#the originals 4x11

[forbescaroline]

TOP 5/10 CHARACTERS PER SHOW (as voted by my followers) ↳ the originals edition #2. Rebekah Mikaelson portrayed by Claire Holt

[felicitykings]

DANIELLE CAMPBELL as Davina Claire

THE ORIGINALS (2013-2018) ↳ 4.11 A Spirit Here That Won't Be Broken

[dailykolmikaelson]

"So why did you go away?"

[skullglaze]

I'm sorry... GOB BLUTH

AND STEVEN TOAST

HAVE THE SAME BISEXUAL ARC????????

// @sorenkingsley, @ me i had to whip that up real quick in a frenzy

[winnie-the-monster]

[imminent-danger-came]

Sun Wukong Knew About MK the Whole Time: A Theory

I am currently hyped up on leftovers and iced coffee, so let's do this!

I've talked about this before, here and here, but I think it's finally time I wrote an official post. You can go and read those posts if you want to (I definitely hit the nail on the head with some of this stuff), but I will be compiling a lot of what I said on those posts here!

So. Let's get the Mr. Elephant out of the room first: The David Breen Tweets. (thread here).

I see this tweet mentioned a lot whenever I bring up SWK knowing about MK, and honestly, this is a far cry from the "it's been confirmed that SWK didn't know" definite answer everyone's been implying.

So let's break it down!

#1: "Monkey King ain't the father"/"Monkey King isn't his dad." Well of course! Being born from a stone means you don't have any parents. I see it like this: Wukong isn't MK's dad, but he's also not NOT MK's dad, it's a secret third thing (creator and creation). Or, perhaps Wukong didn't help create MK at all, but he at the very least was involved in the circumstances that lead to MK being created/being born from the stone. (Aka eldritch abomination MK theory. My Beloved. Okay sorry.)

#2: "Monkey King was ripping his way through memories looking for MK, but kept coming back to the stone. He doesn't know why." So, while Wukong was ripping through memories, he didn't know why the scroll kept spitting him out by the stone. This is not a confirmation that Wukong didn't know about MK and his origins. It also begs the question: how did Wukong know MK was in the scroll to begin with? There's also some speculation to be had about why Wukong was so desperate to find MK to begin with:

MK: "Monkey King did this?" Macaque: "It looks like he's been tearing his way through his past—trying to find his way to.." MK: "Me."

(4x11 A Lifetime of Mistakes)

-

What was he so afraid of MK finding? Or, what was he afraid the scroll would force MK to experience? I think these are questions worth asking.

#3: "Wukong's trying real hard to leave the 'not being open with MK' days behind after s3. Problem is he's got lifetimes of info to catch them up on." Well, this one is a DOOZIE. One: we already know MK doesn't know everything about Wukong and his choices because he doesn't know Wukong killed Macaque (thank you 4x11). Two: "trying real hard" and "successfully doing" are very different things. And three: YOU DON'T JUST DROP INFO LIKE "Hey, did you know you're a Monkey Demon?" ON TOP OF SOMEONE RANDOMLY. Especially not MK. You have to prepare them for it.

Wukong is trying to do better and be better for everyone around him, but that still takes work. That still isn't easy. He's still going to make mistakes, which means he's not going to always go about being open with MK in the best way.

Sun Wukong: “Point is, mistakes happen, but so long as you leave the world in better shape than you found it, then it’s all good. Right?”

(4x01 Familiar Tales)

-

This scene—to me—feels like Wukong is trying prepare MK for his eventual "Hey did you know you're a Monkey Demon?" conversation he wants (and needs) to have down the line. Yes, SWK is trying to be more open with MK, but he's also just not going to be given that chance before the truth comes out.

MK: "Yeah right, if Monkey King really was my dad don't you think he would have said something by now?" Mei: "Yeah...because he's normally SOOOOO forth coming with information." MK: "Well uh, whatever—when we find Monkey King's stone, then we'll just ask him!"

(4x05 Court of the Yellow Robbed Demon)

-

Notice how they never asked Monkey King that question? From a writing standpoint, why bring this up at all if it wasn't to imply that (even if Monkey King isn't MK's dad) he wasn't involved with MK's creation in some way?

ANYWAYS.

NOW THAT THE BREEN TWEET THAT HAS RUINED MY LIFE IS OUT OF THE WAY, let's get into the evidence given to us throughout the entirety of the show. Starting with this:

This isn't a scene that takes place during the "A Hero is Born" special, as I'm sure plenty of people have noticed before now. Of course, this could have just been Monkey King "scouting out a successor", but with everything we know now doesn't that...feel kinda weird?

We were told at the beginning of the show that Monkey King gave MK his powers, but now we know that's not true. MK has had his own powers this whole time—and that's something Wukong, at the very least, knew:

Sun Wukong: "Listen kid: You fought demons, and you didn't die, and you made it here! Not just anyone can lift my staff, but you did." (1x00 A Hero is Born)

-

MK: "This whole time, I thought my powers came from the staff! Sun Wukong: "The staff's just a big 'ol stick bud! It takes someone special to lift it." (3x03 Smartie Kid)

-

There's also 1x09 Macaque, which I have mentioned before:

Macaque: "Ohohoh no, can't you hold the magic staff anymore? Well, you know what that means—there really isn't anything special about you. You're just a kid with a heavy stick."

This scene is then followed by MK lifting the staff, which only happens because Wukong encourages him.

MK: "Ugh, I can't! I'm not strong enough." Sun Wukong: "Kid! We're definitely going to have words later, but it's time for the Hero Stuff!"

(1x09 Macaque)

-

Ultimately, Wukong knows MK can lift the staff again even after Macaque supposedly stole all of MK's powers. He knows MK can beat DBK (more on that later). He does something similar to all this in 3x14, being the one to let MK face the Lady Bone Demon, powered by the Samadhi fire, alone (even after Pigsy tries to stop MK):

Wukong want's to protect MK. That's why he went to face the Lady Bone Demon alone in the first place—but here, he let's MK stop the end of the world all by himself. Why would he let his beloved student face not only LBD, but a reality ending flame alone?

Because he knows how much power MK has. Because he knows MK is capable of doing it.

This all brings me to my main point: If before now we were supposed to believe that Monkey King gave MK his powers, and he so clearly didn't, how would Wukong not know he didn't give MK powers. And because he clearly knew he didn't give MK any powers, why would he not question where this kid's insane level of power came from? He had to have "chosen" MK to be his successor for a reason right?

ESPECIALLY because Wukong never planned on being a mentor in the first place:

Sun Wukong: "I know I can never make it up to you. Honestly, I- I never thought I'd live as long as I have let alone be someone's mentor—turns out I'm not very good at it. I guess what I'm trying to say is...I'm sorry MK. For all of it."

(3x14 Destiny Fulfilled)

-

This was also alluded to in 3x05 Amnesia Rules:

Pigsy: "Of COURSE you don't remember the kid—one day you are going to grow up to be a terrible mentor!" Sun Wukong: "Ha! Zhu Bajie, can you imagine me teaching someone? HA!"

-

So, Wukong clearly didn't ever want to become a mentor, and this directly contradicts what Wukong says to MK in "A Hero is Born":

Sun Wukong: "You're perfect!" MK: "Perfect for what?" Sun Wukong: "To be...my successor!"

Honestly, think about it: has Wukong ever once actually needed a successor? When given the opportunity, he goes off and tries to handle things on his own anyways (Leaving in s2, wanting to go and reforge the Samadhi Fire on his own, going to stop LBD alone). It's the classic "we're being told one thing and shown another" trick.

Sun Wukong: "No no no- in case you forgot I'M retired, you're the one supposed to be taking care of the bad guys." (1x01 Bad Weather)

Even in 2x01 he's lying:

Sun Wukong: "Aw, come on bud! I promised myself that when I found a successor I'd go see some friends, take a tour of my old stomping grounds, just cut loose you know?" (2x01 Sleep bug)

It's proven in the next episode, and by the fact that all of his friends are dead/gone, that literally nothing he said here is true.

And, it's also note worthy to point out, that by this point Wukong had already disappeared for hundreds of years. Why step in again at all? Why put the effort into getting a successor you definitely were never prepared to have?

MK: "*sigh* You think Monkey King ever felt like this? Maybe that's why he stayed up on this mountain, just having a good time with you guys. You know cause- cause he knew he'd be out of the way where he couldn't hurt anyone he cared about." Macaque: "Or, he was doing his usual Wukong thing and being a lazy peach eating idiot. Ignoring all the worlds problems.

(4x09 Roast of the Monkie Kids)

-

So, I don't know about you, but I'm going to trust Macaque's insight on this. I'm not sure Wukong ever planned on coming back. Sealing DBK, he effectively cut off one of his last ties to the world (please go read wlw-wukong's thoughts, they are delightful), and he had already left the world alone for a long time. Why did he feel the need to train a successor now?

The simple answer is this: because he knew he needed to train MK and teach him to control his powers, and DBK's return was the perfect way to do it.

NOW. THE S4 MK VISIONS.

So, the visions MK see's all through out s4 (4x03, 4x04, 4x05, 4x06) are of Wukong ripping through the scroll and going to the stone—David Breen confirmed that himself in the above tweets.

Here's a list of what we see:

(4x03 The Great Tang Man)

-

(4x04 Pig Napped)

-

(4x05 Court of the Yellow Robbed Demon)

-

These are what I would say are the visions of Sun Wukong trying to find MK in the scroll. Yet, they are distinctly different from what Subodhi presses MK to remember ("Tell me of your childhood, your parents." "You do not remember?" "And what else?"):

(4x06 Show Me the Monster)

-

Look at that difference!

Every vision MK has includes the same scenes, except this one. That's why I think it's a memory; that and the way it's framed, with MK closing his eyes in focus. The other visions from 4x03, 4x04, and 4x05 all are unprompted, being forced upon MK. Why make this last "vision" so different from the others? Why show our mystery lady making the stone monkey? That would be because it's a memory—be it MK's, something from the scroll, or a mix of both.

There's also the matter of like, why Wukong going to the stone would trigger any sort of vision in MK to begin with. Overall, it just seems like there something more to those visions.

This would be how I imagine the general timeline playing out:

MK is created (through help of Sun Wukong), a beautiful baby boy pops out of the stone, and Sun Wukong "loses" that beautiful boy (if Wukong knew he was born to begin with) with MK finding his way to Pigsy's.

Then it's later Sun Wukong finds MK again, coming up with a plan to make MK his "successor" (still leaving MK with Pigsy, which I think was the right call lol). As Wukong says in 4x01, "You make ONE mistake, and no one ever let's you live it down! Looks like the ghosts of my past have finally caught up with me." That's what I think this parallel in particular is really trying to show off—in some way, MK is part of his past mistakes, just like Macaque is.

AND SO. I WILL CLOSE OFF THIS THEORY POST WITH EVERYTHING WE LEARNED IN THE SPECIAL.

Sun Wukong: "Heh, nothing gets under his skin more than a monkey. Leave Azure to MK and me."

(4x12 The Plan Man)

-

Sun Wukong: "Kinda embarrassing for the Jade Emperor to have two little cheeky monkeys running circles around him the first day on the job." MK: "Well, one monkey and one unconfirmed, but *laughs* yeah! I'd be embarrassed for sure!"

(4x13 Rip and Tear)

-

Wukong sounds suspiciously confident that MK is a monkey.

Not even MK is sure what he is (which he's probably just in denial, but also "Until I know what I am, what my destiny is?" from 4x08 anyone?), but Sun Wukong is extremely certain about what MK is.

Sun Wukong: "We got this bud. Would have liked to give you some new training with your monkey form, but-" MK: "Oh yeah yeah yeah- uh um- about that— um. I- I was thinking, I've never really needed a scary new monkey form before, so, I just thought maybe I'd use it next time." Sun Wukong: "Next time? Kid, there might not be a next time! This is the time."

MK: "It's be fine! Mei and I have got this awesome new armor and everything! You know, when we look this good? Ain't nothing gonna beat us." Sun Wukong: "Kid. New armor isn't going to cut it! We have to hit Azure with everything we've got! You can't just ignore this whole part of your power because it scares you!"

(4x12 The Plan Man)

-

If the writers were trying to highlight the fact that Wukong didn't know, this scene would have gone very differently. Instead of "You can't just ignore this whole part of your power because it scares you!" I think it would have been more along the lines of "I know this is new for all of us, but you've got to accept this part of your power!".

Even this exchange at the end of the special raises some alarm bells for me:

Pigsy: "Heh, don't bother. I've been telling him that for years but he LITERALLY never listens." Sun Wukong: "Yep! That's how we roll."

(4x14 Better Than We Found It)

-

That's how "we" roll? As in him and MK, as two monkeys? Again, Wukong is surprisingly chill and okay with this new form for someone whose first interaction with it was supposedly this:

MK, writhing on the ground in pain, completely destroying the world around him, and unable to control his powers.

Sun Wukong: "Yeah! Go MK, go! Just try not to totally wreck up my stuff would ya-"

(4x13 Rip and Tear)

-

Overall, it gives me the impression that Wukong already knew what MK was before 4x07. This new form didn't scare him because he always knew that's what MK was. MK, to Wukong, is MK! And MK has always been a Monkey Demon. He has unshakeable faith in his protege, and even while MK is absolutely tearing up the world around flower fruit mountain he can't help but cheer for him.

After all, Wukong knows MK is the only one who could defeat Azure:

MK: "Ne Zha's right—while Azure has the Jade Emperor's power and the scroll, there's NO way we could beat him head on!" Sun Wukong: "I mean, some of us could beat him! *ahem* One of us, specifically-" MK: "Nope! None of us at all."

(4x12 The Plan Man)

-

"But Imp!" I hear you say, "Wukong was talking about himself here!". To which I would reply, that's not true! This scene is right after Wukong has already said he only almost beat the Jade Emperor:

Sun Wukong: "But don't worry—I almost beat the Jade Emperor single handed once! Between both of us, Azure doesn't stand a chance." (4x12 The Plan Man)

-

Between this and Wukong's pre-fight convo with MK ("We have to hit Azure with everything we've got!"), he's clearly banking on MK using the full extent of his powers to win this fight. Wukong isn't banking on his own—if he were, he would never have left MK to go and collect the scroll pieces during their fight with Azure.

Conclusion

Sun Wukong knew MK was a monkey the whole time, lol—and fate has plans for MK. Great plans, or foul? Time will tell.

And Wukong has done his best to ensure that those plans are great.

[maria-from-ga]

Raven, the Empathetic Sorceress Part 3

Here's the final part of Raven's TT03 powers aligned with her NTT powers. And if you came here after Part 1 and Part 2, thanks for sticking around lol

(Sources in pink)

Healing

In NTT, Raven could heal others, more specifically absorbing the people's pain to induce their healing.

The scope of what Raven can heal has varied in NTT but traditionally, it's more limited in scope: she can't heal diseases or severe injuries

(Tales of New Teen Titans #2- Young Raven learns of her ability to heal by saving a dove's life. The Goddess Azar tells Raven that Raven ability to heal is fairly limited, and Raven explains that to the team as well as absorbing other's pain add to her suffering and is painful.)

Raven was known in NTT for being a healer because, she didn't like conflict (aside from knocking people out unconscious*lol)

There is a misconception around TT03 that Raven never healed. On one hand, this is understandable because it wasn't as dramatic or grandiose as in the comics or the DCAMU when Raven healed Damian. However this isn't the case.

TT03 Raven was a healer as well; her ability just hewn closer to the original limitations of her healing.

Raven healed several times in the show:

Healed a limping Beast Boy in the pilot

(Teen Titans 1x01 "Final Exam"- After being defeated by the HIVE, Raven helps a limping Beast Boy returning to Titan Tower and heals his injury and telling him they had to accept what happened, a sign of Raven's maturity and wisdom)

2. Reduce a major injury Robin had to a minor fracture (a sign of her healing abilities being limited)

(Teen Titans 2x07 "Fractured"- In a fight against Johnny Rancid, Robin is seriously injured with a broken arm but Raven is able to reduce the serious injury to a minor fracture.)

3. Healing Herself After Being Attacked By Adonis

(Teen Titans 3x09 "The Beast Within"- After Raven was seriously attacked by Adonis, Raven went into a trance to heal herself)

Here are other times which I think count but I understand if people don't want to:

4. Attempt to Heal Robin's Mind

(Teen Titans 3x05 "Haunted"- After finding Robin, Raven enters his mind to try to show Robin the truth to soothe his troubled mind)

In "Haunted", when Robin escaped after suffering a breakdown, Raven used her soul-self to find Robin and enter his mind. Raven tries to convince him that Slade isn't physically there to calm him down. This, to me, is Raven trying to heal Robin's mind by addressing the root cause of Robin's mental issues- Slade's existence- to free from the stress he is under. This is similar to NTT #14 where Raven tries to find the root of Mento's mental distress so he can be free from the mental illness plaguing him.

(NTT (1980) #14- Finding a disoriented Mento, Beast Boy's dad, Raven sense an emotional disturbance in Mento and try to soothe his pain but couldn't)

5. Defeated Plasmus

I know this is seemingly a unexpected choice because Raven uses her soul-self to knock Plasmus out unconscious, but when you consider Plasmus's character, this is an act of empathy & healing in my opinion.

(Teen Titans 4x11 "The End Part 1"- Raven recites Azarath Metrion Zinthos, summoning more of her power, and knocks out Plasmus granting him the peace he deserves)

Plasmus, real name- Otto Von Furth, is a tragic figure in TT03. He can't control his transformation into Plasmus, and has to remain in a stasis tank or be permanently unconscious to remain human & not transform into Plasmus. Otto readily accepts this sad fate to stay human. When Slade forcibly wakes him up in "Divide And Conquer" (Teen Titans 1x02- Plasmus 1st appearances), Otto begs to be put to sleep, but Slade mocks him and ignores his cries. TT03 Raven using her full astral form can form a soul-link with someone (e.g. with Robin in "Haunted" which she later mentions in "Birthmark" that after entering Robin's mind, she and Robin share a soul-link), so she, in her astral form, likely realized Otto's desires after ending Plasmus's mind, and so with the natural abilities of her soul-self, granted Otto's wish for rest. This act of healing a distressed person is similar to Raven putting Mark, a distressed man having an episode, to rest in NTT #35.

(NTT (1980) #35- Raven comforts and puts to rest Mark, Sarah Simms' ex who has having an mentalepisode and started a hostage situation)

6. Healed Plasmus again

(This was in Teen Titans 5x12 "Titans Together", but I am not going to post the scene because it is essentially the same scene as the one in "The End Part 1")

Thus, Raven healed someone at least once a season. Again, I don't blame people for the misconception, but it was a kid's show so they won't going to have people with major injuries but whenever they need a healer, Raven was there.

Empathy in Practice

Part 1 already covered how TT03 Raven is an empath, but how does she used her empathy in practice outside of healing?

Conventional Use of Empathy

Emotional Manipulation

Now as an empath, Raven can alter and manipulate people's emotions.

In TT03, Raven doesn't manipulate emotions to the extent NTT Raven, which is understandable because on a kid's show, you don't want to condone manipulating emotions. Also, NTT Raven also eventually stops manipulating emotions without consent because she realized how messed up it was.

(1st image: NTT (1980) #4 - Zatanna reveals to Wally that Raven forced her to fall in love with her so Raven can use Wally in the fight against Trigon; 2nd image: NTT (1980) #14- Raven apologizes to Wally saying she now realizes that manipulating people's emotions to force them to do what you want is wrong)

This doesn't mean TT03 Raven can't manipulate emotions, but rather TT03 Raven only does so in a 'break-in-case-of-emergency' situation:

(Teen Titans 3x04 "Crash"- After Gizmo refused to help the Titans to fix Cyborg, Robin gives Raven the go-ahead to exploit Gizmo's fears and force him to help them )

What Raven did in "Crash": sense Gizmo's fears and exploit them to pressure him into saving her friend as a last resort is similar to what NTT #14 stated she can do as an empath.

(NTT (1980) #14- After Mento for a lack of a better word went bersek and attacked the Titans, Raven exploit Mento's love for his dead wife, Rita, to get her to calm down)

Sensing People & Emotions

Because of her empathic ability, Raven can sense things, such as people's presence to find them.

(NTT (1980) #1- Raven sense Starfire's arrival and ask Titans to follow her to help save Starfire)

TT03 Raven uses this ability to find Starfire such as the TT03 prequel episode- Teen Titans 5x10 "Go" in a scene reminiscent of NTT #1 (1st scene in GIF below)

As well to try to find the White Monster the Titans were chasing in the series finale (Teen Titans 5x13 "Things Change") (2nd scene in GIF above)

This sensing ability of TT03 Raven not only extends to sensing people's presence, but also even more specifically the distress of others, particularly those of she cares about.

For example in "Haunted" (shown in the GIF below) when Raven felt Beast Boy's pain after he was attacked by Robin, Raven's sensing ability caused Raven to sense Beast Boy's distress and thus wake up from her healing trance.

This TT03 scene is reminiscent of NTT (1980) #10 (image below) when Beast Boy was severely injured and almost killed by Deathstroke. Raven sensed Beast Boy's immense pain and immediately teleported to him.

TT03 Raven, like NTT Raven, can also sense strong emotions of others. For example in Titans 2x08 - "Titans Rising" (GIF below), Raven sensed the strong, conflicting emotions of Terra after Terra rejoined the team, triggering a premonition, another ability of NTT Raven. This premonition revealed Terra's allegiance to Slade and subsequently betrayal which ultimately caused TT03 Raven to not completely trust Terra, similar to comic Raven's mistrust of Terra in Judas Contract.

TT03 and NTT Raven's ability to sense emotions as an empath is why Raven is known as a healer. Again, going back to the example with Robin and Plasmus, because she can sense their emotional disturbances, TT03 Raven can heal or attempt to heal people's minds- another conventional use of her empathy.

Grounded Use of Empathy: Understanding

In this long series breaking down TT03 Raven's powers, this might be my favorite section because this is so underrated about TT03 Raven. Though TT03 had Raven use her empathy in more conventional ways, TT03 really honed in on having Raven use her empathetic ability in a grounded sense.

Again Raven was an empath who felt everything yet had to deny her emotions and pretend not to feel anything (Part 1).

Yet underneath that faux cold demeanor & layer of sarcasm (which was always overrated imo), Raven was always to provide emotional support, be a shoulder to lean on & to vent your internal struggles (something that was all too easy for her to understand).

Beast Boy

Raven and Beast Boy's relationship was complicated, to say the least. Complete opposites, Raven struggled with Beast Boy's strong emotions, immaturity, & need for external validation. So Beast Boy thought Raven didn't like him. In turn, Raven thought BB hated her.

But Raven was there to provide comfort when Beast Boy needed someone, particularly at his lowest moment.

Teen Titans 3x09 The Beast Within - Beast Boy gets pushed too far by Adonis & thus unleashes his inner beast on him to win. Afterwards this battle, Beast Boy acts abnormally, eats meat & diary, and is awful to everyone, especially Raven. Beast Boy is ultimately turned into a out-of-control primal werebeast and Beast Boy's friends turn on him after believing he hurt Raven. Titans discovered Adonis also transformed into a werebeast & Beast Boy, in his primal werebeast form, was trying to save Raven & defeat Adonis who was obsessed with Beast Boy and Raven. Beast Boy eventually succeeds.

Beast Boy was given an antidote so he wouldn't have uncontrollable transformations into a werebeast anymore nor act like a toxic jerk, but after the ordeal, Beast Boy was badly shaken.

Raven, all too familiar with the agonizing regret in the aftermath of losing control, tries to comfort Beast Boy telling him it wasn't his fault and he has regained control (GIF below).

But Beast Boy is still mortified of his inner beast.

Raven, all too familiar with fear of your inner beast (Trigon), reminds him that his inner beast saved her life & it wasn't all bad. What's important is knowing when to release that inner beast for good - that is what makes him mature and human, reassuring Beast Boy (GIF below)

Once she sense Beast Boy was okay, she put her usual veneer of sarcasm back down.

Raven carries a deep, internal shame of her demon heritage & of her father (as Teen Titans 1x06 "Nevermore" shown), so her willingness to discuss the lessons she learn from it & the good from it despite her usual reluctance because she saw a friend in deep pain, despite their conflicts, shows how she understands and cares.

Robin

Due to their similar personalities, Raven was very close with Robin & shared a deep sense of mutual respect with him.

As such, Raven was always willing to comfort Robin when he was in emotional distress, especially when Starfire wasn't there to provide emotional support.

(1st Scene - Teen Titans 3x05 "Haunted"- As soon as Robin became agitated after realizing the Titans do not believe him, Raven was the first one to try to calm him down & was careful to use a gentle, non-accusatory tone with Robin to figure what was going on with him; 2nd Scene- Teen Titans 5x05 "Snowblind" - Raven tries to comfort a clearly worried Robin after Starfire went missing)

Again, throughout "Haunted", Raven was the only Titan who never became agitated at or rude towards Robin during his mental breakdown, likely sensing Robin's severe emotional distress. She tried to find a physical cause and when that failed, tried to heal Robin's mind, learning all his memories & forming a soul-link between the two.

With the soul-link from her empathetic powers , she was able to truly understand the source of Robin's plight: that to him, Slade was real and was actually fighting him. She showed the other Titans, Robin was in true mental, and thus physical, distress & was not being delusional (GIF below).

Starfire

Starfire always wore her emotions on her sleeve, and in her distress, either turn to Robin for emotional support or remove herself. But that doesn't mean Raven was never there when Starfire needed her.

In "How Long Is Forever", Starfire wanted to celebrate a Tamaranian Festival of Friendship with the other Titans but she was devastated when she discovered the other Titans were fighting, which ultimately result in her handcrafted festival necklaces being destroyed. Starfire, distressed at her broken necklaces, was upset at her friends fighting, worried this will cause their friendships to end. Raven with all the other Titans dismiss Starfire's concerns, saying it's normal roommate fights.

Then Starfire gets trapped in a wormhole & ends in a dystopian future where her worst fears have come and the Titans have split. Starfire is able to return to the present and tells her friends of the future. Other Titans were depressed at hearing their future, but Starfire suggests there is still hope to change their fate.

Sensing Titans' sadness at the potential end of their friendship & and sensing Starfire's quiet optimism & still burning desire for the festival, Raven suggest celebrating the Tamaranian Friendship Festival anyway, rebuilding the Starfire's beloved festival necklaces.

Uplifting All The Titans' Spirits but Especially Starfire's:

1st Scene - Teen Titans 2x01: "How Long Is Forever"; 2nd Scene: Teen Titans 3x03: "Betrothed"

The 2nd scene of the GIF above is from "Betrothed". In it, Raven tells Robin it's unfair to question Starfire's culture just because it's different from Earth's after Starfire is about to enter an arranged wedding. On the surface, this is another instance of Raven gently attempting to calm down an agitated Robin (which is true).

But this Raven quote encapsulates the deep respect and understanding she has for Starfire and her immigranthood.

Raven always felt like an outsider due to not only to her struggles to control her demon side, but also because her methods of control are from her home Azarath: an inter-dimensional society with practices (mediation, self-denial, mysticism) seemingly bizarre to Americans like Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy.

So like Starfire, Raven is an immigrant and understand the difficulty navigating cultural differences between your old home with your new one. Throughout the series, whenever Starfire perform a 'bizarre' Tamaranian cultural tradition or did something out-of-synch with conventional Earth culture (ie drinking mustard), Raven was the only Titan who rarely bat an eye. Although other Titans would never admonish Starfire for her naïveté  around Earth custom or "strange" ones, but they were usually bewildered, but not Raven.

This is all the more apparent when the Titans visited Tamaran, Starfire's homeland in "Betrothed." Not only was Raven nonplussed compared to other Titans about seeing Tamaran's traditions in practice, but she was also willing to provide assurance to Starfire about her traditions' validity. When the Titans arrived to Tamaran and Starfire described it as beautiful despite seeing only ugly rock formations around, Raven was the only one who agreed about its beauty despite initial hesitation. When Starfire's husband-to-be Glgrdsklechhh was revealed, and all the Titans, including Starfire, were disgusted, Raven, after hesitation, tried to hearten Starfire's spirit by saying he's cute.

Both instances, there wasn't a hint of Raven's trademarked sarcasm, but rather kindness & reassurance because Raven likely sensed Starfire's excitement, nervousness & trepidation about this visit. All this is encapsulated by when Beast Boy express curiosity & excitement seeing the alien animals on Tamaran, Raven reminds him: "He's the alien here."

These instances sum up to Raven's understanding of being an outsider with Starfire, validating her cultural differences, and the deep respect she had for Starfire's culture & how her personality flows from it, despite their seemingly clashing personalities and cultures.

Cyborg

Raven & Cyborg's friendship is so underrated, especially since their friendship was where Raven's grounded empathy and understanding are arguably the most present.

In "Car Trouble", Cyborg took so much care to build T-Car, calling it his baby & was so excited to show the other Titans his creation, but Raven was the only Titan who didn't care (remember she can fly & teleport lol). Cyborg then loses the car & becomes extremely upset when Titans said they wanted to turn Overload over to the police before searching for the car. Raven becomes rather rude & said Cyborg's car is not a big deal because it was just a car; Cyborg then becomes furious & goes off to search for the car alone. Gizmo steals the T-Car and Cyborg becomes utterly dejected, believing the car is lost forever.

Raven, realizing her screw-up, goes to find Cyborg, but Cyborg tells her it's a lost cause & maybe she's right: it was just a car (GIF below).

(Teen Titans 1x13 "Car Trouble")

Sensing his love for the car, Raven disagrees and instead affirms that the T-Car was part of him, his baby, not just a car, so it does matters, raising Cy's spirits (GIF below).

Raven joins Cyborg to look for the T-Car, but eventually Overload finds it and overtakes it. So in order to defeat Overload, Cyborg has to destroy the car & naturally becomes dejected the T-Car is gone.

Raven reminds Cyborg what made the car special was his soul, not the parts, so he can always rebuild the T-Car. And then Raven assist him in doing just that (GIF below):

("Car Trouble" - What's Raven is pointing to in this GIF is a blue and black chip board that came from Cyborg that made T-Car functional- a physical representation of his soul. Raven goes on to spend hours rebuilding a car she admittedly doesn't care about just because it meant that much to Cyborg)

Raven's care and empathy for Cyborg shows up again in "Cyborg the Barbarian":

In "Cyborg the Barbarian", Cyborg gets stranded 5000 years in the past. He meets The Village, a tribe of warriors battling the Green Gruesomes. Despite his initial reluctance, especially due to his diminishing power battery, Cyborg decides to join the battle against the Green Gruesomes, assisting the Village and their beautiful leader, Sarasim.** However, before the battle is over, Raven rescues him, leaving Cyborg distraught. And a devastated Cyborg grabs Raven, pleading with her to send him back.

Instead of reacting harshly as she usually, especially due to being grabbed, Raven gently told him she can't send him back (GIF below):

(Teen Titans 4x04 "Cyborg the Barbarian")

Cyborg walks away from his friends distraught, saying that he didn't get to say goodbye, while Raven looks at Cyborg with sympathy.

Sensing Cyborg's wallowing in his pain & regret, Raven visits Cyborg & shows him one of her books. The book reveals that Sarasim & the Village were ultimately victorious & commemorated Cy for his bravery. Raven then leaves the book with Cyborg, and seeing the return of his joy, smiles (GIF below):

Using her powers can put a strain on Raven, so you imagine using the full extent of her soul-self energy trying to pinpoint Cyborg across space and time would have done to her. Not only the strain of finding Cyborg but also using her soul-self energy to carry Cyborg 5,000 years through time. All this took a lot from Raven, and Cyborg not only didn't even thank her, but rather gripped her tightly, and begged to be send back, ignoring all that Raven sacrificed. But istead of expressing rage, frustration, or even sarcasm at Cyborg's lack of gratitude, Raven, seeing Cyborg's turmoil and pain, regretfully said she couldn't. So, Cyborg walked away, heartbroken and disappointed. And after this, Raven then searched her extensive ancient book collection, looking for the name Cyborg called out before he walked away from his friends dejected to give her friend some sense of comfort. Finding what she was looking and sensing his grief, Raven shows to Cyborg her book detailing how Sarasim and the Village won & how they never forgot what he did, like he will never forget them. After Raven provides Cyborg the closure he was searching for, Raven let Cyborg hold onto the book and read more of Sarasim's adventures. This was a big deal because Raven never let anyone touch her books since most are dangerous spell books that need to be handled, yet she let Cyborg keep one of hers just so he can gain much-needed peace. Raven did all this to a friend that was frankly ungrateful of what Raven sacrificed to save him because she understood Cyborg was reacting in pain and struggling with his sense of loss, not inherently trying to be rude.

The care she showed to the Titans shows that TT03 Raven was the most understanding Titan, sensing her friends' pain and go to many lengths to soothe them in her own way, trying to comfort them in a way she herself wanted to be comforted.

Magic

Raven and her relationship to magic is 2nd biggest misconception about TT03 and NTT Raven, and it's two-fold one: 1) that TT03 Raven only practiced magic & didn't use her empathy nor soul-self (those misconceptions were disproven in parts 1/2 and 2) that NTT Raven had no involvement with magic.

NTT Raven wasn't technically a witch*** (& she didn't like being called it lol), but that doesn't mean she had no involvement with the art of magic.

Raven was openly a mystic and was trained in Azarath mysticism.

Azarath was a mystic society, created & run by sorcerers- the ritual to purge themselves of evil created Trigon (as shown in the image from NTT (1980) #3)

NTT Raven was raised by mystics and sorcerers and thus was a mystic & sorceress too and was called such in the comic. Mystics & sorceress both utilize magic, and Raven's empathy powers and soul-self utilization were forms of sorcery, mysticism & thus magic.

(1st image: "Crisis On Infinite Earths"? - Full disclosure, I didn't screenshoot this image so I am not sure of the exact issue it came from, but I am positive it is from a Crisis on Infinite Earths tie-in. In this image, Raven is teleporting to site where the Earths are colliding and is called the mistress of mysticism as she does so. 2nd image: NTT (1980) #9- Raven teleports away before a mind-controlled Cyborg can attack her and is again called the Maid of Mysticism)

When Raven was created by Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, the editor, asked Wolfman to create a mystic character without conventional uses of sorcery to differentiate the character from Dr. Strange.

TT03 Raven didn't have the same restriction as Wolfman, so she could employ more conventional uses of sorcery & magic to augment her empathetic & soul-self powers which she did (Images on left-hand side below):

(Left column: 1st picture: Teen Titans 3x06 "Spellbound"- Raven using sorcery and spells to free Malchior, whom she believed to be Rorek, from the spell book he is bound to. 2nd picture: Teen Titans 4x07 "The Prophecy"- Raven, scared of Trigon's impending arrival, uses spells and incantations to return home to Azarath to find some way to defeat Trigon. Right column: NTT (1984) #31- Raven uses Brother Blood's sorcery to augment her own and defeat Blood)

And just to further drive the point home, NTT Raven did use magic outside of Azarath mysticism & sorcery. As the image on the right showed, she used Brother Blood's own magic to augment her own sorcery, free herself and the entire world from his mind control, and thus defeat him.

So, Raven always was a practitioner of magic, TT03 Raven made the connection to magic more explicit and stronger.

If you stayed around this long, thank you so much. I hope this series showed how TT03 Raven's powers align with NTT Raven's and TT03 just expands on NTT Raven's powers. If you want any more GIFs about the scenes I described here, please let me know; I would have add more images, but I went over the limit. This was really fun and let me know if you want me to do more of these posts and if so, which characters and subjects to cover!! This was so fun, especially seeing the care TT03 crew took to adapt Raven and her relationships which I didn't appreciate when I was younger.

Long Live Teen Titans 2003!!!

*Raven has a complicated relationship with violence lol & maybe I will do a post on it one day lol

**Sarasims is a cool callback to Vic's first NTT love, Sara Simms who sadly they couldn't make it work. And I especially loved that like the Sara Simms' role in the comics, TT03 Sarasims reminds Cyborg he is more than enough as is.

***Most definition of witch means either having innate magic ability or making forbidden pacts to gain magical powers, which sorcerers gain their power through study. And as you can see, Raven would technically be both a witch and a sorceress

[canonicallyobserving911]

Buck & Eddie: Buck is looking for answers!

Before 6x15 aired, I wrote a speculation post about Buck's "Therapy Uniform vs. his date clothes" (linked here) but everyone knows how the season ended with the showrunner pulling that BS by having Eddie revert back to being a giggly high school student who acted like an 18-year-old that didn't know how to ask a woman out on a date. And Buck literally made the same mistake by sleeping with a woman he just met who only wanted one thing from him but I digress. It still pisses me off, so I won't revisit it.

Also, I did a post after 6x13 aired (linked here) about Buck finding the answers (Eddie and Chris) because when he said he was the guy with the answers, he looked at Eddie.

Anyway, after TM (showrunner, GLAD HE'S BACK so KR can kick rocks and go write an episode) released more cryptic Buck, Eddie and Chris pictures at dark o'clock Saturday night or Sunday morning (depending on your time zone), I revisited my theory about Buck's therapy uniform but now I've revised it. He does wear one but the reason he does is a lot narrower in scope. Even though I still believe he wears specific colors or a "uniform" per say for certain things, I realized after doing some analysis that whenever he wears a Gold/Bronze/Burnt Orange/Dark Orange or a Brown shirt with navy-blue or dark colored pants, he's LOOKING FOR ANSWERS!

That's the difference between my original post and this one and I have photos from each episode to prove my updated theory. Before I delve into this, I need to mention there are two pictures from season 6 that contain the colors but BE WARNED, the pictures included deal specifically with the COUCH METAPHOR 🙄🙃. I know, I know... the season ended with Buck asking ND to help him find a couch but full disclosure, after I started working through my frustration with the way the season ended by writing a huge fanfic, I took a closer look at their whatever the hell they were doing (it wasn't a relationship) and I don't think it was meant to be interpreted that way. I won't go into it here in my CANON posts but if you want to know my thoughts on it, I've included them in my love for FANON writing in my multi-chapter fanfic titled "I'm still in love with you but... I needed to learn how to love myself too!".

Now, let's get into this topic and review Buck's looking for answers uniform.

In 4x2, Buck was looking for ANSWERS from Dr. Copeland and he said, "I think you were right when you said I hide my true feelings from others".

In 4x3 Buck told Maddie and Chimney he was seeing a therapist to help him find the ANSWERS and he started to find them but then everything went to $hit when the Buckley parents showed up.

In 4x4, Buck showed up at Maddie's and Chimney's apartment looking for ANSWERS about his parents and that's when he found out about Daniel.

In 4x8, Buck was lost and trying to find ANSWERS because guess who started dating again? EDDIE! And he was getting ready to introduce AF to Chris but Chris got upset and ran away and took an Uber to Buck's loft.

In 4x11, Buck and TK were FRIENEMIES (not friends even though he believed they were) so he contacted her and asked her for help because he wanted to find the ANSWERS regarding who hit Sue Blevins and ran.

In 4x14, Buck wore his "looking for ANSWERS" uniform twice and BOTH TIMES his quest involved Eddie! The first time was when he was packing more clothes to go to Eddie's house so he could keep taking care of Chris. That's when he got the call from AF after TK kissed him and ran so I've included two pictures so his shirt can be seen better while he's sitting at Eddie's beside. He was looking for answers about Eddie being shot in front of him and his heart being ripped out of his chest when it happened.

The second time he was looking for ANSWERS, he was in the hospital talking to Eddie during THE WILL REVEAL! 🤪😜

In 5x3, Buck was once again looking for ANSWERS about his relationship but reminder, he went home to an empty loft after he told Eddie during the blackout to break up with AF🤪.

In 5x4, he was looking for ANSWERS about Maddie and why she left him again even though she promised him she wouldn't in 3x16. Did she tell him she was leaving, YES! But reminder, she didn't tell him where she was going and all he told Chimney was "It's what she does, leave".

In 6x1, at the end of the episode, Buck was looking for ANSWERS again but this time it was about his couch or the lack thereof. At the beginning of the episode, he cooked dinner for him and his Diaz boys and they made fun of him for not having one even though THEY WERE SITTING RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF HIM. He missed the fact that they were waiting for him and had been since he broke up with TK and he still didn't get it. The picture shows Buck carrying his armchair (which is the same color of the shirt he wears when he's looking for answers) and he moved it to where his couch once sat.

In 6x4, Buck was looking for ANSWERS again when he was trying to decide if he should be Connor's sperm donor.

In 6x12, Buck was lying on the couch looking for ANSWERS about his death but reminder, the color of the couch is close to the color of his armchair but it's hard to see. He's wearing a navy-blue t-shirt while lying on that uncomfortable orange couch his mother bought even though he told her HE'D FIND ONE ON HIS OWN.

In 6x15, Buck was looking for ANSWERS about the fact that he died but ND was fangirling over him so hard that he LIKED the attention she was giving him then he said that Bull$hit to Eddie about her seeing him and Buck and Eddie went back to making the same mistakes. Eddie let people (**cough** Pepa and **cough** Bobby) tell him he should date instead of finding his own way. And Buck tried to make another woman like him when in fact all she wanted was his "Firehose".

In 6x17, he was still looking for ANSWERS but this time it was answers regarding how to calculate the tip at the bar he took ND to and that's when LD showed up and insinuated, they hooked up when she knows they didn't. Reminder, Buck could only do math when he was with Eddie and Chris and the firefam but he couldn't calculate $hit when he was on a date with ND🤪🙃😁😉.

Finally, in Season 7 (TM didn't specify which episode the scene below will appear in his cryptic post), Buck's wearing his LOOKING FOR ANSWERS colored shirt again. The color pants he's wearing while he sits on Chris' bed can't be seen but based on 6x13 when Chris wanted Buck to give him the answers to his math homework and since Chris is clearly doing homework in the picture, it's possible he's asking Buck to help him but he doesn't have the answers anymore because his special skills wore off after 6x13 which just so happened to be the episode the Buckley-Diaz family was together 90% of the time.

What, if anything, does all this mean? I'm not speculating but will Buck finally find the answers in Season 7 or will it be more of the same, him looking for answers while Eddie tries to make another relationship work with someone he doesn't want to be with or will Buck and Eddie finally TALK about all their traumas and confess how much they love each other? Only TM, the producers and the actors know the answers to that question.

[sadquickchristmassnowman]

Hiiii I have a community question I wanted to ask!!

Abed mentions all sorts of movies and tv shows through out Community, but I just wanted to know if maybe you have like a list of which ones are real and which ones he seemed to like more than others.

I can only think of the dark knight because of the dvd Annie broke, and the Star Wars movies (except he apparently hates the prequels) and cougar town!

great question! sorry for the delay on a response.

so, he mentions/references an insane number of movies and tv shows throughout the series, and I unfortunately do not have a list of every single one. although, I am (VERY slowly) working on an in-depth episode-by-episode analysis of the entire series, and listing every pop culture reference is a subsection in that. but that's not helpful right now. moving on

I don't have the picture, but there's this questionnaire abed filled out (outside of the show, it must have been uploaded to a website as promotional material for the show). he says his favorite movie is a tie between:

ghostbusters (1984, comedy/horror)

an american werewolf in london (1981, horror)

back to the future (1985, sci-fi/comedy)

blade runner (1982, sci-fi/action)

stand by me (1986, adventure/comedy)

stripes (1981, comedy/war)

star wars (1977, sci-fi/fantasy, also called "a new hope")

star wars: the empire strikes back (1980, sci-fi/fantasy)

star wars: the return of the jedi (1983, sci-fi/fantasy)

ferris bueller's day off (1986, comedy/drama)

jaws (1975, thriller/adventure)

raising arizona (1987, comedy/crime)

jurassic park (1993, adventure/sci-fi)

seven (1995, crime/mystery)

the matrix (1999, action/sci-fi)

the goonies (1985, adventure/comedy)

the breakfast club (1985, comedy/romance)

real genius (1985, comedy/sci-fi)

better off dead (1985, comedy/romance)

the fog of war (2003, documentary/war)

pulp fiction (1994, crime/thriller)

(btw if anyone knows what I’m talking about and has the screenshot please rb with it! I cannot for the life of me find it lmao)

I believe this is a list he apparently made in 2009, either in the first few weeks of school or right before the school year started. so it's possible he would answer differently as the series progressed. also, I do take some of these extra-canon things with a grain of salt, as on the same form he said his favorite place on campus was study room D or something, when obviously they definitely meant to write study room F. so, the credibility of my source for this information isn't exactly rock-solid. although, he does mention a lot of these movies on screen, and expresses love for many of them (the most notable ones probably being star wars episodes IV-VI, the breakfast club, and pulp fiction)

as you can see from the list, abed particularly loves american movies from the 80's. just a trend I thought I’d point out.

here's a few others he mentions loving, or just pretty notably references:

the dark night (2008, action/crime, as you mentioned)

rudolph the red-nosed reindeer (1964, musical/animated, is the whole basis of 2x11 abed's uncontrollable christmas)

the shawshank redemption (1994, horror/crime, is the basis for his plot with troy, annie, and shirley in 4x05 cooperative escapism in familial relations)

freaky friday (I believe it's the original one from 1976 specifically, but it's been remade a bunch. comedy/fantasy. it's the basis of abed and troy's story in 4x11 basic human anatomy)

rambo/first blood (series starting in 1982, action/thriller. abed talks about how messy the progressive series titles are in 3x14 pillows and blankets)

ocean's eleven (2001, crime/thriller, the basis for the heist scene from 3x21 the first chang dynasty)

hearts of darkness (1991, documentary/war, abed mentions it while pointedly filming dean pelton's production of his greendale commercial rather than helping with the commercial itself. similarly, hearts of darkness filmed the making of apocalypse now)

apocalypse now (1979, war/action, see the above explanation)

die hard (series starting in 1988, action/thriller, abed mentions wanting to do a die hard homage for christmas multiple times throughout season 4)

good will hunting (1997, thriller/romance, troy and abed's story in 1x24 english as a second language is filled with references to this movie. abed is doing homages on purpose, troy is not)

my dinner with andre (1981, comedy/drama, abed does a very elaborate homage at jeff's accidental expense in 2x19 critical film studies)

indiana jones (raiders of the lost ark, temple of doom, and the last cruscade only. he mentions loving the first three indiana jones movies in 1x04 social psychology)

aliens (1986, action/adventure/sci-fi, he and troy dress up as an alien and ripley in 2x06 epidemiology) (side note, I believe they're specifically referencing aliens, which is a sequel to alien. could be wrong though)

blade (1998, horror/action, they watch it over the course of 3x15 origins of vampire mythology after troy and abed assert multiple times that it is an amazing movie)

I think he generally talks about movies more than he talks about tv shows, but he does mention quite a few of them. some notable mentions are:

friends (1994, sitcom, mentions at least twice)

m*a*s*h (1972, sitcom, mentions in passing in 1x05 advanced criminal law, and references throughout 1x13 investigative journalism)

the cape (2011, action, mentions throughout 4x13 advanced introduction to finality)

who's the boss (1984, sitcom, is the premise of his whole storyline in 2x20 competitive wine tasting)

LOST (2004, sci-fi, mentions at least twice)

obviously there are a LOT more, but I just tried to list some of the most important ones, plot-wise and for understanding of his character. hopefully I’ll be able to get back to everyone with a super long list of every tv show and movie he ever mentions lmao, but that'll take a while. (there are lists online that say they list every movie and tv show abed has ever mentioned, but ngl I don't 100% trust those, so I’ll make my own lmao. but I put the link to one of them if you're curious. here's another one too)

at this point anyone who has seen community knows there are some really really big ones that I haven’t mentioned yet. pieces of media that are INTEGRAL to abed as a character. I was saving them for last lmfao. they are:

kickpuncher

inspector spacetime

cougar town

if I had to pick a holy trinity of media for abed, it would be these three things. these are EASILY the things he talks about the most, which is interesting, as both the kickpuncher movie franchise and the inspector spacetime series are completely fictional, and only exist in the community universe. (this is probably so they can show abed actually watching some of the shows/movies he talks about, without the obvious copyright issues that come with playing clips from an already existing movie/tv show on your screen. they kind of do that with blade in 3x15, but they only play vague fighting sounds, and never show their tv on our screen. anyway. not relevant.) to answer one of your questions from the ask, I believe those two are the ONLY fictional pieces of media abed talks about. as far as I know, everything else he mentions is real, including cougar town.

kickpuncher is obviously reminiscent of sci-fi/action films from the 80's, like robocop. like I said earlier, taking their place so that they could have a more substantial role in abed's on-screen life without any copywrite worries. it's a whole franchise, so there are multiple movies: kickpuncher, kickpuncher 2: codename: punchkicker, kickpuncher 3: the final kickening, kickpuncher: detroit, kickpuncher: miami (?), and kicksplasher (?). kicksplasher is apparently shown as a poster on abed's wall, and I’m assuming it's from the same franchise, although that could be wrong. the point is there's a very elaborate universe for kickpuncher, and it's a big part of abed's, and later troy's, film taste. the first time they mention it is in 1x15 romantic expressionism, when abed, troy, shirley, pierce, and chang all get together in abed's dorm room to make fun of stupid movies together. it's funny that it was introduced as a stupid movie to watch ironically, then troy and abed both end up genuinely loving it lmao. classic

inspector spacetime is obviously reminiscent of doctor who. they're both british sci-fi series that have been running for decades. doctor who uses a police box to travel the multiverse, while doctor who uses a telephone box. doctor who has malicious daleks who chant "exterminate," while inspector spacetime has blorgons who shout "eradicate." the concepts of the shows are obviously the same, with the actor for the doctor changing every season, etc etc. they're essentially the same exact show, but, like I said before, changed slightly so they can world-build without getting copywrited. there is something a little bit silly about this, though. it's definitely a continuity error and it's up to everyone whether they want to accept it as canon or not, I guess, but there's an episode where abed is actually wearing a doctor who t-shirt. (it also references bill and ted, but the doctor who part is what's relevant.) here's some pictures:

awesome shirt tbh, but it is a little bit funny that is essentially makes it true that doctor who and inspector spacetime both exist in the community universe. and, these pictures are from the cold open of 4x11 basic human anatomy, which is way after inspector spacetime is introduced to the show (3x01 biology 101). so, is inspector spacetime just a rip-off of doctor who? is abed a fan of both shows? if he is, clearly he likes inspector spacetime better. anyway. I would guess that this wasn't intentional. but that is definitely a tardis on that shirt. maybe it's just a classic season 4 continuity mistake. oh well. I guess that's just how the cookie crumbles. anyway.

cougar town time! yes, it's a real show. I didn't think it was but it is. what's not real is cougarton abbey, the short-lived british remake that britta gets abed into in 3x01 biology 101. but yeah. it has 6 seasons and is streaming on hulu, if you're interested. I’ve heard it's not good but who knows for sure. something cool about cougar town is that abed is actually in an episode. let me be clear: not danny pudi. ABED. it's similar to the story abed tells about being invited to the cougar town set and shitting his pants while having an existential crisis about the layers of reality. here is a youtube clip of the scene. I found out about it while stalking danny pudi's wikipedia page months ago, you know, a typical sunday afternoon activity, and I saw a cougar town credit on there. I didn't even know it was a real show at that point so you can imagine my surprise lmao. anyway. idk if you knew that already but it's one of my favorite community easter eggs. so funny.

okay! I hope this is enough information to suit your needs, and I am once again opening the floor to anyone who wants to add anything 💯 this was fun, thanks for the ask, and stay fresh everyone ✌️

[wyrdsistergoldenhair]

How to Rewatch 9-1-1 Before September 26th

Okay, so if you're like me, you want to rewatch 9-1-1 before season 8 premieres on September 26th - but maybe you don't have the time to sit down and binge-watch. I've come up with a schedule where you can watch at least two episodes a day (starting on August 4th) and finish just in time for season 8.

Aug. 4

1x01 Pilot

1x02 Let Go

Aug. 5

1x03 Next of Kin

1x04 Worst Day Ever

Aug. 6

1x05 Point of Origin

1x06 Heartbreaker

Aug. 7

1x07 Full Moon (Creepy AF)

1x08 Karma’s a Bitch

Aug. 8

1x09 Trapped

1x10 A Whole New You

Aug. 9

2x01 Under Pressure

2x02 7.1

Aug. 10

2x03 Help Is Not Coming

2x04 Stuck

Aug. 11

2x05 Awful People

2x06 Dosed

Aug. 12

2x07 Haunted

2x08 Buck, Actually

Aug. 13

2x09 Hen Begins

2x10 Merry Ex-Mas

Aug. 14

2x11 New Beginnings

2x12 Chimney Begins

Aug. 15

2x13 Fight or Flight

2x14 Broken

Aug. 16

2x15 Ocean’s 9-1-1

2x16 Bobby Begins Again

Aug. 17

2x17 Careful What You Wish For

2x18 This Life We Choose

Aug. 18

3x01 Kids Today

3x02 Sink or Swim

Aug. 19

3x03 The Searchers

3x04 Triggers

Aug. 20

3x05 Rage

3x06 Monsters

Aug. 21

3x07 Athena Begins

3x08 Malfunction

Aug. 22

3x09 Fallout

3x10 Christmas Spirit

Aug. 23

3x11 Seize the Day

3x12 Fools

Aug. 24

3x13 Pinned

3x14 The Taking of Dispatch 9-1-1

Aug. 25

3x15 Eddie Begins

3x16 The One That Got Away

Aug. 26

3x17 Powerless

3x18 What’s Next?

Aug. 27

4x01 The New Abnormal

4x02 Alone Together

Aug. 28

4x03 Future Tense

4x04 9-1-1, What’s Your Grievance?

Aug. 29

4x05 Buck Begins

4x06 Jinx

Aug. 30

4x07 There Goes the Neighborhood

4x08 Breaking Point

Aug. 31

4x09 Blindsided

4x10 Parenthood

Sept. 1

4x11 First Responders

4x12 Treasure Hunt

Sept. 2

4x13 Suspicion

4x14 Survivors

Sept. 3

5x01 Panic

5x02 Desperate Times

Sept. 4

5x03 Desperate Measures

5x04 Home and Away

Sept. 5

5x05 Peer Pressure

5x06 Brawl in Cell Block 9-1-1

Sept. 6

5x07 Ghost Stories

5x08 Defend in Place

Sept. 7

5x09 Past Is Prologue

5x10 Wrapped in Red

Sept. 8

5x11 Outside Looking In

5x12 Boston

Sept. 9

5x13 Fear-O-Phobia

5x14 Dumb Luck

Sept. 10

5x15 FOMO

5x16 May Day

Sept. 11

5x17 Hero Complex

5x18 Starting Over

Sept. 12

6x01 Let the Games Begin

6x02 Crash & Learn

Sept. 13

6x03 The Devil You Know

6x04 Animal Instincts

Sept. 14

6x05 Home Invasion

6x06 Tomorrow

Sept. 15

6x07 Cursed

6x08 What’s Your Fantasy?

Sept. 16

6x09 Red Flag

6x10 In a Flash

Sept. 17

6x11 In Another Life

6x12 Recovery

Sept. 18

6x13 Mixed Feelings

6x14 Performance Anxiety

Sept. 19

6x15 Death and Taxes

6x16 Lost and Found

Sept. 20

6x17 Love Is in the Air

6x18 Pay It Forward

Sept. 21

7x01 Abandon Ships

7x02 Rock the Boat

Sept. 22

7x03 Capsized

7x04 Buck, Bothered and Bewildered

Sept. 23

7x05 You Don’t Know Me

7x06 There Goes the Groom

Sept. 24

7x07 Ghost of a Second Chance

7x08 Step Nine

Sept. 25

7x09 Ashes, Ashes

7x10 All Fall Down

[forbescaroline]

235 FAVORITE SHIPS OF ALL TIME (ranked by my followers) 42. kol mikaelson and davina claire - the originals

[positivexcellence]

Walker 4x11 “Let’s Go, Let’s Go”

HERE WE ARE – Cassie (Ashley Reyes), James (Coby Bell), Trey (Jeff Pierre) and Luna (guest star Justin Johnson Cortez) start to put together the pieces of the Jackal case, while no one has heard from Walker (Jared Padalecki). Keegan Allen, Odette Annable, Violet Brinson, Kale Culley, Mitch Pileggi and Molly Hagan also star. The episode was written and directed by Anna Fricke (#411). Original airdate 6/12/2024. (x)

[thestupidhelmet]

How Hyde Is a Good Friend to Eric

Season 1:

Hyde tries to help writing Eric's term paper while Eric is busy with his grandmother's visit. ("Sunday, Bloody Sunday" [1x10])

Hyde chooses to stay in Point Place in large part because Eric doesn't want him to leave. ("Punk Chick" [1x22])

After a drunk Eric is knocked unconscious by one punch at a bar, Hyde initiates defending his honor by getting into a bar fight with Eric's assailant and his buddies. ("Grandma's Dead" [1x23])

When Eric wants to bounce a bowling ball on the living room floor, Hyde tries to dissuade him. ("The Good Son" [1x25])

Hyde takes responsibility for the television Eric breaks, risking homelessness by doing so because Red might kick him out of the house while Eric's potential punishment would be far less severe. ("The Good Son")

Season 2:

Hyde helps Eric wrangle a high Red and get Eric's car back, which Red sold. ("Garage Sale" [2x01])

To open Red's eyes about who Laurie truly is and to get Eric vengeance on the years of Laurie getting away with bullying him, Hyde supports and encourages Eric to reveal the truth about Laurie sleeping with her college professor. ("Laurie and the Professor" [2x04])

Hyde defuses Donna's anger at Eric and feelings of betrayal by talking with her and giving her a different perspective. ("Van Stock" [2x06])

Throughout the season, Hyde doesn't burn Eric about Kelso sleeping with Laurie and tries to convince Kelso to end his affair with her. (Note: Eric's claim in season 7 that Hyde relentlessly burned him about Kelso and Laurie is a retcon that has no evidence whatsoever on the show. The retcon was written for that episode's punchline and contradicts all the episodes and seasons before it.)

Season 3:

To protect Eric from Red's wrath, Hyde tells Eric not to confess to smoking pot, too, despite that Hyde is now homeless because Red kicked him out of the house. ("Reefer Madness" [3x01])

Hyde holds Eric's hand while Leo tattoos Eric's butt. ("Eric's Drunken Tattoo" [3x22])

Season 4

Hyde takes the lead on trying to lift Eric's spirits and doesn't let Kelso or Fez abandon Eric when Eric first rejects their help. Hyde gives up only when Eric becomes a little hostile and makes clear his grief has too strong a hold on him that day. ("Eric's Depression" [4x02])

Hyde breaks up with his girlfriend, Jill, to be more available to Eric. He also lies that she broke up with him so that Eric won't feel pitied. ("The Third Wheel" [4x11])

Hyde supports Eric when Eric learns Donna's going on a date with Casey Kelso. ("Donna Dates a Kelso" [4x16])

Origin Story: In first grade, Hyde becomes Eric's protector from bullies, starting with Donna. ("Class Picture" [4x20]) (Yes, it's a total retcon that Donna bullied Eric when they were young, and I don't accept it as canon. But Hyde absolutely would become Eric's protector. He still is during the time of the show.)

Hyde stays up all night pulling the fire alarm at the Le Motel to stop Donna from having sex with Casey. He does this for Eric and Donna, out of his friendship with and protectiveness of both of them. ("Eric's False Alarm" [4x25])

Season 5

Hyde buys Eric a plane ticket to California (albeit with Eric's money) so he can reconcile with Donna and covers for him to Red and Kitty the whole time Eric's gone. ("Going to California" [5x01])

Hyde advises Eric against making the same mistake that broke up Eric and Donna in season 3. Although Hyde fortunately turns out to be wrong about the outcome, his heart is in the right place: friendship. ("Hot Dog" [5x07])

After season 5, Hyde and Eric's storylines don't focus on their friendship, but their friendship is ever-present. They both demonstrate their love for and support of each other in short scenes and a few lines of dialogue.

[calliecwrites]

Gagh

Quark’s Bar on DS9, sometime after the end of the Dominion War.

“So let me get this straight.” Quark stares across the bar at me. “You’re a shapeshifter and a human?”

I wince only slightly. Am I human? My people’s history with that word is complicated. Sometimes we’ve claimed it, sometimes we’ve rejected it, but we’ve always had to exist in relation to it. And right now I look pretty human. That’s a thing we’ve always had to be good at. I turn my skin blue to make the point.

“You’re sure you’re not a Changeling?” he says.

“I told you, I’m a shifter,” I say. I point at the bottle of Romulan ale. “Give me that and I’ll prove it.”

He watches me closely as I down it in one.

“You drink. He never did.”

Quark means Odo, of course. Everyone here compares me to him, though he’s long gone. Some people leave a lasting impression.

He sets down my plate of gagh and watches as I eat. It’s alive and wriggling, as it should be.

“So how come no one’s ever heard of you?” he says.

“Ever heard any human myths?” I say. “Then maybe you have.” I shrug. “We kept to ourselves. Things were bad before the Federation, and old habits die hard. But we’ve always been there. There were never many of us. Things were too close during the war, and we decided it was time to come out into the light.”

Earth hadn’t been under that much scrutiny in a long time. After the bombing, people were looking for Changelings everywhere. Troops in the streets, blood tests, then the power outage – it was only a matter of time before they found us instead. Better to come out on our own terms. Show we stood with the Federation, not against it. That we wanted to help. The vampires and the werewolves and all the rest did the same, but they had an easier time of it. After all, the Federation wasn’t at war with people like them.

Quark hears the strain in my voice and changes the subject. “And I hear you’re doing well for yourself – a lieutenant on the Enterprise!”

I shrug again. “Think of us as another species, and it’s not that different.”

“So, uh…” I can guess what question is coming next, and he doesn’t disappoint. “Tell me about this absorption thing?”

“You mean this?” I take a handful of gagh, and pull. Doesn’t taste as good this way, but what the hell. Best to get the staring over early. And now I have an intimate understanding of the structure of live serpent worms, just in case I ever need to be one.

Quark’s eyes almost pop out of his head. No Changeling can do what I’ve just done. And the next question is going to be could you do that to a person—

Instead he grabs a passing dabo girl, not taking his eyes off my hand.

“Get the lady more gagh. I’m gonna need to see that again.”

The shifters' abilities were originally inspired by the Changelings, so doing a Star Trek crossover makes perfect sense! The 'troops in the streets' part is a reference to DS9 4x11 "Homefront" - not a good time to be a shifter on Earth.

Tag list (let me know if you want to be added):

@leahnardo-da-veggie @sandyca5tle @scrubbinn

[winnie-the-monster]

[imminent-danger-came]

So, here's a thought about the idea that Qi Xiaotian is Underworld x Sun Wukong- in the original text, Macaque was a metaphor for a person's darker side, Wukong's darkest impulses. We never even saw what he actually looked like because he spent most of the chapter transformed into Wukong and he died.

So, maybe the whole harbinger thing is a reference to that. Wukong's darkest impulses are killed, maybe without a metaphor, and that part of his soul gets sent down to the Underworld. That part is scooped up, repackaged in the stone egg, and left to soak up Flower Fruit Mountain and Sun Wukong energy for an extra boost.

Dots are connecting, I'm probably not connecting shit, but dots are connecting.

I'm reading a summary of the jttw chapters (ch. 56-58) with the six-eared Macaque in them, and apparently "not even the imp-reflecting mirror [could] tell them apart" ("Origin of the Six-Eared Macaque and the Character’s Influence on Black Myth: Wukong" by JTTW Research). In lmk, this imp-reflecting mirror is the demon revealing mirror from 2x02, which I've had a lot of fun thinking about in reference to MK.

During Wukong and false-Wukong's fight, they traveled down to the underworld, and then they were sent to the Buddha who recognized the imposter immediately. The Buddha then gave an explanation of the 4 spiritual primates (which feels relevant to a conversation around MK and his relation to Wukong for obvious reasons), and he's able to identify Wukong's double as the six-eared Macaque. Macaque senses that he is in danger, and he turns into a bee to attempt to escape.

JTTW Research's article also brings attention to Wukong embodying the concept of a "Mind Monkey" (typically paired with the phrase "Idea Horse"), which is a Buddhist concept describing "restlessness, capriciousness, and lack of control in one's thoughts". In the Villains Wiki (which isn't the most reputable source but it brings up an interesting concept), the six-eared Macaque is referred to as representing "what Wukong could become had the latter chose power and chaotic freedom over protecting Sanzang." This is in line with what Macaque highlights in 4x11, "Wukong was on a path of self-destruction—we all were. But when he met the monk, it set him on a different path."

Ch. 58 of JTTW also calls attention to the concept of "non-duality", and as JTTW Research discusses "One mind” (Sk: ekacitta; Ch: yixin, 一心) is a high-level philosophy and core tenet of many Buddhist schools that refers to a tranquil, immovable mind that encompasses non-duality". If an individual has two minds instead of one mind, "disasters he’ll breed; / He’ll guess and conjecture both far and near”. I find this idea of "non-duality" super interesting, especially in context with MK's two distinct identities: his identity as "MK" and his identity as the "Monkey Kid"—his identity as a "Regular Noodle Delivery Boy" and as a "Monkey Demon". MK is constantly at war with himself, and I feel that his path as a "Mind Monkey" involves the restlessness that comes with mental illness and neurodiversity. So MK's own path forward will involve him stepping off the path of self-destruction—which means reconciling the different parts of himself, to be "one mind".

Now, this doesn't offer an explanation for MK's origins, but I do think the concept of pre-stone MK being "what Wukong could become had he chosen power and chaotic freedom" is worth discussing. I've always posited/enjoyed the idea that Wukong gave MK a second chance (with the reincarnations of the pilgrims), just like Wukong himself was given a second chance. With MK being given the title of "Harbinger of Chaos" in s4, and Wukong's original trajectory being one of chaos, MK has the potential to go/have gone farther than his mentor ever did.