#that’s a later problem methinks……!

[fatespins]

like this for a starter? feel free to specify if u want someone specific otherwise i’m just gonna throw whoever i’m vibing hardest with at u 💪🏽

[threnodians]

everyone’s like “it’s okay to take a few days to process and grieve but then you gotta fight back” but like. what if i’m tired. what if all of the anxiety leading up to and now following this election has drained me entirely. i need to do everything possible to keep going and not spiral into a horrific depression, and if that means dissociating and playing video games to distract myself as much as possible for the foreseeable future than so be it.

[ungodly-amounts-of-godly-trauma]

sorry to everyone submitting characters with trauma i love you all but this is about godly trauma SPECIFICALLY. probably shouldve put that in the original post but i think its too late

[widevibratobitch]

ok i need to cut and dye my hair and shave my eyebrows and start drawing them with a sharpie 1930s style

[vapormage]

you can make fandom posts for a niche game, but Watch Out

[transingthoseformers]

Speaking of energon, I wonder how often cybertronians need to fuel. It probably depends on how big their rations are at the time, how purified the fuel is, frame specificities such as size, how active they are, and continuity differences. Because I feel like it changes?

In mtmte, it seems like they need to fuel wayyyy more than in the other continuities, but this might be a matter of having more energon but in general more dilute energon or energon with more impurities (some of which being desired, such as in energon goodies or drinks that get them overcharged. And whatever the fuck is in nightmare fuel). And when these guys get hurt they bleed like absolute hell so that probably factors into it.

In TFA, we pretty much never if at all see them consume energon, but we do see them drinking types of oil so their systems might be adapted to deal with impurities, but I feel like they need to consume at least some energon? Because I know the energon shortages are a whole plot point thing, and they certainly bleed energon. But iicr from the initial Meltdown episode their energon is more goopy than you'd anticipate.

Do we see them consume anything in Bayverse? Ik they needed more energon specifically for the hatchlings, and iicr Megatron fed them... Something in DSOTM, so it might be requirements that change with age? Either energon is green in bayverse or they can bleed a wide variety of substances, and even then we don't see a lot of said substances in the gruesome fight scenes.

In g1 they seem to be less fuel efficient, but again energon is way easier to make and purify so y'know a game of checks and balances.

In Aligned I feel like they're sort of the middle ground when it comes to fuel efficiency, but methinks energon is a little more concentrate in it (but it seems to vary? Dark energon seems to be very dery powerful in general but also pretty toxic, Tox-En is just. Deadly as all hell and motherfucking useless as a fuel. Red energon seems to be harder to extract from the ore but when you do a little goes a long way. A major problem with the Synthe-en was how quickly it burned through their systems.). Chompazoids being an outlier as Underbite can fuel on metal, I feel like he can likely fuel on metal alone if need be, and the rest of the Pack gives him dirty looks for this.

In beast wars it seems like the Maximals and Predacons actually can fuel pretty well on the organic life (... And each other...) and significant amounts of actual energon can fuck them up pretty good (possibly a trait the autobots and decepticons before them didn't have that evolved in response to energon crises?)

In Earthspark yet again we see shortages and them needing quite an amount to fuel on (excluding the Terrans, they seem to be fueled by water????), especially considering the sizes of some of the cubes we see. We also see them bleed quite a fair amount in the later episodes of the second episode drop (I will never forget the absolute horror when Bumblebee and the Malto kiddos found Brawl's offlined corpse)

[alianoralacanta]

i've seen a lot of speculation surrounding charles being told to lico and ferrari's intentions behind it. historically ferrari's PU doesn't perform as well in mexico, i think the whole point of telling charles to lico was so they could prevent a problem. also, carlos had a misfire in the beginning if i am not mistaken.

a lot though are saying that ferrari told charles to lico so they could create that 8s gap and sainz could make a safe stop, since he complained about charles who was gaining on him, so sainz could have an easy win. but this made charles vulnerable to norris. maybe ferrari misjudged the pace of norris otherwise they wouldn't have built that much of a gap to carlos, but then again charles was also in management mode. i would like to know though why sainz wasn't told to lico as much? was charles' PU just more vulnerable or something? i remember for a couple rounds straight in the first half of the season he was always switching back and forth between PUs bc there was always something wrong. i think it was miami where both ferrari drivers changed PUs, then for like three (or four?) weekends in a row after that charles was switching back and forth between PUs.

Firstly, a definition: "lico" in this anon means "lift and coast", which means taking the accelerator off later and starting braking later. This leads to periods of time when the car is running on inertia, changing speed slower than usual. It saves the engine, fuel and in some cases tyres. However, it is not the fastest way to do a lap and can also cause other problems, some of which were apparent in Mexico for Charles Leclerc.

I think Charles was more vulnerable in general because he'd had such a disrupted practise and had made less of the practise he had obtained than Carlos Sainz. From the post-race interviews, I get the impression Ferrari worked out early in the race that P3 was as good as it was going to get for Charles, so there was no point stressing out the engine for no reward. After all, the same engine will be needed for other races that will hopefully be more rewarding.

Charles also has a driving style that uses brake/throttle overlap in an unusual way. It's not clear why it works for him but it seems to help him manage tyres, and when he's not allowed to do it, he's more affected by that than other drivers would be. However, in a car and engine that's being preserved for another race, the tyres might not be generating enough heat for Charles' usual style to work anyway. So Charles was getting more wear and less speed from his tyres than usual, which made the P3 something of a self-fulfilling situation. Even if Charles didn't want to get the memo if his defence against Lando Norris was any sample!

I can believe Ferrari's power unit being less reliable at high altitude than others', it has had unreliability in Mexico before. I only got highlights and Carlos' misfire wasn't mentioned, probably because it was an unusually short slot and it ultimately didn't tell Carlos' race story efficiently. It would, however, make sense if the misfire had occurred and then cleared.

The unreliability from earlier in the season will definitely have been on Ferrari's mind. Charles probably has less margin than Carlos - and he certainly has more motive than Carlos to look at the 5 remaining races as a unit rather than as 5 separate possibilities of individual good results. (Charles' title chances may be poor but Carlos' are non-existent). [Edit: excised "almost" because as @things-methinks indicated, he lost the ability to win the title at Mexico. There are now 118 points on the table and Carlos is 120 points away].

[ishomieokay]

Ok, so I just made a post about Homelander having the most tragic backstory in The Boys so I want to expand a bit on that (although literally no one asked, lmao).

Look, this isn't even about Homelander having the saddest backstory ever. Being turned into a guinea pig in order to create a super weapon is literally a cliché in superhero fiction.

The difference, methinks, is that the only character in his verse with an equally horrific origin story is Soldier Boy. But, take into account: Soldier is 1) another irredeemable villain, and 2) we're basically told he ended up in that situation because he was the most violent, petty, sexist, homophobic, fucked-up man who ever lived. Homelander was litterally just... born in the lab.

For some context, look at this guy:

Magneto has one of the saddest backstories in superhero fiction. And I'm not exaggerating here. My man literally grew up in Auschwitz. But his backstory works in a way that Homelander's doesn't because we ARE supposed to sympathize with Erik. We are supposed to understand the motivations behind his actions, even if we don't condemn them. There's also many other characters in the X-Men's universe who have gone through similar ordeals, because humans being awful and ostracizing others for being different is like, A Main Theme of the comics.

Meanwhile, Homelander's backstory seems to just be an excuse for him to be insane, scary and disturbing. The show never frames it as a reason to sympathize with him. Now, don't get me wrong. I'll be the first one to admit that Homelander's fucked up psychology allows for some pretty metal scenes, and I do enjoy them. But the fact that we're just meant to laugh at that while never really contemplating the implications of what happened to him is bafling to me.

Hey, look at that guy, he was deeply traumatized from a young age, and growing up, he was neither socialized nor given the basic tools a child needs to develop a personality or form basic human connections. Now he's super disturbed, has weird kinks and doesn't really understand how to be a human. Haha, hilarious!

What makes it even worse is that the main characters, who we are supposed to be rooting for, have stories that are for the most part unsympathetic or make no sense.

The backstory of Hughie, our main guy, is that his girlfriend died. We're off to a bad start because we hate the Dead Girlfriend Trope here. He's banging a new chick like, a week later (?) and then rarely thinks about Robin again.

We have Frenchie, a guys who kills people and it makes him sad (?), but he never really stops.

Annie and M.M. have sympathetic stories with good motivations, but they are not really expanded upon. At times, it really feels like Annie is just there to have Relationship Problems with Hughie. Which, you know, doesn't make any fucking sense because she's the face of the nation-wide political movement that opposes Homelander. By all accounts, SHE should be Homelander's nemesis, not Butcher. And instead we get a rivalry with Firecracker? Seriously?

In the first seasons, M.M was literally just There. Then, we get his backstory with Soldier Boy, but for some reason his generic Divorced Dad arc is a priority over that. Great.

With Maeve we had the potential of an amazing backstory, but again, it's not really expanded upon. It's implied that she had a dysfunctional relationship with Homelander, but we don't really know what happened. Was it consensual? Was it entirely coerced? Was it abusive? If it was, what did he do to her? How did she manage to break up with him without getting killed in the process? Like, we're missing so much context with Maeve, it's not even funny.

Then, we have A-Train, who starts off on a path to redeem himself inspired by the death of his girlfriend, whom he killed himself (?). Then he realizes that Homelander Must Be Stopped because he makes fatphobic comments (?????). He gets his brother paralyzed and kills a guy to take revenge (still unsure if that was supposed to be a heroic act, tbh). And then finally he earns his redemption by taking a guy to the hospital (?????????) and that's enough for Hughie to forgive him for KILLING HIS GIRLFRIEND. Bitch, what?? It's the worst redemption arc I've ever seen and people are literally comparing it to Zuko's. Get my man out of your mouth!!!

And finally, Butcher, a guy whose entire story and motivations are based on something that happened to someone else. Why did we ever make Becca's rape about him??? And THEN it just turns into the typical Dead Girlfriend Trope. I mean, S3 was the only time when his character arc made any sense to me because it was actually dealing with interesting themes like cycles of abuse and bad parenting, but his story in other seasons is really not It.

Literally, the only exception to all of this is Kimiko. Who is also violent and unstable, who also can't stop killing and is unapologetic about it because she is what they made her. But for some reason we're supposed to sympathize her but not with Homelander. Weird take, but ok.

Just to clarify, I'm not saying that you need to sympathize with the Nazi rapist. I'm just calling out the writers for being bad, lmao.

[lunaviee]

“hm?”

itoshi sae x reader

he’s a bit of an ass, but we love him either way

fluff/crack?, not really proofread, i kinda hate it

sae has a routine

said routine is strictly followed (most of the time) on the days he has practice

but today, he’s got a day off

but sae being sae, he still decided to get a quick workout in. though, that doesn’t stop him from messing with you just a bit before he disappears for a couple hours.

the door to your fridge is shut and sae sets his protein shake down on your kitchen counter. your back is turned to him as you’re finishing up your breakfast on the table, engrossed in the show that’s playing in front of you on your tv

“alright” he starts “i’m about to leave, i’ll see you later” planting a kiss on the crown of your head before walking to the closet to grab his sweater and drink

“okay, bye i love you” you reply

even though those words have been spoken hundreds of times between you two, it never fails to make him want to smile, biting down on his cheek to hide it

“hm? what’s that?” he teases, a playful smirk beginning to form on his face

to any other person, sae’s tone of voice always had the same sound to it; flat and snarky. but since he was your darling boyfriend, you’ve grown to acknowledge how his voice changes and conforms to what he’s saying

well, except for now

because of how interesting your show was, you genuinely thought he hadn’t heard you. it’s not like you had a problem repeating those words anyway

“byee, i love you”

“huh? still can’t hear ya babe” his smile was only growing

“jeez sae” you tease “i saiddd i lo-” you finally turned around to meet your boyfriends gaze, a boyish grin plastered on his face as he was snickering to himself

“oh, you ass”

“i love you too” sae’s laugh was something only you got to hear, and boy was it angelic

quickly, you got up to properly wish him goodbye, kissing his face all over and ruffling his hair a bit.

“i’ll see you later, yeah?”

“yeah, bye i love you”

“hm?”

p.s. this makes absolutely no sense holy crap it made sense in my head uhhh yeah i hate it

anyways, methinks i need more sae prompts!!!

[fullmetal-scar-simping]

Hi hi hi! Tis the OC anon, now off-anon! (That was fast ngl but whatever I'm here to have a good time on a quality blog) and yeah!

If you won't mind, here are some more tidbits about the AU:

Miles got arrested via the manga iirc where Ishvalan soldiers got rounded up and executed for “treason” but Miles got off scot-free supposedly because of his diluted lineage (which I have some doubts about, maybe he chose to swear allegiance to Amestris somehow and that's why he was spared, but I could very well be wrong and it really was just a matter of blood), he was held there for a while, during which time his wife collapsed and passed away while his daughter got shipped off to an orphanage bc Marigold's relatives did not want to raise an Ishvalan child.

By the time Miles gets out he's like “Where's my wife? Where's my daughter?” and while he gets a definitive answer regarding his wife (oof, feels guilty for being unable to be there for her), NOBODY KNOWS WHERE HIS DAUGHTER IS.

Our little daughter (nameless though I did give her a name) faces so much mistreatment in the orphanage that she decides to haul ass and try living on the streets instead and runs into Isaac McDougal.

In this AU, there would be a faction of former Amestrian soldiers who went “no fuck this shit I ain't gonna slaughter civilians what the hell” and defected from the military, which of course the government wasn't happy about so they got bounties on their heads.

Isaac is one of them.

Their cause might or might not expand to ally with other ethnic minority movements that the Amestrian majority has caused problems with.

Anyways, she gets picked up by Isaac (she must be, what, 11?) who is decidedly NOT suited for raising a child, much less a traumatized one. Also he was a bluecoat and she's an Ishvalan kid.

Some foils could be drawn between Miles and Isaac, I realize, both with ties to the army, one choosing to stay despite everything and the other leaving because he couldn't bear the injustice, both “father” to the girl, both probably less-than-stellar parents...

She becomes a brash, harsh, no-shits-taken, borderline reckless type of person.

Anyways he might or might not teach her water alchemy. Also via the anime I've seen some folk headcanon that Isaac can use alkahestry so maybe he went to Xing and took the girl with him too and they both know alkahestry?

They're both part of the coalition that wants to get rid of the current system of government.

Isaac abruptly discovers the whole nationwide alchemical circle thing and leaves on his own to go and put that to a stop, gets killed by Bradley a la canon, our girl who was not told what he discovered was like “????? I'm gonna go find out”

Which kicks off the plot, and... originally I just had it stick to canon for the most part (except the ending) just told from a different perspective but methinks I should really lean into the whole AU thing and go off the rails somehow

Anyways for fear of the ask getting too long here are some rapid-fire bullet points:

Mei becomes the Emperor in the AU. Sorry not sorry, I don't care about Ling all that much.

Miles' daughter offers to be a bodyguard for Mei and help her win the throne in exchange for her helping Ishval later. She agrees, and a badass duo is formed.

Our girl felt shame for being disconnected from her culture, she feels like she's not “Ishvalan enough”, even her name is Amestrian, so she discarded her name, just like Scar.

If she could allow herself to be vulnerable enough to say it aloud she'd tell Scar, “I wish you were my father instead” but homegirl is kinda constipated where her insecurities are concerned.

Complicated dynamic with Winry

Does NOT get along with Ed unless he gets his shit together and grows

Running into Miles in the North would be... a catastrophe

She thought her dad was dead all along but he's alive AND IN THE MILITARY?

I need to map out Miles' development if I'm not gonna stick w canon, he can't be Arakawa's mouthpiece who only appears once in a blue moon he gotta be a presence somehow

Marigold... haunts both Miles and their daughter. Miles' guilt, the daughter's anger and hurt and not understanding why her parents won't say anything beyond “be a model citizen and prove them wrong”— and of course, grief at losing Marigold, losing both her parents, even if they weren't perfect by any means.

I don't know if it's feasible for Miles to recognize his daughter whom he has not seen in years but the girl would absolutely recognize Miles. Yeesh.

Anyways Miles will have much to think about. And will eventually get his shit together but not right away. He's quite shaken after seeing his daughter again for the first time, though. Probably happens when the north crew had Scar trapped and Mei + the girl come to his rescue. To add to the absolute fucking MESS.

Scar and the girl would eventually take on new names as part of their healing or whatever, as their old name selves kinda “died” long ago? [Scar] died when his brother died, [the girl] died when she fell through the cracks of the system and never came back up.

Also Kimblee deserves no dignity he should've been killed by Scar.

Mustang does NOT get to use the fucking Philosopher's Stone to heal his eyes, if he even comes to need it— he might not even get yeeted into the Gate in the AU, someone else might have to take up the burden or things never come to that point, the Ishvalans are given back their dead and Marcoh gives either Scar or the girl or both the way to destroy a Stone. So they do. As part of a funerary rite for those who got turned into a Stone. It doesn't erase what was done to their people, but... it's closure, at least.

On the topic of that, the other day I went to check the Ishval tag after sending my previous ask to you, and. Uh. Uhhhhhhhhhh.

There was a post going “wouldn't it be so cool for Mustang to have red Ishvalan eyes since he used a Stone made of Ishvalans to heal his eyes?” and I had such a visceral reaction to it that I immediately exited the tag.

Yeahhhhhhhhhh

Regret™

Oh and there's also a couple underdeveloped Ishvalan OCs I have one of whom wants to be a doctor and may or may not become the girl's love interest? He's a soft boy.

This AU didn't really get all that much developed compared to my other AUs so I'm still up in the air on how the cast would react to my OC(s)— Olivier could be like “whomst the fuck is this upstart tyke and also that's a threat” and that could potentially drive some conflict between her and Miles, Miles is, understandably, distraught over everything, Ed... probably wouldn't like her tbh, no idea on how the Mustang gang or the homunculi would react to her, it's just a whole bag of ?????

Omg @heartisrote you wanna draw my baby? 🥹

Here are some older drawings I did back before I had the means to do digital art (when the earlier versions of the girl had a younger brother, unfortunately he got scrapped, he may get inserted again in another shape, question mark?) and after that, before my stylus fucking broke 🥲 (that's her potential love interest next to her)

Anyways, apologies for rambling so much in your inbox!

Hey Egg! Hope hopping off anon wasn't too intimidating. Maybe the cool Miles/Scar anon will get in contact with you in the near future.

Also, hell yeah, OC AU breakdown! Loved all the details you provided; I'm really digging the outline of the story so far.

Ah, so Miles' arrest is a manga detail that was eschewed for Brotherhood. Sigh, I really do have to read it don't I? But good to know, since it makes sense given the actions of the Amestrian government. They disbarred Amestrian Ishvalans from the service, so I thought it odd that Miles was spared. Initially I thought perhaps Olivier had thrown her pedigree behind keeping him in her squadron (which could still be true) or that his placement at Briggs provided plus his mixed blood gave him some leeway. But now I wonder if Briggs and Olivier only enter his military career and life post-arrest. 🤔

Excuse my ignorance, but is Miles canonically married? Doesn't matter either way, this is a cool AU, but I realize that my recollection of Brotherhood is perhaps spotty in that regard, or maybe the show also elided that info. Anyway, rip Marigold

So the poor daughter was utterly rejected by the Amestrian side of her family and gets sent to an orphanage. Man. It's realistic tho, since many families under a racial-class system deny, hide, or disown members of the "wrong" racial/ethnic makeup. Miles must have been distraught by both losses.

Good for her for running away from her abusers. Love that McDougall and his merry band of insurrectionists take her in! He may not be parent of the year (especially given the parallels between him and Miles in this AU), but it had to have been better than being at the mercy of a racist, indifferent orphanage. His death must have been like losing yet another parent.

With how much has shifted in the AU's plot, divergences are all the more likely to occur/become necessary. Especially once you get into the nitty-gritty of it all.

Lmao oh shit, Ling doesn't get the thrown. Ripppp, all hail Mei! Daughter becoming allies/friends with Mei on the agreement that, should Mei ascend to emperor, she and Xing aid Ishval is smart political maneuvering on Daughter's part. (If there's some other way I should refer to your oc, lemme know). With the alchemy/alkehestry thag Isaac taught her, Mei can further sharpen Daughter's alchemic skills.

And of course the two of them becoming an inseparable duo puts them in-line with meeting Scar. 🎉 Man's gotta properly father two tween girls while hunting down fascist pigs (thankfully they're both capable and willing to throw down). No surprise she's emotionally constipated, but hey, Scar's just as blocked up. But I gotta say: awwwwww 🥺

Oof yeah, her dynamic with Winry would be messy. And Ed, maaaaaan. Maybe in this AU he can actually shape up to be a better person (but unlike what Miles believes, that's not Daughter's nor Scar's responsibility)

Omg, that meeting between Daughter and Miles will be ROUGH. And during that scene in the Briggs mining town?? Nobody is prepared for the earthquake to follow

Yessss, the pair of them having to reconnect with who they will become, who they want to be, questioning who are they without the lives they once lived, with so much pain to come. Having someone else in similar straits would be an interesting dynamic

Amen. Kimblee got off easy in mangahood, when he shoulda had his spine ripped out by Scar (glad he gets murked by Scar in 03). Glad he gets his in this AU

Seems like Mustang's fate has been solidified quite yet, but I can appreciate that the Ishvalan philosopher's stone will not be misappropriated for him and his posse. It returns to its rightful people to receive final rights.

Ok, that post in the Ishval tag that you encountered. What the actual fuck. Wtf wtf wtfffffffffffffff

This fucking fandom, man

Anyway!

Fine tuning the interactions between your OCs and the canon cast will be quite the task, given the length of mangahood's story. There's no way Olivier (probably the entire Briggs unit) won't seriously complicate things with Daughter and Miles, but it's promising that Miles is slated to get his shit together eventually.

And the character designs! I really dig Daughter's design, she looks so good! The way you draw her hair is 🤌 Rip to the scrapped brother, but I can see how his passing as Amestrian would have thrown a wrinkle into her life and her insecurities. The love interest is adorable af. He's the one who's going to become a doctor, yeah?

Time to get some artwork of your oc done. Godspeed, heartisrote!

Thanks so much for sharing your OCs and AU! No apologies necessary for the length of the ask, I enjoyed reading it. 😄 If it gets posted anywhere, lemme know.

[obsidianpen]

So many thoughts on the latest NG chapter! Brain dump below:

1) Really appreciate Griphook noting how quick people were to assume Harry had gone darkside, which is honestly super in keeping with how the Wizarding public basically shifts its opinions with a strong breeze. Is it any more realistic than it was when Harry was 12 or 15? No, not really, but it makes sense that the public would abandon him pretty quickly.

2) I was the Anon who originally suggested Dom!Powerbottom!Harry and Sub!ServiceTop!Voldemort, and honestly Olivander is making me double down pretty hard. That man makes me think he knows legilmancy (or at least way more than he should know, but maybe he's reading it off the way the Yew wand relates to Harry or something).

3) Following (2), my suspicions for next chapter are that the rampage is going to lead to V trying to Avada Harry, which obviously won't work but might snap him out of the rage and into a state of self-hate/self-doubt/vulnerability long enough for Harry to sort of take the reins and establish himself as more of a dominant force in their relationship (very "I can't be trusted to control myself, but I can trust you to control me" energy).

4) What bitch had Harry's other vault key? Is this something I should know from the books that I just totally forgot?

5) The rest of the senior Death Eaters can't possibly be happy about Rookwood & MacNair. I'm wondering if V is even in the presence of mind to try and cover it up (methinks not), and if this gets out it's really bad news for his image (public or private). Really throws a wrench in the "reasonable" part of "Reasonable Overlord".

6) Wondering if we're going to watch Lucius make a move soon. I'm still pretty convinced that he knows about the rape and was the one to give Harry the mastery of the house elves, which in combination with Rookwood & MacNair's deaths actually gives him a pretty decent picture of how unstable Voldemort is. I'm suspicious of him filling a (much less benevolent) version of what Snape was to Harry in Hauntingly.

7) Speaking of the man himself, this is a back-burner conspiracy theory that I might fill in later, but I'm wondering if Stone!Snape is actually Snape or if the Stone just gives you the image and words of the person most likely to drive you towards Death. Ergo, this would be why Snapes advice of basically being obedient and well-mannered is actually so bad for Harry, when it's pretty clear from the story that he needs to shake shit up to 1) acquire power, and 2) keep V interested in him.

Anyway, might have more later, thank you for such a lovely chapter!!

Yes

thank you for your service, truly love that label

no comment

honest to god idk who has his key at the end of DH or where it ended up.

si it’s a problem a brewin

No comment

no comment

[my-supernatural-rewatch]

Episode Six: Skin

Dean Winchester in the Supernatural episode Skin

I love this episode. LOVE it. Loved it the first time I saw it, loved it the fifth (maybe sixth?) time I've seen it.

It's dark and scary and we get a monster version of Dean (!!!!) and Shape Shifters! (I love Shape Shifters. They might be my favorite monster!)

An email from a college friend of Sam's sends the boys on a hunt to prove Sam's friend didn't kill his girlfriend and brings them face to face with a Shape Shifter.

We find out in this episode that Sam still keeps in touch with some of his college friends and Dean very obviously thinks this is weird because hunters can't get close to people. "Period."

Breaks my heart that Dean feels this way not just because John pretty much isolated him and the boys - although we later find there were other adults...hello Bobby and Adam's mother whose name I forget...who John DID interact with. So John got to have friends, Sam got to have friends, but not Dean.

Sam responds by calling Dean anti-social and AGAIN I wonder what the fuck Sam was paying attention to for the first 18 years of his goddamn life.

This might be the only episode where Dean complains about having to drive a long way. "St. Louis is 400 miles behind us, Sam." But I suspect his grousing is related more to not wanting to go pal around with Sam's friends and less about putting mileage on the Impala.

So we meet Sam's friend (the guy arrested for killing his girlfriend is this friend's brother and why is Sam friend's with them both? Are they twins? I have questions with no answers.) and to get her to let them help, Sam lies and says Dean is a cop. And she believes him.

At this point in the series, anyone who believes either one of these guys is a cop really kind of deserves whatever befalls them.

Dean is, interestingly, still not on board with Sam lying to his friend.

In previous episodes Sam, because he is so wrapped up in finding John and finding Jessica's killer, has been the one to complain about taking a job with the old "Tihs isn't our kind of problem" but today it's Dean.

Again, methinks, because it's Sam and his friends and Dean is feeling bad about that. (We'll get to that in a minute.)

Smart Dean is back with an expository explanation of Shape Shifters lore. Thanks, Dean!

Dean also figures out that the shifter is escaping through the sewer and not flying, as Sam suggested. Dean ALSO figures out that the shifters shed the person they've shifted into's skin once they're ready to shift again.

Blergh...gross...but okay. Good thinking, Dean.

When Sam's friend gets pissed at him when she finds out he lied about Dean being a cop, Dean gives him a brother talk about how the lying is why it's difficult for hunters to have friends. Culminating in this line:

"Hey, man, like it or not, we are not like other people. But I’ll tell you one thing. This whole gig...it ain’t without perks." And then he hands a gun to Sam. So, again, we get a glimpse into how Dean sees violence as a perk of the life he's been forced to live.

So...they find the place the shifter is holding up in the sewers and it gets the drop on Dean. Sam helps him up, Dean tells Dean to "Get the son of a bitch" and the next thing we know, after a chase through the streets, it isn't Dean with Sam...it's Shifter Dean.

(Here's where I add that monster/evil/bad Dean is my favorite Dean only second to In Love with Cas Dean.)

I have more questions becsaue it is never really made clear WHEN the shifter had time to shift AND tie Dean up before joining Sam. The timing doesn't work. Oh well. Forget it, Jake, it's Supernatural.

So we know Dean is actually the shifter but Sam doesn't and when they get to the car Shifter Dean asks Sam for the keys.

Another question: Sam didn't drive the car in this episode...why did he have the keys?

Anyhoo...Sam is no dummy and quckly deducts that this is not Dean. He quizzes him about another time John hunted a Shape Shifter but he shifter already has Dean's memories so he has the right answer. No biggie...Sam tosses the keys to Dean, who hurt his left shoulder when the shifter hit him in the sewer, and Shifter Dean catches it with his LEFT hand. Confimring to Sam this is not his brother.

Good on ya, Sam.

But, like Dean, the shifter gets the drop on Sam, drags him to the sewers and Jensen Ackles gets to chew the scenery (actually, it's incredibly well-acted and, once again, early on in this series, we see Jensen's acting chops growing with each episode) and he gives a villain monologue that I'm printing in it's entirety here because it is very important to Dean's background. (It's mostly monologue. Sam interrupts a couple of times but not with anything of import.)

"He’s sure got issues with you. You got to go to college. He had to stay home. I mean, I had to stay home. With Dad. You don’t think I had dreams of my own? But Dad needed me. Where the hell were you?

See, deep down, I’m just jealous. You got friends. You could have a life. Me? I know I’m a freak. And sooner or later, everybody’s gonna leave me. 

You left. Hell, I did everything Dad asked me to, and he ditched me, too. No explanation, nothin’, just poof. Left me with your sorry ass.

Now, yeah, I'm sure the shifter is reveling in upsetting Sam. But lets' be honest, there's a better than good chance (and I believe 100% absolute) that this is what Dean thinks. He's jealous...he's bitter...of course he had fucking dreams but he learned early on his dreams didn't matter. But Sam's dreams? THOSE mattered, didn't they?

Then just to twist the knife, he stops talking as if he IS Dean and leaves Sam with this bit of creepiness: "But, still, this life? It’s not without its perks. I meet the nicest people. Like little Becky. You know, Dean would bang her if he had the chance. Let’s see what happens. "

Ick.

Shifter Dean takes off and we hear from Dean Dean who is in the sewer with Sam. When he comes to, Sam tells him that the shifter is pretending to be him and Dean responds, "He's not stupid; he picked the handsome one."

Yes, Dean. Yes, he did.

So there is an incredibly creepy scene where Shifter Dean first is charming and sweet to Becky, apologizing for lying and getting her to hang with him and have beers. Then he gets continually creepy with her and she freaks and Shifter Dean goes to town on her (but doesn't kill her). It is sufficiently upsetting...this episode really is like a mini-horror movie - and, again Jensen Ackles kills it.

We get shirtless Dean/Jensen Ackles when the shifter shifts out of Dean's skin. It's scary, and gross, and a little hot, and reminiscent of An Ameican Werewolf in London.

It's Sam's turn to be detained (but not arrested) by the cops and even though he told Dean to stay away from the sewers...Dean of course doesn't and finds Becky being held there...the shifter is pretending to be Becky and knocks Sam out at her apartment.

Good thing Dean didn't listen to Sam because guess who has to save his dumb ass?

The shifter gets a great line in to Sam about Dean, "Your brothers' got a lot of good qualities. You should appreciate him more than you do."

Creepy Shifter Dude speaks the motherfucking truth, Sam.

After Sam takes the shifter down by kicking him (seriously...KICKING him) we get a pretty awesome Sam/Dean fight that tears up poor Becky's parents' house.

But Dean comes in and saves Sam's cheese by shooting the shifter (with a silver bullet) after a bit of a pause...I mean he IS shooting himself...and then he makes sure to grab the Samulet (that we don't yet know is the Samulet) off the shifter's neck.

Dean gets blamed for Sam's girlfriend's murder...but he's dead (because the shifter died as Dean) and Dean's only lament is that he would have liked to have seen his own funeral. Ahahaha. Dean, you card.

We do get one final great line from Dean before he jokes about being dead. He apologizes to Sam, much to Sam's confusion, and says:

"I really wish things could be different. I wish you could just be Joe College."

And even though I believe Dean feels the things that the shifter said he did, I also believe him here. Dean can feel both these things at the same time. He can be jealous that his brother got to have even a taste of a normal life but also really be sad that he had to leave that life.

Oh Dean. You never cease to hurt my heart just a little bit.

Some notes for posterity:

The significant music from this episode comes from Iron Butterfly - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, Free - All Right Now, and Lynyrd Skynyrd - Poison Whiskey.

Sam and Dean pretty much get to be who they are in this episode, except Sam tells Becky that Dean is a cop from Bisbee, Arizona, to which Dean corrects him and tells her he's a detective.

This hunt takes place in St. Louis, Missouri

No kisses. Sam gets a hug from Becky and Dean gets a wave

This is the first episode with a monster version of Dean!

[atopvisenyashill]

AU Aerys dies at Summerhall, Rhaegar is still born, Rhaella is traumatized with a capital T and most likely will not have any other children. Do Jaehaerys and Shaera swallow their pride and make Steffon their heir? And what happens years later when Rhaella does get married, I vote Doran Martell, and has living children of her own?

bruh. i have tried posting this three times and tumblr has ate it every time. i think there’s a conspiracy, i think tumblr doesn’t like the idea of a rhaella-doran love match i think it’s a race thing or maybe a homophobia thing since i’m gay. i’m furious right now i’m barely keeping it together omg.

FUCK ANYWAYS. AS IVE SAID LIKE THREE TIMES.

Rhaegar is still getting crowned bc there’s no reason not to, but Steffon acts like a dad to him after Jaehaerys dies. There’s no reason for Rhaella to become a dynastic threat because she’s a woman and her children won’t inherit. I also don’t think it’s likely that she would marry for anything but love in this situation because I can’t see Shaera or Steffon forcing her to narry if she is mad so it would have to be her idea her children wouldn’t be in line for the throne they would just inherit Dorne. However, if Rhaegar dies somehow, Rhaella is the most recent female line targaryen, over Rhaelle. The problem is would the rest of Westeros crown a boy who was raised in Dorns over a boy who was raised in the stormlands?? methinks not!!!

[jjinpang]

disorganized honest thoughts on angeal and genesis

Read someone's view on crisis core as "a strange game where I only remembered charas from ff7 proper". And I thought to myself. that is an accurate review.

really long ramble-y thoughts from a person who has not kept up with ff7 past crisis core under cut you have been warned

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

I have learned to like both of them quite a bit after rolling them around in my head for several years, but on first playthrough I did not like angeal or genesis. and I don't think back in a "what a fool I was" way. I think my original view on the two is actually still valid. I think angeal and genesis are both pretty badly written and have very little substance in game.

I understand the limitations of the psp greatly restricted the amount of story they could cram in. but then you write a different story or change your game system. This is not a valid excuse.

My understanding of how they WANTED to position the characters is Angeal, zacks' heroic ideal, a bar for him to gauge whether he's made it or not. While sephiroth was genesis'?????

because angeal barely spends any time NOT in the opposition, or even coming UP in conversation I really can't tell.

Genesis was positioned to b a foil to zacks. which still rings true in crisis core, but not straight forward enough???

Both Genesis and zacks were fixated on being a hero. I could see it being a clash of ideals. "what is a true hero" type thing. but in that case genesis being a peer of both angeal and sephiroth makes the connection muddy.

This is just a completely biased counter suggestion to the story we got but:

-

I feel like we could have gotten more bang for our buck if genesis was actually a peer of zacks, maybe even excelling where zacks was not, but feels threatened by the growth zacks is showing empowered by his sunshine puppy attitude. Both look up to sephiroth.

genesis continues to idolize sephiroth even when sephiroth proves to be not as perfect as advertised, while zacks has his qualms. it's about becoming a hero for zacks while it's about becoming sephiroth for genesis.

Later there is some drama surrounding who gets promoted to class 1st ( only zacks / only genesis / both but genesis causes some trouble and has to leave etc etc)

zacks and genesis eventually have to duke it out one heroic ideal to another. zacks wins -- we still get basically the same conclusion we got at banora in crisis core proper.

-

You might have noticed this suggestion is Angeal-less. While Angeal is probs one of my fav of the charas introduced in crisis core he did not need to be there methinks. (save on disc space, leave him on the drawing board) HOWEVER In my haphazard suggestion above, maybe it could have been that zacks idolized angeal while genesis idolized sephiroth -- the two class 1sts. But for whatever reason angeal has an "accident", that way sephiroth can still have his "oh no all my friends are gone" dilemma. and a good reason to start going down a dark path.

Meanwhile Genesis had more of a reason to be there -- it's 2007 and GACKT is RIGHT THERE jk jk -- Zacks needed his own foil. that said this "Angeal maybe didn't need to be there" opinion is a bit colored by how square has handled zacks throughout the years. Positioning sephiroth as his heroic ideal over angeal. However even in game they didn't really paint a clear picture of how Angeal was zacks' mentor.

Everyone knew the PSP has limited resources throwing new characters at the problem was kinda a bad solution.

I say this having actually loved playing the game, and knowing full well if they actually did something like what I wrote above I might have enjoyed it less. who knows, nagging about a story that's already written is something nerds(me) do to fill the void in their hearts.

anyhoo have nowhere to put my thoughts so putting them here.

[thewertsearch]

?CG: WE'RE ALL SORT OF COOKING UP A PLAN RIGHT NOW. ?CG: MY RIGHT NOW. ?CG: WHICH IF SUCCESSFUL, MAY, AND I DO STRESS MAY, END UP WITH ALL OF US MEETING FACE TO FACE.

I'm interested in where, exactly, their rendezvous is going to be. I had a bit of a think, and came up with four plans that could bring these teams together.

The trolls could join the human session, to escape the Demon.

The humans could join the troll session, to help them defeat the Demon.

Both parties could rendezvous in some tertiary location, such as the Furthest Ring.

Both parties could connect to each other, and establish a tertiary, sixteen-player session.

There's a problem with three of these options, though. Namely, if the two teams were planning to share a session, then Karkat would have no reason to be uncertain about whether they would meet.

A plan involving the Furthest Ring, however, requires the cooperation of the Horrorterrors. Who knows how that could end?

?CG: AND WHAT I'D LIKE TO AVOID IF AT ALL POSSIBLE ?CG: IS TO HAVE THIS RENDEZVOUS INSTANTLY DETERIORATE INTO A LOT OF REVOLTING TROLL/HUMAN SLOPPY MAKEOUTS.

There is literally nothing under any sun, Green or otherwise, that could prevent this from happening.

?CG: GOD DAMMIT, IT'S NOT EVEN LIKE YOU DON'T HAVE ACTUAL HUMAN FEMALES NEARBY FOR ACTUAL BIOLOGICALLY VIABLE MATESPRITSHIPS! [...] CEB: rose and jade? [...] CEB: you want us to like, date them?

Jade/Dave has potential, but I don't see Rose/John working out - and not just because of Kanaya. Romantic tension in Homestuck is usually pretty obvious, and I haven't observed any between those two.

?CG: WOULD IT REALLY FUCKING KILL YOU TO CONSIDER IT?????? ?CG: I MEAN GOD. WHAT DO YOU EVEN THINK YOU'RE DOING HERE IN THIS GAME? ?CG: YOU'RE CREATING YOUR OWN UNIVERSE TO GO LIVE IN. ?CG: AND JUST HOW DO YOU THINK YOUR SPECIES IS SUPPOSED TO REPOPULATE ITSELF??????????? IDIOTS.

Four humans can't seed a population, even if they weren't two pairs of siblings. Ectobiology wouldn't help, either - the gene pool is just too small.

This isn't the real reason that Karkat wants the kids to avoid dating trolls - but I also think he'd have trouble understanding why it's not a viable plan. Trolls don't work like that.

CTG: ok youre by far the worst artist out of any of us CTG: and thats saying something ?CG: SHUT UP I DREW IT FAST

ha!

?CG: AS YOU CAN CLEARLY SEE, THERE ARE ONLY TWO SETS OF COMPATIBLE QUADRANTS HERE FOR LEGITIMATE CONCUPISCENT PAIRINGS.

I wouldn't have expected Karkat of all people to go full hetero - especially since the ecto-machines could almost certainly merge John/Dave or Rose/Jade. Methinks he's applying 'not a homosexual' a little too broadly.

CEB: wow, i have to marry rose? CEB: uh… CEB: wow.

Just like with Vriska, this is all new to John.

I don't get the sense he's ever thought about romance with Rose - she's just his friend. Up until now, he hasn't seen her as anything else.

CTG: it was so much cooler when you were asleep and i basically never had to listen to you ever ?CG: I CAN'T GO TO SLEEP CEB: why not? ?CG: BECAUSE I'M TOO TIRED TO EXPLAIN WHY IS WHY. ?CG: YOU'LL FIGURE IT OUT LATER.

What's the problem, Karkat?

No recuprecoon? No dream self? Both, in tandem?

Guess we're about to find out!

[cowchickenbeefpork]

heard you're watching hazbin so i'm curious... have you watched helluva boss? helluva is awful but it keeps me coming back like a moth to a lamp.. so if you've seen it i'd love to hear your opinions LOL

I have seen like. Almost the first season of it and clips of the second season and. I don’t like it…. Why is there only four episodes where we’re actually doing the premise of the show so far what happened man…..also I don’t like how Stella is a abuser now I watched that clip fully and it makes no sense????? Like if she’s so stupid to not know that her inheritance will go to her daughter not her how has she been able to get away with abusing him for so long without even the daughter knowing? Why does she have to be evil to her very core for us to be able to sympathize with stolas it’s a stupid writing decision.

i dont feel comfortable reviewing the show when I haven’t fully experienced it but like. Woof it does not look good so far from what I’m hearing and seeing how do you get here ( I actually know how you get here. I have viziepops same writing problems I get it she got way too ambitious ) but I I’ll say this her writing is fun to watch I have enjoyed the bits of helluva boss I’ve seen but like. Why aren’t they working vizie just pace yourself you can do your filler episodes exploring the cast later we need to go back on topic….we need a experienced professional writer to lock in and force her to stay on topic this is crazy….ive seen people argue blitz and stolas are a rape relationship and I dontttt think I agree with that considering how I don’t think those humans could’ve actually killed blitz when he was making that deal with stolas, that being said the show should explore the social hierarchies between them, from what I’ve heard the lore doesn’t make that much sense but also. I don’t wanna judge a piece of art I haven’t fully experienced that’s dumb lame and gay, she is very passionate in her art I will form my full opinions when I fucking watch the episodes even though the spoilers I’ve experienced fully don’t look that good…..I don’t wanna be a lame YouTube critic parraot thing I can’t give good thoughts on this methinks