#season 5 analysis

[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

[sirfrogthe3rd]

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

[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.

[jim-bones-spock]

I want to write a big essay on community season 6 and how deeply meta it is and how Jeff and Abed, as usual, perfectly mirror each other.

Jeff is slowly realizing he’s truly in a tv show and freaking out about it because it’s season 6 and most of his original friends are gone and he’s stuck in the show (“Even Pierce got to die!” and “I’m gonna be the last one here!” “But Abed… Six seasons and a movie?”)

Abed is slowly detaching himself from the show, having accepted that change is sometimes a good thing and stepping into “real life” (leaving for university - “Jeff, I know it comforts you to see the world through that meta lense, but this is reality”)

How Frankie represents the studios wanting a less goofy show, transforming Greendale into a more respectable school (tv show) and slowly chipping away what made Community truly weird and only when they “save” Greendale is when they end the series because it’s not our Community anymore.

It’s Community, sure, but through season 6 they keep asking to tone down the bits and the bizarre stuff (shutting down paintball, because they’re just not that kind of school anymore). The Dean being treated like a baby (which he is. Babygirl Dean) and being removed from his position of authority meaning we are not in charge anymore. Frankie, beautiful, headstrong Frankie is, a new era has come.

And that’s okay. Almost everyone left. Britta, the Dean… Everyone is happy. People grow and change and that’s okay. After school ends, you don’t keep in touch with everyone. You lose track of people who saw you grow, saw you become a better person. It doesn’t change the fact that you’re still that good person.

You still drive your friends to the airport and hug your first friend you made almost seven years ago twice before you watch him leave for a better future.

Everybody moves on.

Even Pierce got to die.

[miraculous-floconfettis]

"The baker girl".

This is how people like Chloé or Gabriel have been referring to Marinette in a mean and mocking way throughout the seasons, as if this was something she should be ashamed of.

The fact that her Lucky Charm turned out to be a baker's peel and she used it to beat the crap out of Monarch is so symbolic and powerful.

[menacetomany]

jon sims is not the antichrist he's actually a jesus figure

i've been doing a lot of research into revelation for writing stuff and martin is very incorrect when he calls himself the antichrist's plus one. that's melanie. and here's why

1) the antichrist is a figure that stems from the book of Revelation, the bible's apocalypse book. But the antichrist actually had nothing ot do with the apocalypse start, and actually doesnt even show up till like 19 chapters in its insane. He's just some random dude who starts a cult, and has a False Prophet hyping him up, so the antichrist is actually georgie and the false prophet is melanie. 2) the person who actually starts the apocalypse is 'the lamb with seven horns and seven eyes, that looked like it'd been slaughtered,' which is a metaphorical representation of jesus. (Funnily enough, if you look through revelation, its actually angels doing most of the tormenting, not demons!) 3) He has literally died and woken up before, and then some time later he dies for real, just like actual jesus. Not to mention him descending into the buried--literally being buried in a cave, just like jesus was on the cross, before emerging after 3 days. Peter even explicitly calls him a 'grubby jesus'. 4) Jesus as a character is all about self-sacrifice and needless suffering to bring about a better world. Wonder What That Reminds Me Of! Even his 3-day descent into the buried is explicitly a self-sacrifical, semi-suicidal act. And on a more literal level, Jon suffering on every level possible was what was necessary to bring about the Change, and then the expulsion of the Fears from this universe (and dooming a bunch of other universes, but just as the bible doesnt spare a thought for all the people trapped in hell for eternity when describing the post-apocalyptic utopia, we're not thinking about the other worlds rn. just this one.) 5) the amount of jon fanart i've seen mistaken for jesus is truly ridiculous

[generalluxun]

I'm glad someone tackled the 'you didn't have to write it this way' for CB/E argument already, but I want to add one more on that vein.

Writing it that way explicitly sets up a finalé where Adrien *is* there. Those two seeds: once to introduce an idea, a second time to reinforce the idea, are the exact setup for a proper narrative subversion (not the twist Nonsense luke Kagami is a senti)

Let me elaborate:

In each instance what is the key element of the moment of akumatization? Adrien is alone. We get the golf swing into the Eiffel tower in CB, then just plain isolation in Ephemeral (the escalation here reinforces the point)

Now you have all the room in between those episodes and the finale. You have CN supporting LB in strike back. You have CN saving Marinette from being akumatized, you have Adrien supporting Marinette through her relationship fears. All that growth.

It's the perfect setup for a Gabe reveal where the difference is: Marinette.

This is where you show how much they've grown. This is where you show yin and yang. This is where you show partners. This is where she supports *him* in the crisis and *together* they are stronger. *Together* they overcome the narrative crisis and the knight saves the princess not by slaying the dragon, but by giving her the strength to face the dragon that has held her(him) prisoner.

That

is how you write a satisfying narrative conclusion to the Agreste arc that *still* emphasizes Marinette and the difference she makes in people's lives.

And all the pieces were right there to use. It's obvious, it's perfectly thematic for ML. It doesn't take the spotlight off Marinette. It took me about five minutes before I even had my coffee to weave it together.

The only reason a whole writing team couldn't manage it is they didn't *want* to. They're still so desperately hidebound by their 'reverse fairy tale' gimmick that perfectly preserves the concept of binary unequal gender roles, thinking that simply flipping them is so *brilliantly* progressive.

20 yrs ago called and wants it's 'enlightenment' back.

'Omg it was so vile to keep Adrien away from the final fight against hawkmoth. Can't believe they did this'

YALL WHAT DO YOU THINK THE POINT OF CHAT BLANC AND EPHEMERAL WERE!?!?!?

Adrien cannot fight his father. He can't do it. Not only because he's a fucking sentimonster, bit because Gabriel can take advantage of him so easily when he reveals its all for his mother.

'But he fought his father in Representation' but he wasn't being faced between the prospect of betraying his only family or betraying the love of his life then. He was just an angry teenager who had been pulled from his home. No moral dilemma just anger.

Adrien is not emotionally intelligent enough to chose between his mother and Marinette.

If Adrien was there, they would have fucking lost. THAT was the point of Chat Blanc and Ephemeral.

[meloqnspblog]

We could be getting something on Will's birthday

This is just a theory, and I don't have any proper evidence for it, just pure speculation!!

Even though all the dates stuff are announced are random (expect st day), I think that a possibility of getting something like the teaser/trailer or even announcement dates is very possible on Will's birthday. Hear me out:

It's gonna set birthdaygate in stone even further.

Since It's an important announcement, the GA will have the date memorised and will be like "wait, this date is familiar"

It would make sense between the gap of the release and the dates announcement. The days between the dates announcements and releases are around 100-200 days. So, I calculated it.

If I'm right, the earliest release is June 30th and the latest is October 8th.

I personally believe that we are getting the teaser very soon and that we didn't get it because of the elections on st day. Possibly around December/Christmas?

[featherstorm2004]

Macaque is born from chaos

LMK SPOILERS FOR S5!!!

Ok so it's basically confirmed Macaque is going to be important for the next season considering dear Nine gave him so much attention, especially when you consider the ending shot is him noticing the chaos magic on the staff.

As for why he is important it's basically been confirmed that Mac's shadow magic is strange and in the finally we see it turn into chaos magic. Now, it's implied by Nine that Macaque would have needed to make a deal for this power, but Macaque has no clue what he's talking about which leads me to two theories.

And no I don't think it was the LBD's doing as he's had these powers long before her so no, I think either Mac was born in the chaos realm and somehow made it to this reality OR and this is my personal headcanon, Macaque was made by the "he" Nine referenced before departing in the finally. As to who this being is I have no idea but he is likely a figure of either equal or greater power to Nuwa, who then made Macaque to fulfill a purpose, similarly to how MK and Sun Wukong were.

As for what that purpose is who knows maybe it was to be his eyes and ears in this reality considering in the book Macaque had the ability to hear the past and future, or maybe it was to kill Wukong and Mk since they were Nuwa's sacrifices, we have no idea as this being is likely a creature of chaos so perhaps he had no reason and just wanted to see what would happen, but it's likely going to play a big part next season.

[atomicradiogirl]

i find it a very interesting choice that house md ends on enjoy yourself rather than you can’t always get what you want or maybe even the actual lyrical version of teardrop by massive attack.

enjoy yourself is the most optimistic of the songs and i’ve seen people complain that it kind of comes from nowhere and the actual meaning of the song especially considering that post-canon, wilson will die and house is dead figuratively (and will probably die literally with wilson), the song is not only a call to the viewer to live their lives to the fullest but asks house and wilson to enjoy the time they have left as they drive away from us, their stories are fundamentally over.

enjoy yourself is only referenced one other time in the show when hallucination amber sings it to house at a restaurant just before the hallucination finale of season 5. this presentation of enjoy yourself by “ghost” amber, someone who haunts house from his guilt over her death and near destruction of his relationship with wilson as a result is also a callback to her death in the first place. house is so scared by hallucination amber singing this song to him he begs wilson over the phone to pick him up, the exact request that killed amber. the optimistic song about living out your life to the fullest sung by the manifestation of his guilt, someone who died too soon also coupled with kutner dying 3 episodes prior to this, just makes the final use of this song so fascinating. the house writers obviously called back to this moment because it was house’s fear of death and change that made the initial scene scary. meanwhile house accepts wilson’s death and his death in the finale after healing and growing. this is why i think enjoy yourself is the perfect finale song. the house writers are telling us that they accept that their time is up and we should too, even though death is horrible and tragic and scary at the same time, everybody dies.

[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-

[2manyfandoms2count]

The flower symbolism in this shot... *chef's kiss*

Wisteria: good luck, kindness, love, longevity

Pink roses: admiration, happiness, love

Red tulips: perfect or deep love

[wield-the-mighty-pen]

Sometimes I think about how Adrien must grieve

How, when he lost his mother, it was a gradual thing, where he lost more and more of her, where he was slowly prepared for an eventuality and a future in which she would not be there anymore. How it was longstanding and tormenting and how his grief began long before the day he would never see her again. How though the pain of loss must have been sharp and aching for him, and he must desperately miss Emilie, at least he achieved some solace in not having to see her in pain anymore.

But then once he's reached a healthy stage and coping style in his grief for Emilie, the wounds are reopened once again.

How his father went from existing to suddenly being gone to Adrien. How he had no warning, no indication that he would never see him again. How even though the grief is sudden and unexpected, it had really started months before Gabriel was gone, and even long before he became injured.

It's how despite the fact that Gabriel was seemingly in good health, and Adrien had no reason to fear losing him, Adrien has actually been grieving for Gabriel and their relationship for a long time. How Adrien has had to watch his father slip away, lose himself, and slowly give less and less of himself over to Adrien, until Adrien could hardly recognize the man that was supposed to be sitting across the table from him.

Sometimes I just think about how grief became a comfort for Adrien, a lifestyle, because he has been taught that all good things in his life, all things he loves, must come to an end eventually.

And I think about how that must affect him as a person.

[rainofthetwilight]

I saw someone on twitter point out how that this dadsy scene is literally the entire message of S5 in the first episode and oh my god it's making me ill

the whole “you can follow the written recipe to a tea but you’ll still change it to your taste” is how MK figured out how to solve everything with the colored stones, cause MK followed EVERYTHING the guardians said to do, what nuwa had made him to be!! but he did it to protect his friends, so even when he fought so hard to accomplish what he thought was right, it wasn't enough. cause he didn’t follow what he thought was the right way, he didn't follow his tastes

when he followed the recipe on his own, it didn’t taste right until pigsy helped him- HIS DAD, his FAMILY. It connects to how he listened to the guardians, listened to nuwa, even xiangliu! but it wasn’t right because he was alone through ALL of it! It wasn’t until he was with his family when he found the right answer, when he was reminded of who he was and what he wanted. he did everything the recipe said, but only when he added his tastes- AKA his family- is when he was satisfied with the outcome!!

god. I'm sobbing I love this show so much

[mousegoesmoo]

Okay I'm sure many of you all have seen this tiktok:

This tiktok has seemingly reached a very broad audience and I'm lowkey beefing with some of the comments. And then comments are stirring some byler doubt in me but I'm just gonna come on here and think through things logically. I'm only going to take into account things that are canon or have been stated by official sources.

Many commenters have stated that Byler will only be one sided, Will in love with Mike. Narratively, this does not make sense. Will's character has been pre-planned to be queer from season 1 episode 1 and in his character description. Additionally, Robin originally was not going to be gay, but that was changed during the filming of Season 3 (Maya Hawke talks about this). So, why would they have the only canonically gay character be used as a plot device to further El and Mikes relationship? It just doesn't make sense for his love to be unrequited. They have stretched out the plot point of Will's sexual orientation and love for Mike for many seasons, it has been slow burned. They could have given Will a sharp rejection in Season 3 during the rain fight, but they didn't. If they did, moving to California would be an opportune time for Will to move on from his love for Mike. But they didn't. Will made an entire painting for Mike and gave him a veiled confession- if it ends in unrequitedness they stretched out this plot line for far to long. It is unnecessary. It would just be unnecessarily devastating for Will to be rejected in the final season. Plus, we have seen it before, entire relationships can form in one season. Mike and El were formed in one season, Nancy and Steve broke up and then Nancy and Jonathan got together, why can't the same happen with Mike and Will?

2. Mike has never been implied or done any actions to suggest he is gay or reciprocates Will's feelings. First of, to quote the byler slides, Mike has more queer coding than Will (slide 7, slides linked). To preface, queer coding is "...when a character’s sexual orientation is implied by significant subtext without being stated outright."(Elizabeth Duarte). So, this doesn't necessarily prove that Mike is in love with Will, but it does imply that he is in the very least bicurious. Personally, I believe that one of the strongest bits of queer coding for Mike is during his initial attraction to Eleven. Eleven was often described to look very similar to Will and boy-ish. A little suspicious if you ask me. To add on to that, the problems in Mike and Eleven's relationship have grown as El has explored her femininity and self. Granted, the problems could have arose due to them both aging, but, it is still another common denominator. But, the byler slides have many instances of queer coding for Mike (some probably better than what I presented), so I would suggest looking into those rather than having me repeat them here. But queer coding implies queerness, therefore, Stranger Things has suggested that Mike is not straight.

2.5 Mike's feelings have never been reciprocated for Will. Now this is a trickier one. We haven't had a scene from Mike's perspective in a while, making it very difficult to have hard evidence that he is into Will as well. However, we can prove that Mike is heavily queer coded (because he is). So, if Mike were gay, who would he direct his affections towards? Lucas, who is trying to rekindle his relationship Max, Dustin, who has had a steady long distance relationship with Suzie, or Will, who has never shown interest in any girls despite having many opportunities (arguably, more opportunities than the other party members)? They would not put Mike into a one sided pining with Lucas or Dustin for the final season, it simply does not make sense. But Will, who has already had a developed crush on Mike for several seasons, the pieces start to click together. Mike liking Will is very dependent on Mike being queer, which we have proven through the fact that he is heavily queer coded. So, the only same sex individual that would make logical sense as his love interest is Will. Also: a huge point about not having a Milkeven endgame is that Eleven was supposed to die and, consequently, so would their relationship.

3. Unlikely for the time, so it will never happen. Girlypops. It is unlikely for someone to be dating someone with superpowers in the 80's. It is unlikely for a parallel dimension to take over and infect this one random town in Indiana in the 80's. ITS FICTION. Additionally, it is know that homophobia exists in the fictional Stranger Things universe (Lonnie, Troy, Robin's extreme hesitance to come out, etc.), ,but on the other hand, the Duffers are actively pursuing a relationship between Robin and Vickie. As of our knowledge right now, Vickie's sole purpose in the show is to be a love interest of Robin's. If they don't end up together it is most likely because Robin either gets a new love interest or one of the two dies in the final season. Ultimately, I do not think that Stranger Thing's taking place in the 80's will have an impact on whether or not byler becomes canon.

So those were the main three points made in the comment section of that tiktok.

I just want to also state that if Byler isn't canon, I would want to consider this to be a case of queerbaiting (but, this still depends on how they wrap up Season 5). Also, I would consider slapping a new love interest for Will to wrap up the season as very sloppy and lazy writing. AND, I think using Will's love for Mike as a stepping stone to progress a heterosexual relationship deeply offensive. If they were going to have Will be rejected, they should have done it way earlier in the series.

Thats all I have to say xx