#like. how i feel about a lot of stuff in s4 REALLY depends on where they go from here

[magniloquent-raven]

hi! i’m so sorry for the spam liking, rebloging, and tagging i’ve been doing. i just watched vol. 2 and uhhhh needed to cope. i’ve see. you rebloging stranger things stuff and wanted your thoughts on all the heartbreak and…yeah. 💕💕 sending love!

lol np babes we all gotta cope somehow after all that 🥲

also im always cool w spam reblogging, reblob to ur hearts content

[tomwambsgans]

i'm ngl it's because i recently read fight club, But i'm thinking a lot lately about castration and the true/deepest implications of it irt nero and sporus and tom and greg. obviously we've got tom's line about greg being "castrated on pay" and some pretty solid analysis on that being a matter of tom keeping greg dependent on him, but tbh even with said meta posts...

like, i'm sorry, but it's a weak line. it feels just as strangely on the nose as shiv falling down the stairs, and in fact like a line that exists specifically to match shiv falling. it almost even seems like a last-minute rush to complete Following Up The Nero And Sporus Thing, like they did the first part and managed to get all the way to the last episode before realizing they'd forgotten to do the second thing, so they had to reach for anything they could relate castration to without having to film a new scene. this feels especially evident/likely in the fact that there is NO way greg's salary is actually getting docked to the degree that tom implied. it's markedly disappointing, too, in the way that setting it up with shiv literally falling down stairs had the audience looking forward to how the rest of the overt symbolism would play out. castration on pay was the most mundane and least expected possible conclusion, lol. and not at all on par with the literal fall. like if that is the castration we were actually waiting for the whole time...

it's also all overkill, for that matter, considering that the s3 finale fit "pushed his wife down the stairs and married sporus" thing perfectly fine and a perfect amount of vague. like tom ALREADY betrayed shiv, symbolically "killing" her, and had an ancient-roman-wedding-handshake agreement with greg about his soul. even tom and greg's initial dynamic in the final season often feels like that of a married couple. which begs the question: why have the stuff in s4 on top of that? it may very well be simply one of the many marks of s4's drop in quality, caused by a myriad of irl factors. or it could possibly be on purpose to specifically bring home something else about the nero and sporus story. maybe it's to reinforce the tomshiv divorce and also tom and greg's marriage after all the rapid shifts in dynamic. who knows.

but what i DO know is that i wanna get to the bottom (lol) of the castration symbolism/motif. so i'm gonna go through everything that could possibly inform the audience's interpretation.

i'll start with the least significant, which i believe is the reality of castration in ancient rome and in the circumstances around the irl nero and sporus. part of why this falls on the bottom rung is the fact that historical accounts of nero especially with sporus are hotly contested. another reason is that the story tom tells is one that not only omits many details in a technically misleading/recontextualizing way, but also adds details that are present in no known accounts.

so: WHY was sporus castrated? there are 2 main possibilities/reasons.

to maintain his youthful [and therefore feminine] beauty. the real sporus was most likely around 16 when nero had him castrated. and the practice of castration to preserve youth had precedence. basically, twinks were REALLY in. it's alleged that sporus may have already been more effeminate (and sexually attractive) than average. but it's also said that sporus bore an uncanny resemblance to poppaea, which nero chose him for specifically and wanted to maintain.

in order to marry him with legal/social sanction. ancient roman society, rather than being built upon the heterosexual, was more built upon the Top/generally masculine. Eunuch was a gender class/category essentially equivalent with Woman, which allowed sporus to specifically be nero's wife. this didn't mean that his marriage to sporus was necessarily seen as good and normal, only technically acceptable.

and i have a ways more to go with the analysis but i'm gonna say right here that i do not think the first reason bears any significance to tom and greg. firstly due to that there is no textual evidence that tom wants greg to be explicitly feminine, even compared to himself, and a LOT to the contrary. tom consistently invites greg to join him in performing masculinity and gaining power through it, case in point the "let's fight like chickens" scene that directly follows the nero and sporus story. secondly, sporus's possible resemblance to poppaea does not track to greg and shiv more than incidentally; greg being shiv's cousin doesn't directly earn tom anything. but more importantly, imo, is the fact that what would have made nero want sporus to look like poppaea is in direct contrast with both the story tom tells AND the way their arc plays out.

so NOW, to demonstrate this, let's look at the irl poppaea's death/murder, which happened during her second pregnancy. different historians (even those alive at the time) have different theories for how it went down. who knows how much truth they're based in, bc there's a clear heavy bias against nero, but they're all we have anyway and therefore all tom would have had. here they are:

nero kicked her in the stomach in a fit of rage, while she was fighting with him about how much time he spent at the races (main theory/rumor)

nero kicked her in the stomach in a casual outburst

nero "leapt upon her belly" either accidentally or on purpose

nero poisoned her (uncommon rumor, most likely bs)

she died through no fault of nero's at all, simply bc of complications with her pregnancy (this has the most evidence, and is believed by many modern historians)

you'll notice a complete lack of stairs-related death theories, and in fact a near total lack of Nero Purposefully Murdered Poppaea theories. the general idea is that nero deeply mourned poppaea's death (and was remorseful, if it was his own fault), and proceeded to replace her with sporus, even calling him by her name.

which feels like a good segue into the more significant story of nero and sporus to analyze: the one that TOM told.

Sporus was a young slave boy. He was Nero's favorite. And, uh... you know what Nero did to him? Well, Nero... pushed his wife... down the stairs. And then he had Sporus castrated and he married him instead. And he gave him a ring. And he made him dress up like his dead wife. ...I'd castrate you and marry you in a heartbeat.

without looking into the actual story, this would sound like nero murdering his wife in order to marry sporus. with bringing up sporus first, it even sounds like nero met sporus and started favoring him prior to killing poppaea. which is also overtly analogous to tom and greg's relationship arc.

despite what tom must have read in his book, and what one could very easily imagine him, a Wife Guy, latching onto in that book... tom isn't telling greg about the tragedy of an emperor who accidentally killed his wife and then had to replace her with a young boy. tom literally invents a method of death that there is NO preexisting source for. furthermore he chooses one that does not sound remotely unintentional. at best he keeps in line with themes that suggest a violent miscarriage. but he removes all notions of an accident. he turns it into an unambiguous, purposeful uxorcide.

so, since all notions of trying to keep sporus looking like poppaea are not only unfitting as potential parallels, but also utterly irrelevant to the version of events that tom tells, and since we know tom twists and omits many other details (like what happens just a year into their marriage) anyway... what reasons DOES tom have for bringing up castration in this story? here's the possibilities i can come up with:

to make it sound less overtly romantic through means of the bizarre. classic diversionary tactic. literally without the castration it would sound undeniably like he's just saying "i read about this ancient roman gay marriage. an emperor murdered his wife so that he could marry a boy. i would like to do that with you also :)"

to make it sound less gay, specifically, because of nero's power in the situation. this of course calls back to that second reason for the actual sporus to be castrated. it's not gay if i've made you a eunuch, greg.

to emphasize the cruelty on nero's end. tom often puts himself in the role of a villain, especially irt his behavior with greg. considering also that this whole scene follows tom talking about how he's going to prison (AND that the next time he calls greg sporus it's in the scripts before the diner scene, where he agrees to sacrifice himself and go down for greg), it would make sense for him to buffer this confession with the caveat of what a bad person he is, like express in SOME way how insane his feelings are and how terrible he knows it is that he feels this way about greg. tom is notoriously unable to make normal apologies either, so. it tracks.

i think all of these are true, and i'm sure most would agree. i'm also sure most who've read this far are in full agreement that tom fixated on the story of nero and sporus in particular because it was a gay relationship with just enough ambiguity that he's able to relate to it without panicking. hell, the "he gave him a ring" line alone doesn't even evoke an ancient roman marriage nearly as much as a modern american one. i can't find even any sources that specifically mention a ring from nero to sporus, so i imagine tom invented that as well.

BUT while i'm here i do still want to mention a couple other queer things about nero to drive home that it's not just incidental gayness but overt homosexual desire being portrayed, as well as to emphasize that second reason that the irl nero may have had to castrate sporus:

prior to knowing sporus, nero had a mock-wedding as part of festive role-reversals during saturnalia. in this wedding he took the role of a bride, marrying a different freedman.

this is apocryphal and practically historical fiction, and may also specifically be due to perceived deviancy in nero, but it's old enough (like 13th century) that it's lowkey in the nero "canon" that he had womb envy and was obsessed with being the one to get pregnant

okay so NOW... how does all this translate into the actual events demanded/foreshadowed/symbolized by this story? if pushing shiv down the stairs is the betrayal that keeps her from being able to block the gojo deal (but also shiv is shown to fall down a couple real stairs)... and marrying sporus is making the "deal with the devil" (AND the sticker on the forehead)... then what's the castration? what was the first, less on-the-nose-and-simultaneously-meaningless castration, at least?

my best answer is that it's tom getting greg to drop his brightstar buffalo plans and follow him instead. because if death is just corporate death, then your testicles/manhood is your independence. tom says you're a joke, you can't function on your own, you need me (i need you). he's insecure that greg will leave if he has the option to do so. fair enough.

......and yet i come back to my initial disappointment, because that is barely different than the pay castration. and it's redefining greg's symbolic testes to something that tom gave him in the first place, thus practically retconning the first castration. but if that's it, does shiv's literal fall also replace her kick out of the company? that would sure be stupid! is the point of rehashing the symbolism to be stupid? to have meaningless stuff follow up the more significant events? even if that was the case, wouldn't you at least be doing it to give a visual element to the symbols? if shiv gets actual stairs, WHERE are greg's actual balls? or ANY balls!!!! greg even started wearing grey suits which he hadn't done before (but shiv had), and got a "ring" in his final scene. where's the FUCKING balls, huh?????

(anyway)

occam's razor, i think, may be that the meaninglessness of the castration specifically is the point. tom's insecurity that greg will leave if he has the option to (that greg would never actually want him but only need him), has been present for basically the duration of the show. it's just a character trait, and thus doesn't even work as foreshadowing when that just means "he's gonna keep doing what he's been doing." then, take that second reason--the purely pragmatic, not based in heterosexual-adjacent desire reason--for nero to castrate sporus. aka the only reason that makes sense for the way tom spins the story.

(it's also a motivation that leaves room for not even actually doing it. sporus wasn't going through rapid masculinization or anything. and they only lived another year. you could get away with just claiming that you did it for a while, probably.)

i should say there IS technically a third reason, postulated by modern scholars, for sporus's castration: to intentionally humiliate a potential rival for the throne. imagine if tom had told greg about nero and sporus upon first meeting. obviously things changed very quickly, but if all castration is here is tom keeping greg on a tight leash, then it works. and if the castration is nothing, then greg nearly tanking tom's plan out of naivety can be a nothing version of sporus wanting revenge. and shiv falling down real stairs can, instead of actually intending to set up a meaningful castration, be a red herring in that regard and simply foreshadow her pregnancy.

and that could be it. but... i've got One More Thing. maybe the most significant of all. lightning round:

who or what, in modern day where tom and greg live, actually IS castrated?

animals

specifically dogs

hmmmmmm

and why are DOGS castrated?

to reduce sexual and territorial aggression

reduce other unwanted behaviors

to keep them from breeding

okay. think greg's newfound sexual confidence in s4 and tom's distaste for it. tom's continued anxiety that greg's independence might lead him to leave him. think greg being tom's attack dog and how that nearly backfires at the very end. greg approaching tom at the end like a begging puppy.

think full circle: who's the rescue pup, i'll take care of you, i've got you...

i feel justified in recontextualizing all of this, and i come back to fight club:

Valley of the Dogs. Where even if they don't kill you, if someone loves you enough to take you home, they still castrate you.

[raayllum]

I know you love The dragon prince and that’s great. I binged the show after season three released. I listened to podcasts about the show . I listened to yours and felt really happy when I found people who also liked the show. Unfortunately I fell of during the hiatus between season three and four. I am patient person but three years was long. Also I watched the show for rallylum and through the moon just kind killed my love for them.Then I found your blog and was really happy. Then I saw how you felt about the owl house and it bothered me. As a neurodivergent person the show made me feel really seen. I know it’s stupid to be upset about an opinion. As a person who wants to be an English major how do find parallels between relationships and characters. You talk about certain ones and I don’t see them at all. Your probably more seasoned as a writer than I am so

Ps : sorry this is long and hope tdp ends well in your opinion

Few things:

1) I'm also neurodivergent (hi!) - specifically Autistic - and I have also largely wanted to be understood my whole life, much like Luz (according to S3). While a show making you feel seen can certainly be wonderful, meaningful, and sometimes even life changing, to me that's not enough to make it a Good (per my subjective tastes) Show. That's not to say TOH is a bad show - far from it - but it's one that didn't appeal to my particular tastes due to 1) too many characters and not enough screentime, 2) a lack of theme (which many kids shows don't have a ton of because they're, y'know, for kids), and 3) all of the characters have very black and white morality, and that's just less interesting to me.

Being upset about opinions is very natural, and it's not stupid, but it is also important to acknowledge that 1) you can't control how anyone else feels or interprets things and 2) no one else can control how you feel or interpret things.

2) I adored Through the Moon. Rayla's tendency to leave (and why) is always a hurdle I expected them to have to tackle at one point, and given that it's her main character flaw, I'm really excited and happy with the way it's been handled so far and how TTM kicked it off. The graphic novel also really resonated with me in Callum's place, as I too have loved many of my loved ones through incredibly difficult periods regarding their mental health, and the graphic novel felt very honest about the toll that can take on both parties in different ways, and how love/support can help, but ultimately isn't enough if the person isn't ready (or willing) to start trying to get better. It's not an easy pill to swallow, but it is a realistic and important one and I've enjoyed how the show has continued that storyline with Rayla (and Callum) into S4 and S5

3) Being an English major is not for everyone! I know many people who love to read and who are very good writers where an English degree would not suit them at all. It's a lot of reading (by my final year, there were some weeks where I was reading an entire 400 page book roughly every week, if not multiple at the same time). It is also a lot of writing (and my professors regularly chewed me out for my grammar). You also tend to kind of double being a history major as depending on what you're reading, you learn a lot of the religious/historical/cultural context in order to understand the language, references, and messaging intended by the author (and then whether or how much to disregard it, lmao). Being able to analyze — to see connections between characters and themes in particular, but other forms of symbolism and messaging — quickly is probably the main thing that saved my ass and let me stay on Honour Roll throughout my undergrad.

I have also been writing pretty seriously for a long time (I 'started' at age 10 but only really count age 12 onwards, cause that's when I first started writing 70k+ drafts every 1-2 years for original WIP stuff). A lot of what makes a good writer is being a good reader, taking your favourite stories (books or otherwise — movies, musicals, tv shows, etc can be gold mines) and figuring out what works in them and why, or why you like them (or don't like them), etc.

For example: The Owl House is a primarily character driven > plot driven story. In book form, it'd likely be Middle Grade to early YA. It's interested in character relationships among the main cast (any of the more villainous characters like Belos are never given the same amount of development or screentime) and some mild worldbuilding. It has some social commentary (mostly on the school systems through Luz and mental health through Eda) and an overall theme of "being different is good," breaking away from abusive systems/dynamics, and the importance of solidarity.

If I compare and contrast this to TDP, The Dragon Prince is far driven in equal parts by the plot (because it's wholly serialized) and by character. It is also very thematically driven — most notably how to break intergenerational cycles of trauma and violence, but also self-destructive tendencies, abuse, responsibility, power, grief, and concepts of justice and punishment. This is also reflected in the fact numerous villainous characters (Viren, Claudia, etc.) share close to equal screentime with the 'good guy' protagonists and heavily explores morality across a decently wide spectrum. It thereby has a more mature tone in its subject matter and would easily be YA in book form.

Which is to say: the best way to get better at analyzing is to break characters down to their basic plot structures (Character A does this, they want that, Character B does this, they want that, etc.) and see what pops up (for example, in Avatar The Last Airbender, Aang and Zuko both cannot go home, and duel Ozai when they're 13 years old, ultimately refusing to be violent against their opponent). You can also look at similar personality traits (curiosity, selflessness, carelessness, etc). Practice looking at the stories you love and figuring out what works and doesn't work for you personally — and then go beyond relatability to look more at subtext and symbols. Some of the best things I've ever read were books that had nothing relatable to my personal experiences in them (like The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini), and that was why I loved them because they got to broaden my horizons.

[mermaidsirennikita]

honestly i do think they're skipping him again and they will do her season before his...they seem to be setting her up more, they've cast her first husband and we saw set photos of them departing for their honeymoon. meanwhile we've heard nothing about his love interest....again.

I don't know how legit it was because it was just a graphic on my dash, but I saw something with the episode summaries for s3 and the mention of That Guy was basically like "he searches for a purpose" and like. He's been searching for a purpose THE ENTIRE TIME. That has been HIS WHOLE PLOT. The writers also seem to be searching for his purpose?

And I mean, to be fair, Netflix is a cruel mistress and for all anyone knows s4 will be the last for this show. Even if it does huge numbers; it's not cheap, it will eventually wear out its welcome, and I imagine that a lot will depend on how this next season does in terms of viewership.

Buuuut I don't think Shonda wants it to end on 4, and she's doing the play (and I don't know how well this play works in this day and age, but I still personally feel like she's a TV maven of a different era in some ways) of setting up long-term future stuff. Otherwise... why even have that character's husband subplot be an actual... subplot? She's been offscreen most of the time. They could've easily been like "and she was off in Scotland where she met her husband isn't that great", and if they ever got to her season... You deal with it then. Which is what the books did, basically. There was no OBLIGATION to have this be a subplot.

I mean, I just think that That Guy is a very thorny character for the writers. Because the actor has his fans in the fandom. But he was undoubtedly used to queerbait in the s1 promo, sorry! The whole *shocked and confused but Intrigued* face when he opened a door on two men embracing... in the trailer? Please.

So there's that, but beyond it I also think that his story is exceptionally hard to adapt within the framework of the show's promotional wokeness (that's not me shading wokeness, it's me shading how that show does it) and plot structure. Because you keep that story, and you cast a woman of color, and she's basically a slave. Before a white man saves her. Or you cast a white woman, and then that gets backlash. You could always just... rip the plot to shreds and do something almost entirely new, which they obviously aren't against. But I think it would have to be ripped up even more than they already rip things up, if they wanted to cast a woman of color. And if they DID do TSPWL as s4, I feel like they'd feel pressure to do so, as they'd have two white pairings in a row before then.

(And that feels so weird to write, because I really hate that That Show has created a weird dialogue surrounding race with its casting... but I mean, let's be real, that IS the dialogue. That's the place they've put themselves in.)

It feels like they kinda wanna buy time while they figure it out lol. Or maybe he'll be s4! Maybe all the people on my TL are right and they've cast his heroine!

But it seems.... much more certain that they've cast The Doomed Husband. And I mean, WHWW was always my favorite book in that series, sooooooo. I also think that a lot of it just depends on what Shonda is vibing with. It SEEMS like she vibes with the heroine of WHWW this season. I've never gotten the sense that she cares about That Guy lmao

[scripted-downfall]

Sam Winchester: True Neutral

I've realized, while answering an ask, that a lot of Sam's problems stem from the fact that he is, at root, true neutral. In other words, he’s mostly pretty ambivalent about whether he breaks the rules or not, and he’s not really “good” or “bad” either. 

The problems stem from the fact that he wants to be either lawful good or neutral good (depending on where we are in the series).  His morals push him to try for “good” territory — 90% of his lines are “we should” or “we shouldn’t”, for example (slight exaggeration, but only slight) — but he is, at root, very apathetic.  It’s why he swings so wildly between personalities (such as the wide oscillation between his save-Dean mission in s3 and his  screw-Dean-(figuratively)-because-I-wanna-screw-Ruby-(literally)-and-drink-demon-blood mentality in s4); he doesn’t really have that innate code he wants/pretends to have.

Instead, he wants to have that code because he’s so bothered by the possibility that he’s evil that he overcorrects without the right motivation.  He’s doing good because he wants to be good, but figuring out what actually is good in order to do it is hard for him.  He sees “Oh, Lilith = bad, so killing Lilith = good, so I’m being good right now” and doesn’t realize that what he’s doing to fulfill that goal (drinking demon blood, hurting innocents, manipulating/beating up his brother) is not good.  And it’s part of why the scene where Dean calls him a monster is so devastating for him.  He wanted to be good; he thought he was being good; he wasn’t being good.  These three thoughts are in opposition to his chosen path. 

This is also why he’s good on the stuff that’s pretty easy to put into big generalizations (and also tend to be ways of convincing himself that he's not bad) — x creature isn’t evil just because it’s an x; don’t hurt innocents; we can’t take out y until we’re certain there’s no other choice — and also why he can’t see that, on a day-to-day basis (e.g. interacting with his brother, etc.) he’s not that good a person. The former concepts are easy to repeat like a mantra; the latter are the more subtle elements of goodness.

And this also speaks to his actions when he loses his soul.

He finally embraces his true neutral (tending, in that particular season, towards chaotic neutral) personality.  He doesn’t care about tact or emotion, is perfectly willing to embrace random violence, and views most of the population as a means to his end.  He doesn’t have the moral shame normal!Sam has about this, largely because he doesn’t care about being “good” anymore.  When he’s soulless, he just wants what he wants — what’s best for him — and does not give a shit about how he accomplishes it.  Thus, there’s no shame.  He has no agenda — other than self-interest — so he isn’t contravening that agenda the way normal!Sam contravenes his own agenda to “be good” if he does anything that’s not good, so there’s not really a need to feel bad.  He’s got his values — wants to be a strong/effective hunter, though I will add that it’s less about “saving people” and more about “hunting things”, etc — but the moral side of things is gone.

So, in short; Sam is trying to be good without knowing how --- kinda like the story of the five blind men trying to figure out what the elephant is without being able to see the whole picture; Sam's hunting around in a metaphorical darkness for "good", and only correctly identifying it part of the time --- and that causes a lot of strife (with himself and with other people) across the series.

(This post is dedicated to season 11 anon for the inspiration :) This is part 1 of my response to your first ask… I really appreciate the interaction!)

[maggot-monger]

lucifer gender symbolism essay part 11: villain gender in supernatural, effects

masterpost

i feel like this is the time to start talking about what the effect is of different villain genders, since this is the last section and ostensibly the conclusion. like, bela’s role with regard to the colt could easily have been a male character’s, but they decided to not to do that; azazel could easily have been portrayed by a woman but that’s not the choice they made (there’s a topic for a different meta, right?? jeez), etc — what does it mean for a villain on supernatural to be gendered one way or another? and then, from that, what is the effect of interpreting lucifer as a female-signified character vs a male-signified character?

tbh, i’m not sure it’s my place to say a lot about that. i feel like the effects vary a LOT depending on the viewer, and i’ve mostly been trying to focus on stuff i can point to directly in canon. but…there are some trends to how it seems like the show wants us to look at male vs female villains, so…i’ll try.

one major thing is that female villains are also often potential love interests (or sexual partners) for sam and/or dean in a way that male villains usually aren’t. specifically, sam and/or dean often are attracted to female villains in ways they aren’t to male villains. male villains like alastair might sexualize interactions with the main characters somewhat, but dean acts repulsed in a way he doesn’t act repulsed with bela (who he doesn’t like, but who he is also kind of into — and who sam is very explicitly attracted to her, given that good pussy eating dream lol). mostly the differences in the mains' sexual attraction to villains of different genders is just a product of spn being the kind of show that it is, but it also maybe has the effect of making the female villains seem more appealing, and the dangers they pose more insidious. there are things that are attractive to the main characters about some of the male villains for sure (e.g. gordon giving dean interactions he doesn’t get with sam; alastair being the allure of what dean sees as the most reprehensible desires he has to hurt others), but it’s less direct: sam and dean know they think the female villains are hot, and they sometimes wrestle with internal conflict about that. 

so: canon lucifer as a mostly male-faced villain registers as someone sam would be directly repulsed by despite some possible underlying appeals. lucifer as a female-faced villain would more as someone sam would be openly attracted to, even while being reviled by her. i REALLY would have loved to see a scene where lucifer appears as jess while sam KNOWS she’s lucifer, and the fact that they never showed that seems to suggest that they wanted to keep whatever appeal lucifer had for sam indirect/hidden/subtle/minimized. i expect that, had lucifer appeared as a woman more often to sam, there would have been more direct struggling built into the plot about things he might have found compelling about her even while being disturbed by himself and condemning her (i kind of wonder if they couldn’t do that because s4 put a lot of people off sam, so they wanted to bury aspect of his thoughts about lucifer to keep him more likable…idk just speculative)

male villains also often represent things the main characters dislike about themselves: alastair represents dean’s past of being torture and torturing; azazel represents sam’s monstrousness; gordon represents excessive all-or-nothing morality when it comes to hunting, etc — sam and dean tend to be openly reviled by these characters. female villains, on the other hand, often seem relatable and appealing at first: sam wanted to be friends with meg; he had a crush on bela, ruby was a straight up love interest for a whole season, etc. they also are arguably often positioned more as parallels to the mains than the male characters, who are more representative of abstract concepts: meg is also one of azazel’s “children” and she also positions herself (falsely, but optically) as also being someone trying to find a new life at a bus station; bela is also dealing with a demon deal hanging over her head like dean is and has a lot in common with the winchesters’ lifestyle; ruby (again, falsely) positions herself as having the same goals as sam to work alongside them, has various parallels to castiel and dean, and maybe gives sam some hope that demon-ness doesn’t have to mean someone is totally evil. basically, male villains often seem paradoxically more untouchable and abstract than female villains do whole also seeming more like personifications of the protagonists' fears about themselves (and tbh they're often father-coded...); female villains feel more grounded and real, almost like alternate versions of the main characters (more like sisters) (this is sooo not perfect a perfect comparison; there are various examples that don’t work like this at all, but still). 

this is SUPER interesting in its own right imo, that spn does some of its most accessible character parallels with cross-gender character pairs instead of same-gender ones, but ok. to apply this to lucifer: i get why they went with man-faced lucifer to keep him more abstract; he’s in a leadership role in a way that makes him not very relatable to the main characters, similar to azazel and alastair. lucifer represents some things sam doesn’t like about himself i guess (e.g. willing to go hard in an inadvisable direction because of being convinced they’re right, mainly? idk this is shaky to me, a lot of these fall apart when i poke at them...i guess just at a basic level though sam doesn’t like being the devil’s true vessel, so close enough). so that all works. HOWEVER lucifer is also very explicitly supposed to be a parallel to sam, not a mentor to him, so in that sense i feel like it would have worked to have lucifer appear woman-faced more of the time. i think if that had happened, she probably would have felt more accessible, and more like a real parallel than an abstract piece of sam's fears

despite this, gender does also separate characters sometimes, especially when it’s played up. a lot of the more relatable female villains look like they belong in the world of hunting: they wear functional clothes they can move in, they carry weapons, they’re usually wearing a full face of makeup and have their hair perfectly styled but there’s a kind of girl-next-door vibe to a lot of that due to the plaid and jeans and boots etc. high fem female villains though…that’s a different situation. the women in white look Different from the rest of the characters. they aren’t practical; they look like they're on a pedestal, like they shouldn't be a violence risk — but that’s deceptive, and so it’s scary in a more alien way. they look like they shouldn’t be able to do they harm they can do, or at least like violence shouldn't be the thing they're doing while dressed in an all-white dress; they look like they should be beauty queens or mothers or girlfriends or brides or whatever...and they might be, but they’re also very might here to slaughter.

putting lucifer in a man’s body, in hunter chic clothing, makes him seem more similar at face value to other characters on the show — more similar to sam, dean, and john, even, than most of the other office-worker-looking angels do at that point. he’s just some guy, a hunter, who also happens to be the devil. it’s appropriate, since that’s functionally what he is: he’s a hunter, he's just classifying humans as one of the many types of monster he needs to purge from the earth. a lucifer who wore a woman’s face, and especially an impractically dressed woman, would feel more alien, like her purpose here isn’t pragmatic but ritualistic, like her violence is a point of contrast to something else core about her (e.g. her victimhood, her beauty, her nature as a sacrifice, etc). she might feel more ethereal, more like the one-time most beautiful angel, more untouchable, and more abnormal. she would be more of an obvious symbol, more distant from other characters, more artificial, more overtly a victim as well as a villain, and maybe more dangerous.

given the victimhood types of female vs male villains, the effects of those are different. female villains often seem more vicious, i suspect because of this: they’re reacting to things that happened to them, and the perceived difference in agency between “victim” and “monster” is often greater than the difference between “the loved one of a victim” and “monster” (i have psych papers to back this point up if anyone is curious), so it’s more startling to have someone like constance welch do something horrible, even disregarding how vicious she actually is about it. female-signified lucifer’s trauma would probably be more front-and-center than male-signified lucifer’s trauma was, she might address it directly more often, and she might be more reactive to reminders of it.

again, there are more effects interpreting lucifer as symbolically fem could have, but i’m looking at this more as a jumping off point. so, those are my thoughts.

thank you for reading this part, and any other parts of this essay you might also have read. i hope you found it interesting and/or entertaining!

part 10: villain gender in supernatural, comparisons masterpost

[universestreasures]

Cardfight Vanguard Clans Themed Headcanon Questions!

Royal Paladin: Does your muse prefer to tackle problems alone or with others?

With others, for sure! Aichi is definitely the kind of guy who is all ‘power of friendship’ and all that. The only time he usually goes at it alone is when he feels like it will put others in danger (Like with the whole S4 situation)

Shadow Paladin: Is your a muse the ends justify the means kind of person?

99% of the time, no. However, when there are desperate times (like again S4), there come desperate measures. For the most part when it comes to Aichi, he doesn’t like doing anything if it means someone else is going to get hurt, even if it is to save the world. Like if he had to sacrifice a friend to save the world he wouldn’t do it. 

Gold Paladin: Does your muse have trouble asking others for help? 

Depends on what it is. Aichi can be pretty stubborn. If it’s something small like help with a homework problem or a suggestion on his deck, then he can do it easily. It’s more the big personal stuff he can have trouble with sometimes. 

Oracle Think Tank: What does your muse see for themselves in the future?

Aichi sees himself not as a professional cardfighter, but rather a professor at a university teaching astrophysics and astronomy, all the while researching Earth and Cray’s connection on the side. He plans to go for his P.H.D! 

Genesis: Does your muse often read their horoscope? 

Aichi isn’t into things like that. Just not his thing! I think he wouldn’t mind hearing about it from someone else. It’s more he won’t go out of his way to read it. 

Kagero: Has ever been a time where your muse has just been like: Man I just wanna burn everything down to the ground?

Nope. Even after all the pain Aichi has gone through, he’s never really had that sort of thought before. He does know people who have though and how destructive that mindset can be (COUGH KAI KUN COUGH)

Narukami: Does your muse like storms?

Aichi doesn’t mind them. When he was younger, he was pretty terrified of them, but that fear has faded away. The only time he’d really not like them is it was super severe weather (like a hurricane or typhoon). 

Tachizake: What dinosaur would you associate with your muse?

I feel like Aichi vibes well with a Plesiosaurus, which is a type of aquatic dinosaur. IDK why, but that’s just what I feel. 

Murakumo: How would your muse react if they found out they were a clone?

Oh goodness...He’d uh...Not react well at all. A full on meltdown and extensional crisis. It would just be a hot mess, let me tell you. 

Nubatama: Is your muse good at gathering information discretely?

Being subtle is not a strong suit of Aichi, so I’d say no. He’s not the person you trust to gather info on what to get someone for your birthday, or to secretly follow someone to get information about them.

Nova Grappler: How much does your muse rely on technology?

Honestly, Aichi could live without it. He doesn’t always have his phone on him, doesn’t really use a computer unless it is for school, and isn’t glued to the TV. He’d be content with just his physical Vanguard cards, honestly. 

Dimension Police: Does your muse have a strong sense of justice?

Yes, even if it may not seem like it from the outside. Aichi very much embodies the knight archetype when he matures, and takes to heart what those values of courage, nobility, and justice mean. 

Link Joker: Has your muse ever lost all hope and fallen into despair?

Several times, actually. Aichi may be a very hopeful person, but there even times when that hope can die out. Season 4 is a great example of this since not even he believed there was an answer to the Link Joker seed other than sacrificing himself. 

Spike Brothers: Does your muse enjoy sports?

No, unless you count Vanguard as a sport (which Aichi doesn’t so). He’s not very good with much anything that involves a lot of physicality. 

Dark Irregulars: How well does your muse handle horror and general scary things?

Not well...Aichi is very easily frightened so even the most tame horror movie will cause him to get all spooked. Avoid that as a date night thing, folks. 

Pale Moon: Does your muse enjoy being the center of attention?

Absolutely not. Aichi hates whenever unneeded attention is on him, which is why he prefers to sit in the back of the class in a corner where no one will notice him. He also has stage fright and sucks at public speaking. 

Gear Chronicle: Does your muse think they are running out of time?

Not really. He still think there is a ton of time he has left on the planet, and looks forward to his future. 

Granblue: If your muse could bring back anyone from the dead, who would they pick?

His father, no question. 

Bermuda Triangle: Does your muse enjoy idols?

Even with some of Aichi’s friends being idols (AKA Ultra Rare), it’s not something he’s into. He could enjoy their music, but wouldn’t be an obsessed fan or anything. If it was one of his friends though, he would of course support them. Depends on the context and the person.

Aqua Force: Is your muse afraid of the ocean?

Nope! Aichi enjoys the ocean very much. He finds it relaxing. If he does swim in it, he won’t go very deep, but he enjoys it. 

Megacolony: Is your muse afraid of bugs?

Aichi is not a fan of bugs and will get anyone else to get rid of one. So, yeah. He is not a fan.

Great Nature: What animal do you most associate with your muse?

I know this is kinda obvious considering his deck/aesthetic, but a puppy. Aichi is a cute, soft puppy who is very loyal, loving, but will not hesitate to bare his fangs at anyone trying to hurt his loved ones (if they cannot be reasoned with, of course. He is, again, a pacifist). 

Neo Nectar: What flower do you most associate with your muse?

Blue Hydrangeas! They are the blue flower that is seen in the movie version of him and Kai’s meeting. It is a flower that has various meanings, but the most relevant ones to Aichi are apology, understanding, and gratitude which I think fit Aichi very well.

Tagged By: No one! I made this up cause I thought it be fun and wanted to share!

Tagging: @abysseeker​ (Choose your fighter) @duskshrouded​ @fragmentedimensions​ (Choose your fighter) @highseaskxng​ @whorunthewcrld​ (Choose your fighter) @thcsevoices​ (Choose your fighter) @tcthinecwnself​ (Choose your fighter) @adversitybloomed​ (Choose your fighter)  @acollapsar​ and anyone else who’d like to do this!

[strangeswift]

May I ask why do you like S3 overall, is it bc of vibes and all? I am not judging you, I just find S3 to be the most lackluster filler season to ever exist in the season and if you just deleted it, nothing really would make a huge difference. Some stuff were good but you could just add those good things in S3 or S4.

Overall that season destroyed many characters like Mike, Hopper (by making him a largely comedic relief), Jonathan (by adding sexism storyline which was cringe), destroyed several character relationships that were important in the series in the previous two seasons (Mike and Will, Will and the party in general, making Dustin leave the party and no one really caring about it aside from Will etc).

The only good things that happened were Robin and her coming out plus straightbait, and Max and El's friendship. Overall, there is nothing in that season plotwise and it didnt introduce anything new to the story... plus is destroyed the previous good elements like characters, character dynamics and plot. It was lackluster compared to S2's real horror, the meaty MF was trash, most of the new introducations of new plot lines such as Evil!Soviets were very underwhelming and unnecessary that took too much screen time for no reason. And the Duffers obsession with the Russia plot lines both in S3 where it got introduced, and the continuation of it in S4 where it got drageed for so long, honestly felt so unnecessary and reductive. There was no UD. It was heavily fanservice-y and filled with eye candy elements and relied on just vibes (like summer vibes and shit) and big budget action rather than actually telling a good story with a vision and quantity.

Hi anon!

Gonna try to respond to everything you said sorry if this is a little scatterbrained!

So firstly. I don't feel as if they destroyed Hopper's character. He's going through it this season, but I actually feel like he has a good amount of depth this season, and he's actually trying to be vulnerable. Sure a lot of it is sort of through a comedic lense, but I don't feel like he's been completely reduced to being comedic relief, and I definitely don't think they ruined his character.

The most certainly did not destroy Jonathan's character by any means, especially not with the sexism plotline because... he isn't the one being sexist? Sure, he doesn't completely Get It. Just like Nancy doesn't completely get where he's coming from with his family's financial situation. I don't think he's apathetic to the sexism, I just think he hasn't considered just how much it must be affecting Nancy. Now, if I were him, would I stay at a job like that? I don't know. I would love to say that I wouldn't, but with his financial situation and the lack of jobs? I'd probably suck it up and stay. Yes, even if they were being demeaning toward my girlfriend. However. It's true that he clearly Doesn't Get It. That's not "ruining his character" though. That's a character having flaws. Just like Nancy has flaws, like not considering Jonathan's situation.

I also don't think the sexism storyline was cringe. I think it was important.

I don't think S3 "destroyed" anything except Mike and El's romantic relationship and depending on how S5 shakes out maybe Mike's character. I mean sure if Mike isn't actually struggling with his sexuality and was just being an asshole then yeah they ruined Mike. So fingers crossed that they didn't ruin Mike.

I'd argue that some important shit happened S3. I mean Billy's death set up Max's entire S4 arc. Mike and Will's conflict is important for Will's arc. Steve had massive amounts of character development. Robin was introduced and incredibly well developed which it takes time to do.

I personally thought the horror elements were cool, although S2 and S4 solo S3 as far as horror elements obviously. But I'm not a horror gal really so if you're really into horror then I get how maybe you'd be disappointed? I mean I thought the building of the army and everything was pretty fucking cool. And the rats and shit. I really liked the whole mystery.

And there was Upside Down!! I mean.. that was the whole plot. The Mindflayer was the villain he's from the UD. The Russians were trying to access the UD. So it's not really accurate to say there was no UD.

As far as Russia plotline. Eh. Idk scoops troops whole storyline from cracking the code to sneaking through the vents and getting drugged and tortured for info all within the mall? I thought it was really cool. Yeah the Duffers Russian obsession is kinda weird and they kinda went ham in S4 but I did actually like it in S3.

I do like the summer vibes but also I really like a lot of other things! I really like the plot. All the scenes of El in the void were SUPER SICK. The beginning of El's independence arc and her having fun for the first time in her life? Priceless to me. She means everything so me oh my god. Hopper and Joyce being badasses and the Jopper will they won't they?? Lumax's banter this season is so important to showing how comfortable and real their relationship is. Will's whole arc is super important and amazing. SUZIE MY BELOVED!!! The Scoops Troop MY BELOVED I adore them. Erica becoming a main character? Also everything to me. Stobin? Everything to me. Robin's coming out remains my favorite scene in the entire show.

^ Sensing a pattern? Females. Women. S3 is more female centric, it brings existing female characters to the forefront. Elmax friendship. Independent El. Introduces Robin a smart and fiercely Independent lesbian. Joyce being a badass as usual. For better or worse, Karen having her arc about being unhappy in her cookie cutter marriage. Nancy confronting sexism in the workplace and coming out stronger the other side. Nancy and Karen's talk.

Also. Honestly? After S2 I needed some fun. S2 is my favorite don't get me wrong, but it's dark. It's depressing. Immaculate vibes, amazing horror elements, amazing storytelling! My favorite! But. Depressing. Needed some fun next season as a chaser.

I mean it's all subjective, but these are just my personal opinions and why I do really like S3. Not my favorite though. I like S2 then S1 then S3 then S4. (That might change after I finish my rewatch though S4 might move up idk)

[septembersghost]

I know it's been said a lot, but I'm making my way through Breaking Bad, and I got up to the s3 finale where Mike threatens to put Jimmy in a hole in a desert, and you can see the Saul mask slip, and while I'm sure he deserves it at that point (I know Banks said that Mike doesn't particularly like him or Kim by s6), I'm so sad for both of them knowing context of Bagman.

i love that you watched bcs first! i've always been SO curious as to how it influences perspective on the story to watch them in reverse (or chronological, depending how you look at it!) order, and this is a perfect example of that. i'm so glad the narrative works just as well when viewed that way.

i actually lowkey disagree with jonathan (ALTHOUGH he may have been referencing the second half of S6 and not the part we've seen) when he said that mike wouldn't "waste his compassion" on them because, despite mike's gruff demeanor, he's shown real compassion towards both of them multiple times - when jimmy tries to rope him into the hummel scam in S4 and he gives him condolences about chuck's death, the entirety of bagman, the bad choice road speech in the car, his reaction to jimmy's "if anything happens to her...i can't do this," his interaction with kim in which he approaches her very considerately and directly (mike is a direct sort of person, but so is kim, which makes their communication sympathetic). mike knows they were doing some shady thing that doesn't concern him since he had his guys watching them, but we definitely haven't seen any display of disdain towards kim from mike, and while he gets irritated with jimmy, i think he feels for him too and definitely was aware of his ptsd ("i think you're made of sterner stuff" can be read as disrespect towards jimmy, but i think it's also acknowledgment of the fact that mike knows the look of a man falling apart at the seams when he sees one, and he very quickly realizes how capable kim is). i really want to see mike realize his complicity in an innocent man getting shot in the head because he pulled protection off the "low priority targets," but maybe he compartmentalizes and puts that squarely on jimmy and kim? /rambling

mike and jimmy have never exactly been buddies, but there is a tacit understanding between them that has soured by the time the saul mask is more permanently in place, and it is VERY sad looking at that dynamic now. it's also continually fascinating to find the cracks in that persona, to uncover tiny moments when jimmy emerges. mike saying, "i trust the hole in the desert i'd leave you in" takes on a crueler aspect after knowing they harrowed bagman together - mike is aware of the real terror in that threat and why it would be a particular pressure point. it's quite a feat how they've made both stories fit together so well that we can see all those layers we didn't have before.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

TWD 11x21: Outpost 22 - Analysis, Part 2

Morning TD-ers! Hope you all had a fantastic Halloween. Mine was super fun. I have a lot more to say about this episode over the next few days, and I can tell a lot of people are freaking out about the Connie/Daryl interactions. I’ll address that. I promise. But what with the holiday, I’m running a bit behind and catching up on things. Give me a few days.

For now, just know we’re not at all worried about it. No reason you should be. It’s very clear that while tptb are teasing Donnie a bit, such as on TTD, it’s also a massive distraction. I’ll get to that later in the week. 

Here’s a relatively short convo between me and @wdway. We do talk about Donnie somewhat and also the significance of the Ws around the railroad tracks, which we also saw heavily in 4b.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

I watched the episode already. It was awesome. It felt a bit transitional, with lots of action, but there was also TONS of stuff for us to discuss. It was very Maggie-centric (the montage at the beginning was mostly about her) and we finally got that weird scene from the promo where she's lying with that walker (of the purplish pants) next to the tracks. What it is, is interesting. It's really a matter of the perspective of that shot doesn't show what the walker actually is. You'll understand when you watch.

(I sent this before all my pals had watched the episode. What I meant is that the walker was a child, and that wasn’t entirely clear from the shot of her lying with him next to the tracks.)

But there's tons of symbolism and a lot of callbacks to S4/Terminus. Not Terminus itself, but what leads up to it. The end of this episode feels a lot like the end of 4x15. And thinking about that, it just feels like everything is on track for Beth to return. Like, she wasn't at Terminus. She wasn't in 4x15. But if this is a retelling of that, well, then maybe the final three episodes of S11 will parallel 4x16 and 5x01.

And of course, Daryl didn't find Beth until 6-8 episodes later, depending on how you look at it. But of course, we'll be going into the spinoff, so.... Also, the Donnier's are gonna pounce all over this episode. Unfortunately. There's some Daryl/Connie interaction. Nothing that will worry us, but you know the shippers are gonna have a heyday. Oh well. Anyway, it's a great episode. Leaves us on kind of a cliffhanger of what's to come.

@wdway​:

There were a lot of numbers being thrown around in this episode. One of them, near the end, was 301=s3e1. I thought how well placed that was and what it would mean in the story. That number caught my attention because it's part of my address, haha. 

I'm going to mention one thing that if you don't already know you might want to be aware of before you rewatch. I know I certainly am going look for it, or I should say listen to it. Right as the closing credits come on the first credit is.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Oh weird. I totally didn’t notice that. I wonder who she was. Maybe one of the people may the labor camp? Or a walker, which would be the obvious thing.

@wdway:

It showed immediately as the first end credit and wasn't there for very long. I caught it out of the corner of my eye and had to go back to check it out to see if I actually saw her name. I racked my brain. Where was she? Then thought, we probably did not see her, but heard her. I think you'll know who I'm talking about, and I really don't think that will ruin anything for anyone else.

The scenes with Connie were sweet but I did not at all feel there was any romantic overtones at all. Then again, I also don't see romantic with him and Carol. I really felt that the Carylers were going to have a field day with Carol reaching over and taking Daryl's hand. That one, they will run wild with.

I think YNB is the voice on the radio with Rosita.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Ah okay. Yeah, I’m sure you’re right. That makes sense.

(This was confirmed on TTD. Yvette Nichole Brown was the voice Rosita talked to on the radio near the end.)

Yeah good point. Daryl interacting with various female characters and the shippers always freak out.

@wdway:

I also thought the writers made a point of showing Carol hug Gabriel. I didn't see a lot of difference in how she hugged him as she does Daryl. But they definitely did not have Daryl hugging Connie, that's for sure.

There's something that AK said and her portion at the end about FG and Rosita's relationship and I thought it's funny that they've never came out and said that about Carol and Ezekiel. If you don't know what I mean, I'll wait and explain maybe tomorrow.

(@wdway has a good point here. This was AK confirming their breakup. While obviously they’ve talked about Zeke and Carol’s separation, because it’s a thing on the show, they’ve never said with finality, “okay they’re broken up, now.” It’s always been a question of whether they’ll get back together again or not.)

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Yeah, I know what you mean. It was actually good to have confirmation about that, but I can't help but wonder what the point of writing it that way was. Maybe it will be clearer when we get to the final episode.

One thing that may help as far as Daryl and Connie (for those who are worried, which isn't us) is something he did with his hand. Google, "Are you alright, sign language." It’s just important to know that his motions were actually him signing to her. Nothing else. I know people *coughs* Donnie shippers *coughs* will read into it.

@wdway:

So true. But the way I saw it after that initial meeting, the writer/director kept a lot of physical space between Daryl and Connie. Enough that I thought it was odd to be so far away from each other.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Yeah, they did. They even specifically had Carol help her up. And the two of them (Daryl and Connie) didn’t interact individually after he first returned. When she talked, she talked to whole group. And maybe this goes without saying, but I’m seeing SO much Beth proxy in her.

@wdway:

Yes, I thought of Beth several times with Daryl reaction to what happened to Connie. Carol's reaction to Daryl’s too.

I'm going to watch it for a second time probably this afternoon. I think it's going to be an episode that we catch more and more each time it's watched.

twdmusicboxmystery:

Yeah, same. I somehow managed to pull a muscle in my neck this morning. Totally random. Guess that means I gotta lay around and watch TWD all day.  😁

@wdway:

That would definitely be the mature, grown-up thing to do. Being proactive with your health.

I really don't think this is a spoiler but even if it is me pointing it out hopefully sparks some thoughts.

S4e15 US. Daryl with Claimer Joe walking the railroad tracks. Glenn running down the railroad tracks after seeing the sign from Maggie. 

Did we ever determine what this W stands for? Is it an actual Railroad sign?

The garage the Claimers stayed in. Inside the truck with the license tag the same as the car that took Beth away. I was just struck at how much it looks like a railroad platform; I think it might have originally been one.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Yeah, it does. I noticed the W sign too. I think part of it is that this is a retelling of 4b. So, they might have included it just for that. But the W signs are called "whistle" signs. It's a reminder for the conductor to blow the train's horn as a warning before they get to a particular crossing where cars or people might be. They're not even used by all railroads anymore, what with how technology has changed. But they used to be.

I know people in the fandom have wondered before if they meant wolves, since we had the super obvious sign of the W carved into foreheads. But a whistle is also a type of music. In this case, more a noise. A warning to keep people safe. Tell them to get clear of the tracks before the train arrives. So yeah, not sure what the writers are going for here, but it's definitely interesting!

https://railroad.net/grade-crossing-horns-and-quot-w-quot-signs-t55345.html

@wdway:

Oh My Gosh, a waring of possibly danger ahead. In s4, we saw these signs before Glenn and Tara were almost taken down in the railroad tunnel by walkers. Just before finding the woman he loves, who was missing.

Daryl had the sign behind him and soon after found his missing family and was almost killed helping Rick. In the next episode "A" all of team family except for Beth was found at Terminus. Soon after (in story time not in season time) Daryl found out a clue to finding Beth. I'm loving but the W. Especially since Connie seems to be at Beth proxy.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Yeah, exactly. And while this episode felt a lot like 4x15, that means we’re coming up on the retelling of 4x16. I can’t help but think about the fact that that episode had flashbacks of Beth. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This wasn’t part of our initial conversation, but the more I think about these W signs, the more I think they foreshadow the CRM. They could definitely foreshadow bad things in the short term, as @wdway​ said. Like the tunnel Glenn and Tara went into. But overall, because they are on train tracks, I think they foreshadow a bigger baddie. In S4, that was Terminus. It’s where all of TF’s paths converged, and, while we don’t know this for certain yet, we think they might have had ties to the CRM. It might have been in a 6-degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon sort of way, I’ll admit. We just don’t know. But there were cop cars at Terminus, which suggests Grady. And we’re 99% sure Grady was linked to the CRM.

So here, in S11, I think the Ws foreshadow that TF is on the fast track to coming face to face with the CRM, just as in 4b they were on the fast track to running into Terminus/Grady/CRM. And of course with all of this, comes Beth. Hence, the train tracks in this story line are not at all a coincidence. Just wanted to throw that out there! 

@wdway:

Rick and Daryl mentioned Beth by name in 4x16, but I haven't thought about the prison flashbacks and the famous new sheriff in town scene. Great point. And we know sometime in the next couple of episodes, we will see Daryl and Judith together with her in the hat. Next Sunday seems sooo far away.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Lol. Right? Each time the new episode ends I’m like, “Nooooooo!”

And then before the new one comes on, it’s:

@wdway:

I'm right there with you.

@twdmusicboxmystery​:

I’ll be back with more discussion tomorrow! How did everyone else like the episode?

[autisticandroids]

yknow those episodes where a character's whole personality gets split into 3-5 different distinct separate bodies? what bodies would cas have? I feel like it'd just be a mess tbh, imagine 5 different castiels all of them loving dean to a certain extent but showing it VASTLY differently. one cas would literally want to murder the others lmao

okay so i don’t actually think this trope would be an effective tool for analyzing cas? he’s not conflicted enough in himself. he’s too impulsive, too singleminded, too uninhibited. like, in the end, cas always ends up doing whatever he wants. there aren’t multiple discrete voices vying for control, really, or rather, if there are, one is always significantly stronger than the others. like in the end cas will always end up eating raw meat off the floor, you know? he’ll do what he wants. if i was going to do personality splitting i’d do it to someone intensely internally conflicted, like dean.

however, because i’m in an essay writing mood today, i’ll answer a question slightly to the left of the one you asked. cas may not be internally conflicted, but he is intensely changeable. these two things are related, actually; the same impulsivity and singlemindedness that mean he doesn’t have a ton of internal conflict at any given time mean that different ideas sound good to him at different times, because he isn’t really thinking about, say, what future-him will think of them. and he’s not really trying to maintain an image or identity. he’s just doing what feels right at the time, which is very different at different times and in different situations.

anyway, that in mind, i think a lot about ways to bring together many alternate versions of cas which sort of correspond to different times in the show.

i have a fic in my head about a bunch of cas-es pulled from alternate timelines by some kind of spell. so this would be set during the widower arc because the basic impulse here is to show dean a very bad time. just absolutely put him through hell. also, all the alternate timelines are different because different stuff happened, not because cas made different choices, because if we’re torturing dean it has to be like 5x04, the changes in cas can’t be cas’ fault. they have to be dean’s or just like, the universe’s (which makes them dean’s).

so dean is trying to bring cas back, and he finds some kind of spell that can bring someone “from another world.” and he tries it because hey. can’t hurt to try. anyway i’ve thought a long time about different versions of cas i would put in this and here is what i have. in order of when the timeline split off.

- a cas who never raised dean from hell. think 14x13 “lebanon.” this one i’m not too sure about, like, this could be fun, but i don’t know if it’s different enough from the next one. like this castiel would have lived through the averted apocalypse and subsequent general fuckery that happened as an angelic footsoldier, which would actually be pretty interesting now that i think about it, especially since all that stuff would have gone down soooooooo differently without cas specifically for your average angel footsoldier. like cas has PERSONALLY caused more upheaval in heaven in twelve years of spn than there seems to have been in millennia. so he would be the point of view of a normal footsoldier from a totally other world.

- a cas who died mid season four, and is pulled out of the empty in 2017 by this spell. i’m not sure when this cas died. my thoughts are (1) killed in on the head of a pin by alistair, (2) killed during his torture in the rapture, or (3) simply never resurrected after lucifer rising. (3) makes the most sense, but that cas has already thrown away everything for dean. i prefer the idea of a cas who loves dean, is already on the brink of disobedience for him, but has not yet taken the plunge. both on the head of a pin and the rapture are great places for this, and they both have strengths and weaknesses. if he died in the rapture, he was killed by heaven, which is fundamentally more fun, but he was also really very much over the edge already. if he died in on the head of a pin, he wasn’t killed by heaven, but he is perfectly teetering on the brink of falling for dean. regardless of when he died, the purpose of this cas is to be horrified at all the various and myriad ways he has destroyed and corrupted himself for dean in the other timelines.

- possibly endverse cas, who would have died in 2014, but like s4 cas, would have been pulled from the afterlife by the spell. i’m not so sure on this one. we as a society love endverse cas but i dunno what purpose he would serve. maybe endverse cas didn’t die in 2014, and instead was imprisoned by lucifer, because, you know. he’s the only brother lucifer has left. so he is very excited to see dean alive and well, since his dean is dead, and, not being an angel, cas can’t bring him back. the purpose of this cas would be to horrify dean that cas loves him and needs him so much, and to disgust the other cas-es with his neediness.

- a cas who was in some way on better terms with dean during s6. maybe dean and cas ride off into the sunset together after swan song instead of dean going to live with lisa, maybe dean prayed to cas while he was with lisa because he missed him, who knows. either way, cas has dean’s help with the angel revolution in season six from the start, and never goes to crowley. the plan cas and dean come up with to beat raphael includes breaking into the cage and stealing the grace of michael and lucifer, freeing sam and adam in the process. incidentally, it also involves cas possessing dean, because if cas is gonna eat archangel grace to become more powerful, he’s going to need a stronger vessel. so cas and dean have a whole like. midam situation happening. they’re a double archangel together, and godstiel never happened so none of the other terrible apocalypses that stemmed from that happened, and everything is pretty cool where they’re from, and also they’re obviously uhhhhhh SOME kind of together. the purpose of this cas is to upset dean because this cas shows how much better everything could have been and how much better his and cas’ relationship could have been if dean had simply been more considerate of cas in s6, and also freak dean out with how uh. close. this dean and cas are.

- a godstiel who managed to swallow purgatory without swallowing the leviathans and remained god. he’s probably soooomewhat less scary and murdery than canonverse godstiel because no leviathans, so you know, not as many angel purges or massacres on earth. and he probably went and fixed sam’s wall within about three days because cas is prideful but he does NOT like it when dean is mad at him. so they did kiss and make up, and so this cas would have had dean to act as his morality chain. but he’s still very scary and godstiel. and also he refers to dean as “The Beloved” you know. his purpose is to freak everyone out, because he’s scary, but also, for the past cas-es, because he is a terrifying abomination that they could never imagine becoming, for the future cas-es, because he is a reminder of their worst selves, and for dean, because he is a reminder of how dangerous cas is, but also because he uh. obviously has some feelings about his dean. unclear if they are consummated or not.

- a cas who naomi never rescued from purgatory, and who stayed there. hasn't spoken to another being in half a decade, has not recovered from his emotionally destroyed state in purgatory in s8. believes at first that the spell is his dean rescuing him, and is crushed when he realizes he was wrong. like endverse cas, his purpose is to show dean how much cas needs him and depends on him emotionally, and how he (dean) is capable of destroying cas, as well as his guilt for leaving him in purgatory and how lucky he is that his cas got out. this is especially noteworthy since the guilt for leaving cas in purgatory is part of the reason dean is trying to get cas back.

- a cas who stayed human after season nine, and has built himself a small human life over the next four years. he has a job and an apartment and friends outside the winchesters and yes, he still goes hunting after work sometimes, and he's still in contact with dean, but he is also independent in a way no other version of cas has ever been. he exists to freak out dean because dean has never seen cas independent of him. he is also fairly bitter at dean since dean did kind of stop spending time with him when he was no longer useful, and our dean feels guilty for that.

- a cas who showed up twenty minutes later in 10x03, finding sam dead and dean gone, and had to chase down demon dean, and has now spent three years following demon dean around as his tragically adoring stalker, because he hasn't found a way to resurrect sam yet and he doesn't want to put dean through the demon cure until he can save sam because he doesn't want dean to experience that guilt, but he also adores dean and wants to keep an eye on him and keep him safe and also keep him from doing anything too heinous, so he just covertly follows him around the country and watches from a distance as he commits various murders and fucks his way through every local bar scene. and occasionally cas finds dean something to kill, when the mark gets hungry, and drops it in his path. his purpose is to freak dean out with the lengths cas would go for him, and the depths cas would sink to.

anyway. lebanon cas and season four cas are horrified and perhaps disgusted (lebanon cas more than s4 cas) by ALL of the later cas-es, and how far they’re fallen, all of it for dean. godstiel and archangel cas being abominations, endverse cas and s9 cas being fallen, even purgatory cas and demon dean’s cas for their total dependence on dean.

purgatory cas and endverse cas are just happy to see a dean, even if it’s not their dean. demon dean’s cas, too, in a way. he’s happy to see a dean who is still human, who he can still have as a friend.

human cas is pissed to see that he was right, that dean would have stuck by him if he’d still had his powers, that this version of dean is doing spells to try and bring his cas, who is still an angel, back, whereas he and his dean only see each other once every couple months.

everyone is terrified and disgusted by godstiel, as i said before.

they’re mostly kind of thrown by archangel cas. a lot of them are jealous. godstiel is furious because how dare anyone, even an alternate version of himself, take dean as a vessel (even if dean likes it). godstiel isn’t really there, though, he resisted the summoning and just sort of popped his head through to see what was going on, and he goes back to his own reality pretty fast without murdering anyone.

also to be clear dean has not at this point examined or acknowledged any feelings he may have about his cas besides “friendship,” nor has he wondered what feelings his cas may have for him. given how many of the cas-es were clearly in some kind of relationship with their dean (endverse cas, archangel cas) or just openly in love with their dean (godstiel, purgatory cas, demon dean’s cas), dean is forced to reevaluate the nature of his and cas’ relationship.

[safflowerseason]

Not to be a morbid weirdo, but sometimes I find myself thinking about how Dan would react if Amy passed away, or vice versa. How do you think that would play out?

Eeeek, Anon, you sent this in weeks ago and it took so long to get around to it! I'm sorry! It is such an interesting question and obviously my blog is very much a place where people to come be morbid weirdos about their ships.

I answered a similar question to this years ago--something about how BTML-Amy would react if Dan ended up in the hospital--and as usual my answer comes down to context. Is this, like, Amy dying suddenly and their relationship was never consummated and now Dan can never tell her what she meant to him? Or one of the two passing away at the age of ninety-five after a long and happy partnership? Somewhere in-between? The range of possible situations is pretty wide, so it could play out a lot of different ways. The only headcanon I won't negotiate on is the fact that Amy dies before Dan. Karmic retribution for him being such a dickhead.

In general, the rules of the Veep universe are such that the characters aren't really conceived to deal with major loss--I'm basically writing a whole fic that explores this idea, albeit in a much more emotionally driven approach than the show ever would. If we're talking strict canonical Dan and Amy (S1-S4, of course, we're excluding the Mandel years here) and the loss taking place within the world of the show the way we see it as viewers--all workplace based, characters defined by their relationship to Selina as VP/POTUS--I think the simple answer is they would repress all their feelings and become even more obsessed with work. Dan would act out in one spectacular meltdown à la his S3 breakdown(s)--go off on someone at work, get sent home, mope and drink too much and not shower and fuck around for a week and then go back to work and never mention Amy's name again. He would settle down eventually with some DC socialite and forever be spectacularly uninterested in her. Amy allows herself even less of a valve for her feelings than Dan does--I can see her trying to pretend everything was just normal and fine and that Dan was just a colleague who died in an unfortunate accident, and getting even more manic and obsessive by the day until she snapped and had a screaming fit in the parking lot, à la Elizabeth Holmes at the end of The Dropout. Both of them are too power hungry to allow a loss like this to derail their careers or life goals.

If we're talking BMTL-Dan and Amy, there's a lot more room for nuance. If Amy died and left Dan with a young Cassie to raise all by himself, he would obviously be devastated and be pretty non-functional for a few weeks, outside of caring for Cassie. Trying to manage the grieving process for her would totally overwhelm him, since he'd be a mess himself. Not to get too dark, but it would be a grieving experience that would fuck them both up pretty badly. Depending on how old Cassie is, it would be something that either draws them closer together immediately or pushes them apart for a little while--I could see them both wrapped up in their own worlds as they get through the months/years after Amy's death, Dan obsessed with working, Cassie with school and her friends. But even in that situation, they would eventually become incredibly close again, because this is my alternate universe and Dan could never be emotionally estranged from Cassie too long.

Dan would probably eventually hire a live-in housekeeper of some kind, like a comforting Chessy-from-the-Parent-Trap woman so Cassie has someone to talk to about puberty and boys and deal with domestic stuff that Dan has no interest in. I think he'd probably never remarry and just enjoy the status of being a hot widower the rest of his life--return to his pre-Amy sexual habits, but keep it all very separate from his home life with Cassie. It's a cliché, but she would be the number one girl in his life.

However, I think it's more likely in the BMTL universe that Dan and Amy live a long and happy life babysitting politicians, raising Cassie, and bickering nonstop, as opposed to Amy dying early in a tragic and unexpected accident. In that case I still think Amy dies first, and Dan doesn't last much longer without her.

If you're caught up on BMTL, you may have noticed that in Amy's most recent chapter I slipped in a moment where she temporarily steps into her mother's shoes and tries to envision what it would be like if she had to plan Dan's funeral. I can tell you that there will be a similar moment in the next chapter of BMTL, where Dan imagines himself at Amy's funeral.

Finally, if you're interested in a fic that addresses your question, the final chapter of @thebookofmaev's fic Behind the Scenes explores Dan and Amy's relationship post-S7 from Dan's point of view (definitely a more bittersweet read, what with the S7 of it all, but like everything @thebookofmaev writes it's very well written and absorbing!)

[addictedtostorytelling]

Apart form the silent car ride from Immortality. Do you have an idea what might transpire in a car ride to and from crime scene between gsr between s1 to s8? I always wonder what they might talk about off screen. 🥰

hi, anon!

i think it probably depends on the circumstances: if they're alone in the car or if there are other team members with them, where they're going and what they're going to do, what the prevailing mood is that shift, and especially at what point they are in their relationship, etc., etc.

when others are in the car with them, obviously, their conversations probably tend to be either more work-related or at least the realm of what's acceptable for "public discourse."

but as for when they're alone:

with the exception of at times when there is actual strain between them, like during s3/s4, the car seems like a place where they probably flirt a lot—trading provocative and/or affectionate little quips, checking each other's reactions in the rearview mirror.

but beyond the flirting, in terms of actual conversations:

during their pre-dating days, at times when there is more relational distance between them (like during s3 and s4), i think they probably tend to stick mostly to "talking shop," game-planning for how they will process particular scenes on the way to them and discussing their findings on the way back.

alternatively, they ride in taut silence.

however, during the more copacetic phases of the pre-dating seasons (like during s1-s2 and early s5 pre-episode 05x13 “nesting dolls”), i think there are also times when, when they find themselves alone in the car together, they might venture to discuss some slightly more personal topics—not in the sense of talking about their feelings for each other or relationship but in the sense of maybe telling each other stories from their lives* (e.g., “when i was a kid—” or “back in college, i—”).

* of course, sara would likely still be highly selective about what she revealed and obfuscate some details, as is the case in episode 03x14 “one hit wonder.”

they probably also still discuss cases but perhaps sometimes with a more personal bent, admitting to their emotions in a way they perhaps wouldn't with anyone else (e.g., "seeing that victim that way, i dunno—i guess it's just getting to me").

since the interior of a car in motion is very much a liminal space, neither here nor there, between departure and arrival, suspended in a state of going, i think that in many ways grissom and sara are opener there than they might be elsewhere, feeling as if whatever they say in that setting is essentially taking place on its own plane, away from everything else in their lives.

while there are many things they probably still won't say even there—as they still have limits when it comes to their honesty about their feelings, prior to getting together—i do think that they are more likely to be vulnerable with each other in transit in the car than perhaps they are anywhere else during those early days, as they feel as if they're in their own little world and like whatever they divulge is said in a kind of vacuum.

of course, once they get together, they probably even take things further, using their private car rides to discuss anything and everything, from household chores (e.g., "we need to do the laundry when we get home") to philosophical notions (e.g., "so what do you think the basis of human morality is?") to relationship stuff (e.g., "last night was really nice" "yeah, it was").

honestly, i just really enjoy the idea of them talking to each other in cars, so i tend to write a lot of car scenes in my fics. if you're interested, there are multiple car scenes in both "just we two against the world" and "something in you i believe in."

thanks for the question! please feel welcome to send another any time.

[multimetaverse]

HSMTMTS 2x08 Review

Most Likely To was the best ep of S2 so far and ended one ship while launching another. Let’s dig in!

Gaston was super fun, a very nice showcase for both Larry and Matt. This is the kind of energy that early S2 was lacking. Also feels like the first ep where East High might actually have a shot at beating North High. Covid restrictions played a role but we really needed to see more rehearsal scenes and scenes of the wildcats just being theatre kids. This also may be one of the last times we see EJ perform as a student in the musical so I’m glad we got this.  

EJ has been criminally underused for most of S2, he’s marketed as part of the big 4 along with Nini, Ricky, and Gina and Matt Cornett’s name is listed 3rd in the credits but in the early eps of S2 you’d think he was guest star. Lately he’s started to become more important and tonight was an excellent showcase of why he’s such an interesting character. I’m not gonna check but this feels like it’s the most EJ screen time in a single ep that we’ve gotten all season long. 

Of course, the main reason for EJ’s increased screen time is because of Portwell. I’ve been neutral on them but tonight they really won me over’ their scenes were so sweet that they warmed even my cold black heart. Matt and Sofia are good friends irl and that shines through in their easy rapport and great chemistry. Gina snorting at EJ’s joke was cute and I loved the shot of Gina accidentally walking into the shot for EJ’s confessional. As an aside, they’ve been doing some fun stuff with the confessionals lately which helps add a bit of the metaness that helped make S1 so great.

The real big Portwell scene tonight was EJ and Gina talking on the couch at Ashlyn’s. Lot’s to love there. Gina’s speech to EJ about what she sees when she thinks of him was sweet and her saying that EJ tried to do the right thing and often failed but kept trying echoes what she said of herself during her confession to Ricky. Also when EJ asked Gina if she understood the feeling of having her life mapped out she replied, ‘’not really’’ which is almost certainly the inspiration for Gina asking a question to EJ and him responding ‘’not really’’ in their pre S2 face time call on the hsmtmts instagram. 

EJ is still wracked with guilt for the guy he used to be but Gina reminds him that he’s grown and is a good guy which leads to her slip up about her seeing him that way vs the rest of the gang hinting that she’s beginning to catch feelings for EJ. Which leads to EJ complimenting her and them having a moment that could well have led to a kiss if Ashlyn hadn’t come home. And they cap it off with Gina falling asleep and EJ covering her with his Duke sweater. 

It’s been nice not seeing Gina upset over Ricky these past two eps and it’s a damning indictment of the poor writing and pacing of S2 that her story in the first 6 eps can be summed up as Gina being upset over something Ricky said or did. Not only has Portwell allowed EJ to rise in prominence but also it’s allowed Gina to escape the rut her character was stuck in pining for Ricky. 

I hope after S2 is over that we get an interview where Tim explains how the Portwell plot came to be. The S1 finale set up some possible interest between them as did the pre S2 face time call but nothing came of it during the first 4 eps, they stood next to each other a lot but barely interacted otherwise. Notably in 2x01, which Tim himself wrote, EJ tries to grow a beard and tells Ashlyn that he says her as so young which is extremely jarring now that we know that EJ is crushing on Gina who is Ashlyn’s age. 

Was Tim not set on doing Portwell until he realized he needed to give Gina something else to do other than hopelessly pine for Ricky? Narratively, it made sense after Rini got together in S1 to put the other two Big 4 characters together in S2 but did Tim not want it to seem so obvious to the audience so he deliberately kept Portwell apart until 2x05 where EJ’s feelings make for a nice plot twist? Was he just reluctant to plug EJ back into the love square due to how much more complicated it would make things but later felt he had no other options? Or was it just plain old bad pacing and writing?

Of course, I wish that there wasn’t such a large age gap between Sofia and Matt but there are no Gina ships that avoid that problem, there’s also an age gap between Sofia and Joshua, just as there was between Olivia and Joshua and Matt in S1. Depending on when they film S3 there’s a good chance that most of it will be finished before Sofia even turns 18 which is deeply unfortunate. There’s a broader issue of teen girls being cast in mostly age appropriate roles while their male love interests are older adults and in particular it often affects female characters of colour. Netflix has a really bad track record with those kind of age gaps but Disney has problems too as we’ve seen on HSMTMTS and on GMW where by the end of S3 they had 18 year old Peyton Meyer as the boyfriend of 14 year old Rowan Blanchard’s character (not to mention canon Joshaya which didn’t have such a bad age gap between the actors but was problematic regarding the ages of the characters themselves).

A knock I’ve seen on Portwell is that EJ is just gonna leave for university next year but that was never gonna happen, Matt’s under the same 4 season contract as all the other mains and he’ll be sticking around in some capacity much like Sharpay ended up doing in the movies. It is true that EJ will probably have to move on at the end of S4 while Gina still has her senior year left but that will also happen with her and Ricky since he’ll be graduating at the end of S4. It was a big mistake to make EJ a senior but it also may end up being a big mistake to make Gina a sophomore. It would have been too messy to retcon EJ to be a junior but Tim probably should have taken the chance to retcon Gina into being a junior in S2.

That Rini breakup was so sad (missed opportunity for gotta go my own way). They managed to get in a Troyella reference with the treehouse. This was inevitable they just have not been communicating well though now that we know that Ricky thought Nini left YAC for him some of his desperation to spend as much time together as possible makes more sense. I think Rini is endgame if the series has 4 seasons but it wouldn't shock me if we never seem them dating again and they only get back together in the series finale. It also wouldn’t surprise me if Nini never dates anyone else for the remainder of the series or at least not seriously. 

We’re not even halfway through the series so it’s way too early to permanently slam the door on Rini though this time apart will probably help Joshua and Olivia move on from their own bitter break up before it bleeds too much into their performances. I do wonder if Tim really has a clue what he's gonna do with them for the remaining 24-28 eps of the series, assuming S3 and S4 have 10-12 eps each. 

Roman Banks killed If I Can’t Love Her and the montage of all the couples or ex couples was great.

It was nice to finally meets some parents other than the Bowen’s and Salazar-Roberts’. Kourtney’s mom was played by Dara’s actual mother and their dynamic was great as expected. It seems from their conversation that Kourtney's father is dead which I don’t believe has been mentioned before. Cash Caswell.... well it gets what the character is about across. He really looks and sounds like a rich Utah republican, I bet he knows Mitt Romney personally. I liked EJ going to tell his father that he’s not going to Duke and recognizing that he wants to build his own life on his own merits. 

We saw a bit of that S1 Miss Jenn energy tonight which was fun though I didn't like how curt she was with Seb nor did I like how rude Carlos was to Seb although we know that blows up in 2x10. 

Jazzara rising! I really liked how Jazzara and Portwell are sort of mirroring each other and since Mazzara knows about EJ’s feelings for Gina it wouldn’t shock me if helping EJ out is part of him showing a softer side in 2x12.

Of course Ashlyn is VP of the Nostradamus society. It's clear her family has some kooky new age beliefs (her parents are probably members of some naturopathic medicine group on Facebook that doubles as a gateway into Qanon)

It was nice to see Big Red being such a good friend to Ricky and the return of Ricky’s infamous pillow hugs. Lmao at Ashlyn just chilling while Big Red is comforting Ricky

Also Miss Jenn saying sexy and Big Red referring to pillow talk, the writers are adding a bit of spice when cooking up these scripts.

Looking Ahead: 

Looks like Gina may be wearing EJ's duke sweater next ep according to some posts I saw. Jack presumably is there to somehow help Gina decide what she wants with Ricky and EJ though him having wanderlust might also feed into Gina’s thoughts on settling down in SLC or moving with her mom around the country.

Let's see what mom of the year, Lynne Bowen, has up her sleeves. Ricky’s bedroom at her place in Chicago looks much nicer than the apartment Mike Bowen has so perhaps she makes a lot more money than he does. 

Not looking forward to the Zoom portions of the ep but I guess it was inevitable. 

There’s only two paths for Gina’s story to go in the remainder of this season; either she decides to move on from Ricky and give EJ a chance or she decides that Ricky is worth trying again and squelches her budding feelings for EJ. The former looks much more likely after tonight’s ep but either way it needs to be handled with care. Inevitably Gina and Ricky need to talk about what happened between them but if Tim really wants Ricky to continue being a viable love interest or even a good friend to Gina then he needs to really have Ricky apologize and show a thoughtful, kinder side of him that’s largely been missing this season. 

What I think Tim is doing is setting up Portwell getting together in 2x12 but Ricky pining over Gina until Portwell break up late S3 and Rina get together in the S3 finale before they break up later in S4 and Ricky gets back with Nini near the end of the series. If I had Tim’s ear I would tell him that he should pick which ship he wants to do, Rina or Portwell, but don’t do both. He wants canon Rina? Great then end Portwell before it starts and have Rina happen in S3 and introduce other obstacles to them getting together rather than having to damage EJ’s character and make him lose another girl he likes to Ricky. He wants canon Portwell? Great then have Gina and Ricky’s conversation be closure for the both of them and have Gina and EJ get together and break them up without Ricky being a cause of it or waiting in the wings to get with Gina soon afterwards. Doing both will be a disaster and I truly hope that Tim Federle carefully thinks over his mistakes in S2 and really plans out the remaining 2 seasons of the series while there’s still time to prevent things from going really off the rails like GMW and AM did thanks to the bad decisions of Michael Jacobs and Terri Minsky. 

Until next week wildcats. 

[maggot-monger]

ok so, you know how in a lot of lucifer/satan mythology they drew on for s5, lucifer was the highest-ranking angel in heaven, the brightest, the most beautiful, the favorite — literally god’s prettiest princess? and that’s a big deal in taking lessons from the story of his rebellion and fall, whatever your views are on him: lucifer had reason to believe that he mattered enough to have his own opinions, and that he was important enough to be able to take a stand — he had never encountered failure before, never had any reason to believe he wouldn’t be able to do something. that’s either hubris and entitlement or good self-esteem and optimism, depending on how you look at it (not to be annoying, but it’s kind of like gifted kid syndrome) 

anyway, sam isn’t really like that. as a kid, sam does seem to feel entitled to have opinions about things that go against john’s more than dean does, but it’s not because he’s never had reason to doubt himself. sam has always had lots of reasons to doubt himself, and it doesn’t seem like john was ever shy about letting sam know where he stood in the family hierarchy. sam had the confidence to stand up for himself despite his upbringing, not necessarily because of it.

sam also didn’t have an opinion he got kicked out for it; he left because he wanted to get out (The Big Sam-Gabriel Parallel, and most obvious failure of the attempted sam-lucifer parallels). sam mostly started doing stuff that the narrative deemed Bad once john was dead — once sam was in a family structure that was less of a hierarchy, and he was making choices that were actually about the situation he was in, rather than about getting out of that situation.

i’m not really making a solid point here, but i guess what i’m saying is that teenage and/or s1 sam is maybe not THE best parallel for lucifer, as i and others have suggested previously? he hadn’t come into his own enough yet to have the kind of conviction it takes to make huge decisions about how to exist within the situation he was in, instead of to escape it — not to diminish the conviction it takes to get out of a bad situation, but getting out is not what lucifer is famous for doing. 

i am maybe also saying that it would have been an interesting move for spn to have written god as having left before lucifer fell, so lucifer was going against michael the way sam went against dean in s4, but idk if i like that...the parallels would have been better in some ways, but then you lose the parallels of lucifer and sam both being blamed for destabilizing their families because they didn’t follow their fathers’ mandates...ehhh

anyway, vague tl;dr, there’s something interesting about the concept of lucifer having been a goody-goody rule-follower who thinks he can do no wrong vs sam having been the black sheep of the family who feels like a fuck up no matter what

[ashenpages]

Current Projects & Emoji Voting Key

Quick disclaimer: I’m a romance writer in all aspects of the term, so most of my works will contain mature content. Engage at your own risk, you know the rules, you’re responsible for curating your own experience of the internet, blah blah blah.

This post serves as a current mock up of fic ideas I’m either actively working on or considering working on next. You can drop me an ask about any of them, or just vote via the emoji combo I’ve assigned them.

Voting lets me know you’re excited about an idea and makes it more likely I’ll actually work on it. You can vote anytime, there’re no deadlines or winner announcements, just me gauging your interest by what I see in my ask box most often.

You can also ask me about the original stuff I’m working on currently. The current WIPs are Medusa centric and the emoji for them is: 🐍

Support my original work on Ko-fi and Patreon.

- Lupin: 🤑🤠💍  These are all oneshot ideas, between 5-15K each. If you want to vote for a specific idea, send me the emojis and the number of the idea.

Born from the idea that Goemon and Zenigata probably couldn’t be an item, my brain decided to come up with how I could write for them. Goemon’s teaching an ikebana class as part of his training, and Zenigata shows up as a student on forced recreational leave for his health from the ICPO. Zenigata wins the samurai’s heart through flowers. But what happens when Lupin and Jigen find out? (Only good sexy things, I promise. These beans are in a healthy polycule--be gay, do crimes) (WIP)

Jigen/Lupin, but it's Jigen deciding to seduce Lupin while wearing his own Lupin disguise. The thief is waaaaay too into it, and some artistry is taken with the sex so that they don't mess up the disguise too much during their encoutner.

Jigen/Zenigata/Lupin where Jigen has some fantasices about Zenigata, but is pretty sure they'll never happen. Tells Lupin about them. Suddenly the fantasies are coming true, in the middle of a heist, and Jigen doesn't what to do except get swept up in the moment and enjoy. Plot twist, it's Lupin dressed up as Zenigata granting all his gunman's dreams. Plot twist again, Zenigata catches them at it.

Zenigata/Lupin, where Lupin keeps doing good things in illegal ways and Pops has to find a way to punish him for it. Good thing for Pops Lupin's a masochist?

Trans!Lupin and Trans!Jigen premise: Jigen cares for Lupin after the master thief has top surgery, since Jigen has Been There and Done That. Caring, sweet, and a little sexy. Lupin is a much better patient than Jigen.

The one time Zenigata caught Lupin in an alley and kissed him and it was Jigen in disguise. Things get sexy anyway, and Zenigata has crushes on two thieves now. Lupin and Jigen "kidnap" him later for an evening of taking care of their inspector.

The background plot of Jigen's Gravestone where we see Jigen think he's done for and try to leave Lupin. Our thief has none of it, and we get to relish in the inherent eroticism of Lupin sitting in sniper fire, knowing Jigen's got his back. This is the moment I think Jigen finally believes he can be with Lupin forever.

I love the idea of something longer and more plot driven like a Lupin special where Lupin ends up in hot water and Jigen and Fujiko have to work together to save him. Jigen and Fujiko have such an interesting relationship. They're both partners of Lupin, they don't really like each other, they constantly screw the other over, but when it really matters they take care of each other. I'd like to see that highlighted a little more and also give them space to call each other out and bicker. Nothing sexy between them, but maybe a really interesting threesome with Lupin and Fujiko in a strap on once they save their boy.

- Sonic Vampire Novelist Coffee Shop AU: 📚☕💐

Shadow is an immortal vampire who has seen the world change for the worse too many times. These days it feels like he only lives for his coffee dates with Rouge, another immortal who loves each new era they encounter, warts and all. He has to admit that the book series she got him into speaks to him, at least. If someone in this era can understand him without meeting him, it can’t all be bad. But he hardly expected the goofy blue barista at the new coffee place to understand him the way those books do.

This is a novel length romcom romp with some big feelings about what it means to watch as things change, grow, and die. Expect lots of Big gothic feelings from this one, emotionally charged kissing, and overly-adoring sex. But also expect shenanigans from everyone in the coffee shop, which include Rouge, Amy, Tails, Knuckles, Cream, and more.

- Sonic Blazamy, "Like the Sun": 💖🌸💎

Amy Rose has been in love with Sonic for a while.

Or has she?

When the Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, and Silver are trapped as the fuel sources for Doctor Eggman’s newest evil scheme, Amy teams up with Blaze, Rouge, and Cream to save them. With Sonic out of the picture and Amy fulfilling his role, was she ever really in love with him? Or did she just want to be like him?

This is a novel length epic romance with lots of competent women and lots of romantic Blazamy content. Expect flowery hopes and dreams, badass self-actualization, and glancing hand touches that give way to cuddly and sweet sex.

- Persona 5: 🗡🍛☕

After bringing down the Metaverse twice, Ryuji didn’t think graduating high school and figuring out what to do with his life would be so hard. Akira’s back in town, and the gang’s more-or-less all in Tokyo, but everyone else seems to have a plan while Ryuji just floats. How’s he supposed to change the world when he’s not a phantom thief anymore?

This is a novel length fic that addresses how powerless one can feel being just one person in the face of all the corrupted systems and bigotry the world has to offer. It’s about holding on to what you believe in, working through the doubt, and fighting your way to a better tomorrow with the power you do have. The whole gang is queer, featured relationships being Mako x Ann, Ryuji x Akira, Futaba & Yusuke as platonic life partners. Akira is polyamorous and omnisexual, Futaba’s asexual and aromantic while Yusuke is demisexual and very romantic, Makoto’s a lesbian, Ann and Ryuji are bi, and Haru’s pansexual, demisexual, and aromantic. They’re one giant band of queer Phantom Thieves, and even if they’re not really doing the Metaverse thing anymore, they’re still gonna save the world!

Also, I’m gonna make Makoto not a cop. That super didn’t age well. Zenkichi and his boss can work on making them better/abolishing them for other better organizations.

- Hades Game: ❤️‍🔥💀

Oneshot. I just really need to elaborate on the threesome you can have with them in-game, okay? Healthy and canon poly relationships are so few and far between, so often I have to do a ton of groundwork to explain why it’s working in the fic, but NOT WITH THESE KIDS!

Get ready for Meg helping Zag and Than be better at expressing their feelings, lots of kissing, and probably pegging.

- Castlevania Animation Trevor/Sypha/Alucard: 🧛🏰🛌

Castlevania gave Alucard a threesome last season, and I just really need S4 to give me him being taken care of by his partners. They’re probably not going to give it to me, so I’ll need to do it myself. This is just an everybody loves Alucard oneshot, with the gang’s signature banter (to an extent), Sypha being sexy, and Trever being remarkably sincere. This fic is gonna feel like that Ann Hathaway picture with Trevor kissing Alucard and Sypha holding the end of Trevor’s whip while she leans her head on Alucard’s shoulder adoringly.

- Devil May Cry Nico/Lady/Trish: 💋✨😈

Nico’s gay, okay? Like really, really gay. And Lady’s bi and not into men who make her pay bills, but very into women who make amazing guns for her and demonesses with hearts who fight by her side. Trish is ace, but loves people and is pretty attached to Lady at this point. Plus it’s cute when Lady blushes and says nice things like they’re insults. I don’t have super solid ideas for them yet, and I envision these more like a polycule where Lady’s with Nico and with Trish but they’re not with each other more than seeing it as a threesome, but who knows what might happen. This is probably 1-2 oneshots depending on ideas, but might turn into a series of oneshots if people are interested (or I can’t control myself and inspiration strikes).

- Post FMA:B Blind Roy & No Alchemy Ed: 👀👑🙏

This is actually an old novel-length fic I wrote ages ago and didn’t post that didn’t turn out well because I was new to writing sex when I first wrote it. The plot is good, and is all about Roy learning to work with his blindness to reclaim his ambition of being Fuhrer and changing the system to something that actually cares for its people. He and Ed reconnect, fall into bed, and both set about working through their respective traumas about being “useless” having lost their sight/alchemy. They go to Xing as an ambassadorial party to offer Amestris’s collaboration on Al and May’s Alkahestry experiments--and uncover a plot that might threaten both kingdoms.

- Age of Calamity continuity Mipha x Revali: 🦚🐟💘

The first time Revali noticed Mipha, it was in the heat of battle. She stole his mark, taking them down with a flurry of quick blows from her spear. Violence rained from her like water--and then she healed him on her way to her next battle. No questions, no conditions, just pure kindness. The usual need to measure himself against those around him was quiet in her wake. And Revali couldn’t understand it. But how to get to know more about her? A fish and bird may fall in love, but where would they live?

This fic could be a oneshot or novel length depending on how far down the hole I fall. I need it to cover time, but it could be done in linked vignettes or with actually covering events in detail. I may elect to do a oneshot just to get it done and out of my system faster. So much fic to write, so little time.

Expect trans!Revali, polyamorous Zoras, scary competent Mipha, songbird Revali, love confessions that are made up entirely of berating Link for not loving Mipha the way she wants him to, and breaking these characters a little outside of their assigned roles in BotW and Age of Calamity. Background Link x Zelda, and Urbosa x Zelda’s Mom.

- Epic desert romance about Urbosa and Zelda’s mom: 🏜🏝⚡

I just think Urbosa should kiss women and Zelda’s mom should get more development and maybe a name or something. Also, lightning imagery/metaphors/play.

It also went way over my head that Riju wasn’t Urbosa’s daughter the first time I played BotW, so now I want to write about the Gerudo queen who refused to produce an heir. The Gerudo are fascinating and have a very interesting cutlure, but I think it could be examined from a nonbinary perspective that rejected pregnancy and wanting to find a husband. Not in like a hateful way, but in a way that examines if that’s really right for everyone. There’s that shop in town that sells Voe armor, after all. Maybe finding a husband and having children isn’t something you have to do if you don’t want to. And Urbosa really doesn’t want to.