#who else is pumped for episode 8!

[calicoscathouse]

FINISHED!

[z1mmie]

god i know we all get caught up in the buddie of it all but i think buck's character arcs need more praise for what they are.

evan "buck" buckley is such a compelling character. i've had so much joy watching him grow out of his frat boy ways into this solid fantastic dude like we watch him settle into himself thru 1 and 2 and build his support system. he starts a bit self-centered but i *love* it cuz we get to watch his capacity for empathy just grow and grow and grow and it's so amazing to see. i feel like that's something we forget sometimes--empathy is a skill you can learn. sure it's a little inherent but there's a reason kids get literally taught to consciously put themselves in other peoples shoes. you can also tell BUCK is feeling this growth (the buck 1.0 to 2.0 to 3.0 of it all etc.)

then he gets knocked down with the ladder truck and the embolism and it just *shakes* him. i relate to his desperate reach for adulthood so much and he just clings to it in all the wrong ways but at the same time we watch him learn about himself and the people are him. by seasons 4 and 5 he's had to confront his own insecurities in a big way when it comes to what family means to him and what being *him* meant to him.

i'm mainly thinking about this rn because season 6 is so great. like buck is just growing into his leadership and it's so nice to see. he's starting to WANT responsibility in a way he never did before. he's had a steady stream of trust and encouragement and life lessons ever since he's joined the 118 and you REALLY see the big changes in the lightning episodes and what follows. we're watching him thru another long recovery and he's taking it so well when compared to the embolism. he's just my favorite even tho i could barely stand his pigheadedness in the 1st like 3 episodes 😂

even with this weird sperm donor arc i can see where they're going with this. i think the fandom babies buck a bit (which is fair only becuz he's the baby and the favorite i'm pretty sure lmao) but this arc is a really good thing for making him think about who he is outside of what he can give and how he separates himself from the giving.

i hope he learns what he's allowed to keep and take soon tho (maybe in season 8...after a certain hiatus 👀👀👀)

i haven't gotten farther than 6.12 but i also watch all the spoilers on tiktok so Bi Buck!!! i'm so pumped for him and i am also gonna lose it waiting to see what happens.

also wanna give a shoutout to the cinematography!! they do some really cool stuff and i've never seen anyone mention it before because we focus on the buddie and the failures of the show (cuz they are there even tho ive been gushing this whole time)

like the chase scene in The Devil You Know is really good. also the wonky camera choices in In Another Life are so fun!!

thank u tiktok edits for getting me into this silly little firefighter show (also does anyone else wanna join the fire academy now 😂😂)

[vestaclinicpod]

Audio Drama Sunday - 4th February ✨

🍎 CAN I TELL YOU ABOUT THE SHOW WHICH HAS TAKEN OVER MY WEEK?? @notquitedeadpod !! I’ve been meaning to listen to this show for ages - the Tumblr marketing is so good - and I’m so glad I did. This show brings vampires into the modern age in such a fun way. I love that it’s set in York, I love that it features medical stuff (with no glaring impossibilities!). I love the fresh take on Vampire lore. It’s equal parts gruesome and romantic - and I’ve been enjoying it SO much. 

👻 @tellnotalespod (S2E2.5) Oh, bless, Riley sounds absolutely EXHAUSTED and I’m not convinced that it’s entirely due to the (completely understandable) life stresses. Remember, you got attacked by a ghost? Riley, Remember that? I love that Julia is able to piece together what to do with the recorder from Leo’s nonsense, but it makes my heart very heavy to think of her listening to their recordings on the tube home - definitely for research purposes and not because she gets a small bit of comfort from them, of course. 

🌲 The @hellofromthehallowoods Valentine’s bonus My Love From The Moormire is sooo lovely (and also there was that one story that I can’t think or speak about without feeling the sensation of someone grinding the heel of their boot into the pulp of my heart, so that’s fun). Highly recommend treating yourself or a loved one this Feb. 

🎙 (241) WTNV doing what it does best by interspersing genuinely funny knife humour into moments of genuine tension. This Boy arc is so fun and I’m honestly pumped to return to the killing of one’s double era!! 

❤️‍🔥 The Love Talker (8) The inevitable happened this episode. Poor Tyler. The descriptions of the hut in the mountains were perfectly harrowing and I’m full of fear to find out what happens next with Ren and her new/old acquaintance.

🏢 @somewhereohio (S2E8) They did it!! I loved the sneaky references to why the characters got their department names and the shocking revelation about Liv’s memory. What do you MEAN that someone else has been messing around with her memories?? What do you mean Nya is inside her head?! 

⚔️ @camlannpod (2) I do so love a prophetic dream. Takes me right back to the days of Katie McGrath’s hair falling PERFECTLY over her pillows in BBC Merlin which 12y/o me was so normal about… It was so fun mentally screaming ‘KELPIE’ until the characters got it. I also have to point out how beautiful it is to hear a character who we’re assuming is taking lithium for mental health reasons telling another one that they are not ‘crazy’ (implied: something to fear) but that they’re looking after them because they love them 😭 I hope Dai has the same level of self-compassion!! ❤️ #Dai4King 

🖥️ The Magnus Protocol (4) I couldn’t stop thinking about Light From Uncommon Stars while listening to this episode. It is certainly exciting to hear a new voice as Augustus!! I’m not sure what happened at the end there, but I hate that Gwen was the only one to hear it. The parallels between her and Jon are ~apparent~ and I don’t want her to be isolated!! 

[mikiemcsmitty]

Fictober Day 1

prompt: "That was good work"

Fandom: Supernatural

Character: Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester

Rating: General

Summary:

Sam's POV: Dean attending Sam's school play "Our Town" (as referenced by Dean in season 1 episode 16)

Dad’s not here.

Of course, Dad’s not here, Sam thought to himself as he peeked out from the curtain. 

Ever since he became a teenager and started developing his own interests, John had started giving him less and less attention. All of his parental attention was reserved for Sam’s more hunting-inclined older brother. 

It wasn’t like Sam was really vying for his father’s attention in the first place; after all, John had no interest in anything but the chase. ‘Finding the thing that killed Mom’ had been his life goal for as long as Sam could remember. There wasn’t really room for John to be a dad to kids who weren't his perfect little soldiers. Dean could play that role well, but Sam… Sam wanted to have a normal life. A life that John couldn’t give him. At 8 years old Dean had to be the one to teach him how to throw a baseball and at 11 Uncle Bobby had to be the one to teach him how to ride a bike. All John did was teach him how to load a pump action shotgun with rock salt. 

Sam was used to being dropped in a random motel in a random state to get through half a semester before being picked up to start over somewhere else. Six months was the longest he had ever been at one school. This new school in Colorado was nothing different. At least it wouldn’t be different if it wasn't his first semester alone, but Sam was starting his sophomore year without Dean. Ever since dropping out of high school to be a full-time hunter, Dean was hardly around anymore. 

With all this newfound free time Sam decided to look into after-school activities to keep his mind off of how alone he now felt. It also let him stay at school longer so he didn’t have to walk half a mile back to an empty motel room so soon. 

Drama club wouldn’t have been his first choice but the kids seemed nice and sometimes they would practice until 11 pm on Fridays so it was perfect for keeping busy. 

Sam had an unnatural talent for acting developed from the years of having to lie to everyone around him including his own father sometimes. This landed him the role of George Gibbs, the male lead of the fall play.

-----

“So how's school going,” came Dean’s voice from the other end of the phone one week prior.

“It’s fine I guess,” Sam said flatly.

“Oh, come on you gotta tell me all the high school drama now that I'm not there to witness it myself.” 

“I… wouldn’t know.”

“Don't tell me you’re spending all your time in the library again.”

“No... Dean look I gotta go–”

“No no no come on Sammy tell me how it's really going.”

Sam sighs. He knew Dean wouldn't understand his sudden desire to act but he opened up anyway. “I joined the drama club…”

There was a pause on the other end. “...I leave you alone for 2 months and you've already gone full-fledged geek.” Even though they were talking on a phone Dean could swear he could hear Sam’s eyerolls. “So are you playing Dorthy or are you more of a wicked witch kind of guy.” 

“I’ll have you know I got the MALE lead roll,” Sam protested.

“Wait for real,” Dean said dropping the mocking tone. 

His sincerity made Sam get self-conscious again. “Yeah… look just… dont tell dad ok?”

“Why not I'm sure he’d love to know how you're doing.”

“If he wants to know he can call me himself…”

Dean nods softly even though Sam can’t see it. “Well look, I gotta go for real now but... what day is the play?”

“It's next Friday,” Sam said with a sigh.

“Alright break a leg.”

-----

Sam looked out into the crowd again watching as other kids' parents filed in. He knew Dean well enough to know he would tell their dad despite his wishes but Sam didn’t expect John to actually do anything with the information. Despite that feeling, he couldn't stop himself from scanning the crowd every few minutes while they waited to start. Sure enough, there wasn’t a single familiar face anywhere to be seen.

When it was finally time to start Sam took his position and waited for his queue. Once the curtain finally rose he looked out and that's when he saw him. Not his Dad but one better. His older brother. Dean Rushed in clearly disheveled from not showering after a run-in with a monster. He was standing in the back and breathing heavily from running to get there in time but that didn’t stop him from waving at his little brother when they locked eyes. 

"That was good work you did out there,” Dean said affectionately while ruffling Sam’s hair at the end of the show. 

"Just you?" Sam asked. He didn't have to specify, Dean knew what he meant. Sam was wondering if Dad was coming or had any intentions of coming.

"Just me," Dean responded.

[knackfandomarchive]

Now We're Thinking With Portals!

I initially thought of sending this as an ask to @sonicasura, but then wondered if maybe it's too sensitive and also long. And I only watched to like episode 4 so I bet things are wrong.

(KNACK X Kaiju no.8)

(also, textual depiction of Kaiju death, and blood. There is an image depicting blood)

Ok so, the plan requires equal parts extensive set-up, foresight, and prolonged secrecy and dumbassery; Somewhat characteristic of a certain duo comprised of a thirteen-year-old (headcanon) human boy and his relic monster brother (also headcanon).

Lucas wants to keep a tight lid on this plan. Though it was originally Knack's idea, Lucas quickly assumes the role of mastermind. He has to pick Kafka and Reno's brains for important information, seemingly innocuous questions like: How big can Kaiju get? Do they always explode when their bodies are pierced? Can I help clean up a Kaiju with you guys? These are natural questions, too, not so suspicious really.

There are so many ways this plan could go wrong.

Reno is only told the plan when Lucas needs to double-check his math. The latter forces the former to swear secrecy: Kafka wouldn't want a kid like Lucas anywhere near a live Kaiju, and he only hesitantly let him help scrape up a dead one.

Showtime is about to start after a Kaiju appears in just the right location. Just a few minutes after the evacuation order is delivered, Lucas virtually drags Reno away from the rest of the cleanup crew. Not sure if Kafka thinks much of it; everyone needs to evacuate and Lucas pretends to be doing just that, faking distress and begging Reno to get him out of there stat.

But the human boys appear on a rooftop directly adjacent/within the Kaiju's rampage path. I wouldn't be surprised if Reno got cold feet at this point: He looks at the angled mattress on the rooftop they stand on. He looks at the 9-feet tall relic golem - who's gripping the edge of a taller gothic building on the other side of the street with his weird bird feet and grinning down at them. Directly below Knack is an oval window, and far below, on the ground, Knack had removed the entire doorway and laid it down.

Reno looks at Lucas and says, "You're insane!"

Lucas finishes lowering his face shield, and laughs, clearly excited. Then says "Nuh uh! This is gonna be sick." He holds up a flag and Knack readies himself to jump.

Meanwhile, in another world, Doctor Vargas views the makeshift decoration set up in the garden: On the ground below a brick wall, relic ruin arches set together on their sides to form a ring, and a simpler ring of wire several feet above it, having a prong to hold it in place on the wall with something heavy. Minutes ago, the Doctor had been doing something else when the boys interrupted him, a slightly-too-tall-for-the-ceiling Knack telling him to go to the garden immediately and Lucas breathlessly giving clearer directions. Doc could barely register the words and take in the odd white garb Lucas was wearing, before the boys had high-fived with a "let's go!" and sprinted off.

Now, Lucas waits for the Kaiju to get closer, a convenient billboard keeping him and Reno out of sight. Reno is sweating, but Lucas is totally shaking, even as he grins under his mask. It's a little too late to go back now. Finally, the Kaiju's nose reaches the billboard when it spots Knack - who had himself anxiously shifted his weight - and decides he's a live thing to destroy.

Lucas swings down the flag, sending the signal, and Knack crosses his arms over his chest and jumps. The boys and Kaiju watch him fall and disappear through the archway. Lucas quietly pumps a fist, and Reno mutters that he hopes this works.

The Doctor was beginning to grow bored, until light flashes within the rings and Knack appears, falling through the portals faster and faster until he is just a blur. Knack tries to holler a greeting, "Hey... Doc..." but he is already exhausted. Finally the portals close and a great quantity of relics scatter all over the place, the Doctor yelping at the projectiles and diving behind a bush, mostly unharmed.

The Kaiju had turned itself to look down at where Knack disappeared, sniffing. Additionally, it had smacked its tail against the building the humans stood on, disturbing it. The humans flattened themselves down against the roof for this reason, as well as that the Kaiju was clear of Knack's flight path, and the living cannon ball would hurtle straight for the mattress.

This was a stupid plan, Lucas thinks to himself morosely, rolling onto his back. Helicopters approach overhead.

But then the Kaiju raises its head and body, and shudders. Knack had shot straight out of the window right then at top speed and slammed into the Kaiju's chest. If all had gone well, Knack would have been at his smallest size and maintained his form.

He doesn't come out the other side, meanwhile some relics have flown over the Kaiju's body, and the humans on the ground have to contend with the idea he might have bounced off or gotten stuck.

Defense Forces are loading out by this point.

But the Kaiju's flesh swells, caustic fluids combining, and explodes, sending blood, bone and organ matter flying. The Kaiju groans and collapses to the ground, defeated.

Reno quietly admits that that was cool.

Lucas leaps to his feet and gets dizzy. "Woah! It really went down?" And he cackles triumphantly. "But wait, where's Knack?"

He does a lunge at the edge of the roof, looking down and hoping to spy a 3-feet-tall humanoid made of relics. Sure enough, something small crawls out of the Kaiju corpse, sliding to the ground.

When Knack reaches the ground, he checks that his limbs are still intact and flicks off the gunk. It worked!

Only, the Defence Force is now on the scene! Uh oh!

[fandomtherapy44]

castiel x reader

Summary: This story is from the perspective of Y/n Winchester. The sister Of Sam and Dean. We will be starting from season four since sadly we did not get Misha Collins as Castiel throughout the whole series. It will start off as a friendship, but it will grow more as the series goes on. I will be skipping some episodes even though they are great episodes they do not push the story forward. I am so excited to get to write this since they are not many Castiel X reader stories out there. Okay without further due Love War & Grace enjoy the Story.

Paring: Castiel X Reader

Word count: 5,820

Warnings: Some language, Typical Supernatural violence, Spoilers for season four of Supernatural

Chapter 8: Death take's a holiday

POV: Y/n

I am properly on my sixth cup of coffee at this point because I was so tired from staying up all night thinking about all the bullshit tremoli I've had to deal with. Also, I can sip it and not have to talk to Sam and Dean unless I had to. The last few weeks have been tedious with the three of us tip toeing around the fucked-up things we said when we were under the siren’s spell even though it was the truth at the moment to us. Sam was on the phone to Bobby talking about an interesting case he had found, and Dean was banging at the jukebox to get it to work, and I was trying not to explode with all the emotions I had running through my body. “No, no, no, you're right, it's definitely weird. ...Okay, Bobby, thanks.” Sam said, hanging up the phone. “What's up?” Dean sat down. “Bobby found something in Wyoming.” “A job?” I questioned. “Maybe” he responded. “Small town, no one's died in the past week and a half.” “Ok and is that not a normal good thing.” I questioned. “Well, it's how they're not dying.” 

 “One guy with terminal cancer strolls right out of hospice. Another guy gets capped by a mugger and walks away without a scratch.” “Capped in the ass?” Dean questioned and I chuckled under my breath at that one. “Police say Mr. Jenkins was shot in the heart at point-blank range by a nine-millimeter.” “Alright that one no way someone is walking away it looks like we got a case.” I said as it seems like I spoke to them for the first time today. “It's got to be something nasty, right? I mean, people making deals or something.” Sam said to us. And he wasn't wrong it looked like this had demon’s fingerprints all over it. The boys get up to leave as I stay sitting. “Y/n come on” Sam said to me. “You sure you guys want me to go with you. I mean you might have to save me and that is just pathetic right?” I said sipping my coffee and not looking up from my cup. “Y/n/n we said we're sorry okay I thought we were past this.” Dean responded looking sorry for a second. I finished my cup and got up not bothering to look at them. “Yeah, we're past it.” I said as I walked past them.

We were now at the man’s house who was shot straight in the chest and is now walking around like nothing had touched him. “Now you three said you were bloggers?” He asked us. “Yes, sir. Floored by the Lord dot com.” I answered. “All of God's glory fit to blog.” Sam and I both look at Dean like really. “Um. Some of the people around town are saying what happened to you was a miracle.” I said to him. “It was. Plain as day.” “How can you be so sure?” “How else do you explain it? The doctors can't. There's a bullet in my heart, and it's pumping like a piston.” It does sound like a miracle but sadly with this life it never really is. “Well, how do you explain it?” Dean asked. Jim looks over to his daughter who was coloring at the other table and smiles. “Look, honestly. I was nobody's saint—not exactly father of the year, either.” “Okay”

“But when that guy shot me, and I didn't bleed a drop? I just knew the Lord was giving me a second chance.” Right the Lord. "That so?” “I had this feeling—like angels were watching over me.” Huh okay now that's something we can work with. “I wouldn't expect you guys to understand.” “Trust us Jim we understand.” Especially if an Angel is becoming my best friend. “You wouldn't have happened to have swung by a crossroads in the past week or so?” Sam asked getting info if this was a Demon thing. “No” Jim said back confused. “Maybe you met someone? With black eyes? Or red?” Should have stopped at the first question. “Who'd you guys say you were again?” The three of us look at each other. “Never mind. Thank you for your time.” I said getting up to leave. 

Dean was reading something on the computer while I was getting coffee … again. “Hey” Sam said entering the room. “Hey you find anything else?” I asked him. “That cancer survivor? He was clinically dead, his wife pulled the plug, and now he's taking her out for their twentieth anniversary.” The more I hear about people living their lives I want to leave this phenomenon alone. “Any sign of a deal?” Dean asked. “No. What about you? Found anyone dying around here?” “Not since Cole Griffith.” I responded back. “Poor Kid was 12 and dropped in his front yard. It was the last death we could find.” “So, what are you guys thinking?” Sam asked us. “Eh, maybe it is what the people say it is.” Dean said back.

“I think we would all love that Dean, but I don't think so.” I said back to him. “Yeah miracles? Dean, our experience, when do miracles just happen?” “Well, there's no deals. There's, uh, no skeevy faith healers.” He was right so what was going on in this town. “Dean’s right the souls aren't being taken.” “Maybe 'cause there's no one around to carry them.” Sam replied back. “No reapers that would explain this.” “Then nobody's dying. So what? The local reapers on strike? Playing the back nine? I don't know, Sam, Y/n.” “Well let's talk to someone who might Cole.” I said. “The kid? The kid's a doornail.” “Maybe maybe not but we could go talk to him to figure it out.” “I love how matter of fact you are about that. Strange lives.” We do have strange lives since we're talking about talking to a dead person.

We were digging up Cole's grave well more like Sam and I. Dean was going through Dad’s journal. “You sure this is gonna work?” He asked Sam. “No. But if his spirit's around, this should smoke him out.” “I can't believe we're doing this to a kid’s grave. It's messed up.” I said I was still digging. “Yeah, well unfortunately it's part of the job.” Sam gave me an answer when I was not looking for one, I was hoping maybe for some sympathy. “This job is jacked.” Dean said, sounding done. “How so?” Sam questioned. “You want me to gank a monster or torch a corpse, hey, let's light it up, right? But this? If we fix whatever this is, people are gonna start dropping dead. Good people.” He was right but whatever was keeping the souls I had a feeling was not good. “Look, I don't want them to die, either, Dean, but there's a natural order.” Sam’s response to Dean was complete Bullshit. “Sam, you want to talk “natural order ", how about Dean coming back from Hell or us still being alive after dealing with the jackpot of death.” I finished jamming my shovel harder in the ground annoyed at Sam. “Yeah, but the normal rules don't really apply to us, do they?” I did a double take at him.

“Really Sam? We are not like others, we are just as human as others.” “Y/n/n come on as you said Dean has been to hell and I'm infected with demon blood, and you are practically besties with an Angel.” I scoffed at his reasoning. “Look, I know you want to think of yourself as Joe the Plumber, Dean, and you y/n as a secretary but you're not. Neither am I. The sooner you accept that, the better off you're gonna be.” “You gonna help us finish this?” Sam asked Dean as a man walked up. “Hey!” shit shit shit we really need to get better at being quiet digging up graves. “What are you doing here?” He questioned. How do you even reason this? “Uh so this does not look like what it is.” I said, sounding nervous. “Really? 'Cause it looks like devil worship.” Fuck we so need to get better. “What? No! No, this is not devil worship. This—This is—this—this is, uh—” Dean was trying to reason. “I don't have a good answer.” He said and I gave him a really look. “We're leaving.” Sam said as we got out of the grave.

“You're not going anywhere.” Huh? “Ever again. Sam.” The man said as his eyes rolled to white. Oh, fucking great its Alice from Hell. “Alastair.” “I thought you got deep fried, extra-crispy.” Dean said, backing away a bit. “Nah. Just the pediatrician I was riding. His wife's still looking for him. It's hilarious. Anyway, I have no time to chat. Got a hot date with death.” He flicks his hand at Dean and I as he flies back and hits some tombstones. “Dean, Y/n!!!” Sam yelled out. I was slowly fading as I saw some things as Sam had flicked Alastair back. “You're stronger, Sam. You've been soloflexing with your little slut?” “You have no idea.” And then Alice smoked out Sam was still hooked I thought as I went out like a light.

I was sitting on the motel bed with a hell of a headache and an ice pack and wondering about Sam. “How you two doing?” He asked, walking in. I was thinking a lot about how to talk to him about this. I may be pissed but he was still my brother there was a reason why he was still hooked. “We're in pain, that's how we’re doing. I think we have concussions.” I think he was right because things were starting to cross. “You want some aspirin?” “Oh God yes please” I said, grabbing at it. My brothers may be able to tuff it out around but not me. “No thanks, House. So, demons, huh?” Dean said and of course he would say no. “Yeah. So much for miracles.” Sam replied. “And what the hell happened with Alastair again?” Dean questioned. What is Sam going to say to that I wonder. “I told you, he tried to fling me or whatever. And it didn't work, so he bailed.” Really Sam Alastair the big bad Demon couldn't fling a human when he did to us yeah that's believable. “Well, how come he couldn't fling you? He chucked you pretty good last time.” “Got no idea.” Sam’s got to get better at lying. “Sam, do me a favor. If you're gonna keep your little secrets, I can't really stop you, but just don't treat us like idiots, okay?” Dean said to Sam about us, and he had no idea. “What? Dean, I'm not keeping secrets.” 

As I said before, get better Sam. “Mm-hm. Whatever. So, did you go back and q-and-a the dead kid?” See, even Dean can sense when something is going on. “Didn't have to. Bobby called. He did some digging.” “And what did he think?” I asked. “He thinks I'm right. Local reaper's gone. Not just gone—kidnapped.” “By demons? Why?” “Listen to this.” As he read from the notebook. “"And he bloodied death under the newborn sky—sweet to taste, but bitter when once devoured."” “Ha I really hope I'm wrong sam but that sounds biblical like a seal.” “Well you are right Y/n unfortunately basically, you kill a reaper under the solstice moon—tomorrow night, by the way—you got yourself a broken seal.”

“How do you ice a reaper? You can't kill death.” Dean examined. “I don't know. Maybe demons can. Where the hell are the angels is what I want to know. We could use their help for once.” Yeah, sadly they aren't on doctor calls even though I would love to give Cas a pager. ““What are we gonna do, just swing in and save the friendly neighborhood reaper?” “You got a better idea, I'm all ears.” “Dean, reapers are invisible. The only people that can see them are the dead and the dying.” Right, oh no.”Well, if ghosts are the only ones that can see them…” No No No.”Then we become ghosts.” Dean said, putting his ice pack back on his head. “You do have a concussion.” “No Sam he doesn’t he's just insane he's talking about astral projection. Which means Pamela, which means she is going to hate us more.” I said sighing and lying back on the bed.

Pamela and Dean enter the room with Pam looking pissed. “I can't even begin to tell you how crazy you three are.” She was right, we go look for danger every day. “Well, Pamela, you're a sight for sore eyes.” Sam said to her trying to lighten the mood. “Aw, that's sweet, grumpy. What do you say to deaf people?” Damn “Which one of you brainiacs came up with astral projection?” She asked us. “Yo.” Dean said, raising his hand a bit. “Of course. Chachi.” I love how she calls them out like I do. “So, let's be clear. You want to rip your souls out of your bodies and take a little stroll through the spirit world? Do you have any idea how insanely heavy-duty that is?”

“Maybe, but that's where the reaper is, so…” “So, it's nuts.” “Yes, it is but that's why we came to you.” I replied. “I do. Know what to do. And guess what? I'm sick of being hauled back into your angel-demon, Soc-Greaser crap.” “Look, I'd love to be kicking back with a cold one, watching Judge Judy, too.” Dean said to her, and he sounded like a total dick. “Nice. More blind jokes?” “You know what I mean. We're talking the end of the world here, okay? No more tasseled leather pants, no more Ramones CDs, no more” I look at her and grab her hand. “Please Pam, we need your help.”

I was closing the curtains so it would be an easier environment to slip into the astral plane. While the boys were lighting some candles. “Tell me something, geniuses. Even if you do break into the veil and you find the reaper, how are you gonna save it?” She asked us which was a good question since we hadn't gotten that far. “With style and class.” Dean replied with his usual cocky attitude. “You're gonna be three walking pieces of fog who can't touch or move anything. You'll be defenseless, hotshot.” “I seem to recall a bunch of ghosts beating the crap out of us.” Sam said. “Sam, they had years to be mad and to practice for us it will be like going into kindergarten with seniors.” I replied to my brother's comment. “Y/n’s right.” Pam agreed with me. “Well, then, I guess we got to start cramming.” Dean said, slapping his hands together in preparation. "Wow, couple of heroes. All right. Lie down. Close your eyes.”

Sam layed down on the left bed and Dean and I layed down on the right because there were only two beds. “Animum vult decipi, ergo decipiatur. Vis, vis, vis. Okay, guys. That's it. Showtime.” I open my eyes and look around at everything looking the same. “Well, nothing like shooting blanks. What's plan B?” Dean said and Pam did not respond. I look at Sam as he jesters to our bodies. “Damn this is trippy.” “You can say that again” Sam said, agreeing with me as Pam stood up.

“All right, so, I'm assuming you're somewhere over the rainbow. Remember I have to bring you back. I'll whisper the incantation in your ear.” She said as she whispered something to Sam and I'm guessing I didn’t want to know what she said. “Y/n be safe.” “Thanks Pam you too.” I responded back even though she couldn't hear me. It was nice to have someone other than my family care about me.

We are walking on the street, and everything looks like it's colored in a bluish tint. A jogger runs through Sam like he was air well I guess he was. “That was wild.” Dean said smiling like this was fun. He then proceeds to put in his arm through Sam. “Am I making you uncomfortable?” “Get out of me.” Dean looked at me. “Oh, don't even think about it ghost or not I'll still kick your ass.” I said to him, “You guys have no fun. Come on.” He said walking further down the street. “Oh, man, we've been spooking this town for hours. No demons, no black smoke.” Dean finished as I looked up to a window of a house and saw someone staring at us. “Hey. Three o'clock. Kid in the window.” I said to them nodding my head up, he saw us and disappeared. “It's Cole Griffith, the last person to die in this town.” We look at each other and head to the house.

We go upstairs and we can hear stuff being thrown and Miss.Griffith running away scared and sad. As we enter the room Cole is standing by his dresser and he throws a soccer ball right at us. “Stop! How are you doing that?” Dean said, grabbing Cole's hand. “Who are you?” He asked us. “Cole, it's okay.” I said approaching him. “How do you know my name?” “Look, this isn't gonna be easy to hear, but...you're—dead. You're a spirit. Us too.” Sam said to him. I'm pretty sure he knows. "Yeah, thanks, Haley Joel. I know I'm dead. What do you want?” See. “We just want to talk.” I said to him. “About what?” 

Mrs. Griffith was pouring another glass of her poison at the kitchen table, and it was like looking at a video of me from when Dean was in Hell and Jack and Daniles was my best friend. Cole was standing closest to his mom looking at her. “I was outside all morning. They tell you to be careful when it's cold.” He had passed away in front of his own house from an asthma attack kid deserved so much longer. “Cold air can cause an asthma attack?” Dean asked and Cole shrugged.

“But then I was in my room. It happened so fast. I called out for my mom, but nothing came out. Everything started spinning, and then I was just standing there, looking down at my body.” “And that's when you saw the man?” Sam asked referring to the reaper. “Creepy old guy in a black suit. He wanted me to go with him, but…” He turned back to his mom. “I didn't want to go.” I don't blame him, I don't think anyone would. He was a twelve-year-old full of life with a great family. “How'd you get rid of him?” Dean asked him as in where the reaper went. “I didn't. The black smoke did.” “Black smoke?” “It was everywhere. I hid in the closet, and when I came out, it was gone, and so was he.”

“Do you know where the smoke went?” “No. But I know where it is.” Just than the lights started to flicker, and the house started to shake. “They're back.” Cole said. “Who?” He doesn't answer and vanishes. And a white shaped figure went upstairs. “Hey! Hey! Wait! We need to talk to you!” Dean said going after the white figure. Sam and I following. A woman comes down the stairs and she looked at Dean like she knows him. “Dean.” She says to him, and it looks like she does. “Do I know you?” He asked. “We go way back.”

Tessa walked down the stairs in front of us. “You don't remember me?” she asked Dean. “Honestly, if I had a nickel for every time, I heard a girl say that... You're gonna have to freshen my memory.” Tessa then surprises us all by pulling him forward and gives him a soft kiss and let’s go. "Tessa” Dean says with a knowing expression in his eyes. “That's one of my names, yeah.” “So, you do know each other?” I questioned. “From the hospital after the accident.” “Wait the one with Dad?” He nodded. “So, this is the reaper that came after you.” Sam questions looking at them both. “Yeah” Tessa then turns to the stairs to go up to the kid I’m presuming.

“Well, this was fun. Now, if you'll excuse me—” “Wait, wait, wait, wait, you can't—you can't take the kid.” Dean stops her. “Why?” “Demons are in town, that's why. They've already snatched your reaper pal. The kid knows where.” “So?” “So, you should leave, or you could be next.” I said to her. “Except that this town is off the rails.” When we are talking to her Mrs. Griffth is getting ready to go somewhere while Sam and I watch her. “And someone has to set it straight.” She said to us. “Yeah, we understand that, but these are special circumstances.”

Dean said, trying to reason with her. “What? Your whole angel-demon dance-off? I could care less. I just want to do my job.” I wish I could do that. “Right, yeah, and, look, we want to help you do your job. So, if you would just bail town— “Sam starts to say. “No.” “Well, then, could you hold off until we fix this? Please.” Dean asked, pleading with his eyes. “All right, but just so we're clear, when I start reaping again, I'm starting with the kid.” Damnit “Okay well I'll go find him.” I said starting to go upstairs but Dean stopped me. “Wait, wait, wait, wait. What— What are you gonna say to him?” I answered honestly. “The truth.” I said as all three starred after me like I was crazy.

As I walked up to Cole's room, I hoped that I could approach him in a delicate way and still tell him. “Cole? It’s me Y/n” I looked to the closet door and saw it was closed and I went over to knock on it. “Cole, I just want to talk.” He opened the door with his ghost powers, and he was sitting on the ground with his head in his knees. “How did you know I was in here?” He asked me. “When I was your age, I used to hide in here too.” I sat down next to him. “This all must be pretty overwhelming, huh? Pretty scary, too.” I hoped he could see I wanted to help him. “The worst is my mom.” “Must be hard seeing her like this.” “She's always coming in here, talking to me, telling me how sad she is. I knock some stuff over to let her know I'm here, but...she only gets sadder.”

“When someone I loved passed, I was like your mom I basically kept on talking to a ghost.” I said referring to myself when Dean died and went to hell. “I don't know why you're telling me this. I'm not telling you where the smoke is.” “Cole, I’m telling you this to help you when I was like your mom, I had someone help me so maybe you can be that for her.” “She feels your spirit, that's why she's sad because she can't be with you. So, imagine how she will feel when you move on.” He doesn't speak. “When you go, I'll be right next to you, so you won't be alone. I promise.” He looks up. “Promise” “Promise” 

Cole and I walk downstairs as I clear my throat. “It's okay, Cole. Just tell them what you told me.” “I saw the black smoke at my funeral.” “At the cemetery?” Dean questioned. “At the funeral home. It was everywhere.” It makes sense for reapers, funeral homes. Then the lights started to flicker again. “You doing that?” Dean asks Tessa. “No.” The doors burst open, and the black smoke invades all over the room and I can't see for a second and when it's gone so is Tessa. “Tessa!” “Cole, you, okay?” I asked him. He nodded his head. “Well, how the hell are we supposed to fight that?” Dean asked, sounding annoyed. “Good question, learn some ghost moves.” I suggested. “By tonight? Yeah, sure. I'll meet you back at Mr. Miyagi's.” I shrugged. “Who's Mr. Miyagi?” Cole asked and the three of us just between us and feeling old and me sad for Cole for not seeing the legendary Karate kid.

Cole was teaching us how to move a windmill and it was harder than I thought it would. Right now, Dean was trying. “It's not gonna move if you don't concentrate.” “I am concentrating.” Sam and I both raise our eyebrows at each other. Dean moves it a little bit. “Ah, here we go, baby.” And it stops. “You pull a muscle?” Cole said and let me tell you he is a funny twelve-year-old. “All right, Yoda, let's see what you got.” Cole tries and the windmill and the porch bench goes crazy with wind. “Nice Cole, that is so cool!” I said to him fist bumping him.

“Dude! You are so Amityville.” Cole smiles. “This isn't even the good stuff.” We were now in the living room learning how to punch. Cole punches Sam and he folds over. “See? If you want to hit something, you just got to get mad.” Oh, I can get mad. Sam stands back up out of breath. “Yeah, got it.” “Now you try. Hit me.” Cole said Dean. “Uh, I think I'll stick to just picking on somebody my own size.” Cole then punches Dean and Sam and I both laugh. Dean then goes to punch Cole back, but he vanishes. “Whoa. Whoa, you got to teach us that.” I said to him.

Dean, Sam, and I walked over to the funeral home, and it was covered in glowing blue diagrams, mostly six-sided figures, some in circles and some in squares, all with lines through them and squiggles inside the triangles thus formed. “This looks like New Jack City. Can nobody see this?” Dean questioned. “Maybe it's demon invisible ink. Only see it in the veil.” Sam answered. “It could be keeping out Angels.” I add in. “We'll find out.” We walk in and in the middle of the room, there is a square with triangles on each side to form an eight-pointed star, with squiggles at each point. Lying in the figure are Tessa and an old man in a suit, presumably the first reaper.

A Demon was standing guard next to the star. “Watch and learn boys.” I said going behind the Demon and tapping him on the shoulder and when he turned, I punched him and when he tried, I disappeared. Dean then comes to the other side and does the same and Sam knees him in the chest. It was an all sibling beat down. He scrambled away to a hide behind a coffin. We followed him and we didn't see the other demon behind us, and he pulled a rope that brought down an iron rod that dropped and trapped us in. A third Demon walked, and it was my favorite fucking one Alice in wonderland.

Alastair approaches us with a shotgun and shoots Dean, and he disintegrates. “Rock salt's not so much fun anymore, is it?” Sam and I glare at him as Dean reappears. “Alastair. You bastard.” “Well, go on. Why don't you try some of your mojo on me now, hotshot?” We can't do anything. Usually, I love Iron and rock salt but today it's a pain in the ass. “You know what Alice, why don't you hop your way back to Hell.” I said grinding my teeth.

“Ah the little Winchester you may be a bitch, but you got some kick It's going to be fun peeling your skin off. And I would go back. They just keep sending me back up to this arctic craphole.” “To kill death?” “No, to kill death twice. It takes two to break a seal. I figured another one would show up, though. They're like lemmings.” He cocks the gun again and this time he shoots me. I reappeared and son a bitch that hurt. “You can shoot us all you want, but you can't kill us.” “Ah, that so?” 

Alice now has a giant scythe in his hands. “Anyhoo… moons in the right spot. The board is set. Let's get started, shall we?” “You're gonna kill a reaper with that? It's little on the nose, don't you think?” Dean said. “Is it? “An old friend lent it to me. You know, he doesn't really ride a pale horse? But he does have three amigos.” He walked over to the reapers. “And they're just jonesing for the apocalypse. It pays to have friends in low places. Don't you think?” Alastair picks up the old reaper and enacted the incantation and kills him. As he does this Sam and I look up at the chandler and have the same idea. He then goes for Tessa and Sam, Dean and I concentrate on the chandler to bring it down. It falls down and breaks the trap and Tessa is able to break free. She unhooks our trap and we’re able to get out. “Bye-bye.” Dean said and the four of us vanish. 

We get back on the street and Dean and Sam are not here. “Where are your brothers?” Tessa asks me. “I'll find them when you get out of here.” She leaves and I go looking down some alleyways “SAM! DEAN!” I yell. “You can't run. Y/n. “I turn and their standing is Alastair. I back away and he follows “Not from me. I'm inside that angsty little noggin of yours.” He's about to attack but instead a white, blue lighting strikes him. “What the Hell?” “Guess again.” I turn back around, and Cas is there.

“What just happened? You guys just saved a seal. We captured Alastair. y/n, this was a victory.” “Were you here the whole time?” I ask him. He looks away. “Enough of it.” Great. “Well, thanks for your help with the rock salt.” “That script on the funeral home—we couldn't penetrate it.” “It was enochian I was right” “Why do you think I recruited you guys in the first place?” Wait hold up. “You recruited us?” I ask. “That wasn't your friend Bobby who called, y/n. It wasn't Bobby who told Sam about the seal.” “That was you?” He nodded looking down.

“If you want our help, why the hell didn't you just ask?” “Because whatever I ask, your brother seems to do the exact opposite.” “Cas you could have asked me, I would have helped you.” “You shouldn't have to.” “So, what now, huh? The people in this town, they just gonna start dying again?” “Yes.” “These are good people. What, you think you can make a few exceptions?” “You did for Dean” “He’s different. So are you.” “What does that mean?” I ask him. “Y/n? I could use your help.” It's Tessa and when I turn back to Cas he's gone.

Cole is staring at his mom again and she is looking at a photo book of Cole. “Look at her, Cole. Do you see how unhappy she is?” Tessa said, trying to convince him. “That's why I want to stay with her.” “As long as she can feel you, she'll be in pain, because she can't let go. Because you won't let go of her.” “Why won't anybody tell me what's on the other side?” “Maybe nobody wants to ruin the surprise.” “That's not an answer.” “She won't answer you, Cole. Reapers never do. But trust me. Staying here is a whole lot worse than anything over there.” I said to him. “Why?” “Because one day, your family will be gone, and there'll be nothing left here for you. It's okay to be scared.” “I'm not scared.” “We're all scared. I'm scared every day that I won't be able to save my family. It’s okay to be scared Cole.” He pauses.

“Are you coming?” He asked me. Staring at him I walk over to him and hug him. “I won't but you will be okay. I know being scared feels horrible, but I have a secret. I turn that into bravery for the people I love because they deserve it. I know you can do it too.” He let me go. “Thank you, Y/n, for telling me the truth.” And with that he walked over to Tessa and hugged her, and he melts into a white light. “Look out for that boy.” “Look out for yourself, Y/n.” “What do you mean?” “I've been around death from the get-go. You know what I see most? Lies. "He's in a better place." "At least they're together now." You all lie to yourselves, Y/n 'cause like you said, deep down, you're all scared. Stop lying to yourself, Y/n.” “What” “The angels have something good in store for your brother. A second chance. Really? 'Cause I'm pretty sure, deep down, you know something nasty's coming down the road. Trust your instincts, Y/n. There's no such thing as miracles.” “What the Hell are you saying?” I didn't get an answer as I woke up.

I wake up with a deep breath and look around to see my brothers and Pam hurt. “What happened?” I question racing to her side. “Y/n, where's Tessa?” “She's…” “Pamela, I'm so sorry.” Sam said, getting emotional. “Stop.” “You don't deserve this.” “Yeah, I don't. I told you I didn't want anything to do with this. Do me a favor? Tell that bastard Bobby Singer—to go to hell forever introducing me to you three in the first place.” “Take it easy, Pamela. If it's any consolation, you're going to a better place” I said to her comforting well trying. “You're lying.” She was right, I was. “But what the hell, right? Everybody's got to go sometime.” “Y/n come here.” I go over to her and lean down. “The Angel you have on your shoulder might be more devil than you think. Be. Careful.” I backed away. Then she called over Sam. When she was done, she started to cough. She passed. “Pamela!” Dean yelled and then looked up at Sam. “What did she say to you?” Sam doesn't answer.

Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed it! I am so sorry this took so long. Part of it was writer's block and life and the other was that this is not my favorite episode, but I thought it be important to the story. But the next episode is head on the pin and oh my gosh it's probably one of my fav episodes from season four. So, look out for that!

NEXT

[sunny6677]

Some more things about Sweetprincess (Kevin x Tom) in the Wicked Month AU!

(AU created by @mayisgoingnuts — be sure to check em out)

1. Tom possibly ends up breaking down crying during Hollow Sorrows whenever she visits the candy store with Gregor, Skid and Pump. Or she does it after the episodes events. But either way, upon seeing her cry, Kevin is in shock and absolutely hates it. He isn't sure why, but anytime Tom actually starts to cry, he feels pretty bad about it.

2. When Skid and Pump basically force him to apologize after he made Tom cry, Kevin is very reluctant at first. But does genuinely mean it because he really doesn't like it when it's her who's crying.

3. Tom always comes running into the store to excitedly ramble to Kevin about something princess related. And he usually zones out while she's talking, but will sometimes only pay attention when he hears her saying the craziest shit and he's like "Wait WHAT?".

4. Kevin goes into immediate denial once he starts liking her and even tries avoiding her. But somehow Skid and Pump find out, and decide to make his life a living hell with their newfound knowledge. Though in their eyes, it's justified 'vengeance' for all the times he's been rude to her.

5. Tom only starts suspecting the kids when she walks in on them causing trouble one day. And tries to get them to avoid Kevin a little more after that.

6. Even though Kevin's an ass to her, the moment something bad happens, he immediately is like "oh no bby🥺".

7. Kevin is possibly a lot more harsh on Jeremy because his influence on Tom in this AU.

8. Tom is way more dead set on making Kevin proud of her no matter what, because she thinks he isn't due to some of his more rude remarks in the past.

9. Tom caught Kevin looking miserable as hell after the kids brought him trouble again, so even if she didn't know what was going on, she felt bad. So she just went up to him and leaned on him gently as some odd way of comforting. Despite his protests, this seemed to help a little. And this is possibly the first time he gives her a hug here? I'm not sure if this should be the first time he hugs or if his first time hugging her should be something more emotional.

10. Skid, Pump and literally everyone else besides Kevin knows damn well Tom has a crush on him. But people who don't know of Kevin's troubles feel bad for her since they aren't sure why she'd like someone 'like him'.

[yesyayroleplay]

What is Yes Yay Roleplay?

Hello there friends, foes, and fey! Allow us to introduce ourselves. We are Yes Yay Roleplay, the hottest new actual play table top roleplaying game channel. The six of us are all improv actors who met at the same contract doing immersive improv theatre. Naturally, a dnd campaign started up and we quickly realized we had something special. Between a dynamic chemistry with our players, a fresh homebrewed world, and a prolific artist amongst the players, we had the perfect ingredients to start our own dnd show! Inspired by shows such as Critical Role and Dimension 20, we strive to bring the magic we found in our first home game to your screen.

So, we got to work. Pulling all the connections we had, we found an incredibly affordable studio and started making plans. Our friends at Midnight Syndicate even offered to let us use their music for the show. A huge win for us, especially since they wrote the official Dungeons and Dragons Roleplaying Soundtrack.

We filmed our first campaign "Chronicles of Chromaria" in early 2022 and released it a few months later. A 16 episode campaign with a dynamic editing style was an extremely venturous undertaking. We had no small share of issues between missing footage, low mic quality, and a general lack of know-how. Can you believe we thought ONE person would be able to edit the entire thing? But we are quick learners. We reworked our strategy, spread the work load, and began to pump out the episodes every week.

And we did... and more. Every episode came out on time (mostly). But not just the episodes. Music. Art. Guest cameos. We were putting out so much good content that really set us above and beyond the average actual play show.

So what then? We keep going right? But we weren't all working in the same place anymore. We didn't have access to the studio until next year. So we did what any resourceful group of actors would do, we bought some webcams and got to filming.

We filmed a couple of holiday themed campaigns in our living rooms. While we working with less equipment and space, it did let us film with guest stars. Something we hope to continue in the future.

Then we had to start thinking about this year. We had the studio, we had experience, and we had a plan. 8 days in the studio, four campaigns, and 25 episodes in total. That's 20 player characters, and countless NPCs for our artist to draw. Hours of prep for those dm-ing. Thousands of hours editing. And on top of that, we put out an album. Expanded our show from YouTube to Spotify. Opened a merch store. All while running and managing our own social media accounts.

As of right now, we've launched our Star Wars 5e campaign so far and just released episode 3 of our 16 episode arc 'The Rivers of Else'. We're in the thick of editing and promoting. Sometimes it feels like we are yelling into the void, but all it takes is a comment from a friend or a fan sharing the joy the found in the smallest moment in our show that reminds us why we did this in the first place.

We had a dream, one of us asked 'Yes?' and we all said 'Yay!'

So always... always remember to say... Yes Yay!

[gojuo]

I'm getting really annoyed with the show pushing rhaenicent. Frankly i find the pairing terrible for both alicent and rhaenyra. Alicent is made into a foolish and hysterical woman who ignores everything that happens to her true family;her kids for people who will not hesitate to murder them or be fine with others harming them (rhaenyra). Rhaenyra also would have been a better more complex person if they went with the books. She should have been allowed to be bloodthirsty.

Frankly making alicent the central figure against rhaenyra is destroying the whole story, when it should have been aegon. He has the better and more complex story than alicent. If you are trying to make a feminist story why make every woman a victim? Why not let them do terrible things? Why not let them be cunning?

Right now the story feels very unbalanced and unnatural as these writers who started rhaenicent are not good at all. They should have gone with the books, which atleast made a bit of sense.

(this whole thing feels like if they made viserys/rhaenys a couple, how illogical/stupid would that be; let people have their own agendas)

Frankly, if it had been up to me, HOTD Season 1 wouldn't have been 10 episodes, or it would have ended with the Green dress moment. HOTD suffers from not having multiple protagonists like how GOT had: the show only has one protag and that is Rhaenyra. Alicent serves as her antagonist and Viserys is the deuteragonist. This was a garbage choice as you can see because it fails in delivering a complex and nuanced story like we've discussed countless times already on this blog. They should have gone the GOT route wherein they had multiple protagonists all on the same level spanning across multiple locations — and HOTD should have done that but spanning across different periods of time.

In ep. 1 I'd have the entire first half of the episode focus on the Great Council of 101 AC with Old King Jaehaerys then second half of the episode is about Alicent's life at court and showing her reading to Jaehaerys as he lays dying. Alicent becomes the protagonist alongside Viserys after he ascends the throne, and Daemon would be in the role of antagonist to them both. This would serve the plot of how dangerous Daemon is and why no one wants him to succeed Viserys since he is still the presupposed heir as long as Viserys has no sons + give an insight to Alicent's fear of him in the future. Alicent would continue to be the protagonist because Rhaenyra is still too young at this point in time. Up until she gets appointed as heir though at age 8 — this is when Rhaenyra would become a new protagonist alongside Alicent. Daemon would continue to be the antagonist to both of the ladies and Viserys becomes the deuteragonist. When Alicent marries Viserys, he becomes her antagonist and continues to be the second most important character to Rhaenyra's story.

Rhaenyra and Alicent continue as the two protagonists of the show but also as the antagonists of each other's storyline as we focus on court life and politics and Criston Cole in the years leading up to Rhaenyra's self-imposed exile to Dragonstone as she pumps out bastard after bastard after bastard. When she fucks off to that island, she should be fading from the role of protagonist until the war starts, only returning for the few moments with Daemon/Laena, the Vaemond murder, the reunion dinner, etc. etc.

Aegon would be an almost-teen by this time, so as Rhaenyra fades from the narrative (emphasizing how little she cared about being a dutiful monarch and how the power of the throne was nothing but a vehicle for her to use to satisfy her fancies and caprices and little else), Aegon becomes the third protagonist. Sadly, Alicent's time as protag would be fading as well to make room for Aegon. I would keep her as the main protagonist until Aegon and Helaena get married I think. Aegon becomes the main character as Alicent becomes the deuteragonist to his story and Viserys becomes his antagonist.

When Aegon becomes an adult, he would not only be the main character, but I would also put Helaena in the role of deuteragonist and Alicent turns a little into his antagonist (because we can deny it all we want, but it doesn't change the fact that she did ruin his life a little bit. I say this with lots of love, don't get me wrong I love her to death <3). She would be the third most important character in his storyline. Viserys stays as the main antagonist until the end of time cuz I hate that man and that's exactly what he is to Aegon.

With Rhaenyra gone in Dragonstone doing absolutely nothing of importance, we stay focused on King's Landing where our main characters are. When Viserys dies, we return to Rhaenyra as protag, which she undoubtedly is alongside Aegon. Alicent and Helaena are both the second most important characters in Aegon's storyline, until B&C incapacitates Helaena. When the actual battling happens, and Aegon becomes bedridden, he'll fade from the narrative until the end of the show, of course. He'll have to make room for Aemond, Criston, Daeron, Rhaenyra, Jace and Daemon to take their places as protagonists/deuteragonists.

Anon, I want you to know that this answer is just word vomit and a very general harsh outline as to what I would have done if I had been in charge of writing HOTD. I am not rereading this to better explain myself, I'll let you know 😂 Don't take this answer too seriously

[shazzeaslightnovels]

Fate/Strange Fake 1

Author: Ryohgo Narita

Illustrator: Shizuki Morii

Label: Dengeki Bunko

Release Date: 10 January 2015

My Score: 4/5

Genre: Action, Battle Royale

This series is part of the Fate franchise and it follows a “fake” Holy Grail War in America. The rules are a bit different to the usual Holy Grail War, in ways that aren’t made all too clear in this volume. This volume serves as an extended prologue as we are introduced to the masters and servants that we will be following throughout the series. Each chapter introduces a new pair and focuses on them.

This was a really good first volume. It got me intrigued to follow the story and the characters. The characters are all interesting and the story has a lot of potential. it’s definitely an introductory volume that made me more excited in what this series will become rather than enjoying this volume on it’s own. I was amazed at how quickly I was able to get through it but it was the kind of book that always made me want to read on. I‘m super interested in how this series is going to progress and I ended this volume just wanting to read the next.

As much as I enjoyed this volume, I don’t feel like I have a lot to say about it and I’m worried this is going be recurring issue with this series so I am going to talk about the characters that appear on the covers for each volume that I do. Similar to what I did with Youzitsu, but I want to go more in-depth.

On the cover for this volume is Archer/Gilgamesh and Lancer/Enkidu. Their identities are revealed soon after they are introduced so I wouldn’t consider it a spoiler (also, I think everyone in the Fate fandom knows what Gilgamesh and Enkidu look like). For most of the servants, their identities are either explicitly stated or we are given enough clues to make an educated guess. The exception is a certain someone who is introduced at the end of the volume and I haven’t been spoiled as to who they are so I am very excited to learn more.

Gilgamesh is the first servant to be introduced in this volume. Gilgamesh would have to be the servant with the most appearances in this franchise. He was in the original, he was in Zero, Extra CCC, and this, and of course he appears in Grand Order and I’m probably forgetting something. Gilgamesh is always a fun and interesting character so it’s not hard to see why people love him and each writer is usually able to do something with him to make things interesting. Here, it seems to be his relationship with Enkidu that will be explored, and I really am excited to see more of their dynamic. I might be more interested in Gilgamesh’s master though than Gilgamesh himself. His master, Tine, is a Native American, and it’s so cool to see Native American representation in anything. I’m really interested to learn more about her and what her role in the narrative is going to be.

I think this was Enkidu’s first appearance in the franchise. They later appeared in Grand Order but I think this predates that. I love seeing a non-binary take on a figure like Enkidu and I really like the way that they are portrayed. Enkidu’s master is a wolf and I love them. I hope nothing bad happens to them. These two are my favourite pair so far. I really hope the wolf survives this series.

Also, I had to laugh at Nasu’s afterword where he talks about how Narita pitched this as a 5-volume series. Nasu says, ‘Narita, do you really think this plot is going to fit in 5 volumes?’ The series is ongoing at 8 volumes so I had to laugh.

Adaptation Notes:

A TV Special anime adaptation came out recently. I watched and it motivated me to finally read the light novels so it definitely works well as an advertisement for the series. It condenses the first volume into a 55 minute episode and it does a pretty good job of it. There’s some stuff that’s cut out and some details are lost and it makes it feel more like highlight reel than anything else but it manages to tell a coherent story and get you pumped for the full anime. Because of the way that the original volume was structured with each chapter focusing on a specific master/servant pair, the anime did some restructuring of scenes to make the timeline more linear so that we jump between different storylines. We get more backstory and details about the masters and servants in the light novel. In particular, the anime cut a lot of details about Assassin’s identity and the situation with Tsubaki. Also, most of the last chapter, where we are introduced to Ayaka is cut from the anime.

A full-length TV series has been announced and there’s been some speculation as to whether they will continue where the special left off or readapt the first volume more faithfully. I feel like they will continue where the special ended and adapt that last chapter fully. I feel like they will have to add back in the details that were cut with Assassin and Tsubaki at some point but maybe there will be a good time in future plotlines to do that and they won’t do it straight away. I don’t think they will just readapt the first volume. The special is a perfectly serviceable adaptation to introduce the characters and, aside from those bits, I don’t see any point in readapting it.

[thehitchhikerguide]

Season 2, Episode 8: Man at the Window

After that last episode, the bar had been set pretty low. I had some high hopes for this one since I saw that Michael Madsen was one of the guest stars. I'm guessing this was well before he took any phone call from QT.

This episode made me wonder about the screenwriters of The Hitchhiker - did they get THEIR ideas from spying on people? I say this because that is what this episode is about.

Our "hero" (played by Edward Albert, son of Green Acres star Eddie Albert), is first seen in a town square. I totally got a kick out of all the NYC references they make in this episode, when one look will tell you, this ain't NYC. He is seen with his motorcycle. He pulls something out.

A breast pump? No wait it's a recording device.

He's listening to this couple gripe about old age. Great, this is like a less interesting version of The Conversation. But then he picks up something else.

This woman with a black eye is on the phone with her lover. Sounds like someone is stepping out on someone, which is intriguing our main character. He follows her on his bike, completely oblivious to this guy...

The Hitchhiker doesn't attempt to get a ride, as I think it's pretty tough to hitchhike on a motorcycle. However I do see room on his seat.

Instead he lets us know that "Arthur Bradley Brown steals the words of others and uses them as they were his own. But what he doesn't hear are murmurs of danger, that could warn him of the violence that can pound with the human heart."

Arthur is able to follow this woman to an apartment.

He uses this window plunger to hear what is going on inside. Really? No one sees this in broad daylight?

We see this young woman's lover is...another woman! Wow 80s HBO, I'm impressed! Well I was until I found out this is how brave they were with this:

For a show that who's tagline always seem to be "look at these," I was pretty disappointed there was nothing steamy with this couple. This cuddle is as far as they go. That's the 80s for you.

Well there is the titular Man in the Window. Come on, they don't see this?

He is able to record them talking about the whole sorted affair and how Diane is married to a brutish cop, John. The other woman is Carla, a photography artist.

The snooping doesn't end here as he follows Diane back home to her husband.

Wow this guy is good, even at a cop's house he is able to be completely invisible while staying totally in sight.

Fine, it's okay to show the heterosexual sex, but not the women. Whatever 80s HBO.

Arthur takes this newly developing story to his agent who loves the writing because the conversations seem so real. Strange they didn't seem real when they were acted out, but okay. However, it doesn't have an ending. Even Hitchhiker episodes have those!

Instead of making one up, he decides to try to make one happen using this love triangle to his advantage. He starts by calling Michael Madsen and pretending to be his wife's lover.

He even tries to send flowers to Diane. She gets angry at Carla and Carla lets her know it wasn't her doing this.

Ooo back rubs. Steamy stuff. It's a little strange this woman has this naked photo of her girlfriend just facing out the window. Arthur uses this to take photo of just the cutout, instead of the women getting cozy on the couch.

He breaks into Diane and John's house. You'd think a cop would have better security than this.

He puts some device in the phone...I'll record everything!

He also places the picture of a picture on the bed. This triggers an argument with the couple where predictably, John beats on his wife while Arthur listens.

On further examination, John gets a clue to where the photo may have come from and gets the address of Carla, while still thinking Diane is having an affair with another man.

What ensues is a somewhat tame chase scene, where John, Arthur and Diane all speed towards Carla's place to warn her/save her.

I have to say there were some interesting camera angles on some of the transportation shots. I mean, this was directed by the same guy who directed Teen Wolf Too, so we are dealing with some expertise.

John puts his police siren on, but still manages to fall behind in the chase as he crashes into another car.

This give Arthur the advantage as he reaches Carla and scares the crap out of her by yelling at her, telling her not to be scared of him.

Diane comes over soon after and the two are reunited.

But realize they have no idea who this creepy guy screaming at them is.

Then John shows up with a gun and assumes Arthur to be the lover.

Arthur tells John that his wife is actually having an affair with a woman, and John pistol whips him. I'm not sure if this is because he doesn't believe him, or because he's mad his wife is a lesbian. Carla clocks John over the head with a bottle.

Cop sirens are heard as Arthur grabs the gun and in a very dazed state, stumbles out of the apartment.

The cops yell at him to drop the gun and instead he makes this stupid face.

And of course the cops start shooting at him like crazy.

And then:

Nothing.

It just ends with this freeze frame of him as you hear gun shots! I guess they had spent all their budget on that car crash (credit to that joke goes to my significant other). Ah well, it ends up being the most unintentionally funny ending ever. I was waiting for the Police Squad credit music to come on.

Oh wait, not over yet, I forgot about him. The Hitchhiker wanders in to tell us "Arthur Brown thought he could play people like instruments. He rearranged their lives like so many notes and used their emotions as chords. But then somebody came along that didn't appreciate Arthur's music...and put an end to Arthur's song."

Wouldn't that have made sense if he was actually a musician and not a wannabe John Travolta in Blow Out? This music analogy seems to be for a different episode, it doesn't seem to fit. All in all, an okay episode. I would have liked to see more Michael Madsen and more same-sex romance. Maybe we'll see it sometime on The Hitchhiker, but I won't hold my breath.

[drmarioman]

Okay, I decided to rank a game franchise. The games?

...Godzilla

Okay, let's do this

20. Godzilla Generations

System: Dreamcast

Rating: 2/10

Thoughts: Holy shit, they fumbled HARD here. Everything moves like a drunken tank, and the graphics don't do it any favors. This was actually a launch title for the system in Japan, as in, it only released in Japan. Take that for what you will.

19. Godzilla: Trading Battle

System: PlayStation

Rating: 3/10

Thoughts: I suck at trading card games, next.

18. Super Godzilla

System: Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Rating: 3/10

Thoughts: I mean, I didn't know what else to expect from a game best known for using a scrapped Godzilla villain. Uhh... I like the graphics? I don't know.

17. Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash

System: Nintendo DS

Rating: 4/10

Thoughts: Very unique gameplay system but falls apart graphically, control wise, and interest. Why they didn't try porting a worse version of the console games, I don't know.

16. Battle Soccer: Field no Hasha

System: Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Rating: 4/10

Thoughts: This isn't TECHNICALLY a Godzilla game, but I can't get over how fucking bizarre this is. A soccer game, where you can pit Godzilla against the RX-78-2 Gundam. Or Kamen Rider Ichigo (yes, that's his name). Or the original Ultraman. I've only watched, like, 10 episodes of Ultraman. Anyway, bad soccer game, the Mega Man one was better than this.

15. Kaijuu ou Gojira

System: Game Boy

Rating: 4/10

Thoughts: It's more "Godzilla" than the other Godzilla game on Game Boy, but c'mon, using the atomic breath wastes health? Way to be a fun rain coat.*

*note, I did not come up with the fun rain coat, it was from a Caddicarus video.

14. Godzilla: The Series

System: Game Boy Color

Rating: 5/10

Thoughts: Oh boy, what a bland game. I sure hope they don't make a sequel that's slightly better while just being the same game.

13. Godzilla: The Series - Monster Wars

System: Game Boy Color

Rating: 5/10

Thoughts: Shouldn't have said that.

12. Circus Caper

System: Nintendo Entertainment System

Rating: 5/10

Thoughts: This was on the Wikipedia page for Godzilla games, I had to include it. Barely even a Godzilla product, what the hell? Basic ass side scroller, moving on.

11. Godzilla Generations: Maximum Impact

System: Dreamcast

Rating: 5/10

Thoughts: Better than the first, but not good. Would've loved to see a third game, just to see if they could pump out a good one for once.

10. Godzilla

System: Game Boy

Rating: 6/10

Thoughts: This reeks of a reskin. Someone took an existing game in Japan, slapped Godzilla on it, and released it in the west. I can just FEEL it.

9. Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee

System: Nintendo GameCube

Rating: 6/10

Thoughts: Cool, I guess?

8. Gojira: Kaijuu Daikessen

System: Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Rating: 6/10

Thoughts: A decent fighting game that's eclipsed by the 90 other fighting games on SNES. Check it out, if you want to.

7. Godzilla: Unleashed

System: PlayStation 2

Rating: 7/10

Thoughts: This game has KIRYU. And Destoroyah. Instant peak.

6. Godzilla: Monster of Monsters!

System: Nintendo Entertainment System

Rating: 7/10

Thoughts: I had fun! Nice side scroller, and the shoot em up elements were really fun.

5. Godzilla: Domination!

System: Game Boy Advance

Rating: 7/10

Thoughts: This was surprising good. It looks nice and plays well. Nothing more, nothing less.

4. Godzilla: Save the Earth

System: Xbox

Rating: 7/10

Thoughts: Don't know why we're letting Godzilla save the earth. Then again, the aliens in this series are assholes who need a walloping, and the big nuclear lizard probably the best option.

3. Gojira: Kaijuu Daishingeki

System: Game Gear

Rating: 8/10

Thoughts: When making this, I realized that Godzilla is weirdly really good with strategy games. This is one of them.

2. Godzilla 2: War of the Monsters

System: Nintendo Entertainment System

Rating: 8/10

Thoughts: I miss it when sequels just completely changed the dynamic of the series for one game before reverting back. (I say this while not being alive at the time)

1. Godzilla: Rettou Shinkan

System: Sega Saturn

Rating: 9/10

Thoughts: Real-time strategy game with Godzilla in it. Cool.

Conclusion

Overall rating: 5.55/10

Anyway, put any other game series in the comments, I'm out of here.

[cyarsk52-20]

The Tragic Zero

Roxana HadadiJune 8, 2023

In trying and failing to craft a romantic hero narrative, Tom Sandoval broke the No. 1 rule of reality TV.

After all the gallons of Tom Sandoval’s fake tears, the gravity-defying orbits of Ariana Madix’s rolled eyes, and the sense that none of this has gone the way the man who single-handedly ruined white nail polish intended, whatever Raquel Leviss was going to say during the third and final installment of theVanderpump Rules reunion couldn’t have mattered much. What Leviss did in secret over this past tenth season — participated in a seven-month affair with Sandoval, an OG cast member in a nine-year relationship with long-term Pump Rules-er Madix — had already been revealed. Yet Bravo overlord Andy Cohen had promised a “twist,” and so audiences arrived desperate for one. Leviss’s apology to Madix was hardly an unexpected development, but it was thorough, even if the actual record-scratch moment — her tear-filled affair-timeline clarification in the final minutes of “Reunion Part 3” (against Sandoval’s wishes, she says) — confirmed that her mea culpa was full of mistruths.

Did either moment really change the mind of anyone who’s followed this ignominious display of Bravolebrity infidelity, backstabbing, and ostracizing? Before Leviss took the stage alongside the Vanderpump Rules cast who had unfollowed her on social media after the affair went public, and with whom she was reuniting after weeks of not being “seen or heard from,” according to an intertitle in the May 17 finale episode “#Scandoval,” certain narratives about the former pageant contestant had been set in place: She was a lost woman without a personality of her own, someone who entered the Pump Rules world because she was dating another cast member, James Kennedy, and who seemed adrift since they ended their five-year relationship and engagement in 2021. She was an opportunist and, as was thrown about many times during “Reunion Part 3,” “a sociopath,” going behind best friend Madix’s back to sleep with Sandoval in the couple’s home. Perhaps most self-destructively, she was a mouthpiece for Sandoval, seemingly repeating what he wanted her to say about their relationship and its contested details, and about the unique happiness they felt with each other that no one else (not Kennedy, not Madix) had provided.

Leviss and Sandoval’s insistence that their relationship was born not out of malice, but of pure synchronicity and organic magnetism, is the defense they’ve clung to all season, one seemingly manufactured by their assumption that true love could be a fortification against all accusations of wrongdoing. “It wasn’t about fucking, it was about a connection,” Sandoval claimed to Madix in “#Scandoval.” “He made me feel heard and seen,” Leviss said to reunion host Andy Cohen in “Reunion Part 2.” “We don’t live our lives by logic. Feelings took over,” Sandoval declared in “Reunion Part 3” when Cohen asked why neither Sandoval nor Leviss came clean to Madix. What the pair didn’t anticipate, however, is that the kind of grandiose, illicit version of romance they were performing works better in fiction, when the audience’s imagination is open to sentimentalizing misdeeds and deceit. Reality TV is a different animal, and the lies from Sandoval and Leviss broke the tenuous social contract upon which this genre is built.Reality TV is a different animal, and the lies from Sandoval and Leviss broke the tenuous social contract upon which this genre is built.

Vanderpump Rules isn’t literary canon like Anna Karenina or The Age of Innocence, and Sandoval and Leviss aren’t star-crossed TV lovers like Angel and Buffy or Robb and Talisa. Sandoval’s blundering attempt at rebranding as a lover mired in an irresistibly amorous, inevitably tragic liaison ultimately tested the limitations of his acting abilities. His spin hasn’t stuck, either on his Vanderpump Rules castmates (friends and coworkers who, for more than a decade, have blurred all kinds of personal and professional boundaries) or the viewers, who demand reality-TV personalities perform authenticity above all else. All of this negativity wasn’t the storyline that Sandoval wanted, but it’s the one he’s now stuck with.

Infidelity has been a central component of Vanderpump Rules since the series premiered in January 2013 as a spinoff of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, following multimillionaire Lisa Vanderpump and certain (attractive, thin, mostly white) staff members at her mini-empire of West Hollywood restaurants and bars. In those early days, “home-wrecker” was a common insult between the cliquey factions who worked at SUR Restaurant & Lounge; as Cohen noted in “Reunion Part 1,” “No one in this group has clean hands.” Sandoval was there from the beginning, a smooth-faced, aggressively cheek-boned actor who at the time was dating co-worker and fellow actor Kristen Doute; by the middle of season two, Doute was wondering whether Sandoval’s friendship with Madix, a recurring cast member, was just a friendship.

When Sandoval and Doute broke up, he blamed their growing emotional distance, her insulting and dismissive behavior toward him, and their lack of a sex life (keep these all in mind!), and soon he was with Madix, in a relationship that Doute kept trying to sabotage. Doute has since claimed that the series’s production team positioned her in ways that made her seem vengeful and hysterical, like when she showed up to SUR with the “Miami Girl” who she accused Tom of cheating on Ariana with in season three. But Madix was an impenetrable wall when it came to trusting Sandoval, and over the years, their relationship was a constant as so many others either broke up or were rocked by their own cheating scandals, including Doute and Kennedy and Sandoval’s best friend Tom Schwartz and his eventual ex-wife Katie Maloney.

Throughout season ten, as whispers of impropriety between Sandoval and Leviss grew louder, Madix maintained the calm neutrality that helped her befriend nearly everyone on the show, even those who hated each other, like Maloney and Scheana Shay. Her frankness in confessional interviews, her refusal to get involved as castmates bullied or trash-talked one another, her raw, agonized grief over the deaths of her beloved grandmother and dog, and her big-sister generosity toward Leviss (who, like so many other former Vanderpump Rules faces, could have been quietly shunted off the show after her relationship with a main cast member ended) made her a viewer favorite. Her loyalty and her evenhandedness — and how long she and Sandoval had stayed together, seemingly stable and satisfied, despite their shady origin story — made her the closest thing Vanderpump Rules had to an unblemished heroine. The tactical error Sandoval made, though, was thinking that Ariana’s heroine qualities also made him heroic.

Within the show’s purposeful group dynamic — almost incestuous, with castmates referring to each other as brothers and sisters and then also sleeping with each other’s partners — everyone’s brand is dependent on the inherent drama of that closeness (who’s getting along, who’s feuding) and on a presumed degree of honesty. Vanderpump Rules thrives on the tension between the two: the sense that everyone is living their truth for us to watch, even though (and sometimes, especially if) it might be divergent from someone else’s. Since the affair was revealed in March, Sandoval has tried to use that tension to his benefit by claiming that his happiness with Madix wasn’t genuine while his feelings for Leviss are; that Madix didn’t take his concerns about aging and aimlessness seriously, while Leviss did. The problem is that Sandoval and Leviss’s secrecy kept us from seeing any of that. They forgot that the reality-TV formula deems honesty to be what is captured on camera and dishonesty to be what people claim happened off.

Vanderpump Rules is a show with a long memory, and thanks to the reminders provided by desaturated flashbacks to prior seasons, Sandoval’s self-pitying presentation of himself as “the most hated man on television right now” is established as eerily similar to how he behaved in the past with Doute and with Miami Girl. Or consider his behavior when confronted by Madix, Schwartz, or Vanderpump in “#Scandoval,” blaming Madix for both his actions and inaction: “Every time I tried to apologize to you, it just makes you more angry”; “I don’t know how it happened. It just happened”; “I was seeking something that I wasn’t getting here”; “I lost all my mojo … Once I turned 40, I was like, ‘This can’t be the rest of my life.’” Maybe this would be sympathetic, if it weren’t overly reminiscent of the same excuses he gave to Doute when they broke up. In “Reunion Part 1,” Vanderpump Rulestakes us back to 2013, to Sandoval saying to Doute, “We also hadn’t had sex in three months. … You cringed every time I hugged you,” and then flashes us forward to March 2023, when he said to Madix, “We’d be separated all the time. … We have no sex life.”

Sandoval’s rigid allegiance to this almost scripted litany of complaints extends to his physicality: covering his face while making sobbing sounds in an embrace with Schwartz; deeply sighing, exhaling, and pausing when pressed by Cohen; his lack of eye contact, his shaking head, and his faraway gazes when Madix speaks. His only believable moments are when he breaks from this woe-is-me execution and admits that he’s tired of that very staging. When he whispers in Leviss’s ear in their one “#Scandoval” scene together, “I can’t kiss you, there’s cameras,” or starts yelling at the production crew in “Reunion Part 2” that they want a “for-real break where we’re not being filmed,” those are brief glimpses of the bifurcation between “reality TV” and “reality” that Sandoval thought he could use to his advantage. “I don’t want a camera in my fucking goddamn face. … We have to watch what we fucking say,” Sandoval complains, but those cameras, and the accuracy we want them to convey, are the primary reason we care about Sandoval at all. Without them, Sandoval is more a “worm with a mustache,” as Kennedy claims, than the group’s central driving character.They forgot that the reality-TV formula deems honesty to be what is captured on camera and dishonesty to be what people claim happened off.

That role goes instead to Madix, who Vanderpump Rules, and by extension the audience, have chosen to elevate. Madix emerges from this season not as the woman who did wrong, but the woman who was wronged; she’s Rosaline in Romeo and Juliet, she’s Natasha Naginsky in Sex and the City, she’s Jennifer Garner saying of Ben Affleck’s phoenix back tattoo, “I refuse to be the ashes.” Sandoval’s failure to make himself a tragic figure made Madix a triumphant one. She was seated next to Cohen at the reunion, dressed in a body-con outfit that qualified as a fashion fuck-you; she was scornful in refusing to accept Sandoval and Leviss’s apologies, yet vulnerable when admitting that the support of her friends, coworkers, and Vanderpump Rules fans has been needed and valuable; she was direct in interrupting anyone who suggested she should feel bad about Sandoval and Leviss’s love. (I assume that branding genius Lala Kent is already working on a way to turn Madix’s “I’m not humiliated. They are” into merch for Something About Her, the sandwich shop Madix and Maloney are opening this summer.)

Madix’s willingness to provide the production crew with her text messages, her unfiltered reactions to Sandoval and Leviss’s affair, and her vehement defense of herself spread her fame outside of the Vanderpump Rules sphere, to new brand partnerships, acting roles, and an invite to the White House Correspondents Dinner. When Cohen described Madix as “like Princess Diana” in “Reunion Part 1,” he was referring to her bold, bright-red dress and comparing it with Diana’s iconic 1994 “revenge dress.”But his observation works on a larger scale, too, if we see Sandoval as Prince Charles, Leviss as Camilla Parker-Bowles, and their relationship as a self-serving respite from the pressures of a demanding public and the weight of a forward-facing identity. They might have become king and queen, but they — unlike Madix’s People’s Princess — never became beloved.

Sandoval’s greatest misstep was thinking that he could craft his own narrative within an episodic reality-TV format that accumulates character development over time and that can break the fourth wall by pinpointing those same characters’ flaws and mistakes. What is Leviss’s final confession to the producers, and to us, about sleeping with Sandoval when Madix was out of town for her grandmother’s funeral if not evidence of how quickly one version of a story can fall apart, and another version can take on a new shape? Sandoval’s claim in “Reunion Part 1” that he wanted to be “more real … I just didn’t think it was fair to the rest of the cast” illuminates the dissonance we’ve always known about “reality” TV: that it’s only as real as its participants allow it to be.

Bravo has perfected a formula in which its anointed live in front of the camera for however long they want to be marginally famous (unless they go to prison, which is becoming a trend!), and Sandoval and Leviss were no match for a machine that has been grinding along for decades. In an atmosphere of 24/7 surveillance, maybe an illicit dalliance — a secret from the world, something that no one else knows — is inevitable, a way out of what could be perceived as an existential trap. Unlike a spilled Pumptini, though, that deception doesn’t just wipe away.

[m1ssjess]

Omg Prime has SEASON 1 of Top Chef

Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 1:

Where the fuck is Padma? I'm sorry Katie Lee but WHERE THE FUCK IS PADMA???

Tom Colicchio is a baby

Gail Simmons is a baby

Omg I totally remember who the final 3 are just from the intro

LEE ANNE was from this season!??

Omg the music is the same. The intro. The background music. It's weird because not much else seems the same (lighting, camera set up, stages etc) but the music is what is making me believe that this is honestly related to the show I watched last Thursday.

Omg I was 16 when I saw this for the first time

I DONT REMEMBER ALL THE FUCKING DRAMA

It's like just another reality show - which I hate. I was telling a co-worker about season 20 today and how the only reason I can stand top chef is because it's about the food 🤣

DUDE they have a girl who is HALF WAY THROUGH culinary school. JFC. Was the criteria that low??? One woman HAS ZERO RESTURANT EXPERIENCE.

DUDE IS JUST A SOMMELIER

Omg I still hate Tiffani.

Omg I think I love Tiffani.

That first quick fire challenge? Endure 30 minutes on the Line in a running restaurant. Holy cow how far has it come...

DUDE JUST STRAIGHT UP STARTS A VERBAL FIGHT with the guest judge. Holy shit. What a dick. Not even responding to criticism. "Chef did you throw out that sauce?" (Dude used his finger to taste a sauce while on the line in a resturant he literally just stepped into; Chef tore him a new one)

Omg they're shopping. they have an hour to shop??? It's so leisurely???

Wait what were the terms for the elimination challenge?? Signature dish for $30? For how many people? I literally do not know. I have picked this up from chatter in the grocery store.

The sommelier did a fricken wine tasting during their shop. That's how freaking long they had. JFC.

OMG mTHE TOP CHEF KITCHEN IS TINY

Tom is just carrying in the knife block 🤣

Omg they are cooking for each other. People look worried.

Omg. I am fairy certain that they hired Ken (finger tasting dude) as a plant to stir shit up because he is now SCREAMING "KARATE" noises in the kitchen to pump himself up??? 🤣

Jesus this is such a 00's reality show.

They are only making ONE PLATE????

Wait I do remeber some trivia about how the one plate thing pissed off Tom because the food got cold before the judges got to eat it. So to this day: they always have to make (minimum) two plates, one for tasting and one specifically for photography.

*counts* 1, 2, 3, 4... 5, 6, 7, 8 people tasting their food and they seriously just made one plate of food!!??

I thought the brief was to make your signature dish and no one is being prompted to explain why???

Ahahaha they all tore Ken's dish to shreds "I was expecting more with all the ego on display" 🤣

Wait wait wait I just realized THEY HAD 3 HOURS TO MAKE THAT ONE FUCKING PLATE OF FOOD 🤣

Ahahaha all the professional chef are not having any of the Sommelier's BS. I LOVE IT.

Omg it's so weird to see them all in the green room in casual clothes.

Man you can really tell the difference between the pro chefs and the *ahem* not by just their honest feedback of trying their competitor's foods.

Holy shit apparently the sommelier can actually cook.

Lol Ken's BS the night before is definitely playing into him being eliminated. There is clearly a more deserving person to go home but it's him.

THEY ARE STANDING INFRONT OF JUDGES TABLE IN CASUAL CLOTHING. THIS IS BULLSHIT.

Bleah. People are just sitting on the prep tables!???

Lol Gail and Tom's standards and critisims havn't change in 20 years.

Oh course Harold won. Of course Tiffani was in the top 3. It's just so abundantly clear that the professional chef are going to wipe this competition with their non-pro competitiors.

"Please pack your knives and go"

Omg the last minute of the episode was previews from the rest of the season and it was all interpersonal drama. Not even a single mention of food or the culinary challenges they are going to face. Jesus I am glad it's come a long way in the last 20 years...

[wenclexa4ever]

Personally, I want them to release them one at a time.

I dislike the way streaming services release shows all at once. I also despise the shorter seasons that they do. They have the FULL power to do whatever they want for tv shows. No time slots, no schedule requirements, no bowing to cable tv executives, none of that. They can do whatever they want and yet they’re like. “Let’s do less to make even more profits so we can shove our pockets and private jets full of gullible idiot’s money, and all we have to give them is the BARE MINIMUM.”?!?!?

I hate, hate, hate it. It’s stupid. It’s like they don’t learn. And this isn’t just Netflix, it’s (partly) HBO, paramount, Amazon, and ESPECIALLY Disney!

They pump out garbage that is only meant to satisfy the bare minimum of what people want, and say “Screw you.” To everyone else that wants more than two days of mind numbing content.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not blaming the people who are part of the projects, putting their all into the shows. Because, for the most part, they are forced to work on them less, in some areas, just to fit the narrative/bill and put it out as soon as possible to make their bosses richer. They’re forced to sacrifice their integrity and vision to line their bosses pockets.

I’m not saying everything they put out is garbage, I’m saying that they don’t care about the people that watch them. It’s either only fan service just for money, or put out the content asap, just for money. There’s no love for the craft and putting out the best content they can, not anymore.

The point of the weekly releases was designed to fill time slots of cable television. It shifted from that, while keeping it as an important reason, to keeping suspense and building a “relationship” with the viewers. Generating talk, keeping people interested/engaged, creating theories, fanfiction, news articles, trends, fashion styles, etc. It served as a way to hold people captive (in a good way) and make people feel… full stop. It made people FEEL, for the characters, the situation, the anxiety, the pain, all of it.

The point of it was to build a relationship between the public and the characters/the story. Now? Now it’s just content. Made for nothing more than to generate money and to push agendas and a narrative.

I’m not trying to be political, for the record, that’s not what I want to say. I don’t care about that stuff. The narrative I mean is, “Ruin attention spans, get rid of the relationship with the content, force bad behaviors, and make money for the business.”

Maybe it’s my Autism/OCD, but I need more. I need more world building, I need more story, I need them to take it slower. They should take their time and actually build a story and not just push out whatever they can think up for 8 episodes.

I’m not saying that some shows can’t do it this way. Because there is a few that I think it, mostly, works for. (The Mandalorian, Book of Boba Fett, Obi Wan, (didn’t mean to only mention Star Wars shows, but whatevs.), Halo (although I wanted a couple more episodes, but it worked, mostly. We don’t talk about the scene between MC and her, it shouldn’t have happened, also they shouldn’t have killed her.) haven’t seen season two yet, though, so no spoilers pls.)

Now, Wednesday season 1 (IMHO) was a great show. Like I said, they should have taken more time and built suspense, but it was very good. Unfortunately, I didn’t watch it when it first came out, (took me a year and a half) so I didn’t watch it one episode a week, or all at once. (Idk how they released it.) It took me several months, because I watched it with my family and it was hard to find time together. So I had the suspense and time to process it before each episode.

Once me and my family had finished it, I’ve watched it three more times since. I fell in love with the characters, the universe, the lore (even though that department was kinda lacking), and all that. Then I turned to fanfiction and got even more. Which helped fill in parts of whatever was missing, because they show put out so little.

I long for the days that they would have 20 episodes per season, or even 15. Because those shows were able to fill it with so much more. They were able to actually build a story and not “quick plot device” their way through it. They had to make reasons for things and work stuff out. Not just resolve them, “Because it happened.” Style. (Now, shows have done these things before, but it was less frequent. Now it’s every show, almost.)

Anyways, they should do it once a week. Sorry, I must be in a ranting mood today. You’re the second person I’ve subjected to this today. Sorry.😬

Okay, but would everyone prefer it if Netflix releases Wednesday on a weekly basis like I'm seeing them do with other shows?

Like, it would be so nice to discuss each episode and pick out clues and over-analyze and scream over character interactions. It'll make the fandom stronger, keep people coming BACK to Netflix for however many weeks, and promote the show because people keep talking about it.

Idk, maybe I'm just getting old but I would much prefer one episode at a time so I'm not pressured into binging it and missing a bunch of stuff a lot of people worked really hard on, just to participate in the fandom.

Has Netflix even specified how Wednesday's being released?

[softielaces]

Are you ever just confused? I've been more confused recently than ever before. Every time somebody asks me a question, 9 times out of 10 my answer will be "I don't know." And, ironically, I don't know if it's something like exhaustion or something else. Some days, all I can bring myself to do is get dressed, drive to Starbucks to get my silly little $7 coffee, and watch an episode (or 6) of my most recent comfort show. And that is enough. I am not lazy, and I am not being unproductive. I think as a society, we should refine what the fuck productive even means. I am productive when I drive to my coffee shop, order my coffee, and have a "me" day. I am productive when I pump up 3 of my homework assignments in an hour. I am productive when I make plans with 2 of my closest friends and we spend the evening watching a movie. Likewise, I am productive when I stay in bed and just rest. It is so hard living in a world where everyone just has an opinion about everything you fucking do. I'm exhausted.

Don't tell me what to do. I don't want your advice. Yes, I may get hurt in the end. Yes, I may not be thinking right now. But, I need to experience that. I thrive on pain. The only way to grow is to feel it. I cannot become better if I am not first worse. My greatest battle has the biggest outcome.

Beyond that, God, I'm trying to circle back to what I was originally talking about. Oh, the confusion. Some days I wonder if it's a symptom of COVID. God, I wonder if everything is a fucking symptom of COVID. But this is, I think, brain fog which I do in fact know is one of those remaining symptoms. But, I am somehow able to function through it. I have rediscovered my limits and no, I am not the same person I was in high school when I could push and push and push, school from 7 AM-3:10 PM then work from 3:30-6 then dance from 6:30-8:30. When was there time for me? When was there time for anything else? I guess I was incredibly lucky that my best friend, my girlfriend at the time, went to my school and also to my dance studio so I had built-in time with her so I never felt this struggle before. I also had weekends off, which was incredibly nice and I had the luxury of dating someone who didn't have a job and rarely had anything else to do.

Being an adult is difficult. Dating another adult is difficult. We try to make plans around our schedules, and everyone has something to say about us. I'm starting to understand why people are private about their love lives. I think I might start doing that. But, I hate feeling like I have to hide that part of me again. I like being able to talk to my friends about everything, including my relationship. Maybe I will have to find friends who don't act like this about it. Maybe I will find a friend who is more grown up.

That's always the problem, isn't it? I grew up when I was in middle school. I was an adult at the age of 16, but then I decided to reclaim my childhood when I started college and everything got muddy. Who am I anymore? Am I even someone I like? I like to tell myself I am. But, truthfully I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

Here we are, back at the beginning. I told you this was going to be cyclical. I want to tell you about her. Maybe that ought to be a different post. I think I may be getting carried away just typing and writing and typing and writing but it feels good to get it all out. Maybe I should go to therapy. Maybe talking to someone in a professional setting would appease my desire to talk about my relationship. Maybe I will.

Thank you for listening. I'll see you again next week.