#s9 was really the season of dying smiles

[morsesnotes]

Morse: You alright? Joan: Yeah. Reverend: Is this the lucky man? Joan: Uh, no, this is Mr. Morse. Morse: I'm the Best Man. Reverend: Ah! Well don't worry. If the Groom doesn't turn up we shan't be calling you to step into the breach.

Endeavour | Exeunt

[graceful-not]

Ok wait s8-9 Garmposting again but LITERALLY GARMADON COMING BACK HAVING NO IDEA WHO HE IS OR WHO THESE PEOPLE ARE BUT WITH THE DEEP ONI URGE FOR DESTRUCTION. HE GOT HALF HIS ENTIRE PERSON EXTRICATED FROM HIS SOUL AND BODY!!!! HES BE A SHELL!!!! HE DOESNT KNOW WHAT THE FUCJ IS GOING ON RIGHT NOW!!!! seriously though the prison fight scene and the way Harumi dragged him over there to fight lloyd like a. Like a prized feral fighting dog or something. He literally just woke up man give him like 2 seconds!!! AND. AUUGH THE WAY HIM GOING TO VINNY HAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL FOR HIM WONDERING IF HE EVEN WANTS TO RECONNECT WITH HIS OLD LIFE AND FAMILYYYY... Ok back on topic feral garmadon literally makes me insane HALF OF HIS RIBCAGE IS EXPOSED AND HES JUST WALKINH AROUND LIKE THAT!!! COVER THEM UP SL- anyway do u ever think Abt how the whole emperor of Ninjago thing was entirely Harumi's idea and the only decision he makes about the entire thing is what to destroy. do u ever think about how as soon as his impulse control and reason for his goals (Harumi) dies he immediately drops them to break everything in his path because all he can really identify about his emotions and mental state that entire season is that he needs to Destroy, because only his Oni side, THE SIDE OF DESTRUCTION, was brought back. I do. And all of the next season he's battling those feelings the whole time no fucking WONDER he doesn't have time for emotions and shit. They tell him "there's more to life than survival" and he's truly shocked because that's all he's been doing since he was brought back he's literally in such a deep depression he doesn't know that there's another option. I can't get over s8 Garm literally growling with every breath almost animalistic in the way he moves and speaks unable to be patient or communicate whats going on with him because he's adjusting to ONLY HALF OF HIS SOUL BEING BROUGHT BACK, THE OTHER HALF RIPPED FROM HIS VERY PSYCHE, VS. S9 Garmadon being So Fucking Exhausted that he literally does not have the energy to feel or care about Cole dying or anything other than their goal right now. He's so subdued. The differences between him and Lord Garmadon make me insaneeee Lord G is so flamboyant but responsible and he's a jokester he loves monologuing and Emperor G... Hes so subdued. He doesn't talk much at all. He sort of just walks around disassociating. He doesn't smile anymore. Lord G ALWAYS had that mischievous smile on, and so when Lloyd watches Emperor G wear it for 2 seconds he assumes that it means the same thing. But his father's body language is different now because he's a different person, so it doesn't. He doesn't even have the same mannerisms anymore. God. I'm insane about him.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Walker Herd Names and What They Foreshadow

Okay, so I promised to talk about the names they’re using for walker hordes on the show.

Someone in my group pointed out that storms are often given names like this. I thought that was interesting for two reasons. 1) last season on FTWD, they had a hurricane. Often hurricanes have names. So it could be linked to that, and the storm that the characters in TWD keep talking about that’s recently passed through. Remember in my 9x01 Analysis, I connected that to the storm in Them, which symbolically foreshadowed this storm. 2) These walker hordes symbolically represent storms that will come through and cause devastation. So I think this is an interesting idea.

So, we know that there are three walker hordes so far with three different names: Horatio, Sylvia, and Margaret.

When I heard these names, the first thing that came to mind was Shakespeare. I wasn't sure if Margaret was a Shakespearean character, but I knew that Horatio and Sylvia both were, so it was a good bet Margaret would be too. 

Hamlet is one of my favorite plays, so I'm very familiar with Horatio. But even though I know Sylvia is a Shakespearean character, I'm not familiar with her story. So, to Google I went to research my shit.

I’ve come to the conclusion that these three names/hordes represent three major character dynamics that we’ll see this season. It’s not ALL about Beth (yes, I heard your gasp ;D) but a lot of it is.

Let me just give you a few lines about each character and the Shakespearean plays they appear in. Yes, there will be spoilers for Shakespeare plays in this post. In my defense, they were written in…what? 1200? If you’ve had 700 years to read them and haven't done so yet, I gotta say, that's kinda on you. 😋

Horatio

So, Horatio is Hamlet's best friend and right-hand man. In fact, I do believe some reference is made in the play to them being as close as brothers. (Who does that sound like in TWD?) When all the crap goes down in Hamlet, Horatio is the one that survives and walks away at the end.

Being a tragedy, most of the main characters die at the end of the play, including Hamlet. At one point, Horatio even suggests that he might take poison himself, simply because Hamlet, his best friend, is dying. They’re so close that Horatio would rather die and be where Hamlet is, than be left behind.

That doesn't happen, though. Hamlet begs him not to take his own life. (Hamlet has been poisoned and so knows he will die in a minute but hasn't actually succumbed yet.) So, you might call Horatio the last man standing.

So I’m thinking that Daryl is Horatio to Rick’s Hamlet. I won’t go into spoilers here, but I will say that my group is analyzing the CRAP out of the synopsis for episode 7. You might call Horatio a very lonely character after Hamlet dies, and let’s just say it’s looking like Daryl is getting there fast. Saying that Rick will die isn’t really a spoiler since AMC is advertising S9 as “Rick Grimes’ final episodes.” Once Rick goes, Daryl will feel very alone and this really may be his rock bottom moment.

And the thing is, guys, this makes me SO excited. Okay, it’s going to be completely heart wrenching to watch. But I keep going back to Still. Remember that when Beth said, “you’re gonna be the last man standing,” Daryl REALLY didn’t like that. (”You’re not a happy drunk at all.”) She meant it as a compliment, but he specifically stopped smiling. We all know that it’s because Daryl hates the idea of being alone, and more specifically of losing everyone around him. So when she says that, it’s not just sadness on his face. It’s pure terror. She follows it up with the “you’re gonna miss me so bad when I’m gone” line.

But it’s BETH that says that to him. Not some other character. So if Rick’s death leads to his last-man-standing moment…then they pretty much have to bring Beth back right after that. That’s all I’ll say about that, mkay?

Sylvia

Sylvia is one of two heroines in the romantic comedy, The Two Gentlemen of Verona. You can look up the full plot synopsis on Wikipedia. I won't say that Sylvia’s story arc is EXACTLY like Beth's. Because it's a comedy there's all kinds of goofy things that happen, people falling in and out of love, some slapstick comedy. There's a fool and even a little dog. (looking at you, @frangipanilove) who plays a small but memorable role. But, there's a big part of Sylvia’s arc that I think could be applied to Beth.

Sylvia falls in love with a man named Valentine, but her father wants her to marry some other rich dude instead. So, to keep her away from Valentine, her father locks her in a tower an won't let her out.

(We’ve always thought Beth's situation at Grady was sort of a princess-in-a-tower scenario because she was up high and the hospital was a tall building.And Daryl and Rick attempt to rescue her.)

Again, the comedy has some ties that I don't see in TWD. Valentine's best friend Proteus also falls for Sylvia, but Valentine doesn't know his friend likes her. So, Valentine confides his plan to rescue Sylvia from the tower and elope with her. Because he wants her for himself, Proteus tells Sylvia’s father and Valentine is banished.

This is where things get interesting. After that separation, Valentine runs into a band of outlaws. (I'm kind of thinking Claimers? Or perhaps the Saviors under Negan? It depends on how you interpret it. I first thought of the Claimers because when Beth was first taken from him, he met them. But after he lost her at Grady, which is more in line with the tower scenario, he meets the Saviors, who often act like a band of outlaws).

Valentine lies about why he was banished, saying he killed a man in self-defense, and the outlaws make him their leader. (Daryl is now the leader the Saviors, who were once a band of outlaws, at the Sanctuary.).

Meanwhile, Sylvia, in the tower, is told that Valentine is dead, but doesn't believe it. With the help of knight, she manages to escape. And eventually, and to make a long story short, is reunited with Valentine. Her father and her husband-to-be show up, and her husband-to-be tries to claim her. (Yes, in most summaries I’ve read they actually use the word “claim.”) But Valentine (Daryl) says that if the fiance comes anywhere near Sylvia (Beth), Valentine (Daryl) will kill him. The fiance releases his claim to her and she and Valentine live happily ever after.

So you might call it a little bit of a remix. Things don't happen quite the right order, and obviously we haven’t seen anyone other than Daryl try to claim Beth, but I think we will. (Remember Crazy Wolf Dude in S6, who Nicotero said fell in love with Denise and took her hostage? She was a major Beth proxy and I think we’ll see a mirror story play out in Beth’s arc.) Either way, there are parallels here.

So overall, I think Sylvia represents Beth and Daryl’s reunion before the season ends. (Yea!)

Margaret

At first, I thought Margaret could also be compared to Beth’s arc, with only one small part that didn’t really fit.

Margaret in Shakespeare’s historical plays is a real historical figure, Queen Margaret. She appears in several plays. In the earliest, she starts out as a young, naïve girl. That could be in keeping with Beth. 

Then, over the next few plays, we see her become a very strong woman and powerful queen (think 4 Queens Theory) who rules beside her husband. Also in keeping with Beth’s arc. 

But then, she appears in a final play as an older woman. After her husband is killed, she becomes angry and bitter about his death, and returns to her homeland to preside over the planned In other words, she becomes vengeful.

It was then that I realized the Margaret herd is not about Beth. It’s about Maggie. Remember that Gregory often referred to Maggie as Margaret with a great deal of douchebaggery in his tone. Maggie was also a naïve farm girl at one point. Remember in S2 she, like Hershel, thought the walkers could be cured. But like Margaret, she genuinely fell in love with her husband and has now grown to be strong leader and woman. Now that her husband is dead, we have this whole revenge arc going on.  

Unfortunately, this doesn’t bode particularly well for Maggie. I’m not saying she’ll die, but just that she might remain bitter and vengeful for the rest of her days. Or at least, that’s what happened with Margaret in the play. But then again, this is a forecast for season 9. Not necessarily what comes after, which could change.

So, I believe the names of these three herds represent three major character arcs that we’ll see the season. Could I be wrong? Sure. But I’m not the only one to have noticed the Shakespearean character names for the hordes. And when I Googled, I couldn’t find any other ties between these three names, so I don’t think I’m wrong. And this DOES support that this will FINALLY be our season where Beth returns.

OHPLEASEOHPLEASEOHPLEASEOHPLEASE!

Thoughts?

[ryukoishida]

QZGS|The King’s Avatar Fic: In which something nice happens to our birthday boy.

Title: Ágúst Fandom: The King’s Avatar / Quan Zhi Gao Shou Character(s)/Pairing(s): YuHuang Summary: Since his birthday happens during the summer break, Huang Shaotian is used to spending this day by himself, receiving messages and mailed gifts from his teammates and other pro-player friends in the Alliance. And without fail, his captain will always be the first to wish him a happy birthday, but this year seems a little different. [Takes place during the summer between S9 and S10] Part: 1/1 Rating: PG-13 A/N: Gasp. Me, writing something in canon-verse? Amazing. Literally just… mindless, cheesy fluff. Happy birthday to our beloved chatty Sword Saint! And happy birthday to @andthenabanana~

Writing Commission | Editing & Translation Services

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[Flowing Cloud]: Happy birthday, Huang Shao! Did you receive the package I sent you???

[Troubling Rain]: Thx, Xiao Lu! And yeah i did… Speaking of which, how do u figure im gonna finish all those snacks by myself, kid?!

A few days ago, the famed Sword Saint of Team Blue Rain had received an express delivery parcel from an unknown address in Taiwan: a giant box of local snack varieties from the team’s young swordsman. Placed atop of the rainbow packages of Kaui Che pork and beef jerky, fruit jellies, honey layer cakes, sugar and spice nougats, pineapple cakes, and for some strange reason, Alishan tea leaves, was a birthday card — and not just any plain, ol’ greeting card either. The brat had chosen the kind that played obnoxiously loud tinkling rendition of “Happy Birthday to You” when the receiver flipped open the card.

Huang Shaotian quickly snapped the card shut and winced at the horrid echo of the melody that had sounded especially strident in his quiet apartment, and one corner of his lips couldn’t help but lift upward into a heartfelt smile.

[Troubling Rain]: i cant stop eating those pineapple cakes and this is all ur fault, so u better buy more and bring them to the dorm after summer break! And whats up with the tea leaves? Im not captain, u know I dont drink that bitter stuff :(

[Flowing Cloud]: The tea is my mom’s contribution, I swear! Maybe you can give them to captain if you really don’t want it?

[Troubling Rain]: well…. in that case, thank ur mom for me, ok?

[Flowing Cloud]: Will do! ;) Anyway, I have to go now.

[Troubling Rain]: aight. And thx again for the present and card!

Popping one of the mango-flavoured fruit jellies into his mouth, Huang Shaotian exited the private message window he was using while texting Lu Hanwen, and scrolled back up the chat log in the Blue Rain group chat, where members had been posting about their summer adventures in the forms of (sometimes rather “artistically” blurry) photographs featuring either gorgeous sceneries of foreign countries or delicious food they’d found. In between the envious ooh-ing and fascinated aah-ing at the colourful photos were members discussing the transfers during the summer window, various Glory-related rumors and news, and other things that only reclusive young men who spent most of their days playing games on their computers were interested in.

Though most of them hailed from different parts of Guangdong, so they’d return home to visit their families and take the time to rest until the new season began in September, a few of them still found the energy and time to take a nice vacation with their friends or family and travel abroad after an intense month-and-a-half of spending hours fighting level 75 Wild Bosses and gathering rare materials in the online game.

Lu Hanwen, for example, was currently enjoying a brief but lovely trip in Taiwan with his parents. Having debuted at such a young and tender age, Lu Hanwen had missed out on a lot of experiences that teenagers his age usually encountered; he had also undergone a lot of pressure and scrutiny that kids his age usually didn’t have to suffer through — this past season had taught him that the hard way.  

On the trip back to Guangzhou, with his eyes still bloodshot from the frustrated tears that he’d wiped dry just a few minutes ago, Lu Hanwen promised both his captain and vice-captain that he would train hard over the summer so that he would not make such mistakes during team matches again.

Before Huang Shaotian could open his mouth, Xu Jingxi was already ruffling the teenager’s hair from the seat behind, which earned him an indignant ‘hey!’ from Lu Hanwen but laughter from the rest of the team.

“It’s okay,” Yu Wenzhou had said, his smile gentle, his gaze calm but warm. “You already did really well, Hanwen, so take your time over the summer to recover and return for another year of hard work come September.”

Since they knew the kind of boy Lu Hanwen was, Yu Wenzhou had made sure to give Lu Hanwen’s parents a call as well.  

And it seemed like the kid was enjoying himself with his family.

Huang Shaotian paused when he saw the photos that Yu Wenzhou had posted late last night. Most of the photos he’d taken were breathtaking nature sceneries: mountain ridges still coated with a layer of snow at the peaks, flat surface of a lake reflecting sapphire and jade specks surrounded by lush forests; only one or two photos featured Yu Wenzhou himself, and even then, those pictures were taken with an unsteady hand, but Huang Shaotian could still appreciate his wind-swept hair and smiling lips — a little more open and carefree than the one he always wore in front of the journalists, a little more careless — amidst the shards of shadows that fell around him from the foliage above.

He mentioned that he was travelling to the west coast of Canada to visit some relatives that had immigrated to Vancouver quite some years ago, and his cousins had taken him to all sorts of local places to hike and camp. It was a fact known by many other pro-players and the fanbase of Blue Rain that Yu Wenzhou, despite his delicate and refined appearance that he displayed before the public, was surprisingly an outdoorsy type; one wouldn’t assume so from the fact that he was the captain of an eSports team who presumably spent a lot of his time indoors, but that’d never stopped him from visiting the closest national park for a half-day hike or going on a two-week long camping trip in the mountainous region of Yunnan.  

With an impatient sigh, Huang Shaotian scrolled back to the most recent messages in the group chat, but what he was seeking was simply not there. He couldn’t help but feel the immense heaviness in his heart grew a little degree more; he bit his lower lip and considered sending the other man a message but almost immediately decided against that.

He slammed his phone into the pillow beside him and dived face-down into the mattress with a muffled groan that sounded like a slowly-dying animal. He couldn’t do this anymore. He couldn’t stand this anymore.

Fuck.

Yes, he liked Yu Wenzhou.

No, not as friends or teammates or bros or anything like that. What were we — still elementary school kids?

No. Huang Shaotian more than liked Yu Wenzhou; he was in love with the guy, all right? He wanted to hold his hand, and embrace him, and kiss him, and… and yes, sleep with him. He wanted to do all those wonderful, wonderful things with Yu Wenzhou but there was only one problem: Yu Wenzhou didn’t know anything about this and Huang Shaotian didn’t know how to tell him without scaring his captain away.

Every year, without fail, Yu Wenzhou would be the first person to send him birthday wishes. In most of those instances, he’d be out of town, so birthday wishes would come in various forms: a mailed card, a text, a voice recording, or even a thoughtful little souvenir from wherever he’d been travelling to. But August 10th was almost over, and other than the small set of photos he’d uploaded onto the team group chat yesterday, Yu Wenzhou’s username and icon remained disappointingly grey in his friend list.

It was 11:46pm when the doorbell to his apartment unit rang with an urgent flair, effectively pulling Huang Shaotian out of his dreary reverie.

He wasn’t expecting any guests at this hour, though it wouldn’t be the first time that a few of his teammates, along with a few close friends from the Alliance, who apparently had nothing better to do than to drop by Guangzhou and pester him (i.e. giving him a surprise birthday party, which, despite his mumbling and grumbling, he actually appreciated), showed up at his door without as much as a text ahead of time.

What he hadn’t expect to find was one Yu Wenzhou, a timeworn suitcase sitting by his feet and a hefty duffle bag on his shoulder. It looked like he’d been rushing to get here, for his breathing was still unsteady and his sweat-stained, ink-black hair was plastered messily over his forehead and stuck to the nape of his neck.

“C-Captain? W-What are you—”

“Did I make it in time?” Yu Wenzhou asked, his brows suddenly dipping in concern, and when he didn’t get an answer from his vice-captain, he added, “my phone battery was dead on the flight back.”

“What? In time for what?” Huang Shaotian was still bewildered; he still couldn’t believe that Yu Wenzhou — who was supposed to be in the wilderness somewhere in the west coast of North America roasting marshmallows over a bonfire or hunting bears or whatever it was that they did when people went camping — that Yu Wenzhou was currently standing in his doorway.

He blinked once, twice, speechless.

“Shaotian…” Yu Wenzhou reached over and touched him gingerly on the shoulder. “Your birthday. Did I come back in time for your birthday?”

Oh.

“It’s not midnight yet,” Huang Shaotian replied numbly, at least the last time he checked, which wasn’t that long ago, actually.

“Great!” Yu Wenzhou heaved a relieved sigh, and then with a softer smile and a warm gaze that was similar to the usual one he gave his teammates —but it was slightly off, yet Huang Shaotian was still too stunned by his captain’s sudden appearance that he couldn’t quite comprehend the expression that seemed so obvious when he thought back upon it later on — he said, “in that case, happy birthday, Shaotian.”

“T-Thank you,” Huang Shaotian lowered his head to hide the flush that’d suddenly bloomed across his cheeks, realizing that for once, he couldn’t look directly into Yu Wenzhou’s eyes. He was afraid of discovering what lay within those ink-blue depths; he was scared that he’d see something wonderful there only to find out that it was all in his imagination, his misinterpretation, a misunderstanding. Then, his logic — being lost somewhere between his fretful phone-scrolling and Yu Wenzhou’s unannounced arrival — finally caught up. “Wait, wait a fucking minute, hold on for just a second. W-what the hell are you even doing here, Captain? Aren’t you supposed to be in, like, the mountains strumming a guitar and singing songs around a campfire or something?”

Yu Wenzhou raised a brow, one corner of his lips tucked upwards into an amused grin, “I’m absolutely tone-deaf, Shaotian, or don’t you remember?”

Good lord, of course he remembered, Huang Shaotian winced visibly at the reminder. The one time their whole team decided to celebrate someone’s birthday at a karaoke was the last time they did so, because everyone belatedly discovered that, as soon as their captain, who was known to have a gentle, mesmerizing speaking voice, started opening his mouth to sing the first verse of Eason Chan’s famous ballad “Ten Years”, they all wished they’d brought some earplugs with them, even if it meant disrespecting (or insulting) their nice, kind captain.

“Okay, okay, fine, that wasn’t actually even the point. The point is—"

“Shaotian…” Yu Wenzhou interrupted softly with a helpless smile that was enough to stop the other man in the middle of his rant.

“Uh, yes?” Huang Shaotian halted, eyes widening a little.

“Aren’t you going to let me in?”

“Oh. Oh! Yeah, yeah come on in!” His blush deepened, but he turned around quickly to shuffle over and make space for Yu Wenzhou to step into his apartment. After setting his bags and shoes down at the entranceway, Yu Wenzhou made his way to the couch in the living-room, his manner casual as if he’d been here many times, felt comfortable enough to make himself at home on his vice-captain’s couch.

“You want something to drink?” Huang Shaotian was already walking towards the tiny kitchen he barely used, and without waiting for Yu Wenzhou to reply, he muttered, “I’ll get you something to drink. Uh, let’s see, what do I have in here?”

Some rummaging and a yelped curse later — presumably in his haste, he’d accidentally hit his head on something — Huang Shaotian came out with two bottles of beverage.

When Yu Wenzhou glanced over, he couldn’t help but let a corner of his lips curved up into an amused smile. For whatever reason, Huang Shaotian was currently acting like as if he was the uninvited guest, maneuvering carefully around his own home like the floor was covered in glass and he was trying not to startle the man sitting in his living-room. He placed the two bottles of peach-flavored black tea onto the coffee table and sat down gingerly beside Yu Wenzhou, taking special precaution to leave a good amount of space between them.

“You don’t seem too happy to see me, Shaotian,” Yu Wenzhou observed, picking up the bottle easily and twisting the cap off to take a sip of the artificially sweetened iced tea.

“That’s crazy talk, captain! Of course I’m happy to see you — I’m absolutely thrilled to see you!” Huang Shaotian stuttered, and decided that now was a good time to drink his tea as well, but his hands were shaking so much that it took him a few seconds before he could grip the cap properly. He gulped down the liquid as if his life depended on it, and when half of the tea had been consumed, his nerves seemed to have returned as well. He sighed, looking away, and murmured, “I was just — I didn’t expect to see you here, of all places, this late at night, is all. You could’ve said something, you know? I could’ve come to the airport to pick you up.”

“Then it wouldn’t be a surprise anymore, now would it?”

A soft hint of laugher was laced within Yu Wenzhou’s low voice, like the softest breeze ruffling through the summer flower fields — sweet and sensual.

“N-No, I guess not.”

It was the voice that caressed his heart late at night, when his dreams were consumed by the images of the man he’d grown up with — from awkward teenagers who competed with each other for a spot in the team to partners standing side-by-side, protecting each other’s backs, creating opportunities for each other to attack and invade and win — and those images had been strange yet mesmerizing. The slow fumbling fingers on the keyboard that everyone in the Alliance teased about were elegant and left spots of sparks on his bare skin, his smiling lips against the curve of his ear, his neck, his teeth sinking into his supple skin and leaving marks on his hips and the insides of his thighs, his heated breaths mixing with Huang Shaotian’s gasps, ragged and fragmented syllables of their names falling from their parted lips…

Huang Shaotian didn’t remember when he’d first started having these indecent dreams about his captain, but as much as he hated himself for having them in the first place, he couldn’t let the sensations disappear once he woke up; he couldn’t let him go.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t the first person to wish you happy birthday,” Yu Wenzhou began once more after he put the bottle of tea down, his voice slightly strained with regret as he returned his gaze towards Huang Shaotian.  

“Why should you be sorry—” Huang Shaotian snapped his head up and stared directly at the other man, his topaz eyes widened with puzzlement.

“Because I want to spend every birthday with you, Shaotian, and I want to always be the first person to wish you a happy birthday,” Yu Wenzhou smiled up at him, as if the statement that just came out of his mouth was a casual, harmless comment about the weather, like it was the most apparent, most genuine sentiment in the world. He tilted his head slightly to the side so that his dark forelocks fell into his eyes, his cheeks tinting just the faintest shade of pink, his smile soft, his voice softer, “is that not obvious?”

“I—I…”

At the back of his mind, Huang Shaotian thought he knew he understood the meaning of each word, but when stringed together like this, when Yu Wenzhou — the man he respected so much as the team’s captain, the friend he treasured so much over the years of ups and downs in their career, the boy he gradually learned to admire though he’d refused to admit this when he was younger, more stubborn — when he spoke to him like this, it was difficult for Huang Shaotian to understand anything.

His mind was buzzing, rearranging the words to make sense out of them, and when it finally clicked, blood roared in his ears, tainting his cheeks red. Everything else in his brain was lost and drowned out by only one, single thought: Yu Wenzhou likes me, he likes me, he likes me, he likes me…

“Y-You’re not playing fair, Yu Wenzhou!”

“They do say those who use tactics have dirty hearts,” Yu Wenzhou’s smile grew a little bolder, a little more mischievous. He shuffled closer, and Huang Shaotian could do nothing but be captivated by the almost animalistic, hungry look in Yu Wenzhou’s eyes — an emotion he’d never seen before, an emotion he dared not fantasize about because it was too dangerous, too damn dangerous — and it wasn’t until his back hit the stiff armrest of his couch that he realized that Yu Wenzhou had successfully trapped him in between his arms.

He leaned forward until their foreheads were touching lightly, their breaths mingling — shallow, hot, irresistible.

There was nowhere for him to escape, but he didn’t want to, Huang Shaotian thought, he’d been running for years now, and he wanted to stop, to rest, to find his way home.

Yu Wenzhou’s eyes held only him, and him alone, and Huang Shaotian felt his heart beating beneath his ribs, beating so hard he was afraid Yu Wenzhou might hear it, might tease him for it, but then Yu Wenzhou was holding his hand and guiding it so that his palm was lying flat against the left side of his chest, and Yu Wenzhou’s heart was palpitating hard, too, like he’d been running for miles, for years.

And Huang Shaotian thought with a smile, gods we’d both been such idiots.

“So, Shaotian, what do you say? Will you let me?” Yu Wenzhou asked in a whisper, words branded on skin.

“Let you… what?” Huang Shaotian sounded weary. This may be a confession — one that he’d only dreamed too many times about in the past, it was true — but he hadn’t forgotten the fact that he was still dealing with one of the great tacticians of Glory.

“Let me accompany you on your birthdays in the years to come,” Yu Wenzhou answered easily, brushing the tip of his thumb gently across Huang Shaotian’s cheek, feeling the heat pooled there, his mesmerized gaze, the way his irises darkened at his touch.

“Only if your kissing skills are better than your terrible hand-speed,” Huang Shaotian challenged him with a shaky grin.

“You’re on,” Yu Wenzhou chuckled, and closed the distance between them with a kiss, too ready and keen to show Huang Shaotian what he was capable of.

This, Huang Shaotian decided faintly before he was entirely distracted by Yu Wenzhou’s consuming kisses, was the best birthday he could ever ask for.

[mittensmorgul]

What do you think of Cas talking about how he never really understood emotions or regrets til he was human in 9x11? I think he feels emotions as an angel, so I always kind of interpreted it as he never realized how hard it actually was til he was in a human's shoes and without powers. Tho I just saw someone talking about how ooc that scene was. What do you think?

Hi hi. This sorta makes me nervous to reply to, because I have no idea what post you’re referring to, or how that person was talking about Cas in 9.11 as being ooc, specifically, so I feel like I’m walking into a potential minefield right from the jump. Thanks for that!

So with the disclaimer that I have zero idea what post you’re referring to, compounded by your statement that you think Cas feels emotions as an angel so anything I respond with is automatically confrontational just on that level, but I do believe Cas there in that scene in 9.11.

And I’ve written about it numerous times in the past, so this is just my off-the-cuff attempt to rehash multiple thousands of words of meta into a short(ish) reply, and not in fact any sort of groundbreaking new line of thinking here. For that, I have a tag for that episode, several different “cas vs humanity” tags with many more posts on this topic, which I have spent a considerable amount of time and effort into writing… at least more time and effort than it takes to reflexively dismiss Things I Don’t Wike as “OOC” without actually committing any additional mental energy into explaining WHY.

I think Castiel’s entire character arc beginning in 4.01 is this journey of understanding about himself, and about humanity. I’m actually in the process of writing a HUUUUUGE long treatise on this exact thing, which at this rate is probably gonna take a month to compile… it’s just too much… :P

Beginning in 4.07 we learn that Cas has doubts, and that this is NOT NORMAL for an angel to experience. Cas told us himself in 4.02 that angels are soldiers, warriors of God, and not (in Dean’s words) Michael Landon. Angels serve God and Heaven’s orders. Period. They don’t question those orders. And yet, after just a few episodes Cas is already veering from that “programming.”

Because yes, we learn later (and pieces of this information don’t fully come to our attention until S8 when we meet Naomi and can understand what being sent back to Heaven for “Bible Boot Camp” actually means for an angel… torture, literally poking around inside their basic wiring and “fixing” them so they don’t question their orders anymore…), angels are reprogrammable, rebootable. If they “break,” just switch them off and back on again. If that doesn’t fix them, you can tinker with their software until they’re in perfect working order again.

How can a being that’s so completely malleable like that (and its implied that Cas has been “fixed” this way before) truly understand human free will and emotions?

By 4.22, Cas had just had a fresh round of reprogramming in Heaven and had walked away from Dean at the end of 4.20 with the reminder that he serves Heaven, not man, and certainly not Dean. He questions what is even so worth saving about humanity, since all he could see was pain, guilt, anger… He couldn’t understand why humans would choose to endure suffering when they could be at peace. Dean lays it all out for him: BECAUSE IT’S REAL, and not some charade. Cas begins to understand. He makes his first major gesture of rebellion against his orders, and is cast out of Heaven because of it.

He struggles with the consequences of his choices all through s5, coming very close to becoming human himself by the end, but he is restored to his old angelic self in 5.22 and tries to teach what he’d learned about humanity to the rest of the angels, teaching them that they don’t have to follow Heaven’s orders, that they can observe and experience the glory of humanity for themselves if they want. But in s6 he takes that to an extreme that’s entirely untenable…

Just because you can do what you want doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want. Or so Dean told him in 6.20. But Cas still doesn’t get it. He’s just replaced the notion of “God’s will” with his own will, and willfully trampled over everyone else’s free will in the process… That’s just not how any of this works, and it took dying in 7.01 for him to understand his hubris, and to repent for his actions.

Throughout s8, he dealt with all of this in a horrifyingly disillusioning fashion, this tenuous balance between what he believed were entirely his own choices that were influenced (without his conscious awareness) by Naomi’s orders to him all season long. He believed he was acting fully of his own volition, but had been manipulated by Naomi from the start. He was actively prevented from making amends for his s6 actions, and that had to cause a lot of internal conflict for him.

He knew he wanted to redeem himself to Dean, to make amends with Heaven, to do whatever he could to atone for his actions… and for reasons he couldn’t understand, he was prevented from doing so, yanked around by the narrative against his will again.

It took him falling and becoming fully human to be free of that angelic programming that has the capacity to override these sorts of “human things” like a complete understanding of human emotions. All through early s9 he begins to understand humanity in a way he never could as an “observer.” BEING human is not at all the same as STUDYING humans, you know?

And that scene in 9.11 is just two episodes after he steals another angel’s grace in a situation where he felt that was his ONLY option. He had no other choice, he did what he had to do. He referred to what he’d done as “barbaric.” I mean, he is not happy with what he was forced to do there. And two episodes later he’s lamenting the loss of his ability to connect with human things now that he’d been “graced up” again.

How is that out of character?

HE LIKED BEING HUMAN. HE REGRETTED WHAT HE’D DONE IN 9.09. HE FELT LIKE HE’D BEEN FORCED TO SACRIFICE THAT EXPERIENCE OF HUMANITY BECAUSE OF HIS DUTY.

I don’t doubt that angels have feelings. It’s clear that they have ~some~ kind of feelings. But what they feel is in no way akin to human feelings. And that’s how I understood his lament in 9.11, that he regretted the loss of his ability to feel these things as a human does, instead of how an angel does.

Even in s10, when we meet other angels who refuse to return to Heaven and want to be left alone to experience the wonders of life on Earth, we have some compare/contrast examples between how Cas experienced humanity in his very own body AS A HUMAN, as opposed to how other angels who are inhabiting vessels that are still occupied by human souls. Hannah was our MAIN pov on just how unusual Cas really is in this respect. And I think this is significant, from 10.07:

HANNAH: I’m sorry, Castiel. I’m not going with you. I’m done. It’s hard letting go… of a story, a mission. But what of the humans whose lives we sacrifice in the name of that mission?CASTIEL: What of them?HANNAH: We always said the humans were our original mission. Maybe it’s time, Castiel – time to put them first.CASTIEL: Where is all this coming from?HANNAH: Being on earth, working with you, I’ve felt things. Human things – passions, hungers. To shower, feel water on my skin… to get closer to you. But all of that was nothing compared to what I felt when I saw him.Her husband – his anger and his grief. And Caroline was inside of me, screaming out for him, for her life back. These f-feelings, they aren’t for me, for us. They belong to her. I know it’s time to step aside.[Hannah smiles, leans forward and kisses Castiel on the cheek. Castiel nods.]Goodbye, Castiel.

This is how an angel occupying a vessel understands these “human feelings.” As alien, foreign, not fer her. But Cas? He’s different. He’s not in a vessel, but in his own body. All those feelings are his. Regardless of how he’s able to experience them, we know from this scene that Cas is different now. His experiences have changed him.

Gah, I’m just rambling now. I should probably take all this mental energy and put it into that long meta I’m trying to write instead. :P

[anotheruserwithnoname]

The AI numbers do not support the S10 vs. S8/9 hate

So according to the haters (which sadly is now a term I guess, just like “bashers” became a term in the dying days of the Star Trek TV franchise in the early 2000s), Series 10 is supposed to be “real Doctor Who at last” and so much better than the waste of space Series 8 and 9 allegedly was. People claim no one liked those seasons, and everyone is going ga-ga over Series 10 compared to S9 because Clara isn’t there anymore and the Doctor magically became good  (ignoring the fact that the Doctor we see in S10 is due to the development of the character over his time with Clara and, later, River).

Anyway ... so if that’s the case, riddle me why the average Appreciation Index score for Series 10 is so far (as of episode 5) identical to Series 9?

More after the break.

Give or take a point, the first 5 episodes of Series 8, 9 and 10 each scored Appreciation Index scores pretty much the same to each other. The AI, for people outside the UK who don’t know it (as far as I know there is no real equivalent in Canada or the US), is a rating given by a selected panel of viewers regarding whether they like a particular broadcast. Anything 80 and above is considered excellent, and only a few Who episodes have ever scored below 80 since the current version of the AI system was introduced about 10 or 11 years ago (I’m told there was some form of rejig after DW Series 1). Only a couple of Who episodes have ever scored in the 90 range and and that was the Stolen Earth/Journey’s End two-parter at the end of Series 4. (Most shows that score over 90 appear to be event broadcasts and nature documentaries, it seems, with the occasional exception.)

Sadly, the AIs have often shown that episodes loved by fans aren’t always as beloved outside fandom: Heaven Sent scored a surprisingly low 80; still excellent but a lot of people had expected it to score 90; by comparison, Fear Her, an episode from Series 2 that virtually no one will admit to liking, scored an 83 back in 2006. (Last year’s off-piste experiment Sleep No More came in at 78; so unless S10 offers its own Marmite episode - I actually expected Smile to be the one but it wasn’t - I am expecting S9′s overall average AI to come in below that of S10.)

Anyway, I went back over the past two years on doctorwhonews.net and tallied up the AI scores for each of the first 5 episodes of S8, 9 and 10.

S8: Deep Breath (82); Into the Dalek (84); Robot of Sherwood (82); Listen (82); Time Heist (84) - average: 82.8

S9: Magician’s Apprentice (84); Witch’s Familiar (83); Under the Lake (84); Before the Flood (83); Girl Who Died (82) - average: 83.2

S10: The Pilot (83); Smile (83); Thin Ice (84); Knock Knock (83); Oxygen (83) - average: 83.2

So the averages for Series 9 and 10 are the same, and even though S8 scored slightly lower, that’s still well within any reasonable margin of error. Note that the S9 premiere scored higher than The Pilot by one point.

So any co-called “improvements” in the show, primarily (so some insist on reminding us week after bloody week) the elimination of Jenna Coleman and her Clara and the introduction of Pearl Mackie’s Bill (”an actual human person” according to Digital Spy’s review of Oxygen, and I still cannot believe they actually wrote that; imagine the outrage if the companion who replaces Bill were to be described as “an actual human person” implying Bill wasn’t) ... seem to have had zero impact on the AIs. We’re not suddenly seeing the show hitting 86, 88, 90 - which may still happen in the back half, don’t get me wrong. I’m not expecting Extremis to do it - regardless how good the episode is, this talk by Moffat about the episode “bending” the format will likely result in Heaven Sent-like results.

I’m not bringing overnight and +7 ratings into the comparison because fewer people are watching TV live in 2017 than in 2015. Outside of a few friends I have here on Tumblr, I know of no one who is actually watching Series 10 live. Everyone, without exception, that I know outside Tumblr is waiting for Netflix or the DVD. So the fact is the broadcast ratings really mean nothing in terms of whether S10 is more to people’s liking, or Bill is a more acceptable companion, or whatever - or not, as the case may be, so they don’t work for people wanting to hate on Bill, either. But we do have the AI scores to go by, and according to them - at least with the first 5 episodes behind us - people are so far liking Doctor Who (or not...) just as much in S10 as they did in S9.

[mycasandstarrs]

SPN 7x23: “Survival of the Fittest”

The Era of Sera Gamble comes to an end.

THE ROAD SO FAR: Kicking ass, taking names. Cas brought the Leviathans to Earth before disappearing. Dick turned Crowley down. He also killed Bobby, who’s back as a ghost, currently possessing a woman. Cas is back, and so is Meg. Kevin Tran, our new prophet., was taken by Edgar. The boys almost have all the ingredients to kill Dick, except for Crowley’s blood. Everything comes down to Crowley...who is in a meeting with Dick Roman.

(All set to our unofficial theme song.)

“America's ours. Your sales team stays out – period. That's not up for negotiation. We need America. They're so fat.” Can’t argue with that.

“The blood of one sadly unimpressive demon in New Jersey. All I ask is that you give it to Frick and Frack, tell them it's yours, stand back, and let them come to me.”

Contract time.

Time to find the righteous bone.

Why couldn’t we see that?

Professional legal jargon scrambles my brain.

“Sister Mary Constant, 83 years of quiet, humble nun-like goodness.” Our winner.

“Well...let’s bone this nun.”

*Sam makes a face.*

“Sorry.”

omg

I wonder how Crowley worded his contract so that he could betray Dick.

It’s Meg.

“I was laying low halfway across the world when emo boy pops up out of nowhere and zaps me right back here.”

“Why?”

“Go ask him. He was your boyfriend first.”

*studio audience oohhs*

“Vincent” by Don MacLean.  

Dean bracing himself to talk to Cas..

“Well, Dean, I've been thinking. Monkeys are so... clever, and they're sensible in that they leave the skins on the bananas that they eat. Is it really necessary to test cosmetics on them? I mean, how important is lipstick to you, Dean?” haha

The whole garrison’s dead, or in hiding.

Cas just wanted to dump responsibility on them. Oh, hon.

Enter, Crowley.

“I came here to help you. I find out you've been lying to me, harboring an angel, and not just any angel – the one angel I most want to crush between my teeth.”

“Oh,so you can crush angels now, huh?”

“You bore me. You know that? You have no sense of poetry.”

ha.

Crowley being incredibly confused by Cas’ new behavior, and also handing over his own blood for the spell.

“The boys need Cas to get Dick. Don't they, Cas?....Given the particulars of your enemy, sadly, you're vital.”

The Grand Clue.

Bobby, no! Leave the woman alone!!

“the arm”

Polly.

I always thought the blood should’ve been on the pointy side of the bone, as opposed to the handle.

Cas bought them lunch.

“So, none of this should cause you any ill effect. I went to a little farm in Normandy for the wheat and the lettuce and tomato and – and I thoroughly examined and comforted the pig before I... slaughtered it for the ham. Here. You need your strength.”

Real Dick Roman’s arm.

Huh, Kevin was vegan.

“Ohio: beta-testing. Wisconsin: processing. Florida: breeding program.” Texas would’ve been Livestock. Makes sense.

Multiple Dicks.

RIP Polly. Killed by Dick.

Bobby’s here. Sam and Dean need to stop him now.

“You got the weapon, and – and eyes on Dick, plural. I'll take care of Bobby.”

“Sam! Hey!”

SHUSH DEAN.

Just pick her up and run!

Or not, now that she’s choking Sam.

Bobby. :(

“Do we need a cat? Doesn't this place feel one species short?” Give Cas a pet 2k18.

“I can't help. You understand? I can't. I destroyed... everything, and I will destroy everything again. Can we please just leave it at that?”

“We can't leave it. You let these friggin' things in. So you don't get to make a sandwich. You don't get a damned cat.”  

That’s still one of the most hurtful, shittiest things Dean has said to Cas. I understand that he’s frustrated: they are so close to crossing the finish line and the one most important person to helping them finish is refusing to help. They’ve sacrificed so much, lost Bobby, for this mission. Dean’s in “nothing’s gonna stop me” mode.

And every other time Dean has reached out for help when he was “broken” he’s gotten a dose of tough love: Bobby told him to find a reason, ANY REASON, to keep hunting. Frank told him to do it with a smile or not do it at all, Eliot Ness flat out told him to stop whining like a baby about it. I am inclined to believe this was just Dean shelling out some of the tough love he’s been shown throughout this season. I get it, but I don’t like it.

“It occur to you every one of those things was in Cas? He knows them. He can see past the meat suits.”

“So, he'll be able to spot the real... fake Dick Roman.”

They could’ve just asked Meg instead of grilling Cas, jeez.

It’s time.

“Look... I'm done. Go get Dick. But don't do it 'cause you think it'll scratch the itch. Do it 'cause it's the job. And when it's your time... go.”

“Only...not too soon. All right?”

Let’s see:

S8: We get to see Bobby in Hell, where Sam bails him out to get him to Heaven.

S9: Bobby is in Sam’s mind when he is dying, and represents the part of Sam that wants to let go.

S10: Bobby is our inside man in Heaven, where he helps Cas bust out Metatron from jail.

S11: We revisit an old case of Bobby and Rufus’ where Dean even saw him for a brief moment in the monster’s nest.

S12: We meet AU!Bobby.

S13: More of AU!Bobby.

Technically speaking, we have been running into Bobby “on the other side”. How clever.

Goodbye OG Bobby.

Cas was witness to all that. Shame he didn’t have any final words for Bobby, and it’s a shame we never got to see the moment Cas found out about Bobby’s death. I’d have thought Bobby was important to Cas. (And yes, they’re my faves, blah blah blah.) (Also, Cas’ actions indirectly caused Bobby’s death. I’d have also thought that it might’ve been pointed out.)

Oh, it’s time!

“How about we run a little errand?”

Baby!

“If we attack Dick and fail, then you and Sam die heroically, correct?”

“I don’t know. I guess.”

“And at best, I die trying to fix my own stupid mistake. Or... I don't die – I'm brought back again. I see now. It's a punishment resurrection. It's worse every time.”

Cas trying to see if this is worth dying over. From what he can gather, if they fail, at least Sam and Dean die heroes and go to Heaven; they’re safe. Cas either redeems himself, or he continues to pay for his mistake. Either one seems okay to him.

“I'm not good luck, Dean.”

“ Yeah, but you know what? Bottom of the ninth, and you're the only guy left on the bench... Sorry, but I’d rather have you, cursed or not.”

“Well, I don't want to make you uncomfortable, but I detect a note of forgiveness.”

“Yeah, well, I'm probably gonna die tomorrow, so...”

“Well, I’ll go with you. And I’ll do my best.”

Cas has Dean’s forgiveness; Dean has Cas fighting by his side again. :’)

Hell fucking yeah!!! BABY’S BACK.

“Born to be Wild” by Steppenwolf.

Meg must’ve had so much fun driving Baby, and it must’ve been incredibly difficult for Dean to hand the keys over to her.

Meg looks annoyed at getting shot at, lol.

Meg deals with Levis, Dean and Cas go after Dick, Sam gets Kevin.

RIP Leviathans. Killed by Meg.

“The King of Hell will see you now.” Crap. Until next season, Meg.

Sam finds Kevin.

Kevin insists on blowing up the lab before leaving.

Oohh, that’s how Sam and Kevin are in the lab to see Dean and Cas disappear. Gotcha.

RIP Leviathan. Killed by Dean.

Cas protecting Dean. :’)

Crap.

“Did you really think you could trump me?” Dick’s last words.

“Honestly? No... Figured we'd have to catch you off guard.”

OHHH FAkE OUT.

RIP Dick Roman. Killed by Dean. Just as he promised.

Dean, Cas, and Dick are gone.

Crowley makes his move.

Kevin’s gone.

Everyone is gone. Sam’s on his own.

Welcome to Purgatory, Dean.

Cas is gone. Dean’s on his own.

[mrsbluebertgreggleson]

“Bring ‘Em Back Alive”

-100 for Lucifer trying to get what is technically his little sister to play strip poker with him. What a classy characterization we have going here.

+10 because I like Sister Annaby's outfit.

+20 for when Lucifer flipped his eyes red and said "He's a PRIORITY" to try to spook Duma and she was... very much not intimidated. She's just like, "*sigh* *fake smile* Of course!" like he's her annoying boss. I love this angel. She'd better live.

+30 for the "You sure that's what this is about? You sure it's not... personal?" about AU Charlie because oh MAN I could feel the editors just itching to drop like 10 flashbacks in that pause. Thank you guys, for the restraint.

+5 for when Dean was getting jumped because I really wanted him to look up and see Ketch hiding behind a tree, just peering out at him and cocking his eyebrow. Dean should probably know the importance of being stealthy since he's been hunting since he was a teenager, but I'll let this one slide because Sam and Dean usually are pretty inelegant in their approach to hunting, lol.

-5 for Dean: "Where were you going to take me?" Slaver: "You think I'm going to tell you?" Dean: *shoots him right in the stinkin knee* Slaver: "AAAAH!! ... okay, all right." Like dude you are SO composed, you should be crying like a baby into that snow and blubbering out answers.

-20 because it’s weird to me that the writers explore the fallout of Gabriel’s torture trauma but not so much Sam and Dean’s. Angels canonically per S4 can’t be tortured but degraced ones can and degracing is canonically extremely painful as well, so Gabriel being traumatized I can believe, and I can headcanon an explanation on torture in Hell affecting the mind differently than torture on Earth to justify why Sam and Dean are even remotely functional, but the show itself doesn’t really touch on this and really, after all the angst and suffering the Winchesters have undergone, they really should be allowed to fall apart and build back up. It’d be cathartic for the audience. The fanficcers do a way better job exploring this and I really wish the show writers would show at least some instances of Sam and Dean dealing with their issues in the day-to-day and trying to handle it as best they can. Otherwise it’s just a Trauma Conga Line and it’s harder to care about bad things happening to them when we know it’s gonna be like water off a duck’s back and never really addressed/handled.

-20 So Gabriel faked his death well enough to fool Lucifer and also God? I'd think either one of them would be able to tell whether Lucifer was killing the real deal... I mean the fake Gabriel's death looked very permanent so maybe Gabriel created a lesser angel replica of himself to bite it so the light show would convince everyone, but... idk that explanation is not a great explanation to me, I would've preferred it if he'd really died and then been resurrected (maybe from Cass waking up, maybe somehow that woke up Gabriel too and in his newly resurrected state Gabriel got captured). I also just really like how the big explanation does not at all try to explain how presumably fully powered and crafty Gabriel got captured by Lucifer's weakest creation. I have to assume he found some spell similar to the one Crowley used on Lucifer, to enslave an archangel; it's just weird that they glossed over it so completely.

-5 Also dinging them for the “Hammer of the Gods” flashbacks. Just a little, because it has been eight seasons since it happened, but still, I count it as excessive flashbacking.

-5 because that Exorcist's girl “demon” voice was very unfitting and goofy.

-10 for "Your wound might be more serious than we thought." HE GOT SHOT, DUDE. Like TV is usually pretty flippant with how serious gunshot wounds are if they're not in the heart/head, but I'm pretty sure in real life Dean would be bleeding to death no matter where he got shot, lol. Let's assume they patched him up offscreen with some secret MoL magic trick that kept him from dying.

-5 because I'm surprised Dean doesn't fight Ketch more on the cure. I think Ketch is probably honest here, but Dean obviously didn't trust him a whole hell of a lot - and Ketch could easily be poisoning him or something. I guess he figures Ketch is his only shot, he's Ketch's ride home and route to possible redemption, and Sam and Cass would kill Ketch if he came back alone, but still, Dean doesn’t forgive easily, likes to be stubborn, and give people a hard time. It’s to advance the plot faster but still a little OOC that he didn’t at least give a token protest.

-10 because shouldn’t the BMoL already know about the Winchesters' connection to Charlie? Even though they were supposed to be all researched about the Winchesters and went through their bunker and belongings and never found anything out about her?

-30 because THERE'S the sad Dean-Charlie flashbacks. I’m taking back all my restraint points.

+5 Now I want Ketch to feel bad about killing Mick, because Mick was the only cool BMoL. Five points in remembrance, cheers, mate.

-10 because what the hell, Dean is all cool with Ketch now, even after everything? That's weird, he usually holds onto grudges like a mofo. Is it because Ketch has a thing for Mary and Dean wants someone for his mom to live with? I... wouldn't think Dean would want his mom to be with anyone other than his dad, and I especially wouldn't think Ketch. It's weird Dean is doing such a turn-around on this guy he was eager to kill. Between Ketch and Benny, I guess there's just something about washed out, dirty pocket universes that makes Dean click with the guy he's with.

-5 for Sam's Inconvenient Auto-Speakerphone Phone

-5 because Sam should’ve just fuckin hung up on Asmodeus after Asmodeus was like “DON’T YOU DAHR HANG UP”. That would've been such a power move. Just keep pissing off King Dedede while he's riled.

+10 because Sister Annaby is really pretty, dang. I do like that healer-for-pay business she set up in the last (?) episode she was in, it was a good idea for Earth-bound angels. I just wish she weren't stuck in a storyline with Lucifer because he's just... the worst (or that the had not named her so similarly to my poor lost Anna). If they'd used her in a separate role and spent more time on the healer-for-pay thing, for example, that could've been a cool nugget.

-5 Shouldn't the angels have known and called her by her real name instead of "Charlie Bradbury"?

-50 ABADDON SHOULD HAVE ATTACKED THE BUNKER, DAMN IT. She should've known where it was after her first episode, she wanted the things in it, and we got a demon break-in this episode. I’m still so mad that the writers in S8/S9 didn’t do this, and I’m taking it out on this episode! MANNN.

-30 lol Sam's like, "I'm warding the bunker!" You should always have the bunker warded, my dude! Otherwise you're sitting ducks staying in one unprotected spot.

+15 Sam and Cass were sitting close enough during Asmodeus's attack that for one second I really thought one of them would reach out and hold the other one's hand while they were dying. I don't know why I thought that because the writers would never in a million years do that, but it would've been touching (and also because it would be so funny to see the fandom explode).

+100 Don't have to listen to Asmodeus ever again, yeeeee. I'm just disappointed he didn't die via punch-to-the-heart so that his killer could pull their arm out, smack their lips, and say "Finger-lickin' good", the ultimate final and best joke.

-50 Dean's whole emotional, angry blowout at the end, Sam and Cass standing all silent and scared, and I'm just thinking of "The Thing" like, "If you cared so much, maybe you should've read more fucking books last episode to help your mom sooner, Dean." Like my dude, don’t get mad that your brother and friend restored Gabriel (he also killed Asmodeus, who would’ve killed them if Gabriel wasn’t all juiced up? and SINCE he was all juiced up, how were they supposed to stop him? I get Dean’s upset and frustrated because it seems they’re all out of options, but it really seems like he’s not getting that they’re only alive because of that, and lashing out at them because he’s frustrated, which is one of his worse character traits), another one will probably fall into your lap in like... four episodes? whenever the next big plot advancement needs to happen. It’s been awhile so I don’t remember if Lucifer got his archangel grace still or not, but I think he’s recharged by now, so they can just concentrate on tracking him down. Or hey, maybe convince Rowena to pop the Cage back open and snatch some of your Michael’s grace. I just wish character development meant addressing Dean’s anger issues so that Dean’s loved ones maybe don’t flinch and get scared whenever he gets mad. Not a good look for a heroic character.

To sum it up: Pure plot episode. We were teased the idea of Dean and Ketch in Apocalypse World saving Mary and Jack, but somehow ending up too far away (is the portal opening up in different spots going to come up again?) and saving AU Charlie instead. Dean bonding so quickly with Ketch seemed hinky considering their past; since it seems like Dean might have a snarky frenemyship with Ketch in the future like the one he had with Crowley, I guess Ketch is gonna die by the end of this season since Death Equals Redemption and we need a reason for Dean to look stoically sad. I think it would’ve been more fun to leave Dean trapped in Apocalypse World to get more POV on it for the audience, maybe see some other old characters, and reunite with Jack and Mary.

Meanwhile, Gabriel recovered enough to kill the Big Bad. Sleep well, sweet Prince. You were the only thing I was looking forward to going into the season and I had high hopes you’d be cool, and much like Dagon, you were not. Hopefully the next demon Big Bad is better - maybe a white-eyed demon, so we can find out what those were compared to Knights and Princes? ... but only if it doesn’t finish ruining the demon mythos for me. I’m surprised they repowered Gabriel so quickly since I thought they brought him back to be a fan favorite member of Team Free Will and that means he can’t be too powerful, but part of his appeal is that he can snap his fingers and do whatever zany thing he wants, which would be considerably harder to pull off if he were powerless. I’m still kinda surprised that they went the route of bringing him back the way they did, but until we see more of him, I’ll have to wait to see if it was worth it in terms of character development. Still kinda weird they never explained how Asmodeus got him.

Grade: -140 Kentucky Fried Demons in the Empty