#when will i stop rewatching this show and torturing myself

[exoticlittlebird]

:( what if the reason ángel enters that semi-catatonic state during the calling is because in a past loop ramiro succumbed to the calling and jumped overboard and ángel couldn’t save him and had to watch him die, and even though he doesn’t remember it his body remembers the trauma as soon as the ticking noise starts :( :(

[velvet-vox]

Notes of my final Murder Drones rewatch before ep 8

(These thoughts are uncollected and unrevised, proceed with lowered expectations)

Originally, I was about to make a three-part long post before episode eight comes out.

In the first part I would have analysed Cyn's character and showcased her possible depth and ties to N's character arc.

Then in the second part I compared the Doll, Cyn and J trio to Uzi, N and V, showing the parallels between each member of their respective squad, which would then lead to the final part.

Part 3 is my defacto theory on how certain elements of episode 8 would have played out, with J as a main focus in it, due to her being the V parallel, but then, as the day passed, I realised something:

I'm an analyst, not a theorist, and while it could be fun to make a theory on episode 8 to see how right and wrong I was in retrospect, it's not an activity that I'm particularly fond of, plus, while my opinions on Cyn have changed with time (I'm going to get there), the reason why I kind of like her now completely hinges upon head canons that hopefully are going to be confirmed, because otherwise, my opinion on the character could get even worse than what it once was.

One of the main reasons as to why I wanted to realise this project was to see if I could get invested into Cyn in the same way I got more invested into Rebecca with the analysis I've made on her, but why bother doing that when I'm sure episode 8 is (hopefully) going to fill me in on her character?

I'm not finding the time nor willpower that I wished that I had to complete any projects lately, and due to my constant need for perfectionism (need that it's being deliberately ignored in the writing of this post), I just keep shooting myself in the feet.

Anyway, let's just skip the intro and directly segway to the important stuff:

Uzi:

Uzi is a complicated character for me. She was my favourite character in the Pilot and dropped down massively after that, and I never understood why: I came up with a bunch of explanations for myself, such as "her development isn't engaging" and "she doesn't get challenged in interesting ways that isn't just plain torture" and "she's the most enigmatic character in the show, her actions don't make any sense to me", and I was particularly sure of that last one, not in the sense that Uzi was evil all along, but in the sense that Uzi was being written as a twist villain in the same way Goultard from Wakfu had been coded as such before the third season of that series revealed us why;

But this last rewatch finally made me understand what my problem with her was.

Aside from the rushed development, which is something the entire series struggles with, I've realised that there's an extremely subtle layer of complexity to pilot Uzi that her show's self lacks: see, despite Uzi acting like a gremlin at various points in the pilot, one thing that really surprised me about how Uzi was initially characterised is that, aside from her moments of emotional impulsivity, Uzi... is actually relatively chill?

The best way I could describe it is that serie's Uzi to me is a child to take care of; I would act nice, kind, patient to ep 1 through 7 Uzi just to get on her good side so that she wouldn't bother me as much as she bothers her peers, hopefully helping her grow up as an individual and stop acting so horribly, and help her find someone else who appreciates her for who she is, so that I wouldn't have to deal with her any longer, while pilot Uzi is someone I would genuinely like to spend time with as she's secretly a pretty chill gal, even if I would still be afraid of her, just like the rest of her classmates.

The pilot makes it extremely clear that Uzi's angsty teen persona is just that: a facade. It's not the real her. This added a layer of intrigue to Uzi in the pilot, where it felt like there was so much more to her than what we were shown at first;

But nope. The rest of the show comes out and Uzi is just that: a wild, emotionally unstable teenage gremlin-girl, who isn't even at the centre of the story despite all of the screen time that she has.

I always thought that Liam didn't want me to sympathise with Uzi, as I thought his modus operandi was "Make the character interesting, don't make them sympathetic" but as the show went along and it fell down even further into a classical good versus evil plotline (something that requires is own post), it kind of became harder to shrug off how genuinely unlikable she is to me. I like N a lot, and I kinda like V whenever her fans are nowhere to be seen, but I don't really sympathise with either of them, I just find them to be engaging.

I like the Murder Drones cast because they are interesting characters, not because they are good people. Yet, from the way Uzi is written, it feels like I'm supposed to consider her the hero, when in reality, she feels more like an unwilling plumber forced to take out the clog (Absolute Solver) unwillingly.

(Also Doll is a much better foil to Pilot Uzi than she is to canon show Uzi, but that's a discussion for another time)

But that's enough of that. Let's talk about the episodes:

Episode 1 through 3:

I plan to do an in-depth ranking of all 8 episodes of Murder Drones once the ending comes out, so consider these my rapid fire opinions on each and every single one of them.

The pilot is the best aged episode of Murder Drones to me even if a lot of its elements have been decanonised, and it could as well end up becoming my favourite episode of the show when it's all said and done.

Episode 2 is as weak as ever, but one thing that always bothered me about this episode is the ending where Uzi just decides to go back into the colony with Khan.

Now, it's no secret that Murder Drone's everything is extremely rushed, but for most of its runtime, this episode gave me the impression that Murder Drones was going to be a slow burn, long running mystery series, only for the ending to come along and leave me dumbfounded by what the pacing of the show was going to turn into.

Heartbeat is also the only episode where my opinion hasn't changed since first watching it. I thought it was mid at first, and I still consider it to be so.

My thoughts on it are a little bit more complicated than that, but I'm reserving them for the future.

You can slice it however you want, but episode 3 has aged HORRIBLY, it's not even in my top 5 best episodes anymore, and yes, it's exactly because of the focus character of this episode turning out the way she did in episode 7.

Say whatever you want, but to me, the third episode is not an Uzi episode, it's not an N episode, it's barely a V and Lizzy episode and partially a Nuzi episode, and it's certainly not a Khan episode.

For the most part, The Promening is a Doll episode; she's the character the episode is wasting most of its runtime on, introducing her, her parents, making her a mysterious threat; in comparison, the Nuzi and V stuff is mostly secondary, and could have definitely been developed further if the episode didn't have someone else as it's main focus.

Doll:

I never wanted Doll to survive the season; I never wanted her to live, I never wanted her to die, I never wanted her to be redeemed, nor did I want her to stay evil till the end; all I ever wanted, was for Doll to be well-written, and as it stands, I don't think Doll does enough or is explored sufficiently as a character to justify her relevance or existence, especially since a lot of other characters could benefit from some extra screen time, and while a lot of people might think that just bringing her back to life would fix some of her problems, I don't think they really understand all of the underlying issues that come with such a choice:

If Doll were ever to come back, she for sure would get a redemption arc, because what else is there to do? She lost all of her screen presence, she's no longer even remotely threatening, her story is so divorced from our current one to be straight up disposable, a lot of people see her as just a joke after the seventh episode, and in general, she's no longer a credible villain to see on screen.

And yet, I don't think a redemption arc would work for Doll at this point. Her character wasn't built up enough aside from being mysterious for the sake of it, I don't think a redemption arc would work, because it would require too much time for it to work, and time is the one thing Murder Drones always lacked, what makes you think a second season, let alone one episode would even fix?

I'm pretty pessimistic about episode 8, unless it's all one giant ruse and there is, in fact, a second season. The math just doesn't add up, episode 8 can't possibly be a satisfying conclusion or an unsatisfying conclusion done right, I fear it will be one giant clusterf##k.

Cabin Fever, Intermission, and Home:

Episode 4 is about as good as I remember it to be, and aside from noticing a couple of new details useful for my analyses, I don't have much to say about it.

I got the chance to watch @ghoulinfuschia 's Murder Drones Intermission together with the other episodes this time around, so now I finally have the chance to praise it a little bit.

Murder Drones Intermission is a fan made episode of Murder Drones set between episode four and five, made entirely by a crew of fans.

It's an amazing product for what it's worth and by how it was made, and while it's not perfect and I consider it far from possibly being canon, it does fill in nicely into the show's timeline, and improves a lot on some of the weakest story beats of the series. It was definitely a nice break from me while rewatching all of the episodes, and I recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone who wants to check it out.

It's pretty ironic how episode 7 retroactively managed to worsen episode 3 and improve episode 5, but that's genuinely how I feel about Home now:

I'm about to be real with you, Tessa being dead all along was the only tid bit of major character's death that wasn't wasted, as now that I know why Tessa's wasn't the episode's protagonist, I'm much more accepting of the way in which episode 5 played out; it's clear that Liam never wanted us to get attached to Tessa beyond any simple "she's a nice, abused, teenage girl that treats N nicely" type of feeling, also the tradeoff for her death and humanity apparent extinction was well worth it in my opinion, which is something I can't say for V or... her.

But now it's finally time to talk about the actual main character of this episode:

Cyn:

I'm about to say something that I've never thought I would end up saying for real:

Did you know, that Cyn, is an actually interesting character in her own right?

I never did.

Quite frankly, I kind of heavily hated Cyn up until some time ago.

To me, at the start, Cyn was just a cool visual threat that would have hopefully been fleshed out in the future, but then, not only is she still remaining just a one note villain at this point of the show's runtime (aka the "finale"), but she also ended up killing a far more nuanced and slightly more fleshed out antagonist, while also not really doing anything to fulfill the compelling character void left by the aforementioned character.

Hot take: the fandom's portrayal of Cyn as this unbelievably silly creature of pure autism ruined her character, as well as the general discourse surrounding her.

To me, mass murderers should only be blorbified once their first major focus arc in a story has been concluded. It's why I'm fine with the blorbification of characters such as Qilby and William Afton, and I'm not with Cyn.

The thing about blorbifying is that, you are actively distorting canon for your weird fantasies, which is something that I'm fine with, but only once said characters have received their narrative catharsis.

I don't really view Cyn as a serious or heinous threat at this point in time, and that's all due to how much the fanbase ended up babyfying her to no end, giving her the Jax treatment with the main difference being that Jax has had is funny blorbo illusion already shattered, while Cyn still has it at this point in the show's runtime where she should be at her most evil and intimidating yet.

But that's enough of that; as I've already stated, now that we know that adult Tessa was Cyn all along... Cyn has just become such an interesting character to me, not for the mystery and creepiness surrounding her, but for the ways in which she could end up paralleling N.

... If that's actually what's going to happen.

It all hinges upon Cyn actually being worth the hype and the rushed developments, because otherwise, she could go from being my third favourite character to my absolute least favourite.

Episode 6 and 7:

I appreciate the Jurassic Park section of this episode for being a break from everything going on and for setting up the plot twist in the following episode.

Although her section bores me a little bit, I'm just gonna come out and say it: Alice is in my opinion the best humanoid antagonist in the entirety of Murder Drones, and unless that changes in episode 8 (which I doubt, sorry Cyn but I don't have a lot of faith in you), I'll make an entire post dedicated to her detailing why that's the case.

As for who or what I think is the overall best antagonist of the show...

It's the Sentinels, and it's not even close.

I'm still as emotionless as ever when it comes to V's demise. I believe it was stupid, but there are more passionate V fans to talk about it.

And last but not least, I can finally agree with what everyone else has said: Mass Destruction is the best episode of Murder Drones, and for me, it's all due to how genuinely funny it is.

I've become pretty apathetic to Murder Drone's horror elements due to how excessively prevalent and misused they are throughout the course of the series, so now the comedy actually hits harder, and this episode is extremely funny and comedic, even Doll's death is now hilarious to me, even if for other reasons, and the pacing finally feels appropriate now that the show has completely given up being a mystery adventure and fully embraced the end of the world battle shenanigans.

The episode did feel too fast paced when I first saw it at release, but it was mostly because of how slow the previous episodes were, now after a while the pacing finally feels normal, even if the episode is just bombarding me with lore left and right.

Ah.

.

.....

We're doomed.

[butterflydm]

wot rewatch (book spoilers edition): 2x6

First, it looks like tumblr refused to actually let my non-spoiler post be in the tags so here is the link: deeper dive 2x6: eyes without pity; hopefully this post will show up in the tags!

Not only is this one going to have spoilers for all the aired episodes plus any teasers (including the trailer for episode 7), it will also have book spoilers through book 14: A Memory of Light

"A few weeks ago I considered hitting Renna over the head with that pitcher, and I could not pour wash water for three days. Once I’d thought of it that way, I not only had to stop thinking about hitting her with it, I had to convince myself I would never, under any circumstances, hit her with it before I could touch it again. She knew what had happened, told me what I had to do, and would not let me wash anywhere except with that pitcher and bowl."

It is a little stunning how the show was able to take that paragraph and make this heartbreaking episode using it as the spine. And by changing it from a wash bowl into a water pitcher, they made it even more of a fundamental torture because Egwene is literally being dehydrated until she gives in to her abuser's demands.

Which, her mention of 'weeks ago' (Egwene is damane for roughly two or three months in the books) is making me wonder about the timeline in the show. Because we were visually shown the brutality of the 'training' process already, I wonder if the timeline is going to be shortened, or if we're going to get a timeskip of some kind next episode. Because Rand is definitely not interested in waiting around for weeks now that he knows Egwene is in captivity, even if he doesn't know the full extend of what's happened to her.

Also, double-checking the books, Egwene hits Renna in the stomach with the pitcher and doesn't hit her over the head like I had remembered; hitting her over the head was what she had thought about but never did. Maybe she'll get to brain her in the show.

2. Note: Renna may be wrong when she says that any pain a sul'dam feels, her damane feels twice-over even to the death, because in the last book when Min comes to rescue Mat and (ugh) Tuon, there is a damane attached to a dead sul'dam. And Min just... leaves her to die in a fire instead of saving her because book!Min kinda sucks but, yeah (she actually screams at the damane to help even though she should know it's impossible for her to help while she's still leashed). Though I wonder if Renna is actually correct but the implication is wrong -- which is that the damane does feel the full pain of the sul'dam's death (twice-over) but just doesn't necessarily die as a result of it.

3. The show is really really evoking book!Tuon in both the characters of Renna and Suroth in this episode, I have to say. Renna makes a point of saying she's a ~kinder softer~ sul'dam because she believes in cultivating a ~friendship~ with her damane and that's basically exactly how Tuon presents herself and her relationships with her ~well-behaved~ damane. And then later in the episode, we get Suroth's scene where she purposefully mocks and degrades Loial for her own amusement, evoking... well, Tuon in many moments tbh -- she laughs at Mat like this frequently in CoT & KoD, because she sees him as her own personal court jester -- but definitely the moment when Tuon steals Egeanin's name from her.

It's... it's an interesting thing because I also feel like the show has deliberately evoked book!Min in some of Lanfear's characterization changes, mostly when she was playing Selene -- pretending that she doesn't want a romantic relationship with Rand but desperately wanting one; pretending that she's not jealous about the other people he cares about but actually being incredibly jealous; trying to make herself his emotional anchor and the one person that he depends on; using their connection to get him to do things for her that he doesn't want to do (in Min's case, it's about using sex to get Rand to take her into dangerous situations, like the fake!DotNM meeting that ends up with Rand losing his hand while trying to protect Min). And taking characteristics that belonged to 'love interest' characters in the books and giving them to villains is... an interesting choice.

4. Is Lanfear questioning Rand near Shayol Ghul in TAR (that large blasted area) or is she just dramatic?

5. Turak's room of curiosities... I really wonder if we're going to sub in the Stone of Tear's storage room from TSR to Turak's room of curiosities and if there is a twisted stone doorway in there. That would give us a chance to do (some parts of) the beginning of TSR in 3x1 next season by having Mat, Rand, and Moiraine potentially all going into the doorway.

@markantonys was talking about how it was interesting that Min's romance viewing didn't come up in her scenes this season and speculated that the show is hedging its bets somewhat with regards to how much time they'll get to play out the storylines. And wondering that if that's the case for Rand's Situation, then it might end up being the case for Mat as well, and the show might hold back on the marriage prophecy (because if s4 or s5 ends up being the final season, they might not want to have to deal with squishing in Mat marrying some random slaver that we just met a handful of episodes ago). Definitely interesting to think about!

I personally love the idea that Avirandlayne could all get together without the viewers actually having heard about Min's viewing (besides the little hint of it we got in s1).

I do wonder sometimes if Jordan regretting sowing Mat's marriage prophecy in so early once the book series really started to stretch out, because it really handcuffed him to a very specific Mat plotline and some of the authorial choices that Jordan made to shackle Mat to that plotline were... very weird and involved characters behaving very strangely to their normal behavior (I have an entire post at the end of my WH reread where I go over how WTF some of Jordan's writing choices were to 'justify' Mat going on his road trip with Tuon).

6. I know that some people take issue with Alanna, Maksim, and Ihvon confronting Lan over potentially being a Darkfriend but... as Pevara says in A Crown of Swords, “You were very brave coming to me, Seaine. I’ve known Darkfriends to kill brothers, sisters, parents, to try hiding who they are and what they’ve done. I love you for it, but you were very brave indeed.”

Holding Lan above suspicion because of his background seems like it would have been foolish for Alanna & co to do, after having found that poem in his belongings. After he and Moiraine have been doing secretive journeys together for twenty years, very soon after Moiraine herself changed to be much colder and much more isolated from her fellow Sisters (especially since she and Siuan likely 'broke up' at that time).

I do think that book readers were potentially so distracted by wondering whether or not Alanna was going to get Lan's bond that they didn't necessarily realize that he was being covertly interrogated all of episode 4 by her and her two Warders, trying to figure out what Moiraine is doing and why she dumped Lan this way. I didn't look at the storyline like that on my first viewing because I was looking at it as a Lan plotline, but on my rewatch, it was actually very clear that Alanna, Maksim, and Ihvon were all trying to get information from Lan in various ways to try to figure out what's up with him and Moiraine. Alanna doesn't want Lan's bond; she wants his secrets.

7. More eye trauma for Mat in Rand's dream here. Both Nynaeve and Rand give Mat eye trauma foreshadowing in their visions, which does imply to me that the show wants to do the 'Finn plotline.

8. "You can travel too, see the world as it really is." hmm, I almost wonder if Rand is going to do what Egwene did in LoC, and use TAR to get to Falme quickly? (but then how do Moiraine, Lan, & Mat all come too? hmm. Might just be set up for a later season)

9. My constant emotional surprise when Randgwene keeps being a thing even though we haven't gotten to the part in the books where they break up For Real: my own personal toxic book reader trait, lol.

10. We once again have it kinda being hammered into Rand that going off entirely on his own and abandoning the people that he loves is a bad thing, actually. It's very very difficult to see the show ending in the same place that the books did, because "Rand off on his own and emotionally isolated" is definitely being shown as a negative.

(of course, it was mostly treated as a bad thing in the books too, until it's suddenly Rand's happy ending. but the show has the advantage of already knowing the journey they need to take to the ending, so I feel like they wouldn't be pressing this button so hard if they planned to end it the same way -- plus, this Rand doesn't even smoke pipes, which was really just Jordan, known pipe-smoker, stapling that trait onto every single male character in the series, no matter what their culture)

11. I really hope that the show is able to find some excuses to let more character reunions happen in the show than happened in the books because the idea of Mat and Rand splitting up in s4 for their respective narratives and then not seeing each other until they get one single scene in s8 is absolutely excruciating. My biggest disappointment with the Sanderson books...

...okay, no the biggest disappointment was Mat magically teleporting to Ebou Dar with zero explanation in the text of how it happened or why he changed his entire set of character motivations in between ToM & AMoL.

One of my disappointments was how... hollow the Mat & Rand reunion was. It happened on enemy territory, while Mat was still in full 'fawn over the slaver' mode and hadn't yet gotten his spine back, and it ends in this weird bro-out one-up competition that didn't really match their previous relationship in the books at all. So if the show could just... do all that differently... that would be great.

12. I wonder if Rafe & co noticed the same thing about Rand and Mat that I noticed in my last reread -- which is that their lives kinda drastically go downhill once the plot forces them to separate for the rest of the book series. Because we really see them being a source of comfort and support for each other here. Which is also very true in portions of the book series -- I think especially of moments like Mat quietly sitting with Rand after Rhuidean, which is literally exactly what Rand needs at that moment in time.

13. So, my current theory re: Mat and the dagger viewing is that he is going to essentially be the 'proof' for show-onlys that Min's viewings are unavoidable. Because Mat does not want to stab Rand and he even knows now that there's (essentially) a prophecy that he's going to do just that. And Mat stabbing Rand anyway, even though he actively does not want to and does his best to avoid it, would serve as a harsh lesson for the viewers and for Mat himself that prophecy cannot be avoided (my money is still on compulsion from Ishy, but we will see!).

Which is relevant to Mat's arc in a lot of ways. In the books, it was really frustrating how he thinks about how he'll run away from the DotNM if he finds out who she is but then once he's face to face with her, he basically rolls over and caves to fate pretty much instantly.

He didn't have to take Tuon with him when he escaped Ebou Dar. He didn't have to stay with the circus once he'd left the city; he literally could have just walked away from her and yet he inexplicably actively courts someone that he never, at any point, wants to marry (even after the final vows are said, Tuon's slave Karede notes how Mat looks miserably resigned to his awful fate), and fawns over her despite her being basically the lovechild of Suroth and Renna, in terms of characterization (Suroth's Mean Girl (TM) behavior towards Loial in this episode vividly reminded me of Tuon's Mean Girl (TM) behavior towards Egeanin; show!Suroth and book!Tuon both have the most fun in life when they have someone to mock and look down on and treat like shit).

If, in the show, he's already learned the hard way that some fates cannot be avoided, then we might get into a more interesting situation where Mat tries to find a way to make the prophecy come true in a way that still helps his friends, and tries to manipulate fate for the better. It's also a way to make the relationship somewhat more palatable for the viewers

Just... the whole way that Jordan played their relationship in CoT & KoD will eternally leave a bad taste in my mouth. Especially since WH set Mat up to challenge Tuon's beliefs. (though probably the worst part is running across that certain variety of 'Mat fans' who either don't notice or don't care that he threw away his morals in between WH & CoT and did a near-complete 180 turn on his attitude about slavery). It's just wild how much shit Jordan makes Mat swallow with a smile for the sake of this terrible prophecy marriage -- and other characters get covered in Tuon's shit too, because of Mat's choice to bring her along in the escape. Joline, Teslyn, and Edesina get tortured because of Mat's choice. Yeah. Pretty much any decision that Rafe & co make about this storyline is guaranteed to be better than the original version.

14. So Siuan coming here is basically the show's version of the scene from Fal Dara, given what we have of the set-up -- fourteen Aes Sedai making a traveling journey to a major city. But that is definitely worrisome news for Moiraine, given the differences in the show vs books.

15. I don't think that Alanna will bond Rand next week (it feels way too early for it) but I do think that the seeds of why she believes that he should be bound might be planted. It depends on if Rand gets publicly outed as a man who can channel & who believes that he's the Dragon Reborn. Because we do have those fires and potentially a riot going on in the Foregate in the next episode, based on the trailers. Rand may do something that 'proves' to Alanna that the White Tower needs to control him so that he doesn't destroy the world. Especially if he disappears from the city after the riot, with them having no idea where he disappeared to.

16. ...I am really looking forward to Egwene putting that damn collar around Renna's throat.

[i-promise-i-am-not-on-drugs]

Okay, rewatching 06×02 today! Let's go!

(future me here: this episode is 52 minutes long, why the fuck did I take ≈1h30 to write all of this. ;-;)

1) Hospital

Holy shit, I forgot how intense that whole scene is.

My poor baby's dying here. :((

2) Dustin and Steve

They're so awkward lol--

Feels weird to watch them like that after two and a half season of them being beasties, plus the whole fandom "mama Steve" thing.

Also,

Dustin: How do I know it's not a lizard? Because it's face opened up and it ate my cat.

THE WAY STEVE NODDED LIKE "yeah, fair enough" I CAN'T

I like how Steve middely belived Dustin about Dart tho, it shows how his character development is starting to actually happen but isn't really advanced yet. Idk.

3) Hospital

(the way Mike is just next to Will and watching at him like he's going to disappear if he stops looking makes me so happy TuT)

Joyce is such a badass protective mother I love her.

These damn scientist better be scared.

4) Nancy, Jonathan, and Murray

Badass detectives and journalists ✨

Love how Jancy got Murray'd. His talk is just SO iconic, I love it so much. 😌

Also, "Oh. Steve. We like Steve." THAT WAS SO UNNECESSARILY FUNNY HELP ME

5) Nancy and Jonathan

Oh my gosh just kiss already.

(kiss scene happens)

WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT I DIDN'T MEAN THAT LITERALLY WHAT THE FUCK JUMPSCARE 😰😰

(I actually forgot that they did, in fact, kiss here, and I was NOT prepared help me)

6) Lucas a Dustin (+Erica and Steve)

Love Erica's sassy self, but as an older sibling myself I would NOT like to have her as my sister. She's nosy as fuck.

Anyway, love how Lucas immediately apologize and how Dustin explain the situation so clearly. Love my boys. :)

7) Hopper and the scientists

Hopper: Why aren't you burning it?

Owens: There's been a complication.

Uh. That's one way to put it I guess.

8) Joyce and Bob (+ Will and Mike)

Love how Bob is still hella confused, but is trying to be supportive of Joyce. He would've been such a great dad and husband... Just, not the the Byers. :(

(Mike sleeping in the chair next to Will's bed and waking up right after him ToT💕💕)

Will is already forgetting things, my poor baby. :((

9) Nancy, Jonathan, and Murray

The breakfast scene is so funny help me--

Poor Jonathan has no idea what's going to happen once he gets back home. :(

Murray is so "weird oncle that you see once every ten years and has no idea what he's up to the rest of the time" coded lmao

10) Lucas and Max (+ Billy(ew))

I'm still mad at Billy for breaking Max's skateboard by the way this guy's a grade A asshole.

Anyway, I like how Lucas immediately went to bring Max with him, it's pretty cute. Tho, it's definitely the raison for many other problems after that so, maybe not his best idea. :(

Love that Max is hiding Lucas from Billy, she knows his racist ass would beat the shit out of him.

11) Will and the others

("That' my friend. Mike." MIKE'S TINNY SMILE AAAAAHHHH!!! TOT💕💕)

The fuck is wrong with that guy?? He told you he could feel it, why did you have to actually burn this God damn vine thing??? What is wrong with him???? That's literally just torture!! And toward a child!!! I hate them so much.

My poor son. :((

12) Joyce, Hopper, Owens

That was honestly pretty interesting.

13) Dustin and Steve

Honestly Steve's love advices are pretty... Uh. Mid. Honestly. But I guess it works for him because he's hot and popular or something. (Well used to work, but yk)

But I love this line in particular:

Steve: She's only gonna break your heart, and you're way too young for that shit.

He's speaking from experience here. He's talking about Nancy.

You know, he was saying how she's "different than other girls" (probably because he actually fell in love with her a little), and Dustin started saying that Max's different too. And Steve was like: "Wait. You're not falling in love with this girl right?" And when Dustin told him that he isn't, he says "Good. Don't." A d then this ligne that I highlighted earlier. Because Steve is going through a heartbreak, and he doesn't want Dustin to feel like he does.

Which is actually pretty sweet if you think about it! :)

Anyway, the hair advice is also just so sweet, it's adorable how Steve's trying to help Dustin with girls, I love them they're so siblings. TuT💕

14) Hopper and "Eleven"

That whole scene was just so :(((

He's going to have such a bad breakdown when he'll be back :((

15) the scientists

I am calm. I am very calm. I am absolutely not rooting for the death of these assholes. I. Am. Calm. Relaxed. Chilling. Breathing. 🙂

16) Joyce, Bob (+Will)

We love a (trying to be) supportive boyfriend..! Yay. :')

(Honestly Noah did such an amazing job in this whole season, the way Will is just blankly starting at the celling without blinking is so unsettling and impressive)

17) Will and Mike

WE LOVE AN (ACTUALLY) SUPPORTIVE BOYFRIEND!! YAY!!! >:'D

But seriously, you can see the difference between how Bob and Mike handle this whole situation so clearly it's crazy.

Bob is trying to comfort Joyce by giving her a possibility to be "normal" once all this is done, which is clearly not helping much and is also involuntarily dismissive of her fears.

Meanwhile, Mike is helping Will by trying to understand what he's experiencing, and he is never dismissing him. He uses the terms that Will put on what he sees. And, especially, he is not scared of him. He's treating him like he normally would, just with a bit more worry in his eyes and caution is his mouvements, but that's it. And that's exactly what Will needs. I love them so much.

18) Dustin and Lucas (+ Steve and Max)

(Dustin and Steve are so siblings kskdjqldkbdb I love them sm)

Love that they talk about stuff and how Lucas extend his hand first because he "drew first blood". It's sweet. :)

19) Jonathan and Nancy

Our favorite detective/journalists couple are on the way!!

20) Will (+others)

(the way Mike is almost always the closest person to Will jdkdodksj ToT💕)

You know, I kinda like Dr Owens. He's the most decent out of all these assholes scientists.

21.1) Scientists

Random scientist: Alright, let's see if this kid's a wizard of a schizo.

This line has no right to be this damn funny. >:(

21.2) the vehicle graveyard (or smt)

Whoa, they're doing all that so fucking fast :0

It's pretty cool!!

22) Steve, Dustin, Max

Rip Dustin's crush, it was fun while it lasted 🫡

23) Lumax

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGJHHLJDTLUTDDRULLXUULHFLUTDOYRSOGYOGOYGIYLUXTIDYFDIYDYI MY CHILDREN I LOVE THEM SO FUCKING MUCH THEY'RE SO ADORABLE I'M DYING AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!! ༼⁠;⁠´⁠༎ຶ⁠ ⁠۝ ⁠༎ຶ⁠༽💕💕💕

Anyway, sorry. But seriously, lumax is my second favorite couple/ship of ST and I love them so much. This scene is definitely on of my favorites!! :)

Also,

Lucas: I like talking with you, Mad Max.

Max: And I like talking with you, stalker.

RELATIONSHIP BUILDINGS FOR MY BABIES *pterodactyl scream*

(Sorry.)

24) The vehicle graveyard

HOLY SHIT I FORGOT HOW AWESOME THAT SCENE IS!!

Love how Dustin thinks that Steve's awesome, it's cute. :)

And Lumax hold handing! :3

Honestly the actors did an absolutely crazy amazing job here, I can't even imagine the scene without the demodogs, and they had to act without them?? Super impressive.

25.1) The scientists + Hopper

That scene is so cool. Love how Hopper immediately recognize the "graveyard" lol--

25.2) Will, Mike, Joyce (+Bob ig)

The way Mike almost immediately understood what Will was saying is crazy. And then assholes are calling him stupid, istg. *eyes roll*

Anyway, my poor baby Will is GOING THROUGH IT, once again. :((

Also, I've said this before and I'll say it again, but Noah's acting is absolutely amazing here. He gave me literal chills!

And Finn too!! The way you can immediately see the exact moment were the realization hits Mike is absolutely incredible.

Loves these guys.

Annnnnddd, here comes the end of this episode. That was a rollercoaster.

[lost-inanotherlife]

Lost S2 Rewatch - Final thoughts

Following this post, here are some more random thoughts about S2:

They did it once, they've done it again: killing off a female character for the sake of the paired male character's manpain. They did it with Shannon and they've done it again with Libby. Twice in a season. At this point I think it's a pattern and I totally hate it. The writers could write extremely well, they could've written something better but they just didn't do it. Totally uncool.

Speaking of Libby, I wish they didn't kill her off before telling us her story. Up until her death her character's main purpose is being the possible love interest of Hurley. Which, yeah, okay cool, I'm down with it. But maybe show us more as well? It's a shame that we come to know about her connection with Desmond literally after her death. And yes, I know, "plot reasons" and it kinda made sense too. And yet I felt a bit disappointed. We saw 0, nada, nothing, of her arc. Again, totally uncool.

"What Kate Did" is the season's best episode and I fucking love it.

I still have mixed feelings about Kate and Jack. What I mean is that they're definetely connected and they somehow click and not click together. I love thier dynamic. However in S2, although we have a kiss and a "caught in the net" moment (lol, Sawyer I luv u), they didn't share much screen-time together. Yes, yes, I know, this is a common way to write romance (a kiss, an "I'm sorry. I'm not", a bit of lack of communication, circumstances bring them apart and yadda yadda) but to "buy" their love story I needed a scene of the two of them together, without any interruptions, in between the kiss and the net. There wasn't so I don't know how I feel about them: do they like-like each other or are they just projecting *stuff* onto one another?

On the other hand, my baby girl Jack and Sawyer shared A LOT of intense scenes together. Like the one where Sawyer tells Jack that he's his friend (well, close to one) <3. Or when they play cards. Kate literally left them alone, lol. It was INSANE. I'm sorry but this confirms my reading that the real meaty love story is between the two of them. If the show aired totay we'd all be talking about the homoerotic subtext in Jack/Sawyer scenes. I said what I said.

Jack, please my love, listen to Sayid. His character faded a bit in the background this season, I mean something had to give with the introduction of FIVE new characters. But he was quite right about everything and I wanted to scream at Jacko everytime he was like "uh but Sayid we don't know!". Listen to the soldier/torturer/communication officer, doctor! You do you, let Sayid do Sayid, lol.

As I've said, I didn't enjoy Ana Lucia's connection to Christian. However, I like her story. Unfortunately her arc meets a brutal end: she was on her way to come to terms with her actions and she was stopped too soon. Honestly? I don't agree with this choice: the writers took their sweet time to let us discover Ana and her complexities, I'm sad her story ended beforehand. :(

I'm quite torn about Mr Eko. On one hand, interesting, brilliant character, on the other I feel like the last episodes made him act a bit OOC. We're showed a Mr Eko who's both ruthless and compassionate: he's a paradox and it's stimulating, we wanna know more about him. But then he goes all "I've received Revelation in my dream" and acts a lot like a dick. Like when he doesn't go to Ana Lucia and Libby's funeral. Dude, come on. Intellectually I know that it was all there, the moment he met Locke signed the fact that they'd first be united in their shared belief about the island and then they'd have split over their faith or lack thereof. Still, like with Ana, I think it was done too fast, I personally think they wasted quite some time with the Ben storyline. Too bad.

This rewatch reminded me of how tragic and absurd Locke's life is. Has he ever had ONE happy day in his life? Also, I always find myself a bit irritated that they didn't cast an older actor to play his father. I'm sorry I don't know the actors' age but Terry O'Quinn definitely looks older than the guy who plays Anthony Cooper.

Okay, I have more to say but I'll stop here! On to s3!

[livlepretre]

I was wondering when did Elena exactly become accustomed to the horrific actions of her vampire suitors? I know it must’ve been a gradual change, but my guess is that after she was rescued from her 3 year exile, she must’ve acknowledged the fact that she must accept to live with these murderers without being phased or bothered (as long as she’s not the focus of the violence) in order to enjoy her life to an extent. Like to me, in FE 64 it seemed like her moral compass was so unbalanced compared to the usual (maybe it seemed like that to me because we had to wait a while for the update but idk) - it was clear that one of the main themes of this chapter was to emphasize the mental change Elena has underwent since the beginning of the story. Would you be able to give us some insight?

Also how are you how are you doing? I’m planning on starting to read 100 years of exile and some of your other book recommendations cause I need to get my mind off of this fic in order to not torture myself on waiting for the update. 💝💐

Quite a question.

I think a lot of this actually starts on the show before the point of canon divergence.

In episode 7, she slaps Damon because of how "[he] hurts people"-- this, to me, is an expression of Elena's baseline sense of morality-- a very normal, well-adjusted disgust against harming others, and a willingness to take and articulate a moral stand-- and to back it up with force if necessary. She does her best here, and she also does her best a few episodes later to try to stop Damon from opening the tomb-- in large part to prevent the tomb vamps from escaping and wreaking havoc, if I recall correctly. (If I don't, forgive me: it's been like a decade since I've watched season 1).

(actually, this probably means I should go rewatch season 1 now)

By the end of the season we get some unnerving hints at things. She's not too torn up by Stefan attacking that girl at the founder's ball. Isobel gives her that warning about the path she's on so long as she has a Salvatore on each arm.

then: she forgives Damon for murdering her brother. HUGE red flag. Yes, it was undone, but he still did it.

She also moves on from Caroline eating that guy in 2x02 like it was just a small misdemeanor. Remember, it's Bonnie who cares that that happened, Elena just wants to move on with helping Caroline adjust.

then, in Kill or Be Killed, Damon, Caroline, and Stefan are responsible for the murders (and consumption!) of the Sheriff's deputies. Elena literally does not bat an eyelash. It's astonishing. I feel like SO much more weight should be given to this, because she literally hangs around while people she presumably knows at least as acquaintances get murdered. but she pretty much just moves past it because the ones doing the murdering are her friends and beloveds.

We have tons more examples-- classmates getting dropped like flies, acquaintances getting killed and eaten-- she's less and less affected by it.

I think she has a horror in the beginning of Fairytale Ending by the scale and the gruesomeness of the vampire attacks she witnesses-- but a lot of it is also tied up in her feelings of powerlessness. She tried to help Sasha and Zoe. They both died. Klaus promised her not to kill Matt-- so he had Stefan do it instead. But even in those early chapters, with things like the head detaching and rolling across the parlor floor, or the party where Stefan drains all of the guests, or any other incident-- she's not really thinking about the specific horror of those people dying. She's thinking about her jealousy, her relationship with Stefan, how she pities him and feels so upset on his behalf; she's analyzing her power dynamics with Klaus, and Rebekah, and the sexual dynamics between Klaus, Rebekah, and Stefan.

The only REAL horror she seems to have is when she kills that witch-- because that is the first murder on her hands-- and later, when she sets up Klaus to murder their way out of the compound in chapter 22.

She gets over it, but it does stick with her.

Like, she can and does cope by reminding herself of what they would wish to do to her.

There is a lot of bloodshed after that, at the Abattoir when they return, but she's by now got skin in the game in terms of finding the bloodstone, and she's seen a lot, and it's only the ones she loves that she actually cares about.

That's why Tyler's torture haunts her. She loves Tyler, and his torture was her fault.

She faces this directly within herself that summer in exile with Rebekah-- she realizes that Rebekah's out hunting, sometimes, and she decides not to be upset about it. It definitely took her exile and loneliness and emotional catharsis and survival to get to this point, and it did transform her. She talks about this explicitly around the time she arrives in New York-- she tells Klaus that their hunting won't bother her and points out, with Rebekah confirming, that she never complained a peep about it over the summer.

So by the time she's in New York, she's definitely observing a lot of their predatory behavior, fully aware of where it's going, and she's not especially affected by it. Like, there is still revulsion there, still unease and horror, but it gets less and less with time.

I did want to bring this transformation in Elena into focus in this last chapter, which is why it's brought up numerous times, but really, she's been on the road to this level of non-concern for quite a while. Hopefully, if you ever plan a reread, with the chapters back to back rather than spaced months (or years!) apart, this will gel more fully and feel more gradual.

And! did you ever read 100 years of solitude? because! that is just so my very favorite book of all time!

[jaggedwolf]

pll rewatch 2x08

JENNA CAN’T HEAR US, SHE’S BLIND

A classic PLL line that has been memed on endlessly, and yet I’ve only just realized - is what Hanna means that even if Jenna hears their stomping, Jenna won’t be able to see that it’s them because duh, she’s blind?

Does Jenna have a kink for making out next to windows? I think her rape-by-blackmail vid with Toby was also taken near a window

Emily has terrible situp form. Is she even exercising her abs. She’s also making the terrible choice to do them the morning of the meet

I’m concerned Emily doesn’t have any friends on the swim team to discuss training regimens with :/ 

You know who I bet knows things about training regimens? Paige.

Hanna fussing over Emily’s overtraining is cute. Less cute is Emily witnessing Tom and Ashley’s morning after, this is the most family drama she’s experienced outside of her own coming out

In my notes I wrote “Wren is gross” and it doesn’t even matter what scene this is about

Mike’s friend who bothers him in school...I think he’s genuinely concerned about Mike, it’s just filtered through terrible teenage bro levels of self-expression (asking Mike if he’s going to be a crackhead next)

Aria lies to Ezra about the confrontation she had with Jenna in ceramics class and never told him about the Mike burglary shenanigans

On one hand, she doesn’t want to mention Jason to Ezra, on the other hand she is the most secretive of the liars

As a naturally secretive person myself I’m inclined to defend this behaviour

Emily’s so stressed she gives herself an ulcer. Her little “when can I swim again” :( :( :( 

Fun fact: Ulcers aren’t really caused by stress but by bacteria, though of course stress is not great for the immune system overall

Spencer is so cute when she’s defensive of Emily who has an ulcer, Do Not Scare Her Hanna! I love that when Aria shows up with a coffee Emily silently looks at Spencer to give the explanation.

Thus we can conclude the other three’s reactions to learning about Emily

Hanna: Stopped by her Mom’s workplace to borrow her car to go to the hospital, googled ulcers out of mild curiosity and went WAIT IT’S A HOLE IN YOUR STOMACH? THAT’S WHAT AN ULCER IS? A HOLE?  SPENCER A HOLE??? 

Spencer: Already knew what an ulcer is but re-reviewed to know what Emily can or cannot consume and to provide Reassuring Facts on ulcer healing.

Aria: Does not know what an ulcer is and does not care to find out, does know Emily’s favorite coffee order and wants to give her a nice treat. Foiled by biology :/ 

Spencer is so funny when she interrogates Hanna on her Caleb sitch while they’re in the elevator. “Where else are you gonna go?” Guess Hanna has to answer her.

Ashley telling Tom to fuck off. Hell yeah!! Maybe tell him to talk to Hanna first

We see more of Jenna & Garrett Evilly Plotting than I remember, I’ll want to compare this to later Evil Plotting scenes from other characters 

Emily gets hit with the second punch of steroid use. She is so scared and stressed about this :/ It is well-crafted emotional torture by A - to have first made Emily a liar and then a cheater, when Emily is the girl who cares most about fair play, whose mom stated back in S1 that her daughter was raised to earn everything she’s gotten

And all of it is in circumstances where no one would believe Emily telling the truth

Did the ulcer save Emily from getting kicked off the swimming team...

Mike seems to be actually doing his homework when Ella knocks on his door, which is a note I like

OK when Haleb is in Spencer’s family cabin, why is Caleb the one making the fire and Hanna the one to not know what kindling is? The camping scene last season had Hanna be the one with outdoor survival skills and Caleb clueless, I don’t like this arbitrary swap

All of Caleb’s shady shit happened in Allentown. I have memories of a fic where the backstory was Caleb & Paige being absolute disasters in Allentown and I wonder if the author chose that location because of this mention or just because, you know, it’s a place in PA

Was this whole plot so Haleb could get laid? Maybe a little bit

Wayne Fields is the one good father, he does not want Emily to stress about college and paying for it. Well sir please investigate your finances and military benefits

Emily wants to bail to Texas, Spencer appeals to her sense of justice in finding Ali’s killer. The limit to Spencer’s desire to protect her people, perhaps - she doesn’t want to be left alone

Hanna is really upset at Ashley saying she doesn’t want to get back with Tom, because that makes Hanna the sucker that is the only Marin who wants things back the way they were

2x08 is six weeks before the wedding. Enjoy fitting that into the timeline. 

While Emily is alone and depressed in her hospital bed in her very shitty situation, Spencer pops up to go “Hey Em, wanna read through our dead friend’s autopsy report with me? Look at this X-ray of blunt force trauma to her skull.”

Emily does look at it, I ponder if Emily and Spencer were partners in bio class and they realize page 5 is missing. Oh no! 

I have literally no memory of this plot point, would simply like to note that when Hanna asks “How can one page just disappear” I went yeah PLL I have that question too

You know Hanna is really broken up about her dad because she and Caleb literally sit on the curb while staring at the happy family. Do you think the parents of that family are going hey why is that teenage couple staring at us?

[watchingspnagain]

Rewatching The Rapture

Welcome to “It’s Not Like He Boiled *Her* Arm, Jeez: A Supernatural Rewatch Blog” with Lor and Mace!

Up today, s4e20: The Rapture.

Cas appears to Dean in a (lovely, peaceful) dream and gives him a note asking him to meet him at a warehouse. When the boys show up at the warehouse, something angelic has clearly gone down, and they find Cas—but not. It’s Jimmy Novak, the man Cas was using as a vessel. Cas is mysteriously back in heaven. After a good deal of objection and argument from the boys, Jimmy returns home to his family (who think he walked out and disappeared on them a year ago, probably as part of a psychotic break). We see several flashbacks of Jimmy when Cas first began to speak to him, as well as Jimmy’s tortured attempt to rejoin his family. Meanwhile, demons are up to shit, threatening Jimmy and his family. When Cas returns to find Jimmy wounded, he possesses Jimmy’s daughter Claire instead. Cas assures Jimmy that he has done well and will be rewarded in heaven, but Jimmy insists that Cas not subject Claire to the rigors and pains of possession, and Cas agrees to possess Jimmy once again. Cas then reveals to Dean that his trip to heaven has cured him of his doubts and that he serves heaven… not Dean. The boys return to Bobby’s, being all fraught with one another about Sam’s recent confession to Dean that he’s been drinking demon blood. Bobby and Dean trick Sam into the panic room and lock him in, hoping to force him to detox from the blood.

Below is a log of our real-time reactions as we watched. Remember that there may be spoilers for any part of SPN’s 15-season run here. Note also that the nature of our conversation is adult and thus it may contain adult language and themes.

[and we begin:]

Lor:

omg. He deserves to sit by a quiet lake and fish

Mace:

Misha looks so young and gorgeous

Lor:

he DOES

Lor:

the way you know IMMEDIATELY it's not Cas

Mace:

is he…doing a higher-than-his-real-voice voice?

Mace:

or has his voice lowered a bit with age, I wonder

Lor:

yeah I'm not sure. he is for sure doing a higher than Cas voice

Lor:

aw Dean doesn't like that Cas isn't in there anymore. like not just that he doesn't know where Cas is, but like, that is supposed to be Cas and it's NOT

Mace:

YEP

Mace:

I wonder, if Cas never returned at this point, would Dean and Jimmy have gotten together?

Lor:

naah

Lor:

he's too... vanilla

Mace:

but he’s also HOT

Lor:

that IS true

Mace:

and Cas isn’t exactly spicy

Lor:

he WOULD have a lot of fun undoing that aaaaall the way up tie

Lor:

Cas's Dom brow begs to differ

Mace:

may i remind you that those eyebrows belong, in fact, to Jimmy

Lor:

but he doesn't DEPLOY them

Mace:

oookay

Lor:

omg he's just little

Mace:

Oh Sammy

Mace:

we gots to get you off the juice, man

Lor:

right?

Lor:

"was it a refreshing Coke?" Dean, you little shit, I love you

Mace:

snork

Mace:

HANDS

Lor:

YES

Lor:

oooh, I forgot Jimmy cooks. maybe they WOULD get together

Lor:

but he'd have to stop putting his arm in boiling water. Dean's little caretaker heart couldn't take it

Mace:

okay, i relent. Dom Cas just made Jimmy boil his own fucking hand

Lor:

HAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA

Lor:

MACE

Lor:

we just flipflopped

Mace:

oh gross. HER again

Mace:

WE DID

Lor:

ug Anna

Mace:

well, no, actually. I never stopped liking the idea of Dean and Jimmy

Mace:

Jimmy Dean sausage, baby

Lor:

HAHAHAHAHAHA omg dude

Mace:

(oh I just grossed myself out. apologies)

Lor:

(lololololol)

Lor:

oh Jimmy you're gonna be in so much trouble

Mace:

he is SO pretty

Lor:

omg LOOKIT him just lounged there in his t-shirt

Mace:

YAS

Lor:

I mean, if he took the pills, he'd still hear Cas....

Mace:

omg what an idiot. don’t leave him! who tf cares if he takes meds HE’S FLIPPING HOT

Lor:

HAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA

Lor:

and he's not dangerous?

Mace:

well, a little dangerous would be okay...

Lor:

lol

Mace:

ooof that closeup of his LIPS

Lor:

it's like he's all INNOCENT

Lor:

omg the HEAD TILT

Mace:

YES

Mace:

“like what?” like boning? I’d be ready for boning

Lor:

HAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA

Lor:

Amelia kind of annoys me

Mace:

oh LOOKIT HIM with the daughter

Mace:

yeah me too

Mace:

they all drink milk SO WHOLESOME

Lor:

I get her need to protect herself and especially Claire, but her lack of compassion with her husband who she thinks is having a mental break makes me nuts

Lor:

RIGHT?

Mace:

omg the tears in his eyes HE IS SO GOOD

Mace:

YEP

Lor:

omg the way his voice breaks when he says he's not gonna say grace

Mace:

YES

Mace:

Oh Jimmy

Lor:

right?

Lor:

feeling kinda stupid now, AREN'T WE, Amelia?

Mace:

look, Amelia, THAT’s how you support your spouse

Lor:

LOLOLOL

Lor:

"I'm sorry we were" poor Dean just wants to keep people out of this shit

Mace:

yeah

Lor:

jeez Sammy

Mace:

he’s got the DTs leave him be

Lor:

oh fine

Lor:

oh Sammy

Mace:

right? poor tiger

Lor:

Amelia's not here anymore

Mace:

snork

Lor:

heckle and jeckle lol

Mace:

snork!

Mace:

omg Dean’s face when Jimmy gets shot

Lor:

right?

Mace:

yeeeah, they SO wouldn’t get together…

Lor:

picture the look I am giving you

Mace:

aw, loving adoration. thanks, friend.

Lor:

LOLOLOLOLOLOL

Mace:

yes, I AM so smart and pretty

Mace:

omg Sammy

Lor:

you ARE

Lor:

ooof Sam

Lor:

and Dean's face

Mace:

YES

Lor:

and Cas!Claire all with the judgement

Mace:

YEP

Mace:

Misha is SO GOOD

Lor:

RIGHT?

Lor:

there are individual performances of all three of them that were absolutely emmy worthy

Mace:

Dean’s all “hello, boyfriend."

Mace:

YES

Lor:

YEP

Lor:

"and I certainly don't serve you"

Mace:

ooooh playing hard to get

Mace:

SMART

Lor:

whatever you gotta tell yourself, hon

Lor:

HAAAHAHAHA

Lor:

oh man, Dean's in a snit. brother's an addict, boyfriend's pretending he doesn't care

Mace:

Sammy. Read the car. Dean has other troubles right now. Boyfriend is playing hard to get.

Lor:

"mostly I'm just tired, man." oooof

Lor:

LOL

Mace:

yeah

Mace:

“shag ass"

Lor:

RIGHT?

Mace:

I ADORE that expression

Lor:

YES

Mace:

BOBBY NO

Mace:

At least put me in there with him, dude

Lor:

oooooo Dean and Bobby setting him up offscreen

Lor:

HA!

[countrymusiclover]

Part 3

Part 4

His Sky

Tag list - just ask to be added @aintinacage

The high evolutionary had the guards drag me back inside the lab and pushed me down onto a cold operating table. They tied me down with hard zip ties before I grunt against them. “Are you going to kill me now?”

“I thought it would be a good idea at first. But then I rewatched this security video.” The high evolutionary pressed a button where I could see a screen come down replaying a horrific memory.

Sucking in a sharp breath I recognized that it was the night that our friends were killed. Lylla’s body fell a lot faster than it did when I was in that moment. Then I had to watch Floor and Teefs die until he paused the video of when I got thrown and Rocket was frozen jumping up into the air. “What’s the point of showing me this…”

“Because I noticed this certain factor that is something I can use to get 89P13 back here.” He moved in front of the screen pointing between me and Rocket. “You see he went to protect you here at that moment. If he thinks for even a minute that you are alive he will come back.”

“You’ll never convince Rocket to come back for me.” I snapped at him baring my teeth.

He grabs me by my throat where I began gasping for breath. “You don’t know what I can do. I made you 89K22!”

“Just because you made us doesn’t mean you can stop us from making relationships!” I spit in higace where he released my throat. Laying my head back on the table I blinked through tears.

High evolutionary crossed his arms over his chest for a second before he had one of the doctors hand him a shock baton. “I’m gonna ask you a simple question. Where did 89P13 go?”

“I don’t know - agh!” I winced when he zapped me with the electric poker when it hit me on the side of my hip.

He didn’t seem to believe me. “Where did 89P13 go!”

“I said I don’t know and his name is Rocket - gah asshole!” I screamed again clutching my eyes shut feeling pain again.

He pressed the electric device against me in a different spot where it was on my chest at the center leaving a burn mark. Sniffing through tears he stared darkly down at me. “One way or another I will get him back here. He is my creation and he belongs to me!”

“You made us for nothing…So we don’t belong to you anymore!” I growled trying to show that I wasn’t afraid and this is how our days went for years until I would see my beloved Rocket again.

Laying on the floor of a hard metal cage I had my arms and legs wrapped around me. With my tail curled up into my chest too. I just kept looking at the cell wall in front of me seeing that he had put me back in my same cell that they had repaired. So I was forced to stare at Rocket's old one. Lifting my head up I could hear some of the other animals making some noises. Getting to my feet I noticed that it was the baby raccoon cage. “Who’s out there!” I called out seeing a shadow of a figure from one of the lights near that cage.

The cage door opened from what I could tell but that wasn’t what brought me to a sobbing mess of tears. It was the voice I longed to hear when I forced myself to sleep after hours of our former sire torturing me. “I really am a raccoon.”

“Rock…Rocket. Rocket!” I mumbled softly before I rattled the door of the cage as much as possible, needing him to know I wasn’t dead like we both thought I would be.

Footsteps came running over to me allowing me to see those familiar soft eyes and the face that looked like a mask. “Y/n…..oh my god Y/n!” Rocket cried out gripping the metal bars of my cage where we were touching each other's hands.

“It’s me…it’s me, Rock.” I started crying happily through tears feeling a smile grace my face for the first time in years after everything that I have been through.

Rocket released my hand’s quickly sliding the key card and breaking my cage door like last time. “Y/n, I’m so sorry-“ I cut him off flinging my arms around his neck burying my face into the crook of his neck crying lightly.

He wrapped his arms around me holding me as close as he possibly could. I felt some tear’s from him falling down onto my face before we barely broke the embrace, still gripping onto one another. “You don’t have to apologize. But we need to leave before he finds you.”

“I’m not running anymore, Squirrel.” Rocket said quickly back to me.

Shaking my head I pressed my fingers into his foremans while more tears fell down my face. “Rock, if we don’t go he will kill us both now. That’s been his plan all along to get you back here.”

“I won’t let him hurt you ever again. I promise, my sky.” Rocket nuzzles his nose against mine.

“Awe this is just how I imagined how you would find her 89P13.” We turned our heads quickly where Rocket put me behind his back shielding me while we watched the High Evolutionary coming towards us slowly.

Rocket put one hand on a blaster he had attached to his hip. He also kept one hand in front of me that I grasped onto not wanting to be separated from him again. “I won’t let you hurt Y/n anymore.”

“Still so smart and yet so stupid all the same. You think that you will escape with her this time. You’re sorely mistaken, 89P13.” He dryly said.

Growling through my teeth I lifted my tail upwards in anger. “His name is Rocket and we aren’t your animals anymore!”

“You thought that you could escape me.” The high evolutionary walked forward before he used the power that he got from the purple device in the back of his head. He raised his hand and launched Rocket and I back against the cages. “You and that squirrel are nothing special. You wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for me!”

Forcing myself to my feet I didn’t care if he hurt me. I wouldn't let him kill Rocket if I had any say in it. “We’re not your experiments!” I launched myself off my legs, biting down on his arm where he screamed.

He stumbled around trying to make me stop biting his flesh. But when he grabbed my tail I let go and bit at his neck where he released his grip for a moment. “You’re nothing special if it wasn’t for me, 89K22!” He snatched me by my neck, throwing me harshly onto the ground.

“Don’t touch her!” Rocket ran forward reaching for his blaster until our master used his power and threw him into one of the lab rooms and into one of the electric light’s burning his body.

Scrambling to my feet again I ran into the room they were in while he was throwing him around like a rag doll. Running as fast as my legs would go I jumped on the master’s back trying to claw at the headset he had on. “Leave him alone - ah uh!” He rang me by the hair on my head, tossing me in front of him where I almost couldn’t get up this time.

“You’re an abomination!” He spat up at Rocket then he lowered himself to my level grabbing my chin in his hand. “And the only thing I ever needed from you was that brain of yours.”

I coughed when he kicked me in the gut with his boot and I hit the wall behind me. “Rock…”

“You think you have some worth without me. No!” The high evolutionary began to throw Rocket again while I held myself up on one elbow feeling more sore than ever. “Nothing but a step on my path. You freakish little monster. How dare you think you are more. 89P13!”

Rocket finally managed to release himself from our masters grasp, dropping down on his feet in front of me. “Names Rocket…Rocket Raccoon.” He retracted his blaster before he hit the guy with some energy.

“Rocket!” I cried out when he tried to come at us again when Rocket slightly turned back to look at me. Luckily something that had tree looking arms stopped him from getting closer to us.

A big gray looking guy threw the evolutionary onto his back. Another guy with a blaster hit him in the face. I also saw a blue girl with a robot arm and another with antennas knock him into the wall. The high evolutionary attempts to get up but finally a green skinned woman stabs him with a blade dropping his body on the metal floor. The guy in the red jacket with the blaster started peeling his old face mask revealing what Rocket had done years ago. “His face came off.”

“It’s a mask.” Rocket responded offering me his freehand tugging me up to stand with him. “Y/n, you okay?”

Groaning while I held my side I nodded weakly walking over to the group who had helped us. The high evolutionary was laying on the floor bleeding. “I will be now that I’m with you.”

“Look what he did to me….all I wanted to do was make things perfect.” The high evolutionary mumbled his final words.

Rocket squeezed my hand in his declaration to our creator. “You didn’t want to make things perfect. You just hated things the way they are.”

“Kill him.” The gray guy said behind us.

Rocket raises his blaster over his head but he only holds it for a second then lowers it. “Rock, what are you doing? After everything he’s done to us.”

“It’s not right, Y/n.” He looked at me then to his friends. “Because I’m a freaking guardian of the galaxy.”

The green woman said when a part of the building exploded. “We have to get out of here now.”

“We have to save them.” Rocket told them before we got any further to leaving.

The dirty blonde hair human slides on his feet to a halt. “We’ve got all the kids on board.”

“No Pete. The rest of them.” Rocket told his friend, sending me a sympathetic look not wanting to leave any more animals behind. So we all quickly unlocked the cages and let the other animals free. Running to the ship I almost couldn’t catch my breath once we were watching the former space ship we were on disappear away from us.

Sliding to a halt on my feet I put my hand on my knees feeling someone put a hand on my shoulder seeing it was Rocket. He takes my hand in his blinking through tears just looking me over. “Y/n, I’m sorry for leaving you. I…urgh I’m not good at feelings.”

“Rocket, you don’t have to say it if you don’t feel it. I am just glad to be free of that place. Now you can show me the world away from it.” Placing my paw on his face he leans his head into it sucking in a breath.

Yet he shook his head tugging me closer to his chest where our noses touched one another. “You need to understand this….you’re my sky, Y/n Squirrel.”

Remembering back to when we were innocent and all we wanted to see was what the sky looked like. Smiling up at the raccoon I loved, I responded back softly. “And you are mine, Rocket.”

“Let’s get you checked out.” He squeezed my hand in his and I knew the reason why was because he didn’t like showing his innocent side after what happened to our friends Lylla, Floor and Teefs. But he was over the moon to have me back by his side. And I felt the same.

Comments really appreciated ❤️

[chunkypossum]

Hello!

Inspired answers all around. I agree with all of your assessments. You are so smart. Thank you for taking the time to give me such thorough responses! If you ever feel that you lack the energy to respond, or find me annoying, feel free to ignore them. Although that won't stop me in my quest to become your best friend.

To the anon: Go for it. What's mine is yours!

I should not have assumed you've read or watched Dune, I apologize for that oversight. It's a tough choice anyway. I'm not even sure what my answer is... hmm. Paul might be Eris. Wait, no. Azriel. Gah! This means nothing to you. Moving on.

I struggle to sit for movies as well! I chuckled that you prefaced that statement with your favorite movies all being 3+ hours. Fair. LOTR is excellent. In that case, name one show you could watch 30 hours of in one sitting!

Question of the day: who would win in a physical fight between Eris and Azriel? (No holds barred. Everything's on the table.)

-🎅❤️

Idk about smart but I have been thoroughly enjoying thinking through these!!! Never ever ever ever EVER feel like you’re bothering me. You could never since we are already best friends! If I’m ever slower to respond it’s because you have given me such delicious questions to chew on and I’ve been enjoying pondering lol.

I may not have watched Dune but I DID do a lot of googling when trying to answer that question so I have a brain full of Dune knowledge now and very little context lol. Reading their characterizations I kept waffling between them too when trying to decide.

Listen… LOTR is just… different. Are they long? Yes. Are they still my favorite? Yes. When they first came out I was 14 and so I think I achieved consciousness for the first time after watching then reading them. My first true hyperfixation that never really went away.

I’m on my current annual rewatch of Gilmore girls and could sit and watch 100hours of it at a time if I was superhuman. I’m a binger… if I find a show that catches my interest I find it hard to stop until I’m done(books too). I’ve reverted back to my 14 year old self a little now that idgaf anymore and I’m allowing myself small joys so I’ve been watching too much anime and Asian dramas the last year. 😂

Ok so… I’m giving the win to Eris. I know I know, Azriel… big muscled Illyrian warrior with extra special shadows and and famed torturer. HOWEVER… that boy is SOFT. Famed torturer sure but also famed gift giver club rat who loves his momma and has lived most of his life with a loving family.

Eris on the other hand is used to deception on a whole other level. I imagine he has rarely ever felt safe enough to let his guard down in his life and would 100% use whatever he had to for his advantage. He would find a way to use Azriel’s softness against him and catch him off guard.

🌟🖤

[transexualpirate]

JOHN WINCHESTER?

STUPID IDIOT MOTHERFUCKING JOHN WINCHESTER GOD DAMN FOOL STUPID HUNTER DUST EATING RAT OLD BASTARD SHITHEAD IDIOT SOLD HIS SOUL TO A WHORE BIGGEST CLOWN IN THE CIRCUS LAUGHED RIGHT OUT OF TOWN COWBOY MOTHERFUCKING JOHN WINCHESTER

STOP PINNING ME WHEN I TALK ABOUT JOHN WINCHESTER I HATE HIM SO MUCH WHY DOES HE HAVE SO MANY FUCKED UP JOURNALS WHY DID HE DECIDE TO FUCK AROUND AND FIND OUT JUST IS HE DEAD IS HE A BASTARD MAN HAS SUCH A VISCERAL AFFECT ON ME NOT EVEN IN THE ROOM AND I KNOW HES GROWING THE WORLDS SHITTIEST BEARD GET AWAY FROM ME

if i wanted to get into heaven and god said john winchester is waiting inside i would piss on gods feet for the sole purpose of getting sent back down

if i have to deal with supernatural treating john winchester like a traumatized baby not only will i pause the show i will EAT the remote and destroy my fucking tv out of spite and have to rewatch the entire series again for the experience of being able to skip all the times when he is mentioned or alive

you dont understand i hate him so much. he abused all three of his children then made their trauma about him lied to sam all his life tried to get dean to kill him left the boys alone at dirty motels all their childhood manipulated dean for decades and somehow still got a redemption arc

he doesnt even have some fucked up backstory to explain this hes just a man who lost his wife and decided to make it their kid's problems im going ham

he BETTER have had a eternity of torture in hell. inflicting pain in john winchester is alastair's sole redeeming quality cuz if he didnt im going to torture him myself i SWEAR

he has so little episodes in which hes vaguely mentioned by what is supposed to maybe be his children (but they're bobby's) and i lost it

where the fuck is john winchester if hes still alive im going to so deeply wish he wasnt

crusty old man

ill punch john and his sad frail old man twig bones will simply flake apart under my epic huge meat fist and he will disintegrate until all thats left is one final journal he kept on him at all times simply titled Now You Fucked Up in a southern accent trust me

im not breathing im hyperventilating at this point

i hope theres a date given for when john died or will die so i can make it a reminder on my phone

everyday once a year i will see it and do anything but pay respects to the man who had so many fucked up kids and traumatized every single one

[kinaesthetiqueer]

(clearing out some drafts. condensing a couple of jnpr vs rwby into one post here)

August 1

i still haven't decided who wins rwby v jnpr

given me, there's an obvious answer. for plot reasons, i could convince glynda to skip it altogether. for canon reasons [post ends there, presumably i got distracted]

August 3rd

thinking about how i backed myself into a corner with rwby vs jnpr and how i don't really wanna write it so i might just skip it _(:3」∠)_

spoiler alert. processing rambles below.

if it does happen, rwby will probably lose because of weiss. unless rwby can convince me otherwise. they have the semblance advantage and canon on their side (food fight). however jnpr has non-canon on their side bc they're god's (my) favorite and also the way ive worked this volume favors them being more cohesive as a unit

i am thinking about ways to communicate even clearer when something from canon does or does not happen but i hope it's thus far clear that some things have yet to happen.

as Nora points out in her pre-jnpr vs crdl thoughts, she and jaune lost their duos demonstratory match. while it's yet to be mentioned, jaune still lost to cardin in his one-on-one as he does in canon.

i just rewatched jaunedice and forever fall before i decided to get tooooo far into JNdice planning. massively surprised that pyrrha becomes the target of cardin's ire simply because of being a know it all??? i knew i had my events mixed up but heavens that's hella extreme. makes dove's reasoning for going after Nora in ssvau seem... reasonable... good heavens. (hint: it's the jnpr vs crdl knockout)

for context's sake, and my own personal rambly timeline needs—

at the end of the rwby vs jnpr week (a week from current chapter), forever fall happens. which places jaundice taking place slightly to the left because i've adjusted cardin's asshole motivation in this au to crest with jaunedice, not quite originate there. giving a shorter time period of jaune torture. thankfully, because nora is our only pov that keeps track of jaune, i won't have to completely rehash canon-two-steps-to-the-left for this arc, only allude to what she notices. unfortunately for me, i do have to know everything that is happening. hence this ramble.

anyways i think the issue with jnpr vs rwby is several fold

i have a favorite team

nora is well rested

weiss is exhausted

jaune is not great at thinking on his feet

like they still prep and plan for rwby but they know damn well rwby has been more cautious about showing off than crdl ever was

pyrrha and nora and ren are gonna kick ass

blake and yang are gonna kick ass

ruby learns from earlier in the week after [spoilers] and can definitely kick ass if/when she stops pouting about weiss

the outcome has implications for the end-of-semester rankings which i am also still deciding

damn they might just have to fight until a draw due to time. because i think jaune and weiss would go down faaaaaaast.

----

bringing us to now....

okay SO since early august, i did some pretty intense problem solving and actually came up with the funniest solution possible. good news, i'm not going to skip it! bad news, im keeping the solution to myself until we get there.

it is my hope that my fight scenes are okay and fun to read, but i will be SO real with you they are one of my least favorite things to write. however, i think this one will be pretty fun

[siriwhatsmygender]

Yo we're about to switch from Don't Starve to Kdrama reviews and maybe Sims4 stuff for awhile so if you wanna hop off now I will not be offended.

Anyway, shows I've been watching lately! The King's Affection, Joseon Marriage Agency, and the first episode of Homme Fatale. And of course, my nth rewatch of The Good Place. I've got my mother hooked on it, too! Below are my thoughts on The King's Affection.

The King's Affection - I think I got about halfway through this series. It's not that I'm definitely not gonna finish it, but I've kinda lost interest in the last few episodes.

CW: Child death, public executions, suicide, murder, sexism, childbirth, torture, light gore, and probably other's I've forgotten or haven't got to yet.

Summary: Because twins are banned in Joseon, the King orders the Crown Prince to kill the younger, girl twin his wife just gave birth to. With the help of her trusted bodyguard, the Crown Princess fakes the girl's death and sends her into hiding. Many years later, the boy twin dies, and the girl twin must disguise herself to take his place.

Thoughts: starts off very sad, with the death of multiple children. The first episode is pretty emotionally rough. The second episode lightens considerably in tone, but the series is pretty dark overall. I love the main character, Lee Whi, who is hot has heck crossdressing as a man. The main love interest, a royal tutor, is sweet, cute, and very likable. He's quite smart and uses his wits to help him survive the palace and win the favor of the King, though he'd much rather be working at his health clinic. He also falls in love with Lee Whi when he thinks she's a man, and freaks out a little bit but then takes it in stride, which is endearing.

The second main love interest.... is Lee Whi's cousin. So that's a bit rough. He is loyal and the kinda of politely deranged character that I love. Everytime I feel sad that his love is unrequited, I remind myself... they're cousins. Don't feel too bad.

They kill off the mother (the current queen) fairly quickly and with no lead up. Just, Lee Whi is learning to be a boy and the crown prince, and then it's a quick cut to the mother dying. I had to rewind to find if I missed something. Nope, it's just a plot device to show that Lee Whi is almost completely alone.

I stopped watching because... at some point, all Lee Whi does is cry. Which is fair! She's losing everything! But the middle episodes are so steeped in misery, I didn't want to keep watching.

There is also some minor issues with the side characters being hurt for plot devices; you see their affect on the character and on Lee Whi but by the end of the episode you couldn't tell they had been hurt.

I very much like the Prince's bodyguard, who is silent and brooding and quietly loyal but! There's a twist. Might go back to watching just for him, tbh.

[anychairinthisplace]

okay -- my unnecessarily long and uninteresting answer! (i'm physically incapable of being concise ever!)

I watched Breaking Bad...I think soon after it finished airing? It was just A Show That I'd Heard Was Pretty Good (from nebulous unremembered sources). I don't remember but I assume I just binged the whole thing off mildly sketchy streaming sites? And I think I enjoyed it well enough (although tbh I barely remember any of the show now🙈), I liked Jesse and Skyler and was relieved that things worked out okay-ish for them in the end, but I wasn't obsessive or fandom-seeking about the show. (Probably because of some combo of (a) hating Walt with a passion, and I can't care much about shows where I despise the main protag(s); and (b) there not being any romantic relationship that I was super invested in -- I've always always always been shipper trash, so.🤷‍♀️)

At some point later I heard about the existence of BCS (I can't remember when or how, possibly it was from certain friends whose media tastes mostly don't match mine), but I'll be honest, BrBa Saul was just...not someone I was interested in seeing more of, so I didn't bother to check it out.

(I've never rewatched BrBa since that first time, and I'm honestly not looking forward to doing so -- although I will at some point -- because I already know it's gonna be torturous seeing my beloved Jimbo as that hollowed-out flattened shell/mask/coping mechanism, just the thought of him without Kim for all those years depresses and saddens me so much and how much worse to actually watch it for four seasons, and I know I'm gonna spend the whole time alternating between "jesus Jimmy wtf are you doing stop that >:c" and "Ohh, Jimmy... :(((")

What finally got me into Better Call Saul was actually the posts of jaimetheexplorer, who wrote *the* most insightful Jaime/Brienne meta back in the day. It made such an impression that even after that show ended and she pretty much stopped posting, I periodically checked back on her tumblr just in case, and when I did the most recent time, she had a bunch of stuff about BCS, from last year when s6 was airing and just after. I mostly skimmed past it, meta and gifs of a show I'd never seen, but it stuck with me on some level? There were some J/B and Mcwexler parallels posts she made? And some of, like, the visuals stayed in my head? (One I know for sure was the shared smoke scene from Uno because I remember watching the first time and as the camera started to zoom out to reveal more of the garage I recognized it and perked up immediately, all "omg, it's Kim!" even before I knew anything about her lmao.)

Anyway, it got my interest piqued enough that I suggested it to my partner as a show we could watch -- we watch tv/movies every day along with meals -- and we did, starting literally just this January lol.

We watched in the standard way for us: with an hour-long show, it's an episode a day, half-ish at lunch and the rest at dinner, with a few days break to watch a movie after each season (including after 6a)...except that I also had to take breaks after both Point and Shoot *and* Fun and Games because it was all too stressful and I'd spoiled myself for a lot of stuff that was coming (even as I tried not to) because I couldn't stop myself from getting on tumblr about this fucking show when I became irrevocably gone on it after Switch. (My shipper heart, yo.) (And not to say that I didn't love s1! I did! And not that I didn't already ship it, because I also did and was insanely intrigued by all the delightful hints and what we saw of them there. But s2 started and it was like, "okay, looks like I'm *in love* with this now. Maybe I can find gifs from just the episodes I've seen and somehow avoid everything else!")

In this way I think we finished the whole show around the end of March? (Now that I think on it, there might have been another break before Saul Gone? or maybe it was just the post-Fun and Games break extended a few days longer? I remember I didn't want to be partway through an ep when we went to see Linoleum, and then after seeing that once I needed to go and see it a couple more times, which pushed finishing BCS a bit longer than it would have taken otherwise.)

Also I made us discuss the show nigh endlessly, after each lunch and dinner watching session and in the gaps between (and I'm still bringing up things that I see online or notice on millionth rewatch of certain scenes), far more than I think any other thing we've watched ever? So there's that. (This show, man. This show.)

rb and share how you started watching breaking bad/better call saul. for science.

[imagineaworlds]

I'm Sorry -- Leto Atreides

Written By: @desperately-bisexual

Request: None.

Warnings: Cursing. Mentions of sex, violence, blood, nudity, death, torture, etc. Movie spoilers, and I assume book spoilers as well!

Pairing: Leto Atreides x fem!concubine!reader

Word Count: 1194

A/N: Certainly not my best, but I rewatched Dune, and this drabble has been on my mind for a bit since I watched it for the first time last week, so I decided to write it! Also, I have never read the books, nor do I know anything about them, so this is all based on what I know from the movie. If something's wrong, sorry! <3

The first time we slept together, it was on the tallest mountain on Caladan, rolling in the grass which I held onto for dear life with every thrust he gave, and our moans echoed through the valleys. There was no shame in what we had done. I knew of his concubine, Lady Jessica, and she knew of me. I knew of their son, Paul, and he knew of me. Later on, years after that day as my own daughter grew up, she learned to call Paul her brother, and Lady Jessica her mother— in privacy, of course. The last time he took me, Leto cried afterwards and held me in his arms as he whined about not doing more to protect our family and that he hadn’t married either myself or Jessica, both of whom he loved equally. I was speechless. There was my Duke in my arms, crying over something I had not yet known about, and all I could do was hold him until he was too tired to keep his eyes open any longer.

Hours later, I was woken up by Duncan Idaho who was covered in blood, despite his shield. Leto was nowhere to be found. Not by my side, in our bed, or even in our room. I asked Duncan where he was, and all I was met with was: “We must leave, my lady, there’s no time to waste.” Our path was blocked, however. Just as he turned to take me with him, the Sarduakar stood between us and the known doorway. He insisted that I’d run for the hidden tunnel just next to Leto’s side of the bed in case of instances such as the one we were facing where we would need a quick escape. Well, I would need a quick escape. Duncan stayed behind. I ran through the dark halls under the palace of Arrakis, navigating my way through with my arms out in front of me in the hopes that I wouldn’t run into any walls. What I didn’t anticipate was someone waiting at the end of the halls, and it wasn’t Duncan who was waiting for me like I almost expected.

“Dr. Yueh—” Just as my relief fell off my tongue, more Sardaukar appeared from behind him, clearly not a threat to him, though they were to me.

He stepped to the side so that they could grab me and drag me to the banquet hall as I kicked and screamed. It was impossible to escape them. The entire journey through the palace, no matter what I did, I was unable to free myself, and no one ever came to my aid.

And then two Harkonnen soldiers opened the doors to the banquet hall. I stopped struggling once I saw what was inside— or more of… who was inside. Sitting on the opposite end of the large table was the Baron, enjoying a fully cooked meal all on his own, brewing in the silence he shared with the man laying in a chair across from the Baron. I recognized him. Without even laying eyes upon his face, I recognized his grey curly hair that I had pulled on and played with so many times.

The Sardaukar didn’t hold me back from dashing forward while desperately exclaiming, “Leto!” I fell to my knees beside his chair.

They had stripped him of his clothes— everything, including his House ring. He didn’t look at me. He didn’t even move. I realized when I saw the sweat beading on his chest what he had done to him, that they had poisoned him with something that locked his joints and kept him in a hot pain which he had to suffer alone.

I grabbed his hand and kissed his fingers. There was usually a ring there to get in my way, or, more truthfully, to show my devotion to him and his House; but there was nothing there this time around. Nothing but my lips on his skin. I felt a single finger twitch until he could move it just enough to curl, signaling that he wanted to hold my hand. I obeyed. As our hands clasped together, I sat up on my knees to be closer to his face so that he could see me out of the corner of his eye.

I ran my free hand through his hair. “My love,” I whispered, “what’s happened?”

He couldn’t speak.

“My love, please… Please get up, walk out of here with me. Please.”

Vladimir Harkonnen laughed behind me. “And what makes you believe you’d leave here?” He stuffed his face with a giant spoonful of potatoes. “You won’t be leaving, my lady, and neither will your Lord.” He breathed loudly through his nose as he continued to chew. “You should at least find some solace in the fact that your daughter died a quick death, my lady. We’re brutes, yes, but she was too young to deserve such treatment.”

I looked to Leto again. “Please,” I cried quietly before kissing his cheek. “Please.”

For a moment, as he released his breath, I could have sworn I heard a word leave his mouth, I could swear it on my own life. He was too weak to speak loudly, so I inched closer until my ear was hovering just above his lips.

Leto croaked, “I’m sorry.” He squeezed my hand. “I love you.”

I cried again as I hid my face in the crook of his neck before I felt hands on me, pulling me away from my Lord, despite the protests that had arisen within me once again. “Leto! Leto, no! Please!” I looked to the Baron, “Please, my lord! Please! Spare him! Please!”

“Get rid of her quickly,” the Baron ordered his men who were now carrying me out of the hall.

Just before the doors closed, I saw him stand from his chair and float over the table towards Leto, and I anticipated what would happen next, though I wasn’t forced to watch, thankfully.

“Dogs!” Duncan’s voice echoed at the same time we heard screaming from inside the hall. I turned to see the warrior running right towards us with more blood drenching his hair and clothes, two blades in his hands now. “To hell with you!” And then he attacked. A few slices here and there as I jumped out of the way, and, suddenly, it was just Duncan and I standing in the hallway. “My lady, are you alright?”

“Leto—” I jumped at the doors.

Yet, I was stopped by Duncan who grunted, “Look,” he pointed at the bottom seam of the door where we could see the pink fog of poison rising. “Smell it.” We inhaled simultaneously. “Almonds. We must leave, my lady.”

“No, wait— Leto!”

“He’s gone, my lady.” Duncan was never rough with me, even hardly ever laid a hand on me, but what he did that night was understandable yet still expected. Since I was too stubborn to leave of my own volition, the man swung me over his shoulder and carried me out of the palace and to a thopter waiting for us in the middle of the burning city.

----

dune family: @peggy1999 @hotch-and-bunny @gorgeousdarkangel @alex--awesome--22 @Braxdix @Haikyuusimp

[krawalito]

What’s wrong with satisfying/happy endings?

This is going to be a long post about the new generation of films, tv shows and books and how I dislike the fact that happy endings are not a thing anymore. Instead we are served with a lot of tragedy or subverted expectations at the end of a story.

I just finished „an ember in the ashes“ books and am again frustrated that my favorite character didn’t get her happy ending. And while I was thinking about my frustration I realized that this is how I feel 80% when finishing something these past 15 years. I was born 1980 so I grew up with shows that were much lighter, sure in most cases less complex than these days but complexity doesn’t have to go in hand with tragedy or a lot of weight. Of course there are tragic stories to tell and you cannot always finish something on a happy ending but it has to at least be satisfying and most importantly MAKE SENSE AND SERVE THE NARRATIVE. Especially when it comes to the so called endgames they barley work out these days. They feed us with this amazing lovestory, great chemistry and make us root for them only to take that away from us last minute. And usually it ends in Death. Why? Why do you want to serve us „you will never get what you want in the end of the day and on top of that we are taking it away from you the hard way“. Can someone please explain to me why I should like that? What about „hey you were excited about these two, here you go, here is something you will be satisfied with“. Don’t get me wrong there are deaths that make sense because it serves the narrative (Ned stark for instance) but this is not what my post is about. It’s about playing with and teasing people only to give them the middle finger.

So I was thinking is it us the audience/readers that had the desire to let everything end in total hopelessness leaving us frustrated or is this „Hollywood“ made? Is this a generational issue or is this spread across all generations? Are there local differences? I for myself am sick of this way of Storytelling. I spend hours and hours with a story which leaves me totally unsatisfied and frustrated, time I’ll never get back.

PLEASE DEAR STORYTELLER STOP TORTURING ME AND GIVE ME SOMETHING TO BE EXCITED ABOUT FOR YEARS. SHOWS I WILL WATCH OVER AND OVER AGAIN, BOOKS I‘LL READ TWICE, MOVIES I WILL WATCH WITH MY KIDS ONE DAY.

You ruined the rise of skywalker for me, you ruined game of thrones for me, you ruined Las chicas for me, you ruined Veronica mars for me, you ruined HIMYM for me…. The list is so long it needs a separate post.

How can I ever watch the entire Star Wars saga again when TROS was such a disappointment? How can I ever rewatch Veronica mars again knowing what will happen in the end. How can I ever watch the last episode of himym again knowing who is going to die in 2 minutes and how Meeting the mother didn’t even make sense anymore? How can I ever watch season 8 of GOT again when that season was inconsistent and totally stupid? The list of disappointments is so long it’ll need a separate post.

This leaves me with the decision to spoil myself before reading or watching something because I am not willing to waste time and end up being frustrated. I am done. So done.