#these two will always be endgame for me even if current writers have abandoned them

[sbd-laytall]

The way that he immediately vows to help her because he would never turn his back on her.

X-Men (1991) #77

[ollybenrio]

I’m gonna get my thoughts and predictions out before the new Chaos Theory season comes out.

I think, genuinely, they’ve gotten all the ships and relationships set up to bring together the endgame couples. they’re setting all these relationships up so that when the real endgame plots happen, it hits us harder, gives us more of a deeper plot.

So far what i think is going to happen to the current in CANON couples we see/have;

Sammy and Yas: YES endgame, a beginning couple that they plan to keep.

Kenji and Brooklyn: NOT endgame, a beginning couple they gave for those who enjoy it, but as of now (chaos theory s1), it’s grown deeply complicated, and has made us dislike them (atleast me, they grew unhealthy for eachother). Gives plot and “complication” to future Kenji & Brooklyn relationships, gives us shock factor, entertainment for when/if future relationships with different people occur.

How i think it’ll end up;

Brooklyn and Darius: YES endgame. CT s1 we already see Darius has a crush on her, and we’ve previously (cc) seen them with lots of romantic history and chemistry. Most (?) of the fandom prefers them, and the creators know this (they also are not the type to ignore what fans want!). They’ve foreshadowed this relationship in s1 during the abandoned house scene (with that weird tub) where Kenji gets mad at Darius for liking her (I think?) but later towards the end of the season, we can see them forgiving each other, which MAY be forshadowing and giving that underlying feeling that Kenji is okay with Darius/Brooklyn, and that technically, they don’t like each other anymore, so Darius can do whatever he wants, even if that means dating her.

Ben and Kenji: YES endgame. We’ve already gotten tons of chemistry and dare i say, romantic history, with these two. that whole monorail scene where Kenji wears Bens “dork pouch” for ever? they were testing the waters with that. we know these creators aren’t scared of putting lgbtq relationships out there, so we know this also has plenty of potential. We know they didn’t interact so much during ct s1 but that whole egg scene with Speckles? that was a little… yk. They fit perfectly especially since everyone else is already going down their endgame routes with others that aren’t these guys. so in the end, they put these two together.

as a writer, and person who has watched plenty of movies and read books, i can see the route writers will go for things like this. it’s not always about preference, but where things/characters slot in. in relationships, these couples all make sense for endgame purposes. They gave us Kenji x Brooklyn for those who wanted it (more than enough seasons, might i add) so know they’ll feed the others who like Kenji x Ben and those who like Brooklyn x Darius. it all makes sense in the end.

let me know your thoughts on this!!

[elrhiarhodan]

Ask game: 1 and 23 💕

Thank you for asking!

1: Is writing cathartic or stressful for you?

Both? Up until joining the SW fandom, I had always kept my WIPs under wraps until they were complete (or nearly complete), but I had fallen into a terrible rut of never completing anything. I have about a half-million words sitting forlornly in various fandoms with no endings (even though I know how each of those stories are supposed to end). I would write two or three thousand words a day on a fic until got bored and moved on to something else, and then go back when the muse struck. But without a publishing schedule, I didn't feel any kind of urgency to finish anything. The few times that I did publish unfinished stories did not go well (looking at you, Cold Wind to Valhalla).

But I enjoyed myself immensely and I am proud of those unfinished stories and I read them and get annoyed that they aren't done. My curse is that I have a linear brain, and I can't work on multiple disconnected stories at once. So, if I want to keep going with what I'm currently committed to, I can't afford to go back to what I haven't finished.

That is a little stressful. Also, for the first time, I'm committed to a weekly publishing schedule, and except for illness, I've managed to stick to it. It's keeping me on track, but it's also not an easy thing when I've never done it before.

23: What’s one piece of advice you would give to anyone who wants to start writing or posting their writing online?

Know where your story is going. You don't have to have it intricately plotted out, all the details ironed out, but you should know where you want it to end and how you want to get there. I think most of the abandoned stories I've read have been abandoned because the writer didn't have any kind of endgame in sight when they started, and thus lost interest because the journey became pointless.

[lovinlikeloki]

The Lone Wolf (Intermission)

Masterlist // Act I Interview

Word Count: 1.9k

ROSE HARRIS, A COMIC FAN’S DREAM COME TRUE

- “I never thought I would go from Story of Miss Oxygen to this!”

BY FAITH PRICE

Going from small independent films to one of the biggest movie franchises is a dream come true, right? Well Rose Harris could certainly tell you. She went from being someone nearly nobody knew to one of the biggest names on our screens practically overnight. Joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the one and only Fianna MacBhfloscaidh, Harris has become an idol for many people very quickly.

While most people know her for her part in Captain America: Civil War which hit the silver screen only a few months ago on 26 April, Harris has been in a couple of short films like Story of Miss Oxygen and even portrayed the lead character in Daughter. She also has a main character role in a new Netflix series currently being filmed named 13 Reasons Why. Needless to say, Rose Harris is a very busy girl and I was very lucky to get the chance to interview her.

FAITH: WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO JOIN SUCH A FAMOUS FRANCHISE? HOW WAS THE RESPONSE TO YOUR FIRST BIG MOVIE BEING ONE IN THE MCU?

Rose Harris: It was amazing. Joining such a big franchise with a huge cast was very daunting at first, I mean these guys are practically a family so it felt weird and almost intruding at first. But then Lizzie came over and started talking to me, uh she reminded me she was in this place only a year ago and kinda eased me into meeting everyone. As for the response, it was huge, I mean my follower count skyrocketed within like a day. I never thought I would go from Story of Miss Oxygen to this! It was really exciting.

SO I HAVE TO ASK, WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON FIANNA’S, AND YOUR, ENTRANCE AND FIRST APPEARANCE IN THE MCU? WHAT ABOUT FAN OPINIONS?

Well, personally I loved it, I mean it was- I think it was pretty cool that, um, they made sure that she knew Wanda and like the Maximoff twins beforehand, that was always going to be a big thing. I really liked it, it was fun and very Fianna, I think. As for the fans? It’s almost a 50/50 split when it comes to their opinions, especially the fans of the original comics.

As you’ve probably seen, Fianna’s entrance has a lot of parallels to Peter Parker’s who is also introduced in this movie, which is what divided fans. For, ah, Spideywolf fans, I believe that’s what they’re called, people who pair Fianna and Peter Parker together, they were ecstatic and love to point out the similarities. But then on the other hand, Silverwolf fans, people who pair Fianna and Pietro Maximoff together, they weren’t as big of fans of this. I think it’s because in the comics they were the endgame pairing.

YOU THINK THEY DON’T LIKE THAT THEY’RE NOT ADHEREING TO THE COMICS?

Oh for sure. I mean as I said, Fianna and Pietro, they... they- in almost every comic series you read with the two, they end up together and Pietro seems to be pretty dead right now in the MCU. He- with all of those bullet holes he looks very not alive [she laughs], at the moment. And so in their eyes this is Marvel and the writers straying from the comics, as you said.

I guess they’re now left wondering how far from the comics we’re gonna go, because I mean she’s already a mercenary. Before the names Fenrir or Lupine is even uttered, she’s a mercenary, with zero Wolves Den, uh, context. So many comics are being ignored at this point, and that’s even disregarding her mutant and X-Men origins.

YOU MENTIONED THE WOLVES DEN COMIC SERIES, WHAT IS YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT STORYLINE? IS IT SOMETHING YOU’D LIKE TO SEE IN THE FUTURE OF THE MCU?

I think that Wolves Den is probably one of my favorites, if not my favorite Fianna comic series. It’s very, I don’t know how to put this, it’s very chaotic. I mean there’s three different storylines to follow, the romantic one, the team one and then the villain one.

You’ve got the romantic one, Fianna and Peter’s storyline, I mean Fianna... she really messes Peter up in this series, emotionally. She does cheat on him, they break up and then she gets together with Harry Osborn, I mean it’s so very messy. Then there’s the subplot where she leaves the Avengers, she breaks off not only from Peter but also from Natasha Romanoff who she is extremely close to in this universe, I mean they’ve got a mother-daughter bond. Instead she becomes a mercenary where she goes by the monikers of Fenrir and Lupine, going between the two to keep the team of heroes off her back.

And while she’s doing this she’s also fighting off a villain by the name of Discord, someone from Fianna’s past, who is trying to take over and attack the minds of people in New York. She does all this at the same time, and it’s just a very chaotic, discordant series.

WHAT DO YOU THINK WAS THE MOST DIFFICULT THING FOR HER IN THIS SERIES?

Definitely the way she has to balance all of this, I mean she has so many different masks and personas and she has got everyone fooled. With Peter she’s the remorseless cheating ex-girlfriend, for Harry Osborn she’s the new rebellious girlfriend, for the Avengers and especially, as I said, Natasha she’s a traitor who abandoned them.

Then she’s also got this act of being a good guy even with the mercenaries. She really walks that tightrope between good and bad in these comics and is really morally grey and quite neutral. And she does all of this because she’s trying to protect everyone, or at least that’s her mindset. She’s leaving the Avengers, leaving Peter because she thinks it would save the heartache if something were to happen to her.

I think this is where we see how different Fianna is from the Avengers, because we see that she has the most self-preservation instincts out of all of the Avengers. She is always about protecting herself, she knows that to take care of others she needs to take care of herself first but it’s getting a little warped in her mind when it comes to how to do that.Most of the Avengers work themselves to the bone, lookat Tony Stark and Peter Parker, their mental health isn’t great at the best of times whereas Fianna doesn’t do what they do. She knows she needs to take a step back sometimes to take care of her before she can do her job.

[Rose then seemed to realise how long she spoke]

Sorry, I sort of went on a tangent, I’m sorry. I just love the storyline. Though some of it is a little too dark for the way the MCU currently is.

DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT, I’M SURE THE FANS WILL LOVE YOUR TAKE ON THE WOLVES DEN STORYLINE.

I’m sorry [she smiles bashfully]

NOW I HAVE TO ASK, WHAT WAS THE MOST DIFFICULT PART OF PLAYING FIANNA?

The most difficult part? I wanna say the stunts but actually I think it was more the dialogue, more specifically the accent and the language because it is definitely not all in English, you know, some of it was in Irish. Yeah, like learning- well no, I didn’t learn Irish for the movie because it’s... learning a language is difficult and... there’s actually a lot of grammar rules and stuff, to Irish.

I mean it’s crazy, if you’ve ever seen Irish written down and then heard it spoken you will know that it does not sound the way it look like at all. And the same combination of letters can make different sounds based on like- I think it’s the vowel changes the sound, it’s crazy. But it’s really cool, it’s such a cool language.

YOU DID AMAZING AT SPEAKING THE LANGUAGE, MANY FANS WERE IMPRESSED.

I was so lucky to have Ciarraí Quinn, she was, uh, she helped me with the accent, the dialect and the language. She was such a help with the accent because Fianna doesn’t have the accent you think of when talking of an Irish accent she has the Northern Irish accent. It’s kind of like a mix of Irish accent and maybe, some English too? I’m not sure how to describe it. It was very difficult to get down but thanks to Ciarraí I did manage to get it.

Also on the side of the language, it was really hard to not butcher it, like I said pronounciation in Irish is a little strange and I did struggle with it quite a bit. Not only did I have to learn the pronounciation but I had to make sure I had the perfect Native speaker accent from Fianna’s region.

I remember there was a line that Fianna said to Tony Stark while she was in the raft and to get not only the line, but to get the accent and the anger and pain and emotion into it, it took a long time to properly say it and to be satisfied with it. The very specific Native accent was so important because Fianna comes from an Irish speaking home, it’s her first language, and she even goes to one of the few all-Irish speaking schools. I really loved this aspect of Fianna and I really do love playing and portraying such a unique character.

THERE WAS A SCENE AT THE END OF CIVIL WAR THAT YOU HAD WITH CHRIS WHERE YOU BOTH SPOKE IN IRISH. WHAT WAS IT LIKE FILMING THAT?

Oh, yeah, a lot of fans seemed to love that scene and I did too, as did chris. It was really fun to film that scene so it was, we must have run over the lines a hundred times to make sure we’d get it right. This was something Chris and I wanted to make sure stayed in the movie, um... because it was almost cut from the script since the runtime was getting a little long but we fought to keep it in, we felt it was important.

Something a lot of people don’t know is that Captain America, Steve Rogers, he... his mother was an Irish immigrant. Based on the time she would’ve immigrated she most likely spoke the language fluently and would’ve spoke it at home with little baby Steve.

So that short scene, that little bit of dialogue meant a lot to Native speakers, Irish learners and even just second generation immigrants from anywhere. That’s why Chris and I fought so hard to keep it in the movie, the representation.

JUST BEFORE WE GO CAN YOU TELL US ANYTHING ABOUT YOUR FUTURE IN THE MCU?

Anything about my and Fianna’s future in the MCU? Let’s see, I’ve got a contract for quite a few things. Umm... there’s a couple of movies starring Fianna coming soon. She brings with her her own posse of characters and maybe a couple of others as well. Annddd I think that’s all I can say.

THAT’S ALL YOU CAN SAY?

I think that’s all I can say before someone comes in and like forcefully removes me from the room [she smiles widely, holding back a laugh] either that or you’ll end up with recording footage missing or a trained sniper will shoot me through that window [she points, laughing again] Feige will do anything to keep as much quiet as he can for as long as he can.

[nowis-scales]

Pre-Verdant Wind Endgame Update

An Update on the ol’ Three Houses Verdant Wind playthrough, since I’ve been neglecting documenting my journey properly for a bit:

• My current placement is Ch.20, so I’m only a few chapters away from the last one. It’s kind of a weird thought because I feel like I just hit the timeskip, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this will feel well-paced out. In terms of writing, I’m known for being a bit of a stickler for good flow. It’s why all of my fanfics take so long to update! I have to make sure my flow is perfect.

• The fact that they have been giving background information on characters has been so amazing. Learning that Raphael’s sister’s name was Maya and getting to hear about her has made me irrationally happy.

• Also, just generally, holy shit people sleep on Raphael and Leonie. Raphael often gets shoved to the side, and Leonie is treated like her only trait is liking Jeralt, and for me it all just culminates in the question of “so did you like... not do their support conversations, or...?” Seriously. I think Leonie might be one of my favourites in the game so far, and I adore Raph. He’s so sweet!

• The Flame Emperor reveal for some reason gave me “and I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids” vibes. I liked the venom Cherami Leigh had there as Rhea, too. I think I read from someone that in Japanese, Rhea’s actually super calm in that scene. I don’t think I have a preference towards the anger or the calmness, honestly. I think I just liked how smoothly the emotion came across. Plus, I’m a little biased, I’m fond of Cherami as an actress. I haven’t found a performance from her I haven’t enjoyed yet.

• I was really confused as to why Seteth showed up in my house after Chapter 12ish I think? I wasn’t expecting him to just be there after the paralogue, but I definitely wasn’t unhappy. I do like him! I just never use him, because I recruited Bernadetta and Sylvain, so I kinda have a full roster going... 

• I was also confused in the Gronder Field fight because I couldn’t see what people meant about Bernie getting set on fire. Then I remembered Bernie wasn’t on the hill because she was with me. I recruited her. Whatever this proves about me, I don’t know.

• I did end up beating Marianne’s paralogue! It actually wasn’t as hard once I levelled her up a bit and classed her to a Holy Knight. The big thing with her in that paralogue seems to be that she needs a decent amount of power and movement to really get by, so that’s what I’d recommend for anyone else playing it. Using rescue will also probably help you out, but I tried to avoid using Flayn there because it’s kinda easy to kill her. 

• Admittedly, I’m not 100% sure how I feel about the support system. In some ways, I think it’s better that not everybody has that forced S-Support. Oftentimes we were either squeezing a love confession out of two characters who were unlikely to have one, or characters with decent potential might get snubbed because their connection was less apparent to the writers (and unfortunately that still does happen in the case of same sex S-supports in 3H). Having the conversations only go to a certain point is helpful, but at the same time, the inherent romantic undertones of several of the A-supports do make things feel strange. If it weren’t for the fact that I know characters can have only one partner as their paired ending, I would think lots of them were in a polycule. Nothing wrong with that as long as everyone’s comfortable, but because I know they can only have one person in their ending, I find it pretty jarring.

• I think it was interesting that they went to do the fights for breaking into Enbarr and then taking down Edelgard back-to-back. I’m glad they did, honestly, because while I don’t usually like to do two fights next to each other unless I’m grinding, it doesn’t mess with the suspension of disbelief. It would be stupid to break into Enbarr and then just run right back to the Monastery.

• I have still not completed the randomized quest from just after the timeskip. You know, the one I was yelling about with the weeds? Still haven’t gotten any weeds. I think I might just have to give up on it. It’s hilarious that my luck is so good that it’s actually bad.

• The fact that Byleth is praised for having more of a personality than Corrin is the biggest slice of bullshit I have heard from this fanbase in a long time. Byleth is literally designed to be a silent protagonist with nothing going on with them – they even came up with a story reason for why Byleth is such a blank sack of meat! In the kindest way possible, I don’t think most people realize that they are implementing whatever personality they want onto Byleth. Personally, I don’t find anything relatable about being stoic, calm, and not inclined to anyone (until plot happens, of course). I’ve always been the overly enthusiastic and caring type, with a tendency towards nervousness. Trying to relate to Byleth was like trying to relate to the experiences of a cactus. While I definitely don’t think Corrin is the strongest of the modern FE avatars – that award goes to Robin – they still had some things I could understand and relate to. If you’re not the type of person who loves the cool, “I fight for my friends” types like Ike, though, you’re likely to have a hard time relating to Byleth. If you can manage that type of character, then you’re more likely to have present them with a personality of their own.

• Actually, while we’re on the topic of Byleth getting praised for things Corrin got dragged for, the fact that Corrin is still cited as the character who receives the most “player pandering” is ridiculous too. Do a lot of characters like Corrin? Yeah! But most of them who do are deeply traumatized in a way that inclines them specifically towards Corrin. The Nohr siblings cling to each other due to their abusive childhood, the Hoshido siblings all in some capacity seem to suffer from abandonment issues (oldest) and/or attachment issues (youngest), and the official foursome of retainers have also had some sort of abandonment struggle in their past (forced separation from parents, murdered loved ones). While the cast of Three Houses needs therapy and is traumatized too, there is no reason why the inclination moves towards Byleth. Bernadetta feels safe around them just because. Edelgard is obsessed with them just because. Marianne learns to feel better about herself just because. Why are there so many exceptions for Byleth, and so many just without explanation? I don’t hate Byleth by any means, but these two things make my opinion of them lower than it would be otherwise. It kinda sucks that my image of Byleth is tainted by the fanbase’s hypocrisy, but I know I can’t have everything.

• The gameplay overall for 3H has been pretty fun! I love the addition of the Demonic Beasts, as annoying as they are to fight. There’s a charm to having some of your stronger units working to take on the soldiers blocking the path, meanwhile your army’s more intermediate strikeforce works to keep them safe by bringing down the beast. Once you get the hang of it, gameplay with the new additions is fun. The only thing I don’t use is Divine Pulse, but that’s because I’m on Casual and usually when I want to rewind, I want to just plain start over. So I use the old “turn off and start again” trick.

• Edelgard’s death scene was actually pretty good. I must confess that I went out of my way to avoid Edelgard in the academy phase, as I knew how hard the game was going to hit me with the “she’s obessed with you” thing and I wanted to see how wonky it would feel if I didn’t speak to her much. I was right that it’s incredibly awkward in terms of writing when you haven’t spent the time with her, but surprisingly, her death scene still holds up. Good voice acting, animation, and music. My only beef with it is something they have done in FE before, and it’s something I wish they’d stop. If a character is dying, you either let them have a few last breaths after their last lines or you kill them mid-sentence. It’s probably just a personal nitpick, but hearing them get their last word out without struggle and then immediately die just makes me aware of how badly the directors wanted the whole line to be in there. I can totally understand it but I find it so troublesome in the grand scheme of things that I just can’t.

• I also like that in the fight against Edelgard, they tried to make it ambiguous who had the key. Immediately as it told me that, I decided it was Petra and ended up being right. I was kind of sad to kill her though, to be honest. I don’t know her well, but she’s probably one of the Eagles I like more.

• The fight against the Death Knight at Fort Merceus ended up being surprisingly pretty easy. In fact, while I paved the way for most of my army, Nader ended up making it to the Death Knight just as Claude did. He did most of the damage – I’m not kidding, the Death Knight was down to 1 HP – and then Claude took care of the rest. It was a weird fight. They said impregnable a lot leading up to it.

• I understand why they kill Dimitri off-screen at the Gronder Field fight, but I was admittedly a bit disappointed. Again, Salli Saffoti does a good job doing Hilda’s voice for it, but I would have liked to see it animated. It was also nice to have that little rapport with Dedue! If only we could have allied with the Lions a bit more. Everyone always says Claude and Edelgard have similar goals; however, it’s their methods that differ. Claude seems to align himself a bit closer to Dimitri, so I’m usually a bit confused by the idea that Edelgard and Claude would work together. I was spoiled on enough to know her background and story, and even so, I think that her methodology is just a bit too violent for his tastes. But that’s just my two cents.

 Alright. I think that’s about all I can drain out of my brain from the top of my head. With that, I am off to kill the slithers! We’ll see how this goes. Wish me luck!

[roxannarambles]

Firewatch Review: Where There’s Smoke

This is a repost on a new blog. The original post was on Mar 4, 2016.

Contains major, major spoilers including endgame. Do not read if you haven’t played!

When I first started into this game I thought it was a horrifically depressing introduction. It opens telling a tale of a man and a woman who fall in love and it’s a lovely story and then the woman falls ill from a rare hereditary disease and slowly gets worse and loses her career and the man loses the wife he knew and struggles to care for her and it’s fucking awful. Then the game opens with the man– you– taking up a summer job in a park near Yellowstone. He’s done this to get away and have some time to think about his life.

He works in a watchtower. Lone rangers station in these towers to watch the horizon for signs of fire. He has little to do but keep an eye out and sit alone in his station up there. His only company is his supervisor, in the nearest watchtower over, whom he speaks to via walkie-talkie. (these are the days before cell phones) Her name’s Delilah.

All I was really told about this game is that it involved exploration and was story-centric. And that’s an accurate description. And while it starts off with a rather depressing backstory, the main part of the game is not all bleak and bleary. It is a story about the interaction between Henry and Delilah. There is a mystery plot involved in the game as well; the game starts off with small park dramas and tasks to ease into things, then develops a mystery, which eventually gets rather intense. But entwined with this mystery story, always central and foremost, is the character-driven plot of these two.

The voice acting is fantastic, and the writing is excellent, so it carries well. Dialogue writing is certainly not everyone’s strength, but the writers here did a very good job. The two characters have excellent chemistry; it flows naturally and is very enjoyable. The quips and interactions are fed in small bits steadily throughout the game as you explore, providing an enjoyable regular stream of interactions. It’s a satisfying blend of exploration and conversation.

The game is atmospheric and beautiful to look at, and that’s not something to dismiss either. Those factors really do add something special to a game.

And here’s the thing. I fell in love. It was such a compelling story. And the characters felt so real. I found myself deeply engrossed in the mystery and unable to stop. I found myself deeply emotionally invested in the characters and I truly cared about them. They were relatable human beings. And I loved Delilah. She was the light in the dark. The beacon in the middle of the loneliness. My lighthouse; my watchtower. Quippy, caring, flawed, human. I shared my troubles with her, and she listened.

Early on in the game, one of the conversation responses caused Henry to say something that annoyed Delilah and kinda offend her a little. I had accidentally overheard a phone conversation she was having (she left her walkie-talkie button depressed) and it sounded like kinda maybe she had been talking about me? So I asked her, were you talking about me? She was confused and surprised at the accusation and no, it had just been a conversation about work, and besides, was that really any of my business?

So the good mood killed, she stepped out for a while and I couldn’t talk to her anymore on the walkie-talkie. ‘Cause she was annoyed and didn’t feel like talking. And the thing is– I felt so bad. Like, I really felt sorry and wanted to apologize and felt I’d been a bad person for accusing her of that, and I wanted her to like me. And I didn’t want to be left alone. It was hauntingly quiet, unlike the rest of the game, when Delilah wasn’t there for company. I think this plot point was especially effective because it was in the middle of what had been at that point the deepest conversation we’d had so far, and we had been really bonding and sharing. But now I’d screwed it up.

Eventually Delilah forgave us for our rude question. And I cannot tell you how much of a relief it was. Heck, I thought I’d lost my chance and it would never be brought up again and I’d never have a chance to apologize, but she brought it up later. (She actually apologized for being so snappish over it, and said she knew what it was like to get too lost in your own head out there and start imagining things.) I felt so much better knowing we were cool again. It was that delicate part of a budding new friendship, you know, and I didn’t wanna mess it up. I really commend the game for including the callbacks to previous conversations. It enhanced the feeling of history between us and internal consistency throughout the story.

There have been many people online complaining about the way the game ultimately ended. In my humble opinion, those people are missing the point of the game. Indeed, with games like these, that have a somewhat open-ended conclusion (and there’s plenty of stories that fall into that category), how you interpret the ending and its meaning says a lot about the person who played the game. The whole point of an open-ended conclusion is for a person to think and draw conclusions, after all, but many people seem to fail to realize this.

One game that comes to mind is ‘Presentable Liberty,’ a game that you spend in a prison cell for the vast majority of the time, reading letters that are delivered to you. It had a very open-ended and nebulous ending. But that game made so many people think, and I think Firewatch makes you think a lot too.

I won’t lie, of course; I do somewhat understand where the critics are coming from. In some ways the ending did feel anti-climactic to me. It felt like it was possibly building up to something and that payoff never came. Yet … that experience in and of itself was fascinating to me.

Let me explain in detail. First of all, I reached the conclusion of the mystery plot. Plenty of people bitched about this online as well, but I loved the way it concluded. The plot was suggesting a very exciting but rather typical video-game story where a government conspiracy was uncovered that was studying human subjects (perhaps a psychological study of the effects of isolation in people), and Henry and Delilah were the subjects in these nefarious privacy-violating experiments. However, this “plot twist” of a secret government study ended up being a false twist. Instead, the story ended up in a less typical direction. As it turned out, the group of mysterious people behind all the spooky hijinks wasn’t that at all … it was one man. One lonely, desperate man living as a hermit with a tragic, awful secret he was hiding about an accident during his job as a fire watch. It was our fears and paranoia that had conjured up this imaginary, yet very real-feeling plot of conspiracy and subterfuge.

And I loved that. I loved that it was something driven by a simple lone man who was guilty and afraid. I loved that was the explanation, that it was something so prosaic rather than fantastic and fanciful. Like the best horror stories are about man as being the worst monster instead of werewolves and vampires, this showed the best mysteries were about human loneliness and desperation and guilt rather than complex conspiracies or extraordinary mojo. Indeed, you felt bad for the man who had been unintentionally tormenting us this whole time.*

After this conclusion to the mystery plot, hot on its heels– literally, because you were being chased by the spreading wildfire– was the conclusion of the Henry/Delilah plot. I was rushing out of there to rendezvous with a rescue helicopter so I could escape my post before fire consumed everything. They landed near Delilah’s watchtower, before I had made it to the rendezvous point– I’d been busy tracking down the ending to the mystery. She told me the helicopters would make another pass for when I got there, but … she might just leave now since the current copter was there.

“Wait for me,” I said into our walkie-talkie. I wanted to leave with her. Together. She was very reluctant when I begged this of her. But she finally relented that ok, ok, she’ll wait. I hollered I was on my way. I rushed as fast as I could.

I finally reached the spot– it was Delilah’s watch tower. The point in the distance I had always gazed upon but never had been to until now. But something didn’t feel right as Delilah was oddly silent on the walkie.

I entered the empty watch tower. I saw a small sign, “Pork Pond” attached to her wall and smiled faintly. I *knew* she had that sign. I put on the radio headset and called.

Delilah answered, in a tone that made it clear she knew I wouldn’t exactly be pleased to be listening to her voice over the radio waves yet again instead of seeing her standing there. She asked me not to be mad.

“I’m not mad, I’m just …”

“Disappointed?”

And yes. I was. That was it exactly.

It hurt. I genuinely felt sad and hurt that Delilah had left without me. It felt like she abandoned me. She stammered about having not want to meet me in the shadow of that poor dead child I had just learned about, but … it still hurt. After all we’d been through the least she could have done was waited. And you’ve no idea how much I had wanted to finally meet Delilah in person, dang.

But I pondered it after, and it made a lot of sense, her actions. She had been afraid to meet me in person, I think. It would have made the whole thing even more real, you know? If it was just over the walkies, fine. But … in person would have made it too real. Delilah was afraid of getting attached. Not just because she had had her heart broken by her long-term boyfriend and was afraid of getting close again to someone, but probably for more practical reasons too. Henry was still married, for Pete’s sake, and in a very complex situation with his sick wife. Any smart girl would want to avoid getting involved with a guy who’s still married. So her early departure and lukewarm response to me asking for her to come with me back to Boulder, well, it made sense.

As much as it had hurt for her to not wait, I understood and forgave her for it. In a way, I suppose, it may have made it easier for us both not to face the anguish of a relationship not working if we never saw each other in person to begin with. But … fuck. Had it been me, I would have wanted to see her in person anyway. I would have asked her to wait. At least for a goddamn hug.**

We spoke on the radio as I waited for the helicopter to swing back around to pick me up. We talked about our future plans. We both didn’t know what they would be. Delilah thought I should go back to my wife and do my best to make things right. Somehow.

And it ended once we were pulled into the helicopter.

People online whine that this ending was a 'cop out,’ not a real conclusion. I don’t believe that. I think the entire point was that feeling of uncertainty about the future and that missed chance at getting together with Delilah. Life is uncertain so often. We don’t know how to fix things, what to do, and what things mean. It’s our search for meaning that is so valuable. This game was a reflection of life experiences many can relate to. Not necessarily all the details– a wife that fell ill with premature dementia– but the general themes? Absolutely. This story is about people struggling to cope with loneliness, seeking to connect with others, struggling to deal with hardships in life, seeking purpose and meaning, seeking direction. And it does not provide solid answers at the very end, but that’s OK. It doesn’t have to. It’s OK if the players can provide some of the answers. Sometimes asking the questions is as valuable as providing the answers in a story.

And yeah, sometimes the guy doesn’t ‘get the girl.’ Sometimes relationships don’t work out. (Especially if the guy is still married and needs to deal with some shit before either staying with his wife or breaking up and pursuing something else.) That doesn’t mean our connection with Delilah that summer didn’t have meaning or purpose or value, just that … such things don’t always have a future as a long-term relationship.

I earnestly believe the ending to this game was fine as-is. I might even say it was a perfect ending. Although I admit I desperately wanted to meet Delilah at the very end***, I’m pretty sure my sense of diappointment and feeling of sorrow at not seeing her were kind of exactly the point of the story. All in all, it ended on a tone that was sad and nebulous, but not deeply depressing. There was still a sense of hope about things, and I think that’s important.

(Amusingly, much later I learned there is an option at the very end to NOT enter the rescue helicopter. It leaves without you if you wait long enough, implying suicide of your character Henry. Much darker option than the one I describe above. But again, in stories like these, it depends on player’s reactions, input, and interpretations too, and fortunately most do not have quite that bleak of an interpretation of the tale– and quite that bleak of a choice.)

So many of us sit alone in our own watchtowers, isolated, searching for any meaningful human connection we can come across. I think the themes of connection and isolation were masterfully explored in this game. You really fuckin’ felt it, you know?

And to me, it’s noble. That human beings stand in this intense loneliness but continue that search, and they sometimes find somebody. It may not always end well, but that doesn’t mean you should stop the search and that you won’t find another. Or even rekindle old flames.

Either way, you shouldn’t stop searching the horizon.

————–

Footnotes:

* That’s not to say the dude wasn’t guiltless in his actions. I think it was rather awful of him to just leave his poor kid’s body down in that hole instead of facing up to what had happened, going home, letting people and loved ones know what went on, etc. Also pretty stupid of the guy to pressure his son into doing that dangerous rock-climbing when the kid didn’t have the skills. But, ya know, you felt bad for him too.

** I should note, I have no idea if Henry should break up with his wife Julia (& tried things out with Delilah) or not. I had no opinion on it because who knows? Choices like that are friggin’ complex. Seriously.

*** And yes, I realize the game never had a model for her character anyway, so from a technical standpoint it would have been impossible, but it’s best to use in-story explanations for events, not technical explanations.

[best-enemies]

For the fandom ask meme thing can I request the whole damn alphabet or is that not very cash money of me? I’m nosy lmao I wanna know all of them!

AHDKAJSDKJAHSKDA JACK YOU’RE THE BEST

A - Your current OTP(s)/OT3(s)/OTX(s)

I’ve had my current OTP for like almost 8 years and it’s, obviously, Thoschei (Doctor/Master). My other current obsession is the Gallifrey OT4 hehehe

B - A pairing you initially didn’t consider but someone changed your mind

It’s funny because I didn’t ship Hannigram at first... I’d thought the idea of a cannibal having a relationship was terrifying because what if they had sex and Hannibal got hungry in the middle of the act? Lmaoooo 

But yeah they’re my endgame now. I watched the show when it first aired and I was about 14/15 years old so now you see why I thought that. Although I’m still afraid I’m gonna be reading a fic and Hannibal will suddendly bite Will’s dick off or smth AKJHSAKJSAHSASKAJ

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will (be nice)

Uhhh Doctor/Clara. Mainly because I don’t like to ship the Doctor with companions (there may be one or two exceptions but I don’t ship them enough to actually say I ship them lol) and I don’t know I just never vibed with it

D - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t (again: be nice)

Doctor/River. I mean, I did like it for a while years ago but now it’s just... eh. I think she has a waaay better chemistry with the 12th Doctor, but still don’t ship it. I might give it a try once I listen to the River audios but so far meh. I’m not much of a multishipper anyway.

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom, if so, what

God. I’ve written a couple of Academy Era (focused on the Deca) crack fanfics and I still have to translate them to English. They’re pure garbage but I love them. I have a lot of fun writing crack fics because they’re easier and I can ignore whatever piece of canon I want just for the laughs

F - What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom

Guess it’s Doctor Who, been here (in and out of the fandom) for over 8/9 years

G - Do you remember your first OTP, if so who was in it

Uhhhh I think it was Han Solo and Leia, since I was a kid really. I wanted to marry both of them lol

H - What is your favorite source text for fandom stuff (e.g., tv shows, movies, books, anime, Western animation, etc.)

I had to google what a source text is and still don’t know

I - Has tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why

I don’t think so, but Twitter definitively has. I remember a couple years ago I was curious to see what voltron was about and watched a few episodes, it was ok, fun and cute but the fandom was so annoying I stopped watching it for good and don’t care about it enough to pick it up again

J - Name a fandom you didn’t care/think about until you saw it all over tumblr

I had definitively forgotten about supernatural until I saw it all over my dashboard in the year of our lord 2020 lmao like in my wholock days I tried to watch the show because everyone on my dash (is it still called dashboard?) was talking about it and I watched about 8 episodes before dropping it. But seeing it again on the dash was actually a happy surprise because the memes are too funny hahaha

K -Say something nice about someone in any of your fandoms

I’m extremely shy irl and on the internet as well but I wanna say that  @janeturenne is one of the best authors ever and her fanfics are a blessing in my life; also @thebraxiatelcollection who brings awesome content to my dash and is also one of the best authors. And of course, you, Jack, also one of the best authors god I’m so BLESSED

L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves (chars you’re neutral on are fair game, as are chars you dislike)

Uhhh I guess I’m neutral about the current companions. They’re not my favorites but I don’t really dislike them - they had a lot of potential and chibs came up with some good storylines but did not develop them well in my opinion. I think Graham is a fun grandpa whom I’m going to miss when he leaves; Ryan is cool and could’ve done a lot more if the writers had kept a few things, it’d be awesome if he vlogged all of their adventures. He’s like the one I was curious to see more but sadly didn’t feel a connection; and Yaz, I hope she’ll keep growing and that her friendship with the Doctor will finally be developed to a level we can connect to her.

It sounds weird because with the fam it’s always ‘what I wish could have been’ because I never felt really connected to them :(

M - Say something genuinely nice about a ship that you don’t ship (or its shippers, or anything related to you)

Ok... I don’t really ship Rey/Finn but I think it’s one of the sweetest ships ever, and if they ended up together I’d be happy. They love each other and are there for each other always so, yeah :D

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice)

I don’t know if I got the question right but it’s three things I wish I saw more in my main fandom? Well, if it’s that, then, 3 things about the Doctor Who fandom: 1) people having more civilized or light-hearted discussions about things. Like, I genuinely disliked an 8th doctor audio I listened once that my friends loved, and they made fun of me and we joked about it. Also once we were in a live twitch video playing among us and discussing doctor who, and then we got into a ship “discourse” as a joke and nobody really cared and just laughed because everyone knew it’s fictional shit so why get mad over it? 2) Doctor Who has a titanic amount of content, it’s all canon but at the same time it’s not, so who cares? If you want to listen to Big Finish audios and if you can afford it, then lisiten; if you can’t, it’s okay, no one has the right to tell you you’re less of a fan. Just tell them to fuck off; 3) The best way to keep fandom alive is by creating content. Here in my local fandom we have several podcasts dedicated to all areas of the whoniverse (the show, the expanded universe, the audios, etc), those old fandom websites who do serious work to bring news to the fans, people who make subtitles for the classic series (we don’t have it available here so they do their best to make it accessible to other fans), accounts dedicated to promoting dr who fans who create content, and we even have people making their own audiodramas with dw characters and writing book-lenght fanfiction to help explain the show to people who’ve never watched it, and a great variety of things. I’ve seen a few of these things in the international fandom, mostly by older fans, so I wish younger fans about my age who have the means to make this kind of stuff would make it too. Maybe there’d be less twitter drama out there lol

O - Choose a song at random, which ship or character does it remind you of

“the killing moon” by echo & the bunnymen reminds me of thoschei. yep it was totally random

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas)

The fact that we don’t have a pride and prejudice AU for brax/romana yet is driving me insane

Q - A ship you’ve abandoned and why

I’ve mentioned it before but doctor/river, don’t really remember why idk I just don’t vibe with it anymore. But also because thoschei has so many different pairings in 1 ship that I don’t really feel the need to ship them with anyone else lol

R - A pairing you ship that you don’t think anyone else ships

GOD I NEED TO TALK ABOUT IT BECAUSE IT’S SO SPECIFIC ok fellow academy era stans gather around if you have read Divided Loyalties there’s a scene where it SHOWS that Magnus had a crush on Ushas. And NO ONE HAS EVER TALKED ABOUT THEM and the power couple they would’ve made. I write them into all my fanfics in hopes of making other people ship them but I’ve had no success so far

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged)

The Master is a big fan of musicals and in the 77 years he spent on earth he watched every single one ever. I’m gonna be bold and say that when he was young, still Koschei, he was an artist, and thought about dropping everything to become an actor on Gallifrey. Time Lords do appreciate art, and have their own plays, but it’s just the same old and boring ones the young people don’t care about. The Master then created a shocking performance that was way ahead of its time and the older Time Lords were so appalled they banned him from writing and presenting plays and that’s his villain origin story

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending, about anything at all (gender identity, sexual or romantic orientation, extended family, sexual preferences like top/bottom/switch, relationship with poetry, seriously anything)

1) The Doctor and the Master married on Gallifrey and the entire show is just them having the most litigious divorce in the universe (still isn’t final because the Master has killed all the judges); 2) Ushas/The Rani is ace; 3) The Deca was a 10 people polyamorous relationship; 4) Romana and Livia were girlfriends at the Academy and they hate each other now because the break up was baad; 5) Romana writes fanfiction; 6) Romana/Leela had a thing in Davidia I KNOW it; 7) Leela pegs Narvin; 8) Brax has a life-size painting of Romana at his collection or a statue or smth; 9) Brax’s dream in Reborn is actually REAL and he’s married to Romana, Leela and Narvin all at the same time

U - 5 favorite characters from 5 different fandoms

I don’t even think I’m in 5 fandoms but

Doctor Who: The Master, The Doctor, Romana, Leela, Sarah Jane, Bill (this was the hardest thing ever)

The X-Files: Mulder, Scully, Monica, and can I add The Lone Gunmen too?

Star Wars: Leia, Obi-Wan, Finn, Poe Dameron and honorable mention to Din Djarin and Grogu

Hannibal: Hannibal, Will, Bev, Alana, Chiyoh

V - 3 OTPs from 3 different fandoms

That’s hard

Doctor Who: thoschei ofc, gallifrey ot4.......... uuhh as you can see i don’t ship many pairings in the show

The X-Files: Mulder and Scully. And whatever Scully and Monica had going on because they definitively flirted

Star Wars: Poe/Finn, Han/Leia, whatever Han/Lando had going on too

W - 5 favorite ships and 5 kinks you like best for said ships

WHATVASHAJSKAJSA ok this is a little embarassing but I don’t have a lot of kinks for many ships... I guess I have some for thoschei like, choking, whipping, blindfolds/gagging, bondage, begging, biting, sem-public, phone sex, dirty talk, body worship, praise kink, etc. Alright alright I know it’s a lot but in my defense they've shown half of these on the show

X - top 5-10 characters who are yoUR PRECIOUS BABIES AND YOU WILL DIE DEFENDING THEM

The Master, Romana, Leela, Brax, Narvin, Bill Potts, Martha Jones, Sarah Jane, Donna Noble, Lucie Miller. No particular order for most of them but the Master is my precious baby and I will die for this mf

Y - What are your secondhand fandoms (fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)

Not many, usually the people I follow are in the same fandoms as I am but I’ve seen some mutuals reblog some Hadestown stuff which is a play that I’ve never seen but definitively would because the protagonists look hot 

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go (prompts optional but encouraged)

I DON’T KNOW WHAT DOES IT MEAN

it took me three hours to do this but it was fun!! thank you bb <3

[leighlikesthing]

Hey that Engame movie came out!

Let’s talk about Endgame.

I have to be honest with you, reader.

I absolutely loved it.

I’ve seen it twice now. And while I am sad that this chapter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is over; this big, dumb, beautiful chapter that kicked things off, I can’t complain about the send-off.

Well, I can complain a little.

The main idea of the Avengers doing a time heist, and going back to their own past is wonderful, and it made for some incredible moments. But I have to tell you that there are certain things that we didn’t get, that I will always want, and certain things we did get that I’m not so sure we needed, and things that I can live without.

But let’s start with the things that are beautiful about this movie:

Professor Hulk: I lost my whole damn mind when I saw Professor Hulk. I’m thinking about him now and I’m crying. It’s such a wonderful story beat, in all of this despair, to have Bruce pull himself together enough to figure his shit out and come to terms with both sides of himself.

Morgan Stark: And the fact that Tony and Pepper got to really be together. They’ve been one of my favorite ships since the first Iron Man movie. Yay!

The end of Tony’s story arc: Am I totally heartbroken that he died? Yes. Did it feel earned? Yes. Go back and watch Iron Man one and then watch Endgame. His character development is so wonderful. And while it hurts that this beloved character gave his life? It feels right.

Steven Grant Rogers: His ass, his sass and his ending: Mr. “I’d make you dinner but you seem depressed enough already.” Mr. “That is America’s ass.” Listen to me. LISTEN TO ME: Steve tried really hard throughout all of these movies to move on and live a life in the future. He did the best he could, because that’s what Steve does. But he’s never been happy. I’d argue that since waking up from the ice, he’s been in a slow slide through a nervous breakdown. His staunchness in the first Avengers movie, trying to be a good soldier was a suit of armor he tried on that didn’t fit. He works for SHIELD, and that feels wrong, and then it turns out it IS wrong. Bucky is back, but evil, and when you couple that with Peggy’s death in Civil War, it manifests as a nervous breakdown where he digs his heels in so hard that he destroys the Avengers and goes on the run. This man has been through so much. And through it all, he’s never been happy, or comfortable or okay. So he winds up in 1970, and stumbles into Peggy’s office, and...and there’s a picture. Of him. The way he used to be. The way he was when they met. 25 years after he crash landed in the ice, and this women that he adored, the first women who ever looked at him and saw his value and worth, still has his photo on her desk. Which means she’s thinking about him every day.

Listen to me: If his photo had not been on her desk, he would not have gone back. He went back because he saw that she missed him. She’d been married and had kids and still, she missed him.

Steve wanted to be happy. Steve, since coming out of the ice, has never been happy.

He has earned his ending.

The things we didn’t get:

Jumping ahead five years after the snap was an inspired idea. The entire theater gasped when those words appeared on screen. But we didn’t see much of what the world had become; in this state of moving on but not moving on. How did governments function? How did the world function? Was the President snapped? I wanted to know more.

Steve climbing the mountain on Vormir, and coming face to face with the Red Skull. Seriously. That was an after-credit scene or something. A Marvel short? A one-shot comic? Somebody write it!

More with some of the side characters. Harley showed up at the funeral, but had no lines. Peggy had muffled lines but no lines at the end. Where was Darcy? Where is current timeline Jane?

Now, I know that this was already an enormous undertaking of a movie. It’s one thing for a comics company to plan, and execute and market a crossover, it’s quite another for a movie universe to do so. So much money. So many schedules. So we were obviously not going to get every tiny little thing we wanted out of this movie.

Onto the things I’m not so sure about:

I applaud the writers’ attempts to tackle depression in Thor’s story. I think their hearts were in the right place, but the execution was a little...I think it needed its own mini-movie or something. In a huge story like Endgame there just wasn’t enough time to unpack Thor’s feelings in a delicate way. But I will say Thor and Bruce’s conversation near the start of the movie was really a beautiful touch. And I don’t really think they were playing Thor’s depression and state of mind for laughs. It’s just so unsettling to see someone fall so far that we, as people, laugh, because we’re uncomfortable.

Nat’s death was...unfortunately. Narratively, I get it. Death in these movies needs to have an emotional impact. For some reason the cliff on Vormir is somehow filled with women in fridges. Which just fucking sucks. It sucks. I think that Gamora’s death in Infinity War was a waste, but part of losing a battle is losing people, and she was an easy (a possibly lazy) target. Natasha’s death felt different for me. The Avengers were her family, and her whole life. She would do anything to reverse what had happened, including giving her life. It makes sense that she would tell Clint to go fuck himself and take the swan dive. Does Clint deserve to live? After he went around and murdered a whole bunch of people of color around the world? Nope. Would we have cared as much had he died? No. Is he known for winning fights with Natasha? Nope. So it’s hard to see another way around that that makes sense.

Fuck’s sake is time travel and alternate timeline work confusing. Damn. Not even the writers and directors can agree on this shit.

There is one thing that I can live without, in the aftermath of Endgame.

And it’s the toxic fan reactions, specifically to Steve’s endings, and in regards to Bucky.

If you’re a shipper, I’m sorry that it’s not canon. It’s a bummer for you. But like...them’s the breaks. Sometimes your ship isn’t canon. I have been in so many fandoms where my ships are not canon.  

But let me say this:

“Til the end of the line” does not mean being joined at the hip forever and ever even if it’s bad for the both of them.

When Bucky said that line to Steve, they were eighteen, and Steve’s mother had just died. When Bucky said that line to Steve, he meant “You are not alone. I am here for you if you need me. Don’t count me out.”

And to try and jog Bucky’s memory in Winter Soldier, Steve repeats that line to Bucky, and he means the same thing. “You are not alone. I am here for you if you need me. Don’t count me out.”

The Russo’s have stated that Steve and Bucky talked before Steve left to return the stones. And you can tell in their goodbye scene. I’ve seen people complain about this not being included in the movie, but if you’re paying attention to body language, facial expression and intonation, you can tell that they talked. That missing scene would be a great fanfic, but the movie doesn’t need it.

Steve and Bucky are not those two punk kids from Brooklyn anymore. They’re both incredibly different people. People who have been functioning without each other since the end of Civil War. Steve’s been on the run. Bucky’s been in Wakanda. Are they still close? Yeah. Are they totally different people who don’t have the same expectations from each other that they once had? Yeah.

Steve’s decision to go and be happy in the past is not an abandonment. It is two grown men acknowledging that they live two separate lives. Bucky is happy in Wakanda. Steve hasn’t been happy since before he nose-dived that Hydra plane.

Bucky is gonna be fine. He has Wakanda, and Sam and an entire world to explore and experience. He’s healing nicely from his time as the Winter Soldier, and maybe the US Government will even pardon him since his actions were the result of being captured as a prisoner of war. Bucky’s gonna do great.

Steve Rogers has been a heartbroken mess since he ran out of that SHIELD base in Times Square and realized he wasn’t in fucking Kansas anymore. Everything he has done has been in response to what is probably an incredibly deep pit of depression, exacerbated by everything he’s been through. There is nothing in the present that will make Steve forget about all that he has lost.

So he went back.

Because he could do it, and because he knew he was missed.

Your mileage may vary in regards to what he did in this new timeline he created.

But watching fandom throw a ragey tantrum over a ship that wasn’t canon to begin with being sunk?

Not my favorite.

But this movie kinda is. I’m gonna go see it again. :)

[dumdeeedum]

And another thing! (Avengers: Endgame’s Steve Rogers Ending)

Most people treat Steve Rogers’ ending in “Avengers: Endgame” as a happy ending because they just look at it at face value as this aesthetically pleasing thing, it’s as simple as the image Steve finally getting his dance with Peggy with no words even spoken between the two before they kiss. Most people who enjoyed this ending don’t examine it at all, which is their prerogative, obviously, but I can’t see it the way they do, I don’t think we should see it the way they do, and that’s my prerogative. I’ve even seen people complaining that it was fine and that people shouldn’t delve too deeply into it even though some of us take characters being developed over the course of almost 10 years seriously because if there wasn’t going to be any payoff for character development then what’s the point of it? It’s natural for people to have expectations of good payoff for the good character development a writer or group of writers inserted into their own story and absolutely silly to suggest that people shouldn’t examine that, it just isn’t something an audience does with storytelling unless they’re watching something without taking it in at all. Is that the hope of writers and creators overall these days? That people don’t examine their work and simply praise them regardless of the choices they make? What’s the point of film as a storytelling medium if that’s the case? For the last 8 or so years I’ve had very few problems, if any, with Steve Roger’s character development. Steve Rogers was actually the best fleshed-out and consistent of the Avengers and this is why there were so many glaring issues for me when it came to this particular choice of ending for him. I’m going to number them in order to make them easier to read: 1) The issue of the movie’s own explanation of time-travel being deeply flawed to the point where some people felt the need to write articles attempting to explain it after the fact and many people still don’t seem to get it. Whether Steve traveling back in time created a new timeline or overrode his own is something that the writers and directors can’t even agree on and as such was never textually explained. We simply don’t know what Steve going back in time did, we don’t know what the implications of that choice were because they just didn’t explain it, and as a result this is a horrendously irresponsible and out of character decision on Steve’s part. Steve would not do this.

2) The issue of Steve going back in time with knowledge of the future and whether this guy whom “has to get involved when things go south”, according to the movie’s very writers, would be able to stay out of major world events and not change things exponentially for billions of people and whether that even matters within the confines of said time-travel rules.

3) The issue of what happened to the Steve of the timeline our Steve goes to whom is either still on ice or dead and, more importantly, what happened to his best friend whom Steve knows was being physically and psychologically tortured over the course of 70 years, these things are also not textually explained. 

4) The issue of whether Steve would even want to go back to a time so much worse than his current time-line in terms of social progress when he simply could have gone back a few years, spoken to a lucid but old Peggy, gotten her consent to be with him without any falsity on Steve’s part (because we don’t even know what he’s told her), faked her death and brought her back. They then could have used the de-aging technology they established exists within this very movie to de-age Peggy so that Peggy can keep being “Agent Carter’s” well-developed Peggy. That is, the Peggy we’ve come to know and love and not this nothing Peggy without even a line of dialogue.

5) The issue of erasing Peggy Carter’s character development, family, and friends altogether, including Angie whom she developed a close and important friendship with, whether you choose to see it as romantic or not. The Peggy of the end of “Avengers: Endgame” is not that Peggy and this new Peggy has been reduced to a prize for Steve, something he “deserves” because, according to too many people, he “deserves to be allowed to be selfish” and to steal her life for himself as a reward for helping to defeat Thanos in an entirely different time/place. No!

6) The issue of erasing the emotional development between Steve and his best friend, Bucky Barnes, and erasing Bucky’s meaning in Steve’s life by making it possible that Steve would choose to live in a world without Bucky, the man whom it’s strongly suggested basically carried Steve and cared for him throughout their childhood and into adulthood because Steve simply wasn’t in the position to solely take care of himself adequately, especially once his mother died. Because of the time period and Steve’s limitations based on his poor health and suggested poverty, and seeing as Bucky was always ready to jump into a fight to protect Steve from being hurt, it’s clear that the able-bodied Bucky helped him without any expectations of Steve because they strongly cared for one another, whether you choose to see them as romantically linked or not. In “The Winter Soldier” Steve even says to Natasha and Sam: “even when I had nothing, I had Bucky,” this on top of numerous other instances throughout the Captain America films where Steve makes it clear that he would fight and die for Bucky, that he chose Bucky and would not see Bucky hurt any further because Bucky means that much to him. But we’re meant to believe that Steve would not only leave Bucky but leave Bucky in an ambiguous and potentially precarious mental state after decades of physical and psychological torture? That Steve would leave Bucky as another “man out of time” but in a much worse state than Steve was and alone? At this point he barely even knows Sam! No! Was this a tacked-on ending for the sake of the new Falcon and Winter Soldier tv series? I’d really love to know!

7) The issue of Steve severing ties with his new friends after almost a decade of friendship and camaraderie for a woman he knew a couple of years over a decade or more ago as of Steve waking up from the ice, through the Avengers timeline + the snap. Even after it was suggested numerous times that Steve was trying to move on from Peggy as Peggy herself suggested he do and make a life in the future for himself before she died, he suddenly drops the people whom have been important to him and whom fought by his side? And we know this was done, in part, because they couldn’t make Steve and Sharon work and because Chris Evans was leaving but it doesn’t make any sense! This choice is especially egregious when it comes to Steve abandoning his friend Sam Wilson, a man whom befriended and followed him, even helped him find Bucky. Sam, it’s strongly suggested (along with Natasha), is the one whom carries Steve and acts as a proverbial conduit to the modern world by introducing him to things to make him feel less overwhelmed and more comfortable and by making him feel cared for in his capacity as counselor for veterans and simply being there for him, again, whether you see their relationship as romantic or not. Steve coming back as an old man to make Sam the new Captain America doesn’t negate that Sam’s friend left Sam without even telling him, that’s fucked! 8) The issue of whether Steve was even in the right head-space to make a decision as enormous as simply staying in the past given that no one knows the implications of it, including the movie’s writers. What Thanos put the world through, the enormity of it, the psychological implications of the snap over the course of the 5 years before they got everyone back, the anxiety of getting the infinity stones and time jumping and the stakes involved, the horror of the battle against Thanos and losing important people during it, the fear of potentially seeing the people they just got back be erased again or worse, none of this had any impact on Steve’s psychological state in its aftermath? We just let this guy time jump on his own and then he just decides to stay in the past? Did he even think it through? I’ll be generous and say it was implied that Steve, at the very least, told Bucky he was staying, but should he have made a decision like that that soon after the whole infinity war like this? He spent time dealing with traumatized people as a counselor after the snap and saw Natasha fall apart before his eyes before she basically committed suicide, saw Tony sacrifice himself, and even after all that he doesn’t recognize that he perhaps needs some help, some time before he makes important decisions? None of these things were Steve for me, none. It’s as though Steve’s entire character arc was erased in the span of a few minutes at the end of “Avengers: Endgame,” snapped away as though the writers/directors had their own infinity gauntlet, and as someone who cares about that character it upsets me and I think I have every right to be upset. I simply don’t understand why the same people responsible for giving us such a great character would rip him away from us so cruelly like this, and for what? I can’t even think of why they’d do it because there really seems to be no good reason for it. Was it as simple as the studio stepping in and saying that whatever they did they had to leave Bucky out of it for the sake of the Falcon and Winter Soldier show? Was it an afterthought? I really don’t understand because even having taken Bucky with him wouldn’t solve most of the problems with that ending!

I really disliked the Steve Rogers at the end of “Avengers: Endgame” and that makes me sad and even this long after seeing the movie I’m just not over it. It’s hard going back and watching the previous “Captain America” movies with this ending for Steve Rogers being canon in mind. Sigh.

[tinkdw]

Hi Tink! I’m loving your meta at the moment so wonderful!!! I was just wondering if you had any personal favourite scenes in supernatural?

OOOOH Thanks for this prompt :D

Well I’m a pretty massive Dean girl (wide a big ol’ side of Cas, originally as an extension of Dean’s story but then in his own right as he developed into his own character) so in chronological order the big 10 for me are:

(yeah ok I cheated by putting a couple of scenes that are linked together sue me :p) . . .

These are my favourite scenes because I love the overall story, the way it’s built, the way it’s cleverly going places. And what do they tell us? Look at the first and last gifs and tell me what the story is - Dean’s journey to finding his own happiness.

Dean’s facade of macho unfeeling doesn’t do chick flicks dude bro is exactly that, we easily see through it in the pilot. He’s deep down desperate for love, family, to not have so much responsibility, to be able to do what he wants for a change, for someone to love him, stay with him and be by his side. He has no faith in any bigger picture or even really in himself, especially not himself as important. He has taken on the burden of being Sam’s parent, his mother and his father and he has given up so much of himself and his own dreams for this. 

He is the ultimate self sacrificing hero. Sure there’s bravado and humour and he’s not always boringly good, he makes shitty choices sometimes, can be very selfish and irritating but deep down all this is the reason why he’s so compelling and you are drawn to love him and want to stroke his hair and tell him everything is going to be ok. It’s fantastically juxtaposed. I can’t get over how well it’s done tbh… the early John Shiban stuff is GOLD and we shouldn’t forget that the early writers set us up for all the current great tie-ing up of the themes exposed at the start.

His story is about letting Sam go as his child and letting this flourish into a happy brotherly bond, accepting himself and seeing himself as worthy, of anything, of everything, finding a positive faith in himself and others and learning that he is important, but not just to the world on a cataclysmic level (which I’m sure will not be the case by the end, his responsibility for this should be revoked), but far more importantly, he is important to himself and his (mostly found) family who cherish him and don’t just put responsibility on him but care about him for who he is, not what he can do for them.

This is also how I don’t believe it’s possible to watch the show and be a Dean fan who truly understands him without (even platonically if you’re blind to romantic tropes but fine) seeing Cas as central to Dean’s character development and endgame happiness. He’s the catalyst. He embodies pretty much all the things Dean is down on himself about in seasons 1-3. He’s even linked to his issues with his mom and dad as well as his faith, sexuality, trust, abandonment issues etc. It’s. Right. There… 

All. Of. It. 

In. ONE. Character.

Even just in 10 gifs (of which some are about Sam and not Cas) it’s blatant. 

Cas as a character is basically just a plot device for Dean’s arc, Dean is the protagonist, the character we cared about after 3 YEARS, then for various reasons, mainly the longevity of the show, Cas ended up with his own place in the story and developed into so much more and I’m so here for that, leading to a happy endgame for the dude we fell in love with in the pilot who deserves it, but Cas was written into the show as a plot device for Dean’s character growth and plot and he has remained so in relation to Dean ever since.

Romantic love was set up since season 1 as important to Dean. We then had exposition on top of exposition of the kind of person he would fall for and they all were nearly but not quite there and they all, when you add up all the pros, the things Dean loved and were good for him, make up one character who is written as the perfect amalgamation of them all: Castiel.

I love a happy ending and I want one for Dean and I see this being written. This is why I care so much. It’s the current narrative and it’s building every week. Dean and Cas romantically together is Dean’s reward for getting through all this darkness to light storyline. It’s the inevitable happy ending for the self sacrificing hero who thinks he doesn’t deserve to be saved (who is saved by Cas) and who doesn’t think he deserves to be loved (who is loved by Cas), who doesn’t think he deserves to be put first (who, when the sun is failing causing the whole planet to die and then is restored, Cas’ only question is “and Dean?”) etc etc etc. I could go on and on with how Cas is written to respond to nearly all of Dean’s issues in a positive manner to help him overcome them. HOW IS THIS NEWS TO ANYONE? 

Cas is literally the point by point perfect response to Dean’s exposed issues throughout the story and literally his first 2 sentences show that he’s going to address them! Like - watch out, here I come! Time for some character growth my friends! That’s what made me sit up in 4x01 like wow they’re finally doing this for Dean! Little did I know at the time it would end up being romantic and not just an Angelic intervention.

Dean’s reward for all he’s done for others is to finally have someone who loves him and unequivocally cares for him, someone who won’t leave him. TFW (with Dean at the core lbr) are the focus and the Dean/Sam parent/child relationship has climaxed in 12x22 (sure it’s not completely over but it’s clear and it’s textual so there’s not much to get excited about in terms of speculation which is what I love, thinking about where the story is going, as it’s already canonically textualised) leading to a healthier relationship now and I’m so glad of that. 

Meanwhile we are just waiting for the climax of the textualisation of Dean’s own self acceptance arc and the romantic part of Dean’s endgame and, well, they didn’t just write Cas as a great bro and Angelic intervention who is his partner in arms and give Dean a separate love interest, they consistently amalgamated the two so Cas IS the love interest. I didn’t do that. The SHOW did. I don’t care who Dean ends up with in season 3 or even up to season 6 tbh, but the show made it clear they want to be together.

Generally I just want my fave to be happy, he deserves it after all the terrible things he’s gone through since the pilot and everything he’s sacrificed for others. 

Bonus scene: *positive endgame to strive for exposition* right after Cas’ return

So there ya go, that’s my top 10 scenes as a meta, endgame plot driven Dean girl who sat up and went “Who the Hell is THAT?! This character just summed up Dean’s endgame in 2 sentences!” in 4x01 and hasn’t looked back since and that’s why I ship it. We’re supposed to.

I enjoy thinking about the story of the boy who grew up scared and lonely, started out in the literal and metaphorical darkness, thinking about the terrible place Dean came from and how the story that we’ve been watching for 13 years is all about him moving himself from this into the light towards the endgame happiness he deserves.

That’s my happy place :)

[awed-frog]

Hey! So obviously everyone loved the episode last night - there was just so much destiel feels in there it's enough to fill up an entire football stadium. BUT I keep thinking that the writers might be trying to set Cas and Kelly up, because you know, it's supernatural, and I just feel like the possibility of destiel going canon is too good to be true. I mean, Kelly is great, but it would be the worst romance ever - weird and force and kinda cringey. Maybe I'm paranoid, idk. What do you think?

(via @anon) Idk if i like where this story is going… i dont want to see cas kelly baby stories and him raising the child :/ i want cas with the brothers :(

Hi - I’m squishing these two asks together, hope you guys see it. :)

The Nephilim: what’s next?

Look, the thing is - maybe the Nephilim will die in the finale, or maybe he’ll be the Big Thing in S13 - we still don’t know. What we do know, on the other hand, is that it would be very hard to work him into the story in a way that’ll keep Cas away from Sam and Dean. Like, you know - from a narrative point of view, what do you do with this thing?

Option 1 It’s born and it grows at a normal human rate. If this happens, the Nephilim will have no place whatsoever in the show, because babies are both hard to work with and boring boring boring, and as much as we, the demented viewers, want to see Dean and Cas making nonsense noises and cooing at this second Antichrist, it’s not going to happen. If this is where they’re going, we’ll have a Jesse situation: the Nephilim will be carted off to live with some other hunter (not Cas, because Cas is one of the main characters and is needed elsewhere), and we’ll never hear from him again. 

Option 2 It’s born and grows Amara-style, turning from adorable creepy baby who moves stuff with his mind to overly attractive teenager who winks at Dean and makes him uncomfortable. I hope they’ll avoid this narrative, because we’ve seen the exact same thing last year, but if they do something like that -

Option 2a If the Nephilim is a bad guy, he’ll probably become S13′s Big Baddie, and Cas will have no reason to stick with him, so we’ll have the usual ‘only you can break me free from this mind control spell but nobody knows why’ trope and TFW will spend the rest of the season staring gloomily into space and wondering how to kill a semi-god, again.

Option 2b If the Nephilim is a good guy, he’s gone. There is simply no way they can keep around an allpowerful and benign deity without having massive problems. This is why they keep hurting Cas, remember?, because if Cas had his wings and his courage and his cold logic and his angelic self-confidence, Sam and Dean could spend their days playing beer pong in the Bunker. Cas would simply teleport himself wherever a monster has been spotted, look around with his x-ray vision, and then lift a finger and make a whole abandoned neighbourhood explode. And that’s it. So, well - like they did with Jesse, and even with Amara and Chuck - if this new kid is a Good Person, he’ll probably wander off on his own.

Option 2c If the Nephilim is a Gabriel-like morally grey trickster, it’s likely the Winchesters will still vote to hunt him down and kill him. They did it to Gabriel, after all, and if he hadn’t died (*wails forever*) in the war against Lucifer, I’m sure Sam, at the very least, would have gone after him. Tricksters work fine, or more than fine, as characters, but you don’t want one living in the same reality as you. Look at the messes Loki manages to whip up every couple of weeks - nope, if something is too powerful and you can’t understand how they think and feel, unfortunately the best option is to take them out. Better to be safe than sorry.

It’s still possible, at this point, that something happens and the Nephilim dies, likely with Kelly. This would make sense for a number of reasons, including that everyone except Cas, Lucifer and Kelly really wants this thing gone. The Host is gunning for him, Crowley would surely prefer he died, the BMoL (if they knew about him) would probably launch a nuclear grenade wherever Kelly is and to hell with ‘collateral damage’, and even Sam and Dean - they want to be normal and kind, but they might have no other choice, and if it comes to that, they know they must at least try to kill this child, because, yeah, NOT A CHILD, PEOPLE, and look at what happened with Amara. So maybe it’s not the Nephilim’s life that’s the big plot of next season, but his death and how it happens. We know we’re headed for some massive family conflict, and, in this sense, what’s going on with Cas is part of that. It’s those old what’s right and wrong, who’s your family, who do you trust questions Supernatural likes to throw at us, but, as we’ve seen in the past, whatever happens the endgame is what Dean just told us to our faces - him, Sam, and Cas working together, Team Free Will, because they’re better together and they’re family and that’s not gonna change, demonic baby or no demonic baby. So don’t worry too much - Cas won’t stay away for long.

Cas and Kelly: a romance in the works?

As for the romance part - I really don’t think that’s going to be a thing. I’m actually very surprised by the fact Supernatural’s gone out of its way, both in S11 and in S12, to show us that what you’d consider as ‘normal’ and ‘appropriate’ love stories aren’t a good idea at all. While we’ve seen some (brief but) wholesome examples of queer relationships, there’s usually something wrong with straight ones - from Kelly sleeping with Lucifer to those rabid people breeding in the street in The Chitters to that guy killing Sam to save his wife in Red Meat all the way down to the most glaring example - Amara’s unhealthy obsession with Dean - it seems the show is doing a lot to question the ‘normal’ way of doing things (getting married, having babies, ???, profit). 

This is not surprising, since Supernatural, despite the monsters and the occasional blurring of focus, can be really ferocious in its social critique, and the breaking down of traditional marriage, just as the current erosion of women’s rights, are just as apparent as Supernatural’s traditional motive: the deindustrialization, and death by unemployment and desperation, of rural America. Like, I know we’ve all noticed that rich people normally equal jackasses, and we all joke about the ‘abandoned factory of the week’, but watching this show from Europe, where our traditional media vision of the US is glittering cities and top models and trust fund kids sipping cocktails by the pool, is really shocking. Those rapidly depopulating towns they stop into, the motels in the middle of nowhere, and even - can’t believe they went there - some meat processing plant kept alive by human sacrifices - that’s powerful stuff, and part of the reason, I think, this show is so appealing to Republicans. And, as I said, Supernatural’s been showing the breaking down of traditional families as well - only this season, we’ve spent some time with Jody and her unusual household of stray and rejected kids, and seen Mary walk away instead of assuming her ‘appropriate’ role of stay-at-home mom for Sam and Dean. 

Cas and Kelly, I think - that’s the same pattern. Apparently, Kelly now regrets her relationship with President Whatshisface (“embarrassingly unprofessional,” she terms it) which is, again, a reversal of the traditional ‘the commoner married the prince and they lived happily ever after’ trope, because Kelly seemed happy and in love and it looked like the perfect thing, right? And we now know it wasn’t. So, again, this thing with Cas - on the surface, it could be a perfect ‘a child needs a mom and a dad’ kind of situation, but Supernatural’s message, which has gotten almost deafening over the last two seasons, is that free will and love trump all - that you shouldn’t do something just because that’s what we’ve always done - that you should queston things, find your own way, be true to who you are. So, well - Kelly is not a 1950s Stepford mom (she used to work in the White House, remember? which means she’s incredibly career-driven and most likely a shark) and Cas is no longer a mindless servant of some divine entity. It’s perhaps easier, for both of them, to go with that for a moment, because this is what they’re supposed to be - women are supposed to take care of children and be mothers even if it kills them, and angels are supposed to be fully dedicated to the mission and follow orders no matter the price - but the truth is, we have free will. We can decide who we want to be, and this is why Cas and Kelly teaming up rings so wrong and will never be framed in a positive light. So, again - whether Destiel becomes canon or not, Cas’ place is with the Winchesters, and this is just one more obstacle to overcome. That it takes the shape of that traditional family Cas was encouraged to form as a human and Dean can never give him (the pretty wife and the chubby baby), well, that was unnecessary and yet another fuck you to legally enforced normativity.

[furederiko]

The penultimate episode of Zyuohger is here! And obviously, it's also "The Last Game"...

- "The Zyuohgers defeated the Immortal Azald, an ancient enemy of the Zyuman race.", that's how the intro narration begins. While it sounds awesome, it also undermines the threat of the finale greatly. If the team can deal with a powerful ancient enemy that easily, one who almost obliterated Earth in the past and forced the Zyumans to build their own civilization, then surely Genis should NOT a problem, right? That's the logic pretty much anyone can draw from it. But let's laug... I mean worry about that later, because the team is talking about something else. - Yes, Yamato and his daddy issue. It seems Amu has decided to share about what happened to the others. Not surprisingly, this time the scene also confirms who I claimed to be the second best character yesterday. MISAO! After Amu, Misao and his desperation to please others is clearly the most empathic member who can notice small details from his newfound friends. To read and figure out what's going on inside their head. In this case, what's behind Yamato's facade. - Sadly... interruption! Of course there would be one. And this time it's Genis announcing his Final Game: shooting the arrow part of his Sagittariark (NOW we all get it why it is shaped like a bow and arrow!) to infuse his cells on Earth. That does sound... ominous. But what exactly, is the side effects to all this? Earth turning into Dethgaliens? Nope, explosions everywhere. So... okay, I guess? Though I'm not sure if it's... effective. You'll see why. - Oh hey, the Zyuohger vs Ninninger Versus movie scenes have been dropped from the opening. It has reverted to the 2nd version (with Misao's inclusion). That makes sense, since we only have two more times to see it. Enjoy it while it lasts then... ahahaha. - Who would've thought that Genis has an army of G.I.F.T.? I thought that thing was supposed to be his secret weapon! Oh well, as that lousy 4th Transformers movie has proven, mass-produced ones usually aren't as strong as the original. And don't forget, the original was easily defeated by Wild Zyuoh King (episode 11), while the stronger custom made G.I.F.T. 2.0 was thwarted like bugs by DodekaiOh (episode 31). So once again, shouldn't be much of a problem. - Wow... I thought for sure that Bard would bite the dust during the finale. Like sacrificing himself and all. I mean, that's the deathflag he's been waving around (since episode 45), right? Turns out it's merely a cop-out. Instead, Larry makes a very conscious action to actually prevent that from happening. He prefers them to use their heads and think of another way to protect Earth. NICE!!! As in, not as predictable as it might seem. Bard totally dodged a bullet right there! Then again, no need to kill him off when it's doubtful that audience nor the other characters are deeply emotionally invested in him. On the down side, looks like we're never going to see that 7-members roll call again though. A one-time-only (episode 45), one-hit-wonder! LOL. - While Larry and Bard are doing something with the Link Cube, and the other Zyuohgers are desperately fighting G.I.F.T.s, Yamato is... finally having a private personal talk with his father. Yes, finally! After 15 years of being at odds with each other. Turns out, it's a classic case of parent-child problem. Parents are too busy that they don't have time to care and listen for kids, while the children are feeling abandoned and too heartbroken to be able to tell them how they feel about it. Classic lack of understanding, miscommunication, and false assumptions in both parts. The good old "I just wanted to be loved" scenario. Unsurprisingly, it's a very common issue in a workaholic country like Japan (and Dr. Kazakiri's occupation doesn't help). It might seem like a SMALL problem, but of course it's NOT. Because more often than not, it's usually all these little things that snowballs into something major. - Hmmm... after giving it some thoughts, this sidestory DOES send a good message to our audience. Problem is, to who? Will the child-aged audience understand the morale? Perhaps in a 'respect your parents' way, and that "You're never alone" bit. But if you ask me, I think this works A LOT better as reminder for parents. The question is, are they watching this show together with their kids? It IS a Sunday show, so that's a possibility. Here's hoping that's the case. Nevertheless, I still have issues with it, and particularly concerning the 'timing'. This feels like a plot that should've been cleared out several episodes ago, not during the three final episodes. Seeing Yamato off doing his own separate and unrelated story, while the others are united to deal with the endgame, is frankly quite annoying. Somehow it feels like lately, Misao has taken over Yamato's position as the core of the team (though that's not necessarily a bad thing, since he's better written. Beside, their combo attacks look amazing!). - Anyways, the father and son bond is... somewhat fixed. A little too easy and too quick, I'd argue, but the point is, that's one lingering plot solved. The main root of the problem here, is that both are too stubborn to just tell how they feel nor apologize to one another. Even waited 15 god-darn years to properly talk with one another. Ghost-Mom says it best, "You two are so alike". That's a good morale too... that sometimes you desperately need an outspoken Zyuman to knock some sense into your stubborn head! LOL. All's well ends well for them, so... yaaay for Yamato. - Wait a sec. I see what the writers are doing here. Larry's plan apparently correlates to Yamato's story. His very risky idea to use the Link Cube to protect Earth, with the cost of severing ties to the Zyuland completely, rhymes well with the whole 'connection' theme. Should you selfishly return home, while cutting off your ties with Earth in order to save it? Or stay behind and remains connected, and defend this world by thinking of another way? Considering 'connection' IS the theme of the show, the Zyumans' reactions are more than obvious. When simpleton Leo even hesitates on his answer, that basically gives it away. I mean, of course they would REFUSE to do Larry's plan! Not when their noble mission to unite the two worlds has NOT even started. As Tusk boldly sums it up, "From now on, we intend on creating a new status quo for relations between humans and Zyumans". Something the show should've focused through its 2nd half, IMHO. - There's one interesting bit I have to point out here too. Yamato says something intriguing, in response to Tusk's words. No, not the "We'll create a world where they can come and go.". Nor the "There's bound to be disagreements... and even injustice! But... as long as we're connected, we can always start over! That's why... I don't want our worlds to be further apart." bit that feels a little too coincidental with the immigration issue that's currently happening in the US. It's the part where he says "For the sake of our world and others'...". OTHERS? Considering the follow-up season will bring a team of heroes from 9 different planets/worlds, is this speech a conscious referral to them? Hmmm... that would be a great twist! - In the end, Larry's grand idea remains the way it is. A passing few-minutes conversation soon to be forgotten. Turns out, there's a MUCH easier solution to the problem. Something that the Zyuohgers even figure out on the fly (so, nothing more than on whim!). Yep, by pulling the wired-arrow down, so that the Sagittariark will instead crash on Earth to its doom. Ignoring the fact that the ship's impact might go all "Avengers: Age of Ultron" on Earth, bringing countless of innocent casualties along the way (do they even know how BIG that ship is? nope!), our heroes decide to go ahead with this act. And obviously, they succeed. I meant, what do you expect? - And... See? Despite his threatening effort, Genis just doesn't work as the big bad. He himself basically allows his own ship to become vulnerable. Told you that was not an effective move, right? This pales in comparison to the Zangyack in the finale of "Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger", with a threat that felt real and dire. And to think that they were NOT a great antagonist too! What should've been a devastating and apocalyptic Final Game is thwarted just like that. Plus, with both Naria and the entire Sagittariark as the price. How DUMB is that, right? - Speaking of Naria, that minor plot of her with Leo (episode 42) turns out to be just another unnecessary ruse. A non-clever one too. Which is another good case of a great potential being thrown away to thin air. Not to mention, the quick-thinking Dethgalien suffers through the worst curtain call in the show's history. Being blasted to death while only trying to prevent the Sagittariark from being dragged down? Ouch!!! At least sends her off with a memorable bang, but nooope. The Zyuohgers practically ignore her on land by directly launching Wild Tousai Dodekai King to deal with the arrow, and worse, Genis doesn't even show compassion or at least remarks for his loyal secretary's demise. Her death's practically his own fault! VERY disappointing. She and Azald are clearly victims of the writers' clean-house attempt, so my condolences for them. - Since we still has one episode left, of course Genis survives the crash. Anyone want to bet that the final battle with him next week, will only take half of the running time? I hope so. I believe the show's in dire need of a proper epilogue to at least end it in a good note...

Overall: This COULD have been a better penultimate episode. Had someone else and NOT Genis be the final boss. Not only his supposed-to-be-apocalyptic 'Final Game' felt... underwhelming, it failed miserably and backfired in a massive way too. If that doesn't count as stupid, I don't know what does. It all came down to the weak writing, of course, as Genis' threat was almost always mentioned and rarely shown. We've seen what Bunglay, Kubar, Naria, and even Azald could pull off, but not Genis. When his Team Leaders posed bigger tensions both psychologically and physically, that's a fatal error, right? The only memorable bit I could think of him, is how he's always been this sweet-talker super-optimistic big boss... who rarely did anything significant aside from sitting comfortably on his throne. And up to this episode, it stayed that way. The build up for him to be the most threatening Dethgalien just never hit the ground running, thus this 'Last Game' emitted a stake that was more than just minimum, it felt... EASY. I still haven't recovered from the 'odd timing' criticism I've mentioned above, so to be honest, I'm no longer expecting much for the finale. I can only hope that it'll offer a hopeful and sweet epilogue to the story's main theme. That's all. Next week: FINALE!!! And it's a private game session with Genis...

Episode 47 Score: 7,2 out of 10

All images are screencaptured from the series, provided by the FanSubber Over-Time. "Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger" is produced by TOEI, and airs every Sunday on TV-Asahi. Credits and copyrights belong to their respective owners.