#season 5 analysis

[nabexis]

So like. Did anyone else notice that Jayce doesn't immediately shoot Viktor? He only powers his hammer on AFTER Viktor has opened his eyes. Below is Jayce's reaction to seeing Viktor (his Viktor, from his universe, not the future version of him) for the first time after walking into the dome. For the first time in months. That's like. A look of wonder. Almost reverence.

Assuming the Jinx/Rictus/Vander fight is cut to real-time after Jayce has gone into the dome, he's staring at Viktor for like. 5 minutes.

My interpretation here, of Jayce's expression just before Viktor finally opens his eyes to see Jayce in the room with him, he's committing Viktor to memory, before he has to kill him.

Edit: I almost missed it but like. HE IS SMILING For like 2 frames it's an outright smile. He leans in towards him, too. I cannot handle this.

[bonskidin64]

The absolute HURTTT in his eyes after Troy said what he said.

[stranger-theory]

im only genuinely thinking about it now but what the FUCK is going on in the bedroom scene. seriously. they have a heartfelt talk about how different they are from their other friends?? mike tells will that he was worrying TOO MUCH about el??? mike tells will that home isnt home without him???? they gaze into each others eyes for longer than normal????? the script says that their "intimate moment was shattered" which is an incredibly popular romance trope?????? hello???????

[sirfrogthe3rd]

"If an artist falls in love with you, you can never die."

[cherllyio]

How Macaque died (Season 5 spoilers)

@rika1991tr tagged me, and asked what it tells us about Macaque's death/ him and Wukong's fight.

So- this is for you :D

and...

*cracks knunckles*

OH BOY

To get to the bottom of this, we have to understand one thing:

Wukong and Macaque never stopped caring for eachother. Beheind all that hate in the first three seasons, they still cared for eachother (none of them dares to show it though)

Just look at how Macaque reaches out for Wukong- (godamnit)

So... what was that "something" Wukong was going to do, that he was warning Macaque about?

Well... Wukong was going to do THIS to Macaque:

Because as my dear friend @lu-zijing (they talked about it here) mentioned to me, there is chains here in Macaque death scene:

And not only that, thoughs chains look A LOT like the chains Tripitaka and Wukong put on LBD:

SO IN OTHER WORDS:

MK AND WUKONGS FIGHT ARE A PARALELL TO MACAQUE AND WUKONG'S FIGHT.

AND ALSO THIS LINE?

Nine headed demon: How did you know that spell? Who did you make a deal with?

Macaque: What deal?

So clearly Macaque has a power, tha he got from someone else, that he CANT control.

And what do we see here in this scene?

The chains broken (again thanks to Lu-Zijing for mentioning that to me), but the shadowpowers OUT OF CONTROL.

In other words: I higely doubt Wukong acutally killed Macaque.

Yes, they got into a fight, but Wukong just wanted to trap Macaque in chains, so he could talk him out of this fight (instead of fighting who used to be his closest compainion).

But... something went wrong. Because right after that line we saw this:

Meaning that Wukong (acdently), destroyed Macaques eye, causing Macaque to PANIC, resulting in Macaque over-using his shadowpowers and then...

...

And one last thing, I would like to point out-

In that same scene Macaque was laughing, and an pretty evil laugh at that.

Almost like... his shadow powers had "taken over".

So lets do the math, yea?

Super unstable shadowpowers + super unstable monkey + the only friend he has ever had "leaving" him =

Ha ha- not to mention Wukong isnt even wearing a circlet here, meaning it didnt even take place in JTTW-!! but thats another can of worms, I will talk about another day-

(lol, did you know I acutally somehow foresaw this in a fanfic-)

[strawberrybyers]

the outfit parallels to season 1 are going to put me in a god damn coma,, if you hear nervous laughing sorry that’s just me because WHAT THE FUCK

[bkdk-bylerthings]

Why I think we’ll get a Byler dance scene in season 5

While getting ready for the snowball..we have a montage of the kids getting ready for it starting with Will. Johnathan records his brother and his mom teaching Will how to dance right as Joyce spins it’s focused on her then flashes to Mike.

In film it’s always important to have details like this for example someone in a scene could be talking about ‘I need to take a shower’ the next clip is a completely different character turning on the shower, I’m pretty sure this called momentum and to have a flow in said show.

So for it to switch to Mike it’s almost like Will was/is supposed to dance with Mike. I’d also like to point out this is all from a camera pov, 1st Jonathan ‘s video recorder to Karen’s camera

These clues are all over the place, you just have to pay close attention to notice them and realized they were done on purpose.

So this scene is just waiting to be finished just like many others in this show, season 5 will resolve everything.

[consultingfujoshi]

some thoughts wrt the two established "romances" in severance so far (burt/irving and helly/mark) inspired by @figmentof who pointed out how irving had to find out mark and helly kissed from the corporate video in s2 e1 and how he must have felt seeing his co-workers' love affair like portrayed like that, and how it ties into the queer narrative at play here which uses workplace dynamics and policies as very clear analogues for real-life prejudice against queer couples. I mean, just look at this:

it's not just documented, but celebrated. used as propaganda for how the conditions on the severance floor have improved. proof that the severed workers are happy. and how even though he is unaware of the sociopolitical meaning of all this, lumon is very not-subtly telling him that what he had with burt is inherently lower and less valuable than this.

irving doesn't even know homophobia exists and yet he is still affected by it, it still seeps into every corner of the way his and burt's romance progresses. burt is positioned as an unacceptable love interest from the jump. irv is actively discouraged at every turn from pursuing it. their friendship is viewed with disgust and apprehension from their coworkers. burt working in a different department that's hated by MDR. dylan himself not being homophobic in the sense he opposes their relationship because they're both men but his attempts to keep them apart still has a parallel sort of prejudice behind it and still ultimately has the same effect as if it WERE driven by homophobia. irving is made to feel perverse for wanting contact with burt. he's told this is for his own good.

and then, just as they manage to overcome that immediate resistance from their peers and escape to a place where they can explore this blossoming romance on their own terms, burt retires. for all it matters to irv, he's dead. and then irving is given the option to live the rest of his life with grief that will never heal, or kill himself too, because there is no reality where they get to be together. that's just the way things are. of course they wouldn't get to be together. he was unreasonable and childish for ever hoping that could happen. this is just the way it goes for innies. he's told to get ahold of himself and not make a scene.

but the thing is, the standards are not the same for all. a heterosexual romance gets upheld as the shining example of success and fulfilment for the severed employees, whilst a homosexual romance is ridiculed and invalidated, and written off as something that was simply never meant to be. and even more importantly to irving, a heterosexual romance is APPROVED OF by lumon, and by extension, by kier. irv held back from allowing himself to even call his and burt's relationship a romance, because his god had told him it was wrong, he followed the handbook, thinking this was what kier wanted, and then finding out after suffering the worst heartbreak imaginable because of it, that this WASN'T EVEN TRUE. it's simply just that someone like HIM doesn't get to have something like this. his love is not the kind of love god wants. he does not approve of irv's love. cynical and manipulative though that approval may be (even within the context of the corporate video, the helly/mark romance is only being celebrated to further the narrative that lumon care for their workers, but the point still remains that it was THEIR romance specifically used to suit this end), when your entire life has been in pursuit of that approval, it must be devastating to learn it was never on the cards for you.

he and burt even used the fact kier met and fell in love with his wife in the same circumstances as them to justify this to each other - and they were RIGHT, god does approve of falling in love with your coworkers - this simply just doesn't apply to them specifically. and if irving needed any more proof that he no longer has a place at lumon, that he's better off not existing at all than existing with this pain that cannot be remedied, pain that won't even be acknowledged for what it is, a symptom of a sickness which plagues the entire severance system, pain that he is simply expected to choke down and get over - this is that proof.

and that's the POINT. they're TELLING us that this is unjust, and there's a double standard. they're using the ways the innies experience romance and the difference in lumon's reaction (lumon being the collective of all the management we've seen, lumon as a singular entity) to burt/irving vs helly/mark to comment on how queer people are not afforded the same level of respect or validation IN REAL LIFE, for their attachments, their love, their pain, their suffering. it is NOT just incidental that irving's romance is with a man. it would not WORK if his love interest was a woman. the POINT is that they are both men and how that puts them at a disadvantage, even if they aren't aware of the prejudices of the outside world, even if they don't TECHNICALLY apply on the severance floor, there are very clear analogues which still end up oppressing them in equivalent ways that they would be suffering if this were a normal workplace in the outside world.

it genuinely sickens me to my stomach that even in a world so divorced from reality and the sensibilities of regular society, a queer couple is still made to suffer and feel inferior in a way that perfectly mirrors their real-life counterparts. how they will never, EVER be allowed to exist in a world where their love could thrive freely and uninhibited - they never get to taste the joy our world has to offer people like them, but they are still somehow subjected to all the pain it has to offer them regardless. it's such horrifically devastating writing. it makes my skin crawl. I can't stop thinking about it

[sylvariths]

The ending of YOU was, in my opinion, one of the most brilliant and haunting conclusions to a TV show—and it honestly blows my mind how many people still don’t understand it, or worse, continue to romanticize Joe Goldberg.

People forget—or choose to ignore—that Joe is mentally unstable and a textbook unreliable narrator. His internal monologue, that calm, poetic voiceover, isn’t insight—it’s manipulation. He’s constantly justifying his violence, his obsession, and his crimes, not only to himself but to us, the audience. And the scariest part? It works. Too many people fall for it.

Joe was never actually in love with any of the women he chased. He was in love with the power he had over them—the thrill of watching, planning, manipulating. He didn’t want an equal, someone who could see through him. That’s why he couldn’t stand Love Quinn, even though she was arguably his perfect match. She knew him too well. She was chaos that matched his own. And that terrified him. What he really wanted was someone naive, someone he could control while convincing both of them he was the hero of the story.

Then comes the final twist: Joe in prison, getting flooded with letters from adoring fans, mostly women, who romanticize him the same way the audience has all along. And in that moment, the show turns the camera on us. It’s no longer just about Joe’s delusion—it’s about ours. Society romanticizes obsessive, violent men and labels it love. We forgive red flags when they come in pretty packaging and whisper sweet lines over vintage books.

That final line—“Maybe the problem isn’t me. Maybe it’s you.”—isn’t just Joe being Joe. It’s the writers pointing straight at the audience, holding up a mirror. And for those who still don’t see it? Well, maybe that line was meant for them.

[nayalovesbyler2]

people may dislike this will byers outfit but mike wheeler certainly didn’t

[midnightmonth]

Byler almost kiss scenes?

People say we´re delusional just bc “we haven’t gotten romantic byler scenes” when the story is actually secretly hinting that there´s smtg going on there.

It’s not that we lack of romantic moments, they´re there and u can see them clearly if u pay attention. For some other couples it has been pretty easy to tell if they are in love with eo bc we’ve gotten cliché moments like an almost kiss and get interrupted or long stares at eo

but what if… we already got NOT ONLY ONE scene like that of Will and Mike having an intimate moment, staring at each other so powerfully that it feels like an almost kiss. And just look at how they get snapped out of it when they get interrupted 😭, specially in the first clip of the video, they got scared as if they were doing smtg wrong

video credits: angelwithnightmares in yt

If will was a girl, people would not have doubts about the fact that they’re so in love and they would cheer on them to get together. It’s sad to think that way but it’s true tho 🥲

[bonskidin64]

Mike, he didn’t mean literally! You little goober!!!😂

[waywardwhispersblaze]

Thinking back on The Plan to save Vander from Ambessa in ep 6.

We know that the timeline goes like this:

Caitlyn and Vi meet again, Vi tells her about Vander, they make a plan to save him

the plan needs the right timing to work; they agree to meet again at the right time and part ways; Vi goes back to the commune and tells Jinx everything (at which point Jinx absolutely calls out Vi for the risky plan and insta folding the minute she saw Caitlyn ;))

Jinx has Isha steal back her gun and they get into position

Jinx calls Vi a sentimental ex con, I'm still laughing at that. This is definitively a dig at Vi for being willing to (partially) trust Caitlyn again so quickly

Caitlyn and Singed enter, Jinx points her gun at them, waiting to see what happens

What is Jinx thinking at this point? Jinx's opinion of Caitlyn is not high. From her point of view, Cait's not only the Commander responsible for letting Noxus run all over Zaun and unleashing police brutality everywhere in the last few months, she's also the girl who broke Vi's heart.

I think she's half hoping for an excuse to shoot her, half hoping that Caitlyn doesn't break Vi's heart again.

And then Caitlyn strangles Singed. She follows the plan! She's actually helping Vi! During the sequence we see this quick shot of Jinx's face:

To me, this reads a bit like "ugh, fine. she's on our side after all"

Half relieved, half disappointed.

But she still jumps in to save Caitlyn's life from Rictus (she didn't have to! she could've let him kill her and then intervene to save Vander!), because even if she doesn't like it, she knows Vi would want her to. She now understands what Vi and Caitlyn mean to each other.

And then everything goes to shit and Jinx and Caitlyn end up with a gravely injured Vi on their hands, both freaking out. Jinx gets to see Caitlyn worried, probably even ignoring her because Vi's life is more important.

It's no wonder Jinx later tells Vi "you deserve to be with her"

[opalletto--freepalestine]

If Byler isn't canon using a gay character's suffering to fix a straight relationship is MESSED UP AF

Also ain't nothing fixing Mileven. El needs to find herself and Mike needs to find that angsty little bowlcut right in front of him

[cherllyio]

I want Pigsy's Noodles to be destroyed - a very angsty theory

(Spoilers)

I theorize this can happen, because if MK really does go apeshit, that would be the final trigger.

Because that little noodle shop, is the most comfortning place for MK.

Its the place he got a place to call home.

Its the place his dad is.

Its the place where he can seek comfort.

Therefore the best way to break MK, would be to take that away.

And then imagine if Pigsy was in the building when it got destroyed-

[puppiesareperfect]

After reading some of the new episode descriptions, I’m thinking this season is going to have a big focus on characters growing up & growing as people. The most obvious example of this is “License to Bust”, but that’s not the only upcoming episode where I see this. We also know that in one episode Isabella will “struggle to lead the fireside girls on her own”. Jeremy and Vanessa also are about to start thinking seriously about colleges. Hell, there’s even Carl, who is mentioned to be taking on several jobs in one episode. Carl was around 17 last season, meaning he probably needs money to pay for college or live on his own this summer. Working can no longer be about experience or extra credit—our unpaid intern needs money.

And to me this is a really exciting direction for the show to go. The final season aired about a decade ago. The people who watched the show when it first aired are grown up now. Specifically a lot of us are in early adulthood. Having the season reflect not just getting older, but adjusting to the changes that come with it, seems like the perfect way for the show to make a comeback. I also love that it’s willing to tell these stories with characters of all different ages. It lets the show feel like it’s growing up in its own right without drastically changing anything. Plus, it doesn’t alienate any newer viewers who will inevitably find the show.

TL;DR the new season is gonna feature a bunch of coming of age stories and I’m hyped