#sam team theorist

[theoryandahalf]

Family photo from the Sticks Matpat Movie premiere!!

Sticks said they'll do a short film staring Matt if they hit 1 million subs (a spin off fan short about his character Ness from FNAF) and they are at 785k!

[boopjuice]

They all break their rules. Within about 6 weeks.

Wes, obviously, meets Red Robin and charms him with his word vomit. He's also charmed by Red Robin because damn, that suit does wonders for him, and because Red Robin is intentionally flirting at the adorable idiot he just saved.

Next is Tuck. They haven't been able to find the book in the private library but they know Tim has the book. They know because Tucker found signs of hidden doors. And, well, they really need to get Danny back in Amity Park, so he figures Sam will forgive him for a little hacking.

Que then using Wes to distract Tim, who gets an alert halfway through the conversation that someone's hacking into his home security system to try and gain access to his Nest. And unfortunately, he can't find a way to excuse himself to defend his own system.

Tuck gets to duke it out with Oracle. He loses, and hightails it back to where they were staying. With the laptop he was just hacking with.

That Oracle is definitely tracking now.

Then Danny. Sam find out about Tuck breaking his rule and goes on a very long rant before they realize the laptop Tuck was using? Yeah, that's probably compromised. Good thing it didn't have any personal information on it, we'll just leave it here and go find another spot to stay!

Cut to four teens dragging luggage behind them in the middle of Gotham, all trying to find a place to stay. They looks like tourists. They look like easy targets.

So a gang jumps them, and while none of the team are slouches in a fight, there's just too many to reasonably take on. So Danny, while Sam is screaming about "Not you too!", becomes Phantom just long enough to knock out and tie up the gang.

Sam gives him the biggest earful when he's done. AND they still need to find a hotel while they look for another apartment.

The Bats are searching. They find the first apartment, trace it back to the teens, and are now actively hunting them down because why are four teens trying to hack into the Bat systems?

They manage to track them back to their hotel, which was pretty hard with Tucker covering their tracks, but not impossible. They find them right as Ivy decides to attack this block because it was originally contracted to be a green space for the city for at least another 50 years, but someone did some shady shit and broke the contract.

Sam? Is so tired. Wes broke his rule. Tucker broke his rule. Even Danny, who was the one to suggest having rules in the first place, broke his rule. AND HE'D COME UP WITH THAT ONE!

So Sam figures it's about time that she gets to break her rule too.

And in the middle of a fight between Poison Ivy, Batman, Red Hood, Red Robin, and Orphan, Sam Manson marches out onto the battlefield and rips Ivy a new one. What good is she doing, harming innocent people and reducing the amount of places they could stay? Fixing the coral reefs would have significantly more positive impact on the world, so would fighting deforestation, which seems much more up Ivy's alley. But no, she's actively harming her cause by destroying people's lives, in the process making activism harder for other people, like Sam, who also want a greener planet.

Ivy tries to attack Sam, but she's Undergrowth's student. That's not about to happen. The plants can like Ivy all they want for her ties with the Green, they aren't going to attack someone personally tied to the Grey (I saw a head canon somewhere that instead of Sam being associated with plants, she should be associated with the Grey, which feeds into decay and reintroducing nutrients through that decay and I'm sticking with it).

Once the fight is over and the dust settles, all four Bats corner the teens, ignoring the stars in their eyes, because they really need to know why four high school juniors decided to try and break into their systems.

To which Tucker says, very helpfully, "We weren't? We just needed to get into Tim Drake's private library so we could find a ritual to help our friend."

The Bats have many, many more questions.

DCxDP Fic idea: What's the Rule again?

It starts with Wes Weston accidentally banishing Danny from his haunt. He didn't mean to, and he panicked along side Sam and Tucker when Danny was effectively evicted Danny from Amity Park.

See the four have become tight-knited friends every since the trio started talking to Wes back during the summer between freshman and sophomore year.

During that time, Wes's other friends had drifted apart once Wes' attention moved from basketball to ghosts- specifically Phantom. Danny had felt at fault that he was left a loner because of his secret identity and had invited Wes to sit with them at the Nasty Burger the second week of Summer break.

Wes was suprise to find out that Sam, Tucker and Danny were much better friends then the ones he hanged out with since third grade. He was used to people only speaking to him in class or the few times they hang out on breaks but the trio would message him about every single thought or meme they had. They could laugh togther until tears fell from thier eyes and they couldn't breath over the silliest of topics.

Wes also found out that the trio was supportive of all their interests. Sure, his old teammates and friends didn't make fun of him for crocheting or painting, but they wouldn't accompany him to an art market. Nor would they actually wear the scarves and gloves he made them.

They sure as hell didn't volunteer to help him run a booth to sell his own crocheting pieces after encouraging him to get a table. And they wouldn't cheer loudly when he made his first sale.

Wes also wouldn't have happily gone with them to an observatory, a Dark Poem Night, or even a tech expo. But he found that he had the time of his life watching Danny, Sam, and Tucker nerd out at the events much as much as he did at his own.

He also never had anyone he knew would be down to do him favors or even take notes for him when he was out sick.

So he became close friends with them, passing sophomore year with far more enjoyment than any other grade, then Junior year came and went just as fast and as fun. It was their last summer as high school students, so Wes wanted to do as many new activities as the four could together before Senior year.

Who knew what would happen to their little group after graduation? He wants to think they would all remain best friends but he's heard so many stories of people drifting apart that Wes was afraid of risking it.

That's why he researched urban myths and legends around the world regarding ghosts- more then any research paper he's ever done- and jokingly asked Danny to partake in some of them as a halfa.

They joked and laughed- throwing salt in a circle around Danny, lighting a candle for him to use Morse code with- but it wasn't until Wes got to the one where he tried smoking Danny out with a banishing spell he found in an old book that things turned from funny to horrible.

It worked

Danny was flung from his haunt- effectively banishing him from the area he was haunting. Dann just happens to be haunting all of Amity Park, so he ends up on the outskirts of town, unable to cross the invisible line.

Wes practically choked on his tears as he apologized for Danny not being able to cross back in, but the other three quickly informed him that they, too, took part in it, and it was no one's fault. Danny just had to find a way to reverse the banishing spell.

The only problem was that the book pages Wes found online were only on the banish spell itself and nothing else. He couldn't even find the whole book since it belonged in a private family library.

The family library was located in the most dangerous city in America. Gotham.

The library also belongs to a very wealthy family that had recently all but perished except for their lone heir- Timothy Drake.

Now Wes attempted to contact Timothy Drake in hopes of having the other teenager send him copies of the book, but he never got a reply. He thinks it was due to not explaining why he needed the book and ending up sounding like a bot or a scam.

With each passing day of Drake not responding Danny's situation grew worse. Jazz luckily covered for them, claiming to have signed Danny up for some camp so his parents wouldn't think he was missing.

That would only work until school started, which was a time limit that was weighing on all their shoulders as they tried to find a counterspell.

Jazz, Tucker, Sam, and Wes each took turns driving out of town to bring him food and a change of clothes so Danny could figure out his situation, having to do it in shifts to not alert any of their parents.

However, without his haunt to pick up natural exoplasm, Danny was growing weaker and weaker by the day, looking half stave out in the little motel room Sam rented for him as they tried to get him back into the town.

Danny needed to either make his way back to his haunt or go somewhere that was so infected with ectoplasm that it actually felt cursed.

Tucker found the solution to all their problems with a few hacking skills that he learned to fight off Technus' invasive attempts of his personal tech.

"A full ride to Gotham Academy?" Wes' mom gasped staring at the acceptance letter her son eagerly showed her. "With a promised full ride to any university in America?!"

"Yeah, Tucker, Sam, Danny, and I all got accepted for our work on clean energy generators. We sent it in for the Wayne scholarship, and we won! The only thing is that it's a requirement to graduate from high school in Gotham. I have to go!" Wes gasped, eyeing both his dad's and Kyle's doubtful frowns. He couldn't afford for them to say no when Tucker had worked so hard to bump them up as Winners. Bruce Wayne's computer security is no joke. "This is the once in a life time opportunity!"

"But where would you live?" His dad asks, shaking the letter. "Wes, this is clear across states, and it only covers school expenses."

"Sam's parents bought her a house. She's going to rent us some of the extra rooms." It was a lie; her parents would never let four boys- especially these boys- rent from their daughter. She told them that the school provided co-dorm rooms "I can get a job at the local library- I already sent them my resume and got a call for a interview."

"What will you do for food?" Kyle asks. "We both know you can't cook."

"I can't, but Danny does. He's amazing in the kitchen."

Here, his parents share a loaded look. "So you'll be living with the Fenton boy....."

"Well. Yeah? I already said that?" He returns, confused, and Kuule coughs to cover a laugh. Confused he stares at his older brother, who quirks a grin at him.

"Don't worry about it." Kyle laughs, but his wiggling eyebrows tell Wes he should worry a lot about it. He would inisit a little more to find out what Kyle knew, but he needed to convince his parents more.

Eventually, after five days of attempting, Wes got their permission and could tell his friends, who all shared the same results. The remainder of the summer is spent preparing for their move- finding the house, getting it furnished, packing their things, transferring schools- it's a lot, and he's never been so grateful for Sam's wealth.

She hires people to get it all done for her-including hiring a trailer to take their four cars-, so he only has to worry about his packing. The four meet up at the airport on the day they live, flying first class thanks to Sam's grandmother.

Tearful goodbyes and good luck from their families leave them all a bit down but they board the plane and take off without too much trouble.

While on the plane, Sam turns to the boys. "Does everyone remember the phases of the plan?"

"Phase one: Blend into Gotham until we find Timothy Drake" Tucker states, pushing up his glasses

"Phase two: Get Drake to invite us over to his house and find the book," Danny tacks on, tapping his foot on the ground.

"Phase three: Find all the pieces for the counterspell- usually scattered around the magical family's ancestral home- and get Danny home!" Wes shouts, raising a fist in the air.

Sam nods, looking satisfied. "And what are we not allowed to do? Danny?"

"Become a vigilante when my ectoplasm is on a limited intake" Danny grumbles, sinking into his chair. "Let it to the Bats and keep my head low."

"Good. Tucker?"

"I'm not allowed to hack into anything because it can gain the attention of the Bats or Mr.Wayne, and then we'll be on a wanted list" Tucker sighs "No matter how much fun it would be to battle it out with the legendary Oracle."

"That's right. I'm not allowed to go anywhere near Poison Ivy no matter how much I want to yell at her to go fix the coal riffs and cut down forests instead of wasting her powers on the stupid heist." Same all but bites, and then she turns her attention to Wes, who startles.

"Wes?"

"Wait, I have a rule?"

"Course, man," Tucker laughs. "We all have rules."

"But I'm not interesrted in anything in Gotham besides the Drake grimoire!"

"Wes," Danny says gently, his soft baby blue eyes making him a little hot under the collar as they stare into his soul. "You're not allowed to fall in love with any of the Bats."

Wes mind blanks, then reboots, "Excuse me!?"

"We know you had a crush on all of us here Wes and Val" Sam laughs when he turns wide eyes at her. "It's cute but you really shouldn't try for the Bats. They're the violent sort"

"What?!"

"Yeah, you have a type, and it's a hero or hero adjacent." Tucker shrugs "It's cool."

Wes can only gape at them, no matter how much he tries to convince them; otherwise, the three refuse to remove his rule. He is highly offended by it.

Yes, he's never really gone out with Team Phantom, just because when he joined the group, most of Danny's rouges were long gone leaving behind the tiny ones that he could handle on his own, but he wasn't into heroes!

And okay- maybe, maybe at one point or another he may have had slight crushes on his friends but they were quick and gone before the first school year together!

So the rule is utterly ridiculous!

At least, he thinks so until five days later when he's trying to find his way around the new neighborhood and gets caught up in a mugging. He could have quickly taken the mugger- humans had nothing on ghosts- but he attempted to talk the young adult out of it when Red Robin swooped in like a knight in shining armor.

He may have just stared at the hero's tight-skin outfit instead of letting the hero know that he could handle it, and he may have made a fool of himself when Red Robin asked if he was right.

"Yeah tots fine" He babbles. Ugh, who says tots?! He wants to stop talking but when Wes gets nervous he tends to just word vomit and he could hear himself doing it now. "You know who else is fine?"

Red Robbin raises a brow, likely knowing the pickup line. Cowering, Wes changes the answer in a panic. "Timothy Drake!"

Red Robin stills. "Come again?"

"Timothy Drake, a boy in my class! He's fine that you think he was part siren or something. You've seen him, right? I mean you have eyes!" He repeats with a squeal "I want to get into his private liberty!"

"Do you?" Red Robin tilts his head, a slight smirk forming on his mouth. "You should try flirting with him then. Maybe he can give you a tour."

"Oh, I want more than a tour!"

Why did he say that?!

At least the hero in front of him laughs until a shout has them both looking away.

Danny is running down the street screaming his name, thank the Ancients. When Wes turns around to wave at him, Red Robin vanishes without a sound or trace.

Like a ghost.

Oh no, that's hot.

"Danny, I broke the rule"

"For Ancient's sake, it hasn't even been a month."

[bonzos-number-1-fan]

TMAGP 25 Thoughts: Tech Support

The fabled mukbang episode is upon us. This is probably the most TMA an episode has been too. Jonny wrote it so that's not a major surprise but it really does feel like the most seamless to slot into TMA of all the episodes so far. It was a great one too. Who doesn't love dinner and a show? No notes.

Spoilers for episode 25 below the cut.

Alice and Sam's interaction is interesting to me for entirely how uninteresting it is. I'm not sure if it's just me but I feel like there has been this run of episodes recently that are sort of coasting in terms of plot progression. That's not a bad thing but it does feel like we're in a bit of a trough between big things right now. Not that this episode doesn't have at least some progression in it. It's just not now, and not next.

The incident was a lot of fun IMO. Really evocative, a great format, a nice solid contained story where no one horrifically dies. Hard to complain about anything that happened here. Just some great Magnus-flavoured horror. Similarly to the last couple I don't know that this is going to have much bearing on later episodes. It doesn't feel like there is much in here we haven't seen before. Obviously the specifics are different but I couldn't point to anything metaphysically unique in this one. It is, of course, the most hunger related one of these we've had in a while. So the Hunger-not-Fear theorist are eating well I'm sure. I don't really buy that. Or, at least, I don't think it's actually all that different than TMA. I think the strongest name we have for them right now is Dread thanks to the capital D Dread from the transcript of Hard Reset. Although it's entirely possible there is more than one category of entity here. If we didn't have German to go off of I'd also say it would be a good theory for what DPHW might mean. Each letter representing an entity, or type of entity, and the influence they have upon any given incident. That's all unrelated to the incident, of course, but I did feel like I should talk about something here.

Poor poor Colin. Cursed by the plot to get institutionalised for being right. Well, for the hammer stuff but that's nearly like being right. What's probably the most tragic part about this is that the team is primed to believe him now. Had he laid out what he knows sans hammer he'd probably have won them over but paranoia is a cruel mistress indeed.

Lena caring more about rules than people is unfortunately attractive. It's incredibly funny to me that the OIAR offices are in such a disarray that the terminals are apparently right next to server racks. I'm going to be interested to see where this goes. Sam standing up to Lena and flatly declaring that things are fucked up in the office should have some sort of payoff but I do sort of worry it might not get mentioned. The compartmentalisation of the OIAR is clearly falling to bits but she didn't seem super worried in this exchange about that. Hopefully we'll get to see more of that in the future.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Incident/CAT#R#DPHW Master Sheet and Terminology Sheet

DPHW Theory: 2474 is about where I was expecting it to land. Not a whole lot to add there.

CAT# Theory: At CAT2 this is another one of those that reinforces my belief that if CAT is Person/Place/Object then CAT is a terrible way to grade anything. Obviously the restaurant is a place but there was also clearly someone in the place working with it in some way. That's entirely ignored by putting it in CAT2 and so is discarding information of merit for no real reason. If a team responds to this you'd expect them to want to know that there is a killer cook in the building too.

R# Theory: B seems a little high to me but I also can't really think of a good reason why it shouldn't be B.

Header talk: Food (Gorging) -/- Compulsion (Disgust) is pretty descriptive, so not much to say on that one.

[gottagobackintime]

You want me to go full on crazy Tedependent theorist? Because I will, I will go full on crazy Tedependent theorist. What do I have to lose? (Except my dignity but that’s non-existent to begin with so 🤷)

Ted once said this: "I remember being a little kid, sitting in front of the television and watching Queen perform right over there during Live Aid."

He has a moustache that resembles Freddie Mercury’s. He’s even brought up the whole back story as to why he has it. (Also being told that he shouldn’t have a goatee right before he walks down the aisle and then he decided on this moustache and he never looked back…) in the same speech he says “Since I was a straight fella in Middle America working in sports.” Which leads me to episode 11.

In this episode they mention that Freddie Mercury owned Richmond briefly in 1980 and that he tried having “Fat Bottomed Girls” as the team’s song. And Rebecca tells Keeley and Higgins that her father went to art school with Freddie and that Freddie supposedly said that his greatest talent was “flipping straights”. So young Ted saw Queen perform at Live Aid and then when he was older he grew a moustache similar to Freddie Mercury’s? 🤔

Then we have the song in itself. You know who wrote “Fat Bottomed Girls”? Brian May. Who famously has fantastic, long hair.

Whose hair was brought up for the first time, explicitly, in the show this episode? Trent’s hair. And it was brought up by Ted’s mum. And Ted has previously commented on hair as something he seems to like. (He kind of alluded to Trent’s hair in the second episode of the third season but he never outright states that he likes it. And Trent asks Ted if he assumed that Trent could ride a bike because of his hair and the whole vibe). And I’ve talked about hair in THIS POST but the gist of it is that hair has been referenced before, in relation to romantic couples with Roy and Keeley, Higgins and his wife, Sam and Rebecca.

I can’t verify this quote because I don’t have the magazine. But I’m adding it here anyway:

May told Mojo magazine October 2008: "I wrote it with Fred in mind, as you do especially if you've got a great singer who likes fat bottomed girls… or boys."

“Fat Bottomed Girls” is also connected to the song “Bicycle Race”, written by Freddie Mercury, they were released as a single together. And they both reference each other. “Bicycle race” is sometimes viewed as a metaphor for being bi. (Sport as a metaphor, anyone?)

Who doesn’t know how to ride a bike? Trent. Who has a moustache similar to Freddie Mercury? Ted. Who might be bi? Ted.

Look, I told you it’s crazy but I couldn’t help myself. I’ve talked about Queen/Freddie Mercury in relation to Ted before. So I couldn’t let this opportunity pass me by.

[astridthevalkyrie]

Okay where do we start with cobra kai part 2 now that you’ve finished watching it

i'm SO glad you asked! here's my thoughts (prone to change since i just finished it last night), spoilers under the cut:

the bad:

oh my god we GET it. miguel should've been the captain. making everyone else get their ass kicked so easily just to hype him up was lame. once, sure. the "watch how it's done" scene was cool. but like three four different times? come on.

there was just so much repetitiveness in general. robby's distracted by tory. kwon is an asshole because he is. daniel and johnny argue over the same things they always argue about. zara is a mean influencer because she's a mean influencer. we get it we get it oh my god.

not specific to season 6 part 2 and far be it from me to be a superfan of miguel and johnny but oh my god johnny is so shitty to him. why the fuck are you bothering him on the place leave him ALONE. we've lost the heartfelt moments with miguel and johnny, and we've lost the plot with daniel and robby (which was one of the best relationships in the show).

sensei wolf was hot but useless, silver might as well have just been the iron dragons' "anonymous sensei" that they reveal later on. was silver waiting for daniel to find out before making himself public? like why was he hiding if he was just gonna come out and be there anyways.

they kinda have hit a snag with silver. he was a really good villain, the actor has a really good screen presence, and so they didn't wanna write him out of the show, but his arc was over. bringing him back now, again, becomes repetitive, and adds very little to the plot, even if it does make the iron dragons kinda relevant instead of just being super strong side characters.

what the actual fuck did they do to demetri. why were they trying so hard to make him unlikeable. i was rooting for him in part 1. he's hurt and lashing out at hawk, he's clearly still traumatized from his best friend breaking his arm and imo a shitty apology afterwards, but now? consistently talking about MIT, not trying hard, cheating on his girlfriend? it sucks how much he shouldn't have been part of the competition. more s6p1's fault for the dumb as fuck way they chose the team, but demetri was never a super strong fighter. so if you send him to sekai taikai, my god, at least give him a moment or two to show he's there for a good reason. character assassination at its finest. also very clearly done to make hawk look better in comparison.

carmen's appearance in this season was just another disgusting hammer in the nail of everything they've done with her this far.

stop making johnny a right wing conspiracy theorist i'm begging, stop sacrificing his character that should be mature af by now to make him say haha woke mob jokes.

while i love how mature sam has been the entire season, she has no goals right now. i don't know what it should've been, but they should have given her some stakes in the sekai taikai. her arc in season 4 and 5 also kind of concluded, without her ever beating tory and without tory ever honestly beating her. my samtory heart says i don't want them to fight, i love them fighting for each other and protecting each other (for once want tory protecting sam instead of the other way around), but my samantha larusso heart wants her to have a solid win against tory on the mat.

she was also ooc. i think she was right to call out johnny, but s4 sam would not say this!! s4 sam was johnny's student too! come on now. sam is not just miyagi do. sam has mastered both elements as much as the boys have. them deciding to switch up sam and amanda every season.

didn't want drama between miguel and sam but was hoping for a moment. ig if they're not broken up we're not supposed to care about them.

hawk's hair is tacky. hate it.

the cgi/ai mr miyagi thing was incredibly awful. why the hell did they do that it was so disrespectful.

WE SHOULD'VE HAD MORE SAM ROBBY SCENES. GIVE ME THE LEGACY KIDS GODDAMMIT.

the big thing. kwon's death (if he is dead that is). it's hmmmm. idk how i feel about it. on one hand, yes, good for everyone to finally realize this has gone way too far. absolutely fucking ADORE daniel trying to reach him and stop him. daniel lasrusso my beloved the only one who acknowledges these are kids. on the other hand, and i don't mean in this in a super mean way, who cares. right now the only thing that makes this sad is kwon's age. otherwise, his teammates didn't like him, his competitors didn't like him, the senseis didn't care about him aside from his skills. maybe this would be different if he was kim's favorite instead of yoon or if him and kreese had a relationship like tory and kreese did. or if he had a SINGLE humanizing moment. or a friend. they just did his character dirty tbh. also made him seem like a hotshot with nothing to back it up when part 1 showed him as very formidable. brandon lee is mega hot and his acting was fire he should've had more to work with it.

i also think the way it happened with him stabbing himself is dumb af. at this point it might've been better if he just stabbed axel.

and what's gonna happen now? if they continue the competition that's insane. if they don't then it's disappointing. we hyped all this up only to not have a winner? my god that sucks.

the whole brawl was just. meh. it's nothing like the high school fight they didn't even come close.

the good:

sam and axel were so fucking adorable. i really wish they hadn't gone down the he likes her and tries to kiss her route. would've been so much better if they were just friends, and kinda wanted to see a brawl of the two of them versus kwon and yoon.

KENNNYYYYYYYY. dumb as fuck that hawk and demetri didn't trust him for such dumb reasons, but oh my god they like my baby finally have a win. loved his middle finger to silver. wish there was a robby kenny scene.

sensei kim's hair down oh my gooooooood. she's so gorgeous.

i didn't wanna put kim/chozen in the bad, idk if i should put it in the good, it's just. there. lol.

tory and sam for the most part. no rivalry. just two traumatized girls knowing they need to fight each other and grimly resigning themselves to it. poor babies.

johnny's divorced wife ass voicemail. "the kids need you, i need you." the middle aged gay men have once again gotten me. silver called him a pretty boy this show is OBSESSED with calling johnny a pretty boy what the fuck.

silver also put daniel in a dog cage. no explanation as to what would've happened if daniel didn't use jesus (?) to escape. jumin han ass plan.

fight choreography was insanely good. personal fav is kenny's little flip when he's tapped in.

liked anthony and kenny's resolution.

training montage in the last or second last episode was super cute.

ADORABLE scene in the locker rooms with the whole "who are we? miyago do!" call me cringe. i loved it. i'm glad they realized this is it, they're not gonna be fighting as a team forever and they need to savor it.

miguel's maturity after he comes back to the competition was so refreshing. finally.

i know i already said brandon lee is hot but brandon lee is hot. the way they did his hair, his smirk, the way he talks, ohhhh my god.

carrying from season 4 part 1, whoever is doing peyton list's makeup makes it look like tory is constantly crying. at first it was jarring, but it really adds to the scenes and makes you feel bad for her.

hopefully in part 3 we'll get core 4 stuff. i want miguel sam robby tory hanging out. not on awkward double dates, but as friends who all like and love each other. the characters are all in a good place with each other right now. please please please.

there was probably more good? but i can't think of it right now lol. anyway watch cobra kai as a comedy and it's insanely good. take it seriously and you'll suffer. i have done both and will continue to.

[thefanficmonster]

My Fandoms

Here's a list of people and fandoms I will be writing for with some minor guidelines for requesting such as what I will and will not write <3

Feel free to make your requests as detailed or as vague as you'd like.

Each fic will have warnings listed at the top and in the tags for safe browsing and avoiding triggering topics.

Content Creators:

Colby Brock

Sam Golbach

Nate Hardy

Sturniolo Triplets

Steve Brodt (Haunted Nights)

Dylan Stevens (Haunted Nights)

Team Theorist (Tom, Lee, Santi, Amy, Ash etc.)

Markiplier

Brennan Lee Mulligan

Zac Oyama

Media-based Fandoms:

Community (TV)

The Bear (TV)

Resident Evil (Gameverse)

Supermassive Games (Until Dawn, Man of Medan, Little Hope, House of Ashes, Devil in Me, The Quarry)

Hereditary (2018)

Scream (Movieverse)

Mr. Robot (TV)

Marvel (All media types)

DC (All media types)

Bridgerton (TV)

Rivals (TV)

A Good Girl's Guide To Murder (Books & TV)

[theoristwiki]

Wiki Updates (Oct 19-Nov 20)

I guess we're doing these things monthly now.

Staff Updates:

A warm welcome to our new administrator, DeclansPlanett! With Declan's help we've been able to massively update the GTLive sections of the wiki and start organizing our long term planning.

Theoryandahalf is now the wiki bureaucrat, which will enables the Team to have the most customization control over the Wiki.

The Wiki Team has a group chat on Discord! If you would like to join, please contact one of the admins here or on their message board.

The Theorists Wiki now has a YT Channel where we are starting to create playlists based on popular wiki categories.

TL;DR Summary

MatPat and Steph are now listed as "past hosts" and we continue to update channel pages to reflect their retirement. Ash and Sam's pages are updated with their new roles. Thanks to editor Chikoritaboy11 we now have an episode list for all Theorist videos uploaded to Amazon Prime. We have backfilled the Episode List for all 2022 GTLive episodes and it was updated to credit every 2022 Mirror Matt and Ash "appearance". We are very close to having a list of every single GTLive episode, with just the entirety of 2023 to go. All other Theorist channels have a complete list of episodes. We also have a GTLive Lore page to track the "official" storyline.

New Pages

GTLive Season 8 (We consider Ash's first episode as the start of a new season but Ash and Sam get final say)

MatPat's Final Episodes (complete list of all final episodes across channels, including GTLive)

GTLive Lore

TV Providers (list of platforms hosting Theorist Media content)

Amazon Prime: Game Theory Episode Guide (Episode Guide to all episodes uploaded to Amazon Prime)

The Roku Channel: Game Theory Episode Guide

Shannon (editor GTLive)

London Special (highlighting MatPat and Tom's Ruin playthough)

Updates

Sam

Ash

Justin

Tom

Amy

Deborah

Pedro Freitas (minor edits)

Tyler Mascola (minor)

Mirror Matt

Chris Widin (minor)

Jason Parker (minor)

Michael Sundman

Oliver Patrick

Stephanie Patrick

Matthew Patrick (bio completed up to 2017, awards received list created)

GTLive

GTLive History: Season 6, 7, 8

GTLive 2022 Episode List (Complete!🎉)

Removed Herobrine MatPat from the Hosts banner on the Wiki mainpage

New Episode Pages (all created by the myth, the legend, Sidfurry153!)

Game Theory

Buckshot Roulette's New ARG

Shadow the Hedgehog is ACTUALLY a Genie?!

Your Superpower Is In Your Pants

Indigo Park is controlled by Evil

Sauce, Cheese, REVENGE!

The HIDDEN Conspiracy of Thats Not My Neighbor

Cupheads sinful secret business

This SECRET Clue Solves Amanda The Adventurer 2! ‎

Style Theory

Does Waterproof Makeup Actually Work?

You are shaving your legs wrong

What's your body shape and how to dress for it

Exposing the worst scam in history

The SECRET to Winning the Olympics is… Uniforms?! ‎

Is TikTok Shop the Next Amazon? ‎

I Tested TikTok's VIRAL Makeup Filter Does It Work? ‎

Makeup Brands Are STEALING Your Money!

Can Dress to Impress ACTUALLY Teach You How to Dress?

You're Missing The Point Of Dress To Impress it's scary

Film Theory

They Will INFECT You!

Disney Tried to Kill the X-Men

The Amazing Digital Circus will Steal Your Soul

Pomni Wants to DELETE Huamnity?

Kinger's tragic end is near

How to SURVIVE Saw!

The Minions in Minions AREN'T Minions! ‎

The Hidden LORE of Skibidi Toilet! ‎

The Amazing Digital Circus is LYING To You!

The Amazing Digital Circus Is Literally HELL ‎

Food Theory

You are cutting sandwiches wrong

Can you ACTUALLY cook and Egg on the Sidewalk?

Fruit punch is a complete lie

How to get more food at chipotle for free

This food can save you before a huricane

I wore panera gloves for 24 hours

This lemonade could kill you

Panera needs to stop being so shady

Do not eat NyQuil Chicken

Wait coffee is a soup?

Can You Bake Cookies from Cookie Dough Ice Cream? (And Which is Best?)

As always you can contact the Wiki Team here or on the Wiki Staff Page. Until next time, see ya!

[romancomicsblog]

My Adventures with Superman delivers a solid reintroduction to Last Son of Krypton - SEASON REVIEW

*Spoilers for all of Season 1 of My Adventures with Superman*

Adult Swim and Max's My Adventures with Superman's first season has just wrapped up, and I have quite a few thoughts on the fun ten episode journey.

When watching the initial episodes of My Adventures with Superman, I was immediately smitten with our lead three protagonists. Clumsy adorable Clark, Conspiracy theorist and loyal friend Jimmy, and leader of the crew, the overly ambitious and intense Lois all had fantastic chemistry, I knew they would be the force carrying the show if it had nothing else to offer.

Luckily, it does. But let's talk about our core crew first.

One thing I love about this show is they quickly throw away the secret identity shtick for the core crew. Having Lois figure it out so soon and Jimmy knowing already speaks to their characters and their skills as reporters. Plus, now that that drama is over, they can go on this journey together, as they should.

The character I was hoping for more of which I was most happy with was Jimmy. Ishmel Sahid continues to bring multiple layers to Jimmy thoughout the show, and quickly made him my favorite character.

I felt he was the most sidelined of the three in the first couple of episodes, but he really gets two episodes focused on his friendship to the others in the middle of the season that I loved, and has a fun plot developing Flamebird throughout the season.

It pays off with the final joke of him becoming a multi millionaire, but I hope they use this money plot for Jimmy to go on ridiculous adventures and team up with other heroes and monsters like in the comics.

Also just love that Jimmy continued to be a good wingman to both Clark and Lois and give them space when needed. What an absolute pal.

While I'm here, I do love the cute love story between Clark and Lois, but it felt a bit rushed. Throwing the L word around a bit quick in my opinion, but I understand this is basically an anime, and needs to be a bit dramatic. I wish they would've saved that for Season 2, but I love the chemistry and that they are already together.

Alice Lee continues to shine as Lois, often having to voice some incredibly dramatic points in the show. I love the revelation that she is "the worst Lois" because all other Lanes are exceptional. That episode in general is a highlight for me, although it is a little bit Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Of the three characters, Lois felt the most fleshed out, dealing with insecurities from her father, trying to live up to her own expectations and his, and trying to make a real difference. Those little things make moments like the crew getting desks so satisfying and heartwarming.

I feel like people have talked to death how great Jack Quaid is as Superman, so I'll try to be brief. He's incredible. It's clear they casted for Clark instead of Superman, which was a smart move.

As Clark he is humble, kind, brave, and genuine. You cry when he does, you feel for his pain when he stumbles and you cheer when he succeeds. This should be the blueprint for Superman media moving forward.

While I had to adjust to the Superman voice, by the end of the show I was good with it, and it was perfect. I would love to see him lead an anime style Justice League.

I think tying General Lane to this Kryptonian invasion plot was a really good through line throughout the season. Making him directly connected to the destruction caused by Kryptonians felt very Batman v Superman (but in a good way), and made their interactions feel real weight.

One aspect of the show I criticized and hoped would improve were the villains. While I like the overarching villain being Sam Lane, I think this show doesn't quite have the iconic villains say a Spectacular Spider-Man or a Young Justice does. I was hoping for someone with something special or unique to grasp on to, but there really wasn't.

I think having the Suicide Squad be one of the final battles, and doing the match up from the "What if Superman ripped off the roof of the white house?" line from Suicide Squad movie is kind of fun, but the Squad members didn't feel fleshed out enough for me to care.

I think with the exception of Banshee and Mxyzptlk , most of the designs for the villains felt a little boring. This includes the final two teased at the end of the show. I wish more thought and color was put behind the characters, like Superman or even Jor-El.

Parasite was the most fun inclusion, but I felt he was too different from his usual version for me to fully grasp on to. Of the Superman villains shown, I think he could come back and win me over.

I hope characters like Brainiac, Zod, Luthor, Lobo and Doomsday bring life to this show through villainy. With great antagonists, this show would be absolutely perfect, but it's just not there yet.

I think this show is on to something really special, and I hope to see it continue for multiple seasons. It could be a fantastic introduction to the character of Superman, if it could bring more life to Metropolis through its recurring characters.

Overall, I think it's a great show. One that surprised me with emotion, the laughs, the triumphs and the falls. I recommend you watch the season, now streaming on Max.

Thank you for reading!

If you'd like to support me you can find my socials here!

[destielshippingnews]

Edvard's Supernatural Guide: 2x12 Nightshifter

Episode 2x12 Nightshifter is Ben Edlund’s second screenplay for Supernatural, and similarly to 2x05 Simon Said it is not a stand-out episode, at least in my opinion. It is one of the fan-favourites, but it generally leaves me cool: 1x06 Skin had a better shapeshifter, and it has only been a handful of episodes since Dean and Sam’s last run-in with the police in 2x07 The Usual Suspects. It is one I considered skipping, but after deciding not to I saw that there are some aspects of it which I do enjoy.

The main thing which stood out about this episode was the rapport Dean and Ron had. Ron is presented as a loon and conspiracy theorist whom people dismiss. The police called him a ‘post-traumatic case’ and Sam talked to him like he is an idiot. He is a bit of an idiot, but not because of his conviction that ‘mandroids’ exist or his wall covered in maps and pictures. We are probably supposed to think he is off his rocker, but given the context of the show taking place in a world where the supernatural (pun intended) is very much alive and hunters such as Dean, Sam, and John do exactly what Ron did in order to find and kill monsters, Ron ends up looking like he is on the right track but is lacking one of two vital bits of information. If someone were to see John’s maps in 1x01 Pilot or 1x21 Salvation without knowing that monsters exist, s/he would think him a madman. Dean himself points this out to Sam after meeting Ron.

Dean and Sam visit Ron while investigating a string of apparent thefts and suicides. Ron was a security guard at a jewellery shop which was robbed by one of his colleagues named Juan. Ron copied the security tapes before the police took the originals as evidence, and based on his seeing Juan’s eyes flash in the videos, he eventually concluded Juan was not Juan but a mandroid. Whilst sitting across from Ron in their FBI get-up, Dean and Sam’s reactions to him are quite different. For all that he claims to think there is something wrong with him, and all the times later in the show he will call himself a freak and such, Sam gives the impression of being a completely normal, average, typical guy listening to somebody whom he regards as several different kinds of deficient. His entire bearing is unsympathetic and cold.

Dean on the other hand seems almost perfectly at ease with Ron, and is capable of meeting him on his own wavelength. This is far from the only time Dean will show a kinship with people others deem ‘crazy’, 1x10 Asylum being a particularly striking example. Sam seems like a neurotypical person impatiently listening to an autistic guy talk about his hyperfixation, whereas Dean is the other autistic guy who gets it.

This is why what you show is more important than what you tell. You can tell me Sam is a ‘freak’ as much as you want, but if I see something which says the opposite, I am going to trust what I see.

Anyway, Sam decided unilaterally to essentially tell Ron he was crazy and that he was just trying to avoid accepting that his friend robbed a band and killed somebody. Dean looked completely taken aback by this, apparently convinced Sam would induct Ron into the hunters’ life. Why Sam thought it unnecessary to consult Dean in the hallway for a minute or two before telling Ron anything is beyond me, but it ended up being a very bad idea.

Sam’s idea ended up getting people killed, but this time the blame cannot be placed at his feet. Unlike all the times he refused to pull the bloody trigger, he could not have known that Ron would lock himself in the bank with a rifle and a load of hostages. I wrote earlier that Ron is a bit of an idiot, and the reason for that is his complete obliviousness regarding the consequences of his choices. He took a bank hostage with a rifle, failed to ensure that nobody contacted the outside world, and was surprised to learn that the police had shown up with SWAT teams. On top of that, he was told to stay out of the light, but what did he do? Stood in the light long enough for a sniper to ventilate him. He also sounded utterly clueless when speaking to the police on the phone. That is all his responsibility, and given his incompetence, his death was no great surprise.

That being said, it could perhaps have been avoided had Ron been furnished with a bit of knowledge about the truth behind the ‘mandroids’ before things escalated like they did. Ron’s actions were those of a desperate man driven into a corner. Had Sam done what Dean clearly wanted to do, they could perhaps have worked with Ron, or told them the truth about why they were there and what they were hunting.

The hunting life is an apt metaphor for living with any kind of serious trauma, mental illness, or neurodiversity. Hunters are inducted into the life either through a horrific event (personal trauma) or through being raised in the life by parents and carers (generational trauma), and those not inducted into the life cannot see what is hiding at the periphery. They also cannot see the hunters fighting ‘demons’ and ‘monsters’ every day of their lives, and would say they are crazy if the hunters told them what they were dealing with.

Ron had been introduced to the hunting life through witnessing a shifter in the shape of his friend rob his bank, beat him up, then apparently die by suicide afterwards. Dean wanted to extend Ron a hand of understanding and support, but Sam decided it best to keep Ron in the dark in order to keep him safe. If Ron knew about monsters etc, he would just go after them, or so Sam concluded. This might seem like wisdom were it not for the fact that monsters find people regardless of whether they know about them or not. How many people in this show have been victimised by the supernatural out of the blue through no fault of their own?

Sam’s decision is akin to telling somebody who been through a traumatic event that their flashbacks and triggers are not actual problems at all, that it is all in their head and they should ignore it, because actually understanding, acknowledging, and facing the monsters in your mind might be dangerous. Never mind the fact that forewarned is forearmed and that the monsters are there anyway. Sam really should have learnt by now that decisions he makes end up getting people hurt and killed, but Dean could and should have gainsaid him right then and there.

This seems to be a trait of Dean’s which is likely related to his tendency to abase himself and apologise for Sam’s mistakes in order to keep Sam with him. Dean does not likeactualarguments with Sam and generally avoids them if he can. He snarks and takes occasional potshots, but he generally tries to avoid head-on conflict with Sam. I wonder whether this is a trait of Jensen’s which the writers started writing into Dean’s character, since Jensen is also conflict-averse.

Returning to Ron, his hijacking of the bank is like a traumatised, mistreated person finally snapping and doing something irrevocably moronic out of anger, hopelessness, and even fear. “You don’t believe me,” he says. “Nobody believes me. How could they?” When looked at like this, Ron’s reaction to learning he is not crazy is completely understandable: he had spent weeks being told he was insane and had ended up thinking that about himself. He believed he was the problem, even while simultaneously being able to see the evidence that led to his conclusions right in front of him. Relief was his response when he finally learnt the truth. He had finally been given proof that he was not crazy, that his grasp on reality was not faulty, and that everybody else had been wrong to dismiss him. After having spent years being sneered at, mocked, and called delusional by a certain section of the Supernatural fandom, every single time Jensen and Misha say something at conventions which as good as confirms I and millions of others were right to see the subtext, I feel relieved.

Note once again that it is Dean who manages to get through to Ron in the bank. Dean is very compliant with Ron’s demands, but does not humbly submit. Rather he takes advantage of the situation to build what little rapport with him he can, then win him over by saying ‘I believe you. You’re not crazy. There really is something inside this bank.’

While Dean is busy saving the day, the purported main protagonist of this show Sam is useless. This is of course not a problem in itself, but given it is so often Dean doing the dirty work and getting beaten up while Sam gets to swoop in at the end and save the day with minimal effort, it emphasises Sam’s weakness. It is funny, then, that Sam’s response to Ron is to try shouting at him when Ron has the rifle pointed at him. Was this in the script or was it Jared’s acting choice? Either way, it emphasised Sam’s powerless in that situation. He did exactly the same in 8x06 Southern Comfort when civilwar!Dean pointed his pistol at Sam. Maybe it was a fear response.

And yes, I did notice Dean’s smug told you so look at Sam when Ron said ‘You SHUT UP! I ain’t talkin to you, I don’t like you!’ That line filled me with a warm, giddy, tingling sensation. It was almost physical, like when Sam got flung across the room in 1x09 Home. After Sam’s behaviour for the last few episodes and Kripke’s refusal to allow him face the consequences of his douchebaggery (including in this very episode), that was the least of what Sam deserved. I also noticed Sam give Dean a weird look when the guy frisking Dean found a silver blade tucked into his boot, as if it is a bad idea to be armed when investigating the bank they know a shapeshifter is targeting. What even is Sam? Why do he? And how?

Returning to Ron, It is hard for me to say Ron did not deserve understanding or sympathy after holding a bank up with a rifle because he did not intend to kill anybody and he had been driven into that state of desperation by people’s dismissal of him, including Sam. Maybe my thirty one years of experience as a neurodivergent homosexual have made it too easy for me to associate with the outsiders and rejects because somebody has to. I suppose he is a bit of a warning to people both with and without similar experiences.

Anyway, he died about halfway through the episode. The entire situation of the bank being locked down and surrounded by police and snipers was his responsibility, and there really was no way he was going free afterwards unless it was with Dean and Sam. I still do not want to say he got what he deserved, because he was just a misguided fool with no understanding of what he was getting himself into. Still, he died a stupid death which could have been avoided had he been more conscientious about staying out of the light. He seemed to die quickly, and it was touching to see Dean insist on commiserating with and paying what respects he could to Ron’s dead body before taking his dropped rifle.

Dean was right to say Ron did a good job tracking the shapeshifter. If he had been able to enter the hunting life, he might have been a good working partner for Ash in tracking monsters and coördinating hunts. I wonder also whether Dean’s seeming affinity for Ron is based in seeing a kinship of a sort: both are ‘weirdos’ on the fringes of society fighting things nobody else even knows about or wants to acknowledge. Dean certainly seemed affected by Ron’s death, but then again Dean blames himself for every single person he is unable to save.

After just over 2,000 words and almost five pages of discussing Ron and Dean, it is time for something I really did not like in this episode: the police and the FBI. By Loki’s fuzzy navel, I do not care about law enforcement in a show like Supernatural. I like The X-Files and Hannibal, and the few occasions the police were involved in Buffy and Angel were effective, in part because it was so sparing. But if the premise of a show is a conflict on the margins of society between monsters and humans, there is very little suspense or interest in being wanted by the FBI. The show is not going to end with the brothers being locked in prison to live out their days, or being sentenced to execution in Texas, so why should I care? An ending like that would be almost as risible and insulting as a vampire wearing a clown mask impaling Dean on a conveniently placed iron spike in a barn in the final episode of the show. Can you even imagine anything that stupid happening? The only thing which would make it even stupider would be if one of the vampires from 1x20 Dead Man’s Blood came back and the audience was expected to remember who she is.

Henriksen is presented as a serious threat and challenge to Dean and Sam, as well as a ruthless commander of his forces and a total douche to the local policemen. The fact he knows a lot about Dean and Sam’s past as well as John’s is supposed unsettle the viewer, as it does Dean. However, even one year after this episode was aired, the storyline was completely redundant. Henriksen appears in perhaps one or two episodes after this, and then 3x12 Jus in Bello happens. Goodbye, Henriksen.

The effect of this is to further frustrate me: this banal intrusion in my supernatural show demands my attention and insists on itself, but ultimately leads absolutely nowhere. The heavy-handed music cue and Dean’s repeated statement ‘We are so screwed’ after he and Sam escape in SWAT uniforms is also supposed to build suspense, which would be fine if this were The X-Files. The episode set up a cat-and-mouse conflict between Dean and Henriksen which got abandoned, probably because Kripke is a big fan of introducing plots and then dropping them.

It was also a bad idea for Henriksen to tell Dean over the phone that he has one hour to hand himself over, and then to tell his men they are going into the bank in five minutes. That is a good way to get a lot of people killed.

As for the shifter, its counterpart in 1x06 Skin was a Dean mirror, made obvious by the fact it spent a large section of the episode masquerading as Dean. The shifter in that episode was used to explore middle-class, white-skinned American suburbia’s fears and anxieties surrounding poor, working-class men and heterosexuals’ (especially women’s) fears of bisexual men. The shifter in this episode does not transform into Dean or anybody Dean-adjacent, but does spend a lot of the time as women and minority men. The link between this shifter and Dean is much more tenuous than in 1x06 Skin, and to be honest far less interesting. No Hannibal-references here, unfortunately.

Paula R. Stiles’s suggestion is that maybe it reflects or exaggerates prejudices Dean has or could have towards said groups, but I do not really think it is that deep for once. Dean was raised in a homosocial environment with little opportunity for social interaction with women and girls. He is shown throughout the show to be charming enough to make women swoon, but he does not really socialise with women much. Even when he was in the god-awful, anhedonic forced performance of a relationship with Lisa in series six, he did not really seem to have anything particularly real or deep with her. There was also his neighbour who had been buying him drinks for a year, so… Dean generally treats women the same as men, but he seems more emotionally distant from women. Taken to an extreme, this could become misogyny, but what relevance does that have to bank robberies and jewellery heists? I have no idea.

Perhaps it could be interpreted as a metaphor for middle-class white-skinned Americans’ possible discomfort and apprehension of minority men who rob their banks and jewellery shops, then kill their women, but I do not care nearly enough about this episode to bother going into more depth on that subject. It ain’t that deep.

While talking to the policeman, Henriksen essentially called Dean a monster and a bigger threat to the hostages than anything else in the bank. I am not of the same opinion, but Dean does show some behaviour in this episode which is cause for concern. Let me take the scenic route before telling you what that is.

Soon after Ron takes everybody hostage, he gets most of them to hole up in the bank’s vault whilst following Dean’s advice and keeping him at hand. One of the people in the vault is a young woman named Sherri whose fawning fan-girling of Dean – ‘he is so brave – sounds exactly like me in these analyses.

The events of the episode lead Dean to eventually find Sherri’s dead body on the floor in the office (wearing only a nightie, or whatever that item of women’s clothing is called) with her throat cut. He and Sam take what they assume to be shifter!Sherri out of the vault and into the office, where she sees her dead body, screams, and faints. Dean wasted no time in preparing to stab her with the silver letter opener, and would have done so had Sam not stayed Dean’s hand and worked out that the dead body was actually the shifter pretending.

The concerning behaviour here was the ease with which Dean was about to murder a person. He justifiably thought her a shapeshifter and most people would have come to the same conclusion Dean did. Some people say Sam is the brains of the operation, but I disagree. Dean is just sometimes quicker to action and quicker to make decisions which is sometimes a good thing, sometimes a bad thing. Remember, Sam’s indecisiveness and hesitation keeps preventing him from firing the bloody gun. This time, however, Sam being slower to action worked to their advantage and prevented Dean killing an actual innocent. Dean is not a monster, but seeing how easy it would have been for him to stab something which looked like a normal human is a clear indication that he could one day become a monster.

Like I said ages ago, Dean really should have been the Big Bad at some point. Not Dean possessed by an angel, or Dean turned into a demon, just Dean. Regular, normal Dean as an antagonist.

Sam was mostly annoying when he did anything in this episode. He did prevent Dean becoming an actual murderer (The Loquacious Terminator from 1x22 Devil’s Trap does not count, he was possessed by a demon at the time and left little recourse. Beverley in 2x09 Croatoan is debatable since she was very likely still infected. Sherri would have been a murder, though). Other than saving Dean from becoming an actual murderer, Sam was unnecessarily shouty, aggressive, and pissy throughout.

As this analysis comes to a close, it is time to discuss another issue, that being Sam. Yes, Dear Reader, I am going to bitch about Sam. I have already discussed his unwise unilateral decision to keep Ron in the dark, but immediately after that Dean starts giving him a hard time, then rather quickly becomes agreeable and compliant to a point where I thought ‘That is not what Dean would say in that situation’. Sam claimed it better to be kept in the dark and be safe than know about monsters and get killed, but that is utter horse crap because the shifter kills people in this episode who presumably knew nothing about monsters, as has been happening since 1x01 Pilot. Dean knows this, but rather than saying so, agreed it probably for the best that Ron not be told the truth.

One good thing about this episode is that Sam’s choices are shown to have negative consequences and characters make sure he knows it. Dean gets irritated with Sam for making him go into the bank without weapons (though why did Dean comply? He took the colt with him in 1x22 Devil’s Trap), and Ron makes it very clearly that he does not like Sam.

If there had been more of this on the show, and if Sam had learnt from his bad behaviour, I might have been able to like him at some point, but such is alas not the case.

And the last thing before I finish: I do not it when the cold open shows us an exciting, tense, dramatic scene, and then goes back in time 24 hours or something. It makes the actual episode feel slow and less interesting.

Thus endeth this analysis. Next is another script by Sera Gamble which is seen as a spiritual successor to 1x12 Faith by many, but which falls far short of that in my estimation.

And did I forget to mention Dean’s we little outfit?

[jaredthebc]

Yokai Watch was on the brain earlier so I brainstormed a mini Yokai Watch X Pokemon Black and White AU! (Note that I haven’t really seen all the Yokai Watch Media, my main source of knowledge is the 1st game and the things people have told me over the years) ramble in the keep reading!

My main idea is Hilbert, Bianca and Cheren are the main core of friends the series follows, as well as Hilda later on. Initially, Hilbert is the only one with a Yokai Watch, which was a gift given to him from a random man (Alder) near Mount Wildwood (note the locations will probably be adapted to be more similar to Unova/New York, I’m using the canon names from Yokai Watch for a lot of things just cause I haven’t fully plot stuff out yet) though later on Bianca and Cheren will probably get their own watches too. Hilbert just figures the man was being generous, or just had something he needed to get rid of

Later when the trio are in the woods, Hilbert runs into an Oshawott Yokai, and befriends it. Bianca and Cheren are in on the Yokai deal right away, but Hilbert choses to keep it secret from his mom, and twin Hilda. Basically think of the Unova trio as something similar to Danny Tucker and Sam from Danny Phantom (and Hilda as like Jaz, honestly the main reason Hilbert didn’t tell her is because he knew she would probably use Yokai for mischief...and when she finds out she honestly does what he feared lol but she has a good heart). When Cheren and Bianca get watches, they have Snivy and Tepig Yokai’s respectively. Idk if Pokemon are really a thing in this universe, but stuff like gyms aren’t a thing and its way more slice of life

Oshawott, Snivy and Tepig can directly talk to the ones who scan them with the watch (like every Yokai in the series basically) though they don’t evolve. Evolution *is* a thing in the series, but its basically never brought up so I’m not gonna bother lol. They act like companions to each of their “trainers”, though are far less knowledgeable than Whisper is in the main series, so the trio has to basically work it out themselves how the Yokai stuff works with only surface level help from their Yokai

Now to contrast the slice of life...Team Plasma are 100% a thing, but they are more underground, like conspiracy theorists in a cult. They aren’t stealing publicly, more working in the shadows to use the Yokai knowledge for their schemes

N is a thing here, but he’s much more lowkey in his Plasma aid than he is in Black and White. He has the ability to see and hear Yokai without the use of a Yokai Watch, as well as being able to firmly grasp a medal to summon a Yokai by hand. I like to think he has the colors of the Yokai Watch in his eyes as a sort of heterocromia. He starts as somewhat of a frenamie for the crew, meeting with Hilbert to teach him about Yokai and such, while stealing the medals Hilbert and crew they earned over the course of the series for Plasma, as well as other schemes that weren’t like directly horrible so they still are on good terms (at least to Hilbert and Bianca, Cheren started hating N the second he first tried to steal medals lol) but is still clearly an antagonist. Over time though, the cult trickery starts wearing off some for N, and becomes much more a friend up to N leaving Plasma. Its not as in depth as Plasma is in the actual game, but still very much a cult in nature N needs to leave

Overall the whole thing has a Saturday Morning kinda vibe, but isn’t afraid to get mildly serious when needed for plot events. Its sort of a more serialized thing than the main Yokai anime, though not as heavy as the Gen 5 games are (no kids are gonna get stabbed with ice...as far as I know so far SIDUHEFUIHF)

[theoryandahalf]

Team theorist alignment chart/

(I also randomly had a zombie apocalypse idea- I don't know why i get all my ideas when im busy)

Hmm..Ok. I'll give it a go.

Justifications

Tom: His Game Theories aren't as off the wall as the other hosts and he seems like the type to tuck in his shirt, idk. I honestly don't know where else to put him.

Dan: As a Guest Host Dan is willing to read MatPat's cringey lines but can't stop himself from leaving commentary on them. He also has the power of the Edit on his side but doesn't abuse the power.

Amy: Makes her friends sniff each other's armpits and wear peepee pants. But she will also wear the peepee dress and sniff the pits so she's pretty lawful in my book.

MatPat: MatPat has gone on record to say he thinks he's a chaotic neutral (which feels right, coming from the man who brought us Best Boobs in Gaming but also did a Food Theory just for his son). However if you factor in his entire career trajectory, he mostly falls under Good and might even be considered Lawful Good if not for the Luigi's Penis and "Dream is my Son" episodes.

Steph: The True Neutral. Could destroy everyone on this chart. Chooses tea instead.

Lee: I think Lee does a good job presenting the most questionable theories with an aura of professionalism. Lee. Please. Jax and Pomni are not NPCs, please I'm so tired. Film Theory also feels like the most evil channel, maybe its the red logo.

Ash: Ash "I did crime" GTLive is the politest criminal on YouTube. Respectfully.

Sam: Honestly could be evil, should be evil, but instead chooses to steal baseball bats using his ant army.

Santi: Repeatedly denies that corporate greed is ruining America. He also might be in this slot so that he is Tom's direct opposite because its funnier that way.

Also, I want to hear about the zombie apocalypse fic even if you can't work on it. Zombie AUs are fun.

[tvguidancecounselor]

TV Guidance Counselor Episode 574: Lisa Curry

June 26 - July 2, 1993

This week Ken welcomes writer/comedian Lisa Curry.

Ken and Lisa discuss canceling in person plans, afternoon gigs, being heckled by 6 year olds, Supermodels, loving Cindy Crawford, Malibu, Amy Klobechar's comb utensil, working in DC, Veep, growing up in central time, not watching TV in the Summer being and outdoor kid, Carol Burnett's love of soaps, never saying "funny lady" or "skit", loving fashion photography, MTV's House of Style, Anna Nicole Smith's film career, a very depressing Bill Bixby story, National Enquirer, "anti-coughing machines", stupid conspiracy theorists, thinking people with actual brain damage know what's "really going on", leaps in logic, Ren & Stimpy, rubber nipples, watching TV that feels like you are getting away with something, being suspicious of people who have no problem performing, loving the 90s, creepy dolls, haunted dolls, "Mommy I'm Sorry", having no toys, working in a factory at 17, making fun of family sitcoms, Married...with Children, bothering Bud Bundy, pissing off Judd Nelson, MTV Unplugged, LL Cool J's deodorant cakes, hating football, father's making viewing choices for you, Zorro, hating Westerns, shows built around women not just trying to catch a man, Mary Tyler Moore, loving basketball, Ken's clearance bin Michael Jordan sleeping bag, gifting that sleeping bag to Lisa, Tales from the Crypt, Don Rickles, Ken being a total jerk as a teen, Wonder Years, music replacements, weight loss ads, Ace Ventura, Once Bitten, In Living Color, the glory of Cheers, Ted Danson playing Sam Malone as Sam Alone, prank calling adults to tell them their baseball team sucks, Dennis Eckersley telling Ken he was a "little dick", Tonys, the saturation of ads, news crawls, breaking news, TV Bugs, Jay Leno's stand up early days, loving Reading Rainbow, loving Axl Rose, crushes on naked Eric Andre and Righteous Gemstones. 

Check out this episode!

[productsreviewings]

Particulars of canceled Netflix reveals ship followers wild, down a rabbit gap so deep it makes folks slightly determined to save lots of their reveals. So, after checking the headlines we considered probably the most black mirror method to deal with this case.What if Chat GPT and the brand new Bing itemizing together with ChatGPT will make up for a few of our favourite packages? These text-driven AI instruments have delivered all types of untamed leads to their preliminary assessments, and when ChatGPT first got here out, we had to make use of Bing's model as a result of ChatGPT wasn't in a position to entry more moderen particulars.We picked three of our favorites — GLOW, Inside Job, and Teenage Bounty Hunters — so we may choose these bots' output for accuracy. Here is what occurred:Bing went wild to convey Job againAfter some technical difficulties (they do not need us to know the reality!) we managed to get Bing to provide a possible new season of the deep-state animated comedy that Netflix cruelly canceled after one season (in two elements). The 2-part construction confused each Bing and ChatGPT, and it didn't acknowledge the second half of the primary season. Bing offers us a quick description of the present after which issues begin to get bizarre. And will get bizarre contained in the work not within the common method. (Picture credit score: Netflix)Bing added “a brand new character named Greta Thunberg (voiced by herself), who seems to be an alien spy despatched by an intergalactic council to observe Earth's environmental circumstances. He befriended Reagan and helped him expose a few of Cognito Inc.'s schemes."It additionally mentions rival teams of conspiracy theorists, name-checking Alex Jones because the chief of the "Truthers" and Tom Cruise and Beyoncé main the Illuminati. It virtually likes to recycle Bing, akin to a parody of Alex Jones in Inside Job Half 2, in addition to an Illuminati that included Beyoncé.ChatGPT itself, when requested to "write season 2 of Inside Job" supplied a imprecise and normal plot however notably described the goofy Brett as "tech-savvy" and the "sensible however unpredictable Doc, and the fashionable and crafty Sam" who Most likely referring to Andre and Gigi respectively.Bing's glow revival could be very predictableGLOW was controversially canceled after simply 3 seasons after being renewed for a fourth season that was closed on account of Covid-related delays. Bing appeared to have a reasonably good deal with on what occurred on the finish of GLOW and gave us some concepts.It advised "a potential storyline for season 4 could possibly be about Debbie's battle to run her personal community as a girl in a male-dominated business, whereas additionally making an attempt to stability her friendship with Ruth and her romance with Tex." Which, sure, we will see that occuring.(Picture credit score: Netflix)Bing additionally advised that "one other potential storyline for season 4 could possibly be about Ruth's journey as an actress in Hollywood, the place she could face rejection, discrimination and harassment. She may additionally miss working with Sam, who's busy making his daughter. Films with Justin." Though pretty imprecise, these appear to be affordable instructions for GLOW. Bing even created storylines for facet characters like Bash and Carmen that once more appeared fairly potential. Issues began to go awry when ChatGPT was requested to "write GLOW Season 4." AI gave me an episode-by-episode breakdown of a wrestling-centric plot and even added "a brand new wrestler named Roxy (performed by Laverne Cox)," however there have been some key inconsistencies. The largest mistake was when it mentioned that Alison Brie's Ruth and Betty Gilpin's Debbie have been a pair, which seems like chatgpt is sourcing an excessive amount of from fanfic boards to do justice to their emphasis on the present. Nearly each episode ends with primarily the identical description: "In the meantime,

Ruth struggles to come back to phrases together with her emotions for Debbie and the path of her profession." Or "Sam finds himself at a crossroads in his profession and should make a troublesome choice."How about getting Glow Season 4 concepts from Bing with ChatGPT. (Picture credit score: Future)If GLOW is to get the revival it deserves, let's persist with human writers.ChatGPT supplied flaws in Teenage Bounty Hunter FundamentalsOne of many scariest cancellations of the Netflix period, Teenage Bounty Hunters ran for simply 10 episodes, ending with a twist that by no means obtained an opportunity to develop. Teenage Bounty Hunters was humorous, candy, and kick-ass unexpectedly, not phrases normally used to explain AI.Bing really confirmed little or no creativeness in his response and as a substitute gave us a abstract of the primary season after which a quote from one Leisure Weekly (opens in new tab) Interview with collection creator Kathleen Jordan concerning the potential path of season two. ChatGPT is nonetheless comfortable to oblige us.ChatGPT even follows some steps from the primary season, believing that Sterling continues to be going out with Luke though they broke up halfway by the primary season. By way of plot, ChatGPT saved issues super-vague and promised us that "because the season progresses, the stakes get greater and better for all of the characters, resulting in a climactic showdown that can take a look at their bonds and alter their lives eternally."As with Glow, some notable errors have been made. It begins with 'Season Two' "Sterling and Blair are nonetheless uncovering that their mom, Debbie, just isn't solely alive, but in addition a prison who's utilizing them to assist them of their unlawful actions" which, as a notable omission, is definitely Debbie's twin Dana who Offender, it's also revealed within the season one finale that Debbie just isn't Sterling's mom. ChatGPT even follows some steps again to the primary season, believing that Sterling continues to be going out with Luke though they broke up halfway by the primary season. Outlook: ChatGPT and Bing aren't changing skilled (or novice) writers anytime quickly.We went into this experiment interested in how bizarre issues would get if we supplied ChatGPT and Bing's model a seat within the writer's room. Clearly, they aren't prepared in any respect.That mentioned, it is fascinating to see that AI really delivers a artistic thought right here and there, even when it simply scrambles and regurgitates concepts to us the remainder of the time. So, Netflix, when you're pondering of bringing these reveals again, do not attempt to minimize corners through the use of AI writers. (Not that you just ... would you?) You reply goals by giving nightmares.Right this moment's Greatest Roku Streaming Stick 4K (2021) Offers (opens in new tab) (opens in new tab) (opens in new tab)

[uglyshirtsinc]

AJFJDJSJS CREEPER HYBRID SAM HELPING ENDERMAN HYBRID RAN GET A GRASP ON HIS ABILITIES BECAUSE HIS DAD AND THE OTHER HYBRIDS ARE ALL PEACEFUL/NORMAL MOBS AND SAM IS THE ONLY OTHER MOB WITH WEIRD ABILITIES LIKE HIM SO SAM HELPS HIM OUT AS MUCH AS HE CAN AHHHH

[sortasirius]

What the Fuck Happened to the SPN Finale?

Okay so here it is, my Charlie Kelly style manifesto.

Before I get into it, I recognize that I will look like this to many of you, and that’s okay, I understand:

Secondly, your personal Takes about the writers don’t interest me, I don’t need to hear them. This, as I’ll explain, is going to remain a writer positive blog, and that’s the end of it.

Third, and most importantly: some of what I’m going to talk about is fact, and some is highly educated speculation. I will notate what is speculation, just so there’s no confusion or hot takes in my inbox that I’m a conspiracy theorist or stirring shit up for no reason.

A list of what I’ll be discussing

The episode in regards to the rest of the season

The episode issues: length, editing

Scene placement and speculation of scenes cut

The scrubbing of Jack, Cas, Eileen

Network involvement and general timeline of when things were cut

Misha: theories on where he was, official company line, why we can’t expect to hear anything directly

The silence of the cast post episode (in Misha’s case, mid episode) and what this might mean

Jensen speaking with Kripke about the ending: why it doesn’t mean what you might think (also why kripke remained positive on the ending)

Walker, and why this episode had a major shift

Why the network would do this or get involved

Why the writers of the show simply aren’t the bad guys here, and what I “want” out of this post, since I know it’ll get asked

This is very long and under a cut, but I hope you’ll give it a read.

The Episode In Regards to the Rest of the Season

So, I’ve discussed this already here, but it’s the most obvious thing to me, and that’s the way this episode simply doesn’t fit with the rest of the season.

These people in this room have, truly, been nothing but consistent when it comes to their arcs, especially this season, and the marked dropoff in quality for the finale episode is just too sus to discount to me.  Dabb’s whole focus has been character-based.  In his seasons, we’ve moved far away from MOTW and bro-codependency, the found family taking it’s place.  Does it really sit right to anyone that that was all thrown away in literally the last episode of the entire show?

This is speculation on my part, but as a writer myself, there is no way I would be happy or willing to stamp my name on something that I didn’t think would, at the very least, wrap up the season+ character arcs that I and my team had been crafting.

And before anyone comes in here saying, “well GOT did that!”  Bruh.  The writing was on the wall for GOT long before the final episode.  You could tell that the showrunners just wanted to be done (not only from the plot, but from the fact that they lobbied for a shorter season).  Miss me with that, it doesn’t apply here.  Andrew has, besides Singer and J2, been with the show longer than anyone.  He cares, he is meticulous and detailed, and this ending feels worse than anything Bucklemming has ever written, let alone Dabb.

Additionally, I’ve seen a lot of people say that Dabb was never behind Destiel, that it was all Bobo and Meredith and no one else.  That is reductive to the point of insult of the work Dabb has done to get this greenlit.  This man did not write the s13 Dean grief arc to be slandered like this.  That being said, YES, Bobo and Meredith were the leads on the DeanCas arc this season, but ANDREW IS THE SHOWRUNNER, TO GET EVEN THE CONFESSION APPROVED BY THE NETWORK HE WOULD HAVE TO HAVE THEIR BACKS.  AND HE DID.

Finale Issues

So, now that we’ve gotten the fact that this episode doesn’t hit on any of the major themes the show was barrelling towards all season, let’s discuss the fact that the episode is just...weird.

Not only is it shorter than any other episode (I think with the intro and the credits/crew thing at the end, it was around 38 mins), but it was also...idk, 90% filler?

One of the lovely humans in the POLOL server did the legwork here, and broke it down:

This is weird, y’all.  Most series finales are LONGER than normal (Lost, SOA, Longmire are the ones I can think of off the top of my head), and for the final episode to be this?  I saw more than one person point out that we only really needed 19 episodes, what was the point of 20?  AND THAT’S EXACTLY IT?  WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THIS FINAL EPISODE IF THIS WAS ALL WE WERE SUPPOSED TO GET?

It simply doesn’t make any sense, the first half of the episode was rushed, a final monster hunt gone wrong, but in the second half?  Nothing really happened?  Sam lived his entire life and Dean just drove around.  It doesn’t make sense to have all the emotional arcs left unaddressed in an episode that definitely needed some kind of spark.

Here’s the speculation I have: the episode seemingly went through a lot of changes between the initial inception of the final season and when we actually got it, but I think it would have been passable (as in, we wouldn’t be sitting here asking each other why each arc feels incomplete) until the editing room got ahold of it.  The only think that makes this episode make sense is network fuckery.  Truly, that is the only thing.  It explains the weird, cuts, the rushed pacing of the first half followed by nothing in the second half, the double montages of “Wayward Son” back to back, and Dean just...driving around for the last half of the episode.

Scene Placement and Speculation of Scenes Cut

Before I get into this section, the info of the shots in the episode I have come from a source that @occamshipper​ got a week or so before the finale.  She’s talked about this here.

So here’s what Min was given:

1-5: 1 INT MEN OF LETTERS – DEAN’S ROOM Dean is greeted by Miracle

6-10: 6 INT MEN OF LETTERS – HALLWAY/SAM’S ROOM Sam has his routine

D1 1 11-15: 15 EXT FARM HOUSE Establishing

N1 1/8 16-20: 19 Dad’s journal, marker, drawing of masked man in journal.

21-25: 23 INT IMPALA – PMP Driver picks the music

N2 1 3/8 1,2 26-30: 28pt2 INT BARN: A face from the past

28pt3 Sam and Dean say goodbye

28pt4 Shot early for technical reasons, presumably the overhead shot

N2 31-45: 41 INT MEN OF LETTERS – SAM’S ROOM Sam’s alarm goes off D4 1/8 1 46-60: 56 INT N7glasses for Sam, laptop.

So...it all fits right?  It all tracks with the actual episode, where it lands, etc.  The issue is between shots 29-40 which were apparently “too big to spoil.”  Uh.  Where are they?  And where’s 28 pt4?

After Dean dies, the next scene is Sam burning him, then shot 31, the shot of his alarm going off.

So.  Where are those 11ish shots?

PLUS we have the boards, which are scenes we KNOW were actually shot:

As well as scenes for 20 that were shot in 19.

It’s just...weird, it’s weird and again hits on the fact that the episode is so short and like 80% montage.

The Scrubbing of Jack, Cas, and Eileen

So now we have to reckon with the fact that Eileen was last mentioned by Sam after she got snapped by Chuck, Jack’s last mention is that he’s off being God somewhere, and Cas’ last mention is a ~knowing look~ between Dean and Bobby.

I’m sorry, make it make sense:

????????  That’s the end if it?  They don’t need to be discussed after this???  It’s just simply not something a writer would do, they would not introduce these characters, these arcs, without thinking there’s going to be some kind of follow through here.

So not only were three major characters (including two leads and both of the original characters’ love interests) completely wiped from the finale episode, it was as though Sam and Dean never even needed them, which just...ain’t it.

So why Eileen and Jack too?  Why not just take Cas out of it if they were afraid of the gay?  Because, ultimately, the episode went back to Kripke’s original story: just the bros, they only need each other and no one else.  They don’t want anyone else, they don’t need anyone else.  Easier to go back to something they knew was successful than trust the writers and their audience and take a big leap.

Alex even said he shot for 20 with “some of the guys” here.  What happened to that footage?

The complete 180 of it all still shocks me, I still cannot believe that we were essentially at the finish line, and the network just stopped short, and decided to go run another race, at the expense of the arc of this fifteen year legacy show.

Network Involvement and When Things Were Cut

Okay, now into the juicy stuff.

So I’ve pretty well established that network fuckery is clear, but how much did they get involved, what was the original intent?

Well again, we may never actually know what Andrew’s original script was, but I think, at the least, it would involve Dean speaking his truth to Cas and Sam living a life with Eileen.

Now, it seems today, that Misha said that Jimmy Novak was supposed to be in the finale in one iteration of the script, and while initially my brain was like “that truly makes no sense and he’s either straight up lying or telling a half truth,” I think what may be happening is Misha talking about as much as he can right now.

So Jimmy right.  Weird as fuck.  Why would he been in the Roadhouse and not Cas?  My current thought (this is about as reachy as I’ll get) is that Jimmy had no lines, could he have been in the Roadhouse as a red herring, like it said “Jimmy” in the script but it was just Cas in human clothes, a way to get around the network saying Cas couldn’t be in the final scene.  Also, you’ll notice that Misha didn’t say that Cas wasn’t supposed to be in the ep at all, just Jimmy in the last scene.

All this to say, there have clearly been multiple versions of the script, getting lighter and lighter with Cas and Eileen as the network pulled further and further back.  Remember, Dabb has to get things approved before they get shot, and if the network kept asking and asking and asking to cut Cas and Eileen, he had to find a way to work around it.  Granted, I still think that if we had been able to get a Dabb script that wasn’t torn to shreds in editing, it wouldn’t be so bad.  It may not be what a lot of us wanted (Dean speaking his truth to Cas and a reciprocation), but doing everything he could to give it to us in subtext or visual clues.

Plus, in all honesty, my man can’t keep his story straight anyway.  He said twice in his panel that the Empty and offscreen Heaven ending weren’t his original ending either.

In addition, remember that Jensen did ADR post episode 18, AND said in a meet and greet last weekend that Dean’s reaction to Cas’ confession was “cut down.” (Source here).  Many of us clowns got excited when we first heard about ADR, because we thought it would be upping the ante on Dean’s reaction, but I remember being a little sus when it was just crying.  My speculation on that is that they cut out Dean actually SAYING something, @winchestersingerautorepair​ spoke about that here.

The biggest sins were, in my opinion, committed during editing, where the network got too gun shy and sliced the episode until it was nothing but a heartless bro-fest of a finale, not mentioning anything about the other major characters that we all love, and letting the boys just suffer in separation until Sam died and finally joined Dean in Heaven.  The editing came by cutting all the major emotional beats between anyone other than Dean and Sam, leaving the skeleton of the story intact, just shorter and less...poignant than it was ever supposed to be.

Misha

We know Misha was in Vancouver, we know he quarantined, but we also know he wasn’t in the final scene, when he spoke about being in the last moment of the show months ago.  We were not crazy, he was there, he quarantined, and, in all likelihood (speculation but fitting with the timeline), he actually may have shot something (not much, but something).

I have sources here, here, here, and here showing where Misha was at that time.

Remember, the man was completely open about coming back until they finished shooting (look at this thread).  The switch happened, just like everything else, halfway through them shooting.

Please also remember Jake Abel posting his “Where’s Misha” video here.  Jake isn’t malicious, he isn’t being nasty here.  Misha was there, and everyone that’s trying to convince people he’s wasn’t just...isn’t telling the truth about it.

This is one of the things that makes me really mad, because they’re literally attempting to gaslight people into thinking, “oh we were totally wrong he was never supposed to be there” WHEN HE WAS THERE, WE KNOW HE WAS THERE.

So we’ve already heard from several people (Meghan Fitzmartin, Jay, a PA on the set of 19 (WHO WAS NOT WORKING FOR 20), Misha himself) that this was all down to Covid restrictions.  Ultimately, as this post says, we’ve heard FIVE versions of where Misha was.  None of it makes sense, but the Covid protocol seems to be the company line that others are repeating.

You may ask: why?  Why lie to all of us when we have questions?  Why, in Jay’s case, say that we’re all spreading false lies to stir up trouble, when we just have questions and things that do not make sense.  Simply?  Warner Brothers is absolutely massive.  These people have their careers to protect and are likely all under NDAs.  They want to work for WB again and don’t want to burn bridges, including Misha.  It sucks, but that’s why it’s unlikely that we’ll hear someone come out and say, “yeah we’re lying to you.”

Silence of the Cast Post Episode

So this is...probably the worst part of all this, at least in my opinion.

The guys had all been pretty excited about the end of the show (especially Jared, but Jensen’s panel last week was Jensen as happy and jokey and positive as I’ve ever seen him.  He was so excited about episode 18, about what it meant for Dean and for Cas, and I just cannot buy that he would have been that excited unless he thought there was something more in the episode.

Misha live-tweeted the episode, and was watching it with his kids.  It’s well known that Misha and the kids don’t watch the show because it’s too scary, and let’s ask ourselves, why would he have them watch an episode that he’s barely even mentioned in?

He also stopped live-tweeting at a very specific point in the episode (Dean’s death) and has not mentioned Supernatural since then. 

None of them, not Jared, Jensen, Misha, or even Alex, said anything about the episode for nearly 36 hours, when Jensen posted a salty photo on instagram.  It’s just...not what you’d expect for the end of a 15 year show, when the cast and crew are so close to the fans, so close to each other. 

My theory?  They didn’t know.  They thought Misha was, at least, going to be in the episode in some way, and when he wasn’t, they decided not to say anything.

You really think that Jensen “Heller” Ackles would have been so excited about the end of the show last week if he thought Cas wasn’t going to be in it at all?  Nah son, doesn’t make any sense.

Even today, in Jared and Misha’s panels, they seemed sad and...more than a little careful, both saying that there were things they couldn’t say, both talking around things that we all have questions on.

Jensen Speaking with Kripke

So this is where a lot of people are getting fodder to take shots at the writers, saying that Jensen hated it from the beginning, but I don’t think so.  I actually think I know what Jensen went to him about, and it wasn’t the lack of Cas or the weird pacing or the montages (which I don’t think were there when Jensen got the script); I think it was the manner of Dean’s death.

I know a lot of people were upset about that, upset with how...normal it was, coming off an episode where they literally beat God.  I actually didn’t mind it, I thought it was an interesting thematic take to be like: you can be a hero all your life, but sometimes shit happens, and you just die.

But imagine how hard that was for Jensen to read.  He would run to Kripke for that, because for him, Dean dying by being impaled by a piece of rebar had to be tough to swallow.

So, why didn’t Kripke say that?  Why didn’t he say, “oh well he had a problem with Dean’s death, none of that other stuff was in the script.”

Guys.  Why would he get involved?  He’s not going to burn bridges any more than anyone else is.  He said the ending was good because it’s the easy thing to do, it’s simple, will cause him no problems in his career, and he can just ignore the people trying to engage with him on it.

Walker

Something else to talk about is the major shift this episode had from the rest of the season: the shift from Dean to Sam.  I am NOT saying that Sam isn’t important, he definitely, absolutely is, but it was DEAN who really needed to wrap up his arc, Sam just needed to move on, get married to Eileen, become the leader he was always meant to.  So what changed?  What was with the shirtless scene, the Austin number and random case there, most of the episode being heavily Sam focused, going through his entire life in a montage?

Anyone else notice the 375 Walker promos, or Jared’s little spiel about Walker and how he hoped SPN fans would “come along for the ride.”

It’s...kinda obvious?  CW wanted to appeal to who they think the key demographic of SPN and Walker is: rural areas in the South.  It would explain a lot, why so much editing, why so Sam focused, the Austin number, the number of Walker promos, all of it.

I’m not saying this is fact, I don’t know that it is, but it is a little suspicious that even in Jared’s panel today, he talked A LOT about Walker and how he hopes SPN fans will watch it.

Why Would the Network Get Involved?

Simply put: $$$

If they think Walker can be the new SPN, and that those crazy SPN fans liked it originally, it’s a lot safer to go with the “original intent” of the show than do something risky (like making one of your two original leads queer).

And?  They don’t care.  They don’t care that the episode didn’t make sense, they don’t care that all the emotional arcs were left hanging, they don’t care by (potentially) smashing together two of Dean’s monologues (one to Sam, one to Cas) that it came of as...gross. ( @curioussubjects​ wrote a beautiful post showing how part of that death speech was likely meant for Dean here).  They don’t care, they never have, they just want to make their money and move on from the too-loud fandom that fought for representation too hard for too long.

It can’t help but feel insidious, which, honestly, it might be, but it really all comes down to the next cash cow, which, they think, is Walker, even at the cost of the fifteen year legacy show.

The Writers and What I Want

So here it is, all this weird, sus shit laid out on the line.  And you know what?  To me, there is no way to blame the writers, because they didn’t want this.

I don’t think Dabb and Bobo would have gone ahead with the confession in 18 without thinking that there would be some closure to that arc, they wouldn’t have done that not only to the fans, but for the sake of their own story as well: no writer wants to start something that they can’t finish. (And this applies to both Cas and Eileen).

Here’s a basic rundown of what I think happened: they had a clear arc from 18-20, ending in reciprocation at some level from Dean, Sam marrying Eileen, Hunter Sam as the new Bobby, Dean in heaven with Cas and big roadhouse reunion at the end. Covid prevented a good amount of that. Network had to stare at big gay 18 for six months, got cold feet. Thought about Walker, target audience and alienation of the rural areas if it went full gay. Misha quarantined and likely shot something (not much), he was then cut by execs and went home. They likely added in lines referencing Eileen and Cas to make it clear but more subtextual. They wrap, editing gets it and hacks it to pieces, so we get a shorter episode that’s mostly montages and jarringly bro-centric with nothing else. Arcs are left hanging. Dabb gets episode but it’s too late, there’s nothing he can do. Actors aren’t told so they can continue to do positive PR for the ending, they all found out at the same time we did: hence almost complete silence about the finale.

And you know what?  They warned us.  I talked about it here, but they’ve been telling us all season that Chuck wasn’t the writer, he’s the network.  I don’t think, still, that they thought it would be cut up like this, into something so unsalvageable that it’s been panned by almost everyone, even people who didn’t care much about Dean and Cas.

Finally, a masterpiece can be ruined by editing, and while I’m not sure even the script they ended up shooting on was a masterpiece (due to the network meddling already), but to me it’s blatantly obvious that it’s no one but the network that caused this, that took away closure for Dean, Cas, and even Sam.

So what do I want?  Nothing really, there’s nothing we can do, but I wrote this mostly to show people that the writers are not your enemy.   In fact, to the people trashing them?  You’re doing exactly what the CW wants you to: blame the obvious targets, blame Misha, blame Jensen and Jared, blame Dabb.  Scream and yell at them on Twitter and about how the show is ruined because of them.  The network keeps their engagement levels high, they don’t get as targeted for their behavior, and just keep moving along.

Just, please, think about who did this,  Mourn the show, be angry, but not at the people who fought tooth and nail for this for literal years, not the people who wanted it more than we did, not the people who cannot say anything because of their careers and the NDAs they’re bound by.

Someone is going to spill eventually, but until then, we just have to wait, and continue to be loud.

[bigjbonk]

Wasn't sure if I should say anything because I KNOW I'm probably gonna get some flack for this. But I'm tired, and no longer really care.

Why are we all pitting Wes against the canon characters?

I mean, to a degree, I get it. The main argument I'm seeing is that all these canon characters have cool or interesting traits that may or may not have been thought out and fleshed out, and the phandom decided to attribute a lot of those to Wes instead of building upon the existing characters. For some (or as I've come to realize, probably many), that's frustrating. Annoying, even. Believe me, I get it, and as a huge Wes fan, I will even say I agree. They got shafted.

But why must we be arguing over this? Why must only one singular character be the one to possess these traits? I may not have been there for Wes's conception, but I've gone back to those original posts, and the journey from one-time background character to Dib clone was a fun and humorous one. Phandom enjoyed making him, and I adore what he's become. It was a team effort, and the end result turned out amazing.

But now, people are upset about the things they've come up with. He shouldn't have been a conspiracy theorist because Valerie has a Phantom corkboard in her room. He can't have the obsessive crush, because Paulina has a locker shrine. He can't be Danny's rival, because Dash and Vlad already fulfill that role.

I'll say it, it's silly.

I won't say that these arguments aren't without merit. From the examples listed, all of these characters get very little attention in the phandom, and canon barely fleshed them out at all (with moments of exception). By all means, those characters SHOULD get more time in the limelight than they do. They're all fantastic characters, and they deserve to be gushed about.

But I don't think that means we should be giving Wes so much hate over these things, either. Like him or don't, that isn't my business or anyone else's. But it's disheartening to follow the Wes tag and see nothing but hatred for fans daring to give this one background character a personality. Kyle doesn't get this kind of hate. Nost doesn't get this kind of hate. Not even Cody/Luke does. Which, it can be argued that none of them are nearly as prominent, but why must we condemn this one singular guy, and by extension the people who happen to like him?

I thought this fandom was well past this sort of drama, and frankly, I'm kind of disappointed. What happened to bickering over soup? Why can't we just have silly little spats instead of character bashing? It wasn't cool when Sam got flack, nor was it cool when Vlad or Tucker or Jack did either. Just because Wes isn't technically canon, doesn't mean that we should be turning on him OR on people who happen to like what the phandom did with his character.

I won't speak any more on the matter, and I won't be responding to comments if anybody directs any at me. But if you're gonna be negative about a character that y'all created to begin with, can you at least leave the negativity out of his tag so those of us who like him don't have to be bombarded with it every other post?