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#I’m not caught up yet so pls be vague with spoilers

frog-writes-for-fun · 2 years

Note

so its pretty much known that youtooz often steals designs & doesn't credit artists (or so i believe), so can you make ranboo getting another youtooz of his own but he isn't aware that his friend, reader, is the OG designer of it? and like- youtooz did the ol' "steal design" thing since reader uploaded a design of a youtooz as a joke, but then boom, an actual youtooz looks like the exact design you uploaded, but youtooz didn't pay you, credit you, or somesort. and then ranboo found out about it, and then ranboo was like "oh, crap, i'm so sorry" and tries to make it up to them, even though reader reassured him that it was okay and that he didn't know? thanks.

they them pls, gn reader

Hello anon! Thanks for the request, I enjoyed writing it!

Ahh… Capitalism

cc!Ranboo x gn!Reader (platonic)

Summary: Y/n, an artist on Twitter, creates a fake merch design. Soon after, one of their friends announces that they are releasing a suspiciously similar piece of merchandise.

Warnings: Capitalism? There’s not really any warnings for this one.

Note: Stealing art is not cool guys! Share and reblog art and fics, don’t repost or steal them!

You had recently reached a follower goal on Twitter. As a thank you, you set up a poll for your next art piece so your audience could vote.

The project was going to be a fake figurine design, but you wanted your followers to pick who it would be for. The options were a few of your friends’ canon characters, and Ranboo won the poll in a landslide.

You ended up quite happy with the final result of your design, and posted it. Before you closed the bird app, the likes started rolling in. You hadn’t tagged Ranboo in the art, assuming he’d see it anyway since you followed each other.

A few days later, you were watching one of your friend’s streams. He was chatting with Tubbo and the viewers while drawing the lore of the Dream SMP and you were only half-listening as you worked on a commission piece.

Something caught your ear and you focused on the stream in time to catch it. Apparently your friend was partnering with YouTooz to release a new figurine.

“‘Can we see it yet?’ Well, chat, they haven’t printed any that I can show you yet.” Ranboo finished the stick figure of his character in MS Paint.

“You should see the concept art chat! It’s really good.” Tubbo sounded excited as he added his commentary.

“I think YouTooz is releasing the art on Twitter tomorrow.” Ranboo switched to a blank canvas. “I could give chat a bit of a spoiler…” He trailed off, seemingly thinking about the pros and cons of showing off the merch.

An image appeared on his canvas, a silhouette of what must be the figure. You looked at it briefly before turning back to your work in progress.

You didn’t plan to linger on the image long, but something stood out to you. It was almost like you’d seen it before, but you couldn’t quite place it. You tried to put it out of your mind, but it kept coming back.

The next day, the full design was posted on Twitter and you immediately realized why it seemed so familiar. That was 100% your art. The artists’ mark you had put in the corner of the canvas had been covered up with the company logo.

Several of your followers had already commented under the post, tagging you and asking YouTooz for artist recognition at the least.

You took a moment to sort through your notifications, trying to figure out what to do about this, when a private message came from Ranboo.

“Hey, y/n, I see you’re being tagged in a lot of comments about the YouTooz. I’m hoping you can straighten this out. Is that your art?”

You quickly replied, saying that it was and attaching the original file with the artist's signature intact.

His response was vaguely panicked, something along the lines of “oh shoot I’m so sorry I can get it taken down if you want or at least get them to pay you or something”

You reassured him: “Hey, you’re fine. You didn’t steal the art, that was the company. Ahh… the joys of capitalism”

As it turns out, he hadn’t seen the art before YouTooz showed it to him as a piece of concept art, since it had gotten lost in his Twitter timeline.

Ranboo was absolutely willing to negotiate with YouTooz to get you proper credit and pay for the work, or even cancel production if you didn’t want your art to be used for that purpose.

He both explained on stream and on Twitter that you were the one responsible for the amazing art that had gotten stolen, and encouraged people to check out your other art.

Ranboo (@ranboosaysstuff)

Hey everyone! This amazing piece of art that was recently used to promote my YouTooz was actually made by my good friend @y/ndraws! Go check them out and give them all the love!

The shoutout definitely gained you a few thousand more followers, so at least something good came of this mess.

#frog's fics #frog writes #ranboo x reader #ranboo x y/n #ranboo x p!reader #cc!ranboo x reader #dsmp x reader #dsmp x y/n #mcyt x reader #mcyt x y/n #reader insert #gender neutral reader #request

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sanktnikolais · 3 years

Text

this is what love does

A/N: so here is your friendly neighbor zoyalai who rewrote that scene in the Os Kervo main hall (Rule of Wolves chapter 46). Idk man this is what I have in mind and I just wanted to put more monologue and make some drastic changes KJHASDFLKHASDF

i think their scene in this chapter could have gone better ngl ahjsfkajsf but if you’re okay with canon, i’m absolutely glad you are. I just needed to make this bc my zoyalai heart said so HHAHAHA

as always @wafflesandkruge enabled me again and volunteered to edit this mess so thank you ily 🥺

contains some spoilers for Rule of Wolves so pls beware before reading :>

Word count: 4169

When the doors to the hall finally closed, Zoya released a breath of frustration. She wanted a moment of total silence, where she could shut out the voices of the people chanting her name or the affirmative tones of the dukes that agreed with Nikolai in nominating her as Ravka’s new queen. A bottle of brandy would be good too, and yet it didn’t materialize out of thin air just as she wanted it to.

She put a hand to her forehead, feeling the fatigue from the war slowly drain what was left of her strength. This was madness—everything that had happened in the past few weeks. Headache after headache, they kept coming like the barrage of Fjerdan firepower they had just encountered in the battlefield hours ago.

But the biggest headache of all was standing right in front of her in all his confident glory, the small grin never leaving his lips even as Zoya scowled at him. Nikolai Lantsov was a royal through and through. And despite the dirt that still smudged on his face, or the dried blood on his collar, he never lost that spark in him, no matter what he said about not wanting to claim the Lantsov bloodline.

How could he suddenly expect her to do this on her own terms?

"Are you out of your saintsforsaken mind?" Zoya hissed at the smiling king. He still was the king, and would continue to be as far as she was concerned. "I could strike you with lightning right now but I don't think I have the energy left for that."

Nikolai's grin turned into a wince. "Ah, but I'm always in the right state of mind," he said as he approached her with rather careful steps as if he was testing the waters around her. "And I have never been more sane and sober than now, Zoya."

The urge to summon lightning at him was still strong, but she shoved the thought down. Ravka didn't need another funeral right now, and especially not for its king.

"Say something spiteful."

Zoya furrowed her eyebrows. "What?"

"You're scowling again, and I think the only way to really know you're angry is when you combine your scowl with harsh words."

“Do you really have a death wish?"

The infuriating king pretended to think for a moment, his eyes narrowing curiously as he scratched the spot behind his ear. “I think we’ve had enough of staring down death today—”

Thunder rumbled in the skies as Zoya’s anger flared, and Nikolai flinched. But Nikola, being himself, recovered quickly with a grin. She looked at him in disbelief. It was both baffling and amazing how fast this man could change into one of his masks in just a matter of a second and then he was another person entirely.

It was their difference—Zoya didn’t have that skill. She’d never had the capability of pretending. Where she had walls around her heart to hide the girl who once believed in fairy tales and love and other nonsense, Nikolai wore his masks like they were his second skin, and it blended with the boy who just wanted what was best for his country, until he didn’t know who he was anymore.

She had never shown any signs of weakness or vulnerability, and even if she did, she would still deny it until she convinced her heart it had never happened. But he was different. He was ready to wear his heart on his sleeve if he wanted to, displaying his emotions at all times. And if he didn’t get anything out of it, he would put his mask back on like nothing happened.

Zoya hid; Nikolai pretended. If she were to look at it, pretending was better than hiding.

“Is it really that bad?” Nikolai asked softly.

Yes.

No.

I don’t know.

If she were still the same person she had been three years ago, she knew she would have accepted the offer right away. But things had changed and progressed since then, and whoever she once was, someone who wanted so much power, was long gone.

“We both know I’m not cut out for this, Nikolai,” she replied.

He didn’t say anything else, and just waited. Zoya huffed in frustration.

“You’re the diplomat, the charmer.” She gestured in the air vaguely. “Even if you’re not of the royal bloodline, there is no denying that you’ve always had the knack for this. I’m just—”

She was just what? A general? A Grisha who broke the boundaries of the Orders and achieved the impossible? An actual living saint?

Zoya let out a breath. A shadow passed on Nikolai’s face, his expression darkening to some kind of disappointment as if he already knew what she was going to say. But considering everything they had been through, it was definitely safe to say he knew her no matter how good she was at hiding.

She still said it anyway. “I’m just no one.”

“Don’t even go there.”

“You know I wouldn’t say anything I don’t mean, Nikolai. I was meant to be a soldier, to train and lead armies to their victory and be with them until our very last breaths. It was always like that.” And when Nikolai looked like he was about to contradict her, Zoya beat him to it by raising a finger to silence him. “Don't. There's nothing to say. And don’t start with me by saying you were never meant for the crown, nor the throne. That may have been the case, but you are what Ravka has needed for a long time. You fought for it instead of selling it. Hurt for it, bled for it, almost dying twice just to keep it from the mud. If that’s not what a king does, then I don’t know what I should call it.”

“A job well done?” he offered, laughing lightly when she gave him a glare that could silence the Second Army in a heartbeat. “I’m merely joking, Nazyalensky.”

“Can you be serious for once?” Zoya shook her head, heading over to one of the benches and slumping down on it.

It was only then she felt the weight of today’s war come back to her, and she found herself not wanting to stand up for a moment. Maybe she would just stay here until the madness outside passed, though she knew it would take a while.

She hunched forward with her eyes trained on her hands clasped together on her knees. She couldn’t bear to look at him as of the moment, and it irked her as it felt like she was hiding yet again and she was already tired of doing that. But when an enormous responsibility was suddenly presented to her, along with the ability to hold power over everything else, didn’t she have the right to hesitate or even think about it?

It felt like being appointed to the Grisha Triumvirate again after the war the Darkling waged that almost took Ravka down with it, and they were forced to stand up on their own feet to save the country from drowning right after fighting for their lives. It was never fair, but they braved through it.

But at what cost?

It doesn’t stop with us. It never does.

It was what David always used to say, and Zoya found those words haunting her every night after his death, knowing all too well she could have done so much better to protect him and save Genya from her pain. If it didn’t stop with them, what difference would it make if it was her seated on the throne?

Ravka was finally free, even if not completely yet, but the light at the end of the tunnel they had long since walked through was already bright as any star could have been.

A shadow on the marbled floor caught her eyes, and she looked up just in time to see Nikolai kneel in front of her, taking her hands in his. She almost—almost—wrenched away from him, but then she realized that it was him, the boy who wore his heart on his sleeve and bared everything to her without a second thought. He was looking up at her with such a soft, understanding expression on his face that she wondered if she was seeing right.

She blinked, and then she felt as if she was back at the ship again, hearing his confession that took the breath out of her lungs and made her heart beat like it had never been before.

And for the past years of her life and the rest that would still come, Zoya was sure she would never feel as frightened as she was now.

You promised yourself you would speak your heart when you had the chance, didn’t you? she scolded in her mind. Only the saints knew how much she had waited for this moment between them after the war. She almost didn’t have the chance. So why was she trying to run away from it again?

He was so, so near, and yet she was still terrified to reach for him.

"I can't do this, Nikolai," she said instead.

"I will be by your side." Always, was what hung at the end and not said aloud, but she knew he meant it.

Zoya felt a small smile on her lips, the urge to touch his face becoming stronger than her will to fight it. What was stopping her? Her pride? Maybe it really was that, but her damn pride had already cost her enough.

So she reached a hand up to his cheek, her touch gentle as the breeze that fluttered in the room when her skin met his.

Nikolai learned in her hand almost immediately, a content sigh coming from his lips.

"I would give my life for Ravka over and over again, as I know you would too," she whispered, her thumb gently brushing his cheekbone. She dropped her hand and put it on top of his. "But I don't think this is what's best for Ravka. We have fought and lived through the wars it suffered. We vowed to drag it from the mud it had fallen into until our last breaths, and now that it can finally stand up on its own, I think it's had its fill of kings and queens and wars. Ravka now needs to listen to its people."

Zoya knew it sounded ambitious and audacious, but it could be a start, a beginning of a new age. The journey would be a tedious one, as always, but she knew it was worth the try. Ravka was always worth the try, no matter how much it took from them.

Silence stretched between them for a moment, and Zoya was thankful for it being a comfortable one rather than a tense pause. She searched his eyes, trying to find the stubborn glint in them as a sign that he was thinking of arguing back. But she didn't see it.

There was only the look he had always sent her way, the same one he had when he bared his heart to her in the airship, and she felt her breath hitch in her throat. She really ought to strangle him for making her feel this way.

"Spoken like a true queen, I'd say," said Nikolai with a laugh.

Zoya scoffed, grateful for the sudden distraction. "I remember that I didn't agree with the proposal of me being the new queen, so that means you're still the king, Your Idiocy."

There was a hint of an amused grin at the corner of his lips. "What can I say? When I thought of what's best for Ravka, my mind instantly thought of you."

"Didn’t I ask you to be serious even just for once?"

"You speak as if I were making those words up."

"If you know what's best for you and Ravka, you would stop trying to change my mind because my decision would remain the same."

Nikolai smiled ruefully. "I know." He paused, turning his attention to their joined hands. There was an unusual slump in his shoulders, something she rarely saw him have. He sighed, and then slowly pressed his forehead to her knuckles. "I thought I lost you today," he said quietly.

Her heart clenched at the pain in his voice, but she understood it. She almost lost him today too. "You won't be rid of me that easily, Nikolai," Zoya said.

He chuckled, and it sounded more in pain than in amusement. Then he drew in a shaky breath before looking back up at her. "When I saw you fall, I thought the worst and I—" He stopped with a dry laugh. "But I guess you're right, I won't be able to get rid of you that easily."

She felt a smile curl on her lips. "I should be the one telling you that, but I figure it can go both ways," Zoya said, and before she could make herself hide away again, she gave in and lowered her forehead to touch his. In a soft whisper, she said, "But I've never been more grateful you're still here with me."

They were still here, alive and breathing, and she was glad they both got to see the end of the day. When she felt herself plummeting to the ground, she thought that it was her end, and she had accepted it. Exhaustion crept in her bones, her own strength not enough to whip up a draft to cushion her fall. But there was a gust of wind—from Nadia or from Adrik—that caught her, saving her from the deadly impact.

And then a voice. His voice, full of worry and hurt and pain, pleading her to wake. He was the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes again, and it was during that moment she allowed herself to wish that he would be the one she would wake up to every morning, and the last one she’d see when she fell asleep at night.

It had reminded Zoya of the time she saved the king from falling once, back when they were just soldiers fighting for their lives in the Fold, and she wondered if he had been glad to see her when he opened his eyes.

Nikolai reached a hand up to touch her cheek, his fingers light as if she were the most important thing in the world that he was finally allowed to touch. His eyes never wavered from hers.

"I would still choose you, you know," he suddenly said, his voice trembling. "Even if you didn't want to do anything with me anymore. Even if you were in some place else, reassigned to another position. Even if you didn't want me." He tried to smile, but it seemed to take more effort than just not. "I'd still want you. I'd still want you with everything in me."

Zoya already knew how he felt for her beforehand, his confession back in the ship sharpening into focus in her mind. And yet she still felt like she heard him bare his heart to her for the first time, even when he had already been doing it for years.

It would be so easy to tell him that she felt the same; those three words that were hanging between them for a long time begging to be set free. But still a small, terrified part of her held back, and she realized that it was the girl she had once been, the girl who believed in everything before the cruel world took that magic away from her and replaced it with fear.

This is what love does. It took away everything, blinded one's logic and reasoning, and even brought pain that no one should feel. Why should people hurt when all they ever wanted was to have and feel the love they deserved?

“I know I’ve already told you this on the ship,” Nikolai continued, the rueful smile returning to his lips. “But I wanted you to hear it again, as I almost didn’t have the chance today. No prince and no power could ever make me stop wanting you.”

Zoya felt her breath get knocked out from her lungs again, but her doubts and insecurities continued to cloud her, lingering in her as if they were the only ones her heart knew of. “Maybe for now you will want me.” She paused, unexpected tears stinging her eyes. She closed them instead; she didn’t think she could bear looking at him. “But soon enough you will grow to hate me. I’m too sharp. Too angry. Too spiteful.” And you deserve so much better than that. “That’s who I am, Nikolai.”

“Zoya,” Nikolai murmured.

She felt his breath ghost over her skin, and yet she still refused to look at him. She couldn’t. But if there was one thing she knew about Nikolai Lantsov, it was his persistence for everything.

“Zoya, my love. Look at me,” he said softly, and this time Zoya finally obliged him.

An unwanted ache clogged her throat as she met his gaze, bright and warm and open. There was nothing in them except the sincerity he always had around her. In this light, his hazel eyes looked almost golden. He had a golden spirit. Then it struck her, as she remembered the words from a memory a long time ago, that maybe she was finally looking at that boy in her aunt’s story. He had been in front of her all along.

Nikolai grinned, his eyes brighter than she had ever seen them, and there were tears clouding them as well. “You speak as if I haven’t seen you at your worst,” he said.

“You will grow tired of me, Nikolai.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” he said. A tear escaped his eye, and she felt it land on her hand. He let out another breathless laugh. “I’d want you for the rest of my life, Zoya.”

Something broke inside her chest, and then a tear fell from her eye as well. Her fingers intertwined with his, their hold on each other’s hands tightening as if the other would disappear if they let go. He brought her hands to his lips and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. A few tears slipped on her hand as he did, but he had a look of contentment on his face, like he finally felt he was home.

More tears fell from her eyes as she pressed her forehead back to his. For years, she had let herself believe that she wasn’t worthy of being loved, that she was only made to be a soldier, a weapon to be used by her own country.

This is what love does. Zoya had been wrong from the start. Because in the end, Nikolai’s love for her was what made him see past her worst self. Every flaw and every scar, he accepted them wholeheartedly. She didn’t know how he’d come to love her, someone who had avoided any signs of kindness and sincerity he gave her, thinking that it would be used against her later.

There was no denying the pain they had caused each other through the years, when their words were too sharp and they wounded their hearts and pride before they could even have the chance to think of it. And yet they always came back to each other, their faith in each other still there if not stronger before.

Love was never without pain. It would still be felt over and over again because it was real.

And if tearing down the walls she had built around herself and giving her heart away would make her vulnerable to hurting, then perhaps it was something she was willing to do.

Because Nikolai Lantsov was worth every pain.

So Zoya took the leap, drawing him up to her and pressing her mouth to his, and everything felt like it finally clicked into place. He acted immediately, and she could almost feel his smile against her lips. After the long days of wanting, her heart was at peace for once. The Fjerdans could have come back and waged war against them again, but she didn’t care about anything but the warm press of his lips.

When the need for air became stronger than the need for each other’s lips, Zoya pulled away and rested her forehead against his. Her eyes were still clouded with tears when she finally said, “I love you.”

To say that Nikolai’s grin was bright would have been an understatement. In the dull colored room they were in, he seemed to be glowing. He let out another breathless laugh. “I never thought I would hear those words come from you,” he said, his eyes alight with utter bliss. “But for what it’s worth” —he wiped a tear from her cheek with his thumb— “I love you too.”

Silence fell around them and everything focused on the man in front of Zoya. Perhaps she could stay here in his arms for another while and ignore the looming responsibilities standing right outside the doors.

She was his, and he was hers. For now, that was all that mattered.

“Is there really nothing that can change your mind?” Nikolai said, breaking the comfortable silence between them, and Zoya wanted nothing more than to strangle him right now.

“You really had to ruin the atmosphere, didn’t you?”

He laughed lightly. “My ruthless Zoya, I am merely joking,” he said, and then his face became serious. For a moment, a small twinge of fear clawed at her heart. “Then what do you think about being a regent? At least until we find someone to rule properly, or until we could transition the monarchy towards something else.” He wrinkled his nose. “I mean, I said I would give you a crown, and this is my last chance to make good on my words even just for a short time. Besides, Regent Nazyalensky does have a nice ring to it.”

Zoya raised an eyebrow, the idea not occurring to her until now. She furrowed her eyebrows. “You actually suggested something reasonable,” she said, earning a pout from the king. She looked at him with mild concern then, realizing the meaning of having a regent. “Are you really abdicating the throne?”

“I’m not joking when I said that the crown was never meant for me, and I think my bloodline really solidified that fact. I realized I was only fighting for this country, not the throne.” He shrugged as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “And if that’s really your decision, I would be with you in every step of the way. But I hope we can stabilize Ravka until we can have a solution to my....sudden resignation.”

“What’s your plan if ever that time comes?” Zoya knew she was asking so many questions, but she couldn’t help it. This man continued to surprise her with his declarations and she had no idea what could come next. “Play pirate again?”

Nikolai scowled at her, and she wanted to laugh at his expression. “Privateer,” he corrected like always. Then he smiled, his eyes suddenly having a faraway look. “For once, I don’t know. But maybe I would play privateer again as I’ve missed the seas terribly.” Then he turned to her, his expression gentle. “If I ask you to come with me as my first mate then, would you agree?”

Would she? Zoya had never known anything outside her life in Os Alta. For years, it had been a continuous battle for the freedom of the country that took everything from its people, and she had no time to think about her freedom if she ever did retire from being a soldier.

But she could already see glimpses of a future ahead, a quiet and easy life, without any fear of having to go back to war. And in those glimpses, she could see him.

Zoya huffed, making it sound as disbelieving as possible. But she already knew her answer. “I’d make a horrible first mate as I easily get seasick,” she said.

“Ah, but I don’t mind. As long as you’re there with me,” Nikolai said, taking her hands in his again. He pressed another kiss to her knuckles. “So what do you say, Regent Nazyalensky?”

The future was something she had no control over, she always knew that. The only way to know what it held was to continue fighting until she reached it, and as long as she had the right person beside her, she knew she would be alright.

They had always been a team, she and Nikolai, and they would continue to be like that for as long as they lived.

So without another hint of doubt, Zoya intertwined her fingers with his, squeezing his hand gently. “Alright, dearest privateer,” she said. “Let’s keep this country standing upright until then.”

And they would. Together.

#zoyalai #nikolai lantsov #zoya nazyalensky #rule of wolves #rule of wolves spoilers #row spoilers #or that scene in os kervo hall #where i changed a few things #BC WHERE IS MY HUG OR MY SOFT MOMENT BEFORE THE SAPS LEIGH #:SOB:#they just came from the war #and not once did i ever see a moment of relief #that the love of your life survived the war KLJHASFLKJHASDF #i needed this okay #and as i've said i felt a bit off abt the continuation of ravkan monarchy #but queen zoya works too so #i think the best thing they could do was to be regents for a while until they can do something abt the monarchy #or slowly transition it to a democracy #even if it's going to take a while #nik could still joke abt giving her a crown and actually do it KLJHASFKLHJAS #and i just wanted a more emotionally constipated and terrified zoya having inner turmoil abt love #;-;#and they could sail the seas after #IDK MAN THE POTENTIAL OF THIS SCENE #I JUST WANT IT TO DELIVER MORE #SO HAVE THIS MESS PLS

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star-felled · 3 years

Text

Cats 2019, but I try fixing the horrible script

Victoria in bag yeah whatever been there done that

Jellicles are and Jellicles do Je

Maybe the Jellicles introduce more of themselves and Misto's like "yeah that's my name lol but I'm also called Quaxo" segwaying into The Naming of Jellicles, OR cut out the song to make room for Pekes and Pollicles. Depends on how much runtime you're willing to have

Have Macavity watching but like not super obvious. He's watching from a distance instead of blatantly talking to Vic this time

Demeter can be worried about trusting Vic but if Munk trusts her then Dem trusts her

Misto's like "oh yeah almost time for the ball" Vic is like "wtf" and Munk explains and leads her to Jenny

NO EATING COCKROACHES

Tugger's still there, Jenny's like "how tf did you get inside my house. stop terrorizing the mice"

Tugger goes and does his song or whatever, Vic's expression is like "wtf is up with him" but Misto just shakes his head and calls him a bore

Tugger go "here Vic lemme show you how to have fun" and Vic lets herself go loose!! (and unfortunately joins Tug's fanclub)

Misto's like "UGH FUCK NO TUGGER NOT ANOTHER KIT (lovingly)" but everything's cancelled by Griz showing up

They do the Griz thing

Maybe Vic tries to touch Griz when Munk gently pulls Vic back, then she asks why Griz isn't cool anymore, but gets interrupted bc NO MORE "WENT WITH MACAVITY" HALF-ASSED EXPLANATION

A local building alarm goes off and Dem's like "MACAVITY" and Vic is like "WHO" and gets dragged off (spoiler alert it wasn't actually Macavity)

When they think they're a safe distance away they start Bustopher Jones but better

Maybe it could be like "ok we get you kits are scared but Jones is a respectful mature man he would take care of you" ((I oh-so desperately want Misto to excitedly agree bc uncle Bustopher hcs are the cutest))

LET MISTO FOLLOW THE MAN AROUND GODDAMMIT

When the rest of the cats are distracted Vic slinks off and meets Jerrie and Teazer. they cause chaos and honestly good on them

I like to think that, instead of the whole Vic getting stuck on bedpost thing, the twins try to bring her through the window but when they land they're caught and get reprimanded by Munk

Misto goes up to Vic like "that was fucking stupid of you now let's go meet ol doot"

Vic is like "uh okay (I've learned not to question things at this point)" and follows them, when she sees Deut she gets that fatherly vibe from him and starts to understand why they trust him

Deut goes "ohoho who do we have here" and when everyone excitedly introduces her he'd like,,, nuzzle her and go "welcome to the clan"

She's mystified and immediately trusts this man with her life cuz who wouldn't

Victoria watches Pekes and Pollicles performance bc it's a bop

Maybe bonding moment between Vic and Deut after the show where he's like "theyre a mess but they try and I love them for it"?

Tugger's like "DAADDDDD CAN WE START YET" and they start dancing,, Vic is all awed and then Deut goes "c'mon you're one of them now" and nudges her forward so she can join

It's a blast but in the middle of it Vic notices Griz in the background, so when everyone else goes to sleep she sneaks off Yet Again, this time Jemima following her cuz curious little kitten

They hear Griz sing and see her try to dance like the others, and they were gonna go invite her but then Deut taps em on the shoulder and says "we gotta wait for the others to accept her" except super vague. the kittens have no clue what he's on about but accepts it anyway cuz it's ol doot

I think keeping the choice be an audition sorta thing is fine, it kinda felt like that in the musical. just no more solos, no more solos ple

They're all just now waking up but Misto and Gus are Extra awake. like y'know when you go downstairs at like 7 am to get cereal, expecting no one else to be there but then There Is. they do that lil talk they do in the movie, dunno what I'd alter there quite just yet? Misto would be less outwardly anxious for sure though, gotta let the boy keep his calm

When it's like "ok who now losers" maybe Misto could start singing for Gus and hand it off to someone else after a line or two? then Gus gets his part and maybe we see some subtle character development coming out from Misto. show don't tell y'know that sorta thing

Gus is like "ok that's cool but I can think of another person to start singing now" and takes a seat when Munk gets the hint to start the next song

SKIMMMBLESHANKSSS THE RAIIILWAAAAY CATTTT THE C

The fake train they build gets fucking destroyed and it's bc MACAVITY

He runs around wreaking havoc, starts fighting with Munk but when Munk puts up a better fight than he expected he kidnaps Deut

Probably would've restrained Deut in some way before running around bc the guy could very easily beat him up

Anyways Macavity retreats and everyone's worried for Munk and Deut

Victoria's like "OH YEAH RIGHT WE HAVE MISTO" and he's like "????? you're asking me to teleport THE HOLY CHRIST HIMSELF??????" and starts mentally panicking

Tugger comes in like "oh but you OUGHT to ask mr mistoffelees the original conjuring cat there can be no dou

Bc he's hyped up Misto brings Deut back first try and gets more confidence in his abilities, we love a character arc

They go back to make the Jellicle Choice but then OH THERES GRIZABELLA and the clan is gonna kick her out but Victoria's like "no let her sing!!" but bc she's new no one cares but then JEMIMA goes "let her sing it's almost time!!! just this one bit plssss" and bc it's Jemima and they love Jemima they let Griz sing

Then she gets picked and cat god takes her away or whatever

Ol doot does the speech but like addressing the clan instead of breaking the 4th wall and then the movie ends and we DON'T have to deal with 10 minutes of end credits

✨ The end ✨

Extra notes / Things I'd change

Add in the bg interaction!!! That's what makes the 1998 version so fun, it allows the chorus cats to have so much personality despite only being bg characters

Pls for the love of all that is holy make the chorus cats more easy to distinguish and recognize, not only do they look different from the costumes of every other production Ever, they also all look the same as one another

If Misto still did that excited thing at the beginning of The Gumbie Cat I'd lose my marbles I think

Let Tugger interact with his dad more!!! Munk got so much interaction with Old Deut in the movie which I LOVED but Tugger got??? Nothing????? I get that Jason Derulo is expensive to keep on set but if you can put that much effort into that audio system you barely even used 4/5 of the functions of, you can spend a little on letting Tugger love his dad

We got so many Misto and Tugger interactions in the 2016 revival, is it too much to ask for that back... . ... .. ..

That's about it I think, I mostly made this for myself bc I've been thinking of making a fic based off this and wanted to give myself an outline :) I really like the idea of giving Victoria a story as to how she joined the jellicles but...... it was butchered so terribly..... .... .........

Anyways!! If you've got anything you wanna say or add on I'd love to hear it :DD (no pressure though ofc ^^)

#cats the musical #cats 2019 #cats victoria #please tell me thats the right tag to use for her ple #long post

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looseinthecatroom · 6 years

Text

This “live” blog (or just reaction in that case I suppose?) under the cut and in one post because this ain’t a fandom where we can have spoilers and thoughts running around willy nilly so soon after an episode comes out!

- Poor sweet Jon. Poor confused detonator losing disaster. Better hope that slight immunity to The Unknowing you get from vague archivist powers kicks in soon.

- “ ’Ello Daisy!”

Here it comes! I don’t know what “it” is! But something very bad is definitely going to happen to one of you! Personally my bet’s on Breekon and Hope getting their asses kicked in.

- Roughly 20 seconds later:

*Horrific strangulation noises and Daisy laughing manically.*

Eyuuup.

- Diiiid Basira just whoop Tim’s angry little butt like it was nothing out of self defense or am I misreading that and Tim just landed a pretty weak hit which then confused her?

I choose to believe that she just whooped his butt personally.

- “Ohhhh! You caught me! I’m...... Sasha!”

I fucking love Nikola.

- Issssn’t going so deep as to not know what a hand, or a gun, or what have you, is anymore kind of a teensy bit right of center for the Stranger? It feels more Spiral then Stranger to me at least as I/we understand them right now.

‘Course I’ll be the first to tell you that the overlap between entitys is hella common and hella intentional given how little we/humanity is supposed to understand about them / roll my eyes when someone’s trying way too hard to fit something within a statement super neatly into a single powers domain, sooooo. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

- “Pathetic.”

My ass:

- =( Gertrude (/Nikola. Obviously ~Is it partially her? Is it in no way actually her opinion? Who knoooows?~ is intentional.) leave the failure boy be. You were head archivist for 50 years if I recall. He’s got time. Weak sauce taunt Gertrude/Nikola.

- LOVE the chewy symbology to dig into in how Nikola’s voice isn’t present for for the last “This is your fault!” of their guilt trip.

-Leitner: “Before you left me to get my head bashed in”

by a brutal extended pipe murder. Finish the sentence Leitner. Any excuse to use that phrase again is a good one.

-Leitner: ”But you’ve somehow managed to fit more bad decisions into two years then I did in a lifetime!”

Oh. My poor self hating disaster archivist. That one isn’t even remotely true AND I doubt even Jon would be thick enough to believe it without the Unknowing’s influence. =‘(

Also he knows who Jurgen is without any prompting at all so.... time seems to be nearly up for keeping him confused Nikola. >.>

- OH! Duh! Daisy has “vague servant of an entity powers” herself too. Thanks for that Hunt and/or Slaughter. That’s why she’s a bit more on the ball then the others. Nearly forgot about that till he called her an animal.

- “Almost a shame you don’t know your own coffin. But you will.”

- Basira is back sans angry Tim. She did in fact clock him.

- Listening to Basira puzzle stuff out makes me think that Melanie and Martin were back benched for this one because writing wise it would have given us way too much insight into the soul of their character and the way they function under real pressure for right now. I’m all for more character development for those two. Like probably more then any of the other assistants, but yeah, it doesn’t feel like the right time for it (Particularly for Martin) with all the other shit going on right now.

The last thing Martin needs right this instant is a do or die situation AND also Jon almost certainly wouldn’t kill him off without resolving the crush plot line / just more of his character in general so... yeah. No Martin in THE center of the action this time.

- Jon: “I see you...”

AYYE there it is. Time’s up girl.

- “Sarah”: ”Probably the Hunters idea. She killed one of the courier's.”

Time to drop that /Slaughter part apparently. Hunt it is.

- Ohh. Oh. I DO like what the avatars bickering with each other tells us about how close they are (well, aren’t then) to the pure ideal of the Stranger.

- Ok. Or Tim just ran off confused to go maul someone else.

- “Shall I?”

Oh hell yeah. Good audio is good.

Also? “My asshole boss”?

Aye Tim. Yeesh.

You know, Mike LeBeau’s comment about wanting to just slap Tim sometimes is hella relatable, and I was glad that even his actor is definitely feeling it this arc. >.>

If Martin weren’t Martin (pushover) and Jon weren’t Jon (piss self esteem) Tim probably wouldn’t have gotten this far along his “Jon’s a dick (Or even still properly your boss tbh) and not a victim (a paranoid disaster, but a victim) here” train of thought.

- SO

Soooo...

Kaboom.

Well Basira ran away given her last bit.

Daisy is in a probably explosion proof coffin, and either safe for now or very much already dead/worse then dead, so that’s her sorted.

Jon and Tim? They’re in the same room. Now. Jon’s not going to die yet probably. Yeah it COULD be that kind of show. I definitely don’t want to tempt fate here, but I just don’t see Johnny killing him off just yet for a whole buncha reasons unless it IS that kind of show, and they really need that gut punch to work with. (pls no. thx)

Soooo... the slightly deus ex machina of a power of some sort intervening to save him? Elias using yet unknown Beholding powers to save him? Another power’s avatar pulling his ass out of the fire again? At least it probably won’t be Helen, a.k.a. the one who usually shows up to save him, because having him rescued from this exact building by powers twice would be a bit bland, let alone by the SAME power twice. So who knows.

OH, know what WOULD be a good path to head down and not feel to arbitrary OR repetitive??

Mr. Spider to the rescue? >.>

Learn some stuff about the Web maybe? Could be a thing. Could not be a thing. Wouldn’t be a BAD time to start off/set up more Web plot lines by any means.

At any rate, imma have to guess that some fun / not as used / maybe mostly new plot line is about to get some love, because bitch, I don’t see any other smart way out for these nerds. >3>

(Of course, I might have missed something. Some clever escape setup that was already there within the current arc’s plot lines. It IS TMA after all. =p)

#the magnus archives #the magnus archives spoilers #spoilers #the magnus archives liveblog #the magnus archives: stranger and stranger #mag 119

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the-knights-who-say-book · 7 years

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hey could i ask you to elaborate on the acowar and why it's not a good book/book series to read? i've never really been interested in SJ maas or any of her books, but someone recently recommended acotar series and made it sound interesting and good. but now i'm not so sure about it. idk, i'd just like to know what there is about her writing that's discouraging for readers, especially if it's insensitive.

hi anon! i want to specify before we get into anything that this won’t really be “why ac0war is a bad series to read”, partly because i don’t want to put anyone down who enjoyed it and partly because i have seen the less great side of the fandom get incredibly ugly over anyone insulting sj.m’s writing. so this isn’t a hate post, it’s an honest review of the two books of the series that i’ve read, personal to myself and my own preferences.

(although it did turn into a rant post by the end. tbh if you like the series just don’t click the read more because i’m bitter and needed to get it out)

that said…

(beware spoilers, though i’ve tried to keep them vague)

1. smut scenes can make me very uncomfortable, and sj.m’s style isn’t one of the few i can stand. your mileage may vary — other people love them, other people dislike them simply for being too dramatic. i try to skip them as often as possible, so i have no comments beside “no thx”

2. i don’t enjoy her romance style in general. all the snarling and ~claiming~ and soul-mating and, uh, for the mate bond to be cemented the female fae cooks for the male one? i’ll take “unnecessary heterosexism” for 800 pls. also, someone please explain what happens if there are two women or two men. who cooks for whom. i am not having this shit

3. there’s also the fact that one guy drugs the main character? literally roofies her? but it’s “ok” because it was for her own good? sj.m why?

4. and then there’s the second book. i’m going to be honest here, i shouldn’t have read the second book. i didn’t enjoy the first one enough to continue with the series, i just got caught up in booklr’s general enthusiasm for ac0maf and thought i would love it too!

5. did not.

6. don’t understand why Rhiys being a little less of a jackass makes him the Most Feminist Person In The Series. pretty sure letting a woman make her own decisions is the basic requirement for being a decent human (er, fae) being, not a saint. don’t understand why everything has to be so heterosexual. don’t understand why every female character with agency in this book is Evil unless they got their power Approved by a man. sorry, a male. don’t understand why it always has to be male and not man. the longer it goes on the more it grates on me.

7. and oh boy, then the ac0war spoilers started coming and i’d say watch for spoilers here but i’m tired of “being gay being a plot twist” so guess what! m0r is gay! but she only comes out to Faeyr! because maintaining the illusion that Asriel could one day date her is more important than her being able to be herself around the friends who are supposedly as close as family! although how they can be family to her when one of them willingly collaborates with the man who abused her makes no sense! this is not what friends do! that’s what assholes do!

8. i have’t even read ac0war and yet every tiny detail i see about it is. um. bad

9. the night court’s entire aesthetic is based on cultural appropriation, sj.m doesn’t understand how to write bi characters without using the slutty bisexual trope, her use of characters of color has been suspect at best and fallen into many stereotypes, one blogger wrote her thesis on all the sexism issues in this series and got harassed so much for it that she had to take it down? idk anon this is turning into a Mess, if you want details on the things i’ve mentioned you’re probably better off finding an anti-sj.m blog that goes into more depth. i don’t really want to go climbing in any further than this

#no reblobbing please #disclaimer in case someone reads this and then wants to Argue:#my dislike for the series is not up for debate and i won't get involved in Discourse #if you want a Source or something the best i can give you is to look on someone else's blog #the ask and the answer #anonymous

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elizabethrobertajones · 7 years

Text

12x10 watching notes

tl;dr Yockey owes me dinner

There's a large part of me (the part that's getting larger) that just wants to eat pasta in a mug in peace and watch this episode before midnight :P But I always regret not starting to write meta on an episode as I watch if I don't do it, so here I am, cup of pasta and all.

Expectations - well, the spoilers all suggest some crazy angel hijinks in period costume. I'll be fine if we make it through this episode without Cas turning out to have had a baby with Lily in the past or something.

If the spec is true and he's in a female vessel I am however always going to have an exemption that Cas can be lesbians with her in the past, and may even WRITE Cas being gay with her in the past if I have to. >.>

The sanctity of the OTP has a few override buttons :P

Aside from that, well, it's Yockey, and I loved his first episode and he seems like he should be mostly unproblematic, after 12x06, but of course we barely have a handle on him and he's never written a full plot episode or Cas, and it seems like he'll not only be writing Cas but presumably a past version of Cas in a different vessel so... This is going to be a bit of a wild ride no matter how chill 12x06 made me feel about Yockey as a writer :P

The trouble with pasta in a mug is that it's still really hot towards the bottom of the mug so you have to keep stopping eating it, and I think that is a perfect metaphor for how I approach watching new SPN episodes >.>

Right back to 4x02 as a starter of the recap :')

I may be getting older but I swear recaps didn't habitually re-tell entire chunks of the story like this re: the entire everything that happened with the nephilim plot so far.

Side note: I really don't want to think this much about the nephilim plot and would rather it just kind of went away and didn't come back until like, season 30 or something when the kid's a bit older and ready for the drama.

Honestly the show has a sort of built in expctation of longevity at this point, why not, uh, plant some seeds.

Anyway maybe just because Buckleming are the only ones with direct contact with it so far, but I really don't trust the show to be equipped to deal with this, ethically, or maybe even in good storytelling way. Which just leaves me with a ton of dread that problematic shit is coming >.>

Also recapping an entire chunk of the story for Billie getting killed :< Thinking of problematic stuff and lazy editing.

I supopse it's a terrible balance between the netflix bingers (who'll skip it anyway) and the casual viewers who may not remember everything or are not reliable enough viewers to have caught every episode so they need a weighty reminder. It may just be that whoever's editing the recaps has changed because they used to be much more efficient at conveying everything and now they're just sort of laying everything out. The mini road so far last episode was really bland. I think the art form's disappeared :P

If anyone's wondering, the arcade game angel is now my favourite character forever. It reminds me of in Steven Universe when Garnet got addicted to an arcade game, and couldn't be budged. Weirdly specific but excellent trope: immortal black ladies who have terrible impulse control around arcades.

I'm going to be so sad when Lily kills her.

[crazy awesome fight scene interlude]

[kind of sad we already know she's called Lily because even though Lily Sunder is an incredible name, I wanted to call her Eyepatch Lady and I don't have to]

Aw Benjamin :< God dammit why did she have to die first and SO soon after Billie... I mean I knew they were killing off the angels and have flashbacks to flesh them out so I assumed some would bite the dust immediately, and basically all of them but Cas are probably gonna die in the long run because haha recurring friends for Cas... But ugh, it seems kind of cruel to end the recap killing one badass WoC, and then start the episode and introduce and kill another >.> I mean I guess not intentionally cruel but definitely making a depressing trend REALLY obvious.

I don't think anyone will care about the representation when no matter what awesome roles the characters have, they keep on dying >.>

I'm going to sulk off and get some tea, because I saw that coming from a mile off and it's still annoying me :P

I also did the dishes and gained some dark humour perspective on it because of the little glimpses of the angels standing around doing seemingly nothing while Benjamin warned them - at least Benjamin doesn't have to have the conversation, "so what have you done since we last saw you?" "I have been playing video games since they were invented, non stop." "Oh, cool. Cool. I rebelled against heaven and stopped the apocalypse and was god and - "

"Cas has been pretty busy, huh?" - confirmed, all the other angels are lazy butts and Cas has been hard at work.

I assume his fixation on finding Lucifer's offspring and dragging out all the noticeboards to set it up is a continuation of what's up with him and hunting. He was feeling more than useless with just some vampires, and so now he is trying 1000% of his hardest to do this right, especially as it's the loose end he's got left in the way of any attempt at happiness... He basically ALWAYS has one of these... times like this I miss Steve!cas and his simple happiness (uh on top of a yawning void of depression) at doing a few human things right, like Nora's praise that he did basically everything to open the store without her because when he has a few simple things to accomplish, he can get it all done, and everything is ordered and in the right place, and... God I feel bad for Cas being at loose ends and feeling useless.

Dean immediately is a dick about Cas NOT finding Kelly yet, so I assume he's in a good mood since last episode...

I do like that Cas is clearly at least allowed to hang out at the Bunker and use their resources even if Sam and Dean aren't helping him or part of this project, and just sort of walked in on it. I guess this is a "good morning" meeting, only they walked into Cas staying up all night on this. There's no weirdness about the fact Cas is here or has been doing it, he's just an accepted part of their living space, albiet one doing weird art projects that mean they can't use the war room for their own crap :P

They're also really enjoying sprawling on their furniture now they're free

Transitioning to the ongoing disappointment in Mom not making chicken soup for them - Dean continues finding it hardest to accept Mary has apparently adjusted, but to a life without them, instead of adjusting to a life living in the Bunker with them. It's also bitterly amusing me that now Cas is finally kind of just around them by default, they have another character who is explained away in the opening of the episode...

Oh god Dean and Cas are "walking past each other in the kitchen" while not making eye contact. WHY is Cas in the kitchen. HE DOESN'T EAT. Is he strategically walking in past Dean? Bothering Sam to know if he wants coffee so he has an excuse to go get it while Dean is making a sandwich? How long has this been going on?? I want this entire soap opera episode pls.

Oh no DEAN IS PISSED BECAUSE HE IS WORRIED ABOUT CAS. He says it's just about the consequences in a vague way, but CAS is the one who clearly incurred them because it's not like this deal had any strings attached to random stuff in the universe a la releasing Amara, it was a blood pact between Winchesters, on a family level, therefore Dean is most worried about Cas.

Halp.

I don't like this new trend of Sam and Dean actually communicating and talking about their shit. This is awful. Can we go back to them not talking about anything?

Cas walks in on Sam defending him. My heart.

Although tbh he can hear through walls so unless the Bunker maaagically dampens that, he's come stomping back because he can't take listening to them going in circles about why Dean is ignoring Cas, because ouch, hearing how Dean is concerned about Cas's actions... I bet HE'S taking it as Dean thinking that he made a mistake >.>

*snipey snipey Destiel arguing* (Yeah, Dean just pretty much accuses Cas of that :P)

I love the old "all our friends are dead" type moment that they all have when someone comes up with "personal" business elsewhere. Like when Dean ran off to help Benny or Sam wandered off to deal with Amy Pond. Personal??? we don't get personal lives! aaand Cas is truly a Winchester now.

Oh third wheel Sam. Cas wants Dean to come but snarks at him like he's not gonna, Sam looks at Dean, Dean looks at Sam and Cas and rolls his eyes and accuses Cas of doing stupid things, but comes anyway because he will still look after Cas even if they're not talking...

Aaand the promo scene which left me amazed Sam did not open the car door, jump out onto the road, and take his chances there.

[patented angry Cas squinting]

I think that was the stage direction - Yockey might be new at this but he knows what he's doing.

Oh NO the bit we saw before the episode wasn't even the half of it. Dean and Cas are having an Actual Married Argument, deliberately projecting their fight onto talking about Benjamin. I am waiting for Sam to roll down his window and climb out to spend the rest of the drive on the roof.

The fact Cas says "Benjamin wouldn't call for help lightly" as well as about putting himself in harm's way - Dean probably latches onto that last part because it suits their argument more - also firmly confirming very clearly and loudly that Dean is worried about what will happen to Cas because he's upset that Cas put himself in harm's way, so this argument is now definitely, textually, 100% on Dean's side about how CONCERNED he is for Cas (and probably now a heaping of that Cas wouldn't deserve it and that Dean wasn't worth it because self-esteem issues... (The way this is going they'll probably say THAT in text too in like 3 lines) But yeah, also raising the issue that Cas doesn’t ask for help. Watched him rake leaves, anyone?

Dean is going to CRASH THE CAR. Sam's breaking point is Dean literally rotating 180 degrees in his seat to talk back at Cas. :P

*sound of a car horn and something narrowly missing them*

GUYS.

Cas values sarcasm as a trait he really likes (nice, perfect need for someone who is going to resentfully be married to Dean forever), but would also like to be appreciated more :<

Aaand the info about Benjamin and his vessel has officially murdered me, especially as he's already dead. :< Angel/human friendships! *flails emotionally* Also no angel has ever been shown so close to their vessel. Hannah came to appreciate Caroline and gave her back, but without bonding with her (rather, traumatising her, I guess); Cas being so happy Jimmy was devout now has retconned emotional impact about Cas knowing how his friend appreciated his vessel and Cas was excited to have that same bond. But Jimmy died early on, Cas didn't have the luxury to be kind and friendly to him or to start doing that later; although he returned in 4x20 saying of course he'd keep his word to Jimmy and look after him (in that very angel way that Cas had back in season 4), it took him until Hannah and Caroline to remember this bond with a vessel and go attempt to make it right with Claire and Amelia.

*flops over and slowly slides off my chair*

*resumes watching from the floor because of Cas staring at Benjamin's wings* You know how we spend way too much time as fandom imagining crap about Dean having Cas's wings burned on him or his car or whatever? This is like that but with a character I've known for like 8 minutes of the show and I have a tear in my eye.

Poor Cas :<

*continues a non-stop "poor Cas" litany through this scene*

Oh my god even though all the angel blades look the same, Cas can TELL which angel they belong to THIS IS THE WORST NEW INFORMATION I'VE EVER HEARD.

Well, aside from the longing retcon. Hey, it must be 2 years old around now - that was 10x10

Having Cas being upset about losing a close friend that he fought together with right after saving Dean, a dear friend he has fought together with, and getting super judged for it, is way on the nose. Ow.

It's pretty cool that Lily has learned to talk on angel radio.

Oh gosh, Lily has a dead child I WONDER WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT

I love as well that Lily is dressing like angels used to, in a black and white suit, can talk on angel radio, has an angel blade... She's like the ultimate hunter becoming the thing she hunts in a sort of parallel to grizzled old hunters wearing a big ol bear skin or something :P

place behind them when they get out the car called "The Wright Spot"... guess which director is directing this episode. Go on. :P

"If I plan to do anything else stupid, I'll let you know" - I honestly did not think it was possible to love Cas more than I already did but he keeps on proving me wrong.

Cas is catching up on what feels like a 3 year backlog of angry squinting. He's definitely gone over the edge since last episode, as a result of last episode, but at the moment I think as long as Dean and Cas make up, in a good way where he's getting to vent some things about not feeling appreciated and so on, this will be okay.

Hang on this is the diner scene - aren't Sam and Dean going to crush into this both with Cas? I need to see how this happens...

Anyway AAAAAH Cas talking to angels! Angels who aren't trying to kill him immediately!

They are judging him for being careless and having to take a different vessel. Lol. "I liked the old you better" *Cas inspects himself*

Mirabelle then gets at Cas for the angel fall which obviously I was expecting since I already joked about this exact scene at the beginning of the episode :P I like that they went right ahead and addressed it. It's quite an elephant in the room, and of course the fact Cas's old battalion hadn't crossed paths with him at any point in the angel drama previously... Well, they HAD to have not picked Raphael or they wouldn't have made it past season 7. They may or may not have picked Metatron but they can't have been in Cas's army because he'd have actually chatted to them. There were still angels after season 10 who hadn't really got involved in all that at all, so I assume they laid low, perhaps knowing Cas better than most, or thinking they do >.>

Oh yeah just go ahead and remind him of how terrible things went with Uriel and Balthazar while you're at it :P

The "i just stared at a wall in a church for 100 years" angel is very boring. Mirabelle seemed to be pooossibly meant to be standing in Heaven's prison when the call went out? There were bars in front of her or something like that, so I assumed she was doing some job there. No idea what beardy angel was doing.

Also pls stop reminding Cas of literally everything he's ever done because in every previous encounter with angels, bringing stuff up like that is a fast way to manipulate or upset Cas and he's in a wee bit of a precarious place right now...

"spanner in the works" has someone actually called Cas that in canon or is that maybe like, something Edlund said in an interview or something?

"I'm not a hero, but sometimes doing the right thing requires sacrifices" You know what, not that I wasn't already thinking it, but Yockey can keep Cas :P

In this case, that line is tapping into his fight with Dean as well. He knows he didn't do anything particularly noble and definitely not honourable in a literal sense as he broke a blood vow, but it was what Cas deemed the "right" thing and he's in a sort of waiting zone to see if he broke the world again or what will be coming for him next... The sacrifices he's willing to take to make sure Dean etc are safe, because to Cas Dean is his moral compass and what is "right" is Dean and has been since season 4, even if Cas often goes against it or struggles with it or doesn't live up to Dean's standards or Dean has no idea Cas is trying to do right by Dean's way or -

(My mum's on holiday so I'm stuck at the start of season 7 wallowing on the end of season 6 fight right now :P)

"But it always seems like it's other angels sacrificing for your good deeds" Yeah, buddy, we've watched Cas every freakin' step of the way and he has SUFFERED for this okay, so back off. CAS KNOWS ALREADY AND IF HE SLEPT HE WOULDN'T BECAUSE HE'D BE LYING AWAKE THINKING ABOUT THIS

"Are you here to insult me or talk about Benjamin?" "Can we do both?"

ily Yockey

"We didn't think you'd care"

fuck off Yockey :P

(I love that this contrasts with at the start Dean complaining about Cas caring as part of his rant to Sam about it all - drawing a line between what Cas cares about here and there... Obviously Cas DOES care a lot about these angels because ARGH his reaction to Benjamin HURT SO MUCH. But he's been understandably distracted for the last few years, and with these guys off having their own problems, say this started RIGHT after the angel fall, CAS WAS HUMAN and would potentially have missed anything on angel radio meant for him to warn him about this because he was so bad at tuning into it. If he never answered the call the first time one of their number was murdered, well, of course they'd think he doesn't care)

Also I love that this episode clearly shows that Yockey has a very full awareness of the show's story so far.

Ahahaha Sam no. (Please keep Sam-ing like this. You are the Sam I love so very much :P)

He has been observing Dean's behaviour all his life and he knows when Dean's patience snaps when it comes to worrying about Cas.

Describe them in one picture

Why does Sam cram in on the end though.

He doesn't wanna be left out either, though the bench is only big enough for Dean n Cas

If you want to talk definitions of third wheels, Sam is definitely it this episode, but he's got enough of a sense of humour that knowing he's along for the ride trapped in a lovers' spat, he can at least have some fun with it, since he's basically got to be the buffer between them. Or else towed in their wake.

(I also like how this shows Sam knows there's no point arguing with Dean about this, so going along with it mocking him for his behaviour is about the one sort of resistance he has left to him :P)

"My friends who don't listen very well" *Dean smirks at Cas* Okay, but I'm taking a screencap of that to use as like, a phone background or something.

This has mostly turned into me not listening to the conversation and screenshotting their faces so I need to go back and try again

Mirabelle better not get killed just because Sam and Dean showed up.

Noooooooo

I can see these coming from so far off but

"Who wants some pie"

Dean trying to play happy families with this weird group of people.

Well, one weird rando angel, since Mirabelle is now dead, which means that I was right but this is an even more alarming rate of side character death than I was expecting

Still don't think I've caught beard!angel's name

He accuses Cas of "how far he's fallen" *shot of him being lovingly elbowed in the kidney by Dean* I wonder what the implication is here :P

The description of him as a warrior is interesting but we already knew that. I like "angel's angel" though because it mirror's "man's man" I suppose as a phrase, which is the sort of stereotype of a manly dude who does all the manly dude stuff, well, like Dean presents the front. I think, like, the sort of dude who goes fishing with his mates every weekend rather than stay home with the wife :P

idk if angels go fishing aside from Daniel but that's the second time I've thought of him in a few minutes of TV time so

*Dean and beard!angel really stare down each other* Not jealous at all, are we Dean? ("want some coffee with that sugar" I am so amused) Beard!angel accuses Cas of being homeless, which is really mean because he lives at the Bunker now, but, uh, essential to the arc of Cas REALISING that he lives at the Bunker and is in fact his home and GOOD ENOUGH and also he's totally welcome there and Dean loves him and Sam's only being weird about this because he feels like a third wheel and is making DEAN'S life hell for it in the only way a little sibling who learned to punish people through well-meant bratty little sibling behaviour can... :P

Well, home will still be very snarky and passive aggressive when he lives there but at least it will feel like HIS snarky passive-aggressive hunter-filled home.

(Angels referring to humans as monkeys is an age old sign they can't be trusted or have the Wrong Morals, like Uriel especially since that's how we were introduced to the idea that calling us "mud monkeys" was "close to blasphemy" - which already undermines that Cas was always an "angel's angel" because it sounds like this is exactly how to describe beard!angel, and hey MAYBE CAS WAS PROJECTING BASED ON HIS ENVIRONMENT, NOT LIKE DEAN DOES THAT ALL THE TIME TO FIT IN OR ANYTHING)

I have collected so many emotional parallels between season 4 Cas and early seasons Dean in this one conversation that will utterly destroy me next time I wander through season 4, which was already riddled with this parallel in the original subtext >.>

Also not for nothing but beard!angel does look vaguely like John & seems like him in the older male alpha authority figure way he acts. Dean is rejecting him which is great, but he has standards about what makes an angel (read: man) which doesn't fit with the true self we know of Cas (read: Dean, who is of course, "humanity") and clearly these are outdated societal angel things which he holds to...

welp

"have some pie" (why do I feel like he's walking off to be Lily Sundered?)

Great parting words though. Dean is like "don't mind if I do" when he sees how much money the angel threw down. Of course it's mocking them for their attachment as family, but it's a value that is the CORE of the show - humanity and love and family - which pie represents in all its forms. A barb telling them to have pie because it's apparently demeaning to like these things (and below an angel to care for a family of humans like this) is no insult at all to the people who ACTUALLY LIKE PIE.

Sam moves over so Dean and Cas can share the seat together. Nicely done.

Captain of the SS Destiel and desperately trying to steer it through the storm to its berth :P

"Ishim" apparently. Dean immediately defends Cas against him once he's gone, like, Cas doesn't deserve to be treated that way. BECAUSE DEAN APPRECIATES HIM.

Not that Cas may be able to recognise what just happened there because wow they're all dug in on their fight :P

"No one gets to be a dick to my husband except me"

Not surprisingly, Ishim then gets attacked and lightly stabbed.

(that was a pun. Because angels bleed light -

I'll show myself out)

Cas shows up and injures Lily in a surprisingly similar way.

I'm still impressed with her absorbing and using an angel smiting for power.

Ishim says "I'm fine" which is such a part of the SPN vocabulary I don't even know what that means except that he's absorbed the same rules about it somewhere or other. :P Cas had to explain it to Hannah about why humans do it, but I think angels come on a range of personality types and Ishim is definitely of the better socialised type than say, Mirabelle, who was very angel-y, especially with how she stood the whole time watching them, and still had more of a uniform look to her clothes then Ishim who's just wearing a nice suit.

I do like the church they're holed up in

Hrm, vaguely annoyed about the "came to earth" turn of phrase, because I always took the watching over it to mean they were literally around on earth, though not in vessels and obviously as true forms very distant and above it all.

It's making my thumb itch that Cas had a vessel before Jimmy but I've been bracing myself for this retcon for ages so I'm just going to have to live with it :P

The fact that Ishim is the one dude and the other angels are all in female vessels does look, in this period costume, kind of odd. He has a little flock or something :P Weird gender role stuff going on here. I mean, from an outside view. To Cas, gender is nicely explained by that little exchange where Dean was like "Benjamin's a woman?" and Cas was like, "Benjamin's an ANGEL. His vessel is a woman" - so pronouns apply to them if they like them, but the real distinction is really not that important because what they are is genderless wavelengths with a consciousness that may like to be one or the other in a vessel or for it not to matter, or to prefer a pronoun that applies to them regardless of vessel or... it's wobbly. The important thing is they're angels :P Idk if I should have celebrated this louder back in the car discussion because I always took it as canon and especially with Hannah in season 10 something the show sort of went over again to make it a bit more clear, but with more hindsight maybe this really is taking what was strictly still sort of headcanon when it comes to expressly TALKING about how angels identify, and putting it in the text, aka definitely and finally queering all the angels ever, forever)

Anyway I had it paused on a lady with the Perfect Eyebrow and idk how the casting went for this but it was probably "can you do Cas's Eyebrow" so now I should see how she handles the rest because I'm sold just on her resting Cas face :P

We know since 4x20 Cas would possess Claire, with absolutely no weirdness about it, but there's enough blah about the circumstances that he might only have done it because the bloodline, emergency moment, Jimmy was in trouble etc... But here we have Cas clearly having freely chosen a female vessel (maybe an ancestor of the Novaks? Which would limit his choice if she was the only suitable one around at that point but eh >.>) and so that's sort of... a big moment I guess... *see above: conversation about angel gender* I'm so used to thinking this is a totally normal thing that I have no idea how mindblowing this is for them to happily show Cas in a female vessel like this :P There was so much weirdness about Raphael swapping vessels - several characters got a shot in towards the end of season 6. And at least Metatron made a crack about Hannah swapping out Caroline and using a male one. But Cas is a major character and unlike Crowley briefly possessing women, the way angels possess people is very different (and the reminder that Benjamin was friends with his vessel from the start of the episode sort of works in general to show how angels have to have a more mutual compatibility with their vessel...)

It’s a pretty big thing, I guess.

Benjamin is complaining about how wet it is on earth, but Ishim just confirmed all the spec that this is a human marrying an angel and I'm contemplating going out to stand in the rain and shriek into the sky so he's got that all wrong. Rain is great, when you need to shriek :P

Obviously this is forefront a parallel to the Lucifer and nephilim thing, buuut I mean they're in LOVE and MARRIED

who else in this episode is MARRIED

Oh right Sam had to yell at them to not drive into oncoming traffic because they were too busy being MARRIED

For the record, the description of the Nephilim here is killing me - it has grace and a human soul, and I've been speculating that Cas never lost his soul he had after being human, so he too has both. (Which makes him dangerous)

Revisiting nephilim is all Dabb because he wrote 8x22 which originally introduced the idea, and so I am now in a sort of danger zone for getting sucked riiight back into angel fall spell nonsense :P I have picked up a real aversion to wild speculation but this is my weak spot. The season 8-9 crazy Destiel optimism about that damn spell, and Dabb's picking at all the loose ends this season, especially to get to the Nephilim, which plays such a key part in that beautiful, horrible idea that the last ingredient was "the grace of an angel in love with a human" and this is specifically WHY the spell makes the angels fall... Brings them down to the monkeys' level :P Ishim would hate to know that detail of why he has no wings :P But, yeah, that the spell was a punishment or reward that comes as a result of angels mingling with humans (and I still think God preferred angels to like humans, so this taboo comes from angel society, that Ishim represents and is denouncing in front of Cas)

It's times like this I remember the translation to the angel tablet is just sitting in the bunker in a language Cas can read and I need to go shriek in the rain some more

I guess Ishim is like the homophobic, racist uncle, we should treat this accordingly :P

(Benjamin also confirmed this is an angel-made rule)

Castiel moves like the Cas we know better :P I like her a lot.

I mean, she IS Cas, after all.

Aww Lily's husband has great hair.

Ishim says that he was only supposed to watch and instead he took up with a filthy animal... hahahahahahahahaha *flashback within a flashback to the diner scene and Cas all crushed up against Dean*

No I'm fine why do you ask

"How could anyone know them and not love them" (re: humanity)

Help meee

Oh no, Castiel does the whole speech about why this angel broke the rules before they kill him :<

I mean... Delicious irony making Castiel say it because obviously later Cas has done a complete about turn on this, at least where loving humanity is concerned. Maybe not the fathering nephilim bit as he's still out to get Holly and this is explaining WHY he knows it's such a big deal (8x22 also showed him hesitant to kill the nephilim there until she turned on them and proved she was ready to act monstrously, and then he had no hesitation) although I hope this inspires him to be more sympathetic, remembering HOW cold and angelic he was back here and how he's all in contrast to this now.

(I don't think it's weird Akobel makes that speech about humanity being great in front of Castiel, because although Cas clearly softens towards humans later and has a more sympathetic feeling than say, Uriel, who clearly is on a level with Ishim on this subject, by the time we meet him, or at least, after 3 episodes putting up with Dean, this mirrors Dean's 4x22 speech, which means that this is a trial run that doesn't convince Cas, because, well, there's no weight behind it to TRULY make Cas think. 4x22 in contrast is SO powerful that Dean's similar words have a huge weight of their friendship, his growing understanding of humanity, etc, that they land squarely on him and convince him to rebel)

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah and then Castiel flinches, clearly affected by this even though he knows the nephilim is an abomination and has to die :<

Always had that crack in his chassis...

I am glad that this is HOPEFULLY, via what they've set up in Cas's emotional landscape here so far, going to let him get to a place where he chooses to either let Holly go and forget about this, or at least track her down but give her a choice and maybe some actual HELP with having to raise a devil baby if she chooses to do so. >.> Definitely showing us Cas feeling bad about killing nephilim that haven't done anything, or given a chance to live their lives normally might NOT grow up awful (Jesse the forgotten antichrist comes to mind, never mind the nephilim we saw before who was living a completely peaceful life until Metatron ruined everything, as he tends to do)... I suppose it's been Cas vs 2 nephilim now and Lucifer's baby is the 3rd, so...

The message in 12x08 was so weird about it, there's so much salvage work for me to even be sure I know which way is up with this but as a bare minimum making Cas conflicted about what to do about this issue is a start to make it less crazy with all these guys coming rushing to tell the woman what to do with her baby, even if it seems justified by the story that they seem to know best >.>

"It was necessary, it was right," Cas says, looking horrified.

(Sam and Dean do too, and as I said, emotional compass...)

This is such a terrible plotline :P A sensible response back in 12x08 would have been like "hey you were coercively raped by the actual devil, just FYI about your baby" and she'd be like "oh shit that's terrible" and go willingly choose to have an abortion (and therapy probably >.>) without anyone telling her to do it but the main characters weighing in with their info on nephilim and anti-christs they've already met and dealt with to give her some best case/worst case scenarios to help her decision >.> That's the most political route because of actual choice and agency on the mother's part but eh. A lot of times in media they toe a safe line of considering abortion and confirming it's a thing that happens and isn't inherently evil but then the preggers character involved magically decides that they're fine and will keep the baby for personal reasons for the story to avoid going there and praising abortion for saving desperate people >.> Or well, unless it's a tragedy, but still a terrible idea to have the baby for everyone involved, in which case stories tend to throw a last minute miscarriage their way...

12x08 was just a mess though so had the poor woman in a room full of people yelling at her and attacking her in Lucifer's case about what she was supposed to do, and then she legged it and immediately decided to keep the baby and - this could have been better handled, even in a toeing a really safe bland line, is all I'm saying >.>

"we completed a mission, it was necessary, it was right." - Cas falling back on old angelic behaviour to explain it because the mission and their purpose was absolute and you didn't question it.

"You say so," says Dean, still annoyed with Cas for the last big decision he made where he thought he was doing something necessary and right by killing Billie.

(I notice this involves a lot of murder for the protagonists to work out how they feel about the big issues... Great :P)

But yeah, killing kids is like the no.1 no-no and used to show Dean stepping over the line in 10x22, and now Cas reveals he was complicit in killing a kid before. (Ishim is probably not going to make it out of the episode, and certainly doesn't deserve to, by SPN's rules :P)

I love the exchanges where they're like just "Dean." "Cas." because saying each other's names is enough to say everything they need to because they've been over arguments like this so much by now.

(I think Sam and Dean do it too but for some reason I don't pay as much attention to it :P)

Meanwhile: Sam puts his foot in his mouth implying to Cas that the angels sort of deserved what was coming to them (which is a fair opinion but maybe don’t tell Cas if you think that :P)

The following orders thing tends to go pretty far with angels when you throw in brainwashing (and how Cas was already at this point many many layers of reprogrammed by Naomi since she refers to doing it to him in Biblical times, so if he felt bad about this it may have been hammered back out of him for a while after) but Ishim really is kind of being presented as a total dick about it in a sort of unrepentant way that paints a target on him as a rightful character to feel deserves it, while though Cas and the others were following orders and enforcing their society's rules that they never questioned (and would be killed if they questioned too hard or lost faith in the power structure) and in COMPARISON to Ishim who is being used as a scapegoat by the story, clearly are less deserving of punishment, especially Cas who has learned SO HARD in many ways what is right and wrong (though this seems to be a big hurdle he has left). It makes it a bit unfair to only have left the most symapthetic angel by a billion miles compared to any of the others, because we've been so far with him, and Ishim, who has clearly not changed a jot :P

Sam says Cas is "different now" :3

Clearly the easiest way out is to be like, "look Cas is now married to Dean so OBVIOUSLY has changed his ways" and honestly Captain Sam of the SS Destiel, I'm not sure he's not suggesting it.

Cas talking about how she "won't quit" to avenge her family reminds me that this is a plot we have had before, with whatsisface in 10x02 coming back for Dean. I also watched 7x03 last, with Amy Pond's poor son who vowed vengeance on Dean and disappeared to grow up some more and honestly season 7 is now so long ago he MUST be ready to come kill Dean but here we are with Cas finally having it happen to him :P Oh the Dean and Cas story overlaps :')

I really really really love Lily Sunder and her actress is great :D That healing scene was, no pun intended, SO CHARGED.

(little bit of a pun intended)

(Kinda sad after seeing the flashback I can't write her and Cas as lesbians :P)

Meanwhile in Cas's healing scene - weird shades of 8x17 and Cas and Meg, with the way Cas is tending to an ambiguous friend with a history (Wait. Same director? Yeah, same director), and clearly caring about him enough to heal him (didn't heal Meg magically and I've always suspected angel magic is a bit of a blunt weapon that would had smote her if he'd tried, even if he meant no harm >.>) - something about Cas's face while he tends to him, especially, because he's poking around instead of just flinging some glowy light at him, which makes this whole set up of playing nurse, which Cas never normally has when healing people since he just puts his hand on them and fixes them. It's automatically a much more tender, intimate scene. If this was Dean and Cas, people would spontaneously combust.

God damn this episode is doing some amazing things with inverting and playing with gender and stuff

Ishim has to ruin it by complaining about Cas letting the 'simians' talk to him...

"When did you get so gooey" I mean really, this is so seductive the way he's lying there and Cas is messing around with taking off his clothes? He and Lily had very similarly placed wounds for this parallel... but.

But yeah, calling Cas "gooey" really, really sounds like Meg.

oh god this speech from him...

"You know why we're meant to stay away from humans? It's not because we're a danger to them. They're a danger to us."

UGH

Brb

/rain /shrieking

etc

If this episode has not already confirmed on at least 3-4 occasions already that Cas is totally in love with Dean I don't even know what it's for :P

"My friendship with Sam and Dean has made me stronger" "You can't really believe that" NO AND THAT'S THE PROBLEM RIGHT NOW.

Dean needs to do the whole boombox held up outside Cas's window love declaration and fix this >.>

I mean it is true that Cas is stronger, infinitely, than when we first met him, because of all he's been through for Sam and Dean, but... He doesn't see it :<

I think it's stopped raining so if I need to shriek I don't know where to go

I LOVE that after Cas is done healing the ding from the elevator overlaps him fixing Ishim and almost seems like a microwave ding telling us he's ready.

The fact this is about someone killing angels (never mind the Uriel reference) really does make the plot mirror 4x16 on Cas's side; that episode ditches Sam and Dean not long past the halfway point to become completely about angel drama and Cas's decision... Nice.

Lots of Edlund mirroring this season.

"Then we burn that bridge when we come to it" HAH. :D Love that messed up idiom so much. It's such the Winchester way.

I love how they just walk into Lily in the corridor.

"We don't wanna kill you" "I don't want to kill you" "Okay! Good, look, there we go, agreed" Sam you fucking third wheel master level dork. He's been mediating so many fights that even when he's in the middle of one as a participant he takes on this role :P

Also aaaaaaaah saying Cas is their family. I mean it gets said a fair few times, but it's always so lovely to hear it coming out of Dean's mouth.

Oh my god Alicia Witt is amazing

*looks around for something to scream into*

*picks Mittens's chat bubble since the sky is not in the right setting*

Love triangle plot twist!

Which I probably should have seen coming if I wasn't comparing what Ishim said to Cas so much that I forgot he was also saying it about himself. I sort of dimly registered it without thinking it would apply to something immediate :P

I guess now we know Cas has been super lied to he's even more blameless (in the narrative) for acting out orders that were wrong, aka basically all the Heaven nonsense where the angels get manipulated. LIKE 4x16 WHERE HE HAD BAD ORDERS TO ASK ALISTAIR WHO WAS KILLING ANGELS... Now it's WHY she's killing angels (showing again in 2 words how the show has changed in tone :P) Anyway... because they were clearing up Ishim's petty family feud for him in an abuse of power, it makes the other angels victims of Ishim's choice, especially now Lily is killing them for it.

I wonder if her research ended up with the MoL because it's always been a weird question of how they had so much info about research on angels and if this is clearing up a weird thing from 9x11, well... Robbie's being taken to the cleaners this episode on a few things already :P There’s literally so much going on I haven’t managed to cover it all.

ANYWAY everyone's in love with humans, and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

What is this episode even saying about Cas.

I mean I know what I will interpret it as saying but

Yockey, explain yerself

"I loved you" "You were obsessed with me, that isn't love" Oh dear, we're getting into details about what is and isn't love now.

You know, like the whole "love and... love" distinctions.

angel love triangle drama is so tense.

"You are powerless" So she goes and becomes the Most Powerful Ever - a human literally on the level of angels, or BETTER than them, to get her revenge. Nice.

I really love Lily Sunder, and I thought I would because of the name, but yeah, good hunch about that. :P

"You broke my heart so I'm going to break yours" :< :< :< :<

....

TERRIBLE timing to bring it up, but... 6x20 > 6x22, Cas breaking Sam's wall to keep Dean out the way. >.>

Oh no the daughter was human... WAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

This is like 1000% worse. I suppose for the previous stuff I was saying about it comparing to the Nephilim arc, Cas's guilt over this if/when he finds out will I suppose be a really heavy blow about Heaven's rules about Nephilim, since his obedience to them was used against him - and all the others who were in the dark - for this petty, evil revenge.

I like how Dean is just "he's a tool" about Ishim and phones Cas to... check Ishim is a big old tool?

Letting Cas know while he's alone with Ishim seems like a great way to flip from hunting Lily to needing her to help save Cas and get revenge on Ishim :P

Also I suppose Ishim turning on Cas (I hope but AAAH NOO CAS) would be a good way to convince Lily he's not evil/complicit if Ishim is having problems with him.

Heh, Sam's being left with Lily and Dean goes to check on Cas. What a wild surprise.

Oh dear, Cas is sassing Ishim which means even Cas knows he's contemptible now. The "oh goodie" sounds like Cas in the same room as CROWLEY. I suppose we're meant to assume Ishim stole his phone as well now

This would be a very good time to address that Lily can hack angel radio to message them but Dean doesn't think to pray?

Anyway Cas is not doing so great which seems to parallel that Lily healing herself seemed to really hurt her?

Can't believe they cover a plothole with Lily being like, nah, I just thought I'd wait and see what happened and if any of them came back to Earth I'd get them.

Then had the angel fall spell dropped in her lap.

It seems like there should be a way to bridge her research with Metatron and the fact he made up his own spells including potentially that one. Off the books angel know-how. Like the MoL have...

The show is never ever going to link this all up so it will just continue to bug me forever I guess :P I'm patient, I can wait over 100 years for more information to drop from the sky.

The fact the angel fall spell is connected to nephilim and has been mentioned a couple of times is making me reeeeally itchy in those old thumbs again

If Dabb wants a second crack at all that teasing, BE MY GUEST

Sam asking questions about magic... uhoh.

Nah, the price is soullessness, of a sort. Maybe becoming an angel? Is that possible? She might just burn out, hand of God style. Anyway Sam won't go for it. HE KNOWS THAT COST.

FOILED AGAIN. No witch!Sam this year.

Meanwhile: actually tearing at my own soul in horror about the fact she's burning away her soul to use angel magic and I am of the opinion Cas has a soul and HE does angel magic but... he's caring more and more?? Can you do this in reverse? Use up your angel grace and if you have a human soul waiting underneath, just reboot in a different operating system?

What the heck.

I need to eat more pasta. Can't deal with this.

But yeah the episode has made a big deal about human souls and angel grace, and suggesting how they can live in a body together, either with Lily slowly replacing her soul, or with the nephilim having both naturally... Cas of course is an abomination.

(sorry Cas, your own words will eventually always come back to bite you :P)

Oh no, Lily's reached the stage where she doesn't dream any more :( Oh no Lily.

Lily is so good at patience. I love her. Although argh it's because she's got the emotional room to wait. Less soul to worry her. She just has to hope she reaches the end goal before she runs out of caring for it, or that her robo-self like Soulless Sam did, will carry on the "job" they define themselves by without emotionally caring for why they do it - also very Mark of Cain-y, taking on a thing like that to fling themselves at the target without a care for what happens to them in the process...

I'm guessing by now that Ishim has done something to Cas to make him weak :<

I did the "AAH OTP INTERACTING" fist pump when Dean rushed over to Cas all urgent and worried, and now Dean's just... like. Holding Cas. Help. I think I dislocated a finger making frantic handwaving :P

My arm legit really hurts.

Oh god Ishim is making Cas choose between "heaven" aka Ishim’s shitty side, and Dean. Guess we're back at 9x22.

"Why do his words bother you so much, Ishim" Ooooooh

This is going to be so bitchy

so so bitchy

*Cas squints harder*

"Well it sees some of my choices may need to be questioned" if you HAVE to concede a fight with your husband, this is the most badass way to do it so that it still seems like you at least half-won :P

Aw Caaaas all the beating up on him from the promos we assumed Lily did were Ishim's fault.

Dean just needs to know a human girl was killed and that's it, he goes for Ishim with a knife :D ("You're not going to like the answer" says it all, by implying that Cas's love for humanity will of course be what makes him hate it... AAAH)

"I used to envy you, Castiel" was that because he WASN'T in love with a human and now that's changed? :P

Oh no, he "just" cites Cas being chosen by God, before pointing out he's now sad and weak. Ishim sees that love as weakness.

Also Cas getting straddled by Ishim goes with that weirdly erotic subtext from earlier when Cas was healing him.

:< Cas lying there miserably after being beaten into submission. Now this has shades of 10x22 at the end - Ishim in the place of Dean - are we working through THAT trauma too... I am not up to this. Ow.

10x22 getting a little revisit (OH CAS NO) followed by Ishim saying he's going to go "cut out Cas's human weakness" by going to kill Dean

paralleled directly to how he KILLED HIS HUMAN LOVER

I also thought from “cut out” it was going to be a reverse 8x23, and Ishim would split his throat and literally take something from Cas, like a SOUL or something. Then he said about himself, but split second panic there.

no biggie this is only literally THE MOST DESTIEL SHIT TO HAPPEN IN YEARS

HOLY CRAP then Dean picks CAS over banishing Ishim when he shows Cas is Dean's weakness too i

am probably burning my dinner in the oven

Yay hi Lily

KILL HIM

YAY more teamwork

I love when they do the teamwork thing. It’s a reoccurring theme this season, or maybe Yockey just likes it because 12x06 had the best teamwork ending.

AAAH LILY

This parallels 4x16 and Sam vs Alistair almost directly in staging

Except then Cas backstabs Ishim

he had it coming :P

Oh god and then Cas is on his knees, I mean, he drops to them because he's weak but it also puts him in a penitent position in front of Lily

LOOK AT MY BEAUTIFUL BLOODSTAINED SON

This also mirrors 4x16 and how he was on his knees in front of Uriel, the real threat of the episode for him.

I guess she decides not to kill Cas

Nice.

Oh look at poor Cas sitting there :(

I love that even though Lily's threat was she'd be beyond emotion, Dean tries to make this about revenge and killing some more to handle what next, but Cas goes straight to "i'm sorry" and Lily looks genuinely moved

Oh CAS you're so good.

And Lily thanks him and walks off :')

Oh dear, some over-running the episode length into a scene at the Bunker

Awww Dean giving Cas a beer and a shoulder pat and secret loving shoulder stroke. Dude. Someone needs to gif that in slow mo.

Oh god they're actually giving Cas a REAL you're family speech without any reasons to cut this short or make it not feel good

Sam's there too despite this having been all about Dean and Cas, just to smooth things over. :P

"I'm not mad I'm worried" Oh man all this stuff in the main text sucks because I deduced this back at the start through clever analysis of their dialogue and now what I can tell from this line is that... Dean is worried about Cas.

Look at their eyes

Waaah

Cas still looks beat up which is rare for him not to immediately snap back to normal. I worried.

Heh, Cas hasn't changed that much - all that and he still has carefully set separate rules for each situation, and KNOWING that Lucifer's baby really is Lucifer's, well... Unless he's been lied to about HOW dangerous Nephilim are... He still thinks he has a point.

Sam tries to compare scenarios

And Cas says he doesn't know what he'll do or if he'll hesitate. It HAS affected him. YAY. Episode’s goal accomplished in the final moment.

Okay this is clearly a motto of the ENTIRE show: "let's drink, and hope we can find a better way"

Can't believe Dean and Cas are married.

#12x10 #Yockey fanclub #season 12 spoilers #my stuff #general content warning for musing on the Nephilim plot nonsense

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