#season 2 liveblogging

[littleowlcreature]

you're laughing. his butt-naked boyfriend broke up with him to become the second coming of jesus christ and you're laughing.

[cuntyqueerleondraisaitl]

Loki: If I don't make it back I--

*disappears*

Mobius: he'll make it back

THATS GAY. THATS GAY. I'M SORRY THERE'S NO DENYING IT.

AND THE RAINBOW GLARE IN THE CORNER. THERE WAS A RAINBOW GLARE IN THE CORNER

ME HAVING STERK?

[d1etlem0nade]

"they were all idiots for assuming you were straight." friendly reminder that tao was talking right through the tv screen to YOU GUYS for what y'all did to kit it's literally a gut punch to see nick coming out handled with so much love in this show while the very fans of said show ruined this kid's life

[dreadedender]

AS A SKY LOVER I'M SO HAPPY HE REMEMBERS HER AND REGARDS HER SO MUCH.

[strawlessandbraless]

I would have watched 911 sooner if I knew they introduced a half naked Eddie Diaz in slo-mo while ‘Whatta Man’ plays and Buck seethes

The reactions from the crew are killing me

Chimney: now that’s a beautiful man

Hen: where’s the lie, and I like girls

Buck: who the hell is that

Bobby: that’s Eddie Diaz, new recruit and top of his class

Bobby looking at buck waiting for the explosion

[icy-watch]

I'm sorry. What's with the generic video game losing team poses?

[normallyiminsane]

Look, I would make the same face, ok, if dwarves come to save my ass

[jinxed-ninjago]

JAY AND NYA HAVE BEEN TO MERLOPIA FOR DINNER AT LEAST ONCE AND JAY ASKED FOR SUSHI FROM A FISH WAITER????

[sylvies-chen]

I think the focus on the firstborn sons this episode was really interesting as well because jacaerys and rhaenyra’s relationship reaches a point of tension in this episode for… probably the first time ever? and yet it contrasts so beautifully to the discussion between aegon and alicent.

jace is argumentative when his mother comes back, and he does make some bold statements for someone talking to a queen in front of her court. still, it comes from a place of love and worry, and that pervades in everything he says. his concern as to where she was, his refusal to let her go into battle. and rhaneyra did leave him and baela hanging for a bit! some tension is natural! this is someone who just loves their mother and wants so badly for everything to go right. rhaenyra of course holds her ground to shut down his boldness, but she does so in a very diplomatic way. then she pulls him aside to tell him about the song of ice and fire almost right afterwards. like emma d’arcy said, this is rhaneyra enfranchising him as her heir, but it’s also her showing him the respect of an equal. and visually it’s beautiful. she’s holding his hand as a sign of love and intimacy, they’re lit so beautifully with the light beaming down on them to show their potential and rightfulness as leaders, she’s doing it in front of a dragon skull like how her father did with her in the name of preserving tradition. it’s very succinct, very respectful, very loving.

then almost immediately before that, aegon ii and alicent have a discussion. aegon’s complaining that none of the council members respect him, and of course alicent can only view this as whining. she shuts him down as rhaenyra did jace, except without dignity and respect. alicent is lost. her beliefs are crashing and she really doesn’t know where her place is in all of this anymore, only that she caused this, so it leaves her with quite a bitter looseness. she disrespects him, calls him thoughtless, and when he reminds her that he is king, it kind of means nothing to her. I do believe she loves her children, but she treats them (especially aegon) the way she always has: as pawns. if the love is there, it isn’t shown. she says all kinds of blasphemous things about her king and then, instead of affirming his worth like rhaenyra did jace, she tells him he’s only a seat on a throne, that he’s worthless, that essentially it was never about wanting him on there, but about not wanting rhaenyra there (an idea conditioned into her by her father). all while they’re sitting an entire table’s length apart— not to mention that they go on to shatter various things in this episode. that’s the crux of it really: alicent and her children are dysfunctional, shattered and loveless where rhaenyra and her children are functional, united and loved.

I don’t know. there’s that dumbledore quote that goes “do not pity the dead, pity the living. and above all else, pity those who live without love.” to me, that’s the epitome of the greens. they might have known honour and compassion had they first known healthy love.

[bardic-irritation]

maybe unpopular opinion but I'm kinda loving Elias so far? like as a Person I would hate him but as a Character? kicking my feet and giggling everytime he makes a stupid joke or menaces someone. slayyyy old man. terrorizing your employees is so good for the Plot.

[white-agony-creek]

Yeah, if your sister was here, she would've showed you how to tell a real scary story, Donald. Her tale about the Gilded Man/Aztec Android left the triplets up the whole fucking night.

[philtrashnumberunus]

lestat hates santiago. he hates him. hes seething on stage. he was invited, as the literal founder of this theater company, and now some box blonde asshole is trying to upstage him? on his very own stage?

[aureachaos]

Xisuma: I just, uh, smashed my face into the side of your build

Pearl: Well, what'd you do that for?

Xisuma: Just to make a dramatic exit-ah, dramatic entrance

Pearl: Exit? He's already leaving before he's gotten here

Xisuma: Actually, I'll make it a dramatic exit, cuz I'm gonna log off. See you later

Pearl: Oh, okay

[d1etlem0nade]

isaac didn't even check out the ace book he just said "this is mine now because i'm having a sexuality crisis" and he's so real for that

[dreadedender]

If I actually get to see them get along and bond and work together I will fucking CRY.

[incesthemes]

i realize how demented this sounds but hear me out okay.

when sam first sees the "angel" in houses of the holy, dean offers him a drink from his flask—sam refuses. at the end of the episode when sam's faith has been crushed by the disappointing reality, dean offers his flask again, and sam accepts it this time.

the difference between these two scenes lies in sam's faith: in the first sequence, sam is filled with a religious fervor and a hope for his own redemption. in the second, he's crippled and lost and hopeless. there's a few interpretations of this which i think all kind of overlap and influence each other.

first and foremost, the most literal, baseline interpretation of this is probably that sam is interpreting dean's gesture (somewhat accurately) as being dismissive of his experience in the first sequence, but as compassionate in the second. there is a marked difference in how dean offers the flask to sam each time, and dean too has undergone a change throughout the episode to influence his understanding of god and faith.

but these scenes can also have interesting symbolic meaning, too. this is alcohol that dean is offering. it's a substance from which abstinence is associated with moral purity—the prohibition movement was led by protestants seeking to eliminate corruption and violence from the world, and it was framed as a battle for morality. therefore, temperance is seen as good, pure, and righteous. when sam is consumed by his faith, he abstains. when he loses his faith, he imbibes.

and through that moral lens, there's another interesting interpretation that can be found. the flask belongs to dean, and he is seen drinking from it. when sam drinks from it, too, they're literally swapping spit. metaphorically, drinking from the same flask can be seen as a kiss, and this isn't the only time this metaphor is used, either. in sex and violence, nick drinks from dean's flask, then lets dean drink from it again—and this sharing of saliva is what puts dean under his siren's spell.

in sex and violence, sharing a flask is depicted as an explicitly sexual act, a stand-in for a kiss. nick is dean's sexual fantasy, the ideal little brother, and he snags dean through an indirect kiss.

so if sharing a flask is a sexual act, then it can apply here: abstaining from alcohol is morally righteous and good, and imbibing is morally tarnished. sam, in his ecstasy, wants to be good—he thinks he's been chosen for redemption, after all. he wants to live up to the potential that the "angel" sees in him. he refuses the drink, and only when he's lost his faith does he accept it.

but it's dean's flask. accepting the drink would also be a sexual thing—he would be kissing his brother. it would be an act of incest, something impure and unholy and sinful. he wants to be good, so he rejects not just the drink but dean himself, because to engage with him would be a sin. this rejection is embedded within a plot which drives sam and dean apart, their religious philosophies at war. they drift further apart with each clash of theologies, and they both reject each other's perspectives in their loyalty to their own.

it's only after he loses his faith that he stops trying to be good, that he accepts the drink, that he takes dean back into himself. he kisses his brother when he returns to him, and it's after this reuniting kiss that they're able to come together again and find compromise and concession, their respective ideologies shifting toward each other's until they've found equilibrium again. through the flask, they literally kiss and make up, and their codependency is secured through that kiss.