nonsense. I wish they had a stronger ending, but great choice in the casting department.

I have to wonder - the first episode is pretty solid, and I actually like the idea of their lives kind of sucking in their happily ever after era, which thematically makes sense when they wrap around to being erased. Another great idea. But I wonder -- did they get the note that it'd be six episodes after they started writing? But there's a definite shift after the first couple episodes that started to feel like both they were trying to cram in too much to the episodes and that there wasn't enough plot to really make an interesting story. The pacing was incredibly weird.

So... let's talk about the rest of the characters, shall we?

Luther -- I honestly loved his characterization in this season. He was great! He also had really nothing to do, and the whole thing at the CIA's office was a waste of time. Why did we need that sequence, especially when it took up an entire episode?

Diego -- I feel like they made him a little too much of a loser? I also kind of missed his banter with the other siblings. He just felt like a shell, which was intentional, but never got any redemption? Which -- like, if you're going to erase the characters, and this goes for everyone, give them some kind of satisfying growth or ending before they're gone.

Allison -- I'm amused that everyone just kinda let it go (honestly, I don't even remember what she did do, I only watched Season 3 once, but I remember it was bad) but I am glad she got to not be the bad guy this season. Finally. She had some nice moments. Again, didn't really do much ultimately.

Klaus -- my god, the biggest waste of time during the whole season. I love where they started him. But why did he get the stupid subplot of him being a medium? Why did we go there? It's like they needed him out of the way, and buried in a box. You can see the -- how do we get there of it all. But none of it was needed. And it's clear they had no actual idea of how to get him into the main plot. Because he does nothing. And it just... breaks my heart because I love his character so much.

Five -- *sigh* Five is my /favorite/ character, and just... what?? The biggest BIGGEST wasted opportunity was not having more shenanigans related to the train station. Could you imagine if he brought everyone and they all had to timeline jump? It would have been so cool! The concept was brilliant and amazing and just... what?? I did love the diner of Fives. That was inspired and a taste of what i really wanted. But instead they waste all that opportunity on a love triangle. And I get that maybe they were going for Five having character growth of thinking about more than himself? Kind of? But then they missed idea of their whole character who spent three seasons trying to save EVERYONE and not himself, I just... I can't with it. I can't.

Ben -- I'm fine with the Ben stuff, mostly. He was the main plot, it worked until the end when it dissolved into stupidity and shit monsters.

Victor -- At least he got to be part of the main plot in a meaningful way. I did like he and Hargreeves teaming up. It was one aspect that did work for me. I've always felt they never gave Elliot Page enough to do, when he's one of the stronger actors, but at least he didn't get the worst things to do.

Lila -- Oh my god. back to the love triangle stuff. I don't mind her, or the fact that she and Diego had a shitty life. It's fine. But the love triangle was so uninspired. So felt like I've seen this kind of thing a hundred times before. It was so terrible that they needed to waste their time on it. Why? What did any of these characters do to deserve it? It's like, the show, every time it diverged from interesting sci-fi concepts and attempted human drama just kind of failed. And it's sad.

Jennifer -- I... still have so many questions. How did the anti-marigold stuff get into her in the first place? Why was she in a squid? Just... what??

Regi and his Wife -- They've always been so vague about them. I wish they had explained just a little bit more. Just have a little more context and I think it would have gone a long way. The characters just didn't ask enough questions of them, and the story felt thin and unrealized as a result.

Okay... The ending...

When you get to the point in your story where you're CGI'ing a giant shit monster, don't you think it's time you're probably done, done? Like if you are doing this creatively? You've run out of ideas and you're just scrapping the bottom of the barrel. It's just... kind of sad. Everything about it is sad.

As for being erased, I don't actually hate the concept, but man do I hate the execution.

There was a way that could have been incredibly narratively satisfying. You erase them, and then go back to the beginning, and the kids get to live and grow up on their own. Then for the last sequence (loved that they brought I think I'm alone now) you have seven strangers pass each other in the park not knowing each other. And that would have been fantastic, you know? A way for the characters to live on and still uphold the ending.

But what we got? It just felt... so muddled? Like -- how is Claire's kid alive when she never existed? Same with Diego and Lila's kids? I don't understand it!! And the cameos were cute -- but why not bring back everyone? I just don't think it makes a whole lot of sense the way it plays out.

The entire season needed a rewrite, better editing, stronger character focus, and it would have been brilliant. Because the ideas are there. The concepts of this season are great. But maybe they ran out of time? Maybe Netflix switched things on them last second? Or maybe the powers that be aren't that great at their jobs?

Idk, idk. I don't blame the actors (or the crew) they did what they could to salvage the messy, messy script choices.

But I think what makes me the saddest is that it's such a botched ending, this show, that really was so good in the beginning, will end up being forgotten by time because of its ending. In ten years, people will probably forget this show ever existed because we've all moved on not wanting to go back to it.

What a disappointment.

[hopeymchope]

Having finally finished reading the DR Kirigiri light novels, here are my closing thoughts and questions.

(For background, I read these translations. Which - as I previously discussed in the first bullet of this post here - may have some small issues throughout.)

I've previously given y'all my report on how I felt / what I was thinking about this series just after passing the halfway point of the light novels, so now it's time for me to bring this whole thing home and offer some closing thoughts.

My first, dominating thought is that this would be so good to see adapted as an anime. I can easily imagine how many episodes it'd take to do each light novel and where you'd logically cut off the story... even more easy, though, would be a manga. It's definitely crying out for that kind of treatment.

Regardless of the (relatively minor) gripes I raise below? This is definitely a great series to read. You get a number of twisty, gripping mysteries, an easy-to-like lead duo, an imposingly powerful enemy force, new background on our favorite lavender-hued detective, and you even get some great new characters added to the mythos — what more do you want?

Okay, but now I'll get into the griping stuff :P For starters: Isn't it... kind of LAME to have Kirigiri repeatedly experience something so similar to the basic setup of DR1 (or any mainline Danganronpa game, really) on MULTIPLE OCCASIONS prior to DR1 ever happening??? But then she just never remotely reference any fo that experience? And YESs, of course I realize she never even obliquely references these events because these prequels weren't actually written by the time of DR1, nor even completed by DR3. But that's the kind of thing you typically want to avoid with prequels, right? ...... Even so, I guess this does take us farther into these stories deserving to be called "Danganronpa" than any other spinoff. And it's not hard to come up with excuses for why she never remotely hinted at these things; she's intentionally acting withdrawn and keeping info to herself throughout DR1 and DR3, after all. So it's not the WORST crime. It's just, like I said: kind of lame.

MORE SPECIFICALLY, let me clarify: Although the cases in DRK don't include a "mutual killing" element, you still get at least three cases where she's [1] trapped in a specific building alongside a group of people who include a killer/"mastermind," the cast subsequently being picked off one by one, and [2] said experiences are also broadcast to a viewing audience. In fact, you even get two cases where [3] the trapped participants are expected to take specific bedrooms to lock themselves in during the nighttime! And even [4] one case where there's a weird, automated "host character" overseeing the whole thing, which is being operated around a specific set of rules. That's a helluva thing, isn't it?

I've previously expressed GREAT TREPIDATION about one specific element of this series: I was told that supposedly, these light novels included evidence that Fuhito was manipulating Kyoko into hating her father, her dad was always a victim, and Kyoko never realized that she was basically molded from birth by someone who was manipulating her feelings and actions. It all made Kyoko considering Fuhito her "most imporant person" (per DR1 and UDG's captives) come off as this tragic tale where our supposed "master detective" never realized she's been a victim of gaslighting and manipulation for many years, which would change SO MUCH CONTEXT behind her life's work and her relationships with both Jin and Fuhito. HOWEVER, GUESS WHAT? None of that shit was even true! HUZZAH!!!! NOTHING in these light novels goes against what we already knew about Kyoko, Jin, Fuhito, or their relationship(s) with one another... though there is some minor new insight provided into a couple of details. We get a new look at how Jin actually cared about Kyoko from afar (via the "Jin Ex Machina" business I mentioned in the previous post), which is in line with the hints of his lingering love for her we tasted in both DR1 and DR3 without either exonerating him for his choices OR making him 100% correct. We repeatedly watch Kyoko questioning/doubting her grandfather's/family's longstanding "detective work must come above and before personal concerns" rules. And we also get a taste of Fuhito being protective of Kyoko when he learns of the kind of danger she's in — yet simultaneously having complete trust in her talent and ability to overcome said danger. Fuhito seems to even gently help Kyoko understand Samidare's actions near of the end of the final volume... although we only get a taste of his help via Kyoko's internal thoughts, so we don't know exactly what he said to her. TL/DR? My point is simply this: The DRK light novels keep the overall morality / goodness of Kyoko's family dynamics in the same place we already understood them from the games: Kyoko and Fuhito are very close and care about each other without being overtly emotional about it, there is a rift between Jin and the rest of his family over Fuhito priortizing case work above visiting his dying daughter on her deathbed, Jin clearly still concerns/cares that linger for his daughter, etc.

What's with so many scenes of "Black Challenges" or "Duel Noirs" having signs defaced to include the word "DESPAIR"? Is that just some extra branding for the main franchise's themes? Feels out of place.

I feel bad for all those orphans who adored this dude.

General thoughts on numerous new-to-DR characters: As I said in my last post about this series, Samidare is likeable but spends most of the series very thinly defined — plus she's pretty slow on the uptake. Thankfully, by Volume 4 she starts finally pulling her weight, and she gets some much-needed expansion of her background in Volume 7 (just in time for her to make some dumb decisions). Licorne is probably the second-most important new character, and he's an asshole. An interesting one, though! And he does some heroic things! .... even if he isn't really all that morally invested in helping people. He's a self-centered asshole for most of the series, frankly, and I don't care much whether he's around or not. Salvadore Yadorigi Fukuro is awesome; a straight-up superb character with a very "DR" kind of skill/talent. Yaki Hajiki is a character who's also hard to dislike, and I wish he got more "screen time," because he's very intriguing. Johnny Arp is a fascinating one, though he definitely shares some dickish behavior with Lico. Still, I'm always engaged when he's on the page. And... look, I'm fond of Meruko "Pumpkinhead" Mifune. She's fun, sure, but I also see real potential for depth that isn't explored herin.

My remaining observations/thoughts contain some spoilers for the Danganronpa Kirigiri series, so I'm putting the rest UNDER THE BELOW CUT... although I still avoid mentioning the identities of any culprits or masterminds so as to keep the primary case mysteries intact.

Yadorigi = Intelligent, quiet dude in sunglasses who looks like the answer to "What if Munakata found his chill?"

What, exactly, is the state of Yadorigi's eyesight by the end of the series? Initially, we learn that his unique eyesight is very important to his work in uncovering fraud. Later, after a blow to the head, we're told that his eyesight will never be the same as it previously was. In the final volume, he visits Kyoko while wielding a white cane. So uh... does that cane imply that SYF is now blind or very close to it? Or am I reading too much into a walking stick here?

Nothing infuriates me quite as much as when major problems in a story could be easily resolved via basic fucking communication, and a failure to communicate on a base level is absolutely CORE to why things go south in the seventh and final volume. By the time Kyoko and Yui are heading out to the case, the situation is this: Without Kyoko's knowledge, our redacted overarching mastermind (henceforth referred to as "ROM") tried to get Samidare to agree to be the culprit in this final Black Challenge. She refused. ROM then said their organization (the Crime Victim's Relief Committee) will eliminate Kyoko if Samidare doesn't play along. And then, right after saying this? ROM pretty clearly DIED right in front of Samidare, before she can ever express any intention of changing her mind or not. She is then confronted by the enigmatic Tokichiro Endo, who is basically the go-between for culprits and the organization, who demands her final answer. Based on what happens in the case immediately after this, it appears that this conversation somehow ended with Samidare refusing to be the true culprit in this case but ALSO accepting that she would be framed for the murders and take the fall. So now Samidare has a choice to make: Does she (A) trust the Crime Victims' Relief Committee to keep their promise and leave Kyoko alone so long as she keeps her mouth shut...... even though Samidare refused to meet their demands and become the case's culprit? OOOORRR does Yui (B) realize that the Committee has already broken their supposed "rules" by forcibly coercing her into being the culpri — not to mention the fact that they're routinely aiding and abetting murders — which adds up to mean that she can't trust their word and must warn Kyoko of the danger she's in now that the committee has threatened her life directly? Any thinking person should choose (B), but Samidare of course chooses (A) so the plot will happen. *FACEPALM*

The worst part of this is that EVEN when our two heroines have just barely escaped from a burning building and fled out into freezing conditions, leaving them on the razor's edge between two possible methods of death with everyone else from the case seemingly already being dead? Samidare STILL won't outright deny being the case's culprit when accused. With literally NO REASON LEFT not to come clean, she never says jack shit. And then she dies!

During the denouement, the conclusion Kyoko reaches after leaving the hospital and revisiting the scene is... murky, and I think this might be something caused by the translation methods used. It currently reads as though Kyoko reaches the correct conclusion about the case, accurately determining Samidare's innocent AND identifying the true culprit(s). However... she doesn't seem to be 100% confident in her decision? It sounds like Kiri still harbors some lingering doubts about Samidare possibly being guilty?..... Even though she sounds really confident in her (correct) conclusions immediately before that. So it's left ambiguous. Which, I suppose, is one way to maintain Kiri being the Best Detective while simultaneously leaving room for her line in DR1 about how her burns happened because she "trusted the wrong person." She almost entirely knows that she didn't actually trust the wrong person, but they have to leave some doubt so that line can exist? ...... IF this translation is even accurate on this part.

Say... why did Samidare believe she'd die on this mission? It wasn't actually any more inherently dangerous than any other mission her and Kyoko had gone on... LESS dangerous than some, I'd argue! But she prepares this whole letter for her eventual death, so she clearly thought it was a strong possibility. My only guess is that she believed Kyoko was going to be targeted for death, and she planned to fulfill her oft-promised role as Kyoko's human shield. But if that was REALLY something Samidare thought was going to happen, then she had NO REASON to not tell Kyoko the truth about everything. If they're already out to kill Kiri, then OF COURSE it's smartest to warn her about it! So: Why the "last letter"? What made you think you were fucked, Yui?

In the end, ROM's overarching mission is both a success and a failure. Do they take away Kyoko's main emotional attachment, making her withdraw even further into pure logic so she'll avoid getting hurt? Yes. Do they make her deny the value of such attachments in the first place, resulting in her staying isolated forever after? No. She 95% knows she's right about Samidare's innocence in spite of ROM's attempts to frame her; it's just the pain of the loss that makes Kyoko withdraw, not some grander conclusion about distrusting everyone. In fact? I'd argue that Kyoko's speech in DR1's Chapter 4 about accounting for emotions is a strong rebuke of ROM's entire view of the world.

....by the way, does ROM have their own copy of Junko's talent??! It sure seems like they're another "Ultimate Analyst," essentially; able to see patterns of behavior so clearly that they can essentially predict most future events.