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hideawaysis · 5 months ago

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ferris boyd, and remaining altruistic in the face of adversity

or: in which i overanalyze a children's book and write an essay about it.

(cws for discussion of child abuse, and also spoilers for "true (..sort of)" if you've never read that. 2,700+ words long not counting the screenshotted paragraphs from the book, this is much longer than your average tumblr post, be warned)

"true (...sort of)" by katherine hannigan is my favorite book. this is no secret. my url is a word originally created for the book. i talk about it constantly, especially about wanting more people to talk about it with. i practically became one of the characters from it. this book means a lot to me, and if you're a friend of mine i will more than likely recommend it to you at least once, regardless of whether or not you like reading.

there are many reasons for this. it takes a concept that feels as if it's been done to death (troublemaker kid cleans up their act via the power of ✨friendship✨) and executes it in a way i've never quite seen before. it goes extreme lengths to have you sympathize with all of its prominent characters on at least some level, even the ones who do harm. it's a tale of solace through pain, and the way people can heal inner wounds simply by sticking it out with each other.

by far the highlight of the book, however, and the answer i've received every time i've asked my friends who their favorite character was, is ferris boyd, and the way she's written. we don't usually get her pov -- out of all 74 chapters of the book, a whopping one chapter (chapter 8) is dedicated to seeing things through her eyes -- but by the time the story's come to a close, we feel as if we've learned a lot about her, and most importantly we feel as if we've learned these things with our protagonists.

when we first meet ferris boyd, he is a boy in a beat-up car with a trailer hooked to the end of it, a boy sitting next to an older man with a sadness in his blue eyes so haunting it remains with the protagonist, delly, even after she's left the area. then we learn that this is not a boy -- actually, this is a girl, who for whatever reason does not speak, and cannot be touched or yelled at or else she'll spiral into a panic attack.

then we find out that the sadness we first saw in that impala permeates her entire being. in class, ferris often has her face down on her desk, either asleep or just too miserable to keep her head up. we at least know she's too miserable to do her schoolwork. delly describes her as a disaster, and it shows.

but when recess rolls around, we see a different side of her. we see a side of her that is still sad, but in a way free to do as she pleases. though, this personal idea of freedom conflicts with what you'd expect from a kid her age. with any other 11-year-old, you'd expect freedom to be running around with their hands in the air, squealing with delight with a huge grin on their face. but ferris boyd's freedom is as quiet as she is -- her idea of freedom is sitting against a tree and reading a book as squirrels scamper over her legs.

and from here, we get to know her more and more. she likes to play basketball, and she's really great at doing so. she takes care of a black cat named mowr, who stays by her side whenever possible. she has a rickety treehouse out in the woods where she likes to sit and read. she doesn't speak, but if she wants to get your attention she'll slap her thigh or clap her hands. and while she doesn't like to be touched, not all physical contact is frightening to her -- she can't handle having her arm grabbed, but being leaned against or having her hand held isn't so bad.

the most stand-out quality that we pick up on, however, is ferris boyd's altruism towards others. apart from rb, she evidently has one of the kindest hearts out of every character in the book. she's incredibly selfless, and based on the many examples we see throughout the book, she seems more willing to help others than herself.

the first instance of this altruism that we see is in the very first chapter that we come to know her, and the only pov chapter for her in the whole book. as ferris is unpacking her things, she hears a rustling in the bushes, and as most people would, goes to investigate. she finds a black cat there, who we soon come to know as mowr, and feeds it.

now, this is a significant display of kindness under any circumstance, but here it's particularly sweet of her to do for a few reasons. for one, black cats are one of the most disliked kinds of cats in the world due to the superstitious belief that they bring bad luck. but there's another reason why this is so kind of her, too, and one that i didn't pick up on until very recently.

i remember going in with the assumption that mowr was a stray when this scene came up, and i'm sure many other people did too. but here's the thing: if mowr really was a stray/feral cat, it wouldn't be acting like this in this scene. if it were a stray, it would've gotten out of there the moment it saw ferris boyd. it certainly wouldn't have meowed, seeing as cats typically only meow to get the attention of humans, and a stray typically wants the opposite. and sure, it perhaps would've taken the food, but it definitely wouldn't have let ferris pet it.

putting this fact and the fact that this cat was at a house that'd recently been moved out of, i can only really come to one conclusion: the text is trying to imply that mowr was owned by the previous residents of the old hennepin place, and was left behind when they moved away. and, considering how ferris boyd responded to mowr, appears she gleaned this as well. i don't really have to tell you why taking in a cat that was recently abandoned by its owners is such a caring thing for her to do.

as we get to know more about ferris, we get to know more about her kind-hearted nature as well. there are a few examples here and there, such as her giving delly, somebody who at this point she's only known as the loud, angry girl who fights people and misgenders them to their faces, a second chance, or when she persistently tries to teach rb how to shoot a basket, even when he tries to throw in the towel. but one of the most significant examples of her selflessness comes up in chapter 55, when she offers to play novello in a game of h-o-r-s-e in exchange for him leaving her friends alone.

now, at this point in time, ferris boyd is not in the best state. somebody she considered to be a good friend, brud, hasn't come to visit her in weeks, and for all she knows she drove him away by being the quiet, timid girl that she is. with this in mind, plus some things we'll discuss later, it's clear why she'd jump to protect them, and it's obviously a very noble thing for her to do. but there's another layer to this i want to discuss, and one that'll be elaborated on even further later.

right after that screenshot above, this line is written.

this is pretty clearly a one-off simile, but i still found the comparsion between ferris boyd and a lamb really interesting. when you think of a lamb, you often think of innocence and purity, something that, while not the subject of this part of the analysis, will come back up later on. but you also may think of a sacrifical lamb, a symbol of sacrifice and, well, altruism.

in this scene, ferris boyd is the sacrificial lamb. she is running the risk of being ridiculed in order to help the people she cares deeply for. and in the end, she is ridiculed. but not once does she think, "i'm going to be made fun of by everybody if this doesn't go well." rather, she thinks, "i don't want to lose you. if this doesn't go well, you're gone." and when it doesn't go well in the end, she isn't hurt the most by the vitriolic words that've been hurled her way. she's hurt the most by brud, who she gave her trust to, another sacrifice considering the harrowing conditions she lives in, and in return got a non-verbal "yes, i agree" when novello said she was an it.

this trend of ferris boyd being a sacrificial lamb culminates in perhaps her biggest moment in the novel, and the first and only time she uses her voice: in chapter 65, where she saves delly from being sent to an alternative placement school by crying out for her attention.

this is, if you know literally anything about ferris boyd, a HUGE moment of vulnerability for her. up until this one moment, she hadn't spoken a word, presumably out of fear of...something, happening. so for her to go out and shout something at the top of her lungs, after being completely silent for so long...it almost seems uncharacteristic of her. but this isn't just her shouting anything. this is her shouting for her friend's safety. this, like many other things, is a sacrifice, and perhaps her most devastating one yet, seeing as it seems to lead to severe misfortune afterwards.

ferris boyd is, by all means, a very selfless person, always putting others before herself in any situation. but what is it about this part of her that sticks out so much against everything else? what is it about this selflessness that is worth pointing out? what has this feverish rant of mine been building up to?

well, to put it bluntly: based on everything we know about ferris boyd's homelife, she has every reason not to be this altruistic. in fact, one could say she has every reason to be a selfish asshole instead.

while we're never shown explicitly what happens to ferris boyd at home, we do have a lot of things that are implied for us. the first thing that comes to mind are the huge purple welts delly sees on her back while playing in the lake at delaferbia, which, combined with her fear of being touched, paints a pretty clear picture of how she's treated at home. it's noted a few times that her father is often away from home and doesn't even bother to get somebody to supervise her while he's away. also, and this part of the book might actually be in my top favorite lines from it period, we have this:

i really love this part, because it implies SO MUCH. for one, the "mouth that wouldn't speak" line gives the implication that ferris boyd's mutism is, at least on some level, an involuntary defense mechanism, rather than being voluntary as many people read it as. but also, i want to call attention to that last line. "she saw brud hit himself. she flinched, like she felt it."

in this instance, brud is hitting himself in the mouth to punish himself for having a speech impediment. so isn't it interesting how ferris boyd, somebody known for not speaking, would resonate with somebody hitting themself after speaking at the wrong time? more importantly, isn't it interesting what this indicates about her father, who was so affected by ferris boyd so much as speaking to save one of her friends that he tried to move away? and isn't it interesting how, just at the beginning of this story, they'd just moved into town and nonchalantly unpacked their things as if they'd done this many times before? because, more likely than not, they had done this many times before?

the picture that's been painted of ferris boyd's father from just these facts alone is upsetting, to say the least. and, seeing as her mother is never seen in the text or even mentioned as an aside, it seems that the only possible nurturing figure in her life is either dead, has left her, or was never there to begin with.

ferris boyd has every reason to be a bad person. abuse is a cycle, after all, and if she were a bad person, i don't envision anybody blaming her for that. we all know of antagonist characters that used to be sweet when they were younger, until something awful happened to them and they grew into a vicious and brooding person. this trope is so well-known that it has its own page on tv tropes under the name "used to be a sweet kid."

ferris boyd could be a jerk. but she's not one. because while it'd certainly be much easier for her to throw compassion out of the window and go all-out with emotionally fortifying herself, using cruelty to drive others away and prevent herself from giving people the opportunity to hurt her, she's not one to do that. that requires a level of fearfulness she doesn't have, and while yes, ferris boyd is jittery and easily frightened, that doesn't mean she can't be brave. she's very brave, actually, and much stronger than most give her credit for, which is something that's commented on in the text.

if you, the reader, have been paying attention, you will remember that i mentioned lambs being a symbol of innocence. but just as they are a symbol of innocence, they can also be a symbol of the corruption of such a thing. lambs are prey animals, and being so small and unknowing, they're easy for predators to hunt down. but when the predator fails in taking their kill, the lamb survives with torn, bloodied wool, and wide eyes that will never again soften like they used to. and that's something that rings true for ferris boyd. her innocence has been tainted, and it's left her scared and hypervigilant, but she's still alive, and she came back stronger in the end.

oh, yeah. and now that we're on the part of the story in which ferris boyd runs away in an attempt to escape her father, i want to bring this part up.

this part ties pretty much everything together. not only is it another show of ferris boyd's selflessness, her worrying for the wellbeing of somebody who isn't there for her about 75% of the time (and when he is around, he's yelling at and beating her), but also, it just really hammers in my point that, while being rude to others would be taking the easy route, that's just not something ferris boyd has the capacity to do. if she still loves her horrible, abusive father, then why would she not love anyone else?

because while her innocence was corrupted, her gentle, tender heart was not. through everything, she did not forget how to be kind to others. she did not forget the warmth of being vulnerable for somebody else who won't take advantage of that, and though she may be apprehensive about leaving herself vulnerable, she values the love of others much more than she fears being hurt.

because ferris boyd is a sweet girl. she likes animals and basketball and reading, and she would do anything to help her friends, and she likes the funny words her best friend ever likes to make up, and when she blushes she blushes with her whole face and neck, and she falls asleep in the middle of the day sometimes, and she was scared of swimming at first but when she put down her defenses and tried it out it was so much fun that she wanted to do it again after it was over.

because while ferris boyd is afraid of a lot, she's not afraid to end the cycle her father laid out for her. she's not afraid to be kind. the rips in her fleece have not mended yet, but she's willing to help mend the wounds in others.

tl;dr the gif below is ferris boyd

#hideawaysisposting #true (...sort of)#ferris boyd #essay #analysis #character analysis #tagging this with a buncha shit so the hours i put into this weren't for naught

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sylvies-chen · 1 year ago

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OKAY FINISHED THE LAST TWO EPISODES OF THE BEAR SEASON 1!! you KNOW by now that I have thoughts and that I will now say these thoughts!

episode 7 being one big long take is my favourite thing about it by far. like it really adds to the intensity and makes the spiral downwards into anger and chaos even more natural. I LOVE when tv shows do these long takes!! the two others that come to mind are ep. 6 of Haunting of Hill House and 4.03 of Succession. those two and this episode of The Bear are top three television episodes of all time hands down!!!

it was really interesting to see how carmy’s behaviour affected sydney’s behaviour as well, like him being so pissed and disrespectful to her made her be that way to tina who literally said like “woah chef this isn’t your style what’s up”

I do think she fucked up with the short ribs and with the ordering system thing, but everyone else in the show has fucked up and she definitely did not deserved to be treated like that. same thing with marcus really. like ya he should have been on the ball! but that doesn’t mean he deserved that or that carmy was being constructive in any way, because he wasn’t.

also marcus was hyperfixated on his donuts and they expect me not to say autistic coded?? they expect me not to start rolling out headcanons? bffr writers! I love marcus omg he’s the best

carmy saying he was trying to fix the restaurant as a way of fixing his relationship with his dead brother I WASN’T PLAYING WHEN I SAID THIS WAS A SHOW ABOUT HOW TO PIECE BROKEN THINGS BACK TOGETHER NOW WAS I ‼️ I’m simply prophetic and accurate I can’t help it

richie getting stabbed in the ass was not on my bing card but I giggled so hard

I LOVE YOU DUDE. LET IT RIP. nuh uh, y’all, I’m done. fuck you all for enticing me to watch this goddamn show 😭

ok I’m not gonna lie the way sydney was always looking down when talking to marcus at her house but she made full intense eye contact with carmy when she came back… the look in his eyes… canon means nothing to me if that isn’t true love!!

Unfortunately the creators of this show must hate Canada or something because season 2 ISN’T FUCKING AVAILABLE YET TO US HOSERS so… I’ll see y’all whenever it does drop for me I guess 😭 gonna like all the spoilers though idgaf I can’t wait!!

#the bear #sydcarmy #carmy berzatto #carmen berzatto #abby watches

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alsikamiwrites · 4 years ago

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I was wondering how Muriel would react to a traumatized war veteran who had his brother exicuted by his commanding officer

(He/they)

Muriel reacting to a traumatized war veteran M/c whos brother was executed

Story style: Head-canons Requested by: anon Note: I wasn't sure if you wanted your ask to be a head-canon or a scenario, but I thought it'd be easier to write as a head-canon, so I went with that. I was also unsure of how you wanted the relationship to be, so I went platonic. I hope this is okay, though of course, if you would like something different, let me know! Thank you for sending me an ask💛 Slight Spoiler warning! Tw: Mentions of trauma, murder, panic attacks, and Ptsd

Muriel isn't a stranger to trauma himself.

He knows of the way it haunts you. Keeps you up at night. He knows of the phantom sensations that trick your mind into reliving things that were long in the past. The flashbacks that replay in your minds eye, like a silent movie you can't turn away from. He knows how much it hurts, and how much it will always hurt, everyday. That it never really truly goes away.

That's why he knew the man was going through more than he let on, the more he got to know him.

He was quiet, kept to himself a lot of the time, much like himself.

He wasn't all that interested at first, given the fact that he was trying to avoid others as much as he could.

But after getting to know the man who had come to be one of his dearest friends, he finds himself caring.

Concerned about the far away look his friend had in his eyes, the one that sometimes left him sitting in the same spot for hours on end.

The flinching at sounds that were a bit louder than anticipated, away from unexpected touches, (accidental, of course. He wasn't a touchy person much in the first place.) things that moved too quickly in his already wary sight.

The unprompted attacks of panic that had him screaming his lungs out, chest rising and falling sporadically as if the room were swallowing him whole, punching and writhing out of Muriels' confused and frantic hold as he tried his best to calm him down.

Muriel hated confrontation.

Hated having to ask something of someone when he knew he would hate the same thing asked of himself. Knew he'd never open up.

But he recognized what he was going through.

Could see it so clearly it hurt.

He could see himself.

So he couldn't just...Stand by and watch his friend fall apart right in front of his eyes.

He's not the best at comforting others, not having much experience, but he would try. So one day, after a lot of contemplating, he'd sit him down, deciding to ask him about what was going on

Honestly, he really didn't expect him to talk about it, but he'd definitely listen if he needed someone to lend an ear.

If he'd rather not talk, Muriel would be more than okay with that.

Would suggest going somewhere to get his mind off of it for a little while instead, even though he knows how hard that can be.

Maybe they'd go for a walk in the forest, or he'd go with them into the city, (even though the large man didn't care for it much there, with it being so lively.)

Pretty much anything to distract him from the inevitable and overwhelming grief he knew his friend was going through.

Inanna would even allow him to pet her, sensing his distress, knowing she could trust him given Muriels' friendship.

But if he does end up telling Muriel what happened, he'd let him talk about it without any interruption, his face almost holding no reaction.

Though as soon as trembling hushed words of the horrifying reliving goes into the air, his skin is as white as a sheet, hands shaking atop his knees and tear burned eyes holding sheer remorse as he watches them break down.

It hits almost too close for him, with his past. How he'd...What he was forced to do in the colosseum.

How he had to watch the life of numerous victims eyes drain at his hands, over and over again.

While he knows his situation is much different, his mind can't help but to make the connection.

The constricting ropes of guilt wrapping around him without relent as he watches him try and hold back sobs, try to keep his voice steady, visibly at the brink of another panic as his eyes stare off like they often did.

Somewhere far from where they were sitting at the moment.

Somewhere Muriel knew he couldn't reach. Did they...Did those people go through this hurt too? Did they fall apart with sobs wracking their bodies at the thought of their loved ones dying at cruel hands- his hands.

Did they flinch, and scream, and relive the same nightmare over and over-

He'd force himself to snap out of his own down-ward spiral, blinking away the remaining tears in his eyes with a shaky breath, arm going to wipe away any that strayed quickly.

He didn't deserve to cry.

He, his friend who had helped him when Muriel was in a state not much different than his own, who had understood his traumas, understood him- he needed him right now.

He knows of how much his friend had cared for his brother, having heard so many stories of the man, seen the smile that didn't show very often lift his lips.

Knew he'd held so much pride for his sibling.

Even though Muriel hadn't met him himself, with how much his friend,( who didn't speak so much otherwise)- had spoken so highly of him, he found himself having respect for the man himself.

He's not much help in the regards of wording, but he hopes that his presence is enough.

He's not sure if a pat to the back as comfort would do any good, not knowing how he felt about touch at the moment considering what he had gone through in the past,

But he would definitely sit a safe distance beside him, and ask if he needed anything from him.

Muriel would allow him to vent and let it out for as long as he needed, to grieve.

To lose a brother, family, in that way no less- was nothing short of horrible.

He resented the man who had done it, wanting nothing more than to do something about it. The urge to hurt someone, an urge that usually made him sick to the stomach- to hurt that man, the person who left his friend in this state.

But he knew he couldn't.

The devastating event, while somewhat recent, had happened a little while ago by the sounds of it.

Though, even if he couldn't do anything quite substantial, Muriel could at least be there for him.

Calm him down when he had another trigger induced panic,

Distract him when he noticed he wasn't quite there like he should be,

Do whatever he knew would make the man temporarily happy,

Just...Be the person he wished would've been there for him.

It would be a long ride, these kinds of things; trauma, never just up and left.

But it would subside, little by little. Be a little less painful everyday.

And Muriel knew some days would be harder for him than others, progress seeming to disappear within the blink of an eye at the smallest of remembrances.

But Muriel also knew he would be okay.

He would be there for his friend, for as long as it took. Every step of the way.

#mc x muriel #the arcana x reader #the arcana #headcanons #hcs #angst #the arcana angst #platonic!reader #the arcana x mc #male!reader

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yuriko-mukami · 3 years ago

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(This might happen after the 'escalated hug event' since spoiler: he took so much of her blood that she faints, then he just lies there fall asleep with her)

The dream occurs with a younger Kuron living in his teenage years, he was walking towards a group of friends that would later on welcome him with a smile, their faces are blurry and unfamiliar but he still stepped into that circle of friends that was like a source of light and comfort, shining on him.

Then after awhile, the light spiraled away and he found himself kneeling in darkness, those friends who he held dear suddenly backed away from him, scowling and pointing fingers at him as sudden sprears and sharp objects all directed at him, immobilised where he knelt, they started to laugh at him and turned to leave him alone in that state. Then suddenly, Ryu appeared, instead of helping him, he was looking down coldly at him, with a look that sent a chill down his spine. There was only one word that bore from his lips, “Pathetic. ”, the word rang alone. Kuron's hands were already in the air, reaching out to Ryu, to be held or even pulled back up, but without another glance, he had disappeared, leaving Kuron in the darkness, alone–

~Kitsune Dreams Event~

Would you like Yuriko to visit your muse’s dream?

Send your muse’s dream into my ask box, and I’ll write Yuriko’s point of view version and/or reaction to the said dream for you.

The dream can also be NSFW but only if both muse and admin are adults.

(( Why does that spoiler make me go all uwu even though that scene is… hmm… quite intense? I have no idea… ^^;;;;; Also, this dream… 😭

The place was unfamiliar and so were the people, but the atmosphere was so pleasant that Yuriko didn’t really mind. Not being quite able to explain the feeling, she felt safe here like nothing could bother her, mysterious coziness swimming to her muscles. She liked it here even though she had no idea what had brought her to this place. As she lay on the ground, observing the group of friends, a foxy grin spread on her tiny face.

Hmmm? That boy…

Yuriko crawled closer, keeping her body tightly against the ground and moving as slowly as possible. She held her tail down and pressed her ears against her head, not wanting to be seen by anyone. While humans were happy together, there was no telling what they could do to her if they saw her.

Though I’m not quite sure if humans can really see me when I’m a fox… Hmm… that scent, there is something familiar in it… but I guess there is something unfamiliar too… but…

Yuriko didn’t have time to finish her thought because darkness swallowed all the light around them. What had been a group of friends turned into enemies around the boy with a familiar scent, threatening him. The sticky scent of fear and hate filled the air in mere seconds, making every hair in Yuriko’s body stand up.

Jumping on her paws, Yuriko started to run. It was not that she really knew what she could even do but she couldn’t just watch this kind of scene. Not after she had witnessed another violent event and done nothing, the thought still haunted her.

But before Yuriko reached the boy, others left and someone else appeared. Yet again, Yuriko pressed her tiny body against the ground, unsure if she should do anything or not.

“Pathetic.”

Such a harsh word…

The boy reached for the other person but they disappeared altogether, leaving only the boy and Yuriko in the darkness. Shaking a little, Yuriko got up and lumbered towards the boy. She crept closer and closer, sniffing. Behind the sinking smell of sadness meandered something else, something she had just recently learned to know. This boy… she indeed knew him.

Kuron-san… He… I… The things that happened… I still can’t believe it… and I don’t know what to think about it. But he looks so lonely… I can’t just… Umh… Even though he made me feel so… ehmm… I can’t… And it’s not this boy’s fault…

After reaching the boy Yuriko poked his hand carefully with the tip of her nose, sniffing again. She swung her tail back and forth really slowly, gazing up with her amber-colored eyes. Rubbing her snout against his hand, Yuriko inched closer.

It’s okay… You are not alone. I’m here…

#mukami-kuron-mrsadisticcat #mukami kuron #無神クロン #yuriko tsukino #kuron au #kitsune!yuriko #kitsune dreams event

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starlost-andfound · 3 years ago

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at the divide // d.s (seasons change au)

Warning: The events in this au are an addition to the timeline of Seasons Change by @chilling-seavey (also pic credits to her <3). To avoid spoilers, please go read that amazing masterpiece first (and check out her other writing)

Inspired by If I Get High by Nothing But Thieves

Summary: Daniel searches for Marigold’s presence in a time he misses her the most.

Warnings: Angst, mentions of death and grief, alcohol consumption, kind of unedited

Word Count: Approximately 3K

A/N: If you want to really feel this one, listen to If I Get High by Nothing But Thieves and Marigold and Daniel’s song Cover Me Up by Morgan Wallen

I'll meet you at the divide

To break the spell

It was too good to be true, like a fantasy with a tragic twist, a hope for a sunny day clouded by storms. Daniel carried a heavy heart yet he felt empty. His heart beat in his chest, pumping life into his veins but he loomed around in silence. He was a ghost haunted by the walls of his own home. The house was draped in an eerie quiet, so quiet Daniel could hear the clock ticking in his bedroom from downstairs. He set aside his freshly washed plate in the drying rack and dumped his emptied beer bottle in the bin. When Lennox went to school, lunches were painfully quiet. Daniel often found himself in front of the TV, eating his lunch with the background noise of any program playing on the screen.

With a sigh he rested his hands against the counter, leaning forward. His eyes drifted to the living room, where a line of photo frames stood on the mantle above the fireplace. She was everywhere. Daniel didn’t know whether that was a blessing or a curse. The clock ticked rhythmically, Daniel couldn't count the hours. His fingers traced the frames on the mantle. She was always smiling, even when it hurt the most. He never understood how. How could she hold all the rays of the sun while her star collapsed? He was the moon without a sun sharing its light, a dark unlit sky with lonely stars.

Stars. Lennox. Daniel smiled shakily, his vision blurring as he stood in front of the last photo on the fireplace. Even as the faces and colours blended together with his tears, he could still remember the image clearly. Lennox’s first hockey match. Lennox was squashed between Daniel and Marigold, wearing his hockey gear. They all held matching smiles on their faces. She was everywhere and maybe that’s what made it so hard to let go, suffocating when her presence was embedded in the air around him.

Daniel grabbed himself a beer and sat down on the couch, picking up a familiar belonging: a scrapbook Marigold had crafted for them, celebrating their early dating anniversaries. The book’s cover was brightly decorated with stars and stickers. He sat down, tracing his fingers over the scribbled text in her handwriting. He flipped through the pages, taking his time to trace the stuck-on tickets and read the small love letters Marigold had delicately weaved in her writing.

A point where two worlds collide

Yeah, we'll rebel

His mind felt dizzy with the slight tinge of alcohol. All the memories printed into the scrapbook seemed like distant conversations and hazy images. He turned the page over, his eyes falling to a scribbled date in the middle and countless doodles and stickers in the background. His heart dropped as his mind took him back to one of the most special nights in his life.His mind and heart pulled him down like an anchor into the sea, dragging him deeper until there wasn’t enough light left to see.

Daniel wiped the stream of tears off his face, closing the book. He sunk down farther into the couch, holding his head as he cried. He exhaled shakily, feeling a light feather touch trailed up his shoulder. Daniel tensed as he heard a whisper. The voice was smooth like a calming wind, familiar like the arms of a lover.

“Why so many tears, my sweet?”

He opened his eyes and from the blurry mist in his eyes he saw the form of the woman who carried his heart.

“Sunshine,” he breathed. Daniel threw his arms around her in an instant. He cried, clinging on to her tighter as sobs shook his body.

“It’s okay, I’ve got you,” Marigold held him close, rubbing soothing circles over his back. She kissed his head as he cried. She tried to pull back slightly but Daniel only held her closer.

“How- you-you’re here-I don’t know what to do, Marigold,” he whimpered. “I can’t do this without you.”

“Why would you say that, hmm?” she pulled back and cupped his cheeks. Her thumbs wiped the tears from his cheeks. “You’re doing so well, my sweet. I am so proud of you.”

Daniel shook his head from side to side. He gripped her shirt and rested his head against her chest. His lips trembled, “I just want you back.”

Marigold sighed quietly, “You know that’s not possible.”

“Please don’t go. ”

And we run

Until we break through

“I won’t leave just yet,” she stroked his hair gently.

Daniel sniffled, and looked up. He reached his hand up, brushing his hand along her jaw and then cupping her cheek, “You are very real.”

Marigold laughed softly, “Yes, I am here.”

“Do you-” Daniel held her hand. “Does it hurt anymore?”

Marigold smiled, “Not anymore, no.”

Daniel smiled shakily, feeling the tears build up again at the answer he wished he had heard many months ago. He sat up and his hands reached up to caress her cheek. She had this golden glow that reminded Daniel of when she was carrying Lennox. “You’re so beautiful.”

Marigold smiled.

Daniel pressed his forehead against hers, “I miss you.”

“I miss you too, my sweet.”

He leaned closer, pressing his lips on hers. Her soft lips and skin disappeared under his touch, fading into the air. Daniel fell forward on the couch, his hands gripping the fabric. He snapped his head around in search of her, letting out a strangled cry as he was met with the walls of his living room.

If I get high enough

Will I see you again?

Daniel was falling into a routine and he was growing to hate it. With no energy by noon, he often landed on a couch, a drink in his hand and the multiple CD’s of home videos by his side. He never drank too much before Lennox came home. Lennox was the only light which filled the gaping hole in his chest but the sharp taste of the beer numbed his mind. It calmed the storm of emotions he carried inside, just for a few moments and for him that was enough. Daniel entered the living room with a beer in his hand, heading to the CD’s by the television. The text on the CD covers were fading where he held them, some more than others, exposing the amount of times he watched them.

I feel my loss every night

Not long to wait

He slumped back down on the couch with a beer bottle in his hand as the video loaded. A crackle echoed over the speaker before a soft voice spoke.

And if I do this thing right

I dream of our escape

“Lennox, say hi,” Marigold whispered behind the camera.

She zoomed in on a baby Lennox, waddling around the flowers in the garden in his small yellow boots. He wore one of Marigold’s old sweaters, far too small for her but slightly too large for the little boy. The sleeves and hem of the sweater were rolled up, hugging his body. Spud turned to the camera and grinned, his two little teeth sticking out. He waved his arm at the camera and turned back to the flowers decorating their garden.

He pointed at the bunch of hydrangeas and tugged at his sweater, “Blue. Like mine.”

Marigold gasped, “Yes, well done my shining star!”

Spud giggled and the camera turned just as Daniel’s car rolled into the driveway.

“Daddy’s here!‘ Marigold captured Daniel stepping out of the truck with a smile. Lennox squealed, running to Daniel with his hands up. “Dada!”

Daniel scooped him up into his arms, bouncing him gently, “Hi Spud, I missed you!”

Marigold shuffled closer to Daniel, the camera lens covered as they shared a quick kiss, “Hi my sweet.”

“Hey sunshine.”

The camera flipped, fitting all three of them into the frame. Lennox grabbed the camera in his hands and pressed the lens close to his face.

“Oh, careful Spud.”

The curious child attempted to hold the camera out like his mother, pointing at the flowers, “Blue!” The garden twisted into a spiral as the camera tumbled out of his hands and the video cut off.

Daniel sniffled quietly and took a gulp of his beer. The next video began to roll. He heard the familiar sound of her footsteps down the stairs. The camera trailed the floor until it lifted up outside the house, pointing at Daniel.

“Look how handsome my baby daddy is.”

Daniel glanced up at the camera with a bashful smile. Marigold pulled him up by his arm so he could be seen better and she set her hand against his chest, giving him a pat.

“I’m going to have to keep close eyes on you at Sunday brunch. All the ladies are gonna want a piece of this.”

“Oh my gosh.” Daniel chuckled shyly.

“And my other handsome man!” Marigold added, shuffling around the open door to get a good shot of the baby in the car seat. “Gonna be fighting the ladies off you too, my beautiful boy.”

Lennox blinked up at her but her same smile could be seen forming behind his pacifier that bumped excitedly against his little nose. Marigold turned the camera around as she leaned in with Daniel, capturing both of them together and Daniel just smiled at her, pressing a kiss to her cheek.

She looked up at him lovingly, “Happy first Father’s Day, my sweet.”

“Thank you.” Daniel smiled, meeting her halfway for a kiss. “And thank you for making me a father.”

They shared a few more kisses and ‘I love you’s until Lennox let out a small cry.

“Oh my.” Marigold said, addressing the camera again as Daniel left the frame to care for Lennox, “Well, when Lennox says it’s time to go, it’s time to go! We have church to get to and a bunch to show off at.”

When she was a few steps away, the camera caught her admiring her husband over her shoulder as he finished buckling in the baby.

She looked back to the camera and spoke gently with her wide grin spread all over her soft face, “Lennox Blake, if you’re watching this some time in the future when you’re grown up and annoyed by your parents – just know that you have the best daddy in the whole stinking world. I picked him out myself for you so that’s how you know he’s good.”

The camera clicked softly and a another video played.

The screen zoomed in on Daniel and Lennox across the grass. Lennox was tucked up on his shoulder and Daniel was pointing out little flowers and the buds on the trees as they walked. He finally looked over and caught Marigold filming, a shy smile taking over his face and he rested his head against his son’s tiny body.

And we run

Daniel was a mess, his stray tears turning into quiet sobs. He turned off the TV, the bright screen of colours and memories turning into a reflection of his pain. He chugged down the rest of his second beer and dragged himself off the couch. The air felt stuffy, like he couldn’t breathe properly. He swayed as he stumbled to the garden door, nearly falling down the steps. A choked sob left his lips and he covered his mouth. He stormed past the bushes of overgrown, wilting flowers.

And we run

Until we break through

Daniel stumbled to the back of the garden, grabbing the support of the garden swing. The tears fell down his face , smudging the darkening colours of the flowers around him. He slid down to the grass, leaning his head back. Daniel dug his fists into the ground, tugging out strands of grass with a yell. The pain in his chest burned into tears and he closed his eyes, drowning himself in his loss. His head felt heavy with what remained of the alcohol in the system and his tears. A soft breeze rustled gently.

If I get high enough

Will I see you again?

A soft hand brushed his cheeks, wiping away the tears.

“My sweet.”

Daniel shook his head, “No, go away.”

“Daniel, my sweet. It’s okay, I’m here.”

He wiped his eyes and took a shaky breath as he saw her again. “Mari.”

“Come on, let’s get you up.” Marigold reached out her hands to pull him up to his feet. She dusted off his shoulders and smiled. “There. Much better. Come on.”

Daniel sniffled, his eyes focused on Marigold in some state of confusion and surprise. Her arm was wrapped around Daniel’s as she guided him inside the house. He lifted his finger to touch her cheek. Marigold giggled softly, “What are you doing?”

“Where are we going?” his voice cracked.

“I haven’t seen Apollo and Venus in so long,” Marigold smiled, looking up at Daniel. “Let’s go for a ride.”

Daniel moved at a slow pace, trotting beside Marigold on her horse. Marigold looked around at the green fields ahead of them, a glow in her eyes. He watched how her hair moved in the wind, her blonde curls flowing. The sun reflected on her face, and Daniel smiled. Her face was full of colour, no longer pale, no longer lifeless. For once she seemed at ease and Daniel had forgotten what that felt like.

Marigold slowed down to a stop and for the first time Daniel turned his head away from her. He gasped softly, instantly recognizing their surroundings, their spot. He followed her movements as she climbed off her horse and sat down at the spot where he would normally park the truck. Marigold shifted closer to Daniel, if it was even possible, and placed her head on his shoulder.

Daniel held her hand, brushing his thumb over her knuckles. Marigold sighed, “No matter how many times we come here, the view still takes my breath away. It’s beautiful.”

Daniel hummed in agreement but his focus seemed to lie on staying as close to her as possible.

“You haven’t been singing much lately, my sweet,” she remarked.

“I know,” Daniel mumbled. His voice trembled and he took a moment to breathe. “It’s hard.”

Marigold smiled softly and caressed his cheek. “Could you sing something for me?”

Daniel nodded. His voice was quiet, just barely above a whisper. “A h-heart on the run.” He gulped. His eyes connected with hers and he sighed shakily. “Keeps a hand on the gun. You can’t trust anyone. I was so su-s”

Daniel’s head bowed down and he wiped his eyes, “I-I’m so-sorry-”

Marigold shook her head, cupping his cheeks. She wiped his tears away and smiled softly. “I was so sure. What I needed was more, tried to shoot out the sun,” she sang.

Daniel lifted his eyes to hers, his frown breaking into a shaky smile. “The days when we raged, we flew off the page. Such damage was done,” he joined in unison.

Marigold stood up on her feet, reaching out her hand. Daniel stood up, his hand in hers as she pulled him closer. Her arms wrapped around his shoulders and Daniel held her waist, sucking in his breath. “But I made it through, 'cause somebody knew I was meant for someone.”

They swayed gently from side to side. Daniel cried quietly, pulling her closer until there was barely space between them, his forehead against hers. They shared the kisses that had been stolen from them, singing the unfinished lyrics of their song with their lips just a touch apart. A setting sun cast a dreamy light over the couple. Daniel’s singing was consumed by his tears and he buried his head in between her neck and shoulder. He held her tighter, his tears staining her beautiful dress.

“So cover me up and know you're enough.” Marigold rubbed her hands soothingly over his back and kissed his shoulder. “To use me for good.”

Marigold moved her hands to his chest. Daniel didn’t move, wanting to be in her arms. “My sweet, it’s getting dark. We should get home.”

Daniel pulled away reluctantly, holding her hand as they walked back to Apollo and Venus. Marigold waited by his side as he climbed his horse. She placed her hand on his knee and they leaned closer, their lips meeting each other halfway. Daniel nearly wished he couldn’t breathe when he pulled away for a breath. Marigold pecked his lips again before climbing her horse.

She travelled forward, Daniel following behind. Marigold sped up, urging her horse to gallop faster. Daniel frowned and tried to catch up with her.

“Sunshine,” he was an arm’s reach away.

“My sweet,” Marigold turned back to him with a smile, but it wasn’t the same. There was some underlying loss in her smile and it made Daniel’s heart drop to his stomach. “It’s time to go.”

“Sunshin-” he hurried Venus to run faster. “Sunshine! Marigold, wait!”

And we run

Daniel struggled, panting. The wind blew harshly in his face as Marigold moved faster, turning into a blur. Marigold faded farther and farther away until she disappeared. He cried out for her, his voice dying out into violent sobs. “Mari-stop!”.

Venus turned to mist from beneath him and Daniel fell to his knees. He pulled himself up, ignoring the ache in his legs and he broke into a sprint.

He felt himself fade the faster he ran, hearing a voice call out for him, but it wasn’t hers. The distance he covered never seemed enough as the fields ran endlessly in front of him. His legs gave out under him and he fell, head first into the grass.

Until we break through

Daniel’s eyes opened and he turned over with a groan, feeling someone shake his shoulder. “Dad, dad!”

He sat up in a sudden movement, startling Lennox. Daniel pulled himself to his feet, marching past Lennox to the stables.

“Dad, what happened? Where are you going?” Lennox followed him, his school bag bouncing on his bag as he kept up with his father. Daniel entered the stables, his shoulders falling as he found the horses well kept in their pens.

“Dad?” Lennox walked up to his side and held his arm, looking up at a distraught Daniel. He looked down at Lennox and brushed his hand over his head. Daniel pulled Lennox close, hugging him tight. Lennox welcomed the hug, unknowing of the inner turmoil in Daniel’s heart. He could still feel her in their own shining star, little remnants of sunshine and beautiful blooming flowers.

“Let’s go inside, Spud,” he whispered.

Lennox pulled away with a smile and jogged back into the house. Daniel watched him go before he turned back to the stable. He looked past the open entryway where the green fields stretched out to the horizon, meeting the sky.

And we run

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Taglist: @jonahlovescoffee @bessonbae @hiya-its-amber @stuffofseaveyy @hopinglimelight @the-girl-who-cried-wolf

#Daniel seavey #Daniel seavey imagines #seasons change

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skaylanphear · 5 years ago

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None of y’all are actually understanding The Puppeteer 2 (spoilers ahead)

Okay, so it’s been a LONG time since I’ve written any meta on this show. Mostly because a lot of episodes are now focused on things I don’t care so much about, BUT I was rather inspired by Puppeteer 2, especially since SO MANY PEOPLE seem to be missing the entire point of the episode.

Now, I’m not giving the writers of the show a ton of credit--they have their good and bad moments. But given the obvious budget of this episode as well as the sheer amount of dialogue, I think it’s pretty fair to assume at least some thought was put into this episode.

So, first and foremost, there were a few points made during this episode.

Let’s start with the Wax Museum and why it’s so pertinent to this episode. The Wax Museum is made entirely up of celebrities. Though we have encountered Adrien and his status before, this is one of the most direct ways they could have drawn attention to it. There is a clear line in this episode--Adrien is a celebrity, his friends are not. Yes, the akumas had wax statues, but the victims and their akumas are not the same people, so to say.

So here we have an “honor” that is only ever granted to celebrities (wax figures) and we have Adrien coming in to work on his. But before that, we have a constant back and forth in the car as to why Marinette is even there--is she Adrien’s friend? His lover? Just a fan of wax statues? This is important because it is less a reflection of Adrien and Marinette’s characters as it is Marinette’s own, let’s say, psychological confusion over how she views Adrien. We’ve seen here make stupid, flustered claims about Adrien before, and these conversations are forcing her to face that head on, even if Adrien remains oblivious as always.

During the conversation up to the top of the building, we are faced with more of this confusion. Namely, Adrien’s interpretation of his relationship with Marinette versus her own. Granted, Nino brings to light a lot of the problems, but he is less the cause so much as the vehicle with which Marinette’s own inability to be honest is being portrayed. Her behavior causes confusion, even if Adrien is unable to fully grasp that (which is all the more part of the problem). Alya, Nino, and Adrien are ALL responding to the issue of Marinette’s feelings in different ways, because THEY are confused as to what she actually wants and what they’re meant to be doing. Marinette says one thing and then backs out a moment later. As someone who recently went through something similar, my initial indecisiveness to admit my feelings to the person I liked caused a lot of back and forth confusion for the people I had told. Marinette’s situation has spiraled FAR beyond that, which is all the more reason we’re getting these vastly different interpretations as far as how her friends are meant to be reacting. The POINT is that her indecisiveness and timidity is confusing and this is becoming a problem.

The other thing that I think is interesting in the following scene--which will lead me back around to my main point--is the fact that despite having come with Adrien to support him because the wax stuff is going to be long and boring, all his friends abandon him when he’s literally trapped in the vice of “celebrity.” Granted, Nino and Alya leaving is a bit of a device to move the plot forward, but Marinette also leaving kind of wraps the whole thing up in a neat bow. She’s supposed to confess and ultimately can’t. And instead of staying with Adrien as a good friend should despite her inability, she leaves as a flustered mess.

Adrien is now alone, his hand clamped in a wax trap. In a lot of ways, this is extremely symbolic of his status as a celebrity and his friends not being a part of that. That Marinette left as a flustered mess only makes this worse, especially since she left him in a manner that is very similar to how a flustered fan might react if they become overwelmed.

This is important because we’re now seeing a very clear implication that though she desires to know Adrien and has done many things to be a good friend to him, Marinette is still haunted by this “idea” of Adrien that she has that isn’t at all factual. And while I don’t think it’s celebrity worship, as some would argue, I do think that the metaphor of celebrity worship in this episode is a very good use of Adrien’s character. We are seeing that Marinette interprets Adrien in a light that is not entirely realistic, which doesn’t help anyone.

This metaphor is only further expanded after her discussion with Tikki. While Tikki’s advice might seem helpful, what it really does is further support the notion that Marinette’s entire infatuation with Adrien is shadowed by false idealizations. She creates a persona to act as in order to communicate with him. She is literally creating a role for herself that she thinks will allow her to exist in Adrien’s, I guess, “proximity” so as to allow her to “get what she wants,” so to speak. She’s acting--as in, she’s lying. Just as much to herself, I think, as she is Adrien.

And this whole thing is only made worse by Adrien’s “prank.” He symbolically becomes nothing more than a wax statue during the entire time that Marinette is playing her “role.” She even goes on a tangent about all the great characteristics he has as a statue, highlighting a lot of shallow aspects of why she’s attracted to him. Granted, I think there’s more to it than that (her feelings, I mean), but she’s so confused by the “more” that it’s hardly relevant if she can’t voice her feelings in the first place, beyond how “perfect” she thinks he is.

Now, this is the “cringe” part of the episode that everyone is complaining about. But to be honest, I really didn’t think it was that bad. It clearly shows Marinette’s idealization of Adrien, as well as the “form” Adrien has within that idealization. That she said all the silly things she did (again, playing her role) and kissed him, while embarrassing, is wholly within her character. Given her tendency to fantasize on extreme levels, I think I’d be more surprised if she didn’t try to kiss Adrien’s wax statue. I get people are annoyed with Marinette constantly being the cause of bad things, or the butt of jokes, etc, but I don’t think that this situation is wholly unfounded given her personality. It was very in character for her to act that way, and I think it made a rather valid point about her feelings for Adrien. After all, she and Adrien may be “friends,” but they’re clearly not close enough for him to feel certain about what she really thinks of him, so she can’t be that close to him, which means there is a bit of shallowness on her side as far as her feelings, even is she would prefer it be different.

Now, another complaint people have been voicing about the episode is “why can’t Marrinette have a tastefully handled confession like Chat?” And while a lot of you didn’t seem to realize this, the episode actually addresses that.

When Chat Noir flirts with Ladybug, she actually stops fighting to ask him how he so easily is able to express his feelings, because she has such a hard time doing the same thing. He responds with some line about how the people you care about should know how you feel, but the whole point of that episode was to illustrate the differences between Adrien and Marinette, and kind of explain why Marinette’s confession is so long in coming while Chat Noir has confessed, like, two or three times now.

For better or worse, Marinette’s inability to be honest about her feelings for Adrien is a huge conflict surrounding her character and has been from the beginning. Much bigger than Chat’s conflict over his feelings for Ladybug, which tend to be addressed in a more, let’s say, lighthearted manner than Marinette’s feelings for Adrien. Adrien is a very forthcoming person. He likes to think the best in people and is very honest about how he feels with almost anyone. And while I think he should probably re-evaluate the behavior he thinks is acceptable from other people, he mostly deals with any kind of conflict straight out. He doesn’t sit and stew like Marinette does, he doesn’t even waste time thinking about Chloe and Lila. Adrien would much rather think about the good than the bad. In fact, he would much rather ignore the bad (which is probably why he tried confessing so many times--likely hoping for a different outcome. Optimists, amiright?)

Marinette is NOTHING like this. She will sit and stew and plan and make herself anxious and scared and angry over things that would slide off Adrien’s back like water slides off ducks (thank you, Crowley). Marinette confessing is a much bigger roadblock because of this difference in their personalities. And it’s also why she gets all sweet on Chat for his reasoning behind why he can express his feelings so easily, because he makes it sound so simple, which is exactly what Marinette needs. Not overly complicated plans (Nino and Alya) or anything like that. She needs to be able to push back on her anxiety, walk up to Adrien, and just say it (much like how she kissed his cheek in the finale of the last season). No attempts made by her to confess will EVER succeed so long as there is any kind of convoluted plan surrounding it.

The writers were literally giving the viewers a direct comparison between Adrien and Marinette as far as how they deal with their feelings and y’all missed it because you were too busy being mad. While Adrien overly simplifies situations--which can be both good and bad--Marinette is more likely to overly complicate things--which is also both good and bad. Where Adrien might fail to see how complex a situation is, Marinette will, whereas Adrien is able to make things simpler where Marinette cannot. You even see it in their fighting styles. Adrien ALWAYS goes for the obvious physical attack, while Marinette is the one to strategize. IT HAS BEEN A LITERAL PART OF THEIR PERSONALITIES FROM THE BEGINNING AND YOU ALL MISSED IT!

The point of this episode was to illustrate Marinette’s issues with her feelings for Adrien, as well as draw comparisons between them so as to better understand why Marinette’s attempts to confess ALWAYS FAIL!

Until Marinette can pull back enough to see Adrien less as a terrifying mountain to climb and more like a simple set of stairs, she will not be able to reach him.

And that is the tea.

#miraculous ladybug #ml #mlb #the puppeteer 2 #meta #me stuff #adrienette

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plush-anon · 4 years ago

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Happy Halloween Scooby Doo! Review

Muahahhhahahhahahaha! Thanks to the Walmart tradition of stocking movies for sale weeks before the intended release date, I have myself a copy of what claims to be Scooby Doo’s FIRST Halloween adventure!

…in spite of movies like Witch’s Ghost and Goblin King, holiday specials like WNSD’s A Scooby Doo Halloween (which had a haunted Scarecrow too…), BCSD’s EL Bandito (for Dia de los Muertos - obvs not the same, but most companies act like it) and Halloween, The NSDM’s Halloween Hassle at Dracula’s Castle, and the DTV short film Scooby Doo and the Spooky Scarecrow (which, ironically enough, did NOT take the opportunity to feature Dr. Jonathan Crane).

So let us take a look now at Happy Halloween Scooby Doo! and see whether this film will be a graveyard smash of a treat, or a black licorice bomb of disappointment.

Full review (and SPOILERS TO GO WITH IT) are below the cut in my new review format; if all goes smoothly, I’ll go with this for future Scooby films.

WARNING: This review is very long.

One minor note before we begin: the Special Features actually include BCSD’s Halloween, WNSD’s A Scooby Doo Halloween, and PNSD’s Ghost Who’s Coming to Dinner

...so they were AWARE this was not the first Halloween adventure of the Scooby gang, and yet still use that tag line. Hm.

Still, kudos for including them - this’ll help boost the reasons to keep this movie, if it turns out to be a real Milk Dud of a movie *ba-dum tish* :D

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The movie starts off rather abruptly, actually - no slow pan over the setting, just WB Animation credit and BOOM, we’ve cut to a Halloween parade and Elvira is talking.

I’m of a mixed opinion including Elvira on top of having Bill Nye and a Batman Rogue - while she most certainly fits the Scooby aesthetic, it doesn’t feel as grand an impact after her weird little cameo in Return to Zombie Island (ugh) and I’m not sure how well the movie will balance her in wait a minute

wait just a

WAIT A MINUTE

Did - did that parade float skeleton just sing Crystal Cove as the town’s name?

oh no.

Oh No.

....also their song is terrible and they should feel terrible.

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Fred: We got him! Banh Mi Shop, second floor!

me: the heck is a Banh Mi Shop? *mild googling noises*

So I guess Jonathan Crane really had a craving for a Vietnamese sandwich before he enacted his Halloween scheme.

...you think he’s a lemongrass chicken type of guy or a BBQ pork guy? It’s always hard to guess at these things, esp when coffee and pumpkin spice aren’t on the table (as per fanon, of course)

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Velma: We have a flawless track record!

So I guess WB is just gonna ignore the past few DTV retcons established in 13 Ghosts and Return to Zombie Island?

I mean that rather defeats the purpose of them existing at all, but fcuk YEAH I can get behind throwing that retcon garbage out of canon!

And STAY OUT!!

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Shaggy, talking about ghosts being real: I’m like the boy who cried wolf - I keep warning you but like, you won’t believe me until I finally get eaten!

Yet again, Warner Bros makes a wolf reference to Shaggy. Yet again, I am torn asunder between wanting werewolf!Shaggy in a new Scooby property, and fearing for the appearance of werewolf!Shaggy in a new Scooby property.

-------

Velma: Point is, being afraid is a waste of time!

Scarecrow, LITERALLY EXPLODING THROUGH A BRICK WALL three buildings away:

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He’s floating through the air and t-posing to assert his dominance 🤣🤣🤣

Gods bless animation 😁

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Daphne @ Shag and Scoob locking themselves in the van: Are you serial?

Me: wait, SERIAL? *re-reads captions* yup, that says “serial”.

Is this an editing mistake? I don’t think that works here…unless that’s supposed to be a joke on how they always do this. But then why would that be an irritating surprise, they literally do this EVERY episode 🙄

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Oh hey, Red Herring’s Party Screams truck has Red Herring running out of it

Could this be a hint to how the story goes? The villain appearing on a literal Red Herring?

Naaaaaah, WB’s not THAT smart

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So if we take @captainbaddecisions crack theory on Jonathan Crane being Shaggy’s uncle seriously, does this mean that Jonathan is using magic to fly, float fear toxin orbs around himself, and making things explode, a la the family trait of Crack Theory A?

Logically he’s probs using wires or magnets or some shit, but it’s a fun thought to entertain 😁

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Welp, we finally get the opening credits! … with Jonathan Crane smashing through the Mystery Machine’s windshield, set to a slow poppy song straight from the 60s, and spewing the title of the film out in glittery pink mist.

All the while Scooby and Shaggy throw candy at each other, deliberately obtuse to the cloud of fear toxin enveloping their friends and the townsfolk, the steady destruction of the Mystery Machine they’re laying in as multiple cars crash into it and send it spiraling, and the general mayhem and destruction that Scarecrow is causing

Never change, guys, never change

--------

I just choked on my lemonade

There’s an article plastered to the roof of the Mystery Machine titled “Talking Dog Confounds, Ignites Ethics Debate Over Dog Labor”

ahahahahaha

-------

Annnnnnnnd there goes the Mystery Machine, tumbling in the air and over the roads with Shaggy and Scooby still inside without seat belts. Will they perish in this horrible road accident? Will Death finally come to claim them at last?

Of course not. This is Shaggy and Scooby we’re talking about - I’m almost positive they can survive anything up to and including a nuclear bomb. This is child’s play to them.

-------

So they “capture” Scarecrow… by pinning his cape to a tree with crossbow bolts.

And they do not try to at least tie up his arms or his hands in ANY capacity.

JUST the cape.

...you know, Velma, for a team with a “flawless” track record, you guys are making a hecking TON of mistakes in facing against one of Batman’s ROGUES GALLERY, ESPECIALLY with no Batman in sight, good freakin’ grief. 😩

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Yaaaaaaaaas, this Scarecrow design is LUSH

He’s got the lank, the height, the BTAS costume colors, the elongated face with beaky nose and pointed chin and angular cheekbones, the eyebags like Gucci, the furrowed brow… honestly the only thing missing is the more reddish color hair, and even that isn’t mandatory. I love 😍

Not to mention the HOT DAYUM voice he has - low and velvet rough and so godsdamned particular in a way that could either tie in to obscuring a southern accent as in fanon or just as a stringent academic, oh my yes. He’s voiced by someone called Dwight Schultz, who’s most well known for playing Captain ‘Howling Mad’ Murdock in the OG A-Team show, and someone called Reginald Barclay in Star Trek TNG and Voyager, if any of y’all know that character in particular.

And of course, the first line he says is a delightfully wry “Oh, but I AM getting away with it,” with the sort of smirk that absolutely lends credence to why he’s a threat to Batman, and not some simpering wimp that can be defeated with some crossbow bolts in a tree.

I think I’m going to enjoy this movie at least somewhat, so long as we get to see him 🥰🥰🥰

(tho on a side note: Daphne why on EARTH are you trying to film Crane saying the meddling kids line? Do you have a video compilation of past villains who’ve done that, and you hope to add his to it? Was your phone damaged when you went up against the Riddler a few DTVs ago and you want a second shot at recording a Gotham Rogue saying it? Bc I don’t think a Gotham Rogue would be too pleased with seeing himself as a Mystery Meme on the Youtubes, you get what I’m saying?)

-------

Okay, so the floating orb things are explained away as fear toxin bomb drones somehow… despite looking nothing like the other drones and being much smaller with no visible propulsion, while also flying unassisted through and around objects to explode against places once flung…

(tho interesting note, none of them are aimed directly at the crowds, just behind them - odd, that)

But how did he heckin’ FLY at the beginning?

Yeah, they show him wearing wrist-mounted grappling hooks at the end of the intro song sequence, but they are NOWHERE IN SIGHT at the beginning - and I do mean in sight, since he emerges against a backdrop of flames. There was nothing there (see the T-pose above for further evidence), and nothing there when he FLEW THROUGH THE MYSTERY MACHINE’S WINDSHIELD AND FLEW BACK OUT AGAIN. And these things are pale silver, which stands out like crazy against the darker backgrounds, so no hand-wavy ‘they were always being used’ bullcrap we’ve seen in other movies.

Hmmm *scribbles in notepad* note to self, add notation concerning Crack Theory A on magic!Shaggy to “Uncle Crane” theory files - evidence denotes that Crane is able to fly (or at least hover in mid-air unassisted) for terrorization purposes. May boost strength of CTA by family association, lending credence to magic inheritance along the bloodline...

------

“Avocado Toast Generation”? Crane, I honestly don’t know if you really mean that, or if you understand just how much that phrase gets under any Millennial/Gen Z kid’s skin. Having seen multiple variations of your character, it really could swing either way (tho kudos on the dead switch idea - very nice 👍🏻)

Although this does lead to an interesting stand-off: Fred, upon seeing the town threatened with 3 days worth of fear toxin, immediately moves to let Crane go, while Velma stops him and refuses to consider compromising if it means Crane escapes. They both look legitimately frustrated at the other for taking the stance they do.

Fascinating~

------

Hmmm

Crane honey, I don’t know if your drones are made of flash paper and hope, or if Scooby and Shaggy are using the reeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaally old candy (the stuff made about ~3 years ago most neighborhoods give out to the teenagers that knock around midnight on Halloween) to shoot them down, but either way you may wish to speak with the manufacturer about this

Then again, this IS Shaggy and Scooby - they probably could’ve spat marshmallows at the drones and brought them down with equal success and explosions

(and good on them for shooting those down! Atta boy 👍🏻)

-------

Aw dang it

1. They still have Crane captured and now in handcuffs (despite having… you know… NOT been bound by anything except cross bolts in his curtain cape thing)

2. Dwight Schultz has decided to pitch his voice higher and more nasally than what he has. Hopefully this is more of an incredulous sort of pitch than something that sticks for the rest of the movie, ugh.

Also, I think they’re framing the movie to be more Velma-centric this time around - she’s the one explaining to Crane how they tracked him down, apparently through a piece of fan mail he sent Elvira (is that the only reason she’s there? Also why was Velma examining random pieces of fan mail for toxins, Elvira probs gets hundreds a week irl) and it looks like they’re framing something up on how fear isn’t something you can pretend isn’t there. neat!

------

whajit

53rd?

53rd?!?!

ONLY 53rd?!?!?!?!

Boooo, Scarecrow’s WAY more popular than that! I call foul

---

Okay why is Daphne’s schtick so far to spit laaaaaaame slang after every sentence Velma says

I would rather this not be her schtick

Actually could she go back to filming mystery stuff, bc at least I can pretend it’ll build into the OG Zombie Island Daphne

----

Phew, his voice has returned to its low, raspy goodness

also, Crane needs to learn about personal space, good grief

(interesting clue brought up tho - Crane only steals tech that CAN’T leak his toxin, ergo it can’t be tracked until he releases it. Sensible use, given that Batman probs tracks it if it does.)

----

Velma: I’m not afraid of you, Crane. Fear is an illogical reaction to an imagined threat.

Crane:

-----

Crane: Fearless, then. Intelligent. Proud and stubborn. You remind me very much of the one person in this world I care about.

uhhhhhh

Yourself? Harley? Edward Nygma? Ichabod the raven? Idk, I’m honestly curious as to where this thread will go 🤔🤔🤔

-----

Fred, leaning against the Mystery Machine: Guys, it’s gonna be okay. She told me!

O_o

Fred? Honey? Are you sure you weren’t supposed to join Crane in the transport vehicle back to Arkham?

----

OH SWEET JESUS SHAGGY GREW YAOI HANDS

WHAT THE HECK

THAT’S WAY MORE UNNERVING THEN YOU GUYS NOT BEING AFRAID ANYMORE

(although the fact that they’re both unsettled by NOT constantly shaking or having their heart racing is honestly kind of heartbreaking. Y’all need therapy, good grief)

----

Shaggy and Scooby just chewed up candy (wrapper and all) to make themselves a Halloween costume of… what looks like barfed-up candy (ew)

Before then proceeding to dance so well that everyone around them also starts dancing in a 60s-70s era rainbow light show and giving them candy

I worry for these two sometimes - that kind of power seems to be getting to their head 😬😬😬

---

Oh hey, acid green toxic waste is spilling from an 18-wheeler onto the Fear Toxin drones and emitting a purple pink haze that envelops a pumpkin patch! That won’t do anything suspicious at all I bet!

(wait is Poison Ivy going to come into this at some point)

(also major kudos to the music here - very 80s horror synth, I like)

----

So the Pumpkins have grown faces, limbs, consciousness, the ability to fly and a lust for human flesh

And they appear to be led by the Pumpkin King of the Pumpkin Patch mentioned in the Charlie Brown Halloween special

He’s not as friendly as I pictured him being, sadly 😕

---

Why is this random ass cop coming up to FD&V to say that they’re in over their heads… AFTER the mystery’s been solved?

Like dude, you’re only making yourself suspicious at this point, go home

----

Huh, interesting - the gang are being interviewed for a tv news network while they’re considered the town heroes

Why am I getting bad vibes from this…

Eh, it’s probably nothing

----

Velma: {Shaggy and Scooby} are, um… REALLY into the Halloween spirit.

Shaggy: THIS ISN’T COSPLAY, VELMA!

I’m dying 😂

------

Holy Shit

Velma just snapped and went off on Shaggy and Scooby for acting scared and doing nothing to help wrap up the mystery

(even though these guys are the ONLY reason that the gang didn’t have to choose between setting Scarecrow free and poisoning the entire town for 3 days straight, but hey, what do I know - I’m just writing an in-depth reaction post to this movie and taking note of details like this, clearly I know nothing *eye roll*)

Last time I saw Velma critique the guys’ usual mystery solving shenanigans, it was much more low-key and without knowing they were nearby

But I’m sure that’s just a coincidence

------

What the

Bills?

Bills?!?!

Fred just mentioned that fixing the Mystery Machine was going to leave a hefty bill and that they may need to get dishwashing jobs to earn money

Which is more of a job you might expect a high schooler to get on the go and yet

They actually have to pay bills

How old are they here??!

------

wait a tic

THIS is how they introduce Bill Nye?

He just calls up Velma with no explanation other than Velma saying “Oh hey, it’s Bill Nye!”

I just - what?!?!

How do you know him so well that he can just pull up your number and call you, and then geT YOU A NEW FREAKING CAR LIKE

WHAT?!?!?!?

Was there a Scooby episode with him in the past two years where the fcuk did this come from

------

Also the car is dressed like Bill Nye

And he can talk to the gang directly as the car

So that he can solve mysteries with them whenever he wants

This… this was not what I was expecting to come about from the Bill Nye cameo

(alas, poor predictions of being Crane’s roommate, you will not come to pass this day) 😔

-------

Ooooo, purple haze throbbing on the horizon! That’s always a good sign of things to come! 😀

------

And now Daphne’s… asking Elvira to mentor her fashion wise. And Elvira’s taking her on as her unpaid intern/personal assistant.

Yooo, movie, can you pick a direction and stick with it for Daphne? You’ve gone from her spewing outdated slang to wanting a costume for trick-or-treating, and now this.

-------

Welp, now I can say I saw a giant pumpkin dog vore an old woman

I didn’t WANT to see that mind, but I guess I can say it now 😐

------

OH SHIT NO

IT TURNED HER INTO A FLYING PUMPKIN SHAPED LIKE HER FACE

ABSOLUTELY UNSETTLING, 0/10 WOULD NOT RECOMMEND

-------

At least we get a nice scene of Daphne kicking the pumpkins’ collective butt

Something normal

------

Elvira: WOW! You’re a regular Mary Sue!

*falls over cackling*

------

And now there’s a giant purple fissure opening up in the concrete to swallow the town of Crystal Cove whole

(good, i whisper softly into the darkness of my living room. Let it fall)

--------

Man, I feel so bad for this single father right now

He’s gotten wrapped up in all of this nonsense with his daughter, and he is just Distraught at being chased by Jackal Lanterns, having the town collapsing under his feet, and having to gorge jump in his sedan to get away from the worst of it

It’s okay, Mike Dad - we would feel the same way in your shoes

-------

Hologram Bill Nye is wearing Cat ears and cat whiskers/nose, and is cleaning his hands like a cat cleans its paws

Why was this the movie we found out Bill Nye was a furry

Why Warner Bros

Why would you inflict this upon us in a Scooby Doo-Scarecrow mystery

-------

Hey, can Jonathan Crane return now? The movie needs its dignity back.

------

A clue on the whys here - the town was built on top of a MASSIVE lithium deposit, with the talks to mine it being scrapped due to environmental concerns. That’s actually a decent lead in for why some

-------

Welp

The Jackal Lanterns just went full Mad Max with the Halloween Parade floats and cars

No, I don’t have any idea why either, just roll with it

-------

Nice, they confirmed that Fred’s full name is still Frederick Herman Jones XD

Also a great little action sequence with Daphne - while there’s not much movement, they frame the scene dynamically, with some good quick wordplay. Very nice.

--------

Velma has a mind palace

Aight

--------

Velma: Shaggy, I could kiss you!

Oh, to hear this as a child, when I still hardcore shipped Shelma *sigh*

------

Oh thank gods we’re going back to Scarecrow again

------

Shaggy ate some Scooby Snacks, leapt out of a moving vehicle, and onto the backs of two flying pumpkins that he promptly reined in to fly to Crane’s prison transport

...yet again, I am amazed at the sentences I am led to type for Scooby Doo DTVs

------

Ah, how very Hannibal Lector of you, Jon

Man, he actually looks very meek in normal clothes - red long-sleeved shirt and grey slacks

-----

Hmmm

So Crane ISN’T behind the Jackal Lanterns - in fact he’s outright befuddled by them. This means his whole spiel to Velma earlier about both of them being caught in the same trap was… metaphorical? The breakdown doesn’t actually go into WHY he thinks they’re in the same trap - Crane’s whole schtick is tied to accepting fear, not denying it, so why would they be the same?

Either way, someone is using both him and Mystery Inc to do something to Crystal Cove (please be Red Herring, please be Red Herring, please be Red Herring)

Actually, that reference at the beginning really WAS a red herring - they framed it as being Jon the whole time when it wasn’t. Kudos!

Additional kudos to having Jon be seen more out of mask than in - he is a looker, and I aim to look as much as I can ;)

-------

Annnnd Daphne’s now trying to convince Elvira to switch clothes with her

I don’t get it - how on earth did we get from Daphne trying to find a good costume for trick-or-treating to asking Elvira to switch oh there it is nevermind.

-----

There is literally a scene where a giant buzzsaw is slicing towards Crane

and he just

stares at it

going “huh, that’s different”

And I LOVE IT

------

And here we have another fascinating scene: Velma going to free Crane from his cell, as Daphne tells her to just leave him to die by pumpkin

I’m wondering if they meant to draw a parallel between the two here - Velma starts by reciting a nursery rhyme, then overcoming her fears in order to release madness to take control. It’s not done very cleanly - mainly bc we barely have any time with Crane in this movie - but I wonder if they meant to insinuate that Crane was like Velma once, where he refused to acknowledge he was afraid, which caused him to lose focus on his initial goals

Idk, ignore my ramblings

---

Crane, smirking: I’ll need my personal effects - extenuating circumstances.

Me, fanning myself: I’ll need you to remove yours first

(i am not even kidding, Crane is an absolute DILF in this movie and it flusters me. Stupid sexy animation)

---

YAAAAAAAAAAASSSSS

SCARECROW TO THE MOTHERFCUKING RESCUE BABY, SCYTHE AND FCUKING ALL!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

----

FCUK YEAH THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

HE HAS A DANCE LIKE QUALITY WITH SOME OF HIS FIGHTING MOVES

VIOLENT DANCING BRINGS THE GIANT JACKAL LANTERN DOWN BABY

THEN HE BACKFLIPS AND GYMNASTIC SWINGS INTO THE VAN

ROCK IT SCARECROW FCUKING ROCK IT

(minor note here, but the subtitles show Dr. Crane instead of Scarecrow - unsure if that’s more that the movie calls him Dr Crane or if it indicates he’s acting more heroic than villainous)

---

GODDAMNIT

THE GIANT PUMPKIN SNUCK VINES INTO THE VAN AND STOLE HIM BACK

WHEN CRANE WAS... wearing a seatbelt before, but isn’t now.

...

BOOOOO

---

Yet again, we find a Scooby movie that attempts character development, but with Velma

Unlike Shaggy’s Showdown however, I’m mixed on how successful it is.

For starters, Velma hasn’t been this cocksure in other DTVs we’ve seen, so it’s a bit odd to see it now. While not 100% out of place - after all, the gang DID capture one of Batman’s Rogues Gallery on their own - it still feels a touch forced. Compare that to Shaggy’s Showdown, where Shaggy has ALWAYS been a coward (one that, in more recent years, writers have had willing to abandon his friends for safety), so the character development there feels more natural.

The progression of events with Velma actually work somewhat okay - but again, here’s where past DTVs come to bite them in the ass. The past handful have had the gang be wrong, have had them fail, or catch the wrong guy. This makes Velma’s attitude here at odds with the other films, something that sticks more due to a character that’s appeared in the past few films as a minor inconvenience - a Sheriff who keeps telling the gang not to interfere, they’re doing things wrong, etc. If this had been a character who was completely wrong in the past AND SHOWN TO BE WRONG FOR HIS OPINIONS, while the gang never guessed wrong, this would work much better. Unfortunately, it doesn’t, and here we are.

I think it would have flowed better if Velma’s cockiness came solely from catching Crane on their own. Have a random cop character or reporter or whatever (just not the recurring cop), insinuate that the gang is in too deep with Scarecrow, that he should be handled by the adults or professionals or whatever. Velma could bristle, overcompensate, and THEN fall from her pedestal like we see, reach out to the gang and commiserate over feeling scared, and grow. Again, it’s not too far to reach for, but they handle it poorly; as a result, the outcome feels a little more shoehorned in.

It’s an honest shame, bc we haven’t had a Velma centered story since Frankencreepy, and we all remember what a hideous fcuking mess THAT was *shudders*. Still, it somewhat gets its point across, I guess.

---

Fred why did you rip your shirt off

Actually better question why do you not have nipples

---

Awwwwwww

Velma just apologized to Shag and Scoob for snapping at them earlier, and admits how she doesn’t appreciate how much they make Mystery Inc what it is

Also she eats a Scooby Snack with them and admits they taste pretty good

----

Huh

Velma’s mind palace is the Mystery Machine driving through space

Also Shaggy and Scooby are able to telepathically follow her in and communicate with her

Literally, they actually followed her into her head telepathically, and show her their memories of things she hasn’t gotten to see tonight (while also possibly enhancing her ability to remember things, given how much DETAIL she captures perfectly of things that she would maybe have glimpsed in a millisecond AT MOST)

...another tally for Crack Theory A of magic! Shaggy and Scooby *scribbles*

-------

Fred, be very very thankful that there are no people operating those pumpkins in person cause uhhhh

Those traps would be spraying red instead of orange

------

Another weird music choice - the gang goes up to fight the Jackal Lanterns, but the music is the same 60s bubble we heard earlier

Not terribly atmospheric, really

(wouldn’t a Smashing Pumpkins cover of Scooby Doo be more appropriate, or did you guys spend all your money on hiring Elvira and Bill Nye?)

------

Dang

Velma just admitted her fears and jumped into the mouth of the Mega Pumpkin, before getting Fred to use the app from earlier to shut it down, revealing it to be a giant drone surrounded by smaller pumpkin drones

This feels… counterintuitive, but I’ll try to explain at the end

---

Okay

I’ll admit it

The Whodunnit is actually pretty decent in concept

There was a sprinkling of tidbits that could be assembled for the final conclusion and still make a decent amount of sense, all to find the sheriff doing it

Only he isn’t a sheriff

He’s a former Tech CEO who was also busted by the gang years ago in a case the Sheriff kept bringing up throughout the movie - due to his prison sentence, he lost more than half his wealth and the opportunity to expand it further with the Crystal Cove Lithium deposits

He was also someone who sold tech to Crane for his fear toxin distribution, where he got the idea to frame him for it

(tho on a side note, Crane is an absolute dork and a terrible liar - just look at the email he sent XD and that profile pic, my gods)

He deliberately picked at the gang for the past few DTVs (specifically 2: Return to Zombie Island and Curse of the 13th Ghost) to fracture their confidence, undermine them, etc - all so that in one fell swoop, he could retake his fortune, frighten everyone in town away from the mines so they couldn’t interfere, frighten away the gang (while also ruining their reputation as mystery solvers), and take Crane off the docket so he couldn’t identify the CEO when he pretended to be the sheriff

This… is actually a pretty damn good plan, for a Scooby villain. He was patient, manipulative, and clever, learning how best to tie up loose ends and win back what he lost. A clever revenge story that came so close to coming to fruition, and could have honestly been sold convincingly…

...if it hadn’t been done so much better in Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.

Yeeeaaaah, this movie basically lifts the rough framework up from that one - past mystery villain comes back to attack the gang and ruin their reputation (tho this one decides to also make his fortune back and tie up loose ends with former criminal contacts, a la Crane). Gang is embarrassed in front of the news folk, another villain is framed for it (like Old Man Wickles of the Black Knight fame), and the gang must reconcile to foil the villain for good.

Although it also??? Merges elements of Frankencreepy in it?? The movie is focused on Velma, who is struggling to admit when she’s wrong (which ties into her fear, somehow… I’ll think on that point a little) and things purportedly go haywire when she won’t bend. This… isn’t illustrated as well here, since there’s very little direct cause-and-effect from Velma’s actions that would prove this point - that insisting her way is the right, best, and therefore only way to go ends up making things worse.

As much as I despised Frankencreepy (and I DESPISED IT), it did do that part well - showing that refusing to budge on something can lead to you hurting your friends (literally, in that one), and that admitting you were wrong and need help isn’t the end of the world.

(that movie also had former villains returning to gain vengeance upon the gang using psychological warfare, hm - may need to go over that one again, unfortunately).

It’s a shame, too - the basic elements for this plot are all here, they just need to be polished and reworked a bit to make a really fascinating movie.

------

Anyways, back to the asshat CEO who just… faked being a sheriff. Because white people can get away with that so long as they have the outfit and the car *throws up hands* (the sad part is this is probably something that actually happens)

As he drives away we see a familiar silhouette looming in the cornfields, watching him approach

Velma had Bill Nye on speaker, so he could record the entire confession for the federal officers nearby (who were taking Scarecrow back to Arkham), and track the phone signal to his exact location

And right as his holographic call cuts out, we see the shadow of a Scarecrow looming over him, causing him to scream.

When the feds arrive at his final location, both his body and the money have vanished. The car still sits, engine running, before the crows leering over him from the field vanish into the sky.

-------

Now that he’s dead, the gang walks and finds themselves at a Halloween party, with friendly faces and good food. The mystery is solved, though the culprit may never be found again.

Then Daphne admits to NOT trying to steal Elvira’s costume for Halloween, but instead trying to steal Elvira’s identity and replace her.

Something that she’s apparently nearly gotten away with on past mysteries working with Phillis Diller

*sighs* movie, why couldn’t you just stick to the costume schtick? This is just… so much worse.

-----

From there, Elvira walks off to wrap things up, reveal the monster face on the back of her head sans wig (which was also a monkey), and start the credits, where we see the gang working to bring the Mystery Machine back to its former glory a la Frankenstein pastiche.

This movie… this movie is a hot mess, but at least it’s an OKAY hot mess.

It really does feel like someone started writing a decent Velma-focused movie concerning the Scarecrow and a past Mystery Inc villain interfering, but was bogged down by notes from higher-ups: Wait! Write in Elvira! Also write in Bill Nye! Hey, let’s have a Mad Max car chase with the Jackal Lanterns! And have Daphne obsessed with literally becoming Elvira! Also make reference to things that we’ll insist be explained this way instead of a way that makes sense! Great!

(seriously tho, we never find out who Crane cares about most that reminds him of Velma, what the heck?)

It’s like two or three different scripts were smooshed together without being cleaned up - stuff is said that doesn’t get resolved, the celebrity guests don’t get to breathe much and feel squished together, and the build-up for the villain feels… less impactful, even knowing that he’s been in the past two films.

It might have worked if he’d been in… let’s say like 5 or 6 DTVs in a row, speaking roles for dissing the gang growing in each (ex start with “Good job kids! But maybe next time, leave it to the professionals, okay?” and growing more bitter from there), but only 2 feels kind of meh. Still, I do appreciate the clues we got to collect together, and they all work in the final breakdown of the scheme - some DTVs can feel like they pull stuff completely out of nowhere, so kudos there.

I appreciate what they wanted to do with Velma - give her a character development arc similar to Shaggy’s in Shaggy’s Showdown. Unfortunately, it wasn’t set up quite so neatly: they blended her ‘refusal to admit fear’ with her overconfidence that she was always right, and it led to a weird conclusion. To face her fears, she leapt into the Giant Pumpkin, which… proved that she was right all along about it being fake, and that solves things somehow. It doesn’t address how she can get something wrong sometimes, it doesn’t really address what she’s afraid of (which is honestly quite good: she’s afraid of failing in a way that allows bad guys to escape justice and in a way that hurts her friends), it’s just a bit of a mess. Points for aiming the focus the right way (and in a way that DOESN’T sexualize the underage teenage girl, unlike some DTVs cough cough Frankencreepy cough cough), but it’s very very messy how it goes about it.

The movie actually balanced pretty well for the whole gang - no excessive focus on one leaving the rest in the dust (too much at least - Fred was a touch underdeveloped, but nowhere near as annoying as past iterations have been. Shaggy and Scooby were kind of meh in some places but great in others, while Daphne was just odd. I think they were trying to recapture the BCSD Daphne characterization, but they failed. Still, she did spend some good time kicking ass with the pumpkins, so that was fun.

Now for the Rogue, Jonathan Crane. If you like Crane, this movie gives you: maniacal Scarecrow, calm and creepy Crane, a brief glimpse at fanboy!Crane (he admits in his own awkward way that he’s a fan of Elvira, and later tells her he loves her work - it’s fun), and (best of all for me) a heroic Crane - one who helps the protagonists and ends up kicking ass pretty damn well, brief as it was. And while DILF Crane is always a treat, he feels underutilized in this. In comparison, Scooby Doo/Batman Brave and the Bold really utilized a lot of different aspects of Riddler, to the point he actually does feel pretty menacing by the third act. It’s a shame we don’t quite get that with Crane, but I do love seeing him 1. More out of mask, and 2. Acting as a good guy (in his own way), so he’s enjoyable on the whole.

I kind of wish that the whole movie was spent more with Crane, but again, the script is a bit of a mess on this part - the fact that he’s not completely screwed over is a goddamn miracle.

Elvira was… okay. She didn’t have much of a purpose beyond getting the plot started and giving Daphne some hooks to play off of. Bill Nye (abrupt as his introduction was) did provide some necessary elements to the mystery, as well as the tech; he wasn’t too bad by the end. (still a touch bitter we didn’t get ex roommate Nye, but hey, what can you do)

Humor was… mixed. Some good, some meh, but very few long enough to feel painful. Some bits felt extraneous at times, but they did help to build to the conclusion, so points for effort.

At the end of the day though, I’m probably keeping this more for Jonathan Crane than anyone else. It does have a lot of fanfic potential tho 🤔🤔🤔

That’s all from me tonight, folks! Hope you enjoyed my own little breakdown of the movie.

#happy halloween scooby doo #plush reviews: final thoughts #jonathan crane #scarecrow #spoilers

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johannas-motivational-insults · 5 years ago

Text

Glimmer’s Upcoming Villain Arc

So, I’m pretty sure Glimmer’s going to become one of the villains at some point in the final two arcs of SPOP. Not a Horde-aligned villain, obviously, but I think she’s going to have a villain arc and may even end up fighting against Adora. Sound crazy? Well, there’s actually precedent for all this in the Buffyverse, with the Dark Willow story arc. I will get more into those parallels below.

First, though, let’s look at Glimmer and her situation in isolation.

Glimmer is currently in a vulnerable position. She’s grieving the loss of her only remaining parent (so far as she knows) and she’s now going to be saddled with the responsibilities of ruling Bright Moon, all while lacking a parental/mentor figure to guide her. And who do we know who loves to guide and manipulate young people with magical powers? Shadow Weaver.

Some people saw Shadow Weaver allying with the Rebellion as the beginning of a redemption arc. However, it actually makes a hell of a lot more sense for the writers to have put her there to gain influence over Glimmer and kickstart her villain arc, starting with their unexpected connection in season 3. Though Glimmer clearly hadn’t forgiven Shadow Weaver for torturing her in season 1 or for emotionally abusing Adora throughout her childhood, she decided the Rebellion needed this evil woman’s help. It was a means to an end. But now that that mission to save Adora and disable the portal was a success, she probably won’t hesitate to ask for her help again.

Not only did Shadow Weaver gain a bit of Glimmer’s trust, Glimmer loved the boost in power she got from Shadow Weaver. She’s complained several times about how she thinks her powers aren’t that useful or strong, but Shadow Weaver fed her ego and gave her a chance to increase her powers. When she successfully teleported the Princess Alliance into the Fright Zone, she was ecstatic.

“We did it! I did it! That was amazing!”

Simply put, Glimmer is power hungry. Just look at her eyes when Shadow Weaver is talking about her potential to be a great sorcerer like her father.

This scene and the following scene in the tower gave me the creeps so bad, you could just feel Glimmer being pulled to the dark side by the promise of power. And now post-season 3, not only will she be craving that feeling of power again, there’s an inciting incident prompting her to use it.

With her mom trapped in an empty dimension forever, which is essentially hell (especially for an immortal person ffs), Glimmer will probably do everything she can to get her out. I’m guessing she’ll go to her Aunt Casta for help, but Casta will say there’s nothing to be done (at least not without resorting to dark magic), so Glimmer will go to Shadow Weaver out of desperation. Even if Shadow Weaver could come up with a way to bring Angella back, she’ll say she can’t, because she can use Glimmer’s grief for her own ends.

Shadow Weaver’s motive for defecting to the Rebellion was to take down Hordak and Catra, and at this point she could easily convince Glimmer to help her get revenge on Catra. In fact, there’s a chance Glimmer will go to Shadow Weaver herself looking to team up and get this revenge, though it’s more likely Shadow Weaver will plant the seed and manipulate her into thinking it was her own idea.

Inciting incidents aside, Glimmer has always been someone who had the potential to break bad. Like Catra, she’s power hungry and eager to prove herself, brash and impulsive, and quick to resort to violence. She’s easily blinded by emotion and can be quite heartless, both of which were illustrated in 1x01-02 by how she treated Adora because of what the Horde had done to her father.

She’s also morally gray, willing to go to extremes to achieve an outcome that she considers to be good or just. Her decision to free Shadow Weaver and use her to access the Fright Zone is a great example. Another notable instance was when she had Catra as a hostage in 2x02 and threatened to kill her to counter Catra’s threat against Entrapta. She was eventually talked down by Bow, but only while complaining about how having to take the moral high ground isn’t fair. She was clearly frustrated that entire episode by the constraints of being one of the good guys, and it culminated here.

Fighting for the rebellion, Glimmer is a force for good. But if she decides to chase her own agenda, her powers and personality could easily be used for evil. Especially when there’s someone there expertly guiding her down that slippery slope.

Now, if the plot does indeed go this way, it will put Adora in a rather unfortunate position. If it comes down to a situation where Shadow Weaver and Glimmer have an opportunity to kill Catra, Adora will have to intervene on Catra’s behalf, for several reasons. 1) Catra is the most important person in her life, as we all know. 2) She cares for Glimmer’s soul. She knows that if Glimmer murders Catra it will haunt her and change her, and she doesn’t want that for her friend. 3) She feels the need to protect the helpless. Catra will probably be all alone in the world at this point, having pushed all her friends and allies away. So not only will she not have allies to fight with her, she’ll be in a poor state mentally, maybe even welcoming death. Even if she was in good shape, she wouldn’t stand a chance against Glimmer and Shadow Weaver’s combined magical powers. And since Adora can’t stand watching defenseless people get hurt, this will force her to step in and protect Catra despite all the negative feelings she has for her right now.

There are two people I could see pulling Glimmer out of this spiral, bringing her back to the light: Bow or Micah. Adora isn’t the best at sympathizing with someone’s dark impulses while fighting tham, as we’ve seen multiple times with Catra. Her job is to protect the world, and she will prioritize that over everything else, including her best friend (don’t we know it?). So that leaves Bow to talk Glimmer down, either by appealing to her morals (somewhat likely, but wouldn’t work at that point) or by reminding her of her innate good side, of the person she is deep down and the love he feels for her. The other way this could go down is Micah escaping from wherever he is trapped (he’s alive, yo) and convincing Glimmer to stand down with a dose of parental love and wisdom (and a big hug).

There are so many parallels to Buffy the Vampire Slayer in this potential situation, and here’s where we get into the Willow comparisons. SPOILERS for BtVS under the cut!

The comparison between Catra and the rogue slayer Faith has been made many times before, along with the relationships these two characters have with the respective heroes of their shows. But if Catradora is Fuffy, that leaves Glimmer in the Willow role. And there are actually a lot of similarities between the two characters, both being fiercely protective but tempermental magical sidekicks to the hero (who hate being called sidekicks, btw). Both have had trouble making friends in the past, and both have a dude they were best friends with for years before the hero came along and turned them into an inseperable trio.

And now, there are notable and worrisome plot parallels between Glimmer and Willow in seasons 5 and 6 of BtVS.

Buffy sacrifices herself to save the world at the end of season 5, and the “Scooby Gang” believes she was sucked into hell in the process, so they decide to try to bring her back via magic. There is some dissent among the ranks, but ultimately they defer to Willow (who leads in Buffy’s absence like Glimmer will be leading the Rebellion in Angella’s absence), and Willow is not afraid of dark magic. In fact, we already saw her use it in season 5 against Glory (that season’s big bad) after Glory temporarily stole the sanity of Willow’s girlfriend, Tara.

Willow’s attack on Glory was emotionally motivated - she went off on her own after the others thought they had talked her down, thinking an attack was unwise. It was clearly motivated by revenge rather than strategy, which was made exceptionally clear by what she said to Glory.

(This scene actually reminds me a bit of the aforementioned incident with Catra in 2x02, only more extreme. The situations were obviously different, but the vengeful overtones and the mages’ frustration with allies trying to constrain their powers were similar. Both of them were struggling with impulsiveness, morality, and vengeful desires.)

Willow is ultimately successful in bringing Buffy back, though it turns out to not be entirely a good thing. If Glimmer fails to bring Angella back, as I theorized above, she could easily skip ahead to the end of Willow’s season 6 arc, the next time Willow suffers a great loss.

(The middle of Willow’s season 6 arc is her getting addicted to magic and using it in morally dubious ways on Tara and her other friends, which causes Tara to leave her until after she stops using magic and recovers from the addiction. SPOP’s writers could include something like this, but I don’t think they will, for time’s sake. More likely they will just continue to show Glimmer being tempted and corrupted by power as she gets closer to Shadow Weaver, rather than using her powers on her friends.)

The end of Willow’s season 6 arc starts with the notorious shooting death of Tara Maclay. When Tara is hit by a stray bullet and dies in Willow’s arms, Willow attempts to use magic to bring her back, but is denied. This sends her into a spiral of rage and grief, and she spends the next two episodes attempting to kill the shooter and his hapless allies. She catches up to Warren and flays him alive, but the others escape with Buffy’s help. (In the finale she tries to end the world because she believes it is for the best, as life is too full of pain. SPOP definitely won’t pull this same plot point twice, but the revenge quest up to that point is absolutely something that would work for Glimmer.)

Speaking of Buffy stepping in, let’s look at parallels to the situation Adora will find herself in, if my theory is correct.

Buffy tries to dissuade Willow from murdering Warren because she believes it’s wrong and she doesn’t want Willow to have to live with it after. When she finds Warren’s body she decides Willow has gone too far and stands against her when she tries to go after Warren’s allies. Willow is tired of Buffy’s lectures on morality, of living by the good guys’ rules. She wants revenge, and Buffy is standing in her way. She’s also tired of being treated like a sidekick and is eager to show Buffy who is more powerful. They end up having an epic fight scene before she decides to end the world.

With the way she gives in to her dark impulses, fights against Buffy and their friends, and tries to end the world, Dark Willow actually ends up being the big bad of season 6. Her best friend Xander is the one who ends up saving the world - not by fighting her, but by blocking her magic with his body, reminding her of who she has been all these years, and telling her repetitively that he loves her. He literally saves her (and the world) with the power of love and friendship, a recurring phrase on SPOP.

The perfect parallel here would be Bow stepping in and reminding Glimmer of the goodness inside her. Perhaps he’d face off with her while Adora is fending off Shadow Weaver. But yeah, for the reasons I outlined above, Bow would be the perfect candidate to call Glimmer back from the brink of becoming a murderer. He’s known her longer than Adora and is more empathetic. Xander is often referred to as “the heart” of the Scooby Gang, the one who lacks magical powers but makes up for it with his empathy, courage, and enthusiasm. Bow fills that same role in the Best Friend Squad and Princess Alliance, and he wears a literal heart on his chest. (Yes, Xander is problematic in some ways but damn it that’s so off-topic and I’m not getting into it.)

I don’t think Glimmer will actually succeed in her quest for vengeance, or at least it won’t culminate in Catra’s murder. SPOP deals with some dark themes but it's meant for a younger audience than BtVS, plus Noelle surely knows better than to kill a fan fave wlw. But Glimmer will probably have an opportunity to kill Catra and be dissuaded at the last second, then have to embark on a redemption arc of her own.

Again, this is all just a crazy theory, but the idea of Glimmer going dark is both scary and exciting. She’s most interesting as a character when she’s struggling with her darker urges, and I think SPOP has been hinting at and slowly setting this up over the first two arcs. Now with an inciting incident at play, she could easily give in to those urges in the wake of her grief, letting her vengeful streak bubble to the surface like it did for Willow. I can’t wait to see where the story takes her in arc 3.

#spop #she ra #she-ra #meta #theories #glimmer #dark glimmer #glimmer and shadow weaver #best friend squad #glimbo #shadow weaver #catra #bow #adora #btvs #parallels #dark willow #willow rosenberg

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hamliet · 5 years ago

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Tragic Snow White: Renfri as a Mirror to Ciri

So in my initial review of The Witcher (the show version) I talked about how I thought it was fitting that Renfri’s story was the one the show adapted first, because it perfectly articulated what the story’s main questions and themes would be. At the time I’d only read the first two books and hadn’t even started the main saga, and now that I’ve finished the main saga, I think Renfri’s story is even more important than I initially thought.

The story is a tragic foil to the entire Witcher saga, with Renfri as a foil of Yennefer to an extent, but especially a foil--even more of a parallel--to Ciri. It pretty much tells you exactly how the entire saga will end, even.

Spoilers for the books and potentially disturbing subject matter below.

Vilgefortz is to Ciri what Stregobor is to Renfri.

Stregobor and Vilgefortz both want to control little girls because of the circumstances of their birth.

Stregobor hunts Renfri because she was born during an eclipse known as the Black Sun (which is an alchemy reference, fyi). He believes all the girls born then are evil and hunts them to vivisect them. He claims Renfri was strangling puppies even as a child, but he is hardly a reliable source of information, so it’s impossible to say. All we know is that he persuaded Renfri’s stepmother, the Queen, to hire a huntsman to murder Renfri. But she lives, just like Snow White... or not. Here’s how she summarizes it to Geralt:

Like Renfri, Ciri is a princess whose life is thrown into chaos and violence. For Ciri, though, it’s because her kingdom fell, and she has to run. Vilgefortz and Emhyr (and like, the mages, also the elves, also half the world) hunt Ciri because of almost the exact opposite reason: after years of genetic experiments, Ciri is prophesied to give birth to a son who will save the world from a coming calamity. However, no one thinks that Ciri might have opinions on what is done to her own body.

Vilgefortz, in particular, is notably similar to Stregobor in that what he wants to do to Ciri is absolutely grotesque: artificially inseminate her and then rip out her placenta to study it, so that he might obtain power. Both men look to treat these girls’ bodies to suit their own selfish needs for prestige while under the guise of the “greater good.” It’s disgusting, and as Geralt says to Emhyr:

“The ends justify the means,” the Emperor said flatly. “I do it for the future of the world. For its salvation.”

“If you have to save the world like this,” the witcher lifted his head, “this world would be better off disappearing. Believe me… it would be better to perish.”

Like Ciri, Renfri takes on another identity that isn’t really who she is. She becomes known as Shrike for her method of killing, but she asks Geralt not to call her that. Ciri goes by Falka when she runs around with the Rats, the name of an ancestor of hers who was a princess sent away by the king as a baby, who grew and led a rebellion, killing her family in revenge before ultimately being executed herself.

Shrike and Falka are the worst of Renfri and Ciri, and so it is meaningful that Renfri asks Geralt not to call her Shrike. She tells him to kill Stregobor to save the town, because she cannot renounce her vengeance, going so far as to risk her safety to sneak into his room and ask him. She asks him not to make her Shrike, not to let her kill, but she cannot let Stregobor live after all she has suffered.

Geralt believes Renfri can change, urges her to leave her past, cares deeply for her, yet ends up having to kill her because he wasn’t able to fully understand the depths of Renfri’s pain (I’m not saying he should have killed Stregobor, merely pointing out that he does fail here). He cannot make a decision and reacts instead of acting, and by then no good options are left. Yet, at the very least, he refuses to allow Stregobor to touch her body. The Witcher is a decently straightforward fictionalization of the argument that women have the right to control their bodies.

We see Geralt responding to Ciri’s predicament as if she is a second chance for Geralt after Renfri. Instead of being reactive, he is proactive, trying to protect her before the fall of Cintra and then trying to destroy her enemies. However, he still struggles to understand just what it was that Renfri was asking him for. It wasn’t just to act. It was to empathize with her pain. Ciri, too, winds up feeling abandoned by Geralt, and after a series of terrible events, winds up following a similarly murderous path just like Renfri. In trying to prevent a repeat, Geralt almost caused a repeat.

However, thankfully, this does not happen, because Geralt and Yennefer’s genuine love for Ciri, even if imperfect, helps Ciri pull out of her spiral, whereas Renfri was never given the chance. Yennefer is absolutely instrumental to this, because, like Renfri, she’s a bitter, emotional, and violent person, determined to get what she wants. And that is why when Yennefer is so determined to self-destruct just to control the djinn, Geralt chooses to empathize and use his last wish to, presumably somehow, tie her fate to his to save her. Ciri has seen this empathetic part of Geralt even as he tries to cloak it in other coping mechanisms, and so she has hope, while Renfri did not know Geralt beyond their time in Blaviken.

Notably, the narrative does not condemn Renfri for this even though she dies. It’s seen as a tragedy, with Renfri as someone worth mourning. Additionally, her death and her questions haunt Geralt. Her questions are the ones he essentially finally answers with the above quote to Emhyr: what is the lesser evil? And his answer is that you can’t make a right world on the foundation of hurting someone--anyone.

As Renfri states, Geralt is terrible at making decisions, and this is why he has to repeatedly struggle to make decisions and learn to pursue people and to give people second chances--Yennefer, Jaskier, Regis, Cahir, Angoulême, Ciri. Through helping others redeem themselves, he redeems himself; through finding others, in learning to empathize with them and to trust them, he finds himself.

#the witcher meta #yennefer of vengerberg #renfri #geralt of rivia #ciri #cirilla fiona elen riannon #princess cirilla #the witcher saga #andrzej sapkowski #witcher meta #netflix's the witcher #yenralt #yennefer x geralt

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bubonickitten · 5 years ago

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MAG 167 spoilers

I am once again back to obsessing over Gertrude and Jon as narrative foils!!

And just – the narrative does such a great job of using that foil to illustrate Jon’s neverending struggle with his own humanity. Because although Gertrude didn’t embrace her Archivist powers in the same way that Jon sometimes does, she was arguably monstrous in her own way -- in ways that Jon ultimately isn’t.

I keep thinking back to Jon’s conversation with Gerry, in particular this bit:

GERARD: Well, she could make people tell her stuff, sometimes. They’d suddenly get real talkative, and lay out whatever she needed. She didn’t do it often though. I don’t think she liked it.

JON: Oh, er, I can do that, too.

GERARD: Huh. Do you like it?

JON: I – I don’t know. I never really thought about it. Yes, I… I suppose I do.

GERRY: Hmmm.

I think after his coma, Jon has a much more negative view of his abilities, but early on, he admits that there’s a part of him that does like being able to compel people. It fits, honestly – of course someone like Jon, so intolerant of mysteries, so prone to overthinking, so full of questions and so voracious for answers, fresh out of a paranoid episode that left him unable to trust any answer that anyone offered him, would like having the option to ask a question and receive a guaranteed answer and to know that the given answer was the truth. At least until he no longer has control over it, finds himself accidentally compelling people and unable to stop knowing things even when he doesn’t want to.

But even if Gertrude was further from the supernatural aspects of the Archivist role, she was still ruthless in her crusade. Her conviction and boldness made her a badass, certainly, but at what cost? The answer depends heavily on how you feel about utilitarianism as an ethical philosophy.

Gertrude Robinson would have a clear answer to the trolley problem and not apologize for it. Jonathan Sims would agonize over all the potential choices and outcomes until he’s paralyzed with indecision. (Annabelle Cane knew exactly what she was doing when she gave him that statement about the nature of free will in a moment where he was struggling so profoundly with self-doubt.)

People are always comparing Jon to Gertrude, telling him that he’d be better off behaving more like her, urging him to accept the premise that ruthlessness is a strength in a world that offers only fear and pain, and that humanity is a weakness and a liability that he doesn’t have the luxury to indulge.

And in Season 4, he tries that philosophy on for a brief while. The Eye drives him to compel people to tell their stories; he starves if he doesn’t obey that instinct. He feeds the Eye the trauma of innocent bystanders, and now he’s the monster haunting the dreams of his victims. (And, to his credit, that’s what he ultimately refers to them as: victims. He uses that word. That’s significant.)

When Basira witnesses him do that and calls him out on it, Jon replies by pointing out that Basira (among others) told him that he should be more like Gertrude: “She got the job done and didn’t care about the cost.”

Basira responds, “But I thought you did.”

And that highlights the fundamental difference between Jon and Gertrude! He’d temporarily forgotten that – he’d lost touch with that piece of himself, of his humanity. It makes sense; everyone around him saw him as a monster, and it’s hard to believe in your own humanity when no one else does, when everyone around you is building a self-fulfilling prophecy for you.

It takes Martin reaching out in the only way that he can – urging the others to talk to him – for Jon to wake up and admit that what he’s doing isn’t right and that he needs to do something to stop it. He goes back and forth with himself for a bit – Does he have any control? Is he doing it on autopilot? Is the Web influencing him? – but ultimately he decides that, no, he has to hold himself accountable. Helen asks him if he’s sure he didn’t want to do it, and he takes that hard-to-swallow pill and engages in some introspection and comes to the conclusion, Yeah, while supernatural influence is at play here, I made a choice.

BUT if he made a choice, it means that he can make a different choice going forward. He doesn’t have to be the monster that everyone else expects him to be. He doesn’t have to traumatize others in the same way that he’s been traumatized. (And, eventually, maybe he can learn to see himself as Martin sees him.) And he changes his behavior accordingly!

I keep thinking of Jon’s comment on Gertrude sacrificing Michael to end the Spiral’s Ritual:

“I thought moving away from my humanity would have made that seem more acceptable. That sort of sacrifice… But it just makes me sad. I remembered Gertrude’s notebook. We found it alongside the plastic explosives, but it rather got lost amongst the business of… saving the world at the cost of two lives.”

And this comment, from one of Jon’s many navel-gazing arguments with himself over the nature of humanity and how he fits into that:

“Why were we chosen? …Is there destiny here? Bloodlines, and prophecies? Or did we just – stumble into this. Maybe… maybe we’re the opposite of Agnes. Maybe our doubts are exactly what we need.”

What keeps Jon in touch with Jonathan Sims, human and distinct from The Archivist/The Archive isn’t just an anchor/reason (Martin) or his own intense guilt, but that capacity for doubt. I mean, it does feed into his self-loathing and it’s unhealthy for him in a number of ways, but that doubt is also what saves him from fully becoming the thing he fears, in a way?

It’s interesting how that doubt and questioning feeds into his innate curiosity. That incessant need to know, even if his discoveries might destroy him, to go with Gerry’s definition of Beholding, is Jon’s fatal flaw, and it’s what makes him so well-suited to the Eye, but it’s also so very human.

That, along with Jon’s choice to change his behavior throughout the story is, imo, the strongest argument in favor of his humanity.

From where Jon is standing, every other Avatar has become so divorced from their prior self that they barely resemble humans anymore. But the question of free will is nebulous for most of the Avatars.

Some of the Avatars seem to have sought out the power that overtook them, or at the very least openly embraced it. Jude Perry sought to destroy others to make herself feel more alive long before she met Agnes; the Desolation just lent her the power to do so to a greater degree, and she leaned into it. Jared Hopworth was already a bully; becoming the Boneturner just gave him a new way to express that preexisting pattern of behavior.

Some of the others stumbled into it out of sheer bad luck, or in some way attracted a certain power. They were initially afraid, and typically resisted, but eventually were overtaken – or… gave in? Because that’s the recurring question: How much choice is involved?

Take Oliver Banks:

“The thing is, Jon, right now you have a choice. You’ve put it off a long time, but it’s trapping you here. You’re not quite human enough to die, but still too human to survive…. I made a choice. We all made choices. Now you have to.”

Or Daisy:

“I hate a lot of what I did back then; doesn’t mean I’m not responsible for it, doesn’t mean it wasn’t me.”

Even if some of the Avatars could have done something differently to avoid their ultimate fate, they didn’t necessarily deserve that fate. Helen Richardson could have not opened the door, but opening a door out of curiosity shouldn’t be a punishable offense.

And when the Distortion and Helen ‘become’ one another, it’s interesting that there’s still enough of Helen left (at least at first) for her to feel guilt and doubt over what she’s becoming, in much the same way that Jon does:

“I took a man, wandering the halls of an old tenement…. It was nourishing, but… I didn’t like it. I feel… wrong.”

(Side note: I understand why Jon feels like he can’t trust the Distortion, but it does make me wonder what might have gone differently if he’d maintained an open dialogue with her re: humanity vs. monstrosity, similar to the sort of understanding Jon and Daisy have after the Buried.)

The story has been asking these questions all along, but MAG 167 put it back under the microscope in an important way. It really doesn’t matter as much what Jon is, because what he does is a much better measure of humanity and goodness.

Jon looks at his own choices, looks at Gertrude’s choices, looks at the things that neither of them had control over and looks at the things that they did, and comes to a final conclusion:

No, he doesn’t want to be like Gertrude. Human connections are important. He needs an anchor. He needs companionship. Trust and communication don’t come naturally to him, but it’s worth confronting that vulnerability in the end, because it’s what keeps him in touch with his humanity, with who he is and who he wants to be.

It really complements Martin’s philosophy, too. I’ve gone on and on about it before, but I still think the line that most exemplifies Martin’s character is his response to Simon Fairchild’s brand of flippant, fatalist nihilism:

“I think our experience of the universe has value. Even if it disappears forever.”

It would be so easy for Jon and Martin to just... give up. Give in to self-loathing, to guilt, to loneliness, to a world gone horribly, possibly irreversibly wrong. Early on, Jon is inclined to do just that. He tells Martin that “this is no longer a world where you can trust comfort.” But what does Martin do instead? He comforts Jon. He puts comfort into a world where it seems like none can exist. It doesn’t matter if that gesture is significant in the grand scheme of things -- however you want to define significance on a cosmic level. In that moment, Martin cared, and that mattered to him, and it mattered to Jon, and that fact won’t change, even when they’re both dead and gone.

It’s... really the same stubborn sentiment that Jon offered in the Lonely, and Martin is mirroring it back when Jon needs it most.

They make an active choice to build a relationship, to try to make a change for the better. Even if it ends in failure, the fact that they tried is still significant. Jon looks at how Gertrude lived her life, compares it with his past and current choices, and (rightly imo) comes to the conclusion that, yeah, it hurts to trust and to care, but it’s worth it, and it’s necessary if they want to survive (and, of course, he also doesn’t just want to survive). It’s just... a very brave, very compassionate, and very human way of confronting the end of the world.

#tma #the magnus archives #mag 167 #tma meta #jonathan sims #gertrude robinson #tma spoilers #long post

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jess-rewatches-prodigalson · 5 years ago

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Episode 12: Internal Affairs

Not going to lie. I know some people hate this episode but it’s one of my favourites.

SPOILERS AHEAD.

0:14 - Sure. Let’s start this episode off by shoving a knife through my heart. Look at Malcolm’s broken little face. :( He knows Gil didn’t deserve that outburst. Gil knows it too - but it still to hear. This episode aired months ago and I think my heart is still trying to heal.

0:20 - Look at Dani’s inner conflict here. She loves both of these doofuses and she can’t decide who to go and comfort.

0:30 - Dani just figured out that Malcolm is hallucinating. She knows what he looks like when he hallucinates from 1x5. Now she’s scared. So is Malcolm. Look at their eyes. Mmmmhmmm. This is good whump.

1:30 - This is Gil being a total dad to Malcolm. He’s already forgiven the idiot for being a jerk last night. Now he’s helping Malcolm put on his tie like Malcolm is 12 years old. You can see that Gil is still a little annoyed with Malcolm but I think it’s probably based out of concern. Gil’s scared because he knows Malcolm isn’t sleeping and he knows Malcolm’s mental health has been spiralling lately. He’s terrified because he knows that Malcolm (unintentionally...sort of) tried to kill himself last night. Gil’s scared that Malcolm is entering active suicidal territory as opposed to his usual passive suicidal territory. Maybe Malcolm’s behaviour is also reminding Gil of a time when Malcolm was suicidal as a teenager? Gil’s probably worried about the investigation too and how Malcolm’s mental state will affect it.

2:21 - Malcolm walks into that interview room and just starts exuding manic energy. Yikes. This boy looks tired, scared, manic, and determined. He needs a nap and a hug. This will not go well.

2:54 - “I’m not sure I have a safe space.” There’s a couple of these types of lines that Malcolm lets slip during this interview. Every one of them scares me because they’re completely true statements that Malcolm would never normally share out loud. Especially since he knows the room is wired and the team is listening. He doesn’t want them to think he’s weak. He doesn’t want Gil to make him stop working. It sheds a light on just how fragile his mental state is and that is just heartbreaking.

3:10 - So everyone knows that Malcolm uses humour as a coping mechanism for his trauma and pain. Good to know. Check out Malcolm’s face right after he says, “What else did they warn you about?”. He looks scared and a little confused. Almost as though he wasn’t entirely aware that he used humour as a coping mechanism and he’s afraid of what else the team might’ve picked up on regarding his mental state. He’s scared that if the team knows too much about what’s going on with him, he won’t be allowed to work anymore.

3:25 - Total side note here. Every time I watch this episode I have to do a double take because for a moment I think Dr. Coppenwrath is played by Marc Evan Jackson (Kevin in Brooklyn-99, Shawn in The Good Place). It’s not, but try telling that to my sleep deprived brain.

3:36 - Soooo was the room wired for everyone’s interview of just Malcolm’s? Because JT just verbally admitted that he’s friends with Malcolm. Does this mean the Malcolm has access to recorded evidence that JT is his friend? This is character development I can get behind. Look how far their relationship has come since the pilot. I’m so proud and so happy.

3:45 - Malcolm was in the hospital for “weeks”. I really want to know exactly how much time has passed since the end of 1x11. Also. How the hell did someone keep him in the hospital that long? The boy seems to like signing himself out of hospitals AMA. AND WHAT HAPPENED TO WATKINS?!?!? and why is no one giving me a scene of the team visiting Malcolm in the hospital?! This is the scene that my heart wants.

4:04 - It physically hurts me to watch Gil say “Watkins tortured you”. Kudos to Lou Diamond Phillips. Gil looks wrecked - almost like he’s trying not to cry. He probably blames himself for the extent of Malcolm’s injuries because he didn’t find Malcolm sooner. He’s probably remembering just how scared he was when he showed up at the Whitly house to find his kid bleeding out from a stab wound (in my headcanon Gil is the first responder on the scene and he finds all three Whitlys upstairs).

4:09 - hahaha that look. Gil is like “you can’t lie to me you little idiot” and Malcolm immediately back peddles. hahaha this is a true father/son moment. I love it.

4:25 - One of the reasons that I love this episode so much is because it makes me feel an array of emotions. I go from worrying about Malcolm’s mental health to laughing at some stupid comment one of the characters makes. I mean seriously : “If Bright was an actual state he’d be Florida.” hahahaha that is iconic.

4:42 - Yep. Malcolm has reached peak mania. He’s ranting about jello with a very manic expression on his face. Which is kind of adorable but also very concerning.

4:47 - OMG. This whole Elsa/Jessica/Dani/Malcolm scene is amazing. Jessica is so extra here and Malcolm is done with it. Really makes me wonder what Jess was like when he was in the hospital. AND look at Malcolm’s broken little face when Jessica mentions his “more unruly nightmares” he’s so embarrassed and ashamed. :( AND DANI. OMG. Every time the camera pans to her she just has this perfect expression on her face like “This whole family is whack. I feel like I’m intruding but also I kind of want to be here because I sort of care about this loser?”

6:44 - I love how the whole team is showing their own personal brand of concern for Malcolm when he shows up at the scene. Malcolm reacts so perfectly to it. He looks a little overwhelmed that they’re all concerned. Like he was only expecting Gil to care.

7:00 - I’ll say it again. Someone needs to show my dude Gil some love. This man needs a break. Look how utterly exhausted he looks when he says “100%”. Ugh. This man worries way too much about his kids.

7:14 - hahaha the look that Gil gives Edrisa here. hahaha he’s so shocked and annoyed that she knows the details of Bright’s injuries because she pulled his medical records. I love it.

7:31 - The way Gil sort of directs Malcolm to the crime scene with his arm concerns me. By the look on JT’s face - it concerns JT too. That arm is a signal of defeat. Gil is resigned to the fact that Malcolm just won’t take care of himself. Gil is too tired to send Malcolm home again especially since he knows that Malcolm won’t rest. So, Gil is giving in because at least this way he can keep an eye on Malcolm. BUT the fact that Gil gives into this is not a good sign for Gil’s mental health. THIS BOY NEEDS A NAP.

7:53 - Check out the way Malcolm’s eyes narrow when Coppenwrath insinuates that Malcolm’s “patients” help him understand himself because he too is a killer. This is a bad therapist move right here.

8:19 - I love that JT teases Malcolm when he’s concerned about him. It’s really sweet. SIDE NOTE - Malcolms shoes are nice. Dang.

8:46 - Check this out. Is Gil even listening to the profile? He’s staring at Malcolm with so much concern that I’m not even sure. While they are at the graveyard Gil does not look at Malcolm with anything but concern. Gil knows that there’s something more than Watkins going on with Malcolm right now.

9:30 - That is a haunting look. Malcolm looks numb. Dissociated.

10:14 - Malcolm almost looks like he’s having fun here? He’s lying through his teeth, living in a manic state but he seems to be enjoying the conversation. So that’s good, I guess?

10:32 - The look Malcolm just gave Coppenwrath is awesome. It’s a look that suggests that Malcolm is profiling the hell out of Coppenwrath right now and what he’s learning is really interesting to him.

10:38 - Is Coppenwrath allowed to know this much about the investigation? I mean, I thought he was evaluating Malcolm’s mental health - not the current case? He doesn’t really need that many details about the case.

10:57 - Awww. Gil going to bat for Malcolm is so sweet. <3 My heart is full.

12:02 - ....why does Gil know so much about the Vosler institute? Previous case? Advertisements? #justcurious

12:20 - Is Malcolm talking about himself here? He’s definitely guilty of a low self-worth and some schizotypal thinking. Has he been tempted by a cult?

13:54 - Is Dani checking Vosler out? I can’t tell if she’s amused that he’s such a bad liar or if she thinks he’s hot.

14:15 - Was Malcolm at the institute at the same time as the rest of the team? Wouldn’t they have seen him?

14:51 - Myers-Briggs is a personality test. How the hell would that identify how much trauma you have? ...but I’m not a doctor so what do I know?

15:30 - I feel like Gil is in an actual therapy session ranting about his dysfunctional, passively suicidal son. Gil looks almost comforted as he vents about how Malcolm can’t sleep. He still looks concerned for Malcolm but he looks less scared and more calm. I feel like this was a good experience for Gil. It’s allowing him to process just how bad Malcolm’s mental state is getting. Maybe we should get Gil a therapist.

15:37 - Things are getting too real again; so Malcolm is deflecting with humour.

15:43 - Again. If Coppenwrath was actually evaluating Malcolm’s mental state he wouldn’t care about Vosler. He wouldn’t keep asking Malcolm to tell him about the case and specifically about Vosler. Coppenwrath is so obviously hiding something. Ugh. It drives me crazy.

16:03 - That was honest. “I want it to go away.” Malcolm looks sincere, a little scared, and a little desperate. It breaks my heart.

16:53 - The fact that Malcolm let Vosler shock him is so upsetting. I know Malcolm is desperate to solve the case like usual. However, this time he’s disregarding his own health just a little too obviously for comfort.

17:15 - Look at how terrified Malcolm is as he gets shocked. Look at how much pain he’s in. Yet, he still finds it in him to glare at Vosler. I’m kind of proud of him?

17:41 - Malcolm is being sincere here. He really, truly doesn’t think he’s vulnerable to Vosler. Malcolm doesn’t seem to have self-awareness to his own low sense of self-worth. He’s so depressed that he doesn’t recognize how bad he’s getting. He’s just desperately trying to get answers and make trauma go away without addressing the side-effects of his trauma. My. Heart. Is. Shattering.

17:52 - This scene is another one of those moments when Malcolm unwittingly reveals a little too much about his mental state. He’s being honest with Coppenwrath when discussing his motivations to solve cases. It’s problematic because he accidentally admits that he values the lives of complete strangers over his own health and well-being. Someone please give Malcolm a hug.

18:43 - Another instance where Malcolm is acting like an amazing, kind, empathetic human. Look at how much compassion he has in his eyes for Andi. He so desperately wants to help Andi and it’s beautiful. Malcolm Bright (a man who is currently suffering in a self-destructive, manic, pain-ridden state) has transformed into a calm, sympathetic, comforting, level-headed guy. It’s amazing. He’s somehow able to shed all of his trauma and poor mental state and become 100% pure, untraumatized Malcolm Whitly. Gorgeous. A++.

21:35 - This. Ugh. Just. Just. It’s freaking perfect. “But I didn’t want to lose him.” Gil you are straight up breaking my heart. Look at how sincere Gil is right now. You can see just how much he adores Malcolm and how desperately Gil wants Malcolm to be happy, healthy, and safe. Ugh. I’m in love with this moment.

22:03 - I love how JT holds Malcolm back in this scene. As soon as Malcolm starts running out to Vosler both Dani and JT look concerned. JT grabs Malcolm but the way he holds Malcolm back is also sort of a hug. It’s not the way JT would hold back a stranger or a suspect. That’s the way you hold back a little brother. <3

22:10 - “She was taken by them”. Malcolm looks terrified here. He looks haunted, suspicious, and confused. It’s heartbreaking. Gil and JT look a little alarmed and concerned too.

22:12 - Gil is looking at Malcolm with pure dad!panic here. He’s watching Malcolm unravel and he looks scared, concerned, and a little angry. I’m mildly shocked that Gil didn’t call Jessica to come and take Malcolm home.

22:34 - “Okay. I wasn’t fine. I’m a mess.” This one hurts. I mean, I’m proud of Malcolm for being at least a little self-aware. This just sucks though. You can see the pain in Malcolm’s eyes when he admits it out loud. Followed by the stubborn look he gives Coppenwrath - the one that’s inviting him to ensue that Malcolm can’t do his job. It’s just heartbreaking to watch. All I can think about is the team’s faces as they listen to Malcolm’s outburst.

22:50 - Coppenwrath gives Malcolm a look here that says, “Damn, you are messed up.”

23:50 - The second someone reveals a personal trauma and/or personal problem Malcolm instantly becomes the most understanding, loving, compassionate human being on the planet. It’s beautiful.

24:28 - Malcolm looks so sad here. My heart is shattering.

24:38 - Wow. Malcolm’s voice is deep here. He sounds really upset. He’s angry and scared. I love it.

24:54 - Gil has soccer trophies in his office. In other scenes we’ve also been able to see that Gil has some signed baseballs in glass cases and some model cars in his office. Gil doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy to keep his own sports trophies in his office. Maybe he plays casually in an NYPD league and those are the 16th precinct soccer trophies? BUT here is my true headcanon: Ainsley and/or Malcolm (but I’m feeling that this was more Ainsley’s thing) was really into soccer as a kid. Maybe Gil coached her team? Or he and Jackie took her to all of the games/practices because Jessica had to deal with Martin’s trials? Maybe she gave all of Gil her trophies at some point because she thinks that he deserves them too and he proudly displays them all. The baseballs and cars? Christmas/birthday gifts from Malcolm, Ainsley and/or Jackie over the years. I will die with this theory because it makes me happy.

25:50 - More hints from the writers that there’s something romantic brewing between Jessica and Gil.

26:40 - This whole scene with the deprogrammers is strange. It’s weird that Malcolm is standing next to the couch like some kind of butler. BUT DAMN it is funny when Jessica starts making some not-so-subtle hints about wanting Malcolm to accept his trust fund, settle down, and give her grandchildren. I especially like this because it suggests that Malcolm doesn’t have access to the family money. I assume he pays for things with his salary except for when Jessica buys him things that she insists that he needs (like clothes? food? fancy headboards for his bed?).

27:40 - I love this whole JT, Gil, and Malcolm are tag teaming the interrogation thing. I love that JT and Gil are visibly pissed (because this dude killed someone) and they’re flanking him. I find it interesting that Malcolm is standing so far away - watching, until it’s time to start rambling about his observations. It’s a really great dynamic (I miss Dani though).

28:31 - Look at Malcolm’s face when Coppenwrath mentions the “incident”. He looks sad and guilty. He clearly feels bad for losing it on Gil. Look at the true fear on Dani’s face - she’s terrified at Bright’s mental state. AND GIL. Trying to take some of the responsibility for the incident because he looks sad, and scared for Malcolm too. My heart is so full with all of this whump.

28:48 - Another instance where Malcolm has his own desk. I seriously want to know what the deal is with the desk. Is it his? Does he share it? I want to know. So. Bad.

29:01 - Malcolm’s eyes remind me of the Pepe Sylvia scene in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. He looks like a manic dude riding on the wave of a crazy conspiracy theory. It’s not good. Gil looks like he’s walking on egg shells because he doesn’t know what to say to help Malcolm. That’s almost worse.

30:38 - Edrisa’s little moments in this episode are cute and funny. BUT WHY ARE YOU TALKING TO HER ABOUT THE CASE IF SHE DOESN’T HAVE ALL THE DETAILS? Aren’t you supposed to be talking to her about Malcolm’s mental state?!? Ugh.

31:00 - This exchange between Coppenwrath and Malcolm is great. Malcolm looks sooo upset. The way he bites his lip and stares at the ground to avoid eye contact. The way Coppenwrath lowers himself to enter Malcolm’s line of sight. Malcolm looks on the verge of tears. He’s openly admitting his current biggest problem: what Watkins told him and the hallucinations. Not just to Coppenwrath but to Gil, Dani, and JT too. He just wants a dad who loves him and my heart is shattered. He looks so so wrecked. Somebody hug him. Please.

33:30 - Malcolm isn’t talking about how he’s going to miss his work friends because he thinks going to get fired. He’s talking from the fear that his friends will abandon him when they find out that he’s hallucinating. He’s afraid that they’ll abandon him because they think he’s crazy. He looks so truly sad here. Ugh.

34:33 - Watching Malcolm expose Coppenwrath is upsetting. Usually, Malcolm has a look of determination, desperation, and mild sympathy in his eyes when he talks to a killer. This time - Malcolm just looks vacant, then self-satisfied, then annoyed. It’s different than usual, which is unsettling.

35:50 - Now Coppenwrath looks scared.

36:39 - I’ve never been so proud as the moment that the team steps out from the shadows to support Bright. Right as Coppenwrath is trying to convince Malcolm that the team thinks he’s crazy. My heart is full. Kill me now - I’ll die happy.

36:54 - I love this angle here. It’s not JT or Dani that we can see pulling out their guns. It’s papa Gil. The man who will undoubtedly shoot Coppenwrath if anything happens to Malcolm.

37:00 - Another issue I have. Malcolm doesn’t look scared when there is a gun pointed at his head. He looks alarmed but not scared. More proof of his suicidality. I am not okay.

37:05 - I love the scene where we see JT, Dani, and Gil all pointing guns into the room - desperate to help Malcolm. Look at the panic in Gil’s eyes as he orders a hostage negotiator.

37:37 - Only Malcolm could possibly feel bad for the man with a gun pointing a gun at his head.

38:45 - I do not like how visibly upset Malcolm is in this scene. I mean my whump heart adores it but I also hate it because you know - whump is complicated.

39:23 - That hug was as much for Malcolm as it was for Andi.

39:40 - This is one of my favourite Gil/Malcolm scenes. It’s just wonderful. Gil looks so worried about Malcolm and Malcolm looks a combination of scared and resigned to what Gil is going to ask him. There is something about the way Gil asks “Are you okay?” that just feels like a knife in my heart. Then Malcolm answers truthfully, and I’m pretty sure my heart stopped altogether.

40:00 - Gil looks even sadder (if that’s possible) when Malcolm responds truthfully but he also looks resigned. He’s not surprised by Malcolm’s answer just of how easily he got the truth out of Malcolm.

40:24 - Gil has the absolute perfect response. “Okay.” Because Gil’s done too. Gil is almost as tired as Malcolm and for now Gil’s comforted by the fact that Malcolm is self-aware and being honest with him. For now - that’s enough.

40:44 - GIL YOU NEED A VACATION TOO.....omg. Can we get a Gil+Malcolm joint vacation. Please?!? That would be amazing. Someone write the fic!! Please!!

41:22 - Malcolm can see that Gil is upset. He knows he’s worrying Gil and he still feels guilty about the incident. Malcolm may be a little cracked right now but our boy is a mature adult. Watching Malcolm sincerely apologize to Gil feels like a warm hug. Gil’s little smile is everything. I want to cry happy tears.

42:30 - “I’m a civilian now Sunshine.”....does this imply that sometime between 1x6 (when Gil refers to Malcolm as a civilian on the police radio) and now Malcolm has become an official member of the NYPD?

I. Love. This. Episode. It’s not perfect but the insight to Malcolm is amazing. Thanks for hanging out my dudes.

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friendlybowlofsoup · 5 years ago

Note

Hellloooo~ I was wondering how would ROs react if MC that they thought has passed away but return to them after a few days

Hiya! Sorry again for the wait, I get busy here and there so I can’t always answer RO asks as efficiently as I want to, plus if I don’t take breaks from writing now and then, I burn out super fast 人(_ _*)

For this ask, MC cannot die normally due to their condition, but I wrote these as if they weren’t tainted in order to keep it spoiler-free.

Also, I wanted to make it a little longer than usual! It’s been a while since I got practice for angst, so I wanted to see how much I could write. This won’t be the norm from now on though, I’d never get anything done if every ask took this long to write

(｡T ω T｡)

Posting under the cut for space~

Edit: alright, format for mobile should be fixed

–

Qiu dreads to see his dreams turn to nightmares. His future with you, his endless time promised by your side—your smile, your voice, the patterns of love you traced upon his skin—they twist in his sleep, warping into taunts. Into mockery. Into shade. He’s haunted by the happiness that lingers in his sleep, by the fantasies that shouldn’t have been fantasies, and wakes with his own claws on his skin, his own blood vanishing from the sheets.

And then you return. Just like that. You return like air to inflate his lungs. Like a ghost returned to reap your dues. He recoils, jerks away from your touch, amber eyes wild and red and unfocused. Feathers you’ve never seen, wings you thought he’d tucked away for good, unfurl as he whips away, but you catch him before he can fly.

Maybe it’s your chi that brings him back, the clarity of it that no illusion could fake. Or perhaps his heart just knows. Either way, he bites hard into his lip and crushes you against his chest, curling you with him until you both collapse onto the floor.

And he cries. He cries, he cries, he cries.

–

An tries to move forward, as she has always done, but nothing seems to stick, her being is stuck in suspense, like a vessel in a windless sea. It takes time. Healing takes time. Forgetting your love takes time. She wants it to quicken. She also wants it to slow. She holds your memory deep in her chest, holds onto the words she knows you said, and turns them over and over in her mind to engrave them forevermore into her soul.

So lost in herself, she never felt you approach. Your hands fall upon her cheeks, hands she still knows so well, and her gaze sweeps up. Like a ship roused to life, she jolts unsteadily, but you catch her, and she falls against you instead. Her body shakes, shrinks, and peonies bloom by your very feet as you sink her into your arms.

Her voice calls out to you, cries out, and everything seems to shift again. The world spins at her feet, the clouds spiral in the sky, because you are here, you are alive, and she can move again. Finally, she can move again.

–

Min He traps herself in her own skin. Rain, wind and deluge pour down the mountain—her gasps become thunder, her cries into lightning. She seeks a way out, a way out of the endless rebound of nightmares of you begging for salvation, a way out of the guilt, regret, shame for never being enough. The shrine is a prison, keeps her from the world, from the soaked earth that mourns your loss and desires her blood.

Then she feels you in her domain once more. Your soul, bright and lively and glowing even when drenched, calls for her and she flees that wooden cell. Wash and mud soak her hair, turning it to lead. Trees and brush snag on her sleeves, tripping her to the merciless ground. But she runs, she flies, until she sees you again.

Your skin splits when she kisses you, and bruises will blossom where her fingers dig into your neck, but it is a merciful pain. It speaks of gratitude, of promises, of a second chance she will surely, surely fulfill.

–

Kaski drowns. Your love was his sun, was his daybreak over mist, a break between the clouds he thought he loved so much. Without you, the dam spills over. Memories of past, memories of you, it all spills and mixes, bringing back the taste of singed fur, broken glass, and human blood. It becomes impossible to remember you without the sight of a black flame. Impossible to not see you lying in a pool of blood, dying a death that was not originally yours. He slogs through the dredge of emotions, gagging on tragedy he thought had long since healed.

You appear, one day, without notice. Green eyes, the color of moss, meet yours. He squints, blinded and head-splitting, reeling back even as you approach. But you catch up to him, as certain as the sun will always melt away the dew, and your hand rests gently on the inside of his arm.

He falls against you. His head slams into your shoulders and your knees buckles, but he refuses to let go. He refuses to even speak. He keeps you there, in his grasp, for hours and hours, like a drowned man sprawled under the sun, seeking to dry.

–

Xinyi doesn’t believe you to be really gone. Everything goes too smoothly, his village runs too nonchalantly, and though he cries and cries, the world never notices your absence. You were everything to him, more than a mere dream, more than some specter he had pledged his life to. You were real in his arms, solid when you kissed him, warm when you cherished him. You disappearance meant more than an unravelling of chi, more than rampant energy returning the earth, yet no one else seems to know that. He is the only one.

He’s not facing you when you find him, at last. His shoulders spike when you hold them, shiver when you breathe against his skin, and hunch when you whisper his name.

He sobs into your hands as the both of you slip to the ground. The realization of your supposed death hits him then, swirling with the relief that he had been right this whole time. But he knows now that if you were to go, it would be the same. It terrifies him, that normality, and haunts him, long after he confirms that you’re safe and returned.

–

Hiemi tells herself this was meant to be, that she should have known, that she was foolish to think otherwise. She seals away her tears, fights away the heartache, uses it all to fuel her broiling hatred for the world. You turn into a martyr for her long dead ambitions, the excuse she always needed, and though it rips her heart to know what she’s doing to your memory, her path is already so far along its journey.

That is, until you meet her along the road. She recognizes you instantly, your colors and patterns had not yet faded, and her steps stop entirely. You’re glowing with vitality, with vibrant, consistent shades—too solid to be a ghost returned to haunt her.

She wavers. Her limbs, normally nimble and quick, grow numb as anger gives way to fatigue, and you catch her, though just barely. Her arms squeeze your waist, her voice rambles until it grows hoarse, until nothing is coherent any longer, until it fades to silence and you’re both left holding each other in the middle of the road.

–

Go Ro must burn away your presence, yet it seems only your belongings remain unscathed in his shrine. Flowers wilt, papers set ablaze, but your clothes, your gifts, the places you’ve touched remain. Each day he reaches to destroy them, to turn them to ash, and each day, they survive. They sit there, glaring at him, and the more he destroys the rest of his shrine, the more mocking they seem to become, growing less as reminders of you and more into symbols of his weakness.

You return, just a mere couple days after your disappearance, to a shrine that smells of smoke. Black scorch marks are seared menacingly into the gate, and the flowers have all but dried up, save for the ones in the pavilion you had so tenderly cared for. You reach for them, for their tender petals, but you never manage to touch them.

Skin hot enough to brand. Eyes that drip scarlet gold. Lips that taste of blood, of teeth, of fire and ash and wasted camellia bloom. Go Ro hears not your need for breath, not your questions of the state of his shrine—his ears have searched for your heartbeat, loud and pounding against his, and presses and presses against you until it quickens, until it confirms that you are well, alive, and present.

–

Chun has seen a hundred deaths, enough to know how yours must have been. The imagery never fades. Did you unravel softly in the moonlight, thinking of her and those you loved? Or did you go clinging to life, holding onto flesh that vanished before your eyes, spitting at the image of the sun that is said to haunt the sight of the dying? One hundred possibilities spin endlessly in her mind, your death occurs over and over and over for her—each new one she encounters, your face shadows theirs, until she can hardly remember how you were when you were alive.

She thinks you are a cruel imitator. Some other spirit who has faked your countenance to take advantage of her, and she lashes out. She spits vitriol, blue-gray eyes turning to ice, and snaps her hands out of yours. It takes time, takes you to remind her of memories that only the two of you could have known, before she finally breaks.

And break she does. The cycle cracks, your death throes no longer gape from afar, and though it will haunt her forevermore in her dreams, at least when she wakes, she finds solace in your arms, in your grasp, in the reality that you have not left her at all.

–

Spider feels time slip between his fingers, coagulated and uneven, set askance by the void of your absence. Seconds are eternities, yet hours pass in blinks. He wastes away at the bar, at the corners of the street, at the harassment of others. His own blood, his own useless chi spill endlessly from his body, repelling all others, excluding him from crowds. He’d have given this all to you if he could. His worthless vitality, this unfriendly gift of salvation, if he had been there to save you, he’d had given it all up for you.

He’s half unconscious when you find him, hunched and beaten and bleeding. It hurts you to approach him—his chi peels away at your skin and eats the edges of your existence, but it hurts more to see him loll his head in your direction, eyes unfocused and cloudy. You nurse him back to health, even when no one will give you a room, when no one will sell you the medication, you bring him back until he wakes.

And he punches you. He hurls you both to the ground, his body heaving and hulking and straining as he pins you beneath him, reopening all the wounds you had so painstakingly tried to heal, but it is his tears that falls on you rather than blood. He sobs, clenching your collar with a weak, trembling fist, and his forehead falls against yours.

#RO Ask #Angst #idk i was kinda in the mood for this last night so here we are #ft. five hours of simping with kenshi yonezu #((if you like longer pieces for ROs feel free to hit me with asks for single characters))

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darthspideys · 5 years ago

Text

something about you

this is based on an anon request I got last night, and it kind of spiraled into this long thing that I’m proud of. THERE ARE FFH SPOILERS so don’t read if you haven't seen the movie and or don’t wanna be spoiled :) Also this fic has given me the chance to write out my personal headcanon that Michelle uses Dude a lot so yeah....

Prompt: AU Where Peter was actually sick at the Opera and MJ took care of him ???

~Requests are still open~

~Read on Ao3~

----------->

“Hey, where’s Peter going?” MJ turned to Ned, who seemed very preoccupied gazing into Betty’s eyes lovingly. The whole thing was making her very uncomfortable, but it made her think of Peter somehow and the quick moments of eye contact they’d shared lately. Okay well, less eye contact more ‘I was staring at you when you weren’t looking and now you're looking at me and I don’t know what to do’.

“He’s sick.” Ned said quickly before turning back to his girlfriend.

“Sick how?” She asked, and Ned didn’t answer. “Dude-”

She heard a shuffling sound next to her, and the next thing she knew Brad Davis was seated in the seat to her right, the one she thought she'd saved for Peter. “Hey MJ-”

“You can call me Michelle.” She deadpanned, sighing and leaning into her seat. Four hours of opera seated between the happy couple and the most annoying guy she’d ever met, this trip was shaping up to be a complete disaster.

“Are you excited to see the show?” She didn’t answer and he leaned closer to her intruding on her personal space in more ways than one. “Maybe we could-”

“Nope.” She stood up abruptly, she wanted to yell at him to stop talking to her forever but she didn’t have the energy. “I have to go to the bathroom.” She said, starting to walk past Ned and Betty.

“I’ll come with you-” Brad started, god he did not know how to take a hint? “That’s super creepy. Just stay here.” She told him, scurrying to get out of her seat before the show started. She didn’t know what she was going to do at first but she knew she was not staying for the show, maybe she’d just hide out in the bathroom and write until the four hours were up. When she made it to the bathroom she glanced at the men’s room and remembered Peter. She looked around to make sure no one was watching and then silently hoped no one was in the bathroom before opening the door and going in.

The bathroom was eerily silent. She looked under a couple of stalls, to see if anyone was there but she didn’t see any feet, and she was starting to feel very predatory. “Peter?” She called, the sound of her voice echoing off the walls, “Are you in here? Ned said you were sick, are you okay?”

“I’m-” A voice sounded out, but it was interrupted by the haunting sound of someone gagging and then throwing up. It stopped after a couple seconds and then the person coughed. “I’m in here.” She recognized Peters voice, and walked over to the stall where it came from. She opened th door and found him crouched over the toilet, panting.

“Dude.” She leaned down, and just stared at him for a while. “Are you okay?”

He turned over, and sat on the floor, leaning up against the toilet. “Yeah, Yeah totally.”

“I’m going to take that as a no.” She sat down next to him, her body keeping the door open. “What happened?”

“I don’t know.” He admitted, wiping some sweat off his forehead. “I just got sick all of a sudden.”

“Maybe it’s food poisoning.”

“I’m kind of under a lot of stress right now.”

“Because your spiderman?”

Peter’s face went red, “What-?” He started, before his face turned a shade of green. “I’m gonna-” He turned back the toilet and puked again. This time MJ moved closer, and rubbing a soothing hand up and down his back until he was finished, she didn’t quite know what to do but at least then she felt like she was doing something. Peter turned back towards her with a panicked expression, “What makes you think that?” He asked, not skipping a beat.

“The fact that you leave all the time with no explanation, you're stark internship which by the way doesn’t exist, I looked because I wanted to apply and-” She stopped, noticing the pained look on his face, she knew it wasn’t from him being sick but it took her a minute to realize that it was about tony stark. “You worked with him a lot didn’t you?”

“No!” He raised his arms defensively, “Look MJ I’m not spiderman-”

“Oh so your a male escort then?”

“What?”

“Kelsey thinks your a male escort, you know you leave class a lot to do that stuff, and your so secretive because you're embarrassed.”

“You have got to be kidding me.” Peter facepalmed. “Does anyone else think I’m spiderman?”

“No just me. I mean it’s kind of hard to believe, Peter Parker the kid who used to have four inch thick glasses and can barely do a pushup being spiderman?”

“Hey!” He smiled a little, “Well it’s hard to believe because its not true.”

“Look Peter your hiding something. Your probably embarrassed about it but we’re on the floor of the mens bathroom right now, so now's as good a time as any to come out with it because it doesn't get more embarrassing than this.” She shrugged. “It’s time to decide, are you spiderman or are you a male escort?”

“I only get two choices?!”

“Yep. Now spill.”

“Fine-fine.” He took a deep breath, partially to push the liquid bubbling up his throat down. For a second he thought about saying that he was a male escort but he decided against it. “I am spiderman, and I have been since I was 15.”

“Wait seriously?” Her eyes went wide, “Your dead serious?”

“Uh yeah.” He asked, with a confused expression. “Wait didn’t you just confront me about it-?”

“I was messing with you I thought you were gonna say that your aunt has some terminal disease-”

“You saw her at the airport!”

“Looks can be deceiving it’s what makeup is for! You have got to be kidding me-you are spiderman-”

Peter rolled up of the sleeve of his shirt to reveal one of his web shooters. “I am not kidding. But you have to promise not to tell anyone because it could put people in danger-”

“I promise. Duide, this is crazy. I have so many questions, how did this happen? How-”

“Well, I uh-” Peter stopped mid sentence, and rolled over so that he was facing the toilet again, and threw up for what they both hoped would be the last time. MJ rubbed his back again, and wiped some of the sweat off his forehead. When he was done, he fell back right into her, and for a moment she thought that he had passed out. “Can we do this later when I’m not like throwing up?” He asked.

“Yeah, good idea.” She sighed, they were in a pretty award position, MJ leaning against the now clothed stall door and Peter leaning up against her for support, but neither of them moved partially because they had never been that close to one another before and they liked it and partially because Peter couldn’t really move as he was very dizzy. “You okay?”

“Dizzy.” He replied.

“Just relax.” She told him, position herself and him so that he could be more comfortable. “You just lost a lot of fluid, and you're probably just really dehydrated, but then again your part spider I guess so maybe that’s not true-”

“No I think your right.” He told her, “You sound like a doctor.”

“Yeah well I watch a lot of medical TV shows, and I kind of want to be one.”

“Really? That’s cool.”

“You think so?”

“For sure, and that you know what you want to do. I have no idea.”

“I thought you’d want to build stuff, like do science-be an engineer, like Tony-” She stopped herself, remembering what had happened last time she’d mentioned him.

“That’s kind of why I don’t want to.” He admitted.

“Do you miss him?” She asked, not thinking. “Sorry-you don’t have to answer that.”

“No is fine-” He sighed, “I miss him a lot, he wasn’t my dad or uncle or anything but I miss him so must it makes my chest hurt sometimes, I’m just minding my own business, and suddenly it feels like I can’t breathe.”

“That’s a panic attack, Peter. They happen, especially after everything that's happened.” She paused, debating whether or not to tell the truth, “I have them too sometimes. I wake up in the middle of the night crying and shaking because I think I’m going to disappear again.” She waited for his response for a few nerve wracking seconds, “I’ve never told anyone that.”

“Thank you for telling me.” He replied, “It feels good to know I’m not alone.”

“Something tells me that Tony Stark and the blip are contributing factors to why your throwing up right now. Do you want to talk about it?”

“I don’t want to saddle you with all my emotional stuff, I’ll handle it on my own.”

“You don’t have to though.” She said, “I mean I know your secret now, and I'm pretty good listener.”

“Are you sure?”

“I wouldn’t have asked you if I wasn’t.”

“I’m just under a lot of pressure right now. Everything is different now, some people are older some people aren’t, I had to move and start school over. And now people are asking me if I’m going to be the next Iron Man, and I don’t know how to answer that, how am I supposed to be the next iron man? He sacrificed himself to save the universe, how do you ever live up to that?” He sighed, “I’m trying to pick up the pieces of my own life, and I’m not ready to save the world yet. I just want to be okay at first but now I have all this responsibility and ‘ all coming at my too fast. I feel like the weight of the world is on my shoulders and it’s crushing me.”

MJ Nodded.

“And on top of all that-” Peter trailed off, tears falling down his face. “I miss Tony. I miss him so much, I want him to be here right now to tell me what to do, or give me a hug and tell me that everything is going to be okay. I need him to be here because I can’t do this on my own. I’m not strong enough.”

Instead of saying anything, MJ pulled him into a hug. Both of them stood up, and she pulled him tightly to her chest, as he cried and the two of them stood like that for what felt like forever. “Very valid reasons, to be throwing up in the middle of the opera.” She said, not letting go. “Look Peter, I don’t my opinion probably doesn’t mean much but you are one of the strongest people I know, I mean everything you’ve been through already-when there’s a problem in front of you you always know how to solve it. Your going to be okay. And I’m here for you.”

“Thank you.” He pulled away from her, and wiped his eyes. “Sorry I’m kind of a mess.”

“We’re all a mess, it’s just no one wants to talk about it. Grief is complicated Peter, when my mom died I was a wreck and if we’re being totally honest here I haven’t been really able to connect with people the same way since. I feel like everyone I get close to is just going to slip through my fingers, and I'm going to be left alone. And then we all died, and I’m scared of leaving again and I’m scared of people leaving me-” She said in rapid succession, “Woah, I have never said any of that out loud before.”

“Sorry about your mom.” Peter said, “I didn’t know that, Just for the record, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll always be here for you no matter what happens, I’m not leaving.” He paused, and debating revealing his other secret, “Look MJ there’s something I need to tell you-”

“Peter-”

“Something you probably can’t guess.” He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, “I like you, I like you a lot. You are funny, and so much smarter than me, and you are a great friend and an amazing listener. I just needed to say that. It’s okay if you don’t feel the same way-”

MJ grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly. “I don’t make it a habit of getting close to people, but I like you too, and I’d kiss you but you just spent like ten minutes throwing up.”

“Oh yeah totally forgot about that.” Peter smiled awkwardly. They stared at each other for a while, “So what now?”

“Do you feel any better?” She asked him.

“Yeah.” He nodded, “I feel a lot better, I think talking about it really helped my stomach.”

“Well we’ve got some time left in the show so we can just sneak into the back, you can get some sleep and then when we get back to the hotel I’m going to watch you drink at least two bottles of water to make up for all that puking.”

“Yes ma’am.”

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wafflewarriors · 5 years ago

Text

Quality FanFiction Recommendations!

Quarantined? Bored? Itching to read? I have just the thing for you. I have around 100+ fanfic recommendations with descriptions!!! Yay!

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Disclaimer: None of what is below is mine. Not even the descriptions. :)

I have read all of these though and I can promise they are very good!

WARNING = Possibly triggering. Rather be safe than sorry, but you can certainly ignore these.

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Fics for Superwholock, Supernatural, Doctor Who, Avengers, Merlin, Sherlock and Miscellaneous below.

Superwholock (and Variations)

Second Chances: When Sam Winchester finds himself stuck in New York City with new abilities he doesn’t know how to use and a recent life-changing event he can’t remember, the last thing he expects is to find friends and allies in the city’s resident heroes. But Sam isn’t the only new arrival to New York: the supernatural world doesn’t want to let Sam go, and their plans extend beyond just Sam and the city. Sam is going to have to bring together every hero he can to save New York—and maybe along the way, he can save himself, too.

New York City has been referred to as the City of Dreams, but for Sam Winchester, it’s more than that—it’s also the City of Second Chances. (VERY VERY GOOD AND STILL UPDATING; I’M STILL READING IT)

Breaking the Cycle: The TARDIS materializes at the Broward County Mystery Spot on a Tuesday.

The Other Loki: There’s a new Trickster in town. Tony and the other Avengers aren’t sure what to make of him.

The Tomato in the Mirror: Loki body-swaps with Sam. Later, things get weird.

Don't Blink? No Problem: Castiel meets a Weeping Angel. It's not a fair fight.

Supernatural

Road Song: Dean attempts to calm the reader with a drive in the Impala after a night filled with nightmares.

WARNING Cabin Fever: When you’ve been cooped up with the Winchesters for too long your plan to get an hour away from them takes a terrible turn for the worse.

Cold as Ice: After an accident, Dean and the reader find themselves stuck in the woods during a storm.

Counting the Days: The world was overrun by the Croatoan virus, Sam said ‘yes’ to Lucifer, and Dean hasn’t talked to his brother in five years. One of these things is not like the others.

WARNING You Bleed, I Bleed: Dean confronts you, and tells you that from now on, anything you do to yourself, he will do to himself. Because he just can’t stand to see you hurting, alone in your pain.

Imagine Winchester Saving You From Jack Frost: (no description) “Ice crystals blossomed across your skin, growing and claiming your body as it’s own. You were glistening, the frost reflecting the evening sun like millions of stars. The beauty of winter dominated your body, sprouted from your neck, your neck that had gelid fingers curled around it.”

Tired and Scared: So, backstory is that the reader is doing some sort of a quest and it’s doing bad stuff to her, sort of like Sam and the trials.

I Think I Might Need You: Dr. Jade Thorpe is a strong, independent woman. It’s how she defines herself, the lens through which she views the world. So when everything she knows and has drops out from under her, she has nowhere to turn but to three men who she’s never met, who she will grow to know as, “the f****** Winchesters and that goddamn angel.”

NSFW All Your Pretty Lies: The first time you meet Dean Winchester he almost kills you. Don’t all healthy relationships start with attempted murder?

WARNING You are the Blood in my Veins: You’ve been dealing with self harm for years, the brothers don’t know yet and you don’t know how much more you can take.

Long I Stood: [Endverse!AU] After his phone call with Dean in “The End,” Sam is exhausted. Still recovering from his near-relapse when hunters Reggie Hull and Tim Janklow tried to force him to drink demon blood and unwilling to fall into bed because Lucifer is waiting in his head, Sam sets off running.

He runs straight into the end of the world, where Zachariah tells him that this is where his choices will inevitably lead him unless he plays his part. Sam finds unexpected allies in the survivors at Camp Chitaqua, and maybe―just maybe―there’s still reason for hope. Maybe they won’t always wind up here. Not if Sam has his say.

When Summoning, Please Watch the Wording: (A strange crossover of Supernatural and Good Omens. I don’t even know if it’s canonically correct but it was very entertaining.)

Find the Light: This is the first part of a series! Sam and Dean discover Y/N as a victim of a Djinn.

In the Quiet Moments: Being stuck in your own horrible inner thoughts is hard. It’s even harder to when those thoughts feel more and more real. Sometimes, you need someone to pull you back to reality and remind you of your worth.

Waiting: The reader is seriously injured on a hunt. Sam and Dean take you to Bobby’s so he can patch you up. Dean is freaked to Hell.

WARNING Chink in the Armor: Dean Winchester, in the years following Sam’s departure for college, was not a very stable individual.

WARNING Trust Us: You get kidnapped by the two mass murderers you’ve seen on TV, Sam and Dean Winchester. But are they as bad as they are made out to be?

Heavy Sleeper: Imagine Sam and Dean finding the reader asleep in the impala after a long hunt.

Period Pains: The reader has her period worse than usual and Dean takes note, taking care of her in anyway he can. (so cute)

Headache: Reader has a migraine and Sam and Dean don’t realize it and are annoying.

Through the Dark: You finally go on your first hunt, accompanying Sam and Dean. The experience leaves you haunted and Dean does his best to comfort you.

WARNING Be Free: AU from end of Southern Comfort. Sam takes Dean’s words to heart, his mind throwing in its own two cents. Believing it is what will make Dean happy, Sam runs and becomes untraceable until it is almost too late. Dean calls in any help he can to find his brother, including angelic assistance. But finding someone with the knowledge Sam has, and who doesn’t want to be found, the remaining members of Team Free Will better pull out all the stops, and fast.

Imagine Falling Asleep While Watching TV with Dean One Shot: Exhaustion. That was the sign of a hunt well done.

Finding Out You Made a Crossroad’s Deal to Save Him: (no description; preference)

Selfish Motives: Imagine taking a bullet for Dean and he gets emotional while patching you up.

WARNING Reflection: A dark time from the reader’s past comes to light.

Shattered: “The one you shattered? I can fix it.” He said, hand already hovering over your hip. It wasn’t the first time you’d had this conversation, you had the unfortunate feeling it wouldn’t be the last. (tooth-rotting fluff)

Protection Detail: “You’re okay, you’re safe.” The man driving spoke softly. Something about the deep timbre of his voice sounded familiar and strangely comforting. You’d heard it before, but couldn’t for the life of you figure out where or when. There was sincerity in his tone- he truly believed what he was saying. Safe. Too bad he’s wrong. He couldn’t possibly know who you were running from or what they’d done to you. Even worse, what they’d do to him for getting in the way. He was in far over his head and it would only get him killed.

WARNING If Anything Happened to You: After jumping in front of the gun one too many times, the Winchester’s are wondering if there is something more to it than just saving them.

He Isn’t Heavy, He’s My Brother: What happens when the boys are stranded and one of them becomes violently ill? (it’s dean)

You Can’t Rule with a Broken Upper Hand: Successfully killing Lilith and keeping Dean out of Hell has the brothers ready for a good, old-fashioned, hunter-on-demon brawl. It’s time to get back to the basics, back to the way things used to be, when monsters got ganked and that was the end of things. That said, they are not ready for a new kind of creature to appear in the middle of their fight, covered in blood and begging for mercy they aren’t supposed to give.

Meanwhile, Castiel is panicking. He’s been tortured senseless for four decades straight, and now he’s been thrown down in front of two hunters. If he thought his brothers were bad… well, all angels knew how cruel hunters were… and Castiel has no idea how to convince them he doesn’t need to be, in the shorter one’s words, ganked.

Forgotten: Sam and Dean are working a case in Wyoming, but are distracted by news of a dangerous angel called “Castiel” who they can’t remember ever having heard of before. The name seems a little bit familiar, but neither of the boys is sure why. (THIS ONE IS SO GOOD)

Bronco: Reader goes on a hunt alone and hides more serious injuries from Sam and Dean. She heads to Bobby’s to recover only to have the boys show up shortly after. (I love this one)

WARNING We As Human: Sam has been struggling with depression since Stanford. Well, not really struggling. Excelling. He’s been excelling at depression since Stanford, and it’s only gotten worse since he started hunting again. Unfortunately, the relapses from John’s death and Dean’s trip to Hell were bad, but they had nothing on the downward spiral triggered by Sam starting the Apocalypse.

But Sam has never come clean before, and he isn’t about to start. He’s self-medicating, he’s suppressing, and he’s handling things in the Trademark Winchester Way. He can do this. He can totally do this.

Spoiler: No, he can’t.

WARNING Stop the Clock: Being cooped up in the bunker with the Men of Letters archive at your fingertips, you’re now the go-to person for help with lore. But having so many hunters depend on you is overwhelming. You don’t have enough time for yourself and you’ve reached a breaking point. (Dean holding you after a panic attack and comforting you.)

WARNING Chance Encounters: You are running. As a hunter, it seems like you are always running. Whether it be toward an enemy or away. You find yourself in a bar and are saved by Sam and Dean. As Dean gets curious about you, you start to fall for him. With all that is going on with the boys, you offer to help.

Come Hell or Highwater: Oneshot where the reader is stranded on a little boat in the middle of the ocean with one of the boys, and has a super repressed fear of water.

Blood and Tears: The reader is having really bad period cramps, and Dean doesn’t know how to help. (vulgar)

Deep thoughts: When the Winchesters find her, strung up and tortured by a demon, they realize she’s something more than an average human. Sam’s curious, Dean’s apprehensive, and Elise knows everything - because she can hear their thoughts.

Walkie-Talkies: The reader and Dean have to wait out a blizzard at a motel. Question is: will things heat up or not?

Ruination: The night Dean kicks him out of the bunker, Castiel has to find shelter from the rain. But he unwittingly stumbles across a monster’s lair and is caught…and as far as he knows, no one’s looking for him. Meanwhile, Sam’s not buying Dean’s story about why Cas left, and he won’t be satisfied until he finds some answers. Assuming the ex-angel lasts that long.

One Saved Message: After a hunting accident puts Sam out of commission for a couple of days, Dean decides to surprise his brother with a new phone, since his old one is toast. Even better is when he finds that he’s been able to save all of Sam’s old information and restore it to his cell. That’s when he discovers an old voicemail that Sam has kept saved for the last two and a half years… (Voicemail fix-it)

Stargazing: Sam used to want something for himself. Voicemail and amulet fix-it.

Desolation Angels: She slides into the passenger seat and shuts the door as he throws the car into drive. He speeds down the empty highway, deftly avoiding the dead cars dotting the asphalt. // AU starting at the end of AHBL Part One. (An exercise in character study.)

Lullaby: Imagine TFW finding out that the sleeping pills you take every night don’t stop the nightmares; they just keep you from screaming.

Worth It: Tag to Plucky Pennywhistle’s. When they get back to the motel room, Dean discovers Sam’s been hiding his injuries.

Avengers

Fallen Hero: A five part story of Peter and Tony’s relationship beyond what we’re shown in the MCU. If you’re into having your heart shredded and crying yourself to sleep, this is for you.

Five Times Peter Said ‘Sorry’ to Mr.Stark: …and the one time he didn’t have to.

Marvel Masterlist: This Masterlist includes Avengers and the Hell’s Kitchen Boys (Defenders and Punisher).

WARNING Dumb Luck: Having a panic attack during your flight wasn’t part of the plan. Lucky for you your seatmates are there to save the day.

Identity Theft: An organically developed, platonic slow-burn of Avengers-fam dynamic with a heavy hand of Irondad & Spiderson. Throw in an overdose of whump, a couple of cunning villains and a big-bad hiding in the shadows, and you got yourself this hot mess.

WARNING The Homes We Make: Peter Parker isn’t the type of boy to run crying to Tony Stark because he can’t handle a punch. Michelle Jones and Ned Leeds aren’t the type of friends to ignore Peter’s rapidly declining health. Eugene “Flash” Thompson isn’t an idiot.

Division of the Heart: Tony Stark is sick. Surely that’s not going to be a problem? When he doesn’t tell the team a normal cold is a little more complicated with the Arc Reactor, things get a little out of hand.

Doctor Who

WARNING Reasons: The Doctor comforts his companion when she sees a familiar face, a face she wishes she could forget.

Time to Let Go: ANGST ANGST ANGST :)

Flowers for Words: This is a little… darker than my usual. There’s kinda graphic descriptions of bloody things, so this ain’t for the squeamish.

WARNING Trust: After running away from your abusive father, you find yourself in the dark and all alone. That is, until a strange man approaches you.

Stolen: The Doctor left Rose in the other universe with the Meta-Crisis Doctor to give her a chance at a normal life. Now he’s come back to get her, and the knowledge of what she’s been put through will drive him temporarily mad.

Vision: (no description but I can tell you it’s good)

Waving Through History: The Doctor will never see her again, but that doesn’t mean she can’t see him again. // Seven times Amy and Rory visit the past Doctor and one time Amy sees the future Doctor. Post-Angels, 1930-1988.

Trapped in an Elevator: You are late for work when you become trapped in an elevator with the Eleventh Doctor.

The Curious Case of the Doctor and the Cat: Master of the Seven Blocks Rusty Grr'wa is a cat, a Good Boy with a simple life. He must protect and patrol his Seven Blocks, generously let select People pet his incredible fur, and look after the Stacy, the Mum, and the Dad. Then he runs into not-People the Doctor and the Doctor’s Clara Oswald. And then they must all deal with the Sky-thing. (crack)

Afraid of the Dark: It was quiet. That was the first thing that truly caught your attention.

Reality: A more realistic story of a whovian getting stuck in the “Doctor Who” universe. This isn’t the typical “Yay, I met the Doctor” story. If you suddenly found out the Doctor was real, wouldn’t you be a little scared? That would mean all the monsters were real too!

WARNING Psycho Savior: A young woman contemplates suicide by power steering fluid. An attempt to subvert the fan cliche in which the Doctor talks someone out of suicide.

Cold Comfort: The Doctor had his back turned, so he didn’t see how badly Rose’s hands shook as she wrapped them around the thick mug.

Human: The doctor decides it’s not safe for you to travel with him anymore, so he tries to push you away.

Pretty Girl: (no description) “I’m not beautiful,” you say one day.

WARNING: Knock Three Times: Two perfect strangers wake to find themselves being held in adjacent prison cells with no memories of who they are or how they got there. It isn’t until they are faced with agonizing trials that push the limits of self-sacrifice to new horrific heights, that they realize just what they’re facing and how much they will need to trust each other in order to survive.

WARNING Better Now: (no description)

Stellar Storytime: (no description)

Merlin

Deep in the Diamond of the Day: What if Merlin was the one to sustain the mortal injuries during the Battle of Camlann, not Arthur? Will the Once and Future King be able to save his friend? More importantly, will he WANT to after finally discovering Merlin’s secret? A fix-it fic for the series finale, which shattered my soul.

Allow One to ‘See’: When the King is attacked in his tent on patrol and falls into an unending sleep everyone is worried. What they don’t know is that Arthur is fine. In fact he is standing right here next to them, watching them all fret over his prone body. To stave off the boredom whilst a cure is found Arthur takes to wandering the castle and soon discovered a hidden side of Camelot he never knew about.

Or: Arthur’s soul gets trapped outside his body and takes to following his servant around. He gets an interesting insight into Merlin, his servant’s life and just how much Camelot needs the man.

Peace for Our Time: Merlin froze for several seconds before squinting at Arthur across the table. “I feel like I’m definitely misunderstanding the situation here.”

Arthur sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. “I really don’t think you are.”

“You want me to learn magic?”

In a Name: In the middle of some quest or another, Merlin, Arthur and the knights find themselves stuck in the middle of a shrine being told that, if they wish to proceed unharmed, they need only speak their true names and titles. Straight-forward enough, right? Wrong. Merlin really hates the Old Religion sometimes.

Sherlock

WARNING Write Love on Her Arms: (no description)

Spiderman Into the Spider-verse

Ground Zero: Basically, the plot of Spider-Man; Into the Spiderverse if they all got sent to Peter B.’s universe instead of Miles’

Stranger Things

Bleeding: Hopper confronts Reader seven weeks after she left Hawkins.

Timeless

All These Tears I’ve Cried: A snapshot of Lucy’s nightmares, and the aftermath of each. Loosely set between 2x05 and 2x06.

Detroit: Become Human

Skip-able NSFW Leap: Amanda thinks she’s won, but Connor has one last trick up his sleeve. He’s determined to find someone who can fix him and get rid of CyberLife’s influence once and for all. And of course that person is a human woman, the owner of a small android repairshop in downtown Detroit. And she’s not happy about the deviant android who’s just broken in, but necessity dictates she help CyberLife’s most sophisticated prototype escape his chains. With her help, Connor soon discovers what fills the void between the lines of his code.

The Good Doctor

Do No Harm: Shaun is a doctor. He heals the sick and injured, and he takes care of people that need his help. He made this vow in full, understanding the responsibility he was taking on. So, when the bus swerved, when it crashed and flipped, it came as second nature to him. Despite his pain, and despite his injuries, he still pushed himself to do as much as he could for those around him. And he did. Without hesitation, he tried to save as many people as possible. And in doing do, he wasn’t able to save himself.

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